text stringlengths 1 39.7k | label int64 0 0 | original_task stringclasses 8 values | original_label stringclasses 35 values |
|---|---|---|---|
Four years after the sale of his family's business, Malt O Meal, John Brooks said he still felt a void in his life. His grandfather had started the cereal maker in 1919, and his father ran it until his death in 1988. Nonfamily executives expanded it into the fourth largest cereal producer in the United States before Post Cereal bought it for 1.15 billion in 2015. Since the sale, the three branches of the family have gone their own ways, Mr. Brooks said. They are no longer bound by a company or annual meetings or feel the pride of going through the cereal plants around Minneapolis. The relatives are managing their share of the proceeds on their own. It's not as satisfying, Mr. Brooks said. He wishes the family still owned the company. "It was a fascinating challenge to have a business with great products, a great board and great employees up there really hustling to grow the business," he said. "I have an M.B.A. in finance, so I was prepared to manage the money. But it's just not as interesting." Having a pile of money in place of a company, with all of its stress and complications, would seem like a relief. But a company often holds families together by giving members a shared identity and conferring a status in the community established by previous generations. Without the company, the family's perception of itself and its purpose can change, and it is often something that members are not prepared for. Their focus was on running the business and then on the sale; little thought went into what comes next. "This is going to become more and more relevant because of the aging out of baby boomers," said Michael Cole , chief executive of Cresset, which manages money for large wealthy families. "The key to doing it successfully is how you prepare yourself and how you prepare your family. It's really a lifestyle choice." If families do not do it right, splitting apart is almost inevitable. "A shared business becomes very much a glue," Mr. Cole said. "When the business is sold, what we see in almost every situation is some family member splits away." Mergers and acquisitions involving family businesses are already happening at an increasing clip , said Rick Simonetti , head of wealth planning for Abbot Downing , a division of Wells Fargo. Owners are putting their businesses on the block or receiving unsolicited offers, often for more than what the families thought their company was worth, he said, citing an increase in referrals from bankers working to sell family businesses. Most advisers say the sale of a family business should focus on the transition from operating a company to managing a portfolio of money, not on the money itself. Sometimes the magnitude of the sale becomes an issue for a family's identity, particularly if the acquisition price becomes public. This happened to Sabrina Merage Naim when her father and uncle sold Chef America, the maker of Hot Pockets. Nestle bought it in 2002 for 2.6 billion in cash when she was still in high school. The two brothers owned the entire company. "Hot Pockets were well known and famous then, but I wasn't prepared for the financial aspect of it," she said. "Once the business sold and I went to school, people saw what that business sold for, and my friends said, 'Oh my, you guys have money.'" Ms. Naim credits her parents with talking about hard work and not money when she was growing up. It did not hurt that her father rolled his money into a family investment office that he operated as a business, not a passive investment vehicle that funded the family's lifestyle. She now runs Echo Capital Group, which uses the family's experience in packaged food to invest in smaller food companies. But some families focus more on the money than the traits that made the business successful, and fail to grasp the difference between an operating business and financial capital. Even if the proceeds from a sale are invested prudently, Mr. Simonetti said, returns will hit a ceiling. "You're not going to earn double digits across a portfolio the way you could with owning a business," he said. Mr. Brooks was one of 10 family members who owned the majority of Malt O Meal. He said he expected his children to withdraw no more than 1 percent a year of his share still a large amount of money so that the assets could continue to grow the way his family's business did. But advisers say this strategy can be problematic for future generations. "It's really hard to have one generation exert these from the grave controls that will govern possibly unborn generations to come," said Covie Edwards Pitt , chief wealth strategist at Ballentine Partners. "It's somewhat impractical." An approach like this, she said, also misses the importance of talking about family values. "People tend to think the answer is in the money when usually it's not," she said. But agreeing on family values takes time. William Deary , who quit his job in publishing to help his wife, Cherilyn, start a home health care company, said they had made sure that their child, Kylyn, saw what they were doing. Over 23 years, the family created Great Lakes Caring Home Health and Hospice, a company with more than 9,000 employees around the Midwest. Mr. Deary said his family received three private equity investments over a decade, allowing them to diversify their wealth gradually by the time they ceded control of the company in 2017. But years before the sale, the family had been formulating a plan for its wealth that focused on family values but also held the members accountable. A family scorecard, for example, tracks their progress on 40 items that the family has deemed important, including working hard, investing wisely and the protecting its legacy. Mr. Brooks said he saw his sisters, who live in the Minneapolis area, but was focused on having family meetings with his children and their spouses. "I'm doing what my father did back in the early '80s," he said. "We're talking about money. As owners, we worked hard to be an effective ownership group. Now, we need to be an effective management group. We have to manage the money." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
THE END OF THE MYTH From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America By Greg Grandin In a speech in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt reminded a San Francisco audience of what had always distinguished the United States from other nations since its earliest days. "At the very worst," Roosevelt declared, "there was always the possibility of climbing into a covered wagon and moving west where the untilled prairies afforded a haven for men to whom the East did not provide a place." Well, yes and no. It is the mission of this fine, elegantly written history to explore the ever shifting role of the frontier in the American story. Just who was welcome in that west facing "haven," Greg Grandin explains, was never as simple as Americans liked to proclaim. But "The End of the Myth" has a shadow theme. How is it, Grandin wants to know, that the symbol of America was once a boundless, beckoning frontier and today is a dark and forbidding wall? The first person to articulate the frontier thesis was a University of Wisconsin historian who was little regarded at the time, Frederick Jackson Turner. In 1893, he read a paper on "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" to a sleepy audience. No one asked a question. The world quickly woke up. Turner's idea was that the United States had been blessed by geographic good fortune. The seemingly infinite West would solve the problems that arose whenever too many people were jammed into too small a space. The frontier, in Grandin's summary, "would reduce racism to a remnant and leave it behind as residue. It would dilute other social problems as well, including poverty, inequality and extremism, teaching diverse people how to live together in peace." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Which is not to say the movie, written and directed by Mark Amin (an Iranian American, as it happens), doesn't have its engaging points. Okeniyi has a strong presence that conveys a genuine moral authority. It stands in stark relief against the movie's consistently cartoonish portrayals of the white slavers. And Shield's journey which, given the gravity of the movie's subject, flirts weirdly with the picaresque moves with dispatch. Shields eventually lands in Brown's militia. Cromwell portrays Brown as both a cagey strategist and an unreasonable but necessary risk taker, righteous and common sensical, save for his eagerness to sacrifice himself and his followers. Emperor Rated PG 13 for violence, language, themes. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. Rent or buy on iTunes, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
In the weeks before the wedding of Sarah Ward and Jonathan Rupp in Cumming, Ga., the bride had become concerned about her ring bearer. Onassis had grown long in the tooth at the age of 21 and for a horse that old, the condition is not just an expression. Onassis' teeth had grown so long that it was hard for him to chew. He'd take a bite of hay and the food would fall right from his mouth. He was the same attractive Dutch Warmblood with a white face and white stockings that had carried Ms. Ward to the top of junior equestrian competitions around the country years ago, but now he was losing weight. Ms. Ward knew that traveling to the ceremony, a destination affair on a quaint renovated former dairy farm, would be hard on Onassis. Still, she hoped that he, one of the few who had been with her through the events of her life that had led to this day, would be at her wedding. There was the horse she rode when she was 4, the one she had to stop riding because of a compulsive need to wash her hands. (She has since been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder and has it mostly under control these days.) Next was Happy, the horse her father, Bob Ward, bought her just before her 13th birthday. Happy was the one that she fell in love with, and who made her fall in love with riding the rituals of bridling and saddling, the thrill of galloping and jumping. He was unpredictable and difficult, however, and once threw her late mother, Diane Ward, so hard that it seemed to permanently affect her short term memory. Next was Moose, a more patient and competitive horse, though Ms. Ward resisted the idea of infidelity. "Happy is the love of my life," she remembered telling her parents. "I'm cheating on him. How dare I?" Eventually, she came around to Moose, and the horse excelled at her early shows; Ms. Ward was a nationally ranked junior hunter jumper less than two years after beginning riding. "It was an incredible experience. I've never felt so proud of my horse," she said. "I mean, I don't really remember it because I was concussed, but I've seen video. People always focus on football and the concussions suffered there, but it has really affected my memory." Years later, in October 2013, there was one more horse, a miniature pony that Ms. Ward, 27, spent the afternoon trying and failing to catch in the pastures of her family's farm on the outskirts of Atlanta. Ms. Ward had graduated from the University of South Carolina (where she was a member of the equestrian team for one year), working to become a riding teacher, but she could not catch this little wily beast. At the end of the day, tired and wearing what she describes as a tattered pair of riding breeches, a dirty outfit covered in "horse slime," she met her sister, Mallory, at Laseter's Tavern for a drink and some trivia games. Laseter's is a casual place in Vinings, Ga. On that night, it was full of regulars, including Mr. Rupp, 34, a commercial charter pilot, and his old friends from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. The bar is one of those places you don't just know everybody's name and what they like to drink, you know their birthdays and their old stories. You watch their lives unfold. This new woman in her dirty riding gear caught his eye. He was seven years older, wearing a blue, checkered button down and dark jeans, drinking a glass of red wine. They stayed at the bar talking until it closed. "I wasn't entirely sure if he was just being nice or friendly," Ms. Ward said. "Until he, like, tried to lean in to kiss me, but he was too polite to do it. I literally said, 'Are you going to do this or what?' " So he kissed her. They went out for dinner in the weeks after, walked around Piedmont Park in Atlanta. They met again at Laseter's, and again. The bar of regulars could not help but notice. Jennifer Crowe, the D.J. in charge of trivia nights, observed the romance from a distance, leaning in to whisper about it with friends. "This is perfect," they said. "But of course," they said. The next chapter of Ms. Ward and Mr. Rupp's romance was spurred not by a horse, but an opossum. Two weeks after they had met, one of Ms. Ward's dogs, a rescued coonhound, killed the marsupial in her backyard and left a mess. It was midnight. She couldn't bear to clean it up. She texted Mr. Rupp, asked for help, and he was soon there with a headlamp and a shovel, wearing hiking boots. That night, after he had shoveled away the opossum remains and hosed off the blood, she talked with him about her parents, the story that anyone might know if they simply Googled their names. In 2011, her father had been convicted of second degree murder in the death of her mother and sentenced to 30 years in prison, a high profile case covered by local and national news media. Reporters relentlessly detailed the Wards' wealth and the circumstances surrounding the death. Diane Ward had died from a gunshot wound to the head one night in 2009. On the 911 call the night of the incident and in the years since, Bob Ward has maintained that this was an accident. "I love my dad and support my dad," Sarah Ward told Mr. Rupp. In the following months, they began a mutual tutelage. He brought her to the hangar in the mornings and got her in the cockpit. He explained the flight deck, the instruments, the pitch and bank, the push and pull, the endless buttons and lights and instruments. Once, he took her up and let her take the control column. "I pulled so far back that the plane went," she said before making the whizzing sound of a nose dive. "I felt like I was going to crash into a bridge." He told her about growing up in Minnesota, watching the takeoffs and landings at airports, how he'd always known he'd be pilot, how he went up for his first flight as a teenager, and moved to Florida to attend Embry Riddle. It wasn't so different from her experience with horses. "We balance each other so well," Ms. Ward said. "He's good in crowds, I hate crowds. He didn't grow up with animals, and he even loves my stupid dogs. We're never anxious about the same thing at the same time." She brought him to the barn and showed him how to bridle and saddle. He took to grooming and riding Moose. He would leave for days to fly and then return to cook dinner at her place. He picked up a recipe for steak and salsa verde. She liked his simple, comforting take on pasta carbonara. Some weekends, he'd drive her down to Florida so she could see her father in prison. Mr. Rupp was such a constant presence that Mallory, who lived with Sarah at the time, did not hint lightly that they needed their own place. Instead of moving in together in Atlanta, they moved together briefly to Ocala, Fla., then relocated to San Diego in 2016. Before the end of the next year, they were engaged. Ms. Ward started working for Mr. Rupp's mother, Michelle Serafini, at her real estate firm. Mr. Rupp now works for Jet Methods, a charter company often used by celebrities passing through Southern California. As the day of the ceremony approached, it became clear that Onassis would have to sit this one out. Bling Bling, a horse Ms. Ward describes as Onassis' best friend, stepped in to take his place. A little after 4 in the afternoon, 70 or so guests had arrived at West Milford Farm. The groomsmen waited in charcoal suits, gathered in an old dairy barn converted into a warm, glass greenhouse. The crowd assembled outdoors, filing into folding chairs past a bucket of carrots, treats for the ring bearer. Bling paced nervously, tearing clumps of grass from the turf. Gusts of wind blew in hard and cold from the far green pastures. The ceremony began. Lily Citron, a former riding student of Ms. Ward's, led the horse down an aisle spread with flower petals. He behaved, kept his head down, and lined up patiently with the groomsmen until he caught sight of the bride in her white Vera Wang dress, her long train following behind her in the flower petals. He neighed and neighed, his high whinny carrying with the wind. At the end, Robert Grant, a Universal Life minister, asked: "Do you, Jonathan, swear to take the reins with Sarah and love her forever and ever?" and "Do you, Sarah, promise to always fasten your seatbelt and love Jonathan forever and ever?" They said, "I do." Later, after drinks and photographs, dinner was served. A friend of Ms. Ward's since childhood, Graham Kennedy, stood up to read a letter from the bride's father. Mr. Ward had won an appeal for a new trial and bonded out of jail in Florida earlier in the year, but he had not been allowed to attend. The letter told of horses and teenage car wrecks and his pride in what Sarah and Mallory Ward had accomplished. He added: "You went through four years of college without a parent, and I know that damaged you in ways that I'll never know." Mr. Kennedy continued reading: "You don't need me giving my permission to marry, although Jonathan being the gentleman that he is did ask me. So dear Sarah, your parents have always respected your decisions, now go forth with your flying groom and God's blessing with a mandate to love and nurture each other. Your children will learn by example and you will then understand how your mother and I always felt about you and your sister. Signed: A father's love is unwavering, Dad." Ms. Crowe, the same D.J. who had been there that night at Laseter's when the couple first met, hurried over to her booth to press play. The bride and groom danced and, as they did, the groom wiped away the bride's tears. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Matt Howell, the general manager of a Hyundai dealership in Huntsville, Tex., has been in the auto business for 18 years. In all that time, he said, "I can think of one deal that originated on Facebook." In January, marketing managers at Hyundai's American headquarters in Southern California persuaded Mr. Howell to give social media a more serious try. They asked him to use new software to post videos, photos and text updates suggested by the company on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Two months into his social media experiment, the efforts had drawn such little reaction that Mr. Howell, 42, decided to drop out of the program. Although he plans to keep posting photos of happy buyers on Facebook and encouraging them to write reviews, he does not have much use for the rest of it especially since Hyundai began charging 275 a month for the service. To Mr. Howell, selling a car boils down to one basic principle: Treat your customers well, and they will sing your praises to friends and family. "Those personal relationships are more important," he said. Hyundai of Huntsville's experience illustrates how far social media still has to go to serve small, locally focused businesses. While large companies have learned how to stand out on social networks and get lots of hand holding from sites like Facebook and Twitter, most local business owners are left on their own and remain stumped by social marketing. Nowhere is that gulf more apparent than in the auto industry. Car manufacturers including Hyundai and Ford Motor have embraced social media and spend tens of millions of dollars on sophisticated marketing campaigns. Yet many of their local dealers barely maintain a Facebook page. Some experts question whether local businesses even need to be active on social media. "It's like the old days: You need to be in the Yellow Pages. But is it going to meaningfully drive your business? Probably not," said Chris Luo, who headed Facebook's efforts to woo small and medium size advertisers until 2012 and now works for FiveStars, a start up that helps small businesses keep up with loyal customers. Still, if a business does plunge into social media, Facebook and outside experts said, the most reliable route to success is to pay to promote posts as ads something that Hyundai is not yet teaching its dealers. "If you want predictable results for your business, ads are a cost effective way to get them," said Dan Levy, Facebook's global director of small business. Hyundai said it knows social media advertising is important, but it noted that dealers need to learn the basics of creating good content first. "If you hit anyone with it all at once, it would be very overwhelming," said Jon Budd, who oversees new media at Hyundai Motor America. He said that the three year program had just begun and that it was too soon to judge the results. Many local dealers worry that they need to be on Facebook, Twitter and whatever comes next, even as they struggle to understand how the services can help sell cars. A 2014 global study by the consulting firm Capgemini captures the predicament. The survey of more than 10,000 active car buyers found that social media ranked far below dealer websites, web searching and the automotive news media as a source of information for buyers. But most respondents also said they used social media to research cars, planned to post something about their buying experience and expected dealers to have an active social media presence. "It's easier to measure return on investment against other media types, like print or TV," said Nick Gill, the study's primary author. However, with the average American spending 40 minutes a day on Facebook alone, ignoring social media is also perilous because "it de facto becomes part of the buying decision," Mr. Gill said. While other automakers like Lexus are also helping their dealers become more socially savvy, Hyundai is going further than most. Last fall, it brought in Spredfast, an Austin, Tex., maker of social media tools, to devise customized software and a training program to offer its 800 dealers, which are independently owned franchises. Six months in, the effort has not exactly transformed the dealers into masters of the medium. They complain that they have received little guidance on how to use the tools effectively and no training on social advertising. The 275 monthly fee, which Hyundai said was less than what many dealers already spend on social marketing, has put off some. Complicating the rollout, the automaker did not hire anyone to focus on the project until last week. Brooke Todd, digital marketing manager of Ron Carter Hyundai and its sister Cadillac dealership in Friendswood, just southeast of Houston, is enthusiastic about the potential if not about the canned copy and bland photos of new models that Hyundai suggested he post. "The general public feels that by liking the Facebook page of a business, they're going to be inundated by selling," Mr. Todd said. He has gotten far more engagement from original items, like a nine second iPhone video he shot inviting people to come play the dealership's Pac Man arcade games, and links to news articles about the local economy and coming vehicles. Mr. Todd also tends the dealership's presence on Google Plus, which he believes helps improve its ranking in Google searches. He does not bother much with Twitter, where his posts elicit no response. (Twitter declined to comment on how auto dealers use its service.) So far, Mr. Todd has not been able to trace any deals directly to his social efforts, but overall sales are up almost 50 percent over the past year, which he attributed partly to new digital marketing efforts. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
"Was it worth it?" That's the most common question I've fielded since I visited Machu Picchu, the ruins of a 15th century Incan estate that sit almost 8,000 feet above sea level. Thrust back into prominence when the American explorer Hiram Bingham "discovered" it in 1911, it was used, by some accounts, as a palace, a retreat for the wealthy, a religious sanctuary or all three. Today, the photo friendly ruins (popular with tourists and Obamas alike) receive thousands of visitors daily and are the engine that drives Peru's tourism industry. But the question is understandable: The trip is not a simple one, and can quickly become expensive and time consuming. Hiking the Inca Trail, the classic journey from Piskacucho to the Sun Gate at Machu Picchu, is popular with students and backpackers (there are many tour operators, including SAS Travel, PeruTreks and Llama Path). It costs about 700 before incidentals and gratuities and sells out months ahead of time. What's more, it's a four day journey a chunk of time I wasn't able to set aside during my visit to Peru. And yet, my response: It's absolutely worth it, provided you're prepared to do a bit of planning. Below, I've outlined how to make your visit to Machu Picchu a day trip from Cuzco. It requires a little extra forethought, but you can do it, unrushed, in a day saving you both time and money. Even though Machu Picchu is a mere 50 miles from Cuzco, it's not the simplest place to get to; your trip will probably involve travel by plane, train and bus. The flight part is the easiest: Nonstops into Cuzco are frequent. You'll probably be arriving from Lima, but there are also direct flights from La Paz, Bolivia, and Bogota, Colombia. Avianca, Latam and Peruvian Airlines all service the area. Expect to pay 90 to 190 for a one way flight if you go during the high season (July and August). The next step depends on what time of year it is trains don't run directly from Cuzco from January through April during the rainy season. If you go then (as I did), you will have to take a two hour bus ride from Cuzco to the train station in Ollantaytambo. (A taxi is a viable option if you travel with a group.) From there, it's an hour and 45 minutes by train to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu. I left Cuzco at 4:50 a.m. and found myself in Aguas Calientes around 9 a.m., leaving me about seven hours to explore Machu Picchu and before my train left at 4:12 p.m. The round trip cost was 155 via Inca Rail (the other big operator, PeruRail, also offers an upscale train called the Hiram Bingham, for six times the cost of its regular trains). If you're going in dry season, you'll contend with more tourists but you'll also have the option of a more direct journey. Instead of a long bus journey to the train in Ollantaytambo, you'll be able to take a train directly from Poroy station, just 20 minutes outside Cuzco. I suggest leaving as early as possible to maximize your time at Machu Picchu. If you're planning to head to Machu Picchu the day after you arrive in Cuzco, it's important to have enough time to stop by the train office to get your tickets I received only a receipt for my online purchase, with instructions to pick up the tickets in person. The Inca Rail office opens at 7 a.m. daily and closes at 9 p.m. on weekdays, 7 p.m. on Saturdays, and 2 p.m. on Sundays. If your journey begins before 7 a.m., as mine did, leave time the day before to go to the office. What to See You currently have four ticketing options: entrance to Machu Picchu (152 Peruvian soles, about 46); entrance to Machu Picchu after 1 p.m. (100 soles); entrance with access to Machu Picchu mountain (200 soles); and entrance with access to Huayna Picchu mountain (200 soles). (Why climb one of the two mountains? For the challenge and, naturally, for the views at the summit. Note that mornings can be foggy.) There are 2,500 tickets allotted per day for Machu Picchu, 1,000 for afternoon entrance, 800 for Machu Picchu mountain and only 400 for Huayna Picchu. The tickets with mountain access are timed; you will have an hour window to enter. There are multiple ways to buy the tickets, but I opted to buy them directly from the official Peruvian government website. (Note that beginning July 1, the system is changing and visits to the main site will be divided into two shifts, from 6 a.m. to noon and from noon to 5:30 p.m.) Regular entrance tickets should be bought ahead of time, but with 2,500 available per day, you don't need to plan quite as carefully as with the other options. I chose to climb Huayna Picchu (in the classic Machu Picchu pictures, it's the big mountain towering in the background), where visitors can enter in two groups: at 7 a.m. and at 10 a.m. It's a popular ticket, especially during high season, and I recommend buying well in advance I got the last ticket for the day I went. Decide What You Can Handle While at a lower elevation than Cuzco, Machu Picchu is still at a considerable altitude. Being in peak physical condition is not required to visit, but visitors who wish to challenge themselves will find plenty of opportunities to do so. Huayna Picchu, the mountain I hiked, is a challenging but eminently doable climb. Take your time, bring plenty of water and pace yourself during the hourlong uphill climb. I would not recommend this option for those with a fear of heights or vertigo, as there are very steep sections. From Aguas Calientes, you can take a bus to the site ( 24, round trip) or you can hike the switchbacks all the way up. The moderately challenging uphill climb should take around 90 minutes. One important thing to note about the bus up to Machu Picchu the operator accepts American Express and MasterCard, but not Visa. And Keep in Mind Bring sunblock, a hat and plenty of water (don't bother with a poncho you can pick those up for a few soles at the train station if needed). Print out all of your receipts and tickets in advance, bring the credit card you used to make any online purchases, and keep your passport on you you will need this to enter the site (I've never had my passport checked and rechecked so many times in my life). Water gets progressively more expensive the closer you get to Machu Picchu a bottle on the street in Cuzco will run you around 2 soles; by the time you get to the site, it's 8 soles. If you're continuing travel within Central and South America, you will need proof of yellow fever vaccination to enter certain countries if you've been to Machu Picchu. I saw a man denied access at the gate to a flight from Lima to Costa Rica because he had been to Machu Picchu and did not have proof of vaccination. How did the gate agent know? The man had gotten a Machu Picchu tourist stamp in his passport there is a place near the entrance to get this done. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
A Judge Rules Against One Stem Cell Clinic. There Are Hundreds of Them. A judicial ruling this month that will stop questionable stem cell treatments at a clinic in Florida is widely seen as a warning to a flourishing industry that has attracted huge numbers of patients, who pay thousands of dollars for unproven, risky procedures. But with little regulatory oversight for the hundreds of clinics operating these lucrative businesses across the country, it's too soon to tell how far the impact might reach. The decision, by a federal court on June 3, empowered the Food and Drug Administration to stop U.S. Stem Cell, a private clinic in Sunrise, Fla., from injecting patients with an extract made from their own liposuctioned belly fat. The clinic had claimed that the extract contained stem cells with healing and regenerative powers that could treat a range of illness and injuries, from back problems to Parkinson's disease, arthritis, and heart and lung diseases. But medical experts say there is no proof that these treatments work, and three patients, who each paid 5,000 to be treated at U.S. Stem Cell in 2015, went blind after the fat extracts were injected into their eyes to treat macular degeneration. In granting the F.D.A.'s request for an injunction against the clinic, Judge Ursula Ungaro agreed with the agency that extracting stem cells from fat requires so much processing that it essentially transforms them into a drug. That alteration firmly places such treatments under the jurisdiction of the F.D.A., which has the authority to regulate drugs. "There is a reasonable likelihood that the defendants will continue to violate the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act," the federal law that gives the F.D.A. its regulatory authority, Judge Ungaro wrote. She also noted that when the agency warned U.S. Stem Cell about unsafe practices at the clinic, the company responded not by correcting the problems, but by arguing that it was exempt from F.D.A. regulation. Melissa Shuffield, a spokeswoman for U.S. Stem Cell, said it would decide whether to appeal the ruling once the formal injunction was issued. The company has agreed to stop performing the procedure. While the court's ruling is binding only in the district where it was issued, it may influence judges in other areas hearing similar cases. As many as 500 clinics perform similar procedures involving fat, experts estimate. But it's unclear at this early stage whether the companies will heed the judge's warning. Paul Knoepfler, a stem cell researcher at the University of California, Davis, said: "My sense is that probably a lot of people are going to get scared off by this." " Some physicians do worry about the F.D.A., but it's surprising how many haven't been concerned about it," he added. "They just keep on going unless they directly are subject to some kind of action. But my sense is that a federal district judge ruling is going to mean more than just a vague warning from the F.D.A." Although he considered the ruling a positive step, Dr. Knoepfler said, "I do think it's a shame it took so long to get to this point. Along the way, people got hurt." Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. He said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former F.D.A. head, deserved much of the credit for pushing the agency to try to rein in stem cell treatments. Some clinics may just keep providing the treatments, hoping the F.D.A. won't initiate a broader crackdown, while others might move their operations overseas or shift to other unproven injections with stem cells derived from bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, or birth tissues like the placenta or amniotic membranes. The industry has grown so fast that the F.D.A. has barely been able to keep up. Lacking the resources to chase every clinic and company, the agency has instead taken what it calls a "risk based" approach, going after so called bad actors that have harmed patients or were found to be performing risky procedures likely to injure someone. But that strategy means that in some of the worst cases, the agency did not act until after people were harmed. "There are many cases of companies making unsubstantiated claims about the potential for stem cell treatments to prevent, treat or cure serious diseases, and in those cases, we are committed to taking action and protecting patients," an F.D.A. spokeswoman, Stephanie Caccomo, said in an email. But in 2017 the agency gave stem cell businesses a three year grace period in which the F.D.A. has mostly looked the other way and waited for businesses to ask what rules applied to them and what they had to do to comply. The period ends in November 2020, but few businesses have responded. Although F.D.A. officials have warned that once the deadline passes they will start cracking down, many past "enforcement actions" have consisted of warning letters without real teeth. Leigh Turner, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics, called the court decision "meaningful." But, he added, "It's not going to automatically make hundreds and hundreds of businesses disappear. Some will decide they're not up for a fight with the F.D.A." But others may keep doing fat based procedures, "and say, 'The F.D.A. will have to reel us in one by one,'" he said. In a recent study, Dr. Turner found 716 stem cell clinics in the United States, a figure he calls a substantial undercount. The real total is probably more than 1,000, he estimated, and slightly more than half are selling fat derived injections, like the ones given by U.S. Stem Cell. The next most popular source of stem cells was bone marrow , which also lacks F.D.A. approval except for when it's used to treat cancer or certain genetic diseases. He suggested that some clinics might shift from using fat to bone marrow or other substances that they claim yield stem cells: umbilical cord blood, the cord itself, or extracts from the amniotic membranes or placenta. Such treatments are also unproven and not F.D.A. approved (though cord blood is approved to treat leukemia). The products from birth tissues appeal to some clinics because they can just be purchased and injected, and don't require procedures and equipment to collect blood, fat or bone marrow from patients. Some of those treatments have caused real harm. In December, 12 people were hospitalized with severe infections in their bloodstreams, joints or spines after being injected with blood from umbilical cords full of bacteria. The product was made by Genetech and distributed by Liveyon, both California companies. U.S. Stem Cell, in Florida, already offers treatments made from birth tissues and bone marrow, and has said it plans to continue doing so even though the company will obey the court order and stop using fat extracts. In theory, Dr. Turner said, the F.D.A. and the courts might apply the same reasoning to some other stem cell products that they applied to treatments derived from fat: The amount of processing required may turn the final product into a drug, and make it subject to F.D.A. oversight and rules. Lung specialists say they have been especially concerned about the aggressive marketing of stem cells via websites to people with pulmonary fibrosis, a deadly disease that is difficult to treat. A foundation dedicated to the illness has warned patients that "experimental treatments provided by unregulated, commercial stem cell centers have the potential to cause great harm to individuals who are dealing with this life threatening disease." There are legitimate clinical trials of stem cells in lung disease, but not at the for profit clinics, the foundation said. Dr. Sonye K. Danoff, a pulmonologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said she saw two patients several years ago with severe lung disease who had been lured to clinics in Florida. Their blood was drawn, then "hocus pocus happened," she said, and the blood was infused back into them. It had no apparent effect, and both patients, who paid from 15,000 to 20,000 out of pocket for the treatment, wound up feeling they had been scammed. Both eventually died of lung disease. "They are preying on people who are desperate," Dr. Danoff said. "Just yesterday, in clinic, I had a patient say, 'Hey, I saw an ad for this place, they give you this cell treatment that makes you better.' This is an incredibly deceptive practice." Dr. Knoepfler and Dr. Turner both suggested that the court ruling could prompt some stem cell businesses to open clinics overseas. One company, Regenexx, set up a clinic in the Cayman Islands after it lost a court case and was forbidden to treat patients with bone marrow stem cells that it was culturing to increase their numbers. (The F.D.A. considers culturing and multiplying the cells in the lab risky, because it might lead to mutations, even cancerous cells.) A Texas company, Celltex, which uses fat and cultures the cells, moved its treatments to Mexico after receiving warnings from the F.D.A. It still makes the fat extracts in Texas, but patients must then travel to Cancun, Mexico, for treatment. Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who also teaches at Yale Law School, said: "It is a good sign that the F.D.A. can make a successful argument to a judge that this particular procedure crosses the line. It's also good because there are substantial risks associated with this procedure." The ruling should also put other clinics on notice, he said. But he added that the F.D.A. needs more resources to pursue additional cases because clinics are in business with little oversight. Patricia J. Zettler, an expert on F.D.A. rules and an assistant professor at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, called the court ruling "a preliminary but important victory for the F.D.A. and the public health." It boded well for another case, she noted, in which the agency is seeking an injunction against a stem cell business, the Cell Surgical Network, based in Beverly Hills and Rancho Mirage, Calif., with dozens of affiliates around the country. A Florida patient went blind after one of the affiliates injected a fat extract into her eyes. But in an email, a founder of the network, Dr. Mark Berman, said that U.S. Stem Cell should not have lost its case, and added, "It won't happen to us." He says that the fat based treatments the network uses are patients' own body parts, not drugs, and should not be regulated by the F.D.A. Michael Werner, a co founder and senior policy counsel for the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, an advocacy group for patients and companies involved in gene and cell therapy and tissue engineering, said the judge's decision to shut down the treatments at the U.S. Stem Cell was "a really encouraging development." The clinic's staff, he said, "are manipulating and processing human cells and are administering them into a person and are doing so without a clinical trial and they don't have product approval. They are also making claims about the efficacy of this treatment that are unproven. "So what the F.D.A. said is, 'You can't do that.'" | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
At first, the many little sections might put off a few readers, but soon they generate a great deal of narrative tension, and "The Mercy Seat" becomes a well timed page turner. As midnight looms on the hot summer night, a crowd of locals gathers around the jail where the execution is to take place. In 1943, just about any event in a rural area could cause such a group to form, mostly curiosity seekers, but the "Mercy Seat" crowd is a howling batch of hateful bigots, which might not be spot on for little St. Martinville, La. (more famous for its connection to Longfellow's "Evangeline" legend than for racial hatred). But this is a quibble, and along with the increasing intensity of approaching midnight, the writing becomes more artful and succinctly poetic as the story proceeds. As the locals people like the district attorney, his wife, the parish priest and a filling station owner describe what is happening, they begin to think about what they really believe about justice and the law. Every one of them is ambivalent: The D.A. questions his motives for mounting such an effective prosecution, and the parish priest has problems with his own beliefs because of the wrong that God seems to permit. Nell, the D.A.'s wife, is ambivalent about everything: her husband's sense of justice and even her life in rural Louisiana, a place where she was not raised and that she does not understand. The closer the novel moves to midnight, the more all nine characters fall into an examination of conscience, wondering what they all are about to lose when the switch to the chair is thrown. Willie waits for the main event feeling guiltily responsible for the death of his lover, who took her own life when their relationship was discovered by her father. For this he feels he deserves death, hoping it will provide him the mercy of oblivion. Everyone else waits, too including the reader, who will find out what he did not expect. This is a worthy novel that gathers great power as it rolls on propelled by its many voices. Though a reader might wish it were longer, that the prisoner had more to share or that his lover had her say, in a strange way, the reader's longing for more shows just how accomplished this work is. When an author chooses such a painfully difficult topic, the writing takes on the drama of an Olympic event, perhaps the diving competition, where the more difficult dive an athlete chooses to make, the more points he or she earns. In the end, when the author of "The Mercy Seat" finishes her tale, she goes in without a splash. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
KISSINGER THE NEGOTIATOR Lessons From Dealmaking at the Highest Level By James K. Sebenius, R. Nicholas Burns and Robert H. Mnookin 411 pp. Harper/HarperCollins Publishers. 28.99. Although American foreign policy often sounds absolutist "you are with us or against us" the successful practice of diplomacy requires compromise. No nation is powerful enough to get whatever it wants unilaterally, and the complexities of international affairs make it impossible to control the course of events. The great American statesmen in our history Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt, among others were all negotiators. They spent much of their time meeting with allies and adversaries to hammer out agreements that reconciled divergent interests. Franklin persuaded the French monarchy to aid American anti monarchists fighting for independence. Jefferson worked with another French ruler, Napoleon, to send Paris needed cash in return for doubling the landholdings of the United States. And Roosevelt, of course, procured Soviet Communist and British imperialist contributions to American anti Communist and anti imperialist aims in fighting fascism. Wars are indeed won and lost at the negotiating table. During his years as President Nixon's and President Ford's most influential foreign policy adviser, 1969 77, Kissinger put these ideas to work. He participated in marathon haggling sessions with some of the most battle hardened figures of the 20th century, including Zhou Enlai, Leonid Brezhnev, Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin, Hafez al Assad and Ian Smith. Kissinger appeared to succeed in many of these negotiations opening relations with China, forging a detente with the Soviet Union, bringing a precarious peace to the Middle East, and speeding the end of white rule in Rhodesia. He became the wise man of American foreign policy a ubiquitous advocate for strategic compromises to secure stability for the United States. Now a 95 year old private citizen, he continues to negotiate on behalf of wealthy clients and elected leaders who seek influence in foreign lands. How does he do it? The authors of "Kissinger the Negotiator," James K. Sebenius, R. Nicholas Burns and Robert H. Mnookin, are an all star trio of experts on negotiation in business, law and diplomacy. They have focused on Kissinger because he is unsurpassed for the range and intensity of his negotiations as national security adviser and secretary of state. He has also left a long documentary trail, including thousands of pages that he has written recounting what he did when seated across from so many adversaries and other interlocutors. The authors spent many hours interviewing Kissinger, and he has written a short preface blessing their analysis as a whole. 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. Kissinger appears in this account as a quick learner, a bold strategist and a relentless pursuer. In Rhodesia, he orchestrated a series of pressures on Ian Smith from multiple directions to push the stubborn defender of white rule to accept a two year transition to majority governance. In the Middle East, he tirelessly traveled between capitals to knit together compromises among antagonistic leaders. In China, probably his most famous triumph, Kissinger probed a series of neglected routes to establish communication and avoid recurring controversies, particularly the future status of Taiwan. The authors provide play by plays for many of the negotiations, but they have little new to say about them, and they leave out a lot. The historical sections are written almost exclusively from the American side of the negotiating table, and the loudest voice is always Kissinger's own from his memoirs, interviews and the contemporary documentary record. The authors have read many critical accounts challenging Kissinger's negotiating efficacy, and the consequences of his choices, but these accounts are mostly relegated to footnotes and textual asides. The one partial exception is their discussion of the Vietnam War, in which the authors posit that Kissinger's negotiations may have prolonged a failing American military strategy and increased the death toll. Yet they praise his efforts to negotiate the Paris Accords that led to the delayed American withdrawal in 1975. Sebenius, Burns and Mnookin identify 15 lessons from Kissinger's efforts to understand and manipulate his counterparts. These lessons are the basics the driving skills that define whether someone is competent, even above average, behind the wheel. What matters for assessing effectiveness, however, is not how you drive but whether you arrive safely and on time. The skilled driver who gets lost while steering beautifully is not a model. The destination matters most of all, and the negotiator, like the driver, should be judged on how reliably he reaches it. From this perspective, Kissinger's lessons for contemporary negotiators are much more problematic than the authors are willing to admit. For all his mastery of the issues, Kissinger frequently lost sight of American purposes. Negotiating with dictators is sometimes unavoidable (and better than the alternatives), but relationships that encourage aggression are counterproductive for American interests in democracy and stability. The authors never address how Kissinger's support for military juntas in Chile, Argentina and other Latin American states underwrote regional violence. They also neglect how cooperation with the apartheid regime in South Africa spread racial conflict across the continent, and undermined America's international credibility. Kissinger negotiated these harmful relationships through arms sales, aid programs and efforts to distract attention from our partners' atrocities. Kissinger often misled Congress and the American public about his agreements. "Kissinger the Negotiator" needs to add a lesson: Negotiations should never undermine a nation's values. Kissinger's obsessive secrecy was equally harmful. The authors are correct that discretion is necessary when opening new communications, as in China, or cajoling a series of adversaries to collaborate, as in the Middle East. But Kissinger's tight hold on information went much further. He personalized his negotiations, he actively sidelined other important American actors (including Secretary of State William Rogers) and he frequently fed the conspiratorial inclinations of Richard Nixon. Kissinger's secrecy was self serving, designed to boost his influence and diminish his domestic peers. Kissinger repeatedly told Soviet, Chinese and other leaders that they should work only with him, encouraging disregard for the rest of the American government. This personalization of his negotiations runs against the authors' advice about building a strong team. Kissinger was, in fact, a terrible team player. And many of his negotiations, particularly with the Soviet Union and the Middle East states, proved unsustainable after his departure. Effective negotiators need less ego and sycophancy, more humility and coordination with members of their own side. Current policymakers must prepare themselves for an unstable world where compromise and collaboration, not unilateral force, are the coins of the realm. The authors of "Kissinger the Negotiator" have done a great service in elucidating the actions of a very skilled American diplomat. We have a lot to learn from his history, but it requires attention to his limitations and failings as much as to the successes. Great negotiators are appropriately skeptical that any one man or country can manage it all. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Rather than go abroad, she said, she prefers to stay close to home in Los Angeles. "Recently I have been meeting people from Twitter and rehearsing my stuff in front of them, in coffee shops or their homes in L.A. I don't know how it is for them, but it's been wonderful for me. Only in my ZIP code, though. I'm not insane." Here's what she packs on every trip. "I bring all my medications in a Ziploc plastic baggie. That's fun. And I have one of those gold medallions now that I wear around my neck, with my meds on it, because if something happened to me I would never want to be off them or experience any withdrawal symptoms. Sometimes people think I've gone hip hop." "I always bring a curling iron, because I like to curl. It's a therapeutic event for me. My favorite thing is getting ready to perform a show and watching TLC when I'm in a Hampton Inn, I find that very comforting. Usually it's a treat because I've gone through my jokes, I've rehearsed so I'm not too nervous, I have a diet cola with ice from the machine down the hall, and I'm truly enjoying myself." "I do my own bookkeeping and I like to do it on the plane. That's my plane thing. It's a great time to get things done. It's both business and personal, so both Quicken and QuickBooks. I like numbers and little graphs and reports; that's entertaining for me." "Usually I have a self help book of some kind, something on general self improvement. I got married, so I got the John and Julie Gottman book, "10 Lessons to Transform Your Marriage," which is sort of the four horsemen of the apocalypse in terms of not doing certain things. On the way there I'll bring a used book and on the way back I'll have bought myself a 'treat book' in the airport for full price, a best seller or something." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
There are so many refractory facets to consider in the life of the vocal genius Marianne Faithfull once characterized as "the voice of God" that talking about Aretha Franklin's fashion sense feels a bit like speaking of Benjamin Franklin's knack for flying a kite. Yet a performer who left an indelible emotional imprint on generations of fans cannot be ignored as a maestro of image, a woman who practically from the start of a six decade career understood not merely the potency of her magnificent voice but also the importance of how the public saw her. If at the start of her storied career Ms. Franklin pliantly allowed herself to be groomed and promoted as a gospel ingenue with a set of pipes capable of blowing off the church doors, it was not long into her ascent that she began marshaling the power her nascent stardom commanded to extend the parameters of how we understood and defined black beauty. Read more about the life and work of Aretha Franklin here. Emerging in an era of bewigged and sequined girl groups whose vocal gifts sometimes took a back seat to their choreography and grooming, Ms. Franklin in her early years was predictably straight jacketed in performance by demure day dresses or satin evening sheaths, her straightened hair dressed in a bangs and an elaborate beehive. Unapologetically black at a time when skin bleaching creams were extensively marketed to women of color, she never possessed what, in the ugly terminology of the time, was called "good hair." Yet surprisingly soon into stardom Ms. Franklin began to shed these constrictions to grasp hold of an image that reflected her new realities as an increasingly prosperous businesswoman and, equally, as that rare performer audacious enough to wade into the tumultuous politics of the 1960s. Merely tracking Aretha's coiffures might keep scholars of black identity as told through hair busy for decades. As her involvement in the civil rights movement grew, Ms Franklin's straightened and coifed styles steadily softened, a modest skull hugging natural becoming a pillowy Afro by the time, in 1970, that she offered to post a 250,000 bond to free Angela Davis, the demonized black activist then being held on charges of conspiracy, kidnapping and murder (charges of which she was later acquitted). Quoted in Jet magazine at the time, Ms. Franklin said: "Angela Davis must go free. Black people will be free." It is easy to forget how far from the case that was in an era when Ms. Franklin's Grammy winning albums were still sold in segregated "race music" sections of record stores and when even the suggestion that a black woman might one day appear on the cover of September Vogue, as Beyonce now does, would have seemed like a pipe dream. It is important, too, to note that wearing an Afro or the head wraps Ms. Franklin was early to adopt was once as risky a political statement as taking a knee would later become. What seems surprising is that the vocal authority that was so naturally Ms. Franklin's barely reflected the naturally reticent person that, by many accounts, she was. Yoking her astonishing vocal powers to a cannily evolving image, she would engineer her own transformation into a cultural presence so commanding that, by the time she sang "My Country 'Tis of Thee," at President Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration ceremony (in a sedate charcoal wool coat and toque with a rotor size bow) Ms. Franklin seemed no less an institution than the monuments around her. And while many of her musical contemporaries ventured only rarely from their sartorial safe zones, Ms. Franklin remained boldly and exuberantly unconstrained in her tastes, confident about demonstrating both her individuality and her economic might by doing as another powerful black woman, Oprah Winfrey, one day would. That is, she dressed in a manner that made it clear she had only one person to please: herself. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
This is how you put a video camera on a whale. Hop into an inflatable boat and head out to where they're feeding. Stand in a pulpit with a 20 some foot pole in your hands. Then watch and wait until you spot a whale. Plan your angle of approach with the driver of the boat. (Never approach directly from behind). Get close. Get closer. Get within 16 feet of this sea giant which is more than twice the size of your boat if it's a humpback and as soon as it surfaces, tap the whale on its wet tire of a back with the pole. If you're lucky, the detachable suction cup on the end of the pole which has a camera and sensors will stick. "You've just put an instrument on the biggest animal that's ever lived, and you got the most incredible view while doing it," said Ari Friedlaender, a marine ecologist at Oregon State University who says he has become so proficient at tagging whales that he doesn't even notice the boat rocking. "Afterwards there's kind of an adrenaline rush." Dr. Friedlaender is working with scientists at Stanford University and in Italy who are studying the biology of whales. The video footage and information on a whale's movement provides a fresh glimpse of the fish whales eat and how they respond to the movements whales make while hunting . The scientists hope to uncover the secret relationships of whales and their prey, including the reasons for a whale's tailored hunting strategies. The collaborators presented their ongoing project at the Society for Experimental Biology's annual meeting on Wednesday and hope future work will contribute to the conservation of the animals and their habitat. The researchers obtain federal permits to do their work, and their technology was developed with concern for the whales' health and welfare. "We have taken great care to develop tags that are noninvasive and do not change the whale's behavior," said Dr. Friedlaender, who has been tagging whales for research since 2000. Relative to the whale, the camera tags are tiny and generally go unnoticed. "Tagging a whale would be similar to if someone tapped you on your shoulder with their finger; you might hesitate for a moment or turn your head, but then continue on your business," Jeremy Goldbogen, an ecologist at Stanford University who is leading the collaboration, wrote in an email. When tagging snoozing humpbacks in the Antarctic, Dr. Friedlaender said he turns off the boat's engine and paddles up quietly, speaking only in whispers so he doesn't wake the whale. But then the suction cup hits with a loud slap and nothing happens, usually, much to his surprise. This doesn't always work out. Onetime a whale woke up, got curious and played with the boat, swimming under it and rolling along it. The camera captured the encounter. "We were hoping we got a look of what it's like for a whale to live in the Antarctic, but we got an hour of it looking at us," he said. Dr. Friedlaender was lucky not to fall in, and never has, because safety for the team and the whales comes first. The main precaution is to keep the boat away from the whale's tail or fluke because disturbed whales can be quite dangerous to encounter. If all things go well, the tag rides along for a few hours or a day before it falls off and emits a signal saying, "I'm here. Come get me." Occasionally, a tag will disappear into the Pacific, like a 21st century message in a bottle, lost forever. But most of the time, when pinged, the researchers use a boat to follow the floating tag's signal in the water, or a car on land if some person has intercepted it and taken it home unknowingly. (There's a phone number on the tag just in case.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
ATWATER, Calif. A self driving car is not a self driving car is not a self driving car. That is the message Waymo, the autonomous vehicle division of Alphabet, Google's parent company, tried to send on Monday, when it invited a group of reporters to visit Castle, a facility in California's Central Valley that it has been using as a training course for its self driving vehicles. Castle, which is built on a decommissioned Air Force base roughly 120 miles from San Francisco, resembles a miniature city, with many of the realistic elements a self driving car might encounter on the road like cul de sacs, traffic signals and a smattering of potholes. Waymo has been putting its test vehicles through their paces here since 2013, and conducting some 20,000 tests of different road situations. And on Monday, the company was offering rides in its latest prototype, a Chrysler Pacifica minivan outfitted with a cluster of sensors and cameras. But first, John Krafcik, Waymo's chief executive, wanted to give a vocabulary lesson. "Let's talk about self driving," he said. "There's a lot of confusion about what the terminology means." He rattled off a list of terms that have been used to describe vehicles with varying levels of self driving ability: autonomous, driverless, semiautonomous, fully self driving, partially autonomous, semi driverless. "It's really a bit of a problem, isn't it?" he said. If Mr. Krafcik seems annoyed, it's because the self driving hype cycle is running at full volume these days, with companies from Uber to General Motors to Tesla noisily promoting their progress toward autonomous vehicles. It's hard to know where this all ends. Will the winner be the company that develops a vehicle capable of driving along a preprogrammed route, in ideal weather conditions, in certain cities? Or will it be the vehicle that can drive itself anywhere, rain or snow? Is it enough to build a vehicle that drives itself most of the time, or is a truly driverless car one in which the passenger can safely take a nap? Does it count if a company produces just a handful of expensive prototype vehicles, rather than something that can be mass produced and sold by the tens of thousands? Waymo has set a narrow target. It is aiming for Level 4 autonomy, an official classification for a vehicle that is capable of driving itself, with no human behind the wheel, in most environments and road conditions. It believes that nothing short of Level 4 counts as autonomous, and that bypassing Level 3 (a lower classification, in which some human attention is still required) is necessary to keep people safe on the roads. Humans, the company says, can easily lose concentration while driving with Level 3 autonomy, even though they often need to take over at a moment's notice. That is also a self serving goal. By most estimations, Waymo is closer than any other company to Level 4 autonomy. Its test vehicles, which have been on the road for eight years, have completed more than 3.5 million autonomous miles, far more than any of its competitors. It has driven another 2.5 billion miles in "Carcraft," a simulated, virtual reality environment that allows the company to run and rerun various situations millions of times a day, and incorporate the results into its real world vehicles. And its access to Google's top tier engineering talent and cutting edge technical infrastructure has made it a formidable competitor. Waymo's advantage was apparent on Monday, during my test ride in the company's self driving minivan. Unlike other driverless demos I've encountered, there was no human keeping watch at the wheel. To start the trip, a colleague in the back seat pressed a large blue button marked "start ride," and the van took off on its own. In a 10 minute drive around Castle, it easily handled a series of different on road situations and obstacles. It encircled a roundabout, waited patiently for pedestrians to cross the street, and dodged traffic cones and bicyclists with ease. It felt slick and polished, and gave the sense that it might be ready for public consumption very soon. Granted, this was a carefully planned test loop in a controlled environment. Autonomous driving on public roads is a much harder challenge, and Waymo is still figuring out how best to deploy its technology to a wider market. The company declined to put a date on when it might release self driving cars to the general public, and Mr. Krafcik spoke only in generalities about its plans, saying that it would focus on ride hailing and autonomous trucking as possible early business models. "We're really close," he said. But Waymo's road to autonomy has not been entirely smooth. It has lost some engineering talent to well funded competitors. Its executives have been distracted by a prominent lawsuit against Uber, in which Waymo accused Uber of stealing trade secrets worth more than 2 billion. And in an early access test program in Phoenix, its vehicles reportedly struggled to make left turns, one of many real world obstacles that have to be overcome. And the competition is heating up. Lyft and Drive.ai, a self driving car start up, are teaming up to offer a pilot program for driverless ride hailing in San Francisco. Uber has been developing its own driverless fleet, and it is testing vehicles on public roads in Arizona, Pittsburgh and Toronto. Detroit is getting up to speed, too General Motors, which spent 1 billion to acquire Cruise Automation last year, recently announced that it has a production ready autonomous vehicle, once the software and regulatory kinks are worked out, and Ford, which has partnered with Argo AI, an artificial intelligence company based in Pittsburgh, plans to put Level 4 autonomous vehicles on the road by 2021. Waymo's victory against this army of well funded competitors is not guaranteed. But it won't be easy to beat, especially if it gets to define what winning means. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
DOUBLE DUTCH HOLIDAY CLASSIC at the Apollo Theater (Dec. 3, 1 4 p.m.). If last summer's Lincoln Center Out of Doors weekend celebrating the art of double Dutch turned out to be something you need more of in your life, hop on over to the David A. Walker Memorial annual Double Dutch Holiday Classic competition, which showcases jumpers and turners of all ages. Now in its 26th year, the tournament, presented by the National Double Dutch League, features three categories: speed and compulsory; fusion freestyle; and best in show, the championship for the best fusion freestyle team. 212 531 5305, nationaldoubledutchleague.com JAAMIL OLAWALE KOSOKO at Abrons Arts Center (Dec. 6 9, 8 p.m.). In "Seancers," a follow up to " negrophobia," Mr. Kosoko deepens his continuing investigation into black "performativity" and loss several of his family members have died in recent years by exploring ritualistic practices of resurrection and paranormal activity. He will be joined by the sound artist Jeremy Toussaint Baptiste, as well an artist theorist who helps to frame each performance. The lineup is the musician M. Lamar (Dec. 6); the performance artist Autumn Knight (Dec. 7); the artist and cultural strategist Ebony Noelle Golden (Dec. 8); and the actress and choreographer Okwui Okpokwasili (Dec. 9). 212 352 3101, abronsartscenter.org STEFANIE NELSON DANCE GROUP at TheaterLab Dec. 7 9, 8 p.m.; Dec. 9 10, 3 p.m.). In her new work, inspired by a family member's experience with dementia, the choreographer Stefanie Nelson began her creative process with a question: "How can I physically investigate the experience of literally losing oneself?" In "A My Name Is ..." the title refers to children's rhyming game Ms. Nelson creates movement that starts out precise and over time becomes disorganized and chaotic, an apt metaphor for memory and forgetting. theaterlabnyc.com NEW YORK CITY BALLET at the David H. Koch Theater (through Dec. 31). "George Balanchine's The Nutcracker" continues performances throughout the month. It never disappoints, from its onstage snowstorm to the one ton Christmas tree that grows from 12 to 40 feet. And there's also, of course, Balanchine's remarkable choreography, which brings the Tchaikovsky score to dancing life. This week, many of the principal dancers get a shot at Sugar Plum Sara Mearns, Megan Fairchild and Lauren Lovette, among them but not to be overlooked is the soloist Indiana Woodward, who is scheduled to do the honors on Dec. 7 opposite Chase Finlay as her Cavalier. She's a delight. 212 496 0600, nycballet.com | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
LOS ANGELES Now that Sinclair Broadcast Group has reached a deal to acquire Tribune Media and create a local television giant with 223 stations, it is talking to one of Hollywood's most seasoned small screen executives about joining the company to expand its programming. Steve Mosko, the former chairman of Sony Pictures Television, is in preliminary discussions with Sinclair about a senior management position, according to two people briefed on the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks. The discussions were first reported by The Financial Times. Mr. Mosko got his start in the television business in the late 1970s at a Baltimore station owned by Julian Smith, Sinclair's founder, and he has remained close to members of the Smith family, who continue to control the company. Mr. Mosko is best known for rebuilding Sony's television business after it was left for dead in a 2001 downsizing. By the time Mr. Mosko left last year, television was making more money for Sony than the company's film division. Sony produces broadcast network hits like "Kevin Can Wait," critical darlings like "Better Call Saul" and syndicated game shows like "Jeopardy." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
More than 1,500 Google workers plan to walk out of almost two dozen of the company's offices on Thursday to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment. SAN FRANCISCO Google is struggling to contain a growing internal backlash over its handling of sexual harassment and its workplace culture. Over the past week, Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive, and Larry Page, a co founder of Google and the chief executive of its parent company, Alphabet, have taken multiple steps to calm its agitated 94,000 person work force. The anger arose after The New York Times revealed last week that Google had paid millions of dollars in exit packages to male executives accused of harassment and stayed silent about their transgressions. Google later said it had fired 48 people for sexual harassment over the last two years; none received an exit package. Mr. Page and Mr. Pichai also issued apologies, with Mr. Pichai later saying his initial statement "wasn't enough" and apologizing again. And one of the executives whom Alphabet continued employing after he was accused of harassment resigned on Tuesday and did not obtain an exit package. But employees' dissatisfaction has not subsided. On Thursday, more than 1,500 most of them women plan to walk out of almost two dozen company offices around the world to protest the treatment, organizers said. At a staff meeting last year, Google's founders, Mr. Page and Sergey Brin, also struggled to answer a question about who their female role models were, said two employees who saw a video of the meeting. Mr. Brin tried to recall the name of a woman he had recently met at a company event who had impressed him, the people said. Mr. Page eventually reminded Mr. Brin that the woman's name was Gloria Steinem, the feminist writer. Mr. Page said his hero was Ruth Porat, the chief financial officer of Google and Alphabet, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. Last week, The Times reported that Google had paid Andy Rubin, the creator of the Android mobile software, a 90 million exit package even after the company concluded that a harassment claim against him was credible. (Mr. Rubin has denied any misconduct and has said the report of his compensation is a "wild exaggeration.") Google also paid millions of dollars in an exit package to another executive who was accused of harassment, and continued employing a third despite a harassment claim. Google's workers were outraged. They immediately raised questions at a staff meeting with executives last Thursday about how the company approaches sexual harassment. "I know this is really an exceptionally painful story for some of you, and I'm really sorry for that," Mr. Page said at the time. The meeting did little to quell the anger. On Friday, Ms. Stapleton said, she created an internal mailing list to organize a walkout. More than 200 employees joined over the weekend, she said, and the numbers have since grown to more than 1,500. On Tuesday, Richard DeVaul, one of the Alphabet executives who The Times revealed was accused of harassment, resigned from the company. He did not receive an exit package, according to a company spokeswoman. That same day, Mr. Pichai sent an apologetic email to employees saying he would support this week's protest. He said that some workers had already raised constructive ideas of how to improve policies around harassment and that he hoped to "turn these ideas into action," according to the email, which was obtained by The Times. Employees organizing the walkout have called on Google to end the practice of private arbitration which requires people to waive their right to sue and often includes confidentiality agreements in cases of sexual assault and harassment. They also are demanding publication of a transparency report on instances of sexual harassment, more disclosure of salaries and compensation, an employee representative on the company's board and a chief diversity officer who could make recommendations directly to the board. Other employees said they were disappointed that senior executives such as David C. Drummond, Alphabet's chief legal officer, who had a child with a female subordinate, and Mr. Brin, who had a public extramarital relationship with an employee, remained in influential positions. Some raised questions about whether it was appropriate for Eric Schmidt, the company's former chief executive and chairman, to remain on Alphabet's board after former and current employees said he had retained a mistress as a company consultant. Thursday's walkout is set to begin in Google's Tokyo office and then circle the globe, with employees leaving work around 11 a.m. in their time zones, Ms. Stapleton said. People can choose whether or not to return to work, she said. "While Google has championed the language of diversity and inclusion, substantive actions to address systemic racism, increase equity and stop sexual harassment have been few and far between. ENOUGH," organizers of the walkout wrote on an internal website, which was viewed by The Times. "Time's up at Google." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
SAN FRANCISCO Nearly a year after accusing Uber of stealing its driverless car technology, Waymo agreed on Friday to settle a closely watched lawsuit filed against the ride hailing company. Now for Waymo, which grew out of Google's seminal autonomous vehicle project and is nearly a decade into an effort that aims to change the very nature of transportation, a much bigger fight looms outside the courtroom. Waymo's competition extends well beyond Uber and a good part of that competition is directed by engineers it used to employ. Much of the artificial intelligence technology that has come out of Waymo's work and from research run by Google's parent company, Alphabet, is now available from other sources, making it easier for companies, even start ups, to compete. "Waymo may have a technical advantage," said Jason Doran, who helped run the delivery service Sidecar and joined General Motors when the carmaker acquired the start up. "But they have to figure out a business model." It is not uncommon for a tech pioneer to miss out on becoming the company that cashes in on the technology it has been working on. The industry is littered with stories of people with a great idea that someone else turned into a great business. The concept for the databases used by most of the world's big corporations came out of IBM. But another company, Oracle, turned that software into a big business. Researchers at the Silicon Valley lab of Xerox famously pioneered the technology that went into many of Apple's computers. And executives at Alphabet would certainly remember that Google was hardly the first internet search engine. It was just better than anything that came before it. Other than an ownership stake in Uber, worth about 245 million, that came with settling the lawsuit, Waymo has not made substantial money from those years of research. That is worth noting, because so many of the companies competing with Waymo are relying on the brainpower of its former employees. Dave Ferguson, a former Waymo engineer, oversees a start up called Nuro, which is building a driverless car for shipping and delivering goods. Chris Urmson, a longtime Waymo engineer, is the chief executive of a start up called Aurora. Brian Salesky, a third Waymo engineer, is now at Argo, an autonomous vehicle start up backed by 1 billion in funding from Ford Motor. With that brain drain in mind, the Uber lawsuit can also be seen as a fight against a former Google engineer, Anthony Levandowski, who also took his services elsewhere first to Otto, a start up he created, and then to Uber just six months later. The question was whether he took trade secrets with him. Waymo accused Uber of conspiring with Mr. Levandowski to steal its trade secrets and feed them into a driverless car project already underway inside the ride hailing company. With Friday's settlement, Uber has promised that its cars will operate without the help of Waymo's intellectual property. There are other issues for Waymo. Unlike Ford, General Motors or Toyota, Waymo does not manufacture and sell cars. Unlike Uber and Lyft, it does not operate a vast ride hailing services where it could readily deploy vehicles equipped with its own self driving technology. As the big automakers and the ride hailing companies accelerate their self driving projects, Waymo may need to find a way of inserting itself into these efforts or to build and operate a new self driving service of its own. The competition still tips its hat to Waymo, and agrees that after nine years of work on autonomous vehicles, it leads the technology race. But the gap is closing. Recent changes in the way driverless cars are built and the rise of readily available hardware that can help these vehicles understand and respond to what is happening around them, have made it easier to compete. Waymo executives were not available for interviews for this article. John Krafcik, Waymo's chief executive, is scheduled to speak on Monday evening at a conference on artificial intelligence hosted by The New York Times. "Waymo has the partnerships and technology needed to launch the world's first self driving service this year," a Waymo spokesman said in a statement, pointing to how the company has fully self driving cars on some public roads, has secured vehicles from Fiat Chrysler and has partnered with Avis, AutoNation, Lyft and others. "After years of research and development, Waymo is now focused on operations and deployment." When Waymo was still operating under Google, its head start in this race was obvious. Google began testing its self driving prototypes on public roads in 2010, and this is what set off so many other efforts. In the years since, the technology that drives these vehicles has changed in enormous ways thanks to the rise of "neural networks," which are complex systems that can learn tasks on their own by analyzing vast amounts of data. By analyzing thousands of images, a neural network can, for example, learn to identify a pedestrian. Using these methods, engineers can build and improve self driving cars at a far more rapid pace. "This is profoundly important," said Mr. Urmson of Aurora, which is supplying self driving technology to Volkswagen, Audi and Hyundai. "We can build on top of that revolution." He cautioned that the departures from Waymo may have an unintended consequence for the entire industry: Many smart people are needed in the same place to figure things out. "You need to have a lot of the best minds together to solve it," he said. "One of my fears is that we have spread the field a little thin. As a result, we have actually slowed down the speed with which we can solve this problem." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
new video loaded: Age 6 and Applying to College | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
A central scene of "Hagoromo" occurs in sustained silence, as Jock Soto, playing a fisherman, toys with a mysterious veil that he has found on a remote island. We know he does not that this veil is the Hagoromo, a sacred mantle: we have seen an angel dance with it. This silent passage is isolated amid the rest of "Hagoromo" at BAM Harvey Theater: A music drama, it combines aspects of Noh theater, opera, dance and bunraku puppet theater. As you watch that fisherman solo in silence, it feels insubstantial. Yet it serves to heighten what follows. When the angel (danced by Wendy Whelan and sung by Katalin Karolyi) returns to the stage in quest of the Hagoromo whose mysterious powers restore her magic the situation accumulates a complex polyphony. The 20 voice Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the solo singers Ms. Karolyi (contralto) and Peter Tantsits (tenor) and five International Contemporary Ensemble instrumentalists all build pressure, layer on layer. As dance theater, "Hagoromo" is thin. Probably its makers hope for the strange economy of Noh, in which the turn of a masked face, the movement of a sleeve or the placing of a foot can be a turn of the screw in terms of drama. With her large face painted white like a mask, and her terrific dramatic concentration, Ms. Whelan at times achieves this; when she tips her torso strangely sideways, opens her palms quietly to the audience, or turns her head to regard Mr. Soto, we feel her magic. At this stage in her long career, she's chiefly effective above the waist. Here, she can extend a straight leg behind her or in front like a sign, but those legs no longer have great force. She's barefoot, and mainly she moves on flat feet, too; when she rises onto half toe at one point, there's a change in tension, but it leads nowhere. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
It seems to me that President Trump's continued refusal to concede defeat is less a sinister plot to cling to power and more a determination to somehow declare victory even in defeat. If the recent vaccine news holds true, that will be an extraordinary accomplishment by our scientific community, and let's give credit where it's due and maybe even some that's not due. Let's all agree to praise Mr. Trump for Operation Warp Speed's success and congratulate him for the fastest and most robust (or best and most beautiful) vaccine campaign in history. Let him take that win as his way to declare a personal victory and make way for President elect Joe Biden. If Mr. Trump is going to continue to hold incredible sway over his supporters in his post presidency, I can think of no better role for him than as a champion of the effectiveness of the "Trump" Covid vaccines. Maybe he can reach people who would otherwise be reluctant to get vaccinated. So let me be the first to congratulate him. Heckuva job, Donnie! Irony of ironies. If Donald Trump had spent a fraction of the energy on fighting Covid 19 as he has trying to overturn the election, he would have won the election. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
After a minor late spring lull, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States is once again on the rise. States like Arizona, Florida and Texas are seeing some of their highest numbers to date, and as the nation hurtles further into summer, the surge shows few signs of stopping. And yet the virus appears to be killing fewer of the people it infects. In April and May, Covid 19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, led to as many as 3,000 deaths per day, and claimed the lives of roughly 7 to 8 percent of Americans known to have been infected. The number of daily deaths is now closer to 600, and the death rate is less than 5 percent. In general, experts see three broad reasons for the downward trend in the rate of coronavirus deaths: testing, treatment and a shift in whom the virus is infecting. The relative contribution of these factors is not yet clear. And because death reports can lag diagnoses by weeks, the current rise in coronavirus cases could still portend increases in mortality in the days to come. Since mid March, when the coronavirus was declared a national emergency, diagnostic testing for the coronavirus has risen significantly. More than 600,000 tests are administered each day in the United States, up from about 100,000 per day in early spring. Although the nation is still falling short of the millions of daily tests that experts have called for, the increased testing has identified many more infected individuals with mild or no symptoms, driving down the overall proportion of patients who die from Covid 19, said Caitlin Rivers, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Numerous states recently began reopening their economies, which might be driving some of the youthful bias, said Natalie Dean, an infectious disease epidemiologist in Florida, where new cases are hitting record highs. People in their 20s and 30s have returned to bars and beaches; working age employees have resumed jobs that cannot be done from home. Who should get a booster shot? It depends, Dr. Scott Gottlieb says. Virginia's new lieutenant governor elect says she won't force vaccines. "We know that's high risk," Dr. Dean said. "We're hearing a lot of reports of clusters being linked to these places" as they open back up. At the same time, elderly individuals, as well as those with underlying health conditions thought to exacerbate Covid 19, may be warier of exposure, said C. Brandon Ogbunu, a computational biologist and disease ecologist at Yale University. "Early on, this disease ripped through older populations with such aggression," he said. "It's possible that's where the message was felt the most strongly." Moreover, nursing homes and other facilities that harbor vulnerable populations may be working harder to protect their residents, Dr. Dean said. In general, "We now have a better set of tools to keep our communities safer," he said. "More people are wearing masks. We're better at sanitizing things." Of course, "Young people don't live in isolation," Dr. Bell said. They are still mingling with older members of the population potentially seeding transmission events that have yet to appear. Experts can't be sure, but behaviors like mask wearing, physical distancing and hygiene may also be reducing the dose of coronavirus that people encounter in the population at large, Dr. Dean said. The amount of virus that individuals carry may influence the severity of their symptoms. But so far, there is no evidence that this dynamic is contributing to the lower mortality rate in the United States. There is also no indication that the death rate is lower because the coronavirus itself has become less deadly, Dr. Ogbunu said. Mutation is a normal part of any virus's evolutionary trajectory, but these genetic changes are often inconsequential. Given the recent rise in infections, the dip in coronavirus mortality will not necessarily last. As more people socialize, those with milder infections might end up ferrying the pathogen to vulnerable individuals. As states reopen, local leaders are urging residents to continue physical distancing and to wear masks. But even tempered by warnings, moves back toward normalcy could inadvertently signal to people that the worst is already over, Dr. Popescu said. Experts are also reluctant to place too much emphasis on falling death rates. "We're training a lot of attention on the idea of mortality," said Dr. Jennifer Tsai, an emergency medicine physician at Yale University. Behind that picture, she added, there is a great deal of suffering. Reports from around the world have painted a sobering portrait of chronic Covid 19 syndromes, some of which last for months. Patients may be saddled with physical and emotional distress that persists long after the virus has left their bodies. "Death is not the only outcome," Dr. Dean said. And people marginalized by race, ethnicity and social standing will inevitably bear more of the disease burden than others, Dr. Tsai added. "The risk and the mortality is going to be passed on to the most vulnerable, no matter who gets infected first," she said. Recent upswings in coronavirus case numbers leave experts apprehensive of what's to come. Death, when it occurs, tends to trail infection by about two to four weeks. Early on in the pandemic, when testing focused on patients with worrisome symptoms, the typical lag between case and death reporting was a week or two. Now that diagnostic testing is more widespread, that interval has widened. Two weeks into a new round of coronavirus cases, the United States may be verging on another wave of deaths. Already, hospitalizations have begun an alarming upsurge in several states. "I think the next two to three weeks will be very telling," Dr. Popescu said. Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
THE HAPPY DAYS OF GARRY MARSHALL (2020) 8 p.m. on ABC; stream on ABC platforms and Hulu. This special celebrates the work of Garry Marshall, a romantic comedy maven who directed, wrote and produced classic shows and movies including "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Happy Days," "Pretty Woman" (1990), "Never Been Kissed" (1999), "The Princess Diaries" (2001) and "Valentine's Day" (2010). Friends, family and co workers of Marshall, including Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner, Julia Roberts, Julie Andrews, Richard Gere and John Stamos, will pay tribute to a man who kept the world laughing and crying. "I like to do very romantic, sentimental type of work," Marshall told The Times in 1990, following the release of "Pretty Woman." "It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it." ASIAN AMERICANS: BREAKING THROUGH 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings); stream on PBS platforms. The final episode of this five hour film series wraps up PBS's exploration of American history through the personal lives and stories of Asian Americans. This episode focuses on the ways that issues of immigration, race and economic disparity have shifted since the early 2000s, exploring how the younger generations of Asian Americans will shape the United States in the future. The series is narrated by Tamlyn Tomita ("The Karate Kid Part II," "The Good Doctor") and Daniel Dae Kim ("Lost," "Hawaii Five 0"). | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
T he performer Elaine Stritch died in 2014 at 89 after over 70 years appearing in plays, musicals, film, television, cabaret and newspaper gossip columns, telegrams and Twitter, saloons and recovery meetings. Throughout a marathon career, she came to define herself acerbically, sometimes world wearily, always energetically as much by the roles she didn't get (or was fired from) as her successes. I tallied these formative misses while writing a new biography on Stritch, titled "Still Here," after the Stephen Sondheim song from "Follies" that became an anthem of her endurance. Here's a chronological account of some of them. THE PART: A reporter in the play by Bella and Samuel Spewack , opposite a young Kirk Douglas. Stritch was 21, just out of convent school and called upon to feign a sophistication she didn't feel. One night at dinner during the tryout in Philadelphia, she asked Douglas about cohabitation outside marriage, featured casually in the plot but to her still an alien concept. "Oh my God, we're in big trouble," he groaned. WHO GOT IT: The popular radio actress Mercedes McCambridge, but the show closed on Broadway in less than a week. THE PART: The Mayoress. According to a letter Stritch wrote to Noel Coward, an avuncular mentor since he had tried to make her a star in his "Sail Away" a few years earlier, she didn't like the part Arthur Laurents and the composer "Stevie Sondheim," as she called him, wanted her to do. "A lot of big boff songs, but no real wit in them." Instead, enticed by Dior costumes and the prospect of playing opposite the movie star Laurence Harvey, she took a starring role in "The Time of the Barracudas," a new play by Peter Barnes in California. Both shows flopped badly , but for years, Stritch, as she came to appreciate the full scope of Sondheim's genius, agonized that she'd chosen the wrong flop eventually making the rousing "Everybody Says Don't" from "Anyone Can Whistle" one of her signature tunes. THE PART: Dolly herself. The indefatigably with it Stritch would perhaps have been hard to believe as a widowed matchmaker in turn of the century period costume. But no matter, she auditioned for its London company before the choreographer Gower Champion and the notoriously demanding producer David Merrick , a.k.a the Abominable Showman "only the rulers of the world," she told the columnist Leonard Lyons in between now habitual sips of champagne at the Plaza's Oak Room. She added plaintively, "I don't want diamond necklaces. I want that job." WHO GOT IT: Mary Martin, but even after star turns by Bette Midler and Bernadette Peters, the role would always be owned by Carol Channing. THE PART: Mame Dennis. Stritch so identified with this glamorously epigrammatic character that she for a time lived on Beekman Place, where Mame was said to live. Like Mame, she was a dramatic, somewhat distant aunt, demanding to be called "Tante" when she swooped in to Detroit for visits with her nieces and nephews. The plot of "Mame" involves the protagonist writing her autobiography; so, too, had Stritch been trying to put together a memoir since the 1950s, titled variously "Poor Little Stritch Girl" or "Shut Up and Drink Your Champagne." Eventually, after a stint as Vera , Mame's tipsy sidekick cursing the difficult dance steps all the way she got a brief crack at the starring role, at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, Mass, in 1969. "The biggest mistake of my life," Stritch realized. "Vera is better than Mame." And she would reach full flower as another sozzled sidekick soon after as Joanne in Sondheim's "Company." WHO GOT IT: After Lansbury, Mame was incarnated by Celeste Holm, Juliet Prowse, Janet Blair, Christine Ebersole, Christine Baranski and a host of others . THE LESSON: Lif e may be a banquet with most poor suckers starving to death, as Mame suggested, but if you stick around, there might be some really nice leftovers. THE PART: Momma Rose, the mother of all stage mothers. Stritch saw the rehearsal of the original Broadway show and "started bawling right there," she said. "I mean, the nuances in that goddamned thing. To really see that real, real feeling of mother and daughter like that oh, terrifying, isn't it? Terrifying." She had been the standby and tour replacement for Ethel Merman, the original Rose , in Irving Berlin's "Call Me Madam," and with her brazen manner and powerful belt, she was often suggested as Merman's heir apparent . Plus, Stritch related deeply to the "Gypsy" theme of show business as a Way Out. Laurents, who had written the book, was all for her playing the part. "Elaine is a performer. She loves audiences," he said, comparing her favorably with Merman, whom he accused of walking through shows. But though Stritch was attached to a West End production in the early 1970s, following her success as Joanne in "Company," the producers couldn't raise the necessary funding against her name (that she was then deeply in her cups probably didn't help). WHO GOT IT: Angela Lansbury, but Stritch would go on to perform numbers from the show to spine tingling effect at her Carlyle cabaret. THE LESSON: Ya either got it or ya ain't. THE PART: Stritch remembered the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, a crucial architect of the new, spectac ular mega musicals, talking to her about a narration role . "If I'm involved in it the way you're explaining it to me, Andrew, I would want to be a cat," she said. "And the last I heard of it was that," she recalled later, "and then you hear 'Cats' and everybody's a cat." Prepared to be regretful, Stritch went to see a preview of the show. "I just hated every minute of it," she said. "The first act, I was all dressed up, and the cats came out through the audience. They were mussing people's hair and You, now , touching me! One of them came near me I remember looking at it and saying, 'Don't touch me.' That's how much I hated that show. I didn't want anything to do with it." She walked out at intermission. WHO GOT IT: Jeff Shankley. THE LESSON: Me ouch, but ... there but for the grace of God went she. THE PART: Miss Hannigan. There were two major shifts in the American musical during the late 1970s. One was toward rock elements and technical effects; the other was toward (as ever) nostalgia. When Stritch returned to New York from London, where she'd lived with her husband, John Bay, at the Savoy hotel, this Depression era comic weepie was, along with "42nd Street," one of the sensible seeming options on Broadway; the others might has well have been in a foreign language. And the cheerfully child free and famously hooch swilling Stritch would have been a great Miss Hannigan. But the timing was terrible, as she was coping with a diagnosis of diabetes, and then Bay's own grave illness and untimely death. It would be years before she rebounded. WHO GOT IT: Among others, June Havoc, the daughter of the real life Momma Rose. THE PART: Dorothy. Stritch's doomed audition for the NBC blockbuster became a favorite story of hers to tell. The trouble began in the studio parking lot, where a pedestrian walked in front of the car and Stritch rolled down the window. "Get out of the way!" she hollered. Then to her friend Teri Ralston, a co star from "Company" who'd accompanied her: "Isn't it awful how I treat people?" Ralston sat in the lobby as Stritch entered a room of black suits. "I hope you all don't mind that I've rewritten some of these lines to fit me," she told them. "I'm Catholic, so I don't want to say, 'oh God.' I can't stand that." She tried a curse instead. The suits stared back at her, aghast. WHO GOT IT: Bea Arthur, one of Stritch's classmates from theNew School's Dramatic Workshop during the 1940s. The show would win all of its stars Emmys and national affection for foregrounding postmenopausal female friendship. "I'm just glad I got out of there alive," Stritch said years later. "I hate that show. Who'd be crazy enough to live in Florida with two other women and their mother?" THE LESSON: Be yourself. Stritch did get to play an old school "golden girl," after all, in the concert version of Sondheim's "Follies," and a little over a decade later she would come up with the critically acclaimed, autobiographical one woman show "Elaine Stritch: At Liberty," written with John Lahr and directed by George C. Wolfe. It was the one part, as of this writing, that no one else could play. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
LOS ANGELES Disney, NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, the National Basketball Association and the National Football League are expanding deals to supply Snapchat with customized short form content, underscoring the platform's renewed momentum. Snap, which makes the ephemeral messaging app, unveiled the multiyear deals on Thursday, along with a spate of original series and a breaking news feature called "Happening Now" that counts The Washington Post, Bloomberg and ESPN as partners. Maggie Suniewick, president of NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises, said in an email that Snapchat was "a brand safe environment where we can reach millions of new viewers." Snapchat's reassertion of itself in entertainment and news comes as one would be competitor, Quibi, an app offering short form shows designed for viewing on phones, attempts to regroup after a disastrous arrival in April. Quibi fell out of the list of the 50 most downloaded free iPhone apps in the United States a week after it went live. On Thursday it ranked No. 285. Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul behind Quibi, blamed the coronavirus pandemic for its rough start, but people have been spending more time on platforms like Snapchat and TikTok, an app for making and sharing short videos, since the shutdowns began. Snap said in April that daily active users had grown more rapidly than expected, reaching 229 million people. To compare, Twitter had about 166 million. Snap said time spent watching its original shows had doubled in recent months compared to a year earlier. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
LONDON In 1897, the British Army violently raided Benin City in what is now Nigeria, seizing thousands of priceless artifacts known as the Benin Bronzes. Ever since, there have been hopes of bringing them back from Western museums. On Friday, hope got a little closer to reality with the release of the first images of the planned Edo Museum of West African Art, which will house some 300 items on loan from European museums if the money to build it can be raised. The three story building, designed by David Adjaye, looks almost like a palace from the ancient Kingdom of Benin. Mr. Adjaye intends it to be completed in five years, he said in a telephone interview. The developments will be a boost to campaigners urging the return of artifacts taken from Africa during the colonial era. But in the telephone interview, Mr. Adjaye, the architect behind the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, part of the Smithsonian Institution, seemed most excited about what it could mean for the people of Benin City. It could help spark "a renaissance of African culture," he said, and be a space for residents to reconnect with their past and a showcase for the city's contemporary artists. "It has to be for the community first," he said, "and an international site second." Mr. Adjaye also spoke about his thinking behind the museum, his obsession with the Benin Bronzes and his view on the debate around returning items to Africa from Western museums. These are edited extracts of that conversation. To show the power of what a museum can be in the 21st century. It's not just a container of curiosities. That doesn't make sense in Africa there is no empire, or sort of "discovery" of what America is, or China is. But what is really critical is to deal with the real elephant in the room, which is the impact of colonialism on the cultures of Africa. That is the central discussion that the continent needs to have with itself, about its own history, and the structural destruction that happened with colonialism. Because actually there is a myth that Africans know their culture, but a lot has been demonized because of colonialism, and there's a lot that's misunderstood because of the structures of colonialism Christianity, Islam, etc. that followed. I'm not criticizing those religions, but they kind of degraded the cultural heritage of the continent. So there is the relearning of the fundamental meaning of these objects. And that retraining justifies, for me, a rethinking of what a museum is on the continent. It's not going to be a Western model. So putting the returned bronzes on display isn't the endpoint to you, but a beginning? Exactly: the beginning of the renaissance of African culture. You need the objects because the objects provide the provenance and the physicality that start to connect you. When you talk about creating a non Western museum, how will it be different? The images you've released still have display cases with objects in them. When I say it will be different, I mean it'll be different in its meaning. It's different in what it's trying to do. Yes, it will have vitrines with objects in them. But it won't just be, 'Here's the restitution of these bronzes, and here they are in beautiful cases.' That would not attract locals not many, maybe the elite. We've spent a lot of time developing a museum as a community center that will be part of the community's daily rituals and lives. The design almost looks like a fort. What story are you hoping to tell with it? The building has a little romantic narrative to it. I visited Benin City several times and it's a place that for me is on par with the greatest places around the world: with Egypt, with Kyoto, with Athens. To understand sub Saharan African culture, it's an epicenter. But you go now, and it's sort of a concrete jungle, so you need to excavate that past, and bring it back to life. Thankfully, a lot of it is still underground. So part of what we're doing with the British Museum is excavating the old walls. I've been obsessed with these walls: concentric circles that interact with each other and create this kind of extraordinary pattern. From satellite images, it's bigger than the Great Wall of China. So we want an excavation so we can make them visible. With the building, it's a kind of re enactment of the palace walls, with these turrets and pavilions appearing behind them, a kind of abstraction of how Benin City would have looked before what you'd have encountered if you came precolonization. It's trying to make a fragment of the experience in a contemporary language. The Benin Bronzes are what campaigners really want returned to Benin City and shown in this museum. What do those objects mean to you? It was profound the first time I saw them and it still is. Looking at these brass plaques that were in the palaces, and these extraordinary brass heads, this really dignified, incredible civilization. It burst immediately the image of these cultures that I had, that somehow it was kind of underdeveloped. It smashed through that and showed me here is the artistry, and the mastery of culture. I really started to do a lot of research into the Yoruba and Benin City when I was working on the Smithsonian and that really inspired my thinking Restitution has to happen, eventually. The objects need to be returned. In the 21st century, this is no longer a discussion. But the timeline and how they're brought back, and the skill set to manage the objects has to be developed on the continent. And I think that is also part of the job of the museums, and the cultures and the societies in the West that have these objects now: to support the building of this infrastructure, to allow countries to get these objects back. It's their cultural heritage. Archaeological excavations often take time. When do you think the museum will be complete? We're all working on a timeline of about five years, which is fast for cultural infrastructure. It took nine years to build the Smithsonian! I suppose that, given that the people of Benin City have been waiting since 1897, another five years is not that much time. No. Hopefully. The people really deserve this. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Singing isn't typically in the job description when you're an orchestral musician. But the Budapest Festival Orchestra is not a typical orchestra, and on Sunday afternoon at David Geffen Hall, the players put down their instruments, stood up, and sang a short chorus by Dvorak beautifully. It spoke to what makes this ensemble so special. The conductor Ivan Fischer, who founded it in 1983 and is an outspoken voice for tolerance in Hungary, has always taken a comprehensive approach to making music. The main works on this program were Dvorak's Violin Concerto and his Eighth Symphony. But to introduce elements of folk song and dance that run through Dvorak's major scores, Mr. Fischer began with three short pieces: a lyrically glowing Legend, a rousing Slavonic Dance and that wistful choral piece, "Misto Klekani" ("Evening's Blessing"). All musicians learn to sight sing, at least as students. But the Budapest players still exercise this skill. Maybe that explains why their playing in the Eighth Symphony sang out with such fullness and breadth, and why chordal passages had such strong hints of a church choir. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
If the ever soaring price of condos in New York City has your head spinning, wait until you shop for a cemetery plot. Prices for the last piece of real estate that any New Yorker will ever own a cemetery plot or an aboveground crypt have also climbed significantly over the years. Basic cemetery plots across the five boroughs now generally cost 4,500 to 19,000, not including hefty fees for foundations, interments and maintenance. The best deals can be found on Staten Island, where a grave site can be had for less than 3,000, but an increasingly rare final resting place in Manhattan can go for 1 million. But wherever you go, you won't actually own the land. When you buy a burial spot, you're just acquiring the right to use the space in perpetuity not unlike the shares you get when you buy in a co op building and live in an apartment that you don't technically own. While cemetery directors long ago warned that the city would soon run out of burial space, they, like their counterparts in other types of real estate development, have found ingenious ways to carve out new space in already crowded environments. In fact, there may be enough cemetery plots left in the city to last for several more decades, even in historic sites like Green Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn and Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. The growing popularity of cremation has helped ease the demand. While consumers have turned to cremation for many reasons, an urn with cremated remains or cremains, as the funeral industry refers to them takes up far less space than a coffin. An in ground plot for cremains at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn is only two square feet and starts at 1,200. Space, of course, was less of an issue 150 years ago. When Tammany Hall politician Boss Tweed died in 1878, he and his family had already bought two large plots at Green Wood that were combined to accommodate one and all. Mr. Tweed's final abode is 600 square feet and enclosed by a low granite wall with a bronze gate. His monument stands at the center, surrounded by other monuments and headstones for his father, his wife and children, and assorted relatives with plenty of room to spare. Today, thanks in part to a taste for mobility that often flings us far from our places of birth, a more typical cemetery purchase might be a single plot, chosen and bought by survivors during the grief racked days after the unexpected death of a loved one. Plot sizes vary from cemetery to cemetery, and even within cemeteries, but over the years they have been shrinking. At the 156 year old Woodlawn, a landmark on 400 rolling acres, some older plots are four feet wide by 10 feet long; in a new section being laid out, the plots are 40 inches wide by 8 feet 6 inches long. And at Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn, the plots are just 30 inches wide by seven feet long. Welcome to the studio apartment for the deceased. Although many cemeteries have plenty of grave sites left, the really choice plots in the oldest, and often loveliest, areas are harder to come by. In death, as in life, location matters. Woodlawn, for instance, still has 25 acres left to be developed and is completing a master plan mapping them out. But you would be hard pressed to find a burial spot next to Duke Ellington, one of the jazz greats for whom the place is known. (Literary types, however, should take note: Plots are still available in the vicinity of Herman Melville, with prices starting at 20,000.) Back in 2010, Green Wood officials believed the cemetery would have to stop selling plots in about five years. Now Eric Barna, the vice president of operations, thinks the cemetery might still be burying people for decades. "The end might be 25 years away or 50 years away," he said. To accommodate the shift toward cremation, many cemeteries are building columbaria, aboveground structures with niches that can hold hundreds or even thousands of urns. Niches with glass fronts have become popular, allowing survivors to display not only an urn but also photos and other mementos. Flushing Cemetery, in Queens, the 75 acre expanse where Louis Armstrong is buried, is down to its "last acre" of space for burials, said John Helly, the general manager. But the cemetery just built its first mausoleum, which opens this spring. The structure will contain 168 crypts and 3,400 niches, and take up the same amount of space that might otherwise have been devoted to a few hundred graves. Because many of the niches are "companion niches," with room for two urns, the mausoleum will be able to hold about 5,000 urns. "It will extend the life of the cemetery," Mr. Helly said. The one place where it is nearly impossible to be buried? Manhattan. Trinity Church's cemetery in Hamilton Heights, which sprawls on either side of Broadway and bills itself as "the only active cemetery and mausoleum" in the borough, no longer accommodates in ground burials. Mayor Edward I. Koch was buried there in 2013, for what was then an eyebrow raising price of 20,000. Today, aboveground crypts at Trinity can run as high as 60,000 for a single coffin, while niches for a single urn range from 1,900 to 6,500. New York City Cemeteries, by the Numbers The size of Pelham Cemetery on the eastern shore of City Island, in the Bronx. Sloping down to the Long Island Sound, the cemetery bills itself as "the only waterfront cemetery" in New York City. The number of burial spots for the Borden family of Elsie the Cow condensed milk fame at Woodlawn Cemetery. The original 2,000 square foot lot first bought in 1874 was designed for 43 graves to accommodate multiple generations. The Bordens later bought space for another 31 graves. All told, 53 of the spaces are occupied. The price of a 1909 Greek Revival mausoleum with room for eight crypts, designed by the architect John Russell Pope. The structure is on a 9,500 square foot plot at Woodlawn Cemetery and has been on the market for 17 years. Simple plots next to a fence bordering 211th Street, meanwhile, are 5,000. The number of people estimated to be buried at the potter's field on Hart Island, in the Long Island Sound, in operation since 1869. The city's Department of Correction operates the 101 acre cemetery, which takes up most of the island, using Rikers Island inmates to bury bodies in plain pine boxes. The number of burials in New York City in 2016, the latest year for which figures are available from the Bureau of Vital Statistics down 13.5 percent from 2008. There were 19,883 cremations in 2016, an increase of more than 40 percent The average cemetery plot: three feet wide by eight feet long. A typical niche to hold an urn with cremated remains in an aboveground columbarium is only one The length of time cemeteries in New York must wait to reclaim empty plots bought long ago but never used. State law has a formal process that cemeteries must follow to attempt to contact the original buyers or their descendants before recovering the lots. The size of Green Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, founded in 1838. "It is the ambition of the New Yorker to live upon the Fifth Avenue, to take his airings in the Park, and to sleep with his fathers in Green Wood," according to an 1866 New York Times article. The number of burials in New York City in 2016, the latest year for which figures are available from the Bureau of Vital Statistics down 13.5 percent from 2008. There were 19,883 cremations in 2016, an increase of more than 40 percent The average cemetery plot: three feet wide by eight feet long. A typical niche to hold an urn with cremated remains in an aboveground columbarium is only one The length of time cemeteries in New York must wait to reclaim empty plots bought long ago but never used. State law has a formal process that cemeteries must follow to attempt to contact the original buyers or their descendants before recovering the lots. The size of Green Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, founded in 1838. "It is the ambition of the New Yorker to live upon the Fifth Avenue, to take his airings in the Park, and to sleep with his fathers in Green Wood," according to an 1866 New York Times article. The size of Pelham Cemetery on the eastern shore of City Island, in the Bronx. Sloping down to the Long Island Sound, the cemetery bills itself as "the only waterfront cemetery" in New York City. The number of burial spots for the Borden family of Elsie the Cow condensed milk fame at Woodlawn Cemetery. The original 2,000 square foot lot first bought in 1874 was designed for 43 graves to accommodate multiple generations. The Bordens later bought space for another 31 graves. All told, 53 of the spaces are occupied. The price of a 1909 Greek Revival mausoleum with room for eight crypts, designed by the architect John Russell Pope. The structure is on a 9,500 square foot plot at Woodlawn Cemetery and has been on the market for 17 years. Simple plots next to a fence bordering 211th Street, meanwhile, are 5,000. The number of people estimated to be buried at the potter's field on Hart Island, in the Long Island Sound, in operation since 1869. The city's Department of Correction operates the 101 acre cemetery, which takes up most of the island, using Rikers Island inmates to bury bodies in plain pine boxes. If plots in Manhattan are scarce, it is in no small part because officials started banning burials there in the 1800s, while encouraging the creation of "rural" cemeteries in places like Brooklyn and Queens. Green Wood, founded in 1838, was the first New York City cemetery of this type. Originally reached from Manhattan by ferry, it sprawled on 478 acres overlooking the Upper New York Bay and had so many visitors in the 1860s that it rivaled Niagara Falls as a tourist destination. By the mid 19th century, New York City's "Cemetery Belt" had developed along the Brooklyn Queens border. That concentration of cemeteries accounts for why the dead in Queens, at over five million, outnumber the living by more than two to one. The last cemetery to open in New York City was Resurrection Cemetery, in Staten Island, in 1980. Across the city, recent arrivals to New York are leaving their mark on older burial grounds. Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, for example, have brought a preference for polished headstones of black granite with photorealistic depictions of the dead a stark contrast to the plainer, timeworn stones with Hebrew lettering favored by Jews of earlier generations. "We are seeing more and more people planning ahead," said Mr. Ison of Woodlawn. Seven years ago, he added, 40 percent of people made arrangements ahead of time, or "pre need" rather than "at need" (by which time prices may have increased); last year, 60 percent did. Antonia Russo pulled it off just in time. In the summer of 2017, her mother was ailing, which lent urgency to the search for a burial plot for her parents. They had lived in Forest Hills, Queens, for most of their adult lives, but were born and raised in Bedford Stuyvesant and remained "proud Brooklynites," Ms. Russo said. So in consultation with her parents, she opted for a spot on the Brooklyn side of the Evergreens Cemetery, which straddles Brooklyn and Queens. Ms. Russo passed up a plot on a grassy knoll under a tree in favor of one bordering Bushwick Avenue, because she felt that her mother, who had always lived on busy streets, would feel more at home. "I knew this was where she'd be happy," Ms. Russo said. Two weeks after the papers were signed, her mother passed away. Cemetery plot location, like all real estate, usually comes down to personal preference, said John O. D'Arienzo, a funeral home director and the president of the Metropolitan Funeral Directors Association. "If you take 100 people, 50 people will want to be by the road, so if it's cold they can see the stone from the car," he said. "The other 50 will want to be in the middle of the section, so everyone doesn't walk all over the grave." He added: "It's like who wants a blue house, who wants a red house." John Crawford, a retired hotel worker who lives on the Upper West Side, frequents death cafes and attended a recent one at the St. Agnes library branch on Amsterdam Avenue. Mr. Crawford is leaning toward a green burial at the Town Cemetery in Rhinebeck, N.Y., where a natural burial ground opened in 2014 on land that was once part of an estate. The spot appeals to him in part because of its price: 1,650, which is 400 more than it costs to be buried in the conventional part of the same cemetery, but far less than what most cemeteries in New York City charge. "I may not have a country home," he said. "But at least I could get buried out there in the country." For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: nytrealestate. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Bill Meehan, a former priest, hasn't let coronavirus dissuade him from making connections at Stonewall House, an L.G.B.T.Q. friendly senior housing development that opened in January. He worked with other residents to form a tenants' association, which pushed to have the building's terraces open this fall. Bill Meehan moved into Stonewall House, an affordable, L.G.B.T.Q. friendly senior housing development in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, early this year, when it was not exactly an ideal time to get to know one's neighbors. Between social distancing, mask wearing and the fact that the building had just opened but all the communal spaces remained closed because of Covid 19, interactions between residents were extremely limited. But Mr. Meehan, 77, a former priest, is not one to be deterred from making connections. Not even by a pandemic. "There wasn't a lot of stuff in place to meet people, but we're humans. You run into people, the first day you say, 'hello.' The second day you say, 'hello' plus. If you say hello often enough, you get hello back," said Mr. Meehan, who started chatting with neighbors in the corridors and outside the building as soon as he moved in. When the coronavirus arrived a few weeks later, he just added a mask. "I'm a community type person. I would never just stay in an apartment by myself," he said. The oldest of six children, Mr. Meehan grew up in East New York and spent 16 years as a priest, serving as a teacher in East Harlem for many of them. He left the priesthood in the mid 1980s "I came to terms with some things, like my sexuality," he said but he carried with him the tradition of community engagement. Over the years, he has been involved in numerous community groups, boards and political clubs, everything from his local AARP chapter to the Queens Pride parade. About 10 years ago, he started occasionally serving as a wedding officiant after he discovered that "once you're an officiant, you're an officiant for life." "When you retire, something interesting happens," he said. "People realize you're free and they call and email and you get hooked into things." Occupation: Retired. Mr. Meehan was a priest for 16 years and worked a number of different jobs after he left the priesthood, from human resources work in recruiting and staffing to serving as the dean of a school in Brownsville. His last job was as an assistant vice president at Washington Mutual, which acquired his previous employer, Dime Savings Bank of New York. Volunteering: Outside of the tenants' association in his new building, Mr. Meehan mostly volunteers with Jackson Heights organizations. But he would like to get involved with the Fort Greene Park Conversancy, the Brooklyn Pride Parade and Long Island University. But it isn't all work: Since the start of the pandemic, "I have seen more movies than I have in my entire life," he said. "Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu have really kept me sane." Embracing change: "It was a transition to go from being a novitiate then into the priesthood, then from working in a little town in Puerto Rico to East Harlem," Mr. Meehan said. "Every place I've been has been a challenge and a successful adaptation. I love change. And I've loved every place I've lived except one." Middletown, Conn.: "It was too suburban for me. I'm a city person," he said. "I like Florida, I like the beach, but when I go to visit my siblings there, by the third day, I'm ready to come back to New York." Living in a community has also often extended to his housing situations. Some years ago, when a former student and his wife needed a place to stay, they moved into Mr. Meehan's one bedroom apartment in Rego Park, Queens; a few years later, all three moved into a larger Jackson Heights two bedroom. "It was a huge place, one of these oodles of space prewar places," he said. "We had 13 windows." When the couple moved out, a Guatemalan busboy he was friends with became a roommate; over time other Guatemalan immigrants joined them in the apartment. When he left to move into Stonewall House, Mr. Meehan was sharing the apartment with five roommates. "It was a really great experience. They were good people, we were a family," he said. "But we only had one bathroom and old men don't do well on lines." He had also been finding it difficult to make the 1,700 a month rent. Though his roommates kicked in some, Mr. Meehan covered the remainder with social security and a small pension from Dime Savings Bank of New York, where he had worked as an assistant vice president until the bank went under during the financial crisis. It was a relief, he said, to only be responsible for paying 566 a month for his studio apartment at Stonewall House, which was designed by Marvel Architects. The affordable housing development, a partnership between BFC Partners, three city housing agencies and SAGE, a nonprofit for L.G.B.T.Q. elders, has 145 units for seniors earning less than 50 percent of area median income. It is the largest development of its kind in the country. "I wasn't sure how I'd adjust to this place," Mr. Meehan said. "Going from living with five people to just you? But I'm very happy here." Although, he added, he's hardly been alone. "I live on the phone a great deal," Mr. Meehan said. "I have a tremendous group of people who sustain me, watch out for me. I spend a lot of time Zoom conferencing, I love Facebook, live on Facebook. I'm very seldom totally by myself." He has also seen his former roommates from Jackson Heights, who came by to help him hang pictures and put together the large desk he ordered from Wayfair. The desk is where he spends the majority of his time in the apartment. Opposite the desk is a Murphy bed a gift from a friend. "It gives me almost a second room," he said. "At night, I move the chair over to the side and in three minutes I have a sleeping area." And, of course, there are his new neighbors. While social activities have been curtailed, there's still Zoom and the sidewalk in front of the building. With two other residents, Mr. Meehan started a tenants' association. So far the association has secured a bus stop on the building's corner and convinced management to open up the three terraces in the building, which were closed all spring and summer because of the coronavirus. "As someone living alone, I have my morning coffee up there, read the paper," Mr. Meehan said. "Covid is a downside for us we haven't been able to open up the community room, but we're gelling nicely." "It's going to be nice when you see people's faces finally," he added. "Like a masquerade party." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
The Soulquarians didn't set out to revolutionize the pulse of modern jazz. Maybe it's an overstatement to imply that they did. But there can be no doubt that the slouchy, loose jointed, atmospherically humid funk that they alchemized in the studio specifically, Electric Lady Studios, in Greenwich Village had a reach well beyond the scope of neo soul, the inexact genre coalescing around them. A considerable number of young jazz artists were paying close attention to what they were doing, at any rate. A few even got in on the ground floor. What they encountered was something familiar at the root. Black music, in its broadest possible sweep, was a rallying cause for the core members of the Soulquarians: D'Angelo, an R B singer and pianist oozing every sort of charisma; Questlove, a whip smart drummer steeped in soul and hip hop arcana; James Poyser, a thoughtful keyboardist well versed in gospel, funk and fusion; and J Dilla, a crate digging producer with the wizardly ability to turn a simple backbeat into something tilted, woozy or smudged. This foursome initially convened with the express purpose of creating a follow up to D'Angelo's 1995 debut album, "Brown Sugar." There was significance in their choice of Electric Lady Studios, which had been christened by Jimi Hendrix in 1970, later serving as the incubator for classic albums by Stevie Wonder and the Rolling Stones before it fell into a commercial slump. Russell Elevado, a recording engineer with an artisan's fondness for vintage equipment, tipped D'Angelo off to the fact that Electric Lady was still operational, available and more or less untouched since its heyday. "We were literally blowing dust off of the Fender Rhodes that was in there," he recalled in a Red Bull Music Academy oral history. "I was wiping dust off of the microphones." Never miss a pop music story: Sign up for our weekly newsletter, Louder. For a handful of years straddling the turn of the century, the Soulquarians treated Electric Lady as a clubhouse a perpetual hang unburdened by the usual ticking clock of the recording studio. Sometimes their work involved more input than output: Questlove and D'Angelo would hunker down to study bootleg videotapes from old Prince and Stevie Wonder tours, like a coaching staff reviewing game film. Sometimes the energy shifted to accommodate a drop in guest with fresh ideas. Progress was vague, halting, nonlinear. But the creative vibe of these hothouse experiments attracted other works in progress: While D'Angelo and company held court in Studio A, the rapper Common began recording his new album in Studio B, and others (the rapper Mos Def, for example) followed suit in Studio C. These simultaneous recording projects often shared personnel, a sonic aesthetic, even concrete musical ideas: a riff or a groove conceived for one artist might be put to better use by another, leading to some tactical horse trading. Still, the overwhelming mood was one of urgent creative independence, a conviction that ran counter to the prevailing commercial mode at the time. "Voodoo" is the album that eventually emerged from D'Angelo's Electric Lady residency. Arriving several weeks into the year 2000, it debuted at No. 1, driven in large part by the smash success of its third single, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," a sensuous, Prince like slow jam. (The accompanying video, depicting the artist's naked body, chiseled and smoldering, had something to do with the song's reception.) Beyond the single, "Voodoo" stood out at once for its principled stand against the prevailing aesthetic of pop R B, which had been steadily marching toward digital clarity and precision. This album trafficked instead in murk and sweat, warp and grit. There were throwback energies in the music: not just vintage Prince but also Hendrix, James Brown, and Sly and the Family Stone. The critic Jayson Greene has called it "a murmured album, music made from the implications of other music." On more than one level, that meant jazz. "Voodoo" isn't a jazz album, but it contains discrete elements that could have come from no other musical source. The guitarist Charlie Hunter, who'd made his name in the '90s with a series of new breed soul jazz albums on Blue Note, provides the essential glue on several tracks, playing bass as well as guitar parts on his custom eight stringed ax. One track, "Spanish Joint," incorporates an Afro Latin vamp that would be right at home in Hunter's playbook. But the co author of "Spanish Joint" is actually another jazz artist, the trumpeter Roy Hargrove, whose contribution on the album extends to a number of strategically terse but soulful horn lines. There was another, deeper, but less obvious sign of jazz influence on the album, and it had to do with the placement of rhythm. "Voodoo" revels in the tension between metronomic clarity and hazy imprecision. On more than a few tracks, the bassist Pino Palladino hangs way behind the beat even as Questlove keeps it locked in place. D'Angelo's vocal phrasing often adds to the sense of displacement, lying so far back that he almost seems to drag. When "Voodoo" was released, a great number of musicians actually found it difficult to listen to, because of the gluey disorientation imparted by these grooves. It all sounded weird, perverted, wrong. But this was a cultural predisposition, informed by the mechanistic tyranny of pop progress. As Palladino once said, speaking to the critic and scholar Jason King: "That sort of back phrasing has been going on in jazz for a long time. D'Angelo honed in on that and used the rhythm section to back phrase as opposed to using solo instruments to back phrase. That was a huge jump forward there, in my opinion." Each of the principal musicians on "Voodoo" traces this revolution in rhythm back to J Dilla. His signature was a sampling style that sought to radically transform, rather than simply appropriate, existing musical source material. Dilla born James Dewitt Yancey in Detroit in 1974, and also known professionally as Jay Dee was the rare producer recognized by musicians as a guru, responsible for elevating sampling not only to the level of an art but to the threshold of some sort of black magic. Hip hop producers had already demonstrated how effective it could be to turn a "break" a bar or two of drumming, the merest slice of a track into the foundation of a new song. Dilla took this practice farther, finding samples in places that few others would think to look, and remolding them like putty. The Jay Dee methodology was first articulated on a debut album by the hip hop group Slum Village, "Fan Tas Tic Vol. 1," unofficially released in 1997. One track, "Hoc N Pucky," rested on a two bar vamp lifted from a recording of Bill Evans's "T.T.T. (Twelve Tone Tune)." Elsewhere on the album there are samples from Herbie Hancock, Gil Evans and Larry Young. But it wasn't just a connoisseur's taste that set Dilla's production apart. He also resisted any movement toward rhythm quantization the industry standard, then as now, in popular music. He preferred to dial up the variability and wobble that distinguish a groove as human, intriguing in its imperfection. His beats weren't mechanical; they practically breathed. That first Slum Village album didn't even see a proper release until late February of 2006, a few weeks after J Dilla's tragic death of a rare blood disorder at age 32. But the startling impact of his style hadn't gone unnoticed in his time, in bohemian hip hop circles. Questlove has recalled that when "Fan Tas Tic Vol. 1" began to make the rounds in 1997, "it was a messiah moment, in a way, for people like me and D'Angelo and Q Tip. We had been looking for someone to lead us out of the darkness, to take us across the desert. Most of the time in those cases, you don't know who you're looking for until you see them." In an almost tactile way, then, "Voodoo" was an attempt to recapture lightning in a bottle. What's striking is the degree to which it succeeded, and with real musicians in a room. There's an odd sensation that you often encounter listening to the album, not unlike absent mindedly reaching the top of a staircase and being startled when there isn't another step. On a track like "The Root," which drapes D'Angelo's multitracked moan and Hunter's guitar arpeggios over a snaking backbeat, that feeling is recursive, throwing you off balance roughly every two bars. The reverberations of "Voodoo" and the "Voodoo" Tour were still being felt in the music industry several years later. Along with a Norah Jones sweep, the 45th Grammys in 2003 featured the Roots backing Eminem. If you watched the telecast, you saw Erykah Badu, in a Dead Prez T shirt, accepting best R B song for "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip Hop)," which featured Common and Raphael Saadiq as guests. More to the point, those Grammys included, for the first time, a category titled urban/alternative performance. If it wasn't obvious enough that the nomenclature was code for "neo soul," the list of nominees made it so. Badu and Common were there. So were Saadiq with D'Angelo; Floetry; CeeLo Green; and India.Arie. A few hours after the ceremony, nearly everyone in that roll call turned up at B. B. King Blues Club Grill in Times Square. The occasion was an after party "Grammy jam" hosted by Common and Badu. The house band included Questlove, Poyser and Meshell Ndegeocello on electric bass. They kept the groove going without pause for several hours, making effortless segues as guests hopped on and off the stage: Musiq Soulchild and Jaguar Wright; Mos Def and Talib Kweli; Jill Scott and Anthony Hamilton; Q Tip and Bilal; and of course the evening's hosts, a picture perfect hip hop couple at the time. Also making a cameo, on just one tune, was Hargrove. He stepped out of the wings looking almost diffident in the spotlight, and soloed for two tantalizing choruses. The crowd, packed tight on the dance floor, literally hollered and screamed for more. He never returned to the stage, though the music kept going past 4 a.m. Several days later I met with Hargrove at the Jazz Gallery, the nonprofit performance space in Lower Manhattan that he'd helped establish in the mid '90s. We mostly talked about his forthcoming album, "Hard Groove," credited to a new entity he called the RH Factor. Inspired in large part by Hargrove's experience helping to create "Voodoo," it was similarly recorded at Electric Lady, with Elevado and assistant engineer Steve Mandel at the boards. The album's defining contributions were all cameos by the marquee names of neo soul. On a track called "Poetry," Q Tip's lyric, sinewy and self referential, leads to a smartly realized trumpet dialogue (Hargrove, overdubbed), which in turn leads to the gently beat tripping final section, featuring a lovely metaphysical hook by Badu. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Stefania Rizzo in her new apartment in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. (Her dog, Bodhi, pictured in the background, is still in Vancouver as is her husband.) When Stefania Rizzo started hunting for a place in Brooklyn, she wasn't even sure she was moving to New York. On an otherwise ordinary day last winter, Ms. Rizzo had received a phone call from the Brooklyn Nets. The team was interested in hiring her as a physiotherapist. "Basketball is a pretty tough sport for injuries," said Ms. Rizzo, who has worked with many sports teams, including Canada's Olympic alpine ski squad, and whose age is a well kept secret from her players. "There are a lot of quick movements, jumpings and landings. Ankle sprains and soft tissue injuries are common." The idea seemed far fetched. Relocation was a big deal, and Ms. Rizzo was settled 3,000 miles away in her native Vancouver with her husband, Dan Pavich, a hockey referee and retired firefighter. They owned a house and a dog, Bodhi. But they were willing to listen, so the Nets flew the couple to New York. On their third and final day, they met Josh Lieberman, an associate broker at Douglas Elliman who works with the team on relocation. He took them to view some options. Ms. Rizzo had been to Brooklyn only once before, when she ran the New York City Marathon two years ago. She thought a one bedroom with a nice kitchen, a washer dryer and plenty of natural light could work. The budget started at 3,000 to 4,000 a month. "I had no idea how expensive renting was in New York," she said. "We had an idea of what it would cost, and everything was a little bit more than that." Location was key. The neighborhood needed to be walkable, with places to eat and shop, and convenient to Ms. Rizzo's two workplaces. Barclays Center, the Nets's home arena, is at the junction of three neighborhoods Prospect Heights, Fort Greene and Park Slope and their practice facility is in Industry City, in Sunset Park. If she took the job, she and her husband decided, they would not uproot their lives. Instead, they would rent an apartment for Ms. Rizzo, and Mr. Pavich would visit as often as possible. "All our friends and family are in Vancouver, and it is a pretty hot market," Ms. Rizzo said. "If you sell and try to come back, you can never re enter the market." Mr. Lieberman was prepared with a lineup of buildings. A few were in Dumbo, including 220 Water Street, a converted shoe factory. A lofty, sunny one bedroom there with almost 700 square feet had plenty of character. The rent was 3,825. But the location wasn't sufficiently Nets friendly, with a long, drab walk to the arena that would lead her under a highway overpass. A one bedroom unit at 220 Water Street, a converted 19th century shoe factory, had plenty of character. But it would have made for an inconvenient commute. Robert Wright for The New York Times For 4,000, a charming two bedroom in a Brooklyn Heights brownstone occupied an entire floor, with around 1,200 square feet. Such a building, run by a small property owner, can work well for international clients, Mr. Lieberman said: "The owner is more willing to have flexibility if the tenant doesn't have U.S. credit." Inside, however, it seemed more quirky than charming, with an uninviting kitchen, and it couldn't compete with the area's gleaming, amenity filled new buildings. The two year old rental tower at 300 Ashland Place, with almost 400 units, was ideal: steps from both Barclays Center and Atlantic Terminal. From there, it was one express stop or an easy bicycle ride to Industry City. "There's a subway hub, tons of restaurants, people everywhere, a Whole Foods, an Apple store," Mr. Lieberman said. "Most people moving to New York from other markets like to be in the action." Mr. Pavich was impressed right away. "I wanted Stef to be on top of her workplace," he said. "I wanted this to be really easy for her." After Ms. Rizzo accepted the job, the couple continued checking listings online, but couldn't glean much information. "You see the inside but have no idea what the neighborhood is like," she said. A two bedroom in a Brooklyn Heights brownstone occupied an entire floor, but it couldn't compete with the newer, amenity filled buildings in the area. Robert Wright for The New York Times So 300 Ashland Place was the obvious choice except by then, no one bedrooms were available. "We had set our sights on this building, but the vacancies were two or three months before we actually needed them," Ms. Rizzo said. "I thought I would go crazy in a studio." So they splurged on a two bedroom, sight unseen, with almost 1,000 square feet, floor to ceiling windows and a balcony, for a monthly rent of 6,225. (One month free on a 13 month lease made it closer to 5,750.) The amenity fee was waived. "It was always on my mind that we wanted two bedrooms," Mr. Pavich said, so "our friends don't have to stay in hotels." Ms. Rizzo, who has a renewable two year contract with the Nets, arrived in late summer. "As far as the convenience of everything I need, it's all here," she said. "It's not a quaint neighborhood feeling, but I am a short walk away from neighborhoods I like to hang out in." Ms. Rizzo's new building, on the western edge of Fort Greene, has an Apple Store and a Whole Foods on the ground level. Robert Wright for The New York Times Living on Flatbush Avenue means plenty of traffic outside. ("People in New York really like to honk," she observed.) So she sleeps with a white noise machine, a strategy recommended by her Nets colleagues, many of whom are also new to the city. Overall, the apartment is much nicer than she anticipated having in New York. "I thought I would have something with more of a raw, rough edge," she said. "It is brand spanking new." Not that she is home all that often. The Nets are currently in the playoff hunt, and she travels with the team to most road games. "I view this whole thing as this crazy, unexpected adventure, and want to share that with my friends and family," Ms. Rizzo said. "New York is on everyone's bucket list. The reality is, I haven't had the opportunity to do much in New York. It's not a lot of New York in my life; it's a lot of basketball." For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: nytrealestate. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Fable and chronicle, the cryptic and the confessional, spiritual longings and earthly concerns, folky delicacy and rock impact, motion and meditation all have a place in Jesca Hoop's songs. "Stonechild" is Hoop's fifth solo studio album; she has also released live acoustic remakes of two albums and shared a duet album in 2016, "Love Letter for Fire," with Sam Beam of Iron Wine, another slinger of finely turned enigmas. With "Stonechild," Hoop has made her quietest, most contemplative studio album. The songs all begin with gentle picking, acoustic or electric, before heading in diverse, unpredictable directions. It marks a change in locale for her recordings. Although Hoop moved from California to England in 2008, she continued to record her albums in Los Angeles with American, mostly West Coast musicians who could build rambunctious arrangements when Hoop chose to rock. But Hoop made "Stonechild" in England with the producer John Parish, who has worked with PJ Harvey and Aldous Harding and is known for a starkly stripped down approach. Working in England brings Hoop geographically closer to one of her main sources British and Celtic traditions, with their modal melodies and cleareyed stoicism and on this album, she has traded California looseness for an element of measured formality, though strange things still happen. The music's seeming transparency only spotlights the changeability of Hoop's voice, from cozy intimacy to conversational familiarity to steely resolve to banshee proclamation. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Reid's book was "inspired by the feeling of being in somebody else's home as your job," she said, "and the relationship you form with someone for 16 an hour." For six years in her 20s, Kiley Reid spent most of her days with toddlers wiping chins, cutting crusts off bread, remembering their favorite songs. "The reward of being with the same family and watching a child grow for four or five years was really wonderful," Reid, now 32, said of her time as a babysitter. But the experience also got her thinking about how race and class interact in transactional relationships, and what it means to sell emotional labor. Reid explores these questions in her debut novel, "Such a Fun Age," out Tuesday. Reid's book, for which Lena Waithe has already bought the screen rights, revolves around the intersecting lives of Alix, a privileged white mom in Philadelphia; Emira, her 25 year old black babysitter; and Kelley, a white man Emira ends up dating. An incident in the beginning of the book, when a stranger accuses Emira of kidnapping Alix's toddler, sets off a series of events that force the characters to reckon with their biases. The novel is inspired by Reid's babysitting years, but it's not autobiographical. "I was more inspired by the feeling of being in somebody else's home as your job," she said, "and the relationship you form with someone for 16 an hour." Tell me where you got the idea for this book, and why you decided to write it. I definitely started from wanting to explore the awkwardness of transactional relationships but also bigger themes of ownership, from the small petty ones like "Oh, well, she's our sitter" or "I knew him, so he's mine," to the awkward history of black women raising white children in this country. That just comes flooding back, no matter whether you like it or not, in certain interactions. 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. What was your experience babysitting in New York City? I think the fact that I was coming from a relatively similar class background as a lot of the moms that I babysat for set me up to be friendly with them in ways that other nannies couldn't. Those nannies are in very different situations, and the stakes are so much higher for them. If the event in the beginning of the book had happened to me in a grocery store, it would have been different. One, I'm a light skinned person and colorism is a real thing. And two, my support system means I wouldn't say "Oh, this is my fault, I did this," the way Emira does. In the aftermath of the incident at the grocery store, Alix and Kelley both claim to be trying to protect Emira. But their preoccupation with her life doesn't seem to involve her lived reality. What do you make of that distance? Emira's dealing with a very "humans in late capitalism" period of her 20s, which leaves her questioning everything. Am I holding my friends back? Should I be living in a different apartment? How do I make more money? What do I want to do? With this novel I really wanted to show a bunch of individuals who are well intentioned and obsessed with their own behavior. And they are so concerned with how they can be good for Emira that they're blind to questions like: Why doesn't she have health insurance? Why do these things happen? I like the idea of all of these people freaking out about their individual reactions so much that they completely overlook the big problem. Alix tries to befriend Emira, but she's also Emira's employer. What about that transactional relationship did you want to explore? The biggest thing I wanted to show in Alix was her full complexity as a human and her ability to, one, want a really great babysitter for her kids, two, have a bit of a crush on this girl, and three, kind of do her own self care and be able to feel good about the fact that she cares about this black woman. I think that all of those things can happen at once. I remember when I was a child, I had white friends whose parents loved me and would want me over all the time. But if their daughters ever thought about dating a black man, they would not allow it. And I think that that love for me and that racial bias can exist very harmoniously. And I think that scares people a little bit, to think, "I can be a lovely person and still be racist as well." Something I wanted to play with in this novel, too, once I knew the characters, was Alix's isolation and her loneliness and what that brings out in her. Capitalism often sets us up to work by ourselves, to seek out friendships from the nearest person. Alix's loneliness drives her to think and do some weird things. I think for Emira, transactional relationships look like emotion, when it's work. Emira is giving her all to this child, and the fact that it's no longer beneficial to her and she needs to be able to go to the doctor and whatnot gets really complicated. Emira's so other to Alix, and does and wears and says so many things that she and her friends would never say, she's constantly searching for a connection. And I think she's searching a little bit to put Emira into a box of what kind of language can I use with you, what kind of things can I show you that you'll be excited about "O.K., well, if you like Young Thug, maybe I don't know you." "Oh, look, you used the word 'connoisseur,' maybe I do know you." I think she's so afraid of misstepping with Emira, and seeming racist, that she continually tries to find things out about her, not because she thinks she's interesting but because she wants a way in. And I think a lot of people do that. I've had those cringey moments where I just meet white people and they want to call me "girl" and "boo" immediately to make a connection with me. But Alix is almost too charmed by how different Emira is there is a bit of fetishizing. So many things that young low income black women do end up in Vogue three years later, and there is this fascination with their style or how they talk or things they say, and Alix can't get enough. But the fact that she's paying her doesn't really mean anything to Alix; she doesn't understand that there's a boundary that she shouldn't be crossing. It's tempting to see Alix and Kelley in opposition to each other, but neither really ends up being the hero or the villain. How do they interact with race differently? Alix sees racism as the biggest no no, not because she thinks it's the most wrong, but because it's the most wrong to appear to be, I think. She looks to Emira to confirm everything she wants to hear. I think that need is really, really dangerous. If that need is guiding all of your actions, then things like having mold in poor schools or black women dying earlier than other demographics, those things kind of go away and you're just like, How can I fill my little goodness meter? That's really dangerous. Kelley has a lot of black friends. He's not one of those people who doesn't see color, and I don't think he believes in that, but he doesn't think about himself contributing or benefiting from white supremacy in a way that would make him self reflective about it. The relationship between Kelley and Emira highlights the potential awkwardness of interracial relationships. There were a few times when Kelley did stuff that was not O.K., and Emira kept thinking, "All right, I'm going to let this one slide." What about interracial relationships did you want to explore? I really wanted to watch Emira figure out what kind of person Kelley was. In her mind I don't think it's "Is this person good or bad?" but "Can he get it?" I think that's something a lot of people in relationships go through. Blackness means such different things to so many people, and to flatten that experience I think is almost anti black. Kelley has to be good for Emira and her blackness, that is it. And she's just trying to figure out those things. I think she's also like, Is this guy good in bed? Is he funny? Can I bring him around my friends? Those things are just as important. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
I was packing for my road trip from Colorado to Alberta, Canada, when the text came in from a gentleman I'd been helping with groceries during the pandemic. "The Canadians are actually doing damage to vehicles with United States plates on them," he cautioned, giving me my first inkling that it wasn't just public health officials who were serious about keeping Americans out of Canada, where the death rate from the coronavirus has been roughly half that of its southern neighbor. As a dual citizen I was entitled to cross the border, closed to most Americans because of the pandemic. With an octogenarian father in Calgary who had been largely isolated during the stay at home orders, I was willing to submit to Canada's mandatory two week quarantine in order to visit. But my friend's warning proved prescient. Some concerned residents who fear that the virus will be spread to their communities have been taking matters into their own hands, spurring so many reports of intimidation that the premier of British Columbia, John Horgan, reminded angry Canadians to "Be Calm. Be Kind" at a July 27 news conference. Addressing those Americans who are in Canada legally, he said: "With respect to those who have offshore plates and are feeling harassed, I would suggest perhaps public transit. I would suggest that they get their plates changed. I would suggest that they ride a bike." Before the pandemic, when Americans could choose most any country in the world to travel, Canada was their second most popular foreign destination, behind only Mexico. Lured by the proximity, advantageous exchange rate and safety of their northern neighbor, in the first six months of last year, U.S. residents made 10.5 million trips to Canada, the highest level in 12 years, according to Statistics Canada, a government agency. But the welcome mat was rolled up on March 21, when the border between the two countries was closed to tourists. That hasn't kept some Americans from trying, however. Many are routinely turned away at border crossings, while other have chosen to go sightseeing instead of taking the most direct route to Alaska as required of those driving from the Lower 48 even though violators face possible fines, jail or even being banned from Canada. In the province of Alberta, for instance, there were no tickets issued to American motorists in April, May or July, and only nine tickets issued in June, all in Banff National Park, said Cpl. Tammy Keibel, a spokeswoman for the R.C.M.P. in Southern Alberta. The federal police force didn't start recording complaints about international license plates until June 17, but there were 53 reports in the entire province between June 17 and June 29, and 121 between July 1 and July 28, she said. The province's most troublesome scofflaw thus far is a fellow from Alaska who was so determined to enjoy Banff with a woman from Calgary that he'd met online that he was issued two of the June tickets. His identity hasn't yet been released, Corporal Keibel said. His downfall, like that of many others, was precipitated by concerned citizens, not authorities. The Alaska plates on his truck were spotted June 25 during one of the regular parking lot sweeps that the Rimrock Resort Hotel in Banff conducts. Video footage was reviewed to confirm the driver's identity, and he was questioned in his room. When he was unable to show that he had complied with quarantine laws, the police were called, said Trevor Long, the Rimrock's general manager. Since the border closed four months ago, only four other guests have been questioned about their plates. One was an American who had been in Canada since before the border restrictions, another was in the military and said he was an essential worker. The other two were let off with a warning. The Alaskan, however, proved a "challenging fellow" who thought "this whole pandemic was a farce," according to Mr. Long. He was issued an 870 ticket under the Alberta Public Health Act and instructed to leave town the following day. Instead, the couple showed up for their massages the next morning. "He was a little bit irritated that we said, 'No, you're not allowed to have your spa appointment,'" Mr. Long said. On a sunny day in late July, I drove around the Banff area and looked at an estimated 200 cars. Only one was from the United States, a Toyota Prius from California parked at Johnson Lake. Well, that one, and mine. And it didn't take long for someone to notice my Colorado plates. "Hey, how'd you get across the border," a guy on a beater bike called to me as I was parked at the corner of Buffalo and Bear streets. When I told him I was a citizen, he retreated. "I was just wondering," he said, cautioning that some locals get furious when they see U.S. plates. These local efforts aren't confined to Canada. In Hawaii, a group with more than 5,600 volunteers called the Hawai'i Quarantine Kapu Breakers works to track people breaking the mandatory two week quarantine for visitors to the islands. The quarantine law, which will be in effect until at least Sept. 1, carries a possible 5,000 fine and up to a year in jail. Angela Keen, who is running the sleuthing posse, said it has helped bring 45 people to the attention of authorities, including the leader of a countercultural group called Carbon Nation and 20 of his followers. The leader, Eligio Bishop, pleaded no contest in June to breaking quarantine rules and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. His sentence was suspended and the charges against his followers were dropped when they agreed to return to the mainland. In New York, where visitors from many states are asked to quarantine for two weeks, there have been more than 1,400 complaints to the state's Covid 19 Enforcement Task Force regarding possible violators, according to Caitlin Girouard, a spokeswoman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. That doesn't include complaints to local health departments. Ms. Girouard did not know how many tickets had been issued under the order, which carries fines of up to 10,000 if a person causes "harm." The maximum penalty in Canada is far higher, with the possibility of up to three years in prison and a 750,000 fine for someone who willfully causes harm to another. Among Canada's citizen detectives are those spurred on by the Canada Border Services Agency. Some who live on Vancouver Island have taken to monitoring boat traffic to see who turns off their vessel's automatic identification transponder, which is required to be on at all times. When they notice a craft has gone dark, they assume it's trespassing and report it to the R.C.M.P. Two American boaters have each been fined 738 under Canada's federal Quarantine Act. One reportedly misstated his intentions to sail to Alaska, while the other was a whale watching vessel that had crossed the border from Washington. The big fines and possible prison sentences are meant to be a serious deterrent. Despite the loss of revenue from American tourists, Mr. Long, who is also president of the Banff Lake Louise Hospitality Association, said he doesn't know a single person who wants the current restrictions to relax. "We are very reliant on the American traveler. It makes a huge impact on the economy," he said. "But we are ready to continue taking the hit until things get better around the world." Other Canadians speak of the situation with less restraint. "It makes me angry and it frightens me because Canada is obviously doing its level best, mostly successfully, to keep our country as safe as possible and our numbers low," said Tamara B., of Calgary, who asked that her last name not be used. "You'd have to be living in a cave for the last six months to not know what the situation is down there" in the United States. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages and a few last chance picks of shows that are about to close. Our reviews of open shows are at nytimes.com/reviews/theater. 'THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE' at the Vineyard Theater (performances start on May 4; opens on May 23). John Marcher is convinced that something or other lies in wait for him. Could that something be a new musical? The composer John Kander, the playwright David Thompson and the director and choreographer Susan Stroman have transformed Henry James's novella into a play centered on dance. The stage version stars Tony Yazbeck and Irina Dvorovenko. 212 353 0303, vineyardtheatre.org 'THE BIRDS' at St. Ann's Warehouse (in previews; opens on May 6). Dreamed of flying away from the current iteration of democracy? Feel free to join a few Athenians with the same goal. Aristophanes's comedy, adapted by Nikos Karathanos and Yiannis Asteris and produced by the Onassis Cultural Center, follows two guys looking to create a new society in the clouds. 718 254 8779, stannswarehouse.org 'BUMP' at the Ensemble Studio Theater (previews start on May 9; opens on May 17). Chiara Atik's recent play "Five Times in One Night" was a smart and sportive history of sex. Her new one, produced by Ensemble Studio Theater and the Sloan Project, explores one of the most common consequences of sex. Claudia Weill directs three thematically linked stories about past and present childbirth. ensemblestudiotheatre.org 'DANCE NATION' at Playwrights Horizons (in previews; opens on May 8). A playwright with an abiding and sometimes grotesque interest in the female body, Clare Barron comes to Playwrights Horizons with a drama about a preteen dance competition. The director and choreographer Lee Sunday Evans oversees the spangled, cutthroat fun. Eboni Booth, Ellen Maddow and Thomas Jay Ryan star. 212 279 4200, playwrightshorizons.org 'THE GENTLEMAN CALLER' at the Cherry Lane Theater (previews start on May 5; opens on May 10). William Inge and Tennessee Williams were two of midcentury America's greatest playwrights. One was closeted; one wasn't. Philip Dawkins's play, directed by Tony Speciale for Abingdon Theater Company, imagines the day when Inge, then a drama critic, first interviewed Williams. Daniel K. Isaac ("Billions") and Juan Francisco Villa star. 212 352 3101, abingdontheatre.org 'LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE' at New York Theater Workshop (in previews; opens on May 7). The director Rachel Chavkin says she wants a revolution, and in this revival of Caryl Churchill's 1976 drama, she's exploring insurrection in 17th century England. Vinie Burrows, Rob Campbell and Mikeah Ernest Jennings star in a play about Levellers, Ranters and a time when a nation almost remade itself. 212 460 5475, nytw.org | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Nearly 7,400 Acura RLX sedans from the 2014 model year will be recalled because of a rear suspension problem that can make the vehicle difficult to steer, the automaker informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. During assembly at the Acura plant in Japan, rear lower control arm bolts were not properly tightened, the automaker told the safety agency in a letter on Friday. If the bolts loosen "the driver may have difficulty maintaining steering control," the automaker said, although it was not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the problem. If there is a problem with the bolts loosening, Honda said, the driver would be alerted by "excessive or alarming noise." Honda described the recall as voluntary, but once a manufacturer is aware of a safety problem it must, within five business days, inform the agency of its plan for a recall or face a civil fine. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
When the Cuban choreographer Nilda Guerra named her company Ballet Rakatan, she created a word to sum up her vision. For her, "Rakatan" refers to rhythm, power and movement. But witnessing the dynamic, ardent members of her company in "Havana Rakatan" brings to mind another word: seduction. Her lively dancers flirt with one another, with the audience like there's no tomorrow. "Havana Rakatan," from 2007, performed on Wednesday at City Center as part of A Bailar: Dance at the Center, a journey through Cuba's music and dance history from its folk foundations to today. Throughout the adventure, Ms. Guerra demonstrates ways in which those forms are both distinct and inherently linked and, in the end, how persuasively they capture the rhythm of sound and of the body. With the recent shift in American Cuban relations, the presentation, offered in association with Sadler's Wells London and Congas Productions, is also timely. How will the culture shift and change in Cuba in the months to come? Who is making daring choreography? Will there be a revolution in dance? There are few signs of that here. Despite wonderful performances especially by the agile, statuesque Yoanis Reinaldo Pelaez Tamayo and the splendid Cuban son band Turquino, Ms. Guerra's "Havana Rakatan" settles for a revue sensibility, especially in the second half. In an early section, "Afro Flamenco," she explores the merging of Spanish and African forms in which Ana Rose Meneses Arocha, a flamenco dancer in a ruffled red dress, came face to face with a group of bare chested men whose earthy movements watered down her emphatic gestures. She was overpowered; the pounding of her heels was nearly inaudible, yet the contrasting styles revealed the attack and surrender found in Cuban dance. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
LOS ANGELES With the Los Angeles County Museum of Art just weeks away from demolishing four buildings on its campus to make way for a 650 million structure by Peter Zumthor, the Ahmanson Foundation said Tuesday that it is suspending its decades long program of buying art for the museum over concerns about the effects of the radical redesign. In a telephone interview William Ahmanson, president of the foundation, said he fears that under the Zumthor plan a sweeping, one level structure designed to flatten the traditional museum hierarchies that privilege particular centuries and cultures many European artworks his family's foundation donated will end up in storage. "It's my understanding that LACMA is changing from an encyclopedic museum with a robust permanent collection to a museum with some permanent collection works on view and more temporary exhibitions," Mr. Ahmanson, who remains a board member there, said. "The concern is that the carefully curated collection we've amassed over decades may never see the light of day again." The foundation's decision was previously reported by The Los Angeles Times. Starting in 1972, the Ahmanson Foundation has spent about 130 million to finance the museum's acquisitions of 99 artworks, including masterpieces like "The Magdalen With the Smoking Flame" by Georges de La Tour, others by Rembrandt, Watteau and Bernini, and a suite of 42 French oil sketches. The donations were not made with any contractual stipulations that the works remain on view. But historically, Mr. Ahmanson said, "nearly all" of the works except for the light sensitive French sketches have been on display at any given time. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Just weeks ago, there was no such thing as a Covid doctor. Now there are thousands of us. Some of us feel unprepared. Some of us are afraid. But all of us will rise to the occasion. We will conquer our fear. We will acquire a new set of skills. We will learn things that we never thought we would. We will learn them fast. At times, we will feel lost. We will ask for help. On the front lines everybody gets lost, but no one gets left behind. As Covid doctors, we have put our egos aside. We are humbled by the task ahead of us. We are all back to being interns, learning all over again. And just as we found when we were interns, no job is too menial, no task is beneath us. Any contribution helps. Every one of us counts. Our enemy may have exposed our system's vulnerability, but it has also revealed our strengths. As the pandemic progresses, we will have to make difficult decisions. Vital equipment may become scarce; medications may run out. But we will have an endless supply of compassion, an endless supply of understanding, an endless supply of support. We are not fighting this war alone. The true front line troops are the nurses, the respiratory therapists and the physician assistants. They are at the highest risk of getting hurt in this war. We doctors will support them in every way we can. We will protect them with every means necessary. Without them, we cannot win this battle. We feel privileged to serve humanity in ways that others cannot. It is not in our nature to sit by idly in times like these. We understand that it must be frustrating to those of you who cannot help. We feel your love. We feel your support. We may not be able to hear your sunset clapping or your cheers on the street; the ringing of ventilators is all we hear. Yet when we walk home, we know you are behind us. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
Now in its fourth year, London Collections Men, the curtain raiser for the men's wear catwalk season, has fast defined itself as the home of the individual. As such, it exerts a gravitational pull on established brands from across the globe looking to underscore their point of difference, as well as emerging talent with evermore daring design identities. Which names will make their mark this season? Here are five to watch. Craig Green is the indisputable leader of the pack when it comes to the small scale lights of the London men's wear scene. He is the winner of the British Fashion Council/GQ Designer Menswear fund last month, as well as the 2014 emerging men's wear designer prize at the British Fashion Awards, and was shortlisted for the LVMH prize in 2015. This Central Saint Martins graduate has made a name with his conceptual takes on utilitarian wardrobe basics. "It was a unanimous decision," said Dylan Jones, the editor of British GQ, regarding the judges' vote to give Mr. Green, 29, the award. "Craig has demonstrated a unique ability to build commercially on the incredible awareness driven by his high profile shows, and shows a seemingly innate ability to understand the demands of growing a small business." To wit, each season Mr. Green offers a fresh take on the simple workwear jacket alongside regular explorations of concepts like uniform, gender and showmanship, the better to recast traditional masculine ideals for the 21st century. It's an approach that is increasingly being bought up and endorsed by fashion's big name retailers such as Dover Street Market, and it's worth noting that many of his growing legions of celebrity and industry fans are women (see Rihanna and FKA Twigs). Oh, and Kanye West and Drake are devotees, too. The breakout star of the January men's shows in London was Ms. Wales Bonner, 25, a native daughter who started her Wales Bonner label in 2014 after graduating from Central Saint Martins. She promptly bagged herself the emerging men's wear designer prize at the British Fashion Awards, following in Craig Green's footsteps (though not his aesthetic) and was a finalist for the LVMH prize this year. Historically, her work has explored the space between high luxury trends and black history and culture, and her catwalk debut at LCM as part of the London men's wear talent incubator MAN was no exception. "Spirituals" (a.k.a. the AW16 collection) married hypermasculine and feminine tailoring in louche velvet and silk 1970s style separates and tracksuits, dripping with Swarovski crystal decorations and shells, to a live soundtrack of Nigerian Irish composer Tunde Jegede playing the kora, a West African lute. Last year Ms. Wales Bonner also had an immersive installation devoted to her previous collections at the Victoria Albert museum as part of its "Fashion in Motion" program. "Her designs are not only beautifully crafted but also conceived from important concepts and themes," said Oriole Cullen, curator of the series. Perhas not coincidentally, the sky high prices of Ms. Wales Bonner's pieces suggest that for the time being, she is keeping her focus away from mass production. Thanks to its decision to unite men's and women's wear shows into a see now buy now seasonless collection to be held during the women's season in September, Burberry has relinquished its anchor position on the LCM schedule as the billion dollar brand with the blockbuster show. (They are having a party instead.) Since fashion, as well as nature, abhors a vacuum, Coach, the United States accessories powerhouse, has swooped in to take its place. After the company decided on a strategic foray into men's wear several years ago, its British creative director, Stuart Vevers, 42, chose to relocate the Coach 1941 shows from New York to his homeland for an injection of cool London grit, even if the DNA of most collections remains heavily focused on familiar, archetypal pieces that pay homage to Americana. Think commercially friendly oversize shearling coats and jackets, lumberjack shirts and witty sweatshirts, which is to say, easy wardrobe staples for the 21st century urban dweller that the company hopes will help drive a turnaround effort that began in 2013. Young British designer and Dover Street Market favorite Phoebe English has garnered considerable critical acclaim in recent years for her women's wear, with its loose, abstract silhouettes, painstaking attention to detail and refined finish. Her men's wear brand with a look predominantly inspired by the style of her boyfriend, the artist and designer Sam Edkins, whom she met when she was 12 includes many of her signatures, such as frayed edges and handwoven natural fabrics, and is now in its third season. "Phoebe, who has become a beloved fixture within London fashion week, has now offered men's wear with an aesthetic that has taken the codes of her eponymous brand and emphatically shifted them toward a masculine dynamic," Olivia Singer of AnOther magazine wrote last year. The June presentation will take place with sponsorship from NEWGEN Men on Friday. The Japanese fashion designer Mihara Yasuhiro first made his name in footwear, before expanding into ready to wear in 1997 and showing his men's wear collections in Paris, where he has long been considered an industry favorite. This season, for the first time, the 42 year old is taking his particular brand of sartorial storytelling to London. "I started designing shoes through the influence of British shoe designer John Moore, and my design has always been based on British music, culture and history," Mr. Yasuhiro said of the move. "Showing in London is like going back to my roots as a designer." Expect pieces worn, torn, patched and decorated, along the lines of his January show, which was soaked with feeling and inspired by the post World War I portraits of the German artist August Sander. The casually disheveled yet slick Yasuhiro aesthetic reflects the combination of simplicity paired with personality that come to define Japanese fashion and it has created an army of devoted followers across the globe, particularly in his home country. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Earlier this summer, Sara Mearns came to a shocking realization: She hadn't worn a pair of point shoes in four and a half weeks. For a ballerina, a point shoe is a second skin. "I wasn't even thinking about it, because I was dancing," Ms. Mearns said. "Someone joked with me and said, 'You become a modern dancer on your layoffs.'" Ms. Mearns, a principal with New York City Ballet, sprawled out on a floor in a downtown studio after a recent rehearsal for yet another new project a dance in sneakers and laughed. "I do," she said. "I never think twice about, 'oh, God, I'm not doing ballet.' It's always about the people I'm working with and the project." To find another ballet dancer who expanded his or her range with such fortitude and ferocity, you'd have to go back to Mikhail Baryshnikov. But he transitioned into modern dance after his ballet career ended. Ms. Mearns is still going strong as a classical dancer. Beginning Wednesday, she will show off her contemporary side in "Beyond Ballet," a program presented by Jacob's Pillow, that includes "Opulence," a new duet by Jodi Melnick; "No. 1," a duet with Honji Wang of the French hip hop duo Wang Ramirez; and "Ekstasis," a 1933 solo by Martha Graham, reimagined by Virginie Mecene, the former Graham company principal. For Pamela Tatge, the Pillow's director, Ms. Mearns is "a rare dancer," one who is "able to realize any movement that a choreographer as far as I've seen puts in front of her." It's getting to the point where Ms. Mearns could have her own branch on the modern dance tree. So far, her repertory has included dances by modern masters like Graham, Isadora Duncan and Merce Cunningham, and contemporary choreographers including Jodi Melnick, Pam Tanowitz and Christopher Williams. "Every time I say yes," Ms. Mearns said, "I'm like, I don't know if I can do this, but I'm not going to say no. I'm not going to say no to Cunningham. I'm not going to say no to Martha Graham. I'm just going to try and do my best." As a classical dancer, Ms. Mearns has a power and command that few share; in modern works, she is more contained, but still glitteringly present. The only thing that seems to scare her is the possibility of not trying hard enough. For "Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event," which celebrated the centenary of Merce Cunningham, Ms. Mearns shared the stage with accomplished contemporary dancers. From the start, she was remarkable in material that is almost impossible to master her fearlessness and precision shifted the mood: Suddenly, the stage was a place of a heightened, incandescent alertness. After performing her third solo, Ms. Mearns went into the hallway and cried. (She isn't the type to hide her emotions on or off the stage.) "It was out of pure joy," she said. "I put everything I could into it and I took chances, and I couldn't believe it when I came off. I haven't had that feeling in a very long time." As she looks beyond ballet, Ms. Mearns's artistic path is more internal, more personal. "It's not a P.R. thing, it's not a way to get attention. It's, 'What is a collaboration that no one has done before?' It doesn't have to be commercial and it doesn't have to make money for it to be successful." She would rather unleash her creativity with choreographers like Ms. Melnick, who inspired Ms. Mearns to expand her dance horizons in the first place. (They met at Danspace Project in a 2015 platform that paired contemporary dance artists and those with backgrounds with Cunningham and City Ballet.) Ms. Melnick comes out of postmodern dance and has worked with artists including Twyla Tharp, Trisha Brown, Sara Rudner and Mr. Baryshnikov. Her finely wrought movement is a chain of complex articulations and shifts of weight that have an effortless way of peeling or slipping silkily off the body. Ms. Melnick's sophisticated choreography is neither flashy nor full of the indistinguishable posturing often found in contemporary ballet, and Ms. Mearns is obsessed with it. But it's not just the dancing: Through her exposure to Ms. Melnick, Ms. Mearns's taste has become more refined . After they collaborated on "Working in Process/New Bodies" for Works and Process at the Guggenheim, Ms. Mearns asked Ms. Melnick to choreograph a duet for the two of them. "She was very adamant and serious about dancing with me," Ms. Melnick said. Though she prefers to work alone at the start of any process "that loneliness factor is really important to me," Ms. Melnick said Ms. Mearns wore her down, and she had a partner in the studio last fall. As they worked together, Ms. Mearns would follow along behind Ms. Melnick. "When something happened that I felt was of interest to her or to me, I would stop and teach it to her," Ms. Melnick said. "It kind of reminded me of processes that I've been in with other choreographers where you don't question or judge." But in late December, Ms. Melnick was involved in a motorcycle accident; her ankle was severely damaged. She didn't start walking again until the end of March and remains in considerable pain. "I was like, O.K.," Ms. Melnick said. "Kind of like, game over, and then after talking to my surgeons and Sara she was like, 'Don't make a decision, let's just get back into the studio and see what happens.' If it wasn't for her, I'd probably still be not dancing or not even doing this well in my recovery." For the duet, "Opulence," they will perform in sneakers; Ms. Melnick is exploring how seemingly simple movement can have many facets. "There's something that feels very opulent in cutting things down and keeping it very minimal," she said. Ms. Mearns loves challenges, and Ms. Melnick's work is full of them. "She's helped me be more in tune in my own body and to not just move through things and throw things away because she never does that ever," Ms. Mearns said. "It helps me move better in ballet. After doing all of this, I feel like I am feeling things differently and improving as I'm getting older." And they have become friends. "Half of our rehearsals are therapy sessions and then we dance at the end," Ms. Mearns said. And Ms. Melnick's influence expands beyond her own work. Now, in both her work at City Ballet and beyond, Ms. Mearns can grasp the allure and power of simplicity. She also relishes the ability to stay open, which, for her, is what any ballerina should be in the modern age. But what is not on her list at all? Broadway though she starred last spring in the Encores! production of "I Married an Angel," which was choreographed and directed by her husband, Joshua Bergasse, who works in musical theater. That was a labor of love and, it turned out, an important step in her artistic development: She learned that she can speak onstage, and that she has comic timing. "When you hear that laugh, you're just like, that's good," she said, her deep voice lowering another octave for emphasis. "That is good." But the politics and the commercial aspect of the Broadway world trouble her. "It's not successful unless you make money, unless your investors are happy and unless you get a laugh out of the audience," she said. "That, for me, is not fulfilling. But my husband loves it, and that's what he grew up on. And also he likes to make good theater. He doesn't just want to do huge moneymakers. Right now that is really hard because everything is just taking movies and making them into musicals." In the coming months, she will perform a new duet by Kim Brandstrup alongside her City Ballet colleague Taylor Stanley at the Fall for Dance Festival and work with Ms. Melnick and the filmmaker Charles Atlas as part of a residency at Baryshnikov Arts Center. There's more; she just can't talk about it yet. But she did bring up an ultimate dream: to work with Mr. Baryshnikov. "I don't even know how that would happen or how that would work," she said. "We chat and we talk, but I don't even know what it would be." She paused and a panicked expression washed over her face: "How do I make that happen?" Ms. Mearns will stay open. She will remain patient. And then when the moment comes, she will seize it. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, a company known for keeping the legacy and choreography of George Balanchine alive at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, plans to close after the 2017 18 season, officials said Wednesday. "I am very proud of what I have been able to do with my company over the past 15 years," Ms. Farrell, 71, said in a statement. She added: "I love to teach, have always evolved as an artist and I live in the now." The company, which has performed annually at the Kennedy Center since 2001 and toured extensively, will close, and Ms. Farrell, its artistic director, will take on a new role as a teaching artist with the Kennedy Center, which plans to add more dance studios as part of an expansion that is scheduled to open in 2018. Ms. Farrell has begun informing her dancers. The company was led by Ms. Farrell, an important muse of the great choreographer George Balanchine when she danced for him at New York City Ballet. It performed 65 ballets by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Maurice Bejart, and played a major role in preserving the Balanchine tradition. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Stanford University announced Tuesday that it would divest its 18.7 billion endowment of stock in coal mining companies, becoming the first major university to lend support to a nationwide campaign to purge endowments and pension funds of fossil fuel investments. The university said it acted in accordance with internal guidelines that allow its trustees to consider whether "corporate policies or practices create substantial social injury" when choosing investments. Coal's status as a major source of carbon pollution linked to climate change persuaded the trustees to remove companies "whose principal business is coal" from their investment portfolio, the university said. Stanford's associate vice president for communications, Lisa Lapin, said the decision covers about 100 companies worldwide that derive the majority of their revenue from coal extraction. Not all of those companies are in the university's investment portfolio, whose structure is private, she said. Over all, the university's coal holdings are a small fraction of its endowment. "But a small percentage is still a substantial amount of money," she added. The trustees' decision carries more symbolic than financial weight, but it is a major victory for a rapidly growing student led divestment movement that is now active at roughly 300 universities. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
LONDON Noel Coward wrote "Blithe Spirit" in a mere six days, and the perennially popular play opened on the West End in 1941, running for nearly 2,000 performances setting a record in London for a nonmusical. Its longevity back then is in stark contrast with the most recent outing of the play here, with Jennifer Saunders, of "Absolutely Fabulous" fame, playing the bicycle riding medium Madame Arcati, who communicates with the dead. A victim of circumstances beyond the control of even the most supernaturally minded, the director Richard Eyre's comparatively somber revival played its last performance at the Duke of York's Theater on March 14; the run had been due to finish on April 11. The production closed early after London's West End theaters took coordinated action on Monday to close themselves down and help stop the spread of the coronavirus. London's West End, like Broadway, has gone dark, and no one knows when the lights will come back on. As premature closings go, the timing here was somewhat ironic, when you consider how audiences throughout World War II flocked to "Blithe Spirit," Coward's inquiry into the frustrations, erotic and otherwise, of Charles (Geoffrey Streatfeild), a novelist whose first wife returns from the grave. (She died, we're told, while recovering from pneumonia, which may well have had an eerie resonance for nervous playgoers today.) When she rises up, the mischievous Elvira (Emma Naomi) scatters calculated chaos in her wake. It's giving nothing away to tell you that she ends up taking Charles's second wife, the whiplash tongued Ruth (Lisa Dillon, giving the performance of the night), over to the other side with her, though neither woman will go quietly from the land of the living. This was easily the least buoyant "Blithe Spirit" I've seen, which was presumably intentional on the part of Eyre, the distinguished director who once ran the National Theater. The trend of late has been to find in Coward's outwardly breezy plays something more psychologically acute, as was the case when Andrew Scott, of "Fleabag" fame, stormed the Old Vic last summer in "Present Laughter." Against expectation, a character long presented as a devil may care narcissist was revealed to be an anxious man child, as well. Both revivals remind us that Coward possessed a keen understanding of human behavior, in addition to a quick wit. In this "Blithe Spirit," Charles and Ruth's marriage seems far from blissful well before Elvira arrives on the scene, and Eyre takes the verbal brickbats they lob at each other for real. This, like "Present Laughter," is a Coward play centered around a man who draws women to him when he would rather be left alone: Both plays end with their flustered heroes fleeing female companionship, but for what precisely? Coward leaves the sequels up for grabs. The fate of this show, however, is sealed though no one could have guessed how quickly it would flit from view. Think of the cast as the casualties of an invisible terror. It was one that Saunders, top billed albeit in a supporting role that Judi Dench is playing in a forthcoming film, acknowledged when Madame Arcati a germaphobe before her time reacted in spontaneous disgust at shaking another character's hand. I doubt those who laughed at that gesture last week would do so now. "It's like we're all on the edge," says Viv, a realtor whose life goes into free fall when she loses a shoe on the London Underground. "Buck up," she says, all the while succumbing to a growing sense of anxiety, brilliantly captured by Katherine Parkinson, accentuating her character's panic the more determinedly she keeps smiling. Running just over an hour, Vicky Featherstone's production can't have anticipated how much the play, which might otherwise have seemed a theatrical caprice, felt instead like a parable of precariousness in a society that, much like Viv, seems to be losing its grip. The connection between life and art was even more keenly felt on Monday at the Southwark Playhouse, in southeast London, one of the few theaters to offer a show on the evening when the bigger houses around town were calling it quits. There, I was among a surprisingly full house to catch the last performance of the director Jonathan O'Boyle's hyper intense revival of "The Last Five Years," the Jason Robert Brown musical about a couple falling apart. (Think of it as the "Marriage Story" of the early 2000s.) The conceit of a show that alternates perspectives across 90 minutes is that one character, Jamie (the excellent Oli Higginson), tells his version of events from the beginning, whereas his ex, Cathy (Molly Lynch), begins her version of events at the end. But there was no doubt for those in the room that we were all witnessing a finish of a different sort, given that it is entirely unclear when any of us will find ourselves in a London playhouse again. The audience that night had seemed especially focused, as if everyone present was savoring for keeps the experience of live performance. Taking an empty Underground train home, I couldn't help but feel that Jamie and Cathy's unraveling had acquired a resonance well beyond what the composer lyricist Brown could have imagined. I won't soon forget the surge of feeling throughout the auditorium when the show got to its closing sequence, and ended on a single word: "Goodbye." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Ridley Scott, when he's in his great man of science fiction mode, can be counted on to deliver a signature image. In the new series "Raised by Wolves," it's a hovering android killing machine a cross between an archangel and the hot robot of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" who splatters humans with her banshee scream. It's this show's version of the rainy neon cityscape in "Blade Runner" or the chest exploding parasite in "Alien," and while it's not as startling as those, it makes you sit up and take notice. "Raised by Wolves," which premieres with three episodes Thursday on HBO Max, was created by Aaron Guzikowski, who created the series "The Red Road" and wrote the Denis Villeneuve film "Prisoners." But Scott's name comes first in the press notes he's an executive producer and directed the first two episodes and he has a proven affinity for androids. It's not a bad bet that a green light went on in his head when he saw the potential of that lethal robot in Guzikowski's story. Known as Mother, and brought to life by the Danish actress Amanda Collin and a sizable digital effects crew, she's pretty much the whole show through the six episodes of "Wolves" made available to critics. There are other things going on, including a religious war and, more prominently, an elaborate, multipronged rumination on the meaning of parenting and family. But they're more in the nature of data sets than drama; they feel as if they could have been assembled by the show's intelligent androids. What catches your interest are the performances of Collin and Abubakar Salim (as Mother's partner, Father) well executed examples of the formality and otherworldliness that typify cinematic A.I. and the moments when Collin's pale skin transforms to bronze colored armor and she rises into the air, arms outspread. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
LOS ANGELES It's the most celebratory weekend in television, a time for red carpet looks, thank you speeches and lavish parties. But as the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards approached this week, Hollywood seemed glum. "When the town is fighting among itself, it casts a pall," said Tony Angellotti, a veteran Hollywood publicist and awards strategist. "It sets a darker mood than there would normally be." The lack of enthusiasm comes at a time when billions of dollars are washing through the industry, thanks to the new demand created by Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and the streaming services to be unveiled by Apple, The Walt Disney Company, NBC Universal and Warner Media. Follow our live coverage of the 2019 Emmy Awards. New shows are going into production at a record pace. Old sitcoms like "Seinfeld," "The Big Bang Theory" and "Friends" have received enormous paydays in the recent spate of nine figure streaming deals. And there's a wealth of buzzed about shows that could be recognized at the Emmys ceremony on Sunday, including the popular "Game of Thrones," the groundbreaking "Pose" and the critically adored "Fleabag." Behind the scenes, though, the industry is going through some drama. More than five months ago, 7,000 movie and TV writers cut ties with their talent agents at the major agencies, saying they had enriched themselves at the writers' expense, an accusation the agencies have denied. Unable to come to a compromise, the two sides are trading legal filings in federal court, setting the stage for a drawn out legal battle. In the near term, the rupture means that the three biggest agencies William Morris Endeavor, Creative Artists Agency and United Talent Agency have canceled their Friday night parties, which are usually among the year's marquee gatherings. Those parties have been the anchors of past Emmys weekends, taking place in statement locations like the Hammer Museum and the Chateau Marmont. Variety, which typically hosts an Emmys gathering with the organization Women in Film, announced that it was making a donation to Planned Parenthood instead of staging this year's party. But the weekend won't be a total social washout: Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos is throwing an invite only bash at his house on Friday night; The Hollywood Reporter and the Screen Actors Guild are still having their fete; and the usual post awards show parties hosted by HBO, Netflix and Amazon will go on. Amid the acrimony, some people are skipping town. Rick Rosen, a founding partner at the William Morris Endeavor agency, said he planned to attend Saturday's Wisconsin Michigan game in Madison, Wis. "I've never gone to a college football game on Emmys weekend before," he said, adding that he would be back Sunday to watch the ceremony and "root for my ex and future clients." Adding to the less than festive mood is the state of the annual Emmy Awards broadcast, which will be shown on Fox, starting at 8 p.m. E.S.T. Although television has moved to the center of the entertainment industry, the show's ratings have sagged to record lows. Following the example of the last Oscars broadcast, the Emmys will go without a host this time around in an attempt to shake things up. Though the Emmys ceremony has gone host less before (the last time was in 2003), the lack of a Jimmy or Seth or Ellen is just another reminder that old ways of doing things are on the way out in Hollywood. Netflix and Amazon are expanding their influence, and new players in streaming like Apple and Disney are about to make dramatic entrances. Many basic cable and broadcast networks, which won the top awards a few years ago, are no longer all that relevant. And yet the old networks are tasked with broadcasting the Emmys. This year's broadcaster, Fox, has 18 Emmy nominations, the lowest figure among the broadcast networks and 119 fewer than the longtime Emmys powerhouse, HBO. The Fox network became part of a smaller and leaner company after Disney gobbled up much of 21st Century Fox in a 71.3 billion deal meant partly to help it compete in the streaming industry. Unlike CBS, NBC and ABC, Fox had no late night host to turn to as the night's host. One of the ironies of the Peak TV era is that, with so many quality shows available, those tuning in on Sunday night may not have heard of some shows in the running. "When you're thinking about people in Birmingham or Des Moines, we have to face the reality that there are a lot of people out there who are just not going to be familiar with all the nominated content," said Don Mischer, a producer of this year's Emmys and a veteran of working award shows. "One thing we're trying to do is help the audience understand why 'Fleabag' got those nominations. Or 'Chernobyl.'" Producers said they will take the 20 minutes usually allotted for the host to try to educate the audience on those programs. The broadcast will have an announcer of sorts the actor and comedian Thomas Lennon who will offer commentary as winners head to the stage. "What I like about getting those extra 20 minutes back is it allows you to add stakes to the show and to provide the audience with a narrative that can take you through the entire three hours," said Rob Wade, Fox's president of alternative entertainment. "As a viewer, you're constantly going to be informed to what's happening. That sounds like a very basic thing but if you're watching the Olympics with the sound turned down, it's very difficult to follow, because you don't know who the four man rowing sculls are." The producers have also done away with the orchestra in the Microsoft Theater, replacing the musicians with piped in pop songs. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Joanna Warren was standing in a theater lobby, her eyes closed, announcing what she was about to do. As she began to slowly stretch and fold her limbs, her fellow dancers looked on intently, offering feedback in the form of letters and numbers. Ms. Warren stopped, conferred with the group, began again. "Crossover 20 percent," someone else said, and everyone laughed. Only they knew why. The group was preparing for "September2017/ ," a new work by the choreographer Sarah Michelson that opens here on Friday at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College. (A different but closely related project, "October2017/ ," comes to the Kitchen in Chelsea from Oct. 17 to 21.) The dancers had been developing a shared system of communication for the past four years, and like so much in Ms. Michelson's work, it was as engrossing as it was cryptic. The British born Ms. Michelson who has been making convention breaking, sometimes polarizing dances in New York since the early 1990s has a talent for going against the grain, or what she wryly calls "a psychological problem." She also builds close relationships to the places where she works. So when invited to create a dance at Bard, she bypassed any typical production timelines, proposing a four year process in which she would work with the same undergraduates from their freshman through senior years. Since 2014 she has been in residence for a month each summer and a few days each spring. "I've worked a lot with kids and younger people over my history," she said in an interview at the Fisher Center, alluding to works like "Dover Beach" (2009), whose cast included several adolescent girls, and "Devotion" (2011), in which the 14 year old Non Griffiths delivered an exacting, luminous solo. "I'm really aware that when you work with people, especially younger people, you leave some kind of imprint in their training or their understanding," she said. "And I guess I take seriously what that might mean." At Bard she wanted to work from "a place of trust, not me coming in and auditioning dancers and having them represent me or something." While Ms. Michelson is known for shrouding herself and her work in mystery, it's no secret that she demands a lot from her dancers a severity that's not for everyone. Revered or criticized, she leaves strong impressions. Take the second entry in her four part "Devotion" series, "Devotion Study 1 The American Dancer," which earned her the Bucksbaum Award at the 2012 Whitney Biennial. If you were there, you probably haven't forgotten the image of Nicole Mannarino, in sweat soaked royal blue, striding backward in circles upon circles upon circles across the museum's vast fourth floor gallery. In more recent endeavors, like "Tournamento" (2015), at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Ms. Michelson has pushed notions of the dancer as athlete and competitor to further extremes. "If something looks or feels familiar or easy, she goes in another direction," said Ms. Lafferty, who has worked with Ms. Michelson since 2014. "Nothing is going to be perfect or comfortable, and that's true on every level of the work." It's true for those watching, too. There are barriers to entry. "You're really not meant to feel like you understand what's going on, but at the same time you want to understand," said David Velasco, the editor of "Sarah Michelson," a new book of essays and interviews published by the Museum of Modern Art. "That's the line she walks: Are you going to care enough to try to figure it out?" Her students may have asked themselves the same. While tightly controlled in some ways (Ms. Michelson calls her work both "collaborative and tyrannical"), the Bard residency was largely self driven for those who signed on. Participants didn't receive academic credit and could leave the process at any point. They needed no dance or athletic background, just time, interest and a tolerance for uncertainty. "She really asked us to be autonomous in what we were doing," said Ms. Warren, who began the project with little dance training. "The biggest thing I've learned is how to set my own terms and create my own reasons for being in a process that aren't imposed upon me." Of the 11 original students, four remain: Rebecca Capper, Rebecca Ganellen, Anna Witenberg and Ms. Warren. (They're all now alumni, having graduated in May.) They will be joined in "September2017/ " by three of Ms. Michelson's more experienced dancers: Rachel Berman, Madeline Wilcox and Ms. Lafferty. Two weeks before opening night, Gideon Lester, the Fisher Center's artistic director for theater and dance, said he had "literally no idea" what Ms. Michelson planned to present a "completely unusual" situation. "She quite deliberately challenges institutions to approach the development of work differently, and it affects every part of the institution," he said, not sounding unhappy. "Nothing will ever seem quite the same again after Sarah has passed through the building." One challenge is her reluctance to talk about her work or sum it up for marketing purposes. "It's really remedial," she said, "but the dance is the dance, and discussing it is doing something else. The translation out I feel somehow it's a slight disservice to the form." The same sometimes goes for photo documentation. Strikingly, "Sarah Michelson" (the book) contains no images, a choice arrived at to avoid what she calls "any red herring of a representation." Lately Ms. Michelson has been doubling down on inscrutability, through codes like those her dancers were using in rehearsal. "I think it's no accident that she's playing with codes at a time when coding and privacy and encryption is such a major subject for our lives," Mr. Velasco said. "What does it mean to put that front and center in your work, this other kind of encryption?" Underlying these puzzles are questions that Ms. Michelson has been asking for a long time. As she put it: "The base query is something I've said a lot What is a dance? What is a contemporary dance? Why would one make one? Why would one impale oneself on those questions?" Ms. Michelson's work has often made reference to titans of modern dance: Twyla Tharp, Lucinda Childs, Merce Cunningham. She said that in working with students, she had been thinking about legacies and their transmission, perhaps passing down her own skepticism in the process. "I feel like maybe I robbed them of some of the fun of, 'Oh, I'm just going to move to New York and join a dance company,'" she said. "I took them to the dark side right away." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Ironman triathlon champions are often regarded as the superheroes of modern sports, freakishly fit specimens who swim, cycle and run a combined 140.6 miles in roughly eight hours. Yet professional triathletes have long been poorly compensated afterthoughts in a sport that has prioritized the everyday amateur participants who squeeze in training before and after work and pay nearly 1,000 to enter a race. That may be on the verge of changing, beginning this weekend in Daytona Beach, Fla., where many of the sport's top professionals will start a championship circuit they hope will become as lucrative as the golf and tennis championships are for their pros. In the process, they are trying to unseat Ironman, the company that has dominated triathlon for decades, as the premier competition for elite triathletes. "It's actually harder to make a living as a professional triathlete now than it was when I started in 2008," said Tim O'Donnell, 40, who has won more than 20 major triathlon events. "Most athletes are just trying to pay their bills." The new series of events, backed by the Professional Triathletes Organization, a fledgling alliance among 350 top triathletes and numerous deep pocketed investors, is the latest attempt by top athletes to become highly compensated partners with control of their careers and the sports they play rather than undervalued independent contractors. O'Donnell is a co president of the organization. Although the history of sports is filled with leagues and tours that theoretically looked perfect but foundered after failing to gain an audience, when successful the change can be dramatic. In the 1960s, Wimbledon semifinalists received two pairs of shorts from Lillywhites, the sports emporium in London. Then, Grand Slams started allowing professionals and, beginning in the 1970s, tennis players took control of their tours. Last year, a Wimbledon semifinalist earned 750,000 and the singles champions earned nearly 3 million each. By comparison, in 2019, the total prize money at the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, the Super Bowl of triathlon, was 650,000. The winners won 120,000. Earlier this year, Advance Publications, the media company, bought Ironman for 730 million. "These athletes should be highly paid co owners," said Charles Adamo, executive chairman of the Professional Triathletes Organization. Each event will feature 60 top professional men and 60 top professional women. The events will offer more than 1 million in prize money that the top 20 athletes will share significantly more than at the typical triathlon competition. Instead of the 140.6 mile Ironman distance, or the 70.3 mile half Ironman, the new competitions will be 100 kilometers, about 62 miles, and include a 1.2 mile swim, a 48 mile bike ride and a half marathon (13.1 miles). This weekend's race will take place at Daytona International Speedway, with competitors swimming in the large lake in the infield. The shorter distance ensures competitions can finish in a more television friendly window of about three and half hours. It will also allow elite athletes to do more high profile competitions than they otherwise might in a year. O'Donnell predicted top triathletes would participate in the new group's five events, plus one regular Ironman event to qualify for Kona and, if they make it, the world championship. Increased prize money should provide an incentive for triathletes to compete head to head more often. Rachel Joyce, a retired champion and, like O'Donnell, a co president of the triathletes organization, said she and other top triathletes regularly picked races in which they knew a weak field would give them the best chance at the winner's paycheck and the sponsor bonuses for placing first. "It makes it kind of boring when your closest competitor is 20 minutes behind you," Joyce said in an interview last month. That is only part of the downside of professional triathlon, a sport that began as a lark in the 1970s in California and Hawaii. The dirty secret about elite triathletes, with their chiseled physiques, 8,000 bikes and training schedules that allow for unlimited chocolate cream pie, is that for most of the pros, the pay is relatively lousy. Kevin Durant of the Nets will approach 40 million this season, not counting the millions more he earns through sponsorships. In 2019, Jan Frodeno of Germany, the reigning Ironman world champion and something of a deity to triathletes, got paid like a decent accountant for his victories, taking home 158,000 in prize money. Katie Zaferes of the United States, who led the prize money list for both men and women in 2019, earned 347,500. Just 80,000 in winnings was good enough for a spot in the top 10 on the money list. For the best of the best, endorsement deals can boost income to the range of a bad middle relief pitcher but since triathlon is barely on television, those lucrative endorsement deals are increasingly hard to come by for all but the superstars. "The best triathletes are doing pretty well, but the ones in the middle and the bottom are hurting," said Rocky Harris, chief executive of U.S.A. Triathlon, the sport's national governing body. Alissa Doehla was a professional marathoner until 2016, when she decided to pursue the triathlon. She estimates the switch required about a 20,000 investment in equipment. She had five top 10 finishes in half Ironman events in 2017. Then she got hit by a truck while training in 2018. She has returned to competitions and said that while it was possible she broke even that first year, she certainly had not since then. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
You didn't need to know every note of Nirvana's angst rock classic "In Bloom" to marvel at the spectacle of a little girl drumming along to the song in perfect synchronization last November, her face scrawled over with joy and passion. The internet is an open playing field for regular people performing impressive feats, and over a couple of years, Nandi Bushell, a resident of Ipswich, England, had attracted a solid audience by expressively covering famous songs by a genre diverse range of artists including the White Stripes, Billie Eilish and Anderson .Paak. Sometimes her father, John, and brother, Thomas, accompanied her, but Bushell was the star, combining technical virtuosity with bright eyed showmanship (and some enthusiastic yelling). The sight of Bushell wailing away immediately impressed Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer who played "In Bloom" on the band's 1991 breakthrough album, "Nevermind." Grohl is not a social media user, and he only learned about the viral clip when the album's producer, Butch Vig, sent it to him. "I watched it in amazement, not only because she was nailing all of the parts, but the way that she would scream when she did her drum rolls," Grohl said in a recent video interview. "There's something about seeing the joy and energy of a kid in love with an instrument. She just seemed like a force of nature." That said, he experienced it like any piece of content you watch it, you enjoy it, you pass it on and then move on. But toward the end of the summer, another one of Bushell's videos made its way to Grohl via a flood of texts from friends around the world. This time, Bushell had prefaced her cover of the 1997 Foo Fighters song "Everlong" with a direct challenge to a drum off. The rules of a drum off aren't formally sanctioned by any governing body, but Bushell's exhilarated facial expressions and mastery of the song's breakneck pace meant Grohl was in for a battle, should he choose to accept. In a separate video interview, Bushell offered a very simple reason for why she decided to call out Grohl: "He's a drummer, 'cause he drummed in quite a few bands, so why not?" Bushell is 10 years old, and the clarity of her logic her favorite word might be "epic" was blessedly refreshing. Grohl is her favorite drummer, and when asked why, she answered, "He thrashes the kit really hard, which I like." At the same time, Grohl is also a married father of three gearing up to release Foo Fighters' 10th studio album, "Medicine at Midnight," in February, which corresponds with the band's 25th anniversary. "The one thing we hadn't really ever done was a danceable party record, and those two things used in the same sentence as the Foo Fighters could be really terrifying," he said, before citing dance albums by rock artists, such as David Bowie's "Let's Dance" and the Rolling Stones' "Tattoo You." Despite his full docket, and after enough peer pressure, Grohl rose to the challenge with a performance of "Dead End Friends" by Them Crooked Vultures, one of those many bands he's played in over the years. "At first I thought, 'I'm not going to hit her with something too complicated, because I want this to be fun,'" he said. "I'm not a technical drummer; I am a backyard keg party, garage jam band drummer, and that's the way it is." Nonetheless, Bushell volleyed back another astute and overjoyed performance in two days. Grohl conceded defeat, and since then the two have continued playing music for each other. He recorded an original song about Bushell (sample lyric: "She got the power/She got the soul/Gonna save the world with her rock 'n' roll"); Bushell returned the favor with her own song, "Rock and Grohl." Cumulatively, the videos have attracted millions of views across YouTube and Twitter, making it a truly rare uncomplicated feel good story from the last few months. Part of the appeal is the way their bond transcends generation and geography. Grohl has been musically active since the 1980s, whereas Bushell started drumming when she was 5, in 2015. There's also something fundamentally charming about a 51 year old white, male, longtime Angeleno bonding with a 10 year old multiracial Brit through the power of social media, over a style of music that supposedly matters less than ever. Rock 'n' roll is commonly considered to be in cultural decline in a 2014 review of the Foo Fighters album "Sonic Highways," The New York Times pop music critic Ben Ratliff declared, "Rock doesn't lead the discourse anymore." That diagnosis has grown only more pronounced in more recent years as genres more suited to streaming have flourished, and yet here's video proof that rock's elemental pleasures haven't fully lost their allure among a younger set. Of course, the pair's virtual friendship has also taken off during the coronavirus pandemic, which has nearly unilaterally shut down live music around the world and deeply winnowed creative opportunities for working musicians. In a normal year, Foo Fighters would be on tour, and Bushell would still be attending the weekly jam nights around Ipswich, where she honed her skills by playing with adult musicians. Instead they, as well as millions more musicians and music fans, are largely confined to their home and immediate social sphere. For Grohl, the challenge helped reorient his priorities during this bizarre year. "What I realized was more than any sort of technical contest, this was something that was bringing people a lot of joy at a time where everyone could use a little bit," he said, adding, "it actually changed the way I look at what my band does in this time." Since the challenge began, Foo Fighters have recorded stripped down live sets and comical fake commercials, all with the goal of maintaining their connection to their audience. "If that's going to bring people five, 15, 20 minutes of happiness in one day, then that's what we should be doing," he said. Bushell's father, John, expressed a similar sentiment: "It's a wonderful experience and our hearts, as parents, are lifted just as much as the people who are watching the videos." Toward the end of the interview with Grohl, Bushell joined the video call to finally meet her hero. "I feel like I'm meeting a Beatle," Grohl said when her face popped onto the screen. (Another coincidence: Both drummers were first attracted to the instrument after listening to the actual Beatles.) The two had never interacted directly before, and as you might expect, Bushell was a little star struck. But Grohl is regarded as one of the friendliest people in music, and before long, she was showing him around her home, with appearances from the whole family. Eventually they made plans to write a song together (a fast tempo one, per Bushell's request) and play onstage whenever Foo Fighters are allowed to tour in Britain. "But it has to be at the end of the set because you're going to steal the show," he said. As for the next step of the challenge, the ball is in Grohl's court. "I had an idea for how to respond to your last song, but I haven't done it yet," he said. "It's a big project. I don't want to give it away, but it's a good one." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
After Donald Trump maligned the developing world in 2018, with the dismissive phrase "shithole countries," I wrote that no one was coming to save us from the president. Now, in the midst of a pandemic, we see exactly what that means. The economy is shattered. Unemployment continues to climb, steeply. There is no coherent federal leadership. The president mocks any attempts at modeling precautionary behaviors that might save American lives. More than 100,000 Americans have died from Covid 19. Many of us have been in some form of self isolation for more than two months. The less fortunate continue to risk their lives because they cannot afford to shelter from the virus. People who were already living on the margins are dealing with financial stresses that the government's 1,200 "stimulus" payment cannot begin to relieve. A housing crisis is imminent. Many parts of the country are reopening prematurely. Protesters have stormed state capitals, demanding that businesses reopen. The country is starkly dividing between those who believe in science and those who don't. Commercials celebrate essential workers and medical professionals. Commercials show how corporations have adapted to "the way we live now," with curbside pickup and drive through service and contact free delivery. We can spend our way to normalcy, and capitalism will hold us close, these ads would have us believe. Some people are trying to provide the salvation the government will not. There are community led initiatives for everything from grocery deliveries for the elderly and immunocompromised to sewing face masks for essential workers. There are online pleas for fund raising. Buy from your independent bookstore. Get takeout or delivery from your favorite restaurant. Keep your favorite bookstore open. Buy gift cards. Pay the people who work for you, even if they can't come to work. Do as much as you can, and then do more. These are all lovely ideas and they demonstrate good intentions, but we can only do so much. The disparities that normally fracture our culture are becoming even more pronounced as we decide, collectively, what we choose to save what deserves to be saved. And even during a pandemic, racism is as pernicious as ever. Covid 19 is disproportionately affecting the black community, but we can hardly take the time to sit with that horror as we are reminded, every single day, that there is no context in which black lives matter. Breonna Taylor was killed in her Louisville, Ky., home by police officers looking for a man who did not even live in her building. She was 26 years old. When demonstrations erupted, seven people were shot. Ahmaud Arbery was jogging in South Georgia when he was chased down by two armed white men who suspected him of robbery and claimed they were trying perform a citizen's arrest. One shot and killed Mr. Arbery while a third person videotaped the encounter. No charges were filed until the video was leaked and public outrage demanded action. Mr. Arbery was 25 years old. In Minneapolis, George Floyd was held to the ground by a police officer kneeling on his neck during an arrest. He begged for the officer to stop torturing him. Like Eric Garner, he said he couldn't breathe. Three other police officers watched and did not intervene. Mr. Floyd was 46 years old. These black lives mattered. These black people were loved. Their losses to their friends, family, and communities, are incalculable. Demonstrators in Minneapolis took to the street for several days, to protest the killing of Mr. Floyd. Mr. Trump who in 2017 told police officers to be rough on people during arrests, imploring them to "please, don't be too nice" wrote in a tweet, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." The official White House Twitter feed reposted the president's comments. There is no rock bottom. Christian Cooper, an avid birder, was in Central Park's Ramble when he asked a white woman, Amy Cooper, to comply with the law and leash her dog. He began filming, which only enraged Ms. Cooper further. She pulled out her phone and said she was going to call the police to tell them an African American man was threatening her. She called the police. She knew what she was doing. She weaponized her whiteness and fragility like so many white women before her. She began to sound more and more hysterical, even though she had to have known she was potentially sentencing a black man to death for expecting her to follow rules she did not think applied to her. It is a stroke of luck that Mr. Cooper did not become another unbearable statistic. An unfortunate percentage of my cultural criticism over the past 11 or 12 years has focused on the senseless loss of black life. Mike Brown. Trayvon Martin. Sandra Bland. Philando Castile. Tamir Rice. Jordan Davis. Atatiana Jefferson. The Charleston Nine. These names are the worst kind of refrain, an inescapable burden. These names are hashtags, elegies, battle cries. Still nothing changes. Racism is litigated over and over again when another video depicting another atrocity comes to light. Black people share the truth of their lives, and white people treat those truths as intellectual exercises. They put energy into being outraged about the name "Karen," as shorthand for entitled white women rather than doing the difficult, self reflective work of examining their own prejudices. They speculate about what murdered black people might have done that we don't know about to beget their fates, as if alleged crimes are punishable by death without a trial by jury. They demand perfection as the price for black existence while harboring no such standards for anyone else. Some white people act as if there are two sides to racism, as if racists are people we need to reason with. They fret over the destruction of property and want everyone to just get along. They struggle to understand why black people are rioting but offer no alternatives about what a people should do about a lifetime of rage, disempowerment and injustice. When I warned in 2018 that no one was coming to save us, I wrote that I was tired of comfortable lies. I'm even more exhausted now. Like many black people, I am furious and fed up, but that doesn't matter at all. I write similar things about different black lives lost over and over and over. I tell myself I am done with this subject. Then something so horrific happens that I know I must say something, even though I know that the people who truly need to be moved are immovable. They don't care about black lives. They don't care about anyone's lives. They won't even wear masks to mitigate a virus for which there is no cure. Eventually, doctors will find a coronavirus vaccine, but black people will continue to wait, despite the futility of hope, for a cure for racism. We will live with the knowledge that a hashtag is not a vaccine for white supremacy. We live with the knowledge that, still, no one is coming to save us. The rest of the world yearns to get back to normal. For black people, normal is the very thing from which we yearn to be free. 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 |
Using high fidelity simulation mannequins, the researchers asked two groups of experienced emergency department doctors and nurses to treat a presumed Covid 19 patient who needed a breathing tube. Before starting, the researchers applied an invisible fluorescent compound to the nose, mouth, palms and upper chest of the mannequins and added the same compound to a device that would expel simulated aerosolized droplets from the mannequin's nose and throat. The researchers then asked health care workers to put on P.P.E. according to W.H.O. and C.D.C. guidelines and to follow protocols of care for Covid 19 patients where the most skilled physician present would insert the breathing tube in order to minimize risk to others. When the simulations were completed, the researchers turned out the room lights, turned on an ultraviolet light, and took photos of the participants in their P.P.E. The researchers expected the P.P.E. to be contaminated with the fluorescent marker, and, under the usual protocols, health care workers would have taken off the contaminated protective gear after seeing high risk patients so as not to contaminate themselves or others. But the researchers found that regardless of their specific roles in care, seven of the eight doctors and nurses also had fluorescent marks on exposed skin six participants had marks on their necks, and one had marks on the ear. All of the participants had fluorescent stains in their hair, and half had stains on their shoes. "In times of pandemics like this one, any time you manage an airway or have a patient who is coughing, the situation is very high risk," said Dr. Itai Shavit, senior author of the study and the director of the pediatric emergency department at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel. "Taking care of these patients with an exposed head and neck is probably not safe enough." Most of the microscopic droplets were not noticeable to the participants except under ultraviolet light. While it is unclear if this type of splattering under actual circumstances would lead to infection, the novel coronavirus is known to remain viable for hours on surfaces like plastic and cardboard, and the rhinovirus, a virus that causes the common cold, can remain infectious on skin for up to two hours. If a health care worker touched a contaminated patch of skin or hair, then touched their mouth or eyes or others, they could potentially infect themselves or others. "Doctors and nurses could potentially become a new source of infection," Dr. Shavit postulated. "They would be at risk, but so would their colleagues and the patients they see when they leave the room." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Well |
A few weeks ago, a nerdy joke went viral on Twitter: Future historians will be asked which quarter of 2020 they specialize in. As museum curators and archivists stare down one of the most daunting challenges of their careers telling the story of the pandemic; followed by severe economic collapse and a nationwide social justice movement they are imploring individuals across the country to preserve personal materials for posterity, and for possible inclusion in museum archives. It's an all hands on deck effort, they say. "Our cultural seismology is being revealed," said Anthea M. Hartig, the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History of the events. Of these three earth shaking events, she said, "The confluence is unlike most anything we've seen." Museums, she said, are grappling "with the need to comprehend multiple pandemics at once." We Are All Field Collectors Last August, Dr. Erik Blutinger joined the staff of Mount Sinai Queens as an emergency medicine physician. He knew that his first year after residency would be intense, but nothing could have prepared him for the trial by fire that was Covid 19. Aware that he was at the epicenter not only of a global pandemic, but of history, Dr. Blutinger, 34, began to take iPhone videos of the scenes in his hospital, which was one of New York City's hardest hit during the early days of the crisis. "Everyone is Covid positive in these hallways," he told the camera in one April 9 recording which has since been posted on the Mount Sinai YouTube channel, showing the emergency room hallways filled with hissing oxygen tanks, and the surge tents set up outside the building. "All you hear is oxygen. I'm seeing young patients, old patients, people of all age ranges, who are just incredibly sick." He estimated that he has recorded over 50 video diaries in total. In Louisville, Ky., during the protests and unrest that followed the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, a Louisville resident, filmmaker named Milas Norris rushed to the streets to shoot footage using a Sony camera and a drone. "It was pretty chaotic," said Mr. Norris, 24, describing police in riot gear, explosions, and gas and pepper bullets. He said that at first he didn't know what he would do with the footage; he has since edited and posted some of it on his Instagram and Facebook accounts. "I just knew that I had to document and see what exactly was happening on the front lines." Soon the sounds of nature were replaced by the sounds of helicopters from the Los Angeles Police Department hovering overhead, and the sounds of protesters and police convoys moving through her neighborhood. She recorded all this for her personal records. "It's another form of diary," she said. Museums have indicated that these kinds of private recordings have critical value as public historical materials. All of us, curators say, are field collectors now. In the spirit of preservation, Ms. Hartig from the National Museum of American History along with museum collectors across the country have begun avid campaigns to "collect the moment." "I do think it's a national reckoning project," she said. There are "a multitude of ways in which we need to document and understand and make history a service. This is one of our highest callings." Some museums have assembled rapid response field collecting teams to identify and secure storytelling objects and materials. Perhaps the most widely publicized task force, assembled by three Smithsonian museums working in a coalition, dispatched curators to Lafayette Square in Washington to identify protest signs for eventual possible collection. The collecting task force went into action after June 1, when President Trump ordered Lafayette Square cleared of protesters so he could pose for photos in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, clutching a bible. Shield bearing officers and mounted police assailed peaceful protesters there with smoke canisters, pepper bullets, flash grenades and chemical spray. The White House subsequently ordered the construction of an eight foot high chain link fence around the perimeter, which protesters covered in art and artifacts. Taking immediate moves to preserve these materials much of which was made of paper and was vulnerable to the elements amounted to a curatorial emergency for the Smithsonian's archivists. Yet with many museums still closed, or in the earliest stages of reopening, curatorial teams largely cannot yet bring most objects into their facilities. It is falling to individuals to become their own interim museums and archives. The Ordinary is Extraordinary (Even Your Shopping Lists) While some curators are loath to suggest a laundry list of items that we should be saving they say that they don't want to manipulate the documentation of history, but take their cues from the communities they document many are imploring us to see historical value in the everyday objects of right now. "Whatever we're taking to be ordinary within this abnormal moment can, in fact, serve as an extraordinary artifact to our children's children," said Tyree Boyd Pates, an associate curator at the Autry Museum of the American West, which is asking the public to consider submitting materials such as journal entries, selfies and even sign of the times social media posts (say, a tweet about someone's quest for toilet paper screengrab those, he said) To this end, curators said, don't be so quick to edit and delete your cellphone photos right now. "Snapshots are valuable," said Kevin Young, the director of New York City's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. "We might look back at one and say, 'This picture tells more than we thought at the time.'" At the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the curatorial team will be evaluating and collecting protest materials such as placards, photos, videos and personalized masks and the personal stories behind them. "One activist found a tear gas canister, and he gave it to us," said Noelle Trent, a director at the museum. "We're going to have to figure out how to collect items from the opposing side: We have to have the racist posters, the 'Make America Great' stuff. We're going to need that at some point. The danger is that if we don't have somebody preserving it, they will say this situation was not as bad." And there is perhaps no article more representative of this year than the mask, which has "become a really powerful visual symbol," said Margaret K. Hofer, the vice president and museum director of the New York Historical Society, which has identified around 25 masks that the museum will collect, including an N95 mask worn by a nurse in the Samaritan's Purse emergency field hospital set up in New York's Central Park in the spring. (The museum also collected a set of field hospital scrubs, and a cowbell that the medical team rang whenever they discharged a patient.) "The meaning of masks has shifted over the course of these past several months," Ms. Hofer said. "Early on, the ones we were collecting were being sewn by people who were trying to aid medical workers, when there were all those fears about shortage of P.P.E. last resort masks. And they've more recently become a political statement." Curators say that recording the personal stories behind photos, videos and objects are just as crucial as the objects themselves and the more personal, the better. Museums rely on objects to elicit an emotional reaction from visitors, and that sort of personal connection requires knowing the object's back story. "For us, really the artifact is just a metaphor, and behind that artifact are these voices, and this humanity," said Aaron Bryant, who curates photography and visual culture at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, and who is leading the Smithsonian's ongoing collection response in Lafayette Square. Curatorial teams from many museums are offering to interview donors about their materials and experiences, and encourage donors to include detailed descriptions and back stories when submitting objects and records for consideration. Many are also collecting oral histories of the moment. How to Donate to a Museum Many museums have put out calls for submissions on social media and are directing would be donors to submission forms to their websites. The National Museum of African American History and Culture site has a thorough form that covers items' significance, dimensions, condition and materials. The Civil Rights Museum is looking for "archival materials, books, photographs, clothing/textiles, audio visual materials, fine art and historic objects" that share civil rights history. The New York Historical Society is seeking Black Lives Matter protest materials. "We review material, we talk about it, and we respond to everyone," said William S. Pretzer, a senior curator of history at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. "We can't collect everything, but we're not limiting ourselves to anything." Some museums are exhibiting submitted and accepted items right away on websites or on social media; others are planning virtual and physical exhibits for as early as this autumn. The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, for example, is collecting masks and oral history testimonies from Native American communities and is considering the creation of a "rapid response gallery," said the museum's vice president and chief curator Elisa G. Phelps. "If art is being sparked by something very timely, we want to have a place where we can showcase works and photos," she said, adding that this process differed from "the elaborate, formal exhibit development process." Some donors, however, may not be among those to view their materials once they become part of institutionalized history at least not right away. Even though Dr. Blutinger said that he sees the historical value of his emergency room video diaries, he has yet to revisit the peak crisis videos himself. "I'm almost scared to look back at them," he said. "I'm worried that they'll reignite a set of emotions that I've managed to tuck away. I'm sure one day I'll look back and perhaps open up one or two clips, but I have never watched any of them all the way through." Lesley M.M. Blume is a journalist, historian and the author of "Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover Up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World," which will be published on August 4. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Eight months into the pandemic, I have been pondering the American public's response to it. My country has lost its soul. For the country to refuse to take all measures to face this virus head on is tantamount to my parents' generation deciding eight months into World War II that it was tired of all the sacrifice called for and insisting that we just declare a great victory and go home. Our greatest strength was our determination to face adversity together and endure. Is that lost on us now? Re "Holidays Must Look Different This Year" (editorial, Oct. 30): Urging Americans to stay home this holiday season to mitigate further spread of Covid 19 makes total sense. And as you note, Zoom gatherings might "help keep families connected" and preserve some of the traditions. As Thanksgiving approaches, I would go one step further and suggest that Zoom might even help preserve family harmony. Traditional holiday dinners can be fraught with strife. Think of the frantic food shopping added to a busy work schedule; the festering resentments that can surface among adult siblings; the critical eye recording who brought Costco as opposed to cooking from scratch; or the thought of getting stuck next to your least favorite relative, who is still asking if you have found a job or when you are going to start a family. From a distance, frictions might dissipate. Unlike so many families that have been torn apart by loss this year, all of us might just get to relax and to appreciate the simple fact that we are all still together muting and unmuting, but survivors in a year that has been extremely difficult for just about everyone. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
Lori Wolf, left, and Frank Jackman, both volunteer ushers, stuffed programs at the Irish Repertory Theater, while the actors Evanna Lynch and Colin Campbell stretched before "Disco Pigs" this month. Nice Work if You Can Get It: Being a Volunteer Usher on Broadway Greet audience members, take tickets, work the concession stands, run the elevator. Point the way to seats, restrooms, box offices and exits. These are some of the tasks of a volunteer usher at theaters across New York City. Richard Ponce, the house manager of the Helen Hayes Theater, said he has 250 more requests than slots he needs to fill for the 10 week run of "Lobby Hero," which opens March 26, and has Chris Evans and Michael Cera in starring roles. "It used to be this sort of secret thing," Mr. Ponce said of the volunteer program. "Now there are hundreds and hundreds more people who want to do it." The word is out that "you can watch a show for free for a half hour of work," said Eddy Perez, the house manager of the Irish Rep. Retirees with free time are jostling for slots, as are impecunious drama students who view ushering as a no cost way to expand their artistic horizons and make connections with members of Off Broadway theaters. (Most Broadway houses employ unionized ushers.) "To be able to see new work inspires me in my work," said Anamari Mesa, 23, an actor and filmmaker who ushers at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. "Going to a play can get expensive, so it's a way to go without having to pay, and you get to meet the people involved with the production." Volunteer ushers are generally required to be at the theater an hour before the house opens to learn the particulars of the show (What's the running time? Is there an intermission?) and the lay of the land (for example, the location of the theater's restrooms). "There aren't so many rules for our volunteers, " said Daniella Topol, the artistic director of Rattlestick. "The most important thing to us is that the audience feels welcomed and respected." Jordan Barbakoff, 61, a retired systems engineer and a frequent volunteer at the York Theater, the Mint and the American Airlines Theater, said that the work sounds easy enough, "but there are people who shouldn't be ushers." He added: "They just don't get it when the house manager tells them that the odd numbered seats are on this side of the aisle and even numbered seats on the other side." And of course there are volunteers who do the bare minimum of what is asked, so they can see the show gratis. House managers maintain a black list of those who don't wear the proper clothes, follow directives, show enough initiative, arrive on time or at all. And don't get Mr. Ponce started on the volunteers who complain about the location of their seats. "We just guarantee that they'll see the show," he said. "Sometimes they have to sit on a stool in the back. This is not a right. It's a privilege." For their part, volunteers bemoan the frequent turnover among house managers, and thus the need to prove themselves again and again. Sharon Ulman, 66, a retired staff member of the New York City Department of Education, ushers at Playwrights Horizons, the Signature and Second Stage, among other theaters. "You want your name to be on their brain and have them think 'Oh, I know her; she's good,'" she said. "But that's hard when the staff keeps changing." Initially, she was unenthusiastic about ushering when the idea was suggested to her. "I had my memberships; I just wanted to go in and see my shows and not be bothered," Ms. Ulman said. But now she is as dedicated a volunteer as you could hope to find. "For someone who's single, it's a wonderful social connection because you're there representing the theater, and it gives you permission to talk to anyone," she said. "You kind of feel you have someone to go to the theater with, even if you're ushering with people you don't know." Because volunteers typically sign up well in advance of a show's run, they have only a brief description to go on when mapping out their matinee and evening schedules. Sometimes, they're lucky enough to get in on the ground floor of a hit. Lori Wolf, a retired elementary schoolteacher, was an usher for the "The Band's Visit," "Dear Evan Hansen" and "Hand to God" before they transferred to Broadway. "I remember walking out at the end of 'The Band's Visit' and thinking, 'what a great show,'" Ms. Wolf said. "Some shows you're not as enthused about, but it's an evening of theater. You take a chance." FOLLOW ORDERS If you're told to wear all black, wear all black. Don't accessorize unless you're told to accessorize. Pick up the programs at the end of the show if that's what the house manager requests. Don't be a diva. Let the divas be onstage. KEEP CALM You may meet celebrities who are in the show or who are there to see the production. Don't gush or ask for an autograph. DISCRETION MATTERS Don't bad mouth the show, even if you didn't like it. You never know who's listening. BE PROFESSIONAL You're a volunteer, but you should treat the role as a job. Otherwise, buy a ticket. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Two years ago, Alexi Stathakis and Lauren Witonsky met as summer interns at a public relations firm. They became fast friends and stayed in touch after returning to school Ms. Stathakis to Fairfield University in Connecticut and Ms. Witonsky to Syracuse in upstate New York. After they graduated in the spring, both with jobs in Manhattan, they were eager to room together. It was easy for Ms. Stathakis to ride the train to the city from Fairfield and take charge of the apartment hunt. Listings, photos and videos flew back and forth. "She almost acted as my real estate agent," Ms. Witonsky said. "She was doing all the legwork, which was awesome." The friends wanted a two bedroom rental in a fun neighborhood with a reasonable commute to their jobs. Ms. Stathakis is the social media manager at Berns Communications Group in Murray Hill, while Ms. Witonsky is a social media assistant at Health magazine, in the financial district. The fun, they decided, was somewhere on the East Side. "We agreed on that," Ms. Stathakis said. "I am not sure why." Both wanted to be near a Trader Joe's, and both hoped for a dishwasher and a washer dryer, knowing they might get one or neither. With a budget of 3,500 to 3,800 for a two bedroom, they had plenty of options. Ms. Stathakis happily visited dozens of places, from no frills tenement buildings to high rises with swimming pools, documenting everything for Ms. Witonsky. In one video, she was out of breath. "She walked up six flights of stairs!" Ms. Witonsky said. "I loved hearing her narrations." But the roommates, both 22, decided the Upper East Side felt removed from both fun and work. "That was a tough pass," Ms. Stathakis said. "But we are young 20s and didn't want to be on the Upper East Side. That is more like in five years or so." Worse, the neighborhood didn't have a Trader Joe's. In and around the East Village, places were either depressingly rundown or impressively updated. Ms. Stathakis decided the neighborhood was too gritty for her taste, so she found a happy medium: the Midtown East area. She saw a spacious two bedroom for 3,350 in the Devon Condominium, circa 1961, on East 34th Street in Murray Hill. It was appealing, but the women decided that such a fancy doorman building was not for them. They wanted character. "We wanted to be New Yorkers," said Ms. Stathakis, who is from Madison, Conn. "We wanted to live in a walk up." A two bedroom in a five story Upper East Side building was charming and filled with light, but the roommates, both 22, decided that the neighborhood felt removed from fun and work. Katherine Marks for The New York Times Through StreetEasy, Ms. Stathakis connected with Jessica Wolf, a licensed salesperson at Compass, who took her around for a day. Eager to see everything she could, she accompanied Ms. Wolf to View 34, a huge rental building on the East River with a grand lobby, 24 hour gym and landscaped roof deck. The building is popular with recent college graduates, Ms. Wolf said: "Typically they love it, but she didn't. She felt average about it. She described how she felt about some of the walk ups on the smaller streets. That vibe was what she was going for." Sure enough, it was a five story brick building on a tree lined Kips Bay side street that Ms. Stathakis couldn't resist. "Although high rises and doormen are awesome, we wanted the full New York City experience, and decided a walk up was best for our first apartment," she said. Ms. Witonsky, who is from Philadelphia, watched the video and felt the same. "It was like a magic moment," she said. "This is the one." The two bedroom was classic and charming, with a pretty stoop and a nicely updated interior with an exposed brick wall and French doors. It also had the coveted appliances: a dishwasher and a washer dryer. The departing tenants two female roommates were still living there. "It was craziness and chaos," Ms. Witonsky said. "It was so messy, but it felt right." A spacious apartment in the Devon Condominium on East 34th Street was appealing, but a fancy doorman building was not for them. Katherine Marks for The New York Times They were easily able to see past the mess and signed on for a monthly rent of 3,795, with one month free on a 13 month lease and no broker fee. Each used a parent as a guarantor. They arrived in the early summer. Ms. Stathakis's bedroom has a pocket door that lets light into the otherwise dim living room/kitchen area, which they furnished with a love seat and a table for two. The bathroom has a shower but no tub. The roommates are getting used to living small. The stacked washer dryer, which encroaches upon the bathroom space, works well, at least for small loads. But the dryer needs several cycles to get clothes fully dry. "I bump into my bed every day," Ms. Witonsky said. "Our oven looks like an Easy Bake Oven. We have only cooked Tater Tots in our oven so far." Fortunately, a cookie sheet fits. With little money for eating out, she is grateful for the dishwasher. "I take my lunch every single day, and a dishwasher makes washing Tupperware easier," she said. Their new building has a pretty stoop, and "You feel you are in New York City when you walk out the front door," Ms. Stathakis said. Katherine Marks for The New York Times The nearest Trader Joe's is about 10 minutes away. The roommates use a tag team approach there, with one waiting in line while the other does her shopping, and then switching off. "By the time we're done grabbing everything, we are close to the checkout," Ms. Stathakis said. "The lines are so long." Their new home, she said, provides "a happy mix" of what is most important to them. "Where we ended up has so much character," she said. "You feel you are in New York City when you walk out the front door." For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: nytrealestate. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Tolstoy may have explained the difference between happy and unhappy families: The first are all alike; the second are unhappy in their own way. But he never mentioned average families for whom such feelings twist together. For that, there is Matt Keegan's show at Participant Inc., his first solo in New York since 2011. It is titled "Generation," as is the two channel, 45 minute video installation that is its centerpiece. Executed in an uninflected D.I.Y. documentary style, "Generation" is alternately funny, poignant and sad. It stars three generations of Mr. Keegan's immediate family, including his parents, siblings, nieces and a precocious nephew. Each of them is asked to define a series of fairly charged words, including "love," "sex," "race," "anger," "nationalism," "immigrant," "masculine" and "history." It's all quite simple, but what you learn about family dynamics, knowledge and language as well as the wisdom of age is amazing. The youngest niece describes race as a competition; Mr. Keegan's father sees it as "something just made up." The video includes a few interviews in the subjects' habitats, and occasionally Mr. Keegan asks people to describe a word as a physical object, while the second screen illustrates responses in animated form. Other animations include a pitcher of water poured over a human brain, nourishing it. Mr. Keegan's interests being multimedia, the show also includes three large, handsome wall pieces in powder coated steel seemingly based on bits of folded and cut paper. They emit low vibrations, serving as speakers for audio tracks generated with the sound artist Sergei Tcherepnin using the wall reliefs themselves as drums. Their tones work well as ambient accompaniment for the video. It's a little like having a large, friendly family pet in the next room. Brian O'Doherty is one of contemporary art's notable polymaths. Born in 1928 in Ireland, he studied medicine there and, already an artist, moved to the United States in 1957. Here he took on many roles, including that of editor in chief of Art in America magazine and part time director of the visual arts and the film and media programs at the National Endowment for the Arts. He has written epoch shaping criticism, published novels, and produced a body of art poised on a line between Minimalism and Conceptualism. Strictly speaking, Minimalism is about blank matter, Conceptualism about dematerialized ideas. The late 1960s and early 1970s work in Mr. O'Doherty's fine grained solo show at Simone Subal organized with Prem Krishnamurthy, founder of the art project P! combines these essences. Four six foot tall wall sculptures are as narrow and plain as a carpenter's level, their sides painted with flat Mondrian colors: yellow, red orange, blue. Their recessed interiors, though, are lined with sheets of reflective aluminum that meet at sharp 45 degree angles and are incised with horizontal lines. Two large canvases, dating to 1975, appear from a distance to be empty, as if they were waiting for paintings to happen. Closer up you see that they're marked with faint, wavelike tangles of colored lines. These paintings have an organic source: They're magnified versions of small earlier collages made from hairs the artist plucked from his head. The incised lines in the sculptures have an unexpected source too: They're based on the written form of Ogham, an ancient Celtic language dating at least to the first century. It has an alphabet comprising lines of different lengths and combinations, and many of the earliest surviving Ogham inscriptions spell people's names. So Mr. O'Doherty has merged two modern art styles often defined as fundamentally objective the one about unmetaphorical matter, the other about abstract concepts and personalized them, even turned them into vehicles of self portraiture: physical, in one case; cultural, in the other. And he's done so without abandoning the multitasking complications that make art an invaluable speculative tool. My guess is that the full study of those complications in Mr. O'Doherty's nearly 60 years of work has just begun. THE HUMAN IMAGE: FROM VELAZQUEZ TO VIOLA Gallery exhibitions with hefty themes tend to be limited to a gallery's holdings and what it can borrow. As the excellent "The Human Image: From Velazquez to Viola" demonstrates, the long established Richard L. Feigen Co. has abundant resources. The nearly 40 assembled works including paintings, collages, drawings and photographs have more highlights than can be pointed out here. This show is a chance to see reasonably familiar works in the intimacy of a gallery setting, including Max Beckmann's 1926 "Portrait of a Turk" of a man who misses nothing and Picasso's "Maya With a Boat," a 1938 painting that portrays his older daughter as an endearing little monster. Less known are Marc Chagall's "Self Portrait With a Palette" (1917), an uncharacteristically smooth surfaced portrayal of the artist as a hardened dandy with a red palette against a slate sky; and Edouard Manet's solid little 1873 portrait of Berthe Morisot, fully clothed and alert, posing on a sofa in the artist's studio. Carrie Mae Weems offers this work a tough riposte in the five photographs of "Not Manet's Type" (1997), which considers some male artists' tastes in (usually white) models and the urge to be an artist oneself. Velazquez, Hyacinthe Rigaud and Thomas Eakins represent social order with sober, strikingly realistic, even sympathetic portrayals of gentlemen across several centuries. Benny Andrews's wrenching painting collage "Study for Portrait of Oppression (Homage to Black South Africans)," from 1985, reminds us that the costs of such order are often dehumanizing. So, in another way, does Wangechi Mutu's 2002 "Mirror, Mirror," a photo collage depicting a seemingly self wounding woman. The most effective human images may be those that force us to look inward. Courtesy of the Artist and JTT Bonnie Lucas made the memorably unsettling gouaches and assemblages in her JTT show "Young Lady," curated by Marie Catalano, in the 1980s, but they're all too timely now. The rosy color that dominates here is just a bit more frankly sexual and charged with menace than Barbie doll pink. One gouache, "That Girl," shows a translucent, misshapen face with a tightly closed rose in place of one eye and a blue hair bow jammed in the other; inside her fishlike mouth, two girls dressed like Alice in Wonderland are having a prim tea party. In another, also titled "That Girl," the waterlogged heroine chokes on an off brand Wonder Woman figurine with blond hair. "White Rock," a four foot high assemblage, is even more direct: Against a background of gauzy pink clothing and yarn, white gloves and fake pearls, a plush female doll is attached upside down, as if crucified like St. Peter, but on a welter of contradictory demands and impossible expectations. From her spread legs rises a kitschy, thrift store Easter egg that pictures a sweet domestic scene of anthropomorphized yellow ducks; above the egg rises a blond knockoff of Betty Boop giving a come hither wink. It's direct, in other words, but not uncomplicated. What makes it all so compelling, even heartbreaking, is Ms. Lucas's obviously deep ambivalence. There is as much affection for found totems of saccharine girlhood as there is anger or rejection, as much unsatisfied yearning in her distorted images of conventional femininity as there is trauma or shock. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
When Gabor Szalay and Ildiko Beky told friends they planned to open a restaurant with menus inspired by books, the response was unanimous. "Everyone said, 'Don't do it!' " Ms. Beky recalled. "They said, 'People will come to read, not to eat.' " They did it anyway. Mr. Szalay, 38, quit his job as a commercial construction technician and went to cooking school. Ms. Beky, 40, scaled back her hours in the real estate business. The couple gutted and renovated a grungy pub in a central Budapest neighborhood. They bleached the wood floors and furnished the space with simple furniture and lighting from Ikea. They built floor to ceiling bookcases, which they filled with thousands of mostly Hungarian language books. The warm and homey result is KonyvBar loosely, "BookBar" which they opened in January. The themed literary menus at the 40 seat restaurant change every two weeks. For a "Fifty Shades of Grey" meal, for example, the couple concocted dishes in shades of gray, like squid ink pasta in cream sauce and a trio of gray tinted macarons. A caviar cream did double duty as a gray aphrodisiac. An "American Psycho" menu included "narcotic" red chile creamed soup, an oversize "butcher" sirloin steak with a big knife and cheese cake with blood orange juice. "Gulliver's Travels" played with contrasting sizes. One appetizer consisted of tiny roasted fish that were eaten whole. A main course featured a one kilo, 10 inch turkey drumstick that, given its size, was astonishingly tender. "That turkey leg the meat was so soft it fell off the bone," said Connie Zhang, an American exchange student dining with friends. Dinner ended with a selection of five mini servings of dessert. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
When you finally return to work after the lockdown, coronavirus might not be the only illness you need to worry about contracting at the office. Office buildings once filled with employees emptied out in many cities and states as shelter in place orders were issued. These structures, normally in constant use, have been closed off and shut down, and health risks might be accumulating in unseen ways. "The buildings aren't designed to be left alone for months," said Andrew Whelton, an associate professor of civil, environmental and ecological engineering at Purdue University. Dr. Whelton, other researchers and public health authorities have issued warnings about the plumbing in these buildings, where water may have gone stagnant in the pipes or even in individual taps and toilets. As lockdowns are lifted, bacteria that build up internally may cause health problems for returning workers if the problem is not properly addressed by facilities managers. Employees and guests at hotels, gyms and other kinds of buildings may also be at risk. The biggest worry is Legionella pneumophila. The bacteria can cause Legionnaires' disease, a respiratory condition. It leads to death in about one in 10 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine estimates that over 52,000 Americans suffer from the disease each year. A single small outbreak can sicken many people. During the water crisis that started in Flint, Mich., in 2014 after the city changed its water source and officials failed to inform the public of water quality problems, many people became sick. The crisis was linked to the deaths of 12 people from Legionnaires' disease. After an outbreak at the North Carolina Mountain State Fair last September, 135 people contracted the disease and four died, according to the state's department of health and human services. Investigators blamed a hot tub exhibit that sent Legionella through the air and was inhaled by passers by. Most worrying, Legionnaires' disease tends to affect people with compromised immune systems. "Covid patients and survivors could be more vulnerable to this, so when they go back to work we might be concerned about another infection," said Caitlin Proctor, a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue who, along with Dr. Whelton conducted a study that has been accepted for publication in the journal AWWA Water Science examining risks from water stagnation during the coronavirus lockdown. Once forming in a building's plumbing, Legionella can be dispersed through the air when toilets are flushed. Even turning on taps, as employees wash their hands to limit the spread of the coronavirus, can send water droplets into the air that carry Legionella. Typically, facilities managers reduce the risk of Legionella and other bacteria by pouring small amounts of disinfectant into a building's water systems. But when the water is left stagnant for too long, the disinfectant disappears. "Even just after a weekend, disinfectant can be gone in some buildings and the water is vulnerable to contamination," Dr. Whelton said. Facilities staff can also flush out old water and bring in a new and fresh supply. Or they can send a high dose of disinfectant through the building and raise temperatures to kill the microbes. Shutdowns in the U.S. began in mid March, meaning some buildings have now been closed for two months. And the researchers say that the consequences of long term water stagnation are relatively unknown. "We haven't really done studies on monthslong stagnation," said Dr. Proctor. "The ecological system may change. So while we're looking at these organisms, maybe other organisms pop up." William Rudin, C.E.O. and co chairman of Rudin Management Company which manages 16 commercial office buildings in New York, said his staff is being careful and cautious in their approach to reopening. "Our engineers go through the building testing systems all the time," he said. "That's standard procedure." The Landscape of the Post Pandemic Return to Office None Delta variant delays. A wave of the contagious Delta variant is causing companies to reconsider when they will require employees to return, and what health requirements should be in place when they do. A generation gap. While workers of all ages have become accustomed to dialing in and skipping the wearying commute, younger ones have grown especially attached to the new way of doing business. This is causing some difficult conversations between managers and newer hires. How to keep offices safe. Handwashing is a simple way to reduce the spread of disease, but employers should be thinking about improved ventilation systems, creative scheduling and making sure their building is ready after months of low use. Return to work anxiety. Remote work brought many challenges, particularly for women of color. But going back will also mean a return to microaggressions, pressure to conform to white standards of professionalism, and high rates of stress and burnout. Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. One problem for some property managers may be inconsistent and incomplete guidance from regulators and health authorities. Dr. Proctor and Dr. Whelton's study assessed 21 sets of guidelines developed around the world since the pandemic began, including the C.D.C.'s and 11 from states and counties. "Not all of the guidelines are created equal," said Dr. Proctor. "The original C.D.C. guidelines only covered certain systems." Because the effects of long term water stagnation are so little understood, most of the guidelines are based on preventive measures and may not directly address reopening after long term shutdowns. "They all go different ways," said Michele Prevost, a co author of the study and the industrial chair of drinking water on the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. "It's not ill intended, there's not that much evidence to guide our choices." Unfortunately many of the public health officials who would normally be tackling these issues and getting information out are currently focused on responding to the spread of the coronavirus. "Health officials are overstretched and have conflicting information," said David Dyjack, executive director of the National Environmental Health Association. "Health officials simply cannot keep up. Public health is being asked to do things it's never had to do before." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
LOS ANGELES The 2021 Golden Globes will take place on Feb. 28, a date that the Oscars abandoned last week in an effort to salvage its 93rd installment in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the small group of journalists that hands out the Globes, had not previously announced a date for the 78th ceremony. The Globes have taken place in January since 1973, in part because the press association likes to set the pace for the Academy Awards race or at least try. The February slot will allow the Globes to maintain that position. The Oscars were rescheduled for April 25, with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences emphasizing that it selected that date by consulting with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The press association, which collaborates with Dick Clark Productions and NBC to put on the televised Globes ceremony, gave no explanation for its selection. It also did not say how the February date would affect film and television series eligibility, which normally adheres to the calendar year. The window for best picture consideration at the coming Academy Awards was extended to Feb. 28 from Dec. 31 to make up for the closing of theaters between March and June because of the pandemic. As previously announced, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will host the 2021 Globes, which the press association said on Monday would continue to be "Hollywood's party of the year." It will take place as usual at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. Ms. Fey and Ms. Poehler last hosted the freewheeling show in 2015. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Defense for Gregory McMichael Says Ahmaud Arbery 'Chose to Fight' Defense Says Travis McMichael Was Driven by a Sense of Duty Prosecutor Says Ahmaud Arbery Was Under Attack Protesters Take to the Streets After Rittenhouse Verdict Lunar Eclipse Seen Around the World 'Very Happy With the Verdict,' Rittenhouse's Lawyer Says | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Valentino Dixon's "Untitled," a composite image of four drawings in colored pencil on paper. "Prison is a dark place, and drawing became a survival tool," Mr. Dixon said. An exhibition at the Drawing Center looks at how artists have used the pencil to envision their freedom during captivity . Valentino Dixon served more than 26 years in prison for a murder in Buffalo, although another man had publicly confessed to the crime. Encouraged by his uncle to use his childhood artistic talent to help cope with his incarceration, Mr. Dixon began drawing, up to 10 hours a day, for the last 20 years he spent behind bars. He used vibrantly colored pencils to create imagined golf courses, inspired by magazine pictures of a game he had never played. "The peace and tranquillity of the golf took my mind to another place," said Mr. Dixon, who was released from Attica Correctional Facility in 2018. "Prison is a dark place and drawing became a survival tool." The drawings also became the pathway to his freedom. After he sent some to Golf Digest, which published an article about him, media interest led Georgetown University undergraduates to help persuade officials to reopen his case. Mr. Dixon walked out of prison with more than 900 drawings. He continues to draw 10 hours a day, and his work has sold for as much as 30,000. "The Pencil Is a Key," opening on Oct. 11 at the Drawing Center in SoHo, explores the many ways that artists have used drawing to envision their freedom during periods of incarceration. It is the first exhibition conceived there by the museum's new director, Laura Hoptman, who took the helm last fall, and sets the tone for her curatorial vision. The show reflects the art's world's increasing attention to the issue of mass incarceration. Responding to systemic inequities in the United States criminal justice system, the philanthropist Agnes Gund created the Art for Justice Fund in 2017, which to date has committed 43 million in grants to activists and artists working on policy reform. A spate of recent exhibitions, including one at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut, and "Mirror/Echo/Tilt," which is at the New Museum through Oct. 6, have held the prison experience up to the light. Drawing has been the primary artistic mode of expression for prisoners, given the accessibility of materials. But framing this subject for a general audience has potential pitfalls, said Nicole Fleetwood, professor of American studies and art history at Rutgers University and author of the forthcoming book "Marking Time: Art in the Era of Mass Incarceration." "It's really hard to get people to think differently about those who are in prison, broadly seen in some of the most negative terms," Ms. Fleetwood said. She added that the public was generally uninterested "in what happens to people in prison." The curators of the Drawing Center's exhibition, which mixes political prisoners with others convicted of wide ranging crimes, have struggled with questions of innocence and guilt and how to present enough information about the artists to provide context without casting judgment. Ms. Hoptman enlisted her entire curatorial team, including Claire Gilman, Rosario Guiraldes, Isabella Kapur and Duncan Tomlin, in the research and loans of some 140 drawings produced by more than 80 artists during various forms of captivity, dating from the French Revolution to the present. "What we have been most interested in is how one uses drawing when one is unfree," Ms. Hoptman said. The work in the show is by those who were practicing before their incarceration and by those who became artists during confinement and continued after their release. "This is people who understood that they were making art," Ms. Hoptman said, drawing a distinction between their work and that made in therapeutic or educational prison programs. "It makes the look of the show different than other exhibitions focused on prison art." Moving chronologically across more than 200 years, the show includes extraordinary caricatures by Honore Daumier, imprisoned in 1832 for making a satirical image of King Louis Philippe, and a delicate chalk study of the prison cell and young cellmates of Gustave Courbet, jailed in 1871 when he was accused of complicity in tearing down the Vendome Column, a symbol of the French monarchy. Before Ruth Asawa became known for her biomorphic wire sculptures, she and her family were part of the United States government's mass internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. As a teenager, Asawa studied with Walt Disney animators who were incarcerated with her and made spirited watercolors depicting daily life in the internment camp. The show encompasses drawings produced by artists in Soviet forced labor camps from the 1920s to the '50s; in Latin America during dictatorships in the 1970; at Guantanamo Bay and in the American penal system. Azza Abo Rebieh, a Syrian artist imprisoned in 2015 for her activism by the authoritarian government of President Bashar al Assad, described drawing as a form of resistance. "For 70 days in the security branches, there was nothing that made me feel like a human being," said Ms. Abo Rebieh, who is now living in exile in Lebanon. "When I started drawing in prison, I believed that I am still alive." Her beautifully rendered portraits of young women with whom she was incarcerated were also a kind of gift. "It empowered the other women by showing them how pretty they are," Ms. Abo Rebieh said. The Kurdish artist and journalist Zehra Dogan has been incarcerated several times since 2016 for her painting and reporting deemed critical of the Turkish government. After her art was confiscated and she was denied paper to draw on, Ms. Dogan fashioned glorious dresses from bedsheets and a tablecloth she scooped up in prison, and from head scarves and underwear her mother brought on visiting days. She embellished them with embroidery, ballpoint pen drawing, tomato paste and coffee, and her mother smuggled them out. "Guards thought they were pieces of clothing but they were paintings," said Ms. Dogan. Drawing gave hope as well to Jose Alvarez. Born Deyvi Orangel Pe na Arteaga in Venezuela, where he fled homophobic persecution in 1984, Mr. Alvarez changed his name after accepting false identity papers. He had a career in the art world (and was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial) before being picked up for immigration violations in 2012. Another detainee encouraged the artist to ward off depression by drawing his portrait. This attracted the attention of others, who asked to be drawn. "There was a circle of guys telling me all the stories of the reasons they came to this country," said Mr. Alvarez, who over the course of his two month incarceration made more than 30 portraits in pen on legal pads and wrote short biographies of his subjects. "For me, it was a way of keeping sanity, but in the end it also became something they could hang onto and were cheering for me to present somewhere," said Mr. Alvarez, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and is married to the renowned magician James Randi , known as the Amazing Randi. The portrait grouping was shown in its entirety at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, and four works are included at the Drawing Center. Where Ms. Hoptman said she was comfortable making judgments was about the drawings themselves some great, some strange and interesting, but all with a moving quality. "We aren't experts on mass incarceration, nor are we ethicists," Ms. Hoptman said. "All we are are art curators who have an expertise in drawing. That's how we can best contribute to this discussion about incarceration especially in this country, where it's so important to talk about this right now." The Pencil Is a Key: Drawings by Incarcerated Artists Oct 11 through Jan. 5, 2020, at the Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street, | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
were married Aug. 25 at Bristol Harbour, a hotel and golfing club in Canandaigua, N.Y. Judge Valerie Caproni of the Federal District Court in New York, for whom the bride was a law clerk, officiated, with Judge Vernon S. Broderick, also of the Federal District Court in New York and for whom the groom was a law clerk, taking part. Mrs. Geise, 32, is a litigation associate in the Washington office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton Garrison, the New York law firm. She graduated from Emory University and received a law degree magna cum laude from the University of Georgia. She is a daughter of Charlene E. Johnson of Bremerton, Wash., and E. Wayne Johnson of Lahaina, Hawaii. The bride's father retired as a scheduling manager at Whistlestop Wheels, a provider of free transportation for older people and the disabled in San Rafael, Calif. Her mother retired as a commander in the United States Navy, and was last stationed at Naval Hospital Bremerton, where she was a nurse charge in the emergency room. She is now a public health nurse at Naval Hospital Bremerton. Mr. Geise, 31, is a political law litigation associate in the Washington office of Perkins Coie, a Seattle law firm. He graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan and received a law degree cum laude from Harvard. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The World Needs a Urine Test for TB. But It's Already Here. None For at least a decade, one of the most urgent needs in public health was a urine dipstick that could quickly diagnose tuberculosis in the most vulnerable population: those with advanced H.I.V. Now that test exists. It's inexpensive and has been recommended by the World Health Organization since 2015. But it is hardly used in the countries that most need it. "There is a 3.50 rapid test that works on urine, for crying out loud, and the fact that it's not being utilized is just ridiculous," said Sharonann Lynch, a policy adviser at the medical charity Doctors Without Borders. Part of the problem, Ms. Lynch says, is that the W.H.O.'s recommendation for the test is too limited. Donor organizations such as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as Pepfar, tend to follow the W.H.O.'s guidance on TB. Most diagnostic tests for TB rely on detecting the bacterium or its DNA in sputum. But it can be difficult for H.I.V. positive people to produce enough sputum. The dipstick test picks up lipoarabinomannan, a component of the TB bacterium, in urine. TB is the leading cause of death in H.I.V. positive people, claiming 300,000 lives in 2017. The W.H.O. recommends the test only for people who are H.I.V. positive, gravely ill and have fewer than 100 CD4 cells a kind of immune system cell per cubic millimeter of blood. (The typical range for CD4 cells is 500 to 1,500.) In this group, according to evidence the W.H.O. reviewed in 2015, the test correctly diagnoses TB in 56 percent of patients. "It's a test with suboptimal accuracy," said Christopher Gilpin, senior scientist at the WHO's Global TB Program. "This is probably part of the limited uptake." Another reason, he said, is that few clinics in resource poor regions have the equipment needed to determine CD4 counts. Advocacy groups take issue with both points, saying the W.H.O. is making perfect the enemy of good. "It's not a perfect test, but there's literally zero harm in doing it and it has saved a lot of lives," said Erica Lessem, deputy executive director for programs at Treatment Action Group, an organization based in New York City. According to a preliminary analysis by the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the estimated need for the test is between 2.7 and 2.9 million people with a CD4 cutoff of 100, and 5.8 million with a CD4 cutoff of 200. Abbott Laboratories, which makes the test, declined to say how many tests are sold, but one estimate pegs the figure at about 400,000 a year. The low adoption numbers run the risk of discouraging companies interested in developing TB diagnostics, said Ms. Lessem. "The W.H.O. is giving really mixed signals to countries and to suppliers and manufacturers, because they're basically saying on the one hand we're asking for this point of care test, we want to do more to stop mortality and on the other hand, actually we think that even though we have this tool, it's not worth rolling out," Ms. Lessem said. Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. Dr. Gilpin said W.H.O.'s guidance is so cautiously worded in part because of worries that the test would be misused for people with higher CD4 levels, in whom the test is less accurate. This was a legitimate concern at one time, Ms. Lessem said, but the pendulum has swung too far: "Now even people who need the test and would benefit from it are not getting it because the guidance is worded in such a restrictive way." Doctors Without Borders has compiled evidence that shows the test, called TB LAM, is more sensitive than the 2015 data suggested. The W.H.O. planned to review that data this year, but now has decided to revisit TB LAM along with a new urine dipstick, made by the Japanese company Fujifilm, in May 2019. Pepfar released draft recommendations for TB diagnostics earlier this month and advocacy groups are hoping the final recommendations in January include TB LAM for anyone who is H.I.V. positive and seriously ill. "Pepfar and its scientific advisory board have gone ahead of W.H.O. in the past, and frankly they should do so again," Ms. Lynch said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
The United Arab Emirates has sent its first astronaut to space. That is a step in a budding, ambitious space program for an oil rich country the size of Maine along the southern side of the Persian Gulf. Next year, it plans to send a robotic spacecraft to Mars, and its leaders talk of colonizing the red planet a century from now. Emirati officials hope that space will inspire and train a generation of engineers and scientists who can help prepare the country for a post oil future. Hazzaa al Mansoori, a former Emirati F 16 pilot, launched for the International Space Station in a Soyuz space capsule from a Russian spaceport in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Also aboard were Jessica Meir of NASA and Oleg Skripochka of Russia. After a quick, six hour trip, the spacecraft docked with the station at 3:42 p.m. Eastern time. "I will try to remember each second of the launch itself," Mr. al Mansoori said during a news conference this month. "Because it will be really very important for me to share it with everyone and my country, the entire world and the Arab region." The station will be crowded for the next eight days with nine occupants before three of them, including Mr. al Mansoori, head back to Earth on Oct. 3. Why has the U.A.E. sent an astronaut to space? During his time in orbit, Mr. al Mansoori is to help perform a series of experiments and conduct a tour of the space station in Arabic. But his trip will also highlight new opportunities for countries looking to enter the space race. The Emirates is not part of the consortium of countries that participate in the International Space Station. Two years ago, the nation did not have any astronauts, either. Without rockets or a spacecraft of its own, the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai purchased a seat on the Soyuz from the Russian space agency in the same way that wealthy space tourists have also bought trips to the space station. That is why NASA refers to Mr. al Mansoori as a "spaceflight participant" and not as a professional astronaut. The price has not been publicly revealed. From more than 4,000 applicants who wanted to fill the Soyuz seat, the space center selected two: Mr. al Mansoori and his backup, Sultan al Neyadi. Mr. al Mansoori, 35, is a father of four. The two headed to Russia for training, including outdoor survival skills in case the return Soyuz capsule landed far off course. Mr. al Mansoori has posted on Twitter about his astronaut experiences, mostly in Arabic, occasionally in English: Some of the experiments that Mr. al Mansoori will conduct are already waiting for him on the space station. NanoRacks, a Houston based company, collaborated with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center on a competition that selected 32 experiments from Emirati students studying the effect of weightlessness on materials like sand, steel, corn oil, cement and egg whites. Additional Emirati experiments include one studying oil emulsification in a weightless environment, as well as a second to germinate a palm date seed native to the country. What other plans does the U.A.E. have for space? NanoRacks announced last week that it will be opening an office in Abu Dhabi, the largest emirate. "They are serious about becoming a space faring nation," Jeffrey Manber, chief executive of NanoRacks, said. "I also like the fact, to be candid, that they comfortably work with Russia, they comfortably work with China and they comfortably work with the United States and the European Space Agency. I think that is a model for the future." Euroconsult, an international consulting firm specializing on space markets, reported that the Emirates spent 383 million on space last year. That is much less than the nearly 41 billion spent by the United States or even the 1.5 billion by India, but is more than Canada spent. Virgin Galactic signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Arab Emirates space agency in March that aims to set up a spaceport in the country. Next year, the Emirates intends to launch its Mars mission, a spacecraft called Hope. The probe, on top of a Japanese rocket, is to carry five instruments that are to study the loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases from the upper parts of the Martian atmosphere. For Hope, the Emirates is working with three American universities: the University of Colorado, Arizona State University and the University of California, Berkeley. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Like a tiny submarine, the chambered nautilus speeds through the ocean on little jets that it creates by sucking in water and spitting it out. However, as ways of movement go, jet propulsion is not usually a very good use of energy. In the ocean's depths where oxygen gets thin, the nautilus seems to be putting itself at risk by expending so much effort on movement. Fish use far less energy by pushing at the water with their fins. So how does it manage to jet around unscathed in the ocean's depths? Graham Askew, a biomechanics professor at the University of Leeds, set out with a graduate student, Thomas Neil, to understand better how this shellfish moves. They found that the nautilus is actually a highly efficient jet propelled creature, wasting much less energy than marine organisms like squid or jellyfish that get around in a similar way. They used high speed cameras, a laser that lit up the particles and software that could record the particles' movements. In the constellation of specks, they saw the animals sucking in water, then forcing it out in the direction they were moving away from, with the pocket of expelled water and the nautilus shooting apart at velocities they could readily calculate. When they ran the numbers, the researchers saw that the nautilus was able to use 30 to 75 percent of the energy it transferred to the water to move. That was much higher than other similar swimmers. "Squid, they tend to be about 40 to 50 percent efficient," said Dr. Askew. Bell shaped jellyfish, which pulse their bells to squirt out water, also tend have lower than 50 percent efficiency. In general, moving very large volumes of water relatively slowly, as a fish's tail or a diver's flippers do, wastes less energy than having to swiftly accelerate very small amounts. But nautilus have clearly found a way to make it work. It seems, said Dr. Askew, that when they are sucking in water, they do so in a wide stream, rather than in a more energetically costly narrow one. And they spend more time jetting than they do refilling in certain swimming scenarios, gently eking out the fluid they've already sipped in. These strategies may be contributing to their ability to swim efficiently, getting by in situations where more vigorous jetting might get them in trouble, like the low oxygen deep ocean. Still, for more details about the nautilus's survival strategies, fans of the creature will have to look to research from other groups. Dr. Askew and colleagues have since turned their focus and their high speed camera to cuttlefish, to learn more about how these jet swimmers move. None What Eats What: A Landlubber's Guide to Deep Sea Dining None The Cuttlefish, a Master of Camouflage, Reveals a New Trick Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
I found Eldorado with an unlikely 19th century guide, an Impressionist landscape by Camille Pissarro that is alive with a flowing river of brush strokes and thick knife points of silver green paint. With his palette and paintbrush, Pissarro the father of the Impressionist movement roamed the banks of the River Oise, a tributary of the Seine, creating portraits that offered a porthole view of French rural life in Pontoise, once a favorite city of French royalty that is more than 20 miles northwest of Paris. It's still possible to glimpse some of his world. And it is best savored in a gentle voyage on a river boat, in my case Eldorado, a wooden barge circa 1929. There are many passenger boats like this that troll the olive waters of the Oise on weekends from May through October, below the city's medieval ramparts. The benefit of river travel is the opportunity to savor the slow glide of time and to reflect on the real impressions of favorite artists. I revel in the simple pleasure of these day trips where fellow passengers number fewer than 30 and are mostly families celebrating birthdays or lingering over Sunday lunch. Pontoise is easily reachable by train from Paris or a short car ride along the river from my home in a nearby village. But the view from a river boat is entirely different: a luminous world of green, emerald and silver light that so enchanted Pissarro that he painted over 300 works depicting the area. Then add to that the pleasure of a Sunday lunch of goat cheese salad, a duck confit, fresh fruit and Saumur Champigny wine. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
"I hope you don't have a seizure," Candace Carmel Barasch playfully warned a visitor entering her Park Avenue apartment, where many of the vibrantly hued artworks blink and buzz on the walls. Alex Da Corte's theatrical tableau of a candle in a window is outlined in neon tubing so intensely colored it almost hurts the eyes. Cory Arcangel's portrait of Miley Cyrus on a flat screen TV uses obsolete technology to create a rippling lake effect that could induce wistfulness and a touch of seasickness. Recalling her renovation of the apartment 15 years ago, Ms. Barasch, a Manhattan native, said, "I should have put a plug at every single station." The bold, contemporary works all refer to Hollywood in some way. They include Sam McKinniss's large scale painting of Lana Del Rey on the stage of "American Idol," a selection of Rob Pruitt's photographic pairings of art world notables with their celebrity doppelgangers, and Alex Israel's oversize self portrait in profile, which he commissioned from the last prop painter employed at Warner Bros. as a comment on digitalization putting people out of jobs. "Is it a prop or a piece of art?" Ms. Barasch asked. More soothing pieces, including photographs by William Eggleston, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Irving Penn and Adam Fuss can be found in the master bedroom. Photos, first in black and white, were what Ms. Barasch collected in the early years, but her tastes have grown ever more adventurous since then. Before her children were born, she worked in commercial real estate. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
With 671 guest rooms, a 210,000 square foot casino, more than 3,000 slot machines, a 37,000 square foot ballroom, a 21,000 square foot waterfront lawn and more than a dozen restaurants and bars, everything about the Encore Boston Harbor resort and casino is immense. That includes the wager its developer, Wynn Resorts, is placing on its success. The enterprise cost 2.6 billion dollars to build, at a time when many East Coast casinos are struggling. And the development had been shrouded in controversy for the last 13 months because of sexual harassment allegations against the company's founder. But state regulators on Tuesday gave Encore the go ahead to open in June, as scheduled. The team behind the resort and casino said that it will thrive thanks to the proximity of Logan International Airport, the airport's increased traffic and ongoing expansion, and the many colleges and universities in the area. "If you go downtown Boston you see nothing other than cranes," said Bob DeSalvio, president of Encore Boston Harbor. "It's just on an incredible tear as far as economic development, so you know you add that all up, and the fact that we ended up with the sole license in eastern Massachusetts, and it's just a great recipe." The Massachusetts Gaming Commission released a report in early April saying that executives at Wynn Resorts helped hide sexual misconduct allegations against the company's billionaire founder, Steve Wynn. Mr. Wynn was forced to resign as the company's chairman and chief executive last year, after The Wall Street Journal published articles describing a pattern of sexual misconduct, including accusations that he had pressured employees for sex. On Tuesday, the commission said it would allow the developer to keep its casino license, paving the way for the property to open in June. It also fined the company 35 million and its chief executive, Matt Maddox, an additional 500,000. In an interview in Boston in April, Mr. DeSalvio emphasized Mr. Wynn's departure and said the company had transitioned from being "founder led" to being "team oriented." "It's not about the man, it's about the brand and the brand has stood for quality, excellence and service for many many years," he said. "When we survey our guests very few would have ever met Mr. Wynn. What they do know is what the brand stands for and that's something that will not change." Everett is a working class city of about 45,000 people and residents had mixed responses when the casino was first announced in 2014. But the company has committed to hiring about 6,000 people and to working with local businesses, as well as conducting a major environmental cleanup. The building's 33 acre waterfront site was one of the most contaminated in the state the kind of place where people still talk about getting headaches from the toxins. Over 18 months, Encore pulled nearly a million tons of contaminated sediment from the area and the Mystic River. "Awful stuff had been dumped and spilled, it was a train wreck of a site," said Elizabeth Henry, president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts. "Nobody wanted to touch it because the environmental liabilities were expensive to touch." Ms. Henry said that her organization a nonprofit supported by individual and foundation philanthropy, dues from citizens and organization members, and proceeds from special events rarely endorses projects, but supported the casino project because of its positive effect on the surrounding environment. Patrick Chadwick, Encore's director of horticulture and floral, has chosen every tree and type of flower at the resort. Half of the gardens will be irrigated with rainwater runoff from the building. "They've taken the physical building seriously in terms of sustainability," Ms. Henry said. "It'll also be easier to walk around and bike to the casino and through to some of the adjacent neighborhoods. They've doubled down on interconnectivity and so, in a way, that benefits the whole community." The Encore's rooms range from about 500 to about 2,000 per night, depending on season, demand and room type. The smallest room is 650 square feet and the largest a two story villa with three bedrooms is 5,800 square feet. Some rooms have floor to ceiling windows, a view of Boston Harbor and the city's skyline. "I hope when I design these places that an elegant couple in a tuxedo encounters a really young couple in jeans and a T shirt on their way crossing on the staircase," said Roger Thomas, Wynn Resorts executive vice president of design. "I think that's an important thing to have happen I like everybody looking at everybody." Daniel Lanigan was born and raised in Everett, and is the founder and owner of Lord Hobo Brewing Company; his beer will be served at the Encore along with other local craft beers. To Mr. Lanigan, the casino signals development his hometown desperately needs. Along with providing thousands of jobs, he said, it will give a boost to the Boston area's reputation as a world class city. "I can see how some other metropolitan areas might poo poo the idea of a Vegas casino coming in and throwing weight around, but I don't get that vibe here at all," Mr. Lanigan said. "I get a lot of support, a lot of curiosity." 52 PLACES AND MUCH, MUCH MORE Follow our 52 Places traveler, Sebastian Modak, on Instagram as he travels the world, and discover more Travel coverage by following us on Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter: Each week you'll receive tips on traveling smarter, stories on hot destinations and access to photos from all over the world. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
GIBNEY DANCE COMPANY at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center (May 4, 8 p.m.; through May 6). Led by Gina Gibney for over 25 years, this troupe has primarily been a canvas for her choreography, but a new program called Gibney Repertory Initiative for Tomorrow, or GRIT, gives others a chance to work with her terrific dancers. The latest edition features works by Reggie Wilson, known for his vivid blending of African diasporic and postmodern dance, and the adventurous formalist Joanna Kotze. Mr. Wilson's "Config Khoum Baie" weaves three of his older pieces into something new, while Ms. Kotze's "Already Ready," a premiere, explores themes of preparation and latent power. 646 837 6809, gibneydance.org MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY at the Martha Graham Studio Theater (May 2 3, 7 p.m.). For the next installment of its studio series, GrahamDeconstructed, the company offers a demonstration of the Martha Graham technique. A transformative system of movement when it was developed nearly a century ago, it laid the foundation for Graham's trailblazing style of dance theater. The evening includes an overview of the technique's creation and excerpts from works that turn technical grammar into poetic expression: "Steps in the Street," from the antiwar ballet "Chronicle," and two solos from "Cave of the Heart," Graham's telling of the myth of Medea. 212 229 9200, marthagraham.org 'GRAND ROUNDS' at La MaMa (April 28 29, 7 p.m.; April 30, 4 p.m.; May 3 4, 7 p.m.; through May 14). In her latest dance theater work, the choreographer Tamar Rogoff continues her investigations of selfhood and physicality, shedding light on the many ways in which a person can inhabit a body. A meditation on family, medicine and the means by which science shapes our relationship with death, the work features 12 performers of varying body types, gender identities, ages and physical abilities, brought together through the musings and observations of a 10 year old protagonist. 212 352 3101, lamama.org | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Backcountry skiing and snowboarding have exploded into the mainstream this year. As ski resorts are limiting access because of the coronavirus pandemic, skiers are looking for alternative ways to recreate while staying physically distanced. The backcountry boom is also being driven by a new generation of Alpine touring skis and snowboards that make it easier for newcomers to transition from skiing and riding at resorts to the backcountry. REI reports that sales of backcountry ski equipment have tripled since last fall (you can rent it too). Backcountry skiing's new popularity has also been driven by a quest for connection. In the East, a vibrant grass roots movement is drawing scores of skiers to develop new backcountry ski terrain. Uphill skiing a.k.a. "skinning" is now a popular before and after work ritual in ski towns across the country. While it's easier to ski in the backcountry these days, there is a crucial caveat: "If you are getting into backcountry skiing you need to know that avalanches are a real risk," cautions Brian Lazar of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. The Utah Avalanche Center is anticipating a surge of new backcountry skiers this year and will for the first time be posting "avalanche ambassadors" at popular trailheads to educate people about backcountry hazards. "We're ramping up for what could be an unprecedented winter," said Craig Gordon, a forecaster for the center. One way to learn backcountry skills safely is to hire a qualified guide through a group like the American Mountain Guides Association. If you go on your own, you should be self sufficient and have some knowledge of navigation, first aid and avalanches, and if skiing in avalanche terrain you should carry an avalanche beacon, shovel and probe and know how to use them, and check the local avalanche forecast. The John Sherburne Ski Trail the Sherbie is the most popular backcountry ski trail in the East. It was cut on the side of Mount Washington in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, providing passage to and from New Hampshire's famous steep skiing playground, Tuckerman Ravine. After a steady and sweaty 2.4 mile uphill ski you come to views of the craggy flanks of Mount Washington, a skiing pilgrimage site for nearly a century. Consider a side trip to Tuckerman Ravine (. 7 of a mile farther) to try your mettle on steeper terrain, or just to ogle the majestic scenery (Tuckerman Ravine is prone to avalanches check for the latest advisory). The descent of the Sherburne begins just beyond the Appalachian Mountain Club caretaker's cabin, a.k.a. HoJo's. The Sherburne Trail lulls you in gently, but the pace quickens as it steepens and weaves back and forth down the mountain like a restless snake. The Sherbie is about as steep as a high intermediate trail at a ski area, but natural conditions make it interesting and challenging. Backcountry skiing has blossomed into a community supported ski movement in New England, and the Granite Backcountry Alliance is at the vanguard. Each fall, it organizes volunteers to cut glades and trails in New Hampshire and western Maine, and then offers their creations to the skiing public. These "glade zones" offer a perfect introduction to the backcountry experience. In 2018, alliance volunteers recut the Maple Villa Trail, in Intervale, which was created in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. This sprawling backcountry ski area showcases world class views and excellent skiing spread over three peaks. Trail descriptions and maps can be found at the alliance's website. D.G. Bolton Valley sits high atop the Green Mountains and reaps some of Vermont's deepest and most reliable snow. Downhill skiers gravitate here to ride the chairlifts of Bolton Valley Ski Area, while backcountry fans head across a parking lot into a warren of ungroomed but well maintained trails that span 12,000 acres. Stop at the Bolton Valley Sports Center to purchase trail passes, rent backcountry skis and splitboards, and get advice on where to go. You can also hire guides and sign up for group outings. You can climb to Bryant Cabin, built in the 1920s by Edward Bryant, a Boston conservationist who first purchased the surrounding land. From there glide out on Gardiner Lane, a forest thruway that links low angle glades, including JJs, A1A and Gotham City. If you're in the mood for steeper skiing, head uphill to the Stowe View Chutes or Paradise Pass, where you can ski powder through wide open hardwood glades before climbing back out. Bolton is also the starting point for the Bolton Trapp Trail, a classic tour that connects with the famous Trapp Family Lodge (car shuttle required). Information and maps are available on the mountain's website. D.G. Jake's Peak is a Lake Tahoe favorite. Overlooking Emerald Bay, "it appears as if you are skiing straight down into the lake," said Jeremy Benson, the author of "Backcountry Ski Snowboard Routes in California." "It's one of the more beautiful places in the entire world." Jake's Peak is an approachable mountain boasting a 2,300 vertical foot descent through old growth trees. This is a very popular backcountry ski tour, so you will likely have company on the mountain and parking can be a problem, especially on weekends. Like any Sierra backcountry tour, avalanche awareness and equipment is essential and you should check the avalanche forecast. This tour is safest to ski in the spring when avalanche hazard is lower. Alpenglow Expeditions does not guide Jake's Peak but offers guided skiing and backcountry skills clinics around nearby Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley ski resorts. June Mountain, a small ski resort a half hour from Mammoth Lakes, may be "the best lift accessed backcountry ski area in the U.S. that no one's heard about," claims Howie Schwartz, an owner of Sierra Mountain Guides, which offers guided ski tours off the back side of the ski area. After buying a lift ticket and taking the highest chairlift, you can glide down into a gorgeous but accessible mountain range known as the Negatives, a landscape of steep couloirs and lower angle faces that beckon skiers of all abilities. From the 10,000 foot June Mountain summit, a relaxed tour descends to beautiful Yost Meadows, which is ringed by skiable slopes. You can continue on to reach 2,000 foot long Devil's Slide, which delivers you to Double Eagle Resort and Spa, a civilized way to finish a day in the wilds. D.G. It's possible to get into the backcountry throughout the state with a certified guide, available for hire in any ski town, said Chris Davenport, a two time World Extreme Skiing champion, who guides for Aspen Expeditions Worldwide. He said tours of the Elk Mountains near Aspen and Snowmass that are suitable for novices. Mr. Davenport also recommended exploring the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado with San Juan Mountain Guides. "Basically anywhere in the San Juans," he said. "It's so spectacular." For overnight or multiday adventures, he recommended a guided trip to one of the huts or cabins run by the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association "Most hut trips are all inclusive, and come with all your equipment and your sleeping bag and guide. Meals are prepared and everything," he said. "The only issue is that this year they are almost all booked for the entire season." K.S. Bozeman and Big Sky are the most popular backcountry spots in the state, according to Ben Werner, the author of "Backcountry Skiing Bozeman and Big Sky." "Montana is incredibly fortunate to have over 27 million acres of public lands," he said. "For a simple gear test essentially any public trailhead that has snow on it will do, but we also have some lovely low angle meadows that are great places to enjoy easy powder turns without having to worry too much about avalanches." For a relative beginner, he recommended History Rock, which is accessible from Bozeman in less than 30 minutes. It's about 2.5 miles to the top, and starts at an elevation of 6,500 feet, going to 8,440 feet. "You're not talking about big cliffs and chutes, it's more rolling terrain," he explained. "There are spots that have better snow, but I like it because it's an easy place to get to from town, and it's fairly forgiving terrain. That's not to say avalanches aren't possible there, but you're on the lower end of the risk spectrum." He cautioned that parking, especially on weekends, can be difficult. For guided trips, he recommended Beartooth Powder Guides out of Cooke City, near the northeast entrance to Yellowstone Park, or Big Sky Backcountry Guides out of Bozeman. There's one good option in Utah that not only has gentle slopes to lower avalanche risk, but it also has parking, a commodity coveted almost as much as good snow during prime ski times. Willow Fork is in Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Range, about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, just across from the Solitude Mountain Resort where parking is available on a sliding scale from 20 to 5 per day based on the number of people in the vehicle. "There's a great deal of moderate terrain, including a place called U.S.A. bowl," said Tyson Bradley, author of the book "Backcountry Skiing Utah: A Guide to the State's Best Ski Tours." He said the slope is less than 30 degrees, and faces south and west, both factors that can lower the chance of an avalanche. It's also fairly easy to get to. "It's an hour of skinning max to get up in there," he said. Total elevation gain is about 1,700 feet, with a top at around 10,000 feet. For guided trips, the most popular location is Grizzly Gulch in Little Cottonwood Canyon, near the Alta Ski Resort. Another good choice is Cardiff Fork on Mount Superior, but again, skiers should go with a guide since it's in an area prone to avalanches, said Mr. Bradley, who is a part owner of Utah Mountain Adventures. Just an hour from Seattle lies Snoqualmie Pass, home to several ski areas and vast backcountry skiing terrain. The ski tour to Pineapple Pass is a classic for its quality terrain and gorgeous setting. Starting from the parking lot of the Alpental Ski Area, you ski up following the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River into Pineapple Basin. The basin is ringed by the thousand foot walls of Bryant Peak, Hemlock Peak and the Tooth. It is a spectacular landscape. After skinning up Pineapple Pass (the upper section can be wind loaded and avalanche prone), there are views to the south of the massive profile of Mount Rainier. The scenery is rewarding enough, but another highlight awaits on the 1,800 vertical foot ski descent back the way that you came. "The ski touring is moderate but the terrain is spectacular," said Mr. Volken. There are many options for expanding the tour to venture further into this dramatic mountainscape. Pro Guiding Service offers tours. D. G. Teton Pass is a good option for relative beginners to backcountry skiing and riding, and is accessible as a day trip from Jackson Hole, according to Thomas Turiano, the author of the "Teton Pass Backcountry Guide" and, "Jackson Hole Backcountry Skier's Guide: South." "Teton Pass has a lot of moderate terrain that is 25 degrees or less," he said. But, he cautioned, there are usually a lot of tracks going every which way, and a skier shouldn't assume they are safe and follow them. "You do have to be selective. You want to stay on the ridges and out of the gullies and off the steep faces," he said. While Teton Pass usually has great snow, it doesn't have enough parking for the number of users, so it fills up quickly. There is talk of a permit system, which could go into effect next year. For guiding companies, Mr. Turiano recommended Exum Mountain Guides, in Moose, the Mountain Guides in Jackson Hole, and Teton Backcountry Guides, just across the state line in Driggs, Idaho. Teton Backcountry Guides owns four yurts that are available for winter use. The company will rent them without guides to experienced parties, or, for 1,200 per person, it offers three day, two night trips for all levels of skiing and riding that includes two guides for up to six guests, catered meals and porters to carry all the food. In Idaho, the Galena Summit pass, at an elevation of about 8,700 feet and about 30 minutes from Sun Valley, has good options, with the Cross being a suitable area for beginners, said Chris Lundy, the co owner of Sawtooth Mountain Guides. In addition to a quick approach, "it is pretty low angle," Mr. Lundy said, while still cautioning, "there are some small spots that are steep enough to avalanche." Parking is on pullouts and there are no trailhead markers, so those unfamiliar with the area might prefer to go with a guide. Sun Valley Guides also offers trips in the area. "There's a ton of one day destinations that people can go with a guide," Mr. Lundy said. "It's a great place for someone to learn to backcountry ski. You're skiing within short order instead of hiking all day and doing one little run." For those who want a longer adventure, Sawtooth Mountain Guides owns a yurt in the area, and Sun Valley Guides runs trips to the six that are owned by Sun Valley Mountain Huts. Boulder Yurt is a particularly good option for beginners, since it's only 1.5 miles from the trailhead. K.S. David Goodman is the author of "Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast: 50 Classic Ski and Snowboard Tours in New England and New York" (Appalachian Mountain Club Books, 2020). He lives in Vermont. Karen Schwartz was raised in the Canadian Rockies and now lives in Colorado. Follow her on Twitter: WanderWomanIsMe. Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Musicals about the aftermaths of a teenage suicide and a terror attack proved unlikely sensations. Star turns by Bette Midler, Josh Groban, Jake Gyllenhaal and Glenn Close added sizzle. And, led by "Hamilton" and "Hello, Dolly!," the hottest shows started charging once unthinkably high prices for the best seats. The Broadway season that ended on Sunday was one for the record books. Box office grosses, which have been climbing since 2013, rose 5.5 percent, to 1.449 billion, a new high, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Broadway League, an industry trade group. The growth, though, was fueled not by attendance, but by ticket cost. Producers, perfecting a strategy called dynamic pricing, used increasingly sophisticated analytics to adjust ticket prices to reflect varying demand on different days of the week and for different sections of a theater. "Hamilton," which continues to play to sold out houses 21 months after opening, led the way, setting a record box office price of 849 for many orchestra seats, in an effort to recapture profits being lost to resellers. "Hello, Dolly!," starring Ms. Midler, has a top ticket of 748; "Sunday in the Park With George," starring Mr. Gyllenhaal, was charging 499 for its most sought after seats; and "The Book of Mormon" tops out at 477. The new musicals are a touch less aggressive with pricing as they build their audiences: "Dear Evan Hansen," about a high school student whose life is changed by the suicide of a classmate, is selling its best seats for 397, while "Come From Away," about a Canadian town that welcomed diverted airline flights after the Sept. 11 attacks, has a top price of 297. There are bargains available for all but the buzziest shows, but still: The average price paid for a Broadway ticket during the 2016 17 season was a record 109, up from 103 the previous season. And with several big brand titles on the way stage adaptations of the hit film "Frozen" and the best selling Harry Potter books are scheduled to open next spring Broadway's blockbuster led boom seems unlikely to end any time soon. It's transforming the balance sheet of an industry which over the last three decades has fought its way back from a sorry period in which shows were scarce and theaters were being demolished. "I've been on Broadway since 1982, and I've never seen such stunning numbers in my life," said Barry Weissler, a longtime producer whose current shows include "Chicago" and "Waitress." "It's not about us charging more, it's about the public wanting to see something they're willing to pay for, and it's an amazing credit to the work being done on Broadway." The big numbers mask continuing challenges for the industry. Broadway's success is lopsided: Much of the profit goes to a small handful of shows, while a majority flop. Over the last 12 months, 81 productions played at some point during the season; about half of all the box office revenue went to just 10 of those shows. "The hits are bigger than they have been previously, but the shows that are not big boffo hits are struggling more," said Jordan Roth, the president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which operates five Broadway houses. For the first time in four years, overall attendance was off slightly down 0.4 percent, to 13.3 million, at the 41 theaters in and around Times Square that constitute Broadway. That is partly because there were 4.1 percent fewer so called playing weeks the total amount of time in which theaters were occupied by shows than in the previous season. And attendance that dipped only incrementally is arguably impressive in an era when foreign tourism appears to be stalling, and traditional entertainment has been struggling ratings for network television shows have been sharply down, for example. "If you look at other forms of entertainment media, we're doing better than probably anybody else in the realm," said Thomas Schumacher, the president of Disney Theatrical Productions, whose current shows are "Aladdin" and "The Lion King" (with top prices of 228 and 225). But some say Broadway needs to be concerned about raising the number of ticket buyers, rather than just the price of those tickets. "We have to be adding new audience for our long term health," said the producer Ken Davenport, who is bringing a revival of "Once on This Island" to Broadway this fall. Another challenge the annual grosses made clear: The season was not great, financially, for nonmusical plays. Three of the four Tony nominees for best new play this year ("Indecent," "Sweat" and "A Doll's House, Part 2") have struggled to sell seats; the exception is "Oslo," staged by the nonprofit Lincoln Center Theater, which has been selling well. Only about 10 percent of the season's total grosses went to plays, compared with 89 percent for musicals and 1 percent for special events. Many plays offer tickets at deep discounts; on the site TodayTix, "A Doll's House, Part 2" is available for 29; "Indecent" for 39; "Sweat" and "Oslo" for 59. "I would be lying if I didn't say that I worry about plays, because they're a very important part of the Broadway landscape," Charlotte St. Martin, the Broadway League's president, said. "We certainly had an exciting year for plays from a critical standpoint, and the four best play nominees are all American playwrights, which is also exciting. But plays take time to build audience." The season's top grossing musicals were "Hamilton," "The Lion King," "Wicked," "Aladdin" and "The Book of Mormon"; the top grossing plays were "The Front Page," "The Humans," "The Present" and "Oh, Hello." How significant is pricing to a show's success? "Hamilton" became the top grosser for the first time by raking in 130 million, blasting by "The Lion King," which had held the top spot for several years. But "Hamilton" reached the top despite selling fewer tickets than "Wicked," "Aladdin" or "The Lion King," which can all sell more seats because they are in bigger theaters. Producers argue that the higher ticket prices are a way of recapturing money that was previously going to scalpers. "It was the right thing to do because it brought the benefits of the demand to the artists who made the show and the investors who paid for the show," said Jeffrey Seller, the lead producer of "Hamilton." But some in the industry fret that the high prices for "Hamilton," "Dolly!" and a handful of others create a perception problem, scaring away potential theatergoers. "I do wonder if people are starting to think every seat in the theater is 500," said Theodore S. Chapin, president of the Rodgers Hammerstein Organization. "I know more and more people who feel as if, 'I can't afford to go to the theater any more,' and I hope we don't wake up one day to find a tradition is diminished." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Early in "Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets," one of the barflies who populates the film talks about working as an actor. "I wanted the truth of every line," he says. But when he realized that truth was elusive, he says, "I started going after beauty." That approximates the approach of this movie, directed by Bill and Turner Ross, which won over many smart fans at Sundance who admired how it blurred the boundaries of nonfiction. The movie purports to document the closing day of a dive bar called Roaring '20s certain exterior shots, dialogue and even traffic reports imply it's in the Las Vegas area. The time is around the 2016 election. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Thursday's morning rainstorm at Augusta National sufficiently muddled plans at the 2020 Masters. But after a nearly three hour delay that thwarted Bryson DeChambeau's strategy for domination he rebounded from a double bogey on the par 5 13th hole to shoot a two under par 70 play resumed with 27 of the 48 players who had finished their rounds breaking par for the day. Among them was the reigning champion, Tiger Woods, who logged a four under 68 on Day 1 to finish three strokes behind the leader, the Englishman Paul Casey. Friday at Augusta should offer more clarity: With no rain forecast, the club's notoriously rippling greens should play faster and provide some separation in the leaderboard logjam. If the tournament were in April, when it is traditionally held, he wouldn't have had to worry, because all the players start at No. 1. But in November, with daylight at a premium, Augusta National officials had no choice but to send players off both nines. On Thursday, the side where players began their rounds made a difference in their scores, but not in the way Casey had worried it might. For right handers like Casey, the best play off the 10th tee is a right to left hook, but if the shot goes too far left it brings trees into play, which is why Casey said: "It's not the easiest tee shot. I much prefer starting on 1." And yet Casey birdied the 10th on his way to a seven under 65 as the 24 players in the early wave who started at No. 10 averaged a score of 71.2. Those who started off No. 1 averaged 72.4 on the par 72 layout. Woods also teed off on No. 10 and parred it in a bogey free round. Dustin Johnson, the world No. 1, and Rory McIlroy, who can complete a career Grand Slam with a Masters victory, may hope that the trend continues; they are among the players who will tee off at No. 10 for their second rounds as they return to the course Friday to complete their first 18. The cut won't be made until Saturday. Augusta National's decision this year to introduce a stiffer cut looked like a stroke of genius after electrical storms blew through the area on Thursday. The delay virtually guaranteed that the 96 man field would not complete the second round by sundown at 5:25 p.m. and that it could not be cut until Saturday morning. After the 2019 tournament yielded the largest weekend field 65 in Masters history, club officials decided to eliminate the rule that had assured a weekend berth to any player within 10 strokes of the 36 hole leader. The number of qualifiers this weekend will be the low 50, including ties. Fred S. Ridley, Augusta National's chairman, said Wednesday that officials had made the change because the more forgiving 10 stroke rule had allowed players to continue on Saturday and Sunday even though they would not seriously contend for a green jacket. "The last several years, I think we've only had two players who have been in contention who made the cut only because of the 10 shot rule," Ridley said. "While certainly it can happen," he added, "it just doesn't." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
THERE is no debate about this fact: The first year that American teenagers have their driver's licenses will be among the most dangerous of their lives. Nothing kills more of them than car crashes. There is a debate over this carnage, but it is over the effectiveness of driver education courses. Do they save lives, as most everyone thinks, or weaken safeguards that have been in place for years? It at first sounds like an argument not worth having, but over the last 15 years every state has passed graduated licensing laws, which grant driving privileges for young drivers in stages. Among other restrictions, inexperienced drivers can be barred from driving at night or having young, nonfamily passengers. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit group financed by insurers, released a report in May that found that since states began enacting graduated licensing laws in 1996, the teenage death rate had decreased steadily. There is no national standard for driver education courses, although the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently distributed guidelines. But those are not a mandate, and one problem, the insurance institute says, is that in 16 states drivers who complete education courses can sidestep some graduated licensing restrictions, including the age limit to receive a learner's permit, requirements for hours practicing behind the wheel, and passenger and night driving limitations. The education programs that allow "teens to bypass graduated driver licensing restrictions that have been proven to be effective may be more harmful than good," said Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the institute. "It's counterproductive." Without a national standard, driver education in the United States varies widely. Oregon, for example, receives effusive praise from safety experts for the comprehensive curriculum it offers that has helped reduce the teenage accident rate there. But other states fall far short. "There are more kids on the road without even the basic education and skills that kids used to get," said John Ulczycki, a vice president for the nonprofit National Safety Council. While driver education has generally improved in the last 10 years, he said, some states do not require it at all. "The state requirements for new drivers taking driver ed prior to licensing are inconsistent and all over the map," Mr. Ulczycki said. When Caroline Summers of Caddo Mills, Tex., was 15, driver education was not offered at her high school or in her rural town, so her training online, behind the wheel and through videos was under the supervision of her parents. "I got a license and never took a road test with a public official," said Ms. Summers, now 18. "My father just signed the paperwork and vouched for me, and that was it." The law in Texas has since been strengthened. By contrast, Alec Malnati, 17, said driver education at Tigard High School in Oregon taught him to avoid many risky behaviors like tailgating and turning on signal lights too late or not at all. Instructors "taught me to take a more cautious approach at all times," he said. In the 1970s, 95 percent of eligible students nationwide received driver education, primarily through public schools. That number has dropped as public financing decreased and the courses shifted to private companies, said Allen Robinson, chief executive of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association, a nonprofit group that represents traffic safety educators. "Instead of being available to anybody who wants it, it is more readily available to those who can pay first," Dr. Robinson said. Peter Kissinger, president and chief executive of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, said that cutbacks had spawned "faster, cheaper, but not necessarily better programs." Online programs, which are available in 15 states, he said, "are virtually unregulated." Driver education was initially intended to teach first time drivers basic driving skills and the rudiments of state law enough to pass their driving tests, but little beyond that, experts said. One exception is Oregon, where state officials say that the driver education program has helped reduce teenage accidents and fatalities. Many safety experts say it is among the best programs in the country. The Oregon curriculum includes classroom training, substantial supervised driving instruction and parental involvement. It focuses on risk assessment to help young drivers anticipate problems. The state also trains and certifies instructors, an area that has received little oversight. Troy E. Costales, an executive manager for the Oregon Transportation Department, said: "We are seeing a reduction in citations. We're seeing a reduction in crashes. And we are seeing a reduction in suspensions." Since it overhauled driver training about a decade ago, Oregon has had a reduction of more than 55 percent in the number of 16 year olds behind the wheel when someone is killed or injured in a crash and a drop of almost 40 percent for 17 year olds, said Mr. Costales, who is also chairman of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety offices. Some of the state's success comes from its graduated licensing law, "but the kids who take driver education are outperforming kids who didn't take it," Mr. Costales said, with about 12 percent fewer crashes, 20 percent fewer convictions for driving offenses and about 50 percent fewer suspended licenses. Teenagers who take the state approved course must spend 50 hours behind the wheel, versus 100 for students who don't take the course, but other licensing restrictions are not reduced for graduates. Dan Mayhew, senior vice president of the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Ottawa, said other public and private programs in the United States were incorporating elements similar to the program in Oregon. Michigan, for example, has two stages of driver education that are integrated into its graduated driver licensing program. In the first stage, novice drivers take basic training in class, followed by behind the wheel training and then a return to the classroom "for higher level skills, when they are more ready for them" he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
Magical, subtle, sensitive and touching, "I Kill Giants" is everything the bombastic "A Wrinkle in Time" is not. Written by Joe Kelly (based on his graphic novel with J.M. Ken Niimura), this intimate story about a troubled 12 year old who's on a mission to save her town is virtually tone perfect. That's not easy in a feature (the first from the Danish director Anders Walter, returning to ideas he explored in his 2013 Oscar winning short film, "Helium") that treads a fragile path between adult themes and childlike wonder. Their point of intersection is Barbara (Madison Wolfe), a driven loner who wears bunny ears a nod to her spirit animal and believes that giants are threatening her small coastal community. When we meet her, she's setting ingeniously intricate traps with a jam like bait containing glitter and gummy bears. Later, she checks the protective amulets she's scattered around her school, brushing off a bully with sharp witted confidence. She's not afraid: she's the dragon slayer. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Boris Vaksman, left, was fired from his coaching position at St. John's University after racist statements he made became public. An assistant fencing coach for St. John's University was fired this week after making derogatory remarks about black people in a private lesson, including that they cause "the most trouble." In what appears to be an edited video, the coach, Boris Vaksman, was recorded saying that black people are troublemakers "because they don't want to work." "I think, what's his name, Lincoln, made a mistake," he added, a reference to President Abraham Lincoln, who ended slavery by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The video follows weeks of unrest and protests over police brutality and the killing of George Floyd in police custody. Mr. Vaksman's comments echo several racist episodes recorded and widely circulated on the internet, including remarks made by CrossFit's founder and chief executive. In other cases, organizations across the business spectrum have fired or suspended employees for such behavior. Mr. Vaksman's remarks were recorded during a private fencing lesson on June 3, according to a letter from the Fencers Club in Manhattan. It was unclear where the video originated or how it was leaked, and the club did not elaborate. The club said that it was made aware of the video on June 4 and that two days later the board of directors voted to suspend Mr. Vaksman, require him to take sensitivity training and complete community service. On Thursday, the club terminated his contract. "We apologize the result of our initial decision added incremental pain and anger in our community beyond what the incident itself already understandably has to all of us," the board said. St. John's University, where Mr. Vaksman had been an assistant coach for the fencing team since 2006, fired him on Wednesday. "As soon as the recording was brought to our attention the matter was immediately investigated and the individual was terminated by the university," Mike Cragg, the school's athletic director, said in a statement. "The racist comments expressed are completely unacceptable and a rejection of everything for which the university stands." Mr. Vaksman did not immediately return requests for comment on Saturday. According to a biography that was removed from the St. John's website, Mr. Vaksman is from Ukraine and is a four time national epee champion (epee refers to the type of weapon used) and a four time Soviet Union champion. In his career, Mr. Vaksman also served as the coach for the United States junior national epee team. USA Fencing, the national governing body for the sport, addressed Mr. Vaksman's behavior on Thursday without naming him, saying it was "disgusted" by the racist and offensive remarks. "USA Fencing stands with our black athletes and all underrepresented minorities within the fencing family and will conduct an immediate investigation," it said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
NO TURNING BACK Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria By 378 pp. W.W. Norton Company. 26.95. In early February of this year, a Syrian rebel group with historic links to Al Qaeda shot down a Russian fighter jet near the small town of Saraqeb. A few days later, the journalist posted a message on Twitter from someone suffering there beneath the relentless Russian and Syrian government retaliation: "The airstrikes are beyond what u can imagine, beyond what u can believe, beyond what seems possible. Everything is gone, but we still persist we still know how to laugh cry. There is no one here except the men of the town. We will not leave." Few people in the wider world have ever heard of Saraqeb, but those who read Abouzeid's "No Turning Back" will come to know who those men are. Year after year, Abouzeid followed one of them as he became a warrior and his children grew up under fire, then in exile and then as he made forlorn efforts to return to his home and rebuild. He and his family are part of the story Abouzeid set out to tell about "how a country unraveled one person at a time." Her narrative of the unending Syrian war from 2011 through 2016 and into 2017 offers page after page of extraordinary reporting and many flashes of exquisitely descriptive prose. But it is the characters around whom the story is built who make the book unforgettable, as Abouzeid threads together their stories of hope and loss in a country where "the dead are not merely nameless, reduced to figures. They are not even numbers." Even the United Nations quit counting more than four years ago, although the death toll has been estimated at well over 500,000. Abouzeid follows civilian activists caught up in the fervor of the ill fated Arab Spring who were thrown into the Assad regime's gruesome dungeons and jihadists who were released from them as part of a cynical ploy to polarize the conflict. She introduces us to a college student who wrote poetry in Arabic (raised in Australia by Lebanese parents, Abouzeid is fluent). The poet becomes, almost by default, a commander in a storied militia, only to see his unit devastated by Syrian government attacks, then obliterated by internal divisions and competing foreign interests. Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. None Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more. See what's new in October: Among this month's new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric. Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125. That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books. In another corner of the conflict, Abouzeid tells the story of an Alawite perfume merchant whose wife and eldest daughter are murdered, and whose other children are taken hostage by a jihadist faction. Then she interviews the unrepentant former "emir" of one of the factions involved, whom she has known for years. There is no sympathy for the savage Syrian regime established by Hafez al Assad in 1970, and ruled by his son, Bashar, since 2000, but there is context. The Assads' greatest attribute was, and remains, ruthless patience. Threats, conspiracies, sanctions and wars come and go. They stay. The long struggle between the Assads and the extremists who denounce the Assads' Alawite sect as heretical and who claim to represent the majority Sunni population of Syria is described briefly but with balance and restraint. In 1979, Abouzeid notes, a breakaway faction of the Muslim Brotherhood attacked an artillery school and slaughtered 83 Alawite cadets after separating them from their Sunni comrades. About a year later, two grenades were thrown at the elder Assad. He kicked one away, a bodyguard dove on the other, and Assad survived. The next day his brother Rifaat al Assad slaughtered hundreds of political prisoners at Tadmor prison near Palmyra. In February 1982, "somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 people perhaps more, perhaps less, nobody knows, gunmen and civilians alike were exterminated" by Assad forces in and around the city of Hama. The Assads created a pervasive apparatus where every ministry could be a ministry of fear, and multiple intelligence and security agencies known generically as the mukhabarat spied on and intimidated one another as well as the general population: "Assad's Syria was a mukhabarat state whose intelligence agents didn't bother with the pretense of discretion," Abouzeid writes. "They didn't need to." The blood that was shed so profusely in the early 1980s would color the conflict that erupted 30 years later. The ghosts of those massacred lived on, and some of the children and grandchildren of the slaughtered would bide their time, waiting to fight once again. But they were not the ones who started the uprising in 2011. "Revolution is an intimate, multipart act," Abouzeid writes. "First, you silence the policeman in your head, then you face the policemen in the streets." In early 2011, as she tells us, "the Middle East was electrified by an indigenous democratic fervor," and many Syrians were caught up in it. When Bashar al Assad's response was mass arrests and the repeated slaughter of protesters, people felt they had to resist with weapons as well as chants and banners. Soon the Syrian landscape became a mosaic of groups that called themselves "battalions." Part of the Assad strategy was a calculated gamble. For years, the regime had operated on both sides of the terror chessboard, simultaneously fighting and facilitating the murderous designs of extremists. As Abouzeid mentions in passing and others have confirmed independently, the United States "rendition" program turned over several suspects to the grotesque ministrations of Syria's interrogators. Yet at the height of the American occupation of neighboring Iraq, Assad encouraged Syrian jihadists to go martyr themselves by killing Americans. In May 2011, as the peaceful uprising was gathering momentum, Assad declared an amnesty that released virtually all the Islamic extremists in his prisons. Now he had another use for them, which they understood perfectly well. If they took up arms, as one partisan of Al Qaeda told Abouzeid, "this would allow the regime to say to the world, 'Look at the terrorists.'" In the years that followed, Assad got his wish. He and his Russian and Iranian backers relentlessly portrayed their fight as their own "war on terror" while setting out to slaughter any moderate forces that did not fit that description. This was a recipe for chaos, and such was the fractious, fractured nature of the conflict that over time even the hardened, disciplined fighters linked to Al Qaeda fought among themselves. Abouzeid navigated this increasingly treacherous terrain with legendary courage as she wrote for Foreign Affairs and other publications, building the stories of the people in this book around long, repeated interviews and, often, long days and nights under fire alongside them. The result is a tremendous sense of intimacy with the victims and the violence that surrounds them. In Saraqeb, Abouzeid focuses on Ruha, a little girl of 9 when the war begins and a woman much older than her 14 years when the book ends. "We are children of now, not children of before," Ruha says in the closing pages. Some readers may be surprised at the relatively brief treatment given to events that have made huge headlines around the world. In August 2013, the Assad regime used sarin gas in a Damascus suburb and President Barack Obama hesitated to enforce the red line he had declared against chemical weapons. Eventually a deal cut with the Russians led to the destruction of most of Assad's chemical arsenal, but that was limited comfort to the people of Saraqeb, who had been hit with sarin months earlier without persuading anyone in the international community to do anything to help. A year later, in August 2014, Obama launched limited operations against ISIS in Iraq, and in the following month, after ISIS had beheaded the American journalist James Foley, the still limited American war expanded into Syria. Abouzeid notes, "Many Syrians wondered why the United States waited until Islamic State was at the height of its power to attack it." But this is not a policy book. Indeed, while the depiction of feckless American actions is clear, the alternatives at each stage in this grim history are not so obvious, nor does this book present us with a plan for the future. Many of Abouzeid's central characters have left Syria, and are building new lives in Europe. In Saraqeb, the bombs continue to fall. Today there is, as Abouzeid's title tells us, no turning back, and one reads the book's final pages with no hope of a happy ending. But one also reads them with the conviction that Abouzeid's remarkable journalistic and literary work has given us, at last, a book worthy of the enormous tragedy that is Syria. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
WUHAN, China In the seven years it will take New York City to build a two mile leg of its long awaited Second Avenue subway line, this city of nine million people in central China plans to complete an entirely new subway system, with nearly 140 miles of track. And the Wuhan Metro is only one piece of a 120 billion municipal master plan that includes two new airport terminals, a new financial district, a cultural district and a riverfront promenade with an office tower half again as high as the Empire State Building. The construction frenzy cloaks Wuhan, China's ninth largest city, in a continual dust cloud, despite fleets of water trucks constantly spraying the streets. No wonder the local Communist party secretary, recently promoted from mayor, is known as "Mr. Digging Around the City." The plans for Wuhan, a provincial capital about 425 miles west of Shanghai, might seem extravagant. But they are not unusual. Dozens of other Chinese cities are racing to complete infrastructure projects just as expensive and ambitious, or more so, as they play their roles in this nation's celebrated economic miracle. In the last few years, cities' efforts have helped government infrastructure and real estate spending surpass foreign trade as the biggest contributor to China's growth. Subways and skyscrapers, in other words, are replacing exports of furniture and iPhones as the symbols of this nation's prowess. But there are growing signs that China's long running economic boom could be undermined by these building binges, which are financed through heavy borrowing by local governments and clever accounting that masks the true size of the debt. The danger, experts say, is that China's municipal governments could already be sitting on huge mountains of hidden debt a lurking liability that threatens to stunt the nation's economic growth for years or even decades to come. Just last week China's national auditor, who reports to the cabinet, warned of the perils of local government borrowing. And on Tuesday the Beijing office of Moody's Investors Service issued a report saying the national auditor might have understated Chinese banks' actual risks from loans to local governments. Because Chinese growth has been one of the few steady engines in the global economy in recent years, any significant slowdown in this country would have international repercussions. As municipal projects play out across China, spending on so called fixed asset investment a crucial measure of building that is heavily weighted toward government and real estate projects is now equal to nearly 70 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. It is a ratio that no other large nation has approached in modern times. Even Japan, at the peak of its building boom in the 1980s, reached only about 35 percent, and the figure has hovered around 20 percent for decades in the United States. China's high number helps explain its meteoric material rise. But it could also signal a dangerous dependence on government infrastructure spending. "If China's good at anything, it's infrastructure," said Pieter P. Bottelier, a China expert at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. "But right now it seems the investment rate is too high. How much of that is ill advised and future nonperforming loans, no one knows." For the last decade, as economists have sought to explain China's rise, a popular image has emerged of Beijing technocrats continually and cannily fine tuning the nation's communist capitalist hybrid. But in fact, city governments often work at odds with Beijing's aims. And some of Beijing's own goals and policies can be contradictory. As a result, China's state capitalism is much messier, and the economy more vulnerable, than it might look to the outside world. In the case of Wuhan, a close look at its finances reveals that the city has borrowed tens of billions of dollars from state run banks. But the loans seldom go directly to the local government. Instead, the borrowing is done by special investment corporations set up by the city business entities whose debt shows up nowhere on Wuhan's official financial balance sheet. Adding to the risk, the collateral for many loans is local land valued at lofty prices that could collapse if China's real estate bubble burst. Wuhan's land prices have tripled in the last decade. According to city records, Wuhan U.C.I.D. has 16,000 employees, 25 subsidiaries and 15 billion in assets including the possibly inflated value of the land itself. But it owes nearly as much, about 14 billion. "U.C.I.D. is heavily in debt," a company spokesman, Sun Zhengrong, conceded in an interview. "This may lead to potential problems. So we are trying to make some adjustments." He declined to elaborate, saying the state company's finances were "our core secret." Dozens of other cities are following a similarly risky script: creating off balance sheet corporations that are going deeply into debt for showpiece projects, new subway systems, high speed rail lines and extravagant government office complexes. And they are doing it despite efforts by the central government in Beijing to rein in the excess. To limit the cities' debt, Beijing has long prohibited municipalities from issuing bonds to finance government projects as American cities do as a matter of course. Lately, too, China's central government has put tighter limits on state owned banks' lending to municipalities. But by using off the books investment companies, cities have largely eluded Beijing's rules. Zhang Dong, a municipal government adviser who also teaches finance at the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan, estimates that less than 5 percent of the city's infrastructure spending comes from Wuhan's general budget. "Most of it comes from off the books financing," he said. This system is not a secret from Beijing, which now says there are more than 10,000 of these local government financing entities in China. In fact, because Beijing now takes a large share of government tax revenue, local governments have had to find their own way to grow, and land development is primarily how they have done it. But it is a risky game. A recent report by the investment bank UBS predicted that local government investment corporations could generate up to 460 billion in loan defaults over the next few years. As a percentage of China's G.D.P., that would be far bigger than the 700 billion troubled asset bailout program in the United States. As frightening as that may sound, many analysts see no reason for panic no imminent threat of an economy collapsing banking crisis in China. That is largely because of Beijing's 3 trillion war chest of foreign exchange reserves (much of it invested in United States Treasury bonds), and the fact that China's state run banks are also sitting on huge piles of household savings from the nation's 1.3 billion citizens. Because all that cash is protected by government restrictions on money flowing in and out of the country, a global run on China's banks would be unlikely. The real problem, analysts say, is that municipal government debt in China has begun casting a large shadow over the nation's growth picture. If instead of investing in growth, China had to start spending money to gird the banks against municipal defaults, some experts see a possibility of China eventually lapsing into a long period of Japan like stagnation. Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard economics professor and co author of "This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly," has studied China's boom. He predicts that within a decade China's lofty property bubble and its mounting debts could cause a regional recession in Asia and stifle growth in the rest of the world. "With China, you have the ultimate 'this time is different' syndrome," Professor Rogoff said. "Economists say they have huge reserves, they have savings, they're hard working people. It's naive. You can't beat the odds forever." By Beijing's estimate, total local government debt amounted to 2.2 trillion last year a staggering figure, equal to one third of the nation's gross domestic product. A wave of municipal defaults could become a huge liability for the central government, which is sitting on about 2 trillion in debt of its own. And Beijing's estimate of what the cities owe might be too low, in the view of Victor Shih, a professor of political economy at Northwestern University who has studied China's municipal debt. He says that by now, after even more borrowing in early 2011 and some figures hidden from government audits, total municipal debt in China could be closer to 3 trillion. "Most of the government entities that borrow can't even make the interest payments on the loans," Professor Shih said. Around the clock, seven days a week, the construction crews burrow to build Wuhan's 45 billion subway system. One segment snakes beneath the mighty Yangtze River. "For most areas we dig down 18 to 26 meters," said Lin Wenshu, one of the planning directors of the Wuhan Metro. "But for part of this line we've had to go down 50 meters because there's high pressure and a lot of mud from the river," he said. "But the citizens want a subway system, and so we're going to build it as fast as possible." In all, city officials say there are more than 5,700 construction projects under way in Wuhan. In some neighborhoods, workers demolish old homes with little more than sledgehammers and their bare hands to make way for shopping malls, high rise apartment complexes and new expressways. Having seen Beijing, Shanghai and other coastal metropolises thrive on big infrastructure projects, cities thousands of miles inland, like Wuhan, are trying to do likewise. Wuhan wants to become a manufacturing and transportation hub for the heartland China's version of Chicago. But it is a dream built on debt. This year, relying largely on bank loans, Wuhan plans to spend about 22 billion on infrastructure projects, an amount five times as large as the city's tax revenue last year. And aspirations notwithstanding, Wuhan is still relatively poor. Residents here earn about 3,000 a year, only about two thirds as much as those in Shanghai. But Wuhan has made the most of the soaring value of its land. In the northwest part of the city, for example, bulldozers have cleared a huge tract more than twice the size of Central Park. A dozen years ago it was a military air base. Giant billboards advertise a new purpose: future home of the Wangjiadun Central Business District, featuring office towers and luxury apartments for 200,000 people. That assumes, of course, that financing for the project a web of loans and deals based largely on the underlying value of the land holds up. Planning began in 1999, when the city decided to relocate the air base. After the city ran short of cash for the project, in 2002, it turned to a deep pocketed Beijing developer, the Oceanwide Corporation. Oceanwide agreed to chip in 275 million and pay some of the infrastructure costs in exchange for a prime piece of the land. Since then, the city has sold large plots of the former air base to other developers, while earmarking yet other parcels for future sale to help pay for the new business district. There is no question that China needs new infrastructure and transportation networks if it is to meet its goal of transforming most of its huge population into city dwellers. Less certain is whether the country can afford to keep building at this pace, and whether many of these projects will ever pay off in terms of the economic development they are meant to support. Whether the city would do this by borrowing more money or selling land or assets is unclear. But rolling over old debts with new borrowing is not uncommon among Chinese cities. In 2009, for instance, Wuhan's big investment company, Wuhan U.C.I.D., borrowed 230 million from investors and then used nearly a third of the money to repay some of its bank loans. Mainly, Wuhan's leaders are counting on property prices to continue defying gravity, even if some analysts predict a coming crash. In a report this year, the investment bank Credit Suisse identified Wuhan as one of China's "top 10 cities to avoid," saying its housing stock was so huge that it would take eight years to sell the residences already completed never mind the hundreds of thousands now under construction. But criticism has not deterred Mr. Ruan, the local party secretary, who has vowed to keep his foot on the shovel. "If we don't speed up construction," he said in the speech in February, "many of Wuhan's problems won't be solved." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
Summer travelers who are planning vacations face a modern dilemma: Splurge on a traditional hotel, or potentially save a few bucks by renting someone's home on Airbnb? By now, you have probably heard the horror stories about Airbnb, the tech start up that connects travelers with complete strangers who are making some extra cash by renting out their homes. Scores of guests have groaned about hosts who have canceled reservations at the last minute. Some even say hosts falsely accused them of property damage, demanding compensation. And in rare cases, poorly maintained property has led to deaths. Yet Airbnb is proving an irresistible hotel alternative for travelers. Two million people worldwide stay at an Airbnb rental each night, according to the San Francisco based company. The perks are enticing: Beyond savings, some homes are more spacious or in a better location than a hotel. But those benefits come with higher risk: You are at the mercy of a host who has less at stake than a commercial business. Fret not, frugal traveler. In a past life, I was a Superhost on Airbnb, meaning I hosted many groups that left me flawless reviews and I am well aware of the shortcuts and loopholes that some dishonest hosts take to maximize their profit at the expense of guests. So here's my advice for ensuring you have a smooth stay at an Airbnb, along with some tips on becoming a well reviewed guest. This may sound obvious, but bear with me: Read don't skim an Airbnb listing. Airbnb hosts and their homes vary widely in quality, and you can learn a great deal just from closely reading the listing and its reviews. Don't automatically assume that an Airbnb offering will have all the perks of a hotel, because, well, it's someone's house. Many hosts will be transparent in their listing and mention a lack of air conditioning or a driveway that is difficult to find at night. Other hosts say they have strict house rules for example, no loud parties after 10 p.m. Sometimes, hosts will say up front that the night life on the street outside their home is noisy. Hosts, too, have imperfections, so read guest reviews to learn about them. Perhaps the sheets were dirty or the house was low on toilet paper. I recommend booking only listings with reviews that are at least 90 percent positive. There's something that many Airbnb hosts have in common with hotels: They may raise prices during peak travel seasons. The savviest hosts use dynamic pricing tools that automatically hike prices when demand is likely to be high, similar to Uber's surge pricing. In some cases, Airbnb may be even pricier than a comparable hotel. If you find a listing you love and you are looking to save some cash, there are methods to determine when prices will be lower. By default, an Airbnb listing shows a base price. The simplest way to look at a listing's fluctuations is to open its calendar and click on dates that will probably be in high demand, like the Fourth of July or New Year's Eve. Weekend prices are also generally higher than weekday prices. From there, you can calculate a modest price for that listing and look for dates with that pricing. A big trade off with an Airbnb is there's no security personnel or hotel manager to help when something goes wrong. The onus is on you to protect yourself. For starters, try to keep all your conversations inside Airbnb's messaging app. This is a helpful safeguard in case something goes awry. For example, if a host said in the messaging app that the house is handicapped accessible but you find that it is not, send a photo to the host to complain. Likewise, if something appears to be broken, like the dishwasher, message the host with a photo to document the damage so you aren't blamed for it later. If you fail to reach a resolution with the host, you can ask Airbnb's dispute resolution staff to mediate and all your communications with the host will be visible to Airbnb. Airbnb has some other recommendations: Do a safety check after you enter the house and make sure there is a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher. If something seems odd, contact the host and then, if necessary, call Airbnb's customer service line. Nick Shapiro, who oversees Airbnb's trust and risk management, said the company takes additional safety measures like performing background checks on American hosts and guests, and all reservations are scored for risk. "We work hard to ensure that our guests have a positive and safe experience when traveling with us," he said. To play it extra safe, always have a backup plan. Jot down some attractive hotels near your reservation in case your Airbnb stay falls through. Hosts may cancel reservations for a variety of reasons. I once had to cancel a reservation for a family during the winter when a frozen pipe burst and flooded the house. All of those tips are irrelevant if you can't book on Airbnb in the first place because hosts don't like you. Fortunately, being a superb guest is relatively easy. Jasper Ribbers, a co author of "Get Paid for Your Pad," a book about his experience as an Airbnb Superhost, recommends that guests fill out their profiles with as much detail as possible, including completing verifications of their identity. This helps give a host confidence that you are a real person with nothing to hide. The rest is common sense: Be communicative and polite, follow the house rules and treat the rental as you would a friend's home. That's usually enough to earn you a perfect review from a host. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for The Times, declined to specify the reason that Mr. Jamieson had been investigated. In their message to Times employees, Mr. Baquet and Mr. Kahn said, "To protect the privacy of those involved, we do not intend to comment further." In his statement that was included as part of that note, Mr. Jamieson said, "Leading Metro for the last five years and working with the incredible Times team has been the high point of my professional life." After issuing his apology, he added: "I'm especially proud of all the talent I've helped bring to The Times. Susan Chira is a wonderful editor, a true New Yorker, and I know Metro will rise to even greater heights under her leadership." Mr. Jamieson declined to comment beyond that statement. His Twitter profile appeared to have been removed as of Monday afternoon. Ms. Chira was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize this year for coverage of workplace sexual harassment issues. She has previously served as The Times's deputy executive editor, foreign editor and Tokyo correspondent, and as a reporter on the national, business and metro desks. Last year, The Times investigated another newsroom employee, the prominent political reporter Glenn Thrush, after learning about allegations of inappropriate behavior against him that were later the subject of a report by the website Vox. After a monthlong investigation, Mr. Thrush was suspended without pay. He returned to the newspaper in late January but was moved from the team covering the White House to a beat focused on the country's social safety net. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
LIVERPOOL, England The smile that became so familiar in those first few months has long since disappeared. The sense of awe and wonder that he was allowed to be here, at the club that meant so much to him and in the job he never dared dream of holding, has gone, too, melting away some time between spring and fall. So, too, the nostalgia reflex. At first, in his first weeks as Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had a tendency, an instinct, to hark back to the club's golden past, mentioning Barcelona and 1999 and Alex Ferguson so freely and so easily that it seemed to be automatic. As he sat in front of the news media at Anfield on Sunday night, beaten, 2 0, by the hosts, Solskjaer seemed weary, dejected, a sigh in a club suit. When he returned to Manchester, 13 months ago, it was striking how little he had aged. Solskjaer had always been known, as a player, as the Baby Faced Assassin, and he was still even in his mid 40s somewhat cherubic. No longer. He looks tired, drawn, grayed, a cautionary testament to the pressure he is under and the responsibility he feels. It was immediately apparent how much losing to Liverpool had hurt him. He had to force himself to concede that his opponent now 16 points clear at the summit of the Premier League, with a game in hand and a record that reads, Played 22, Won 21 might just be the best team in England. "At the moment," he added, more placebo than balm. Still, he did what he always does; he trawled for positives. His players had retained their "commitment," he said. That was one. They had "stood up for each other." That's two. In the final half hour, either they made Liverpool "look tired" or United "looked strong." And all of that without three of his key players, after Marcus Rashford joined Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba on the injury list a few days before Sunday's game. This is what all managers do, of course; to some extent it is the whole point of the often futile exercise of the news conference. It is their chance to provide context, to sway a few minds, to make excuses, if necessary. Solskjaer is by no means unique in using it as a stage for self justification. United came to Anfield with a plan. For the most part, that plan worked: Liverpool's fullbacks will have rarely had a less effective afternoon from open play; stymied by United's back three, the league leader's fabled forward line could play only in fits and starts, swarming for brief spells but blunted for much of the game; often, Liverpool's defense seemed hurried in possession, chased and pressed by United's forwards. Of course, United rode its luck at times, with Mohamed Salah and Jordan Henderson hitting the post, Roberto Firmino and Georginio Wijnaldum seeing goals ruled out, and Sadio Mane unusually profligate, but then United created chances, too, most notably for Andreas Pereira and Anthony Martial. Not too much would have had to change for Solskjaer to have left Liverpool with a point, in other words, and a sense of purpose. Though he would not describe it like this, there were, all over the field, small victories to be savored: Brandon Williams's performance on the left; Fred's energy and dynamism in the middle, further proof of a player finding his feet in England; a tactical approach to negating Liverpool that bore fruit. The problem, of course, is that the very best teams can hurt opponents in many and varied ways. Liverpool could not find its rhythm in possession and, until the final kick of the game, was indecisive on the counterattack. So after 15 minutes it scored from a corner, instead. It is possible to frustrate this Liverpool team. It does not yet appear to be impossible to dull it entirely. A little more than a year later, here we are again. The gap between the two has grown. There is no prospect of Solskjaer's suffering the same fate as his predecessor, of course, something that is perhaps proof of how far United has fallen: defeat to Liverpool can now be shrugged off as something that happens, something to be expected, the natural order of things. In part, that is because United has found a remarkable tendency in the last year or so to savor those small victories: the ones that do not add up to any tangible achievement, but the ones that offer an illusion of hope, a mirage of progress. The most egregious example came after a defeat to Manchester City in the first leg of the league cup semifinals earlier this month. The fact that City fielded a full strength team, Solskjaer said, showed how seriously it took Manchester United, how far the team that used to cast a shadow over not only its city but the country has come. But perhaps the best is Solskjaer's ability a happy knack to concoct a win just when he needs it most. It happened against Tottenham, and then City, back in December; there had been a sense, at the start of that week, that two defeats might force the club's board to act. It did not need to. Solskjaer claimed two small victories. United lost at Watford, then adrift at the bottom of the Premier League, not long after, but by then the storm had passed. This is the cycle United finds itself trapped in; it is, as it happens, one that Liverpool fans will remember. There is always a glimmer of hope: a young player coming through, a system that seems promising, a game in which things seem to click, some small victory to cling to. It is beguiling, and it is appealing, and it is understandable, but it is also a distraction. You fixate on the glimmer, and lose sight of where you are standing, where you are going, how far you are falling. Solskjaer, as he reviewed the game, felt Manchester United the biggest club in England, and at the start of the decade a serial winner of trophies at home and abroad lacked just one thing. "We just didn't have that quality," he said, as though that had to be expected, as though it might suddenly reappear, as though that was entirely normal. Perhaps it is, now. Perhaps that is why the smile has gone. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
During a New Year's Eve dinner party several years ago, fun and laughter quickly turned to anguish for Jennifer McAllister Nevins. The pipes in her kitchen were suddenly blocked. And because she lived in a TriBeCa apartment with an open kitchen, all the guests got to witness each chaotic moment as the sink backed up. It's no surprise that Ms. McAllister Nevins, who loves to entertain, now lives in a different TriBeCa loft, one with an enclosed kitchen. "Sometimes I'm not as organized as I hoped, and other times there's just a mess," she said. Her next event at home is a party next month for Savor, a company she owns with a friend, which makes stylish keepsake boxes. "I like having the option of having your kitchen be a private or public space." Open kitchen floor plans have dominated home design for years, especially in new construction, and kitchen size has expanded as a result. Reviewing average kitchen size in a dozen new developments and apartment building conversions before 2000, the real estate firm Engel Volkers found that the average kitchen accounted for about 6 percent of the total square footage of the apartment. But in comparable developments after 2010, the agency found that as kitchens have been opened up to adjoining dining or living rooms, the average kitchen now takes up about 8 percent of the entire apartment. Kitchen size aside, the pendulum has started to swing back toward enclosed kitchens. Several new residential buildings in Manhattan have offered separated kitchens a nod to prewar apartment design, but also to the growing demand from potential buyers looking for separate cooking and entertaining spaces. "I grew up in the Upper East Side and never saw an open kitchen," said Edward Yedid, a partner of Grade New York, an interior design and architecture firm. When designing the Twenty 1, a nine unit condominium at 117 West 21st Street in Chelsea, Mr. Yedid decided to separate the kitchens because the units were all floor through, with space to incorporate walls and hallways. He chose to use sliding solid oak doors in the kitchen in six units, so the residents would have "control on how they used the kitchen," he said. "For someone who isn't sure if they want an open or closed kitchen, pocket doors are a great feature," Mr. Yedid said. Mark Kolodziejczak, a partner of Studio Tractor Architecture, a firm hired by Ms. McAllister Nevins to renovate her current TriBeCa loft, said he has long discussions with clients about how they foresee using the kitchen. Do they prefer having a kitchen that will be the social center of the home or something more muted? While the kitchen in Ms. McAllister Nevins's new apartment was separate from the entertaining space, it did not have doors, so she decided to install two large pocket doors, a design accent that seems to be gaining popularity. Of the roughly 450 respondents to a recent survey by the National Kitchen and Bath Association, a trade group made up of kitchen and bath designers and suppliers, about 70 percent said they used pocket doors as part of a kitchen remodeling or new construction project in 2015. Bryan Cho, an executive vice president of the Related Companies, said his company had not built a residential building with a closed kitchen floor plan since the 1990s. But demand for larger rental apartments for families was high, he said, so Related included 45 three and four bedroom apartments in the Easton, a high rise rental at 205 East 92nd Street with 230 units. All these larger units will have closed kitchens. Some will have open entries; others will have space for a small table, or a dining alcove attached. "I think some people are attracted to a more formal way of life, so maybe the trend is shifting between having a big open space to cook and entertain to having some separation," Mr. Cho said. But if you have more room, you can get creative, said Mr. Penick, whose company is a developer of 53W53, a condominium tower that is rising next to the Museum of Modern Art. More than 90 percent of the units in the building will have separate kitchens that can be closed by a floor to ceiling automatic sliding door, he said. The extra wall space created by enclosing a kitchen opens up more design options, Mr. Penick said. "There's more storage, more counter space and room to populate kitchen specific designs." Closed kitchens also work well for those who entertain a lot and hire caterers and private chefs. "You don't want your dinner party guests to walk through the kitchen and see what's being served," said Phillip Mendlow, a senior vice president of Bluerock Real Estate, which developed the Charles, a 27 unit condominium on the Upper East Side where all apartments come with closed kitchens. Some developers are also testing out hybrid kitchen floor plans. Ian Schrager, a developer who recently broke ground on 160 Leroy, said all of the 49 condo units will have two fully equipped kitchens. The 300 square foot enclosed chef's kitchen can be closed off by a sliding door, while the adjacent open "social kitchen" is anchored by a large marble island and countertop. He said he took the idea from his own home, where he custom installed a second, "dirty" kitchen. "I personally don't mind when people cook and wash dishes in front of me," Mr. Schrager said. "I like the social aspect of an open kitchen. But some people don't like that." The two kitchen concept isn't new. Many farms and suburban homes traditionally had second kitchens, often called summer kitchens, so the heat from the stove didn't raise the temperature in the entire house during the summer. In a stand alone hut on the property, or in a small room in the back of the house or in the basement, they were used for butchering meat and making and preserving jams. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
When Carly Feinstein was in ninth grade, her dentist sent her to an orthodontist. "I cried for three hours when I heard I had to get braces," said Carly, now 16, who lives in New York City. "I worried about how I would look. It would have been so embarrassing." But like an increasing number of adolescents, she was delighted to learn that she did not need to get traditional metal braces after all. She was treated with clear aligners instead. The American Association of Orthodontists estimates that nearly 4.3 million patients 17 years old and younger were treated in North America in 2016, a 66 percent increase since 1989. But as treatment with removable clear plastic aligners moves from the adult to the younger market, orthodontists are treating more children without using traditional fixed bracket and wire braces. And now the treatment is becoming available to younger patients, even some children who still have baby teeth. Align Technology, the maker of the brand Invisalign, reports that from 2013 to 2017 sales of its products for teenagers increased from approximately 100,000 to over 235,000. In the last two years, Invisalign's volume of teen and tween patients grew faster than that of adults. In July, the company introduced a new product called Invisalign First for children who have both baby teeth and permanent ones, known as mixed dentition. Children tend to lose their primary teeth between the ages of 6 and 12, and many orthodontists wait to use a complete set of traditional braces until most baby teeth have come out. Aligners could be used in kids as young as 6. But some experts are skeptical about their use in such young children because baby teeth have less surface area for aligners to hold on to, said Dr. Brent Larson, president of the American Association of Orthodontists and director of the division of orthodontics at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry. Many orthodontists feel that the jury is still out on using aligners while teeth are still falling out and coming in. "Adolescents who have lost all their baby teeth have done well, but nobody quite knows for sure what's going to work predictably and what's not for mixed dentition," Dr. Larson said. And unlike metal braces, aligners can be taken out in the school cafeteria, left on a lunch tray and accidentally thrown away a risk parents of children in elementary school may need to consider. Clear aligners, around since the 1970s, can now be generated from 3 D scans electronically sent to a manufacturer along with X rays, photos and a detailed prescription from the orthodontist directing how to address misaligned teeth, known as malocclusions. The patient gets a series of sequential, snug fitting, clear plastic aligner trays, which usually can move the teeth into the desired position in six to 18 months depending on the complexity of the case. Aligners initially were marketed as braces for adults, but as the products improved, manufacturers saw an opportunity to sell them to an appearance conscious younger market. Invisalign Teen was introduced in 2008. In 2017, the company introduced a new version of the product, which is intended to both align the teeth and move the lower jaw forward. "I think it started out by orthodontists who used aligners aggressively in their practice of adults, and started experimenting with teens," Dr. Larson said. Consumer demand is a big factor driving the trend, energized by a culture of social media in which teens increasingly feel they are defined by how others perceive their physical appearance. Direct to consumer advertising and technology allowing for customization also play a part. According to Dr. Larson, there are not many well designed clinical trials showing the effectiveness of aligners for adults, and even fewer for teens, but there is a lot of clinical evidence and experience showing that for certain types of dental problems, aligners can be very effective. When clear aligners first arrived on the scene, the technology was inefficient and orthodontists were skeptical. "Now, after years of thinking they were an inferior appliance in all cases, we see them being equivalent in many cases and superior in some cases," said Dr. Alexander Waldman, an orthodontist in private practice in Los Angeles. The advantages of clear aligners include invisibility, removability and less pain. "There's no teenager who wants braces. It's awkward to wear them. The little kids sometimes don't mind as much but if I have a 14 year old girl in my chair, it better be a clear aligner case," said Dr. Elliott Moskowitz, a clinical professor in orthodontics at New York University College of Dentistry who is also in private practice in New York City. "Five years ago, my practice was 100 percent fixed traditional braces. Today it's 80 percent clear aligners," he added. Orthodontists say that traditional brackets exert more force on the teeth, so patients can experience more pain. And metal pieces rubbing against the cheeks can cause irritation and sore spots. "In our office there are fewer emergencies and extra visits to fix broken components and fewer appointments to complete treatment with clear aligners," Dr. Waldman said. "That means much less time off from school and after school activities." Oral hygiene is also generally better with clear aligners because patients take them out to eat and brush their teeth, whereas it can be challenging for kids to floss and clean around wire braces. While removability is a perk, especially for those tween and teen coming of age events, manufacturers recommend wearing clear aligners for 22 hours each day to produce high quality and long lasting results. Patient compliance is critical as the control over outcome shifts from the orthodontist to the patient. "With braces, without cooperation, we get straight teeth. With aligners and a lack of cooperation you get nothing but a bill that you have to pay for something that has not been completed," said Dr. John Marchetto, an orthodontist in private practice in Weston, Fla. Some orthodontists don't think it's worth the trouble. "There's a lot more diligence required with clear aligners. You have to take them out even when you drink colored beverages. When you eat, you don't want to shove it back in your mouth and have food in between the aligner and your teeth," said Dr. Bina Park, an orthodontist in private practice in New York City and Greenwich, Conn. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Well |
No airbrushing controversy here. Jennifer Lawrence is fully brushed in a new painting by the artist John Currin. The portrait is one of four different cover images commissioned by Vogue for its September issue, marking the magazine's 125th anniversary. Despite Mr. Currin's reputation for eroticism, his portrait of Ms. Lawrence is demure. She appears wearing a simple tan chemise and a Miu Miu patterned fur hat, holding a purple and green purse. "To be in a situation of producing a cover for this famous magazine, I'm a little scared," Mr. Currin said in an interview. "I do worry about decorum." The other three covers will feature photographs of Ms. Lawrence, by Annie Leibovitz, Bruce Weber and the duo Inez and Vinoodh. This is the actress's third appearance on Vogue's cover. (She has also been on the cover of the British edition.) The painting puts Mr. Currin's many influences on full display. Ms. Lawrence is depicted in a Mannerist pose, unnatural but elegant. Perspective is minimized and a rococo palette competes with a hint of Dutch old master sobriety. The hat provides the element of the absurd that Mr. Currin is known for. And all of this is filtered through a pictorial style that evokes classic magazine illustrations from the 1930s and 1940s. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
MOST people struggle to plan their financial futures beyond the next decade, while those with money and foresight are likely to think well in advance about what they want to leave their children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren. But what about planning for eternity? It seems too long to contemplate. Yet in the last several decades, states have begun competing with one another for the business of perpetual trusts, which are designed to last forever, or at least 1,000 years in the case of Wyoming. And people have been putting their millions and billions into them, eschewing traditional trusts, which typically end after 100 years. The reasons are both dynastic and technical. They allow trust creators to maintain some control beyond their lifetimes. And they help protect the fortunes from taxes and creditors. (States benefit from the fees and taxes they can charge the owners of the trusts.) But now a Harvard Law School professor, Robert H. Sitkoff, has written an academic paper making the case that perpetual trusts are unconstitutional in some of the very states that have tried hardest to persuade people to establish them. Even people who set up perpetual trusts in states where they are legal could find themselves in trouble: Lawsuits brought in a state where the trusts are prohibited could result in those out of state assets being counted in any settlement, he said. "Why do we care about these perpetual trusts?" Mr. Sitkoff said. "Because there's a lot of money in them. Billions of dollars is pouring into these jurisdictions." Put another way: All of those carefully worded and very sophisticated documents, whose drafting cost clients tens of thousands of dollars in billable hours, may not accomplish what they intend. A bit of history first. Perpetual trusts have existed for charitable purposes all the way back to Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. Up until recently, trusts were subject to a limit on duration based on the life span of all the people alive when it was created plus 21 years typically about 100 years. The first state to allow perpetual trusts (that is, with no time limit) that were meant to preserve family wealth was South Dakota in 1983, followed by Delaware in 1995. By the 2000s, the practice took off. In addition to creating a legacy to last for the ages, perpetual trusts do not have to make distributions say, on someone's 40th birthday, when he could be embroiled in a lawsuit or end at a specific time. "By never requiring a trust to be distributed to a beneficiary, you're protecting those assets for future generations," said Gail Cohen, vice chairman and general trust counsel at Fiduciary Trust. "If you create a trust that says when the beneficiaries turn 35, give them half, you don't know what is going to be happening to them at what age. They could be in a messy divorce." If these trusts are set up properly, they can grow without tax liabilities as they are passed between the generations. Critics of perpetual trusts have argued against them on moral grounds saying tying up money for generations is bad public policy and could lead to a virtual aristocracy. But Mr. Sitkoff is taking a new tack by questioning their legality. In the paper, "Unconstitutional Perpetual Trusts," which will appear in the coming issue of The Vanderbilt Law Review, Mr. Sitkoff and his co author, Steven J. Horowitz, an associate at the law firm Sidley Austin, argue that legal challenges to these trusts could come from two sources: creditors in a state where the trusts are unconstitutional who are seeking ways to maximize their settlements and view the trusts as large sources of money, and descendants who want to break the trust and get their money now and without strings attached. Nine states constitutionally prohibit perpetual trusts: North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming and Montana. But five of those states have designed legal workarounds that permit them to exist with certain limitations. Nevada, for example, which has been aggressive in attracting trust business, tried to change its constitution to allow perpetual trusts in 2002, but voters rejected it. The state settled instead for trusts lasting 365 years. But Mr. Sitkoff asked if even that was constitutional. "It's a matter of degree," he said. "It's like 'if I shoot you 10 times' is a stronger case than 'if I shoot you twice.' The prosecutor is still going to win the 'I shot you twice.' Three hundred sixty five years is longer than the existence of the United States." Mr. Sitkoff's paper might roil the waters in trusts touched in some way by these nine states either by people who live there or people who have set up trusts there. A simple example is a divorce case in Texas in which the spouse being sued has the bulk of his assets in a trust in Delaware. The court in Texas does not have jurisdiction in Delaware, but it could count those assets as part of the marital estate and order the man to pay half of them to his wife, Mr. Sitkoff said. Another example might be two children who inherited their parents' wealth in a perpetual trust but did not want to abide by the distribution rules. They could argue that the trust was invalid, and if there were no fallback provisions in the estate plan, it would be as if their parents had died intestate. At that point, the assets would simply be split between their heirs. "Every trust that was created under the authority of one of those statutes is vulnerable," Mr. Sitkoff said. "There's a very powerful argument that the courts in those states will decide." With billions of dollars at stake, not everyone agrees with the professor's position. Richard W. Nenno, senior managing director and trust counsel at the Wilmington Trust Company, which is based in Delaware, where perpetual trusts are legal, said clients who lived in Texas, where these trusts are unconstitutional, could get around any problems by moving as many assets as possible to Delaware and appointing trustees in Delaware to oversee the trust. "You want to minimize your ties with Texas," he said. "If you do that and questions come up, the Delaware courts are going to be the courts that say the trust rules apply and the trust is perfectly valid." It is on this point of states' rights that Nevada would most likely defend its trust business. "I don't see a scenario how the Nevada courts would compel a trust company in Nevada to recognize another state's assertion of jurisdiction," said Greg Crawford, co manager of the Alliance Trust Company in Reno. "We're pretty protective of our industry." Yet even the possibility of such a fight carries costs, and that might make people rethink their reach for immortality or at least where they make that reach. But if they have already set up a trust, what steps can they take to fix it? A person who has set up a perpetual trust in a state with conflicting law could petition the state court for guidance on the matter, Mr. Sitkoff said. The person could also move to a state without the conflicting law. Or that person could simply hope no one challenges the trust That is not the most reassuring advice for someone with millions of dollars at stake. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
INDIANAPOLIS Takuma Sato, the Japanese driver who has won more than 4.5 million in prize money with two victories now at the Indianapolis 500 since 2017, certainly misses the comforts of home his home, anyway. After earning another big payday with a victory on Sunday in the Indy 500's 104th running, Sato, 43, revealed that he had spent much of this year sleeping on the floor at a friend's house in Indianapolis. "Since the start of the quarantine for coronavirus I have been unable to go home to Japan," Sato said. "My family is in Tokyo. I am unable to go there. They are unable to come see me." It seemed like a temporary situation, so Sato never made any kind of permanent, or even longer term arrangements for a place to stay in the United States. One month became two, then three; now eight. So when he is not at the racetrack, where he can at least hang out in his team's luxurious motor home, Sato often crashes at a home belonging to a friend who is an Indianapolis businessman. Isn't it strange, Sato was asked, that a driver who can so easily drive into victory lane at Indy cannot drive into his own driveway? "Yes, this has been an awkward and inconvenient situation for so many people," Sato said in an interview on Monday. "This was supposed to be the year of the Tokyo Olympics, too; I was scheduled to carry the Olympic torch. Now the Games have been postponed until 2021. It is so sad." Sato, who enjoys the popularity of a rock star when he is in Japan, hopes he can return home long before the rescheduled Olympics next summer without affecting his demanding travel schedule as a driver. But there is no guarantee that travel restrictions will ease in the immediate future. And there are health based restrictions on where competitors in the IndyCar Series can go these days. So, for now, Sato has focused on winning races like Indianapolis his favorite race, for obvious reasons and the 2020 IndyCar Series season championship. Despite his two Indy victories, a season title has so far eluded him in 11 seasons in the sport. Despite his victory at Indy, a double points bonanza in the title equation, Sato still only sits sixth, well behind the leader, Scott Dixon of New Zealand, whom he beat in an anti climactic finish on Sunday. Faced with a choice of temporarily stopping the race under a red flag condition to clean up the mess, or just letting the cars idle around the final few laps, officials chose perhaps the less popular option for everyone but Sato. Sato's Honda powered racer was, at that moment, running out of fuel faster than the race was running out of laps. "We knew we would be tight on fuel," Sato said. "We made our final pit stop one lap earlier than Scott did. So we had less fuel to work with. We had to work harder to save fuel than he did in the final laps. But I was confident we had enough fuel to make it to the finish." Dixon wasn't so sure. He had led the race for 111 of 200 laps more than anyone else when Sato decided to pass him with 28 laps to go. Dixon seemed content to slipstream behind Sato to save fuel, and to wait to mount his attack until the final laps. "I perhaps should have been more aggressive," said Dixon, the 2008 Indy winner who also now has three runner up finishes all in events that finished under yellow. He tried to get around Sato with about 10 laps to go, but he backed off when Sato blocked the inside lane. Sato said he was inviting Dixon to use the outside line to pass him, just as Sato had done to take the lead earlier. "I protected the inside line, which is the shortest way around," Sato said. "I think that was fair. I would not have blocked him had he tried to go around me on the outside. I don't know, however, if he would have been successful at that." Dixon said: "I could have gone harder to the high side. But I think he would have just run me up the track there anyway, which could have ended with us both in the fence, if not just me." Perhaps that would have been true. Sato has a go for broke personality that makes him a fan favorite. But he has more than once found himself the victim of his own aggression. "No attack, no chance, is my motto," Sato said. In that situation, Sato said, he preferred being in the lead, in danger of running out of fuel, to being Dixon's pursuer and having to attempt a pass while low on fuel. Recalling his final lap crash in the 2011 race while dueling the eventual winner, Dario Franchitti, Sato said going for the win was all that mattered. "You may face many hurdles in trying to achieve your dreams," Sato said. "But it is your passion to get what you want that is the key. If you take this passion and use it do whatever it takes to get closer to your dreams, you will be able to attain them." He added, "I have faced many hurdles and limitations, but opportunity came to me always when I tried to move forward. Opportunities only come to those who challenge themselves." Now, if he can just find an opportunity to conveniently get home again. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Loewe looks as if it's pronounced like Lowe's, the home improvement store, but it is triple syllabic, Lo Way Vay. The company, based in Madrid, is now in its 174th year, and its new store, on Greene Street in SoHo, is its first in New York. Originally a collective of leather craftsmen, the house expanded in 2013, when Jonathan Anderson was named creative director, and has since gained fashion (and presumably financial) traction. Now Loewe sells craft focused ready to wear and accessories that take pride in cultural references, like Mr. Anderson's recent capsule collection inspired by the Arts and Crafts tile designer William De Morgan. Inside the store, furniture and artworks are arranged to feel like a collector's apartment (a retail concept the brand calls Casa Loewe). The aesthetic is muted deluxe: walk worn original oak floors, girthy terra cotta vases full of petaled branches, a mix of stark and playful art, Campaspero limestone, and, on the low black coffee table, a gilded rat with gem eyes (by the artist Thomas Lanigan Schmidt). My favorite decor was a set of sculptural baskets. On the Loewe Instagram page there's an interview with Joe Hogan, the basket maker whose willow pieces are featured in the store. "Everything is a learning curve, you know," he said. "You think, but could I improve that? So every time I make a basket, I'm asking myself that question. Is there anything I would do differently? Or change or improve?" | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Under the Sea, a Missing Link in the Evolution of Complex Cells Unlike bacteria, humans have big, complex cells, packed with nuclei containing DNA and mitochondria that produce energy. All so called eukaryotes share our cellular complexity: animals, plants, fungi, even single celled protozoans like amoebae. Scientists estimate that the first eukaryotes evolved about 2 billion years ago, in one of the greatest transitions in the history of life. But there is little evidence of this momentous event, no missing link that helps researchers trace the evolution of life from simple microbes to eukaryotes.. On Wednesday, a team of scientists announced the discovery of just such a transitional form. At the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, they found microbes that have many but not all of the features previously only found in eukaryotes. These microbes may show us what the progenitors of complex cellular organisms looked like. "This is a genuine breakthrough," said Eugene Koonin, an evolutionary biologist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information who was not involved in the research. "It's almost too good to be true." In the 1970s, scientists got their first major clue about the origins of eukaryotes. Carl Woese, a microbiologist at the University of Illinois, and his colleagues compared genetic material from different species to reconstruct the tree of life. Their analysis indicated that there were three major branches. One branch included bacteria, among them such familiar species as E. coli. A second branch, which Dr. Woese dubbed archaea, included lesser known species of microbes that live in extreme environments such as swamp bottoms and hot springs. Eukaryotes, which form the third branch, are more closely related to archaea than bacteria. Over the past 40 years, as scientists have discovered new species of microbes and developed powerful ways to compare their DNA, the tree of life has come into sharper focus. A number of recent studies have indicated that eukaryotes are not actually a third separate branch. Instead, they evolved from archaea. Thijs J. G. Ettema, a microbiologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, was struck by the fact that the species of archaea most closely related to eukaryotes lived in the deep seafloor. It was possible that even closer relatives might be waiting to be discovered there. By a stroke of good fortune, Steffen L. Jorgensen, a microbiologist at the University of Bergen, had been digging up sediment from two miles below the surface of the Arctic Ocean. A preliminary look at the sediment revealed archaea living in some layers. Dr. Jorgensen offered Dr. Ettema some of the sediment to investigate more closely. Dr. Ettema and his colleagues set out to extract the DNA from the sediment and analyze it. But it was a risky undertaking. Dr. Jorgensen could provide them with only 10 grams of sediment an amount that could easily fit in a teaspoon. Dr. Ettema also knew that this spoonful of muck would not have many microbes in it. In their cold, dark, starved environment, these microbes barely grow. By comparison, a spoonful of ordinary backyard soil may have a million times more microbes. It was clear that Dr. Ettema and his colleagues would have to use up just about all the sediment to find enough DNA to analyze. If they made a blunder along the way, they would have nothing left to study. "There was just one shot," Dr. Ettema said. Fortunately, Dr. Ettema and his colleagues succeeded. It turned out that the sediment contained DNA from a lineage of archaea unlike any previously found. The scientists dubbed it Lokiarchaeum, named for a hydrothermal vent called Loki's Castle near the location where the archaea were found. Among these genes were many that build special compartments inside eukaryote cells. Inside these compartments, called lysosomes, eukaryote cells can destroy defective proteins. All eukaryotes also share a cellular skeleton that they constantly build and tear down to change their shape. Dr. Ettema and his colleagues found many genes in Lokiarchaeum that encode the proteins required to build the skeleton. It's possible that Lokiarchaeum use their skeleton to crawl over surfaces as protozoans do. Lokiarchaeum's genes also suggest that it can swallow up molecules or microbes as eukaryotes do. All in all, Lokiarchaeum was much more complex than other archaea and bacteria, although not as complex as true eukaryotes. The new study indicates that they lacked a nucleus and mitochondria. But Dr. Ettema's discovery illuminates how a Lokiarchaeum like ancestor could have evolved into the first full blown eukaryotes. Once the ancestors of eukaryotes evolved a complex skeleton, the next major step may have been the origin of mitochondria. Scientists have long known that mitochondria evolved from bacteria. They contain their own DNA, which is more like that of free living bacteria than the genes in the cell's nucleus. A number of researchers have proposed that the ancestors of eukaryotes swallowed up free living bacteria. The bacteria became mitochondria, providing fuel for their host cell. Lokiarchaeum, with its potential to graze for microbes, is precisely the sort of microbe required in this scenario. Once early eukaryotes acquired mitochondria, they gained the energy to fuel a much bigger, more complex cell. In 2006, Dr. Koonin and William Martin of the University of Dusseldorf proposed that mitochondria triggered the evolution of a nucleus. The two sets of genes could wreak havoc if they interfered with each other. Dr. Koonin and Dr. Martin proposed that eukaryotes gradually build a barrier to keep them separated. As revealing as Lokiarchaeum's genes are, there are limits to what they can tell scientists. "We don't even know how big the cells are," said Dr. Ettema. Dr. Ettema and his colleagues are trying to study the Lokiarchaeum microbes themselves now. They've gotten new sediment samples, and they can detect the microbes inside them. But the microbes die off before the scientists can learn much about them. So the researchers are trying to create conditions in which the microbes will survive and even grow, mimicking the cold temperatures and high pressure of Lokiarchaeum's natural environment. But they are still trying to figure out other factors the microbes need to thrive, such as what sort of carbon they feed on. "It's definitely not easy," said Dr. Ettema, "but we're not giving up. There are so many questions this is a whole new biology we have to study." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
CAPE TOWN To cut themselves free of the gender norms fed to them since birth, young South Africans aren't using sharp edges but rather soft fabrics and turns of phrase. Their fashion and styling choices, as well as the words they use to describe their own bodies, challenge essentialism and the notion that any of our outward characteristics are fixed. These young South Africans, most visible in urban centers like Cape Town, are playful in the ways they present themselves to the world. They eschew European designer labels manufactured for consumerism in favor of local designers, many of whom have caught the spirit of the moment. That Cape Town, known as the "Mother City," has become a front in the war on Western gender roles is somewhat fitting. It's where the Dutch and, later, the British began their colonization of South Africa in earnest. Dressing has long been a critical lens for identifying differences across and within cultures. European colonialists in southern Africa used clothing as a boundary marker and an indicator of hierarchy. Today they no longer sport full bottomed periwigs, replete with curls, but echoes of their black and white Dutch colonial garments, handmade lace collars and tight buckle boots appear in everyday men's wear. Colonialism still hangs thick in the Cape Town air. Not even the Cape Doctor, a powerful summer wind thought to relieve the city of pollution, has been able to clear it. It's no coincidence that this rebellion against gender and Eurocentrism has been led by queer, trans and gender nonconforming young people. Their protest is a means of self preservation. Citizens of South Africa may be protected by what some have called the most progressive constitution in the world, but, in the streets, this grand piece of paper is too easily blown away by the realities of a country where 67 percent of the population, according to a Human Sciences Research Council report, agrees with this statement: "I think it is disgusting when men dress like women and women dress like men." Today in many of the country's metropolitan areas, men still walk around in European style suits and ties, as well as closed leather shoes, in the sweltering heat of summer hardly the picture of utility. Their uniform is a colonial relic, an antiquated symbol of wealth and masculine power that many still buy into. The rejection of gender norms has been raging for some time all over the world, but there is something distinctly pro African in the character of Cape Town's sartorial resistance. It has sprung forth from the realities of life in cities and the townships that surround them: from having no choice but to fight back against daily violence, threats and intimidation these young people face for their outward expression of their sexual orientation and gender identity. In a recent study conducted by Out LGBT Well Being, 88 percent of L.G.B.T. people who have experienced violence do not report incidences. In Cape Town, known to be the queer capital of South Africa, young people often escape through night life. But even traditional gay clubs are hostile to nonconformity, so alternative queer spaces have begun to emerge. The buzz cut on the androgyne, the textured wig on the femme doing a power gwara gwara on the dance floor, the variety of colored and textured plaits, braids, box cuts, high top fades and Afros that fill up the space they speak to a decidedly local phenomenon. When the lights come on at 2 a.m. and the club doors close, life resumes as usual. The wealthier among the clubgoers return to the safety of their homes, ensconced in cars, free from the judging eyes and often hostile tongues of the public. Some take off their wigs, wipe off their makeup and slip into a change of clothes that will make them inconspicuous while using the country's disjointed public transport to get home. Others step out of the club and face the world exactly as they are. What the present moment seems to signify is the emergence of a fresh, unrestricted image of African gender and masculinity that rejects the dominant masculine ideal of toughness, even in a hostile world. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
70% of E.U. Adults Are Fully Vaccinated, Official Says | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
The Buyers Rue the cat has settled in, along with Andrea Wolinetz, left, and Alexis Placzek. The small duplex on West 69th Street had been handed down to Andrea Wolinetz and Alexis Placzek by friends. During their three years there, the 2,050 a month rent had risen to 2,300 still a steal, but "not the same sort of steal," Ms. Placzek said. In any event, she added, "there were obvious things that were not O.K. about it." The apartment had a shared back patio but little light. The tiny kitchen was a problem for Ms. Wolinetz, 34, who works in online advertising and also has a culinary degree. "It was a balancing act of Jenga like proportions to cook in that space," she said. After entertaining friends, she refused cleanup help because there was room for only one person. Worst of all was the slippery wooden spiral staircase erupting from the floor "like a submarine hatch," said Ms. Placzek, 30, who works for a wine importer. It led to the downstairs bedroom, large but dark. They had a "no socks on the stairs" rule to guard against slips and falls. The wall was dented from some past tenant's knee. "I gave myself a carpet burn through my pants falling down those steps," Ms. Placzek said. They couldn't afford to stay on the Upper West Side. Purchase prices were affordable, but maintenance charges seemed ridiculously high. After scrutinizing online listings, the couple found a condominium in a former industrial building on 15th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn, for 659,000, plus around 500 in monthly charges. Though it seemed dark, it included a terrace and a washer/dryer. They liked it, but not quite enough. It was still early in the hunt, and "I felt we didn't have our act together," Ms. Placzek said. Feeling pressed to make an offer, "I felt myself getting nervous and frantic." They moved on, and that apartment later sold for 645,000. In Co op Village on the Lower East Side, where friends lived, prices were right generally in the low 500,000s, with maintenance around 800. One two bedroom was especially to their liking, with a huge kitchen and a lot of closet space. But the boxy layout was boring. The neighborhood lacked greenery and was far from the subway. "We would be taking exponentially more cabs," Ms. Wolinetz said. Along the way, Ms. Placzek said, they realized that "we needed someone in our corner," so she contacted Victoria Hagman, the founder of Realty Collective, formerly her downstairs neighbor. Last fall, the three met for coffee and formulated a plan. Ms. Hagman emphasized the importance of layout. "We had a lot of room in our bedroom that we didn't use," Ms. Placzek said. "Right off the bat, I was, like, if we have to have a tiny shoe box bedroom, that's O.K. We don't hang out in the bedroom." A big living area was more important. Their first foray with Ms. Hagman was back to 15th Street in Park Slope, this time to a duplex two bedroom condominium in a prewar building. To their surprise, they immediately knew it was for them. The apartment lacked outdoor space, but the light made up for that. There was no washer/dryer, but the building had a basement laundry room. The master bedroom was small, but big enough. "It is as though you had taken our apartment on 69th Street, doubled it and moved it to Park Slope," Ms. Wolinetz said right down to the spiral staircase. But for some reason, this spiral staircase didn't bother them. It was made of metal, not wood, and was less steep. Such a change of heart is common, Ms. Hagman said. Often, clients "say they don't want this, this and this, but they get into the space and say they can make an exception. We threw the plan we created an hour before out the window, and made an offer." The couple bought the place for 626,000, just above the asking price; monthly charges are almost 1,100. Then they waited. The building was being converted from a rental to a condominium. They were finally able to move in the summer. "It is light and airy and warm and cozy at the same time," Ms. Wolinetz said. She can cook elaborate meals in the big kitchen. With a dishwasher, there's little need for cleanup help. Their longer commutes to work are not a problem. "You can read a lot more it's O.K.," Ms. Placzek said. Their bedroom, in the back of the building, is quiet. They were not, however, expecting to hear loud traffic noise in the living room. Whenever they had viewed the apartment, the windows had been closed. For weeks their cat, Rue, hid from the sound. "It is a lot of turning the volume up on the TV and turning it down," Ms. Wolinetz said. "I put in a vote to start looking into soundproof windows." Being homeowners is a big change. They engaged a designer, who helped them pick out furniture and replaced two giant ancient radiators with sleek new ones. That was "about the most adult moment I feel I've ever had," Ms. Wolinetz said. "You can rip out radiators? I didn't even know it was something you could do." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
"Most of the time, I was the only woman of color in any room," Noelle Scaggs said of her experience in the music industry. Shortly before Covid 19 shut the concert industry down, Noelle Scaggs, one of the singers in the alt pop band Fitz and the Tantrums, began noticing that there was seldom anyone else like her on the road. A Black woman in a band of white men, Scaggs saw few other women of color on festival stages. Behind the scenes among the touring crews and other industry personnel she came into contact with the situation was no different. "Most of the time," Scaggs said in an interview, "I was the only woman of color in any room." Over the summer, as Black Lives Matter protests pushed the music industry into self examination, with major record labels promising to diversify their ranks, Scaggs began developing a plan to break the homogeneity of the concert world the multibillion dollar business that provides most artists a majority of their income but has received less scrutiny over the makeup of its workers and executives. Scaggs's initiative, Diversify the Stage, aims to give more opportunities to people of color, women, transgender and L.G.B.T.Q. people throughout the touring industry, particularly in production and technical positions. In a business that runs on status quo, with the same staff hired for tour after tour, Scaggs is also challenging fellow artists to use their influence over who is hired. "We have the power to create the demand for more diverse workforces," Scaggs said. "We have the power to place pressure on businesses and those who staff our tours to evolve and hold them accountable for making inclusivity a quantifiable action, not just a statement." Scaggs, 40, has been a steady presence in R B and alternative music for two decades, first as a well traveled vocalist she sang on the Black Eyed Peas' 2003 hit "Let's Get It Started" and, since 2008, in Fitz and the Tantrums, which walks a line between neo soul and high energy alternative pop. Her plan with Diversify the Stage is twofold: building an online directory to help booking agents, touring managers and others find a wide group of candidates for any position, and bringing young people into the business through mentorship programs. Both efforts are underway. This fall, the House of Blues Music Forward Foundation, a charity affiliated with the concert giant Live Nation, will work with Diversify the Stage and several other progressive industry groups on a series of master classes for 20 young women of color. Next year, those women will be placed in apprenticeships throughout the business. Scaggs's initiative arrives as criticism has grown more heated over the industry's power imbalances and the relative lack of women and minorities in senior positions. Major record labels and concert promoters have pledged to change, and some have taken steps like hiring inclusion officers. But critics are impatient. Two grass roots campaigns, TheShowMustBePaused and the Black Music Action Coalition, have recently published lists of demands for music companies, among them anti racism and anti sexism clauses in live performance contracts. Watching the flurry of earnest corporate statements this summer, Scaggs said she did not want to wait for others to act. "I was just like, is this going to be another situation where we have the same conversation a year or two later, but nothing has really changed?" Concrete numbers are unavailable about the makeup of the touring business, where workers may be employed by an artist, a promoter, a venue or an outside vendor. The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California, which has documented the poor representation of women in pop, announced in June that it would look at the live sector as part of a broader study of leadership in the music business. But insiders say the problem is evident. Bill Reeves, a veteran production and touring manager who co founded an advocacy group, Roadies of Color United, said that white pop acts tend to hire few Black crew members. He also described what he called a common phenomenon: a Black act uses Black crews early in its career, but once crossing over to mainstream success, "somehow, magically, they have all white crews." "In America, as in the concert production business, there is systemic racism," Reeves added. "It's so baked in that most people aren't even aware of it." Touring jobs are often filled through word of mouth, which can perpetuate the exclusion of women and minorities. "Sometimes I hear, 'Yeah, I'll hire a Black production manager, but I just don't know where to find them,'" said Jerome Crooks, a tour manager for Nine Inch Nails and other acts. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
While Ms. Drew's criticisms are fair, they miss a bigger point. For six decades, the singular benefit of the televised debates has been that they let voters see candidates talk to each other face to face something that happens nowhere else in the course of a presidential election. Particularly in our modern campaigns, saturated as they are in dark money and social media advertising, don't Americans deserve some genuine interaction between the candidates on a national platform? The debates are the only time in a modern campaign when voters see candidates think on their feet and speak at length and extemporaneously, without the benefit of script or consultants, armed with nothing but their character and intellect. The debates give voters multiple opportunities to see how candidates handle pressure. And the televised debate is a feature of the American presidential campaign that other countries admire. More than 90 countries now have some kind of leader debates, and most seek guidance on organizing them from the Commission on Presidential Debates, on which I am a board member. I've been involved one way or another in every televised presidential debate and know full well that such debates are not perfect never have been, never will be. Winston Churchill believed that democracy was the worst form of government ... except for all the others. The same truth applies to the debates. Debates are like job interviews. I once heard an executive search professional say that the worst indicator of future job performance is the job interview; the best indicator of future job performance is past job performance. Yes, do away with presidential sideshows, and tell the electorate the real story. Here's an idea: Instead of scrapping the presidential "debates," why don't we actually make the candidates debate? Candidates should make their case using the accepted debate formalisms (point/rebuttal/cross examination ...) to minimize interruptions and digressions. There should be several debates, each about one hot policy topic that the candidates clearly disagree on. Each candidate gets to assert two or three affirmative positions to favor, and each must rebut two or three positions asserted by the opponent. Each should bring a favored policy expert to help make the case. I care less about the eloquence of the candidates than I do about the solidity of the advice they are getting and the solidity of their decision making process. I support Elizabeth Drew's proposal that we scrap presidential debates. Commentators and observers focus on winners and losers, which tends only to deepen the nation's partisan animosities. I would expand her scope and promote scrapping all debates, in politics and in our schools. After all, the strategy of debate is to avoid supporting any reasonable observations by your opponent. It's an exercise in being unreasonable. Instead, I suggest a forum of "common dialogue." In this setting, the candidates sit at a round table. The moderator presents a problem that needs the attention of leaders. The candidates have 45 minutes to reach consensus on a solution. Candidates can comment often, but each comment would be limited to two minutes. Audience members would gain firsthand evidence of candidates' intelligence, biases and ability to lead toward consensus. There are no losers. The community wins. Elizabeth Drew has a point: The presidential debates are essentially worthless. If anything, they're worse than that: They give an undeserved edge to show business types, to out to lunch types who sincerely believe nonsense and to seasoned liars, none of whom deserve to be president of the United States of America. The most powerful elected office in the world shouldn't go to the candidate who looks best on TV, sounds best on the radio or is quickest with an irrelevant quip in front of a microphone. But most people don't seem to want to pay attention to the presidential campaign over the long haul, the "better way" Ms. Drew suggests. They'd rather decide early and cruise to the voting booth on autopilot. Democracy works when the voters actually pay attention to what the candidates say and think carefully about whether it's actually true, or even plausible. That didn't happen in 2016, when real questions about Donald Trump's ignorance and dishonesty were submerged beneath cries of "But her emails!" We've been paying for that ever since. Nervous Democrats are drawing the wagons around their presidential nominee. The only inference to be drawn from the likes of Elizabeth Drew's column, and by Democrats urging Joe Biden not to debate President Trump, is that doing so will reveal Mr. Biden's lack of mental agility, of which Mr. Biden has already provided numerous examples. If Mr. Biden refuses to debate Donald Trump, millions of voters will deem him a coward. And they will be right. If Joe Biden enters that debate circus, the bully ringmaster in chief, Donald Trump, will interrupt, insult, lie to and badger him incessantly. As a candidate, Mr. Biden has maintained his dignity and continues to deliver quiet, measured messages to America, and he could hold his own in a debate. But why should he subject himself to that onslaught? And why give President Trump another bully pulpit? Elizabeth Drew's characterization of the debates as "professional wrestling matches" is unfortunately true. But as Thomas L. Friedman states in his column "Biden Should Not Debate Trump Unless ..." (July 8), two conditions should be enforced if there are to be presidential debates this year: The candidates must reveal their tax statements ("Biden has already done so"), and fact checking teams must be present to reveal false statements made by either candidate. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
NEW HAVEN In the 1950s, this city, like others, believed that the best way to get people back from the suburbs was to build more highways. A result was the Oak Street Connector, a limited access spur off Interstate 95 leading to the central business district. The thought was to make it easy for suburbanites to drive in and spend money downtown, instead of at new shopping centers on the outskirts. But like other urban renewal projects from the era, what seemed like a good idea at the time is now considered by many to have been a big mistake. The highway, part of Route 34, severed the Hill neighborhood from the heart of downtown and hastened the Hill's decline, because nobody wanted to walk across a wide, busy highway to get to the neighborhood, according to city leaders, business owners and residents. This has been a problem for the fortunes of the Hill in general, as well as for Yale University, whose medical, nursing and public health schools and hospital are there, and for the growing medical industry that has sprung up around it in recent years. But city officials say help is on the way from Downtown Crossing, a 135 million redevelopment plan that has been years in the making. Echoing recent efforts by San Francisco, Milwaukee and Boston to alter or remove their highways, Downtown Crossing targets a one mile, mostly sunken section of the connector running roughly between Orange and College Streets. Though details are still being worked out, the plan calls for building streets, sidewalks and buildings on platforms above the existing highway. The city's grid in the area would be restored, creating a more pedestrian friendly environment, and the Hill would be reattached. The highway will have fewer exits into the city and will lead directly into parking garages. Downtown Crossing would create 10 acres of new, developable property and increase the tax rolls, according to the city's Office of Economic and Business Development, which is overseeing the project. This summer, the project took a major step closer to reality, although some opposition exists. In June, Winstanley Enterprises, a Massachusetts based developer that has been awarded a two and a half acre parcel where it intends to build a 426,000 square foot office tower, lined up a major tenant. The tenant, Alexion Pharmaceuticals of nearby Cheshire, will take 325,000 square feet in a 12 year lease, though the rent was not disclosed. The 11 story building, to be called 100 College Street, has mostly sailed through the city's approval process, which culminates on Aug. 6, when the Board of Alderman will vote on a necessary rezoning. The project, which includes ground floor retail and is ringed with plazas, is scheduled to break ground next year, after a 35 million state project to realign the highway is finished. The tower is expected to open in 2015. Having an anchor tenant is critical in securing financing for the 100 million project. No lenders have committed yet, but Carter Winstanley, a principal of Winstanley Enterprises, said that with an anchor tenant, financing should be easy. Alexion will relocate to 100 College from Cheshire, where 300 employees work in a handful of buildings, though it will keep facilities in Rhode Island and Cambridge, Mass., according to Irving Adler, a spokesman. The company, a global operation with 1,100 employees that did 783 million in business last year, makes Soliris, which treats a rare blood disorder. It's also a homecoming for Alexion, which was founded in 1992 in New Haven and relocated to Cheshire in 2000. Sweetening the deal was a 51 million incentive package from the state to help keep the company here. Some of the state loans, grants and tax credits are dependent on Alexion's creating 200 to 300 new jobs by 2017. Mr. Adler praised the biotech hub emerging in this part of New Haven, adding that "the move enables us to keep pace with our growth and expand into a state of the art facility." Most of Alexion's employees, at least initially, will commute from Cheshire and other suburban towns, meaning they will most likely drive cars into New Haven every morning. While the rezoning for the 100 College development did not require the developer to put in additional parking, there will be a six story, 850 space parking garage. Anstress Farwell, president of the New Haven Urban Design League, an advocacy group, criticized the project, saying it would bring hundreds more cars downtown and undermine the pedestrian focused goals of Downtown Crossing. The new garage will abut the 2,600 space, five level Air Rights Garage, which was built in the early 1980s. Ms. Farwell said that would make 100 College feel like history repeating itself, but not in a good way. Even though Ms. Farwell's group generally supports the idea of stitching New Haven back together it proposed an idea similar to Downtown Crossing in 2003 it forced a delay of the rezoning vote in May to buy more time to review 100 College's plans, she said. Ms. Farwell and other critics say that Downtown Crossing doesn't call for enough apartments or the kinds of stores that stay open late enough to create lasting streetfront vitality. "It's just a worse version of what we dealt with before" during the 1950s, she said. "What we really need to change is mobility patterns through this area," she added, with more bike lanes and wider sidewalks. Mr. Winstanley defends his project as just a starting point. "The goal is to make it as good as we can possibly make it and to serve as a catalyst," he said. In some ways, Winstanley Enterprises has already been a catalyst for New Haven's revitalization. In 1999, the firm bought Southern New England Telephone's office building on nearby George Street and converted its 527,000 square feet into biotech labs. Today, the building is 95 percent occupied, Mr. Winstanley said. Others have also tried to improve the area with a biomedical focus. To the west of the Downtown Crossing area, is a string of barren blocks cleared for a highway continuation that never came to pass. In 2004, Pfizer built a 50 bed research center on a half block site in that area. In 2009, the Smilow Cancer Hospital, a 14 story Yale affiliated facility, opened nearby. There is also 2 Howe Street, a mixed use development from the Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation of Boston, which contains stores and 24 housing units for family members of Smilow patients. In 2010, the Fusco Corporation, a local developer, built the yellow checkered 2 Park Street on a lot that had been vacant for decades; Smilow has leased the upstairs for 20 years, but three of the four street level storefronts are vacant. What's expected to increase demand for stores and restaurants is the opening this summer of the new campus of Gateway Community College on Church Street and the connector, where department stores once stood. The community college will have two joined four story buildings for 11,000 students, though critics contend they will mostly be commuters who will drive home after class and not add to street life. Otherwise, the office market in New Haven is tight. The city's vacancy rate was 10.6 percent in the second quarter of 2012, when asking rents were 21.54 a square foot, according to CBRE New England. That was an improvement on the 13.4 vacancy rate for the same period in 2011, when asking rents were 20.72, as well as the second quarter of 2007, at the market's peak, when the rate was 15.6 percent and rents were 21.11, the data shows. For Kelly Murphy, the administrator for the city's Economic Development department, 100 College represents a huge accomplishment after years of public meetings and plan revisions. Acknowledging the approach of her urban renewal predecessors, who tended to change landscapes all at once, she pointed out her department's intentionally piecemeal approach with Downtown Crossing. "We're not looking for a home run to solve all our issues," she said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
A vaccine introduced a decade ago to combat the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer has already reduced the virus's prevalence in teenage girls by almost two thirds, federal researchers said Monday. Even for women in their early 20s, a group with lower vaccination rates, the most dangerous strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, have still been reduced by more than a third. "We're seeing the impact of the vaccine as it marches down the line for age groups, and that's incredibly exciting," said Dr. Amy B. Middleman, the chief of adolescent medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, who was not involved in the study. "A minority of females in this country have been immunized, but we're seeing a public health impact that is quite expansive." The news is likely to serve as a welcome energizer in the tumultuous struggle to encourage HPV vaccination in the United States. Despite the vaccine's proven effectiveness, immunization rates remain low about 40 percent of girls and 20 percent of boys between the ages of 13 and 17. That is partly because of the implicit association of the vaccine with adolescent sexual activity, rather than with its explicit purpose: cancer prevention. Only Virginia, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia require the HPV vaccine. Recent efforts have focused on recommending the vaccine for children ages 11 and 12, when their immune response is more robust than that of teenagers and when most states require two other vaccines one for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, and the other for meningococcal disease. The immunization rates for those vaccines are 80 percent and higher. About 14 million Americans become infected with HPV each year, and the vast majority will clear the virus. But some strains persist and can cause genital warts, as well as cervical, anal, penile, and mouth and throat cancers. The American Cancer Society estimates that 4,120 women will die of cervical cancer this year. The latest research, published in Pediatrics, examined HPV immunization and infection rates through 2012, but just in girls. The recommendation to vaccinate boys became widespread only in 2011; they will be included in subsequent studies. Using data from a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the study examined the prevalence of the virus in women and girls of different age groups during the pre vaccine years of 2003 through 2006. (The vaccine was recommended for girls later in 2006.) Researchers then looked at the prevalence in the same age groups between 2009 and 2012. By those later years, the prevalence of the four strains of HPV covered by the vaccine had decreased by 64 percent in girls ages 14 to 19. Among women ages 20 to 24, the prevalence of those strains had declined 34 percent. The rates of HPV in women 25 and older had not fallen. "The vaccine is more effective than we thought," said Debbie Saslow, a public health expert in HPV vaccination and cervical cancer at the American Cancer Society. As vaccinated teenagers become sexually active, they are not spreading the virus, so "they also protect the people who haven't been vaccinated," she said. There are several obstacles to greater coverage rates in the United States. In other countries, the vaccine is often given in two doses, particularly to girls younger than 15. In the United States, it is given in three doses. An immunization advisory committee to the C.D.C. will convene this week to learn more about the efficacy of the lower dose. And in some countries, the vaccine is either mandatory or at least offered at school, its cost covered by a national health care system, making administration more streamlined and comprehensive. Such measures helped Rwanda achieve a 93 percent immunization rate in girls. Australia, where the vaccine is offered free to schoolgirls, accomplished a 92 percent reduction in genital warts in women under 21, a study showed. But in the United States, the vaccine is largely optional. "Multiple studies have shown the importance of a strong provider recommendation for increasing vaccination coverage," said Dr. Lauri E. Markowitz, a medical epidemiologist at the National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases, a division of the C.D.C., who led the research for the latest study. But studies show that many primary care providers either do not recommend the vaccine to parents and patients or do so halfheartedly. Some doctors are reluctant to discuss the vaccine because the conversation may dance uncomfortably around sexual activity. They may want to use their limited appointment time for health topics that parents may be more willing to engage. To try to shift focus to the vaccine's purpose, last month dozens of cancer centers endorsed the HPV vaccine as a safe, effective prevention strategy against types of cancer that result in 27,000 cases a year. The latest HPV vaccine protects against nine strains of the virus. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
SALZBURG, Austria A visit to the Salzburg Festival has been a summer tradition for Jos Baeck for nearly half a century. "This year we said that even with Corona we're coming to Salzburg," said Mr. Baeck, 71, on a recent afternoon in this city's historic center. He had traveled from Belgium with a friend who has been attending the festival even longer. "The festival is very important to us," said Mr. Baeck. "You need to admire Helga Rabl Stadler," Mr. Baeck said, referring to the festival's longtime president. "She persevered." Visitors from 78 countries made up the festival's audience in 2019, according to a festival spokeswoman; this year's edition is smaller and less international in scope. Americans, Russians and visitors from many Asian countries, who usually make up a significant portion of the audience, are largely absent, because they are barred from entering the European Union or would have to quarantine on arrival. But while the 2020 Salzburg Festival may not have such a global audience, it has commanded the world's attention by forging ahead against all odds. New regulations notwithstanding including compulsory masks, half full theaters and no intermissions it often felt like business as usual: a bustling festival for a wealthy and elegant audience amid the grandeur of the Alpine landscape. "Salzburg is like a rock in turbulent waters," said Frank Sellentin, 57, who has attended the festival since 1993. He added that the event could serve as a model for cultural activities in Berlin, where he works. "Art must remain a part of life. If circumstances demand that it be presented differently, you need to at least try to figure out what that could look like." There was something gently surreal to the combination of opulent evening gowns and surgical masks. According to an announcement before each performance, masks can be removed while the show is in progress, although keeping your face covered at all times is recommended. Many audience members kept their masks on. Even with a drastically reduced number of tickets 80,000 instead of 242,000 very few performances are sold out. In the festival venues, every other seat is left free. At one performance, a woman in back of me was furious that she could not sit alongside her partner. "This is a mistake," she hissed before trying unsuccessfully to pry open the roped off seat. On Saturday, in 90 degree heat, the festival opened with a new production of "Elektra." Richard Strauss's one act 1909 opera was given a visually bold and psychologically probing staging by the Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski. Along with the conductor Franz Welser Most, who has led the Cleveland Orchestra for the past 18 years, Mr. Warlikowski successfully explored the hidden layers in these characters. Instead of a shrill harpy, Ms. Stundyte's Elektra was a broken, often insecure, figure. Ms. Grigorian's character, by contrast, was surprisingly tough. In a twist by Mr. Warlikowski, Chrysothemis assisted her brother Orest in killing their mother and her lover and then washed the bodies for burial. Immediately after the premiere, all 110 performers in the Vienna Philharmonic, which had been accompanying "Elektra," took tests for the coronavirus, a process they are undertaking regularly during their stay in Salzburg. All tested negative, according to Mr. Welser Most, who explained in an interview that his experience working at the festival has been instructive as he looks ahead to his next season in Cleveland. "Elektra" was one of seven operas originally announced for the festival's centennial this year (the other six have been postponed until next summer) and the production was well underway when the scaled down 2020 festival got the go ahead. Things looked wildly different for the festival's second opera premiere, a hastily assembled "Cosi Fan Tutte" that came together in just one month. "Cosi's" plot, in which two men disguise themselves to test their fiancees' fidelity, can often come across as both improbable and cynical. But Mr. Loy amplified the emotional stakes by revealing the complex passions that animate the characters. Crucial to the success of his concept were the involved performances he coaxed from a fine cast of exciting young Mozart singers. Elsa Dreisig and Marianne Crebassa were radiant as the two sisters whose steadfastness is put to the test by their boastful fiances, compelling sung with both ardor and swagger by Andre Schuen and Bogdan Volkov. Leopold and Christine Sever had driven from Klagenfurt, Austria, 125 miles away, to attend the premiere on Saturday. "As you see, we're taking the necessary precautions," Mr. Sever, 72, said, indicating plastic visors that he and his wife had just removed to take a selfie. "But we absolutely wanted to see this," he said, adding that they were longtime Salzburg attendees. Neither expressed any concern about safety. "Everyone is respecting the distancing measures," added Mrs. Sever, 69. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
SAN FRANCISCO Facebook said Friday that an attack on its computer systems that was announced two weeks ago had affected 30 million users, about 20 million fewer than it estimated earlier. But the personal information that was exposed was far more intimate than originally thought, adding to Facebook's challenges as it investigates what was probably the most substantial breach of its network in the company's 14 year history. Detailed information was stolen from the Facebook profiles of about 14 million of the 30 million users. The data was as specific as the last 15 people or things they had searched for on Facebook and the last 10 physical locations they had "checked into." Other personal details were also exposed, like gender, religious affiliation, telephone number, email addresses and the types of computing devices used to reach Facebook. Users' names and contact information like telephone numbers were stolen from an additional 15 million profiles, Facebook said. The security tokens of about one million other people were stolen, but hackers did not get their profile information, the company said. The hackers did not gain access to account passwords or credit card information, Facebook said. "We have been working around the clock to investigate the security issue we discovered and fixed two weeks ago so we can help people understand what information the attackers may have accessed," Guy Rosen, vice president of product management, wrote in a blog post on Friday. While Facebook has cautioned that the attack was not as large as it had originally anticipated it forced 90 million users to log out so the security of their profiles would reset the details of what was stolen worried security experts. The data can be used for all sorts of schemes by sophisticated hackers. "Hackers have some sort of a goal," said Oren J. Falkowitz, chief executive of the cybersecurity company Area 1 Security and a former National Security Agency official. "It's not that their motivation is to attack Facebook, but to use Facebook as a lily pad to conduct other attacks." An attacker may use that information to conduct sophisticated "phishing attacks," a method used to get into financial accounts, health records or other important personal databases, Mr. Falkowitz said. "Once you've become a target, it never ends," he said. The breach was disclosed at the worst possible time for Facebook, which is grappling with a series of crises that have shaken user trust in the world's largest social network. Over the last year, Facebook has faced repeated criticism that it hasn't been doing enough to protect the personal information of its more than two billion regular users. Read more on how to delete Facebook and Instagram. In March, Facebook was hit by revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting firm that had worked for the Trump campaign, had gained access to the private information of up to 87 million users. The company is also dealing with concerns that disinformation on its platforms has affected elections and has even led to deaths in several countries. On Thursday, Facebook disclosed that it had removed hundreds of accounts and pages used to spread disinformation in the United States. While Russian agents had used Facebook and other social media to incite conflict before the 2016 election, domestic sources of false or misleading posts have jumped into the fray, the company said. Disinformation has had dire results outside the United States. In Sri Lanka, Myanmar and other countries, hundreds of people have been killed, partly because of the rampant spread of misinformation across social networks and other internet sites. Former employees have also taken to criticizing Facebook. Brian Acton, a co founder of the Facebook owned smartphone application WhatsApp, has called for people to delete their Facebook accounts. The breach could affect users' willingness to use Facebook products. On Monday, Facebook debuted Portal, the company's first hardware device built from the ground up, for high definition video calls. The product asks users to install a camera in their living rooms. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Fans of the K pop boy band BTS have raised more than 1 million for Black Lives Matter, the Movement for Black Lives and more than a dozen other civil rights and advocacy organizations, a fan group said on Sunday, as protests against police brutality and systemic racism continued worldwide. The fund raising push began on June 1 as outrage spread over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee to Mr. Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Donations accelerated after Variety reported on Saturday that BTS and its record label had made a 1 million donation to Black Lives Matter, according to the fan group. The group rallied BTS fans using the Twitter hashtag MatchAMillion. Erika Overton, a spokeswoman for the fan group, One in an ARMY, said that as of Monday afternoon, about 1.3 million had been raised. The donations were split about evenly among the more than a dozen organizations listed on the group's web page. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
MELBOURNE, Australia In only her third Grand Slam event, Coco Gauff has challenges lined up that will already be familiar to her, as revealed in the Australian Open draw ceremony on Thursday evening. Gauff, 15, will open in the first round against seven time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, 39, as she did in the first round of Wimbledon last year. Gauff, then ranked outside the Top 300, became an international sensation by beating Williams, a five time Wimbledon champion, 6 4, 6 4. Gauff backed up the win with a run to the fourth round, where she lost to the eventual champion, Simona Halep. Williams has pulled out of Australian lead up tournaments this month in Brisbane and Adelaide, citing a hip injury, but has been training in Melbourne this week. Should Gauff advance to the third round in Melbourne, she could go up against defending champion Naomi Osaka, seeded third here. She faced Osaka in the third round of last year's United States Open, where Osaka was also the defending champion. Osaka won that meeting, 6 3, 6 0, and consoled a despondent Gauff at the net after match point, creating one of the tournament's most celebrated moments of sportsmanship. Gauff's star studded section is part of a cluster of tough opponents in her quarter. Two seeded Americans, the 14th seeded Sofia Kenin and the 24th seeded Sloane Stephens, await as possible fourth round opponents for whoever advances through that section. The eighth seeded Serena Williams, who is seeking a record tying 24th Grand Slam singles title here, awaits as a possible quarterfinal opponent. Williams was dealt a favorable path in the first week of the tournament, opening against 90th ranked Anastasia Potapova, then facing 69th ranked Tamara Zidansek or 177th ranked Han Na lae in the second round. Caroline Wozniacki, the former WTA No. 1 who has announced she is playing her final tournament here before retiring, is a possible fourth round opponent for Serena Williams. Wozniacki opens against the American Kristie Ahn. Top seeded Ashleigh Barty leads the top half of the draw, which includes all of the aforementioned players. She opens against 120th ranked Lesia Tsurenko. The seventh seeded Petra Kvitova, the runner up here last year to Osaka, is also in her quarter of the draw. The bottom half of the women's draw is anchored by the second seeded Karolina Pliskova, who won the prestigious lead up tournament in Brisbane last week. Pliskova has a tricky opening match against the 39th ranked Kristina Mladenovic, to whom she has lost two of four matches. The bottom half of the draw also features the fourth seeded Halep, the fifth seeded Elina Svitolina and the sixth seeded Belinda Bencic. The men's draw has a seemingly more even distribution of contenders. Top seeded Rafael Nadal, who would tie Roger Federer for the all time men's lead with a 20th Grand Slam title here, opens against the 72nd ranked Hugo Dellien of Bolivia. Nadal has an eye catching possible fourth round match against Nick Kyrgios, the flashy Australian who has won two of his three meetings with Nadal on hard courts. In the quarterfinals, Nadal could face the fifth seeded Dominic Thiem, whom he has beaten in the French Open final each of the last two years. Frances Tiafoe, the ebullient American who broke through to a quarterfinal run here last year, was dealt one of the toughest draws, having to open against the fourth seeded Daniil Medvedev, the second highest seed in Nadal's half. Medvedev, who pushed Nadal to five sets in last year's U.S. Open final, could face the 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka in the fourth round, and the seventh seeded Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals. On the bottom half of the draw, third seeded Federer opens against the American Steve Johnson, ranked 81st. The seeded player he could face in the third round is the 31st seeded Hubert Hurkacz, a lanky Pole who improved his ranking by 50 spots last season. Federer could face 18th seeded Grigor Dimitrov, who beat him in the U.S. Open quarterfinals last year, in the fourth round, and the eighth seeded Matteo Berrettini in the quarterfinals. The last quarter of the men's draw is anchored by seven time champion Novak Djokovic, who is seeded second. Djokovic was dealt one of the toughest opening rounds, against 37th ranked Jan Lennard Struff, a tall and powerful German whom Djokovic beat in the fourth round of last year's French Open. The tournament's director, Craig Tiley, on Thursday addressed players' concerns about the smoke from Australia's ongoing wildfires, which delayed play during qualifying matches on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tiley said play would be suspended if the air quality index, which measures the pollutants known as PM 2.5, exceeded 200, as it did on Wednesday. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
"Radioflash" is selling itself as a survival thriller, which is half right. In truth, this "Deliverance" style clash between Reese ( Brighton Sharbino ), a savvy teenager, and a passel of backwoods archetypes is only marginally more thrilling than the average wine tasting. At fault is a threadbare, irritatingly vague script (by the director and artist Ben McPherson) that simply strings together a series of generic setups and forgettable characters. A promising opening establishes Reese's problem solving smarts as she battles through a challenging virtual reality survival game. Later, when an unexplained event knocks out all power and communications, we expect to see her apply those skills to real life dangers. Instead, she spends most of the movie locked in a cellar, fleeing unwashed strangers or trussed in a bag as bear bait. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
SAN FRANCISCO As a business, Facebook is more successful than ever. On Wednesday afternoon, it reported another quarter of huge growth, with nearly 2 billion people actively using the service and revenue up 49 percent in the first quarter compared with a year ago. But with the company's vast reach has come another kind of problem: Facebook is becoming too big for its computer algorithms and relatively small team of employees and contractors to manage the trillions of posts on its social network. Earlier Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, the company's chief executive, acknowledged the problem. In a Facebook post, he said that over the next year, the company would add 3,000 people to the team that polices the site for inappropriate or offensive content, especially in the live videos the company is encouraging users to broadcast. "If we're going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly," he wrote. "We're working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner whether that's responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down." He offered no details on what would change. Most of the company's reviewers are low paid contractors overseas who spend on average of just a few seconds on each post. A National Public Radio investigation last year found that they inconsistently apply Facebook's standards, echoing previous research by other outlets. Zeynep Tufekci, an associate professor at University of North Carolina who studies online speech issues, said that Facebook designed Live to notify your friends automatically about a live feed something guaranteed to appeal to publicity seekers of all sorts. "It was pretty clear to me that this would lead to on camera suicides, murder, abuse, torture," she said. "The F.B.I. did a pretty extensive study of school shooters: The infamy part is a pretty heavy motivator." Facebook has no intention of dialing back its promotion of video, including Live, telling investors on a conference call Wednesday that it would continue to rank it high in users' news feeds and add more advertising within live videos and clips. Advertising is Facebook's lifeblood, accounting for most of the company's revenue and profit. In the first quarter, the company earned 3.1 billion, up 76 percent from the previous year. Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst with the research firm eMarketer, said that all the negative publicity about Facebook's problems with horrific content and fake news appears to have hurt user satisfaction levels. Adding more content monitors is aimed at reassuring Facebook's 1.94 billion users, she said. "If people feel safe on Facebook, they will be more engaged and will use it more often," Ms. Williamson said. "And if they use it more often, there will be more inventory for advertising." Although there is little question that live streamed murder does not belong on the service, the company has come under fire when it has stopped violent broadcasts like Korryn Gaines's fatal standoff with police in Maryland last year. "All policies need to recognize that distressing speech is sometimes the most important to a public conversation," said Lee Rowland, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union who works on free speech issues. She said that the decision to hire more moderators can only help the company make better judgments, especially about live events where fast decisions can be critical. "Humans tend to have more nuance and context than an algorithm," Ms. Rowland said. But Ms. Rowland said Facebook must also be more clear to the public about its rules on making those calls. Mr. Zuckerberg called the recent episodes of violence "heartbreaking" and said the company wanted to make it simpler and faster for reviewers to spot problems and call in law enforcement when needed. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.