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Earlier this month, a couple of inventive young go getters at BuzzFeed tied enough rubber bands around the center of a watermelon to make it explode. Nearly a million people watched the giant berry burst on Facebook Live. It racked up more than 10 million views in the days that followed. Traditional journalists everywhere saw themselves as the seeds, flying out of the frame. How do we compete with that? And if that's the future of news and information, what's next for our democracy? President Kardashian? Grandkids: It was not so long ago oh, say, five, maybe six years that traditional news organizations like this one could laugh at BuzzFeed's gag along with everyone else, smugly secure. An exploding watermelon was just an exploding watermelon. These days, however, news articles be they about war, voting rights, the arts or immigration policy increasingly inhabit social media feeds like the frighteningly dominant one that Facebook runs. They are competing for attention against zany kitchen experiments; your friend's daughter's bat mitzvah; and that wild video of a train whipping through a ridiculously narrow alleyway in Thailand. After watching the fruiticide, I noticed a Twitter post by the freelance journalist Erik Malinowski that read, "the watermelon ... is us," and sighed. Seemed about right. The sense of dread was compounded a few hours later, when the website Mashable, which first came to prominence covering Internet businesses and culture, appeared to pare back an ambitious effort to prove that serious world and political news could thrive alongside "Grumpy Cat." Mashable announced that as part of a reorganization it was shedding several highly regarded journalists, including its executive editor, Jim Roberts, a former assistant managing editor at The New York Times. Look out, White House, I thought, here comes Kimye. Then, sweet relief (or was it?): The Financial Times reported that BuzzFeed which is best known for hits like the watermelon video, though its news team wins awards missed its financial targets last year and was revising this year's projections downward. BuzzFeed, which does not disclose its finances, denied the report, saying this year will meet expectations. But traditional newsrooms everywhere were reveling in the schadenfreude just the same. Aha! Perhaps random snapshots of callipygian Corgis do not a business model make; news as we know it is safe. It means big changes are coming fast in the way major news institutions present their journalism, what that journalism includes, and how decisions are made about what to include. The goal: to draw big, addicted audiences. A lot of it is being done in the rushed panic that comes with the demands of quarterly earnings. And yet, given the highest calling of the news industry hold politicians to account, unearth corruption the importance to our political and civic life could not be greater. A good way to understand the fast evolving thinking is to check in on people who are trying to build a news and information business from scratch. I did that last week over breakfast with Jim VandeHei, a co founder of Politico, and Mike Allen, one of the site's best known journalists. Both are also veterans of The Washington Post. Mr. VandeHei, who stepped down last week as Politico's chief executive, and Roy Schwartz, the company's departing chief revenue officer, have been seeking potential investors and video and television partners. Mr. Allen is for the time being continuing to write his vital morning tip sheet at Politico, "Playbook," seven days a week. Netflix buys a visual effects company in a move to support its global ambitions. 15 minimum wage for federal contractors will take effect Jan. 30. When I met with Mr. VandeHei and Mr. Allen, they were tight lipped about their next venture. They would only describe it in the broadest terms, as "a media company" that will focus on news and information, exist largely on mobile devices and social media, and not directly compete against Politico. But that was O.K. for my purposes. I was more interested in hearing what this venture wouldn't be doing. Their answers may require a trigger warning for the proudly ink stained set. It starts with Mr. VandeHei's admittedly provocative proposition that "journalists are killing journalism." They're doing this, he says, by "stubbornly clinging to the old ways." That's defined as producing 50 competing but nearly identical stories about a presidential candidate's latest speech, or 700 word updates on the transportation budget negotiations. Survival, Mr. VandeHei says, depends on giving readers what they really want, how they want it, when they want it, and on not spending too much money producing what they don't want. It's not only about creating big audiences for advertisers, he and Mr. Allen said. It's about convincing already inundated audiences that they want what you're producing, and they want it so badly that they will pay for it through subscriptions. That's essential as advertising revenue drops to levels that will not support robust news gathering. Hooking people on your news product is a lot harder than, say, hooking them on heroin or even coffee. But news organizations have ways they never had before to figure it out. Through real time analytics, reporters and editors know how many people are reading their work and through which devices and sites, how long those readers are sticking with it, and what they're ignoring. Screens featuring these analytics are increasingly showing up, prominently, in American newsrooms, including those of The New York Times and The Washington Post. This is the biggest and least talked about development in traditional print media as it converts to digital: It now has ratings, just as television does. The findings from these ratings have been fairly consistent. Videos, podcasts, short items of interest that can be read easily on smartphones, and almost anything with the words "Donald Trump" rate well. Perhaps counterintuitively, deeply reported features and investigative pieces like The Times's coverage of ISIS' brutality or its nearly 8,000 word article about one man's lonely death in Queens can draw readership levels that were never possible in the print only era. That's a big deal, and in Mr. VandeHei's and Mr. Allen's view as well as those of the bosses at The Times, The Post and elsewhere it shows that big, important work will prove more valuable than fun stunts that may or may not draw big online audiences. What do not necessarily rate well, however, are the (often important if sometimes unsexy) articles about yesterday's doings or, nondoings at the Federal Election Commission, or the latest federal budget fight. "We didn't know if, in a newspaper, people were reading our 600 word piece on the transportation markup on A10 now we do," Mr. VandeHei said. "I'm not saying you let the audience dictate everything, but a smart, aggressive, forward leaning media company is going to write what it thinks is important and its audience thinks is important." This is talk you hear in newsrooms across the country, and it's where there is some cause for concern. Those drier articles may not score in the ratings, but they can lead to the bigger ones. Watergate started as a story about a burglary. The wide ranging sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church that The Boston Globe exposed captured in the movie "Spotlight" began as a 700 word column about a single priest. Once ratings come into the picture, will reporters still want to pursue those smaller stories? And will their editors, who once called these stories "spinach," want to publish them? The answer from Mr. VandeHei and like minded news executives is yes, but it's incumbent upon news organizations to do a better job with them make them shorter and more distinctive, with data and striking visual presentation. Understood. All I'm asking is that we be careful not to lose too many core values on our way to the future. Otherwise, it's watermelon flambe at the Kardashian inauguration, and yes, we're the watermelon. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Last week Megan Fairchild, a New York City Ballet principal, posted a photograph on Instagram of herself and Joaquin De Luz with Patricia McBride. "What a pleasure and honor to work with this bright spirit on a ballet that is dear to our hearts!!!!," she wrote. "Thanks Pattie for all your nuggets of wisdom! So wonderful to hear what she did in the role, and what Mr. B. asked her to do. We will cherish these last two days forever!!!!" One of the hashtags is baiserdelafee. These happy words require a few layers of explanation for nonspecialists. They also open up one of the biggest issues around City Ballet today. "Le Baiser de la Fee" ("The Fairy's Kiss") is a four scene ballet composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1928. And "Mr. B" is the choreographer George Balanchine, who first staged "Baiser" in 1937. In 1972, he choreographed the score's dance suite, "Divertimento From 'Le Baiser de la Fee,'" for New York City Ballet; and in 1974 he added the finale from the complete "Baiser." This version had no scenery, no fairy and no kiss; it has remained in repertory ever since. Balanchine made its lead roles for Ms. McBride and Helgi Tomasson, who danced them into the 1980s. Ms. Fairchild and Mr. De Luz, longtime City Ballet principals, have been dancing "Divertimento From 'Le Baiser de la Fee'" for a number of years. And here's the crucial issue: Why have even senior City Ballet dancers been deprived for so long of interpretive wisdom about this (and many other) Balanchine ballets? When Peter Martins was ballet master in chief (1983 2018), Ms. McBride was among the many creators of Balanchine roles who as if in exile were seldom if ever invited to coach their roles at City Ballet. Mr. Martins retired under pressure on Jan. 1 after allegations of physical and sexual harassment. Over the decades, no single feature of his artistic policy has caused more grievance than this disinclination to bring in Balanchine alumni. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
It's like being hit with a ton of ... blossoms. "The Orchid Show: Singapore," the New York Botanical Garden's 17th annual orchid extravaganza, running through April 28, features the natural species and hybridized sensations of Southeast Asia upward of 70 percent of the display in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Thousands of them, in hundreds of varieties and every conceivable and inconceivable shape, size and color. The orchid, once an aristocratic rarity, now a ubiquity you can buy them at Home Depot is still the most unnatural looking flower of the natural world, dizzying in its opulent, adamant oddity. And that's just one on its own. "It's actually surpassed the poinsettia as the most horticulturally produced crop in the world," said Marc Hachadourian, senior curator of orchids at the New York Botanical Garden. "They're the pandas of the plant world they're charismatic, they're colorful, they're engaging." In a stroll through the conservatory recently, it was difficult not to think of Mr. Hachadourian as the Wizard of Oz, surveying his realm of perfect, unimaginable riches. "Vanda, Dendrobium, Cymbidium, Phalaenopsis and Paphiopedilum," he said, Linnaeus's botanical Latin rolling off his tongue as deftly as the daily specials , pointing to the jewel like faces to the right and left of us. It was an oddly extraordinary experience, as if everything ordinary had been Photoshopped out of the picture: an emerald Instagramatic city, with a kind of plant phantom Pokemon at play. The ambassador of the orchid's new ubiquity is the Phalaenopsis, in a Calvin Klein underwear white. Known as the grocery store orchid, it is widely, inexpensively available, and the lifestyle star of everything from luxury condo advertising to wellness spas and supermarkets. Toppled from the throne is the cattleya: the frilled grandmotherly orchid that forms the stuff of corsages. Proust is wearing one on his lapel in Jacques Emile Blanche's famous portrait of 1892. Because of the Phalaenopsis's clean, modern, broad shouldered success, everyone is now trying their hands at orchids, losing their home gardeners' fears as orchids lose their stigma as tricky plants to cultivate. "I own a lady's slipper and a Phalaenopsis," said Dr. Michelle Montenegro, who was visiting the conservatory with a colleague, Dr. Alec Petrie. Both are emergency room physicians at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. Dr. Montenegro got her orchids at last year's show. "They're actually alive," she said, with a surprised laugh, when asked about their health. She built a special window shelf for them. "The shelf is definitely helping," she added. "I've killed a lot of plants," said Dr. Petrie, whom Dr. Montenegro was trying to talk into an orchid. "I'm better with people " She smiled. "Today's the day, I'm telling you," Dr. Montenegro said. Their next stop was the garden's book and gift shop . The garden's Singapore show has two major attractions. A pair of supertrees 18 foot tall steel armatures in the trunk like and canopied shape of actual trees are versions of the artificial Supertrees in a vast grove at Gardens by the Bay, which is the setting for the scene in "Crazy Rich Asians." Singapore's Supertrees are over 160 feet tall, and skyways traverse the tops . They are also embedded with photovoltaic cells, which collect energy like living trees that is used to power nighttime light displays choreographed to music. And they're swathed, head to toe, in extra terrestrial looking foliage. "It's sort of a Disneyland for plant lovers," said Karen Daubmann, the associate vice president for exhibitions, who visited Gardens by the Bay, and worked to replicate the supertrees in the Bronx. "The orchids that we're showcasing inside, at the conservatory, are things they grow outside. It's pretty wild." Like the ones in Singapore, the garden's supertrees were designed to demonstrate a particularly spectacular class of specimens, even for the tropics: epiphytes, or plants that grow without soil, on trees. "They're a strange community that evolved to essentially climb the trees to get the best available light, water and moisture," Mr. Hachadourian said. Orchid alpha types; the acrobats of the plant kingdom. "Half of my room is dedicated to my plants," said Sebastian Trujillo, 18, a visitor services attendant at the garden. "Around 415 plants. It's a jungle in there." Mr. Trujillo is a high school senior who lives with his parents in Kew Gardens, Queens. "Now, they're helping me build a greenhouse in the back of the house." With popularity, does the orchid one of history's most enduring embodiments of the idea of rarity run the risk, like any celebrity, of overexposure? If we see too many, will we lose the point? "I asked him what he thought it was about orchids that seduced humans so completely that they were compelled to steal them," Susan Orlean, writing in her 1998 best selling book, "The Orchid Thief," asks a park ranger in Florida. With an estimated 30,000 wild species worldwide, and hundreds of thousands and rapidly counting of breeders' hybrids, the bloom's not off the orchid yet. Through April 28 at the New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx; 718 817 8700, nybg.org. The garden is also hosting Orchid Evenings each weekend of the run. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
"I think I am having the best time," the flour dusted actor Henry Winkler said. "How am I doing?" Mr. Winkler, a so so cook and a champion eater, was spending a July afternoon at Lucali in the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn, learning to make pizza. He'd been rolling out a blob of springy fridge chilled dough using a full wine bottle. ("You the roll the dough, you take a sip," Mark Iacono, Lucali's stubbled owner said.) The shape that flopped on the marble work top wasn't quite a circle. It looked more like the state of Texas, Mr. Iacono observed. Mr. Iacono paused. "Yeah," he said. He paused again. "As long as you have fun doing it." Mr. Winkler, 72, was having fun. A lot of it. So much that one of his pies burned while he was basking in the moment. That was fun, too. He also likes his late career resurgence. Mr. Winkler always knew he wanted to be an actor. "I lived it, I ate it, I dreamt it," he said. "I couldn't go to sleep some nights just imagining it." After a stint at the Yale School of Drama, he spent a decade as the Fonz, the huggable greaser of "Happy Days" fame, the man who actually jumped the shark. But when that series finished, Mr. Winkler's career flagged. "I literally couldn't get hired," he said. He can now. On Netflix's "Arrested Development," he plays Barry Zuckerkorn, arguably television's worst lawyer. And he just notched an Emmy nomination, his sixth, for his supporting work as the minimally competent acting teacher Gene Cousineau on the HBO comedy "Barry." "It took me this long to be close to the actor I knew I wanted to be," Mr. Winkler said. Earlier that afternoon, he had arrived late to his private pizza lesson. Blame fun. While his wife, Stacey Winkler, waited at Lucali, Mr. Winkler tagged along with Mr. Iacono on a trip to the pork store and then insisted on stopping into every bakery they passed, snapping smartphone pictures along the way. He returned with a mammoth black and white cookie ("My favorite cookie in all of America," he said) and a loaf of lard bread that he tore into with his teeth. "Oh my God," he said, mumbling through crumbs. He had a cut on his forehead (he'd walked into some scaffolding a few days ago), joking that the cast of "The Boys in the Band," which he had seen the night before, had "just attacked me, all of them." He's a lifelong fan of Di Fara, Lucali's affectionate rival. But Lucali is the favorite spot of his son, Max Winkler, a director. So when Mr. Winkler found himself in New York for a few days (he was raised on the Upper West Side, but he and Ms. Winkler live in Los Angeles) he'd blocked out time to try it. As Mr. Iacono set out canisters of dough and hacked into a hemisphere of Parmesan, Mr. Winkler removed his tan jacket and tied on a milk white apron over his tattersall shirt, his ruff of silver hair tickling the collar. Class was in session. He watched as Mr. Iacono rolled out a blob of dough, then covered it with a perfect nautilus of sauce, shaving strips of low moisture mozzarella over the top and dotting it with hunks of hand torn bufala. Then it was Mr. Winkler's turn. "Work from the center out," Mr. Iacono said. "Just keep going, going, going." Mr. Winkler kept at it, while Mr. Iacono gathered some logs to stoke the oven. "Me?" Mr. Winkler said. "No. I'm enjoying." That Fonzie cool is lasting. He showed Mr. Winkler how to stretch his dough further, resting it on Mr. Winkler's upstretched thumbs. "You've got those famous thumbs," Mr. Iacono said. Ayyy! With the dough properly rolled, Mr. Winkler ladled on some sauce. He piled cheese on top, and then some more. He grated a small mound for himself, too. "I'm just going to test this," he said. Then he tested it again. Mr. Iacono helped him put his pizza in the oven, jiggling it off a wooden paddle. "Nice and easy," he said. When the pie emerged about three minutes later, still bubbling, Mr. Iacono snipped fresh basil onto it, then sprinkled on Parmesan. Ms. Winkler took a slice and fed her husband a few bites as he worked on the next one. "Oh my God," he said. Ms. Winkler, who knows him well, asked if he'd added extra cheese. Under Mr. Iacono's tutelage, Mr. Winkler's pizzas grew progressively rounder (and progressively cheesier). He patiently imparted some of his newfound wisdom to his wife as she struggled with a ball of dough. "Put your palm here," he said. "That's it. Now push out." The will to watch growth. After a lunch of pizza and Mr. Iacono's meatballs, Mr. Winkler slipped into the back garden for a decaf espresso. Mr. Iacono brought out a pile of grapes, so purple they were nearly black, and a small plate of watermelon that Mr. Winkler ate as juice soaked his chin. Ms. Winkler tried to convince him to stop at a nearby bakery for an Italian ice, but Mr. Winkler had finally had enough fun. "Like a camel, I'm not eating again until August," he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Stacks of inventory at Pridgeon and Clay, an auto parts maker based in Grand Rapids, Mich. Parts destined for General Motors have been piling up at the company's distribution center. The truck drivers at Phoenix Transit Logistics in Dearborn, Mich., are long gone. Around three dozen of the trailers they once ferried between auto plants packed with dashboards, engine components, lights and other parts for General Motors are sitting in a lot with nowhere to go. It's an increasingly familiar scene as the strike against G.M. by the United Auto Workers enters its fourth week. From suppliers to shippers to restaurants, the impact of the work stoppage is spreading through the web of businesses whose fates are tied to the biggest American automaker. Wael Tlaib, the owner of Phoenix Transit Logistics, said he had laid off nearly his entire staff, including 80 drivers, and had dipped into his personal savings to keep his company afloat. "I might lose the business next week," Mr. Tlaib said. The most intense economic pain is being felt in the industrial Midwest, where G.M.'s network of plants and suppliers is thickest. It is a difficult time for the region's manufacturing industry, which even before the strike was contending with slowing auto sales, a weakening global economy and the trade war. An economic blow to the Midwest would have broad consequences in part because the region is an important political battleground that will help determine who wins the 2020 presidential election. In 2016, President Trump's narrow victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin put him over the top in the Electoral College tally. The state of the auto industry "usually has political ramifications that are beyond its direct economic influence," said Matt Grossmann, a political science professor at Michigan State University. "A lot of Democrats here are running on the promise to help the factory workers and the working class, and saying Trump hasn't done it." Nearly 50,000 U.A.W. members walked off the job on Sept. 16, the largest stoppage since G.M. workers went on strike in 2007. The union is pressing for more job security as well as the reopening of plants in the United States that the company has recently idled. For its part, G.M. wants to limit wage increases, slow the growth of health care costs, and gain flexibility in how plants are staffed and operated. After signs of progress over the last week, the two sides hit a roadblock this weekend on how production might be moved to the United States from Mexico. Terry Dittes, the U.A.W.'s lead negotiator, said on Sunday that the talks had taken a "turn for the worse." Watch "The Weekly," The Times's new TV show, report on GM and its workers' fight to survive in Lordstown, Ohio. In the first three weeks of the strike, 412 million in wages were lost, according to Patrick Anderson, chief executive of Anderson Economic Group. "Each week the damage grows geometrically," Mr. Anderson said. "First you lose your U.A.W. workers, then the immediate suppliers, then the next tiers." Michigan has the most exposure to the auto sector, with roughly 8 percent of the state's economy linked to the industry. Even after factory closings decimated employment in the car industry in recent decades, the state remains dotted with auto plants and suppliers. Gabriel Ehrlich, director of the University of Michigan's Research Seminar in Qualitative Economics, estimates that the Michigan economy is growing at an annual rate of 1.4 percent. Without the strike, he said, that number could be 0.1 to 0.2 points higher. Even before the strike, manufacturing employment in Michigan fell by 1,300 jobs in the first eight months of the year. By comparison, manufacturers added 43,000 jobs nationally in the same period. "There's been real damage to the economy," said Charles Ballard, an economics professor at Michigan State. "It hasn't been huge yet, but the ripple effects will get bigger the longer this goes on." Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. In Flint, at least 1,200 truckers and production workers from suppliers have lost their jobs because of the strike. That includes hundreds from a supplier of seats to G.M., Lear Corporation, according to Duane Ballard, the financial secretary for U.A.W. Local 659, which represents employees at that factory. A Lear spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. Many of those workers are new hires who have not worked at the Lear plant long enough to qualify for state unemployment insurance, Mr. Ballard said. On a rainy night last week, more than two dozen people affected by the strike showed up at the Martus Luna Food Pantry in Flint, said Art Luna, who runs the pantry. They "are the ones that are really hurting," he said. "They're anxious to go back to work." The fallout has extended beyond the auto industry, disrupting local businesses that serve autoworkers. "After one week without pay, everybody starts to suffer, from McDonald's all the way to Luigi's Restaurant," Mr. Beaubien said. It's unclear just how many workers have been laid off by G.M.'s suppliers. Magna International, one of the world's largest auto suppliers, has idled "a few" plants, according to a spokeswoman, Tracy Fuerst. "We attempted to keep our employees at these impacted plants working as long as possible through training, maintenance and inventory," she said. Some G.M. suppliers are finding creative ways to keep workers occupied, whether repairing machines or building an inventory of auto components to ship later. "Your smarter suppliers are being very careful about how they lay people off," said Michael Robinet, an expert on the auto industry at IHS Markit. "They don't want to lose their better employees to a competitor or to another occupation." Of course, Michigan's economy is not as dependent on the auto sector as it was even two decades ago. Lansing has two G.M. plants, but their economic weight is counterbalanced by the state government and the city's hospital system, said Andy Schor, the city's mayor. Another large employer, Michigan State University, is nearby. "The sooner they resolve this the better, but I wouldn't say everything has shut down in Lansing," Mr. Schor said. Over all, G.M. and its suppliers account for 6,600 jobs with 250 million in annual wages in the city, which has roughly 118,000 residents. Mr. Schor said autoworkers had been asking the city owned utility for more time to pay their electric and water bills. Yet even at companies that are not highly dependent on G.M., the effect of the strike was immediate. Pridgeon Clay, a component maker that sells to G.M.'s suppliers, froze hiring right away. "We heard from our customers within hours," said R. Kevin Clay, the company's president. Business had already been a little soft at Pridgeon Clay, which is based in Grand Rapids, Mich., when the strike began. G.M. suppliers account for about 13 million of the company's 300 million in annual revenue. Now parts destined for the automaker are piled up in corners of the company's distribution center. Mr. Clay said he was determined to avoid layoffs. "It's certainly eating into profitability, but rather than cut people, you pinch every penny," he said. Other manufacturers, like Stripmatic in Cleveland, say manpower has been tight recently, and the strike has freed workers for other tasks. But Bill Adler, the company's president, said business could suffer if G.M.'s plants didn't resume production soon. "If the strike goes on much longer, what started out as a very good year could turn into a mediocre year," he said. Around the country, G.M. dealers said inventories had grown somewhat tighter. "We had a pretty deep shelf when the strike started and are at about average inventory right now," said Mark Scarpelli, president of Raymond Chevrolet in Antioch, Ill. G.M. said last week that its American dealers had 760,000 vehicles at the end of September, down 5 percent from a year ago. That's enough to last several weeks, but dealers are nearing the time when they place orders for the brisk sales they usually see around the end of the year. Back in Dearborn, Mr. Tlaib of Phoenix Transit Logistics is doing what he can to get trucks back on the road. He emptied five of his trailers into a warehouse, freeing them to carry parts for other companies. But that has made barely a dent in the G.M. inventory in his yard. "We don't know what's going to happen next," he said. "We just sit down and smoke and watch the news." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
President Trump's target for economic growth just got a little more distant. The government reported Friday that the economy grew by only 1.6 percent last year, shy of what experts had estimated and well below the 4 percent rate that Mr. Trump has vowed to deliver a pledge now cited on the White House website. There are plenty of signs of life in the economy. Consumer spending is healthy, and an index of consumer sentiment just hit a 12 year high. Stocks have been surging, and the jobless rate is near what the Federal Reserve considers full employment. But however solid, the recovery under President Barack Obama never reached exuberance. It is the second longest recovery in American history but the first in the postwar era in which growth for a full year did not hit 3 percent. Mr. Trump made that data point a focus of his campaign, citing factories that closed during the recession but never reopened and workers who gave up looking for jobs and dropped out of the labor force. And economists, even if they disagree with his policy prescriptions, acknowledge that many areas have been left behind. While Friday's report will provide more support for Mr. Trump's argument, the lackluster pace of economic growth may also complicate the new administration's plans. Indeed, some of the headwinds in 2016 like a widening trade deficit and cautious spending by businesses could persist into 2017 and beyond. In particular, lower exports and higher imports also hurt growth in the fourth quarter, which fell to an annual rate of 1.9 percent from 3.5 percent in the prior quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday. In 2016, personal consumption which accounts for a majority of economic activity slowed from 2014 and 2015. In addition, the sharp plunge in oil prices over the same period prompted steep cuts in energy production and exploration, contributing to a drop in business investment. All of this underscores why analysts say that Mr. Trump's growth rate target of 4 percent is audacious at best and fanciful at worst, especially given broader factors like an aging population and the growth rate of 2 percent or so that has prevailed since the recovery began in 2009. "It would defy gravity," Diane Swonk, a veteran independent economist in Chicago, said. Four percent growth would require big gains in the size of the work force and productivity, but neither is in the offing, Ms. Swonk said, adding, "It's simple math." At the same time, the Federal Reserve has signaled that it is ready to raise interest rates a few times this year, and a faster expansion would only accelerate the Fed's plan to tighten monetary policy to head off inflation. Whatever the growth trajectory is in 2017, Fed officials will have a tricky time navigating the political and economic currents under Mr. Trump. Not only did he criticize the Fed chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, during the campaign, but his assessment of the current economy is more downbeat than the Fed's. One week into the Trump administration, there are many other economic wild cards for policy makers and private forecasters to contemplate, including the impact of congressional efforts to reshape the corporate tax code, trade tensions with Mexico and China, and the proposed repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. Tax cuts could open the way for new spending and investment. But more expensive imports from Mexico could be painful for many consumers, for example, while a trade war with China would hurt American companies like Apple, General Electric and Caterpillar. Retail earnings and Black Friday: the week in business. Elizabeth Holmes will resume her testimony in her fraud trial. What is more, although the Commerce Department report focused on the last three full months of Mr. Obama's second term, anemic economic activity could add to the revenue shortfall the federal government will most likely face from the personal and corporate tax cuts Mr. Trump has discussed. The retirement of the baby boomers will limit the size of the labor force, he said, while productivity gains from technology are not expected to accelerate from the current level, as they did with the adoption of the internet or mobile phones in the 1990s. Weak growth does strengthen arguments for a federal program to fortify the nation's infrastructure an approach Mr. Trump has advocated that could provide an economic stimulus. Since Mr. Trump's victory in November, many economists have been raising their projected growth rates for the latter half of 2017 and for 2018. That is not necessarily because they feel Mr. Trump's policies will prove beneficial in the long run. Instead, it is because the tax cuts and infrastructure investments he has called for could bolster the economy in the short term. Mr. Faucher lifted his growth forecast to 2.4 percent in 2017 and 2.7 percent in 2018. Previously, he expected output to expand by 2.25 percent in each year. "Tax cuts and infrastructure spending represent a much more expansionary fiscal policy than we've had in some time," he said. But Mr. Faucher cautioned that increasing the federal deficit, which stood at 587 billion in 2016, by hundreds of billions more in the coming years could increase interest rates, which were already moving higher. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
The crowd outside Paisley Park, Prince's home and studio in Chanhassen, Minn., on April 22, 2016, the day after he was found dead inside. The paramedics who had met the jet on the tarmac in Moline Ill., recalled a surreal scene: At first, they believed the near lifeless body being carried down the steps was that of an old woman, given the glittery gold clothing and shoes. Up close, it was unmistakably Prince, who was barely breathing. Recognizing the symptoms, a paramedic later told investigators, he administered a shot of Narcan, a medication used to reverse an opioid overdose. But a second shot of Narcan caused Prince to take a large gasp and come to. When asked how he felt, Prince did not respond, but Kirk Johnson, his trusted bodyman, spoke up: "Prince feels fine." Mr. Johnson later told investigators that it was that emergency landing, after a concert on April 14, 2016, that made him realize that Prince had a serious problem. In subsequent days, Mr. Johnson and other members of Prince's tight inner circle would help arrange visits with addiction specialists. A week later, just as help was on his Paisley Park doorstep, Prince was dead at 57. On Thursday, the Minnesota authorities wrapped up their two year investigation into the musician's death, opting not to charge anyone criminally because they said they could not track his fatal dose pills Prince probably thought were Vicodin, but which actually contained much stronger fentanyl to any individual. But the hundreds of pages of investigative documents released by the Carver County Sheriff's Office did pull back the curtain on Prince's intense reliance on his intimate circle of friends and employees, as well as their desire to protect him, as demonstrated by Mr. Johnson's behavior in Moline. In their limited statements to investigators, those closest to Prince in his final years said that the depths of his opioid addiction had been largely concealed from them until his final weeks when they rushed to save him. "How did he hide this so well?" Mr. Johnson said to investigators, repeatedly mentioning Prince's obsession with privacy. This seeming contradiction with some of Prince's associates saying they were aware of his long struggle with pain medication, but others saying they had no idea until the very end ultimately frustrated investigators. "There is no doubt that the actions of individuals closely associated with Prince will be questioned, criticized and judged in the days and weeks to come," the Carver County attorney, Mark Metz, said in his announcement that there would be no charges. Mr. Metz noted that "because Prince was an intensely private person, he was certainly assisted and enabled by others to obtain" the pills he came to rely on. But the investigators could not make a case against anyone for supplying the fatal drugs. "Suspicions and innuendo are categorically insufficient to support any criminal charges," Mr. Metz said. Despite an often blurry picture of the singer's relationship to drugs, Prince's associates appeared to agree that his pain stemmed from what he loved most: performing. After decades of onstage acrobatics, often in heels, Prince was known to suffer from hip pain and was said to have undergone surgery. The musician also complained sometimes of numbness in his arms and hands, possibly from banging relentlessly on the piano. In an interview with police about a year after Prince's death, Theo London, his tour manager and chief of staff between 2011 and 2015, recalled the singer once asking for a painkiller and becoming angry when Mr. London brought him a Tylenol, explaining that he needed something stronger. Manuela Testolini, Prince's wife from 2001 to 2007, told police that Prince often used narcotic pain pills during that period to manage his bodily aches. Sheila E. said that Prince had always wanted to hide how much pain he was in. Years ago, she told police, people working for the singer would obtain prescriptions for him in their own names to protect his privacy. Text messages obtained by police show Mr. Johnson scheduling appointments for Prince with the doctor, including a day before he died, when he appeared to be going through opiate withdrawal. Dr. Schulenberg prescribed drugs in Prince's name for those symptoms, and he and Prince's close associates began seeking help. Mr. Johnson's lawyer, F. Clayton Tyler, said on Friday: "He tried to take care of his friend as best as he could. The bottom line is, if they had thought he'd done something wrong, they'd have charged him." Addiction specialists were waiting at the Paisley Park studio and residence on the morning of April 21 when Prince was discovered dead in his elevator. Those present including Mr. Johnson and Meron Bekure, Prince's personal assistant of a year and a half indicated that Prince's addiction to painkillers had largely been a mystery to them. The refrain that would be repeated throughout the investigation began right away: Prince was a very private person, his confidantes told authorities. Ms. Bekure, in a brief interview with police that afternoon, explained she was uncertain of what she could discuss, having signed a confidentiality agreement. She said the only medication she had procured for Prince was for constipation. (Investigators noted that various bathrooms in Paisley Park contained enemas and other constipation medication: "This was of interest only because one of the common side effects of narcotics usage is constipation," documents said.) On Friday, Ryan Garry, a lawyer for Ms. Bekure, said that Ms. Bekure "continues to mourn Prince's passing." "It's been a tough couple of years emotionally and she's thankful the matter has come to a close," he said. Mr. Johnson told investigators that he was only beginning to understand the depths of Prince's addiction. Again citing Prince's privacy the singer had no cellphone and had even disabled the security cameras on his property because he feared being watched, he said Mr. Johnson also cautioned the authorities that "no one would talk about" Prince's drug use, perhaps out of fear. In text messages two weeks before the death, a doctor expressed concern to Kirk Johnson, a close associate of Prince, about the singer's appearance. Others further removed had fewer reservations about telling investigators what they knew or believed. Crystal Zehetner, a chef for Prince who also worked as his business manager between 2010 and 2015, told Detective Chris Wagner of the Carver County Sheriff's Office that Prince would frequently complain of hip pain and that she "knew he had a substance abuse problem," according to a report from Detective Wagner. Ms. Zehetner, who declined to comment on Friday, told the detective that "of course" those around him knew about Prince's addiction and that if anyone who worked with Prince said they did not know, "that those people were lying." A couple of associates said they had noticed changes in Prince's demeanor and behavior. In early April, he had canceled shows, citing the flu, and his personal chef, Ray Roberts, told police Prince was eating less, losing weight and "didn't seem good." Judith Hill, one of Prince's protegees who was on the Moline flight, said to investigators that he had been exhausted on the way to Atlanta, even telling her, "Oh man, I love sleeping more, maybe it means I've done all I'm supposed to do on this earth." It can be difficult to assess whether someone is addicted to painkillers, according to Dr. John Kelly, director of the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital. But some telltale signs, he said, were lethargy, irritability, nodding off and perhaps most important, tolerance to medication that leads abusers to seek ever higher doses. Carver County investigators indicated that they had run into various hurdles while looking into Prince's death. For instance, a Gmail account belonging to Prince was opened from his MacBook on April 23, 2016, the day of his memorial service, before law enforcement officials obtained a search warrant. "After obtaining a search warrant on Prince's Google accounts, there was no information prior to 4 19 16," according to a police report, "suggesting the content had been deleted." On Friday, one of Prince's sisters, Sharon L. Nelson, posted on Twitter about her disappointment with the investigation: "He died, no collecting his computer, securing building, files, records, etc?" she wrote. Carver County investigators said that until they knew Prince had died from a fentanyl overdose, they had no lawful basis to take his computer and that they did not believe the email deletions to be intentional acts of obfuscation. "The fact that criminal charges are not brought does not mean that some person or persons associated with Prince did not assist or enable Prince in obtaining the counterfeit Vicodin," the Carver County attorney's office, said in its announcement. "After all, Prince somehow came into possession of the pills and the pills had to come from some source." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Joel Prouty, photographed remotely in Westchester County, where he has been staying. Mr. Prouty trains some of New York City's elite dancers. Bodies run on different engines and as far as exercise goes, dancers needs premium fuel. You can't just take a ballerina and tell her do a squat. A squat needs a reason behind it. "So let's take that reason and add to it," said the personal trainer Joel Prouty. "Let's make it vulnerable, let's make it meaningful, let's make it add to what that client is doing in a season." Mr. Prouty, who works with many of New York's most elite dancers including the New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns is in high demand, both because of and despite the coronavirus pandemic. Social isolation is a strain on dancers. But with performances postponed indefinitely, cross training and particularly Mr. Prouty's brand of it, tailored to ballet is crucial for dancers to try to maintain their strength and stamina. With that comes a frighteningly open ended question, one that becomes more pressing as days turn into weeks: How can dancers truly stay in shape during quarantine? "I saw six clients today and they were all dancers," he said recently. "I think every single one of them is having a very hard time psychologically wrapping their head around this and feeling like there's not much of an existence out there for them." Cross training helps a dancer maintain health and longevity, as well as preventing injuries. Mr. Prouty's dream is that dancers and their companies begin to consider it as important as "their morning class," he said. "Or almost as important." Perhaps the pandemic will make that clear. Certainly Mr. Prouty's sessions are a reassuring constant in uncertain times: a way for dancers to put their bodies back together again. "It's the most normal thing in this whole quarantine," said Jacqueline Bologna, a City Ballet dancer. "Everything else is up in the air. The days feel super long with unlimited possibilities." Not that major companies have abandoned their dancers. Aside from company class, City Ballet is offering strength training three times a week and a weekly yoga session; American Ballet Theater has company class and also offers conditioning three times a week. Mr. Prouty, though, is not a fan of group exercise. "When I get you one on one, you and I are the only people on the planet," he said. "I see everything. You see everything. I'm telling you what to look for." That holds true for virtual training, too, though the dynamic changes. Of course, there's no actual contact, but there's also no way to access a dancer's mood or physicality before or after a session. "It's hard not to watch them walk into the studio," he said. "I would kind of watch them for 15, 30 seconds and in that little bit of time it's just, where are they? Are they limping? Are they wet from being in the rain? That tells me so much." He is also limited in terms of equipment. Before the citywide shutdown, Mr. Prouty was preparing to open his own Manhattan fitness space, Studio IX, which is in the final phase of construction on the Upper West Side. He packed as much equipment as he could into his car Bosu balls and weights and delivered them to clients himself. More important, he has had to rethink the way he trains, which takes into consideration a dancer's repertory and injuries, past and present. "I have programs that are perfect for a dancer while they're doing 'Jewels' or 'Sleeping Beauty' or a ballet dancer doing a modern program, or a modern dancer doing a very hard pedestrian style program," he said. At this point, though, everyone basically has a similar routine. "You get yourself out of bed and take whatever Zoom class is offered from some ballet master's living room," he said. "Or do your own thing. But nonetheless, it's severely diluted." Another problem is small spaces, because dancers are prevented from working on grand allegro movements like jumps. "So we've got to get a lot of explosive exercises," he said. "We've got to get that angst out as well." And that is also a way to build endurance. "Now," he said, "we're developing a program for a global pandemic lockdown." Mr. Prouty, who has been staying in Westchester County, has increased the intensity of his workouts with extra repetitions and sets and has incorporated more ballet based exercises to make up for the hours not dancing. His experience as a dancer and as a trainer is important. He has spent years developing a syllabus to make cross training effective for dancers. It's not, he said, about the squat or burning calories. "When I was learning to become a trainer," he said, "I studied metabolic adaptation. I was fascinated with how the body would react to imposed stress, so I really use a lot of the theory in creating the workouts that I have for the dancers." And while he realizes the importance of cross training for the moment we're in, the balance between training and dancing needs to be maintained. "As the amount of dancing drops, the amount of cross training should also lessen," he said, "so that all the dancers don't come back looking like soccer players." Mr. Prouty has other clients, but dancers are his specialty, and he credits them with helping him to learn what they needed from cross training. One thing he had to consider was fatigue. "I was getting them at the end of their long rehearsal day," he said. "I had to learn that we're not here to work with dancers more. We're not here to overwork. We're here to address what might be missing in their daily activity not tying ropes to the wall and giving them high intensity interval training at 8 p.m. after they have rehearsed five different ballets." As a former dancer, he knew what that felt like. He started dancing at around age 6 in Phoenix, and went on to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, in 1993. He was a little too young for it, he said, so he returned to Phoenix in "this crazy chaos of '80s Mustang 5.0's and ZZ Top, and where am I? "I ran away from home, got arrested, did all the things that you're supposed to do when you're a teenage boy and your single mom parent is loving enough to give you that room and still keep you safe." And dancing still had an allure. He returned to Winnipeg, eventually dancing with the company there before moving on to Houston Ballet and Boston Ballet, where he met his wife, Kelley Potter, who later danced with American Ballet Theater. Mr. Prouty moved to New York, where he performed as a guest with regional companies and joined the cast of "Come Fly Away," Twyla Tharp's Broadway show. Ms. Tharp, he recalled, was obsessed with injury prevention. "Before rehearsal, she would start this funky type of warm up," he said. "She painted the picture that it was about keeping dancers injury free. I had knee surgery and ankle surgery, and everyone else I knew had lived through that same experience. So that's sort of what sparked this." Ms. Tharp had a gym installed in the theater. He took advantage. "I was downstairs jumping rope and exercising and lifting weights. The number one thing was the aesthetic requirement. How can I do this and not end up looking like a bodybuilder?" "After one session with him, I knew I had to continue because it was just unlike anything else I had been doing," Ms. Post said. "Trainers are typically afraid of injury, which is a good thing, but in having his dance background, he knows what he's doing and he can push you to a point where other people are afraid to go." Ms. Mearns, who has worked with Mr. Prouty since 2013, jokingly refers to him as the head of her pit crew. She particularly loves how he compares dancers' bodies to Formula One racecars. "They have to perform at such a high level," she said. "If one little thing is off, the whole system is off." Her sessions with Mr. Prouty on FaceTime an hour long, twice a week are different than being trained in person, but they're working. "He'll say, 'Do you have a chair that doesn't have a cushion on it that you can step up on?'" she said. "We use it like a bench to step up on and do arabesques and passes. He has me do the stamina stuff the burpees and all that. He doesn't exhaust me to the point where he knows my legs are going to give out, but we still do all that stuff, and I'm not in pain. My back doesn't hurt. My knees don't hurt." Over the years she has posted videos of herself doing Mr. Prouty's workouts heroic box jumps or balances on a Bosu with a kettle bell that show not only her strength but also her control. At first, she regarded the exercises that her workouts begin with, like two legged and one legged squats, as boring. "People don't see all that stuff on Instagram because it's not quote unquote exciting or tricky, but that's what we do for more than half the session," she said. "When you get to the third set of it, and he keeps adding little things like releves or jumps, you're just dying. I'm shaking, I'm sweating. "It's kind of stripping everything away and just bringing it down to the simple, bare minimum, and it still works. His method still definitely works." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Q. Is there an app that lets me change the file names on a bunch of digital photos at once so I can upload them to an online album with more informative names than DSC01970.jpg., DSC01971.jpg and so on? A. Photo programs often include commands to rename files when you export them for uploading or sharing. For example, the Photos app that Apple includes with the Mac operating system gives you the opportunity to save a batch of pictures with a keyword and a number (like Graduation 1.jpg, Graduation 2.jpg and onward) in the Export dialogue box when you choose Sequential in the File Name menu. The free Adobe Bridge photo organizer program for Windows and Mac can also rename photos in batches. Third party utilities for renaming images in bulk can be found online as well with a quick search, but you may not need extra software for simple batch jobs. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
The charity golf exhibition with Rory McIlroy and friends was a nice opening act, but the sport's headliner returns this weekend. On Sunday, Tiger Woods will play for the first time in three months, ending his longest layoff since recovering from spinal fusion surgery in 2017. Woods and Phil Mickelson will reprise their match play showdown of 2018, this time to benefit coronavirus relief efforts and in pairings with the former N.F.L. rivals Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. The appearance will be a meaningful opportunity to assess the fitness of not just Woods's golf game but also his back, which after four operations is an anatomical wild card. The competitive golf world's last glimpse of Woods, 44, was in mid February, when he was stiff and uncomfortable as he shot an ignominious 11 over par in the final two rounds of the Genesis Invitational to finish last among the golfers who made the cut. It appeared to be a minor setback at the time. But roughly a month later, citing trouble with his cranky back, Woods withdrew from a series of high profile March tournaments, including the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which he has won eight times, and the PGA Tour's signature event, the Players Championship. When the PGA Tour was suspended soon afterward, with the Masters postponed the same day because of the coronavirus pandemic, Woods was idled like thousands of other pro athletes around the globe. But Woods, unlike most of his brethren, has a shrinking window to add to his celebrated sporting legacy. He is tied with Sam Snead for the most career PGA Tour victories with 82, and his 15 major golf championship titles are three behind the record total won by Jack Nicklaus. It's not just Woods's age that will pose a challenge going forward; there are questions about how long his back can hold out. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Jazz at Lincoln Center will program and produce the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival in May, the first time that this New York based nonprofit organization has taken the creative reins at a festival abroad. The event's official title will be the 2019 Saint Lucia Jazz Festival Produced in Collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and it will feature multiple performances from each of five artists in residence: the bassist Christian McBride, the vocalist Ledisi, the trumpeter Etienne Charles, the bassist Russell Hall and the saxophonist and clarinetist Patrick Bartley. Read about the best jazz of 2018 here. Other performers will include the United States based vocalists Gregory Porter, Dianne Reeves, Catherine Russell and Somi, as well as a number of artists based in the Caribbean. The festival, now entering its 28th year, will run from May 5 12, and will take place at locations across the scenic island. The festival will also include educational events and performance opportunities for grade school students at the Saint Lucia School of Music. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
THE BUZZ IS LOUD these days about South Americans buying Miami and New York condos at a furious pace, helping to stoke high end residential boomlets in those cities. But back home, their own real estate markets have started to lure investment from big name American real estate companies. Developers like the Related Group of Florida, in a joint venture with the Related Companies based in New York, and Donald J. Trump, as well as real estate investors like the billionaire Sam Zell, are working to build residential housing and commercial spaces in Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia. For decades, those countries were not seen as very safe bets by many foreign real estate developers. Now Brazil, especially, has become the object of a lot of attention. Take a gander at the numbers and you quickly understand why. The average price of a four bedroom apartment in Ipanema, one of the posh beach neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro, rose nearly sixfold from 2008 to 2012, exceeding 2.5 million. The rise was helped by hype over large offshore oil finds and the announcement that Rio had won the 2016 Olympics. Even in Rio's grittier downtown, one bedroom apartments saw a threefold increase in sales price in those years. In Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, average residential prices doubled during that period, to 335 per square foot. Construction of residential buildings, especially in Sao Paulo, where I lived in 2011 in the latter part of my time as a correspondent in Brazil, seemed to be nonstop only a few years ago. In the upscale neighborhood of Itaim Bibi I was literally surrounded by the construction of high end condo buildings, with workers toiling away on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays. In the past Brazilians with money may have been thinking solely about how to park it outside their country. Today rising incomes and one of the longest sustained periods of economic stability in the country's history have given many Brazilians the confidence to invest at home as well. "Someone from the interior of Brazil, who in the past would have bought a home in Paris or New York, will now buy it in Rio," said Jose Conde Caldas, president of the Association of Directors of Real Estate Companies in Rio de Janeiro, who predicts strong growth at least through the 2016 Rio Olympics. In his 41 years in real estate, he added, "this is the best time of all the times." The hot Rio property market "has much more to do with demographics than any one time events like the Olympics," said Pedro Seixas de Correa, a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio who lectures on real estate management. "This is because of the country's rising incomes." Fortunes were made in the recent economic boom. Sao Paulo and Rio are now the 9th and 10th ranked cities in the world for high net worth individuals with at least 30 million in wealth, according to Knight Frank, a real estate company in London. But are those times ending? Lately, sales of new residential properties have tapered off. In both Rio and Sao Paulo the number of new residential development units peaked in 2010. Residential sales in Sao Paulo fell by nearly 5 percent last year. Construction costs are rising, in large part from a shortage of skilled labor that is causing construction delays. In Rio, costs rose by 39 percent per square foot over the past five years. "This is a serious problem," Mr. Caldas said, adding that developers were recruiting laborers from other Brazilian states. The end next month of a major project to upgrade Maracana soccer stadium for the 2014 World Cup should free up some 6,000 laborers. The political will to cut down on red tape and keep the construction boom going seems to be there, at least in Rio, Roberto Kauffmann, president of Rio's Civil Engineering Industry Syndicate, said in a recent interview in Rome, where he spoke to Italian investors about opportunities in Rio. "We have created conditions to be able to overcome bureaucracy," he said. In any event the challenges haven't dissuaded developers like Jorge Perez, chairman of Related Group, based in Miami, who is making a sizable bet on Brazil's need for new upscale housing over the next decade. Related established a Brazilian subsidiary a year ago and is developing its first mixed use projects in Sao Paulo, with an eye to the Rio market as well. "Sao Paulo had a period of overbuilding and has quieted down the past few years," Mr. Perez said. But "we feel that Brazil over the next decade will have a much greater growth rate than the United States, and definitely than Europe. There will be bumps on the road, like all development markets." Related Brasil is investing 100 million in a multitower mixed use complex in the upscale neighborhood of Morumbi. It will have condominiums, offices, retail space and a hotel. The first phase, expected to begin construction next year, will have five towers with 672 units. The second will be even larger, he said. Mr. Perez described the apartments as "upper middle class condos" in buildings with swimming pools, gardens, tennis courts and "acres of green space." Related's Brazilian development partner, Bueno Netto Construction, is also investing 100 million, Mr. Perez said. The project awaits approval by Brazilian officials, but Mr. Perez hopes to start advance marketing on it within the next 90 days. Related is also working on two other luxury projects in Sao Paulo, and is scouring Rio for opportunities in the Port Zone, which the city is revitalizing. Among those involved with Related Brasil is Clifford Sobel, a former American ambassador, who wrote in a 2007 diplomatic cable, released by Wikileaks and reported by a Brazilian watchdog publication, that "the honeymoon is just beginning" for American investors in Brazil's real estate market. Mr. Sobel called former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva "the best president for the real estate sector that Brazil has ever had." Mr. Sobel wrote the enthusiastic message after a meeting with the president of Cyrela, one of the largest residential developers in the country. In Rio, the Trump Organization is licensing the Trump name for a multi billion dollar office complex in the Port Zone area, which is intended to be a posh new urban center with tens of thousands of residents. The project, which Trump is working on with the Bulgarian developer MRP International, will encompass five towers with a total of 4.5 million square feet of commercial space, said Donald Trump, Jr., who is overseeing the project. "It may be the largest urban office development in all of the BRIC countries," he said, using the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China. Although the developers are still waiting on some government approvals, Mr. Trump expects at least one of the towers to be completed by the Olympics in three years. Next door to Brazil, in Uruguay, Trump is lending its name to a luxury condo building in the resort playground of Punta del Este. The 100 million development, which will have 129 apartments on 25 floors, will overlook the beach. Sales started in January. So far potential buyers include Americans, Uruguayans, Argentines, Brazilians and Europeans, said Eric Trump, who is overseeing it. Prices for standard units will range from 650,000 to 2.5 million. The penthouses, which will have 6,500 to 8,600 square feet of space and private pools and spas, have yet to be priced. A Trump spokeswoman would not say how many apartments were already under contract. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
NO taxpayer is obliged to pay the government a penny more than the law requires, the Supreme Court said in 1935. But the court also said no corporation was permitted to use "elaborate and devious" means known nowadays as "gimmicks" for the express purpose of evading taxes. That ancient tension between legal tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion, and between a corporation's self interest and the fundamental requirements of a government and its citizens, remains at the heart of the American system. It was on full display at the Senate hearing last week on Apple's tax practices in the 21st century. That statement seemed absurd to one expert witness at the hearing, J. Richard Harvey Jr., a professor at Villanova Law School. "Apple does not use tax gimmicks?" Professor Harvey testified. "I about fell off my chair when I read that." Mr. Harvey said Apple had set up corporations in Ireland that were little more than empty shells. By exploiting gaps in international law, Apple's tax strategizing saved the company 7.7 billion in 2011 alone, he said. The hearing furnished an illuminating blueprint of Apple's tax strategies, and was a riveting spectacle. But for anyone hoping that it would result in an swell of support for closing tax loopholes and repatriating hundreds of billions of dollars in cash held "overseas" by American corporations in Apple's case, actually deposited in Manhattan bank accounts the event was something of a letdown. For Nell Minow, who has spent the last 27 years researching and advocating policies that she says are aimed at improving corporate America's behavior, it was a difficult week. "With corporate governance battles, you get used to tilting at windmills," she said. Beyond the Apple hearing, she pointed to another prominent event that could be viewed as a corporate governance setback. That was a vote on whether the jobs of chairman and C.E.O. should be held by the same person at a major company, JPMorgan Chase. Splitting the two jobs under the theory that an independent chairman offers meaningful oversight over a C.E.O. has been a trend. In 2002, only 25 percent of Standard Poor's 500 companies separated the two roles. In 2012, some 43 percent did, according to a survey by Spencer Stuart, the executive search firm. But at JPMorgan, shareholders voted last week by a roughly two to one margin against splitting the jobs, both held by Jamie Dimon. Like Mr. Cook, Mr. Dimon is often said to be an extremely effective leader, and his personal popularity may have been an influence. Heavy lobbying and aggressive tactics by the company also helped in the vote, which in any case was only advisory. (Even if it had gone against Mr. Dimon, he wouldn't have been required to heed it.) It's possible that another factor introduced voting bias. Seven of the 10 institutional investors who are JPMorgan's largest shareholders are themselves run by C.E.O.'s who are also chairmen. That was reported by Bloomberg News, which found that the top 10 shareholders held 29.5 percent of JPMorgan's stock. A cozy sense of entitlement is a tendency that separating the jobs is intended to combat, Erik Gordon, a professor of law and business and the University of Michigan, said in an e mail. "If you ask C.E.O.'s who also are chairs of their board whether it is a good idea to let another C.E.O./chair do the same thing, the answer is obvious: it is a very good idea," he said. "That's what they've told their own boards. It is hard to change corporate governance when people who like things just as they are control the votes. It's like asking members of Congress to vote in favor of giving up their privileges." DOES splitting the two jobs improve a corporation? Not necessarily. Mr. Dimon suggested before the polling that he might leave JPMorgan if the vote for job splitting prevailed, a move that some shareholders said would hurt the company. But instituting checks and balances is good policy in government, corporate and otherwise, said Robert A. G. Monks, a shareholder advocate. Having an independent chairman is "a prerequisite of good governance but it's not a guarantee," he said. Apple has had independent chairmen for years. Still, Mr. Monks contended, while it has been a colossally creative and successful company, it's also been "an irresponsible corporate citizen," for, among other failings, "gaming the international system" to avoid paying taxes. And such tax revenue, he said, is "badly needed right here in the United States." At the hearing, Mr. Cook said, "We pay every penny we owe." Mr. Monks said that while this may be true, Apple's tax avoidance hurts the country. Ms. Minow put the idea a bit differently. Corporate behavior can be lethal for the body politic, she said. As a modern corporation, she said, Apple is "designed to offload as many costs as possible, and to keep as many of its revenues as possible" and is thus an "externalizing machine in the same way that sharks are killing machines." In the JPMorgan vote, Mr. Monks said, he was heartened by large numbers of negative votes cast against members of the board's risk committee, an action that may portend a shake up. JPMorgan lost 6 billion in a derivatives trading debacle in London last year a reminder, he said, of the financial system's vulnerability to feckless risk taking by giant banks. "It will take relentless effort by shareholders and by the government to make corporations behave like good citizens," he said. Like Ms. Minow, Mr. Monks is a co founder of the Corporate Library, a governance research firm, and of its successor, GMI Ratings. He is also the author of a new book, "Citizens DisUnited: Passive Investors, Drone C.E.O.'s and the Corporate Capture of the American Dream." Along with the setbacks, Ms. Minow said, corporate democracy has won victories. Earlier this month, she said, Hess, the oil company, agreed under pressure to appoint three dissidents to its board and to separate the jobs of chairman and C.E.O. "Every so often," she said, "if you tilt at windmills long enough, you'll find that one of them falls over." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
Craig Windham, a veteran NPR reporter known for delivering bite size reports for top of the hour newscasts in a warm, familiar tone to millions of Americans, died on Sunday in Winston Salem, N.C. He was 66. His brother, Cris Windham, said the cause was a pulmonary embolism. Craig Windham had been visiting his brother in Winston Salem when he fell ill. Mr. Windham joined NPR in 1995 and worked as a reporter, and sometimes as an anchor, in Washington. His reports on the events of the day, in roughly 40 second segments, covered topics ranging from natural disasters to hearings on Capitol Hill. In an interview on Tuesday, Robert Garcia, the executive producer of NPR's newscasts, described Mr. Windham's reports as "gorgeous, beautifully layered audio." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Lodestone, a naturally occurring iron oxide, was the first persistently magnetic material known to humans. The Han Chinese used it for divining boards 2,200 years ago; ancient Greeks puzzled over why iron was attracted to it; and, Arab merchants placed it in bowls of water to watch the magnet point the way to Mecca. In modern times, scientists have used magnets to read and record data on hard drives and form detailed images of bones, cells and even atoms. Throughout this history, one thing has remained constant: Our magnets have been made from solid materials. But what if scientists could make magnetic devices out of liquids? In a study published Thursday in Science, researchers managed to do exactly that. "We've made a new material that has all the characteristics of an ordinary magnet, but we can change its shape, and conform it to different applications because it is a liquid," said Thomas Russell, a polymer scientist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the study's lead author. "It's very unique." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
The equestrian world's biggest kingmaker, George Morris, an Olympian who was barred for life from the sport one year ago, is now facing lawsuits by two people who said he raped them as teenagers. The suits were filed Wednesday in New York, one year to the day after Morris, a former United States Olympic team coach who remained even into his 80s one of show jumping's biggest luminaries, was barred by the United States Equestrian Federation. The ban followed an investigation by the United States Center for SafeSport, an independent body that investigates sexual misconduct in Olympic sports, into allegations that he sexually abused minors decades ago. Jimmy Williams, a California riding coach who minted Olympians and died in 1993, was also part of a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles. The equestrian federation and the riding academy where he was employed for decades were sued by a woman who said Williams had sexually assaulted her from the ages of 12 to 17. In a symbolic move, Williams was recorded as barred from the federation in 2018 after an investigation by The New York Times revealed accusations by nearly a dozen women, including the Olympian Anne Kursinski, that he had preyed upon them as girls. The plaintiffs in the Morris lawsuits, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, are two of the men who initially came forward to SafeSport, prompting its investigation that led to the barring of Morris, who won a silver medal as a show jumper in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, and went on to coach the United States Olympic team and most recently the Brazilian team. Bill Moroney, the chief executive of the United States Equestrian Federation, issued a statement declining to comment directly on the suits but making some of the strongest comments to date on Morris. "The actions of George Morris are reprehensible and those he abused should never have had to endure his unconscionable and despicable behavior,'' he said. "We stand with and support the brave victims and survivors who have come forward to share their experiences. USEF has zero tolerance for sexual abuse past, present, or future and has prevention policies in place to protect equestrians from sexual abuse and misconduct.'' Morris did not answer a message seeking for comment. In one of the lawsuits, Jonathan Soresi, a New Jersey horse trainer who said he was in a sexual relationship with Morris when he was 17 and Morris was in his 30s, said that Morris assaulted him as his student in a midtown Manhattan hotel after a show jumping competition at Madison Square Garden. Soresi first reported Morris to the federation in 2012, but recanted; a former drug user, and himself a registered sex offender for possessing child pornography, Soresi said in an interview that he was high at the time and afraid he would not be believed. The other plaintiff is not named, listed only in the lawsuit as A.G.1 Doe. He is a prominent trainer and show jumper in his 50s who said that Morris brutally raped him in 1978 in a hotel in the Hamptons when he was 17 years old after an exhibition at the prestigious Topping Riding Club in Sagaponack, on Long Island. Topping is also named in his lawsuit and did not answer a request for comment. In an interview, the man, who has never before publicly spoken about the accusation, said that part of his decision to come forward was a backlash in the equestrian community to Morris's ban: Some supporters claimed the boys sought Morris's sexual attentions to get ahead in the sport favorite students were lavished with better horses and his training. A number of the sport's most revered champions furiously defended Morris, raging at SafeSport's purposeful lack of transparency: To protect victims, it does not divulge any details of its investigations beyond the outcome, according to Dan Hill, a spokesman for the nonprofit organization. (Morris appealed the punishment, but the ban was upheld by an independent arbiter.) The man said that after his identity as one of Morris's accusers had emerged last year, some people in the sport shunned him at horse shows. "That is revictimization," he said. "They look away from me because I am one of the people responsible for the icon of their industry being held accountable for the things he's done." "If people would just pause for a moment and think, how they would want this handled if they had been a victim? If it was a sibling of theirs that had been abused? Or a child of theirs that had been abused?" the man continued. "I think they would have a very different perspective." All of the lawsuits target the equestrian federation for what the plaintiffs claim was a culture of turning a blind eye to the abuse by Morris and Williams both of whose behavior was long an open secret in their decades of prominence in the tight knit sport. "These institutions should question these totalitarian men, to protect kids from the predator," Gigi Gaston, a film director who is suing Flintridge Riding Club, in La Canada Flintridge outside Los Angeles, for the abuse by Williams she said she endured. The club employed Williams for 42 years even after at least one teenage rider told the club he had sexually assaulted her. The club did not answer a request for comment. "But they protected them; their image was more important than protecting us," Gaston said. "Image shouldn't be more important than the safety of a child." The lawsuits, which seek financial damages, were able to go forward because of two newly enacted laws in New York and California that temporarily suspend the time limits for adults to bring claims for abuse they suffered as children. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Photographs by ABC Photo Archives, via Getty Images; CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images (second from right) After two and a half decades, the fog over the town of Twin Peaks may finally be lifting: The cult series, which ended on a cliffhanger in 1991, is set to return on Sunday. The new series, "Twin Peaks: The Return," on Showtime, picks up with Special Agent Dale Cooper and the gang 25 plus years after the mysterious death of Laura Palmer. With the founding creators David Lynch and Mark Frost and much of the original cast on board, we can expect a trippy and addictive ride. The visuals, of course, will provide fertile ground for inspiration, particularly the fashion, which will come from Nancy Steiner, whose portfolio includes "The Virgin Suicides" and "Lost in Translation." Here, looks inspired by the show's most seminal imagery to get you in the spirit for the premiere. Audrey Horne's sartorial strategy can be summed up thus: Make mischief dressed as sweetly as possible. A full skirt in a just this side of twee print, a blush pink sweater, retro cool cat eyes and most important saddle shoes will help you get away with good old fashioned plotting. Maybe even snag your own Agent Cooper. Borrow from the boys of "Twin Peaks" in the quintessential American ensemble: jeans and a T shirt. A plaid shirt in linen is breezy enough for rising temperatures and still has that whiff of teenage moodiness so well played in the series. Harley Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle and brooding stare optional. Topshop checked cotton shirt, 48 at Topshop, topshop.com; Chimala dark indigo selvedge denim jeans, 288, and unisex cotton pocket tee, 150, at La Garconne, lagarconne.com. Serve up a feminine look (and maybe some pie) in a collared shirt dress, hair band and hoop earrings that would fit right in at the Double R Diner. Blue eye shadow is a nod to the late '80s; Milk Makeup's shadow liner pen, in electric blue, puts a new spin on the once tacky beauty look. An iconic image of the series is the Red Room. Its location, origin and exact nature remain an enigma, but its style appeal is no mystery. Prepare to step into a new trippy chic dimension in chevrons and deep red. M Missoni cotton viscose knit sweater, 350, and pants, 460, at luisaviaroma.com; Nars Audacious lipstick, 34 at Sephora, sephora.com; Balenciaga leather slip ons, 545 at net a porter.com. Continue following our fashion and lifestyle coverage on Facebook (Styles and Modern Love), Twitter (Styles, Fashion and Weddings) and Instagram. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
'It Felt Like I Was Wrapped in One Big Hug': Inside the Chicago Gay and Straight Alliance Prom It is a staple of prom night for a boy to be crowned prom king and a girl to be crowned queen. But a recent prom in Chicago was not just any prom. There, after Miss Precious Brady Davis, the M.C., shimmied to the front of the room in a glittering sequined dress and grabbed the mic, she drew two names out of a glass bowl. Carlos, 16, whose purple hair, fiery red outfit and matching theatrical red makeup seemed to beg for a crown, was chosen as prom queen, and Jovanny, 17, in mint eye shadow, was crowned king. It was a Friday night, and this year's Chicago Gay and Straight Alliance prom was well underway. Almost 150 high school students from the across the city had gathered on Chicago's South Side West Englewood neighborhood to celebrate themselves. To qualify for queen and king, Carlos and Jovanny had submitted their names on a small strip of paper based on the categories they chose king or queen rather than the traditional method of competing against people assigned a category based on their sex at birth. The first gay prom reportedly took place in West Hollywood, Calif., in the early 1990s and was featured in the 1995 documentary short "Live to Tell: The First Gay Prom in America." Since then, GSA or gay proms have sprung up in Florida, Colorado, Michigan and Virginia, among other states. The GSA prom is a prime opportunity for a diverse array of young people in hypersegregated Chicago to come together. According to a 2016 poll by The New York Times and the Kaiser Family Foundation, African Americans and Latinos on the South and West Sides of the city are more likely to be dissatisfied than white people on the North Side with neighborhood services like public recreation facilities, transportation and public education. A citywide dance where students from varying races and economic backgrounds, as well as gender identities and sexual orientations, can come together under one roof is a rare treat from the normal social and cultural divisions. Despite the growth of gay proms across the country, they remain the exception to most school dances, where L.G.B.T.Q.I.A. students can still face serious obstacles. But those instances did not reflect the mood of the GSA prom in Chicago. Many students traveled more than an hour to get there, from the farthest north and west corners of the city and suburbs to celebrate deep in the heart of the black South Side. "I want you all to get into formation!" shouted Khloe, a glittery, bedazzled resident drag queen performer, to the teenagers, who had gathered from more than 30 schools. Kelsi, a senior, helped choose this year's theme, Candyland, based on Chicago's first Gay and Straight Alliance prom, held more than eight years ago. "It feels great to be myself with a bunch of people who are also in same sex relationships and feeling like we're not being judged," she said. Everyone knows a good party doesn't get started until well into the night, and this prom was no different. Less than an hour before it was scheduled to end, the students formed a tight circle near the D.J. booth at the front of the room to show off their best dance moves to bangers like the '90s house party classic "This Is How We Do It" (released well before most of the attendees were born) and Drake's "Nice for What," an exuberant, woman praising anthem for 2018. Nina, 15, who identifies as pansexual, said she was "in love" with Khloe, the resident drag queen performer for each year's Chicago Gay and Straight Alliance prom. "She's so beautiful." This year's GSA prom was Nina's first, and she welcomed the chance to attend as an opportunity to celebrate herself, since not everyone in her life knows she is pansexual. "Everyone's like, 'Oh, Nina. Boys this. Boys that.' I'm like, no, I love everyone," she said. Across the dance floor were Leo, 16, and Riley, 16. They had arrived together and were rocking matching rainbow colored floral crowns. "We like to go to all the gay events," Leo said. "They're very fun and everyone's just so kind." Leo, who attended the prom once before, already has plans to make it to next year's event. "When I go to school dances at my school, it's mostly just about dancing with really loud bass that makes your heart feel weird," Leo said. "And this, like everyone is talking to each other and meeting each other and saying nice things." "The teachers here are great, understanding, helpful," Elijah said, about attending the high school. Ri agreed, adding, "I'm trans, and all of my teachers are like, 'Cool, I understand that.' And if people in the class mess up my pronouns, they'll step in." The dress code is decidedly anti dress code, with students sporting rainbow colored floral crowns, vintage Champion athletic wear and two piece ruffled cocktail attire, among other get ups. "It isn't like those stereotypical middle school dances. You know, where the girls have to wear these skirts or these dresses, the boys have to wear suits," Ri said. "You can come here in whatever you want. Slay however you want." The prom was created in 2011 by Noa Padowitz and AJ Wieselman, who recognized a need among their students during a traditional Chicago Public Schools (CPS) high school prom. "CPS has such inclusive policies that it just seemed so strange to us there wasn't a dance where these kids felt safe or comfortable to come with their preferred date," said Ms. Padowitz, a licensed social worker and the dean of students and Community at Suder Montessori on the city's Near West Side. After Ms. Padowitz pitched the idea to the principal of her former charter school, she and Ms. Wieselman began planning the event in 2012 with a budget of "a few hundred bucks." Ms. Padowitz and Ms. Wieselman cold called area businesses to ask for donations of services and goods. The first prom was a success, and although Ms. Padowitz and Ms. Wieselman initially envisioned the event as a one off, positive word spread and faculty across the city inquired about the next event. The Chicago Gay and Straight Alliance prom has grown every year since its inception. Organizers structure each prom as a perfect balance of fun and fundamental information. Students receive ample room to party on the dance floor, outside of the gymnasium, and they also have the opportunity to connect with a rotating group of community providers and partners who are dispersing pamphlets for protected sex practices and neon colored bracelets in equal measure. "It's hard, it's a struggle, but it's amazing. It's worth it to make a difference in these youths' lives," said Malia Santiago, the community engagement coordinator of the Youth Empowerment Performance Project, an organization offering support for homeless L.G.B.T.Q. youth through the arts. "That's like my biggest thing, to help people and to use art to do that." Ms. Santiago's organization offers ballet, writing and even vogueing classes for free. "It just really feels good to help people learn to heal and deal with their traumas in a healthier way using art," she said. "Not only to give them healthy tools to deal with their traumas but to build community and create unity in our community, the L.G.B.T. community." The prom changes locations every year. After years of dances mainly on the predominantly white North and Northwest Sides of the city, Lindblom helped move the prom down to the South Side of Chicago. "Lindblom was anxious to host," Ms. Padowitz said. She had noticed, as the years went by, she said, that "different schools came to the dance when it was at different locations." That made sense to her, but she also wanted it "to be intentional." Although most Chicago Gay and Straight Alliance proms take place within spitting distance of public train lines to make the dance financially accessible, Lindblom is about a 12 minute walk from the nearest stop. To accommodate this challenge, organizers received a grant from the Chicago Public Schools Office of Student Health and Wellness that was used for busing services at eight schools. Students who didn't attend a particular school were allowed to meet up at one of the "bus stops" along the way to catch a ride. Inclusiveness across the racial, cultural and financial spectrum is just as important to the organizers as gender and sexuality. "We don't want it to be a burden," Ms. Padowitz said about the organizing of each year's event. "We want it to be a pleasure." Students can purchase tickets as individuals, to avoid the pressure of needing a date. Tickets are sold on a sliding scale, with a maximum cap of 20. "The point is we want students there, and that's it," Ms. Padowitz said. "So if you want to come, we want you to be there because it's so magical." Marz, 16, who attended the prom alone and was sporting a "pan flag," said: "This is like the coolest prom, ever." Despite growing up in the area, Marz spent the last two years working eight hours a day clearing trails, building frames, cutting trees and working in the mountains as part of the Montana Conservation Corps. The GSA prom was something of a welcome back culture shock for Marz. "At a regular prom, there's so much heteronormative pressure," Marz said. At this prom, instead, it was "really fun": "I'm, like, starting to talk to people and stuff. Hopefully, I'll be able to make some friends." Later on the dance floor, a circle formed and Marz was in the middle of it, being cheered on by a loving group of white, black and Latino students. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
A NASA mission called Magnetospheric Multiscale, scheduled to be launched Thursday night, aims to make the first detailed measurements of a region of colliding magnetic fields about 38,000 miles above Earth. The magnetic collisions, which can potentially disrupt satellites and power grids, are not well understood. "The first step is to figure out what the heck is going on," John Dorelli, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in an interview. The protective bubble of the Earth's magnetic field typically deflects high speed particles from the sun. But an onslaught of particles from a solar explosion can pop the outer layers of the bubble. "Right where the solar wind meets the magnetosphere, that boundary, you have a weak point in the magnetic field," Dr. Dorelli said. The details of the popping, known as magnetic reconnection, remain mysterious. (The same process, on a much larger scale, generates the solar explosions known as coronal mass ejections.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
The decision by the Danbury Mint last month to stop selling die cast model cars was symptomatic of a more serious shrinkage in a market where the vehicles are already pretty small. The Connecticut company, which still produces jewelry and collectible plaques and figurines, left the market when its last die cast car factory in China closed down; another of its Chinese factories closed two years earlier. According to Mark Fothergill, who owns Replicarz, a die cast model seller in Rutland, Vt., the Danbury Mint wasn't the only one to get out of the field in the last few years. "The Franklin Mint is another one," Mr. Fothergill said, referring to the collectibles company that continues to produce coin sets and ceramics, among other items. "There's been quite a few in the last five to seven years that have been mainstays in the industry that are gone." The models made by Danbury Mint and Franklin Mint are distinguished from the offerings of Matchbox and Hot Wheels by their finer details (doors, trunks and hoods that open, for example) and bigger size, typically 1/18 scale, although there are some well detailed model cars produced in 1/43 scale. Danbury's fleet was in 1/24 scale, a size typical of most build it yourself car model kits. The Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars, meant primarily as toys rather than display items, still have their fans among adult collectors, and they seem to be generally unaffected by the ills of the larger scale market. Mr. Fothergill, who said that he has been selling collectible die cast cars to individuals and stores for 24 years, pointed out that much of the rollback happened during the years of economic downturn. "A lot of the manufacturers did not adjust their production runs," he said. "They would still make 5,000 pieces. Now, you have production runs as low as 500 pieces. Nobody wants excess stock nowadays." Most die cast models are made in China, Mr. Fothergill said, where one factory can produce cars for a number of brands, adjusting the levels of quality and detail to meet the seller's desired price points. But when one of these factories runs into financial difficulties and cannot pay its workers, he said, the Chinese government will step in and shut it down. "We've seen one factory in the last six months that was a mainstay for 20 years, and they ran into some problems and now they're gone," Mr. Fothergill said. Part of this can be traced to the upward pressure on wages in Chinese factories. The added labor costs, as well as a jump in the cost of materials, have raised prices on larger die cast collectibles by 30 to 35 percent in the last two years, he said. Zinc, the metal used for the bodies, has risen in price significantly over the last five years. The Danbury Mint cited an increase in prices, to 250 from 150, in its announcement, according to a collector car website, Hemmings Daily. But based on his sales, Mr. Fothergill said, collectors have absorbed the price increases. "I'd say the collectors have just accepted this as part of the deal." In a recent visit to Time Machine Hobby, a Manchester, Conn., store that is one of the biggest in the Northeast, several high detail die cast model cars were on display. Steve Maynard, the store's owner, said that one way Time Machine kept its shelves stocked was by buying the collections of other hobbyists. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
My very active 12.5 year old daughter hates getting her period, which she began having two years ago. When can young women begin to use hormonal birth control methods that reduce the number of periods they have each year? Are there reasons young women should wait until they are older? Have a question about women's health? Ask Dr. Gunter yourself. There are many reasons, regardless of age, that someone may dislike having a menstrual cycle. However, an unpredictable menstrual cycle, which is commonplace in the first few years after one's first period, can make them especially challenging for adolescents. Hormonal contraception can help many teens and pre teens manage these issues. Tell Me More Many teenagers not just those who are active in organized sports find their periods bothersome. For some, getting a regular period can be a reassuring sign that your body is functioning in a healthy way and that you are not pregnant. However, in one study, approximately 70 percent of adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 indicated that they would prefer to have their periods less frequently than once a month . The hassles of managing a monthly period are many: Pads cannot be used for swimming and they can chafe or be uncomfortable. Tampons and menstrual cups are an option, but not everyone is comfortable using internal menstrual products. Leakage of blood onto underwear and clothing can happen regardless of the menstrual product. Making menstruation more stressful is the fact that menstrual periods are often irregular for the first few years. Worrying if your period is going to start whether you are at a sporting event, in class, or just hanging out with friends can be stressful. Period cramps (dysmenorrhea), premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and diarrhea can also make menstruation unpleasant or challenging regardless of age. Taking nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, before the start of each period can reduce the amount of blood by 30 to 40 percent and may also help with cramps and diarrhea. Period underwear, absorbent underwear designed specifically for menstrual blood, is a useful way to be prepared for an irregular cycle or to provide back up for tampons or menstrual cups. Some may find the price limiting and period underwear may not be convenient if it needs to be changed outside of the home. The combination oral contraceptive pill the birth control pill with estrogen commonly referred to as "the pill" is a common way to manage menstruation related concerns. Periods will be predictable, generally are lighter, and cramps and diarrhea often improve. The pill can also be taken continuously, meaning a person can skip the placebo week of pills in that package so periods are less frequent for example every 8 or 12 weeks. When the pill is taken this way every month, by one year, 72 percent of women will have no periods. Unpredictable spotting is a common side effect, especially in the first few months. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Well |
WASHINGTON The Trump administration said it would raise tariffs on European aircraft in an effort to pressure Europe in a long running trade dispute over airplane subsidies. The United States Trade Representative said late Friday that it would increase the duty it had imposed on European aircraft to 15 percent from 10 percent, effective March 18. It also removed prune juice for the list of taxed items, and added a 25 percent tax on French and German butcher and kitchen knives. The annual value of the goods subject to tariffs would remain at 7.5 billion, as before, the trade representative said. The tariffs are part of a 15 year old complaint over subsidies European governments gave plane maker Airbus, which put its American competitor, Boeing, at a disadvantage. In October, the World Trade Organization granted the United States permission to try to recoup its losses by taxing as much as 7.5 billion of European exports annually. Those tariffs are expected to continue until Europe removes its subsidies or the two governments come to a negotiated resolution. The airplane dispute is just one irritant in an increasingly fraught trading relationship with Europe. The United States and the European Union remain at odds over France's plan to tax American technology companies. European officials have also been angry that the United States has effectively paralyzed the W.T.O. by refusing to sign off on new appointees to a crucial appeals panel. Despite those disputes, the two governments have continued to negotiate to improve trade terms. After announcing plans for a comprehensive trade deal in 2018, both sides appear to have scaled back their ambitions, with officials saying they might settle on a "mini deal" that would focus on a few sectors. In a news conference with President Trump in Davos, Switzerland, in January, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she was expecting to reach a trade agreement that she could sign with the United States "in a few weeks." But details on such an agreement have since been scarce, with few visible high level meetings. The tariff changes could put more pressure on Europe to reach a deal. Under U.S. law, the United States Trade Representative is required to periodically revisit and revise tariffs put in place as part of a W.T.O. dispute, to put more pressure on negotiating partners to reach a resolution. The tariffs that the United States imposed on Europe in October included a 10 percent tax on aircraft from Britain, France, Germany and Spain, and a 25 percent tax on wine, cheese, pork, whiskey, olives and other agricultural products. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. Although these levies are permitted under the rules of the W.T.O., they have still raised an outcry from consumers and industries in the United States. "The Trump administration's threat of a tariff 'carousel' shifting even one new product onto a list hit with new import taxes generates even more of the uncertainty that haunts American business and workers," said Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. "Even though there were few changes today, little was resolved, and the administration has made sure that much of that uncertainty will remain." Some industries that had been hoping for relief were disappointed when the administration announced their changes to the tariffs Friday night. Harry Root, founder of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance, a group that represents wine distributors and other professions in the United States, said wine tariffs had done disproportionate damage to American businesses and consumers and that European winemakers had responded by shipping more products to China instead. Mr. Root said that the administration had heard the industry's message "loud and clear," that wine tariffs were inefficient. But when the trade representative published its list Friday night, the 25 percent tariff on European wine remained in place. American and European negotiators have met to discuss the possibility of a resolution potentially in the context of negotiations toward a broader trade deal but so far have failed to reach an agreement. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Political operations like the one the Democrats ran for decades in Albany probably got called machines because of their reliability. Put some constituent service in one end (along with, say, a 5 bill for each voter) and get a legislative majority out the other. That may not sound like a scintillating subject to build a play upon, but Sharr White's "The True," which opened on Thursday at the Pershing Square Signature Center, is itself a kind of machine. Put some snappy dialogue, a bit of skulduggery and a stellar cast led by Edie Falco in one end and get a damn good time out the other. I don't mean to make it sound easy; a lot of craft went into building the contraption, and again as much into making it seem stable. Plays like "The True," filled with incident but not much big picture, easily turn into lame ducks. That wasn't going to happen with Ms. Falco heading the handsome New Group production. She plays Dorothea Noonan, known as Polly, a behind the scenes Albany operative and the confidante of its mayor, Erastus Corning II. It is 1977 and, after 35 years in which he ran mostly unopposed in primary elections, the 67 year old Corning (Michael McKean) faces a credible challenge from a younger Democrat. Polly intends to quash the rebellion by whatever means are necessary. Usually for Polly those means are her iron will, sharp tongue, political savvy and all hours access to Corning. That access, over the decades, has been so intimate that many believe the two to be lovers, though each is married to someone else. That much, by the way, is true. Noonan really was one of Albany's great shadowy eminences; 15 years after her death, she still seems to wield power. (Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is her granddaughter.) And yes, the relationship between Noonan and Corning really was the subject of speculation and gossip. Was it proof of something that Corning largely shut his own family out of his will while leaving his insurance business to Noonan and hers? But in Mr. White's telling, all is innocent. Polly's husband, Peter Noonan (Peter Scolari), is one of Corning's closest friends; when the play begins the two men are drinking scotch and watching basketball in the Noonan living room while Polly sews and strategizes. Running up a new outfit, she argues that if Corning is to turn back the challenge of upstarts like Howard C. Nolan (Glenn Fitzgerald), he will have to be less aloof. Only she doesn't say it so politely. It is not lost on us that Polly is multitasking while the men merely loll. One of the themes Mr. White tries to pull from the historical record is the way a powerful woman like Polly was forced in those days, and perhaps even in our own, to operate within narrow tolerances for female behavior. A man who had the mayor's ear might be admired as his trusted aide; she was seen as his chippy. A man who strong armed votes might be feared as a fixer; she was sneered at as a freak. As written here, and as played so fiercely by Ms. Falco, Polly invites but also suffers from those inequities. She is so hard driving that she often zooms straight off cliffs of propriety, then keeps going on pure momentum and somehow lands safely on the other side. Whether arm twisting the competition or lighting a fire under the patrician Corning, she is the model of the cynically uncynical type who makes no distinction between dirty politics and true belief. Whenever Ms. Falco is bringing these themes to the fore, especially in her scenes with rival politicians played by Mr. Fitzgerald and John Pankow, "The True" is riveting. It even manages a plausible eulogy for the lost merits of the old style machine in which, as Polly says, committeemen knew what every local wife was having for dinner "because we were eating it with her." Mystery pensions and patronage jobs were not graft but a means of caring for widows and out of work neighbors. But in Polly's more domestic scenes, with Peter and Corning, the play sometimes bogs down. (Though it's just 105 minutes, it feels longer.) Mr. White wants to have it both ways with this menage, not willing to step too far beyond the record yet using it to gin up tension all the same. That tension is somewhat bogus: Early on, Corning announces that he must cut off ties with Polly for reasons he will not specify. After much talk, the reasons emerge and are neither surprising nor consequential. Under the snappy direction of Scott Elliott, the actors pull this off and, in one scene, an unexpected character even brings down the house with a stupendous cameo appearance. But the result is something of a stalemate: arguable as history, patchy as drama. I'm not sure there was any way around this problem. Mr. White, who writes for "The Affair" on Showtime, and whose two Broadway plays were a success ("The Other Place") and a disaster ("The Snow Geese"), might have done better to break entirely free of fact so he could invent a much more dramatic story. And yet, the lack of drama or rather the subduction of it may be what's most interesting here. It is, after all, Polly who has the gift the gift we associate with certain leaders of connecting to the emotion beneath the policy and the people behind the vote. ("A machine doesn't care," she says. "A machine doesn't have heart.") And it's she who has the harder job, like Ginger Rogers, of doing everything the men do but backward and in heels. What makes "The True" worth its longueurs is the chance to see Ms. Falco bite into the unfairness of all that, but also the excitement. Love or legislation, it's all back room politics. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Reporters at the Chicago Tribune are looking for a benefactor to stave off the influence of the paper's new majority shareholder, Alden Global Capital. On a cold Chicago morning last month, Gary Marx, a veteran investigative reporter, took his dog for a walk and then strolled over to the affluent Lincoln Park neighborhood. After being buzzed into the courtyard of a large house, he hand delivered a letter urging the intended recipient to buy or at least invest in Mr. Marx's journalistic home of more than three decades, The Chicago Tribune. "It's one thing to put your name on a museum," Mr. Marx said, summarizing the contents of the letter in an interview, "but this is to save an institution that really safeguards this city." Along with a Tribune colleague, the investigative reporter David Jackson, Mr. Marx undertook his unorthodox campaign after it was disclosed in November that Alden Global Capital, a New York hedge fund, had acquired a large stake in Tribune Publishing, the parent company of Chicago's biggest daily. Journalists are wary of Alden because of its cut to the bone management strategy. In 2018, a group of writers and editors at the Alden owned Denver Post published a special package devoted to attacking the company, which had enacted deep staff cuts at the paper. The lead article blasted Alden executives as "vulture capitalists." In addition to sending letters to wealthy Chicagoans, Mr. Marx and Mr. Jackson have written to Alden's president, Heath Freeman, asking him for a meeting. They have received no response. Mr. Freeman and MediaNews Group, the Alden subsidiary that runs its newspaper operation, did not reply to requests for comment for this article. The two reporters have also made an appeal to Patrick Soon Shiong, the billionaire medical industry entrepreneur who bought The Los Angeles Times and other California papers from Tribune Publishing in 2018 for 500 million after prolonged tensions between The Times's editorial staff and Tribune executives. Their attempts to woo new investors are unusual in an industry that has traditionally tried to keep business and journalism separate. "It was not that long ago that it would have been unusual to publicly campaign for a change of ownership," Ann Marie Lipinski, a former Chicago Tribune editor in chief and the curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, said in an interview. "What you're seeing in Chicago is a very different approach: journalists dissatisfied with leaving business decisions to the business side, trying to have significant impact on the future of their companies." Mr. Marx, who was once expelled from Cuba because of his reporting, and Mr. Jackson, who won a Pulitzer Prize during a one year stint at The Washington Post for his articles on victims of police shootings, have relied on habits honed in the newsroom as they make the rounds. Before ending a conversation with a possible benefactor, for instance, they ask that person whom they should contact next. They also published an opinion article in The New York Times calling attention to what they see as the threat to journalism posed by Alden. After having bought up roughly 32 percent of Tribune Publishing in recent years, Alden is the company's largest shareholder. It can buy more Tribune Publishing stock as soon as July. This month, the company asked journalists at newspapers across the country to volunteer for buyouts. It is certainly not news that the newspaper business is in trouble. Its onetime profit center, print advertising, has declined sharply as readers increasingly prefer to get the news on screens. Last year, the parent company of the nation's largest newspaper publisher, GateHouse Media, bought the second largest chain, Gannett, in a merger valued at 1.2 billion. That deal was also driven by the banking industry. The new company, named Gannett, is controlled by a private equity firm, Fortress Investment Group, which itself is owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. The merger also received nearly 2 billion in financing from another private equity firm, Apollo Global Management. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. On the day the deal went through, the company's leader, Michael E. Reed, spoke of "inefficiencies" at the new Gannett and described the NewsGuild, the union that represents journalists at many of its papers, as "a big problem." Like Mr. Marx and Mr. Jackson in Chicago, journalists in other cities have made moves to protect their jobs by working to form unions, seeking out new ownership or generally raising a ruckus. Journalists at The Baltimore Sun, a Tribune Publishing newspaper, have sought buyers among local entrepreneurs and foundations, said Scott Dance, a weather and environment reporter and unit chair of the union there. The prospects include the Abell Foundation endowed by the namesake family that owned The Sun until its 1986 sale to Times Mirror, a newspaper company that merged with Tribune Publishing's predecessor in 2000. In Oakland last month, journalists at the Alden owned Bay Area News Group, a ring of daily and community papers that has lost nearly 100 jobs since 2016, leafleted a Christmas tree lighting, warning about "Alden Global Capital and the Destruction of Local News." "They clearly do not value the newspaper mission," said George Kelly, a Bay Area News Group reporter. "We've been asking for Alden to invest or get out." Late last year, journalists at The Miami Herald and its Spanish language sibling publication, El Nuevo Herald, won union recognition days after their owner, the publicly owned newspaper chain McClatchy, revealed that it might not be able to make an upcoming minimum payment to the company pension plan. A McClatchy spokeswoman declined to comment. A union push followed extensive layoffs two years ago at The Los Angeles Times, job cuts that were presided over by Michael W. Ferro Jr., who was the chairman of Tribune Publishing (then known as Tronc). After he installed an editor and publisher who feuded with the staff, newsroom employees formed the paper's first union since its founding in 1881. A few months later, Dr. Soon Shiong took The Times off Tribune Publishing's hands, to the newsroom's relief. "The Los Angeles Times campaign started because we had all this changing management and questions about ownership," said Jon Schleuss, a former editor there who is the new president of NewsGuild, the union that represents journalists at many newspapers (including The New York Times). "Without forming the union," he added, "we would never have gotten the new owner." In 2018, Tribune Publishing cut the newsroom staff of The Daily News in New York in half. The layoffs at the formerly brawny tabloid, which once had the highest circulation of any daily newspaper in the country, came a year after Tribune Publishing bought it. Newsroom employees at The Arizona Republic, a daily belonging to the supersize version of Gannett that came into being after the merger with GateHouse Media, voted to become unionized in October. Steve Benson, a Pulitzer winning editorial cartoonist who was laid off a year ago, designed a logo for the Arizona Republic Guild featuring a saguaro cactus with a No. 2 pencil in place of a trunk. Maribel Wadsworth, the publisher of Gannett and USA Today, said in an interview that, as a former reporter, she sympathized with the journalists "seeking that sense of security is an understandable path," she said but expressed skepticism about the organizing effort. "Unions are not going to be the driver of revenue growth or subscription growth, or change the challenges the industry has faced," she said. Several Republic journalists said they hoped to achieve greater job security and opportunities for career advancement. They also sounded loftier aims that have been invoked in newsrooms across the country. "The days of journalism being held publicly by Wall Street should be over," said Rebekah L. Sanders, the consumer protection reporter at The Republic who helped lead the union drive. "We have a public service mission, which used to be propped up by crazy ad margins. That's all gone, so we need to make a transition in our business model." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Black death has long been treated as a spectacle. White crowds saw lynchings as cause for celebration and would set up picnic lunches and take body parts with them as souvenirs. Their children would pose for pictures in front of swinging corpses, and those photos often became postcards. The journalist Ida B. Wells, who was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize a few weeks ago, traveled across the South to investigate cases of lynching and recorded detailed accounts. The lynchings then, just as now, were justified using lies about black criminality and the need to protect white womanhood. Long before we put hashtags in front of the names of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland and Ahmaud Arbery, there were the Scottsboro Boys and Emmett Till, and for my generation, Rodney King. This is not a straight historical line for white Americans. Yet, it is a litany of black deaths that African Americans learn to cite early on. The political scientist Achille Mbembe conceptualizes necropolitics as such: "The ultimate expression of sovereignty resides, to a large degree, in the power and the capacity to dictate who may live and who must die." Law enforcement officers, in Minneapolis and elsewhere, have been given this power. The more passive violence like that of Amy Cooper who threatened Christian Cooper (no relation) in Central Park by lying to the police about her safety shows that the authority to challenge black people's lives has been extended to other whites beyond law enforcement. This kind of aggression works only if a person believes the police will use their power to protect him or her at the potential cost of a black person's life. Consider some lesser known incidents that show how whites use the racial disparities in policing in their favor. Officials in Florida launched a statewide manhunt after Patricia Ripley made a false police report last month claiming two armed black men had forced her off the road, then kidnapped her autistic son. In May, an all white mob led by a sheriff's deputy in Wilmington, N.C., demanded entry into a black family's home to search for a girl, whom they believed to be inside. It is not just that whites have been socialized to believe the police will protect them. It is more nefarious than that: Whites are being socialized to believe that the police will protect them at the expense of all other groups and that the police will engage in violence on their word alone. This is a toxic combination and, until this problem is dealt with, the perpetual display of black death will continue. Even if the news media and the millions who share these horrific videos are sincere about their intent to inform, are their efforts getting the desired result? Instead of transforming policing, the ubiquity of these images may be reinforcing pernicious narratives that black lives do not matter, while affirming the actions of people like Amy Cooper and law enforcement officers like Derek Chauvin who killed George Floyd. The trigger warnings and pensive tones do not make up for the fact that black life is being snuffed out over the left shoulders of well coifed news anchors without any accountability for the actions we have all witnessed. Also, statements of personal outrage attached to a retweet do not outweigh the harm of the constant barrage of these images. I have never turned on the news and accidentally watched a white child being shot and killed. Right after the 911 era, the news media had robust public conversations about why they refused to show beheadings and other killings of Americans by terrorists overseas. Why isn't there a similar crisis of conscience with videos of the killings of black people? Pressing the power button on my remote or opening an app does not mean I consent to be bombarded with images of black death. I see no benefit to being ambushed by scenes of black death every time I turn on the TV. Anyone who needs one more video to believe the injustices around us, either refuses to learn or is content with the violence. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
The fairy tale continues, and the clothes are still fabulous. "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" (Oct. 18) returns Angelina Jolie to the big screen as the title fairy who watches over the Moors magical forest. By the end of the first film, her conflicts with the neighboring human kingdom (which resulted in betrayal, the brutal removal of her wings and bitter, bitter resentments) had been resolved and her young human charge, Aurora (Elle Fanning), had been crowned queen to unify the two kingdoms. Now, her wings restored , Maleficent is back and facing new problems with the human kingdom. She may have to go to battle again, but rest assured she will look amazing while doing it. The breathtaking costumes for the first film were overseen by Anna B. Sheppard. For Maleficent 2.0 , a new costume designer, Ellen Mirojnick, is supervising the look. Here she explains how the fairy's clothes have been updated to push the story forward. The first film had a traditional fairy tale feel that was more homespun. So Maleficent's costumes seemed earthier, like this one in dark velvet. For Mirojnick and her team, those looks helped inform where the character had been and where she was going. She said she had worked closely with Jolie, for instance studying the hues Maleficent was drawn to. "All of her colors are slightly off," Mirojnick said. "You might say this is brown, I'd say not quite, maybe ocher and a little green, or I might not have a name for the color." Also, for a Maleficent without wings, this kind of heavy draping was more practical. It's a little too bulky for flight. In the new movie, the fairy world has become a bit more sophisticated, and Mirojnick followed suit. Maleficent appears in this costume near the beginning of the film. Though the gown uses earthy colors, "I thought it would be wonderful to have more of a golden feeling about her, and not a scary feeling," she said . And now that Maleficent's wings have been restored, Mirojnick wanted to give her more freedom of movement in her clothing. "We used fabrications that would be fluid and move effortlessly through the air," she said. That included mixtures of chiffon and habutai , a silk weave. Each layer was carefully dyed different shades for an ombre look: darker at the bottom, rising up to lighter colors at the top. The pieces that frame Maleficent's head and neck were standouts in the original, and are again here. This collar includes echoes of snake vertebrae and bone . "It was an important element that we felt was simpatico with Maleficent," Mirojnick said. "The sculpture of it was beautiful in flight." Maleficent's signature headpieces were overseen by the milliner Justin Smith. He said this one was made of customize d rubber in a graduated color that mimics snakeskin. One of his artists, Matt Reitsma, engineered fabrics to make this, and each headpiece is a one of a kind creation. While the first film made clear that Maleficent is a force to be reckoned with, the new film explains further why and how. This costume, worn when she is primed for battle, includes hints about the narrative and the character's origins . The patchwork pieces were created on a body stocking, Mirojnick said, and a special paint was used to apply them. The dress included chiffon and georgette, in keeping with the fluidity of her other costumes, but the dark monotone and its tatters give the character her most embattled rock star look yet. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
It's up to the raptor expert Owen (Chris Pratt) and the park's ex operations manager, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), to save Blue from this fate. They're helped by a young systems analyst, Franklin (Justice Smith), as well as the legendary mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), from the first two "Jurassic Park" movies. Their adversaries including Rafe Spall and Toby Jones can also be seen in the new trailer. The romantic chemistry between Owen and Claire remains on display. "If I don't make it back, remember you're the one who made me come here," he teases her, quickly adding, "I'll be all right." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
At meetings and in online forums, patients and staff members have expressed concern about the institution and the way in which it interacts with the health and pharmaceutical industries. The hospital has announced a task force to study its conflict of interest policies and said Tuesday in a note to the staff that it would hire an outside law firm to conduct a "focused review" of unspecified concerns that had been raised internally. The leaders said they believed the concerns were without merit. That uneasiness was reflected at a staff meeting on Thursday, when a pediatric neurologist told the leaders that she was a little embarrassed about the institution even though she is a spokeswoman for Cycle for Survival, a Memorial Sloan Kettering charity that raises money for research. She asked for advice on how to move on, according to several attendees. Dr. Craig B. Thompson, the hospital's chief executive, responded that it was important to focus on the cancer center's dedication to treating cancer, including the rare cancers that are the focus of Cycle for Survival, according to the attendees. Cycle for Survival raised 39 million this year. The hospital spokeswoman, Christine Hickey, said the 2019 Cycle for Survival event was already planned and would proceed. The fallout has led medical and academic experts to call for tighter disclosure rules on potential conflicts of interest in the cancer research fields and among major nonprofit organizations. Dr. Thompson and Dr. Lisa DeAngelis, acting physician in chief, acknowledged the issue of low morale in an email to the staff on Monday. "We and our board are very aware of the disappointment and distress that many of you are experiencing after recent events at our center," they said in the memo, which was obtained from hospital staff members. "We share these concerns and are deeply sorry that you feel let down. As your leaders, we recognize that nothing is more important than maintaining the integrity and reputation of MSK and its staff." Fund raising can quickly dampen when charities sustain a reputational hit, said Sophia Shaw, the co founder and managing partner of Acorn Advisors, which advises nonprofits. "They're exactly like investors in a for profit company," Ms. Shaw said of donors. But rather than expecting a return on investment, donors are expecting a return on the charity's mission. "If the donor doesn't feel that their money is furthering that mission, then they could be reluctant to give it away at that time." Consultants for nonprofits said major donors were unlikely to be easily rattled by news reports, but that could change depending on what happens next and how the hospital responds. "Individual funders and also foundations and corporations don't like bad news," said Richard Mittenthal, president and chief executive of the TCC Group, which advises nonprofits. "And when there's bad news, there's always a question of is there any more bad news?" | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
The Cassini spacecraft is dancing toward death and NASA wants to make sure it doesn't take any alien life with it. Since 2004 the probe has twirled around Saturn, studying the gas giant's rings, storms and moons. But it has recently started preparing for next year, when it will plunge into the planet's atmosphere and vaporize. NASA chose the ringed planet as Cassini's final resting place because the space agency doesn't want to risk contaminating a potentially habitable world with hardy microbes that may be aboard the craft. Saturn, with its gaseous surface consumed by hydrogen and helium, is inhospitable to life. The same may not be true for some of its moons. Titan, the biggest Saturnian satellite, has an atmosphere that is much less hostile than its overlord's. It is a wet world similar to Earth, but unlike our planet, it is awash in methane. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Asking this seemingly innocent question was Misty Copeland, making her debut as Ivy Smith in the Broadway musical "On the Town" on Tuesday. Ivy had just been named Miss Turnstiles. The crowd whooped and roared, though it was pretty clear that the enthusiasm had little to do with a pageant to choose the subway poster girl. This summer, Ms. Copeland became the first African American female principal of American Ballet Theater. Her fame is remarkable. At the show's conclusion on Tuesday night, photographers and camera operators rushed to the edge of the stage. During curtain calls, Robin Roberts, the television broadcaster, presented her with flowers. And Ms. Copeland was worthy of the scene: Her Ivy was terrific. She also may want to consider wearing the musical's 1940s style clothing in her everyday life. It's her silhouette. Before John Rando's production of "On the Town" closes at the Lyric Theater on Sept. 6, audiences will have been treated to two new interpretations of Ivy Smith, the seeming girl next door who really spends her nights as a cooch dancer in Coney Island. Previously, Georgina Pazcoguin, a soloist at New York City Ballet, took over the part, choreographed by Joshua Bergasse and originated by her fellow company member, the stellar Megan Fairchild, for a limited run. On Aug. 18, Ms. Pazcoguin's tour de force came in the second act dream pas de deux, in which Ivy finds herself in a boxing ring with Gabey, played by Tony Yazbeck, whose superb partnering allowed Ms. Pazcoguin to do what she does best: move like a flame. She's not the kind of dancer to linger in a pose; at City Ballet, many of her finest roles are in Jerome Robbins's ballets. ("On the Town" is based on "Fancy Free," which Robbins created for Ballet Theater in 1944.) Her Anita in "West Side Story Suite" is a dazzling mix of finesse and fury. In the pas de deux, Ms. Pazcoguin, even in an unbecoming red wig, transported the choreography to a primal, sensuous place as she whipped across the stage in thrilling chaine turns and landed in Mr. Yazbeck's arms so suddenly that you thought, where was the leap? She was less convincing in scenes requiring a touch of innocence, and the acrobatic partnering of the Miss Turnstiles dance eluded her, showing that Mr. Bergasse's athletic, robust choreography is harder than it appears. If not seamless, it can look like an obstacle course. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
"Cat people are different from dog people. We must accept that felines are independent, and also cherish the moments when our cat curls up and starts to purr. Cats make it easy to be mindful." Nancy Scanlan, executive director of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Foundation. Feel the way your cat settles into your lap. Notice the contours of the cat's body, its soft belly and its bony legs. Is the warmth all over your lap or is there a concentration, a warmest spot? Pet your cat from the head towards the tail, observing how the cat responds and reacts. Scratch your cat gently, starting at the top of the head and going down towards the jaw. Notice the change in the feeling of the fur, as it gets a little softer at the jawline. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Well |
The human comedy struts the boards in "The Queen," Frank Simon's 1968 documentary of the Miss All American Camp Beauty Pageant a small movie with a big heart that is being revived at the IFC Center in a new 4K digital restoration. Female impersonation was illegal in New York when "The Queen" was made, except onstage. ( R idiculous theater was in its glory days.) The pageant, a brainchild of the promoter Jack Doroshow, was held in Manhattan in 1967 and advertised as "a satirical happening." Queens and L.G.B.T.Q. Arabs can party freely at this new cabaret. Mr. Doroshow, then in his mid 20s and an organizer of many previous such shows, plays a fond, if acerbic, materfamilias both offstage and on, under the name Flawless Sabrina. Resplendently coifed, wearing drag she describes as a "bar mitzvah mother thing," Sabrina bears a slight resemblance to Joan Rivers and exhibits a showbiz savvy to match, riffing on the difficulty of finding a hotel "hip enough" to house her contestants. (It turns out to be a Times Square fleabag.) Directed and partly shot by Frank Simon, "The Queen" is a credible exercise in Maysles Brothers style cinema verite focused on subjects who clearly enjoy being on camera. Answering questions posed by two of the pageant's judges, the writer Terry Southern and the painter Larry Rivers, the contestants openly discuss past beauty shows, their families, their interest (or lack thereof) in transitioning to women, and, relevant to the moment, their draft status. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
For the first time since record keeping began 50 years ago, the number of Americans who smoke cigarettes has dropped below 40 million. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that between 2005 and 2015, the percentage of cigarette smokers declined to 15 percent from 21 percent. There were significant reductions in smoking across all ages, races and ethnicities, socioeconomic levels and regions of the country. In 2005, there were 45.1 million smokers in the country. By 2015 there were 36.5 million. Sixteen percent of men and 14 percent of women smoked in 2015, down from 24 percent and 17 percent in 2005. Smoking declined most sharply in the youngest age groups. But 13 percent of 18 to 24 year olds, 18 percent of 25 to 44 year olds, 17 percent of 45 to 64 year olds, and 9 percent of those over 65 were still smoking. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Frances Allen in 2003 at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. She was the first woman to win the A.M. Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of computing. Frances Allen, a computer scientist and researcher who helped create the fundamental ideas that allow practically anyone to build fast, efficient and useful software for computers, smartphones and websites, died on Tuesday, her 88th birthday, in Schenectady, N.Y. Her death, in a nursing home, was confirmed by her great nephew Ryan McKee, who said the cause was Alzheimer's disease. In the mid 1960s, after developing software for an early supercomputer at the National Security Agency, Ms. Allen returned to her work at IBM, then the world's leading computer company. At an IBM lab in the Hudson River Valley town of Yorktown Heights, just north of New York City, she and her fellow researchers spent the next four decades refining a key component of modern computing: the "compiler," the software technology that takes in programs written by humans and turns them into something computers can understand. For Ms. Allen, the aim was to do this as efficiently as possible, so programmers could build software in simple and intuitive ways and then have it run quickly and smoothly when deployed on real world machines. Together with the researcher John Cocke, she published a series of landmark papers in the late 1960s and '70s describing this delicate balance between ease of creation and speed of execution. These ideas helped drive the evolution of computer programming all the way to the present day, when even relative novices can easily build fast and efficient software apps for a world of computers, smartphones and other devices. In 2006, on the strength of this work, Ms. Allen became the first woman to win the A.M. Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of computing. "She was crucial in providing easier and easier ways for humans to tell computers what to do," said Prof. Michelle Mills Strout, who teaches computer science at the University of Arizona and specializes in compiler technology. Frances Elizabeth Allen was born on Aug. 4, 1932, in Peru, N.Y., near Lake Champlain and about 30 miles from the Canadian border. Her parents, John and Ruth (Downs) Allen, owned a dairy farm, and Ms. Allen, the oldest of six children, grew up there without running water or electricity. Electricity did not arrive until the early 1940s, and even then it ran only to the barn, not to the family home. Ms. Allen attended a one room school less than a mile away and did her part on the farm, from milking cows to helping with the field work. After graduating with honors from the local high school, she studied at the New York State College for Teachers (now the University at Albany, part of the State University of New York). Returning to Peru, she worked briefly as a teacher. Her sister, Catherine, was among her students. Ms. Allen earned a master's degree in mathematics at the University of Michigan in 1957 and took a job with IBM at an office in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., as a way to pay off her college debt. Though she had planned to return to teaching, she stayed with the company for the next 45 years. At first Ms. Allen taught incoming employees how to use a new programming language called Fortran. Previously, engineers had programmed computers using a language of ones and zeros, which was understood by the computer hardware. With Fortran, one of the first high level programming languages, they could build software in more intuitive ways, without mastering the arcane operations of the computer hardware. It was a concept that Ms. Allen would push to new heights. Ms. Allen joined the top secret effort to build a supercomputer at the National Security Agency in the early 1960s. (In doing a background check on her, government officials had descended on her hometown to talk to local farmers about her.) The N.S.A. machine, called Stretch Harvest, was intended to analyze communications intercepted by listening posts operated by American spies around the globe. Ms. Allen helped build the machine's programming language and compiler. In those early years of computer design, compilers were terribly inefficient. Programmers could build software without learning the minutiae of the hardware, but when the compiler converted their programs into ones and zeros, they were far too slow and took up far too much space. As part of an IBM research project created in the late 1960s, Ms. Allen worked to change this dynamic. In the beginning, she and her colleagues built more efficient compilers for the massive mainframe computers of the day. In later years, they applied similar ideas to "parallel computing," a newer technique that spread digital tasks across multiple computers. The result, several decades on, was modern computer programming. Programmers can now build smartphone apps, like Facebook, that respond to the touch without delay, delivered from vast computer data centers spanning tens of thousands of computers. Ms. Allen's work plays into "pretty much every software system anyone uses: every app, every website, every video game or communication system, every government or bank computer, every onboard computer in a car or aircraft," said Graydon Hoare, creator of a programming language called Rust. "Without good compilers," he added, "the whole world of software would be much slower, costlier, more error prone, less capable." Ms. Allen's marriage to Jacob Schwartz, a computer science professor at New York University and one of her collaborators on compiler research, ended in divorce. She is survived by two brothers, Phillip and James, and her sister, Catherine McKee. In a field long dominated by men, Ms. Allen was a force for change. In the 1970s and '80s, thanks largely to her own efforts, women accounted for half of the experimental compiler group inside IBM. "One the many things Fran did was attract women to her field," said Jeanne Ferrante, who worked alongside Ms. Allen for more than a decade. "She looked out for the people who were underrepresented." In 1989 she became the first female IBM fellow, a rare honor bestowed on the company's leading engineers, scientists and programmers. But when she received her award at an IBM retreat in Southern California, the company identified her as a man. ("In recognition and appreciation of his outstanding technical contributions ...") The award including the mistake remained on her office wall until she retired in 2002. "She broke the glass ceiling," said Mark Wegman, another IBM fellow, who worked with Ms. Allen for decades. "At the time, no one even thought someone like her could achieve what she achieved." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Larry Callies is trying to restore black cowboys to their place in history with his museum near Houston. A pack of red cattle dogs bayed with excitement as Larry Callies drove his pickup truck down a Rosenberg, Tex., ranch road one morning. He pulled up to the barn and stepped a booted foot from the cab to the dirt, and the dogs keened even more wildly, eager to get out on the range: The dogs knew a cowboy when they saw one. But not everyone sees a cowboy when they look at Mr. Callies. Though he is inevitably dressed in Wranglers, a 10 gallon Stetson and cowboy boots, driving a pickup with a bed full of lassos around this small city about 35 miles southwest of Houston where he lives, racism and history's omissions have meant that for many he's miscast: Mr. Callies is black. And for most of his adult life, some part of Mr. Callies wondered what part people who looked like him had played in the American West; he was unaware of its rich legacy of black cowboys. Until one rainy day about two decades ago, cleaning out a barn at a guest ranch where he worked, he came across an antique photo from 1880s. In it eight cowboys sat astride eight horses. That photo is now the centerpiece of The Black Cowboy Museum, a gallery wedged between storefronts in a little mall a few blocks off Rosenberg's main drag. I arrived on a damp morning after touching down in Houston about an hour earlier, piloting my rental car through the historic downtown, a few blocks of which preserve a frontier town past. Vintage pinafores fluttered in antique shop windows; on a corner, servers shook up milkshakes at a soda fountain called Another Time. About a block past Bob's Taco Station, a joint made famous by an appearance on Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive Ins and Dives," I found Mr. Callies waiting in the doorway of his museum. Mr. Callies opened his museum in 2017 with his life savings, in this town of about 40,000 where about 75 percent of residents are white. "I couldn't believe it," Mr. Callies said of the photo that inspired him, as he stood inside the museum on 3rd Street between displays of old saddles and rusty six shooters. "Cowboys who looked just like me. And I never knew they existed. That they were part of America." Mr. Callies, a former mail deliverer and a rodeo rider, has become the self styled curator and docent of his personal three room museum. It began as a shrine to the unsung black cowboys in his life, like his cousin Tex Williams, whom he believes in 1967 was the first black boy to win the Texas High School Rodeo Championship, shortly after high school rodeos were officially desegregated. A light skinned teenager, Tex passed as white as he bareback rode, but family lore has it, the crowd booed when his cowboy hat was bucked off revealing his nappy hair. Mr. Williams' championship buckles and embroidered chaps festoon the gallery walls. Shepherding the museum has transformed Mr. Callies from a family cowboy archivist into something of an evangelist, dedicated to reinserting blacks into the historic American landscape where they rode and roped and were erased. "No picture of American history has been painted more white than the pioneer picture, the story of the frontier," William Loren Katz, a historian and author of "The Black West," said in an interview. In fact, one in four cowboys during what is known as the pioneer era, which began following the Civil War in 1865 and ended around 1895, were black, according to Mr. Katz and other historians. They were town marshals keeping the peace; they were outlaws as famous in their day as Billy the Kid; and barrier busting rodeo stars as popular in their time as Roy Rogers. And yet, the archetypal cowboy imprinted in the American psyche is a white Marlboro man. It is John Wayne, swaggering through Hollywood's vision of a frontier town, a fictional place where no black cowboys ever rode the range, where no black faces peered over poker decks behind the swinging saloon doors. "The West was part of the mythology of America; the cowboys, the narrative of the pioneer spirit represented the best of us," said Mr. Katz, 92. Before emancipation in 1865, black cowboys were enslaved people, or those who had escaped. The men who would become free black cowboys, would have entered into the American story, "at the end of a whip and in chains," he added. "And that's not the American tradition people wanted to remember." The Rosenberg gallery is not the only one tackling the subject. In Denver, there is the Black American West Museum and Heritage Center, opened in 1971 by Paul Stewart, a local barber who died in 2015. In 2017, the Studio Museum in Harlem exhibited "Black Cowboy," featuring contemporary photographs of cowboys, including the smattering of those who currently ride the urban range. They are in places like Compton, Calif. and Philadelphia. "It's like the old saying that history is written by the victors. In this case the 'victors' were those in the society who enslaved and subjected blacks," said Ron Tarver, a photographer whose pictures of Philadelphia's urban cowboys were included in the Studio Museum show, and who hails from a long line of Oklahoma's black cowboys. The exhibits are mostly a display of ephemera owned by black cowboys Mr. Callies knew, with a smattering of weapons and history texts. Mr. Callies hosts visitors personally at almost any hour they choose. Entry is 7 for adults, 5 for children. To see the collection, the best bet is to ring first all calls go straight to Mr. Callies' cellphone, which he answers with a voice that creaks like an old barn door. He was beset in the early 90s with a mysterious ailment of his vocal cords, leaving him with a permanent rasp that derailed a career as a country western musician. It is a fate about which Mr. Callies is relentlessly upbeat, smiling his wide newscaster smile as he explains that if he had ended up a country music star, he would have had less time for his true passion: rodeo. At the gallery, Mr. Callies is both museum president and ticket taker, making change on a recent afternoon for a customer beside a pile of posters for a film genre that might best be described as blacksploitation Westerns. There is "Chocolate Cowboy," from 1925, featuring the early 20th Century movie star Fred Parker, a white man, as the protagonist in blackface. And "Harlem on the Prairie," a 1937 film that was targeted for black audiences that depicts an all black West, a depiction as at odds with reality as an all white one. "I used to go to school and people would kick me if I had a pair of cowboy boots on," he said. "I had to quit wearing them, because they would beat me up. Whites would beat me, told me the boots were not my own. Blacks would beat me, told me I was a black guy who wants to be white," he said. His voice grew thick with emotion. "But this is who I am. I was always going to be a cowboy. If God made me white, I was going to be a cowboy. But God made me black," he said. "And I am a black cowboy." The Black Cowboy Museum is at 1104 3rd Street, Rosenberg, Tex. Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., most days, but it is best to call in advance (281) 787 3308. Mr. Callies offers tours by appointment at almost any time. Admission: Adults: 7 Seniors (62 ): 5 Children (ages 5 to 15): 5 Children under 5 are free. blackcowboymuseum.org 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 |
If Maine's much debated slogan, "the way life should be," were a place, the towns of Camden and Rockport and their surroundings might be it. On the Eastern Seaboard, where mountains meet ocean, the area has long attracted rusticators and "vacationlanders" who far outnumber residents in summer. These clapboard and brick towns sit two miles apart on schooner spotted harbors next to rounded mountains and sparkling freshwater lakes. What more does a rural getaway need? In this case, it's a vibrant community of year round locals who've created a nexus of arts, dining and outdoor activities to rival some cities. The area's charm lies in an authentic belief in family businesses, locally grown food and ingenuity against the odds. Not to mention, they made it through the winter, and summer is everyone's reward. The Owl Turtle Bookshop Cafe in Camden is the place to dish or talk books and coffee with the owners, Craig and Maggie White, and their amiable staff. They'll wax rhapsodic about the Coffee on the Porch beans, roasted at home by a local teacher and brewed here, or upcoming readings with local authors like the best selling crime novelist Tess Gerritsen and the children's book author and illustrator Chris Van Dusen. The former boat shop on Bay View has been renovated to include nooks with chairs and beanbags for relaxing with lattes and books. For those considering a move to the area, grab "Ditch the City and Go Country," by the local writer photographer blogger Alissa Hessler. The view from the top of Mount Battie inspired the words that launched Edna St. Vincent Millay's career as a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. "All I could see from where I stood was three long mountains and a wood; I turned and looked the other way, and saw three islands in a bay." Accessed by a 1.4 mile trail and road, there's a stone World War I commemorative tower at the top and a hawk's eye perspective of Camden and the islands of Penobscot Bay. Also visible is Camden Snow Bowl, the community owned ski mountain that hosts the U.S. National Toboggan Championships every February. Admission ( 6) to Camden Hills State Park includes the network of hiking trails, a campground with hookups, plus picnic tables and grills near the rocky shore. Portland may have been Bon Appetit's 2018 Restaurant City of the Year, but Camden, Rockport and nearby Rockland have significant culinary cred of their own. As far back as 2000, the two time James Beard Award winner Melissa Kelly launched the garden and greenhouse to table formula at Primo, in a charming Victorian in Rockland. Following suit in Rockport, Nina June restaurant, in a brick and wood accented venue at historic Union Hall, offers the latest expression of classic Italian Mediterranean cuisine by the chef and cookbook author, Sara Jenkins. From New York City's Porsena to her native Maine, she brings her vast knowledge of Italian cuisine to the local and fresh theme, evidenced here in, among other dishes, a chive chitarra pasta with Maine crab and lemon butter ( 25). Finish up with a nightcap and native oysters at 18 Central Oyster Bar Grill next door. Both restaurants have coveted outdoor seating and harbor views. As an alternative to a schooner, the sea kayak provides affordable and intimate access to the water on one's own schedule and muscle. Harbor tours with Maine Sport Outfitters depart from the Camden waterfront three times daily, for a two hour paddle around Curtis Island and the coastline ( 45). Maine Sport also offers trips on the freshwater lakes and three to four day kayak camping excursions to Stonington and Muscongus Bay. Family owned by Stuart and Marianne Smith since 1976, the flagship sporting goods store is in Rockport, with a satellite shop in downtown Camden. Kayaks, paddleboards, bikes and canoes are all available to rent by day, week or month from the Rockport location. Bangkok's loss was Camden's gain when Ravin Nakjaroen and Paula Palakawong opened Long Grain's eclectic 30 seat restaurant in 2010. At the time, authentic, locavore Asian food was not quite a thing in lobster country. Now, thanks to the couple's delightful dishes, i.e. Pad Kee Mao housemade wide rice noodles with local Thai basil, chile, garlic, kale and Heiwa tofu or pork belly ( 17), Long Grain is a destination in and of itself. A bright new location has increased square footage to include an Asian market with Long Grain Magic Sauce and other staples, but seating remains limited to 38. Reservations are a must, and walk ins have better luck at lunch. Check back for vegetarian counter service at the original location come autumn. A scenic byway that leads to a wine tasting room in a 1790s timber frame barn? It's not in Napa, but at Cellardoor Winery, where Bettina Doulton has created a bacchanalian playground for wine lovers and casual day trippers alike at the 5.5 acre vineyard in Lincolnville, about six miles from Camden. The tasting room opens daily at 11 a.m. for samples of the four estate wines by the glass ( 8) with cheese boards and complimentary winery tours. Events include pairing lunches on Sundays with local producers, and pop up dinners with partnering chefs, food trucks and music. The standout is Vino Al Fresco ( 175), an open air dinner with Trillium Caterers, Aug. 15, at a 120 seat table on a platform in the middle of the vines. Annemarie Ahearn of Salt Water Farm has been championing local ingredients and traditional methods at her cooking school since she left New York City for Lincolnville in 2009. Her classes and workshops at the antique post and beam barn and stone patio on Penobscot Bay inspire hundreds of attendees to bring new perspectives to the home kitchen. Summer courses include Modern Country Cooking ( 185), a three day French Regional Cuisine Workshop ( 545) and the Cookbook Club Series ( 185) dinner with special guest, Alison Roman (who writes about food for The New York Times), to sample recipes from her new book, "Nothing Fancy." Classes sell out quickly, but check the email wait list for cancellations. Camden's village is exceptionally walkable, which lends itself to a relaxed or spirited evening on the town. The View, a new rooftop bar at 16 Bay View Hotel, is the place to start with a craft cocktail, small plate and open air outlook on the bay. Rhumb Line, across the maze of sailboats and schooners at Lyman Morse at Wayfarer marina, calls out for dinner beside the water. Bryan Romero, the chef, has elevated fish and chips ( 17) to delicacy status, along with an exceptional haddock chowder. A full bar and the Something Fierce signature cocktail ( 10) means it's a hard spot to leave, but the walk back to town is rewarded by after hour specials and a lively vibe at 40 Paper Italian Bistro Bar in the historic Knox Mill, where friendly locals close out the night over flatbreads and half price drinks. If a coffee shop gauges community, Rockport is thriving at Seafolk Coffee. Behind a sign less blue door, the freshly renovated space with a pine tree slab counter and tall windows is a word of mouth favorite and cozy hangout above the harbor. The owners, Jacob and Madrona Wienges, serve espresso and cortado from micro lot beans, as well as housemade pastries and Danish inspired open faced toasts on dense rye bread ( 9 12). A photo graph by the entrance sets the tone with an ocean scene and Isak Dinesen quote: "The cure for anything is salt water. Sweat, tears, or the sea." For more photography, come back Monday to Saturday for the acclaimed Maine Media Gallery and Tim Whelan's photographic book shop up the street. Starting in the 1950s, Alex Katz, Lois Dodd, Neil Welliver and their gang of avant garde artist friends, notable for their return to realist nature and figure paintings against the tide of Abstract Expressionism, migrated from New York City to Lincolnville's Slab City Road every summer to make art and relax en plein air. The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland celebrates these artists this year with the Slab City Rendezvous exhibition and Maine in America award. Permanent collections include the curious assemblages of the sculptor Louise Nevelson, and a church in back houses the paintings of N.C., Andrew and Jamie Wyeth ( 15 adult admission). Look into tours of the Olson House, the iconic Colonial on the hill in Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World." Designed by the architect Toshiko Mori, who summers on the nearby island of North Haven, the new Center for Maine Contemporary Art is worth a visit for the stunning glass and corrugated metal building alone. The art is pretty great, too. Since its founding in 1952 by the Maine Coast Artists collective, the center has shown works by the Maine inspired artists Robert Indiana, Fairfield Porter, Louise Nevelson and Alex Katz. A block from the Farnsworth in Rockland, the new space opened in 2016. Summer shows include a Slab City Road veteran, Ann Craven, who brings her serial treatment of time to birds, flowers and the moon. Airbnbs and Vrbos in the area include everything from a double occupancy R Pod Camper on a farm and a private studio apartment overlooking an apple orchard, to a restored 1840s four bedroom farmhouse with pick your own lettuce, tomatoes, herbs and blueberries in the garden; from 52 to 134 to 499. As far as oceanside resorts go, Samoset Resort (220 Warrenton Street, Rockport) has the bases covered with 230 acres on a point across from Owls Head Lighthouse, plus 178 newly renovated rooms, indoor and outdoor heated pools, fitness club and spa with hot tubs and steam saunas, and an 18 hole golf course. Summer rates start at 379. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
SAN FRANCISCO A threat of government regulation is casting a shadow over the tech industry. Now there is a billboard to remind tech workers about it on their commutes. In all capital letters, on a black background, the sign reads: "Break Up Big Tech." The billboard, paid for by Senator Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign, greets commuters as they walk toward the city's main Caltrain station, the transit hub that connects San Francisco to the big tech firms in Silicon Valley. The train stops in Menlo Park (home to Facebook), Mountain View (home to Google) and Sunnyvale (near Apple's headquarters). The appetite among politicians and regulators to break up tech giants is growing. On Friday, news broke that the Justice Department is exploring opening an investigation into Google for potential antitrust violations. The Federal Trade Commission is taking a look at Amazon. And it's not just politicians thinking about this: In May, a Facebook co founder, Chris Hughes, wrote an essay titled "It's time to break up Facebook." "I've been talking for years about how Big Tech has too much power over our economy and our democracy," Ms. Warren wrote in an email to The New York Times. "I'm going to keep making the case for my plan to break up Big Tech and put power back in the hands of the American people whether it's at SXSW, a town hall in Iowa or a billboard in the heart of Silicon Valley." While San Francisco is not exactly the heart of Silicon Valley that would be about 20 miles south on the Caltrain line her billboard, which went up on Wednesday, is above a lot of tech workers. And many are not thrilled with it. A good portion of the people at that San Francisco intersection during the rush were drawn here by the tech industry. They are here to work for one of the big companies (most of the firms also have large offices in San Francisco), or for a start up, or they are lawyers for tech, or doing market research for tech, or they run pizza shops for tech workers. Though the economic windfall has helped exacerbate what some residents and officials say is growing inequality, others who have found a niche in town are wary of messing with success. "There isn't a single person here who doesn't benefit from these companies," said Tony Riviera, 61, who owns a few restaurants around San Francisco, including the nearby Slices Pizzeria. "These guys are out working hard, making good money and spending good money, and if it weren't for tech this city would be dead." He said the senator had "bought some bad placement." He added that he had some food tech ideas. Some worried about the unintended consequences of cracking down on tech's biggest companies. "Any damage to the big companies would damage the whole economy," said Yesh Devabhaktuni, 25, who works as a software engineer for Walmart Labs. "The small companies need the big companies." Others moved here from around the world to work in the industry. "Tech giants are where innovation is happening, and they offer a lot of jobs," said Fred Ren, 27, a software engineer who immigrated from Canada. "I came here for that." And some scoffed at the idea that start ups could no longer compete. "There's always opportunities for more start ups," said Edmund Park, 28, a data scientist for a market research firm. The fire alarm technician walking by did not like it, either. Even a tech worker whose project was blocked by Google argued against breaking up the tech giants. Michael Plasmeier, 28, a product manager, had once worked on a home screen competitor that he says Google squeezed out. "That product ended up not going anywhere, and, yeah, it was frustrating," Mr. Plasmeier said, adding that he still did not want to see the companies broken up. He said that because big tech firms often bought struggling start ups, they played a vital role keeping the region's innovation machine going. Chuck Conlon, 44, who works as a sales and design consultant at HD Buttercup, the high end furniture store the billboard is attached to, suggested the message might have more fans in a different part of the city. The Caltrain station is in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, home to scores of tech start ups. "This is an odd area to put it the whole area's all tech," Mr. Conlon said. "But I guess she knew that?" But one of his colleagues, Megan Schmitz, 28, was enthusiastic about the message. With the headlines seemingly always negative, some rank and file workers in the tech industry believe they are being unfairly demonized. Laura Grantham, 48, an engineering recruiter at the file hosting service Dropbox, said that she was a fan of the senator but that the message was alienating. "I know why she's saying that, but I feel like if you just only saw that billboard you'd be like, 'Oh, wow, Elizabeth Warren really hates us,'" Ms. Grantham said. But others recognized points in American history when the federal government intervened to break up powerful companies. "Out here, people write this rhetoric off as absurd, that it's never going to happen, but that's because they're ignoring history," said Collins Belton, 28, a lawyer at the tech law firm Atrium. "The oil barons did the same thing." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
It was one small step for man, and ... well, you know. This summer marks the 50th anniversary of mankind's giant leap, and NASA centers, museums and even entire cities are gearing up to celebrate, planning late night moon parties, symphony performances and alien autopsies. Here are eight standouts to help you get your moon magic on this summer. The cities that got us to space Cities in the United States where rockets were built, astronauts were trained and spaceships were launched are pulling out the stops to celebrate the men and women who got us into space, and back again. Space Center Houston in Houston, Tex., (one of the 52 Places To Go in 2019) has celebrations planned starting July 16 Apollo 11's launch day through the 24th, when the astronauts returned home. The festivities center around NASA's Johnson Space Center, and a fully restored, Apollo era Mission Control room (down to the original polyester on the chairs), which will open to the public in June. Highlights in the roster of events include a ticketed dinner with former flight director Gene Kranz (who was portrayed by Ed Harris in "Apollo 13") on Friday, July 19; a festival on July 20 with live music, STEM activities for children and a New Year's Eve style countdown to Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon; and a 1960s themed Splashdown party on July 24th. Find details and tickets on the Apollo Anniversary Celebration website. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
PARIS Fashion has a serious case of narrative mania. Designers and their fans alike are so stoned on storytelling and the seductions of reference that one starts to yearn for the preliterate or pre Internet, anyway world. On paper, at least, Rick Owens's show on Friday held in the underbelly of the Palais de Tokyo here and titled "Mastodon" had to do with eco anxiety, woolly mammoths, an obscure 1960s Italian horror movie and the beekeeping that his wife, Michele Lamy, recently took up as a hobby. Raf Simons, in his first foray since leaving Dior, mounted his own fine and clearly liberating show by citing a welter of sources so varied that his show notes read like outtakes from a poetry slam. To wit: For good measure, Mr. Simons threw in Martin Margiela, Cindy Sherman, the Boy Scouts, CBGB and "The Breakfast Club." He also revisited his own back pages by evoking the influential "Fear Generation" collection for spring 2002 that first put him on the map. Put that in your big bubble and smoke it. At Louis Vuitton, the designer Kim Jones averred that he had been inspired by the life of the self mythologizing Parisian playboy dandy Alexis von Rosenberg, a man with a whopper of a back story and the first person, as Mr. Jones said, "I ever Google searched." Fetching up in Paris in the late middle years of the 20th century, the man styled as the third baron de Rede first acquired a married Chilean boyfriend whose enormous family fortune had been made in guano; then, through him, the embrace of a fashionable French society; and not long thereafter, an immense apartment in the 18th century Hotel Lambert, possibly the grandest private house in Paris. Eventually, he took a job. "He managed my father's money," Jade Jagger said backstage during a brief preview of the cobwebby silver and diamond heritage style jewelry she designed to accompany the collection. That is, it was de Rede who introduced her father, Mick Jagger, to Rupert zu Loewenstein, the Spanish born Bavarian prince who eventually came to manage the Rolling Stones' money so cannily that, as Ms. Jagger also noted, "He made them all very rich." Baron de Rede's credentials are more entertaining when you learn that they were largely fictitious. The fashionable set has always gone for a good story, and Baron de Rede's was ripe enough to obscure his true origins as a middle class adventurer from upstate Troy, N.Y. Taken together, these were four of the more poetically rendered shows in recent memory. Each in its own way helped set a course not just for men's wear, but for fashion as a force beneficial to culture. It is decidedly not in the nature of the French to publicly dwell on disaster, yet few here were unaffected by the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris. Thus, as notable as the security measures instituted at various show spaces throughout the city is the psychic bulwark these designers provided through optimistic visions of Paris's creative future. In Mr. Owens's case, vision took the form of clothes in immense volumes, cargo trousers with pockets as big as panniers alternated with shrunken, tailored jackets or boiler suits that looked paint splattered. There were sculptural garments of no known category sprouting sleeves as if for vestigial limbs. That the sleeves were tied back into the body of the garments, straitjacket style, reminded a viewer that controlling the fundamental unruliness of human bodies is among Mr. Owens's continuing concerns. You can see it in his assiduously crafted physique, and in virtually everything he has ever designed. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The book opens in a dreary Rochester, N.Y., neighborhood, when a lumbering, intellectually disabled woman in a "dime store wig, perched awry" calls the police about a child lying on the floor of her pantry. The child turns out to be her 3 year old grandson, Raymie, and he has been dead several days, having fallen from a counter while trying to reach a bag of sugar. Dunn seems to waver between understanding what's happened and hoping Raymie will get better. (When the paramedics arrive, Dunn asks them, "You can fix him, can't you?") Dunn is arrested, charged with second degree murder and assigned a public defender named Karen Hughes. Hughes is just a few years out of law school, but she doesn't dare turn down the judge's order to take the case, even though she knows she is in over her head. The playing field was skewed from the start. Hughes hired Vinocour, then a forensic psychologist in Rochester, to assess whether Dunn was cognitively fit to stand trial. Dunn's life is a picture of poverty, inequality and racism one impossible hardship after another. She suffered terrible abuse as a child and went on to have five children, each apparently by a different father, nearly all of whom were also cognitively challenged. She tried, and failed, to hold jobs on an assembly line and as an aide in a nursing home. Raymie was born a drug addict and spent his life malnourished. He was hyperactive and aggressive. The night he died, he'd been trying to fry cornmeal and pepper in a pan. Dunn repeatedly found him turning on the gas stove in the middle of the night. She feared for her own and her children's safety (at least two of her children were just a few years older than Raymie), and at one point tied Raymie first to herself and then to a metal grate to keep him from starting a fire in the middle of the night an act that forces Vinocour to grapple with whether this makes Dunn "deficient in a moral sense." When she is charged with second degree murder, it is on account of her "depraved indifference." As Vinocour assesses Dunn's mental fitness, her argument takes on a prismlike complexity. The book is divided into three sections the crime, the trial, the punishment with the first taking up more than half the narrative. Vinocour is hesitant about meeting Dunn after seeing her on television, when a local station broadcast the story as a sensational crime. Vinocour reveals that her own father was cruel and abusive, and that she escaped him by going to college and racking up professional accolades. And watching Dunn, Vinocour felt an instant disdain for her. But as we are slowly introduced to Dunn, her slowness, her gaze eternally "flat" or "vacant," a haunting question repeats itself: What does it mean to know right from wrong in the abstract, but not to be able to make that distinction in practice? We can all agree that murder is wrong, but what about murder in order to save the life of another person? Tying Raymie to a grate in the floor is wrong in the abstract, but is it also wrong when that child might burn down a house and kill others? Dunn told Child Protective Services that she couldn't take Raymie in after his mother, who'd been homeless with him for months, was committed to psychiatric care. But the agency left the boy in Dunn's care anyway. Who is "wrong" in this scenario? Such difficult questions are at the heart of Vinocour's investigation. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
The science fair has been an annual rite of education for generations of students, going back to the 1940s. But even the term "science fair" stirs stereotypical images of three panel display boards and baking soda volcanoes. Its regimented routines can seem stodgy at a time when young people are flocking to more freewheeling forums for scientific creativity, like software hackathons and hardware engineering Maker Faires. That is apparently the thinking at Intel, the giant computer chip maker, which is retreating from its longtime sponsorship of science fairs for high school students. Intel ended its support last year for the national Science Talent Search, whose new sponsor is Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company. Now, Intel will drop its backing of the International Science and Engineering Fair. The nonprofit group that organizes both fairs, the Society for Science and the Public, is beginning its search on Wednesday for a new sponsor for the global competition. Intel's move away from traditional science fairs leads to broader questions about how a top technology company should handle the corporate sponsorship of science, and what is the best way to promote the education of the tech work force of the future. Intel's move also raises the issue of the role of science fairs in education in the so called STEM fields science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Intel has not explained its decision, and only said it is "extremely proud" of its long association with the two fairs. The company began supporting the national fair in 1998, taking over from the original sponsor, Westinghouse, and the global competition in 1997, which had no main sponsor. Still, Intel's move does not suggest a pullback by tech companies in their support for sponsoring science and technology. Google, for example, hosts the Google Science Fair, a global online competition for 13 to 18 year olds that began in 2011. But as technology and the economy becomes more based on software, the major companies have broadened support to events like coding workshops and contests. It is hard to imagine a time since the post Sputnik years when science and technology education has been more valued, by universities and in the labor market. It is also hard to imagine that the leading international science fair, whose roster of participating countries and territories rose to 78 last year, up from 27 in 1997, will not find a deep pocketed sponsor. The Intel decision provoked a sharp difference of opinion between Brian Krzanich, Intel's current chief executive, and Craig R. Barrett, a former Intel chairman and chief executive. Mr. Krzanich has told colleagues privately that the science fairs were the fairs of the past and had become tilted to life sciences and biotechnology, not primary fields for Intel, according to two people who are not authorized to speak publicly for the company. Mr. Barrett disagreed. In an email, he said, "you might instead conclude that Intel is a company of the past, just like Westinghouse when they dropped" sponsorship of the national science fair in 1998. Mr. Barrett, who is on the board of the Society for Science, also said that all of science has become data driven and computational, so Intel has a stake in nurturing youthful innovators in all scientific disciplines, including the life sciences. Intel, under Mr. Krzanich, who became chief executive in 2013, has become a major supporter of Maker Faire events, where inventors of all ages showcase their homemade engineering projects. The first Maker Faire was in Silicon Valley in 2006. Last year, more than one million people attended Maker Faire events worldwide. In 2013, Intel introduced Galileo, an inexpensive computer chip board, which supports open source hardware and software for the maker and education markets. Its marketing tagline: "The Maker Movement Powered by Intel." Mr. Krzanich has often been interviewed at Maker Faire events, and he and other Intel managers describe them as incubators for the next generation of engineers and innovators. Intel does support other programs to promote STEM education. In 2015, the company pledged 300 million to be spent by 2020 for a fund to diversify its own work force by attracting more women and minorities into technology and paying for college scholarships. Since 2001, the company has contributed an average of 45 million a year to university programs, including research collaborations and scholarships. And Intel is committed to supporting the International Science and Engineering Fair until 2019. Maya Ajmera, president of the Society for Science, praised Intel as "an extraordinary partner for the last 20 years," though she said the company never gave the society a reason for dropping the sponsorship. The society is looking for a sponsor for the international competition who will commit at least 15 million annually for a minimum of five years. It is an opportunity, Ms. Ajmera said, to "invest in the most important science and technology pipeline in the world." The international science contest has a rich legacy. About 60 percent of the participants are American high school students, and its alumni include Paul L. Modrich, a Nobel Prize winner and biochemist at Duke University; Brian Greene, a physicist at Columbia University and a best selling author; winners of the MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the "genius" grant; and computer scientists at companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft. Science educators say that science fairs can nurture vital learning and life skills. Students must use critical thinking, experimentation, presentation and speaking skills, and persistence. "Science fairs still do that in a way that all the textbook learning cannot," said Mary Sue Coleman, a biochemist, president of the Association of American Universities and former president of the University of Michigan. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Patrice Johnson Chevannes and Chike Johnson in "Runboyrun," which closes on Sunday along with "In Old Age" at New York Theater Workshop. 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. 'CYRANO' at the Daryl Roth Theater (previews start on Oct. 12; opens on Nov. 7). Edmond Rostand's play about a man with a silver tongue and a less precious schnozz returns courtesy of the New Group. Peter Dinklage stars as the titular cavalier, in a new version adapted and directed by Erica Schmidt. Aaron and Bryce Dessner, of the National, supply the music. Their bandmate Matt Berninger and Carin Besser provide the lyrics. 800 745 3000, thenewgroup.org 'FOR ALL THE WOMEN WHO THOUGHT THEY WERE MAD' at Soho Rep (previews start on Oct. 14; opens on Oct. 27). Eight times each week, the writer and actress Zawe Ashton stays sane portraying a love triangle's hypotenuse in Harold Pinter's "Betrayal." In "For All the Women Who Thought They Were Mad," the play she wrote about the impact of colonialism on the women of the African diaspora, some of the characters aren't as lucky. Whitney White directs. 866 811 4111, sohorep.org 'FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: THE NEXT GENERATION' at the Triad (in previews; opens on Oct. 16). For more than 30 years, Gerard Alessandrini has lampooned Broadway, with love and savagery. His new revue parodies, likely in perfect meter, recent hits including "Hadestown," "Tootsie" and "What the Constitution Means to Me." Immanuel Houston, Aline Mayagoitia, Chris Collins Pisano, Jenny Lee Stern and Joshua Turchin star, with Fred Barton on piano. 212 279 4200, forbiddenbroadway.com 'THE LIGHTNING THIEF' at the Longacre Theater (in previews; opens on Oct. 16). What do you do when you learn that you're actually the son of a god? Apparently, you go to Broadway. Joe Tracz and Rob Rokicki's 2014 musical, based on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson novels, about a kid who discovers he has a very fancy family tree, has moved uptown. Stephen Brackett directs. 212 239 6200, lightningthiefmusical.com 'LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS' at the Westside Theater Upstairs (in previews; opens on Oct. 17). If threats to the environment have you rattled, a musical comedy in which a plant triumphs may be just the ticket. Michael Mayer directs a revival of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's musical horror comedy about a flower shop employee and the bloodthirsty vegetable he nurtures. Jonathan Groff, Tammy Blanchard and Christian Borle star. 212 239 6200, littleshopnyc.com 'NOTES ON MY MOTHER'S DECLINE' at Next Door at NYTW (in previews; opens on Oct. 13). A new dad cares for his old mom in Andy Bragen's semi autobiographical piece, directed by Knud Adams. (Since Bragen's "This Is My Office" explored his relationship with his father, a companion piece seems only fair.) Bragen has written that it is the most personal play he has ever made and the most difficult. 212 460 5475, nytw.org Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead. 'THE ROSE TATTOO' at the American Airlines Theater (in previews; opens on Oct. 15). The fall season is a bit more floral with Marisa Tomei starring in this Tennessee Williams revival. Tomei plays Serafina, a widow confronting her husband's infidelity and her growing attraction to a new man. For the Roundabout Theater Company, Trip Cullman directs a cast that includes Emun Elliott and Ella Rubin. 212 719 1300, roundabouttheatre.org 'SOFT POWER' at the Public Theater (in previews; opens on Oct. 15). A metatheatrical exploration of politics and culture and a riff on "The King and I" as seen through a trick mirror, David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori's musical of a sort arrives at the Public. It conjures a world in which a Chinese businessman meets Hillary Clinton at a campaign fund raiser, an experience that inspires a hallucinatory blockbuster show. Leigh Silverman directs. 212 967 7555, publictheater.org 'THE SOUND INSIDE' at Studio 54 (in previews; opens on Oct. 17). Mary Louise Parker, an actress of audacity and surprise, makes a resonant return to Broadway. David Cromer directs Adam Rapp's play, about a creative writing professor facing a cancer diagnosis and her relationship complex in emotions and structure with a first year student. When it showed at the Williamstown Theater Festival last summer, Jesse Green called it an "astonishing new play." 212 239 6200, lct.org 'TINA: THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL' at the Lunt Fontanne Theater (previews start on Oct. 12; opens on Nov. 7). What's Broadway got to do with it? This bio musical traces eight decades of Tina Turner's life, from her rural Tennessee origins to her early success and her abusive marriage to her solo triumphs. Adrienne Warren, who sings, a New York Times critic wrote, "with a feral, uncaged yearning," reprises the role she created in London. Phyllida Lloyd ("Mamma Mia") directs. 877 250 2929, tinaonbroadway.com 'THE NEW ENGLANDERS' at City Center Stage II (closes on Oct. 20). Jeff Augustin's drama about two dads and their precocious daughter moves on. Jesse Green wrote that the play, directed by Saheem Ali, has problems of plot, genre and tone. Yet he noted, "Even as the story goes haywire, there are powerful moments and hard insights within it." 212 581 1212, nycitycenter.org 'NOVENAS FOR A LOST HOSPITAL' at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (closes on Oct. 13). Rattlestick's site specific autopsy of St. Vincent's Hospital, shuttered in 2010, reaches its conclusion. The show, directed by Daniella Topol and starring a luminous Kathleen Chalfant, traverses 16 decades and several locations, which is perhaps too much. According to Jesse Green, "'Novenas' often feels like it's trying to find the quickest way to connect its points, instead of the richest way." 866 811 4111, rattlestick.org 'RUNBOYRUN' AND 'IN OLD AGE' at New York Theater Workshop (closes on Oct. 13). These paired plays, chapters of Mfoniso Udofia's nine part epic about a Nigerian American family, finish their Off Broadway run. Directed by Loretta Greco and Awoye Timpo, the two dramas, Jesse Green wrote, "deepen our understanding of the invisible burdens that can weigh down the lives of even the most successful immigrants." 212 460 5475, nytw.org | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Now more than ever, the easiest answer to that pesky question what's keeping jazz vital these days? appears to lie in London. And much of the serious activity there runs through Shabaka Hutchings. The 33 year old tenor saxophonist anchors a handful of his own bands and served as the musical director for "We Out Here," a Brownswood Recordings compilation with tracks from nine British groups, like a book of hours for the thriving young scene. In January Mr. Hutchings announced that he had signed with Impulse!, an imprint of Universal, and that the label would be releasing music from his various ensembles. The first to arrive is "Your Queen Is a Reptile," the third album by his quartet, Sons of Kemet, and it's an excellent place to start. "Your Queen Is a Reptile" is Sons of Kemet's third album. This band has a rare instrumentation tenor saxophone, tuba, two drummers and a relentless, jouncing sound anchored in rhythms of the Caribbean. His two other major projects are Shabaka and the Ancestors, a collaboration with young South African musicians that has a forbearing, serious mission, and the Comet Is Coming, an astro futurist trio influenced by electronic dance music. Sons of Kemet's sound falls somewhere right between those two: It's acoustic music, but adamant and dance driven. The new album's title takes a shot at the British monarchy, a system that, Mr. Hutchings says, reaffirms the notion that one's birthright is enough to define class and status. He wrote each of the album's nine tunes for an alternate matriarch from the African diaspora. Their titles all have the same construction: "My Queen Is Harriet Tubman;" "My Queen Is Yaa Asantewaa," for an early 20th century Ashanti ruler; "My Queen Is Ada Eastman," for Mr. Hutchings's Barbadian great grandmother; and so on. On some tunes the band is joined by an M.C. or a poet, spinning verses of defiance and affirmation. Sons of Kemet's music reaches vastly across the diaspora, though it has increasingly gravitated toward the Antilles. The band's 2013 debut, "Burn," was a restive, rangy album, stretching from slow deliquescence to scorching surrealism. Its sophomore release, "Lest We Forget What We Came Here to Do," pulled toward calypso and soca, toward the earth, toward a more direct energy, thanks to Mr. Hutchings's growing embrace of his own upbringing he moved to Barbados at 6 and returned to London in high school and to the impact of Theon Cross, a prodigious young talent who took over on tuba just before "Lest We Forget" was recorded. His playing centers on heavy oscillations between the strong and weak beats, and never lets up on a groove. On "Your Queen Is a Reptile," the interplay between Mr. Hutchings and Mr. Cross immediately calls you to attention, but as songs progress your focus drifts to the twin drummers Tom Skinner and Seb Rochford as they start to shift the flow from beneath. (Mr. Rochford left the group soon after recording this album, and was replaced by Eddie Hick.) It happens on "My Queen Is Ada Eastman," the opening track: Mr. Hutchings finishes the song's melody and Mr. Cross hops up an octave to join him in unison for a brief coda. Your ear catches a spark between the drummers, and you realize they've been sparring all along, their patterns making a big shared gesture, a half circle, a contested zone. When things really get moving, as on the hotfooted "My Queen Is Harriet Tubman" or the steady climb of "My Queen Is Yaa Asantewaa," Mr. Hutchings is liable to throw in his lot with the drummers, tonguing his reed to make a percussive, flaring effect that's a bit like a rimshot on a hand drum, or the air horn effect of a West Indian D.J. This is one of many personal gestures Mr. Hutchings uses that don't have a lot to do with the broader lexicon of the jazz saxophone. His inflections are different from those of an American saxophonist steeped in the blues, and he almost never bends his tones into blue notes a staple of American music that grew out of Southern field hollers, but didn't take hold in the Caribbean or in London. So while Mr. Hutchings's saxophone sound passes through the American masters (he manages a smart balance of Sonny Rollins's full sail linear improvising and John Coltrane's billowy grandeur, a rare achievement) his playing and composing also reflect British influences: You can hear the latent kinetics of Tom Challenger, a British saxophonist a few years Mr. Hutchings's senior, and the thumping tunes that Courtney Pine wrote for the Jazz Warriors in the 1980s. This underlines one key to Mr. Hutchings's appeal. In order to get a new generation invested, it's not enough to play the horn a little differently than before. You've got to reshuffle the deck, renew the context entirely. As Mr. Hutchings spreads his wings, he is presenting an opportunity for listeners to fall in love with a sound that's got the timeless assets of jazz rebellion, collectivity, emotive abstraction but doesn't feel weighed down by its own past. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
The Goodman Theater in Chicago will cancel the remaining performances of "Pamplona," a world premiere play by Jim McGrath starring the veteran actor Stacy Keach as Ernest Hemingway. The announcement of the cancellations came on Friday, three days after the play's troublesome opening night. Midway through the performance, the theater's artistic director, Robert Falls, halted the production after Mr. Keach, 76, "appeared to become confused and lost his way many times," according to The Chicago Tribune. Keach received medical testing following the premiere, and doctors advised that he rest and recuperate, according to the actor's family. The Goodman Theater will contact ticket holders with refund details and alternative offers. "Pamplona," an 80 minute biographical monologue set in a Spanish hotel in 1959, follows a distraught Mr. Hemingway in the final years of his life as he grapples with his writing. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
MOSCOW Many of the leaders of the world's richest economies are convening at the eighth Group of 20 summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the economic winds at their back, ready to sign on to a sweeping new set of tax rules for multinational corporations. They are expected on Friday to agree to enact new tax laws that would limit the ability of multinational corporations like Apple and Starbucks to legally avoid paying taxes by operating subsidiaries in certain countries. The practice came to the fore during the global recession as national coffers were strained and leaders looked for new sources of revenue. The recent positive economic news has not damped that desire or relieved the pressure to crack down. In the United States, economic news has pointed to continued growth. On Friday, the Labor Department is expected to issue a healthy jobs report with 180,000 jobs created in August. It is the last set of economic data the government will release before the Federal Reserve meets to consider tightening monetary policy and raising interest rates in the United States. On Thursday, the Institute for Supply Management issued its closely watched report, which said service companies were hiring more, and fewer people are applying for unemployment benefits. Auto sales are up sharply. Recent economic reports from Britain, France, Germany and other countries in Europe's northern tier have also been optimistic, although central bankers there remain cautious. If the United States government reports that even more jobs were created, analysts expect that the 10 year Treasury note, which rose to 3 percent on Thursday, will rise further. Currencies in many of the developing economies that benefited from the expansionist policies of the Federal Reserve have recently been falling sharply against the dollar as the Fed signaled its plans to tighten, and as money flows have reversed. Growth in many of the so called BRICS economies Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that had buoyed global growth have slowed as momentum shifts to the United States, Japan and northern Europe. The heads of state have two days of meetings and will issue a communique on Friday that is expected to address the tax overhaul and other questions of economic policy. Germany, in the driver's seat of European economic policy, had objected but appeared ready to acquiesce to a statement endorsing fiscal stimulus at a ministerial level meeting in July in Moscow. That meeting also encouraged governments to carefully coordinate tapering off monetary stimulus programs like the Federal Reserve's so called quantitative easing. The end of cheap credit has curbed growth in emerging markets as investors bring money back to the United States to take advantage of rising interest rates. Open or closed on Thanksgiving? Here are stores' plans for Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, Russia's deputy minister of finance, Sergei A. Storchak, said the leaders were set to endorse a similarly worded statement on Friday. "It's not going to be more than the agreements that were reached in Moscow," Mr. Storchak told Reuters at the summit meeting, being held in the restored Czarist era Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg. In a reflection of the depth of concern about currency outflows caused by rising interest rates in the United States meaning investors can obtain similar returns in emerging markets at far lower risk the BRICS nations announced an intention to create a collective fund of 100 billion to defend their weakening local currencies. It was unclear when it would be operating and able to intervene in currency trading. The effort at tax reform, if enacted widely, would squeeze more money from multinational corporations and shift a portion of the global tax burden from individuals and small businesses to large corporations. The proposal is for countries to better coordinate tax treaties to close loopholes that multinational corporations exploit by registering in tax havens like Delaware or the Cayman Islands. Another tactic of concern is shifting profits to low tax jurisdictions and costs to high tax ones. In one widely cited example, Starbucks last year paid no corporate tax in Britain despite generating sales of nearly 630 million from more than 700 stores in that country. The company volunteered to pay more in coming years. Apple, despite being the most profitable American technology company, avoided billions in taxes in the United States and around the world through a web of complex subsidiaries. Even with the high level agreement, it will take years to put in place, and companies that benefit and have structured their business to comply with the laws in place today are all but certain to lobby to retain these advantages. The G 20 governments endorsed a draft of the tax agreement in Moscow in July. The reform would encourage nations to adopt new standardized tax treaties, to replace the web of thousands of such agreements that exists now. Russia is hosting the G 20 for the first time since the group was formed in 1999 and began discussing strategies for priming the global economy. Mr. Storchak, the deputy finance minister in Russia, said in an interview before the opening meeting on Thursday that Russia had asked all governments to explain their spending plans for the years ahead, and that most had complied and agreed to release the results of this survey during the forum. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
Succession at CBS Will Be Tougher Than It Looks The network has lost several top executives in the last few months, and finding a new leader will be a more difficult prospect than usual. That person will have to deal with an open investigation into sexual harassment claims that implicate former bosses and the culture of the company they oversaw. He or she will also have to grapple with a rapidly shifting business landscape and pay attention to the long term wishes of the controlling owner of CBS, Shari Redstone. The industry backdrop is daunting, too. CBS, the most watched network for the past decade, is still the king of prime time, but it presides over a dwindling empire. Audiences across television have eroded as tech platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Netflix attract more of their time. Richard D. Parsons, who was leading the board before stepping down last week for medical reasons, had informal discussions with a few executives to gauge their interest in leading CBS. Those executives included the HBO chief Richard Plepler, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversations were private. Mr. Plepler was not interested, and no formal offers were made, the people said. But the casual approach befits the style of Mr. Parsons, who is known for talking through an idea with a small group before broaching it more widely. The two worked closely together at Time Warner when Mr. Parsons was the company's chief executive, and Mr. Plepler developed a reputation as the rare media boss who understands both Hollywood and Wall Street. He weighs in on scripts and casting decisions with the same ease that he explains HBO's streaming strategy on an earnings call. Mr. Plepler is now under the umbrella of AT T, which closed its acquisition of HBO and the rest of Time Warner in June. His discussions with CBS became moot when Mr. Parsons left the board, but they reveal the early thinking on who could lead CBS as well as the challenge of persuading a top flight executive to take the job. In his departing statement, Mr. Parsons said, "I trust CBS's distinguished board, now led by Strauss Zelnick, as well as CBS's strong management team led by Joe Ianniello, will continue to successfully guide this company into its very bright future." Mr. Zelnick, a longtime media executive who has developed a sizable investment firm turning around ailing businesses, was named interim chairman last week. Mr. Ianniello, the acting chief executive as of September, has already made several key promotions, including putting the head of Showtime, David Nevins, in charge of all programming at CBS and installing a new head of finance. But strikingly, the network's new leaders are temporary at least in title making everyone they have appointed potentially temporary, too. Add a recent board shake up, and the company is in a deep state of flux. Five weeks into the new season, CBS is still the most watched channel, with an average audience of 8.8 million in prime time. But total viewers fell 12 percent from last year, reflecting the broader downturn at all TV networks. Whoever takes over CBS might also end up with Viacom In October, the board enlisted the executive search firm Korn Ferry to find a new chief executive. The process is likely take at least four months, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Mr. Ianniello, 50, who spent the past five years as the company's chief operating officer, is the only candidate who has been publicly named so far. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. Candidates will be evaluated in the context of the board's larger strategic plan for CBS, which could involve a deal with another company, the people said. Ms. Redstone, who controls CBS through her family business, National Amusements, has been agitating for a merger with Viacom, the cable company behind MTV and Nickelodeon, which she also controls. The thesis: A tie up would protect both companies from the onslaught of tech since a larger entity would have more negotiating leverage when bargaining for licensing fees with cable and satellite providers, thus ensuring healthier profits. Leslie Moonves, who was ousted as chief executive in September, was wary of the deal, which led to one of the bitterest boardroom battles in recent memory. In May, CBS sued Ms. Redstone to sap her power through the issuance of a special stock dividend. The suit was eventually dissolved after accusations of sexual abuse against Mr. Moonves revealed in two New Yorker articles ended his celebrated run at CBS. But the legal battle did offer a window into Ms. Redstone's thinking, which was made clear in a May complaint against CBS brought via National Amusements, or N.A.I.: Ms. Redstone discussed N.A.I.'s long term plans for CBS, focusing on a two step process starting with a merger with Viacom that would strengthen both entities, and continuing thereafter with a sale or merger of the stronger combined entity, with N.A.I. open to the possibility of relinquishing its voting control as part of that second transaction. The exit settlement with Mr. Moonves prevents Ms. Redstone from pursuing that merger for two years. But the CBS board can examine any possible transaction, including a deal with Viacom, independently of Ms. Redstone. If the board considers a merger, that will affect how it chooses a chief executive since the person could end up running both CBS and Viacom. Another strategy might include selling CBS to a bigger company, which would also be a factor in how the board considers candidates. The 61 year old Mr. Zelnick his new book, a health memoir, is titled "Becoming Ageless" is sure to play an influential role in the discussion. He has taken on complex corporate makeovers in the past. In 2007, his investment firm took over the board of the video game publisher Take Two Interactive Software shortly after it became the target of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company was eventually charged with illegally backdating stock options and had to pay a 3 million penalty. He saw an opportunity in the troubled asset. "We have to clean the company up, and then operate in a pristine manner going forward," Mr. Zelnick said in an interview at the time. The same might now be said about CBS. Mr. Ianniello has been responsible for a lot of the cleanup. In addition to naming a new head of human resources and a chief communications officer, he fired a successful showrunner for the network, Brad Kern, who had been under investigation for accusations of inappropriate behavior. And his appointment of Mr. Nevins as head of programming solved a practical issue created by the absence of Mr. Moonves, who oversaw much of the network's programming himself. Mr. Moonves had delighted in working with many of the network's producers. He often had a direct hand in casting decisions, for example. As a result, over 30 people reported directly to Mr. Moonves, an unusually high number for the head of a publicly traded company with nearly 13,000 employees. The moves by Mr. Ianniello have so far impressed Ms. Redstone, according to the two people familiar with the matter. That's a notable shift. Mr. Ianniello had figured widely in the legal battle CBS had waged against Ms. Redstone this year. The lawsuit revealed several private messages between him and Mr. Moonves in which Mr. Ianniello enthusiastically showed support for the now ousted executive. But his rapprochement with Ms. Redstone began almost two months ago when CBS announced Mr. Ianniello's new role. She offered this simple statement at the time: "We are confident in Joe's ability to serve as acting C.E.O." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
LEIPZIG, Germany Upon moving to Germany from the United States last summer, Jesse Marsch, his wife, Kim, and their three children made a pact of sorts regarding their new life abroad: When a situation that felt foreign made them want to turn inward, they would challenge themselves to do the opposite, to turn outward and embrace it, to accept and understand it. Such discomfort has been precisely the point for Marsch, the very reason he diverged from an ascendant coaching path in the United States last summer and sought out the unknown across the Atlantic Ocean. In July, Marsch left his job as coach of the New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer to accept a post as an assistant coach for RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga. While unquestionably a step up in competition, it was, in some respects, still an unconventional move, and Marsch said even some of his friends in soccer asked him if taking a job as an assistant might be a step backward. But what represents a step backward, and what is the convention, when you are navigating a mostly uncharted path? Because while opportunities for American players in Europe continue to expand, there is not yet much of a road map for what Marsch wants to be: an American coach who builds a long, successful career in one of the continent's top leagues. And so he has chosen to seek out that challenge, to take chances and to face the unknown and the unfamiliar head on. "I've gotten more comfortable," he said, "with being uncomfortable." After decades of battling stereotypes and preconceived ideas about their abilities, American players have, slowly, found a level of acceptance in European soccer. One of the players Marsch brought into the Red Bulls' first team, for example, was viewed even here as a solid addition when he joined RB Leipzig this month. That player, the 19 year old Tyler Adams, and other American prospects now head to the continent in waves, and in general the professional pathways there have become well worn and widely available. A similar process has yet to unfold for American coaches, however. There are no set pathways, and there are few pioneers. Marsch regards one of them, Bob Bradley, as the "biggest mentor" in his career, and he has found Bradley's experiences instructive. From 2014 to 2016, Bradley held head coaching jobs for clubs in Norway, France and England. Looking back, his stint abroad was as notable for the milestones he set for American coaches he was the first American to coach a team in England's Premier League as it was for the relentless stream of misgivings from fans and pundits in whatever new locale he landed. (Bradley's Premier League tenure lasted all of 11 games.) "The perception of Bob, I think, when he was here is that he probably wasn't as knowledgeable because he's from America, that his accent and the way he talked about football may have brought questions up within fan bases about how do Americans think about football, how do they talk about football, even use the word football," Marsch said. "All those things are unfair, but they're realities we have to deal with." That is what Marsch knows he is up against now, and it is the reason he says he has tried to take a holistic approach to this new chapter of his life. Under RB Leipzig's manager, Ralf Rangnick, Marsch has assumed what he described as a fluid, all encompassing role. At the same time, he is responsible for a weekly set of tasks running different elements of training, game analysis and opponent preparation whose strict implementation he has found exhilarating in a way only a knowledge hungry coach can. While RB Leipzig and New York's Red Bulls are both technically part of the same corporate sports empire, his first months experiencing the nuances of German soccer culture the structure, the specificity, the attention to detail reiterated for him how much he still can learn. "It would have been easy for me to stay in New York," Marsch said about his last job in Major League Soccer, where he spent three and a half seasons and compiled the most wins in franchise history. "But in the end, that wasn't really what I was interested in." Instead, Marsch, who had begun the process of obtaining his UEFA pro coaching license in 2017, accepted an offer to join the Leipzig coaching staff and left the Red Bulls in midseason. Rangnick, an experienced coach and former Red Bull sporting director, is in his second stint leading Leipzig but plans to coach only for this season. The club has previously announced that Hoffenheim's Julian Nagelsmann, a rising star in German coaching, will take over this summer. "I know the league, the team and I speak the language," Rangnick said when he returned to the bench. "That isn't the case yet for Jesse Marsch, so that's why he will be working as an assistant coach." Still, the club noted specifically when it hired Marsch that he had signed a two year contract, with the expectation that he would continue in the role once Nagelsmann arrives. Until then, Marsch has been stockpiling professional experiences like a backpacker collecting souvenirs. That mind set was one reason he was not interested in pursuing the United States national team coaching job, which still sat vacant when he left for Europe. Marsch wants to hold the position one day, he said, but only after he has accumulated more experience. Now, he said, it better that the American soccer ecosystem put its collective support behind the coach who was chosen, Gregg Berhalter, and move away from the negativity that seemed to infest its culture in the past year. "If I were to be critical of the sport in our country in general, I think we have failed ourselves miserably because everyone is the smartest guy in the room and everyone is the biggest critic, inside the game and out," he said. "And that will never be successful." Marsch also said he hoped more of his coaching peers from the United States would pursue unfamiliar pathways and leaps of faith, like the one he is taking now, so that opportunities for American coaches in the top levels of the game might one day seem as plentiful as they have become for players. Adams is one such player, and Marsch said he was eager to throw new challenges at him, too. Adams made his debut for RB Leipzig in a friendly during Germany's winter break, and was included in the first team for this weekend's game against Dortmund, though he was an unused substitute in Leipzig's 1 0 defeat. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Mets second baseman Robinson Cano at spring training camp. "I feel like I'm 25," said Cano, who is 36 and older than any of his new teammates. PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. Robinson Cano adjusted his neon orange batting gloves, strapped blue protective guards around his right shin and elbow, then took a step toward home plate to face live pitching on Wednesday. Before Cano could take a full swing, Mets Manager Mickey Callaway made a request of his new second baseman. "Hey, man," Callaway said. "Try not to kill the pitchers today." Cano smiled. Already in rhythm less than a week into spring training, he had rocketed balls back up the middle in a previous session. Pitcher Jason Vargas, a left hander, proceeded to throw inside to Cano, who stepped back to avoid being hit. Vargas expressed frustration about his control and apologized; Cano remained calm. Callaway took note. "He's so relaxed," Callaway said. "He just knows he's going to do it, and that's the goal for every player, letting the work they've done in the past speak for itself." Cano, 36, arrived in camp as a newcomer to the Mets, and their oldest player. The former Yankee is returning to New York after five seasons in Seattle amid increased scrutiny because he served an 80 game suspension last season after testing positive for a banned substance. He has expressed optimism about his new team's prospects, in spite of two consecutive losing seasons, and vowed to help build a winner in Queens. "I feel like I'm 25," said Cano, who also sustained a fracture to his right hand after being struck by a pitch just before he was suspended. "I want to go out and grind and feel like I'm competing for a job. I don't take anything for granted." Plenty has changed since he signed a 10 year deal worth 240 million with the Mariners in December 2013. Back then, Brodie Van Wagenen, now the Mets' general manager, represented Cano as an agent, Tim Tebow was still exploring his options as a quarterback in the N.F.L., and Alex Rodriguez was one of Cano's teammates with the Yankees. None Everyone Loves Ohtani: The Angels' two way star was a unanimous pick for A.L. M.V.P. and his superfans redefine devotion. Phillie Phavorite: Bryce Harper truly committed to Philadelphia and now he's back on top of baseball, winning the N.L. M.V.P. Cy Young Winners: Milwaukee's Corbin Burnes and Toronto's Robbie Ray had hit rock bottom before they worked their way up to stardom. Baseball Is Stuck in Neutral: The potential of a lockout has a star studded group of free agents waiting for the dust to settle. Free Agency Tracker: Get the latest updates on signings, contract extensions and trades. Cano reconnected with Rodriguez, now an ESPN broadcaster, by the batting cage on Wednesday. Rodriguez, 43, referred to Cano as his "student." No longer a sidekick to future Hall of Famers in pinstripes, Cano will be counted on to help mentor the younger Mets as the organization transitions from the David Wright era. Cano, who made three All Star Games as a Mariner but did not reach the playoffs, maintained that he had no regrets about the cross country move. Van Wagenen negotiated his free agent contract with Seattle in December 2013, and Cano left the Bronx after nine seasons and a World Series title. Mets outfielder Michael Conforto, a Seattle native, was a sophomore in college at the time, and he began studying Cano's fluid strokes more closely. "He makes everything look easy: the way he swings, the way he throws, the way he fields," Conforto said. "I've always been a fan of his. So when he was signed, I was pumped up about that. For me to be in the same locker room, maybe he'll rub off on me a little bit, and we can talk what he thinks when he is up there." Cano is a cautionary tale now, as well. Though he hit .303 in 80 games last season, Major League Baseball handed down the 80 game ban because Cano tested positive for furosemide, a diuretic he said he received from a doctor for a medical condition. It is also used as a masking agent, to disguise the presence of other banned substances. Under Major League Baseball's drug policy, a player who tests positive for a diuretic is suspended if he cannot prove that he used it for legitimate purposes. After Van Wagenen acquired Cano in a trade during the off season, Jeff Wilpon, a Mets owner and chief operating officer, asserted that he was "very comfortable" with Van Wagenen's explanation of Cano's suspension. "I could be proven wrong, but I don't think he's a drug cheat," Wilpon said of Cano after the trade. Cano has been quick to establish himself in the clubhouse. His stall puts him next to Todd Frazier, another former Yankee, and to Pete Alonso, a 24 year old battling for the first base job. Callaway recalled Cano standing up in the Mets' first spring training meeting to address his teammates. On Thursday, Cano, who drew criticism for not running out ground balls as a Yankee, set the pace during baserunning drills. He said he believed they could be the first steps toward a return to the playoffs. "I grew up through the Yankees system," he said. "They teach you how to be a champion from the minor leagues. You want to win a championship, you want to make it the playoffs so many times. Coming back here. I'm looking forward to getting back in the playoffs." In the clubhouse at First Data Field, Cano inherited Wright's locker. Cano played in the minors and majors against Wright, who suited up for his last game in September after years of battling back injuries. "It was sad that he had to end his career that way," said Cano, who will be 40 when his contract is up. He said he did not plan to join Wright in retirement anytime soon. "As long as I feel good, for me, I love to play this game," he said. "You know, as a young kid, I wanted to play in the big leagues, so as long as I have the opportunity to go out and play everyday, I would love to." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Look to your left. Look to your right. One of us is watching a show that's so uninterested in originality that some character trots out that speech you've heard so many times before: One of you won't finish this prestigious, grueling program. Often that spiel is delivered on doctor shows or lawyer shows, but on "Industry," which premieres Monday on HBO, it happens in an elite investment bank in London. And that's how most of the four episodes made available for review go: Familiar stories and beats just set in the world of finance instead of elsewhere, which means less emotional stakes but more scenes where people aggressively chew gum. If this was "Grey's Anatomy" it wishes our Meredith would be Harper (Myha'la Herrold), a savvy and driven underdog, with a few secrets. She's part of a cadre of "grads" gunning for jobs at the bank, though it's not clear what the jobs actually are and the differences between the various roles is one of the show's persistent vagaries. Maybe that's "Industry" commenting on capitalism wringing individuality out of us. Maybe. Harper says in her job interview that she considers banking to be "the closest thing to a meritocracy," which might be a canny ploy, her ingratiating herself by feeding the executives their own favorite (if hilarious) myth. But it plays like something she truly believes. Later, in one of many druggy scenes, she says, "I actually wrote a paper on the moral case for capitalism." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Three decades after Andy Warhol's death, he remains one of America's most provocative artists. His influence on popular culture is so pervasive that each emerging art movement after him has had to grapple with Warhol's focus on surface perfections and his singular celebrity. Despite their complicated feelings, many contemporary artists say they continue to admire Warhol's radical experimentation in all media and reach back to him as an unflagging inspiration, citing his practice of fusing photography and painting, as well as his presentations of race, gender, religion and desire. We asked an intergenerational group of artists at the forefront of painting, photography, video, installation and sculpture to gauge the impact of Warhol's influence on their work. They include Yasumasa Morimura, who spoke of learning from Warhol the relationship between handicraft and mass production. Glenn Ligon, for his part, praised the Pop master's use of color, saying it helped him illuminate the hard realities of race in paintings based on Richard Pryor's scabrous stand up comedy. "Much of my work had been in black and white," Mr. Ligon recalled. But in the '90s, he recognized "that the spoken word Pryor's off color jokes needed to be in color. I thought, 'What's my model for using color?' Andy Warhol." Here are edited excerpts from their conversations. I remember going to MoMA and seeing his "Campbell Soup Cans" 1962 , and it was at that moment I decided to become an artist. What makes Warhol the gold standard is the utter elegance, simplicity and directness of his paintings his ability to distill a world of information out of a picture through minimal but brilliant intervention. It reveals a profound social and technological complexity. He deals with the deepest of human emotions: desire, fear, voyeurism, how the individual intersects with culture, and the fabric of meaning. Like Warhol, I use silk screen, a technology made for seriality and reproduction. Unlike Warhol I always pair the silk screen panels with at least one hand painted panel. I sometimes duplicate the hand painted panels, shifting the logic so that the hand painted panel becomes the repeated image. They are nearly identical but it is their difference, and failure of perfection, that interests me. There is an incredible sense of longing, loss and desire in Warhol's attachment to the world of culture. He couldn't be Marilyn Monroe but he wanted to be. Those images of her, I think, are a displacement of his own desire. Painting for me has been the format to address deeply negative, culturally constructed ideas like racism and sexism, as well as desire. Warhol exposed so many people to so many different things that they hadn't really looked at. He forced the viewer to rewrite narratives in ways that queered our own notions of reality and what's acceptable. What's most interesting to me are his photographs. I love the casualness of them, the intimacy in the party scenes. For "Cry, Baby," my exhibition at the Warhol Museum, I was influenced by his "Ladies and Gentlemen" series of African American and Latino drag stars Warhol photographed in 1975 with a Polaroid and whose images he transferred onto silkscreen . His works of Wilhelmina Ross are alongside my painting of Miss Toto, from a series of Miami drag queen portraits. But Warhol's drag figures were represented in a flattening way that removed imperfections Wilhelmina is missing a tooth in Polaroids, which was edited out. That move by Warhol removes some of the humanity of those individuals while celebrating them in a more fashionable way. I spend an immense amount of time rendering those imperfections in pencil. I'm trying to celebrate and invent some sort of new fictions of the queer black male by subverting pre existing Caribbean and ancient Fertile Crescent religious myths. "Devan Shimoyama: Cry, Baby" is at the Andy Warhol Museum through Mar. 17. At times my goal is to broaden my audience by using iconography or symbols so that anyone can relate to the work. I think about stencils and Warhol, and the way his hand is not present in the work, which at one point might have been controversial. Is that important? Or is the art really about the thoughts behind it? All my stencils I make myself, but I use everyday imagery as inspiration, to make a new kind of gesture loaded with many meanings. I relate to the way Andy Warhol used pop imagery that aspires to some kind of universality. You see this in "Little Race Riot" from his "Death and Disasters" series, which deals with how ubiquitous media portrayals of violence, over time, make us numb to them. It's similar to how social media presents images today, over and over, making us indifferent to things that are important. In my pieces centered around police brutality, like "Why" where I use an "X" to cover text and to make a word appear as two different possibilities I was thinking about the ambiguity of Andy Warhol. He never wanted to give a specific meaning, so the viewer could participate equally. He was great at making us refocus on important things by blowing them up into symbols, but he didn't give too much away. This idea of accessibility led me to do merchandise and murals. It's challenging myself to go into spaces where there might not be a lot of women of color. It also allowed me to challenge the idea that I couldn't have a painting that's in the Whitney collection and then have a pair of sneakers in a store. Can a very expensive painting and my work in an alleyway function in the same way? Warhol showed us it could. Someone who might play on a basketball court painted by me might not go in an art gallery but I want to reach them. This desire comes from my own encounters with art. I never went to a lot of museums growing up, and I was exposed to the gallery scene very late. "Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush" is at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles through Jan. 20. When I was a young artist, Andy Warhol's process was a model for mine. I lived on the Lower East Side, in the late '80s and earlier '90s, and I copied the master. There was something about the methodology and the graphic quality of the silk screen that spoke to me. I came to art from a commercial art background. I was very familiar with screen printing and was very distrustful of my hand as a painter. What I came to understand through trying it on my own is that a mechanical process didn't just have to be a printing process but could be a painting process. I also related to Warhol's Catholicism. I remember somebody said, "Oh, he's making American icon paintings but in a religious sense." I really related to that sentiment, and I think that's in my painting "Peach Oswald," of President Kennedy's alleged killer, Lee Harvey Oswald. I think what Warhol was saying, if he was saying anything at all, is that the secular is now the spiritual. I was not a religious Catholic. I was behind the church smoking when I should've been inside. But there was something in his work that made it O.K. for me to accept my way of seeing a subject as one iconic figure. The Oswald painting was based on the last photograph taken before he got shot by Jack Ruby. The photograph had the potential, with a simple modification, to be a movie star head shot, which seemed Warholian. I changed his eyes to move them upward so that he looked up to the viewer. It's a gesture that makes him look like he is almost confessing to the viewer after he died, because, after all, nobody knows the truth except for him. I guess I have a love hate thing with Warhol. Sometimes I think I'm kind of more against what he represented and then I start looking at the work, and it's like, 'Oh yes, I get it again.' Wayne Gonzales's "Peach Oswald" is in "Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy" at the Met Breuer, through Jan. 6. Andy Warhol has been a vital influence. I have responded most to his iconic portraits of Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor; two exceptional women who, just by their presence, provided platforms for other women. These works referenced mostly celebrity or political archetypes but were also deeply rooted in the visual culture of their time. I thought about how I might position the women of my images in a similar dialogue. In 2008, I thought about the power of Michelle Obama being the first black first lady in the White House and how crucial this moment was for young black girls, to see themselves in her. So, using similar images of Andy Warhol's Jackie silk screen canvases, I reclaimed the space with Michelle O. Both women harbored strength, intelligence, generosity and beauty. For an earlier work, "Sweet and Out Front," I was invited to respond to Melvin Van Peebles's film "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" (1971). I noticed that the women in the film were reduced to secondary roles. They seemed marginalized, and it was a lost opportunity to celebrate black women. My response was to position these female characters at the forefront. I took cues from the formation and color rhythm of Andy Warhol's photo booth style portraiture in the Jackie canvases. "Sweet and Out Front" was my first attempt at silk screen. I love the residue quality and photo manipulation process. It allows for a painterly presentation and graphic pop cultural forwardness. I like the Warholian notions of allowing the work to exist as it is, fusing photography and painting. And I appreciate the tension and the gray area between painting and photography, which represents a mystical area of discovery. Warhol's work is unabashed, unapologetic and queer. His paintings are stylistically fashion forward, of the moment and in your face political. I like to think that I do the same with my work. One of our differences is how we represent women. We both deal with the notion of desire from a queer lens. But his is from an asexual white male perspective and mine is from a lesbian perspective. Desire manifests in his art as a longing and desire, consumed by a particular beauty, which framed his own sexuality as one that leaned toward femininity. My desire is defined by the need to connect with and celebrate black women, not only as models, muses and mentors. My desire is also at times motivated by sexuality: the queer lens of black women loving black women, which is seldom celebrated. Like Warhol, I make my own icons of beauty and desire. For Warhol, color seemed to represent a kind of freedom. It's a freedom that I needed for my "Coloring Book" series, but to get it I needed to commission little kids to color images of cultural figures like Malcolm X. I first tried to make paintings by coloring in the images myself and they were terrible. The closest I got to it was with the Pryor paintings. The spoken word Pryor's off color jokes needed to be in color. I thought, 'Well, what's my model for using color? Andy Warhol.' He was a genius colorist. I don't think he made so much of a distinction between a muddy brown, acid yellow, or vivid blue. It all worked for him. When I am using text or images from other sources, I feel like I can't be arbitrary in that way. I feel a responsibility to the source material, and color feels added on top of that content, rather than generated from it, and that's why I use it sparingly. In Warhol's 1975 series "Ladies and Gentlemen," of trans women, there's a kind of license he takes that he doesn't have with other commissioned portraits he was selling. They were mostly of white people they weren't going to pay for a big purple slash through their faces. But maybe he felt that the trans women were representing themselves in every palette. In my own work, I'm thinking about what's expected of me as an artist of color in terms of my subject matter, how race operates in the work even when the work is not about race. Glenn Ligon's essay, "Pay It No Mind," appears in the catalog for "Andy Warhol From A to B and Back Again" at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Nov. 12 through March 31. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Over the last decade Eyal Weizman and his colleagues within the London based investigative group Forensic Architecture have examined violent occurrences around the world, often using video and architectural rendering software in efforts to parse confusing and often murky political and corporate events. Last week Mr. Weizman confronted an unexpected mystery when he was informed by email that his right to travel to the United States under a visa waiver program had been revoked. The next day, on Feb. 14, he went to the U.S. Embassy in London to apply for a visa, but, he said, an official told him, without elaboration that an algorithm had identified a security threat that was related to him. Mr. Weizman, who holds British and Israeli passports, had hoped to attend the opening of an art exhibition Wednesday night at Miami Dade College's Museum of Art and Design. Called "True to Scale," it is a survey of Forensic Architecture's work. Mr. Weizman said by email on Wednesday that he has visited the United States dozens of times, most recently in December 2019. He said that the embassy official had told him that the threat that surfaced could be related to something he was involved in, people he had been in contact with, places he had visited, hotels at which he had stayed, or a pattern of relations among those. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Two of the last three Tony Award winning best musicals "Fun Home" and "Dear Evan Hansen" have featured suicide as a central plot point. Other recent winners have spoofed serial killing and mocked religion. Still, I submit that the most shocking mainstream musical ever written is the 26 year old "Assassins," which begins with an invitation to "C'mon and shoot a president" and then goes considerably further. The shock is not just in the daring but in pardon me the execution. John Weidman's book situates nine of the country's would be presidential assassins, from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley, in a metaphysical shooting gallery and lets them goad one another across time. Stephen Sondheim's score explores their motivations, but also, in its pungent use of American pastiche, burrows deep into the national character that bred them. Dark as that sounds, the show's revuelike format allows the authors to vary the palette with mad scenes, melodrama, minstrelsy and vaudeville. In the concert presentation of "Assassins" that opened this summer's Encores! Off Center season on Wednesday, it is the last of these, the comedy, that works best. A nearly unrecognizable Victoria Clark and a witchy Erin Markey make a hilariously sociopathic Lucy and Ethel pair as Sara Jane Moore and Lynette Fromme, would be killers of Gerald R. Ford. When Moore's gun fails to discharge, she thinks fast and throws the bullets at him instead. Some may feel, in this Trumpus Caesar summer, that such raillery, let alone the underlying idea of trying to understand why Americans have shot presidents, is an untoward or trite provocation. But with one tiny exception a familiar thumbs up gesture from Charles Guiteau (John Ellison Conlee), who shot James A. Garfield no specific contemporary reference is attempted. It isn't needed, either, as the audience seems primed to make connections unprompted. On Wednesday night, when a character called the Balladeer sang the lyric "Every now and then, the country goes a little wrong," applause stopped the show for perhaps 20 seconds. The oddness of that applause speaks to the timeless discomforts of "Assassins." The Off Center production, directed by Anne Kauffman, is most successful in highlighting two of them. At the start, the audience sees nine targets hanging from a gantry, each with a weapon attached, and nine mike stands matching them in a spooky row downstage. (The simple setting is by Donyale Werle.) It's hard to miss the idea of murder as megaphone: The assassins shoot to amplify inner grievances and promote pet causes. At the same time, ordinary Americans bystanders, mourners are shown gaining insight or cachet from their encounters with public calamity. I don't want to spoil the image, at the very end, that brilliantly crystallizes the other highlighted theme and brings it into the present. Suffice it to say that it concerns our enduring gun culture, a subject the show explores from many angles. In "Gun Song" led by Leon Czolgosz, who shot William McKinley Mr. Sondheim trenchantly outlines the economic principles connecting firearm manufacture and use: "It takes a lot of men to make a gun" in the first verse becomes "A gun kills many men before it's done" in the second. If that and some of the show's other contextualizing gambits sound didactic, even alienating in the Brechtian manner, fear not. Yes, the conceptual framework, or rather frameworks, can be a touch overbearing, more so in this hasty concert than in the 1991 Off Broadway original at Playwrights Horizons or in the Roundabout's Broadway production in 2004. Ms. Kauffman, known for her excellent work on new plays including "A Life" and "Marjorie Prime," does not make a legible case, for instance, for the existence of two narrator figures instead of one: the Balladeer and the Proprietor. Nor has she been able to maintain drive through all of the vividly contrasting, often nonlinear scenes. But "Assassins" is largely self correcting, especially in its score. Between those two haunting and turbulent verses of "Gun Song," a middle section praises the power of the trigger in a joyful barbershop chorale. The Balladeer's three portraits in song are as catchy as musical theater gets: the one for Booth a banjo tune, Czolgosz's a common man anthem, Guiteau's a hymn of uplift after which he is literally uplifted, on the gallows. Elsewhere the peppy Sousa march "El Capitan" and, punningly, "Hail to the Chief" are incorporated. Still, there is no mistaking the show's serious intentions, and its confidence in pursuing them. In his unusually fine book, Mr. Weidman keeps striking the theme of powerlessness in the lives of the assassins, whether it is the result of unvarnished mental illness or of a poverty so entrenched in American life it seems punitive. Either way, "Assassins" offers no pat answers. Rather, its raison d'etre as a musical is to force you into and out of complacency. In daring the audience to sympathize with Czolgosz, or with Hinckley, it undermines any sense of protective distance from the heinous acts they carry out. Mr. Sondheim has Hinckley (Steven Boyer) sing a beautiful banal folk rock ballad called "Unworthy of Your Love" to Jodie Foster; when it becomes a duet with Ms. Fromme (known as Squeaky) singing to Charles Manson, the squirmy pathos is almost unbearable. Or would be in a tighter production, as this one may well become before it closes on Saturday evening. Already it is vocally exceptional, with especially thrilling contributions from Steven Pasquale as Booth, Shuler Hensley as Czolgosz and Clifton Duncan as the Balladeer. By then, too, its mix of Broadway performers and downtown artists, including the alt cabaret auteur Ethan Lipton, may have settled into the world of the show instead of remaining in separate camps. For now, this "Assassins" lacks the emotional heft (and cannot attain the visual panache) that a great production requires. Without them, its parade of losers is too often marching in place. Still, when Giuseppe Zangara (Alex Brightman), who tried to kill Franklin D. Roosevelt, calls himself an "American nothing," or when the nine assassins sing together about "another national anthem" that applies to the likes of them, you may feel, as I did, the rumblings of our unsettled country in your bones. "Assassins" is the report of that unsettlement, and the bang. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Like many of Shakespeare's midcareer comedies, "Twelfth Night" doesn't have a death toll. So why is Duke Orsino waving around a handgun and looking as if he means to use it? That startling moment, in Act V, jazzes up the Acting Company's "Twelfth Night," co produced with the Resident Ensemble Players of the University of Delaware, which opened on Sunday at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in a revival that is mostly by the numbers but sometimes pushes through the pentameter into something nastier and more surprising. You can't swing a prop cat without hitting a "Twelfth Night" somewhere. (Another is on its way to Shakespeare in the Park this summer.) The play has romance, melancholy, bang up songs and a handful of great comic set pieces: the letter, the stockings, the sword fight. Once you get past the schtick that a pair of shipwrecked fraternal twins are somehow identical, there's a lot to adore. Maria Aitken's production for the Acting Company sturdy, reasonably brisk doesn't have much of a sense of time or place. Candice Donnelly's period hopping costumes include checked suits and corseted gowns, and a lot of hair dye. (Matthew Greer's Orsino wears a bunch of ascots, which make him extremely pinchable.) Lee Savage's sun washed set situates Illyria as a Mediterranean port town, or maybe a SoCal suburb. Ms. Aitken's staging is bluntly legible, a grade saver for Shakespeare shy students and capable enough for fans in it just for the cakes and ale. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
He Mocks Saudi Arabia on YouTube. Yes, He Fears for His Safety. LONDON No one has skewered the Saudi royal family as gleefully as Ghanem al Masarir. In hundreds of videos posted to YouTube which have now been viewed more than 300 million times Mr. al Masarir sits at a desk, usually at his home in North London, offers a jovial greeting in Arabic, then launches into a series of embarrassing Saudi related stories. The tone is sharply satirical, the delivery a bit hammy. One of his favorite targets is Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, whom he long ago tagged with a nickname, now widely used by detractors, that translates to "the bear that has gone astray." As mild as this may sound to Western ears, calling someone a bear in the Middle East is tantamount to calling him fat and ugly, and "astray" in this context means immoral, corrupt, essentially a gangster. Related: Three senior members of the Saudi royal family are arrested. "There are academics in prison in Saudi Arabia for criticizing policy, and they haven't even mentioned leaders by name," said Madawi al Rasheed, a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. "So imagine what they think of Ghanem." By now, it seems pretty clear. In October 2018, Mr. al Masarir says, the British police visited his home to deliver an official warning about a threat to his life. They left him with a "panic button" system, attached through his phone line, that summons the authorities when activated, but they offered no specifics about the source of the threat. To Mr. al Masarir, it's no mystery. Years ago, he says, he was quietly alerted to an apparent Saudi plan to kidnap him, a heads up that came from an unlikely source: the Saudi intelligence agent later accused of masterminding the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post op ed columnist killed in 2018 in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. And the Saudi regime has spent years trying to intimidate Mr. al Masarir, he says, through cyberattacks on his social media platforms. A few months before the police showed up at his door, Mr. al Masarir says, the campaign against him escalated. His smartphones had turned unaccountably sluggish, and at the behest of a friend familiar with the side effects of covertly installed spyware he asked a cybersecurity watchdog group to figure out why. After examining his smartphones, Citizen Lab, a nonprofit organization based in Toronto, told him that they had been infected with Pegasus, a virus created by an Israeli tech company, NSO Group. It turns smartphones into all purpose surveillance tools, hoovering up texts and emails, eavesdropping on calls and tracking locations. Mr. al Masarir came to Britain 16 years ago, seeking both an education and a way to denounce his native country from afar. Along the way, he discovered his inner performer and YouTube, an online platform that provided both a steady flow of income and a prominence he had never imagined. A 2018 list of thought leaders in the Arab world compiled by Global Influence ranked him No. 17, far ahead of Mr. Khashoggi. Today, Mr. al Masarir finds himself in an odd kind of purgatory. It has been months since he uploaded new "Ghanem Show" videos, which he once recorded three or four times a week. A rotation of repeats now provides the bulk of his income. But defiance is part of his brand, so he is reluctant to say the Saudis have cowed him. He merely says that, at least for the time being, he has lost interest in filming new monologues. "I'll be back," he said. "I don't know when, but soon." Off camera, Mr. al Masarir seems nothing like the boisterous character he assumes in his videos. During an afternoon out this summer, he was stopped repeatedly by fans who recognized him as he walked through Harrods department store, which was filled with shoppers from Saudi Arabia. He graciously posed with families who wanted photographs and nodded to people who shouted compliments. In private settings, he is soft spoken, reserved and wary to the point of paranoia. At a cafe that day, he declined to drink the coffee he had ordered, apparently worried that it had been poisoned. He walked with a bottle of pepper spray in his pocket, and when a drunken pair of men careened near him, as he emerged from a Tube station, he looked ready to use it. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. "Did you see those guys?" he said, briefly unnerved, as he put the bottle back in his pocket. "I didn't know what was happening." According to his lawsuit, Mr. al Masarir has much to fear. It was Oct. 31, 2018, when two Metropolitan Police officers visited his home and delivered what is known as an "Osman warning." It's a police protocol in which a person is officially informed about a threat to his or her life in cases that lack evidence for an arrest. A police spokesman said the department does not comment on Osman warnings. "They didn't tell me anything about where the threat came from," Mr. al Masarir said, as he described the panic button system they had left with him. "They just said that if I pushed the button, they would break down my door, assuming I was under attack." The warning occurred a few weeks after the murder of Mr. Khashoggi, which the C.I.A. has concluded was ordered by the crown prince. Mr. al Masarir now lives with a sense of personal jeopardy that was inconceivable when he arrived in Britain, in 2003. He left his hometown, Al Kharj, which is about 50 miles south of Riyadh, to study computer science at the University of Portsmouth. He wanted to earn a degree, land a job in the computer field and find ways to denounce the Saudi regime. Any hopes of remaining a low profile agitator disappeared in 2004 when he met several times with a man he thought was with the opposition who turned out to work for the Saudis. Later that year, a cousin of Mr. al Masarir's, the Saudi diplomat Monhie bin Foyz, was transferred from the consulate of Rome to the embassy in London. Mr. al Masarir was leery when Mr. bin Foyz, whom he had never been close to, began inviting him to vacations in countries like Morocco and Egypt. Mr. al Masarir turned down the invitations. "The Saudis have a long history of kidnapping people from those countries," he said. "He called me once from Egypt and said: 'I'll book the flights and hotel for you. We'll hang out.'" The pair stayed in touch, but his fear that his cousin meant him harm intensified one day in 2007, Mr. al Masarir said. Mr. bin Foyz had invited him to a cafe in the Lanesborough Hotel in London for a farewell for a fellow diplomat returning to Saudi Arabia. At one point during this coffee, Mr. bin Foyz went to the bathroom. With his cousin out of earshot, the other diplomat leaned over, stared into Mr. al Masarir's eyes and grimly said, "Ghanem, stay where you are." He added an expletive for emphasis. The message was plain. Any excursion outside Britain was a very dangerous idea. "After that," Mr. al Masarir said, "there was no way I was going to leave the country." Mr. bin Foyz, who now lives in Saudi Arabia, did not return emails asking for comment. Years later came a shock. The man who delivered the "stay where you are" warning was Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb. In November, the Saudi regime tagged Mr. Mutreb as the organizer of the team that had murdered Mr. Khashoggi. It is unlikely that he was among the five people recently sentenced to death by the Saudi government for the killing, because those men have been described as low level agents and Mr. Mutreb is an aide to the crown prince. "I can't explain the change in Mutreb," Mr. al Masarir said, still baffled. "When I knew him, he was a human being." Mr. al Masarir remained something of a professional student until his student visa options expired in 2011. He applied for political asylum the next year. That entitled him to a government stipend of about 50 a week, but lacking work papers, he was unable to land a job. So he created one that didn't require papers. In 2014, he posted his first video to a channel he originally called "GhanemTube." It was a scathing attack on the now deceased King Abdullah for his efforts to censor social media. "I had never done any acting before," Mr. al Masarir said. "I just started." His early videos were seen by just a few thousand people and were savaged in the comments section, he presumes by Saudi loyalists. But he gained traction, and his audience multiplied. In 2016, he posted a video about a cleric's indignation about women dancing that has since been viewed more than 13 million times. His favorite theme is the widely chronicled corruption of the royal family, which he hammers for spending extravagantly and ruling tyrannically. "The most important thing for M.B.S. is to take the money of the Saudi people and to empty their pockets," Mr. al Masarir says in a video about Mohammed bin Salman and his plan to build a 500 billion "smart city" near the Red Sea. "His Highness buys whatever he wants." The campaign of intimidation described by Mr. al Masarir overlaps in one chilling way with the plot against Mr. Khashoggi. After Mr. Khashoggi's murder, a human rights activist and friend of Mr. Khashoggi's, Omar Abdulaziz, said his smartphone had been infected with the Pegasus virus. In a lawsuit against NSO Group, Mr. Abdulaziz said the Saudis had used the virus to plan the killing. NSO Group denies that accusation and said in a statement that "Omar Abdulaziz's suit makes a number of false claims about our technology, which is designed to prevent and investigate terror and crime." After examining phones owned by Mr. Abdulaziz and Mr. al Masarir, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, the cybersecurity organization, said the spyware infections had identical elements both were surreptitiously installed through a fake DHL package delivery link and led to the same Saudi controlled server. Six years after his original application, and a few weeks after the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, Mr. al Masarir was finally granted asylum. Judge Mark Eldridge wrote in an Oct. 25, 2018, decision that Mr. al Masarir was entitled to be recognized as a political refugee because he "has a well founded fear of persecution if he is now returned to Saudi Arabia on the basis of his political opinions." Now, Mr. al Masarir is turning again to the British courts, this time for a reckoning with the Saudis. His lawsuit, which was filed in the High Court of Justice on Nov. 4, relies on what scholars described as an untested legal theory, one that would have to overcome jurisdictional hurdles and broaden the scope of liability for cyberattacks. It is Mr. al Masarir's attempt to hold accountable an old enemy in a new arena, having concluded that he has plenty to fear from Saudi Arabia, even if he never sets foot there again. "The Saudi government wanted to show me, 'You're not safe,'" he said, referring to the Pegasus infection and other efforts to silence him. "'Even in the United Kingdom. We have the upper hand.'" | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
My husband's health and well being has become the most important thing to me. I'm not sure I knew I was capable of that feeling prior to this relationship. I learned that the words 'Till death do us part' meant more to me than I ever thought they could. That love can be that intense. The commitment to another person's well being has been the greatest honor. I knew I could bring all of my experience to help him navigate the frightening world of fighting for your life, which all felt so purposeful to me, and that was part of our falling in love. I love the feeling of having committed to someone, 'In sickness and in health.' Terrence is cancer free and very healthy today, and that means everything to me. I didn't know I was capable of loving someone so deeply. That I would ever get to experience that feeling. I've learned that it's real. That the intensity and longevity and joy of love are real." Mr. McNally "I do believe in love at first sight. It just seemed right from the very beginning. I had lost a partner from AIDS the year before. I was 63 at the time and didn't expect to meet someone again. We've spent almost every night together since. The freedom to marry has changed the playing field for gay men and women. Before, the relationships were between ourselves. We didn't have rights. Having the legal support from the government has made a difference. I didn't realize how much we'd been missing by not having it. To marry Tom was a great moment in my life. I've learned how blessed I am to be with the right partner. He's very much a part of who I am. We don't take each other for granted. I earn Tom's trust and affection, and he earns mine. I don't think of myself without thinking about him, and that completes me. I learn from him every day. I've seen compassion and kindness in him. I've learned about being less selfish. He's a good man and he's made me a better person. That's thrilling to be learning at this age. I knew Tom was the person I needed and knew I had to be with. A lot of people said they loved me, but they didn't love me the way I needed to be loved. He makes me feel safe that's a big thing to say and I pray he feels the same from me. You read about happy tears and I understand them now." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
When RJ King, Tripp Swanhaus and Carole Radziwill decided to share a miniature goldendoodle last year, friends discouraged it and scratched their heads. They worried that a puppy would become neurotic or confused about which of the three apartments on different floors in the SoHo building where they live would be her real home. And who would be the real boss? Mr. King, a model? Mr. Swanhaus, a marketer? Or Ms. Radziwill, a Real Housewife on TV and real author? "But it has turned out that she knows her place in the world," Ms. Radziwill said. "And she isn't needy, because what would she need?" Mr. King said. "She gets to live in three one bedroom apartments instead of one," Mr. Swanhaus added. Ms. Radziwill now has a boyfriend, Adam Kenworthy, a vegan chef who is fond of the dog too. "I like her soft and fluffy, so I give her baths," he said. The other night, the "co parents," as they call themselves (never owners or masters), were lounging in Ms. Radziwill's well appointed living room, which included one very important and now shredded French couch. It was previously owned by Lee Radziwill, Carole's mother in law from her marriage to Anthony, who died in 1999. They were passing Baby, smallish and with a taupe colored coat, around like a bong in a dorm room. Mr. King, who has 110,000 Instagram followers and is often invited to places where the boldfaced roam, held Baby (20,700 Instagram followers) like a baby. She gazed up into his expensive eyes, represented, like the rest of him, by the Wilhelmina modeling agency. But she gave herself to the arms of the others too, with the open mindedness of an equal opportunity pet that loves unstintingly and regardless of looks, age or number of followers. "I always wanted a dog, but I didn't want one on my own," Mr. Swanhaus said. He isn't alone. These days in a sharing economy for rides and homes, it's no surprise that internet services such as Bark 'N' Borrow are matching dog owners with carefully vetted members who take dogs for limited amounts of time. Fairmont Hotels has "canine ambassadors" to lend out to guests. The Aspen Animal Shelter in Colorado makes dogs available for the day for tourists in its popular Rent a Pet program. "Dogs don't like to be alone," she said. "But they are eminently flexible in dealing with new situations, and they can get bored with the same routine every day." What's good for dogs may also be good for humans, and not just by easing their responsibility. Brad Faulkner, a young New Yorker who works in finance, is one of four friends who once shared a dog in a Manhattan apartment and now have shared custody. Sugar, a Border collie and Labrador mix, spends summers in New York and the rest of the year in Los Angeles, where two of the four roommates have relocated. "It's actually a great way to keep a friendship going with people who have moved across the country," Mr. Faulkner said. Sometimes sharing custody of a dog can even rekindle romance. Andrea Arden, a dog trainer, was dating a man and sharing his Doberman. When they broke up, he offered visitation rights, leading to getting back together and then getting married. "He told me it was because we were soul mates," she said. "But I think it had more to do with the dog." They're now divorced and the dog is deceased, giving them a definitive ending. But custody can sometimes become a tricky issue. Jane Friedman, the chairman of Open Road Integrated Media, has taken in her son's dog, a Havanese, while he and his wife are dealing with a baby and toddler. The other day she joked that she wouldn't be giving the dog back. "My son got very sensitive," she said. "Now I know not to bring the topic up again." Well, nothing's perfect. When it comes to sharing a dog, even in the most ideal circumstances, issues arise, including unstable rules and schedules from modular living. "If one person thinks it's O.K. to jump on the furniture and the other doesn't, then the dog will be confused by mixed messages," Ms. Arden said. In fact, one might meet Baby, the dog shared by Mr. King, Ms. Radziwill and Mr. Swanhaus, and find her slightly ill mannered at times. But then, who isn't these days? "Housebreaking her was in my kitchen, and it was a nightmare," Mr. Swanhaus said. The responsibility had fallen to him because his kitchen was larger than Mr. King's, and it didn't have a newly refinished floor like Ms. Radziwill's. The dog managed to climb the gate and destroy an expensive carpet. After that, Ms. Radziwill wanted to send Baby for rigorous boarding school training. The others rejected her plan. When they brought in a house call making trainer, not everyone attended or stayed through the sessions naughty. And Mr. King didn't like the trainer's attitude. "She was a disaster, and she was also arrogant," he said. "She came highly recommended," Ms. Radziwill said with only a trace of irony from her living room chair. "But we stopped using her because Baby's such a well adjusted dog." Of course just as there is room for improvement in any dog, there is room for human improvement too. Mr. King and Ms. Radziwill (she contends that she shoulders the brunt of dog care, including vet visits and bills) keep a strict feeding schedule. Mr. Swanhaus, who the others are quick to point out has never bathed the dog (although he did once buy shampoo), leaves food out all day and doesn't stick with a rigid dog diet. "He's the one who doesn't always enforce the rules," Mr. King said. Rule No. 1 for the humans? Never drop the dog off at another apartment (always arranged by texting) without walking her first. Ms. Radziwill recently broke that one. "It was the only time I did that," she said. "But I was so depressed after the election, I couldn't function." Evening was becoming night, and the team of co parents seemed reluctant to leave their Baby and pull themselves together for a Saturday night. Mr. King went to set up an ironing board in Ms. Radziwill's kitchen to press a shirt to wear to a black tie dinner at the home of Valentino Garavani. Ms. Radziwill had plans to join the radio journalist John Hockenberry. Mr. Swanhaus was to attend the opening of a new club, Paul's Casablanca, named for Paul Sevigny. Baby, who had once been the bridesmaid of Toast, the popular dog of Josh Ostrovsky, the Instagram celebrity known as the Fat Jew, had no plans. She played with abandon with the two kittens of Ms. Radziwill that had just finished climbing up her silk curtains. Ms. Radziwill, who like her fellow co parents doesn't have children, smiled at the menagerie of animals and men. "So far none of us have plans to move," she said. "If that ever happens, we may end up in a custody trial. But we don't like to think about that." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The largely virtual format of the Republican and Democratic national conventions meant that even more than usual, the messages were embedded within the visual presentation. Here Vanessa Friedman, the chief fashion critic for The New York Times, and James Poniewozik, the chief television critic, discuss what they saw and what it all meant. VANESSA FRIEDMAN Hi James! So the first mostly virtual party conventions are a wrap. I know the situation was foisted on us all by the pandemic, but it did make for some interesting viewing, and a reframing of the actual events in a way that was maybe? more honest about what they actually are. I've got to say: The contrast could not have been more graphic by the end. On the one hand, you had the D.N.C., which took place almost entirely remotely, with Zoom panels with "real" (impossible word) voters, and speeches recorded in people's homes (Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton), schools (Jill Biden), and empty auditoriums (Kamala Harris, Joe Biden). You had some of that with the R.N.C. But Trump's final speech live! With audience! At the White House! completely changed the equation. For me, the first was smaller in scale, more human, and reflected the emptiness and weirdness of the current pandemic age. The second was all about triumphalism, pomp and circumstance. But both were also highly produced shows, complete with set, soundtrack, costumes and script. My question for you is: Were they the ultimate reality TV show sort of a cross between "America's Got Politics" and "Survivor," with some "Bachelor" thrown in? Or more like "Masterpiece Theater"? JAMES PONIEWOZIK They were more like the commercials. This is not an insult: A commercial can be good or bad, useful or deceptive. Without the pretense of a physical news event in a convention center, they were more purely TV. That means, more than usual, the messages were encoded in the form. So much of the D.N.C. virtual production, alternately inventive and uncanny, leaned into the party's critique that we couldn't be together because of the administration's handling of Covid. The R.N.C., meanwhile, tried in Seinfeldian terms to yada yada yada the virus verbally, by repeatedly talking about it in the past tense, and visually, by showing us as few masks as possible. (Even at the speech by Mike Pence, head of the coronavirus task force!) That sea of bare faces at Donald Trump's White House on Thursday night was basically staging an alternative history in which the virus really did disappear, "like a miracle," the way he once said it would. Masks, or lack thereof, are a message now, but as you've written wonderfully, all clothing is language. What was fashion saying loudest to you? And can you give people your best case why they should listen? I mean: Who will forget General oops, sorry, first lady Melania Trump in her military skirt suit? That will go down as one of the more unusual spousal choices of any political convention, ever. Or her green screen royal robes for her husband's speech (and what the internet did with them)? Or the red tie white shirt blue dress flag visual presented by Mike and Karen Pence on Day 3 of the R.N.C.? Indeed, Old Glory was pretty much the uncredited costume designer of the R.N.C. The main speakers of the D.N.C., on the other hand, were much less heavy handed with the fashion imagery. Which is not to say it wasn't considered. I am thinking of Michelle Obama and her viral V O T E necklace. That choice seemed to indicate a pretty keen understanding of the difference between a physical convention, where you are a tiny person on a very big stage and you need your clothes to telegraph your message to the rooftops, and a virtual convention, where the camera can pull viewers in. What do you think? PONIEWOZIK A convention changed by a pandemic is like the pandemic itself. You can adapt to it or deny it. And we've seen how much good denying does you. Likewise with TV. Both conventions worked best when they accepted that they were not producing convention hall speeches; they were producing direct to camera TV, more like a talk show or fireside chat. That Guilfoyle speech yes, my ears are still ringing, but I could imagine it having been delivered to a passionate crowd in a hall. But in the world that actually existed ... well, you saw it. (And she's a former cable news host! How could she not realize?) Whereas Donald Trump's game show segments using the White House as an "Apprentice" set and official acts as fabulous prizes you could call them exploitative and cynical, and I did, but they were television, the atmosphere he's most comfortable in. The D.N.C. set up Kamala Harris a dynamic speaker in front of a crowd at a podium, with long shots showing the near empty hall, as if she were rallying ghosts. The next night, the producers put the nominee in the same room and had him speak straight to camera, shot close up as in a presidential address, using hushed tones and pauses to convey gravity. It better fit both the medium and the moment. FRIEDMAN Oh, that calamari! One of the best moments of the eight days. Also, I'll give Trump this: He has his soundtrack down. "Hail to the Chief" has become his theme song. Trump's imagery, and by association, that of all the junior Trumps, has always been that of aspiration and illusion, from the hair to the fake tan to the carefully manicured he man beards of the boys (they are going to save the suburbs!) and the prom queen hair of the women, from Ivanka to Lara, Tiffany, Kimberly, Kayleigh and so on. And that's before we even get to the use of the White House as a prop. It is striking, though, that while the D.N.C. was at pains to show the American mosaic of skin color and wear what you want fashion I liked that Kamala Harris didn't cave in to patriotic or historical cliche and wore a burgundy trouser suit, Jill Biden wore green and Joe just wore what he always wears the R.N.C. was, at least initially, very, very white and very, very "90210" in its self presentation. Admittedly, that changed toward the end in a pretty heavy handed way. But you are right: They were presenting two different pictures of the American dream. For the Trump camp, it's a big, fancy house (the fanciest!), with high fashion designer clothes, high heels and the perfect blowout: the visual semiotics of the power money can buy when you have enough. For the Biden gang, it's more abstract, and has to do with the mythology of civic debate, hard work, the melting pot and transcending difference. Though to be fair, both conventions went a little overboard on the flag sets. Between Trump and Bloomberg, who had the most? Thinking of the ideas of America that the parties visualized: We saw a lot more stories and testimonials from non politicians. I wanted to say "ordinary Americans," but there was not much ordinary about Brayden Harrington, the brave and poised 13 year old who bonded with Mr. Biden over having a stutter. And though it didn't strike me as that momentous when it happened, the segment that best captures, for history, this everything falling apart moment might turn out to be when Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple celebrated by conservatives (and charged by authorities) for waving guns at Black Lives Matter protesters passing by their house, appeared on the R.N.C. on Monday night. Posed in their wood paneled parlor, warning viewers of dark forces coming to prey on the suburbs it was like a dystopian attack ad filtered through a Bravo reality show. Later this week, when protests erupted in Kenosha after a policeman shot a Black man in the back, then a 17 year old self styled vigilante was arrested on charges of killing two protesters with an assault rifle, I couldn't stop thinking about it. It said so much about who is permitted and denied force in this convention's imagined America, who is seen as a threat and who as a hero. FRIEDMAN I agree that, maybe because the politicians seemed even more like they were playing to type, or even caricature, and despite the overwhelming force of that final Trump evening, it was the beamed in "regular" individuals who still stick out in my mind. They had much more power than the celebrities, both good and bad. Though it probably says something more about the culture wars that the R.N.C. couldn't even come up with Scott Baio. What I am really curious about is whether both parties will see this as a learning experience that could reshape the next round of conventions, or whether they will revert to type as soon as social distancing guidelines are lifted. Will the takeaway be: Use the White House! Live is better! And forget the Hatch Act because in the visual age, we need to exploit every tool at our disposal!? Or will it be that tapping into the testimony of private citizens and the intimacy of going into a living room has its own power, given the way we are isolated by the digital world? Will the clothes our candidates wear be used to pull you in, to emphasize the telling detail? Or will they be reduced even more to well, primary colors? What do you think? | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
David Payr for The New York Times David Payr for The New York Times Credit... David Payr for The New York Times The Comme des Garcons founder on her debut as a costume designer at the Wiener Staatsoper. Rei Kawakubo Talks 'Orlando,' Opera and the Performance of Gender On Dec. 8, "Orlando" will have its premiere at the Vienna State Opera. The opera represents a meeting of female creative minds across time and countries: It is based on the novel by Virginia Woolf, composed by Olga Neuwirth, with a libretto by Ms. Neuwirth and Catherine Filloux, directed by Polly Graham, with costumes by Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons. "Orlando" is the first opera commissioned from a female composer by the Vienna Opera in its 150 years of existence, and the first time Ms. Kawakubo has designed for the stage. In an email exchange, she discussed the experience. They asked me in May. The fact they are both strong creative women was attractive to me, and the fact that Olga is one of the very few women composers working today, and the first to be asked to do a major opera in Vienna, was interesting for me too. And also I have always been interested in Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury circle and "Orlando" in particular because of its central concept of ignoring time and gender. When did you first discover Virginia Woolf? How does designing for an opera relate to designing a collection? I know you titled your men's collection "Act I" and the women's in September "Act II." Sadly I did not have enough time to start completely from zero. There were 36 main costumes for the principals, plus 106 others for the choruses and other groups. I accepted to do the costumes on condition that Olga agreed that I could use the theme of "Orlando" for the two Paris collections proceeding it, since that was the only way I could physically accomplish it in time. Some patterns I necessarily reused and reconceived from the archives, although everything had totally new fabrics. I basically did the whole thing in six weeks. What was your aim with the costumes? I just wanted to make something that was new, as always, even if just in the context of an opera. Clothes tell a story, and they express an emotion. Hopefully they do that too. Has your view of gender changed over the years? I have always been interested in the breaking down of barriers and accepted notions about anything, including gender. Fashion in general is one of the best means to express one's identity. People should be free to express themselves irrespective of the gender binaries and boundaries. Were you trying to break rules with the costumes? I am always trying to break the rules with everything because no really new strong creation ever didn't. Which rule in particular were you breaking here? Perhaps the custom or rule that the costumes should take into account the libretto and the staging? I knew very little about the scale of the production, only a list of the costumes I had to make. As there was no time (and I was not asked) to design the sets, I decided to create the costumes in the void without giving myself any constraints. I asked Olga if it was O.K. to leave the costumes to synergy and chance, and she agreed. So it was pure imagination? I did try to imagine how the various pieces would work onstage together. I took some account of what would be worn by people on the stage at the same time. Speaking of time: What role does time play in clothing? No role. Creation cannot be anchored in time. Will you do another opera? | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Anne Bass with Sokvannara Sar, a dancer she discovered in Cambodia, in 2010. She captured their friendship in "Dancing Across Borders," a documentary film she directed. Anne Hendricks Bass, the arts patron who helped raise the profile of ballet in the United States, harking back to an era when art was viewed as a vehicle for beauty and moral uplift, died on April 1 at her home in Manhattan. She was 78. Julian Lethbridge, her longtime partner, said the cause was ovarian cancer. Ms. Bass was well established in Fort Worth before she made her name in New York City, and her style as a patron was entirely her own. In contrast to boastful Texans with their McRanches or status hungry New Yorkers in pursuit of donor plaques, Ms. Bass was reticent and aloof. Slender with pale blue eyes, she armored herself with an apparent indifference to the less gracious aspects of life, which included her much publicized divorce from the oilman Sid Bass in the 1980s. She saved her energy for her interests, especially gardening and architecture, which she pursed with a seriousness that was almost alarming to those who knew her. "Anne was a research junkie," said Heather Watts, a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and one of Ms. Bass's closest friends. "If I told her I liked dahlias, I'd receive articles and books about dahlias." When Ms. Bass spoke of her "renovation" projects, she didn't mean a new stove and kitchen cabinets. Rather, she was consumed by the restoration of sprawling swaths of land, in both New England and in the Caribbean, drawn to a vision of a pristine naturalness that predated the arrival of cars and vacationers. Her country estate in northwest Connecticut, in Kent, fans out to cover about 1,000 acres. In addition to the obligatory emerald pastures and winding fieldstone walls, the estate embraces multiple gardens, a working farm and a herd of 97 Randall cows that evoke the bovine ghosts of centuries past. "We have some of her cows on our property, and they're eating the grass right now," Agnes Gund, her neighbor in South Kent and fellow philanthropist, said this week. "I admired Anne very much, especially what she did for the land." Her gardens, according to her family, are to be preserved, probably as some kind of land conservancy. "Nothing will be sold," Mr. Lethbridge said, "neither in Connecticut, nor Nevis or Texas." Ms. Bass herself danced up until the end of her life. Three times a week, she put on black leotard and tights and took a 90 minute morning class in advanced ballet. Her instructor for decades, the dance master Wilhelm Burmann, died only two days before her. Anne Hyatt Hendricks was born on Oct. 19, 1941, in Indianapolis, the oldest of four children. Her father, John Wesley Hendricks, was a surgeon and urologist. Her mother, Jean (Brown) Hendricks, was an avid sportswoman whose shelves were lined with golf trophies. Educated at Vassar College like her mother, she majored in Italian literature. She married Mr. Bass, her college sweetheart and billionaire heir to a Texas oil fortune, in 1965. As a young wife with two young daughters and living in Fort Worth, she and Mr. Bass, enamored of modernist architecture, commissioned a house from Paul Rudolph, an avatar of Brutalist design. The Bass marriage ended abruptly in 1986, when Mr. Bass left his wife for the socialite Mercedes Kellogg. The tabloids reveled in every detail of the romance, which reportedly began at a formal ball when Ms. Kellogg threw a dinner roll across the room at Mr. Bass. The divorce, in 1988, left Ms. Bass with a settlement estimated at 200 million. She was able to hold onto the house in Fort Worth, as well as a Manhattan pied a terre on Fifth Avenue and its lofty contents: paintings by Monet and Mark Rothko, and an original bronze cast of Degas's "Little 14 Year Old Dancer." In subsequent years, Ms. Bass became one of New York's most respected philanthropists, supporting, in large but unflashy ways, the New York Botanical Garden, the Museum of Modern Art and, especially, the New York Public Library and its Jerome Robbins Dance Division, which is housed at Lincoln Center and holds the largest archive on the history of dance in the world. Ms. Bass never remarried. She met Mr. Lethbridge, an accomplished artist six years her junior, in 1993. He specializes in large scale abstract paintings that feel rooted in nature, variously evoking winter tree branches, churning waves or rosy dawns. In addition to Mr. Lethbridge, Ms. Bass is survived by two daughters, Hyatt Bass, a novelist, and Samantha Bass, a photographer. As a board member, Ms. Bass was sometimes described as brusque and implacable. In 1987, as a longtime trustee of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, she was blamed for a high institutional turnover: Within a decade, three directors and an interim director had arrived and departed in short order. Even those who admired her exacting standards could be bothered by "the Bass body count," as Texas Monthly put it, referring to the arts administrators who had failed to cut it in her eyes. But to many her stubbornness came to seem like inspired foresight in regard to Peter Martins, the former head of City Ballet and its school. He left his position in 2018 amid accusations of sexual harassment and verbal abuse. As early as 2005, Ms. Bass had sounded a warning, resigning from the school's board and charging Mr. Martins, in a private letter, with gross misconduct. More specifically, she accused Mr. Martins of inflicting "cruel and excessive punishment" on a student whom he had expelled just a few weeks before graduation. The student, Sokvannara Sar, was a Cambodian prodigy whom Ms. Bass had brought to the New York five years earlier and sponsored at the School of American Ballet. Mr. Martins, she said, had made the student "an innocent and disposable casualty of boardroom politics in which he played no part." Mr. Martins has not publicly responded to the allegations. In the end, Mr. Sar graduated on schedule after a two week expulsion. He achieved fame in 2010, when Ms. Bass captured their friendship in "Dancing Across Borders," an upbeat documentary that marked her directorial debut. The film tracks Mr. Sar's unlikely journey to the United States from his native Siem Reap, where, in poverty, he had wandered the streets without shoes. Ms. Bass met him in 2000, at the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, where she saw him dance with a folk group and was awed by his charismatic stage presence. Four months later, Mr. Sar, a 16 year old who spoke no English, arrived in New York, a newcomer to ballet. Now 36, Mr. Sar is a soloist with the Carolina Ballet in Raleigh, N.C. Speaking by phone, he said that he had last spent extended time with Ms. Bass three years ago, when he recuperated from foot surgery on her Connecticut estate. He often awoke to find gardening books stacked on the table beside his bed. Mr. Sar said that Ms. Bass had seemed to enjoy nothing more than solitude. "Anne loved to be just by herself, in her boots," he said, "picking the weeds out of the garden." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Brettschneider's book, addressed to a presidential aspirant, begins with the question "What do you need to know to be president?" The answer: "Most of all, you need to know the U.S. Constitution." This framing is one of the book's great virtues: It moves the focus away from the too common and too narrow question of what the courts might force a president to do in the name of the Constitution to the more capacious question of how a president herself should understand her constitutional role. For instance, Brettschneider devotes an early chapter to an examination of how presidents should use their bully pulpit not an issue the courts are likely to involve themselves in, and yet one of the most consequential parts of the modern presidency. "There are things Americans should hear from their president, and also things they should not," he writes. Specifically, "You should never use the bully pulpit to speak in a way that is contrary to the values of the Constitution." Indeed, Brettschneider's core claim is that the Constitution embodies values, not just prohibitions and commands, and a constitutionally conscientious president has an affirmative duty to promote those values, among them equality under the law, respect for individual rights, limited political power and political deliberativeness. These are excellent values to be sure, but our constitutional tradition also embodies much uglier ones, like white supremacy, patriarchy, xenophobia and militarism. How does Brettschneider pick out the constitutional traditions to which future presidents should be faithful? The answer appears to come via a kind of Whig history according to which the Constitution has always embodied liberal ideals and has simply been working itself pure for the last two and a quarter centuries. Thus, Brettschneider, a professor of political science at Brown University, criticizes Republicans' late 20th century "Southern strategy" as inconsistent with American constitutional values, rather than recognizing the messier and sadder truth that it was a choice to embrace one grand constitutional narrative, that of white supremacism, over another, more egalitarian one. But Brettschneider's Whiggery also comes out in myriad smaller ways, as when he says that a couple of early 20th century Supreme Court cases on the fireability of federal officers give rise to a coherent constitutional principle, rather than seeing them for what they in fact were: disjointed attempts to respond to the emergence of the modern administrative state. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Among the planned sites for Mr. Ai's project are Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, the Cooper Union building in Manhattan and Doris C. Freedman Plaza, at the tourist heavy southeast corner of Central Park. The title is a reference to Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall," which uses the line "Good fences make good neighbors" as a mysterious refrain. Mr. Ai, who lived in New York during the 1980s, said in an email that this work is a reaction to "a retreat from the essential attitude of openness" in American politics. "When the Berlin Wall fell, there were 11 countries with border fences and walls," Mr. Ai said. "By 2016, that number had increased to 70. We are witnessing a rise in nationalism, an increase in the closure of borders, and an exclusionary attitude towards migrants and refugees, the victims of war and the casualties of globalization." Other recent artwork by Mr. Ai has similarly dealt with heated current events, such as the exhibition "Laundromat," which included thousands of castoff items from a refugee camp, at Deitch Projects last fall. And in June, "Hansel Gretel," a surveillance themed installation created with the architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, will open at the Park Avenue Armory. "Ai Weiwei pours his heart and soul into art that asks big questions and is not constrained by artistic and social traditions," Chirlane McCray, the first lady of New York, said in a statement. With "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors," she added, "he challenges us to think about the function and rationale for a common barrier. Given that the immigrant experience is at the core of what binds us as New Yorkers, the exhibition compels us to question the rhetoric and policies that seek to divide us." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Are die offs occurring more often? To the casual reader, it can certainly seem that reports emerge on a regular basis of thousands of animals of a species suddenly dying. The latest victims are common murres in the Northeast Pacific. They have been dying for months, but estimates of the toll jumped sharply when David Irons, a retired United States Fish and Wildlife Service biologist walking a beach in Whittier, Alaska, found close to 8,000 dead birds in early January. Since then, scouting teams in boats from Fish and Wildlife, the United States Geological Survey and the Prince William Sound Science Center counted another 10,000 to 12,000 dead murres on beaches and in the open water of Prince William Sound, said Kathy Kuletz, a seabird specialist for the Alaska region with the Fish and Wildlife Service. As with most die offs, theories are close at hand. Murres weigh about two pounds and live in large groups, diving to feed on fish like juvenile pollock. In winter, they usually gather near the continental shelf, and they need to eat a lot to keep going, up to half their body weight in a day. There are more than two million of them in Alaskan waters alone. But last year was not good for them. The birds are emaciated and seem to be starving, according to the National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin, which has found no evidence of disease or toxins that could cause such deaths. When there are changes in water temperature, as has been occurring in the Northeast Pacific, food fish may disappear. Still, this die off has surprised experts, because it has been going on for around a year and it covers such a vast area. Most die offs in the past have been more concentrated in time and space, said John F. Piatt, a seabird expert with the United States Geological Survey in Anchorage. The effects of the current El Nino, a change in ocean currents, also have not yet reached Alaska. If history is any guide, El Nino means trouble to murres. "I still don't think we've seen the worst," said Dr. Piatt, who said it was likely that 100,000 or more birds had died and speculated that if the worst happened, the deaths could reach into the many hundreds of thousands. A tougher question for researchers is trying to understand how one population crash fits in with die offs of other animals and whether die offs have been increasing in recent years. Certainly, there are remarkable recent events, like the death of half of all saiga antelope last year. And moose, bees and dolphins off the East Coast have also had die offs in recent years. Samuel Fey, a researcher in biology at Yale University, was moved by news media attention of die offs to research whether they were really increasing over time. "These individual events garner so much attention," he said. "They have shock and awe value." So he and Stephanie Carlson, a specialist in environmental science at the University of California, Berkeley, and a group of other researchers put together a database of more than 700 such events worldwide in 2,400 animal populations dating to the late 19th century. Their analysis, published a year ago, showed that the magnitude of die offs since about 1940 had increased. But in terms of frequency, all they could say was that reports of die offs were certainly increasing. They could not say whether the reports represented a real increase or just increased attention because, as Dr. Fey said last week after reports of the murre deaths, there is no central database of big die offs of birds, fish, frogs and other animals. He is, however, working to remedy this with Dr. Julie Lenoch, a veterinarian and deputy director of the National Wildlife Health Center of the geological survey in Madison, Wis. The center does necropsies on wild animals sent to it by agencies like Fish and Wildlife and keeps track of what it finds. But, Dr. Lenoch said, "We only test samples we receive." And because that is their only lens on the phenomenon of die offs, they are handicapped in trying to answer bigger questions. "Understanding both the cause and consequence of animal die offs is critically important," she said, because disease may be involved, like rabies, West Nile or avian influenza, that could spread to farm animals, domestic animals or humans. Toxic chemicals may be a cause, and those can affect other animals and humans. Or changes in climate or weather may be involved, and recognizing patterns could help prepare for future events and understand natural systems better. Some databases exist now. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has one for oceanic wildlife. And the geological survey has a historical database of animal die offs called Whispers that went online about a year ago. Separate databases are not adequate, however, Dr. Lenoch said. So she and Dr. Fey are hoping to have a meeting of representatives of state and federal agencies and others involved in animal care to begin work on creating a central database. For the murres, there is nothing to be done other than observe, study and record the deaths, with an eye to understanding what they say about the effects of changes in the ocean. The birds have a great capacity to rebound, said Dr. Piatt. From 1984 to 1985, he said, 95 percent of the common murres in the Barents Sea off Russia and Norway disappeared, apparently because of overfishing of capelin. Today, there are more of them there than ever. On the other hand, when murres near the Farallon Islands off California had a population crash in 1983, some colonies almost vanished, and population growth was very slow after the die off. "Murres can rebound," Dr. Piatt said, "but sometimes, they don't." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Yet another proposal for winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and overhauling the nation's housing finance system will be put before Congress on Thursday, this one by Representative Maxine Waters of California, the ranking Democratic member of the Financial Services Committee. The major distinction of Ms. Waters's proposal is that it would make the mortgage lending system more like a public utility, by creating a co op of lenders that would be the sole issuer of mortgage backed securities guaranteed by the government. Such a system would significantly differ from those proposed by the major bills in the Senate, which would allow banks and bond guarantors to participate independently in the market. Both Ms. Waters's proposal and the Senate ones would establish a new federal regulator. The Waters bill would require private backers to take the first 5 percent loss before the government guarantee kicks in. By contrast, the latest Senate bill, by the Senate Banking Committee's chairman, Tim Johnson, a Democrat from South Dakota, and Mike Crapo of Idaho, the committee's ranking Republican, requires private capital to take the first 10 percent loss. Some economists say that during the housing crisis, Fannie and Freddie, which were formally taken over by the government in 2008 and now back the overwhelming majority of home mortgages, sustained approximately a 4 percent loss, but that number is in dispute. Setting the right levels of loss is a balancing act: The higher the loss requirement for the system's private backers, the more expensive mortgages would be for home buyers, but the less vulnerable taxpayers would be in another crisis. Ms. Waters's proposal would set the same guidelines for minimum down payments 3.5 percent for a first time buyer and 5 percent for everyone else as the Johnson Crapo bill, but would allow the regulator to lower those requirements at its discretion. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Credit...Todd Heisler/The New York Times Goodbye, New York. Adam Moss Is Leaving the Magazine He Has Edited for 15 Years. Adam Moss, whose visual savvy and ear for the zeitgeist made him one of the leading magazine editors of his generation, said on Tuesday that he would step down from New York magazine, his canvas for the past 15 years. The departure of Mr. Moss, the longest serving editor in chief in the title's half century history, is another signal moment for an industry that has been transformed by the digital revolution. His last day will be in March, and in an interview he said he had no immediate plans beyond a long delayed vacation. "I've been going full throttle for 40 years; I want to see what my life is like with less ambition," Mr. Moss said, sipping coffee last week in the kitchen of his West Village home. "I'm older than the staff. I'm older than the readers. I just want to do something new." The chief executive of New York Media, Pamela Wasserstein, is expected to announce a successor in the coming days. She and Mr. Moss both described the decision as his own. Wiry and still youthful at 61, Mr. Moss is less of a household name than gregarious counterparts like Graydon Carter, formerly of Vanity Fair, and Anna Wintour of Vogue. But his editorial ethos curious, skeptical, attuned to the pleasures of consumerism and the anxieties of urban life permanently reshaped several of the country's most prominent publications. Colleagues praise Mr. Moss's impact, and a sampling of New York covers illustrates it. At The New York Times Magazine, which he edited for five years starting in 1998, he created reader favorites like the Ethicist, the Questions For column and the annual "Lives They Lived" memorial issue, fixtures that have long outlasted his tenure. Before that, he was instrumental in creating the Styles section of The Times, introducing a cheeky and conversational tone to the paper's often staid pages. Among his innovations was the Vows wedding column, which he imported from his previous publication, the short lived and long celebrated 7 Days. But it was New York magazine the publication he worshiped as a teenager on Long Island, dreaming of a life in Manhattan where Mr. Moss's vision was fully expressed. He collected 40 National Magazine Awards; his art critic, Jerry Saltz, won a Pulitzer Prize; and he published some of the most memorable magazine covers since midcentury Esquire. (Think Bernard Madoff as the Joker, or a grinning Eliot Spitzer with the word "BRAIN" pointing toward his groin.) "It couldn't have been more simple," Mr. Moss said of the 2008 Spitzer cover, which he called "probably the best" of his tenure. "Everybody just got it immediately, and wanted to keep looking at it." Skeptics assumed New York, which the Wasserstein family bought in 2004, would wither in the online age. Created in the 1960s as a Sunday supplement to The New York Herald Tribune, it published Jimmy Breslin, Gloria Steinem, Gail Sheehy and Tom Wolfe, and is credited as being the prototype of a city weekly. The magazine cut its frequency to every other week in 2014, but during his tenure, Mr. Moss created five online properties that attract roughly 47 million readers a month. Vulture, an entertainment site, and The Cut, which focuses on women's issues, have national followings. The Strategist, an e commerce site, started in 2016, and the magazine recently instituted a pay wall. "He's a type A hippie," Ms. Wasserstein said by telephone. "He's obsessive. He's a perfectionist. But he's joyful." By his account, Mr. Moss was also restless. Two weeks after his 60th birthday, in 2017, he shattered a hip in a bicycle accident. The recovery took longer than he expected. "That gave me a certain perspective on the fragility of things," Mr. Moss said. "I had this kind of like 'Whoa, harmonic convergence of the universe trying to tell me something' moment." And while he never shied from the business side of the job, his management duties were outweighing the thrill of putting out a magazine. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. "In a lot of ways, it doesn't feel like the same publication or the same job," Mr. Moss said. "I get reports back about what sold at what price point and all that stuff, and I think, 'Wait, really, this is what I do for a living?' You do spend less time worrying about getting a story right." Mr. Moss told Ms. Wasserstein in September that he would step down in six months. She declined to comment on the succession. Internal candidates could include Stella Bugbee, the editor in chief of The Cut, and Jared Hohlt, a senior Moss deputy who oversees the print magazine. "I don't want to manage. I don't want to be a boss," Mr. Moss said. "My basic hope is that I can find creative projects where I don't have to run anything." Like the magazine auteurs who came before him, Mr. Moss was something of an outsider to New York. He was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Hewlett, N.Y., a town he called "'Goodbye, Columbus' nouveau riche." His mother, a psychologist, tested Rorschach inkblots on Mr. Moss and his brother; the blots are now framed on the wall of the editor's kitchen. Did that have an effect? "Oh, my God, yes," Mr. Moss said, laughing. "But we won't go into all that." From age 12, he was spending weekend days in Manhattan, commuting 45 minutes by train. "I was in New York every single second I could," he said. After graduating from Oberlin College, he landed a job as a copy boy at The Times, where he ran errands for the executive editor, A. M. Rosenthal; a secretary instructed him to avoid eye contact. Determined to break into magazines, Mr. Moss took a night shift so that he could intern at Rolling Stone during the day. He would come home at 2 a.m. "I didn't want to sleep," he recalled. "I was so happy." He became an editor at Esquire and was soon deemed a wunderkind, an image aided by his slight figure and long locks. Spy magazine would later call him "New York's most huggable editor for hire." In 1988, at age 30, he persuaded the owner of The Village Voice to hire him as the editor of a new weekly, 7 Days, where he published future stars like Joan Acocella, Jesse Green, Louis Menand and Peter Schjeldahl. The Moss formula was apparent even then. Tiny type covered the pages with factoids and other ephemera, a precursor of New York's Approval Matrix. A guide to chic can openers "The most popular can opener at D. F. Sanders, 386 W. Broadway, is the designy European made model by Mike and Kremmel" resembles the Strategist shopping section in Mr. Moss's current magazine. If Mr. Carter's Vanity Fair concerned itself with the vicissitudes of the power elite, Mr. Moss zeroed in on the preoccupations of his upper middle class readers. Which school should I send my children to? Where should I eat? What's the next hot neighborhood? What should I buy? The Times hired him as a consultant in 1991, and he became one of a handful of openly gay journalists who insisted on recognition in a newsroom that wasn't always open to them. The Sunday magazine became glossier under his guidance, with name brand journalists like Andrew Sullivan, Michael Pollan and Lynn Hirschberg. Mr. Moss's neurotic style has led to accusations of standoffishness, and he can be a taskmaster. In the interview, he warmly recalled his staff's working until 6 a.m. to finish a Rube Goldbergesque chart of 40 years' worth of "All My Children" plotlines. He prefers slim oxford shirts, jeans and no necktie, and indulges a single cigarette each day, saying, "It does a pretty good job of helping me focus." A workaholic, he eschewed the bon vivant lifestyle embraced by other top editors. "I'm super bad at small talk," Mr. Moss said. "I really like the work, and I didn't really like all the stuff that came with it. It's nice to get a nice table at a restaurant, but owning a restaurant is not what I wanted." Speaking in the house he shares with his husband, Daniel Kaizer, Mr. Moss seemed melancholy but decisive about his impending move. He chose his words deliberately and laughed about his discomfort in interviews. "I hate doing this," he said at one point. "I'm incredibly nervous all the time." He was more comfortable discussing his work. Asked for highlights, he said his "favorite issue of any magazine I ever did anywhere" was the "Encyclopedia of 9/11," New York's 10 year retrospective of the Sept. 11 attacks, which won a National Magazine Award. He also cited a 2015 feature, "Cosby: The Women," which won a George Polk Award for investigative journalism and featured a striking image of 35 women who accused the comedian Bill Cosby of assault. "It's a cover that told the entire story with one image," Mr. Moss said. "You get it in one second, and yet it has many levels." After decades in the industry, Mr. Moss made clear that he would like to take a breath. He has taken up art as a hobby "I'm a tenth rate painter," he said, gesturing at a thicket of brushes and expects to spend the summer in Provincetown, Mass. "I know that it's the right decision," he said. "But I have never not done this. Not as an adult. What is my life on April 1? I don't know." He laughed. "I'm sure I'm going to be depressed for months." So why not you know stay? "Because I think I'll come out in an interesting place on the other side," Mr. Moss said. "I actually do really think it's better for the publication. It will be good to have a new person in my job. Fifteen years is a long time." "I don't wake up obsessed every morning, and I used to," he added. "And I think, actually, you kind of need to be obsessed." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Note: The production in this article has been canceled as part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic. When an immersive performance of Claudio Monteverdi's "Vespro Della Beata Vergine" ("Vespers for the Blessed Virgin") comes to the Park Avenue Armory this month, it may not be so different from how the piece was first presented in Europe four centuries ago. "Opera houses did not yet exist really, so the composers were often writing for reception halls, like in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence," said the French conductor Raphael Pichon, who will be making his U.S. debut in the production, which opens on March 21 in a similarly vast space: the Armory's Wade Thompson Drill Hall. Behind the staging is Pierre Audi, the Armory's artistic director, who first presented the "Vespers" for the Holland Festival in Amsterdam three years ago. (It is a coproduction with the Dutch National Opera, which Mr. Audi used to also run.) And at its heart is a giant, haunting sculpture by the Belgian artist Berlinde de Bruyckere. This isn't Mr. Audi's first outing with the works of Monteverdi. He directed a celebrated cycle of the composer's three major operas "L'Orfeo," "Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria" and "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" in 1990, and in 2017 set his sights on the large scale "Vespers" to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi's birth. "It's not an opera like all his other pieces, but it has theater in the sound of it," Mr. Audi said in an interview. "The music was meant to surround the audience, come from different balconies, different floors, different levels. It engulfs the audience in its rituals, and we wanted to imagine a staging that would give this feeling of immersive sound back to the listener." In Amsterdam, the "Vespers" were staged in the Gashouder a massive, cylindrical former gasometer that now serves as a cultural venue and a nightclub. (It's also where Mr. Audi presented "Aus Licht," his abridgment of Karlheinz Stockhausen's seven opera cycle "Licht," at last year's Holland Festival.) The space captured his and Mr. Pichon's imagination instantly. They envisioned a performance that would create a sense of secular ritual "not so much a staging," Mr. Audi said, "but a kind of theatrical event." They invited Ms. de Bruyckere to contribute her enormous wax sculpture "Kreupelhout Cripplewood" (2013), which was unveiled at the Belgian pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2013. The work later toured, with a stop including Hauser Wirth in New York in 2016. "Vespers" will bring it back to the city as a nearly 60 foot long centerpiece for the production. Ms. de Bruyckere said she based "Kreupelhout" on a downed elm tree she discovered in a field near her country home in Burgundy, France. It reminded her of a wounded body more specifically, of Saint Sebastian, who as it happens was revered in Monteverdi's Venice as a protector against the plague. Completed in wax with pale hints of pale green, pink and red, the sculpture resembles a massive, severed limb. In the context of the "Vespers," it seems like a modern relic, the skeleton of some departed saint. After working together on Pascal Dusapin's 2015 opera "Penthesilea" at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Mr. Audi and Ms. de Bruyckere were eager for a reunion. And, she said, "Monteverdi is really my favorite music, the music I love the most." Her sculptures regularly take up themes of brutality, suffering, mourning and tenderness. But, Ms. de Bruyckere said, "I always want my work to give some comfort." As part of the "Vespers," "Kreupelhout" functions as an allegorical device, disclosing new levels of meaning in time with the stateliness and grandeur of Monteverdi's score. "When you stay in the space throughout the 'Maria Vespers,' you will see more and more layers in the sculpture," Ms. de Bruyckere said, "you will have time to feel what the music is doing to the sculpture and what the sculpture is doing to the music." Alongside Ms. de Bruyckere's sculpture, Monteverdi's work acquires a new depth of contemplative majesty, its peaceful and melancholy strains evoking reflection on a modern world that, in recent years, has become increasingly fragmented and imperiled. It's a fitting addition to the Armory's preoccupation with existential themes lately, in productions like "Judgment Day" and coming stagings of "Hamlet" and the "Oresteia." "Sometimes," Mr. Audi said, "what we need is to go to the theater or to a communal event in which we can somehow experience two hours of spiritual beauty, force ourselves to stop, and try to believe in something better than what we have to deal with in the world right now." In Mr. Audi's staging, Ensemble Pygmalion the period choral and instrumental group led by Mr. Pichon moves throughout the space, adopting different positions in relation to the audience. They advance, withdraw and approach in pairs and small groups; they sit, recline on the floor and seem to search. Their flood of sound charts a ceremonial choreography, creating what Mr. Audi described as a "theater of sound," "music in space" not a stage setting, but an aural one. Monteverdi's writing in the "Vespers" is organized around a dazzling array of what, for him, were old and new forms: hymn, Gregorian chant, polyphony, operatic monody, arioso and embellished virtuoso singing. Monteverdi poured all of his latest technical innovations into the work, having by that time completed one of the world's first operas, "L'Orfeo," in 1607. (The opening fanfare of the "Vespers" is lifted directly from that opera's introductory toccata, establishing a continuity of mood and method between the two works.) Given its passionate intensity and structural variety, the "Vespers" pose unusual challenges for performers. "The piece asks for special virtuosity from the singers, for total investment all the time," Mr. Pichon said. "It's really performance like sports are performance." Monteverdi, he added, is "sometimes writing in really archaic styles from the Renaissance, and then two bars later it's really modern and he's experimenting with new things." That adventurousness is what Mr. Audi finds especially thrilling about in the music. "It's amazing in 2020 to appreciate the freedom that a composer could have and dared to have at that time," he said. "And, for a Baroque chorus, it's one of the biggest tests to be able to master a piece like this." The era in which Monteverdi was composing was one of the most exciting in music history, Mr. Pichon said, because it was "like a laboratory," adding that it was "a unique moment when all the composers of the late Renaissance were looking not only for new forms, languages, new poetic and philosophical aspects, but also to understand space in a different way." Ensemble Pygmalion has garnered critical praise for its interpretations of Rameau and Bach, as well as contemporary music commissioned for period instruments. Mr. Pichon has also worked with some of Europe's most intrepid and renowned stage directors, including Katie Mitchell, Simon McBurney and Romeo Castellucci. At 35, Mr. Pichon is young in the field of conductors who have specialized in period ensemble performance. Nodding to the early music revolution of the 1970s and '80s, he named Nikolaus Harnoncourt, William Christie and Rene Jacobs among his influences. "I think now, for our generation, there is a kind of responsibility, because the legacy is huge," Mr. Pichon said. He is less concerned with questions of historical authenticity as such and more with the power of the sound his ensemble can create. And, true to this legacy, his goal to demonstrate that "using the proper instruments for every work creates something stronger, something more essential, something that we still need." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
SMOKETOWN The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance By Mark Whitaker Illustrated. 404 pp. Simon Schuster. 30. In the spring of 1910, not long after Robert L. Vann had passed his bar exam and opened a law office in downtown Pittsburgh, he had a meeting that would forever alter his fate. Vann had become a lawyer so he could pursue his dream of arguing criminal cases, but he had mostly been spending his time processing wills and property claims. Now five African American investors had come to him with a proposition: They wanted to retain his legal services to incorporate their newspaper, The Pittsburgh Courier. It didn't take long before what was considered a little "pamphlet" evolved into a thriving publication and Vann became a business partner. Within a year he was the editor. The Courier that Vann created and led for the rest of his life serves as a sort of crucible for the many events and personalities in Mark Whitaker's engrossing "Smoketown." Whitaker, a distinguished journalist and author of a memoir, "My Long Trip Home," as well as an ill timed biography of Bill Cosby, profiles a number of notable black figures from Pittsburgh and explores the intersection of their lives from the 1920s to the 1950s. He makes no attempt to compare this era with the Harlem Renaissance, though many of these remarkable people were part of that glorious period that lasted a little more than a decade, from the early 1920s to the mid 30s. Each personality, in separate chapters, provides an entree into a major "Smoketown" social, political or cultural development, be it sports, entertainment, the media or the arts. Whitaker opens with a riveting scene featuring the great heavyweight champion Joe Louis. He delivers a vivid description of Louis's victory over Max Schmeling in the summer of 1938, which avenged an earlier defeat. Louis, Whitaker writes, "drilled a right into the German's jaw and a second into his midsection. A yelp resembling that of a stuck pig, a sound Joe remembered from his boyhood on an Alabama farm, rose from his opponent's throat." 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. Although Louis was not a native of Pittsburgh, by the '30s his ascendance was due largely to coverage from the sportswriters at The Courier. Similarly, the reporters played a critical role in chronicling the rise of Jackie Robinson and baseball's integration. And no reporter was more significant in this respect than Wendell Smith. All during the grueling period when Robinson was breaking the color barrier in the major leagues, Smith was his companion, helping him deal with the daily slights and indignities. More than just a journalist on the story, Smith was counselor, bodyguard and press agent. Whitaker also looks at Gus Greenlee, a pioneer in the Negro National League and the owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords; Billy Strayhorn, the composer and alter ego to Duke Ellington; the singer and bandleader Billy Eckstine; and the noted playwright August Wilson, all of whom were natives of the city and whose stories and exploits were often reported on in The Courier. In addition to this focus on the renowned, Whitaker brings in a number of ordinary folks from East Liberty, Oakland, Homewood and the Hill District to give "Smoketown" the ballast of quotidian voices and memories. There is also mention here of the city's black nationalist tradition and even a discussion of the political themes in Wilson's plays, especially "Radio Golf" and "Jitney." Whitaker devotes a full chapter to the women at The Courier, including Daisy Lampkin, a society matron and N.A.A.C.P. leader who became the newspaper's vice president; the secretary Edna Chappell; the gossip columnist Julia Bumry Jones; Hazel Garland, a onetime maid who would become the paper's editor in chief; and the redoubtable Evelyn Cunningham, who ventured south to cover the burgeoning civil rights movement when she thought her Pittsburgh assignments weren't challenging enough. Cunningham reported early on the courage of Rosa Parks and the accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. These contributions, Whitaker writes, "foreshadowed strategies and tactics to come: the broadening of the movement to the cause of voting rights; the search for sympathetic, press friendly victims who could inspire blacks and stir the conscience of whites." "For Evelyn Cunningham," Whitaker continues, "it was also the beginning of a new life on the road, one that would make her one of the first journalists, black or white, to arrive at the next great battlegrounds of the movement and to introduce the country to two of its towering figures." Cunningham's tireless dedication and insightful reportage exemplified The Courier's social and political commitment. A decade earlier, during World War II, the paper's "Double V Campaign" had tied victory abroad with a second victory at home, against racism and discrimination a stance that put the paper far ahead of the American government. On this phase of The Courier's history, Whitaker's lucid prose is particularly commanding, and you wish he had done more looking ahead to our own era and its blind spots, as when he notes that in the film "Saving Private Ryan," the "black soldiers who operated antiaircraft decoy balloons over Omaha Beach on D Day were nowhere to be seen." "Smoketown" brilliantly offers us a chance to see this other black renaissance and spend time with the many luminaries who sparked it as well as the often unheralded journalists who covered it, including P. L. Prattis, John C. Clarke, Frank Bolden, Billy Rowe and the photographer Teenie Harris. It's thanks to such a gifted storyteller as Whitaker that this forgotten chapter of American history can finally be told in all its vibrancy and glory. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
New England's dominant running performance came at the end of an uneasy week of practice, a time when the offensive line had to be rebuilt because of an injury to a crucial starter. Moreover, running back James White, a team captain, missed his second game since the death of his father in a car accident in which his mother was also a passenger. The Patriots were playing without starting center David Andrews, who is sidelined with a thumb injury. Pro Bowl left guard Joe Thuney took Andrews's place and handled the snapping and blocking duties with aplomb. Other parts of the offensive line were rearranged as well, including considerable playing time for the rookie Justin Herron at tackle. "The offensive line, we had some moving parts in there shuffled things around a little bit," Patriots Coach Bill Belichick said. But as a bottom line guy, Belichick also had this observation on the true measure of an offensive line's worth: "We didn't go backward. We didn't have a lot of negative plays. Then when we had a chance to break a tackle, the backs made a lot of yards on their own." Several of the Patriots said White was on their minds Sunday and that they were dedicating the victory to him. "We just want to reward him and put him in good spirits," Newton said. "And if he did watch the game, we're excited like heck to hopefully get him back here soon. We've been praying for him." After the Patriots' uneven start, two scores in the final minute of the first half brought some life to a what had been a desultory game. Continuing to mix a variety of running plays and short, precise passes, the Patriots put together a 12 play, 86 yard drive that had them ahead, 13 3, with 42 seconds left in the second quarter. The last play of the possession was a swing pass to Burkhead who eluded several Raiders with a powerful move upfield then dove over three defenders at the goal line for a touchdown. Taking over at its own 39 yard line with 34 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Las Vegas charged down the field with the benefit of a 28 yard pass interference penalty. A 1 yard touchdown pass from Derek Carr to tight end Foster Moreau cut the Patriots' lead to 13 10 with six seconds left in the half. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
"It's always a good year for clouds," said Melyssa Wright, a meteorologist living in York, England, and member 23,652 of the Cloud Appreciation Society. The group's mission is to "fight 'blue sky thinking' wherever we find it." Clouds, their manifesto says, are not signs of negativity and gloom, but rather "nature's poetry" and "the most egalitarian of her displays." The Cloud Appreciation Society was founded by Gavin Pretor Pinney in 2005. Its tens of thousands of members around the world communicate online via a "Cloud Forum," and they regularly convene at "Sky Gatherings," which feature group expeditions, lectures on cloud related art and science and even performances of cloud themed music. They also submit photographs to the Cloudspotter app to earn stars and badges for properly identifying the clouds they spot. This year, the society collected nearly 50,000 submissions. All the photographs included here were taken this year and submitted to either the app or the online gallery. Melyssa Wright is a meteorologist for Britain's national weather service: "I actually get paid to go out and look at the sky." Wright recalled some formations that struck her recently. "I saw a good halo this year" a bright, rainbow colored circle that appears around the sun under certain conditions. "If you aren't a cloud spotter, you probably don't think they exist," she said. Kym Druitt, a public relations consultant in Australia, particularly loves the view from an airplane. "You really sense well my sense is you're really part of something," she said. "You're in the sky! How extraordinary we're in this time." Elise Bloustein, a divorce lawyer in New York, tries to post a cloud every day. She has submitted over 8,000 photos to the app since she signed up in June 2016. "There are boring days like today," she said, "and then there are ecstatic days where I post a lot, and I must just drive them crazy, I assume, because I'm just falling in love with so many clouds." For Bloustein, learning the categories of clouds helped her to spot them. "You see them more accurately," she said, "you see more." For other spotters, technical identification is less important. One of the most memorable clouds of the year for Geoff Thornton, a retired systems analyst, was one that resembled a baby deer. And on a trip to Las Vegas, Thornton was able to capture a cloud that looked like a cocktail glass, complete with stirrer. "Mostly it's the cumulus clouds that make shapes and things you can identify, that look like animals or something else," he said. The more variation in the landscape, the more variety in the cloudscape. Being in Britain, with its relatively even terrain, means Thornton has to travel for better odds of glimpsing them. "If you live in a country where you've got a lot of mountains," he said wistfully, "you've got more chance at getting one than in the middle of flatland." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
"I hate being tan," said almost immediately, standing in the lobby of a Midtown hotel. His olive complexion, the unwanted result of a vacation in Hawaii with his extended family, was startling not unlike seeing Santa Claus, if he suddenly lost 80 pounds. Since the 1989 debut of Pavement, the curious indie rock band Mr. Malkmus led, he's been an antihero for the brainy, self conscious and fearful the indoor kids, in other words. His music, even since Pavement melted into entropy in 1999, has been jarring and opaque, defined by lyrics that circle around homonyms and puns, or break from generational observations into non sequiturs. He was raised in central California, in a city he recalls as mundane and obsessed with real estate. At the University of Virginia, he met bohemians for the first time, and heard experimental, absurdist bands like the Butthole Surfers and Can, which led him to move to New York after graduation and start Pavement. The group was frequently crowned, by critics and other elitists, the most important indie rock band of the '90s. These days, Mr. Malkmus, who is 51, lives in Portland, Ore., where he and his wife, the sculptor Jessica Jackson Hutchins, are raising two children. He and the Jicks, the band he formed after Pavement, are about to release their seventh album, "Sparkle Hard," which is both tenderly melodic and provocative, especially on "Bike Lane," where Mr. Malkmus contrasts bourgeois concerns about transportation alternatives with the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody. Over a brunch of avocado toast, he talked affably about his "terrible" singing voice, the Captain Tennille and why he rarely discusses his family. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. Never miss a pop music story: Sign up for our weekly newsletter, Louder. No one has the singing voice they wish they had. Who do you wish you sounded more like? Back in the day, I was a bit boyish, a little yelpy. I can't even believe I made it this far with the singing, to be honest. My first band, we played at a wedding and then we got a board tape and it had my voice really loud. Then the drummer's like, "Why don't you just not sing anymore? This sounds terrible." And I was like, "O.K." Laughs But then my voice got a tiny bit deeper. And I heard the Velvet Underground. I heard a lot of bands that couldn't sing that well. I was like, I guess I can do it too. I'd like to have a really pure voice, like the Radiohead guy Thom Yorke . Usually it'd be women: Cat Power in her prime, or Sandy Denny, or, obviously, Beyonce. Who doesn't wish you could be a badass like that? What is it about '70s soft rock that still appeals to you? It was just implanted at the right time, like a virus in my code. It's the music I remember growing up. Like, the easygoing melodies and the chest hair all the hair everywhere and the productions are good. Hard rock came later, with adolescence, when I wanted to individuate and find my cohorts. Before that, I'm still in the family. It's music that sounded like family, that my parents liked too. For some reason, male female duos were big: the Carpenters, and Captain Tennille. I loved them. I saw a mother in Toni Tennille like, a perfect mom. She was a mother that I wanted to make love to , but I didn't know how to yet. You don't talk very much about your family. What's your dad like? He is ... pauses I want to be kind here, because he might read this. He was born in pre Hollywood Los Angeles, when it was, like, "There Will Be Blood" type industrialists fighting for water rights. He's politically conservative. He married a woman who's softer, so he interacted with some softer, California in the '70s things, like EST and, probably, trying weed. But I'd say the main things he's into are golf, watching sports, and himself, for better or worse. Laughs Did you ever meet Mark E. Smith of the Fall, who died in January? No. He played at a Pavement reunion show in England in 2010 . I didn't know if I should talk to him. I'd have to unpack all this stuff: "Hi, I'm the Pavement guy who, like, ripped off three of your songs, really intentionally, on one of my albums, and then didn't do it ever again." That was the only time I got close enough to say hi, and I was too shy. You recorded a cover of Jimmy Buffett's song "Margaritaville" for Will Arnett's Netflix series "Flaked." Any idea if Buffett likes your version? No. I did that song as a personal favor to Will, for his "passion project." That's what you call it when it doesn't sell. As soon as I saw it referred to as a "passion project," I knew it was, like, over. Laughs Sad that passion means death in entertainment. I'll cover just about anything, except for a Kid Rock song. For a few years, you didn't play Pavement songs with the Jicks, and then you started playing them. What changed? It's a little like when we were talking about childhood and individuating. When you first break up from a band, you don't want to take your songs with you. It's disrespectful to your old bandmates, and to your new ones. Also, I was trying to keep it special the Pavement brand, as we say today and keep it of the '90s. If people wanted to feel that vibe, they'd have to consult the records or YouTube. Now I feel like that time is past too. "Eruption" by Van Halen . Anything by Eddie, when he's on his game. He makes it look effortless, makes it look fun, and he's a little quirky in his guitar choices. I also like George Harrison. I often steal from him. Can you describe yourself when you were 25? Really skinny. Let's see, 1991? Nerdy for sure. No game with the ladies or men. Zero game. I have a belly now, and I'm not as nerdy, and I've got tons of game, now that I'm married. Laughs I didn't expect the turns that life takes. I didn't expect to be here, still talking about music. I moved to New York to get a job. I had a Jos. A. Bank gray suit that my parents gave me, so I could go to Wall Street, or something. I thought I could work in a publishing house. When all else fails, you can become a professor no disrespect to professors. Were you a jerk? In a Stereogum oral history, you said people may have thought you were aloof. I don't think I was so bad then. Still, no one liked me. There were some definite role models of jerkdom back then, like the producer Steve Albini. The whole fanzine culture, Gerard Cosloy the editor of Conflict , was snarky and sarcastic, like Mad Magazine gone hipster, with music. And there were really bitchy bands, like Royal Trux. I was a product of my time. I've always been attracted to negative influences I thought that meant you were smart. It was almost like being in a tribe. It was kind of brutal, because men have to develop their hierarchies. And that brought out negative behavior. But really, when I smoked weed, I was a nice boy. Anyone who smokes pot is usually a nice person. For years, people have talked about your songs as though they're puzzles, full of clues and allusions, but always avoiding a clear meaning. Implicit in that is a belief that you know what the songs are about, but you're keeping it hidden. Is that the case? Definitely not. A lot of things come out and I don't know where they came from. It's all built on your experiences, and poetry, and taste what you keep. It's all cumulative. It's intentional in that way. Me, me, me, me telling you how I feel, that's not going to be the kind of thing I like to hear, and I don't do that. I wouldn't say they're puzzles. Sometimes they've been. Really, the music is the most important thing. That's the underlining hum, the electricity. On top, you have your brain just like the body, the brain's on top. It's neurotic, it's weird, it's malfunctioning. It's like a broken computer. That's what the lyrics are like. They're more about the head. The heart is in the music itself. I don't know when we made the heart this big thing, anyway. To me, everything's in the brain, pretty much. Who decides what a song is about, the writer or the listener? Definitely the listener does. It's Postmodern 101. It's just fun to know from a trivial sense what the guy meant. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
THE OUTSIDER 9 p.m. on HBO; stream on HBO platforms. This new dark drama series reinvents the 2018 Stephen King novel of the same name, to thrilling effect. The show starts out with an investigation into a boy's murder in small town Georgia. The cop on the case, Ralph (Ben Mendelsohn), and a private investigator, Holly (Cynthia Erivo), find clear cut evidence against a local Little League coach named Terry (Jason Bateman, who also directed the first two episodes). Then they discover evidence that shows Terry was in two places at once the night of the murder. Frustrated with the contradiction, Ralph isn't willing to look into the unexplainable. Yet Holly urges him to keep an open mind if they want to get to the bottom of the murder. The one factor that may convince Ralph to see beyond cold hard facts is that he just lost his son and is looking for answers of his own. THE 25TH ANNUAL CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDS 7 p.m. on CW. Taye Diggs hosts this annual awards show, broadcast live from Santa Monica. Among the strong contenders chosen by the Critics Choice Association are "The Irishman," with 14 nominations, "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood," with 12, and "Little Women," which racked up 9. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Peter Nichols, the British dramatist whose first and most frequently revived play, "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg," startled and moved London and Broadway audiences of the 1960s by telling the story of a brain damaged child's brief life in a darkly comic style that would become his signature, died on Saturday in Oxford, England. He was 92. His death was announced on Twitter by the agency Alan Brodie Representation. "Joe Egg" was largely autobiographical an attempt to "cicatrize the scar," he said because a difficult birth had left his first daughter, Abigail, so profoundly disabled that he felt "she hardly existed as a person at all." Much of his subsequent work also derived from personal experience, notably his 1971 play "Forget Me Not Lane," in which a thinly disguised Mr. Nichols recalls key moments in his youth, including the time his cheerfully eccentric but somewhat puritanical father embarrassed him by walking down a theater aisle and ordering a smutty comedian to quit the stage. The audience hissed at and booed his father and shouted, "Throw him out!" All told, Mr. Nichols wrote 17 staged plays, nearly two dozen television plays and one episode of the long running "Inspector Morse" detective series. He resisted critical or academic attempts to sum up his craft or discern particular themes in his work, explaining that his aim was "always to be an intelligent entertainer." "I believe entertainment is good in itself, and anything else is a bonus," he said. Humor almost always found a place in his plays, sometimes expressed in vaudeville style, but behind the laughter lay shrewd, often acerbic, sometimes discomforting observations: of the family, of marriage, of human foible, of Britain's colonial past, and of the state of Britain itself. Peter Richard Nichols was born in Bristol, England, on July 11, 1927, to Richard and Violet (Poole) Nichols. His father was a sales representative, his mother a homemaker who gave piano lessons at home. Peter often went to the theater with his father, who had been asked by his father's brother, a London based theatrical agent, to look for promising performers. Those visits left him stage struck and determined to pursue a theatrical career. After military service, Mr. Nichols enrolled in the Bristol Old Vic Theater School, where, by his own admission, his acting wasn't highly regarded. He went on to appear in the provinces in mostly minor roles, though he once played the lead in an adaptation of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" in Aberdeen, Scotland; a newspaper headline with a review of the performance said, "Count Dracula No Longer So Fearsome." He took odd jobs, including selling hosiery at the luxury British department store Harrods and acquiring what he called "a dread of schools" while teaching difficult boys in underprivileged areas. Meanwhile he began to write television plays, 12 of which were aired between 1959 and 1965. In 1960 he married Thelma Reed, who survives him, along with three children, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His daughter Abigail died when she was young. A major break for Mr. Nichols came in 1965 after his friend the filmmaker John Boorman persuaded him to write the screenplay for his production of "Catch Us if You Can" (later retitled "Having a Wild Weekend"), a comedy featuring the pop band the Dave Clark Five. The money he earned from it bought Mr. Nichols time to fulfill his ambition to write for the stage (though he also kept his hand in the movies, earning a screenwriting credit for the 1966 hit "Georgy Girl"). It led to "Joe Egg," which portrayed the parents of a child who resembled his daughter Abigail haplessly coping with her affliction. Mr. Nichols's original version of the play he later called it "savage, sentimental and overdone" was universally rejected by theaters and might have been relegated to the dustbin had not his friend the Australian actor and director Michael Blakemore persuaded him to rewrite it almost entirely. Mr. Blakemore then staged it at Citizens Theater in Glasgow. The new version "more Coward than Strindberg," Mr. Nichols said received enthusiastic reviews. It moved to the West End, where a Times of London critic praised it for "significantly shifting our boundaries of taste." It won The London Evening Standard's prestigious best play award and moved to Broadway in 1968, with Albert Finney playing the beleaguered father. It received four Tony Award nominations and a Tony for the actress Zena Walker, who played the mother. "Joe Egg" struck its admirers as daringly original, a work that brought humor to a painful subject and had its characters address the audience directly. The same qualities marked most of his later plays, notably "The National Health," which drew on his experiences in hospital wards; he had twice been a patient after suffering collapsed lungs. "The National Health" won an Evening Standard award when it was presented in 1969 by the National Theater, as did the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of "Privates on Parade" and, in 1981, Mr. Nichols's boldly experimental "Passion Play." In that play, its two main characters were each played by two performers, separately voicing their characters' overt and inner reactions to adulterous love. All three plays honed what Mr. Nichols called his "funny boohoo" style. This, he once explained, owed much to Thornton Wilder's "Skin of Our Teeth" "a very serious play, dealing with the history of the human race in a comic strip style" which he had seen in Bristol, England, as a teenager. His aim, he said, was never to seek laughter for its own sake, "but if understanding is the end of it all, or if you manage to make the audience share your worldview for a moment, or give them a glimpse of things they wouldn't have seen if they hadn't gone to the theater, then you've achieved something through laughter." Three of his plays were made into feature films, all with screenplays by Mr. Nichols: "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" in 1972, with a cast led by Alan Bates; "The National Health" in 1973, starring Lynn Redgrave; and "Privates on Parade," directed by Mr. Blakemore, in 1983. "Forget Me Not Lane," with Mr. Finney (who died in February), and "Passion Play" were adapted into television movies. "A Piece of My Mind" reflected Mr. Nichols's own mental state. He thought he had inherited a pessimistic mind set from a mother whose usual reaction to the prospect of fun was, he said, "Oh, dear." He once said that his friend Stephen Sondheim, with his famously dark worldview, was "a ray of sunshine beside me." Though his early plays were successfully revived in London and on Broadway "Joe Egg" won a Tony for best revival in 1985 and a Tony nomination for best revival in 2003, and a new production of it is to open in the West End next week Mr. Nichols felt that his later work was undeservedly neglected. The Royal Shakespeare Company commissioned but rejected "WE," which involved the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in exile. And when the National Theater turned down two other plays, Mr. Nichols responded by publishing a parody of Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," in which a curmudgeonly dramatist ("writers, writers everywhere, and each the worse for drink") mocked that theater and its director then, Richard Eyre. Mr. Nichols published an autobiography, wryly called "Feeling You're Behind," in 1984; in 2000 he published the entertainingly acerbic diaries he kept from 1969 to 1977. But it was the theater that continued to preoccupy and disappoint him. In an interview with The New York Times in 2003, he claimed to have written 40 unproduced plays, many in the preceding few years. "I'm always working hard, but my plays get performed in my head," he was quoted as saying. A rare exception to that came in 2010 with "Lingua Franca," derived from a period in which the young Mr. Nichols taught English in Italy. But even that play was seen only briefly on the London fringe and Off Broadway. Reviewing it warmly, the Times theater critic Ben Brantley called Mr. Nichols "one of the finest and most underrated British dramatists of the second half of the 20th century." Mr. Nichols expressed a similar thought in a 2001 interview, saying, "I'm a populist who isn't popular." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
'ARTISTS RESPOND: AMERICAN ART AND THE VIETNAM WAR, 1965 1975' (through Aug. 18) and 'TIFFANY CHUNG: VIETNAM, PAST IS PROLOGUE' (through Sept. 2) at Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. Everything in "Artists Respond," a big, inspiriting blast of a historical survey, dates from a time when the United States was losing its soul, and its artists some, anyway were trying to save theirs by denouncing a racist war. Figures well known for their politically hard hitting work Judith Bernstein, Leon Golub, Hans Haacke, Peter Saul, Nancy Spero are here in strength. But so are others, like Dan Flavin and Donald Judd and Barnett Newman, seldom associated with visual activism. Concurrent with the survey is a smaller, fine tuned show by a contemporary Vietnamese born artist, Tiffany Chung; it views the war through the eyes of people on the receiving end of aggression. (Holland Cotter) 202 663 7970, americanart.si.edu 'AUSCHWITZ. NOT LONG AGO. NOT FAR AWAY' at the Museum of Jewish Heritage (through Jan. 3). Killing as a communal business, made widely lucrative by the Third Reich, permeates this traveling exhibition about the largest German death camp, Auschwitz, whose yawning gatehouse, with its converging rail tracks, has become emblematic of the Holocaust. Well timed, during a worldwide surge of anti Semitism, the harrowing installation strives, successfully, for fresh relevance. The exhibition illuminates the topography of evil, the deliberate designing of a hell on earth by fanatical racists and compliant architects and provisioners, while also highlighting the strenuous struggle for survival in a place where, as Primo Levi learned, "there is no why." (Ralph Blumenthal) 646 437 4202, mjhnyc.org 'MATTHEW BARNEY: REDOUBT' at Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven (through June 16). The wildly innovative sculptor and filmmaker, Yale class of 1989, heads back to the halls of ivy to present his first major project since the six hour excremental eruption of "River of Fundament." The exhibition shows Barney in a lighter, nimbler mode than he has displayed in years. The new film "Redoubt," shot in his home state of Idaho, riffs on the myth of Diana and Actaeon; the goddess, here, is an NRA approved sharpshooter, while the doomed voyeur is the artist himself, making plein air etchings of Diana and her attendants. Related copper etchings appear in the show, and Barney has electroplated them over varying times, encrusting them with weird metal nodules. "Redoubt" lacks the operatic grandeur some of Barney's fanboys prefer. But it's the most emancipated work of his career, and it should make a star of Eleanor Bauer, the dancer and choreographer whom he has entrusted with the film's most beautiful movement sequences. The film runs about two hours and screens on Saturday afternoons and on select weekdays; check the website for times. (Jason Farago) 203 432 0600, artgallery.yale.edu 'CAMP: NOTES ON FASHION' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through Sept. 8). Inspired by Susan Sontag's famous 1964 essay, "Notes on 'Camp,'" the latest spectacular from the Met's Costume Institute attempts to define this elastic, constantly evolving concept, which leaves taste, seriousness and heteronormativity in the dust. The show researches camp's emergence in 18th century France and 19th century England, examines "Sontagian Camp" and culminates in an immense gallery of designer confectionaries from the 1980s to now that calls to mind a big, shiny Christmas tree barricaded with presents. (Roberta Smith) 212 535 7100, metmuseum.org 'LEONARD COHEN: A CRACK IN EVERYTHING' at the Jewish Museum (through Sept. 8). The curators of this show, John Zeppetelli of the Musee d'Art Contemporain de Montreal and Victor Shiffman, commissioned artists of various disciplines to develop pieces inspired by Cohen. Some are simple and quiet, like "Ear on a Worm" from the film artist Tacita Dean, a small image playing on a loop high in the space that shows a perched bird, a reference to "Bird on the Wire" from Cohen's 1969 album "Songs From a Room." Some are closer to traditional documentary, like George Fok's "Passing Through," which intercuts performances by Cohen throughout his career with video that surrounds the viewer, suggesting the songs are constant and eternal while the performer's body changes with time. Taken together, the layered work on display has a lot to offer on Cohen, but even more to say about how we respond to music, bring it into our lives, and use it as both a balm and an agent for transformation. (Mark Richardson) 212 423 3200, thejewishmuseum.org 'THE JIM HENSON EXHIBITION' at the Museum of the Moving Image (ongoing). The rainbow connection has been established in Astoria, Queens, where this museum has opened a new permanent wing devoted to the career of America's great puppeteer, who was born in Mississippi in 1936 and died, too young, in 1990. Henson began presenting the short TV program "Sam and Friends" before he was out of his teens; one of its characters, the soft faced Kermit, was fashioned from his mother's old coat and would not mature into a frog for more than a decade. The influence of early variety television, with its succession of skits and songs, runs through "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show," though Henson also spent the late 1960s crafting peace and love documentaries and prototyping a psychedelic nightclub. Young visitors will delight in seeing Big Bird, Elmo, Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef; adults can dig deep into sketches and storyboards and rediscover some old friends. (Farago) 718 784 0077, movingimage.us 'LINCOLN KIRSTEIN'S MODERN' at the Museum of Modern Art (through June 15). With George Balanchine, the indefatigable Kirstein (1907 96) founded the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet. But he was also an impassioned writer, collector, curator and devotee of photography who had much to do with MoMA in its early years. The museum commemorates his complex career with art, letters and ballet ephemera, drawn from its vast holdings. (Smith) 212 708 9400, moma.org 'ALICJA KWADE: PARAPIVOT' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through Oct. 27). This shrewd and scientifically inclined artist, born in Poland and based in Berlin, has delivered the best edition in five years of the Met's hit or miss rooftop sculpture commission. Two tall armatures of interlocking steel rectangles, the taller of them rising more than 18 feet, support heavy orbs of different colored marble; some of the balls perch precariously on the steel frames, while others, head scratchingly, are squinched between them. Walk around these astral abstractions and the frames seem to become quotation marks for the transformed skyline of Midtown; the marbles might be planets, each just as precarious as the one from which they've been quarried. (Farago) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org 'MAYBE MAYBE NOT: CHRISTOPHER WOOL AND THE HILL COLLECTION' at the Hill Art Foundation (through June 28). This foundation's inaugural show presents more than a dozen paintings, works on paper and photographs by Wool, the painter who wrenched abstraction into the No Wave era. In a stenciled painting from 1989, the drippy black letters of the word "SPOKESMAN" are arranged three by three, filling the white aluminum background with the same deductive logic as Frank Stella's early stripes. After making layered, silk screened floral patterns in the 1990s, Wool became more gestural; three extraordinary paintings here from the 2000s, with cloudy spray gun loop de loops and merciless erasures, exhibit a simultaneous love and doubt of abstraction that recalls the best of Albert Oehlen. His enthrallingly difficult later silk screens cannibalize his own archive, discordantly remixing earlier works and treating paint as both material and information. (Farago) 212 337 4455, hillartfoundation.org Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead. 'PLAY IT LOUD: INSTRUMENTS OF ROCK ROLL' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through Oct. 1). Presented in collaboration with the Rock Roll Hall of Fame, this exhibition offers a vision of history in which the rock music that flowered in the 1960s and '70s sits firmly at the center. The format of the rock band provides the structure of the show, with one room given over to the rhythm section and another showcasing "Guitar Gods." Yet another room has a display highlighting the guitar's destruction, with pieces of instruments trashed by Kurt Cobain and Pete Townshend. To the extent that it shifts focus toward the tools of the rock trade, the show is illuminating. Of particular interest is the room set aside for "Creating a Sound," which focuses on the sonic possibility of electronics. The lighting in "Play It Loud" is dim, perhaps reflecting rock music as the sound of the night. Each individual instrument shines like a beacon, as if it's catching the glint of an onstage spotlight. It makes the space between audience member and musician seem vast, but that doesn't diminish the wonder of browsing the tools once used by pop royalty. (Richardson) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org 'PUNK LUST: RAW PROVOCATION 1971 1985' at the Museum of Sex (through Nov. 30). This show begins with imagery from the Velvet Underground: The 1963 paperback of that title, an exploration of what was then called deviant sexual behavior and gave the band its name, is one of the first objects on display. Working through photos, album art and fliers by artists like Iggy Pop, the New York Dolls, Patti Smith and, yes, the Sex Pistols, the exhibition demonstrates how punk offered a space for sexual expression outside the mainstream. In the story told by "Punk Lust," much of it laid out in placards by the writer and musician Vivien Goldman, one of the show's curators, graphic sexual imagery is a tool for shock that frightens away the straight world and offers comfort to those who remain inside. While some of the power dynamic is typical underage groupies cavorting with rock stars images from female, queer and nonbinary artists like Jayne County and the Slits make a strong case for sex as an essential source of punk liberation. (Richardson) 212 689 6337, museumofsex.com 'SCENES FROM THE COLLECTION' at the Jewish Museum (ongoing). After a surgical renovation to its grand pile on Fifth Avenue, the Jewish Museum has reopened its third floor galleries with a rethought, refreshed display of its permanent collection, which intermingles 4,000 years of Judaica with modern and contemporary art by Jews and gentiles alike Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman and the excellent young Nigerian draftswoman Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze. The works are shown in a nimble, nonchronological suite of galleries, and some of its century spanning juxtapositions are bracing; others feel reductive, even dilettantish. But always, the Jewish Museum conceives of art and religion as interlocking elements of a story of civilization, commendably open to new influences and new interpretations. (Farago) 212 423 3200, thejewishmuseum.org 'THE SELF PORTRAIT, FROM SCHIELE TO BECKMANN' at the Neue Galerie (through June 24). Self portraiture can seem pretty narrow. But the 70 odd works in this exhibition, which run from a handful of delightfully exact Rembrandt etchings to Felix Nussbaum's searing 1940 painting "Self Portrait in the Camp," ably demonstrate the genre's universal scope: It's a consciously constructed illusion of spontaneous self revelation, a sincere put on. And as such it's a peek beneath the hood of art in general. (Will Heinrich) 212 994 9493, neuegalerie.org 'TOO FAST TO LIVE, TOO YOUNG TO DIE: PUNK GRAPHICS, 1976 1986' at the Museum of Arts and Design (through Aug. 18). Many of the objects on display in this exhibition were first hung in record stores or in the bedrooms of teenagers. Posters promoting new albums, tours and shows are mixed in with album art, zines, buttons and other miscellany. Most of the pieces are affixed to the walls with magnets and are not framed, and almost all show signs of wear. The presentation reinforces that this was commercial art meant for wide consumption, and the ragged edges and prominent creases in the works make the history feel alive. (Richardson) 212 299 7777, madmuseum.org 'T. REX: THE ULTIMATE PREDATOR' at the American Museum of Natural History (through Aug. 9, 2020). Everyone's favorite 18,000 pound prehistoric killer gets the star treatment in this eye opening exhibition, which presents the latest scientific research on T. rex and also introduces many other tyrannosaurs, some discovered only this century in China and Mongolia. T. rex evolved mainly during the Cretaceous period to have keen eyes, spindly arms and massive conical teeth, which could bear down on prey with the force of a U Haul truck; the dinosaur could even swallow whole bones, as affirmed here by a kid friendly display of fossilized excrement. The show mixes 66 million year old teeth with the latest 3 D prints of dino bones, and also presents new models of T. rex as a baby, a juvenile and a full grown annihilator. Turns out this most savage beast was covered with believe it! a soft coat of beige or white feathers. (Farago) 212 769 5100, amnh.org '2019 WHITNEY BIENNIAL' at the Whitney Museum of American Art (through Sept. 22). Given the political tensions that have sent spasms through the nation over the past two years, you might have expected hoped that this year's biennial would be one big, sharp Occupy style yawp. It isn't. Politics are present but, with a few notable exceptions, murmured, coded, stitched into the weave of fastidiously form conscious, labor intensive work. As a result, the exhibition, organized by two young Whitney curators, Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta, gives the initial impression of being a well groomed group show rather than a statement of resistance. But once you start looking closely, the impression changes artist by artist, piece by piece there's quiet agitation in the air. (Cotter) 212 570 3600, whitney.org 'JEFF WALL' at Gagosian (through July 26). Rumination and risk taking, in equal measure, mark this conceptual photographer's spellbinding new exhibition. The show, Wall's first at this Chelsea gallery since ending a 25 year run with the rival dealer Marian Goodman, feels decidedly introspective. Figures alone in contemplative trances, or alienated from their partners in scenes of evident tension, define most of the works. The encyclopedic visual literacy that has long characterized Wall's pictures (with their compositional echoes of old master paintings) has been pared back, allowing more psychological complexity to emerge. Just as new is an emphasis on narrative and sequence; among the pieces are two diptychs and an enveloping, cinematic triptych. (Karen Rosenberg) 212 741 1717, gagosian.com 'THE WORLD BETWEEN EMPIRES: ART AND IDENTITY IN THE ANCIENT MIDDLE EAST' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through June 23). The Met excels at epic scale archaeological exhibitions, and this is a prime example. It brings together work made between 100 B.C. and A.D. 250 in what we now know as Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. In the ancient world, all were in the sphere of two competing superpowers Rome to the west and Parthia to the east and though imperial influence was strong, it was far from all determining. Each of the subject territories selectively grafted it onto local traditions to create distinctive new grass roots cultural blends. Equally important, the show addresses the fate of art from the past in a politically fraught present. (Cotter) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org 'SIAH ARMAJANI: FOLLOW THIS LINE' at the Met Breuer (through June 2). Born in Iran, Armajani has been living in the United States since 1960. This retrospective ranges from work he did as a teenage activist in Tehran to models of the many public sculptures he has produced across America over the past five decades. It introduces us to a sharp social thinker, a wry (and increasingly melancholic) metaphysician, a plain style visual poet and, above all, an artist ethicist. "Bridge Over Tree," Armajani's wonderful large scale sculpture presented by Public Art Fund at Brooklyn Bridge Park (on the Empire Fulton Ferry Lawn through Sept. 29) to coincide with the Met show, is well timed for our present era of sundering moral confusion and offers ways forward from it. (Cotter) 212 731 1675, metmuseum.org | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Now Lives: In his parents' house there. Claim to Fame: Richie Merritt is the newly discovered breakout actor in "White Boy Rick," a crime drama film set in 1980s Detroit starring Matthew McConaughey. He has also become something of a fashion darling. Big Break: Two years ago, when Mr. Merritt was a sophomore at Dundalk High School, he arrived late to school and was sent to the principal's office, where a casting agent happened to be looking for the title role in "White Boy Rick." After improvising a couple of scenes on the spot ("I had to pretend I was selling her a stolen phone," he said), Mr. Merritt was booked on a flight to Hollywood and was cast opposite Mr. McConaughey. Though he had never acted before, the entire casting process took just a month. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Antonio Sergio Bessa doesn't consider himself a big time collector. Yet there's a blue chip quality to the art on the walls of the apartment he shares with his husband, Ed Yanisch, in the Sugar Hill area of Harlem. There are museum caliber names in the mix, like Raymond Pettibon, Kay Rosen, Ivan Serpa and Peter Saul. But it's the stories behind the works that give this intimate collection its richness and bite. "The collection, well, it's an extension of me," Mr. Bessa said. When the couple moved some of their more delicate pieces into their guest room, to reduce the exposure to sunlight, Mr. Bessa recalls Mr. Yanisch remarking on his "very strong taste." "I was like, 'Well, you know, it's not for the faint of heart.'" Mr. Bessa, who goes by Sergio, is the director of curatorial and education programs at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (he organized, with Yasmin Ramirez, the acclaimed Martin Wong exhibition in 2015), but he came to art via the written word. His fascination with "the power of language" drew him to artists who use text in their works. He also translates poetry from his homeland, Brazil, and is so passionate about concrete, or visual, poetry that he focused his doctoral thesis on Oyvind Fahlstrom, the Brazilian born Swedish artist known for his manifesto on that subject. Mr. Bessa has gravitated to artists like Mr. Pettibon, who adds handwritten phrases to his work, and the "outstanding" Jason Fox. In the 1990s, he scooped up drawings by both men, which hang on a wall, salon style, in his study. He sees the Fox painting "Enhanced Focus" (2000) as "a mix between Jesus and a delinquent," with the pixilated blur evoking TV shows that need to disguise people. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
ATHENS It has been so elaborately repeated that it almost borders on ritual: Greece's troika of lenders leaves Athens with disagreement over whether the country should receive billions of euros in fresh financial aid. Greek officials scramble to tackle demands for more austerity to obtain the money, even as social distress deepens. The cycle was staged again Thursday as the Greek government tried to figure out how to meet one of the troika's toughest requirements: designating 25,000 of the country's 650,000 or so civil servants for eventual dismissal. That was one of the international creditors' demands late Wednesday as their inspectors suspended the latest examination of Greece's economic overhaul program, leaving town and leaving Greek officials to sharpen their pencils and steel their resolve to find more budget cuts. The mission chiefs are expected to return to Athens in early April, the troika of lenders the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund said in a statement on Thursday. After a week poring through Greece's books, representatives of the three bodies did praise Greece for making "significant" progress in mending its finances. But they said Athens needed to follow through more strictly on pledges to reduce the size of its bloated government before unlocking the next installment of Greece's bailout allowance: a 2.8 billion euro ( 3.6 billion) tranche due next month. On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, expressed confidence that Greece would receive the money, speaking ahead of a European Union economic summit meeting in Brussels. European leaders there are trying to head off a rising anti austerity tide while there are signs that programs like the one in Greece are retarding the bloc's return to growth. In the eyes of Greece's creditors, the country has fallen short too many times on pledges to cut government spending and revamp major areas of the economy that the outside experts say Greece requires if it is to move toward financial independence. Further, inflation was only 0.1 percent in February, the lowest reading in 45 years. Such data have largely quieted fears that Greece could exit the euro zone. Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay 31 million to the 'House of Cards' studio after sexual harassment allegations. Netflix buys a visual effects company in a move to support its global ambitions. The judiciary has also made several prominent moves in recent weeks to show it is rooting out corruption by jailing two former politicians for graft and tax evasion. And yet Greece, which has received more than 200 billion euros in bailout loans since May 2010, is still making little headway on structural changes that creditors say must happen if the economy is ever to resume growing and become self sustaining. The most politically challenging moves for Greece's coalition government involve the troika's demands to continue cutting the number of public sector employees. Creditors said Greece had not provided enough details on how it plans to dismiss 7,000 civil servants accused of misdemeanors; to put 25,000 other workers into a special labor reserve that will eventually be eliminated; or to step up the pace of Civil Service retirements. Until troika auditors are persuaded that Athens can hit those marks, the next aid installment may not be released. Those measures would need to be taken even as Greek unemployment is at a record 26 percent. In the fourth quarter, nearly 1.3 million people were out of work, in a population of 10 million. Youth unemployment has surged to nearly 58 percent. Greek consumers continue to make do with less, in response to three years of pay and pension cuts. The real disposable income of households has fallen by a third in that time, and recent increases in property taxes and the value added tax have crimped spending. The government reported a revenue shortfall of 260 million euros for the first two months of the year, citing increased tax evasion by citizens and businesses, and the closing of regional tax offices to trim government expenses. And plans to privatize Greek state owned assets to raise tens of billions of euros in revenue have stalled again. The head of the agency running that program stepped down last weekend after he was charged with breach of duty for commissioning a power plant in 2007 when he was head of the power board. It was the second such resignation in two years. Officials say they remain hopeful, though, that some lucrative assets, including the state gambling agency, may be sold in the coming months, a step that they hope will restore confidence in the country and lure investors back to Greece. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
Tonight, more than half a million Americans will sleep in public places because they lack private spaces. They will huddle in crowded New York City shelters, or pitch tents under highways in Washington, D.C., or curl up in the doorways of San Francisco office towers, or dig holes in the high desert of northern Los Angeles County. They are homeless, and their lives are falling apart. They struggle to stay healthy, to hold jobs, to preserve personal relationships, to maintain a sense of hope. They are victims of America's wealth and its indifference. The federal government could render homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring. The cure for homelessness is housing, and, as it happens, the money is available: Congress could shift billions in annual federal subsidies from rich homeowners to people who don't have homes. Instead, Americans have taken to treating homelessness as a sad fact of life, as if it were perfectly normal that many thousands of adults and children in the wealthiest nation on earth cannot afford a place to live. Government programs focus on palliative care: Annual spending on shelters has reached 12 billion a year, according to Dennis Culhane, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on homelessness. Rather than provide housing for the homeless, cities offer showers, day care centers and bag checks. Collectively, we are choosing to avert our eyes from the people who sleep where we walk. We have decided to live with the fact that some of our fellow Americans will die on the streets. "There's a cruelty here that I don't think I've seen," Leilani Farha, then the United Nations special rapporteur on adequate housing, said after a 2018 visit to Northern California. She compared conditions there to those in countries that unlike the United States lack the money to care for their citizens. And homelessness is poised to increase. More than 36 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the past two months; almost 40 percent of workers in households making less than 40,000 a year have lost work. Women in Need NYC, which runs shelters, warned this week that New York faces a "mass increase" in homelessness. In the decades after World War II, some experts predicted that prosperity would eliminate homelessness in America. Instead, in recent decades, wealth and homelessness have both increased a stark illustration of the inequalities that pervade American life. The rise of homelessness is often portrayed as a collection of personal tragedies, the result of bad choices or bad luck. But the first law of real estate applies to homelessness, too: Location, location, location. The nation's homeless population is concentrated in New York, the cities of coastal California and a few other islands of prosperity. Well educated, well paid professionals have flocked to those places, driving up housing prices. And crucially, those cities and their suburbs have made it virtually impossible to build enough affordable housing to keep up. The government calculates that 600 is the most a family living at the poverty line can afford to pay in monthly rent while still having enough money for food, health care and other needs. From 1990 to 2017, the number of housing units available below that price shrank by four million. Those who do end up homeless are often those with additional burdens. They are disproportionately graduates of foster care or the prison system, victims of domestic abuse or discrimination, veterans, and people with mental and physical disabilities. Some end up on the street because of addictions; some develop addictions because they are on the street. Whatever problems they face, however, they are much more likely to become homeless in places without enough affordable housing. According to one analysis, a 100 increase in the average monthly rent in a large metro area is associated with a 15 percent increase in homelessness. Consider a simple comparison: In 2018, eight out of every 10,000 Michigan residents were homeless. In California, it was 33 per 10,000. In New York, it was 46 per 10,000. More from "The America We Need" Countries confronting homelessness with greater success than the United States, including Finland and Japan, begin by treating housing as a human right. In the United States, by contrast, politicians decry the problem but aim for more modest goals. Mayor Bill de Blasio's promise to New York last December "to end long term street homelessness as we know it" is a classic of the genre; most homeless people in the city live in shelters, not on the street. Reframing the debate asking what is necessary to end homelessness is an important first step for New York and for other places that are failing this basic test of civic responsibility. The next step is simple but expensive. The federal government already provides housing vouchers to help some lower income families. The families pay 30 percent of their monthly income toward rent; the government pays the rest. But instead of giving vouchers to every needy family, the government imposes an arbitrary cap on total spending. Three in four eligible families don't get vouchers. The program costs about 19 billion a year. Vouchers for all eligible households would cost an additional 41 billion a year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2015. Where to get the money? Well, the government annually provides more than 70 billion in tax breaks to homeowners, including a deduction for mortgage interest payments and a free pass on some capital gains from home sales. Let's end homelessness instead of subsidizing mansions. Vouchers alone, however, won't be enough. We also need more affordable housing. Without a significant expansion in the supply of housing, adding vouchers would be like adding players to a game of musical chairs without increasing the number of chairs. Market rate construction can help: More housing would slow the upward march of housing prices. New York and San Francisco are the nation's most tightly regulated markets for housing construction, and it is not a coincidence that they also are the most expensive. Tokyo, often cited as an international model for its permissive development policies, has expanded its supply of homes by roughly 2 percent a year in recent years, while New York's housing supply has expanded by roughly 0.5 percent a year. Over the past two decades, housing prices in Tokyo held steady as New York prices soared. But in the parts of the country that need affordable housing most desperately, construction will require significant public subsidies: land, tax credits, direct government spending. In California, for example, construction of a five story apartment building that meets minimum standards costs an average of 425,000 per unit, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Without public aid, the apartments would need to be rented for several times more than the 600 a month affordable to a family living at the poverty line. Proposals for a big increase in affordable housing construction inevitably call to mind the troubled public housing projects of the mid 20th century. They offer one clear lesson: Avoid housing that concentrates poverty. And there is a solution to build subsidized housing as part of mixed income developments and to spread the developments out, putting them not just in cities but also in the surrounding suburbs. Helsinki, Finland, a city of just 600,000 people, builds about 7,000 units of mixed income housing a year. That's a big reason Finland is the rare European country where homelessness is in decline. The government still will need to help those who fall into homelessness. Fortunately, we already know how to do that. Over the past decade, the federal government has conducted a highly successful campaign to reduce homelessness among veterans. The government reported in January that it had reduced the number of homeless veterans by 50 percent from about 75,000 in 2010 to about 37,000 at the end of 2019. Three states and several dozen cities have provided housing for their entire veteran populations. As Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development, told Congress in May 2019, the success shows "that homelessness is not an intractable problem we can end homelessness." The program uses a triage approach, calibrating aid to need. The government provides up to 4,000 in cash for those who need just a little help, for example to pay a security deposit. For those who need continuing help, there are housing vouchers. And for veterans whose economic problems are compounded by other issues, such as disabilities or substance abuse, the government provides "supportive housing" a place to live, plus counseling and care. This is cheaper than leaving people to remain homeless and then intervening intermittently. One study found that in the two years after a person entered supportive housing in New York, he or she spent on average 83 fewer days in shelters, 28 fewer days in psychiatric hospitals and four fewer days in prison. Extending this approach to the entire homeless population would be expensive. To take one example, Washington's King County, which encompasses Seattle, would need to increase annual spending on homelessness to roughly 410 million from 196 million to help each of the county's 22,000 homeless families, according to a study by McKinsey. That's about 19,000 per family. For King County, that's a lot of money about 5 percent of its annual budget. For the federal government, it's a rounding error. Even if the cost per person were twice as high, the nation's homeless population could be housed for 10 billion a year less than the price of one aircraft carrier. The coronavirus pandemic has prompted a surge in spending on homelessness, thanks in part to 4 billion in emergency federal funding. Cities have converted convention centers into shelters and rented out hotel rooms to house the homeless. In Seattle, the city accelerated construction of a project to provide "tiny houses" for some homeless people. But there is worse to come. Homelessness rises during recessions, the federal funding is temporary, and state and local governments face huge drops in tax revenue. Having failed to address homelessness during the longest economic expansion in American history, the nation now faces a greater challenge under more difficult circumstances. Yet the imperative remains: Everyone needs a home. No one should be left to die on the street. Americans must decide whether we are willing to let elementary school students spend nights in guarded parking lots, like ones I saw proliferating across the Western United States. We must decide whether it's worth spending just a little of this nation's vast wealth to ensure that no 60 year old woman needs to sleep on the same bench in downtown Santa Monica, Calif., night after night because, as she explained to me, it's relatively flat and easy for the police to see her from their cars. We must decide whether it's tolerable for people to live in tents on the scraps of green space along a highway in Washington, D.C., just a short walk from the block where the richest man in America combined two mansions to create the city's largest. Addressing homelessness is within our power. The question is whether we are ready to act. Binyamin Appelbaum ( BCAppelbaum) is a member of the editorial board. 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 |
HAYS, Kan. When taxpayer money for the arts started getting tight in Kansas, Brenda Meder began scrubbing toilets at the gallery she oversees here, rather than paying for custodial services. She cooked the finger food for receptions, instead of using a caterer. And she signed up more dues paying members of the Hays Arts Council, a 49 year old organization where she is the executive director and only full time employee. For Ms. Meder, a great purpose is at stake. There are the traveling performers' visits to elementary schools that she arranges. The classes on stained glass and drawing. The quarterly art walks she organizes in the brick paved downtown, where storefronts transform into makeshift galleries that draw hundreds of spectators from Hays and beyond. And for the last six years, Ms. Meder has sustained all that without consistent financing from state and federal sources. "When what you're about is important enough to you, you will find a way," said Ms. Meder, who grew up around here, roughly halfway between Denver and Kansas City, Mo. "And that's how it always is with the arts." President Trump's call last week to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts prompted panic and outrage in major cities and other parts of America where public funds have sustained generations of artists. But in some ways, Mr. Trump is following a path laid in 2011 by Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas when he defunded this state's Arts Commission and left local organizations like Ms. Meder's scrambling to find other sources of revenue. Hays, a college town with about 21,000 residents, is a case study of how the arts can continue to thrive when public funds dry up. But it is also a cautionary tale of the sometimes hidden costs. Ms. Meder fears that artists in Kansas have become more siloed and less engaged with one another in recent years, as financing for conferences has become more elusive and eligibility for grant money has fluctuated. Since Mr. Brownback's cuts in 2011, some public money has returned to Kansas, but arts advocates here say they have learned to forge ahead and in some cases scale back their ambitions without always counting on that assistance. Hays has weathered the uncertainty better than many places. Generations here have enjoyed band concerts and theater on the campus of Fort Hays State University, and the Arts Council claims to be the oldest arts supporting organization of its type in Kansas. Both the city and county governments provide funding for the council, which has an annual budget of roughly 125,000, and residents of all political stripes cite the creative scene as a point of pride. "A lot of my good Republican friends are out there, conservative and moderates, and they're taking it in, they're going to all of the venues and taking in the live music and the art," said Henry Schwaller IV, a Democrat who serves on the Hays City Commission and who was chairman of the Kansas Arts Commission when Governor Brownback withdrew its funding. "It's just part of our DNA here. And that's hard to replicate in other communities." The board president of the Arts Council, Mike Morley, 47, is a registered Republican who voted for Mr. Trump in November. Ms. Meder, 60, is a Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton. "On the political spectrum, we're right to left and everything in between," said Mr. Morley, who moved to Hays about five years ago and works in the utility industry. "But the one thing that we all have in common is an appreciation for the importance of the arts." Here in Ellis County, nearly 71 percent of voters favored Mr. Trump, part of his sweep of 103 of Kansas's 105 counties. In interviews, some of those voters cited the president's commitment to deregulation, their frustration with traditional politicians and concerns about government spending. But when it came to arts financing, the conversations were more nuanced among Trump voters. Some said they supported the proposed cuts, but others questioned whether eviscerating the endowment was the right approach. Jacob Brubaker, a sophomore at Fort Hays State and a member of the College Republicans, said that the federal government should perhaps stop funding the arts eventually but that the drawdown should be gradual so that artists could find other money. Dennis Schiel, an artist here who has paintings displayed in the Kansas Capitol and on the side of a downtown Hays building, also voted for Mr. Trump. He suggested that the endowment should be focused more on arts education but said targeting the agency for elimination was misguided. "There are other, larger avenues they should be going after first," said Mr. Schiel, a registered Democrat. Arts supporters in Hays have managed to preserve most programs since the loss of state funds, sometimes with a frugal twist. Ms. Meder started asking schools to chip in to finance the outside performers she brings to the area, and she asked some of those artists to accept less money for their work. At Fort Hays State, corporate sponsors helped sustain a popular performance series when grant money became scarcer. That loss of arts funding in Kansas was part of Mr. Brownback's conservative makeover of state government, which included huge tax cuts that have led to years of missed revenue forecasts and budget deficits. When Mr. Brownback vetoed a 689,000 arts budget in 2011 and state money for the arts dried up, so did matching funds from the endowment, and Kansas's membership in its regional affiliate, the Mid America Arts Alliance. Ms. Meder, who has led the Hays Arts Council for 26 years, said that she had not applied for funds directly from N.E.A. but that the council had often benefited from federal money that passed through regional and state agencies. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Uber's top executives, including the chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, and the chief financial officer, Nelson Chai, middle, gathered at the New York Stock Exchange last week for the company's I.P.O. Last September, Uber's top executives were pitched by some of Wall Street's biggest banks, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The bankers' presentations calculated Uber's valuation almost identically, hovering around one particular number: 120 billion. That was the figure the bankers said they could convince investors Uber was worth when it listed its shares on the stock market, according to three people with knowledge of the talks. Uber's chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, and chief financial officer, Nelson Chai, listened and discussed the presentations, these people said. Then they hired Morgan Stanley as lead underwriter, along with Goldman Sachs and others, to take the company public and to effectively make the 120 billion valuation a reality. Nine months later, Uber is worth about half that figure. The ride hailing firm went public last week at 45 a share and has since dropped to around 41, pegging Uber's market capitalization at 69 billion and officially crowning it as the stock market debut that lost more in dollar terms than any other American initial public offering since 1975. How Uber's offering turned into what some are now openly calling a "train wreck" began with the 120 billion number that the bankers floated. The figure leaked last year, whipping up a frenzy over how Uber could soon become the biggest American company to list on an American stock exchange larger even than Facebook, which went public in 2012 at a whopping 104 billion valuation. But for Mr. Khosrowshahi and Mr. Chai, the 120 billion number turned Uber's I.P.O. process into an exercise in managing expectations. Some large investors who already owned Uber shares at cheaper prices pushed back against buying more of the stock at such a lofty number, said people familiar with the matter. Their appetite for Uber was dampened further by the company's deep losses and slowing growth in regions like Latin America. And Uber had to contend with unforeseen factors, including fraying trade talks with China that spooked the stock market in the same week that the company decided to go public. The result has created a host of pointed questions for all involved in Uber's I.P.O., from Mr. Khosrowshahi and Mr. Chai to the underwriters at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. While Uber raised 8.1 billion from its offering and reaped billions of dollars in returns for its early investors and founders, what should have been a climactic moment for a transportation colossus instead became an embarrassment. The extent of the fallout may not be clear for a while, and it is too early to judge how Uber will ultimately fare in the public markets. But as many other tech related companies aim to go public this year, including the food delivery company Postmates and the real estate firm WeWork, they will have to contend with whether Uber has squelched what had been a red hot I.P.O. market. "The 69 billion market cap Uber had when the market closed today is a new reality," said Shawn Carolan, partner at Menlo Ventures, which invested early in the company. But he added that Uber's executives now had "the opportunity to show us what they can do." This account of Uber's I.P.O. was based on interviews with a dozen people involved in or briefed on the process. Many asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Representatives from Uber, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. For years, Uber was an investor darling. As a privately held company, it gorged on capital from venture capital firms like Benchmark and GV, mutual fund firms like Fidelity Investments, and companies like SoftBank. Its private valuation shot up from 60 million in 2011 to 76 billion by August. Mr. Khosrowshahi, who became chief executive in late 2017, was recruited partly to steer Uber through a successful I.P.O. Uber's board agreed to pay him 45 million in cash and restricted stock and set an unusually specific valuation target for an additional bonus. In a provision in Mr. Khosrowshahi's compensation agreement, which was revealed in the company's I.P.O. prospectus, the board said that if Uber was valued in the public market at 120 billion or more for at least three months in the next five years, he would receive a payout of 80 million to 100 million. That provision set something of a goal for Uber, which the investment bankers who were hired to take the company public also gravitated toward. Within weeks of the banks' presentations on the 120 billion, that number leaked, leading to giddy speculation in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street that Uber's offering could usher in a golden era of wealth. By December, Uber's I.P.O. team was set. At the company, Mr. Chai, a former chief financial officer at Merrill Lynch, was charged with leading the public offering. At Morgan Stanley, Michael Grimes, the firm's star tech banker, was the point person, assisted by Kate Claassen, head of internet banking. Goldman Sachs's team was led by Gregg Lemkau, Kim Posnett and David Ludwig. Bank of America's was headed by Neil Kell and Ric Spencer. Almost immediately, the setbacks began, starting with Uber's business. Its once meteoric growth rate was slowing as its geographic expansion appeared to be running out of room and as competitors continued springing up across the world. One growth headache was connected to Uber's biggest investor, SoftBank. The Japanese company, which has a 100 billion Vision Fund that it uses to invest in all manner of companies, has poured capital into technology start ups including Didi Chuxing, China's biggest ride hailing company, and 99, a transportation start up in Latin America. In January 2018, Didi agreed to acquire 99. Both SoftBank and Didi also started directing funds toward pushing deeper into Latin America; SoftBank eventually created a 5 billion fund earmarked specifically for investing in Latin American companies. For Uber, the timing was terrible. The region was one of its most promising growth areas, and its competition had ramped up. By this February, the damage in Latin America had begun showing up in Uber's results in the form of slowing growth. Some investors were also resisting because they had earlier invested in Uber at cheaper prices. Since its founding in 2009, Uber has taken in more than 10 billion from mutual fund firms, private equity investors and others, meaning that its stock was already widely held among those institutions that traditionally buy shares in an I.P.O. So the I.P.O. essentially became an exercise in getting existing investors to purchase more shares a tough sell, especially at a higher price. In March, another problem cropped up. Uber's rival in North America, Lyft, went public and promptly fell below its offering price on its second day of trading. Investors appeared skeptical about whether Lyft could make money, setting a troublesome precedent for Uber. By the time Uber made its I.P.O. prospectus available in April, it had already told some existing investors that its offering could value it at up to 100 billion down from the initial 120 billion. Inside Uber, two people familiar with the deliberations said the company's board was also not fully briefed on how Mr. Khosrowshahi and other executives planned to pitch the firm to investors in what is known as a "roadshow." Only a smaller group of board members, who were part of a pricing committee including Mr. Khosrowshahi, Ronald Sugar, who is also Uber's chairman, and David Trujillo of TPG focused on the I.P.O., these people said. The company soon hit other obstacles. President Trump tweeted this month that he wanted to raise tariffs on 200 billion of Chinese goods, unsettling global stock markets. The day before Uber priced its I.P.O., Lyft reported a 1.14 billion loss for its first quarter, renewing questions about the health of ride hailing businesses. Uber's executives, board and bankers discussed the final pricing of the stock sale on May 9. Several board members pushed for a price at the higher end of the 44 to 50 a share range, said the people briefed on the situation. But Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and others agreed that it needed to be lower, they said. The list of orders from potential investors, known in Wall Street jargon as the "book," showed that the most desirable investors the big asset managers who were most likely to hold on to the shares, even in tough times were interested only in the lower price. That evening, Mr. Khosrowshahi and his management team gathered in Manhattan at Daniel, a Michelin star restaurant a few blocks east of Central Park, at a "pricing dinner" hosted by Morgan Stanley. The mood was upbeat, according to two people familiar with the evening. But the next morning, that mood had changed. Uber executives arrived at the New York Stock Exchange, where the company was listing its shares. Before the first trade, monitors that lined the exchange floor displayed how Uber's stock was likely to fall flashing up 45, 44, before finally opening at 42. The chatter quieted. The rest of the day was little better. Uber's stock never rose close to its 45 offering price. As the so called stabilization agent, charged with helping trading in Uber stock, Morgan Stanley made some moves to support the shares, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Yet by the end of the day, while the S P 500 index closed up, Uber's stock remained down. On Wednesday, Uber closed at 41.29, more than 8 percent below its offering price. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Jeanne Guillemin, an eminent medical anthropologist and scientific sleuth who helped expose a secret biological warfare lab in the Soviet Union as the source of a lethal anthrax outbreak, died on Nov. 15 at her home in Cambridge, Mass. She was 76. Her husband, Matthew Meselson, said the cause was cancer. Dr. Guillemin (pronounced GILL men) was a prominent advocate for curbing the use of biological and chemical weapons. In the 1980s, she and her husband, a world renowned molecular biologist at Harvard, undertook a series of investigations into biological warfare and how government programs were misusing biomedical science. One of their most important investigations took place in 1992 in Russia, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Along with a small team of American and Russian scientists, they examined 66 of perhaps 100 anthrax deaths that occurred in 1979 in the Ural city of Sverdlovsk, now Yekaterinburg. The Soviet government claimed that the deaths were caused by the consumption of anthrax tainted meat. American intelligence officials were skeptical, suspecting that the anthrax was a result of Soviet experiments with biological weapons in violation of a 1972 international treaty. Dr. Guillemin went door to door interviewing family members and survivors, establishing where they lived and worked. She plotted them on a map, which showed that on April 2, 1979, most townspeople who would soon start falling ill had been in a narrow zone directly downwind from a Cold War era military research lab known as Compound 19. Her information, combined with meteorological data, pinpointed the lab as the source of the anthrax release. The pathogen contaminated humans, sheep and cows in its path and remains the largest documented outbreak of human inhalation anthrax in the world. Dr. Guillemin, Dr. Meselson and their team reported their findings in the Nov. 18, 1994, issue of the journal Science. They did not determine what had caused the anthrax release; subsequent reports said it was an accidental failure to replace an air filter at the plant. But their report was significant because it showed that even a tiny amount of a biological warfare agent could threaten a population in this case up to 30 miles away. The scientists estimated, based on experiments with monkeys, that the amount of anthrax spores that were released may have been less than, and possibly a lot less than, one gram, or about a quarter of a teaspoon of salt. And if the wind had been blowing in the opposite direction that day toward the city of Sverdlovsk deaths could have been in the hundreds of thousands. Dr. Guillemin wrote several books about her medical sleuthing. Dr. Guillemin described the episode in "ANTHRAX: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak" (1999). It was among several books she wrote about her medical sleuthing and helped establish her as an authority on biological agents. When envelopes containing anthrax were mailed within the United States shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the news media sought out Dr. Guillemin for her expertise. Those anthrax attacks killed five people, sickened 17 others and terrorized the nation, which was still reeling from 9/11. In the midst of that hysteria, Dr. Guillemin was a voice of calm, saying that the anthrax attacks were probably the work of one person and not likely to lead to mass deaths. "I think we shouldn't panic," she told CNN in October 2001. "We should go about our business with reasonable alertness and prudence and not in a state of fear. I know a lot about anthrax, and I feel that we are not at great risk for a large epidemic of it." A nearly eight year F.B.I. investigation, the largest into a bioweapons attack in American history, concluded that one man, Dr. Bruce Ivins, a troubled Army biodefense expert, had acted alone in carrying out the crimes, which became known as Amerithrax. Jean Elizabeth Garrigan, who later changed the spelling of her first name to Jeanne, was born in Brooklyn on March 6, 1943. Her father, James Philip Garrigan, was a businessman and her mother, Mary Eileen (Harley) Garrigan, a homemaker. They moved to Rutherford, N.J., where Jean was educated by Dominican nuns. Her husband said the nuns had given her a strong foundation in morality and instilled in her "a feeling that the world should be civil." She received her bachelor's degree in social psychology from Harvard in 1968 and her doctorate in sociology and anthropology from Brandeis University in 1973. Her first marriage, in 1963 to the painter Robert Guillemin, ended in divorce. (He died in 2015.) They had two sons, John and Robert, whom she raised for a time as a single mother. She married Dr. Meselson in 1986. The couple spent their summers in Woods Hole, Mass., on Cape Cod, where they hosted a regular salon that brought together humanists and scientists. In Cambridge, Dr. Guillemin was a member of a writing group with four other women who met every month for 30 years to discuss their works in progress. In addition to her husband and her sons, she is survived by a stepdaughter, Zoe Meselson Forbes; two sisters, Patricia and Eileen Garrigan; a brother, Russell Garrigan; and five grandchildren. Another brother, Brian Garrigan, died in 2018, as did another stepdaughter, Amy Meselson. Dr. Guillemin was a professor of international relations and anthropology at Boston College, where she taught for 33 years. She was also a senior fellow in the security studies program at M.I.T. from 1999 until her death. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
All Rights Reserved, The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York; Philip Greenberg for The New York Times All Rights Reserved, The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York; Philip Greenberg for The New York Times Credit... All Rights Reserved, The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York; Philip Greenberg for The New York Times As an artist and a brand, Louise Bourgeois was a force of nature. She was a prolific if not obsessive maker of art sculpture, drawings and especially prints. There was and probably still is plenty of product. Bourgeois also had the advantage of a long life: from 1911, when she was born in Paris into a family of tapestry dealers and restorers, to 2010, when she died in New York at the age of 98, a wily, celebrated art star. That's seven years more than Picasso had and, like him, she worked almost to the end. Finally, Bourgeois had a gripping back story of childhood trauma that you weren't allowed to forget. She had been the favorite child of a charming father who had an affair with her adored tutor. "It was a double betrayal," she would say. In the face of the continuing emotional toll of her past, which included bouts of rage, depression, insomnia and anxiety, her work was a means of self analysis and survival. It is haunted by her primal wounds, to which she returned again and again. These elements contributed to Bourgeois becoming, in the '90s, something of a cult figure in the tradition of Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe and Frida Kahlo. Her life and art are, in their transparency, nearly the same, and they have easily taken root in the public imagination. Exhibitions of her work almost inevitably draw large, attentive crowds. Historians and critics discuss her contributions to Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism or Post Minimalism. But for many viewers, her art is beloved simply for demonstrating with special force that the child is mother to the woman, as well as to the artist. "Louise Bourgeois: An Unfolding Portrait" at the Museum of Modern Art should be especially loved. It is the museum's third big excursion into Bourgeois's world following a 1982 retrospective, and a 1994 print survey and it is the best yet. All three were organized by Deborah Wye, now the chief curator emerita of prints and illustrated books (with Sewon Kang, a curatorial assistant, in the current instance). Neither linear nor media centered, this latest effort is arranged thematically, with nearly every gallery including early and later work. Its roughly 300 works are mostly prints engravings, etchings and silk screens, some made to illustrate books that Bourgeois herself wrote and many of the later ones have not been exhibited in New York. They are supplemented by two early paintings, several drawings and, most important, 23 sculptures that sum up her various sculptural uses of wood, bronze, marble, resin and stuffed fabric. Also here are the poignant "Cells," enclosed tableaus that Bourgeois made toward the end of her life from found objects and textiles many hauled out of the family attic by the artist, who never threw anything away. In the first section, "Architecture Embodied," two of the totemic wood sculptures that Bourgeois began making in 1947, "Pillar" and "Figure," are surrounded by engravings populated by similar forms enacting clearly figurative dramas. Elsewhere a small watercolor drawing of St. Sebastian from 1947 presents the martyred saint as a simple scarecrow with a pincushion head. Nearby hang several versions of a 1990 etching that morph the saint into a curvaceous woman warrior who resembles an ancient fertility figure shot through with arrows. They seem to set her in motion. The earliest work here is a small almost naive painting from 1940. Its garbled outlines and mostly dark colors yield two simplified heads facing in opposite directions, with a small figure in silhouette between them the artist's originating triad of parents and child. The heads presage a self portrait print from 1990, displayed nearby, as well as the soft fabric figurative sculptures that Bourgeois took up in the late '90s. These exceptional works are represented here by a vividly expressive pink and white head that is either ecstatic or grief stricken. Its patched surface is similar to one of the heads in the 1940 painting, which almost seems bandaged. Both pieces resonate with another of the artist's childhood experiences: visiting her wounded father in a field hospital during World War I. The show's prints were made mostly in either the late 1940s, when Bourgeois took up the medium, or during her last two decades, when she returned to it at full throttle. We see the early ones in different stages, or states, of their development. The four states of "Difficult Steering," a 1947 engraving, show a shape, rather like a horse's tail, flanked by two structures that become increasingly bulky and obstructionist. The later prints are rarely represented in transition. Why? Because Bourgeois tended to hijack the process, reworking various proofs so extensively by hand that they became works of art in their own right. At the show's entrance "My Inner Life ( 5)" offers a robust, mostly red image of a pregnant woman whose unborn child is visible in her belly. This large image, heavily worked in gouache, began life as a colorless etching titled "My Inner Life," also on view. Nearby hangs another bit of brilliant upgrading: the 36 airy, tragi comedic images of "The Fragile." All were originally sketchbook doodles Munch scream faces, top heavy women or heads. Digitally printed on fabric, these images were supplemented with spider's legs, nipples and so forth in pale red or blue dye. Bourgeois did this for seven editions, meaning that every print in every edition is unique. Bourgeois's hijacking of prints finds its grandest expression in "To Infinity," a suite of 14 large soft ground etchings. They began with "Love and Kisses," a vertical print (also here) that suggests a sliced open fruit or perhaps a womb floating among vines. Fragments of this motif were printed horizontally on extra large pieces of paper that Bourgeois then attacked with pencil and red gouache or watercolor. Among the vines, which suggest umbilical cords and blood vessels, are faces, plants and figures infants, a woman, an embracing couple and possibly a shrouded corpse. It is an enormous, levitating life cycle, tinted with blood, drifting through time from embryo to leave taking. In the museum's atrium, the show's grand finale is "Spider" (1997) from Bourgeois's Cells series: nearly 15 feet tall, it crouches over a large steel mesh cylinder that is as much a cage as a room. It is furnished with an old campaign chair and sundry poetical odds and ends, including fragments of tapestry; one shows the crown heads of a king and queen or father and mother. Rich in previously unseen prints from Bourgeois's last two decades, this superb exhibition gives her late work a new shape. It demonstrates that the inclusive embrace of the artist's "Cell" installations had a parallel expansiveness in two dimensions, in works that change our view not only of Bourgeois, but of printmaking itself. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Some of the dance steps, phrases and constructions by the choreographer Pam Tanowitz are among the finest being made anywhere today. They feature memorable footwork, strikingly elegant and witty combinations of lower and upper body movement, and complex, subtle, fascinating uses of stage space. And yet she's an eccentric. What's notable especially in the 50 minute double bill of world premieres that opened at the Joyce Theater on Tuesday is that her eccentricity is intimately connected to orthodoxy. Much of her dance vocabulary is taken from ballet and from Merce Cunningham technique, both of which she employs in ways that should often impress devotees of either genre. Though her dancers are barefoot, she's just as much a ballet choreographer as many of those who work for ballet companies. Few ballet choreographers confine their vocabularies solely to the academic ballet lexicon, after all. If the Joyce's current Pam Tanowitz Dance program had been shown last July as part of that theater's season of six small troupes performing experimental ballet, it would have fit right in. But it would fit in equally well into a modern dance season, too. Although Ms. Tanowitz never danced for Cunningham, she uses his style more extensively than any choreographer whose work I currently see. (She has often used Cunningham dancers. Two in the final Cunningham troupe, Melissa Toogood and Dylan Crossman, are in these Joyce performances.) The opening 15 minute "Passagen" is a duet for two women, Maggie Cloud and Ms. Toogood. It takes its name from its music, a violin solo by John Zorn played onstage by Pauline Kim Harris. The music at once gives us a complex array of legato and pizzicato effects; and the dancers soon develop a look of sophisticated, elegant unpredictability. This is heightened by the strangeness of Ms. Tanowitz's musicality, which often inexplicably satisfying very seldom employs any step for note correspondence and often seems to employ dance tempos and constructions far from the music's. Much of the dance has the formality of Baroque ballet the court ballets of Louis XIV often featured female duets with the two women, often close, tracing floor patterns with changing footwork. They leave the stage at one point, only to return, from opposite wings and at different depths of the stage, progressing sideways on half toe. Meeting, they begin a new kind of duet, with contact and support. The mood stays impersonal. Though much of the emphasis is on the body's verticality, there's one motif in which each dancer rotates on one leg while maintaining a horizontal line (arabesque allongee); and near the end, both women sit, only to rise again. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
THE SUN AND HER STARS Salka Viertel and Hitler's Exiles in the Golden Age of Hollywood By Donna Rifkind The Galician born actress turned American screenwriter Salka Viertel was never famous, but she always made things possible for her friends who were. Still, her name usually hovers in the realm of the footnote or fleeting aside, bobbing up in Thomas Mann's diaries, Charlie Chaplin's autobiography, Bertolt Brecht's journals and in a Grand Hotel scaled heap of books about Greta Garbo. The role she played in both Golden Age Hollywood and transplanted Weimar high culture was crucial if vaporous. As a remarkable crew of European artists and intellectuals fled Nazism and streamed toward Southern California in the 1930s, Viertel worked in dozens of behind the scenes ways to help these desperate, gifted people first scrambling to arrange visas and raise money on their behalf; later offering introductions, companionship, housing, wedges of superior chocolate cake and much more. Her Sunday afternoon Santa Monica gatherings became the stuff of local legend, with Viertel supplying what one observer called the "social glue" that bound the emigres into a community. Or, as another of her intimates put it: "The history of Hollywood ... is incomplete without an appreciation of Salka Viertel's distinct talent for human relationships." Viertel is, in short, a terrific subject for a biography, and the veteran book reviewer Donna Rifkind has done well to focus her first full length effort on this fascinating if little known personality. Rifkind sees the worldly yet unassuming Viertel as at once an extraordinary character and a telling representative of something larger than herself. She's right to. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
LOS ANGELES Ballots for the coming Academy Awards are still being tabulated. But it already seems clear: This will not be Netflix's year. The streaming giant will arrive at Sunday's Oscar ceremony leading the field, with 24 nominations. That's up from 15 last year and eight the year before, a trajectory that highlights the success that Netflix has had in building a prestige film operation with a minimal presence in actual movie theaters. But the company could end the evening with only two wins, according to Gold Derby, which compiles the predictions of 28 awards handicappers, despite dumping truckloads of cash into awards oriented marketing campaigns. Competitors estimate that Netflix has spent at least 70 million, a startling sum even by Hollywood's profligate standards. Netflix declined to comment. It raises unpleasant questions for Netflix. Spending freely on awards campaigning is one of the ways it has been able to woo marquee filmmakers like Mr. Scorsese. But with some analysts starting to question the return Netflix already had a poor outcome at the recent Golden Globe Awards will the streaming giant change its ways? While there are those who would argue that competing films like "1917" and "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood" (Sony) are simply better, the film establishment has been wary of Netflix. Could the lack of statuettes be a backlash to a tech giant that is upending entertainment industry business practices and threatening Hollywood power hierarchies? Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, said losses at awards shows leading to the Oscars in no way represented an uprising against the company. "A pushback? Nobody can say that with a straight face," he said last week at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences annual nominee luncheon. "We got 24 nominations, the most of any studio. Our films have been honored across the board." The academy's old guard has resisted a dogged push by Netflix to join the best picture club, arguing that, since the streaming service does not release its films in a traditional theatrical manner, its offerings should be better considered by Emmy voters. (Helen Mirren, onstage at the most recent National Association of Theater Owners convention, used an expletive to refer to the company.) Some longtime academy members say that Netflix's campaigning has turned them off, in part because it reminds them of the days when Harvey Weinstein solicited Oscar votes with no stone unturned vigor. "Obviously, there is one company that is spending more than the others, but that's not going to affect how I will vote nor do I think it will affect other members," said Hawk Koch, a producer and former president of the academy, who recently wrote a memoir about his long career in Hollywood. "There is an awful lot of wasteful money being spent that could be used for making movies rather than trying to win an award." In truth, no film wins the top Oscar without spending. All nine of this year's best picture nominees have been draped in for your consideration campaigns for months. Sony has certainly not been stingy with its "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood" get out the vote effort, which included a 28 minute special about its themes ("a love letter to making movies") that ran on two Los Angeles television stations. Neon, the scrappy indie with the potential best picture disrupter "Parasite," has been spending money like a major, hopeful that the love for the genre defying South Korean film will help it make Oscar history. But Netflix has taken campaigning to a new level. Most studios put their firepower behind a couple of contenders. Netflix pitched eight films to awards voters this year, including two that received nominations for best animated film: "Klaus," a hand drawn holiday story that triumphed at the BAFTAs, Britain's equivalent of the Oscars, and "I Lost My Body," about an amputated hand. About 60 people work in Ms. Taback's department, which also includes talent relations. "Think of all of our awards work as a really smart way to make us the best home for talent in the world," Reed Hastings, Netflix's chief executive, said during a quarterly earnings call last month. "The business benefit is that we will win deals that we wouldn't have otherwise." Netflix may be spending a lot on awards campaigns. But the sum is a rounding error when you consider the company is poised to spend 17.3 billion on content this year. Rather than rely on trade news outlets, Netflix has opted to create its own, including a thick, expensive looking magazine called Queue, filled with glossy photos and essays from high profile contributors like Roxane Gay, and two separate podcasts from the former entertainment journalists Kris Tapley and Krista Smith (now consultants for Netflix). The company rented out the famed Belasco Theater on Broadway to screen "The Irishman" and reopened the defunct Manhattan single screen theater the Paris with a long term rental deal. The company is still conducting talks to buy the historic Egyptian theater in Hollywood. In December, The Washington Post revealed that Netflix had courted members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, which puts on the Critics' Choice Awards, with free trips to Los Angeles and New York for private access to filmmakers and stars. Members of the association who accepted stayed in luxury hotels like the Four Seasons. The group awarded Netflix films and television shows with nine trophies, including best acting ensemble for "The Irishman." In a statement this week, Netflix responded to the Post article, saying, in part: "Promotional tactics like junkets, screenings and festivals are standard industry practice and not just for awards." "Netflix is not violating any rules. They just have lots of resources," said Joe Pichirallo, a producer and a professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. "They do it to gain credibility and legitimacy and to let skittish auteur directors know that if you make a movie for Netflix, they will go all out to get you an Oscar, just like the studios." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Martin Lipton, chairman of the board of New York University, recently took a trustee to lunch at San Pietro, a pricey Manhattan restaurant frequented by the city's C.E.O.s. Over a meal that lasted several hours, they discussed Mr. Lipton's plans to step down next year, after 16 years at the helm. "Marty wants his own replacement there a year in advance," recalled Evan R. Chesler, chairman of Cravath, Swaine Moore, a leading New York law firm. The reason, he said: "The new chairman would be responsible for the process that selects the president who will replace John Sexton." It is Mr. Lipton, though, who will appoint the group of trustees, students and faculty members who will search for the next president of N.Y.U.; he also sits on the committee to select his own replacement as head of the board he created. More than a decade ago, Mr. Lipton handpicked Dr. Sexton without any systematic search process and for years the board could congratulate itself on its choice. During Dr. Sexton's tenure, admission applications have risen 45 percent, and N.Y.U. has attracted top level professors and administrators. But under a cloud of faculty unrest, Dr. Sexton announced in August that he would step down at the end of his term, in 2016. In the past two years, faculty anger at Dr. Sexton and the board has marred the university's increasingly high profile. Much as corporate boards came under public scrutiny in the 1980s, university boards are under pressure from faculty as they grapple with the same questions: Do they look too much like businesses and less like places of learning and to what extent should they globalize? But at N.Y.U., tensions have been particularly visible. Dr. Sexton has been widely criticized for an aggressive expansion program in Greenwich Village and for erecting campuses in parts of the world with oppressive governments. Faculty members, claiming to be underpaid and excluded from decision making, have struck out at what they view as lavish pay and perks for a few star employees: loans for vacation homes; executive exit bonuses of 1.23 million and near 700,000; a 1.5 million compensation package for the president plus a 2.5 million "length of service" bonus due next year, making Dr. Sexton among the highest paid college presidents in the country. While Dr. Sexton has taken the heat five schools passed votes of no confidence last year the person who has largely escaped attention is Mr. Lipton, who has wielded enormous power at N.Y.U. His tenure provides insight into just how important a chairman can be in shaping a university's agenda, given that the board's mandate includes choosing a president, approving salaries for top administrators and overseeing expansion. At N.Y.U., where Mr. Lipton has headed the highly influential compensation committee since 1998, the board's approval of generous compensation packages and intense loyalty to management parallel Mr. Lipton's views in the corporate world. Even as he retires as chairman, N.Y.U. will continue to bear his imprint. Mr. Lipton, who will remain on the board, is also on the committee that nominates new trustees, and has had a major role in choosing a majority of the 65 members (and two honorary members). That board is 1.7 times as large as the average private research university board, according to the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, and many of its members are, like Mr. Lipton, scrappy self made entrepreneurs. Along with a clutch of other N.Y.U. law school graduates, Mr. Lipton formed Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen Katz in 1965. The upstart firm lacked the pedigree of white shoe rivals. Nevertheless, in the ensuing decades, it muscled its way into the top ranks by representing corporations in some of the business world's biggest takeover battles. Mr. Lipton is best known for creating the "poison pill defense," a strategy to protect existing management by making the company's stock less attractive to a hostile bidder. Mr. Lipton sat for an interview in a small conference room in his unpretentious suite of offices at the firm's West 52nd Street headquarters. A portly 82 year old with disappearing curly white hair, he talked passionately about his commitment to the university. Mr. Lipton joined the law school board in 1972, and four years later was named a trustee of the university, working, he said, to help "bring N.Y.U. back from the brink of insolvency and help create a modern global research university." In 1998, he took over the board from Lawrence A. Tisch, who he recalls telling the trustees: "I am stepping down and proposing Marty as my successor before Marty gets too old to succeed me." Over the past dozen years, Mr. Lipton has been deeply immersed in Dr. Sexton's agenda for growth, making visits to N.Y.U.'s new Shanghai campus and helping establish its Abu Dhabi campus in the United Arab Emirates. He seemed as outraged by the attacks on Dr. Sexton as he might be over efforts to remove a corporate chief. (Dr. Sexton declined to be interviewed for this article.) Evan Chesler is a candidate to take over the board, and the discord surrounding it. Patrick Arrasmith for The New York Times "You would think the faculty would recognize the fabulous accomplishments he has made," Mr. Lipton said. "They thought that by having a vote of no confidence, they would panic the trustees," he said, just as a vote of no confidence led to Lawrence Summers's dismissal as president of Harvard. Mr. Lipton's indignation does not surprise Jonathan R. Macey, a professor of corporate law at Yale and author of "Corporate Governance: Promises Kept, Promises Broken." "He has built a reputation for work that is firmly of the view that incumbent management should be protected and that the incumbent board of directors is the only entity whose opinion matters in corporate governance," Professor Macey said. "In effect, John Sexton is the C.E.O. of N.Y.U.," he added. "So if you are facing a revolt of the faculty you can't be in a better position than John Sexton to ward off no confidence votes." To Mr. Lipton, N.Y.U.'s approach to compensation is entirely logical at a university in one of the world's most expensive cities. "You have to recognize that N.Y.U. is the largest private university in the country," he said, "and I don't think we pay outside the normal rate for similar institutions. You can best say that the policy of the university is to maintain a faculty of excellence and do what is necessary to attract distinguished people to the faculty." He added: "It is necessary and good for the institutions, just as it is good for corporate giants." Mr. Lipton practices what he preaches. Partners at Wachtell Lipton are routinely the highest paid in the country, according to The American Lawyer magazine. In 2012, they earned an average of 4.95 million. His board, too, includes hugely wealthy individuals, some of whose own pay has attracted headlines. Barry Diller, a U.C.L.A. dropout and Wachtell Lipton client, was in one year the highest paid executive in the country, with compensation of 295 million. Several board members say they have virtually never seen him at meetings. "But he is a contributor and is always available to me for advice," Mr. Lipton said. Other boldface names include Lisa Silverstein, daughter of the real estate developer Larry A. Silverstein, a longtime Wachtell Lipton client. The hedge fund moguls John Paulson and Michael H. Steinhardt are also trustees, as are Daniel R. Tisch, William C. Rudin and Constance J. Milstein, all members of powerful New York clans. Kenneth G. Langone, a co founder of Home Depot, is on the board. Mr. Langone donated 200 million to the medical center, which was renamed in his honor. (He was recently in hot water himself for sending mass emails to medical school staff, soliciting donations to politicians who had helped the center after Hurricane Sandy.) The roster includes at least one eyebrow raising trustee, Leonard A. Wilf. In September, Mr. Wilf and two cousins were ordered to pay 84.5 million to former business partners after a New Jersey judge ruled they had committed fraud, breach of contract and violated civil racketeering laws in a 1980s real estate case. An appeal has been filed. Mr. Lipton declined to comment but William Josephson, a lawyer who specializes in nonprofit institutions, said this: "I cannot recall an iconic American university having a board member with such a history." One might argue that a board so loaded with money moguls has lost touch. In September, a group of faculty activists sent out a "dear colleague" letter complaining that compensation to a select few was excessive relative to what most academic staff earned. Compensation to 25 top administrators rose 20.4 percent from 2010 to 2012. They noted that the average salary increase to faculty was just 2.5 percent at the university and 3 percent at the medical school. The administration's counterattack: many of the high earners are with the medical school, which operates separately from the university and with a different salary structure. Board members say compensation issues are carefully examined. "The idea of housing has been our greatest difficulty, and there have been substantial discussions about it," said William R. Berkley, chairman of an insurance holding company and member of the compensation committees at both N.Y.U. and the medical school. "It is complicated because young, terrific people coming to N.Y.U. have families who have to live in New York, and it is not an ordinary environment." In some cases, the university has bought homes for stars, including a 6.5 million apartment for the head of its medical center. N.Y.U.'s newest celebrity hire, the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, whom it lured away from Princeton, is getting university owned housing paying rent, according to the N.Y.U. spokesman John Beckman, that is "proportional" to what other faculty members pay in university owned residences. To end the "disruption," as Mr. Lipton refers to the tension gripping N.Y.U. last summer, he announced that the board would no longer make loans for vacation homes. The university has never divulged how many got those loans, though Mr. Berkley said it was fewer than 10 people. Mr. Lipton said he would continue to pay top talent what he views as necessary and to find ways to sweeten the pot. If there is controversy over how N.Y.U. spends its money, there can be no criticism of how effective the board has been at bringing it in. Since Mr. Lipton took over, it has raised 5.97 billion. William Berkley, also a contender to replace Mr. Lipton, says housing for star faculty has been the most difficult issue. Patrick Arrasmith for The New York Times Given the wealth on the board and the amount it has raised, some observers call it a "money board." Mr. Lipton laughed and said: "Bring us more money." While Mr. Lipton has successfully solicited gifts from board members Shelby White has given 200 million, Helen L. Kimmel 150 million there is a difference of opinion as to whether he has solicited their viewpoints as well. Mr. Berkley said, "Marty was always open to a dialogue about issues." Mr. Chesler concurs. But several other board members, who would not speak for attribution, said that Mr. Lipton ran the board with an iron hand. "It is Marty's board and he controls it," said one. Another added: "I would go so far as to say that the board has been a near rubber stamp board. And since they are not rubber stamp types, I scratch my head as to why. I think there is a long tradition of the board being quiescent with a management that it feels good about." Perhaps confidence in Dr. Sexton left the board blindsided to the degree of unhappiness among faculty. Faculty members have called on Mr. Lipton to resign, citing governance without faculty inclusion and failure to improve the conversation. They also object to how Mr. Lipton embraced Dr. Sexton. He sent out emails from the board supporting the president after the faculty had expressed concerns in no confidence votes. "That is not listening," said Robert Cohen, a professor of history and social studies at N.Y.U. "That is broadcasting." Mr. Berkley conceded: "John antagonized a lot of people trying to move a large institution into the 21st century. But we believed it was more of a fringe group than it ended up being. The straw that broke the camel's back was 2031" the controversial expansion plan, named for N.Y.U.'s 200th birthday. "It was a great idea that was not put forward in a way people understood," he said. Over the past several years N.Y.U. faculty members have joined with Greenwich Village preservation groups, celebrities and elected officials to fight the "Sexton plan" to add roughly two million square feet of space in the Village and six million over all. While Mr. Lipton and others say faculty members were consulted about the expansion, Mark Crispin Miller, who heads N.Y.U. Faculty Against the Sexton Plan, counters that they were not consulted during the planning process. In the latest development, in January, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled that the university must get state approval for roughly half its plan because it involves removing parkland a decision that will, it appears, at least slow the timetable. Both sides have appealed the decision. At a news conference shortly after the ruling, Mr. Miller urged Dr. Sexton's team to "rethink its policy" and "mend fences with its neighborhood and also with its professional body." The faculty group continues to fight. To help finance its agenda, it recently held an auction of donations, like a script reading by the author Peter Gethers and an acting lesson with Philip Seymour Hoffman (since Mr. Hoffman's death, Liev Schreiber has assumed the pledge). As Mr. Lipton attempts to seal his legacy, the board is scrambling to look more responsive to the issues that have roiled the campus and grabbed headlines. It will involve faculty and students in the search for a new president, and it has announced a drive to raise 1 billion for scholarships. N.Y.U.'s cost of attendance is about 64,000, and it ranks among the country's most expensive colleges and universities. On the federal Department of Education's list of nonprofit private institutions with the highest net price cost of attendance minus financial aid only the New School and seven art and music academies cost more than N.Y.U. Asked about students' ability to afford his university, Mr. Lipton responded: "We do everything we can to provide financial assistance to our students. Our students are not begging in the streets." As for his retirement as chairman, Mr. Lipton said, somewhat facetiously: "I am getting too old and have served too long." Mr. Chesler and Mr. Berkley are leading candidates to replace him. He seems certain the global mission will not change, in part because his board has been so enthusiastic. "The critics," he said, "are shortsighted." Richard Chait, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and consultant to nonprofit institutions, has been watching the events at N.Y.U. unfold over the last year and sums it up this way: "If you believe youpainted the Mona Lisa, you don't want someone to put a mustache on it." "At the same time," he said, "part of what the faculty is saying is: This has been a two man show; that is not how you run a university." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
Michael Seidenberg, whose clandestine bookshop and literary salon on the Upper East Side was much loved by bibliophiles, literati and inveterate browsers, died on July 8 in a hospital in Danbury, Conn. He was 64. His wife, Nicky Roe, said the cause was heart failure. Mr. Seidenberg, who lived in Manhattan and in Kent, N.Y., ran Brazenhead Books, which was a storefront establishment when he started it in the late 1970s on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. It remained so when he moved it to East 84th Street around 1980, but business wasn't as brisk as he might have liked. "One reason was that the entrance was a few steps below the sidewalk," Mr. Seidenberg told The New Yorker in 2008, "and lots of people seem to have an aversion to walking down." When he lost his lease seven years later the landlord wanted to put in a laundry, he said he moved his vast inventory of used books, some of them first editions, autographed or otherwise noteworthy, to his rent controlled apartment on the same block. "It was an amount of books you wouldn't necessarily want to live with," he said, and he and his wife moved to an apartment nearby and left the place to the books, setting the stage for a quirky bit of New York history. Mr. Seidenberg plied his trade at book fairs and on sidewalks for some years. But around 2008, with the help of George Bisacca, a conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he turned the book stuffed apartment into a secret bookstore, open at select times or by appointment to friends and admirers. Sometimes a visitor might actually buy a book, but the place was more like a salon, with literary figures and book lovers mingling and sharing a drink at a bar stocked mostly with liquor contributed by patrons. "It's a bigger thing than a bookstore it's a community of writers," he told The New York Times in 2015. "Dylan Thomas is not drinking in the West Village anymore. Kerouac and the Beats are not hanging out. So this is a place people can come." Soon the covert bookstore/salon was not so covert; "every year, it got less and less secret," Mr. Seidenberg acknowledged. It may have become too well known. In 2015 the landlord, saying the site was more store than apartment, began eviction proceedings. The closing that year became somewhat circuslike, with lots of news coverage and curiosity seekers. "By the end there were a lot of hangers on who were there for booze and not for books," Mr. Seidenberg told The Guardian. "The inner circle people weren't happy those last days." "After the publicity boom around the eviction," Mr. Lethem said by email, "he never wanted to cut such a public profile again." As Mr. Seidenberg told The Guardian, "People found me before, and they will find me again." Michael Richard Seidenberg was born on July 22, 1954, in Brooklyn. His father, Sam, worked in the garment industry, and his mother, Dorothy Hara, was a bookkeeper. He grew up in Brooklyn and, he said, was a bibliophile from an early age. "I just loved books," he said in a video made in conjunction with the article in The New Yorker. "Just driving around I would get excited whenever I would see a 'B O O' and then all of a sudden it's 'BOOTS.' And I'm, 'Nooo.' " When he first started as a book dealer in Brooklyn, it was one of several occupations; he "ran a bookshop, a puppet troupe and theater, and a moving company all out of the same storefront," as The New Yorker put it. As a teenager, Mr. Lethem came in and ended up working there. "My brain is still shaped like the long list of books Michael told me to read," he told Salon in 2015, "and which I took home instead of pay." The speakeasy bookstore (as news articles often called it) on East 84th Street was a place that, it was commonly said, you could go to for the first time only in the company of a regular. But the writer David Burr Gerrard, in a tribute to Mr. Seidenberg posted on lithub.com last week, said that wasn't really true. "Michael was, as he liked to say with his trademark this should be obvious but nobody thinks of it grin, 'in the phone book,' " he wrote, "and would happily give his address to any stranger who called him." Mr. Gerrard, who was a frequent visitor, described the scene. "Pulpy 1950s thrillers stood close to the front, as though to remind you not to get too self serious in a place that also offered esoteric experimental literature that had been out of print for decades, books you never heard of until Michael put them in your hands and you wondered how you had ever lived without them," he wrote. "The apartment was overstuffed, with books apparently strewn everywhere, and yet somehow their arrangement was so aesthetically gorgeous that, on my first visit and my fiftieth, I could hardly believe it was real." Mr. Seidenberg's first marriage, to Thelma Woozley, ended in divorce. He and Ms. Roe had been together since 1980. Mr. Seidenberg often described himself as a good book collector but a lousy bookseller. Money, though, did not seem to be all that important to him, perhaps in part because the place on 84th Street was rent controlled. The Guardian, in its 2015 article, also mentioned a small inheritance that enabled him to buy the house upstate. He told Gothamist in 2015: "I luckily have enough money that I only need to make very little. So if I have a customer that picks up a 20 book and I know he's a writer, the book is going to be 10." And so at least until things got too crazy amid the publicity over the eviction, he didn't mind that a lot of his regular visitors weren't really customers, but came by only to hang out; one young woman, he told Gothamist, stopped by once a month just to smoke pot. "I love that," he said. "To me, it's a compliment above and beyond what I do with the books that I've created a zone where people can be themselves." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Mr. de Santiago is a Spanish artist based in London whose biography on his official web page states, "I like to explore social interactions and gather them into quirky and colourful storytelling compositions." According to Zara, he said the frog face "came from a wall painting I drew with friends four years ago." It is not hard to imagine he was unaware a similar frog face had been used for a somewhat different purpose in the United States. Unfortunately for Zara, however, the brand has a history with public pressure over a product with potentially offensive implications especially anti Semitic implications which may have exacerbated the reaction. In 2014, it apologized for offering, and then withdrew, a set of children's striped pajamas with a yellow star on the breast that was widely seen as resembling a concentration camp uniform (the star was supposed to be a sheriff's badge). In 2007, it withdrew a handbag printed with folkloric designs, one of which happened to look a lot like a swastika. All of this may add up to something of a teachable moment for the fast fashion model. Because the business is based on the constant turnover of new products that are effectively "tested" on the shop floor, so that companies can respond quickly to what sells and drop less popular items without much cost, it involves a higher than usual amount of churn. This may mean designs are subject to less stringent vetting than they might be in, say, a traditional fashion brand in which products are created and assessed more than six months ahead of production. Add to that the recent commercialization of the summer festival circuit, in which corporate giants are leveraging the fashion appeal of sartorial rebellion (always a dangerous game, since it co opts symbols without really understanding their use), and the pitfalls were potentially pretty big. Just think for a minute of the absurdity implicit in choosing a hate symbol to stick on a garment seemingly meant for a summer of love/dancing in the muddy fields type event. Oops. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
WESTFIELD, N.J. To Johnnie McDowell, the house on Livingston Street seems to taunt him every time he walks by. It's nothing special: The two story home is a bit shabby, and it's been on and off the market in recent months without finding a buyer. Still, he cannot stop dreaming of a better life for his family as he imagines the extra space inside and his children and dog playing outdoors once he weeds the yard. The McDowell family, however, remains squeezed into a rental apartment: a single floor of an oddly configured duplex that Mr. McDowell has fashioned into three small bedrooms for himself, his wife, Takiba, and two children. With a monthly rent of 1,400, car payments, unpredictable family expenses, a spotty credit report and an empty savings account, Mr. McDowell sees no way to soon pull together a decent down payment. "My wife and I have been wanting to go on the market to buy a house for years now," Mr. McDowell, 41, said. "But bills, bills, bills and car notes and car insurance. We haven't been able to save anything." In the past, many families like the McDowells, whose household income is almost 100,000 a year, would already be nestled in a starter home, maybe even on the cusp of upgrading to something bigger and more expensive on the profits from their first house. "It's more of a new normal," said Robert J. Shiller, an economics professor at Yale University and a Nobel laureate. "We went through a wrenching experience with the biggest housing bubble and the biggest collapse since 1890. This is an anxious time." The nation's homeownership rate has been falling for eight years, down to 63.7 percent in the first quarter of this year from a peak of over 69 percent in 2004, according to a new report released on Wednesday by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. The flip side of the decline in homeownership is a boom in rentals and a significant rise in the cost of renting. On average, the number of new rental households has increased by 770,000 annually since 2004, the center's report said, making 2004 14 the strongest 10 year stretch of rental growth since the late 1980s. Many people living in rentals were once owners; they lost their homes to foreclosure and now have such damaged credit reports that they find it nearly impossible to qualify for a mortgage. Others are trapped because lenders have significantly tightened credit standards after the abuses of the boom era. And while the federal government has created programs to encourage lenders to offer mortgages requiring only a small down payment, the efforts are so nascent that officials won't say how many people have taken advantage of them. Apart from the hangover from the housing collapse and the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, the nation's changing demographics are also causing a major shift in housing trends. For instance, a majority of new households expected to be formed in coming years will consist of people with a minority background. Historically such Americans have had lower incomes and fewer assets and were less able to buy homes, according to the Urban Institute. At the same time, millions of young adults who normally would be first time home buyers are still struggling to find decent jobs; many are also putting off marriage and having children, a trigger for home buying. They are also more likely than previous generations to be saddled with heavy student loan payments that hurt their ability to save for a down payment. But it is not just younger people who are having trouble owning a home. According to the Joint Center's report, that rate dropped the fastest for people in their late 30s to early 50s. These people were in their prime home buying years right before the recession; when housing prices plummeted, they were left with little or no equity. Some economists see signs of a turnaround, with reluctant renters like Mr. McDowell starting to find ways to enter the mortgage market, where interest rates are still at bargain levels. The economists predict home buying will continue to rise as long as the economy keeps growing and unemployment falls further, prodding employers to raise wages faster than inflation. "With each passing year," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, "we're making progress." Covid's impact on the supply chain continues. The pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of the global supply chain and made all kinds of products harder to find. In turn, scarcity has caused the prices of many things to go higher as inflation remains stubbornly high. Almost anything manufactured is in short supply. That includes everything from toilet paper to new cars. The disruptions go back to the beginning of the pandemic, when factories in Asia and Europe were forced to shut down and shipping companies cut their schedules. First, demand for home goods spiked. Money that Americans once spent on experiences were redirected to things for their homes. The surge clogged the system for transporting goods to the factories that needed them and finished products piled up because of a shortage of shipping containers. Now, ports are struggling to keep up. In North America and Europe, where containers are arriving, the heavy influx of ships is overwhelming ports. With warehouses full, containers are piling up. The chaos in global shipping is likely to persist as a result of the massive traffic jam. No one really knows when the crisis will end. Shortages and delays are likely to affect this year's Christmas and holiday shopping season, but what happens after that is unclear. Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said he expects supply chain problems to persist "likely well into next year." But in the meantime, the flood of renters has reduced the national vacancy rate to its lowest point in nearly 20 years, according to the center's report. And while builders are adding apartments rapidly, they are concentrating on the higher end of the market, pinching those in the middle and bottom. Last year, rents rose at a 3.2 percent rate, more than twice the pace of overall inflation. "During the broader recovery, the jobs have been created in the same metro areas where housing is relatively scarce Boston; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Seattle," said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow, a real estate website. "That's inflamed rent appreciation." According to the housing center's report, the share of renters paying more than 30 percent of their income on rent defined as "cost burdened" has held at near record highs. In 2013, almost half of all renters fell into that category. The share of cost burdened renters is growing among people with moderate incomes, those who earn from 30,000 to 75,000 a year, the report said. The situation is particularly acute in New Jersey, where the McDowell family lives. According to an analysis of 2013 government data by Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit based in Columbia, Md., dedicated to creating more affordable housing, more than three out of 10 New Jersey renters spend at least half of their household income on rent and utilities, the second highest rate in the nation, behind Florida. Mr. McDowell and his wife have long commutes. After being stranded when his car broke down, he bought two new vehicles last year to ensure they both can get to work. Payments total about 750 a month. The son of a single mother, Mr. McDowell has no family to tap for a financial gift or even a loan. He could move to a less expensive town where homes are cheaper, but he wants to stay in pricier Westfield for its good schools. Mr. McDowell moved around a lot when he was growing up, and so he craves the opposite for his family: a place that he can be assured his children will call home for years. That fixer upper on Livingston Street, listed for 200,000, could be the one. "It teases me," he said. On a recent warm evening, Mr. McDowell stood outside the broken white picket fence that lined the home, with Erin bouncing down the sidewalk. "I would rip up all of this," he said, plotting how he'd clean up the yard so the children and their shih tzu, Cleo, could safely play. "I have dreams. My wife and I have dreams." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
HAMBURG, Germany Hangar doors slid open to reveal a fleet of white Mercedes Benz vehicles arrayed on a rain slicked runway. As fireworks shot skyward, an imposing gray sedan zoomed forward onto a temporary stage, delivering Alicia Keys, in a dark floor length evening gown, to the piano where she performed with a local backup band, the Hamburg Symphony. Befitting the flagship of the Mercedes line, the premiere of the new S Class at a vast Airbus jetliner factory here on Wednesday night was a grandiose event. Always a showcase for luxury appointments, this latest incarnation of the S Class is notable for much more than features like the so called hot stone massages offered by its reclining rear seats. Or the Wi Fi. Or the cup holders that keep drinks warm or cold. The 2014 S Class, which goes on sale in September at an estimated starting price of 100,000, is a significant advance in the development of autonomous autos. That is, while it still requires a human behind the steering wheel, in the right conditions the car can steer itself through city traffic or drive on the highway at speeds upward of 120 miles an hour using an array of radar, infrared and optical sensors to track lane markings or the car ahead even around curves. "It marks the beginning of autonomous driving," said Dieter Zetsche, chief executive of Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes Benz. There might be an element of hyperbole in that statement. But certainly the S Class, which can also park itself, brake automatically to avoid hitting humans or other cars and sense when a driver is becoming fatigued, is a further evolution of systems intended to relieve some of the tedium of driving. The optional system is analogous to the autopilots that enable airliners to carry out many of the routine tasks of flight and cruising but still require a human pilot to keep an eye on things. Future upgrades of the Mercedes S Class will enable the car to automatically change lanes at autobahn speeds. Along with BMW and Audi, its German luxury rivals, Mercedes is pushing technology ever closer toward a virtual chauffeur. BMW later this year plans to roll out a similar system in its i3 electric city car, and soon after in the 7 Series luxury sedan. Most major carmakers are working on some form of self driving capability. The 2013 Lincoln MKZ has a system that keeps the car in lane and maintains a set distance from the vehicle ahead. But unlike the Lincoln, the Mercedes is programmed to hold the car in the middle of the lane, rather than just correcting if the driver drifts out of line. Still, German engineers are skeptical of predictions by Google engineers and others that within five years vehicles will be driving themselves from the garage to the grocery store without human intervention. It will take a decade, maybe more, to solve all the technological and legal problems, they say. "We think we still have quite a bit of work ahead of us," said Werner Huber, director of driver assistance technology at BMW. It is logical that German carmakers would be leading the way toward vehicles that can drive themselves. Their well heeled customers are willing and able to pay for a feature that would, for instance, let them check a stock portfolio online while stuck in traffic, rather than staring at the taillights ahead. Even BMW executives are willing to admit that there are times when the company's longtime German marketing slogan of "Freude am Fahren," which translates to the joy of driving, doesn't apply. "In a lot of situations you don't have any joy in driving," Mr. Huber said during a recent interview in the plain brick building in Munich that houses his research team. His group includes engineers, software specialists, sensor experts and psychologists. "The joy is in being driven," he said. Self driving cars might one day also offer mobility to people who are unable to drive because of age or handicaps. Google, applying its expertise in artificial intelligence, created a stir last year with a video that showed a blind man at the wheel of one of the company's self driving vehicles. The implication is that self driving cars are close to reality. "What was once previously thought of as science fiction and decades away from reality may now appear to be just around the corner," Mr. Strickland said, according to a text of his remarks. The more cautious assessment of self driving technology by Mr. Huber and others partly reflects the classic Spock vs. Kirk difference in mentality between Germany's rational, data driven engineers and the visionaries of Silicon Valley. Who proves to be right could have major implications for society. At least in theory, self driving cars would be safer, able to react more quickly than humans to avoid danger and use less fuel. But German engineers point out they are a long way from having software that can do things that come natural to humans for instance, judging whether a person standing at a street corner is about to cross the road or is just waiting for a bus. There are also myriad legal issues which must be resolved by governments and insurance companies. If a car gets in an accident while on autopilot, who pays the damage, the car's owner or the automaker? The questions about liability are one reason that the Mercedes system requires the driver to keep at least one hand on the steering wheel. Mr. Zetsche, the Daimler chief executive, said that experimental Mercedes technology already enables a car to drive itself from one place to another without human intervention, though more work remains to ensure the system is totally reliable. It might take longer to perfect the legal framework than the software, he said. "Certainly in a decade I would sit in a car a Mercedes car and let the car go from A to B," Mr. Zetsche said in a brief interview at the S Class introduction. "We might still struggle with the legal challenges." A recent ride in a self driving BMW research car illustrated some of the hurdles. The test vehicle, a 5 Series sedan loaded with a dozen unobtrusive sensors, handled heavy autobahn traffic outside Munich with aplomb. It slowed down to let a Ford Fiesta merge into traffic from an onramp, for example. It read traffic signs and adjusted the car's speed automatically. But the logic driven BMW had trouble gauging the intentions of erratic humans. When a vehicle in the lane to the left slowed down for no apparent reason, the BMW slowed down too in order to avoid passing on the right. A human being might not have interpreted the rules of the road so literally. Mr. Huber said that more sophisticated sensors were needed to make it possible for cars to analyze everything that is happening on the road and react more like a human driver would. As part of its autonomous driving program, Audi, a unit of the Volkswagen Group, is working on a system that would enable cars to drive themselves into a parking garage and find an empty space without a human aboard a threat to valet parking attendants everywhere. But the system requires specially equipped garages. Autonomous driving will be easier to manage when car companies work out standards that would let cars share information like location and speed among themselves. Cost is another obstacle. Self driving technology will not be feasible until the equipment itself is affordable. The expense of research and development is one reason BMW formed a partnership with a German components supplier, Continental, to develop what it calls the Connected Drive systems. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
As delightful as webcams are, they are prone to glitches and require patience. I checked a San Diego Zoo Safari Park webcam repeatedly before I finally glimpsed Birrarung and Eve, the only zoo platypuses outside Australia. If you prefer more immediate gratification, I recommend the National Zoo's cam of Potpie, a black footed ferret, and her kits, which seem to be always playing or snoozing adorably. Or catch the hilarious antics of the National's naked mole rats, which have all the grace of frenzied preschoolers at a birthday party. As the zoo's website tactfully states, "Naked mole rats engage in behaviors that may seem rude by human standards." For fees, some organizations have begun to offer far more intimate, interactive and reservations only online experiences. On Saturday, the Shedd will introduce Virtual Penguin Encounters, small capacity, 45 minute long cybervisits ( 59.95 for nonmembers; 54.95 for members) with the aquarium's staff and its birds. This week, the Bronx Zoo started its own Virtual Wild Encounters. During these Zoom sessions, a few participants can closely observe one of a variety of species. "The keepers will show the animal and talk about it, and people can ask questions," said Karen Tingley, director of education, zoos and aquarium, for the Wildlife Conservation Society. The 15 minute encounters aren't cheap they range from 100 for an alpaca to 250 for a cheetah or predictable, but that unknown element may be part of the fun. For those not looking to spend money, the latest season of Animal Planet's television series "The Zoo" featured the Bronx Zoo (and the four other Wildlife Conservation Society parks); cable subscribers can stream the episodes free on the channel's website. The Staten Island Zoo, which is not part of the society, is working on a new free virtual tour, and its YouTube education channel offers video presentations of creatures like Bintu, an African crested porcupine who loves having his chin scratched. If you miss the birding and nature walks at Wave Hill, a Bronx public garden, you can take brief virtual versions on its website, which also has apiary videos. (The garden plans to reopen its grounds on July 30.) And the Queens County Farm Museum, which in August will introduce Bee Cam, a streaming platform of its 30 honeybee hives, now offers BarnCam, a program of social media posts that often feature the farm's sheep, alpacas and goats. In response to the pandemic, the National Zoo has also restored NatZooZen, brief videos on social media that document moments of serenity, like a cheetah purring or an American bison rolling exuberantly in the dirt. Although the zoo reopens (with restrictions) on Friday, it will continue to post those clips as stress relievers. The San Diego Zoo has even made more than 25 online courses for professionals available to the public. "We built these self guided educational modules for the zoological community," said Ted Molter, chief marketing officer for San Diego Zoo Global. "We recognized that some of this content was good for a general audience." Through August, anyone 13 or older can take a one to two hour San Diego Zoo Global Academy course tuition free, and learn about tigers, great apes or koalas, among other animals. Educational opportunities for younger wildlife fans include Kids Corner, a series of videos with titles like "Misunderstood Meat Eaters" and "Aquatic Locomotors," which appear on the zoo's website for children. Young people who are missing their usual summer programs can still enroll in online camps. The Alley Pond Environmental Center in Queens has developed the Virtual Summer Science in the Natural World series, which includes live animals. The Shedd, which has many children's activities on its Stay Home With Shedd webpage, has added two weeks in August to its Summer Splash Camp: Stay Home Edition. The Wildlife Conservation Society offers sessions through the first week of September in its Wildlife Camp Online, which is much more international than previous years' in person versions. "We have access to W.C.S. scientists around the globe," Ms. Tingley said. "Many haven't been part of these programs because they're too far away." Students in the Wildlife Careers weeklong sessions for Grades 6 to 8 "get to interview several scientists who are out in the field," she said. I look forward to continuing my own virtual explorations of wildlife parks in distant cities. This summer, I doubt I'll get to the zoo, but I'll be sure to keep spying on those black footed ferrets. If nothing but the real thing will do, you'll be happy to hear that zoos and nature centers in New York City have begun to welcome back visitors under Phase 4 of the reopening plan. Only outdoor exhibits and areas, however, are accessible, and because of the renewed ban on indoor entertainment, the New York Aquarium remains closed. Facilities can admit no more than 33 percent of their full capacities, and generally require social distancing (six feet) and visitors 3 and older to wear masks. It's a good idea to check an organization's website when planning a visit; reservations or advance ticket purchases may be necessary, and even some outdoor displays may be closed. Here are guidelines for some locations in the city and region that are open or about to open this weekend. Alley Pond Environmental Center, Queens: The hiking trails at the center's temporary location in the Oakland Gardens section are open. alleypond.org | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
This summer, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater will join many other New York City cultural institutions in commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which brought the fight for gay rights into public view in 1969. From June 20 24, the theater will present Pride Plays, a festival of readings that celebrate L.G.B.T.Q. voices, produced by Doug Nevin and the actor Michael Urie, and directed by Nick Mayo. The festival will include plays in the queer theater canon alongside works from a new generation of artists. The lineup, which Mr. Nevin and Mr. Urie say is not yet complete, includes classics like William Hoffman's "As Is," Chay Yew's "A Language of Their Own" and Jane Chambers's "Last Summer at Bluefish Cove." But the producers also plan to highlight work from emerging playwrights like MJ Kaufman and Daaimah Mubashshir, whose play "Room Enough (For Us All)" explores gay life and cultural identity for a young Muslim woman. Check out our Culture Calendar here. To ensure that the selection of playwrights and plays reflected diverse voices, the organizers put together an advisory committee that includes the playwrights Moises Kaufman, Lucy Thurber and Mr. Yew, who the producers say have encouraged them to listen to new voices. "If you look back at all history it's generally been written by white men, and so much of the theater has been predominantly that," Mr. Urie said. "We really wanted, as we look forward, to find plays that accurately represented the community, which is so vast." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Despite the horrifying surge of Covid 19 cases and deaths in the United States right now, one bit of good news is emerging this winter: It looks unlikely that the country will endure a "twindemic" of both flu and the coronavirus at the same time. That comes as a profound relief to public health officials who predicted as far back as April that thousands of flu victims with pneumonia could pour into hospitals this winter, competing with equally desperate Covid 19 pneumonia victims for scarce ventilators. "Overall flu activity is low, and lower than we usually see at this time of year," said Dr. Daniel B. Jernigan, director of the influenza division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "I don't think we can definitively say there will be no twindemic; I've been working with flu for a long time, and I've been burned. But flu is atypically low." Since September, the C.D.C. "FluView" its weekly report on influenza surveillance has shown all 50 states in shades of green and chartreuse, indicating "minimal" or "low" flu activity. Normally by December, at least some states are painted in oranges and reds for "moderate" and "high." Of 232,452 swabs from across the country that have been tested for flu, only 496, or 0.2 percent, have come up positive. That has buoyed the spirits of flu experts. Dr. William Schaffner, medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, which promotes flu shots, said he was recently on a telephone discussion with other preventive medicine specialists. "Everybody was in quiet awe about how low flu is," he said. "Somebody said: 'Shh, don't talk about it. The virus will hear us.'" Flu numbers are likely to remain low for many more weeks, predicted Kinsa Health, a company that uses cellphone connected thermometers and historical databases to forecast flu trends. A combination of factors is responsible for the remarkably quiet flu season, experts said. In the Southern Hemisphere, where winter stretches from June through August, widespread mask wearing, rigorous lockdowns and other precautions against Covid 19 transmission drove flu down to record low levels. Southern Hemisphere countries help "reseed" influenza viruses in the Northern Hemisphere each year, Dr. Jernigan said. Also, to keep Covid 19 out, New Zealand and Australia have closed their borders either to all noncitizens or to Americans, so there has been very little air traffic from those Southern Hemisphere countries. In the United States, the cancellation of large indoor gatherings, closings of schools and use of masks to prevent coronavirus transmission have also driven down levels of all respiratory diseases, including influenza. In addition, Dr. Jernigan said, a "phenomenal number" of flu shots were manufactured and shipped to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors' office in August, a month earlier than usual. As of late November, 188 million doses had been shipped; the old record was 175 million doses shipped last year. Spot shortages were quickly reported in some cities, so experts assumed that large numbers of Americans took them. However, there is not yet enough data to confirm that assumption. According to a preliminary tally released Dec. 9, about 70 million adults had received the shots through pharmacies or doctors' offices as of mid November, compared with 58 million last year. Although that appears to be a substantial increase, the C.D.C. does not know how many Americans who normally get their flu shots at work were unable to do so this year because of stay at home orders, said Dr. Ram Koppaka, the agency's associate director for adult immunization. There was a big increase in flu shots delivered by pharmacies, and that may represent people who normally would have received the shots at work. Who should get a booster shot? It depends, Dr. Scott Gottlieb says. "The best we can say is that it appears that we are now about where we were last year," Dr. Koppaka said. Given that vaccines were available early, he added: "I'm disappointed that it's not better than it is. We need to keep telling people that it's not too late to get a flu shot." Normally, about 80 percent of all adults who get flu shots have had them by the end of November. But about nine million doses of vaccines that were meant for uninsured adults, and which the federal government purchased this year out of fear of a "twindemic," are still being delivered, Dr. Koppaka said. The final tally of how many shots were taken will not be available until summer, after the flu season is over, he said. Nonetheless, even the preliminary data showed disturbing trends in two important target groups: pregnant women and children. Only 54 percent of pregnant women have received flu vaccine this year, compared with 58 percent by this time last year. And, although about 48 percent of all children got flu shots both last year and this year, the percentage of Black children who got them dropped substantially this year, by 11 percentage points. Dr. Koppaka said he could not yet account for those drops in coverage. Pregnant women might have been afraid to go to doctors or pharmacies for fear of getting Covid 19, and many Black children might have been missed because public schools that offer vaccines were closed but that was just speculation, he emphasized. Although Dr. Koppaka strongly encouraged unvaccinated Americans to get flu shots, the threat of a two headed pandemic monster appears to be fading. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the C.D.C. is not currently posting forecasts on its FluSight page, where it predicts the future course of the flu season. Kinsa Health, by contrast, is predicting that flu will stay at historic lows through February, when the season typically peaks. The company has a record of accurately predicting flu seasons several weeks ahead of the C.D.C. C.D.C. surveillance data is based on weekly reports from doctors' offices and hospitals noting the percentage of patient visits that are for flu symptoms. Because there are delays in reporting, sometimes for weeks, there is a lag between the time a flu arrives in a county and the agency's confirmation that it is there. Also, people who catch flu but never see a doctor are not captured in the C.D.C.'s surveillance net. People avoid doctors for many reasons, including a lack of insurance or because, this year, they are afraid of catching the coronavirus. Kinsa receives about 100,000 readings each day from about two million thermometers connected to smartphones; the company claims it can detect local fever spikes down to the ZIP code level. Both Covid 19 and flu can drive up the number of reported fevers, but flu outbreaks can be distinguished from Covid ones, Mr. Singh said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
After months of protest from doctors and patients, a professional group that certifies obstetrician gynecologists has lifted a ban it imposed in September and now says its members are free to treat men. The decision, announced Thursday by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was a reversal of its September directive, and followed partial concessions the group had made in November and December in an effort to mollify critics. Board members refused to be interviewed, but issued a statement in which the executive director, Dr. Larry C. Gilstrap, said: "This change recognizes that in a few rare instances board certified diplomates were being called upon to treat men for certain conditions and to participate in research. This issue became a distraction from our mission to ensure that women receive high quality and safe health care from certified obstetricians and gynecologists." The uproar began last fall soon after the board, based in Dallas, posted on its website what it called "a more expanded version of the definition of an obstetrician gynecologist." A notice in a red box near the top of its home page stated that members were "expected to practice consistent with this definition," and warned, "Failure to do so may result in loss of certification." The directive prohibited treating male patients, except in certain circumstances like circumcising newborns, treating transgender people or helping couples with infertility or genetic problems. The board also said members had to devote at least 75 percent of their practice to obstetrics and gynecology. Doctors take such requirements seriously. Although board certification is voluntary and not required by law, doctors need it to work because most hospitals and insurers insist on it, as do many patients. In an interview in November, Dr. Gilstrap said the board's action in September was meant to protect patients and the integrity of the specialty because some gynecologists were practicing other types of medicine, like treating men for low testosterone or performing liposuction and other cosmetic procedures on women and men. And some, he said, ran ads offering those services and describing themselves as board certified, without specifying that their certification was in obstetrics and gynecology, an omission that could mislead patients into thinking they were certified in plastic surgery or some other specialty. The first reaction against the September directive came from gynecologists who were screening men at high risk for anal cancer, using techniques similar to those used to detect cervical cancer in women. Few doctors had expertise in screening men for anal cancer, those gynecologists said, and they feared the ban would interrupt patient care and interfere with a major government funded study aimed at finding out whether screening for precancerous growths can prevent the cancer. The board initially refused to change its position, but in November, it relented on that point and gave members permission to continue screening men for the cancer. More protests erupted. Doctors, patients and physical therapists implored the board to make another exception, this time for gynecologists who had expertise in treating men for chronic pelvic pain, a poorly understood condition that can be severe enough to leave patients unable to work. At first, the board denied the requests. Then, in December, it said gynecologists could continue to treat men already in their care for pelvic pain, but they were not allowed to take on new cases. The board's troubles were still not over. On Jan. 10, a lawyer wrote, threatening to sue unless the prohibition against treating men was withdrawn. The lawyer, Tom Curtis of Nossaman LLP, based in Irvine, Calif., suggested that the ban violated antitrust laws. His client was Dr. David Matlock, an obstetrician gynecologist in Los Angeles who performs a variety of cosmetic vaginal operations and also does liposuction on men and women. In an interview, Dr. Matlock said 4.7 percent of his patients were men. A lawyer for the board replied to Mr. Curtis on Jan. 21, stating that the group was considering another revised definition one that would delete the prohibition on treating men. The lawyer, Stephen L. Tatum, of Cantey Hanger LLP in Fort Worth, asked that Mr. Curtis "consider the revised definition before taking any further legal action." Mr. Curtis provided copies of the correspondence to The New York Times. On Thursday, the board announced its decision. The ban on treating men is gone, as is the requirement that members devote at least 75 percent of their practice to obstetrics and gynecology. Now, the board says members must devote "a majority" of their practice to the specialty. David Margulies, the head of a public relations firm and a spokesman for the board, said in an email that the threat of a lawsuit had nothing to do with the board's decision, and that "the changes were in the works prior to correspondence from Mr. Curtis." Mr. Margulies said the board had begun considering the issue in November, after a New York Times article described doctors' worries about patients at risk for anal cancer. Stephanie Prendergast, a physical therapist in San Francisco and a past president of the International Pelvic Pain Society, a professional association, said by email that the ban on treating men had interrupted treatment plans for men with pelvic pain, and that Thursday's decision was "a victory for patients." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Connie Ottmann, a high school English teacher from Maine, had always wanted to live in New York City. And last summer, when she was 66, seemed the right time to do it. Retired for several years, she had been rereading the works of the mythologist Joseph Campbell, who "really affirmed living life as an adventure." Once she made the decision, things fell into place. A friend who is a real estate agent offered to help rent her house in Hallowell, near Augusta, then quickly found a couple who signed a yearlong lease. Her sister in Irvington, N.Y., was going through some life changes and was happy to have her as a houseguest for several months, so Ms. Ottmann was able to conduct her apartment hunt from a place near the city. "It seems invisible hands carried me here," Ms. Ottmann said. "I couldn't afford to rent an apartment alone so I thought, 'I'll rent a room.'" She was confident that finding an apartment share would also go smoothly. Many friends and family members were not equally confident. "People weren't too optimistic," she said. Her brother, who owns a house in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, didn't think she would be able to find a place. A college friend who lived in the city was equally discouraging about securing a room share: "She said, 'Eh, that's mostly young people.'" But her son and his girlfriend, who rent an apartment in her brother's house, were encouraging. So, undeterred, Ms. Ottmann started looking for Brooklyn room shares on Listings Project, a weekly email with real estate listings, and Roomi, an app. She did experience a twinge of concern after noticing that most Listings Project users seemed to be between 28 and 40; Roomi also skewed younger. Several responses she wrote to ads went unanswered, including one she sent to a pair of comedians. "I'd thought it might provide them with new material for their acts," she said. "I got a little discouraged at first, but then I started hearing back from people," Ms. Ottmann said. A nice young man who got in touch had just rented an unfurnished apartment and was looking for someone to split the broker's fee, which wasn't ideal for Ms. Ottmann, who was planning to stay for only a year. She met a pleasant couple looking to rent the second bedroom in their apartment, but the place was small and she thought living with a couple might not be the best option. A third apartment was run down and smelled like cat urine. And then she found a seemingly perfect situation: two rooms a bedroom plus a separate room for a studio in a Bedford Stuyvesant three bedroom shared with one roommate. It was a furnished sublet of at least six months and the rent, including utilities, was 1,200 a month. Ms. Ottmann, who paints and writes a blog, had hoped for a space to work in other than her bedroom, but had dismissed the idea as unrealistic. And yet, here it was. Occupation: Ms. Ottmann is a retired high school English teacher; Ms. Calvo is an archivist at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Dividing a three bedroom: Ms. Ottmann gets two bedrooms, but Ms. Calvo's room is about the size of the other two rooms combined, so they pay the same amount of rent. Dealing with the coronavirus: "I knew there would be risks, uncertainties and trials along the way," Ms. Ottmann said, but this was not one she planned for. When she saw it in person, Ms. Ottmann immediately liked the space. "I found the apartment quite spacious, and I liked how they set it up," she said. The departing tenant, a woman in her 30s, interviewed her and offered Ms. Ottmann the two rooms before she met the roommate, Christine Calvo, 32. Ms. Calvo, an archivist at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, grew up in a household of four women in Los Angeles, so she wasn't concerned about getting along with Ms. Ottmann. "After living in New York for 12 years, I've had so many different types of roommates," she said. "I've lived with friends and friends of friends. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't. You never know what it's going to be like. She fit all the criteria." "I would have wanted to meet me!" said Ms. Ottmann, who moved in this December. "Connie is definitely one of the more laid back roommates I've had and respectful," Ms. Calvo said. "I've had some wild ones: I lived in one apartment without a door; one roommate started a fire, another misplaced the rent. It's been easy with Connie." "We're both introverts," Ms. Ottmann said of their rapport. As for New York, "I like it," she said. "I mean, I love it." Until recently, when she, like most New Yorkers, started spending all of her time at home, Ms. Ottmann could be found traveling on the subway, going to museums and lectures. She saw the Agnes Denes show at the Shed and David Byrne's "American Utopia" musical. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
But it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't the savior that people thought it might be, because what it's offering is a very different kind of work to the work that was offered at the mine. The mine was dangerous, but at least it gave secure work. Work at the warehouse is insecure. It doesn't offer benefits. It's not full time work. It doesn't offer a full time contract. You don't get a pension. You don't get sick pay. You don't get holiday pay. It's also paid at the minimum wage, or actually, when all is said and done, below the minimum wage. There was even a government inquiry into the practices of this warehouse a few years ago, and they found that people were getting penalized even for taking breaks to drink water. And in the most notorious example, there was a woman who, apparently so terrified that she was going to lose her job if she didn't turn up to work, who actually gave birth in the warehouse and left the baby in a bathroom. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Residents at 8 Spruce Street were told this summer that they could renew their leases without paying more in rent. A friend recently told me, breathless with excitement, that she was renewing her lease at 8 Spruce Street, the Frank Gehry designed 76 story skyscraper, without any rent increase. In this red hot rental market, why would the landlord, Forest City Ratner Companies, renew its leases without demanding more in rent? Most of us who rent, and that is the bulk of New Yorkers, expect to be mildly abused by their landlords. Every year as our leases near the end of their terms, we wait anxiously to find out what next year's outlay will look like. And when we gaze at behemoth rental towers that offer perks like full time doormen, health clubs and live in supers, those annual rent increases seem as inevitable as a roof deck misting station. But that may just not be true. Lynda Lippin, 47, lives in an alcove studio at 8 Spruce, officially known as New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce Street, with her husband and dog, a onetime stray. After two years, she still carries around the silver Tiffany key ring she was given when she moved in, a square in the shape of the tower. She speaks fondly of the private residents only viewing party held not long ago for a 35,000 a month penthouse, where cheese and wine were circulated amid the unobstructed 360 degree views. She attends the buildingwide barbecues, where gourmet ice cream sandwiches are handed out. And even though she doesn't regularly go to the building's gym, "it is lovely to stare at the snow falling on the glass ceiling" while swimming in its heated pool. Last month the managing agent e mailed her to say that if she committed to her two year lease by mid July, rather than wait until it expired at the end of October, she could renew at her current rent, around 3,300 a month. Her annual 300 per person amenities fee would also be waived. "I couldn't believe it," said Ms. Lippin, a master instructor at Real Pilates, a studio in TriBeCa. "I was stunned, actually." She signed the lease immediately. This is a far cry from the rent increases and stiff competition that most New York renters are experiencing. "It's a tough market," said Marc Lewis, the chairman and a senior adviser for Coldwell Banker A.C. Lawrence, whose listings generally skew toward the lower end of the price spectrum. "At most buildings, rents go up every year, and the increases have been more this year than last year and the year before that. "Landlords rarely give tenants a hometown discount anymore," he added, referring to concessions offered to current tenants. "Now, if you were paying 2,000 last year, this year they are asking 2,700." There are many reasons why Forest City Ratner might forgo rent increases. The luxury market, which has been commanding steadily higher prices for more than a year, may finally have plateaued. This may be especially true downtown, where luxury rents have fallen over the past year. There are also the costs associated with having to find new tenants, as well as competition from new developments in the neighborhood. Rental renewal rates are proprietary to landlords and nearly impossible to track. Declining to discuss specifics, Melissa Roman Burch, the director of commercial and residential development for Forest City Ratner, said in a statement, "Since the building opened we have received great feedback from tenants, who are drawn to Frank Gehry's iconic design as well as the building's world class amenities, and our renewals reflect this enthusiasm." Cliff Finn, an executive vice president of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, who, while at Citi Habitats, oversaw the original leasing at 8 Spruce Street, said there were "lots of reasons for landlords offering promotions like this." With 899 apartments, the building was so large that incentives like free rent were necessary when it opened, to fill it up as quickly as possible, said Mr. Finn, who continues to represent the building. "So now, when these tenants come up for renewal, having a zero percent increase helps them mentally adjust to the full market rent." In other words, while the landlord may seem to be giving something away, Forest City Ratner maintains that it is actually receiving more rent from Ms. Lippin and her husband. Since they were given two months rent free when they first signed their lease, their net effective rent has been about 8 percent lower than the face value of the unit. But from Ms. Lippin's perspective, the lack of free rent in the new lease makes little difference. "Except for those first two months two years ago," she said, "we've been paying full rent, so the money out of our pocket stays the same as it has always been." The overall rental market may also be a factor in Forest City Ratner's decision. After quarter upon quarter of steep price increases, it looks as though it may finally be flattening out. "In Manhattan over the last 18 months, there has been an unprecedented rise in rents," said Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel. "But in the last five months, it has been sliding, with rents rising at a slower pace." According to a recent rental report for Douglas Elliman that Mr. Miller wrote, the median rents downtown increased a nominal 1.5 percent, to 3,350, in July compared with July 2012. And in the market for three bedroom apartments, which are typically luxury units, the median rent downtown actually fell 8.7 percent, to 5,250, during the same period. The Gehry building in particular seems to have seen some softening of prices. When it was under construction, it marketed its penthouses for as much as 60,000 a month, a staggering price for the area. It eventually lowered the price tag to 45,000 and is now renting them for 35,000. "Sometimes it behooves a landlord to keep a tenant in place even if there is a minor dip below the market rate rent," said Gary L. Malin, the president of Citi Habitats. "The reality is, if there are a significant amount of people whose leases are overturning at the same time, or if you consider the cost of preparing an apartment for a new tenant, like painting, concessions and paying the brokerage fee, it may make sense." Eight Spruce Street is also about to have some competition. Next summer, a few blocks to the south, the former headquarters of the financial giant A.I.G. will open as a huge luxury rental development. The developer Rose Associates is converting the building, known as 70 Pine, into 780 units that will have a hotel component and amenities that include two bowling alleys and an observatory and cigar bar with unimpeded views of downtown. Given these factors, Forest City Ratner's decision to offer no rent increases "makes sense," Mr. Miller said. "The landlord is anticipating that the rents are already high, let's keep the building at the current rents and keep it full." But while downtown and 8 Spruce Street may be finding their footing, the overall luxury market is faring somewhat better. The top 10 percent of rental units across Manhattan saw a median price increase of 11.7 percent, to 8,412, in July compared with July 2012, according to data from Mr. Miller. And comparable buildings, like MiMA, a 500 unit rental at 450 West 42nd Street that opened last year, are not offering a break on renewals. "We just went through our first wave of renewals and we didn't offer any concessions," said Daria Salusbury, a senior vice president who heads the luxury rental division for Related, "and 90 to 95 percent came with a modest rent increase. The rental market isn't the strongest I have seen, but I've seen worse." So the market slide that 8 Spruce Street may be experiencing might be a function of its location. The neighborhood was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, causing some tenants to leave. The building had backup generators, but there was still cold water and intermittent power for 9 days; the landlord offered tenants a prorated rent reduction to compensate for the inconvenience. At the time 8 Spruce came on the market in 2011, it was said to be breaking a price ceiling in the financial district. Maybe the landlord, having broken into these higher price ranges, has decided that at least for the time being, it can go no higher. And that suits Ms. Lippin just fine. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
"The unique thing about IUDs and implants is that they last for so long," said Dr. Lydia Pace, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the study. Because the devices were so long lasting, women were taking advantage of insurance coverage provided under the Affordable Care Act, and getting a birth control method with the longevity to weather potential policy changes. The IUD, a small device placed in the uterus, has been shown to be more than 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy and can work for up to 12 years, depending on the type. But without insurance coverage, IUDs can be expensive: Out of pocket costs can be from 500 to 1,000. Implants are also more than 99 percent effective and last up to five years, but can cost up to 1,300 without insurance. The study, which only looked at women enrolled in commercial health insurance, found a 21.6 percent increase in the insertion rates of long acting reversible contraceptive methods among women ages 18 45 in the 30 days after Mr. Trump was elected. When the researchers examined the 30 days before and after the election, and compared it to the same time period in 2015, they found that an additional 2.1 IUDs or implants inserted per 100,000 women per day were associated with the election, though it isn't possible to know for sure because they did not study the motivation of the women who received them. If these results were extrapolated to the 33 million women in the United States between the ages of 18 to 45 who have employer sponsored health insurance, it would mean that an estimated 21,000 additional devices and implants were inserted in the month after the election, Dr. Pace said, an increase she described as "impressive." "Was there something else that happened that could account for that rise?" Dr. Pace asked. "Not that I know of." There has been a gradual increase in use of IUDs and implants in recent years, which Dr. Pace's study took into account. It also controlled for characteristics such as the location and age of the insured, and the type of health plan. The data did not provide information about the race or ethnicity of the women, and did not include women who had public health insurance or no insurance at all. The study's findings were not surprising to Dr. Aparna Sridhar, an associate professor in obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. "My slots would be booked with women wanting to get IUDs," she said. "They would specifically state that they are getting an IUD because of the political changes they are witnessing." The requests came from privately and publicly insured patients, she said. At the U.C.L.A. Student Health Center, the changes were especially pronounced. Dr. Sridhar and her colleagues examined the data and found the total number of long acting reversible contraceptive insertions at the center increased to 118 in the eight weeks after the 2016 presidential election from 53 in the eight weeks before the election. Planned Parenthood saw a higher demand as well. In the first week after the 2016 election, there was "an unprecedented surge in questions about access to health care and birth control, both online and in our health centers, and a nearly tenfold increase in appointments for IUDs," Elizabeth Clark, the director of health media at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said. The Affordable Care Act required insurance companies to cover 18 types of contraception, including IUDs and implants, and gave millions of women access to birth control without the need for a co payment. The Trump administration originally rolled back the birth control mandate in 2017, a move that was quickly challenged in federal court. New Trump administration rules published in November allow employers to obtain an exemption based on their "sincerely held religious beliefs" or moral convictions. But a federal court issued a nationwide injunction in January that prevented the administration from interfering with women's access to free birth control. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
PARIS Italy awoke Tuesday to yet another corporate scandal with political overtones, as prosecutors in Milan arrested the head of the state controlled aerospace company Finmeccanica in an investigation related to the sale of 12 helicopters to India in 2010. The Finmeccanica chairman and chief executive, Giuseppe Orsi, was taken in for questioning by prosecutors. Bruno Spagnolini, head of the AgustaWestland helicopter unit of Finmeccanica, was placed under house arrest. The authorities also raided the AgustaWestland corporate offices in Milan. The investigation is focused on whether company executives violated bribery and corruption laws in seeking the EUR560 million, or 753 million, helicopter deal with the Indian military. Prime Minister Mario Monti said Tuesday that the government, which owns a 30 percent stake in Finmeccanica, was prepared to do whatever was necessary to clean up the company, the second largest industrial group in Italy, after Fiat. "There is a problem with the governance of Finmeccanica at the moment and we will face up to it," Mr. Monti said on RAI television. The Italian economy ministry issue a statement saying that despite the government's stake in the company, it is not involved in the day to day operations of Finmeccanica. But it said the government would cooperate with the prosecutors' investigation and ensure that a management was put in place to ensure "transparency in its decision making." With national elections just two weeks away, the Italian establishment has been unnerved by a series of corporate investigations. In one, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, a bank in Tuscany, has acknowledged using secret derivatives deals to mask hundreds of millions of euros in losses. In another case, Eni, the country's biggest oil company, said last week that Milan prosecutors had expanded an investigation of alleged corruption at one of its subsidiaries, Saipem, to include the parent company and its chief executive, Paolo Scaroni. Some observers say the spate of scandals suggests that prosecutors are taking advantage of a political vacuum before the election to move on cases for partisan ends. But James Walston, a professor of political science at the American University of Rome, said it was unlikely that the cases had been timed to the coming elections. "Someone might have moved some papers a little faster with that in mind," he said, but "it won't make a huge difference" to voters. The effect of these scandals is more to alienate people and persuade them not to vote, rather than to change their minds, Mr. Walston added. Finmeccanica said Tuesday that "the operating activities and ongoing projects of the company will continue as usual." In addition, the company expressed "support for its chairman and C.E.O., with the hope that clarity is established quickly." The Indian Defense Ministry said in a statement that in response to media reports linking it with AgustaWestland in Britain, it was seeking information from the Italian and British governments, but had not learned of any evidence to substantiate the allegations. The ministry said it was referring the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Indian agency responsible for investigating corruption cases. Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay 31 million to the 'House of Cards' studio after sexual harassment allegations. Netflix buys a visual effects company in a move to support its global ambitions. News of the investigation was first reported by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Italian press reports said two other people, residents of Switzerland, were being sought by Milan prosecutors on suspicion that they had acted as middlemen. Consob, the Italian stock market regulator, banned short selling of Finmeccanica shares on Tuesday and Wednesday after the company's shares fell more than 10 percent in early trading. The stock closed down 7.3 percent on Tuesday. A short sale is a bet that a company's stock will fall. The case puts the company, which is in the middle of a critical restructuring, in a difficult position. A board meeting is expected to be called soon to discuss whether to appoint an interim chief executive. Whether the various corporate investigations will have any effect on voters, they are creating a political stir. In the case of the bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena, known as M.P.S., the investigation has focused attention on the role played by the Bank of Italy and its former chairman, Mario Draghi, who is now president of the European Central Bank. Mr. Draghi asserted last week that the Bank of Italy had "done everything it should" with respect to M.P.S., adding that much of the criticism was "part of the regular noise that elections produce." The M.P.S. imbroglio has also given the former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, an issue with which to attack his political enemies as he angles for a comeback. The bank is based in Siena, in a part of northern Italy that is a stronghold of the leftist Democratic Party. Mr. Berlusconi, a conservative who hopes to be a spoiler in the elections this month, has been trying to place blame for the scandal at the Democratic Party's doorstep. But Mr. Orsi, the Finmeccanica chief, is said to be connected to a conservative party, the Northern League. And on Tuesday Mr. Berlusconi denounced the recent actions by prosecutors, including the investigation into the helicopter deals with India, which were made when he was prime minister. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Mr. Berlusconi as saying "everyone knows" that the deal involved agreements between governments. "The fact that there is the risk of magistrates intervening I consider to be economic suicide," he said, referring to the local investigation in Milan. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
Astronomers announced on Tuesday that they had found eight new planets orbiting their stars at distances compatible with liquid water, bringing the total number of potentially habitable planets in the just right "Goldilocks" zone to a dozen or two, depending on how the habitable zone of a star is defined. NASA's Kepler spacecraft, now in its fifth year of seeking out the shadows of planets circling other stars, has spotted hundreds, and more and more of these other worlds look a lot like Earth rocky balls only slightly larger than our own home, that with the right doses of starlight and water could turn out to be veritable gardens of microbial Eden. As the ranks of these planets grow, astronomers are planning the next step in the quest to end cosmic loneliness: gauging which hold the greatest promise for life and what tools will be needed to learn about them. The planets unveiled on Tuesday were detected by a group led by Guillermo Torres of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. On Monday, another group of astronomers said they had managed to weigh precisely a set of small planets and found that their densities and compositions almost exactly matched those of Earth. Courtney Dressing, also of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said at a news conference, "I'm going to give you the recipe for a rocky planet." She began, "Take one cup of magnesium ..." Both groups announced their findings at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle. Reviewing the history of exoplanets, Debra Fischer, a Yale astronomer, recalled that the first discovery of a planet orbiting another normal star, a Jupiter like giant, was 20 years ago. Before that, she said, astronomers worried that "maybe the 'Star Trek' picture of the universe was not right, and there is no life anywhere else." Dr. Fischer called the progress in the last two decades "incredibly moving." And yet we still do not have a clue that we are not alone. So far, Kepler has discovered 4,175 potential planets, and 1,004 of them have been confirmed as real, according to Michele Johnson, a spokeswoman for NASA's Ames Research Center, which operates Kepler. Most of them, however, including those announced Tuesday, are hundreds of light years away, too far for detailed study. We will probably never know any more about these particular planets than we do now. "We can count as many as we like," said Sara Seager, a planet theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not involved in the new work, "but until we can observe the atmospheres and assess their greenhouse gas power, we don't really know what the surface temperatures are like." Still, she added, "it's heartening to have such a growing list." Finding Goldilocks planets closer to home will be the job of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, to be launched in 2017. But if we want to know what the weather is like on these worlds, whether there is water or even life, more powerful instruments will be needed. Dr. Seager is heading a NASA study investigating the concept of a starshade, which would float in front of a space telescope and block light from a star so that its much fainter planets would be visible. Another group, led by Karl Stapelfeldt of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is studying a method known as a coronagraph, in which the occulting disk is inside the telescope. Both studies are expected to be completed in the next few months, and could affect plans for a former spy telescope bequeathed to NASA three years ago. Astronomers hope to launch it in the early 2020s to study dark energy, and they plan to include a coronagraph to search for exoplanets, according to Paul Schechter of M.I.T., chairman of a design team. Depending on the probe's orbit, Dr. Seager said, it could also be made "starshade ready." NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, due for a 2018 launch, will have a coronagraph capable of seeing Jupiter size planets, but it is too late to adapt it to a starshade. Meanwhile, Dr. Seager and Julianne Dalcanton of the University of Washington are writing a separate report for a consortium of universities that runs observatories. The goal is to have a pool of dozens of "exo Earths" to study in order to have any chance of seeing signs of life or understanding terrestrial planets, Dr. Seager said. Amassing them will require a space telescope 10 or 12 meters in diameter (the Webb will be 6.5 meters, and the largest currently on Earth is 10). All of this will be grist for the mill at the end of the decade when a panel of the National Academy of Sciences produces its wish list for astronomy in the 2020s. For all of Kepler's bounty, a planet like Earth, of the same size orbiting the same type of star, has not yet been confirmed. The most terrestrial of the new worlds announced Tuesday are a pair known as Kepler 438b and Kepler 442b, both orbiting stars slightly smaller, cooler and redder than our sun. Kepler 438b is only 12 percent larger than Earth in diameter and has a 35 day year; Kepler 442 is a third larger than Earth and has a 112 day year. "All these are small, all are potentially habitable," said Doug Caldwell of the SETI Institute and NASA Ames at a news conference in Seattle. In a news release, Dr. Torres said, "Most of these planets have a good chance of being rocky, like Earth." That thought was reinforced by his colleagues, led by Ms. Dressing, a doctoral candidate at Harvard. Her group combined data from Kepler, which measures the sizes of planets, with spectrographic observations from an Italian telescope in the Canary Islands. That instrument measures planets' masses to determine their densities, and by combining the information Ms. Dressing's group was able to infer the densities and compositions of a set of small planets. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Most of those are undercooked, but the movie, drawing the bulk of its vitality from an electric lead performance, suffers less than you might imagine. As the hollow eyed, foulmouthed Danny, Jack Roth (a dead ringer for his father, Tim Roth) is alive with unpredictable menace. Equal parts grit and grandiosity, he views himself as a fed up political rebel, railing in monologue against one percenters. Social warrior or just plain sociopath, he has frustrations that are real; and as he and his balaclava wearing accomplices (Andrew Tiernan and Daniel Kendrick) terrorize their hostages, the film's jazzy tone and nervy editing Guy Ritchie's stylistic fingerprints are all over it hustle us along. Tapping into a vein of blue collar resentment that's both thematically rich and uncomfortably current, the writer and director, Joseph Martin, is not above using tricks to bolster an occasionally sagging narrative. Split screens, a fractured timeline and a soundtrack that skids from The Damned to Vivaldi help us push past an unfortunate episode of torture, and Stefan Mitchell's stellar camerawork highlights the plot's unexpected emotional shifts. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
I've written several versions of this story. First it was supposed to be an account of a small theater company's ambitious stage project, then a story about that interrupted project and the company's plan to regroup because of the pandemic. Now it's an elegy for a small theater that the coronavirus shut down. On a bright but chilly Saturday afternoon in February, I hopped on a train to Alexandria, Va., just outside of Washington. I was visiting Brave Spirits Theater, which was presenting the first part of a bold endeavor: staging eight of Shakespeare's history plays (the two tetralogies, from "Richard II" to "Richard III") in repertory, over the course of 18 months, culminating in a marathon performance of all eight works. I was there to see the first two plays in the series, beginning with a matinee performance of "Richard II." On the car from the train station, I peeked at the quiet suburbs of Alexandria brick houses with wraparound porches, American flags by the door until I arrived at the theater, which channeled the small town whimsy of a playhouse in a storybook. The space, a converted church building, had pale yellow columns out front and bright turquoise trim around the windows, with red accents throughout. A few feet away from where we were sitting, in one corner of the lobby, was a chalkboard. Four calendar months were neatly drawn in perfectly symmetrical boxes January, February, March, April with a color coded schedule of performances of the first tetralogy, which the company named "The King's Shadow": Richard in bright red, the first Henry in clover green, the second Henry in yellow and the last Henry in a crisp, royal purple. In a humble but well done production, Brave Spirits had Richard II crowned and killed, and his successor, Henry Bolingbroke, a.k.a. Henry IV, was named the new king. After the audience left, the cast milled around the space, chatting in the kitchen, which doubled as the box office. "Is your bag of heads upstairs?" I heard someone call out from the hall. A few wore shirts that were being sold by the company, black tees with gray block lettering that read "Richard Henry Henry Henry Richard." (Ever the Shakespeare nerd, I bought one.) That evening I saw "Henry IV, Part I," and every seat was filled. Older couples and families and a couple of teens gabbed and waved at one another; everyone was a local. I left on the train the next morning, still buzzed with the energy in that tiny converted church. I wrote the article, but before it was published the pandemic shut down the performing arts across the nation, and the story of Brave Spirits changed. Like many other theaters, it was forced to cut short the histories project, which DC Metro Theater Arts predicted would be "one of the must sees of the 2021 season." April 19 20 was supposed to be a big weekend for the company, when all of the plays in the first tetralogy would be staged in repertory, ending in the capstone of the first half, "Henry V." On March 12, Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia declared a state of emergency and, shortly after, the White House issued a proclamation declaring Covid 19 a national emergency. Brave Spirits decided to cancel the marathon weekend but still go out with one last performance the opening night show of "Henry V." "At that point," Smith said when I checked back in with her in late April, "people had put so much into it that everyone was like: 'We need to open "Henry V." We need that opening night performance tomorrow. We just need it.'" Brendan Edward Kennedy reported that after the show, in his dressing room, he started to sing the wartime ballad "We'll Meet Again." ("We'll meet again/Don't know where/Don't know when.") He sang it briefly to me on the phone. After that "Henry V," the theater froze: costumes still on racks and props in bins, stored under the audience risers. As for the tools of war swords, spears Smith had them stored for safekeeping in her home in McLean, Va. The theater put up a fight through the spring and summer; an annual fund raiser netted over 7,000, compared with its usual 3,000, giving the cast and crew some hope. (Smith told me the company's annual budget was around 50,000, but for the first histories project season it was tripled, to roughly 150,000.) For several weeks, the cast kept up with online script readings and planned for a fall with more virtual rehearsals until, they hoped, they would come back with the second half of the project in January 2021. That was supposed to be my new story: one about a small theater enduring despite the consequences something that captured the stakes and scope of the difficulties but that still ultimately ended up being about hope and resilience. By this point you already know that's not the story I'm telling now, 10 months after I first visited Virginia and nine months since the lockdown began. On Nov. 21, Brave Spirits announced its closure: "Without the ability to plan for future performances, Brave Spirits is unable to recover financially from the loss of Shakespeare's Histories," a news release stated, the last two words in bold as though spoken through a megaphone. Brave Spirits produced more than 20 plays and employed over 300 artists, and was known for its quietly subversive interpretations of classics, usually through a feminist lens. But the company announced it had one parting gift: audio recordings of the plays in the histories project, which they hope will come out in late 2021. It's hard not to think of it as another reminder of all the things the coronavirus destroyed in just a couple of months. The fact that Brave Spirits lost this battle would have been sad enough if it weren't also so utterly, ironically Shakespearean. This spring, during a follow up call with Kennedy, I asked the actor how he had attacked King Henry V's famous St. Crispin's Day speech. The speech is usually said to fanfare and fireworks. King Henry V, no longer the childish, mischievous Prince Hal, has become the brilliant leader, inspiring his men to perform a feat of greatness. Kennedy said that their approach to this scene was a bit different a glorious moment that is nevertheless fatalistic, with the soldiers fully understanding the cost of war. Kennedy told me that he and Smith had imagined the soldiers' bleak logic: "'Let's go out in a blaze of glory, and let's hit them so hard that people are going to be talking about this for centuries. They're gonna remember all of our names, and this deed is going to make us heroes in the annals of history.'" Kennedy was aware of the parallels that, like the soldiers on St. Crispin's Day, he and his fellow actors were going into the performance aware of "the possibility that this could be the last time that we ever do this." The end of Brave Spirits isn't the story I wanted to end up with. And yet this small theater in Virginia, which persevered until it couldn't any longer, is just one of many that won't make it out of 2020. It's a shame, not just the closure itself, but the fact that the circumstances that led to it were preventable: The government's poor response to the pandemic, and our country's general refusal to value and subsidize the arts as it should, guaranteed that some theaters wouldn't survive. I thought back to that day in February, when after I interviewed the cast, they celebrated a colleague's birthday with pizza and cake and a round of "Happy Birthday" in the theater's lobby. I packed up as quickly as I could, not wanting to interrupt, but they had happily forgotten me. Their conversations and laughter filled the space, a separate world and a safe haven for a community of artists. However briefly, I felt that. But this is all I can offer: the image of kings on a stage, a church turned theater in Virginia, a post show pizza party. With Brave Spirits now closed, it's all I have, and I wish it were enough. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
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