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PROVINCETOWN, Mass. "I don't have a big angel collection, but ..." the "Angels in America" playwright Tony Kushner insisted with an embarrassed laugh. After all, evidence to the contrary via a sculpture's outstretched wings nearly smacked a reporter in the head as he entered Mr. Kushner's home here. Suspended from the ceiling, just past the doorway, was an infant size ceramic angel created by the Peruvian born Philadelphia artist Kukuli Velarde one of four such angels hanging in the house Mr. Kushner shares with his husband, Mark Harris. The angels mesmerizingly invoke the symbolisms of Old World Catholicism, Peru's indigenous culture, and, thanks to their malevolent European looking faces, the clashes that resulted when these forces met. "I think the faces look like Eisenhower," Mr. Harris playfully offered after nearly backing into one himself. "Not everybody loves them as much as I do," Mr. Kushner dryly countered. "I love their combination of fantasy and politics, their in your face, radical, anticolonial critique." Which isn't a bad way to summarize Mr. Kushner's own plays, including the 1993 Pulitzer Prize winning "Angels." Mr. Harris, a cultural critic, is no less impassioned in his own writing, from his essays for New York magazine to his book length deep dives into Hollywood. Provincetown itself is an influence on their work. With its overlapping identities of a Cape Cod fishing village reborn as an art colony, a gay resort, and a nature preserve, it has become more than a getaway from New York, the couple explained. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
BOSTON "Don't be afraid to love ballet," William Forsythe called out as a quartet of Boston Ballet dancers stepped into fifth position on point feet tight together, arms high their hips twisting and their heads tilted up toward delicately curved hands. "Show us why you love it!" Mr. Forsythe, who has probably had more influence on the way ballet looks today than any choreographer since George Balanchine, was rehearsing "The Second Detail," the work that will open the Boston Ballet's New York season at the David H. Koch Theater on Wednesday. Although Mr. Forsythe, 64, created "The Second Detail" in 1991 for the National Ballet of Canada, which still performs it, the work has rarely been seen in the United States except here, where the Boston Ballet first presented it in 2011. This Koch season is, surprisingly, the troupe's first full scale appearance in New York, and Mikko Nissinen, the company's artistic director, said that it was important to him to show classical work that is also contemporary in its approach. "We all feel very lucky that he is here it's so inspiring for the dancers," Mr. Nissinen whispered during a rehearsal last week. Until recently, Mr. Forsythe's commitments to his own troupe in Germany, the Forsythe Company, have been all consuming, leaving him little time to rehearse the ballets that brought him acclaim in the late 1980s and '90s and that are now performed all over the world. But last month Mr. Forsythe announced that as of September 2015, he will no longer run his company. Instead he will teach at the University of Southern California's Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, coach companies performing his earlier work and the dance world waits perhaps take on commissions. "I haven't committed fully to any new work yet," he said in an interview after a rehearsal. "At the moment, I'm dealing with injuries myself and trying to get back to the point when I can actually dance." Mr. Forsythe said he first realized that something had to change a year ago, when he became seriously ill with multiple stress related disorders and was ordered by his doctor to take a medical leave. "I realized without a more permanent change, there would be real consequences," he said. "I ran the Frankfurt Ballet for 20 years, another 10 with the Forsythe Company, and it has been 24/7. I wasn't just curating a repertory and managing everything else that goes with the job of director, but creating up to three new pieces a year, and running almost every show. Burnout is a very real phenomenon." The extensive body of work that he has created with the Forsythe Company over the last decade will no longer be performed. "That rep was bound to the people who created the roles, to the skill sets of those performers," he said. "I'm sad about leaving a body of work behind, and my amazing artist friends who I love, but happy about having more time to take care of the Neo Classical work." Jacopo Godani, a former dancer with Mr. Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt who is now a freelance choreographer, will take over the company, and Mr. Forsythe has said that he expects him to focus exclusively on his own repertory, select his own artists and rename the troupe. The Boston Ballet dancers were clearly relishing Mr. Forsythe's presence last week, as he moved around the rehearsal room, offering characteristic tidbits. "Make it a discussion about kinds of arabesque," he told the principal dancer Kathleen Breen Combes. Although Mr. Forsythe had already had a resounding success in 1987 with "In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated," at the Paris Opera Ballet, he was still relatively little known in the dance world when he created "The Second Detail," which later became the first section of his full length "The Loss of Small Detail." Again he used music by the Dutch composer Thom Willems, but both the score and the joyous, light filled world of the ballet are very different from the musically and physically hard driven "Middle." "I hadn't asked Thom for anything in particular, and he gave me this really fun music," Mr. Forsythe said. "It sounds like tuned percussion and has some funk influence and swing and is just really dancey." Those influences are immediately apparent in the movement, which infuses a classical vocabulary with quirky, jazzy disruptions of form as 13 dancers keep remaking broad geometric patterns, then splintering into contrapuntal groups, duos and solos. After creating the piece in Canada, Mr. Forsythe did it for his own company and reworked a number of sections, including the finale, in which a woman in a white one shouldered Issey Miyake dress erupts onto the stage. In rehearsals, Mr. Forsythe consistently stressed the importance of classical form. "There is a problem with doing 'a Forsythe work,' " he told the dancers. "Everyone starts to over muscle and 'modernize.' Performed properly, the work should hardly ever deviate from what we practitioners consider to be important in classical practice." "No matter how fast you are moving, it should be pristine, like court dance," he said. "Don't shrink or distort the classical referents, don't lose that old school charm you are talking to history." The dancers ate it all up. "It's been only six hours, but I've learned so much from him, not only about this piece but about dance in general," Ms. Combes said after the second day of rehearsal. "It's really hard and stretches you beyond what you believe your limits are, but you don't have to be Miss Perfect Ballerina. It's very empowering." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
When President Trump tweeted late last month that the Secret Service was prepared to sic "the most vicious dogs" on protesters outside the White House, I was dismayed, as both a dog lover and an American citizen. I strongly suspect that the handlers of the highly trained dogs that assist the agents in their duties were deeply shocked, too. The dogs that serve police forces around the country, at their best, are a phenomenal extension of human agency. They discover children lost in the woods, explosives hidden in luggage, and even sadly but essentially cadavers buried under leaves or garbage. These dogs can also be trained to detect and detain suspects. The Secret Service dogs, Hurricane and Jordan, who brought down an intruder on the White House grounds in October 2014 may well have saved that man's life. The intruder needed medical attention as did the dogs but nobody was shot that day. Mr. Trump, however, wasn't praising the highly trained dogs that save lives and reassure communities. He was appealing to an older, darker, strain in American history. The dogs of war were never just a metaphor. Dogs have been instrumental in the suppression of peoples in the Americas since Columbus's second voyage. On his first visit Columbus had noted that the natives were nearly naked and thus ideal prey for the war dogs that were standard issue in the arsenal of medieval Castile. Columbus first deployed dogs against the natives of what is now Jamaica in May 1494 and he noted approvingly that each dog was as good as 10 men in putting the natives to rout. White invaders' use of dogs as weapons did not fade as the Spanish lost control of what is now the United States. President Zachary Taylor, for example, who became a national hero for his victories in the Second Seminole War and the Mexican American War, and served as president from 1849 until his death in 1850, was a great believer in the value of dogs. Like the conquistadors before him, Taylor reveled in the dogs' mercilessness and intrinsic ability to distinguish friend from foe: With dogs there was little risk from "friendly fire." Throughout American history, slave owners used dogs to control, capture and kill enslaved Africans. After restoration this tradition was maintained by police forces that brutalized and harassed African American citizens claiming their rights. In the civil rights era, dogs were sicced on protesters again and again: In Jackson, Miss., in 1961; Birmingham, Ala., in 1963; St. Augustine, Fla., in 1964; and in countless other locations throughout the nation. This tradition of brutality has persisted into the present day. In the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, in 2014, the Department of Justice reported that, "in every canine bite incident in Ferguson, Mo. for which racial information is available, the subject was African American." Dogs were also central to the torture of detainees in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and Guantanamo, Cuba by American forces in the 2000s. Paradoxically perhaps ironically what makes dogs such excellent projectors of human aggression is an exceptional capacity to form strong emotional bonds for love, if you will. In the journey that a certain tribe of wolves embarked on over 15,000 years ago to become the dogs that so many of us relish today, two major changes took place in the animal's nature that make it far easier for dogs to connect emotionally with other species. The first involves what is known as the critical period for social imprinting. No animal is born knowing the species to which it belongs. In infancy, every individual must look around and identify the kinds of beings that will serve as companions for the rest of its life. In all wild animals this process is wrapped up quickly. It has to be. Outside of Bambi and other children's tales, the animals in the forest are not all friends. Predators must kill prey to survive; and prey must strive to avoid becoming a predator's dinner. In wild species, the critical period for social imprinting is completed in just a few days or at most weeks of life. That more or less guarantees that species only make friends with others of their own kind. It has been known since experiments in the 1960s that the critical period for social imprinting in dogs can extend over two or three months much longer than in wolves and other wild animals. This elongated phase of learning whom to hang out with makes it much easier for dogs to form relationships with members of other species. Every dog I have ever known had met humans during that early period and consequently was happy to make friends with members of the human species throughout life. More recent research has shown that, among the genes that changed in the metamorphosis from wolf to dog, are three that are also very occasionally mutated in our own species as part of a rare condition known as Williams Beuren syndrome. This syndrome involves changes in 28 genes, and, consequently, a wide range of consequences. The most curious of these impacts is what physicians refer to as "extreme gregariousness." People with Williams Beuren syndrome are renownedly trusting and friendly. The three genetic deviations from the wolf template that dogs share with people with the syndrome are precisely those that underlie the exceptional gregariousness of these people, showing how the loving nature of dogs is rooted in their genes. Hanging out with us has made dogs gentler, more loving, creatures. Dogs' capacity for interspecies love is deeply rooted in their biology, but it is this innate drive to please the people they have bonded with that can be exploited to turn them into weapons against those their masters wish harm upon. Because they love us, they bend to our will and if that includes attacking another person, some dogs will do that for us, too. As the author and dog handler Cat Warren put it in her book "What the Dog Knows," "Each time a dog accomplishes a particular task for humans isn't automatically a moment for celebration. Dogs may have co evolved with us, but they don't have a lot of say in how we decide to use them, so the "co" gives a false impression of equity. The dog mostly tries to please us ... Since domestication, they've been used as adjuncts for the evil that people do, as well as the good, and sometimes both at once." Sometimes our dogs love not wisely, but too well their intrinsic good natures subverted by human manipulation to make them tools of oppression. It is on this shameful tradition that Mr. Trump was calling not the professionalism of the modern police dog handler. Those of us who love dogs and who love people too must call out the exploitation of dogs as tools of oppression. Dogs' love for people can serve as an example to us all. Clive D.L. Wynne is a professor of psychology and the director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University and the author of "Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You." 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 |
A bite size sampling of concours, cruise nights, auctions, club races and other upwellings of car culture happening across America this weekend: Grab your cowboy hat and point your pickup truck toward the Lone Star state's capital, where Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg continue their season points battle as the 2014 Formula One season nears its end. With only three races left on the calendar, including Texas, Hamilton is only 17 points ahead of Rosberg. More info. Nascar will also be racing in Texas this weekend, at the Texas Motor Speedway, three hours north of Austin. Sunday will be Race 2 for the Eliminator Round of the Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship playoff. Kevin Harvick posted the fastest lap time among championship eligible drivers at practice Friday. More info. All European cars and motorcycles 25 years and older are invited to compete. Free entry for the public. More info. Proceeds from the cruise will benefit an organization called Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities. There will be prizes, food and wine tasting. More info. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
What is the vacation destination like after a gunman killed 58 people in October? Weddings and gambling go on but there is new vigilance as well. I was sitting at a bar near the far flung N Gates at Seattle Tacoma International Airport, awaiting a flight to Nevada nearly six weeks after a high stakes video poker player named Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and wounded hundreds more before taking his own life in Las Vegas. Heavily armed, Mr. Paddock fired on a crowd of 22,000 country music fans at an outdoor festival across the street from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the far south end of the Las Vegas Strip, marking one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. This tragedy did not appear to be on the minds of the quartet of women seated next to me, who were headed to Sin City to celebrate a 50th birthday. They ordered a round of tequila shots and chased them down with beer, a routine one imagined out loud would be repeated more than once during their excursion. Their unburdening of starch collared decorum had commenced before they had even boarded the plane, suggesting that Vegas is a state of mind as much as it is a physical destination. As for me, I was venturing to Las Vegas to assess the mood of a town that stands as America's undisputed champion of fun and risk. It would go against Vegas' s very essence to curl up and hide; how does a place this uniquely outgoing steel itself in the wake of such a tragedy? Nobody, that is, except for those who live and work here. Jordan Peck, a twentysomething bartender at the Hard Rock Hotel Casino, is one such person. Born in Utah, he moved to Las Vegas when he was 2 years old and has been here ever since. Asked what someone who works on or near the Strip does for fun, he half jokingly replied, "Go home." Since the shooting, Mr. Peck's out of town customers haven't blinked. "Everybody here seems exactly the same," he said of the tourists. But among locals or those who witnessed the horror at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, the story is quite different. I sat down at Mr. Peck's bar and ordered a Manhattan, which he gracefully placed atop a digital gambling console. This being the Hard Rock, Tom Petty's "Learning to Fly" filled the air. Mr. Paddock committed his atrocities on Oct. 1; Mr. Petty passed away on Oct. 2. On Oct. 7, Jason Aldean, the artist who was onstage when Mr. Paddock opened fire, made a surprise appearance on "Saturday Night Live," where he opened the show with a cover of Mr. Petty's hit song "I Won't Back Down." It was a crippling confluence, and plenty profound. Business was slow for Mr. Peck on this Thursday night, which gave him ample time to chat with his friend Renee McKinley, a Las Vegas native who works in a dental office. Today marked her first trip to the Strip (although the Hard Rock sits a few blocks off it) since the tragedy. When she drove past the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign, which became a public shrine after Oct. 1, she started crying. Growing up in Las Vegas, Ms. McKinley said, she viewed her hometown as a soulless entity. But the local response to Mr. Paddock's crime has called this belief into doubt. "The way our community stepped up, it proved me wrong," she said. To this end, Mr. Peck pointed to how so many people rushed to give blood in the wake of the shooting that a waiting list had to be established, and how volunteers flooded hospitals not to get treatment, but to help clean up. This sort of embrace could be felt through fiber optics, too. Shortly after the shooting, Ms. McKinley had to place an out of state call to verify a patient's insurance coverage. As she said the words "Las Vegas," her voice quivered. On the other end of the line, the woman felt her anguish and, said Ms. McKinley, "was hugging me through the phone." It was the weekend of Las Vegas's Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, which, with 25,000 participants, was to be the largest public event on the Strip since the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Sauntering through a sleepy Mandalay Bay casino on Friday morning were a pair of guests from Florida, Terri Monken and Jenny Glew, who were in town to run the half marathon. They had booked their rooms in March and gave no thought to canceling after the massacre. "We've got to keep it going," explained Ms. Monken, praising her accommodations and the employees she had encountered as "beautiful." Ms. Glew then offered an assessment that I'd hear more than once over the course of my four night stay, theorizing that Mandalay Bay "has got to be one of the safest places" in town in the wake of the tragedy. This was true in a visible sense, as the facility has beefed up security in order to reassure guests. Up an escalator from the casino floor is a mini mall called The Shoppes at Mandalay Place. At 10 a.m., Leanne Nevico opened The Guinness Store. Featuring beer gear galore, hers is the only outlet of its kind outside of Ireland. A Connecticut native, Ms. Nevico moved to Las Vegas nearly a decade ago "for a man," she said. She's now been married to that man for five years; the pair met playing the interactive video game "Final Fantasy II," and she described their home south of the Strip as "a gamer's paradise." Like Ms. McKinley, Ms. Nevico said it's been "really rough" driving by the Welcome to Las Vegas sign on her way to work each day, and she has been similarly moved by the way the community has rallied, recalling scenes of Uber drivers showing up to shuttle shooting victims to the hospital for free. Ms. Nevico wasn't working when Mr. Paddock opened fire, but her employees had to shelter in place overnight. They were fortunate to have access to an adjacent pub that Guinness' owners also operate, whereas a friend of hers who works at a sandal store had it a whole lot rougher absent food and a proper restroom. The day after the shooting, Ms. Nevico said, "The casino was a ghost town." But she opened her store which features a bar from which she pours Guinness products at 1 p.m. "for people who were stuck." "A lot of people just came in to drink and to share their stories," she said. Ms. Nevico said she has noticed a significant increase in the amount of police and private security patrolling the Mandalay Bay grounds, and noted that the resort has been stricken with an unusually high vacancy rate in the wake of the shooting. (A spokeswoman for MGM, which owns the Mandalay Bay, confirmed as much, adding that business is slowly returning to normal.) Mandalay Bay was recently named as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by 450 shooting victims, whose lawyers claim the resort and concert organizers didn't do enough to prevent the tragedy. "People are more vigilant," said Ms. Nevico, who has noticed several "rubberneckers" angling for a look at the crime scene. "I don't know what it is we're looking for, but we're more vigilant." "Every other Elvis I know is for Trump," Mr. Paul said. In part because Mr. Paul's core clientele is international, the shooting down the street hasn't affected his bottom line, he said. But it's definitely been on his mind. "People are just angry," he surmised. "I think it's because of Trump. It's exhausting." West of the chapel, in an otherwise desolate neighborhood where tumbleweeds would find ample room to roll down roads, sits a funky drinking establishment called ReBar. Everything inside the bar including the stools is for sale, having been sourced or scavenged by the owner, Derek Stonebarger, a hip, energetic cancer survivor who heads up the Las Vegas Arts District Neighborhood Association. A handful of Main Street businesses a vintage clothing store here, a craft cocktail lounge there anchor this fledgling, resident focused scene in an area that "was always sort of a dumpy part of town," said Jack Dore, a ReBar bartender. "You used to come down here to buy drugs or get stabbed, or maybe both," explained Mr. Dore, who rented a cheap studio apartment in the Arts District upon relocating from his native southeast Louisiana in 2014. Late Sunday morning, he had ReBar's television sets tuned to N.F.L. football and was doling out 1 Avery Real Peel I.P.A.s and locally butchered hot links to a smattering of customers. Of the shooting, Mr. Dore said, "No one really talks about it. The first couple of weeks were pretty slow, but it's back to normal. I don't know if there will be a normal, though. People are wary of going out in groups. But, most of all, people are just brushing it off." Having hosted numerous country music awards shows, not to mention the Route 91 Harvest Festival, Las Vegas has become a sort of Nashville West in recent years. At the center of its local country community is Stoney's Rockin' Country, a spacious nightclub in a shopping mall south of Mandalay Bay that offers all you can drink Pabst for 25 and line dancing lessons before live shows. As I entered Stoney's to take in a performance by the insurgent band A Thousand Horses, I was asked to raise my hands as though I were passing through security at an airport. This is a milder approach than the metal detecting wands the establishment's bouncers wielded in the weeks immediately following the massacre, said Stoney's spokesman Toad Higginbotham, who was backstage with his girlfriend at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when shots rang out. "We just ran," he said of his reaction to the gunfire. Stoney's patrons Kristi Klein and Julie Cavender of Orange County, Calif., were at the festival as well. They were also staying at Mandalay Bay in a room overlooking Mr. Paddock's. The two friends couldn't bring themselves to book a room there for this return trip, instead opting for The Wynn. "The reality is we all have PTSD," Ms. Cavender said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
After a brief foray into Brooklyn, the annual Bang on a Can Marathon is moving back to downtown Manhattan, where it has resided for much of its 30 year run. The free concert will take place at the N.Y.U. Skirball Center on Washington Square Park on May 13 from noon to 10 p.m. The Bang on a Can founders, Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, will present their own compositions and serve as M.C.'s; other performers include Terry Riley and Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields. The event took place at the Brooklyn Museum last year after losing its longtime home at Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan. Now it will move to just a few blocks north of where the first marathon took place in 1987, at the now defunct gallery Exit Art. "We're excited to come back to the roots," Ms. Wolfe said in a phone interview. In their new venue, the organizers will aim to strike a balance between encouraging audience mobility while keeping the focus on the music. The large, open space at the Brooklyn Museum encouraged more audience movement and socialization. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
FRANKFURT The Fiat stand at the motor show here on Tuesday was particularly quiet, which could be seen as a sign of weakness, or perhaps part of a clever strategy. In the face of the slowest European car sales in two decades, competitors like Opel, Renault, Ford and Peugeot were introducing new models or at least flaunting design studies at the show. But Fiat had no big news. And that was by design, the company's executives said. "To launch a new model now, you lose a good opportunity, because when the market recovers, the model will be old," Luca di Montezemolo, the chairman of the Ferrari unit of Fiat, said in an interview Tuesday. Other carmakers are taking the opposite tack. "There is no other way to compete in a tight market except with new products," said Karl Thomas Neumann, president of General Motors Europe and chief executive of the company's Opel unit. The fates of companies and thousands of jobs will depend on which strategy turns out to be right. If the market has hit bottom and begins to grow again, as some in the industry predicted on Tuesday, Opel's decision to offer a face lift of its flagship Insignia, a sibling of the Buick Regal, will look smart. But if sales fail to improve, the Insignia and other new models may sell only at big discounts, adding further to the billions of euros in losses that Opel has accumulated in Europe. The same risk faces other carmakers that have suffered most since European sales began to plummet in 2008, including Ford, Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen. Because Fiat owns Chrysler, and its chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, is chief executive of both companies, the Italian carmaker's fate has implications for its American sibling. Mr. Marchionne, normally a dominant presence at car shows because of his bluntness and sarcastic wit, raised eyebrows when he canceled a news conference planned for Tuesday. A spokesman for Fiat said that Mr. Marchionne was too busy and that his low profile did not signal "anything sinister." Because of the enormous complexity of designing and making a car, including marshaling a large supplier network, decisions on when to introduce and produce new cars are made at least two years in advance. Auto executives who are unveiling cars now or, like Fiat executives, are not are reckoning with decisions made long ago. Still, in the here and now there is a strong correlation between how the auto companies are assessing the near term market and the availability of new models. Mr. di Montezemolo of Ferrari voiced pessimism about the mass market. "Europe is still very difficult," he said. "I don't see any kind of recovery." Stephen Odell, chief executive of Ford of Europe, however, said on Tuesday that he expected the European market to grow 20 percent in the next five years. "There are plenty of indicators we are running around what looks like the bottom," he said. If so, Ford is ready to throw cars at the rebound. The company said Tuesday that it would introduce 25 new models by the end of 2017. That was a substantial increase from a year ago, when the company said it would introduce 15 new models through 2017. On Tuesday, the company unveiled a high end version of its flagship Mondeo, called the Vignale, as well as a design study for a new version of its S Max minivan. Elizabeth Holmes Hones Her Defense in Day 2 of Testimony Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay 31 million to the 'House of Cards' studio after sexual harassment allegations. Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of the Renault Nissan Alliance, was also fairly optimistic. "I think we are about to see the end of the five year decline," he said at a news conference. Mr. Ghosn noted that sales of used cars had improved, which he said was a sign that new car sales would follow. "We have seen the volume of used cars go up and we've seen prices firm up," Mr. Ghosn said. "We are pretty confident that the slope is ending." But it is unlikely to be a strong recovery, he added. Earlier this year, Renault introduced Captur, a compact sport utility vehicle. Small four wheel drive cars like the Opel Mokka are among the few bright spots in the European market. In Germany, such cars accounted for 16 percent of all new cars sold in the first seven months of this year, compared with 7 percent in 2009. On Tuesday in Frankfurt, Renault unveiled the Initiale, a concept car that may be part of a drive by the French carmaker to recapture a share of the luxury market. Peugeot, the European carmaker that may be suffering the most, showed a redesigned version of its 308 compact on Tuesday. It competes with the Volkswagen Golf in the segment of the European market that has the highest volume. It is a crucial car for Peugeot, but its debut now is a gamble. The smaller Peugeot 208, introduced last year, has not lived up to expectations, analysts said. In 2008, when the European market began to sag, Fiat slowed its new model introductions. Its current lineup is built around variations of two basic models, the stylish 500 subcompact and the Panda, a compact wagon. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
"Did you see who just walked in?" Brian Jacob asked in an earnest blend of excitement, triumph and urgency. There are not many gatherings where a senior vice president of a hotel chain counts as a spot on sight celebrity. But on that Saturday evening in late April, the Marriott executive David Flueck had arrived in Northern Virginia for just such an event: a meeting of about 50 Marriott Rewards points aficionados who connected through a decade old internet forum. They spend hours freely doling out ideas and recommendations online, and they affectionately call their in person gathering "TIPPLE," shorthand for "The Insider Points, Pints and Liquor Extravaganza." "It's a bunch of Marriott loyalists, a bunch of Marriott travel geeks," said Roger Nicholson, a 49 year old operations executive from Texas who has more than 3 million lifetime points to his name. "It's probably no different than a group that meets on a forum for Comic Con," interjected Angelena Culotta, 35, who lives in Louisiana and inherited her Marriott allegiance from her parents. "There's probably a lot of similarities," Mr. Nicholson, known on the Marriott Rewards Insiders forum as "nationwide," said before he and Ms. Culotta, perhaps better known as "seatexan," broke into laughter. To the contributors who gathered at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View (on their own points or, surprisingly, dimes), they are merely a digital band of travel enthusiasts who prize frugality, brand loyalty and friendships built on intermingled passions. But that undersells what is an unwitting wider influence: With every answered question and shared strategy, they act as screen named guides to a lucrative world governed by "Megabonus" promotions and fine print, category changes and free night certificates. Their insights fueled by a mix of practice, speculation and maybe a bit of projection are an open ended Google search away. I know from experience. Since I joined the National desk of The New York Times in 2013, I have amassed more than 2 million Marriott points, the bounty of about two dozen sunrises at the Renaissance St. Louis Airport, several nights at the Courtyard near Interstate 20 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and hundreds of nights elsewhere. "There are people here tonight who will know more about our portfolio than I will," Mr. Flueck said. His assessment seemed more like a reflection of reality than a demonstration of false modesty. He was, after all, a few minutes away from stepping into a violet lit reception room filled with the authors behind observations on threads like "Platinum Benefit Choice" and "Where was your last Marriott stay and were you upgraded to a suite??" A conservative estimate of the aggregate number of lifetime points in the room 70 million, by Mr. Jacob's count would offer the equivalent of more than five years of free nights at some of the most sought after properties in Marriott's empire. They earned their points through a variety of pursuits. Mr. Jacob, a government accountant in Ohio, does not travel for work but is a Marriott regular as a part of his quest to visit every county seat in America. Ms. Culotta is also a leisure traveler, but Mr. Nicholson picks up his points when he is on the road for business, sometimes passing a tempting Hilton that is 20 minutes closer than one of the 6,500 or so hotels that are part of Marriott. In turn, Insiders have vacationed from Maui to Moscow. One man spoke movingly of a gilded visit to Paris with his mother, who had lived there as a child. "Relationships, that's the heart of this thing," said Mr. Nicholson, who first logged on to the website in 2009 and browsed, without posting a word, for five or six years. "You're rooting for people to have great trips. You share ideas and thoughts and the bad things. You share that, and over time, those stories become friendships." "It is a nerd convention, and I don't totally understand it," Sonya Nicholson, Mr. Nicholson's wife, said somewhat admiringly as she surveyed the scene a few months before a points paid anniversary trip to Italy. "But what is fascinating is that they bounce ideas off of each other." They have plenty. Do not redeem unless you are getting at least 1 cent in value per point. For Platinum Elite members, remember that Fairfield Inns offer a mere 200 point arrival gift, not the 400 points you get at a Courtyard. Steer clear of Residence Inns for paid stays because they offer fewer points per dollar. "We certainly do talk about points," said Bob Pape, a Hawaiian shirt wearing lawyer from England. "It does tend to be about areas where there is proper debate: where are good redemptions, how to get reduced rates, how to make the most of the points you're spending and where the soft points are of a promo that they're running. There's a lot to talk about." There were also questions to pose one on one to Mr. Flueck, whose attendance had been the subject of good humored speculation on one pre TIPPLE thread. (The discussion also included talk about whether J.W. Marriott Jr., the Maryland based chain's executive chairman, or Arne M. Sorenson, its president, would appear.) "I've had a chance to read some of your posts," Mr. Flueck told the group in a tone that set off a roar of laughter. "We were just kidding," a woman called out. Except they almost certainly weren't. A gathering of self educated points experts and the notion that Marriott would send an executive to spend Saturday night at it is a reflection of simultaneous eras: one in which travel loyalty currencies have come to stand as both a hobby and cottage industry, and one in which the internet has seemingly transformed everyone into an airline, hotel or restaurant critic. In the early 1980s, when the most consequential frequent flier programs made their debuts, industry executives thought they were giving rise only to a clever marketing effort that would discourage travelers from toggling among brands. They did not foresee that, decades later, people would be weaving together weekends built around pub crawls and points strategies. "We simply didn't anticipate that interest would be as deep, as widespread and as sustained as it has proven to be," said Robert L. Crandall, who was president of American Airlines when the carrier introduced its AAdvantage program and who is now credited with kick starting a trend that changed travel. "What has actually happened was simply outside the scope of our imagination," he said. "We were ambitious, but we didn't anticipate it would turn into the kind of obsession that it has turned into for some people." Frequent flier miles add up. So do hotel points. Car rental companies are in on the scheme, too, luring the young and old alike. A few minutes after I left the Marriott gathering, I was browsing Twitter when I saw a post about how a couple had blended their Delta Air Lines SkyMiles loyalty into their wedding, which included authentic beverage carts. (According to Delta, the groom knew the bride was perfect for him when they did a "mileage run" solely to collect SkyMiles, spending about 47 hours flying around the country without ever leaving airports or airplanes.) The internet certainly stoked the travel rewards craze, placing points saturated credit card sign up offers within a few keystrokes and ho lding who knows how many words about how to get a free week at a luxury hotel in London and which of those hotels has the best free hors d'oeuvres. Of course, some negative commentaries can be written off to cranks, just as some glowingly positive ones can be the handiworks of well intentioned, if inexperienced, travelers. But experience and a near lawyerly attention to detail are what make the Arlington crowd particularly powerful: They are travelers who can write with authority about properties and perks at Marriott branded hotels around the world. "They understand travel at a level differently than the average person who makes four or five trips a year," said Thom Kozik, a former Marriott executive who attended the first TIPPLE. "If I could communicate to a handful of those members the true value of the program or the true capabilities the program afforded them, they were going to be a far better ambassador to their friends and families than my emails or websites ever would be." Marriott, which recently merged with Starwood and has been laboring to keep its former rival's most devoted customers, is among the few hospitality behemoths to nurture such an internet forum. The company declined to share most of its data about the forum, which is moderated by Marriott but largely editorially independent , but said that as of April, the site's active membership had increased 74 percent from a year earlier. To Mr. Kozik, who said he had learned the value of a free breakfast benefit from reading posts from the Insiders, the website was a low cost focus group of unmatched authenticity, and its gatherings a delightful meetup of passionate travelers. "Marriott could not have manufactured this group," he said. "All they could do is set up the forum, but the group itself had to come together." But Ms. Culotta seemed as surprised as most everyone else in Arlington about how they were spending their weekends: at TIPPLE, wearing name tags where their usernames were printed larger than their real life names. "We have a good time," she said. "We have more of a good time in person than we do on the forum, and many of us have a relationship outside the forum where we talk almost daily." For many contributors, the forum is their only social media. Mr. Jacob and Mr. Pape are constant, easygoing presences. Ms. Culotta, who credits the information she learned online with helping her to reach Marriott's highest level of elite status, checks in five or six times a day, but never on weekends. Mr. Nicholson normally logs on as early as his first cup of tea. The Starwood merger, which will lead to a reconfigured program this summer, has been "like Christmas" on the forum, he said, because "you get a whole lot of content." Mrs. Nicholson will sometimes wake up in the night and see her husband still awake, browsing and posting in the darkness. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
In Some Fancy London Houses, a New Model for the Art World LONDON Mayfair and St. James's, the districts where most of London's high end art trading businesses are concentrated, have been eerily quiet. This week's canceled Frieze London and Frieze Masters fairs have turned into "might click" rather than "must attend" events. Global gallery sales are estimated to be down an average of 36 percent. The coronavirus pandemic is putting pressure on the international art trade to come up with new business models. And Cromwell Place, billed as a "membership organization offering a first of its kind exhibition and working space for art professionals," is one of them. Owned by a private consortium and set to open to the public on Saturday in the South Kensington district, Cromwell Place occupies a stylishly renovated terrace of five 19th century townhouses. So far, about 10 institutional and 40 commercial members have signed up for "pay for what you need" facilities that include offices, viewing rooms, exhibition spaces, technician hire, art storage and bar for members and their clients. "I like the built in industry flexibility," said David Maupin, a co founder of the New York headquartered gallery Lehmann Maupin, which has taken a 730 square foot corner of the building. "It provides a space we can do a multitude of things with," he added. For the public opening, Lehmann Maupin will use its main exhibition space to show works by its stable of artists, including a copper "Breathing Panel" sculpture priced at 185,000 by Nari Ward, a Jamaican born artist who was the subject of a solo show last year at the New Museum in New York. On the floor above, socially distanced visitors will be able to watch Billy Childish, one of six British based artists represented by the gallery, at work in a temporary studio. "We wanted to support our clients and artists in London," Mr. Maupin said. "I believe in London long term." "I believe in it post Brexit," he added, referring to concerns that the city's status as a capital of the European art market might be diminished by Britain's departure from the European Union. "It's a strong hub." The New York dealership Alexander Gray Associates and SFA, an art advisory, are two other prominent American names signed up for spaces in the building. But London remains an expensive place to do business. "The rents and overheads of a gallery in London are prohibitive," said Rakeb Sile, the founder of the Ethiopia based gallery Addis Fine Art, which has taken an office in Cromwell Place. According to Ms. Sile, running a bricks and mortar gallery in Mayfair costs about 200,000 pounds, or 260,000, per year. She expects to spend about PS40,000 a year in less central South Kensington. Cromwell Place has become an "even more compelling model," Ms. Sile said, now that the pandemic has put a stop to in person international art fairs. Richard Ingleby, an Edinburgh based dealer, said that he was "fed up with virtual art fairs." He, along with others signed up for Cromwell Place, hopes the venture will achieve its goal of becoming a kind of year round, live art fair, but without the crush. "Art really exists if you come face to face with it," added Mr. Ingleby, who will introduce visitors to new paintings by Scottish artists from his space in the complex. Caroline Walker's warming interior, "Lighting Candles, Evening, March, 2019," which the Ingleby gallery recently sold for PS40,000, is one of the works on show. Though Mr. Ingleby said he thought virtual gallery spaces were "like a bad video game," his dealership will also have a viewing room at this week's online Frieze London fair. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Among the 150 guests was Mike Saxson, a former punter with the Dallas Cowboys and teammate of Mr. Rohrer's during his playing days in the 1980s. Though Mr. Saxson was the only Cowboy to attend, Mr. Rohrer said he received congratulatory texts and emails from many of his former teammates, including the wide receiver, Mike Renfro, the tight end Doug Cosbie and the defensive end Ed (Too Tall) Jones. John Spagnola, a onetime Philadelphia Eagle, also sent his best wishes. "This wedding broke down walls," Mr. Rohrer said Monday afternoon. "You would not believe how people from both of my worlds came together and had a blast, proving that people are really just people, and that love is the thing that needs to be celebrated, no matter who is in love, or who is getting married." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
There's a show on TV you may have heard of it in which a bunch of strangers go on a series of speed dates with someone of the opposite sex in sleekly designed "pods" separated by a wall. They are unable to see one another, but they can speak and flirt and reveal their deepest desires if they so choose. This "experiment," the show purports, will allow contestants to find The One unencumbered by such superficial concerns as icy blue eyes, nice lips or a chiseled jawline. Yes, this is all supposed to end in marriage. "Love Is Blind" premiered on Netflix last month. Many, many people have watched it it has appeared frequently in the No. 1 spot on Netflix's new list of its top 10 programs in the United States, which is updated on its home page daily. I'm not proud of this: I've joined them, watching all 10 episodes. Drawn in by the overwhelming volume of internet chatter, it seemed like an opportunity for me to have a good, hearty laugh at others' absurd life choices. I absolutely did LOL, a lot. But something else happened: Dare I say it, by the end of Episode 3, I believed. It's generally understood that a show like this is not how meaningful, lasting relationships are made. Almost 20 years into the reign of "The Bachelor" and its many spinoffs and descendants, the people who appear on such shows may profess to be searching for the love of their lives, but it's much more likely they are in search of the career boost of their lives. Sure, the contestants on dating shows like MTV's "Are You the One?" or the global franchise "Love Island" are trying to find their perfect match, but they're also motivated by the shot at winning a nice cash prize at the end of their manufactured journey. And yet who could think such things of Lauren, a 32 year old content manager and the most endearing character on "Love Is Blind," whom we got to watch wrestle openly and sincerely with her fears about participating in this most absurd of premises while optimistically forging ahead in her whirlwind relationship with Cameron, a firefighter turned scientist? "Five days in, and I know who I want to be my future husband," she says in the first episode. "I can't believe it. It's only been five days! Oh my God, I've had meals in my refrigerator for longer than that. Like, that's crazy!" I can't believe it, either. It is crazy. And totally irrational. But also: Aww. What sets "Love Is Blind" apart from its counterparts, and has made it so enchanting to viewers, is that odd tension between the accelerated, illogical expectations placed upon the couples they are expected to find True Love or get booted from the show in, um, 10 days and their seeming capacity to genuinely believe in the process. They speak, without any hint of irony, of this elaborately conceived setup as an idealized version of the dating scene, a positive alternative to the comparably shallow act of swiping right or left. "I've had a rigid set of standards," admits Jessica, a regional manager. "I would only date a guy between one to five years older. I would only date athletes because I'm really athletic. But I'm 34 years old, and I may not find someone based on the criteria that I've put in place for myself." "I'm a believer in this experiment," says Cameron, 27. "It's removing the confounding variables of ethnicity, race, background and the big one being physical appearance. None of that matters." Oh, but of course it does. And when it does is when "Love Is Blind" most resembles its TV forebears in its juicy dramatizations. Jessica, who becomes engaged to Mark, a fitness instructor 10 years her junior, quite obviously pines for Barnett, an engineer who turned her down during the speed dating phase to propose to Amber, a former tank mechanic. During one of multiple drunken moments alcohol flows very freely for this experiment an angry Jessica tells Mark, using an expletive, that she thinks Barnett is "sexy and, like, hot." As the season tears through its 10 episodes, most of the pairs ebb and implode exactly as one would expect. While five couples eventually make it to the altar, the kicker is that none of them have revealed whether they will actually say "I do" in front of their friends and families in a room resembling a less tacky version of a Las Vegas wedding chapel. "Now is the time to decide if love is blind," a justice of the peace says to one of the couples. And yet somehow, amid all of this routine reality show pomp and circumstance, the cast's emotions feel, for the most part, well real. And raw. Amber's extremely giddy, barely audible proclamation during their awkwardly staged bachelorette party about "marrying my best friend" is what memes are made of, but also, it's kind of endearing. Mark's failed quest to have Jessica reciprocate his adoration for her is pitiful to watch but seems totally sincere. In the first episode, we meet Lauren, the only black person to make it to the end of the season, where she tells us she wants someone who will love her regardless of what she looks like, someone who will love her "saggy boobs" when she's 95 years old. "That was real extra," she says, laughing at her own description of her anatomy's future. "But that's really how I feel!" As she and Cameron progress, she bounces between gushing about their chemistry and compatibility and questioning how they might work in the real world. She has never dated a white man before could Cameron deal with the comments they will get from strangers and possibly even friends and family? Would he understand her commitment to black social justice causes? (For his part, Cameron had been in a long term relationship with a black woman before Lauren.) The reunion special, released on YouTube on Thursday, confirmed how seriously most of the couples had taken their experiences. Lauren and Cameron, who remain married the show was filmed in 2018 fought back tears of joy as they talked about sharing their first Thanksgiving together with their families. Amber and Barnett, the only other couple to get married on the show, admitted that since filming ended, they had contemplated divorce. (They're still together for now.) Giannina and Damian, who had a volatile relationship and broke up at the altar, were revealed to be back together and trying to make it work. Even those who had been less successful professed that the experiment had made them re evaluate their lives and lead to personal growth. It was all oddly heartwarming. "Love Is Blind" is a ludicrous cultural nugget that has served as a welcome distraction from current political and environmental anxieties. Watching the series is like playing a surreal version of "The Game of Life": The most basic universal stages of adulthood or in this case, courtship are condensed into a convenient quickie narrative for viewers' consumption. (There were reportedly two other couples on the show who got engaged but were cut because the crew wasn't prepared to juggle eight story lines.) It's a show at odds with itself; the central question is flawed and the warp speed execution is cynical. And yet somehow the cast, even in their lowest moments, seemed pure. To paraphrase Billie Holiday: Crazy we call them, and sure, they're crazy crazy enough to put everything out there for some version of true "love." Aisha Harris ( craftingmystyle) is a staff editor and writer in the Opinion section, where she covers culture and society. 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 |
Could a pioneering art show for dogs supposedly organized by a dog be called anything other than Dogumenta? The idea came from the art critic Jessica Dawson, whose rescue dog, Rocky, often accompanies her on trips to galleries. "I was surprised to see that Rocky could sniff out some of the best artwork in New York," Ms. Dawson said in a statement. "I realized that a canine sensibility might be the key to navigating today's complex art world." Hence, Dogumenta, which is on view at Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan through Aug. 13. Rocky is credited as the curator, which might explain why the artworks involve treats, a pool of water and a wall dogs can admire and pee on. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Even if we allow for the factual mistakes President Trump made in his speech Wednesday night, the most devastating takeaway was that the man read from a teleprompter without emotion. He did not appear to relate to or empathize with the American people. Americans craved a little compassion and reassurance from their leader. They did not need to hear that it was a "foreign virus." Mr. Trump is incapable of compassion. Too bad for our Republic. Is the exemption of Britain from the travel ban due to President Trump's admiration for Boris Johnson, his support for Brexit or, most important, his business ventures i.e., hotels and golf course in Scotland and ties to British banks? Coronavirus will not be stopped from crossing the English Channel, and therefore the reason has to be embedded in the president's self interest and wedded to his animosity toward the European Union. Surely the most overworked phrase of the week is "out of an abundance of caution." While the president exhorts the public to "Just stay calm. It will go away," schools are closing, events are being canceled and businesses are asking employees to work remotely "out of an abundance of caution." This only serves to spotlight the absence of strong leadership and preparation from the Trump administration and the dearth of reliable information from our public health agencies, forcing community, business and school officials to make their own public health decisions. While the president peddles falsehoods about the availability of tests and misstates the details of his own policies in an Oval Office address, the rest of the country is piecing together the advice of local officials and the actual public health experts who have managed to make their voices heard. We're trying to do the best for students and employees, making up best practices as we go along out of an abundance of caution. The proposal by the Trump administration to stimulate the economy by reducing the payroll tax may appear, at first blush, to be well intentioned. But the payroll tax is the funding mechanism for Social Security and Medicare. I suspect that this proposal is nothing more than another attempt by Republicans to chip away at these programs. If the administration is truly interested in assisting workers who are disadvantaged by the coronavirus outbreak, there surely are better ways to achieve that end. Re "Twitter Pulpit Is No Match for Viral Foe" (news analysis, front page, March 9): Despite a lifetime of morally, ethically and legally questionable activities, President Trump has escaped mostly unscathed. He has survived numerous scandals, as well as national and international crises of his own making, not to mention the Mueller probe and, of course, impeachment. Could it be that this self proclaimed germophobe, the Teflon Don, will finally be brought down by his avowed archenemy, a lowly virus? Re "Closing Schools May Not Help," by Jennifer Nuzzo (Op Ed, March 11): As a first grade teacher, I find it unwise to determine at this juncture that schools can remain open during the coronavirus crisis. Over the last few weeks, we have stepped up surface cleaning, started hand sanitizing as students enter the classroom and practiced hand washing technique. Meanwhile, I'm still constantly reminding students to remove their hands from mouths, noses and one another. Six and 7 year olds do not practice social distancing. It's laughable to imagine a primary classroom with students placed six feet apart. The best news we've had since the outbreak is that children seem to tolerate the virus without serious illness. However, many of my students live with grandparents, or routinely interact with them as caregivers and chauffeurs. Communities and districts need plans for providing meals and care for their students in need, should schools close. They also need plans for providing access to devices and internet for distance learning purposes. This pandemic is the first time we've had to grapple with the logistics of large scale school closings, and we are not prepared. During the two days this week when in person classes were canceled at Columbia University, I noticed students taking advantage of the warm weather to gather in large groups outside, where they traded hits off vape pens, sips from cans of hard seltzer and generally behaved in ways that seemed destined to do anything but stop the spread of a virus. When Cambridge University in England closed in 1665 because of the bubonic plague, a young man named Isaac Newton went home to the countryside. And there he sat under the famous apple tree and realized that the same gravity worked on the apple and the Moon. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
Some industries will expand as a result of the crisis. But those most likely to do so health care, medical device and supply manufacturing, broadband installation and communications software to support remote work and education require associate degrees or short term certifications of the sort available at community colleges or technical training institutions. A society that moves fast to retrain its work force for these new opportunities will recover more quickly than one that does not. A nationwide program to offer tuition free education to adult workers would cost about 5 billion over four years, even if enrollment were to increase to historically high levels. (That estimate comes from an analysis done by me and my colleagues at the nonpartisan W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, as well as from a separate analysis done by the Campaign for Free College Tuition, an advocacy group.) In the context of a multi trillion dollar recovery effort, this is not a large amount of money. To put the figure in perspective, serving two million adult learners would cost less than what the government recently spent to bail out a single airline. Any federally funded plan should meet four requirements. First, adults should enter college with a designated major and career path, ideally in a field where local demand is strong. Second, institutions receiving adult learners must be prepared (and funded) to provide them with special support, such as individual coaching. Third, plans must be in place to overcome the obstacles adults often face when returning to college, such as securing child care. Fourth, postsecondary institutions should work with local businesses to identify high demand jobs. At the state level, there is already a model for how to achieve some of these goals. Tennessee Reconnect, a program enacted in 2017 under Republican leadership in response to a tight labor market, offers any adult in Tennessee the opportunity to earn a certificate or an associate degree without paying tuition. The program does not meet all four of the requirements above, but students must identify a major, and many of the eligible colleges provide some form of academic assistance, support to cover basic necessities and connection with the local business community. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
NIP AND TUCK : The second generation Murano, now three years old, has had cosmetic surgery. WHAT IS IT? Midsize crossover with two rows of seats. HOW MUCH? Base S starts at 30,365 with front wheel drive. SL as tested was 41,280 with all wheel drive, cargo mat and navigation package. WHAT MAKES IT RUN? 3.5 liter V 6 with a continuously variable automatic transmission. IS IT THIRSTY? Somewhat, as are some other vehicles in its class. The federal mileage estimate is 18 m.p.g. in town and 23 on the highway with all wheel drive; the rating for front drive versions isn't much better at 18/24 m.p.g. THE drive from New Hampshire to Montpelier, Vt., on U.S. Highway 302 can be challenging. The road twists and turns, and the pavement is rough and rumpled, making it a perfect testbed for judging how well the Nissan Murano has held up since the second generation crossover was introduced three years ago as a 2009 model. Last year the Murano received some cosmetic upgrades, including a new grille, bumper and taillights, and some interior refinements. There have been no significant mechanical changes. The Murano rides on the company's "D" platform, which also underpins the Altima midsize sedan. With the Murano, Nissan has struck a nice balance between a smooth ride and responsive handling, a crucial compromise that has tripped up many an automaker. The bias here is toward comfort, but I suspect that most drivers will find the Murano's driving dynamics perfectly acceptable. The power comes from a version of Nissan's familiar, and much praised, VQ V 6, rated at 260 horsepower and 240 pound feet of peak torque. The engine responds smartly pretty much whenever you want it, thanks partly to one of the best continuously variable transmissions from any automaker. The only downside is a droning sound around 2,000 r.p.m. under a very light throttle. The interior looked good with beige leather seats and heated leather wrapped steering wheel, an appreciated feature on a chilly New England day. The front seats are heated, of course, and toasted rear seats are available on the fancy LE. Controls for the radio, heating and air conditioning systems are user friendly and generally intuitive, with large knobs. The dual sunroof is a nice touch, admitting a lot of light on a gray day, although the one in the back doesn't open. With eight way power adjustments and a power lumbar support, the driver's seat was comfortable throughout a daylong drive. My front seat passenger, however, complained about his seat, which lacked the lumbar control and had only four way power adjustments. The split, flat folding back seat on the test car had a power return feature; pushing a button in the cargo area returns the folded seatbacks to an upright position. The test vehicle, at more than 40,000, was rather costly. But Mike Drongowski, Nissan's senior manager for product planning, said the Murano was competing with luxury models like the Lexus RX 350 and the Acura MDX. Among nonluxury brands the Ford Edge has turned out to be a main competitor. The Murano is surprisingly thirsty for a vehicle with a continuously variable transmission, given that one advantage of that type of gearbox is its infinite number of gear ratios, which let the engine run at close to optimal speeds for better fuel economy. The all wheel drive version of the Hyundai Santa Fe, which weighs about the same, is rated 2 m.p.g. better in town and 3 higher on the highway. The shortcoming has not escaped Nissan. "We recognize we need to do a better job of improving our fuel economy, and you'll certainly see that in a new generation," Mr. Drongowski said. Nissan has not announced when it will bring out the next Murano, but given the typical five to six year life cycle of Nissan models, the next all new version may arrive in 2014 or 2015. Fuel economy aside, the Murano has held up remarkably well against new competitors. And an all wheel drive model with fewer frills can be had, dealer inventories permitting, for around 32,000. Such a vehicle would offer the same ride, handling and practicality and would represent, I think, a rather good deal. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
The family sitcom "One Day at a Time" will be revived next year on the cable television channel Pop TV, the network announced on Thursday, months after fans began protesting Netflix's decision to cancel it. Netflix announced in March that the multicamera comedy about a Cuban American family, which originated as a Norman Lear sitcom in the 1970s and ran for nearly a decade, would end after its third season because its viewership wasn't large enough. The show had received enthusiastic support from Hispanic viewers who rarely saw their family lives reflected on television , and fans, using hashtags like " SaveODAAT," launched a social media campaign to make their feelings known . Netflix executives weren't swayed. Now, a 13 episode fourth season will air in 2020, exclusively on Pop TV, which is owned by CBS and is known for the comedy "Schitt's Creek." It will be produced by Sony Pictures Television. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
The latest installment in the "Jurassic Park" franchise gets its television debut. And four drag queens help a bride who's in need in a new TLC special. JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM (2018) 8 p.m. on HBO; also on streaming platforms. As is the case with almost every film franchise, the "Jurassic Park" sequels haven't found the same success as the original 1993 movie. This fifth iteration was narrowly saved by mixed reviews: Variety said it plays like a 1970s "disaster movie run amok." Vulture said the movie is "chasing its own tail." And A. O. Scott wrote in The New York Times that it "is in most respects a dumber, less ambitious movie than its immediate predecessor, and also, for just that reason, a little bit more fun." Set three years after 2015's "Jurassic World," the film follows Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), an activist, and Owen (Chris Pratt), an animal behavior specialist, as they try to rescue dinosaurs from a fictional island before it erupts. Once they arrive and track down the creatures, they realize they have been duped by bad guys who have sinister plans for the reptiles. MICHAEL JACKSON: THE JURY SPEAKS 9 p.m. on Oxygen. Questions about Michael Jackson's alleged pedophilia have been dominating the headlines after the HBO documentary "Leaving Neverland" debuted last Sunday. But accusations surfaced many years before the documentary, which focused on two men who were coming forward with abuse allegations against the pop star for the first time. In 2003, Jackson was accused of molesting a 13 year old boy at his Neverland Valley ranch; two years later, he was acquitted of all charges. In "The Jury Speaks," part of a true crime series that aired in 2017, five members of the jury from the trial explain why they found Jackson innocent and Thomas Mesereau, Jackson's lead lawyer at the time, details how he won the case. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
LAKE FOREST, Ill. During practice last Thursday afternoon, Tarik Cohen caught a punt. Still clutching the ball, he proceeded to catch another. And another. And another. And another. And another. By the end of this wacky experiment, Cohen was cradling seven balls one, roughly, for every role he has with the Chicago Bears. Cohen is O.K., deep breath the Bears' handoff taking, punt returning, ball catching, pass throwing, mismatch creating, gasp inducing, highlight monopolizing cyborg. A year after becoming the first rookie since Gale Sayers, a former Bear, in 1965, to contribute touchdowns by running, receiving, passing and punt return, Cohen has further obliterated concerns that a 5 foot 6 running back from the humble Football Championship Subdivision would struggle transitioning to the N.F.L.'s rugged N.F.C. North. Wild Card Weekend: Our Predictions for the N.F.L. Playoffs If the quarterback wrecking edge rusher Khalil Mack embodies a defense that has fueled the Bears' worst to first ascent as the N.F.C.'s third seed, they'll face the No. 6 seeded Eagles in the wild card round on Sunday, their first playoff appearance since 2010 Cohen personifies the offense installed by the team's first year coach, Matt Nagy: creative, unpredictable and, at times, downright fun. Nagy has maximized Cohen's speed, suddenness and receiving skills by aligning him around the formation, from the backfield to the inside to the outside, turning him into, in effect, Chicago's offensive version of Mack: the player opponents must stalk wherever he is on the field. He led the team in catches (71), yards from scrimmage (1,169) and all purpose yardage (1,599), and was voted onto the All Pro team as punt returner. Soon after the Bears hired Nagy away from Kansas City, where he served for five seasons on Andy Reid's staff, Cohen heard that last season the Chiefs featured three players who gained more than 1,000 yards: receiver Tyreek Hill, tight end Travis Kelce and running back Kareem Hunt. Cohen did not know when or how he would get the ball in Chicago, he said, only that he would. None Week 11 Takeaways: Here is what we learned this week. N.F.L. Tightens Covid Protocols: As cases rise and Thanksgiving approaches, the league is requiring masks inside team facilities and increasing testing. The Jets Lose Again: Falling to the Miami Dolphins, the Jets' receiver Elijah Moore offered consolation. The Long Path to the Super Bowl: With 18 weeks in the regular season and fewer teams earning byes in the playoffs, the Super Bowl is still a long way off. Playoff Simulator: Explore every team's path to the postseason, updated live. "Get me the ball and get me in space," Cohen said. That just might be his motto. His 170 touches rank second on the team, behind Jordan Howard, the primary rusher. As a runner, Cohen has the seventh best breakaway percentage in the N.F.L., gaining 44.4 percent of his 444 yards on carries of at least 15 yards, according to Pro Football Focus. As a receiver, Cohen averages 10.2 yards per reception, most among the 20 backs with at least 40 catches, according to Pro Football Reference. As the position has evolved, a hybridized strain of running back has permeated the league, players as comfortable with, and capable of, lining up in the slot or being split wide as they are rushing 20 times per game. Cohen does not run as often as other versatile second year dynamos like the Panthers' Christian McCaffrey or the Saints' Alvin Kamara, but his proficiency in the passing game his 175 snaps away from the backfield were the most among running backs has made him, according to Pro Football Focus's Wins Above Replacement metric, the second most valuable player at his position, just behind McCaffrey. "I don't think there's anything he can't do," Bears running back Benny Cunningham said. The Bears' vast playbook Minnesota Vikings Coach Mike Zimmer quipped earlier this season that it contained 800 plays demands Cohen know entire passing concepts because any week he could line up at four or five different spots. His first year position coach, Charles London, marveled early on at Cohen's savvy how he can see a drawing or a video of a play and master his responsibilities on the field in a repetition or two. His improvement as a blocker has helped Chicago disguise its calls, diminishing tendencies that his alignment might have tipped off. "There's not really a route at running back or receiver that he can't run in this offense," London said. That was Cohen's objective during the off season, he said, when he devoted two days a week to refining routes that come back to the ball, like curls, during seven on seven drills with his former North Carolina A T teammates. He did not want to be branded as only a deep ball threat, just as he does not want to be perceived as strictly a perimeter runner, someone unwilling or worse, not stout enough to run between the tackles. Further evidence: Ask Cohen his top play from this season, and he mentions not the 70 yard screen against the Jets, the 50 yard catch and dash at Miami or the overtime forcing touchdown toss at the Giants. In his mind, all the feints, cutbacks and bursts that evoke his favorite player, Reggie Bush, do not compare to the punt he fielded midway through the first quarter against New England in Week 7, when he stepped left, cut right, then zipped left again, shedding a tackle at his feet before encountering a defender by the boundary squaring up to level him. The contact was brief. The defender crumpled. Cohen did not. "Somebody so small running somebody big over it makes everybody's day," Cohen said. Growing up in rural Bunn, N.C., about 30 miles northeast of Raleigh, Cohen specialized in such exploits. For one, he developed his speed like another Bears playmaker before him through unorthodox methods. Instead of running through tall, thick grass, as Devin Hester did, Cohen dodged the pit bulls that he said roamed his neighborhood. "It's fight or flight," Cohen said. "Either get going or you're going to get eat, so you've got to get out of there." He did get out of there to play football, but barely. Had North Carolina A T, a historically black university, not offered him a scholarship, Cohen would have joined the Navy. "I knew how to swim," said Cohen, sitting in the Halas Hall lobby before practice one day last week. "And it wasn't like people were getting killed in the Navy." Rather than enlist, Cohen opted to dominate the F.C.S. Across his four seasons at A T, he rushed for a Mid Eastern Athletic Conference record 5,619 yards, the 10th most in the history of what was formerly Division I AA. But when N.F.L. scouts passed through Greensboro, said Shawn Gibbs, his position coach at A T, some seemed unconvinced. "They just tried to poke holes in everything he did like, he's good, but," Gibbs said. "The guys that were like: 'Man, this guy can walk under this table. I can't take him to my G.M.' Those were the guys that were frustrating." "It got to the point where some of the other scouts may have been rolling their eyes a little bit, like, 'this guy's serious,'" Summerville said. "Every time I opened my mouth about him, or every time a question was asked, they were like, 'Do you think this guy can do this?' Tarik can do pretty much everything you ask him to." The Bears chose Cohen with one of their fourth round selections they took another foundational player, safety Eddie Jackson, seven picks earlier and before he even took a snap, Cunningham exhorted his friends to draft him for their fantasy football teams. Many satisfied customers, he said. Over the summer, Summerville reviewed his reports on Cohen, to check whether reality matched projections. It did not. Cohen surpassed them. One after another after another after another. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
It's a tough game to have to put on a fashion show in the current extreme news cycle. Especially when that show happens to be the first one of New York Fashion Week. You've got to make a pretty good case for your own relevance. Tom Ford could not have known he would open the spring 2019 collections hours after the Trump resistance in the White House tipped its hand, but it was a pretty sure bet something big was likely to happen. So it was a smart idea (and a lucky coincidence) he started with some resistance of his own. "I feel that fashion has somehow lost its way a bit, and it is easy for all of us to be swept up in trends that have lost touch with what women and men want to actually wear," Mr. Ford said in notes emailed after his show. The front row presence of Henry Golding the newly minted "Crazy Rich Asians" heartthrob and probable fashion week most invited, who donned a sleek white dinner jacket and black bow tie by Mr. Ford to take his seat between Anna Wintour and Cardi B presumably being an indication of Mr. Ford's own in touchness. However, where Mr. Golding's appearance might have suggested a look forward or at least a keen sense of the current moment Mr. Ford's clothes seemed like nothing so much as a step back: to the beginning of his own career at Gucci in the mid 1990s, when Carine Roitfeld, the French stylist turned magazine editor, was his muse, and his women ruled the C suite in pencil skirts and stilettos. There were pencil skirts galore this time around, too ruched tight at the thigh or flyaway at the hem, flashing just a bit of lingerie lace, like a promise, at the knee under strong shouldered faux crocodile suit jackets, all worn with metal spike heels, all often caught at the waist by tough leather corsets. There were men (mostly as accessories to the women, in complementary shades) in gleaming, narrow silk suits and geek sleaze square glasses. Otherwise, there were very few trousers, unless in a tux. There were a lot of neutrals: black, beige, lilac, white. There was some leopard, especially for evening, over lavish silk fringe. And capes billowing off the shoulders of slinky dresses. But what was really interesting was what there was not: athleisure or streetwear. There was not a sneaker in sight. This was not casual dressing. It didn't even look like it placed a terribly high premium on comfort (certainly those shoes did not), one of the catchwords of recent seasons. Sure, some of the fabrics were stretchy, but not in a yoga way in a trussed up in silk jersey way. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Recently Mr. Ford's collections have swung between a kind of overwrought decadence and a neon disco/aerobics rabbit hole, greased by the rise of the workout wardrobe. It's something of a relief to see a designer stop chasing the chimera of the athletic world. But while this was very much a return to form, it's an old form a definition of power that relies on hobble skirts, chopped and changed le smokings, and the boardroom/bedroom trope. (The men's wear, less fraught, was also less dated.) Once upon a time, that was exactly what people wanted. Mr. Ford gave it form, and it made him famous. In the context of today, however, when hurtling toward the next crisis and needing to turn on a dime are among the few constants, and when a revolt against the establishment may be in the offing, it seemed less like a solution than a well executed, occasionally alluring, exercise in nostalgia. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
People who grew up in coastal New England know this trick: To coax a periwinkle snail out of its shell, hum to it. I learned about humming to snails from my sister, who learned about it from a student she was teaching in Freeport, Me. "If you are patient," she said, "it works every time." The common periwinkle, a saltwater snail about the size and shape of a Hershey's Kiss, clings to rocks and gobbles up algae and marsh grass along the Atlantic coast from the Bay of Fundy to New Jersey, as well as in Europe, where they originate. In tidal pools, the spiral shelled gastropods are everywhere: In a single square foot, you can find them by the hundreds, maybe the thousands in the best habitats. Periwinkles stick around all year, but summer is the best time to observe them. Why do people hum to snails? For some, it's a childhood rite of passage. "Every kid on the beach would just sit there and hum and they'd come out," said Molly Auclair, who grew up on the coast and works as an educator for the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, which runs a citizen science project that studies where periwinkles are found and other aspects of the mollusks. "They're pretty cool." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Waterford, Mich. On a balmy July afternoon, seven teenage boys stand around a backyard trampoline taking turns bouncing. It's the kind of scene that might be repeated at countless suburban homes, except that these kids aren't doing seat drops and belly flops. They're doing triple, quadruple, even quintuple flips (yes, that's five rotations in the air). The boys bounce a breathtaking 12 feet in the air and embellish their moves with multiple twists and an array of skills with names like kaboom, cody, ball out, fliffus, rudi and randy. They are elite athletes, mostly self taught, who connected via social media and are now pushing themselves to learn more and more difficult skills on the trampoline. It's a movement being led by tween and teenage boys around the world with a sprinkling of girls joining in and it's called Gtramp , short for garden trampoline, to distinguish it from the Olympic sport of trampoline. Gtramp is renegade in nature, blending the countercultural aspect of skateboarding with the raw daring of parkour and the energy of freestyle snowboarding, all of it fueled by the new technology that is second nature to this new generation. "I still get told all the time to play a normal sport," says Cam Shorey ( camshorey77), a 15 year old from Andover, Mass., whose skill in Gtramp has won him a sponsorship by SkyBound USA, the trampoline maker. Like many of his fellow flippers, as they call themselves, he says he is often teased at school, subject to eye rolls from kids and parents alike. "I use the negative things people say to me as motivation to get better," he says. Gtramp has exploded in popularity over the past two years. The hashtag gtramp, obscure only a few years ago, now has more than 70,000 posts on Instagram, where participants share their progress via photos and video and encourage one other. The powerful combination of social media, along with the accessibility of apps for video editing, trampoline brand sponsorships and, most importantly, the kids themselves has helped fuel sport's growth. They are a fiercely loyal band of athletes who care about and support one another. They may train in their own backyards and basements, but through videos and live streams remain intimately connected. To the chagrin of organized gymnastics, these athletes have taken training into their own hands and forged a tightly knit community in the process all without the rules, the governing body or the coaches. Instead, Gtramp has brands, formal and informal "meet ups," endless live streams and videos on Instagram, and a growing pool of talent that can make a parent gasp. My son, Maxx , took gymnastics in first grade, but quickly got bored. He was more interested in teaching himself flips on our trampoline by watching YouTube videos. Eventually, I helped him set up his own Instagram account, ( maxx flipzz) where he follows his idols teenage flippers with 20,000, 50,000, 100,000 and more followers and posts his own tricks. I used to bemoan it, especially since I had been a gymnast. But spending time with Gtramp athletes like 15 year old Colby Iverson has changed my mind. None Week 11 Takeaways: Here is what we learned this week. N.F.L. Tightens Covid Protocols: As cases rise and Thanksgiving approaches, the league is requiring masks inside team facilities and increasing testing. The Jets Lose Again: Falling to the Miami Dolphins, the Jets' receiver Elijah Moore offered consolation. The Long Path to the Super Bowl: With 18 weeks in the regular season and fewer teams earning byes in the playoffs, the Super Bowl is still a long way off. Playoff Simulator: Explore every team's path to the postseason, updated live. Colby discovered flipping about three years ago when his parents surprised him with a trampoline for his birthday. He was a strong athlete he had been playing hockey since he was 4 but was a beginner at the trampoline. He quickly taught himself a front flip and a back flip, and then he discovered Tanner Braungardt, a teenage YouTuber who makes videos featuring his extreme flips. Tanner's videos inspired Colby, who began teaching himself more complicated skills and posting them on Instagram. "That's when I found the Gtramp community," he says. "Every day, I would go out there and flip and then edit on my phone at night." When Colby ( colbyiverson) began to excel at the sport and build up an Instagram following, the trampoline brand AlleyOOP reached out to sponsor him. As a sponsored athlete, he has traveled around the country for events, as well as internationally to Sweden and Denmark. During the school year, he trains after school and on weekends. During the summer, he spends entire days on his AlleyOOP trampoline, jumping off a tower his dad custom built to get a higher bounce. Typical of the community, Colby doesn't have a coach. "I get to progress at my own rate and take it to my own personal level," he says.' This summer, with support from AlleyOOP, the Iversons hosted the second annual Great Lakes Meet Up at their home in Waterford, Mich., inviting about 30 top Gtramp athletes along with Maxx and me to come in waves over two weeks. The boys, who ranged in age from 14 to 18, quickly got down to the business of "seshing" ("sesh" is short for session, and often used as a verb), taking turns trying new combinations of skills or perfecting old ones, all the time cheering one another on. "We all support each other, and we all celebrate together," says 15 year old Lukas White ( lukaswhite), who lives in Santa Monica, Calif., and is also sponsored by AlleyOOP. When they come together, their goal is to support one another in learning new skills, or achieving what they call "world's firsts." (The rules for a world's first are thus: you have to get it on video and post it; if someone else in the Gtramp community has done it, they will quickly correct you.) The boys have remarkably similar stories. Many tried organized gymnastics but got bored. Some have cheerleading or martial arts backgrounds. One of the flippers there, Nicholas Cassell ( nicholasbcassell), who is 16 and lives in Knoxville, Tenn., is an elite competitive diver. Z Zoromba ( fliplikez), another flipper I talked to at a trampoline event in June in Cincinnati, was an elite gymnast in the United States after moving here from Egypt when he was 10. "I was 12 and I was getting ready to go to Nationals, but I felt like gymnastics was holding me back," says Z, now 18, living in Santa Monica and making a living by touring with a group of other "trickers," as they call themselves, including brothers Jack Payne and Bailey Payne (tricking blends martial arts, flipping, parkour and break dancing moves). The Payne brothers both come from a competitive cheerleading background, and they bring a message of being your unique self in your athletics. "We want to engage with kids and help them learn," says Bailey Payne, 22, who is sponsored by Red Bull and holds what is regarded as a world record for doing 28 one legged flips ("corks") in a row. Though these budding athletes often face discouragement, it seems no obstacle can stop a flipper who wants to flip. Luke Mattson ( luke.mattson), a 15 year old who lives in Minnesota, has built up a huge Instagram following by doing all of his tricks inside on mini tramps and mattresses since the townhouse where he lives can't accommodate an outdoor trampoline. Though Gtramp is a boy centric sport, there are girls involved, too. Most girls who show interest are steered toward organized gymnastics, but a few who have made headway in the Gtramp community include thegirlninja, flippin.samantha and flipssophie. The backyard trampoline brands are mostly scrambling to catch up and trying to figure out how to support the community. Different brands have different approaches. AlleyOOP (owned by JumpSport) tends to focus on sponsoring athletes. SkyBound USA, in addition to sponsoring athletes, also holds meet ups and events such as the GT Games, billed as "the world's first official freestyle trampoline competition." The second GT Games was held in Escondido, Calif., in late June, and more than 50 Gtramp athletes were invited to compete. There was hesitation about the idea of competing against one another, says Ricky Lai, marketing manager for SkyBound USA. "But it's more like a friendly gantlet than a cutthroat competition. The idea is to bring the athletes together, to showcase the best in sport and present it to the world." Now it's become an event the community embraces. Greg Roe, 28, a former elite gymnast and Team Canada Trampolinist, was the one who brought the concept of the GT Games to SkyBound USA and asked them to partner with him to create it. He is trying to bridge the chasm between organized gymnastics and Gtramp. "We want to build a little bit of structure around the industry with these events, but we're not trying to tell the athletes what to do or how to do it," says Mr. Roe, who founded Greg Roe Trampoline, which focuses on bringing safety to trampoline parks and also sponsors athletes as part of its GRTCrew, which consists of 26 athletes from around the world (including Colby Iverson and Cam Shorey). The Finnish brand Acon has decided to eschew competitions and take a more artistic approach, says Marko Manninen, vice president and head of sales and marketing for Acon Global. He's sponsoring a team of athletes to travel and create videos. "The main idea is that we have fun together," Mr. Manninen says. This past year, he has been working on making a series of videos featuring Sam De Greef ( samdegreef), including a trek through Finland in search of the best trampoline photograph ever. Sam is a 17 year old Gtramp athlete who lives in the Netherlands, is self taught and has been flipping for about four years. "I love Gtramp so much because I feel free. I get to discover on my own what I can do," he says. All of the athletes told me their parents are supportive now, but it took a while to get there. I understand this, because at first, I tried to forbid Maxx to try certain skills, like double flips. But I watched the way he worked the progression on his own, and eventually realized that he had excellent awareness and that the videos he was watching on Instagram were truly helping him learn in a safe way and inspiring him to take it seriously. Still, safety is the largest point of contention, and the most frightening aspect for parents, as well as the kids themselves. Last fall, a 17 year old Gtramper, Joshua Southworth, broke his neck in a trampoline accident, leaving him paralyzed and his family nearly destitute with medical bills (there is a GoFundMe set up for him). The night I first learned about Joshua, I didn't sleep. Maxx getting injured is a constant worry of mine. "We noticed a few years ago that the tricks were getting really big," says Acon's Marko Manninen. "At first, we were afraid, but then we started to think about how we could support the safety side of trampoline tricking." Simply handing down rules wouldn't work, so Mr. Manninen started working with influencers like Sam De Greef to push out subtle safety messages, like using NDB on posts. That means "no double bounce." Double bouncing is when one person bounces on the trampoline mat at just the right time to send the other person higher in a bounce (think of a teeter totter). Double bouncing can send kids too high and make them lose control of the jump, since someone else is responsible for the timing. It can lead to injury. While there is still widespread double bouncing in the Gtramp community (including by my own kid), more of the influencers are moving away from it, and as they do and they post NDB, it trickles down. When I ask the boys about the potential of getting seriously hurt, they know it's a possibility, and just as athletes in any sport would, these elite Gtrampers take precautions and train for tricks until they know they can safely do them. At one point during the meet up, I watch Cam Shorey try a difficult combination at least a dozen times, stopping each time before the final trick because he didn't think he could make it. Though he was frustrated each time, he didn't want to throw something he wasn't sure he could do. At the meet up, the boys take time to work with Maxx and encourage him, not because they have to, but because they truly want to. For the Iversons, this is the driving force behind Gtramp, and why they have decided to get involved and support it, ultimately helping these athletes connect in person beyond the posts on Instagram. "These kids are almost all genuinely in it for each other," says Mr. Iverson. "This is more of a team than any team Colby has been on." Judi Ketteler writes about parenting active kids and making the most of midlife. A former gymnast, she loves doing back flips on the trampoline. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Well |
The fashion set has taken a liking to a style quirk once associated with out of touch dads. The photographer Adam Katz Sinding first noticed men tucking in their T shirts while shooting street style during fashion week in Moscow a few seasons back. Then he saw it in London. And then Copenhagen. During the men's shows last month in Europe, he said the look was as likely to be seen on the runways as in the streets. "I think it's derivative of this Gosha Rubchinskiy look," Mr. Sinding said, referring to the Russian men's wear designer. "It's the appropriation of bad style. But on cool people, it makes it cool, somehow." It has recently been a common style at runway shows staged by Gucci, Lemaire and Fendi. Demna Gvasalia's most recent show for Balenciaga, built around the idea of bad taste and so called "dad style," also featured the look. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Nearly 50 years ago, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, assistant secretary of labor for President Lyndon B. Johnson, noted that nearly a quarter of African American children were born to single mothers and proposed that this "deterioration of the Negro family" was "at the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society." Mr. Moynihan's now famous analysis has infused the nation's approach to social assistance for over a generation. Whether it was his intent or not, it inspired a decades long campaign to save marriage and the traditional family, and prompted an assault against so called deadbeat dads. In "Doing the Best I Can," their new book on absent fathers, Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson of Johns Hopkins University, describe how such fathers became bipartisan targets. From one side of the political aisle, William Bennett, a former education secretary and a noted conservative, wrote in 2001: "It is these absent men, above all, who deserve our censure and disesteem." From the other, Barack Obama, in 2007, observed that "there are a lot of men out there who need to stop acting like boys, who need to realize that responsibility does not end at conception, who need to know that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one." Last week, President Obama returned to the theme of fatherless children. "I didn't have a dad in the house," Mr. Obama said while announcing a 200 million, five year effort to help black youth. "And I was angry about it, even though I didn't necessarily realize it at the time. I made bad choices." But something important may be changing. The recent actions of the Obama administration suggest a subtle shift in the approach to these complicated social trends. On Tuesday the White House proposed to expand the earned income tax credit the government's most potent antipoverty tool, which supplements the incomes of millions of poor working parents to include workers who do not care for children. Often, this means absent fathers. The expansion which the White House estimates would help an extra 13.5 million people work their way out of poverty represents a sharp break from the mind set of the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor that has hamstrung American public assistance from the beginning. For all the condemnation, the trends Mr. Moynihan identified 50 years ago as signs of social dysfunction among blacks have spread throughout America: 36 percent of white children are born to single mothers, as are 53 percent of Hispanics. Among blacks, the figure is 72 percent. "It seems reasonable to conclude that nonmarital births will continue to swell the ranks of female headed families for the foreseeable future," Maria Cancian of the University of Wisconsin and Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution wrote in a soon to be published study on low income families. "We must therefore analyze what can be done to improve outcomes for children in single parent families." This includes not only vesting less hope in the policies to encourage marriage that were so popular during the administration of George W. Bush, but also, for instance, offering child care so poor mothers can work. And it means taking some of the pressure off the deadbeat dads, and maybe even lending them a hand. For years, policies to help disadvantaged children have been designed to provide as little help as possible to their estranged parents. Mothers benefit from support programs like the earned income credit and public housing only to the extent that they are caring for children. Elizabeth Holmes Hones Her Defense in Day 2 of Testimony Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay 31 million to the 'House of Cards' studio after sexual harassment allegations. Noncustodial fathers have been treated exclusively as sources of cash, subjected to things like wage garnishment or incarceration to enforce child support orders that can remain in place even when fathers lose their jobs or go to jail, making little allowance for fathers' ability to pay. Many don't. In 2011 some 5.6 million mothers were due child support but only three quarters of them received any, according to census statistics. Fewer than half received the full amount due. In 2012, the Office of Child Support Enforcement logged 11.5 million cases in arrears, worth a total of 114.6 billion. Reliable support from fathers can clearly improve the lives of children and their mothers. Still, there are adverse consequences from pursuing it at all costs. Studies suggest that strict enforcement of child support reduces the employment rates of young black men, driving them into crime and the underground economy. And mothers and children often gain little when public assistance is proportionately withdrawn. Ms. Edin and Mr. Nelson criticize the conventional wisdom across the political spectrum that "blames the significant difficulties that so many children born to unwed parents face poor performance in school, teenage pregnancy and low school completion rates, criminal behavior and difficulty securing a steady job on their fathers' failure to care." The proposition fits neatly with longstanding arguments made by conservative thinkers like Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute, who argues that the root of the problems faced by low income America lies in the abandonment of core values that are fundamental to achieving a middle class life. But there is an alternative explanation for the instability plaguing low income families that fits the data substantially better than the assertion of sudden moral decline: The job market has changed in such fundamental ways that many men can no longer fulfill their part of the marriage bargain. Men without a high school degree earn a third less, in real terms, than they did in 1979. High school graduates who never went to college earn a fifth less. It's true that low income women earn less, on average, than men. Still, they are better equipped for a labor market that keeps shedding brawny guy jobs and adding service positions that require a more nimble touch. Their earnings are on a more favorable trend. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
SAN FRANCISCO Facebook and Twitter announced plans on Thursday to increase transparency of political campaign ads, changes aimed at preventing foreign manipulation of the coming midterm elections. Facebook said it would begin including a "paid for" label on the top of any political ads in the United States. Clicking on the label will take people to a page where they can view the cost of the ad and the demographic breakdown of the audience that viewed the ad. Facebook also promised to keep an archive of all political ads for the next seven years, or through a full congressional election cycle. The ads are available to Facebook members at facebook.com/politicalcontentads. Twitter said it planned to restrict who could run political ads on its service, requiring those running political ads for federal elections to identity themselves and certify that they are in the United States. Foreign nationals will not be able to target political ads to people in the United States, Twitter said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Here are two scenes from the same drama. The first scene takes place in California, where the state's public university system now effectively requires prospective faculty members to make a statement affirming their commitment to "diversity, equity and inclusion" an officially politically neutral trinity that is widely suspected to be conterminous with progressive notions of what counts as diversity and what sort of inclusion matters. At the University of California, Berkeley, the state's flagship school, a recent investigation found that these don't call them loyalty oaths are being used to cull job applications across multiple departments. In one case in the life sciences, Robby Soave of Reason reported, "a pool of 894 candidates was narrowed down to 214" based exclusively on whether their statements cleared the diversity and inclusion ideological bar. The second scene takes place across the country, in Washington, D.C., where the Trump administration has drafted an executive order that would give precedence to classical architectural forms in the construction of federal buildings and give local communities and nonexperts a stronger influence over designs. This would reverse a 1960s policy that discourages an official style and favors expert control over the building process, on the grounds that "design must flow from the architectural profession to the government and not vice versa." While the University of California's project of ideological exclusion appears mostly of interest to heterodox academics and conservatives, the Trump draft order has inspired a general media freakout, with editorial pages joining architects in denouncing the idea of political control over political buildings. (In a representative commentary, The Chicago Sun Times's editorial board accused the White House of taking us "back into a bygone era when women wore bonnets, men wore tricorn hats and the only acceptable design for a federal building was a knockoff of a classical Greek or Roman structure.") But these two stories, Californian and Trumpian, belong together because they illustrate the evolution of the culture war. Over the last generation, our nation's elite cultural institutions have become more themselves, which is to say that they have passed from being mostly liberal to being monolithically so, with strong internal forces like Berkeley's litmus tests pulling them leftward and no countervailing power remaining on the right. Over the same period, in a trend that obviously feeds into and is fed by the first one, conservative politics has become more populist and anti intellectual, and conservative voters have become more hostile to universities, the media and other organs of the intelligentsia. This has sharpened one of our many forms of polarization. Conservatives have political power but feel shut out of cultural power, and liberals have cultural power but lack the political power to match. The second half of the equation explains the current liberal fascination with novel forms of political hardball, to make the most of the Democratic Party's next rendezvous with power ranging from mild ideas like abolishing the filibuster to more extreme plans for state adding, court packing and Electoral College abolition. But this liberal yearning has its mirror image in the Trump era conservative desire for novel forms of cultural hardball for ways to use the power that the right still enjoys, the power over laws and budgets, to either regain influence in the commanding heights of culture or weaken the institutions that dominate those heights. As an example of this combative thinking, the conservative intellectual journal National Affairs recently published an essay by Arthur Milikh, urging the right to effectively defund the university system cutting subsidies, ending student loan financing and removing tax exemptions. If major public universities are explicitly imposing progressivism as an orthodoxy, the thinking goes, with diversity and inclusion statements as the equivalent of a faith profession at a seminary, then why should right of center politicians vote to keep them funded? Milikh's sweeping proposal isn't likely to be adopted, but higher education funding cuts championed by Republican governors and the G.O.P. tax reform's bite out of high dollar endowments represent a more modest version of this impulse. And a similar impulse lies behind the Trump architecture order: It's a repudiation of the idea that there exists some neutral community of cultural expertise to which Republican presidents as well as Democrats should defer, and it's a deliberate attempt to use the power of the public purse to shift the balance of power within a specific culture industry. As such, it's an act that provisionally deepens polarization, by elevating a new culture war issue. But it also points to one plausible way that polarization might ultimately diminish: not through mutual disarmament, but through the fruitful use of power against power, so that different ideologies balance one another in different spheres and it becomes easier for Americans of all political persuasion to invest in their institutions once again. In "A Time to Build," one of the few mildly optimistic political books to come out in this winter of depressing ones, the conservative scholar (and editor of National Affairs) Yuval Levin argues for just such a comprehensive recommitment to American institutions families and churches, academia and government as an alternative to the current tendency to use them instrumentally, as a platform for partisan ambitions and personal desires. Only a renewed institutionalism, in Levin's telling, can correct both individualism and partisan tribalism, the two self reinforcing spirits of our age. When we see our lives, personal or political, "as mediated by institutions that structure appropriate ways to do what we do," he writes, "we are more likely to act responsibly and to demand responsibility of others." But reading Levin's admirable exhortation while contemplating our "conservatives rule politics"/"liberals rule culture" division made me wonder if, to reach the point where people are willing to submit themselves to institutionalism once again, we may first need our factions to more aggressively check one another, in politics and culture both. In politics, it's easier for liberals to see how this might work. A movement to add Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., to the roster of Senate represented states, for instance, or to divide California into six states, two conservative leaning and four liberal, would be a form of partisan aggression in the short run. But if successful, in the long run it might help depolarize the Senate somewhat, forcing conservatives to compete outside their current rural state majority and restoring liberal confidence in the fairness of the upper chamber. But the same pattern might hold in cultural conflicts. Liberals have a harder time imagining this because they like to think of public architecture proposals or public university hiring as "independent" and "nonideological." But this is silly: Cultural production is obviously dominated by guilds with strong ideological dispositions, which alienate differently disposed citizens when those dispositions seem too all controlling or oppressive. In the architectural case, what we have now is a permanent bias toward modern schools that have cycled through various ideological justifications (today, anti racism, yesterday, Great Society liberalism, the day before that, fascism) for their long running war on beauty. And I can confidently say that my own patriotism, my own trust in American institutions, would be modestly increased if public architecture tilted toward the wide variety of forms called classical under Republican presidents and then back toward "starchitect" experiments under Democrats. Judging by polling on Americans' favorite public buildings, I would not be alone. Listen to "The Argument" podcast every Thursday morning, with Ross Douthat, Michelle Goldberg and David Leonhardt. Note that the Trump administration draft order does not propose defunding or eliminating public architecture, but just changing the way public money influences the choice of designs and schools and hires. That makes it more plausible and productive, more institutionalist, if you will, than a Republican crusade to defund universities, and it's suggestive of a better way that the right might approach its alienation from academia and vice versa. Instead of imposing an austerity that often just leaves shrunken humanities faculties more ideological than before, conservatives with political power should use it to reward schools and systems that don't take the Californian path, to fund programs that diversify academia along lines of philosophy and faith and class as well as race and gender, to regard the demographic challenges facing many colleges as an opportunity to influence them for the better rather than just smirking while they fall. Such efforts, where they exist for instance, Arizona State's School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, which was initially funded by the state's Republican led legislature are generally greeted with the same academic suspicion, shading into hysteria, that's greeted the Trump architecture proposal. I should disclose that I spoke at an event sponsored by the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership in 2018. And that suspicion and resistance are natural and inevitable, in the same way that Republican opposition to D.C. statehood would be inevitable; the people or the factions with power in a given institutional realm are never going to be excited by anything that would weaken it. But sometimes forcing incumbents to share power is a necessary path to a more stable equilibrium, to an increase in public buy in and transpartisan trust. In politics, it's likely that you won't get an America where liberals are institutionally invested in the Senate until liberal constituencies feel that they can be more justly represented in that body which at the very least requires Democrats to figure out a way to win more Senate seats, and possibly to change the institution somewhat once they do. And likewise, you won't get an America where conservatives trust elite cultural institutions until something happens to break up the current consolidation of progressive power in those spheres. Making American architecture a little more traditional probably isn't going to get us there, but it certainly wouldn't hurt and it's more likely than many forms of cultural skirmishing to produce a little surplus beauty along the way. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
What Is a Recession, and Why Are People Talking About the Next One? The economy may be healthy, but the cynics abound. Even though many say conditions remain strong, several large investors see the risks of a recession rising, with half of chief financial officers expecting one to strike next year, according to a recent survey. A survey of chief executives at a Yale University summit conference last week found that almost half thought the country could find itself in a recession as soon as the end of the month. It's anyone's guess when the good times will end, but in a complicated, volatile world it's not a question of if a recession is coming, but when. Here's a brief guide to what you should know about recessions and why some people are talking about the next one now. Simply put, a recession is when the economy stops growing and starts shrinking. Some say that happens when the value of goods and services produced in a country, known as the gross domestic product, declines for two consecutive quarters, or half a year. In the United States, though, the National Bureau of Economic Research, a century old nonprofit widely considered the arbiter of recessions and expansions, takes a broader view. According to the bureau, a recession is "a significant decline in economic activity" that is widespread and lasts several months. Typically, that means not only shrinking G.D.P., but declining incomes, employment, industrial production and retail sales, too. Recessions come in all shapes and sizes. Some are long, some are short. Some create lasting damage, while some are quickly forgotten. And some touch virtually all parts of the economy, while others are more targeted, said Betsey Stevenson, a professor of economics at the University of Michigan and a former member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. "In a slight recession, many won't experience any kind of labor market problems, they won't see very many of their friends experience labor market problems, but there are other communities that get completely devastated," she said. A recession ends when growth returns, but it can often take some time for society or the bureau to recognize it. Why do some people think a recession is coming? Despite recent headlines, things have been going quite well: Unemployment is at its lowest level in decades; employers have added jobs for eight years running; and the economy this year is on track to grow at its fastest pace since 2005. So why are some worrying about the next recession? A handful of signs, including flickers of weakness in some major sectors (auto manufacturing, agriculture and home building), stock market jitters, global economic slowing, and the fear of a worsening trade war with other countries, have stoked fears of what's to come. The recent stock market slide seemed, in part, the result of an accounting for some of those concerns: After ignoring some of those risks for months, Wall Street now sees trouble everywhere. The Next Financial Calamity Is Coming. Here's What to Watch. Some worry that the nation is overdue. The expansion is currently the second longest on record and will be the longest if it continues into next summer, according to the research bureau. But experts dismiss that line of thinking, arguing that recoveries don't merely die of old age. "There's no reason the economy can't continue enjoying good times forever, essentially," Dr. Stevenson said. "Recessions get started when something knocks the economy off course a shock or a change." Others see a more meaningful warning sign in the so called yield curve, a historically strong signal of recessions that measures the difference in interest rates between short term and long term government bonds. How often do recessions happen and how long do they last? While people talk of "business cycles," there is little regularity to how recessions occur. Some can happen back to back, like the recession that began and ended in 1980 and the next, which started the following year, according to the bureau. Others have occurred a decade apart, as was the case with the downturn that ended in March 1991 and the next one, which began in March 2001, following the 2000 dot com crash. On average, recessions since World War II have lasted about 11 months each, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. That figure was skewed longer by the Great Recession, which lasted for 18 months after starting in late 2007 with the bursting of the housing bubble and resulting financial crisis. What was the worst recession? Recessions are difficult to compare because each affects different parts of the economy in different ways and at different times. But only one stands out like the recession that began in 1929, known as the Great Depression, which is seared in the memories of older Americans and passed down in family lore. "The gold standard," said Tara Sinclair, a professor of economics at George Washington University and the co director of the school's research program on forecasting. "You can choose any metric you want to and it just looks really horrific." (A depression is a general term for a very deep recession.) The downturn that began at the start of the Great Depression ended four years later with the value of goods and services produced in the United States having declined about 27 percent, according to the N.B.E.R. But economists and historians generally define the Great Depression more broadly, with many saying it ended in 1941, when the economy mobilized for the nation's entry into World War II. The Great Recession, which stretched from late 2007 to mid 2009, is typically considered the next worst. During that recession, the value of goods and services produced in the United States fell by a little more than 4 percent. For one, they can make sure they have enough money saved up to survive a job loss or other financial catastrophe. Experts typically advise having enough money set aside to cover living expenses for three to six months. Recessions also tend to hit those with less formal education the hardest, so it helps to have or pursue a higher education, if possible. "The people who tend to get hurt most in a recession are those with less education, and it takes the longest for them to recover," Dr. Stevenson said. For example, as of last month, the unemployment rate for people without a high school diploma was 5.6 percent, compared with 2.2 percent for those with a bachelor's degree or higher. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Joseph Plambeck, deputy technology editor in New York, discussed the tech he's using. What tech tools do you use to keep on top of the nonstop flow of tech news? If anyone has an elegant solution for this, please let me know. I rely on a mishmash of email, news apps, mobile notifications and Twitter. First thing in the morning, I check email on my creaky iPhone to see what happened overnight in Asia and Europe and whether colleagues in those places need me to weigh in or pitch in on anything. Then I do a quick scan of the apps for our largest competitors, like The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and Bloomberg. I don't read everything, but I look for breaking news that we need to jump on right away in my area of coverage, which means I'm looking a lot at the tech industry and politics. There is a lot less order to the madness for the rest of the day. I rely heavily on the reporters I work with to tip me off to things happening on their beats. I have also signed up to get alerts, either by email or as pop up notifications on my phone, from news organizations and newsmakers. And I scan many news sites. I look at Twitter for news, too. But because I rarely feel better about life after I log on there, and because it takes a lot of effort to separate the valuable stuff from the nonsense, I try to limit my time there. I quit tweeting a long time ago. It was a great decision. You edit reporters who are spread across the United States and also internationally, in London and elsewhere. What tech is indispensable for that? Phone calls are amazing things. There is a lot that gets misconstrued in written messages. So when possible, especially on important breaking news, I try to touch base by phone with the reporters. I lean hard on many other bat signals, too emails, text messages on multiple services, Slack messages and Google chat messages. It's not hard to find me. We're also working collaboratively more often, meaning that reporters in places as far apart as London, Washington and San Francisco sometimes write stories together. We used to turn to Google Docs in those situations, because multiple people can work in a file at the same time, no matter their location. That meant I had to move the story into our internal publishing system when the story was ready. Now our publishing system has similar collaboration, which is great. How has the tech story changed since you have been a tech editor? It is astonishing how much has changed in the five or so years that I've been focusing on tech. We're not only covering the biggest business story, we're covering one of the biggest stories, period. Tech has changed and continues to change just about everything. Five years ago, I think many of us covering tech knew this was happening. The rest of the world is realizing it now as well. I think that is driving a lot of the backlash to the tech industry in Washington and beyond. People see many changes happening around them, maybe in their pocketbook, office or government. And they are wondering whether we have a grip on where this is all heading. You edit a lot of Amazon stories and you live near a Whole Foods, which Amazon now owns. Discuss. Well, I certainly can attest that the avocados at Whole Foods are cheaper now. It's interesting to watch up close what is happening to the store after Amazon bought Whole Foods. I'm frankly surprised it hasn't changed a lot more. You can see Amazon bleed into the store more each month, but most of the changes are baby steps. Next I hope Amazon takes a leap and tackles the horrible checkout lines. Whatever algorithm they use for that needs to be rewritten from scratch. I am, and I like to think our family gets its money's worth. In addition to Whole Foods, where we get a discount as a Prime member, we do some shopping on Amazon.com. Our children use Amazon Music through our Echo device. And I sometimes zone out with a show on Prime Video. It's not that we decided to be an Amazon family. It has just crept up on us. Outside of work, what tech do you love to use? I try to use as little as possible. Few things please me more than looking at my iPhone's Screen Time app on Sunday night and seeing that I've been on the phone for less than an hour that day. While it is rare, that has happened. I appreciate most the technology that is years old now. Google Maps may have saved my marriage. And FaceTime and similar services blow me away. My family recently visited relatives in Florida without me, and my older son called me regularly on FaceTime, sometimes while he was in the middle of a fun outdoor activity. It was great to see his smiles in real time. I'm really impressed with the technology going into cars, too. We have a thoroughly conventional and midpriced car, a Mazda CX 5. Yet it has some nice safety tech, like automatic emergency braking and blind spot and lane departure warnings. The adaptive cruise control, which keeps our car a set distance from the one in front of us, makes long drives a little more bearable. It also gets O.K. gas mileage. I'm glad we don't need to wait for carmakers to perfect an affordable self driving electric car before we see some of the benefits. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
PARIS The huge financial safety net for the euro zone patched together nearly two months ago was trumpeted as a triumph of solidarity. But as often happens in the European Union, commitments made in Brussels can get complicated once the leaders get back home. The backstop which works out to about EUR750 billion, or 940 billion, when commitments from the International Monetary Fund are included was announced May 9 as market jitters over Greece were weighing heavily on the common currency. The fund was supposed to become operational Thursday. But Slovakia, a country of about 5.4 million people, has yet to sign off on it because of the politics surrounding a change in government. Meanwhile, the stress tests that European leaders agreed last month to carry out on their banks and publish simultaneously are running into difficulties in Germany. Regulators there cannot legally disclose the results on individual banks without permission from the institutions, which many have said they will not give. The bailout fund, a special purpose vehicle formally known as the European Financial Stability Facility, has been approved by the other 15 euro zone governments. Financial commitments to the program, which will have the capacity to issue bonds guaranteed by euro zone members for lending to members in distress, range from EUR398 million for Malta, the smallest euro economy, to EUR123 billion for Germany, the biggest. Slovakia's share is just under EUR4.4 billion. The problem is that European politics is also domestic politics. Robert Fico, who is stepping down as Slovakia's prime minister, said in May that he was backing the emergency program out of European solidarity, but left the details up to the new Parliament, chosen in June 12 elections. Mr. Fico's party, Smer, won 35 percent of the vote, the most of any party, but could not form a government. He says he has no mandate to sign without the approval of the incoming prime minister, Iveta Radicova. Most members of Ms. Radicova's center right coalition, campaigning on a platform of fiscal restraint, had opposed the earlier bailout for Greece a country that is richer than Slovakia, with better social benefits. The main instinct in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, now is to avoid any responsibility for the new fund. Mr. Fico and Ms. Radicova have been trading accusations over who should sign. On Thursday, Ms. Radicova seemed to suggest she would sign. "Political agreement about the European safety net is irreversible and the new government will therefore not block its creation," she said. But, she added, "There will be negotiations about the size, safety measures and requirements, if it came to a real use of this mechanism's guarantees." Nevertheless, after meeting Friday to announce the appointment of new ministers, the coalition parties promptly retired for a three day weekend without ending the blockade. Neither Mr. Fico nor Ms. Radicova responded to messages seeking comment. With markets weakening recently, Slovakia's European partners have been signaling their desire to wrap up the formalities. Klaus Regling, a former German Finance Ministry official who is heading the fund, took office Thursday even though his job remains in limbo. In a statement Friday, his office expressed confidence that if the fund were to be needed, "all the necessary approvals will be in place." Results of the stress tests, which are supposed to assess banks' ability to withstand various kinds of shocks, will be released by the end of July, although the date remains unclear, according to a person in the German government with knowledge of the discussions. National bank regulators are still discussing how the tests should be designed, he said. If any institutions fail, governments will also be ready with support measures, said the official, who was not authorized to speak about the matter publicly. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
The Mikhailovsky Ballet of St. Petersburg, currently on its first visit to the United States, is an intriguing amalgamation. Though its history dates back to the 1930s, its rise to international stature is recent. In 2007, the Russian tycoon Vladimir Kekhman took over as general director, infusing the institution with funds that have allowed it to poach ballet masters and star dancers from its better known and stylistically opposed Russian rivals, the Mariinsky and the Bolshoi. The resulting mix of styles and traditions was especially apparent at the David H. Koch Theater on Friday when the Mikhailovsky presented "The Flames of Paris." First choreographed by Vasily Vaynonen in 1932, this is an old ballet and a famous one. The grand pas de deux of its third act has long been a staple of the international gala repertory, a representative sample of Soviet ballet pyrotechnics. But until Friday, the work had never been performed in its entirety in the United States. This production, which had its premiere in Russia last year, is reportedly a highly faithful one. It was reconstructed, staged and slightly revised by the troupe's ballet master in chief, Mikhail Messerer, who is connected to the work by family. His mother and his uncle starred in "Flames" with the Bolshoi. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
BRUSSELS Cyprus reached a long awaited bailout agreement early Saturday that puts some of the burden for shoring up the island's beleaguered economy on its bank depositors. The most contentious issue in months of negotiations was whether to force Cypriot depositors to take losses in order to make the country's debt more manageable. The Cypriot authorities had sought to head off any such initiatives on the grounds that they would do lasting damage to their financial services sector. In the early hours of Saturday morning, after 10 hours of talks, finance ministers from euro area countries, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank agreed on terms that include a one time tax of 9.9 percent on Cypriot bank deposits of more than 100,000 euros, and a tax of 6.75 percent on smaller deposits, European Union officials said.. "It's not a pleasant outcome especially for the people involved," Michalis Sarris, the Cypriot finance minister, told reporters. "This is a once and for all levy," he added, saying it should ensure no further flight of depositors from Cypriot banks. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the group of ministers, told a separate news conference that lenders had reached "a political agreement" to aid Cyprus. The challenges to reaching a deal were "of an exceptional nature," he said. The latest bailout for the euro zone broke new ground by requiring haircuts, or losses, for all Cypriot bank depositors. A previous bailout for Greece required a significant haircut for Greek bondholders in early 2012 something that European Union officials said at the time would be a one of a kind measure. Mr. Dijsselbloem declined to rule out taxes on depositors in other countries besides Cyprus in the future, but insisted that such a measure was not being considered. He said the tax would generate 5.8 billion euros. Going into the meeting, finance ministers sought to limit the overall costs of the rescue plan while Christine Lagarde, managing director of the I.M.F., pushed for a deal that is generous enough to enable Cyprus eventually to pay the money back. The Cypriot authorities wanted a plan that ensures that the island remains attractive to investors, who include many Russians with large deposits in the country's banks. Ms. Lagarde was blunt about the need for ministers to agree to a realistic package of measures. "All I know is that we don't want a Band Aid," she said. "We want something that lasts, something that is durable and that will be sustainable." 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 key to a breakthrough was finding a way to bring down the bailout package, estimated at 17 billion euros ( 22.2 billion). That amount is small compared with the rescue deal for Greece, but represents almost as much as Cyprus's gross domestic product, which is about 18 billion euros. The deal that emerged on Saturday morning was for a bailout of up to 10 billion euros, Mr. Dijsselbloem said. Cyprus asked for the bailout in June last year. But talks faltered when the former president Demetris Christofias, a Communist, balked at measures like privatizations. The talks sped up after the election last month of Nicos Anastasiades of the Democratic Rally, a center right party, to the presidency. Some of the other elements of the deal involved Cyprus raising its low corporate tax rate to 12.5 percent from 10 percent, privatizing state assets and overhauling its banks to ensure that they are not havens for money laundering. Russia also was expected to contribute to the arrangement, perhaps by agreeing to lower the interest rate on a loan worth 2.5 billion euros it has already made to Cyprus. Mujtaba Rahman, a senior analyst with the Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm, said it was likely that countries like Germany and Finland would ultimately reach a deal with the I.M.F. "The fact is that some governments in the north of Europe need the I.M.F. also to be contributing money to Cyprus in order to convince their parliaments to give approval to a deal," Mr. Rahman said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
Mr. Weinstein's pleas were for naught. On Sunday night, the Weinstein Company put out a statement saying he had been fired. "In light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days," the statement said, he had been "terminated, effective immediately." The action was taken by Bob Weinstein, the company's co chairman and Mr. Weinstein's brother, and three other board members. The firing was an escalation from Friday, when one third of the company's nine member, all male board resigned and four members who remained announced that Mr. Weinstein would take a leave of absence while an outside lawyer investigated the allegations. The accusations, which were uncovered in a New York Times investigation published on Thursday, stretched back decades and came from actresses, as well as former employees at the Weinstein Company and Miramax, the previous company founded by Mr. Weinstein and his brother. My board is thinking of firing me. All I'm asking is let me take a leave of absence and get into heavy therapy and counseling. Whether it be in a facility or somewhere else, allow me to resurrect myself with a second chance. A lot of the allegations are false as you know but given therapy and counseling as other people have done, I think I'd be able to get there. I could really use your support or just your honesty if you can't support me. But if you can, I need you to send a letter to my private Gmail address. The letter would only go to the board and no one else. We believe what the board is trying to do is not only wrong but might be illegal and would destroy the company. If you could write this letter backing me, getting me the help and time away I need, and also stating your opposition to the board firing me, it would help me a lot. I am desperate for your help. Just give me the time to have therapy. Do not let me be fired. If the industry supports me, that is all I need. With all due respect, I need the letter today. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
As coronavirus continues its spread across borders, oceans and continents, there is a perplexing piece of data that has so far evaded a proper explanation: It's still early, but in almost every country that we have numbers for, more men than women are dying from the virus. Most attempts to explain this discrepancy have focused primarily on behavior, some of which are almost certainly valid. Higher rates of tobacco consumption, a reluctance to seek proper and timely medical care and even lower rates of hand washing absolutely do play a role in who will be hit hardest. But what is being overlooked in these explanations is that the disproportionate toll coronavirus is taking on men isn't an anomaly. Rather, it may be a timely and high profile demonstration of what up until recently has been an underappreciated scientific fact: When it comes to survival, men are the weaker sex. This isn't just the case during once in a lifetime pandemics. This innate biological advantage is apparent at every age and stage of human life: Baby girls are consistently more likely to make it to their first birthday; 80 percent of all centenarians today are women; an incredible 95 percent of those who reach the formidable age of 110 years old are women. While on average genetic males have more muscle mass and greater height, overall size, and physical strength, when it comes to surviving the physical hardships encountered from birth to late in life, genetic females almost always outlast genetic males. We have long assumed that the only reason behind the earlier and disproportionate demise of men was behavioral. But in fact, the female survival advantage between the sexes still holds, regardless of education, economic factors, and alcohol, drug, or tobacco consumption. I came to understand the female biological advantage in a very personal and painful way a few years ago. It was a beautiful summer's day. The sun was finally out after a very long winter and a wet spring. I promised my wife, Emma, some quiet time, just the two of us: just her, an XX female, and me, an XY male. The last thing I remember was reaching over and holding her hand as we were driving westbound on a mostly empty street. Witnesses later told us that we were hit dead on broadside by someone who ran a red light and barreled toward us at more than 45 miles per hour. Our car rolled twice. The impact was severe, the roof of our car caved in, and none of the airbags deployed. Because of the extent of damage to our car, the first responders were preparing themselves for horrific traumatic injuries. We were lucky to be alive. Given what we had just experienced, our injuries turned out to be relatively minor and pretty similar but Emma's were a bit more serious. So, while I was strapped to a spine board in the back of an ambulance hurtling toward the hospital one of the things I was thinking about in addition to wondering why all seven airbags failed to deploy was how grateful I was that Emma was a genetic female because I knew that even if my wife's injuries were the same as mine, given the odds, she was more likely to make a better and faster recovery. What lies behind this female genetic superiority? It starts at the chromosomal level. To review the typical basic chromosomal differences between the sexes: The cells of genetic females have two X chromosomes one from their mothers, and one from their fathers while those of genetic males have only the one X chromosome, from their mothers, and one Y chromosome. This is crucial, because X chromosomes come in handy for vital functions like building and maintaining the human brain and the immune system. And biologists have long understood that XX chromosomes give females an advantage in some arenas: Having the use of a spare X in case the other is somehow defective is why females are less susceptible to disorders like color blindness, for instance. But we're only just now beginning to understand the full advantage that this extra X chromosome confers: It's not just that women have a spare X chromosome to swap in. Rather, the more than 2,000 genes that, combined, make up two X chromosomes, are used by cells that actually interact and cooperate within a woman's body. Each cell predominantly uses one X chromosome over the other so if one X chromosome has genes that are better at recognizing invading viruses like Covid 19, for instance, immune cells using that X can focus on that task, while immune cells using the other X chromosome focus on, say, killing cells infected with Covid 19 instead, making the fight against the virus more efficient. Typical males, by contrast, are forced to get by in life with just the one X chromosome. What if a male's particular genes aren't able to competently recognize or kill off cells infected with a coronavirus? In that case, his ability to fight the infection will be limited; his solitary X is the only one he's got. The bottom line is when it comes to dealing with the trauma and stressors of life whether it's avoiding a serious congenital malformation, a developmental disability, or fighting off an infection females have genetic options. And genetic males don't. My wife doesn't win only when it comes to overall longevity. Her risk for developing cancers in organs we both have, for example, is lower than mine. And if she does develop cancer, she has better odds of surviving, as research shows that women respond better than men to treatments. And our sex chromosomes by and large determine our sex hormones which also give her an advantage: Higher levels of testosterone appear to suppress the immune system; conversely, estrogens have been found to stimulate a more vigorous immunological response. As our recoveries from the accident took two very distinct trajectories my injuries and subsequent infections took many weeks longer to heal the reality of her genetic superiority truly sunk in. No matter what life throws our way, Emma is likely to outlive me. The cost women seem to pay for having a more aggressive immune system, one that's better at battling both malignant cells and invading microbes, is being more prone to autoimmune diseases. The immune systems of genetic females are much more likely to attack themselves, which is what occurs in conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune thyroiditis, Sjogren's syndrome, and lupus. The only thing that I, as an XY male, have going for me is a lower chance of developing one of these conditions. Progress in understanding and addressing these biological differences between the sexes in the practice of clinical medicine has been sluggish. For the most part, this is because the medical establishment has largely overlooked the profound chromosomal, hormonal and anatomical uniqueness of genetic females. The current practice of medicine was built using research that was done primarily on male cells, male tissues, male organs, male animals and male test subjects. As a result, we tend to know more about men when it comes to the determinants of health and well being. With a few exceptions, such as gynecological and obstetric issues, we tend to clinically treat women just like we treat men. As a result, our comprehension of the staggering medical impact stemming from the differences between the sexes is only in its infancy. But the understanding of these differences has the potential to fill in the gaps of knowledge that have kept us from making medical breakthroughs. Our male centric, one size fits all model of health care and the research culture that stems from it need to change. Nowhere is this urgency more apparent than the current global pandemic, as the alarming numbers of male deaths worldwide continues to climb daily. Almost 20 years ago the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences published a report that claimed the following: "Being male or female is an important fundamental variable that should be considered." And yet, two decades later there has been little tangible progress that's made its way into how we practice medicine. We must now push beyond mere consideration of this variable to apprehending the real biological strength that each genetic female inherently possesses and how men differ in this regard. The future of medicine depends upon it. Sharon Moalem is a scientist, physician, and the author of the forthcoming "The Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women," from which this essay has been adapted. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter ( NYTopinion) and Instagram. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
On Friday, President Trump tweeted a story from an unusual source: The Babylon Bee, a right wing satire site that is often described as a conservative version of The Onion. "Twitter Shuts Down Entire Network to Slow Spread of Negative Biden News," read the story's headline. The story was a joke, but it was unclear whether Mr. Trump knew that when he shared the link, with the comment "Wow, this has never been done in history." I chatted with Ms. Goldberg about her article, The Babylon Bee's habit of skirting the line between misinformation and satire, and how it capitalizes on its audience's confusion. So, Emma, you wrote about The Babylon Bee, a satirical news site I've been fascinated by for a long time. It's basically the right wing version of The Onion, right? Exactly. And what fascinated me in reporting this is that I've followed The Onion for a long time but The Babylon Bee currently gets more traffic than them, at least according to their internal numbers. That's so interesting! (As an aside, I'm looking at some engagement data from Facebook now, and it's telling me that The Babylon Bee has gotten about 45 million interactions with its Facebook page in the last year, compared with 35 million for The Onion.) Why do you think The Bee is doing so well? Well, they certainly don't pull any punches. Their mantra seems to be that everything is fair game: the left, the right, Trump. And in general, on the right, swiping at Trump is considered a red line, but The Bee doesn't seem to care. They've also tapped into a large audience of people who aren't hard line Trumpers, but are much more pissed off by the outrage that Trump generates on the left. Right, sort of the anti anti Trump crowd. And the people who run the site, are they pro Trump? What do they see themselves as doing, within the larger conservative movement? They are ambivalent about their views on Trump, but they also proudly identify as Christian conservatives. But I noticed that their early coverage of Trump, back in 2016, was much more vitriolic than today's. They called him a psychopath, or a megalomaniac. Now they're more bemused by him and the ghoulish ways he's described on the left. But I think their willingness to swipe at him, even gently, gets at an important element for successful humor. What media scholar Brian Rosenwald told me is that the humor always has to come before the politics. So this is a blog about distortions and misinformation, and one thing I've noticed recently is that a lot of The Babylon Bee's most successful articles in terms of online engagement are the ones that are ... less obviously satirical. Totally. And that's landed them in some hot water. Like, one from the other day was called "NBA Players Wear Special Lace Collars to Honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg." People were sharing that thinking it was real. They certainly play to that for virality their best content is right on the reality satire line. I'm wondering the extent to which being a satire site which makes them exempt from Facebook's fact checking program has allowed them to traffic in misinformation under the guise of comedy. Do you think that's a deliberate strategy? Well, that's a great question, because it's been a big source of controversy for them. They've had a few articles that were fact checked by Snopes and rated "false." Which The Bee's writers and editors claim prompted Facebook to threaten them with being demonetized (Facebook denies this). The Bee's founder, Adam Ford, has claimed that Snopes fact checked them in ways that were "egregious," with standards that wouldn't be applied to, for example, The Onion. The Bee feels that they're being targeted unfairly. But Snopes has poked at the fact that their pieces can sometimes be easily mistaken for real news which might fall on them, not their readers. Politics aside, it sort of speaks to the impossible nature of being a satirical site in the age of the mega platform. Because on one hand, you've got to write things that are so obviously made up that they can't reasonably be mistaken for real news, but also close enough to the truth to be funny. One hundred percent. Truth is funnier than fiction these days. One thing I've wondered is what the whole "owning the libs" media industrial complex (which I'd categorize The Bee as belonging to, even if they wouldn't) will do if Trump loses in November. Do you get the sense that The Bee cares who wins the election, from the standpoint of comedic potential? What's funny is that because they aren't Trump loyalists, they can see an advantage for their comedy either way. In some senses, comedy comes a lot easier when you're not the party in power. But on the other hand, Trump is such an absurd figure that he can lend himself to some really wild caricatures. The editor in chief of The Bee told me Trump is great for comedy, so he'd be happy to see him win a little later, he added that maybe they're sick of Trump humor and ready for a change. They also see a lot of humor opportunity in the Biden camp, especially playing off the "Sleepy Joe" motif. So what I'm taking from this conversation is: The Babylon Bee is not a covert disinformation operation disguised as a right wing satire site, and is in fact trying to do comedy, but may inadvertently be spreading bad information when people take their stories too seriously? For the most part. But they also seem to find it pretty funny when their content is mistaken for real news and they're not exactly going overboard to stop that. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
President Trump on March 27 signed into law the 2 trillion stimulus package designed to save millions of jobs and bail out companies devastated by the coronavirus. But when the dust settled, one hard hit sector of the travel industry was left on the sidelines: the major cruise lines. Even politicians who demanded that the industry clean up its environmental record as a condition for receiving taxpayer funds were a little stunned by the news. "I have to admit I was surprised," Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said in an interview, "given the president's support for the cruise industry." So why were the major cruise lines left out? These are the three primary reasons. In the weeks before the bill's passage both Democrats and Republicans expressed reservations about bailing out the major cruise lines because they are not American corporations and are largely exempt from paying income taxes. "Very emphatically and clearly, the intent of Congress is to exclude the cruise line industry from any assistance with this bill," Mr. Blumenthal said. Under the law, companies can only qualify for a loan if they are "created or organized in the United States and under the laws of the United States." While the major cruise lines are all headquartered in Miami, they are incorporated in foreign countries: Royal Caribbean is registered in Liberia, Norwegian in Bermuda, and Carnival in Panama. "If you literally go to the port of Miami and you actually look at the flag on the stern of the ship, you won't see a U.S. flag flying in the breeze," said James Walker, a maritime lawyer. "You'll see the flag of the Bahamas or the flag of Panama." The arrangement allows the major cruise lines to operate under the wage and labor laws of the country they're registered in, paying employees many times less than what they would in the United States. It also grants them access to a century old provision in the tax code that largely exempts them from paying federal income taxes. In 2019, Carnival paid income tax expenses of 71 million on 20.83 billion in revenue. Royal Caribbean paid 36.2 million in taxes on 10.95 billion in revenue. And Norwegian actually showed a tax benefit, money it is owed, of 18.86 million on 6.46 billion in revenue. The cruise industry defended its tax and employment policies. Bari Golin Blaugrund, a spokeswoman for the Cruise Lines International Association, a trade group that represents the industry, said that the cruise industry supports more than 421,000 jobs in the United States and that it follows tax rules for international shipping which have decades long roots in U.S. tax law. Earlier in March, a group of eight senators published a letter saying that the cruise industry and airlines should only get a bailout if they took more steps to protect the environment. Days later, a coalition of environmental groups sent a letter to Congress asking lawmakers not to bail out the cruise industry, citing a poor environmental record. "The cruise sector has a decades long track record of breaking environmental laws and paying the fines as a matter of doing business," said Kendra Ulrich of Stand.earth, one of the environmental groups that signed the letter to Congress. She noted that Princess Cruise Lines, a Carnival Corporation subsidiary, was fined 40 million in 2016 for illegally dumping oil contaminated waste into the sea, and then covering it up. The company was fined 20 million this year while on probation for discharging plastic into waters around the Bahamas and falsifying records. In an email, Roger Frizzell, a spokesman for Carnival Corporation, wrote that actions were taken to address the issues that led to the recent fines, including additional oversight, training and equipment to prevent oil spillage, which he said has not happened again on any ship in the fleet. Mr. Frizzell added that the company has undertaken a significant push to "dramatically reduce" and remove single use plastics on board all of its ships since the 2016 fine. Ms. Golin Blaugrund, of the Cruise Line Industry Association, said the cruise industry is committed to responsible tourism, and its environmental policies and practices often exceed those required by law. First there was the Diamond Princess. The world watched as the ship sat quarantined off the coast of Japan and the coronavirus ripped through the cabin infecting so many passengers that at the time it became the largest concentration of coronavirus cases outside China. The response from the cruise line was widely seen as rife with mistakes. What followed was a series of actions by the industry that drew criticism, just as members of Congress were drafting the bill. As more ships were hobbled by the coronavirus, the cruise industry was slow to respond and to put in place precautions that would protect passengers at times seeming to have an ad hoc approach to coronavirus responses on board ships. It was a public relations nightmare, and eventually the State Department stepped in and warned Americans, especially those with underlying health issues, not to board cruise ships. After the warning, the major cruise lines suspended U.S. operations for 30 days. The optics for the industry are not great at the moment, said James Hardiman, the managing director of leisure equity research for Wedbush Securities, who follows the industry. "I think if the U.S. public turns on the television and they see a bunch of people getting back on a cruise ship anytime soon, I think the public reaction to that is going to be very much akin to the public reaction when you saw a bunch of spring breakers getting drunk and ignoring the new reality," he said. The perception that going on a cruise is synonymous with bad or irresponsible behavior, he said, "is going to be a real problem for the industry." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
When an indie game company created Among Us in 2018, it was greeted with little fanfare. The multiplayer game remained under the radar as many games do until the summer of the pandemic. Eager to keep viewers entertained during quarantine, Chance Morris, known online as Sodapoppin, began streaming the game, created by InnerSloth, to his 2.8 million followers on Twitch in July. By mid September, Among Us caught on like wildfire. Suddenly major YouTube stars, TikTok influencers and streamers were playing it. PewDiePie, James Charles and Dr. Lupo have all played the game for millions. Crewmates must run around the ship and try to complete a set of tasks while trying to root out and avoid getting killed by the one or several impostors. Players can be voted off the ship, so each game becomes one of survival: Successfully vote off the impostors, or complete all your tasks to win. It's simple, cartoony and easy enough for a five year old to play on an iPhone. The young fans of online influencers weren't just watching Among Us streams, they began playing the game too. Millions of teenagers and kids across the country have become hooked on Among Us, which has begun to serve as a default social platform for young people stuck in quarantine. "A few weeks ago I went from not hearing anything about it to hearing everything about it everywhere," said Judah Rice, 16, a high school student in Texas. "People are texting about it, I know people who are on dedicated Discord servers and Among Us group chats. I have friends who get together all the time and play it." Among Us Discord servers began cropping up in early September. In one, more than 98,000 teenagers connect, socialize, discuss and play the game. Benson, a 13 year old administrator of the server, said that there are often 30 to 40 different Among Us games at any time of day happening over voice chat channels in the server. "Everyone is aged 13 to 20," he said. "My friends, if their teacher doesn't show up to their online class, they play, it's a way to pass the time when you don't have anything else to do. Since we can't really congregate in a public area like the park, Among Us allows us to be online social distancing." Among Us is very different than other highly social video games like Fortnite, for instance. It's more similar to a board game like Monopoly, or a party game like Werewolf, where players need to read personalities and determine if they're being lied to in order to win. The large group size makes it easy to invite new friends into the group. "You can meet a lot of people from Among Us, I've made a few friends off of it," said Juan Alonso Flores, 17, a high school student in Florida. "Once you start playing with the same people you start getting to know each other. You get their phone numbers, Discord tags." It's not just teenagers who are bonding over the game. Adults who can no longer hit a bar or swing by a party after work are also finding community through Among Us. Ricky Hayberg, 36, writer and host of Internet Today, a culture and tech YouTube channel, said he's developed stronger friendships with people he met through playing Among Us over the past two months than those he's known offline for years. "There's more natural conversation that arises from it. It's more of a party game. You're kind of just hanging out with friends and the game is secondary," Mr. Hayberg said. "To excel at the game, you have to know if people are lying, telling the truth and their general personality." The game's continued success is further propelled by a never ending stream of Among Us related content on the internet. Twitter accounts like No Context Among Us and Among Us Struggle Tweets publish memes about the game to hundreds of thousands of followers. Videos on TikTok including the Among Us hashtag have amassed more than 13 billion views. Throughout the game's ascendance, streamers on Twitch continue to power it all. "If anyone had any doubt that Twitch streamers were influencers before now, we've proven that to be true," said Erin Wayne, director of community and creator marketing at Twitch. Twitch fans have watched more than 200 million hours worth of Among Us gameplay on the platform so far this year. Nathan Grayson, a writer at gaming site Kotaku, said that the game was uniquely designed in a way that makes it far more entertaining to watch than your average first person shooter game. Viewers get to see influencers let their guards down and express how they really are. "The game is about deception and the personalities of people playing," Mr. Grayson said. "It brings back the spirit of being around your friends. It's designed for streamers to play off one another and they can also have streams where all of them are streaming on separate channels with their audiences speculating on chat about which person is an impostor." Phil Jamesson, 28, a comedian who streams on Twitch, said that the game is similar to a series like "Hot Ones," where fans get to see their favorite celebrities drop the facade as they struggle to tolerate increasingly spicy chicken wings. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
News that a nurse in full protective gear had become infected with the Ebola virus raised some disturbing questions on Monday. Has the virus evolved into some kind of super pathogen? Might it mutate into something even more terrifying in the months to come? Evolutionary biologists who study viruses generally agree on the answers to those two questions: no, and probably not. The Ebola viruses buffeting West Africa today are not fundamentally different from those in previous outbreaks, they say. And it is highly unlikely that natural selection will give the viruses the ability to spread more easily, particularly by becoming airborne. "I've been dismayed by some of the nonsense speculation out there," said Edward Holmes, a biologist at the University of Sydney in Australia. "I understand why people get nervous about this, but as scientists we need to be very careful we don't scaremonger." Ebola is a mystery that invites speculation. The virus came to light only in 1976, the first known outbreak. Forty years later, scientists are just starting to answer some of the most important questions about it. Just last month, for example, Derek J. Taylor, an evolutionary biologist at the University at Buffalo, and his colleagues published evidence that Ebola viruses are profoundly ancient, splitting off from other viral lineages at least 20 million years ago. Dr. Taylor's research suggests that for most of that time, strains of Ebola infected rodents and other mammals. In 1976, the virus spilled over into the human population from one of those animals, possibly bats. And every few years since then, a new outbreak has emerged in different parts of Central Africa. Each has been caused by a descendant of the 1976 strain, according to new research by Andrew Rambaut, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh. Pardis C. Sabeti, a geneticist at Harvard, and her colleagues have analyzed the genomes of Ebola viruses isolated from patients in Sierra Leone to reconstruct the history of the current outbreak. Their research indicates it was the result of a single infection, probably last December. Since then, the viruses have acquired new mutations as they have spread from person to person. Scary though that may sound, it does not surprise researchers. All viruses are especially prone to making errors as they copy their genes, and many of these new mutations have no effect. Some are beneficial for the virus but they don't necessarily make it more deadly. Evolutionary biologists see no evidence that new mutations in the Ebola virus are responsible for the huge size of the current outbreak. "It's far more plausible that the difference is that it's gotten into a different human population," Dr. Rambaut said. Instead of being limited to remote villages, the virus ended up in cities like Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Conakry, Guinea. The combination of a big population of hosts and a medical system unable to control the infection has led to an epidemic. "You've got a fairly standard Ebola virus," Dr. Holmes said. "It's just in the worst possible place." As the current outbreak spreads, the virus will continue to mutate. It is conceivable that those increased mutations will lead to evolutionary changes. Many viruses alter their surface proteins, for example, enabling them to escape the immune system of their hosts. Dr. Sabeti and her colleagues have found some evidence of these shifts in Ebola. She said it is vital to keep track of the evolution of these shifts. Otherwise, an experimental vaccine might target an out of date type of virus. "We have the advantage over the virus," she said. "We can see the genome in real time and respond to it." It is conceivable that Ebola might become more deadly during this outbreak, but it is by no means a certainty. Ebola outbreaks typically last only months, but other viruses have needed decades to make the change. Like its close relatives, Ebola spreads through infected fluids, such as vomit and blood. There is no firm evidence that the strain that has caused human outbreaks can spread through the air. Over the course of millions of years, viruses do sometimes switch their route of infection. "It does happen in an evolutionary context," Dr. Holmes said. But it would be a mistake, he warned, to imagine that with a single mutation Ebola might become an airborne pathogen. The change would require many mutations in many genes, and it might be nearly impossible for so many mutations to emerge during a single outbreak. The mutated viruses would survive only if they were superior to the ones spread by bodily fluids. "The virus is doing pretty well right now," Dr. Holmes said. "So it would need to be beneficial for the virus to make this quite big jump." Dr. Rambaut agreed that the odds were exceedingly low. "Viruses generally don't change to that radical degree," he said. Dr. Sabeti said, "It is biologically plausible, but very unlikely." Rather than give the virus the opportunity to evolve in any way, she argued, we should focus on stopping Ebola in its tracks. "We do not know where it is going, but we do not want to wait to find out," she said. The ancient history of Ebola, just now coming to light, suggests we may expect to encounter more of its cousins in the future. This fearsome lineage of viruses may have been sprouting many evolutionary branches for tens of millions of years. "There will be lots more things like Ebola out there," Dr. Holmes said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
A roundup of motoring news from the web: A Mobil filling station in Birmingham, Mich., just outside of Detroit, offered an unusual deal to classic car owners for National Collector Car Appreciation Day on Friday morning: It gave them classic gas prices. The price per gallon depended upon the year of the car 30 cents per gallon for a 1957 car, for example. The promotional rates, sponsored by Hagery Insurance, which offers coverage for classic cars, was extended to cars 25 years old and older. Newer cars still had to pay the station's normal rate of 3.89 per gallon. (The Detroit News) Akihiro Nagaya, one of Toyota's top design executives, was named design general manager for Yamaha this week. Toyota owns about 5 percent of Yamaha, and Mr. Nagaya said that the two companies might collaborate on design work in the future. (Automotive News, subscription required) Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla Motors, the electric carmaker, said this week that he would donate 1 million to help build a new science museum on Long Island dedicated to Nikola Telsa. The museum is scheduled to be built on the site where the inventor built an experimental 187 foot tall electric transmission tower around the turn of the 20th century. (MarketWatch) In other Tesla related news, Joshua Michael Flot, 26, who stole a Tesla Model S electric car from a Tesla Motors service center in Los Angeles, died in a crash after a high speed chase by the police. Authorities and witnesses said that the car split in half in the wreck, with half of it catching fire. (Bloomberg) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
The N.C.A.A. tournament's second weekend opens Thursday with one of the two chalkiest brackets in history. There are high seeds galore. The good news is virtually all the matchups are strong and relatively even. No. 1 Duke (31 5) vs. No. 4 Virginia Tech (26 8) Throw out Duke's 0 1 record against the Hokies this year: it came during the six game stretch when Zion Williamson was sidelined with a sprained knee, and the Blue Devils without Williamson are like Sinatra with a cold. But now consider the how the teams have been playing. Since a two point overtime loss to Florida State in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, Buzz Williams's squad easily handled two lesser but frisky opponents, St. Louis and Liberty, while Duke was a missed tip in away from being upset Sunday by Central Florida. No. 2 Michigan State (30 6) vs. No. 3 Louisiana State (28 6) This game represents a substantial mismatch in terms of coaching experience: Tom Izzo, the Spartans' coach since 1995, against Tony Benford, an assistant serving as L.S.U.'s interim head coach while his boss, Will Wade, is being held out indefinitely by the university after a report tied him to an illicit offer to a recruit. (Benford is not a novice; he was North Texas's head coach for several seasons). The gap is smaller talent wise, as the Tigers have gone 3 0 against highly rated teams still left in the tournament. Still, Michigan State appears more and more like a juggernaut. No. 1 Gonzaga (32 3) vs. No. 4 Florida State (29 7) The Zags, as usual, have more size than almost any team in college basketball, except maybe the Seminoles, who are even bigger. Big question marks: Will Florida State get back Phil Cofer, who was hobbled last weekend with a foot injury (and is grieving the recent death of his father, the former N.F.L. player Mike Cofer)? Was Gonzaga's neutral site loss to Saint Mary's earlier this month a blip, or a leading indicator? No. 2 Michigan (30 6) vs. No. 3 Texas Tech (28 6) The No. 1 and No. 2 defenses in the country, per KenPom.com's ratings, face off. If that virtual tie goes to the offense, then Michigan's is better. If it goes to the team that can limit the opposing team's 3 pointers and give itself second chances by offensive rebounding, then the Red Raiders will prevail. Expect a physical slog, and expect how loosely (or not) the referees officiate the game to have an effect. No. 1 Virginia (31 3) vs. No. 12 Oregon (25 12) After defeating its demons and No. 16 Gardner Webb (along with No. 9 Oklahoma), the Cavaliers have the privilege of facing the sole double digit seed left in the field. Oregon is one of college basketball's hottest teams, riding a 10 game win streak. But if Virginia plays to its seed admittedly an issue over the last several years then it should have little problem dispatching an inferior Ducks squad. No. 2 Tennessee (31 5) vs. No. 3 Purdue (25 9) This may not read as the sexiest matchup of the regional semifinals, but it is likely the best. These are two excellent, veteran teams with chips on their shoulders (both programs see themselves as historically disrespected, and neither won its conference tournament). Both have good coaches, and deep reserves of talent. The Volunteers might be favored, but when Purdue gets good minutes out of the 7 foot 3 sophomore Matt Haarms as it did Saturday, when it blew out the defending champion, Villanova the Boilermakers look as good as anyone in the country. Expect fans to pour into Kentucky from the north and the south. No. 1 North Carolina (29 6) vs. No. 5 Auburn (28 9) The Tigers, surprise winners of the Southeastern Conference tournament, have momentum on their side. Of course, they also will have played seven games in the two weeks before Friday's meeting with the Tar Heels, who will try to make the game a track meet. Auburn could tire. Beyond that, these two explosive offenses both will have plenty of chances to score. Can Auburn make enough of its shots to swing the game its way? No. 2 Kentucky (29 6) vs. No. 3 Houston (33 3) Houston is one of two teams still in the N.C.A.A. tournament from outside college basketball's six power conferences (though its own league, the American Athletic Conference, is not too shabby, least of all this year). It has proved it can run with the big dogs, with regular season wins over Oregon and Louisiana State on its resume. But what about the Wildcats? With a similarly stout defense and more pure talent, Kentucky, when healthy, presents a suboptimal matchup for Houston. But it is not clear that Kentucky will enjoy the services of its leading scoring threat, the sophomore P.J. Washington, who did not play in the first two N.C.A.A. games with a sprained foot. That is exactly the kind of bad March break that can upset Coach John Calipari's best laid plans. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Roseanne O'Farrell can watch hawks through her windows. "A red tailed hawk just flew into a tree in my backyard," she said. "He's very still, and then he will swoop down. We have a pair that nest in the hollow behind us. It's so great." When Ms. O'Farrell and her family moved into the Village of Oyster Bay Cove 10 years ago, they weren't expecting hawks. Or rabbits, foxes, deer and even the occasional wild turkey. All they sought, she said, was "a little more nature, a little less congestion" than they had in the Bethpage home on a main road that her husband, Peter, bought before they married. "When we had a son, it was time to start looking." In 2003 they paid 1.6 million for a six bedroom colonial with five full and two half baths on almost three acres, which gave them enough flat land for a pool and badminton courts. For her son, Liam, on his first birthday, they brought in ponies for the party. "My husband built a tree house for his birthday two years ago, when he was turning 8," she said. Along with their daughter, Lily, 5, they ride bicycles; their dog, a Weimaraner, keeps pace. They wanted to be near beaches, of which there are several in the area. Ms. O'Farrell also likes the fact that her home lies between the hamlet of Oyster Bay and the larger commercial area of Huntington. Although the purchase price was considered a steal at the time, the house was recently assessed at 1.45 million, which she sees as a reflection of the economy. She was not concerned about public schools, opting for private school, as many of her neighbors do. The children attend the East Woods School, minutes away. Mr. O'Farrell can drive to the Bronx construction business he owns with his siblings in as little as 25 minutes, she said. The commute is faster than the one he had from Bethpage, because nearby Route 25A offers "a straight line" to work. Every October after the hamlet's Oyster Festival, she said, she invites some 60 friends in for a chowder festival. This summer she plans to host a large family reunion. The features that drew the O'Farrell family attract many prospective buyers, said Debra Russell, an agent in the Cold Spring Harbor office of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty. "You're so close to the water, but you're also close to New York City, and you have a town there the hamlet but you still have a great deal of privacy." There are buyers from New York City seeking a country life and Long Island residents looking to step up, she said. Some "will start using it as a weekend house and gradually make the move to full time." Rosemary Bourne, the mayor, made the transition to full time resident about 10 years ago, she said, after retiring from her Manhattan job as a pension fund manager. "This house had been my mother's," she said. "She bought it in 1967. My whole family lived here at one time." An older brother still lives in the Cove, as the village is often called. She lives with her three Norfolk Terriers on a property abutting a bird sanctuary named after Theodore Roosevelt, who lived next door in Cove Neck. "It's a wonderful place if you're an outdoorsy type of person," she said. "Those of us who live here think it's like dying and going to heaven." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
MANCHESTER, England "It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not." The arresting first sentence of Paul Auster's 1985 meta detective novel, "City of Glass," resounds with hard boiled American familiarity. And a new adaptation by Duncan Macmillan, working with the director Leo Warner and 59 Productions, has given Mr. Auster's hall of mirrors tale an unlikely and vivid theatrical form. "City of Glass," which had its premiere in March at Home theater here and will open at the Lyric Hammersmith in London on Thursday, April 20, is faithful to the narrative of Mr. Auster's first novel, eventually part of "The New York Trilogy," which propelled him into a literary spotlight and has become a seminal text in his oeuvre. The play, a rabbit hole of evolving and doubling identities through which Quinn falls, offers a continually shifting reality through the technologically dazzling use of video and projection that has characterized the work of 59 Productions, the company that Mr. Warner founded with Mark Grimmer in 2006. (It's "frequently jaw droppingly impressive," Lyn Gardner wrote in The Guardian after the Manchester premiere, "as one scene folds into the next with dreamlike ease.") 59 Productions, which comprises animators, designers, architects and videographers, has collaborated extensively with the director Katie Mitchell as well as working on the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, the "David Bowie Is" exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, "An American in Paris" on Broadway and numerous plays, operas and ballets. While Mr. Warner, 36, had overseen big multimedia projects as well as directed for the German stage with Ms. Mitchell, he had never directed his own play. "It was a huge experiment,'' he explained at the North London offices of 59 Productions recently. "Brilliantly, no one seemed to question it." The playwright Duncan Macmillan, who adapted Paul Auster's "City of Glass." Mr. Warner said that the company had been gradually working toward formulating its own productions, and that "City of Glass," which he had read and loved as an adolescent, had stuck with him as an idea. "We had gotten to a point where something as narratively and thematically complex as this book could be addressed by the architecture meets projection elements we use," he said. He was further convinced when he read the 1994 graphic novel adaptation of "City of Glass," by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli. On a trip to New York in October 2014, Mr. Warner went to see Mr. Auster, who was incredulous at the idea of a play. (In fact, another adaptation, by Untitled Theater Company No. 61, was recently performed in New York.) "He said, 'Are you sure you don't want to make an animated movie of this?''' Mr. Warner recounted. "I said, 'That's sort of what we want to do, but with live actors.' " After Mr. Auster consented to the project, Mr. Warner approached Mr. Macmillan, an award winning playwright with whom he had worked on three of Ms. Mitchell's productions. In a telephone interview, Mr. Macmillan, whose acclaimed "People, Places Things" will be staged in October at St. Ann's Warehouse, said that Mr. Warner had asked him on a train whether he would like to adapt "City of Glass," adding that it would be impossible. The novelist Paul Auster, whose "City of Glass" has been adapted for the stage. "I said yes immediately," Mr. Macmillan said. (He's already had practice bringing novels to the stage; his adaptation, with Robert Icke, of "1984" will open on Broadway in June.) Rereading the Auster novel, Mr. Macmillan said he was immediately struck by its exploration of grief. "When I was younger, I felt the formal brilliance of the writing, its total deconstruction of a genre which becomes a philosophical, existential treatise," he explained. Now that he had become a father, he felt "a connection to the black hole of loss that everything orbits around." His central challenge was to find a way to include the narration that dominates the novel. "Fundamentally, past tense narration is anti dramatic," he said. "For it to work, you have to locate the characters, to look at Quinn and see the situations he is in, to find those moments of onstage drama and make sure the narration is legible in those moments." To that end, the set designer Jenny Melville came up with a simple yet technically challenging idea. "He is in a room, trapped in a room," Ms. Melville explained. "The room, and his attempt to leave it, is the story, and that single space, transformed by light and projection had to be both super realistic and also as if disembodied, nowhere, in his head." Through light, sound, projection and the doubling of actors playing Quinn and Paul Auster (a character in the book), Ms. Melville conjures magical transformations. Quinn's apartment becomes, in turn, Stillman's grand living room, Grand Central Terminal, a diner, New York streets, an alleyway and Central Park. While Mr. Warner and Ms. Melville worked on the design, Mr. Macmillan went through drafts of the script, holding workshops with actors and speaking frequently to Mr. Auster, who read all the versions. (He declined this month to talk about the project.) Mr. Warner had acquired the rights to the graphic novel, and Mr. Macmillan said he used it largely as a way to make the narrative visually compelling. "It was like Christmas morning for a writer," Mr. Macmillan said. "I didn't have to solve the stagecraft location changes, dreams, fantasy. Whereas for everything else I've written, you negotiate all that. I don't know how I'm going to go back now." Because 59 Productions is a commercial company, Mr. Warner said the creative team had the resources to dedicate an unusual amount of time and thought to the play. "You get that with opera, but not so much with theater," he said. "The model of us being producers and makers is somewhat unusual, and it gives you the luxury of experiment." He added: "We're hoping this is a repeatable model. We have ideas for several other things that are impossible to adapt." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
President Trump and his Republican followers believe they can ensure victory in November by limiting the number of people who can vote. What's worse, in recent decisions, Republican appointed judges seem to have fallen in step with this strategy, more inclined to advance the party's interests than uphold the Constitution. Two troubling decisions by federal appeals courts this month limited the rights of certain people to vote, even though the Supreme Court has long held that voting is a fundamental right under the Constitution. One of those decisions would restrict access to absentee ballots in Texas, an especially troubling turn as the country grapples with a pandemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives and shows no signs of abating. The other would prohibit ex felons in Florida from voting unless they pay any fines or court fees they owe. As many as 774,000 people could be barred from the polls as a result. In the Texas decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court order requiring Texas to expand the availability of absentee ballots. Anyone who is at least 65 can vote by mail in Texas, but younger people can do so only under limited circumstances, like being disabled or absent from their home county. The lower court judge, Fred Biery, appointed by President Bill Clinton, ruled that anyone in Texas should be able to vote by mail, especially in light of the pandemic. Would be voters should not have to choose between voting and risking exposure to the coronavirus by standing in line to vote, the judge said. He asserted that the Texas law violates the 26th Amendment's prohibition against denying or abridging the voting rights of anyone 18 or older on the basis of their age. But in an opinion by Judge Leslie Southwick, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, the court found no violation of the 26th Amendment. "This claim fails because adding a benefit to another class of voters does not deny or abridge the plaintiffs' 26th Amendment right to vote," Judge Southwick wrote. Of his two Democratic colleagues, one concurred; the other dissented on the merits. Voters should not have to risk becoming infected by the coronavirus at their polling places. It is impossible to understand what interest Texas has in restricting voting by mail other than the Republican hope of depressing turnout. In the Florida decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld a state law requiring that ex felons pay all of their outstanding fines and fees in order to vote. In 2018, Florida voters passed an initiative, Amendment 4, which provided that "any disqualification from voting arising from a felony conviction shall terminate and voting rights shall be restored upon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation." The Republican controlled Legislature then passed a law that barred ex felons from voting unless they paid all money owed to the state, such as fees for court costs, and any fines. Judge Robert Hinkle of the Federal District Court, another Clinton appointee, concluded that this was an unconstitutional "pay to vote system." Over a half century ago, the Supreme Court held that the government cannot condition the right to vote on people having to pay even a dollar. But the Eleventh Circuit, in an opinion written by Judge William Pryor, who also was appointed by President Bush, reversed that decision and said that the Florida law was permissible. Florida could decide, Judge Pryor concluded, what conditions to put on voting by ex felons, and the Legislature could interpret "all terms of sentence including parole or probation" as including fines and fees, even though that would limit the right to vote based on ability to pay. Every Republican appointee joined the decision; every Democratic appointee dissented. As Judge Adalberto Jordan, appointed by President Barack Obama, put it for his colleagues in his dissent, "Had Florida wanted to create a system to obstruct, impede, and impair the ability of felons to vote under Amendment 4, it could not have come up with a better one." The Florida law and the court's decision cannot be understood as anything other than a desire to suppress voting. Judge Jordan underscored his dissent by quoting a 2018 American Bar Association resolution establishing guidelines for court fines and fees: "Failure to pay court fines and fees should never result in the deprivation of fundamental rights, including the right to vote." One would hope that the Supreme Court would reverse the lower courts in these two cases, but so far this year, in election matters, the justices seem just as divided along party lines. In April, the court voted 5 4 to overturn an injunction in Wisconsin that would have facilitated absentee voting. Understandably, there was a huge increase in requests for absentee ballots before the state's April primary. Wisconsin law said that for the absentee ballot to be counted, had to be received by Election Day. But a huge increase in requests meant that many ballots were not likely to be returned in time. Judge William Conley of the Federal District Court took the sensible step of saying that ballots would be counted so long as they were received no later than six days after the election. An unsigned order from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit let Judge Conley's order stand. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
LISBON Portugal's request for an international bailout puts European leaders in the difficult position of drafting a package of austerity measures and financial aid that will survive the country's caretaker government. European officials are hoping to avoid a repeat of the volatility that occurred in Ireland, where a new Irish government is now seeking to reopen its aid deal and alter the terms. Financial markets had anticipated Portugal's need for assistance as its costs of financing had risen to unsustainable levels, and investors generally shrugged off the news on Thursday. The European Central Bank, meanwhile, raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2008, suggesting it was unworried about further economic deterioration and contagion among Europe's peripheral economies, including Spain. The latest European call for assistance, which is the third after the rescues of Greece and Ireland last year, comes amid a leadership vacuum in Portugal. The Socialist prime minister who requested the bailout, Jose Socrates, is leading a caretaker government until the general election on June 5. He resigned last month after center right opposition lawmakers, led by the Social Democratic Party, rejected his austerity package. Although opposition leaders agree on the need for a bailout, reaching consensus will not be easy. Tough austerity measures similar to those recently rejected will almost certainly be demanded by European lenders and, most likely, the International Monetary Fund. Portugal is already struggling with record unemployment and an economy that is expected to contract 1.3 percent this year, according to its central bank. "From the point of view of being able to negotiate good terms for the Portuguese economy and display a firm commitment that might make the European Commission and the I.M.F. less demanding, this could not have happened at a worse time," said Pedro C. Magalhaes, a professor of politics at the University of Lisbon. Lisbon's request for aid also puts additional pressure on other ailing European economies, in particular Spain, which has undertaken austerity measures, a pension overhaul and a cleanup of its banking sector to stay out of danger. Any rescue request from Spain with an economy larger than that of Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined could put the European common currency project at risk. On Thursday, Spain held a successful bond auction, raising 4.1 billion euros ( 5.8 billion) at a yield that was little changed from three months ago. Separately, France sold 9.49 billion euros in bonds Thursday, drawing strong demand. The Spanish sale "confirms that there are no signs of a contagion spreading to Spain at present," said Chiara Cremonesi, a fixed income strategist in London for UniCredit. "Spain continues to be perceived by investors as part of the safer periphery countries group." In Lisbon, politicians from both sides are expected to meet in the coming days to work out details of their bailout package request. On Friday, Europe's monetary affairs commissioner said that preliminary estimates indicated that Portugal would need about 80 billion euros, or 114 billion, though some analysts have suggested that the amount could be as much as 110 billion euros. The commissioner, Olli Rehn, said, according to The Associated Press, that talks over a strict reforms program would start immediately with all major political parties and that it was essential for Portugal to reach a "cross party" agreement. The A.P. quoted Mr. Rehn as saying that he hoped a final deal will be in place by mid May. The cabinet minister in the caretaker government, Pedro Silva Pereira, confirmed the formal rescue request, but would not comment on the amount of aid requested, saying that the next steps would be defined by the European Commission. Jean Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, said the bank had "encouraged Portuguese authorities to ask for support." If the pattern of previous bailouts is repeated, it could take several weeks for a team of Brussels officials to discuss the conditions of a bailout with Lisbon, which will ultimately need the approval of European finance ministers. The negotiations will occur in the midst of an election campaign that will probably be dominated by the question of who is to blame for Portugal's predicament. The Social Democratic leader, Pedro Passos Coelho, supported the decision to seek outside help, but he and Mr. Socrates are blaming each other for putting Portugal in a desperate situation. "What the election campaign is now about is who should assume the responsibility for inviting international creditors into Portugal," said Diogo Ortigao Ramos, a partner at the law firm Cuatrecasas, Goncalves Pereira. Mr. Silva Pereira said Portugal's caretaker government had asked President Anibal Cavaco Silva to talk to the opposition parties. On Thursday, Mr. Cavaco Silva, in a Facebook message, called for "responsible cooperation" on the part of the opposition parties to help negotiate an acceptable deal. Antonio Nogueira Leite, an economic adviser to the Social Democratic Party and a professor at the Nova School of Economics and Business in Lisbon, said, "We have to learn from the mistakes in Greece and Ireland and be able to argue for a different treatment, but obviously our room to maneuver has been diminished because we have postponed our call for help for much longer than we should have." Portugal's muddled political situation also raises "problems of legal uncertainty," notably over whether a dissolved Parliament could approve a rescue agreement, Mr. Magalhaes, the politics professor, said. A new government is unlikely to take office before the end of June, with Portugal's most recent opinion polls suggesting that the June vote could result in a hung Parliament. Short term needs must also be resolved. Portugal faces a bond redemption of 4.3 billion euros on April 15. Some officials suspect Portugal might need to seek bilateral loans from other countries to tide it over. Others say the announcement of the aid request on Wednesday might drive down the cost of short term borrowing for Portugal and avert a problem. Portugal is now embarking on what will be its third international bailout since returning to democracy in the 1970s, with previous interventions by the I.M.F. in 1978 and 1983. This time, however, "the sense of punishment will be much stronger because the expectations of citizens are much higher than three decades ago, when Portugal was not even in the E.U.," said Antonio Vitorino, who was in the Portuguese government that negotiated the 1983 rescue and a former European commissioner. In 1983, Mr. Vitorino noted, Portugal was able to revive an export led recovery by significantly devaluing its currency no longer an option under euro membership. "The money injection that we received had a much stronger short term effect on our economy than it could have this time," he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
After months of increasing their scrutiny, tech companies have deleted content from the right wing provocateur Alex Jones. Alex Jones is the internet's most notorious conspiracy theorist. And with his site, Infowars, he's peddled a number of dark and bizarre conspiracy theories. "Sandy Hook, it's got inside job written all over it. You want us to cover Pizzagate. We have covered it. We are covering it. And all I know is God help us we're in the hands of pure evil." After weeks of criticism, YouTube, Facebook, Apple, and Spotify all acted to essentially erase many of his videos and posts from their services. In many cases, the companies are saying he violated their terms regarding hate speech and a number of other rules. Alex Jones today in his show dedicated nearly all four hours to what he called censorship of his platform. "And President Trump, the Republican Congress, the statehouses, independent media all need to rally together against this global move to censor America and the planet." And this is something that he essentially has been warning his followers of because there was sort of ticky tacky enforcement for several weeks, and he sort of saw this coming. "This is the internet purge, people." I think for those who have tracked the social media policies by some of these big tech firms, today was a significant moment, because these tech companies have really struggled with this dilemma of wanting to combat misinformation online, but at the same time not wanting to become arbiters of truth. "Can you define hate speech?" "Senator, I think that this is a really hard question. And I think it's one of the reasons why we struggle with it." For months, and really for years, the tech companies have been reluctant to weigh in on a lot of these controversial speech issues. But it appears after months of criticism, that tech companies have finally said, in the case of Alex Jones, that enough is enough. Top technology companies erased most of the posts and videos on their services from Alex Jones, the internet's notorious conspiracy theorist, thrusting themselves into a fraught debate over their role in regulating what can be said online. Apple, Google, Facebook and Spotify severely restricted the reach of Mr. Jones and Infowars, his right wing site that has been a leading peddler of false information online. Mr. Jones and Infowars have used social media for years to spread dark and bizarre theories, such as that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax and that Democrats run a global child sex ring. Apple made its move on Sunday and the others followed on Monday. The actions, one of the tech companies' most aggressive efforts against misinformation, highlighted a difficult dilemma for their businesses. They have long desired to combat misinformation online, but they have also been reluctant to be arbiters of truth. But since a rise of misinformation online around elections, such as the 2016 presidential vote, the tech companies have faced increasing calls from lawmakers and the news media to address their role in that spread of false information and a related increase in partisan divisions. The tech companies have recently stepped up enforcement but that has led to accusations of political bias, largely from conservatives. The moves over the last two days helped fuel that debate. "Whether you like RealAlexJones and Infowars or not, he is undeniably the victim today of collusion by the big tech giants," Nigel Farage, a British conservative politician, said on Twitter. Mr. Farage helped lead the successful campaign for the country to leave the European Union and has been interviewed by Mr. Jones. "What price free speech?" Apple on Sunday removed five of the six Infowars podcasts on its popular Podcasts app. Commenting on the move, a spokeswoman said, "Apple does not tolerate hate speech." Facebook, Spotify and Google's YouTube site, which removed some Infowars content last week, followed with stronger measures on Monday. Facebook removed four pages belonging to Mr. Jones, including one with nearly 1.7 million followers as of last month, for violating its policies by "glorifying violence" and "using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants." Facebook said the violations did not relate to "false news." YouTube terminated Mr. Jones's channel, which had more than 2.4 million subscribers and billions of views on its videos, for repeatedly violating its policies, including its prohibition on hate speech. Spotify cited its own prohibition on hate speech as the reason for removing a podcast by Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones and Infowars are leaders in using the internet to spread right wing conspiracy theories, an effort that was aided after Donald J. Trump appeared on Mr. Jones's show during the 2016 presidential campaign and praised Mr. Jones's reputation as "amazing." Mr. Jones has repeatedly claimed that the government staged the Oklahoma City bombing, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and numerous other mass shootings and tragedies. Mr. Jones is facing defamation lawsuits filed by the parents of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting for claiming that the shooting was an elaborate hoax. Most of Mr. Jones's conspiracies push a theme that a global cabal of political and corporate leaders run the world's institutions to brainwash citizens and take away their rights. Mr. Jones partly finances his operation by selling expensive nutritional supplements and vitamins between Infowars segments. "To many, Jones is a bad joke," said the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. "But the sad reality is that he has millions of followers who listen to his radio show, watch his 'documentaries' and read his websites, and some of them, like Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, resort to deadly violence." Mr. Jones and Infowars did not respond to requests for comment. In a message posted on Twitter on Monday, Mr. Jones said: "The censorship of Infowars just vindicates everything we've been saying. Now, who will stand against Tyranny and who will stand for free speech? We're all Alex Jones now." He railed against the tech companies on his live show on Monday, which was streamed on the Infowars website, saying their moves were part of a leftist agenda in advance of the midterm elections. "I told you this was coming," he said to viewers. The big tech firms that control, via their websites and apps, how much of the world's media content is distributed have faced criticism in recent weeks for enabling Mr. Jones and Infowars. Some tech companies, including Facebook and Google, had appeared reluctant to remove Mr. Jones's pages entirely and were instead taking action against specific videos or podcasts. YouTube, for instance, recently deleted four of Mr. Jones's videos. A Google spokesman said on Monday that YouTube terminated Mr. Jones's channel outright because he continued to flout policies he had already been penalized for violating. Mr. Jones had amassed millions of followers, but limiting his influence does not solve the problem of false news. Hundreds of smaller publishers promote similar conspiracy theories, and millions of followers help spread those theories by reposting them. A new conspiracy theory called Qanon, for instance, has been gaining traction outside of Mr. Jones's sphere. And Infowars followers can also still repost videos and articles from the site onto YouTube and Facebook. A conspiracy theorist. Mr. Jones, who founded the website Infowars in 1999, has spread conspiracy theories and misinformation for years, including false claims that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax. A far right broadcaster and pitchman. Mr. Jones built a substantial following by appealing to conspiracy minded, largely white, male listeners via his website and radio show, where he amassed a fortune by hawking diet supplements and survivalist gear. A spreader of misinformation. Facebook and YouTube, among other tech companies, have removed most of Mr. Jones's content in an effort to curb the spread of misinformation. The bans have drastically reduced his reach. A Trump ally. Mr. Jones was an early supporter of Donald Trump, who has adopted many of Mr. Jones's conspiracy theories. Mr. Jones also has echoed the former president's false claims about the pandemic and the 2020 election. Held liable for defamation. In four lawsuits brought by the families of 10 Sandy Hook shooting victims, judges found that because Mr. Jones refused to turn over documents ordered by the courts, including financial records, he lost the cases by default. But the moves are a significant hit to Mr. Jones's ability to reach wide audiences, and particularly new followers. YouTube was a particularly important distribution channel, in part because YouTube's recommendation engine frequently surfaced past Infowars videos to users who had shown interest in conservative topics. Terminating his YouTube channel erases all of its past videos and restricts it from posting new ones. Mr. Jones and Infowars still have other ways to reach listeners and readers. They have increasingly been directing viewers to visit the Infowars website, which would limit their reliance on the tech companies, presumably foreseeing the bans. Twitter has not restricted the accounts of Mr. Jones or Infowars. A Twitter spokesman said the accounts were not in violation of Twitter's rules. Other tech companies' approach has been uneven; they have left up Infowars content on some of their services despite removing it from others. Infowars introduced a new smartphone app last month that is finding users on Apple's App store and Google's Play Store. From July 12 through Monday, the Infowars app was, on average, the 23rd most popular news app on the Google Play store and the 33rd most popular news app on Apple's App Store, according to App Annie, an app analytics firm. On Monday, the Infowars app ranked ahead of apps like BuzzFeed and The Wall Street Journal on Google, and ahead of apps like MSNBC and Bloomberg on Apple. Apple decided to allow the Infowars app on its store after reviewing it, according to a person close to the company who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Google Play Store has different policies than YouTube, a Google spokesman said. Matt Rivitz, a freelance copywriter who helps run a Twitter account, Sleeping Giants, that pressures companies to distance themselves from far right groups, said Monday that the tech companies' nearly simultaneous moves against Mr. Jones proved they were acting in response to public pressure, not new data showing he broke rules. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Klay Thompson, an All Star basketball player, helped lead the Golden State Warriors to their fourth N.B.A. finals, which continue this weekend. Chris Levinson, an accomplished Hollywood writer whose credits include "Dawson's Creek" and "Law Order," recently sold two television series, one to Bravo and the other to Hulu. Both of their careers are going well, and they're being paid handsomely. But nothing is certain. Mr. Thompson has been making millions of dollars a year since he was drafted in 2011 at age 21, including 18 million this season before any playing bonuses or endorsements. But at 28, he knows that one bad injury could end his career. A few years back, Ms. Levinson sold a promising show to Amazon. But then the head of Amazon Studios, Roy Price, resigned amid sexual harassment complaints, and that was the end of her show. A writer can make between 50,000 and 350,000 for a pilot, with a more experienced writer like Ms. Levinson at the higher end of the range. Professional athletes, Hollywood players, even tech entrepreneurs whose company rises to a billion dollar valuation would not seem to need wealth planning. They are life's lottery winners. If they win big enough, they're likely to stay rich no matter what happens. But if their win is smaller, there are abundant cautionary tales about how quickly millions of dollars can disappear with little to show for it. Antoine Walker, once a first round draft pick and an N.B.A. champion with the Miami Heat, made 108 million in his playing career and lost almost all of it before filing for bankruptcy protection in 2010. What these stars share with many others is an inconsistent income. It comes in bulk early in their career or later in chunks that are unpredictable. "Right now, it's easy to relax," Mr. Thompson said in an interview between postseason games. "I'm in the prime of my career. Checks are coming in constantly, so the cash flow is great." But he knows it's not forever. "I'm in my seventh year," he said, "but I'll be done in another seven years. I'll have a whole life to live with this wealth." Some are obvious, including the No. 1 reason: "They pay themselves first." Many are humorous, like No. 26: "They buy the right watch, not the bright watch." But others are meant to make you think about the wealth you have, however it was accumulated. The No. 5 reason: "They know the difference between someone that makes a lot of money and someone that is wealthy." No. 40: "They know the next generation is watching." No. 49: "Their money is patient." Even though most athletes make the bulk of their fortune in their 20s, Mr. McLean said, the list applies to all of his clients who had great success taking risks but whose rewards came inconsistently. This is a group that has already excelled beyond expectations, so it doesn't think it will make the bad financial decisions others make. "What I realized is, you cannot scare the one in a million guy who already beat the odds," he said. "You can't give them the stats about athletes going broke, because they say, 'That's not going to be me.' Everyone already told them they weren't going to make it." Instead, Mr. McLean talks to them about money basics to shore up their finances: paying off debt, paying attention to their credit score, knowing whom they should help and trust and whom they shouldn't. Ms. Levinson, who is married to a novelist and has two children, is a client of Mr. McLean's. She said the impetus for her to think more deeply about her finances was the death of her mother two years ago. Her father, Richard Levinson, a television writer who became a co creator of shows like "Columbo" and "Murder, She Wrote," died when she was a teenager. "The security that is parents went away," she said. And it left her asking: "How do I protect what my parents left me, and how do I plan responsibly?" Ms. Levinson said she wanted to know how to plan for the money she would be earning. "I work in an industry that fluctuates month to month," she said. "I've worked steadily for 20 years, but things change. Let's say I'm not passionate about something for a while. Do we have enough in the coffer so I never have to take a job out of necessity?" She has a financial cushion, but she said she did not want to whittle it down and be stuck later on or not be able to provide for her children the way her parents provided for her. "I want to make sure I'm not foolishly spending in one direction at the expense of another," Ms. Levinson said. "I also worry that the first thing to go is joy, which is travel. That's the stuff that is so easy to cut, but it's essential" for work. Her strategy is to take certain tempting but risky investments off the table. "If you can drink it, drive it, eat it or wear it, you probably shouldn't invest in it," she said Mr. McLean had told her. For people starting their career, the choices are more pressing. Carlos Ortiz, a professional golfer who has bounced between the developmental Web.com Tour and the PGA Tour, said that after a stellar first year in 2014, when he won 600,000, he did not want to squander his winnings. "For me, it was a lot of money," he said. "I didn't know what to do with it. I still had it in my student account. I didn't even have a credit card." Mr. Ortiz said he had learned to prioritize what he needed over what he wanted. One priority was a house in Dallas to be his home base, and he made sure he bought one that he could afford. Another was being modest with flashy expenses, like cars and watches. "In some years, you make a lot of money and can't spend it," he said. "In other years, you're losing money." Golfers are more like freelance workers than star basketball players: If they don't have lucrative endorsements, their income is solely what they earn on the course, minus all of their expenses. Mr. Ortiz's first three years were great, and he made it onto the PGA Tour. But when he did not win enough money, he lost his playing privileges and went back to the less lucrative developmental tour, which he said offered winnings that were about a tenth what they were on the PGA Tour. Now, he said, he is concentrating on saving, having enough insurance and being prepared for the financial demands of being a new father. "If you're short of money, it puts a lot of extra pressure on your game," he said. Yet extra money can exert a different pressure. Mr. Thompson's salary information is available on the internet, which he said had elicited a slew of financial pitches. So he learned to use his adviser as a shield, funneling all the solicitations to him for vetting. It comes from a sense of understanding his strengths and weaknesses. "I know basketball," Mr. Thompson said. "I'm trying to learn more about the business world." Mr. McLean shares a saying to get his clients to the point of managing their money better: "With great abundance comes less discipline." It sounds like a mangled proverb, but Mr. McLean said it was meant to show his most successful clients that they needed to pay attention to their money the way they focused on the skills that had made them rich. "The wealthy were disciplined enough to make the money," he said, "but they don't always have a plan to maintain it." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
WASHINGTON For the first time, the World Bank is considering more than one candidate for its five year presidency a change that reflects the fast growing clout of emerging economies, even as it raises questions over whether that change is coming quickly enough. Experts say that victory is all but assured for the American nominee, Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College and an expert in global health. But emerging and developing economies are rallying behind Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the 57 year old Nigerian finance minister, and Jose Antonio Ocampo, the former Colombian finance minister and high ranking United Nations official, who is 59. The World Bank's 25 member board will interview all three candidates in the coming weeks and plans to announce its new president by the I.M.F. World Bank meetings in mid April. Robert B. Zoellick, the current president, will step down at the end of June. Ms. Okonjo Iweala and Mr. Ocampo have won the endorsement of a group of developing economies. And the United States is weathering criticism for the time honored gentlemen's agreement that ensures its control of the World Bank, even if the institution's presidential selection process is opening up. "For all its virtues, this nomination and its predetermined success reflects how global governance continues to lag behind shifting economic realities," said Eswar S. Prasad, a professor at Cornell and an expert on international institutions. "Domestic politics has again trumped true multilateralism." Global health experts largely applauded Dr. Kim's nomination, and he has scooped up the endorsement of a number of prominent commentators, like the development economist Jeffrey Sachs. Europe is expected to back him in that the United States supported the candidacy of Christine Lagarde, the former French finance minister, for managing director of the International Monetary Fund last year. Ms. Okonjo Iweala and Mr. Ocampo were carefully vetted and specifically chosen for their long resumes and expertise in development and international economic negotiation. African governments lobbied the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, to encourage Ms. Okonjo Iweala to run; the Group of 11 emerging economies pushed for Mr. Ocampo. Ms. Okonjo Iweala was a World Bank managing director working directly beneath the president from 2007 until last July. In Nigeria, she has fought to reduce the country's debt, gain greater access to international credit markets and battle corruption. Mr. Ocampo served as finance minister and the head of the Colombian central bank, and led the arm of the United Nations that facilitates economic development. In an interview, Mr. Ocampo expressed some initial hesitancy to enter the race, given the odds. "It is a relatively unbalanced competition," he said with a laugh. From left, Jim Yong Kim of Dartmouth College, expected to head the bank; Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Nigeria's finance minister; and Jose Antonio Ocampo, the former Colombian finance minister. But he said his four decades of experience in development and international policy made him an excellent candidate. "I thought the developing country candidates who were suitable for the job should be in the race," he said. "I felt a responsibility to put a stone in the road toward a democratic process." Speaking by telephone from New Delhi, where she was attending the BRICS meeting of leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Ms. Okonjo Iweala also called for a merit based, transparent selection process, suggesting a televised debate for herself, Mr. Ocampo and Dr. Kim. Today in On Tech: Imagine not living in Big Tech's world. Dollar Tree will raise prices to 1.25 by the end of April. "I have tremendous respect for Dr. Kim," she said. "But you're looking for the best. You're not just looking for the acceptable. I can't believe what I'm hearing: Is this the same West that talks about democracy, openness, and meritocracy, and it's like it has already been decided!" In a communique, the leaders of BRICS whose countries represent more than 40 percent of the world's population underscored the need for a merit based presidential selection process and change within the bank. "We welcome the candidatures from developing world for the position of the president of the World Bank," the statement said. "The nature of the bank must shift from an institution that essentially mediates North South cooperation to an institution that promotes equal partnership with all countries as a way to deal with development issues and to overcome an outdated donor recipient dichotomy." Major aid groups like Oxfam International and development research groups like the Center for Global Development have also called for an open process and criticized American dominance over the bank. Dr. Kim, President Obama's nominee, has tried to head off some of that criticism and rally support for his candidacy since the White House announced its choice last week. In an opinion piece published in The Financial Times, Dr. Kim called for an "open, inclusive" bank, saying, "If the World Bank is to promote inclusive development, it must give developing nations a greater voice." He is currently on a "listening tour" through Ethiopia, China, Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico. Dr. Kim, who is 52, has not yet outlined his goals for the World Bank. A senior administration official indicated that Mr. Obama chose him for his data driven development approach, hands on experience in developing countries and focus on the world's very poor. The administration also wanted a practitioner rather than a banker or a politician, officials said. Ms. Okonjo Iweala said that she hoped to make the World Bank more "nimble" in responding to developing countries' needs and to be able to give loans or other forms of support in days or weeks rather than in months or years. She also called on the bank to improve its focus on alleviating unemployment, particularly among the young. "There is an opportunity for a demographic dividend" for emerging economies where a large proportion of the population is under 30, she said. "The World Bank is the premier institution to support young people, with all of its instruments to create jobs, build infrastructure and invest in human infrastructure," like schools and hospitals. She said she had the necessary experience and familiarity with the World Bank to do that. "Doing grass roots development work is wonderful," Ms. Okonjo Iweala said. "But ultimately, this is about making tough choices that effect millions of lives. And I've done that. And I can hit the ground running because I know how to make this institution work for the world's poor." Mr. Ocampo said he planned to make the World Bank more responsive to international development goals. "There are issues related to low income countries which should always be the priority of the World Bank," Mr. Ocampo said. "But there are also issues for middle income countries that are increasingly the bank's concerns, related to global public goods." He said the World Bank should work more closely with the United Nations to make progress on issues like corruption and climate change. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
In August, real estate agents in Texas fended off a company's demands for royalty payments for a feature of many websites: the ability to show prospective home buyers where local schools, parks and grocery stores are. Administrative law judges at the United States Patent and Trademark Office found that the patent claims were simply not valid. A few months before, in February, judges at the patent office put an end to "Project Paperless," an attempt to extract royalties from small businesses using off the shelf scanners to scan documents to email. The litigants pressing for payment, the judges determined, had no right to the technology. In September last year, they stopped Teva Pharmaceutical from extending its exclusive right to sell the blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone, and fend off generic drug manufacturers for years after its original patent expired, simply by patenting the method to administer it in a 40 milligram dose three times a week. In the five years since it began its work a result of the America Invents Act of 2011 the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has saved companies more than 2 billion in legal fees alone, according to Joshua Landau, patent counsel at the Computer and Communications Industry Association, offering an expeditious and relatively cheap avenue to challenge patents of doubtful validity. The benefits of stopping bad patents from snaking their way through the economy have been even greater. Companies no longer have to pay ransom so the threat of lawsuits over dubious royalty payments filed by aggressive litigants known as trolls will go away. Consumers no longer have to pay for bogus intellectual property covering, say, a method to take their pills. The appeal board has rejected questionable patent claims over technology to clean up polluted groundwater and wastewater, over podcasting, and over a system that Los Angeles wanted to introduce that looks a lot like E ZPass. "It probably hasn't made patent trolls go away, but it's changed their demands," noted Mark Lemley, a law professor at Stanford University. "Now they sue and ask for 50,000 rather than sue and ask for 1 million." After years of aggressive intellectual property claims, experts argue that the new panel is helping to push patent law in a much needed direction: to relax its stifling effects on the economy. "At a high level, we have made an impressive amount of progress over the last five to 10 years in getting the patent system more into balance," said Carl Shapiro, an expert on competition policy at the University of California, Berkeley. But for all the benefits of culling faulty intellectual property rights, the board is under existential threat. Next week, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge that the patent office's new procedure is unconstitutional because invalidating a patent amounts to an unlawful takeover of private property. The accusers in the case, Oil States Energy Services v. Greene's Energy Group, argue that taking private property is something only a court not a government agency like the patent office can do. 15 minimum wage for federal contractors will take effect Jan. 30. Jeff Bezos gives 100 million to the Obama Foundation. It's hard to tell how the Supreme Court will rule. Patents are not standard issue private property, like a plot of land. They are granted by the government to encourage innovation, a public good, because inventors might not invent without a period of exclusivity over the fruits of their idea. Beyond the constitutional questions, I would suggest to the justices on the court that they consider the ramifications of their decision on the United States economy. Charging royalties for ideas that are obvious or were concocted so long ago that they are already in the public domain like making a call by touching numbers on your smartphone screen, or fastening your trousers with a zipper exact a cost but provide no benefit. Striking down a bad patent is less about confiscating property than about discovering that the property right should not have been awarded in the first place. Stringent intellectual property laws seem to be doing little to encourage real innovation and entrepreneurship. Indeed, an increasingly robust body of research finds that the gradual strengthening of patents has hindered innovation rather than foster it. The patents Teva was trying to uphold, which the patent office tribunal shot down, were designed not to establish its exclusive rights over a new technology but to prolong its exclusive rights to an old one. Its case is not unusual: Researchers are finding that more and more pharmaceutical companies are recycling and repurposing old medicines rather than inventing new ones. Researchers at the University of California Hastings College of the Law found that three quarters of the drugs associated with new patents in the records of the Food and Drug Administration were not new drugs coming on the market, but existing drugs. Pharmaceutical companies extended their exclusivity over blockbuster drugs 80 percent of the time, attaching new patents on dosage and other aspects that had nothing to do with the original invention. Here's how it works: Pharmaceutical companies start moving doctors to the tweaked formulation before the initial patent runs out, so that by the time it expires nobody is prescribing the original drug. That gives them an extra 20 years of exclusivity in which they can charge patients and their insurance companies exorbitant fees. Society has nothing to gain. In a brief to the court, the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge a nonprofit group arguing for broader access to affordable medicines argued that the patent office's panel "is an important and necessary tool in the fight to lower drug prices because it allows the timely removal of unmerited patents, which promotes competition." Tahir Amin, a co executive director of the initiative, added that "there are a lot of patent trolls trying to extort rents from low quality patents." The Supreme Court has in recent years shown itself sympathetic to the argument that patent protections have become too restrictive. On half a dozen occasions since 2013, it has overturned decisions by Federal District Courts granting patent rights over what were ultimately fairly intuitive processes. Notably, the Supreme Court's 2014 decision in Alice Corporation v. CLS Bank International held that where a patent claim is based on an abstract idea, which is not patentable, using generic computer implementation does not transform that idea into a patentable invention. Corporate interests are not aligned in this case, though. Pharmaceutical companies despise the patent office's new powers. Information technology corporations, which incorporate thousands of ideas into one gadget and see themselves as victims of patent trolls, are strong supporters of this relatively cheap and expedient avenue to challenge patents once they have been written. The Goliaths of technology are, of course, out for themselves alone. Yet in this case they are aligned with the economy's interest. For too long, innovation has been narrowed to fit patent holders' argument for sacrosanct property rights. For these rights to hold, however, at the very least we need a system to undo those that prove to be invalid. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
TSURU, Japan The experimental MLX01 maglev is the world's fastest train. But it is confined to a 12 mile track. And like the train itself, its technology has been trapped in Japan. Now, though, Japan wants to begin exporting its expertise in high speed rail. On Tuesday, the Central Japan Railway Company took the visiting United States transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, on a test run a 312 mile an hour tryout for the lucrative economic stimulus contracts that the United States plans to award to update and expand its rail network. "Very fast," Mr. LaHood said after stepping off the maglev at a track nestled here in mountains west of Tokyo. "We're right at the start of an opportunity for America to be connected with high speed, intercity rail," he said. The overseas push is a big turnabout for Japan, which long jealously protected its prized bullet train technology. But lately Japan has been forced to rethink that, prompted by a declining market for passenger and freight traffic at home, as well as a flurry of overseas opportunities. Japan has also been goaded into a new export boldness by the rise of China, a rival whose surge in construction of high speed rail networks could give Beijing an economies of scale edge in the global railway market. In recent months, top Japanese government officials, including the transport minister, Seiji Maehara, have traveled to the United States angling for a piece of the 13 billion that the Obama administration has pledged for the development of 11 high speed rail lines throughout the country. Of particular interest to the Japanese has been a planned 1.25 billion, 84 mile high speed link between Tampa and Orlando the first leg of a corridor that state officials hope will eventually reach Miami. Twenty two companies are bidding for the contract, and Washington is set to announce a winner this year. Japan has also been keen to market its high speed rail technologies to emerging economies. Earlier this month, Mr. Maehara visited Vietnam to negotiate financing for a 1,570 kilometer (975 mile) high speed rail link that will link the country's south to the capital, Hanoi, in the north. Japan has confidence in its bullet train technology. In the decades since its first bullet train pulled out of Tokyo Station on Oct. 1, 1964 just 10 days before the nation held its first Olympics the high speed rail network has had no fatal accidents. Japanese officials are also quick to point out the trains' down to the minute punctuality, despite a heavy passenger flow of 300 million people a year. Central Japan Railway, which is based in Nagoya and is more commonly known as JR Central, is promoting its N700 I trains, which are in use in Japan and can run at a top speed of about 330 kilometers (205 miles) an hour. But JR Central has also been showing off its MLX01 maglev bullet train, still in its testing phase, which in 2003 clocked the world's fastest trial run of 581 kilometers (361 miles) an hour. Maglev, short for "magnetic levitation," uses powerful magnets that allow the train to float just above the track, reducing friction. The train starts off on wheels, then gravitates upward after reaching high speeds. But cost is a problem, with even a limited maglev system costing millions of dollars, said Hitoshi Ieda, a professor in civil engineering at the University of Tokyo. Inexperience with marketing and negotiating overseas could also hamper Tokyo's overseas push, he said. If Japan does not start selling maglev trains overseas, it risks losing its technological edge, Mr. Ieda warned. "There is a limit to developing technology in a laboratory," he said. "To truly advance technology, you need experience, new and challenging projects, and economies of scale." The high costs have meant that JR Central, struggling with a decline in passenger traffic, is not set to open its own maglev line anytime soon. Meanwhile, the Obama administration wants to make sure that any foreign companies that supply high speed rail works also bring jobs to the United States. "The only thing that we ask of manufacturers is, come to America, find facilities to build this equipment in America and hire American workers," Mr. LaHood said Tuesday. Deadlines are looming. Of the 13 billion planned in the United States for high speed rail projects, 8 billion is included in the budget for this fiscal year. Other railroad powerhouses include Bombardier of Canada, Siemens of Germany and Alstom of France, as well as General Electric and Lockheed Martin of the United States. Unless JR Central can win a contract, the maglev, for now, could stay nothing more than a novelty. On Tuesday, a handful of tourists cheered at an observation deck as the train zipped by. "It's so fast, it's shocking," said Hiroko Koda, 69, a homemaker from Mie in western Japan who was visiting the track with her husband. "This is the kind of technology that Japan should be proud of," she said. "I do hope they find customers overseas." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
Alex Rodriguez with his fiancee, Jennifer Lopez. The two were leading a bid to purchase the Mets, but lost out to the billionaire Steve Cohen. From the very start, Alex Rodriguez has been an achiever. He was the first overall draft pick at 17 years old and a batting champion at 21. He was the richest player in baseball at 25 and a three time most valuable player at 32. And that was all before his life got really interesting. Rodriguez's later achievements will always shadow him. Not just one steroids scandal, but two! Lies, lies and more lies! A caustic and unseemly legal fight against Major League Baseball and the players' union! A yearlong suspension for using performance enhancing drugs! To his credit, Rodriguez has refused to retreat in disgrace. He has used his star power, charm, and genuine love of baseball to forge a remarkable renaissance in recent years as a lead analyst on M.L.B.'s most visible television platforms. With his fiancee, Jennifer Lopez, Rodriguez seems to be everywhere. But there are two places he may never be, two achievements that seem destined to elude him: the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., and the owners' suite at a major league ballpark. There is no precedent for the writers or the veterans committee electing confirmed steroid users into the Hall of Fame. It could happen as the electorate changes, because Rodriguez is clearly one of the greatest players ever only Hank Aaron can match his totals in both home runs (696) and hits (3,115). But it is hard to see how a player who knowingly cheated during the testing era can hold up to the "integrity, sportsmanship and character" guidelines the Hall asks voters to consider. 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. In any case, that decision is not up to Rodriguez anymore. Owning a team isn't up to him, either and now, mercifully, he is out of the bidding for the Mets, who have chosen the billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen to be their next owner. In a statement late Friday night, Rodriguez's group acknowledged it had dropped out. The group, which also included Vincent Viola, Mike Repole and Marc Lore, said it had made a "fully funded offer at a record price for a team which was supported by binding debt commitments from JP Morgan and equity commitment letters from credit worthy partners. The consortium said that they are disappointed to not be part of the revitalization of New York City and provide and exhilarating experience for the fans and wish the Wilpon family and the entire Mets organization well." Behind the scenes, it sure seemed as though Jeff Wilpon, the Mets' chief operating officer, did not want to sell to Cohen, who already has an 8 percent stake in the team. Cohen pulled out of a potential 2.5 billion purchase in February because of a clause that would have allowed the managing owner Fred Wilpon and Jeff Wilpon, his son, to remain in their roles for five years after the sale. "Alex and I are so disappointed!!" Lopez posted on Twitter Friday night. "We worked so hard the past 6 months with the dream of becoming the first minority couple and the first woman owner to buy her father's favorite Major League Baseball team with her own hard earned money. We still haven't given up!! NY4ever" Lopez has 45.2 million followers on Twitter 44 million more than Rodriguez and her status as an international celebrity would have been alluring for a league that lacks the kind of crossover stars who drive the N.B.A.'s popularity. She could have offered extraordinary reach for the game across genders, cultures and borders. There's also a plausible case for Rodriguez as the right kind of owner. Whatever you think of him, he exudes enthusiasm for the sport and has always thirsted to learn more about it. And having Rodriguez in the same division as his old pal Derek Jeter the chief executive of the Marlins, in Rodriguez's hometown, Miami would have generated endless publicity for the game. But while remarkable achievements have been a hallmark of Rodriguez, so has a persistent habit of overreaching in pursuit of them. He probably could have signed with the Mets as a free agent after the 2000 season he attended a World Series game at Shea Stadium that fall as a very conspicuous fan but demanded too many perks and too much money. He found those with the Texas Rangers and finished in last place three years in a row. He could have forged an on field legacy as an untainted, all time great but he decided to use steroids twice, juicing his production in his prime years and then tarnishing his twilight in a ham handed effort to remain a star. And while it might not have made a difference, Rodriguez also overreached in his attempt to become an owner, reportedly consulting with an executive, Jeff Luhnow, who is currently serving a suspension from M.L.B. Luhnow worked for the McKinsey consulting firm for much of the 1990s, and Rodriguez's group deployed McKinsey to analyze the Mets. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Now Lives In his parents' six bedroom house in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Claim to Fame Mr. Kissi is a founder of the men's lifestyle blog Street Etiquette, a style journal that started in 2008 and focuses on fashion forward black men. A collaboration with his high school classmate and friend, Travis Gumbs, Street Etiquette did not just document cool looking street style, but also created editorial mood boards that told a story. "Black stylish men do exist," Mr. Kissi said. "Black creativity does exist. And that was very much our purpose." The blog got attention from corporate brands and has evolved into a creative agency. Clients have included Nike, Adidas, Puma, Starbucks and the United States Open. Big Break Two years after introducing Street Etiquette, Mr. Kissi, a self taught photographer, started a project called Black Ivy, which documented the preppy collegiate styles at the traditionally African American colleges Howard, Morehouse and Spelman. The project, which challenged stereotypes of young African American men, got the attention of Berto Herrera, an art director and designer at Adidas. A lunch led to meetings in Portland, Ore., and Herzogenaurach, Germany, and eventually to consulting and art direction jobs for Mr. Kissi. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Did this year's polar vortex change your outlook or strategy in the race? Looking at the forecast doesn't change much in terms of whether I'm going to do the race. But the more challenging the conditions, the more I focus on taking the best care of myself as possible. I won the race last year, but just threw the competitive element out the window this year and focused on doing things early in the race to set myself up for success to finish safely. No matter what the conditions, there are always times during an event like this where you think that you would like to be inside and warm and done and no longer doing this, and that's just one of the challenges. What does an "unsupported" race mean in these conditions? The fact that it's self supported is a big ethos of the race. There are snowmobilers checking in with people giving them the opportunity to bail out of the race. But the goal is getting yourself to help if you need it. You have to have all the supplies with you, so that if you are no longer mobile, if you are too tired or dehydrated, you can take reprieve from the elements. How much, and how often, are you eating? You can't stop moving in these temperatures, so the most important thing is to really focus on your nutrition. You are eating and drinking pretty much continuously through the event. If 15 minutes go by and you haven't eaten, it's probably time to start eating again. You are trying to eat 6,000 to 7,000 calories every 24 hours, the most calorie dense food with lowest water content with high fat content. The best foods are candy, chocolate, things with peanut butter, coconut really anything that is really high in calories and fat that doesn't freeze. What kinds of athletes attempt this race? In the first couple of years, very few people had the interest or the ability to do it. It takes years of experience to approach something like this. It's what you would call a graduate level ultrarace. People who apply to run the race would ideally have a lot of experience, including some ultradistance races of 100 miles, under their belt. Experience with winter camping and mountaineering is just as important, if not more important. Over time and as the event has gone on, I think people have picked up tricks and trips for how they could prepare for doing something like this. Now people will make plans three, four, five years out to acquire the necessary gear and requisite training. What's the first thing you did after you finished? I ate a lot of soup and I had a hot shower and got into bed. Finally getting to sleep is great. This interview was edited and condensed for clarity. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Gail Sheehy in 1999. She was a lively participant in New York's literary scene and a practitioner of the creative nonfiction called New Journalism. Gail Sheehy, a journalist who plumbed the interior lives of public figures for clues to their behavior, examined societal trends as signposts of cultural shifts and, most famously, illuminated life changes in her book "Passages," died on Monday at a hospital in Southampton, N.Y. She was 83. Her daughter, Maura Sheehy, said the cause was complications of pneumonia. Gail Sheehy a lively participant in New York's literary scene and a practitioner of creative nonfiction, studied anthropology with Margaret Mead. She applied those skills to explore the cultural upheaval of the 1960s and '70s and to gain psychological insights into the newsmakers she profiled among them Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail S. Gorbachev and both Presidents Bush. In articles for Vanity Fair and New York magazines, her specialty was connecting the dots of a biography to show how character was destiny. She was a star writer at New York and later married its co founder, Clay Felker, who encouraged her to write "big" stories. In one of her earliest articles, she traveled with Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. She wrote presciently about subjects that marked turns in the culture, including blended families and drug addiction. Ms. Sheehy's 1976 book was a New York Times best seller for more than three years. The Library of Congress ranked it as one of the 10 most influential books of modern times. Read about how Ms. Sheehy's books helped readers define their lives. Of her 17 books, the most prominent and influential was "Passages" (1976), which examined the predictable crises of adult life and how to use them as opportunities for creative change. It sold 10 million copies, was named by the Library of Congress as one of the 10 most influential books of modern times and remained on The New York Times's best seller list for more than three years. As she noted in the book's foreword, most studies of life's mileposts were focused on children and older people, but she wanted to look at those in the vast middle. "The rest of us," she wrote, "are out there in the mainstream of a spinning and distracted society, trying to make some sense of our one and only voyage through its ambiguities." But she offered hope to those struggling through middle age, concluding that "older is better." Ms. Sheehy built the concept of "passages" into a franchise, spinning off more books and articles that examined other stages of life: "The Silent Passage" (1992), about menopause; "New Passages: Mapping Your Life Across Time" (1995), which proclaimed middle age obsolete and explored new options after age 50; and "Understanding Men's Passages" (1998). She capped off the "passages" theme with two later books. After serving as the primary caregiver for several years for Mr. Felker, who died in 2008 at 82, she wrote "Passages in Caregiving: Turning Chaos into Confidence" (2010). And in "Daring: My Passages: A Memoir" (2014), she wrote about her own life, although many reviewers complained that she was not as revealing as they had hoped she would be. "One senses, beneath the surface, something fascinating to be said about her complicated, ambivalent relationship with feminism," Michelle Goldberg wrote in The New York Times Book Review. "At one point," Ms. Goldberg said, "she writes of her fear of being linked with radical feminists, 'angry women whose resentment was turning the sterling silver concept of equal rights into corrosive man hating sexual warfare.' Yet in the very next paragraph she says: 'Slow, incremental changes were not going to get us anywhere. But how could we show the world we were mounting nothing less than a revolution?'" Still, over a half century, Ms. Sheehy never lost her appetite for chasing a good story. "Whenever you hear about a great cultural phenomenon a revolution, an assassination, a notorious trial, an attack on the country drop everything," Ms. Sheehy said in a commencement speech in 2016 at the University of Vermont, her alma mater. "Get on a bus or train or plane and go there, stand at the edge of the abyss, and look down into it," she advised. "You will see a culture turned inside out and revealed in a raw state." Gail Merritt Henion was born on Nov. 27, 1936, in Mamaroneck, N.Y., and grew up there, attending its public schools. Her mother, Lillian Rainey Henion, was a homemaker. Her father, Harold Henion, owned an advertising business. Ms. Sheehy graduated from the University of Vermont in 1958 with a bachelor's degree in English and home economics. Her first job was as a consumer representative for J.C. Penney. She married Albert F. Sheehy in 1960 and moved to Rochester, N.Y., where he attended medical school and she worked as a fashion coordinator at McCurdy's department store, decorating windows. She then interviewed for a job on the fashion page at The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, though the editor was reluctant to hire her. "He told me he didn't want someone to work just a year and then want a family," she told The Democrat and Chronicle in 2015. "I was very fresh. I said, 'I didn't expect a pregnancy exam.'" She said that in those days, the mid 1960s, women were categorized as "either Holy Mother or Frigid Career Girl." Still, Ms. Sheehy learned some valuable lessons. "The paper taught me to write on deadline and to see that to get the good stories to build a career I had to get in on it early and have vision," she said. The couple soon moved back to New York City they would divorce in the late 1960s and she landed a job at The New York Herald Tribune, in the women's section, or what she called "the estrogen department." One day she "snuck down the back stairs into the testosterone zone," she told The Democrat and Chronicle, and, only slightly intimidated, approached Mr. Felker, an editor there. She quickly pitched a story about men in Manhattan who held "specimen parties," using women to bring in more attractive women. He liked the idea and told her to write it, but "write it as a scene." Those few words opened worlds for her. At the time, The Herald Tribune was a hotbed of so called New Journalism, in which writers like Tom Wolfe used the tools of novelists characters, dialogue and scene setting to create compelling narratives. Ms. Sheehy caught on right away and propelled herself off the women's pages to cover some of the biggest events of the time. She snared an exclusive interview with Robert Kennedy just before he was assassinated and wrote profiles of Catholic women in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the sectarian strife that turned into Bloody Sunday. It was in Belfast that the seed for the book "Passages" was planted. She was talking with a boy there when, she wrote, a bullet "blew his face off." She herself nearly took a bullet, a moment that traumatized her and made her think about what she called "the arithmetic of life." Ms. Sheehy attended Columbia University on a fellowship in 1969 1970 and developed her forensic skills studying there with Ms. Mead, the premier anthropologist of her era. When Mr. Felker founded New York in 1968 with the graphic designer Milton Glaser (who died in June), Ms. Sheehy followed him there. One of Ms. Sheehy's celebrated articles in 1972 for New York magazine was titled "The Secret of Grey Gardens," in which she revealed the little known bohemian life of an aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Her articles in New York often caused a sensation. In one, in 1972, titled "The Secret of Grey Gardens," she revealed the little known bohemian life of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, an aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Ms. Beale's daughter, known as Little Edie. Another piece was "Redpants and Sugarman," in 1971, about a streetwalker and a pimp, for which Ms. Sheehy dressed up as a prostitute to do her reporting. In a disclaimer, she acknowledged that she had made up characters for the article. But "Mr. Felker, to her everlasting horror, took out the disclaimer because he thought it slowed down the article," Janet Maslin wrote in The Times. "She landed in a heap of trouble for what still qualifies as a serious ethical breach," Ms. Maslin added. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Credit... 'I Won't Be Used as a Guinea Pig for White People' PITTSBURGH The recruiters strode to the front of the room, wearing neon yellow vests and resolute expressions. But to the handful of tenants overwhelmed by unemployment and gang violence in Northview Heights, the pitch verged on the ludicrous. Would you like to volunteer for a clinical trial to test a coronavirus vaccine? On this swampy hot afternoon, the temperature of the room was wintry. "I won't be used as a guinea pig for white people," one tenant in the predominantly Black public housing complex declared. Another said she knew of five people who had died from the flu shot. Make Trump look good? a man scoffed forget it. It's safer to keep washing your hands, stay away from people and drink orange juice, a woman insisted, until the Devil's coronavirus work passed over. Then an older woman turned the question back on Carla Arnold, a recruiter from a local outreach group, who is well known to people in the Heights: "Miss Carla, would you feel comfortable allowing them to inject you?" Ms. Arnold, 62, adjusted her seat to face them down, her eyes no nonsense above a medical mask. Recruiting Black volunteers for vaccine trials during a period of severe mistrust of the federal government and heightened awareness of racial injustice is a formidable task. So far, only about 3 percent of the people who have signed up nationally are Black. Yet never has their inclusion in a medical study been more urgent. The economic and health impacts of the coronavirus are falling disproportionately hard on communities of color. It is essential, public health experts say, that research reflect diverse participation not only as a matter of social justice and sound practice but, when the vaccine becomes available, to help persuade Black, Latino and Native American people to actually get it. (The participation of Asian people is close to their share of the population.) People of color face greater exposure to the virus, in part because many work in front line and essential jobs, and have high rates of diabetes, obesity and hypertension, all of which are risk factors for severe Covid 19. But even when those factors are accounted for, people of color still appear to have a higher risk of infection, for reasons researchers cannot yet pinpoint, said Dr. Nelson L. Michael, an infectious disease expert at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. "Historically, we test everything in white men," said Dr. Michael, a member of the vaccine development team at Operation Warp Speed, the public private partnership set up by the White House. "But the disease is coming after people of color, and we need to encourage them to volunteer because they have the highest burden of disease." Now, academic researchers at trial sites like Pittsburgh's are turning to neighborhood leaders to attract more diverse pools of participants. The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh sponsored an information webinar and the New Pittsburgh Courier, which has a large, African American readership, published articles about the trial. And in the Hill District, which contains the city's oldest Black neighborhoods, volunteers from the Neighborhood Resilience Project, a faith based initiative that offers a food bank, clothing and a health clinic, are trying to reach people where the pandemic is raging in crowded, multigenerational homes. Ms. Arnold carefully explained to the tenants her decision to participate in the trial for the vaccine being developed by Moderna, a company that has received pledges of 1.5 billion from the Trump administration for its effort. "I am a proud African American woman," she said. "As African Americans, we always seem to get less out of things that go on. I want us at the forefront of this. I want to make sure that Black people are represented. I'm going by faith that these people won't do to African Americans what they did to us in Tuskegee. I'm holding them accountable." The hard resistance in the room wobbled. Pandemic experiences tumbled forth. A granddaughter was sick with it. A woman knew a 24 year old who had caught it, and it was beating him up. Covid had put a neighbor down the hall in a coma. In frustration, a woman shouted: "I asked paramedics why people here are getting sick, and they said, 'There's no social distancing.' But you can't social distance in a place like this, everyone on top of each other." "I was seeing more PTSD in my community than I saw in Iraq," he said, referring to his yearlong tour of duty as a staff sergeant in 2003, during which he saw combat. Upon his return, he became an outspoken opponent of the Iraq War and completed masters degrees in divinity and in public and international affairs. About six years ago, Father Paul began working with researchers from Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh to develop a manual for community development, informed by the sustained, incapacitating trauma so prevalent in the neighborhoods his group serves. Now, often summoned by the Pittsburgh police, Father Paul's volunteers arrive after a shooting or a stabbing to administer emotional first aid. The weight of so many traumas on a community, he said, is in part what makes it so hard to ask for volunteers for the trials. Daily survival can feel so all consuming that participating in an institutional research experiment seems utterly beside the point. "We cannot talk about a vaccine without acknowledging these other epidemics," Father Paul said. "Our kids aren't being educated, and food lines are longer. Hope is gone, too. So if you say to people, 'That makes volunteering for the vaccine trials more meaningful,' they will say: 'Are you kidding me? My house got shot at last night. And you really want to talk about Covid?'" Father Paul and his trauma response teams, wearing orange vests, had already been to the scene of the shooting the previous night. Orange tape marked the bullet holes. People peered at the teams through broken shade slats, and stared from stoops, turning away as they approached. A woman who was sobbing and cursing beckoned. Her teenage stepson had also been killed over the weekend, and she wanted to let loose. "I watched the officers try their hardest to save that baby!" said the woman, who identified herself only as Tyffani, 44. Father Paul held her hand. She bowed her head as he prayed. "There is no prayer more powerful than the prayer of a broken heart," he said. "Heal her in her brokenness and raise her up in peace." A bulwark had been breached. Neighbors who had watched warily began to accept comfort from the trauma teams, as well as masks and information cards. Now, at Northview Heights, a balloon release to honor the grandmothers' grief had been hastily arranged for the evening. More than 100 people, many carrying floating, bobbing bouquets of white and colored foil balloons, assembled on the sloping lawn next to the apartments. The weeping grandmothers, wearing T shirts printed with the baby's smiling face, were swarmed by mourners. On the periphery, children played tag, and teenagers set off firecrackers. If you had Covid, can you go in the trial? How do you know that white folks won't get one vaccine and Black folks another? How do you know what they're putting in the Black vaccine? At a weekly meeting over Zoom, the health deputies and the researchers reviewed a new script to help answer those questions. Then Ms. Townsend, who trains volunteers, asked Ms. Arnold, the Northview Heights community health deputy, to speak about why she had decided to lead by example and get an injection. Years ago, Ms. Arnold said, she was visiting her father, a prostate cancer patient, in the hospital. She saw drip bags attached to him, including one filled with yellow liquid. What's that? she asked. Platelets, she was told. It was then that she learned that there weren't enough African Americans in the blood donor base to help all the Black patients with cancer or sickle cell disease. That was when she began to donate blood. "I was just trying to save him and other African Americans," she said, "because we didn't have a fair shot at getting better sooner." And now, she said, how could she ask people in the community to volunteer for the coronavirus vaccine trials if she hadn't done so herself? | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Working during the pandemic has meant very different things for Virginia Dressler and for her husband, Brandon. As Mr. Dressler, a delivery driver, continued his routes near their home in Newbury, Ohio, Ms. Dressler spent her days caring for their 3 year old twins. Only after her husband came home at 6 p.m. could she turn to her job as a digital projects librarian at Kent State University, finishing her eight hour shift from home about 2 a.m. Later, Mr. Dressler was furloughed and took over some of the child care responsibilities. But now, with the economy reopening, the prospect of being summoned back to campus fills Ms. Dressler with more anxiety: Day care centers are just starting to reopen, with restrictions, so who will take care of their children? "All of these things are spinning around in my head," she said. "We're trying to come up with Plan A, Plan B and Plan C." As the pandemic upends work and home life, women have carried an outsized share of the burden, more likely to lose a job and more likely to shoulder the load of closed schools and day care. For many working mothers, the gradual reopening won't solve their problems, but compound them forcing them out of the labor force or into part time jobs while increasing their responsibilities at home. The impact could last a lifetime, reducing their earning potential and work opportunities. "We could have an entire generation of women who are hurt," Betsey Stevenson, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, said of pregnant women and working mothers whose children are too young to manage on their own. "They may spend a significant amount of time out of the work force, or their careers could just peter out in terms of promotions." Women who drop out of the work force to take care of children often have trouble getting back in, and the longer they stay out, the harder it is. The economic crisis magnifies the downsides. Wage losses are much more severe and enduring when they occur in recessions, and workers who lose jobs now are likely to have less secure employment in the future. "Even the limited gains made in the past decades are at risk of being rolled back," a recent report from the United Nations on the impact of the coronavirus on women warned. The setback comes at a striking moment. In February, right before the outbreak began to spread in the United States, working women passed a rare milestone making up more than half of the nation's civilian nonfarm labor force. Still, they do a disproportionate share of the work at home. Among married couples who work full time, women provide close to 70 percent of child care during standard working hours, according to recent economic research. That burden has been supersized as schools and other activities shut down and help from cleaning services and babysitters has been curtailed. "This pandemic has exposed some weaknesses in American society that were always there," said Ms. Stevenson, a former chief economist at the U.S. Labor Department, "and one of them is the incomplete transition of women into truly equal roles in the labor market." Parents in the United States have nearly doubled the time they were spending on education and household tasks before the coronavirus outbreak, to 59 hours per week from 30, with mothers spending 15 hours more on average than fathers, according to a report from Boston Consulting Group. Even before the pandemic, women with children were more likely than men to be worried about their performance reviews at work and their mental well being and to be sleeping fewer hours. The inequities that existed before are now "on steroids," said Claudia Goldin, an economics professor at Harvard University. And since workplaces tend to reward hours logged, she said, women are at a further disadvantage. "As work opens up, husbands have an edge," Ms. Goldin said, and if the husband works more, the wife is going to have to work less. Ellen Kuwana, 51, was working 32 hours a week at her dream job, doing scientific communications for biotech companies through a strategic communications firm, as well as putting in up to 15 hours a week as a freelance science editor. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. The pandemic, though, meant her husband, a pediatric pulmonologist and professor in Seattle, was working more than his usual 80 hour work weeks. Her 17 year old daughter had to take her Advanced Placement exams and college tours online, and her 19 year old daughter came home from the University of California, Los Angeles. Ms. Kuwana has been buying groceries for her parents, who have been in lockdown in their independent living facility. She also began running a volunteer effort that has delivered more than 12,000 meals to front line workers. In April, Ms. Kuwana quit her job, the best paying work she's ever had. She was spending more than eight hours a day hunched over her laptop at her kitchen table for work, and then another six hours for the volunteer effort, which she did not want to abandon. The effort aggravated the tendinitis in her right elbow. "It's a crazy time to quit a job, but it was a lot: the same workload, but the work conditions had changed, the level of anxiety had changed and so had the amount of distraction," she said. "I had to get to the point where I admitted to myself that I couldn't do it all." "But so much of my identity is tied up with my professional work that it was hard for me to let that go," she added. Family responsibilities as well as lower wages have always pushed women in and out of the work force. Women often leave or lose jobs to care for a sick child or aging relative. Meager wages make the work home trade off harder to justify, even if the loss of a second paycheck may lower a family's standard of living. In countries that offer more comprehensive support for families like Germany, France, Canada and Sweden a significantly larger proportion of women are in the labor force. And with day care centers and summer camps closed, and health concerns lingering about grandparents and others who often make up the informal network of backstop child care, some working women will have no choice but to give up a job. Nor is it clear whether schools will open on a regular routine rather than staggered or part time schedules when the fall term begins. The Landscape of the Post Pandemic Return to Office None Delta variant delays. A wave of the contagious Delta variant is causing companies to reconsider when they will require employees to return, and what health requirements should be in place when they do. A generation gap. While workers of all ages have become accustomed to dialing in and skipping the wearying commute, younger ones have grown especially attached to the new way of doing business. This is causing some difficult conversations between managers and newer hires. How to keep offices safe. Handwashing is a simple way to reduce the spread of disease, but employers should be thinking about improved ventilation systems, creative scheduling and making sure their building is ready after months of low use. Return to work anxiety. Remote work brought many challenges, particularly for women of color. But going back will also mean a return to microaggressions, pressure to conform to white standards of professionalism, and high rates of stress and burnout. For single mothers, the pressure is intense. Karin Ann Smith's paycheck barely covered her expenses when she was working as a contractor for the U.S. Department of Education. She had medical bills for her 13 year old son, who has a condition that leaves him constantly fatigued and pained, as well as student loans for her two graduate degrees and 1,650 a month in rent for an apartment in Jupiter, Fla. After Ms. Smith, 52, was laid off in mid March, she was often so overwhelmed that she hid in her bathroom with the shower running to catch her breath. She did not receive unemployment insurance until two months after applying, and then only after sending messages to every state employment worker she could find on LinkedIn. Her landlord threatened to evict her until she wangled rent assistance from the county. Her 500 in savings quickly evaporated, and she applied for food stamps and sold some old toys on Facebook, even taking small donations from sympathetic strangers on Twitter. Ms. Smith does not expect to find another job before the fall long after she exhausts her unemployment benefits. "It's just too intense I've thought about nothing else," she said. "There's no help. There's no break. When you're worried about keeping a roof over your heads, when it's something that fundamental, you can't worry about anything else, like whether your career is on track or your resume is good." Despite the miserable choices facing many working mothers, several economists retain hopes that the increased pressure on families could over the long term force structural and cultural changes that could benefit women: a better child care system; more flexible work arrangements; even a deeper appreciation of the sometimes overwhelming demands of managing a household with children by partners stranded at home for the first time. "We find that men who can work from home do about 50 percent more child care than men who cannot," said Matthias Doepke, an economist at Northwestern University and a co author of a recent study on the disproportionately negative effect of the coronavirus outbreak on women. "This may ultimately promote gender equality in the labor market." Companies like Salesforce, PepsiCo, Uber and Pinterest recently signed a pledge to offer more flexibility and resources for working parents, and many businesses have softened their stances on telecommuting. Staggered shifts and less business travel are also likely to become more common. "The effects of this shock" both good and bad "are likely to outlast the actual epidemic," Mr. Doepke said. In the near term, though, there is little relief in sight for working mothers. Mallory McMaster and her husband had intensely demanding jobs she ran a communications firm in Cleveland, he worked for a start up. Their 2 year old son, Arlo, has been going to day care since he was 5 weeks old. But for the past two months, Ms. McMaster, 33, has worked from 3 to 8 a.m., then juggled her son and her job until noon, when her husband takes over parenting. As her clients begin returning to their offices, she is struggling to keep up. "Everyone's scheduling all of these calls and meetings and planning sessions because they want to hit the ground running," she said. "This would be a great time for businesses like mine to scale up, but I don't have the time to find new clients, to update my website, because I don't have child care. It's hindering me in a lot of ways that are going to last much longer than the shutdown." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
It can't be easy for an indie movie to secure the rights to a Kendrick Lamar song. The Pulitzer Prize winning rapper is in high demand, and a bid for his music is often going to require a lot more money and clout than a small film can afford. Trey Edward Shults knew all that when he inserted a Kendrick Lamar music cue into the screenplay for his turbulent family drama "Waves." He also knew that when the time came to shoot the scene in question, a bonfire party where a group of high schoolers sing the lyrics to Lamar's "Backseat Freestyle," he still hadn't acquired the rights to the song. No matter. Shults filmed it anyway and crossed his fingers. "This movie was risky in a lot of ways, and we just wanted to take a big swing and go for it," Shults said. The director was so wedded to the idea of using Lamar's song in the scene that he didn't even bother filming it any other way: "My backup plan if we didn't get it was just going to be to cut the moment. It would have been awful!" Fortunately, by the time Lamar agreed, he found himself in good company. The "Waves" soundtrack is full to bursting with some of the heaviest hitters in music, featuring songs from Kanye West, Radiohead, Frank Ocean and Tame Impala. That's an impressive collection for any movie, let alone one bankrolled by A24, a specialty film studio with a hip reputation but a penchant for keeping budgets low. So how did "Waves" woo so many top tier artists? "We didn't allow them to see dollar signs," said the veteran music supervisor Randall Poster, who worked with Meghan Currier to clear the rights for nearly three dozen songs for the film. "I think everybody knew going into it that we were going to spend a fair amount of money on the music, but what you try to impress upon them is that this is an artistic undertaking with a visionary director, and I think artists largely want to be involved in those kinds of projects." Shults had adopted a score driven approach on his first two films, "It Comes at Night" and the critically acclaimed "Krisha," but when it came time to write "Waves," which follows a high school wrestler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and his sister (Taylor Russell) as they navigate love and tragedy, Shults knew he wanted the movie to sound like the kind of Spotify mix his characters would make themselves. When he sent the script to his actors, he even embedded music cues in the file so they could listen to the songs he hoped to add to each scene. "If you separated all the tracks into a playlist, there's a narrative, and an arc is being told from track to track that mimics the movie," Shults explained. "But there's a fine balance, because if you do it wrong, it can be really on the nose." Still, he aimed high. Frank Ocean is one of the most elusive figures in music, but Shults still hoped to secure five of his songs, more than Ocean had ever cleared for a movie. Convincing him took months. "His team said it wasn't looking good because he was in a creative bubble, and then they asked if I could reduce it to one song," said the director, who confessed, "I started having a panic attack." Eventually, after Shults sent a letter and a rough cut of the film to Ocean, he heard that the singer songwriter had found time to watch it, and was willing to clear all his music at a reduced rate. "I don't know what we would have done without Frank Ocean," Poster said. "When we were able to get to get those songs, I think we breathed a huge sigh of relief: 'O.K., we have really the emotional spine that we've been looking for.'" The trickiest negotiations came when Shults sought clearance from Kanye West. The filmmaker is a big fan of the mercurial rapper when "Krisha" was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, Shults wore a shirt to the ceremony emblazoned with art from West's album "Yeezus" but clearing even one of his songs can be costly. "It was intense," the director said. After months of tenuous back and forth, West fired the management team handling the negotiation, and Shults had to start from scratch. Eventually, West sent word that he would approve only one song cue "I Am a God," which Shults hoped to play over a particularly fraught moment with a unique complication: Since the rapper is currently turning his back on secular music, Shults would have to use a "clean" version of the song. This proved easier said than done. "I don't even know if a nonexplicit version exists," Shults said, laughing. As "Waves" neared its completion date, Poster and Currier raced to contact other artists who had a hand in West's song, hoping that the rapper would eventually capitulate. "Until you clear the primary artist, you're not going to get a response from the people who own 10 percent of the song," Poster said. Fortunately, West eventually waived permission to use "I Am a God," and the music supervisors managed to track down every other stakeholder, securing the song for a centerpiece sequence of the film where Harrison's wrestler, high on pills, is driven to an emotional breaking point. After all those hectic negotiations, would Shults mount a new film without the songs secured first? "At least right now, the last thing I want to do is another soundtrack movie," he admitted. But he's pleased that in the end, he got nearly every music cue he'd first imagined when writing the script. "Someone told me it was like I made a musical, but it's the camera doing the dancing," Shults said. "I love the idea of that." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Reed Hastings, the chief executive of Netflix, has grown used to going up against Amazon, Hulu and YouTube. But the Walt Disney Company's entry into the streaming industry, with Disney Plus, caught his attention. After Netflix released its earnings figures for the fourth quarter of 2019 on Tuesday, Mr. Hastings noted his new rival's "great" content lineup, including "The Mandalorian," a "Star Wars" series featuring the character known as Baby Yoda. And in a rare acknowledgment of a competitor's strength, he added that the emergence of Disney in streaming "takes away a little from us." Disney Plus started strong in November, signing up 10 million customers on its first day, and industry insiders wondered how much Disney might have dinged Netflix. Turns out, a little bit, according to Netflix's latest results. The streaming giant signed up 420,000 new customers in the United States during the last three months of 2019, the company reported. That fell shy of the 600,000 it had expected. Netflix misses its estimates about half the time, but the company suggested that, for this quarter, Disney Plus might have had a moderate impact. But in Mr. Hastings's view, Disney is more of a threat to traditional television. "Most of their growth in the future is coming out of linear TV," he said in a call with investors after the earnings announcement. Netflix now has 61 million customers across the country.Its slowing growth in the United States is nothing new. The service is still the dominant streaming company in the nation and expects to top out at 90 million total domestic customers. Internationally, the results were more impressive. Netflix added about 8.4 million subscribers outside the United States in the last quarter, exceeding the seven million it had anticipated. Record additions in Latin America, Asia and Europe have given the company a total of 167.1 million subscribers around the world, a 5.5 percent bump from the end of September. Netflix's stock rose more than 2 percent in after hours trading following its fourth quarter earnings report. The new subscriptions abroad underscored Netflix's status as a largely international business, putting it in a good position to counter the pending arrival of domestic streaming entrants like NBCUniversal's Peacock (April) and AT T's HBO Max (May). About 90 percent of Netflix's new business comes from outside the United States, and Mr. Hastings spends more of his time managing its overseas strategy than on domestic content. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. The company on Tuesday also reported a significant change in how it counts viewership. Netflix used to tally accounts that watched at least 70 percent of a show or film to generate its version of a ratings figure. Now, it will consider a "view" to be any account that has watched at least two minutes of a series or a film. Some Hollywood players have expressed frustration with the meager viewership data provided by Netflix. Nielsen, a third party research firm, provides ratings but only to clients, such as producers and studios. In its latest report, Netflix played up some of its new programming, including "The Witcher," a fantasy epic starring Henry Cavill. The company said it had been viewed by 76 million households within four weeks of its release under the new measurement system. But the new system inflates viewership data by as much as 35 percent, according to the company. Netflix said the new method was fair because it treated short and long pieces of content equally. The new count reveals a viewer's "requests," the company said, akin to the "most popular" section of a news site. Netflix anticipates adding seven million total customers for the first three months of 2020, down from the 9.6 million it added in the same period last year. That has partly to do with the competitive landscape and a price increase Netflix instituted last year. The company's balance sheet is also improving. For the current year Netflix anticipates it will have to spend 2.5 billion more in cash than it takes in a financial metric known as cash flow which would be an improvement over last year, when it burned through more than 3 billion. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Mary Boone, the veteran art dealer, said in an interview on Monday that after a great deal of deliberation with family, friends, lawyers and people who work with her, she has decided to close her two Manhattan galleries while she is in prison serving up to 2 1/2 years for filing false tax returns. "I wanted to be fair to the artists and I wanted to be fair to my staff," she said by telephone. "Hopefully I'll be able to come out a better person and rejoin the art world." The decision to close the galleries on Fifth Avenue in Midtown and in Chelsea was first reported by Art News. The final shows paintings by Derrick Adams in the Fifth Avenue space and by Julia Wachtel in the Chelsea space are scheduled to open in early March and will run through April 27. Ms. Boone said both spaces would close around the end of that month, about two weeks before she is scheduled to report to prison. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
When David LeFevre set out to develop his third restaurant in Manhattan Beach, just south of Los Angeles, he focused on steak. The inspiration is both personal and refreshingly simple. "I wanted a great American neighborhood steakhouse," Mr. LeFevre said. "Food that is soulful makes me remember growing up in the Midwest." The result is the Arthur J, which opened in June 2015. Mr. LeFevre has two other wildly popular restaurants only a few blocks away: Manhattan Beach Post, also called M. B. Post, which features New American farm to table food and opened in 2011, and Fishing With Dynamite, a cozy, oyster focused and seafood driven restaurant that followed two years later. The Arthur J is dedicated to the late Arthur J. Simms, a World War II bombardier and successful restaurateur in his own right. His namesake restaurant is a sleeker counterpart to Mr. LeFevre's other restaurants. The interior, with its California cool vibe, could double as a West Coast set for an episode of "Mad Men." Black bar stools surround the marble bar, and the main dining area is full of natural light. "I grew up in the late 1960s and 1970s and love midcentury modern design," Mr. LeFevre said. "I wanted to have a 'Palm Desert meets the beach' feel." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Equal Pay for Men and Women? Iceland Wants Employers to Prove It REYKJAVIK, Iceland On a chilly afternoon in October, Frida Ros Valdimarsdottir, a former home care worker turned women's rights advocate, left her office at exactly 2:38 p.m. and headed to Reykjavik's main square, where throngs of women were forming a boisterous crowd. It was the time roughly two and a half hours before the end of the workday that many protesters reckoned they stopped being paid for equal work. The rally was part of a groundswell for income equality that galvanized tens of thousands of women across this tiny island nation, where protests often produce change. "For decades, we've said we're going to fix this," said Ms. Valdimarsdottir, the chairwoman of the Icelandic Women's Rights Association and an organizer of the demonstration. "But women are still getting lower pay, and that's insane." The government wants to change that dynamic. Iceland on Tuesday became the first country to introduce legislation requiring employers to prove they are paying men and women equally. Iceland has had equal pay laws for half a century, pushing companies and the government to gradually reduce the pay gap. But the thinking behind the new legislation is that unless the laws are applied more forcefully, the imbalance may never really close. "We want to break down the last of the gender barriers in the workplace," said Thorsteinn Viglundsson, Iceland's social affairs and equality minister. "History has shown that if you want progress, you need to enforce it." Iceland, with a population of 330,000, is a forerunner in promoting gender equality. Nordic countries lead most other nations in equality policies that include gender quotas on boards and generous parental leave, and Iceland consistently appears at or near the top of international rankings for fairness. Yet equality in pay and inclusion in the upper ranks of the workplace have lagged. Women in Iceland still earn 14 percent to 20 percent less than men, according to the government. Iceland wants to bridge the gap within five years, a move the government argues may speed progress in other areas. The global gender pay gap will not close for 70 years unless such efforts accelerate, according to the International Labor Organization. The proposed legislation follows an equal pay pilot program in which government bodies and companies identified chronic hurdles that block women from higher paying jobs: Women occupy different professions from men and fewer high level positions, contributing to lower pay. Some employers in the program are now seeking to hire more women for jobs traditionally held by men. Ms. Valdimarsdottir, the women's rights advocate, quit her home care job for the municipality of Reykjavik. She had discovered that an accountant for the municipality was paid four times as much as Ms. Valdimarsdottir was for her management role overseeing a 10 person team providing home care services, comprising mostly women. Later, the city adjusted the salary for her former position to be nearly equal with the accountant's, and raised salaries for the other workers. Many Icelandic companies already embrace a voluntary equal pay standard forged by business organizations and labor unions. But business groups say it should not be imposed, particularly given the administrative burden of compliance, especially for small firms. "Companies should do this for their own benefit and the benefit of their employees," said Halldor Thorbergsson, the director general for the Confederation of Icelandic Employers. "But it should not be legalized." Although the process requires time and money, Arni Kristinsson, the managing director of BSI Iceland, a standards auditor that performs some of the fair pay reviews, said those costs were not insurmountable. "The question is, are companies committed?" he said. "At firms that are, we are already seeing the pay gap narrow" to as little as 3 percent. The audits revealed other workplace inequalities linked to pay. At the Icelandic Customs agency, which participated in the pilot program, officials found that salaries were lower when women were employed as a large group. About 80 percent of Iceland's uniformed customs agents are men, a group paid 30 percent more than customs tax collectors, who are mostly women. The agents work longer hours and face challenges like inspecting cargo for drugs, so the review found the pay system was justified, said Snorri Olsen, Iceland's Customs director. But the review also spurred a reassessment of the gender balance in each group. The audits help promote self reflection, even among female managers, about the potential for unconscious bias anywhere. At a Reykjavik based ad agency called the White House, Anna Kristin Kristjansdottir, a board member and owner, said the equal pay audit revealed leanings in the 45 person work force, including the proportion of higher level jobs held by men. Like the Customs agency, she is seeking to even the percentages, especially in upper management, where she aims to achieve gender parity. Whether such adjustments work are debatable. Some studies show pay gaps between men and women reside largely within occupations, not between them. Equally disturbing to Ms. Kristjansdottir was that women negotiated lower salaries than men. Generally, men are four times as likely to ask for a raise, and when women ask, they seek 30 percent less on average. "You'd be sitting there doing the interview, and they'd ask for less," Ms. Kristjansdottir said. "The audit showed this was a flaw in our recruitment, that we were allowing this to happen and didn't quite realize it." For Mr. Viglundsson, the government official, the fact that larger equality issues surface in the debate over equal pay is justification enough for the legislative proposal. "When it comes to the workplace, men have enjoyed a certain level of privilege for a long time," he said. "But if you look at the vested interests for society of eliminating discrimination against women, that far outweighs any regulatory burden." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Li Li Leung, a vice president of the N.B.A., was named president and chief executive of U.S.A. Gymnastics on Tuesday, taking the helm of a federation in chaos in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal. Leung, 45, has worked at the N.B.A. since 2015, and was most recently its vice president for global partnerships. She said she had actively sought the gymnastics position out of a "personal calling," having participated in the sport from the age of 7 and having represented the United States at the Junior Pan Am Games and the University of Michigan in the N.C.A.A. Championships. "It breaks my heart to see the state that the sport is in today, and that is why I stepped forward," Leung said on a telephone conference call for which reporters were required to submit questions beforehand. "I believe I can create positive change in the organization and the sport and give gymnasts what they do actually deserve." Leung said her priorities were for U.S.A. Gymnastics to reach a "fair and equitable" resolution of lawsuits filed by victims of sexual abuse committed by Lawrence G. Nassar, a former team doctor; embarking on a listening tour and speaking with victims face to face instead of through lawyers; and creating an athlete driven federation "where safety is central to everything we do." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
"Out Loud" may seem a curious title for the memoir of a choreographer, a maker of dances in which no one talks. But for as long as Mark Morris has been famous, he has been famous in part for his mouth. Especially in the 1980s, when he acquired a reputation as both the enfant terrible of modern dance and its most promising heir promise that was soon fulfilled he was outspoken, outrageous, and, regarding his homosexuality, always and unashamedly out. So the title is appropriate. Morris wrote the book with the help of the novelist Wesley Stace (who is also the singer songwriter John Wesley Harding), but its voice is unmistakably his: direct, brash, flippant, charming, impenetrably self assured. And funny. On just about every page, there's an anecdote or remark to make you laugh. At the same time, though, there is something odd about the tone, or odd for a memoir. Much of the prologue seems preoccupied with establishing what Morris isn't interested in talking about or revealing. "I don't need to know how the magic trick works," he writes, in the second sentence of the book. "I don't want to know the awful secrets that happened backstage." He's talking about his attitude to other people's art, but the sentiment carries over to his own. He tells us about his aversion to pre show talks and program notes. "The dance is all I want people to see," he explains. "If it's not in the dance, it's not there." About his philosophy of dance, he repeats the notorious, joking but sincere answer he gave at his first press conference: "I make it up and you watch it." Now in his 60s, Morris says that he is "less reluctant to share secrets, happier to let people in on what goes into making up a dance." But the reluctance is still tangible, a recurrent tug of resistance. 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. It's not that the book lacks candor. Morris tells us exactly what he thinks about everything (religion, marriage, ballet, music from all over the map) and about everyone in his life, including the still living people and the famous ones like Mikhail Baryshnikov, Yo Yo Ma and the director Peter Sellars (whose hairdo he likens to "wheatgrass one might buy for a cat"). He's frank about drugs and his sex life and the sex lives of others. Yet amid all the dish and the this is how it works assertions, there's not a lot of introspection or self examination. Recounting the bullying he appears to have brushed off in junior high, he writes, "I knew who I was, so I took care of myself by being funny." That's pretty much what he does in his memoir. It's still a good story. Growing up in a loving, supportive Seattle family that was ordinary yet quirky, the kind that's always putting on shows, he discovered his vocation uncommonly early, at age 9. By the time he was 11, "dancing was already all that mattered" dancing and music, and the connection between them. In Koleda, a folk dance collective that was almost a commune, the teenage Morris, already making up dances, found acceptance and an aesthetic ideal: rhythmically challenging, musically strict, yet unpretentious and fun. "That, to this day, is what my work aspires to be," he writes. And that is essentially what he gathered together after he moved to New York: the Mark Morris Dance Group, a little family of friends, all different shapes and sizes. Except that what they performed weren't folk dances; they were his dances, surprising creations that seemed to draw on all of modern dance history while looking fresh and of the moment dances that revealed an uncanny musical ear and intelligence, a sophisticated sense of structure, and an ability to suggest, through dance form, complex emotion and metaphorical meaning. Also, like him, the dances were often hilarious. Such gifts, extremely rare, gained attention, though as Morris points out, acclaim didn't bring much money or security not for a dance company in America, even in those flusher days. But then, in 1988, somewhat miraculously (he gives Sellars the credit), Morris was hired as the dance director of the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, the Belgian national opera. Suddenly, he had European scale resources and carte blanche to show all he could do. What he made were masterpieces. This was a time, clearly, of joy and triumph, yet also of hardship. Morris wasn't at all what Brussels audiences were accustomed to, and much of the reaction was viciously hostile. For his part, Morris described Brussels as racist, sexist, homophobic and unbearably conservative to the press back then, and now again in his memoir for pages and pages. Yet the drama of this moment, like many in the book, doesn't quite come alive. Again, the problem isn't exactly that Morris withholds. It was news to me, a genuine awful backstage secret, that he had conceived of one of those Brussels masterpieces, "Dido and Aeneas," as his last dance. Without taking a test, he assumed that he was H.I.V. positive. "Dido" was to be a solo, his swan song. It didn't turn out that way, and not just because he didn't have AIDS. As he created the dance, "it wasn't just me feeling sorry for myself anymore" that is, the work became about more than him, about Dido and Purcell's opera and all they allowed him to express. Therein lies much of the work's greatness. "I'm not interested in self expression but in expressiveness," Morris once said in an interview and repeats in the prologue. For all his out loud provocation, he is a classicist at heart. As such, he doesn't "want to see someone pour it all out," and it's not what he does, either, even if that's what readers expect from a memoir. "The truth may be simpler than people want to hear," he also says, about his dances. And these two kinds of reticence the reluctance to dig deeper into himself or into his work keep tangling. At points of trauma that junior high bullying, the death of his father a few years later he often switches from a just the facts account of what happened to a just the facts account of the dance he made about it, all trees and interesting branches and no forest. Describing the end of "Dad's Charts," a dance in which he dies because his father did, he notes how audiences laughed and how that was "fine." He wasn't "blind to the fact that it was also funny." That tells you a little about Morris's mixed emotions, but it only hints at the rich emotional contradictions of his dances how they can be comic and tragic, playful and serious. "If it looks artless, that's down to artfulness," he says, accurately, in defense of his choreography, but it's much less true of this book. Almost every Morris dance is a paragon of structural clarity and musical design. His memoir isn't. In short, the qualities that make Morris a great artist seem not to be fully engaged here. If you want a much more illuminating sense of his work and why it matters, as well as the crux of the biography, better told, with most of the best anecdotes, the book to read is still Joan Acocella's 1993 "Mark Morris." In "Out Loud," there's a sense that he'd rather be back in the studio, making dances. Which is perhaps to be expected, and not such a loss. All the things that are in his dances, the things that make the magic tricks work they're still in there and are best experienced in that form. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
To the dismay of thousands of residents of Porter Ranch, Calif., whose lives have been upended by a huge natural gas leak from a nearby well, the local utility says it will take at least another month and a half to shut it down. Early efforts to halt the leak or kill the well by injecting liquids into it failed because the liquids were not heavy enough to overcome the gas rushing up at nearly 200 times normal atmospheric pressure. So the utility, the Southern California Gas Company, is now pinning its hope on a relief well, which will allow the liquids to be injected much farther down. Drilling began Dec. 4 and is on schedule to be finished in late February, said Bret Lane, the company's chief operating officer. "I'm very confident the relief well will stop the leak," Mr. Lane said. Experts say a relief well is virtually foolproof, although it is an expensive last ditch solution for a leaking well. Drilling any well takes time, but drilling one to accurately intercept the narrow steel pipe of a problem well, which in this case is more than a mile and a half underground, takes even longer. The drilling of two relief wells was undertaken during the oil spill at BP's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, for example, and the first was completed in about three months, although by the time it was finished, it was no longer needed to stop the leak. "This is going to be very similar to the Macondo relief wells," said John P. Hughett, the president of Hughett Engineering, an oil and gas service company in Dallas that is not involved in the effort. The Southern California Gas Company's well, known as Standard Sesnon No. 25, is used to send natural gas from transmission lines down more than 8,500 feet into depleted oil fields at the utility's Aliso Canyon storage facility near Los Angeles. There, the gas remains until it is needed for power generation and other uses. The No. 25 well began leaking Oct. 23, sending as much as 130,000 pounds of natural gas an hour into the air. Natural gas consists mostly of methane, which is a potent though relatively short lived greenhouse gas that contains chemicals added for safety so people can smell it. The smell and the unhealthy side effects of the chemicals, including nosebleeds, headaches and dizziness, have caused several thousand families in Porter Ranch, a community of close to 30,000 about 27 miles northwest of Los Angeles, to leave temporarily. Residents in California were evacuated from the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles and Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency over a huge natural gas leak. SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Gideon, Evacuated Porter Ranch Home "Well the one that got us to leave the house, I had to go to the emergency room because I was violently throwing up and had a severe migraine. And I was in severe pain. For three days. And it wouldn't stop. And so my husband and son were at a robotics tournament, I called them and said 'please come home, I need to go to the emergency room.' I went in, and they treated my symptoms with anti emetics and narcotics and they said you need to get out of the gas." SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Gideon, Evacuated Porter Ranch Home "Well finally they were able to show the plumes of the methane and all of the other gases leaking. Now I have those brown oily spots, all over the outdoor furniture, the play equipment, the hose, the basketball in the backyard, all over everything. That, those brown oily spots are not coming off." SOUNDBITE (English) Laura Gideon, Evacuated Porter Ranch Home "I feel it would be very irresponsible to bring my children back to the house here, because all of the contaminants that are now in the dirt, in the mountain, in the water table, on the houses, everywhere. There are contaminants. And just feeling the physical effects of that and the ailments, I know it's true." OUNDBITE (English) Erin Brockovich, Environmental Activist "It is an ongoing that and I know everyone thought oh, this happened on October 23rd and we have this situation and it's going to go away. A, we're learning it's not going away. B, this community is under a constant assault and we're starting to find out, this has been going on for years." Residents in California were evacuated from the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles and Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency over a huge natural gas leak. Standard Sesnon No. 25 was drilled in 1953, when the area was producing oil, and was converted to its current use when the oil started running out and the field became a storage facility in the early 1970s. The gas company says it thinks the leak was caused by corrosion in steel tubing, called casing, about 500 feet from the surface. Mr. Lane said that seven attempts were made to pump heavy liquids into the well from the surface, with the idea that the weight of the column of liquid above the leak would be enough to overcome the pressure of the rising gas. But he said that because of flow problems in the well, technicians were unable to get enough liquid into the area above the leak. Mr. Lane said that during the last few attempts, the liquid came up around the wellhead at the surface. That raised alarms, because the wellhead must be in good condition to help control pressures when the relief well is finished. "At this point in time, we do not have any plans for another surface kill attempt," he said. "My concern right now is the condition of the wellhead." Mr. Lane said that planning for a relief well began a couple of weeks after the start of the leak. One problem, he said, is the mountainous terrain, which made it time consuming to level an area for the relief well, about 1,500 feet from the leaking well. The company will also soon start drilling a second relief well, as a backup in case the first one is unsuccessful. The first relief well is about 6,000 feet deep, or about 2,500 feet from its intended depth. It is being drilled parallel to, and about 20 feet from the existing well. The drillers use a technique called directional drilling, involving a special bit and other equipment that allows the well to be drilled in precise directions, straight or curved, to eventually intersect with the existing well. They use other instruments and a technique called magnetic ranging to home in on the leaking well's pipe, which is less than a foot in diameter at the bottom. The magnetic ranging technology detects magnetic fields from the steel pipe of the existing well, and is one reason drilling a relief well takes so long. Before the ranging instruments can be used, the entire length of drilling pipe must usually be removed from the relief well, a process that can take hours. Use of the technology occurs about every 400 feet, Mr. Lane said, but as the relief well nears its target and the need for accuracy becomes more critical, ranging may have to be performed after every 20 feet. Once the relief well intercepts No. 25, Mr. Lane said, the plan is to send another device down the relief well that will cut a hole in the problem well's pipe. That will allow heavy mud and liquids to be sent down through the relief well and into the existing well in sufficient quantity to shut the well down permanently. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
If anything is likely to pierce the seemingly impenetrable fashion week bubble, surely it has to be this wacko election season. Not even the most frivolous catwalk devotee remains untouched by a presidential race as unprecedentedly weird as this one. That, anyway, is how Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, the designers of Opening Ceremony, felt as they surveyed the landscape of yet another fashion week, concluding that instead of the usual predictable runway presentation they would stage their show as a "Pageant of the People." As the children of immigrants (Ms. Lim is of Korean ancestry, Mr. Leon Peruvian Chinese), the Berkeley educated designers grew up as "loud and proud Americans," Mr. Leon said last week at the pair's Chinatown headquarters. "We're pro gay rights, pro immigrant, pro Black Lives Matter," he said. "And we're in a place where we question a lot of what's happening and are not afraid to talk about it." That those friends include Whoopi Goldberg, Rosario Dawson, Natasha Lyonne, Rowan Blanchard and Rashida Jones, among others, tells you something about both Mr. Leon's and Ms. Lim's politics and the crowd they run with. Hosted by Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen, the creators of the show "Portlandia," the "Pageant of the People" breaks with fashion week tradition in a number of ways. For a start, it takes place at a convention center named for Jacob Javits, a New York politician who served in Congress for 30 years as a liberal leaning Republican in an era when that descriptor was not an oxymoron. It will be held on the evening of the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. And although the designers were wary of revealing too many secrets, the show is likely to provide a forum at which the celebrity participants will answer Miss America style questions put to them by the celebrity M.C.'s. That, in itself, is a slightly risky and unorthodox move, since if there is one thing nobody on a runway ever does, it is to speak. Yet silence is hardly an option in the current political climate, the actress Natasha Lyonne said by telephone from Los Angeles. "I'm not Captain Fashion over here, but when Humberto reached out to me, I said yes before he could even get out the idea," said Ms. Lyonne, a star of "Orange Is the New Black." A fashion show staged as a theatricalized town hall meeting "transcends clothes and becomes about a moment in time," she added. "I don't see it being a big debate forum so much as vague metaphor for maintaining personal freedom in an increasingly terrifying world." Hot button issues of race, immigration, gender and a polarized electorate are not the usual stuff of fashion, as the "Parks and Recreation" actress Rashida Jones suggested. And yet, unlike many industries, the fashion business is peopled by Americans from across the racial and economic spectrum. "A lot of questions about what it means to be an American have not been answered," Ms. Jones said. "We will always be different and will always observe our differences, but it's how we talk to each other about it that has to change." And if the rhetoric and invective of a political season charged with old and long dormant hatreds have had a generally destructive effect on what passes for political discourse, perhaps a "Pageant of the People," she said, might symbolize a means of "understanding each other better and getting past this ugly time." As Rowan Blanchard, the young star of "Girl Meets World," pointed out, other Opening Ceremony shows like "100% Lost Cotton," the spring 2015 show in the form of a satire staged at the Metropolitan Opera House and starring Dree Hemingway, Catherine Keener, Bobby Cannavale, John Cameron Mitchell and Elle Fanning "have been more about smarts and less about how beautiful or skinny the models are." Initially apprehensive about walking a Fashion Week runway ("I was a little bit nervous about feminists tearing me apart," she said), the 14 year old actress came around when informed about the stellar company she would be keeping. "If fashion is something you can manipulate and make work for you, why not do it?" Ms. Blanchard said. Those sentiments were echoed by Sarah McBride, who became the first openly transgender person to address a national political convention when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July. "For me, it sounded like an opportunity to take a message I try to share of acceptance into a new place, the world of fashion," Ms. McBride said. "On my worst days, I worry that we're seeing the birth of a new hateful discriminatory force in this country." One way to maintain optimism through an election season marred by attitudes reminiscent of some of the uglier chapters in our history may be through such seemingly silly things as a fashion show highlighting diversity and inclusion. "Expressing the genuine, authentic feelings we all have of anger, hope, sadness, bringing that to the table and saying, 'This is how this conversation is making me feel,' is a great way to beat back bigotry," Ms. McBride said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The women in the cell could be journalists, they could be activists, they could be aid workers. They don't seem to know where they are or how long their captivity has lasted. They have little hope of release, unless if by release you mean death. Death they look forward to. "No One Is Forgotten," Winter Miller's serious minded new play its loyalties divided between the theatrical and the reportorial is about prisoners of conscience. Probably. A playwright and a journalist, Ms. Miller wrote this 90 minute drama in response to the increasing numbers of journalists who have been captured and killed in recent years. When she learned of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, she decided to self produce and direct it. At Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, the audience is seated on four sides of a concrete cell (the set design is by Meredith Ries), bare except for a waste bucket. It is inhabited by two women. We eventually learn their names, Lali (Sarah Nina Hayon) and Beng (Renata Friedman), but little about their prior existence or the particulars of their relationship. Instead we see them work to keep themselves sane and alive eating, exercising, playing I Spy, drinking their own urine when no water is brought. We never see their captors, and because the sound design, by Tyler Kieffer, is purposefully abstract, we don't really hear them either. Subjugated characters who pass time in anticipation of a salvation that never arrives will likely bring to mind "Waiting for Godot" and if anyone has ever wondered what it would be like if the Beckett estate allowed women to perform that play, it would probably look something like this. But Ms. Miller, a former research assistant for Nicholas Kristof at The New York Times and the author of the play "In Darfur," has journalistic and activist instincts that don't always mesh with her absurdist, theatrical ones. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Justin Turner, it's time for you to apologize. I lived in Los Angeles long enough to know how much you mean to the Dodgers and to L.A. baseball fans who have watched you, a native Southern Californian, become the late blooming linchpin of a team that just won its first World Series in 32 years. You're one of baseball's brightest stars, but you followed up the greatest win of your life with a dim and dangerous move. That postgame celebration after the title clinching Game 6 didn't just put everyone around you at risk. Being at the center of it while knowing you'd tested positive for the coronavirus bruised a championship team's legacy and sent a terrible message to fans at a time when the pandemic is raging out of control. Where is the remorse? What are we missing? When your coronavirus test came back positive during the late innings of Game 6, you were pulled from the game and isolated. That's protocol. Shortly after the Dodgers won, you sent a tweet: "Can't believe I couldn't be out there to celebrate with my guys." But then, there you were, out on the field to hang with your team, even as you knew you carried a dangerous virus. There you were, not just with your teammates but with a throng of others: with your wife, with the families of other players, with team executives, league officials and the media. You doled out hugs, backslaps and kisses. You sat next to your manager, Dave Roberts, a cancer survivor. It's a safe bet that not everyone knew you had the virus. I'm trying to understand and find empathy. Everyone gets that you waited for this moment your whole life. That this win must have been particularly special for a guy who grew up in L.A.'s suburbs and went to college nearby. A guy whose first baseball memories include being a toddler and watching on his grandmother's television as Kirk Gibson's homer won Game 1 for the Dodgers in the 1988 World Series. 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. Your back story is one of perseverance. You were cast aside by the Mets in your late 20s after a string of unremarkable seasons, then became an All Star third baseman and the emotional ballast for a World Series winner. All of this is a testament to grit. That said, it's not hard to imagine what you were thinking. "Miss this celebration? Screw that!" Maybe the discipline that carried you to that moment failed you at the worst possible time. Nobody in the general public really knows. You'd gone through so much to win this title. The long string of wrenching playoff losses. The two defeats in the World Series, including the 2017 loss to the Houston Astros, a team Major League Baseball later found had cheated. Add in the pandemic with its pressures, tensions and pain. Perhaps you succumbed to what psychologists call Covid Fatigue, which can lead to poor and sometimes dangerous decision making as we seek ways to taste some semblance of normalcy. You knew the risks. You had a reputation as an enforcer of health protocols. "I feel no symptoms at all," you wrote in your tweet after the game. But you surely understood that feeling fine doesn't absolve responsibility. You can feel fine but spread the virus to someone else who also feels fine, and that person can spread it to someone who ends up hospitalized. You could not have been blind to the havoc the virus has wreaked globally. More than 229,000 people have died so far in the United States. Hopefully we will find out that you're still feeling well and that you never have any Covid 19 symptoms. There are potential long term effects for those who get sick and survive. Kenley Jansen, your team's star reliever, had undergone surgeries to correct an irregular heartbeat in years past and contracted the virus before this odd season began. Even when he was cleared to begin playing, Jansen did not feel right for weeks. Your actions were a slap in the face to all who have died. All who have lost loved ones. All who have caught the disease and struggled. To the doctors and nurses, the grocery clerks and the postal workers. To the kids stuck at home, attending school over laptops. You should make amends to your fans, to the fans of baseball, to everyone watching, and all who see you as a role model. You owe it to your teammates, as well. They wanted you on the field to celebrate, but that doesn't make it right. This year's World Series was already destined to be remembered as the first played amid the pandemic. But now, whenever future generations look back, along with Clayton Kershaw's pitching and Corey Seager's Most Valuable Player Award will be images of you, maskless and coronavirus positive, sitting near your teammates with the championship trophy. As I write this note, you have not apologized. Not publicly at least. Neither has Major League Baseball. That means you, Rob Manfred. You're the commissioner. This can't all be blamed on one player whose judgment lapsed. Sure, there has never been a season like this one. And after a terrible early going with players infected in batches and games canceled you were close to pulling it off with something like momentum. Until Turner, no player had tested positive for the virus in nearly two months. You were even blessed by luck. One example: The series did not go to a seventh game. Could it have been played as scheduled with Turner having tested positive? There is much for baseball to answer for. Turner's test results came back during Game 6, not before play started, which was needed to ensure everyone's safety on the field that night. So far, there hasn't been a good explanation as to how that terrible a lapse occurred. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Liza Minnelli is auctioning off almost 2,000 pieces of clothing and ephemera, including a bowler like this one that she wore in the 1972 film "Cabaret." Divesting herself of a trove of bugle beads and showbiz memorabilia, Liza Minnelli is putting more than 1,900 items from her designer wardrobe and extensive archives of Hollywood ephemera up for auction in May. But before her one of a kind Halston flapper dresses, her "Cabaret" bowler and annotated shooting script, several large format Annie Leibovitz portraits, an engraved silver baby cup, a watercolor portrait of her at age 3, and a 20,000 check made out to (and endorsed by) Andy Warhol are put on the block, some noteworthy pieces are being installed at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, Calif., in a monthlong exhibit called "Love, Liza." It opens April 4. "I woke up one day and thought, 'Honey, you ain't gonna wait till you've bought the farm and leave your life on someone else's doorstep,'" Ms. Minnelli, 72, told The New York Times last week through her colleague and confidant Michael Feinstein. "My life is a gift of flowing friendships and relationships, all collected in these objects. It's with many emotions that I share them." And it's with many emotions, including joy, that her most ardent fans likely will receive them. The sale is being conducted by Profiles in History, an auction house based in Calabasas, Calif., that oversaw sales of Debbie Reynolds's vast collections. It will include not only Ms. Minnelli's personal effects, like the waitress uniform, complete with "LINDA" name tag, that she wore in the 1981 film comedy "Arthur," but also objects that once belonged to her famous parents, Judy Garland and the director Vincente Minnelli. A paycheck from MGM Studios to a 13 year old Garland, Ms. Garland's scrapbooks and personal 35 millimeter screening copies of her films, Mr. Minnelli's Directors Guild Award for "Gigi," an Academy Award nomination plaque, and his rare one sheet poster from his 1943 musical "Cabin in the Sky" are expected to be among the most coveted lots. "We're basically telling their family history," said Joe Maddalena, the C.E.O. of Profiles in History. "It's a giant collection from the birth of Liza to what this woman became, plus the flash of when she met Halston. You'll be able to see a celebration of her life, her parents' lives, and how all this came about. Think about the talent among the three of them!" The vast number of items, including clothes not only by Halston but also Bob Mackie, Gianni Versace, Gucci, Isaac Mizrahi and Donna Karan, Mr. Maddalena said, distinguishes this auction from most others. "By the time most celebrities sell, you're usually getting junk, their furniture and their castoffs," he said. "The stuff of importance is usually donated and gone. But Liza kept everything." Rene Reyes, a production executive at the Paley Center, described the "Love, Liza" exhibit as "a lot of fabulousness stuffed into this building." Included will be costumes from the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical "Cabaret," the film version of which earned Ms. Minnelli the Best Actress Oscar in 1973, and from her string of 1991 concerts at Radio City Music Hall, along with her 1999 2000 Broadway show, "Minnelli on Minnelli: Live at the Palace." Also: selections from Ms. Minnelli's vast wardrobe of vintage Halston, like a red sequin tuxedo she wore in concert, showcased on mannequins sporting her signature short hair and long eyelashes, in a specially created setting evoking Studio 54, the Manhattan disco she frequented in the 1970s. Halston Heritage, which is overseeing part of the installation, will be lending an actual mirror ball it acquired from Studio 54. "If that ball could speak," said Angela Pih, the chief marketing officer at Halston Heritage. Ms. Minnelli and Halston, who were introduced by her godmother, the actress and author Kay Thompson, were the best of friends for decades. She was his muse. The designer, who died of Kaposi's sarcoma in 1990, was her mentor. "No one matters more to her than Halston," Mr. Feinstein wrote in an email. "Liza says that, with Fred Ebb and Kay Thompson, Halston created her. Sharing his work is her way of reminding people of his importance to her life and the world of fashion. The vibrations in the clothes and drawings are damned powerful." Whether singing standards on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in the 1960s, teaming up with Goldie Hawn for the 1980 musical one off "Goldie and Liza Together" (now a YouTube curiosity) or suffering from chronic vertigo as the pratfall risk Lucille Austero on more than 20 episodes of the sitcom "Arrested Development" between 2003 and 2013, Ms. Minnelli has long tickled at home audiences. Mr. Feinstein said that although Ms. Minnelli has "made a conscious choice to simplify" her life since relocating to Los Angeles from New York several years ago, she isn't parting with all of her cherished possessions. Ms. Minnelli, he said, is retaining such items as the christening Bible she received from Ms. Thompson, Ms. Garland's music library, Mr. Minnelli's 1959 Academy Award for "Gigi," a movie poster for 1945's "The Clock" (on which Ms. Minnelli's parents collaborated) and a Richard Avedon portrait of Ms. Garland. But getting rid of so much stuff, which had been housed for decades in more than a half dozen storage spaces on the East and West Coasts, has been good for Ms. Minnelli, Mr. Feinstein said. "After a lifetime of nonstop work she is, from my view, happier than I have ever seen her." This "purge with a capital P," as he said she calls it, "did not come without much thought and soul searching. The conclusion was that she could sit on these things and they would never see the light of day again, or send them out into the world and see them live again with others who would appreciate them." A share of the auction proceeds, he added, will go to the Great American Songbook Foundation, a music organization that he founded seven years ago with Ms. Minnelli's help. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
"The Band's Visit," a Tony winning musical about an imaginary encounter between Arab musicians and Jewish villagers in a small Israeli desert town, will end its Broadway run on April 7. The show received raves from critics when it opened in the fall of 2017, and then won an astounding 10 Tony Awards last spring, including the coveted prize for best musical. But its delicate tone and subtle story line proved a tough fit for brassy Broadway, and its box office grosses were insufficient to sustain an extended run. To be sure, the show has been a hit. It recouped its 8.75 million capitalization in 11 months. And it has booked a robust national tour, beginning in Rhode Island in June. But its modest run at the time of its closing it will have played 589 regular and 36 preview performances is a reminder of the challenges facing modest musicals on Broadway, where ticket buyers are mostly tourists drawn to shows with more pizazz or bigger brand names. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
A private arbitrator ruled this month that Fox must pay the extraordinary sum of 178.7 million to former producers and stars of the procedural crime television series "Bones" in a dispute over profit participation. The award spotlights a longstanding gripe among even well compensated Hollywood players over the value of their work, especially as deep pocketed newcomers like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and Apple come courting. Studios have often been criticized for what some consider questionable accounting practices that cut into back end payouts. The ruling spilled into public view on Wednesday after the plaintiffs in the case filed a petition to confirm the arbitration award in Los Angeles Superior Court. The arbitrator, Peter D. Lichtman, said that Fox pocketed tens of millions of dollars that should have gone to the "Bones" team. He ordered Fox to pay the plaintiffs 50 million in damages and an additional 128 million in punitive damages. Fox is contesting the 128 million ruling. In his 66 page ruling, the arbitrator accused several Fox senior executives including the 21st Century Fox president Peter Rice and the Fox Television Group co chief executive Dana Walden of perjuring themselves. Mr. Lichtman said that those executives "appear to have given false testimony in an attempt to conceal their wrongful acts" and accused them of a "pattern of deceit." "The arbitrator is convinced that perjury was committed by the Fox witnesses," Mr. Lichtman wrote. Arbitration hearings are meant to be private and rarely come to light. Fox executives, however, were stunned by the ruling, which they saw as heavily one sided, according to two people with direct knowledge of their thinking. The opinion left the company little leverage to negotiate a settlement, and the executives decided to contest the damages, the people said. That would also require public scrutiny before a judge. In a statement, 21st Century Fox said, "The ruling by this private arbitrator is categorically wrong on the merits and exceeded his arbitration powers. Fox will not allow this flagrant injustice, riddled with errors and gratuitous character attacks, to stand and will vigorously challenge the ruling in a court of law." "Bones," an hourlong crime show, was a sturdy hit for Fox from 2005 to 2017. It starred Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, both of whom were plaintiffs in the case, along with the executive producer Barry Josephson and the writer Kathy Reichs, who wrote the novels the series was based on. An arbitration hearing requires both sides to agree to the terms of possible damages beforehand. The plaintiffs and defendants also agree in advance to abide by the ruling, without the recourse of an appeal, as in a court trial. But a party can contest an arbitration judgment if it determines that an arbitrator has awarded damages that fall outside the agreed upon terms. Complicating matters is that both Mr. Rice and Ms. Walden are weeks away from moving into senior leadership roles at the Walt Disney Company after it closes on its purchase of the bulk of 21st Century Fox's entertainment properties. 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. Fox has been under the leadership of its chairman, Rupert Murdoch, who built his media empire over more than six decades. Last year he agreed to sell the majority of his business to Disney for 71.3 billion. As part of the transaction, Mr. Rice is poised to become the chairman of Walt Disney Television and Ms. Walden will become the chairwoman of Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment. Hours after the ruling become public, Disney's chief executive, Robert A. Iger, defended his incoming senior executives. "Peter Rice and Dana Walden are highly respected leaders in this industry, and we have complete confidence in their character and integrity," Mr. Iger said in a statement. "Disney had no involvement in the arbitration, and we understand the decision is being challenged and will leave it to the courts to decide the matter." At minimum, the producers and the stars of "Bones" will be awarded 50 million in damages, but it's unclear who will be on the hook for that payment. The plaintiffs sued Fox's television studio, which produced the show; the broadcast network, which aired the show; and 21st Century Fox, the studio and network's parent company. In the coming weeks, Fox's television studio will become part of Disney but the broadcast network will remain with Mr. Murdoch as part of a smaller company to be named Fox Corporation. Both Disney and Fox did not offer any explanation for who would be responsible for payment. The extraordinary award for damages has piqued the interest of the creative set in Hollywood. The entertainment industry has undergone a remarkable change with Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Amazon and Apple cutting big checks for original content. Older fare has also become incredibly valuable. Netflix paid about 100 million to keep "Friends" for at least another year. The show, a decade long hit for NBC, went off the air in 2004. But as streaming services become more dominant, the economics of entertainment have become more opaque. Producers have struggled to understand how to value their work on a service like Netflix, which rarely offers data on viewership. Hulu, a joint venture whose owners include both Fox and Disney, is buying rights to shows from its own investors. The "Bones" arbitrator has suggested Fox was self dealing when it sold the show's digital rights to Hulu, potentially depriving the plaintiffs of millions in extra fees. The case is scheduled to move from the shadows of arbitration to a Los Angeles courtroom in late April. The "Bones" team will seek to collect its money, while Fox is looking to vacate the 128 million ruling. "We are so proud of the hard work we did on 'Bones' for 12 seasons and only ever wanted Fox to live up to its promises and contractual obligations," said Ms. Deschanel. "I am grateful that such a well respected arbitrator reviewed the facts so thoroughly before ruling the way he did. I look forward to the legal system continuing to hold Fox accountable so that we can all move forward." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Suzy Solidor was once on top of the world. Between the two world wars, this platinum blonde siren wore several crowns as a queen of bohemian Paris: model, singer, entrepreneur, tastemaker, sexually polymorphous hedonist. Artists like Tamara de Lempicka and Man Ray captured her likeness, and she popped up in the 1936 film "La Garconne" as the icily sensual star of a nightclub that doubled as an opium den. Viewers probably assumed she was playing herself. You can see what drew the British performer and writer Jessica Walker to Solidor, whose artistry and wild life she honors in the delightful "All I Want Is One Night," part of the Brits Off Broadway series at 59E59 Theaters. Ms. Walker, a classically trained mezzo soprano, seems to have special affection for obscure music hall and cabaret luminaries who shunned artistic and sexual conventions: Previous works to cross the Atlantic were "Pat Kirkwood Is Angry," about the professional and sentimental ups and downs of the titular singer and actress, and the survey of cross dressing female performers "The Girl I Left Behind Me." In "All I Want Is One Night," she adds another portrait to the 225 paintings and photographs of a woman who lived by her own rules. The show starts with the aging Solidor (Ms. Walker) dressed in a Navy uniform, insisting that she be called Admiral by visitors and her young maid, Giselle (Rachel Austin). The two women engage in perverse role playing: "I don't think Uncle has had his morning kiss," Solidor teases Giselle, who complies. Ms. Walker then backtracks to Solidor's 1930s glory days, when she owned the anything goes nightclub La Vie Parisienne. To evoke that setting, the theater has been transformed into a cabaret space, and the actors often wend their way among the tables. (Sarah Frankcom staged the original production in Britain; the "revival direction" is credited to the company.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Jonathan Snipes, Daveed Diggs and William Hutson of Clipping, an art rap trio that weaves themes of racial injustice through its members' obsessions. LOS ANGELES On a sunny October afternoon, the producer Jonathan Snipes heard the distant bloop of a postal scanner and bounded to grab the day's mail: a box of eight blank cassettes for his Tascam Portastudio along with the comically complicated score to "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!," from the American composer Frederic Rzewski. The adventurous contemporary classical ensemble Alarm Will Sound had asked his noise flecked rap group, Clipping, to submit an interpretation of the politically charged 1975 piano piece. "If you really know a lot about, like, 20th century piano technique, this is apparently just, like, nonstop inside jokes about Schoenberg," Snipes said, barefoot in a shady pocket outside his apartment's shared patio space. "Oh really?" said the producer and Clipping member William Hutson from about 12 feet away, his neck draped in a paisley bandanna. "It's a gorgeous score, too, man," Snipes added. "I can read some of it. I can't play any of it." They both laughed. A challenging, political assignment should be no match for Clipping. The group's sui generis art rap weaves themes of racial injustice through its members' obsessions: contemporary classical music, harsh noise cassettes, horror movies, musique concrete, sci fi novels, field recordings and the regional 1990s hip hop scenes that thrived outside of New York and Los Angeles. Its lineup is rounded out by a Tony and Grammy award winning heartthrob, Daveed Diggs, famous for originating the roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the original Broadway run of "Hamilton" and for co writing "Blindspotting," the acclaimed 2018 film about gentrification. While the group has released three albums on the storied rock label Sub Pop since 2014, its music has become strikingly timely. If Run the Jewels are the polemicist poets facing America's racial reckoning with six foot high spray painted lettering, Clipping's members are the academics connecting the horrors of the country's past with thumbtacks and string. At first, Diggs was hesitant to record a track reacting to the spate of police killings of Black Americans this year. "My DMs were sort of full of people asking me to say something, and I was deeply frustrated with that, because everything I could have said, I already made a movie about, I've been saying very openly for the last 10 to 15 years," Diggs said, video chatting from a nondescript rental in Vancouver, where he is filming the second season of the TV series "Snowpiercer." Hutson was struck by hearing pointed, political songs by the rapper YG at protests in Los Angeles, and suggested a track that felt "like marching orders for like a march across a freeway." Recorded separately in quarantine, "Chapter 319" poignantly samples Floyd himself, who made a few appearances in mid 90s Houston as Big Floyd, a rapper in the orbit of the mixtape pioneer DJ Screw. It's one of the rare songs in the Clipping catalog where Diggs uses the first person. "I felt much lighter after we put that out," Diggs said. "And then the fact that it proved to be useful for people was really also very heartening." Clipping released its first mixtape eight years ago, but Diggs and Hutson go back much further than that. The two have been close since their days at Marin Elementary School in the Bay Area, bonding over Parliament Funkadelic. Hutson had the most permissive parents in their friend group and held weekend long hangouts where the young friends listened to abstract rap groups like Souls of Mischief and Freestyle Fellowship, and watched R rated horror movies and John Waters films. Diggs went to Brown University on a track scholarship, and Hutson and Snipes met during their freshman year at U.C.L.A. all three would graduate with various theater degrees, foreshadowing Clipping's distinct sound design and deep plotlines. After graduation, Diggs returned to the Bay Area, where he released motor mouthed rap mixtapes with his creative partner Rafael Casal and began writing the screenplay for "Blindspotting." He would visit Snipes and Hutson in Los Angeles, where they were remixing songs by Ludacris and Drake with the sounds of "power electronics," a genre born in the early '80s in Britain in which a performer culls formless sheets of feedback. Intrigued, Diggs agreed to provide vocals. After releasing its debut, the group toured relentlessly, but Diggs was also taking frequent trips to New York to workshop the project that would become "Hamilton." Diggs's work outside Clipping has made him a master of multitasking, but it's also pushed him to his limits. While starring in Suzan Lori Parks's play "White Noise" during its 2019 run at the Public Theater, he recorded Clipping music at a nearby studio until call time and then performed in the physically taxing play. At one point, he fainted rehearsing a scene in which he attempted to bowl a perfect game. ("I'd never fainted before," Diggs said, "and it freaked me out.") The two Clipping albums those sessions yielded "There Existed an Addiction to Blood" from 2019 and "Visions of Bodies Being Burned" sew the group's socially conscious threads through the gory narratives of '90s "horrorcore" rap artists like Brotha Lynch Hung and Ganksta N I P. Horrorcore is already somewhat political a genre that uses exaggeration to confront grim inner city realities and spit blood in the face of white American morality. Clipping combines this classic formula with a love of industrial noise and its natural affinity toward sociopolitical commentary. Inspired by Octavia E. Butler's 2005 novel "Fledgling," the 1973 art horror film "Ganja Hess" and the "Blade" comic books, "Blood on the Fang" is a vampire tale where Black revolutionaries like Bobby Hutton and George Jackson return as day walkers fighting the police. "Everybody wanna kill a movement 'fore the moment," Diggs raps, "but they cannot kill what cannot die." In true Clipping fashion, its horrorcore albums feature no shortage of adventurous recording experiments. The track "Run for Your Life" is made of multiple beats recorded from a moving van Diggs's raps change tempo to account for the Doppler effect. Snipes spent a week getting up before dawn and capturing field recordings from the site of the grisly Black Dahlia murder they ended up in a cover of Yoko Ono's 1953 composition "Secret Piece." "They make it seem so easy, like 7/8 hip hop," Michael Clayville, the trombonist and director of marketing for Alarm Will Sound, said about the odd meter that Clipping has used. "Not an intuitive thing, and it just comes across as being natural." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
American Airlines plans to pack more seats on its new planes, reducing the space between rows from 31 to 29 inches in three rows and 30 inches elsewhere in the economy section. The plan, to be introduced on the airline's new Boeing 737 Max models, would make American the first legacy carrier to creep closest to low cost competitors like Spirit Airlines, which offers 28 inches of space between seats a metric known as "pitch" in economy. Boeing's 737 Max is the next generation 737, a model commonly used by American Airlines on domestic and near international destinations. The first four will arrive in the fall and feature slim seats that reduce seatback depth. "People focus on the numbers, but the well designed seats are set up to be space efficient and improve overall living space," said Josh Freed, a spokesman for the airline. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
During an episode of "The View" this month, Senator Elizabeth Warren explained her wealth tax plan for the top one tenth of the 1 percent. Some viewers were quick to notice the presidential candidate's sly and effective tactic while doing so: a deft rebuffing of the co host Meghan McCain's multiple attempts to interject. Ms. Warren never skipped a beat while ignoring Ms. McCain until she was prepared to engage in discussion with her on her own terms, to raucous applause. Ms. Warren seemed to know what she would be up against when appearing on the long running daytime talk show. Since Ms. McCain, a conservative, joined as a co host on "The View" in October of 2017, she has become its most polarizing and predictable figure, the common denominator in the show's most contentious round tables. In the early days after her arrival, her on air spats made for fun TV. Now it's just exhausting. It has become the norm to watch Ms. McCain, the daughter of Senator John McCain, square off against her co hosts in a barrage of vehement exchanges leveraging her political parentage, accusing her co hosts of supporting infanticide, using her platform to push back against assault weapons bans and progressive immigration policy. The increasingly aggressive rejoinders by her co hosts have escalated to the daytime TV equivalent of a cage fight for the viewing public, reflecting the frustrations of discourse in our current political climate under the magnifying glass of harsh studio lighting. That tension could be taking a toll behind the scenes. On Monday, the conservative co host Abby Huntsman announced her immediate departure from the show, citing plans to work on the campaign of her father, Jon Huntsman Jr., for governor in Utah. But it has been suggested that the move was also fueled by rumored discord between Ms. Huntsman and Ms. McCain, who were once considered to be allies on the set. (Ms. McCain has wished Ms. Huntsman "nothing but the best on her next chapter.") For some viewers, Ms. McCain is the privileged product of conservative nepotism, capitalism and the American military industrial complex. That coalescence naturally renders her a villain to progressives, who envision her as the cathartic personification of a punching bag on social media. Conversely, each pile on reinforces her self written narrative of the long suffering victim of censorship. This dynamic is a high wire act that Ms. McCain takes pains to use to her advantage as often as possible. When she appeared on the late night talk show "Watch What Happens Live" in September, she informed the host, Andy Cohen, that every day she assumes she could get fired, because of "the tone of where we are culturally." It's a deflecting refrain that has been employed by standup comedians and political commentators alike anyone bemoaning the rise of so called cancel culture when facing pushback for harmful rhetoric. And in December, when her co host Whoopi Goldberg sharply told Ms. McCain, "Girl, please stop talking," Ms. McCain took to Twitter the next day to rally "all the fellow conservative 'girls' who won't be quiet." The tweet was accompanied by a "Game of Thrones" Mother of Dragons GIF, implying that Ms. Goldberg's use of the word "girl" was infantilizing rather than common black American parlance. The injection of vitriol undercuts the substantive political critique that is supposed to occur during these segments. Every combative segment is immediately countered by a claim that it's all just a harmless debate among friends, making the ostensibly organic on air confrontations seem all the more performative, no matter how genuine the sentiment. The day after that particular clash with Ms. McCain, Ms. Goldberg opened the show by insisting that the nature of their exchange was nothing of concern, noting that co hosts on "The View" have always "clashed and gone back and forth." Ms. McCain, for her part, reminded everyone that this is to be expected, as she is "hyper, hyper conservative." This "agree to disagree" stance is frustrating and lies in stark contrast with the current political moment, when many are skeptical of the idea of civil discourse and who it is meant to benefit. To be fair, "The View" has had its fair share of friction during the course of its two decade run. Since its 1997 debut, the show has gone through nearly as many permanent co hosts 22 as it has seasons, while representing a wide range of backgrounds and ideologies, including the prosecutor turned "Court TV" sensation Star Jones, the conservative "Survivor" alum Elisabeth Hasselbeck and the anti vaccine activist Jenny McCarthy. Infamously, Ms. Hasselbeck and the show's co creator and co star Barbara Walters argued about women's reproductive rights on air, prompting a behind the scenes fiasco where Ms. Hasselbeck almost quit in mid show. But compared with the conflicts with the current hosts and Ms. McCain, the on air tenor was not nearly as fraught, and the audience not nearly as reactive to the pushback. For years, the program has held tight to the idea of "civil disagreement," embracing the need for debate and Ms. Walters's original vision of bringing people to the table with different backgrounds and views. In truth, nothing about these recent viral incidents is either civil or revelatory, no matter how many avowals are made to that effect. And there's a sense that some of the audience which in recent years has included women in the 25 to 54 demographic watching at home and those who view the viral clips online is growing increasingly weary of the farce. (Someone has created a Change.org petition to replace Ms. McCain with the frequent contributor and fellow conservative Ana Navarro, who has been celebrated for her moments sparring with Ms. McCain. As I write this, it has close to 9,000 signees and counting.) In many ways, it echoes the comedian Jon Stewart's notable 2004 appearance on the CNN show "Crossfire." Mr. Stewart harangued the hosts the liberal Paul Begala and the conservative Tucker Carlson and accused them of being hacks. He argued that their performance of bipartisan debate only served the politicians and corporations, as opposed to their audience, who he believed deserved to be informed and assuaged of their palpable anxiety. "To do a debate would be great," Mr. Stewart said. "But that's like saying pro wrestling is a show about athletic competition." In the earliest episodes of "The View," Ms. Walters would sign off with a line that remains a part of the brand to this day: "Have a great day, everyone, and take a little time to enjoy the view." At the time, the show set the standard for a new era of women's variety programming, one that embraced public debate, but still operated with the veneer of civility. Post 2016, we are presented with a platform that is devoid of the varnish of the genteel, yet is still asking us to take a little time to enjoy the view. The problem is, with Ms. McCain still on the show, there's not much to enjoy. Shamira Ibrahim ( ShamGod) is a culture writer and reporter based in Brooklyn. 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 |
WHEN Megan Langston moved into MiMA, a new rental development at 450 West 42nd Street, in early April, there were no four hour waits for the cable guy to set up her service. Ms. Langston, who relocated from Dallas, had the building's management handle her cable and Internet installation before she and her husband arrived. They also mounted her flat screen televisions on the walls. The transition into her one bedroom apartment there was much smoother than the last household move she had made, six years earlier, said Ms. Langston, who is also technologically sophisticated, running a Web design business from her home. "Back then, we had to handle everything on our own," she said. "No one helped us coordinate anything. It works so much better being able to have people to coordinate the utilities and Internet and all of that." This month, MiMA and a companion development in the same high rise called One MiMA Tower, at 460 West 42nd Street, began offering the services of what they call a technology concierge to handle tasks as simple as hanging a television and as complex as setting up and troubleshooting a home office network. Apartments in MiMA start at 3,595 a month for a studio; 3,895 a month for a small one bedroom; and 5,995 a month for a two bedroom. Asking rents are higher at One MiMA Tower, which has a separate entrance and is on the upper floors; they range from about 4,695 a month, for a small one bedroom, to 25,000 a month for a penthouse. Daria Salusbury, a senior vice president of the Related Companies, which developed MiMA, said the technology concierge would be available for troubleshooting from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. For new residents of One MiMA Tower, there is no charge for a one hour consultation and the first hour of installation service, which Ms. Salusbury said should be enough to cover mounting a television, for example. New residents of MiMA receive only a free one hour consultation. Beyond that, Related charges a lump sum for the most complicated jobs, but most smaller jobs will be billed by the hour, at a rate to be determined, but competitive with what a chain store like Best Buy would charge. Ms. Salusbury, who leads Related's residential leasing operations, said the idea for a technology concierge evolved from watching residents and learning about their needs. "We're always looking for what's on the horizon," she said. "What feedback are we getting from residents? It took a little while to figure out that this was a trend, and that's when we said, 'We understand technology is really important in everybody's lifestyle, and we need to embrace that.' " Besides the concierge services, Related has installed combination jacks that let residents plug in cable, fax, phone and other communications devices, she said. (The company converted to paperless online leasing, meaning tenants could handle their entire lease transaction via e mail, in August 2009.) Most recently, when cellphone users began finding that high rises often have spotty coverage, Related installed what are known as wireless distributed antenna systems into the MiMA tower and the luxury condominium Superior Ink on West 12th Street. The system distributes the cellphone signal so the entire building receives coverage. The 2 million system in MiMA tower works for signals from AT T, Verizon Wireless and T Mobile, and the 500,000 system in Superior Ink distributes all those as well as Sprint. "So we embraced a problem and resolved it before it really became a huge issue," Ms. Salusbury said. "That natural evolution from that system was to create a technology concierge." Tom Beaumont is the technology concierge at MiMA. Overseeing 10 tech teams of two members each, he said he had already completed one complex job in the MiMA tower the moving and wiring of a tenant's home entertainment system. "We're getting calls from people moving in who are looking at getting their TVs mounted and setting up their home theater systems and, beyond that, setting up their Wifi networks," he said. "That has basically opened up a conversation about other types of technologies they may not have considered." Beyond setting up wireless networks and home theater systems, the technology concierge offers Apple device integration, as well as setup of wireless audio systems and gaming devices. The techs can also install remote control programming and parental Internet controls. Related plans to roll out the technology concierge to its entire rental portfolio, a total of about 5,000 units, in the next month or so, Ms. Salusbury said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
When the bankruptcy filing of Brooks Brothers was announced this month, I received more condolence emails and texts than I had when my beloved dog Henry died. The American haberdashery, with a pedigree matched by none, was in serious trouble. James Madison's suits, F. Scott Fitzgerald's wardrobe and the Union Army's uniforms during the Civil War were all designed and made by Brooks Brothers. Theodore Roosevelt insisted the Rough Riders were outfitted by Brooks Brothers. Brooks Brothers made the black wool coat that Abraham Lincoln wore to his second inauguration. It's not just a store. It's a code, a reference, an historical record that is 202 years old. We can't let it go without a fight. Inextricably woven into the story of the United States is the story of this enterprising, sturdy and innovative company. Started by Henry Sands Brooks in 1818, it was continued after his death in 1833 by his five sons, and that is when H. D.H. Brooks Co became Brooks Brothers. The store, which first opened on Catharine and Cherry Street in what is now the Lower East Side, moved increasingly uptown over the years until 1915, when they built the big building that I love on Madison and 44th Street. I particularly love the smell of the first floor: spicy, leathery, soapy, distinctive. When I was a little girl accompanying my father and brothers to get fall clothes, it smelled the same. How I wish that they would bottle it! I have asked many people at the store what they use to perfume the place, and they say it's the accumulation of the testers of cologne over the years that has blended this fragrance. (You could blindfold me and spirit me to 346 Madison Avenue and I would know exactly where I was.) My parents shopped there. My grandparents shopped there. I imagine their parents did too, although I can't be sure. A famous story in my family: On their honeymoon, while in India, my grandparents traveled to Madras, in part so that my grandmother could buy some yards of that wonderful light cotton plaid fabric. They saw a fellow wearing a madras outfit, and my bold grandmother approached the gentleman and asked him where she could buy some material just like that. "Madam, I bought it at Brooks Brothers in New York," he answered. Like real madras, made with vegetable dye which bleeds and runs, true authenticity in the classic clothing world is hard to find. I always think of the magentas and turquoises one sees around: delicious colors to be sure, but not part of the traditional palette that made preppy clothes distinctive. Yes we love bright colors; certain bright colors. Brooks Brothers outlived the Great Depression, the 2008 recession, and worse for them, the advent of Casual Fridays. For a time there were seven branches of the store all around New York, out of approximately 250 stores around the country. Maybe that was too many. Certainly in the last few years things felt rich and glossy. After Claudio del Vecchio became the chairman and CEO, Brooks Brothers did some interesting things, like inviting designer Thom Browne to design a line for men and another for women. The collaboration was called Black Fleece. It included short suits for men. And chunky soled brogues for women. Then Zac Posen came in to design the women's line. It felt prosperous and fashion y. And it was. They outfitted the men of "Mad Men." And Tony Goldwyn. And Stephen Colbert. Look, it's not all going away. They've announced that they are closing 51 branches. Fine; I don't need the convenience of a store in my neighborhood. Comedian Rob Delaney tweeted from London that he was "genuinely upset as they make the best cotton boxers for guys with big asses and thighs." Rob, don't fret. You'll be able to buy your boxers for a long time. In fact, the bankruptcy filing will not affect the overseas branches (about 250 stores around the world in 45 countries; 80 in Japan alone) whatsoever. It's the coronavirus's fault, mostly. An abbreviated list of other retailers that have filed for bankruptcy protection or bitten the dust since January of this year: Pier One, Papyrus, Kroger's, GNC, Chuck E. Cheese, Lucky Brand, Sur La Table, Muji, Neiman Marcus, Souplantation, J.C. Penney, Modell's, J. Crew, True Religion. I am sad for them. But Brooks Brothers for me is personal. It's my look, my aesthetic, my belief in looking clean cut and upright, it's that smell. It's enjoying the fact that the women's clothes fit actual women. It's the cotton piped pajamas. It's my father's suits. Maybe we should blame the bankruptcy on the perception that one buys suits at Brooks Brothers, and who wears a suit anymore? I get that. Everyone is wearing sweatpants or ugly shorts with a button down shirt and tie for Zoom meetings or even a blazer. But that blazer, you will need again. And after being shut in with your sourdough starter and food deliveries, you will probably need a new size of blazer. And so you will probably want to simply replace the one you have at Brooks Brothers. But wait! Suits are but a small part of the entire Brooks Brothers's repertoire. May I remind you of the button down shirts? They sell a ton of those, in heaps of sizes, from children to very large adults. If you're a student of history, you'll know that a shirt with a button down collar came from sport. It was what polo players wore to keep their collars out of their faces. When it was adapted for work wear, it was bold and brave: "streetwear." (And of course it was the preferred shirt of President Kennedy.) Today's polo shirts are the short sleeved pique cotton tops we all have that were also intended for sport. Brooks Brothers's version with the sheep hanging from an imperial looking ribbon has been manufactured since the 1960s, and for women since 1969. What about khakis? And leather slippers, and cable knit sweaters and seersucker. Seersucker! I'm told that after economic downturns in this country, people have chosen to dress up. What will that mean for men? I've already seen women quite dolled up to have a distanced drink or meal while sitting outdoors in what was a month ago a parking spot along a curb. There will be weddings. There will be funerals. There will be we hope live operas, and theater, and premieres, and concerts, and fancy dress parties. Even conventions. As long as there will be an America, there must be a place to dress us. Let it be Brooks Brothers. Thank you. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
When Amanda Lipitz started filming the girls at the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, they were 11. It was two years before Blessin Giraldo, by then a formidable eighth grader, approached her. "She said, 'Next time you come to school with the cameras, you need to film our step team,'" Ms. Lipitz recalled. "'You're going to love us.'" Ms. Lipitz, 37, a Baltimore native and Broadway producer, was making short films about the progress of Baltimore Leadership, a charter school, which her mother started in part to help get young women into college. Though she had heard about the step team Ms. Giraldo, now 18, formed it when she was in sixth grade Ms. Lipitz knew almost nothing about step, a percussive movement tradition that uses the entire body as well as the voice and is popular in African American fraternities and sororities. But Ms. Lipitz knows good theater when she sees it. In "Step," Ms. Lipitz's documentary feature, she follows the school's 19 member team, the Lethal Ladies, during their senior year. The girls prepare for a competition and for the rest of their lives. Will they get into college? And if they do, will they be able to afford it? All the while, step is their release, their lifeline. "I believe you see who they really are when they step," Ms. Lipitz said. And in the case of the Bob Fosse obsessed Ms. Giraldo, who has never taken a formal dance class, you see what natural talent looks like. For her, step was always easy. "You don't have to rely on the beat," she said in an interview. "You are the beat. You create the beat. So whatever you want it to be, whatever direction you want it to go in, you can put it in that direction. It's creativity." "Step" a hit at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the special jury award for inspirational filmmaking also shows the girls' sometimes difficult home lives. Ms. Giraldo struggles with keeping her grades up at school and not having enough to eat at home. The focus is also on two other Lethal Ladies: Cori Grainger, her class's quiet valedictorian; and Tayla Solomon, who is as dry as her mother, a corrections officer, is exuberant. "I'm, like, a notch down from Beyonce," Ms. Solomon says in the film, "because I do still mess up." As we get to known the girls and their families, Ms. Lipitz upends stereotypes about Baltimore, single mothers and young black girls in urban communities. Little is sentimental or sugarcoated; Ms. Lipitz is interested in nuance. "You have the corrections officer who tells you that as a black woman in Baltimore, the police were her biggest heroes," she said. "When I saw an opportunity to turn something on its head I did." Ms. Lipitz said one of her biggest lessons making "Step" had to do with understanding poverty, not race. "Poverty is having a home and going to school and having a job and a car and living on food stamps," she said. "I don't think people really understand that." As she sees it, an activity like step but any creative outlet in the arts or sciences will do can be a game changer for young people. "You must have something that keeps kids connected to school that is not academic," she said. "Blessin will flat out tell you there were many days she did not want to come to school, but she did because she knew if she didn't go to school she didn't go to step practice, and she needed to go to step practice." Step gave Ms. Grainger, who now attends Johns Hopkins University, something else: confidence. "I literally had to raise my voice," she said. "And that's not something that I would be comfortable doing before." That carried over to her life beyond the stage, too. "When I'm in my computer science classes, and there's that question that I don't understand, I'm not afraid to ask it." Ms. Grainger said she planned to join Johns Hopkins's step team, Eruption, this fall. Ms. Solomon, however, has no plans to resume stepping though she's still performing as part of the film's publicity. "We actually thought that we were done after graduation," she said. "Then the movie blew up, and we were like, 'We've got to bring the boots out of the closets.'" On Aug. 14, the Lethal Ladies team will appear on "So You Think You Can Dance." In the film, though, it's not just members of the step team who are critical to the story; it's also their mentors counselors, teachers and, above all, the team's coach, Gari McIntyre. A Baltimore native and the first in her family to graduate college, Ms. McIntyre in the film talks to the girls about Freddie Gray, a 25 year old black man who sustained a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody in 2015. Ms. McIntyre's goal was not solely to transform the group's choreography, but she is the reason it began to focus on themes of empowerment and on subjects like Black Lives Matter. Before she arrived, the team performed tributes to artists like Beyonce. "My job was to mentor these young ladies first," she said. "Their step coaches before me were great with choreography, but I think that they were missing the whole piece about the solidarity, the discipline, the self esteem, the education. I think they were missing the one on one connection that is the essence of step. I knew that coming in." For viewers, that transformation among the girls is palpable. "It was the Freddie Gray riots and our passion for stepping and the way people look at us when we perform," Ms. Giraldo said. "They don't listen to us most of the time because we're these black girls from the 'hood or however people want to label us." But when they're onstage, they're fearless. "You're going to watch us," she continued. "We're demanding your attention. That's why we included a message. It was our last year." Ms. Giraldo smiled brightly. "We had to leave with a bang." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
The publishers of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post on Tuesday released a statement critical of the Chinese government's decision to bar American journalists for the three publications from working in China. The unusual statement, signed by A.G. Sulzberger of The Times, William Lewis of The Journal and Fred Ryan of The Post, was released online early Tuesday and was scheduled to appear in the rival newspapers' Tuesday print editions. "We strongly urge the Chinese government to reverse its decision to force the Americans working for our news organizations to leave the country and, more broadly, to ease the growing crackdown on independent news organizations that preceded this action," the publishers said in the statement. "The media is collateral damage in a diplomatic dispute between the Chinese and U.S. governments, threatening to deprive the world of critical information at a perilous moment." On Wednesday, China announced that all American journalists at the three newspapers based in the country whose credentials were set to expire in 2020 had to hand in their press cards within 10 days. The action would affect at least 13 journalists, according to an estimate by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Each year, 20 million tourists visit Venice . The vast majority will pay too much for indifferent food eaten mostly in the company of other tourists. But there's one way to eat great Venetian food that's thrilling, filling and authentic. You'll find it at a place where you're almost certain to rub and bend elbows with locals. Visit a bacaro. Like Spain's tapas bars, the bacaro serves infinitely varied, kaleidoscopically colorful small plates at prices even a budget traveler can afford. What makes the Venetian version unique is that the menu changes not only seasonally (you're in Italy after all), but day by day and hour by hour. Venetians call these small plates cicchetti (pronounced "chi KET tee") said to derive from the Latin "ciccus," meaning "little" or "nothing." The term embraces a broad range of dishes: polpette (fried meatballs), crostini (small open faced sandwiches), panini (small sandwiches on crusty rolls), tramezzini (triangular white bread sandwiches) and a scintillating array of pickled, baked, stuffed or sauced seafoods and vegetables. You find cicchetti at a bacaro (wine bar), but also at a botegon, cantina, cicchetteria, enoteca and osteria confused yet? And likely at your neighborhood bar. Depending on whom you ask, bacaro comes from the Venetian word for "wine" or "a good bar," or even from the ancient Roman god of wine, Bacchus. Let Jiro dream of sushi. Alessandra De Respinis dreams of cicchetti. The septuagenarian owner of this hobbit size bacaro in the artsy Dorsoduro District turns out these diminutive open faced sandwiches by the hundreds. And she constantly invents new ones, like a cicchetto di castagna that plays the earthy sweetness of chestnut puree against the creamy funk of robiola cheese. Or her gamberi in saor a shrimp riff on classic Venetian sweet and sour sardines piled on a crusty slice of baguette. "My customers would revolt if I stopped serving the tartare di tonno," said Ms. De Respinis of her caper and brandy laced chopped tuna dusted with unsweetened cocoa powder. That surprising combination won her a prize at a culinary contest in Mexico City. But Ms. De Respinis is no globe trotting chef: day in, day out, you'll find her behind the bar, white hair swept back, striped apron tied around her waist, with a gold fork pinned to her blouse a gift from a customer in homage to her preferred cooking utensil. On a given day, gia Schiavi serves 25 wines mostly from the Veneto by the glass. I'm partial to the minerally white Orto di Venezia, grown on the nearby island of Sant'Erasmo. Just don't expect to enjoy it sitting down. As Ms. De Respinis cautioned about a meal at her cantina: "You eat, drink and pay standing up." Matteo Pinto grates a fresh horseradish root so hard, you can hear it rasp as the fiery shreds fall on bread slices topped with pink slices of ham and caramelized onions. His father, Francesco Pinto, pours an ombra ("shadow," literally glass of wine in local parlance) for a Rialto fish merchant speaking Veneziano (a dialect quite distinct from Italian) with a woman rocking a child in a baby carriage. If the Piazza San Marco is Europe's drawing room (to quote Napoleon), All'Arco is its neighborhood tavern. Situated in a maze of alleyways behind the Rialto fish market, this has been a bacaro for more than a century, explains All'Arco founder Francesco Pinto, who took over the one room bar in 1996. He started with a dozen cicchetti classic porchetta sandwiches, for example, and crostini smeared with gorgonzola and anchovies. Today, you'll find more than 30 in an ever changing repertory of hundreds. "We make our crostini by the minute, not by the hour," explained Matteo Pinto. "The freshness must be apparent in each bite." You don't get much fresher than the season's first canocchie, supernaturally sweet mantis shrimp fresh from the Lagoon, served atop tiny arugula leaves and tomatoes. In the winter, you'll find heavier fare, such as veal stracotto (stew) piled on a crusty roll, like some Venetian version of pulled pork. All'Arco takes its name from the ancient stone arch facing the bar said to symbolize the matrimonial union of two neighboring households centuries ago. The bacaro fills quickly, soustomers spill out to small tables lining the sidewalk. The ambience is joyous and jovial the perfect embodiment of a Venetian institution designed not only to slake your thirst and assuage your appetite, but also to build your sense of community. "We've lost so much of our city," Mr. Pinto said. "This is one of the places where Venetians come to feel Venetian." Squero refers to a boatyard where gondolas are built or repaired. This appropriately named osteria faces the Squero San Trovaso one of the last such working boatyards in Venice. Founded by two brothers (Alessandro Vio runs the front of the house; Cristiano makes the cicchetti), Al Squero draws an animated crowd of art students from the nearby Academia Museum and tourists from around the planet . Wine bottles line the walls and cicchetti sparkle in the showcase. Of course, they serve the ubiquitous baccala mantecato (salt cod simmered in milk and whipped with oil to a snowy mousse) and sarde in saor (sweet and sour sardines). But you'll also find such decidedly untraditional cicchetti as tissue thin slices of lardo perfumed with honey, rosemary and pink peppercorns, and crostini heaped with roasted pumpkin, porcini and ricotta. There are meatless polpette for vegetarians, and in a nod to the ecological concerns of young Venetians, the cicchetti come on biodegradable plates. The Vio brothers specialize in wines from northern Italy, including a particularly refreshing J. Hoffstatter Gewurztraminer from the Alto Adige. They've also upscaled Venice's indispensable cocktail, the spritz, here made with your choice of electric orange Aperol, ruby red Campari, or bracingly bitter artichoke based Cynar. If you really want to seem in the know, order a mezzo e mezzo prepared with half Aperol and half Campari. All come festooned with a salty olive on a skewer instead of the traditional orange slice. To embark on a cicchetti crawl in Venice without trying Do Spade's polpetta di spianata calabra would be like visiting San Marco and overlooking the basilica. It's a meatball, but, oh, what a meatball: fiery Calabrian sausage mashed with smoked cheese and potatoes, and lightly breaded and fried. "We wanted to open a cicchetteria that serves more than open faced sandwiches," explained Francesco Munarini, a former bank executive who opened Do Spade a decade ago with his wife, Pilar, and sister , Giovanna. (The storefront has housed an osteria since 1488.) Inspired by the Rialto fish market nearby, the Munarini family decided to specialize in seafood seasoned with the big flavored spices that made the fortunes of Venetian traders for centuries. In quick succession, I downed calamari ripieni (tender squid stuffed with olives and bread crumbs), fiori de zucca farciti con baccala mantecato (fried squash flowers filled with creamed codfish), moscardini in umido (stewed baby octopus), la buzara (scampi simmered in ginger and pepper piqued tomato sauce) and what may well be the best sarde in saor in Venice. The local leaning wine list is ecumenical enough to include bottles from Istria, now part of Croatia, but which belonged to Italy before World War II. Recognizable by the crossed sabers in the window and spillover crowds in the alleyway, Do Spade ("Two Swords") offers seating in a warren of simply decorated blue rooms, but most customers prefer to eat standing by the open kitchen or in the street. For half a millennium or so, Venice dominated Europe's international commerce, so it should come as no surprise that two modern financial instruments originated here: the bancarotta (bankruptcy" "broken bench," literally) and the bancogiro, bank transfer (named for the world's first publicly funded bank, founded in Venice in 1587). A lengthy introduction to one of the most scenic barcari in Venice. Housed in a former vegetable depot, Bancogiro is part wine bar and part osteria (restaurant). Unlike most bacari, there's outdoor seating on a wide terrace situated directly on the Grand Canal. (At lunch and dinner time, these tables are reserved for people who order a full meal, so arrive early.) If the water were any closer, you'd have to dine in a gondola (more on that in a minute). Here, too, seafood figures prominently, from a luscious crostino of piovra, lardo e melanzana (octopus, lardo and eggplant) to Bancogiro's signature ricotta salata con gamberi al curry (salted ricotta and curried shrimp over a rectangle of creamy squid ink polenta) the latter popular with the gluten free crowd. If cold cuts are your thing, you'll find artisanal mortadella from Bologna dotted with toasted sweet pistachios, and crostini carpeted with lacy coppa (shoulder ham) cured with Amarone wine. On any given day, Bancogiro offers 17 wines by the glass, including a house white blended from Garganega and Durella grapes. After your meal, follow the signs to the nearby Traghetto Santa Sofia for a ride on what I call a poor man's gondola. Two euros gets you on an oversize gondola across the Grand Canal in the company of Venetians with their market bags. Gentlemen take note: It's considered good manners for the male passengers to remain standing. Like most Venetians, Tobia Lenarda deplores mass tourism. So the one time conservatory pianist, recognizable by his salt and pepper beard and red sneakers, chose a singular way to fight back: He opened a new school bacaro. "I toured the tapas bars in Spain and Portugal to get ideas," he said. "I researched sushi and Mexican street food." He called his venture Basego, the Venetian dialect word for basil. "It's clean, it's bright, it's fresh just like basil," he said. Basego doesn't look like your typical bacaro, not with pin spots casting a discrete light on clean walls of exposed brick, natural wood and white plaster. Wine barrels and wall shelves serve as tables, with the day's selection of wines written on a blackboard. The cicchetti are as fresh as the decor. Tonno afumicato (smoked tuna) comes with avocado "mayonnaise." ("Think of it as Venetian guacamole," said Mr. Lenarda.) Wasabi lights up a salmon cicchetto. Gorgonzola comes with balsamic vinegar marinated strawberries. Equal care goes into Basego's wines. "We try to work with heroic vintners, who grow varieties and make wines no one bothers with any more." One such wine, Calzo della Vignia, comes from Giglio Island in Tuscany. "The hills are so steep, they have to harvest the grapes on foot and by hand," Mr. Lenarda said. The result: a golden wine with an earth taste so rich, you can almost chew it. Mr. Lenarda summed up his view of customer service this way: "If you treat you customers politely and that includes tourists they pay you back with courtesy." He thinks for a minute and paraphrases John F. Kennedy. "Ask not what Venice can do for you. Ask what you can do for Venice." The philosophy earns high praise from the locals. The morning I was there, the only languages I heard were Italian and Venetian. Bacari specialize in wine, of course, and Bar 5000 takes that mandate seriously, offering an impressive selection of vino bio, vino biodinamico and vino vegano. The first is organic wine (made from grapes grown without chemical fertilizers or fungicides), while the second are wines vinified without supplemental yeast or other additives. As for vegan wines, they're clarified without gelatin, a fining agent derived from animal bones. And all three are available on a 120 bottle list at this new school wine bar, located on the tranquil Campo San Severo in the Castello District near Piazza San Marco. Gone, the mosh pit crowds of the Rialto bacari. The clean modern interior runs to up lit brick walls, polished concrete floors, and a chandelier blown by the Murano glass master Fabio Fornasier. Weather permitting, you can sit at one of a handful of tables along the quiet Severno canal. When it comes to the cicchetti, Bar 5000 may lack the jaw dropping variety of All'Arco or gia Schiavi, but the six to eight daily selections in the showcase are thoughtfully chosen and well prepared. A plump salty sun dried tomato crowns a crostino of sopressata cut paper thin on a Berker meat slicer. Fresh oranges and mostarda (fruit jam) counterpoint a tiny wedge of Monte Veronese cheese. The pickles come from vegetables grown on Sant'Erasmo Island. "We bake our own bread daily," said Micael Nordio. co owner of Bar 5000. "We don't have a freezer, so you know our food is fresh." Twice a month, Bar 5000 stages wine dinners, often with live music. If you're still hungry after the cicchetti, you can go for a proper meal at the sister restaurant, Luna Sentada, next door. Steven Raichlen is a longtime food and travel journalist with an abiding passion for Italy. Two of the 32 books he has written are on Italian cooking, and he hosts "Steven Raichlen Grills Italy," a television show on Gambero Rosso, the Italian food network. Follow NY Times Travel on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Get weekly updates from our Travel Dispatch newsletter, with tips on traveling smarter, destination coverage and photos from all over the world. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Two years after writing their first novel together, the author James Patterson and former President Bill Clinton will work on a second one, their publishers announced on Thursday. "The President's Daughter," set for release in June 2021, will follow a former U.S. president living in rural New Hampshire whose daughter is kidnapped. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Mr. Patterson and Mr. Clinton's first book, "The President Is Missing," came out in 2018 and was one of the year's biggest success stories in publishing, selling more than 3.2 million copies. In The New York Times Book Review, Nicolle Wallace called it "ambitious and wildly readable," with a president brimming with "humanity, character and stoicism." The pair combined Mr. Clinton's deep knowledge of government and the presidency with Mr. Patterson's propulsive storytelling style, with short chapters and cliffhangers. "The President's Daughter" will be a standalone book featuring a new cast of characters, rather than a sequel. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
On a recent morning, the Broadway set designer David Korins gave a tour of his tchotchke filled studio near Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. In a room with miniature models of stage sets, a conversation about staircases ensued. For the 2010 production of "The Pee wee Herman Show," Mr. Korins designed each step to be 10 inches high, so that the star Paul Reubens "clomped up and down like he was a small child," he said. For the 2012 revival of "Annie," he designed a grand staircase in Daddy Warbucks's mansion after his 6 year old daughter persuaded him that a man with zillions of dollars ought to have one. Judging from the certificates on his walls (including in the bathroom), Mr. Korins is among the most decorated set designers working on Broadway. In addition to "War Paint," he has three musicals in full bloom at the moment: "Hamilton," "Dear Evan Hansen" and "Bandstand." He also designs sets for movies, television (Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live") and music performances (Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Sia). He even dabbles in restaurants, including Bond 45, a trattoria that is reopening next month at the Hotel Edison on West 47th Street. But if all of this has Mr. Korins, 40, feeling overextended, he is not showing it. "I'm really not busy," he said, looking unflappable and preppy in a heather gray crew neck sweater and jeans, his purple socks showing through. He has a work ethic that would impress Thomas Edison. Starting in 1997 as an intern at the Williamstown Theater Festival, he said, he had the weakest drawings skills and keenest ambition of any of his peers. Five years later, he was directing the design program. In 2001, he and Carolyn Cantor founded the Edge Theater Company in New York. One of his feats was putting an actor belly down on a skateboard and sending him off to perform as a shark. Part of what distinguishes his set designs is the cathartic use of space. In "Dear Evan Hansen," for example, the musical about adolescent anxiety and mendacity, Mr. Korins suspended computer monitors to create a dark, pseudosocial atmosphere of crawling digital texts and images. Only in the last scene did he treat the audience to a much needed breath of sky. Jeffrey Seller, the lead producer of "Hamilton," recalled seeing Mr. Korins's set for the rock musical "Passing Strange" at the Public Theater in 2007: a white curtain pulled back to reveal a wall of gridded neon light. "It surprised me in a way to win my love," Mr. Seller said. For "Hamilton," Mr. Korins introduced the turntable that dominates the stage as a metaphor for the whirlwind of 18th century American politics. That set earned him his first Tony nomination. Mr. Korins is also known for what Michael Greif, the director of "War Paint" and "Dear Evan Hansen," calls understanding "the poetic movement of a play." For "War Paint," they agreed that beauty products "were the nuts and bolts of the musical," Mr. Greif said. Mr. Korins installed a wall of luminous glass bottles with shifting colors that performs like a second chorus. "David hears the story, he pictures the story, he implements it," said Shelly Fireman, who owns Bond 45. At the reopened restaurant, the story will transport visitors to an Italian village with black and white tiles and a simulated piazza under a ceiling of light bulb stars. "Doing a restaurant is like doing a piece of theater that never opens," said Mr. Korins, who previously designed Florian, another trattoria owned by Mr. Fireman. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Were you a fan of Cyndi Lauper's, who wrote the score? Absolutely! She's so iconic. "Goonies" was one of my favorite movies, and I think the first song I heard of hers was launching into falsetto "good enough!" I listened to the soundtrack a bunch before I saw the play, and you could hear Cyndi in each one of the songs. A lot of them are surprisingly simpatico with your band's sound. Panic! is such a theatrical band that it melded really well. Charlie's songs, especially, have so much emotion. At rehearsal, Brian Usifer, the music director, was giving me notes like, "Think about what he's going through this one's disparaging, this one's confident." I treat the script the same way because there's a kind of musicality to it, especially with the British accent. Obviously you can sing, but had you thought about acting before? I wanted to be an actor as a kid. My teacher in second grade had called a talent agency and had them call my house. My mom was so mad. She was like, "No, that's not a life I'm going to put you in." Understandably, you know she was just trying to protect me. I fell into music, but I just needed to find the right moment to jump into acting. Did musicals pass muster with your parents? They loved them. My mom was adamant about me watching musicals: "You need to be cultured." It wasn't a weird thing like she needed to educate me they were just always on. That's what I was allowed to watch all the time. I used to watch the Broadway "Les Miz" and study it. You have a tattoo of Frank Sinatra's face on your forearm. Is he your spirit performer? I fell in love with Sinatra when I was very young. There was a cartoon where they had a part with a microphone stand with a bow tie, and his face with the big ears they were obviously making fun of how skinny he was. That was the first time he was on my radar. Then there was the Singing Sword in "Roger Rabbit." Starts to croon "Witchcraft." I wanted to sing like him so bad. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
If there are to be witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Trump at this moment an unknown John Bolton and Hunter Biden would almost certainly be among those called to testify. Some people on Capitol Hill describe it as a one for one trade. This idea has been widely dismissed by both sides. Democrats say Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, is irrelevant to the issues in the articles of impeachment. The president and Republicans assert that Mr. Bolton, the former national security adviser who was fired by Mr. Trump Mr. Bolton says he quit is simply promoting a forthcoming book and has nothing meaningful to say. To my own surprise, I now think that such an arrangement might well be highly valuable for the country. For some time, I was against the Democrats' offering any Biden as a witness in Mr. Trump's trial, on principle. Just because the Republicans want to batter Hunter Biden is no reason to submit either him or his father as fodder to hostile Republicans. But principle can be turned on its head; calling Hunter Biden could backfire on the Republicans big time. In a television interview last October Joe Biden's sole surviving and troubled son came across as a straightforward, unassuming guy: He conceded that he most likely wouldn't have been asked to join the lucrative board of one of Ukraine's largest natural gas companies, Burisma, or been offered other opportunities, but for his last name. A multitude of investigations of his arrangement with Burisma have turned up no wrongdoing on Hunter's part other than inviting the appearance of a conflict of interest, since at the time his father was in charge of Ukraine policy for Barack Obama. Having him appear as a witness could expose the fatuity of the Republicans' efforts to smear him and his father. In fact, a number of Republicans actually don't want to call the younger Biden. They're worried about the circus atmosphere that might present and they'd rather have the issue linger as a useful weapon. Acceding to Hunter as a witness would call the Republicans' bluff. Having Joe Biden's son testify would illuminate the Bidens' irrelevance to the issue of whether the president held up congressionally appropriated military assistance for Ukraine until the Ukrainian president announced not necessarily conducted, just announced a government investigation into the Bidens' role. An appearance by Hunter before Senate questioners now could also go some distance toward removing him as an issue in the general election, should his father be the Democratic nominee. In fact, Hunter could be the star witness as to why a president's (or vice president's) offspring should stay out of any business that might have something to do with their parents' job. Moreover Joe Biden is at his most moving when he talks about his family and what it has been through: The Republicans could be handing him a lovely opportunity to make a knockout campaign speech. And several advantages would accrue to the Democrats if Mr. Bolton were to testify. First, this would undermine the White House's and Republicans' plan to terminate the trial with a vote to acquit Mr. Trump by the end of this week. Second, Mr. Bolton could smash the White House's and Republicans' argument that there is no direct evidence that Mr. Trump himself directly linked military aid to Ukraine to a request that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, announce an investigation of the Bidens. (Mr. Bolton reportedly said as much in an unpublished manuscript of his forthcoming book, causing the White House to threaten to block its publication.) Third, the longer the trial drags on the greater opportunity there is for more damaging information to arrive on the Democrats' doorstep. Even if gathering the two thirds Senate vote to remove Trump from office remains beyond reach, a secondary goal of the Democrats is to make Trump's acquittal as unglorious as possible. The more an acquittal hinges on preposterous limits on disclosure of information and on preventing witness testimony, the less valid it will seem. As in the case of the Mueller report, this won't stop Mr. Trump from declaring a fabulous victory. But the Democrats, with the Republicans in control of the Senate and so far essentially united on not convicting the president and removing him from office, have to go with what they can get. Democrats publicly brush off suggestions of a Biden for Bolton witness swap, but that could be a negotiating position. It's odd that after three years of a Trump administration, Republicans didn't foresee the danger in putting their political careers in the hands of a man who's out solely for himself and has a very distant relationship with the truth. But they clearly felt that they had no choice, and thus they enabled Mr. Trump to take them out on his limb. They are so frightened of him and his base that they have accepted his demand that his bullying phone call with Mr. Zelensky be considered "perfect." This has left them, as well as him, no wiggle room. Which makes a Bolton appearance all the more dangerous. Also, having Mr. Bolton testify offers him and his newfound Democratic allies an opportunity to make other damaging disclosures that may not yet have been discovered in his book or may not lie therein. He can elaborate on another bit of damaging goods from his book that has already been revealed: that in Bolton's view (he's not alone in this) Mr. Trump has seemed particularly complaisant toward autocrats. Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and lead prosecutor in the impeachment trial, had planned to investigate whether Mr. Trump's foreign policy has been guided by his business investments. Mr. Bolton may know if this occurred. Mr. Trump's company, from which he hasn't divested his interest, has property in at least two countries led by autocrats with whom he's on especially friendly terms: Turkey and the Philippines. Mr. Bolton has written that he worried about Mr. Trump's particular warmth toward the leaders of China and Turkey. Might Mr. Trump's subdued reaction to demonstrations in Hong Kong and to Turkey's decision to invade northern Syria have anything to do with Trump company business? Mr. Bolton may also know about other conversations with foreign leaders locked in the supersecret computer system where the full conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky was consigned. We've only seen a scrubbed transcript of that conversation. Why? And are there other conversations with foreign leaders revealing blunders or abuses of power by Mr. Trump stored there as well? John Bolton might have answers. Democrats should strike a deal, even an implicit one, to get him on the witness stand. Elizabeth Drew, a political journalist who for many years covered Washington for The New Yorker, is the author of "Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon's Downfall." 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 |
"I take the first true measure of my body and decide that it's shame, not sin, that's unholy." It's 1955 Iran and Forugh Farrokhzad, a soon to be divorced mother, awakens to sex and art in Jasmin Darznik's novel, "Song of a Captive Bird." A few pages later, having begun an affair with a progressive Tehrani editor, Farrokhzad writes the poem that will make her both a symbol of female strength and a notorious "woman without shame," as Persian mothers like to say. In it she confesses, "I've sinned a sin of pleasure / beside a body trembling and spent." She doesn't hide behind metaphor, and she isn't the meek beloved of the old poems. She acts on her own desires. When she pines, it isn't for a romantic savior but for a body. Tehran is scandalized. Farrokhzad was Iran's most celebrated and controversial female poet, and Darznik, the Iranian born author of the memoir "The Good Daughter," recreates her sexual and creative liberation while exploring the threat she posed to social order in prerevolutionary Iran. By the year of Farrokhzad's debut, the "New Poetry" of Nima Yooshij and Ahmad Shamlou both men had made Iranian verse more accessible, freer in form and subject matter. But critics instantly denounced Farrokhzad as a silly girl, dismissing her work as an outgrowth of the national fascination with the hedonistic West, a trend Tehrani intellectuals called "Westoxification." Farrokhzad was defiant, in life and in Darznik's fiction: "By writing in a woman's voice I wanted to say that a woman, too, is a human being. To say that we, too, have the right to breathe, to cry out and to sing." By the 1960s, she had come to represent Iran's New Woman. At once loved and hated, she was a literary sensation and an acclaimed filmmaker, who demanded that female desires, expressed in plain language, be given the weight of serious literature. Male poets had been writing breathlessly about women for centuries why should the reverse be any less palatable? | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
The wallet of the Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is about to be a bit lighter. The N.B.A. said Friday that it has fined Cuban 500,000 for "his public criticism and detrimental conduct regarding N.B.A. officiating" after his team's Feb. 22 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. The N.B.A. also denied the Mavericks' protest of the game, which, if granted, would have required the teams to replay the final seconds. The protest came after the referees allowed a Hawks basket to count even though it was scored after a play had been blown dead late in the fourth quarter. Mavericks forward Dorian Finney Smith was whistled for goaltending after blocking a layup attempt by Atlanta's Trae Young on the play. But as that happened, John Collins, a Hawks forward, rebounded Young's blocked shot and scored. The problem was the referees, upon review, deemed the whistle inadvertent, because Finney Smith did not commit goaltending. They allowed Collins's basket to stand, even though it came after the whistle. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Lillian Ross, who became known as the consummate fly on the wall reporter in more than six decades at The New Yorker, whether writing about Ernest Hemingway, Hollywood or a busload of Indiana high school seniors on a class trip to New York, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 99. Her longtime editor, Susan Morrison, said the death, at Lenox Hill Hospital, was caused by a stroke. Ms. Ross preached unobtrusive reporting and practiced what she preached. She outlined her credo in the preface to her book "Reporting" (1964): "Your attention at all times should be on your subject, not on you. Do not call attention to yourself." But late in life her writing took a surprising turn from third person to first. In 1998 she published "Here but Not Here: A Love Story," describing her 50 year love affair with William Shawn, the longtime editor of The New Yorker, who was married to someone else and who, if anything, had even been more compulsively guarded about his private life than Ms. Ross. Former associates at the magazine accused her of betrayal. Ms. Ross wrote in the memoir that Mr. Shawn had hired her in February 1945, offering her 70 a week, more than double the salary she had been earning as a reporter for the New York tabloid PM writing short articles on the local scene in the style of the New Yorker's Talk of the Town pieces. She soon began writing her own Talk of the Town pieces for the magazine and went on to become a staff writer. Her profile of Hemingway on a stopover in New York it appeared in May 1950 elevated her into the ranks of the magazine's most admired stylists, among them Joseph Mitchell and John Hersey. In a later, much longer article, published in installments, she described John Huston's anguished effort to make a great film of "The Red Badge of Courage," Stephen Crane's classic novel of the Civil War. When that article was ultimately reprinted as a book entitled "Picture" (1952), Newsweek called it "the best book on Hollywood ever published." On assignment Ms. Ross asked very few questions and never used tape recorders but filled many notebooks. "You try not to get in the way of the person you're trying to show," she wrote of her technique. "You are trying to follow along the person you're interviewing, to respond to him instead of coming along with a lot of prepared questions, you just get him going. Just don't bother him. And listen. It's just a question of listening." Here, for example, is how she depicted Louis B. Mayer, the Hollywood mogul, who opposed Huston's idea of turning "The Red Badge of Courage" into a film (though she violated one of her cardinal rules by inserting herself into the passage): "He pounded a commanding fist on his desk and looked at me. 'Let me tell you something!' he said. 'Prizes! Awards! Ribbons! We had two pictures here. An Andy Hardy picture, with little Mickey Rooney, and "Ninotchka," with Greta Garbo. "Ninotchka" got the prizes. Blue ribbons! Purple ribbons! Nine bells and seven stars! Which picture made the money? "Andy Hardy" made the money. Why? Because it won praise from the heart. No ribbons!' " Ms. Ross's work was often cited as a precursor of the New Journalism of the 1960s, in which nonfictional material was presented in forms drawn from imaginative literature. Her 1960 article "The Yellow Bus," for example, had the feel of a New Yorker short story. Exquisitely detailed and warmly sympathetic, it told of a senior class trip of "eight hundred and forty miles in thirty nine and a half hours" to New York by 18 wide eyed students from rural Bean Blossom Township High School in the village of Stinesville, Ind. "No one in the senior class had ever talked to a Jew," Ms. Ross wrote, "or to more than one Catholic, or with the exception of Mary Jane Carter, daughter of the Nazarene minister in Stinesville had ever heard of an Episcopalian." Writing in The New York Times Book Review in 1966, the novelist Irving Wallace called Ms. Ross "the mistress of selective listening and viewing, of capturing the one moment that entirely illumines the scene, of fastening on the one quote that Tells All." She wrote about Mr. Shawn's daily visits to the Manhattan apartment they had chosen together, where, after reading bedtime stories to Erik, the son Ms. Ross had adopted in Norway, he would leave to spend the night with his wife and his own children 11 blocks uptown. This time her subject was not a figure she could follow around to regard and depict with clinical detachment. She was focusing on a man she had loved, a man whose widow and children were still alive. Writing as one apex of a triangle, she was uncharacteristically partisan, as she insisted that Mr. Shawn had been more contentedly and authentically himself in her company than anywhere else. Ms. Ross openly assessed hers and Mr. Shawn's lovemaking, reporting that over four decades it retained "the same passion, the same energies" and "the same tenderness" that it had in the beginning. "It never deteriorated, our later wrinkles, blotches, and scars of age notwithstanding," she wrote. "We never changed." Charles McGrath, who had been Mr. Shawn's deputy at The New Yorker, was among those outraged. Reviewing the book for The New York Times Book Review, where he was the editor at the time, he wrote that for Ms. Ross to publish the work while Mr. Shawn's widow, Cecille, was "alive and vigorous" was "a cruel betrayal of the Shawns' much valued privacy a tactless example of the current avidity for tell all confessions." Writing in The Los Angeles Times, Jeremy Bernstein, a veteran of 31 years as a New Yorker writer, was equally scathing. Noting that the book was subtitled "A Love Story," he commented, "It is something quite the opposite: a deeply hurtful, self indulgent, tasteless book that never should have been written at all." Ms. Ross confronted the criticism over lunches with journalists. "The controversy doesn't make any sense to me," she told the gossip columnist Liz Smith, who was then writing for Newsday. "Most reviewers describe Shawn as a myth in their own heads. They are bitter and full of recriminations. They want to make Bill into my victim, but he wasn't that at all. They say I was disloyal. He wouldn't think so; he liked being shown as he was a tender, romantic, passionate lover, one who adored jazz and theater and fun, liked driving fast cars, was mad about good food." Ms. Ross had come in for criticism before the memoir was published. There were those who felt that in her hands the selective quotation could be a dagger. Irving Howe, writing in The New Republic about her 1950 profile of Hemingway, declared, "Nothing more cruel has happened to an American writer than the Lillian Ross interview, a scream of vanity and petulance that only a journalistic Delilah would have put into print." Ms. Ross responded with a long letter to the magazine calling Mr. Howe's remarks "irresponsible, rather sordid and absolutely wrong." She said that the sketch, in which Hemingway was shown constantly drinking and speaking in a sort of telegraphic pidgin English, was an attempt to record him "just as he talked, how he sounded and looked," and that he had seen and approved it before it ran, suggesting only one deletion. Ms. Ross remained on friendly terms with Hemingway after her profile appeared, and he provided a blurb for "Picture," her Hollywood book, writing, "Much better than most novels." She was born Lillian Rosovsky on June 8, 1918, in Syracuse to Edna and Louis Rosovsky, immigrants from Russia. She grew up in Syracuse and in Brooklyn. She knew she wanted to be a writer early on. In the introduction of "Reporting Always," a collection of her journalism published in 2015, she wrote that she had been thrilled to see her writing in print after a junior high school teacher assigned her an article for the school newspaper about a new school library. Her lead paragraph, she recalled, began, "Fat books, thin books, new books, old books." Ms. Ross received a bachelor's degree from Hunter College in New York and later did graduate work at Cornell University. Her reporting job at PM, from which she moved on to The New Yorker, was her first in journalism. Her son, Erik, is her only immediate survivor. Ms. Ross lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Ms. Ross continued to write for The New Yorker well into the 21st century. (She left the magazine after Mr. Shawn was dismissed in 1987 but returned soon after.) Her last writing for the magazine appeared online in 2012 as a blog post about J. D. Salinger. Her last New Yorker article in print was a Talk of the Town piece in 2011 about the comedian and actor Robin Williams. From young womanhood onward, Ms. Ross's passion for journalism never wavered, and she was eager to impart to younger generations what she had learned on the job about writing. In her 2002 book "Reporting Back: Notes on Journalism," she offered an assessment of what makes a good reporter: "The act of a pro is to make it look easy. Fred Astaire doesn't grunt when he dances to let you know how hard it is. If you're good at it, you leave no fingerprints." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Now Lives: In a prewar one bedroom in the West Village, and can often be found writing around the corner at Grounded Coffee House on Jane Street. Claim to Fame: Mr. Glynn is a book editor at Hanover Square Press and a social fixture in the party scene in Montauk, N.Y. His memoir, "Out East," which chronicles his coming of age in a summer share, was published on May 14. A book cover blurb from Andre Aciman, the author of "Call Me by Your Name," calls Mr. Glynn a "delicate and highly gifted writer." Big Break: After graduating from New York University in 2012 with a master's degree in English, Mr. Glynn worked as an associate editor at Scribner, where he edited reissues of Ernest Hemingway classics, including "A Farewell to Arms," "The Sun Also Rises" and "The Green Hills of Africa." Before moving to Hanover Square Press in 2017, he also edited "Sleeping Beauties," a novel by Stephen King and Owen King. "It was really kind of a dream to provide feedback to a huge literary hero of mine," said Mr. Glynn, who worked alongside Nan Graham, Stephen King's longtime editor. "Even doing the most mundane tasks I was like, 'Look at what I'm working on.'" | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
"Yesterday in Styles" is a regular column that looks back at Styles stories that got people talking. This is one of them. From Chump to Champ: "When I look down at my pale, skinny body, I wonder why any woman would want to sleep next to it, let alone embrace it," wrote Neil Strauss, a former New York Times music writer, in the opening of this 2004 feature. Despite what he believed to be his shortcomings, Mr. Strauss went on to chronicle his transformation from sexless nobody to singles scene Adonis. How? Using techniques he learned in the shadowy online "seduction community" of the 2000s. Basically it was a secret society of would be pickup artists, all hoping to tap the alpha male within . Rules of the Game: In the early aughts those bro centric days of Maxim magazine and TV's "The Man Show" a legion of straight men who lacked the confidence to approach women gravitated to the online forums of self styled pickup superstars who employed stage names like Mystery (pictured above and famous for his fur top hat and eyeliner ) and Juggler. They preached a quasi psychological juju that would, in theory, transform any ordinary dude from A .F.C. (Average Frustrated Chump) to P.U.A. (Pickup Artist). The tricks eventually became wearily familiar to many women on the singles circuit: "peacocking" (wearing crazy clothing, like a red cowboy hat yes, truly to stand out), "group theory" (charming the desired woman's friends before making a move on her) and the "neg" (a subtle dig disguised as a compliment "I love your eyelashes, are they real?" to disarm women they believed had grown immune to flattery). From "Neg" to "Pos": These moves worked, apparently at least for the guys who peddled them. Mystery had his own short lived VH1 reality show, "The Pickup Artist." Mr. Strauss rebranded himself as a Corvette driving sex machine called Style and published "The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists," which sold millions of copies. Forget a lonely life scribbling magazine profiles of Courtney Love. Now he was dating Courtney Love's guitarist. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
From left, Adam Cameron; Arianne Phillips, the costume designer for "Kingsman:The Secret Service,"; and Toby Bateman, buying director for Mr Porter. Would You Want to Dress Like Colin Firth's Spy Character in 'Kingsman'? LONDON For spies as for C.E.O.s, the rule of thumb is evidently the same: Dress for the job you want. "Kingsman: The Secret Service," a British spy caper starring Colin Firth, had its premiere here Wednesday night. Mr. Firth plays Harry Hart (code name: Galahad), a member of an elite private team of spies who battle evil (a lisping billionaire played by Samuel L. Jackson) and save the world all from a secret headquarters at the Kingsman tailor shop, in the cozy confines of Savile Row. As Galahad deflects bullets with a Swaine Adeney Brigg umbrella, or clicks his George Cleverley heels to reveal a knife secreted in the toe of his oxford shoe, it becomes clear: Clothes make the man. The clothes that are so essential to "Kingsman: The Secret Service" are on sale now, thanks to a partnership among the film's director, Matthew Vaughn ("Kick Ass," "X Men: First Class"); its costume designer, Arianne Phillips; and the website Mr Porter. The clothing was, from the very beginning, at the core of the film. "When I wrote the script, I was actually having a suit made," Mr. Vaughn said. "You feel a bit weird looking at yourself in the mirror when they're working. My imagination kicked in." Mr. Vaughn brought in Ms. Phillips, the Oscar nominated costume designer, to create the clothes, which from the first were intended to be sold as a stand alone fashion collection one not inspired by the film but used within it. Ms. Phillips said that the clothes' centrality to the story and their life off screen piqued her interest. "It's not creating a lipstick for a cute romantic comedy, or a juniors line based on a teen musical or something like that," she said. Mr Porter, the men's wear destination of Net a Porter, signed on at the outset. "I'd always thought it'd be so amazing to work with someone in the film industry and make something happen like this," said Natalie Massenet, the founder and executive chairman of the Net a Porter Group, who spent the early part of her career in Los Angeles, working in fashion but in proximity to film. "You say yes right away." Ms. Phillips had begun her Savile Row education years earlier while working on the costumes for "W.E.," the Windsor and Wallis biopic that was the directorial debut of Madonna, whom she has long styled. Using English fabrics and English cuts (in particular, the double breasted suit) she designed the Kingsman collection. Double breasted suiting, said Toby Bateman, the buying director of Mr Porter, doesn't sell as well as single breasted, but it gave the collection a selling point and a connection to British tailoring traditions. "If you were making a film about Italian spies," Mr. Bateman said, "you probably wouldn't put them in double breasted suits." The collection, which is available exclusively on Mr Porter, ranges from 650 for flannel trousers to 2,495 for a wool suit. It is rounded out by items created in tandem with classic English brands, including Cleverley for shoes, Drake's for ties and pocket squares, and Turnbull Asser for shirting. The niggling question is whether men who gravitate to traditional labels along the lines of Turnbull Asser will be drawn in or repelled by the prospect of dressing like an action film star. Ultimately, the clothes will need to stand on their own, independent of the film fittingly, since Mr. Bateman arrived at Kingsman's London Fashion Week presentation in a suit from the second Kingsman collection, well before a second Kingsman film has been confirmed. "I don't expect anyone to simply buy a suit or buy a shirt because it's got a connection to a film," he said. "It might bring attention to the collection, but it's not necessarily the incentive to buy." But Ms. Phillips's experience suggests that interest will follow. "I've been working with Madonna for 17 years," she said. "You would assume that I have a lot of inquiry about the costumes she wears, which I certainly do. But nothing compares to a couple films I've done. When men identify with a costume they want to own, it's almost like teenage girls. I actually had someone show up at my front door once, which was disturbing, asking me to make me a costume like Brandon Lee wore." She was referring to the cult film "The Crow." (The most sought after piece of her career is a leather jacket she designed for "3:10 to Yuma.") Mr. Vaughn recalled an early fashion education through film, in the hazy pre Internet days. "You really watched these films and bands, and copied what they're wearing," he said. "Like Richard Gere in 'Pretty Woman' in Cerruti. I'd never heard of Cerruti." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Netflix is doubling down on the Eddie Murphy business. The streaming giant behind "Dolomite Is My Name," Murphy's acclaimed return to movies, will produce and release on its service a new installment in the "Beverly Hills Cop" franchise, as part of a licensing deal with Paramount Pictures. The comedian will star and Jerry Bruckheimer will return to produce. Netflix also has the rights to produce a potential second film. Viacom, the parent company of Paramount, announced the news during its fourth quarter earnings call on Thursday. Netflix declined to comment. The agreement is part of Paramount Pictures' continuing partnership with Netflix. The two entities joined forces soon after Jim Gianopulos became chief executive of Paramount in 2017. The studio supplied the streaming giant with "13 Reasons Why" and "Maniac," among other series. The two companies also collaborated to debut "The Cloverfield Paradox" on Netflix in a marketing stunt following the 2018 Super Bowl. Paramount similarly unloaded the horror film "Eli" to the streaming service in addition to the international rollout of the sci fi drama "Annihilation." The announcement follows Viacom's news Wednesday that its Nickelodeon division will create and produce original animated feature films and television series based on its stable of beloved properties, including "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "The Loud House" for Netflix. Without a streaming service of its own, Viacom is diversifying its revenue streams by selling content to the competing services. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Mr. Walczak is a retired chief executive of hospital and health center organizations in Boston. Dr. Kass is an associate professor of emergency medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Jack is director of the Boston University Center for Health System Design and Implementation. Mr. Schildkrout is a digital consultant to The New York Times. The most important new policy the government can implement to contain the spread of Covid 19 is to immediately recommend that everyone wear masks or face coverings in public masksforall. Health officials have already encouraged people to wear masks if they are showing symptoms of the disease. Particularly since 25 to 50 percent of people with the virus are asymptomatic, it would be best for everyone to be wearing a mask or face covering when in public to protect others. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday that the agency was reconsidering its position that ordinary healthy citizens did not need to wear masks. The mayor of Los Angeles recommended on Wednesday night that all people wear face coverings in public. These are welcome, if belated, moves. Medical professionals, epidemiologists and concerned citizens across the country need to tell their mayors, governors and congressional representatives that wearing masks or face coverings should be government policy now. Universal mask mandates should not undermine hospital workers' need for personal protective equipment. Whatever high grade N 95 masks and less protective surgical marks that can be obtained both are in limited supply should go to medical workers first. As many surgical masks as possible should then be given to workers in essential jobs, particularly in places with shelter in place rules. The public can use homemade face coverings. As the supply of N 95 and surgical masks increases and hospitals are fully outfitted, surgical masks should be distributed to the general public. The medical and epidemiological data supporting mask use is not conclusive, but it is persuasive enough to warrant this policy, with little to recommend against it. Scientists are not completely sure of all the ways that the Covid 19 virus is transmitted, but in a randomized control trial, participants who were told to use a surgical mask, and did so, were 80 percent less likely to contract respiratory illness. Stanford Medicine says vacuum cleaner bags, antimicrobial pillowcases, and other materials are reasonably effective substitutes for medical masks. Various studies point to similar results for those homemade face coverings, particularly when combined with hand washing hygiene. Even if masks don't completely protect each individual, they could considerably reduce the spread of the virus. Even if the coverings only reduced transmission to and from each wearer by half, that would reduce the chance of spread by 75 percent. So face coverings could reduce the exponential growth of new infections and avert disaster in America's hot spots. Because scientists cannot rule out with complete confidence that this coronavirus can be spread easily in the air, even outdoors, we believe it's most prudent to promote face covering in all public settings. And to state the obvious, mask wearing and face covering is not a substitute for shelter in place, hand washing and other protective measures. Those wearing a mask may be stigmatized, since they might be presumed to be sick, given current government guidance. A national policy on face coverings for all, even those who have had the disease, like our co author Dr. Kass, could eliminate that stigma. Wearing masks is a way we can all protect each other. People should be strictly warned that wearing a face covering doesn't let you ignore social distancing rules. That would be counterproductive. Wearing masks will not only reduce viral spread, it would also help us return to work, get back to school, and avoid what could be a devastating second wave of the coronavirus. While ensuring that all health workers have full protective equipment, and as many essential workers as possible have medical masks, President Trump, federal health officials, governors and mayors should call on Americans in well populated cities and towns to wear face coverings or masks in all public areas. (Government officials should start by wearing masks themselves, particularly in media appearances, to reduce the stigma and encourage use.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
"This is an unprecedented moment in American history," Bernie Sanders said on Sunday night. It certainly produced an unprecedented debate, the singularity of which was captured in a superficially odd but profound bit of business near the start. Both Sanders and Joe Biden volunteered proudly that they hadn't shaken hands. Both sang the praises of soap. And both spoke of hand sanitizer as if it were holy water. The pandemic caused by the coronavirus changed and governed everything about the evening, in ways overt and oblique. It determined the first question that the two candidates were asked. It informed the last. It was the focus of many of their remarks in between. Above all, it was the terrifying context in which their inevitable policy disagreements, aspersions on each other's characters and exhumations of each other's records took on a wholly different cast. All that stuff was unquestionably important and yet. There was a life threatening, nation shuttering, wealth decimating crisis at hand. Did Biden's decades old comments about Social Security or onetime support of the Hyde Amendment matter even an eighth as much? Did Sanders's long ago votes on gun control or kind words about Fidel Castro? And wasn't the most important takeaway that neither of the candidates dwells in the truth free, information barren, delusion rich bubble surrounding our current president, whose irresponsibility is having epic consequences? The two Democrats' criticisms of each other, which grew heated at times, seemed almost immaterial next to what needed to be said and sometimes was about the denier in chief, Donald Trump. That dynamic favored Biden, for several reasons. He's now the far and away front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, with a lead in delegates that Sanders probably can't overcome, so any sense of urgency for the party to unite in common cause against Trump becomes a summons to send Biden into the general election in the strongest shape imaginable. I suspect many Democrats tuned into this debate, almost certainly the last of the Democratic primaries, not to see Biden tested but to will him onward unscathed. Biden's position in the race, coupled with his message of national healing, meant that he more than Sanders had an interest in floating above the details of issues and painting a larger, gauzier picture. That approach suited this moment of utterly warranted panic. So practiced riffs that were somewhat pat before the pandemic were wholly pertinent, such as Biden's recognition that while he and Sanders differ on how to improve health care or tackle other problems in America, "We don't disagree on the principle. We fundamentally disagree with this president on everything." "So," he added, "this is much bigger than whether or not I'm the nominee or Bernie's the nominee. We must defeat Donald Trump." And Biden was able to portray Sanders's grander plans for transforming the American economy as luxuries unaffordable in the face of a scourge, as distractions from the emergency upon us. "People are looking for results, not a revolution," Biden said. Barring some remarkable, unforeseeable development, Sunday night was likely the valediction to Sanders's bid for the Democratic nomination. That's not because there was any particular, glaring deficiency in Sanders's performance, a thorough and sometimes fierce grilling of Biden that correctly identified his evasions, inconsistencies and episodes of flawed judgment. Sanders projected passion and self assurance. He defended himself well against Biden's attacks. And he raised fair, even necessary questions about whether, on issues like climate change, Biden's proposals were more timid than the stakes demanded. But there was something strained and strange about Sanders's repeated pivots from the pandemic to income inequality, from the pandemic to corrupt pharmaceutical executives, from the pandemic to how many millionaires and billionaires have contributed to Biden's campaign. The world has been transformed; the script remains the same. And he couldn't claim the kind of experience that Biden repeatedly did, the intimate knowledge of what it's like to be at the center of crucial national decisions. Biden smartly understood that his eight years beside the last Democratic president and his foreign policy seasoning are probably more reassuring to voters now than they were a month or even a week ago. So he marinated in them. And to guarantee further that the media wouldn't fixate on who had got the better of whom, he threw in some major news, promising outright that he would pick a woman as his running mate. Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg: You can officially stand down. There were also bad moments for Biden: selective retellings and lavish sugarcoating of votes and comments he'd made in the past. But they weren't nearly enough to alter the current trajectory of the Democratic contest. And Biden provided a mostly reassuring answer to perhaps the biggest question coming into this debate: With only one opponent sharing two full hours and a whole lot of talking to do, could he communicate his thoughts sharply enough, make his points with sufficient force and keep his sentences from running out of gas on a road to nowhere? Squaring off against Sanders was a preview of squaring off against Trump, not because Sanders and Trump are anything alike, but because the initially crowded nature of the Democratic contest meant that Biden's debates until now were populous affairs, when he was on the hook for maybe 20 minutes total and not the only or even the main candidate under fire. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. It was a breathtaking story, written by The New Yorker's marquee reporter and published with an attention grabbing headline: "Missing Files Motivated the Leak of Michael Cohen's Financial Records." In it, the reporter, Ronan Farrow, suggests something suspicious unfolding inside the Treasury Department: A civil servant had noticed that records about Mr. Cohen, the personal lawyer for President Trump, mysteriously vanished from a government database in the spring of 2018. Mr. Farrow quotes the anonymous public servant as saying he was so concerned about the records' disappearance that he leaked other financial reports to the media to sound a public alarm about Mr. Cohen's financial activities. The story set off a frenzied reaction, with MSNBC's Chris Hayes calling it "an amazing shocking story about a whistle blower" and his colleague Rachel Maddow describing it as "a meteor strike." Congressional Democrats demanded answers, and the Treasury Department promised to investigate. Two years after publication, little of Mr. Farrow's article holds up, according to prosecutors and court documents. The Treasury Department records on Michael Cohen never went "missing." That was merely the story put forward by the civil servant, an Internal Revenue Service analyst named John Fry, who later pleaded guilty to illegally leaking confidential information. The records were simply put on restricted access, a longstanding practice to prevent leaks, a possibility Mr. Farrow briefly allows for in his story, but minimizes. And Mr. Fry's leaks had been encouraged and circulated by a man who was barely mentioned in Mr. Farrow's article, the now disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti, a passionate antagonist of Mr. Cohen. Mr. Farrow may now be the most famous investigative reporter in America, a rare celebrity journalist who followed the opposite path of most in the profession: He began as a boy wonder talk show host and worked his way downward to the coal face of hard investigative reporting. The child of the actress Mia Farrow and the director Woody Allen, he has delivered stories of stunning and lasting impact, especially his revelations about powerful men who preyed on young women in the worlds of Hollywood, television and politics, which won him a Pulitzer Prize. I've been watching Mr. Farrow's astonishing rise over the past few years, marveling at his ability to shine a light on some of the defining stories of our time, especially the sexual misconduct of the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, which culminated with Mr. Weinstein's conviction in February just before the pandemic took hold. But some aspects of his work made me wonder if Mr. Farrow didn't, at times, fly a little too close to the sun. Because if you scratch at Mr. Farrow's reporting in The New Yorker and in his 2019 best seller, "Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators," you start to see some shakiness at its foundation. He delivers narratives that are irresistibly cinematic with unmistakable heroes and villains and often omits the complicating facts and inconvenient details that may make them less dramatic. At times, he does not always follow the typical journalistic imperatives of corroboration and rigorous disclosure, or he suggests conspiracies that are tantalizing but he cannot prove. Mr. Farrow, 32, is not a fabulist. His reporting can be misleading but he does not make things up. His work, though, reveals the weakness of a kind of resistance journalism that has thrived in the age of Donald Trump: That if reporters swim ably along with the tides of social media and produce damaging reporting about public figures most disliked by the loudest voices, the old rules of fairness and open mindedness can seem more like impediments than essential journalistic imperatives. That can be a dangerous approach, particularly in a moment when the idea of truth and a shared set of facts is under assault. The New Yorker has made Mr. Farrow a highly visible, generational star for its brand. And Mr. Farrow's supporters there point out the undeniable impact of his reporting which ousted abusers like New York's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, and helped rewrite the rules of sex and power in the workplace, sometimes with his colleague Jane Mayer. Ken Auletta, The New Yorker writer who helped Mr. Farrow take his work from NBC to the magazine, said that the important thing is that Mr. Farrow helped reveal Mr. Weinstein's predatory behavior to the world and bring him down. "Are all the Ts crossed and the Is dotted? No," Mr. Auletta said of some of Mr. Farrow's most sweeping claims of a conspiracy between Mr. Weinstein and NBC to suppress his work. "You're still left with the bottom line he delivered the goods," Mr. Auletta said. David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, defended Mr. Farrow's reporting, calling it "scrupulous, tireless, and, above all, fair." "Working alongside fact checkers, lawyers and other editorial staff members at The New Yorker, he achieved something remarkable, not least because he earned the trust of his sources, many of whom had to relive traumatic events when they talked to him,'' Mr. Remnick said in a statement. "We stand by Ronan Farrow's reporting. We're proud to publish him." Mr. Farrow, in his own statement to The New York Times, said he brings "caution, rigor, and nuance" to each of his stories. "I'm proud of a body of reporting that has helped to expose wrongdoing and to bring important stories into public view." It's impossible, however, to go back and answer the question of whether Mr. Farrow's explosive early reporting would have carried such power if he'd been more rigorous and taken care to show what he knew and what he didn't. Is the cost of a more dramatic story worth paying? Because this much is certain: There is a cost. But a fundamental principle of the contemporary craft of reporting on sexual assault is corroboration: the painstaking task of tracking down friends and neighbors a traumatized victim may have confided in soon after the assault, to see if their accounts align with the victim's story and to give it more or less weight. In much of the strongest metoo reporting, from the stories about Mr. Weinstein in The New York Times to The Washington Post's expose of Charlie Rose and even some of Mr. Farrow's other articles, clunky paragraphs interrupt the narrative to explain what an accuser told friends, and often, to explore any conflicting accounts. Americans are now watching this complicated form of reporting play out in the stories about Tara Reade, who has accused Joe Biden of assaulting her. Mr. Farrow's first big story on Mr. Weinstein offered readers little visibility into the question of whether Ms. Evans's story could be corroborated. He could have indicated that he had, or hadn't, been able to corroborate what Ms. Evans said, or reported what her friends from the time had told the magazine. He wrote instead: "Evans told friends some of what had happened, but felt largely unable to talk about it." It appears Mr. Farrow was making a narrative virtue of a reporting liability, and the results were ultimately damaging. A crucial witness, the friend who was with Ms. Evans when both women met Mr. Weinstein at the club, later told prosecutors that when a fact checker for The New Yorker called her about Mr. Farrow's story, she hadn't confirmed Ms. Evans's account of rape. Instead, according to a letter from prosecutors to defense lawyers, the witness told the magazine that "something inappropriate happened," and refused to go into detail. But the witness later told a New York Police Department detective something more problematic: That Ms. Evans had told her the sexual encounter with Mr. Weinstein was consensual. The detective told the witness that her response to the magazine's fact checker "was more consistent" with Ms. Evans's allegation against Mr. Weinstein and suggested she stick to The New Yorker version, prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorneys office later acknowledged. The detective denied the exchange, but when Mr. Weinstein's lawyers unearthed the witness's contradictory accounts, the judge dismissed the charge. Mr. Weinstein's lawyers gloated, though, of course, their client was ultimately convicted on other counts. In his 2019 book, "Catch and Kill," Mr. Farrow dismisses the incident as an issue with a "peripheral witness" and attacks Mr. Weinstein's lawyer Benjamin Brafman for "private espionage." A similar problem appears at the heart of "Catch and Kill," in a section in which he describes Matt Lauer assaulting a junior employee at NBC. In Mr. Farrow's telling, Mr. Lauer's accuser leaves his dressing room after the assault. "Crying, she ran to the new guy she'd started seeing, a producer who was working in the control room that morning, and told him what had happened." Mr. Farrow and the fact checker for his book, Sean Lavery, never called "the new guy" to corroborate the story, both Mr. Lavery and the man told me. 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. "I might look at something and say that's good enough, there's enough other evidence that something happened," Mr. Lavery said, speaking hypothetically, when I asked why he and Mr. Farrow didn't call a potentially corroborating witness. But the "new guy" told me that, in fact, he doesn't remember the scene that was portrayed in the book. He spoke on the condition he not be identified. When I told Mr. Farrow that in an email last week, he wrote back: "I am confident that the conversation took place as described and it was verified in multiple ways." Mr. Farrow did not share his methods. But this much is clear: Mr. Farrow and the fact checker never called the producer. And if they had, that element of the story would have been much more complicated or would never have appeared in print. It's hard to feel much sympathy for a predator like Mr. Weinstein or to shed tears over Mr. Lauer's firing. And readers may brush aside these reporting issues as the understandable desire of a zealous young reporter to tell his stories as dramatically as he can. But Mr. Farrow brings that same inclination to the other big theme that shapes his work: conspiracy. His stories are built and sold on his belief which he rarely proves that powerful forces and people are conspiring against those trying to do good, especially Mr. Farrow himself. At the heart of "Catch and Kill" is an electrifying suggestion: that Mr. Weinstein blackmailed NBC executives to kill Mr. Farrow's story on his sexual misconduct with the threat that The National Enquirer would expose Mr. Lauer's misconduct if they did not. This is the "conspiracy" in the book's subtitle. And it is the thread that holds together its narrative. In Mr. Farrow's telling, by the end of July 2017, he had nailed down the story of Mr. Weinstein's pattern of sexual predation, and the NBC brass had begun to shut him down. He has said repeatedly that he had at least two women on the record for his story at the time he left NBC for The New Yorker. He told NPR in an interview, "There is no draft of this story that NBC had that had fewer than two named women." But NBC has disputed that claim, and an NBC employee showed me what he described as the final draft of Mr. Farrow's script, as of Aug. 7. It had no on the record, on camera interviews. (It did have one strong piece of reporting that Mr. Farrow took to The New Yorker: an audio recording of Mr. Weinstein appearing to confess to an Italian model that he had groped her. ) Nor does Mr. Farrow provide any proof that NBC executives were acting out of fear of blackmail when they refused to air his story, a central theme he promoted on his book tour. When the ABC host George Stephanopoulos asked Mr. Farrow about "the suggestion that Mr. Weinstein was blackmailing NBC News," Mr. Farrow replied, "Multiple sources do say that, and the way in which that's framed is very careful." Pressed on whether NBC had let the story go "because they were afraid information about Matt Lauer was going to get out," Mr. Farrow replied, "That is what the extensive conversations, transcripts, and documents presented in this book suggest." But the reporting in the book does not bear that out. And in the absence of compelling proof, Mr. Farrow relies on what the critic and private detective Anne Diebel earlier this year described in The New York Review of Books as "New Journalism on the sly" using novelistic technique to make his case. Mr. Farrow, for example, describes the facial expressions and physical gestures of NBC executives during his meetings with them, and then deduces dark motives. The one on the record source supporting the core conspiracy theory in "Catch and Kill" is William Arkin, a maverick journalist and acolyte of Seymour Hersh who departed bitterly from NBC soon after Mr. Farrow. In a curious passage in "Catch and Kill," Mr. Farrow writes that Mr. Arkin an ally of his at the network told him of two anonymous sources who made the charge. In a telephone interview last week, Mr. Arkin told me that his sources, only one of whom offered a firsthand account, had been unwilling to speak to Mr. Farrow for his book. Mr. Arkin said the firsthand source told him that Mr. Weinstein had made a threat to an NBC executive about exposing Mr. Lauer, but that he doesn't know who told his source. And he said he had no knowledge of the other elements of Mr. Farrow's shadowy suggestions the involvement of The National Enquirer, or whether executives actually shut down Mr. Farrow's story because of a threat. (NBC has denied that Mr. Weinstein threatened anyone and said most of the producer's communication was with MSNBC's president, Phil Griffin, who wasn't directly involved in the reporting on Mr. Weinstein.) Two other NBC journalists, neither of whom would speak for the record, expressed a different view, which is shared by network executives: That Mr. Farrow was a talented young reporter with big ambitions but little experience, who didn't realize how high the standards of proof were, particularly at slow moving, super cautious news networks. A normal clash between a young reporter and experienced editors turned toxic. Mr. Arkin said he agreed with NBC's view that Mr. Farrow didn't have the Weinstein story nailed by August 2017, when he took the story to The New Yorker. But Mr. Arkin said he also believed that NBC didn't really want the story. The right move would have been to "take a 29 year old and you hold him by the hand and you walk him through the story," Mr. Arkin said in a telephone interview. "Instead what they did was they took him out to the deep end and threw him in and then they said 'Oh my God, you can't swim.'" That's an account less heroic than Mr. Farrow's. It's also hard to argue that NBC wouldn't have been better off staying close to Mr. Farrow and getting the story. Mr. Farrow's other irresistible conspiracy has even less to support it: that Hillary Clinton, whom Mr. Farrow had once worked for at the State Department, also sought to kill his reporting and protect Mr. Weinstein. In "Catch and Kill," Mr. Farrow described receiving an "ominous" call from Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, in the summer of 2017 saying his Weinstein reporting was "a concern." "It's remarkable," Mr. Farrow told The Financial Times about Mrs. Clinton during his book tour, "how quickly even people with a long relationship with you will turn if you threaten the centers of power or the sources of funding around them." But Mr. Farrow appears to have misinterpreted Mr. Merrill's call. Mr. Merrill said at the time that Mrs. Clinton was preparing to do a documentary film with Mr. Weinstein, and the Clinton camp was trying to find out if damaging reporting was about to be published about the producer. He had no way of proving it, but another reporter he spoke to at the time about Mr. Weinstein shared with me text messages that back Mr. Merrill's account, and contradict Mr. Farrow's. "We're about to do business with him unless this is real," Mr. Merrill wrote the other reporter on July 6. In other words, Mr. Merrill was trying to protect his boss, not Mr. Weinstein. Predictably, Mr. Farrow's account was seized on by Mrs. Clinton's detractors, both on the right and left, who saw it as vivid confirmation that Mrs. Clinton was a devious and manipulative character. When I asked Mr. Farrow whether he has evidence for his conspiracies, he first referred the questions to his publisher, Little, Brown. Sabrina Callahan, the executive director of publicity for Little, Brown, said in an email: "The book is very careful about laying out the facts uncovered by Ronan around NBC's contact with Weinstein and his associates and only going as far as the facts support," adding, "We would encourage people to read it and form their own conclusions." When I asked specifically about the Clinton conspiracy, she said, "Ronan's book recounts his own experiences." I'm writing this for The Times, which competed with Mr. Farrow on many stories and shared the Pulitzer Prize with him in 2018 for coverage of sexual harassment. I wasn't here during that coverage. What first set off my skepticism about Mr. Farrow's work was reporting in 2018 by Jason Leopold at BuzzFeed News, when I was editor in chief there. (Disclosure: I don't cover BuzzFeed extensively in this column because I retain stock options in the company, which I left in February. I've agreed to divest those options by the end of the year.) That reporting made clear that Mr. Farrow's article on the Cohen documents was wrong that they were not missing, but merely restricted to avoid leaks of sensitive materials. And I found more recently when I dug into the Cohen story that for all Mr. Farrow's attraction to screenplay ready narratives, he missed one that was made for this moment. The real story of John Fry, the I.R.S. employee who leaked Mr. Cohen's records, went like this: Amid the swirl of the scandal involving Stormy Daniels, Mr. Avenatti, her lawyer, took to Twitter one day in May 2018, and demanded that the Treasury Department release Mr. Cohen's records. Mr. Fry, a longtime I.R.S. employee based in San Francisco, was one of the legions of followers of Mr. Avenatti's Twitter account, and had frequently liked his posts. Hours after Mr. Avenatti's tweet that day, Mr. Fry started searching for the documents on the government database, downloaded them, then immediately contacted Mr. Avenatti and later sent him Mr. Cohen's confidential records, according to court documents. "John: I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate this. Thank you,'' Mr. Avenatti wrote to Mr. Fry, according to the documents, then pressed him for more. Mr. Fry ended up pleading guilty to a federal charge of unauthorized disclosure of confidential reports this January. In Mr. Fry's defense, his lawyer said he had been watching "hours and hours" of television, and described him as "a victim of cable news." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
As the nation's first nationally syndicated lesbian columnist who wrote regularly about gay life, Deb Price certainly covered pointed issues, like the debate over gay people in the military. But she also turned to small matters of everyday domesticity, telling readers, for instance, that she and her partner, Joyce Murdoch, had bickered over whether to get air conditioning in their new convertible. She wrote about gardening together. She described attending Ms. Murdoch's high school reunion. She wanted to convey that being in a committed same sex relationship wasn't all that different from being in a heterosexual one except maybe for the presents. "We watch our siblings get eight silver trays, 12 pickle forks, a fondue pot and a trip to Hawaii for settling down," she wrote. "And then our relatives give us a hard time or nothing at all." Ms. Price sought to demystify gay life for Middle America. If her readers could see same sex couples in ordinary situations, she reasoned, they would find them less foreign and less frightening and would have a harder time denying them equal rights. She wrote 900 columns over 18 years and believed that they might have had something to do with the reversal in cultural attitudes that led to the legalization of same sex marriage in 2015. But by 2011, she contracted a relatively rare autoimmune lung disease, and her health began to decline. Ms. Price died on Nov. 20 at a hospital in Hong Kong, where she lived with Ms. Murdoch, who by then was her wife. Ms. Price was 62. Ms. Price with Joyce Murdoch in 1985, the year they became a couple while working at The Washington Post. They legally married in 2003 and published two books together. The cause of death was interstitial pneumonitis, Ms. Murdoch said in a phone interview from Hong Kong. She said that the hospital had allowed her to stay with Ms. Price for the last 11 weeks of her life, a privilege that had long been denied to same sex couples all over the world. While columns about gay life had long appeared in the alternative press, Ms. Price's was the first to appear in the mainstream media. She worked for The Detroit News, a newspaper with a conservative editorial page and owned by Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper chain. The Gannett News Service distributed the column to its 83 papers across the country, most of them located in small or medium sized cities, giving Ms. Price access to a broader audience. When the column made its debut on May 8, 1992, it was not an easy time to be offering a sympathetic view of gay life. The country was terrified of and horrified by the AIDS epidemic 1992 was the year in which AIDS became the leading cause of death for American men between 25 and 44. Still to come was the Defense of Marriage Act, effectively banning federal recognition of same sex unions. It was not until 1997 that Ellen DeGeneres would come out on her prime time sitcom, "Ellen," a watershed moment in television history. "It's hard to overestimate how significant this was," Joshua Benton, who founded the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard, wrote of Ms. Price's column on Twitter recently. "Most Americans in 1992 said they didn't know a single gay person. Then suddenly there was Deb, on the breakfast table next to the sports section." Her column quickly paved the way for other gay journalists in the mainstream media to write their own columns. Ms. Price was working in the Washington bureau of The Detroit News, when she proposed a column from the gay perspective. "I found the courage to ask for the column that I'd always wanted to read," she said in a 1993 speech in New York to what is now called The Association of L.G.B.T.Q. Journalists. "I wanted to be entertained, not offended," she said. "Talked to, not about. Informed, not maligned. Inspired, not demoralized." Her publisher, Bob Giles, agreed and announced the column in a front page letter to readers. In her first column, Ms. Price asked how she should introduce Ms. Murdoch (girlfriend? lover?). Some readers were disgusted and offered their own choice suggestions of what Ms. Price could call Ms. Murdoch. Mr. Giles said at the time that such bigotry only hardened his resolve to continue the column. Ms. Price took the attacks in stride. "If there weren't hostility and if there weren't misunderstandings about gay people," she told The Associated Press, "there would be no point in doing this column." Many others applauded her, grateful that a gay point of view was appearing on a regular basis in the mainstream media. Among her loyal readers was Dana Nessel, now Michigan's attorney general. "Thank you for making me feel less alone and hopeful for a world that might one day embrace L.G.B.T.Q. people instead of loathing us," Ms. Nessel wrote recently on Twitter. "Your brave work impacted many in ways you might never have imagined." J. Ford Huffman, who was the managing editor for features for the Gannett News Service and put the column on the wire, said in a phone interview that many of the chain's editors, from Rochester, N.Y., to Muskogee, Okla., were happy to print it. When one editor called and said he wanted to run the column but asked what he could "balance" it out with, Mr. Huffman said he replied: "Two hundred years of American newspaper commentary." The column was soon picked up and distributed by The Los Angeles Times Syndicate, in addition to Gannett. Mr. Huffman said the column was successful not only because of its novelty but also because it was not polemical: Ms. Price backed up her views with reporting, and her overall message was positive. "She basically was saying that the world is changing in unexpected and delightful ways," Mr. Huffman said. "She often said, 'Don't let fear choose your path.' That meant so much to me as a gay man." Deborah Jane Price was born on Feb. 27, 1958, in Lubbock, Texas. Her father, Allen Palmer Price, was an Episcopal priest. Her mother, Mary Jane (Caldwell) Price, was a receptionist at a law firm. Deb grew up in Texas and Colorado until she was 15, when her parents divorced and she moved with her mother to Bethesda, Md. She attended the National Cathedral School in Washington, graduating in 1976, and began college at the University of Michigan. But Ann Arbor was too cold for her, and she transferred to Stanford, where she earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree in English in 1981. After stints at The Northern Virginia Sun and the States News Service, which covered Washington news for dozens of papers across the country, she joined The Washington Post in 1984. Both she and Ms. Murdoch were editors on the paper's national desk, and they became a couple in 1985. They were the first to register as domestic partners in Takoma Park, Md., where they lived, in 1993, and were joined in a civil union in Vermont in 2000. They were finally able to marry legally, in Toronto, in 2003. Theirs was the first same sex wedding announcement that The Washington Post put on its weddings page. "Avid tennis players, world travelers and certified scuba divers, the newlyweds will celebrate their honeymoon in Hawaii later this year," the announcement said. The couple produced two well received books. "And Say Hi to Joyce: America's First Gay Column Comes Out" (1995) collected most of Ms. Price's columns with commentary by Ms. Murdoch. They dedicated it to "all the gay readers who've put twenty five cents in a newspaper box and found nothing reflecting their own lives inside." Their second was "Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. the Supreme Court" (2001), described by a Kirkus reviewer as "a crackerjack resource volume on gay legal history." Ms. Price continued her column until 2010, when she received a Nieman fellowship to study at Harvard. In Hong Kong, where the couple moved when Ms. Murdoch received an academic appointment there, Ms. Price, long interested in business and finance, worked for The Asian Wall Street Journal. She went on to become managing editor of Caixin Global, an independent financial publication in China, and senior business editor for The South China Morning Post. Ms. Murdoch is her sole immediate survivor. Ms. Price's older brother, Stephen, died in 2018. "We never had children," Ms. Murdoch said. "We knew that our gay rights work would be our most important legacy." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
For the fashion commentariat, the front row used to be everything. But these days, if you have something to say, you're better off infiltrating the runway itself. That was the thought of Marie Benoliel, a 28 year old professional gate crasher who clambered onto the catwalk at the Chanel show in Paris on Monday only to find herself in a confrontation with the model Gigi Hadid. In an interview, Ms. Benoliel, who prefers to go by her stage name Marie S'Infiltre, explained her intention: to have fun. "It goes too far to take seriously something that is not serious," she said of the fashion world. "We're talking about clothing. It has to be joyful, it has to be funny, it has to make people happy. And I think nowadays fashion doesn't make people happy. It makes people ridiculous and pretentious." For the stunt, Ms. Benoliel borrowed a Chanel suit that her mother had purchased in 1986 "with her first salary, because she's a fashion addict," she said. Lacking an invitation, which unknown guests are typically compelled to produce at the entrance, she waited until it was as busy as possible. Three times, she was turned away. She almost gave up, but decided to try one more gatekeeper, and acted as stressed out as she possibly could. She was let in, along with a friend, Elena, who just wanted to watch the show. "I'm really used to lying," Ms. Benoliel said. "It's part of my work." Once close to the catwalk, surrounded by fashion editors and a smattering of famous people including Cardi B, Sting and Anna Wintour, she hesitated. Then, as the end of the show appeared imminent, she thought "why not." Ms. Benoliel walked as slowly as possible to the front, then made a dash and climbed up to the catwalk. There was a momentary disruption but she soon fell in line. Her houndstooth suit fit seamlessly enough into the show's aesthetic that apparently even security guards had trouble identifying her as an impostor. (Tweed suits have long been a Chanel runway staple.) Her intention was to take out a cigarette and smoke it, until Ms. Hadid stepped in and pulled her aside, leading her offstage. (A publicist and agent for Ms. Hadid did not immediately respond for comment.) "She was rude," the prankster said. "Then, after, there were three models that wanted to fight. I didn't understand why she was like this, so aggressive. Of course she doesn't know me. I can understand that she wanted to protect her friends." She added: "I think it's really funny and I love Gigi and I think now we can be close friends. She thought I was a crazy girl. But she's right. She's right actually." Chanel offered a statement: "This person is a comedian known for this type of prank. She had crashed another runway recently. Her presence on the catwalk was not planned." Ms. Benoliel was not the first person this fashion season to use the runway as a metaphorical platform. During Milan Fashion Week, the model Ayesha Tan Jones, who identifies as nonbinary, staged a silent protest while walking for Gucci, holding their palms up with the phrase "mental health is not fashion" scrawled in marker. (The show featured several models wearing straitjackets.) It is not easy to sneak into a fashion show, said Dan Mathews, the senior vice president of PETA. "We've crashed dozens of shows, there's a whole routine," he said. "We decide in advance, like 'Are we going to hit the runway after the seventh model?' It's very planned out." Mr. Mathews, who once dressed as a priest to get into a fashion show, said sneaking in usually involves planning a week in advance and compared it to " a 007 operation." He noted that PETA's motivation in crashing the runway is to publicize animal rights, while runway crashers today seemed more intent on drawing attention to themselves. Ms. Benoliel, who studied at the The Paris Institute of Political Studies and who in 2017 infiltrated a rally for the far right leader Marine Le Pen, said she is not a moralist. "I hate people who say 'you're good, you're bad,'" she said. "I don't care about this." Alissa Khan Whelan, part of the team behind the image of the egg that in January broke the record for most liked Instagram post, said that it was effective that the Chanel infiltrator avoided stating a message outright. "Instead of going out there with a big sign and saying, 'This is what I think and this is what you should think,' she's just causing chaos and people are questioning it themselves," said Ms. Khan Whelan, who on Wednesday was engaged in a stunt involving an ice sculpture of the climate activist Greta Thunberg melting in London's Trafalgar Square. With a following of 231,000 subscribers on YouTube and 219,000 followers on Instagram, Marie S'Infiltre is moderately well known. She gained a surge of attention after the stunt but seemed most excited about the act itself. "I'm not going to tell you it's something that makes me more powerful," she said. "Chanel is of course the most prestigious brand. I wanted to get inside the show to put my little touch to say 'yeah this is important, this is art, but we can be joyful.'" | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin has made a powerful and positive impact on the world of contemporary dance. His works have given American repertory companies something of value to perform, and that's been a game changer, which is particularly true for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Last week, the company presented its sixth work by the choreographer at the Joyce Theater. The company's artistic director, Glenn Edgerton, previously directed Nederlands Dans Theater. Sometimes Hubbard Street can seem, to its detriment, like a Midwest branch of Nederlands, a contemporary troupe whose repertory can seem an indistinguishable blend of swishing, swirling bodies in socks. But Hubbard Street's two week run, which continues with a program of dances by the Canadian Crystal Pite an associate choreographer with the Nederlands Dans Theater opened strongly with Mr. Naharin's "Decadance/Chicago," created from excerpts from his previous works. It's not the first "Decadance" that has come to town, but that's no matter. Mr. Naharin makes each iteration new and relevant, even though in this version, arranged for Hubbard Street and seen Sunday, there was some unevenness in the dancing. Mr. Naharin's movement language, Gaga, is as much sensorial as it is a physical act, requiring muscular strength and suppleness in the joints to suddenly spring into the air, wilt in a backbend or crash to the floor. But even when the Hubbard Street dancers approached the choreography with more sharpness and sleekness than necessary, there was a rewarding side to watching their effort. Mr. Naharin's choreography is not about mastery. It reveals the courage within grace: Is a dancer willing to fail? That the dance began with a group formation was fitting. As they sat, knelt and stood in a wedge arrangement, it was as if they were a band all in it together. Keeping their lower bodies still, they bobbed their heads. Their faces wore manic smiles, and their arms, making angular, jagged shapes, moved in tandem while their lower halves remained stuck in place. Once free from their spots, the performers scattered and darted, leaping into the air in bouncing, electric jumps. Throughout the work, the women who let the movement ride their bodies rather than push it out had more dimensionality; Adrienne Lipson was consistently riveting for her daredevil clarity, and in the "Bolero" section, she and Connie Shiau, side by side, drew power from each other. There were sweet moments, too: After a dancer requested that the audience stand, he asked questions that determined who could sit down until only one person remained. The reason? It was her birthday. After a trip to the stage and a seated improvisation with two male dancers, in which she held her own, she returned to her seat with a balloon as a gift. Mr. Naharin whether in a solo, a synchronized group dance or a number involving the audience exposes what it means to be human: It doesn't matter that "Decadance" isn't a wholly new creation. What remains fresh is its pulse, regardless of which dancer is dancing or who from the audience is plucked to join the show. If only the same were true of Ms. Pite's contributions. The program features three works: "A Picture of You Falling," "The Other You" and "Grace Engine," which did a disservice to the Hubbard Street dancers. Suddenly, the performers, so vivid and individual in "Decadance," became interchangeable. Both "A Picture of You" and "The Other You" are sections from a full evening production exploring stories rooted in love, conflict and loss. In "A Picture of You," danced by Jacqueline Burnett and Elliot Hammans, text by Ms. Pite illustrated the dancers' movements, which told the tale of a breakup: "This is how you collapse. This is the sound of your heart hitting the floor." In "The Other You," Michael Gross and Andrew Murdock, with shorn hair and wearing similar black suits, appeared as doppelgangers or perhaps two sides of the same troubled man. With mimicking movements, they gazed at each other as if staring into a mirror. Speed and frozen moments were the hallmarks of the night, and "Grace Engine," the program's only ensemble work, continued on that track. The notion of a train was evoked both in the score and in the lines of dancers that extended across the space like tracks. There was a painterly quality to some of Ms. Pite's formations, but it was all more of the same: A darkened stage with spotlights and choreography contrasting brittle acceleration with pensive languidness. It's a style skillful, glossy, overwrought but what is its point of view? As Mr. Naharin's "Decadance/Chicago" showed, a dance is more than moving bodies, but a journey that you want to experience over and over. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
When Washington Dulles International Airport opened in Northern Virginia in 1962, the soaring design of its main terminal, a minimalist structure with a suspended catenary roof, was seen as a bold reflection of American aviation. That same year, the Jet Age inflected Trans World Airlines Flight Center, with its concrete shells and curvy interior, opened at New York's Idlewild Airport, which later became John F. Kennedy International Airport. In St. Louis, the Gateway Arch, a towering welcome to the Midwest, was completed in 1965. The common denominator of these masterpieces is the architect Eero Saarinen, one of the most prolific designers of futuristic style in the 20th century. I have had a longtime affinity for Saarinen's work, beginning in my teenage years when his brand of modernism seemed unreal to me. The vaulted T.W.A. flight center and its Jetsons like flight departures board seemed as if they would be more at home in my drawing pad than in real life. While Saarinen's groundbreaking works gave him international prominence, many people don't realize that his earliest architectural and design laboratory was in Michigan. From the General Motors Technical Center in Warren to the Saarinen House on the grounds of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills to the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance in Ann Arbor, among other buildings in the region, Saarinen's imprint was largely cultivated in the upper Midwest. Two years ago, I had explored much of the flight center as part of Open House New York, a nonprofit organization that aims to increase awareness of local architecture and drive a greater appreciation of the city. Enamored by the experience and inspired by plans for the flight center to be restored and become part of a new hotel, I wanted to learn more about Saarinen and his Michigan roots, where lesser known, but critical parts of his life unfolded. In 1910, Saarinen was born in Finland to Eliel, a highly prolific architect in his own right, and Loja, a textile designer. He also had a sister, Pipsan. As the runner up to the 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower design competition, Eliel Saarinen won 20,000 and used the money to come to the United States with his family the following year. If you drive north from Detroit on Woodward Avenue, which extends outward from the city like the spoke of a wheel, you'll eventually reach Bloomfield Hills, known for its upper crust sensibility. It's easy to see that the Cranbrook of today is similar to that of yesteryear: the grounds remain pristinely manicured, people walk across the campus in relatively muted conversation, and the Saarinen House, which the elder architect designed for his family, remains a vital part of the educational community. Before the home was completed in 1930, Eero Saarinen designed sculptural tiles and a variety of carved stone pieces for Cranbrook, which were among his first commissioned projects in the country. On a guided tour, the members of my group were incredibly excited to view the Saarinen House, named for Eliel. Walking through the main doors of the home, I was slightly awed to enter a space that was largely intact from the time when the Saarinens lived there. To avoid any damage to the floor and carpeting, everyone was required to remove their shoes and put on flat protective booties. In the living area, I was immediately drawn to the multitude of handcrafted objects in the room, including the patterned rugs on the floor and walls, designed by Loja Saarinen. The decor was heavily influenced by the Art and Crafts movement, which arose in 19th century Britain in response to industrialization. The fireplace, composed of local glazed Pewabic tiles and fronted by bronze andirons, stood out for its unique intricacies. "There is a lot of geometry here," our guide said, referring to the living room. "This area was used frequently by the Saarinens." Virtually all of the artistic decisions were executed by Eliel and Loja Saarinen, something that became apparent as I walked through the rest of the Art Deco influenced home. The large, round wooden table in the dining room correlated with the circular shape of the ceiling, enhanced by side chairs fitting for the regal space. The octagons and squares in the dining room rug exuded a strong sense of character, as did the nearby studio space. Upstairs, Eero's legacy was much more evident. He designed furniture for his parents' bedroom area, including the bed and nightstand, as well as a sterling silver vanity collection. The lamps near the vanity collection emit light toward the ceiling, avoiding direct exposure to the face. The master bathroom, designed by Eliel, boasts additional Pewabic tiles. At Cranbrook, Eero Saarinen also created designs for several glass windows and crafted many of the beds, tables, and chairs for the Kingswood School for Girls. After high school, Saarinen studied sculpture at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris before graduating from the Yale School of Architecture, where he excelled with the traditional Beaux Arts curriculum. When Saarinen returned to Cranbrook in between school breaks and later in his 20s, he stayed in an upstairs bedroom at the Saarinen House. Even as Eliel Saarinen served as president of the Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1932 to 1946 and was its resident architect, Eero Saarinen began entering into architectural competitions with him in the late 1930s. As I walked back downstairs, I recalled a framed photo of the Gothic inspired design that Eliel Saarinen submitted for the Chicago Tribune competition that I had seen in the house earlier. In many ways, the Saarinen House represented the transition from Eliel's genius to Eero's distinct design skills. It was almost as if the creative energy in the Cranbrook community catapulted Eero Saarinen to greatness, evidenced by his early influences in the family home. A few minutes from the campus is the former Eero Saarinen and Associates office building, which housed his namesake architectural firm and was designed by Saarinen himself, near the intersection of West Long Lake Road and Woodward Avenue. Opened in 1953, the building is set on a gently sloping site, oriented so that the front of the building deceptively shows only one floor and the back reveals the second. Both floors included drafting rooms. A healthy amount of natural light filters through the building's wide, transparent front windows. For decades, many suburban buildings have been criticized for lacking sufficient character, but this compact structure has kept its minimalist edge. Heading southeast toward Warren, the third largest city in Michigan, it's easy to see why cars have ruled the Detroit metropolitan region for so long. Broad streets are ringed by an extensive collection of highways, which quickly led me to one of Saarinen's first large scale modernist marvels, the General Motors Technical Center. As I pulled into one of the entrances, I caught my first glimpse of the buildings. I was about to receive a rare insider's look at the sprawling Technical Center, home to about 21,000 employees. It is a private facility and is not open for tours. However, given the center's outsized influence on the design of office buildings across the world, it was an important piece of the larger Saarinen puzzle. The center, built from 1948 to 1956, officially opened in May 1956. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 and was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2014. There is a main rectangular man made lake at the G.M. center, along with a Design Dome with an exterior height of 65 feet, reflecting pools and a stainless steel water tower. Saarinen designed the original buildings in a way to bring everything to a human scale, with an emphasis on long, horizontal glass and steel buildings. On a scorching 99 degree day, I made my way across the parking lot to the Design Center, which was previously called the Styling building, my first stop at the G.M. center. In the lobby, I met Susan Skarsgard, the design manager at the General Motors Design Archive and Special Collections. I immediately noticed the sleek white podlike reception desk, which resembled a saucer, a few inches away from me. It is a reproduction of the original desk and is equally impressive. As Ms. Skarsgard and I walked further into the lobby, I saw the "floating staircase," a minimalist set of stairs that rose effortlessly above a small pool of water. It was perhaps one of the simplest, yet aesthetically pleasing aspects of any office lobby that I've visited. The sound of the water was both calming and subdued. As we walked through one of the long hallways, some of Saarinen's modernist influences were readily apparent, including tinted glass, wood paneling and windows that allow for an abundance of natural light. The center originally contained 25 buildings, which were mostly built of curtain wall construction, with beams exposed on the exterior and glazed brick that deviated from the standard industrial look. Currently, there are 38 buildings across 710 acres. From Engineering to Design to Research and Development, with other departments in between, the G.M. center continues to thrive. "It is amazing that General Motors is using buildings more than 60 years later for the same purpose," Ms. Skarsgard said. "The entrance canopies pull you into the buildings, and they're simple, clean and inviting." Next year, the company is slated to expand the General Motors Design studios, constructing a new building that will surround the Design Dome, along with a new parking garage. I couldn't see the interior of the silver topped dome since it still hosts internal events, but it has a storied history. Many G.M. vehicles have been tested, inspected and approved at the dome, featuring models as old as the 1957 Chevy Bel Air and 1963 Corvette Sting Ray. The column free interior was designed to be a grand showroom during a time when American automotive companies dominated the market share. Saarinen was accomplished by the time his first few buildings opened at the G.M. center. Here was evidence that he wasn't resting on his laurels, that his vision had kept him on the path to his goals. Saarinen sought to design at the highest levels while retaining creative control, which is why one of his last projects resonated with me so deeply. Drive roughly an hour west of Warren and you'll arrive in Ann Arbor, filled with quirky shops and collegiate charm. Eero Saarinen temporarily served as a design consultant for the North Campus development at the University of Michigan there and designed the Earl V. Moore Building, which opened in 1964 and houses much of what is now the School of Music, Theater and Dance. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Credit...Rafael Rios for The New York Times In a bare room upstairs from his art studio inside an industrial building in the South Bronx, Derek Fordjour watched as three puppeteers brought a character drawn right out of his paintings to three dimensional life. The artist was forging yet another branch of his multiform practice: a live show, inspired by Japanese puppet theater, to complement work in his upcoming gallery exhibition. Mr. Fordjour often depicts Black athletes and performers dancers, riders, rowers, drum majors as strivers who navigate the ambiguities that come with their achievement, and the racial scrutiny that accompanies visibility in the mainstream culture. The wood puppet was a vessel for these concerns. He had an athletic look, in breeches and a tunic. The top was a striped number in pink, blue, and brown, typical of the busy colors and patterns that energize Mr. Fordjour's paintings. The character careened between triumph and slapstick abjection as the puppeteers moved him across a long table with artificial turf. "I love learning other ways to have a conversation," Mr. Fordjour said after the rehearsal, a collaboration with the puppet artist Nick Lehane. "Painting has its utility, but performance is another register." At 46, by art world metrics, Mr. Fordjour is already registering. He was a market sensation in 2019 with a noteworthy sale at Phillips, where "Agency and Regulation (study)" went for 137,500, double its estimate. At the Frieze art fair he sold a suite of 10 paintings to Jay Z and Beyonce. This year brought his first full fledged museum show, at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, where paintings hung in a tropical environment that included corrugated metal walls and an ingenious method to replicate the sound of rain. "The idea was about creating a multisensory experience," Wassan al Khudhairi, the show's curator, said of the immersive staging. She added, "He's an extremely ambitious person; risk taking is part of the journey." Mr. Fordjour's solo show, "Self Must Die," at Petzel Gallery is typically elaborate, with a walk in installation, two new painting suites, a series of sculptures and the puppet show, performed twice daily. His rise has been remarkable considering that his breakout show, in an artist run space in Bushwick, was in 2014. Two years later, he was still completing his M.F.A. at Hunter College. The sculptor Nari Ward, his teacher and adviser at Hunter, recalled that Mr. Fordjour, who was older than most other students was driven with big ideas. "He came in hungry," Mr. Ward said. "I was like, ooh, what's going to happen to this guy?" Woven into Mr. Fordjour's work are lessons from his tortuous journey since committing to art back in high school, the son of Ghanaian immigrants in Memphis, Tenn. A new ensemble painting, "Chorus of Maternal Grief," commemorates 14 women, from Mamie Till Mobley, Emmett Till's mother, to Tamika Palmer, Ms. Taylor's mother, whom bereavement forced into public roles. It is a new move for him: specific portraits rather than archetypes. "This year, I feel like memorial is important," he said. "Black funerary tradition is on my mind," he added. "Thinking about all the people who were not able to have funerals." The Petzel show arrives with an epigraph from "In the Wake: On Blackness and Being," a 2016 book by the scholar Christina Sharpe, who refers to "wake work" the ensemble of activities, grand and mundane, that acknowledge and address Black death, and in doing so, affirm Black life. She writes: "What does it look like, entail and mean to attend to, care for, comfort, and defend, those already dead, those dying, and those living lives consigned to the possibility of always imminent death, life lived in the presence of death ... it means work." Mr. Fordjour was taken by that concept, he said, and he has also been reading Black liberation theory, by the theologian James H. Cone, and studies of Black mourning. The artist recalled years ago criticisms of the funeral industry for inflating its prices. "And Black funeral directors really rebuffed it," he said. "They said, this is the opportunity to celebrate. This is our chance to be ornate." One work in the show, "Pall Bearers," is inspired by the lavish funeral given George Floyd in Houston. Struck by Mr. Floyd's gold finished casket, Mr. Fordjour researched recipients of similar gold coffins and found that they included Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. The painting presents men in top hats, in a flattened perspective that conveys rhythm and immediacy. "But the casket is probably the subject of the painting," he said. "A man commemorated in a gold casket, contrasting so sharply with the way his life ended." Mr. Fordjour plays with the ornate; he is not afraid to dazzle. "He's a superb colorist," said Manon Slome, the curator who developed with Mr. Fordjour a wild, funhouselike installation for kids (but not just) at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art Storytelling. "There's a theatricality in the work; they're showmen," she added. "The light radiates from within." When depicting crowds, as in "Parade," Mr. Fordjour's 2018 mosaic series inside the 145th Street subway station of the No. 3 line, the artist shows the inspiration of Jacob Lawrence and Archibald Motley, though his palette is lighter, more variegated. These days, Mr. Fordjour has assistants handle the preliminaries, which involves seven or eight layers. "This is where I start cooking." He applies hundreds of small pieces of hand cut paper, and sketches in charcoal. Then he moves to acrylic and oil pastel. "He found a technique," said Mr. Ward, who remains his friend and sounding board. "It's a kind of seduction of the hand, but once you're in it, you realize you've been brought to another space of inquiry and realization of a kind of historical angst." Mr. Fordjour's first round in art school in New York, back some 20 years earlier, wasn't such a success. Set on his path by Bill Hicks, a local legend art teacher at Central High School in Memphis, he enrolled at Pratt Institute, but now says, "I went way off track." He dropped out and hung out at the Met, at the Art Students League, and had a brush with the justice system in Brooklyn. "The truth is that I ran into some trouble. I got arrested," he said. The charge involved drugs but the case was dismissed. The incident left him shaken and reminded him of his middle class privilege. "The thing that saved me was that my dad was an oral surgeon, and I had a cousin at Harvard Law School. But I saw what happens when someone like me gets into that system." Long ashamed, he revealed the story when he participated in Project Reset, where artists mentor young people facing misdemeanor convictions. Mr. Fordjour returned to Memphis and enrolled in community college, then had a baby with a girlfriend (his son is now a college student). "Living some life kind of got me on track," he said. He began teaching art in day care centers. He then finished college at Morehouse University, continuing to Harvard, where he earned a master's in art education. A different path was germinating, that of the artist. At Morehouse, Akua McDaniel's course in African American art history awakened him to a lineage from slavery to the Harlem Renaissance to the scholarship of David Driskell and Richard J. Powell. "It opened me up to a whole world of possibility," he said. And a series of portrait commissions for bankers and others in Memphis's Black professional circles showed that there could be money in painting. By the time Mr. Fordjour reappeared in New York and got married, settling into suburban life in Mount Vernon, he was steadily producing portraits and landscapes in his basement. He hated it. "It was a lot of bad work, failed experiments," he said. Things he cared about did not show up in his work. When his marriage fell apart, he found himself sleeping on an air mattress in a storage building. But he found it liberating to work with charcoal on newspaper the only surface he could afford for a time. And he was making friends on the art scene like Hank Willis Thomas. Mickalene Thomas let him help in the studio; her work with fractured surfaces, bright color, and neon, he said, unlocked his own imagination. By the time Mr. Fordjour enrolled at Hunter, his friends were alerting collectors. The construction executive Joseph Mizzi offered him an exhibition in his office in 2013. He accepted, recalling advice from Mark Bradford: "Show anywhere." The painter Henry Taylor turned up and bought a sculpture. "It just started happening, man," Mr. Fordjour said. "I haven't even put it together for myself." In the studio last month, collaboration was in the air. Art by friends hung in the conference room. On Zoom, Mr. Fordjour checked in with Hollywood designers, one a friend from high school, who were crafting his new installation. The puppet artists worked upstairs. Mr. Fordjour contemplated how this year had elevated the stakes. Last March, he was sued by a former gallerist, Robert Blumenthal, who claimed that Mr. Fordjour reneged on a deal they agreed to in 2014, to deliver 20 canvases. Mr. Fordjour's lawyers call the pending case "meritless," and have filed for its dismissal. It was not lost on him that as his prominence grows, his own position resembles more and more the archetypal performers he has painted balancing between anguish and transcendence. "To some degree maybe these are self portraits," he said, showing a painting of an argyle clad man on a unicycle, holding balls in both hands, with another ball on his neck. "I'm benefiting from a moment," he said. "I hope that my work is good. I recognize that I'm an artist in society, and when society goes and moves in another direction I've still got to be rooted in what I'm doing." To keep steady, he said, meant living on shifting boundaries: between exposure and vulnerability, close knit community and the broader social sphere. It was a challenge for his art, and for his life. Through Dec. 19 at Petzel Gallery, 456 West 18th Street, Manhattan; 212 680 9467, petzel.com. A puppet show, "Fly Away," is performed twice daily. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
The last two and a half months in America have felt like the opening montage in a dystopian film about a nation come undone. First the pandemic hit and hospitals in New York City were overwhelmed. The national economy froze and unemployment soared; one in four American workers has applied for unemployment benefits since March. Lines of cars stretched for miles at food banks. Heavily armed lockdown protesters demonstrated across the country; in Michigan, they forced the Capitol to close and legislators to cancel their session. Nationwide, at least 100,000 people died of a disease almost no one had heard of last year. Then, this week, a Minneapolis police officer was filmed kneeling on the neck of a black man named George Floyd. As the life went out of him, Floyd pleaded that he couldn't breathe, echoing the last words of Eric Garner, whose 2014 death at the hands of New York policemen helped catalyze the Black Lives Matter movement. Floyd's death came only days after three Georgia men were arrested on charges of pursuing and killing a young black man, Ahmaud Arbery, whom they saw out running. A prosecutor had initially declined to charge the men on the grounds that their actions were legal under the state's self defense laws. In Minneapolis protesters poured into the streets, where they met a far harsher police response than anything faced by the country's gun toting anti lockdown activists. On Wednesday night, peaceful demonstrations turned into riots, and on Thursday Minnesota's governor called in the National Guard. For a moment, it seemed as if the blithe brutality of Floyd's death might check the worst impulses of the president and his Blue Lives Matter supporters. The authorities were forced to act: All four of the policemen involved were fired, police chiefs across the country condemned them and William Barr's Justice Department promised a federal investigation that would be a "top priority." Even Donald Trump, who has encouraged police brutality in the past, described what happened to Floyd as a "very, very bad thing." But on Thursday night, after a county prosecutor said his office was still determining if the four policemen had committed a crime, the uprising in Minneapolis was reignited, and furious people burned a police precinct. (One of the officers was arrested and charged with third degree murder on Friday.) On Twitter, an addled Trump threatened military violence against those he called "THUGS," writing, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." Whether Trump knew it or not, he was quoting a racist phrase from the 1960s used by George Wallace, among others. The president later tried to tamp down outrage by saying he was just warning of danger the Trump campaign has hoped, after all, to peel off some black voters from the Democrats but his meaning was obvious enough. This is the same president who on Thursday tweeted out a video of a supporter saying, "The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat." The Trump presidency has been marked by shocking spasms of right wing violence: the white nationalist riot in Charlottesville, Va., the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the mass shooting targeting Latinos in El Paso. But even as the country has simmered and seethed, there hasn't been widespread disorder. Now, though, we might be at the start of a long, hot summer of civil unrest. Already the Minneapolis protests have spread to other cities. On Thursday night, someone fired a gun near a crowd of demonstrators in Denver and more than 40 people were arrested in New York City. Seven people were shot at a protest in Louisville, Ky., where crowds had turned out to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, an unarmed black woman who was shot by police in her own apartment in March. These demonstrations were sparked by specific instances of police violence, but they also take place in a context of widespread health and economic devastation that's been disproportionately borne by people of color, especially those who are poor. "Sociologists have studied collective behavior, urban unrest for decades, and I think it's safe to say that the consensus view is that it's never just about a precipitating incident that resulted in the unrest," Darnell Hunt, dean of social sciences at U.C.L.A., told me. "It's always a collection of factors that make the situation ripe for collective behavior, unrest and mobilization." Keith Ellison, Minnesota's progressive attorney general, told me that lately, when he goes out walking or running in Minneapolis, he feels a "coiled sort of anxiousness ready to spring." Many people, he said, "have been cooped up for two months, and so now they're in a different space and a different place. They're restless. Some of them have been unemployed, some of them don't have rent money, and they're angry, they're frustrated." That frustration is likely to build, because the economic ruin from the pandemic is just beginning. In some states, moratoriums on evictions have ended or will soon. The expanded unemployment benefits passed by Congress as part of the CARES Act run out at the end of July. State budgets have been ravaged, and Republicans in Washington have so far refused to come to states' aid, meaning we'll likely soon see painful cutbacks in public jobs and services. "Where people are broke, and there doesn't appear to be any assistance, there's no leadership, there's no clarity about what is going to happen, this creates the conditions for anger, rage, desperation and hopelessness, which can be a very volatile combination," said Keeanga Yamahtta Taylor, an assistant professor of African American studies at Princeton. "I would not at all be surprised to see this kind of reaction elsewhere over the course of the next several months." But if America feels like a tinderbox at the moment, it's not just because of pressure coming from the dispossessed. On Wednesday, the journalists Robert Evans and Jason Wilson published a fascinating and disturbing look at the "boogaloo" movement "an extremely online update of the militia movement" on the investigative website Bellingcat. "The 'boogaloo Bois' expect, even hope, that the warmer weather will bring armed confrontations with law enforcement, and will build momentum towards a new civil war in the United States," Evans and Wilson write. They add, "In a divided, destabilized post coronavirus landscape, they could well contribute to widespread violence in the streets of American cities." The boogaloo movement's surreal iconography includes Hawaiian shirts often mixed with combat gear and igloos. (The idea is that "luau" and "igloo" sound like "boogaloo.") People associated with the subculture had a significant presence at the lockdown protests, but some, motivated by hatred of the police and a love of bedlam, took part in the Minneapolis demonstrations as well. (According to Evans and Wilson, while much of boogaloo culture is steeped in white supremacy, there's a "very active struggle within some parts of this movement as to whether or not their dreamed of uprising will be based in bigotry.") Ellison told me he saw boogaloo bois holding a flag with an igloo on it at the Wednesday night protest in Minneapolis. Most American presidents, faced with such domestic instability, would seek de escalation. This is one reason civil unrest, for all the damage it can cause to communities where it breaks out, has often led to reform. Change has come, said Thompson, when activists have "created a situation where the people in power actually had to act in order to bring back some meaningful public peace." Now, however, we have a president who doesn't much care about warding off chaos. "In every other time when protest has reached a fever pitch because injustices very much needed to be remedied, the country ultimately tried to find a new equilibrium, tried to address it enough to reach some sort of peace," said Thompson. "We now have a leadership that's been crystal clear that it's perfectly OK if we descend into utter civil war." Some of the tropes are familiar, but we haven't seen this movie before. No one knows how dark things could get, only that, in the Trump era, scenes that seem nightmarish one day come to look almost normal the next. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
MUDBOUND (2017) on Netflix. Set in the Mississippi Delta in the years after World War II, this drama by the director Dee Rees revolves around the Jacksons, black tenant farmers, and the McAllans, a white family that owns the land the Jacksons work. The plot twists and turns, but the heart of the story is the relationship between Jamie McAllan (Garrett Hedlund) and Ronsel Jackson (Jason Mitchell), combat veterans who return home only to be reminded that their friendship doesn't bode well in the Jim Crow era. Adapted from the 2008 novel by Hillary Jordan, the film earned four Oscar nominations and broke new ground when Rachel Morrison, the director of photography, became the first woman to be nominated for best cinematography. In his review, A. O. Scott named the movie a Critic's Pick and wrote, "It's a work of historical imagination that lands in the present with disquieting, illuminating force." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
To William Bates, the skeleton he found buried in Australia's Toorale National Park in 2014 was crying out for help. Its mouth was wide open, and only its skull protruded from the dirt. The rest of its body was trapped beneath the eroding bank of the Darling River. "As soon as I had seen him, I knew he was my ancestor," said Mr. Bates, a cultural adviser of the Baakantji Aboriginal group in New South Wales. "I just started to cry, and I said 'I'll help you, I promise to help you.'" Mr. Bates, known as Badger, went to get his wife, and together they noticed a gash across the skull's right eye that stretched to the jaw. They didn't know it at the time, but they had uncovered what scientists now think could be the earliest evidence of a person killed by a boomerang. But at that moment, it appeared as if the person had been struck across the face by a metal blade. They named him Kaakutja, after the Baakantji word for "older brother," and believed he was probably another victim of frontier violence from the time of British colonization. "We said they could take him away and study him on the conditions that when they are done, they bring him back and we'll give him a proper burial," Mr. Bates said. When Dr. Westaway and his team dug up Kaakutja's remains, they found his body curled in a ball lying on its right hand side, facing upstream. They said it appeared as if the man, who was probably between 20 and 30 when he died, had received a ritual burial and was not hastily disposed of like a murder victim. They noticed several wounds beyond the slash to the face, and performed a CT scan of the bones to better examine the damage. They also sent samples to Rachel Wood, a geochemist at the Australian National University for radiocarbon dating. To their surprise, the radiocarbon dating found that Kaakutja lived between 1260 and 1280, about 500 years before British colonizers first arrived in Australia. To double check, they performed tests on the sand grains found embedded in the skull and sediment from the pit. The optical analysis they did would determine the last time the sediments were exposed to light, which would provide insight into when Kaakutja was buried. The analysis signaled that the burial most likely could have occurred between 1305 and 1525, also before the European arrival. By dating the remains, they changed the interpretation of how Kaakutja met his end. "It showed that the damage must have been done by another aboriginal person, presumably with a wooden artifact rather than metal sword," Dr. Wood said. It was clear that Kaakutja was killed by a traditional weapon, but the team was puzzled by what that wooden weapon could have been. No one had ever seen trauma such as this in Australia's archaeological history, they said. They started reading into the ethnohistory of the Aboriginals and looking at cave paintings for clues. The literature directed them to two wooden weapons, the Lil lil, a type of club, and the Wonna or fighting boomerang. Although closely related to the returning boomerang that people are most familiar with, the blade of the wonna is reminiscent of a saber and it was probably used for close combat. "When it's used as a fighting club, it's like a battle ax essentially; it would have been a very fearsome weapon," said Dr. Westaway, explaining why he believes the murder weapon was a fighting boomerang. "The blow to the front of the face was a rapid shock kind of blow." The thinking goes that during his final moments, Kaakutja was first struck on the right side of the face with the fighting boomerang, which probably would have taken out his eye and drawn a lot of blood. Then a second blow probably came to his ribs, breaking several of them and causing him to collapse. Kaakutja, now on all fours, was potentially struck a third time across the top of his arm, which hacked off part of the bone. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
He steered into the high school parking lot, clicked off the ignition and scanned the scraps of his recent weeks. Crinkled chip bags on the dashboard. Soda cups at his feet. And on the passenger seat, a rumpled SAT practice book whose owner had been told since fourth grade he was headed to the Ivy League. Pencils up in 20 minutes. The boy exhaled. Before opening the car door, he recalled recently, he twisted open a capsule of orange powder and arranged it in a neat line on the armrest. He leaned over, closed one nostril and snorted it. Throughout the parking lot, he said, eight of his friends did the same thing. The drug was not cocaine or heroin, but Adderall, an amphetamine prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that the boy said he and his friends routinely shared to study late into the night, focus during tests and ultimately get the grades worthy of their prestigious high school in an affluent suburb of New York City. The drug did more than just jolt them awake for the 8 a.m. SAT; it gave them a tunnel focus tailor made for the marathon of tests long known to make or break college applications. "Everyone in school either has a prescription or has a friend who does," the boy said. At high schools across the United States, pressure over grades and competition for college admissions are encouraging students to abuse prescription stimulants, according to interviews with students, parents and doctors. Pills that have been a staple in some college and graduate school circles are going from rare to routine in many academically competitive high schools, where teenagers say they get them from friends, buy them from student dealers or fake symptoms to their parents and doctors to get prescriptions. Of the more than 200 students, school officials, parents and others contacted for this article, about 40 agreed to share their experiences. Most students spoke on the condition that they be identified by only a first or middle name, or not at all, out of concern for their college prospects or their school systems' reputations and their own. "It's throughout all the private schools here," said DeAnsin Parker, a New York psychologist who treats many adolescents from affluent neighborhoods like the Upper East Side. "It's not as if there is one school where this is the culture. This is the culture." Observed Gary Boggs, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, "We're seeing it all across the United States." The D.E.A. lists prescription stimulants like Adderall and Vyvanse (amphetamines) and Ritalin and Focalin (methylphenidates) as Class 2 controlled substances the same as cocaine and morphine because they rank among the most addictive substances that have a medical use. (By comparison, the long abused anti anxiety drug Valium is in the lower Class 4.) So they carry high legal risks, too, as few teenagers appreciate that merely giving a friend an Adderall or Vyvanse pill is the same as selling it and can be prosecuted as a felony. While these medicines tend to calm people with A.D.H.D., those without the disorder find that just one pill can jolt them with the energy and focus to push through all night homework binges and stay awake during exams afterward. "It's like it does your work for you," said William, a recent graduate of the Birch Wathen Lenox School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. But abuse of prescription stimulants can lead to depression and mood swings (from sleep deprivation), heart irregularities and acute exhaustion or psychosis during withdrawal, doctors say. Little is known about the long term effects of abuse of stimulants among the young. Drug counselors say that for some teenagers, the pills eventually become an entry to the abuse of painkillers and sleep aids. "Once you break the seal on using pills, or any of that stuff, it's not scary anymore especially when you're getting A's," said the boy who snorted Adderall in the parking lot. He spoke from the couch of his drug counselor, detailing how he later became addicted to the painkiller Percocet and eventually heroin. Paul L. Hokemeyer, a family therapist at Caron Treatment Centers in Manhattan, said: "Children have prefrontal cortexes that are not fully developed, and we're changing the chemistry of the brain. That's what these drugs do. It's one thing if you have a real deficiency the medicine is really important to those people but not if your deficiency is not getting into Brown." The number of prescriptions for A.D.H.D. medications dispensed for young people ages 10 to 19 has risen 26 percent since 2007, to almost 21 million yearly, according to IMS Health, a health care information company a number that experts estimate corresponds to more than two million individuals. But there is no reliable research on how many high school students take stimulants as a study aid. Doctors and teenagers from more than 15 schools across the nation with high academic standards estimated that the portion of students who do so ranges from 15 percent to 40 percent. "They're the A students, sometimes the B students, who are trying to get good grades," said one senior at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, a Philadelphia suburb, who said he makes hundreds of dollars a week selling prescription drugs, usually priced at 5 to 20 per pill, to classmates as young as freshmen. "They're the quote unquote good kids, basically." The trend was driven home last month to Nan Radulovic, a social worker in Santa Monica, Calif. Within a few days, she said, an 11th grader, a ninth grader and an eighth grader asked for prescriptions for Adderall solely for better grades. From one girl, she recalled, it was not quite a request. "If you don't give me the prescription," Ms. Radulovic said the girl told her, "I'll just get it from kids at school." Madeleine surveyed her schedule of five Advanced Placement classes, field hockey and several other extracurricular activities and knew she could not handle it all. The first physics test of the year inclines, friction, drag loomed ominously over her college prospects. A star senior at her Roman Catholic school in Bethesda, Md., Madeleine knew a friend whose grades had gone from B's to A's after being prescribed Ritalin, so she asked her for a pill. She got a 95. Thereafter, Madeleine recalled, she got Adderall and Vyvanse capsules the rest of the year from various classmates not in exchange for money, she said, but for tutoring them in calculus or proofreading their English papers. "Can I get a drink of water?" Madeleine said she would ask the teacher in one class, before excusing herself and heading to the water fountain. Making sure no one was watching, she would remove a 40 milligram Vyvanse capsule from her purse and swallow it. After 30 minutes, the buzz began, she said: laser focus, instant recall and the fortitude to crush any test in her path. "People would have never looked at me and thought I used drugs like that I wasn't that kid," said Madeleine, who has just completed her freshman year at an Ivy League college and continues to use stimulants occasionally. "It wasn't that hard of a decision. Do I want only four hours of sleep and be a mess, and then underperform on the test and then in field hockey? Or make the teachers happy and the coach happy and get good grades, get into a good college and make my parents happy?" Madeleine estimated that one third of her classmates at her small school, most of whom she knew well, used stimulants without a prescription to boost their scholastic performance. Many students across the United States made similar estimates for their schools, all of them emphasizing that the drugs were used not to get high, but mostly by conscientious students to work harder and meet ever rising academic expectations. However, some experts note that the survey does not focus on the demographic where they believe such abuse is rising steadily students at high pressure high schools and also that many teenagers barely know that what they often call "study drugs" are in fact illegal amphetamines. "Isn't it just like a vitamin?" asked one high school junior from Eastchester, a suburb of New York. Liz Jorgensen, a licensed addiction specialist who runs Insight Counseling in Ridgefield, Conn., said her small center had treated "at least 50 or 60" high school students from southern Connecticut this school year alone who had abused prescription stimulants for academics. Ms. Jorgensen said some of those teenagers landed in rehab directly from the stimulants or, more often, grew comfortable with prescription drugs in general and began abusing prescription painkillers like OxyContin. A spokesman for Shire, which manufactures Vyvanse and Adderall's extended release capsules, said studies had shown no link between prescribed use of those drugs and later abuse. Dr. Jeff Jonas, Shire's senior vice president for research and development, said that the company was greatly concerned about the misuse of its stimulants but that the rate was very small. "I'm not aware of any systematic data that suggests there's a widespread problem," he said. "You can always find people who testify that it happens." Students who sell prescription stimulants to their classmates focus on their burdens and insecurities. One girl who sells to fellow students at Long Beach High School on Long Island said: "These kids would get in trouble if they don't do well in school. When people take tests, it's immediately, 'Who am I getting Adderall from?' They're always looking for it." Every school identified in this article was contacted regarding statements by its students and stimulant abuse in general. Those that responded generally said that they were concerned about some teenagers turning to these drugs, but that their numbers were far smaller than the students said. David Weiss, superintendent of Long Beach Public Schools, said the survey his district used to gauge student drug use asked about only prescription medications in general, not stimulants specifically. "It has not been a surface issue for us we're much more conscious of alcohol or other drug use," Mr. Weiss said in a telephone interview. "We haven't had word that it's a widespread issue." Douglas Young, a spokesman for the Lower Merion School District outside Philadelphia, said prescription stimulant abuse was covered in various student wellness initiatives as well as in the 10th grade health curriculum. Mr. Young expressed frustration that many parents seemed oblivious to the problem. "It's time for a serious wake up call," Mr. Young said. "Straight A's and high SAT scores look great on paper, but they aren't reflective measures of a student's health and well being. We need to better understand the pressures and temptations, and ultimately we need to embrace new definitions of student success. For many families and communities, that's simply not happening." During an interview in March, the dealer at Lower Merion High reached into his pocket and pulled out the container for his daily stash of the prescription stimulants Concerta and Focalin: a hollowed out bullet. Unlike his other products marijuana and heroin, which come from higher level dealers his amphetamines came from a more trusted, and trusting, source, he said. "I lie to my psychiatrist I expressed feelings I didn't really have, knowing the consequences of it," he said, standing in a park a few miles from the high school. "I tell the doctor, 'I find myself very distracted, and I feel this really deep pain inside, like I'm anxious all the time,' or something like that." He coughed out a chuckle and added proudly, "Generally, if you keep playing the angsty teen role, you'll get something good." Christine, a junior sitting nearby, said she followed the well known lines to get her drugs directly and legally, a script for scripts. "I'm not able to focus on schoolwork," she said in a mockingly anxious voice. "I'm constantly looking out the window." Although she often uses the drugs herself, snorting them for a faster and more intense effect, she said she preferred to save them for when her customers crave them most. "Right before everybody took the PSATs, a bunch of kids went to the bathroom to snort their Addies," she said. This is one of the more vexing problems with stimulants in high schools, experts said the drugs enter the schools via students who get them legally, if not legitimately. Older A.D.H.D. drugs required low doses every few hours, and schools, not wanting students to carry the drugs themselves, had the school nurse hold and dispense the pills. Newer long lasting versions like Adderall XR and Vyvanse allow parents to give children a single dose in the morning, often unaware that the pills can go down a pants pocket as easily as the throat. Some students said they took their pills only during the week and gave their weekend pills to friends. The mother of one high school freshman in Westchester County said she would open the kitchen cabinet every morning and watch her son take his prescribed dose of Ritalin. She noticed one day that the capsule was strangely airy and held it up to the light. It was empty. "There were a few times we were short in the month, and I couldn't understand why," recalled the woman, whose son was in eighth grade at the time. "It never dawned on me until I found those empty capsules, and then I started discovering the little packets of powder. He was selling it to other kids." Many youngsters with prescriptions said their doctors merely listened to their stories and took out their prescription pads. Dr. Hilda R. Roque, a primary care physician in West New York, N.J., said she never prescribed A.D.H.D. medicine but knew many doctors who did. She said many parents could push as hard for prescriptions as their children did, telling her: "My child is not doing well in school. I understand there are meds he can take to make him smarter." "To get a prescription for Adderall was the Golden Ticket it really was," said William, the recent graduate of Birch Wathen in Manhattan. A high school senior in Connecticut who has used his friend's Adderall for school said: "These are academic steroids. But usually, parents don't get the steroids for you." As with the steroids taken by athletes, the downside of prescription stimulants appears after they provide the desired short term competitive benefits. This was the case with a recent graduate of McLean High School in Virginia, one of the top public schools in the Washington area. Late in his sophomore year, the boy wanted some help to raise his B average far from what top colleges expected, especially from a McLean student. So he told his psychologist what she needed to hear for a diagnosis of A.D.H.D. even gazing out the window during the appointment for effect and was soon getting 30 pills of Adderall every month, 10 milligrams each. They worked. He focused late into the night studying, concentrated better during exams and got an A minus average for his junior year. "I wanted to do everything I could to get into the quote unquote right school," he recalled recently. "There's no way you'd notice that's why so many kids are doing it," he told his mother. "I could say I'm going for a run, call someone I know who does it, get some pills from them, take them, come home and work. Just do it. You'd be just glad that I was studying hard." His mother sighed. "As a parent you worry about driving, you worry about drinking, you worry about all kinds of health and mental issues, social issues," she said. "Now I have to worry about this, too? Really? This shouldn't be what they need to do to get where they want to." Asked if the improper use of stimulants was cheating, students were split. Some considered that the extra studying hours and the heightened focus during exams amounted to an unfair advantage. Many countered that the drugs "don't give you the answers" and defended their use as a personal choice for test preparation, akin to tutoring. One consensus was clear: users were becoming more common, they said, and some students who would rather not take the drugs would be compelled to join them because of the competition over class rank and colleges' interest. A current law student in Manhattan, who said he dealt Adderall regularly while at his high school in Sarasota, Fla., said that insecurity was a main part of his sales pitch: that those students "would feel at a huge disadvantage," he said. William, the recent Birch Wathen graduate, said prescription stimulants became a point of contention when a girl with otherwise middling grades suddenly improved her SAT score. "There was an uproar among kids some people were really proud of her, and some kids were really jealous and mad," he recalled. "I don't remember if she had a prescription, but she definitely took more than was prescribed. People would say, 'You're so smart,' and she'd say, 'It wasn't all me.' " | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
A roundup of motoring news from the web: Although neither automaker will say how many dealerships have run afoul of manufacturer certified preowned vehicle program requirements, General Motors and American Honda told Automotive News this week that they were cracking down on vendors that failed to meet company standards. The automakers said they were suspending certifications from dealerships whose preowned vehicles did not pass muster. (Automotive News, subscription required) According to a report from Automotive News, Toyota is likely to increase demand on aluminum as it begins making the hoods for its high volume Camry sedan out of aluminum for the 2018 model year. Production of the aluminum hoods is scheduled to begin in the United States in 2017, through a joint venture between a Toyota affiliate and Kobe Steel. (Automotive News, subscription required) Shares for Hyundai and Kia the affiliated South Korean automakers fell 2.6 percent early in the week as the labor unions that work with the companies' employees there announced a partial strike that would last from Tuesday until Friday. Hwang Ki Tae, a spokesman for the union, said Monday that wage negotiations had been suspended indefinitely. The unions accused Chung Mong Koo, Hyundai's chairman, of "imperial management." (Bloomberg) Stephen Hung, a real estate investor in Hong Kong, placed an order this week for 30 Rolls Royce Phantoms. According to a report by The Financial Times, the 20 million order will populate a stable of cars at the Louis XIII Hotel in Macau, which, like Hong Kong, is another of China's wealthy Special Administrative Regions. (Business Insider) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
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