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If you are a theater fanatic, you know who George Rose was. If you were alive and going to New York theater in the 1970s and '80s, you may have even seen him radiating contagious joy in "My Fair Lady," as the saucy Alfred P. Doolittle relishing the prospect of "a little bit of luck." Or matching wits with Kevin Kline in "The Pirates of Penzance." Or winning his second Tony Award as the M.C. in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," his final show. Earlier in his career, Rose had earned perhaps the ultimate critical rave for his performance in "Much Ado About Nothing." Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times, "Mr. Rose's Dogberry makes it unnecessary for anyone to play the part again." The actor Ed Dixon was one of the fortunate who saw him perform; he also called Rose his friend, and he celebrates that relationship (for the most part) in "Georgie: My Adventures With George Rose," his charming if ultimately disturbing solo show at the Davenport Theater. It all began when Mr. Dixon, now a white haired man with physical complaints, was a fresh faced newbie cast in a production of "The Student Prince" alongside Rose, already a noted British character actor. Both men were homosexual (Mr. Dixon's word, and one that he pronounces playfully and slowly with a stress on every syllable), but back in the day Mr. Dixon had never seen anyone quite so open about it. Backstage, Rose called his male dresser Lisette, for instance, and insisted that the man wear a sexy French maid's uniform. And Rose was known to ask Mr. Dixon, "Do you like coffee colored boys?" | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Why doesn't the government just give everybody money? Figure out a reasonable amount the official poverty line amounts to about 25,000 for a family of four; a full time job at 15 an hour would provide about 30,000 a year and hand every adult a monthly check. The minimum wage worker stretching to make it to payday, the single mother balancing child care and a job everybody would get the same thing. Poverty would be over, at a stroke. Being universal that is, for the homeless and the masters of the universe alike the program would be free of the cumbersome assessments required to determine eligibility. It would also escape the stigma typically attached to programs for the poor. And it would be politically secure. Programs for the poor are often maligned as poor programs. Indeed, defunding antipoverty programs rarely carries political consequences because the poor rarely vote. It's another story entirely when everybody benefits. The idea of universal basic income sounds extravagant, right? Well, the Finns and even the Swiss are thinking about it. On Sunday, Swiss citizens will vote in a referendum on whether to hand out 30,000 francs a year just over 30,000 to every citizen, regardless of wealth, work status or whatever. In the United States, the idea has the support of thinkers on the left like Andrew Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union. Some thinkers on the right, too, have managed to overcome their general distaste for government welfare to support the idea. This month, Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute will publish an updated version of his plan to replace welfare as we know it with a dollop of 10,000 in after tax income for every American above the age of 21. Readers of my conversation with a fellow Times columnist, Farhad Manjoo, a few weeks ago know that I think the idea is, let's say, poorly thought out. Given its resilience, however, it is worth taking apart more methodically. Its first hurdle is arithmetic. As Robert Greenstein of the left leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities put it, a check of 10,000 to each of 300 million Americans would cost more than 3 trillion a year. Where would that money come from? It amounts to nearly all the tax revenue collected by the federal government. Nothing in the history of this country suggests Americans are ready to add that kind of burden to their current taxes. Cut it by half to 5,000? That wouldn't even clear the poverty line. And it would still cost as much as the entire federal budget except for Social Security, Medicare, defense and interest payments. Thinkers on the right solve the how to pay for it problem simply by defunding everything else the government provides, programs as varied as food stamps and Social Security. That, Mr. Greenstein observes, would actually increase poverty. It would redistribute wealth upward, taking money targeted to the poor and sharing it with everybody, including you and me. As Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary and onetime top economic adviser to President Obama, told me, paying a 5,000 universal basic income to the 250 million nonpoor Americans would cost about 1.25 trillion a year. "It would be hard to finance that in a way that wouldn't burden the programs that help the poor," he said. Netflix buys a visual effects company in a move to support its global ambitions. 15 minimum wage for federal contractors will take effect Jan. 30. The popularity of the universal basic income stems from a fanciful diagnosis born in Silicon Valley of the challenges faced by the working class across industrialized nations: one that sees declining employment rates and stagnant wages and concludes that robots are about to take over all the jobs in the world. That might lie in our future I will devote my next column to discussion of such a universe. But it's certainly not our present. Men at their prime working ages, 25 to 54, have been falling out of the labor force since the 1960s. Still, today more than eight out of every 10 Americans in their prime are working. Work, as Lawrence Katz of Harvard once pointed out, is not just what people do for a living. It is a source of status. It organizes people's lives. It offers an opportunity for progress. None of this can be replaced by a check. A universal basic income has many undesirable features, starting with its non negligible disincentive to work. Almost a quarter of American households make less than 25,000. It would be hardly surprising if a 10,000 check each for mom and dad sapped their desire to work. A universal income divorces assistance from need. Aid is fixed, regardless of whatever else is going on. If our experience with block grants serves as precedent, it is most likely to become less generous over time. To libertarians this will sound more like a feature than a flaw, but replacing everything in the safety net with a check would limit the scope of government assistance in damaging ways. Say we know the choice of neighborhood makes a difference to the development of poor children. Housing vouchers might lead them to move into a better one. A monthly check would probably not. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
The Jamie Lloyd Company's West End revival of "Cyrano de Bergerac" is coming to the Harvey Theater of the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a limited run in May. Directed by the theater company's namesake, Jamie Lloyd, the adaptation by Martin Crimp is a postmodern take on the Edmond Rostand love story, featuring beatboxing, silver tongued characters in street clothes. "It's not the most difficult role I've played onstage but I would say it's the trickiest," said James McAvoy, who plays the title role and was nominated for a best actor Olivier Award for it on Tuesday. "While its themes and narrative are universal, Rostand sets it in a heightened world where language and oratory ability are as powerful as weapons." The classic version follows Cyrano, played by McAvoy, who is smitten with Roxane, played by Anita Joy Uwajeh, but convinced he is too unattractive to win her affection. Instead, he helps the better looking but inarticulate Christian, played by Eben Figueiredo, find the words to woo her. As the audiences will discover, the love triangle in this production has a modern twist to it. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Credit...Nathan Bajar for The New York Times Kevin Abosch wanted to turn himself into a coin. Why? Because he sold a photograph of a potato. Mr. Abosch, 48, is an Irish conceptual artist and photographer who lives in New York. He is also interested in the blockchain, the technology best known for its use in virtual currencies like Bitcoin and ether. The strange culture surrounding these cryptocurrencies is increasingly making its way into art, in works that explore value, decentralization and the buzz around digital money. Which brings us back to "Potato 345," a photo that made headlines around the world after Mr. Abosch said it was purchased by a European businessman in 2015 for a million euros, or about 1.08 million. On the one hand, the attention generated by the sale was exciting, he said. "On the other hand, the focus shifts from the artistic value to monetary value of the work, and for most artists the art is an extension of the artist, so you yourself start to feel commodified," Mr. Abosch said. "In order to sort of control that, I began to think of myself as a coin." Mr. Abosch turned to the blockchain, which essentially records a series of transactions across a large, open network of computers. The Ethereum blockchain allows coders to create virtual tokens, which can be transferred between users. They're not always currencies, exactly, but something like them. Mr. Abosch created 10 million tokens in January. "But I didn't want to just make these 10 million pieces of virtual art," he said. "I wanted them to be connected to my body." So, he had six vials of his blood drawn. He stamped the contract address a long string of numbers and letters indicating where the tokens effectively live on the blockchain onto 100 pieces of paper, in blood. And he called the project "IAMA Coin." He said he believes that he has "successfully connected my physical body to the virtual works" in such a way that he sees the art "as pieces of me." Michael Connor, the artistic director of Rhizome, a center affiliated with the New Museum that aims to foster "digital born art and culture," said that he's seen a flurry of crypto related projects in the past year. Mr. Abosch's works and how they're bought and sold capture some of the strange ethos of the world of crypto: A former tech executive recently paid more than the price of a real Lamborghini for a neon sculpture Mr. Abosch made of a blockchain address that symbolized Lamborghinis. The piece, "YELLOW LAMBO" (2018), made news much like Mr. Abosch's potato photo did. (The marriage of conceptual art, capitalism and the internet is a reliable generator of "How can this be?" headlines.) The work is a reference to a half serious joke in the crypto community about using profits to buy Lamborghinis. "I became familiar with lambo as a declaration of success identity, and because I always think in terms of how to distill emotions around value, I wanted to explore that," Mr. Abosch said. He created another token, called YLAMBO, and turned its address into a physical sculpture in yellow neon. This sculpture then sold for 400,000 at a San Francisco art fair to Michael Jackson, the former chief operating officer of Skype. "You meet people in the crypto world who throw millions into coins backed by nothing, but don't understand how a piece of art has any value," he said. "Then you meet people in the art world who don't understand why you would invest money in art that has no physical manifestation. That's where it gets exciting for me." He has a foot in both the art and tech worlds, and experiments with their intersection; while he works, Mr. Abosch has been wearing an electroencephalogram, or EEG cap, which can measure electrical activity in the brain. He wrote in an email that this is "an attempt to understand to what extent ego is engaged or how it colors work, particularly when I'm photographing humans." "I think that it's such a weird field at the moment, so art is evolving really quickly in response to it," Mr. Connor said. Mr. Abosch, meanwhile, is tokenizing Manhattan. For a soon to be unveiled project, he has created 10,000 blockchain tokens for every street in Manhattan, then printed the contract addresses on a 6 foot tall map. This month, collectors will be able to buy the tokens, or virtual artworks, for a few dollars each. More projects are on the way. "Whatever this is," Mr. Abosch said, "I'm right in the middle of it." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Note: Because of the coronavirus outbreak and the state's ban on gatherings of more than 500 people, many events have been canceled. As of press time, these were still scheduled to take place. Before heading out, visit the website of the performance space or organization for the latest updates. STEPHANIE ACOSTA at the Chocolate Factory (March 19 21, 8 p.m.; through March 28). Acosta, an interdisciplinary artist, works in both video and performance. In each medium, she has created a work called "Good Day God Damn," which views the chaos of the world around us through the lens of a cinematic thriller. The performance version, framed by her moving images, premieres in the coming week and features the dancers Leslie Cuyjet, Miriam Gabriel, Angie Pittman and Jessie Young, as well as the singer Alexa Grae. 718 482 7069, chocolatefactorytheater.org | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
If I'm being honest, I felt for the guy. In the Boglioli store a couple of weeks ago, on a weekend afternoon, a youngish couple stumbled in. They looked around in something of a daze, taking in the brightly patterned carpet, the sleek and obscured shelving, maybe even a couple of the actual garments. His wife, or girlfriend, or mobile therapist, was caressing him without laying a hand on him. She looked sad. He looked frail. He just needed a belt. Sometimes a man needs a belt, and many of those times, a man has no idea where to acquire such a thing. And, you know, fair enough. To my knowledge, there is no store specializing in belts in the East Village, or in NoHo maybe there's a stall on St. Marks? so this couple, presumably seeing a sweater and a scarf in the store window, pushed open the heavy door and hoped for the best. I opted for empathy. Sometimes the thing you need just isn't in reach. For me, it's a suit. Or at least, a new suit. Every time I'm called upon to wear a suit, I shrug, because my options represent a different time in my life. The ones in my closet skew 2000s Prada and are largely unloved. Not needing to wear tailored clothing has become something of a point of pride. I harbor only a few resentments, and many of them have to do with class. During college summers, I worked jobs that required suits. I was thrilled, after I graduated, to not be so burdened full time. But suits happen for weddings and funerals, for important meetings in stiff and even some not so stiff places, and for days when you might feel like shattering a few ankles on the way to the hoop. And so it was with an open heart that I endeavored to refresh my closet this month, or at least engage with some new silhouettes, at the new Brioni flagship on Madison, and also at the Boglioli shop on Bond, which opened quietly last summer. As suits go, I prefer Italian. British cuts strangle me, physically and emotionally. American suits, in so much as there is such a thing, have a certain stolidity to them. They are designed for earnest, dull labor, and, even in a fancy fabric, tend to hang like drapery. The Italians grasp the eroticism and power of tailored clothing. At the Brioni store, that extends to the decor, heavy on marble and wood, with ample space to gaze upon the racks as if you are on safari. What the suits here lack in imagination they make up for in touch: The fabrics are lavish, the construction immaculate, if slightly old fashioned. I tried on options in super 180 ( 6,450) and super 200 ( 10,475) wools that were austere and unreasonably luxe. I am tall and broad, and these options made that an asset, not a liability. Still, there was a quietness to the energy of these suits, which felt destined for a nice enough table at the Pool in the reopened Four Seasons. They screamed wealthy executive, not wealthy executive with panache. (Surprisingly, the other clothes did better at that, particularly a burgundy moto jacket, 6,450, and a luscious baby blue turtleneck, 950.) You could shop here and be ably outfitted for a season's worth of benefit dinners, but never once be the most provocatively suited man in the room. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The Lakers Hold On to Beat the Clippers in Thriller Want more basketball in your inbox? Sign up for Marc Stein's weekly N.B.A. newsletter here. If LeBron James shoots a jumper but no fans are there to see it, did he shoot a jumper? We kid. But on Thursday, the N.B.A. made its return at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., with several of its most visible stars, including James, Zion Williamson, Kawhi Leonard and Anthony Davis taking part in a doubleheader. The games were sloppy the rust after a four month layoff was real but they were nonetheless compelling, both of them coming down to the final seconds. The most striking images came before the games, when members of all four teams kneeled during the national anthem. Several players wore "Black Lives Matter" T shirts. The N.B.A. ran commercials with coaches and players expressing their desire to fight for social justice. In the opener between the Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, the game came down to a final shot. Brandon Ingram of the Pelicans rimmed out a last second 3 pointer, and the Jazz pulled out a 106 104 win. Jordan Clarkson led the Jazz with 23 points off the bench. It was the first of many demonstrations for social justice causes expected this season. The players across the 22 teams participating in the restart were allowed to replace their names on the backs of their jerseys with phrases related to social justice. On the floor today were "peace," "equality" and "listen to me" among others. And as the Compton Kidz Club sang the national anthem on a video screen before the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers tipped off later in the evening, both teams kneeled. Several players on both teams, including LeBron James, wore T shirts emblazoned with the phrase "Black Lives Matter." Commissioner Adam Silver had released a statement earlier in the night saying that the N.B.A.'s longstanding rule, which prohibits players from kneeling, would not be enforced. Many N.B.A. players have been active in various social justice initiatives this summer. In early June, James and a group of prominent Black athletes and entertainers including Trae Young, Draymond Green, Skylar Diggins Smith and Jalen Rose announced that they would be starting a new group aimed at protecting African Americans' voting rights. "Yes, we want you to go out and vote, but we're also going to give you the tutorial," James said of the organization, called More Than a Vote. "We're going to give you the background of how to vote and what they're trying to do, the other side, to stop you from voting. Despite an early Jazz lead, the Pelicans took control in the last minutes of the first quarter, going into the second quarter up 26 23. Pelicans guard JJ Redick put in the work that pushed the Pelicans ahead, shining with his notorious 90 percent sink rate and a clean assist to guard Jrue Holiday to close the gap. Zion Williamson got going with a few buckets in the quarter. He averaged 23.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game in 19 games this season. Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry vowed to use Zion Williamson in "short bursts" after Williamson missed so much practice time recently tending to an urgent family matter. But New Orleans' other stars have clicked quickly to compensate for the limited minutes. Brandon Ingram (15 points) and Jrue Holiday (12 points) have complemented Williamson's 9 points on 4 for 4 shooting in just seven minutes. It's been sharp offensive start for the Pelicans in building a 60 48 lead, as they seek to build early momentum in their quest to wrest the West's No. 8 seed away from Memphis. The Pelicans' lead tightened, 87 79, as the Jazz upped their offensive game in the third with help from a few 3 pointers with Utah's Royce O'Neale coming in hot toward the last three minutes of the quarter. But Utah's success in the paint really sealed its comeback. Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson and the Pelicans' Ingram led the board with 18 points a piece. Lonzo Ball, the Pelicans point guard, leads the game in assists. And Gobert despite being benched with a little over two minutes left on the clock after taking a foul from JJ Redick still led in rebounds. New Orleans had 20 fouls by the quarter's end. Zion Williamson tossed clear assists to both Jrue Holiday in a dunk and Lonzo Ball for a layup early in the third, proving the 20 year old's chemistry is intact in his 20th career game. Redick also landed two 3s, holding the Pelicans' lead. A considerable concern for many teams after just three weeks of full speed practices was their readiness for games that count and how ugly the product might look early. Utah was shooting 24.1 percent from the 3 point line through three quarters (7 of 29) and had committed 15 turnovers, with Donovan Mitchell shooting just 4 of 11 from the field for 12 points. The Jazz, though, entered the final period trailing by just 8 points, despite their up and down offense. Take a look: Zion in action. Utah's Mitchell scored 8 points in the last 8 minutes of the game, which initially lifted the Jazz over the Pelicans. He hit a layup and a 3 pointer to overtake the lead in the last 4 minutes. Still, Utah's Jordan Clarkson and Ingram were the top scorers with 23 points each. 1. Both teams, as expected, were sloppy in their first game since March. The Jazz and Pelicans each had 20 turnovers, well above their season averages. 2. Zion Williamson: once again impressive: 6 of 8 from the field for 13 points in 15 minutes. 3. Lonzo Ball: 2 of 13 from the field. Missed all four of his 3 point attempts. 4. The Jazz shot 8 of 34 (23.5 percent) from 3 point land and still managed to win. 5. Jordan Clarkson was the top scorer for the Jazz, and he didn't even start. He scored 23 points off the bench. The two titans of the West tipped off with Lakers center JaVale McGee landing a clean shot with help from league assist leader LeBron James, who had two assists within the first couple of minutes and five by the end of the first quarter. The Lakers ended the first quarter ahead, 35 23. Paul George, a six time All Star, scored the Clippers' first points and led the team with 8 points out the gate. Both teams were missing players. The Clippers were without Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell, both of whom left the campus. Williams has since returned and is still in quarantine, while Harrell's status is unknown. The Lakers do not have Rajon Rondo, who broke his thumb while in the bubble, or Avery Bradley, who opted to skip the Disney World restart. Lakers forward Anthony Davis who almost didn't play because of an eye injury had 14 points in the first quarter. Davis got into a tit for tat dunk battle with Clippers forward Joakim Noah, who smacked what should've been a clear shot for Davis out of his hands only to have Davis come back and dunk on him minutes later. Both forwards secured three rebounds in the first quarter. Noah was making his debut for the Clippers. Noah, a former defensive player of the year, has battled injuries for the last five years, but he put together a productive run with the Memphis Grizzlies last year. In his prime, Noah was an energetic, frenzied presence on the defensive end and a frequent LeBron James antagonizer and helped the Chicago Bulls get to the Eastern Conference finals. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
SAN FRANCISCO Many iPhone owners believe Apple purposely slowed down their old devices as it released new ones. Now some of them might be in line for a small payday: Apple has agreed to pay some iPhone owners about 25 each to settle such complaints. Under a proposed settlement disclosed on Friday, Apple agreed to pay up to 500 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of intentionally slowing down certain iPhones years after they were released. The settlement requires a federal judge's approval. A decision is expected to take several months. On Monday, an Apple spokeswoman pointed to court documents in which the company denied the allegations and agreed to the settlement to avoid costly litigation. "The settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing, fault, liability or damage of any kind," Apple said. (Such language is common in settlements.) In late 2017, customers publicly complained that they believed Apple was engaged in so called planned obsolescence intentionally slowing its older phones as it released new models. In response, Apple said software on certain older iPhones sometimes reduced their processing power when the battery was low to prevent them from abruptly shutting down. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
PARIS Nothing says Parisian chic like a tractor jacket. Forget the nipped blazers, the custom loafers, the cleverly knotted Hermes cravats. Get yourself to the Carhartt outpost here, a short walk from Colette, the retailing madhouse where, at a recently installed Balenciaga pop up shop, one can order a T shirt customized with logos as tacky as the ones at a stall next to a saltwater taffy stand in Atlantic City. Printed on site, they cost a mere 255 euros (about 285). Follow the men's wear shows in Florence, Milan and Paris for three weeks and what you'll notice is, of all things, America already is first. Stealthily, the sportswear that is a mostly American innovation has become a universalized form of millennial dress. It turns up in the sneakers from almost every luxury goods house and in the tricked out tracksuits, car coats and gym shoes that overshadowed the few traditional wardrobe elements in the new Valentino collection. Casting an admiring glance at the refined renditions of varsity jackets and droopy training pants created by the Valentino designer Pierpaolo Piccioli, Mr. Wade made a remark that neatly summarized the entire spring 2018 season: "It's one thing for us to think it's cool," he said of the ineffable quality inhering in American sportswear. "It's another thing for the rest of the world to see that." Not only do they see it, but if they are Japanese, they may have looked under the hood, taken apart the engine and rebuilt it better than the original. You expect souped up Americana from Junya Watanabe, whose explorations of elements of United States work wear and his collaborations with the companies behind much of it have helped to define "ametora," a carryall Japanese slang term for American traditional style mimicked, collected and perfected. If heaven is the absence of pain, then Friday morning could have been the Rapture. After days of mercury readings nearing 100, the searing heat suddenly came to an end as light zephyrs wafted in to lower temperatures and lift spirits. Though the music Mr. Watanabe used to open his show, Marvin Gaye's masterpiece "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)," features lyrics both ominous and prophetic of global warming, its melody is sublime enough that it was impossible for those in attendance not to feel the glory of being alive and in Paris. That same buoyant feeling carried over to the Comme des Garcons Homme Plus show later that day at an event space that was once a gilded 19th century ballroom. Front row wags at the Salle Wagram quipped that the label's designer, Rei Kawakubo, must have had a better time at May's Met Gala than anyone had guessed, judging from a show that featured pieced jackets worn inside out over glitter shorts by models resembling the spawn of Nico and Jello Biafra (a chronological impossibility, but never mind), all shod in Nike Air Max 180 sneakers. The soundtrack was some sort of manic disco, a genre, it is safe to say, no one associates with this dour sphynx of fashion. Yet, aside from three jackets bristling with doll parts created in collaboration with the textile artist Mona Luison (although it could just as easily have been the prop guy's from a Wes Craven movie), the mood of the collection was almost giddy. Particularly given the current climate in France its fragmented political landscape, its high unemployment rate, its heavily armed security forces walking the streets the raucous ovation Ms. Kawakubo received was fully merited. Each designer faced a similar challenge: creating normcore duds for the ultrarich. If the history of these two venerable houses was built on supplying discerning clients with authentic luxury goods, the modern reality is that the very rich now are different not only from the rest of us, but an altogether different breed from the rich of the past. Berluti is a century old cobbler transformed by a French multinational into an all purpose supplier to the one percent. Hermes is a centuries old saddlery that once supplied the carriage trade. In the past almost everything such houses created had pragmatic design roots in infantry or cavalry uniforms. Abstracted, most elements of the modern suit would have been familiar to Napoleon. Reacting to the reality that men no longer need that kind of armor, Ms. Nichanian turned her talent to producing relaxed American style sportswear, like drawstring trousers and funnel neck pullovers in cotton poplin, all in subtle spice colors. And, of course, there were the expected sneakers and sandals. "Sophisticated letting go" was how Ms. Nichanian described her intentions, a slippery notion unless you remember Mick Jagger's dictum that it is all right to let yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back. Those familiar with Mr. Jagger know he is abnormally disciplined in his habits, having learned long ago the effort required to make difficult things look easy. One of the pitfalls in fashion, particularly men's wear, is the temptation to advertise the cost of clothes through the use of exotic materials. There is nothing like crocodile to announce to the world that your jacket cost more than someone else's annual mortgage payment. In Mr. Jones's rendition, the garish tropical shirts came muted by a veil of organza. They were shown with bucket hats reminiscent of the Hawaiian Punch guy, patch pocket pullover jackets and voluminous khakis or skinny board shorts. There were also a couple of suits tossed in almost desultorily, the way you might pack something fancy for a vacation, just in case. The new Louis Vuitton collection had a beachy ease, a look that in the eyes of this viewer seemed unmistakably American. You could imagine Mr. Jones's designs being worn by a man who is probably Hawaii's most famous native son. You know the one: the 44th president of the United States. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The fiction feature directorial debut of the Guatemalan filmmaker Cesar Diaz is a modestly scaled picture with massive implications. Diaz's background is in editing, and there's a strong documentary component in his filmography. So it's fitting that in this picture the protagonist is a forensic anthropologist one who is working on a project that goes back decades rather than centuries, which is usually what we see in movies featuring anthropologists. The movie opens with Ernesto, the young anthropologist (Armando Espitia), in a dimly lit room, one you might see in a lab or a morgue, laying out bones on a table until a human skeleton takes shape. Diaz shoots and edits this process to put across a sense of quietude and patience, emphasizing process. Ernesto is part of a team investigating massacres from the 1980s, amid Guatemala's long civil war. The movie is set in 2018, when the perpetrators of such atrocities were being brought to account for their actions. Ernesto is not just looking for justice, he's trying to find the father he believes was a guerrilla and a victim of a mass killing in a village. In one scene, a few of the characters watch a television documentary in which a narrator notes, "Military command regarded the whole population as the enemy." Men were killed, women were imprisoned, subjugated and raped, and now the killing fields are mass graveyards, each one a place where Ernesto's investigative team must acquire discrete permission to dig up. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
THE craze for panoramas swept America in the 1840s, inspiring both P. T. Barnum and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Panoramas of the era were giant realistic paintings of exotic landscapes, unscrolled on rollers to the accompaniment of piano music. They astonished audiences, much as IMAX films did some 150 years later. Americans have repeatedly indulged in big views ever since: picture windows in the ranch house, CinemaScope at the drive in, wide screen television in the media room. A similar passion for the wider view may be taking shape in automobiles. Huge double sunroofs are growing more popular. They offer a view of the sky that attracts about as many car buyers as those who get navigation units, at a cost roughly equivalent to the 1,500 that is the car salesman's rule of thumb for leather seats. The Web site of an auto industry publication, Wardsauto.com, recently reported that 31 percent of vehicles are bought with a sunroof today, while a decade ago only about 20 percent had one. Ford says orders for its expansive Vista Roof option are double what had been projected; in two crossover models, the Edge and Explorer, half of the buyers spent the extra money for it. The option is also available on the Lincoln MKX. Gerry McGovern, head of design at Land Rover, said panoramic roofs made a vehicle's interior seem larger, opening it to the outside world. "They bring in the urban ambiance," Mr. McGovern said. (He has given the new Land Rover Evoque a very large sunroof.) The notion is not a new one: publicity for the De Soto Skyview taxicabs of the 1940s and '50s promoted their open roofs as an attraction to city visitors. Ceiling glass can also make tightly packed interiors seem more attractive, designers say a benefit to companies trying to meet new fuel economy standards by selling smaller cars. Passenger vehicles must meet federal safety standards, no matter what type of roof. Panoramic roofs have also fared well in independent tests. "We have tested a couple of vehicles with panoramic style sunroofs," Russ Rader, vice president for communications of the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, said in an e mail. "There is no indication that these roof designs aren't as strong as roofs without them." He added: "However, this doesn't mean that vehicles with glass roof panels would be as safe in rollovers as vehicles without them." Glass roofs could break or pop out. Sunroofs are being sold with the sort of breathless marketing language once reserved for a new engine or transmission. The trade names applied to the panoramic roof systems promise the heavens: Command View, UltraView and perhaps the best, Magic Sky, from Mercedes Benz. These names awaken memories of the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagons of the 1960s and 1970s, with their angled roof windows inspired by Vista Dome railroad cars. The roofs are getting bigger. The latest version of Cadillac's UltraView sunroof, available on the SRX crossover and CTS models, has grown on the new model: the SRX's sunroof covers 70 percent of the roof area and has a power retractable shade. Volkswagen says that the glass roof of the 2012 Beetle is 80 percent larger than its predecessor's and that it blocks 99 percent of the ultraviolet radiation and 92 percent of the heat energy. The Volkswagen EOS even offers a sunroof within its folding hard top. "It is an upscale feature," said Rainer Michel, vice president for product marketing and strategy at Volkswagen of America. "You don't have to give up the outside entirely when the top is up," he said. The large sunroof appears to link with the windshield, turning the whole roof into a sheet of glass, Mr. Michel said. Acura says that the panoramic window of its slope backed ZDX crossover is the largest in the industry. But the most dramatic and extreme treatment may be that of the Jaguar XJ sedan, whose glass sweeps from the windshield to the rear deck and is the key to the car's visual identity. Jaguar explains that the XJ roof, unlike a conventional sunroof, has a front section that opens upward and outward to prevent any loss of headroom. There are twin electric blinds for privacy. The roofs of some cars with panoramic glass the Kia Optima is an example are painted in dark reflective colors or covered with materials designers call foils to give the impression of a roof made entirely of glass. The appeal may be more fashion than function, as with the vogue of the 1950s, when some models had their entire upper bodies painted white to simulate convertibles. But there is also genuinely new technology overhead. The Magic Sky glass roof on the folding hardtop of the 2012 Mercedes Benz SLK roadster changes from dark to clear at the touch of a button. Voltage passing through particles in the glass causes them to realign, lightening or darkening the roof. (A panorama roof with permanently dark tinted glass is also available.) According to Mercedes, the technology is based on the physics of a plate condenser: when voltage is applied to the glass, the embedded particles position themselves to let light to pass through the glass. If the voltage remains switched off, the particles position themselves randomly, blocking the light, and the glass remains dark. The price of this option is 2,500. Light from above signals luxury. The romantic appeal of the panoramic roof may be suggested by a BMW television advertisement that shows the driver refilling his coffee mug from a low flying military tanker aircraft. A recent Volvo spot showed happy vehicles with their roofs open at night, light shining upward. Lincoln counts the panoramic roof as a luxury feature and promises that future models will be distinguished from garden variety Fords by large sliding glass roof panels. But Ford, too, is emphasizing glass in future models. The Evos, a design study introduced at the Frankfurt auto show last month that serves as a summary of the Ford brand's future design language, offers a band of glass in the roof. "It runs from windshield to backlight, but we put in a couple of chicanes," Ford's vice president for design, J Mays, said. Not all panoramic roofs have to be glass or high tech. The Fiat 500 offers an optional folding canvas roof, evocative of the 1950s. The Jeep Liberty also offers a canvas roof, the Sky Slider. Perhaps only one step remains in the evolution of the panoramic roof: no glass at all. The Pantheon in Rome, considered one of the greatest buildings in the world, offers a sunroof: a 30 foot hole in the dome. It brings in light and not much more than an occasional sprinkle of rain onto the backs of pigeons beneath. It also has a cool Latin name, ideal for marketing: oculus. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
When a man gets MeToo'd which is to say, when a man experiences the consequences of his offenses against women a predictable cry emerges from the predictable corners of the internet: What about his art? What about the jokes he'll never tell; what about the books he won't write; what about the films we'll never get to see? These fans don't ask about the women who've been sidelined or silenced or who have abandoned their chosen fields. What about the jokes we'll never hear from the women who decided that success as a standup wasn't worth watching Louis CK masturbate? What about the documentaries we'll never see from Charlie Rose's victims, or the performances we'll never see from Harvey Weinstein's? And what about the would be comedians or actors or writers or journalists who were raped or assaulted as young women, and who were stopped before they got started, silenced before they could speak? I picture those stories like a drowned library, an underwater Atlantis of movies and books and performances that will never be. "Know My Name," by Chanel Miller, the young woman whom Brock Turner, the so called Stanford Swimmer, assaulted in 2015, is one of the rescued, a memoir by a writer who dived down into the darkness, pulled herself up and out and laid her story on the sand, still dripping, with its sharp edges intact. "As soon as you let a little bit of air in, the shame loses its power": Read our profile of Chanel Miller. Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. None Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more. See what's new in October: Among this month's new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric. Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125. That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books. In January 2015, Miller was 23 and a recent college graduate when she went to a fraternity party with her sister and a friend. She sipped warm beer, tossed down vodka, went outside to pee. "I was bored, at ease, drunk and extremely tired, less than 10 minutes from home. I had outgrown everything around me. And that is where my memory goes black, where the reel cuts off." (A good thing, as it spares us the specifics of exactly what happened after Turner got her alone behind a dumpster, the kinds of details that have become commonplace in the small but emerging genre of survivor memoirs. If you aren't already angry, consider that the genre of survivor memoirs is a thing that exists, and that Miller joins the likes of Jaycee Dugard and Michelle Knight, abductees who wrote about the horrors they endured in their captivities.) Miller wakes up in the hospital, with pine needles in her hair, her underwear missing, debris in her vagina. With unsparing detail, she describes what happened next: trying to figure out why a police officer and a Stanford dean are in her room, trying to find her phone, trying to make sense of the night. She is stripped, swabbed, examined, photographed inside and out. "Another microscopic camera snaked up inside of me, the internal walls of my vagina displayed on a screen. I understood their gloved hands were keeping me from falling into an abyss. ... They could not undo what was done, but they could record it, photograph every millimeter of it, seal it into bags, force someone to look." Miller learns part of the story in the hospital and reads the rest online. "I clicked back to the news on my homepage, saw Stanford athlete, saw raping, saw unconscious woman. I clicked again, my screen filled with two blue eyes and a neat row of teeth, freckles, red tie, black suit." Watch patriarchy work: Miller's assailant becomes the Stanford Swimmer. He gets a name, a face, a back story. Newspapers published details of his athletic prowess, with a photograph that Miller dryly notes could have doubled as a LinkedIn profile picture. "I was never called girl, only victim," Miller writes, quoting the police report: "He stated that he kissed VICTIM while on the ground. He took off the VICTIM's underwear and fingered her vagina. He also touched the VICTIM's breasts." "Know My Name" is an act of reclamation. On every page, Miller unflattens herself, returning from Victim or Emily Doe to Chanel, a beloved daughter and sister, whose mother emigrated from China to learn English and become a writer and whose father is a therapist; a girl who was so shy that, in an elementary school play about a safari, she played the grass. Miller reads "Rumi, Woolf, Didion, Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, Banana Yoshimoto, Miranda July, Chang rae Lee, Carlos Bulosan." She rides her bike "through the Baylands ... across crunchy salt and pickleweed." She fosters elderly rescue dogs with names like Butch and Remy and Squid. She rages against a form that identifies "victim's race" as white. "Never in my life have I checked only white. You cannot note my whiteness without acknowledging I am equal parts Chinese." "Know My Name" is one woman's story. But it's also every woman's story the story of a world whose institutions are built to protect men; a world where sexual objectification is ubiquitous and the threat of sexual violence is constant. Before Turner assaulted her, Miller had already survived one act of deadly misogyny near her college, the University of California at Santa Barbara, when Elliot Rodger, a privileged young man enraged that he'd never had a girlfriend, went on a spree and killed six people. After the assault, Miller enrolls in art school in Rhode Island. But the East Coast proves no safer. Walking back from class, "I passed three men sitting on a car who fastened their eyes on my legs, clicked their tongues and smacked their lips, performing the sounds and hand gestures one might use if attempting to summon a cat. ... I trained myself to tuck my head down, avoiding eye contact, feigning invisibility." Miller takes us through the trial, her steadfast, supportive attorney, the humiliation of testifying, her rage when Judge Aaron Persky sentences Turner to just six months in county jail and probation, because a longer sentence would have a "severe impact" on the onetime Olympic hopeful. She quotes Turner's father's complaints that "these verdicts have broken and shattered" his son, who can no longer enjoy the rib eye steaks he once loved. Turner himself says that he wants to "speak out against the college campus drinking culture and the sexual promiscuity." "He had lived shielded under a roof where the verdict was never accepted, where he would never be held accountable," Miller writes. And then there was Stanford. "Their apathy, their lack of apology I could live with, but what troubled me most was their failure to ask the single most important question: How do we ensure this does not happen again?" Eventually, there's a hint of justice, a tiny rebalancing of the scales. Judge Persky is recalled. Turner's appeal is denied. Miller writes an incandescent, awesomely angry victim impact statement that blazes across the internet, beginning, "You don't know me, but you've been inside me, and that is why we're here." While Turner registers as a sex offender, Miller signs a book contract. She texts her mother a picture of herself in New York City, enjoying a celebratory dessert of grilled peaches. Her mother texts back, "You are mommy's dream." Miller is a poetic, precise writer with an eye for detail: A courthouse waiting room she called the "victim closet" was furnished with "a dirty yellow couch that looked sculpted out of earwax"; a fraternity was "a sour, yeasty atmosphere" where "punch tasted like paint thinner and curls of black hair were pasted to toilet rims." Occasionally, the writing draws attention to itself, and away from the story, but those are rare missteps. Miller hardly ever flinches from the darkness or jagged edges of her tale. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
IN their undergrad uniforms of fleece and sweats, a clutch of Rutgers students gathered on the worn red couches of their dorm's common room and told their stories. A good looking, fun loving 23 year old named Greg described arriving at college freshman year with a daily pot smoking habit and a close relationship with alcohol. He soon followed the lead of his alcoholic father and was binge drinking (five drinks or more in a row). "It was pretty scary," he said. For his self diagnosed anxiety and depression, he secretly began taking Klonopin, which he bought from another student. By sophomore year, he was taking six a day. And when it ran out, he wound up in a hospital to manage withdrawal, followed by nine months of rehab. Unlike the other students on the couch, Devin Fox, 26, gave permission to use his surname because of his career choice. He is pursuing a graduate degree in social work, hoping to work at a policy level in the mental illness field. Mr. Fox had been so despondent over his addiction to methamphetamine that he tried to overdose. Like Greg, he is now three years clean. The students live in one of two recovery dorms tucked away in anonymity on the sprawling New Brunswick, N.J., campus. In 1988, Rutgers started what is believed to be the first residential recovery program on a college campus, according to Lisa Laitman, director of its Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program. She helped create the program after seeing students struggle to abstain as dorm mates partied. Back then, there was little talk about helping students transition to college after treatment for their drug and alcohol problems. Even in 2002, when the nonprofit Association of Recovery Schools was formed, only four colleges joined. But over the past several years recovery programs have been popping up at colleges, large and small, public and private. Now there are more than 20 programs, with more in the pipeline. Texas Tech University has used some 900,000 in federal grants to help campuses build programs. Case Western Reserve and Augsburg College, like Rutgers, provide separate housing. William Paterson University groups recovering students in substance free housing, where drugs and alcohol aren't welcome. Texas Tech puts its first year students on their own floor. New this fall, students at the University of Michigan could choose a recovery room from the residential life drop down menu to live with a like minded roommate. "There's a big difference between a substance free and a recovery option," explains Mary Jo Desprez, the program director. "A recovery room is for students who are actively pursuing staying sober." Until recently, public policy focused on prevention and treatment. "We never talked about recovery as a kind of separate entity it was almost like treatment was the end in and by itself," says R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is joining with the Department of Education to urge colleges to consider recovery programs. And, no wonder. Research shows that young people are among the most vulnerable to addiction. Though pleasure seeking, risk taking parts of their brain are in full throttle, areas that control judgment, emotion and impulse aren't fully developed until the mid 20s. "You've got the accelerator without the brakes," says Dr. Robert L. DuPont, first director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and author of "The Selfish Brain: Learning From Addiction." Genetics, peer pressure and psychological disorders up the ante. And the earlier people start to drink or take drugs, the more likely they are to become addicted. A Texas Tech survey of college students in five recovery programs found that the average age of addiction was 15. Recovery program directors say many of their students had both an alcohol and drug habit, with marijuana dependency increasingly common. Studies have found that 17 percent of college students report smoking marijuana at least once a month; 8 percent use other illicit drugs, including pharmaceuticals like Adderall, Vicodin and OxyContin without a prescription; and 42 percent binge drink, a rate fairly constant over the past decade. The social fabric of college can be harrowing for students who are trying to shake addictions. After rehab, some don't return to school, or they live at home while continuing their studies. Students living on campus often face relapse triggers old drinking and drugging buddies; stress over exams, finances and social lives without a supportive environment. "It's simply a recipe for failure," says Dr. Jon Morgenstern, director of addiction treatment in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, which recently collaborated with Hazelden, a nonprofit addiction agency, to establish a recovery residence in the TriBeCa area of Manhattan for college students. While older adults often have a spouse and job that give strength and identity, college students usually don't, Dr. Morgenstern notes. Getting young people to accept a life forever free of drugs or alcohol is difficult. "They exist in a youth culture," pushing the envelope in countless ways. "At some point," he says, "you expect them to come back and transition to adult responsibilities." Some don't. The programs, for which students typically pay no additional fees, include classes on how to prevent relapses, community service opportunities and an array of activities substance free, of course. At the heart is the peer interaction that is so important for young people. At Rutgers, there are 31 students in recovery dorms, some having arrived straight from high school a group that is growing, say program directors. They are part of a community, knit together by required attendance at Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at least twice a week, a weekly group meeting with an addiction therapist their first year of recovery, and a monthly house meeting at 8:30 a.m. with Ms. Laitman; their recovery counselor, Frank Greenagel Jr.; and two other therapists. The students shuffle in wearing pajamas, flip flops and often dazed looks of dreams interrupted. To soften the shock, the adults bring bagels and coffees. By design and happenstance, the students participate in a host of activities. They study together and make Starbucks runs. They compete in the intramural soccer and softball leagues. They run in a 5K race for the advocacy organization Autism Speaks, go tubing, play croquet and read poetry at Walt Whitman's grave. And to help envision themselves in a sober life after college, they barbecue with the program's successful alumni. There are jokes and pranks, and complaints about who broke a glass in the bathroom. "If you're not having fun in recovery, then you aren't going to stay sober," Ms. Laitman says. The buffalo wing eating competition is part of recovery dorm lore captured on video and shown at the seniors' graduation. As it played on a laptop, the students around the couch gloried in the memory. "The wings were so hot you had to sign a waiver," said a resident adviser named Dan. Here's Ben, cross legged, trying to meditate the pain away. Here's Amanda, bending over in a bout of nausea. Other frames show students laid out on the ground, overcome. They are, said Mr. Fox, an extended family. "There are some people I really like and some I can't stand in my family, and I have to talk to them anyway." The students laughed in agreement. Their shared experiences of addiction's fallout school expulsions, failed relationships and distraught parents bind them in ways both casual and profound. "I'm a little burned," said Jessie, 19, who used L.S.D., alcohol, pot and other illicit drugs. "Can't you tell," teased Trevor, 22. But the ribbing stopped as Jessie described how his girlfriend dumped him when he was asked to leave his previous college after he was arrested for smoking and selling pot on campus. "I feel terrible for all the things I was doing to hurt her," he said. Occasionally, she calls. It's painful. "My head is messed up for about a week afterward." Revealing their history to others is a personal choice. When Jessie's friends outside the program invite him to party, he declines. His excuse: homework. Another student, who abruptly left Rutgers midsemester for rehab and returned through the recovery program, is more straightforward with his old classmates. "It makes me more comfortable," he said. "It's better than saying that I was abducted by aliens." When a friend relapses, they learn what it's like to care for someone who loses their battle. ("It must suck to be our parents," Dan said.) Last year, when a student returned to the dorm noticeably drunk, friends dumped out his stash of beer and notified the recovery counselor, Mr. Greenagel. Typically, students are taken immediately to their families or someone in their A.A. or N.A. network. Sometimes, students report themselves. "It always seems to happen in the middle of the night," Mr. Fox said. But students at Rutgers, Texas Tech and Augsburg have been breathtakingly clean, with abstinent rates averaging in the mid to high 90s. Generally, a third of 16 to 25 year olds who seek help will improve substantially, according to Dr. John F. Kelly, associate director of the Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Students at Augsburg, a Lutheran college in Minneapolis, take announced and random drug tests. Rutgers and Texas Tech lean on students' desire to stay part of their community. Of course, there's a self selection factor at work here. Students are screened to gauge their level of commitment. They must be sober for a minimum period: three months for Rutgers to nine months for Texas Tech. The students all share the goal of graduating. Grade point averages of the Rutgers and Texas Tech students hover at 3.0 or a bit higher; both award scholarships to students who maintain certain G.P.A.'s. Though he does well academically at Rutgers, Greg measures his success in other ways. "The most noticeable thing is all the friends I've made," he said. "I live with a lot of good people. I have some good laughs these days, good true laughs. I really didn't have that before." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
Mondrian's heirs, who commissioned their own provenance report, say the artist lent at least eight works to the museum 90 years ago for an exhibition that never took place and left them behind when he fled Europe during World War II. Only four remain in the city collection the remaining four were sold or bartered by the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum's postwar director, Paul Wember, in the early 1950s. The heirs staked a claim to all eight paintings based on a research report conducted for them and made public last year. The city argued that it believed the paintings were gifts from Mondrian and then hired two provenance researchers to further investigate. Their report, a summary of which was released Tuesday, agrees with the heirs' assertion that the paintings were still in Mondrian's ownership when they were offered for sale at a Frankfurt exhibition in spring 1929. They also agree that in summer 1929, Krefeld was planning an exhibition of international abstract art, including works by Mondrian. But where the heirs take the view that the paintings in question were sent to Krefeld on loan for the planned exhibition before it was canceled, the city's researchers suggest the works could have been acquired by one of the museum's benefactors and donated to the city. Neither side has definitive proof of either possibility. The four paintings were first listed in the museum's inventory in 1954. The works, which date from 1925 and 1926, are examples of what Mondrian termed "neo plasticism" a reduction of painting to the purest and most fundamental form, color and line. He used only primary colors and black, white and gray, only painted squares and rectangles, and only employed straight horizontal or vertical lines. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
The acclaimed photographer Nicholas Nixon abruptly retired from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design midsemester following allegations of inappropriate behavior, the college announced this month. Mr. Nixon, 70, is perhaps best known for "The Brown Sisters," a series of portraits documenting four sisters one of whom is his wife for 40 consecutive years. He started taking them in 1975, the same year that he began a part time professorship at MassArt. David Nelson, the college's president, wrote in a letter to students and faculty that the school had received allegations against Mr. Nixon, prompting it to start investigating whether he violated Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender. Mr. Nixon subsequently decided to retire, and is no longer on campus. The letter did not detail the nature of allegations against Mr. Nixon. But in a statement reported by The Boston Globe, Mr. Nixon's lawyer, Bruce A. Singal, indicated that the college is investigating reports that Mr. Nixon allegedly made inappropriate comments to students and staff members. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Dread, Mr. Robot explains, is that feeling of crossing a line you don't realize exists until you've already crossed it. It's that "My God, what have I done" sensation, when you find yourself in over your head and realize you're the one who got yourself there. And if there's one thing the director Sam Esmail does well, it's dread. His long takes, his slow zooms, his beautiful close ups of big eyed people staring in disbelief: They make him television's poet laureate of waiting for the other shoe to drop, and knowing that when it falls, it will hit hard. This week's episode of "Mr. Robot" was all about that ugly feeling. It divides its time between three situations in which characters are held against their will, desperate to find a way out, waiting to see what their captor will do next. Throw in the composer Mac Quayle 's increasingly ominous score and the cinematographer Tod Campbell 's confidently stark camera work and you have a recipe for a very black Christmas indeed. In all three cases, the captives are unable to meet their captors' demands without breaking some important part of themselves clean off. For Olivia, the seeds of her predicament were planted a couple of episodes ago when Elliot slept with her in order to access files pertaining to the all powerful Deus Group. Exploiting her history of addiction and child custody disputes, Elliot returns to her apartment bearing a peppermint latte spiked with oxycodone. Once the drugs are in her system, the hook is set: He warns her that he will see to it that she loses custody of her child unless she helps him steal her boss's login credentials. It's his dread inducing dilemma. It's also a power play so callous and brutal that even Mr. Robot, who was once the firebrand personality of Elliot's mind, wants no part of it. It works, especially after Elliot mentions the Deus Group's complicity in a paramilitary massacre that killed Olivia's mother. It also drives Olivia to attempt suicide. "I may work for monsters," she says after Elliot finds her and treats her wounded wrists, "but you are one. And you're the worst kind, because you don't even know it." I have a feeling he knows it now. Elliot's sister, Darlene, could no doubt relate to both sides of Elliot and Olivia's dilemma. Like Elliot, she once slept with a woman in her case, the F.B.I. agent Dom DiPierro in order to gain access to otherwise off limits intel. This unethical maneuver landed Dom directly in the clutches of the Dark Army, which, through its perpetually perky operative, Janice (an excellent heel performance by Ashlie Atkinson ), threatens to torture her family to death if she disobeys them. Dom's problem now, though, is that the Dark Army has ordered her to execute Darlene for refusing to help them locate Elliot using the tracer she activated on his and Darlene's phones. As we've seen, Dom still harbors some romantic feelings for Darlene in addition to her seething hatred; moreover, Dom simply isn't a coldblooded killer, and executing a woman as she cries and begs for her life is a bridge too far. In the end, Dom hands her gun to Darlene and, shockingly, begs to be killed instead. This is the only way, she reasons, that the Dark Army will finally leave her family alone. Unfortunately, Janice and some henchmen barge in at this exact moment leaving Darlene just enough time to wipe her phone and prevent them from accessing Elliot's location with it, but also leaving her and Dom's fates in limbo. Our third hostage crisis involves Elliot's old gangster foe, Fernando Vera (Elliot Villar) , and Elliot's therapist, Krista (Gloria Reuben), whom Vera is holding captive in her own apartment. Vera tells her his origin story, an expletive laden tale about getting bullied until he turned the tables with an aluminum baseball bat he had received as a Christmas gift. It wasn't the beat down that permanently gave him power over his abuser, he explains: It was going to the hospital afterward, seeing the bully at his lowest and most vulnerable, and tenderly holding his hand. It's not enough to break a man: You have to be the one to rebuild him, too. What exactly this means for Elliot is uncertain. Cowed, Krista gives Vera access to her file on Elliot, telling him that Mr. Robot is the key to her client's psyche. But if Vera somehow exploits Elliot's split personality as it seems he intends when his minions toss Elliot in the trunk of a car how, and to what purpose, will he build him back up again? Across the board, the cast Rami Malek, Carly Chaikin , Grace Gummer , Gloria Reuben , Dominik Garcia are doing phenomenal work with characters who are close to the edge of despair, if they haven't tipped over already. Malek makes Elliot's decision to blackmail Olivia look like a physical struggle, while Gummer's Dom DiPierro looks as if she might vomit from anxiety and hopelessness at any moment. Part of me wonders if Elliot wouldn't mind being broken down by Vera. His manipulation of Olivia was cruel, reckless her suicide attempt took him completely by surprise, as if forcibly doping an addict after having sex with her under false pretenses and threatening to have her child taken away wouldn't raise this possibility. And it was as manipulative as anything the Deus Group ever did, albeit on a smaller scale. I'm not saying Elliot is asking for whatever Vera plans to do to him. But on some level, I suspect he feels he deserves to be punished. He may not be wrong. None Whiterose, in her Minister Zhang guise, appears in one brief scene, giving orders to have Elliot brought in to witness ... whatever it is she has been trying to do with her Congo project. "It's time he learns we're on the same side," she says. Whatever you say, lady. None In order to salve his own conscience, Elliot takes a swipe at Olivia's, saying she ought to have known her client was crooked. "That's their business model," he says of the men who run the world. "They back everyone into a corner until all that's left is for us to compromise ourselves." That's a 2019 mood if ever there were one. None There's a tremendous split diopter shot of Dom in the foreground and Darlene in the background during their standoff that absolutely delighted the former film student in me. The Esmail Campbell team really knows its way around the camera. None I can't help but figure that the surprise return of the Joey Bada character, Leon, a one time Dark Army assassin turned "full time freelancer," presages Elliot's eventual escape route out of his current predicament. You don't introduce a professional hit man if you don't plan to have him whack some goons. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Do you look at a dance work differently if you don't know who made it? A choreographer's name, like that of any artist, is a brand a repository for reputation, necessary for fandom and crucial for marketing. But that same reputation can become a trap, compelling an artist to deliver the familiar and a viewer to expect it, with preconceptions and prejudices that can obscure the work. Hence the appeal of choreography without attribution. That's the idea behind one of two programs that Ballet de Lorraine has brought to the Joyce Theater at the start of its first United States tour. The dancers are listed, but instead of the names of those responsible for the music, the costumes and the choreography, there are numbers. Five choreographers contributed to a production tantalizingly titled "Unknown Pleasures." The absence of names should help create the ideal receptor: an open mind. But anonymity delays judgment only until the start of the performance. "Unknown Pleasures" collects five distinct styles or modes, and it's easy to identify which is which, if not which is by whom. You can try to guess the authors, if the work makes you care enough. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
JOHN MORO, a walkie talkie wielding dean, was patrolling the halls of the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music one recent afternoon, droning, "Let's go! Ladies, walk and talk please." Lisa Gwasda was leading her choir class in lilting 16th century madrigals, Paula Kadanoff was teaching a health class on safe sex, and Matthew Daley was coaxing ideas from his senior English class about the use of hubris in "Beowulf," "Macbeth," "Oedipus Rex" and Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias." Then the bell rang, and the four descended into the school's basement. They plugged in amplifiers, broke out microphones, unpacked instruments and turned into the Suspensions, a soul infused rock band composed of eight teachers plus a college counselor and a school aide singing backup. On Wednesday, the band will be among 17 acts performing in the first Teachers' Night at the Apollo, an eclectic roster including a hula hooper, comedians, poets and musicians of all stripes, turning the adage of "those who can't, teach" on its end. "For me it's important to establish for my students that I can actually do this thing that they're sitting in my classroom about to learn," said Jesse Miller, 61, who teaches guitar at Brooklyn's James Madison High and will perform the blues classic "I'm Ready." For Adam Fachler, 23, a second year English teacher in the Bronx, it is an opportunity to pay tribute to a student who dropped out last year despite his efforts to reach him through basketball, calls home and "everything I could think of with my obviously limited toolbox." Mr. Fachler will perform a poem he wrote about the student that starts: "His/eyes/droop/low/like the seat of his pants." For the Suspensions rejected band names include the Hall Passes and Detention it is a chance to cut loose on the stage that propelled the careers of the Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder and Billie Holiday. "I think there's enough talent in this band to move it forward," said Ms. Gwasda, 29, a musical theater aficionado who also plays piano and violin, and who is the band's lead singer. "We're gonna bring it." A RELEASE Anna McHugh, top, teaching at the Urban Assembly School for the Performing Arts, in Harlem. In the basement, above, she practices her act. Photographs by David Goldman for The New York Times Seeking to expand its education programs, the Apollo decided to dedicate one of its weekly Amateur Nights this year to New York City public school teachers. The three acts that get the loudest applause from the audience of 1,500 will compete against Amateur Night winners, and maybe, just maybe, get discovered. But there are also risks: enough boos get one whisked offstage by a tap dancing "executioner" a particularly chilling prospect for a teacher whose students are watching. "I think they're very brave for doing this," said Marion J. Caffey, the executive producer of Amateur Night, laughing just a bit cruelly. "It's going to be terrible if they get booed off. You would die for that to happen to your seventh grade teacher that you didn't like if you were a student. They'll tease you forever." New York City schools have plenty of graduates, and dropouts, who made it to the Apollo and beyond. At Celia Cruz, in Kingsbridge Heights, Nicolette Brown, 18, a senior, has been featured on an LL Cool J album (her rapper name: It's Ya Girl Nicolette). But untold numbers of the city's 80,000 public school teachers harbor hidden talents, many having landed in the classroom after pursuing a career onstage or behind the microphone. Some still moonlight on weekends and holidays. The balancing act can be tricky: five years ago, one Manhattan principal heard his school's music teacher introduced as the conductor of a concert that was broadcast on public radio during a week when she had called in sick. Sometimes the two worlds gel: Ms. Kadanoff, the Suspensions' drummer, ended up at Celia Cruz after listening to Willie (or Dr. William) Rodriguez, an accomplished Latin jazz pianist who is the school's principal, play a gig in the Bronx three years ago. "I said, 'I'm a health educator. Do you know of any openings?' " Ms. Kadanoff recalled. "He was like, 'Come tomorrow morning. That's when summer school starts.' " During the Apollo auditions earlier this year, many teachers displayed a stunning disconnect between their actual and self perceived levels of talent, reminding Mr. Caffey, the executive producer, of early "American Idol," before contestants sang off tune on purpose. "We saw close to 100 people," Mr. Caffey said. "Most of them were bad." There was a comedian who was so not funny "you just sat there in astonishment," he said; music teachers whom no one would want to listen to; and a rock singer inexplicably dressed in a business suit. "Clearly in his basement or his bathroom he was top of the rock charts," Mr. Caffey said, "but that's as far as it should have gotten." But there was also Yolande Tatum Bryant, an elementary school music and theater teacher whose pre classroom career included a stint as an unnamed nurse on "Guiding Light"; she wowed Mr. Caffey with a dramatic recitation from James Weldon Johnson's "God's Trombones." There was Craig Roberts, 49, who spices up social studies lessons at his Bronx middle school with bits of humor to pique his students' interest and retain his own sanity. 'LOVINGLY MOCKING' Mike Fram, top left, and Devin Proctor practicing their pop mash ups. Above, Mr. Fram at his school near Times Square. Emily Berl for The New York Times Mike Fram, 26, and Devin Proctor, 30, friends since their days singing in a capella groups at New York University, will perform what Mr. Fram described as a "lovingly mocking pop music mash up" incorporating Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, beat boxing and guitar playing. When the baby faced duo auditioned, Mr. Caffey gently noted that students were ineligible to compete. "Honest to God, we thought they were like 14 years old," he said. "They said, 'No, we do teach.' " Anna McHugh, a licensed special education teacher in Harlem who describes herself as an "explosive hula hoop performer," will present a three minute extravaganza incorporating six hoops, some of them illuminated. "It provides an outlet for me to be creative and express myself and perform," said Ms. McHugh, 32, who creates her own hoops from PVC piping and has performed at state fairs, in Las Vegas and Off Broadway. "It can be kind of limiting or stifling as a classroom teacher. You have to be the rule enforcer, you have to be the disciplinarian." At Celia Cruz, Ms. Gwasda dreamed for years of forming a band with her colleagues, having gone to a high school on Long Island where a teachers' band, the Greasy Crowbars, played at dances. Things coalesced this winter, and suddenly the Suspensions were making music everywhere. There they were in the teachers' lounge during lunch, managing to keep the rhythm despite the drone of the photocopier. There they were in Mr. Daley's classroom during a free period, experimenting with new tunes. There they were at the same Bronx theater where student performances are held, opening for Antigone Rising. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, who has championed the arts and welcomed refugees while in office, said on Saturday that he would visit Broadway to see a new musical that highlights Canadian generosity toward stranded airline passengers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The show, "Come From Away," is the rare Broadway musical by and about Canadians, and has been greeted enthusiastically by audiences in that country. It is now in previews on Broadway and is set to open March 12. Mr. Trudeau said he and his wife, Sophie, would attend the show on March 15, joining a group of about 600 people attending with the Consulate General of Canada in New York. "Come From Away," with music, lyrics and book by a married Canadian couple, Irene Sankoff and David Hein, is about the encounter between the residents of Gander, Newfoundland, and thousands of international air travelers who were diverted there on the day of the attacks. The show was nurtured by the Canadian Music Theater Project at Sheridan College near Toronto, which is trying to cultivate more musical theater by Canadian writers. The founder of the project, Michael Rubinoff, said the show was only the fifth musical with a Canadian writing team to reach Broadway, after "Rockabye Hamlet" in 1976, "Billy Bishop Goes to War" in 1980, "The Drowsy Chaperone" in 2006 and "The Story of My Life" in 2009. All but "The Drowsy Chaperone" were considered flops. "This is extremely culturally significant, having a Canadian musical, written by Canadians about Canadians, on Broadway that's historic," Mr. Rubinoff said. He said the show would probably appeal to Mr. Trudeau because of his interest in the arts he once taught high school drama and because of his political agenda. "The show speaks to his values," Mr. Rubinoff said. "Welcoming refugees, kindness these are issues he's been championing since he's been prime minister, and those themes speak to him now more than ever, given the international political climate." Mr. Trudeau's spokesman, Cameron Ahmad, said Sunday that the prime minister is coming in part to "support the success of a great Canadian cultural production." But he made clear that the show's themes are also a consideration. "Both our countries share a deep cross border relationship, that extends far beyond our economic ties, and is made stronger by cultural connections and shared values," Mr. Ahmad said. "And we embrace the opportunity to highlight how we are there for each other in times of need." The show has had multiple pre Broadway productions at the La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Repertory Theater, Ford's Theater in Washington and the Royal Alexandra Theater in Toronto. The Toronto production was a particular success, and the show's producers have announced that they will begin a second production of the show in Toronto next February. Several Canadian politicians have already seen the show. Last fall, when the cast performed a concert version of the show in Gander, the audience included Dwight Ball, the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as Frank F. Fagan, the province's lieutenant governor. Mayor John Tory of Toronto saw the show in his city. The mayor of Calgary, Alberta, Naheed Nenshi, attended a Broadway preview, and then declared it the "best musical I've ever seen." The show has also prompted quite a bit of interest among American government officials. Among those who saw the production in Washington were Justice Elena Kagan of the Supreme Court; Laura Bush, the former first lady; members of Congress; and some high level military officials. Several members of the Obama administration also attended a performance, including Samantha Power, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations, and Susan E. Rice, the former national security adviser. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
new video loaded: New Seven Wonders in 360: Petra | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
MOSCOW For months, the Russian government has opposed the idea of Western petroleum sanctions against Iran. But new threats to Iranian oil flow could have at least one beneficiary: Russia. The Russian oil industry was already reaping the rewards of higher global oil prices from Iranian tensions, even before Tehran raised the stakes Wednesday by threatening to cut off oil to six European nations. Now, whether Iran carries out that threat immediately or Europe proceeds with its previously planned embargo of Iranian oil this summer, the Russian industry could capitalize more directly. Its pipelines stand ready to serve customers willing to pay a premium price with a grade of oil closely resembling Iran's. "It's pretty good for Russia right now," Jesse Mercer, a senior oil analyst based in Houston with PFC Energy, said in a telephone interview. Russia is now the world's largest oil producer, pumping about 10 million barrels of oil a day, slightly more than Saudi Arabia. Of this, Russia exports seven million barrels a day. Most of it goes to customers in Europe and Asia, although small amounts from Siberia make it as far as the West Coast of the United States. For Russian oil companies like Rosneft and Lukoil and the Russian British joint venture TNK BP, the international tensions that began over Iran's nuclear development program last autumn have meant a windfall. Analysts estimate that Iran jitters have added 5 to 15 a barrel to the global price of oil, which means an extra 35 million to 105 million a day for the Russian industry. And the taxes the Russian government has received from those sales have been a political windfall for Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin as he campaigns to return as Russia's president. The extra money has helped further subsidize domestic energy consumption, tamping down inflation. "It's good for Putin," Mr. Mercer said. "In the United States, when oil prices go up, the president's ratings go down. In Russia, it's the opposite." Rising prices, of course, are a boon for every oil producer, whether in North Dakota, the North Sea or northern Siberia. What's more, the grade of Russia's main export oil, Ural Blend crude, is similar to Iran's and has already been in greater demand as an alternative to Iranian oil for European refineries. That's why the price of Ural Blend has risen even faster than global prices generally. In December, it traded at a 2 discount to Brent oil from the North Sea. That difference is now gone. Both grades are now trading for about 119.50 a barrel, energy analysts say. The six nations Iran threatened to cut off Wednesday were, in descending order of the size of their purchases: Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Greece and Portugal. Tehran did not explain why it selected those countries, while ignoring even bigger oil users like Germany. But all six were already planning to stop buying Iranian oil this summer, anyway, as part of an embargo the 27 nation European Union agreed to last month, to begin in July. At its recent peak, Europe was buying 500,000 to 660,000 barrels of Iranian oil a day, according to PFC Energy. If the European sanctions do take effect then, oil prices could rise further by as much as 7 to 13 a barrel above where they are now, in the view of Wood Mackenzie, an oil consultancy based in Edinburgh. And even if oil prices later fall, Russia's natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, would continue to benefit for a while. Russian gas prices in Europe, Gazprom's biggest export customer, are linked to the price of oil under long term contracts that are adjusted twice annually, based on average oil prices over the previous six months. So even if oil prices decline, Gazprom's gas prices would remain high in the second half of the year. The United States, despite being a leading critic of Tehran's nuclear ambitions, has been somewhat more muted than Europe on how to punish Iranian's oil industry as American politicians have been divided in their willingness to disrupt global petroleum trading and financing to the potential detriment of strategic allies. In December Congress passed sanctions that, among other measures, impose penalties on foreign banks that clear payments for Iranian oil. Congressional supporters of the sanctions, and the Obama administration, have said the impact on oil prices are justified, given the stakes in Iran. But the White House also cautioned that the bank strictures could interfere in the business dealings of American allies. And so when President Obama signed the measure, he said some provisions would be nonbinding, angering hawkish supporters of the sanctions, which along with Europe's are set to begin in July. As it turns out, at least one exemption under discussion is meant specifically to limit the strategic benefits for Russia, which has been an outspoken critic of American and European strictures against Iran. The United States and European Union are negotiating an exemption that would continue to provide the former Soviet state of Georgia a nation that is now a Western ally an alternative to Russian natural gas. The workaround allows payments to an Iranian company, Naftiran Intertrade, that has a share of the Shah Deniz natural gas field in the Caspian Sea. The field, managed by the Western petroleum giant BP, is a supplier to Georgia. It is also a potential source for the proposed Nabucco pipeline, which would be managed by a consortium based in Vienna and backed by some Western European governments to create European competition with Gazprom. But the pipeline, seen as a maneuver to weaken Russia's hand in European energy politics, has been stalled in the planning phase for years. China, meanwhile, is expected to circumvent the Iranian sanctions with tacit American approval by settling its oil purchases with Iran through banks that have no dealings in the United States. India, for its part, has negotiated to barter wheat for oil, or pay Iran directly in rupees. To be sure, there are other limits to Russia's ability to fully capitalize on the Iranian oil upheaval. The big one is that the Russian industry is already producing petroleum from its working fields at full capacity, since so much of it comes from far northern and Arctic wells that must operate full time year round to keep from freezing. And so Russia cannot suddenly increase its export capacity beyond those current seven million barrels a day. But its extensive pipeline network gives Russia enviable flexibility to direct its oil to wherever demand and prices are highest. That could be a boon for its Asian oil distribution. As it happens, after a decade of Moscow's investment, a trans Siberian oil pipeline is scheduled for completion in this year's third quarter. That will create opportunities for Russia to export petroleum more cheaply than its current railroad shipments to a Pacific port where it is then pumped into tankers for shipments to Japan and South Korea two countries that, as strategic American allies, will be looking for substitutes to Iranian oil. The new pipeline, called the East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline, forks in Siberia so that oil can be sent either to China or to the coast, for export to other Asian customers. It will give Russian exporters the ability to easily exploit likely price differences between customers like China, if it continues as expected to buy Iranian oil, and Japan and South Korea, which probably will not. "They could arbitrage between the two," Mr. Mercer, the analyst, said of this Russian flexibility, "and it could play to their advantage." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
I've watched "Peaky Blinders" more times than I can count and have tried watching numerous other shows but nothing is as good. It has everything: the best writing, acting, cinematography, music and Cillian Murphy. Can anything match it? Arlene It sounds like you have a severe, wonderful case of having a favorite show. Our tastes are not one lifelong upward trajectory, where we constantly find "better" things. It's completely possible that you will never love another show as much as you love "Peaky Blinders." Based on my inbox, you would not be alone! But also, having a favorite show is not a bad thing. It's energizing. It's pleasurable. Your quest is complete. Steer into the skid. Watch shows that have a similar vibe and use those similarities to reflect on the specifics of how much better your favorite show is than its closest brethren. One reason I like, for example, "Better Call Saul" so much is I know who else is in its weight class, and I know how many shows have had "I do things my way" kinds of protagonists and how often shows seem to forget little, but important, details. And every time another show does something stupid that "Saul" doesn't, I feel a juicy thrill of superiority, like my horse won. So, for period dramas with lots of male pouting and no sideburns, "Boardwalk Empire" (which is available to stream with an HBO or HBO Max subscription) covers some similar territory and has those luxe production values that can hide some, but not all, sins. If you don't mind a much slower pace and love all the biological decrepitude of period shows, try "Taboo" (Hulu), which stars Tom Hardy, who created the show with his father, Chips, and Steven Knight, the creator of "Peaky." I wonder if grand scale historical dramas like "Vikings" (Hulu) or the flashier "Spartacus" (Starz, or see three of four seasons free on IMDb TV) might sharpen what feels special about "Peaky Blinders," too. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Nostalgia for 1970s New York is all the rage right now. HBO's new series "Vinyl" and Garth Risk Hallberg's acclaimed novel "City on Fire" frame the era through music. So what was dance seeing at the time? "Ride the Culture Loop," a 1975 work by Anna Sokolow, captures the city's vibrant diversity, restlessness and palpable tension through chaotic groupings and pounding fists. That rarely seen work will be performed by Sokolow Theater/Dance Ensemble, a troupe dedicated to presenting the work of this 20th century modern dance pillar, who died in 2000. Ms. Sokolow responded to the world around her by turning dense internal emotion into big external expression. Also on the program is "Kurt Weill," a 1988 ode to the composer with whom she collaborated, and "Steps of Silence" from 1968, a searing portrait of people lost and alone. With earnest, dramatic gestures, Ms. Sokolow conveys their isolation and desperation. (Wednesday, March 9, through Sunday; 14th Street Y, 14streety.org.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
ALT 92.3 PRESENTS NOT SO SILENT NIGHT at Barclays Center (Dec. 5, 7 p.m.). On the heels of a 2017 merger and subsequent repositioning, this onetime contemporary hits station has tasked itself with filling a noted alt rock void on New York City's airwaves. For 92.3's second annual holiday bash in Brooklyn, they've recruited some of the genre's biggest names. Vampire Weekend, still riding the high of a suite of recently announced Grammy nominations for this year's "Father of the Bride," will appear, as will Cage the Elephant, who also received a nod from the Recording Academy for their recent album "Social Cues." Also performing are the folk rock stalwarts Mumford Sons and the veteran emo band Jimmy Eat World. 917 618 6100, barclayscenter.com BERHANA at Elsewhere (Dec. 3, 8 p.m.). The tracks on this singer's debut album, "Han," are punctuated by short interludes that riff on in flight announcements a nod to the record's international origins. Recorded in Japan by the Atlanta born artist, a son of Ethiopian immigrants, "Han" laces R B grooves with filtered vocals and vintage synth sounds, taking cues from the Japanese singer Yukihiro Takahashi, as well as American forebears like Prince. The album builds on the promise of early singles like the buoyant bop "Janet," from 2016, and "Grey Luh," which garnered attention after it was featured on an episode of "Atlanta." elsewherebrooklyn.com CHER at Madison Square Garden (Dec. 3 4, 7:30 p.m.). Already a legendary performer, this pop titan has had a preternaturally large presence in New York this year, thanks to a biographical musical, "The Cher Show," which ran on Broadway through August. As for the subject herself, she's hardly been scarce: In May, her "Here We Go Again" tour named in honor of ABBA, whose songs she's taken to performing live after releasing an album of covers last year made stops at Barclays Center and across the Hudson at the Prudential Center. On Tuesday, she returns to the area for a two night stand at the Garden, during which she's expected to perform her own classic hits, like "Believe," as well as pay tribute to the Swedish supergroup. 212 465 6000, msg.com DARLENE LOVE at Sony Hall (Nov. 29, 8 p.m.). Few artists have hustled longer and harder to pay their dues than this septuagenarian, who began singing professionally as a high school senior in 1958. With the Blossoms, Love provided vocals (often uncredited) to many top charting songs of the 1960s, including the Ronettes' "Be My Baby," and spent years on the road and in the studio, singing backup for artists like Cher and Elvis Presley. A recent renaissance has brought Love into the spotlight, earning her headlining shows and Rock Roll Hall of Fame recognition. Love's holiday hit "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" is already playing ambiently in public spaces all over New York City; performed live in Midtown on Friday, it's sure to bring the house down. sonyhall.com THURSTON MOORE GROUP at Le Poisson Rouge (Dec. 5, 8:30 p.m.). Moore has maintained a steady output since 2011, when Sonic Youth, the innovative alt rock group he co founded and spent three decades fronting, called it quits. This singer guitarist's most recent release with the Thurston Moore Group a rotating backing band that includes My Bloody Valentine's Deb Googe, Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley and, most recently, the experimental musician Jon Leidecker is "Spirit Counsel," a new addition to the more avant garde catalog that has long coexisted with Moore's better known work in rock. Comprising three long form instrumentals that sprawl across a three LP box set, the release is sure to translate to a demanding but rewarding live show. lpr.com Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead. KATIE VON SCHLEICHER at the Sultan Room (Dec. 4, 9 p.m.). This Brooklyn based singer songwriter has listed Bruce Springsteen's angst, 10cc's camp and Elton John's emotive melodies as touchstones for her '70s influenced indie rock. For the local label Ba Da Bing!, where Von Schleicher worked as an intern before joining the artist roster, she writes and records music that pairs soaring melodies with knotty lyrics about mental illness and instability, all of it coated in analog fuzz. The homemade aesthetic of Von Schleicher's latest album which originated from a set of cassette recordings she made at her family home in Maryland creates a pervasive sense of coziness. On Wednesday, Von Schleicher will perform an opening set at the record release show of Gabriel Birnbaum, her sometime bandmate. thesultanroom.com OLIVIA HORN | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week's most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once a week blast of our pop music coverage. A bare bones blues shuffle is all Mavis Staples needs to carry her lifelong message "Things gotta change around here" in "Change," which opens her new album, "We Get By." The song and album are written and produced by Ben Harper, and it's a magnificent collaboration all the way through. His guitar is lean and raw enough to be her partner, gospelly backup vocals arrive just where they should, and her deep, unbridled voice brings righteousness, power and experience to every word. JON PARELES "Gloria" from the third Lumineers album, due in September, has the guitar strumming, major chord drive of other Lumineers songs. But it sketches a grim story line about alcoholism, addiction and destroyed lives. "Gloria, they found you on the floor," Wesley Schultz sings, and later, "Gloria, there's easier ways to die." Its video clip part of a series turning the album's songs into a narrative is jolting and unsparing. PARELES Steve Lacy the 20 year old guitarist and producer for the Internet and a recent collaborator with Solange, Blood Orange and Vampire Weekend is largely a one man studio band on his debut album. The album's grand statement is "Like Me," a nine minute suite about coming to terms with his bisexuality: "I just want to relate to everyone," he explains. He sets up a clattering, dissonant vamp; he has the phrase "I really wonder" ricocheting all around; he sings, "How many others not gon' tell their family?/How many scared to lose their friends like me?" And before the nine minutes are over, he allows himself long silences and two other distinct song fragments: one about crying unheard, one a slow jam meditation on the words "hear love fade away." Whether he finds self acceptance is an open question. PARELES Hollow grunge guitar chords and a stolid, noncommittal hip hop beat accompany Clairo as she details the way a breakup can too late clarify things: "Can you see me using everything to hold back?/I guess this could be worse, walking out the door with your bags." The bitterness accumulates, line by line and beat by beat, low fi instruments coming and going like waves of anger, calculation and desperate self preservation: "Pardon my emotions/I should probably keep it all to myself, knowing you'd make fun of me." PARELES Shabazz Palaces's Ishmael Butler plays the Pied Piper's role on this quick and potent track from "Flamagra," Flying Lotus's first new album in five years. He pulls us down a dark path with cryptic prophesies and the allure of some lingering danger; the tin can clop of a West African beat and Thundercat's spare, thrifty bass playing help nudge us along. But underneath it all, Butler's abstruse verses offer glimpses at salvation, and he finishes on a hopeful note: "A golden glow that's so passionate, styles dash, we so casual/Dash past the imam, black limb is transcendent/Broke minds mended, it's the genesis." GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO Seratones, 'Gotta Get to Know Ya' Seratones, a rock band from Shreveport led by the guitarist and singer A.J. Haynes, applies 21st century sonic armament to its garage rock foundations on "Gotta Get To Know Ya," a demand to "Turn up, turn on, tune in" and a promise that "Baby gonna feel the heat." The fuzztone is cranked way up, Haynes's bluesy vocals are multiplied, synthesizer tones wriggle here and there, and the drums are overloaded with distortion in what sounds like a programmed version of a mid 1960s stomp. It's not roots rock anymore. PARELES Emeli Sande's latest urgent affirmation "You deserve peace of mind, you deserve all the laughter/You are one of a kind, you deserve happy ever after" doesn't let the earnestness of her voice rule the music. The solemn piano chords that start the song, joined by strings that raise the tension for a full opening minute, make way for a Latin tinged dance beat harking back to prime 1980s Michael Jackson. Instead of bearing down, the track lifts off. PARELES Both of these drummers are in their late 50s, each boasts a hard charging, wall shaking style, and they both have new albums out today. In the 1980s Peterson was apprenticed to the straight ahead jazz icon Art Blakey, while Weston was the youngest member of Prime Time, Ornette Coleman's renowned bizarro funk outfit. On "Legacy: Alive Vol. 6 at the Side Door," Peterson gathers fellow Blakey alumni for a tribute to their former boss, including this 12 minute, gallivanting workout on "Blues March." Weston, meanwhile, keeps the spirit of Prime Time alive on "Dust and Ash" with his manic, nearly danceable playing. But his pairing of a jazz rock fusion four piece and a string quartet yields something spacey and explosive and distinct, especially on the title track. RUSSONELLO The solitude is palpable in "Lonesome Pine": in its sparse handful of guitar notes, in the fitful rustle of its brushed snare drum and in the age old imagery. The singer has been sleeping in a cold, windy, starless forest, "wishing that you were mine," realizing that he "never felt so alone." Chance McCoy plays banjo, fiddle, guitar and other instruments in the bluegrassy jam band Old Crow Medicine Show, but this song, from a coming solo album, depicts more private meditations. PARELES It's getting harder to pin Aldana's sound down to any particular set of influences. Yes, there's a lot of Mark Turner in there, and heavy dashes of Joe Henderson and Sonny Rollins, but with each passing year, this young tenor saxophonist is sounding more like herself. On "Acceptance," she rides a front loaded rhythmic pattern from the bassist Pablo Menares, chasing stability over shifting ground. It's a good setup for Aldana, whose self assurance on the saxophone knows almost no limits; she rises to the challenge of volatility. The track comes from "Visions," an album of new music inspired by the life and work of Frida Kahlo. RUSSONELLO | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Last fall Bob Kroll, the head of the Minneapolis police union, appeared at a Trump rally, where he thanked the president for ending Barack Obama's "oppression of police" and letting cops "put the handcuffs on criminals instead of us." The events of the past week, in which the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody led to demonstrations against police brutality, and these demonstrations were met by more police brutality including unprecedented violence against the news media have made it clear what Kroll meant by taking the handcuffs off. And Donald Trump, far from trying to calm the nation, is pouring gasoline on the fire; he seems very close to trying to incite a civil war. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that America as we know it is on the brink. How did we get here? The core story of U.S. politics over the past four decades is that wealthy elites weaponized white racism to gain political power, which they used to pursue policies that enriched the already wealthy at workers' expense. Until Trump's rise it was possible barely for people to deny this reality with a straight face. At this point, however, it requires willful blindness not to see what's going on. I still see occasional news reports that describe Trump as a "populist." But Trump's economic policies have been the opposite of populist: They have been relentlessly plutocratic, centered largely on a successful effort to ram through huge tax cuts for corporations and the rich, and a so far unsuccessful attempt to take health insurance away from poor and working class families. Nor have Trump's trade wars brought back the good jobs of yore. Even before the coronavirus plunged us into depression, Trump had failed to deliver major employment growth in coal mining or manufacturing. And farmers, who supported Trump by large margins in 2016, have suffered huge losses thanks to his trade wars. So what has Trump really offered to the white working class that makes up most of his base? Basically, he has provided affirmation and cover for racial hostility. And nowhere is this clearer than in his relationship with the police. If economic self interest were the only thing driving political orientation, you would expect police officers to favor Democrats. They are, after all, unionized public sector employees and Republicans are both anti union and anti government. They don't make enough money to benefit much from the Trump tax cut. Their jobs will be very much at risk if revenue starved state and local governments are forced to make drastic spending cuts and Trump's allies in the Senate are blocking the aid that might avert such cuts. Indeed, political contributions by public sector unions overwhelmingly favor Democrats. And while many firefighters voted for Trump in 2016, the largest firefighters' union has endorsed Joe Biden. But many police officers and their unions remain staunch Trump supporters, and they have been pretty clear about why: They feel that Trump will back them even, or perhaps especially, if they engage in abusive behavior toward racial minorities. Just to be clear, many and probably most police officers have behaved well over the past week. In fact, in some cities the police have shown solidarity with protesters, joining marches or taking a knee. But Trump clearly sides with those who reject any notion that police officers or any other authority figures should be held accountable for abusive behavior. Remember, he's used his authority to pardon members of the U.S. military who were accused or convicted by their own services of committing war crimes. In a call with governors on Monday, he showed no sign of recognizing either that there might be some justification for widespread protests or that he should play some role in unifying the nation. Instead, he told the governors that all the violence was coming from the "radical left," and he insisted that governors must get tougher: "You have to dominate or you'll look like a bunch of jerks; you have to arrest and try people." Trump who retreated to an underground bunker when protesters began demonstrating in front of the White House also told the governors that "most of you are weak." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
Family travel blogs may be ubiquitous today, but the subject of family travel was relatively virgin terrain when the journalist Eileen Ogintz, then on the staff of The Chicago Tribune, took her first assignment on the subject in 1987. Chaos ensued when her then 3 year old son pushed a Wisconsin property owner's cat into a pond "He thought it wanted to swim," she said resulting in their eviction and her first now syndicated "Taking the Kids" column. "It had resonance because a lot of baby boomers had traveled in college and didn't want to apologize for having kids." Though her three children are now adults, Ms. Ogintz continues to cover family travel. She has just completed the ninth in her "Kid's Guide" series of city guidebooks with "The Kid's Guide to Denver," for which she interviewed about 100 children. Recently, Ms. Ogintz discussed the risks and rewards of family travel. Following are edited excerpts from a conversation with Ms. Ogintz. Q. What are the benefits of traveling with children? A. Obviously I think it's important for kids to see that everyone in the world doesn't live the same way. Also, anytime you travel as a family things inevitably go awry, and it's a good life lesson for kids to know and see that they can handle it when things don't go as planned. Educationally it's important. A lot of learning goes on outside of the classroom. Travel is a great way to zero in on what kids are passionate about, whether it's baseball or theater or art, and celebrate that. It's also a great way to share your passions with them, whatever that may be. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
It was the kind of short, dry announcement that pops up from time to time and goes virtually unnoticed. A cyclist had tested positive for a banned substance and had been disqualified. What stood out was this cyclist's age: 90. Had Carl Grove of Bristol, Ind., actually taken steroids before competing in the 90 to 94 year old division at the Masters Track National Championships? And why had he bothered, considering he was the only entrant? No other nonagenarians turned up to challenge Grove in the 2,000 meter individual pursuit last July in Breinigsville, Pa. But his victory was not just ceremonial. Grove completed six laps of the velodrome in 3:06.12, setting a world record. Afterward he supplied a urine sample. It tested positive for epitrenbolone, which is a metabolite of the prohibited steroid trenbolone. He was stripped of his national title, lost the world record and was issued an official warning. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Mr. Friedrich, 48, is the chief executive of the global office division of Brookfield Property Partners, a spinoff of Brookfield Asset Management. Brookfield Property Partners owns office, retail, multifamily and industrial properties worldwide; this spring it acquired the company known as Brookfield Office Properties. Among Brookfield's holdings is Brookfield Place, formerly known as the World Financial Center, and the Manhattan West project in the Hudson Yards area. Q. Let's start with all the changes in the financial district, where you are based. Your thoughts? A. It's an exciting time, and we feel we've certainly helped drive part of that with the investment we've made here at Brookfield Place. Q. How is the rebranding of the World Financial Center, now known as Brookfield Place, coming along? A. We're going to be completing next year the 250 million, 300 million in reinventing what was the World Financial Center. This is a nine million square feet complex. It's been a very successful lease up now. It really has changed it went from being more of a corporate fortress to more part of the fabric of New York. We've done things to energize the common areas to attract tenants. We have completely redeveloped the retail areas across multiple areas. We took what were underutilized office corridors space that had limited life at the first two levels and we reinvented those areas to link them in more with what's happening in Lower Manhattan, the residents and the tourists, and just create amenities that are more attractive to our office base. Everyone is working longer hours. They're looking for a certain work/play environment, and that's what we really directed this to from being an office complex to being a true urban work environment. Q. You're competing somewhat with One World Trade Center. A. From an office standpoint, most definitely, but not retail. Simply put: There's not enough retail today to support the residential, office and tourist base. We're still very underserved. There's more room for retail expansion; it's probably the last leg of the transformation. We've attracted Ferragamo, Burberry, Hermes and Michael Kors. We're almost completely committed on the luxury front. We're over 90 percent of the way there. We're still working on a number of restaurants. Q. Brookfield was one of the final bidders for the lease to the original World Trade Center. A. Yes. I lead the team on the pursuit of the World Trade Center. We were the No. 2 after Larry Silverstein increased his bid. Q. Besides being profoundly saddened by the terrorist attacks there, you must be somewhat relieved from a business standpoint. A. It would have put a certain strain in the near term on our business. At that point in time, particularly, New York represented a very, very high percentage of the value of the firm. That's changed. We've diversified quite a bit since that point in time. Q. How much of your portfolio is in the New York area now? A. The U.S. is two thirds. New York is about 20 to 30 percent that's 19 million square feet in New York. We've got six million in Midtown and over 13 million downtown. It's 11 properties total. Q. How has Brookfield branched out geographically? A. We're operating today across four major geographies. No. 1, which drives two thirds of the earnings, is the U.S.; No. 2 is Canada, where we have over 20 million square feet in Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa and Vancouver; we have a sizable presence in Australia with 11 million square feet; more recently, and part of our focus in our growth plans, we have expanded in the U.K., in London. In 2012 we acquired a portfolio from Hammerson, another public company. Q. How many projects is Brookfield working on right now? A. Our overall pipeline of opportunities is 19 million square feet of development. We have 8.5 million square feet active today across seven major projects the largest being Manhattan West. Seven active projects. I'm grouping Manhattan West into one project. Q. What is the status of Manhattan West in the Hudson Yards area? A. We've incorporated an adjacent building that used to be called 450 West 33rd, so the project is actually seven million square feet now 5.7 million of office, and then it's going to be a mixed use residential building that we're going to launch by the end of this year. It will be close to 850 units for rent, and 250,000 square feet of retail and then a hotel component. The way our project is running we can turn over our first office building to tenants in 2018. Our residential will be 2017; there will be a groundbreaking later this year. Q. Building in Hudson Yards can't be very easy. A. The project is one third terra firma and two thirds open track. We own the land under the tracks, but we had to create the land across the entire parcel. We've been employing a bridge technology. We're building in essence 16 spans or bridges across the site creating the plaza and the land required. We started working on the platform in the early parts of 2012. The buildings themselves will be built into bedrock, but the actual public areas will be across this platform. We're on schedule to be completed with the platform at the end of this year. Then we will roll right into the residential and hopefully the first office tower. Q. How does it feel being part of the creation of a brand new Manhattan neighborhood? A. We've been fortunate, partly due to our holdings, to be in the position to be part of two of the most exciting neighborhoods in the past two years in Lower Manhattan and the evolving Far West Side, or the Hudson Yards, however you want to call it. With the Hudson Yards district, we really have the chance to create something completely from scratch. It hasn't happened for some time in Manhattan. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
To an exclusive cohort in the N.F.L., the regular season serves as a preamble, offering those powerful teams 16 opportunities to tinker, learn and adapt. What might work in September might not in January, when the playoffs beckon. All the while, at every checkpoint but one the Kansas City Chiefs have flashed their credentials and scanned their irises. They have beaten lesser opponents and overwhelmed good ones. They have outlasted legendary quarterbacks and thwarted ferocious defenses. That happened again on Sunday, when in a potential Super Bowl preview the Chiefs defeated the Saints, 32 29, in New Orleans, a victory that showed off their toughness and survival skills. Facing their best competition of the season, the Chiefs blew a 14 point lead, went up by 14, then outlasted New Orleans with a lethal running attack to spoil Drew Brees's return from injured reserve. "When you're playing one of the top defenses in the league, you've got to bear down," Chiefs Coach Andy Reid said. "Everything's not going to be pretty." The last six games have tested Kansas City (13 1) to a considerable degree, exposing flaws while revealing what must be, for the rest of the league, an uncomfortable truth. The Chiefs won all six, coming back in four of them including avenging their lone loss, to Las Vegas and though they do not seem invincible, they hardly seem beatable. 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. Even with the Saints swarming Patrick Mahomes as they did, sacking him four times and forcing a lost fumble, he still passed for three touchdowns, the Chiefs still gained 411 yards, they still scored on their first four red zone opportunities and they still managed 32 points against what could be the league's best defense. The play that will linger longest was Mahomes's third quarter touchdown to Mecole Hardman, the score that put them ahead to stay. Mahomes rolled left, pump faked and, with a defender barreling in from his right, flicked the ball toward the back of the end zone. It sailed beyond the outstretched arms of Sammy Watkins and into those of Hardman, who dragged his feet in bounds, putting the Chiefs ahead, 21 15. The Saints (10 4), like Kansas City, occupy rarefied space among the league's elite teams, and their defense was one of only two in the league that entered Sunday having allowed fewer than 300 yards a game. They dared the Chiefs to run, and so Le'Veon Bell and Clyde Edwards Helaire did. Bell and Edwards Helaire who left in the fourth quarter with a leg injury combined to rush 20 times for 90 yards and a touchdown, with Bell scoring off an option pitch from Mahomes in the second half. Brees missed four games with 11 fractured ribs and a punctured lung, injuries that, presumably, made it difficult to breathe, eat, drink, sleep, sit and stand, let alone outwit the large men with bad intentions chasing him. Enticed by the prospect of facing the Chiefs, of dueling with Mahomes, Brees felt well enough to play. He slipped a protective shirt beneath his jersey and set about resuming his playoff preparation. Early on, his passes floated and wobbled, and his fourth of six straight incompletions to begin the game landed in the hands of the Chiefs rookie L'Jarius Sneed. Capitalizing on the takeaway, Kansas City scored seven plays later, on a 5 yard pass from Mahomes to Tyreek Hill, who fooled the Saints by motioning away from the play before reversing field to slip unnoticed into the end zone. It is ruthless, Kansas City's combination of speed, offensive creativity and coaching acumen. Also, endless. On their next scoring drive, the Chiefs further excavated their inventory of imaginative plays. At the Saints' 1 yard line, Mahomes did not receive the shotgun snap so much as redirect it to his right, a chest pass to tight end Travis Kelce for a touchdown. According to the N.F.L.'s Next Gen Stats, Mahomes's release time of 50 hundredths of a second was the fastest of any completion this season. The Chiefs led, 14 0, and New Orleans, into the second quarter, had yet to record a first down or a completion. It took until the Saints' fifth possession for them to get either, and on that same drive Brees seemed to summon all the strength in his right arm in connecting with Emmanuel Sanders down the sideline. The 51 yard pass play Brees's second longest completion of the season escorted the Saints to the 3 yard line and ushered Brees off the field. During Brees's injury absence, Taysom Hill showcased his versatility across four full games, winning three of them. But the Saints' endgame is a championship, and with Brees back, Hill resumed his duties as a positionless dynamo, running on consecutive plays after the Sanders catch to cut Kansas City's lead to 14 7. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
PARIS The latest stage of the Asian invasion of the Paris couture season occurred at the Chanel show, held at the Grand Palais on Tuesday morning. While the creative director Karl Lagerfeld's muses remained out in force (the model and actress Cara Delevingne with her puppy Leo and the actresses Diane Kruger and Clemence Poesy), the star attraction proved to be G Dragon, a South Korean pop star turned rapper and aspiring fashion entrepreneur who set Twitter alight with his naval captain inspired Chanel couture suit, flawless foundation and gigantic black fur hat. A former teenage sensation and leader of the K Pop boyband Big Bang, G Dragon (whose real name is Kwon Ji yong) has been a front row fixture at recent Chanel shows the world over, from Dallas to Paris. His chameleon style, kaleidoscopic hair shades and catchy songs have won him an army of fans in the millions in Asia, especially in his home country. (This no doubt explains part of his appeal for Chanel, who has identified South Korea as a leading luxury growth market.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
A murdered African American youth and a police cover up drive Malik Vitthal's "Body Cam," a supernatural revenge fantasy that is anything but subtle. Its timeliness, however, is undeniable: With the investigations into the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery currently making news, this awkward hybrid of horror and social consciousness plucks at one of our country's rawest nerves. Holding this wobbly project together is the reliable Mary J. Blige as Renee, a straight arrow L.A.P.D. officer still fragile after losing her son in a swimming pool accident. Investigating the violent death of a colleague during a routine traffic stop, Renee follows clues to a mysterious figure (Anika Noni Rose) who appears in found footage at more than one crime scene. Strangely, Renee is the only person able to view this footage and the twitching shadow creature it reveals before it disappears. The grisly remains of the creature's victims, though, are visible to everyone. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
If there's traffic on the Taconic State Parkway, head for the second star to the right and fly straight on 'til morning, which should bring you to Bard College's Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in time for "Peter Pan," Christopher Alden's production of J.M. Barrie's 1904 play, spangled with Leonard Bernstein's neglected music. Here we are in Neverland, which is chartreuse, you will find, and dotted, for reasons inexplicable, with potatoes. This single set, designed by Marsha Ginsberg, fizzes with playful menace, suggested most blatantly by a rickety fairground ride. The cars are flying sharks. Childhood, this play suggests, is an unsafe space. Rider beware. If you know "Peter Pan" only from the 1953 Disney cartoon or the 1954 Broadway musical or the 1955 telecast, all now marred by casual, unapologetic racism, then you will experience this version, which ran on Broadway in 1950, as stranger, sexier, more melancholic. Not quite a musical, it was advertised at the time as a "fantasy with music." There are eight songs, two reprises, a lot of instrumentals. Though Peter, the boy who would not grow up, might object, I'd argue that it's a more adult work, ruefully aware that if children don't grow up, it's not because they've been spirited away to some enchanted isle. Mr. Alden's bouncy, mournful, occasionally abstract production seems to use a pirate's line, "This is queer," as mischievous inspiration. It takes that Freudian nonsense about homosexuality as developmentally immature and defiantly runs with it. (Flies with it?) Maybe this emphasis on queerness doesn't work in every scene, but any interpretation that allows the choreographer Jack Ferver to chasse while wearing a disco ball cannot be dismissed. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
"You've got lovely beds. Good beds," the actress Patti LuPone said. She was referring not to furniture, but fingernails: the unvarnished ones on the hands of her current co star, Christine Ebersole. They contrasted markedly with Ms. LuPone's nails, which she herself had lacquered in shiny maroon, after years observing professional manicurists. "I watch how they depress the fluid," Ms. LuPone said, pantomiming bottle and brush. "The problem is, when I put nail polish on it really weakens my nails," Ms. Ebersole said in a sisterly way. "They just flake off." The talons were out, in other words, but this was not a catfight. More a chat 'n' chew between Tony Award winning actresses getting the chance to share a Broadway stage for the first time in "War Paint," one of a half dozen new musicals debuting in a mad cram before the season ends. Dressed in a confusion of stretchy black clothing and scarves, the two women were sharing a sofa in the upper half of a sleek duplex at 663 Fifth Avenue, where the flagship of Elizabeth Arden's signature spa, the Red Door, moved five years ago from the florid former Aeolian Building two blocks north. They had refused treatments and were instead efficiently slurping vegetarian soups. "We should really look at them as role models," Ms. LuPone said of the two tycoons. "They were really inspiring," Ms. Ebersole said. "My God," Ms LuPone said. "Regardless of what their personal flaws were, or what drove them nothing that they achieved for themselves and then in the name of woman has ever been matched!" Ms. Ebersole, more gently: "They paved the way, and started before women had the vote." Ms. LuPone was incensed by news reports about the departing C.E.O. of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer. "Her male replacement is getting twice as much as she is," she said. "Twice as much!" The gender pay inequity common in the film industry is not an issue for "War Paint," which is capitalized at 11 million and carried by its leading ladies, one or both of whom appear in all but four of the show's numbers. But the fact that its principal creators are all men might arch an eyebrow. Mr. Stone and Ms. LuPone both wrinkle their noses at the word "diva," a description cribbed from Italian opera that is now often applied to any commanding female presence in the entertainment industry, inevitably also suggesting an excess of temperament. "I just can't stand it," Mr. Stone said. "Diva implies difficult." At a talk about the show a few months ago, Ms. LuPone proposed "dame" as an alternative, to approving whoops from the audience. After securing rights to the material, Mr. Stone hired Michael Greif, with whom he had worked on "Next to Normal" and "If/Then," to direct. They brought in the composer Scott Frankel, the lyricist Michael Korie and the book writer Doug Wright, Mr. Greif's collaborators on the musical "Grey Gardens," inspired by the Maysles brothers' cult documentary about the eccentric aristocrats "Big Edie" Beale and her daughter, "Little Edie." Some early workshops of "War Paint" featured Donna Murphy in the Arden role; but she withdrew for family reasons, and Ms. Ebersole, who had won a 2007 Tony for portraying both Beales at different stages of their lives, assumed the part. She and Ms. LuPone, for whom this is the first musical since the short lived "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" (2010), were not shy about participating in the creative process. "Both of them were very excited to play against the obvious feuding, larger than life stars and that kind of energy and actually find ways where the competition between them was nourishing," Mr. Frankel said a few hours before curtain on a recent evening. "These women were enormously sophisticated and tasteful and well versed in corporate weaponry," Mr. Wright said. "They didn't have to reduce things to an insult; they could actually wage business warfare against one another and did so very effectively for 50 years." Anything "that felt cheap or easy," he said, the actresses "instantly rejected." Criticism of an out of town tryout in Chicago last summer focused on relentless ping ponging between its two subjects, who supposedly never met in real life. About a third of the show has been revised, the creators said, both to fortify the solo appearances and to find novel ways of bringing the characters together onstage. "There was some tightening," Mr. Frankel said, slipping into face cream patois. "Because it's the two of them, there's a little bit of inherent back and forthness that's intrinsic in the proposition of the evening, but I think we tried to find ways to mix that up in more unexpected ways." He and his colleagues were adamant that "War Paint" is not purely ladies' entertainment, though the Broadway audience is disproportionately female, a demographic that has helped make shows like "Waitress" into hits. "There are metaphors inherent in the idea of makeup that I think transcend gender," Mr. Wright said. "It offers a potential mask where you can pretend to be someone you aren't; it offers a disguise if you don't wish to be recognized; it offers an avenue toward a certain kind of perceived self improvement; it is a kind of lure to attract someone else." But with its 10 odd costume changes designed by Catherine Zuber, including flying saucer hats and piles of glittering jewelry, and makeup by Angelina Avallone, "War Paint" has been an occasion for the two stars to reflect on how cosmetics and other trappings have been integral to their long careers. She recalled her work in the 2001 revival of "42nd Street," for which she won her first Tony with the help of 1930s regalia by Roger Kirk: "The costumes just informed everything." This inspired Ms. LuPone to reminisce about "Evita," for which she got her first Tony, at 31. "The amount of for lack of a better word gack that we're putting on!" she said. "I also harken back to that time in 'Anything Goes' when I was in those bias cut gowns. Oy, I can't wear a bias cut gown now to save my life, unless I'm strapped in." The two actresses were "babies in the city together," as Ms. LuPone put it. She arrived in 1968 to attend Juilliard, where she studied with Marian Seldes, having known she wanted to perform since she was 4, standing downstage right in a tap recital. Ms. Ebersole, who had gone to MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., before enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1973, had had other plans. "I was going to be a nurse," she said. Both women bemoaned a lost era when actors (and stagehands) were recognized and welcomed in the theater district at places like Jimmy Ray's and Charlie O.'s, and spent time after the show socializing rather than cultivating followings on Twitter and YouTube. "I think we have fewer showmen," Ms. LuPone said. "Like the Irving Thalbergs and the Alex Cohens and the Robert Whiteheads and the people that loved the theater or loved making movies. It's such a cliche, but it's all bean counters. It's statistics. Polling." This was a reminder that the unexpected foil in the Arden Rubinstein showdown was Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon, rendered in "War Paint" by Erik Liberman as "a two bit carnival barker in an Italian suit." It's a line that for some involved with the production took on new resonance after Donald J. Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. Overnight, in their view, the musical went from celebration to cautionary tale. After Rubinstein died in 1965, Revson bought her Park Avenue triplex. But that wasn't the final indignity. Last year, the company he founded, which had brought sex back into the midcentury cosmetics marketplace with suggestive ad copy and flashy layouts, took over Elizabeth Arden. "Everybody's rolling over in their grave!" Ms. LuPone said. Not that any of these brands make her particularly nostalgic. "I used to be a Georgette Klinger girl. For years," she said, after the two women packed up a gift of exfoliating face pads and descended nine floors to the lobby. "Oh my gosh, Georgette Klinger, I completely forgot that name," Ms. Ebersole said, blinking her blue eyes on the sunny sidewalk. "That was a salon," Ms. LuPone said. "You'd go in, and close the door, and they were all about getting into your face. They don't get into your face anymore." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Sara Krulwich has been covering the Tony Awards for years. This year, she's being honored by them. She joined The New York Times in 1979 but did not always feel welcome. A photo technician once slapped her when she expressed concern about the quality of a print, she said, and when she first started, the New York Press Photographers Association declined to grant her admission. She became a culture photographer in 1994 and gradually overcame obstacles in the theater world, too, where producers were accustomed to controlling visual images of their shows by granting access only to photographers they hired. Over time, she turned theater photography into a beat at the Times, becoming a mainstay on the arts pages while documenting more than a hundred plays and musicals each year. And on June 4 six days before the Tony Awards air on television she will be the first journalist recognized with a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theater. Here, annotated with comments from Ms. Krulwich, are a few of the thousands of photos she has taken, chosen to illustrate the demands of her job and the changing technology she has used to do her work. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
I am a Republican and former federal prosecutor who voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But I was deeply dismayed by the way his lawyers defended his misbegotten dealings with Ukraine during the Senate impeachment trial. Unlike Mr. Trump's supporters, I believe the president might well be guilty of breaking the law. Even without the additional witnesses and documents that the Senate Republicans refused to subpoena, the evidence available to date has established a prima facie case of bribery, a felony under federal law, against Mr. Trump. The articles of impeachment do not use the word bribery, but the House Judiciary Committee did in a report, and for good reason: The proof is there, for the following reasons. If the president corruptly demanded or sought anything of value to influence an official act, then he would be guilty of bribery. "In other words, for bribery there must be a quid pro quo a specific intent to give or receive something of value in exchange for an official act," the Supreme Court held in United States v. Sun Diamond Growers of California in 1999. Federal courts around the country have interpreted "anything of value" to include intangible things in this case, the announcement by Ukraine of an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The official action in question to be offered in exchange was the release of American military assistance to Ukraine, a country at war with Russia. That military assistance was unlawfully withheld in contravention of the president's constitutional obligation to "faithfully execute" the law as Congress enacts it, the United States Government Accountability Office found. In fleshing out the constitutional requirement of high crimes and misdemeanors, the first article of impeachment tracks the language of bribery, saying that Mr. Trump sought to pressure the government of Ukraine "for corrupt purposes in pursuit of personal political benefit." Mr. Trump's lawyer, the Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, asserted that Mr. Trump can be convicted only for conduct "akin" to bribery and treason. Mr. Dershowitz has been wrong on the law many times in this trial, but even by his standard, the articles of impeachment express an impeachable offense. The key evidence establishes several things. First, as The Times has reported, John Bolton, Mr. Trump's former national security adviser, says in a forthcoming book that Mr. Trump directly told him that he wanted to withhold military aid to Ukraine until President Volodymyr Zelensky announced an investigation of the Bidens. (Mr. Trump has denied that.) This so clearly appears to be a quid pro quo that Mr. Trump's own ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, actually called it such. Second, Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, told The Times that the president fired Marie Yovanovitch as ambassador to Ukraine after she tried to impede the efforts to investigate the Bidens. And finally, Mr. Trump, during a phone call on July 25, asked Mr. Zelensky for a "favor" to open investigations not only of the Bidens but also into a widely debunked theory that Ukraine had meddled in the 2016 election. Despite all this, the Republican controlled Senate on Wednesday appears all but certain to acquit Mr. Trump. The nation has been denied the chance to witness the impeachment managers and Mr. Trump's lawyers fully interrogate or defend his behavior. The Senate had a constitutional duty to hold a real trial. Instead we got a show trial. One more thing concerns me. During the House investigation, Mr. Sondland testified that Mr. Trump told him: "I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky to do the right thing." To me, a former federal prosecutor who has successfully argued cases before the Supreme Court and handled many organized crime cases, the words "do the right thing" recalled the way mob bosses made an offer that could not be refused the threat and reward clear but unstated, without explicit incriminating language. To those who find nothing wrong with the president's words, I would just note that, according to Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in Evans v. United States in 1992, an official "need not state the quid pro quo in express terms" for a crime to have been committed. I say all this as a Republican who worked for President Ronald Reagan and voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 because I believed that he would appoint Supreme Court justices who would "say what the law is," not try to make it. Since then Mr. Trump has done several things that have made me question my choice, including asserting last year that Article II of the Constitution gave him "the right to do whatever I want as president." That is not the Constitution I know. As a freshly minted Army lieutenant, I took an oath at West Point that I would "to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." President Trump took the same oath when he became president. He should abide by it. James D. Harmon, Jr., a former city and federal prosecutor, was executive director of the President's Commission on Organized Crime during the Reagan administration. 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 |
Since 1945, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation has recognized scientists and physicians who have contributed to fundamental biological discoveries, clinical research and improvements in public health. This year, the Lasker Awards were given to two researchers who discovered key cells of the immune system, a team that engineered the first antibody for breast cancer treatment and a nonprofit that helps get vaccines to the world's poorest children. The awards, which were announced Tuesday and will be presented in Manhattan on Sept. 20, carry a prize of 250,000 in each of three categories. They can be a sign of future accolades as well: Eighty eight Lasker laureates have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize. Dr. Max D. Cooper and Dr. Jacques Miller, working independently but building on one another's findings, pioneered an understanding of how the body fights off germs, identifying two distinct classes of lymphocytes, or white blood cells B cells and T cells. The two researchers received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, which is given to scientists who exemplify the additive nature of research. When Dr. Miller began studying lymphocytic leukemia at the University of London in the 1950s, scientists had a basic grasp of the adaptive immune system. They knew that the immune system had an ability to "remember" specific pathogens and abnormal cells, and that it could enlist antibodies or live cells to attack the invaders. It was known that the spleen and lymphoid tissues played an important role in clearing out disease and rejecting transplanted tissue. But the role of the thymus was unclear, even though it contained a high number of lymphocytes. Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. Across the Atlantic, Dr. Cooper, then a pediatrician at the University of Minnesota and now a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, had noticed that some inherited immune disorders in children seemed to affect two separate pathways of the immune system. His attention was drawn to studies in chickens that pointed to a possible explanation. Chickens have a thymus and an additional lymphoid organ called the bursa of Fabricius. Dr. Cooper discovered that in newly hatched chickens, lymphocytes are generated in the liver and bone marrow, while some mature in the thymus and other lymphocytes mature in the bursa. In mammals, these B cells simply reside in the bone marrow and they were the ones that spit out antibodies when activated by T cells. There wasn't just one set of immune cells that carried out all disease fighting tasks in the body, but rather two types of lymphocytes with separate jobs. "These studies told us that almost everything we were thinking about in immunology had to be revised," Dr. Cooper said. This finding set the stage for several other important discoveries regarding immune deficiencies, treating autoimmune disorders and developing new cancer therapies. The combined efforts of Dr. H. Michael Shepard and Dr. Axel Ullrich, who were at Genentech when they did their research, and Dr. Dennis J. Slamon, an oncologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, resulted in the creation of Herceptin, the first monoclonal antibody therapy for breast cancer. They are the recipients of the Lasker DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. Monoclonal antibodies are proteins produced by B cells that bind to specific invader organisms and abnormal cells. They help the immune system identify and remove abnormal cells, including cancerous ones. In the case of Herceptin, the antibody binds to a protein called HER2 on the surface of breast cancer cells. To his surprise, almost 30 percent of the 189 breast cancer samples he looked at had multiple copies of the HER2 gene. "There were way too many copies," Dr. Slamon said. Analysis of health records showed that women who carried several copies of HER2 relapsed more quickly and died sooner than women whose tumors contained only one copy. Scientists reasoned that if overexpression of HER2 caused tumor growth, blocking expression of the gene might help stop the spread of the cancer. So Dr. Ullrich and Dr. Shephard started developing a compound that would bind to the part of the HER2 protein that was exposed on the surface of cells. They developed an antibody that, once bound to the HER2 receptors, stopped the cancer from proliferating and made the cells more susceptible to the immune system's own disease fighting compounds. "It was kind of a double whammy for the tumor cell," Dr. Shephard said. After animal studies at Genentech yielded positive results, Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Ullrich teamed with Dr. Slamon to conduct clinical trials at U.C.L.A. They found that when they coupled the antibody with chemotherapy, the treatment stalled the progression of breast cancer associated with HER2 and extended survival longer than chemotherapy alone. Dr. Dennis J. Slamon, an oncologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that many samples of breast cancer tissue carried multiple copies of the HER2 gene. "We had been giving women a one size fits all treatment," Dr. Slamon said. "But with the Herceptin antibody, we were finally able to tailor a therapy that completely changed patients' lives. Those women went from having the worst survival rates to now having the best outcomes among breast cancer patients." In 1998, Herceptin was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and became part of the standard of care for HER2 positive breast cancers. More than 2.3 million people have been treated with it to date. "It's hard to believe the kind of impact it has had," Dr. Shephard said. The alliance continues to improve access to vaccines by training health care workers, developing ways to store heat sensitive vaccines in communities without electricity, and educating people about the value of immunization. The impact goes beyond the children who have been immunized. "If a child does not get vaccinated and they get sick, not only are they affected, but their parents or older siblings also have to take time off from work or school and spend money taking care of them," Dr. Berkley said. By improving access to vaccinations, GAVI helps children and parents flourish, which indirectly helps the economies of their countries. The alliance is being awarded the 2019 Lasker Bloomberg Public Service Award for its work. "I look forward to telling all of the people working with GAVI across the world that they've been so honored by this award," Dr. Berkley said. "I hope this will make them work even harder on the tasks that we have in front of us, because we're not done yet." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Credit...Charlotte Hadden for The New York Times Persephone Books in London devoted mostly to overlooked works by female writers in the mid 1900s celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. LONDON Lamb's Conduit Street seems almost too adorable to be real, as if Ye Olde Fantasy Englande, the one that exists in your head, had suddenly sprung to life. But it feels exactly right that this cobblestone thoroughfare in Bloomsbury, filled as it is with idiosyncratic shops selling artisanal cheese and homemade cakes and other rarefied items, should also be home to Persephone Books, a gem of a place devoted mostly to overlooked works by female writers of the mid 20th century. Walking into the shop feels for a moment like walking back in time. Vintage posters exhort wartime women to, for instance, Join the Wrens, the British women's naval service. But the present is here, too. In the window is a blowup of Senator Mitch McConnell's ill tempered remarks about Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2017, using language that sounds decidedly "Jane Eyre" ish: "She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted." Here you will find books by women you have probably never heard of, like Oriel Malet and Isobel English, and some who might be more familiar, like Katherine Mansfield and Frances Hodgson Burnett. (There are even a few men on the shelves.) You'll also find, in pride of place, "Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day," a 1938 novel by Winifred Watson that was brought to Persephone's attention by a customer who said it had been her mother's favorite book. Published by Persephone in 2000, the book about a poor, drab governess mistakenly sent by her employment agency to work for a glamorous nightclub singer became an unexpected hit for the company, was made into a movie and has been a consistently buoyant seller ever since. Each year perhaps a half dozen more books join the list, so that there are now 132 in all. All are still in print, and all are still for sale, each for a flat 13 pounds (if you're ordering from the United States, they're 20 apiece); every time the new titles arrive, the old books are moved a bit and the shelves reorganized to make way. After a few seasons as just a publisher, Persephone became a bookstore, too, leaving its old office in Clerkenwell and expanding into its current space. It is both office and shop, one purpose blending into the other across two rooms. Overall, the shop's most popular author is a woman named Dorothy Whipple, who has an impressive 10 books on the list, Persephones No. 3, 19, 40, 56, 74, 85, 95, 110, 118, and 127. Her books are funny and spirited and full of insight about real people's lives at the time. "I like books that tell me how we lived," Beauman said. "I'm very, very interested in the novel as social history." Also, she said: "Good writing is important to me, and that's why we only have 132 books." "I thought, 'Why can't a book look like this?'" she said. Or, as it says on the company website: "Persephone books are all grey because well we really like grey. We also had a vision of a woman who comes home tired from work, and there is a book waiting for her, and it doesn't matter what it looks like because she knows she will enjoy it." Inside, though, the books are riots of color. Each book has a different endpaper taken from textiles or prints associated with the year in which it was originally published. Some come from the Victoria Albert museum; others might be fabrics contributed by customers. "Once somebody brought in a wartime scarf, and you could literally smell their mother's powder on it," Beauman said. Persephone has a devoted and passionate following. Some 30,000 people subscribe to its free magazine, The Persephone Biannually, which includes articles about the newest books and other subjects. Its website contains Beauman's own wittily erudite musings, which lately have taken an alarmed tone because of uncertainty over the fate of small businesses during the protracted debacle that is Brexit, or Britain's exit from the European Union. Last month, the company celebrated its 20th anniversary with smoked salmon sandwiches, tea, Champagne and cake in an all day party with a steady streams of visitors giving way to a larger crowd at night. "The idea at the beginning was that if you like one of our books, you'll like them all," Beauman said. "That has worked almost entirely. It's quite rare for someone to dislike any of the books. I hate to use the word brand, but we are something of a brand." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
The best seller lists from 15 years ago bear quite a few similarities to the ones that are out today. For starters, there are Clintons atop both of them: Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoir "Living History" was No. 1 on the nonfiction list back in 2003; today, "The President Is Missing," the high tech thriller Bill Clinton wrote with James Patterson, is at No. 1 on the fiction list. Patterson is a repeat best seller, too. In 2003 he had one novel, "The Lake House," on the hardcover list, and two "The Beach House" and "When the Wind Blows" on the paperback list. In 2003, Lauren Weisberger's buzzy fashion magazine roman a clef "The Devil Wears Prada" was No. 4; in 2018, her new novel, "When Life Gives You Lululemons," which continues the story of a character from "The Devil Wears Prada," is at No. 9. Nora Roberts, whose novel "Shelter in Place" is at No. 5 this week, also had a book on the list in 2003, as did John Grisham; his latest, "The Rooster Bar," is at No. 5 on the combined list today. Something Old, Something New If the best seller lists from summers past were in a constant state of flux, with glitzy, beachy new books appearing weekly, these days they're much more static. Only three new titles appear this week: Nick Foles's memoir '"Believe it," Malcolm Nance's "The Plot to Destroy Democracy" and 's latest novel, "All We Ever Wanted," which debuts at No. 2. All of Giffin's novels have been best sellers well, all except "The Funny Pandas and the Messy Room," which she wrote for her parents when she was 6. Despite that early effort, she didn't actually pursue a writing career after college, choosing law school instead. A biographical timeline on her website notes that she hated "nearly every second of her legal career, except perhaps the firm cocktail parties," and adds, "She began to write a young adult novel in her free time and dreamed of quitting her job to write full time." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
What if you've already had Covid 19 do you still need a vaccine? Experts tackle questions about vaccine immunity. On the heels of last month's news of stunning results from Pfizer's and Moderna's experimental Covid 19 vaccines, Senator Rand Paul tweeted a provocative comparison. The new vaccines were 90 percent and 94.5 percent effective, said Mr. Paul, Republican of Kentucky and a trained ophthalmologist. And "naturally acquired" Covid 19 was 99.9982 percent effective, he claimed. Mr. Paul is one of many people who, weary of lockdowns and economic losses, have extolled the benefits of surviving a coronavirus infection. The senator was diagnosed with the disease this year and has argued that surviving a bout of Covid 19 confers greater protection than getting vaccinated. The trouble with that logic is that it's difficult to predict who will survive an infection unscathed, said Jennifer Gommerman, an immunologist at the University of Toronto. Given all of the unknowns like a region's hospital capacity, or the strength of a person's immune response choosing the disease over the vaccine is "a very bad decision," she said. The primary advantage of a vaccine is that it's predictable and safe, she said. "It's been optimally tailored to generate an effective immune response." But what do we know about how the immunity from a prior infection compares with the protection given by the new vaccines? And what if you have already had Covid is it safe to be vaccinated? We asked experts to weigh in on the latest evidence. The short answer: We don't know. But Covid 19 vaccines have predictably prevented illness, and they are a far safer bet, experts said. Vaccines for some pathogens, like pneumococcal bacteria, induce better immunity than the natural infection does. Early evidence suggests that the Covid 19 vaccines may fall into this category. Volunteers who received the Moderna shot had more antibodies one marker of immune response in their blood than did people who had been sick with Covid 19. In other cases, however, a natural infection is more powerful than a vaccine. For example, having mumps which can, in rare cases, cause fertility problems in men generates lifelong immunity, but some people who have received one or two doses of the vaccine still get the disease. To Mr. Paul's point: Natural immunity from the coronavirus is fortunately quite strong. A vast majority of people infected produce at least some antibodies and immune cells that can fight off the infection. And the evidence so far suggests that this protection will persist for years, preventing serious illness, if not reinfection. But there is a "massive dynamic range" in that immune response, with a 200 fold difference in antibody levels. In people who are only mildly ill, the immune protection that can prevent a second infection may wane within a few months. "Those people might benefit more from the vaccine than others would," said Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The diversity in the immune response from natural infection might be because of differences in the amount of virus to which the person was exposed. Italy prepares for an 18th weekend of demonstrations against the country's health pass. The pandemic 'is not yet over': Portugal is set to add further restrictions. Austria braces for violence at mass protests over Covid measures. With a vaccine, everyone gets the same dose. "We know the dose that is being administered, and we know that that dose is effective at eliciting an immune response," Dr. Gommerman said. "So that becomes a variable that's taken off the table when you get the vaccine." I'm young, healthy and at low risk of Covid. Why not take my chances with that rather than get a rushed vaccine? The experts were unanimous in their answer: Covid 19 is by far the more dangerous option. "It's clear that one is less problematic for the body to recover from them than the other there's more risk with natural infection," said Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. People who are obese, or who have diseases like diabetes are particularly susceptible to severe cases of Covid 19. On average, the virus seems to be less risky for younger people, and women tend to fare better than men. But beyond those broad generalizations, doctors don't know why some people get very sick and die while others have no symptoms. For example, people who harbor certain mutations in immune genes are more susceptible to the disease, several studies have shown. "So there's a risk factor that has nothing to do with age," Dr. Gommerman said. In a study of more than 3,000 people, ages 18 to 34, who were hospitalized for Covid, 20 percent required intensive care and 3 percent died. "It's true that most people aren't going to be hospitalized, most people aren't going to get in the intensive care unit or die," said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, who represents the American Academy of Pediatrics at the meetings of the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. But "nobody is immune to severe disease," she said. And even if people are not at high risk of Covid themselves, their friends or family could be. As many as one in three people who recover from Covid have chronic complaints, including exhaustion and a racing heart, for months afterward. This includes people under 35 with no previous health conditions. Some survivors of Covid also show troubling signs that their body has turned on itself, with symptoms similar to those of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Covid vaccines, in contrast, carry little known risk. They have been tested in tens of thousands of people with no serious side effects at least so far. "Once you start vaccinating millions, you might find very, very rare events," Dr. Hanage said. "But we have to know that they are very, very rare and much more rare than the adverse events associated with natural infection." "There's nothing deleterious about getting a boost to an immune response that you've had before," Dr. Pepper said. "You could get an actually even better immune response by boosting whatever immunity you had from the first infection by a vaccine." In fact, at a meeting on Wednesday, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, said up to 10 percent of participants in clinical trials for the vaccines had been infected with the virus without knowing it. Their immune responses to the vaccine are being analyzed, he said. If you've already had Covid 19, you can afford to wait awhile for the vaccine. Studies from Dr. Pepper's team and others have shown that the immune response evolves over the first few months after infection, but everyone who has had Covid has some level of protection during that time. "We didn't see anybody who didn't develop some sort of an immune response," she said. "I don't think those people need to rush out and go get the vaccine in the same way that people who are highly susceptible really do." The A.C.I.P., which makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about vaccine distribution, said at a meeting on Wednesday that people who had not been infected should get priority over those who contracted the virus in the past 90 days. "At some point we'll need to figure out whether 90 days is the right number," Dr. Maldonado said. But for now, "people who have evidence of infection recently should probably not be vaccinated at first in line because there's so little vaccine available." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
In 2000, Cynthia McFadden, the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News, attended a party given by her friend Jeffrey Toobin, a staff writer for The New Yorker and legal analyst for CNN. There, Ms. McFadden was catching up with Mr. Toobin's mother, Marlene Sanders, the pioneering television reporter. She asked for her advice on managing motherhood and a career. Ms. Sanders put both hands on Ms. McFadden's shoulders and peered into her eyes. "Never apologize for working," the older woman said. "You love what you do, and loving what you do is a great gift to give your child." On the phone Wednesday, one day after Ms. Sanders died of cancer at the age of 84, Ms. McFadden said she had thought of this many times. "It really stiffened my spine," she said. Over the years, Ms. McFadden said, Mr. Toobin told her he loved having a mother who worked outside the home, even in an era when it was not that common. It was a sentiment he reiterated in an interview on Wednesday. "I found her career exciting," he said. "I loved to watch her on TV. Guilt was never part of the equation. And given her temperament, if she had been home all the time, it would have been a close contest to determine whether she or I went insane first." In a 2012 New Yorker post written after Ms. Sanders was named to a New York University list of outstanding journalists, Mr. Toobin described with pride how she traveled to Vietnam to report on the war there (he contracted the mumps while she was away) and also covered the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (that time he got the measles). His father, Jerome Toobin, a supportive husband and television producer who died in 1984, took Jeffrey to the doctor when Ms. Sanders was unavailable. But the world of television broadcasting was not so ahead of its time. "It was an old boys network, almost literally," said Richard Wald, 85, a professor of journalism at Columbia University and a former president of NBC News. Ms. Sanders sneaked into this club after trying to be an actress. In the mid 1950s, she met a regional theater producer named Mike Wallace, and went on to work as a junior producer for some of Mr. Wallace's news programs. By 1964, she had been hired by ABC News, for which she reported on many of the decade's biggest stories. TV still obeyed radio's conventions, which, Mr. Wald said, "dictated that a woman's voice was not good for audiences and that it did not carry authority despite the fact that most of the people making these rules had a mother." Stylish and attractive, Ms. Sanders was sometimes relegated to soft programming like a five minute broadcast she hosted called "News With the Woman's Touch." "It was a man's world," said Sam Donaldson, the former ABC News reporter and anchor. "Marlene had to work 110 percent harder just to stay even." Times have changed, but they also haven't, said Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN. "Being a mother of a very young child when you are in a war zone, or anywhere very far away, is so tough, it is so, so tough," she said. "All you care about is staying alive for your child, but you always have to put another hat on and focus on getting the job done right and getting the goods first. It is so tough; it is utterly, heartbreakingly tough." "My mother did these things when there were no how to books, and she improvised all the time," Mr. Toobin said. "The key to her success in both journalism and in having a family was she didn't agonize, she didn't suffer, she wasn't guilt ridden. This was her life." As Mr. Donaldson put it, "She was one of the boys, so to speak." But while the business was a Neverland for the old boys (and their distinguished graying temples), female broadcasters were held to a different standard. Granted less and less airtime on ABC, Ms. Sanders moved into the executive suite, and then in 1978 returned to reporting, for CBS. She worked there for about a decade. "The menopausal men who ran television news thought that people would not watch women on TV who were aging," Mr. Toobin said. "My mom was basically put out to pasture in her 50s, when she was in her prime." By the 1970s, the environment for women in broadcast news had begun to shift. "Marlene was a generation ahead of my generation, which was considered, in my own mind, as the affirmative action bunch," said Lesley Stahl, the "60 Minutes" correspondent and CBS News veteran. "In the early 1970s, I was hired in the Washington bureau with Connie Chung, and Sylvia Chase was hired in New York. We were brought in in bunches. Women at Newsweek and other publications really had fought for us as a category. We were taken seriously and given serious assignments. But Marlene was a woman on the air well before all these protections came into force." "I remember thinking, before I knew what would happen in my own career," Ms. Stahl added, "that there was an assumption that women in news would not survive on the air past the age of 40." "It was assumed that women would age poorly, that we would be unsightly to the audience," she continued. "I would think to myself: 'How does anybody know that? There aren't any.' Marlene was a serious reporter, and having been the pioneer, she didn't have a group to find support from. She didn't have affirmative action rules behind her, and in many ways, she suffered for it." For more than 20 years, until just a few months before her death, Ms. Sanders taught a class on advanced television reporting at N.Y.U., working with students on news stories. She pushed her students to stay current on world affairs and gave quizzes on news events. She urged them to be empathetic but professional, and to dress the part. "She would roll her eyes when students would come in with a plunging neckline to go on camera," said Marcia Rock, the director of news and documentary at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at N.Y.U., as well as the author, with Ms. Sanders, of the 1988 book "Waiting for Prime Time: The Women of Television News." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Chuan Chin Chiao, a biologist at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, and an author of the current paper alongside his colleague Tzu Hsin Kuo, has found in the past that cuttlefish that are hungry will choose a bigger, harder to catch shrimp to attack, and those that are not will choose smaller, easier to catch ones. But researchers have also found that animals do not always make decisions that seem logical at first glance. Like humans, whose behavior rarely fits economists' visions of what an ideal, rational creature would do, animals respond to their environments using learned experiences. In these new experiments, curious to see whether they could alter the value cuttlefish attach to a single shrimp, the researchers gave the cuttlefish the option of entering a chamber with one shrimp or a chamber with none. Each time they entered the chamber with a shrimp, the researchers gave them a smaller shrimp as a reward. Then each cuttlefish took a second test. They could enter a chamber and chase after two shrimp. Or they could enter another chamber that had only one. "You'd think they always choose the larger quantity," Dr. Chiao said. But that was not what happened. In the second round the cuttlefish chose one shrimp significantly more often than two. Cuttlefish that hadn't had the training reliably picked two shrimp over one, demonstrating that those that chose the smaller number were anticipating the reward and operating differently than their fellows. Even waiting until an hour had passed since the initial training did not completely erase the new behavior. The process of being rewarded for choosing one shrimp seems to have given that option an extra glow as far as cuttlefish are concerned, Dr. Chiao said. That suggests that they are not simply making basic responses to prey they come across they're remembering what has come before and using it to make a choice. Even if in this situation the behavior didn't result in a bigger haul, it adds to the evidence that they are complex creatures, capable of using their brains in ways that may surprise us. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
"Either I'm not warmed up, or I'm too old for this," Yvonne Rainer said on a recent afternoon, as she demonstrated a brain teasing section of her 1966 solo "Trio A." About 20 students, from highly trained dancers to adventurous novices, had gathered at Danspace Project in the East Village to learn a work that, perhaps more than any other piece of choreography, has become synonymous with the term postmodern dance. Ms. Rainer was filling in for an injured colleague, and it was a rare opportunity to see her in action. At 80, she keeps her dancing to a minimum. In a 2014 essay, "The Aching Body in Dance," she wrote with characteristic wryness about her current approach to performing: "My preferred mode of self presentation is 'existence.' I love to exist onstage. I no longer 'dance.' " Aging aching, too has been a recurring theme in Ms. Rainer's recent works, including her latest, "The Concept of Dust, or How do you look when there's nothing left to move?," which will have its East Coast premiere at the Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday, with additional performances on Wednesday, Saturday and next Sunday. (It was first shown last year in Los Angeles at the Getty Research Institute, home to Ms. Rainer's archive.) Performed by the choreographer and her group of five over 40 dancers known informally as the Raindears "Dust" comes after "Spiraling Down" (2008), "Assisted Living: Good Sports 2" (2011) and "Assisted Living: Do You Have Any Money?" (2013), works titled to ensure, as she has written, that "the matter of aging is out in the open." The content itself tends to be more oblique, with movement and text assembled from many sources: silent movies, sporting events, Keynesian economics. Her claim that she no longer "dances" may seem surprising, given Ms. Rainer's history of radically redefining that word. As a galvanizing member of Judson Dance Theater in the 1960s and founder of the improvisation group Grand Union in the '70s, she belonged to a generation along with artists like Trisha Brown, Simone Forti and Steve Paxton that inverted the rules of what dance could be, replacing the histrionic and heroic with the neutral and the everyday. Or so the most succinct story goes. Walking, running, sitting, standing, dressing, undressing, moving objects from here to there: All of it was dance. Ms. Rainer left dance for filmmaking in the 1970s and returned in 2000, through a commission from Mikhail Baryshnikov. "Half facetiously, but it may be true, I'm thinking I'm never going to make another dance," she said of "Dust." "I'm just going to keep adding to this one." As she moves forward, though, she is still shaking associations with that earlier era. "Trio A," a roughly five minute section of "The Mind Is a Muscle," endures as a ubiquitous emblem of Judson, marked by a non presentational gaze (the dancer never looks at the audience) and smoothing out of dynamics (all moves, no matter how simple or complex, display equal effort). "It's a little unfortunate, because it eclipses everything else I've done," Ms. Rainer said of "Trio A," describing it as "the most out there, visible signature of my career. That and the 'No Manifesto,' " she added, referring to her 1965 proclamation. ("No to spectacle, no to virtuosity," and so on.) In 2008, she wrote "A Manifesto Reconsidered," annotating the original. Virtuosity was now "acceptable in limited quantities." "Trio A" owes much of its staying power to a 1978 film, shot by the scholar Sally Banes, which persists on YouTube despite Ms. Rainer's attempts to take it down. It's one of few intact documentations of her early work, yet the static camera angle, she said, yields a less than ideal representation, as does her own technique as seen in the film. "I hadn't danced for a few years," she said, "and it's very sloppy. It's not precise enough for my taste." While weary of "Trio A," Ms. Rainer has also grown more protective of it. To preserve something truer to the original, she has certified five "transmitters," who field requests to teach the dance around the world. These invitations come from dancers, visual artists, art historians and other curious parties, a testament to Ms. Rainer's influence across disciplines. Emily Coates, who has danced with Ms. Rainer since 2000 and directs the Dance Studies program at Yale University, views "Trio A" more fondly and as "a window into her recent work." "You can see the paradoxes of her authorship," Ms. Coates said in a phone interview. "She's both conceptual and physical; she's pro democratically accessible movement and fascinated with virtuosity; she's invested in erudition and loves the lowbrow; she's very serious yet also has a sly, witty humor. All of that's contained in 'Trio A,' and those contradictions, or radical juxtapositions, are the through line into her recent creation." Over the past 15 years, Ms. Rainer has increasingly looked to sources outside her own body for inspiration, gestural and verbal. In "Dust," those include President Obama; Michael Jackson; and Jacques Tati, the French filmmaker. At the Modern, she plans to incorporate a painting from the museum's collection: a commentary, perhaps, on degrees of permanence in art. Impermanence is on her mind. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
When classics get adapted or updated, I often find myself asking: What's the added value? What do you get from Shakespeare with penguins that you don't get better from Shakespeare straight up? That's the chip I had on my shoulder when I went to see "Scotland, PA," a musical riff on "Macbeth" that opened on Wednesday at the Laura Pels Theater. It's not as if the great tragedy hadn't been plundered enough already; earlier "Macbeth" mash ups include a "Macbett," a "MacBird!" and even a "MacHomer," in which Banquo is reconfigured as Ned Flanders. And I already knew that this one, a world premiere commission from Roundabout Theater Company, was based on a 2001 film by William Morrissette that moves the action to the 1970s not the most appealing era for updates. I worried the witches would be Charlie's Angels. But "Scotland, PA" in which the witches, happily, are stoners instead turns out to add some delicious value to both the original play and the film. Its smart book (by Michael Mitnick) and agreeable songs (by Adam Gwon) are often laugh out loud funny, something no one ever said about the version that opened in 1606. The show, directed by Lonny Price, is also quietly insightful, making piquant connections between Shakespeare's drama of political powerlust and the consumerist mania of our own fast food culture. So I guess you could say the chip on my shoulder turned out to be a potato chip. After all, "Scotland, PA" takes place at a poky burger shack: a joint called Duncan's in the title Pennsylvania town (a real place). There Joe McBeth, an affable slacker known to everyone as Mac (Ryan McCartan), is wading into his 30s content to work the Fry O Lator . He's so laid back he doesn't even mind that all his ideas for improving the business revolutions like a drive through window are squashed by his brutal boss, Duncan (Jeb Brown). But Mac's wife, who also works at Duncan's, does mind. In a fine "I Want" song called "What We've Got" "not enough" Pat McBeth (Taylor Iman Jones) lets her frustrated ambitions for a better life spill out. "You want one more night eatin' from cans?" she sings. "You could be someone makin' great big plans." Soon, in "Everybody's Hungry," Mac catches her spark: "Time to get in on the chase/Shoutin' to the cosmos /Like I own the whole damn place." Still, Mac's ascent starts almost accidentally, when he and Pat deliver Duncan to a fittingly fast food fate during an attempted robbery . The carefully calibrated tone of the musical modeled no doubt on the comic creepy balancing act of "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Sweeney Todd" allows this material to work as comedy, even if it involves a murder. It helps that Mac, unlike Macbeth, is a dopey underdog and that his nemesis is such a sadist. But it also helps that Gwon's songs give everybody a classic rock heart. Set up this way, the story pulls us along even when the steps to burger supremacy involve treading on innocents. One, a homeless man (David Rossmer), gets framed for Duncan's murder. So does Duncan's son Malcolm (Will Meyers), a high school student who'd rather play football (for secret reasons) than inherit the kingdom. Next, a dim but sweet co worker of the McBeths called Banko real name Anthony Banconi is bamboozled into providing them an alibi. This occasions a terrific number called "Kick Ass Party," which Jay Armstrong Johnson sells in full surfer dude mode. If you are trying to trace the parallels to "Macbeth," you are probably in a tangle by now. That's just as well; Mitnick's unusually tight book has the confidence not to be overly faithful to the play or even the movie. Though his Malcolm tracks nicely with the one in "Macbeth," Banko doesn't really line up with Banquo. Peg McDuff, the detective who arrives at the end of the first act, is only tangentially related to Shakespeare's Macduff and unlike the movie's detective, played by Christopher Walken, is a woman: that reliable old pro Megan Lawrence. That McDuff is also a vegetarian helps keep the story focused on the burger business as a case study in metastatic ambition. (There's a reason so many of the characters' last names begin with Mc instead of Mac.) What begins for Pat as a simple case of monetary reparations ("Not payback but back pay," she says) winds up a quest for commercial domination. At the end, in a nifty plot twist I won't spoil, the spooky stoners' augury that McBeth will prevail unless "the peaks of mountains drip with blood" no Birnam Wood here comes hilariously, gruesomely and relevantly true. Small, clever musicals are fragile things, though, and I don't want to oversell this one in praising it. "Scotland, PA" still needs to cure a few structural hiccups (the first act seems to end twice) and to address its longueurs and lapses of logic. One of those arises from what are otherwise improvements: Now that the McBeths' hatred of Duncan is so rationally motivated we even learn that he beats his wife the leap from hatred to murder is not. That's probably fixable with a few deft lines. But the show's slight case of ambient mildness may be a harder problem to solve, especially in the songs. The deliberately warmed over '70s pastiche of Gwon's music, and notably of its matching lyrics, too often favors authenticity at the expense of theatricality. Ambition is a dish best served hot. Yet this is also a show that under Price's clean direction gets so much right. For one thing, unlike its characters, it understands its own ambition, avoiding overplaying and over amplification. It is admirably well sung and acted by the spirited cast, especially the smoky voiced Jones as Pat and Alysha Umphress as the stoner who spouts both prophecy and melisma. It moves without undue fuss on Anna Louizos's simple revolving set. And it makes its points with a similar modesty. That's more than you can say for Shakespeare, with his annoying psychological profundity and show off verbal panache. He may have presciently endorsed the musical's theme 400 years ago when he had Malcolm worry that "my more having would be as a sauce to make me hunger more," but "Scotland, PA" is something even he never predicted: a kick ass party. Tickets Through Dec. 8 at the Laura Pels Theater, Manhattan; 212 719 1300, roundabouttheatre.org. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes . | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
The Broadway producer Scott Rudin, facing a barrage of criticism over his efforts to shut down productions of "To Kill a Mockingbird" around the United States, on Friday offered an olive branch to the affected theaters, letting them put on a version of the play. At least eight theaters from California to Massachusetts were being forced to cancel productions of "Mockingbird" that would have used a decades old script by the playwright Christopher Sergel. Mr. Rudin, whose "Mockingbird" now playing on Broadway uses a new script by Aaron Sorkin, invoked a contractual provision that prevents theaters around many cities from putting on the play while a version is playing on Broadway. The clause is intended to protect the financial viability of Broadway productions, but Mr. Rudin's moves, reported Thursday by The New York Times, were criticized by many as bigfooting. Mr. Rudin called several of the theaters some of them tiny nonprofits with all volunteer staffs to apologize, to explain what happened and to offer them the scripts to the new adaptation. Mr. Rudin said there would be no fee for use of the new script. The offer was extended to any theater whose rights to stage the old version had been challenged by Mr. Rudin's legal team. But as a practical matter, the offer was too late for some of the theater companies, which had already rehearsed the older script, and were days away from beginning performances. At least one, the Kavinoky Theater in Buffalo, had already torn down its set after receiving a threatening letter from Mr. Rudin's lawyer. Some of the theaters, though, said they would accept Mr. Rudin's offer and stage the Sorkin version. "This is wonderful," said Jill Brennan Lincoln, chairwoman of the theater arts department at Azusa Pacific University, a Christian college outside Los Angeles that had been planning to cancel its production of the play after getting a cease and desist letter from Mr. Rudin's lawyers. "A.P.U. is grateful and excited about the prospect of producing Sorkin's version." Lyn Adams, the executive director of the Oklahoma Children's Theater, which had abandoned its plan to produce the Sergel script, was also intrigued, saying that "if given the opportunity, we definitely could and most likely would take them up." But his theater's production will have to be delayed so the cast can learn new lines and movements, and some actors have already taken other roles, he said. Mr. Rudin defended his actions in a brief statement, saying, "As stewards of the performance rights of Aaron Sorkin's play, it is our responsibility to enforce the agreement we made with the Harper Lee estate and to make sure that we protect the extraordinary collaborators who made this production." But he also blamed the situation on the Dramatic Publishing Company, which is run by Christopher Sergel III, Mr. Sergel's grandson, saying it had erred in issuing licenses to present the play to theaters that should not have received them. Mr. Rudin has argued that a 1969 agreement between Ms. Lee, the author of the novel, and Dramatic Publishing bars productions by theaters within 25 miles of a city that in 1960 had a population of more than 150,000 people, as well as productions using professional actors, when a "first class" production is running on Broadway or on tour. "We have been hard at work creating what I hope might be a solution for those theater companies that have been affected by this unfortunate set of circumstances, in which rights that were not available to them were licensed to them by a third party who did not have the right to do so," Mr. Rudin said. "In an effort to ameliorate the hurt caused here, we are offering each of these companies the right to perform our version of 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' Aaron Sorkin's play currently running on Broadway." It was an unusually conciliatory gesture for Mr. Rudin, who has a reputation in the theater industry for being strong willed and litigious. Before the Broadway adaptation opened, he was locked in a legal battle with the Lee estate, which argued that the play departed too much from the novel; the dispute was eventually settled. It is also rare for a hit Broadway show to grant licenses to local theaters, particularly when a national tour is anticipated. Mr. Rudin's "Mockingbird" has grossed 24 million since opening in December. When news broke that local theaters were canceling their performances after Mr. Rudin's lawyer threatened them with copyright infringement lawsuits, many supporters of community theater were outraged. Some called for a boycott of Mr. Rudin's productions, using the hashtag boycottRudinplays. "Unfortunately this issue has been the shot heard 'round the fine arts world over recent days," said Davis Varner, the president of the board of the Theater of Gadsden, a community theater in Alabama that is planning to stage the Sergel version this month. The theater is not near a big city, so its rights appear to be unchallenged, but Mr. Varner issued a statement referring to Mr. Rudin as "the bully from Broadway" and said, "I am saddened and disappointed for those groups who have been forced to cancel their productions through no fault of their own." Others took to social media to vent their unhappiness. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
People throwing tomatoes at one another during last year's La Tomatina festival in Bunol, Spain. The streets of Bunol, Spain, will run red this week as 20,000 people hurl tomatoes at one another during La Tomatina, the world's biggest food fight. Around the world, tomato crops are being ravaged by an invasive moth no larger than an eyelash. Originally from Chile, Tuta absoluta, also known as the tomato leaf miner, was introduced to Europe in 2006 via a container of infested tomatoes imported to Castellon, a Spanish province not far from Bunol. It spread throughout Europe, then to the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The toll is particularly devastating in developing countries, where many farmers can't afford integrated pest management (I.P.M.), the multipronged approach that has proved most effective at keeping the moth at bay. Earlier this year, officials in northern Nigeria, where tomatoes are a staple, declared a state of emergency in Kaduna State, a major producer of the country's tomatoes. By May, the moth had destroyed more than 80 percent of tomato crops in Kaduna; the price for a large basket of tomatoes rose to 212, from just 1.50 to 7.50 before the shortage. At the peak of the outbreak, a Nigerian website published an article about Spain's tomatofest headlined: "La Tomatina: 17 tomato photos that will make Nigerians cry 'where is our God?' " Though the leaf miner's range in Europe is extensive, from Spain to Lithuania, many farmers have kept the moth's numbers under control with an arsenal of specialized tactics. These include pheromones that lure the moths into traps or disrupt their mating; biopesticides based on bacteria, fungi or oils; chemical pesticides that are highly selective; and the introduction of the leaf miner's natural enemies. The last measure has been extremely effective in Spain, said Alberto Urbaneja, a professor at the Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research and one of the first to research the Tuta absoluta invasion in Europe. "If you can establish a good I.P.M. system based on biological control, it is possible to manage Tuta," he said. In countries with low financial resources, farmers often don't take action until the pest has moved in. When it does, farmers turn to the pesticides they have on hand, which typically kill a broad spectrum of pests. These chemicals are environmentally harmful and eventually lead to pesticide resistant bugs. In some countries, the problem comes down to a lack of technical knowledge or government support. With funding from USAID, Muni Muniappan, the director of the IPM Innovation Lab based at Virginia Tech, has been running workshops around the world to help farmers prepare for the inevitable spread of the leaf miner, which also attacks such crops as potatoes, eggplants and peppers. Meeting the pest head on "requires lots of training and information," Dr. Muniappan said. But his work is currently limited to seven countries in Africa and Asia, including Bangladesh and Nepal, where scientists successfully caught the start of a Tuta absoluta invasion earlier this summer. Experts say it's only a matter of time before the moth invades the remaining countries within its geographical limits, including the United States, where the Agriculture Department has been monitoring Tuta absoluta and regulating the import of tomatoes since 2009. The moths have a high reproductive capacity each female produces up to 300 offspring in her lifetime and they are small enough to be transported by wind, Dr. Urbanejo said. Their larvae devour tomato leaves, stems, fruits and flowers; uncontrolled, the pest can damage 100 percent of a crop. Nevertheless, with the right combination of methods, countries should be able to keep the moth at manageable levels, Dr. Urbanejo said. The problem is already showing signs of stabilizing in some African countries, including Kenya, where the moth was first detected in 2013. Farmers there are starting to use pheromone lures and adaptive practices like alternating tomatoes with other crops, said Fathiya Khamis, a scientist at the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi. At least one company in Kenya, Kenya Biologics, now sells pheromone traps locally, and Dr. Khamis's team is looking into other options as well, like fungal biopesticides and specialized nets. As farmers adopt more sustainable strategies, tomato lovers may ultimately have to adjust to higher prices. Still, the drastic price hikes that initially accompanied outbreaks have settled down. In Kenya, tomato prices rose to 1.25 a kilogram after the moth outbreak from just 60 cents. Now, prices hover around 1. Tomato prices are now just slightly above what they were before the outbreak in Nigeria as well, said Orode Doherty, a doctor who lives in Lagos. As for La Tomatina, its organizers say it is not contributing to tomato shortages; 145 to 160 tons of wild tomatoes are grown in western Spain just for the festival. These tomatoes aren't cultivated, harvested or processed as they would be for human consumption, said Miguel Sanfeliu, a representative at La Tomatina. "It's like growing trees to make confetti for a party," he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
There was a shake up in the digital division of Vice Media on Tuesday. Jonathan Smith, a Vice veteran who had been the editor in chief of Vice.com for the last three years, was let go, along with the site's managing editor, Rachel Schallom. The company announced that Erika Allen, a Vice Magazine alumna who was most recently a senior editor at New York Magazine's The Cut, had been named the site's executive managing editor, and other editors took on expanded roles. Katie Drummond, who was named Vice's senior vice president for digital in March after a stint as deputy editor at Medium, said she had been attracted by the possibility for growth. "The appeal to me is very clear," she said in an interview Tuesday. "This is a brand that can be fearless, tell big stories, has a global reach, attracts emerging talent." The company is indeed expanding, having posted listings for roughly a dozen additional editorial jobs, including a features editorial director, an opinion editor and an "authoritarianism reporter." Ms. Drummond added that the restructuring of Vice.com, with various editors heading up teams of reporters, meant there were no plans to name a new editor in chief of the site. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
The season finale of "Star Trek: Discovery" was true to form: alternately impressive and head scratching; a visual marvel and yet muddled; nostalgic and fresh. And by the end of the episode, Spock suggests that Starfleet should essentially erase the existence of the Discovery. Unintentionally, Spock was voicing the thoughts of a vocal segment of "Star Trek" fans. Much of the episode, at least for me, recalled "Star Trek: Nemesis," one of the more reviled Trek movies. There is an intensely long battle in which the Enterprise (and the Discovery, in this case) are massively outgunned by an enemy with the upper hand. The future of humanity is at stake. There is even an extended and a bit pointless boarding party when Leland beams over to the Discovery. But this battle played to a strength of "Discovery": Olatunde Osunsanmi, who directed the episode, knows how to create riveting tension. The fast cuts, combined with the shaky cam, provided constant visual stimulation, almost taking the viewer on a roller coaster ride. And unlike many "Trek" battles, this one, featuring a fleet of possessed Section 31 ships led by Leland against the Enterprise and the Discovery, felt realistic. In many starship fights in "Trek" lore, an enemy ship will fire one or two shots, and suddenly, one of the most powerful ships in the Federation will have its shields down like in "Star Trek: Generations." Here, both the Enterprise and the Discovery both take and deliver a wallop. I was riveted by the episode the stakes felt real and drawn out until the Klingons and the Ba'ul fighters showed up. This is where it went off the rails for me. I've been harping on this quite a bit this season: Ash Tyler is not supposed to be alive in the eyes of the Klingons. His existence nearly cost L'Rell her chancellorship before it got off the ground. And there he was on the bridge of a Klingon ship next to L'Rell. The notion that L'Rell could pull this off without significant opposition from other Klingons or even from her own crew members is questionable at best. And somehow, the Ba'ul and Klingons are able to come lend a hand, but no other Starfleet ships? Certain inconsistencies you can live with. Here, I was distracted. Particularly when Burnham and Spock solve another grand mystery, which is when Burnham sent the red signals. It turns out it was never from the future. She sent them from the present to bring them to this point, so that afterward, they can go into the future. This was another instance that confused me. From my understanding (and please email me if I'm incorrect!), Control (i.e. Leland) was coming for the sphere data and wouldn't stop until they had it. This is why the Discovery has to go into the future. It's very existence is the problem, as Spock said in the first part of the episode. Yet, in the finale, Georgiou, following a long fist fight, tells the bridge that Leland has been killed. "Control has been neutralized," she tells Saru. So why does Discovery have to go into the future? Why not put a pin in that plan? The sphere data is valuable. To push an entire Starfleet crew into the future seems like a drastic step if the deadly enemy has been offset even if temporarily. It would also deprive the Federation of key assets: a time suit, the spore drive and some of its best officers. Spock also mentions that the time crystal shows a version of the future that can apparently be avoided. So why was it such a big deal for Pike to take a crystal out of Boreth? Wasn't Pike told he was locked into his future? I liked that the episode was more of an ensemble effort: Every crew member had a moment of some sort, even Cornwell, although her death seemed unnecessary. And knowing "Discovery," she'll find a way to have survived the blast. But the ending is where I found myself very baffled: Why did the Enterprise crew, and those associated with it, decide to lie to Starfleet about what happened with the Discovery? There didn't seem to be a logical reason to. Spock, in particular, given his character history, would seem to have a hard time not telling the truth about this. The Discovery just saved the universe! Why hide their contributions? Maybe Starfleet would authorize the construction of a new time suit to bring back the Discovery crew. (And Spock, who suggests that everyone who knows about the existence of Discovery should keep quiet, closes the episode with a personal log which would reveal, or at least, acknowledge the falsehood. What if someone got a hold of it?) It was an uneven finale for an uneven show. Season 2 was certainly an improvement on the first season but overall, "Discovery" still felt like it was trying to find its footing. Ethan Peck was always going to have difficult shoes to fill with Spock. Over the course of the season, Spock went from petulant to showing a warmth for Burnham, exhibiting a range that felt to me out of character for the Spock we've come to know. (I did think it was a nice moment when Burnham and Spock said good bye to each other.) But that's where we leave off: The Discovery is presumably in the future. Spock is on the Enterprise. And what about the Control As Borg theory? Lots of "Discovery" fans were convinced that Control is the origin story for the Borg. We don't get definitive resolution on that in the finale. But maybe next season? We know there is going to be a Season 3. We also know Anson Mount is leaving "Discovery" after this season. So where does the third run of the show take place? In the future? Does it center on Spock? A shout out to Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn (Number One), who is also saying bon voyage to "Discovery." They were both charismatic assets for the show. I'd love to see Tig Notaro come back next season as well. Thanks for following along this season. It's much appreciated. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
In the aftermath of the sexual harassment scandal at its Fox News division, 21st Century Fox has struck a settlement with a shareholder that is intended to overhaul the workplace culture at the network. The agreement announced Monday calls for the creation of a new oversight panel the Fox News Workplace Professionalism and Inclusion Council comprising two human resources executives at the company and four independent experts. The council will provide written reports to 21st Century Fox directors and, in an effort to increase transparency, publish those findings on the company's website. The settlement was reached with a 21st Century Fox shareholder, the City of Monroe Employees' Retirement System in Michigan, and was more than a year in the making. The agreement resolves a legal complaint that the shareholder filed in Delaware on Monday and includes a 90 million payment to 21st Century Fox from third party insurers, minus the cost of lawyers fees and other expenses. The settlement helps to recoup the large financial toll that the harassment and racial discrimination crisis has had on 21st Century Fox. The company has incurred about 50 million in costs tied to the settlement of sexual harassment and discrimination allegations involving Fox News in a one year period that ended June 30. That figure does not include money paid out to two of Fox News' most prominent figures after they each faced multiple allegations of sexual harassment: 40 million to Roger Ailes, the former chairman who was ousted in 2016, and 25 million to Bill O'Reilly, the cable news host who was forced out last spring. "For far too long, corporate leaders failed to act against harassing conduct in their midst by treating it as isolated incidents," Max Berger, a founding partner of the law firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger Grossmann LLP, which represents the shareholder, said in a statement. He said that episodes of misconduct at Fox News and beyond "show that corporate boards have an obligation to implement policies and structures that will protect current and future employees from the widespread improper abuse of the past." The company pledged to clean up its workplace and foster a culture of trust and respect after the scandal first burst into public view in July 2016. Yet in the months that followed, allegations continued to surface at Fox News and in other divisions. And in February, the company granted Mr. O'Reilly a four year contract extension worth 25 million a year, even though it was aware of at least six settlements involving harassment allegations against him. 21st Century Fox has said that in addition to management changes, it has hired a new global head of human resources and a new head of human resources at Fox News, expanded training and created more ways for employees to report harassment or discrimination. As 21st Century Fox tries to move past the scandal, the United States attorney's office in Manhattan is conducting a criminal investigation into Fox News's handling of sexual harassment complaints. The company also faces continuing regulatory scrutiny in Britain over its 15 billion bid to acquire full control of Sky, the European satellite giant long coveted by Rupert Murdoch and his sons James and Lachlan, who control 21st Century Fox. Some shareholders have expressed concern that 21st Century Fox's management and its board failed to address the crisis and have risked the company's reputation, operations and long term value. The settlement came at a time of uncertainty in the Murdoch media empire. The company has held preliminary talks in recent weeks to sell some assets, a development that shocked analysts who believed that the Murdochs had no interested in selling any part of the company until news of the discussions broke. The four independent members of Fox News's new workplace council include Barbara Jones, a former judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and Brande Stellings, the head of the consulting services and corporate board services groups at Catalyst, which work to advance women in positions of leadership. Also named to the group were Virgil Smith, who was the vice president of talent acquisition and diversity at the Gannett Company, and Sylvia Ann Hewlett, the chief executive of the Center for Talent Innovation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. "The Workplace Council gives our management team access to a brain trust of experts with deep and diverse experiences in workplace issues," Jack Abernethy, co president of Fox News, said in a statement. "We look forward to benefiting from their collective guidance." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
FOR many employees these days, the only fringe benefits they can hope for are decent health care coverage and a working coffee machine. Others, however, enjoy free gourmet meals and snacks, on site gyms and nutritionists, housecleaning and nap rooms. Upping the ante in what has been called a perks arms race is unlimited vacation time for some employees from such companies as Virgin, Netflix and the Ladders, while Facebook this year said it would reimburse its female employees up to 20,000 for freezing their eggs. Apple plans to follow suit in January. More typically, extras often include paid maternity and paternity leave, on site child care, flexible work hours and 100 percent paid health benefits. Most of these incentives exist in the tech world or fields where there is competition to attract certain skilled workers. Nonetheless, even in those industries, some say there is little evidence they motivate employees, and they can serve the more nefarious purpose of making sure employees rarely leave the office. "People in the rest of the country look at the Silicon Valley perks and think, 'What wonderful companies to work for,' " said Gerald Ledford, a senior research scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. The first thing to remember, though, he said, is "this is by far the most competitive job market in the country. It's an arms race to come up with the jazziest rewards." Second, and more important, he said, "these benefits are not being offered out of largess. It's done because organizations want employees to work 24/7. If you never have to leave to get your dry cleaning, to go to the gym, to eat or even go to bed, you can work all the time. They're golden handcuffs." And with some companies allowing employees to bring their pets to work or their families into the corporate cafeteria for dinner if work runs late, it's home that can seem like an unneeded extra. Lotte Bailyn, a professor emeritus at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, said that while some of the perks offered flexibility paid leave and options to telecommute, for example "it's important to differentiate between those polices that give people more control over what they do and those that allow people to work longer and longer on site." One example, she said, is companies that provide care if a child is sick. "Well, the last thing you want to do is have a stranger stay with a sick child," she said, but with that option, it is more difficult to request to stay home. The same can be true of unlimited vacation time. It can be a good thing, by demonstrating that a company trusts its employees to make wise decisions. But "it all depends on the norms and expectations in the work force," Professor Bailyn said. If taking off time is explicitly or implicitly frowned on, then people may use even less vacation time than under more formal policies, she said. Even the newest benefit, reimbursement for egg freezing, has skeptics who say that while this could be a welcome choice for some women, it could also be seen as workplaces paying women to put off childbearing. The companies, on the other hand, say the perks are all about making their employees' lives easier and more in their control. SAS, a software company that employs almost 7,000 people at its headquarters in Cary, N.C., was ranked No. 2 on Fortune's 2014 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For in the United States, right behind Google. SAS offers free personal trainers at its on site fitness center, an indoor pool, hair salon, free on site health care and work life counselors. The benefits and culture as a whole help "minimize the stresses that affect employees every day," said Jenn Mann, an SAS spokeswoman. "We want employees to be there on the first day of school or take an aging parent to the doctor. Life happens. SAS, in turn, is committed to reducing stress and distraction so they can do their best work." But do all these perks do what they're supposed to that is, attract, retain and motivate employees? Dr. Ledford said there wasn't much good research in the area, but that while such extras might attract and even help retain employees, it didn't show it motivates them. In fact, he said, some research shows that highly competitive workers are more interested in the individual rewards they can receive for their performance than what goodies are available for everyone. "Companies can be a lot smarter in how they spend benefit dollars," he said, particularly those, unlike most of the high tech ones, that don't have very deep pockets. For example, offering fresh fruit and healthier food for employees seems a sensible benefit, he said. One growing trend, micro markets in workplaces, is responding to that need. Set up similar to those kiosks or markets available at airports except self service they are modular units that provide snacks, salads, sandwiches and drinks. While the meals aren't free, the idea is that they are quick and relatively cheap. Workers scan a prepaid card or a debit or credit card to pay for their meals, or they can link their thumbprint to their preloaded card and simply scan that as they leave, said Jim Mitchell, president of Company Kitchen. So far, Company Kitchen's operators which function similar to franchises have set up more than 1,000 micro markets around the country, with more than 7,500 for the industry as a whole, Mr. Mitchell said. The entire industry has grown by 72 percent since the end of 2013, Mr. Mitchell said. Such a market costs about 16,000 18,000 to install, which is picked up by the operators; they make their money selling products. A sandwich would typically run 2 to 4, he said, although it might be higher in some markets. Another bonus? Employees can view their buying history on their computers and see if they're eating too much salt, say, or fat. Companies can also do that for employees as a whole without looking at individual workers, Mr. Mitchell hastened to add so they may choose to drop some less healthy items. The AMC Theatres corporate headquarters in Leawood, Kan., outside Kansas City, had Company Kitchen install a micro market last year when it moved buildings, and now about 500 employees and contractors use it. The micro market demonstrates how perks can have both a downside and an upside. Ryan Noonan, a spokesman for AMC, said that in the old building, he might walk to a nearby restaurant which has the advantage of a short outdoor work break. But if he didn't eat out, he would either go hungry or buy chips or candy from the vending machine especially in freezing weather. Now he can just run down a flight of stairs for fresh food. And while that may not rank up there with a free massage or housecleaning, being able to grab a salad and a fruit rather than a stale candy bar is one nice perk for most of us. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
The uniquely uncivil presidential campaign is about to produce one of the biggest civic gatherings in decades: For 90 minutes on Monday night, a polarized nation will pause to watch the first head to head encounter between Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. The total audience, network executives and political strategists say, could be as high as 100 million viewers Super Bowl territory. That would surpass the 80 million who watched Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980, the record for a presidential debate, and rank among television benchmarks like the finales of "MASH" and "Cheers." Not all viewers will watch from their living rooms. At the Dreamland Theater in tiny Nantucket, Mass., so many are expected for a debate watching party that the town assigned a police officer to stand watch in case of rowdiness. And in Richardson, Tex., the Alamo Drafthouse had to switch to a bigger room after overwhelming interest in a screening with refreshments like a "build a wall around it" taco salad. Mass experiences built around news events like the moon landing, and pop culture moments for older generations like the "Who shot J. R.?" episode of "Dallas" are rare in an age of fragmented media and the drift toward partisan outlets, where viewers can effectively choose their own news. But tight polls and curiosity about the unconventional Mr. Trump are luring viewers. In a New York Times/CBS News poll this month, 83 percent of registered voters said they were very or somewhat likely to watch on Monday. "It's a throwback to a phenomenon that has essentially disappeared in the era of digital media," said Andrew Heyward, a former president of CBS News. "This is Americans gathering around the electronic hearth." Television networks and online streaming sites, including Facebook and Twitter, will carry the same feed on Monday, showing a spare debate stage at Hofstra University, on Long Island, a format that predates the blaring graphics and space age sets that now dominate television news. Still, even if a large portion of the country is watching, what Americans see may be as much about their beliefs and preferred news outlets as what transpires onstage. About 8 percent of registered voters remain undecided, according to the New York Times/CBS News poll, a thin if crucial sliver of the electorate. And after Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump conclude on Monday, viewers are likely to return to their ideological silos, absorbing instant analysis from left leaning anchors on MSNBC or commentators at right leaning outlets like Breitbart News. The debate itself will be subject to instant, blow by blow interpretation on social media. "Regardless of where you're watching, whether it's Facebook Live or NBC or Fox News, there will be a moment where we all witness it," said Charles L. Ponce de Leon, author of "That's the Way It Is," a history of television news. "But that moment will quickly crumble when all the instant analysis and opining comes into play." 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 event's impact is unlikely to rival that of, say, 1960, when John F. Kennedy's smooth performance in the first televised debate helped sway voters against his opponent, Richard Nixon. That debate aired without commentary or graphics and captions on the screen. "Journalists were of the opinion they should wait and ruminate and think about what went down, and then, a day or a week later, talk about it," Mr. de Leon said. Tom Sander, who runs a program on civic engagement at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, said he was worried that voters might not have a chance to remove partisan blinders. "Many of us come to these events more to confirm what we already think we know, rather than to search for common ground," Mr. Sander said. The candidates may hope otherwise. Mrs. Clinton has told donors privately that she expects 100 million people to watch the debate, and that 60 million of those viewers may be focusing on the campaign for the first time, a prime opportunity for her to make inroads. Many may tune in merely for the spectacle. "It's like waiting for the Ali Frazier fight," said Dick Cavett, the longtime talk show host, referring to the highly anticipated boxing bouts between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in the 1970s. Mr. Cavett said he would cut short a dinner on Monday to ensure he would be in front of a TV by 9 p.m. "There's possible drama and fireworks and insults and horror and disaster and potential enlightenment," Mr. Cavett said. "It would attract anybody." Some in TV noted that the 2008 meeting between Joseph R. Biden and Sarah Palin attracted 70 million viewers, more than any of that year's presidential debates, a sign that civic interest may be less of a draw than seeing a colorful candidate like Ms. Palin or Mr. Trump. The 1980 Carter Reagan debate scored a record audience in part because it was the only head to head matchup between the candidates in a precable era. But Neal Shapiro, a former president of NBC News, recalled that Mr. Reagan's unusual background as a Hollywood actor spurred interest. "People wanted to see, would they really feel comfortable with Reagan as president?" Mr. Shapiro said. "People were wondering, 'Can I live with this guy?'" The first debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012 drew 67 million viewers. Advertisers, anticipating even more this time, are using the opportunity to unveil new ads with themes that may resonate with Americans focused on the campaign. Audi's commercial shows a man and woman, both hotel valets, battling for the right to drive an Audi RS7 luxury car, and features the slogan "Choose the next driver wisely." American flags, and ice sculptures of a donkey and an elephant, convey the message that the car, as an Audi vice president for marketing put it, is "a metaphor for the importance of America." In a spot set for Monday night, Tecate, a Mexican beer label owned by Heineken, features a view of the Mexican border and a Trump like voice over that declares, "The time has come for a wall a tremendous wall." The wall is revealed as a knee high resting place for Tecate beers, "a wall that brings us together." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
AUSTIN, Tex. When Jordan Peele took the stage to present the world premiere of his new horror film, "Us," at South by Southwest, he had jokes. "What if I showed four episodes of 'This Is Us' in a row, with no explanation?" he asked. And he gave a shout out to another film that brought him to the festival three years ago. "If you haven't seen 'Keanu,' go see it. It's a must see." But back to "Us," the follow up to Peele's Oscar winning, culture galvanizing "Get Out." Expectations have been high for "Us" since the trailer dropped on Christmas Day and raised questions around the web. What's up with the family that seems to be terrorized by creepy doppelgangers? Why the scissors? How much does the 1995 Luniz track "I Got 5 on It" really factor in? | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Resting along the Danube, with the Hungarian Parliament Building on one bank and the Fisherman's Bastion standing watch over the other, Budapest is a city of art, architecture, history, and of course, luxurious thermal baths. If you want to visit, you'll need to prepare. Here's what to bring. We've shared packing essentials for any 36 hour trip in previous lists, so I asked Evan Rail, our travel columnist who's been to Budapest several times, to name a few items he thinks any tourist would be glad they packed. Then we turned to Ria Misra, an editor at Wirecutter, for the best products to fill those needs and her expert suggestions for other things to pack to make the most of your trip. Here are their picks. None Comfortable, Quality Sleep Mask. For the already jet lagged traveler, Budapest's late night scene can be as much a challenge as a charm especially since, as Mr. Rail notes, "hotel curtains rarely seem to be designed with the city's night life in mind." I can vouch for this, having once slept in a hotel room looking out at the Budapest Eye, which was always beautiful and quite colorful, but bright even at night. Bring a good sleep mask, like the Nidra Deep Rest. Ms. Misra offered a helpful reminder: Pack it in your carry on for the flight so that you get some rest on the way. (For best results, combine it with a good pair of ear plugs and the Travelrest Ultimate Memory Foam Travel Pillow.) None Swimsuit and Towel. For the thermal pools at the Rudas Baths, you'll want your swimsuit and a quick drying towel. The Packtowl Personal, collapses down into its own little pouch, has a loop for hanging between soaks, and is made of a fast drying microfiber, so you won't need to worry about pulling a sopping towel from the bottom of your pack at the end of the day. None Lightweight Daypack. "Budapest is the kind of place where you can find wonderful souvenirs: storied antiques, Communist era tchotchkes, and stuff from the city's surprisingly cool contemporary design scene," Mr. Rail said. A lightweight, durable daypack, like L.L.Bean's Stowaway Day Pack which you can stuff into its own pocket until you need it will be incredibly useful. None Sun Protection. "Even in the winter, the sunlight there can be startlingly bright, especially compared to grayer destinations in Central Europe," Mr. Rail said. Bring sunscreen (and use it correctly!) and a pair of sunglasses, like these Kent Wangs. None Pen and a Notebook. "In Budapest, plans change quickly," Mr. Rail explained. "I'd recommend carrying a good pen and a small notebook so you can keep track of any recommendations you get, and where you can write things down in case the locals don't understand your unique pronunciation of 'Harmashatar hegy.'" To keep all that info neatly together, Ms. Misra suggests a notebook that you can customize. You can fill the Traveler's Notebook with inserts ranging from calendars to blank sheets to holders for loose cards or scraps. Tuck a reliable pen, like the Uni ball Jetstream, into the notebook's elastic closure before you set out. None Collapsible Water Bottle and Lip Balm. "Budapest is a ton of fun, but when it's warm it's easy to get dehydrated," Mr. Rail said, and I completely agree Budapest can get hot, especially in the summer, and often humid during rainy seasons, which can make you sweat even more. Pack a collapsible water bottle, like the Platypus Meta Bottle, which can serve as cup, mug, or bottle. On the other hand, cooler seasons can kick up cold winds off the Danube, so bring a lip balm with sun protection. Ms. Misra recommends Wirecutter's pick, Aquaphor Lip Protectant Sunscreen. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Designs from Lela Rose's new Pearl line, modeled in her home in TriBeCa. 'Nothing Says Chic Like Matching Your Drink to Your Dress' When Lela Rose gives a party, she leaves no detail to chance. At the immaculately orchestrated soiree cum fashion show at her store front style loft in TriBeCa last night, guests sampled Malpeque oysters, deviled quail eggs and elderflower cocktails, narrowly dodging Bobbin, the designer's terrier, who frisked underfoot. They snapped photos of the coltish models poised on a dining table raised to double as a runway. In Ms. Rose's fashion presentation, among the first of New York Fashion Week, those ponytailed mannequins showed off the cheery elements of Pearl, Ms. Rose's new diffusion line. Her coral lace dresses and dotted Swiss frocks were color keyed to the cocktail napkins. No shame in that, Ms. Rose said, adding with only a whisper of irony, "Nothing says chic like matching your drink to your dress." "Lela is relentless," said Celerie Kemble, the decorator and Ms. Rose's longtime chum. "She doesn't think about making dresses so much as she thinks of creating an ambience." When Ms. Rose is working, Ms. Kemble said, there is an imaginary film reel in her head: "She is not just about making dresses she's thinking about where she will wear them, what will food she will serve, and what would be the perfect cocktail to balance the mood." There is method in her mania. Ms. Rose's gathering, modeled on a traditional trunk show more like a living room Tupperware party, actually, but selling frocks, not pots evoked nothing so much as mid 1960s Palm Beach. There, as legend has it, Lily Pulitzer began selling her giddily patterned pink and lime shifts to an intimate circle of friends, and from a fruit stand. "Lela is the modern day Lily," said Robert Burke of Robert Burke Associates, the New York luxury consulting company. The comparison is apt. "Lily was highly social," Mr. Burke said. "Invitations to her Sunday lunches in Palm Beach were highly coveted." Her designs were festive, breezy and candidly pretty, not unlike those of Ms. Rose. Pearl, priced from about 155 to 650, is two parts crisp practicality, one part froth. A deep pocketed, coral tone jacket can double as a dress; boxy tweed jackets can be worn over tubular sheaths. On the more overtly coquettish side is a noodle strapped dotted Swiss sundress and, in a stroke worthy of Lily Pulitzer herself, a floral lace shift in throbbing tangerine. The ease and flirtatiousness of the clothes is part of the draw. "Lela has such a sense of femininity and fun," said Jenna Bush, the "Today" show correspondent and twin daughter of George W. Bush. So is Ms. Rose's pedigree. Her mother is Deedie Rose, the Texas art collector and Dallas grande dame. Her father was Edward Rose, a Dallas investment banker who was one of the owners, along with Mr. Bush, of the Texas Rangers baseball team. The Bushes are old family friends, Ms. Rose wants you to know. Because, as she would be first to acknowledge, in the hotly competitive fashion world, you are only as good as the people you dress. She imagines her client as a real estate agent, or maybe junior philanthropist, or chairwoman of her local P.T.A. She may reside in any one of six cities, including San Francisco, Dallas and Charlotte, N.C. Each of those cities will in fact be served by a stylist slash hostess handpicked by Ms. Rose to give Lela style parties in their own homes for a far reaching network of local clients and friends. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
BRUSSELS The European Union said on Thursday that it was exploring new ways to try to stimulate economic growth in Greece, with one senior official acknowledging that Greek citizens were on the verge of rejecting any more austerity measures. Horst Reichenbach, who heads a task force set up by the European Commission to give technical aid to Greece, said it was important to "give some hope to the Greek population which, as we all know, is at the brink of not accepting any further pain." Mr. Reichenbach said that the commission, the union's executive branch, was examining ways of allowing European Union funding to be used to help guarantee increased lending by the European Investment Bank to fill a vacuum caused by the inability of Greek banks to lend to businesses. Around 15 billion euros, or 20 billion, in European Union structural funds have been allocated to Greece through 2013. His comments come amid increasing concern that, in addition to pressing for essential changes to the Greek economy, international lenders should step up efforts aimed at reversing economic stagnation. As if to underline the point, Greek transport workers staged a 24 hour strike Thursday, bringing the transit system to a standstill, as a protest against the austerity drive deemed essential by Greece's creditors. General strikes have been called for Oct. 5 and Oct. 19. Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, the Greek finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, said that Greece's situation was "critical" and that the government's priority was to keep its commitments to foreign creditors to avoid what happened to Argentina, which defaulted on its debt in 2001 2. "The crisis is not what we are living today, namely cuts to wages, pensions and income," Mr. Venizelos said. "That is our effort to avert against the crisis. The real crisis will be like that of Argentina's in 2000 a total collapse of the economy, of institutions, of the social fabric and productive forces of the country." He added that a new property tax, part of the additional austerity measures, would apply beyond 2012 and not just for the next two years as stated when the levy was announced this month. But the long term unemployed would be exempt from the tax as long as their gross annual income was less than 12,000 euros, about 16,400, with that threshold increasing by 4,000 euros for each child. Mr. Venizelos appealed for greater honesty in the debate over the economy, saying that the country's political class must be clearer about the situation and what is required. "The lies to the Greek people must stop," he said, adding that now it was time for "work, work and more work" to meet fiscal targets and revive the economy. The European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Olli Rehn, said Thursday that Greece would remain within the euro zone but did not explicitly rule out the possibility of a default. "An uncontrolled default or exit of Greece from the euro zone would cause enormous economic and social damage, not only to Greece but to the European Union as a whole, and have serious spillovers to the world economy," Mr. Rehn said during a speech to the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. "We will not let this happen." International lenders have to decide shortly whether to release the next installment of aid, worth around 8 billion euros, or 10.9 billion, without which Greece probably will default in October. Experts from the three international institutions known as the troika the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are likely to return to Athens early next week to pave the way for a decision on the next loan. In the meantime, longer term work is going on to try to help the Greek government undertake crucial changes, including an overhaul of a tax collection system widely seen as ineffectual. European experts believe that the key to changing the system is the installation of more information technology equipment and the creation of clear rules that reduce the amount of discretion tax inspectors have. Substantial changes will probably take around a year, said an E.U. official not authorized to speak publicly on the issue, who likened the problem to an iceberg: "The tip looks O.K., but what's below, everyone tells me, is quite different." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
In her latest film, "Rules Don't Apply" (out on Nov. 23), Lily Collins, 27, plays an aspiring actress, but in real life her career is red hot. Along with the film (and three more movies arriving in 2017), she has written a memoir titled "Unfiltered," to be released in March. Raised mostly in Los Angeles, Ms. Collins spent summers in England, where her father, the musician Phil Collins, lives. Here, she shares her skin care and beauty regimen. First, I splash cold water on my face just to wake me up. Then I use the Lancome Energie de Vie line. I'm an ambassador for the brand, so I've tested the products. These are the ones that work for me because I feel they brighten, and the finishes aren't sticky. I use the facial wash, the toner gel and a cream. Then I always put on a sunscreen. There's no California tan about me. People assume I can't tan, but I actually can. I went on a trip to Hawaii when I was younger and came back so tan that people were like, "What happened?" It's just not something I actively do. I want to embrace my ivory. I've been using a Kiehl's sunscreen, which is super light and doesn't have a fragrance. For night, I do the same process, but depending on how dry my skin is, I might do one of the Lancome Genefique masks. If I'm feeling dry, I'll also put liquid coconut oil on my body. I just get it at Whole Foods. Morning or night, I love putting mint or spearmint oil on my temples and the back of my neck. There's this aromatherapy quality of both easing tension and waking you up. I have one by Saje that's called Peppermint Halo. It's an insanely incredible product. It comes in a rollerball and makes your skin feel like it's on fire and is cooling at the same time. When I'm off duty, I wear very little. My motto is the less there is on you, the less there is to go wrong. If I am wearing makeup, I love the Giorgio Armani Maestro Glow. It's so luminous. And it lets my freckles still shine through. If I need it, I do the Armani powder, too. The important thing, especially in L.A., is that nothing looks coated on. You've got the sun and pollution already, so you don't want more stuff clogging you up. Then I always do a swipe of mascara. Then my brows. I'm very thankful the whole big brow look is an "in" thing now. I'm like, "Everybody keep embracing them." They do need to be tamed on occasion. I use the clear Great Lash mascara from Maybelline for that. I always wear lip balm. I love Smith's Rosebud Salve. I'm constantly reapplying. If I'm going out, I may throw on a bit of blush and a lip. I really love the YSL lip colors. I'll go for a deep plum. It works with my pale complexion and dark hair. It may take me a while to get it perfect. I'm no makeup genius. I've kind of lost track of my natural color. I just got back to brown from watermelon red. That was for a role. I was shooting a movie in Korea, and my character's name is Red. It's nice to be back to brown because I know the makeup colors that work. But my hair has been through so much. There's the coloring, but I've also been doing a lot of period pieces, and they're always curling my hair. Kerastase, I've used the products forever. I use its Bain Force line, which is for repairing. If I want extra volume, I use the Shu Uemura Fiber Lift. If I've gone a couple days without washing it, I'm the biggest fan of the Oribe hair sprays, whether it's the beach spray or the dry shampoo. There are three scents I gravitate toward. There's rose, and there's bergamot, which is in a lot of the things I like. The other one is oud. Growing up, I was always drawn more to deeper smells than super feminine ones. When I dabble in essential oils, I like a mix of all three. Many I get by wandering the aisles at Whole Foods. But when I travel, I love to go to apothecaries. When I was in Korea, there were some amazing stores. Or I'll go to Abbot Kinney in Venice, where there are wonderful little boutiques. I have the biggest array of oils and hand creams. Some people are obsessed with shoes and bags. I'm obsessed with my little collection. I've always loved being active, and I used to do sports basketball, soccer, volleyball growing up. Now I love running, biking and swimming. I also go to these dance cardio classes at Body by Simone. The trainers are so empowering, it doesn't matter if you can't dance well. I've always been a healthy eater. In England, it was basically eating at the farm. Bangers and mash, of course, but it was very much about fresh, healthy food. L.A. is ideal for that. I don't eat red meat. I'm big on chicken, fish and vegetables. It's a way of life for me. I don't think about it as a diet. I have always loved massages, and hot stone massages are one of my favorites. When I was little, my dad used to stay at the Peninsula in L.A., and I grew up knowing everyone there. I started going back for the spa. I always ask for my girl Jessica. I'm also fascinated with how beauty and skin care are treated in other countries. I had a really incredible experience when I was in Taiwan. It was my last day, and my friend and I went to this house where they treat you on the floor. They wash your feet, and there was an amazing massage, and then we had tea. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
KOSAKA, Japan Two decades after global competition drove the mines in this corner of Japan to extinction, Kosaka is again abuzz with talk of new riches. The treasures are not copper or coal. They are rare earth elements and other minerals that are crucial to many Japanese technologies and have so far come almost exclusively from China, the global leader in rare earth mining. Recent problems with Chinese supplies of rare earths have sent Japanese traders and companies in search of alternative sources, creating opportunities for Kosaka. This town's hopes for a mining comeback lie not underground, but in what Japan refers to as urban mining recycling the valuable metals and minerals from the country's huge stockpiles of used electronics like cellphones and computers. "We've literally discovered gold in cellphones," said Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, a former land minister and now opposition party member, who visited here recently to survey Kosaka's recycling plant. Kosaka's pursuits have become especially important for Japan in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, amid a diplomatic spat with Tokyo, China started to block exports of all rare earths to Japan. The shipping ban was still in effect on Monday evening in Japan, an industry official said, though a trickle of shipments seemed to be seeping out as a result of uneven enforcement of the ban by customs officers at various ports. China has allowed exports of Chinese made rare earth magnets and other rare earth products to Japan, but not semi processed rare earth ores that would enable Japanese companies to make products. The cutoff has caused hand wringing at Japanese manufacturers, from giants like Toyota to tiny electronics makers, because the raw materials are crucial to products as diverse as hybrid electric cars, wind turbines and computer display screens. Late last week, Japan's trade minister, Akihiro Ohata, said he would ask the government to include a "rare earth strategy" in its supplementary budget for this year. Besides gold, Dowa's subsidiary, Kosaka Smelting and Refining, has so far successfully reclaimed rare metals like indium, used in liquid crystal display screens, and antimony, used in silicon wafers for semiconductors. The company is trying to develop ways to reclaim the harder to mine minerals included among the rare earths like neodymium, a vital element in industrial batteries used in electric motors, and dysprosium, used in laser materials. Although Japan is poor in natural resources, the National Institute for Materials Science, a government affiliated research group, says that used electronics in Japan hold an estimated 300,000 tons of rare earths. Though that amount is tiny compared to reserves in China, which mines 93 percent of the world's rare earth minerals, tapping these urban mines could help reduce Japan's dependence on its neighbor, analysts say. The global rare earth market is small by mining standards just 1.5 billion last year, although its value is rising as prices have surged in response to Chinese restrictions on exports. Concern over China's hoarding of rare earths has also been spreading to the United States. Although China has not specifically blocked shipments to any place but Japan, it had already tightened its overall export quotas of the minerals, announcing in July that it would reduce them by 72 percent for the rest of the year. Last Wednesday in Washington, the House of Representatives approved a bill authorizing research to address the supply of rare earths, saying the minerals were critical to energy, military and manufacturing technologies. Japanese companies generally avoid discussing their mineral holdings. But experts say that some manufacturers have been stockpiling rare earths, building inventories ranging from a few months' to a year's worth. Last Friday, Mr. Ohata, the trade minister, said the government was considering starting a stockpile of rare earths as a buffer against trade interruptions. Heightened interest in alternative sources has also been an impetus to plans to reopen or establish new rare earth mines in a handful of countries around the world, including South Africa, Australia and Canada, along with the United States, where Molycorp intends to expand a mine in Mountain Pass, Calif. The Japanese trading company Sojitz is negotiating the rights to a rare earth mine in Vietnam, while the industrial conglomerate Sumitomo plans to work with Kazakhstan's government to recover rare earth elements from uranium ore residues. Japan is also pushing for new manufacturing processes that do not require rare earths. Last week, the government affiliated New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, or N.E.D.O., announced that it had developed a motor for hybrid vehicles that used cheap and readily available ferrite magnets, instead of the rare earth magnets typically required. Hitachi Metals, meanwhile, is working on a magnet that minimizes the use of rare earths by employing copper alloys. "Japanese companies have become painfully aware of the risks of relying so greatly on China for strategic metals," said Akio Shibata, chief representative at the Marubeni Research Institute in Tokyo. Various players have tried to recycle rare earths and metals in Japan. Last year, Hitachi began to experiment to extract rare earths from magnets in old computer hard drives, though the company said the project was not expected to go into operation until 2013. But it is Dowa, the company that has mined in Kosaka since 1884, that has emerged as the field's early leader. And it could not come a moment too soon for this town of 6,000, which is littered with the remnants of its old ore mines: tunnels overgrown with weeds, old railroad tracks, and an abandoned bathhouse where miners once sponged off the grime from their long days underground. The mines operated up to 1990, until a surging yen and international competition drove operations out of business. Now, portions of the old red brick ore processing factories serve as part of Dowa's recycling plant, which started fully operating two years ago. "It is important for Japan to actively tap its urban mines," said Kohmei Harada, a managing director at the National Institute of Materials Science, and an enthusiastic supporter of recycling efforts like the one in Kosaka. Apart from rare metals and earths, Mr. Harada estimates that about 6,800 tons of gold, or the equivalent of about 16 percent of the total reserves in the world's gold mines, lie in used electronics in Japan. "Japan's economy has grown by gathering resources from around the world, and those resources are still with us, in one form or another," he said. But this form of recycling is an expensive and technically difficult process that is still being perfected. At Dowa's plant, computer chips and other vital parts from electronics are hacked into two centimeter squares. This feedstock then must be smelted in a furnace that reaches 1,400 degrees Celsius before various minerals can be extracted. The factory processes 300 tons of materials a day, and each ton yields only about 150 grams of rare metals. Though Dowa does not disclose the finances of its Kosaka recycling operations, the company says that after a year of operating at a low capacity, the factory now turns a profit. Over all, net income at Dowa Holdings, which deals in industrial metals and electronic materials, almost tripled in the quarter ending June 30, to 6.52 billion yen, or 78.2 million, as global industrial production rebounded. As Dowa has turned its attention to rare earths, a priority is developing ways to render neodymium, which is used in powerful magnets. Its extraction has proved costly. Neodymium is found only in tiny quantities in parts used in the speakers of cellphones, for example, making it a challenge to collect meaningful amounts, said Utaro Sekiya, the manager of Dowa's recycling plant. Finding enough electronics parts to recycle has also grown more difficult for Dowa, which procures used gadgets from around the world. A growing number of countries, including the United States, are recognizing the value of holding onto old electronics. And China already bans the export of used computer motherboards and other discarded electronics parts. "It's about time Japan started paying more attention to recycling rare earths," Mr. Sekiya said. "If we can become a leader in this field," he said, "perhaps China will be the one coming to us to buy our technology." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
The writer is the author of "Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History Making Race Around the World." I was interested to read J.M. Tribelli's letter (Jan. 5) in response to Charles McGrath's review of my book, "The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny." It is true that some people have proposed that Pliny the Elder died of a heart attack or stroke during the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79. There is, however, no firm evidence for either. Pliny's nephew, who wrote the sole surviving eyewitness account of the eruption, gathered that he collapsed after his breathing was obstructed by the thick fumes. The nephew also recorded that Pliny had raw and narrow airways, so asphyxiation seems a plausible cause of death. There seems little reason to favor later conjectures over the details of the primary source. Annalisa Quinn may be right in her review of John L'Heureux's "The Heart Is a Full Wild Beast" (Jan. 5) that "women in these stories can feel artificial," but the woman in one L'Heureux story, "The Comedian," lives in my memory. Corinne, a stand up comic, finds herself pregnant by her second husband. Husband says keep it; gynecologist says get rid of it. Husband actually wants it dead; gynecologist privately assumes she'll keep it. No priest appears in this story. The ethics of abortion never comes up. But at one point, the fetus starts singing "Some of these days, you'll miss me, honey." Only Corinne hears the music a brilliant way to capture Corinne's profoundly mixed, quintessentially female feelings about abortion before any question of morality arises. The writer's most recent book is "Religion as We Know It: An Origin Story." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Research on the Higgs boson isn't the only work to come out of CERN, the world's largest particle laboratory, in recent years. In 2011, the organization announced a new program, Collide CERN, to support collaboration between artists and physicists on its campus in the suburbs of Geneva. The first two recipients of these creative residencies were the Swiss choreographer Gilles Jobin and the German visual artist Julius von Bismarck, who pooled their investigations to create "Quantum." The hybrid piece part dance, part incandescent installation will have its United States premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival on Thursday. It's being co presented by the French Institute Alliance Francaise as part of its "Crossing the Line" festival. Mapping ideas about subatomic behavior into macroscopic terms, "Quantum" derives something optically striking from a realm we can't see. As Carla Scaletti's sound score crackles and drones, a row of hanging lamps churns above six dancers, attuned to subtle shifts in their movement. (Through Saturday, Fishman Space, BAM Fisher, 321 Ashland Place, Fort Greene; 718 636 4100, bam.org.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
BISHOP BRIGGS at Webster Hall (Oct. 15, 8 p.m.). Under a stage name cribbed from her parents' hometown in Scotland, chosen to avoid any mix ups with the Canadian star whose name so closely resembles her own, the singer Sarah McLaughlin concocts dark pop in the vein of Halsey or Billie Eilish. Notable tracks from her debut album, released last year, include the hooky, gospel tinted single "River" and "Wild Horses," a campy track that takes cues from dubstep. At Webster Hall, the singer songwriter Miya Folick will open for McLaughlin. Folick's 2018 album, "Premonitions," is a feat of what she calls "domestic pop," its songs packed with quiet, intimate moments writ large. websterhall.com BON IVER at Barclays Center (Oct. 11, 7:30 p.m.). When Justin Vernon emerged, in 2007, from a secluded hunting cabin in Wisconsin, he brought with him the music that would make up "For Emma, Forever Ago." At that time, few could have suspected that his sylvan retreat would become the stuff of indie music lore; that those hushed, aching folk songs would propel him onto stages across the country; or that, more than a decade later, he would be headlining arena shows. With Bon Iver, the musical collective that he spearheads, Vernon released a fourth studio album, "i,i," in August. On Friday, the record's corresponding tour arrives in Brooklyn; tickets have sold out, but the resale market is well stocked. 917 618 6100, barclayscenter.com ELSEWORLD at Elsewhere (Oct. 11, 10 p.m.). Since opening its doors two years ago, this club has become a bastion of live music in North Brooklyn, welcoming artists and fans from across genres. This season, it has introduced a new monthly party series, sourcing talent from electronic and underground music scenes and tapping designers A. Pop and Dave Gabe to create immersive visuals. On Friday, the second installment in the series will feature the German producer and D.J. Helena Hauff, who is known for the eclecticism of her sets. Whether the vibes will be dampened by an ongoing boycott of the club, staged in response to the alleged predatory actions of one of its investors, remains to be seen. elsewherebrooklyn.com ROLLING LOUD NEW YORK at Citi Field (Oct. 12 13, noon). Now a massive, intercontinental endeavor with outposts in Los Angeles, Hong Kong and beyond, this blockbuster of a hip hop festival began humbly, just over four years ago, at a warehouse in Miami. In its founding edition, Rolling Loud capitalized on the energy of a bustling South Florida rap scene, giving a stage to local artists like Denzel Curry and Robb Banks. This year, for the first time, Rolling Loud is setting up shop in New York. Over two days in Queens, the festival will showcase acts that include the veterans Meek Mill and ASAP Rocky, as well as the breakout Houstonian Megan Thee Stallion, whose "Hot Girl Summer" glow has lasted well into fall. General admission tickets have sold out, but various V.I.P. packages are available. rollingloud.com SPELLLING at Elsewhere (Oct. 16, 8 p.m.). This Bay Area singer producer's moniker refers to bewitching, and her music is fittingly spooky. Spellling, whose real name is Tia Cabral, found her creative bearings in poetry and visual art, and began writing songs just a few years ago after seeing another poet perform with a looping station. Guided by a fiercely experimental instinct, Cabral released her first album, "Pantheon of Me," in 2017, and followed it up in February with "Mazy Fly." The surprising array of textures found on that record include airy R B vocals a la Solange, wah wah pedals and, on the album's highlight "Secret Thread," an outro that would sound at home in a haunted funhouse. elsewherebrooklyn.com Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead. VIVIAN GIRLS at Warsaw (Oct. 17, 8 p.m.). Take a quick inventory of today's indie rock, and you'll find this three piece's fingerprints everywhere. On the three albums they released between 2008 and 2011, Vivian Girls brought an edgy punk ethos to the soft, jangly sounds of 1960s inspired pop, charting a path for dozens of bands that cropped up in their native Brooklyn D.I.Y. scene and beyond over the past decade. But the trio certainly didn't have an easy go of it. After routinely facing a relentless barrage from misogynistic bloggers, the band burned out and broke up in 2014. Last month, they reunited to deliver a fourth studio album, "Memory." At Warsaw, they will headline a packed bill, along with Empath, Young Guv and Honduras. 212 777 6800, warsawconcerts.com OLIVIA HORN GERALD CLAYTON at Jazz Standard (Oct. 10 13, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). This 35 year old pianist plays with utter grace and command, throwing big blankets of harmony across the keyboard; even when his harmonies turn dark or dissonant, they still feel plush and welcoming. He uses a lovely, crushed velvet touch but still manages to make the piano resonate fully, like a bell. Clayton performs here with three of his longtime musical partners: Logan Richardson on alto saxophone, Joe Sanders on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums. 212 576 2232, jazzstandard.com DEZRON DOUGLAS QUARTET at Smalls (Oct. 11 12, 10:30 p.m. and midnight). A bassist with a rare depth of feeling and flavor, Douglas can typically be heard in bands led by some of jazz's brightest talents. He's the kind of side musician who can almost single handedly make a band shine, while doing nothing so flashy as to seize the spotlight. So his talents as a bandleader should come as no surprise. Douglas's most recent album, "Black Lion," from last year, dealt in capering funk, briskly swinging postbop and maximalist contemporary jazz, all arranged for a sextet with a three horn front line. Here he leads a quartet featuring the tenor saxophonist Grant Stewart, the pianist Sylvia Manco and the drummer Jerome Jennings. 646 476 4346, smallslive.com DICK HYMAN, KEN PEPLOWSKI AND BILL CHARLAP at Dizzy's Club (Oct. 16, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). Hyman's career has included work for studio orchestras in the early years of television, recording some of the first commercial experiments with synthesizers in the 1960s, and the leadership of jazz repertory bands large and small. A National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, he has become arguably the most respected living musician devoted to the jazz piano's early history. Here he performs with the tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Ken Peplowski, who's possessed of a warm, soothing tone and a similar love for old jazz repertoire. For the 9:30 p.m. set, Hyman will share the piano chair with Bill Charlap, his distant cousin and a distinguished pianist in his own right. 212 258 9595, jazz.org/dizzys GODWIN LOUIS at the Jazz Gallery (Oct. 11, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.). This alto saxophonist was born in Harlem to parents of Haitian descent; as an adult he has lived in New York, Haiti and New Orleans, and on his debut album the double disc "Global," which effortlessly mixes carnival bounce with jazz linguistics he explores the common threads of black expression that he discovered along the way. At the Gallery, Louis will perform music from that release with Axel Tosca Laugart on piano, Kareem Thompson on steel pan, Giveton Gelin on trumpet, Dion Kerr on bass and Jonathan Barber on drums. 646 494 3625, jazzgallery.nyc SIMONA PREMAZZI QUARTET at Bar Bayeux (Oct. 16, 8 p.m.). Based in New York since the mid 2000s, this Italian pianist writes and plays with a keen sense of melodic counterintuition. Her pieces move swiftly from darkness to light; listening to her solo can feel like being tossed on the waves of a storm, though the ship is never at risk of going down. Premazzi hasn't released a full length album since 2017, but earlier this year she put out a two track EP paying tribute to the free jazz piano pioneer Cecil Taylor that contained, not altogether surprisingly, zero compositions by Taylor himself (the pieces were extrapolations on Ornette Coleman's "Peace" and Miles Davis's "All Blues"). Still, it bore clear debts to Taylor's slashing, multilayered style. Premazzi appears at Bar Bayeux with a quartet featuring Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Joe Martin on bass and Kush Abadey on drums. 347 533 7845, barbayeux.com DAVID TORN'S SUN OF GOLDFINGER at Nublu 151 (Oct. 13, 9 p.m.). Guitarists at the fringes of jazz and rock often devote nearly as much attention to their effects and pedals as they do to the guitar itself. But Torn, who has played with fellow jazz greats, recorded for rock stars like David Bowie and made soundtracks for blockbuster films, takes it a step further: He's turned his guitar into a kind of console, with buttons on the instrument's body that allow him to cue extraneous sounds or cut off the signal between guitar and amp entirely. In Sun of Goldfinger, his trio with the saxophonist Tim Berne and the percussionist Ches Smith, he moves between turbid cloudscapes and high, searing tones, toying with a vast range of sonic frequencies. Smith, meanwhile, bounces from steadily driving beats to moments of long, ominous repose, as Berne dances and swarms above. nublu.net GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Tumbling stock, bond and commodity prices around the world are demonstrating just how reliant the global economy has become on the monetary policies of the Federal Reserve. In the weeks since the Fed's chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, first indicated that the central bank might start to pare back its support for the economy, markets in Asia, Europe and Latin America have fallen even more sharply than those in the United States, threatening economic growth in many countries. While leading market measures in the United States have declined 4 percent over the last month, an index of the world's stock markets has slumped more than 6 percent. "The Fed isn't just the U.S.'s central bank. It's the world's central bank," said Mark Frey, the chief strategist at the Cambridge Mercantile Group. The selling picked up in markets around the world on Thursday, a day after Mr. Bernanke's latest comments on the Fed's plan to wind down the stimulus. While the reason for the shift by the Fed is good a strengthening of the recovery in the United States investors are nervous that the global economy may not be ready. The prospect of slowing economic growth and rising interest rates set off waves of volatile selling on markets around the world. In the United States, the benchmark Standard Poor's 500 stock index fell 2.5 percent on Thursday, its steepest one day decline since November 2011. Treasury prices also slumped, driving yields, which move in the opposite direction, to touch their highest levels in nearly two years. The yield on the 10 year Treasury a benchmark for mortgages and other consumer rates rose as high as 2.47 percent before settling at 2.42 percent. Gold, once a favorite of investors, slid to two and a half year lows. The damage was more pronounced in a wide array of markets outside the United States, like Philippine government bonds and the Norwegian currency. Stock indexes in China, Europe and Mexico fell more than 3 percent. Investors were also rattled by reports that Chinese banks had become reluctant to lend to one another. And Europe's debt woes came into focus again after the International Monetary Fund said it was considering suspending aid to Greece. But traders and investors cited the Fed's changing policies as the main driver behind the big flows of money around the world. "The trigger was clearly what is going on with the Fed," said Ashish Goyal, the investment director at Eastspring Investments in Singapore. The heavy selling is a sharp reversal after years when low interest rates in the United States encouraged investors to put their money into foreign countries. For investors in once attractive foreign markets, the fear is that those markets may be on even less firm economic footing than the United States', and consequently less able to absorb the decline in lending that comes along with rising interest rates. "When the U.S. embarks upon policies that are appropriate for its own domestic circumstances, it can impose policies on the rest of the world that aren't necessarily appropriate to them," said Darren Williams, the senior European economist at AllianceBernstein in London. Interest rates are a vital determinant and indicator of economic activity. To try to encourage borrowing and bolster the economy after the financial crisis, the Fed has pushed rates down by cutting the interest rates it offers banks and by buying more than 2 trillion of bonds. The extent of the intervention has put markets on a hair trigger for any hint of a change from the Fed. Mr. Bernanke has indicated that the Fed will pare its bond purchases only very slowly and may increase them again if there are signs the economy is being hurt. That has some analysts calling this week's market turmoil a panicked overreaction. For the year, the S. P. 500 index is still up 11.4 percent. But there are significant concerns that the Fed may not be able to control the convulsions in the markets that Mr. Bernanke has already set off with his comments. "It's a very significant moment," said Sebastian Galy, a foreign exchange strategist at Societe Generale. "It's the end of an extremely aggressive phase of monetary policy globally." The American economy is probably not immune to these changes. After years of falling interest rates, which have encouraged a recovery in the housing market, banks have recently been asking for higher interest payments from home buyers. There are already signs that this is putting a damper on home sales. All of this helps explain the recent declines in American stocks. But Mr. Bernanke said that the United States economy was on firm enough footing to withstand the rising rates, and he has promised to intervene if that changes. The outlook has not been so bright in much of the rest of the world. China and Brazil are wrestling with lower growth rates. Falling prices for commodities are hurting natural resource rich countries like Australia and Russia. After the financial crisis, many of these markets became attractive to investors seeking higher returns in the face of paltry interest rates. Some 55 percent of the Mexican bond market, for example, is now owned by foreigners, up from 25 percent in 2010, according to Claudio Irigoyen, the Latin American strategist at Bank of America. Hedge funds and other money managers have also been borrowing money on the cheap in the United States and using it to invest in foreign stock and bond markets offering higher returns. Now the prospect of higher interest rates in the United States is causing those investors to quickly unwind those trades. Smaller investors are also retreating, pulling out of mutual funds and exchange traded funds that own the bonds issued by developing countries. During the last week, these funds have had the largest outflow on record 622 million according to Lipper, a fund data company. Such outflows may bring back memories of past periods of global financial tumult, when countries like Russia and Mexico defaulted on their government debt partly because of an exodus of foreign investors. But most developing countries are now on a much firmer financial footing than they were in the past, reducing the chances of a crisis stemming from the turmoil. Still, the current upheaval is already causing pain for many investors. Brevan Howard Assert Management, a powerful hedge fund manager, has seen its emerging market fund drop nearly 12 percent, or 300 million, this year, according to people briefed on the fund's performance. "People are trying to figure out how to get out," Mr. Irigoyen said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages and a few last chance picks of shows that are about to close. Our reviews of open shows are at nytimes.com/reviews/theater. 'A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM' at the Delacorte Theater (in previews; opens on July 31). The course of true love never did run smooth, but it doesn't usually get so bumpy that it includes magical flowers, squabbling fairies and lusty donkeys. After a protest plagued "Julius Caesar," Lear deBessonet soothes Shakespeare in the Park with this comedy starring Phylicia Rashad as Titania and Kristine Nielsen as Puck. 212 967 7555, publictheater.org 'A PARALLELOGRAM' at the Tony Kiser Theater (in previews; opens on Aug. 2). Most people's lives don't come equipped with buttons for rewind, fast forward or pause, but that's the soft sci fi that drives this play from Bruce Norris ("Clybourne Park"). Celia Keenan Bolger plays a woman in her 30s suddenly confronted with what seems to be her future self. Michael Greif directs a cast for Second Stage Theater that includes Anita Gillette and Stephen Kunken. 212 246 4422, 2st.com 'PRINCE OF BROADWAY' at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater (previews start on Aug. 3; opens on Aug. 24). Manhattan Theater Club gives the celebrated director and producer Harold Prince a regal retrospective. Mr. Prince and his co director, the choreographer Susan Stroman, put a cast that includes Chuck Cooper, Emily Skinner, Brandon Uranowitz, Tony Yazbeck and Karen Ziemba through its high kicking paces. The composer Jason Robert Brown contributes orchestrations, arrangements and a few new songs. 212 239 6200, manhattantheatreclub.com | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
There are two rules to follow when dining at Cantina 32, a bistro on Porto's popular pedestrian street, Rua das Flores: do not refuse the bread, and order the cheesecake. Start with the bread basket, which costs extra. After dipping the warm wheat roll in banana butter, I had to resist the urge to wave over the waitress for more. Instead, I dived into the other "couvert" of cured lupines (lupini beans), a traditional snack that's customarily eaten with beer. For Portuguese guests, the lupines are "something comfortable and familiar," said Luis Americo, the executive chef and co owner. "On the other hand, for most foreigners it's a curious thing to try." During my lunch, just days after the restaurant opened last July, there was a mix of both types of guests, the tourists obvious by their unfolded maps. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Be Among the First to Visit North Macedonia The world has a newly named country, North Macedonia. And that is good news for regional relations and travelers, who are visiting the southeastern corner of Europe in growing numbers. In February, "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" as the United Nations referred to the Balkan country during its admittance in 1993 officially became the Republic of North Macedonia. For many who know this nation in the heart of the Balkan Peninsula simply as "Macedonia," this may seem like semantics. It is not. Macedonia agreed to change its name to resolve a decades old dispute with neighboring Greece, and, in return, Greece said it would drop its objection to the neighboring country's entry into the European Union and NATO. Greece had long opposed the name "Macedonia," saying it implied territorial aspirations over the northern Greek region of the same name. For travelers, the end of the dispute means a new passport stamp and a novel reason to discover this nascent, yet ancient land, which is about the size of New Hampshire and borders Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania. The hope is that the name change will, in part, inspire a publicity makeover. "What the agreement does, in my opinion, is take away our philosophical boundaries," said Aleksandar Donev, Macedonia's former director of the Agency for Promotion and Support of Tourism. "It takes away the word 'former' from our name, and stops defining us as something we were in the past. It sets us free to be present with a much clearer and positive vision for our future." Mr. Donev is now the owner of Mustseedonia, a sustainability consultancy and travel operation that leads eco adventure tours. He sat at a cafe on a bistro lined street in the Debar Maalo neighborhood of North Macedonia's capital, Skopje, a city with a millennia old heart where business meetings often turn into multicourse, three hour lunches. The crux of the issue between Greece and North Macedonia once a republic within Yugoslavia from the end of the Second World War until 1991, when it declared independence stems from the fact that Greece has its own province named Macedonia, which borders the country of North Macedonia. The Greeks have long argued that an independent nation of the same name on its northern frontier represented a territorial threat. The accord, which quelled those territorial tensions by adding the geographical determinant, North, was the culmination of many years of United Nations mediated negotiations that had intensified in recent months amid hopes by Western governments that a breakthrough would allow newly named North Macedonia to join the international alliances and would stabilize the western Balkans. Kocho Angjushev, North Macedonia's deputy prime minister, said the country is already seeing an uptick in favorable publicity, which he believes increases its economic potential. Arguably, this positive surge is coming at the right time for the nation just before tourism high season, which traditionally extends from late spring into the autumn. The timing also dovetails well for travelers to discover the Balkan region, one of the continent's burgeoning cultural and adventure destinations. A microcosm of the region, North Macedonia stuffs the entire gamut of Balkan experiences into its small size. Travelers sleep in nomadic shepherd settlements and huts during multiday hikes. They dance in nightclubs until the early morning hours. And they stumble upon traditional festivals in villages, where horn and drum rhythms pulsate and tables overflow with grilled meats, vegetables, cheeses and breads and excellent local wine. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
As advertising has become more intrusive in recent years, hundreds of millions of web users have installed ad blocking software to ward off full page pop ups, blaring video pitches that start automatically and large ads with unstoppable countdown clocks that obscure the content you actually want to see. On Thursday, Google did something about the problem: The company updated its browser, Google Chrome, so that it bans such ads by default on mobile devices and desktop computers. The change will probably improve the average person's internet day and give the tech giant an even greater role in shaping the web. The update to Chrome, first announced last year, is not a universal ad blocker, the company insisted, but a filter. It will affect only those websites that allow four types of desktop ads and eight types of mobile ads that violate the standards established by a group called the Coalition for Better Ads, of which Google is a member (as is Facebook). "By focusing on filtering out disruptive ad experiences, we can help keep the entire ecosystem of the web healthy, and give people a significantly better user experience than they have today," Rahul Roy Chowdhury, a Google vice president, wrote in a blog post on Feb. 13. "We believe these changes will not only make Chrome better for you, but also improve the web for everyone." For the most part, the update has been embraced by the industry. After all, it seems like a win for publishers, quality advertisers and users alike. But Google did not become the creator of the world's most popular browser and a dominant advertising force by running its business in a manner that did not serve its own interests. With the Chrome update, the company hopes to come out ahead by lessening the temptation of web users to install more comprehensive ad blocking software. In other words, Google is betting that ridding the web of especially intrusive ads will render it more hospitable to advertising in general and more profitable for advertisers and Google itself. The new filter will be rolled out gradually to the browser's hundreds of millions of users. Website operators had a few months before the launch to become compliant; going forward, those who violate the standards will be given 30 days to get in line. If they don't, Google will demonstrate its leverage not by simply removing offending ads from a noncompliant site, but by disabling all of its ads. Revenue to the offending websites would presumably plummet as a result. Utilizing Chrome's popularity in this way is yet another example of Google's singular position in the modern web. "Chrome literally exists to protect Google's advertising business," said Mark Mayo, a vice president at Mozilla, the company behind the web browser Firefox, a competitor to Chrome. "Google has done a tremendous amount of stuff their products are web based and probably most of it positive, but what we've also seen, obviously, is a tremendous centralization." The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights organization, issued a statement on Friday that said the Google Chrome update "fails to address the larger problem of tracking and privacy violations" on the web. It also criticized Google and the Coalition for Better Ads, calling it a trade group that "lacks a consumer voice." "Google exploiting its browser dominance to shape the conditions of the advertising market raises some concerns," the foundation said. 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. It took some time for Adblock Plus, which makes popular ad blocking software that can be installed on Google Chrome, to figure out which types of ads, exactly, Google would be filtering, according to a company spokesman, Ben Williams. Once Adblock Plus had a firm idea, it determined that the update will not risk losing the interest of the tens of millions people who use its ad blocking software. Chrome will not block ads that run before videos on sites like the Google owned YouTube, for example. Such ads, which can be blocked by Adblock Plus, lay outside the scope of the recommendations made by the Coalition for Better Ads. "It's laudable, what they're doing, getting rid of the worst of the worst formats," Mr. Williams said, "but I don't think it will cause people not to download ad blockers or to uninstall them." Adblock Plus makes money, however, by accepting payments from major companies to "white list" them those who pay, that is, do not get blocked. Among those paying for the kind treatment: Google. Likewise, Mozilla, which is paid by Google for traffic sent to its search engine through Firefox, depends on the company for much of its revenue. As of Friday, Google said that 65 percent of the sites with ads that were out of compliance with the new rules had already made changes to go along with them. Forbes, which has long greeted visitors with an inspirational quote built into an ad equipped with a countdown clock, was among them. "A few months ago, we had one minor infraction, which we immediately fixed, and we are now compliant," said Laura Daunis Brusca, a Forbes spokeswoman. In addition to introducing the update to its browser, Google announced last week that it was further expanding its Accelerated Mobile Pages program which it developed in cooperation with a coalition of partners in 2015 to allow the faster loading of mobile web pages to Gmail. The Accelerated Mobile Pages framework provides standard formats for websites including one for mobile websites to display Google Stories, a Google initiative that is very much like Snapchat Stories as well as guidelines and limits for displaying advertising. The newly announced "AMP for email" project will allow users to complete tasks such as submitting an RSVP or filling out a questionnaire within Gmail. Publishers and advertisers have responded warmly to the speedy load times made possible by the Accelerated Mobile Pages program, but its adoption has also been rewarded more directly. According to Chartbeat, Google Mobile Search traffic to publishers that do not use Accelerated Mobile Pages has been flat over the past year, while publishers that have adopted the technology saw a jump of 100 percent in their mobile referrals from Google. With each improvement whether it is the zapping of irksome ads or the restructuring of how mobile sites work Google is continuing to consolidate its power over the web, which has lost its centrality in the modern internet ecosystem to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. So far, what has been good for users has tended to be good for Google, and the other way around. But the collision of the old notion of the web as a free and open space and the reality of it as a digital territory increasingly colonized by commercial interests has provoked worry among some users. Scott Spencer, a director of product management at Google, said the company is sensitive to consumers' growing awareness of its power. "Google is not neutral when it comes to the open web," he said. "We're a search company, we want to ensure that there is a healthy and sustainable web for people to be searching and getting information from. We're also obviously an ad serving company." He framed Chrome's ad filter as the latest in a series of the browser's positive innovations, spanning back to the pop up ad blocker in its original incarnation a decade ago and including more recent security protections against scams and malware. Mr. Spencer compared the web to a series of roads crowded by people trying to get to work. "At some point someone has the idea that we need to put in some traffic lights," he said. "Nobody likes waiting for the light, but everyone appreciates not getting stuck in traffic." Google is in a position to install and operate the traffic lights with outside input, of course. It also raises questions about what sort of actor Google is on the web. Is it a government? A budding monopoly? A reluctant leader? All three? "We don't want to be doing this alone," Mr. Spencer said. "We understand the concerns that exist, and we want to make sure that other voices have a channel and are being heard." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
SAN FRANCISCO As the race to bring self driving vehicles to the public intensifies, two of Silicon Valley's most prominent players are teaming up. Waymo, the self driving car unit that operates under Google's parent company, has signed a deal with the ride hailing start up Lyft, according to two people familiar with the agreement who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The deal calls for the companies to work together to bring autonomous vehicle technology into the mainstream through pilot projects and product development efforts, these people said. The deal was confirmed by Lyft and Waymo. "Waymo holds today's best self driving technology, and collaborating with them will accelerate our shared vision of improving lives with the world's best transportation," a Lyft spokeswoman said in a statement. The partnership highlights the fluid nature of relationships in the self driving car sector. From technology companies to automakers to firms that manufacture components, dozens of players are angling for a slice of an autonomous vehicle market that many believe will ultimately be a multibillion dollar industry. To gain an edge and outmuscle rivals, many of these players are forming alliances and sometimes shifting them. The deal between Waymo and Lyft has competitive implications for Uber, the world's biggest ride hailing company, which has recently had to confront a spate of workplace and legal problems. Lyft is a distant No. 2 to Uber among ride hailing services in the United States, and the two companies are bitter rivals. Waymo is also competing fiercely with Uber in the creation of technology for autonomous cars and is embroiled in a lawsuit over what it says is Uber's use of stolen Waymo trade secrets to develop such technology. Details about the deal between Waymo and Lyft were scant. The companies declined to comment on what types of products would be brought to market as a result of it or when the public might see the fruits of the collaboration. For Lyft, which has said it has no plans to develop its own self driving car technology, the deal with Waymo offers another way into the market. While Lyft has said it will work with G.M. on testing autonomous vehicles, G.M. bought the self driving technology start up Cruise Automation last year for more than 1 billion in cash and stock. Cruise has begun testing G.M. vehicles on the open road in California. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
On Wednesday, the former vice president and potential presidential candidate Joe Biden released a video in which he discussed the importance of personal space. "Social norms have begun to change," he said. "They've shifted, and boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset and I get it." Mr. Biden was responding to allegations by two women that he made them uncomfortable by coming too close, and by being too familiar and hands on. His video was, in part, an acknowledgment that the rules of social engagement can change over time along with perceptions of how much physical contact is appropriate, and where the boundaries of personal space lie. The dynamics of both social space and touching have been well explored by scientists. In the 1960s, American anthropologist Edward Hall laid out the basics of social space, based on field work in Europe, Asia and elsewhere . We each reserve around us a zone of about 18 inches "intimate space," he called it for close friends and family. "Personal space," from 18 inches to about 4 feet, is open to acquaintances and colleagues. And "social space," from 4 feet to 12 feet, is the appropriate orbit for strangers or new colleagues. These zones appear to be wired into the brain's evolved sense of spatial safety. Brain regions such as the amygdala, which registers threats, activate automatically when a boundary has been crossed. In 2009, brain scientists at the California Institute of Technology reported the case of a woman with a genetic condition that had badly damaged her amygdala. Her social space was a fraction of the normal range, and strangers could approach within a foot and not provoke discomfort. Those zones are averages, and they vary by individual, by culture and, likely, over generations. In some South American countries, such as Argentina and Peru, strangers are allowed a closer approach, and social space is more like 2 feet. Personal experience matters, too; someone who has been subjected to harassment or violence may well monitor the borders of contact more closely. Mr. Biden, a temperamentally affectionate politician, plowed right into the intimate space of people he encountered, at a time, in the MeToo era, when the discussion of inappropriate contact has gained volume and the need to acknowledge consent has grown acute. People who develop a hands on style, who are free with hugs and touches, generally do so because they have learned what a powerful bonding mechanism such nonverbal communication can be. In just the past decade, psychologists have conducted scores of studies on the effects of touching. "Touch is the basic language of affection," said Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. "It is one of most reassuring modes of communication. An embrace or encouraging shoulder nudge from the right person is more powerful than words in relieving anxiety." Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. Even small touches from lovers or friends have a powerful effect on the brain and body, instantly reducing physical signs of stress, and activating areas of the brain known to be involved in tamping down fear and anxiety. Perhaps the most dramatic example comes from work led by James A. Coan, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, who has tested how hand holding affects the anticipation of an electric shock. In a 2017 study, a team led by Dr. Coan and Karen Hasselmo, of the University of Arizona, recruited 110 men and women of diverse backgrounds. Each was paired with a spouse, a lover or a friend, and was seated in an M.R.I. scanner with electrodes on an ankle, prepared for a slight electric shock. The research team measured each subject's levels of physiological distress and brain activity under several conditions, including while holding the hand of the friend or partner, while holding a stranger's hand, and while facing the shock alone. "The main finding on partnered hand holding is that, when someone close to you is holding your hand, your reaction to the threat of electric shock is much lower" than when alone, said Dr. Coan. "Hand holding from a stranger had no effect." Cross cultural surveys have shown that almost any touch from a lover is agreeable, as are many expressions of physical contact from a friend. But, universally, strangers are allowed to do little more than touch a person's hands. Contact most anywhere else is off limits; the touch is received uncertainly, or as an intrusion. The accusations against Mr. Biden seem to describe situations that fall somewhere between those extremes. The news coverage has put many women in mind of unsolicited shoulder massages at the office, or unasked for hugs and arms around the shoulder. The touchers aren't strangers; they are familiar colleagues, often valued ones, and not always men. "My sense is that the first reaction of women who are touched in the workplace without invitation is what teenagers these days call 'cringy,'" said Laura Kray, a professor at U.C. Berkeley's school of business, in an email. "Not only is it uncomfortable, but it generates a kind of a panic at the thought of what is to come next, and how we are going to navigate this tricky situation." She added: "Obviously, having an established relationship of trust alters the meaning of an appreciative hug or a pat on the shoulder in a more positive direction. Arm around lower back or kiss on head are boundary violations, as a general rule." One question with no clear answer is how supportive touching gradually becomes more affectionate and, for some people, sexual and mutual. "What we don't know after all this time is how you get from one place to the other," Dr. Coan said. "Nobody does. There's no simple answer, in psychological research or in life. That trajectory is going to include all kinds of signaling errors. As people zigzag toward love or affection, they're blowing it all the time." A blank stare, a cold shoulder, or a few flinty words can correct many, perhaps most, of those errors. But far from all of them in part because of vast differences in the way individuals perceive touches from colleagues or co workers. For instance, research suggests that young children typically are encouraged and reassured by a friendly touch on the shoulder, not only from parents but also teachers. But that uniformity changes by young adulthood. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night's highlights that lets you sleep and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If you're interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox. Late night hosts zeroed in on President Trump's massive business losses between the years 1985 and 1994, which The New York Times documented this week. "He lost more than 100 million a year for a decade. He's like a one man Fyre Festival, this guy." JIMMY KIMMEL "Everything we thought we knew about Trump back then is a lie. Remember his cameo as the fancy rich guy in 'Home Alone 2'? Now we know when he recorded that, he was so broke, he had to borrow money from the pigeon lady." STEPHEN COLBERT "To give you some perspective, 1990 was the same year the movie 'Kindergarten Cop' came out, and that movie made 200 million. It's not like you needed a brilliant idea to make money back then." JAMES CORDEN "The guy who lost the most money is the same guy who claims to be the best businessman. It's like finding out that Hugh Hefner died a virgin." TREVOR NOAH | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
The Long Road to Recovery, and Then the Altar Alba Hancock and Robbie Dexheimer met eight and a half years ago beneath a Tucson sky that entertained them with a galaxy of stars, some close enough, it seemed, to eavesdrop on their first conversation, which took place some 2,500 miles from home. "I'm going to tell you everything about me," Mr. Dexheimer said to Ms. Hancock. "He was incredibly handsome," she said. "I definitely wanted to get to know him better." She had seen him the day before "in passing," she said, because they were staying at the same place. Ms. Hancock, then living in Nashville, arrived on April 4, 2010, two days before Mr. Dexheimer, who was living in Hoboken, N.J. "The moment I saw Robbie, I fell in love with him," she said. "I wanted to introduce myself, but he wasn't feeling very well at that particular time." "I am who I am," he told her. "So please, tell me whether or not you want me to keep talking, because it's not very pretty." Mr. Dexheimer grew up in Chatham, N.J., the oldest of three children born to Eileen Dexheimer, a preschool teacher, and Craig Dexheimer, a longtime director at Lazard Asset Management in New York. An excellent high school student who aspired to be an architect, he fell in with the wrong crowd, he told Ms. Hancock. He proceeded to tell her things that evening "that should have made her run for the hills," he said, including the fact that he was addicted to OxyContin and other opioids. "I had never been that honest with anyone," Mr. Dexheimer said. "But with Alba it was different, we had an immediate connection, I knew she was someone I could trust." He said drugs had left him on the streets of his hometown, his whereabouts often unknown, and desperate for money to support a habit that was destroying his life. "I was stealing everything I could and swindling everyone I could," he said, "including my own family." Mr. Dexheimer went to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., in September 2004, but in his sophomore year, his drinking and drug use escalated and he was dismissed. "I just sat in my dorm room all day, depressed, drinking, getting high and not going to class," he said. "When they kicked me out, I had a 0.0 grade point average." She was born in Frankfurt in 1991, and had lived in Germany three times. She had also lived three times in the United States before her family settled in Lower Manhattan, where she attended Intermediate School 89 before moving on to Stuyvesant High School. By then, Ms. Hancock's mother, Maria Berenguer Hancock, was long estranged from her biological father, a nuclear physicist who was last known to be living in Germany. Her mother eventually married Peter Hancock, a former friend and colleague at JPMorgan Chase in New York, who adopted Ms. Hancock and her sister, Paula Hancock, now 25. Ms. Hancock said that she took her first drink at 15, while at Stuyvesant. She began drinking heavily a year later when her family moved to Rye, N.Y., where she enrolled at Rye Country Day School. "I went from being in a place where I could relate to people, to a place where people were driving Porsches," she said. "I didn't fit in." Ms. Hancock said she had "already developed unhealthy coping mechanisms around food and drinking," starting in 2003, when she lived in Manhattan. But the added stress of "being dropped into this universe where I didn't belong," she said, as well as falling out of touch with her biological father during her adolescence, were triggering factors to the problems that followed. Food and alcohol "worked in calming the storm in my internal landscape, until it didn't," she said, "and I experienced an insatiable desire for more." She choked up when recalling how she would often drive home late at night, drunk, and park askew in the driveway. "My little sister Paula, who was 14 at the time, would sneak out of bed and repark the car for me," she said. "It was sweet in a heartbreaking kind of way, but for me, it got to the point where being sober became excruciatingly painful. I needed some kind of barrier between me and the world, because the world felt too overwhelming." Ms. Hancock was hospitalized for alcohol poisoning while at Vanderbilt and then reached out to her parents for help. "As the extent of her addiction became clear, our fear that we might lose her became intense, and we don't think the fear will ever go away completely," said Ms. Berenguer Hancock, a former nuclear physicist who is now an angel investor and a member of the board of the Women's Refugee Commission, an advocacy group focused on protecting women from violence. It wasn't long, however, before they began succumbing to their addictions. Mr. Dexheimer, in fact, began drinking on his first day home from Sierra Tucson in May 2010. Two months later, he traveled with Ms. Hancock to Europe to meet her extended German and Spanish families. They first visited Berlin, where they drank together for the first time. They went on to Paris, Barcelona, Spain, and the village of Onil, in Alicante, Spain, the birthplace of Ms. Hancock's mother. But their road ahead was now paved with troubles. In September 2010, Ms. Hancock transferred to N.Y.U., but was still relying on drugs, she said, "to help regulate my internal state of being." "I was able to get straight A's and perform in social circles without people being able to tell that I was an addict," she said. "I would wake up and smoke pot, go to class, then come home and snort Adderall before going to the library." Mr. Dexheimer, who spent much of his time at Ms. Hancock's East Village apartment, had been working as a stand up comic in Manhattan and as a dog walker to help pay the bills. But when he too began using drugs again and draining his bank account to feed his bad habits, his world, like hers, began fading once more into darkness. He lost his job and was evicted from his Hoboken apartment. He briefly stayed with Ms. Hancock before returning to his parents' home, but was soon back on the streets, where the vicious cycle that nearly destroyed his family began all over again. "They are both good looking enough to do a toothpaste commercial," said Mr. Lundholm, a motivational speaker who met the groom at the Ranch in Nashville. "But while disheveled is easy to see, addiction has no face," he added. "It could be a doctor, a lawyer or a student who is addicted, anyone, but you can never tell until he or she admits to having a drug problem." The groom's eyes began welling with tears when the bride, stunning in an strapless, ivory colored silk mikado Monique Lhuillier dress, began making her way down the aisle to Steve Winwood's "Higher Love." "It's been a long road back," the bride said shortly after sealing her marriage with a lengthy kiss. Later, they gazed into each other's eyes during their first dance, to Bruce Springsteen's "If I Should Fall Behind." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The playwright Bess Wohl certainly likes to make things difficult for herself. In "Small Mouth Sounds," her breakthrough hit, she confined her characters to a silent retreat, depriving them of dialogue and thus eliminating one of the tentpoles of drama. (The story, quite magically, stayed aloft.) More recently, with "Continuity," she set out to layer incompatible genres a Hollywood backstager and an eco sermon on the back of the title pun. (It collapsed.) So naturally she's now written a play that flies in the face of a theatrical prohibition so basic it's all but engraved in the classic W.C. Fields one liner: "Never work with animals or children." For the first 40 of its 80 minutes, "Make Believe" is nothing but children. Four of them. Happily, the toughest constraints often elicit the strongest workarounds, and that's the case here. But "Make Believe," which opened on Thursday at Second Stage Theater, is no stunt, even if the production, directed by Michael Greif at the top of his form, is a slick machine, honing and angling every casual moment to support the concept. No, "Make Believe" is a rich and moving contemporary drama the kind that builds itself from fragments that could just as easily fail to bind. With the help of a toy chest of tricks Ms. Wohl has in store, they do bind here; her formal daring, her precise calibration of humor and despair, her confidence and anger and empathy, all mingled , lift "Make Believe" into the realm where even naturalism becomes a great mystery. Fittingly it achieves that entirely within a set (by David Zinn) depicting an attic playroom, complete with art supplies, a clubhouse fort, a hideous Cabbage Patch doll and a toy kitchen. There in the mid 1980s, the four Conlee siblings, ages 5 through 12 , take hilarious refuge from the real world below by compulsively re creating it in their games. Over "dinners" of plastic food, and in arguments that blur the line between childish bullying and adult fury, they borrow and repurpose their elders' cliches. "What in the hell's name is this?" roars Chris, the oldest, and thus playing father, as he stares at the "meat loaf." "How am I supposed to do my homework with this infernal ruckus?" shouts 10 year old Kate, playing mother. "Cease and desist!" Why they and Addie (who is assigned the role of Little Miss) and Carl (the dog) spend so much time in the attic over the course of several days is at first hard to discern. Ms. Wohl structures the first half of "Make Believe" as a series of 13 brief scenes that dissolve time and genre and keep you guessing. The only real world information provided comes in code: When the phone rings downstairs, the children lie with their ears pressed to the floor to make out the messages on the answering machine. The story they (and we) begin to put together from these messages isn't pretty. I won't spoil it except to say that what at first seems to be a nostalgic comedy of underparenting isn't. The children's play isn't idle or fantastical; in fact, we gradually realize, at some point it stopped being play. When Chris shows up with a bag of groceries ketchup, bacon, Twizzlers they aren't plastic. How did he get them? Despite always being several steps behind the plot a wonderful and rare feeling we get to know the Conlees very well. Defying Fields, Ms. Wohl has chosen not only to work with children but also to depend on them as expressive actors. She has come close to the heart of a truth about childhood: They know how to "play" others even if they can't play themselves. Somehow Ryan Foust (Chris), Maren Heary (Kate), Casey Hilton (Addie) and Harrison Fox (Carl) are both adorable and terrifying. And then, in a beautifully managed effect, they disappear; 32 years elapse and Ms. Wohl moves into dramatic overdrive without stripping gears. We are now firmly rooted in a specific moment a memorial service, though it's not clear whose and in a new genre. The second half of the play is one long, continuous scene, booby trapped with surprises. In it we meet four adults with the same names as the vanished children: Kate (Samantha Mathis), Addie (Susannah Flood), Chris (Kim Fischer) and Carl (Brad Heberlee). It doesn't take long to see how they do and in one crucial case don't align, perfectly but unpredictably, with the earlier cast. Anxious Kate is now a bossy gastroenterologist; Addie has made a career of fantasy play as a television actress. What Carl the dog became I leave for you to discover. But those are merely the incidental pleasures of a play that wears its comedy like spandex, revealing more than it hides. As we take in what has happened to the Conlees, we sense the scope expanding from a miniature portrait of children coping with the adult world to a much larger canvas on which adults forever remain the children they once were. For Addie, who told her doll not to mind grown ups because they "aren't real anyway," this determinism is devastating. "It's impossible to do something you never had modeled for you," she says. Ms. Wohl offers counter evidence: As an adult, Carl does talk in a way. But the overall pattern of the play tips toward despair, seeing families as Rube Goldberg contraptions for the transfer of neurosis. Society too: turning always from one extreme to another. (If the Conlees were severely underparented, today's children "can't bring a nut anywhere near a school anymore because somebody might die.") In searching for the self, everyone is hurtfully selfish. If that sounds dark and it is the play somehow remains gorgeously light at the same time. The acting is part of that, especially from the adults; all four are expert, and Ms. Flood quite brilliant, at navigating the space where comedy and tragedy muddle. Likewise, Mr. Greif's direction exploits every opportunity to amp up the theatricality of what could be, in less confident hands, a heavier slog. Neither he nor his team especially Mr. Zinn and the lighting designer, Ben Stanton forget the value of pleasing the audience with surprise. But what finally makes "Make Believe" a profound delight is that it knows what it is and refuses to tell you. What at first seemed random proves not to be; it's a very tight package, and part of the intensity of the experience is trying to peel the wrappings. Ultimately, you can't. All you can do is laugh and cry and accept the mystery. Plays, like people, "Make Believe" seems to say, are made up of things it's sometimes better not to know. Tickets Through Sept. 15 at the Tony Kiser Theater, Manhattan; 212 246 4422, 2st.com. Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes . | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
NEW DELHI A widening corruption scandal that has touched India's prime minister sent the country's stock markets down sharply on Friday and threatened to tarnish the country's image as a rising economic power. Setting off the turmoil was a report from the country's auditor earlier this week that about 40 billion in wireless spectrum license fees had been squandered by the government's telecommunications and information technology minister. On Thursday, India's Supreme Court criticized Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for failing to respond for more than a year to a request to investigate allegations that the licenses had been sold at well below market rates to politically connected companies. While Mr. Singh was in no way implicated in the scandal, it was a rare rebuke of the mild mannered economist, known as the father of India's economic liberalization. The Sensex, the benchmark of the Bombay Stock Exchange, fell more than 2 percent on Friday, before closing 1.7 percent lower. The National Stock Exchange's Nifty index dropped as much as 2.5 percent and closed down 1.8 percent. Shares of Reliance Communications, a phone company implicated in the scandal, whose chairman is the billionaire businessman Anil D. Ambani, dropped 3.8 percent. Reliance Communications said in a statement that it had "always been in full compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations." The telecommunications minister, A. Raja, stepped down Sunday just ahead of the release of the auditor's report. Mr. Raja, who has said he has done nothing wrong, was the third high ranking Indian politician to step down this month amid allegations of corruption. The string of departures seems to have prompted soul searching at the highest levels of government. "Our economy may be increasingly dynamic, but our moral universe seems to be shrinking," Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress Party, said Friday at a conference in New Delhi, according to multiple news reports. "Graft and greed are on the rise," she said. "The principles on which independent India was founded, for which a generation of great leaders fought and sacrificed their all, are in danger of being negated." Ultimately, India's ruling political alliance, headed by the Congress Party, could be weakened, and the country's image as an attractive and open place to invest could be damaged, analysts say. "This is a very serious crisis of credibility" for the Indian government, said Mahesh Rangarajan, a political analyst and history professor at Delhi University. "When you are deregulating an economy, you can't do away with regulation." The Indian economy is projected to grow 8.5 percent this year, and Western companies and governments are looking to the country to lift their own weak growth rates. Last week, President Obama visited India, along with an entourage of more than 200 American executives, in an effort to strengthen economic ties. Telecommunications is often held up as the most successful example of the Indian government's ability to free industry from the stifling effects of the so called License Raj, the traditional practice of doling out permits to make goods or deliver services, often to well connected families who paid bribes. That practice nominally ended as the government yielded control over many industries to private companies, mostly in the early 1990s, and allowed market forces to dictate which companies survived and failed. But the recent investigation found that India's telecommunication minister, Mr. Raja, awarded licenses for new spectrum in a way that "lacked transparency and fairness," according to the report, which also implied that Mr. Raja favored some companies. On Thursday, in criticizing Mr. Singh's handling of the scandal, the Supreme Court gave him until Saturday to respond in writing. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Tuesday. The hearing promises to be complicated and threatens to pit several of the government's political appointees against one another. On Friday, the Ministry of Law said that the attorney general would represent Mr. Singh in the Supreme Court case, while the country's solicitor general would represent the Department of Telecommunications. An additional solicitor general will represent the Central Bureau of Investigation, the agency responsible for monitoring internal corruption. With nearly 700 million customers, India's booming mobile phone market is the world's largest after China, and it has attracted foreign investment from individuals and companies in Europe, America and the Middle East. The country's telecommunications regulator said Thursday that 69 of the 130 telecommunications licenses issued since 2006 should be revoked. Kapil Sibal, who is serving as temporary minister of telecommunications, said Friday that he would not do anything that would disrupt service to customers but implied that some operators might need to pay more to keep their licenses. Mr. Raja is a leading lower caste politician in a major southern Indian political party that is a key ally of the Congress Party and provides a crucial 18 seats to the coalition government. Tax evasion, crime and corruption have cost India 462 billion since 1948, according to a report released this week by Global Financial Integrity, an anticorruption group in Washington. Faster growth after the opening up of the economy has led to even more illicit money flowing out of the country, the report said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
Over the last few years Rey Alton, a manager with Travel Leaders in Houston, said he's been booking more adult only vacations during spring break and that Tulum is indeed a terrific escape for "grown ups." He likes El Dorado Seaside Suites there, an adults only resort near the Mayan ruins that he said has multiple restaurants and bars, yoga, tennis and a spa. If the eco friendly feeling of Tulum appeals, you may also be interested in Roatan, Honduras, which will draw some spring break travelers and scuba divers but, as Donna Scicolone, the owner of Travel Leaders in Solon, Ohio, said, "there are a couple of very cool, eco resorts that are more removed and earthy. In addition, Roatan is accessible flight wise, but has the feel of being an adventurous, remote destination." For a last minute domestic getaway, consider Sanibel Island in Florida. Many of the hotels are sold out for spring break, but Kate Rosevear, the president and owner of Travel Leaders in Plymouth, Mich., said some of the smaller, private hotels still have availability. "One of the best things about Sanibel and neighboring Captiva, apart from the miles of gorgeous beaches and the relatively calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, is it is just far enough off the beaten path and pricey enough that its appeal is mostly to adults and/or families with young children," she said in an email while on vacation there. "No 'out of control' Spring Breakers here!," she continued. "One of the other great appeals is that, if it is too late to find reasonable airfares to southwest Florida, you can drive here in a day or two from most of the central, mid and upper Midwest, and Eastern Seaboard states. This is as close as you can come to a 'Caribbean experience' without leaving the continental U.S." Florida is a quintessential spring break destination, but Gabe Saglie, a senior editor with Travelzoo, the travel deals website, said Sanibel Island, along with Pensacola and Fort Myers "still offer awesome beach experiences with less of a party slant." In California, another major spring break haven, he suggested forgoing Los Angeles and San Diego for more low key desert communities such as Rancho Mirage and La Quinta. In general, you can avoid much of the spring break hubbub by choosing upscale hotel brands such as the Four Seasons, Fairmont and Ritz Carlton, he said, because they may be tougher for large families or young adults to afford. The same can be said of cruises. More affordable lines such as Carnival will attract families and young adults, he said, so opt for lines such as Oceania, Silversea and Seabourn. Still, there are plenty of large families who can afford to go anywhere they please. "While small, boutique, high end properties lessen the odds or overall numbers of kids," said Joshua Greenberg, an agent with Protravel International in New York, "it's no guarantee." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
On the Storage screen, you can see how much space you have left on your drive and turn on Storage Sense, which automatically kicks in to delete temporary files and items in your Recycle Bin after a certain period of time. Click the "Change how we free up space automatically" link to adjust the settings for how often Storage Sense cleans out old files. The most recent version of the operating system, the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, arrived late last month and further demoted Disk Cleanup. Now, if you want to dump old files immediately, you can just click the Free Up Space Now link on the Storage settings screen. The newer tool works much like Disk Cleanup, but it lives in the Settings app and has what some consider to be a simpler interface that is more in line with the overall look of Windows 10. You can still find Disk Cleanup by using the search field on the Windows task bar, but the little program's time as a separate Windows system utility may be winding down. Personal Tech invites questions about computer based technology to techtip nytimes.com. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
New York City Ballet Sterling Hyltin is held aloft in Justin Peck's "Everywhere We Go" (2014), part of the company's "Classic NYCB" program at the David H. Koch Theater. At New York City Ballet, "classic" does not imply "old." The four works on this season's "Classic NYCB" program, seen on Wednesday at the David H. Koch Theater, date from 1952 (Jerome Robbins's "Interplay") right up to 2014 (Justin Peck's "Everywhere We Go"), passing through 1976 (George Balanchine's "Chaconne") and 2005 (Christopher Wheeldon's "After the Rain" pas de deux, featuring its classic interpreter, Wendy Whelan). The present, according to this billing, is as canonical as the past. If "Everywhere We Go" can't yet be deemed a classic, it still displays the company at its most vivacious, thanks to Mr. Peck's brilliant and oft noted gift for allowing the dancers to be fully, freely themselves. "Everywhere" comes last on the program, revealing shades of what comes before: the voluminous sweep of Balanchine, the youthfulness of Robbins. But Mr. Peck uses his influences wisely; they enrich his voice without overpowering it. (If anything overpowers here, it's Sufjan Stevens's catchy but excessively cinematic score.) In an art form so often concerned with romance, Mr. Peck consistently seems more interested in friendship. "Everywhere" has its central couples, and on Wednesday they were robust, with Rebecca Krohn (alongside Adrian Danchig Waring) and Ashly Isaacs (partnered by Amar Ramasar) looking gloriously relaxed and assertive in their debuts. When Ms. Isaacs, in the midst of a flirtation with Mr. Ramasar, stumbled slightly, I could have sworn she laughed it off. Yet these pairs are forever vanishing into the crowd, a society where individuals, when they fall, can count on the netting of the group. In one of many novel constellations, the corps breaks into five single file lines. The dancers at the front lean into those at the rear, only to be swiftly catapulted to the back, again and again. All of them, having given their weight, take the weight of others. In that sense, "Everywhere" is a close descendant of "Interplay," in which four men and four women who, in the innocent spirit of the work, seem more like boys and girls mess around and egg each other on to jazzy Morton Gould. In the "Horseplay" section, Harrison Ball is a captivating comedian, serious about entertaining his companions and us. Even when the focus turns to love between Lauren Lovette and Chase Finlay the community remains, as dancers silhouetted on the sidelines snap their fingers and sink into their hips. The evening opened with the most classical classic and the most rigid "Chaconne," led by Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle. Even their unassuming poise couldn't diffuse the work's cold tension. A mishap can make you appreciate the support inherent in any ballet, as it did during a pas de deux for Erica Pereira and Antonio Carmena, when he inexplicably left her stranded for a moment. (They quickly recovered.) And talk about catching and falling. An outpouring of both, slow and sustained, connects Ms. Whelan and Craig Hall in their transcendent rendering of "After the Rain." When Ms. Whelan dances, time passes in a curious way. We're no longer watching it go by; she pulls us into her present. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
ON a typical day, Brady Stewart, vice president of global e commerce operations for Levi Strauss Company, faces the type of competing demands for her time familiar to many high achieving, high income families. Her husband, she said, "has a breakfast meeting, I have a call with Europe, my daughter wants to play baby mermaids, my son is starving, our dogs are barking, I need to get out the door for a work meeting and there's a dinner at night." "It's the time squeeze to be a great partner, professional, be in shape and have a great marriage," she said. "You have to be a pretty ruthless prioritizer." She is. But that is no guarantee of success. "On the days when it all works out, you've been a baby mermaid, read four books, crushed it at work and had a nice dinner with your husband," she said. "It's so rewarding. On other days, it's tough." If there is a riddle that affluent, working parents can't seem to solve, it is how to balance the many interests competing for their time: work, children, spouses, their own needs and wants. Yes, they have more money than most people struggling to get by in similar situations, but any help or financial freedom they have is dependent on their continuing to work and set priorities. This group's struggles are back in the cultural conversation. Anne Marie Slaughter, the former dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and a senior State Department official during Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure, touched a nerve three years ago when she wrote about the continued difficulty of women balancing office and home life. Now she has written a book, "Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family," that calls for changes in the workplace to accommodate careers and child care. In a bit of calendar syncing, Ms. Slaughter's husband, Andrew Moravcsik, a professor at Princeton, has added his side, with an essay in the current issue of The Atlantic magazine about his role as the "lead parent" to their two children while his wife was in Washington and then on the speaking circuit after her essay made her even busier. He put his wife's career before his and has no regrets. But the message is clear: Being high achievers isn't easy. Their writings, along with that of Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook and the author of "Lean In," serve as the Let's Go travel guides to the high octane life. But those travel guides offer clear tips on what to see and skip. There is no simple guide for couples making decisions on the fly. Money and relationships are at stake. What are the tricks affluent couples have learned to make it all work? Ms. Stewart sounded resigned when she spoke of her prioritizing. It wasn't a badge of honor so much as a necessity to keep everything going. "We have shared priorities," she said. "No. 1, the kids. No. 2, our relationship. No. 3, careers. No. 4, staying in shape. Social life takes a back seat." Her husband, Brad, a private equity investor and the chief executive of a private jet company, attributes their dedication to career family juggling to their similar backgrounds. They are both oldest children from working class families where the parents divorced, and they both went on to earn Ivy League degrees. While they have no family near their home in San Francisco, they have a long term nanny who comes every day. "When she's sick, one of us doesn't make it to work that day," Mr. Stewart said. "Those are really stressful moments." Randy Florke, founder of the Rural Connection, an interior design and construction firm in New York, said he long ago adopted a policy of adhering to a strict delegation of duties to avoid confusion. "Every week if you're trying to figure out, 'Is it your turn or my turn?' that's hard," he said. He and his husband, Sean Patrick Maloney, a United States congressman who spends most of the week in Washington, have three children, ages 12, 14 and 25, living at home. "I learned long ago that control is an illusion," said Representative Maloney, who previously worked in Bill Clinton's White House, in state government and for private equity and law firms. "If parenting doesn't teach you that lesson, politics does." He dismisses colleagues who say they don't have enough time for their families and their careers. "We all complain about not having enough time, but very often we don't have enough focus," he said. "Even when I worked at the White House and our son Jesus was playing little league soccer and little league baseball at the time, I just decided I was going to make all his games. You just organize your time accordingly." Mr. Maloney added that rituals were what kept them focused. "We always walk the kids to the school bus in the morning," he said. "That creates islands of stability in this stormy world." One theme common among these multicareer families is maniacal efficiency, though it is applied differently. The Fromm family, for instance, has worked in various aspects of New York real estate, including owning a firm until three years ago. They now have two children, ages 10 and 8, and said they had learned to leave work at the office. "In the beginning, it was talking about the business all the time," said Claudia Saez Fromm, who like her husband, Mark David Fromm, is a broker at Town Residential. "It hurts the marriage. It's just the business, the business, the business." "He'll say, 'Let's finish the conversation now so we don't have to take it home,'" she added. "With children, they don't want to see you on the phone or texting all the time." They were also able to be objective enough to decide that working for someone else made more financial and family sense than owning a business. "At one point, it was 150,000 a month to just run our three offices," Mr. Fromm said. "When it was good, it was really good. When it was bad, it was disastrous." Now, he said, they make more money working as brokers focused just on properties above 5 million and they also have more control over their schedules. For the Butlers, it is exactly the opposite. Stephan's venture developing the Kingsbridge National Ice Center in the Bronx is at the center of their life, even though it is Margaret's career as a partner at the law firm Greenberg Traurig that supports the family. She said she was beholden to clients so her family accepts her inflexible schedule. With clients and partners ranging from the City of New York to Mark Messier, the hockey great and former New York Rangers star, Mr. Butler has his own set of obligations, but he is able to work them around dropping their 6 year old son off at school and picking him up. "I'll move work until very late at night so I can do things for him," Mr. Butler said. "It comes with a level of sacrifice. It's not simple. You have to be agile and flexible to get things done." Three days a week, his mother comes from New Jersey to help with the logistics of after school activities. But until their son was in school, the boy often tagged along with his father to meetings. (One upside of this: Mr. Messier taught their son how to stick check and celebrate as he did after scoring a goal.) The Stewarts in San Francisco are aware of their financial and professional good fortune. Still, asked if she would change anything, Ms. Stewart said the only thing she wanted was something money couldn't buy. "I'd probably wish to somehow get ahead of the tiredness," she said, and joked that a pharmaceutical company should create "the rested drug." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
SOUTH AND WEST: FROM A NOTEBOOK By Foreword by Nathaniel Rich 126 pages. Alfred A. Knopf. 21. In two dazzling collections of essays, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" and "The White Album," used her own experiences and observations and anxieties as a kind of index to the times, as America lurched through the convulsions of the 1960s and '70s. The political pieces she later wrote for The New York Review of Books beginning with the 1988 presidential campaign, on through the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the high drama of the 2000 face off in Florida were less original, less idiosyncratic, but reading them in retrospect, they are oddly prophetic about the growing gap between the electorate and the political elites, and the growing dysfunction of the entire system. Her slender 2003 book, "Fixed Ideas: America Since 9.11," would be even more explicit about a "disconnect between the government and the citizens," about how our political process not only spurns consensus but works by "turning the angers and fears and energy of the few" against "the rest of the country." No doubt Didion has now decided to publish "South and West," two excerpts from her notebooks written in the 1970s because they similarly shed light on the current political moment. At a remove of more than four decades, she maps the divisions splintering America today, and uncannily anticipates some of the dynamics that led to the election of Donald J. Trump and caught so many political and media insiders unawares. The shorter entry is a meditation on California, the place Didion grew up and long called home. The more substantial piece is an account of a monthlong trip that she and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, took through the Deep South for a never finished assignment that her editors at Life magazine came to refer to as "The Mind of the White South." 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. As bookends to each other, the pieces in this book give us two Americas, two ways of looking at history: the South, deep in the grip of the past a place where many people are invested in holding onto ancient prerogatives of race and class; and California, insistently focused on the future and the horizon a place where the frontier ethos of shucking off roots is the one real tradition. It's 1970, when the nation is being rocked by seismic cultural and political shifts, and yet Didion has the strange intuition here that the South, not California, would exert a gravitational pull over the rest of the country. She had "some dim and unformed sense," which she could not explain coherently, "that for some years the South and particularly the Gulf Coast had been for America what people were still saying California was, and what California seemed to me not to be: the future, the secret source of malevolent and benevolent energy, the psychic center." Didion's account of her travels from New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss., to Meridian, Miss., and Tuscaloosa, Ala., and onto Faulkner's hometown, Oxford, Miss., makes it clear that she feels like an outsider there. Her notes lack the depth and understanding of J. D. Vance's memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," which depicts the frustrations and anger of poor white communities from within. And while Didion's estrangement sharpens her reportorial eye, it can curdle, at times, into condescension. Writing about high school gymnasiums in small Southern towns, she says she has "the sense of sports being the opiate of the people." And writing about a visit to two small towns in Alabama, she observes: "It seemed a good and hopeful place to live, and yet the pretty girls, if they stayed around Guin, would end up in the laundromat in Winfield, or in a trailer with the air conditioning on all night." What Didion does capture, powerfully, in this book is the insularity of many places in the South, and, by implication, how insular the elites (like herself) are in places like California and New York and Washington a thought she would develop further in her essays in The New York Review of Books (collected in the 2001 volume "Political Fictions") and in "Fixed Ideas." Here, she writes of small town Southerners: "The isolation of these people from the currents of American life in 1970 was startling and bewildering to behold. All their information was fifth hand, and mythicized in the handing down. Does it matter where Taos is, after all, if Taos is not in Mississippi?" There was a kind of "time warp" there, she says: "The Civil War was yesterday but 1960 is spoken of as if it were about 300 years ago." The people Didion interviewed or tried to interview tended to greet her questions with defensive remarks about the pace of change in the South, or with nostalgic and what can only be called racist talk about old ways of life. Although it was 1970, the attitudes Didion encountered can sometimes sound like those described by Harper Lee in "To Kill a Mockingbird," set in 1930s Alabama. The chilling thing is, some of the attitudes about race and outsiders that Didion chronicles here also sound a lot like attitudes expressed by some Trump supporters during the 2016 campaign. The other reason that readers will find this volume so fascinating is that it shows Didion at work, as a writer and reporter, gathering details, jotting them down and running her observations through the typewriter of her mind. Even these hurriedly written notes shine with her trademark ability to capture mood and place. Of New Orleans in June, she writes: "The place is physically dark, dark like the negative of a photograph, dark like an X ray: The atmosphere absorbs its own light, never reflects light but sucks it in until random objects glow with a morbid luminescence." More than that, this book illuminates Didion's later work, containing the seeds of both "Political Fictions" and her elliptical 2003 book on California and the West, "Where I Was From." It is weirdly prescient pointing the way not only to where she would go as a writer but also a path the country would take in the years to come. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Andrea Mohin/The New York Times; Christopher Duggan; Andrea Mohin/The New York Times ("Serenade After Plato's Symposium" and "Variations on Themes From Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and Other Works by John Bernd") Andrea Mohin/The New York Times; Christopher Duggan; Andrea Mohin/The New York Times ("Serenade After Plato's Symposium" and "Variations on Themes From Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and Other Works by John Bernd") Credit... Andrea Mohin/The New York Times; Christopher Duggan; Andrea Mohin/The New York Times ("Serenade After Plato's Symposium" and "Variations on Themes From Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and Other Works by John Bernd") In Odissi, a woman's hourglass figure becomes the source of glory and profundity. Shoulders and pelvis can tilt in subtle opposition to the waist, and to each other, with sculptural tensions that flood the theater. The arc of an arm, moving in alignment with neck and spine, opens up infinity. The Nrityagram program included the world premiere of the duet "Lalita Lavanga" and the North American premiere of the solo "Aali." The Nrityagram artists have been visiting New York for over a decade, but the impact of their dancing still comes as the best kind of shock. So, too, does Alexei Ratmansky's "Serenade After Plato's Symposium," to the Leonard Bernstein score of that name. This had its premiere with American Ballet Theater in May (at the Metropolitan Opera House) and returned in October (to the David H. Koch Theater). Mr. Ratmansky has already made the finest ballets of this century: notably "Concerto DSCH," for New York City Ballet in 2008, and "Pictures at an Exhibition," for that company in 2014. Here he surpassed even those works. This "Symposium" explores several of the finest levels of civilization philosophical discussion about love, the beauties of a violin concerto, the human variety of classical dancing. The major revivals of 2016 cast even more light than the year's premieres. Here, too, Mr. Ratmansky led the way. The production he presented in Zurich of the 1895 Mariinsky "Swan Lake," as choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, was the staging the world needs of this often coarsened central classic. (The opera house in Zurich, seating about 1,000, stands behind Lake Zurich, on which swans swim in view of Alpine mountains: a more perfect location for this classic is hard to imagine. The house's intimate acoustics did wonders for Tchaikovsky's score.) Every act brought fresh revelations, from Petipa's Act I large scale ensemble waltz, lost for decades, to the amazing touches of pathos with which Odette's energies vacillated in Act IV. And no Black Swan! Odile, as always intended by the ballet's makers, wore a tutu of many colors. The Oscar Wilde quote on Indiana Woodward's Instagram account could be about her dancing: "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." Ms. Woodward, who turns 23 this month, isn't just another rising member of New York City Ballet but also a dancer with the kind of freedom of expression that causes your breath to catch in your throat. Her performances over the past year, most memorably as the winged sprite in "La Sylphide" and as the female protagonist in Lauren Lovette's "For Clara," demonstrate things you just can't teach: spirit, generosity, the meeting of artistry and artlessness. A member of the corps de ballet since 2012, Ms. Woodward was born in Paris. She has a look and verve similar to those of Violette Verdy, the beloved French born City Ballet principal who died this year, but Ms. Woodward is also a ballerina of her time. As the Sylph, Ms. Woodward radiated a mischievous warmth with jumps that hovered in the air. In the effervescent "For Clara," she was more herself, epitomizing strength, independence and joy. She flies through choreography with glee, as if she were running barefoot through a forest. Many blocks downtown, there was another original at work this year: Eiko, the Japanese born dance artist and subject of Danspace Project's Platform 2016: "A Body in Places." For part of it, Eiko, 64, performed a series of intimate solos, in East Village locations, that braided together painstakingly slow movement and stillness with spurts of abandon. During one performance at Middle Collegiate Church on Second Avenue, a thrashing Eiko darted through the sanctuary's front doors and landed on the sidewalk. It had been raining, and like an East Village Mary Poppins, she pounced into a puddle. The combination of such vulnerability and daring as strangers some truly mystified stared had the effect of transforming her seemingly frail body into something otherworldly. Eiko and Ms. Woodward may be generations apart and practicing vastly different dance forms, but each moves as if there were no tomorrow. GIA KOURLAS Some dances have a way of pulling you into their present, letting you lose track of time, or giving you no other choice. In Beth Gill's "Catacomb," performed at the Chocolate Factory in May, that pull was inexorable. I remember less about the details of the work itself than I do about the moment it ended a startling return to reality. What had just happened? Where had I gone? It was in the same small, unadorned space in Long Island City, Queens, that Ms. Gill first presented her Bessie Award winning "Electric Midwife" in 2012. Like the inverse of that luminous, orderly piece, "Catacomb" was dark, tangled, subterranean, yet still pristine in its structure. Ms. Gill has worked for years with many of the same collaborators, and the depth of those connections showed, in the seamless meeting of Jon Moniaci's macabre score, Thomas Dunn's otherworldly lighting and the dancers' careful manipulation of tension and weight. Also playing tricks with the passage of time, calling up spirits from the past, the choreographers Ishmael Houston Jones and Miguel Gutierrez brought us "Variations on Themes From Lost and Found: Scenes From a Life and Other Works by John Bernd." Part of Danspace Project's essential "Platform 2016: Lost and Found," a six week meditation on dance artists lost to AIDS, "Variations" reimagined the work of the little known choreographer (and occasional composer) John Bernd, who died in 1988, at 35, of complications from the illness. Mr. Bernd's exuberant movement and harmonious songs along with his simple, expressive line drawings, projected over the altar of the sanctuary at St. Mark's Church came surging back to life through seven audacious dancers, many of whom weren't yet born when he died. Even while confronting themes of absence and loss, the evening felt like a celebration and, to those of us who didn't know Mr. Bernd, an introduction long overdue. SIOBHAN BURKE Risks at the Joyce, Pain and Survival in the Berkshires Before this year, I would not have suspected Lar Lubovitch of harboring radical tendencies. But for two weeks in September and October, this far from cutting edge choreographer purged the Joyce Theater of its sometimes stifling air of safety. And he did it generously, by creating a platform for the work of other dancemakers, a series called "NY Quadrille." The platform was more than metaphorical a new stage with seating on multiple sides but the crucial change seemed less a matter of perspective than of permission: a license to take risks. RoseAnne Spradlin's "X" went the farthest; many audience members impatient with its endurance test (and missing its humor) left early. I've found other pieces by this bold artist more compelling, and I could say the same about the "Quadrille" contributions by Pam Tanowitz and Tere O'Connor. (Loni Landon seemed out of place.) But all three offered highly intelligent, questioning, consciousness expanding choreography of a variety particular to New York. Good for the Joyce. For me, the most moving dance show of the year one of the most moving I've ever seen was at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires in July. I had been looking forward to "And Still You Must Swing," as a collaboration among Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards, Derick K. Grant and Jason Samuels Smith: three of the world's greatest tap dancers. They were joined by the contemporary choreographer Camille A. Brown and a jazz trio. As a tap show, it was more than I hoped for: a return to tap's deepest and richest rhythmic roots, entirely up to date, pushing the art forward. But the week of its premiere was also the week of more killings of black men by police officers, and the show unintentionally but unavoidably in honest improvisation reflected the feelings of its dancers, all African American. There was shared pain and also shared delight in one another's company and gifts. The power of dance as a channel of expression as a method of survival has seldom been clearer. BRIAN SEIBERT The Best in Culture 2016 More highlights from the year, as chosen by our critics: | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
CINCINNATI After the Giants lost their starting quarterback, they held off a late rally by the Joe Burrow less Cincinnati Bengals. Daniel Jones went out with a hamstring injury in the second half of the Giants' 19 17 win on Sunday. The team's third straight victory moved the Giants (4 7) into a first place tie with the Washington Football Team in the woeful N.F.C. East, and comes after they lost the first five under first year head coach Joe Judge. It remains to be seen when or if Jones will back for next Sunday's meeting with the Seattle Seahawks. He is scheduled to have a magnetic resonance imaging test on Monday. "I won't say I'm optimistic at this point right now," Judge said after the game. "No, I don't want to go ahead and say yea or nay because I don't have the medical information. You know, I'm sure he's going to try everything he can." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Most companies regularly take steps to make sure their ads don't run near headlines that could upset potential customers. So news organizations weren't surprised when advertisers canceled campaigns in recent weeks or demanded that their ads be placed far from coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, costing publishers significant revenue. Burger King was an exception. Instead of shunning articles that included terms like "Covid 19" or "pandemic," the company behind the Whopper focused its message on contactless food delivery and pickup. That way, its marketing would not seem out of place in a grim news cycle, said Marcelo Pascoa, the company's head of brand and communications. "It isn't damaging for the brand to appear within the context of the crisis, because the brand is playing a role," he said. To stay away from bad news, advertisers often turn to a method known as blacklisting. It allows airlines to avoid running ads near plane crash coverage, and companies with wholesome images to keep away from articles containing words like "murder" or "sex." In a time of political polarization, frequently blacklisted terms include "Russia," "impeach" and, among the most avoided, "Trump." Lately, the most blocked terms pertain to the virus. Blacklisting during the pandemic has kept more than 1.3 billion ads from being displayed next to content featuring the word "coronavirus" on websites, according to the ad verification firm Integral Ad Science. That has had a devastating effect on ad dependent news organizations, many of which have been forced to lay off workers at a time when the pandemic has dominated coverage. For quality journalism to survive, more companies should behave like Burger King, news publishers and marketing executives say. Steven Brill, a veteran news executive who is working to fight misinformation and propaganda through the journalism verification start up NewsGuard, said companies had started "an unintended boycott of serious news" through their avoidance of coronavirus coverage. "There's a way to support legitimate journalism and not be embarrassed," Mr. Brill said. But there are complications, aside from corporate squeamishness. Many companies are struggling to stay afloat and have less to spend on marketing. Further, they worry that their ads could end up on websites that peddle false information or conspiracy theories related to the virus. Mr. Brill said companies should put aside their fears, given the threat to the news industry. "Advertisers can continue to make thoughtful decisions about ad placements on Covid 19 content while supporting serious journalism and remaining confident their ads will not appear on misinformation sites," he said. In a recent essay for the trade publication The Drum, Jerry Daykin, a media executive at the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, urged his peers to support worthy news outlets. The headline for his piece was blunt: "Marketers stop blocking the best parts of the internet or they won't exist anymore." "If we cut the funding from high quality content and journalism," Mr. Daykin wrote, "it simply won't exist for us to advertise against in the future." Some companies, such as Slack, Geico, Netflix and the telemedicine company GoodRx, have continued to place ads with news publications despite the tragic news cycle. 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. Verizon also went against the trend, spending more than 4.5 million on advertising on news sites like The Wall Street Journal and CNN since mid March. That was more than double what it had spent over the same period last year, according to the advertising analytics platform Pathmatics. Similarly, Amazon, which has faced criticism for pushing nervous employees to work, has spent 2.3 million to advertise in The Wall Street Journal, in The Washington Post and on CNN since mid March. Over the same period last year, it spent 506,200 on those sites, according to Pathmatics. But nearly 90 percent of news organizations said companies had canceled ad campaigns since the crisis began, according to the trade group IAB. Many advertisers went into "panic mode," said Michel de Rijk, the chief executive of the digital advertising company S4 Capital. "Their first response was to stop everything," he said. "They didn't want to be perceived in the wrong way or associated in some way." When print was the dominant medium, ads were placed by human beings able to make judgment calls. In the digital era, custom filters and algorithms guide ads into position alongside online articles. Some companies have thousands of blacklisted keywords and topics. The blocking strategy is a "blunt tool," said Daniel Avital, the chief strategy officer of the ad fraud prevention company Cheq. "Keyword blacklisting sees everything in black and white," he said. "Covid is being mentioned in every single article, good or bad, but there is no spectrum, no nuance, distinguishing a horrific article about old people dying from a benign article about a musician performing from their living room." Strict filters are less expensive than sophisticated algorithms that scan stories for context, Mr. Avital added. If the pandemic lasts through June, keyword blocking will drain more than 1 billion in revenue from online news publishers in the United States, according to a study conducted by Cheq and the University of Baltimore's Merrick School of Business. News publications are twice as likely as other platforms to have ads scrubbed because of coronavirus related content, IAB said. More than 70 senators recently called for federal agencies to support local journalism by spending more of their ad budgets on news sites. Google, which has faced pressure to loosen its coronavirus related filters, pledged to temporarily waive the ad serving fees it charges publishers. As the virus lingers, isolation themed ads have increasingly popped up on news sites. But many companies continue to funnel the bulk of their online ad spending to Google and Facebook, which have struggled to contain conspiracy theories and sketchy merchants. An example is the e commerce company Overstock. Between March 11 and April 9, it spent more than 136,000 on news sites but 362,000 on Facebook ads, according to Pathmatics. "Trusted news organizations are the ultimate safe space for brands," said Joy Robins, the chief revenue officer for The Washington Post, "but trust and scale are not enough. Publishers can also guide brands on how to responsibly speak to their highly engaged readers." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Nina Stibbe's "Reasons to Be Cheerful" is so dense with amusing detail that I thought about holding the book upside down to see if any extra funny bits might spill from the creases between the page. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for a novel that opens with a British dental surgeon named JP Wintergreen injecting himself with lignocaine and attempting to pull his own teeth. Lizzie Vogel is a wise and cheerful guide to the absurdities and injustices in the dental surgery where she works. This is Stibbe's third novel featuring scrappy, highly literate Lizzie, who, now 18, leaves her Midlands village after charming her way into an interview at JP's practice in Leicester by tossing about phrases like "periodontal gum disease, acid saliva and unchecked dental caries." A cut rate flat above the surgery is among the perks of her new job; it even gets late afternoon sun, making it "tantamount to living in Australia." Although she's been warned about the hazards of urban life, including prostitutes and "people trying to sell you things you didn't need but would soon be addicted to like feather boas, foreign cigarettes and ready made sandwiches," Lizzie is eager for permanent work, a challenge to find in late 1979 without connections or O levels. She embraces her new life, immersing herself in women's magazines and aspiring to look like a "busy city woman," which in addition to certain sartorial choices involves carrying lots of things: "bags and picture frames, and almost dropping them but laughing as if slightly shocked." This may sound like the setup for a "Sex and the City" romp, but Lizzie's life winds up more closely resembling a bad loop of "The Office," largely on account of the boorish, exquisitely awful dentist for whom she works. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Stuart Vevers, the Coach creative director, has dug up more than a few great ideas since taking over the brand in 2013, but his best has been dinosaur bones. Coach closed 20 percent of its stores in 2014 to refocus, and then, in 2015, Mr. Vevers introduced ready to wear. He also gave the 75 year old American leather goods company a new mascot: a T Rex skeleton (though she also appears in the flesh on Coach sweaters) named Rexy. Rexy has a cohort of sidekicks called the Coach Beasts, anthropomorphized leather bones strung on key chains: Steggy, a stegosaurus; Tricky, a triceratops; and Woolly, a woolly mammoth. When prodded for Rexy's origin story, Mr. Vevers celebrated that there is none. He told Fashionista.com, "It has nothing to do with our heritage." He told Vogue.com, "I really like it because it's so random, and it has no connection to Coach or any of my typical references." The store's foyer has a ceiling conveyor belt mechanical decoration, a sort of Industrial Revolution Calder that makes dresses and bags drift across the ceiling. Soothing. Just inside, I meet a towering 12 foot sculpture of Rexy made from vintage Coach bags. Not as soothing. Standing at the store's first glass case, I ask a saleswoman if I can look at a leather sketchbook embossed with Never Say Die ( 195). As I say it, I realize the glass case is open in front; I can reach for it myself. How many glass boundaries are in my head? The next I pick up says We Let Them Go. Upstairs, I'm drawn to a silk Western shirt embroidered with fat buttercups ( 495). The front of the shirt curves up to the buttons like two flower petals. I try it under the Western Blouson, a minibomber with yellow piping and the same lemony flowers ( 895). The unlined wool fits as if it's made of leather, it holds my shoulders and barely cups my lower back. I can't buy a 500 shirt; so I search on eBay: Western rodeo shirt Brokeback Mountain Anne Hathaway embroidery flower true happiness. "Do you wear dresses?" the salesman asks. He has brought me a fringed leather jacket ( 1,900) and a printed bib dress with doily lace, like an antimacassar on the back of a homestead chair ( 695). For a British designer, Mr. Vevers has some wit to offer touchstones of Americana. Wacky hot rod embellishments, living room set prints and studded leather fringe remind me of various past Prada collections. But in a good way. Coach's target audience seems much younger than that of the era of demure bags (now bags have embellishment, or at least are styled with a key chain) and C logo loafers (studded platform boots are now the staple). The accents and humor are incorporated not so much with a playful wink as an enjoyable eye roll. Since 2015, Chloe Grace Moretz, 19, has been the face of Coach campaigns, and one of the most shared images from the spring 2017 show was Millie Bobby Brown, 12, wearing a shiny pink jacket, arms around Winona Ryder. And in the store you can slap various emoji on leather accessory tags, which is most likely to charm those for whom phones never actually leave hands to go into a purse. Dress off, I slide into a pair of black leather pants like a snake that changed its mind about shedding. I try them with the Wild Beast Sweatshirt with caviar size black beads, embroidery and leather meant to evoke a paint by numbers landscape ( 395). The salesman brings me a reversible gray coat. Inside is shearling with big nubs of fleece like oatmeal extra swollen from the microwave, and outside is truly perfect matte leather ( 2,400). I look at him like, "Why did you put me in this position?" He replies, "You'll have it forever." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The great modern choreographer and dancer Martha Graham in "Cave of the Heart," around 1946. When Linda Murray became the curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts in 2015, that was her No. 1 question. She meant Martha Graham, though in dance circles and even beyond this choreographer, who transformed modern American art, requires no last name. Last month, her company, the oldest in the country, celebrated its 94th anniversary. On Monday, her birthday, the library announced that it had acquired her archive. "For the dance division, it really was the only significant gap left that we had in telling the story of early American modern dance," Ms. Murray said. "We've had material belonging to Martha Graham in the archive for a very long time, but Martha herself, throughout her lifetime, had always said that she didn't want there to be an archive." Graham (1894 1991) was complicated; like many artists, she didn't want to look toward the past. "The only thing we have is the now," she wrote in "Blood Memory," her autobiography. She added: "Looking at the past is like lolling in a rocking chair. It is so relaxing and you can rock back and forth on the porch, and never go forward. It is not for me." But was it true? Janet Eilber, the company's artistic director and a former dancer, said Graham was involved with documentation of her work on film in the 1950s and also reconstructed her dances and directed company members in the classic roles. "So she was very much involved in perpetuating her own legacy," Ms. Eilber said. "But the other stance is so much more theatrical and provocative." And no matter what Graham said, she did pay attention to her past. The archive, which consists mainly of paper based material, photographs and films the company's sets and costumes, most of which are stored in a warehouse in Yonkers, are still in use includes rare footage of Graham dancing at the height of her power in works like "Appalachian Spring" and "Herodiade" (1944); her script for "Night Journey" (1947), written to its composer, William Schuman; her handwritten notes for "American Document" (1938); and Isamu Noguchi's set drawing with his notes for "Seraphic Dialogue" (1955). Noguchi, a frequent collaborator, was synonymous with many of Graham's dances; his sculptural, austere set pieces feel like they're in a physical relationship to Graham's bold and daring movement: sharp, angular and taking root from the pelvis. The library's dance division, for Ms. Eilber, was a natural fit. New York was Graham's home for nearly seven decades. "But larger than that, public access was top of the list for us," Ms. Eilber said. "It's not just, 'We can keep your films in a refrigerator.' It's, 'We can do so many multifaceted things with these archives,' which is what we're all about." Both Ms. Eilber and Ms. Murray like to explore ways that archives can stimulate other artists. In the case of the Graham company, it has used archival materials to produce new work, like Annie B Parson's "I used to love you" (2017), which was inspired by archival footage of "Punch and the Judy"; and Anne Bogart and SITI Company's "American Document (2010)," created from filmed excerpts, photographs and Graham's handwritten notes for that dance. In our socially distanced world, the company's excellent Martha Matinees, an online viewing series, are pulling from the archive; on Wednesday, the focus is "Herodiade," including a complete silent film of the dance, featuring Graham and May O'Donnell, from around 1945. Ms Eilber has found the archive's films particularly helpful, she said, seeing them as instructional in keeping the company's performances "refreshed," with original details and intentions. (The films were remastered, and images and documents digitized in a three year project funded by the The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.) Ms. Eilber recalled going with Graham to the performing arts library in 1975 to watch a film of "Lamentation" (1930). This searing solo, performed by a dancer sheathed in a tube of purple jersey, is now a classic portrayal of grief. What did Graham think of the work, seeing it at the library? "She was pleased and kind of amused," Ms. Eilber said. "I think she went thinking that it really wasn't going to be worth much." Around that time, Graham was also "accepting her role as living legend," Ms. Eilber said. "When Jackie O. came to the studio and Andy Warhol, and Halston was sort of dressing her, she had a new stage in a way. And part of that was preserving her legacy because that celebrity was based on her legacy." "She thought if she couldn't be on the stage her life was over," Ms. Eilber added, "but it turned out she just had a different stage." Over the years, the Graham archive has had its own share of drama. In 1998, Ron Protas, the trustee of her estate, sold a portion to the Library of Congress. In 2002, after a legal battle with Mr. Protas, the Graham Center was granted the rights to nearly all of the choreographer's works. Ms. Eilber said that early in her tenure as artistic director, in about 2006 or 2007, she and LaRue Allen, the company's executive director, started having conversations with a couple of institutions about the company's archives. There were piles of film canisters and boxes of photos; the company was working on getting the archive in order when Hurricane Sandy hit, just three months after the company had moved into its Westbeth headquarters in the West Village. Both its Westbeth basement space and a New Jersey storage facility were flooded, leaving costumes, set pieces and paper records, some dating as far back as the 1930s, damaged. The paper based material will probably take about eight months to catalog, Ms. Murray said. The audio and moving image material is a more laborious process. "There's more than a thousand files, so I imagine that will take about two and a half years to do," she said. But no work can start until the library reopens after it was closed by the pandemic. In the meantime, the Graham company has access to the material; it has digitized everything. Once in a while, Ms. Eilber said she even runs across an image of herself. "That's the other thing about our archives: It's a family history, it's not just an artistic legacy," she said. "I see a picture of May O'Donnell. I danced all of her roles. I interviewed her late in life. I see Pearl Lang one of my teachers, one of my coaches every day on film as I turn over 'Letter to the World' excerpts to today's dancers." Having her dancers learn excerpts from that 1940 work is just one of the projects Ms. Eilber has given the company during quarantine. "It's a generational thing," she said. "It's our Graham family history." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Clockwise from top left, JP Yim/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows; Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times; Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows; Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The seven New York City Ballet dancers who performed in BalletCollective's "What Comes Next" program looked fresh, unaffected, contemporary. They (five women, two men) walked onto the stage on their heels, their manner casual. After a step or a sequence, they let their arms swing and stood on flat feet. They were not improvising, but the mood was spontaneous. We saw them as individuals and as a group. There was some partnering, often same sex. Several times, the dancers came together in rings or huddles. Although the women danced on point in the program, which featured live music by Hotel Elefant, differences between the sexes were no big deal. Full out energy certainly occurred. In "Until the Walls Cave In" (a world premiere at Thursday's performance at the N.Y.U. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, to music by Ellis Ludwig Leone), a step soon became a motif for all the dancers: the sissonne (a jump taking off from two feet, landing on one), with both arms raised above the performer's head and palms together, facing ahead. A little later, Rachel Hutsell circuited the stage in a striking series of jumps and turns, with arms outstretched. When she met Anthony Huxley, he picked her up, but this didn't block her impetus, and soon the others were following in her wake. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Cupid can be a real jerk. Myth gifts him two sets of arrows, golden ones that spark desire, leaden ones that infuse disgust. Sometimes the twerp looses both at once. How else to explain why Layla (Kavi Ladnier), a professor of contemporary literature, ends up tangled in the sheets with Imran (Sendhil Ramamurthy), a prizewinning novelist whose books she finds "inimical to humanity"? That "inimical to humanity" bit is what she tells him just before she smashes her lips into his. So much for foreplay. Smart, sexy and not entirely satisfying, Rehana Lew Mirza's "Hate ," a production of WP Theater and Colt Coeur, is a political drama gartered and stockinged as a relationship comedy. (If the full title is unpublishable, it's eminently guessable.) Just beneath the couple's pheromone spiked banter lurks a feeling discussion about representation and identity. Layla, a practicing Muslim, attacks Imran's best sellers because she believes they rely on ugly assumptions about Islam and feed white Americans' fears. They have titles like "The Dishonored," "The Savage" or "Sacrilege." (Does this nod to Ayad Akhtar's "Disgraced," a play some saw as reinforcing anti Muslim stereotypes?) "Are you a terrorist?" Layla asks him when she corners him at a book party in his luxury apartment. All six of his books feature male Muslim terrorists, so she figures the odds are pretty good. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Pulse oximeters are one of the most commonly used tools in medicine. The small devices, which resemble a clothespin, measure blood oxygen when clipped onto a fingertip, and they can quickly indicate whether a patient needs urgent medical care. Health providers use them when they take vital signs and when they evaluate patients for treatment. Ever since the pandemic started, doctors have encouraged patients with Covid to use them at home. But in Black patients, the devices can provide misleading results in more than one in 10 people, according to a new study. The findings, which were published last week as a letter to the editor of a top medical journal, sent ripples of dismay through the medical community, which relies heavily on the devices to decide whether to admit patients or send them home. During the coronavirus outbreaks, the inexpensive devices have also become a widely sold item online, used by consumers to monitor their own oxygen levels at home when doctors have told them they're not sick enough to be hospitalized. The report also stirred concerns because the pandemic is taking a disproportionate toll on Black and Hispanic Americans, drawing attention to racial health disparities and prompting soul searching among doctors about bias that permeates the practice of medicine. There have been several reports of acutely ill Black patients who sought medical care, only to be turned away, and studies have found that African Americans were hospitalized at higher rates, suggesting delays in access to medical care. The researchers who conducted the oximeter study said they were surprised by the findings. Though scientific reports of the inaccuracies have been published in the past, they did not receive widespread attention or get incorporated into medical training. "I think most of the medical community has been operating on the assumption that pulse oximetry is quite accurate," said Dr. Michael W. Sjoding, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and lead author of the new report, which appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. "I'm a trained pulmonologist and critical care physician, and I had no understanding that the pulse ox was potentially inaccurate and that I was missing hypoxemia in a certain minority of patients." Dr. Utibe Essien, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who studies racial disparities in cardiovascular disease, noted that doctors practicing telemedicine have relied on reporting from these devices. "If we cannot ensure that its definition of low oxygen in people, especially Black people, is accurate, there is a concern that it is increasing or driving disparities," he said. Pulse oximeters work by shining two wavelengths of light, a red light and an infrared light, that pass through the skin of a finger. The device detects the color of blood, which differs depending on the amount of oxygen. Oxygenated blood is bright cherry red, and deoxygenated blood has a more purplish hue. Depending on the hue, different amounts of light from the device are absorbed, and the oximeter analyzes the proportions of the absorption and calculates the amount of oxygen. Researchers suspect that the inaccurate readings may be occurring because of the way the light is absorbed by darker skin pigments. Dr. Philip Bickler, the director of the hypoxia research laboratory at University of California, San Francisco, which tests the performance of pulse oximeters, said the simplest way to explain the inaccuracies in patients with darker skin is that the pigment "scatters the light around, so the signal is reduced. It's like adding static to your radio signal. You get more noise, less signal." (Dark nail polish also reduces the accuracy, as do cold fingers.) Who should get a booster shot? It depends, Dr. Scott Gottlieb says. Generally health providers treating patients take many metrics into account, including imaging scans, inflammatory markers and other clinical signs, said Dr. Darshali Vyas, a resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital who has done research on medical decision making tools that incorporate race. But, she said, "pulse oximetry remains one of the mainstays." The new findings "help quantify the potential harm done by a ubiquitous medical tool that may normalize white skin as the default," Dr. Vyas said in an email. She added that this could be "especially concerning" for doctors using the readings to adjust the amount of supplemental oxygen they give Covid patients, and to determine transfers to intensive care. The study compared pulse oximeter measures with values obtained from a more invasive type of test, called an arterial blood gas test, carried out in the same patients at about the same time. Arterial blood gas tests are used more rarely, because they require drawing blood from an artery, which is a more invasive procedure than drawing blood from a vein. The analysis, of 10,789 paired test results from 1,333 white patients and 276 Black patients hospitalized at the University of Michigan earlier this year, found that pulse oximetry overestimated oxygen levels 3.6 percent of the time in white patients, but got it wrong nearly 12 percent of the time, or more than three times more often, in Black patients. In these patients, the pulse oximeter measures erroneously indicated the oxygen saturation level was between 92 and 96 percent, when it was actually as low as 88 percent (the results were adjusted for age, sex and cardiovascular disease). Oxygen levels below 95 percent are considered abnormal, so "a small difference in pulse oximetry value in this range of 92 to 96 percent could be the difference in deciding whether the patient is really sick or not really sick, or needs different treatment or not," Dr. Sjoding said. Another analysis in the study examined a multi hospital database to compare 37,308 similar paired test results from intensive care patients who had been hospitalized at 178 medical centers in 2014 and 2015. That analysis, which was not adjusted, found similar discrepancies. Dr. Sjoding said he and his colleagues embarked on the study after hospitals in Ann Arbor, Mich., which typically care for a predominantly white patient population, received a large influx of critically ill Covid patients from Detroit many of whom were African American. "We started seeing some discrepancies with arterial blood gas, and we didn't know what to make of it," he said. He recalled reading an article published in The Boston Review in August about racial disparities in the accuracy of pulse oximeter readings. The writer of that article, Amy Moran Thomas, an anthropologist at M.I.T., became interested in the device after buying one when her husband was sick with Covid. She dug up scientific papers published as far back as 2005 and 2007 that reported inaccuracies in pulse oximeter readings in dark skinned individuals at low oxygen saturation levels. Dr. Sjoding and his colleagues decided to do a study using data that had already been collected during routine inpatient care at the hospital. "What we were seeing anecdotally was exactly what we ended up showing in the final paper, that on the monitor in the patient's room, the pulse oximeter would be reading 'normal,' but when we got an arterial blood gas, the saturation on the gas was low," he said. Dr. Bickler was the author of some of the earlier studies that reported on inaccuracies in people with darkly pigmented skin. He said oximetry errors have been known from lab studies for quite some time, but the new paper provides real world evidence. "It's apparent that there are racial differences in how oximeters perform we pointed that out way back 15 years ago," he said. "The biggest issue is why it hasn't been fixed. Now the Covid pandemic has brought this all to the fore: All of a sudden the medical system is overwhelmed with patients with low oxygen." Dr. Bickler's article in 2005 suggested the devices could be improved with a setting that adjusts to a different calibration for a darker pigmented skin. "I'm not sure it's easy to do, but there should be a way of fixing this," he said. The paper also suggested the devices carry warning labels about the potential for overestimating oxygen levels in dark skinned patients. Findings of similar disparities have also been reported in physical fitness devices. Dr. Sjoding and his colleagues aren't advising the oximeters be discarded. The vast majority of readings are accurate, he said. "The pulse ox is an amazing tool, but we treat it like it's way more accurate than it actually is," he said. Dr. Steven Gay, an associate professor of medicine at University of Michigan who is one of the report's other authors, said the study is a reminder to look at patients holistically and individually. "To take the best care of our patients, we have to know these things, so we don't make assumptions that a patient is doing well, just because the data isn't what it's supposed to be," he said. "It reminds us that as much as we speak about medicine as a science, there is an art to it." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Now that science is a big step closer to being able to fiddle with the genes of a human embryo, is it time to panic? Could embryo editing spiral out of control, allowing parents to custom order a baby with Lin Manuel Miranda's imagination or Usain Bolt's speed? News that an international team of scientists in Oregon had successfully modified the DNA of human embryos has renewed apprehensions that babies will one day be "designed." But there are good reasons to think that these fears are closer to science fiction than they are to science. Here is what the researchers did: repair a single gene mutation on a single gene, a defect known to cause by its lonesome a serious, sometimes fatal, heart disease. Here is what science is highly unlikely to be able to do: genetically predestine a child's Ivy League acceptance letter, front load a kid with Stephen Colbert's one liners, or bake Beyonce's vocal range into a baby. That's because none of those talents arise from a single gene mutation, or even from an easily identifiable number of genes. Most human traits are nowhere near that simple. "Right now, we know nothing about genetic enhancement," said Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford. "We're never going to be able to say, honestly, 'This embryo looks like a 1550 on the two part SAT.'" But "if people are worried about designer babies, they're normally thinking of doing special different things than the normal genetic stuff." The gene modification process used in the new study also turns out to be somewhat restrictive. After researchers snipped the harmful mutation from the male gene, it copied the healthy sequence from that spot on the female gene. That was a surprise to the scientists, who had inserted a DNA template into the embryo, expecting the gene to copy that sequence into the snipped spot, as occurs with gene editing in other body cells. But the embryonic genome ignored that template, suggesting that to repair a mutation on one parent's gene in an embryo, a healthy DNA sequence from the other parent is required. "If you can't introduce a template, then you can't do anything wild," Dr. Lovell Badge said. "This doesn't really help you make designer babies." Talents and traits aren't the only thing that are genetically complex. So are most physical diseases and psychiatric disorders. The genetic message is not carried in a 140 character tweet it resembles a shelf full of books with chapters, subsections and footnotes. But testing editing approaches on each mutation will require scientists to find the right genetic signpost, often an RNA molecule, to guide the gene snipping tool. In the study reported this week, it took 10 tries to find the right RNA, said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a co author and geneticist at the Salk Institute. Dr. Greely noted that while scientists work to get human embryonic editing ready for clinical trials (currently illegal in the United States and many countries), alternate medical treatments for these diseases might be developed. They may be simpler and cheaper. "How good one technique is depends on how good the alternatives are, and there may be alternatives," he said. The authors of the new study do not dismiss ethical implications of their work. In fact, Dr. Belmonte served on a committee of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine that in February endorsed research into gene editing of human embryos, but only to prevent serious diseases and conditions, and as a last resort. "In theory this could lead to the kind of intervention which, of course, I'm totally against," said Dr. Belmonte. "The possibility of moving forward not to create or prevent disease but rather to perform gene enhancement in humans." That is the kind of genetic engineering that raises alarm. "Allowing any form of human germline modification leaves the way open for all kinds especially when fertility clinics start offering 'genetic upgrades' to those able to afford them," Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, said in a statement. " We could all too easily find ourselves in a world where some people's children are considered biologically superior to the rest of us." Scientists and ethicists share the concerns about access. "Any intervention that goes to the clinic should be for everyone," Dr. Belmonte said. "It shouldn't create inequities in society." Unequal access is, of course, a question that arises with almost any new medical intervention, and already disparities deprive too many people of needed treatments. But there is a flip side to ethical arguments against embryo editing. "I personally feel we are duty bound to explore what the technology can do in a safe, reliable manner to help people," Dr. Lovell Badge said. "If you have a way to help families not have a diseased child, then it would be unethical not to do it." Genetic engineering doesn't have to be an all or nothing proposition, some scientists and ethicists say. There is a middle ground to stake out with laws, regulation and oversight. For example, Dr. Lovell Badge said, Britain highly regulates pre implantation genetic diagnosis, in which a couple's embryos are screened for certain harmful mutations so that only healthy ones are implanted in the woman's womb. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Rosewood Puebla, part of the luxury hospitality brand Rosewood Hotels Resorts, opened in May 2017 in the heart of Puebla, Mexico. The colonial city, about a two and a half hour drive from Mexico City, has a Unesco World Heritage downtown district and is known for its Baroque architecture and abundance of noteworthy sights and museums. Rosewood Puebla is a nod to the city's past: Its 78 rooms are spread among four buildings that date from various eras, ranging from the 16th to the 20th centuries, and surround a private courtyard. The decor emphasizes Mexican furnishings, contemporary works by artists around Mexico and traditional crafts from Puebla including colorful Talavera ceramics. Rosewood Puebla is centrally located and within walking distance of the city's most attractive attractions including the Puebla Cathedral, completed in the 17th century, and the Amparo Museum, which has a notable collection of pre Columbian and colonial art from Mexico. Plenty of restaurants and stores are also nearby, and taxis are readily available right outside of the hotel. Each of the property's rooms has unique decor, but all are a homage to Mexico. A 500 square foot Puebla room, the hotel's second room category (there are five categories in all), was a handsomely appointed space. It had a warm feel with its wrought iron king size bed, a comfortable sofa in bright pink a popular color in Mexico and embroidered throw pillows in blue, yellow and pink hues. The ceiling over the mahogany wood desk was covered in blue and white Talavera tiles, and the chandelier in the center of the room was constructed of both wrought iron and clay. There also were plenty of modern touches, such as the touch button lighting, which had nine settings, and the iPad on my nightstand, which I could use to order room services and make other requests. Spacious and airy, our bathroom had a white marble floor, a large walk in shower, double sinks and a free standing copper bathtub. The mirror was decorated with blue and white Talavera tiles, and the upscale Italian brand La Bottega was behind the citrusy scented toiletries. Two all day restaurants, Pasquinel Bistro, serving refined Mexican cuisine, and Cafe Azul Talavera, a casual spot serving sandwiches and salads; a bar called Los Lavaderos (in a space overlooking a former launderette dating to the 19th century); a rooftop bar with 360 degree views of the city; a rooftop swimming pool, a gym and a three treatment room spa. Guests also get five articles of clothing ironed for free. If there's a lackluster meal or drink not worth imbibing at Rosewood Puebla, I certainly didn't experience it. I enjoyed flavorful scrambled eggs with house made corn tortillas and spicy salsas for breakfast, and a smoky, spicy mole poblano with chicken for dinner, which was so good that I ordered it again the next day. The produce was fresh and tasty, and the ceviches that I tried prawn and oysters in a jalapeno citrus dressing among them were light and flavorful. Post dinner, I headed to Los Lavaderos for tequilas and mescals; the menu had more than 80 choices, many from small, lesser known labels. Rosewood is known for its high priced rooms (in some locations, nightly rates can start in the four figures) and exceptional service, but in the case of the Puebla property, only the latter holds true: the staff couldn't have been more doting or efficient. For luxury seekers, a stay is still in the realm of affordability. The hotel is one of the first high end properties to open in Puebla and may entice travelers to visit a city they normally wouldn't think to include in their Mexico itineraries. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Long famous for its food, finance and shopping, Hong Kong is eager to broaden its image with the opening of M , a museum of visual culture, in late 2019. Officials expect the 640 million, government funded museum to stand peer to peer with contemporary art icons such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Tate Modern in London. They want the city to emerge as the cultural capital of Asia as other art venues open nearby. M represents the crown jewel of the West Kowloon Cultural District, a designated arts hub on approximately 100 acres of landfill jutting into the harbor. On the district's docket is the building of the Xiqu Center Chinese opera house and the Hong Kong Palace Museum, with treasures from China's Forbidden City. But obstacles have long dogged the project. For one, the museum is two years behind its planned opening date because of construction delays. Much of the cultural district's territory is a huge construction zone, with some park greenery showing through. Some critics also wonder how much curatorial freedom M will be able to exert, as the Chinese government increases its sway over a former British colony that on paper is supposed to operate under its own laws. On a broader scale, the authority that oversees the cultural district has had its share of problems. The latest surrounded the December announcement of the Hong Kong Palace Museum. Under fire is Hong Kong's incoming chief executive, Carrie Lam, who started the project but bypassed the process of public feedback. Officials from the authority declined to discuss the issue, but stressed that they had seen "continuous good progress on the construction of M over the past two years." The museum will look like a giant inverted T. "The upside down T is simple," Doryun Chong, M 's deputy director and chief curator, said in an interview this year. "There is nothing fussy about this. There is something radically simple about having only a horizontal and vertical slab. We want to have a confident and friendly building that's open to the public." The building's name is meant to indicate that it is a museum and more. Starting with work from the mid 1950s, it will present 20th and 21st century Asian art, film, architecture and design with a Hong Kong perspective. It will bring visibility to Chinese and Japanese artists who are unknown today, Mr. Chong said. Mr. Chong arrived more than three years ago from the Museum of Modern Art, where he worked as associate curator of painting and sculpture. Suhanya Raffel, the new executive director of M , is the former director of collections at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia. (Ms. Raffel declined a request for an interview.) The museum's design team includes Herzog de Meuron, the Swiss architectural firm behind the Tate Modern and the Bird's Nest stadium built for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. M 's concrete structure, with a horizontal base and a vertical tower, will total nearly 700,000 square feet with nearly 185,000 square feet reserved for exhibition space, according to Mr. Chong and cultural district officials. (That compares with MoMA's allotment of 125,000 square feet for gallery space in 630,000 square feet of total real estate.) Museum galleries will be in the horizontal slab while the 17 floor skyscraper will house offices, a members' lounge and restaurants. The face of the tower will resemble a drive in movie screen. At night the surface will glow with LED lights, displaying works of still or moving art, visible across Victoria Harbor. The edifice will be set in a grassy park with a waterfront promenade. Public reactions to the design are mixed some calling it sublime, others referring to it as bland. "Architecturally it doesn't have that 'wow' factor," said Fred Scholle, owner of Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong's longest running contemporary art gallery, which has been in operation since 1974. "But it definitely conveys the fact it is a great museum that visually works extremely well with its location." So far curators have amassed about 6,000 items from Asia, with the majority coming from artists in China and Hong Kong. Uli Sigg, a former Swiss ambassador to China, donated 1,463 articles, and the museum purchased 47 items. Lars Nittve, the former executive director of M and the founding director of the Tate Modern, secured the acquisition. He stepped down from his post in early 2016 after it became clear that the museum was going to be delayed by two years, but he remains as a consultant. Citywide programs have been instilling the M message into public consciousness since 2012. The message reaches schools through the M Rover, a customized art trailer. Lectures, summer camps, exhibitions and films are also part of the promotions. About 10,000 visitors viewed Communist Party posters and early Toshiba rice cookers in the museum's inaugural design show last fall. Held at the 9,450 square foot M Pavilion, it was the first project to be finished on cultural district soil. M recently gave the public a sneak peek of its Hong Kong collection in "Ambiguously Yours: Gender in Hong Kong Popular Culture," which examined themes of sexual identity in film, pop music and magazines. Not all are happy with the museum's direction. Among its critics is Mathias Woo, executive director of the experimental theater company Zuni Icosahedron and a former member of the cultural district's arts and cultural advisory group. He said the museum did not reflect the Hong Kong voice because the executive staff was not from Hong Kong, and the bulk of the collection did not represent Hong Kong society. "M is just a MoMA or a Tate, without a true Hong Kong soul," Mr. Woo said, adding that top management had "no knowledge about Hong Kong society and Hong Kong arts." But Katie de Tilly, co president of the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association, countered that few locals had experience in starting and running a world class museum. "We need to rely on the experts," she said. These same works would have been banned in mainland China, Ms. Chow said. "M demonstrated its determination in safeguarding artistic freedom when Lars Nittve was the museum's executive director." For now, expectant eyes are focused on the swinging cranes and beams stationed on the M property. By 2019, it will have been 10 years in the making. "If this proves to be what we are all expecting," said Mr. Scholle of Galerie du Monde, "Hong Kong will have one of the finest contemporary art museums in the world, especially for Chinese contemporary art." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
AIX EN PROVENCE, France Is it possible to have a good time at "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny," Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's fiercely cynical opera about the destructive power of the almighty dollar? It certainly is difficult: As the bodies pile up death by uninhibited pleasure, or by the simple inability to pay a bar tab sympathy is hard to come by. So are happy endings. And yet Ivo van Hove's new staging of "Mahagonny" a Metropolitan Opera bound production that premiered at the Aix Festival here on Saturday evening is, quite simply, enjoyable . Not because of the brutal story, of course. No, much of the joy of this "Mahagonny" comes from witnessing two masters at work: Mr. van Hove, whose concept is both true to his style and in tune with Brecht's intentions, and Esa Pekka Salonen, whose conducting of Weill's score may be the finest I've heard, especially as played by the reliably impressive Philharmonia Orchestra. "Mahagonny" (1930) is the peak of Weill and Brecht's tumultuous, influential six year partnership, which also gave birth to works like "The Threepenny Opera" and "The Seven Deadly Sins." Its form paves the way for Brecht's trademark "epic theater," with an episodic plot that progresses with unsettling nonchalance. The score, even more ambitiously than in "Threepenny," marries Weill's classical craftsmanship with the popular sounds and instruments of Weimar era Berlin. But "Mahagonny" is often misunderstood. Many directors lean too heavily into the darkness of Brecht's libretto, reducing the characters to savagery and violence. (I once saw a production that involved eating ash from urns and a singer performing while holding a fake erection.) Conductors tend to miss the dancing energy of Weill's deceptively straightforward music. Mr. van Hove, while not offering a particularly revelatory read of the opera, at least understands it, and illustrates it clearly. His staging may have the appearance of avant garde theater: live video and harsh lighting, designed, along with the set, by Mr. van Hove's frequent collaborator Jan Versweyveld. But it is actually quite tame and direct. As in many of Mr. van Hove's productions, including the recently closed "Network" on Broadway, multimedia is his primary storytelling tool. Here, unlike in some of his stagings, his characteristic style couldn't be a better fit. His use of video a camera crew follows the cast around, sometimes showing action in the wings that couldn't otherwise be seen by the audience is a reflection of our contemporary lives, with historic moments and meaningless minutiae filmed and shared in real time. In the language of Brechtian theater, it's also a modern tool of alienation, a reminder that the audience shouldn't lose itself in the narrative , and that the world "Mahagonny" satirizes is very much our own 21st century reality. The video screen is also where Mr. van Hove presents the titles of each scene, matter of fact phrases like "The city of Mahagonny is founded" and "The execution of Jimmy Mahoney." These were an indispensable feature of Weill and Brecht's original production, designed by Caspar Neher; they are sometimes excluded by directors today, but I don't see how the opera fully functions without them. But Mr. van Hove isn't overly faithful, either. Among his interventions is the treatment of the female characters, here more empowered than ever especially Begbick, one of the founders of Mahagonny (the soprano Karita Mattila, towering in both musicality and sheer presence), and the prostitutes, led by a charismatic yet chilly Annette Dasch as Jenny Hill. And Mr. van Hove sets the opera in a film studio, not to make it a backstage drama, but to suggest that Mahagonny is a fantasy or mirage, always too good to be true. The production opens with the stage nearly empty, with only a scaffold holding up the video screen. From there, Mahagonny is built from the ground up, with dressing room mirrors, craft services, and, eventually, enormous green screens. Begbick and her two scummy colleagues, Fatty (Alan Oke) and Moses (Willard White) establish the city as, she says, a "spider web" that attracts the working class masses, including four lumberjacks from Alaska. One of them, Jimmy Mahoney (the tenor Nikolai Schukoff, persuasively anguished in his big Act III aria, "Wenn der Himmel hell wird"), falls for the prostitute Jenny, their first love scene here rendered onscreen as a grainy black and white melodrama out of old Hollywood. But he's also unhappy in Mahagonny, and, after a crisis of faith and the threat of a hurricane, leads the people of the city to a new way of life: one based on absolute freedom, and absolute pleasure. Once Jimmy's Mahagonny governed by the right to eat, make love, fight and drink takes wing, so does Mr. van Hove's production. Those green screens are put to brilliant use, with each vice played out against a virtual backdrop. Jimmy's friend Jack O'Brien (Sean Panikkar, a sweet, bright tenor gone too soon from the plot) dies while overeating in what seems to be a busy chef's kitchen; later, men take turns miming sex in front of an empty wall that, onscreen, shows a woman on her knees thrusting with them. Another friend, Joe (Peixin Chen), dies in a boxing match against someone in a green suit that appears invisible in the resulting footage . If Mahagonny is an illusion, Mr. van Hove argues, then so are the pleasures of its people. The chef's kitchen, the prostitute and the powerful boxer are all special effects, empty experiences. Which is to say, none of it is built to last: The moment Jimmy can't pay for his whiskey, he is put on trial and sentenced to death. With his execution comes riots, and the downfall of Mahagonny. The protesters, not coincidentally, are angry about the same things you might hear about on the streets of France every week in "Yellow Vests" demonstrations. It can be difficult to hear amid the chaos, but Weill's music for this explosive finale is a funeral march. That couldn't have been clearer in Mr. Salonen's interpretation, which throughout the performance was intelligently alert to Weill's dance inspired rhythms and energetic, with a fleetness to match the pace of epic theater. His conducting is reason alone to see this "Mahagonny." When the opera travels to the Met in New York, it's a given that Mr. van Hove will be there. But it should be essential that Mr. Salonen joins him. Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny Through July 15 at the Grand Theatre de Provence, Aix en Provence, France; festival aix.com. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
The 1984 Pontiac Fiero made its debut with a captivating design, a midengine layout that conveyed sports car aspirations and a name that meant "proud" in Italian. The 8,000 base price attracted young buyers. Initial media reaction was generally positive; Car and Driver magazine put the Fiero on its 10 Best Cars list. But the Fiero, hobbled by parts borrowed from economy cars, did not perform like a sports car. First year sales approached 137,000, but disappointment set in quickly as the Fiero developed a reputation for a stiff ride, lackluster quality, clunky handling and, worse, some engine failures and fires. Sales dropped 40 percent in the second year, when an optional V6 engine helped to address the deficient performance. Still, the Fiero earned a five star federal safety rating. Credit went to the car's novel construction method, developed to keep production costs low. A separate chassis included a cagelike steel structure around the passenger cabin. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
Mikey, who's losing his sight to early onset macular degeneration, lives a mostly solitary life while he craves connection, he's better suited to distance than intimacy. When he was a boy, his nearest experience to parental tenderness was the gentle touch of a nurse conducting an eye exam; as an adult, he's so consumed with building a sensory inventory of his external world that he fails to develop human relationships. And yet he's kind and rock steady, deriving his joy by quietly documenting the Gunners: Alice, Mikey's opposite in most ways, a brash lesbian marina owner who says what she feels, and she feels a lot; Lynn, a gifted pianist with a severed finger and quite a few A.A. chips; Sam, an Everyman who was reborn at the Christian camp where he worked after high school; and Jimmy, a math whiz who struck investment gold in Los Angeles but keeps a lake house near their hometown. As latchkey kids in an often harsh environment, the Gunners found that the most effective defense against pain was the denial of it. Thus, secrets were inevitably an essential ingredient of their dynamic, and Sally already the most vulnerable, the sensitive child of an alcoholic mother somehow became the keeper of them all. Each is convinced that theirs was the burden that drove Sally to leave the group and eventually take her own life. When they begin to reveal what they kept hidden as children, they find that their confessions are not met with forgiveness, discovering instead that forgiveness is unnecessary. Kauffman, though admirably direct in her language, doesn't always juggle all the moving parts gracefully; Jimmy, bearer of the most significant revelation in the novel, enters late and exits quickly, making his appearance feel almost like a cameo. Lynn's and Sam's roles feel front loaded, their presences diminished in the latter half of the novel. And using Mikey, the most emotionally deficient of the friends, as the primary lens can be frustrating because his narrative hurries through the most fraught moments in the story. As a reader I understand that he wants to flee, yet I can't help wanting to stay. Still, there's so much generosity and spirit and humor shared by whatever characters are on the page at any given time that I was always happy to accompany them. And while not all the mysteries are resolved least of all Sally's that's really the point: Friends, especially childhood friends, don't need to fully understand one another in order to accept one another. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Navigation Systems Still Show the Way, but Also Make the Route Safer WHEN Gary Kaye, an editor and former television producer in Connecticut, bought his 2005 Volvo XC90, it had an in dash navigation system. But he says the company wanted "an astonishing amount of money" to update the maps every year. Eventually, Mr. Kaye stopped using the car's navigation in favor of free apps like Google's Waze on his smartphone. When he bought a 2012 Audi A5, he didn't even bother asking for the built in navigation system. Under siege by free mapping and crowdsourced apps from the likes of Google and Apple and apps like Android Auto and CarPlay in car navigation systems seemed destined to go the way of video stores. But rather than fading into the sunset of disrupted technologies, dedicated navigation may be headed for a bright new e horizon. E horizon, or electronic horizon, is the term auto and navigation companies use to describe maps that go far beyond basic directions and two dimensional cartography to include information like weather conditions, congestion, traffic signal positions, elevation, road curvature and even the presence of black ice ahead. "Navigation is the longest range sensor in the vehicle," said Philip Ventimiglia, a product manager at Bosch, which is working with TomTom on a new generation of maps. "Radar and cameras can only see 200 meters ahead; navigation systems can look kilometers ahead." These expanded maps, sometimes referred as 3 D maps, will not only provide drivers with more detailed information about what's down the road, but also become one of the primary technologies that enables advanced driver assistance and autonomous vehicle systems. It's why a consortium of automakers Audi, BMW and Daimler recently completed the 2.8 billion purchase of Nokia's HERE mapping business. The car companies underscored the need for more precise maps and navigation systems integrated with car controls. "The critical thing is how much more the nav system is going to get integrated into the advanced driver assistance systems of a car," said Ogi Redzic, a senior vice president at HERE. With road geometry information, for example, a car's navigation system might automatically apply the brakes and electronic stability control systems when it senses a driver is approaching a curve too quickly. Already on the road is a navigation system with topographic information that can control the transmission in the 2015 Rolls Royce Wraith. On a recent test drive in the mountains of Vermont, the Wraith anticipated steep ascents, seamlessly switching gears and adjusting torque on its own to maintain a constant speed uphill. Gerry Spahn, Rolls Royce's head of communications in North America, said the goal of the system was simply to produce a smoother ride, but the same kind of technology was being applied by Bosch in trucks in Europe to save fuel. Many of the new systems like the Rolls Royce satellite assisted transmission will intervene without driver input. The 2016 BMW 7 Series sedans, for example, can automatically slow and accelerate to match posted speed limits. But convincing car buyers to pay for such technology may be a challenge. When Mark Lipson, a government employee in Ottawa, recently bought a 2016 Hyundai Elantra, he eschewed the navigation option. "I didn't buy the built in nav because the package was more expensive than what I wanted to pay," he said. Automakers promise that such navigation features in advanced driver assistance systems will come to mass market vehicles, eventually as standard equipment. The e horizon systems also will not be supplanted by smartphone apps, they say. Smartphones cannot collect precise data about the position of, say, lane markings or gradients and are unable to control critical braking and steering systems. "As cars become more autonomous," says Phil Eyler, president of the connected car division at Harman, "the need to have embedded navigation is going to be a critical part of the car to ensure safety and high precision accuracy." To see the e horizon future, one can look to autonomous car programs underway at companies like Google and Ford. Google's vehicles in California and Texas cram into maps features like the precise position of traffic lights and curb heights, which cannot be collected by the company's popular crowdsourced Waze traffic app. At Ford, using radar, lidar and video cameras the automaker has created 3 D maps of a University of Michigan test facility where the company is experimenting with self driving cars. "The maps are a baseline," said Greg Stevens, global manager of Ford's driver assistance and active safety research. "You need to know where the lanes are and what rules apply to those lanes." Mr. Stevens added that considerable research was still needed to determine exactly how much additional information would be required to create the ultimate e horizon. "Knowing precisely where fire hydrants are, for example, could be useful if the car is trying to tell whether or not it's a child standing on the side of the road." Navigation systems will also have to be tied into a car's array of sensors and computer control modules. At TomTom, a spokesman, Frans de Rooij, said it meant relying on data captured by the company's dedicated mapping vehicles and also supplementing it with real time information from car sensors, like video cameras that recognize speed limit changes because of new construction. To alert drivers of heavy weather ahead, navigation systems will require weather forecasts and access to windshield wiper activity in other cars. Braking systems can presage an accident around a corner; headlight activations may indicate there's fog on the highway. The goal is to make driving safer, preventing accidents and along the way saving fuel and reducing emissions. When Mr. Lipson, who recently rejected the navigation option in his new Hyundai, was asked about a system that could slow down a car long before a driver sees a traffic problem ahead, he said, "That's something I would definitely be interested in." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
But statistics alone do not a neighborhood make. Seven years ago, Allan Larsson, a retired journalist, former finance minister and past president of Lund University in southern Sweden, moved with his wife from central Stockholm to Hammarby Sjostad, only minutes away by car, bike or rapid transit, drawn by the public transportation options, nearby nature and conscientious environmental aims. Shortly thereafter, he started a citizens' initiative, HS2020, to further improve the area for residents, who are in some ways living in an urban experiment. "We've used the phrase 'renewing a new city' to highlight the fact that you can't just build a new residential area or a town and then leave it," Mr. Larsson explained. "It has to be updated. You have to have innovation. You have to test new things." Among the many projects of HS2020 are the creation of a foundation for widespread use of electric cars in the area, and a plan for year round use of the ski slope at Hammarbybacken. HS2020 has also supported cultural events, most notably SjostadsOperan, in which filmed opera performances from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York were streamed inside an old factory building that also houses Delight Studios, one of the city's top photography and film production studios. For the past three years, Delight Studios has been the area's primary but temporary home for cultural events, when it's not being used to produce campaigns for companies like H M, or stills for movies like David Fincher's "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Before opening Delight Studios here in 2004, the photographer Guido Hildebrand said that he had often worked on location in the area, which stood out because of its stark, desolate atmosphere. Concerned that the neighborhood is losing its soul as apartments fill one old structure after another, he's now working with Helios13, a nonprofit group that aims to turn the entire studio building into a permanent cultural center something he said he believes the area desperately needs. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
This article is part of David Leonhardt's newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it each weekday. Joe Biden has been struggling to figure out his role during the early stages of the coronavirus crisis. He gave a solid speech on Monday, but has since been criticized by both Democrats and Republicans for seeming to disappear. When he has spoken publicly as he has done every day this week, from his home in Delaware the media doesn't pay much attention. Biden is in a tricky spot. He has no official role in government, no votes to take in Congress and no decisions to make as governor. He is not even the Democratic nominee yet, with Bernie Sanders still in the race. But Biden is now the country's most prominent Democrat. If he doesn't respond to President Trump, it's not clear who will. Mark Penn and Andrew Stein write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. Tory Gavito and Adam Jentleson write that the Virgina loss should "shock Democrats into confronting the powerful role that racially coded attacks play in American politics." Ezra Klein speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. Ross Douthat writes that the outcome of the Virginia gubernatorial race shows Democrats need a "new way to talk about progressive ideology and education." So what are Biden's options? I see several: 1. Offer sharp, fresh criticism of the government's response. Criticizing Trump for his slow, uneven response to the crisis is fair and probably necessary. But it's not going to resonate much when Biden offers it. It's too obvious. This week, though, Biden started to make a more specific point: He singled out Ron DeSantis Florida's governor and a close Trump ally for keeping open beaches and not telling people to stay home. The actions of DeSantis and several other Republican governors (but not all, as Biden pointed out) directly conflict with the advice of public health experts. And these governors are often echoing Trump. By calling attention to the problem, Biden has a chance to help people understand that the likely coming outbreaks in many states aren't inevitable. They will be the result of politicians not taking public safety seriously. The most effective messages will often be ones in which Biden seems to be ahead of the curve. And to make those messages resonate, he will need to repeat himself. 2. Name a shadow cabinet. Several writers and political advisers, including some close to Biden, have made a version of this argument. As The Washington Post's Paul Waldman writes: In Britain, the opposition party maintains a "shadow" cabinet, a group of spokespeople assigned the same policy areas as the ministries of the government, to offer the opposition's view on whatever issue is being discussed at a given moment. While Biden probably wouldn't want to assign specific Cabinet positions now, he could utilize both his own aides and people in the broader Democratic world to give the public a picture of what government under President Biden would be up to and provide a contrast with the chaos, corruption, and incompetence that characterizes the Trump administration. An early example: The presentation on Saturday from Ron Klain, the Obama administration's Ebola czar and Biden's former chief of staff. "It not only offered a clear critique of the administration's failures, it showed that the people around Biden ... are competent, informed, and experienced," Waldman wrote. To make this work, Biden would need to choose a diverse group of advisers who could speak as a proxy for him, including some who excite the progressive wing of the party. 3. Ignore the criticism and don't try to grab the spotlight. When Ronald Reagan was running for president during the Iran hostage crisis, he deliberately avoided becoming Jimmy Carter's harshest critic, as Monica Prasad of Northwestern University has noted. When Barack Obama was running for president during the financial crisis, he was careful about how he talked about George W. Bush's response. Both Reagan and Obama understood the importance of not looking too political and instead looking presidential during a national crisis. "This is a dangerous moment for Joe Biden," Prasad wrote in Politico. Perhaps the best thing Biden could do is avoid saying something that would make him appear petty or open himself up to criticism, she added: "Biden similarly needs to let the president lead. If Trump is the ineffective and irresponsible caricature that his opponents think he is, events will show it soon enough." My own sense? Biden would probably help himself by doing a bit more of options 1 and 2. Yet option 3 has some benefits, too. Biden isn't going to be the big story right now, almost no matter what. For his sake, he should try to become somewhat more visible but not radically so. Biden's campaign has always been about the collective idea of Joe Biden rather than the day to day reality. ... Sure, it might be nice to have a nominee with the energy and mental focus to appear in public every day during the possible end of civilization, but the 2020 edition of Biden was never such a person, and you can't disappear if you were never really there. Right now he is giving Democrats exactly what they voted for: a distant presence who will not be actively alienating and who is associated with enough good ideas and capable people that you could reasonably bet on him to be an improvement over the current disaster. Voters seem to have coalesced around Biden for his past who they have known him to be for the past four decades in American politics rather than for anything in his present. It's as if Biden exists primarily as an idea, rather than an actual candidate. ... Biden's team appears to understand this, and to believe that what matters most now is keeping their candidate alive in the American imagination as an alternative to Trump. His appearances these days have an almost parallel universe quality to them: Biden's audience less remarks from his home in Delaware have the suggestion of an Oval Office address, and their content seems intended to offer a glimpse into the twilight zone where someone else, someone more empathetic and capable, is president. If you are not a subscriber to this newsletter, you can subscribe here. You can also join me on Twitter ( DLeonhardt) and Facebook. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter ( NYTopinion) and Instagram. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
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The Meyerland neighborhood of Houston on Aug. 27. Some of the worst flooding from Hurricane Harvey occurred in Meyerland, and the floodwaters teemed with bacteria. From the moment the waters began rising in Texas last month, disease was on health officials' minds. Floodwaters, after all, are filthy. When Hurricane Harvey finally moved north and the feet of flooding drained, hospitals saw a spike in skin and gastrointestinal infections, but Texans were spared some of the most serious illnesses that contaminated water can spread: cholera, for instance, and typhoid. On Tuesday, however, the Harris County medical examiner's office announced that the death of a 77 year old woman 11 days earlier had been caused by necrotizing fasciitis: a gruesome and often deadly infection commonly known as flesh eating bacteria. The woman, Nancy Reed, contracted the disease when she fell inside a flooded home in Houston's Kingwood community and broke her arm, allowing bacteria from the floodwaters in through cuts. Hers was the 36th storm death recorded in Harris County. Porfirio Villarreal, a spokesman for the Houston Health Department, said the city had received no other reports of necrotizing fasciitis since the storm. But a nonfatal infection was confirmed in nearby Missouri City, Tex., where J. R. Atkins, a former firefighter and paramedic, contracted the disease while helping neighbors escape the floodwaters. In Mr. Atkins's case, The Houston Chronicle reported, the bacteria entered through an insect bite on his arm. Another person, Clevelon Brown of Galveston County, died not of necrotizing fasciitis but of sepsis caused by a different bacteria from the floodwaters. In necrotizing fasciitis, bacteria infect the fascia, a type of connective tissue. The bacteria can produce toxins that destroy the tissue. (They do not eat it, despite the "flesh eating bacteria" label.) If caught early enough, the infection can be treated with antibiotics and surgery. But many patients lose limbs, and even with treatment, 25 to 35 percent die. A wide variety of bacteria can cause the disease. The most common is group A streptococcus, the same germs responsible for strep throat. This is the only type of necrotizing fasciitis that is formally tracked, and 700 to 1,100 cases are recorded in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other culprits include E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Aeromonas hydrophila, and members of the Clostridium and Klebsiella genera. When The New York Times organized testing in Houston after the hurricane, floodwaters in two neighborhoods showed extremely high levels of E. coli: in one home, 135 times the level considered safe. The sample in that home also tested positive for Vibrio bacteria. It was not possible to identify the specific strain, but one Vibrio vulnificus is known to cause necrotizing fasciitis, said Charlotte Smith, an environmental health expert at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health who helped The Times analyze the data. Dr. Smith said she was not surprised that necrotizing fasciitis infections had occurred. Cases were also recorded after Hurricane Katrina, she noted, because of the confluence of two factors. "One is the breakdown of the infrastructure as a whole, which brings more microbes into the environment," Dr. Smith said. "The second is the conditions of people that are in that environment: They have high potential for cuts and scrapes that would make one more susceptible." Activities like taking furniture to the curb or removing drywall can easily cause the cuts and abrasions that allow bacteria in. The good news is that necrotizing fasciitis is extremely rare, even in people who are exposed to the bacteria that can cause it. Most people who contract it have compromised immune systems or underlying conditions like diabetes, kidney disease or cancer, the C.D.C. says. The easiest way to prevent infection is to clean wounds, even superficial ones, immediately and keep them covered until they heal. The C.D.C. also recommends that people with open wounds avoid water: lakes, oceans, pools and hot tubs alike. But, of course, flooding as catastrophic as what the Houston area experienced makes that impossible. Dr. Smith said coveralls, gloves and boots were key precautions to take when working in or around contaminated water. Early symptoms like warm skin, swelling, and red or purplish coloration in the affected area can be difficult to distinguish from those of less serious infections, though the C.D.C. says patients "often describe their pain as severe and hurting much more than they would expect based on how the wound looks." But a hallmark of necrotizing fasciitis is rapid progression, evident in the spread of skin redness, said Dr. David Persse, physician director of Houston's emergency medical services. "Most wound infections will grow at a slow pace where you notice the change from one day to the next," Dr. Persse wrote in an email. "With necrotizing fasciitis, you will notice the infection spreading over just a few hours." This makes immediate treatment essential. Dr. Persse noted that Mr. Atkins, the Missouri City man who survived an infection, recognized the symptoms quickly because of his background as a paramedic and sought emergency care right away. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
In the mid 1990's, there was an ocean of difference between trucks and luxury cars. When Lincoln launched the luxurious leather lined Navigator sports utility vehicle in 1997, the curiosity became a juggernaut. Obviously a gussied up Ford Expedition, it was immense and immensely profitable. Cadillac quickly followed in the same direction. For 2015, Lincoln gives pro athletes, rappers, and upwardly mobile suburbanites an updated version. It still rolls on an F 150 truck chassis, just not the new aluminum skinned platform. The freshened model cruises on the outgoing foundation. An update was necessary to compete with the three ton gorilla Cadillac Escalade. Lexus LX 570, Infiniti QX80, and Mercedes GL 550 are on the radar as well. A new bow and stern have been added. The V8 has been taken away. In its place is a V6, Ford's turbocharged 3.5 liter EcoBoost. It's more powerful with 380 horsepower and 460 lb. ft. of torque. Six cogs occupy the gearbox, choose between rear and 4 wheel drive. Navi tugs up to 9,000 pounds. Built like a freighter, Navigator moves like a cutter. Car and Driver recorded an impressive 6.2 second 0 60 dash. Growling like a V8, the turbo six satisfies both ears and soul. Navi feels every inch its size while trolling crowded urban avenues and parking garages. An available L model casts a larger shadow, stretching the wheelbase to 131 inches from 119. Driving dynamics are placid, but know crisp helm dynamics result from an optional adaptive suspension, part of the 7,150 Reserve package. Navigator's big issue is this no amount of money will buy adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, and automated parking. They simply aren't available. The Environmental Protection Agency rates Navigator's thirst at 15 city and 20 highway for a 4WD version. I netted 21 miles per gallon on a 150 mile highway excursion, closer to 12 in the city. In addition to the fancy suspension, the Reserve package adds stitched leather to the beefy instrument panel, upgraded seats and door panels, plus Ziricote wood paneling (appropriately, a choice of top yacht builders). But the gauge cluster is fished from a Ford. Same with the user interface. Renaming the unloved MyFordTouch system to MyLincolnTouch fools no one. At the very least change the graphics. Seating a crew of seven or eight depends on whether a bench or captain's chairs are ordered for the mid row. With a climate zone and bun warmers, the space is far from steerage. Lincoln crows best in class room for the third row, the cushions are short in length. Keep that back row up and there's room for only four bags of groceries in the cargo hold. Those planning to stow large coolers should contemplate the L model. The load floor is quite high. Lincoln's re do has helped, sales are up 90 percent year to year. Navigator owners are loyal, 60 percent of them buy another. Starting at 62,915 for a rear drive model, the Reserve package and premium paint pushes my 4x4 tester to 74,135. Navigator cruises with attitude, but with fewer features than its competitors, it faces a headwind. VIDEO SCRIPT Few sedans qualify for land yacht status these days, so living large in size, comfort and image means cruising in something like this. I am Tom Voelk with Driven for The New York Times. Lincoln's Navigator established the luxo S.U.V. segment. For 2015 the bow and stern get a new look, changes pro athletes, rappers, and well heeled suburbanites will easily fathom. (ON CAMERA) Navigator is not a car based crossover, it's a full on S.U.V. built on the same architecture as Ford's F150 pickup, but not the new one, you know with the aluminum panels. It will be a couple years until an all new flagship arrives. This refresh was needed to compete with the new Escalade. Last year's V8 is gone, replaced with this more powerful 3.5L EcoBoost V6 (SOUND UP) It's turbocharged, there's 380 horsepower and 460 lb. ft. of torque (SOUND UP) It tugs up to 9,000 pounds. There are six cogs in the gearbox, this one rolls with 4 wheel drive. Built like a freighter (SOUND UP) Navigator moves like a cutter off the line. (ON CAMERA) There's nice growl, you'd swear there's a V8 under the hood. It feels every inch its size when trolling crowded urban streets and parking garages. The ride quality is firm, not soft or mushy. (ON CAMERA) Driving dynamics are more crisp than you might imagine, this is a truck based S.U.V. after all. However, it has the optional adaptive suspension. It's bundled with the Reserve package, for 7,150. The big issue with Navigator? No amount of money will buy adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, and automated parking. They simply aren't available. Fuel economy? I saw about 21 miles per gallon on a 150 mile highway excursion. Closer to twelve in the city. SUPER EPA rating is 15 city 20 highway for 4WD The Reserve package adds more than that fancy suspension. The beefy instrument panel of the wheelhouse gets cut and sewn leather, seats and door panels are upgraded, and if you've unfamiliar with Ziricote wood, this is what it looks like. (SOUND UP) These are a crowd pleaser. That and the terrific THX sound system hit the high water mark. But the gauge cluster looks fished from a Ford. Same with the user interface. At the very least there should be new graphics. The cabin seats eight when these captain's chairs are swapped for a bench. The mid row is far from steerage; there should be no complaints. Access to the way back can happen here or (SOUND UP) embark in a more civilized manner. (ON CAMERA) The third row has belts for three, space is decent back here. Foot knee, leg, and headroom are not going to be a problem. The cushions, a little on the short side. (Best in class room?) There are cup holders back here, I'll point out that the doors lack storage options. (ON CAMERA) Navigator is a big rig, you would expect a generous cargo hold Nope. Go with the "L" model that adds nearly 15 inches of length if you're going to stash large coolers behind the third row. The load floor is quite high. Of course dropping the seatbacks helps. Navigator would have swallowed up 18 packs, if I would have brought one more out. Starting at just under 63 grand, I highly suggest splurging for the Reserve package that pushes this one close to 73. Navigator sets sail with attitude, but with fewer features than its competitors, it faces a headwind. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
The poet Carl Sandburg called him America's tuning fork, and for good reason. Pete Seeger drew upon many traditions of American folk music, from spirituals to mountain music, throughout the almost eight decades he sang, wrote and collected songs. By the time he died at 94 last year, nearly every region of the United States could lay claim to him. It was in North Carolina, for example, where in 1936 he first heard the five string banjo, which would become his instrument of choice, at a square dance festival. There he was at Bowdoin College in Maine in 1960, performing his protest song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" after he had been blacklisted from national venues and indicted on a charge of contempt of Congress because of his political affiliations, including membership in the Communist Party in the 1940s. In Hattiesburg, Miss., hand in hand with churchgoers in 1964, he led rounds of "We Shall Overcome," which he adapted from old spirituals. Considering the many places his music took him, you would be forgiven for forgetting that, in a deeply rooted sense, Mr. Seeger was a New Yorker. It was Greenwich Village that made him, in the early 1940s, the musician who would champion the American folk music revival. And in Beacon, N.Y., about 65 miles north, he later became an environmental activist, working tirelessly to clean up the Hudson River. Raised on his children's songs, I had always been a fan of Mr. Seeger and of the many folk artists he influenced, from Peter, Paul and Mary to the tradition's great innovator, Bob Dylan. But lately I encountered folk music only in hyphenation with some other genre like alternative, rock or country. This summer folk rock bands and singer songwriters like the Decemberists and Neko Case will gather at events, including the Newport Folk Festival, July 24 to 26, or the Clearwater Festival, which Mr. Seeger helped found, on June 20 and 21 in Croton on Hudson, N.Y. But where does folk music reside year round? Setting out to explore Mr. Seeger's old haunts in Manhattan and Beacon, I hoped to stumble upon a scene alive with his spirit. Though Mr. Seeger was born in Manhattan in 1919, the son of a well to do musicologist and concert violinist, and the family had an estate in Patterson, N.Y., he spent his youth largely at a Connecticut boarding school. After losing his scholarship to Harvard in 1938, he also briefly moved into his brother's apartment at 118 East 11th Street, opposite Webster Hall, where he would headline in the early 1950s. But in 1940 Mr. Seeger was still an amateur banjo player who had just returned to New York after a stint cataloging and transcribing folk music at the Library of Congress. It was his friend the folklorist Alan Lomax who had pulled him into an eclectic group of folk musicians, like the Kentuckian singer and union activist Aunt Molly Jackson and the Louisiana born Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, who taught Mr. Seeger the 12 string guitar. These musicians orbited in and around Greenwich Village. It was in Mr. Ledbetter's tenement apartment at 414 East 10th Street that Mr. Seeger first heard the blues singer's haunting rendition of "Goodnight Irene," a folk standard Mr. Seeger would later turn into a sanitized pop hit with the Weavers in 1950. The Almanac House, now a veterinary clinic and apartments, still draws a number of passers by thanks to an audio tour of Mr. Guthrie's homes, produced by his daughter, that guides you to it. One former home of Mr. Seeger that is open to the public is at 129 Macdougal Street. His in laws' townhouse, where he lived with his wife, Toshi, and their young children after he returned from World War II, is now an Italian restaurant, La Lanterna di Vittorio. Last month I had a cappuccino on its lovely back patio with Mr. Seeger's grandson Kitama Cahill Jackson. We sat amid what we guessed was an N.Y.U. student's graduation celebration, and Mr. Jackson showed me photos of Mr. Seeger there, when it was a simple backyard, strumming on his banjo with Mr. Guthrie and others. "My great grandmother created an open house," Mr. Jackson said, adding that Toshi's parents encouraged Pete and his friends to gather and rehearse there. Sitting there for a moment, I could almost conjure the bohemian spirit of those days. A scene in the 2007 documentary film "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song," though, drained some color from my roseate image. The Seegers, in their 80s, are strolling through Washington Square Park nearby, and I expected Pete to begin reminiscing about his days busking by the fountain. Instead Toshi speaks. "I used to come out here at 5 o'clock every morning because you got in from the Village Vanguard at 4," she says. "The babies would wake you up, so I took them out into the park, all by myself at 5 in the morning." Today Beacon is a city of 15,000 known for its Victorian town center and its artsy spirit. But in 1949, when Mr. Seeger moved his family there, it was a small industrial city, and he sought a life with few luxuries. On a hilltop at the town's edge, he built, with his bare hands, a one room log cabin where he and his family lived without running water or electricity. Later a bigger house was built a few yards away. Both remain in the family, but you can get a sense of Mr. Seeger's view of the Hudson from the side of Mount Beacon. Hike to its top for an even more spectacular vantage point. From Beacon, beginning in the late 1960s, Mr. Seeger spearheaded an effort to clean up the Hudson, what he lovingly called in a song "my dirty stream." At the time, its waters, ravaged by industrial waste, oil and sewage, were so poisonous that, according to the environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wooden boats from the Caribbean would sail upriver to kill the bore worms that were damaging their hulls. Mr. Seeger's idea was to build the Clearwater, a 106 foot sloop based on a century old design, believing that the majestic boat would throw the Hudson's ugly toxicity in sharp relief and force people to pay attention to it. To lobby for the Clean Water Act of 1972, he sailed it to Washington and serenaded members of Congress. Today the Clearwater is still sailing. Along the Hudson, from the West 79th Street Boat Basin in Manhattan to Rensselaer, a city opposite Albany, it sets out for expeditions that are open to the public through September. I missed the sloop during my visit to Beacon last month (it was on its way to Kingston, N.Y.), and no one I met at Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, the nonprofit that Mr. Seeger helped found and which operates the boat, rushed to make me feel better about the missed opportunity. "It's a feeling like nothing else," the organization's communications director, Toni Martin, said of sailing on the Hudson. Still, a Sunday afternoon at the Beacon Sloop Club, another organization Mr. Seeger helped to start, brought me closer to the river than I ever had been in New York City. Its clubhouse sits in a beautiful waterfront park, named after the Seegers last year, just north of the contemporary art museum Dia: Beacon. On that bright blue day, it was hard to imagine the river had ever reeked like a sewer. I stood on the riverbank, a slight breeze coming off the water, and marveled at its breadth. From here, it is a mile wide. Just about any restaurant or shop along Main Street could be included in a tour of Mr. Seeger's life, he was such a reliable presence in the town. But that day was Mr. Seeger's 96th birthday, and a tribute concert was scheduled at the Towne Crier Cafe, so I headed there. Alongside rock and country, the venue often has folk acts, including the singer songwriter Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul Mary, on July 17. It felt like a throwback to the Village cafe culture, serving well prepared food and drinks during concerts. And down the block I had noticed Main Street Music, which sells new and vintage string instruments and holds open jam sessions every second Saturday of the month. Perhaps New York's folk scene had simply moved upriver? Over the phone a few weeks later, Mr. Petrus said the most vibrant folk community he has come across is in Red Hook, Brooklyn, centered around the Jalopy Theater and School of Music, a co organizer of the Brooklyn Folk Festival each April. Though the venue does have folk artists from Mr. Seeger's era like Michael Hurley, it focuses on pre revival music from this country and the world, including the bluegrass Matt Flinner Trio or the Zimbabwean influenced Polyphony Marimba. But, he added, folk artists were always at home in eclectic spaces like the Towne Crier. They performed alongside flamenco dancers and jazz musicians at the Village Gate, now Le Poisson Rouge, and comedians at the Bitter End. "That's always been the spirit of folk," he said. "It's such a baggy term, and it blends with so many different strands of music." The Village Vanguard, where the Weavers played. Back at the concert at the Towne Crier, the performer Reggie Harris told me that while he was heartened to see folk music live on, he feared that "as a society, we've gotten away from collective song." Singers now focus on performing their own songs, not sharing them, he said. But perhaps the moment is ripe for another revival, he added. While demonstrators in Baltimore; Ferguson, Mo.; and New York have relied on chants like "I Can't Breathe," he has encouraged members of the Black Lives Matter organization to create simple, singable songs, as Mr. Seeger and others had done in the civil rights movement. "We know that as we sing together, we breathe together," he said, "and that changes the air." The concert was starting, so I took my seat for the first performers, an acoustic trio. At the last rock show I had been to, people did not so much as tap their feet, so I was a bit flustered when suddenly the whole room was singing in unison. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
STEADY growth and building momentum may not be the ideal ingredients of sexy headlines, but the cars we drove in 2011 still offered plenty to be optimistic about. Among the year's highs were beautifully rendered family sedans and keenly balanced sports cars, but equally significant was the arrival of models from mainstream compacts to luxury brand benchmarks that were as satisfying to drive as they were efficient. A wave of new electric cars and plug in hybrids are on the way, but the internal combustion engine showed no signs of stepping aside. BMW did the once unthinkable in offering a turbo 4 in its 5 Series; Ford replaced the thirsty base level V 8 in its perennial best seller, the F 150 pickup, with a smarter V 6. As in past years, writers for these pages selected the cars they found most memorable in the previous 12 months. By no means a comprehensive list, it is rather an assessment of how well particular models fulfill their particular missions, and perhaps stir a driver's spirit along the way. A more detailed look at the critics' choices is at nytimes.com/autos. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
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