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The completion of the funding round follows the initial public offering this month of Snap, the maker of the ephemeral messaging application Snapchat, which was also one of the most highly valued private companies before its debut. Snap's I.P.O. has raised questions about which other private tech companies may go public this year. Airbnb has long been mentioned as an I.P.O. candidate. Unlike other prominent technology start ups that are backed by venture capital, the company is not burning through investor money to pay for its operations. Airbnb is profitable, according to two people briefed on its finances who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the financial statements are private. Still, Brian Chesky, the chief executive of Airbnb, said in an interview in November that, although he was not opposed to a public offering, the company had no immediate plans for one. "I think companies should go public when it's the best thing for the mission, but we don't have those immediate needs," Mr. Chesky said. Airbnb, which matches travelers with people who want to rent their homes on a short term basis, says it has three million listings in more than 190 countries. The company is expanding by buying and investing in new business lines, such as payments, property management and restaurant reservations. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
With Anthony Davis on His Way Out, New Orleans Tries to Plot Its Path NEW ORLEANS The New Orleans Pelicans have scuffled along for years as one of the N.B.A.'s worker bee franchises, a respectable team but not one that has vied for championships. They lose as often as they win and play their home games in an arena called the Smoothie King Center, where a big beaked mascot named Pierre roams the crowd. But in recent seasons, the team has employed someone even more special: Anthony Davis, a gifted center and one of the best players in the league. Davis has a pterodactyl length wingspan and a unibrow, which has become as much a part of his persona as his skyscraping dunks. Fans know him as "The Brow," as if he were a superhero who draws strength from his facial hair. New Orleans used to love him for it until two weeks ago, when he shook the league and asked the Pelicans to trade him. The Pelicans, in return, made a bold move of their own: They refused to let him go, at least not yet. Now Davis and New Orleans are stuck together in basketball purgatory "It definitely is different," said Jrue Holiday, the team's starting point guard and the city's long suffering sports fans can only wonder: What do we do now? "It's not a new thing that guys demand to be traded," Alvin Gentry, the Pelicans coach, said in an interview, "but I thought the timing of it kind of put everybody in a tough situation." It has been a soul crushing few weeks for sports fans here. They absorbed a major blow last month when the New Orleans Saints, who are as much a tent revival as football team, lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the N.F.L. playoffs after a missed call by the referees, which may have cost the Saints a trip to the Super Bowl. A week later, Davis's agent, Rich Paul, announced publicly that Davis wanted out of New Orleans and would not sign a contract extension. "Now that he's going to leave, I'm excited to see what we can get for him," said Ryan Bergeron, a 22 year old legal assistant from New Orleans who is a regular at Pelicans games. Like many fans, Bergeron owns one of Davis's replica jerseys which he plans to keep in the back of his closet. "I think we'll be better off without him," Bergeron said. Not so long ago, Davis was throwing beads from a float as an honorary grand marshal at a Mardi Gras parade. But the city's feelings toward him have curdled like week old etouffee. On Friday night, when Davis played in his first home game for the Pelicans since his trade request, images of him were cut from a highlight package that played on the arena's oversize video screens. The crowd showered him with boos that drowned out scattered cheers. As if to amplify his value while sticking it to those who expressed their displeasure, Davis collected 32 points and 9 rebounds. "It's life, man," Davis said of his frosty reception. "Some people aren't going to like you." New Orleans has dealt with its share of hardwood hardship. Franchises have come and gone, along with star players. The New Orleans Buccaneers were a charter member of the American Basketball Association from 1967 to 1970, but then relocated to Memphis. The New Orleans Jazz, founded as an N.B.A. expansion franchise in 1974, had a similarly abbreviated run before decamping for Utah in 1979. The N.B.A. returned to New Orleans in 2002 back when the team was known as the Hornets and eventually found a franchise star in point guard Chris Paul, who led the team to three playoff appearances before he, too, told management before the start of the 2011 12 season that he would not sign a contract extension. New Orleans traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers, then finished with the worst record in the Western Conference. But from the rubble of player discontent sprang fresh life in 2012: Tom Benson, then the owner of the Saints, bought the franchise, and the team, soon to be rebranded as the Pelicans, secured the top pick in the draft. (After Benson died last year, the ownership of both franchises was transferred to his wife, Gayle.) New Orleans used that pick on Davis, a freshman center who had just led Kentucky to an N.C.A.A. championship. Now in his seventh season, Davis is a six time All Star who was averaging 29 points and 13.3 rebounds entering Monday. But he has been prone to injury, and he has never led the Pelicans on a deep playoff run. The organization has made missteps Exhibit A: re signing Omer Asik, a Turkish forward, to a 58 million deal in 2015 but that does not make them unique among N.B.A. teams; they are trying to compete in one of the league's smallest markets when stars are generally gravitating toward flashier and more well established franchises. Last season, the Pelicans were playing well behind Davis and DeMarcus Cousins, a perennial All Star whom the team had acquired through a trade in 2017. But Cousins tore his Achilles' tendon and missed the playoffs. Without him, the Pelicans still swept the Portland Trail Blazers in their first round series before losing to the Golden State Warriors in the conference semifinals. Still another problem was brewing for the Pelicans. In September, Davis changed agents and hired Paul, who is known for his close relationship with LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers' star forward. Paul's tactics with the Pelicans in recent weeks in pursuit of a trade for Davis were unconventional. Tom Penn, a former executive with the Trail Blazers and an analyst for NBA TV, said in a telephone interview that most agents try to work with team executives behind the scenes. Paul, on the other hand, "threw a Molotov cocktail in the middle of the room," Penn said. It became a public spectacle, and the Pelicans responded by releasing a statement in which they said they would do a deal "on our own terms and our own timeline." Sure enough, they rebuffed the Lakers one of Davis's preferred trade destinations in their attempts to pry Davis loose. Once Thursday's trade deadline passed, the Pelicans landed a final jab by tweeting an emoji of an hourglass that had run out. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
AILEY II at N.Y.U. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (March 13 14, 7:30 p.m.; through March 17). In 1974, Alvin Ailey formed this company as a bridge to the professional world for dancers at the Ailey School. Its artistic director, Troy Powell, shows off the current group of 12 in two programs: One contains all new works; the other features repertoire. The premieres are choreographed by members of the Ailey family, past and present: Uri Sands; Robert Battle, the main company's artistic director; Bradley Shelver; and Powell. The program of returning dances, all from the 2017 18 season, includes Darrell Grand Moultrie's "Road to One," Juel D. Lane's "Touch Agree" and Renee I. McDonald's "Breaking Point." 212 998 4941, alvinailey.org/aileyiinyc DOUGLAS DUNN DANCERS at the 92nd Street Y (March 8, 8 p.m.; March 9, 4 and 8 p.m.). As part of "A Feast of Cunningham," the Harkness Dance Festival welcomes Dunn, who was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1969 to 1973. The focus in "Crag," a new work, is on couples: Its 10 dancers relate through continually shifting variations in tempo, rhythm and space. As the piece progresses, new pairings are formed, including one with Dunn and Grazia Della Terza, his wife. The costumes are by Andrew Jordan, and the composer Steven Taylor performs live. 212 415 5500, 92y.org SILAS FARLEY at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (March 8, 2 and 7 p.m.; March 9, noon, 2 and 7 p.m.; March 10, 11 a.m. and 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.). MetLiveArts Performances hosts "Songs From the Spirit," a site specific ballet created by Farley, a choreographer and director. During this production, audience members will follow dancers into three galleries as Farley explores ideas revolving around history, spirituality, freedom and the inherent need to create art. The dancers including Farley, a member of New York City Ballet are accompanied by traditional spirituals and new songs created by inmates at San Quentin State Prison, courtesy of the Radiotopia podcast "Ear Hustle." 212 570 3949, metmuseum.org/performances | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
TRUE DETECTIVE 9 p.m. on HBO. Fresh off his Golden Globe win for "Green Book," Mahershala Ali leads the third season of HBO's time jumping crime drama, which returns after a less than beloved second season. The locale this time is the Ozarks; the time periods are the 1980s, 1990s and 2010s; and the crime is a gruesome one involving children. As a level headed detective, Ali (along with his partner, played by Stephen Dorff) investigates, while viewers are ping ponged between decades and see Ali's character afflicted with dementia, struggling to explain the details of the case in a movie within a show documentary. In his review of the season for The New York Times, James Poniewozik wrote that the season treads a lot of familiar ground, writing that "if you score 'True Detective' Season 3 on originality, it fails." But he also noted: "If you treat it as a do over if the series, like one of its haunted antiheroes, is retracing its steps to try to get things right then it's fine. Often quite good. Far more consistent." AMERICAN STYLE 9 p.m. on CNN. One of the pleasures of a decade hopping show like "True Detective" is watching the costumes change to reflect the time periods, the way suits and hair are cut providing an indication of which one is being explored. For those wanting to give more thought to these nuances, this documentary series looks at American fashion during several windows of time in the nation's history: The first episode, "War Boots to Work Suits," covers the 1940s and '50s, and the ways in which things like bikinis and Katharine Hepburn's pants reflected the sensibilities of the time. The second episode, airing directly after, covers the 1960s and '70s. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
A broad range of athletes and sports figures have issued statements on social media condemning the killing of George Floyd and other police violence against African Americans. But several N.B.A. players have gone even farther. They've jumped off the sidelines to join the sprawling protests that have leapt up all over the country, which lines up with an image the N.B.A. has gone to great lengths to cultivate for itself in recent years: that of a socially conscious league that has fought against injustice for decades stretching back to the days of Bill Russell. This comes with risk for the players: Some of the protests have turned violent, and many demonstrators are not wearing masks or maintaining social distancing in accordance with coronavirus pandemic precautions. Yet very few issues have sparked the outrage of figures in and around the N.B.A. like that of police brutality and the killing of black people, an issue that has touched many black communities in the United States and one that N.B.A. stars, who play in a predominantly black league, have been keen to speak on for several years. Jaylen Brown, the 23 year old rising star for the Celtics, said it took him 15 hours to drive from Boston to Atlanta to take part in protests. Brown, who went to high school in Georgia, invited others to join him over the weekend, posting a message on Twitter that said, "Atlanta don't meet me there beat me there come walk with me bring your own signs." He added in an Instagram story, "First and foremost, I'm a black man and I'm a member of this community ... We're raising awareness for some of the injustices that we've been seeing." Malcolm Brogdon, a 27 year old guard for the Indiana Pacers, also demonstrated in Atlanta this weekend. "I've got a grandfather that marched next to Dr. King in the '60s, and he was amazing," Brogdon said to a crowd through a bullhorn. "He would be proud to see us all here." The league's activism has been selective, the N.B.A.'s critics note. It began the season in October with an international incident after a Houston Rockets executive expressed support for pro democracy protesters in Hong Kong, causing a protracted debate over whether league executives and players caved to China's anger over it. The N.B.A. also has a rule requiring that players stand during the national anthem, effectively banning them from kneeling, the very issue that has been a headache for the N.F.L. because of Colin Kaepernick. That dispute resurfaced after the N.F.L. commissioner, Roger Goodell, issued a statement on Saturday that some players on social media found lacking self awareness. But on the subject of the relationship between African American communities and law enforcement, N.B.A. figures have been much more eager to weigh in and do more some even feeling a sense of profound obligation to express what they see as grievous injustice. In response to Floyd's death, coaches and players have lined up to provide statements, as have teams, some in blunt terms. The Washington Wizards released a statement from its players that said in capital letters "WE WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE THE ASSASSINATION OF PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THIS COUNTRY," adding, "WE WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT THE ABUSE OF POWER FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT." In a message to league employees on Sunday, Commissioner Adam Silver said, "Racism, police brutality and racial injustice remain part of everyday life in America and cannot be ignored," adding, "We will work hand in hand to create programs and build partnerships in every N.B.A. community that address racial inequity and bring people together." These statements were notable because specific mentions of law enforcement were conspicuously missing from many corporate statements released last week. In a typical season, N.B.A. players would be able to express themselves at actual games, like in 2014, when many players wore "I Can't Breathe" T shirts during warm ups, a reference to Eric Garner, a black man who died in Staten Island after an officer used a chokehold. Or in 2012, when members of the Miami Heat posted pictures of the team wearing hoodies in response to the death of Trayvon Martin. But N.B.A. teams are not together currently. The league is aiming to make a return to play in late July. In the meantime, many in the basketball community, like LeBron James, have responded by either spotlighting the protests or gone even further by joining them. The scale at which the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor a black emergency room technician who was shot in her own apartment by the Louisville police following the execution of a "no knock warrant" in March and Ahmaud Arbery a 25 year old black man who was pursued by armed white residents in February before being killed touched a nerve among players and some team executives was on display this weekend. Much of the response has still been from a distance. Multiple N.B.A. coaches announced a committee to combat racism, and all the league's coaches issued a statement Monday condemning Floyd's killing, adding, that "the reality is that African Americans are targeted and victimized on a daily basis." One of those coaches, Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, a frequent critic of President Trump, gave a scathing interview to The Nation on Sunday, blasting Trump' and his response to the protests. "We need a president to come out and say simply that 'Black Lives Matter.' Just say those three words. But he won't and he can't," Popovich said. "He can't because it's more important to him to mollify the small group of followers who validate his insanity. But it's more than just Trump. The system has to change. I'll do whatever I can do to help because that's what leaders do." The White House did not respond to a request for comment. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Early in Ryan Murphy's "The Prom," a Broadway flack starts reading the reviews of a newly opened show about Eleanor Roosevelt, "Eleanor!" The gang's all here, including the self adoring stars, Dee Dee Allen (Meryl Streep) and Barry Glickman (James Corden). The drinks and laughs are flowing, and everyone is as lit as their bedazzled outfits. And then the flack starts reading the notice from The New York Times (hiss, boo). "This is not a review you want when you have crappy advance sales," he bleats. "This is going to close us." In his review of "The Prom" on Broadway, my Times colleague Jesse Green amusingly reassured readers that this wouldn't happen, deeming it "a joyful hoot." It won't happen with the movie, which is based on the show, for other reasons. "The Prom" starts streaming on Netflix on Friday, which means no amount of cheers or jeers will matter. On Netflix, the movie will sit alongside thousands of other titles, subject only to mysterious algorithms and sheltered from both critics and the box office. Its canny mix of nostalgia and idealism, old fashioned conservatism and new age liberalism will hit the spot for some, even if its vision of American unity is hard to recognize right now. In its broad outlines, the story a show people lark wed to a morality tale about a teenage lesbian's triumph seems unchanged. Called out as unlikable narcissists (who can't even make a hit), Dee Dee and Barry decide to rehabilitate their tainted reputations with celebrity activism. With their overripe second bananas, the archly named Angie Dickinson and Trent Oliver (Nicole Kidman and Andrew Rannells), they travel to an Indiana town, intent on taking up (uninvited) the cause of the heroine, Emma (Jo Ellen Pellman), a high schooler who's been barred from bringing her girlfriend to the prom. The theme and the story's arc emerge when Dee Dee et al. descend on the town, waving placards and trumpeting indignation. "We are here from New York City and we are going to save you," Barry announces to Emma, who's embedded in a meeting filled with parents and other students. This joke is soon repeated, as often happens in this movie, where every lily is gilded and every laugh squeezed until it's dry. "Who are you people?" asks the mother (a misused Kerry Washington) leading the homophobic charge. "We are liberals from Broadway," Trent says, assuring that Team New York will fall on its smug face while securing its own redemption. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Forgive your Carpetbagger if he feels a bit dizzy: Over the last few weeks, a significant number of Oscar bellwethers has begun to ring, culminating in a special form of tinnitus with symptoms that include the persistent thought, "But do the Golden Globes really matter?" Sure, there's still a month to go until the Oscar nominations are announced, but after a flurry of recent headlines generated by the Gotham Awards, New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association not to mention high profile nominations doled out this week for the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards it's become clear which films have momentum and which have plenty of ground to make up. Of those organizations, only SAG AFTRA, the actors' guild, compares favorably to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when it comes to size and membership overlap, but it never hurts to be seen winning, especially when Oscar voters weigh which screeners to watch. With that in mind, here are some of the contenders who've come out of this corridor ahead, as well as a few that are still scrambling to stay in the conversation. "Parasite": Bong Joon Ho's South Korean sensation will probably be the first Cannes Film Festival winner since "Amour" to pick up Oscar nominations for best picture and director, but can it take the top Academy Award? Certainly, the passion is there: I talked to several overjoyed voters in the wake of "Parasite's" top honor from the Los Angeles critics. The film's best ensemble nomination from SAG is also a major coup, since the path to best picture is awfully perilous without support from the academy's large voting body of actors. Renee Zellweger: She came out of the fall film festivals riding high for her acclaimed portrayal of Judy Garland, and no best actress contender has since appeared with the power to knock her off that front runner perch. Does it matter that "Judy" itself is likely to score no other nominations but Zellweger's? Not in a surprisingly weak year for the best actress race, where nearly all of the contenders, aside from Scarlett Johansson, will be hailing from films just outside the best picture bubble. Netflix: Will Netflix save cinema, or swallow it whole? We've barely recovered from the last round of arguments on this matter, but get ready for another array of hot takes because Netflix has utterly dominated the early awards season pit stops, taking top honors from the Gotham Awards (for "Marriage Story"), the New York critics (for "The Irishman") and the Golden Globes, where the streamer picked up three out of five nominations for best drama and earned more nominations than any film studio. Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino: These A list auteurs will be vying all season for the top film and director prizes, and they're working a similar niche: Both have made male dominated period films, and the clock is ticking to honor them, since Scorsese is about to enter his 80s and Tarantino has evinced a desire to stop making films soon. Who's got the edge? Tarantino has given Oscar voters an industry valentine in "Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood" the rare original film this year to become a significant theatrical blockbuster but Scorsese's "The Irishman" has been faring better with critics' groups. It took the New York critics' top prize, and Scorsese and the film were runners up with the Los Angeles reviewers. "Marriage Story": After winning the best film honor at the Gotham Awards earlier this month, Noah Baumbach's Netflix divorce dramedy led the Golden Globe field with six nominations, and the Screen Actors Guild followed suit, recognizing its leads, Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, as well as its supporting actress Laura Dern. That said, Baumbach's snub in the Globes' best director category, as well as the inability of "Marriage Story" to land a SAG nod for its ensemble, provide signs that the film could be taken for granted when up against more technically audacious competition. Taron Egerton: Few contenders have worked the awards circuit harder than this "Rocketman" star, a good natured hand shaker up against a field of best actor candidates who are loath to schmooze. Though you won't catch Joaquin Phoenix and Adam Driver posing for selfies with eager voters, Egerton's retail politics have kept him in the game: After popping up at award shows, for your consideration concerts, and Chateau Marmont parties thrown in his honor, Egerton was recognized by both the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild for his performance as Elton John. The Oscars may prove tougher to convince, but so far, so good. "Jojo Rabbit": After Taika Waititi's World War II satire took the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, Oscar pundits have wondered whether it could follow in the footsteps of "Green Book," "12 Years a Slave" and "The King's Speech," other recent best picture winners that won that laurel. The Golden Globes gave "Jojo" a light pat on the head though the film earned two nominations, including one for best comedy or musical, Waititi wasn't nominated in the director or screenplay races but SAG broke for it in a major way, nominating Scarlett Johansson for supporting actress, as well as the ensemble cast. That show of support means it's time to take this comedy seriously. "Little Women": Two years ago, Natalie Portman chastised the Golden Globes on the air for leaving the "Lady Bird" filmmaker, Greta Gerwig, out of their best director lineup. Given the chance to make it up to her this week, the Globes punted again, shunning her new film, "Little Women," in the best drama and best director categories. The Screen Actors Guild could have offered a save, but instead snubbed the film across the board. Can a big score at the Christmas box office help push "Little Women" back into the best picture race? Robert De Niro: "The Irishman" is expected to be a major best picture threat and could end up with a double digit Oscar nomination tally, but it's the film's lead actor who is in the most danger of being overlooked. Neither the Golden Globes nor the Screen Actors Guild gave De Niro any love for his "Irishman" performance, and the actors' guild's snub is particularly awkward, since he's already set to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Jan. 19 SAG ceremony. The role is subtle, but it's another reminder that this year's best actor race is unusually fierce. "Knives Out": Could this entertaining murder mystery have one last twist up its sleeve in the form of a best picture nomination? This whodunit by Rian Johnson received plenty of Golden Globe love: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominated "Knives Out" for best comedy or musical and recognized both of its leads, Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas. Those actors will find less traction with Oscar, and SAG ignored "Knives Out" entirely, but the film itself could still break through: Though genre movies aren't always Oscar's cup of tea, "Knives Out" tackles enough real world social issues to satisfy politically minded voters. "The Two Popes": Netflix is hoping to garner three best picture nominations this year, but while "The Irishman" and "Marriage Story" are sitting pretty, the future is more unclear for "The Two Popes." The Golden Globes loved this papal two hander, nominating the film and screenplay as well as the actors Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins, but the Screen Actors Guild blanked it across the board. Say a few Hail Marys, and let's see if the academy splits the difference. "Cats": This phantasmagorical feline musical was completed so late that few award season voters have had the chance to see it, and the show that would be most partial to some heavy petting the Golden Globes, which has separate musical comedy categories for just this sort of thing gave "Cats" only one original song nod. The Oscars' supporting actress race is still fluid, but if "Memory" belter Jennifer Hudson couldn't get noticed by the Globes, this Academy Award winner may not stand much of a shot at earning her second nomination. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. The Houston Rockets managed to make things interesting in the fourth quarter, which is one thing the Rockets do well: make things interesting. They reinvent offensive schemes and engineer big trades and offer nightly rebukes to conventional wisdom. Houston's style may be polarizing, but the Rockets are not a boring franchise. Now, two months since the Rockets' arrival at Walt Disney World for the N.B.A.'s restart, their playoff run is coming unglued. After spending about an hour and a half scuffling through some of its worst basketball of the season, at precisely the worst moment with the most at stake, Houston staged a late rally on Thursday night before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers, 110 100, in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinals series. If fans watching from home were left dumbfounded, so were some of the team's central figures: How could the Rockets have come out so flat? "I don't have an explanation for you," Russell Westbrook said. "Just a lack of spirit," said Rockets Coach Mike D'Antoni, whose team trails in the best of seven series, 3 1. The loss came as the league continued to investigate an alleged violation of the safety protocols in its so called bubble by one of Houston's players, Danuel House Jr., a reserve who missed Games 3 and 4 of the series. The team cited "personal reasons" on its injury report as the cause of House's absence. On Friday, the league announced that House had left the bubble and that his season was finished after its investigation found that he had invited an unauthorized guest to his hotel room on Tuesday, in direct violation of league rules. Following Thursday's loss, D'Antoni said he was not going to use the situation as an excuse for his team's poor effort. That was admirable, but there is little doubt that it has been a distraction and there is the small matter of House's importance to the team. He scored 13 points off the bench in Game 2. The Rockets could have used him in Game 4. Then again, they could have used a lot things against the Lakers on Thursday. An extra player. Stilts to defend Anthony Davis. Perhaps a postponement. The Rockets trailed by as many as 23 points. They scored 2 points on fast breaks. And while Frank Vogel, the Lakers' coach, countered the Rockets' small ball approach by benching JaVale McGee, who typically starts at center, Los Angeles still outrebounded Houston by 52 26. "There should've been a sense of urgency on everybody's part," Westbrook said. Here were some scenes from a debacle: None In the third quarter, the Lakers' Alex Caruso fouled the Rockets' Austin Rivers, who went to the free throw line but not before yapping back and forth with Caruso's teammate, Kentavious Caldwell Pope. Rivers made both free throws, but the episode seemed like a lot of work. The Lakers proceeded to inbound the ball and break the Rockets' full court press in about 2.7 nanoseconds before Davis finished an alley oop so ferociously that the ball nearly bounced off the court into outer space. None LeBron James opened the fourth quarter for the Lakers by going end to end for a layup as the Rockets watched him glide on by as if he were riding a Schwinn. None The Rockets' P.J. Tucker, a 6 foot 5 forward who has the thankless task of matching up against Davis, found himself later in the fourth quarter defending the Lakers' Rajon Rondo after a switch. Tucker lunged at Rondo near the 3 point line, then Rondo dribbled past him and discovered to his delight if not to his total surprise, given the events of the evening that no one was within 10 feet of him. It had to be one of the most wide open half court layups of his career. No one, though, had a more challenging time than Harden, who picked up three early fouls and was double teamed by defenders whenever he had the ball. Those double teams came in all shapes and sizes: Caruso and Davis, Caldwell Pope and James. It was a constant canvas of yellow jerseys for Harden, who scored 21 points (most of them from the free throw line) while shooting just 2 of 11 from the field. He also had 10 assists as he tried to facilitate for his teammates. "They're playing real well, running around like crazy," D'Antoni said of the Lakers. The Rockets miraculously trimmed the Lakers' lead to 5 before Caruso sealed the win by burying a 3 pointer with 35.2 seconds left. For Houston, that late spurt the team was sparked by reserves like Rivers and Ben McLemore offered some cause for optimism amid an otherwise bleak night in the bubble. D'Antoni also alluded to some recent history: The Denver Nuggets trailed the Utah Jazz, 3 1, in their first round series before advancing with three straight wins. "We fought, which is good, and we know what we have to do," Westbrook said of the fourth quarter. "It's going to take a lot of effort. It's going to take everyone being uncomfortable in their role and making sure we understand that we have to sacrifice some of the things we love to do. But we've got to scramble. That gives us the best chance to win games." At this point, they do not have much of a choice. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown that lets you sleep and lets us get paid to watch comedy. What do you think of it? What else are you interested in? Let us know: thearts nytimes.com. Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, promised he would bring a vote to the floor next month on a bill to let the young immigrants called Dreamers stay in the United States legally. It was all part of a deal to keep the government open. Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, said he would hold Mr. McConnell accountable, but Seth Meyers has his doubts. "I'm sorry, Democrats, but I just don't trust you to hold anyone's feet to the fire. I don't even trust you around fire. I can't imagine it not ending up with all your hair burned off." SETH MEYERS Part of his skepticism related to Mr. McConnell, who said he intended to keep his word. "What do you mean, you intend? It's your word. Are you worried you'll try to keep it, but it'll get stuck in your neck bubble?" SETH MEYERS When President Trump asked the Guggenheim last year to lend the White House a painting by Vincent van Gogh, it didn't just decline. According to a report in The Washington Post, the museum made a pointed counteroffer: It suggested a sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan titled "America" that consists of a functioning, solid gold toilet, and that is seen as a critique of conspicuous wealth. The Trumps didn't accept the sculpture, but Mr. Kimmel said they should have. "I'm surprised they said no. To me, a gold toilet is way better than a van Gogh. I mean, the first time you pee on a van Gogh it's ruined." JIMMY KIMMEL "Officials in a South Carolina zoo say an orangutan briefly escaped his enclosure on Monday, but then returned to his pen. Incidentally, 'the orangutan escaped his enclosure' is secret service code for when Trump shows up at a policy briefing." SETH MEYERS "You can't just fire every guy who investigates you. I mean, he's running the White House by the exact same rules as 'The Apprentice.' He doesn't understand. He's like, 'Nobody had a problem when I fired Meatloaf!' " JIMMY KIMMEL, referring to a New York Times report that Mr. Trump had tried to fire the special counsel Robert Mueller "President Trump arrived in Switzerland this morning for the World Economic Forum, and immediately converted his money into franks." SETH MEYERS, showing a photograph of hot dogs Mr. Fallon's goofy grin tends to make it look like he's playing with an adorable baby deer at all times. In this video, he is, in fact, playing with an adorable baby deer. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump will deliver his State of the Union address. Stephen Colbert will be broadcasting live that night, giving his reaction. But Mr. Kimmel has another idea entirely: He tweeted that he'll interview Stormy Daniels (a.k.a. Stephanie Clifford), the former adult film actress who allegedly had an affair with Mr. Trump in 2006. The Times Late Night Comedy Committee will be here to deliver a full recap. Also, Check This Out | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. It's pretty easy to stun an audience into the kind of silence about which people say, "You could hear a pin drop." Just a well timed slap will do it. But there's a deeper kind of attention in the theater: the kind that comes from withholding the blow. When an audience is focused on what might be coming instead of what already came, you can hear a pin not drop. That's the silence a beautiful hush of dread and wonder that envelops "The Sound Inside," Adam Rapp's astonishing new play now receiving its world premiere, under the masterly direction of David Cromer, at the Williamstown Theater Festival. For its entire 90 minutes you are dying to know what will happen even while hoping to forestall the knowledge. So is Bella Baird, the 53 year old fiction writer and Yale professor who narrates much of the play. As the action starts she has received a terrible cancer diagnosis with little chance of survival. And yet the progress of her disease is just one aspect of the play's interconnected levels of suspense. While telling us her story, Bella played by Mary Louise Parker in a sensationally controlled performance is at the same time taking notes and trying out phrases for a story she intends to write. It's about a teacher who has cancer. So at one level, we are watching Bella create the tale she is in fact delivering. Into this Mobius strip of a narrative another gradually intrudes, this one about Christopher Dunn, one of Bella's creative writing students. Christopher, a freshman from Vermont, lacks a social skin, but Bella is at first unable to tell whether he is hostile, troubled or just overstuffed with language that must push its way out in vivid torrents. He calls baristas "New Age, unshowered, tatted out Hobbits." In any case, Christopher (Will Hochman) is also writing a work of fiction that teases the question of autobiography. In it, a Yale freshman from Vermont spends Thanksgiving break in New York City, where something awful ensues. Has this happened to Christopher himself? Will it? "You have yourself a nice amount of dread simmering," Bella tells him. That dread only builds as the two tales start to converge. During office hours and then over dinner and drinks and more the two writers start to write each other into their lives. But so too are Dostoyevsky and "Old Yeller"; one of the things that makes "The Sound Inside" so thrilling is its full engagement with tragedy. The narrative pyrotechnics do not replace real fire. This is territory in which Ms. Parker has a great deal of experience, from "Prelude to a Kiss" in 1990 to "Heisenberg" in 2016. By now we know how relentlessly she hounds after the truth of even the most complicated and surreal situations. That skill is tested even further in "The Sound Inside," which asks her to maintain a solidly corporeal characterization you never sense that Bella is a concept while also rendering several crosscutting layers of possibility at once. Sign up for Theater Update, a weekly email of news and features. That she achieves all this with perfect clarity and no self pity, and with her sometimes kooky affectations modulated into an aptly self deprecating charm, is a mark of Ms. Parker's maturity and the production's. Let's hope she and it come to New York, because the short run at Williamstown closes on Sunday. Much of the credit goes to Mr. Cromer. Having made a specialty of sepia toned works suffused with quiet sadness, he adds a new color here. That color is gray: The scenic design (by Alexander Woodward) and lighting design (by Heather Gilbert) mostly exist at the threshold between barely there and nothing. I often failed to register the trees, snow, handwriting and other bits of projected video, by Aaron Rhyne, until long after they'd actually started to appear. And by then they'd be halfway gone. That seems to be Mr. Cromer's organizing principle for the production. He keeps very far ahead of the audience, switching so seamlessly between modes of presentation scenes are sometimes described, sometimes acted out, sometimes both at once that you don't have time to ask too many questions. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Paul Weiss is the same law firm that conducted an internal investigation into Roger Ailes, the former Fox News chairman. 21st Century Fox executives decided to dismiss Mr. Ailes after the lawyers took statements from at least six women who described inappropriate behavior by him. In a statement, Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for Mr. O'Reilly, said the law firm was "already retained by the company to look into all hotline calls," adding that there was "nothing special" about the handling of this case. It was not clear how expansive the law firm's investigation was into Mr. O'Reilly's behavior. 21st Century Fox has said that it investigates all claims made through the company's anonymous hotline. In response to the Times investigation, both Mr. O'Reilly and 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, had said that no current or former Fox News employee had raised concerns about him through the hotline. Both Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Ailes have denied the allegations against them. Ms. Walsh said that Mr. O'Reilly did not follow through on a verbal offer to make her a network contributor after she declined an invitation to his hotel suite following dinner one night in 2013. She said that she had not received a settlement and was not seeking one. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
ANAHEIM, Calif. The delegates had long been lining the back of a meeting room by the time John J. DeGioia, the president of Georgetown University, harked back to last year's N.C.A.A. convention. Back then, the matter of whether college athletes should be allowed to profit from their fame was on the periphery for the leaders of college sports. The N.C.A.A. convention that convened this week is confronting some of the greatest turmoil in the organization's 113 year history, with elected officials in Washington and more than two dozen states considering whether to try to harness the power of government to allow college athletes to make money from their names, images and likenesses. The coast to coast machinations have left a multibillion dollar industry, after first being hammered into a defensive crouch, scrambling to persuade politicians and the public of the wholesomeness of college sports. Over a few days in Anaheim, Calif., this week, college officials have talked of fixes in session after session, in one private pull aside after another but all with the knowledge that even concrete proposals for a resolution are most likely months away. "Do I believe college sports is going to blow up? No, I don't," Mark Emmert, the N.C.A.A. president, said Thursday evening. "But I think the way everybody responds to this and the way the N.C.A.A. responds to these particular issues is really, really important. The existential crisis to me is: Can we respond in a way that makes sense for our students and supports the college sports model?" Interviews this week with college sports leaders suggested a steady consensus around the notion that the N.C.A.A. must loosen its rules, something it signaled in October that it would eventually do. Yet there was also a sporadic sense that it is easier to muse about change than to make it happen. "Everyone's still talking; nothing's been thrown out," said Gene Smith, the athletic director at Ohio State and the co chairman of the N.C.A.A. group that has been studying the name, image and likeness issue since the spring. He added: "So right now, everything's on the table." Indeed, the N.C.A.A. emerged from this week's convention with ideas for changes percolating throughout its complex organizational chart. The group headed by Smith and the Big East commissioner Val Ackerman, for instance, is charged with developing proposals that will be scrutinized by the board of governors, a sprawling council of college administrators and business, political and athletic leaders that could ask Congress to help codify the ideas into law. None Week 11 Predictions: Here are our picks against the spread. N.F.L. Tightens Covid Protocols: As cases rise and Thanksgiving approaches, the league is requiring masks inside team facilities and increasing testing. The Packers' Defense Is Their M.V.P.: Green Bay's oft overlooked defense has kept the team from falling out of the Super Bowl chase. 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. The group that Ackerman and Smith leads did not even exist a year ago, when the issue of how and whether players should be able to profit from their play largely remained in the background, as it had for more than a decade. Then in September, California approved a measure designed to guarantee students the right to reach endorsement deals and hire agents once it takes effect in 2023. The legislation, which the N.C.A.A. opposed and might still challenge in court, has since emerged as a bipartisan template in other statehouses. The law also instigated a far louder reckoning for the N.C.A.A. and its longstanding rules restricting players' financial opportunities. N.C.A.A. officials and supporters insist that the organization is willing to adjust its system to a point. M. Grace Calhoun, the Pennsylvania athletic director who leads the Division I Council, which oversees the most prominent parts of N.C.A.A. competition, suggested that the organization could ease obstacles for, say, basketball players to give lessons. But Calhoun also made plain that the N.C.A.A. would only be rewriting so many rules. "We're dealing with student athletes, and when you look at the principles we've established, we won't cross that line from them being students to turning into employees," she said. Although Calhoun said officials were working "very aggressively" to come up with proposals, the N.C.A.A.'s rule making structure relies on a labyrinth of committees and forums. The system seeks the views of about 1,100 member institutions, which could deepen frustrations and skepticism because it all but precludes a speedy resolution. Still, the proposals will begin to take shape between now and April, when the first drafts are expected to emerge. Three N.C.A.A. subcommittees, which are examining athlete work opportunities, individual licensing and group licensing, will soon offer ideas, and feedback will also come from conferences, Olympic sports organizations and students. Group licensing a team's presence in a video game, for example, a fan favorite issue online may prove the most thorny, Calhoun said, because such an arrangement can veer toward students being considered employees. N.C.A.A. members probably will not sign off on any changes until January 2021, and even those would probably not apply until later in the year. Even a January 2021 approval would come months after some state legislators hope their California style proposals will take effect, though legal experts have said that the N.C.A.A. or its members would probably be able to persuade courts to block those measures, at least temporarily. For now, the N.C.A.A. has lurched into a campaign on Capitol Hill, before a think tank, at the Justice Department and in news media interviews to stave off simmering public discontent and more drastic government interventions. It is, however, largely leaving the battles in the states to colleges and conferences. "What we need to do is take that energy that's produced and make sure that sound decisions are made and that aren't just reactive to any one state or any one legislator," Emmert said in an interview last week, when he warned that the "unintended consequences of a patchwork system" could undermine a model that the N.C.A.A. argues works fine for most of its 500,000 student athletes. A cure could come from Congress. The university officials who are among the most influential in college athletics said this week that they increasingly believed that federal lawmakers would have to set guidelines, or at least offer the N.C.A.A. some legal cover for modified rules. "It's important for the working group to look for solutions, but most of those solutions are going to raise issues that will lead to another round of lawsuits without some protection by Congress," Jere Morehead, Georgia's president, said in the corridor of a Disneyland area hotel where N.C.A.A. policymakers convened. "We can't have California having one piece of legislation and then Florida, Georgia and New York having different ones," he added. "We've got to have a federal solution and have the N.C.A.A. work with them." Far less clear is whether a Washington mired in acrimony and gearing up for a presidential election will ultimately prove willing to act. Still, some N.C.A.A. officials pointed to President Trump's trade deal last month with Canada and Mexico, which was overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives one day after the same body had voted to impeach him as proof that a consensus can always be found. "The one thing for sure about politics is if you think you can predict anything you're a fool," said Franklin D. Gilliam Jr., the chancellor at North Carolina Greensboro, who has a doctorate in political science. "This looks like it isn't going to be on the front burner at all, but it can change in a heartbeat and all of a sudden you could get on the front burner so you have to be prepared." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Every so often, a spotlight seems to shine on Beacon, a low slung city on the Hudson River, near the southern border of Dutchess County. In Colonial times, its steep hills played a key role for soldiers. During the industrial era, its factories made the boater style hats that were all the rage. And in 2003, the opening of the Dia Beacon museum turned the 4.7 square mile enclave into a top tier contemporary arts hub. "Everything kind of led to the point where we had to leave the city," said Chloe Stables, 40, a new resident who arrived in September from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with her husband, Tom, 41, a men's wear designer, and their dog, a boxer mix. Their route to Beacon, which is about a 60 mile straight shot from Midtown Manhattan, wasn't direct. In March, after Ms. Stables lost her job as an executive assistant for a marketing agency and Mr. Stables was temporarily let go from his job, the couple decamped to a family house in Key West, Fla., for a few months. When they returned to Brooklyn in the summer so Mr. Stables could head back to work, New York suddenly seemed all wrong epitomized by the rat that had taken up residence in their prewar one bedroom rental, Ms. Stables said. In contrast, keeping them company at their new upstate address a 1920s brick house with two bedrooms, one bathroom and a wraparound porch for 2,800 a month, 100 less than their city rent is Fishkill Creek, Beacon's bubbling showpiece. "The suburbs would have been too vanilla for us," Ms. Stables said. "We wanted something unique." If the influx of Brooklynites can't be definitively measured, it's clear there have been a lot of new faces around town lately, including day trippers frustrated with a lack of things to do in still semi locked down New York. "Seeing mountains all around is inspirational and relaxing," said Andrew Berlin, 38, a resident of the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, who recently bought a four bedroom, one and a half bathroom house in Beacon, built in the late 1800s, for 370,000. "In New York, you stare into your neighbors' bedrooms." Mr. Berlin, an employee of a New York based marketing firm who has been working remotely since spring, plans to relocate with his wife, Hunter Polese, and their infant son at the end of the year, after renovations are complete. A hiker, biker and snowboarder who indulges his pastimes in the nearby Catskill Mountains, he had been itching to move for a while. Initially, he considered Maplewood, N.J., he said, but it had too many "fields" of similar looking houses and not enough greenery. In Beacon, Mr. Berlin made an offer on a place a few days before Covid hit, but he lost it, he said, to a fleeing New Yorker able to pay in cash. Inventory then became tight, and he didn't see another place until June. But now, he said, "the planets have aligned." Despite green edges, Beacon which packs its ethnically diverse population of 14,000 into small lots can feel a bit gritty, as might any former mill town in transition. There is a jumble of architecture. Verplanck Avenue mixes late 19th century houses with 1960s ranches and 21st century colonials. Older buildings often hide their age behind synthetic siding. Roomy Victorians line High Street, where bright colors and Eastlake style trim add pop. The subdivision style 1980s houses between Main and the Hudson River are the result of earlier urban renewal efforts that officials are now trying to reverse with projects like the city style West End Lofts. The development, on Wolcott Avenue, has 72 rental units, 50 of which are set aside for artists, and all of which lease for below market rents. One bedrooms start at 715 a month. Several other multifamily developments are planned, including a 64 unit property on Tioronda Avenue that will tie into the Fishkill Creek Greenway and Heritage Trail, a planned bike path. But the rapid pace of development, which has bulldozed one story structures in favor of four story versions, has irked some residents. An outcry over 344 Main Street, a four story, 24 unit luxury rental, for instance, led to new height caps. Condos range from older townhouse style types to snazzy apartment style versions with granite counters. Two developments facing each other on Main are now being marketed: No. 226, with eight units, and No. 249, with 28. On Oct. 21, there were 24 single family houses listed at an average price of 558,000, according to data prepared by Daniel Aubry Realty. At the low end was a vinyl sided three bedroom house, built in 1985, for 245,000. At the high end was a 1947 brick colonial with five bedrooms, four bathrooms and a library, listed for 1.475 million. "We're the busiest we've ever been," said Daniel Aubry, the agency's owner, who moved to Beacon in 2003. "Plain Jane rowhouses are getting all cash offers above ask." Rents range from 1,700 to 2,300 a month, according to Zillow, for units in apartment buildings and houses. Hiking is the new scene, even for those who have never laced up boots, residents say. Amateurs flock to the flatlands at Dennings Point, where a brickyard, active from 1881 to 1939, helped build Rockefeller Center. Heaps of leftovers spill down banks, giving the Hudson a rosy glow. Nearby is Madam Brett Park, where a boardwalk skirts the ruins of the Tioronda Hat Works near waterfalls. Dia, a 300,000 square foot facility in a 1929 former cracker box factory, is one of the largest modern art museums in the country, housing works by Dan Flavin, Louise Bourgeois and Richard Serra, among others. Reservations are now required. In the spirit of Paul Revere, Revolutionary War soldiers built a 30 foot tall fireplace style structure atop Mount Beacon the highest peak around, at 1,610 feet to tip off Continental forces about approaching British troops. The plan was to light the wood to send smoke signals far and wide, although there was never a need, according to the Beacon Historical Society. To commemorate those efforts, New York features the mountain on its state seal. A restaurant and dance hall were built there in the early 1900s, as was a funicular an inclined railway whose equipment endures. The railway ceased operating in 1978. The Dutchess Ski Center, a short lived, 11 trail facility with two chairlifts, operated on the mountain from 1967 to 1975. For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: nytrealestate. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Trump Says U.S. Will Impose Metal Tariffs on Brazil and Argentina WASHINGTON President Trump said on Monday that he would impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina, a move that would shatter previous agreements with those countries and widen a global trade war that the president had appeared ready to scale back. Mr. Trump, in a message on Twitter, accused Brazil and Argentina of manipulating their currencies and hurting American farmers. "Therefore, effective immediately, I will restore the Tariffs on all Steel Aluminum that is shipped into the U.S. from those countries." But the president's move suggested that neither previous agreements nor political alliances would guarantee insulation from Mr. Trump's trade wars. Brazil and Argentina are also facing serious economic troubles, but those too were no defense. The new clash with South America came on the same day that a report from the Office of the United States Trade Representative declared a French tax on technology so onerous that retaliatory tariffs as high as 100 percent on French wines, cheeses and handbags would be justified. The report did not impose such tariffs but cleared the way for Mr. Trump to do so if he chooses. Mr. Trump's announcement on steel and aluminum was particularly jarring to Brazil's conservative populist president, Jair Bolsonaro, who had gone to great lengths to strengthen ties with the Trump administration, with little to show for it. "Aluminum?" Mr. Bolsonaro asked when reporters presented him with Mr. Trump's tweet. "If that's the case, I'll call Trump. I have an open channel with him." "I was in Washington last week, and I talked to a lot of people, and there was no sign whatsoever that there would be any kind of change," he said. It is unclear what prompted Mr. Trump to reverse previous agreements. But last week the Brazilian currency, the real, fell to a record low against the dollar after the country's economic minister signaled that he was not concerned about exchange rate fluctuations. Argentina's peso has weakened with the country in the midst of an economic crisis. Economists and government officials have rejected the idea that Brazil and Argentina are intentionally manipulating their currencies. But currency movements have made Brazilian and Argentine goods cheaper to purchase abroad, a dynamic that is particularly important for the agricultural sector and the United States' trade war with China. China is a major purchaser of American pork, soybeans and other agricultural goods. As the United States and China have slapped tariffs on each other's products in a more than yearlong trade war, China has shifted to purchasing products from Brazil and Argentina instead, a move that has rankled Mr. Trump and other American officials. "I gave them a big break on tariffs, but now I'm taking that break off because it's very unfair to our manufacturers and very unfair to our farmers," Mr. Trump told reporters on Monday. "Our steel companies will be very happy, and our farmers will be very happy." 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. As of Monday evening, the White House had not issued any formal notice that would put tariffs on Brazil and Argentina into effect. If they are imposed, the tariffs stand to do considerable damage to South America's two biggest economies as Argentina is in recession and Brazil confronts high unemployment and anemic growth. Mr. Sica, of Argentina, scoffed at the claim that Brazil and Argentina have been deliberately devaluing their currencies. "Our currency has a flexible exchange rate and adapts itself to global changes," he said. Brad Setser, a senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, said neither Brazil nor Argentina was manipulating its currency. In fact, both countries had been selling foreign exchange reserves to prop the value of their currencies up. He added that Argentina was in a "full blown" economic crisis and was close to running out of such foreign exchange. The announcement on Monday was the latest escalation in Mr. Trump's global trade war. Mr. Trump has also threatened new tariffs on products from China, Mexico, the European Union, Vietnam and elsewhere. With next year's election approaching, the Trump administration has appeared to be working toward a resolution on several of these fronts. It reached an agreement to lift metal tariffs on Canada and Mexico and declined to impose devastating car tariffs on the European Union. It has been trying to seal a first phase trade deal with China, though the two sides are continuing to grapple over terms. And the administration has been pushing for Congress to approve its revision of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which would check off a major campaign promise for Mr. Trump. But the tariffs on Brazil and Argentina suggest that Mr. Trump has not abandoned his confrontational approach. On Monday, he said on Twitter that American stock markets "are up as much as 21%" since he announced the metal tariffs on March 1, 2018, and that the United States was taking in "massive amounts of money" in tariff revenue. The president imposed the metal tariffs to stop a flood of imported steel and aluminum that his administration has claimed threatens American producers and thus American national security. The idea has been disputed, with several countries bringing cases against the United States at the World Trade Organization. And in a recent decision, the United States Court of International Trade, a federal court, ruled that Mr. Trump could not raise tariffs on steel exports from Turkey, because a 180 day deadline set for that decision had already elapsed. Jennifer Hillman, a senior fellow for trade and international political economy at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the law that the president had used to issue the tariffs, Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, did not give him the authority to alter tariffs outside of certain time limits. "Trump cannot legally convert the current quotas to tariffs," she said. "Changing a quota to tariff more than a year and a half after the original action is outside those limits." Supporters of Mr. Trump's tariffs say they have provided some protection against cheaper metals imported from abroad. "Congress and trade experts have ignored exchange rate moves in crafting trade policies for too long," said Michael Stumo, the chief executive of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a trade group that supports the metal tariffs. "The president's action is a next step, after declaring China a currency manipulator earlier this year, to connect exchange rates and trade." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
LOS ANGELES The mystery buyer that arranged to purchase Norman Rockwell's celebrated painting "Shuffleton's Barbershop" from the financially troubled and legally scrutinized Berkshire Museum in Western Massachusetts has just stepped forward: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which broke ground last month and is expected to open here in about four years, has bought the work for an undisclosed sum. "We are very excited to have it join our collection," said Don Bacigalupi, director of the Lucas Museum. "This will be one of the anchor works of our museum, which we're delighted to share with the public." The museum's founder, George Lucas, of "Star Wars" fame, is already known as the leading private collector of Rockwell's work. He owns dozens of Rockwell paintings, most of which are promised gifts to his museum. Painted in 1950 as a cover for The Saturday Evening Post, "Shuffleton's Barbershop" is one of Rockwell's most popular works. Mr. Bacigalupi sees it as one of his most complex compositions as well: a glimpse into small town life after business hours, which doubles as a reflection on the history of painting, rife with "references to modernism" like the prominent windowpane structure that echoes a Mondrian grid. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
It's been an arduous journey for the fashion designer Christian Siriano: winning Season 4 of the reality show "Project Runway," a triumph that his publicist asked not be mentioned here (sorry); collecting a group of celebrity clients (Taylor Swift, Christina Hendricks, Sarah Jessica Parker and Victoria Beckham among them); and finally establishing himself as a credible and fierce brand. Then there's that other journey five flights to the expansive 2,400 square foot rental in Chelsea that Mr. Siriano, 27, shares with his partner, Brad Walsh, a composer musician, and their dogs, Topper and Bear. "For some reason the stairs don't bother us," Mr. Siriano said. "It was a bit of an issue, but once you get up here, for the rent we're paying, I was like, 'We are sucking it up.' " The payoff at the end of the climb is an anything but modern, anything but minimalist eyeful. Here, treasures from flea markets and yard sales, like a barn door sign advertising fresh tomatoes, a gift from their client and close friend Kristen Johnston. There, French antique chairs "that are just for pretty," said Mr. Siriano who, when it comes to syntax, has his own particular style. Everywhere, fabric squares, some draped over the dining table and a nearby chaise longue, many wrapped around the 50 or so pillows. They're for pretty, sure, but also for comfort and a homey feel. "I'm a huge fan of textiles and I'm a fashion designer who loves interior design," said Mr. Siriano, who's as skinny as a wand and who, thanks to that signature asymmetrical hillock of hair, seems taller than he is. "If you're making clothes and you're referencing a particular time period, you always want to think about the mood of that period. So I'll often look at old furniture because it can inspire a show. The shape of a sofa leg can inspire the shape of a heel. They all work together." He previewed his resort preview in the apartment this past season. "I thought it would be nice for the fashion editors and buyers to come to my home and see how the clothes work with my world." And while he loves shopping for clothes, he said, "honestly, I get more of a thrill spending my money on furniture and pillows and accessories." Clearly, the thrills have been many since the couple moved in four years ago. Atop chests, credenzas and a painter's scaffold that has been cleverly repurposed as a back of sofa console table are framed photos, candelabra, books, busts, decanters and bird cages. "I definitely have a thing for them," Mr. Siriano said. "I think they're sculptural but not overpowering." The backdrop for the bird cages and everything else is a multilevel former ballet studio with two huge skylights and generous windows that make the space seem bright even on gray days. The apartment's history greatly pleases the current lessee. "I was a dancer as a kid," said Mr. Siriano, who grew up in Annapolis, Md. "I loved being backstage and seeing the costumes and watching my mother and the other mothers sewing tulle, so it's very cool to live here." He went to design school in London, where he interned for Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. Half a dozen years ago, when his fortunes had improved sufficiently for him to move out of a tiny Lower East Side apartment, Mr. Siriano decided to make his next perch a loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. "I wanted as big a place as possible," he said. "I got something very industrial with polished concrete floors, clean and open and huge." Two years later, he had had quite enough of the long commute to his showroom in the garment district, quite enough of expensive cab rides and more than enough of the one big open space concept and the aesthetics of clean and uncluttered. "I still wanted size," he said. "But I wanted a real bedroom that was closed off from everything. I wanted a real separate kitchen." And here is what he didn't want: a new high rise, tiny rooms, parquet floors and a lack of luxe and glamour. "At first I wasn't sure about this," he confessed, looking around the apartment, which has been fashioned into three areas vignettes, in Siriano parlance bedroom, kitchen/living room and main living room/grand salon. "It's huge, and I guess I was nervous about how we were going to be comfortable in it. We almost moved into a different space not too far away that was Cynthia Rowley's old apartment," Mr. Siriano continued. "A funny thing to think about, but her place had low ceilings." In this apartment the skylights, which he happily described as "so weird and special," helped them make the final decision. "And I loved the exposed brick, which was what I wanted when I moved to New York. It's such a cliched thing to think about, but I love it and I think it adds a lot of character." Of course, the real character here is Mr. Siriano himself. In his hands, the story of painting the apartment becomes a comedy routine. "The walls were lime green when we moved in. Neon. Very scary. The ceilings in the entryway are 12 feet, in the living room, they're 20 feet. Trust me, painting was not fun and I did it all myself, but do you know what it costs to hire someone?" | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Thomas Rainer and I have both been doing the botanical thing for decades; we know, and use, many of the same plants and even much of the same horticultural vocabulary. But what he and I see when we look at a butterfly weed or a coneflower, or what we mean when we say familiar words like "layering" or "ground cover," is surprisingly not synonymous. It turns out I've been missing what the plants were trying to tell me, failing to read botanical body language and behavior that could help me put plants together in combinations that would solve challenges that many of us have: beds that aren't quite working visually, and garden areas that don't function without lots of maintenance. As we gardeners shop the catalogs or the just opening local garden centers with an eye to finally "fixing" that bed out front that has never quite cooperated, I asked Mr. Rainer, a landscape architect based in Washington, D.C., to lend us his 3 D vision. Q. You visit a lot of gardens, and probably hear from gardeners like me with beds that just aren't working. What's the most common cause? A. First, we have to understand that plants are social creatures. Our garden plants evolved as members of diverse social networks. Take a butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa, named this year's Perennial Plant of the Year by the industry group the Perennial Plant Association), for example. The height of its flower is exactly the height of the grasses it grows among. Its narrow leaves hug its stems to efficiently emerge through a crowded mix. It has a taproot that drills through the fibrous roots of grasses. Everything about that plant is a reaction to its social network. And it is these social networks that make plantings so resilient. So if we think about the way plants grow in the wild, it helps us understand how different our gardens are. In the wild, every square inch of soil is covered with a mosaic of interlocking plants, but in our gardens, we arrange plants as individual objects in a sea of mulch. We place them in solitary confinement. So if you want to add butterfly weed to your garden, you might drift it in beds several feet apart and tuck some low grasses in as companions, like prairie dropseed, blue grama grass or buffalo grass. Start by looking for bare soil. It is everywhere in our gardens and landscapes. Even in beds with shrubs in them, there are often large expanses of bare soil underneath. It's incredibly high maintenance. It requires multiple applications of bark mulch a year, pre emergent herbicides and lots and lots of weeding. The alternative to mulch is green mulch that is, plants. This includes a wide range of herbaceous plants that cover soil, like clump forming sedges, rhizomatous strawberries or golden groundsel, and self seeding columbine or woodland poppies. Q. If I want to try to do it more as nature does, what am I aiming for? Where do I take my cues? A. The big shift in horticulture in the next decade will be a shift from thinking about plants as individual objects to communities of interrelated species. We think it's possible to create designed plant communities: stylized versions of naturally occurring ones, adapted to work in our gardens and landscapes. This is not ecological restoration, it's a hybrid of ecology and horticulture. We take inspiration from the layered structure in the wild, but combine it with the legibility and design of horticulture. It is the best of both worlds: the functionality and biodiversity of an ecological approach, but also the focus on beauty, order and color that horticulture has given us. It's possible to balance diversity with legibility, ecology with aesthetics. And it is a shift in how we take care of our gardens: a focus on management, not maintenance. When you plant in communities, you manage the entire plantings, not each individual plant. This is a pretty radical shift. It's O.K. if a plant self seeds around a bit, or if one plant becomes more dominant. As long as it fits the aesthetic and functional goals. We can do much less and get more. Q. Sort of gives new meaning to the phrase "community garden," doesn't it? A. Yes. And plants each also have particular behavior whether it wants to hang out with other plants of its own species or not. So many gardening mistakes are a result of not paying attention to this. Q. You make them sound like social animals, which makes me think I've been shallow, objectifying plants choosing among them for just another pretty face, instead of reading their body language to get at their true nature. A. One of the most useful ideas that came out of our research was this German idea of sociability, developed by Richard Hansen and Friedrich Stahl. They rank a plant's predilection to spread on a scale of 1 to 5. A low sociability plant is one that in the wild is almost always found by itself (Panicum virgatum, for example, is almost always found by itself in a meadow). A high sociability plant is one that spreads into large colonies (Epimedium or Tiarella cordifolia are Level 4 plants; Carex pensylvanica and Packera aurea are Level 5). You arrange plants according to their sociability level: Plants of lower levels (1 and 2) are set individually or in small clusters. Plants of higher levels (3 to 5) are set in groups of 10 to 20 plus, arranged loosely around the others. It sounds geeky, ranking plants on a scale, but it's useful because it informs which you should mass, and which you should mingle. It's why a mass of 50 echinacea (Level 2) tends to flop. They're just not meant to cover ground. But if you scatter a handful of echinacea in a mass of prairie dropseed or sideoats grama, it will look great. Q. I know that nature doesn't plop a 50 foot tree in a mowed lawn (or mow its lawn at all, actually), so that's not the winning design tactic. I also know that more diverse layered designs are richer ecologically and now you are saying they are easier to manage, too. But how do I figure out how to fit the right plants together? A. We need to start thinking about how, not what. So many garden books focus on what to plant, but so few focus on how to arrange plants to fit together in ecological combinations. When we fit our plants together like a tight jigsaw puzzle, the maintenance goes way, way down. They start becoming resilient systems rather than random objects. To do this, we need to pay attention to a plant's shape. Its shape is often an indication of where it grows in the vertical strata of a plant community. Upright plants with low or minimal basal foliage like Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium) or spiky upright plants like beargrass (Nolina bigelovii) have adapted to growing through other plants. Horizontally spreading rhizomatous plants like Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica) or beach strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) have adapted to grow underneath others. You almost have to look at a plant from the vantage point of a chipmunk to see its shape. What I love about this layering idea is that it gives gardeners flexibility. Those lower layers should be very biodiverse: lots of different plants covering the ground and providing stability. But diversity in this layer does not really look messy, because most of these plants are growing underneath our taller ones, so you don't really see them. In my garden, I have a corner with dry shade where I have a handful of shrubs that screens a busy road. Lately I've been adding white wood aster (Eurybia divaricata), Appalachian barren strawberry (Geum fragarioides) and Pennsylvania sedge and watching them fill the gaps. Upper layers, on the other hand, are the ones I consider the "design" layers because they shape your impression of the planting. You can arrange them naturalistically, or in neat clumps whatever style you like. That's the flexibility: The order and legibility of the upper layers combines with the diversity and functionality of the lower ones. The really cool thing is you can combine this layering idea with the sociability idea. Those Level 1 and 2 sociability plants tend to be those taller upright plants you use in the top layers of your garden because they like to grow through others. The Level 3 to 5 plants tend to be your lower spreading ground hugging species. Q. So I am not shopping for plants solely as decorative objects, but for plants with a purpose for instance, as a living mulch or a good companion to others. Of course none of that, neither the "sociability" nor the plant's layer, is on the plant labels. A tag might say "for containers or landscapes" or that the plant is "trailing" or "upright" or "mounding," but that's about it. What should the label say to help me put plants together successfully? A. My dream label would describe things that are actually useful to understanding how it grows. It would describe its shape, its root system (taprooted, deep fibrous roots, shallow horizontal roots); its life span (a short lived pioneer like columbine, or a long lasting lavender); its sociability level; its adaptation to stress (quick establishing, but short lived ruderal species like Gaura lindheimeri or Nassella tenuissima; a thuggish, fast spreading competitor like Monarda didyma; or a slow but steady stress tolerator like Hosta or Calamintha). These are really the factors that explain how it will grow in our gardens. Q. Where can we learn more? Being Northeastern, I love studying plants on the Go Botany plant finder from the New England Wildflower Society, for instance. A. The Mt. Cuba Center, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the California Native Plant Society websites all have excellent information about how a plant grows in the wild and what it grows with. But mostly, I think gardeners can get to know their plants by going outside and getting reacquainted. Take a look at their shape, how they spread and see what they are trying to show you. You can learn a lot. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
The most profound recent development in men's clothing concerns the millimetric adjustment of a garment first sold in 1900. In January, Brooks Brothers issued a redesign of its oxford cloth button down, the shirt known commonly, and not quite insufferably, as an OCBD. The upgrade to mother of pearl buttons, the addition of side gussets to the shirttails, even the disappearance of the breast pocket these tweaks are no big deal, unless you are an emeritus professor wondering where now to stick your reading glasses. The removal of the collar's interior lining, however, constitutes a major moment in the history of minutiae, as it reinstates a first rate collar roll. With its points buttoned down, the unlined collar spreads and bends at its front edges to form an elegant bell curve, or maybe to slither a bit asymmetrically a casually dashing soft contour among the strict lines of traditional men's wear. This is the sort of detail in which God is said to exist. Philosophers of the Ivy League Look liken particularly dramatic collar rolls to the silhouettes of angels' wings. In 1896, John E. Brooks admired the hidden buttons that secured the collars of English polo players and began engineering his sportswear classic, with its incidentally spiffy arc to the collar. "The distinctive roll was prized for its nonchalance going back to the 1920s," said Christian Chensvold, the founder and editor in chief of the trad fashion website Ivy Style. That Mr. Chensvold broke traffic records with his coverage of the new button down suggests the peculiar gravity of the quintessential American clothier's reworking of its quintessential product. It also indicates the richly complicated feelings of Brooks Brothers' most passionate customers, who double as its least patient critics, vexed that its emergence as a global brand complicates sober stewardship of its establishment legacy. "For basic men's wear, Brooks Brothers is the source; it's the prehistoric mud," said Lisa Birnbach, editor of "The Official Preppy Handbook" and a co author of "True Prep." "Because of that, people get very proprietary." Mr. Chensvold said, "What they did with this shirt is symbolic of what's going wrong with the whole company." Oh, he appreciates the new shirt, which he bought at the Madison Avenue flagship store, where he is a regular, he said. But he would have appreciated the company's acknowledgment that it had grievously erred when it added the lining around 1989. "There was no mea culpa," he said, adding: "Don't make me sound too censorious. I'm always afraid they'll take away my third floor golf simulator privileges." According to Guy Voglino, the Brooks Brothers vice president charged with managing men's wear, the company decided that its oxford cloth button down "needed to be refreshed" last year. "We looked back and softened it up," he said. The reference points were the button downs of the 1940s and '50s, when the Brooks Brothers shirt was firmly established as a crucial element of insouciant collegiate style, the more frayed the better. In his memoir, "Out of Place," Edward Said wrote of watching two Princeton classmates apply "sandpaper to a pair of new blue button down shirts, trying in a matter of minutes to produce the effect of the worn out aristocratic shirt." After pausing to note that Brooks Brothers' return to tradition has involved discontinuing the "traditional fit" button down the baggiest cut, sized to skim the torso of Jack Haley's Tin Man we see that the company is reaping considerable rewards by re engaging with this heritage. "We are probably selling 15 to 20 percent more units," Mr. Voglino said. Some who expressed mixed feelings about the throwback shirt included hard core traditionalists: men who embrace sack suits and rep ties as a shelter from the shifting winds of fashion, people harboring informed opinions about the collar rolls worn by William F. Buckley on "Firing Line" and Miles Davis on the cover of "Milestones," holdouts disdainful of Uniqlo's of the moment oxford, with its paltry button down collar. The cost of the Brooks Brothers shirt 140, from 92 is their chief complaint: A shirt often treated as a workhorse is now valued like a thoroughbred, which is particularly scandalous to members of a sartorial subculture that makes a virtue of frugality, accruing social capital by finding Cordovan loafers at thrift stores. On the other hand, a certain resentment of the merchants on which they rely (a state of perpetual laments that things aren't as good as they used to be) seems to be a feature of the new trad worldview. And the ready availability of the old is new shirt saves a lot of trouble for collar roll connoisseurs who have been relying for decades on tiny mail order shops with long waiting lists or troubling tailors to move their collar point buttons by an eighth of an inch. It's both lovely and risible at once, all this fussing over a collar prized for its unfussy appearance. "Nonchalance is everything to a preppy," Ms. Birnbach said. "It's a virtue, a value, a trope and an aesthetic. As far as studied nonchalance is concerned, that's how you learn." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Credit...Cecil Beaton/Conde Nast, via Getty Images "He drove the orchestra hard whenever there was a shadow of an excuse for doing it." "He has evidently some of the defects of his virtues." "The orchestra quickly and appallingly retrograded in its discipline and its technical quality, while reviewers became positively embarrassed to record the level of mediocrity, or worse, in the performances." This is just a sampling of the grim verdicts that Olin Downes of The New York Times delivered on John Barbirolli when that young and little known Englishman had the unenviable task, from 1937 to 1942, of following the epochal Arturo Toscanini as music director of the New York Philharmonic. Perhaps Virgil Thomson, of The New York Herald Tribune, was more receptive? "Mr. Barbirolli is a Latin out of his natural water; perhaps, too, just a little over his head." Not Toscanini, that's for sure. And not Wilhelm Furtwangler, the German visionary who, in 1936, accepted the Philharmonic's podium, then declined it after protests about his relationship with the Nazi party. Not Leopold Stokowski of the Philadelphia Orchestra, nor Serge Koussevitzky of the Boston Symphony. Barbirolli has been perceived as not much at all, really just another one of the Philharmonic conductors, often overlooked today, who came between Toscanini and, in the late '50s, Leonard Bernstein. Two new box sets offer a welcome opportunity to reassess. One, from Warner Classics, piles up 109 CDs starting in 1928, with a chamber group chugging through some Haydn, and ending in 1970, with Barbirolli, days from death, lavishing care over Delius at the helm of the Halle, the orchestra in Manchester, England, that he had saved in 1943. He was a depressive workaholic who stayed up late into the night marking up scores, learning them for months before rehearsing them for nine hours a day, tempers flaring. He was a brilliant cellist, and he could make his string sections sing like no one else, drawing out the longest of lines with the fullest of bows, swooping from note to note in defiance of all fashion. What he conducted, he conducted with heart. You either get him, or you don't. Giovanni Barbirolli Tita, to his intimates was born in music, in the dying weeks of the 19th century. His father and grandfather were professional violinists, but Tita took up the cello, attending conservatory at 10 and performing in orchestras from 16. After service in World War I, during which he first took the podium in concert, he split his time as a cellist and conductor, starting a chamber orchestra and cutting his teeth on operas. His break came in 1927, covering for a Thomas Beecham concert with the London Symphony. One critic called it "astonishing" but chided him for "sentimentalizing," even "violating," Elgar's Second Symphony. It would become a familiar indictment, but an HMV record executive decided to sign him that night. Carried by soloists like these, word of his promise reached the Philharmonic's boss, Arthur Judson, who thought for a while of offering Barbirolli a week or two of guest conducting. But with the Furtwangler debacle raw, Judson sent a surprising telegram in April 1936, offering a full third of the 1936 37 season to this lowly director of Glasgow's Scottish Orchestra, overnight making him Toscanini's presumed successor. Barbirolli was shocked; the British press was baffled, and not a little afraid. The stakes became clear as Barbirolli stepped ashore in America. Reporters startled him, asking how it felt to follow Toscanini. "I do not intend to follow in the maestro's footsteps," he said carefully. "No one can do that." Barbirolli was as awed as anybody. His father and grandfather had played with Toscanini, including in the orchestra in the 1887 premiere of Verdi's "Otello," which the great man remembered when they met. Barbirolli had attended Toscanini's rehearsals and concerts in London for years, emerging spellbound and writing that the Italian conductor "radiates something very pure and noble." But they were opposites in style. Toscanini's conducting was lean, driven by rhythm; Barbirolli's was lush, driven by lyricism. "I look for warmth and 'cantabile' and a working atmosphere where men play beyond the call of duty," the younger man said. When World War II was underway, Barbirolli was unwilling to take American citizenship to satisfy union rules, and was sick for his home country. He let his Philharmonic contract end with the 1941 42 season, remaining in the United States and making guest appearances the following year only because the wartime voyage across the Atlantic was so perilous. He would not come back to the Philharmonic until 1959. The Sony set gives only a suggestion of what Barbirolli achieved in New York. He offered a good deal of new American music and works new to the Philharmonic, as well as the understandable British novelties including the premiere, in 1940, of Britten's Violin Concerto, which one critic thought so poor as to encourage "the enemies of democracy." If none of that appears in the box set, what Sony does give us is evidence that the artistry was not at all dim. Schubert's Fourth Symphony snaps by, crisp and crackling; a Brahms Second is touching in parts, tempestuous in others; a headstrong Sibelius First snarls and soars, leaving little indication that the orchestra was in disrepair by April 1942, as the reviews alleged. Offers immediately came for Barbirolli's services, first from the London Symphony and then the BBC, but he stayed dedicated to the Halle, even as his dreadfully paid players often did not. He took on more guest conducting after 1958, and even a second post at the Houston Symphony between 1961 and 1967, but he would spend most of the rest of his life training and retraining the Manchester orchestra. There's a certain "what if" quality about the final decades of Barbirolli's career, then one made all the more haunting by the success of some of his later recordings with other orchestras, which benefited from EMI technology that the Halle rarely had access to on its mass market labels. Barbirolli didn't get on with the Vienna Philharmonic, and their Brahms cycle shows it, but he enthralled the Berlin Philharmonic, leading a devastating Mahler Ninth in 1964. His Mahler with the New Philharmonia Orchestra a Fifth from 1969 and a controversially broad Sixth from 1967 is convincing, and orchestras in the British capital served him well: the BBC Symphony in a steadfast Beethoven "Eroica" and the London Symphony in a grand, glistening "Tintagel," by Arnold Bax. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Dana Moore arrived in February as inmate No. WG4763 at the California Institution for Women east of Los Angeles, to complete her sentence of two years and eight months for possession of a firearm. The coronavirus numbers in the state's prison system were climbing a grave concern to Ms. Moore, who is immunocompromised. But last month, she grew teary as the prison gate rolled up. She was being released early, and carried out a cardboard box with her belongings into the waiting car of Susan Burton, the activist who was helping her leave behind the gun towers, the barbed wire and her anonymous prisoner ID for an eggnog yellow bungalow on a quiet street in Los Angeles. Once there, Ms. Moore made a beeline for the biggest mattress, "like sleeping on a soft pillow," she said. She began negotiating the personalities of her new housemates all former inmates and relishing her newfound privacy in her new setting: a home devoted to healing. It was the ninth residence created by Ms. Burton for A New Way of Life Reentry Project, a pioneering network of shelter and support programs she created for vulnerable women coming out of prison that some have likened to a modern day underground railroad. An activist and writer, as well as a former inmate, she became a formidable force in creating safe houses for women 22 years ago, when she scraped together savings and some bunk beds from Ikea to create A New Way of Life. Ms. Burton's can do approach born from her own life circumstances has garnered widespread recognition: she has been a Top 10 CNN Hero, a Soros Justice fellow and the subject of the short documentary film, "Susan." Now the pandemic is providing Ms. Burton's life's work with a new sense of urgency. Prisons and jails have become hothouses for the virus, with 47 deaths and 8,000 cases in California alone, according to recent statistics from the California Department of Prisons and Rehabilitation. "It takes cruel and unusual punishment to the extreme," she said. To reduce overcrowding, thousands of inmates like Ms. Moore are being released early, a move underscored last week by a federal judge who ordered the state to set aside space for isolation and quarantine in California prisons. Ms. Burton and her cohorts are working overtime to house as many newly released women as they can. The yellow bungalow was pulled together in a record 10 days, with much of the furniture coming from a Target gift registry. Ms. Burton is in the midst of readying a 1960s convent outside Los Angeles, leased to the organization for 1 by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, with a squadron of decorators set to volunteer. Such support is not atypical: Ms. Burton's persuasiveness and fierce sense of purpose draws people in. Livia Pinheiro, who was born in Brazil, spent eight years in prison for first degree robbery and was then detained by ICE, which planned to deport her. It was during the initial days of the virus and she was housed in a crowded, roach infested dormitory room in a county jail where the bunks were bolted to the floor, making social distancing impossible. She and other detainees were finally released after a coalition of legal organizations successfully argued that the conditions were unsafe during the pandemic. "Everybody's freaking out about sheltering in place," said Ms. Pinheiro, 40, who has to wear an ankle monitor while living in Long Beach. "But I feel so free and liberated to be with a great group of girls in this house." Ms. Burton served six prison terms for drug possession and intent to sell and was granted a pardon by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year for her work helping women attempting to pull their lives together. Her empathy for others was hard won. She endured years of childhood sexual abuse, compounded by a gang rape as a teen, during which she became pregnant with her first child, a daughter. Then Ms. Burton's five year old son, Marque, known as K.K., was killed crossing the street after being struck by an unmarked van driven by an Los Angeles police detective who she said never bothered to get out of the car. The vortex of grief that followed contributed to drug and alcohol addiction and a series of abusive relationships with sexually exploitative men. Still, she became her sister's keeper. Ms. Burton's notion of houses as communal places for healing sobriety being one of the rules was inspired in part by the treatment center in Santa Monica that aided her own recovery. The experience, she said, also opened her eyes to profound inequities in the criminal justice system in which incarceration was the default for poor people of color in neighborhoods like hers, in Watts, while those committing similar infractions in places like Santa Monica were offered therapy, A.A. meetings, community service and parenting classes. "It's a tale of two cities," she said. "One, five miles down the highway and you're treated as a criminal, and the other, a place where you're treated as a patient, someone who needs help." A New Way of Life was born after Ms. Burton had to abandon her chosen career path licensed home health aide because of her criminal record. She converted her kitchen alcove into a bedroom and offered it to other women returning from prison. Over the years, the organization has become multidimensional, helping women find jobs and develop careers (a challenge during the pandemic, since many available jobs are unsafe). Each new arrival receives an 'action plan" that might encompass leadership skills, therapy (a retired psychiatrist is on call), college classes and support from the organization's pro bono legal team, often regarding the complex issue of reuniting with children in foster care. Days at the residences in Long Beach and Los Angeles begin with a morning meditation and conclude with healthful dinners cooked by staffers. The majority of women are on parole or probation; the houses are testing grounds for independence. As they become more confident and accomplished, they move on to houses where they are completely responsible for the household. Although Ms. Burton claims a 90 percent success rate, some women do relapse and are referred to a drug treatment facility. The atmosphere of each house is important to Ms. Burton, who functions as the spiffer upper in chief "making the houses pretty" with ample light and art on the walls. Her understanding of the emotional impact of spaces was influenced by Frank Gehry, who is now a friend. The two met in 2017 during studios Mr. Gehry taught on architecture, design and mass incarceration that was organized by the Soros Open Society Foundations and Impact Justice, a research and advocacy organization. The assignment, captured in a film, revolved around a women's prison in Connecticut; Ms. Burton served as the voice of reality in residence. "Susan commands respect very quickly," Mr. Gehry, 91, observed. "She brought humanity to the project and a sense of the magnitude of the problem." For her part, Ms. Burton grasped for the first time "the strikingly cruel intent" of prison design. "Just taking people from their communities wasn't enough," she said. "They had to hurt their joys over time, hurt their bodies by depriving them of light and texture. It was painful to understand the lengths that people will go to to harm people." Confinement is precisely what has allowed Covid 19 to flourish, combined with officials' lack of judgment. San Quentin, an especially egregious example, was coronavirus free until 121 inmates from the California Institution for Men were transferred there last May. The cramped, airless tiers of what is essentially a Victorian prison proved fertile ground: 19 San Quentin inmates died and more than 2,000 have tested positive in what Marin County's public health chief, called "the worst prison health screw up in history." But the safety net for those returning home is frayed at best. Women nationally comprise only 13 percent of all prison releases in a given year, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a criminal justice think tank, which means that nearly all transitional housing and related programs are geared toward men. Some resemble prisons, with metal detectors, contraband checks and Breathalyzer tests at the door. Alex Busansky, Impact Justice's founder and president, said Ms. Burton "is one of the original voices pointing out that women's needs were not being met in traditional re entry settings," he said. "Susan proved that we can put people in real houses on ordinary streets and that they have a right to come back to the community." Women pay a modest rent, and adjustment is full of tiny challenges: Some women have no idea how to shop or use a microwave. "They've been cooking in a can in prison with a stinger," Ms. Burton explained, referring to an immersion device that heats up water. Most of the organization's 2 million budget comes from foundations and individuals (Natalie Portman recently celebrated her 39th birthday by offering to match any donation up to 100,000). Two years ago, after hearing from women at 46 prisons and jails while reading from her 2017 memoir, "Becoming Ms. Burton," Ms. Burton saw the need to expand her model to other states (and more recently Uganda). Called The Safe Housing Network, it now numbers 16 houses, and supports projects like WIN Recovery in Champaign, Ill., which serves the rural L.G.B.T.Q. community. For young women like Lexus, who gave only her first name because she feared for her safety, the security and serenity of the New Way of Life house in Los Angeles couldn't come soon enough. She was trafficked at age 14, and at 19 accepted a plea bargain she didn't understand. As a result, she was labeled a sex offender and now plans to appeal. "The house I stay at, you can see the glow and peace in the women's faces," she said. "In prison you don't have that aura," she added. "It says, 'you're going to be OK.' " | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Spending the weekend in front of a computer sounds like a nightmare, especially to people who already spend most of their week in front of a screen. Still, 100 engineers gathered in Manhattan for a weekend hackathon earlier this month. They traveled from around the country to work with Thorn, a nonprofit that uses technology to fight adolescent and child sexual exploitation. Founded in 2009 by Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher as the DNA Foundation, with a mission of combating trafficking, Thorn was renamed in 2012 after the couple split, and expanded its mission to better incorporate technology in the fight against trafficking. "We get to use our skills for good," said Federico Gomez Suarez, a program manager in operations at Microsoft. Mr. Gomez Suarez has been volunteering for Thorn, with support from Microsoft, for two years. His group project focuses on how to help authorities identify missing or exploited children that appear in escort ads. Creating a program to quickly sort through the tens of thousands of images as quickly as possible requires answering many questions. "We want to create a program that can quickly ask, 'Is this child in several ads? Does the ad have text? Are there other ads with similar text? If so, is it possible they were made by the same person?'" Mr. Gomez Suarez said. Thorn has software with the ability to search through text ads, but wants to be able to better search through images. Engineers and law enforcement agencies focus on information from the solicitation ads posted on sites like Night Shift, Erotic Monkey and Backpage. Over the years, ads offering sex moved from Craigslist to Backpage and are now on to new frontiers. In 2008, Craigslist curbed its "erotic services" listings, and then, in 2010, closed them. Soon enough, Backpage became the primary focus of anti trafficking activists and law enforcement. In January of this year, Backpage, and the sex worker advocates who supported it, gave up the fight and Backpage closed its sex ads section. Thorn's team garnered insight, they said, from talking to child sex trafficking victims who had worked in prostitution, and from that, created their first tool, called Spotlight. "Sometimes kids were forced to write their own escort ads to sell themselves," said Julie Cordua, the C.E.O. of Thorn. "We wondered: Can you analyze the writing in an ad, and if you have a hundred ads and somewhere was one that was written by a child, could you raise that one to the surface by running algorithms on top of it to say, 'Which of these ads was written by a child?'" Spotlight, Thorn says, is now used by more than 1,200 law enforcement agencies across the country and Canada. Another of Thorn's products, Solis, is used to identify children whose images are being distributed on the dark web. Juan Reveles of the Anaheim Police Department has run the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force since 2014 and, in the last three years, the task force says that it has used Spotlight to solve more than 100 investigations of trafficking. "Spotlight condenses a lot of the information out there on sites like Backpage into a format that we can more easily use to identify people faster," Mr. Reveles said. Ms. Cordua said the technology the organization uses already exists in some capacity. However, no one has made the concentrated effort to use it to fight issues like human trafficking and child and adolescent sexual abuse, because there's no money there. "If your customer is a child in distress and trauma and you have the technology, you don't really have the incentive to use it," Ms. Cordua said. "What we wanted was to change the game." Thorn has repurposed and is working to improve the same natural language processing tools companies use to advertise the shoes you were interested in a few days ago, and the restaurant whose menu you browsed the other night on Facebook. Additionally, Thorn uses network analysis, similar to tools used in terrorism or fraud cases. "If you're looking at escort ads and someone is being sold, you want to know 'Is that person alone or are they maybe part of a group of five being controlled by the same trafficker?" Ms. Cordua said. Central to much of Thorn's work is research done by medical professionals who have worked with victims as well as offenders. From that research, Thorn has experimented with warnings that appear in search engines when people search for child sex content. The strategies can vary depending on the audience: There are differences between someone who abuses a child; someone who abuses a child, documents it and shares it online; and someone who is trading abuse content but has never abused a child. Mr. Kutcher said Thorn is the most fulfilling of his more than 150 investments. "This is the one I'm most proud of," he said. The organization has also recently begun to address what is known as sextortion, creating materials to help young people who are threatened with revelation of private or intimate digital images. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
ONLY a few years ago, in the depths of the recession, the local car dealership seemed to be living on borrowed time. Franchises were closing by the hundreds as buyers stayed away from what were increasingly seen as outmoded showrooms. Now, with the economy back, auto sales are booming, and investors seemingly cannot get enough of the hardscrabble business of "moving metal." This month, Berkshire Hathaway, Warren E. Buffett's holding company, completed its acquisition of the Van Tuyl Group, the largest privately held dealership group in the country. The franchise car dealer is not only surviving, but even thriving. A big reason for the revival is the simple math of fewer locations receiving more business. A decade ago, there were about 22,000 dealerships around the country. Today, that number is closer to 18,000. Also, strong franchise laws fiercely defended in state legislatures still give dealers a virtual monopoly on selling new cars. But industry experts say the story goes much deeper than that, and reflects a profound shift in the business model of auto sales. Dealerships increasingly have the high tech atmosphere of an Apple Store, and consumers arrive fully informed about a car's features and price. It's a marked departure from the high pressure sales environment traditionally associated with dealerships. Laji Isac, of Houston, is typical of the new breed of car buyer. He spent barely two hours at Gillman Honda, a family owned dealership with about a dozen stores, when he bought his new Honda Accord. "All the negotiations were over email," Mr. Isac, 32, said. Once he settled on a price, he showed up to find the car waiting for him, took it for a test drive and filled out the paperwork. He was soon on his way. "What you're seeing now is the culmination of lots of changes that have been building in recent years," said Steven Szakaly, chief economist with the National Automobile Dealers Association. New technology is not only changing the car buying experience, but it is also fostering rapid consolidation in the industry. Mom and pop auto dealerships, once prevalent a generation ago, are disappearing as larger corporations expand their reach over more locations. The growth was even more evident at the very top, as the largest of the large consolidated even more locations under their umbrellas. AutoNation, the country's biggest chain, went from 206 stores in 2011 to 228 last year (and has since grown to 282). Penske Automotive had 145 in 2011; last year it had 194. Group 1 Automotive jumped to 148 dealership locations, from 100, over the same period. Hendrick Automotive, based in Charlotte, N.C., went to 86 from 66. The Van Tuyl Group, which has been renamed Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, had 67 dealerships in 2011. The group now has 78. Berkshire Hathaway had no comment on the acquisition. "The larger you get, the more you can take advantage of economies of scale," Mr. Szakaly said. He noted that although revenue was up among dealers, their profit margin had remained flat in recent years, at about 2 percent. The largest dealer groups, however, are able to squeeze closer to 3 percent. "It's not an easy business, and so if you can reduce overhead expenses, you're talking about a big impact," he said. Workers in areas like financing, accounting, inventory and human resources the so called back office staff can be shared among multiple dealers, saving thousands or even millions of dollars. Perhaps no dealer group exemplifies this trend more than AutoNation, a publicly traded dealership group. The company's entire back office operation is housed in two huge buildings in Dallas. "It makes your productivity so much better," said Marc Cannon, AutoNation's chief marketing officer. "We have people who handle the tasks like processing and bill payments, doing it full time in one place." But size also carries another important benefit: more cars and trucks for buyers to choose from. "We have roughly 80,000 vehicles for sale right now," Mr. Cannon said. "If a customer wants a Chevy, they can search all of the Chevys we have in inventory." Here is where the digital revolution is reshaping the car buying experience. Online tools from third party sites and dealerships themselves now offer a shopper the ability to search countless vehicles locally and beyond and more important, to compare prices instantly. AutoNation is introducing its own online marketplace, called SmartChoice Express, to let a customer find a car anywhere in the country, negotiate a price and then show up at a local store to find the keys and paperwork waiting. Third party websites like Edmunds.com and TrueCar have upended the car shopping process by offering similar features on a wider scale, which give consumers far more negotiating power than in the past. Not only can consumers research vehicles, but they can also get binding quotes from multiple dealers, without ever leaving the house. "It cuts down on a lot of the headache involved," Mr. Isac, the Houston car buyer, said. Avi Steinlauf, chief executive of Edmunds, said some consumers show up knowing more information about a vehicle than the sales representative. "But the forward thinking dealers are adapting to this and embracing the technology," he said. "And they find they're making more sales than they ever did before." Despite his company's role in shifting the balance of power, Mr. Steinlauf said he believed dealers continued to play a vital role. "You're still talking about the second largest purchase most people make," he said. "Many consumers still want to touch the vehicle, sit in it, smell it." But the nature of the interaction between buyer and seller is changing. "The salesman is really transitioning into more of a product specialist," said Mr. Szakaly, the N.A.D.A. economist. "It's not about someone who's there to haggle with you; it's about having you come in wanting to know about a product you're already decided you're interested in buying." Rob Cochran, who owns a regional chain of about 20 dealerships around Pittsburgh, introduced new digital tools about two years ago to embrace the idea that consumers were using auto pricing websites. He said that since then, the kind of people he has hired to sell cars has started changing. "I've recruited salespeople who likely would never have entered the industry before," Mr. Cochran said. "There's an ease now to how they deal with people. There are less secrets about the process, and it's about making things hassle free and upfront with the customers." Mr. Cochran's dealerships began offering online pricing based on what sites like Edmunds recommended to its users. He even installed kiosks in his showrooms so that buyers and sales representatives could look up together what certain vehicles had been selling for. "We're inviting the data, and the response has been tremendous," Mr. Cochran said. Business has taken off, he said, and while he estimated he could have made more money on probably 15 percent of sales, the increased traffic through his showrooms more than made up for it. Stewart Easterby, chief operating officer of TrueCar, said that dealers like Mr. Cochran were realizing that they were better off riding the wave of the Internet revolution than trying to fight it. "You might sell some cars for less, but you're going to make it up in volume," Mr. Easterby said. "Both the consumer and the dealer wind up winning." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
A theme of female empowerment suggested by songs like Beyonce's "Run the World" was made explicit in the motivational speeches the cast members gave between numbers. The show, however, seemed to tell a different story. In one charming section, Melinda Sullivan established the importance of imitation in the tap tradition by matching steps in a video compilation of female predecessors. Yet the next part in the process the development of an individual style came through only in flashes, as when the self described "tap nerd" Sarah Reich added a little Latin "sabor" to her high grade tap technique with salsa moves to Gloria Estefan. The fierce Anissa Lee also appeared to have something to say with her feet, but everyone's sound was generally buried in cover renditions by an undistinguished band. The taps were distant in the sound mix, and only when the band cut out could you hear the ladies clearly: tight in complex unison and capable of finesse, if not much musical sense. And it didn't seem right that the greatest display of rhythmic virtuosity came from a man, the musical director, Choclatt Jared. The ladies traded phrases with him and his bucket drums, demonstrating their skill by echoing him exactly, but it would have been more empowering if the process had been reversed. The scene at Nublu was vastly different. Here, the musicians were also women. Instead of a string of pop song covers, there was an unrehearsed jam session, with the participants finding their way through various kinds of jazz, Afro Cuban and hip hop. Beauteez was always a loose collective, based around Ms. Butterfly's tapping (Ms. Arnold was once a member) but including improvisers of all sorts and even a few male friends. But beyond the difference of format was a difference of approach. At Nublu, the dancers' sound was paramount, and it was never less than individually distinct and engagingly musical (and also much more syncopated). In the improvised exchanges between Ms. Butterfly and the younger tapper Alexandria Bradley, the level of surprise and invention was delightfully high. As the two women matched and topped each other's ideas, their rhythmic conversation made any notion of "hitting like a man" irrelevant. It was something it would do the fans of Syncopated Ladies good to hear. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
The emerging playwright Jen Silverman's "The Roommate" will kick off this summer's Williamstown Theater Festival. The play pairs Jane Kaczmarek ("Malcolm in the Middle") and S. Epatha Merkerson ("Law Order") as two women whose divergent backgrounds frustrate and illuminate when they move in together. (More of Ms. Silverman's work can be seen starting Feb. 27, when her Bronte inspired play "The Moors" makes its New York premiere at the Duke, on 42nd Street.) Williamstown will also have premieres by its 2016 playwright in residence, Harrison David Rivers ("Where Storms Are Born"); the "Girls" writer Jason Kim ("The Model American"); Anna Ziegler ("Actually"), whose "Photograph 51" brought Nicole Kidman back to the stage in 2015; and by Halley Feiffer, who adapts Chekhov's "Three Sisters" with "Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow." The Tony nominee Jessica Hecht will star in a new production of "The Clean House" by Sarah Ruhl at the festival, and Lonny Price will direct "A Legendary Romance," a new musical by the writer Timothy Prager and the composer lyricist Geoff Marrow. The Williamstown Theater Festival, now in its 63rd season, will run from June 27 through Aug. 20. Mandy Greenfield is its artistic director. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
On Friday morning, President Trump shared a seemingly innocuous article on Twitter. The piece said that his sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, had publicly voiced her support for her brother amid his baseless claims that he won the 2020 election. "Thank you Elizabeth," Mr. Trump wrote to his sister, who has long avoided the spotlight. "LOVE!" There was just one problem: Ms. Trump Grau had not said what the article claimed. In fact, the article Mr. Trump shared was based on a fake Twitter account that posed as his sister. That article, on the website of a conservative talk radio host named Wayne Dupree, quoted a post from a Twitter account named "Betty Trump" that used a photo of Ms. Trump Grau as its profile picture. "This election inspired me to break my silence and speak out on behalf of my family," the account said in a post on Wednesday. "My brother Don won this election and will fight this to the very end. We've always been a family of fighters." The article on Mr. Dupree's site called the comments "so powerful" and said they showed how "our president really does have such an amazing family." Had the article's author looked more closely, though, she would have noticed some suspicious details about the account. It was a day old. The photos it used of Ms. Trump Grau were taken from Getty Images and past news articles about her. And since that first post, the account had tweeted increasingly bizarre messages, sharply criticizing Democrats, journalists and Republicans who had questioned the false claim that Mr. Trump was re elected. "If someone pours gravy down Chris Wallace's pants at Thanksgiving dinner, I promise, I will take care of the legal fees!" the account said, referring to the Fox News anchor. Another post said, "The perfect Trump drink on a rough day," with a photo of a can of Natty Daddy, a cheap malt beer. The bizarre episode illustrates how easily misinformation spreads online, often with the help of the president himself. Right wing websites that seek to support the president's baseless claims, or simply attract clicks so they can sell more ads, often eschew the traditional principles of journalism, such as simple fact checking. And the social media companies aid the cycle by making it simple to share misinformation, including via fake accounts, and by training their algorithms to promote material that attracts more attention, as sensational and divisive posts often do. Ms. Trump Grau did not respond to messages left at a phone number and email listed for her in public records. Vice News reported on Friday that a person who identified herself as Ms. Trump Grau had said she was trying to get the account deleted. "I have no statement," the person was quoted as telling Vice. "I'm just annoyed about this whole thing." President Trump's tweet about his sister brought the fake account a sudden rush of attention on Friday morning. Shortly after, Mr. Dupree's website updated the piece with a disclaimer that said the account might be an impostor. "While this has not been officially 'fact checked' by social media executives and professionals, we're hearing from many others that this is not actually the account of Ms. Elizabeth Trump," the site said. "We'll leave it up with this update, and wait for official fact checkers to weigh in." Hours later, the account came clean. "I would've clarified sooner that I was a parody but I certainly didn't anticipate President Trump himself taking notice of the account," the person running the account posted on Twitter. "Hope y'all will forgive me feel bad for creating any confusion. LOVE!" The president's post remained up hours later. Mr. Dupree said in an email that the article's author had simply rewritten a post she had found on another conservative website. "When I found out, I was confused and I immediately went to the author and they went back to the website they claimed it was from but they didn't see it so we came up with the statement," he said. "I don't want people, readers to think we are fake news." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
PRINCETON, N.J. Len Charlap, a retired math professor, has had two outpatient echocardiograms in the past three years that scanned the valves of his heart. The first, performed by a technician at a community hospital near his home here in central New Jersey, lasted less than 30 minutes. The next, at a premier academic medical center in Boston, took three times as long and involved a cardiologist. And yet, when he saw the charges, the numbers seemed backward: The community hospital had charged about 5,500, while the Harvard teaching hospital had billed 1,400 for the much more elaborate test. "Why would that be?" Mr. Charlap asked. "It really bothered me." And echocardiograms, ultrasound pictures of the heart, are enticing because they are painless and have no side effects unlike CT scans, blood draws, colonoscopies or magnetic resonance imaging tests, where concerns about issues like radiation and discomfort may be limiting. Though the machines that perform them were revolutionary and expensive when they first came into practice in the 1970s, the costs have dropped considerably. Now, there are even pocket size devices that sell for as little as 5,000 and suffice for some types of examinations. "Old technology should be like old TVs: The price should go down," said Dr. Naoki Ikegami, a health systems expert at Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, who is also affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania's business school. "One of the things about the U.S. health care system is that it defies the laws of economics, and of gravity. Once the price is high, it just stays there." With pricing uncoupled from the actual cost of business, large disparities have evolved. The five hospitals within a 15 mile radius of Mr. Charlap's home here charge an average of about 5,200 for an echocardiogram, according to an analysis of Medicare's database. The seven teaching hospitals in Boston, affiliated with Harvard, Tufts and Boston University, charge an average of about 1,300 for the same test. There are even wide variations within cities: In Philadelphia, prices range from 700 to 12,000. In other countries, regulators set what are deemed fair charges, which include built in profit. In Belgium, the allowable charge for an echocardiogram is 80, and in Germany, it is 115. In Japan, the price ranges from 50 for an older version to 88 for the newest, Dr. Ikegami said. Because Mr. Charlap, 76, is on Medicare, which is aggressive in setting rates, he paid only about 80 toward the approximately 500 fee Medicare allows. But many private insurers continue to reimburse generously for echocardiograms billed at thousands of dollars, said Dr. Seth I. Stein, a New York physician who researches data on radiology. Hospitals pursue patients who are uninsured or underinsured for those payments, he added. Len Charlap, 76, at home in Princeton, N.J. He underwent two echocardiograms in 2012 and 2013, which differed in cost by more than 4,000. Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times And American doctors, clinics and hospitals tend to order lots of tests. "It's one of the most lucrative revenue streams they have," said Dr. Eric J. Topol, a cardiologist at Scripps Health in San Diego who studies echocardiography. "At many hospitals, the threshold for ordering an echocardiogram is the presence of a heart." Mr. Charlap's internist required his first echocardiogram because he was scheduled for elective cataract surgery at the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. The echocardiography professional society specifically advises against ordering the test for preoperative assessment of patients with no history or symptoms of heart disease. Using sound waves transmitted through a wandlike device applied to the chest, echocardiograms show the heart's walls in motion, the tiny valves flipping open and closed and the blood streaming through them. They can be vital before surgery in patients with weak hearts, because general anesthesia and blood loss during surgery can bring out otherwise silent problems. But health considerations are not the only factor driving the use of echocardiograms in America. In Britain's National Health Service, all echocardiograms are done in hospitals without charge. There are about 250 echocardiogram centers in the country, said Dr. John Chambers, a cardiologist at St. Thomas' Hospital in London who studies echocardiography. By contrast, in the United States, buying an echocardiogram machine is a good investment for an entrepreneurial practice. The number of echocardiograms ordered by cardiologists in the United States rose 90 percent from 1999 to 2008, according to a 2012 study. There are far more places to get one in New Jersey than in all of Britain, according to the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission, which accredits medical facilities. While M.R.I. scanners are large and cost many millions of dollars, even high end echocardiogram machines are generally rolled around on wheels and cost under 300,000 about one third of the price three decades ago when adjusted for inflation. Laptop size systems cost 30,000 to 100,000 used machines even less and are suitable for all but the most complicated cases. Al Lojewski, the general manager of cardiovascular ultrasound at GE Healthcare, the world's biggest maker of ultrasound machines, said the miniaturization of electronics and the addition of processing power had led to much higher quality images and more precise calculations. "We provide new enhancements every year," he said. But, like new features on an iPhone, they may be irrelevant for many people. "It's a stable technology that hasn't changed much in decades," Dr. Topol said. But new options can result in more testing anyway. "Someone might feel, 'I bought the expensive new machine and this patient is insured, so I might as well use it,' " said Dr. Barry S. Lindenberg, a cardiologist in Schenectady, N.Y. "We have to be honest, there are abuses." Three years ago, the echocardiography group helped develop guidelines for appropriate use of the test. "We all recognized what we needed to do," said Dr. R. Parker Ward, a cardiologist at the University of Chicago, who helped write the guidelines. He noted that noncardiologists ordered many of the unneeded exams, and that new applications, such as screening cancer patients for early warning signs of heart damage caused by chemotherapy, might expand the use of the tests. While academic hospitals have led the call for more targeted use of echocardiograms, not all doctors comply, and "it's a black hole what's going on in offices," said Dr. Rory B. Weiner, a professor at Harvard Medical School. There is not even a good estimate of how many of the procedures are performed in the United States, although it is clearly in the tens of millions annually. The profit margin on the test is impossible to calculate because purchase prices for the machines are secret. GE declined to provide price information for its machines in the United States or other countries. Nor would it reveal how many machines it sold in the United States, other than to say that one third of its global sales 330 million out of 1.1 billion were in this country. The Sakakibara Heart Institute, one of Tokyo's finest private clinics, performs about 60 echocardiograms a day, or 16,000 a year. As in the United States, doctors and hospitals in Japan are paid each time they deliver a service. (Japanese patients' co payments vary from 10 to 30 percent.) Perhaps predictably, as in the United States, doctors there order lots of tests. In Japan, doctors' visits tend to be brief, but patients expect to leave with a prescription a drug or a scan. Ultrasounds, a technology developed in Japan, are a favorite. "We test everyone; we can grasp many things with this test," said Dr. Keitaro Mahara, the director of echocardiography at the institute. "It's harmless, so the patients can receive it repeatedly." Claims data shows that Japanese patients received 6.6 million echocardiograms last year, about five times the rate per capita in Britain. Despite Japan's fondness for testing, its health spending is about 4,000 a year a person, or 9.6 percent of gross domestic product. By contrast, the United States spends more than 9,000 per person annually, more than 17 percent of G.D.P., although some studies indicate that health care spending is leveling off. The difference is in part because Japan decides the value of each test and medicine, sets a price and demands that it decrease over time. When a new technology appears, a panel of policy makers and doctors determine the value based on the degree of improvement it offers. When M.R.I. scans became available, the panel declared them twice as effective as CT scans. But because the new equipment cost eight times more than a CT scanner, few clinics were buying. Manufacturers quickly slashed the price. The prices of medicines and tests are automatically reviewed and reduced by the panel every two years, and can drop more than 30 percent. "Hospitals need to invest in machines, but after that, they don't need to spend much to keep doing the tests," said Dr. Toshiaki Iizuka, a health economist at the University of Tokyo. In the United States, Medicare has similarly tried to prevent overuse by reducing payments for echocardiograms performed in doctors' offices by an average of 40 percent since 2009, to only 92 today. But the result has not been fewer tests. Instead, testing has migrated to hospital outpatient departments, where higher payments for the same test prevail. And doctors can make up any shortfall by raising charges for commercially insured patients, leading to bills like the 5,500 one for Mr. Charlap's echocardiogram. New Jersey had the second highest charges for echocardiograms in the nation in 2012, 8.4 times Medicare's approved rate. A year after his first echocardiogram, Mr. Charlap had another, at Harvard's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, that showed he needed a valve replacement. Though he now feels better than ever, the valve needs monitoring. How to do it? The newest miniature echocardiogram machines fit into a doctor's white coat pocket and, placed on the chest during an office exam, provide a snapshot of the heart. No longer do physicians have to listen for subtle clicks and whooshes through a stethoscope. Even primary care doctors in training can use the devices, which sell for well under 10,000, to detect basic heart problems with a few hours of instruction, according to studies. Such machines are being widely used in other countries and in pilot programs at some medical schools, but they are receiving a lukewarm welcome in the United States. Mr. Charlap's internist has not used one on him. "It brings 350,000 imaging technology to the bedside as a screening test, at almost no cost," said Dr. Topol, who added that it would be useful on hospital rounds. "But it's not being embraced because of our model of payment." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
WITH the stock market so volatile lately, investors have been asking how to ride out the swoons and maybe even outperform the major indexes. The answers at least according to an analysis by one firm do not necessarily conform to accepted wisdom. The best performing funds over time were not necessarily the ones with the lowest fees, run by the best known managers or focused on any particular strategy, according to more than 20 years of data examined by DAL Investments, an investment adviser and publisher of the NoLoad FundX newsletter in San Francisco. DAL analyzed the returns on 306 mutual funds for The New York Times. Janet M. Brown, president of DAL Investments, said the deep dive was motivated as much by trying to figure out what worked as by testing the effectiveness of the firm's own unconventional strategy. (More about that later.) "The overall challenge of mutual fund investing is selecting funds in advance that people think will do well in the future," Ms. Brown said. "The easiest thing would be to buy and hold or to select a manager with a good long term track record and buy it and forget it. That was not an effective way of selecting funds." The 306 funds in the study were founded before 1989 and still exist. They all invest broadly with various styles and none concentrated on one sector. The data spans 21.75 years, from Dec. 31, 1989, to Sept. 30, 2011. The performance of the funds was measured against the Vanguard S. P. 500 Index Fund, which had annual returns of 7.65 percent during that time. As much as people in the fund industry may want to measure their performance against a narrowly defined index, the reality is that most investors judge their returns against the S. P. 500, for better or worse. So what did the study find? PERFORMANCE Over the two decades of the data, no one investment strategy dominated, and most were successful for only four to five years, on average. Not one fund beat the benchmark every year. In fact, most funds underperformed the S. P. 500 about a third of the time. The top performing mutual fund in the study was the FPA Capital Fund, which invests in small and midcapitalization stocks, generally defined as companies with market capitalizations of 300 million to 10 billion. It had an annual return of 14.43 percent, and it beat the index 15 times. The best manager against the benchmark was Bill Miller, chairman and chief investment officer of Legg Mason Capital Management. His Value Trust fund outperformed the benchmark in 16 of the 22 periods of the survey. Yet it ranked only 187, with an annualized return of 7.37 percent. This was lower than the benchmark. The eighth ranked fund in the survey, the Heartland Value, underperformed 10 times and still returned 11.66 percent annually. Its long term performance demonstrated how stellar years attract the attention, but the bad years, when the fund kept losses in check, were more significant. The RS Investments Small Cap Growth fund, for example, underperformed the S. P. 500 more than it outperformed it, yet still beat it with an annual return of 9.85 percent. The study also disputed the value of hitching your strategy to star managers. Mr. Miller was one example but so, too, were the various managers of Fidelity's famous Magellan Fund. It underperformed the benchmark 14 times and ranked 222, with annual returns of 6.74 percent. One reason star managers fail over the long term is that they become known for a particular style of investing that may go in and out of favor. DAL's research found that no one style was dominant for the whole period. But funds focused on small and midcap stocks did perform the best over this period. (Ms. Brown cautioned against reading anything into this for the future.) "In my view, it has less to do with the brilliance of the portfolio manager as when their styles are in sync with the market," she said. EXPENSES One belief that investors take as gospel is that high expenses erode gains. On the one hand, this is obvious the more that goes to the manager, the less that goes to you. But what the DAL study found was that there was only a slight correlation between lower expenses and higher performance. And the level of fees was not a determining factor in which funds beat the benchmark over the long term. DAL divided the results into quintiles. Funds in the top performing group had fees that ranged from 0.45 to 2.01 percent. Funds in the middle had fees from 0.10 to 2.0 percent, while those in the worst performing group had fees from 0.39 to 3.84 percent. (There were only three with fees higher than 2.5 percent.) The expenses on the top performing FPA Capital Fund were 0.87 percent. The average expense of the top 20 funds was 1.07 percent. The fund with the lowest expenses, the Fidelity Spartan 500 Index fund, was ranked 161st with an annual return of 7.58 percent. The two worst performing funds, the Stonebridge Institutional Small Cap Growth Fund and Midas Magic, did charge the highest fees in the study at 3.4 and 3.84 percent. Their annual returns were 2.66 percent and 0.58 percent. If expenses, and not return, were the primary concern, Ms. Brown said an investor should simply invest in an index fund and forget about it. Still, if investors picked the 15 funds with the lowest fees over the period of the study, they would have outperformed the benchmark, with an 8.8 percent annual return. A DIFFERENT APPROACH DAL, which manages 1.3 billion, has been using data like this to make its investment decisions. It calls this strategy "upgrading," an approach that it has been advocating in its newsletter since the 1970s. The strategy looks at one , three , six and 12 month fund returns. The belief, which began with Burt Berry, DAL's founder, in the 1970s, was that market trends could not be forecast and were clear only in retrospect. But the trends lasted long enough so that you could capitalize on it. Call it the hot hand of investing. DAL applied its strategy to the funds in this study, starting with the top 15 in 1989 and tracking their one , three , six and 12 month returns. When a fund dropped out of the top third below 99 it sold the fund and reinvested the money in the top ranked fund that it did not own. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
In his monumental plan, Joe Biden has declared his commitment to eliminating carbon emissions from power plants by 2035. He also vows to direct 40 percent of all clean energy and infrastructure benefits toward disadvantaged communities. There is potential synergy in these two ambitions. Beyond the obvious health benefits of shutting down power plants that spew their pollutants on low income communities and communities of color, there is an opportunity to offer those households a clean, decentralized source of power: rooftop solar energy. For all the excitement about solar energy, large solar fields still generate less than 2 percent of utility supplied power. Rooftop arrays and other "distributed" solar systems increase that electricity by less than 1 percent, and most of that power is beyond the reach of low income households. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, rooftop solar arrays could supply 39 percent of our electricity nationwide. Why are we such laggards in tapping this resource? | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
I staggered from my single stateroom into the empty corridor, bilious and desperate. I was aboard the American Glory, a 50 passenger cruise ship that had, for five days, proceeded effortlessly down the Intracoastal Waterway. Until we hit open water north of Charleston, S.C., and I learned, around 2 a.m., that I am uncommonly disposed to seasickness. Why? I wondered, grabbing a handrail as the boat, and my stomach, lurched. Was it the red wine that my new friend and life coach, 82 year old Joan, had encouraged at dinner? The four foot chop, smacking incessantly against Glory's prow? Or was it karmic payback? Boarding the ship in Baltimore for American Cruise Lines' seven night Mid Atlantic Inland Passage trip, I had been appalled by its abundance of handrails the same rails I was clutching now. When I first glimpsed my shipmates, most of them (just) old enough to be my parents, the phrase "maritime assisted living" popped into my head. I cringed when the hospitality director suggested we photograph our menus in the morning so we could recall our selections at dinner. I wondered, given our demographic, if somebody would die during our eight day cruise. I never expected that person to be me. The next morning, I feebly sipped ginger ale. My shipmates, who, besides being members of the Greatest Generation, had brought Dramamine, enjoyed eggs, pancakes and jokes at my expense. It was our last day, and, as horrible as I felt, I didn't want to leave. I wouldn't miss the history in which we had been marinating all week: a Brunswick stew of Blackbeard, the Civil War and Andy Griffith. Ditto the tours of antebellum mansions after a while, the stately homes of the coastal South had seemed as indistinguishable as the ubiquitous souvenir T shirts ("Sun's out, guns out"). I wouldn't miss the shops that cropped up like toadstools at our ports, selling their own confused global gumbo New Orleans coffee and beignet mix in Charleston, "Peruvian spirit animals" in Myrtle Beach. It wasn't the fertile and glorious world of nature, either: Although parts of our cruise were truly scenic, a November cold snap kept the birds and critters at bay and the dolphins in the bay. Ray was our conscience. When we groaned, "Not Kiev again!" at a passenger's droning recitation of an oft heard story, Ray pointed out that this passenger was likely a recent widower, and lonely. "Do you always look on the bright side?" I demanded. Ray smiled. "As you go through life," he said, "I think you'll find it's better." No, it wasn't the cruise I would miss, but Ray and Jane and the rest: the birdlike woman obsessed with ships; the four hilarious Brits, my life coach among them; the veterinarian from Phoenix who tried to outwit the crew with off menu requests for patty melts. Forget marine life. It was life on board that made this cruise interesting. The Glory had no workout room, pool or shuffleboard court. Evening entertainment ran to a nature film and a Kenny Rogers impersonator. Cruising at eight miles per hour along the Intracoastal Waterway, with its average 12 foot depth, lacked drama. "In an emergency," the captain said, "all we do is find the nearest mudbank, push the boat up, and have a cocktail party." "We don't mind the snoring!" he sang out to a napping passenger. "Just the drooling!" Charlie wasn't everybody's cup of tea, but several guides along the way were excellent. The Glory docked in six ports, offering one or two bus tours at each. Around 50 each, the tours proved the best (and often only) way to see the sights, as docks, even for small ships, are rarely within walking distance of the cities they service. Our first port, Norfolk, Va., was a pedestrian friendly exception. After a downtown bus tour and a stop at the MacArthur Memorial Museum (the World War II hero's limo and cigarette case were both on display), we headed to the naval station: 42,000 active duty service people, 64 ships, and, according to our guide, a bubbly Navy officer stationed at the base, a fast food restaurant so popular she said it was called the "U.S.S. McDonald's" by its customers. I skipped the afternoon trip to Virginia Beach and walked through Norfolk's pretty waterfront downtown. At the Chrysler Museum of Art, free and with an outstanding glass collection, I saw works by Childe Hassam and Mary Cassatt, and heard a lecture on Thomas Cole's "The Voyage of Life," which seemed apt. Bypassing the battleship U.S.S. Wisconsin, permanently docked outside the Nauticus museum ( 15.95 for museum admission and self guided battleship tour), I wandered over to the Armed Forces Memorial, an understated square at the edge of the Elizabeth River. Twenty thin bronze sheets were positioned as if blown there by the wind. Each was engraved with a letter from an American soldier in wars from the Revolution to Afghanistan. Many of the writers had died within days of writing these messages, which were stunning as poetry and polemic. As Robert Henry Miller wrote his mother in 1862, "War looks a great deal better in the newspapers, than anywhere else." Next day: Coinjock Marina in North Carolina's Outer Banks. The T shirts at this marina seemed like something a local would wear. I bought three. When a couple of hunters drew up alongside the Glory in duck boats, we took pictures: This glimpse of waterway life was as rare as a dolphin sighting. We rode a bus to Kitty Hawk through the flat, pine bordered fields of the Currituck Sound, featuring corn, potatoes, sorghum, soybeans and gas stations. The Outer Banks are North Carolina's section of the barrier islands that stretch along the Eastern Seaboard. The 3,000 mile long Intracoastal Waterway was built mostly inside barrier islands to serve ports from Boston to Key West (and, on the Gulf side, from Florida to Texas) as a protected shipping channel, a necessity during World War II. Our driver and guide, Sandy, knew her pirate legends. Blackbeard was decapitated in 1718 on nearby Ocracoke Island, after which, Sandy said, his headless body swam around the ship three times. Sandy also knew her Andy Griffith the TV star got his start doing outdoor theater on Roanoke Island. In 2003, Sandy drove visiting dignitaries to the centennial celebration at Kitty Hawk of the first manned flight. "John Glenn and John Travolta," she said. "It was a wild time." On this Monday, Kitty Hawk looked more pastoral than historic. There were no celebrities atop the Wright Brothers memorial on its fortified dune, only wind, sand, silence and prickly pear cactus. "All the natural vegetation around here'll prick you, bite you, hurt you and sting you," Sandy said. Except the tiny, edible acorn of the pin oak. "Just crack it with your teeth." I got a mulchy center: not delicious. Because I was educated in the United States, I thought I knew everything about Wilbur and Orville Wright. But then I met Josh, a park ranger who had majored in religious studies and who brought evangelical fervor to his talk. He got me as excited about lift and drag as Sandy had been about John Travolta. He was great. So was our guide the next day in idyllic Beaufort, N.C. (distinguishable from Beaufort, S.C., by the pronunciation: "BOW fort"). "My name is Martha Barnes and my husband calls me the 'Mouth of the South,' " she said. Martha was the first tour guide to refer to the Civil War as the "War of Northern Aggression" and to describe Southern gentlewomen hiding the family silver in their hoop skirts. She was not the last. "Beaufort charm," she said, "describes whatever is cracked, chipped or leaning." Along with charm, Beaufort has money; a third of its cottages are second homes. Its maritime museum is cozy but edifying, giving equal time to Blackbeard's shipwrecked Queen Anne's Revenge, discovered nearby in 1996, and crab fishing. There was no Andy Griffith connection, but there was a 1709 house used by Blackbeard. It saw more recent fame in a commercial for Sears WeatherBeater paint. Beaufort fire department hoses provided the weather. Wilmington, the next day, was a bigger Beaufort: more streets, more waterfront development, more Andy Griffith. We passed the government building where many "Matlock" scenes were filmed. Our bus this day was a trolley. By now I was doing squats and wall sits in my room like a prisoner to accommodate the meals and lack of exercise. Mainly, though, I was getting used to comfort. The trolley's wooden seats were uncomfortable for me and worse for my shipmates. I wondered if the decline of the American character could be traced to seat cushions. It was an odd thought to have while riding a gas guzzler on a virtual booze cruise. Wilmington depressed me. Its touristy shops were housed in lovely old riverside warehouses, gussied up for a higher class of tourist trade than, say, Myrtle Beach's openly cheesy Barefoot Landing shopping center. My worst mistake, tour wise, was to skip the Myrtle Beach trip to Brookgreen Gardens. The gardens, with more than 1,200 works of figurative sculpture, impressed even the Brits, who tended to be slightly contemptuous of the historic homes we toured ("It doesn't live," Joan said, gazing at a display inside Wilmington's grand Bellamy Mansion). Perhaps it was my own contempt for Myrtle Beach, scene of many a wild high school trip and tame family vacation. Whatever the reason, I stayed in port that day. We take our personal histories with us when we travel, fitting them like a scrim onto scenes that are new. In Charleston, wrung out from mal de mer and melancholy at the prospect of leaving my new friends, I pressed my face against the cool glass of the bus and gave myself over to the best guide so far. His historical tidbits that South Carolina born Brig. Gen. Francis Marion, the Revolutionary War hero on whom the Mel Gibson movie "The Patriot" is based, was only five feet tall were as smooth and polished as a musket ball, or as Charleston itself. The city's historic district is enormous because after the Civil War, Charleston, worn out from a 587 day siege and continued occupation, couldn't afford to tear down and rebuild. The result is street after street of stunning stucco and frame and brick beauties that real people actually live in, defying the predations of tourists like me, and continuing to exhibit the peculiar mix of grit and gentility that still characterizes the coastal South. And, of course, snobbery the area near "South of Broad" is called "Slightly North of Broad" for the acronym. I know Charleston, so after the bus I did my own tour: a peek inside the church where I had attended a wedding and a funeral; a look at the paintings a college roommate had on display in a Broad Street gallery; a glimpse of the childhood home of one old friend and the future home of another. Charleston made me, a child of the mountains and not the prestigious lowlands, feel as inadequate as it always had, especially when I failed to secure even a seat for one at Husk, its nationally renowned locavore restaurant. But who needed acceptance in the snob district? Who needed locavore? I would go back to the Glory and have one last dinner the one with the frozen dessert among the retirees who seemed, at least this week, like my very best friends. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
For bizarrely specific recommendations about what TV shows and movies to stream, subscribe to The New York Times's Watching newsletter, which will hit your inbox on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It's part of our job in The New York Times Arts section to constantly seek out the new. Or at least be familiar with it. But, as you know, it's a stressful time. These days, I often find myself unable to concentrate on the new. I've drifted back to the familiar things I've experienced three, five, 10 times before. I don't think I'm alone in this. Over the course of a recent weekend, I watched "The American President," "Jurassic Park" and "Sneakers." Here's what I can tell you: "We've got serious problems and we need serious people." Also, "life finds a way." Additionally, "I leave message here on service, but you do not call." You might recognize the first two. I would love for you to know the third, because it comes from one of my most reliable comfort films. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
EDMONTON Unlike many of the behemoth goaltenders in the modern N.H.L., the Dallas Stars' Anton Khudobin checks in at just 5 feet 11 inches and 195 pounds. But the 34 year old has stood tall between the pipes this summer. Khudobin stopped 32 of the 33 shots he faced on Saturday as the Stars moved within one game of advancing to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 20 years with a 2 1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. The Stars now lead their best of seven series, 3 1. Dallas had led by 3 1 against Colorado in the previous round but needed an overtime goal in Game 7 to advance. After advancing out of the second round with a Game 7 win over the Vancouver Canucks, the Golden Knights will face elimination for the second time in this postseason in Game 5 on Monday night. "We understand where we're at and haven't done anything," the Stars' Joe Pavelski said. Pavelski and Jamie Benn had second period goals on Saturday for the Stars. Khudobin went into Game 4 with 495 saves this postseason on 541 shots faced, more than any other goalie. The Golden Knights' best chance to tie the game came late in the third period, when they had a 5 on 3 power play for 1 minute 10 seconds with Pavelski and Jason Dickinson both in the penalty box on tripping calls. After Vegas Coach Peter DeBoer called a timeout, Max Pacioretty set up to anchor the two man advantage from the right face off dot. The Golden Knights recorded three shots with at 5 on 3 and one at 5 on 4. Khudobin stopped them all on the way to his 11th win of the postseason, second only to Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has 12. "He's a battler, he's a competitive guy," Stars Coach Rick Bowness said of Khudobin. "We've seen this for two years now, but that's what he is. He's going to battle right till the end." Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez was the only player to score on Khudobin on Saturday, with a slap shot on the power play that beat him high to the blocker side to open the scoring 7:44 into the second period. "I thought we created some really good looks," DeBoer said. "I think we had two or three posts so, with one goal, you know, we've got to find other ways to make it tougher on them but the effort's there to do that." "It seemed like every shift was pretty much the same thing," Vegas forward Reilly Smith said. "We're getting shots through, but we're just not finding the rebounds." Back on the ice for the first time since Sept. 2, Stars forward Andrew Cogliano picked up his first point of the playoffs after he stripped the puck from Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt in the Dallas offensive zone. His quick feed set up Pavelski's ninth goal of the playoffs, with 8:26 left to play in the second period, on just the seventh Stars shot of the game. From there, the momentum swung in Dallas's favor. The Stars outshot the Golden Knights, 7 2, over the remaining 11:34 of the second period, which saw Vegas take two penalties and surrender its first power play goal in seven games. The Stars are the most penalized team still alive in the playoffs, while Vegas has shown the most discipline. The Golden Knights had successfully killed all five penalties they took during their first three games against Dallas and hadn't allowed a power play goal since Game 4 of their second round series against Vancouver until Benn connected with 59 seconds left in the second period. Just 10 seconds after Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb was whistled for holding Alexander Radulov, Benn fired a wrist shot past Robin Lehner for his seventh goal of the playoffs, while Pavelski worked as a screener in front. In the third, Dallas locked down defensively, allowing Benn's goal to stand up as his first game winner of these playoffs and the third of his career. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Talia Balsam is a paragon of acting talent who doesn't get nearly as many opportunities to fully stand out as she ought. So it's probable that "South Mountain," a relatively rare starring vehicle for Balsam, would be worth seeing even if it were not so sharply observed and well constructed. Fortunately, we are not obliged to split any differences here. The episodic film, written and directed by Hilary Brougher, begins on a near idyllic summer day in the modest but cozy Catskills home Lila (Balsam) shares with her partner, Edgar (Scott Cohen), and sundry kids, almost all of whom are ready to leave the nest. Burgers are grilled, beers are consumed (surreptitiously by a couple of the teenagers), jobs groused about. Edgar is a screenwriter of sorts, and he leaves his chef duties to take a "business" call inside the house. The business is watching, on his phone, the other woman in his life give birth to his child. As expected, this development upends Edgar and Lila's domestic arrangement. Like the good New York liberals they are, they at first talk things out calmly Cohen resourcefully makes Edgar's insistence on equanimity his most snakelike quality but the betrayal, for Lila, turns over a massive "I've wasted my life" rock. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
An exquisite melancholy has settled upon the galleries of Marcel Breuer's inverted ziggurat on Madison Avenue: an air of dashed aspirations, commitment and farewell. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which rented Breuer's granite fortress from the relocated Whitney Museum of American Art in 2015, will be vacating the building in July, three years ahead of schedule. (Costs were too high.) The museum could not have offered a more apt final show more rigorous, more resigned than "Gerhard Richter: Painting After All." It engrosses two floors of the Breuer with art of total mastery that also, at every turn, casts doubt on its own achievement. The squeegeed oils, the clammed up portraits. The aseptic color charts, the matter of fact panes of glass and mirrors. Here they all are, poker faced as ever, pushing forward with painting even as Mr. Richter subjects painting to endless criticism and interrogation. Some say the medium died in the 1960s, some say it's never been more vital. He believes both, and, at times, neither. At this agitated moment for museums, desperate to prove their social impact, this greatest of living painters asks: What is contemporary art really for? Can it do anything? Have I accomplished anything? Mr. Richter, even as his auction prices have reached Alpine elevations, has never been certain and this beautiful valediction, with 60 years of work, affirms the artistic and moral force of his irresolution and skepticism. (The artist, 88, has said this will very likely be the last major museum exhibition of his lifetime. It travels to Los Angeles in summer.) Know first that "Painting After All," organized by Sheena Wagstaff, chairman of the Met's department of modern and contemporary art, and the art historian Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, along with Met assistant curator Brinda Kumar, is not a retrospective of Mr. Richter's career. At 18, I was one of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who found a strange and necessary comfort at the Museum of Modern Art's sprawling survey of Mr. Richter's painting, staged five months after the Sept. 11 attacks. That retrospective, in the winter of 2002, drew unexpectedly large audiences who found, in Mr. Richter's difficulty, variety and uncertainty, a release from the pain downtown and the march to war in Washington. This new show joltingly opens with "September," a small, blurred 2005 painting of a plane striking the World Trade Center the first of many works here that look at violence, and its media representations, with a cool, ambivalent gaze. But they are quite different, in style and aim. The Breuer show includes about 100 works: just a little over half the quantity MoMA assembled in 2002, even though Mr. Richter has painted at a vigorous pace in the two intervening decades. It omits many of his most important series, like the "48 Portraits" (1972), his pallid pictures of dead white men, and "October 18, 1977" (1988), his ghostly cycle of the lives and deaths of the Baader Meinhof gang. It also leaves out "Atlas," his titanic photographic compendium of a century's cultural history. But it includes, as MoMA did not, Mr. Richter's work in glass sculpture; his mirrors that throw back your reflection in a bereft minor key; and his editions and recent digital prints. Spaced generously across the museum's third and fourth floors, the show capitalizes on Breuer's brutalist architecture. Wide open sightlines let you appreciate the diversity of the artist's approaches and his refusal of signature style. Each floor is anchored by a central gallery of abstractions. The fourth floor, stronger, revolves around Mr. Richter's staggering "Cage" series, among the largest of his squeegee facilitated compositions. The third floor, more troubling, has at its core his recent "Birkenau" quartet, from 2014, whose abstract drags and stutters obscure imagery of the Holocaust, and which have never been shown before in North America. Mr. Richter was born in 1932 in Dresden. He trained as a Socialist Realist painter in that destroyed eastern city before defecting to West Germany in 1961, months before the rise of the Berlin Wall. Alongside Sigmar Polke, Blinky Palermo, Konrad Lueg and other students at the exuberant Kunstakademie Dusseldorf, he began painting deadpan figurative canvases in a sapped grisaille. The imagery often came from lifestyle magazines, aerial photography, and also family albums, and their cold, distanced style held up a mirror to the new Federal Republic's consumerist vapidity and Nazi inheritance. An early gallery at the Breuer contains nine of these grayscale "photographic paintings." Several depict Nazis, including "Uncle Rudi," a small 1965 portrait of the artist's mother's brother, smiling proudly in his new Wehrmacht uniform. The black and white palette and small scale echo its family album source but, by dragging a dry paintbrush over the wet oils, Mr. Richter turned history into a staticky transmission. The blur wiped away both the sentiment of the family portrait and the self righteousness some young Germans brought to the Nazi past. All that was left was a mist, in which repudiation cannot be separated from guilt. The blur is as close as Mr. Richter has ever come to a stylistic signature, and it recurs here in seascapes, landscapes, and street scenes; portraits of his daughter Betty, her head resting on a table like meat on the butcher block, or his ex wife, the artist Isa Genzken, nude and from behind; and smaller canvases of Sabine Moritz, his current wife, nursing their newborn in the manner of a Madonna and Child. Hard not to see the influence of Renaissance Italy in these landscapes, portraits and quasi religious scenes. Hard not to feel, too, their aloofness and sterility. Always, the blur serves as the mark of faith and doubt in painting. The photographic source suggests that these kinds of depictions are dated beyond relevance; the blur shows him pursuing that tradition despite it all. This exhibition stints on his 1980s work to concentrate on his abstractions of the last 20 years, such as the mighty "Cage" sextet (2006), whose streaks of greens, silvers and yellows reconcile skill and randomness. (John Cage's dictum, "I have nothing to say and I am saying it," could be Mr. Richter's motto as well.) The "Forest" series, painted in 2005, displays more evident squeegee marks: some have large vertical strips of depigmentation, producing a distinction between figure and ground that's rare in Mr. Richter's art. The skull, the candle, the family album, the blurred forest: so much of Mr. Richter's painting, in abstract or representational modes, has orbited around the absent nucleus of the concentration camp. Photographs of the Holocaust appear in the "Atlas" as early as 1967, but only in 2014, with "Birkenau" (the largest sector of Auschwitz), did he address it directly in painting. "Birkenau" began with a yearlong effort by Mr. Richter to render in paint four photographs of the death camp, taken by Jewish prisoners forced to burn corpses at the gas chambers. He could not do it. So he began to overlay the Holocaust imagery with layers of dark color, which he would then scrape off in turn. Nothing of the original pictures is visible, and compared to the rippling "Cage" series, these paintings are more abraded and pitted, done in a stifling palette of scarlet, green and black. Facing "Birkenau" are exact digital prints of the same works, as if to dissolve their momentousness. Between the four "Birkenau" paintings and the four copies are four gray mirrors, and everything appears under dimmed lights. If "Birkenau" is meant to assert that we will never truly understand the Holocaust, at the Breuer everything adds up too easily: The abstract paintings express the inexpressible, the copies indicate that even the worst can happen again, and the mirrors force us to face our place in history. It's the one room in this otherwise impeccably hung exhibition that feels overfilled. If it were up to me I'd hang the "Birkenau" paintings like any others, and leave us to our grief. Yet I suspect Mr. Richter, closely involved in the organization of this room, has his own aims with the copies and the mirrors. The Third Reich and the G.D.R. inculcated in him a lifelong doubt of ideologies but now, nearing 90, the artist doubts even his own doubtfulness, and he seems less confident than his many admirers of what "Birkenau" achieves. For 60 years, he has treated uncertainty as an ethical duty. That remains true even at this final celebration, and with every pass of the squeegee, he has modeled how an artist can create in the face of doubt, face down the fear of wrongness, mistrust oneself and still fight on. That is the priceless example he offers today's young artists, whose every mistake or hesitation gets pounced on by digital Savonarolas. So much dogmatism out there, so much high volume moralizing. The voice we need to hear is the voice that says: I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm still thinking. I'm still working. Through July 5 at the Met Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue, Manhattan; 212 731 1675, metmuseum.org. It travels to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles on Aug. 15. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
The models covered by the recall are the 2012 Buick Verano and the Chevrolet Camaro, Cruze and Sonic. G.M. said a wiring defect could prevent the driver's side air bag from deploying in a crash. The current recall is an expansion of two earlier recalls of the same models. Last November, the automaker recalled about 7,100 vehicles, including about 6,800 in the United States. In October 2012, the automaker recalled about 3,000 2012 Buick Verano and Chevrolet Cruze and Sonic models. In July 2012 G.M. sent a technical service bulletin to dealers telling them about the air bag problem in the Verano and other vehicles, but it did not recall the vehicles until a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official noticed and chastised the automaker. That led to the original recall in 2012. It is not the only instance of G.M. issuing technical service bulletins and telling dealers how to fix safety problems without recalling the vehicles. In 2005 G.M. told dealers there was a problem with the ignition on its Chevrolet Cobalts that could result in the engine being accidentally turned off. Earlier this year it finally began recalling the Cobalt, admitting that at least 13 deaths had been linked to the defect, which prevented air bags from deploying in a crash. In this week's recall the automaker said it was aware of one crash in which the air bag did not deploy, after which a diagnostic trouble code revealed the wiring fault. That crash resulted in an injury that was not life threatening, Alan Adler, a spokesman for G.M., wrote in an email. G.M. said there were other crashes involving the recalled models in which air bags did not deploy, "but it is not known if they were related to this condition." The automaker also announced two smaller recalls. About 37 Chevrolet Corvettes from the 2014 model year are being recalled, including 33 in the United States, because a short circuit could prevent the front air bags from deploying. Additionally, 87 cars 2014 Chevrolet Spark compacts and 2013 Buick Encore crossovers are being recalled because the passenger side air bag may not deploy properly. That recall includes 61 vehicles in the United States. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
In the music industry, one of the biggest issues hanging over Spotify's arrival on the New York Stock Exchange has been what the major record companies would do with the billions of dollars in equity they held in the streaming service. One answer became clear on Wednesday, when Sony announced that it had sold 17 percent of its stake in the company for more than 250 million. The transaction was made on Tuesday, the day Spotify began trading on the exchange, Sony said. Spotify had closed its first day with a market valuation of 26.5 billion. In Spotify's early days, record companies viewed the streaming service's hybrid business model of both free and paid streaming as a potential risk that could undermine the sales of CDs and downloads. So as a condition of granting licenses for their music, the labels received chunks of equity. As things turned out, sales of CDs and downloads have plunged dramatically in the last few years, although the quick rise of streaming has increased the recording industry's revenues over all. What the labels would do with any profits from selling their Spotify stakes has been a subject of debate in the industry. The labels have said that they will share the profits with their artists but have offered few specific details about how those payments would be calculated. The Worldwide Independent Network, a trade group for small music labels, has called on the major labels to share that money with the independent labels they distribute. 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. Among the majors, Sony had the largest share in the company, with about 5.7 percent, according to Spotify's prospectus. The stakes owned by the other two big labels, Universal and Warner, were not disclosed but are believed to be 4 percent or less. Merlin, an organization that represents independent labels in licensing negotiations, also has a stake. Sony said it had sold 17.2 percent of its position in Spotify on Tuesday. It offered no further details of the transaction, but if it was made at Spotify's closing price of 149.01, the sale would be worth 260.5 million. If the sale occurred at the opening price of 169.50, it would be 296 million. Sony also announced on Wednesday that it would book a profit of 105 billion yen (about 986 million) for its fiscal first quarter, attributed to both its sale of the Spotify stock and the value of its remaining stake. For the big labels, the question of whether and when to sell their Spotify equity ties in with a potential risk when it comes to dealing with their artists. If the labels sell right away, they may be accused of prematurely cashing out; if they wait, they may be accused of holding on too long to money that they have said belongs to their artists. Representatives of Universal, Warner and Merlin declined to comment, but no transactions related to those companies' stakes in Spotify have been announced. A spokeswoman for Sony Music on Wednesday declined to comment on any details of Sony's transaction. But on Tuesday, before the market opened, Sony and the Orchard, its independent distribution arm, released a brief statement saying that they were "committed to sharing with their artists and distributed labels any net gain they may realize from a sale of Sony Music's equity stake in Spotify." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
"The Load " is set in Yugoslavia in 1999, amid the NATO bombings meant to put an end to roiling ethnic violence. At both the film's opening and close to its end, bombs are seen from afar streams of what look like fireworks that ascend and descend but never burst into color. The characters in this atmospheric, gripping film don't respond to the sight in any way; the explosives are just one more unpleasant component of their unpleasant day to day living. It's one of the themes of the movie, the first fiction feature written and directed by Ognjen Glavonic: how people adapt to ambient atrocity, muffling it to the point that they pay it hardly any notice. The story follows Vlada ( Leon Lucev ), a man in early middle age with a perpetually furrowed brow and down turned mouth. He is on his third outing as a truck driver; it's not what he's trained for, but he needs the money. Vlada doesn't know what he's carrying in his truck, the rear of which is locked and chained up for good measure. All he knows is that he'd like to make it from Kosovo to Belgrade in time to sleep at home. When he sets out, he finds several burning automobiles blocking a bridge; he meets a teenage hitchhiker, Paja ( Pavle Cemerikic ), who claims to know an alternate route. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Rachel Watson Jih, far left, and Tamara M. Williams, far right, play spirits observing the lives of Kadijah Raquel, center left, and Ashley D. Kelley in "Eve's Song." Several sharp and funny reasons are offered in "Eve's Song," Patricia Ione Lloyd's disconnected, macabre comedy at the Public Theater, as to why horror movies are nothing to be scared of if you're African American, at least not after the first five minutes. By that time, the only black character will surely have been killed off. As to the dangerous behavior pursued by the survivors like setting up a bed and breakfast in an obviously haunted house, or hanging out in a graveyard no sensible black person would do that. Or so says the 19 year old Lauren (Kadijah Raquel) to her younger brother, Mark (Karl Green), after proposing a family fun night with a slasher video. Their mother, Deborah (De'Adre Aziza), provides further reassurance. "Our home is our safe place," she says, like someone reciting a mantra. "Nothing bad can happen to us within these four walls." But then why does that mysterious crack in their dining room wall, the one beneath the copy of Ellis Wilson's "Funeral Procession," keep growing larger? Why do the lights go out for no apparent reason? And what about those three spectral women who keep wandering through the room? In "Eve's Song," which opened on Wednesday night under the direction of Jo Bonney, it soon becomes clear that everyday reality holds terrors for Deborah and her children that Gothic Hollywood fare could never top. Why? Because they are black citizens of these United States. This savvy premise was deployed as the basis for "Get Out," Jordan Peele's inspired hit horror movie of last year. And in interviews, Ms. Lloyd, a Tow Foundation playwright in residence at the Public, has described "Eve's Song" as a sort of "queer female version" of that film. Those three restless specters I mentioned earlier? They are "spirit women," phantoms of people who died violently and arbitrarily. One was a lesbian (Rachel Watson Jih), one a transgender woman (Tamara M. Williams) and one an old lady (Vernice Miller) whose apartment was invaded by police who mistakenly thought it was a drug den. Why and how they have wound up in Deborah's home for other than symbolic purposes is never explained. They don't interact with the family members, and deliver their short, angry monologues directly to the audience. Rather than participating in and propelling the plot, they function as annotations or exhibits of its principal themes, a set of illustrative ectoplasm. That gap between story and symbol is typical of "Eve's Song," which remains a smart, vivid concept still in search of full dramatic development. What it has to say about black lives in peril is genuinely terrifying, but mostly in the way that sobering statistics or news analyses are. The production which features a mutable haunted house set by Riccardo Hernandez with lighting by Lap Chi Chu and projections by Hana S. Kim begins in a promisingly satirical vein, as the family gathers around the dinner table. Deborah, a business executive, has recently been left by her husband, and she's doing her best to hold on to the illusion of a stable, wholesome middle class life. Little things like the ceremonial unfolding of napkins and pushing one's chair neatly under the table mean a lot to Deborah, played with a witty, fast fading sitcom brightness by Ms. Aziza. She also insists on maintaining a flow of polite conversation about how everybody's day was. What this family says and what it thinks, though, are entirely different. And each member is given a spotlighted moment to tell us what's really on her or his mind. For Deborah, it's the increasing racial insensitivity and sexual harassment she experiences at work, incidents she chooses to ignore as much as possible. "No one gets ahead by reporting things," she says. Her policy of denial is challenged by Lauren's new (and first) girlfriend, the self named, radiantly confident Upendo (Ashley D. Kelley), an opinionated community organizer who is a figure of both parodied pretentiousness and life altering wisdom. (It is Upendo who explains the play's title, which refers to how black women find their own inner, eternal music as they die.) That's a tough double burden for any performer to pull off. Ms. Kelley (who appealingly played the title character in Kirsten Childs's "Bella: An American Tall Tale" last season) doesn't manage to reconcile the ambivalence with which her character has been written. But she's a convincing object of desire for Lauren, who is still trying to figure out the specifics of her sexuality. It is as a lesbian identity story that "Eve's Song" works best. The show is never more winning or convincing than when we're allowed to spend time in Lauren's head as she sorts out just who she wants to be. Ms. Raquel, a recent graduate of the State University of New York at Purchase, gives such a likably direct performance that you root for her throughout, even when her character makes some unlikely emotional U turns. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
PARIS On a recent Sunday at the sprawling Marche aux Puces de St. Ouen, France's largest and most famous flea market, crystal chandeliers glinted in a rare patch of Parisian sun. An ornate Napoleon III era clock perched on a marble mantelpiece, and sales signs peeked from vintage clothing, vinyl LPs and other curios that have long drawn throngs of shoppers here, jostling for a bargain. But something seemed amiss on this afternoon, as it has almost every weekend for more than a year. As with so much else now bedeviling France, the economy is to blame. French consumers simply are not spending the way they used to, and that is an impediment not only for the merchants of the Marche aux Puces, but also for the country's ability to emerge from recession. "It used to be elbow to elbow here," said Hamidou Debo, a shoe vendor who sat quietly in his outdoor stall as a handful of people browsed through silver hued sandals and black leather high tops before shuffling away without buying. "Now the crowds are around half what they used to be." For Mr. Debo and 2,500 other merchants in the 17 acre market on the northern edge of Paris, an economic slowdown has gripped business, and there is no telling when things might turn around. Last year, he said, he regularly made 300 to 400 euros, or 390 to 520, in sales by lunchtime. Now he barely makes 100 euros. "It's the crisis," Mr. Debo said. "People are no longer spending. They are worried about what the future will bring." Europe's long running economic troubles have been, for the most part, confined to the feeble countries of Europe: Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy. But more and more they are coming home to roost in France, raising questions about whether one of the Continent's biggest economies may become the next sick man of Europe. By many measures, France is already moored in malaise. Unemployment is at its highest point since the current record keeping system began in 1996 10.8 percent and job creation has been on a downward trajectory for more than a year. These problems, coupled with tax increases and government spending cuts intended to keep the deficit and rising debt under control, mean that France is now struggling to exit a shallow recession, its second in four years. Even if the recession does end this quarter, the economy is expected to remain stagnant at best, contracting by 0.1 percent this year, according to the French statistics agency Insee. No wonder households have tightened their purse strings. But that has become part of the problem, given that consumer spending represents 56 percent of French economic activity. "The consumer has always been the motor of the French economy," said Jean Paul Fitoussi, a professor of economics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. "If that economic engine does not work, then where is the growth going to come from?" President Francois Hollande, who recently acknowledged that the economic situation was serious, is offering a grab bag of measures meant to stimulate growth, including a program to create thousands of subsidized jobs for the rising ranks of unemployed youths. This week he announced a plan to invest 12 billion euros in the energy, digital, aerospace and health industries. Mr. Hollande is also urging the French to be optimistic by citing forecasts that France and the euro zone will begin to emerge from their slump by next year, if all goes well. But persuading the French may be no easy task. On Wednesday, the French employers union Medef warned that Mr. Hollande's policies were destroying 8,000 jobs a day. The chief executives of Peugeot and other French corporations called for "urgent measures" to stem unemployment. Open or closed on Thanksgiving? Here are stores' plans for Thursday and Friday. The high cost of gas is forcing families to cut back on activities and essentials. In June, consumer confidence hit its lowest level in France since records started being kept in 1972. With unemployment still rising, households were more pessimistic than ever about the prospects for future living standards, according to Insee. Consumer spending, which contracted last year by 0.4 percent, is expected to remain stagnant for the foreseeable future, despite a slight pickup last month, the agency said. What's more, the French are continuing to hold onto a chunk of their savings for rainy days they see coming. The personal savings rate is 15.5 percent, lower than the nearly 17 percent rate in 2011, but still well above the 2.5 percent rate in the United States. That is a lot of euros not being pushed through the economy. No place may be more emblematic of the consumer state of mind than the Marche aux Puces, whose name translates as flea market. It was so named in its early days in the 1870s because of the presumably flea infested furniture among the goods carted in from the city's trash heaps by vendors known as "rag and bone men." In subsequent decades Pablo Picasso was said to stroll the market for inspiration. The 2011 Woody Allen film "Midnight in Paris" featured the market in a pivotal scene. Today the market is something of a microcosm of the French economy, with merchants in a vast outdoor area peddling inexpensive clothing, shoes and accessories for low income shoppers, next to thousands of pricey antique and curio stalls that cater to an affluent crowd. On the recent Sunday, not far from where Mr. Debo sat, waiting for customers, Lauriane Barclais, a French public finance agent, said she and her boyfriend were cutting back sharply on expenses, and had virtually stopped eating in restaurants. In a rare splurge, Ms. Barclais had just paid 125 euros for a leather winter coat, but only because it was discounted by 50 percent. The couple said several of their friends had lost jobs, were looking for work or could find only temporary employment. Nearly everyone they knew had become more parsimonious. "Everything has become more expensive food, rent but salaries stay the same," Ms. Barclais said. "The economy is not going well, and I don't see it improving." Achraf Dzyzai, a seller of children's clothing in the outdoor market who recently discounted everything in his stand to 10 euros or less, had a similar lament. "We've lowered our prices," he said, "but I've been sitting here for more than an hour with no buyers." Mr. Dzyzai says his typical customer earns minimum wage, which in France is around 1,430 euros per month, about 1,880, before taxes. "The crisis is dominating their thinking," he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
SANDRA BERNHARD AND JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND The clever as ever Bond will greet revelers traumatized by recent headlines in "Out With the Old," a program predicated on the notion that "Glamour is resistance!" Accompanying "Auntie Glam," at 7 p.m. are Matt Ray on piano, Nath Ann Carrera on guitar and Claudia Chopek on violin. Fellow iconoclast and nightlife mainstay Bernhard will mark her 10th anniversary offering defiant merriment with "Sandy's Holiday Extravaganza A Decade of Madness and Mayhem" featuring the Sandyland Squad Band at 9 and 11 p.m. At Joe's Pub, Manhattan; 212 967 7555, joespub.com. (Gardner) BIRDLAND BIG BAND WITH VERONICA SWIFT The rising young vocalist Veronica Swift was 21 when she came within a hair's breadth of winning the 2015 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. Since then, her startling command and improbably mature delivery have made her a cause celebre among fans of traditional jazz, and landed her on stages with some of the music's finest improvisers. She's become a frequent presence at Birdland, and for New Year's Eve she will play with the club's resident big band, which is led by the saxophonist David DeJesus. At 8 and 11 p.m., Birdland, Manhattan; 212 581 3080, birdlandjazz.com. (Giovanni Russonello) CHRIS BOTTI Can you really blame the Blue Note for bringing back Botti the seraphic, reverb drenched, synthesized strings surfing trumpeter year after year for a holiday residency? This is his ideal domain. At 7 and 10 p.m., Blue Note, Manhattan; 212 475 8592, bluenote.net. (Russonello) REGINA CARTER QUINTET An historian of the violin as well as a classically trained virtuoso, Carter is as likely to wail on a jazz standard as she is to dive into early American fiddle repertoire or offer a tribute to the Italian classical violinist Niccolo Paganini. On New Year's Eve she'll perform with a quintet that features Carla Cook on vocals, Nat Adderly Jr. on piano, Chris Lightcap on bass and Alvester Garnett on drums. At 7:30 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, Manhattan; 212 576 2232, jazzstandard.com. (Russonello) CITYFOX ODYSSEY For 27 hours, beginning at 9 p.m. on New Year's Eve, you can lose yourself inside the annual Cityfox Odyssey house music extravaganza. The anchor set is by a reunited Sasha Digweed, who in the 1990s and 2000s were at the forefront of the rise of progressive house. The event also features Hot Since 82, Ida Engberg, Stephan Bodzin, a collaborative set between Ame and Dixon, and many more. At Avant Gardener, Brooklyn; 347 987 3146, avant gardner.com. (Jon Caramanica) DISCO BISCUITS If Phish isn't your preferred jam band scent, perhaps try the Disco Biscuits, whose approach to the form is much more synthetic. Their New Year's Eve performance will be the final show of a four night stand. At 9 p.m., PlayStation Theater, Manhattan; 212 930 1950, playstationtheater.com. (Caramanica) NATALIE DOUGLAS With her annual "A Very Natalie New Year," Douglas will once again bring her warm, playful presence and sultry, exuberant singing to old and new songs. She'll be joined this year by Brian Nash, the musical director for Douglas's celebrated tributes to Joni Mitchell, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Shirley Bassey and pop's two great Stevies: Wonder and Nicks. Performances are set for 7:30 and 10:45 p.m. At the Duplex, Manhattan; 212 255 5438, theduplex.com. (Gardner) GOV'T MULE Warren Haynes, the guitarist, singer and songwriter who leads Gov't Mule, has been a member of both the Dead and the Allman Brothers Band. In Gov't Mule he upholds the Southern rock tradition, slinging muscular guitar riffs and singing about the lessons of a long, hard road; a song by Jimi Hendrix or the Police might easily slip into the set. On Dec. 30 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 31 at 9 p.m. at the Beacon Theater, Manhattan; 212 465 6500, msg.com/beacon theatre. (Jon Pareles) MACY GRAY She is part soul music traditionalist, part iconoclast; part pop singer, part rasp. Nothing Gray has done in the past two decades has matched the universal appeal of her debut album, "On How Life Is" (which included the chart topping smash "I Try"), but she has stayed rather faithful to the sound she sketched out there: a mix of take no crap attitude and dreaminess, full of contagious choruses, jazz flourishes and hints of Caribbean rhythm. If you're good with that, her most album, "Ruby," delivers the goods. She will play selections from that record and hits from her back catalog at 7 and 10:15 p.m. At the Iridium, Manhattan; 212 582 2121, theiridium.com. (Russonello) CARLOS HENRIQUEZ A bassist, Henriquez is one of the youngest and most indispensable members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He plays with discipline and focus, mixing the rhythmic sophistication of Afro Caribbean dance music with the swinging power of jazz's big band tradition. At Dizzy's, Jazz at Lincoln Center's intimate club, he will present an all star, nine piece band featuring the trumpeters Michael Rodriguez and Terell Stafford, the tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, the trombonist Marshall Gilkes, the flutist and vocalist Jeremy Bosch, the pianist Robert Rodriguez, the drummer Obed Calvaire and the conguero and vocalist Anthony Almonte. At 7:30 and 11 p.m., Dizzy's Club, Manhattan; 212 258 9595, jazz.org/dizzys. (Russonello) 'HOT FUN NEW YEAR'S EVE' Jenny Gorelick and Zach Teague host this showcase featuring some of the buzziest up and coming comedians of 2019 Mary Beth Barone, Jared Goldstein and Rachel Pegram all made shortlists for industry showcases from Comedy Central, Just for Laughs and the New York Comedy Festival. Also look for a performance from the drag queen Junior Mint. At 7:30 p.m., Union Hall, Brooklyn; 718 638 4400, unionhallny.com. (Sean L. McCarthy) ETHAN IVERSON TRIO For almost two decades Iverson was the pianist in the Bad Plus, one of jazz's most popular acts and one of its most heterodox which played every New Year's Eve at the Village Vanguard. That tradition disappeared when Iverson left the band at the start of 2018, but perhaps he will begin an annual custom of his own around the corner at Zinc Bar. This show is dedicated to the romantic songbook of Burt Bacharach; Marcy Harriell will handle vocals, with Corcoran Holt on bass and Vinnie Sperrazza on drums. At 9 and 11 p.m., Zinc Bar, Manhattan; 212 477 9462, zincjazz.com. (Russonello) THE JESUS LIZARD AND PROTOMARTYR Two generations of grinding, asymmetrical, abrasively virtuosic post punk are on this double bill. The Jesus Lizard, formed in 1987 and intermittently reunited since a breakup in 1999, is fronted by David Yow, who snarls, mutters and screams lyrics full of humanity's darker impulses; sooner or later, he usually launches himself into the audience. Protomartyr, formed in 2010, puts Joe Casey's more openly literary, spoke sung lyrics upfront as the band's riffs blast, writhe, toll or entwine. At 10 p.m., Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn; 888 929 7849, bowerypresents.com/venues/brooklyn steel. (Pareles) DAVID JOHANSEN After years of trotting out his swinging alter ego, Buster Poindexter, Johansen will mark this New Year's Eve by honoring the era that launched his seminal band New York Dolls and other glam and proto punk players. Hosts for the early '70s inspired "New York, New NYE 2020" include the photographers Mick Rock and Kristin Gallegos (who won't be snapping pics) and the rock clothing boutique owner Jimmy Webb, with local D.J.s on hand following Johansen's performance. A premium bar is available to all from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., with hors d'oeuvres, cocktails and bottles of vodka or champagne on offer to seated guests. At the Roxy Hotel, Manhattan; 212 519 6464, roxyhotelnyc.com. (Gardner) MARILYN MAYE Decades come and go, but Maye's effervescence has proved as enduring as her devout following. The 91 year old phenom will deliver her "New Year's Eve Extravaganza!" at 7 and 11 p.m. At Birdland Theater, Manhattan; 212 581 3080, birdlandjazz.com. (Gardner) MURPHY'S LAW The rowdy, riotous and sometimes uproarious side of New York hardcore is best embodied by Murphy's Law, scene survivors since the early 1980s. With Enziguri, the Avoiders, Bowhead and End of Hope. At 7 p.m., Gold Sounds Bar, Brooklyn; 718 618 0686, goldsoundsbar.com. (Caramanica) SIDNEY MYER As the longtime booking manager of Don't Tell Mama, Myer championed more than a few cabaret darlings; lately his own star has been rising, buoyed by his piquant delivery of tunes and tales drawn from vast experience. Myer will be accompanied by the music director Tracy Stark on piano and Matt Scharfglass on bass, with shows beginning at 8 and 10:30 p.m.; each seating includes a three course dinner and a half bottle of prosecco per person. At Pangea, Manhattan; 212 995 0900, pangeanyc.com. (Gardner) 'NEW YEAR'S EVE!' The Stand comedy club relocated in 2019 to a larger spot in Union Square, and celebrates the year's end with shows upstairs and downstairs. Among the performers on the late shows: the SiriusXM stalwart host Ron Bennington, the married couple Rich Vos and Bonnie McFarlane, and Shane Gillis, who you may recall as a new cast member of "Saturday Night Live" for all of one weekend in September. At 6:30, 7, 8:30, 9, 10:30 and 11 p.m., the Stand, Manhattan; 212 677 2600, thestandnyc.com. (McCarthy) 'NEW YEAR'S EVE SPECTACULAR' Carolines on Broadway offers comfort from the cold just a few blocks north of Times Square, while allowing late show patrons outside sidewalk access for the ball drop. Performers inside include Tyler Fischer, who won the "New York's Funniest" competition this year, alongside some of his fellow finalists: Xazmin Garza, Caitlin Peluffo, and Michael Rowland. The later show also includes a D.J. and dancing after midnight. At 7:30 and 10 p.m., Carolines on Broadway, Manhattan; 212 757 4100, carolines.com. (McCarthy) PHISH At year's end, Madison Square Garden belongs to Phish for four nights, with hours of whimsical, head bopping songs and open ended, light fingered jams. Yet all that music is nearly overshadowed by a single moment: Phish's annual midnight New Year's stunt. What will it be this year? The shows are sold out, but Phish also offers live webcasts; an elaborate assortment of packages is at phish.com. On Dec. 28 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Madison Square Garden, Manhattan; msg.com. (Pareles) CHRIS POTTER A tenor saxophonist of unimpeachable command and restless creative instinct, Potter this year released "Circuits," a fine album featuring a new trio with James Francies on keyboards and Eric Harland on drums. To a degree, this new outfit marks a return to the kind of expansive jazz funk experimentation that Potter first tried out in the mid 2000s, with his quartet Underground. But there's something new going on here, partly thanks to the casual brilliance of Harland's spacious grooves and the acoustic electric textural play that is Francies's specialty. At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, Manhattan; 212 255 4037, villagevanguard.com. (Russonello) 'PREGAME WITH GETHARD AND FRIENDS' That's Chris Gethard, as in the erstwhile host of "The Chris Gethard Show," which began in a basement beneath a Gristedes before reaching TV heights from 2011 2018 on Manhattan cable access, Fusion and later truTV, all via Funny or Die. Gethard, who continues to host the podcast "Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People," will welcome Martin Urbano and Meg Statler, both cast in the newly revamped "National Lampoon Radio Hour." This show has a guaranteed end time of 9 p.m. At 7 p.m., Littlefield, Park Slope, Brooklyn; littlefieldnyc.com. (McCarthy) PRIESTS This may be the last chance to see Priests, a three piece indie rock band from Washington that has focused on the sharpest legacies of post punk: knotty, kinetic, tightly wound songs that spiral toward Katie Alice Greer's impassioned questions and declarations: "No it's not for anyone/and I can't wait until it's done," she sings in "Nothing Feels Natural." (The band has announced a hiatus after this show.) Also on the bill: the Brooklyn band Russian Baths, which juxtaposes airy melody and churning dissonance, and Anina Ivry Block from the lo fi post punk band Palberta. At 9 p.m., Rough Trade NYC, Brooklyn; 718 388 4111, roughtradenyc.com. (Pareles) 'QED'S NEW YEAR'S EVE SPECTACULAR' Christian Finnegan is not just married to the owner of Astoria's top comedy club; he's also the year end headliner. You may recognize Finnegan from his recurring appearances providing levity to the news on MSNBC, or from his previous stint as a cast member on VH1's "Best Week Ever." He'll be joined onstage at Q.E.D. by other comedians, including Usama Siddiquee, Sam Morrison, Courtney Fearrington and Lauren Hope Krass. At 8 and 10 p.m., Q.E.D., Astoria, Queens; 347 451 3873, qedastoria.com. (McCarthy) THE RUB One of the most reliable dance parties in Brooklyn for well over a decade, the Rub returns to the Bell House with guests ItsParle and Hasan Insane (DJ Ayres and DJ Eleven are its resident D.J.s). Expect the eclectic and the energetic. At 10 p.m., the Bell House, Brooklyn; 718 643 6510, itstherub.com. (Caramanica) ALEX SENSATION The star D.J. on La Mega 97.9, one of New York's top Spanish language radio stations, headlines this party at the most prominent Latin music nightclub in Queens. With DJ Mad, DJ Aneudy, DJ Prostyle and DJ Lobo. At 10 p.m., La Boom, Queens; 718 726 6646, laboomny.com. (Caramanica) SLAVIC SOUL PARTY! Founded in the early 2000s by a troupe of New York jazz musicians fascinated with the Balkan brass tradition, Slavic Soul Party! has gradually expanded its repertoire, using Barbes a bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with an intimate performance room in the back as its testing ground. (The nine piece ensemble holds down a weekly residency there.) Its most recent album was a reworking of Duke Ellington's famous "Far East Suite," recorded at the club. At 10 p.m., Barbes, Brooklyn; 347 422 0248, barbesbrooklyn.com. (Russonello) TROMBONE SHORTY ORLEANS AVENUE/NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS Trombone Shorty has been a local hero in New Orleans since his days as a brass band child prodigy, and his music is infused with the city's heritage, from early jazz to R B to funk to hip hop. His band, Orleans Avenue, plays marathon, danceable sets that intersperse his own tunes with anything from "St. James Infirmary" to hip hop. Luther and Cody Dickinson, who lead the North Mississippi All Stars, immersed themselves in Mississippi traditions reaching back to Delta blues and rural fife and drum music; those backbeats and guitar licks drive their own songs and jams. Devon Gilfillian opens. At 9 p.m., the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, N.Y.; 914 937 4126; thecapitoltheatre.com. (Pareles) STEVE TYRELL A prolific interpreter and promoter of American standards as a singer, producer and, in recent years, radio host Tyrell has been holding court during the holiday season since the great Bobby Short shuffled off his mortal coil. For his 15th anniversary year, Tyrell will again mix pop standards, from Gershwin to Bacharach, with holiday classics. A black tie gala, with seating beginning at 8 p.m., provides a four course prix fixe menu and post show dancing with the Peter Duchin Orchestra, as well as an autographed copy of one of Tyrell's albums. At Cafe Carlyle, Manhattan; tickets must be reserved by calling 212 744 1600; cafecarlylenewyork.com. (Gardner) WAVVES The San Diego band led by Nathan Williams warps the tuneful stomp of California surf rock with punk distortion, sudden tangents and lyrics that mix slacker nonchalance with acute self consciousness. It all stays catchy. The show plus an open bar from 8 10 p.m. At Baby's All Right, Brooklyn; 718 599 5800; babysallright.com. (Pareles) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's "Extended Life" residencies are getting an extension. The organization announced Sunday that the dance development program, which provides financial and developmental support to midcareer artists, has been newly fortified by a 600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which will allow the project's scope to be expanded. The organization also announced the latest recipients. The choreographers Nora Chipaumire, Beth Gill, Maria Hassabi, Sarah Michelson, Jennifer Monson, Okwui Okpokwasili, Pam Tanowitz and David Thomson will all receive support, with Ms. Chipaumire, Mr. Thomson, Ms. Gill and Ms. Michelson being given 15,000 a year and residency development space as part of a new branch of the program. The organization's executive director of artistic programs, Lili Chopra, explained in a phone interview that the idea behind the new branch is to not only support creative endeavors but also to work with artists to make life in New York City more affordable. "We are really interested in looking at how artists are working today," she said, "and how we think about the models in which independent artists especially ones that are really heavy in research and development operate today." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
It's hard enough to think back four months, much less four years, but try to recall the early weeks of 2016 another time, another planet. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., a professor of African American Studies at Princeton, had just published "Democracy in Black," his blistering indictment of the Obama era. Under the watch of the first black president, Glaude wrote, "black people have suffered tremendously." A Democratic machine that took black voters for granted had convinced Glaude that the only way forward would be an "electoral blank out." He called on black Americans to turn out in record numbers again in November 2016 and cast a vote for "none of the above." This, mind you, preceded Donald Trump plowing through the primaries to become the Republican nominee. For Glaude, a Trump presidency was completely unfathomable until it actually happened. "White America would never elect such a person to the highest office in the land," he writes in his new book, "Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own," recalling what he told himself in 2016. "I was wrong, and given my lifelong reading of Baldwin, it was an egregious mistake." Over the last several years there's been a popular resurgence of interest in Baldwin's work: Barry Jenkins's film adaptation of "If Beale Street Could Talk" and Raoul Peck's documentary "I Am Not Your Negro"; Ta Nehisi Coates's homage in "Between the World and Me" and Jesmyn Ward's "The Fire This Time," a 2016 anthology of essays by a younger generation writing about Baldwin's legacy with appreciation and ambivalence. Baldwin's example took on renewed relevance toward the end of the Obama presidency, as soaring hopes collided with an enduring reality of police violence and mass incarceration. Writers found in Baldwin a mix of rigor and freedom: Here was an unsparing diagnostician who nevertheless embraced contradictions. Glaude is more explicit about looking to Baldwin not just for perspective and inspiration but for instruction and guidance: Combining elements of biography, criticism and memoir, "Begin Again" "aims to think with Baldwin and to interrogate how an insidious view of race, in the form of Trumpism, continues to frustrate any effort to 'achieve our country.'" It's a blunt force thesis statement that made me wonder if Glaude, who has long written about the devastation wreaked by American racism with insight and candor, might be selling himself short: Does he really need Baldwin to help him understand Trumpism, a movement whose bigotry seems less "insidious" than brazen? But I soon realized that Glaude is up to something bigger than his own summary allowed. Where a number of writers have paid ample tribute to Baldwin's essays from the late '50s and early '60s, during the early years of the civil rights movement, Glaude finds energy and even solace in the later nonfiction that charted Baldwin's disillusionment. (Glaude only glances at the fiction, though he takes his title from a line in Baldwin's last novel, "Just Above My Head.") Even if you don't agree with Glaude's interpretations, you'll find yourself productively arguing with them. He parses, he pronounces, he cajoles. He spurs you to revisit Baldwin's work yourself. The usual critique of Baldwin goes something like this: He pursued his idiosyncratic artistic vision in his early work, but the demands of the historical moment turned him into the political spokesman he never wanted to be. His rolling, winding sentences became harder and harsher. He scolded the white liberals who praised him, and praised the Black Panthers who lampooned him. The critic Hilton Als scathingly depicted this transformation as a surrender: "By 1968, Baldwin found impersonating a black writer more seductive than being an artist." Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of "Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own." Glaude's defense of Baldwin's trajectory is more cultural than literary. He imputes a political discomfort to critiques like Als's that isn't entirely fair, but he writes ardently and protectively. And in his own struggle to work his way through the welter of our present what he calls the "after times," borrowing Whitman's phrase for America following the Civil War he finds in Baldwin a cold eyed realism sustained by a stubborn moral purpose. Baldwin recoiled at the label of spokesman, identifying instead as a witness someone who testified to what he saw without presuming to speak for anybody else. "You're at the mercy of something, which has nothing to do with you, nothing to do with your career, nothing to do with your ambitions, nothing to do with your loneliness, nothing to do with your despair," Baldwin told his first biographer, in 1963, recalling what he saw on his trips to the American South. It was his "job," he said, "to make it real. To force it on the world's attention." Not that the world was always willing to look. In "No Name in the Street," a jangly, intermittently brilliant book from 1972 ("his most important work of social criticism," Glaude writes), Baldwin describes how white liberals couldn't bring themselves to accept even the most glaring evidence of police brutality. To them, racism and bigotry were a matter of "hearts and minds," not power. They maintained an abiding faith in institutions that insisted "the police are honorable, and the courts are just," Baldwin wrote. The fantasy of innocence was both childish and deadly. This kind of liberal naivete comes shrouded in layers of hypocrisy, while Trumpism strides onto stage clutching a bullhorn and wearing a MAGA hat. Glaude considers Trumpism only "the latest betrayal," the revival of something old and ugly in American politics. He repeatedly invokes what he calls Baldwin's "nuance and complexity," but in a state of emergency he concedes that a hard nosed approach to the election is a necessary first step. The idea isn't to return the country to what it was before President Trump; Glaude wants a wholesale re envisioning, not a complacent restoration. As Baldwin put it in 1980, before Ronald Reagan won the presidential election, explaining the decision to vote for a disappointing Jimmy Carter: "It will be a coldly calculated risk, a means of buying time." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Q. My Android tablet recently got the Google Assistant update, but I find I miss pressing the Home button to get the little box that used to pop up with the search icons for more information about people and places on the Chrome page I was reading. Now I just get the Google Assistant asking if I want help. Is there a way to get the old feature back? A. The Google Now on Tap feature, introduced for Android devices in 2015, was designed to save time by quickly getting you more information about a topic already on your screen like the name of an actor in a movie review or details about a restaurant mentioned in an email message. Pressing the Home button brought up a box of icons for Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube and other places to learn more about the names and places on the screen. When you finished your research, you just needed to tap the Back button to return to what you were doing before. Even if you have downloaded and installed the Google Assistant on your tablet or Android phone, you can still get a version of the screen search shortcut with the Google Assistant. A shortcut for taking a screenshot is also available. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
NASA is aiming its next Mars rover at an ancient river delta, a location where evidence of past life could still be preserved if life ever did arise on Mars. The rover, scheduled to launch in July 2020, will largely be a clone of NASA's Curiosity rover, which is currently exploring Mars. But it will carry a new set of instruments geared to searching for the carbon building blocks of life and other signs of past microbes. After it blasts off, it will arrive on the red planet in February 2021. Jezero, a 28 mile wide crater just north of Mars's Equator, was chosen from four finalist sites. Analysis of images, taken from satellites orbiting Mars, suggests that the crater was once filled with a lake that was 800 feet deep. There are also signs of rivers that flowed into and out of the lake. Sign up to get reminders for space and astronomy events on your calendar. More than 3.5 billion years ago, scientists believe, Mars's climate was warmer and wetter and possibly suited for life. After considering 64 proposed landing sites in all, scientists recommended Jezero as the most promising place to explore. "Lakes on Earth are both very habitable and inevitably inhabited," said Kenneth Farley, the mission's project scientist, during a telephone news conference on Monday. "So that's the first attraction." "The second attraction is that a delta is extremely good at preserving biosignatures, any evidence of life that might have existed," he added. Dr. Farley emphasized that the rover is not carrying tools to look for any living microbes, and said that the Martian surface today is too dry, too cold and too bombarded by radiation for microbes to survive. The rover will also collect rocks to someday be brought back to Earth for further study. Those samples, however, will sit on Mars until a future mission returns them to Earth, likely not before the early 2030s, said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA's science mission directorate. The rover will carry several cameras, a weather station, ground penetrating radar and instruments to analyze the minerals and possible organic compounds on the surface of Mars. The rover will also take along a miniature helicopter to photograph the terrain. NASA's rover will be one of two headed to Mars in 2020. Scientists working on the ExoMars rover, a collaboration between Russia and the European Space Agency, have recommended Oxia Planum, a plain in the planet's northern hemisphere that is rich with sediments and that appears to have formed in the presence of water. ExoMars will have a drill that will be able to poke some six feet below the surface. On Monday next week, NASA will attempt to land its InSight spacecraft on a plain that scientists have described as one of the most boring places on Mars. Launched in May, InSight will study the inside of the planet to develop a clearer picture of its seismic activity and geological history. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Last January, the first BroadwayCon brought thousands of theater fans to New York despite a massive snowstorm. But one week before the convention's expanded second iteration, organizers have hit a snag: a labor dispute with the Actors' Equity Association, who has asked its members not to perform, or even rehearse, for the event until an agreement is reached. In a note sent to Actors' Equity members on Friday, Flora Stamatiades, the union's national director of organizing and special projects, wrote that last year's contract had been reached on an understanding that the payment terms for future conventions would be changed. "Now the producers are refusing to make the changes to which they agreed," she wrote. "This is unacceptable." She then put BroadwayCon on Equity's "do not work" list. Like other fan oriented events, BroadwayCon features performances, panel discussions and autograph sessions (as well as singalongs, tailored to its particular audience). Last year over 5,000 people attended. This year organizers, expecting the event to be larger, booked the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Part of the dispute centers on roughly two hours of performance time in two events on the convention's main stage, involving 10 Actors' Equity performers. But many other members of the union, including Kelli O'Hara, Laura Osnes and Tony Yazbeck, are scheduled to appear throughout the Jan. 27 29 weekend. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Readers who picked up The New York Times on March 13, 1852, might have seen a small advertisement on Page 3 for a serial tale set to begin the next day in a rival newspaper. "A RICH REVELATION," the ad began, teasing a rollicking story touching on "the Manners and Morals of Boarding Houses, some Scenes from Church History, Operations in Wall st.," and "graphic Sketches of Men and Women" (presented, fear not, with "explanations necessary to properly understand what it is all about"). It was a less than tantalizing brew, perhaps. The story, which was never reviewed or reprinted, appears to have sunk like a stone. But now comes another rich revelation: The anonymously published tale was nothing less than a complete novel by Walt Whitman. The 36,000 word "Life and Adventures of Jack Engle," which was discovered last summer by a graduate student, is being republished online on Monday by The Walt Whitman Quarterly Review and in book form by the University of Iowa Press. A quasi Dickensian tale of an orphan's adventures, it features a villainous lawyer, virtuous Quakers, glad handing politicians, a sultry Spanish dancer and more than a few unlikely plot twists and jarring narrative shifts. "This is Whitman's take on the city mystery novel, a popular genre of the day that pitted the 'upper 10 thousand' what we would call the 1 percent against the lower million," said David S. Reynolds, a Whitman expert at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. But it also, Mr. Reynolds and other scholars who have seen it say, offers clues to another mystery: how a workaday journalist and mostly conventional poet transformed himself into the author of the sensuous, philosophical, wildly experimental and altogether unclassifiable free verse of "Leaves of Grass." That transformation was one that Whitman himself wished to obscure. He said little about the early 1850s, when he hung a shingle as a carpenter in Brooklyn and published almost nothing, working instead on what became the 1855 first edition of "Leaves of Grass." 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. Later, he all but disowned his successful 1842 temperance novel "Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate," and had little interest in seeing his short fiction revived. "My serious wish," he wrote in 1882, "were to have all those crude and boyish pieces quietly dropp'd in oblivion." In 1891, when a critic was planning on republishing some of his early tales, he was blunt: "I should almost be tempted to shoot him if I had an opportunity." That doesn't faze Zachary Turpin, the graduate student at the University of Houston who found the "Jack Engle." In fact, this is the second time archival lightning has struck Mr. Turpin. Last year, he announced the discovery of "Manly Health and Training," a previously unknown 47,000 word self help treatise that Whitman published in The New York Atlas in 1858. "A friend joked that that's what would be on my gravestone," Mr. Turpin said. The library of lost American literature includes many "known unknowns," as Mr. Turpin put it (channeling Donald H. Rumsfeld), like Herman Melville's "The Isle of the Cross" (the eighth and final novel he may, or may not, have finished) and Whitman's "The Sleeptalker," a seemingly completed 1850 novel he discusses in his letters, but which does not survive. Mr. Turpin has made a specialty of looking for the "unknown unknowns," using vast online databases that compile millions of pages of 19th century newspapers. One day last May, he entered some names and phrases from fragmentary notes for a possible story concerning an embezzling lawyer named Covert and an orphan named Jack Engle one of many entries in Whitman's voluminous notebooks that the online Walt Whitman Archive had deemed to have no clear connection to any known published material. Mr. Turpin ordered a scan of the first page from the Library of Congress, which held the only known (and as yet undigitized or microfilmed) copy of that day's Dispatch. A month later, he was stunned to open a file showing a yellowing page containing "Jack Engle" and other names from Whitman's notes. "I was at my in laws', setting up a Pack 'n Play, when the email arrived," he recalled. "From that day until now, I've had this simmering inside me." The 36,000 word tale, published in six typo ridden installments, may not belong in the American literary canon. "It's not a great novel, though it's not a bad read either," said Mr. Reynolds, the author of "Walt Whitman's America." Mr. Turpin called it "rollicking, interesting, beautiful, beautiful and bizarre," with antic twists, goofy names and suddenly revealed conspiracies that recall "a pre modern Thomas Pynchon" or even, he ventured, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." This may sound a long way from "Leaves of Grass." But Jack Engle and the other raffish young male characters, Mr. Reynolds said, are reminiscent of the man of the streets persona "Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs" he created with "Leaves of Grass." And then there's Chapter 19, which Mr. Folsom called "a magical moment." Here, Jack enters the cemetery at Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan, and the madcap plot grinds to a halt in favor of reveries about nature, immortality and the oneness of being that strikingly echo the imagery of Whitman's great work. "Long, rank grass covered my face," says Jack, the first person narrator. "Over me was the verdure, touched with brown, of trees nourished from the decay of the bodies of men." Jack wanders among those bodies of men, copying out the inscriptions of the tombstones of Alexander Hamilton, the War of 1812 hero Capt. James Lawrence (of "Don't give up the ship!" fame) and other lost lives. Then, he exits onto the streets, where "onward rolled the broad, bright current" and quickly and rather indifferently wraps up his own story. "Throughout the novel, you constantly see Whitman wandering off the plot, looking for life in all the nooks and crannies of the city," Mr. Folsom said. "With the visit to the cemetery, where all plots end, it's as if he's suddenly lost interest in all plots or at least this plot." Today, we think of the radically expansive free verse of "Leaves of Grass," with its wandering "I" who "contains multitudes," as one of the fixed signposts in American literary history. But in his notebooks from the early 1850s, Mr. Turpin noted, Whitman was toying with other forms for his great work. "You see him asking, Should it be a novel? Or a play, with thousands of people onstage, chanting in unison?" he said. "It's amazing to think that 'Leaves of Grass' could have taken a different form entirely." Mr. Turpin said the graveyard chapter put him in mind of "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," one of the most famous poems in "Leaves of Grass," where Whitman declares, "I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence." But when asked how it felt to be the first in many generations to read Whitman's now resurrected novel, Mr. Turpin reached for another near mystical line. "Whitman said something really great: 'Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,'" he said. "You really do start to believe it after a while." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Creepy or Not? Your Privacy Concerns Probably Reflect Your Politics Are you creeped out by the idea of a company checking a job candidate's credit history before deciding whether to hire her or him? Your answer could be tied to your political views. A new poll on surveillance from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania found that Americans are deeply divided over tracking, both online and in real life. And political affiliation is a main predictor of Americans' emotional reactions to surveillance, the researchers found. Among people who identified themselves as Democrats, for instance, 62 percent said they felt "creeped out" by the idea of companies checking job applicants' credit history before hiring them. By contrast, half of independents and just 29 percent of Republicans felt creeped out. "The Republicans are most likely to be positive about surveillance," said Joseph Turow, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the lead author of the study. "The Democrats are most likely to be negative, and independents are always in the middle." The study, published on Monday, focused specifically on Americans' emotional responses to snooping techniques that could disproportionately affect low income populations. Among other things, the survey asked participants about practices like police profiling and landlords subscribing to profiling databases to screen potential tenants. Professor Turow said the report was the first national study of its kind. The survey was based on phone interviews conducted in January and February with a nationally representative sample of 1,499 adults in the United States. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. Although Republicans, Democrats and independents in the survey had divided emotional reactions on various snooping techniques, the majority of respondents said that the surveillance was expected. Whether Americans like it or not, pervasive tracking is becoming a fact of daily life. While Republicans and Democrats are divided about surveillance, there was one situation that elicited strikingly similar responses among participants, no matter their political party: Facebook showing users ads based on interests they expressed on their Facebook accounts. Although the Annenberg School study was conducted before the data mining scandal erupted, nearly half of respondents over all said they felt angry over the Facebook ad targeting example. Among them, 48 percent of Democrats felt mad about Facebook tracking, along with 47 percent of independents and 44 percent of Republicans. Let Us Help You Protect Your Digital Life None With Apple's latest mobile software update, we can decide whether apps monitor and share our activities with others. Here's what to know. A little maintenance on your devices and accounts can go a long way in maintaining your security against outside parties' unwanted attempts to access your data. Here's a guide to the few simple changes you can make to protect yourself and your information online. Ever considered a password manager? You should. There are also many ways to brush away the tracks you leave on the internet. Those results suggest that if members of Congress hope to make consumer privacy legislation a bipartisan issue, Facebook could be their likeliest common ground. In recent weeks, several senators introduced bills focused on Facebook and other online providers. It is too soon to tell whether they will gain traction . The survey asked participants about different hypothetical situations, like the one involving Facebook. Another one involved landlords subscribing to databases that profiled the past behavior of potential tenants. And one involved government agencies tracking where people who received food stamps bought their groceries. Interviewers asked survey participants how they felt about each example, directing them to choose between paired responses like "happy" or "sad," "safe" or "threatened," "unbothered" or "creeped out." In the survey, Republicans often said they felt "unbothered" by surveillance practices and even "pleased." One question, for instance, described police officers using surveillance techniques to closely monitor "people who they think have characteristics that are common among criminals." Among survey respondents, 62 percent of Republicans said they felt "happy" about the police example, compared with 45 percent of independents and just 31 percent of Democrats. The Annenberg study is not the first survey on Americans' responses to snooping. A study published last fall by researchers at the Data Society Research Institute in Manhattan found that a variety of factors, including income and political affiliation, correlated with respondents' attitudes on privacy. (Professor Turow was an adviser on the Data Society study.) "We saw that in general Democrats have a higher concern across an array of scenarios about the use of their data," said Mary Madden, a researcher who leads an initiative on privacy in low socioeconomic status populations at Data Society. "Republicans are in general less concerned about those practices." Professor Turow said the survey responses in his new study suggested that many Republicans lacked empathy regarding surveillance practices that could disproportionately harm people of lower income. "Democrats seem more interested or more likely to say, 'It may not be directly affecting me, I feel safe, but I still feel angry about it,'" Professor Turow said. In the Annenberg survey, participants were not told that certain hypothetical situations in the study could have discriminatory results. "It would be interesting to see a version of this that compared responses if respondents knew the impact of the scenarios," said Ms. Madden, the Data Society researcher. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Credit...Pool photo by Doug Mills So the Trump state visit to the United Kingdom, with its Irish interlude and European D Day sojourn, full of carefully choreographed, performative posturing, has come to an end. We know only some details of what was discussed Brexit! Trade! Tiffany brooches! but visual souvenirs of the Trumps' attire abound on the digisphere. In the absence of further information about what went on behind closed doors, we are left to mine the formal photo ops for clues ; to parse the hats, formal wear and coats . After all, this is a White House that prizes pageantry and theater, and embraces them as strategic tools costume included. The trip was predicated on symbolism, and in such context, all public choices have imp ort. Yet we still can't agree on what it all meant. Just as the endless stream of name calling and off the cuff remarks from the president has served to numb us to their content, so too has the elaborate stream of obfuscating outfits. Each one opened itself to multiple interpretations from critics and armchair observers around the world, tempting division and dissent through speculation. Or maybe Mrs. Trump was being diplomatic by arriving and departing in the British heritage brand Burberry (a pussy bow print blouse splashed with the word "society" on the way in, and a trench coat as she left). Or no, she was ignoring all that by wearing the French brand Dior to the formal state dinner. Perhaps she represented the United States by wearing a white coat from The Row to the British D Day ceremony. Whoops, maybe not, because the day before she wore a belted up trench dress from another European brand, Celine. (Then again, it was old Celine, from the Phoebe Philo years, so it could have been a feminist gesture.) The only thing not in dispute is how expensive much of it was. Because the Trumps actually buy their clothes off the rack, it is possible to find and price them all (except the Dior couture gown worn to the state dinner, which is made to order and priced on application): the Burberry blouse costing PS650 ( 825), the Gucci a cool PS2,615 ( 3,319), the Givenchy, 8,340. When it came to the Celine trench and the white coat from The Row, she shopped her closet. Maybe the choice was part of the trade war posturing. Whatever! So it was expensive. Whatever! So it wasn't American or British or consistently diplomatic. Whatever. She looked good, if a little like she had just stepped off a film set buttoned up, contained and opaque as usual. What really got people worked up in regards to the Trumps' wardrobe was the president's white tie faux pas: a too long vest under his tailcoat at the state dinner. Why that sort of excess should have been a surprise is unclear. As his penchant for oversize ties and suits (and crowds) shows, the president clearly believes in exaggeration of all kinds. And given his absolute surety that his way is the right way and the current let Trump be Trump attitude of his White House, who would tell him otherwise? Not the secretary of treasury (and appropriately vested) Steven Mnuchin. The true revelation of this particular sartorial parade has been how fast our expectations for executive branch appearance, honed over multiple administrations and historical examples from the Kennedys on, have evaporated in this as in so much else. Two years ago, when Mr. Trump first took office, there was a presumption that Mrs. Trump, reluctant as she was to play the first lady game, would nevertheless be canny with her clothes: she had been a model, after all. She wore all American to the inauguration. She understood what could be read into a photograph (and if she didn't, or her team didn't, that "I Really Don't Care, Do U?" coat brouhaha would have been all the learning experience needed). Yet again and again she has chipped away at the practice, previously considered a real tool of soft power, a way to subtly support local industry or suggest outreach to a host country. It's clear she understands the precedent she wore Chanel to the French state dinner last year ( because why? Accident? Doubtful !) but not how she decides when to break it. It's gotten so confusing that in London, when her stepdaughter Ivanka wore a fussy white peplum jacket and pleated skirt by Alessandra Rich on the first day going so far as to pop on a fascinator a la Ascot and then opted for Carolina Herrera for the state dinner, followed by Burberry polka dots to meet with Theresa May, a classic British American British nod to the special relationship, practically no one noticed. Now it seems almost quaint, the belief that a first lady should use her wardrobe to advance a recognizable, if subtle, domestic or diplomatic point. Such a charming, old fashioned relic of a different time. Like when we also expected our leaders to believe when they represent the nation, they represent all people. And yet that doesn't mean there is no agenda involved. It's just not the one we are used to. In their own specific way, the Trumps actually are doing what their forbearers did: using their clothing to reflect their approach to governance. It's just that their approach seems to rely on the startling, the eye catching and the politically incorrect. In dress, it is increasingly apparent, as it is on Twitter. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Throughout the first season of "Succession," Siobhan acted as something of a "floater" in the dynastic struggle going on between her siblings. Sometimes she dished dirt alongside Roman. Sometimes she was simpatico with Kendall. But in this week's episode, she brings her brothers closer together, uniting them in their hatred of her. The bile bubbles up at Argestes, a mountaintop gathering of business "thought leaders," where the Roys plan to announce their deal to acquire Pierce Global Media a plan that gets scotched when the ticking time bomb of Waystar's cruise ship sexual harassment scandal finally explodes. A reporter for New York magazine has penned an expose, revealing how the dearly departed "Uncle Moe" had a habit of helping himself to the ships' dancers. Kendall assumed the company had two weeks to respond and, in the interim, to push through the sale before the progressive Pierces found out the Roys were implicated in such sleaze. Instead, the magazine's editors get riled up by the last minute attempts to stall, and they decide to publish immediately. The bombshell article sets up two intense scenes. The first involves a lunchtime meeting between Logan, Kendall, Nan and Rhea, during which Ken keeps refreshing New York's website. Even beyond the scandal, something is clearly off with Logan. He is uncomfortably hot (and actually vomits later in the day). He is also fed up with the Pierce family's nit picking. Even the time Nan takes to order lunch bugs him. He knows the longer she takes, the more likely it is that the story will break before the appetizers arrive. Eventually, everyone's phones start buzzing and the meeting is scrapped. The Roys huddle up to plot a public response, with Shiv flying in to help. She seizes the moment as her way back into the game after having been sidelined by Logan. She aggressively criticizes the "stale pale male" stench in the room while the guys argue that Uncle Moe's crimes were relatively minor almost quaint in comparison to what other powerful men have done lately. Siobhan initially balks at Rhea's suggestion that she appear alongside her brothers on a previously scheduled Argestes panel. But she eventually decides to step up, irritating Kendall and Roman. "Why is she even here?" Roman snaps, before adding a more typically childish, "I can see your bra through your sweater." This leads to the episode's second edge of the seat scene: the panel discussion, in which Siobhan, Kendall and Roman toss out Logan's preferred playbook and try to outdo one another with the extent of their concern. "We don't want to simply condemn and move on," Ken says, directly contradicting his dad's plan. Roman, completely out of his depth, says, "We'll do whatever anyone wants," which doesn't exactly sound like a carefully considered response (though he heard his dad say almost exactly the same thing about the Pierce deal). Shiv, though, really takes a swing. She waxes rhapsodic about "human decency that transcends management structures" and laments how "sometimes companies develop bad habits." Most alarmingly, she calls for "a good old fashioned dinosaur cull." Logan is at first merely unamused and then outright enraged especially after his daughter's tactics fail to dissuade Nan Pierce from killing their deal. As tense as this episode is, it has moments of levity, mostly involving Tom and Gregory. Tom is excited about unveiling ATN's new audience focused slogan, "We're listening," until Cousin Greg warns him there's another potential scandal brewing: Waystar's set top boxes have literally been listening, collecting data based on what customers say. It's "basically legal," Greg insists, but not so legal that anyone involved with that decision would circulate it in an email. These two goofs start brainstorming new slogans. Maybe "We hear you" would be ... less active? Like the difference between "Couldn't help glimpse you changing" and "We put a spy cam in your shower." They finally settle on "We hear for you," which Gregory thinks is good because "It's not clear exactly what the hell it means." Tom unveils this gem at his Argestes talk, where the slogan is spelled "We here for you" (and where he also defines "the news" as "All the things that are new ... the many news.") All of this is hilarious. But it also illuminates the stark differences between Tom and his new family. Tom loves everything about Argestes, including the "Airbus Culture and Leadership Walk." Roman, on the other hand, glimpses that hike on his itinerary and then disdainfully hands the folder to an aide. Roman is in a weird place right now. He doesn't have his sister's social skills, and he's not an adept student of jargon and ritual like Kendall. He would rather make fun of his Argestes panel ("I'm thinking of no socking it," he jokes) than speak earnestly about audience experiences and brand extensions. But he also needs his dad's approval, so he comes to Gerri with an unusual proposal. Because Gerri is the official successor to Logan, and because she's actually useful to the company ("like a competent, kind of clever file cabinet"), Roman suggests they team up, and put themselves forward as candidates for Waystar's top spots. She'll be the person really in charge, while he'll be the "kind of a Jagger Tarzan," soaking up awe. He would get to act like a boss without actually having to know or care about anything. And she would get "private army in New Zealand" rich. As always, Roman has overestimated his position within the company, which is so inessential that even after the cruise scandal breaks, he still has no idea what's going on. ("Brightstar roller coaster rape?" he guesses.) It's telling that after the Argestes panel, when Logan is furious with everyone, Roman is the one he smacks in the mouth. But then something remarkable happens: With no hesitation, Kendall gets in his father's face, yelling at him to back off. It's such an instinctual move that it's almost as if muscle memory took hold. This clearly isn't the first time he has stood up for his brother against their abusive father. Sometimes Ken tries too hard to emulate Logan, as in the opening scene this week, when he angrily knocks the snacks off a lackey's tray table on the corporate jet. But being a bully doesn't really come naturally to him. Siobhan, on the other hand? Just look at the way she plays head games with her husband this week. First she tells Tom that he's not allowed to flirt with anyone she knows personally. Then she changes tactics and says he can pursue anyone he wants under the terms of their open marriage but that it might make her jealous. Shiv is doing to Tom what her father has done to her: control him, limit his options and never give him what he really wants. No matter what she may say, in the Roy family's internal battles, Shiv isn't neutral. She stands with the king. The Rich Are Different From You and Me: None Gerri keeps encouraging Roman to be a team player, which is how he ends up in a bathroom, pitching a mega rich, coke snorting young Azerbaijani man named Edward whose shoes, according to Roman, are probably made from the skin of human rights activists. Edward doesn't shut him down but instead wonders if maybe ATN could start spinning the news from his region more positively. When Roman returns to Gerri, he wonders if it would be O.K. to create a front news channel that spews propaganda. "Depends on the numbers," she replies. None Cousin Gregory, who has an uncanny knack for showing up whenever the Roy boys are surrounded by white powder, pops into the bathroom after Edward leaves and overeagerly asks Roman, "You doing the old cocaine? None Earlier this week, The Atlantic published a story that might resonate with "Succession" fans. It's a deep dive into the increasingly contentious relationship between President Trump's children, who, according to the article, have seen their career goals, political ideals and positions within the family business change significantly as their father has become one of the most towering and divisive cultural figures of his era. Sound familiar? | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
SAN FRANCISCO Computer security experts have discovered two major security flaws in the microprocessors inside nearly all of the world's computers. The two problems, called Meltdown and Spectre, could allow hackers to steal the entire memory contents of computers, including mobile devices, personal computers and servers running in so called cloud computer networks. There is no easy fix for Spectre, which could require redesigning the processors, according to researchers. As for Meltdown, the software patch needed to fix the issue could slow down computers by as much as 30 percent an ugly situation for people used to fast downloads from their favorite online services. "What actually happens with these flaws is different and what you do about them is different," said Paul Kocher, a researcher who was an integral member of a team of researchers at big tech companies like Google and Rambus and in academia that discovered the flaws. Meltdown is a particular problem for the cloud computing services run by the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft. By Wednesday evening, Google and Microsoft said they had updated their systems to deal with the flaw. Amazon told customers of its Amazon Web Services cloud service that the vulnerability "has existed for more than 20 years in modern processor architectures." It said that it had already protected nearly all instances of A.W.S. and that customers must update their own software running atop the service as well. To take advantage of Meltdown, hackers could rent space on a cloud service, just like any other business customer. Once they were on the service, the flaw would allow them to grab information like passwords from other customers. That is a major threat to the way cloud computing systems operate. Cloud services often share machines among many customers and it is uncommon for, say, a single server to be dedicated to a single customer. Though security tools and protocols are intended to separate customers' data, the recently discovered chip flaws would allow bad actors to circumvent these protections. The personal computers used by consumers are also vulnerable, but hackers would have to first find a way to run software on a personal computer before they could gain access to information elsewhere on the machine. There are various ways that could happen: Attackers could fool consumers into downloading software in an email, from an app store or visiting an infected website. According to the researchers, the Meltdown flaw affects virtually every microprocessor made by Intel, which makes chips used in more than 90 percent of the computer servers that underpin the internet and private business operations. Customers of Microsoft, the maker of the Windows operating system, will need to install an update from the company to fix the problem. The worldwide community of coders that oversees the open source Linux operating system, which runs about 30 percent of computer servers worldwide, has already posted a patch for that operating system. Apple had a partial fix for the problem and is expected to have an additional update. The software patches could slow the performance of affected machines by 20 to 30 percent, said Andres Freund, an independent software developer who has tested the new Linux code. The researchers who discovered the flaws voiced similar concerns. This could become a significant issue for any business running websites and other software through cloud systems. There is no evidence that hackers have taken advantage of the vulnerability at least not yet. But once a security problem becomes public, computer users take a big risk if they do not install a patch to fix the issue. A so called ransomware attack that hit computers around the world last year took advantage of machines that had not received a patch for a flaw in Windows software. The other flaw, Spectre, affects most processors now in use, though the researchers believe this flaw is more difficult to exploit. There is no known fix for it, and it is not clear what chip makers like Intel will do to address the problem. It is not certain what the disclosure of the chip issues will do to Intel's business, and on Wednesday, the Silicon Valley giant played down the problem. "Intel and other technology companies have been made aware of new security research describing software analysis methods that, when used for malicious purposes, have the potential to improperly gather sensitive data from computing devices that are operating as designed," the company said in a statement. "Intel believes these exploits do not have the potential to corrupt, modify or delete data." The researchers who discovered the flaws notified various affected companies. And as is common practice when such problems are identified, they tried to keep the news from the public so hackers could not take advantage of the flaws before they were fixed. But on Tuesday, news of the Meltdown flaw began to leak through various news websites, including The Register, a science and technology site based in Britain. So the researchers released papers describing the flaws on Wednesday, much earlier than they had planned. For now, computer security experts are using a patch, called Kaiser, that was originally discovered by researchers at the Graz University of Technology in Austria to respond to a separate issue last year. Spectre will be much more difficult to deal with than issuing a software patch. The Meltdown flaw is specific to Intel, but Spectre is a flaw in design that has been used by many processor manufacturers for decades. It affects virtually all microprocessors on the market, including chips made by AMD that share Intel's design and the many chips based on designs from ARM in Britain. Spectre is a problem in the fundamental way processors are designed, and the threat from Spectre is "going to live with us for decades," said Mr. Kocher, the president and chief scientist at Cryptography Research, a division of Rambus. "Whereas Meltdown is an urgent crisis, Spectre affects virtually all fast microprocessors," Mr. Kocher said. An emphasis on speed while designing new chips has left them vulnerable to security issues, he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Summoning our courage, my husband and I knocked on the unmarked door of the Convento di San Francesco, a 13th century monastery in the Tuscan hill town of San Miniato. Then we stood back to wait. As shadows lengthened across the stone wall, I began to second guess our decision to throw a few clothes into a backpack, board a regional train and flee the crowds of Florence in an attempt to find an ancient pilgrimage route called the Via Francigena and walk it south for four days, to Siena. When at last a sound came from within, it was not reassuring: a deep, resounding clang of metal on metal. Footsteps approached the door, and a tall, gaunt man in a button down shirt opened it. "Pellegrini!" my husband, Jesse, and I blurted pilgrims, one of the few words of Italian we knew. We were in Italy on our honeymoon, and in front of this doorway because we had read about the Via Francigena at home in Northern California, and been tantalized by descriptions of a beautiful, historical footpath welcoming of religious and secular pilgrims alike, in the manner of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. While not religious, both of us had found spiritual meaning in outdoor adventures and physical challenges in the past, and a long walk into the unknown together struck us as the perfect way to cement the start of a marriage. So here we were, even though we had been able to find little information on the practicalities of planning a Via Francigena trip. We would show up, we told ourselves, and figure it out. The man hesitated and then waved us inside. Moments later we were bounding after him up a stone staircase, down a hallway with a painted sign on the wall that commanded "SILENCIUM," under a low lintel, and into a room with two cots and an achingly lovely view of the sunset over the valley and town below. Then he left us, and we turned to each other, almost laughing in relief and surprise. We were inside. Our pilgrimage had begun. That evening in the monastery's cavernous dining room, we gathered with the same man (he turned out to be a priest named Father Luigi), four other pilgrims and a white haired monk in a brown cassock, over a meal of soup, sliced meat, stewed vegetables and bread, washed down with Chianti from a jug. The official history of the Via Francigena begins with Sigeric, an archbishop of Canterbury who traveled to Rome in A.D. 990 to receive honors from Pope John XV. The detailed journal that he kept, describing his 79 stage trip back to England, became the basis for the Via Francigena, one of the main pilgrimage routes of the Middle Ages. Almost forgotten for centuries, the Via Francigena (pronounced Fran CHEE ge na, it means "the road that comes from France") has been experiencing a revival in recent decades. In the 1980s, an archaeologist named Giovanni Caselli retraced the route from Sigeric's original document and found much of it still passable on foot. In 1994, the Council of Europe designated the Via Francigena a Cultural Route, and it is now the subject of local and national government efforts to increase its popularity with tourists. (The entire trail, nearly 1,300 miles long, runs through England, France, Switzerland and Italy.) After dinner, the cassocked monk circled the table with a plate of tiny fruit pies he had made himself. As I bit into mine flaky, delicious and not too sweet I slipped into the illusion that I'd already been in this ancient, soothing place a long time, my life's messy logic replaced completely by the simple, appealing shape of the journey. In the morning, two pilgrims from Turin told us we could walk with them that day. Father Luigi gave Jesse and me our pilgrim's passports, and he slipped a wooden Franciscan cross on a slender brown thread around each of our necks. Our new friends introduced themselves as Roberto and Ceppo. In their late 40s and best friends since kindergarten, they told us that they hike a portion of the Via Francigena together every year, for spirituality and for fun. Their destination was Gambassi Terme, a 15 mile ramble to the south. For most of the day we walked on a packed dirt track, following a ridgeline in the Val d'Elsa. Though it was high season for tourism, we passed almost no one. We crossed through fields of knee high grasses, above irregularly shaped plots of farmland that formed a crazy quilt of gold and green. In late afternoon we arrived at Ostello Sigerico, a friendly pilgrims' hostel in a weathered stone church from the 13th century. After checking in and asking to share in the group dinner later, we walked up to town for a beer and a snack. In a leafy piazza, we played a game of foosball with our Italian friends, who won handily. Ceppo answered a cellphone call from his mom in Turin, while Roberto, for our benefit, gently poked fun at her intensive Italian mothering: "Is your bag heavy? Have you eaten?" In fact, light bags and full stomachs are among the main pleasures of a walk on the Tuscan stretch of the Via Francigena. Walking stimulates the appetite, and each day's efforts end in a variation on a theme: local wine, hearty food and a real bed, luxuries almost impossible in the United States, where multiday walks usually mean wilderness backpacking. The next day, Jesse and I struck out alone for San Gimignano, a hill town and Unesco World Heritage site that is sometimes called the Manhattan of the Middle Ages for the 14 towers that adorn its skyline. Though the route is short, just eight miles, it's hilly, and the heat of the day added to the challenge. While we walked on a chalky white road through vineyards, the vines bursting with the new, bright green leaves of springtime, I tried to define what's so pleasant about traveling by foot. There is something addictive about the sense of purpose that comes from starting each day with a destination firmly in mind. To walk a path is to not be hectored by the endless choices that usually beset a tourist and that constraint, paradoxically, leaves one more open to the experiences that do arise. In midafternoon, a view of San Gimignano's famous spires peeked through the trees, and soon we joined a road filled with cyclists in bright spandex outfits. Roberto and Ceppo had recommended we spend the night at the 13th century Augustinian monastery in San Gimignano, a building attached to a church famous for a fresco cycle of the life of St. Augustine, painted in the 1460s by Benozzo Gozzoli. (As of this writing, the monastery no longer hosts pilgrims overnight.) Unsure of how to get in, Jesse and I wandered into the gift shop. "This isn't a hotel, it's a church," the man we encountered there snapped, in Spanish, as we fumbled to produce our pilgrim's passports. "Yes," I insisted, hoping the question was about our mode of transportation, and not our faith. At last he relented. After a skeptical comment about my flimsy Tretorn sneakers, he led us to a room with pitted walls, three narrow cots and a small tray for donations, issuing a stern reminder to leave the key in the door when we departed in the morning. And that brought us straight to the question. Were we pilgrims? And did we have any business being where we were? "I long ago gave up trying to define who is and who is not a true pilgrim," said Brian Mooney, chairman of the Confraternity of Pilgrims to Rome, a Britain based group that promotes pilgrimages. "As far as I am concerned, anyone who walks an ancient pilgrim route is ipso facto a pilgrim regardless of their religion, motive or means," he said in an email. But he also said that he frowns on affluent travelers taking advantage of welcoming monasteries. "I just draw the line at prosperous pilgrims, whether believers or secular, in exploiting religious hospitality for a subsidized holiday," he said. Alison Raju, author of an English language guide to the Via Francigena, said she believes that anyone who walks with real contemplative intent should feel welcome. Many of the pilgrims she meets are secular people who have taken the trail to process a trauma or turning point in their lives: divorce, bereavement, job loss, illness or recovery. In the morning we faced a 20 mile walk, the longest of our trip. Navigating the Via Francigena is not difficult, at least in Tuscany, where every twist and turn in the trail sports a multitude of cheerful red and white waymarkers, many bearing the trail's logo, a medieval pilgrim with a knapsack and stick. We followed the steep path downhill from the town's walls, then into a woodland where it wove past young walnut trees and a seemingly abandoned center for pig breeding. After lunch, I developed a serious blister perhaps the man at the monastery had been right about my bad shoes after all. We hobbled off the trail and into the town of Colle di val d'Elsa, where I salved my pain with espresso and pastry. It rained, and then the rain passed over, leaving roiling clouds and a silver light that intensified the colors of the landscape. We trudged through olive groves and a beautiful field where red poppies and purple flowers grew among stalks of undulating, sea green wheat. In the perfectly preserved tiny medieval walled town of Monteriggioni, we checked into a pilgrims' hostel and put our aching feet up just as a fresh fall of rain splattered the town square. About 25,000 people walked on the Via Francigena in 2015, according to Luca Bruschi, director of the European Association of the Via Francigena, most of them for short distances. The number is minuscule compared with the Camino de Santiago, where 262,459 pilgrims checked in at the pilgrim's welcome office in Santiago in 2015. But it is on the rise, in part because of the very popularity of that route; many discover the Via Francigena after walking the Camino de Santiago first, leading some to call it the "Italian Camino." On the last day of our trip, we visited an informal rest stop called the Punto Sosta ("stopping point"), a wooden picnic shelter beside a ring of tree stump seats in the front yard of a house halfway between Monteriggioni and Siena. No one was there when we arrived, so we admired the rustic furniture and kitsch art, like a mirrored sign exhorting pilgrims to upload selfies to the Punto Sosta's active Facebook page. Soon the home's owner, Marcello Pagnini, pulled up in a sporty car. He unloaded a large prosciutto ham from the trunk, carried it inside, then returned and made us espressos and sandwiches. (We placed some euros in a donation box there.) A retired hairdresser, Mr. Pagnini opened the Punto Sosta in 2012, after pilgrims began knocking on the door of his house and asking for water. On leaving, we quickly found ourselves on the outskirts of Siena. We passed a cemetery, and a wooded area with a sign forbidding passers by to forage for mushrooms or truffles, a regional specialty. After a lunch of pici pasta with sausage and truffles at a roadside restaurant, we passed through Siena's impressive walls. Florence's age old rival city has similar medieval architecture, but a scrappier feel. We liked it immediately. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
It was the promise of danger that enticed my 11 year old son. Sebastian, my oldest child, has grown up reading fantasy novels and watching "Lord of the Rings," so he knows every inch of Frodo and Sam's journey, from the Dead Marshes to Mount Doom. So this is how I sold it: We were going to Mordor. We would be crossing snowy mountain passes, black sand deserts, raging rivers and hot, acidic mud pits. It would be a fantastic adventure, with a small chance of death. Naturally, my wife bristled at the mention of mortality. "This wouldn't happen," I assured her (repeatedly), but its ever so faint possibility was crucial to the magic of the endeavor. We weren't playing on the Xbox. This was real. We were headed to the remote, volcanic highlands of Iceland and together we would live to tell the story. Salesmanship. It's a vastly underappreciated facet of parenting. It was, of course, something of a conceit. I like hiking and acidic mud pits as much as the next man, but what I really wanted was time with my son. For months, I had been sensing that he was at a precarious age no longer child, but not quite teenager and I could feel the steady tug of adolescence, like gravity, pulling him away from me. All of it was quite age appropriate. (How was your day? "Good." What do you talk about with your buddies? "Dunno.") I wanted more, but there always seemed to be homework, soccer games, track meets, sleepovers, band practice, you name it it's insane really, the number of obligations that we cram into our children's lives until we're all collectively exhausted. Sebastian and I exited the bus and did a quick equipment check boots, waterproof pants, jackets, hats, gloves, packs, deck of cards, freeze dried meals and enough Snickers bars to resuscitate six diabetics from hypoglycemia. In the warden's hut, where prospective hikers check in, the warden eyed me appraisingly. "Weather at the pass is not great," he warned. "Visibility is poor." He then asked about our gear. The moment had the somber feeling of a border crossing, as if we were on the cusp of entering a foreign land, which, in fact, we were. All of this, by the way, is typical at the start of the Laugavegur Trail; and wardens often turn people away. The trail was well marked, the warden explained, with poles every hundred yards or so. And there were plenty of other hikers. The only dicey area was the first mountain pass, just before the hut at Hrafntinnusker, where we would spend our first night. Snow and fog sometimes obscured visibility here. "You can always turn around or dial 112 on your cellphone in an emergency," he said. I hesitated. Several years back, a young Israeli died on this very pass, in a freak summer blizzard; and he wasn't the only one to perish. "We usually have one death every two years," another warden said. "We'll take it one kilometer at a time," I told myself. At the trailhead, I tried to take some weight off Sebastian's pack. He had won the state champion in the 1,500 meter for his age group, but running on a track and shouldering a pack over mountains are different tasks entirely. Sebastian gently pushed me away. "Don't think of us as father and son, just as extremely good friends, and equals," he said. The expression on his face was so proud and earnest that I had no choice but to agree. And so we began our ascent to Hrafntinnusker. We climbed up a series of gentle slopes through a vaguely lunar landscape. (It was readily apparent why, in 1960s, astronauts trained in Iceland for their visit to the moon.) We soon gazed down into Vondugil, the so called Wicked Valley a place that shepherds historically avoided because of its evil spirits and which seemed aptly named, as it lay shrouded in a gloomy mist. Sebastian was electrified by it all. When we saw puffs of vapor, in the distance, he bounded up the mountain until we discovered a blowhole where steam hissed. Moments later, he yelled: "Look Dad, look!" I was doubtful about what could warrant such exuberance, until I turned and saw a pond bubbling to a boil. As we neared the mountain pass, the rocky terrain vanished, giving way to snow and ice. We could have been in Antarctica. The trail was marked with tall stone cairns, which flickered in and out of view, as low lying clouds swept over us. Instinctively, we reached out and held hands. I felt Sebastian squeeze my fingers. I looked over at him to make sure he was all right. His eyes were gleaming with determination. It was Sebastian who spotted the memorial for the young Israeli Ido Keinan a modest pile of stones with a metal plaque. The frightening part was just how close Keinan was to safety when he died. Just a few hundred yards later we reached the Hrafntinnusker hut. The two wardens who maintained it a young British couple, Katie Featherstone and Daniel de Maine welcomed us. It was not fancy a few spartanly furnished rooms and a kitchen but it was warm, safe and dry. As afternoon turned into evening, the weather steadily worsened. The wind intensified, visibility dropped and the air grew colder. Other hikers arrived, including a large contingent from South Korea, filling the small house to capacity: 52 people unfurled their sleeping bags in every nook and cranny. (Spaces at these huts are hard to come by; typically, reservations must be made months in advance.) Outside, a handful of brave souls pitched tents. Around 8:30 p.m., three young women from California arrived. They were cold, wet and spooked. They did not have reservations and they hadn't checked in with the warden at Landmannalaugar. Katie told them, gently but firmly, that there was no room; they'd have to pitch their tent and make it through the night. If the situation turned dire, Katie said she would open the doors. It was a challenging situation, but one that she and Daniel were up to. Before coming to Iceland, they had volunteered at a refugee camp in Calais, France. "There was a lot of saying 'no' to people in France people in considerably worse situations," Daniel recalled with regret. As we began our descent into the valley, whose slopes were covered with electric green moss, it felt as if we had emerged from the moon, and then the arctic, only to find ourselves in the glens of Scotland. Sebastian didn't complain, but I could see that he was cold. When we reached the river, the water came up past our knees, and we had no choice but to take off our boots and cross in hiking sandals. The water, which was snowmelt, numbed our feet; when we reached the far bank, Sebastian was shivering. I knelt down, put his socks back on, and tied his boots like I once did when he was a small child. "Dad," he said in a quiet voice. "I love you." We shouldered our packs and, as quickly as we could, completed the last leg of the journey, across the valley, to Alftavatn. Here we found our hut and the trail's legendary bar in an adjoining shack. We were the first hikers to arrive and had the bar to ourselves. It was a cramped, cozy space with the scent of chicken stew in the air and a guitar on the wall for patrons to play. Sebastian inhaled a brownie, and I downed a beer, while the two barkeeps Maria and Anton, a young Bulgarian couple talked about why they had chosen to live in Iceland. "It's a magical place that has a special energy," Anton explained. "They say whatever you wish for, can happen there ... If you ask for cheese ..." "You can find it ...," Anton said. " ... Even without going to the shop," finished Maria. There was a trippy "Alice in Wonderland" quality to their words, but in our state of considerable fatigue, it seemed appropriately dreamy. I asked Anton about a gold medal, mounted on the wall, with the inscription: DIDN'T MURDER ANYONE TODAY. "Ah, yes ... We didn't understand that when we first came here," he said, with a wry smile. "But now, after seeing so many panicked people, we understand. When you are in survival mode, you forget manners." This had been the case the previous week, when severe winds necessitated an emergency evacuation of roughly 100 campers from Alftavatn. An hour or so later, the weather cleared. Entirely. Wind died. Rain stopped. Clouds parted. And then rich, golden sunshine poured from the heavens, while every last beleaguered hiker posted the same image to Instagram: IcelandicGodbeam and PraisedBeJesus. Our surroundings, which we could only now grasp for the first time, were jaw dropping: green hills, snow capped peaks and the lake itself utterly still a black, Tahitian pearl embedded in the earth. That evening, in the hut, the South Korea hikers invited us to join them for a raucous dinner of fish, kimchi and vodka. Everyone toasted Sebastian for his stamina and he delighted in the attention. The next morning, Sebastian and I set off across a sprawling, black sand desert, hemmed in by mountains and glaciers. The weather was perfect sunny with a slight chill in the air and we chatted as we walked. "Dad, tell me your life story," he said. He wasn't joking, so I obliged him and did my best not to sugarcoat it as if, in his words, we were just "extremely good friends." I told him about growing up, and working crummy jobs, and where I was on Sept. 11, and why my parents got divorced, and how I fell in love with his mother. And he talked, too. He recalled memories from the age of 5, when we lived in India, and he walked to school past ramshackle homes and yards with red eyed rabbits. After the trials of the previous day, we savored the conversation. The sun got stronger, necessitating us to look for our sunscreen, which I could not find. Sebastian grabbed my cellphone and, to my amazement, used FaceTime for an impromptu videoconference with my wife in Connecticut. "It's in that little side pocket in Sebastian's pack," she said. "Now hold up the camera, so I can make sure Dad puts it on properly." Alas, our male bonding was briefly interrupted and sunburns were avoided. We spent that night at the mountain outpost of Emstrur and, the following day, finished the trail to its end in Thorsmork. The weather remained perfect and we talked a great deal more, even as the bus carried us back to civilization to the tidy streets of Reykjavik. On our last night in Iceland, we feasted on sushi, and then returned to the hotel. We had adjacent twin beds. Sebastian dozed off immediately and then rolled over, in his sleep, so he was snuggled close, with his gangly arms draped over me. It was late by then, almost 10 o'clock, but the sky was still awash in light the slow burn of northern twilight. Soon our busy lives would resume. School would start. Days would pass. My son would grow up. But for now, I cheated time, and dusk lingered. Follow NY Times Travel on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Get weekly updates from our Travel Dispatch newsletter, with tips on traveling smarter, destination coverage and photos from all over the world. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Shan Boodram has more than 500,000 online followers and a deal to make a show for the mobile video platform Quibi. LOS ANGELES Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, the founders of Quibi, a short form video app scheduled for an April 6 debut, are trying to create a platform for the smartphone age. To entice subscribers, they have ordered big budget shows from known quantities like Kevin Hart and Steven Spielberg but they have turned to social media stars for the kind of casual, low commitment programming that could make Quibi a daily habit. Shan Boodram, a 34 year old sex educator with 506,000 YouTube subscribers and 260,000 Instagram followers, will host "Sexology With Shan" five days a week. Another social media influencer who has signed a deal with Quibi, Rachel Hollis, has 1.6 million Instagram followers and will be the host of "The Rachel Hollis Show," a daily show of bite size bits of motivation for young mothers. Mr. Katzenberg likened Ms. Boodram and Ms. Hollis to the talk show hosts who made their names in an earlier media age. "When we find someone we have a connection with, we tend to be loyal," he said in an interview. "Ellen. Oprah. Dr. Ruth. We hope that's what Shan is going to do, what Rachel is going to do." Mr. Katzenberg, a onetime chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and Ms. Whitman, a former head of eBay and Hewlett Packard, will be competing to some extent against Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. They predict that most of their audience, however, will tune in during the daytime hours, when YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitch are most active. 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. Quibi has handed some of the 1 billion it raised to other online influencers, including Willam Belli, who will be the host of a fashion show called "Fashion's a Drag." Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings will create a version of their popular podcast, "The Nod," for the platform. And the figure skater Adam Rippon will host "This Day in Useless Celebrity History." These digital stars will not abandon social media for Quibi, but Mr. Katzenberg said he hoped that having a solid group of them in one place along with short form programming from ESPN, NBC News, TMZ and Telemundo will persuade their fans to pay the 8 monthly subscription fee (or 5 for an ad supported version). "Information today is in the same place as music was seven to eight years ago," Mr. Katzenberg said. "We have all found our little ways, our tricks to pull from different places and piece together those pieces of information that are important to us: news, fashion, sports. But those things are not professionally curated, not professionally produced and not convenient." For Ms. Hollis, part of Quibi's appeal is that it is not proven. "There have been plenty of times over the years where I've tried a new platform, got real excited about it and maybe it didn't work out," she said. "But as an influencer, what everyone dreams about, literally, is being an early adopter. The magic is being the first person to step into the space." Quibi plans to offer three tiers of programming. At the top will be the big budget content, with high production values things like "Spielberg's After Dark," a horror anthology series that will be available on the app only after the sun goes down. In the middle will be reality programming from Jennifer Lopez and others. The shows made by the influencers will fall into the third tier, which Quibi calls Daily Essentials. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
The drama "A Regular Woman" depicts the true story of Hatun Surucu known to her friends as Aynur a German woman of Turkish Kurdish descent who was shot and killed by her brother in 2005. (The brother who pulled the trigger pleaded guilty in German courts, while two different brothers were recently acquitted of the crime, a so called honor killing that made international news and inspired an earlier 2011 film.) This version, an exhausting exercise in condescension, jarringly begins with news footage from the actual murder scene. With a dead body on the ground, the fictionalized voice over begins: Aynur (Almila Bagriacik) narrates from beyond the grave as actors portray real events, from Aynur's marriage to a cousin in Istanbul to her choice to leave the family home dominated by her brothers in favor of the life, clothes and partners of her choosing. It ends with the trial that saw her brothers prosecuted for murder. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
'ARTS OF CHINA' and 'ARTS OF JAPAN' at the Brooklyn Museum (ongoing). Redesigning an American museum's Asian wing is no mean feat. But these exhibitions, reopened after a six year renovation, successfully integrate stunning pieces by contemporary Chinese and Japanese artists into the institution's century old collection of antiquities, drawing 5,000 years of art into a single thrilling conversation. Look out for the 14th century wine jar decorated with whimsical paintings of a whitefish, a mackerel, a freshwater perch and a carp four fish whose Chinese names are homophones for a phrase meaning "honest and incorruptible." (Will Heinrich) 718 638 5000, brooklynmuseum.com 'AUSCHWITZ. NOT LONG AGO. NOT FAR AWAY' at the Museum of Jewish Heritage (through Aug. 30). Killing as a communal business, made widely lucrative by the Third Reich, permeates this traveling exhibition about the largest German death camp, Auschwitz, whose yawning gatehouse, with its converging rail tracks, has become emblematic of the Holocaust. Well timed, during a worldwide surge of anti Semitism, the harrowing installation strives, successfully, for fresh relevance. The exhibition illuminates the topography of evil, the deliberate designing of a hell on earth by fanatical racists and compliant architects and provisioners, while also highlighting the strenuous struggle for survival in a place where, as Primo Levi learned, "there is no why." (Ralph Blumenthal) 646 437 4202, mjhnyc.org 'AGNES DENES: ABSOLUTES AND INTERMEDIATES' at the Shed (through March 22). We'll be lucky this art season if we get another exhibition as tautly beautiful as this long overdue Denes retrospective. Now 88, the artist is best known for her 1982 "Wheatfield: A Confrontation," for which she sowed and harvested two acres of wheat on Hudson River landfill within sight of the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty. Her later ecology minded work has included creating a hilltop forest of 11,000 trees planted by 11,000 volunteers in Finland (each tree is deeded to the planter), though many of her projects exist only in the form of the exquisite drawings that make up much of this show. (Holland Cotter) 646 455 3494, theshed.org 'THE GREAT HALL COMMISSION: KENT MONKMAN, MISTIKOSIWAK (WOODEN BOAT PEOPLE)' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through April 9). The second in a series of contemporary works sponsored by the Met consists of two monumental new paintings by the Canadian artist Kent Monkman, installed inside the museum's main entrance. Each measuring almost 11 by 22 feet, the pictures are narratives inspired by a Euro American tradition of history painting but entirely present tense and polemical in theme. Monkman, 54, a Canadian artist of mixed Cree and Irish heritage, makes the colonial violence done to North America's first peoples his central subject but, crucially, flips the cliche of Native American victimhood on its head. In these paintings, Indigenous peoples are immigrant welcoming rescuers, led by the heroic figure of Monkman's alter ego, the gender fluid tribal leader Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, avatar of the global future that will see humankind moving beyond the wars of identity racial, sexual, political in which it is now fatefully immersed. (Cotter) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org 'EDITH HALPERT AND THE RISE OF AMERICAN ART' at the Jewish Museum (through Feb. 9). This rare show covers the life of an influential art gallery, founded in 1926 by Halpert. Skilled at both business and publicity, she represented stellar prewar American artists like Stuart Davis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Charles Sheeler and Jacob Lawrence, promoted folk art and selected some wonderful pieces for her own collection, which have a room of their own here. (Roberta Smith) 212 423 3200, thejewishmuseum.org 'THE JIM HENSON EXHIBITION' at the Museum of the Moving Image (ongoing). The rainbow connection has been established in Astoria, Queens, where this museum has opened a new permanent wing devoted to the career of America's great puppeteer, who was born in Mississippi in 1936 and died, too young, in 1990. Henson began presenting the short TV program "Sam and Friends" before he was out of his teens; one of its characters, the soft faced Kermit, was fashioned from his mother's old coat and would not mature into a frog for more than a decade. The influence of early variety television, with its succession of skits and songs, runs through "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show," though Henson also spent the late 1960s crafting peace and love documentaries and prototyping a psychedelic nightclub. Young visitors will delight in seeing Big Bird, Elmo, Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef; adults can dig deep into sketches and storyboards and rediscover some old friends. (Jason Farago) 718 784 0077, movingimage.us 'IN PURSUIT OF FASHION: THE SANDY SCHREIER COLLECTION' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through May 17). Featuring 80 pieces of clothing and accessories, this exhibition is, more than anything else, the reflection of one woman's love affair with fashion. Schreier's collection, and the part of it on view at the Met, contains all the major names, but what defines it more than anything else is her own appreciation for pretty things. Hidden away between the Balenciagas and the Chanels, the Diors and the Adrians, are treasures by little known or even unknown designers that are a delight to discover. Three origin unknown flapper dresses from the 1920s, beaded to within an inch of their glittering seams, matched only in their lavish surprise by three elaborately printed velvets of the same era two capes and a column by Maria Monaci Gallenga, so plush you can practically stroke the weft with your eyes. It is these less famous names whose impact lingers, in part because they are so unexpected. (Vanessa Friedman) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead. 'THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ALVIN BALTROP' at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (through Feb. 9). New York City is a gateway for new talent. It's also an archive of art careers past. Some come to light only after artists have departed, as is the case with Baltrop, an American photographer who was unknown to the mainstream art world when he died in 2004 at 55, and who now has a bright monument of a retrospective at this Bronx museum. That he was black, gay and working class accounts in part for his invisibility, but so does the subject matter he chose: a string of derelict Hudson River shipping piers that, in the 1970s and '80s, became a preserve for gay sex and communion. In assiduously recording both the architecture of the piers and the amorous action they housed, Baltrop created a monument to the city itself at the time when it was both falling apart and radiating liberationist energy. (Cotter) 718 681 6000, bronxmuseum.org 'OCEAN WONDERS: SHARKS!' at the New York Aquarium (ongoing). For years, the aquarium's 14 acre campus hunkered behind a wall, turning its back to the beach. When aquarium officials finally got around to completing the long promised building that houses this shark exhibition, maybe the biggest architectural move was breaking through that wall. The overall effect makes the aquarium more of a visible, welcoming presence along the boardwalk. Inside, "Ocean Wonders" features 115 species sharing 784,000 gallons of water. It stresses timely eco consciousness, introducing visitors to shark habitats, explaining how critical sharks are to the ocean's food chains and ecologies, debunking myths about the danger sharks pose to people while documenting the threats people pose to sharks via overfishing and pollution. The narrow, snaking layout suggests an underwater landscape carved by water. Past the exit, an outdoor ramp inclines visitors toward the roof of the building, where the Atlantic Ocean suddenly spreads out below. You can see Luna Park in one direction, Brighton Beach in the other. The architectural point becomes clear: Sharks aren't just movie stars and aquarium attractions. They're also our neighbors as much a part of Coney Island as the roller coasters and summer dreams. (Michael Kimmelman) 718 265 3474, nyaquarium.com 'CHARLES RAY AND THE HILL COLLECTION' at the Hill Art Foundation (through Feb. 15). This Los Angeles based sculptor is one of the most painstaking artists working today; he's certainly among the slowest, taking years to finish a single statue of silver or aluminum, and that makes every exhibition of his an event. This knife sharp show, which Ray has installed himself with his habitual exactitude, contrasts five bronzes of the 15th and 16th centuries (of a lion, of Bacchus, of Christ on the cross) with his own sculptures of a sleeping mime reclining on a daybed, or a mountain lion tearing into a stray dog in the Hollywood Hills. Where his Renaissance and Baroque predecessors used molds and wax to cast their sculptures, Ray relies on 3 D scanning and CNC machining: highly precise technologies that translate objects into data that can be output to a robotic mill. But his concerns are the same as artists 500 years gone how bodies can be transubstantiated into precious metal, and take on new meaning and value. (Farago) 212 337 4455, hillartfoundation.org 'T. REX: THE ULTIMATE PREDATOR' at the American Museum of Natural History (through Aug. 9). Everyone's favorite 18,000 pound prehistoric killer gets the star treatment in this eye opening exhibition, which presents the latest scientific research on T. rex and also introduces many other tyrannosaurs, some discovered only in this century in China and Mongolia. T. rex evolved mainly during the Cretaceous period to have keen eyes, spindly arms and massive conical teeth, which packed a punch that has never been matched by any other creature; the dinosaur could even swallow whole bones, as affirmed here by a kid friendly display of fossilized excrement. The show mixes 66 million year old teeth with the latest 3 D prints of dino bones, and also presents new models of T. rex as a baby, a juvenile and a full grown annihilator. Turns out this most savage beast was covered with believe it! a soft coat of beige or white feathers. (Farago) 212 769 5100, amnh.org 'ARTIST IN EXILE: THE VISUAL DIARY OF BARONESS HYDE DE NEUVILLE' at the New York Historical Society (through Jan. 26). Born in Sancerre, France, and banished to America at the beginning of the 19th century, Neuville was self taught but a quick study, and the swift arc of her proficiency is obvious in this exhibition of over 110 watercolors and drawings. Neuville used a portable watercolor paint box, a new contraption back then, to document landscapes and people, flora and fauna, factories and mansions throughout the Eastern Seaboard and New York State. Although Neuville traveled in privileged circles, she produced some of the most accurate and sympathetic portraits of marginalized Native Americans and mixed race and enslaved people from that period. (Martha Schwendener) 212 873 3400, nyhistory.org 'HANS HAACKE: ALL CONNECTED' at New Museum (through Jan. 26). For this German born American artist, what matters most about art is what you can't see: the hidden systems of class, power and capital that assign value and importance to the pictures and objects we see. Haacke won fame and grief in the 1970s for polling museumgoers about their beliefs and their bank accounts, and for deadpan installations that disclosed one collector's links to the Nazis, another's to the coup d'etat in Chile. There's no denying these midcareer works were Haacke's best: His early fan blown tarps or water pumping tubes look hippie dippie today, while more recent antigovernment installations (torn flags, MAGA hats, dismembered Statue of Liberty dolls) are embarrassing. But his example pervades the work of today's young artists, who never even knew a time before we were all connected. (Farago) 212 219 1222, newmuseum.org 'MEMORY PALACES: INSIDE THE COLLECTION OF AUDREY B. HECKLER' at the American Folk Art Museum (through Jan. 26). "Outsider art" is more of a sociological phenomenon than a genre. But in this exhibition, you do find a certain consistency. Heckler, a trustee of the museum, began collecting around the time of New York's first Outsider Art Fair, in 1993, and she's assembled a comprehensive introduction to all the category's varieties, from the stark, primordial silhouettes of Bill Traylor to the exacting architectural drawings of Achilles G. Rizzoli; from Henry Darger's uniquely majestic epic of little girls battling evil to George Widener's endless numerology. With about 160 works, from all over the world, the show can be hard to take in, unless you fix your attention on a few favorites. My own would be a handful of sublime paintings and drawings by Thornton Dial Sr. and by Martin Ramirez, the Mexican rancher who spent half his life confined to midcentury American psychiatric institutions. (Heinrich) 212 595 9533, folkartmuseum.org 'NATURE: COOPER HEWITT MUSEUM DESIGN TRIENNIAL' at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (through Jan. 20). Plastics transformed the material world after World War II. Today, they pollute our oceans. A better future will be made with ... algae. Or bacteria. That's the dominant theme of this sweeping exhibition. On display here at the Smithsonian's temple to the culture of design are objects you might once have expected only at a science museum: Proteins found in silkworms are repurposed as surgical screws and optical lenses. Electrically active bacteria power a light fixture. The triennial displays some 60 projects and products from around the world that define a reconciliation of biosphere and technosphere, as Koert van Mensvoort, a Dutch artist and philosopher, puts it in the show's excellent catalog. "Nature" provides us with a post consumption future, in which the urgency of restoring ecological function trumps the allure of the latest gadget. (James S. Russell) 212 849 2950, cooperhewitt.org 'FELIX VALLOTTON: PAINTER OF DISQUIET' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through Jan. 26). New York's first survey in around 50 years of this Swiss born French artist dazzles, intrigues and puzzles. It showcases his revolutionary woodblocks of the 1890s, which unblinkingly and inventively satirize the political, social and especially marital hypocrisies of the bourgeois. These themes continue in his paintings, where he sits out modernist abstraction, preferring instead to explore his brilliant rendering techniques and the different representational styles advanced and less so they enabled. (Smith) 212 535 7710, metmuseum.org | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
WASHINGTON Twitter said on Tuesday that it would bring more transparency to advertisements on its site, including political ads, in the latest response by a technology company to criticism about its role in spreading foreign propaganda during the 2016 presidential campaign. The company said that under its new rules, users would be able to see who had created an ad, how long an ad had been running and how the ad was targeted toward a specific user. Political ads for a candidate or party would carry a special label to make them stand out. Twitter said it would disclose who had paid for the election advertisement and allow users to find information about the buyer, including ad spending history and ad targeting practices. In a blog post outlining its plans, Twitter said it would also create stricter requirements for who could purchase political ads. The company said it would also limit targeting options and create stronger penalties for violators. Twitter said it would put some of these changes in place in the coming weeks, starting in the United States and then expanding globally. The announcement is part of a major shift in the industry to lift the veil over how its secretive advertising businesses its cash centers work, as lawmakers put more pressure on social media companies about the role their sites played in Russia's attempt to influence the election. Twitter, Facebook and Google are scheduled to appear for hearings before the Senate and House Intelligence Committees on Nov. 1. Lawmakers like Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, have expressed frustration about Twitter. In late September, he said Twitter's response was "inadequate" when it was asked to provide evidence of Russian linked advertising and accounts that spread misinformation or were used to favor a presidential candidate. At the time, Twitter said it had discovered about 200 accounts linked to Russian efforts to influence the election. But that figure was significantly less than the number uncovered a month earlier by researchers from the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan initiative of the German Marshall Fund, the public policy research group in Washington. The researchers tracked 600 Twitter accounts both human and suspected automated "bots" that they linked to Russian attempts to influence the election. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said that the company's announcement did not go far enough and that online companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google needed rules that the government could enforce. Last week, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Warner and Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, introduced a bill that would require digital platforms to report who bought political ads on their sites in the same way that TV broadcast stations must maintain databases with those disclosures. The bill was a response to concern that fake accounts linked to Russia on Facebook and other sites were able to fly past monitors on the sites and easily buy thousands of ads promoting racial and other hot button issues to sow chaos before the election and to influence the result. "I welcome this transparency," Ms. Klobuchar said, "but we need a law in place for two major reasons: Not every company will do this, and you need rules for the road." She added that the companies should not be left to police themselves. The announcement from Twitter followed a public relations blitz this month by Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, to announce similar voluntary efforts to tighten standards for ad buyers. Lawmakers are still skeptical, saying there are many unanswered questions about whether the social media sites can prevent the mistakes of the 2016 election on their own. The changes also raise new issues for politicians. For one, advertising agencies often consider their digital strategy part of their "secret sauce" when trying to sell their services to politicians and campaign strategists. Shining a light on the types of ads, the amount spent on them and how often they change could give valuable information to competing candidates. It is also unclear whether Twitter will be able to keep up with campaigns' ever changing digital targeting, budgets and goals, and the company did not mention how it plans to tackle large scale misinformation spread by bots. Many of those automated accounts, along with Twitter users with suspected ties to the Russian government, bombarded the platform without buying advertising. Researchers at the cybersecurity firm FireEye discovered that hundreds or thousands of fake accounts regularly sent out messages criticizing Hillary Clinton sometimes with identical tweets dispatched seconds apart. Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said transparency in advertising alone "is not a solution to the deployment of bots that amplify fake or misleading content or to the successful efforts of online trolls to promote divisive messages." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Three years ago, Seattle became one of the first jurisdictions in the nation to embrace a 15 an hour minimum wage, to be phased in over several years. Over the past week, two studies have purported to demonstrate the effects of the first stages of that increase but with starkly diverging results. The first study, by a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, supports the conclusion of numerous studies before it, that increasing the minimum wage up to a level that is about half or less of an area's typical wage leads to at most a small reduction in employment. That roughly describes Seattle, which first increased its minimum wage to 11 an hour from 9.47 for large businesses in April 2015, then to 13 an hour for many of those businesses in January 2016. (Small businesses, and large ones that provide health insurance for workers, had lower increases.) The Berkeley study focused on the restaurant industry because of the high proportion of restaurant workers who are paid the minimum wage. It found that for every 10 percent that the minimum wage rose, wages in the industry rose nearly 1 percent, and that there was no discernible effect on employment. By contrast, the second study, which a group of researchers at the University of Washington released on Monday, suggests that the minimum wage has had a far more negative effect on employment than even skeptics of minimum wage increases typically find. (Neither study has been formally peer reviewed.) The University of Washington authors held one significant advantage over other economists studying the issue: detailed data on hours and earnings for workers affected by the increase. This data allowed the researchers to measure the effects of the minimum wage on workers in all industries rather than relying on restaurants as a stand in, a common technique. It also allowed them to measure a change in hours worked, a potentially more complete indication of the effect of a minimum wage increase than the employee head count that many studies use. The University of Washington researchers found that the minimum wage increase resulted in higher wages, but also a significant reduction in the working hours of low wage earners. This was especially true of the more recent minimum wage increase, from as high as 11 an hour to up to 13 an hour in 2016. In that case, wages rose about 3 percent, but the number of hours worked by those in low wage jobs dropped about 9 percent a sizable amount that led to a net loss of earnings on average. But experts on the minimum wage questioned the methods of the University of Washington researchers. Most seriously, skeptics argue that the researchers confused the effects of a minimum wage increase with the effects of a hot labor market. During a boom, which Seattle has experienced in recent years, employers bid up wages, effectively replacing low wage jobs with higher paying ones. Under such a scenario, one would expect to see a decline in the overall number of hours worked in low wage jobs. In their place would be a significant increase in hours worked at somewhat higher paying jobs. "The key challenge this study faces is how to separate the normal shift that's happening in a booming labor market where low wage jobs disappear and are replaced by higher wage jobs from an actual increase in the minimum wage," said Ben Zipperer, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. "This study exhibits signs that it's not able to do it." The most reliable way to distinguish between the two scenarios, both of which are consistent with the data in the University of Washington study, is to compare Seattle with a similar city that did not raise its minimum wage. If the comparison city, known as a control, did not experience a loss in hours worked similar to Seattle's, this would suggest that the minimum wage increase was to blame for the reduction of hours in Seattle. If the comparison city did experience a loss in hours similar to Seattle's, then the booming labor market could be the culprit in both places. Stocks rise after President Biden says Jerome Powell will stay atop the Fed. Retail earnings and Black Friday: the week in business. The University of Washington study essentially constructed such a control by splicing together other areas of Washington State, an analytical tool known as a synthetic control. In doing so, the researchers found that the decline in hours in Seattle was unique. The control did not exhibit a similar pattern of lower hours. But Mr. Zipperer was skeptical that the control is valid. He argued that there is, in effect, only one Seattle in the state of Washington only one large city with a booming labor market. As a result, the control may not be much of a control at all: It does not illustrate what would happen absent a minimum wage increase in a booming city like Seattle. It illustrates what would happen absent a minimum wage increase in a city that is not booming. This, in turn, invites the original question: Is Seattle's boom driving the loss of low paying work, or is its minimum wage increase to blame? Micah Simler, whose window washing business in Seattle has three employees and 15 contractors, said he had already been paying much more than 15 an hour because of the local economy, not the wage law. "Seattle is in a boom time right now, and I'm competing with construction companies" and many other businesses for employees, he said. The 15 an hour minimum wage went into effect for large businesses that do not provide health insurance on Jan. 1 of this year, and it will gradually go into effect for other businesses in future years. Others in the business community believe the minimum wage increases may be having a negative effect on employment. "We think the U.W. study needs to be taken seriously by the city because the data echoes the anecdotes we've been hearing," said Jillian Henze, a spokeswoman for the Seattle Restaurant Alliance. Mark C. Long, one of the authors of the University of Washington study, said he felt reasonably confident in his team's results because the largest loss of hours occurred in 2016, just after the minimum wage increase to 13 an hour went into effect. "You see the biggest difference in the effect when the minimum wage increased from 11 to 13," he said. "The timing suggests it's the minimum wage" as opposed to a booming economy. Still, there is some evidence that Seattle's labor market shifted into overdrive around the time of the larger minimum wage increase. And even Mr. Long conceded that the alternative explanation was possible. The study hinges "on the quality of the control group," he said. "If the areas we're picking to put weight on don't match what would have happened to Seattle in the absence of the minimum wage, our results would be potentially biased." Angela Stowell, an owner and the chief executive of Ethan Stowell Restaurants, which has about 300 employees in 14 restaurants around the city, said it was too early to judge the effect of the minimum wage law because it was still being phased in. But she said the chain had not reduced hiring because of the higher employee costs, though it has increased some menu prices and instituted a 20 percent service fee. "Of the 20 restaurateurs I am close friends with in Seattle," she said, "none have told me they are hiring fewer staff due to the increased minimum wage." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
From left, Shailene Woodley, Zoe Kravitz, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern, in a scene from "Big Little Lies." The so called Monterey Five begin Season 2 trying to put to rest a corpse that won't stay buried. We are living in a golden age of TV series that build to big finishes and then just ... stick around. "Barry" and "Killing Eve" continued what might have been stunning limited series with entertaining second seasons that nonetheless labored to spin out their premises. "The Handmaid's Tale" moved beyond Margaret Atwood's novel, first audaciously, then bludgeoningly, now tiringly. "13 Reasons Why" found reason to slog on. "The End of the ing World," apparently, was just the beginning. "Leave 'em wanting more" is not a concept familiar to television's current business model. To watch TV these days can be like going to a movie, sitting through the credits and finding, not a surprise post credits scene, but an entire additional film. The latest seemingly concluded series to un conclude itself is HBO's "Big Little Lies," arriving this Sunday. The first season seemed to finish as definitively as the death it ended on, and I was doubtful the show could be shocked back to life. Here's the good news: It worked a lot better than I feared. "Big Little Lies" continues to offer the sharp, dark comedic observation s that made the first season one of the great thrills of 2017. In that first, seemingly self contained season, based on a novel by Liane Moriarty , the creator David E. Kelley used a murder investigation as a delivery device for an empathetic, class conscious and acidly funny drama. Death was the hook for a story about parenting, marriage and the million species of guilt and judgment visited upon mothers in luminous, money drenched Monterey, Calif. The victim, so called, was Perry (Alexander Skarsgard), killed in a group melee with the series's five central women, including his wife, Celeste (Nicole Kidman), whom he abused, and their neighbor Jane (Shailene Woodley), whom he raped. (Whether what happened was actually a "murder" is legally questionable, since it played out as an accidental killing in self defense.) Now, Perry is dead. But also he's not. He remains present in flashbacks, in the confused mourning of Celeste's two sons (and their increasingly aggressive acting out), in the hold he still has on Celeste and in the guilt and pained memories of the friends, now known as the "Monterey Five," who are keeping that night's secret, especially Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz). He is a corpse that will not stay buried. He is reanimated most directly, and his function as antagonist taken over by, his mother, Mary Louise (Meryl Streep). She has shown up to "help" Celeste which is to say, to dispense sunshiny, catty judgment, undermine her at home, perform her grief loudly and drop suspicious questions about her sainted (to her) son's passing. Mary Louise is the worst and best thing about the early part of the season. In a series that stood out for seeing complications in even its least sympathetic characters, she is a straightforward nightmare: sanctimonious, moralizing, devious and rude to the point that it suggests a social disorder. "You're very short," she says upon meeting Madeline (Reese Witherspoon). "I don't mean it in a negative way. Maybe I do. I find little people to be untrustworthy." Maybe Kelley (the season's writer, with a story co credit for Moriarty) will find layers in Mary Louise. For now, she seems at odds with the show's philosophy that we are all the worst, at moments, but that's not the sum of us. It's a worldview personified richly, for instance, in the business mogul Renata (Laura Dern), whose bulldozer personality is founded on a deep fear of falling . On the other hand well, did I mention that Mary Louise is played by Meryl Streep? Streep could play a parking meter and imbue it with human depth. Her passive aggressive line readings and gestures (worrying a little gold crucifix on a chain as she passes judgment) are pristine. She's drab and terrifying, a shark in a cardigan. In the first episode, she erupts from a meek smile into a shriek of grief, and that sound is the wail of every actress who will have to go up against her at the Emmys. It's ungrateful to wish that performance away. This is the spoiled princeling that TV in 2019 has made of me: I get movie level production and a weekly stage turn by perhaps the finest actress of our age, surrounded by several of our other finest actresses, and I say, "Yeah, but ..." But! It's also possible to imagine a version of the series that continued without her. Kidman is remarkable, portraying Celeste in a kind of horror story limbo, keeping Perry's memory alive for her kids and, in a messy but believable way, for herself. (Her sessions with her therapist, a finely calibrated Robin Weigert , are as essential this season as last.) After all, "Big Little Lies" is the sort of series, about people in a specific and well imagined setting simply living life, that TV still needs more of. That kind of show could, theoretically, run for years, if not chained to, and defined by, its initial mystery hook. You could see the fulcrum of this series being Witherspoon as the hard charging, indispensable Madeline. You could see it delving endlessly into this affluent community where the teachers work lectures on sustainable agriculture into a reading of "Charlotte's Web" and parents treat teachers like servants. At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where the less well heeled Jane takes a job, a child asks the series's core question about its sun kissed dream town: "Why is it the prettier something is, the more dangerous?" I could enjoy that series. Andrea Arnold, who takes over directing from Jean Marc Vallee, retains its air of intimacy. Moment by moment, observation by observation, performance by performance, it is eminently watchable. But for now, the show is driven mostly by the revelations and aftermaths of the first season's explosions not just the killing, but matters of infidelity and paternity their unwinding and their gradual exposure. "Big Little Lies" is evolving into "Big Little Truths," and it's unclear whether that will sustain a long running story or just a well made curtain call. The story of the Monterey Five, for now, is in the position of the Monterey Five themselves: trying to figure out whether it's possible to let go and move on. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
David Haskell, a longtime deputy editor at New York magazine, will become its editor in chief on April 1, inheriting a glossy biweekly and a suite of websites devoted to pursuits like fashion, food, shopping and politics. He succeeds Adam Moss, who is stepping down after 15 years at the helm. The appointment of Mr. Haskell, 39, on Wednesday is a sea change for a publication that has reached journalistic heights under Mr. Moss collecting dozens of National Magazine Awards and, last year, a Pulitzer Prize even as it struggled to find financial stability in a topsy turvy environment for the news industry. Mr. Moss, working with the company's chief executive, Pamela Wasserstein, reinvented New York as a digital company dabbling in e commerce, TV spinoffs and live events. Since 2016, Mr. Haskell has split his duties between editing (one of his projects, celebrities' stories of moving to the city, became a book) and imagining the future of the business. "I feel so grateful for the opportunity, and obviously so daunted," Mr. Haskell said in an interview on Wednesday, shortly before an address to the staff. "Anyone who's a student of narratives knows how dangerous it is to take something over at the top of its game." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
A human embryo at 45 days. Scientists have learned that a protein called Hemo, made by a fetus and the placenta, is produced from viral DNA that entered our ancestors' genomes 100 million years ago. In July, scientists reported that a strange protein courses through the veins of pregnant women. No one is sure what it's there for. What makes this protein, called Hemo, so unusual is that it's not made by the mother. Instead, it is made in her fetus and in the placenta, by a gene that originally came from a virus that infected our mammalian ancestors more than 100 million years ago. Hemo is not the only protein with such an alien origin: Our DNA contains roughly 100,000 pieces of viral DNA. Altogether, they make up about 8 percent of the human genome. And scientists are only starting to figure out what this viral DNA is doing to us. Aris Katzourakis, a virologist at the University of Oxford, and his colleagues recently published a commentary in the journal Trends in Microbiology in which they explored the possibility that viral genes that produce proteins like Hemo are affecting our health in a variety of unexpected ways. Some of our ancient viruses may be protecting us from disease; others may be raising our risks for cancer, among other conditions. "It's not an either or are these things good or bad? It's a lot more complicated than that," Dr. Katzourakis said in an interview. "We're barely at the beginning of this research." Most of our viral DNA comes from one group in particular: retroviruses, a group that includes HIV. A retrovirus invades a host cell and inserts its genes into that cell's DNA. These viral genes co opt the cell's machinery, using it to make new viruses that escape to infect more cells. If a retrovirus happens to infect an egg or sperm, its DNA can potentially be passed to the next generation and the generation after that. Once retroviruses become inherited stowaways, scientists refer to them as endogenous retroviruses. At first, endogenous retroviruses coax cells to make more retroviruses that can infect other cells. But over the generations, the viral DNA mutates, and endogenous retroviruses eventually lose the ability to infect new cells. Even after being hobbled, these endogenous retroviruses can still sometimes make their proteins. And they can also reproduce, after a fashion. They can force cells to make copies of their DNA, which are inserted back in the cell's own genome. After a single infection, an endogenous retrovirus may build up hundreds of copies of itself in its host's DNA. Some endogenous retroviruses are unique to humans, but others are found in a variety of species. In January, Dr. Katzourakis was a co author on a study showing that one retrovirus common in mammals also is present in fish like cod and tuna. Retroviruses, that study indicated, were invading our marine ancestors 450 million years ago or even earlier. Just as we have defenses against free living viruses, we have also developed defenses against endogenous retroviruses. Our cells can coat their DNA with molecules that suppress viral genes, for example. But sometimes these viral genes manage to switch on anyway. In many kinds of tumor cells, for instance, scientists find proteins produced by endogenous retroviruses. That discovery has fueled a long running debate: Do endogenous retroviruses help cause cancer? Recent studies suggest they can. A team of French researchers engineered healthy human cells to make a viral protein found in many tumors and watched the cells grow in a petri dish. The protein caused the cells to behave in some suspiciously cancer like ways. They changed shape, as cancer cells do, becoming long and skinny. And they also started to move across the dish. In addition, the viral protein caused the cells to switch on other genes that have been linked to cancer. But John M. Coffin, a virologist at Tufts University, suspects there's less to these viral proteins than meets the eyes. He speculates that in many cases, cancer cells make viral proteins only because they are switching on genes willy nilly both human and viral genes alike. "Our starting position is that this is largely a chance event," Dr. Coffin said. But in certain cases, Dr. Coffin said, we have domesticated our viruses. We make proteins from endogenous retroviruses to carry out functions we depend on. Some endogenous retroviruses offer protection against other viruses, for example. And some viral proteins are important for reproduction. Placentas make viral proteins, and scientists have found that some types, known as syncytins, fuse together placental cells, a crucial step in fetal development. "My speculation is that without syncytins, mammal evolution would have looked very different," Dr. Coffin said. Five years ago, the French biologist Odile Heidmann and her colleagues went on a search for more endogenous retroviruses in the human genome. Dr. Heidmann, who works at Gustave Roussy, a cancer research institute in Paris, discovered a stretch of viral DNA that had gone overlooked. She and her colleagues named it Hemo. Dr. Heidmann was surprised to find versions of Hemo in other species. Among primates, the gene that makes this protein has barely changed over the ages. Its consistency across many species shows that the gene and its protein must have an important job to do: "It isn't simply a relic," Dr. Heidmann said. Mutations to Hemo must have been harmful or even fatal to the unfortunate animals who had them. The placenta produces Hemo, and so do cells in the early embryo itself. But so far Dr. Heidmann and her colleagues have not been able to figure out why. "It's very, very old, so it has to do something," she said. It's possible, she said, that Hemo proteins are a message from fetus to mother, dampening the mother's immune system so that it doesn't attack the fetus. But there are other possibilities, too. The early embryo is a hotbed of activity for endogenous retroviruses, recent studies have shown. To understand why embryonic cells make viral proteins, scientists have run experiments to see what happens when viral genes are silenced. These experiments suggest that viral proteins help the embryo develop a variety of tissues. Early on, the cells in an embryo can turn into any tissue. As these stem cells divide, they can lose this flexibility, committing to becoming one kind of cell or another. After that, cells typically shut down their viral genes. Viral proteins appear to help keep stem cells from losing this potential. And Gkikas Magiorkinis of the University of Athens has speculated that this feature might have a sinister origin. Viruses might have exploited embryos to make more copies of themselves. By keeping their hosts as stem cells for longer, the viruses were able to invade more parts of the embryo's body. "When the host grows, it will have copies in the retrovirus in most of its cells," Dr. Magiorkinis said. This strategy may do more than create more viruses. Stem cells can produce eggs and sperm in embryos. The viruses may be raising their odds of getting into the next generation. In other words, early embryos may have come to depend on the tricks viruses use to manipulate them. "We're exploiting a property that has evolved for the virus's benefit," Dr. Katzourakis said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Kyle Abraham's new program at the Joyce Theater is not short on big ticket items. There's a new solo that Mr. Abraham, dancing as gorgeously as ever, has made for himself, accompanied by an a cappella choir singing Bjork. There's a new group piece that he has choreographed for his company, A.I.M., one of the most consistently excellent troupes working today. Also, for opening night on Tuesday only, there was Misty Copeland. And that's just the second half of the program. The surprise of the show, partly disappointing and partly hopeful, is that the first half without Mr. Abraham and focused largely on the work of other choreographers is stronger. To finish with Ms. Copeland, the American Ballet Theater superstar, is to end on a high. No surprise there. "Ash," the searching solo that Mr. Abraham created for her for this year's Fall for Dance festival, brings out her strength and sensuality. Borrowing freely and with equal authority from ballet and hip hop gesture, it has the contemporary freshness that has made Mr. Abraham a choreographer in demand. The live choir should help, and help is what it seems to offer the smooth yet vulnerable tenor of Nicholas Ryan Gant (who also did the simple choral arrangement) progressing from lyrics about confusing emotional landscapes to assurances that love is all around. Mr. Abraham, balled up and fetal at the start, gradually unfurls before briefly exploding in a frenzy, buoyed by the air of an offstage fan. The unfurling is not just slow, though. It's slight. The music doesn't help Mr. Abraham out of his rut, and neither does the Nico Muhly score ("Four Studies") he has chosen for the ensemble premiere, "Studies on a Farewell." The electronic drone under two live violinists is becoming a kind of comforting cocoon for Mr. Abraham. It supports a beautiful floating quality in this series of tender duets, almost a continuous surrender in backbends and dips, but it encourages and highlights the lack of development. Yet where that work ends is, in a sense, where the program begins. Keerati Jinakunwiphat, the last dancer onstage in "Studies," is the choreographer of the program opener, "Big Rings." The rings in question are hoops, as this is a basketball themed dance complete with team hoodies and colorfully retro jerseys (courtesy of Karen Young, who, like all of the company's designers, makes it look fashion forward). The choreography plays enjoyably with the game's silky grace, relay action and formations. Although it falls into some rookie choreographer traps, it has more shape than Mr. Abraham's efforts. Those include "Show Pony," a 2018 solo about the pressures of being on display and having to deliver. The shiny suited dancer (Marcella Lewis, amazing on Tuesday, alternates with the extraordinary Tamisha Guy) becomes a robot of ripples, her humanity more hidden than revealed in forced smiles and "who, me?" gestures. It's a striking effect, and one that, typically for Mr. Abraham, goes nowhere. That lack of forward motion makes it especially interesting to watch Mr. Abraham reaching backward to end the first half with Trisha Brown's 1976 piece "Solo Olos." The selection reveals a kinship between Brown's loose swinging limbs and Mr. Abraham's (and Ms. Jinakunwiphat's) love of release. But the game in "Solo Olos" is more baldly cerebral. One dancer calls out impromptu commands "reverse," "branch" to the others, individually and collectively, and they comply without hesitation. When they snap into unison, it's as if a complex equation has been solved. This, exposed and underlined, is a lesson in choreographic form and logic, which viewers can sense if not always follow. Mr. Abraham clearly admires it, and his dancers rise to its challenges with relish. His work needs more of it, and maybe he knows. Through Oct. 20 at the Joyce Theater, Manhattan; joyce.org. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
The French Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments that define success in tennis, will be postponed until September because of the coronavirus. French Open organizers announced the decision on Tuesday amid a wide lockdown in France aimed at limiting the spread of the virus. The tournament, the premier clay court event in the world, was scheduled for May 24 to June 7. Tournament organizers said they shifted those dates to Sept. 20 to Oct. 4. "The current confinement measures have made it impossible for us to continue with the dates as originally planned," tournament officials said in a statement. The change puts the French Open after the United States Open, which had been the last Grand Slam tournament scheduled for 2020. "We are acting responsibly and must work together in the fight to ensure everybody's health and safety," Bernard Giudicelli, the president of the French Tennis Federation, said in a statement. The decision immediately drew criticism within tennis for being made without consulting others in the game. The date change created conflicts with other events, including the Laver Cup men's team event headlined by Roger Federer that is scheduled for Sept. 25 to 27 in Boston, and a women's tournament in Wuhan, China, the city at the center of the global pandemic. "Excusez moi???" Naomi Osaka, the Japanese star and two time Grand Slam singles champion, wrote on Twitter. "That's insane," Pospisil said in a telephone interview. "These are really rough times, unprecedented times, and this just goes against the whole idea of the tour working together. We have a calendar. We have discussions and negotiations between the Grand Slams and the ATP. We are always trying to make it work for everybody, and they just haven't consulted the ATP, the players or the other tournaments. It's just a very selfish move. They are basically doing a power play right now, and it's quite arrogant." French Open organizers did not respond to Pospisil's comments directly. But the tournament organizers were clearly intent on preserving this year's edition of their tournament after investing heavily in expansion and renovation in the last several years. The tournament is funding the vast majority of that work without public funds. "What was important for us was that the tournament continue," Giudicelli said in a news conference on Tuesday in Paris. "We would not have accepted that clay court tennis be swept off the international schedule." He said the conditions in late September would still be acceptable for playing outdoors. "The temperatures are agreeable," he said. "We think sincerely that it can make for a fine event." This is to be the first year of use for the new retractable roof over the main court, which will allow for night sessions and for play during rain. But construction at Roland Garros Stadium, the tournament site, has been stopped because of the coronavirus restrictions imposed by the French government. It would have been difficult for the tournament to complete the work in time for the event to begin as originally scheduled. "There's a whole organization before these tournaments that people can't really imagine," Caroline Garcia, one of France's top women's players, said in an interview with the French sports publication L'Equipe. "And it's impossible today to prepare a tournament of this level, of this quality." Initially, there was discussion about shifting the French Open to late July or early August, if the Tokyo Olympics were postponed. Then on Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee reiterated its support for staging the Games as scheduled, from July 24 to Aug. 9, with the Olympic tennis competition to run from July 25 to Aug. 2. That left the French Open with few options for rescheduling and with concerns that some other delayed event might try to move into the late September slot. Giudicelli and his team chose to impose their will, announcing their decision publicly during a private conference call with ATP and WTA leadership without asking for a green light from the tours or the other three Grand Slam events. It remains unclear whether all leading players will support the move. The ATP player council scheduled a conference call for Wednesday to discuss its response. Giudicelli said that Rafael Nadal, the defending men's champion, who has won a record 12 French Open singles titles and is on the council, was informed before the announcement by the tournament's director, Guy Forget. Concerns about the coronavirus continue to shut down major sporting events and have halted the professional tennis circuit. The men's tour canceled all of its events until the end of April. The women's tour canceled all events until the beginning of May, and the French Open's decision casts doubt on whether any clay court events will be able to be held in May or June. Though it's unclear when any top events will be able to return, Wimbledon is the next Grand Slam tournament, scheduled from June 29 to July 12. It is followed by the United States Open, from Aug. 24 to Sept. 13, with the prestigious Olympic tennis tournament sandwiched between the two majors. On Tuesday, the United States Tennis Association announced that the U.S. Open remained on schedule, but said in a statement that in these "unprecedented times" it was assessing all options, "including the possibility of moving the tournament to a later date." The U.S.T.A. then made a point clearly aimed at the French Open: "At a time when the world is coming together, we recognize that such a decision should not be made unilaterally, and therefore the U.S.T.A. would only do so in full consultation with the other Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA and ATP, the I.T.F. and our partners, including the Laver Cup." If the schedule remains unchanged, the French Open will begin with only a six day break after the U.S. Open men's final: a historically quick turnaround between major tournaments and a particularly challenging one because of the change in surfaces. The U.S. Open is played on hardcourts while the French Open is contested on red clay, which requires different footwork and tactics. Players generally make a more gradual transition to each surface. "From a player standpoint, obviously if you do well at the U.S. Open and play deep into the second week, to gather yourself and have only one week off before playing the French on clay is not ideal," said Brad Stine, a veteran American coach. "But what is going to be ideal this year? Nothing is, so I think everyone needs to look at it and say that if we actually get an opportunity to play the U.S. Open and French Open this year with spectators in the stands, whatever the time frame, that would be a godsend." Even with the big picture clearly in mind, the French Open's unilateral move could have longer term repercussions, coming at a time of increased internal tension between the sport's multiple governing bodies. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Masatoshi Koshiba, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002 for studies of the ghostly cosmic particles known as neutrinos, died on Thursday in Edogawa Hospital in Tokyo. He was 94. His death was announced by the University of Tokyo, where he had been a longtime professor. No cause was given. Dr. Koshiba, widely known as "Toshi," was a driving force in molding high energy physics in Japan as it emerged from a postwar cocoon in the latter part of the 20th century. "He's responsible for putting Japan on the map in a big way," said one of his collaborators, Dr. Eugene Beier, a physicist at the University of Pennsylvania. Colleagues described Dr. Koshiba as a man who could get things done. Starting in the 1970s, using part of the Kamioka zinc mine in Japan, he spearheaded the building of a series of enormous underground tanks filled with ultrapure water and lined with phototubes for the purpose of detecting neutrinos, which can float through ordinary matter like moonlight through a window. Deep in that cavern, shielded from outside interference by thousands of feet of rock, neutrinos streaming from the sun and elsewhere in the cosmos could be identified and some of the subtlest interactions of nature could be studied. In 1987, one of these chambers, called Kamiokande, with its half million gallons of pure water, recorded neutrinos streaming from a supernova explosion in a nearby galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, confirming theories about how such explosions occurred and giving birth to a new field of neutrino astronomy. This year, neutrino measurements at a successor chamber, Super Kamiokande, made headlines around the world for producing the first evidence that certain properties of neutrinos might explain why there is matter instead of empty space in the universe. Masatoshi Koshiba was born on Sept. 19, 1926, in the coastal city of Toyohashi, in central Japan, the second child of Toshio and Hayako Koshiba. His mother died when he was 3, and his father, a military officer, married his deceased wife's elder sister. They had two sons. Dr. Koshiba grew up in Yokosuka, a city on Tokyo Bay, and attended an elite high school in Tokyo. He had been thinking of studying German literature at the University of Tokyo until he overheard his physics teacher, who had given him a flunking grade, denigrate his abilities. "That statement made me furious, so I started studying physics," Dr. Koshiba said in an oral history interview for the American Institute of Physics in 1997. "After one full month of concentrated work, I passed the physics department requirement, while the favorite student of the professor failed." After graduating from the university and two years of graduate study there, he went to the United States and dashed through the University of Rochester, earning his Ph.D. in physics in 1955 after only a year and eight months of study. He had hurried because he wanted the higher salary that a doctorate could command ( 400 a month at the time) so that he could have more money to send back to his family in Japan. After three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, Dr. Koshiba returned to the University of Tokyo. Shortly after moving back, he entered into a marriage, brokered by physicist friends, with Kyoto Kato, an art museum curator. She survives him along with a son, Shyun; a daughter, Mari Fujii; and two grandchildren. Dr. Koshiba's early research involved studying cosmic rays high energy particles flying from outer space by placing detectors on high altitude balloons. But he was to make his mark in the other direction namely, underground. He originally built Kamiokande in hopes of recording the disintegration of protons, the building blocks of ordinary matter, as predicted by an ambitious "grand unified theory" of particle physics. Phototubes lining the tank would detect flashes of light produced in the water by high energy fragments flying away. Neither Kamiokande, completed in 1983, nor a competing experiment in Michigan called I.M.B., saw any protons decay in the predicted time, scuttling the grand unified theory. Dr. Koshiba and his collaborators then decided to convert Kamiokande to a neutrino detector. Neutrinos had captured physicists' imaginations since 1930, when Wolfgang Pauli predicted their existence out of desperation to account for a discrepancy in the process of radioactive decay. According to the theory worked out by Dr. Pauli and Enrico Fermi, neutrinos were virtually massless ghost riders of the sky, traveling at the speed of light and rarely interacting with other matter. Yet space should be flooded with them. According to theory, nuclear reactions in the sun alone send 65 billion neutrinos through every square inch of Earth every second. But in the 1960s, when Raymond Davis, a researcher at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, set out to catch solar neutrinos in an underground vat of dry cleaning fluid in an old gold mine in South Dakota, he counted only about a third as many neutrinos as theory had predicted. If the Davis experiment was right, there was something wrong with theories of neutrinos or how the Sun worked. Dr. Davis was always confident of his method and measurements, but his experiment could not tell when the neutrinos arrived or where they were coming from. That is where Dr. Koshiba's Kamiokande came in. It would be able to track the time and direction of incoming neutrinos. The conversion of the chamber to neutrino detector took two years, partly because the Kamioka zinc mine was full of radon gas, which would contaminate the detector. The conversion was completed toward the end of 1986. Dr. Koshiba's team had just started running their neutrino experiment when, on Feb. 23, a few dozen neutrinos from a supernova explosion 160,000 light years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud tickled the detector, illuminating for the first time the inner life of an exploding star. "The lucky thing was that it happened one month before my retirement," Dr. Koshiba recalled. By 1990, the Kamiokande experiment had confirmed that neutrinos were indeed coming from the sun, and that there were only about a third as many as there should be, confirming the Davis experiment. Dr. Koshiba and Dr. Davis shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics with Riccardo Giacconi, an X ray astronomer. Meanwhile, experiments led by Dr. Koshiba's protege Takaaki Kajita at Kamiokande's successor chamber, Super Kamiokande, and by Arthur McDonald at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Ontario had confirmed that the apparent solar neutrino deficit was the fault of some bizarre property of the neutrinos. They come in three kinds and can oscillate from one form to the other as they travel along and become undetectable, behavior that astronomers and physicists think could be the key to many cosmic mysteries. Dr. Kajita and Dr. McDonald went on to share the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics. Many physicists believe that there are more Nobel prizes yet to be handed out in this field. Dr. Koshiba, upon retirement, joined Tokai University in Tokyo for a couple of years and devoted himself to philanthropic and educational activities. He was named distinguished university professor by the University of Tokyo in 2005. In a statement released by the university announcing Dr. Koshiba's death, Sachio Komamiya, director of the International Center for Elementary Particle Physics, lauded him for nurturing talent. "With his sharp intuition, passion for research and outstanding planning ability and leadership," the statement said, "he has established the foundations of the related fields of his research in Japan." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
In a move that may clear the way for the first new treatment in years for depression, an expert panel recommended on Tuesday that federal regulators approve a nasal spray that delivers the active ingredients of ketamine, a popular club drug in the 1980s and 1990s. The new drug, called Esketamine and developed by Johnson Johnson, is aimed at people with severe depression, particularly those with suicidal thinking. The panel, with 17 voting members, including psychiatrists and consumer representatives, was nearly unanimous in deciding that the drug's benefits outweighed its risks. The Food and Drug Administration typically follows the recommendations of its expert panels. In recent years, scores of clinics have opened around the country, offering to administer intravenous ketamine for depression, on a schedule similar to that of electroshock therapy: as a series of treatments, over a period of days or weeks, and sometimes including follow up or "booster" visits months later. These treatments, at an average cost of 3,000, are officially "off label," and usually are not covered by insurance. Their effectiveness is not well studied, although people who have received the course of treatment have reported rapid, if not always lasting, relief. If approved, Esketamine would be covered by most insurers. Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Johns Hopkins said it was set to perform the first kidney and liver transplants between H.I.V. positive donors and H.I.V. positive patients in the United States, a development that advocates said could create a lifesaving pipeline for H.I.V. patients while shortening organ donor waiting lists for all. Dr. Dorry Segev, an associate professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, estimated that organs from 500 to 600 H.I.V. positive potential donors have gone to waste each year and that allowing those donations could save more than 1,000 people. "That'd be the greatest increase in organ transplantation that we've seen in the past decade," he said in an interview Tuesday. Since 1988 until November 2013, when President Obama signed the H.I.V. Organ Policy Equity Act into law, medical facilities had been forbidden from such transplants. After receiving approval in January from the United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the nation's organ transplant system, Johns Hopkins was prepared to perform a transplant as soon as a suitable organ and recipient emerged, the hospital said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Which genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid? I enjoy magical realism, tightly written thrillers, nonfiction stories of courage and grace, and books that weave unforgettable tales with remarkably few words, like "Jim the Boy," by Tony Earley, or "A River Runs Through It," by Norman Maclean. I avoid grim, angst ridden, navel gazing books and horror. Enough of that in the real world. How do you like to read? Paper or electronic? One book at a time or simultaneously? Morning or night? I admit having held out against e books for a long time, lugging my bag of books on long trips because I like to read several things at once. Either my back or my resistance gave out. I now download a ton of books on my iPad. It makes you feel like you are reading more than you actually are, which is dangerous. But it does allow instant access, which is how I read back of a car, airplanes, before bed, wherever I can steal time. Never mornings. That's when I write. How do you organize your books? Very methodically: alphabetically by author; first fiction, then nonfiction, then plays, screenplays, music, film, history, biography then whatever shelf has room. What's the best book you've ever received as a gift? I once mentioned to some sports journalist friends that as a kid I loved an out of print library book called "The Royal Road to Romance," by the adventure traveler Richard Halliburton (published in 1925). In England, covering Wimbledon, these friends somehow found an original edition in a bookshop and, for no special occasion, bought it for me. It was so kind. I treasure it. What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most? My mother took me every Saturday morning to our small local library and left me there for three hours to read and then choose a book. Once, when I was maybe 7 or 8, I picked "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (because the cover had a picture of a submarine), but the librarian refused to let me check it out. "That's too hard for you," she said. On the way home, when I told my mother, she screeched the car, drove back, charged in and screamed: "Never tell a child a book is too hard for him! And never this child!" She grabbed the book, marched out and, once home, made me read it. And of course, it was too hard for me. But I plowed through. I always say that was the day I became a future writer, because if this book thing was important enough for my mother to browbeat a librarian, it must be worthwhile. Of the books you've written, which is your favorite or the most personally meaningful? It has to be "Tuesdays With Morrie," because it was so accidental, was turned down by so many publishers, and was only written to pay Morrie's medical expenses. Yet it transformed my life from a myopic sportswriter into an eternal graduate assistant for my old professor's final class. My friend Amy Tan, the novelist, read an early draft of the book and warned me, "You're about to become everyone's rabbi." While that is too lofty, she was right, in that "Tuesdays" has exposed me to countless encounters with people who have lost loved ones. They want to talk. You need to listen. And that changes you. It changed me. I hope for the better. What do you plan to read next? "Stripping Bare the Body," by Mark Danner, and "Farewell, Fred Voodoo," by Amy Wilentz. I operate an orphanage in Port au Prince, Haiti, and after finishing my current project (a sequel to "The Five People You Meet in Heaven"), I'll be writing a book about our kids, and one in particular, who is fighting for her life. Danner's book, I am told, contains a fantastic section on the history of Haitian conflicts, and Wilentz's talks about outsiders' roles. Even going to Haiti every month, I find the country tremendously complex, so all information helps fuel my creative process, just as all the stories you read help enrich the ones you write. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
The Mercedes Benz C Class sedan is a formidable competitor. The cabin is arguably best in class. It comfortably knows it's way around corners. The design is lithe and organic. This new model offers a little less... in the door department at least. It's the new C300 Coupe. (ON CAMERA) Two door coupes are stylish but not overly popular. It's probably because getting in the back seat can be cumbersome and space is tight once you're in. I don't know though. Most cars I see only have one person in them... Squint and you'll see a generous dollop of S Class coupe in its lines. The C costs much less, rear drive models start at just under 44 thousand dollars. This one goes for 59 grand. Extras include all wheel drive, a 4,800 Premium package packing a most excellent Burmester audio system, and a 1,200 Airmatic adjustable suspension. While the lens stays clean, I'll grouse that the backup camera is not standard. (SOUND UP) An autonomous braking system is though. Ah, thank you very much. Under an aluminum hood lives a 2 liter turbocharged 4 cylinder... (SOUND UP) Providing 241 horsepower and 273 pound feet of torque (ON CAMERA) Additional horsepower is available but it means moving up to the AMG performance models. The C43 has 50 percent more. The C63 nearly doubles this. (HOOD SLAM) The transmission is a 7 speed automatic, sorry manual lovers. Throttle response, transmission mapping and steering heft can be dialed to your liking. 0 60... (SOUND UP) ) happens in about 6 seconds. It doesn't feel that fast, maybe it's the refinement. (ON CAMERA) The turbo four? Very smooth, not a lot of sonic personality from it though. See? The coupe's suspension is slightly firmer and 15mm lower than the sedans. C300 slices up corners without drama but there's not loads of feel coming up through the steering wheel (ON CAMERA) In short, it's sporty but not overly sporty. You're going to have to move up to the AMG performance versions to get that. C300 is a quiet car, sedan or coupe. Ride quality is your choice in this case. (ON CAMERA) The Airmatic suspension? Definitely worth the money. The modes are quite different from each other. Sport when you want it, comfort when you want it. It also keeps the car self leveled, not that the back seat and trunk will get loaded up on a regular basis. How much gas does it drink? The E.P.A. numbers are 23 city, 29 highway on premium fuel. I saw a couple notches under that but (SOUND UP) I drive harder than most. (SOUND UP) Did you notice the start stop system? It can be turned off. From behind the flat bottomed steering wheel, owners might linger in the driveway to appreciate the craftsmanship. It's a handsome space. A 1,700 sport package buys a cut and sewn dash plus AMG floor mats. No, they don't add any performance. This big piece of glass is standard. Deeply bolstered, the chairs will hold drivers of many different sizes in place during hard maneuvers. Whether using the wheel or touch pad, the COMAND user interface is okay, it's not always perfectly clear. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are not available, at least for now. Mercedes makes getting to the back seats as genteel as possible. (ON CAMERA) Space back here is a little more generous than a Cadillac ATS coupe but I remember the BMW 4 Series being more livable though. There are belts and cup holders for two back here. Some storage nooks too. No power port or seatback pockets, those are nice for organizing stuff. (FOOT KICK) (ON CAMERA) Need a lot of cargo room? Mercedes has plenty of S.U.V.s they can sell you. Come on, it's a coupe and this one at least helps out with a folding seat system. Handy things are all around back here. And the C does fine in class easily taking on four bundles of the two ply with enough room for the napkins my wife asked for. Not everyone wants a hard edged performance machine, some will be happy to get comfort with the C300s clean elegant lines. Those looking for more OMG should choose the AMG models. There, every one's happy... except those who need to climb into the back. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
At birth, the least weasel is as small and light as a paper clip, and the tiny ribs that press visibly against its silvery pink skin give it a segmented look, like that of an insect. A newborn kit is exceptionally underdeveloped, with sealed eyes and ears that won't open for five or six weeks, an age when puppies and kittens are ready to be weaned. A mother weasel, it seems, has no choice but to deliver her young half baked. As a member of the mustelid clan a noble but often misunderstood family of carnivorous mammals that includes ferrets, badgers, minks and wolverines she holds to a slender, elongated body plan, the better to pursue prey through tight spaces that most carnivores can't penetrate. Bulging baby bumps would jeopardize that sylphish hunting physique. The solution? Give birth to the equivalent of fetuses and then finish gestating them externally on mother's milk. "If you want access to small environments, you can't have a big belly," said William J. Zielinski, a mustelid researcher with the United States Forest Service in Arcata, Calif. "You don't see fat weasels." For Dr. Zielinski and other mustelid minded scientists, weasels exemplify evolutionary genius and compromise in equal measure, the piecing together of exaggerated and often contradictory traits to yield a lineage of fierce, fleet, quick witted carnivores that can compete for food against larger celebrity predators like the big cats, wolves and bears. Researchers admit that wild mustelids can be maddening to study. Most species are secretive loners, shrug off standard radio collars with ease, and run close to the ground "like small bolts of brown lightning," as one team noted. Now you see them, no, you didn't. Nevertheless, through a mix of dogged field and laboratory studies, scientists have lately made progress in delineating the weasel playbook, and it's a page turner, or a page burner. Researchers have been astonished to discover that the average mustelid is like a fur covered furnace, its metabolic rate exceeding not only that of other carnivorous mammals but also that of its twitchy, ever gnawing rodent prey. "The weasel heart beats at up to 400 pulses per minute," said Mark Linnell, a faculty research assistant who studies mustelids at Oregon State University. "They're geared to run at full speed, and they're always high strung." That keyed up metabolism is another example of a grand mustelidian compromise. "If you have a high metabolic rate, you can be more active and search farther for food in more places and in more diverse ways," Dr. Powell said. "But you have to catch more food in order to do that." Big cats must eat the equivalent of roughly a third of their weight each week; weasels must eat a third or more of their weight each day. "They're living life on the edge," Dr. Powell said. Weasels also have big brains relative to body mass, and they apply their neuronal bounty to continuously fine tune their movements during a hunt, a strategy that allows them to attack prey up to 10 times their size. The fisher, a particularly fearless weasel in the marten branch, may be the only North American carnivore to have mastered the art of dining on adult porcupine a large rodent that, in addition to being protected by a formidable quill sheath, weighs a good 12 pounds more than the eight pound fisher. "It's got to be one of the great predator prey matchups in history," said Roland Kays, a biologist at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State. The fisher must encounter the porcupine on open ground, at which point it can start running circles around its quarry. The fisher tries to dart in and bite the porcupine's vulnerable face; the porcupine pivots to turn its shielded back toward its attacker. Dart and spin, dart and bite. After several deep wounds to its face, the porcupine grows weak, loses its footing and match over. The fisher will then flip the punctured, pincushioned animal onto its back and carefully tear into a quill free patch of belly, gaining access to desirable organs like the small intestine, which is not only rich in protein and lipids, but also contains the partially digested plant matter that even carnivores need. Dr. Kays and a former student, Scott LaPoint, have found that fishers are far more behaviorally flexible than biologists had thought possible, at least in the Northeast. Hunted and trapped to near extinction until the 1930s, fishers a misleading name derived from Dutch colonists' word for polecat, a European weasel began recovering in their traditional setting of deep forests, where they could easily avoid humans. In the last few years, though, the weasels have apparently shaken off their reserve and begun showing up in suburban and urban areas a shopping mall in Schenectady, N.Y., a parking lot in downtown Albany. Two years ago, a sizable male fisher made its way to the Bronx, startling anybody who saw it slinking along the sidewalk and raising hope that a solution to the city's rat problem might have finally arrived. The fisher, alas, soon disappeared. "I don't know how that one ended up in the Bronx in the first place," Dr. Powell said, "but it's no place for a fisher, and I'm sure he wished he'd turned left when he turned right." For their part, researchers wish they could overturn the public's generally poor opinion of weaseldom. To call someone a weasel means the person is shifty, untrustworthy. Weasel words are those squishy, defensive qualifiers beloved by, well, journalists. In a recent "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" comic strip, a "closet of nightmares" is opened to reveal, "AAHHH!!! Weasel juggling clowns!" Researchers speculate that the negative image may result partly from the mustelid's serpentine silhouette: In some parts of Central America, weasels are called "furry snakes." Or maybe it's the distinctive mustelid musk. Most weasel species communicate with one another over large home ranges through frequent daubs of a pungent fluid excreted by their anal glands. Shihab Shamma, who uses ferrets to study the mammalian auditory system at the University of Maryland and Descartes University in Paris, said of the ferrets at his Paris lab, "We give them the names of smelly French cheeses." But mustelid enthusiasts emphasize the family's beauty and diversity: some 60 living species across all continents except Antarctica and Australia, ranging in size from the least weasel, the world's smallest carnivore (weighing less than half a stick of butter as an adult), to the mighty wolverine, which can weigh up to 70 pounds. Many weasels spend time in water, and one species, the sea otter, is a marine mammal that rarely comes on land. Sea otters are also among the only nonprimate mammals to use tools, cracking open a recalcitrant mollusk shell by banging it with a stone. Most of the time, though, the sea otter's teeth do the job. "Their teeth are amazing, like no other living carnivore," said Adam Hartstone Rose, who studies mammalian bite forces at the University of South Carolina. "They're big and rounded and with no pointy cusps that might break off. They look like pillows or gum drops." But the teeth, with their thick coat of enamel, can easily crush open a crab, clam or snail. Most weasels have dentition more typical of carnivores, with a few sharp, slicing teeth and fewer, smaller molars, which other animals use to grind plants. As a result of their compact dental layout, many weasels have foreshortened snouts that make them look young and cute. They can also act young: Weasels are among the few animals that play as adults. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
To create separate identities between the Western Southern Open and the United States Open, the U.S. Open will not use the Grandstand this year. When the Western Southern Open begins in the northeasterly location of Queens on Saturday, it will be the first part of the most significant tennis doubleheader since the 2012 Wimbledon tournament and the Olympic tennis competition were played on the same well tended grass courts of the All England Club. But that doubleheader was a long planned occasion, more than seven years in the making. This one in New York was devised under duress, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing American tennis officials to find unconventional solutions to bring tour events back to the United States. The result was moving the Western Southern Open long held in Mason, Ohio to Queens for this year and hopefully only this year. It will be followed, after a quick two day break, by the United States Open, scheduled to begin on Aug. 31. Both events will be played at the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center but will not use all of the same courts, which is partly an attempt to preserve separate identities. The Western Southern Open, a combined men's and women's event, will use the Grandstand as its primary court, with no plans to make use of the two largest venues on the grounds: Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium. The U.S. Open does not plan to use the Grandstand for matches this year. "When I first heard the idea of moving," said Katie Haas, chief operating officer of the Western Southern Open, "I was of course like, 'What? How's that going to work?' And then you stop and people start talking it out and talking it through and getting everybody's buy in and collaboration, and it's like, 'OK, we can do this.'" It remains to be seen how smoothly they can do this. No spectators will be allowed at either tournament, but the players and their support staffs began arriving on Aug. 15. Then on Tuesday, the United States Tennis Association announced that an individual among that pool had tested positive. It turned out to be the Argentine fitness trainer Juan Manuel Galvan, who is working with two players: Guido Pella of Argentina and Hugo Dellien of Bolivia. Galvan was isolated in his room at one of the tournament's Long Island hotels. Through contact tracing, it was determined that the 35th ranked Pella and the 94th ranked Dellien had both had extensive contact with Galvan, and they were withdrawn from the Western Southern Open Pella from the main draw and Dellien from the qualifying. Both players have since tested negative multiple times for the virus but are required to remain isolated in their rooms for 14 days. They still have a chance to take part in the U.S. Open if they are cleared after their isolation period. But they are, for now, not allowed to practice or leave their rooms, which could make for a rough transition to best of five set matches if they do indeed return to action in New York. "It's bad luck that I got affected out of the 1,400 tests that they did," Pella said in a video posted on social media. "But there is no other option than to do everything possible to get through these two weeks quickly and see if we can get to the U.S. Open." Novak Djokovic, the men's No. 1, and other players pushed for allowing Pella and Dellien to play in the Western Southern Open, maintaining that neither was sharing a room with Galvan and that neither had tested positive. How to proceed in a scenario like this was one of several points of contention between players and tournament and health officials in recent weeks. It was ultimately determined that players would automatically be held out of the tournament if they were lodged in the same room with a team member who tested positive. But though players are not automatically withdrawn if they stay in a different room, they are not guaranteed to be able to play even if they test negative. Instead, it depends on the findings of the contact tracing, which came as a surprise to many competitors, including Djokovic, who said a U.S.T.A. medical official had not made this clear on a recent conference call. "That's why a lot of players were upset and are upset, including myself, when I see that Dellien and Pella are treated in this way," Djokovic said. "It's hard. I can't point fingers at anybody. These kind of circumstances are very tricky. Things are changing so rapidly." The contact tracing policy was on the waiver signed by players and their team members before the tournament. Pella has acknowledged that he and Dellien were in close and frequent contact with Galvan during a recent training session in Miami. The contact tracing inquiry also determined the players had not been wearing masks in some of those interactions with Galvan. Men's tour officials still lobbied for Pella and Dellien to be allowed to continue, but the final decision was made by officials from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. "I think they should play, and that's what the majority of players think, I think 99 percent," said Daniil Medvedev, the defending men's champion. The qualifying tournament began on Thursday as masked players from the men's and women's tours circulated through the vast and largely empty grounds. "It is difficult at first," said sixth ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas. "You keep going back and forth from your hotel room and the site. I think it's difficult not to be able to mix it up a little bit." But Tsitsipas said he understood the restrictions were "for the safety of everyone." The women's tour resumed this month in Palermo, Italy, but the Western Southern Open is the first men's tour event after the five month hiatus caused by the pandemic and is also the first combined men's and women's tour event. This month, Dick Clark, director of facilities for the Western Southern Open, drove to New York from Mason, Ohio, in a rental truck full of equipment from the tournament's usual site. "We had to bring our umpires' chairs because we have LED signage attached to those, and all the nets with our logos because the U.S. Open doesn't utilize the same ones, and our player benches that are branded," Haas said. "It was a very large truck." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Ala von Auersperg, a women's wear designer, signed a five year lease for 1,800 square feet of office space in Suite 3301 of this commercial building in Midtown Manhattan. The building, built in 1930, also houses other apparel companies, including Mango Apparel and Miss Sportswear, along with Pret A Manger. This 19,800 square foot, five story building in SoHo contains one retail unit and six two bedroom units, four of which are free market. The retail unit will be delivered vacant and consists of 3,500 square feet at grade level and 3,500 square feet below grade. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Does the United States really have the capacity to escalate its efforts and produce one million coronavirus tests by the end of this week, as the head of the Food and Drug Administration promised on Monday during a White House briefing? The figure includes orders for commercial tests that companies say are still weeks away from approval, and public health laboratories say their capacities don't come close to that. At a press briefing on Monday, Dr. Stephen Hahn, the F.D.A.'s commissioner, said actions taken by the agency to allow private labs and companies to begin making their own tests would greatly expand the capacity to test. "With this new policy, we have heard from multiple companies and multiple academic centers, and we expect to have a substantial increase in the number of tests this week, next week, and throughout the month," Dr. Hahn said. "There will be the estimates we're getting from industry right now, by the end of this week, close to a million tests will be able to be performed." A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday that Dr. Hahn was referring to tests being produced by an outside manufacturer, Integrated DNA Technologies, which are being sent to "a variety of academic, health care and commercial labs around the country" in addition to the public health laboratories that are also receiving them. "The process of getting a test kit out and putting it into production is not something that happens literally overnight, in particular when you're talking about a million tests," said Eric Blank, the chief program officer at the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which represents state and local government laboratories nationwide. "It's a nice thing to say, and it's a simple thing to say, but the reality is we are a couple of weeks away from being able to deploy a million tests through this process." Dr. Hahn repeated the estimate on Tuesday in testimony at a Senate committee hearing. He told Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, that although "this is a dynamic process," the federal government was working with private companies to ship about 2,500 test kits to labs by the end of the week. "That should give us the capacity, in the hands of laboratories once they validate, to perform up to a million tests," he said at the hearing. The Association of Public Health Laboratories has said that its labs would be able to conduct about 10,000 tests a day when all of its 100 members that can conduct testing are running. Mr. Blank said that labs can run about 100 tests per day. As of Tuesday, he said 54 of those labs were able to do so, with the rest expected to be up and running by the end of the week. Dr. Hahn and White House officials have been trying to address the lag in testing caused by botched test kits that were rolled out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention early last month, and that agency's enforcement of strict testing criteria. But as the coronavirus spread in Washington State and California, and has cropped up in the Northeast and Florida, state and federal lawmakers have clamored for expedited tests and the authority to conduct their own. So far, more than 100 people in the United States have been sickened and at least nine have died. Public health experts have become concerned that the lack of adequate testing in several states has led to community transmission and warned there may be many undetected cases that could lead to further infections. Virginia's new lieutenant governor elect says she won't force vaccines. New York State's public health lab, which was one of the first to receive emergency approval for its own testing, set a goal of conducting 1,000 tests a day statewide, according to a statement by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. A handful of private companies have said they are working on a test for the virus, but none are yet available in the United States. Maurice Exner, the vice president of research and development for the diagnostics division at Hologic, said in an interview Tuesday that the company was weeks way from F.D.A. approval of a commercial test. If approved, the tests could be used in hundreds of labs around the country and each machine could process as many as 1,000 tests per day, he said. Another company, Cepheid, has said it does not expect to get emergency approval from the F.D.A. for its test before April. Dr. David Persing, the company's chief medical officer, said last week that the company still wanted to ensure its test was accurate. "We are moving aggressively," he said. On Monday, Darwa Peterson, a Cepheid spokeswoman, said the F.D.A. policy to allow more labs to conduct tests hadn't changed the company's timeline. "We still need to optimize and validate our tests because commercial vendors are held to a high standard," she said. Qiagen, another company working on testing, said Tuesday that it expected F.D.A. approval later this month, but that it was still gathering data and testing its product, noting that "this does take some time." Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. Dr. Hahn was not the only Trump administration official to promise radically expanded testing. Over the weekend, Vice President Mike Pence made similar claims, appearing on television to say that more than 15,000 test kits which contain materials to test between 700 to 800 samples were being shipped to labs. In fact, the C.D.C. said Sunday that it had shipped about 47 such kits. The H.H.S. spokeswoman said Tuesday that the 15,000 test kits cited by Mr. Pence referred to the number of people who could be tested by kits that were being shipped, and that by later this week, enough tests would be sent to public health labs to test about 75,000 people. About 3,300 patient specimens had been tested by the C.D.C. since the start of the outbreak, she said. More than 1,200 people had been tested as of Tuesday, the spokeswoman said. On Monday, as the testing controversy continued, the C.D.C. removed its data on how many people had been tested from its website. The numbers were removed, the C.D.C. said, because states are reporting results quickly, and the information reported by the agency would not be representative of testing being done around the country. Other countries, like South Korea, are testing thousands of citizens per week, but in the United States testing has been more limited. The C.D.C. began shipping test kits to labs around the country in early February, but a manufacturing problem led the agency to tell most states not to use the kits, severely limiting the country's testing capacity for weeks. Stringent testing criteria also tied the hands of infectious disease doctors around the country, who have said they were frustrated that they were not allowed to test a broader group of patients who displayed potential symptoms of the new virus. Last week, the C.D.C. loosened its criteria and began shipping new test kits to labs around the country. Mr. Pence said on Tuesday that the C.D.C. would issue new guidance removing restrictions on who could be tested, as long as a doctor has given an order. During a C.D.C. news briefing on Saturday, Dr. Jeff Duchin, public health officer of the Seattle and King County Public Health agency, which has been dealing with Washington State's outbreak, said the death of a man in his 50s who had coronavirus was only identified because the Washington State public health lab had just recently acquired test kits. | 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. President Trump has drawn fire from some critics for his response to the shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday that left 50 people dead. The suspect in the attack had praised Trump in a manifesto, calling him "a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose." Stephen Colbert played a tape of New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, saying that she had asked Trump to express his "sympathy and love for all Muslim communities." Colbert then joked that he didn't expect that to pan out. Trump did publicly express his sympathies for the victims, but Colbert was not satisfied. Over the weekend, Trump continued to push for the building of a border wall, using the word "invasion" to describe the flow of immigrants on the southern border. (The New Zealand gunman also used that word). And the president tweeted his discontent with Fox News after it suspended the host Jeanine Pirro because she expressed anti Muslim views. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
When President Trump won 304 electoral votes in 2016, he called it a "landslide," even though he had three million fewer popular votes than Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Clinton conceded, because she's gracious and she accepts how our democracy works. Now Joe Biden has won 306 electoral votes and five million more popular votes than Mr. Trump. Mr. Biden is not calling it a "landslide" because he is gracious. And Mr. Trump has refused to concede, perhaps because he does not know how to graciously acknowledge ever losing anything. It's past time for the Republican leadership to step up, to stop this now. It's a travesty and it demeans us, at home and abroad. Demand the transition of presidential power that our democracy is built on. Mr. Biden won. Actually in a "landslide," according to Mr. Trump, 2016. I have been a Republican for over 50 years. Lately I have become disillusioned by the party's slide from conservatism to libertarianism, but the actions following the recent presidential election mark a more dramatic and totally unacceptable move toward fascism. I will take the following vow and call upon all patriotic Republicans to take it as well. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
South African authorities long had eyes on Rogers Mukwena. They knew the former schoolteacher was wanted in Zimbabwe for poaching rhinoceroses and selling their horns, which can command hundreds of thousands of dollars. He'd jumped bail and fled to northern Pretoria, but it was vexingly difficult to catch and prosecute him until a scientist helped make the case against him with rhino DNA. His subsequent conviction resulted from a new tactic in wildlife preservation: The genetic fingerprinting methods that have been so successful in the criminal justice system are now being used to solve poaching crimes. First, researchers in South Africa had to build a large database of genetic samples drawn from African rhinoceroses. The DNA would be used to match a carcass to a particular horn discovered on a suspected poacher or trafficker, or to rhinoceros blood on his clothes, knives or axes. To make that possible, Dr. Cindy Harper, a veterinarian at the University of Pretoria, and her colleagues collected DNA from every rhinoceros they could find more than 20,000 so far. They have taught park rangers how to retrieve blood, tissue or hair samples from every rhinoceros that is killed, dehorned or moved. The rangers have learned forensic crime scene principles and the importance of the so called chain of custody to ensure that the samples are not corrupted. Dr. Harper's lab performs the analysis and stores DNA fingerprints. The scientists' database, which they call Rhodis, is modeled after Codis, the F.B.I. system used to link the DNA of suspects to evidence at a crime scene. The approach is promising, said Crawford Allan, senior director of Traffic, which monitors illegal wildlife trade at the World Wildlife Fund. A poaching scene is a crime scene, he said: "If you want to get through detection and investigation and prosecution, treat it as a crime scene and use forensics." The rhino project provides "a 'cold hit' database," said Stephen J. O'Brien, referring to the identification of a perpetrator by DNA when there are no other apparent clues. Dr. O'Brien, an expert on DNA fingerprinting and chief scientific officer of the Theodosius Dobzhansky Center for Genome Bioinformatics at St. Petersburg State University in Russia, is co author of a new paper, published on Monday in Current Biology, describing the anti poaching effort. A similar attempt to use DNA to convict poachers is led by Sam Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington. His group's focus is African elephants. Over a period of 15 years, he and his colleagues have collected and analyzed DNA from dung to create a map of the ranges of various elephant groups based on their genetic differences. It helps show where ivory seized from poachers originated. The project has not linked specific carcasses to specific tusks recovered from traffickers. But the analysis has provided valuable clues about the regions in which poachers are operating. "To our surprise, the ivory was consistently coming from two areas," Dr. Wasser said. Tusks from savanna elephants were initially coming from southeastern Tanzania and northern Mozambique, the data showed, but the illegal trade then shifted northward to southern Kenya. Tusks from forest elephants originated in a small triangular area in northeast Gabon, northwest Republic of the Congo, and southeastern Cameroon. "Instead of focusing everywhere, if we really want the big criminals we should focus on those two spots," Dr. Wasser said. The sale of ivory and rhino horns is hugely lucrative. Rhino horns may bring 60,000 or more per kilogram. A horn generally weighs a few kilograms, but a few have been as heavy as 10 kilograms, or about 22 pounds. "Pound for pound, a rhino horn is worth more than heroin or gold or platinum," Mr. Allan said. And prosecutions are so rare that the risks for the traffickers are "very low." The poacher sells horns to a trafficker, who disguises them and ships them to destination countries, mainly Vietnam and China. Some horns are carved into jewelry while still in South Africa, which can make it extremely difficult to trace them. Elephant tusks currently sell for 1,000 a kilogram, Dr. Wasser said. Unlike rhino horns, which are shipped in relatively small volumes, traffickers typically collect and ship at least half a ton of ivory, or 500 kilograms, in a container. Some seizures have uncovered as much as seven tons of ivory in a single shipment, Dr. Wasser said. Ivory is primarily bought by collectors or as an investment. Dr. Wasser's primary target is traffickers, not poachers. Even when poachers are caught and convicted, he said, "there are 10 more waiting in line to replace them." But traffickers form the basis of the business that makes poaching profitable. "The analogy is, are you after a serial killer or a one time murderer?" he asked. Dr. Harper also hopes to disrupt the criminal networks shipping contraband in this case, rhino horns to destination countries. So far, the rhino database has been used to convict hunters and traffickers in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and Swaziland. But the group has not disrupted the criminal conglomerates at the top of the chain, she said. The rhinoceros project began in 2010, when poaching was skyrocketing. Thirteen were poached in South Africa in 2007; more than 1,000 are now killed each year. In 120 criminal cases completed or still pending, Rhodis has linked DNA on horns, equipment or clothing to particular carcasses, Dr. Harper said. But it can take years for a case to move through the courts and end in a conviction. The first successful such conviction involved a Vietnamese smuggler who was caught with seven horns at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg in 2010. Two were matched to carcasses, and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. But the case involving Mr. Mukwena was one of the first to involve a well known smuggler. He was arrested on Jan. 16, 2012, after a police officer spotted him walking across a field carrying a black bag. When the officer confronted him, Mr. Mukwena dropped the bag and ran. It contained three rhinoceros horns, two from a cow and one from her calf. Apprehended, Mr. Mukwena admitted to killing the cow but said an accomplice had killed the calf because it was bothering him. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
If the Oscar winning "Parasite" feels like it has the potential to change the landscape for subtitled films in the United States, "Corpus Christi," which lost to "Parasite" in the best international feature category, plays like more of a throwback to a time when subtitles signified stark seriousness. Shot in a grim, desaturated palette, this Polish film, directed by Jan Komasa, addresses big issues of conscience and morality. The symbolism (a simple sawmill worker becomes a carpenter Christ figure) is blunt; the drama is straightforward. Citing inspiration in real events, the movie follows Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia), a prisoner who wants to enroll in a seminary. A chaplain tells him he won't get admitted as an ex convict. But after being released, Daniel plays hooky from his new job and wanders into a nearby church, where he claims to be a priest and soon ends up serving as a substitute. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Watching the work of the choreographer and visual artist Shen Wei is like peeking into an ant farm, in which dancers elegantly and efficiently construct a private world, seemingly unaware of being observed. These worlds are always distinctive, defined by Mr. Shen's signature swooshing style of movement, best explained as physical calligraphy. His latest work, which receives its premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is an interpretation of "Neither," a collaboration between the venerated American composer Morton Feldman and the Irish literary giant Samuel Beckett that is often called an anti opera (both men disliked that form). With a dozen dancers and his own striking visual designs, Mr. Shen illustrates the tension between shadow and light found in Mr. Beckett's slim 16 line libretto. In sound and subject, "Neither" is a spectacularly dense, mysterious and minacious work. Mr. Shen's corporeal contribution will add to it an intriguing new dimension. (Wednesday, Oct. 5, through Saturday, Oct. 8, bam.org.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
LONE STAR "I'm 52 and this is my first novel," says Elizabeth Wetmore, the author of "Valentine," which is now at No. 10 on the hardcover fiction list. She worked on the book for years, taking frequent breaks to teach, pursue freelance editing projects and raise her son. Going without a paycheck was not an option: "In the end, I think I was finally able to finish because my husband took on a second job. And one of the promises I made to myself was that, if I ever was able to sell a book, I would be mindful about talking about what this looks like for working class writers, writers who don't come from families or communities where people are saying, 'Yay, write full time.'" "Valentine" takes place in Odessa, Texas, where Wetmore grew up. She says, "There was a time when I was a teenager when I came to believe falsely, of course that there were girls who stayed and girls who left. I wanted very much to be one who left." She struck out on her own at 18, becoming one of the first of her family to attend college. She also waited tables, tended bar, drove a cab and painted silos and cooling towers at a petrochemical plant. Wetmore never moved back to Texas but went back as often as she could afford to, taking long drives to get reacquainted with her hometown. Wetmore says, "It took me a long time to be able to see the place clearly. I had to fall back in love with the land and the people in a way that made it possible to write with nuance and sympathy." "Valentine" grew out of two questions: What do you do when a stranger comes to your door, and how can the fallout from that encounter affect a whole town? Wetmore's stranger is a 14 year old girl who has been brutally attacked in a nearby oil field. Readers learn what happens next through the eyes of four women whose individual chapters read like fully developed short stories. This was by design, says Wetmore, who prefers to work in that form. She toggled between perspectives as she wrote, eventually plastering her bedroom walls with notes on butcher paper that helped her keep track of the action. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Hana Makgeolli, a maker of Korean rice wine, has signed a 10 year lease to open a 2,500 square foot brewery in this Greenpoint industrial district. The facility, which will occupy the entire stand alone warehouse, is expected to open this summer, and the wine will be brewed, bottled and sold on site. There will also be a tasting room, and tours will be available. This five floor building on the Lower East Side has a 1,250 square foot retail space on the ground floor and 15 walk up apartments. One apartment has two bedrooms, and the rest are studios and one bedrooms. All have their own electric and gas meters, and those utilities are paid by the tenants. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
An immense, full floor penthouse at the top of the Manhattan House, a condominium conversion of a white brick landmark building with a private garden on the Upper East Side, sold for 22,168,630 and was the most expensive closed sale of the week, according to city records. The monthly carrying charges are an estimated 16,738; the asking price was 23.5 million. This sponsor apartment, No. C2101, at 200 East 66th Street, is a combination of two half floor units. The total square footage is 7,597 feet, which includes nine bedrooms, eight and a half baths and expansive living and dining rooms divided by a double sided wood burning fireplace. There are also a home gym, a media room and a playroom with a fireplace, as well as a separate service entrance and Lutron light and audio systems. The south facing master suite features another fireplace, along with two walk in closets and a windowed bath with radiant heated floors. The home also has abundant outdoor space: Two large wraparound terraces, totaling 1,340 square feet, provide far reaching cityscape views. And just off the building's lobby is a one acre garden, with plantings and walking paths, designed by Sasaki Associates. Gracing the garden are sculptures by the Dutch born artist Hans Van de Bovenkamp. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Christopher Plummer on the set of "All the Money in the World."Credit...Tom Jamieson for The New York Times Christopher Plummer on the set of "All the Money in the World." To millions, Christopher Plummer will always be the dashing Captain von Trapp from the beloved 1965 classic "The Sound of Music," even though Mr. Plummer considered the part tedious and came to resent his immutable association with the film. In recent years, the Tony winning actor, who was brought up in Montreal, has marched into the history books thanks to a late career burst of lauded performances. In 2012, at 82, he became the oldest actor to win an Oscar (for his supporting role in "Beginners,") and in January, at 88, became the oldest actor to ever receive a nomination, for his performance, replacing Kevin Spacey, as J. Paul Getty in Ridley Scott's "All the Money in the World." In January, he spoke with me by phone from his winter home in Florida, on topics that ranged from Mr. Spacey and the MeToo moment to his age and his decision to work with Elia Kazan. Mr. Plummer dodged when asked about the pay discrepancy between his co stars Mark Wahlberg earned 1.5 million more than Michelle Williams to reshoot crucial scenes saying he was "completely focused on the film and completely unaware of the other business matters at the time." The publicist who connected us just referred to you as Chris. But you can't be a Chris you're too august of a man to be anything but Christopher! Oh come on, I'm a bore, don't be silly. You're now the oldest actor to have ever received an Oscar and the oldest to earn a nomination. How does it feel to be such a record breaker? Oh God, this age thing, it's just getting ridiculous. I've got to start lying about my age. But you can't. The internet doesn't forget anything. It's kind of amazing that you've been getting all of these accolades in your 80s. I've made over 100 motion pictures, and some of them were even good. It's nice to be reborn every few decades, because then you can have another career. The nice part about awards and being nominated is the fact that it wakes everybody up again, and makes them realize you're alive and kicking and available. The roles have got more interesting as I've got older. In theater, where I spent most of my life, I've played all the great classic roles in England and North America, on Broadway and in Canada. So here we go again. Now I'm playing big modern classic roles. J. Paul Getty is a classic sized figure. I recently played Kaiser Wilhelm II in the World War II drama "The Exception" . I love playing these really old guys. Though I can't play King Lear anymore, I don't think. I've gotten too old. Are the roles getting better, have you gotten better, or both? I've been very lucky with my writers. Simon Burke "The Exception" wrote an excellent part. David Scarpa writer of "All The Money in the World" did a smashing job, and gave a rather colorless character a lot of character, which I jumped at immediately. I thought there must've somewhere been some kind of humanity in that man, and I think we found a little bit of it. Ridley Scott has said he wanted you first for the Getty part anyway. He says he did, yeah. I was probably one or two. He said I was the original choice, and whether I was or not, I thought, 'To hell with it, I'm doing it.'" Any trepidation, taking the place of another actor who's already completed the role? No trepidation. In the theater it happens a lot. In movies it does not happen. I've always wanted to work with Ridley. He's such a pro, with a marvelous sense of humor. There wasn't time to be frightened or scared. We were laughing most of the time. There was only nine days of shooting. And my memory didn't fail me. Did you have any contact with Kevin Spacey after Ridley approached you for the role? No, no, no. I really didn't want to know about all those negotiations and stuff, and first of all I didn't have any time. What do you think about people disclosing sexual harassment they've endured? It's great that the ladies can now come forward and speak out. I think that's terrific, and it should go on. I hope it relaxes one day it's beginning to get frenzied. Although it's terribly important that it is happening, I hope it settles down and that the women can bask in their victory. I've read that you hated being in the "The Sound of Music," that you once called it "The Sound of Mucus." I never said it wasn't a terrific film. I was just bored sick with my own role. I didn't think it was exciting. I didn't think I was very good. I loved Julie Andrews and Robert Wise, he's a smashing director. I also call it an albatross. It follows you. Well, your job really was to just stand there and be handsome, which you did very well. Gosh I hope I did more than that. You did! I'm kidding. Going back, the play "J.B." earned you your first Tony nomination. You worked on it with Elia Kazan around the time he testified for the House Un American Activities Committee. Was that a hard decision to make then and has your perspective on it changed over the years? That wasn't happening while we were doing "J.B." That was sort of happening a little during and after. One of the great moments of my life was getting to work with Elia Kazan. His talent was overwhelming. He changed the face of theater, promoting the new wave, with Brando, Montgomery Clift. He really changed the face of acting. So there's a lot of wonderful things I remember about Gadge, which is what we called him. But that other thing. I don't know. You see he was an immigrant, and really I think maybe he was scared. A lot of people did that because they were afraid, so they named names. So as hard as it is, it might seem pitiable in a way that someone with such authority and courage in the theater could be timid and scared about his position in the United States. That's a very compassionate reading of it. If you knew Gadge, you couldn't help but think the same way. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Some of the most compelling evidence linking a widely used pesticide to developmental problems in children stems from what scientists call a "natural" experiment. Though in this case, there was nothing natural about it. Chlorpyrifos (pronounced klor PYE ruh fahs) had been used to control bugs in homes and fields for decades when researchers at Columbia University began studying the effects of pollutants on pregnant mothers from low income neighborhoods. Two years into their study, the pesticide was removed from store shelves and banned from home use, because animal research had found it caused brain damage in baby rats. Pesticide levels dropped in the cord blood of many newborns joining the study. Scientists soon discovered that those with comparatively higher levels weighed less at birth and at ages 2 and 3, and were more likely to experience persistent developmental delays, including hyperactivity and cognitive, motor and attention problems. By age 7, they had lower IQ scores. The Columbia study did not prove definitively that the pesticide had caused the children's developmental problems, but it did find a dose response effect: The higher a child's exposure to the chemical, the stronger the negative effects. That study was one of many. Decades of research into the effects of chlorpyrifos strongly suggests that exposure at even low levels may threaten children. A few years ago, scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that it should be banned altogether. Yet chlorpyrifos is still widely used in agriculture and routinely sprayed on crops like apples, oranges, strawberries and broccoli. Whether it remains available may become an early test of the Trump administration's determination to pare back environmental regulations frowned on by the industry and to retreat from food safety laws, possibly provoking another clash with the courts. In March, the new chief of the E.P.A., Scott Pruitt, denied a 10 year old petition brought by environmental groups seeking a complete ban on chlorpyrifos. In a statement accompanying his decision, Mr. Pruitt said there "continue to be considerable areas of uncertainty" about the neurodevelopmental effects of early life exposure to the pesticide. Even though a court last year denied the agency's request for more time to review the scientific evidence, Mr. Pruitt said the agency would postpone a final determination on the pesticide until 2022. The agency was "returning to using sound science in decision making rather than predetermined results," he added. Agency officials have declined repeated requests for information detailing the scientific rationale for Mr. Pruitt's decision. Lawyers representing Dow and other pesticide manufacturers have also been pressing federal agencies to ignore E.P.A. studies that have found chlorpyrifos and other pesticides are harmful to endangered plants and animals. A statement issued by Dow Chemical, which manufactures the pesticide, said: "No pest control product has been more thoroughly evaluated, with more than 4,000 studies and reports examining chlorpyrifos in terms of health, safety and environment." Mr. Pruitt's decision has confounded environmentalists and research scientists convinced that the pesticide is harmful. Farm workers and their families are routinely exposed to chlorpyrifos, which leaches into ground water and persists in residues on fruits and vegetables, even after washing and peeling, they say. Mr. Pruitt's order contradicted the E.P.A.'s own exhaustive scientific analyses, which had been reviewed by industry experts and modified in response to their concerns. An updated human health risk assessment compiled by the E.P.A. in November found that health problems were occurring at lower levels of exposure than had previously been believed harmful. Infants, children, young girls and women are exposed to dangerous levels of chlorpyrifos through diet alone, the agency said. Children are exposed to levels up to 140 times the safety limit. "The science was very complicated, and it took the E.P.A. a long time to figure out how to deal with what the Columbia study was saying," said Jim Jones, who ran the chemical safety unit at the agency for five years, leaving after President Trump took office. The evidence that the pesticide causes neurodevelopmental damage to children "is not a slam dunk, the way it is for some of the most well understood chemicals," Mr. Jones conceded. Still, he added, "very few chemicals fall into that category." But the law governing the regulation of pesticides used on foods doesn't require conclusive evidence for regulators to prohibit potentially dangerous chemicals. It errs on the side of caution. The Food Quality Protection Act set a new safety standard for pesticides and fungicides when it was passed in 1996, requiring the E.P.A. to determine that a chemical can be used with "a reasonable certainty of no harm." The act also required the agency to take the unique vulnerabilities of young children into account and to use a wide margin of safety when setting tolerance levels. Children may be exposed to multiple pesticides that have the same toxic mechanism of action at the same time, the law noted. They're also exposed through routes other than food, like drinking water. Environmental groups returned last month to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, asking that the E.P.A. be ordered to ban the pesticide. The court has already admonished the agency for what it called "egregious" delays in responding to a petition filed by the groups in 2007. The E.P.A. responded on April 28, saying it had met its deadline when Mr. Pruitt denied the petition. Erik D. Olson, director of the health program at Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups petitioning the E.P.A. to ban chlorpyrifos, disagreed. "The E.P.A. has twice made a formal determination that this chemical is not safe," Mr. Olson said. "The agency cannot just decide not to act on that. They have not put out a new finding of safety, which is what they would have to do to allow it to continue to be used." Chlorpyrifos belongs to a class of pesticides called organophosphates, a diverse group of compounds that includes nerve agents like sarin gas. It acts by blocking an enzyme called cholinesterase, which causes a toxic buildup of acetylcholine, an important neurotransmitter that carries signals from nerve cells to their targets. But the scientific question has been whether humans, and especially small children, are affected by chronic low level exposures that don't cause any obvious immediate effects and if so, at what threshold these exposures cause harm. Scientists have been studying the impact of chlorpyrifos on brain development in young rats under controlled laboratory conditions for decades. These studies have shown that the chemical has devastating effects on the brain. "Even at exquisitely low doses, this compound would stop cells from dividing and push them instead into programmed cell death," said Theodore Slotkin, a scientist at Duke University Medical Center, who has published dozens of studies on rats exposed to chlorpyrifos shortly after birth. In the animal studies, Dr. Slotkin was able to demonstrate a clear cause and effect relationship. It didn't matter when the young rats were exposed; their developing brains were vulnerable to its effects throughout gestation and early childhood, and exposure led to structural abnormalities, behavioral problems, impaired cognitive performance and depressive like symptoms. And there was no safe window for exposure. "There doesn't appear to be any period of brain development that is safe from its effects," Dr. Slotkin said. With regard to organophosphates, she added, "the animal literature is very strong, and the human literature is consistent, but not as strong." If the E.P.A. will not end use of the pesticide, consumer preferences may. In California, the nation's breadbasket, use of chlorpyrifos has been declining, Dr. Eskenazi said. Farmers have responded to rising demand for organic produce and to concerns about organophosphate pesticides. She is already concerned about what chemicals will replace it. While organophosphates and chlorpyrifos in particular have been scrutinized, newer pesticides have not been studied so closely, she said. "We know more about chlorpyrifos than any other organophosphate; that doesn't mean it's the most toxic;" she said, adding, "There may be others that are worse offenders." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Mr. Haneke began his filmmaking career in television and made movies for TV in West Germany in the 1970s and '80s, as well as a two part mini series, "Lemmings," in 1979. In 1997 he adapted Franz Kafka's "The Castle" for ORF, Austria's public service broadcaster. Mr. Haneke made his first feature film, "The Seventh Continent," in 1989. Most of Mr. Haneke's movies are in German and French, although he remade his 1997 German language film "Funny Games" in English in 2007, and his latest movie, "Happy End," though primarily in French, featured some dialogue in English. The production company working on "Kelvin's Book," UFA Fiction, was also behind "Deutschland 83", the German espionage series that aired in 2015. "No other director of the present has sharpened and stirred up my perception through his films like Michael Haneke," Nico Hoffman, the UFA Fiction chief executive, said in a statement. " 'Kelvin's Book' is an extraordinarily rich, gripping and ambitious story. With contemporary themes and a reflection of the digital age that we live in, there's no better time for this project." No details were available about a broadcast partner or streaming platform for the series. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Whole milk from organic dairies contains far more of some of the fatty acids that contribute to a healthy heart than conventional milk, scientists are reporting. The finding, published Monday in the journal PLOS One, is the most clear cut instance of an organic food's offering a nutritional advantage over its conventional counterpart. Studies looking at organic fruits and vegetables have been less conclusive. Drinking whole organic milk "will certainly lessen the risk factor for cardiovascular disease," said the study's lead author, Charles M. Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University's Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources. "All milk is healthy and good for people," he continued, "but organic milk is better, because it has a more favorable balance of these fatty acids" omega 3, typically found in fish and flaxseed, versus omega 6, which is abundant in many fried foods like potato chips. Under government requirements for organic labeling, dairy cows must spend a certain amount of the time in the pasture, eating grassy plants high in omega 3s; conventional milk comes from cows that are mostly fed corn, which is high in omega 6s. Nonorganic cows that graze in pastures also produce milk with greater amounts of omega 3s. The research was largely funded by Organic Valley, a farm cooperative that sells organic dairy products. But experts not connected with the study said the findings were credible though they noted that the role of milk in a healthy diet and the influence of fatty acids in preventing or causing cardiovascular disease are far from settled. "I think this is a very good piece of work," said Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a nutritional neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health. The researchers looked at 384 samples of organic and conventional whole milk taken over 18 months around the country. Although the total amount of fat was almost the same, the organic milk contained 62 percent more omega 3 fatty acids and 25 percent fewer omega 6s. The ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 in the organic milk was 2.28, much lower than the 5.77 ratio in conventional milk. (The figures do not apply to nonfat milk, which strips away the fatty acids.) Nutrition experts broadly agree that omega 3 acids offer numerous health benefits. That was the impetus for the United States Department of Agriculture to urge people to eat more seafood when it revised its dietary guidelines in 2010. But experts disagree sharply whether omega 6 consumption should be reduced. In ancient times, people ate roughly equal amounts of the two fatty acids. Today most Americans now eat more than 10 times as much omega 6, which is prevalent in certain vegetable oils and thus also fried foods, as omega 3. While omega 6 is essential, some health studies suggest that such a wide disparity is associated with many ills, Dr. Benbrook said. A shift to drinking organic whole milk and raising consumption from the currently recommended three servings a day to 4.5 would take a big step to lowering the ratio, he said, although adjustments would have to be made elsewhere in the diet to offset the added calories of the milk fat. Donald R. Davis, another of the study's authors, said the longstanding assumption that the saturated fats in whole milk raise the risk of cardiovascular disease has been questioned in recent years. Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, did not question the underlying data in the study. But he said the conclusions and recommendations were based on the "false assumption" that omega 6 fatty acids are harmful. Dr. Willett said omega 6s were actually associated with a lower risk of heart disease, and he called the ratio of omega 6s to omega 3s "irrelevant." People should try to eat more of both, he said. And he noted that milk was not essential to a healthy diet; adults in many countries drink little or none. "We don't know all the long term consequences, so I think the best strategy given current knowledge is to keep intake low to moderate (as in the Mediterranean diet) if it is consumed at all," Dr. Willet wrote in an email. But Dr. Hibbeln of the National Institutes of Health, who has conducted research on the effects of fatty acids on heart disease, said animal studies showed that high levels of omega 6s interfered with omega 3s. At the same time, though, he cautioned that the mix of omega 3s in milk is different from that in fatty fish. The simple ratio, he said, "is not as meaningful as we would like it to be." Still, he endorsed the organic milk recommendation. "You're heading in the right direction," he said. Organic Valley uses independent milk processing companies around the country, allowing the researchers to compare samples of organic milk with conventional milk from the same region. The company provided 45,000 for an independent laboratory to measure the fatty acids, and it is a corporate sponsor of Dr. Benbrook's program at Washington State. The university spent 90,000 to analyze the data and prepare the paper for publication. George Siemon, chief executive of Organic Valley, said he was hoping to gain a better idea of how organic foods differ from conventionally produced ones. "Organics have lacked a science base," Mr. Siemon said. "I just wanted to know." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
"Almost Famous," Cameron Crowe's semi autobiographical film about an aspiring music journalist starring Billy Crudup and Kate Hudson, hit theaters nearly 20 years ago. Now, a musical based on Crowe's Academy Award winning screenplay is set to debut in the city where the story is based. This September, "Almost Famous" will open the 2019 20 season at the Old Globe in San Diego, directed by Jeremy Herrin ("Noises Off") and featuring a book by Crowe. When Crowe was a teenager, he met Lester Bangs, a rock critic who is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the film. "As this experience started to be where we could actually open the play at the Old Globe, right across from where I used to live and within a one mile radius from where I first met Lester and first fell in love with music," Crowe said Friday, "It just felt like, O.K., this becomes a personal story that kind of goes back home to where it all began." The show will begin previews on Sept. 13, with an official opening date of Sept. 27, and will follow a 15 year old writer named William Miller, who embeds with an up and coming rock band in 1973 for Rolling Stone. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
The app developer Rovio wants you to take out your smartphone at the movie theater. To promote the release of "The Angry Birds Movie," which opens on Friday in the United States, Rovio is offering bonus content for its newest mobile game, Angry Birds Action, to those who open the app while in the theater. (The incentive comes as the credits roll at the end of the movie.) The cross platform marketing strategy is part of Rovio's efforts to reinvigorate its Angry Birds brand and transform the company into a global media powerhouse. The original Angry Birds game, which was released in 2009 and became a time consuming yet irresistible distraction, is the top paid mobile app of all time. But sales have flagged and the company has struggled, despite efforts to diversify into consumer products and reduce its reliance on mobile games. Rovio, a privately held company based in Finland, reported an annual loss in 2015 of 13 million euros, or about 15 million. The movie was developed as part of the company's desire to evolve beyond apps, said Tuomo Korpinen, president of the company's Rovio Animation unit and formerly of DreamWorks Animation. "The idea was that this was needed to compete with the best out there, the Disneys, the Pixars, the DreamWorks." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
SAVANNAH, Ga. The uninsured pour into Memorial Health hospital here: the waitress with cancer in her voice box who for two years assumed she just had a sore throat. The unemployed diabetic with a wound stretching the length of her shin. The construction worker who could no longer breathe on his own after weeks of untreated asthma attacks and had to be put on a respirator. Many of these patients were expected to gain health coverage under the Affordable Care Act through a major expansion of Medicaid, the medical insurance program for the poor. But after the Supreme Court in 2012 gave states the right to opt out, Georgia, like about half the states, almost all of them Republican led, refused to broaden the program. Now, in a perverse twist, many of the poor people who rely on safety net hospitals like Memorial will be doubly unlucky. A government subsidy, little known outside health policy circles but critical to the hospitals' survival, is being sharply reduced under the new health law. The subsidy, which for years has helped defray the cost of uncompensated and undercompensated care, was cut substantially on the assumption that the hospitals would replace much of the lost income with payments for patients newly covered by Medicaid or private insurance. But now the hospitals in states like Georgia will get neither the new Medicaid patients nor most of the old subsidies, which many say are crucial to the mission of care for the poor. "We were so thrilled when the law passed, but it has backfired," said Lindsay Caulfield, senior vice president for planning and marketing at Grady Health in Atlanta, the largest safety net hospital in Georgia. It is now facing the loss of nearly half of its roughly 100 million in annual subsidies known as disproportionate share hospital payments. Memorial is also facing steep reductions in the subsidies. Cancer care may be among the services reduced, administrators here said. Memorial is now one of only a few hospitals in the state with a tumor clinic that accepts poor patients without insurance. Many show up coughing blood or having trouble breathing because their cancers have gone untreated for so long. On a recent afternoon, Dr. Wade Fletcher, who practices at the hospital, thumbed through a stack of patient intake forms. The sections on payment contained the same refrain: No insurance. No money. Even so, many of the patients work, often in Savannah's huge hotel and restaurant industry. Late last month, Donna Atkins, a waitress at a barbecue restaurant, learned from Dr. Guy Petruzzelli, a surgeon here, that she has throat cancer. She does not have insurance and had a sore throat for a year before going to a doctor. She was advised to get a specialized image of her neck, but it would have cost 2,300, more than she makes in a month. "I didn't have the money even to walk in the door of that office," said Ms. Atkins, speaking in a low, throaty whisper. Dr. Petruzzelli has a phrase for her situation: "She failed the wallet biopsy." Ms. Atkins had surgery last Friday, two years after her first symptoms. It is unclear whether Ms. Atkins, whose income is right around the poverty line, will be left without Medicaid, or if she earns enough to qualify for subsidies to buy private insurance on the federal exchange. She appreciates the intent of the health law, but does not like the outcome: Her hours are being cut so her employer can count her as part time to avoid having to offer insurance. As she juggled takeout orders at the restaurant, Ms. Atkins said she would have to try to find a second job. "I'm 53," she said. "Not too many people want to hire someone my age." Patients with chronic conditions like hers often go in and out of emergency rooms for years without treatment because doctors are only required to treat immediately life threatening conditions. Dr. Christopher Senkowski, a surgeon at Memorial, recalled examining a farmer with pancreatic cancer that had spread throughout his body after months of referrals to specialists that he could not afford. The cuts in subsidies for safety net hospitals like Memorial those that deliver a significant amount of care to poor, uninsured or otherwise vulnerable patients are set to total at least 18 billion through 2020. The government has projected that as much as 22 billion more in Medicare subsidies could be cut by 2019, depending partly on the change in the numbers of uninsured nationally. The cuts are just one of the reductions in government reimbursements that are squeezing hospitals across the country. Some have already announced layoffs. In Georgia, three rural hospitals have closed this year. Medicaid expansion may not have replaced all of the lost subsidies, but it would have helped, hospital administrators said. "I understand that the state needs to balance its budget, and control the runaway costs of Medicaid, but to turn a blind eye and say, 'Let the chips fall where they may,' you'll end up with a gutted health care system," said Maggie M. Gill, chief executive at Memorial Health. Traditionally, safety net hospitals have played a special role in caring for poor people. They make up just 2 percent of acute care hospitals in the country, but provide about a fifth of all uncompensated care, according to Dr. Arthur Kellerman, dean of the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine in Bethesda, Md. The subsidy was created in the 1980s to help hospitals with large shares of patients who were uninsured or had government insurance that did not pay very much. Many hospitals came to depend on it. A full third of Grady's patients have no insurance, and, if that does not change, the hospital will have no choice but to cut services, said John M. Haupert, Grady's chief executive. The hospital's large outpatient mental health program, which handles 58,000 visits a year and is critical to keeping poor patients with behavioral problems from seeking treatment in the emergency room, would most likely be hit, Mr. Haupert said. Some experts say the cuts in hospital subsidies are part of a larger problem: government programs like Medicaid do not pay enough to cover the actual costs of care. The cheapest private insurance on the new health care exchanges, the Bronze Plan, covers just 60 percent of costs, leaving low income people who buy it with a lot of out of pocket costs that hospitals worry the patients will not be able to pay. A spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services said that some of the reductions in the subsidy should not hurt safety net hospitals because states have discretion over how the money is distributed and should be focusing on hospitals with the most uncompensated care. And while there is no special exception for states that did not expand Medicaid, federal officials have said they will revisit that in 2016. But experts and hospital administrators said it was unlikely that the federal government would make adjustments that would reward states that refused to expand Medicaid. And the health care landscape is changing so rapidly, they say, that the subsidies are crucial to keep going over the next few years. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Turkish Airlines, for example, has a stopover program for passengers who are departing from the United States and have more than 20 hours of connection time in Istanbul on their way to more than 305 destinations worldwide. Fliers who qualify get one night of free accommodations in a centrally located neighborhood (economy passengers stay at a four star hotel and business class passengers stay at a five star hotel), breakfast and return transfers between the airport and their hotel. Singapore Airlines offers a Singapore Stopover Holiday package for passengers connecting through Singapore that has a starting cost of 35 a person but is valued at more than 380 a person, according to James Boyd, a spokesman for the airline. Fliers get a one night hotel stay, free unlimited rides on the airline's Hop On Bus and access to more than 20 different attractions in the city such as the Adventure Cove Waterpark, the National Gallery Singapore and a river cruise. The offer also includes free meals at several restaurants such as the popular chicken rice chain Boon Tong Kee. The stopover program from TAP Air Portugal allows fliers to spend up to five nights in Lisbon or Porto for no extra charge on their way to more than 65 destinations in Europe and Africa via Lisbon or Porto. Final destinations within Portugal like Madeira and the Azores also qualify for the program, which includes discounts at more than 150 hotels, a free bottle of wine at select restaurants, free activities including tuk tuk rides and free admission to several museums. With the stopover program from Qatar Airways, residents from 80 countries, including the United States, receive visa free entry into Qatar, along with a free night 's hotel stay in Doha (fliers can choose from a list of properties), round trip transfers between the airport and their hotel, early check in, late checkout, free breakfast and discounts for activities. Emirates flies to more than 150 destinations globally through Dubai but wants its customers to see Dubai, too. Its stopover program includes a meet and assist at Dubai International Airport, discounted rates at more than 90 hotels and apartments in the city, breakfast and round trip transfers between the airport and hotel. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
SAN FRANCISCO A former senior lawyer at Apple who oversaw the company's insider trading policies was himself accused of insider trading by federal prosecutors and securities regulators in complaints made public on Wednesday. The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a suit that Gene Levoff, a former senior director of corporate law and a corporate secretary at Apple, repeatedly traded on inside information from 2011 to 2016. The S.E.C. said Mr. Levoff violated insider trading laws three times from 2015 to 2016. On one occasion, Mr. Levoff sold roughly 10 million of Apple stock nearly his entire holdings from his personal brokerage account four days before Apple announced quarterly earnings on July 21, 2015. In a related action, federal prosecutors in New Jersey charged Mr. Levoff with one count of securities fraud in a criminal complaint. The company's stock price fell 4 percent after the earnings report, in which Apple revealed it had fallen short of analysts' estimates for iPhone sales. Mr. Levoff had already seen a draft of the announcement and avoided about 345,000 in losses by dumping his Apple shares before the official announcement, the S.E.C. said. But since the end of 2016, Apple's share price has increased 47 percent. Kevin Marino, Mr. Levoff's lawyer and a principal at the law firm Marino, Tortorella Boyle, said he was reviewing the allegations against Mr. Levoff and looked forward to defending him. "Gene Levoff was a trusted Apple executive for many years, and has never before been accused of wrongdoing of any kind," Mr. Marino said in a statement. According to the S.E.C., Mr. Levoff oversaw Apple's corporate law group of 20 to 30 lawyers and paralegals. He was responsible for Apple's compliance with securities laws and providing legal advice for the company's S.E.C. filings and financial reporting. He also served as a corporate officer of every major Apple subsidiary. "As a member of the core group of senior Apple insiders entrusted with material nonpublic information, and as an attorney with a sophisticated understanding of securities and corporate law, Levoff knew, or was reckless in not knowing, that he had a duty of trust and confidence to the company and its shareholders," according to the complaint filed in United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. The S.E.C. said he was placed on leave in July and fired in September. "After being contacted by authorities last summer, we conducted a thorough investigation with the help of outside legal experts, which resulted in termination," an Apple spokesman, Josh Rosenstock, said in a statement. In an indication of how senior Mr. Levoff was at the company, he was part of Apple's disclosure committee a group that helps Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, and Luca Maestri, the chief financial officer, determine whether the company is meeting its responsibilities for providing accurate and timely disclosures to investors. At the time of his departure, Mr. Levoff reported to Katherine Adams, Apple's general counsel. She replaced Bruce Sewell, who served as the company's top lawyer for eight years until he stepped down in 2017. Mr. Levoff was responsible for ensuring compliance with Apple's insider trading rules, including sending emails to individuals who were subject to trading restrictions around Apple's quarterly earnings announcements. Apple's insider trading policy said any individual with material, nonpublic information about the company was not allowed to trade the stock until 60 hours after that information had been announced. The S.E.C. said Mr. Levoff also engaged in insider trading on three other occasions from 2011 to 2012. In each instance, Mr. Levoff received draft news releases and S.E.C. filings. He then bought thousands of shares of Apple stock before the public announcement. Shortly after the stock rose on the positive earnings announcements, Mr. Levoff sold the shares. He made approximately 245,000 in profits on those insider trading transactions. Before those transactions, Mr. Levoff sent emails to company employees alerting them that a blackout period was starting and that they were prohibited from trading Apple securities. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
More than 80,000 Americans died of the flu in the winter of 2017 2018, the highest number in over a decade, federal health officials said last week. Although 90 percent of those deaths were in people over age 65, the flu also killed 180 young children and teenagers, more than in any other year since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began using its current surveillance methods. The estimates were released at a news conference held by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases to urge Americans to get vaccinated and to fight the myths that scare off some people such as the common misconception that flu shots can cause flu. The high mortality rate was unusual because it was caused by a "normal" albeit severe flu season, not by a new pandemic influenza strain. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Yardley Wong, captive on the Japanese cruise ship grappling with the coronavirus, captured in a single image the essence of life under quarantine. From inside her tiny cabin, Ms. Wong took a picture of the closed doorway. She posted it to Twitter last week. "So much wondering through this door," she wrote. From the Black Plague to the flu pandemic of 1918 to more recent outbreaks, the history of quarantine and medical isolation shows common emotional threads of those on both sides of such doors uncertainty, terror, loneliness, separation. But this time, the raw physical barrier is showing cracks, thanks to the smartphone. "After some emotional breakdown, I find my peace from you all," Ms. Wong tweeted several days after her post brought messages of support from people around the world. "Thank you for the kindness. Your tweets give me strength." Laptops, tablets and smartphones are allowing people in quarantine to work at their jobs remotely, order food, shop on Amazon, chat face to face with friends and loved ones, keep up with social media feeds, download movies and music in short, to stay engaged in the world and fulfill many activities of their regular lives. Karey Maniscalco, an American real estate agent who was quarantined with her husband, Roger, on the same cruise ship, found isolation surprisingly busy. "The last couple of days, we've been just catching up on work online, and doing a lot of Facebooking," she said in an interview last week, before the U.S. government evacuated most American passengers from the ship and flew them back to the United States, where they will continue to be quarantined. "Our inboxes are constantly full. Keeping up on social media is surprisingly very time consuming." She started posting TikTok videos to stave off what she said could be "overwhelming" emotion. "I woke up realizing that I'm still here and just started crying." Engaging on social media, she said, "keeps me too busy to sit and dwell, I guess." In China, Isabel Dahm, 22, has been able to see her cats and dog back home in Minnesota through chats with her father, Bob Dahm, using an app, WeChat. She is in Zhejiang province, where she's been teaching English since November and is now largely relegated to her apartment under semi quarantine. "I think if this was happening in the Middle Ages, I would've actually gone insane weeks ago," Ms. Dahm said by email. She is allowed out of her apartment only every other day, so she is teaching her class online from her computer in her small efficiency apartment. "I have a VPN, a virtual private network, so I'm able to access all of the things I could back in the States, like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube that are normally blocked in China," she said. She also orders food delivery but the delivery people are not allowed upstairs. "She's learned the phrase in Chinese for 'I'll meet you at the gate,'" her father said. More substantively, those under quarantine have had unprecedented access to information about the virus itself. For example, in Shenzhen, in the Guangdong province, which has the highest infection rate outside of Wuhan, Krista Lang Blackwood, a teacher from Kansas City, follows virus updates from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sometimes, she and her family look out their fifth floor window and wonder if the quiet streets are telling them infection is spreading. Then they check the phone to find out. In earlier times, Ms. Lang Blackwood noted in an email, people probably would have fretted over how close the nearest case of illness was. "In the 21st century, don't worry! There's an app for that!" she wrote. "You can literally look at your neighborhood and see where each reported case is on a map. We have no idea who runs that app, since it's all in Chinese, but, on the app, there is no red exclamation point at the apartment complex down the street." "It's an odd combination," she added, "of glut of information combined with isolation." This widespread connectivity appears to be changing the nature of isolation according to experts in two disparate fields those who study the sociology of technology use and those who study quarantine. In 1918, during the flu pandemic, parts of the United States embraced a strategy called "social distancing" that was explicitly intended to limit interpersonal exposure. Only one third of households had phones and people were afraid to touch newspapers, fearing the spread of germs. Research, going back decades, shows specific instances in which new media helped limit isolation. Journal articles from the early days of radio show how radio transmissions lifted the spirits of people in isolation at hospitals. An experiment in the late 1950s in Omaha found that a closed circuit television signal helped the mood of patients at a mental hospital when they could see and respond to their relatives. In 1832, when a cholera outbreak struck North America, newspapers carried news of the infection as it spread. "There is a long history of new media in transforming these moments over time," said Dr. Jeremy Green, director of the history of medicine department at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The current media seems to combine all that which has come before letter writing, video, radio and television, and all instantly and everywhere. Referring to the swine flu pandemic of 2009, he said, "Even with H1N1, we didn't see this particular outcropping of social networking." Dr. Jeremy Nobel, an adjunct instructor at the department of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, warned that the widespread ability to communicate comes with the equally powerful ability to manipulate, distort and censor information. As a result, he said, people under quarantine may be left to ponder if governments are telling the truth, creating tension between the comfort of interpersonal communications and discomfort of official ones. "In an era of fake news," he said, "people might ask: What is fact, and what is truth?" | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
SHOULD the driver adapt to the car or should the car adapt to the driver? One might think that advances in technology would favor the driver, but not everyone would agree after spending time with Ford's technologically tricked out 2011 Edge Sport. Certainly the virtue of its MyFord Touch, one of the most advanced in car computer control systems, is that it offers owners plenty of options. But that is also its vice: there are too many options. MyFord Touch builds on an earlier generation Microsoft supported Sync voice control system for juggling directions, phone calls and music from attached devices, like iPods and smartphones. Ford has added an 8 inch LCD touch screen in the center of the dash that now coordinates not only entertainment functions, like the radio, satellite radio and MP3 playback, but also phone calls, the navigation system and the climate control, as well as settings for, among many others, the traction and cruise controls. The reception to MyFord Touch has been mixed to say the least, and Consumer Reports, which has been especially critical, cited it as contributing to the Edge's relatively low test score. The magazine no longer recommends the Edge. On the road, and apart from the snazzy electronics, I found the 2011 Edge Sport significantly upgraded from the previous model.A bigger engine, the 3.7 liter V 6 also found in the base model Mustang, produces 305 horsepower and 280 pound feet of torque. That's a nice increase from the 285 horse, 3.5 liter engine of the base Edge, but the Sport weighs more than 4,400 pounds and its combined city highway rating is a middling 19 m.p.g. So while it's no sports car, it is more peppy than most midsize crossovers and it feels spry on winding mountain roads. The 6 speed automatic transmission comes with paddle shifters for extra fun. In addition to a new fascia that drew lustful looks in my Manhattan parking garage, the Edge has a revamped braking system. Previous models drew complaints of tardy braking, so new brake pistons have been coupled with larger rear discs. The Sport comes with imposing 22 inch wheels and low profile Pirelli Scorpion Zero tires. All in all, the look is handsome, though the all wheel drive version I tested, which included the navigation system, blind spot sensors, remote starting and a special candy apple clear coat paint, topped out at a costly 41,325. (The Edge starts at 27,995 for the front wheel SE.) The "sport tuned" suspension doesn't overreact, even on stretches of Vermont roads pitched by violent frost heaves. The traction and stability control system also keep things from getting scary should you push it too hard. If anything, those electronic nannies are almost too intrusive. Whenever they kicked in there was a noticeable grinding from the rear wheels. On the other hand, they can be humbling. A quick left hander on winter ice that threatened to become embarrassing was quickly corrected by the system. But there was a moment when man and computer were fighting for control of the car. (I was turning the wheel to prevent a skid; meanwhile, it was applying the rear brakes.) And that's an experience analogous to how many drivers may feel about the MyFord Touch experience (or, on the similar Lincoln MKX, MyLincoln Touch). Initial encounters with the elaborate electronics result in a bit of a tug of war between technology and driver, even though the engineers sought to offer just about every imaginable way to access the systems and accommodate a driver's preferences. To wit, there are three main avenues to approach the entertainment/navigation system: reach for the touch screen in the center of the dash, bark out voice commands or push buttons on the steering wheel to sort through menus that show up on two customizable 4.2 inch screens that flank the speedometer. If you want to be old fashioned, you can use a dial and touch sensitive buttons for the Sony stereo. The touch screen is the newest addition. Engineers originally argued against such a screen, which they considered a possible source of driver distraction (and a costly addition). But one cannot drive by voice alone; my passengers didn't appreciate my telling them to shut up so I could hear directions or deliver commands. So the big touch screen is a security blanket. If you can't remember whether the next turn is left or right, or which station is playing, a glance at the screen tells you. The built in navigation system also obviates issues that arise with phone based directions; you don't have to wait for the system to place a call to download new instructions. Still, the screen can be a distraction. While it has some benefits, like a crystal clear view from the rear facing camera, it lacks tactile feedback. So when you reach down to tap on a music selection you must take your eyes off the road or you'll touch the incorrect tiny button. Some form of haptic or vibrating feedback, a feature many touch screen smartphones have adopted, would help. Worse, the screen is about five inches lower on the dashboard than it should be forcing the driver to look to the right, and to look down. In the "how I learned to stop worrying and love voice recognition" category, after hours of testing I've become accustomed to voice commands based on Nuance software, but new drivers will find the system makes more demands than it should. Like most in car voice systems, it doesn't obey natural language instructions; instead, it responds only to certain commands delivered at specific prompts. In other words, though its vocabulary has been increased to 10,000 commands, you still have to learn which commands to say, and when. This can be confusing, for example, when you discover that "set destination" is not available in the navigation section until you've plotted your course; you're supposed to say "destination" first. After you become comfortable with the voice recognition system, you will be disappointed to learn that there are some functions it cannot control, like the balance settings for the Sony sound system. (That's on a touch screen menu.) Ultimately, I was much happier using Ford's third option for driver input: the four way controls on the steering wheel that work the dual screens in the gauge cluster. The buttons allow you to toggle quickly through menus for entertainment and temperature on the right screen. A quick glance down tells you what's happening. On the left screen is vehicle information from sources including the tachometer, gas gauge and trip computer. The controls are comfortable for anyone used to steering wheel buttons, but they are not perfect. The four way buttons are angled slightly toward the center of the wheel, rather than pointing straight north and south, and they lack telltale dents or bumps. So you can get confused and end up looking down to see which directional button you're pressing and that, of course, defeats the purpose. In spite of these misgivings, there is enough flexibility built into MyFord Touch to accommodate many drivers after some trial and error. What works best are the steering wheel controls and, with practice, the voice commands. The touch screen is where MyFord Touch doesn't work well at all, because of its tendency to distract the driver. I had other issues. The optional blind spot warning system that flashes red lights in the side mirrors is helpful, but it can be deceived by guardrails on curves. At night that became a distraction; I found myself searching for phantom cars. The tire pressure monitor proved annoying when a tire lost air. The sensor warned me something was amiss, but did not tell me which tire was ailing. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
From toothbrushes and towels to pens and pillow cases, you'd be hard pressed not to find an item with Hello Kitty's famous mug on it. The proof, in fact, is in the dumpling. Hong Kong's first Kitty dedicated Chinese restaurant opened this month, and those wee whiskers and bow appear atop dumplings (squid ink is used for the eyes, natural food coloring for the bow) and noodles (shredded egg forms the bow in this dish). And late last year a Hello Kitty teahouse made its debut in Kyoto with a similarly styled dim sim menu and matcha green tea lattes. A winter special: hot chocolate with Kitty's boyfriend Daniel fashioned out of marshmallows and foam. The 40 seat cafe is officially called the Hello Kitty Tea Shop and is open every day from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. It is located between two of Kyoto's most popular sightseeing spots, the Kiyomizu dera Buddhist temple and the Yasaka Shrine. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Hoping to move past one of the biggest scandals in baseball history, the Houston Astros are turning to one of the most accomplished managers on the market: Dusty Baker. The Astros announced on Wednesday that they had hired Baker, who has 22 years of major league managing experience, to replace A.J. Hinch, who was fired along with General Manager Jeff Luhnow over the sign stealing scandal deployed by the Astros in 2017 and 2018. Baker joins the Astros with a long resume: He is a former two time All Star outfielder and 1981 World Series winner; he has managed the San Francisco Giants, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds and the Washington Nationals; and he is a three time manager of the year. Baker, 70, who is now the oldest active manager in the majors, has struggled to shed the reputation that he is an old school figure at odds with the modern age of analytics. Clubs across the sport have increasingly turned to younger managers well versed in analytics and communication skills, and the Astros in particular have long led the data revolution in the sport. But now they will be led by Baker, who has the most wins of any active manager, with 1,863 15th on the career list. In a sport that has seen a dwindling number of black players in recent decades and few in management positions Baker is now one of two active African American managers in M.L.B. Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who is also of Japanese descent, is the other. Baker, who has championed more diversity in the sport, is one of only four African American managers to manage a team in the World Series. Baker guided the Giants from 1993 through 2002, leading them to the World Series in his final season before falling to the Anaheim Angels. After the Giants did not renew Baker's contract, Baker left for the Cubs. In his first season in Chicago, the team fell one foul ball (the Steve Bartman incident against the Florida Marlins) and one win short of returning to the World Series. After four seasons with the Cubs and one year off, he managed the Reds for six years, taking them to the playoffs three times. Baker was fired after the Reds were swept out of the 2013 playoffs. After a disappointing 2015 season that included clubhouse turmoil under then manager Matt Williams, the Nationals turned to Baker. He shepherded the Nationals to two consecutive National League East titles, but they were bounced in the first round of the playoffs both years as a few of Baker's tactical decisions backfired. Baker, who had already disagreed with ownership about a contract extension, was replaced with a rookie manager, Dave Martinez, who, in his second year, led the Nationals to a World Series title win over the Astros. Now Baker takes over his former team's vanquished and scandal ridden foe. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
The following article contains spoilers for HBO's "The Plot Against America." The one problem with Philip Roth's tour de force 2004 novel, "The Plot Against America," is that it's too feel good. I know this is a strange accusation to make about an alternative history about a fascist United States. In Roth's version of the 1940 presidential election, Americans choose the Nazi sympathizing aviator Charles Lindbergh, who goes on to institute insidious and then overt programs of authoritarianism and anti Semitism. The nation is riven and people are killed. But in the end, everything is set right. In 1942, Lindbergh goes missing while flying his airplane, a special election is called, and Franklin D. Roosevelt is re elected against Lindbergh's vice president, Burton K. Wheeler. The United States enters the war against the Axis, and history continues, more or less, on the track that we know. It's a sober, unsettling story, but it ends on a note of optimism in America's ability to right itself too easily, I would argue, given everything we saw before it. Earlier this year, HBO aired "Plot" as a six part series, adapted by David Simon, who is not known as one of TV's great optimists. His best known series, "The Wire," was a five season lament for American cities. His website is titled "The Audacity of Despair." Simon's confident, chilling adaptation stuck largely to Roth's story, with few changes. The biggest was to that ending, which he reimagined in ways that get more unsettling and relevant as our own election season goes on. The final sequence begins on Election Day, 1942, which, because history has a sense of humor, was Nov. 3, just like this year's. On the soundtrack, Frank Sinatra croons "The House I Live In (That's America to Me)." Citizens line up in the Weequahic High School gym in Newark. They go into the booths and cast their ballots. The citizenry is turning out. America is showing its best side. As Old Blue Eyes keeps singing ("A certain word / Democracy"), a few discordant notes begin to sound. A man with an F.D.R. pin is told he is "not on the list" at the precinct where he has voted for 20 years and is hustled out by police. More officers wheel away a voting machine, telling puzzled onlookers, "It's broken." In a country field, men open a car trunk, unload ballot boxes marked with the number of an election district in which we just saw lines of Black voters and burn the contents. We cut to that evening, in the living room of the Levins, the Jewish family the story was told through. A host on the radio reports on the first returns from precincts on the East Coast. Herman Levin (Morgan Spector) a mainstream F.D.R. supporter who believes the system is ultimately good and self correcting leans in toward the set. "We are seeing some conflicting results early on," the announcer says. "Plot" premiered in March, just as the Covid 19 pandemic was exploding in America. Maybe as a result, for all its focus on the dangers of demagogy and state sanctioned racism, it got less attention than other political parables like "The Handmaid's Tale" have in the Trump years. It was as if viewers decided: Yes, yes, we've heard about all that, but we've got other problems now, like finding masks and toilet paper. But I have thought about those closing five minutes over and over since they aired. I have especially thought about them lately, amid headlines about whether the president would discredit or reject the election results; whether the pandemic might be leveraged to suppress turnout; whether the gutting of the U.S. Postal Service would cripple mail in voting and whether that was exactly the point. Simon's klaxon doesn't pierce through just because of an endangered election. It also sounds a larger systemic critique that marks all of his work. The conclusion of his "Plot" is not, as in Roth's telling, that the biggest bad apple has been eliminated and the rest of a small bad bunch can be dealt with. It's a story in which America comes to realize that democracy is merely a choice, not an inevitability. That choice, Simon argues, must always be made and remade, and there is no reason to assume it will always come out the same way. This global focus the belief that corrupt systems are more dangerous and influential than wicked or heroic individuals is a theme of Simon's work, from "The Wire" to "Show Me a Hero." (The latter mini series, also worth a second look today, was about a subsidized housing program in 1980s Yonkers and the racist backlash it aroused very much the kind of suburban freak out that the current president, a real estate developer in the 1980s, has been trying to goad now.) This outlook has particularly informed Simon's writing about the police. And one thing that becomes clear, rewatching "Plot" amid protests over police violence, is that it is also very much a story about the power of the police as the arm of the state, and how easily that power can turn to menace. You see this in the third episode, when the Levin family takes a long planned trip to Washington, D.C. The Levins get lost driving to their hotel, and they're guided there by a motorcycle officer, though Herman's wife, Bess (Zoe Kazan), doesn't trust him. But they have little choice. Outsiders in a country that they once believed welcomed them, they must drive on in the dark, relying on an officer who can choose to bring them to safety or not. Later, when they're evicted from their hotel, plainly because they're Jewish, it's the police who show up to toss them out as Herman rails at the injustice and Bess urges him to keep quiet. "You ought to listen to your wife, Levin," an officer tells him. The police provide the muscle of the Lindbergh state, not just through their own force but also by deciding who is allowed to wield it who is looked on as a threat for gathering in the streets and who is welcomed for showing up with a weapon. (After mobs of his supporters carry out violence, the president addresses the nation but pointedly refuses to condemn them.) The Lindberghist police, the self deputized brutes in the streets and their allied politicians have enjoyed the spoils. Should it be a surprise that, as the election approaches, they take action? They have an ally in the White House who applauds them and maximizes their power. They've seen that the rules of democracy and due process are crepe paper. Why assume they'll just forfeit their authority because of norms? Why not make one last grab for all the marbles? The arguments on the opposite side ring familiar too, especially between solid citizen Herman and his hothead nephew Alvin (Anthony Boyle), who enlists in the Canadian army to kill Nazis, is involved in an espionage operation that may or may not have led to Lindbergh's disappearance and finally ends up working with gangsters. Herman's acts of resistance were limited to attending rallies and listening to the anti Lindbergh broadcaster Walter Winchell the 1940s equivalent of immersing in Twitter and MSNBC. To him, Alvin is a thug and a disgrace. To Alvin, Herman is useless. "All you people ever do is talk," Alvin says. He spits, they fight and it all ends in a lot of broken furniture and no resolution. All this makes "Plot" more than a thought exercise in "Here's what might have happened then, and thank God it didn't." Instead, it's: "Here's what could happen at any time. Here's what does happen, all the time. Why should we think we're so special?" | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
DUBLIN, Ohio Collin Morikawa figured his tournament was over if he did not make a 5 foot par putt on the 15th hole at Muirfield Village. As it turned out, the fun was just starting. Still three shots behind Justin Thomas with three holes to play, Morikawa made only one birdie, but it was enough for a six under par 66 to force a playoff. The three times he played the 18th hole on Sunday, he twice could only watch as Thomas missed 10 foot putts for the win. The other time, Morikawa had to make a 25 foot putt to keep playing. The only dull moment at the Workday Charity Open was at the end, when Morikawa took two putts for par from just inside 10 feet to beat Thomas on the third playoff hole and win for the second time in his PGA Tour career. Morikawa never looked like the winner until it was over. Thomas had 10 straight one putt greens, the last one a 25 foot eagle putt on the par 5 15th for the three shot lead with three holes to play. And while he made two bogeys for a 69 that allowed for a playoff, he had reason to think it was over when he made a 50 foot birdie putt from the back of the 18th green on the first extra hole. It was a wild ride for Thomas, too. He lost a two shot lead at the start in three holes. He ran off four straight birdies and had 10 consecutive one putts to build his lead through 15 holes. "It's completely unacceptable to give up a three shot lead with three to go," Thomas said. "I'm upset, I'm disappointed in myself." Thomas did not do anything terribly wrong a tee shot in the thick collar on the par 3 16th that led to bogey, a 12 foot birdie attempt on the 17th that narrowly missed, and a tee shot that found a bunker on the 18th and led to another bogey and a 69. He and Morikawa finished at 19 under 269. Viktor Hovland of Norway had a 71 and finished alone in third, four shots behind. His hopes ended with two shots he found a bunker from the 10th fairway for bogey, and hit a driver on the reachable 14th that missed by only about 5 feet, enough for the ball to slowly tumble down the bank and into the water. This was a big win for the 23 year old Morikawa, who in his 13 months since graduating from the University of California has established a reputation for consistency. His only previous tour victory was at an event with a relatively weak field last summer. The Workday Charity Open featured five of the top 10 players in the world. "This is a huge kind of steppingstone," said Morikawa, who goes to No. 13 in the rankings, one spot ahead of Tiger Woods. "We got No. 1 out of the way. We got No. 2. Let the gates just open and let's keep going." It was Morikawa's second playoff since the PGA Tour returned on June 11 from the coronavirus pandemic. He lost on the first extra hole at Colonial by missing a 3 foot putt. He had a 2 foot putt in regulation on Sunday that caught the left edge of the cup and swirled in. "My heartbeat must have skipped a billion times," Morikawa said. The only thing missing for him was a handshake from Jack Nicklaus. He will be there this coming week for the Memorial, as the PGA Tour stays at Muirfield Village. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Pentatonix, the cheery a cappella pop group, held at No. 1 with its latest holiday album on the latest Billboard chart, which covers sales in the last week of 2016. Pentatonix's album, "A Pentatonix Christmas" (RCA), sold 82,000 copies and had 18.3 million streams in the week that ended Thursday, which included the Christmas weekend, according to data from Nielsen. That was a 51 percent decline from the week before, but it was enough to keep the album at No. 1 for a second time in what was otherwise a relatively slow week for the music industry. "Twenty Five" (Epic), a hits collection from George Michael, who died on Christmas Day, landed at No. 12 with just over 9,000 sales and 11 million streams. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
The first night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday was, rightly, not about the clothes: It was about trying to unify the party, rise above the opponent and so on, as many of my colleagues have described. Which is not to say it lacked a fashion statement or two. The loudest may have come early in the evening, courtesy of a video starring the economist Austan Goolsbee and the actor Ken Jeong in which Mr. Goolsbee reveals to Mr. Jeong that most of the Donald Trump branded clothing line is not Made in the U.S.A., but rather in Bangladesh, China, Mexico and other countries (facts that seem to undermine Mr. Trump's assertion of America First but also seem to have had no impact on his supporters). But the most pointed came, not surprisingly, from Michelle Obama. Not that you would have known it at first. Like her speech, in which she castigated Mr. Trump without ever saying his name, her dress spoke volumes while appearing, at first glance, to be entirely subdued. Cobalt blue silk crepe, with cap sleeves, a flared skirt and a neat waist, it was by the designer Christian Siriano, and it pretty much matched the backdrop, playing down Mrs. Obama's appearance and playing to the patriotic theme, especially when contrasted with the bright red jacket that Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wore during her speech. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
There was John Sex, the python hugging entertainer who credited his sky high hairdo to "Dippity do, Aqua Net, egg whites, beer and semen." And David, a No Wave obsessive who cataloged every band that played the late night clubs. And Elaine, a dancer and baby sitter and house sitter and artist's model. These are the "unfamous legends" of "Radicals in Miniature," a furtive heartbreaker of a piece at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, created and performed by Ain Gordon, with the help of the musician Josh Quillen and a gallant assist from the stage manager Ed Fitzgerald. On a set dotted with a dozen monitors and tidily littered with rows of Starbucks coffee cups, Mr. Gordon offers an elegy for the men and women, now dead, who populated the electric, ungentrified New York that he knew in the 1970s and '80s. Mr. Gordon is a writer and performer with a predilection for the "also pictured" and the "also ran," people whose names remain unboldfaced. If "Radicals in Miniature" is a kind of hagiography, these saints are very minor. Most of the people described were artists of limited renown and scant gifts. (The exception: a genius accountant.) "Is talent the one question?" Mr. Gordon wonders. The talents of Mr. Gordon, a three time Obie winner and the son of the choreographer David Gordon and the dancer Valda Setterfield, have rarely been in doubt. His style is intense, sardonic, philosophical, with a tendency to skitter away from the spotlight even as he places himself center stage. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
What day is it? A lot of us are having trouble with that very basic question, since every day just seems to repeat the one before, from the moment the alarm clock goes off. Is this an elaborate existential joke, or some kind of moral test? Are we in a movie? Is it "Groundhog Day"? How many times have we seen that one? Maybe it's time to see it again. So, what day is it? It's Thursday (or maybe Friday?), an ideal time for your Weekend Watch. After all, you are at home, we are at home. The last time we virtually assembled it was for "His Girl Friday," a classic Hollywood screwball. It's a perfect companion to "Groundhog Day" (1993), a wittily modernized screwball from Harold Ramis about a weather reporter, Phil (Bill Murray), who becomes stuck in a surreal time loop that causes him to relive the same day. He wakes up in the same room, sees the same view and relives a day that looks much the same yet is different. Sound familiar? | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
There Is Life After Campus Infamy How five people recovered or vanished after intense scrutiny at an early age. From the earliest days of college coeducation, women on campus have been subjected to scrutiny. Only since the advent of blogs and social media, however, have average Janes been transformed into viral causes celebres overnight. Below, a survey of female and non binary students who got more attention than they bargained for, and how they've fared since leaving school. A screen capture of Jennicam from the Internet Archive. Controversy: In 1996, Ms. Ringley, then 19, stumbled upon a new technology known as the webcam. As she began exploring its possibilities, she accidentally innovated an entirely new genre of entertainment: one in which ordinary people broadcast their lives to a captive audience of strangers. Although Ms. Ringley's project, Jennicam, was low fi by today's standards a still photo set in her dorm room refreshed every 15 minutes it quickly found an international audience. Aftermath: Ms. Ringley kept Jennicam going even after she graduated, and as the internet grew, so did her audience. By 1998 she was a full fledged media darling, appearing on "This American Life" and "The Late Show With David Letterman." Her fan base grew, and so did commentary on her personal life. When Ms. Ringley began dating a friend's fiance, viewers were incensed; The Washington Post declared Ms. Ringley an "amoral man trapper." In 2003, she shut the site down and vanished from the internet. Although Ms. Ringley has done a few interviews in the intervening years most notably, a 2014 interview with the podcast "Reply All" she has largely shunned public attention, even as the personal transparency she pioneered has become more mainstream. Controversy: Ms. Chen began blogging about her sex life at Sex and the Ivy in the summer of 2006, right before the start of her sophomore year at Harvard, intending to share her thoughts and experiences with her friends. Ms. Chen soon found herself a celebrity, not just on the Harvard campus, but also across the broader collegiate landscape, as the defunct IvyGateBlog transformed her into a character the site's writers often referred to as their "best frenemy." In 2008, an ex boyfriend published naked photos of her online, seemingly earning more spectators than sympathy. Aftermath: After the leak, Ms. Chen took a year off from college to attend to her mental health. Years after shuttering Sex and the Ivy, she said, she was plagued by a stalker who relentlessly harassed her and other online acquaintances. In 2013, she decided to leave Boston and start a new life in Berlin, intending to research a novel. Ms. Chen adopted the name Elle Peril and stopped telling people about her past. She abandoned her writing career and started working as a nude model for artists and photographers. "It was really liberating in the beginning," Ms. Chen said in an interview, but eventually a paranoia familiar from her college days returned, including a fantasy that she was being followed by government agents. Ms. Chen eventually said goodbye to her alter ego with a Berlin art show that featured the photos and journal entries from her time as Elle Peril alongside IvyGate articles and documentations the traumas she had experienced as Lena Chen. Ms. Chen said she has been able to fully process and move on from her days as "the Harvard harlot." She now spends her time curating art shows and events focused on helping other women heal from trauma. Controversy: As an undergraduate, Ms. Shvarts embarked on a monthslong performance art project during which she said she inseminated herself with semen donated by men she termed "fabricators," then triggered menstruation (or, possibly, miscarriage) with an herbal abortifacient. Though Ms. Shvarts intended her project to be an exploration of the female reproductive system and a commentary on the art world's gender dynamics, not all media outlets saw the nuance. Interest in Ms. Shvarts's "abortion art" died down shortly after the Yale administration released a statement dismissing Ms. Shvarts's project as a "creative fiction," a label she has always rejected. Aftermath: Ms. Shvarts graduated from Yale a few weeks after captivating the blogosphere and believes the attention hurt her chances at finding an internship or placement in graduate school. One program administrator, she recounted, "asked me if I was sorry for what I did to Yale. I said no. Shortly after, I got the news that I was rejected." A daughter of immigrants who had attended college on a full scholarship, Ms. Shvarts began to fear that she'd "lost the elite world that Yale had delivered me into." Then she was admitted to a Ph.D. program at New York University. Still, Ms. Shvarts said in an interview, she feels routinely expected to answer for the actions of her college self or the version of it depicted in the media. "It's not about me, it's not about my work, it's not any engagement with my work," she said. The tension between who Ms. Shvarts is and what she is known for has been explored in much of the art that she has produced over the past 10 years. Displayed at New Haven's Artspace this past spring, one piece in particular, "How Does It Feel to Be a Fiction?" invited viewers to consider the boundaries between real and the fake. An earlier iteration appeared in the fall of 2016 as part of an exhibition exploring the question of fake news. While others artists explored the way "fake news" had been used to achieve large scale political ends, Ms. Shvarts examined the way media is often used to silence and invalidate marginalized experiences. "Some of us live as fake news," she said, noting that her experience as an object of media fascination increased her empathy for those whose stories are inaccurately depicted. Ms. Shvarts describes her New Haven exhibition as "an act of closure." In addition to showcasing a selection of works she has created over the past decade, it also featured elements of the unseen art piece that initially brought her attention. Controversy: At the end of her time at Duke, Ms. Owen decided to pass on some of her accumulated wisdom in the form of a "thesis" recounting and ranking her sexual partners during her years as a student. Although Ms. Owen intended the document, "An Education Beyond the Classroom: Excelling in the Realm of Horizontal Academics," to be a private joke shared with a handful of friends, it quickly traveled outside that small group, getting forwarded around campus. In the fall of 2010, Ms. Owen's document was published on the websites Jezebel and Deadspin, appended with an obscene title. "The Ship Is Sinking," performed as part of the Whitney Independent Study Program's studio exhibition, positioned Mx. Sulkowicz as the figurehead of a ship, simultaneously assaulted and strengthened by the vicious remarks of spectators. There were also new sources of support, including, notably, Ms. Shvarts, encountered in the midst of "Mattress Performance." Mx. Sulkowicz credits a friendship with Ms. Shvarts as being a particularly important source of support while navigating the stress of unexpectedly becoming a national public figure. "She's the first older sister I ever really had," Mx. Sulkowicz said. "She just really took me under her wing and was supercool." Mx. Sulkowicz's latest art piece, "The Floating World, "turns away from the question of what it means to be famous and hated, choosing instead to celebrate other women and feminist artists who've faced similar excoriation from the public that has enabled them not merely to survive but to thrive." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Turkish prosecutors are seeking an international arrest warrant for Knicks center Enes Kanter, accusing him of membership in a terrorist organization. The Sabah newspaper said the Istanbul chief prosecutor's office had also prepared an extradition request for Kanter, a Turkish citizen who has been a vocal critic of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country's president. Officials at the prosecutor's office could not be reached by The Associated Press for comment. Kanter, who did not travel with the Knicks this week for their game in London after saying he feared he might be killed there over his opposition to Erdogan, responded on Twitter that the Turkish government could not present "any single piece of evidence of my wrongdoing." Kanter's Turkish passport was revoked in 2017. Now, Sabah said, prosecutors are seeking an Interpol "red notice" citing Kanter's ties to Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Muslim cleric who is blamed by the Turkish government for a failed coup in the country in 2016. The prosecutors also accused Kanter of providing financial support to the so called Gulen movement, Sabah said. When Kanter announced on Jan. 4 that he would not travel with the Knicks, who play the Washington Wizards at the O2 arena on Thursday, he said he feared assassination if he left the United States or Canada. "The N.B.A. provides a big platform to shed light on the human rights violations in Turkey and gives a voice to the thousands of people persecuted," Kanter said in an interview with The New York Times last week. "This platform allows me to speak my mind." The team said at the time Kanter would not make the trip because of a visa issue. Kanter denied that was the problem, posting a photo of a travel document on social media and making it clear his concern was danger from agents of Erdogan, whom he has referred to as "the Hitler of our century." "They've got a lot of spies there," Kanter said. "I think I can get killed there easy. It would be a very ugly situation." Turkish officials, including the former N.B.A. player Hidayet Turkoglu, who is now a chief adviser to Erdogan, have dismissed his fears. "He is trying to get the limelight with irrational justifications and political remarks," Turkoglu, who went by Hedo in the N.B.A., said on Twitter. But Kanter told The Times last week that death threats had been "coming a lot more and more every day." "I was scared," he added. "I'm not going to lie." Since the Knicks went overseas, Kanter has posted a number of photographs of himself meeting with members of Congress. He also wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post explaining his decision and his reasons for standing against Erdogan. "My decision not to travel to London was difficult from a competitive standpoint but much easier from a safety one," he wrote. "It helps puts a spotlight on how a dictator is wrecking Turkey people have been killed, thousands are unjustly imprisoned, and countless lives have been ruined. That is no game." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
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