text stringlengths 1 39.7k | label int64 0 0 | original_task stringclasses 8 values | original_label stringclasses 35 values |
|---|---|---|---|
Addicted to Vaped Nicotine, Teenagers Have No Clear Path to Quitting A Harvard addiction medicine specialist is getting calls from distraught parents around the country. A Stanford psychologist is getting calls from rattled school officials around the world. A federal agency has ordered a public hearing on the issue. Alarmed by the addictive nature of nicotine in e cigarettes and its impact on the developing brain, public health experts are struggling to address a surging new problem: how to help teenagers quit vaping. Update: Teenage vaping rises sharply again in 2019. Until now, the storm over e cigarettes has largely focused on how to keep the products away from minors. But the pervasiveness of nicotine addiction among teenagers who already use the devices is now sinking in and there is no clear science or treatment to help them stop. "Nobody is quite sure what to do with those wanting to quit, as this is all so new," said Ira Sachnoff, president of Peer Resource Training and Consulting in San Francisco, which trains students to educate peers about smoking and vaping. "We are all searching for quit ideas and services for this new nicotine delivery method. It is desperately needed." A harsh irony underlies the search for solutions: Devices that manufacturers designed to help adults quit smoking have become devices that teenagers who never smoked are themselves fighting to quit. Read more: How to help teenagers quit vaping. The Food and Drug Administration and the attorney general of Massachusetts are investigating Juul Labs, the maker of the most popular e cigarettes, to determine whether it deliberately lured teenagers with its sleek packaging and flavors. On Monday Monitoring the Future, an annual survey of American teenagers' drug use sponsored by the federal government's National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted by the University of Michigan, reported that teen use of e cigarettes soared in 2018. The survey also found that many students believe they are vaping "just flavoring." In fact, just about all brands include nicotine, and Juul has particularly high levels of it. Over all, 3.6 million middle and high school students are now vaping regularly, according to a government study released last month. The need for therapies dedicated to teenagers is pressing, said Marina Picciotto, a Yale neuroscientist who is president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. Adolescents are uniquely vulnerable to addiction. The brain's prefrontal cortex, which affects judgment and impulse, is still maturing. "When you flood it with nicotine, you are interrupting development," Dr. Picciotto said. Psychiatrists say that nicotine can exacerbate underlying mental health conditions; it can also lead to hyperactivity, depression and anxiety. Pam Debono of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is in the throes of helping her three children, ages 17 through 20, stop vaping for good. "At first we thought, 'It's just a phase that takes wanting to quit, some self discipline, and then it's done,'" Mrs. Debono said. Turning to standard carrot stick methods, she and her husband began sanctions like grounding and then cutting off their children's allowances, so that the kids couldn't afford the flavored nicotine cartridges. They tried nicotine patches and gum, to no avail. They withstood howling windstorms of teenage irritability that come from common withdrawal symptoms: disrupted sleep, unbottled anxiety and ramped up moodiness. Even when the kids managed to stop, they would resume at moments of stress, using the vapes as a kind of self soothing medication. Now Mrs. Debono resorts to home kits for random nicotine testing. Unfortunately, methods for quitting cigarettes can't be grafted onto vapes. While cutting down on daily cigarettes can include simple math cutting back, say, from the 20 cigarettes in a pack to 18 to 14 and so on an analogous method doesn't readily apply to vaping. That's because the amount of nicotine each person inhales and then absorbs through e cigarettes is difficult to measure. A formula for reducing cigarettes doesn't readily translate to pods or cartridges. Moreover, medications for breaking nicotine's hold over cigarette smokers, including nicotine patches and prescriptions, don't work for everyone and are mostly approved just for adults. In short, establishing tapering protocols and cessation medications tailored to teenage vaping will require long term studies, researchers say. "They were all for adults!" she said. Jonathan Hirsch, a social studies teacher who oversees tobacco and vaping education at Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif., where 36 percent of 11th graders say they vape, said that even students who want to quit struggle mightily to do so. They will purposely not take their Juuls to school, only to relent at lunchtime and rush home for a hit. Mr. Hirsch said that although instilling a fear of disease can be a successful tool to prevent cigarette smoking, using fear to intercede with students already vaping does not work. Faced with losing their devices their nicotine they become furtive or lash out. One parent took away his son's vape, Mr. Hirsch said, and the boy got so worked up that he punched a tree and broke his hand. Nor do habitual vapers stop because of the threat of consequences. "When I asked my students the other day if they know someone who routinely leaves the class to vape because they 'have to,' at least two thirds raised their hands," Mr. Hirsch said. The perception that everyone vapes points to the biggest obstacle in persuading teenagers to quit: the pugnacious, peer glued nature of adolescence itself. It's stylish. Forbidden. Her practice admits up to 10 new patients weekly. "I'd say 75 percent have vapes as part of their story," she said. The other day she was assessing a middle schooler whose dependence was so severe that he had been skipping classes to vape in the bathroom. "He's going to class now but sees himself as vulnerable, because he's worried he won't be able to resist the cravings," Dr. Levy said. "It's all he thinks about. It's like treating a patient who has stopped heroin but wants to inject himself with an empty needle." She occasionally combines talk therapy with nicotine patches. Some doctors prescribe antidepressants to ease withdrawal. Dr. Levy also recommends deep breathing, yoga and exercise. Typically, that initial intervention doesn't occur with a doctor. "Schools are usually the first to catch young people vaping and then try to figure out what to do," said Dr. Halpern Felsher. She and her team developed a free online guide called the Tobacco Prevention Toolkit, which includes a major unit on vaping and Juuls. The program has reached 200,000 students. One school told her that the kit's message about how manufacturers are manipulating teens inspired some indignant students to cut back. Without a holy grail for vaping cessation, the toll on families is searing. "I believe the companies who created these things should pay for treatment," Vicki, the suburban Boston mother, said through angry tears. "They targeted children. They said it was just about trying different flavors and having fun. Well, they're the devil to me." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Now lives: in a three bedroom house in East London that she shares with several roommates. Claim to fame: Ms. Buckley is making waves with her flame red hair and powerful voice. She portrayed Marya Bolkonskaya in the 2016 BBC adaptation of "War and Peace" and stars in the HBO mini series "Chernobyl." "When you have a passion and you believe there is something you need to do with your life, it can be quite vulnerable and beautiful," she said. Big break: Ms. Buckley inherited her freewheeling spirit from her parents. Her mother was her vocal coach, and her father was a poet. "I was raised in a household where forms of expression were respected and encouraged," she said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
One name won't be called at this year's Oscars: the host's. After Kevin Hart's hosting stint proved to be the shortest lived in history, the Academy Awards are hurtling toward a Feb. 24 airdate without a famous name steering the ship. Rumor has it that with options dwindling, Oscar show producer Donna Gigliotti and co producer Glenn Weiss will forgo a host entirely. Update: The 2020 Oscars will have no host. How different will the show look without an M.C. and monologue? The last time the Oscars tried that was the infamous 1989 edition when Rob Lowe danced with Snow White, such an epic, unfocused disaster that Paul Newman, Julie Andrews and other stars sent a letter to the academy denouncing it as an "embarrassment." Rob Lowe on what it's like to be remembered for an Oscar disaster. Suffice it to say, that's one piece of Oscar history that Gigliotti and Weiss aren't keen to repeat. In fact, the producers may see Hart's ejection as a blessing in disguise: One of the academy's oft stated priorities is to trim the telecast to a slim three hours, and with no monologue nor a host to keep cutting back to, the proceedings should at least be shorter. It's here I should note that the host tends to be both the most overrated and underrated part of any Oscar telecast. Overrated, because after that first commercial break, the host pops up much less frequently than you might think, a format that allows presenters and winners to come to the fore. Outside of the monologue, you're liable to remember only one other significant moment from any given Oscar host. Sometimes, the host makes the most of these additional moments, as Ellen DeGeneres did five years ago when she pulled nearly every celebrity in the front row into a selfie that went viral. Still, with many Oscar hosts, you can see the flop sweat as they try desperately to will a minor bit into something bigger. The less said about Jimmy Kimmel's aimless foray into a packed movie theater, or Neil Patrick Harris's recurring briefcase joke, the better. Mistakes like those won't be missed, and those who tune into the Oscars simply to watch things go smoothly will no doubt be satisfied. And yet, even though it's a gig packed with peril, I think we're still underestimating the power a host has to shape the telecast in ways both noticeable and not. For one, the hosts serve as ratings drivers: Not only are they expected to promote the show in interviews and commercials, but when the host is well matched to the material, audiences often tune in simply to see what he or she will say. With ratings dwindling for the telecast, this is a bad year to skimp on a host's must see appeal, and though Oscar producers hope to offset that loss by asking big names to present, that's hardly a unique draw. Most Oscar telecasts are already packed with celebrity presenters. The Carpetbagger on "Black Panther's" prospects at this year's ceremony. ABC has been so desperate to increase Oscar ratings that executives pushed for a new category just to reward blockbuster films, and while it's true that the 1998 telecast became the highest rated Oscar show ever in part because the megahit "Titanic" was in contention, 2014's edition was the most watched of the last decade, and that wasn't because best picture winner "12 Years a Slave" was some billion grossing smash. It's because DeGeneres, that year's social media savvy host, ably plugged into the way many people like to watch the Oscars these days: with one eye on the TV, and the other on Twitter. Kimmel, who hosted the last two Oscar telecasts, offered no such boost. Unable to land a good zinger even during the best picture mix up involving "La La Land" and "Moonlight," Kimmel droned through most of his material like he was thinking about his grocery list. Since Kimmel already hosts a nighttime show on ABC five times a week, his Oscar stint had no special frisson, yet the network consistently overlooked his uninspired stewardship as it searched for a scapegoat to pin those falling ratings to, instead blaming the Oscars themselves. Might things be better if we found a host who actually liked the show? Too often, the academy picks someone utterly uninvested in what the Oscars mean to the industry or to the audience watching. (Kevin Hart wanted to appear on the show, but it's not clear he even liked it.) When the host treats the show as an obligation to run through, cracking too many jokes about how long and boring things might become, it starts viewers on a dissatisfied note. Instead, the Oscars should prioritize someone with enthusiasm for all this pomp and circumstance. Hugh Jackman began the 2009 Oscars in just the right way, bringing to the show energy and Hollywood glamour that was leavened by just the right amount of irreverence. In one of Jackman's most memorable bits, he sang that he hadn't yet seen one of that year's nominated movies, "The Reader," but it was a joke played at his own expense, not one that lacerated Hollywood for making art films at all. No one understood this juggling act better than four time host Whoopi Goldberg, who won an Oscar herself for "Ghost" in 1991 and told the audience then, "Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted this." Goldberg had fun with the Oscars precisely because she could, at the same time, take them seriously. I'm reminded of her 1999 Oscar hosting stint, when she came out dressed as Queen Elizabeth a reference to the subject of two of that year's nominated films and landed one great joke after another: "Good evening, loyal subjects," she said, "I am the African queen." Unlike several recent Oscar hosts, Goldberg didn't apologize for what was to come. "This will be a long show, so we don't want to read about how damn long it was," Goldberg told the crowd. "We know it's long. Tough!" Goldberg then ad libbed, by way of justification, "It's the biggest night in Hollywood, baby." Find another host who truly gets that, and both the Oscars and the audience will be better off. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
MILAN Fashion does and ever did thrive on cults of personality. That's how it happens that legions of men around the world walk around with another man's name stitched into the bands of their underwear. Fashion's current hero is Alessandro Michele, the multiple beringed creative director of Gucci, who is winning hearts and minds not only among customers, but also among his fellow designers. His magpie tendencies and thrift store eclecticism are apparently catching on, and if he has a takeaway from five days of Milan shows, it should be to be flattered, sincerely. One of Mr. Michele's tenets is individualism; the personality he offers his cultists isn't only his own, but a kaleidoscope of wacky plenty. It's a "Free to Be You and Me" spirit that informs everything from the way he puts together outfits (free to be, that is, as long as you're in Gucci) to the way he puts together a runway show. At Etro, Kean Etro had. He gave his runway over to a mixed crew of friends and family of the house: Milanese editors and businessmen, two of his sons, his brother in law, his sister's old school friend. Some were older, some were balder, than the usual stony crew. But the Italian section hooted and clapped, even Mario Boselli, the aged former president of the Camera della Moda, the Milan shows' organizing body, as these local celebrities sauntered by. (A few models were thrown in for good measure.) Not only was the cast inarguably individual a "circle of poets," Mr. Etro said backstage but he'd taken the idea one step further. He'd allowed each one, he said, to select the outfits he wanted to wear. If you believe that line, every man picked his own ikat trousers or his own belted denim safari jacket from Mr. Etro's blue washed, cross culturally funky collection, and if he didn't care to wear his shoes, the way Beniamino Saibene, an "urban farmer," did not, he could decline to and take to the runway barefoot. "There's a lot of wabi sabi, the idea of imperfection, which has always been at home with me," Mr. Etro said. "Nowadays, things have changed, and we can go back to imperfections." To be at home with imperfection is to be ready to embrace contradictions. Since Milan Fashion Week is full of them, that offers a critic hoping to make sense of it all a measure of relief. How else is one to carom from Mr. Etro's show to Massimo Giorgetti's for MSGM, the little label that could that rocketed from Milan to 500 plus stores selling his collections (and six shops of his own) in just a handful of years? The shows happened to be staged next door to each other on Via Piranesi, but Mr. Etro was advocating Japanese inflected Italian tailoring to a Bulgarian folk score, and Mr. Giorgetti was preaching acid bright sportswear, droopy oversize shirts and skinny jeans to a rave. "This collection, it's about me, my adolescence, where I come from," Mr. Giorgetti said backstage afterward. It felt stuck in adolescence, to be honest, but his playful vision seems to be connecting all the same. That may well be because it is personal to Mr. Giorgetti, even if it is territory well trod by designers before him. The individual touch does still make a difference. It's what was lacking from the small sampling that Calvin Klein Collection brought out at its offices on Viale Umbria as it treads water between the dismissal of its previous designer (the long serving Italo Zucchelli, who exited in April) and the appointment of its next. It's one of the odder situations in fashion at the moment: The assumption that Raf Simons will be named Calvin Klein's next designer in the near future is now so widespread and oft repeated as to be accepted as a settled truth. But with an impersonal collection, the company (and Mr. Simons) offered only this least personal of tidbits: no comment. There was more energy to be found, and sun before sunset, at Fendi, which ended the day. Silvia Venturini Fendi has been an individualist for far longer than it has been popular, following her own offbeat course wherever it may lead her and her men's wear. For spring, she was in a cheery mood, sending out wet haired models around a long, blue approximation of a swimming pool (the rare designer for whom a spring collection still means a spring wardrobe). | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
When a Walmart associate named Jacqueline Cote filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2014 contending that the company was discriminating against her by denying health insurance benefits to her same sex spouse, it signaled the beginning of a drawn out legal battle. It was not until December 2016 that the company announced that it had agreed to a settlement retroactively compensating Ms. Cote and other employees affected by the denial of spousal benefits. If, by contrast, Ms. Cote had brought her case after the Supreme Court ruling on Monday holding that lesbian, gay and transgender employees are covered by the civil rights law that protects workers from discrimination on the basis of race, religion and sex, said one of her lawyers, Janson Wu, executive director of LGBTQ Legal Advocates Defenders, the case would probably have been resolved much more quickly. "At the time we litigated that case employers could argue that an employee didn't have a legal claim to bring," he said. "With this decision, it should be clear that employees shouldn't even have to bring a lawsuit to enforce their rights." Even before the ruling on Monday, employers were moving toward nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, prompted by state laws, significant E.E.O.C. rulings in 2012 and 2015, and federal appellate decisions since then. Many companies adopted rules stating that sexual orientation and gender identity did not affect their hiring, firing or promotion decisions, and providing same sex spousal benefits. According the Society for Human Resource Management, 82 percent of employers offering insurance extended health benefits to same sex spouses last year, up from 46 percent in 2014. (Walmart made health benefits available to same sex spouses in 2014 but, until the 2016 settlement, maintained that it was not obligated to do so.) Because there was no nationwide policy, however, the changes were largely ad hoc and conditional dependent on corporate calculations about costs and benefits. While the E.E.O.C. could authorize workers to bring lawsuits under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, its determinations did not bind a judge, and the outcome in many jurisdictions was far from clear even if plaintiffs proved discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. As a result, many employers decided that it was worth aggressively litigating an area in which their responsibilities were ill defined, or trying to settle on favorable terms. In a 2014 lawsuit by a Texas based employee of Saks Fifth Avenue contending that she had been harassed and later fired because she was transgender, the company sought a dismissal by arguing that federal law did not ban discrimination based on gender identity, only to reverse course under pressure from civil rights groups and the Justice Department. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. The pressure appeared to work, but it raised questions about what would happen at companies less susceptible to public pressure. "The arguments raised by Saks in that case, that transgender employees are not protected, it caused a firestorm for them because of the fact that they are a retailer that has a lot of policies favoring L.G.B.T.Q. people," said Jillian Weiss, a prominent employment discrimination lawyer who brought the case. "They backed off that position. But now nobody is going to be able to take that position." Ms. Weiss said she expected the decision on Monday to change her bargaining position in settlement talks with defendants who had said, "We're not going to give you more because once the Supreme Court rules, then we'd have to give you zero." Ahead of the Supreme Court ruling, some 200 companies, including Google, Facebook, Hilton, Nike and the Walt Disney Company, signed a brief in support of the plaintiffs making it one of the largest instances of employer support for employee plaintiffs in Supreme Court litigation, according to Tico Almeida, now at the law firm WilmerHale, who helped to write the brief. Mr. Almeida said support for the brief was often propelled by advocacy by companies' gay employees. But while the cases in the Monday ruling involved relatively small employers a skydiving company, a mortuary, a county government many gay rights proponents predicted that large employers could wind up as defendants in other cases. Even though such companies are more likely to have inclusive human resources policies, adoption can vary significantly. "We see big employers who often have managers in certain locations that have really offensive discriminatory actions," said Sally Abrahamson, an employment lawyer at the firm Outten Golden. After the Supreme Court's 2015 decision that same sex couples had a constitutional right to marry, some lamented that workers could be married on a Sunday and fired on a Monday only because they had acknowledged being gay. Ms. Abrahamson said that such practices were often as prevalent at large employers as at smaller ones, and that her firm had heard from workers in recent years who had been fired from chains in states like Indiana and Georgia after marrying a same sex partner. "There are so many terminations in states that have no protections," she said, adding that she expected a significant uptick in litigation. More than half of states lack strong civil rights protections for gay and transgender residents, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank focused on equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Mr. Wu, the lawyer in the Walmart case, said the decision would affect not simply one off workplace developments like hiring and firing, but the daily quality of life many employees experience. "Employment discrimination doesn't just include being fired," he said. "It includes being treated differently, workplace harassment, which transgender employees suffer at higher rates." He said he believed that the decision would also require employer health care plans to cover surgery and other medical costs related to a gender transition. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Two patients in Boston whom doctors hoped they had cured of both H.I.V. and cancer through bone marrow transplants have seen their H.I.V. return, researchers said Friday. Although there was never an expectation that risky bone marrow transplants would soon be a routine treatment for H.I.V., the news was frustrating to AIDS experts. Many had hoped that the "graft versus host" battle that virtually all such transplants set off could become a potent weapon, at least in a few high risk cases. In July, when the two cases were first discussed at an international AIDS conference, it was suggested that they might echo the case of Timothy Ray Brown, the famous "Berlin patient," who has been free of H.I.V. since a 2008 bone marrow transplant from a donor with a rare mutation that confers resistance to the virus. Some experts regard him as the first patient cured of H.I.V. The resurgence of the virus in the two patients is "disappointing but scientifically significant," Dr. Timothy J. Henrich, who oversees their care at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said in a statement. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
About three years ago, the chip giant Intel seemed like a bystander in Silicon Valley's race to develop self driving cars. Google was zooming ahead, producing and testing autonomous cars of its own design and racking up millions of miles in test drives. Uber, the ride hailing service, was close behind. Tesla introduced its Autopilot feature to its electric cars, using technology from the Israeli firm Mobileye. Even in microchips, its strength, Intel was scrambling to catch up to its rival Nvidia, whose superfast processors were attracting automakers because of their ability to fuse images from the cameras and radar sensors to detect obstacles. But Intel is betting that it can reshape the competitive landscape with its acquisition of Mobileye, which makes cameras, sensors and software that enable cars to detect what is ahead. With the 15.3 billion deal, which closed Tuesday, Intel gains instant credibility because Mobileye already supplies technology to most major automakers and is a leader in areas like digital mapping and sensors. Mobileye will remain based in Israel, and its co founder Amnon Shashua will head all of Intel's autonomous vehicle efforts. The other founder, Ziv Aviram, is retiring from Mobileye to focus on another company he started, OrCam, which makes artificial vision devices that allow the visually impaired to understand text and identify objects. Intel announced its intention to acquire Mobileye in March. The two companies have been working with BMW on self driving cars and are partners with Delphi Automotive, a supplier of advanced automotive electronics and software. Big investments and outright acquisitions are increasingly prominent in the autonomous vehicle development race. Ford Motor announced in February that it would invest 1 billion in Argo, an artificial intelligence start up focused on driverless cars. And last year General Motors acquired another software firm in the sector, Cruise Automation. On Tuesday, Cruise announced that it had developed a ride hailing app for driverless cars being tested by its employees on the streets of San Francisco. Partnerships have not always gone smoothly. The Cruise application could bring G.M. into conflict with the ride service Lyft, a strategic partner. And last year a public split arose between Mobileye and Tesla after an Ohio man was killed in Florida while driving a Tesla Model S with Autopilot engaged. Mr. Shashua said publicly that Mobileye was unhappy with the way Tesla was using its technology. Tesla has since begun equipping its cars with cameras and hardware of its own design. Intel and Mobileye aim to demonstrate the strength of their combined capabilities in the next several months by building a fleet of 100 self driving test vehicles. "This is our way to put the technology out so it can be demonstrated not only for automakers but for society, for regulators," Mr. Shashua, who will become a senior vice president of Intel, said in an interview. Test cars will be sent first to Arizona and then to Jerusalem, a challenging environment with narrow streets and aggressive drivers. "If you can successfully drive autonomously in Jerusalem, you can drive almost anywhere in the world," Mr. Shashua said. Such a fleet would give Intel something to rival Google's autonomous driving division, now called Waymo. Over the past year, Waymo has built a sizable test fleet using minivans made by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and it is operating them in several cities. Uber is running tests in Pittsburgh, while General Motors, Ford Motor and other traditional automakers are creating their own test fleets. At the same time, the combination of Intel and Mobileye will begin working on a new self driving system that combines Intel chips and Mobileye's technology. Mr. Shashua said the new system would be about twice as powerful as Mobileye's current product based on its EyeQ5 processor. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
The conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said on his live show on Monday that he had advanced lung cancer. He told listeners that he had noticed some shortness of breath but was not experiencing symptoms at the moment, and that he would continue working but would be absent from the show for a couple of days to undergo testing and determine a treatment plan. "I can't help but feel that I'm letting everybody down with this, but the upshot is that I have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer," Mr. Limbaugh, 69, said during his broadcast. He added that he first realized something was wrong on Jan. 12 and that the diagnosis had been confirmed by two medical institutions on Jan. 20. Rush Limbaugh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the State of the Union. "My heart's in great shape, ticking away fine, squeezing and pumping great," he said. "It was not that. It was a pulmonary problem involving malignancy. So I'm going to be gone the next couple days as we figure out the treatment course of action and have further testing done. But as I said, I'm going to be here as often as I can." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
About 10 years ago, the playwright John Guare got a call asking if he wanted to meet David Bowie to discuss a theater project. As Mr. Guare remembered it, Mr. Bowie was "in a very dark place" (it was shortly after he had had a heart attack onstage in Berlin), and a mutual friend, the English producer Robert Fox, was trying to coax him back to a creative life. Mr. Guare immediately said yes. He and Mr. Bowie met at each other's homes in New York to throw around ideas, and sometimes they went out. "We would take walks around the East Village," Mr. Guare said. "And I was always praying somebody would run into us so I could say, 'Do you know my friend David Bowie?'" Mr. Guare was at first puzzled and then amazed at how Mr. Bowie the stage creature, the persona, the guy he saw command an audience at Radio City Music Hall in 1973 with his spiky orange hair and snow white tan could walk the city streets unrecognized. "He traveled with this cloak of invisibility nobody saw him," Mr. Guare said. "He just eradicated himself." People often forgot, but up until his death, on Sunday at age 69, Mr. Bowie was a New Yorker. He said so himself, emphatically. "I'm a New Yorker!" he declared to SOMA magazine in 2003, after he'd been here a decade. He and his Somali born wife, Iman, who is a model fluent in five languages, spent almost their entire marriage, more than 20 years, as residents of the city. Anyone will tell you they were one of New York's most glamorous, graceful couples, made all the more so by the dignified and private way they lived. And though Mr. Bowie was enormously wealthy, he wasn't one of those rich guys who kept an apartment in the city, along with a portfolio of global real estate holdings, and flew in. Aside from a mountain retreat in Ulster County, N.Y., his Manhattan apartment was his only home. You may not have considered all this because Mr. Bowie was an apparition in the city, rarely glimpsed. You heard it mentioned that he lived here. Somewhere downtown, someone thought. But seeing him out? Good luck. Michael Musto, the veteran night life columnist (and occasional New York Times contributor), met him at a party in the 1970s but saw him very few times after that, he said. Gerard Malanga, the poet and Warhol associate, who lived three blocks from Mr. Bowie and had friends in common, described himself as "one of the millions who never encountered David on the street or anywhere." Mr. Bowie wasn't a Garbo level recluse. He got around enough to avoid the terrible fate of having his privacy draw more attention to him. But if people did spot him at Lincoln Center or out to dinner with Iman, they usually gave him wide berth, out of respect and also a sense of intimidation. "I had always thought he was unapproachable," Mr. Musto said. "But he was quite lovely and accessible." "The fabulous identities he had," Mr. Guare said meaning Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke and even the Bowie of the '80s, who looked like the world's most elegantly dressed serial killer "bore no reflection on the person who was carrying them." "I think he had complete access to David Jones," Mr. Guare added, referring to Mr. Bowie's birth name. "And that's who I knew." "I was hearing a degree of cool that I had no idea was humanly sustainable," he later wrote in an essay for New York magazine. He traveled to New York in 1971, around the time he released "Hunky Dory," his fourth album. One of the first New Yorkers he encountered was Moondog, the blind, flowingly bearded street performer who dressed in a homemade robe and a horned Viking helmet and planted himself on West 54th Street. On that trip, Mr. Bowie visited the Factory; touchingly, he wanted to play his song "Andy Warhol" for the man himself. When he came for an extended stay in 1972, he was accompanied by his first wife, Angie, and his new manager, Tony DeFries. Mr. DeFries, a cigar chomping, Col. Tom Parker like showbiz slickster, believed in success by way of publicity generating spectacle. Back then, Mr. Bowie did not pass through the city in a cloak of invisibility. He took limos everywhere and presented himself like an abstract canvas. Here's Bebe Buell, the musician and rock star paramour, recalling Mr. Bowie's arrival at Max's Kansas City: "He walked in wearing a powdered blue suit with orange hair, and just bedazzled us all." After he became Ziggy Stardust, and a huge star, Mr. Bowie found refuge at the West 20th Street apartment of his publicist, Cherry Vanilla. In her memoir, "Lick Me," she recounts how he would do brain sizzling amounts of cocaine and drink milk for nourishment (no solid food in those years), and they'd rap about "power, symbols, communication, music, the occult, Aleister Crowley and Merlin the Magician." Like a lot of rock stars, Mr. Bowie lived in hotels: first the Gramercy Park Hotel, then the Sherry Netherland until the room service bill became obscene. Throughout the 1970s, he was less a citizen of New York than a debauched tourist, directing his limo to Max's, Paradise Garage and Reno Sweeney. Socially deft and curious, he transited between Studio 54 and CBGB, and hung out with Mick and Bianca Jagger and Iggy Pop. In the New York magazine essay, Mr. Bowie wrote of that period, "I rarely got up before noon and hit the sack again around four or five in the morning." He saw the city with "multicolored glasses." As had been widely chronicled, Mr. Bowie left America for Berlin, partly to flee his druggie lifestyle. When Iman met Mr. Bowie at a dinner party in 1990, he was living in Switzerland as a tax exile, a citizen of the world. She wasn't having it, she once told The Guardian: "I'm a New Yorker. I was like, 'Let's go home.'" The couple married in 1992 and moved into a conventional prewar apartment on Central Park South. They had a daughter, Lexi. In 1999, they paid 4 million for two penthouses (an upstairs downstairs) on Lafayette Street in SoHo, where they remained. That's also where fans gathered in the numbing cold after he died to lay flowers, many unaware, until that day, that he'd been a fellow New Yorker. Over time, Mr. Bowie did become a real New Yorker. He absorbed the city's attitude and cultural quirks, and had trouble catching a cab. He wrote a song ("Slip Away") about Uncle Floyd, the host of a weird, low budget, quasi children's TV show that aired locally back in the UHF days. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he performed movingly at the Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden. He covered Simon and Garfunkel's "America" and announced from the stage, before singing "Heroes": "I'd particularly like to say hello to the folks from my local ladder. You know where you are." In photographs, you can see how subdued and grown up Mr. Bowie's second go round in the city was. "He did the ballet, all the fun cultural stuff," said Patrick McMullan, who photographed him over the years, though much less after Mr. Bowie's heart attack in Berlin. He was always in a sharp suit or tux. Regularly at the Met Gala or the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards to support his wife. Never caught stumbling out of the hot club at 4 a.m. He'd already been to a lifetime's worth of parties. Mr. Bowie would have ridden the elevator down from his penthouse, exited his building, crossed Lafayette Street, slipped through the little alley called Jersey Street and walked on cobblestones until he came to the studio's unmarked metal doors. Brian Thorn, a recording engineer for the "Next Day" sessions, said Mr. Bowie worked "very humane hours," as rock stars go. "We'd start by 10," Mr. Thorn said. "He would get there with or before the musicians. The studio would have his coffee order ready," a double macchiato from La Colombe. Mr. Thorn remembered overhearing Mr. Bowie and his guitarist talking one day. The guitarist was going on about an art exhibit, and how much Mr. Bowie would love it. Then he caught himself, realizing whom he was talking to, and said, "Oh, you can never go there; there's too many people." Mr. Bowie answered, slyly, "You'd be surprised the places I'm able to go." Have you seen the photo that's been circulating on Twitter of Mr. Bowie out in the city in cargo shorts and sneakers and carrying Uncut magazine? He's very normcore. You can see why nobody recognized him, why an international superstar was able to move through the city unseen. He understood that in our minds we all held a picture of David Bowie, or Ziggy, or the Thin White Duke. It allowed him to walk among us disguised as himself, David Jones. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
New Jersey's new governor, Phil Murphy, made access to medical marijuana easier in the Garden State this week. A few weeks earlier, California, with its nearly 40 million people, legalized recreational marijuana use, having cleared the way for medical marijuana in 1996. Twenty nine states now allow marijuana for medical purposes, while eight have legalized its recreational use. As the acceptance of marijuana is growing, so are the opportunities to invest in it. High net worth individuals have become a go to source of investment dollars. This is partly because of the size of many of the companies, which are generally too small for institutional investors. But it's also because many of the companies require affluent investors who are willing to operate in a moral and legal gray area. Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level. This month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded an Obama era policy that discouraged federal prosecutors from pursuing cases involving marijuana. Because of questions about the legality of marijuana, many banks will not accept deposits or conduct business relationships with cannabis companies. And for some wealthy individuals, like those with connections to prominent businesses, the double digit returns may not be worth the potential taint to their reputation. Yet the returns are alluring. Shares are rising for companies in Canada, where marijuana is legal for medicinal purposes and the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is pushing for it to be legalized recreationally. Canopy Growth, a medical marijuana producer, went public in May 2016 at 1.76 Canadian dollars a share and is now trading at 23.60 Canadian dollars. Shares of MedReleaf, another producer, have surged 153 percent since the company's stock debut in June. What is challenging for one person, of course, can be an investment opportunity for another. The legal cannabis market in the United States was estimated to have grown by a third in 2017, to 9.7 billion, according to the Arcview Group, which follows the industry. Arcview said 2.3 million people in the United States used marijuana for medical purposes last year and that an additional 1.8 million did so recreationally in states where it was legal. But that's a small fraction of the potential market. Arcview said some 44 million people in the United States consume cannabis products in a given year. Investors put 500 million into private cannabis companies last year, said Troy Dayton, the chief executive and a co founder of Arcview, which also has an investment arm. Since 2011, his group, which consists of 600 investors, has made 155 million worth of investments in the cannabis industry, from growers and dispensaries to companies that make ancillary products, like vaping devices. Some 50 million of that investment capital, however, was invested just last year. "It's moving very fast," Mr. Dayton said. "It's also unlike other markets because there is this federal state conflict. Every state has different rules. There are so many layers of complexity." His group offers tips for new investors. Some apply to any private investment like looking at enough deals and properly vetting a promising deal. But others are specific to the industry, like navigating the different state laws, understanding the robust competition from illegal producers and mitigating the risk of federal prosecution. Putting money into growers or dispensaries requires investors to sign documents that are going to be filed with state regulators, putting investors at odds with federal law, Mr. Dayton said. "With the exception of things that are going through the F.D.A. approval process," he said, referring to the Food and Drug Administration, "any business that touches cannabis in the United States violates federal law." But warnings aside, there are opportunities for investors. The safest investment is in legal businesses like pharmaceutical companies using cannabis in their treatments as well as companies that make devices to consume cannabis, create sales and tracking software, develop or manage the real estate related to cannabis, or even provide human resources to the industry. Companies that grow or distribute marijuana are considered riskier. One of the best known in the medical marijuana field is GW Pharmaceuticals, a multibillion dollar company developing a cannabis based drug, known as a cannabinoid, for multiple sclerosis. Others include Zynerba Pharmaceuticals, which makes cannabinoids for neuropsychiatric conditions; Insys Therapeutics, for pain management in cancer patients; and Therapix Biosciences, for central nervous system disorders. These drugs were created to harness certain components of cannabis that react with receptors in the body. "What's unique about cannabinoids is they're very safe," said Dr. Ascher Shmulewitz, the interim chief executive of Therapix. "With most drugs, the question is safety, and the issue is causing harm. With cannabinoids, the issue we have to show is efficacy." Therapix took an approved drug called Marinol, which is used to treat nausea in cancer and H.I.V. patients, and improved how it is delivered to the body. It is in F.D.A. trials now. "Instead of telling a patient to smoke a joint, we're telling them to take a pill," Dr. Shmulewitz said. "Medical marijuana isn't a drug, so it's not reimbursed by insurance. We're trying to create a path that allows the doctors and hospitals to use this as another way of treating a patient." Steven W. Wasserman, a lawyer and investment adviser at Seaport Investment Management in New York, said he had invested 5 percent of his own money into six cannabinoid based pharmaceutical companies. What he has not done, he said, is advise clients to do the same. The overall investment market has done so well in the last year that recommending cannabis stocks is not worth the risk, he said. And he shies away from the growers and distributors of cannabis because of the gray area in which they operate. "If you're a grower, you can't go to the big insurance companies and get a policy," leading to liability issues, he said. But that does not deter some investors. Michael J. Willner, chief executive of Willner Properties, a real estate development and management company outside Philadelphia, said any short term problems outweighed the long term potential of cannabis based treatments. He said he had allocated more than 20 percent of his investable assets to publicly traded companies in cannabinoid pharmaceuticals. Mr. Willner said he was attracted to the medical benefits, which he had heard of firsthand. "It's not a cure all, and it's no layup, for sure," he said. "But it could benefit society, and it could open up other avenues." For those looking for less risk, investing in real estate built specifically for cannabis companies offers high returns but at an arm's length from the businesses housed within. Tim McGraw, chief executive of Canna Hub, is developing two cannabis related properties in California, including one near Sacramento that will have an estimated 1.22 million square feet. He said that the special requirements to be compliant with California law like security and ventilation increased the cost of development, but that cost was made up in higher rents. He said he expected returns in the high 30 percent to low 40 percent range. "You have the protection and security of real estate, not the risk of a single operator," said Mr. McGraw, who has been in real estate development for 20 years. "It's across the cannabis industry. In the two office parks, we'll have 125 operators." The marijuana market is moving away from the stoner image of the hippie culture, said Tom Adams, the editor in chief of Arcview's research arm. Smoking is now 50 percent of the legal market in Colorado, down from 70 percent just last year, he said. And vaping makes up nearly a quarter of the market, followed by tinctures, pills and creams. "The two fastest growing categories were tinctures and pills, showing how far away that market is getting from the party oriented Cheech and Chong movies," Mr. Adams said. "Tinctures and pills are about an older demographic easing the aches and pains of age. It's more part of their wellness regimen than their party regimen." It's certainly a different image, but it may be a more stable one for investors. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
The Boerum will house one to five bedroom units, ranging in size from 765 square feet to just over 2,800 square feet, and in price from 825,000 to 4.25 million. At 210 feet tall, the building will not look like a brownstone, but each unit was carefully planned to incorporate a "prewar like division of space" that would impart the homey feel many residents of the neighborhood might look for. Separation of space, both in the apartments and on the amenities floor, was incorporated into the design of the building. "So many apartments have big open layouts, but we wanted to give these designated rooms," said Mick Walsdorf, a founder of Flank. In particular, almost every unit has a foyer "marking the entrance into the private space of the home." "We design apartments as if we would be living in them," Mr. Walsdorf said. Both he and Jon Kully, his co founder and a fellow Columbia University architecture school graduate, live with their young families in a building they designed in the West Village, so they know the need for flexible living spaces, as in partitioned rooms that can be turned into play areas or extra bedrooms, or offices that can shelter harried parents in need of alone time. "It's important that residents be able to stretch out if they have kids and live through these apartments as their lives change," Mr. Walsdorf said. Expansive windows with cast stone surrounds, patterned latticelike across the facade, will flood each unit with light in a departure from brownstone ambience. A six story hotel will anchor the tower; the residential portion starts on the seventh floor, above many of the buildings in the surrounding area, so every apartment will have views. The very top floors will feature unobstructed vistas of the harbor, rivers and bridges. This view also serves as a backdrop to the amenity spaces on the 15th floor, which will include a lounge, library and bar, a playroom designed in part by the Children's Museum of the Arts, and several outdoor terraces separated by hedges. The gym, parking spaces and bike storage are housed on lower floors. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
If the image of a young Kenan Thompson wearing flippers and speaking bad French in a bubble bath elicits waves of nostalgia, you're probably a child of the '90s. Same if you know Kel Mitchell as a well meaning but incompetent fast food worker, or Lori Beth Denberg as a hypocritical librarian who howls at children to be quiet while causing a constant ruckus. These absurdist characters from the children's sketch show "All That" were beloved '90s oddities that could thrive only on cable . From its debut in 1994 to its cancellation in 2005, "All That" was a cultural force in kids' television, a PG version of "Saturday Night Live" that became known for churning out young talent. The Nickelodeon show helped launch the careers of Thompson, Amanda Bynes, Nick Cannon and Jamie Lynn Spears, while spawning hit shows such as "Kenan Kel" and "The Amanda Show." Now, 25 years after it first launched, Nickelodeon is rebooting "All That" with a new batch of child actors. Thompson, the cast member who has perhaps found the most success as an actor, signed on as an executive producer. The network has marketed the reboot, which airs on Saturday night, as the triumphant return of popular characters like Mitchell's "Good Burger" cashier and Denberg's "Loud Librarian." In reviving the show, the producers have injected 2019 pop culture onto the classic "All That" framework, a 30 minute booster of joyful silliness that puts children in charge. Instead of giving the show a full makeover, however, the producers have hung on to some of the old skits, hoping the nostalgia will attract millennial parents while maintaining an enduring appeal to their children. But how can the reboot of a classic television show succeed on nostalgia when its target audience wasn't even alive for the original? (The president of Nickelodeon, Brian Robbins, said the show is aimed at 6 to 13 year olds, most of whom were born after "All That" ended.) "They're not going to get the nostalgia because it's not their nostalgia ," said Denberg, who is returning to the show to play the "Loud Librarian." "But I think they're going to love it just the same." To figure out what kids today find entertaining, Nickelodeon set up focus groups, where youngsters from 8 to 11 years old were asked to talk about what they like to watch, what celebrities they like, what they find funny. One result from this research was a new skit called "Masked Video Game Dancer Celebrity Edition," which involves costumed celebrities performing Fortnite esque dance moves for a panel of judges including Beyonce, Ariana Grande and Dwayne Johnson, all played by young cast members. Modern attention spans also demand much shorter skits, the creators said. Kevin Kay, an executive producer on the reboot who also worked on the original "All That," said that sketches from the '90s could drag on for seven minutes. "Kids today watch things in two and three minutes," he said. "We consciously said we wanted to cut the sketches, do more sketches per episode and never really get to seven minutes." A bigger challenge than appealing to today's young viewers is reaching them in the first place. Unlike when the original "All That" aired in 1994, kids' shows now compete not only with each other, but with the millions of videos on YouTube . Traditional marketing is no longer sufficient, said Robbins who was also a creator of the original "All That." "We have to make sure we're reaching kids everywhere they've been consuming content," he said. That means posting heavily on the show's Instagram account, where they tease new sketches, revive old material and introduce the new cast members (or, the "new kids of comedy," as the network called them). It also means posting sketches on YouTube, which executives see as a funnel to the actual show. Robbins said that the original theme song by TLC will stay, at least for now. (Many of the old fans might revolt if it didn't.) But Robbins said they might decide to change the song later on possibly even to the modernized version Chance shared. Robbins , who became the president of Nickelodeon last fall, was the driving force behind the reboot, personally reaching out to people involved in the original show to ask them back. Thompson said that Robbins visited him at "Saturday Night Live" to pitch him the idea, and Thompson was all in. Kay, 64, said he hadn't been in children's television for over a decade when Robbins approached him about the new "All That." At first he was uncertain whether he still had a grasp on what young people found entertaining, but he figured his preteen son could help him learn. Mitchell, 40, has stayed tied to kids' television and Nickelodeon over the years, most recently starring as a rapper who teams up with two girls to run a gaming company in the channel's "Game Shakers." As such, he's kept his "ear to the streets" in regard to what youngsters find funny, he said. Others behind the reboot grew up watching the original show. Jermaine Fowler, an "All That" executive producer, said the diversity of the original cast was eye opening for him as a child. In 1994, three of the seven cast members were black and another was Latina. "It was the first time I saw kids who looked like me on TV doing sketch comedy," said Fowler, who is black. "That was so inspiring to me." The original "All That" featured hip hop and R B artists at a time in which doing so was rare on a kids' channel. The musical guests in the first season included TLC, Brandy, Aaliyah and Usher. (The first episode of the reboot will feature the Jonas Brothers.) Fowler, 31, who is best known for his roles in the sitcom "Superior Donuts" and "Sorry to Bother You," said the talents and sensibilities of the seven young cast members are heavily influencing the script. A 14 year old cast member Gabrielle Green, for example, brought in a Beyonce impression that the writers couldn't resist, Fowler said. Another cast member, Nathan Janak, 14, performed a hilarious Ariana Grande. In the '90s, the cast members often did impressions of Oprah and Roseanne. Though the cultural references in the show have been transformed, the producers say the comedic heart of the show remains the same. That means an abundance of silliness, absurdity and, of course, destruction. "One of the things we know about 'All That' and about kids comedy is that they love to see things get blown up or broken," Kay said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
A panel of "Open Secrets Part I II, 2018, 2019," at the Art Basel fair. A work in the installation that was intended to support women, backfired and was removed. Andrea Bowers removed part of her installation after complaints but her piece raises questions about who can tell intimate stories. The Los Angeles artist Andrea Bowers made a monumental artwork that she hoped would support the MeToo movement and presented it, with the help of four galleries, at the prestigious Art Basel fair in Switzerland. Three imposing walls of text and photos made up of 167 red panels retold the stories of men and women who had been accused of sexual misconduct or harassment since the movement began in 2017. But if the intent of her work, called "Open Secrets Part I II, 2018, 2019," was to raise awareness about insensitivity to women, it seemed to backfire when Helen Donahue, a woman who said she had been abused, complained on Twitter last week that photographs of her were used without her consent, and another woman, Abby Carney, said her name had been used without her consent. In a highly unusual move, Ms. Bowers extracted the panel in question, and issued an apology for having used the photographs. Ethics scholars said the incident at the fair, which closed Sunday , offered a case study in the complexity of creating political art. What rules apply for appropriating images and stories previously posted on personal social media accounts, or allegations made in a journalistic context? As socially conscious art has become increasingly popular, and these works enter galleries and other commercial settings, should moral lines be drawn? "This is a whole new set of questions," said Prof. Griselda Pollock, director of the Center for Cultural Analysis, Theory and History at the University of Leeds in Britain. "Artists have a right to quote from the world, and they have authorization to present it as their art. But if you use materials that come from one context of use, with its own inherent ethics and politics, into another one, then we find that there are people who are challenging it." Ann Demeester, director of the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, the Netherlands, who is an authority on ethics in contemporary art, said that Ms. Bowers's work enters ambiguous territory because it makes artwork from personal images and material that was originally presented in a media context, without significant fictionalization or alteration. "I don't know of any ethical written standards for artists, not even for curators," she said, "but there's a common understanding that you try to be as respectful as possible for any human person that you involved in an artwork. But sometimes when a work is activist, some people fall victim." Protests erupted in 2017 at the Whitney Biennial when the artist Dana Schutz made a painting based partly on photographs of the mutilated body of Emmett Till, an African American teenager lynched in Mississippi in 1955. His mother had made the photos available to selected media after his death to illustrate the extreme brutality of his murder. Protesters objected to the fact that Ms. Schutz, a white artist, reused it for her own work. The legal aspect at stake is a principle called "fair use," which typically applies when an original is transformed by being incorporated into art. The limits of fair use have been tested in lawsuits against Richard Prince, who has appropriated images posted on social media for his artworks and has sold them for millions of dollars. In this case, there is no lawsuit, but Robert Penchina, a partner at the law firm Ballard Spahr who specializes in copyright, trademark and media law, said that the fair use principle could apply here. Including Ms. Donahue's photo "in an artwork where the artist is putting it into context, combining it with 170 odd panels, is telling a particular story, transforming it by building upon it," he said. "I think it is a good candidate for fair use, and potentially defensible on that ground." The panel of the installation that contained the photograph was removed. Charles Krause, founding director of the Center for Contemporary Political Art in Washington, said, "This incident at Basel is probably a useful cautionary tale" for artists who make political art, and for "the gallery owners and fair promoters who are their editors." "What about the accused?" he said in an email exchange. "How many of them have been found guilty in a court of law, as opposed to the court of public opinion and political expediency? Can we trust Andrea's work is accurate with regard to them, or shouldn't we concern ourselves about the actual facts of each individual case?" The panel of the installation that was removed concerned the freelance writer Michael Hafford and allegations made in 2017 by fellow journalists and former girlfriends in an article in Jezebel, an online magazine. Ms. Bowers, who declined to be interviewed for this piece, seems to have based her panel largely on that article, in which four women described physical or sexual mistreatment by Mr. Hafford. One of them, Ms. Donahue, told Jezebel he had caused her physical pain and bruising during intercourse that went beyond "rough sex." Another, Abby Carney, said he had raped her in 2015. Ms. Carney wrote on Twitter, "TFW you find out someone turned your rape into "artwork" at Art Basel???" Neither woman has filed formal charges against Mr. Hafford. Mr. Hafford, reached by phone and email, did not respond to questions emailed to him by The New York Times. Neither would he comment on the allegations in Jezebel. In her artwork, Ms. Bowers incorporated photographs of Ms. Donahue's bruised face, chest and shoulders that were originally posted on her Twitter account, and were also used in the Jezebel article; Ms. Carney's full name was written into Ms. Bowers' text. Ms. Donahue protested on Twitter that use of her image in the work was "exploiting us for 'art'." She added, addressing Ms. Bowers, "Do you know how expletive insane it is to find out my beat up face and body are on display as art rn for rich ppl to gawk at thru a stranger's instagram story." Ms. Bowers "absolutely realized that that was a mistake," said Susanne Vielmetter, the owner and director of Vielmetter Los Angeles, one of the four galleries that collaborated to bring the artwork to the fair. "We all agreed it should be taken down," she said. After they removed the offending panel from the installation, Ms. Bowers contacted Ms. Donahue, and explained the nature of her work and her intentions, Ms. Vielmetter said in an interview. The artist, in a public statement sent to The New York Times by her gallery and published on Twitter on Wednesday, said: "I, Andrea Bowers, would like to apologize to the survivor whose image was included in my piece," adding "I should have asked for her consent." Ms. Bowers is known for her drawings, videos and installations that focus on social issues ranging from workers' rights to immigration to victims of harassment, including transgender women. Her artworks, in the collections of the Hammer Museum of Art, in Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, have reused text from protest posters and activist slogans. The galleries that brought "Open Secrets" to Art Basel, which also include Andrew Kreps, Kaufmann Repetto and Capitain Petzel, also issued an apology, adding "We stand by Andrea Bowers and her work and support the conversation that has only just begun." In an interview, Ms. Carney said that she had never been contacted by the artist for any participation in the project and she had not received an apology from Ms. Bowers. "Part of the retraumatization is that it's a half story or a poorly told version of the story," she said in a telephone interview. "I'm trying to conclude that chapter, and to be known for my career successes and not for that." The gallery owner, Ms. Vielmetter, in an interview at the fair, said that "this piece is showing how widespread this problem of abuse is, and how the cultural dialogue of what is and what isn't acceptable sexual behavior is changing right now." She added, "The last thing that we wanted to do was to do more harm to one of the survivors." Ms. Vielmetter confirmed that the original asking price of the installation was 300,000 but added that the galleries who presented the art have now decided not to offer it for sale "out of respect for the ongoing conversation between Andrea Bowers and the survivor." Ms. Carney said that she has mixed feelings about the fact that the single panel was removed, because she supports the idea of a discussion about this topic. "I believe she probably has good intentions," Ms. Carney said of Ms. Bowers, "but when you're telling someone else's story, if you're not careful, you can make it too general because you haven't really taken the time to understand it." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Like watching the sunset, seeking out the Big Dipper in the night sky is a vacation ritual. But in the past five years, according to experts, the term astrotourism has evolved to describe more intentional travel to places with dark skies and more visible stars. "Astrotourism is any kind of tourism that involves the night sky or visiting facilities related to astronomy like observatories, and combining that with a broader sense of ecotourism where interaction with nature is what the visitor experience is about," said John Barentine, the director of public policy at the International Dark Sky Association, a Tucson based nonprofit organization devoted to battling light pollution and certifying dark sky preserves where stars and planets shine brightly. In its 30 year history, the association has designated more than 60 International Dark Sky Parks in protected areas, such as the Grand Canyon National Park. International Dark Sky Reserves, about a dozen presently, have protected land at their center, such as a national forest, and municipalities in their buffer regions that have agreed to reduce light emissions. Its four International Dark Sky Sanctuaries tend to be remote; Pitcairn Islands in the Pacific, for example, has applied for sanctuary status. Similarly motivated by light pollution abatement, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada designates Canada's Dark Sky Preserves, often in national parks. Given that anyone looking up from a campfire to spot the constellation of Orion could be considered a stargazer, their numbers are hard to quantify, but anecdotal evidence suggests the pastime has a growing fan base. In March, the public library in Rancho Mirage, Calif., opened an observatory with a 23.5 foot dome as well as a 2,000 square foot patio where visitors can attend stargazing events. In June, Viking Ocean Cruises launched its new ship, the Viking Orion, featuring a planetarium and a resident astronomer who offers lectures, guided stargazing and indoor night sky tours. The National Park Service has adapted its slogan "Find your park" to "Find your park after dark" to increase awareness of its night sky programs, which include star parties, festivals, interpretive talks and children's night explorer programs. Eclipse pilgrims chasing the path of the 2017 solar eclipse caused traffic jams along the path of totality last August, and destinations from Texas to Maine are already gearing up for a similar migration when the next North American eclipse takes place April 8, 2024. Visitors to South America won't have to wait that long; on July 2, 2019, one will track across Chile and Argentina. "The eclipse last summer raised so much awareness people got really jazzed about looking up from that," said Samuel Singer, the owner of Wyoming Stargazing who guides public and private stargazing in Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park. Founded in 2014, the company has grown from one high powered telescope to 10 to meet demand. "In every culture there's a myth about the stars and stories there," he added. "People have always looked up for answers." Many of the best stargazing areas in North America lie near popular mountain resorts, ski destinations and state and national parks, adding a cosmic wonder to trips there; along with stargazing events and festivals, they are expanding the galaxy of astrotourism. In December, the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve became the first International Dark Sky Reserve in the United States, covering a 1,400 square mile swath of central Idaho in the Sawtooth Mountains, from Ketchum in Sun Valley to Stanley. The International Dark Sky Association calls central Idaho "one of the last large 'pools' of natural nighttime darkness left in the United States" on its website. Ketchum and Stanley are both gateways to the reserve. The Sawtooth Botanical Garden in Ketchum and the Stanley Museum both offer periodic astronomy programs. Idaho Conservation League has held overnight treks in the reserve. This summer, National Geographic and AuDiable Vert Mountain Station, a Dark Sky Preserve in Glen Sutton, Quebec, near the United States border, opened ObservEtoiles, the first open air augmented reality planetarium. The theater, with 184 heated seats, plans to operate nine months each year, providing visitors A.R. headsets featuring digital overlays of 17th century illustrations that align with the stars and planets overhead (programs cost 45.99 Canadian dollars, or about 35.30). Walkway Over the Hudson, the bridge turned linear park between Poughkeepsie and Lloyd on either side of New York's Hudson River, has added Starwalks this summer, deploying scientists and teachers along the span to talk about special themes, offer nighttime photography tips and staff the telescopes (free). The province of Alberta, Canada, is home to six Dark Sky Preserves. One of the world's largest, the 4,200 square mile Jasper Dark Sky Preserve in the Canadian Rockies offers prime stargazing and Northern Lights watches September to May, including ski season. From Oct. 12 to 21, the Jasper Dark Sky Festival will feature the astronauts and brothers Scott Kelly and Mark Kelly as speakers, in addition to sessions on night photography, telescope tours and stargazing. For those seeking to take better photos of the night sky, the fourth annual Astrophotography Conference at the Adirondack Public Observatory in Tupper Lake, N.Y., Oct. 11 to 14, will focus on dark sky photography workshops (fee 150). As the region explores becoming dark sky certified, Manning Park Resort in eastern British Columbia's Manning Provincial Park will hold its first Astronomy Weekend, Oct. 12 to 14, featuring astronomers, sessions for children and more advanced scientific talks (rooms from 99 Canadian dollars; event passes are 25 to 45 Canadian dollars). | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
The recent cases of Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar, the physician for the U.S. women's gymnastics team, and Dr. George Tyndall, the gynecologist at the University of Southern California student health center, involve allegations that they inappropriately touched young female patients, often while doing a pelvic exam. Here's what women should know about gynecological exams, including what to expect and what is out of bounds. What happens during a routine gynecological visit? Gynecological visits cover a wide range of topics, especially because many women do not regularly see any other physicians. "For most women, I am functioning as a primary care doctor," said Dr. Iffath Hoskins, a clinical professor and director of safety and quality in obstetrics and gynecology at New York University. "A gynecology visit is much more than putting fingers in the vagina and doing a Pap smear. I want to make sure you're O.K. overall before I make you take your clothes off." So questions may go well beyond the gynecological. Dr. Hoskins asks about domestic violence, social habits, drinking and smoking. ("When a patient says, 'I only drink one or two a week,' I double it," she said.) Doctors will ask about any genital pain or problems and, depending on circumstances, about menstruation, sexual activity or birth control. The topics vary, depending on the patient's age and experience. Teenagers who are not sexually active usually don't need screening for sexually transmitted diseases. Women under 21 do not need invasive vaginal exams unless they have specific conditions or medical risks. Doctors might perform a Pap smear, which is a test for cervical cancer. The patient lies on her back and places her feet in supports called stirrups, and the doctor inserts a speculum to keep the vagina open enough so that a swab can be inserted to scrape a small sample of cells from the cervix. Pap smears used to be done annually, but guidelines now recommend them every three to five years for women 21 and older. A breast exam might also be done. Sometimes, but not always, gynecologists conduct a pelvic exam, which is usually the most uncomfortable part for patients. A doctor uses a speculum to examine the vagina and cervix and then places fingers of one hand inside the vagina and presses on the abdomen with the other hand. It's intended to assess whether the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries and cervix are of a healthy size and position and an attempt to detect ovarian or other cancers. They are definitely not necessary for every patient. In fact, the American College of Physicians recommended in 2014 that pelvic exams not be done on nonpregnant women who show no symptoms of gynecological problems. The report found no evidence that pelvic exams were better at detecting ovarian cancer than ultrasounds or blood tests, and there was slim evidence of success detecting other conditions like bacterial vaginosis. And it said some patients experienced embarrassment or anxiety and sometimes didn't return for another visit if the pelvic exam caused pain. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends pelvic exams for women 21 and older, even if they have no symptoms. But it says the exam is unnecessary to screen for sexually transmitted diseases, which can be done with vaginal swabs or urine tests. And it isn't needed unless a woman has begun taking oral contraceptives. Hormones from birth control pills can affect the vaginal lining and the cervix, and a pelvic exam can identify those effects, said Dr. Hoskins, who is also chairwoman of ACOG's New York State district. She also does pelvic exams on women who engage in "risky behavior," like "if she's telling me, 'On weekends, I go to parties and I have multiple partners,' " Dr. Hoskins said. What kind of touching is appropriate during an exam? "Only the necessary amount of physical contact required to obtain data for diagnosis and treatment," according to the ACOG ethics committee's 2007 guidelines for preventing sexual misconduct. Also "appropriate explanation should accompany all examination procedures." Dr. Tyndall is accused of using his hands instead of a speculum to examine patients, and of moving his fingers in and out during pelvic exams. Using hands might not always be a problem, said Dr. Isaac Schiff, a former chief of obstetrics gynecology at Massachusetts General Hospital. "There are some cases where you might use your hands instead of a speculum," like checking on "a 70 year old woman who tells you she has difficulty with bladder control," he said. But "you're not to move your fingers in and out." The key is to "do the business you went in for and that's it," Dr. Hoskins said. "When I go to get my hair cut, I don't expect her to massage my shoulders or anything like that." She added: "Any time you're touching a patient, you're going to tell her: 'I'm going to be touching you. I'm now going to examine this part of your tummy, or I'm going to touch the inside of your thigh.' Your first step is never to put your fingers inside her vagina." Dr. Hoskins said that if patients think a doctor is doing something out of the ordinary, they should not hesitate to ask the doctor about it. Should the doctor be alone with the patient? This should be up to patients and physicians, experts say. "The ideal is that nobody should be alone in the room with an undressed patient because anybody can feel they were taken advantage of verbally, physically," Dr. Hoskins said. "A second person in the room will be a pacifier to the patient and the doctor." But in reality, other staff members aren't always available. And sometimes patients request to speak only with the doctor, feeling more comfortable discussing personal issues one on one. Dr. Hoskins said she tries to ensure that a nurse or other medical colleague is present when patients are undressed or in otherwise vulnerable situations. What kinds of comments are appropriate for doctors to make? "Physicians should avoid sexual innuendo and sexually provocative remarks," ACOG says. "It's a very serious exam," Dr. Schiff said. "It's a very private exam. It ought to be purely at the medical level without the editorial or description." Some patients have said Dr. Tyndall told them they had "perky breasts," "flawless skin" or an "intact hymen." Dr. Schiff said, "Saying 'perky breasts,' it's offensive," and "I don't know why he would have said it." Other comments might be more understandable. Describing the condition of a patient's muscle tone might be appropriate if she came in "complaining about bladder control," Dr. Schiff said. "You might say the woman has good tone." Dr. Hoskins said most gynecologists are trained to do most of their talking when patients are fully clothed and sitting up. "If you're in the middle of a pelvic exam when you're naked, I may say, 'Your hymen looks fine; your labia looks fine.' There's nothing wrong with that. I can say, 'Your breasts look fine,' but I don't have to say they look perky." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
After a harsh winter, the nation's modest housing recovery appears to be back on track. The government said housing starts last month were up nearly 16 percent over June, and almost 22 percent over 12 months ago. For Home Depot, the country's largest home improvement retailer, the uptick in demand gave second quarter earnings a lift. Big ticket purchases, like appliances, windows and water heaters, increased. The company also reported strong growth among its high spending professional clients which indicates that they have work. "We believe, in many ways, it's because of housing, and the fact that housing, while not as robust as last year, continues to recover," Carol B. Tome, Home Depot's chief financial officer, said of the company's strong results. Some of July's gains reported by the Commerce Department were in the South, a huge market that showed improvement in both single and multifamily construction after drying out from an exceptionally rainy and muddy spring. Other bright spots in Tuesday's report were in the multifamily sector, but economists regard those month to month numbers as volatile. Last month's housing starts were at an annual rate of 1.093 million units, the highest reading since November. Single family housing starts in July increased 8.3 percent over the revised June figure of 606,000, and were at a rate of 656,000. The July rate for multifamily housing was 423,000, showing the strongest level of starts since 2006. In another positive sign, July applications for building permits, which foreshadow construction plans for future, were up 8.1 percent over the previous month. Most analysts viewed July's big leap as having little impact on overall trends in housing, where price increases are slowing down. Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay 31 million to the 'House of Cards' studio after sexual harassment allegations. Netflix buys a visual effects company in a move to support its global ambitions. "With the stock of homes for sale well above its cycle lows, price gains slowing and new home sales flat, it is hard to see why construction would keep rising," Ian Shepherdson, chief economist of Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a note to clients. Several major factors are holding up the housing recovery. Household formation is almost flat, and well below the 50 year average, said Tom Showalter, chief analytics officer at Digital Risk, which provides mortgage services and risk analytics to lenders. Also, wage growth, which drives housing prices, is still sluggish. A growing economy and improvements in the job market must continue to keep the housing market on track, Mr. Showalter said. He expects home price appreciation to level off and potentially become negative by the end of the year. "We're getting some increased demand, so that's very good," Mr. Showalter said. "The question is, Can the economy sustain the demand? And that's a big if." At Home Depot, sales in the second quarter increased 5.7 percent, to 23.8 billion, from 22.5 billion in the period a year earlier. The company's earnings were 2.05 billion, or 1.52 a share, which exceeded analysts' expectations and were up from 1.8 billion, or 1.24 a share, in the second quarter of 2013. The most crucial housing metric to home improvement retailers is home price appreciation, Ms. Tome said. When people see their home as an investment, she said, they are more likely to spend money on it than if they see their home as an expense. So as home values rise and people see more equity in their home, they are more likely to spend money to spruce it up. While home price appreciation growth is lower than it was last year, Ms. Tome said, "It's still good news; it's still headed in the right direction." The company said it now expected diluted earnings per share to be up about 20.2 percent, to 4.52 for the year. Its previous guidance was 4.42. The good news comes at a crucial time of the year for Home Depot as spring is the most important selling season for home improvement retailers. Those warming months are when consumers head into the garden to tend their flowers or go up on a ladder to patch the roof or replace the windows. But weather can be a big factor in a consumer's decision to start a home improvement project that will require many hours outdoors. For the first quarter, which includes the beginning of the spring selling season and the end of an extraordinarily cold and difficult winter the company reported disappointing results. Sales at existing stores in the Northeast declined from the year before, and sales at existing stores in its Southern and Western divisions increased. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Chemotherapy failed to thwart Erika Hurwitz's rare cancer of white blood cells. So her doctors offered her another option, a drug for melanoma. The result was astonishing. Within four weeks, a red rash covering her body, so painful she had required a narcotic patch and the painkiller OxyContin, had vanished. Her cancer was undetectable. "It has been a miracle drug," said Mrs. Hurwitz, 78, of Westchester County. She is part of a new national effort to try to treat cancer based not on what organ it started in, but on what mutations drive its growth. Cancers often tend to be fueled by changes in genes, or mutations, that make cells grow and spread to other parts of the body. There are now an increasing number of drugs that block mutations in cancer genes and can halt a tumor's growth. While such an approach has worked in a few isolated cases, those cases cannot reveal whether other patients with the same mutation would have a similar experience. Now, medical facilities like Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where Mrs. Hurwitz is a patient, are starting coordinated efforts to find answers. And this spring, a federally funded national program will start to screen tumors in thousands of patients to see which might be attacked by any of at least a dozen new drugs. Those whose tumors have mutations that can be attacked will be given the drugs. The studies of this new method, called basket studies because they lump together different kinds of cancer, are revolutionary, much smaller than the usual studies, and without control groups of patients who for comparison's sake receive standard treatment. Researchers and drug companies asked the Food and Drug Administration for its opinion, realizing that if the F.D.A. did not accept the studies, no drugs would ever be approved on the basis of them. But the F.D.A. said it sanctioned them and could approve drugs with basket study data alone. Instead of insisting on traditional studies, said Dr. Richard Pazdur, who directs the F.D.A. office that approves new cancer drugs, the agency will look at the data and ask, "Is the American population going to be better off with this drug than without it?" These are the sorts of studies many seriously ill patients have been craving a guarantee that if they enter a study they will get a promising new drug. And the studies move fast; it does not take years to see a big effect if there is one at all. In Mrs. Hurwitz's case, the mutation in her rare cancer is in a gene, BRAF, found in about 50 percent of melanomas but rare in other cancers. She is among dozens of patients with the same mutation, but different cancers, in the new study that gives everyone the melanoma drug that attacks the mutation. Basket studies became possible only recently, when gene sequencing became so good and its price so low that doctors could routinely look for 50, 60 or more known cancer causing mutations in tumors. At the same time, more and more drugs were being developed to attack those mutations. So even if, as often happens, only a small percentage of patients with a particular tumor type have a particular mutation, it was possible to find a few dozen patients or more for a clinical trial by grouping everyone with that mutation together. In a way, this is a leading edge of precision medicine that aims to target the drug to the patient. Unlike previous efforts that looked for small differences between a new treatment and an older one, with basket studies, researchers are gambling on finding huge effects. "This is really a new breed of study," said Dr. David Hyman, a cancer specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering who directs the study Mrs. Hurwitz is in and two similar ones. And they are seeing some unprecedented responses, along with some failures. The responses, though, can be so striking that control groups might be unwarranted or infeasible, Dr. Pazdur said. "Conventional therapy might give a response rate of 10 or 20 percent," Dr. Pazdur said. "The newer drug has a response rate of 50 or 60 percent. Does it make sense to do a randomized trial?" And even if a trial were planned, he said: "Who would go on that trial? Would you go on that trial?" "When you are having a big effect, it is kind of jaw dropping," Dr. Pazdur added. "These are response rates we haven't seen before in diseases." But these are still the early days, researchers caution. "It is a different world we are walking into," said Dr. Daniel Costa, a lung cancer researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "And we are learning as we go along." The new studies pose new problems. With no control groups, the effect has to be enormous and unmistakable to show it is not occurring by chance. When everyone gets a drug, it can be hard to know if a side effect is from the drug, a cancer or another disease. And gene mutations can be so rare that patients for a basket study are difficult to find. The rarity of the mutations, in fact, is one reason for the new national effort, supported by the National Cancer Institute. Its study, called Match, is essentially a basket of basket studies. Doctors around the country will be sending tumor samples from at least 3,000 patients to central labs that will examine them for mutations. Those with any of a dozen or so mutations in their tumors can enroll in studies of drugs that target their tumor's mutation. Dr. Keith Flaherty of Massachusetts General Hospital, principal investigator for the Match trial, said the number of baskets was uncertain it would depend on the number of drugs. But he expects 12 to 15 baskets to start, expanding to perhaps 40 or more. There will be 31 patients per drug. He anticipates mixed results. "We are exploring an unknown space here," Dr. Flaherty said. "But it is essentially impossible for this whole set of baskets to fail." To show what is possible, Dr. Jose Baselga of Memorial Sloan Kettering points to preliminary results he presented in December for the basket study that includes Mrs. Hurwitz. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
In Benjamin Millepied's "Counterpoint for Philip Johnson," the dancers took over the balconies at the Koch Theater. The ballet world is pining for choreographic talent at least that's what it would have you believe but it rarely seems to go very far out of its way to look for it. On Wednesday at the David H. Koch Theater, American Ballet Theater devoted three quarters of a program to Benjamin Millepied's work, including two world premieres. (The 15 minute exception was Alexei Ratmansky's moodily lush "Souvenir d'un lieu cher.") Mr. Millepied was out of his depth. But the issue was larger than him: When it comes to new choreography that isn't by Mr. Ratmansky, Ballet Theater flounders. Mr. Millepied, a former New York City Ballet principal and former artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet, is the director of the L.A. Dance Project. Along with his "Daphnis et Chloe" (2014), a work about two young lovers that never touched the lavishness of its Ravel score in either delicacy or power, Mr. Millepied unveiled "I Feel the Earth Move." It started with the curtain up as the stagehands stripped the wings; the house lights were kept dimly on. It was a risk that went wrong: The moment Lucinda Childs's recorded voice uttered the words, "I feel the earth move," there were questions: What was Mr. Millepied thinking in using such identifiable music and in such a literal way? A row of female dancers, some with bandannas tied around their faces like prisoners, crossed the stage with military precision. David Hallberg, in the opening section called "Tremor," spun his body around and whipped an arm like a windmill; with twisted movements, alternatively hard and silky, he seemed trapped by a nervous mind. Misty Copeland ran across the stage and into his arms, but there was little romance in the air, just sculptural shapes embellished with random kicks and turns. In the second movement, "A Vision," Ms. Copeland was joined by Devon Teuscher and Hee Seo, along with the 12 other women who, at one point, sat in a semicircle while curving their torsos and extending and bending their arms in unison. If this vision was to evoke some kind of female equality in the ballet world or elsewhere it felt incidental. In the final movement, "The Work Begins," the staged darkened and three couples blazed through Mr. Millepied's influences: William Forsythe one moment, Twyla Tharp the next. It would be wrong to leave out Justin Peck whose recent hit, "The Times Are Racing," haunted the stage like a ghost. That ballet is all about youth culture, protest and showing where change begins. In "I Feel the Earth Move," there was a sense that the dancers were in the process of rising up and banding together, but their anxiety and struggle had a superficial air, right up to the end when, in the flash of a strobe light, the dancers were caught in a midair leap. There wasn't much deep choreographic interrogation in Mr. Millepied's other premiere, "Counterpoint for Philip Johnson," either, but it didn't call for any. This brief work, set to Steve Reich's "Nagoya Marimba," took place with spectators standing on the theater's promenade during intermission. Wearing sneakers just as with "I Feel the Earth Move," the streetwear costumes were by Rag Bone the dancers planted themselves on the balconies that snaked around the second, third and fourth wings. The cast, 24 eager young men and women from Ballet Theater's apprentice program, Studio Company and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, executed synchronized choreography that focused mainly on their arms and shoulders. (Yes, that means more windmills.) Even though their lower bodies were obscured, from time to time they rolled on their backs and jauntily hopped from toe to toe, as if they were living out their fantasies on their fire escapes. It was a dance made for an Instagram age. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
On Thursday, Amazon Studios and the creator of "Transparent" made it clear that he would not be back. "I have great respect and admiration for Van Barnes and Trace Lysette, whose courage in speaking out about their experience on 'Transparent' is an example of the leadership this moment in our culture requires," said the series' creator, Jill Soloway. "We are grateful to the many trans people who have supported our vision for 'Transparent' since its inception and remain heartbroken about the pain and mistrust their experience has generated in our community." An email seeking comment from representatives of Mr. Tambor was not immediately returned. How "Transparent" proceeds for its fifth season without its star an actor who won two Emmys in the role of Maura Pfefferman (formerly Mort Pfefferman) is an open question that another popular web series has already had to answer. The production team for "House of Cards" fired its star, Kevin Spacey, after he was accused of inappropriate sexual behavior, and Netflix will turn to Robin Wright to carry its final, shortened season. Ms. Wright will get an assist when Diane Lane and Greg Kinnear join the cast. The drama over "Transparent" has come at a moment when Amazon is effectively hitting the reset button on its programming. Its head of entertainment, Roy Price, was let go after a sexual harassment allegation in October and was replaced last week by the NBC executive Jennifer Salke. The streaming service is also contending with big spending rivals in Apple, which is hurriedly buying up new projects, and Netflix, which signed the producer Ryan Murphy to a 300 million deal this week. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Two years ago representatives from Southern state tourism departments gathered at Georgia State University to start work on what would become the nation's first civil rights trail. They knew their states were dotted with landmarks that commemorated significant events in the struggle for racial equality. In Arkansas, for example, there is Little Rock Central High School, where nine brave African American students enrolled in an all white high school. In Alabama the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site honors black pilots who risked their lives during World War II even as Jim Crow laws denied them rights at home. While many sites were thriving on their own, some weren't connected to one another, even ones nearby, said Lee Sentell, Alabama's state tourism director. "No one had even done an inventory of civil rights landmarks," he said. "They saw themselves as one offs and didn't realize they were part of a network." The group, under the umbrella of Travel South USA, decided to do something about it. Along with research experts at the university, they made a list of 100 sites that seemed most significant. They linked them geographically, creating a map of how to get from one to another. The trail, called the US Civil Rights Trail, will be officially introduced to the public on New Year's Day (the date is significant: On Jan. 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation). The trail's website will explain each landmark's importance and feature interviews with heroes of the movement. The site also makes connections for visitors, showing how the events in one place affected those in another. For example, Bruce Boynton, a law student who was arrested for refusing to leave a whites only restaurant in Virginia (a case later heard by the Supreme Court), was the son of the woman, Amelia Boynton, who invited the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to visit Selma and who helped plan the march from that city to Montgomery, Ala. "Hopefully when people hear about the civil rights trail, it will make them aware there are locations near where they are that changed the world," Mr. Sentell said. "I'm just surprised this hadn't been done earlier." In the last few years a loud debate has raged across the country over what to do with Confederate statues. While those arguments are focused on whether to tear down or remove monuments, other government officials, nonprofit groups and entrepreneurs have been more quietly constructing new ways to focus on the history of civil rights. Some efforts, like the US Civil Rights Trail, are intended to bring more attention to existing sites. Others are building new structures that better explain what took place in the past. "These projects are positive spins on the social injustice, monument discussion happening in our country," said Jeanne Cyriaque, a cultural heritage consultant for the Georgia Department of Economic Development. "They describe a people's movement that is very much at the forefront today." She played a major role in helping the state of Georgia create the Georgia Civil Rights Trail, which will launch in April 2018, in time to commemorate the 50th anniversary April 4 of King's death. This initiative, which will have its own website, printed maps and signage, will take visitors to lesser known sites like the brick house in Grady County, where Jackie Robinson was born. Another stop is the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, one of the oldest operating African American churches in North America, which has colorful stained glass windows depicting black church leaders like the Rev. George Liele, who organized First African Baptist in 1773. "People already come to visitor centers and ask about the civil rights sites and where they can find them," said Kevin Langston, the state's deputy commissioner for tourism. "We expect some people will come to Atlanta for a meeting or convention, and they will seek out sites in the area. Other people who are intrigued by the civil rights movement might plan a trip to experience the whole thing." These projects are not just in the south. In 2016, New York State, in conjunction with the company Black Heritage Tours, began offering tours to teach visitors the hidden history of African, Native American and Dutch populations during colonization. The tours, which last from one to three days, go from New York City to Albany along the Hudson River. Stops include the easily missed Harriet Tubman Statue in Harlem; African burial grounds; and mansions owned by Dutch settlers who owned slaves. Visitors can see the basements, attics and kitchens where slaves slept. L. Lloyd Stewart, a consultant for nonprofits and the author of the book "A Far Cry From Freedom," went on one of the inaugural tours last summer with several other participants. "Americans can be very deficient in the history of their own country," he said. "We don't realize that enslavement began in New York State, and this tour gives you an idea about that. It gives you a picture of what life may have been like during that period." And they aren't just trails and tours. In Montgomery, Ala., the first capital of the Confederacy, the nonprofit group Equal Justice Initiative has purchased six acres of land on which it is building a memorial to honor the victims of lynching. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice is expected to open in April 2018. The renderings are powerful; 800 columns, one for each county where lynchings took place, are suspended in the air like hanging bodies. The names of more than 4,000 victims are inscribed on them. (The idea is for each county to bring home a column as an acknowledgment of what occurred.) The organization also plans to open a museum, The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. In Jackson, Miss., the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is scheduled to celebrate its opening on Dec. 9 with food trucks, live music, free museum tours and speeches by civil rights veterans. The museum includes eight galleries that explore the experience of African Americans in Mississippi from the end of the Civil War until today. In Nashville, one notable project is more entrepreneurial. Tom Morales, who owns the live music venue Acme Feed Seed, leased the historic building that once was the home of a Woolworth store where sit ins occurred during the '60s and the civil rights leader John Lewis was arrested. He is turning the 16,000 square foot space into a live music venue and restaurant called Woolworth on 5th that will pay homage to the civil rights movement. It is expected to open in January. Mr. Morales said that the sit in counter will be fully reconstructed and will look as it did in the '60s. The menu will feature African inspired recipes and Southern comfort food. The music, spanning 1950 to 1979, will include different genres, including funk. The most effective way he can honor the past, he said, is to be inclusive as possible. "The best thing we can do right now is create a place where anyone can come," he said. "We are creating a welcome table that doesn't ignore the past but salutes it and brings it into the future. We are going to serve great food and dance and invoke the strongest emotions of peace and fun." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
"Kinky Boots," the Cyndi Lauper Harvey Fierstein collaboration that won the best new musical Tony Award in 2013, will end its Broadway run next spring. The lead producers, Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig, said Friday night that the final performance will be next April 7. At that point, the show will have had 34 preview and 2,507 regular performances, making it the 25th longest running Broadway production in history. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. As cars age, the market usually ignores them. There's nothing new, nothing fresh, nothing exciting about a car that looks like one more goose in the flock of off lease geese that have migrated to the used ponds. Entering its eighth year, the Dodge Challenger should be a dead duck. But while Dodge sold 17,423 Challengers in 2008 (when the nameplate, famous in the early 1970s, was resurrected), it found homes for 43,119 in 2012 and 51,462 in 2013. Through the end of this August, even amid reports of major updates to come for 2015, Dodge managed to push 34,757 of the coupes out of its coop. For a niche vehicle the largest two door car still built in North America that's a success. So, for 2015 Dodge has significantly revised the Challenger line without changing the basic engineering or messing too much with the car's perfectly proportioned appearance. Except, that is, for one lunatic new version called the SRT Hellcat. Powered by a new supercharged 6.2 liter version of the Hemi V8 rated at a stupefying 707 horsepower, the Hellcat is antisocial in the way that junior high boys daydream about cars in study hall. It's ridiculously loud, spectacularly vulgar and decadent in how it turns copious amounts of fuel into crass automotive entertainment. But let's start with the basics. The current Challenger was conceived as an 11/10ths scale homage to the first generation Challenger introduced as a 1970 model. As such, it cleaved closely to the styling of that car, including a wide mouth grille and taillights that swept in one red plastic slash across the tail. The born again Challenger went seven years without significant changes, and when Dodge decided to make the first notable styling tweaks, it drew on the 1971 Challenger, which was only slightly different from the first model year, for inspiration. The designers divided the grille into two oblong elements bracketed by new LED headlamps, and they split the taillights into separate right and left LED units. Changes don't come more superficial than that. But there are more noteworthy improvements under the skin. First, a new electronically controlled 8 speed automatic transmission is offered on all versions. Based on a design by ZF of Germany and built at a Chrysler plant in Indiana, the gearbox has been named TorqueFlite as if the 1960s never ended. In the base 6 cylinder Challenger SXT, it replaces a 5 speed automatic as the base transmission. Heavy duty versions of that gearbox are optional on V8 models, whose base gearbox is a 6 speed manual. Second, a redesigned interior is built around an oversize center console, a redesigned instrument cluster and an 8.4 inch touch screen. The console and instrumentation are easier to use and read than before, and all of the interior materials seem of higher quality. But the touch screen in all three preproduction Challengers that I tested froze up several times and integrated poorly with my iPhone 5S. Let's hope these gremlins have been chased from regular production cars. Finally, there are upgrades ranging from electric power steering to newly available technologies like a forward collision warning system, adaptive cruise control and blind spot monitoring keeping up with the Benzes stuff. Based on the same rear drive vehicle architecture that underpins the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger four door sedans, the Challenger has a 116 inch wheelbase same as behemoths like the new Chevrolet Tahoe S.U.V. and the 1977 Oldsmobile Delta 88. The Challenger is appreciably larger than the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang with which it's often compared. It is not, however, much roomier inside. Sheer bulk defines the Challenger driving experience no matter what engine is under the hood. Even the lightest version weighs over 3,800 pounds, and most are more than two tons. The car's Mercedes derived all independent suspension an artifact from those brief halcyon days when Chrysler and Mercedes were corporate cousins is supple, but this isn't a car for blasting along canyon roads or weekend track days. It's a comfortable cruiser built to chase horizons. The best selling Challenger has been the base SXT. Starting at 27,990 it's reasonably priced, and the 8 speed is a big improvement. The closely spaced lower gear ratios and overdrive in both seventh and eighth help the unchanged 3.6 liter V6 to operate near peak efficiency all of the time. With 305 horsepower, the SXT is not a particularly quick car, but at highway cruising speeds the engine quietly operates at barely more than idle. Beyond a sweeter driving experience, the new transmission raises the SXT's ratings to 19 m.p.g. in town and 30 on the highway, up from 18/27 for the 2014 model. What the SXT doesn't deliver is much excitement. And that's what the V8 versions deliver best. While the Challenger R/T has a 375 horsepower 5.7 liter V8, I drove the R/T Scat Pack with a 485 horse 6.4 liter V8. With resonators in the dual exhaust system adding a growling vibrato, the Scat Pack Challenger (starting at 39,490) is always making amazing sounds. With my 13 year old daughter beside me one Saturday afternoon, I revved the 6.4 liter Hemi while crawling through downtown Santa Barbara as a pack of Harley Davidson motorcycles passed in the opposite direction. Their revving response resulted in a symphonic explosion of internal combustion; a wallop of sound that practically shook the cups off the shelves at Handlebar Coffee Roasters. For a moment, my daughter thought I was almost tolerable. The Scat Pack's horsepower rating seems modest only in comparison with the outrageous Hellcat. With a relatively light clutch, easy gear changes from the 6 speed manual and a slick, easily modulated throttle, the Scat Pack instinctively nudges toward absurd velocities. There's nothing socially responsible about the Scat Pack it can manage only 14 m.p.g. in town and 23 on the highway, and does much worse when taunting Harleys but there's an intoxicating, juvenile spirit to it. Dodge claims that using the onboard electronic launch control program, a Challenger Scat Pack with the 8 speed automatic can rocket from 0 to 60 m.p.h. in just over 4 seconds and reach 182 m.p.h. That top speed is pointless, of course, but you don't have to go fast to be entertained. The Hellcat, which starts at 60,990 including a 2,100 guzzler tax, adds the whine of its screw type supercharger and another 222 horsepower beyond the Scat Pack. Needing more air than other Challengers, the Hellcat does without the ornamental grille nostrils; instead, the center of the left inner headlight is hollowed to send cold air into the engine. The Hellcat also gets its own hood with a single air scoop and vents alongside to let heat escape. There are no badges or feline graphics to announce that this is the Hellcat. Instead, the word Supercharged appears in low key block letters on each front fender. Vastly less expensive than other cars with so much power, the Hellcat also lacks some of their sophistication. The 700 horsepower Lamborghini Aventador, for example, has all wheel drive and huge rear tires that are 335 millimeters (13.2 inches) wide. In contrast, the Hellcat is rear drive, with tires just 275 millimeters (10.8 inches) wide. Keep the traction control on and the Hellcat is manageable, but if you turn it off you're more likely to vaporize the tires than launch the car. Car and Driver tested a 4,488 pound Challenger Hellcat with the automatic transmission. Using its race style launch control, the car rocketed to 60 m.p.h. in just 3.6 seconds and completed the quarter mile in 11.7 seconds at 126 m.p.h. That is supercar level performance. But I drove the Hellcat with the blunderbuss 6 speed stick shift and its accompanying heavy clutch. Unpleasant and hard to shift, this is the version that Edmunds.com tested at 4.8 seconds to 60 m.p.h., with a quarter mile run in 12.8 seconds at 118.4 m.p.h. Still quick, but short of epic. As spectacular as its horsepower number may be, the Hellcat ultimately feels like a stunt. It's a big stick for people who care about big sticks, and not whether they can be used for anything. The car may be terrific fun for a while, but the novelty wears off. While I had the car, rolling up more than 400 easy freeway miles along with the occasional irresistible burnout, it returned a miserable 13.2 m.p.g. The biggest problem for the Hellcat besides its need for bigger tires is that the R/T Scat Pack is a better, less expensive car. It looks virtually the same, is tremendously quick, is just as accommodating of minor middle age misbehavior and is much easier to live with. It's the Challenger I enjoyed driving the most. The appeal of the Challenger remains nostalgic and adolescent. It looks like, and is louder than, an old muscle car; it has the same big gaps between body panels. And even in V6 form it's faster than virtually all the old classic muscle cars. It isn't so much a car as a prop for its owners' daydreams of outrunning every Rosco P. Coltrane and Buford T. Justice in the South. That fantasy never made much sense, but there has always been a market for it. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
SHOULD you be concerned that Honda's recent focus on hybrid cars, business jets and stair climbing robots will hamper its ability to produce brilliantly engineered motorcycles, the arrival of the 2010 VFR1200F may provide some reassurance. Here is a machine bristling with innovation, with a lusty V 4 engine reconfigured specifically to make more room for the rider; an optional paddle shift dual clutch gearbox, the first in a motorcycle; and a dual layer fairing that Honda says has been shaped to improve high speed handling. The VFR1200F occupies a narrow niche of Honda's line of sport motorcycles, sandwiched between the racetrack ready CBR1000RR and the sport touring ST1300. Yet it is different enough from those bikes to justify its existence. With a full tank of gas, the VFR is about 150 pounds heavier than the hard edged CBR, and its wider handlebars, placed closer to the rider, give it a riding position that is far more humane. At the same time, the VFR's performance sets it apart from sport touring competitors that place more emphasis on comfort and luggage capacity. Naturally, Honda has crammed an impressive array of leading edge features into the VFR package, including drive by wire throttle control, linked antilock brakes and a cleverly positioned shaft drive system engineered to keep the wheelbase from growing to unreasonable lengths. But even with all of Honda's meticulous attention to detail, there are times when the whole of the VFR seems to be less than the sum of its parts an overall feeling that these subsystems do not always work in harmony. And then there's the aesthetic matter of the VFR's huge wedge of a muffler and its Y shaped headlight, both of which struck a few onlookers as eyesores. Some riders will surely be drawn to the new VFR by its engine layout alone; Honda has a three decade tradition of building V 4s for racing, sport riding and even cruisers. The 1,237 cc engine produces 145 horsepower (as measured by Cycle World magazine), delivering fierce acceleration (zero to 60 in 2.6 seconds). A hefty amount of torque is available from about 4,000 r.p.m. upward. Honda engineers have tried all manner of cylinder angles and crankshaft arrangements over the years, mostly settling on a 90 degree angle between the cylinders for the V 4 models, a layout that offers virtually vibration free running. The VFR1200F engine is another animal altogether, with its cylinders set at a 76 degree angle to each other. The resulting dynamics produce a somewhat raspy feel and an exhaust note unlike earlier V 4s, but little objectionable vibration. There is more novelty to this engine. The front cylinders are wide apart, with the rear pair nestled between, narrowing the aft end of the engine and giving the rider a more comfortable perch and shorter reach to the ground when stopped. This ergonomic setup really works, making the bike feel smaller and lighter than it actually is. A factor contributing to the VFR1200's weight is its use of shaft drive a feature once felt to bolster a motorcycle's image of dependability rather than a chain. A driveshaft carries penalties in cost and weight, but the VFR's drive system was so well done that I almost forgot that it was there. The suspension works well enough to keep the bike stable while traversing bumps, but it is excessively harsh in comparison with models from competitors that come factory equipped with premium forks and shock absorbers. The VFR's brakes are sophisticated, combining antilock electronics with a linking feature that balances grip front and back, depending on whether the front brake lever, the rear brake pedal or both are being applied. In the complaints department, my test bike, No. 18 off the production line, had a distracting engine jerkiness when rolling the throttle open from idle. Adjusting the throttle cable did not cure this; Honda said that recalibrating this bike's electronic engine control should banish the annoyance. At 15,999 the VFR1200F costs 1,600 more than a pure sportbike like the CBR1000RR (when equipped with antilock brakes), and 1,700 less than the ST1300 ABS sport touring model; optional hard saddlebags for the VFR cost 1,400. Honda's intent to catch the attention of riders who might want something between the existing categories is perhaps a good marketing strategy, though that is not a large population. Sure, the VFR outpowers many entries in the sport touring class, but there is also a risk that power hungry riders will walk right past it and sign up for a sportbike without pausing to learn the charms of this hard to classify machine. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
For the last month, Marci T. House has had the perfect plan for the first week of the year: She would spend it in Washington's museums and galleries, with her wife beside her. The first day was to be spent in the National Museum of African American History and Culture; the second day at the National Portrait Gallery, taking photos in front of the Obamas' portraits; the third day was for getting on tour buses and seeing outdoor monuments. But that plan was ruined before it even began when Ms. House learned, after arriving in Washington on Tuesday, that the Smithsonian Institution's museums, along with many other federally funded tourist attractions, were closing because of the government shutdown. The Smithsonian's museums and the National Zoo initially remained open when the shutdown began on Dec. 22, but closed on Wednesday. "We literally flew all day from Vancouver, British Columbia, to D.C. to see the museums and galleries," said Ms. House, an actress. "Disappointed is putting it mildly." She and her wife now plan on spending their trip exploring the city's monuments, like the National Mall, which is open, and are keeping their fingers crossed that the museums will open before the end of the week. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Much of the discussion in the aftermath of the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani last week has focused on the legality of the attack: whether or not his death was carried out by "assassination" or "targeted killing." Administration officials have chosen the latter, following the war on terror playbook. They consider the strike a targeted killing, elaborating that it was justifiable as an act of self defense. General Suleimani, officials say, was "actively plotting" a "big action" that would have cost "hundreds of lives," thus posing an imminent threat. Others, such as Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have rightly rejected the term "targeted killing" and called it an assassination, implicitly raising a question about the legality as well as the wisdom of the strike. The distinction is important as a matter of policy and strategy, as well as one of law. In 1975, the Church Committee, a select Senate committee, launched an investigation into the activities of the United States' intelligence agencies, spurred on by reports of covert assassination attempts on foreign leaders, among them failed attempts against Patrice Lumumba of Congo and Fidel Castro of Cuba. The committee found that assassination was "incompatible with American principle, international order, and morality." Its final report recommended a ban on assassination in the absence of war and except in cases of imminent danger. Though no such law was passed by Congress, President Gerald Ford issued an executive order in 1976 banning political assassination. Since that executive order, some presidents have claimed the authority to circumvent the ban when they deemed it necessary. Ronald Reagan, reportedly claiming to act "in good faith" and within the context of an "approved operation," launched a failed attack on the Lebanese cleric Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. The Clinton administration, in considering plans for targeting Osama bin Laden, determined it would be an act of self defense, and therefore not an assassination. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
By the mid 1970s, the era of bohemian debauchery that once defined Andy Warhol's Factory the artist's downtown Manhattan studio and offices was over. It was now time to pay the ballooning bills for film and video projects; for his magazine, Interview; for real estate purchases even as sales of his own artwork were drying up. The solution? A burgeoning sideline in commissioned portraits, with Warhol's business manager, Frederick Hughes, spearheading efforts to entice wealthy patrons and their spouses, celebrities, and fellow artists (with whom Warhol often traded works). "Commissioned portraits were very important in financing everything, including paying a staff of 10 people," explained Bob Colacello, Interview's then editor in chief and, alongside Hughes, Warhol's right hand during this period. Eighty six of these portraits from the '60s, '70s and '80s are featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art's comprehensive retrospective, "Andy Warhol From A to B and Back Again," opening Nov. 12. The effect is to place these for hire canvases on the same hallowed aesthetic footing as his iconic early '60s soup can paintings, silk screened depictions of Elvis Presley, and narrative free filmed screen tests. That's no accident. "Warhol was a social observer from the very beginning, and it's important to see the portraits in that context," said the show's curator, Donna De Salvo, a deputy director at the Whitney. "Some of them have a quality where you really feel like he knew the person, they're almost tender. And some of them are very formulaic." But all together they create a predigital Facebook, she added, "mapping subcultures" from socialites to rock stars. "It's their desire to be painted by Warhol, to receive his imprimatur, that brings it all together," she said. "I don't think that's quite different than having your portrait done by any of the great 19th century painters." The portraits certainly weren't seen that way at the time of their making. In November 1979, when the Whitney staged a show including 112 commissioned portraits, the media reception was largely brutal. "Warhol's admirers," Robert Hughes of Time magazine wrote, "are given to claiming that Warhol has 'revived' the social portrait as a form. It would be nearer the truth to say he has zipped its corpse into a Halston, painted its eyelids and propped it in the back of a limo, where it moves but cannot speak." Yet despite the critical eye rolling, Mr. Colacello called these portraits "the bread and butter" for Warhol's empire. During the '70s, shows of new work like the Skulls series in Europe where Warhol still had a loyal base of collectors generated about 800,000 each ( 2.3 million in today's dollars), hardly enough to cover the growing overhead. The 25,000 commissioned portraits, with an extra 15,000 typically charged for every additional panel, made up the difference. "We'd have people for lunch at the Factory a lot, and we'd conveniently have Marella Agnelli's or Mick Jagger's portrait leaning against the wall," Mr. Colacello said. "People would say 'Those are so great! How much are they? I should have my wife done!'" First came a photography session. A Polaroid shot of the subject was then blown up into a 40 x 40 image and silk screened onto canvas, but only after Warhol had meticulously cut away any less than flattering wrinkles and double chins. Upon delivery of the finished portrait, the salesmanship began anew. "If someone ordered two panels, he would paint four, hoping they would then take them all. Sometimes when people saw how great four looked side by side, they would open their checkbooks a little more," Mr. Colacello recalled. By the early '80s, new commissions had soared. Warhol was painting about 50 a year, grossing nearly 5 million annually when adjusted for inflation. For generations who have come of age long after Warhol's death in 1987, grids of these portraits are often viewed as his signature work their eye popping colors and scattershot brushwork atop a repeating washed out image serving as shorthand for not only the artist's overall style, but the very aura of fame itself. Even the art world establishment has come around: Museums worldwide now embrace them as essential examples of modern day portraiture. You were surprised by Andy's technology? Andy used these funny Big Shot cameras by Polaroid. When her band Blondie toured the country we used to go around to the junk shops and buy them for like a quarter! They were ridiculous. They looked like shoeboxes and were quite hard to use. To focus you had to move closer or back off. You really had to have a great eye. It shows you what a genius he was to use this silly camera for these incredible portraits. What was your initial reaction to the finished portrait? There were four and it was hard to choose. Seeing them together in those different colors, I wanted all of them. Did you haggle over a bulk price? Laughing They didn't even try and offer me a discount. They knew I didn't have that kind of money! You were just 10 years old when Warhol painted you. Even though he was a close friend of your father, that must have been a bit odd. He used to call every day for my dad: "Hey kiddo, is your pops home?" My dad gave me the address of the Factory and some money, and I got in a taxi and went downtown. Thinking back, it's very strange to let a 10 year old go downtown from the Upper West Side by herself. But my parents John and Susan were very young when they had me, so they were kids, too. I remember being taken into this tiny bathroom by an assistant. She pulled out this big, black makeup case with hundreds of brushes, sparkly eye shadow and blush. This was a dream! I'd never worn makeup before. I felt so glamorous! She caked all of this white base foundation on me and put on this incredibly rich, red lipstick. So here I am thinking, I'm going to look like a gorgeous model. And I look in the mirror and I look like a cartoon character! Business manager for her late husband, the artist Arman Your husband traded artwork with Warhol. Did you broach the notion of a Warhol portrait? Something you have to know about my wonderful husband: He didn't ask me my opinion. Laughing Arman liked to have me, as I say, hanging around. He had portraits of me by several artists. So one day he just told me I was meeting Andy I certainly wasn't going to say no to that! But you can see in my portrait that I'm a little intimidated. Your first Warhol portrait is one of the few where the subject is topless. Was that your idea? You can't imagine it was my idea! Laughing It was Andy's idea, he posed me. I was brought up Catholic, my generation was very prudish. My husband helped me to get out of that a little bit. We hung the portrait in our living room right away, and now I've come to think of it as a work of art, not just 'me.' But my children's friends, especially their male friends, would turn their eyes away: gasping "Oh, Mrs. Arman's naked!" It started with me asking him to pose. He suggested we do an exhibition of portraits of each other. Of course, his doing a portrait is about five minutes in front of the Big Shot Polaroid camera laughing , I need about six months. I ended up moving into the Factory for a year or so. So Warhol got to watch you in progress. His big complaint was, "Oh, you're using too much pimple paint!" He got very upset by that. He put heavy makeup up on every morning. It must've taken him two hours to get out of the house after covering up all his pimples and bad skin. He thought I was putting the pimples back in. Which of course I was! Whereas his portrait of me was completely glamorized and airbrushed. There is some legitimacy to that, though. He told me once that his favorite toys as a child were paper dolls. Well, if you look at those portraits of his, they're all paper dolls with cutout mouths and eyes. That's the way he saw things. What was the experience of being photographed by Warhol like? I was used to posing for photographers. But he said, "Sit in the corner and be yourself." Well, who am I? Tell me first so I do this right. It took like 10 minutes. But it worked! Did you see yourself in the final portrait? At the time, it looked too sophisticated to be me. I was a shy kid from Queens, my mother put me in the American Academy of Arts, next thing I know I'm on Broadway at 8 years old. I looked too serene in the portrait, and I didn't feel that way at the time. I've grown into it. Now I love it! Do you recall discussing with Warhol how many portraits you were going to buy: two, four, six? I never paid the bills back then. But I can tell you how much an exact copy of my portrait costs now: 1,000. I wanted to hang my portrait in Pia's Place, my cabaret here in Vegas. But the insurance cost is ridiculous! So I had Sotheby's make me an exact replica. Side by side, I can't tell the difference. Your commission was a bit more complex than most. I had a television series called "The Love Boat" and I thought Andy would be fabulous as a guest star. The deal we finally made was complicated: I gave Andy a list of 20 names of possible guest stars and he had the right to pick 10 of the 20. If I delivered any of those 10 as our 1,000th guest star, he was committed to be on the show. And he would also do a portrait of that 1,000th guest star. And a double portrait of me, and a double portrait of my partner Aaron Spelling. But Candy Aaron's wife decided she wanted a portrait too. So he did that as well. Who was Andy's No. 1 pick to paint? Elizabeth Taylor. Sophia Loren was second. They both said no. Third was Lana Turner, who was still a great Hollywood star with a mystique. He took Polaroids of her, she selected one, he did it. We took it to her and she didn't like the look of herself today. She pulled out a still from "Johnny Eager," an old 1941 movie. He used that as the basis of her second portrait, which I believe now hangs in her daughter's real estate office. Did the actual making of Warhol's "Love Boat" episode in 1985 go any smoother? We went through version after version of the script to get him happy. Most of what he said when we finally got him on camera had very little to do with the scripted version. But everybody loved working with him. We had a big party afterward with 600 guest stars from the nine seasons and he was in the middle of it all, taking pictures and having the time of his life. It was high glamour for him. You studied Warhol in college. Was it strange to later find yourself trading your own artwork with him? I remember sitting in art history class back in Santa Barbara, hearing about the Factory. I just felt there's something like that waiting for me I need to get out of California and go be in New York! And just a few years later you, your wife, Tereza, and your infant daughter, Zena, are all being photographed together at the Factory. Andy is taking Polaroids of us, and Jean Michel Basquiat is there too. I'm trying to be my most relaxed and cool. Meanwhile, Jean Michel didn't like it if Andy gave me too much attention he was very protective and very jealous. I just remember him glaring at me from right behind Andy's shoulder. Jean Michel was good at intimidating you with a look. Your portrait has you in one panel with your baby, and your wife in the other panel, also with your baby. Yeah, Andy said he always did married couples in diptychs because they always get divorced. This way they don't have to fight over who gets the painting with the child in it. He was so matter of fact about it. I thought it was funny at the time. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
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. The news that Kim Jong un had extended an official invitation to President Trump appeared to break right as several of the late night comedy shows were taping, forcing them to handle it on the fly. Stephen Colbert told his audience about it in an unplanned segment after the post monologue commercial break. "This can only mean one thing. Dennis Rodman is going to get the Nobel Peace Prize," Colbert said. His team was deft in coming up with punchlines on short notice. (And Colbert's warning that "I'm not entirely sure what I'm about to say" may have indicated that, impressively, he came up with the jokes on the spot.) He had a few more lines up his sleeve, including: "Because North Korea is an economically starved country, the invitation is B Y O Everything." "They've gone from 'We'll blow up Guam!' to 'We pinkie swear not to blow up Guam for a few days.'" "We'll finally figure out who has a bigger button." "Trump is thinking of making it a national holiday. Not because he supports women: because he wants another day off." JIMMY FALLON "KFC replaced its iconic Colonel Sanders logo with his wife, Claudia." JIMMY FALLON "President Trump is flying to California next week for the first time since he took office. When asked if he'll visit LAX, he said, 'I'll visit my L.A. ex, my San Diego ex, my San Francisco ex. I have lots of exes all over the West Coast." JIMMY FALLON "So the North Korean leader extended an olive branch to Donald Trump, which is a big deal because olive branches are really the only thing they have to eat there." JIMMY KIMMEL "By May? He's not still going to be president by May. This needs to happen by Wednesday. Imagine Kim Jong un meeting Donald Trump. The two worst haircuts in the world together." JIMMY KIMMEL "There's an attempt to silence porn star Stormy Daniels by President Trump's lawyer. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of sad that, in that sentence, the most degrading job mentioned was President Trump's lawyer." CONAN O'BRIEN "President Trump is planning a meeting about violence with the heads of the video game industry. Yeah. However, some people worry that it's just a trap so that Trump can deport the Mario brothers." CONAN O'BRIEN "In the Northeast, one million people are without power because of a blizzard. Yeah. And in Wisconsin, one million people are without power because of gerrymandering. That one was just for The New York Times." CONAN O'BRIEN (Thank you, Conan. We've got you.) The greatest sidekick in N.B.A. history, Kobe Bryant, sat down with Jimmy Kimmel to discuss winning an Oscar. His film, "Dear Basketball," won last weekend for best animated short. Kimmel asked him what he didn't get to say in his acceptance speech. "There's a greater sense of responsibility," Bryant said. "How do I provide more opportunities for even more diverse and new voices to be heard in this industry? In the animation business, there's a serious lack of diversity." Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson, two correspondents for "The Opposition With Jordan Klepper," did a field segment in Kentucky profiling David Ermold, who is running to replace Kim Davis, the county clerk who rejected Ermold's marriage license. it was an eyebrow raising segment. Near the end, Sharp and Jackson confronted Davis at her office to mockingly warn her about her opponent. Jackson said, "Did you know there's qualified candidates running against you in the upcoming election?" Sharp followed with, "And he doesn't even want to use religion to take away people's rights." In Friday night's "A Closer Look" segment, Seth Meyers did a deep dive into the recent spate of stories regarding the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. But first, Meyers snuck in a Stormy Daniels barb. "The president of the United States got a restraining order against a porn star, which means we have to say goodbye to the old lowest point in American history," Meyers said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Jerry Lawson, who for four decades was the lead singer of the Persuasions, a group that revived the art of a cappella singing and attracted a loyal worldwide following, died on Wednesday in Phoenix. He was 75. His death was confirmed by his wife, Julie. She said that Guillain Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, had compromised Mr. Lawson's immune system. Led by Mr. Lawson's smooth, warm baritone, the Persuasions sang R B, rock, blues, gospel and pop with no instrumental accompaniment, long after the doo wop era that their sound evoked and long before the recent "Pitch Perfect" movies brought new attention to a cappella singing. Their many fans included Frank Zappa, who released their first album, "Acappella," on his Straight label in 1970, and Joni Mitchell, who took them on the road as her opening act in 1979 and sang with them on two tracks of her album "Shadows and Light," released the next year. They were acknowledged as an influence by Boyz II Men, Take 6, Rockapella and other vocal groups. The Persuasions recorded some two dozen albums, including tributes to Zappa, the Beatles and the Grateful Dead. Jerome Eugene Lawson was born on Jan. 23, 1944, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Estella Braxton Lawson and George Johnson. He grew up in Apopka, Fla., northwest of Orlando, where he began singing at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church as a child. The Persuasions began as a casual and nameless ensemble on the basketball courts and front stoops of Brooklyn in 1962. "It was just five guys who used to stand on the corner or go down to the subway station every night and just do this," Jimmy Hayes, another original member, told The A.P. in 2000. The other original members were Joseph Russell, Herbert Rhoad and Jayotis Washington. Mr. Washington is the only one still alive. The eclecticism that was the key to the Persuasions' appeal is probably also what kept them from reaching pop stardom; the music business found them hard to categorize. "They've never gotten their due," Rip Rense, who produced some of their records, told The A.P. "In another country like Japan they'd be declared a living treasure." Mr. Lawson left the group in 2002. A few years later he joined a much younger group of San Francisco a cappella singers who had based themselves on the Persuasions. As Jerry Lawson and the Talk of the Town, the group released an album in 2007 and appeared on the NBC music competition show "The Sing Off" in 2011. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Esaie Prickett wearing Google Glass at home in Morgan Hill, Calif. He and his family tested the device in a clinical trial.Credit...Cayce Clifford for The New York Times Google Glass May Have an Afterlife as a Device to Teach Autistic Children Esaie Prickett wearing Google Glass at home in Morgan Hill, Calif. He and his family tested the device in a clinical trial. SAN FRANCISCO When Esaie Prickett sat down in the living room with his mother, father and four older brothers, he was the only one wearing Google Glass. As Esaie, who was 10 at the time and is 12 now, gazed through the computerized glasses, his family made faces happy, sad, surprised, angry, bored and he tried to identify each emotion. In an instant, the glasses told him whether he was right or wrong, flashing tiny digital icons that only he could see. Esaie was 6 when he and his family learned he had autism. The technology he was using while sitting in the living room was meant to help him learn how to recognize emotions and make eye contact with those around him. The glasses would verify his choices only if he looked directly at a face. He and his family tested the technology for several weeks as part of a clinical trial run by researchers at Stanford University in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. Recently detailed in The Journal of the American Medical Association, Pediatrics, the trial fits into a growing effort to build new technologies for children on the autism spectrum, including interactive robots and computerized eyewear. Experts believe that other new technologies may help in similar ways. Talking digital assistants like Amazon's Alexa, for example, could help children who misuse their pronouns. But even as these ideas spread, researchers warn that they will require rigorous testing before their effects are completely understood. Catalin Voss started building software for Google Glass in 2013, not long after Google unveiled the computerized eyewear amid much hullabaloo from the national media. An 18 year old Stanford freshman at the time, Mr. Voss began building an application that could automatically recognize images. Then he thought of his cousin, who had autism. Growing up, Mr. Voss's cousin practiced recognizing facial expressions while looking into a bathroom mirror. Google Glass, Mr. Voss thought, might improve on this common exercise. Drawing on the latest advances in computer vision, his software could automatically read facial expressions and keep close track of when someone recognized an emotion and when they did not. "I was trying to build software that could recognize faces," Mr. Voss said. "And I knew that there were people who struggled with that." At the time, the brief moment Google Glass spent in the national spotlight was already coming to an end. Google stopped selling the device to consumers amid concerns that its built in camera would compromise personal privacy. But Google Glass lived on as something to be used by researchers and businesses, and Mr. Voss, now a Ph.D. student, spent the next several years developing his application with Dennis Wall, a Stanford professor who specializes in autism research, and others at the university. Their clinical trial, conducted over two years with 71 children, is one of the first of its kind. It spanned everything from severe forms of autism, including children with speech impairments and tactile sensitivities, to much milder forms. Children who used the software in their homes showed a significant gain on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, a standard tool for tracking the behavior of those on the autism spectrum, Mr. Voss said. The gain was in line with improvements by children who received therapy in dedicated clinics through more traditional methods. The hope is that Mr. Voss's application and similar methods can help more children in more places, without regular visits to clinics. "It is a way for families to, on some level, provide their own therapy," Mr. Voss said. Jeffrey Prickett, Esaie's father, said he had been drawn to the study because he had known it would appeal to his son, who enjoys using iPad apps and watching DVD movies. "He does fine interacting with people," Mr. Prickett said. "But he does better interacting with technology." Mr. Prickett found it hard to judge whether the Google device helped his son recognize emotions, but he saw a marked improvement in Esaie's ability to make eye contact. Heather Crowhurst, who lives near Sacramento, said she had experienced something similar with her 8 year old son, Thomas, who also participated in the trial. But Thomas was not entirely captivated with the digital therapy. "It was kind of boring," he said. The concern with such studies is that they rely on the observations of parents who are helping their children use the technology, said Catherine Lord, a clinical psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of autism. The parents are aware of the technological intervention, so their observations may not be reliable. Still, the Stanford team considers its study a first step toward wider use of this and other technologies in autism. It has licensed the technology to Cognoa, a Silicon Valley start up founded by Dr. Wall. The company hopes to commercialize the method once it receives approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees the use of medical devices in the United States. That may still be years away. Patrick Daly, the assistant superintendent of the school district in North Reading, Mass., is testing Brain Power's technology after watching its effect on his 9 year old son, who is on the spectrum. The district intends to test the technology over the next few years. Previously, the district tried to teach similar skills through iPad computer tablets. Mr. Daly sees Google Glass as a big improvement. "It can actually maintain eye contact," he said. "They are not looking down while they try to learn an emotion." Robokind, a start up in Dallas, applies the same philosophy to different hardware. The company spent the past several years designing a robot that attempts to teach many of the same skills as technologies built for digital eyewear. Called Milo, the doll like, two foot tall robot mimics basic emotions and tries to make eye contact with students. It also asks questions and tries to engage students in simple conversations. Robokind has sold hundreds of the robots to schools for testing. Each one costs 12,000, plus more than 3,500 for additional software. In some ways, such a device is a poor substitute for real human interaction. But the strength of this and other technologies is that they can repeat tasks time and again, without getting tired or bored or angry. They can also measure behavior in precise ways, said Pam Feliciano, the scientific director of the nonprofit Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research. For these reasons, Ms. Feliciano also sees promise in Amazon's Alexa. Her 14 year old son is on the spectrum and struggles with his pronouns. He sometimes calls himself "you," not "I." Her task is to correct him each time he makes a mistake. But she's human and gets tired. She does not always remember. A device like Alexa could help, she said, provided that researchers can show it is reliable and effective. "The technologies are there," she said. "It is just a matter of the right technologists working with the right clinicians." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
In the opening of her new book, "Making Comics," the cartoonist and MacArthur fellow Lynda Barry reminds her adult readers that they made art when they were young, even if they self consciously stopped doing so long ago. "There was a time when drawing and writing were not separated for you," she writes. "We draw before we are taught." I thought of Ms. Barry's words about the innate primacy of making marks on paper while exploring "The Pencil Is a Key," a remarkable exhibition at the Drawing Center. The show contains about 140 drawings made by more than 50 artists some of whom had begun drawing long before being imprisoned, and others who found their creative voices while behind bars. The term "incarceration" is used somewhat loosely here. In the catalog, the curators all four members of the organization's curatorial staff, and the director define incarceration as "any situation in which an individual is denied their freedom." I'd tweak that to physical freedom, as the exhibition features artists who have been confined against their will, whether in French Revolution era prisons, the Soviet gulag, mental institutions or in the United States under the practice of mass incarceration. That list only partly represents the range of times and places from which these works come; such breadth is what makes the show so unusual. While wall labels supply information on the artists' identities and the circumstances of their imprisonment including presumed innocence or guilt "The Pencil Is a Key" is not ultimately about the politics of incarceration. By drawing connections across centuries and cultures, the show makes a soulful statement about the fundamental nature of creative expression and what it means to be imprisoned. The show begins with familiar names, like Honore Daumier and Gustave Courbet, both of whom were imprisoned during France's tumultuous 19th century (Daumier for a caricature of the king; Courbet for his part in the Paris Commune). Their inclusion signals not only the historical scope of the exhibition but also its institutionally serious purpose to focus mostly on those who have been identified whether by themselves or by society as artists, rather than on prisoners who happen to have made art. There are terrific exceptions in the second gallery: spotlights on panos chicanos, which are drawings on handkerchiefs, and envelope drawings. In these cases, rather than concentrating on specific creators, the curators have included dozens of examples as a means of illuminating resourceful and baroque genres of contemporary American prison art. A series of drawings by Migron, an inmate at Mazas and then Saint Joseph Prison in France, tells the story of a man who murders his wife's lover in the style of a comic strip. Its simple forms and rich colors have an unlikely resonance with diaristic ledger drawings by Howling Wolf, Bear's Heart and Etadleuh Doanmoe, whose works offer glimpses of their Native American nations' exploits and struggles against the United States government. The three were among the 72 Southern Plains leaders imprisoned at Fort Marion after the late 19th century Red River War, but two of them were first sent to Fort Sill which, as the wall text notes, became a Japanese American internment site nearly seven decades later. In a pair of charcoal drawings, Mine Okubo expresses the pain of internment by rendering stone faced figures in thick strokes with their arms raised. The pose reminded me of photographs of the Holocaust which is represented in a group of works nearby. Most haunting are two nightmarish sketches of skeletons playing the clarinet studies for the painting "Death Triumphant" (1944) made by Felix Nussbaum not long before he was killed at Auschwitz. "The Pencil Is a Key" runs chronologically, but one of its strengths (helped by the fact that the Drawing Center's main galleries comprise only two rooms) is that you can trace different paths and connections through it. A small, devastating collection of handmade greeting cards from gulag camps one for Easter depicts a baby chick breaking free of its shell, with a chain around its neck prefigures the envelope art of today: Both seem made to be sent to loved ones, and both repurpose generic imagery for personal expression. Remarkably, the composition of Mahmoud Mohamed Abd El Aziz's "A Plea to God," which he drew in 2018 while imprisoned in Egypt for participating in anti government demonstrations, is almost identical to that of the Chilean artist Miguel Lawner Steiman's "Navidad en Ritoque (Christmas in Ritoque)," made while he was incarcerated at a Chilean concentration camp in 1974. The two present bird's eye views of men presumably the artists themselves hunched over drawings in their cells. Such similarities raise questions: Can the aesthetics of prison art be identified or defined? Are people in confinement more likely to draw certain things? The curators avoid a typology, but themes and motifs emerge. Quite a few artists have passed time by making portraits of their fellow inmates, including Zhang Yue in China, Jose Alvarez (D.O.P.A.) in the United States, and Azza Abo Rebieh in Syria; others, like Inez Nathaniel Walker, dreamed up the people they drew. Depictions of the built environment are common, whether intimate, vibrant renderings of life there by Fatima Meer, who was incarcerated during South Africa's apartheid era, or a dense cityscape devoid of humans and drawn from memory by Abdualmalik Abud, who spent almost 15 years at Guantanamo Bay. (His tranquil sketch contrasts sharply with the Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah's recently released drawings of the torture he endured in secret prisons by the C.I.A., made as legal evidence and published in The New York Times.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Frank, a stubby English bulldog dressed in a navy tuxedo adorned with a gold sequined bow tie, ambled down the aisle through the North Carolina grass at his owners' wedding. He looked quite the part that is, until he plopped down to relax during the ceremony. "Frankie has such a human quality about him," said the bride and owner, Emily Enriquez. "He has this big, broad shouldered look, and I thought he would look really cute in a tuxedo." Ms. Enriquez and her husband, Brian Enriquez, decided they wanted Frank to be a part of their March 2017 ceremony because he had served as a major part of their relationship he joined their family a little over a year after they had been dating. Ms. Enriquez searched for high quality attire (not from the average party store) to match the rest of the wedding party. On Etsy, she found a dog tuxedo and bow tie from Happydog Pet Couture for 130. Search "pet wedding attire" on Etsy and more than 1,000 results will pop up. There's Bark and Go, House of FurBaby, and many others, in locations ranging from Florida to Kiev, Ukraine (where Happydog Pet Couture is based). Ilana Mobley, an owner of the Tampa based FairyTail Pet Care, which offers a variety of wedding day services, said nearly one in every 10 weddings the company has assisted with, features pets in formal attire. The Etsy shops' pieces typically cost under 100. Other formal pet attire can be found elsewhere online, with some pieces from larger pet designers costing as much as 300. Moshiqa has cotton dresses with elaborate beading and dog hats. (Lady Gaga has dressed her dog in the designer's fashions) Max Bone (a favorite of Gwyneth Paltrow) sells pet bow ties, among other things. Adrian Stephen Cabuhat, a pet fashion aficionado from Manila, brought his Chihuahua, Coco Chanel, to his friend's recent wedding in the Philippines. She wore a ruffled outfit by Juanita Esparza, a Guatemala based pet couture designer. "She was a star of the night," he said. Anna Konokhova, the owner of Happydog Pet Couture, began selling on Etsy in 2016. She started making elaborate bows for her Shih Tzu, then branched out to dresses after receiving requests from friends for additional designs. She did a design for a Yorkie in a wedding in 2015. She created a few more outfits for friends, until she posted photos on Etsy in 2016. The post attracted many more requests from engaged couples. Weddings are now her main business, she said. Ms. Konokhova makes all her outfits by hand and communicates with clients in various time zones for ways to customize her creations, which typically arrive in four to five weeks. She became so dedicated to her craft that she would carry around a measuring tape so should could measure various breeds of dogs on the street in order to better serve her customers. Tonya Hart of Wichita, Kan., opened the House of FurBaby on Etsy four years ago, and started marketing to the wedding crowd in the last couple of years. Sales volume has soared from around 500 a year to about 500 a month. Ms. Hart says she plans to open a brick and mortar store in Wichita this month. She has dressed dogs from many breeds in outfits sewn by a hired seamstress. For many couples, Ms. Hart said, "the pet is that one family that they share," which makes it especially important to include it in the wedding planning. For Patti Crouch of Houston, her love for her rat terrier, Lexi, even weathered Hurricane Harvey last year. She bought a white dress with a red bow from House of FurBaby (to match her Christmas themed wedding) for Lexi, right before the storm hit. Despite a few complications (including delayed alterations for her own wedding dress), and in the chaos of planning, Ms. Crouch still included her dog. "She's been my best friend," Ms. Crouch said of Lexi, who walked around with the flower girl at the reception. Casey O'Donnell and Kelly O'Donnell didn't have their pets participate in the actual wedding this past summer, but they had them photographed for a "save the date" announcement. It was a bit tricky, they admitted, keeping Marty, an Old English Sheepdog, and their cat, Pete, in their attire, which they bought on Amazon. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Andre Rebelo, a 24 year old YouTube streamer from Vancouver, British Columbia, live streamed himself playing the game Grand Theft Auto V on his YouTube channel, Typical Gamer, in mid January. This time, he added something different for his audience. As Mr. Rebelo broadcast his gameplay, he used a new YouTube feature called Super Chat to invite his more than 4.5 million subscribers to send him comments. For those viewers willing to pay him a sum of their choice from 1 to 500 Mr. Rebelo would more prominently feature their comments. One viewer quickly wrote, "Hey you, your videos are so cool I love you," and offered Mr. Rebelo 10 through Super Chat. Another wrote, "What's up TG, watching live from the NYC," and gave 5. Someone even donated the largest amount possible, 500. Super Chat is one of the newest ways that streamers can make money. To date, the primary way creators earn money on YouTube has been through subscriptions and advertising. Eligible streamers can enable ad options on their channels, leading to several types of ads appearing next to their videos; creators then earn a share of the revenue. But as live video continues to grow in popularity on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, dedicated video streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch, the Amazon owned live streaming platform that focuses on video games, are looking for new ways to sweeten the deal for streamers to encourage them to produce more live video content. YouTube began a test of Super Chat on Jan. 12 and followed with a wide rollout of the feature on Feb. 7. Now any YouTube streamer with more than 1,000 subscribers who is registered with YouTube's Partner Program which allows users to earn money from videos through advertising can enable Super Chat during a live stream. Once Super Chat is turned on, viewers can pay 1 to 500 to have their comment highlighted. The more they pay, the more characters a comment can contain, and the longer it will remain "pinned" to the live stream window, making it more visible. So while a 5 Super Chat message can contain a maximum of 150 characters and stays highlighted for two minutes, a 500 Super Chat message can have 350 characters and is highlighted for five hours. "For creators, Super Chat does double duty: keeping their conversations and connections with (super) fans meaningful and lively while also giving them a new way to make money," said Barbara Macdonald, a product manager at YouTube who worked on Super Chat. Twitch has a feature similar to Super Chat called Cheering, begun in June 2016, which lets viewers "tip" streamers during a live stream. Viewers "cheer" by using "Bits," virtual goods that come in the form of animated gem shaped emoticons. Viewers can buy Bits directly from the chat window; there are different colors and sizes starting at 1.40 for 100 Bits. Streamers receive one cent for every Bit used in their chat. "Twitch viewers are very savvy and in tune with their favorite casters, so they are aware that their support is what enables their favorite streamers to broadcast full time," said Matt McCloskey, the vice president for commerce at Twitch. Super Chat and Cheering are more than about money they also offer another way for streamers and their audiences to bond and converse. T. L. Taylor, a professor of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said real time interaction with audiences in live streaming particularly in the genre of video game live streaming was increasingly becoming a crucial part of the experience. "Game live streaming taps into the longstanding pleasure of spectating other people's play," Dr. Taylor said. "Live streamers are adept at connecting with the folks watching them, drawing them out and into the play experience." YouTube and Twitch have experimented with other ways to profit from content in the past, including subscription services and merchandising. YouTube introduced its subscription service, YouTube Red, in late 2015, in which members pay a recurring fee to watch their favorite channels without ads. On Twitch, while all channels are free, subscribing to a channel gives viewers perks like subscriber only chat, subscriber only emoticons and discounts on merchandise. Subscriptions on Twitch are generally around 4.99 a month. But features like Super Chat and Cheering feel more personal. "Some people just like to let me know that my videos make their day, what video is their favorite, suggestions for future live streams and over all just to increase the odds of their comments being seen and for me to say their name," Mr. Rebelo said. There may be a downside to the new features, said Michael Pachter, a Wedbush Securities analyst. He said it was hard to predict how audiences would react once they were asked to pay for interactions with live streamers. "Super Chat is probably destined to fail," Mr. Pachter said. "I think that the business model is flawed, and I think the ability to 'buy' a spot in the queue is going to turn off a lot of fans." A YouTube spokeswoman said there had already been "hundreds of thousands" of Super Chat purchases since the product launched. "While anyone could make predictions, we've been really encouraged by the early adoption and engagement on Super Chat," the spokeswoman said. Yet some internet commentators are not impressed. In February, We the Unicorns, a news site about YouTube personalities, called Super Chat "the weirdest YouTube feature yet," arguing, "We're all for fans of YouTubers supporting their faves financially however they want, especially if they get something in return; but should the payoff really be a few extra seconds of attention in a chat room?" Digby Lewis, the former director for brand strategy at BuzzFeed, also publicly expressed concern in an opinion piece for The Drum, a magazine focused on the marketing industry. He said paid comments fomented self promotion by creators and could raise ethical questions about whether comments are for the creator or the community of viewers. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
During the 2016 election, the director Nanette Burstein got exclusive behind the scenes access to the campaign of the candidate everyone knew would be the first female president of the United States, Hillary Clinton. So it's tempting to say that "Hillary," the four part documentary that arrives on Hulu Friday, is one more in the long list of works that plays much differently than intended before Nov. 8, 2016. But is it really? "Hillary" is not the look back in triumph that it may have been expected to be. But it's a fair bet that switching 80,000 or so votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania would not have made the culture war surrounding her melt away. And we would still hear about the central puzzle Burstein describes: that after all the decades and headlines, people feel they don't know Hillary Clinton. "Hillary" is not able to add many new pieces to that puzzle, and it spends a fair amount of time rearranging familiar ones. But at its best, it puts its subject in the context of not just one consequential election night but decades of slow changing cultural history. Burstein balances those two perspectives by toggling between campaign footage and historical clips. The first hour, by far the most revealing and insightful, follows the young Hillary Rodham from childhood through the 1970s. The biographical details will also be familiar to anyone who paid close attention to politics in 2016 (or any time since the 1990s). There was the childhood in the "Leave It to Beaver" Illinois suburbs of the 1950s, and the early brushes with sexism, as when young Hillary ran for student council president and lost to a boy who then asked her to do all the actual work of running the school organizations. ("Of course I said yes," Clinton volunteers in an interview, "because I was interested in the work.") She gained early fame in 1969 for giving an inspiring, generationally charged commencement speech at Wellesley College, met her future husband at Yale Law School and moved to Arkansas. She practiced law and, after Bill was elected governor, eventually took his surname as a concession to the culture of the time and place. She would be criticized for everything from her job to her hair. "Every battle we had fought at Yale abstractly, she was actually fighting," her classmate Nancy Gertner recalls of those Arkansas days. So far, so political convention clip reel. "Hillary" frankly admires Clinton as a pioneer and champion, down to the opening titles, a torrent of still portraits that burst onscreen to the Interrupters' punk anthem "Take Back the Power." While it interviews a wide range of defenders, including her husband and daughter, it tends to quote her critics more through strident news clips. But where "Hillary" stands out is how it finds in Clinton's early years the foreshadowing of all the attacks she would face in 2008 and 2016 not just flat out sexism, but the charges of inauthenticity that connected to her learned defense mechanisms against being too much herself. There's a tragic irony to Burstein's narrative, a picture of a warrior weighed down by the armor that kept her alive. "You got points for not being emotional," Clinton recalls about her days as a woman in a mostly male law school. "When you train yourself like that and then you move fast forward into an age where everybody wants to see what your emotions are and how you respond and all that, it's really a different environment." The later hours of "Hillary" are less revealing. In part, it's the much told material: the "baking cookies" blowups of Bill's 1992 campaign; the personal and public crucible of his sex scandals and impeachment; the Senate and the State Department and the rise and fall and rise and fall of her reputation. And in part, there's that armor. Clinton can be engaging and animated talking about her school days or the "makeup tax" in time and effort paid by female candidates. But pressed on her own campaign mistakes or painful moments of her past, she can be as guarded as she was on the trail. (In this sense, the most publicized quote from "Hillary," in which Clinton said that "nobody likes" her former opponent Bernie Sanders in the Senate, was a rare moment of allowing herself to be impolitic.) Then again, you could argue that that guardedness everything it says about who is and is not permitted to be "authentic" in our culture, and who gets punished either way is itself one of the main subjects of "Hillary." Another is the relation between the American electorate and Clinton, who for decades has served as the target in chief of a larger culture war, the receptacle for every feeling, positive, hopeful, hateful or resentful, that people have about gender relations, power and forgive me "likability." It's this invisible dynamic that often drives "Hillary." Near the end, my colleague Amy Chozick, who wrote about her experience covering Clinton's campaign in "Chasing Hillary," recalls voters telling her that they'd gladly vote for a woman, just not (all together now) "that woman." But, Chozick asks, "did 30 years of sexist attacks make her that woman?" (The question is all the more pointed given the experiences of several that women in the 2020 primary.) "Hillary" is unlikely to settle any arguments about that woman. But it offers an interesting history of those years. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
New York City Ballet begins on Tuesday performances of "Romeo Juliet," the first staging of a major Peter Martins ballet since he retired under pressure last month. From left, the ballet mistress Katey Tracey discussed with work with Sterling Hyltin and Harrison Coll. With New York City Ballet in the throes of its most tumultuous season since George Balanchine's death 35 years ago, several dozen company members gathered in a backstage studio at the David H. Koch Theater last week to do what they always do: dance, hard, in this instance while rehearsing Peter Martins's "Romeo Juliet." The star crossed lovers worked on their intricate partnering and tricky lifts. Juliet's nurse honed her moments of comic relief. Capulets and Montagues in leg warmers practiced a frenzied brawl and sword fight. One thing was missing: Mr. Martins, who choreographed the ballet and had led the company as ballet master in chief since 1983, hiring all of its current dancers. He retired under pressure last month after being accused by former dancers of sexual harassment and physical and verbal abuse going back decades. City Ballet is investigating the accusations, which Mr. Martins, 71, has denied. Mr. Martins may be gone, but he is not being erased. City Ballet's interim leaders say they expect his ballets to remain in its repertory and that they have no intention of editing him out of the company's history, the way Kevin Spacey was cut out of the film "All the Money in the World" after he was accused of misconduct. The Martins ballets remain important to the ticket sales and continuing the company's fortunes. Many institutions and businesses are grappling with the financial impact of the MeToo movement, and some of have been wiling to cut ties with major earners such as Harvey Weinstein and Louis C.K. after accusations came to light. Still, Mr. Martins's choreography in "Romeo Juliet," which opens Tuesday, is being changed in a small but telling way that removes an ugly reminder of the accusations that preceded his abrupt departure. His original choreography had Juliet's father knocking her down with a loud slap at one point a moment of jarring violence that drew gasps when the ballet was new in 2007, and the condemnation of some critics. Alastair Macaulay, the chief dance critic for The New York Times, wrote that the slap left a "disproportionately awkward aftertaste," and said that it raised troubling memories of a 1992 incident in which Mr. Martins was arrested and accused of assaulting his wife, the ballerina Darci Kistler charges that were later dropped. Company officials worried how the slap would be received this year, given the accusations of physical abuse that had been detailed against Mr. Martins in articles in both The New York Times and The Washington Post, not to mention the growing national conversation about the abuse of women. So Jonathan Stafford, a ballet master and former principal dancer with the company who is at the head of its interim leadership team, telephoned Mr. Martins. (The choreography for City Ballet productions is protected by contract, so changes must be authorized by the choreographer or the entity that holds the rights to the work.) "It seemed like he had definitely been thinking about it already, because he had a solution teed up and ready to go," Mr. Stafford said in an interview. There will be no slap this year. When they came to the scene in the rehearsal last week, the dancer playing Juliet's father, Adrian Danchig Waring, raised an arm as if thinking of slapping her but did not strike. The Juliet, Lauren Lovette, touched her face and cowered. Kathleen Tracey, the ballet master responsible for staging of "Romeo Juliet," said that Mr. Martins's tweak echoes a piece of City Ballet history. "He took a page and I think this is amazing he took a page from Balanchine's book, and another Shakespeare that we do here, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,'" she said. In that ballet, she added, Balanchine has an angry Demetrius prepare to kick Helena but then restrain himself. "That's the same idea that Peter said we should do this season." City Ballet is still associated above all with Balanchine, one of the all time great choreographers, who co founded the company in 1948 with Lincoln Kirstein. But it has now been a post Balanchine company for as long as it was a Balanchine company 35 years. Now the company is once more at a turning point, just as it was when Balanchine died. Back then there were questions about whether the company would survive Balanchine. Mr. Martins, who had been a star dancer at the Royal Danish Ballet and then in New York under Balanchine, initially ran the company in tandem with the celebrated choreographer Jerome Robbins; Mr. Martins became its sole leader in 1990. He was widely credited with keeping its dancers strong in the core Balanchine repertoire; raising the quality of its dancing in recent years; and helping discover and establish some of today's most acclaimed choreographers, including Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon and Justin Peck. He also choreographed more than 80 ballets though many failed to find favor with critics. Now the ballet world is pondering the fate of the Martins ballets in the post Martins era. Mr. Stafford, who is leading the interim leadership team, said that more Martins works would be programmed in the 2018 19 season. Several of the company's biggest moneymaking story ballets were choreographed by Mr. Martins, including "Swan Lake," and "The Sleeping Beauty" and Mr. Stafford said he could not imagine the Martins productions leaving the repertory. He also cited the power of other Martins works, including "Barber Violin Concerto," "Hallelujah Junction," and "Fearful Symmetries," which is often used to test the mettle of young dancers to see of they can handle it. As the company considers its future and who the permanent successor to Mr. Martins should be it is weighing the strengths and weaknesses of the company he is leaving behind. One area where City Ballet has not kept pace in recent decades is the diversity of its casts. More than 60 years after Arthur Mitchell became the company's first African American dancer, there are few dancers of color in the company, and very few seen in certain kinds of roles. There have been signs of change in recent seasons under Mr. Martins, and Mr. Stafford said that a diversity effort begun several years ago by the School of American Ballet, a feeder school that trains nearly all the company's dancers, had helped put more young dancers of color into the pipeline. But he said that it was an issue that the interim leadership team had been discussing. "We're going to just make sure that the organization is really a place that anyone can feel safe working, and comfortable and confident that they'll be allowed to flourish," he said. These days the dancers are keeping their noses to grindstone, and just trying to get on with the physically taxing work of rehearsing by day and performing by night in the spring season without the only boss any of them have ever known. If some former dancers have cheered his departure, and said that the episode had begun a long overdue discussion about power dynamics and abuse in the insular ballet world, some current dancers felt bereft when he left. Sterling Hyltin, who premiered the role of Juliet in 2007 and will be in the opening night cast this week, said that it had been tough at her dress rehearsal last week not to be able to confer with Mr. Martins. "I've tweaked acting things, I've come up with new moments," she said. "My Juliet has changed as I've matured, I would hope. And just not having him tell me 'This reads, this doesn't read' it's really hard." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Eugen Gabritschevsky was supposed to be a scientist. Born in 1893 to an eminent Russian bacteriologist and privately educated with his four brothers and sisters, he painted and drew compulsively even as a child, but spent the Revolution earning a biology degree at Moscow University; did postdoctoral research in Paris, New York and Edinburgh; and published widely. Altogether, he spent nearly 40 years learning to impose order, in the form of names, theories, and family trees, on the chaos of the natural world. But an escalating series of nervous breakdowns drove him, in 1931, to Munich, where his brother Georges lived, and where he spent most of the rest of his life confined to a psychiatric hospital. Unable to continue his scientific work, he poured his creative energies into painting, producing, by the time of his death in 1979, more than 3,000 arrestingly unfiltered gouaches. Their quality is mixed, but at their best, Gabritschevsky's drawings are difficult to parse but unforgettably mesmerizing dispatches from some archetypal dream world. His work was among the art brut "discovered" by Jean Dubuffet, and was also, thanks to efforts by his brother, shown as early as the 1960s by the French gallerist Alphonse Chave. But "Eugen Gabritschevsky: Theater of the Imperceptible," a wide ranging introduction to the onetime scientist's lifelong project of intimate creative and psychological struggle, is his first retrospective. The show, which comes to the American Folk Art Museum in New York after runs in Paris and Lausanne, Switzerland, was organized by Antoine de Galbert and Noelig Le Roux of Maison Rouge in Paris, Sarah Lombardi of the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, and the Folk Art Museum's Valerie Rousseau. In two stiff charcoal and oil pastel drawings made in the mid 1920s, while Gabritschevsky was studying the transmission of color in mimetic insects at Columbia, you can see, at least with the clarity of hindsight, the ominous fragility of his ability to organize experience coherently and the deadening effect of the attempt. One drawing shows a stand of New York skyscrapers, from their towering spires to the shadowy cars at their feet; the other shows two scientists hunched over a crowded lab table. In both drawings, the artist leans so heavily on a percussive contrast of black and white making a column of space between two buildings leap out to strike the viewer's eye and every beaker on the lab table glitter that the overall compositions become almost illegible. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
AMITY AND PROSPERITY One Family and the Fracturing of America By Eliza Griswold 318 pp. Farrar, Straus Giroux. 27. At Page 51 of "Amity and Prosperity," Eliza Griswold's saga of fracking's impact on the town of Amity in southwest Pennsylvania, I made a note in the margin: "Why People Hate Government." By then her protagonist's son, Harley Haney, had suffered mouth ulcers, severe abdominal pain, nausea, swollen lymph nodes and dizziness. Wilting in a recliner, he had missed a year and a half of middle school. His dog had died. The neighbors' dogs had died. The tap water was running black and smelled foul. The air reeked. A quarter mile up the hill, workers in Hazmat suits had applied 819 pounds of a carcinogen to contain a bacterial outbreak at a waste pond for the gas wells near his home. Harley's mother, Stacey Haney, suffered headaches, rashes and fatigue. His younger sister, Paige, had stomachaches and nosebleeds. The neighbors were sick, too, and one, Beth Voyles, kept a dead puppy in her freezer as potential evidence. She had been complaining to the state Department of Environmental Protection for months. An agent there said that the hydrogen sulfide in the local air was naturally occurring. A representative of the company that owned the gas wells, Range Resources, told Stacey to boil her water before drinking it. Harley's condition was finally diagnosed: arsenic poisoning. Staying home sick from school had only made him worse. Toxins accrue. Like the governor, like their neighbors sitting atop Appalachia's gas rich Marcellus Shale, like the federal government and many thousands of other people across rural America, Stacey and Beth had leased gas rights on their land. Something so ordinary must be safe, the two women figured. And the money the drillers offered was tantalizing. That's part of the tragedy. However grand their dreams (farmers' hopes that gas royalties would make them millionaires), or modest (Stacey's wish for 8,000 to build a barn), or abstract (consumers' faith in clean, cheap natural gas), almost everyone wanted to believe in the fantastic deal. Griswold aims to count the costs. Hydraulic fracturing, as she demonstrates, entails as much violence as the name implies. Putting aside the burden on roads, tranquillity and social relations, to frack a gas well means taking roughly four million gallons of water, poisoning it with chemicals, some of them proprietary secrets, and forcing this brew, together with some three million pounds of clay pellets or silica sand, into a well that extends horizontally a mile or two through shale. The shale cracks. The results: gas, fractured bedrock, depleted freshwater supplies and toxic waste. Now fortified with bacteria, heavy metals and additional toxins, the fracking fluid that returns to the surface presents a problem with no good solution. Some of it stays underground, where it combines with methane and can migrate into aquifers, streams and private wells. Imagine this process multiplied. Stacey's eight acres lay amid five wells; her county, Washington, has 1,146. The state of Pennsylvania has 7,788. The United States has more than 300,000. 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. Politicians still call it clean. In the early 2000s, Congress exempted fracking from provisions of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Amid the wreckage of the financial crisis, President Obama touted it as a win for the economy and the environment. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton pushed it on the world. After leaving office, in 2011, Governor Rendell became a paid consultant to a private equity firm with investments in fracking. His former deputy chief of staff, another deputy, his D.E.P. chief and other erstwhile regulators enlisted in the corporate ranks of oil and gas. The fracking boom muted more imaginative approaches to the common welfare, and suppressed honest appraisals of costs. In 2012, Obama's E.P.A. announced that the brown, putrid water issuing from people's taps in Dimock, Pa., posed no danger. In 2016, a Centers for Disease Control agency, using the same samples, declared Dimock's water a health hazard. Every E.P.A. agent who knocked on Stacey Haney's door promising aid disappeared into the mist; one eventually became environmental director of Chesapeake Energy. Lately, as landowners' royalties have shrunk and the financial press warns that the boom looks like a bubble, systemic dials seem locked on "drill." The current governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, a Democrat, recently requested more D.E.P. inspectors, not to address thousands of frack related citizen complaints but to speed up permits for new drilling. D.E.P., some people say, stands for "Department of Energy Production" or "Don't Expect Protection." Griswold reports so much government neglect, deception and collusion here augmented with data from the Public Accountability Initiative, NPR's StateImpact project and the nonprofit investigative site Public Herald that as I read I abbreviated my marginal notes to "WPHG." By the time her story reaches 2016, it's plain that people who have lost their water, their home's value, their farm animals and pets, their health and hope for relief would not be making conventional electoral choices. Beth Voyles voted for Donald Trump; Stacey Haney, for Jill Stein. The broad political costs of fracking are not expressly Griswold's subject, however. Her impressive research notwithstanding, "Amity and Prosperity" is at heart a David and Goliath story fit for the movies. It has everything but a happy ending: a bucolic setting concealing fortune and danger; poor but proud locals who've endured sequential boom bust cycles of resource extraction (Prosperity is a neighboring town ravaged by long wall mining); tough, reluctant victim heroes; grisly scenes of animal die off; and courtroom drama, as a tenacious husband wife legal team takes on the industry and the state, wins one important case but can't outlast its adversaries' moneyed obstructionism. Stacey and Beth settle out of court and submit to a gag order. Harley gets healthier once the family abandons its home, but, with no illusions left, he finishes high school on the internet and takes a job laying gas pipeline. Advantage, Goliath. Mood carries the story. We know Harley by his long alienation. We know the lawyer Kendra Smith by her mastery of an alphabet of toxins, her slog through documents and her ire as Range Resources refuses to disclose all its proprietary chemicals. We know Stacey by her dedication to her kids and three jobs, to whatever tradition she can salvage and fight she can muster. Mostly we know her by her fury and her fears. The book's prologue reproduces a raging note she posted on her forsaken farmhouse after thieves stripped it of metal. Through most of the action she strives to be polite: Don't make anyone mad, she reasons, it'll only get worse for you. It gets worse anyway. Range Resources inexorably appropriates Amity's allegiances and civic life. The county fair devolves into occupied territory, an echo of Griswold's previous experience reporting in Asia and Africa. From so vital a perspective, one longs for at least a snapshot of national scale the West pocked with frackpads, the almost daily earthquakes in Oklahoma from waste injection, the tens of thousands of people who've had no say in drilling near their homes, the workers risking damage, the question everywhere: Who will defend the water? Griswold ascribes ideas to Stacey about "the American dream" and the need to "tough it out," about the "price one paid for progress" and failing "through no fault of her own." Maybe Stacey used those phrases (she is not directly quoted doing so), but she should have been spared banality. She fell for a con. Her own night terrors best convey her sense of responsibility and fracture: images of driving in reverse, of her children trapped or falling, of her inability to control anything dreams from which she awoke "caught between gasping for breath and fearing the air." Until land is laid waste nearby, people don't think much about sacrificed populations or the historic function of government rooted in colonization and corporatism. Thieving, or regulating theft, is a simple term for it. People who've lost their water to fracking, like those who live in impoverished, toxified communities everywhere, like the people of Flint, are on a continuum that began with the indigenous peoples, the enslaved Africans and the "waste people" ("refuse," as Benjamin Franklin called poor Pennsylvanians), who were forced off the land, into bondage or penury at America's dawn. The nature of oppression changes, but the levers of power that have helped some to prosper while allowing many to sink are hardened in place, and the persistent question, implicit in this valuable, discomforting book, is Who will unstick them? | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
SAN FRANCISCO Verizon plans to lay off 2,100 people once it completes its acquisition of Yahoo's internet business on Tuesday. The sting will be soothed a bit for some of the Yahoo employees who lose their jobs: A 10 percent surge in the company's share price on Thursday enhanced the value of their accumulated stock compensation. The layoffs, which were described by a person briefed on Verizon's plans, represent about 15 percent of the work force at Yahoo and AOL, the Verizon unit with which it is to be combined. Yahoo, which had 8,600 full time employees as of March 31, has already endured many rounds of cuts. During the five years that Marissa Mayer, the chief executive, has led the company, its work force dropped by 46 percent. AOL has also gone through repeated layoffs, most recently in November, when it cut 500 jobs. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
The doses of fish oil used in a Danish study were high, 2.4 grams per day 15 to 20 times what most Americans consume from foods. Women who took fish oil during the last three months of pregnancy significantly lowered the risk that their children would develop asthma, a study in Denmark has found. Among children whose mothers took fish oil capsules, 16.9 percent had asthma by age 3, compared with 23.7 percent whose mothers were given placebos. The difference, nearly 7 percentage points, translates to a risk reduction of about 31 percent. But in the study released on Wednesday, the researchers say they are not ready to recommend that pregnant women routinely take fish oil. Although the study found no adverse effects in the mothers or babies, the doses were high, 2.4 grams per day 15 to 20 times what most Americans consume from foods. Before doctors can make any recommendations, the study should be replicated, and fish oil should be tested earlier in pregnancy and at different doses, Dr. Hans Bisgaard, the leading author of the study, said in an email. He is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Copenhagen and the head of research at the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood, an independent research unit. Doctors are eager to find ways to prevent asthma, a chronic disease that causes wheezing, coughing and breathing trouble, and that sends many families to the emergency room again and again. The incidence has more than doubled in developed countries in recent decades. More than six million children in the United States have asthma, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as do more than 330 million children and adults worldwide, according to the Global Asthma Network. Dr. Bisgaard said it was not possible to tell from the study whether pregnant women could benefit from simply eating more fish. Pregnant women are generally advised to limit their consumption of certain types of fish like swordfish and tuna because they contain mercury. But many other types are considered safe, especially smaller fish like sardines that are not at the top of the food chain and therefore not likely to accumulate mercury and other contaminants from eating other fish. The results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The scientists bought fish oil from a company that makes it, but they said the company had no role in the study. The research was paid for by the Danish government and private foundations. An editorial in the same journal by an expert who was not part of the study praised the research, saying it was well designed and carefully performed. The author of that editorial, Dr. Christopher E. Ramsden, from the National Institutes of Health, said the findings would help doctors develop a "precision medicine" approach in which fish oil treatment could be tailored to women who are most likely to benefit. But Dr. Ramsden also said it was too soon to put the new findings into practice, and he recommended further study. Previous research had suggested that fish oil might help prevent asthma. The idea is plausible, because inflammation in the airways and lungs plays a major role in asthma, and fatty acids in fish oil are thought to prevent inflammation. The richest sources in food include fish like herring, sardines, mackerel, eel and salmon. Because the earlier studies suggesting a benefit from fish oil were not conclusive, the Danish researchers decided to test the idea. They recruited 736 women. Starting in their third trimester, half the women took 2.4 grams of fish oil a day and half took placebo capsules of olive oil, continuing until one week after birth. About a quarter of the mothers and a fifth of the fathers had asthma, and they were evenly distributed between the fish oil and placebo groups. The capsules were an over the counter product called Incromega TG33/22, a fish extract made by the British chemical company Croda Health Care. The extract contained the fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The researchers tracked the children's health, finding asthma less common in those whose mothers had taken the fish oil, with the effect lasting at least through age 7, the longest follow up. By age 3, the biggest difference had emerged from data on mothers who, before treatment, had the lowest levels of EPA and DHA in their blood. In that group, only 17.5 percent of the children whose mothers took fish oil developed asthma, compared with 34.1 percent whose mothers took the placebo a difference of 16.6 percentage points, and a risk reduction of about 54 percent. Low levels of EPA and DHA in the blood can be related to diet but also to genetics. The body normally converts another fatty acid, found in plant based foods, to EPA and DHA. But some people about 13 percent in the study carry a genetic variant that impairs their ability to make the conversion. The researchers found that children born to women with little EPA and DHA in their diets, and to women with the genetic variant, were among those most likely to benefit from exposure to fish oil in pregnancy. Dr. Bisgaard said that, pending further study, the best way to apply the findings would probably be to test women for the fatty acid levels in their blood, and for the genetic variant, to determine who might benefit from fish oil. He said that genetics could differ among different populations and that there might be ethnic variations in risk. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
THIS week was the 20th anniversary of the creation of the first exchange traded fund, the Standard Poor's Depositary Receipts E.T.F., which tracks the performance of the S. P. 500 index and is bought and sold like a single stock. Even now, what is known as the SPDR S. P. 500 remains the largest, with nearly 130 billion in assets. Its selling point is its simplicity: the shares are liquid, the fees are low and the holdings are easy to see. It and the many exchange traded funds that followed were the foundation for the movement toward low cost, passive investing that aims to increase returns by eliminating the inconsistent performance of many active investors: the fund will track whatever index it is following. At a lunch to observe the anniversary, Jim Ross, a senior managing director at State Street Global Advisors and one of the creators of the Standard Poor's E.T.F., which trades as SPY, said that the funds would continue over the next 20 years to be vehicles that allow people to invest in increasingly sophisticated ways. The funds now represent a nearly 2 trillion industry, which promotes itself as easy for the average investor to understand but, as Mr. Ross indicated, is becoming ever more complex. HISTORY The genesis of SPY was a report on the causes of the 1987 stock market crash that said that a way to trade a marketbasket of stocks would have lessened the impact of the crash. From that, an executive at the American Stock Exchange got the idea to bring together a group of commodity traders, index managers, accountants, economists and a specialist trading firm to work out the logistics of trading an entire index as if it were a single stock. After State Street created SPY, iShares followed three years later with a host of funds that tracked different indexes in large economies, like Britain, Japan and Australia. State Street countered in 1998 with a series of funds that invested in sectors, like technology and energy, and the race was on. Today, there are over 1,200 exchange traded funds in the United States alone, and another 1,700 in Europe, according to ETF Global, a data provider. Many track indexes or baskets of stocks for a particular country or industry. The funds have allowed clients and advisers to easily take a broad position. Pooneh Baghai, a senior partner at McKinsey Company, said that simplicity had allowed advisers to act more like chief investment officers, focused on asset allocations, and not stock pickers in search of a couple of winning investments. One example is a fund that resets its leverage each day. Greg Peterson, director of research at Ballentine Partners, said he showed clients how they could end up losing more money than they expected. Consider a regular S. P. 500 E.T.F. and an S. P. 500 E.T.F. that doubles the gains or losses. Both have 100 on Day 1. On the second day, the S. P. index drops 25 percent. The regular fund is down to 75; the levered one is down to 50. The following day the S. P. is up 50 percent. The regular fund rises to 112.50, and the levered one is at 100. On the fourth day, the S. P. drops 10 percent. The regular fund is down to 101.25, while the levered one is at 80. "You've got to know what you're buying," Mr. Peterson said. "The E.T.F. will do what it says it will do. But people don't know what to expect." ADVANTAGES Low fees and no distribution of taxes are two of the selling points that distinguish exchange traded funds from mutual funds. But there are caveats. Exchange traded funds that allow people to invest in securities that may be less liquid or more complex would be expected to charge higher fees, and they do. The AdvisorShares Active Bear E.T.F., which focuses on betting against securities, charges 1.68 percent of the amount invested, while the average fee for most E.T.F.'s is 0.6 percent, according to ETF Global. But even funds doing simple things charge differently. Vanguard's S. P. 500 E.T.F. charges 0.05 percent. The iShares version costs 0.07 percent. But the State Street SPY, which is triple the size of the other two combined, charges the highest fee, 0.0945 percent. (The fee 20 years ago was 0.2 percent.) A simple way to think about why this is, is that when you buy an exchange traded fund, you're buying a share of one thing, like a stock, on an exchange. When you buy mutual fund shares, you're buying a basket of other securities that are being bought and sold and thus generating capital gains and losses. Of course, if you eventually sell E.T.F. shares at a gain, you will pay a capital gains tax on them. And there are exceptions to the tax efficiencies, like certain fixed income funds and more esoteric funds that invest in commodities and currencies through futures contracts. ADVANCES AND CAVEATS There are several trends in exchange traded funds that could confuse average investors. One is creating portfolios of the funds that are actively managed. Whereas average investors think of the funds as a cheap way to invest in an index, active managers are using them to take positions just the same as any active manager. "If you have a view of how monetary easing in Japan is going to play out, you can work with a provider to express that view," said Pete Quinn, president and chief operating officer of the Riverfront Investment Group, which manages 3.4 billion in E.T.F. strategies. Another is using the funds to follow trends in the markets. David Kreinces, founder and portfolio manager of ETF Portfolio Management, said his small fund used an algorithm to essentially make investments based on the direction of a market. Then, there is the complexity of the funds themselves. ETF Global seeks to make sense of the relative merits of various exchange traded funds, from fees and size to what a fund said it would do versus what it actually did. The goal, said Dan Hickey, a member of the research policy committee at ETF Global, is to provide support to investors overwhelmed by the proliferation of choices. "For the average investor who wants to be in stocks, buying the SPDR is a great thing," he said. "When you get into the more esoteric products, it requires more knowledge on the part of the person buying them. There are a lot of E.T.F.'s that are troublesome." Mr. Peterson at Ballentine said he recalled a social media fund that had only 10 stocks, five of them Chinese media companies. But he said investors also needed to examine the holdings of big players. The largest holding of the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund, the fourth largest exchange traded fund by assets, is Samsung, the Korean electronics multinational. While the moves in Samsung's stock price could help or hurt the index, Mr. Peterson said the reasons Samsung would go up or down might not be the same as the reasons that other companies in the index, which get more of their business from the growing middle class in the emerging markets, would move. "E.T.F.'s have been so successful that people have engineered E.T.F.'s that don't follow the same functions as the original ones," Mr. Peterson said. "Those original E.T.F.'s were broad, stock based index traded funds that were really efficient ways to gain core exposure to core markets." There is nothing wrong with these advances, of course, as long as investors know what they're getting. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
Darren Criss plays Andrew Cunanan, the serial killer, in " The Assassination of Gianni Versace ."Credit...Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times MIAMI BEACH At 6:30 in the morning, Darren Criss was bright eyed and perky as he bounded out of his South Beach hotel and into a black car. It was the last day of shooting for "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story," Ryan Murphy's nine episode follow up to "The People v. O. J. Simpson." Mr. Criss plays the assassin and, the night before, he had been up late shooting a manhunt scene that blocked off a stretch of Collins Avenue, to the chagrin of nightclubbers and Uber drivers. "That was a very cool rock star moment," Mr. Criss said in the car, wearing a ball cap and jeans. He flashed an easygoing grin, the kind that endeared him to legions of young fans of "Glee," on which he played Blaine Anderson, the preppy, harmonizing love interest of Chris Colfer's Kurt Hummel. Mr. Criss, 30, leaned over and pointed out the window. "See that?" he said. "That's the houseboat, perfectly recreated." In Indian Creek, the crew had built a replica of Mr. Cunanan's final hide out, where he met his demise after a frenzied eight day manhunt. The series makes use of several real locations in Miami Beach, most notably the Versace Mansion, the site of the murder, now a boutique hotel. As the car turned into a parking lot full of trailers, Mr. Criss was all smiles, doling out greetings of "Hey, man!" and "Happy last day!" Even pre caffeine, he was relentlessly chipper, which seems antithetical to playing a murderer. Or maybe not. Charm was Mr. Cunanan's calling card, masking a desperate need for acceptance that curdled into pathology. And Mr. Criss's exuberance on set, he said later, was a way of putting the crew at ease. "This is the first time I've been No. 1 on the call sheet, so you're kind of the quarterback," he said. "You set a tone. I take my work very seriously, but I don't take myself seriously at all." He plopped down in front of a mirror, where a hair and makeup artist fitted him with a wig. Like any decent actor playing a villain, he had looked for Mr. Cunanan's redeeming traits: his talent, his likability. "The bleeding idealist in me always likes to think that there are more things in common between all of us than there aren't," he said. Presumably, he meant "bleeding heart idealist," but the phrase seemed apt. Mr. Murphy has a knack for matching actors with career changing roles, notably Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark in "The People v. O. J. Simpson." The new series features Edgar Ramirez as Mr. Versace, Ricky Martin as his lover Antonio D'Amico and Penelope Cruz as his sister Donatella. (Last week, the Versace family released two statements calling the series an unauthorized "work of fiction.") But Mr. Criss was the linchpin. "He was my first and only choice," Mr. Murphy said. "I truly wouldn't have made it without him. I don't know any other actor who would have been correct." Given Mr. Criss's squeaky clean image, the casting seems wildly against type. But Mr. Criss and Mr. Cunanan had some unlikely similarities, beginning with an uncanny physical resemblance. Both are half Filipino California natives, and "we both revel in being different," Mr. Criss said. As a teenager, he wore vintage bell bottoms to high school, while the young Mr. Cunanan put dimes in his penny loafers for "that extra bit of flair." But while Mr. Criss channeled his charisma into singing and dancing, Mr. Cunanan faked his way into high society, lashing out when he didn't get his way. Growing up in San Diego, Mr. Cunanan was a social butterfly in the Hillcrest neighborhood, where the gay and military communities overlapped, subsisting on sugar daddies and outrageous lies. Shooting Mr. Versace was a crime "very much of anger," Ms. Orth said. "Andrew had been rejected, and things hadn't turned out for him the way he wanted. And he also was desperate to be famous, and he was willing to kill." By contrast, fame came easily to Mr. Criss. Even before "Glee," he had garnered a following from his role in a satirical "Harry Potter" musical, which he put on with his post collegiate theater company in Michigan. A YouTube version, with Mr. Criss as the boy wizard, went viral. By then he was already a seasoned performer. Raised in San Francisco, the son of a prominent banker, he began studying classical violin when he was 5. Not long after, he saw "Aladdin" and decided he wanted to be the genie, or, barring that, an actor. The year of the Versace murder, he made his professional theater debut at age 10, in a local production of the 1954 musical "Fanny." His big number was "Be Kind to Your Parents." He spent the next eight years studying at the American Conservatory Theater's young conservatory program, while acting with 42nd Street Moon, a San Francisco troupe known for musical revivals. "After school, I was raised by gay 20 somethings," he said of his adolescent years. "These are the people that I loved and looked up to and wanted to be around." In the show's early days, he auditioned unsuccessfully for a few bit parts, including a football player, until Mr. Murphy finally took notice of him and cast him as Blaine in Season 2. "I knew he could sing, I knew he could act, and I knew before we shot a frame of it, this kid's going to blow up," Mr. Murphy said. He was right: Mr. Criss debuted on "Glee" in 2010, not long after getting a theater degree at the University of Michigan, and his cover of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" from his first episode shot up the Billboard charts. A vocal fan base kept the Kurt and Blaine romance steaming along, breaking television barriers as it went. Mr. Criss burnished his overnight fame with stints on Broadway in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," and recorded music as a solo artist and with Computer Games, an alt pop band he started with his brother, Chuck Criss. In 2015, he helped found Elsie Fest, an outdoor music festival in New York that has been called "Coachella for Show Tunes." Mr. Murphy first floated the idea of the Versace project three years ago, when Mr. Criss was in New Orleans while Mr. Murphy was there shooting the pilot for "Scream Queens." Hearing the name Andrew Cunanan, Mr. Criss responded, "Oh, that's right! The half Filipino guy!" Later that summer, he was backstage at "Hedwig" in full makeup and heels when Mr. Murphy called: "'Do you still want to do the Cunanan thing?'" In the makeup trailer in Miami, a stylist painted a meth scab on Mr. Criss's leg and everyone got in a van. The morning's agenda: a fictionalized scene in which the increasingly desperate Mr. Cunanan tries to swim his way to safety, but quickly turns back. The van stopped near a jetty at the northern tip of Bal Harbour, with the Ritz Carlton looming in the background. "This is going to be rad!" Mr. Criss said, barely containing his enthusiasm. The first assistant director went over the shot: stare at the water; take off shirt, shoes and sunglasses; zip up backpack; jump in. "Shirt, shoes, sunglasses," the actor repeated. "I like the alliteration of that." Mr. Criss gazed at the beach. "Look at these colors, guys. It looks fake!" The waves were crashing hard against the concrete. As the crew shot the scene at the end of the jetty, it was decided that the water was too choppy for Mr. Criss to actually get in, lest they lose their star to sea. Still, by the end of the take he was drenched from ocean sprays, stripped down to soaking white boxer shorts. "That was insane," he shouted while he walked back, as someone swathed him in a white robe. He smiled into the sun and took stock of his luck: "Just a day at the office. Who gets to do this?" During the eight month shoot, he had been approached by several people who knew Mr. Cunanan. At an event in Los Angeles, he recalled, a Hollywood producer came up to him and said, "Oh, yeah, Andrew Cunanan, I used to hook up with him," and added that the F.B.I. had warned him to be careful while Mr. Cunanan was still on the loose. After a few takes, the crew moved to the beach to shoot Andrew's dejected return to the shore: "my anti James Bond moment," Mr. Criss joked. He flung himself into the waves and trudged back onto the sand, kneeling and agonizing for the camera. "Show us your face," the episode's director, Dan Minahan, instructed, and Mr. Criss revealed an anguished expression out of "Guernica." After "Cut!," he instantly reverted to his sunny self, saying, "I haven't been in the water since we got back to Miami, so: check!" Sitting down for lunch after the shoot, Mr. Criss described the series as a parable about "the ultimate creator and the ultimate destroyer," in which resentment turned Mr. Cunanan from aspirant to assassin. "I approached Andrew from a pretty big place of hurt and pain and sorrow and sadness," he said. "The story doesn't horrify me as much as it breaks my heart." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
John C. Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, has been chosen to lead the New York Fed. He will bring academic expertise, which is in short supply among the Fed's senior leaders. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Tuesday named John C. Williams as its next president, choosing a longtime insider for what is widely regarded as one of the Fed's most influential positions. Mr. Williams, the 55 year old president of the San Francisco Fed, is a respected economist who will bring academic expertise that is in short supply among the Fed's senior leaders. But unions, progressive groups and Democratic lawmakers had pushed the Fed to diversify its senior leadership beyond Fed veterans and white men, and the selection drew immediate criticism. Mr. Williams will succeed William C. Dudley, who announced last fall that he planned to step down this summer after nine years in the post. The appointment, which will take effect in June, was widely expected after news leaked late last month that Mr. Williams was a favorite for the job. The position is unique among the Fed's top policy roles. While the Fed chairman and other members of the board of governors are appointed by the president and subject to Senate confirmation, regional Fed appointments are made outside the political process. And unlike the 11 other regional Fed chiefs, New York's president has a permanent vote on the policymaking Open Market Committee and serves as the committee's vice chairman. The New York bank also plays a key role in carrying out monetary decisions and overseeing many of the country's largest financial institutions. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, issued a statement saying that given the importance of the job, the New York Fed should have solicited a wide set of views, but instead "turned the process over to a handful of private individuals and ignored calls to choose one of many qualified alternatives who might have brought a new perspective." "If the Fed wants to regain some of its credibility around this decision," she added, "it should have Mr. Williams and the co chairs of the New York Fed search committee promptly testify before Congress." Those leading the search said they had indeed cast a wide net, and advocates for Mr. Williams argue he is well suited to the complex role. He has led the San Francisco bank for seven years and has spent virtually his entire career inside the Fed system. He is an influential expert on monetary policy who has worked closely with progressives including Janet L. Yellen, who before her term as Fed chairwoman was Mr. Williams's predecessor at the San Francisco Fed and with conservatives such as John B. Taylor, the Stanford economist. "His work is rigorous and thoughtful, and he discusses it carefully, considers other views," said Mr. Taylor, who was Mr. Williams's thesis adviser in graduate school. Ms. Yellen also released a statement on Tuesday praising Mr. Williams's selection. Mr. Williams would also bring a seasoned policymaking hand to a Fed that is short on them. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed's newly appointed chairman, has been at the Fed since 2012, but he is a lawyer by training and not unlike Ms. Yellen and most of her recent predecessors an economist. The Fed's vice chairmanship is vacant, and the candidate President Trump has been reported to favor, Richard Clarida, a Columbia University economist, has little policy experience. Three other positions on the seven member board of governors are also vacant, and several regional bank presidents are new in their roles. The relative inexperience at the top of the Fed made finding someone with practical experience a priority, two people close to the search process said. The search committee, these people said, wanted a candidate who understood the Fed's inner workings and who would protect the Fed's independence. 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. But Andrew Levin, a Dartmouth economist and former Fed staff member, said there are also risks to picking an insider. Fed officials failed to appreciate the risks posed by the housing bubble in the mid 2000s, for example, even as some outside voices tried to raise the alarm. "The problem with picking a longtime Fed insider is it just amplifies the risk of groupthink," Mr. Levin said, "and I think groupthink has been proven to be a very serious threat at the Fed." Mr. Williams also has less experience with financial markets than many past New York Fed chiefs. The bank's president and its staff are traditionally responsible for communicating Fed decisions to Wall Street, and for interpreting financial markets' reactions for Fed policymakers. Mr. Williams was chosen by a search committee headed by two members of the bank's board: Sara Horowitz, founder of the Freelancers Union, a New York based labor organization, and Glenn Hutchins, a private equity investor and philanthropist. Under the Dodd Frank financial reform law enacted after the financial crisis, board members who represent financial institutions regulated by the Fed are excluded from the appointment process. Mr. Williams's appointment was also approved by the Fed's board of governors. In a statement announcing the decision, Mr. Hutchins praised Mr. Williams as someone who has a rare mix of policy expertise and management experience and who "understands the plumbing of the financial system." In a call with reporters, Mr. Hutchins and Ms. Horowitz also cited Mr. Williams's record of community engagement in San Francisco and his progress in diversifying the bank's senior leadership. Progressive groups seized on Mr. Dudley's retirement as a rare opportunity to influence an economic policy appointment that is outside Mr. Trump's control. Protesters marched on the bank's Lower Manhattan headquarters last month to demand a president who would represent working people. In a statement Tuesday, the Fed Up campaign, a progressive group, criticized the New York Fed's board for "ignoring the demands of the public and choosing yet another white man whose record on Wall Street regulation and full employment raises serious questions." The group said the search process "calls into question whether the Federal Reserve can be trusted to act in the public interest." Yet in one sense, the protesters got their wish. Unlike Mr. Dudley, who was chief economist for Goldman Sachs before he joined the Fed, Mr. Williams has never worked on Wall Street. And some of his positions have drawn cheers from progressives. He has, for example, pushed the central bank to consider a new approach to monetary policy that could lead the Fed to be more aggressive in fighting the next recession. But Mr. Williams has also supported gradually raising interest rates to stave off inflation, an approach that progressive economists worry could prematurely choke off the economic recovery. And his regulatory record is also drawing scrutiny: He was president of the San Francisco Fed while Wells Fargo, which is based in San Francisco, engaged in aggressive sales practices that resulted in the opening of millions of accounts without customers' knowledge. (Regulatory policy is set in Washington, and Fed insiders say regional bank presidents play only a limited role overseeing banks in their districts.) Perhaps the loudest criticism has focused on the fact that Mr. Williams, like every other person to lead the New York Fed in the bank's century of history, is a white man. "The New York Fed has never been led by a woman or a person of color, and that needs to change," Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, said in a statement last week. The search committee promised to consider a diverse pool of candidates, and the two leaders of the search said they had succeeded. Neither of the other two finalists for the job Raymond McGuire, an executive at Citigroup, and Mary J. Miller, a former Treasury official is a white man, and the search committee also interviewed other candidates who would have brought diversity to the Fed. One such candidate, Peter Blair Henry, who recently stepped down as dean of New York University's Stern School of Business, said that the search committee had pushed him to pursue the job, but that he had declined. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; the schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott; and senior education officials took a victory lap of sorts on Monday, visiting 22 New York City public schools that ranked among the state's top 25 in reading and math exams given last spring. The performances on the new exams, which were some of the first nationwide to be aligned with a more rigorous set of standards known as the Common Core, offered Mr. Bloomberg a chance to boast about his education record as his 12 year run as mayor comes to a close. "Our administration's core philosophy, when it comes to education, has always been, if we raise our expectations, our kids will meet them," Mr. Bloomberg said at Talented and Gifted Young Scholars, a citywide gifted school in East Harlem that was one of the 22 high scoring schools. The mayoral blitz, carried out with militaristic precision, came as the two men campaigning to lead the city in the post Bloomberg era have been offering a stark contrast on educational issues. The Democratic nominee, Bill de Blasio favors undoing much of the Bloomberg administration's centerpiece educational policies by slowing the growth of charter schools and ending, for at least a year, the practice of closing low performing schools. The Republican candidate, Joseph J. Lhota, has defended the mayor's record on education and wants to expand the number of charter schools. Mr. Walcott has warned in recent months that schools would be in peril if the next mayor reversed Mr. Bloomberg's policies. But Mr. Bloomberg has decided not to endorse anyone in the race and on Monday sidestepped any discussion about his successor. "All I know is what we've done," said Mr. Bloomberg, who listed some of the facts he deems creditworthy, including the achievement of students, the increasing desire of families to be a part of the school system and the city's ability to attract "the best and the brightest" teachers from around the country. Less than one third of New York City's students passed the reading and math tests this year, as scores dropped in virtually every school in the state. On the whole, city students outperformed those in other large districts in the state, and the city's passing rate nearly matched the state's, even though the city has many students who are poor or not native English speakers. "We have been closing the gap with the state for a few years now, and that just has not happened, to the best of my knowledge, in any other state where there are a lot of big cities," Mr. Bloomberg said. But gaps in achievement between black and Hispanic students and their counterparts have continued to persist. And many of the 22 schools that the mayor showcased on Monday were in well to do neighborhoods or were highly selective in their admissions, including the Anderson School (No. 1 in the state); New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math, or NEST m, (No. 4); the Brooklyn School of Inquiry (No. 18); and TAG Young Scholars (No. 20). Officials, however, noted that seven of the schools on the list were opened after Mr. Bloomberg took office in 2002, including three that hew to the administration's goal of giving poor students more choice: the Active Learning Elementary School in Queens and two Success Academy charter schools in the Bronx. Batting away any criticism that most of the city's students could not score high enough to be considered proficient in English or math, he said: "Are we where we want to be? No. And incidentally, we'll never be where we want to be. This concept of proficiency is, I've always thought, so misleading. There's no Nobel Prize winner that I know that says, 'I've stopped studying, stopped learning.' " | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
new video loaded: A Canopy of Knitted Light at MoMA PS1 | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
SPYING ON THE SOUTH An Odyssey Across the American Divide By Tony Horwitz As brilliant as William Faulkner was, the only lines of his commonly quoted are: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." In several books Tony Horwitz has explored that assertion, finding a vehicle that allows him to examine specific aspects of the past and their resonance in the present. Now, in "Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide," he follows as closely as he can the path taken by , who in the early 1850s long before he thought of designing Central Park or dreamed of having a revolutionary impact on other urban landscapes traveled through the antebellum South. Olmsted explained what seemed a mysterious society to the Northern readers of The New York Times. He later amended and published his reports as "The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveller's Observations on Cotton and Slavery in the American Slave States." Olmsted started on his trip a bit of a lost soul, searching for a purpose. His dispatches provided one. He wanted not only to describe the region (he succeeded in portraying both physical and cultural settings almost as well as Audubon painted birds) but also to understand the great divide in the country, hoping that understanding Southern views on slavery would allow men of good will to find common ground and a path to abolition. He had letters of introduction to and met with Southerners of consequence but said, "My best finds were coarse men with whom I could take a glass of Toddy in the barroom" and "third rate tavern keepers." Horwitz has taken the same path to explore today's great divide(s). Race is one and he explores that, but he is equally interested in the political divide. These divisions, of course, extend far beyond the South, but in the South they tend to be less hidden. The book is timely, though he started it when no one imagined a Trump presidency. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Travelers to Yosemite National Park in California have new accommodations to consider booking with the June 15 opening of Rush Creek Lodge, which claims to be the first resort to open in the Yosemite region in more than 25 years. Situated a half mile outside the park on 20 wooded acres, the property has 143 rooms ranging from 400 to 625 square feet; all have sitting areas and spacious decks, most with sunset views. Other amenities include a large salt water pool; two hot tubs, one for families and another for adults; a children's zip line; a farm to table restaurant with a wood fired oven; and a main lodge with a fireplace, game room and an indoor tree house. In addition to its proximity to the park, the resort has a team of recreation specialists who can arrange for activities within Yosemite like guided and self guided hikes, bike rides, excursions to swimming holes and fly fishing trips to the Tuolumne Meadows area. Prices from 215 a night for two people. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
This is a memoir about writers: a young poet, his middle aged mentor and, at the story's pale bright center, a 71 year old wizard of language. Wishing to escape the draft and possible deployment to Vietnam (the year is 1970), as well as his suffocating family in Pennsylvania, the young narrator, Jay Parini, enrolls in a doctoral program at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He arrives in a funk, unsure of his direction and with his mother's anxious voice of caution echoing unpleasantly in his mind. Good fortune strikes, however, in the form of a friendship with the writer Alastair Reid. Reid combines a Scot's sternness with a beatnik's anti bourgeois cheer. He is an excellent host who regales his guests with hearty stews, wine and hash laced brownies. He is also the translator of the Argentine poet, essayist and story writer Jorge Luis Borges, who, as it happens, will soon be coming to stay with him in St. Andrews. When Borges appears, near blind and dressed in a lumpy brown suit and tie (the modest uniform of a middle class librarian and writer, he once explained), the memoir takes flight. He happily devours Reid's brownies and, under their intoxicating influence, swings his cane at the North Sea like a benign Arthurian sword that holds the key to life's mysteries and riddles. In his presence, the mundane disappears and reality explodes with new meaning. Though Borges is at the height of his fame, Parini has never heard of him and is slow to succumb to the charm of his eccentricities. When a family emergency summons Reid to London, he asks Parini to look after Borges until he returns. Brimming with energy, Borges proposes they take a road trip through the Highlands. Parini will supply transportation and play the part of his companion's eyes, describing what he sees. Borges has never been to Scotland, but his knowledge of its history and literature is profound. "Just to read a map of the Highlands is to recite poetry," he says. He has taught himself Anglo Saxon and knows the ancient epics by heart. Their vocabulary of hard real things "sword," "seed," "shield," "wood" entrances him, and he has spent a lifetime bending Spanish to that tactile linguistic ideal. Parini, for his part, is annoyed at the prospect of this garrulous, "self obsessed" old man distracting him from the girl he has a crush on and his doctoral research. This resistance is a fine narrative stroke. It allows him to recreate their encounter as an inconvenience rather than a privilege. A callow poet, hungry for guidance, is cluelessly alone with one of the most formidable writers of the 20th century; his task is to open his eyes and discover the blind man's brilliance. Parini wonderfully describes Borges as he experiences him, free of reverence or awe. What follows is an entertaining journey in Parini's sputtering used car. Their trip in the Highlands becomes a tour through Borges's singular world. His speech is a reflection of his innermost mind and there is an odd purity about his unstoppable need to communicate what he thinks and feels. Language provides an infinite (and holy) landscape of association, not only because it names the world but because it is the means through which we can extract truth from it. When Parini recites a poem he has written about romantic longing, Borges says: "One often reads ... this sentiment. It's common, but not any less painful for its very ordinary pain." Parini is stung, but Borges hasn't meant to belittle him. "Dear boy," he adds, "I have written the same poem. This exact poem." He insists that Parini read his short story "Pierre Menard," about "a man who rewrites 'Don Quixote,' word for word," believing he is writing it for the first time. "In doing so, he liberates the idea of originality from the prison house of Romanticism. Every word is original in the mouth, in the fresh context of what is uttered. In its own time and space." This is the crux of Borges's philosophy of literature. The cult of individual genius is an illusion. Poetry is circular: Each one of us repeats the emotions and experiences of those who came before, whether we know we're doing it or not. In casual conversation, he recites passages from Auden, Shakespeare, Milton, Anglo Saxon and South American epics, as if they were written in one book by a single author. He seems to pluck his interweaving associations from the air, like someone catching a fly in his hand. When asked if he believes in angels, Borges says: "I believe in everything, dear boy. It is the secret of life." He then explains that the meaning of "belief" in Anglo Saxon (gelefen) is "to hold dearly." Sometimes his gelefen is taken to wild extremes. During a thunderstorm in the Cairngorm Mountains, Borges abruptly exits the car, wanders away like Lear and falls down a slope, injuring his head badly enough to spend the night in a nearby cottage hospital. At Loch Ness, he stands in their rickety rowboat and, waving his cane, recites the "Song of Creation" from "Beowulf," capsizing the boat and dumping himself and Parini in the water. After Parini drags him through the cold lake to safety, Borges explains that he had been singing to Nessie, the monster of the lake, who, like Grendel, and the poor blind monster in all of us, abhors light, human fellowship and song. A delightful aspect of this portrait is Borges's complete lack of snobbishness. He is curious about everyone they meet, offering himself openly. This generosity extends to Parini, whom he treats as an equal, grateful for his companionship and unbothered by the young man's ignorance of his work. He often is able to intuit Parini's youthful insecurities and fears. This reminiscence by Parini, who is now a prolific novelist, biographer and poet, brings Borges more sharply to life than any account I've read or heard. (I met Borges in Buenos Aires a few years after the events of this book.) In this sense, the memoir is an important contribution to the biography of a major writer. The bond that Borges and Parini forge during their improbable journey is moving, with its unexpected moments of confession and shared fragility. Some scenes, remembered 50 years after the fact, may read like set pieces, some conversations may seem too neatly composed, but the spirit of Borges rings true. Fans may notice that his conversation is peppered with quotes from his essays and wonder if Parini has placed lifted passages in his subject's mouth. But this was how Borges talked: There was little separation between what he had read, lived and written himself. For readers who already admire Borges, this memoir will be a delicious treat. For those who have yet to read him, Parini provides the perfect entry point to a writer who altered the way many think of literature. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Scores of protesters in streets across the country. A looming presidential election. Violent stand offs between law enforcement and the citizens they had sworn to protect. And, amid the prospects of political and cultural change, a chilling and inescapable backdrop: thousands upon thousands of Americans dead. The summer of 2020 was, by any stretch, a historic one. But for some it's a season that feels remarkably like the summer of 1968. Instead of President Trump, it was Lyndon B. Johnson, succeeded by Richard M. Nixon. The tragedy that cost American lives was not a pandemic but the war in Vietnam. Racism was central to the protests the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated just months earlier but so were a relentless draft and demands for peace. In late August, tensions culminated in Chicago, in the shadow of the Democratic National Convention. The National Guard, U.S. Army troops and 12,000 Chicago police officers were mobilized against 10,000 demonstrators. (Who, yes, were called "outside agitators" then, too.) "Everything since Chicago," the New York Times journalist Tom Wicker wrote one year later, "has had a new intensity that of polarization, of confrontation, of antagonism and fear." Seven organizers give or take emerged as leaders whom the federal justice system could indict. Their contentious slog through the courts is dramatized in Aaron Sorkin's "The Trial of the Chicago 7," which began streaming Friday on Netflix. Sorkin, who wrote and directed the film, stayed relatively close to the facts of the case tongue twisting Sorkinese aside and pulled some of the dialogue straight from courtroom transcripts. But for everything that doesn't fit in two hours on screen, here's what to know about the case and its defendants. Who were the Chicago 7? Demonstrators at the convention were not a monolith, but a collection of several factions: among them, the Youth International Party, or Yippies; Students for a Democratic Society; and the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. All were focused, at least in part, on pacifism and ending the war. The Chicago 7 were prominent faces in the various groups. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin (in the film, Sacha Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong) were founders of the Yippies a party which, like its leaders, had a flair for the theatrical. At one point in the trial, Hoffman and Rubin showed up sporting judicial robes matching those of the judge, Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella). The two Hoffmans were not related, which did not stop the defendant from calling the judge his "illegitimate father" in court. David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch) led the National Mobilization Committee and was two decades older than Hoffman, the next eldest defendant. At the trial, The Times wrote in Dellinger's obituary in 2004, he "loomed over his co defendants in age, experience, heft and gravitas." Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp) were in charge of the National Mobilization Committee's Chicago office, and both were former leaders of the Students for a Democratic Society. Hayden was an established organizer of student protests, including the occupation of campus buildings at Columbia University. Davis, the only defendant other than Hoffman to testify, offered a powerful account in court of his experience in Grant Park during the week of the convention, when multiple officers beat him to the point of losing consciousness. Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins) and John Froines (Danny Flaherty) were both academics: Froines was a chemistry professor at the University of Oregon, Weiner a research assistant in the sociology department at Northwestern University. They were involved in the National Mobilization Committee, but unlike the others, neither was a leader of any group. And also unlike the others: Both were cleared of all charges against them at the end of the trial. How did the Chicago 8 become 7? Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul Mateen II), a founder of the Black Panther Party, was the final and most puzzling defendant. He had never met some of the seven before the trial, even though all eight had been accused of conspiring with each other to incite a riot. Seale and Judge Hoffman were continuously at odds during the trial. Seale's lawyer, Charles Garry, was stuck in California for health reasons and unable to travel. Seale repeatedly asked to represent himself and was repeatedly refused by the judge (whom he subsequently called a "pig," "fascist" and "racist"). After weeks of bickering, Judge Hoffman ordered federal marshals to bind and gag Seale during his appearances, a visual that stunned the country. He eventually declared a mistrial in Seale's case, leaving seven defendants and sentenced Seale to four years in prison for 16 counts of contempt. How did the trial unfold? Sorkin didn't have to do much to spice up the story. The trial, which began in the fall of 1969 and lasted nearly five months, was defined by dramatics on all sides. The defendants and their lawyers, William Kunstler (Mark Rylance) and Leonard Weinglass (Ben Shenkman) openly defied Judge Hoffman in his courtroom. (Collectively, the lawyers and their clients were convicted of more than 150 counts of contempt.) Squabbles over procedure were constant, and the judge himself, according to the Federal Judicial Center, made few attempts to disguise his bias against the defense. None of this helped the defendants, who were facing unprecedented charges: They were the first to be prosecuted under the Anti Riot Act, a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. They stood accused of conspiring to incite a riot, and six (Seale included) were charged with crossing state lines with the intent of inciting a riot. The final two, Weiner and Froines, were instead accused and later cleared of teaching others how to make explosives. The defense's stance was that the case was more of a political trial than a criminal one. Still, five defendants Hoffman, Rubin, Dellinger, Hayden and Davis though acquitted of conspiracy, were found guilty of the riot charge relating to interstate travel. Judge Hoffman imposed the maximum sentence of five years each a ruling that became irrelevant in 1972, when an appeals court unanimously overturned the riot convictions. In the years after the trial, most of the defendants continued on paths of activism: Hayden won a seat in the California Legislature, Hoffman gave lectures and wrote several books, and Weiner joined the Anti Defamation League as a political consultant. Kunstler became known for defending leftist causes and unpopular clients. But for most, the convention protests remained the most memorable part of their legacy. The demonstrators they led, and the law enforcement they clashed with, Wicker wrote, "tore the rubber masks of affluence and power and security off American society and gave the nation a new view of itself challenged and unsure, contorted and afraid, in contention for its own soul." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
For the graphic novelist Chris Ware, God is in the details. In 2004, he edited a special comics issue of McSweeney's Quarterly, and as with his own titles, even the unfoldable dust jacket teemed with extra texts and gags. Here, on what normally functions as decoration, Ware concealed a story in which God wonders what happened to "that planet where I made everyone in my own image. Drolly rendered as a stack of colored circles with stringlike limbs, the supreme creator goes on to muse that Earth had some good things including comic strips which leads him to pity the sad lives of the slobs who drew them: "I wonder why other people couldn't see the virtues of an innately democratic pictographic poetry, grounded in a transdimensional metaphysic, anyway?" Ware delivers these sentiments with hilarious archness, but he also means it. His three epic graphic novels JIMMY CORRIGAN, THE SMARTEST KID ON EARTH (Pantheon, 35); BUILDING STORIES (Pantheon, 60); and the new RUSTY BROWN (Pantheon, 35) are heartbreaking works, as they say, of staggering genius: feverishly inventive and intimately told, drawn with empathy, architectural rigor and a spooky sense of a divine eye. Opening in Ware's native Omaha circa 1975, "Rusty Brown" is at least four books in one, with a sum much greater than all the parts, expanding not just the possibilities of the form but also the mental space of his reader. Along with David Bowman's "Big Bang," it's the most audacious and inspiring fiction I've read this year. "Jimmy Corrigan," Ware's 2000 breakthrough, was an Oedipal saga of patrimony as failure, with Chicago as gorgeous palimpsest. Potato bodied Jimmy meets the father he never knew, and the story stretches back over a century to climax, unforgettably, at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. "Building Stories" (2012) was both more modest and more ambitious: It had no grand plot, and its unusual format (a box of 14 separately printed comics, readable in any order) meant you sifted through the contents while meditating on time and memory. The nameless heroine, unable to select a novel to read, groans: "Why does every 'great book' have to always be about criminals or perverts? Can't I just find one that's about regular people living everyday life?" In "Rusty Brown," Ware takes up the challenge. Though there are a couple of perverts (and possibly a criminal), his characters aren't people of wealth, power or energy; they're self conscious, often inarticulate, trying to break free of the mundane or anesthetize themselves to it. The characters weave in and out of the 113 page opening sequence, which dissects a single day at a Midwestern school in the 1970s, with its smell of "spilled teacher's lounge coffee, old milk, formaldehyde and lip gloss and hot lunch." Snow falls in a hypnotic scrim, as at the end of "Jimmy Corrigan" or Joyce's "The Dead." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
To be sure, the increasing prevalence of mental health challenges is not all due to the lockdowns. The attendant health risks of a global pandemic to an individual or their loved ones must certainly be a contributing factor, too. But our understanding that social isolation can seriously damage physical and mental health predates the pandemic. Some researchers worry that the social isolation has inflicted damage to mental health that will outlast even the worst of the pandemic. We may not have a full accounting of the consequences for years to come. There will be significant longterm consequences from school closures as well. About half of the country's school districts held remote classes, either exclusively or partially, at the start of the year. This approach has meaningfully reduced educational quality, particularly for children of color. These losses don't even take into account the direct effects of the lockdowns on the economy. Small businesses have closed their doors at very high rates as the American economy sputtered in response to stay at home orders. One study estimates that 60 percent of the millions of jobs lost between January and April were a result of the lockdowns, not the virus itself. The economic uncertainty caused by unemployment comes with its own health risks. While the potential consequences of locking down states and cities were an important part of the debate in late March when the idea seemed far fetched, they've since fallen from the discussion. Even suggesting that the negative effects of lockdowns can be measured on the same scale as those of the virus itself has been consigned to the fringes of public opinion. Part of the problem is that the weight of the lockdown has not been evenly borne. For millions of Americans, these restrictions have been merely an inconvenient drain on the joys of everyday life. For many, lockdown has even been financially beneficial; some people are paying off debt and avoiding big purchases. It can be easy to assume that everyone else is experiencing these circumstances the same way. It's also hard to tally the indirect fallout of lockdowns. A death certificate can tell us that someone died of Covid 19. It cannot tell us that the social isolation of lockdown was a factor in someone's drug overdose. There is no nightly ovation for survivors of domestic violence. These tragedies have become an ambient backdrop to everyday life: present but forgotten, real but ignored. Perhaps America has simply gotten comfortable ignoring the quiet suffering of others. It can be easier to shut our eyes to the outcome, wait for a vaccine and try to move on. But doing so would be a mistake the virus is not behind us, and how to best mitigate its damage is a question of the present, not of the past. Research suggests that, to mitigate negative side effects, lockdowns should be well communicated and as short as possible. In many cities and states, one or both of these guidelines were ignored. When lockdowns seemed wanton and capricious, many Americans felt deceived. If new lockdowns are absolutely needed something that the World Health Organization and some health experts believe is inadvisable then policymakers must avoid both the reality and appearance of hypocrisy. This is particularly true because, unlike many other wealthy countries, the United States is not providing any type of ongoing direct aid to those who are struggling. Simply expecting millions of Americans many newly out of work or struggling to put food on the table to sit idly at home without financial support is untenable and unreasonable. And the decision facing public officials is not between entirely shutting down cities and towns or leaving them entirely open; targeted policy can prohibit the most risky activities, while allowing outdoor events and other activities less likely to put people at risk to continue. The cost of coronavirus has been enormous. America has soared past 250,000 deaths a quarter of a million empty seats around tens of thousands of tables for the holidays. But we can't let the enormous scope of the tragedy cloud our judgment for the decisions yet to be made about how best to respond. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
Republicans argue that their plan to cut corporate taxes will increase wages for American workers. A new survey suggests even the party's strongest supporters aren't buying that argument. The House of Representatives could vote this week on a plan that would fulfill a longtime Republican promise to cut taxes on businesses and overhaul the corporate tax system more broadly. The Senate is considering its own plan, which differs in its details but would likewise reduce the tax rate on corporate earnings to 20 percent from 35 percent. Conservative economists have long argued that cutting taxes on businesses would lead to faster economic growth. In recent weeks, however, backers of the Republican plan have emphasized a related claim: If companies paid less in taxes, they would pay their workers more. The White House Council of Economic Advisers, for example, released a report last month that estimated that the proposed corporate tax cut would increase a typical household's income between 3,000 and 7,000 a year a claim many independent economists have dismissed as unrealistic. In a national survey of 9,504 adults conducted for The New York Times by the online polling firm SurveyMonkey, 78 percent of respondents said they did not believe they would receive a raise if their employer received a tax cut. Even many Republicans doubted they would benefit directly from a corporate tax cut: Roughly 70 percent of self identified Republicans and roughly 65 percent of people who said they strongly approved of President Trump's performance in office said they didn't think they would get a pay increase. "There's this widespread disbelief among Republicans, as there is among Democrats and independents, that tax cuts for employers will redound to their pockets books," said Jon Cohen, vice president of survey research for SurveyMonkey. Americans' views of the tax plan in general are more divided. The Times survey, which was conducted in early November, found that 52 percent of respondents said they disapproved of the plan, compared with 44 percent who said they supported it. (The survey did not distinguish between the House and Senate versions of the plan.) That is generally in line with other polls, although some have put support for the plan significantly lower. In general, opinions of the Republican plan split predictably along partisan lines. More than 80 percent of Republicans said they supported the plan, and more than 80 percent of Democrats said they opposed it. Most Republicans likewise said they believed that they would benefit personally from the plan, while few Democrats believed the same. 15 minimum wage for federal contractors will take effect Jan. 30. Jeff Bezos gives 100 million to the Obama Foundation. The strong overall support for the bill among Republicans masks significant disagreement beneath the surface, however. The survey showed that support for the plan was much stronger among Republicans who considered themselves "very conservative" than those who considered themselves conservative or moderate. And many moderate Republicans and independents said they were less interested in cutting taxes than in reducing the federal budget deficit, a potential trouble spot for a bill that most analyses suggest could add 1 trillion or more to the deficit. Republicans still have time to win over skeptics. Only about a quarter of respondents to the Times survey said they were paying close attention to the tax plan. But in a potential sign of trouble for the bill, people who said they were watching the process closely were more likely to oppose it and to oppose it strongly than those paying less attention. "A lot of voters still have only weak views, but the people who have formed strong opinions already are quite negative," said Guy Molyneux, a partner at Hart Research, a Democratic polling firm. Mr. Molyneux said there were elements of the plan, such as doubling the standard deduction and increasing the child tax credit, that generally polled well with voters in various surveys. But other elements of the plan could face more opposition. Various analyses have found that both the House and Senate bills would raise taxes on millions of middle class families, and the House plan, in particular, would eliminate many popular deductions and credits. Cutting corporate taxes could be a particularly tough sell for many voters. Polls have repeatedly found that Americans think corporations, and especially big corporations, already pay too little in taxes. Douglas Holtz Eakin, a prominent conservative economist who supports overhauling the corporate tax system, said it is easy to convince voters that they should support tax cuts for middle class families. The case for cutting corporate tax rates is harder to explain. "If you have a complicated argument like that, you have to lay the groundwork months, years in advance," Mr. Holtz Eakin said. That work hasn't been done in this case, he added. The complexity of the argument for corporate taxes may help explain why backers of the Republican plan have leaned into a simple formulation of their argument case: Lower business taxes mean higher wages. But Vanessa Williamson, a researcher at the Brookings Institution who has studied public opinion on taxation, said voters were likely to be skeptical of that argument. In general, Ms. Williamson said, voters tend to fall back on their partisan positions when forming opinions on complex subjects such as taxation. But they might depart from those partisan views when they directly contradict their own experience. Experience, Ms. Williamson said, might lead Americans to doubt that their employers will respond to lower taxes by raising pay. "Once you get to people's actual paychecks, you're confronting them with a question where they actually have personal information," Ms. Williamson said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Benjamin Millepied is once again a free man. As of July 15, he is no longer at the helm of the Paris Opera Ballet, where in February he unexpectedly announced that he would step down after nearly two years. (He has been succeeded by Aurelie Dupont, a former company etoile.) Free, but not idle. Mr. Millepied's immediate plans include moving back to Los Angeles, where he lived with his wife, the actress Natalie Portman, before decamping to Paris. He will be devoting his energies to L.A. Dance Project, the nine member ensemble he created in 2012, and which continued in his absence. Characteristically, he has big ambitions for the group, which comes to the Joyce Theater later this month. (The dancers will perform works by Mr. Millepied, Justin Peck, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Martha Graham.) He'll continue to make works for other companies; American Ballet Theatre will restage his "Daphnis and Chloe," made for the Opera, this fall. His Paris tenure has been the subject of much discussion in cultural circles on both sides of the Atlantic, sometimes with mildly nationalistic overtones. Should he have toughed it out, worked harder, listened more? The truth is that it was probably a bad marriage to begin with. As Linda Shelton, the executive director of the Joyce Theater, said in a recent interview, "He has so many ideas and wants to try everything at once, which is great, but not a good match for an institution like the Paris Opera Ballet." These days, Mr. Millepied is all about partnerships. Last week, his company was rehearsing in Arles, in the South of France, where it now has a yearly residency with the Luma Foundation, an arts incubator. He is also ironing out a relationship with the Joyce that would give the company a stronger presence in New York. In a recent Skype call from London on a day off, Mr. Millepied looked happy and relaxed, quick to laugh. Words tumbled out of his mouth in sometimes hard to follow torrents. He spoke about his constantly expanding plans, his state of mind post Paris and his love for Los Angeles. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. It sounds like your idea is to create a sort of peripatetic dance company, with a foot in several cities. I really see the company as a different model. It's organized as a start up. I see how difficult the economy of dance is in America, and I see where it's going in Europe, which is also, differently, falling apart. The idea is I can create this international aura with quite a bit of touring but some strong partnerships. And I'm going to be doing a lot of projects on the digital side, because that's how I think you can reach a larger audience. And I think you can monetize it. That's one of the things I'm going to be working on. What are your short term plans for the L.A. Dance Project? One bit of big news is that both Carla Korbes and Janie Taylor two colleagues from his days as a dancer at New York City Ballet will start dancing with the company this fall. There's no reason I can't start to put on some more classical works. I want to create a home for the great American repertory across modern dance and have some dancers that have a more classical base, to create this really unique company. And I'd like to do more Cunningham and Trisha Brown. I want to grow the company. I'd love to grow it to 20 dancers, but there's no rush. One of the projects I'd like to do is a collaboration with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. We're talking about scores that require a larger group of dancers. What does the residency in Arles offer you? It gives us a home to create in a place that is going to be very important for contemporary art for years to come and keeps me in touch with what goes on in Europe. I'm interested in this idea of monetizing content. How will that work? I don't want to say too much, because these are my secrets, and I don't want other companies to steal them. (Laughs.) I'm brainstorming with people in the private sector to figure out a way to monetize the company. There are quite a few brands that are interested in a relationship. We will make content together, most likely digital content. You already have a relationship with Van Cleef Arpels, for instance. There's this organic connection there because of "Jewels" and Balanchine. "Jewels" is a 1967 ballet by George Balanchine inspired by gemstones, the idea for which was suggested by Claude Arpels. They sponsored three ballets of mine that have become part of the archive of Van Cleef Arpels. They can use this in their materials, and they invite their clients. It's not a homage to "Jewels" or anything, but I took the simple concept of the stones and created these three works. One of them, "On the Other Side," will be performed in New York. But L.A. Dance Project is still a Los Angeles company? Yes, and I also want to emphasize the presence in Los Angeles. My goal is to have a home that is open to the city. I'm looking for an open space, essentially a warehouse where we can put hundreds of seats, where we can do longer runs, but that's also a place that can be used for art exhibitions. It will have multiple functions. And I might invite other people to perform there. What is the lure of Los Angeles for you? What I love is the diversity. If you drive around, you see the buildings from the '20s, '30s, '60s, '70s, right next to each other. All these people and areas colliding under this beautiful light. My life on a daily basis provides me with aesthetic pleasure. I think I realized how sensitive I am to color in general. A lot of my work is very colorful. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Across the city, condominium projects in the works before the real estate bubble burst in 2008 are finally being resurrected. In TriBeCa, work has begun on the glass tower at 56 Leonard Street, which is expected to be one of the tallest structures in the neighborhood when completed in two years. And another TriBeCa development, one that promises to marry history and modernity, is about to be reborn as well. The project, at 71 Laight Street in the TriBeCa North Historic District, stalled soon after it started in 2007. Taconic Investment Partners is pouring the foundation for the 33 unit condominium, called the Sterling Mason, a name that reflects the materials in its facade. The plan is for two buildings to be combined: a circa 1906 masonry loft that was once a storage house for coffee and tea, and a new structure that will be its mirror image, but with an aluminum skin. The design is by Morris Adjmi Architects, the firm that the original developer, Alvaro Arranz, commissioned when he bought the site for 57 million in 2007. He sold Taconic the property last year for 65 million. The exterior will remain as originally commissioned by Mr. Arranz, and because the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved it in 2008, Taconic is not required to secure any additional approvals. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
"Carousel" is a problematic musical. Not for its score, which is gorgeous, but because it's a romance with bruises a love story between a spirited young woman and the bullying, short fuse thug she marries. He hits her. She stays. Not exactly a lighthearted evening. But Rodgers and Hammerstein borrowed that trouble from the play they based their show on, Ferenc Molnar's "Liliom," whose last line, spoken by a mother to her teenage daughter, is astonishingly dark the cycle of dysfunction crystallized. "It is possible, dear," the mother says, "that someone may beat you and beat you and beat you and not hurt you at all." Just as it's intriguing to watch how directors confront the challenges of "Carousel" (a Broadway revival opens this spring), it's interesting to see other playwrights wrestle with adapting "Liliom." Michael Weller's new play "Jericho," presented by the Attic Theater Company at the Wild Project, is a case in point, and he acquits himself nicely. The last scene, in fact, is so movingly done that it tempers the impression of this frustratingly uneven world premiere production, directed by Laura Braza. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Damien Hirst, with "Demon with Bowl (Exhibition Enlargement)" from his new show, "Treasures From the Wreck of the Unbelievable," at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. VENICE Damien Hirst is staring into the eyes of a jade Buddha, its face seemingly abraded by the vestiges of time. "I think he looks damn good, considering he's 2,000 years old," he said, straining to keep a straight face. Nearby, the sculpture of a pharaoh fashioned from blue granite and displaying a gold nipple ring bears an uncanny resemblance to Pharrell Williams. Is the face really that of the singer? "You could say that," Mr. Hirst responded. "It's all about what you want to believe." After years of uncharacteristic silence, this artist known for his love it or hate it artworks is orchestrating his own comeback. On a recent morning, dressed all in black, Mr. Hirst could be found in the soaring entrance of the Palazzo Grassi watching his crew put the finishing touches on an extravaganza worthy of Cecil B. DeMille his first major show of new work in 10 years. Opening to the public on Sunday, April 9, and called "Treasures From the Wreck of the Unbelievable," it is an underwater fantasy, with sculptures like the Buddha and hundreds of other objects fashioned to look as though they were antiquities dredged up from the bottom of the sea. The works will fill the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana, two museums run by Francois Pinault, the Parisian collector who is also the owner of Christie's auction house. The show is widely seen as Mr. Hirst's attempt, at 51, to kick start his career, which has suffered since 2008, when the financial and art markets crashed. Tapping into the age old romance of shipwrecks, he and his patron are embarking on a giant artistic and financial gamble. "Treasures" cost Mr. Hirst millions of dollars to produce and Mr. Pinault millions to present (exact figures were not disclosed by either man). Collectors who have been offered the works report that prices start around 500,000 apiece rising to upward of 5 million. With Damien Hirst's market untested on such a grand scale, the question the art world is asking is, will he sink or swim in Venice? Francesco Bonami, a curator who organized a major exhibition of Mr. Hirst's work in Doha, Qatar, four years ago, said the latest Hirst production "goes beyond good or bad," adding: "In his bombastic, exaggerated way, Damien has created a narrative the likes of which the public has never seen. Many will call it bad taste or kitsch, but it's more than all of that. It's Hollywood." In keeping with Mr. Hirst's reputation as a serial shocker, "Treasures" presents a visual, believe it or not fairy tale rooted in mythology, theology and the artist's imagination. The story goes like this: In 2008, a shipwreck was discovered off the coast of East Africa that is said to have contained a stash of treasures belonging to Cif Amotan II, a freed slave from northwest Turkey who lived between the first and early second centuries and who had amassed great wealth. His legendary collection of art and artifacts was placed on a ship, the Unbelievable, which sank. Divers rescued more than 100 works giant sculptures of sea monsters encrusted with coral and semiprecious stones; golden monkeys, unicorns and tortoises; as well as a goddess whose face looks oddly like Kate Moss, a marble pharaoh that resembles Rihanna and a bronze statue of Mickey Mouse, covered with centuries of marine decay. Some have already begun to kick up a fuss. In March, animal activists here dropped 88 pounds of dung outside the Palazzo Grassi, including a message at the museum's door that read "Damien Hirst Go Home." (The show contains neither dead animals nor butterflies, another Hirst signature.) The reason for their protest, they said, is that the exhibition is "an insult to a city of REAL art." Still, for every critic, there is a Hirst fan. "Damien's career has been made without regard to curators or critics," said Nicholas Serota, the departing director of the Tate, which held a 2012 Hirst retrospective. "That leaves the museum world a bit nervous." For nearly four months, Elena Geuna, the show's curator, has been orchestrating the mammoth transport of sculptures some weighing as much as four tons by boat, many from a foundry in Gloucestershire, England, and installing videos and countless tiny objects that fill the show's nearly two dozen glass vitrines (each vitrine is considered one artwork). All told, more than 1,000 suppliers from places like Italy, Germany, South Africa and the United States were involved in making the show. "It's like Elvis coming back to play in Las Vegas," said Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby's Europe. "After more than a decade, Damien is once again allowing his work to be scrutinized by a large public, and in doing so he is definitely putting his neck on the line." Mr. Barker has witnessed Mr. Hirst's gambles up close. In 2008, he helped mastermind Mr. Hirst's audacious attempt at bypassing his dealers by organizing an epic auction at Sotheby's of more than 200 of his works. It took place on the same fateful day that Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, yet Mr. Hirst still managed to sell 200 million of his work. Since then, his prices have wildly seesawed. While one of Mr. Hirst's Spot paintings sold in a Sotheby's sale in November for just 396,500 a steep decline from the 1.7 million they sometimes commanded in 2013 prices have been inching up. White Cube, a gallery in London, claimed to have sold a 2015 painting by Mr. Hirst, "Holbein (Artists' Watercolors)," measuring 13 feet wide, priced at PS750,000 (more than 930,000), showing he could still sell at a reasonably high level. The new work is a step up, with a severed head of Medusa said to be priced at 4 million. With the contemporary art market showing signs of strengthening, Mr. Barker called the prices "well moderated." But the monumental scale of many works may make it difficult to sell to anyone who does not own a museum size house. "Damien is an astonishing survivor," said Robert Storr, a curator, professor, critic and former dean of the Yale School of Art. "He'll probably produce a spectacle, but I doubt it will be of lasting interest artistically. Unlike Jeff Koons, he rarely produces surprises anymore." He added that while the public appetite for temporary exhibitions has grown, the audience for serious art has shrunk, and that the financially interested people like collectors and dealers are a very small group. None of the new works are unique; each is made in an edition of three, with two artist's proofs. In each edition, there are three sculptures: what Mr. Hirst describes as the "Coral," meaning the work created to look like its "original" encrusted state from the deep; a "Treasure," the artwork seemingly restored by conservators for display; and the "Copy," which purports to be a modern museum reproduction of the original. "After the Sotheby's auction and after making the skull, I started thinking of what to do next," Mr. Hirst recalled, referring to his 2007 human skull cast in platinum and covered with 8,601 diamonds, which was purchased by a consortium of investors said to have included Mr. Hirst. He was standing in the grand atrium that is the entrance to the Palazzo Grassi on the Grand Canal, staring at the body of a monumental demon that consumes the space, its severed head replete with fangs and a serpent's tongue. "At the time I was working on my garden in Devon, which I realized was going to take 10 years," he said. "Art, like gardens, often takes time to grow." When he talks about his work, Mr. Hirst manages a tone that is sincere but always tinged with irony. Since childhood, he said, he has been obsessed with mythology. "I came up with the title first," he recalled, and then invented the tale, including the protagonist, Amotan, the collector whose bronze bust seems to resemble the face of the artist himself. "It's me, it's Pinault, it's Walt Disney, it's anyone who has a vision," Mr. Hirst said. Stefan Edlis, a Chicago philanthropist who has been buying Mr. Hirst's work for decades, said, "The first time I had an inkling Damien was up to something was eight years ago, when I saw the Medusa's head in his studio." So enamored was Mr. Edlis with "a brilliant fairy tale" that he bought all three versions of "Hermaphrodite," a 4 1/2 foot tall bronze made in 2009. Mr. Edlis is one of the few collectors who have admitted making a purchase. Many art advisers and collectors are skeptical, waiting to see the works first. For several months now, salespeople from Gagosian and White Cube, which represent Mr. Hirst, have been on what Mr. Edlis described as a "roadshow," traveling around to collectors armed with iPad images displaying all the works. These public sales efforts have prompted critics to say that Mr. Pinault is using his spaces for commercial purposes. "What can I say?" Mr. Pinault responded in a telephone interview. "I cannot avoid those comments. But this is not commercial. It's about showing the art that I love." A 30 year collector of Mr. Hirst's work, Mr. Pinault responded coyly, when asked by email if he had bought anything himself: "Perhaps. Probably. But I am not going to tell you which ones!" Hirst devotees will immediately see his signature themes. There are skulls and vitrines, but unlike his glass fronted medicine cabinets from the late 1980s and '90s that were filled with drugs or cigarette butts, the new display cases hold gold coins, jewelry and "ancient" artifacts. The idea of ambiguity is it old or made yesterday? Real or make believe? has existed in his work throughout his 30 year career. But this time Mr. Hirst has carried his theme to its extreme, employing a film crew to shoot divers on a pretend rescue mission off Zanzibar documenting sculptures being pulled from the sea. And what to make of the unexplained references to pop culture, figures like Mickey Mouse and the vocalist Yolandi Visser, who appears as a Mesopotamian goddess? "Believing," Mr. Hirst kept repeating. "Believing, it's different from religion. It's what we need to do today." Although he began working on the show years before "Brexit," Britain's planned withdrawal from the European Union, or Donald J. Trump became president, Mr. Hirst likes to think the exhibition reflects the world's current political mood. "When you're an artist, everything you do you think is about the world we are living in today," he said. "And now," he added, "with all the liars running our governments, it's far easier to believe in the past than it is in the future." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Here's looking at you, pup. The wide eyed, pleading look of your dog may melt your heart and cause food to vanish from the table, but that doesn't really mean your pet has become the master of manipulation. Sometimes a dog's expression merely reflects yours. In a new study, researchers in Britain monitored dogs' facial expressions particularly the muscle that raises the inner part of the eyebrows and makes their eyes look bigger while a person was either paying attention to them or turned away, sometimes holding food and sometimes not. The dogs were much more expressive when the person was paying attention, but food didn't seem to make a difference, according to the study, published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. The dogs also stuck out their tongues and barked more when they got attention, compared with when they were being ignored or given food. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
BERLIN Leonard Bernstein called his "Candide" an American valentine to Europe. That Voltaire inspired romp, which premiered on Broadway in 1956, is one of several classic American musicals unfurling on German speaking stages this season. The jury is still out on how to classify Bernstein's "Candide." The composer himself, who kept revising the work until 1989, hoped that "Candide" might turn out to be an entirely new musical form altogether. For the director Barrie Kosky, who leads the Komische Oper Berlin, the peculiar mixture of opera, operetta and musical that is "Candide" adds up to the novel genre of "existential vaudeville," according to an interview in the playbill. Productions of "Candide" tend to be heavy on powdered wigs and painted backdrops. With one outrageous exception a hairpiece the size of a Buick appears briefly the Berlin staging dispenses with foppish frivolities in favor of something far darker and closer to the spirit of Voltaire's original. An endless carousel of war, plague, inquisition, rape, earthquake and torture, "Candide" unfolds in a landscape of natural catastrophe and human carnage, as Voltaire's everyman tests the philosophical doctrine of optimism and conclusively decides that this is not the best of all possible worlds. With Bernstein's magnificent, highly changeable music given a full steam ahead rendition by the house orchestra, led by the young Canadian conductor Jordan de Souza, the scenes tumble forth nightmarishly with a manic energy thanks to Otto Pichler's elaborate choreography. Yet despite the pessimism and possible nihilism that Mr. Kosky highlights, there is plenty of humor, and even pathos. In the title role, Allan Clayton uses a bright, resilient voice to parry at the slings and arrows of fortune, while Nicole Chevalier's hard nosed Cundegonde harbors few of her lover's illusions. Alongside these young singers, two stage veterans, Franz Hawlata and Anne Sofie von Otter, are winningly sardonic as Voltaire/Dr. Pangloss and the Old Lady. The action in "Candide" jerks us from Europe to the New World and back, as the protagonists spend much of their time in exile. And while Mr. Kosky's production doesn't seem set in a particular epoch, the staging does contain references to current events, including the ongoing refugee crisis and the Islamophobic backlash it has produced in much of Europe. A Muslim couple clothed in rags and clutching plastic bags is brought before the Inquisition and executed. At the end of the first act, Candide undertakes his journey to Paraguay in a rubber dinghy on choppy seas. Such topicality can seem heavy handed, but it bridges the gap between the ugly world that Voltaire satirized and our own. A very different sort of Broadway musical set in Europe is "The Sound of Music," from 1959, the world famous blockbuster that vies with Mozart for being the most famous export of Salzburg, Austria. "Sound of Music" kitsch practically runs through the medieval alleyways of that alpine city. One place you won't find it, though, is on the stage of the Salzburger Landestheater, where the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic has been given a sober and elegant staging by the directors Andreas Gergen and Christian Struppeck. I admit that my first glimpse of Maria sprawling on AstroTurf ("The hills are alive...") briefly had me in stitches. But once the fake grass is rolled offstage, the production grows uncommonly serious and effective. The fluid, uncluttered staging, with sets and costumes by Court Watson, is blessedly free of the schlock that has accumulated on the musical like edelweiss over the past 60 years. Hovering over the domestic drama of the von Trapps is the Nazi nightmare that will soon descend. The Third Reich is frequently invoked through brief newsreels of Hitler and a flash forward to 1945. At the musical's climax, S.S. men descend into the auditorium and block the exits. It's a far cry from "Springtime for Hitler." Aside from the cleareyed production, Milica Jovanovic's charismatic and mischievous Maria is the best reason to see this "Sound of Music." She channels Julie Andrews, especially while singing, yet also succeeds in making the role her own, in her subtly wry and sexy performance. Other standouts include Axel Meinhardt as the theater impresario Max Dettweiler and the no nonsense Franziska Becker as Captain von Trapp's erstwhile fiancee, Elsa Schrader. As for the rigid paterfamilias, Uwe Kroger, a veteran to the role, delivered far more dramatically than vocally. The seven von Trapp children, several of whom will be switched out over the course of the run, were adorable without being cloying. The Landestheater is a state run cultural venue that encompasses dramatic and musical theater, opera and dance. Outside of Salzburg's storied, elite summertime festival, it's one stop shopping for culture in the city of Mozart. Given the shrinking size of pit bands on Broadway, one of the main advantages of seeing musicals in a theater designed for opera is hearing the score performed by a full orchestra. The Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, led by Robin Davis, made Richard Rodgers's rapturous and infectious music sound fuller and grander than it probably has since the film version from 1965. "The Sound of Music" is as close to the quintessential Broadway musical as they come. Astoundingly, only eight years separate it from "Hair," the "tribal love rock musical" that shattered all the rules in 1967. "Hair" is a centerpiece of the season at the Altes Schauspielhaus in Stuttgart, Germany. In the late '60s, the musical broke new ground not only because it featured onstage nudity from a racially diverse cast, but also because it dispensed with plot almost entirely, introducing a bold style of a musical untethered from the traditional expository demands of theater. In our day, its influence can be seen for better or worse in the profusion of jukebox musicals, although none have ever topped Galt MacDermot's original score. "Hair" first arrived in Germany in 1968, and I wouldn't be surprised if many in the gray haired audience in Stuttgart had seen it back then. Klaus Seiffert's lively production often feels like a nostalgia trip, complete with a tie dyed set and psychedelic projections, despite references to both President Barack Obama and President Trump. One idea Mr. Seiffert suggests but never really develops is that we're watching as Berger, one of the show's main characters, relives his memories of the era as an aging hippie. Luckily, the spirited musical performances (featuring an otherworldly theremin) save the production from sliding into sentimental tedium. The 14 actors who make up the "tribe" of hippies act, sing and dance with cohesion and vitality, even if the production as a whole often lacks spontaneity; it's really only during a reprise of "Let the Sun Shine In" during the curtain call that those in the large cast get to let their hair down. Even so, the skilled performers ooze innocence, joy and exhilaration. As with the productions in Berlin and Salzburg, it felt as if Europe were sending America a valentine back. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
PARIS Even in a city saturated with excellent fall exhibitions, from the Grand Palais's retrospective of El Greco to the Fondation Louis Vuitton's showcase of Charlotte Perriand, the show of the season here is the decade in the works "Leonardo da Vinci," at the Musee du Louvre. Mandatory timed tickets are sold out through November for this thorough, deeply serious exhibition, which sloughs off the myths that cling to this least productive of Renaissance masters. You will find here a cleaner, sprightlier Leonardo or at least you will in the show downstairs, where four of the Louvre's five paintings by the artist have been relocated. Upstairs, where Leonardo's most famous work remains, is still a fiasco. The Louvre houses the greatest collection of art anywhere in Europe, within a palace that is a masterpiece in its own right. It is, by some distance, the most popular museum in the world. In 2018 a record 10 million visitors, three quarters of them foreign tourists, besieged the joint: up 25 percent on the previous year, and more than triple the attendance of the Centre Pompidou or the Musee d'Orsay. Yet the Louvre is being held hostage by the Kim Kardashian of 16th century Italian portraiture: the handsome but only moderately interesting Lisa Gherardini, better known (after her husband) as La Gioconda, whose renown so eclipses her importance that no one can even remember how she got famous in the first place. This past summer, amid 100 degree plus heat, the Louvre undertook a renovation of the Mona Lisa's gallery: the arching Salle des Etats, in the museum's Denon wing, which once housed Parliament of France. What a mess this was. Relocated to the Richelieu painting wing, the Mona Lisa reduced the museum's Flemish collection into wallpaper for a cattle pen, where guards shooed along irritated, sweaty selfie snappers who'd endured a half hour line. The overcrowding was so bad, the museum had to shut its doors on several days. "The Louvre is suffocating," said a statement from the union of the museum's security staff, who went on strike. Now the Mona Lisa is back in her regular spot, on a freestanding wall that's been repainted an admittedly chic Prussian blue. (Louis Frank, one of the two curators of the Leonardo retrospective, told me there was never any possibility of including the Mona Lisa in the show. The exhibition can "only" be visited by 5,000 people per day; the Salle des Etats gets 30,000.) I went up with the crowds recently. Things were no better. Now, you must line up in a hideous, T.S.A. style snake of retractable barriers that ends about 12 feet from the Leonardo which, for a painting that's just two and a half feet tall, is too far for looking and way too far for a good selfie. Apparently the painting is beneath some nifty new nonreflective glass, but at this distance how could I tell? My fellow visitors and I could hardly see the thing, and we were shunted off in less than a minute. All this for a painting that (as the Louvre's current show confirms) is hardly Leonardo's most interesting, and that has drowned out the Venetian masterpieces in the Salle des Etats, such as Titian's "Woman With a Mirror," or Veronese's "Wedding at Cana," which Beyonce was smart enough not to neglect. The museum is admitting as much with the pathetic new signs in the Salle des Etats: "The Mona Lisa is surrounded by other masterpieces take a look around the room." This is a gallery that makes the Spirit Airlines boarding process look like a model of efficiency, and offers about as much visual delight. If you think me some sniffy aesthete for saying so, listen to the crowds: In a poll of British tourists earlier this year, the Mona Lisa was voted the "world's most disappointing attraction," beating out Checkpoint Charlie, the Spanish Steps, and that urinating boy in Brussels. If curators think that they are inspiring the next generation of art lovers, they are in fact doing the opposite. People come out of obligation, and leave discouraged. Jean Luc Martinez, the museum's director, has said the Louvre might take further steps to alleviate Mona mania in coming years: new entrances, timed tickets. This misunderstands the problem for the Louvre, with more gallery space than any museum on the planet, isn't that swamped if you can get through the security lines. On my last visit the Islamic galleries were nearly empty. The French painting wing was trafficked by just a few visitors. Even the Venus de Milo, perhaps the second most famous work of art in the museum, draws a comfortable few dozen peepers at a time. The Louvre does not have an overcrowding problem per se. It has a Mona Lisa problem. No other iconic painting not Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" at the Uffizi in Florence, not Klimt's "Kiss" at the Belvedere in Vienna, not "Starry Night" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York comes anywhere close to monopolizing its institution like she does. And if tourist numbers continue to rise, if last year's 10 million visitors become next year's 11 or 12, the place is going to crack. It is time for the Louvre to admit defeat. It is time for the Mona Lisa to go. She needs her own space. Build a pavilion for her, perhaps in the Tuileries, that is optimized for the crowds. Connect it to the main museum via the underground mall known as the Carrousel du Louvre, and sell a single ticket for both locations. Set up prime selfie stations, and let more curious visitors learn about the mysterious Gioconda with supplementary exhibits. Get it up in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Let Kylian Mbappe inaugurate it, maybe with Carla Bruni alongside. Sell macarons. It will need to be big, but I cannot conceive of an easier fund raising project. The Mona Lisa Pavilion will instantly become the most popular attraction in the most popular tourist destination on earth. Surely, having spent more than a billion dollars to launch the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the potentates of the United Arab Emirates would be glad to fund the new facility, especially if it came with naming rights. The Sheikh Zayed Mona Lisa Pavilion: it has a ring to it, n'est ce pas? We have models for this. Picasso's "Guernica" was shown in its own pavilion in Madrid for over a decade, before the opening of the Reina Sofia Museum. A more relevant example given that the Mona Lisa is nowadays less a work of art than a holy relic is the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the holiest artwork in Mexico City, venerated by millions of pilgrims a year. Worshipers of the Virgin stand on moving walkways. I can picture the same travelators in front of the Gioconda, smoothly guiding tourists past the Leonardo and into the gift shop. This Paris pavilion, like the Mexican basilica, would be a pilgrimage site for a sort of worship: the worship of fame, and of one's own proximity to it. Let Samsung or another electronics company install ultra hi res cameras around the Gioconda. Let visitors strike a pose on the moving walkways, and then download their cutest selfies with the Leonardo under glass. Perhaps, in exchange for further naming rights, Jeff Koons could have a handbag concession at the exit of the Sheikh Zayed Louis Vuitton Mona Lisa Pavilion. In the early 1990s, with the opening of I.M. Pei's pyramid and the expansion into the Richelieu wing, the museum's curators actually considered relocating the Mona Lisa. They balked on the grounds that this mid tier Leonardo needed to be grounded among her Cinquecento brothers and sisters. That might just have been true a quarter century ago, when the museum had less than half its current attendance. In a Louvre of 10 million visitors, such a belief isn't just wrong; it's dangerous. The Mona Lisa is a security hazard, an educational obstacle, and not even a satisfying bucket list item. No work of art should make people miserable. Let Paris's millions of future visitors enjoy the art, the shopping, the sweets and the selfies at the Sheikh Zayed Louis Vuitton Samsung Galaxy Laduree Macarons Mona Lisa Pavilion. Then let them rediscover the Louvre as a museum. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
It's officially summer, and the Society Boutique, the Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering's thrift shop, is teaming up with the luxury fashion e tailer Halsbrook to stretch the longest day of the year a little longer: a Summer Solstice charity pop up benefiting the research hospital is open through Thursday with discounts of up to 70 percent on breezy bits like a No. 21 lace embroidered cotton dress ( 321, originally 1,070). At 1440 Third Avenue. On Thursday, the organic beauty brand Kjaer Weis will open a pop up at Whisper Editions in the South Street Seaport featuring two new colors: Precious cream blush ( 56), a peach shade, and Angelic eye shadow ( 45), a soft pink. Either will impart a healthy summer glow. At 8 Fulton Street. On Friday, the resort line Vineyard Vines will open a store at Grand Central Terminal filled with preppy staples like whale embroidered shorts ( 98.50). At 89 East 42nd Street. For something out of the box, check out the Baja East three day "tarot takeover" at Brookfield Place starting Tuesday. It promises readings by Yoyin and a selection of exclusive products including tie dye T shirts ( 225) and one of a kind ponchos, bajas and skater pants made from Balinese ceremonial skirts (starting at 495). At 230 Vesey Street. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
THE BUYERS Karen and Eyal Hen like their duplex's layout, which keeps the baby close by. Eyal and Karen Hen started off as roommates. Mr. Hen came to New York from Israel a dozen years ago after serving in the Israeli army, and shared a large apartment in Kensington, Brooklyn, with several other Israelis. A few years later, he received a Facebook message from Karen Rehany, who was from the same Israeli town, Nahariya. She was interested in coming to New York. His apartment had an available room; she jumped at the opportunity. He picked her up at the airport. One thing, as they say, led to another. The living situation "was really fun, until at one point I decided I couldn't live any more with five people and one bathroom," she said. In 2009, the two married and moved into a tiny studio a few blocks from Barclays Center. The place was above Fish Sip, a restaurant owned by Mr. Hen and a partner. He was two staircases away from work. Their rent was around 1,700 a month. Later, he opened Chick P, across the street. The Hens hunted off and on for a larger place to buy, with Mrs. Hen's father agreeing to help with the down payment. But they did not find anything they all liked. PARK SLOPE An one bedroom duplex had a lower level room with no window. If that wasn't a deal breaker, a spiral staircase was. "Time flew by and we stopped searching because we had the business and we felt it was overwhelming," said Mrs. Hen, who worked in the optometry field. Last spring, when she became pregnant, the hunt resumed and intensified. This time, housing prices were higher. Their former price range, 500,000 to 600,000, had now ballooned to 800,000 or more. The Hens, both in their mid 30s, wanted a homey two bedroom condo with a convenient layout and a washer dryer. They preferred a relatively new building in Brooklyn, not too far from the restaurants. With their agent, Sunny Pyun of Bond New York, they checked out a ground floor duplex on Fourth Avenue in Park Slope. It was listed at 799,000, with monthly charges of around 900. But one room on the lower level had no windows, and the couple felt the spiral staircase was unsafe. The apartment later sold for 784,000. They went to see a two bedroom on 11th Street in Park Slope, for 749,000 with monthly charges of around 300. But they were intimidated by the packed open house. "It was pretty much a perfect apartment," Mrs. Hen said. "We knew it was not going to happen because so many people liked it." It sold for 780,000. PARK SLOPE A two bedroom condo on 11th Street seemed just right. Unfortunately, a lot of other people were of the same opinion. One September day, Mrs. Hen felt bad back pain, so she went to the hospital, where their daughter, Barr, arrived three months early. She weighed just 2 pounds. For weeks, Mrs. Hen spent every day at the hospital. Sometimes, on the bus ride there, she cried. The Hens forgot about their search until Ms. Pyun, puzzled by their disappearance, got in touch. By this time, the Hens had taken little Barr home. But they knew they could not remain long in the walk up studio. Hauling a stroller up the stairs was difficult, so her mother carried her in a sling or in her coat, kangaroo style. The Hens decided they would have to hunt in a less expensive neighborhood farther out in Brooklyn, so they returned to Kensington. By now, because the opening of the Barclays Center had consumed street parking near the restaurants, Mr. Hen was determined to secure a spot for the car. Ms. Pyun wrote an offer letter. "There are two types of sellers the emotional seller and the analytical seller," she said. "I try to hit both sides." She pointed out that her clients had a premature baby. There was already a bid above the asking price, but the Hens were offering a much larger down payment. And the seller, as it happened, had herself been a premature baby, and was touched by the Hens' situation. They closed in the winter for 727,500. "I feel very at home," Mrs. Hen said the other day. With the warmer weather and no steep stairs, "I put Barr in the stroller and I feel like a normal person." Having space for a car has also normalized their routine. "I use the car even to go to the supermarket," Mr. Hen said. He drives to Fish Sip, leaving home about 9 a.m. and waiting in the car until street parking opens up at 10. He takes the subway, however, to his two more recently opened TriBeCa restaurants, Nish Nush (Hebrew for snack) and the takeout outpost of Sun in Bloom. The couple have had to work around some things that are "hard to really check, or you can check but we didn't think about," Mrs. Hen said. The driveway is so steep that it scrapes the bottom of the car, so they rarely put the car in the garage. They sometimes hear their neighbors walking upstairs. "It's not that horrible," Mrs. Hen said. "I can be here for days and not hear them. It is very rarely that we hear something but when we do hear it, we hear it well. It doesn't wake Barr, so it's fine." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
It's a tough situation: you have a fatal condition. You require care beyond what family members can provide at home. But with a prognosis of more than six months to live, you are not ready for hospice care. And an intensive care unit is too, well, intense, to say nothing of expensive. So what do you do? Now there's another option. Some hospitals are offering so called palliative care units. Palliative care focuses on treating your symptoms like severe pain, or difficulty breathing to make you more comfortable, and on offering emotional support to you and your family. It's not designed to cure an underlying condition. It has long been associated with hospice care that is, given at the very end of life and often, but not always, at your home. But it is becoming increasingly clear that palliative care can help patients who suffer from serious chronic conditions but who are not necessarily expected to die imminently, and who may still benefit from some forms of high tech treatment. "Lots of older people with advanced chronic illnesses are not ready for hospice," said Marlene McHugh, assistant professor of nursing at Columbia University School of Nursing and a co author of a recent study focused on the acute palliative care unit at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. "We're going to see more and more of this as patients age." Nearly 90 percent of large American hospitals those with at least 300 beds already have palliative care consultation services, according to the Center to Advance Palliative Care, located at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. The services are made up of teams of specially trained doctors, nurses and social workers who consult with your primary physician. Designated palliative care units in hospitals are less common (fewer than 10 percent of hospitals have them). They're beginning to catch on, though, as hospitals seek to give patients appropriate care while holding down costs. Treating patients in a palliative care unit can free up costly beds in intensive care units for other patients. The Montefiore study, published in The American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, found that the palliative care unit provides "cost effective acute care" for patients with advanced chronic illnesses, as well as those who are near death. Other studies involving more hospitals have shown similar findings. Who might be treated in a palliative care unit? Perhaps an end stage cancer patient needing treatment for an infection and high doses of pain medication; or an elderly patient with dementia, who needs a ventilator to help with breathing, or medicine to help with shortness of breath if the machine is removed. "The goal is to make patients more comfortable," said Dr. Serife Eti Karakas, a clinical assistant professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the lead author of the Montefiore study. Hospitals with a dedicated unit generally have private rooms for patients, accommodations for family members who want to stay overnight and meeting rooms for family consultations and private phone calls. The units allow some flexibility for patients who don't meet the relatively narrow criteria for hospice care or who aren't emotionally ready to seek it. Generally, "a patient in a palliative care unit can get more aggressive therapy," said Donald Schumacher, chief executive of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. While some patients ultimately die in the palliative care unit, many others are stabilized so they can be discharged to a nursing home or, depending on their situation, to their own home, or to hospice care. "It's the best of both worlds," said Dr. Diane Meier, director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care. Here are some questions to consider if you are advised to receive treatment in a palliative care unit: 1. Who should help make the decision about treatment? Your doctor will consult the hospital's palliative care team, and they'll discuss your options with you and family members who may be involved in your care. Palliative care specialists are trained to help patients and families make such decisions. 2. Does my insurance cover all the costs? Medicare and private insurance plans generally cover care in an in hospital palliative care unit, just as with other hospital admissions. Your share of the cost depends on your plan's benefits. With traditional Medicare, for instance, you'll probably have a deductible for your overall hospital stay. And you'll also have a separate payment typically, 20 percent of the cost for services provided by a palliative care doctor or nurse practitioner, just as you would for a consultation with a cardiologist or other specialist. 3. How should I decide when to enroll in hospice care? That's a decision that also should be made after talking to your doctor, as well as your palliative care team and family. Once a patient enrolls in hospice, which is covered as a special Medicare benefit, he or she generally pays nothing, although there may be some co payments required, like those for medications. Patients in hospice, however, agree to forgo treatment aimed at curing their illness. They can always choose to stop hospice care, though, if their condition improves or if they simply change their mind, Mr. Schumacher said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
In the glamorous little corner of the afterlife that Trevor Copeland built, heaven is a nightclub stage. Bathed in hazy purple light, it has a piano at the ready and a five piece band to back it, because what kind of paradise doesn't include a horn section? Trevor is a singer, and in the wistful "Midnight at the Never Get" the lushly romantic if clunkily titled new musical by Mark Sonnenblick, directed by Max Friedman at the York Theater Company at St. Peter's he has been here a long while, polishing his act. This is the way he chooses to spend eternity: inside a cabaret show made up of songs that he and the love of his life, Arthur Brightman, performed back in the 1960s at a Greenwich Village gay bar called the Never Get. Such are the perks of being dead. "You get to pick a memory," Trevor tells us. "Make a little house out of it. Hang the walls and rough the floors with all the detail you have left. And then you stay, as long as you like, in your infinite moment, where you can be just like you were." Or, more to the point, the way you wish you'd been. Played by Sam Bolen, who conceived this small treasure of a show with Mr. Sonnenblick, Trevor is an irresistible charmer a tenderhearted, irrepressible imp with a puppyish winsomeness. Arthur is less extroverted, more suave, but they have a flirtatious chemistry from the moment they meet, in 1963. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Who says farmers' markets are too expensive? It depends to a great extent on what you buy, where your market is and which stands you buy from. My farmers' market is not in a fancy part of Los Angeles, and the prices reflect this. Last week I couldn't believe the size and beauty of the cabbages one farmer was selling by the piece. I bought one for 2, took it home and weighed it: five pounds on the dot. It made five terrific meals, all with ingredients I had on hand. I've been covering a lot of brassicas lately those healthy phytochemical rich cruciferous vegetables like kale, kohlrabi, broccoli and cabbage. That's what we have plenty of at this time of year, and there's no reason to be bored with them. I stuffed the tough outside leaves of my big cabbage, quartered the rest and made a pizza, a pie, a stir fry and the most wonderful baked beans I've ever eaten. I used the large outside leaves of my huge cabbage for these Greek inspired rice and herb filled cabbage rolls. Those leaves are too tough for many other preparations, but they're perfect for stuffing. 1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and blanch the cabbage leaves, a few at a time, for 2 to 3 minutes, until they are flexible. Transfer from the pot to a bowl of cold water, then drain and set aside. Cut out the thickest part of the base of the center rib by notching a 1 to 1 1/2 inch V at the base. This will make the leaves easier to roll up. 2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium low heat in a large nonstick skillet and add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, until it is tender but not browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the pine nuts and garlic, stir together and add the drained rinsed rice. Stir for a minute or two, until you hear the rice begin to crackle, then remove from the heat. Toss with the herbs, salt and pepper and 1 tablespoon olive oil. To gauge how much salt you will need, use the amount that you would use when cooking 1 1/4 cups of rice. 3. Lightly oil a heavy flame proof or lidded skillet. Place a leaf on your work surface in front of you, with the wide ribbed bottom closest to you. Place 2 rounded tablespoons of the rice mixture on top of the leaf. Roll the leaf over once, and tuck in the sides. Continue to roll the leaf into a tight package. Place in the pan. Fill and roll the remaining leaves and pack them into the pan. You will probably need to stack two layers of the filled leaves. 4. Whisk together the lemon juice, remaining oil and tomato paste with 2 tablespoons water. Season to taste with salt. Pour over the cabbage rolls. Add enough water to barely cover the rolls and top with a layer of lemon slices. Invert a plate and place it on top of the rolls to keep them wrapped and in position. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, cover the pan, turn the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, at which point the cabbage leaves will be tender and the rice cooked. Remove from the heat and carefully remove the stuffed leaves from the water to a platter or to plates with a slotted spoon or tongs. Taste the liquid left in the pot and adjust the seasoning. Serve the rolls warm with the liquid from the pot as a sauce. Advance preparation: These will keep for a 4 days in the refrigerator. They're good cold and can be reheated gently in a pan. Nutritional information per serving: 314 calories; 11 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 9 milligrams cholesterol; 48 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 50 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 7 grams protein Martha Rose Shulman is the author of "The Very Best of Recipes for Health." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
When Hala Hijazi wanted her friends to meet London Breed, then a candidate for mayor of San Francisco, she invited the whole neighborhood. Ms. Hijazi, a community organizer and consultant, lives in the city's Marina District and is a member of Nextdoor, the neighborhood social media site. She planned the meet and greet on the Marina's bustling Chestnut Street and posted it on Nextdoor. One neighbor said he wouldn't vote for Ms. Breed. She said another called the candidate "the worst." Still others decided to vote for Ms. Breed after meeting her in person. "Nextdoor is organic and, sometimes, it is going to be raw," Ms. Hijazi said. Fights between supporters of President Trump (and their nonsupporting neighbors) have driven some Nextdoor users away. To address those concerns, the San Francisco based company is creating separate forums for neighbors who want to discuss national politics. Some cities, too, are frustrated with the service, saying there is no mechanism for local politicians to have a dialogue with constituents on the site. Nextdoor bills itself as a "private social network" that limits membership by address, making it difficult for people not in a neighborhood network or, in some cases, an adjoining area, to participate. (A neighborhood can be as small as a few blocks.) The company was founded in 2010 and said it is active in 175,000 neighborhoods, or about 85 percent nationwide. It is particularly prominent in San Francisco and, according to the company, especially popular with homeowners. With so many users, Nextdoor sees a big market in voter registration and education. In March, it teamed up with Alex Padilla, California's secretary of state, to provide voter information in five counties that adopted the California Voter's Choice Act, which makes it easier for citizens to vote. The company, too, recently partnered with the District of Columbia Board of Elections, one of about 3,000 public agencies that distribute voter and community information via Nextdoor. "It gives us an opportunity to communicate with real people, not bots or trolls," said Sam Liccardo, the mayor of San Jose, Calif., and an early advocate for the site. "That makes it a powerful tool." Instead, Nextdoor wants to help public agencies reach their constituents. Agencies that partner with the company set up a special page, and access to information like where to vote or when to register for a primary is targeted to the relevant area where a person lives. Still, users are interested in more than polling places. After President Trump won the 2016 election, Nextdoor saw an increase in disputes about national politics. Isaac Gonzalez, a volunteer forum moderator for the Tahoe Park neighborhood in Sacramento, Calif., said he had to mediate virtual fisticuffs between liberal minded neighbors and the Trump supporters who lived next door. Nextdoor has strict guidelines about what can be discussed. Public service announcements, postings about events and "civil debate" are allowed. Telling neighbors how to vote or offensive comments are not. "After the election there were a lot of sobering posts about where the country was headed, and people felt emboldened to share their true beliefs," Mr. Gonzalez said. "People learned their neighbors weren't as progressive as they thought they would be." He said he has been approached by neighbors who told him they quit using Nextdoor because there was too much political talk. "They had to stop looking at it," Mr. Gonzalez said. To address this, the company has begun testing a new service in 12 markets, including the Bay Area and Dallas, to offer users a political forum separate from their neighborhood feeds. "The idea was to create a place where people could share information without offending others who don't want to talk about politics," Mr. Wymer said. "Our biggest concern is not to divide." Nextdoor has an incentive to keep its discourse civil. In 2015, it came under fire when it was suggested that reports and comments left by users in Oakland, Calif., amounted to racial profiling. The company met with city officials, police officers, neighborhood groups and made changes to the social media site. At the same time, Nextdoor wants to be ready for the flush of interest in the primaries later this year. "We know a big election cycle is coming up," Mr. Wymer said. That is why it is focused on helping public agencies educate and register voters. Rachel Coll, a spokeswoman for the District of Columbia Board of Elections, said her agency reached out to Nextdoor. "We definitely wanted to facilitate a line of information we didn't have before," she said. Still, there are impediments to the free flow of information users of social media have come to expect. Last year, Long Beach, Calif., disabled comments on its postings because city officials, who were not part of specific neighborhood forums, could not access them. Comments from residents, too, were overwhelming. They became frustrated when their concerns were not addressed. Kevin Lee, a spokesman for Long Beach, said it is impractical to open up posts on its city pages to comments. "A lot of cities are having difficulties," he said. "We've been trying to work with Nextdoor. But how do you have a dialogue when you have such an overwhelming response?" Mr. Wymer said the company will continue to work with partners, while respecting the privacy of Nexdoor's community. He also said the company has no plans to sell political ads and users do not widely share political articles. The targeting of political ads and the proliferation of false or misleading articles has tripped up Facebook. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
THE RENTER For Lindsey Olson, a transplant from Phoenix, 2,400 a month for rent seemed insane. The one bedroom she bought in Prospect Heights increases her monthly outlay by about 400, but she's building equity. After working for Yelp in Phoenix for nearly six years, Lindsey Olson knew she could transfer to any other city where Yelp had an office, but she only had eyes for New York. In Phoenix, "I felt like a big fish in a small pond both career wise and dating wise," said Ms. Olson, now 28. And "there was no other place but New York for me." So she picked up and moved last year into a spacious one bedroom in Williamsburg that she found on StreetEasy. The rent, of course, alarmed her. Her 1,000 square foot one bedroom in Phoenix had come with a pool and cost her only 1,000 a month. But in Brooklyn, "every single month I would see that 2,400 come out of my bank account," she said. "It was insane." So she decided to invest in a place of her own. Last fall, Ms. Olson sent a Facebook message to Bailey Gladysz, a former Yelp colleague, who is now a licensed sales agent at Triplemint. They met for dinner to talk real estate. Ms. Olson's budget cap was 600,000 for a one bedroom in a co op building. Space and storage were her priorities. "Moving to a tiny New York apartment was too much of a change for me," she said. She had already downsized a lot when she moved to New York, donating 12 garbage bags of clothing and returning her childhood piano to her parents. Even so, "I had way more furniture than your average New Yorker," she said. What's more, "a bigger place is easier to keep clean. If you have the room to put things away, you are not going to be as cluttered." She also wanted central heating and air conditioning, which she was used to. "Being a Phoenix transplant, I don't want to use one of those window things for air conditioning, or rely on the building to either roast me or freeze me," she said. Ms. Olson had no interest in browsing. She screened aggressively and visited only places that met her main criteria. "I am not the pickiest person," she said. "I can easily see myself living in a lot of different places." Gauging size, however, was difficult without actually setting foot inside. One Sunday, Ms. Gladysz arranged for a day of open houses. One, in Park Slope, was on a charming tree lined block. The apartment, however, was relatively small, with two small closets. The washer dryer was "a good draw," Ms. Gladysz said. Ms. Olson, worried she would find nothing better, bid the asking price of 489,000, which was accepted. Monthly maintenance was in the low 500s. But then she reconsidered. The charming block wasn't enough to overcome the small space. "My dad said, you are not living outside on the street you are living inside, in the apartment," Ms. Olson said. She also didn't relish downsizing even more. "The prospect of having to sort through all my stuff just to move wasn't particularly appealing," she said. She withdrew her offer. She soon bid on a place in Brooklyn Heights. She loved the living room, with its enormous entertainment center a television surrounded by a wall of bookshelves. A one bedroom in Prospect Heights was being sublet to a couple for 2,600 a month. "I knew it was this one the moment I walked in," Ms. Olson said. "It was the first one where I wasn't putting in an offer in case I didn't find something better." The listing price, 499,000, was low. Maintenance was around 800 a month. "We thought they were trying to encourage a bidding war," Ms. Olson said. She offered 525,000, and learned there were two other offers. Ms. Gladysz learned that the seller would accept the first bid at 550,000. Ms. Olson boosted her offer immediately, and the apartment was hers. Her subway commute to her Flatiron office is lengthier now: 45 minutes rather than 25. Her monthly outlay is now 400 more, but because she is an owner, it no longer feels insane. "I find myself making excuses now not to go into the city," she said. "The commute is the only thing that is not ideal, but it is worth it for owning my place." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Here's what he takes on every trip: "I always carry a sweatshirt or a scrunchable lightweight down jacket, in case the plane is cold. But just as useful if I need a pillow in an airport, if I have to curl up on a floor or a bench. Actual neck pillows are too bulky and take up too much space." "I bring three or four. Any writing I do, I do quickly by hand first. And then as a function of inputting it onto the laptop, I edit as I copy it in. That process works for me." "I practice jujitsu; that's how I stay in shape. It's mentally good for me and I try to train literally everywhere I go. I bring a couple of the uniforms called gi, actually, because one has to give serious consideration, always, I have found, to laundry cycles in hotels. I'm very aware that you need to get it in by 9 or 10 if you want it back the same day and one can't always do that. I'm a worst case scenario planner, so chances are I'll bring three gi just in case the laundry cycle is not what I would like." "I bring at least one physical book, I find that comforting. Often a book set in the country that I'm headed towards. A work of fiction, preferably. The perfect book to read before you go to Vietnam is Graham Greene's 'The Quiet American.' Fiction seems to capture the place in a way that's more tangible. It just works for me better than a travel guide." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Clockwise from top left: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times (2); Beth Perkins for The New York Times; Brad Dickson for The New York Times Clockwise from top left: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times (2); Beth Perkins for The New York Times; Brad Dickson for The New York Times Credit... Clockwise from top left: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times (2); Beth Perkins for The New York Times; Brad Dickson for The New York Times For some New Yorkers, urban life is a phase, to be experienced between college and the birth of a first or second child. The question of moving to the suburbs is not "whether," so much as "when." Now with the pandemic, the timetable for departure is accelerated. "The calls started coming in: 'We're ready,'" said Janey Varvara, a real estate agent with William Raveis in Scarsdale, N.Y. "Everyone's schedule changed dramatically." And the question has shifted to "where." Because suburbia is far from homogeneous (this is even acknowledged in "The Stepford Wives"), and because no single community ticks all the boxes (as much as real estate people love saying, "ticks all the boxes"), urbanites ready to cut ties should carefully weigh their priorities. And if they can't kick the dust of Brooklyn off their shoes, if they lean toward a place that is a little offbeat, Ms. Varvara said, they just might find their way to Katonah. It's "more laid back," she said, "in an artsy and intellectual way." One of three hamlets in the town of Bedford, Katonah has a quaint downtown district with a Metro North station and eclectic shops tucked into gabled and shingled houses or flat roofed Victorians with the saucy looks of saloons. The reopened Blue Dolphin diner on Katonah Avenue is properly chrome, with terra cotta colored roof scallops. The late 1920s stone Katonah Village Library has a Palladian window and a cupola. Even Van's, the auto service center, is housed in an unreasonably charming building, with red trim and a bay window. Contrasting serenely with antiquarian froufrou is the sleek Katonah Museum of Art, which was built in 1990 from a design by Edward Larrabee Barnes. The museum reopened on July 26 and is exhibiting quilted portraits about Black experience by Bisa Butler, an American fiber artist. Sound irresistible? The 64 available single family properties with a Katonah postal address start in the 400,000s and go up to 15.5 million. A three bedroom raised ranch that dates to 1966 and is a third of a mile from the Metro North station, is listed for 599,000, with taxes of 10,727. A renovated three bedroom village house from 1911 asks 975,000, with taxes of 17,052. Carmel (the stress is on the first syllable) is about 50 miles north of the George Washington Bridge and includes the hamlets of Carmel, Mahopac and Mahopac Falls. The home of several lakes and 140 freshwater ponds, it is largely contained within the New York City watershed, which works to keep the region and the tap water that flows from its reservoirs pristine. The lakes, which were conjured or enlarged from dammed rivers when the area was developed as a resort in the early 20th century, continue to be fishing and boating playgrounds. But with highway access and a shrinking world, the population has changed character. "Most of the lake communities have gone from 100 percent summer people to 50 to 80 percent year rounders," Mr. Zacks said. The waterfront properties currently for sale include a one bedroom condo on Lake Mahopac, a 583 acre lake that is not part of the watershed and allows motorboats. The asking price is 299,900 with a monthly homeowner's fee of 430 and annual taxes of 2,797. A two bedroom ranch house on the 30 acre Lake Casse in Mahopac is asking 430,000, with taxes of 9,936. At the highest end, a 10 acre island in Lake Mahopac, with two houses commissioned from Frank Lloyd Wright can be bought for 9.95 million, with estimated taxes of this is not a misprint 145,268. But walk, don't run. The property has been on and off the market for several years and was reduced from 12.9 million in February. Great Neck is the name of both a peninsula jutting into Long Island Sound in Nassau County and one of the nine villages and several unincorporated areas that are part of it. The larger entity is what matters if you want to send your children to a school district that was recently ranked first in New York State and third in the United States by the educational ratings company Niche. (Or if you want them to follow in the footsteps of the director Francis Ford Coppola, comedian Andy Kaufman, hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen or Olympics skater Sarah Hughes, all of whom were educated there.) Great Neck Union Free School District serves about 6,500 students in larger Great Neck, New Hyde Park and a section of the hamlet of Manhasset Hills. The district consists of one preschool, four elementary schools, two middle schools, two traditional high schools and the Village School, which provides alternative education for students with emotional difficulties adapting to conventional classrooms. (A 42 page document details the districtwide reopening plan for the 2020 21 school year.) Raw numbers tell an impressive story. Expenditures per pupil last year were 30,536, versus 22,024 statewide. On 2018 19 assessments, 80 percent of the students from third to eighth grades met standards in English language arts, versus 45 percent statewide; 83 percent met standards in math, versus 49 percent statewide. The average SAT scores for the class of 2019 were 624 English and 668 math, versus 534 for both subjects statewide. "Buyers have always come here because of the strong education that Great Neck offers, and more so now than ever," said Angela Chaman, an agent with Laffey Real Estate. Ms. Chaman's two younger children are students in the district, and her eldest, a 2019 graduate, is a student at the State University of New York at Binghamton. "The class sizes are smaller," she said. (The student teacher ratio is 11 to 1.) "There is individual attention. If I had a child having a hard time during a certain period of life or with a certain subject, I always felt I could reach out to the teachers and admin for extra help." Asked whether competition with other highly regarded Long Island school districts Jericho, Syosset and Roslyn, to name a few is a force for excellence, Ms. Chaman said, "maybe." Born in Iran, she gave more credit to Great Neck's many immigrants and first generation Americans, who respect the advantages of a good education and have high expectations for their children. A curriculum that offers Mandarin, Spanish, French and Hebrew reflects its international student body, as well as dishing out opportunities to hungry young learners, she said. (The district is 47 percent white, 41 percent Asian, 9 percent Hispanic or Latino, 2 percent multiracial and 1 percent Black or African American.) By the way, Great Neck also has a direct train line to Manhattan, more than 20 parks, four library branches and excellent shopping attractions that raise the financial bar for entry. A four bedroom "contemporary Colonial" on a third of an acre in the village of Great Neck Estates is 1.788 million, with taxes of 32,562. A two bedroom co op in a 1965 building near the Long Island Rail Road station, is 589,000 with a 1,081 monthly homeowner's fee that includes property taxes. In 2017, Money magazine named Valley Stream, a village in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, the best place to live in New York State. Pushing it into the winners' circle were affordability, good schools, low crime, multiple parks with manifold recreations, a neat and clean appearance and the ease of getting in and out of New York City. The 3.5 square mile village is edged and intersected by highways, has two Long Island Rail Road stations within its borders and one just outside, and is five miles east of John F. Kennedy International Airport. In December, Home Snacks, a company that aggregates public information about cities, named Valley Stream the most diverse city in New York. According to 2019 census data, the population is 31 percent white and non Hispanic, 27.6 percent Black or African American, 22.9 percent Hispanic or Latino, 15.4 percent Asian and 4.6 percent mixed race. Eddison Lopez, a real estate broker with Douglas Elliman, was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and is of mixed Spanish, French and South Asian heritage. Having lived in Valley Stream for the last 25 years, he said he has encountered no personal animus based on race and raised his children in an environment that was overwhelmingly tolerant. Is it all sweetness and harmony? Of course not. Recently, Jennifer McLeggan, a Black nurse who lives with her toddler daughter in Valley Stream, publicized video evidence of being continuously harassed by racist white neighbors. But Mr. Lopez said he was reassured that the community rallied to support Ms. McLeggan, staging a Black Lives Matter protest in July that more than 1,000 people took part in. He still sees Valley Stream as a place of opportunity, particularly for those aching to break free of confined living quarters. "After months of being indoors, that's why people come out here," he said, "not only for diversity but for peacefulness, cleanliness and spacious surroundings." The homes showing up on the market are "flying off the shelves," he said. Among the 125 listed is a three bedroom 1925 house clad in clapboard and shingles in the southern Gibson section, near the train station; it is asking 479,000, with taxes of 6,992. A 1937 Tudor on a tree lined street between Edward W. Cahill Memorial Park and the Green Acres Mall is 638,000, with taxes of 14,159. A 1959 five bedroom house in the North Woodmere section of South Valley Stream is 799,000, with taxes of 20,001. Also consider: Englewood, N.J.; New Rochelle, N.Y. Concerns about dense living environments coupled with newly flexible work arrangements are sending New Yorkers beyond the edges of their known worlds. While some relocate to remote counties where there just may be dragons (or at least terrible cellphone service), others are finding their bliss in upper Westchester. The town of North Salem, 50 miles from New York City, and just west of Connecticut has about 243 people for every square mile. That figure for Manhattan is 66,940. "North Salem to me is awesome because it's an equestrian town," said Anthony DeBellis, a broker for Douglas Elliman in Westchester County. This is a land of horse farms, bridle paths and even fox hunting, a piece of the English shire preserved nine miles southwest of Danbury Mall in Connecticut. Most properties are a minimum of four acres and most development is shunned. With an assist from the North Salem Open Land Foundation, the town has more than 1,200 protected acres. Commercial establishments not dedicated to horse lovers include the Market at Union Hall, which sells local farm products; Hayfields Cafe and Florist, a multitasking restaurant and caterer; the Blazer Pub, which dates to 1971 and is famed for its chili; and One Twenty One, led by a chef from Jean Georges. Because North Salem hides its light under a bushel, it has a revelatory effect on city people who see it for the first time. Mr. DeBellis said he leaves his business cards at Harvest Moon Farm and Orchard for day tripping pumpkin and apple pickers to find. "I get a lot of phone calls from people who say, 'I didn't know this town existed.'" (This fall, fruit picking will continue by appointment.) North Salem contains four hamlets: Purdys and Croton Falls to the west (both have Metro North train stations; travel time to Grand Central Terminal is about 80 minutes), and Salem Center and North Salem to the east. The Titicus Reservoir, an eight mile wide body that is stocked every spring with 7,000 brown trout, is at the center. Taking advantage of a pandemic induced closing, the Hammond Museum in North Salem, a showcase of East Asian culture, is revitalizing its seven acre Japanese Stroll Garden. In the Sal J. Prezioso Mountain Lakes Park, a 1,082 acre preserve with five lakes in the southeastern part of the town, hiking trails snake through a native hardwood forest. Fifty two homes were listed for sale as of Aug. 3. The least expensive is a two bedroom 1986 townhouse in the Cotswolds, one of North Salem's few developments. Located about a mile southeast of the Purdys train station and Interstate 684 it costs 425,000, with a monthly homeowner's fee of 650 and annual property taxes of 11,257. (Rural doesn't come cheap in these parts.) A slender borough in Essex County less than 20 miles west of Manhattan, Glen Ridge borders the beefier and better known townships of Montclair and Bloomfield and depends a great deal on their shops and entertainments. But not on their schools or transportation. Glen Ridge has a highly regarded school district that serves 1,900 students, and a train station with direct weekday service to Penn Station. (The ride is about 35 minutes; on weekends you change at Newark.) The borough's streetlamps complement a fine collection of vintage architecture, much of it preserved from the second half of the 19th century. The many whims of style crazed Victorians are represented Greek Revival, Carpenter Gothic, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Shingle Style. More than 80 percent of Glen Ridge lies within a historic district, and almost 75 percent of the housing stock dates to before World War II. Stanford White left his Beaux Arts mark in Glen Ridge, as did Frank Lloyd Wright. The hexagon shaped Stuart Richardson house, built in 1951 on Chestnut Hill Place, and one of only three designed by Wright remaining in New Jersey, sold last year for 1.3 million. The borough is lavished with nine parks in its 1.3 square miles. Toney's Brook rambles through the "glen" of Glen Ridge's midsection and is marked by a gazebo. And last month, the nonprofit Open Space Institute announced efforts to acquire a nine mile long former rail line and turn it into a pedestrian and bicycle trail that would extend from Montclair, through Glen Ridge, and southeast to Jersey City. "I can't tell you how many phone calls I'm getting from New York City and the Gold Coast of New Jersey," Ms. Orsini said referring to buyers attracted to the community. She said the "outward push" was creating an "upward push in sales prices," though Glen Ridge was never known for its bargains. From March 15 through July 31, average sales have been 10 percent over ask. For the Most Bang for Your Buck West Hartford, Conn. The pandemic, and its disruption of work habits, has led New Yorkers not just to untether from the city but to propel themselves to places where they never dreamed of living. So why not consider a community less than two hours from the George Washington Bridge with historic roots, a walkable center, high ranking schools, three public libraries, six public parks, two active senior centers, a 10 year old mixed used development that went out of its way not to look like a typical shopping mall and a raft of "Best Places" awards, including from Money magazine, Niche, Family Circle, Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and a travel website called The Crazy Tourist? "In West Hartford you have everything," said Scott Glenney, an agent with William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty, who works in the greater Hartford area. "Nature, culture, restaurants with award winning chefs." New developments are helping to shift the center of gravity from adjacent Hartford, though there is easy access to the economically troubled capital's jobs and cultural offerings. And proximity to the nearby Farmington Valley means being minutes away from apple orchards, golf courses, hiking and river sports. For Mr. Glenney, fresh from showing a Manhattan couple a house in nearby Avon, the biggest argument for West Hartford is the relatively low cost of real estate, even with Connecticut's high property taxes. Among the 98 active listings for single family houses on Realtor's website as of Aug. 3, the most expensive was a Bauhaus inspired 1936 modern house with five bedrooms, on 1.5 acres. The asking price was 899,900, with taxes of 23,370. A 1930 Tudor Revival house with four bedrooms on a quarter acre lot, two blocks from the 18th century home of the lexicographer Noah Webster (it is now the historical society) was listed for 549,900 with taxes of 11,622. And a 1951 three bedroom Cape Cod house on a deep, 0.37 acre lot, across the street from an elementary school and near a country club was priced at 339,000 with taxes of 6,870. 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 |
A few years ago, Adalberto Martin began to see some troubling changes at work. As a veteran member of the room service staff at Marriott's W Hotel in downtown San Francisco, he was an expert in delivering carefully assembled trays of food and drink to hungry guests. But the number of orders had sharply decreased. What was once 50 glasses of orange juice every morning had dwindled to 10, and Mr. Martin's tip income fell accordingly. At lunchtime, he seemed to make more deliveries of plates and silverware than actual food. Room service, as we imagine it in the movies, with white tablecloths and silver cloches, has long been in decline, even at the fanciest hotels. But Mr. Martin attributes his loss of earnings to the proliferation of food delivery apps such as Uber Eats, DoorDash and Postmates, successors of online ordering services like Seamless. Now he wonders if soon he'll be out of a job altogether. "We're always worrying and concerned when we see other hotels nearby closing room service," Mr. Martin told me. "It's just a matter of time." His co workers at the W and staff members at other hotels report similar trends: The doormen and bellmen who once summoned cabs for guests, and were tipped in return, now watch lines of Ubers and Lyfts coil in front of the lobby doors, while concierges have had their work outsourced to iPad consoles. Some hotels offer tablets in every room preloaded with food delivery apps, and give guests vouchers for Uber and Lyft rides. In the microcosm of the hotel, the app economy has expanded choices for some (the guests) and shrunk options for others (the workers). These currents in hospitality represent a subtle, sneaky form of technological displacement, care of the gig economy. They're not robots stepping in for humans on a factory floor, but rather smartphone based independent contractors and supplemental "cobots" (a portmanteau of "co worker" and "robot") chipping away at the careers of full time and in some cases unionized employees. In the beginning of the gig economy, people most feared one to one job loss: An Uber driver comes in, a taxi driver goes out. And taxi drivers have indeed lost their livelihoods and taken their own lives. Yet many app workers are only part time, driving or TaskRabbit ing to supplement their wages in a traditional job. App companies, for their part, deny that even full timers are employees, perpetuating the fantasy that gig workers are solo entrepreneurs. It's a business model that reduces everything to a series of app enabled transactions, and calls it work, leaving what's left of the welfare state to fill in the rest. Aaron Benanav, a labor historian at the University of Chicago, explains that this process of "de skilling" and misclassification is happening all over the world. The gig economy "is being used to replace skilled workers with less skilled, or continuing a process that's happening all over the world of 'disguised employment,' where you bring in independent contractors to replace employees," he said. "There's an app for that" means that there's less steady, reliable work for traditional employees. How far has this sort of gig work spread? It's hard to say. In 2017, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics collected additional data on "contingent workers" for the first time since 2005. It found that only 1.3 percent to 3.8 percent of the work force is involved in independent and so called gig work, though smaller surveys have shown that 35 percent of Americans do some "freelancing." What is clear is that the platform economy has further blurred the lines between who's employed versus underemployed, unemployed or out of the labor market. And it's not just a matter of numbers: People fear app based gig work because it threatens the very concepts of boss and worker, governor and governed. Corporations are keen to dissolve the boundary between traditional employment and independent contracting. As Mr. Martin watched his work dwindle, his employer, Marriott, and its competitor Hilton looked to Silicon Valley. In 2017 and 2018, according to the National Employment Law Project, the two hotel giants joined with their nemesis Airbnb and the TechNet coalition (including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit and many other "innovation" companies), to lobby for a federal bill, the NEW GIG Act, that would, among other things, effectively convert anyone who finds work through an online "platform" into an independent contractor. The service sector, in contrast to manufacturing, is just beginning to contend with automation and technological displacement in the form of robots, apps and algorithms. In hospitality, "We're right on the edge of the cliff some of it is already replacing positions: reservations and check in at the desk," Elizabeth Stringam, a professor in the hotel school at New Mexico State University, told me. "What we do with those people is up to us as an industry." It's also up to the workers affected. In 2018, Mr. Martin and nearly 8,000 of his Marriott colleagues went on strike, in part over technological concerns. The union representing them, Unite Here, had seen automation, apps and algorithms creep into hotels and casinos around the country. In light of these trends, D. Taylor, the international president of Unite Here, told me, it was essential to make technology "a key point in our negotiations." The union's standard contract now requires employers to give advance notice of technological changes that affect workers' jobs. Employers must negotiate the terms of such changes and offer training in the use of these technologies. The contract also offers a "soft landing" (that is, severance and retraining options) to workers displaced by automation, and gives bellmen and doormen pay increases to offset tips lost to Uber and Lyft. Uber's business model, which depends on classifying drivers as independent contractors, has drawn new scrutiny of what Mr. Benanav, the labor historian, calls "disguised employment," especially in California. Last year, that state's highest court issued a key ruling on independent contractor status, and on Jan. 1, a new law based on that court decision began to strictly limit who can be classified as an independent contractor. The law affects not just Uber and Lyft drivers, but also long haul truckers, writers, photojournalists and cosmetologists. Not everyone is happy: App corporations refuse to admit that the law applies, and media companies have chosen to drop freelance writers in California rather than adjust their workloads or convert them into employees. In December, three separate groups including one led by Uber and Postmates filed suits claiming that the law was unconstitutional, and Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Postmates and Instacart have spent tens of millions of dollars on a ballot initiative that would exempt them from the measure. Nevertheless, elected officials in other states are drafting similar bills to combat misclassification. For all the acrimony in the gig economy debate, workers seem to understand one another. When Dalida Ahmic, then a room service worker at the Battery Wharf Hotel in Boston, went on strike with Unite Here in September, she watched a stream of Uber Eats and Grubhub delivery workers walk into the lobby. Though these app based workers posed a threat to her job, she empathized with their situation. "It's very sad that they have to do this job," Ms. Ahmic told me, noting their lack of health insurance and their low pay. Mr. Taylor, of Unite Here, recalled a moment from a recent meeting with bellmen. "They were talking about the problems with Uber and Lyft," he recounted. "I said, 'Can everybody get out their phone? Who here has Uber or Lyft on their phone?' All of a sudden, they were like, 'Oh.' So I said, 'You guys, we're not stopping this. The question is, what do we do about it, insofar as it affects your job?'" The conveniences of the app economy need not come with reckless disregard for working people. But only a broad based fight for fair treatment and lawful classification can dismantle the ideology of labor built into Uber and its ilk: that all workers should be as productive and loyal as lifetime employees, and expect nothing in return. For too many people today, 40 year tenure, generous health insurance, employer funded education and pensions are a distant memory. That doesn't mean, however, that they wish to float about, untethered to all but their smartphones. The robot future may be on its way, but what's scarier still is the present being shaped by Silicon Valley. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter ( NYTopinion) and Instagram. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
"The Valley" by Matthew Albanese is a photograph of a tabletop scale diorama that he created. Picture a redwood forest. The trunks like monoliths. The tree canopy like clouds. The fallen needles: a shag rug piled centuries deep. Now imagine someone has left a busted refrigerator somewhere in the scene. If you were to Instagram this natural tableau, what would your friends identify as the subject? A term exists in conservation biology to explain this odd selectivity in how and what we see: "plant blindness." The concept, developed 20 years ago by James H. Wandersee and Elisabeth E. Schussler, describes the human tendency to ignore what the two scientists describe as "the aesthetic qualities of plants and their structures." We habitually overlook such obvious elements as color, size, spacing, symmetry and tactility. The consequence for ecological awareness? What's out of sight is out of wait ... do you see a Red Bull in the refrigerator? Say what you will about the challenges of growing a shrub in the garden. Replicating a plant in miniature demands a lot more ingenuity. The attempt to fabricate a simple tiny twig or leaf has inspired designers and artists to experiment with anything and everything: polymer clay, wax, wood, glass, copper, paper, vellum, resin, foam, cotton, sponge, feathers, fake fur, artificial crocodile skin and parsley. Botanical miniatures belong in a cabinet of curiosities: They invite a level of scrutiny that makes the everyday appear not just unfamiliar but exotic. Occupying the border between science and art places them in the land of design. It's a small niche, with few practitioners. And yet the work is making a sizable footprint: in botanical sanctuaries such as Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans, and Callaway Resort Gardens in Pine Mountain, Ga.; in museum shows in New York, Miami and Palo Alto, Calif.; and in natural history museums, such as the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, N.Y. These curiosities invite us to see plants their color, size, spacing, etc. for the sake of seeing plants. No small feat. Patrick Jacobs, 46, began his career in sculpture by studying old pest and weed control manuals. Next, he recreated the demonstration photos a cellar floor, an empty sidewalk as dioramas of dead space. Eventually, Mr. Jacobs added the latex rubber cast of a yellow splotched "broad leafed plant," soon to be poisoned into oblivion. A few decades later, the weeds have won out. (They always do.) The viewer observes Mr. Jacobs's teeming green worlds through a custom ordered biconcave lens. The diorama may measure just a foot wide by 10 inches tall and deep. Yet objects farther from the lens appear smaller, creating the illusion of great depth. A sealed steel box becomes a sort of holodeck, transporting the visitor to a wide open meadow. However small they may be, botanical miniatures don't fit neatly in the taxonomy of conventional botanical art. Carol Woodin runs the exhibition program for the American Society of Botanical Artists, headquartered at the New York Botanical Garden. Nearly all the group's 1,700 members work in watercolor, pencil or pen and ink. "Over the years that I've been involved in botanical art," Ms. Woodin said, "I've seen maybe half a dozen botanical sculptors." Classic botanical art puts a premium on technical accuracy. This emphasis dates back some 500 years, to when botanical illustrations would introduce newly discovered species in scientific papers. "You wouldn't want to find alternate leaves on a maple whose leaves should be opposite," Ms. Woodin said. A tiny number of botanical sculptors continue to abide by this same spirit. (Their work is miniature to the extent that the anther cap of a pink lady slipper orchid may be the size of a Tic Tac.) The Thai artist Supawadee "Pa" Ngamhuy, for example, formed 128 plants out of polymer clay for the Wild Center, in the Adirondack Mountains. But good luck trying to find them. With few exceptions, Ms. Ngamhuy's reproductions appear indistinguishable from living specimens. A handful depict colorful woodland mushrooms, such as the rosy russula. She has smuggled dozens of native wildflowers and orchids into a 20 foot long display of a sphagnum moss bog. Stephanie Ratcliffe, 59, the executive director of the museum, said that sculptures like these, in a glass cabinet, could help visitors recognize the plants on a hike in the field. "There's only so much you can learn in two dimensions cameras and phones and flat screens," Ms. Ratcliffe said. The botanical sculptor Trailer McQuilkin, 71, shares that belief. The only way to render a wildflower with his extreme level of accuracy is to work from a living model. "I take these plants apart and dissect them, and count each stamen," he said. One business advantage of Mr. McQuilkin's method is that almost no one else would have the patience to try it. In part that comes from his supremely unforgiving material: sheet copper, copper wire and oil paints. For almost 50 years, he's been employing a tool set that includes shears, surgical scissors, pliers, a rubber mallet, an anvil and a butane torch. (At this autumnal stage in his own life cycle, Mr. McQuilkin also relies on jeweler's glasses.) He works at life scale, but the plant parts can be minute. To paint the fine veins on a leaf, Mr. McQuilkin said, "I'll take a sable hair brush and cut it down to two or three hairs." Many of the finished pieces go to botanical gardens. Mr. McQuilkin's work will be shown Thursday and Friday at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden. "Artists have art critics," he said. "My critics are botanists." An even better endorsement comes when a bee or hummingbird dive bombs his copper flowers in search of pollen. How much verisimilitude is too much? Imagine being enticed to bite into the replica salad in a deli display case. Now think how the bee must feel. One of the great virtues of botanical art, Ms. Woodin said, is "you're never going to run out of subject matter." But then no law of the jungle says the artist must stick to existing plants. In recent years, Matthew Albanese, 35, has recreated oaks and willows from his memories and imagination. This Eden turns out to be the northwest corner of New Jersey, where he lives. But for the past few months, Mr. Albanese has been studying paleobotany for a diorama called "The Hottest Day on Earth." The garden includes vanished genera such as Tempskya (a trunkless tree fern of the Cretaceous period) and Sigillaria (a spore bearing tree of the Late Carboniferous period). "You may think it's a normal jungle, but it's actually quite alien," Mr. Albanese said. "If you look closely, you'll say, 'I've never seen a tree like that.'" The plan for the finished model involves hundreds of specimens staged on a plywood platform the size of a Ping Pong table. "It's more a bigature than a miniature," Mr. Albanese said. In preparation, Mr. Albanese has been stocking a fake tree nursery on a wire shelving unit in his parlor workshop. He's been getting good results so far with artificial snakeskin for the trunk of an extinct cycad relative called Williamsonia. Through his previous botanical miniatures, Mr. Albanese has concluded that you can make a convincing replica of just about any environment on Earth if you have 200 to spend at Hobby Lobby. Willing to travel a little further afield? Mr. Albanese has discovered through trial and error that the dust surface of the planet Mars looks like a mixture of cinnamon, chili pepper and paprika. Science fiction movies were his first love, and his finished art takes the form of highly staged cinematic photographs. Mr. Albanese constructs his landscapes as they appear through the lens of his Canon 5D. From this angle, Mr. Albanese isn't just goofing around with dyed feathers and fake fur; he's building a movie set. Mr. Euclide seems to admire the tenacity of the stuff. His paintings explore themes of urban decay, with miniature forests spilling off the canvas. It's tromp l'oeil crossed with an oil spill. In some sense, however, the trick to Mr. Euclide's art is that there's no trick. By working with plants like jasmine flower and sage as modeling materials, "There's nothing in there that's not what it is," Mr. Euclide said. "A wolf is an animal even when it's wearing a sheep's coat." A plant is a plant, no matter how small. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
LONDON Confronted with what they consider a power play by a group of wealthy soccer clubs to promote the Champions League at the expense of national championships, representatives of Europe's domestic leagues will meet in Lisbon this week to discuss a strategy to protect what they say is decades of tradition, and a basic sense of fairness. What the leagues fear, several officials said, is what they consider a behind the scenes campaign to reshape European soccer for the exclusive benefit of the continent's biggest clubs. The leagues contend the proposed changes to the Champions League, which include new barriers to entry for nonelite clubs and schedule changes that would push matches onto weekend dates, will diminish the relevance and marketability of domestic leagues, and potentially render many of their matches irrelevant. At this week's Lisbon meeting, an annual gathering of the umbrella European Leagues group, members will discuss plans to fight back perhaps even in court against suggested changes that they argue will adversely affect the competitions that still form the cultural and financial backbone of the global soccer industry. The coalition of leagues is a diverse group leagues from Portugal to Ukraine are members but a potentially formidable one given the influence and resources of members like England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga and Spain's La Liga. "The association of European Leagues is raising its voice and the leagues are cohesive more than ever in the defense and protection of domestic football," said Alberto Colombo, the deputy general secretary of the European league body, in an interview. While representatives of the continent's richest and most powerful clubs and European soccer's governing body, UEFA, say any discussions for reforming club competitions like the Champions League remain in their infancy, league officials have grown increasingly concerned about details of the proposed changes that have started to leak. The most dramatic include reducing the size of national leagues and altering their schedules to allow European games to be played on weekends, a window historically reserved for domestic matches. The Bundesliga's chief executive called weekend Champions League matches a "red line" that could not be crossed. English officials similarly declared the idea a nonstarter. "It is the role of the Premier League and other English football organizations to govern the format of league and cup competitions in this country," the Premier League spokesman Nick Noble said. "It would be wholly inappropriate for European football bodies to create plans that would alter the structure of domestic English football." Other proposals would see access to the Champions League itself severely restricted, with only 8 of 32 participants allowed to earn their places through success in domestic competition the previous season. The other 24 places would be reserved for teams already in the Champions League, or a handful of participants from a second tier European club competition. Andrea Agnelli, the president of Juventus, who leads the powerful European Club Association, said at that group's annual meeting in Amsterdam last week that it would be at least a year before any changes would be finalized, and he refused to discuss details of proposals already under discussion. However, in an interview with The Guardian last year, he described reforms he would like to see that appear to be similar to those currently under discussion. While the E.C.A. represents more than 200 clubs from across Europe, it is increasingly dominated by a handful of the largest teams. That group includes the likes of Juventus and Bayern Munich but also heavyweights from Spain and England like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United. Those clubs have for years used their might and threats to break away and form an exclusive competition outside the current domestic league structure to wrest concessions from soccer's leaders. Javier Tebas, the frequently outspoken head of Spain's top league, said the proposal to restructure continental competitions for the benefit of the small group of rich clubs that already dominate them would spell doom for soccer in large parts of Europe. The changes would, Tebas said, allow the wealthiest clubs to widen the massive talent and resource gap they already enjoy, and tear away the fabric of the sport's traditions. Playing European competition matches on the weekend, in particular, would be "a recipe for the demise of football across Europe," Tebas said in a statement. The Bundesliga's chief executive, Christian Seifert, concurred in a speech earlier this year. "The weekend must belong to the national leagues," Seifert said. "They are the heart and soul of professional football." Access to the Champions League is currently linked to performance in domestic leagues, but under one set of proposals that could change drastically, with most participating teams allowed to compete year after year regardless of their league positions. In one plan, Europe's top 32 teams would be divided into four groups of eight teams, with the top four each season advancing to a knockout round to determine the winner. Such a change would dramatically reduce the attractiveness of national leagues for broadcasters, where the battle to qualify for European club competitions has long been part of the narrative sold to television companies. At times, in fact, the battle for Champions League positions has often been more compelling than the race for the title, which in some countries is often wrapped up months before the end of the campaign. Agnelli hinted that, in the future, qualification could be based on success within European competitions a setup that would maximize places for teams already in, and serve as a significant barrier to clubs trying to break in. "It is certainly something that is logical," he said when asked if teams could be promoted or relegated within a closed European system. The proposals could transform soccer's top club competition into one that resembles a similar event in European basketball, where 11 of the 16 teams in the EuroLeague are guaranteed spots regardless of their domestic performances. For the biggest clubs, a closed off Champions League would offer financial certainty. But the leagues are vowing to defend a structure that currently allows any team the opportunity to win on the field a place among the giants. "The leagues defend the basic values of the European sport model, based on sporting merits, an open access pyramid structure where all clubs form the foundation and all clubs could live the dream to reach the top," said Colombo, of the European league body. While the top clubs have forged close links to UEFA thanks to a deepening friendship between Agnelli, the E.C.A. leader, and UEFA's president, Aleksander Ceferin, the leagues faced with a critical leadership void at a vital moment have struggled to present a cohesive opposing voice. The Premier League, for example, remains without a leader after stumbling in its search for a replacement for its longtime chief executive Richard Scudamore, who retired last year. And Lars Christer Olsson, the chairman of the European League body, has only recently recovered from a serious illness. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
From that first trip, how did the business evolve? After a few years of only running student trips, we decided to offer an adult version, but no one signed up for it. After many attempts, B R's concept of high end cycling and walking holidays finally caught on. What started as one trip biking in the Loire Valley became three, and after that, the growth was exponential. Do you need to be super fit to go on active trips? You do not have to be an athlete in any way, shape or form. We classify our trips according to how far you want to go each day and how challenging the terrain is. Also, in Europe we have electric assist bikes. But what if you do want a physically challenging trip? Biking through Tuscany, Japan and the Camino de Santiago in Spain are some of our most challenging rides, while hiking the Incan ruins of Peru provides challenging hikes. And although the bulk of what we do is group trips, you can customize them to you. It's not like our clients bike or walk all together with a leader waving a flag. They're given route maps at the start of the day along with options for longer rides and walks and can move at their own pace. We have our vans along the way to pick them up if they need it, but basically, everyone meets for dinner. Do your clients end up losing weight? The feedback we get is that they don't lose weight because they're indulging in great food and wine, but they don't gain either. What's next for B R and for active travel in general? The push for us is new destinations. France and Italy have always been the most popular, but we've got our eyes on places like Iran, Oman and Sri Lanka. Also, our self guided trips have taken off. With these, we book your hotels and give you all the maps and gear you need and offer restaurant and sightseeing suggestions. And, since our trips usually involve stays in multiple hotels, we also transfer your luggage to each property. You have a local B R employee available to you for anything you need but are pretty much on your own. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Nick Cave, the Australian born poet, novelist, actor, composer and rock band frontman, has been known to cross pollinate his various creative pursuits. His 2009 novel about a sex addicted beauty product salesman, "The Death of Bunny Munro," was available as an iPhone app that blended text with an audiobook narrated by Mr. Cave, set to music by one of his fellow band members. His book tour featured live music. Mr. Cave is attempting something even more unorthodox with his new book, "The Sick Bag Song," an epic poem about his travels across the United States with his band, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Mr. Cave and his publisher, Canongate Books, are bypassing bookstores and other retail outlets altogether, and are instead marketing the book directly to fans through a website, thesickbagsong.com. While there have been successful direct to consumer marketing efforts in other corners of the entertainment industry the comedian Louis C.K. has sold video downloads of his live performances straight to fans, and Radiohead released an album through the file sharing system BitTorrent, asking listeners to pay whatever they liked it remains rare in mainstream publishing for authors and imprints to circumvent bookstores. And Mr. Cave is imposing other unusual restrictions on how readers get the book. "The Sick Bag Song" is available only as a bundled print book, e book and audiobook, narrated by Mr. Cave, for about 44. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
One thing you might not know about Eiko, the veteran dancer, choreographer and activist at the center of Danspace Project's "Platform 2016: A Body in Places": She's funny. Humor isn't a quality I associate with her powerfully slow, often sorrowful work; if it's there, it's subtle. Last summer in Lower Manhattan, as part of a solo project also titled "A Body in Places," she let her frail looking body drift through the pedestrian traffic of Fulton Street Station in memory of the victims of Sept. 11. She looked like an angel, a ghost, a saint, certainly not one of us. But "Platform," a six week series of performances, workshops, film screenings, book club meetings and other events that she has helped organize, all in the East Village, gives us a fuller picture of the artist: Eiko as teacher, curator, New Yorker, friend and someone as capable of cracking jokes as embodying grief and pain. In the first three events of "Platform" a Delicious Movement class on Wednesday morning, a screening of the postwar Japanese film "The Burmese Harp" that evening and "Talking Duets I," a performance on Saturday night she brought a light touch to themes as grave as death and suffering. One of the first ideas she imparted at Wednesday's workshop, which drew more than 40 students of varying ages and levels to St. Mark's Church: "When you die, the body keeps moving." Delicious Movement, taught every Wednesday during "Platform," isn't strictly a dance class, and Eiko was sure to let us know, introducing the D word tentatively, as if it might harm us: "Is everyone O.K. with the word dance?" The term carries baggage that "movement" doesn't, assumptions about training and physique and dependence on music at odds with the inclusive, exploratory spirit of her class. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Eight of the 10 most challenged books last year were based on L.G.B.T.Q. subjects or narratives, the American Library Association said in its annual ranking of books that were banned or protested in schools and public libraries. One of them parodied Marlon Bundo, Vice President Mike Pence's rabbit. Another told a story about a marriage between two men. Other books on the 2019 list were stories about children and transgender identity. "This year, we saw the continuation of a trend of a rising number of challenges to L.G.B.T.Q. books," said Deborah Caldwell Stone, executive director of the library association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, which compiles the list. "Our concern is the fact that many of the books are age appropriate and developmentally appropriate books intended for young people, but they are being challenged because they allegedly advance a political agenda or sexualize children," she said. According to the association, the challenges came from parents, legislators and religious leaders. "Libraries are community institutions, intended to serve diverse communities," Ms. Caldwell Stone added. "That includes all kinds of individuals and families." Challenges to books tend to reflect the times. In 2016, for example, an election year defined by political debates over bathroom bills, immigration and race, several of the most frequently challenged titles shared themes of gender, religious diversity and L.G.B.T.Q. issues. In January, a Missouri lawmaker, State Representative Ben Baker, proposed a bill that would subject public library employees to a fine or jail time for providing "age inappropriate sexual material." Mr. Baker, a Republican, said the bill was inspired by library programming and events like Drag Queen Story Hour. The Office for Intellectual Freedom said that in 2019, there were 377 attempts to remove books or materials from libraries, schools and universities. Most of the challenges came from patrons, followed by administrators, political and religious groups, librarians, teachers, elected officials and students. The challenges sometimes made in a written request, sometimes made via public protest are not always successful, Ms. Caldwell Stone said. "But the fact that the requests are being made is deeply concerning," she added. "We find that young people in particular need to find themselves reflected in the books they read. And serving those needs does not take away anything from those people with other viewpoints." 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. Of the 566 books involved, these were the 10 most frequently challenged. George, a 10 year old transgender child who has secretly renamed herself Melissa, dreams of playing Charlotte, the female spider, in a fourth grade production of "Charlotte's Web." "With refreshingly little fanfare, Gino uses the 'herself' pronoun to describe how George sees, well, herself despite a birth certificate that says otherwise," Tim Federle wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 2015. "George" was also on the American Library Association's 2016 and 2017 lists of most challenged books. The library association said some school administrators removed the book because it included a transgender child, and because they believed that the "sexuality was not appropriate at elementary levels." Some who objected to "George" said schools and libraries should not "put books in a child's hand that require discussion"; opponents also cited its sexual references and a viewpoint described as at odds with "traditional family structure." "Beyond Magenta" was challenged for "its effect on any young people who would read it" and over concerns that it was sexually explicit and biased, the library association said. 'Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Presents a Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo' Written by Jill Twiss and illustrated by EG Keller The book, a gay romance between two bunnies, was the brainchild of the HBO comedy host John Oliver, who described it as a mocking rebuke of the vice president's opposition to gay and transgender rights. The book parodies one written by Mr. Pence's daughter about a bunny who observes the vice president. The library association said the book was challenged over its L.G.B.T.Q. content and political viewpoints ("designed to pollute the morals of its readers") as well as for not including a content warning. In one instance, a person defaced a copy of the book, writing: "Girl bunnies marry boy bunnies. This is the way it has always been." This sex education comic book was challenged, banned and relocated for L.G.B.T.Q. content; for discussing gender identity; and for concerns that the title and illustrations were "inappropriate." Josh Layfield, a pastor in Upshur County, W.Va., met with library administrators to object to the book, which is about a prince and a knight who fall in love, as "a deliberate attempt to indoctrinate young children, especially boys, into the L.G.B.T.Q.A. lifestyle," according to the library association's field report. It was temporarily removed from the library, but later returned. In an interview, Mr. Haack said the "sweeping, epic, romantic adventure that features two men as the leads," as a genre, was practically nonexistent in children's books. "I was hoping to fill that void," he said. "When kids only see a certain way of being, only white protagonists or straight romances, in the media they consume, then that is the template for what is normal for them." Written by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas This 2014 picture book about being transgender has been at the center of controversy and a regular feature on the American Library Association list. Recent challenges focused on its L.G.B.T.Q. content and objected to the fact that it features a transgender person and confronts a topic that is "sensitive, controversial and politically charged." "We are not surprised to see 'I Am Jazz' return to the top 10 list of banned books in America," Ms. Herthel said. "The increased visibility of young trans people combined with the unprecedented political attacks on the L.G.B.T.Q. community makes the book an easy target." Objections to this book centered on its "profanity" and "vulgarity and sexual overtones," the American Library Association reported. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
What books are on your nightstand? "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," by Junot Diaz, which was given to me by my friend Lynnette Taylor, who is a sign language interpreter. She said I would love it after I told her how much I loved Vladimir Nabokov's crazy novel "Pale Fire." Also on my nightstand: "Sapiens," by Yuval Noah Harari; "Tennessee Williams in Provincetown," by David Kaplan, which I bought on my first visit to Provincetown this summer while at the wedding of two friends; "Nos Vacances," by Blexbolex; and "There's a Mystery There," by Jonathan Cott, about Maurice Sendak, who was a friend and mentor to me. What's the last great book you read? Everything by Edith Wharton. I stumbled upon her novel "Summer," which shocked me with its honesty about sex and power, and I spent an entire year trying to read every single book she wrote. I felt this weird kinship with Edith Wharton for some reason, as if I alone had discovered her, which I think is how we're supposed to feel when we fall in love with an author. When Martin Scorsese was filming "Hugo," I watched all of his other films and read endless interviews with him, and I was intrigued by something I came across regarding the characters in "The Age of Innocence." There was a discussion about how Wharton's characters spoke in a social code that was as rigid and mysterious to outsiders as the code used by his Mafia characters. Nobody was able to say what they meant. It seems there really wasn't that much of a difference between Scorsese's "Goodfellas" and Edith Wharton's characters, and maybe this is why so much of her work still feels incredibly visceral and modern. What's the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently? I learned that Leonardo da Vinci was a failure. Walter Isaacson's wonderful biography turns Leonardo from an icon into a human being. For me Leonardo becomes the most human in the explorations of his endless failures: unfinished paintings and statues, ruined frescoes, unpublished ideas, unbuilt machines. Michelangelo even made fun of Leonardo for never managing to finish a giant bronze horse. Of course, these failures are tied to Leonardo's deep curiosity, which kept him endlessly moving forward, questing for more knowledge and understanding, while the things that we recognize as his "work" often seemed to suffer. Isaacson points out that many experts bemoan all the unfinished work left in the wake of Leonardo's self education, but he also points out that it's the same self education that enabled Leonardo to create the "Vitruvian Man," the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper." Not bad for a failure, I guess. Which classic novel did you recently read for the first time? "Rebecca," by Daphne du Maurier. It's so good! Every summer my husband and I go to a book festival hosted by our friend Catherine St. Germans. The festival is held in and around Port Eliot, her late husband Perry's ancient family home in Cornwall, England. During our first trip there, Cathy told me that Daphne du Maurier lived nearby in a home called Menabilly, which served as the main model for Manderley. Cathy and Perry believed that Port Eliot was also an inspiration for Manderley, as well as another home in a book by du Maurier called "The House on the Strand," about a drug that allows you to time travel. It's a bonkers book, but it's also good. I'd long ago seen the Hitchcock film "Rebecca," which was produced by my distant relative David O. Selznick (!), but I'd never read the book. It has one of the great opening lines in literature ("Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again") and the rest of the book is as good as that line. Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. None Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more. See what's new in October: Among this month's new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric. Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125. That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books. What book did you most like to recommend to customers when working at Eeyore's Books (R.I.P) in the '80s? I didn't really know anything about children's books when I started working at Eeyore's. But my boss Steve Geck, who is now an editor at Sourcebooks, took me under his wing and sent me home every day with bags of books to read. His favorites became my favorites: "My Father's Dragon," written by Ruth Stiles Gannett and illustrated by her stepmother, Ruth Chrisman Gannett; "Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree," written and illustrated by Robert Barry; "King Matt the First," by Janusz Korczak; and "Good Night, Gorilla," written and illustrated by Peggy Rathmann, to name just a few. I also liked recommending the few books I remembered from my childhood, especially "The Martian Chronicles," by Ray Bradbury, and "The Door in the Wall," by Marguerite de Angeli. And which recent children's books would you highly recommend? Anything by the mysteriously named French illustrator Blexbolex is an event. One of my favorites is called "Ballad" in English. Kelly Bingham and Paul O. Zelinsky's "Moose" books are great for a laugh, and "Toys Meet Snow," Paul's book with Emily Jenkins, is one of the most beautiful picture books published in the last few years. How do you like to read? Paper or electronic? One book at a time or several simultaneously? Morning or night? I usually read books that are actually in the form of books, with paper, covers and binding. I like the weight of the book in my hands and I prefer the experience of actually turning pages. I like the smell of books as well. I usually have two books that I am reading simultaneously. One is normally a paperback that fits into the back of my pants and is easy to travel with when I'm heading out. The other is often a hardcover and it stays at home waiting for me by my bed. That said, I do love audiobooks. I listen to audiobooks while I'm drawing. For example, I've listened to books by St. Augustine, Oliver Sacks, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Patti Smith and Carrie Fisher. In fact, I might even argue the last two authors have audiobooks that are better than the physical books, since Patti Smith and Carrie Fisher actually read their own books to you. And two years ago, I experienced all of the "Harry Potter" books as read by Jim Dale. They were glorious. What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves? I have a lot of Bibles. Several years ago I read both the Old and the New Testament as research for a speech I was giving in D.C. and I was very moved by the humanity of many of the stories. King David and his son Absalom especially got to me. Here was a story about a child who spends his entire adult life trying to usurp his father, yet in the end the father loves his son no matter what and mourns him deeply when he dies. Isn't there a lesson here for all parents about the meaning of love without conditions? I was also surprised to discover that the story of Onan isn't actually about onanism, and that King Solomon, the wisest of all the kings, ended his days turning against God. Who knew? Plus, there's a talking donkey like in "Shrek." Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? Your favorite antihero or villain? I've always been drawn to stories about orphans: Pip from "Great Expectations," by Charles Dickens; Mary Lennox from "The Secret Garden," by Frances Hodgson Burnett; and of course Harry Potter from the series by J. K. Rowling. If pressed, however, I'd add a few children with living parents, like Lyra Belacqua from the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman; Max from "Where the Wild Things Are," by Maurice Sendak; and Douglas Spaulding from "Dandelion Wine," by Ray Bradbury. Antiheroes or villains include Humbert Humbert from "Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov; Mrs. Coulter from "His Dark Materials"; and the particularly terrifying Dolores Umbridge from the "Harry Potter" series. I'd also add Edward Gorey, who is responsible for the deaths of 26 children in "The Gashlycrumb Tinies." What's the best book you've ever received as a gift? Some years ago I received a fan letter from Ray Bradbury that simply said, "I love Hugo Cabret!" I was floored, particularly because I'd loved his books since high school. I wrote him back and ended up in a phone conversation with one of his daughters, who told me that I should stop by if I'm ever in Los Angeles. "I'm supposed to be in L.A. next week," I lied. When I arrived at his house his daughter met me at the door and ushered me into a tiny room where Mr. Bradbury was sitting in a recliner surrounded by VHS tapes of old movies, piles of books and papers, and a model of the Nautilus from "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Around his neck was a medal, which he said had recently been given to him by the president of France. We talked for a while, and I asked him if it was true that he wrote every single day. He pointed to a nearby box and told me to bring it to him. He opened the box and inside was a manuscript he'd just finished typing for a new book of short stories to be called "We'll Always Have Paris." One of the short story titles jumped out at me. "Remembrance, Ohio." "That's a beautiful title," I said to him. "Thanks," he said, "I made it up." Sometime later a package arrived at my home. It was a copy of his new book. I've only now realized it was Paris that had brought us together in the first place, since it was the setting for "Hugo Cabret." So I guess it's true for me and Mr. Bradbury: We'll always have Paris. What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most? I usually watched the movies of books I should have read. "The Wizard of Oz," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" are all movies I loved based on books I did not read (I've read all of them since). The most influential book I did read was probably "The Borrowers," by Mary Norton, with exceptional line drawings by Beth and Joe and Krush. It's about a family of tiny people who live under the floorboards of a boy's house, and I basically read this as nonfiction. I made miniature furniture and left it for the Borrowers who lived in my house. "Fortunately," by Remy Charlip. It begins in full color with the words "Fortunately, one day, Ned got a letter that said 'Please Come to a Surprise Party.'" But then you turn the page and the next picture is black and white. "But unfortunately," the text continues, "the party was in Florida and he was in New York." Turning the page again reveals another color drawing, and the text, "Fortunately a friend loaned him an airplane." This pattern of alternating between happy color and sad black and white continues through all sorts of adventures and misadventures until Ned winds up at the surprise party, which, fortunately, is for him! The joy of turning the pages, and the surprise of each reveal, has stuck with me to this day and has influenced so much of my work. It was Remy Charlip who taught me the importance of turning the page. (As a side note: I met Remy for the first time just after I'd just begun work on "The Invention of Hugo Cabret." I was able to tell him how much I loved his books as a kid. He asked me what I was working on and I told him about "Hugo Cabret." At that moment, I realized that Remy looked exactly like a character in my story, the French filmmaker Georges Melies, so I asked Remy if he would pose for me. He said yes, so all the drawings of Melies in my book are actually my favorite childhood writer and illustrator Remy Charlip.) If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be? "Charlotte's Web," by E. B. White. It shows the importance of decency, friendship and language. What do you plan to read next? I can't wait to read "The Book of Dust," Philip Pullman's prequel to "His Dark Materials." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
HAVING ceded Cadillac a decade long head start toward regaining relevance in the global luxury car market, Ford Motor's Lincoln division has roused itself from somnolence with a reinvention plan of its own. While the first of Cadillac's new age sedans, the CTS, came to market in 2002, Lincoln is just now rolling out the first of four cars intended to redefine and revitalize the slumping brand over the next four years. The kickoff car, the redesigned 2013 MKZ midsize sedan, was unveiled as a concept last January at the Detroit auto show and goes on sale this month. Lincoln is heralding the MKZ's arrival with an extravagant promotional campaign that on Monday will include an interactive display and visual presentation at Lincoln Center in New York. Last month, during an in depth preview at Ford's Product Development Center here, Matt VanDyke, Lincoln's global director, said the MKZ "lays the groundwork for a transformation of the brand." This is not the first time Lincoln has tried to give itself a makeover, but any successes it achieved have been temporary at best. For years Lincoln has rolled out intriguing concept cars at auto shows only to put them back under wraps, seemingly forgotten. The parent company showed little desire to invest the billions of dollars that General Motors ultimately spent to revive Cadillac. The necessity of a full scale transformation illustrates the depths to which Lincoln, whose calendar year sales plunged by 46 percent in 2001 11, has fallen. Once a luxury leader that created landmark designs like the elegant 1956 Continental Mark II, which was compared with Rolls Royces of the time, and the clean lined 1961 Continental with suicide doors, Lincoln in recent decades has resorted to applying its four pointed star to gussied up Fords and Mercurys. The dichotomy was literally on display at the Los Angeles auto show last week, where displays of notable past Lincolns were more enticing than the new models offered for sale. The borrow and rebadge strategy may have worked while the parent company was accumulating a stable of premium brands known around the world: Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. But Ford sold off those automakers as it retrenched in recent years, leaving only Lincoln to fly the corporate flag in the booming luxury segment. Mark Fields, Ford's chief operating officer, underscored the importance of a revival at the recent opening of the Lincoln Design Studio here. "We really understand that a luxury brand is essential to us as a successful global brand," he said. Lincoln has a lot of ground to make up, and the MKZ is only a tentative first step. While the car may prove a solid midsize sedan, it seems unlikely to elevate Lincoln on the world's stage. For one thing, the MKZ is not a clean sheet design; it is built on the same architecture as the Ford Fusion, and it shares many bits from that less expensive car. Lincoln will continue to borrow from its down market cousins in the foreseeable future. In response to a question after the MKZ was previewed for journalists, Rich Kreder, vehicle integration manager for Lincoln, said the three new models to follow will also be built on platforms shared with Fords. Ford is not the only company using the same platform for midrange and luxury brands: the Cadillac XTS sedan, for instance, borrows its underlying architecture from the Buick LaCrosse. However, the CTS and ATS are built on platforms unique to Cadillac. But luxury leaders like BMW and Mercedes Benz build on brand exclusive architecture, and the flagships of nearly all premium luxury nameplates are unique designs. Like the Fusion, MKZ is driven by the front wheels, with all wheel drive optional. Front drive has foul weather and packaging advantages, and most consumers find it acceptable. But enthusiasts generally prefer rear drive (or all wheel drive) for optimum performance. Lincoln's strategy for building a luxury brand stands in contrast to that of Cadillac. While Lincoln said it would not offer high performance versions of its vehicles, Cadillac's V Series models are potent performers. Like German and Japanese luxury brands, Cadillac has participated in motorsports to establish its performance bona fides. Lincoln has not announced any racing intentions. Unlike Cadillac, which is now directly challenging BMW, Lincoln does not appear to be aiming at the big boys in the luxury field. "Our goal is not to outsell our competitors," said Mr. VanDyke, the global director, "but outdeliver them in terms of experience, personal service, design and quality." He said Lincoln's strategy was to field vehicles in the fastest growing luxury segments. That would presumably include sedans and crossovers but would preclude an image building six figure sports car or a 500 horsepower coupe. With a starting price around 37,000, the MKZ is aimed at the medium premium category inhabited by brands like Acura and Volvo. While the car shares much with the Fusion, its body is distinctive: more formal than the Fusion, with more chrome and finer detailing. The interior is richer, with better grade leather and genuine wood trim. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
Donald J. Trump can be brilliant. On the campaign trail, his diagnosis of the raw anger and disillusionment among white working class Americans bested the most sophisticated analyses from the professional political class. His description of "American carnage" in his Inaugural Address complete with "rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape," impoverished mothers and children, crime, drugs that "robbed our country of so much unrealized potential" struck a nerve with millions of voters who feel left behind by a country buffeted by demographic, technological and social change. But something must have happened between then and now. President Trump cannot possibly believe that nixing the health insurance of 24 million poor or nearly poor Americans to pay for tax cuts at the very top of the income distribution would serve the white Everyman he promised to defend. It's also hard to fathom how whites without a college degree would benefit from Mr. Trump's proposal to cut 54 billion from the civilian discretionary budget slashing projects to help low income families pay for heating in the winter or move to better neighborhoods; cutting nutrition assistance for mothers and help for low income students to enter college. Last week, the Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton unveiled new research offering a bleak portrait of Mr. Trump's base of white men and women without a bachelor's degree: They are, indeed, dying in droves, committing suicide and poisoning themselves with drugs and alcohol at much higher rates than blacks, Hispanics, or men and women in other advanced countries. "Deaths of despair," Professors Case and Deaton call them. From 1998 through 2015, the mortality rate of white non Hispanic men and women with no more than a high school diploma increased in every five year age group, from 25 to 29 to 60 to 64, they found. The desperation took time to build 40 or 50 years maybe, as automation and globalization killed jobs on the factory floor. Squeezed into insecure, low wage jobs in the service sector, many workers lacking the higher education required to profit from the new economy simply left the job market. Others soldiered on. But the changes nonetheless took their toll. Marriage declined and families weakened. The prospects of working class children deteriorated. And successive governments, Republican and Democratic, avoided looking too hard at the plight of modernity's losers. These economic changes affected all workers with scant education, of course. But whites suffered a deeper blow: In 1999 mortality rates of whites with no college were around 30 percent lower than those of blacks as a whole, Professors Deaton and Case found. By 2015 they were 30 percent higher. It seems that blacks and Latinos, whose memories of the halcyon days of manufacturing in the early 1970s are colored by the stain of discrimination, suffered less of a loss. Can Mr. Trump do anything for these people? A lot of them voted for him. Perhaps he has come to believe, as do so many on the Republican right, that American carnage is the government's fault: Welfare itself has corrupted the poor. So best to cut welfare programs to pay for another round of tax cuts. As I suggested in a recent column, perhaps he is banking on the white working class's resentment of poor people, whom they see as moochers entitled to government aid not available to their own struggling families. From a narrow political standpoint, forgetting about his base seems like a counterproductive course to follow. Mr. Trump's most prominent campaign proposals which promised to restore the jobs and the demographics of the 1950s and 1960s by blocking imports and kicking out millions of immigrants are, of course, unrealistic. A more ethnically diverse America is here to stay. The labor intensive manufacturing sector will not return to the United States no matter what the president does. "The trouble with protectionism is that it is not going to bring those jobs back," Professor Deaton told me. "We can spend a huge amount of money inflicting pain on ourselves, not to mention Chinese and Indian and other people much poorer than we are, and not get anything back." But there are more productive ideas around. It is too early for Mr. Trump to simply fold on his promises of a better future for the white working class. Republicans' failure to approve the plan to end the Affordable Care Act devised by the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, and endorsed by the president offers an opportunity to correct course. Why not extend the social safety net to cover his distressed voters, offering a lifeline of stability to help them hang on to their lives? This could include training programs to help less educated workers find new careers in an unstable economy, extended unemployment benefits, or wage subsidies for workers knocked down into jobs with low pay. Even, perhaps, something more generous: truly universal health insurance. There are real political benefits to this strategy. Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive research group, pointed out how, by expanding public health insurance for the poor to cover the working class, the Affordable Care Act created a broader coalition to stop the Republicans' repeal effort. Public health, he wrote, "was transformed away from a 'poor program for poor people' to a broader program in the popular imagination, one that becomes easier for the political class to defend." The party the president represents may not like these sorts of proposals. But the relationship is fractious anyway. He was elected to fix the carnage. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
The biggest prize payday in science came around again Sunday evening when the Breakthrough Foundation handed out more than 25 million in its annual prizes to more than a thousand physicists, life scientists and mathematicians. This year's winners include five molecular biologists who won 3 million each for work in genetics and cell biology, one mathematician, a trio of string theorists who split one 3 million physics prize, and another 1,015 physicists working on the LIGO gravitational wave detector split a special 3 million physics prize. In addition, there were six smaller "New Horizons" prizes totaling 600,000 for 10 "early career" researchers, and a pair of high school students won 400,000 apiece for making science videos. The Breakthrough Foundation was founded by Sergey Brin of Google; Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe; Jack Ma of Alibaba and his wife, Cathy Zhang; Yuri Milner, an internet entrepreneur, and his wife, Julia Milner; and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and his wife, Priscilla Chan. It sprang from Mr. Milner's decision in 2012 to hand out 3 million apiece to nine theoretical physicists, in the belief that physicists are equal to rock stars and deserve to be paid and celebrated like them. Over the years, as more sponsors have joined, the prizes have spread to life sciences and mathematics. The winners each year are chosen by a committee of previous winners. For the last few years, the awards have been given out in an Oscar style ceremony held at NASA's Ames Research Center, with a variety of Hollywood celebrities, who this year include Morgan Freeman, Alicia Keys and Jeremy Irons. There were two physics prizes awarded this year. In May, Mr. Milner, the founder of the Breakthrough initiative, announced a special 3 million prize to the LIGO (for Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) experiment, which detected gravitational waves from colliding black holes last year. A third of the money will be split among the three leaders of the experiment, Ronald W.P. Drever, Kip S. Thorne and Rainer Weiss. The remainder of the award money will be split among the other 1,012 scientists on the team. In a return to the way it originally was, the regular Breakthrough prize this year is going to a trio of theorists who have made serious advances in string theory, the alleged but still unproven theory of everything, and what it might mean for black holes and the universe. They are Andrew Strominger and Cumrun Vafa from Harvard, and Joseph Polchinski of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. According to string theory, all the forces and particles of nature are composed of tiny little wriggling strings. In 1995, Dr. Polchinski showed that the theory also contains objects of two dimensions or more, called "branes," short for membranes. This led to a whole new branch of cosmology, in which branes could be island universes floating in an extra dimensional space like leaves in a fish tank, colliding and otherwise interacting with each other through a higher dimension. In a celebrated calculation in 1996, Dr. Strominger and Dr. Vafa used string theory to compute the information content, or entropy, of a black hole. Their result verified a prediction made by Stephen Hawking using more approximate methods that black holes would leak radiation and eventually explode. In a career spanning four decades, Jean Bourgain, a mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., has published, on average, 10 papers a year, tackling some of the hardest problems in a range of mathematical fields. Some recent work includes a "decoupling theorem" a sort of very abstract generalization of the Pythagorean theorem applied to oscillating waves like light or radio waves. While Pythagoras merely showed how the length of the two shorter sides of a right triangle are related to the longer hypotenuse, the decoupling theorem proven by Dr. Bourgain and Ciprian Demeter of Indiana University shows similar relationships in the superposition of waves. Stephen J. Elledge, 60, is a professor of genetics and medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher. He received the breakthrough prize for research explaining how "cells sense and respond to damage in their DNA and providing insights into the development and treatment of cancer." Dr. Elledge has described DNA as being constantly under attack but having the ability he calls it a sort of chemical intelligence to monitor its own integrity and activate various defense mechanisms. His research interests range far and wide. In 2015, he and his team reported that they had developed a test that, using less than a drop of blood, could reveal nearly every virus a person had ever been exposed to. Other scientists saw vast potential in the test, suggesting it could be used to track patterns of disease across populations and to learn more about how viruses, and the body's immune response to them, contribute to chronic diseases and cancer. Last year, Dr. Elledge won another major prize: the Lasker Award, which is often described as the American Nobel. Harry F. Noller helped unravel the structure of ribosomes and identify the importance of RNA to their mechanics. Ribosomes are like factories that assemble proteins within a cell. They look like a tangled mess of rubber bands and coiled wires. But by decoding their twists and folds, scientists can better understand how the genetic code gets translated. Dr. Noller is a biochemist and director of the Center for Molecular Biology of RNA at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He and his colleagues used X ray crystallography to obtain the first image of the ribosome's molecular structure. His work also helped show that ribosomes are ribozymes, a type of RNA molecule that can facilitate chemical reactions. In this case, the ribozymes stitch amino acids together to build proteins. Roeland Nusse, professor of developmental biology at Stanford University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, helped discover the first Wnt gene in 1982. The gene is part of the larger Wnt signaling pathway, which plays a crucial role in the development of embryos, stem cells, bone growth and the progression of cancer. It is also critical for cell to cell communication in adults and developing embryos. The Wnt signaling pathway is found in every branch of the animal kingdom. It is involved in things as diverse as setting off breast cancer in mice and helping orchestrate the body plan of fruit flies. It has become an important part in many aspects of biology because the molecular cascade it sets off affects the growth of the entire ecosystem of the body. Dr. Huda Zoghbi, a professor of neurology at Baylor College of Medicine, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital, discovered that a mutation to a gene known as SCA1 causes Spinocerebellar ataxia, a neurodegenerative disorder. It can rob people of their control over their hands, legs and speech. An estimated 150,000 people in the United States currently suffer from the disease. There is no known cure and it ultimately is fatal. But insight into its inner workings may provide a way to combat its progression. Dr. Zoghbi's findings have helped provide the groundwork to fighting the disease. Dr. Zoghbi also helped uncover the culprit behind another neurodegenerative disease, Rett syndrome. This crippling condition mostly affects young girls and is often fatal. There are fewer than 1,000 cases a year in the United States. Her team searched for the cause behind the malady for 16 years, eventually identifying it as a mutation in the gene MECP2. By identifying the gene, she also found that it plays a part in other neurological disorders, providing a starting point to fighting the diseases. Yoshinori Ohsumi, a cell biologist and honorary professor from the Institute of Innovative Research at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan, helped pioneer our understanding of how cells recycle themselves known as autophagy through his research with yeast in the 1990s. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
With each passing summer Savion Glover slips into the Joyce Theater with a new show that strives to strip tap to its purest spirit. There's always a mood to go with it. Will Mr. Glover be playful? Withdrawn? Bizarre? This season, he's intent on showing a more mystical side; "OM" unsettling, yet hypnotic falls under weird. Performed on Tuesday at the Joyce Theater, the work relies on a spiritual beat to sync the past with the present that begins with Mr. Glover's decisive feet and emanates through his body in waves of remembrance, homage, allegiance. This is worship. "OM" begins in theatrical twilight. With the curtain closed and the lights dimmed, Kenny Garrett's "Calling," a John Coltrane influenced piece, hushes the crowd. Along the rim of the stage is a row of votive candles. A hint of incense wafts through the air. When the curtain finally lifts, the stage every last crevice glows with candles of all sizes. Mr. Glover's altar is packed with images of Sammy Davis Jr., Gregory Hines, Jimmy Slyde, Gandhi and Michael Jackson; hung on the back brick wall is an assortment of tap shoes. During this 90 minute work, the lighting never changes. While jazz bookends the show the opening of Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" kicks in just after Mr. Glover delivers an emphatic final stomp the show's star taps to chants, confining his performance area to roughly and spookily the size of a coffin. Joined by his frequent partner Marshall Davis Jr., as well as the dancers Mari Fujibayashi, Keitaro Hosokawa and Olivia Rosenkrantz, Mr. Glover performs with a detached aura, yet brandishes an unruffled blitz of feathery, flickering feet by turns, forceful and buttery that pulls you toward him like a magnet. As with meditation, the task is to let the mind stay open, and that's required for this journey too. It's about faith: following rhythms with your ears and eyes. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Our columnist, Jada Yuan, is visiting each destination on our 52 Places to Go in 2018 list. This dispatch brings her to the Rogue River area of Oregon; it took the No. 35 spot on the list and the city is the 13th stop on Jada's itinerary. "They say the river has eyes, and it does," said my guide, Howard Binney, a 59 year old retired firefighter who started fishing Southern Oregon's Rogue River "system," as he calls it, with his grandfather when he was 12. "I've seen bear cross the river, mountain lions in the trees. I've seen eagles and osprey pull fish out of the water. It's a beautiful, mysterious place." It was early April and the temperature would hit 74, but the water was still too cold to get in without a wet suit. So instead, we floated down a tranquil section of the Rogue in Mr. Binney's flat bottomed aluminum fishing boat. The Rogue, which runs for about 215 miles from the High Cascades to the Pacific, was one of the original eight waterways designated for federal protection under the 1968 National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Mr. Binney, who wore waterproof black overalls and a tan cap with a sun protective flap that hung over his neck like a fabric mullet, manned two wooden oars. The roe he used to bait his hooks came from salmon he had caught, and then cured at home. In the several hours that we had been on the water, I'd seen Canada geese, flocks of resident (as opposed to migratory) ducks, a single osprey and wild horses grazing along the bank. The trout and salmon we had come seeking, though, seemed to be nowhere around. Even the "bank fishermen" we passed wading waist deep just offshore in rubber overalls (including a Marine from Florida with huge biceps and a backward baseball cap) weren't getting any bites. "Slow day, huh?" said Mr. Binney, in commiseration. Not too long ago, lack of fish was a real ecological cause for concern. But the reason I'd come to the Rogue is precisely because it's thriving. Over the past 10 years, environmentalists have fought to remove nearly every dam on the river and its tributaries that had been blocking the paths of salmon and steelhead trying to migrate to their spawning grounds. Nature has regained control. It's a remarkable thing to behold, a river flowing free. The charming log cabin hotel, the Weasku Inn, where I stayed in a room frequented by Clark Gable, a fishing enthusiast turned out to be a terrific resource. (Other Weasku fans: Walt Disney, Bing Crosby and Herbert Hoover.) The hotel led me to my 200 half day trip with Mr. Binney, who typically charges 400 for two people for eight hours, all equipment provided. We also had to pick up a one day out of state fishing license for around 20 from U Save Gas Tackle, run by another experienced river guide, Troy Whitaker. Three day white water adventures that hop from inn to inn are popular, too; they just wouldn't have worked for this trip. Most of my fellow guests at the Weasku were older couples from Northern California or Washington who had come to explore the excellent Applegate Wine Valley Trail. The Weasku offers a 25 self guided Discover Oregon tour, which comes with two wine glasses that serve as your entry ticket to tastings at 13 wineries in Southern Oregon, any time that season. Since I was driving, I opted for a single stop, at Del Rio Vineyards Winery, one of the largest in Southern Oregon and the closest. I'm like Thomas Haden Church's cheerfully indifferent character in "Sideways" most wine tastes pretty good to me. But halfway into the 10 tasting, I was certain Del Rio's wines were more than good. All became clear once I met one of the winemakers, Aurelien Labrosse. He's from Burgundy (the head winemaker is from the Loire Valley), came for what he thought would be a six month stint, and then stayed for six years. Why? "Because it's awesome," he said. "Beautiful place, beautiful wine." Je suis d'accord. Night owls, be warned; nearly every winery and store closed at 5 p.m. And restaurants in Grants Pass, the small city closest to the hotel, stopped serving at 10 p.m., and often earlier. I pretty much lived off the free happy hour appetizers at the Weasku. When you do eat, though, make sure it involves blue cheese. Rogue Creamery has won awards for that moldy goodness, and a farm stand on its dairy in Grants Pass served a grilled cheese sandwich made of Oregon blue cheese, a type of mild Cheddar called TouVelle, and honey, on locally made white bread basted with grape seed oil, that I'd commemorate in song if I could. Bonus: you can stop by the barn next door to thank the cows for their service. (Sandwiches available at the dairy 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. Its cheese shop in Medford has it seven days a week, as well as pre assembled packages to make them at home.) Even more indelible was Jasper's Cafe in Medford, a roadside burger joint near the airport. The menu features bison, elk, kangaroo camel, boar, New Zealand Axis deer and two types of beef. But with the help of a tall man in a cowboy hat who turned out to be the owner, John Lenz I had the greatest veggie burger of my life. It was a moist black bean patty topped with blue cheese, grilled onions and garlic aioli. I craved it every day I was in Oregon and was nearly late to my flight getting another one on the way out. Here's an existential travel question: If you were pressed for time, but one of the natural wonders of the United States was a five hour round trip drive away, would you be able to resist? Ever since I'd arrived in Oregon I'd heard the refrain, "You have to see Crater Lake." It's a national park housing the deepest lake in the country, and arguably the most pristine in the world, high in the collapsed caldera of an inactive volcano in the Cascades. More doable excursions were everywhere: a short hike up Upper Table Rock Trail; a play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, 30 minutes away; a visit to the optical illusions of The Oregon Vortex. And still Crater Lake called out like a siren. Finally, on my last day, I went for it, despite video from a webcam that showed it was snowing. Up the mountains I drove, to a lookout over Rogue Gorge, where the Upper Rogue River rages through narrow walls of lava. Cold, crystalline flakes pelted my face. But Google Maps told me Crater Lake was only 9.2 miles away. Then my cell signal went out. I spent an hour inching my way up slippery roads, through snow only a few other cars appeared to have driven on, until I finally reached the Crater Lake entrance which was closed. On my way back, I spotted a sign I'd missed at a junction near Rogue Gorge that said just that. Much further down the mountain, I treated myself to a short, snow free, moss filled hike to see Mill Creek Falls off Highway 62. I'd happily take much of that drive again; it was gorgeous. But I would also believe the webcam. Jada Yuan is traveling to every place on this year's 52 Places to Go list. For more coverage or to send Jada tips and suggestions, please follow her on Twitter at jadabird and on Instagram at alphajada. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
It was supposed to be a profitable spring for Trilogy Lacrosse. Its spring break training camps held in Arizona and Nevada for high school teams were sold out. So was its youth tournament at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, scheduled for the last Sunday in March. The company, founded by a band of former college all Americans, hoped to celebrate its 15th year in operation in style this month. After all, Trilogy had expanded its Mid Atlantic footprint to the South and the Midwest, with dozens of camps and tournaments hosting more than 15,000 lacrosse players annually. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. In a flood of emails and cellphone calls over the first week of March, coaches and parents for more than 30 teams told the company that they would not travel to the Arizona or Nevada camps, prompting their cancellations. Not long after, Trilogy's MetLife tournament was called off. "It was a flashbulb moment," said Ryan Boyle, a co founder of the company. "We went from a full spring and gearing up for our prime summer season to being at a full stop and trying to figure out what is a moving target." Like the hospitality industry, youth sports is a leisure industry reliant on bringing children and their families together on fields and in gyms. The summer, of course, is its big money season because family vacations can be planned around travel team tournaments in cities like Chicago or in sports megacomplexes, like LakePoint Sports in Emerson, Ga., that have flourished across the United States catering to and cashing in on the estimated 45 million children that play in youth leagues and on club teams. Before the spread of Covid 19, youth sports generated more than 15 billion annually and created the "tourna cation circuit," as it is known, by becoming like a cruise ship for sporting families with all inclusive offerings. Now, however, there has been an enormous reckoning, one that has evaporated tens of millions of dollars and is getting worse daily as events and camps are canceled into the summer. The damage is likely to be brutal and long lasting. More than 113 youth sports organizations signed a letter asking Congress to create an 8.5 billion recovery fund to help the industry recoup anticipated financial losses from camp and event cancellations. "First, there is not going to be that kind of discretionary income out there," said Dave Brown, who owns Basketball Stars of New York, which fields teams and camps for about 5,000 children. "And then, do you think private schools are going to rent me a gym to hold a camp for 60 kids in this environment?" Indeed, until perhaps a vaccine is developed, some parents are going to reconsider letting their children play sports where proximity and contact are unavoidable. This perhaps presents an opening for individual sports like swimming and diving, golf and tennis, where athletes can be farther apart from one another. Still, for youth sports operators, success is predicated on planning venues need to be booked, coaches and officials hired, participant fees set and collected. When the lights go off in buildings, however, that structure and profits disappear. Next comes a feeling of helplessness. Jerry Ford, the president of Perfect Game, said he has postponed "hundreds" of baseball tournaments and showcases. The company, an amateur baseball and softball scouting behemoth, hosts more than 1,000 events annually, the bulk of them over the summer months. With 100 full time employees and thousands of part time employees in flux, Ford said all he can do is wait and hope. "It's a mess devastating," said Ford, who founded the company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "There are going to be certain people not traveling anywhere this year and some that would be traveling right now if you'd let them. All we can do is be ready to go when this thing lifts." With a summer lacrosse season looking increasingly impossible to conduct, Boyle and his nine other full time employees are trying to stay busy, amused and on brand by producing Trilogy Lacrosse Theater on their YouTube channel and uploading inspirational posts on their Instagram. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
"Project Runway" arrived on television at the end of 2004, the same year that Mark Zuckerberg created a website called The Facebook at Harvard. In 2007, Apple released the first iPhone. Three years later, when "Project Runway" was in its seventh season, Instagram appeared in the App Store. That tech history lesson is to say: 2019 looks a whole lot different from 2004. So when Bravo reacquired the rights to "Project Runway" last year, the network wasted no time in recalibrating the show, which will have its premiere on Thursday . The most significant of the changes is the cast. Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum, whose faces have been synonymous with "Project Runway," announced last September that they would not return to the show and that they are developing a new fashion series with Amazon, where viewers will be able to buy the styles they like through the website. Zac Posen, who replaced the designer Michael Kors, also departed. Nina Garcia, now the editor of Elle, is the only remaining member of the original cast. The new host is the supermodel Karlie Kloss, who is also the founder of Kode With Klossy, a nonprofit that hosts coding camps for girls around the country. Christian Siriano, who won the "Project Runway" competition in its fourth season and made a name for himself as a designer to the stars and a champion for inclusivity, is the new mentor. Joining Ms. Garcia on the judges' row are Elaine Welteroth, who is the former editor of Teen Vogue, and the designer Brandon Maxwell, who most recently made a splash dressing Lady Gaga for the Oscars. Guests will include the rapper Cardi B and Dapper Dan, who in the 1980s and '90s made "knockups" using the Gucci logo without permission and who has recently made a buzzy comeback with a Harlem atelier and an authorized Gucci collaboration. Bravo is surely counting on these casting choices to help revive the show's ratings. According to Nielsen, Season 5 drew the most viewers: almost 3.6 million per episode. By Season 16, the last to air, the audience was roughly half that. Though "Project Runway" was ahead of the curve in some ways bringing in a designer who incorporated magnets, cameras and other technology into her work, for instance, or asking contestants to make clothing from waste (a Heron Preston move before Heron Preston) the show also had moments best left in the past. Fans will remember an episode in which Mr. Gunn called a model "zaftig" and then elaborated, saying, "She's a little large." Today Mr. Gunn would be swiftly "canceled" across social media for such a comment. The culture has changed. And one of those changes the MeToo movement is in part the reason the show is back on Bravo. "Project Runway" was owned by the Weinstein Company, which declared bankruptcy last year after dozens of women accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct that spanned decades. Though the show ran on Bravo for its first five seasons, the Weinstein Company signed a deal in 2008 to move it to Lifetime. But after allegations against Mr. Weinstein became public in 2017, Lifetime's parent, A E Television Networks, accused the Weinstein Company of breaching its contract and ended all of its obligations to the show, including the airing of Seasons 17 and 18. In May 2018, a Delaware bankruptcy court approved a bid from Lantern Capital Partners to acquire the Weinstein Company's assets. Days later, Bravo announced that "Project Runway" would return. "It's been on another network for 10 years, but if you asked a lot of people, they would tell you it's a show on Bravo," Ms. Levine said. "We defined it, and it defined us." A long running criticism of "Project Runway" is that over a 14 year run, it produced only one high profile designer: Mr. Siriano. Many of its contestants opened boutiques or started their own lines, but none reached the mainstream recognition of Mr. Siriano. "A lot of people went to design school and wanted to become designers because of that show," said Fern Mallis, the industry executive widely credited with organizing New York Fashion Week (and who appeared on "Project Runway" several times as a guest judge). "On the other hand, it falsely created a sense that if you sew two pieces of fabric together, you're a designer." Ms. Mallis added that many of the challenges tested the contestants' artistic abilities but not their understanding of the moneymaking side of fashion. "Your business still has to manufacture, deliver and price items correctly," she said. Some of the changes in the 17th season nod to those concerns. Bravo has increased the prize money to 250,000; thrown in a mentorship with the Council of Fashion Designers of America, which runs the main New York Fashion Week calendar; and added a "flash sale" component to some of the episodes, which will allow viewers to purchase the top looks, as decided by them and the judges. "One of the disconnects about the previous show was that if you loved it, you couldn't necessarily buy it," Mr. Maxwell said in a phone call. The change was both a response to the new culture of consumerism items are a click away and a way to engage the audience in real time. "Everything is changing in retail," Ms. Kloss said over breakfast at Mercer Kitchen in SoHo in February. "Here we are in SoHo, and there are so many vacant spaces." Ms. Welteroth, sitting next to Ms. Kloss, chimed in. "You cannot underestimate the power of the digital revolution," she said. "Before, there was no dialogue unless you were writing a letter and snail mailing it in. Now you hear the voices of the people you're reaching instantly. That gives the consumer or the reader much more power. You can no longer ignore marginalized voices who are saying, 'Hey, this doesn't reflect me, this offends me, this doesn't include me.'" She added: "You can sell online without ever getting the approval of Vogue." Ms. Welteroth, who is credited with reinventing Teen Vogue as a more socially conscious, politically engaged publication, noted that designers have to be conscious of the world around them. "You have to be mindful of what is happening and really conscious in how you create and what stories you're telling," she said. To that end, one of the challenges on the new "Project Runway" will ask each designer to think about and create designs for an issue they want to champion. The new show also strives to reflect a broader swath of experiences. "I'm really proud we have women of all shapes and sizes and the first transgender model in 'Project Runway' history," Ms. Kloss said. "Fashion should serve everyone." The new judges said they adjusted to their roles quickly, each finding a personal rhythm and style. "Brandon would have, like, really funny stuff," Ms. Welteroth said of Mr. Maxwell's design notes. "Like, 'cowgirl goes to SoulCycle.' Or he would just put a big 'No.' One time Nina left early, and we looked at her cards, and we were, like, 'Wow.' We saved them. They were so good." Ms. Kloss turned to Ms. Welteroth. "Your notes were, like, there was not an ounce of space left on the card," she said. "I would just have three words." For all the changes, some things stay the same, even in the "one day you're in, one day you're out" world of fashion. "I felt like all I talked about was fabric," Mr. Siriano said of his time as a mentor. "The importance of choosing the right fabric," he said, "will exist till the end of time. Satin doesn't change." And besides, he said, "If you can't pick one fabric for one challenge, how are you making a collection four times a year for customers around the world?" | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Hailee Hoffman at her parents' house in Salt Lake City. Her former coach was named to the U.S.A. Gymnastics Hall of Fame soon after Hoffman filed a complaint accusing the coach of emotional abuse. Her stomach turned. She had to read the news twice. Hailee Hoffman, a former Stanford gymnast, couldn't believe what she was seeing. Mary Wright, Hoffman's coach when she trained at Olympus Gymnastics outside Salt Lake City, was named to the U.S.A. Gymnastics Hall of Fame, and the timing that day in August could not have been more awkward. Days before, Hoffman had filed a formal complaint against Wright with the United States Center for SafeSport, an independent body that handles abuse and misconduct cases in Olympic sports. Hoffman accused Wright, who has coached Olympians and national team members from several countries, of years of emotional, physical and verbal abuse. "I feel morally obligated to speak out because Mary's abusive coaching was so seriously damaging that it's taken me years to process the extent of it," Hoffman, 24, said in an interview. "It's crazy to celebrate someone like that, especially right now when the sport is trying to get away from its toxic culture." Wright did not answer several email and phone messages. U.S.A. Gymnastics stood by the award, saying no complaint had been received at the time the decision was made to bestow it in 2017 or before the day of the announcement in August. The Center for SafeSport forwarded Hoffman's complaint to the federation two days after the award was made public. U.S.A. Gymnastics said in a statement that it "would reconsider the induction if and when a case is adjudicated, if necessary." Four other gymnasts and three parents of children who trained at Olympus Gymnastics also told The New York Times that they or in the case of the parents, their children were abused by Wright. One coach who worked alongside Wright for more than a decade said she was aghast when Wright was named to the Hall of Fame because she believed Wright had treated her gymnasts harshly. All but one of those people who confirmed Hoffman's accusations asked to remain anonymous because they are still connected to the sport and feared retribution. Kelle Land, whose young daughter trained at Olympus Gymnastics for four years, said she was preparing to join Hoffman's case against Wright. Land was so turned off by the coaching at Olympus, she said, that she switched to another gym. "Mary would be downright mean, awful and hurtful to the girls, and it was almost like she wanted to see how badly she could emotionally degrade those kids or physically break them," Land said. "You would think U.S.A. Gymnastics would do everything in its power to get these bad coaches out of the system and not, at the very least, applaud them." The accusations against Wright have surfaced as hundreds of gymnasts worldwide have spoken out since the summer about an oppressive culture in the sport that they feel has been driven by tyrannical coaches who scare young athletes into obedience. The gymnasts said it went beyond tough coaching and crossed into emotional or physical abuse. Many began speaking out after watching the Netflix documentary "Athlete A," which chronicles gymnastics' punishing culture and the sexual abuse inflicted on more than 200 girls and women by Larry Nassar, a former United States national team doctor who is serving a lengthy prison term. Morinari Watanabe, the president of the International Gymnastics Federation, said in an online address last month that the existing mentality of coaches trying to gain "absolute power" over their athletes is an antiquated, dangerous way of coaching. "If we don't break it, the problem will continue forever," he said. Hoffman, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, said Wright perpetuated the sport's abusive culture. To keep Wright from harming more children, Hoffman said, she plans to push for Wright to receive a lifetime ban from the sport because "the pain she caused so many young girls was just so lasting." Wright, 70, started coaching gymnastics as a teenager in her native New Zealand, according to an online bio. In 1975, she moved to the United States and quickly rose in the sport. For about a decade, starting in 1979, she worked with Don Peters, the 1984 Olympic coach and longtime national team coach, as his assistant at SCATS Gymnastics in Southern California, one of the most successful American gyms at the time, where she coached top gymnasts. (In 2011, U.S.A. Gymnastics barred Peters for life and removed him from its Hall of Fame based on accusations that he had sex with three of his teenage gymnasts in the 1980s.) At Olympus Gymnastics, the Utah club Wright opened in 1993, she prided herself on helping dozens of gymnasts, including Hoffman more than 100 in all, by her count earn college scholarships in the sport. "Mary was a tough coach, but she was a good coach," said Taryn Apgood Taylor, who trained with Wright from age 9 until she retired at 17 because of injuries. "I had a wonderful relationship with her and really felt like she protected her gymnasts." Taylor, 39, was one of eight gymnasts who trained with Wright when Olympus first opened. Wright would yell at the gymnasts and encourage them to work through the pain of injuries, she said, but that method was more accepted then than it is now. From Taylor's perspective, Wright never acted out of anger and never forced gymnasts to train on injuries if a doctor had advised against it. After gymnasts finished training on an apparatus, Taylor recalled, Wright expected them to hug her and thank her, so there were no hard feelings. "I never saw her intentionally be mean to someone," Taylor said. "She travels the world coaching, and if people didn't value her skills or her way of doing things, that wouldn't be the case." In recent years, Wright had been working with New Zealand's national team and is now one of many coaches there under investigation by an independent commission organized by Gymnastics New Zealand, the national program, for emotional abuse, physical abuse and bullying, according to one gymnast with direct knowledge of the complaints lodged against Wright. That gymnast did not want her name used because she is still competing and said Wright wields a lot of influence with international judges. The independent review, led by David Howman, the former director general of the World Anti Doping Agency, is looking at specific cases of physical and psychological abuse at both the club and national team levels, but is also examining the culture of the sport. Sweeping investigations into abusive coaching are also underway in several other countries, including Australia, Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Some mental health experts say the recurring verbal abuse, including berating, ridiculing, threatening, demeaning and insulting, can be as harmful to young people as physical abuse or sexual abuse. It has also been linked to depression. "I know so many gymnasts who won't speak out because they are still scared of Mary," Hoffman said. "It tells you something about the system and how the abuse of children can leave deep, deep scars." In May, in a landmark case alleging emotional abuse, Maggie Haney, former coach of the Olympian Laurie Hernandez, was suspended for eight years for what a U.S.A. Gymnastics hearing panel called "severe aggressive behavior" toward gymnasts. But that case took nearly four years to be adjudicated by U.S.A. Gymnastics, and similar cases are currently still under review within what some gymnasts and parents call an opaque and disorganized disciplinary system. Hoffman wonders if her case will take just as long. One case filed against Qi Han, an elite coach based in North Carolina, has been open since 2017 and remains before the Center for SafeSport. Han has repeatedly denied the accusations. Daniel Hill, a spokesman for the Center for SafeSport, said on Wednesday that the organization does not comment on cases, or even confirm them. In May, Ju'Riese Colon, the chief executive of the organization, acknowledged in a statement to The Times that the center was taking too long to adjudicate some matters. Another emotional and physical abuse case, one against Sabrina Picou, a coach in Louisiana, remains unresolved two years after it was filed by families at her gym. Picou, a former gymnast at L.S.U., did not respond to requests for comment on her case. In 2018, an investigator from U.S.A. Gymnastics' SafeSport department initially interviewed several parents of gymnasts who had formally complained about Picou. Soon after, the investigator stopped returning phone calls and emails, and "fell off the face of the earth," according to Maryelizabeth LeBoeuf, a clinical psychologist and mother of two gymnasts she claims were abused by the coach. "It is precisely this gym environment in question that allows the type of abuse Larry Nassar committed to go unchecked for so many years," LeBoeuf wrote in an email in 2018 to Mark Busby, the U.S.A. Gymnastics lawyer who deals with SafeSport issues. "How can this organization espouse 'cultural change' if they are unable to follow up on a physical/emotional abuse complaint that affected dozens of very young children?" The case had been lost three times inside the system, LeBoeuf said, adding that she was shocked late last month when U.S.A. Gymnastics emailed her about it. The federation said it had sent Picou a resolution letter and was waiting to hear if the coach would accept the terms. Hoffman can relate. She sent her complaint to the Center for SafeSport on Aug. 5. But amid a bureaucratic back and forth with the gymnastics federation, U.S.A. Gymnastics told her that SafeSport was still deciding whether to accept the case. Kim Kranz, the U.S.A. Gymnastics official who is in charge of the SafeSport department, told Hoffman the federation was asking SafeSport to pursue it so there would be no question about the outcome. "We don't want there to be any hint that we treated the case differently due to Mary having been recently inducted into our Hall of Fame," Kranz wrote to Hoffman. On Thursday, Hoffman received an email from the Center for SafeSport saying an employee had been assigned to her complaint. In an interview last month, Kranz and the president of U.S.A. Gymnastics, Li Li Leung, said the federation was taking steps to improve the handling of complaints it received to speed up the process. Over the past few months, the federation was finally able to close more cases than had come in, they said. A main focus of the federation, they said, is educating coaches on what good coaching looks like and acknowledging that accepted methods of coaching have changed. "When I was in school, the principal was allowed to spank kids when they were misbehaving, but they don't do that anymore," Kranz said. "I've spoken to a coach who said: 'I used to coach like that. I was mean and I realize how damaging my behavior was toward these athletes, and I don't do that anymore. " | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
In December, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation of Hawthorne, Calif., better known as SpaceX, landed a rocket on Earth, flying a booster stage of one of its Falcon 9 rockets back to Cape Canaveral. This month, the company repeated the feat even more impressively, setting the booster down on a floating platform in the Atlantic. Now SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, has its sights set farther away: It aims to land one of its capsules on the surface of Mars in May 2018, the company announced in a Twitter message on Wednesday. In an announcement on Wednesday, SpaceX said it planned to send an unmanned Dragon capsule to Mars in 2018 and land it on the surface about six months later. (Mars and Earth line up only once every 26 months.) NASA also plans to send people to Mars, although not as quickly, aiming for the mid 2030s. On Wednesday afternoon, a couple of hours after the SpaceX Twitter message, Dava J. Newman, NASA's deputy administrator, wrote: "We are closer than ever before to sending American astronauts to Mars than anyone, anywhere, at any time has ever been. A new consensus is emerging around NASA's plan and timetable for sending astronauts to the Red Planet in the 2030s." NASA has emphasized that unlike the Apollo missions to the moon it is not working alone, but is enlisting the help of other countries and endeavors. Almost in passing, Dr. Newman mentioned the SpaceX Mars effort. "Among the many exciting things we're doing with American businesses, we're particularly excited about an upcoming SpaceX project that would build upon a current 'no exchange of funds' agreement we have with the company," she wrote. "In exchange for Martian entry, descent and landing data from SpaceX," she continued, "NASA will offer technical support for the firm's plan to attempt to land an uncrewed Dragon 2 spacecraft on Mars." Landing on Mars is tricky. The atmosphere is thick enough that the energy of the arriving spacecraft slamming into the air molecules heats its outside to thousands of degrees, but it is too thin for parachutes to provide a gentle landing. NASA has turned to innovative devices like airbags, used to cushion the landings of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers in 2004, and a Rube Goldberg esque "sky crane" system to set down the larger and heavier Curiosity rover in 2012. A team at NASA's Ames Research Center in California proposed SpaceX's Dragon capsule as a cheaper way to land on Mars, using rocket engines. SpaceX liked the idea enough to start working on it as well, signing an agreement to tap into NASA expertise. The Dragon capsule would be launched on SpaceX's larger Falcon Heavy rocket, which has yet to have its first flight. "These missions will help demonstrate the technologies needed to land large payloads propulsively on Mars," said Philip Larson, a SpaceX spokesman. But even with SpaceX's recent technological tours de force, getting to Mars in 2018 would be a huge, quick leap for a company that has yet to leave Earth's neighborhood. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages and a few last chance picks of shows that are about to close. Our reviews of open shows are at nytimes.com/reviews/theater. 'BAGHDADDY' at St. Luke's Theater (in previews; opens on May 1). There are known knowns, there are known unknowns and then there is a musical offering an absurd yet apparently plausible explanation for how the United States went to war in Iraq. Reviewing an earlier production of this Marshall Pailet and A. D. Penedo show, Anita Gates described it as "an important, cunning, rock solid musical comedy." 212 239 6200, baghdaddymusical.com 'IN OF ITSELF' at the Daryl Roth Theater (in previews; opens on April 12). Now you see him; now you ... see him again. Derek DelGaudio, a magician somewhat more droll than most of the presto chango set, had a hit a few years ago with the two man magic act "Nothing to Hide." He returns to New York with a new show, directed by Frank Oz, involving prestidigitation, mentalism and autobiographical vignettes. 800 745 3000, inandofitselfshow.com 'OSLO' at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (in previews; opens on April 13). J. T. Rogers's political intrigue, based on true events, comes to Broadway. Jefferson Mays and Jennifer Ehle play a resourceful Norwegian couple who facilitate a peace process. When it played off Broadway, Ben Brantley called the drama "a vivid, thoughtful and astonishingly lucid account of a byzantine chapter in international politics." 212 239 6200, lct.org | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Rob Spillman and Elissa Schappell, the founding editors of Tin House, at home in Brooklyn last month. "It was important for us right from the start to get not just unrepresented voices, but voices from outside of the sort of standard literary lane," Spillman said. The great fame of American literary magazines is that almost no one reads them. Some so called little magazines boast a three figure readership; to reach the very low five figures is a rare achievement. The second best known fact about literary magazines is that they are financially vulnerable. No one makes money from a literary magazine, and no one gets rich working at one. And yet these journals persist. The 1990s saw a crop of new little magazines, including Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Open City and Zoetrope: All Story. But Tin House, a quarterly that began publishing in the spring of 1999, quickly set itself apart, injecting the staid world of literary magazines with humor, adventurous design and an expansive editorial mission that mixed risky work by new and established writers. This month, Tin House will publish its 80th and final issue, a 400 page testament to its essential role in welcoming unrepresented writers into the literary landscape over the past 20 years. (The issue reprints a tweet from me last year in praise of its track record.) The magazine came out of the gate hot. "This little book may very well represent the future of literary magazines," Cynthia Cotts wrote in The Village Voice. She reported that St. Mark's Bookshop, on East 9th Street in Manhattan, had sold 58 copies of the debut issue in only three weeks, a rate then on par with that of a best selling book. Novelty will give any new venture a boost, but Tin House wasn't just new, it was distinctive. Part literary magazine, part glossy, it merged the design sensibility of a commercial magazine with an eclectic mix of short stories, nonfiction and poetry. Over the years, the magazine has published work by some of today's best known writers, often work that couldn't find a home in other magazines: poems by Stephen King; haiku by Colson Whitehead; writing by Rebecca Makkai; a handful of pieces by Ursula K. Le Guin, who lived just up the street from the magazine's office in Portland, Ore. 'We really want to change things.' The idea for Tin House began with the publisher Win McCormack. It was a longtime dream, he said in an interview last month, to start a literary magazine not for publishing professionals or academics but for "the many passionate readers," as he wrote in his publisher's note in the first issue. He wanted to create a "funkier" version of The Paris Review, and design was an essential element. The pretension of older literary journals was to be avoided, right down to the name. McCormack hired Holly MacArthur as his first managing editor (she eventually became deputy publisher). On a lunchtime walk, she proposed "Tin House," after the metal sided house McCormack had purchased for the publication's Portland office. In his search for an editor, he found not one, but two: the married couple Elissa Schappell and Rob Spillman. Schappell was working as a book columnist for Vanity Fair, and her resume included a three year stint at The Paris Review under one of its founding editors, George Plimpton. Spillman had worked at The New Yorker and was writing a book column for Details. He had grown up in a community of artists in West Berlin, and witnessed firsthand how mutual support encourages artistic production. Schappell was initially hesitant to accept McCormack's offer. "Why would I want to start a magazine when I'm a writer?" she said. But the prospect of making a more inclusive publication won out. "We were pretty sure Win was going to want a hockey team within five years," Schappell said, "and so part of our thought was: 'Here's this guy. He's got this money, he's got some good ideas. We really want to change things.'" It was a longtime dream for the publisher Win McCormack to start a literary magazine, he said. McCormack wanted the magazine to be based in Portland, but Spillman and Schappell, who live in Brooklyn, persuaded him to make it bicoastal. "Tin House was an opportunity to really kind of stick our thumb in the eye of traditional publishing," Schappell said. When she told Plimpton that the editors of Tin House intended to publish a new writer or poet in every issue, she recalled that he was skeptical, telling her they'd have a tough time discovering enough new writers of high caliber. But every issue of Tin House, including the last, featured at least one writer in the New Voices column. Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. None Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more. See what's new in October: Among this month's new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric. Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125. That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books. "It was important for us right from the start to get not just unrepresented voices, but voices from outside of the sort of standard literary lane," Spillman said. (Spillman, 54, has remained vocal about the need to support underrepresented voices in literature and his own efforts to ensure a gender balance in the pages of the magazine.) There's a "huge world of writers people of color, transgender people, women who haven't been given a fair shake in the literary world," Schappell, 55, said. "That's on the editor. You have to go out and find that work," she continued, "because we all know the only people writing are not white men." 'These were the conversations you wanted to join.' Traditionally, literary magazines have been an archaeological dig of the white male imagination. But reading an issue of Tin House was an act of discovery of literature's great variety of styles and subjects and voices. The author Karen Russell first encountered Tin House in graduate school in the 2000s. "I definitely had the impression," she said, "that Tin House was where the party was at these were the conversations you wanted to join, the brilliant weirdos with whom you wanted to share a dance floor." Tin House's inaugural issue included Virginia Woolf's niece, Angelica Garnett, on Michael Cunningham's Woolf centric novel "The Hours" and the author Rick Moody on the influence and singularity of Brian Eno's music. Writers could dilate on whatever they were passionate about, regardless of timeliness. The first issue inaugurated the Lost and Found column, which has appeared in every edition since, in which writers praise underappreciated books. For fiction and poetry, the editors cast an equally wide net, publishing, among others, stories by James Kelman, David Foster Wallace and the newcomer Christina Chiu, as well as poetry by Agha Shahid Ali, C.K. Williams and Nuar Alsadir. The magazine's adventurous design quickly became one of its hallmarks. The second issue kept pace. It featured a previously unpublished story by the Nobel laureate Kawabata Yasunari and a poem by the late Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, interviews with Rikki Ducornet and Edward Said, and Jean Nathan's Lost and Found essay on the children's classic "The Lonely Doll" and its enigmatic author Dare Wright. The author Victor LaValle had one of his first stories published in that issue. When he received his copy, he showed it to his mother, "and she could look at it and hold it," he recalled. "It felt substantial because it looked like a little book." Tin House, LaValle said, became a home for him. In addition to publishing stories in the magazine, he sent suggestions of writers to watch for. 'The most exciting book group you could ever imagine.' Literary magazines, perhaps above all, create communities, not just between readers and writers but between writers and other writers. In the pages of Tin House, Russell was introduced to "some of my favorite stories and a wonderful coven of women writers," including Lucy Corin, Samantha Hunt and Sarah Shun lien Bynum. Now a critically acclaimed writer, she still finds Tin House to be a magazine committed to writing above all else. The final issue contains her 11,000 word story "The Gondoliers." "I was so grateful to be able to publish it at this length," she said, "with none of the edges sanded off." Fiction selections have always been driven by a strong narrative voice, Spillman said. "We pushed toward the more playful." He noted "dry periods" of mediocre submissions, "but then you get your socks knocked off by an Adam Johnson or a Maggie Nelson or Alice Sola Kim." An issue that contained some of Karen Russell's writing. "I definitely had the impression," she said, "that Tin House was where the party was at." McCormack recalled that the magazine had rejected stories by Gunter Grass the month before he won the Nobel Prize. "We had good reason to: They were terrible," McCormack said. "But if I'd known he was going to win the Nobel, I'd have picked the least objectionable." More recently, the magazine turned down Kristen Roupenian's story "Cat Person," which went viral when it was published in The New Yorker in 2017. Spillman felt that the man in the story should not have the last word, and that the story ought to circle back to the woman, whose point of view determines the narrative, but Roupenian wanted to keep the ending. Spillman stands by his decision. The range of work in the magazine was supported, too, by a democratic approach to the editorial process. McCormack, who has an M.F.A. in creative writing, was involved in editorial decisions for the first 10 years, but bowed out to focus on political projects. "It was probably a mistake," he said. "It made me feel distant, after a while, from the magazine." All editors combed through unsolicited submissions. (Before narrowing the submission window, the magazine received roughly 20,000 a year.) The editorial conversations, Spillman said, were "one of the biggest joys of the whole experience. It was like the most exciting book group you could ever imagine." From the stacks of unsolicited submissions, the editors published Emma Cline's first story, when she was 16, and two by Dylan Landis, who was then 41 and making the transition from journalism to fiction, Spillman recalled. McCormack cited Emily Raboteau's "Kavita Through Glass," from the spring 2002 issue, as among his favorites. Spillman remembered that the story had been rejected by about 20 other magazines before it found a home at Tin House, and it was later selected for Best American Short Stories. The endpapers of the final issue are lined with the names of all the writers the magazine published over the years: 1,582 in all. There are three requirements to sustain a literary magazine: money, an enthusiastic commitment of time and energy and good literary judgment. (To money, the former editor of the magazine Ploughshares, Don Lee, once added "zeal, stupidity, fervor, obsessive compulsion, indefatigability, out and out insanity, idealism." Those things don't hurt, either.) Tin House later expanded to include a book division which started in 2002, and has published writers including the poet Morgan Parker and the novelist Kristen Arnett and the Tin House Summer Workshop, a weeklong festival of ideas and readings pairing established writers with up and coming ones. These operated in conjunction with the magazine to deepen Tin House's mission and expand its ecosystem of writers. Both the book division and the workshop will continue. In the case of the magazine, the third requirement was never in short supply, but the first two had run their course. For McCormack, also the editor in chief and chairman of The New Republic, the magazine was expensive to keep going, and Spillman wanted to end his run while he was still excited about it. (Schappell stepped down from the top of the masthead shortly after the first issue to pursue her own writing, but continued to find work for the magazine as editor at large.) "I didn't want to get to a point where I was unable to be surprised or I resented the work in any way," Spillman said. After the release of the final issue, he plans to spend 10 days touring in a "bookmobile" from Brooklyn to New Orleans in conjunction with the literary arts nonprofits House of Speakeasy and Narrative 4. Even as he was wrapping up the final issue, Spillman was as optimistic about literary magazines as he had been in 1999. "Twenty years ago I believed that stories, poems and essays could build bridges and save lives," he wrote in his final editor's note. "I still believe this." Nicole Rudick is an editor and writer, and was managing editor of The Paris Review for eight years. Follow her on Twitter: nicolerudick | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Now You Can Use Instagram to Chat With Friends on Facebook Messenger None SAN FRANCISCO Facebook began allowing people to use the photo sharing app Instagram and the messaging app Messenger to communicate with each other on Wednesday, as part of a planned integration of the social network's major messaging applications. With the changes, people who use Instagram can now send photo, video or text messages to those who use Facebook Messenger, and vice versa. The two apps had operated separately, with no direct communication between them. Facebook said it would also add roughly 10 features to Instagram that were previously exclusive to Messenger, such as group video watch sessions, an ephemeral messaging mode and "selfie stickers." Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, announced last year that he planned to knit together the company's three messaging apps, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, noting that more people were communicating privately online. That's a marked difference from the early days of Facebook, when users publicly posted to their digital "walls." "We're basically giving people the ability to do something they all want to do across apps," said Stan Chudnovsky, vice president of Messenger at Facebook, in an interview. More than 100 billion messages are sent across Facebook's family of apps every day, Mr. Chudnovsky said. That far surpasses the roughly 24 billion SMS text messages exchanged daily on mobile carriers at their peak around 2015. Lawmakers and regulators have expressed concerns that Mr. Zuckerberg's integration plan is part of a strategy to keep authorities from breaking Facebook apart. The company is under intense antitrust scrutiny, especially over its acquisitions of smaller rivals over the years; its critics have argued that Facebook essentially neutralized competitive threats. Last month, Mr. Zuckerberg answered questions under oath as part of a Federal Trade Commission inquiry into whether Facebook had broken antitrust laws. The opportunity in messaging is enormous. Much of the world has been carved out according to messaging platform, with regional players tending to dominate. Japan's Line, for instance, is the most popular service in the country, while Tencent's WeChat is pervasive in China. But the United States has been an anomaly. Americans tend to have three or more messaging apps on their smartphones, Mr. Chudnovsky said, citing Facebook's research. One in three U.S. users also loses track of conversation threads across the apps in use, he said. Integrating Instagram, Messenger and eventually WhatsApp which is more difficult because of how the encrypted service works, Mr. Chudnovsky said will also help Facebook ward off its competitors. Apple is one of the largest communication enablers, with iMessage installed on every iPhone. Google is ramping up its efforts by supporting a broad based messaging language designed to work across different mobile phones and cellular carriers. And Signal, the encrypted messaging app, has gained traction over the past few years. As part of the integration, the 10 new features in Instagram expanded colors and stickers for chat messages, animated message effects, and others will be powered by Messenger's infrastructure. Facebook also plans to introduce Watch Together, which allows people to watch videos or movies inside Messenger while on a video call with friends or family. The product is similar to those from different media companies, including one introduced by Disney on Tuesday in its Disney streaming video app. Facebook has heavily promoted group video chats since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. For now, the integration of Instagram and Messenger will be slowly rolled out to people in a few countries; Facebook did not specify where. Users in those countries, a subset of the more than two billion people who use the apps, will then be able to decide whether or not they wish to opt into the newly integrated services. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
AUDIENCE OF ONE Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America By James Poniewozik If TV execs were asked to classify James Poniewozik's illuminating new book, "Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America," they might use the term "dramedy." Poniewozik is a funny, acerbic and observant writer. He calls Melania "the most Trump like of Trump's wives, with a model's glower that matches his own," and remarks of Trump's relationship with cable news, "He pushed the drug, and he got high on it." But Poniewozik, the chief television critic of this newspaper, uses his ample comedic gifts in the service of describing a slow boil tragedy. If humor is the rocket of his ICBM, the last three years of our lives are the destructive payload. Along with the TV critic Emily Nussbaum's spot on observation of Trump's connection to the humor of, in her words, the "dark and angry" borscht belt comics, and the cultural and political critic Frank Rich's unsparing account of the role New York's liberal establishment played in Trump's rise, Poniewozik brings a new microscope with which to analyze the drug resistant bacterium that is our president. And while there is certainly room to examine collusion and Russian interference and the outdated institution that Homer Simpson once referred to as the "Electrical College," this book is really about the role played by all of us, the faithful citizens of TV Nation. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of "Audience of One" is that it makes Trump's presidency seem almost inevitable. Of course he won. This is the United States we're talking about. The same way Boris Johnson tapped into Britain's inner erudite buffoon, so Trump tapped into our inner core, which all too often turns out to have comprised midnight cheeseburgers and hormonal TV childhoods. This book was one of our most anticipated titles of September. See the full list. I once caught some friendly fire on Twitter for trying to discuss Trump's behavior in a way that would suggest he had a personality worth exploring. Poniewozik evades this line of thought by asserting that Trump is TV, the mere simulacrum of a human being projected onto a flat screen. He grew up with the dawn of television and a TV watching mother. Over the years, Poniewozik writes, Trump "achieved symbiosis with the medium. Its impulses were his impulses; its appetites were his appetites; its mentality was his mentality." For a certain generation, "Audience of One" will resonate most as a deep dive into our television consciousness before the Jimmy McNultys and Hannah Horvaths took over prestige TV. It is an examination of how our wants were shaped by television, which swiftly moved away from the working class dramas and comedies of the 1970s (think "One Day at a Time" or "All in the Family") and toward the 1980s materialism of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and the knit ties of Alex P. Keaton. Trump entered the Reaganized media sphere at the perfect time, and he never left. The audience wanted "a braggart who lived large and said that it was O.K. to want things," Poniewozik writes of Trump's many television appearances in the 1980s and beyond. To most New Yorkers, Trump was known as a world class bankrupt and malignant schnorrer, but shows like "Sex and the City," on which he made a guest appearance, turned him into "a dashing, bemused man in a business suit or black tie, spending money, dispensing advice, insults and baksheesh." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Lykke, pronounced loo kah, like the character in the Suzanne Vega song, is the Danish word for happiness, perhaps that country's most valuable commodity. (Denmark often sits at the top of lists of the world's happiest countries.) Meik Wiking, who is the C.E.O. of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, a think tank devoted to its pursuit, has written a book about it, "The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World's Happiest People," out at the end of the month. Lykke is not to be confused with hygge, pronounced hoo gah, which means cozy, and was the subject of Mr. Wiking's previous book, "The Little Book of Hygge," out last January, though they are related because coziness, a Danish obsession, is a sine qua non of happiness (if you happen to be Danish, that is). Hygge, as the world learned last year, accrues to those who after cold weather sports put on hand knit sweaters and gather with friends to play board games and imbibe baked goods and copious amounts of very strong coffee in candlelit spaces preferably in a Scandinavian country like Denmark, which has generous social supports and gender parity. Happiness, of course, is more ephemeral, less quantifiable, than coziness, though Mr. Wiking marshals some engaging behavioral science data. Anticipation makes you happy: three days, it turns out, is the optimal amount of time for looking forward to stuff, according to one study. Coach passengers are more prone to rage if they have to walk through first class, according to a study that points out how the perception of inequality makes people unhappy. Volunteers are happier than nonvolunteers, and the self employed are happier than those with bosses. Parents of young children are less happy than everyone else, but the level of their unhappiness varies depending on the social supports of whatever country they're in. In the United States, they are 12 percent less happy. In Denmark, which mandates a year of parental leave, two months leave to take care of a sick child and universal day care, the gap is just 3 percent. What makes Mr. Wiking happy, he writes, is leftover pizza. So why don't Danes smile more? Noting the "zombie death stare" of his countrymen, Mr. Wiking wonders drolly if Denmark is truly a "'Resting Bitch Face' Nation," as he puts it. To find out, he has begun tracking the incidences of people smiling at home and abroad by sitting in cafes and watching passers by. He and his colleagues have collected "30,000 data points" of smile frequencies in 20 countries around the world, which I think means they've clocked the smiling or not smiling faces of 30,000 people. In fact, as he learns, Danes do smile occasionally, nearly 13 percent of the time, compared to New Yorkers, who smile less than 2 percent of the time. Everyone everywhere smiles less when they are alone, which may account for my city's low scores. "Lagom: The Swedish Art of Living a Balanced, Happy Life," by Niki Brantmark, an English design blogger married to a Swede, introduces the Swedish ideal of moderation. Lagom pronounced lar gum means "not too much, not too little." In times of yore, moderation (and its drab companions, low expectations and societal conformity) may not have inspired a lifestyle book, but today, particularly for overwrought American readers, moderation feels positively Venusian, though it has its naysayers. (Writing in the Guardian, Richard Orange, a British journalist who lives in Sweden, decried his adopted country's national manifesto, what he described as "the suffocating doctrine of Lutheran self denial," with a plea that trendspotters not adopt lagom as they did hygge. If the trappings of hygge are cinnamon buns and candles, those considered appropriately lagom, he says, are more likely to be takeout pizza and Netflix.) In her book, Ms. Brantmark extols the behaviors of a modest Swedish life: sleeping naked, buying secondhand furniture, crafting, eating lots of herring. And practicing fika, otherwise known as a "coffee break," though Ms. Brantmark calls it "a sacred Swedish social ritual meaning 'taking a break for coffee and enjoying a small treat.'" She added, "You can literally do it anywhere" (including the coffeeshop FIKA, which has locations all over Manhattan). Following the practice of her competitors in the Scandinavian themed publishing sweepstakes, Ms. Brantmark makes liberal use of Nordic vernacular terms like fika, many of which are portmanteau words or accessorized with fetching umlauts, and which recall the made up subtitles of the '60s cult film, "De Duva," the gleeful parody of the oeuvre of Ingmar Bergman, adding some demented whimsy. (Across the North Sea, the Scottish tourist board is trying bravely to be a contender, tweeting out the benefits of its own peculiar sounding word for hunkering down cosagach, which is Gaelic for "snug.") Beyond an obsession with coffee breaks, Swedes have other appealingly modest habits, like taking their bed linens with them when they are houseguests, so their hosts don't have to do extra laundry, and eschewing both marriage and cohabitation in their relationships. There are cute names for these scenarios: Sambo is what you call your partner when you live together but don't marry; sarbo is what you call your beloved when you live apart. "Being together, but not too together," Ms. Brantmark explains. Among other helpful instructions e.g. how to slice cheese, which, apparently Scandinavians like to eat with jam (they also put ketchup on spaghetti) found in "North: How to Live Like a Scandinavian" are lists of behaviors associated with the different Nordic countries. Its author is Bronte Aurell, a Danish entrepreneur and cook married to a Swede with whom she runs ScandiKitchen, a cafe and shop in London. Karl Ove Knausgaard fans will not be surprised when Ms. Aurell suggests that one aspect of Norwegian behavior means never looking anyone in the eye and taking lots of hikes. To be Swedish, line up properly, she writes, with two meters between yourself and the next person. Do not make conversation. How to act like a Dane? Dress exclusively in black clothing and "be hygge superior." Ms. Aurell introduces a phenomenon she calls janteloven or, the law of jante which has something to do with the town in a popular Scandinavian bildungsroman from the 1930s and seems to be a societal aversion to what the British call tall poppy syndrome, in other words not putting on airs or thinking you're better than anyone else. "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Make Your Loved Ones' Lives Easier and Your Own Life More Pleasant," by Margareta Magnusson, a Swedish artist and widow "between 80 and 100 years old," as she writes, is a primer on how to winnow your belongings before you die, so you don't burden your family. Naturally, there's a portmanteau word for this dostadning ("do" for death and "stadning" for cleaning). But let us use initials instead. "T.G.A.O.S.D.C." manages to merge two wildly successful publishing trends: the diktats of anticluttering gurus like Marie Kondo, the Japanese tidying expert, and the appetite for all things Scandinavian. Yet as useful as this book is don't leave your complete collection of sex toys for your children to find when you are dead, or as Ms. Magnusson puts it, "save your favorite dildo but throw away the other 15" its pleasures are more Proustian than practical. Ms. Magnusson is the anti Kondo, who takes us on a charming and discursive tour of her own stuff. That which "sparks joy" Ms. Kondo's criteria for what stays in your closet in Ms. Magnusson's heart means a tender and witty reverie generated by an object before she gives it the heave ho. Investigating her late husband's snickarbod (Swedish for toolshed and sometimes called a mansdagis, or male kindergarten) she marvels at its harmonious arrangements chisel, level, rotary hammers, pliers and hacksaw frames, warrantees and instructions filed neatly in binders and notes the erotic qualities of its oils, pumps and rubber valves. "A master of order, my husband was," she writes, and then plucks out a hammer, some pliers, a yardstick and some screwdrivers, giving away the rest of his snickarbod to her children and their friends. She writes of the inability of men of her generation to cope with housekeeping after the death of a spouse, and notes how death cleaning has traditionally been women's work. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Lisel Mueller, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet whose elegant work drew on nature, her experiences as a parent, folklore and history, including her own flight from Nazi Germany as a teenager, died on Feb. 21 in Chicago, where she lived in a retirement community. She was 96. Her daughter Jenny Mueller, who confirmed the death, said Ms. Mueller had been dealing with the aftereffects of pneumonia. Ms. Mueller won the 1997 Pulitzer for "Alive Together: New and Selected Poems," which appeared some three decades after her first collection, "Dependencies," in 1965. "Her book is a testament to the miraculous power of language to interpret and transform our world," the Pulitzer citation read. "It is a testament that invites readers to share her vision of experiences we all have in common: sorrow, tenderness, desire, the revelations of art, and mortality 'the hard, dry smack of death against the glass.'" The quoted line is from a poem in the collection, "The Power of Music to Disturb." Another in that volume, "On Reading an Anthology of Postwar German Poetry," spoke to how Ms. Mueller's childhood she escaped Nazi Germany in 1939 with her mother and sister had influenced her life and thinking: America saved me and history played me false: I was not crushed under rubble, nor was I beaten along a frozen highway; my children are not dead of postwar hunger; my love is back, with his brain intact; his toes accounted for; I have forced no one into the chamber of death. In other poems she drew inspiration from the bucolic life she found in Lake County, Ill., north of Chicago, where she lived for many years with her husband, Paul Edward Mueller, whom she married in 1943. Poems like "Moon Fishing" and "Sometimes, When the Light" are full of the imagery of nature. Language, too, was a favorite subject. "In the new language everyone spoke too fast," she wrote in "Curriculum Vitae," the autobiographical opening poem in "Alive Together." "Eventually I caught up with them." She did indeed, as she showed in the wordplay poem "Things," from the same volume, here in its entirety: What happened is, we grew lonely living among the things, so we gave the clock a face, the chair a back, the table four stout legs which will never suffer fatigue. We fitted our shoes with tongues as smooth as our own and hung tongues inside bells so we could listen to their emotional language, and because we loved graceful profiles the pitcher received a lip, the bottle a long, slender neck. Even what was beyond us was recast in our image; we gave the country a heart, the storm an eye, the cave a mouth so we could pass into safety. Elisabeth Annelore Neumann was born on Feb. 8, 1924, in Hamburg, Germany, to Fritz and Ilse (Burmester) Neumann. Her father was an educator whose anti fascist views earned him scrutiny by the Gestapo, which at one point picked him up for questioning. He left Germany in 1933, and after stays in several other countries he secured a teaching post at Evansville College, now the University of Evansville, in Indiana. In 1939 he was joined there by his wife, who was also a teacher, and their two daughters. Ms. Mueller had to pick up the English language, with all its nuances and metaphors. "For a long time, I did not make the connection between 'a blanket of blue' and the sky," she wrote in "Learning to Play by Ear," a 1990 collection of poems and essays, "nor did I realize that the 'deep purple' which falls (over sleepy garden walls) was the shadows of early evening." That, she wrote, "caused me to be left unimpressed by the poets we studied in high school," but then a fellow student introduced her to Carl Sandburg's poetry. "Sandburg's unadorned, muscular, straightforward diction lured me as the painted women under street lamps lured the farm boys in a city named Chicago," she wrote. But it would be years before she made a serious effort to become a poet herself. First came a bachelor's degree in sociology at her father's university, where she also met Mr. Mueller. Though she had written some amateurish poetry when younger, it was the death of her mother in 1953 that spurred her to get serious about the craft, Ms. Mueller said. "The great grief made me want to express myself in a poem," she told The Chicago Tribune in 1993, "and having done that I needed to continue to do so." Years later, she captured the moment in "When I Am Asked," a poem that begins, "When I am asked how I began writing poems, I talk about the indifference of nature." It concludes with this verse: I sat on a gray stone bench ringed with the ingenue faces of pink and white impatiens and placed my grief in the mouth of language, the only thing that would grieve with me. She was 41 when her first volume of poetry was published. Among those that followed were "The Need to Hold Still," which won the 1981 National Book Award for poetry. Mr. Mueller died in 2001. In addition to her daughter Jenny, Ms. Mueller is survived by another daughter, Lucy Mueller, and a granddaughter. One of Ms. Mueller's most intriguing poems, "Palindrome," from her Pulitzer winning collection, was inspired by a list of school supplies one of her daughters had once made. "My daughter was about 6 or 7 and was not sure of the difference between past and future," Ms. Mueller told The Baltimore Sun in 1997. The girl headlined the list, "Things I Will Need in the Past," giving her mother a vision of time moving both forward and backward, a person in one version of reality passing someone perhaps her double in the other. "Somewhere now she takes off the dress I am putting on," it begins. "It is evening in the antiworld where she lives." The poem ends with this image: By now our lives should have crossed. Somewhere sometime we must have passed one another like going and coming trains, with both of us looking the other way. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Infiltration, extraction, recognition and rescue may not be the first words that flying cars bring to mind, but Jerome Dauffy, founder of Vaylon in Strasbourg, France, is taking a pragmatic approach to marketing the Pegase. Though the Pegase, which mates a paraglider with a lightweight off road vehicle, might seem to appeal to thrill seekers like mountain climbers trying to reach remote peaks, Mr. Dauffy has played up its strategic capabilities to attract military and security business. "The first market will be the military forces," Mr. Dauffy said. "After, maybe the business market for example, a surveillance company or humanitarian aid. Maybe researchers in the desert." The French military has shown intense interest, Mr. Dauffy said, and the prototype was on the defense ministry's display last spring at the Eurosatory armaments trade show. Civilian availability is predicted in late 2015 or early 2016 at an expected price of 135,000. Powered by the Rotax 912, the Pegase can reach more than 60 m.p.h. on the road on its motorcycle wheels and tires, take off in just 165 to 330 feet and, driven by a pusher propeller, cruise at 40 to 50 m.p.h. in the air, he said. The expected range in the air is about 3 hours, with a ceiling of some 10,000 feet. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
"What Men Want" presumes a lot of things about its viewers. One is that they won't tolerate a satire of workplace sexism if it doesn't sometimes put the woman in her place. Another is a taste for Fiji water, an object of product placement so frequent that you worry for a drought in the South Pacific. Directed by Adam Shankman, this comedy flips the script on Nancy Meyers's "What Women Want" (2000), in which a Chicago chauvinist (Mel Gibson) gets his comeuppance after gaining the power to hear women's thoughts. This time, the mind reader is an Atlanta sports agent, Ali (Taraji P. Henson), who works at a boy's club of a company and is repeatedly passed over for partner status. Her boss, Nick (Brian Bosworth), tells her, "You're doing great in your lane." But thanks to either a knock on the head or the laced tea given to her by a psychic (Erykah Badu), Ali begins to hear what men are thinking, the better to get sweet, sweet revenge. Part of the message, of course, is that it doesn't take a mind reader to see that Ali's colleagues who court a star African American basketball player (Shane Paul McGhie) with a racist video filled with bling and women are complete boneheads, working in a frat house dressed up as an office. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
WITWATERSRAND BASIN, South Africa A mile down in an unused mine tunnel, scientists guided by helmet lamps trudged through darkness and the muck of a flooded, uneven floor. In the subterranean world of the Beatrix gold mine, they shed their backpacks, taking out tools and meticulously prepared test tubes to collect samples. Leaning a ladder against the hard rock wall, Tullis C. Onstott, a geosciences professor at Princeton, climbed to open an old valve about a dozen feet up. Out flowed water chock full of microbes, organisms flourishing not from the warmth of the sun, but by heat generated from the interior of the planet below. These tiny life forms bacteria and other microbes and even little worms exist in places nearly impossible to reach, living in eternal darkness, in hard rock. Scientists like Dr. Onstott have been on the hunt for life in the underworld, not just in South Africa but in mines in South Dakota and at the bottom of oceans. What they learn could provide insights into where life could exist elsewhere in the solar system, including Mars. Microbial Martians might well look like what lives in the rocks here at a deep underground mine. The same conditions almost certainly exist on Mars. Drill a hole there, drop these organisms in, and they might happily multiply, fueled by chemical reactions in the rocks and drips of water. Mars has long been a focus of space exploration and science fiction dreams. NASA has sent more robotic probes there than any other planet. But now there is renewed interest in sending people as well. NASA has been enthusiastically promoting its "Journey to Mars" goal to send astronauts there in the 2030s. Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, is promising that he will be able to get there a decade sooner and set up colonies. Astronauts on Mars would be able to greatly accelerate the quest for answers to the most intriguing questions about the red planet. Was there ever life on Mars? Could there be life there today? It was not that long ago that scientists had written off Mars as lifeless. Forty years ago, NASA spent nearly 1 billion on its Viking mission, which revealed a cold, dry world seemingly devoid of organic molecules that are the building blocks of life. But more recent missions have discovered compelling evidence that Mars was not always such an uninviting place. In its youth, more than three billion years ago, the planet was warmer and wetter, blanketed with a thick atmosphere possibly almost Earthlike. A fanciful but plausible notion is that life did originate on Mars, then traveled to Earth via meteorites, and we are all descendants of Martians. Eventually, Mars did turn cold and dry. Radiation broke apart the water molecules, and the lighter hydrogen atoms escaped to space. The atmosphere thinned to wisps. But if life did arise on Mars, might it have migrated to the underworld and persisted? For a couple of decades, Dr. Onstott has been talking his way into South African gold mines, regaling the mine managers with the wonder of deep Earth life to overcome their wariness. In many ways, the mines provide easy access to the depths a ride in a cagelike elevator, jammed against miners starting their shift, descending quickly as lights from the different levels zip past. Think of it as traveling through a 450 story skyscraper, going down. Dr. Onstott and his colleagues had made repeated pilgrimages to this particular tunnel in this particular mine, Beatrix, 160 miles southwest of Johannesburg. When miners carve out new tunnels, they poke holes through the rock to see what surprises might lie ahead. Sometimes the borehole taps into a section of fractured rock with water coursing through. Then the fracture is drained and plugged. A new species of nematode that scientists discovered in the Beatrix mine. But this particular tunnel at Beatrix never entered production, so the borehole valve remains, allowing the scientists to return to draw samples from the same place. At this level, almost a mile underground, the elevator gates open to a well lit, concrete cavern with the unremarkable plainness of a parking garage. A minirailway system transports miners and ore back and forth. The side tunnel, though, is pitch black save for the helmet lamps, and the trek to the valve is a slosh through muck and over tangles of mangled electrical cabling. Scientists led by Dr. Onstott made their most recent trip to South Africa in June last year. Over a couple of hours, they took their fill of the water and set up an apparatus that remains attached to the valve, trapping microbes, which were retrieved later in the summer. Since then, they have been analyzing the samples to understand this assemblage of life. The existence of what biologists now call the Earth's deep biosphere was unknown to almost all biologists at the time of the Viking mission. Life lived at the surface, in the soil or in the oceans. At the bottom of the food chain, the so called primary producers, were plants and microbes that used photosynthesis and sunlight to power the conversion of carbon dioxide into organic molecules. Other creatures ate the plants and microbes, and then larger creatures ate the smaller ones. In someplace that was always dark, it seemed obvious there could be no primary producers and therefore no life at all. Some scientists noticed close to a century ago this might not always be true. Edson S. Bastin, a geologist at the University of Chicago, wondered why some petroleum was "sour" with high levels of sulfur that not only corroded pipes but also generated more pollution when burned. Bastin realized bacteria could do that, in particular a type of bacteria that does not need oxygen and eats sulfur compounds known as sulfates and excretes hydrogen sulfide the rotten egg smell and bicarbonate, the unwanted chemicals in sour crude oil. He and a colleague, Frank E. Greer, successfully cultured such bacteria from groundwater from an oil field, and Bastin speculated these could be descendants of bacteria that had been trapped in ocean sediments more than 250 million years ago. Other scientists contended that this must be a mistake, merely surface microbes on the drill that had contaminated the sample. In the late 1980s, the Department of Energy started a drilling project, carefully pulling up pristine cores from a couple hundred yards down. Bacteria, fungi and other microbes abounded in the cores. That spurred additional research and discoveries, including bacteria that lived in the heat of underground oil deposits and finally, a microbe that degraded oil as Bastin had predicted. Today, the deep biosphere is thought to account for 10 to 20 percent of mass of all life on Earth. Life, biologists also discovered, perseveres in other environments once thought sterile highly acidic water, highly alkaline water, highly salty water, boiling water around volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean. "The truth is it's virtually everywhere we look," Penny Boston, the director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, said in July at a panel celebrating the 40th anniversary of Viking's landing on Mars. Results from an earlier trip to Beatrix befuddled Dr. Onstott. He had expected the mine microbes to be feeding off organic matter dissolved in the water. In this picture, the ecosystem would be largely devoid of primary producers and instead subsist on leftovers, the detritus of long dead organisms washed down from above or deposited with the sediment 2.9 billion years ago. "The only problem was that we didn't have any indication they were eating the organic matter in the fracture water," Dr. Onstott said. They figured out that the carbon molecules in the microbes came from methane, a plausible answer. Microbes known as methanogens consume hydrogen and carbon dioxide and produce methane; other microbes known as methanotrophs eat methane. But the Beatrix water contained little of either. "It didn't make any sense at all," Dr. Onstott said. "It made zero sense to us." Maggie Lau, a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Onstott's laboratory, started examining the genetic snippets for clues of how the Beatrix community of microbes worked. With the newest data, it turned out there was a wider community of primary producer microbes, eating nitrogen and sulfur compounds. In essence, the waste of one microbe helped feed its neighbor, and only a little bit of methane, an energy rich molecule, was enough to power the entire community. "Now, for the first time, we're getting a true description of the ecosystem," Dr. Onstott said. "We think it's a fairly common phenomenon." After working at Beatrix, the scientists went north, to the Limpopo region close to South Africa's border with Zimbabwe. There, they collected water from hot springs, whose source of water from far below should carry up underground microbes. One sampling site was in the middle of a small village where houses do not have plumbing and the spring, the hottest in South Africa, is a pond that serves as a communal spot for cleaning laundry. Another is a pool at a resort, once catering to the country's white minority. Surprisingly, the spring waters contained almost no microbes barely enough DNA to analyze. But water from two locations contained considerable amounts of methane, an encouraging sign. The methane is also a possible connection to Mars. A dozen years ago, three teams of scientists, one using data from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, the other two using observations from Earth, made the controversial claim of methane floating in the Martian atmosphere. That was a surprise, because sunlight and chemical reactions destroy methane; any methane there would have had to have been released recently. There are two ways to produce methane. One is a geological process that requires heat and liquid water. The other is methanogens. Perplexingly, the readings of methane later vanished. As NASA's Curiosity rover drove across Gale Crater a couple of years ago, it too detected a burp of methane that lasted a couple of months. But it has not detected any burps since. Perhaps an underground population of methanogens and methanotrophs is creating, then destroying methane quickly, accounting for its sudden appearance and disappearance from the atmosphere. If Beatrix is a guide, the methane could be providing the energy for many other microbes. Conventional wisdom is that Martian life, if it exists, would be limited to microbes. But that too is a guess. In the South African mine, the researchers also discovered a species of tiny worms eating the bacteria. The odds of Mars life, past or present, are just conjecture. Even if life did arise on Mars four billion years ago and later migrated underground, could it have survived for four billion years? There are reasons to be skeptical. When low on water and energy, microbes can slow their metabolism or enter a state of suspended animation, able to revive when conditions improve. But many biologists doubt that such a tenuous hold on life could extend for a few billion years. Mars also lacks Earth's plate tectonics, a continual recycling of the outer crust of the planets that fractures rocks and exposes new minerals for microbes to eat. If life is deep underground, robotic spacecraft would not find them easily. NASA's InSight spacecraft, scheduled to launch in 2018, will carry an instrument that can burrow 16 feet into the ground, but it is essentially just a thermometer to measure the flow of heat to the surface. NASA's next rover, launching in 2020, is largely a clone of Curiosity with different experiments. It will drill rock samples to be returned to Earth by a later mission, but those samples will be from rocks at the surface. All this new interest in possible life on Mars is a sort of vindication for Gilbert V. Levin, one of the scientists who worked on Viking. Dr. Levin is sure he discovered life on Mars 40 years ago, and everyone else has been drawing the wrong conclusions from the Viking data. If he is right, then perhaps rediscovering life on Mars may require just scratching the surface. The two Vikings carried what was known as the labeled release experiment, developed by Dr. Levin and another investigator, Patricia A. Straat. Essentially, radioactive food made with unstable carbon 14 was added to samples of Martian soil. The idea was that if microbes digested the food, the carbon 14 would be released in a stream of radioactive carbon dioxide and other gases rising out of the soil. That is exactly what happened. Then other samples were heated to 320 degrees Fahrenheit to sterilize them. If microbes were generating the radioactive gases, then there should be no gas rising from the sterilized soil. That, too, is what happened. "The response on Mars is well within the responses from terrestrial soils," Dr. Levin said, "most closely the Arctic and Alaska." But in the absence of organic molecules, other Viking scientists discounted the possibility of life. It was like claiming the existence of a city in a place lacking wood, steel, bricks or any other building materials. Dr. Levin has proposed, again and again, sending another labeled release experiment to Mars, to no avail. NASA's 2020 rover will be able to catalog a wide variety of organic molecules, but carries nothing to look for life directly. Dr. Levin may finally get his wish with ExoMars, a European rover scheduled to launch in 2020. He is working with one of the teams building one of ExoMars's instruments to see if it could be modified to incorporate the labeled release apparatus. There is a bit of a race against time. Dr. Levin, the last surviving member of the Viking biology team, is 92. "All I have to do is last that long," he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
The Crystal Court in the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis. The state estimates that without legislative action, Minnesotans could pay 400 million more in state taxes next year because of the new federal law. The federal tax overhaul cut taxes for millions of American families and businesses. But the law also had an unintended effect: raising the state tax bite in nearly every state that has an income tax. Now, governors and state legislators are contending with how to adjust their own tax codes to shield their residents from paying more or, in some cases, whether to apply any of the unexpected revenue windfall to other priorities instead. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which President Trump signed into law in December, did not directly affect state budgets. It cut federal tax rates, but also made other changes that mean more income will be subject to taxation. Because most states use federal definitions of income and have not adjusted their own rates, the federal changes will have big consequences for both state budgets and taxpayers. "Residents of the majority of states would experience an unlegislated tax increase," said Jared Walczak, an analyst with the Tax Foundation, a conservative think tank. In Minnesota, the state estimates that residents could pay more than 400 million in additional state taxes in the next fiscal year because of the new federal law. That has set off a fight over how to respond. The state's Democratic governor wants to give most of that money back to Minnesotans through tax cuts aimed at low and moderate income families; the Republican controlled legislature wants broader based tax cuts. Both sides say they must resolve the issue before the legislative session ends May 21. Apart from the nine states with no broad based income tax, nearly every state will face a similar decision. Almost all of the states base their tax codes in some way on federal definitions of income, before applying their own adjustments and deductions and setting their own tax rates. The federal tax overhaul, which eliminated or capped several deductions and exemptions, effectively broadened what counts as income for some families. Previously, for example, a married couple with three children earning 70,000 might have been taxed on only about 36,000 of that income, according to the Tax Policy Center, a research group. The tax law, however, eliminated the so called personal exemption and made other changes, which could increase this family's taxable income to about 46,000. At the federal level, those changes were more than offset for most families by lower tax rates and an increased child tax credit. In the example of a married couple with three children, the family's federal tax bill would be lowered by more than 2,000 under the law. At the state level, however, the changes leave families owing tax on a larger share of their income, without the reduced rates or new credits to soften the blow. The challenge is especially acute in Minnesota because its tax code is closely tied to the federal definitions. The Minnesota Department of Revenue estimates that if the state tax code incorporates the federal change in calculating taxable income, 870,000 Minnesota families will pay more for the 2018 tax year, by an average of 489 per person. In theory, Minnesota could try to maintain its status quo by simply leaving its taxes linked to the previous federal definitions. But that would force taxpayers to calculate their income under two different systems. 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. "If we do nothing, then it becomes very difficult for our citizens to file taxes," said Roger Chamberlain, a Republican state senator who heads the body's tax committee. Beyond an agreement that something must be done, the consensus breaks down. The State Senate recently passed a plan, backed by Mr. Chamberlain, that would cut rates and impose an automatic trigger that would lower taxes further anytime the state runs a budget surplus a move Democrats call fiscally irresponsible. The House, which is also controlled by Republicans, previously passed a tax cut of its own. Mark Dayton, Minnesota's Democratic governor, has taken a different approach, proposing new tax credits for low and moderate income residents, while raising taxes on businesses. A recent Department of Revenue analysis found that Minnesotans would pay 91.5 million more under the governor's tax plan which includes some proposals unrelated to the federal law with the entire burden falling on the 10 percent of taxpayers with the highest incomes. Cynthia Bauerly, the state revenue commissioner, said no wage earner would pay more in taxes under the governor's plan. Business groups have criticized the governor's proposal, which they argue would make Minnesota less competitive. Some progressive groups say the state should go further, using the extra revenue generated by the federal law to fund a paid family leave program or childhood savings accounts. "This is exactly the kind of thing you could use to start the core investment of a program like that," said Chris Conry, strategic campaigns director for TakeAction Minnesota, a liberal advocacy group. "You could give every kid born in Minnesota 500 at birth." Similar debates are playing out in statehouses across the country, in a few different ways. In some states, the state tax code automatically incorporates changes to federal law; for those states, doing nothing probably means an automatic tax increase on residents unless their legislatures take action. In other states, including Minnesota, such updates are not automatic. So legislatures must pass so called conformity bills that adopt some or all of the federal changes, or else leave residents to contend with possibly conflicting tax systems. Some state tax systems are linked more closely to the federal tax code than others. The difference lies in how states define income for the purposes of their tax calculations. Most states, including Maine and California, start with adjusted gross income, Line 37 on a standard 1040 form. Any federal provisions that get applied farther down the 1040 form like itemized deductions do not affect those states' tax collections. But a handful of states, including Minnesota, base their tax codes on federal taxable income, Line 43 on the 1040 form. And what goes on between those two lines is where most of the changes passed by Congress will be felt, resulting in a higher taxable income for many families. (A few states apply a hybrid of the two methods.) Even in states that are less affected, failing to adapt their tax codes to the federal law could make it hard for residents to figure out what they owe and, in some cases, force them to pay more. The longer states wait, the less time residents, businesses and state tax officials have to adapt to the new rules before next year's filing season. "Inaction becomes action this time," said Richard C. Auxier, a research associate at the Tax Policy Center. "People's taxes will change, states' revenues will change." Several factors are complicating the issue for states. Congress passed its tax overhaul late in the year and with minimal debate, giving states relatively little time to assess the effects and plan a response. Even now, the full impact on state budgets is not clear, meaning legislatures are deciding how to take advantage of a revenue stream that could fall short of estimates. In addition, most of the changes to the individual tax code expire after several years, further muddling states' plans. Moreover, the tax debate is hitting as state budgets are strained by rising health care and pension costs, among other factors. Those strains could worsen in coming years if the federal government cuts back funding perhaps because of deficits caused, in part, by the tax law itself. And states, unlike the federal government, generally cannot plug budget holes by running deficits. That makes the unexpected revenue from the tax law a fiscal temptation. "For states, this is about as good as it's going to get," said Nicholas Johnson of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank. "We're overdue for a recession, which always hit state budgets hard." State officials, however, have mostly avoided calling for using the extra tax revenue to increase spending. Much of the base broadening in the federal law comes from the elimination of the personal exemption, which primarily benefited families with multiple children. Few politicians want to advocate raising taxes on parents. "That's your windfall, a tax increase on large families," Mr. Auxier said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
When the soprano Pretty Yende was training in the young artist academy at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, coaches suggested she study the title role of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." "I thought they were crazy," Ms. Yende said recently. She had some good reasons: Her young voice was lusher and more velvety than most Lucias; the part's florid coloratura was difficult for her; her upper range was insecure. "I could barely sing a high C," she recalled. But it was more than vocal reticence that gave Ms. Yende pause. "I thought it was an impossible role for me," she said during an interview at the Metropolitan Opera, where she sings Lucia through May 10 after triumphing in the part in Paris and Berlin. "I asked my teachers, 'But who looks like me and sings this repertoire?' " But when Ms. Yende was growing up in a Zulu speaking home in South Africa, the daughter of a businessman and a primary schoolteacher, she was aware of few role models for a black girl who wanted to be an opera singer. As human beings, she explained, we are inspired by the "pictures" of life we see. "I guess at the time I hadn't seen so many on the world stage like me," she said. Singers like Leontyne Price and Kathleen Battle had by then paved the way for black artists, but while growing up, Ms. Yende was essentially unaware of their existence in what seemed to her an almost all white field. It was during Ms. Yende's performance in Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" early last year that the extent of her gifts was fully obvious. Her singing was sweet (you believed she was a young woman smitten with a charming stranger) yet sassy (she knew she had to wriggle free of her overbearing guardian). Her voice was even throughout its range, and she tossed off dazzling passagework clearly. Her gleaming high notes suggested not a soprano showing off, but young Rosina coming into her own. It didn't hurt that she's plainly beautiful, with an open face and radiant smile. In her culture, she explained, parents give their children names "to follow," to "bring them luck." (One of her brothers is named Prosper.) As a teenager, Ms. Yende dreaded her name. "I didn't feel I was pretty at all," she said. But she came around. Her name is "delicate," she said, with "so many subtleties" suggestive of "wish and will," sentiments that still guide her. She showed up for "Lucia" at the Met this month with clear ideas about the opera and the inner strength of the character, a role closely associated with great divas like Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland. To rescue her family from ruin, Lucia is bullied by her brother into marrying a wealthy lord rather than her beloved Edgardo, who comes from a rival family. Every aspect of Lucia's being, Ms. Yende said, especially her consuming passion for Edgardo, is thwarted. Within everyone who is unable to express their inner feelings is a "kind of hidden strength" that they hold onto like "a survival instinct," Ms. Yende said. Lucia's desperation culminates in one of the most challenging mad scenes in opera. Forced to marry a man she considers her oppressor, the unhinged Lucia stabs him to death on their wedding night. Ms. Yende sees even this harrowing act as evidence that Lucia "is clinging to a kind of willfulness" that she shows to the world through murder. You sense Lucia's tenaciousness coursing through Ms. Yende's performance of the mad scene on her latest Sony recording, "Dreams"; even in the character's delirium there is a chilling directness, even defiance, to her singing. And it was fascinating to watch her in the Met's spartan basement rehearsal room during the first rehearsal for her five performance run, a revival of Mary Zimmerman's slightly updated 2007 production. This was a run through of Lucia's first scene, accompanied only by piano. In fluent Italian Ms. Yende lives in Milan she discussed fine points of the music with the conductor, Roberto Abbado. But the main business was to go through the blocking with the singers especially Ms. Yende, who had only seen the production years ago, when it played at La Scala. At the start of the rehearsal, Sarah Ina Meyers, a stage director, explained Ms. Zimmerman's concept while emphasizing that the production was designed to be "open to interpretation." In Lucia's first scene, she has come to the fountain in a park near her family's castle, waiting surreptitiously for her lover. She tells her maid, Alisa, that she has seen the ghost of a young woman who was stabbed to death by a jealous lover at this very spot. In Ms. Zimmerman's staging, a silent dancer appears as the ghost, seen only by the emotionally vulnerable Lucia. It's essential, Ms. Meyers said, for Lucia to "keep the fountain alive," in a dramatic sense, during this scene. Ms. Yende vividly responded to the suggestion. She sang the long, winding phrases of the aria "Regnava nel silenzio," her sound warm yet bright, both youthful and wracked with premonitions. But she kept glancing nervously at the fountain represented in the rehearsal room by a few tossed together chairs and boxes hovering near it then stepping away, entranced yet fearful. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
The Nets had a difficult regular season. Their two best players, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, missed all or most of the season. Their highly regarded coach, Kenny Atkinson, stepped down in March. Caris LeVert missed significant time because of a thumb injury. Other key players, like Spencer Dinwiddie and DeAndre Jordan, did not make the trip to Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., for the N.B.A. restart after they tested positive for the coronavirus. Another player, Michael Beasley, was signed as a replacement only to also test positive before the restart, so he didn't play either. Jamal Crawford, the veteran scorer, was signed for bubble depth and his debut lasted all of six minutes because of a hamstring injury. It's been that kind of season for the Nets, who went 35 37 during the regular season. Even in what was supposed to be a bridge year, this kind of tumult was unexpected. And yet, even with a skeleton crew in Florida, the Nets have been one of the most impressive teams inside the bubble under Jacque Vaughn, their interim coach. And now, as the No. 7 seed, they're set to play the No. 2 seeded Toronto Raptors, the defending champions, in the first round of the playoffs. The Nets went 5 3 in the seeding games a series of eight games to finish the regular season. The last loss came Thursday night, when the Nets had nothing to play for with their seed locked in. Still, they nearly pulled out a win in an intense battle with a desperate Portland Trail Blazers team, which needed the victory to make the playoffs. LeVert carried the Nets to the tune of 37 points, and his last second jumper rimmed out, allowing Portland fans to breathe a sigh of relief. Vaughn has the Nets playing hard and competing. But what will that mean against the champs? The Raptors barely missed a beat this year, even though Kawhi Leonard left in free agency. The only step back this season was on the offensive end: Last year, they were sixth in the league in offensive efficiency. This year, they fell to 13th. But the team rode the league's second best defense to another two seed. Pascal Siakam, a dynamic forward in his fourth season, made his first All Star game and averaged career highs in points, rebounds and assists. Kyle Lowry, at 34 years old, put together one of the best seasons of his career and made his sixth All Star game. Other players, like Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell and OG Anunoby broke out for career years as well. Even Serge Ibaka, now in his 11th season, averaged a career high in scoring (15.4). And even with the downturn in efficiency, the Raptors were balanced offensively with six players averaging 10 or more points a game. The Raptors will win if ... 1. They rely on their talent advantage. Toronto has more firepower than the Nets, both at the top and the bottom of the roster. And it's not talent with a penchant for lethargy either. Coach Nick Nurse is adept at getting the team to play hard. The Raptors are fourth in the N.B.A. in net rating (essentially the average of how much they win games by). The team played better defense this year than last year, even after losing one of the best defenders in the league in Leonard. In the bubble, the Raptors had the N.B.A.'s best defense entering their last regular season game. It's hard to get buckets on this team, especially without an elite shotmaker. The Raptors don't have any significant injuries heading into the playoffs, except for Patrick McCaw, a reserve forward who left the bubble to receive treatment on his knee. The Nets have been competitive in the restart, but this iteration of the team has not defended well, ranking 17th out of the 22 bubble teams in defense as of Friday. Maybe the entire Raptors team could oversleep and forfeit several games. Or the Nets could put Flubber on the soles of their shoes. I don't know. You pick. But the bottom line is that the Nets are as another New York institution might say "outgunned, outmanned." Even with Irving playing, the Nets would be huge underdogs in this series. But missing most of their best players? It would be one of the biggest upsets in N.B.A. playoff history if the Nets won. Everything needs to go right for the Nets at the same time that everything needs to go wrong for Toronto. The Nets have very little margin for error. But it's a weird year! (The Raptors, of course, are familiar with this scenario of weird things happening from last year's run: Leonard's last second shot that bounced in against the Philadelphia 76ers; the Warriors losing several key players to injury.) LeVert is an absolute talent. There is likely an All Star game in his future. He's crafty at getting to the rim. He's difficult to guard in the open floor. He has even become a threat from deep, increasing his 3 point percentage to 36 percent this season from 32 percent his rookie year. And he has shown that he can take over games. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
In 2006, Andrew Cogan and Lori Finkel, who had bought the townhouse two years before, donated an easement to the Trust for Architectural Easements to guarantee that the rear and front facades could never be altered. The pattern of the concrete grille is alluded to throughout the house, most notably in the kitchen backsplash tile, the wallpaper, and the library ceiling. The grille reappears on the east wall of the terrace, which connects to the yard by an exterior stairway of glass and stone. When Mr. Cogan and Ms. Finkel bought the house, they commissioned the architect Benjamin Hicks Stone, Mr. Stone's youngest son, to restore it and update the kitchen, bathrooms and mechanical systems. The house is entered at street level, and Mr. Stone retained the interior staircase, with its white spindles and mahogany railing. The ground level has a guest bedroom suite with garden access. The parlor floor is an open living/dining/entertainment space; a 13 by 25 foot living room at the back has a marble fireplace, original mahogany molding around the rear bay windows, and a glass door to the terrace. The third floor, which retains two original fireplaces, comprises the master suite and library, and on the top floor there are two bedrooms, each with its own bath. Mr. Cogan, the chief executive of Knoll, a furniture and textiles company, said he and Ms. Finkel had been searching on the Upper East Side for "a cool modern house," not necessarily a landmark, when they happened upon the townhouse. "We fell in love with it at first sight even though it was a bit of a wreck," he said. The restoration took a year. "But we didn't even refinish the white marble tile floor on the parlor level. We liked it the way it was. The house is a special piece of New York of a certain modernist moment." The family, which numbers "three children and a very large dog," plans to relocate downtown. "We've done vertical living, and it's been fabulous," Mr. Cogan said, "and now we want the kids to experience a different neighborhood. But I feel better about the house knowing that we will have left it in better shape than we found it." Edward Durell Stone's early designs include the grand ballroom and main lobby of the Waldorf Astoria, a project he was assigned while working for Schultze Weaver, and the Museum of Modern Art, which he designed in 1937 with Philip Goodwin. He may be best remembered for a more imposing local landmark, the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue, the white marble behemoth designed with Emery Roth Sons. But the townhouse is among the most personal displays of his vision. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
The hiring comes in the midst of a high stakes turnaround effort for Roberto Cavalli. The brand known for its colorful bohemian prints and celebrity following appeared to have fallen from favor with its fan base in recent years. But in 2015, it was bought by the private equity house Clessidra with the intention of a creative and commercial overhaul. The chief executive Gian Giacomo Ferraris has spearheaded a series of reorganizational moves, including cutting staff by nearly a third, shuttering stores, closing its Milan office and parting ways with Mr. Dundas. So far, efforts to return to profitability by 2018 have not borne fruit: Last month, the company reported that revenue fell 13.6 percent to 155 million euros, or 169 million, in 2016, with a net loss of 55 million euros. In a statement from Mr. Ferraris, Mr. Surridge was described as "passionate, mature and an amazing team player, who has a 360 degree vision on brands and branding." Mr. Surridge added that he was "honored and proud to carry forward the legacy of this extraordinary Italian house." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Brazil's Comandante Ferraz Research Station, opening this month, sits on the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and will be devoted to studying climate change. Representatives from Brazil's scientific community and government will head to Antarctica this month to inaugurate its new Comandante Ferraz Research Station, which replaces a facility lost to fire in 2012. The two low slung buildings, designed by Estudio 41, a Brazilian architecture firm, house laboratories, operational support and living quarters and could be mistaken for an art museum or a boutique hotel. "Brazil is a tropical country, so we were not used to these conditions," said Emerson Vidigal, a principal at the firm. "These conditions" include temperatures that drop below minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit and winds that reach 100 miles per hour. Throughout the 20th century, architecture in Antarctica was a pragmatic and largely makeshift affair, focused on keeping the elements out and the occupants alive. In 1959, the Antarctic Treaty dedicated the continent to research. Since then scientists have come in growing numbers and with ever more complex needs. Construction in Antarctica, long the purview of engineers, is now attracting designer architects looking to bring aesthetics as well as operational efficiency, durability and energy improvements to the coldest neighborhood on Earth. "As architects, we are concerned with human comfort, so we set out to create a kind of atmosphere that would promote well being," Mr. Vidigal said. When British explorers built one of the first permanent structures there, in 1902, they insulated it with felt and clad it in wood. The hut was "so draughty and cold in comparison with the ship," Ernest Shackleton, one of the crew members on that expedition, recalled, "that it was, during the first year, never used for living quarters." As accumulating snow rendered the door impassable, the crew resorted to using a window to come and go. That sense of improvisation continued for decades. In 1956, the Royal Society founded Halley Research Station, but the facility was covered in snow by 1961 and was shut down in 1968. A replacement, Halley II, was reinforced with steel supports, but its life span was even shorter, from 1967 to 1973. Halley III lasted for 11 years, Halley IV for nine, and Halley V for nearly 15, with each rebuilding effort presenting a costly and operationally complex undertaking. When, in 2005, Halley needed rebuilding again, the British Antarctic Survey, which operates the U.K.'s Antarctic footprint, took a novel approach. Hoping to avoid yet another quick succession project, Survey teamed up with the Royal Institute of British Architects to sponsor a design competition. The winner, Hugh Broughton Architects, designed Halley VI to last at least 20 years. In addition to being visually striking, Halley VI provides researchers with a more spacious and comfortable living and work environment. It is set on hydraulic stilts, allowing operators to lift it up out of accumulating snow drifts. And if the entire station needs to be moved it sits on a drifting ice shelf skis at the base of those stilts make that possible. "Before, these projects were all just about keeping the weather out," Mr. Broughton said. "Engineers would be told, 'This is the weather, this is the wind speed, these are the restrictions.' But now these projects are about using architecture as a means of improving both well being and operational efficiency." Other countries have taken note. In 2018, Spain opened a new research station and hired Mr. Broughton's firm to design it. Like Halley VI, it cuts a strong figure, its modular buildings clad in bright red fiber reinforced plastic panels. Not only do these buildings need to withstand some of the world's most demanding conditions, but building materials need to be shipped in and assembled in the short 12 week window of summer. Most projects are built incrementally over several years. When India's National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research decided to build a new research station, the architecture firm it chose bof architekten, in Germany found a way to make construction more efficient. Rather than send shipping containers full of building materials to Antarctica and send them back empty, the architects integrated the shipping containers into the design, saving cost and time. "It's not one of those things that you wake up say, 'I want to build a research station in Antarctica,' but architects provide important contributions to these projects," said Bert Buecking, a partner at bof architeckten. For the U.S., architecture in Antarctica is a matter of some urgency. The largest American station, McMurdo, started out in 1956 as an improvised naval base, grew in an ad hoc manner over decades and needs updating. "Just to prepare for field work, scientists receive training in one building, collect field equipment in another building, pick up a snowmobile in a separate building and fuel it in another location," said Ben Roth, the project manager of Antarctic Infrastructure Modernization for Science, or AIMS, the National Science Foundation initiative that will modernize McMurdo Station over the next decade. Mr. Roth called the existing buildings "energy hogs" a situation that creates additional problems for scientific research at the outpost. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Age "I'm in the age of preservation but without fillers or Botox," she said. Profession Fashion news director for Elle magazine. "I've been at Elle since Oct. 1, 1998." Provenance South Bend, Ind., now living in Manhattan. "I've been an East Village die hard since the '80s. I have never lived anywhere else." Outfit "These are Michael Kors pajamas. They were a gift. I had been threatening to wear nothing but pajamas for years, but then I couldn't find any that actually suited my lifestyle. This beading, I have to watch out for anybody wearing silk or mohair. It actually makes me quite dangerous to be around. You know, one snag and they're done for. It's my way of keeping people back during fashion week when I'm feeling a little claustrophobic. "The olive green coat is Celine. I got it in Paris. I usually do my twice annual Celine bingeing in Paris. I have a 5 1/2 year old and a 3 1/2 year old. I just don't have time to shop. Hence, my wearing my pajamas today. While getting my kids out the door in the morning, these were the only things on the floor that I had not worn this week. I'm wearing three necklaces, and they're intertwined. One is the Vuitton 'A.' I have to get two more because my kids are named Afton and Atticus. And the other two are by Monica Rich Kosann. The shoes are by Newbark. If you look at the annals, they're not unlike a pair of Ralph Lauren loafers I had back in the day." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
When the American banker and philanthropist Darius Ogden Mills opened the New Mills Hotel in October 1907, on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 36th Street in Manhattan, he wanted it to be a place where working class men could find affordable accommodations. And for nearly 50 years, according to a historical document obtained by Lightstone, the real estate company that now owns the building, his vision came to life as clerks, mechanics, chauffeurs and the like stayed at the 1,875 room property, where hot meals and communal showers were among the amenities. Now, almost 110 years after its original opening date, this same building is now an affordable hotel once again with the debut of Moxy Times Square. The property is the 15th of the Moxy Hotels, Marriott International's design driven hospitality brand. At 612 rooms, it's also the largest and will serve as the brand's flagship. When the first Moxy opened in Milan in 2014, it seemed to resonate with travelers who were attracted to the sleek design, friendly but unobtrusive service, vibrant restaurants and bars and affordable rooms. "That first Moxy was an instant hit because it combined everything that many travelers, and especially millennials, are looking for in a hotel, including buzzy public spaces and a sweet price point," said Reneta McCarthy, a senior lecturer at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. "All of the Moxy's since then have been successful for these same reasons." Lightstone's president, Mitchell Hochberg, said he agrees with Ms. McCarthy's take on the wants of modern travelers. "They don't care about the size of their hotel rooms because they don't want to be in their rooms other than to sleep," he said. "They also don't care about someone carrying their bags for them and mints on their pillow." To his point, with a starting size of 150 square feet, the property's guest rooms are intentionally cozy, but they're not without upscale touches such as 300 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, 43 inch HD televisions and oversized rain showers. To maximize space, they have foldable tables and chairs that can be hung up on wall pegs around the room. The interior design firm Yabu Pushelberg made the furniture for the bedrooms. A night's stay begins at 139, a bargain by New York City standards but far pricier than the between 30 and 40 cents the building's first hotel guests paid in the early 20th century. Room service isn't available, but, then again, staying at a Moxy isn't about being in your hotel room. Guests are encouraged to spend their time in the property's lively communal areas. In the Times Square Moxy, these public areas have polished concrete floors, exposed concrete columns, distressed brick walls, open ceilings, a lobby with plenty of leather couches to sink into (also designed by Yabu Pushelberg) and Instagram worthy art installations. The Japanese artist Sawada, for example, is behind the 14 foot all glass and mirror bear hanging from the atrium at the main entrance. And then there are the five restaurants and bars run by Tao Group, a company behind popular restaurants and night life spots including the Marquee nightclubs in New York City and Las Vegas. The interior design firm Rockwell Group designed three of the spaces, including a seafood restaurant, Legasea; an egg centric sandwich shop, Egghead; and a sprawling indoor/outdoor rooftop bar, Magic Hour Rooftop Bar Lounge. The rooftop venue, open year round, has views of the Empire State Building, a 28 seat rotating carousel and a menu item created to raise eyebrows: patrons can pay 99 to hang their hats in one of the 19 rooms called crash pads, 120 square foot accommodations fitted with twin beds and televisions. "They're meant for customers who order one too many drinks or don't want the night to end," said Noah Tepperberg, a partner at Tao Group. "As in with our other venues, we want to push the envelope." But, unlike his other restaurants and bars, which are known for their velvet ropes and high prices, Mr. Tepperberg said that the ones at Moxy Times Square will be both more accessible to everyone and less expensive. The public, too, was welcome to dine at the marble column restaurant at the New Mills Hotel, which could seat more than 400 people at a time and served meals for as little as 5 cents. That property may have seen its last days in 1954, but the ethos of the new Moxy Times Square, in some ways, is a throwback to that time. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.