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Federal wildlife officials said Thursday that they would officially consider listing the giraffe as an endangered species, a move long sought by conservationists alarmed by the African mammal's precipitous decline and a growing domestic market for giraffe products. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday that it had found "substantial information" that listing giraffes as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act "may be warranted." The finding came more than two years after conservation groups petitioned the Trump administration for the protection, warning that the animals were in danger of extinction. The Fish and Wildlife Service will now begin an in depth review before making a final decision. The process could take years, conservationists said. Designating giraffes as endangered or threatened would place restrictions on their import into the United States and make federal funding available for conservation efforts. Conservationists also hope that a listing could elevate the giraffes' plight, which they said was often overshadowed by higher profile initiatives to protect lions, elephants and other distinctive animals. "Tons of money is poured into conservation projects for these species," said Adam Peyman, manager of wildlife programs and operations for the Humane Society International, one of the groups that filed the petition. "Giraffes just don't enjoy that." Per federal regulations, the wildlife service's response to the groups' petition should have come within 90 days of the petition's filing in April 2017. In December, more than a year after the petition was filed, the groups sued the wildlife service to compel a response. It is not clear what took the wildlife service so long, or whether the announcement on Thursday was prompted by the lawsuit. Mr. Peyman said the wildlife service routinely missed deadlines, though the delay on the giraffe petition was the longest he had ever seen. Federal wildlife officials did not respond to further requests for comment Friday. The agency's finding appeared to be a distinctly pro conservation move by an administration that has repeatedly rolled back environmental protections. The wildlife service moved last year to allow some hunters to import big game trophies, including elephant tusks and lion hides, overturning an Obama era ban. Tanya Sanerib, international legal director and senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the agency's decision to conduct the in depth review on giraffes was akin to clearing a "tiny little hurdle." The bigger obstacle, she said, would be actually listing giraffes as endangered or threatened. "While it's shocking that the Trump administration made a possible finding for wildlife, it would have been more astonishing to say giraffes don't pass that first hurdle," she said. Mr. Peyman said it was not clear whether the agency would ultimately decide to protect giraffes. It could say that giraffes do not deserve protections under the Endangered Species Act, or that the federal government's limited resources should be focused on other species. Conservationists say there is a strong argument for listing giraffes under the Endangered Species Act. The population of giraffes, the tallest land animals on the planet, has declined about 40 percent in the last 30 years, according to the groups' petition. They estimate the population today is close to 97,000. Among the biggest threats to giraffes is habitat loss driven by the expansion of cities, agriculture and timber harvest. Poaching and legal hunting have also contributed to the decline. In 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources declared the giraffe "vulnerable to extinction." The market for products derived from giraffes has also increased in the United States. According to a report released last year by the Humane Society of the United States, more than 40,000 giraffe parts were imported from 2006 to 2015 to be made into expensive pillows, boots, knife handles, Bible covers and other trinkets. Mr. Peyman acknowledged, however, that legal hunting had a relatively small impact on giraffe populations when compared with habitat loss or poaching. He said it was not clear how much of the giraffe products' import comes from poaching. "What we want to do is raise that bar, make it so that giraffes aren't threatened by trade in addition to the other threats they are facing," he said. Some, however, say that listing the giraffes under the Endangered Species Act could have an adverse impact on their population. The Safari Club International, a pro hunting group, said that the potential measures could "would reduce U.S. hunters' willingness to pay top dollar for giraffe hunts," money that could in turn be used to buy land to increase giraffes' habitat or fund anti poaching programs. "Many species, including giraffes, benefit from this investment in conservation," the group said in a statement. "Without offering anything in return, an ESA listing could reduce the revenues and incentives currently being generated by hunting."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
When Okwui Okpokwasili talks about her work, she treats each question like a knot to be unraveled, physically as much as verbally. Emphatic gestures punctuate her sentences, or complete them, as if movement might summon the answer. "I want to fall apart, just enough," she said recently over coffee near her Brooklyn home, discussing her approach to performing and making performance. Her palms opened like the pages of a book, suggesting a blank slate, or a readiness for anything. "And there's this hope that something else can come through I don't know what." If you've seen Ms. Okpokwasili onstage in her own genre blurring work or in that by dance and theater artists like Ralph Lemon, Dean Moss and Young Jean Lee you probably know what she means. Nearly six feet tall, with a hypnotic voice and limbs that swallow up space, she pushes herself to the edge as a performer, playing with extremes of ecstasy, sadness or rage with almost dangerous intensity. Her Bessie Award winning "Bronx Gothic," a fiercely intimate solo inspired by her Bronx upbringing (and the subject of a new documentary coming to Film Forum in July), began with her trembling to the point of near exhaustion. In Mr. Lemon's 2010 "How Can You Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere?" she spent part of each performance in tears. It's a certain kind of getting lost. "I'm looking for mysteries, looking for some useful confusion," she said. While that goes for all of her work as a choreographer, writer, performer and director, Ms. Okpokwasili, 44, was referring to her latest, "Poor People's TV Room," which begins a two week run at New York Live Arts on Wednesday, April 19. A collaboration with her husband and longtime creative partner, Peter Born, also 44, the project grew out of her interest in resistance movements propelled by women, black women in particular, and the body as a site of protest. Exploring themes of memory and invisibility, Ms. Okpokwasili, who is Nigerian American, is joined by three women ranging in age from their late 20s to late 60s. (The oldest is the South African singer and Olivier Award winning Broadway actress Thuli Dumakude.) A meeting of dance, text, song, video and installation (Ms. Okpokwasili cringes at talk of disciplinary categories), "Poor People's TV Room" is even more elusive, in terms of genre and story, than her previous works. Asked if there's a narrative, she replied, "Kind of, ish." Since its inception almost three years ago, as a 50 minute song that she performed in Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium, the piece has passed through multiple iterations (and grown closer to 90 minutes), including performances in January at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, which commissioned the work with Live Arts and Lumberyard. "I think she doesn't want it to be too legible in a concrete, narrative sense," said Philip Bither, the Walker's senior performing arts curator. "It has a certain logic, but it's very hallucinatory, very dreamlike and surreal, and I think that's all intentional." While the results may be porous, Ms. Okpokwasili pinpoints two specific sources of inspiration. In 2014 she became fascinated by the Bring Back Our Girls movement, the international response to the kidnapping of nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls by the terrorist group Boko Haram. She found it troubling that as the demand became a viral hashtag, touted by celebrities around the world, people lost sight of the movement's originators, the mothers of the girls. To Ms. Okpokwasili the phenomenon seemed to reflect "how the cultural contributions of black women, African women, have been erased," she said in an email. "So I wanted to begin a kind of uncovering, for myself." That brought her to an earlier instance of Nigerian women's resistance, the Women's War of 1929, in which thousands of Ibo women from southeastern Nigeria opposed the threat of taxes from British colonizers. Their struggle was known in the Ibo language as "egwu," which means dance, and involved protest tactics rooted in the body, like older women baring their breasts in front of government officials. While Ms. Okpokwasili's initial inspirations may not be obvious in the final piece, they informed the questions that run through it and that she continues to ask. "What is it, my interest in brown bodies and brown women performing?" she said. "It's about a staking of presence, of place, but how to do that in a way that doesn't further entrench practices that diminish them?" Working as collaboratively as they do has taken time and space. In a phone interview, Mr. Born said the two had enjoyed "the luxury" of several residencies where they could assemble the work's many moving parts (a process that, under other circumstances, might be confined to a few rushed days). The most substantial was a two year residency at Live Arts, one of the country's most coveted opportunities for choreographers, offering a full salary, health insurance, production funds and other resources. "I get to wake up in the morning and just think about the piece," Mr. Born said. "I don't have to go be a P.A., I don't have to help load a truck. I did that for many years." At a rehearsal two weeks before the New York premiere, the work was still in flux, with the script being tweaked, lines relearned and differences hashed out. Both Ms. Okpokwasili and Mr. Born, who is white and grew up in Madison, Wis., said that argument is a driving force in their process. Many of their debates have revolved around the role of "spoken tongue language," as Ms. Okpokwasili calls it, versus the work's physical language, which at times suggests a body breaking into pieces or striving to keep another body alive. "There's something so essential communicated by how these women are moving with each other that sometimes we're like, is the language superfluous?" Mr. Born said of the script, which he and Ms. Okpokwasili wrote together. Ms. Okpokwasili added, "Our fights over what the text is, or who gets to place this language in these bodies, have become kind of complicated."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
For the last year, the investigative journalist Julia Angwin has been busy building The Markup, a nonprofit news site dedicated to scrutinizing technology and its effects on society. The Markup raised more than 23 million in funding, a testament to the reputation that Ms. Angwin, the site's editor in chief, and another of its founders, Jeff Larson, had established through their work at ProPublica, which they left last year. But on Monday evening, Ms. Angwin was fired from The Markup via email, just months before the site's planned July start date. On Tuesday, five of the site's seven editorial staff members resigned, citing her dismissal as the reason. Ms. Angwin said in a letter to Craig Newmark, the Craigslist founder and the site's biggest donor, that she was being pushed out by Sue Gardner, The Markup's third founder, who is also its executive director and was the head of the Wikimedia Foundation until 2014. Ms. Gardner wanted to change the site's mission to "one based on advocacy against the tech companies" instead of "producing meaningful data centered journalism about the impact of technology on society," Ms. Angwin wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times. "There is no change in the mission or purpose of The Markup," she said in response to questions from The Times. "We are, pure and simple, a news outlet. We always have been and always will be. Our goals and purpose haven't changed." Ms. Gardner said Tuesday afternoon that the site had issues with Ms. Angwin involving "leadership, management and willingness to accept feedback and training to grow as an editor in chief." Mr. Larson, who will succeed Ms. Angwin, added that The Markup had hoped to have almost 24 reporters in place and begin publishing by early 2019. He said it wanted to see more progress in areas like recruitment, a process that would allow journalists to pitch story ideas to the site and the amount of publishable work ready to go on the site when it went live. Asked to respond to the criticism from Ms. Gardner and Mr. Larson, Ms. Angwin pointed to the exodus of the editorial staff after her dismissal. "I feel like the support of the newsroom for my leadership is all the testimony that anyone could ever ask for as a leader," she said. Ms. Angwin's credentials and vision for the site helped attract interest from journalists, other media outlets and donors, including a 20 million gift from Mr. Newmark. "I'm devastated to be forced out of the organization I conceived to pursue rigorous, evidence based tech accountability journalism," Ms. Angwin said in an emailed statement. "I will continue to pursue that mission and hope to find other ways to help build this field." While Ms. Angwin was at ProPublica, the site became known as "big tech's scariest watchdog." Before joining ProPublica, she worked at The Wall Street Journal, where she led a privacy investigative team and was also part of a group that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of corporate scandals. She has also written two books, one of which was about privacy. At ProPublica, Ms. Angwin's team demonstrated how Facebook's ad tools could be used to illegally discriminate against people of certain races, investigated racial bias in criminal sentencing software and examined how African Americans were overcharged for car insurance. Mr. Larson was generally her partner on investigations, she said on a podcast last fall, where "he's sort of the programmer, I'm the journalist, although I think we're both a little of both." The circumstances surrounding Ms. Angwin's departure remain a point of contention. Ms. Gardner said the site had started talking with Ms. Angwin in December about creating a new role for her that was not of editor in chief, but that would allow her to "remain the public face of the institution." She added that Ms. Angwin was not open to other jobs at The Markup. 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. Mr. Larson said, "The Markup attempted to meet with Ms. Angwin in person, and discussions about her role had been ongoing for some time." He added, "This was not abrupt." Ms. Angwin said she had never been offered other roles or discussed other jobs within the roughly 15 person organization. The seven members of the editorial staff sent the management and Mr. Newmark a letter supporting Ms. Angwin on Monday, saying, "We joined on to The Markup because we believe in Julia Angwin's work." The letter was posted on Twitter from an account named "The Real Team Markup" on Tuesday. Mr. Newmark did not respond to requests for comment. A journalist for The Guardian said on Twitter that Mr. Newmark had responded, "I can't ethically comment right now" when she asked him about The Markup at an event on Tuesday. In her letter to Mr. Newmark, which sought his intervention, Ms. Angwin said Ms. Gardner wanted The Markup to be a "cause" rather than a "publication." She also said Ms. Gardner had ranked reporters in job interviews according to how negative they were regarding tech companies, viewing that as a favorable trait, and had urged Ms. Angwin to run headlines on future stories like "Facebook is a dumpster fire." Ms. Angwin said her objections had led Ms. Gardner to seek her removal as editor in chief. Ms. Gardner said in an email that although she regularly asked candidates for their perspectives about technology, in part to gauge how informed they were, "the assertion that more negative takes were 'good' or 'bad' is untrue." She also said she had not urged headlines like the one Ms. Angwin cited. "Internally at The Markup we've had many conversations about tone and style, which have included kicking around questions about whether we would ever use colloquial language like 'dumpster fire,'" Ms. Gardner said. "This was a hypothetical raised as a question, not an imperative."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
WASHINGTON Gains in the American life span have slowed in recent years, according to a new report, with average annual death rates flattening for the first time since researchers started measuring them in the late 1960s. Researchers from the American Cancer Society used federal mortality data to analyze trends in longevity from 1969 to 2013. Death rates (measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 people in a given year) in the United States have been declining for decades, an effect of improvements in health care, disease management and medical technology and the researchers had expected to find more of the same. Instead, they stumbled upon a disturbing development. The declines in death rates flattened in the most recent period, from 2010 to 2013, dropping by an average of just 0.4 percent annually, a rate so slight that it was not statistically significant. The rate had slowed in previous periods but never this substantially, researchers said. Researchers said their analysis which was published in JAMA on Tuesday and was the first of its kind using the most recent federal data was intended to identify the broader trends, not explain them. But they offered one potential theory for what was driving the slowdown a delayed effect of the obesity epidemic, which has plagued Americans of all ages since the 1980s. Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, the head of surveillance and health services research at the American Cancer Society and the report's lead author, cautioned that the slowdown had taken place over just four years, a very short period for the purposes of long term mortality trends. He said it was too early to tell whether the finding marked the start of a trend. Even so, it caught researchers off guard. "I was surprised," Dr. Jemal said. "We were expecting to see more declines." American life spans have lengthened drastically since the 1960s, when advances in medical care and technology, particularly for heart disease and stroke, began to drive down death rates. But the pace of improvement has occasionally slowed, for example in the 1990s, when the H.I.V. epidemic was raging. It picked back up in the 2000s, when new medicines to control risks like high cholesterol became increasingly widespread. Over the 44 year period of study, death rates dropped by about 43 percent, the report found, and mortality rates for various ailments also fell: by 77 percent for stroke, by 68 percent for heart disease, by 18 percent for cancer and by 17 percent for diabetes. But the rate of decline in death rates had slowed in the most recent period for some obesity related ailments heart disease, stroke and diabetes a pattern that some experts said supported the theory that obesity was a driver. Declines for men slowed to one notch above statistical significance from 2009 to 2013, while the downward trend leveled off entirely for women in that period. Stagnation in mortality rates for American women has puzzled researchers for some time. Researchers offered theories on what might be driving the flattening. S. Jay Olshansky, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, pointed out that it took decades for smoking to show up in death rates, in the form of lung cancer and other ailments, and that obesity was expected to have a similarly delayed effect. The fact that women started smoking later than men has also been used to explain their stagnating mortality rates. "The medical community seems to be under a fog that we can constantly and forever reduce death rates, and that's simply not true," said Professor Olshansky, who published a study in 2012 showing that life spans for white women without a high school diploma had declined, a rare event in developed countries. "You need to look at the health status of the living," not the mortality statistics of the dead, he said, adding that obesity is afflicting younger generations in a way that will eventually make the numbers worse. Researchers used a specialized program to find trends in the data that is common in statistical analysis. For the average death rate, computers identified distinct patterns in four periods: 1969 to 1978, 1978 to 2002, 2002 to 2010 and 2010 to 2013. The pace of decline in death rates slowed during the second of those periods, but not as much as during the most recent one. David Cutler, an economics professor at Harvard who has worked extensively on life expectancy, said he was less persuaded by the obesity explanation, as many believe that epidemic has already started to affect mortality. An alternative theory, he said, is that much of the big gains from lifesaving medicines like statins for cholesterol, may already have happened. "At some point, everybody is taking a statin and you top out," he said. But John G. Haaga, the acting director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the National Institute on Aging, said he believed the United States still had a lot of room for improvement. The country fares far worse than many other developed countries in life expectancy comparisons. Some pockets of the country, for example in the South, have all but stood in place for decades. And middle age American men lower down the income ladder are no more likely to make it to old age than their fathers were, according to recent research. "We've got a long way to go before we could catch up with Canada, Germany or France," Dr. Haaga said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Health
PARIS "Sorry, but can I squeeze in next to you?" the actress Jessica Chastain asked as she arrived at the Chanel couture show Tuesday morning and nervously eyed the sliver of space left in the front row between Will Smith and a far less famous attendee (me). "Sure," said Mr. Smith, moving an inch or two closer to his daughter, Willow, who was on his other side and was telling a reporter about the new album she was working on. "We're about to get very friendly." Ms. Chastain and Mr. Smith are fashion show regulars, and young Willow increasingly so, but all seemed impressed at how Karl Lagerfeld, who in the past had transformed the Grand Palais into a Paris street, a country house and an airport lounge, had this time recreated the Chanel atelier, with his actual petit mains sewing away as the crowd gathered. "These aren't actors, they are actual workers," Mr. Smith explained to Ms. Chastain. "It's great." As Ms. Chastain settled into her seat, and as the photographers snapped away at her and the two Smiths, she said that this would be her only show in Paris this season, but one that she was eager to see because you never knew what Mr. Lagerfeld would come up with. And she sighed a little resignedly as the photographers moved in even closer, and a reporter who was inching toward her and Mr. Smith was shooed away by a security officer, who barked, "No press. No interviews."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
THE BUYER The location of Sabah Rabbi's one bedroom takes some of the stress out of commuting. "I feel I have more control being within walking distance," said Ms. Rabbi, who arises at 6 a.m. and has a commute of about an hour via Metro North to her finance job in Fairfield County, Conn. "If I am running one or two minutes late, I can still run and make my train. If I miss my train, I am half an hour late." Ms. Rabbi, 32, who is from Dhaka, Bangladesh, came to the United States to attend Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. After her graduation in 2005, she lived for a time with relatives in Jamaica, Queens. When she landed a job in Westchester County, N.Y., that would require train travel, she moved to a share in Midtown East with roommates. "We were just out of school and very broke," she said. "The apartment was very crusty, but that's what everybody does." She moved several times within the East 30s and 40s, always seeking to upgrade, finally renting a studio by herself in the high East 30s for 2,800 a month. She moved a lot more than any of her friends and became weary of moving. She wanted stability, a nice home and an investment. It made sense to buy a place. MIDTOWN A large one bedroom on East 55th Street would have done nicely, except that it was a few blocks out of the target area. Yana Paskova for The New York Times Her aim was a one bedroom with a large kitchen in a postwar building within about 10 blocks of Grand Central. Ms. Rabbi (pronounced Robby) set a price range of around 600,000 to 800,000. "Because I am a single person with a single person income, I wasn't sure what I was able to afford," she said. Last fall, she contacted Raoul Marc Boisset, a friend of a friend and a salesman at Town Residential, who has since moved on to Stribling Associates. Both knew what kind of apartment she could expect to find a boxy one bedroom in an elevator building with an attended lobby. "There is a certain conformity to that part of Manhattan," Mr. Boisset said. MIDTOWN A building on East 49th Street seemed complicated to buy into. The prospective buyer became wary. Yana Paskova for The New York Times Early on, Ms. Rabbi fell for a one bedroom in a 1962 brick co op building on East 55th Street, listed for 799,000. The renovated apartment was bigger than many similar ones its 825 square feet included a foyer, a walk in closet and an office or den area. Monthly maintenance was a bit more than 1,500. The apartment was at the top of her price range and farther north than she liked. Envisioning herself running most of the way to the train station, she passed it by. The place sold for the asking price. In a 1959 co op building on East 49th Street, a one bedroom with a little less than 800 square feet was less expensive, around 625,000. The maintenance was more than 1,700 a month. Ms. Rabbi couldn't quite meet the co op board's financial requirements. Because she had switched to the job in Fairfield County in midyear, her paperwork indicated she made less than she really did. MIDTOWN Somebody else secured a one bedroom apartment on East 38th Street. The pool would have been nice. Yana Paskova for The New York Times "I decided if it was going to be that difficult to buy that place, it would be difficult to sell," she said. The building also had a comparatively rigid rental policy and Ms. Rabbi wanted the ability to rent out her home in the future. That one, too, sold for the asking price. The dozens of apartments she saw "had a lot of things in common," she said. "They were pretty much the same apartment," with differences in condition, light, view and building amenities. A 1974 Murray Hill co op on East 38th Street had an attractive lobby and a swimming pool. The asking price for a one bedroom with 700 square feet was 599,000, with monthly maintenance of around 1,250. Ms. Rabbi offered the asking price, but didn't especially mind that another offer, for the same amount, was accepted. The apartment's kitchen had been too small. Besides, she had long cast her eye on a 1967 building on East 40th Street. She walked past often, and shopped at the drugstore across the street. A few years ago, she had even stopped to ask the doorman about apartments for rent. "The exterior is really grand and it looked like a really nice building," she said. MIDTOWN Paint and a bit of fixing up would be needed, but a building on East 40th was handy to the train. And it had a pool and a gym. Yana Paskova for The New York Times She went to see a 750 square foot one bedroom there, on a high floor, listed for 799,000, with maintenance a little more than 1,400 a month. The building had other available one bedrooms, but they were pricier because they were larger, had balconies or were in better condition. The walls of the candidate apartment were an off putting color, "a dingy, gloomy something between cream and yellow," Ms. Rabbi said. Like many a prospective buyer, she wouldn't have made some of the decorating decisions the current owner had. But, she said, "I knew I could make this place look better than he did." Ms. Rabbi had found little else that was sufficiently nice, and came to the conclusion that she'd have to pay her top price in order "to find something I wanted to live in," she said. "I realized there's no point in being so conservative. I was more willing to have less cash reserve and get a nicer place that I would like." This building had a pool along with a gym, which "made the deal that much sweeter," she said. In the spring, Ms. Rabbi bought the apartment at the asking price and hired a contractor, who worked often in the building, for some bathroom improvements and the necessary painting. The kitchen, though of a good size, is "very standard," she said, so she might renovate at some point. Despite her high floor location, her apartment is surprisingly noisy, with sirens screaming down Second Avenue. But Ms. Rabbi is glad she is able, finally, to stop moving. Her new home is one block farther east from Grand Central than her old one, but "I am a very fast walker," she said. "So one block hasn't made a difference."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
Flamenco enthusiasts generally mark their calendars for March, when the annual Flamenco Festival comes to New York. But there will be an early treat on Friday, Feb. 17, for those in need of a flamenco fix, when the Spanish dancer Jose Maya presents his "Latente: A Flamenco Journey" at the Schimmel Center at Pace University. The show, a New York premiere (for one night only), takes inspiration from the great Gypsy singer Juana la del Pipa, who will join the explosive Mr. Maya onstage, along with the vocalists Enrique el Extremeno and Manuel Tane and the guitarist Pino Losada. Structured as a series of 13 vignettes, "Latente" also includes some recorded music and projected images, but don't expect anything too flashy. Mr. Maya has said that "flamenco is strong enough on its own and does not need other ingredients. Just the guitar, the cante, a good dancer, good lighting and good sound." (schimmelcenter.org)	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
When Ashley Primis was preparing for her daughter's first birthday party last year, she wanted it to be memorable. So Ms. Primis, 35, ordered a buffet of child friendly foods; decorated the tables with toys, coloring books and bubbles; and bought a gigantic pink Geronimo balloon on Etsy. She even baked an ombre colored smash cake from scratch. Predictably, the 15 toddlers in attendance smashed the cake and created a huge mess. But neither Ms. Primis nor her friends seemed to mind. When the chaos mounted, they just ordered another round of beers. Instead of cramming guests into her 800 square foot apartment, Ms. Primis invited everyone to Frankford Hall, a sprawling beer garden in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia. "My daughter's birthday was as much a celebration of us finishing our first year as parents as it was about her," said Ms. Primis, an editor at Philadelphia magazine. "No one was getting sloshed," she said. Across the country, German beer gardens are booming, and as they proliferate in both gentrifying neighborhoods and city parks, they've become a go to destination for family outings, play dates and toddler birthdays. On weekend afternoons, many transform into Gymboree like spaces with multiple brews on tap. This delights parents of young children looking for ways to mesh their own leisure pursuits with the kiddies'. "I want us to do things as a family," Ms. Primis said. But the under age presence has also perplexed and frustrated many beer garden patrons. Yelp reviews for beer halls in New York, Washington and Milwaukee complain about the proliferation of disruptive "rugrats" and "throngs of toddlers screaming." They warn against selfish parents who, critics complain, treat these adult spaces like their own backyard playgrounds. Some patrons have even demanded curfews or the banning of tots altogether. But the prohibition of children is unlikely because catering to the cherubic set makes financial sense for bar owners. Children younger than 16 are permitted in bars if accompanied by an adult, according to the New York State Liquor Authority. Many other states make similar allowances for chaperoned youngsters. At the Die Stammkneipe/Der Schwarze Kolner beer hall (DSK for short) in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, parents can rent the space for Saturday morning birthday parties as well as a few afternoons per week for caregivers thirsty for a "Babies Bier" play group. The entrance fee is 10 and provides for soft pretzels, sparkling juice and lager. "Moms are good business," Chantal Martineau, 37, said as she sipped a schwarzbier while her 6 1/2 month old toppled about on DSK's multicolored play mats one recent Thursday afternoon. "Who else is here in the middle of the day?" she said. Randi Lockemann, DSK's owner, said she started the play groups to address a lack of large indoor play spaces. "There's not really anywhere else to go when the weather's bad," said Ms. Lockemann, who has a 5 year old daughter. "The only other play group near here is at a church." Historically, beer gardens in the United States were family centric spaces. At the height of German immigration in the mid 19th century, there were as many as 3,000 beer gardens in New York. On Sunday afternoons, it was common to see families with young children in attendance. "It was part of the rise of working class leisure activities," said Christine Sismondo, a historian and the author of "America Walks Into a Bar: A Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies and Grog Shops." "Some beer gardens would have had bowling alleys, sketch artists, classical music, opera, folk dancing and singing," she said. In those days of lax drinking laws, it was not unusual to see children drinking beer alongside their parents. Parents today are not quite so liberal. But those who take their children to beer halls and gardens tend to be more relaxed about alcohol in general. "Modeling responsible drinking is how our kids will learn what's O.K.," said Amber Storm, 34, a stay at home mother of four in Milwaukee. Ms. Storm recently chronicled her daughter's beer garden birthday party on her blog, Milwaukee By Storm. In 2012, Milwaukee County Parks introduced partnerships with breweries and bar owners as part of an effort to reinvigorate the city's German heritage. A result is three beer gardens nestled alongside biking trails and near soccer fields and jungle gyms. Ms. Storm likes the laid back, communal feel of these hybrid spaces and says the parents she meets there are less overbearing and Type A in their parenting than those at the local playground. "I have more in common with them," she said. "We all need to take care of ourselves, and if that involves having a stein of beer with a friend and your kid is safe and in eyesight then it's totally acceptable." But plenty of other patrons disagree. Greenwood Park Beer Garden in Brooklyn implemented a 4 p.m. curfew after customers complained about disruptive children. (Local parenting bloggers expressed outrage at the rule, and the curfew was changed to 7 p.m.) Customers at Fullsteam Brewery, a beer hall in Durham, N.C., have complained to managers and bartenders about the abundance of children. To try to address these frustrations, the owner Sean Wilson added a cheeky disclaimer to his website, about the so called Fullsteam Kid Multiplier Effect, which "states that those biased against the presence of children when alcohol is being consumed will perceive the presence of 10 kids for every one actual kid." (A corollary caveat reads, "A related maxim is the Fullsteam Hipster Multiplier Effect (FHME), in which the ratio is 20:1. That is, for every certified, genuine hipster at Fullsteam, the subject perceives 20 hipsters in his or her presence.") "We're trying to help people relax and to explain what this place is," Mr. Wilson said. He doesn't think of his establishment as a traditional bar. He calls it a "hall" and a "tavern," a place for "community and family friendly celebration."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Style
LONDON Theresa May may be a politician who keeps her cards close to her chest, but she has always been open about her deep love of fashion. Wearing leopard print shoes, tartan checks, leather jackets and stark pieces of statement jewelry, Mrs. May has consistently pushed the boundaries of conventional attire for female politicians. A pioneer for a new age in power dressing, she has long made a point of defying received wisdom that women should simply imitate the suit centered uniforms of male leaders though tweaked with a slightly brighter color palette. In 2014, when interviewed on the BBC Radio program "Desert Island Discs," she declared that her choice of a desert island luxury item would be a lifetime subscription to Vogue. So it seemed fitting that this month Mrs. May became the first British prime minister to be featured in the American pages of the world's best known fashion magazine, taking part in an interview and also a glossy photo shoot by Annie Leibovitz for that magazine's April edition. Despite an initial speculative frenzy when news of the shoot first broke in January, Mrs. May was not the cover star. Suggestive of the diversified power axes covered by Vogue and those that appeal to its readers, that spot was taken by Selena Gomez, the most followed person on Instagram. And the interview itself held surprises. Mrs. May spoke about a range of topics, such as holding President Trump's hand ("he was being a gentleman," she said) and her husband's prowess in the kitchen (he makes a mean mushroom risotto). She mentioned her penchant for the American crime show "NCIS," and tackled the constant comparisons between her and the only other female British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. "There can only ever be one Margaret Thatcher," she said stiffly. "I'm Theresa May. I do things my way." Still, Mrs. May was less punchy when it came to what she wore for the photographs, taken in January at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat. In one shot, strolling in a field with her husband, Philip, she wore a PS400 (or 498) scarlet coat by Egg, with a custom cashmere sweater from Sine by Egg and a pair of her own knee high patent leather boots by Russell Bromley. In another, sitting on a plush green sofa and cupping her face with one hand (sporting bright fuchsia nails), she wore a navy dress (PS225, or 280) and matching coat (PS425, or 529) by the British workwear label LK Bennett, the perennial provider of nude pumps to the Duchess of Cambridge. Some in the fashion industry might have pouted that there wasn't a higher profile British brand in the mix think Burberry, Mulberry or Christopher Kane. But those labels charge sky high prices. Mrs. May deliberately opted to fly the flag for smaller British businesses, ones that offer more understated, and accessibly priced, options for working wardrobe chic. The clothes clearly stand for the way in which she wants her leadership to be perceived: low key, unflashy yet alluringly slick and fully capable of getting the job done. With personal style an increasingly powerful form of political communication, the reasons for such choices are clear. On March 29, she is expected to invoke Article 50, beginning talks for a British exit from the European Union, so Mrs. May clearly wants to be perceived as someone with her feet firmly on the ground. And despite her best efforts, her fashion tastes have created some missteps in the past. In December, she set off a row on Downing Street after wearing PS955 Amanda Wakeley "bitter chocolate" leather trousers during a photo shoot for The Sunday Times Magazine. Her choice was criticized by Nicky Morgan, a Conservative member of Parliament, who said she had never spent that much on a piece of clothing apart from her wedding dress. Speaking about the episode in Vogue, Mrs. May remained predictably defiant: "Throughout my political career, people have commented on what I wear. That's just something that happens, and you accept that." Ignoring British newspaper headlines suggesting that her Vogue cameo during times of such political uncertainty was self indulgent and frivolous, she added: "It doesn't stop me from going out and enjoying fashion. And I also think it's important to be able to show that a woman can do a job like this and still be interested in clothes."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
The official last day of summer is not until Sept. 22, but let's face it: It's essentially over after Labor Day, and we're all going to gripe about how it went by faster than ever this year and we didn't do enough. Maybe there's time for one last road trip? The busy summer theater season in the Berkshires is almost over, but Barrington Stage Company has extended its production of "Company" through Sunday, Sept. 10. The musical, by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, which won six Tony Awards in 1971 out of its 14 nominations stars Aaron Tveit ("Next to Normal") as the marriage averse Bobby and is directed by Julianne Boyd, Barrington's founder and artistic director. (barringtonstageco.org)	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
This article is part of David Leonhardt's newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it each weekday. Democrats aren't doing themselves any favors at this point. I generally think competitive primaries are good for a political party. They identify the strongest candidates and sharpen the eventual winner. But there are limits, and last night's chaotic debate candidates screaming over each other and thrusting their hands skyward, like students in an ill managed classroom showed those limits. The candidates didn't only criticize each other. They did so with a harshness that President Trump had to savor. As my colleague Frank Bruni writes: Nomination contests often get ugly, with candidates in the same party candidates with some of the same core values belittling one another. But this felt different. This felt worse. This felt like a genuine freakout. So what now? It's time for party leaders like Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Tom Perez and perhaps Barack Obama to step in. They can do so mostly behind the scenes. And they certainly should not call for a truce. It should remain a tough, competitive primary. But candidates shouldn't create footage for Trump's re election ads. And candidates whose overall performance in the early states is weak should consider dropping out.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
CHICAGO Anxiety prone investors looking for safety in the stock market have sometimes found it in so called widows and orphans stocks. At their best, they pay dividends for decades and bounce around a bit less when the markets convulse, as they have over the last week. For years, AT T was the textbook example. Procter Gamble was another. But it is rare to meet actual orphans with stock portfolios, let alone ones who have hung on to their investments for nearly half a century. After Barnaby Dinges lost his father at age 7 and his mother at 9, a stranger, Sanford Kovitz, volunteered to keep an eye on his money. A young father himself, Mr. Kovitz had heard about the situation and thought he could help. Nearly 50 years later, the two are still at it, having shepherded Mr. Dinges's portfolio through private school, college, parenthood, divorce and assorted hiccups and triumphs along the way. They bought here and sold there, but mostly they held, not just onto certain stocks but to an old fashioned idea that a very long term relationship with an adviser looking out for your best interests can pay returns for both parties. Their buddy act began in 1968. Mr. Dinges's father, an ad man, had died two years earlier from leukemia; his mother, a fact checker for Playboy magazine, died that year from cardiac arrest during surgery for an ulcer. Mr. Dinges and his older brother, Casey, had no living grandparents and no immediate family who could take them in. For the first few weeks after their mother's death, a different adult came to their apartment on Wrightwood Street here to spend the night and keep an eye on the boys. Often, the brothers had never met them. "All these young women," Barnaby recalled. "They could have been Playboy bunnies. I have no idea who they were." Fortunately, life insurance proceeds formed the bulk of an inheritance. Some of it (plus the boys' Social Security checks) went to pay for living expenses and cover home renovations for the family that eventually took them in. But roughly 100,000 was left over, and someone needed to step in to try to make it last long enough to keep the boys at their private school and perhaps pay for college. Mr. Kovitz was a lawyer and trust officer on LaSalle Street, the Wall Street of Chicago. He received a call from a fellow lawyer about the boys, and a meeting ensued. "It's funny seeing your gray suit, because what I remember is a guy in a gray suit," recalled Mr. Dinges, who is now 56 years old, in a joint interview last month with Mr. Kovitz, whose office is still on LaSalle Street. "I thought Sandy was a cool name and that he was a cool guy," Mr. Dinges continued. "He was going to look after my brother and me and was going to give us advice about financial stuff. I remember being very soothed by your presence and it calming me at a time when I was not calm." This was the first time that Mr. Kovitz had pre teenagers for clients, and he set about explaining things to them in plain English. "We set out to nurse these funds," he said. "I knew we had to be careful, because there was a long way to go to get them to some kind of adulthood where they could fend for themselves." Soon, the boys were learning about buying investments in blue chip companies and holding them for a long time. "I was for some reason fixated on this Philadelphia Electric corporate bond," Casey Dinges said. "It blew my mind that you could have something with a 30 year maturity date." He sold it before then to make a down payment on a townhouse outside of Washington. Mr. Kovitz eventually encouraged him to find an adviser closer to his new home. His brother, Barnaby, however, mostly stuck around Illinois and learned what he came to refer to as the Sandy Kovitz test. An associate of Mr. Kovitz liked to be able to look out the 14th floor window on LaSalle and see the headquarters of the companies whose shares he was buying, or come close at least. Back in the day, that meant McDonald's, Sears, Caterpillar and Abbott Laboratories. "Let quality management of companies in different industries do the job for you," Mr. Kovitz said, outlining the rest of the bullet points that he still puts to use. "If you don't try to make your fortune overnight and are patient, my experience has been that you will do O.K." Casey Dinges remembers Mr. Kovitz's prediction that all of the baby boomers were eventually going to get sick. And his brother watched the stock of Abbott, a pharmaceutical company, rise and split and rise and split with regularity. "I don't think the numbers are that important," Mr. Kovitz said. "It's not as if we made him a fortune. We couldn't take that risk." But it was enough for grade school, high school and four years at Wesleyan University. Along the way, Mr. Kovitz encouraged him to spend 2,000 on a squareback Volkswagen to get him back and forth to college and talked him out of sinking 18,000 or so into a small apartment building near the University of Chicago. There were bailouts too, like when Mr. Dinges showed up for his freshman year of college only to find that the school would not let him matriculate. There had been a tuition bill, but being 18 and all, he didn't quite grasp its importance. "I remember I started crying, calling you like you were my dad, saying 'Sandy, they're not letting me in the dorm,' " he recalled, while Mr. Kovitz chuckled across the conference room table. "Somehow, within an hour, you were able to wire money.'" Once Mr. Dinges was making and saving money, he stuck with Mr. Kovitz, who attended his wedding and helped him navigate the financial shoals of divorce. As a journalist and teacher, he didn't earn much. (This is how I know him: He taught me seventh grade history at the Francis W. Parker school, coached my basketball team and still makes himself available for wisdom and high fives over an occasional lunch.) His more recent work in corporate communications and issue advocacy has been more lucrative. Still, Mr. Dinges has needed to stretch more than once, and he knew that he had achieved true financial adulthood when Mr. Kovitz allowed him to borrow money on margin against his stock portfolio for brief periods of time. "Not to buy more stock," Mr. Kovitz is quick to emphasize. "And I had to know what we were doing it for or for whom. Some people, I wouldn't let borrow a dime." Mr. Dinges was an unlucky child, but he caught a break with his money. Mr. Kovitz might have put him in Polaroid or some other faded star of the 1970s. That's a real risk with old fashioned stockpickers, but there were never any margin calls or forced stock sales to make good on the debt. In fact, some of the Abbott shares have been in Mr. Dinges account for more than three decades. (Over the last 30 years, Abbott's stock has increased about 2,663 percent. The Standard Poor's 500 stock index grew roughly 966 percent during that period.) As the pair near the 50th anniversary of their working relationship, Mr. Kovitz is slowing down a bit. He does not take on new clients and is making tentative plans to hand over his current ones to his son and his firm within a year or two. "But if I'm healthy," he said, "I may go a lot more years now." Which would be fine by Mr. Dinges, who feels grateful for having such steady financial counsel. "When I talk to friends, it's always a one off, where they found this specialist and did this thing," he said. "But I've always felt like I got exactly what I ever needed out of a Sandy Kovitz conversation."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Your Money
One morning a few weeks ago, Alex Trebek woke up in agony, struggling to move. He had barely slept during the night, but he dragged himself out of bed and got dressed for work. A small production crew had set up a studio in his Los Angeles home so he could tape introductions to old episodes of "Jeopardy!," the quiz show he has hosted for more than three decades. He hadn't recorded a new show since the pandemic halted production in March. Normally, Trebek hosts five episodes a day, two days a week, from July to April so there was new material to air through the first three months of the shutdown. Now that the stockpile had run out, producers decided to resurrect popular episodes from years past. As he climbed the stairs, he had to stop to rest. Then he got in front of the camera, and something shifted. "Yesterday morning my wife came to me and said, 'How are you feeling?' And I said, 'I feel like I want to die.' It was that bad," he said. "There comes a time where you have to make a decision as to whether you want to continue with such a low quality of life, or whether you want to just ease yourself into the next level. It doesn't bother me in the least." Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. None Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more. See what's new in October: Among this month's new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric. Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125. That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books. 'It's a show about right and wrong' In an entertainment and media ecosystem that often feels ephemeral, vapid and divorced from reality, Trebek represents something timeless. With his cerebral bearing and aura of quiet, impartial authority, he embodies ideals that feel endangered: the pursuit of knowledge, and the inherent value of facts. He is a game show host and a smooth talking, quick witted entertainer, yes, but he's also, in a way, an arbiter of truth. "It's not a show about good and evil, but it's a show about right and wrong, and the bracing certainty that he expresses is so rare in our muddled lives," said the New Yorker staff writer and CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin, a longtime "Jeopardy!" fan and a five time clue on the show. It bothers Trebek that facts no longer provide common ground; that a shared narrative about current events has fractured into ideological media bubbles, in which information has given way to hyperbole and reflexive opinion. "There's a certain comfort that comes from knowing a fact," Trebek said. "The sun is up in the sky. There's nothing you can say that's going to change that. You can't say, 'The sun's not up there, there's no sky.' There is reality, and there's nothing wrong with accepting reality. It's when you try to distort reality, to maneuver it into accommodating your particular point of view, your particular bigotry, your particular whatever that's when you run into problems." Since March, Trebek has been quarantined with his wife, Jean. He's occupied himself with projects around the house, sewing a new seat cover for an outdoor swing and fixing the mechanical cover on their swimming pool. He has also kept busy with his memoir, "The Answer Is ...: Reflections on My Life," which Simon Schuster will release on Tuesday, a day before his birthday. When I asked him why he decided to publish a book now, after turning down offers in the past, he was direct. Trebek also realized that others would tell their own versions of his life. He and his publisher learned that an unauthorized biography, by the writer Lisa Rogak, was scheduled to appear on July 21. Another "Jeopardy!" book about the history of the show is due out this fall. Trebek realized this could be his last chance to define his legacy: "I want you to hear it from me," he said. There are no shocking revelations in his memoir, but there are a few surprises. Trebek swears, a lot. He was so unruly as a boy that he almost got expelled from boarding school. He has a half brother he didn't know about until he was in his 40s. In the early 1970s, he accidentally ate four or five hash brownies at a party in Malibu, and woke up at the host's house three days later. His favorite animal is the musk ox. His favorite drink is low fat milk, or if he's feeling frisky, which he isn't often lately, chardonnay. Trebek's full name is George Alexander Trebek, but when he was growing up in Sudbury, in Ontario, Canada, everyone called him Sonny, to set him apart from his father, George Terebeychuk, who emigrated from Ukraine in the late 1920s and worked as a pastry chef in a hotel kitchen. As a boy, Alex was a daredevil and a class clown, picking fights with bullies, jumping off a balcony with a makeshift parachute, falling through the ice of a frozen river. He went to military college and dropped out, then attended the University of Ottawa, where he majored in philosophy and studied the teachings of Thomas Aquinas. While still in school, he landed a job as a radio announcer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where he worked for 12 years. In the early 1970s, he got his first big break in American television, as the host of a game show, "The Wizard of Odds." For the next decade, he cycled through one game show gig after another. After "The Wizard of Odds" was canceled, it was replaced with "High Rollers," also hosted by Trebek. In 1984, Trebek got the job that made his name, with the help of the "I Love Lucy" star Lucille Ball, who encouraged the producer Merv Griffin to hire him. Expectations were staggering from the start. Trebek was filling the role of the popular original host, Art Fleming, who starred on "Jeopardy!" from 1964 until 1975. On his first episode hosting the reboot, Trebek, sporting a luxurious mustache and pale pink pocket square, strides out and bellows, "Let us play 'Jeopardy!'" then flies through clue categories like "Lakes and Rivers," "Inventions," "Animals" and "Foreign Cuisine." The mechanics of the game have endured: Trebek reads a clue, and the contestants answer in the form of a question: "What is 1790?" "Who was Benjamin Harrison?" "What is the Sun King?" "What is a marmoset?" Six years later, the show was drawing an average nightly audience of more than 15 million on nearly 200 stations, and Trebek had established himself. When he got small roles in movies and TV shows like "Rain Man," "Golden Girls" and "Cheers," he always played himself. Even in today's fragmented media landscape, "Jeopardy!" continues to have broad appeal, pulling in an average weekly audience of 24 million viewers. 'You can tell that that's what he's living for' Pre pandemic, when "Jeopardy!" and everything else was still getting made, Trebek would wake up at 5:15 a.m. and arrive at the Sony lot at 6:30. At 7:30, he would go over the 305 clues for that day's shows, making notations, diacritical marks and pronunciation notes. If a clue seemed too hard, he told the writers to drop it. "I'll say, 'Nobody's going to get this.' And they usually take my suggestions, because I view myself as every man," Trebek said. Sometimes the writers keep esoteric clues in anyway. Almost invariably, the contestants are stumped. "We get this horrible dead fish look from him," said the show's co head writer Billy Wisse. "We know we're going to hear about it at the next meeting." Over the course of his career, Trebek has survived a car crash, two heart attacks and brain surgery for blood clots. But the show's producers and writers were stunned when he told them he had pancreatic cancer. "It was a gut punch," said Harry Friedman, who began producing "Jeopardy!" around 20 years ago and retired earlier this year. "He had really not been feeling great, but in typical Alex fashion, he wasn't complaining about it." Trebek's colleagues sometimes feared he was pushing himself too hard. "I've observed morning meetings where he looks so exhausted and clearly in pain, and I think, we're going to tape five shows in an hour and a half? There's no way," the executive producer Mike Richards said. "Once I introduce him on that stage, he is Alex Trebek," said the longtime "Jeopardy!" announcer Johnny Gilbert. "You can tell that that's what he's living for." Trebek can't explain how he summons himself in those moments. Part of it must come from knowing that millions of people are watching. "They've got their ballpoint pens, and they're clicking away, seeing if they can click in faster than the contestants," Trebek said. "And if they come up with a few correct responses, by gosh, that makes them feel good, because they know the people on that screen are bright. They've been tested. And look at that, I beat them on three consecutive clues. Holy smokes. I should try out for 'Jeopardy!'" Follow New York Times Books on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar. And listen to us on the Book Review podcast.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Books
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. A 1937 Horch 853 and a 1958 Scarab racecar took top honors Sunday at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. The Horch was given the award for elegance, while the Scarab took the trophy for sport machines. The Horch, with a sport cabriolet body by Voll Ruhrbeck, was not exactly a stranger to the concours audience, as it had won international acclaim in 2009 when it was chosen as Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in California. The car is a longtime jewel in the vast car collection of Robert M. Lee of Sparks, Nev. His wife, Anne Brockinton Lee, was on hand to accept the award. "We've only shown this car three times," Ms. Brockinton Lee said. "At Pebble Beach, at the St. James's Concours in London last year, and now here. And it has won awards each time."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Automobiles
J.T. O'Donnell has been helping people navigate their job searches and career paths for nearly 20 years. But only recently did she start doling out professional advice on TikTok. Her videos cover job seeker F.A.Q.s, like whether a hiring manager will be good to work for; how to write an impressive (but not self aggrandizing) resume; and what to do when a potential employer ghosts you. Ms. O'Donnell, 52, is one of several career coach influencers offering bite size advice on TikTok. She joined the app in December but didn't start regularly posting until March, when the pandemic began and many millions of people saw their jobs disappear and their career prospects shrink. Seven months later, she has more than 900,000 followers. Though she runs a coaching company and a blog, writes a syndicated newspaper column and is part of LinkedIn's influencer program, Ms. O'Donnell said that TikTok has helped her reach a new audience. "The TikTok audience is very different than the LinkedIn audience, and that was super important to me," she said. Its users skew much younger, and many of them have yet to embark on career paths, or even begin thinking about what they might like to do. Others saw their plans disrupted by this devastating year; in the spring, youth unemployment reached a record high in the United States, and in Europe, people 25 and under have been disproportionately affected by the crisis. Job insecurity, paired with cuts in college career services, has created a fertile environment for free advice. "There's a very expensive business model in coaching, which I think is severely broken, so what we're trying to do is disrupt that," Ms. O'Donnell said. In addition to posting tips on TikTok, she has started to offer "micro payment events" through her company, Work It Daily: six and a half hour live job search summits for 10, weekly four and a half hour boot camps for 7, and video tutorials, templates and books for 5. The idea is to increase access to information and empower people from all backgrounds in the job market. Tomas Del Razo, 28, who lives in Los Angeles and follows Ms. Patterson, said that Ms. Patterson's TikTok account is "providing tools and information that are beneficial to people who are unemployed or looking for an escape in these times." Julian Parra, 22, a former peer career ambassador at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., posts as youknowitjulian on TikTok, where he has more than 136,000 followers. "I realized that there was almost a need for this type of career development content because maybe people just want a quick video to get the information that they need in the most easy to consume way," he said. Mr. Parra now works as an offering manager at IBM and makes around 1,000 a month on the side, mostly through his resume, cover letter and LinkedIn services. He also receives a small supplement to his income from the TikTok Creator Fund, which supports eligible users who apply. This trend is hardly confined to the United States. In Britain, the Prince's Trust a charity founded by Prince Charles to support young job seekers has teamed with TikTok to help young people navigate their careers. Shade Zahrai, a 32 year old Australian career strategist, has amassed more than 456,00 followers on TikTok since joining in April. "If you can just help one person, then it's been a great day, and with these platforms, you're able to help masses of people," she said. Fui June Loo, 22, came across Ms. Zahrai on her For You page. After following her advice in an interview for a digital marketing executive position in Malaysia, she secured her first full time job. "TikTok really helps a lot, especially for new grads as we live through this pandemic," Ms. Loo said. "It's pretty hard, and we don't know what to expect from the working world." Ms. Zahrai's firm has begun fielding requests from C.E.O.s and Fortune 500 companies who found her through TikTok, and she said the coaching side of her business has grown substantially as a result of inquiries coming from the app. She noted that she has received many questions from people feeling overwhelmed by uncertainty about their future. "What I'm finding is there's this real desire to seek guidance from someone who they can trust," Ms. Zahrai said. "It's almost like having a mentor or counselor in your pocket."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Style
That Python in the Pet Store? It May Have Been Snatched From the Wild JAKARTA In the market for a new pet? Maybe something a bit exotic? For many consumers, reptiles and amphibians are just the thing: geckos, monitors, pythons, tree frogs, boas, turtles and many more species are available in seemingly endless varieties, many brilliantly colored, some exceedingly rare. Exotic reptiles and amphibians began surging in popularity in the early 1990s, not only in the United States but also in Europe and Japan. From 2004 to 2014, the European Union imported nearly 21 million of these animals; an estimated 4.7 million households in the United States owned at least one reptile in 2016. But popularity has spawned an enormous illegal trade, conservationists say. Many reptiles sold as pets are said to have been bred in captivity, and sales of those animals are legal. In fact, many perhaps most, depending on the species were illegally captured in the wild. "It's the scale that matters, and the scale is huge, much bigger than people realize," said Vincent Nijman, an anthropologist at Oxford Brookes University in England. "Most conservationists are only focusing on charismatic species, but this trade is likely having a massive impact on ecosystems and populations of lesser known animals." At a meeting last summer, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species a treaty meant to regulate wildlife trade and ensure that it does not detrimentally impact species identified 18 instances in which animals are exported as captive bred, but likely are not. The examples included Indian star tortoises from Jordan; red eyed tree frogs from Nicaragua; and savanna monitors from Ghana and Togo. "These are the most blatantly questionable cases where we think something must urgently be done," said Mathias Loertscher, chair of the Cites's animals committee. "They are all critical." Dozens of countries export reptiles and other exotic animals labeled captive bred, but Indonesia stands out. At least 80 percent of the 5,000 plus green pythons, for instance, annually exported from the country as captive bred were caught illegally in the wild, depleting some island populations, according to a study published in the journal Biological Conservation. Five cases listed by Cites involve Indonesia, more than any other country. Officials here are now required to prove that certain animals to be sold abroad, including Oriental rat snakes and Timor monitors, are genuinely captive bred. If they fail to do so, Cites may bar international trade in those species. "If you have international demand for a species that only has a very small distribution, you have a big problem," Dr. Auliya said. In 2016 alone, Indonesian authorities authorized the export of more than four million captive bred animals. (About two thirds were geckos.) Officials declined to say how many actually were sent abroad. Many were almost certainly taken from the wild, according to Dr. Nijman and other experts. Plucking animals from the wild is cheaper and easier than setting up a breeding operation. This is especially true for low profit animals like Tokay geckos, which are traded at such high volumes that it would not make economic sense to invest in breeding them. Generally, villagers capture animals in forests and fields, and sell them to middlemen who hand them off to legal reptile farms. The owners of the farms acquire government paperwork certifying that the animals were captive bred. In this country and many others, the most skilled traffickers in illegal wildlife, then, never need to smuggle anything. They simply apply for a permit and then ship the animals abroad legally. Many of the legal breeding facilities are in and around Jakarta. But when I visited two registered reptile farms recently, I found innocuous suburban homes. At one, wire cages were piled in the garage. The trader's daughter answered the door and told me her father had just stepped out. But after calling him and explaining that a reporter had come to see him, she returned to say that he would be gone indefinitely, likely for days. At the second facility, which neighbors confirmed was home to "the turtle guy," three nervous attendants admitted me. Rows of neat white tanks, each holding a small green tree python, lined several walls. A couple of turtles crawled around a dismal enclosure, some monitor lizards stared at me from concrete cages, and a fat green frog huddled at the bottom of an outdoor sink. The staff declined to allow me to tour the rest of the facility and said that the owner could not be reached because he did not own a cellphone. Over the past few years, for example, Indonesia granted companies permission to export around three million captive bred Tokay geckos annually. Geckos caught in the wild can easily be purchased for a few cents. But to breed just one million geckos, Dr. Nijman has calculated that a trader would need 140,000 females, 14,000 males, 30,000 incubation containers, 112,000 rearing cages and hundreds of staff. If this were done in a single facility, it would be "the size of an aircraft hangar," he said. "Yes, it's theoretically possible to do this," he added. "But I haven't seen any evidence that such breeding facilities exist." Once a wild caught animal is exported with paperwork certifying it as captive bred, officials in countries like the United States have little choice but to allow it in. "The infiltration of traffickers into the legal trade has been happening for many years," said a senior specialist at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation from supervisors. "These animals show up here in declared shipments, and we can't do anything about it." While customs agents can challenge a permit's legitimacy, they have little chance of success, the official said. The cases are time consuming and difficult, and prosecutors do not want them. "Wildlife inspectors will open up a box and find a bunch of beat up, scarred tortoises that are 20 or 30 years old, with permits saying they were bred in captivity in 2016," the official said. "But they're forced by their supervisors to stamp 'clear' on the permit." The problem is largely enabled by abuse of Cites itself. The treaty prohibits species that are threatened with extinction from being commercially traded across borders unless they were bred in captivity. These rules apply to the international pet trade, an important source of revenue for many developing countries. Each year, officials in exporting nations issue quotas for millions of captive bred birds, amphibians, small mammals, insects and corals. Many are protected in their home countries, and their trade is governed by the treaty. "Reptiles are coldblooded and not fluffy, and the broad public including politicians just isn't interested in them," Dr. Altherr said. "Yet there are huge, dangerous loopholes that allow for open trading of the rarest species." In addition, many exotic pets originate in developing countries where officials may lack the expertise, motivation or resources to verify that animals about to be shipped out were in fact bred in captivity. "We don't have a lot of resources here in the U.S., and developing countries have even less than we do," said Phet Souphanya, a senior special agent at the F.W.S. "Corruption also goes into the permitting issue there's always someone to be bribed." Once imported, exotic pets can be legally sold or re exported. "Those involved in trafficking wildlife know the loopholes inside out," said Chris Shepherd, executive director of Monitor, a nonprofit organization that works to reduce illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade. "They know enforcement agencies' hands are tied, and they know policy change in favor of conservation does not happen overnight." In the United States, the government has to legally prove that animals are not captive bred something that is "very, very difficult to do," said Marie Palladini, an associate professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills. In the early 1990s, when Dr. Palladini was a field special agent at F.W.S., she helped lead an investigation of pythons smuggled from Papua New Guinea and sold in the United States as captive bred. The American importer was eventually prosecuted, but that success required two years of exhaustive work. It also benefited from Papua New Guinea's willingness to collaborate. Many countries, however, do not even bother responding to inquiries sent by American agents. And sometimes, officials in exporting countries vouch for suspect shipments. Then American agents have no recourse, Mr. Souphanya said. "If they're certifying that their permit process is correct, we can't tell them, 'Hey, you guys are wrong,'" he said. "It's a difficult thing to prove." Even when it can't be proven, there may be other telltale signs that animals were caught in the wild. Some species sold as captive bred are notoriously difficult to coax into reproducing. For example, leading zoos around the world over the decades have managed to breed fewer than 50 echidnas strange, egg laying mammals that resemble hedgehogs. Yet in 2016, Indonesian officials permitted PT Alam Nusantara, a Jakarta based company, to export 45 "captive bred" echidnas. F.W.S. records show that as early as 2011, the exporter was shipping echidnas labeled captive born to the United States. That echidnas appeared on the quota list at all suggests that traders had a hand in setting it, Dr. Nijman said. "Having been present at those meetings, it felt more like a negotiation between what traders wanted, what regional forestry departments could offer, and what was within acceptable limits for the scientific authority," he said. Because of this, he continued, a country's list of permissible captive bred animals often appears scattershot and illogical. Reisinger's tree monitors and spotted tree monitors, for example, suddenly appeared on Indonesia's list of permissible exports in 2015, only to be removed the following year. "It doesn't make sense to invest years and years into breeding a particular species, only to then suddenly no longer export it and change to another species," Dr. Nijman said. The more likely explanation? "New entries represent new demand for rare species," he said. That is, traders received a request, lobbied for the species to be added to the list, found the animals in the wild and exported them then moved on. According to Adri Tasma, owner of CV Terraria, a reptile farm near Jakarta, traders rely on Indonesia's Cites authorities to set sustainable, responsible quotas. Mr. Tasma specializes in captive bred green tree pythons, and in 2016 he was allowed to export up to 2,000 of them. But authorities also granted him permission to trade in 56 additional species, including critically endangered Sulawesi forest turtles and rare tricolor monitors. Mr. Tasma said he did not know why the government gave him permission to export such animals and denied selling them. He added that he isn't licensed to breed or keep them. Mr. Wiranto, who was recently promoted, said he hopes to implement reforms, among them a more robust monitoring system that includes unannounced farm inspections, corruption prevention measures and collaborative investigations with importers like the United States. "We're in the process of learning from past mistakes, so in the future we won't do the same," he said. "The most important thing is to keep wildlife in its habitat." Meaningful change will not come unless violators are systematically shut down, said Vanda Felbab Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of "The Extinction Market." "Doing that, you can produce competition among farmers to move toward better practices," she said. "Those who behave better will come to control a greater share of the market and will profit." Not everyone agrees that uncontrolled harvest of wild reptiles is a problem. In certain instances, some traders say, collection of wild animals can be a boon for the species. Bearded dragons, for example, are one of the most commonly sold lizards in the United States, where they are now captive bred. All are likely descendants of specimens smuggled out of Australia. The offspring arguably have prevented the removal of animals in the wild. A study he conducted in Indonesia showed that abundance and size of pythons remained consistent over a 20 year period, even though they were being harvested and sold. Their capture is likely sustainable, he concluded. Dr. Auliya stressed that most species caught up in the pet trade have not undergone similar analyses, and that there are "enormous scientific uncertainties," making it impossible to say what impact, if any, wild collection is having. But "just because we don't have the data doesn't mean it's unsustainable," Dr. Natusch pointed out. He recently called for Indonesia to promote legal, controlled harvests of certain species over captive breeding a proposal that Dr. Auliya criticized as being "extremely unrealistic and questionable." Even if some species can be sustainably taken from the wild, conservation is only part of the problem here. Flagrant abuse of Cites risks undermining the treaty's integrity and compromising its ability to regulate sustainable trade. "It's making a mockery of international conventions," Dr. Shepherd said. But slowing the traffic in animals stolen from the wild cannot be the sole responsibility of developing countries. "We can't only point fingers at Asia and Africa," Dr. Altherr said, "if we're one of the main destinations."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
A Russia Today anchor in Moscow preparing to go on air. The network's American version, RT America, has been exaggerating the health hazards posed by 5G networks, the next, most powerful generation of cell phone connectivity.Credit...Yuri Kadobnov/Agence France Presse Getty Images Your 5G Phone Won't Hurt You. But Russia Wants You to Think Otherwise. A Russia Today anchor in Moscow preparing to go on air. The network's American version, RT America, has been exaggerating the health hazards posed by 5G networks, the next, most powerful generation of cell phone connectivity. The cellphones known as 5G, or fifth generation, represent the vanguard of a wireless era rich in interconnected cars, factories and cities. Whichever nation dominates the new technology will gain a competitive edge for much of this century, according to many analysts. But a television network a few blocks from the White House has been stirring concerns about a hidden flaw. The Russian network RT America aired the segment, titled "A Dangerous 'Experiment on Humanity,'" in covering what its guest experts call 5G's dire health threats. U.S. intelligence agencies identified the network as a principal meddler in the 2016 presidential election. Now, it is linking 5G signals to brain cancer, infertility, autism, heart tumors and Alzheimer's disease claims that lack scientific support. Yet even as RT America, the cat's paw of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has been doing its best to stoke the fears of American viewers, Mr. Putin, on Feb. 20, ordered the launch of Russian 5G networks in a tone evoking optimism rather than doom. "We need to look forward," he said, according to Tass, the Russian news agency. "The challenge for the upcoming years is to organize universal access to high speed internet, to start operation of the fifth generation communication systems." Analysts see RT's attack on 5G as geopolitically bold: It targets a new world of interconnected, futuristic technologies that would reach into consumers' homes, aid national security and spark innovative industries. Already, medical firms are linking up devices wirelessly to create new kinds of health treatments. "It's economic warfare," Ryan Fox, chief operating officer of New Knowledge, a technology firm that tracks disinformation, said in an interview. "Russia doesn't have a good 5G play, so it tries to undermine and discredit ours." 5G is also a growing point of friction between Washington and Beijing, with each side lining up allies in what has become a major technology race. Moscow and Beijing are seen as possibly forming a 5G political bloc. The Kremlin "would really enjoy getting democratic governments tied up in fights over 5G's environmental and health hazards," said Molly McKew, head of Fianna Strategies, a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., that seeks to counter Russian disinformation. RT's assaults on 5G technology are rising in number and stridency as the American wireless industry begins to erect 5G systems. In March, Verizon said its service will soon reach 30 cities. RT America aired its first program assailing 5G's health impacts last May, its only one in 2018. Already this year, it has run seven. The most recent, on April 14, reported that children exposed to signals from 5G cellphone towers would suffer cancer, nosebleeds and learning disabilities. Like the Science Times page on Facebook. Sign up for the Science Times newsletter. The network distributes its programming by cable, satellite and online streaming. It also posts individual stories on Facebook and YouTube. A declassified U.S. intelligence report, released early in 2017, said that RT videos on YouTube have averaged 1 million views per day, "the highest among news outlets." Hundreds of blogs and websites appear to be picking up the network's 5G alarms, seldom if ever noting the Russian origins. Analysts call it a treacherous fog. Anna Belkina, RT's head of communications in Moscow, defended the network's coverage of 5G. "Unlike many other media, we show the breadth of debate," she said in an email exchange. Asked if Mr. Putin's promotion of 5G technology in Russia conflicted with the health alarms raised by RT America, she said the U.S. network focused on local 5G issues, not "the roll out in Russia." "Our American audience expects us to bring American concerns to the front, first and foremost," Ms. Belkina said. Later that year, the national security division of the Justice Department forced RT America, formerly Russia Today, to register as a foreign agent. Moscow's goal, experts say, is to destabilize the West by undermining trust in democratic leaders, institutions and political life. To that end, the RT network amplifies voices of dissent, to sow discord and widen social divides. It gives the marginal a megaphone and traffics in false equivalence. Earlier campaigns took aim at fracking, vaccination and genetically modified organisms. One show called designer tomatoes "good looking poison." The network is now applying its playbook against 5G by selectively reporting the most sensational claims, and by giving a few marginal opponents of wireless technology a conspicuous new forum. All cellphones use radio waves. RT America tends to refer to the signals as "radiations," seemingly associating them with the very strong rays at the far end of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as X rays and ultraviolet rays, which in high doses can damage DNA and cause cancer. The frequencies employed in 5G are higher than those of past cellphones, allowing more information to be relayed more rapidly. Many other devices are expected to follow, including robots, drones and cars that send traffic information to one another. Wireless high speed communication could transform the news industry, sports, shopping, entertainment, transportation, health care, city management and many levels of government. In January, The Times announced a joint venture with Verizon to build a 5G journalism lab. Over the years, plenty of careful science has scrutinized wireless technology for potential health risks. Virtually all the data contradict the dire alarms, according to public officials, including those at the World Health Organization. Opponents of 5G claim the technology's high frequencies will make the new phones and cell towers extraordinarily harmful. "The higher the frequency, the more dangerous it is to living organisms," a RT reporter told viewers recently. The truth is exactly the opposite, scientists say. The higher the radio frequency, the less it penetrates human skin, lowering exposure of the body's internal organs, including the brain. "5G emissions, if anything, should be safer than previous generations," said Dr. Marvin C. Ziskin, a medical doctor and emeritus professor of radiology and medical physics at the Temple University School of Medicine. Health concerns were raised last year when a large federal study showed that 2G signals could produce brain cancer in male rats. But officials discounted a direct link to humans, saying people received smaller doses. Nonetheless, RT has taken an active role in stirring up apprehension, casting the debut of 5G in biblical terms. The caption superimposed on a January show read, "5G Apocalypse." The anchor reported that doctors, scientists and environmental groups were now calling for its ban. RT America taps the ranks of existing anti cellular activists to wage its 5G campaign. Some have railed for decades against cellphones, power lines and other everyday sources of electromagnetic waves. Much of their work appears not in reputable science journals but little known reports, publications and self published tracts, at times with copious notes of dubious significance. They tend to cite each other's research. It's unclear how many RT experts realize they are aiding a Russian network or that it acts as Mr. Putin's mouthpiece. At times, RT simply mines existing videotape and print materials, editing them to reflect its perspective. And the intelligence report noted that some network staffers fail to disclose their RT affiliation when conducting interviews. Even so, private analysts see the 5G attacks as reaching perhaps millions of online viewers terrifying some, infuriating others. "RT successfully feeds the conspiracy oriented ecosystem," said John Kelly, chief executive of Graphika, a network analytics firm. "This effort is having a real impact. It's bearing fruit." Dr. Carpenter, 82, received his medical degree from Harvard in 1964 and has published hundreds of scientific papers. For decades, he has warned of cancer risks for people living near high voltage power lines, although federal studies have failed to find credible evidence that would support his claims. "The rollout of 5G is very frightening," Dr. Carpenter told RT America. "Nobody is going to be able to escape the radiation." Dr. Carpenter's scariest alarms have been "widely dismissed by scientific bodies the world over," according to David Robert Grimes, a cancer researcher at the University of Oxford, and his colleague, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, also of Oxford. They challenged Dr. Carpenter in a journal article that ran months before the RT program aired, calling his main claims "scientifically discredited." In an interview, Dr. Carpenter defended his work as having "served a major purpose" by revealing a global health threat. He said he was unaware that he had been featured on RT America. "I speak my mind to whomever I talk with," he said. RT America's attacks on 5G have multiplied this year. On Jan. 14, the network aired "A Dangerous 'Experiment on Humanity,'" which again featured Dr. Carpenter. RT followed a day later with "How to Survive Dangers of 5G." On Feb. 7, a segment claimed that "5G Tech is 'Crime under International Law.'" Its featured expert was Arthur Firstenberg, who once charged that a neighbor's wireless gear had hurt his health. He sued for 1.43 million in damages but lost after pressing his claim for five years. The drumbeat continued. "'Totally Insane': Telecomm Industry Ignores 5G Dangers," was the title of a segment that aired March 6. A program on March 14 was aimed squarely at parents: "Could 5G Put More Kids at Risk for Cancer?" The RT reporter told of a California elementary school that recently churned with fear of radiation from a nearby cellphone tower, and how angry parents kept home 200 students. Even as RT America has worked hard to damage 5G, the scientific establishment in Russia has embraced a contrary and questionable position: that the high frequencies of 5G communications are actually good for human health. It recommends their use for healing wounds, boosting the immune system and treating cancer. Millions of Russian patients are said to have undergone such high frequency therapies. Beauty clinics in Moscow use these high frequencies for skin regeneration, according to a scientific study. One company says the waves can remove wrinkles and fight hair loss. A Rand study once called RT America's approach a "Firehose of Falsehood." For its part, Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations of meddling in the 2016 presidential election and has strongly defended RT's news coverage as socially constructive. Likewise, RT America strongly defended its position on the potential health risks of 5G technology. "Nothing I've seen says the book is closed," Rick Sanchez, an RT anchor on many of the 5G episodes, said in an interview. "I think there's lots of unanswered questions. Before we commit to something on this scale, shouldn't we consider if people could possibly be hurt?" Mr. Fox, the operations chief of New Knowledge, the technology firm, said the network's aggressive spin on 5G suggests Moscow is less interested in serving the public than dulling Washington's edge in the global race for the digital future.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
It was a problem that everyone knew was solvable, but one that had yet to be solved. Engineers, inventors and tinkerers had been working on "telemotion," the "televista," the "photo telegraph," and the "tele vision" in various forms, using well known technologies and off the shelf equipment, since the early 20th century. The New York Times first mentioned the idea it was still only an idea on Feb. 24, 1907, in an article announcing the first successful transmission of photographs by wire. "The new 'telephotograph' invention of Dr. Arthur Korn," the anonymous reporter wrote, "assures us that 'television,' or seeing by telegraph, is merely a question of a year or two with certain improvements in apparatus." The article was accompanied by portraits, all transmitted with the new technology, of five elegantly mustachioed men. There was also a picture of Dr. Korn himself, sitting next to his "telephotographic apparatus." He had a healthy mustache, too.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
ARCADIA, Calif. The free coffee was flowing, the horses were already into their morning workouts, and the sun was not yet up over the San Gabriel Mountains. These mornings at Clocker's Corner, a breakfast spot for horsemen and other hangers on at the storied Santa Anita Park, are usually filled with gossip and banter. On Friday, though, there was only apprehension. A day earlier, the owners of the track announced strict new rules for their sport no race day drugs, no use of whips in response to a spate of horse deaths, 22 since the end of December. The new rules have not only put trainers and owners at the track on notice, but also convulsed a multibillion dollar industry from Kentucky to New York that has resisted meaningful oversight for decades. The stakes are high, especially in California, where the animal rights movement is particularly strong, and all it takes is 600,000 signatures on a petition to prompt a ballot initiative on whether horse racing should even exist here. Even more harrowing is the fact that Los Angeles County district attorney's office investigators are looking into deaths at the behest of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "This could be the end in California," said Gary Stute, 62, a trainer like his father before him and stalwart of the racing circuit. He said it was painful to see the sport he loved "dragged through the mud, and us as trainers through the mud, that you don't care about the horses." He added: "I love the horses. I'm closer to these horses than my sisters." While racetrack owners and leaders of industry groups acknowledged Friday that horse racing was at a crucial moment, no one was in a hurry to join the Stronach Group, the company that owns Santa Anita, Golden Gate Fields in San Francisco and many more, in a set of safety improvements that would put American horse racing in line with the rest of the world. Many horse trainers across the nation say medication is aimed at keeping athletes healthy and competing, whether they are human or equine, and the trainers do not want to surrender rights to keep athletes fit. They see the whip as a nonissue because, they say, it is rarely used, does not inflict much pain and helps jockeys control horses more than it makes them run faster. "We're committed to collaborating with other industry leaders to raise the bar in making racing safer," he said in a statement. David O'Rourke, the interim chief executive of the New York Racing Association, said in a statement that "there is always more work to be done, and we are constantly striving to enhance safety protocols in the course of active dialogue with independent experts, veterinarians and scientists in relevant fields." Five horses have died at Aqueduct since Jan. 1, but the racing association has had spikes in fatalities similar to Santa Anita's: at Aqueduct in 2012 and at Saratoga in 2016. "There has to be a discussion and a plan," said Dr. Mary Scollay, the equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Association. There is a growing number of owners and trainers, however, who say that fatalities at Santa Anita and the attention they have attracted are an opportunity to save the sport from itself. On Thursday, the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2019 was introduced in Congress by Representatives Paul Tonko, Democrat of New York, and Andy Barr, Republican of Kentucky. The bill would create a private, independent authority responsible for developing and administering a nationwide antidoping and medication control program. Here in Arcadia, however, in a place that feels forever oriented toward its past, the policies going forward are not popular. This was once the center of horse racing, and Santa Anita Park, known as the Great Race Place and home to Seabiscuit, a legacy the track to this day uses in its marketing has been central to the culture of Southern California. It opened on Christmas Day in 1934, at the height of the Great Depression. "We preceded every sport in L.A.," said Mike Willman, who has worked at the track since 1985 and is now the director of publicity. "We preceded the Lakers, the Dodgers, the Rams, the Angels. You had athletes who would come, celebrities." Stute says he does not like the new rules which he called "so extreme" but is willing to go along with them if they help save the sport. "I understand," he said. "I think they are trying to cover every base for the safety of the horse." In a meeting for trainers and owners on Friday, there was talk of boycotting the track though it is unclear when or if it may reopen for the remaining racing dates. The cause of all the horses deaths has not been determined by investigators, though many trainers blamed an abundance of rain, which unsettled the track, causing horses to break down which required them to be euthanized. Derek Lawson, an agent who represents the French jockey Flavien Prat, pushed back against what he believed to be a false narrative that horses were mysteriously dying at Santa Anita. "Horses are breaking down while they are training," he said. "A horse can't lie in the hospital with his leg up in the air. Horses are breaking down and being put down, humanely." "It's a different time," he said. "When you have organizations pushing to abolish horse racing, they don't realize how many people the industry employs." Some horsemen, however, say there is a better version of the sport waiting if only the industry would embrace change. "I am quite adamant about America having no drug, no abusive practices racing," said Neil Drysdale, a Hall of Famer trainer who won the 2000 Kentucky Derby with Fusaichi Pegasus. "We can be better."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
Michael J. Pollard, who rose to fame in the 1967 hit film "Bonnie and Clyde" as C.W. Moss, the dimwitted gas station attendant who became a criminal accomplice, and went on to a long career as a Hollywood character actor, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Los Angeles. He was 80. A friend, Dawn Walker, said in an interview that the cause was cardiac arrest. Mr. Pollard had been a familiar face on television since the late 1950s. He most often played likable but socially inept characters, and usually ranked fairly far down on the cast list. In two separate shows, he played the cousin of a beloved supporting character Jerome Krebs, cousin to Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver) on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," and Virgil, cousin to Deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts), on "The Andy Griffith Show." He also had a memorable role in the first season of the television series "Star Trek," in 1966, playing a creepy, mischievous teenage cult leader on a planet of children. In a 1968 interview with The New York Times, Mr. Pollard noted that directors had once been frustrated by his slow, somewhat eccentric way of delivering lines, but that the success of "Bonnie and Clyde" had changed that. "They say, 'Just do your thing, Michael, whatever it is,'" he said. "Same thing I've been doing for 10 years, man." "His thing" was evident in a scene in "Bonnie and Clyde" in which Mr. Pollard, who is supposed to be driving the getaway car for the two outlaws, ends up parking the car. "We made that up," Mr. Pollard told the film critic Roger Ebert in 1969. "See, I can't drive a car. There was this guy teaching me, but I couldn't learn. So here I was stuck in the parking place, and Penn" Arthur Penn, the director "said, 'O.K., do it that way.'" The writer Nora Ephron said it was Mr. Pollard's face that grabbed one's attention. "Potato face," she wrote in 1970 in The New York Post. "And a little like a cherub blowing friendly winds on old fashioned maps. A little hilarious." He told Ms. Ephron that he thought his face was weird. "When it was young it bothered me," he said. "But then I became an actor and everyone started saying, 'What a face. Wow.' I believed all my publicity." He was born Michael John Pollack Jr. on May 30, 1939, in Passaic, N.J. His father was a bartender and his mother, Sonia (Dubanowich) Pollack, was a homemaker. He is survived by a daughter, Holly, from his marriage to the actress Beth Howland, and a son, Axel Emmett, from another marriage. Both marriages ended in divorce. His sister, Ruth Coughlin, died in 2014. He graduated from Montclair Academy in New Jersey and decided he wanted to be an actor after seeing Marlon Brando in the 1954 movie "On the Waterfront." He enrolled at the Actors Studio in New York, where he studied with Lee Strasberg, among others. At the Actors Studio he did a scene with Marilyn Monroe, at her request. According to Ms. Ephron, when Ms. Monroe had called him up to do the scene, she said: "Hello, this is Marilyn. The girl from class." He quickly proved his versatility by scoring both comic and dramatic roles in television, film and the theater, starting in 1958. He went on to act in more than 200 films and television shows. His early TV appearances included roles in the anthology series "Lux Playhouse," the Cold War dramatic series "Five Fingers" and a 1959 television play by Archibald MacLeish, "Secret of Freedom," in which he played a shoeshine boy. He appeared in two episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," again playing a shoeshine boy in one and a 13 year old boy in the other. Thanks to his slight build, Mr. Pollard, who was 20 at the time, easily passed for characters much younger. On Broadway, he landed a non singing role in the original Broadway production of "Bye Bye Birdie." A 1960 blurb in Playbill noted that he "began the season with a set of splendid notices for his performance in William Inge's 'A Loss of Roses.'" Playbill added: "Following the strong impression he made as Homer Macauley in the television version of Saroyan's 'The Human Comedy,' he was recruited for the Circle in the Square's revival of 'Our Town.'" Multiple roles followed in quick, even overlapping, succession. They included a part in the Walt Disney family musical "Summer Magic," opposite Hayley Mills, and another in the TV series "I Spy," which starred Bill Cosby and Robert Culp. In 1966, Mr. Pollard played an uncredited but memorable bit as an airplane mechanic with a runny nose in the Norman Jewison comedy "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming." His breakout performance in "Bonnie and Clyde," with a cast led by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway and also including Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons, won Mr. Pollard not only an Oscar nomination but also a BAFTA Award, Britain's equivalent of an Academy Award, for most promising newcomer in a leading film role. That same year, he landed a lead role in Derek May's "Niagara Falls," a kind of anti travelogue in which fictional interviews are interspersed with documentary footage. One of Mr. Pollard's most popular movies was "Little Fauss and Big Halsy" (1970), a motorcycle racing movie with Robert Redford that developed a cult following. (Mr. Pollard played the woebegone Fauss to Mr. Redford's womanizing Halsy.)	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
The New York Times's newsletters and Reader Center have been good ways to reach new readers, said Jodi Rudoren, associate managing editor for audience. How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Jodi Rudoren, associate managing editor for audience, discussed the tech she's using. Tell us a bit about your role as head of audience strategy. It's a new role, and in many ways, we're making it up as we go along. The mission is to get more people to read more of The Times. To get addicted to our journalism. To make it part of their daily lives. And to do that, we need to make the journalism work better for more people which doesn't mean changing our core values, but does mean reconsidering and reimagining how, when and where we tell stories. The journalism itself is our strongest audience tool we want storytelling that meets readers needs, wows them and is so compelling, so essential, so helpful, so excellent that they make it a daily habit. To get there, we need to help our journalists think more about the audience and read the data signals about what readers want to help inform coverage decisions. Ultimately, it's about building relationships. That's the 30,000 foot view. Closer to the ground, I'm overseeing our portfolio of newsletters, one of the most powerful ways to reach new readers and keep them coming back, as well as our Reader Center, where we showcase who we are and what we do, engage our critics and elevate reader voices around the news of the day. I also lead special initiatives to expand and engage our readership in California and outside the United States, and to better serve women. Audience Strategy also includes our amazing and growing Search team, which is all about optimizing journalism's largest channel, and Off Platform Initiatives, where we look for new opportunities to reach people. What tech tools are most important for doing your job? Does Google Calendar count as a tech tool? It's embarrassing, but my job is a somewhat endless series of meetings, so I live by that thing. People are often shocked that I keep my calendar open. It's part of my life philosophy of radical transparency, which is sometimes called "oversharing." I once accidentally put my 5:30 a.m. spin class on a group calendar at least it was a workout and not an appointment with a doctor for some rare skin disorder! The other thing I can't live without is my iPad Bluetooth keyboard by Logitech. It's with me at breakfast, on the train to work, in all those meetings; I once was overheard typing on it in the women's bathroom. How do we use tech or data at The Times to determine which audiences we are underserving and then try to serve them? We use a combination of data and surveys to find gaps and opportunities. Looking at IP addresses helped us realize that we had large and fast growing audiences in California and outside the United States, especially in Canada and Australia. But we also saw that they read less deeply or frequently than people closer to our New York headquarters, so we stood up teams to lean into those audiences and make it more clear that The Times is for them. Google Analytics and reader interviews revealed an engagement gap with women, which led us to create the Gender Initiative. One of the things that group does is look closely at which types of stories perform well with women (personal narrative, visual stories, things with a conversational tone) and which do not (data heavy analysis). We surface these insights to reporters and editors to help guide their decisions about the best way to tell each tale. We also spend a lot of energy looking at search trends to make sure our report is answering the questions readers ask most and publishing stories when people are hungriest for them. These are people searching for news! They're our people. They just don't all know it yet. A lot of this is still a work in progress, and maybe it will always be, because our industry, and technology, are changing so much so fast. What's critical, I think, is pretty much the same thing that was critical in my prior roles as reporter and editor that I know enough to ask the next best question. What are some of your favorite examples of how The Times is using tech to attract new audiences? The Daily has to be the single best example of us not just reaching a whole new cadre of people but really becoming part of their lives: something like one million people a month listen to at least half the episodes. The magic of the show grew out of a profoundly simple question: What does The Times sound like? What has been transformative is not just the tech audio/podcast versus articles but the whole approach of combining the story itself and the story behind the story into one irresistible thing. It's barely two years old, but I can hardly imagine a Times (or even a world?) without it. All new storytelling forms excite me. Data visualizations like this piece about race and income mobility are mind blowing in their ability to explain complicated topics. What we call tap throughs, which generally combine video, stills and text in an immersive way, add multiple dimensions to our reporting and reporters and are unforgettable. Here's one I loved on the border of China and North Korea. In that same vein, Our Open Source forensic video investigations are groundbreaking a piece on the Gaza fence protests was so much more powerful than anything I wrote (or read) about the two wars with Israel that I covered there. And some of this doesn't depend at all on tech. I'm a big fan of the "What we know and don't know" form, which we deploy at big news moments to help readers catch up and cut through to get the essentials before diving into some of the deeper stories. These are just words arranged in a way that's different from a traditional news story, plus a few bullets. Hey, this Q. and A. is a new story form, too! Outside of work, what tech product are you obsessed with? I'll tell you the tech product I'm obsessed with not having: a search feature that scans all the streaming services on my Apple TV to quickly find where the show I want lives or what my options for watching a particular movie are. There should be an app for that! I'm entirely dependent on Waze and Google maps. My 11 year old daughter recently mused that she hopes that someday soon, everybody will somehow have these programmed into the brain and know how to get everywhere. I tried to explain to her that when I was growing up, you had to call and ask for directions, and that a lot of people including my mom mostly would drive only to places that they were confident they knew how to get to, and how small that made the world. You're a big cook. What's your favorite kitchen gadget, and why? A real chef would offer a paean to a humble knife here. I am not a real chef. I have more high tech stuff than I need, definitely. I really like my Air Fryer, which is basically just an extra hot and fast oven. I make eggplant in there and drown it with a quick sauce of cherry tomatoes, garlic and basil, very healthy and yummy in about 20 minutes. My newest toy is the Whynter ICM 15LS ice cream maker, which could not be simpler. We made a coffee ice cream spiced with coriander, cinnamon, cardamom and chili that was divine (and decaf!), and just did a smooth as silk mango sorbet. The problem with having a great ice cream maker is having great ice cream around all the time. But all of this is really windup. My favorite kitchen tool is completely ridiculous, unnecessary and cheap: the Oxo Good Grips 3 in 1 Avocado Slicer. The thing is a joy maker. No fear of cutting yourself when you (or one of your kids) hack into the pit, and those even slices are very impressive for plating. I'm not saying it's the first thing I'd take with me to a desert island, but I do like seeing it in my drawer.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
What is the thought behind your written instructions to the musicians? Like this: "When you see a long sustained pitch, think of it as a fragile flower that you need to carry in your hands and walk the distance of a thin rope without dropping it or falling." This description is something I've used in some of my pieces. It describes a state of mind: caution but determination, in a sense, so that you have this thing that you need to protect and carry, but it needs to be deliberate. I like to give performers just a bit of a glimpse of the way I think about some of the materials, with these atmospheric indications. When you're seeing a score that you've never seen before and music that nobody's heard before, it's nice to have something like this. This page utilizes the full orchestra. How much did writing for the scale of the Philharmonic factor into this piece? They have a very specific, and a very strong, energy. More than many of my other pieces, this has a lot of power, being pulled in strong forces of rhythm and whirlwind, which is unique to this piece. Some of it is in faster metronome marks, in particular these percussion parts with all the orchestra going into chaos. You mention chaos a lot, but the range of dynamics on this page is piano to mezzo forte, which is quite modest. How do you convey chaos? Chaos versus beauty is built into the piece based on this power struggle idea. And for me, the chaos part is not knowing exactly what is going to happen. It becomes chaotic until it is released in the other world, on the other side. Does tranquillity win out on the other side? I think that's up to each person who listens. You reach this, but does that mean it's here and it will last forever? Or is there another question and will it continue? The piece ends here, but the resolution is maybe not perfect.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
LOS ANGELES On a slightly scuzzy strip of Sunset Boulevard, past the faded rock 'n' roll memorabilia and oddly psychedelic trappings of a kitschy Thai restaurant (Quentin Tarantino's favorite), out the back and down the stairs, is a one room studio. "This is where I started, by myself," said Mike Amiri. "One table, one chair." Mr. Amiri is the founder and designer of Amiri, which is perhaps the most popular men's luxury brand you've never heard of. Mr. Amiri doesn't give many interviews, and he hasn't yet been made a cult obsession by most hypebeasts, the street wear devotees that constellate the men's wear discussing corners of the internet. His clothes shredded denim, biker jackets, worn flannels and everything studded, distressed, leopard spotted or glitter dusted have gained a following among the swag seeking missiles of the NBA and NFL (DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall, Brandon Ingram, Odell Beckham, Jr.), but his biggest fans may be the retailers who, even in these retail challenged times, sell his clothes. A lot of his clothes. "It has become one of the biggest businesses in the men's ready to wear," said Jay Bell, the senior vice president for men's ready to wear at Barneys New York. "It really doesn't happen often." In only three years in business, Mr. Amiri has gone from nothing to a projected 40 million in sales in 2018, according to the company. "We got very excited, very quickly," Mr. Bell said. "It's growing faster than any business currently in my designer matrix. It's a phenomenon, it really is." Mr. Amiri no longer works on Sunset, though he keeps the old studio backslid now to more or less one table, one chair as a reminder of days gone by. In fact, he said on a warm day in mid December, as the crash of silverware could be heard from the restaurant kitchen above, he grew out of it quickly and moved to a studio in Koreatown. In six months, he grew out of that one and relocated downtown. Soon we were headed there, negotiating Los Angeles traffic in Mr. Amiri's new G Class Mercedes. As of this month, he has moved once again, to a 30,000 square foot complex that will house his design studio, a showroom, a digital studio for e commerce and, for kicks and good measure, a basketball court. Mr. Amiri, 41, grew up in Hollywood, the son of emigre Iranians who parlayed a business in antique rugs into real estate investments, enough of them to rent an apartment in Beverly Hills so that Mr. Amiri and one of his brothers could go to Beverly Hills High School on the right side of the tracks. (Mr. Amiri remembered being an outsider there, ditching classes and smoking cigarettes alongside classmates like Angelina Jolie.) But his sensibility was forged along the Sunset Strip of the 1990s, the halcyon days of hard rock and Viper Room debauchery. "Coming from Hollywood, the heroes were people you would see here," Mr. Amiri said. "People in those jackets, the flannels, super long hair, polka dot shirts with leopard. For me, that was the coolest thing ever. To anybody else, they look like burnouts." That sensibility, some 30 years later, still dictates the Amiri look, which is subtle as a scream. Mr. Amiri's first collection was built around embellished jeans and sweatshirts and tees holed by shotgun fire distressed clothes you could hardly blame for their distress. It is based on vintage items, which Mr. Amiri began his career scouring flea markets for and reinterpreting. "For people who have more money than time, you don't have to go digging every weekend at the Rose Bowl," said Will Welch, the creative director of GQ. "It's the vintage grails you always wanted to find." Here they have morphed into something glitzier and gamier. Mr. Amiri has a free hand with embellishment, and a love of casual staples hoodies, flannels and so on ratcheted to luxurious but still flea bitten extremes. As rock gods crank their amps to 11, so does he. A note on a pair of jeans in development at his studio read "Needs Destruction." Jeans like those are a big part of the Amiri business, and its cornerstone. Mr. Amiri idolized Hedi Slimane, a fellow (if adopted) Angeleno and rock obsessive, who helped pioneer cult luxury denim as the designer of Dior Homme in the early Aughts. The pairs Mr. Amiri himself designs are, generally speaking, skintight, slashed and stretchy, and can run to 1,000 or more. Stretch has fallen out of favor in men's fashion, but Mr. Amiri realized that stretch fabrics were more comfortable for those who live, party, sleep and wake up in their jeans, and a man with a 34 inch waist doesn't mind finding he fits into a 32. (Mr. Amiri introduced a women's collection in 2017, and while men's still accounts for 75 percent of sales, women's is growing.) Amiri's brashness is in stark contrast to some of the luxury brands with whom he now competes, which tend to fetishize newness and intellectualize their approach. So, too, was the brashness of Mr. Slimane's designs for Saint Laurent, whose spirit hangs heavy over Mr. Amiri's collection. (Mr. Slimane went from Saint Laurent in 2016, leaving a grunge shaped hole in the marketplace.) At Paris Fashion Week, where Mr. Amiri will stage his first presentation on Jan. 19, his line is not likely to look similar to the more established luxury houses showing alongside him. "It's easy to come from L.A. and think what you do is very cool," he said. "But a lot of things you do can be really vulgar. You have to know, this might not even be that cool globally." He acknowledged the importance of balancing the collection between rowdiness and refinement, even if the scale tips slightly toward the former. "It's not for everybody," Mr. Welch said. And yet, for those it is for, it is very for. "People, at least in L.A., it's how they dress," said Sarah Stewart, the buying director of Maxfield in Los Angeles, which was Mr. Amiri's first client and carried the line exclusively for its first year. Last year, Mr. Amiri built out a six week pop up space at Maxfield where, he said, he sold 275,000 worth of clothes in the first three hours. Though rock musicians have worn his clothes an early custom client was Steven Tyler Mr. Amiri is one of a handful of designers, like Virgil Abloh of Off White and Jerry Lorenzo of Fear of God, who have reinterpreted rock staples for a hip hop era, taking some of their cues from rock (the skintight jeans) and some from hip hop (the oversize shirts and jackets Mr. Amiri puts on top of them). "It's interesting to me because rock 'n' roll has never been more dead," Mr. Welch said. "But everyone wants to dress like Kurt Cobain."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
Here's a question that separates a real "Harry Potter" fan from the rest of the muggles who think this is all just a bunch of wizarding gibberish: Is your Patronus a Siberian cat, a heron or a basset hound? The patronus charm, a cross between a spirit animal and a good luck charm, is one of the many bits of "Harry Potter" lore that fans continue to debate and celebrate nearly two decades after the first book was published. This has given J.K. Rowling, the boy wizard's creator, plenty of time to turn her wizarding world into a finely tuned marketing machine. On Thursday, that machine delivered what it called the "only authentic Patronus experience," allowing visitors to Ms. Rowling's definitive fan site, Pottermore, to take a quiz and see what theirs would be.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
SAN FRANCISCO TikTok, the short form viral video app, asked for a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration on Wednesday, a legal maneuver aimed at protecting the company's service in the United States against a potential ban. The request, filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia, is in response to Commerce Department rules that Apple and Google remove the TikTok app from their app stores by Sunday for American users, and cease to provide further software updates to people who have downloaded the app in the United States. TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance, has lately been working to complete a deal that would keep it operating in the United States. In August, President Trump signed executive orders effectively mandating that ByteDance sell TikTok's U.S. operations or risk halting its transactions in the country. The White House has positioned TikTok's American presence as a national security threat. ByteDance and government officials have worked to find a resolution for months. On Saturday, Mr. Trump said he had "blessed" a proposed deal among TikTok, Oracle and Walmart, under which the two American companies would get a 20 percent stake in a new entity called TikTok Global.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
Derren Brown is bringing his bag of tricks to Broadway. The renowned British mentalist, who for years has been mystifying audiences in person and on television with what appears to be an ability to read minds, will play a four month run at the Cort Theater, starting in September. "Well, who wouldn't?" he said when asked why he wanted to bring the show to Broadway. "What an amazing chance." He arrives at a time when mind magic seems to be enjoying a bit of a renaissance not only did Mr. Brown have an Off Broadway run, at the Atlantic Theater Company in 2017 , but so did Derek DelGaudio, and the group of magicians called the Illusionists have for four years been performing over the holidays on Broadway. "I think magic generally is particularly of interest when the cultural narrative that we would otherwise live by dips out of favor," Mr. Brown said. "Over the last couple hundred years we proudly dispensed with superstition, but now death is just frightening and absurd. And that's where the world of psychics and mediums are perfect they can provide a semblance of meaning."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
DETROIT It was late Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend when Fernando Palazuelo reached the head of the line at the tax collection window of the treasurer's office in Wayne County, Mich. He had traveled 3,700 miles from Lima, Peru, to make a simple request. "I am interested in buying the Packard plant," he said. "And I want to speak to the man in charge." A few minutes later, he was ushered in to see Raymond Wojtowicz, the 84 year old county treasurer responsible for tens of thousands of foreclosed properties in the bankrupt city of Detroit. And with that, Mr. Palazuelo, a developer of broken down buildings from Europe to South America, was on his way to buying the biggest, most iconic eyesore in this city the abandoned Packard Motor Car plant. There are risky bets in commercial real estate, and then there is the Packard vacant, vandalized and deteriorating for decades. Yet Mr. Palazuelo's acquisition of the sprawling, 40 acre Packard site on Dec. 31 is part of the unlikely land rush occurring in Detroit, where investors from around the world are scrambling to buy vacant properties at the bottom of a historically distressed market. Detroit's empty buildings have lured buyers from all over, like the Chinese firm that last year bought two office towers from a Florida company, and the individual investors from Europe and Asia who have scooped up derelict homes for less than 1,000 each. But no deal has captured the city's attention like Mr. Palazuelo's purchase of the Packard. He won a county run auction to buy the dilapidated plant for 405,000 less than 15 cents a square foot for a trash strewn, graffiti covered hulk of industrial decay in the heart of a profoundly blighted neighborhood. He was not the first to try to acquire it. Two other potential buyers, an Illinois developer and a Texas doctor, submitted higher bids, but failed to come up with the money. But Mr. Palazuelo's 405,000 is now in the county treasury, and is nonrefundable. It represents a small down payment on the 350 million he says he needs over the next 10 years to transform the Packard into a successful, mixed use development. The odds against him do not faze Mr. Palazuelo, who is trying to raise capital for the project from business contacts in the United States, Europe and South America. "I am a real estate developer, but a very special one," he said. "I have always been entering cities that have problems in the past." His ambition to own the plant surprised even Mr. Wojtowicz, who in 37 years as county treasurer had heard his share of wild ideas for redeveloping the ruins of Detroit. "It was spontaneous and unexpected," Mr. Wojtowicz said. "But the proverbial seed was planted because of his sincerity." Detroit's development community is intrigued by Mr. Palazuelo's strategy to methodically rebuild parts of the Packard over time. "It is a lot of money, but any building that size is going to cost a lot," said Dan Pitera, an architecture professor at the University of Detroit Mercy. "But it has possibilities if you do it one piece at a time." Then in July, Mr. Palazuelo read in the local newspaper that Detroit had filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history, and immediately sensed a once in a lifetime opportunity. He could not have picked a more problematic place than Detroit, home to an estimated 78,000 abandoned buildings including the decrepit Packard plant. Mr. Palazuelo, silver haired at 58 years old, stopped by the plant during a recent weeklong visit to Detroit to meet with city officials and potential investors in his long term plan. "So many people have said to me that this is the very last place I want to be investing money," he said. "But for me, Detroit is my new home." Mr. Palazuelo's company, Arte Express, has revived about a dozen older properties in Lima for banks, insurance companies and other businesses. Several of the buildings had been vacant for decades, but were of historical significance. "It's a positive contribution to the aesthetics of this part of town," said Julian Corvacho, a lawyer with the real estate arm of the Lima municipal government. "The revamped properties also have attracted companies that have come back downtown to operate." The Packard plant, however, is miles from Detroit's downtown and surrounded by deserted streets and lots piled with garbage. The plant itself is a lure for thieves in search of scrap metal and other criminal activity. The day after Christmas, the police found a dead body in one of its many interconnected structures. But the drawbacks do not deter Mr. Palazuelo, who sees the plant as an international symbol of Detroit's glory days and an almost blank canvas for his dream of building a complex for light industry, warehouses, offices and recreational activities. "The name Packard means something because of its charisma and history," he said. "It also has huge dimensions and a location near the expressway and major roads." But the type of light industry he hopes to attract has over the years mostly fled from Detroit to more affluent and safe areas in the suburbs. Even Mr. Palazuelo's associates wonder if businesses are ready to overlook the hardship and decline of the Packard's east side neighborhood. "Substantial portions of the plant are structurally quite good," said James McCormick, a California developer who is working with Mr. Palazuelo. "But it is a challenge because it is so isolated and lacking in public safety." Mr. Palazuelo faces a long process to determine how much of the plant is structurally sound enough to use. Mr. Pitera, who is involved in a municipal planning project called Detroit Future City, suggested that new buildings could be constructed within the Packard's aged walls, similar to how old factories have been revamped in Germany and elsewhere. Another urban expert, Thomas Sugrue, compared the Packard to the defunct Bethlehem Steel complex in Pennsylvania, which was partly converted into a casino. But even that project pales in comparison. "I don't know of any successful attempt to adapt and reuse a facility as decrepit as the Packard," said Mr. Sugrue, a Detroit born historian and author of the book "The Origins of the Urban Crisis." "It would require a staggering investment to bring even part of it back to life." Mr. Palazuelo is, for now, taking stock of the task ahead. He has talked with county and city officials about improving nearby streets and lighting, and possibly providing tax incentives for investment. And he has hired private security to patrol the grounds, as he considers ways to secure the property from trespassers. As he toured the second floor of one of the Packard's buildings, Mr. Palazuelo said his initial goal was to clean up the plant in sections, and build an on site corporate office and an apartment for himself. Then he will see which of his prospective tenants are genuinely interested in moving in. He said that, so far, a large auto supplier has looked at leasing space, as well as a local liquor distillery. Other plans include possibly building an indoor go kart track. "We will start work," he said. "And then see who wants to follow us."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
Ride along with the Times contributor Tom Voelk as he test drives the newest cars on the market. Ride along with the Times contributor Tom Voelk as he test drives the newest cars on the market.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Automobiles
An autobiographical meditation on identity and presence, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen's solo show, "Draw the Circle," is the story of a suburban girl named Shireen and a Brooklyn man named Deen. They are the same person. And yet they are not. In a series of monologues, sometimes gentle and sometimes harrowing, family members, lovers and others tell us about Shireen's growing unhappiness the disorientation, the hospitalizations, the suicide attempts and gradual recovery, which culminates in her becoming Deen through a gender transition. Neither Shireen nor Deen ever appears as a character. "Draw the Circle," which runs in repertory at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater with Dael Orlandersmith's "Until the Flood," opens with a picture of a smiling girl in a red sweater, an image that fades as Mr. Deen, wearing jeans and a rumpled T shirt, enters, stepping into the first of a number of lit squares. A few days before Thanksgiving, Deen's girlfriend, Molly, is heading to Connecticut with Deen to see his parents, Indian immigrants who struggle to accept them. "We haven't seen them in two years," Molly explains. "It's like I've got to prove myself all over again. Yes, I'm white. No, I'm not Muslim. Yes, I'm a girl." Deen has even more to prove.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
"Antibodies Didn't Last Long After Infection in Study, Especially for Asymptomatic" (news article, June 19) highlights that unknowing or recovered Covid 19 carriers at best develop weak antibodies that may be effective for some few months, leaving carriers vulnerable to the possibility of repeat infection. This appears to rule out "herd immunity" as an avenue for vanquishing the virus. It appears that true immunity will come only from a vaccine that works to prevent infection safely for a defined and specific period of time and can be produced and delivered to billions of people quickly. Once such a vaccine is proved effective, we will learn for how long only with the passage of time. Virtually all vaccines under investigation target the "spike" protein that is used by the pandemic virus, SARS CoV 2, for cell entry. What's Plan B if the antibodies to the spike protein are not durable or if the spike protein mutates, as has been seen in some studies? To get over the gap until we have a proven, effective, classic vaccine, which gives specific antibodies and specific cellular immunity, we believe that an immediately available and promising approach involves stimulating the body's own innate immune system to do the job.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
This article has been updated to reflect news developments. Until the night of Jan. 18, Mila Orriols, a 16 year old lesbian and atheist schoolgirl from southern France, probably did not expect to initiate a national controversy. But that is what happened when she live streamed herself on Instagram while applying makeup, only to get into a quarrel with a man who, in her words, began "hitting on her heavily." The online fight soon turned into matters of identity, and at some point the angry Mila said, "the Quran is a religion of hatred," and used a vile vulgarity to describe Islam. The very fact that she defined the Quran as "a religion" was a sign that Mila was not in touch with Islamic theology. (The Quran is the holy book of Islam, the religion). Yet still, her comment, which quickly spread on social media, was taken seriously by many French Muslims, some of whom reacted with anger. "I receive 200 messages of hate each minute," Mila said, before she was put under police protection against death threats and went into hiding. Since then, the Mila affair has become a national controversy in France, with numerous media stories, comments from President Emmanuel Macron, Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet, and the far right leader Marine Le Pen. Countless Twitter posts adopted the hashtag JeSuisMila ("I am Mila"), evoking JeSuisCharlie, the motto for supporting the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after Islamist terrorists claiming ties to Al Qaeda in 2015 attacked its office and murdered 12 people. In other words, the Mila affair has become yet another episode in an oft repeated pattern: A Westerner mocks or openly demeans Islam, often labeling it as a harsh, intolerant and violent religion. In return, some Muslims have harsh, intolerant or even violent reactions without realizing that they only seem to confirm the accusation. Of course, not all Muslims agree with this knee jerk reaction; many simply prefer to stay silent. But while silence does not exacerbate the problem, it doesn't solve it either. Other Muslims seek a response in identity politics, by slamming all critics of Islam as racists. But that best defense is offense approach also doesn't help much, nor does its premise that Muslims are a race, which is not very accurate. Here is what we Muslims should see: A very negative view of Islam, often called Islamophobia, is now a real, even lethal, problem in the world. In part, it derives from factors beyond our control nativism in the West, Hindu supremacy in India or totalitarianism in China. But it is also caused by factors within us the justification of many terrible deeds in the name of Islam today, from terrorism to tyranny, from patriarchy to bigotry. It is only normal that some non Muslims are shocked by these wrongdoings, and judge Islam accordingly. In return, it is mainly our duty to clean up our house, challenge the harsh interpretations of our faith and also build alliances with all the good willed people who are committed to protecting human rights. Just last week, the German justice minister indicated that her country would do its part when she declared that far right terrorists are Germany's No. 1 threat. That statement came after a right wing gunman with racist views killed nine mostly young people in a hookah bar in the city of Hanau. Moreover, we should respond to Islamophobia in a way that will not reinforce it, but rather disarm it. The answer is right there in the Quran. First, the Quran warns us against what unfortunately has become a dominant mood in the contemporary Muslim public sphere: anger. Verse 3:134 defines good Muslims, rather, as "those who restrain their anger and who forgive people." Other verses also praise prophets such as Abraham, Isaac and Shuaib for having hilm, a moral virtue that implies forbearance, gentleness and forgiveness. In verse 16:125, the Quran also explains how hilm must be practiced when Muslims are in conversation with others: "Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good teaching. Argue with them in the most courteous way ... ." In another verse, 41:34, the Quran goes even further, advising what we today call "killing with kindness": "Good and evil cannot be equal. Repel evil with what is better and your enemy will become as close as an intimate friend." So, in the light of these verses, the Muslim reaction against Islamophobia should be calm and gentle, and "in the most courteous way." Muslims should even go out of their way to win the hearts and minds of those who seem hostile. One reason this doesn't happen often enough is that the verses quoted above have not fully defined the Islamic perspective on engagement with non Muslims. The Quran also has verses commanding war against "unbelievers" until they are converted or subdued. In medieval Islam, these belligerent verses were taken as the pivotal ones by the mainstream jurisprudential tradition, which unmistakably grew under conquest hungry empires. This tradition even explicitly "abrogated" more than a hundred Quranic verses that preached civility, including the ones just quoted above 16:125 and 41:34. Worse than that, medieval Muslim jurists invented severe blasphemy laws to punish anyone who insulted Islam. Among these jurists were the 48 Christians of Cordoba who, in the mid ninth century, publicly defamed the Prophet Muhammad, only to be beheaded for it. Clearly, killing with kindness was gone, and replaced by killing with the sword. Today, the verdicts behind such grim episodes still inspire extremists in the Muslim world. However, we, the reasonable Muslims, don't have to blindly abide by medieval jurisprudence. We can take peace, not war, as the normal state of human affairs. Similarly, we can defend our faith not with the dictates of power, but the appeals of reason and virtue. With that in mind, if I were a Muslim leader in France, here is how I would respond to Mila: I would send her a kind letter filled with hilm. "We respect your freedom of speech, and regret the hate poured on you," it would read. "But ours is really a religion of compassion, not hate." I would also add a helpful introductory book on Islam, and even a nice bouquet of flowers. Perhaps then, the young Mila Orriols would see Islam in a brighter light. And with her, the rest of French society, and maybe even the broader modern world. Mustafa Akyol ( akyolinenglish) is a senior fellow on Islam and modernity at the Cato Institute, and the author of "Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty." 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.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
JAMPACKED The Harlem mansion of Langley and Homer Collyer in New York City brought hoarding to public attention in 1947. These days hoarding, the topic of TV shows and support groups, is a recognized mental disorder. The one bedroom condo on Park Avenue was described by the broker, Jeffrey Tanenbaum of Halstead Property, as a "hoarder's paradise, with seven cats, one dog and 12 armoires packed to the brim." Closets were on the verge of bursting, and the owner's bed was heaped with mounds of clothes. Floors had buckled, and paint had peeled from the walls. The owner's husband had died unexpectedly, and financial problems had forced her to put the apartment on the market. "When I arrived for our first meeting," Mr. Tanenbaum said, "I got the shock of my life. But the light, the views and the location were incredible." Light streamed so powerfully through a wall of windows "that you really needed sunglasses in the afternoon." A major selling point was the sweeping 600 square foot terrace with three exposures. Deeply moved by the plight of the owner "my heart really went out to her" Mr. Tanenbaum set to work. He rented a storage space for the contents of the apartment, and paid his own housekeeper to scrub down the premises. The online listing featured only a floor plan, a photograph of the lushly planted terrace, "and careful language to mention that the apartment had great bones," he said. The space was shown 30 times and received 9 offers; in June, after a bidding war, it sold for about the asking price, just over 1 million. Real estate brokers are expected to play an active role in the buying and selling of a home. They help set the purchase price and guide their clients through bidding wars and co op board applications. But these days, some brokers are finding themselves in new territory, shepherding the sale of a hoarder's home. With inventory so low, almost any new listing gets waves of attention, and even the overflowing homes of hoarders are catnip to buyers. Yet selling these properties is different from most transactions: Brokers must restrain themselves from the push and pull that typifies most sales. Tact, restraint and sensitivity are the relevant qualities. With many properties, possessions have accumulated to such an extent that simply setting foot inside is a challenge. Hoarding is a complex emotional disorder defined as a fierce need to acquire combined with a paralyzing inability to get rid of things. The Collyer brothers, perhaps the best known example of hoarders, died in their impassable New York house in 1947. An estimated 3 to 5 percent of Americans suffer from the condition, which in May was listed for the first time as a distinct disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Although not confined to the elderly, the problems associated with hoarding intensify with age. And in a crowded metropolis, these troublesome spaces can seem uncomfortably close, which is why co op boards sometimes force the issue and order a sale. Owners of such apartments are reluctant to discuss their situations, aware that the label of hoarder invariably carries a stigma. Some are aware that the state of their living space has spiraled out of control. Others are in denial. For brokers, showing and marketing a true hoarder property can require considerable creativity. Some spaces are firetraps and home to bugs or worse, with rooms so jampacked that visitors must navigate sliver thin passages simply to move from one to another. Online visuals present a special challenge; a broker might display a floor plan, a view out a window or another apartment on the same line. And forget the open house. Sometimes prospective buyers can't get past the front door. Buyers must also be encouraged to picture the rosy possibilities that await them once the junk has been carted away and the contractors have worked their magic. As brokers invariably recommend, "Close your eyes and pretend." The possibilities are considerable, because many of these spaces are trophy homes or used to be. "Some of the best addresses in New York City have hoarders in them," said Harold Kobner of Argo Real Estate, who last winter sold a Classic 7 owned by a hoarder on the Upper West Side. Despite the legal and financial tangles that often complicate such sales, these properties spark bidding wars and attract dozens of potential buyers, some making all cash offers well above the asking price. "Right now people are starving for anything," said Mark D. Friedman, a Halstead broker who sold his first hoarder apartment, home to three dogs, eight cats and "not a speck of ground without something on it" eight years ago. "They'll look past a lot to see the bones of a place." Robin Plevener, a Citi Habitats broker, discovered both the challenges and the rewards of selling a hoarder's apartment last year when she sold a two bedroom on East 86th Street, home since the 1950s to a quilter unable to discard so much as a scrap of fabric. "It was a fabulous building with a strict board," Ms. Plevener said, "but the apartment was literally overflowing with hundreds of pounds of material that the owner used for her work." Dozens of full size quilts were stashed in the bedroom. The dining table was buried beneath acres of silk, satin and calico. The five walk in closets were packed so full that their doors hadn't been shut in years. The door to the room used as a studio had to be kept closed, for fear the owner's cats would get lost in the clutter. Gently, because the seller was an acquaintance, Ms. Plevener tried to coax her into digging out. "But even after she got rid of dozens of garbage bags of stuff, you couldn't see a difference." To Ms. Plevener's further dismay, many of the dozens of visitors made disparaging comments as they poked about the place, even when the owner was present. "I said, 'Please don't. A person lives here, and you have to respect her.' " "She wasn't nuts: she just couldn't throw anything away," Ms. Plevener said. "Living like that was her comfort zone." The property went on the market in April 2012, with an asking price slightly under 800,000, and an offer arrived the following month. The deal fell through a few weeks later, but a second buyer, Dr. Andrew Schreiner, promptly fell in love with the apartment and bought it for about 50,000 less than the asking price, charmed by the layout, the price and the building's reputation. "Because there had been a previous potential buyer, I didn't see the apartment at its worst," said Dr. Schreiner, a pathologist at NewYork Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, who closed on the property last October. "You could tell when you walked in that the place had been tidied up. But it was definitely overcrowded." Dr. Schreiner's greatest fear was that decades of neglect had permanently damaged the walls and the original parquet floors. It hadn't, but when the old carpeting was ripped up, clouds of dust flew into the air. "I was a bit worried about what I'd find," he said, and in fact, before he could move in, every surface had to be redone. Dr. Schreiner also had more metaphysical concerns. "There was a kind of spooky, time capsule feeling," he said. "When I saw the apartment, I thought to myself: someone's entire history is overflowing here, and you feel as if you're intruding. An apartment like this also makes you think about yourself. You wonder, could I myself fall off the deep end?" He describes himself as a neat enough person, but still he wonders. With hoarder apartments increasing as New York City's population ages, co op boards typically do everything they can to expedite their sale. Sometimes the problems are so great that the board gets a court order mandating the sale of an apartment to protect other residents from potential dangers like fire and vermin. "When the apartment of a hoarder is sold, the board is the happiest guy in the room," said Aaron Shmulewitz, a partner of Belkin Burden Wenig Goldman who has helped many a co op and condominium board deal with problem homes. "Generally, a longstanding health problem is being resolved, and boards usually bend over backward to expedite the sale. If the potential buyer is on the cusp of fiscal responsibility, the board will try to approve that person, just to get the hoarder out of the building." Showing these properties requires considerable ingenuity, as Eileen Richter, a Brown Harris Stevens broker, discovered when she prepared to sell a stunningly overstuffed Park Slope brownstone. Online, the property was described as a "handyman's fixer upper," and praised for its great bones and terrific location. But the accompanying image, a chocolaty brownstone facade framed by leafy branches and dappled sunlight, should have been a tip off. When this onetime showplace went on the market, posting photographs of the interior was out of the question. "My jaw hit the floor," said Ms. Richter, who sold the house with her Brown Harris Stevens colleague Audrey Edwards. "I had literally never seen anything like it in my life. Every room was packed. Every surface was heaped with papers and computers. Clothes were piled halfway up the walls, and there was so much stuff shoved against the door leading to the backyard that you couldn't even open it. What made the whole thing more amazing is that the household included two young children." The open house was held on a bright day in February 2008, Ms. Richter recalled. "I remember telling Audrey: 'We can't let kids in. It's not safe.' We had to tell prospective buyers that we could only let two or three adults in at a time." Not that the owner, who Ms. Richter said had lived in the house for decades, expressed any chagrin about the state of the premises. "He wasn't apologetic," Ms. Richter said. "His vision of where he was living was very different from ours. At least with estate sales, the owners are deceased and you can get the stuff out. But this owner was here, and he thought he lived in a fabulous house." Despite the challenges, the sale proceeded with lightning speed. Two weeks after the house went on the market with an asking price of about 1.3 million, the buyers signed a contract for slightly above that figure. Even after a deal is struck, the closing may be a distant goal, as Mr. Kobner of Argo learned in selling the Upper West Side Classic 7, a down at the heels beauty whose assets included a formal dining room, a maid's room, seven closets and 270 degree exposures. What the listing failed to mention was that over the past half century, the apartment had become a repository for great quantities of furniture, mountains of clothes and papers and, most notably, thousands of books. "Plus, the apartment was in shambles," said Mr. Kobner, who represented the sellers, an elderly mother and her two grown children. "The family had lived there for decades, and the place was indescribable. When you see these homes on TV, you think they can't be real. But they are." After a month on the market, the apartment sold for upward of 2.5 million, with the buyers planning to spend half a million on a gut renovation. "But the problems were only beginning," Mr. Kobner said. "Usually a closing takes three weeks; this one took seven. The whole transaction, which should have taken 90 days, lasted seven months. Plus, the owners couldn't get all their stuff out. I had to help them find storage, and also a new place to live. The buyers kept wondering, will the apartment ever close?"	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak. The band's new album, "The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs," is filled with orderly patterns and thorny questions. "I search for patterns/sense that isn't there," Jenn Wasner sings in the irresistible title song of Wye Oak's new album, "The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs." The latest songs she has written with Andy Stack, the group's other member, are brimming with patterns: synthesizer lines that loop and pulse, circling guitar runs, brisk programmed drumbeats. The patterns interlock and stack up to grow dense and bustling, confident and luminous the sound of a band simultaneously delving deeper into its music and opening it up. Yet at the same time, the album title suggests how art defies intention. And all of the music's patterned, orderly activity all that control doesn't resolve the tangled inquiries that have filled Wye Oak's songs since its debut album, "If Children," in 2007. As its musical vocabulary has steadily expanded, Wye Oak has long pondered how the personal turns metaphysical. Its songs grapple with questions of higher purpose, of personal and philosophical trust, of fate and self determination, of belief and responsibility, and of connection and solitude. They can be cryptic, but the songs measure themselves against everyday experience. The music on Wye Oak's "The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs" marks both an expansion and a restoration. On the new album, a bumpy flight home is the starting point of "Say Hello." It places a stately melody above a nervously undulating mass of buzzing guitar tones and drumming that goes against the beat, while Ms. Wasner reflects on the inexorable passage of time, on the nature of truth and on endless human yearning. "There is no distance long enough/but still the lengths to which we go," she sings. Ms. Wasner's voice and melodic sense, along with her perpetual self examination, have always been the core of Wye Oak. Her tone is pensive and centered, smooth and resolute; it warms and sustains tunes that often leap at unexpected angles. She and Mr. Stack devise music that is as much counterpoint as accompaniment, an active participant in the songs' internal dialogues. On the new album, the music marks both an expansion and a restoration. Wye Oak got started as a guitar centered indie rock band, usually deploying Ms. Wasner on guitar and lead vocals while Mr. Stack handled drums and keyboards. Then, with its 2014 album, "Shriek," Wye Oak willfully transformed its sound, nearly eliminating guitar to construct songs from keyboards and the rhythm section; Ms. Wasner moved primarily to bass, summoning both its architectural and propulsive functions. Suddenly, Wye Oak was showing connections to both electronic pop and progressive rock. Still, Wye Oak hadn't abandoned guitar. "Tween," a 2016 collection of eight outtakes recorded from 2011 14, revealed paths the band had rejected for "Shriek," with songs that enfolded electronics in broad strokes of guitar. Now, with "The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs," Wye Oak extends that approach to make it nimbler, more intricate and welcoming. There are joyful and sometimes rowdy sonic crosscurrents, even as the lyrics determinedly think things through. In "The Instrument," the singer confronts someone who has taken her for granted: "The instrument you once ignored/It is moving of its own accord," she warns. But the track has its own mandate, and it's too kinetic to sulk; behind Ms. Wasner's voice, a fast odd meter (7/4) beat and a racing synthesizer loop are poked and teased by electric guitar and a wavery synthesizer countermelody. The lyrics of "Over and Over" recognize being stuck in a toxic relationship "break out or watch as it repeats itself," Ms. Wasner sings but until the music dissolves at the end, it's a raucous, upbeat foot stomper. "Symmetry" is more ominous, envisioning natural and interpersonal disasters just ahead "My whole life is in that space/After the cut, before the pain" yet fighting back with airy vocal harmonies and odd meter drive. It's an acutely self conscious album, in form there are two distinct halves, separated by "My Signal," a brief, Bjork tinged song that has Ms. Wasner accompanied only by a string ensemble and in its concerns. In "You of All People," Ms. Wasner worries about listeners who might "confuse the artist with their work," while she prefers to "look up at something larger than myself." In "Lifer," she considers a life that has been spent making music, teetering between gratitude for her luck and a persistent insecurity though right after she sings, "I believe that life could be better," she unleashes a brash, distorted guitar solo. Laced through multiple songs are worries about growing older and less adventurous, about being either too selfish or too accommodating, and about the inconstancy of inspiration. But the music refutes all that. The patterns dazzle, the melodies sail grandly atop them and there's enough noise at the edges to keep things human. Wye Oak can be as self critical as it wants, but its songs are indisputable.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
A new exhibition honoring the life and work of Whitney Houston has opened at the Grammy Museum at the Prudential Center in Newark, the R B star's hometown. Organized by the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles in cooperation with the Houston estate, the show, "Whitney!," features personal artifacts, photographs and footage provided by the singer's family. Items on view include dazzling outfits Houston wore over the years, her own faded Bible and several awards. A wall of magazine pages showcases her early modeling career, while videos take visitors back to her momentous performances. The exhibition opened on Friday, the one year anniversary of the opening of the Grammy Museum's East Coast location. It will be on view until June 30, 2019.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
In roughly equal parts, the documentary "Robin's Wish" strives to honor the career of the peerless actor comedian Robin Williams and to raise awareness of Lewy body dementia, a form of progressive dementia that was diagnosed in Williams after his death from suicide in 2014. Williams's widow, Susan Schneider Williams, has pointed to diffuse Lewy body disease as a cause of her husband's death, and the director, Tylor Norwood, features her extensively as she describes the anxiety, sleeplessness and paranoia that he experienced in his final years. She quotes him as saying that he wanted to "reboot" his brain.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
For the latest on Hurricane Dorian, follow our live coverage. As Hurricane Dorian tore through the Bahamas and continued on its uncertain path to the United States, governors in South Carolina and Georgia ordered evacuations and airlines waived fees and penalties for travelers canceling and rescheduling their plans. More than 580 flights scheduled for Monday were canceled, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website; 45 cruise sailings across seven cruise lines, including Carnival, Disney, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line and MSC, were also affected by the hurricane. Amtrak canceled some trips in the Southeast through Tuesday, and Florida's governor suspended tolls on the Florida Turnpike, the stretch of Interstate 75 known as Alligator Alley and other highways. Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Orlando Melbourne International Airport (MLB) closed at noon on Monday while Daytona Beach International Airport (DAB) and Orlando International Airport (MCO) will close at 2 a.m. and remain closed on Tuesday. More than 200 flights were canceled into and out of Orlando International Airport, and another 160 were canceled into and out of Fort Lauderdale. In the Bahamas, Grand Bahama International Airport (FPO) in Freeport closed on Friday and is scheduled to reopen on Tuesday, Sept. 3, though a statement from the airport noted that the opening "is subject to prevailing conditions." The storm hit the Bahamas as a Category 5 hurricane on Monday morning, with its progress slowing to a crawl. Photographs and videos show extensive damage. With the path of the hurricane still shifting, some airlines are offering lower, capped prices on flights out of Florida, and some are waiving baggage and pet fees. Airlines also added new airports in the Carolinas and Georgia to their waivers, allowing travelers to cancel and reschedule flights for no penalty. Delta capped fares on nonstop flights out of Florida at between 299 and 599 in the main cabin and between 499 and 799 in the forward cabin, from now through Sept. 4. American Airlines capped fares at 499 one way nonstop in economy or 699 in domestic first class. JetBlue did not announce that it was capping flights, but a search out of several Florida airports showed lower flight prices than are common, with most flights at 199. American Airlines added eight airports in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina to its waiver, which previously included flights to, from and through Florida. Flights to, from and through the following airports now have capped prices, and no baggage and pet fees: Charleston (CHS), Hilton Head (HHH) and Myrtle Beach (MYR) in South Carolina; Greenville (PGV), Jacksonville (OAJ), Coastal Carolina Regional Airport in New Bern (EWN) and Wilmington International (ILM) in North Carolina; and Savannah, Hilton Head Airport in Georgia (SAV). JetBlue added Charleston and Savannah to its waiver. United added Charleston, Hilton Head Island, Myrtle Beach, Savannah, and Wilmington to its waiver. What if I am traveling with my pet? In addition to waiving cancellation and change fees, many airlines are also waiving pet and baggages fees for flights out of Florida. People flying out of one of the airports included in American's waiver can have the fee for in cabin pets waived and can check two bags for free. The number of carry on pets allowed in the cabin is temporarily lifted for these same cities. Delta also said it is waiving baggage and in cabin pet fees for passengers flying from seven Florida airports between Aug. 30 and Sept. 4. The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, a nonprofit hospitality trade association that includes 10,000 restaurant and hotel members, urged its members to waive cancellation fees. Diamond Resorts is waiving cancellation fees at its coastal resorts of The Cove on Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach Regency, Crescent Resort on South Beach and the Charter Club of Naples Bay. "Our teams are on the ground preparing for the storm, and will comply with any mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders that may be issued," said Mike Flaskey, the chief executive of Diamond Resorts. Rosen Hotels and Resorts, which includes eight hotels in the Orlando area, waived its cancellation fees for the weekend. The company will allow tourists who are stuck in the area to stay at a discounted price and is offering discounted prices to locals. Pet fees are waived at these hotels as well. Marriott said that its hotels in the path of the hurricane have implemented storm preparation protocols and that affected hotels are reviewing their cancellation fees. Cancellation details may vary from hotel to hotel, so the company urges guests to contact their specific property. Guests at Wyndham hotels will not be charged a fee for canceling reservations that are in ZIP codes that have been declared evacuation or hurricane warning zones 48 hours before the storm makes landfall. Airbnb put its Open Homes program into effect in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina on Friday. The program encourages Airbnb hosts to open their homes to evacuees for free. What is the status of Disney World and Disney cruises? In Florida, Walt Disney World Resort continued to operate under normal conditions, but Disney Cruise Line received backlash on social media when the sister of an employee shared on Twitter that some staffers had been left on Castaway Cay, the company's private island in the Bahamas. The company insisted that all employees were safe and in a hurricane shelter. "We are in regular contact with island leadership, who is making sure our Crew is well taken care of in our storm shelter, which is designed for these types of situations and has restrooms, power and is well stocked with food and water," the company said in a statement.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
Teacher, My Dad Lost His Job. Do We Have to Move? WORTHINGTON, Ohio Diane and Eric Kehler tried not to talk about it in front of the children, but as Jen Hegerty, the guidance counselor at Wilson Hill Elementary School, says, "Children have eagle ears." Mr. Kehler lost his 90,000 a year job as an information technology manager. And though he and his wife discussed their problems in whispers, eagle ears don't miss much. Their son Mathias, 12, a quiet, cerebral sixth grader at Wilson Hill, got quieter. "Our house was sort of in a state of despair. We weren't as happy as usual," Mathias said. "I stopped having good ideas to talk about with my friends." Mrs. Kehler has a college degree but had chosen to be a stay at home mother. That ended. She took a job at McDonald's to cover the cost of groceries. At school, Mathias and his sister, Leah, a fourth grader, qualified for reduced price lunches. Keeping all that worry bottled up hurt. While Leah would not tell anyone her worst fear, she told her speech teacher, Shelley Smith, the second worst: that her family would have to move away and Leah would lose her friends. "I was worried and scared and very worried," recalled Leah, who's 10. She chose Mrs. Smith to tell because the two have the same, exact birthday and every year they celebrate by eating Mrs. Smith's homemade cupcakes. "She was just the right person," Leah said. "She's very calm." The Kehlers have lots of company. While Wall Street is pumping, Main Street bleeds. This middle to upper middle class suburban town of 14,000 bordering Columbus has 22 percent of its students getting subsidized lunches. That's up from 6 percent in 2005, when the economy was booming. Statewide, 43 percent of Ohio public school students are disadvantaged, as measured by free and reduced lunches, compared with 33 percent in 2005, according to a recent survey by KidsOhio, a nonprofit educational organization based in Columbus. A sign of how deep this recession has reached into the middle class: here in Franklin County, 44 percent of the disadvantaged attend suburban schools, compared with 32 percent five years ago. There may be other factors involved, including an increase of poorer families moving out of Columbus to the suburbs. But many here the KidsOhio researchers; the superintendent of Worthington schools, Melissa Conrath; the principal of Wilson Hill, Jamie Lusher agree that the recession's impact has played a large part. Over on Eastland Court, Grace Koo and her now ex husband, who have two children at Wilson Hill, were both laid off and went from making about 160,000 a year to zero. Ms. Koo, who had been a store design and construction director for Limited Brands, attributed the divorce to many things gone wrong, including their sinking economic status. "For months, both of us were home together, unemployed," she said. "We'd fight over money." On Buck Trail Lane, the Hymers went from 150,000 a year to zero. Their son, Zachary, a second grader, and their daughter, Kennedy, who's in fourth, qualified for reduced priced lunches. The Hislopes on Friend Street also qualified for reduced priced lunches, but as things worsened the father, Mike, a shop foreman, has been out of work two years they qualified for free lunches. Recently Worthington got its first soup kitchen. The emotional strain on children is plain from the names of the support groups the guidance counselor, Ms. Hegerty, has created: the Chicken Little group; the Volcano Management group; the Family Change group. Even as the district's budget gets cut and class sizes in the school's fourth and fifth grades creep up to 30, the staff at Wilson Hill works to make a difference. While Washington measures a school's worth by test scores, here, on Northland Street, there's more to it. A few weeks before Christmas, a girl in Mrs. Smith's class went to school with broken eyeglasses patched together with tape. Each time the girl looked down to read, the glasses fell off. This is a small town, and Mrs. Smith knew the girl's family was struggling. At 9 a.m., Mrs. Smith asked to borrow the glasses; during her lunch period she drove to her eye doctor; by 12:30 the girl had new pink and green frames. Because the guidance counselor position is split between two schools, Ms. Hegerty gets overloaded and has found two unpaid interns from nearby universities to help with the caseload. Ms. Hegerty showed them how to make worry envelopes to store their fears. She gave them a buckeye to carry in their pockets. "If you're feeling bad, you hold it," said Trinity, who's stopped scratching. "You think about stuff, and then 'O.K., this is over now, I'm fine.' " Every day, Eliot's teacher, Regina Malley, starts off each kindergartner with five cubes. If you're bad, she takes away a cube. But if you hold on to all five cubes for the day, you get one prize ticket. After 10 tickets, you get to turn on the classroom computer and sit in the big chair ("It elevates them above everybody," Mrs. Malley said). Thirty tickets and you get the grand prize, lunch alone with Mrs. Malley. For a few days, Eliot was stuck on nine tickets. "Poor Eliot lost a cube today," Mrs. Malley reported. "He banged a kid on the back of the head." And then Eliot made a comeback, earning two tickets in two days. As Mrs. Malley promised, he got to sit in the big chair and was loudly applauded. Mrs. Malley has taught kindergarten in the same room for 31 years, and in that time she's learned a thing or two about little boys. She predicts good things for Eliot. "Eliot's very bright," she said. "Even if he listens 50 percent of the time, he's getting 75 percent more than other kids." While several parents interviewed for this column eventually got jobs, no one was making anything near their old salaries. The Hislopes, Hymers and Kehlers are making half. Ms. Koo is making a third. Mrs. Hislope's two daughters have been able to continue playing sports because their schools waived participation fees and the sports booster clubs helped. The Hislopes were one of 10 families that the middle school picked to give 300 toward Christmas. It was only during a visit from a reporter that Mrs. Kehler heard Leah tell her worst fear. "I instantly thought we'd be homeless," Leah said. Every fall the school takes part in the Penny Harvest, collecting for the homeless, and Leah feared that the next harvest would be for her family. "Really?" Mrs. Kehler said. Like mother like daughter. This was Mrs. Kehler's worst fear, too. "I didn't know how we'd survive," she said. "I was afraid we'd be homeless under an underpass in Columbus and the kids would go into foster care." When, after many months, Mr. Kehler could not find work, they bought a print cartridge recycling business. It's off to a promising start. The first year, the Kehlers outperformed the previous owner. "We're up 18 percent," Mrs. Kehler said. Eagle ears still hear almost everything, but thankfully, for the last several months, what they hear has not sounded so dire. "When Dad and Mom talked, they were getting calmer," Mathias said. "We're definitely higher than we were."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Education
A little more than a week after prosecutors in Florida charged Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, with soliciting prostitution, what ordinarily would be a minor case has become a legal battle involving some of the most expensive and sought after lawyers in the country. To lead his defense, Mr. Kraft, a billionaire friend of President Trump and one of the most powerful owners in the N.F.L., has retained William A. Burck, who was a lawyer in the George W. Bush White House and had a role in the screening of documents related to Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's recent Supreme Court nomination. Mr. Kraft has also hired Jack Goldberger, the Florida lawyer who defended Jeffrey E. Epstein, a wealthy New York financier accused of trafficking underage girls for sex. Mr. Goldberger and Mr. Burck did not return calls for comment, but they could mount an aggressive defense by poking holes in video evidence that may prove that Mr. Kraft did not ask anyone for sex and by arguing that the police violated Mr. Kraft's Fourth Amendment rights during an improper traffic stop, among other arguments. Prosecutors in Palm Beach County, Fla., so far have taken a hard line on Mr. Kraft and the two dozen other individuals who have been accused of soliciting prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa, a massage parlor and salon in a Jupiter, Fla., strip mall about a 30 minute drive from Mr. Kraft's home in Palm Beach. Last week, they increased the severity of the charges, from second degree to first degree misdemeanors. Prosecutors say Mr. Kraft's arrest was a part of a larger, six month investigation into human trafficking at nearly a dozen businesses in Florida. "Human trafficking is evil in our midst," Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, who is overseeing the cases, said last week. "It is fueled on the demand side." Prosecutors have acknowledged that Mr. Kraft and the other men charged in the case probably had no knowledge of whether human trafficking was involved. But Mr. Kraft's wealth and notoriety have turned what would have been a local story into an international one, so prosecutors will want to avoid appearing to treat him differently, especially if the case involves human trafficking, criminal lawyers in Florida said. "State attorneys are elected officials, and they are aware of public opinion," said Eric M. Matheny, a former prosecutor in Miami Dade County who defends people accused of sex crimes. "They might play hardball, if only for appearance' sake." Mr. Kraft is likely to be in little legal danger. He has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of soliciting a prostitute, and he faces up to a year in jail, a 5,000 fine and 100 hours of community service. But he is unlikely to spend a day in jail. Prosecutors often offer first time offenders a chance to pay a fine and perform community service, while not admitting fault. Mr. Kraft is in a different position. Like many people facing similar charges, he has pleaded not guilty, but as the owner of a professional football team, he has a strong incentive to try to get the charges dismissed. His lawyers could ask why the police waited months to install cameras inside the massage parlor. There is also a question of whether the police acted lawfully when they asked Mr. Kraft for identification during a traffic stop after his first visit to the spa, which was caught on video, even though he was a passenger, and not the driver, in the car. Mr. Kraft's lawyers could question why the police did not get search warrants earlier if they had suspected that sex was being sold inside and that some of the women were being held against their will. Were the cameras merely installed once authorities learned that Mr. Kraft was a patron and saw an opportunity to gain publicity? If the video also captured people getting ordinary massages, lawyers could also argue that the surveillance overreached and therefore the video is inadmissible. Also, the video cameras that the police used did not have audio, so there may not be clear evidence of Mr. Kraft asking to pay for sex. "Just showing a video, you don't know the conversation that occurred," Mr. Matheny said. "With prostitution cases, it's very technical what they say. It can't be vague." Prosecutors may have a witness who can attest that Mr. Kraft asked for sex. In addition, if they enter the video into evidence it may become public, something that Mr. Kraft would most likely want to avoid. "The state can certainly use the strength of their evidence as a negotiating tool," said Ron Herman, who worked as a prosecutor in South Florida for six years on cases involving sexual assault or battery and who is now in private practice. If the video becomes public, or his court case is televised, which is possible in state court in Florida, Mr. Kraft's problems could go from bad to worse. It would increase the pressure on the N.F.L. commissioner, Roger Goodell, to punish Mr. Kraft more severely, and potentially diminish his standing in ownership circles, where he is responsible for helping to negotiate media contracts that produce the bulk of the N.F.L.'s 14 billion in annual revenue. Mr. Kraft's lawyers are likely to fight tooth and nail to ensure that the video never becomes public, opening yet another front in a litigation that under normal circumstances would involve little effort or expense. "If there's no prior history, it should be resolved," said John S. Hager, a former criminal prosecutor in Florida now in private practice. These, of course, are not normal circumstances. "If Kraft goes to trial and the judge allows the cameras to be played, it will be on national TV, so you compound the embarrassment," said Hugh Culverhouse Jr., the son of the former owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and a former prosecutor in Florida. "Kraft has a severe downside by going to trial. He can win the trial, but he can still lose."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
Roger Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner, did not get any hugs from the players selected at the N.F.L. draft this year, but the traditional draft day "boo birds" still made it onto the broadcast. Over three days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the N.F.L. draft was without some of its usual pomp, and pivoted instead to embrace human moments. It stood as a reminder of why sports are an important part of American culture. Fans look to sports to provide a unifying topic to embrace, celebrate, debate and, in the case of Goodell, boo. When the top pick, the Heisman Trophy winning Louisiana State quarterback Joe Burrow, was selected to head to Cincinnati, he didn't get to walk to the stage through cascading cheers, hold up his new jersey and smile for the camera.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
An overwhelming body of evidence continues to affirm that the coronavirus almost certainly made its hop into humans from an animal source as many, many other deadly viruses are known to do. But since the early days of the pandemic, experts have had to fight to combat misinformed rumors that the coronavirus emerged from a lab as part of a sinister scientific project. Last week, yet another piece of unfounded and misleading prose entered the fray: a study, posted online but not published in a peer reviewed scientific journal, contending that the virus is artificial and an "unrestricted bio weapon" released by Chinese researchers. Though scientists immediately condemned the study as disreputable and dangerous, it rapidly commanded a storm of social media attention, garnering more than 14,000 likes on Twitter and more than 12,000 retweets and quote tweets within days of its posting. Shared on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, it reached millions of users, and was covered in at least a dozen articles written in several languages. The paper's findings, however, have no basis in science. "It's ridiculous and unfounded," said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University who criticized the study on Twitter the day it was released. "It's masquerading as scientific evidence, but really it's just a dumpster fire." The publication is the second in a series from a team led by Li Meng Yan, a Chinese scientist who released an initial paper on Sept. 14, also not peer reviewed, asserting that the coronavirus was synthetic. Dr. Yan's background is a little murky. She left her position as a postdoctoral research fellow at Hong Kong University for undisclosed reasons some time ago, according to a July statement from the institution, and fled to the United States. Both papers list Dr. Yan and her co authors as affiliated with the Rule of Law Society, a nonprofit whose founders include Steve Bannon, a former White House chief strategist, who has since been charged in an unrelated case of fraud. "That alone should give people pause," Dr. Rasmussen said of the team's connection to Mr. Bannon's nonprofit. Dr. Yan and her colleagues did not respond to a request for comment. Their original paper known as "the Yan report" was also seized upon by thousands online and reported on in The New York Post, even though experts rapidly debunked its findings. Researchers called it unscientific and said it ignored the wealth of data pointing to the virus's natural origins. Close relatives of the new coronavirus exist in bats. The virus may have moved directly into people from bats, or first jumped into another animal, such as a pangolin, before transitioning into humans. Both scenarios have played out before with other pathogens. "We have a very good picture of how a virus of this kind could circulate and spill over into human beings," said Brandon Ogbunu, a disease ecologist at Yale University. It may take quite some time to pinpoint exactly which animals harbored the virus along this chain of transmission, if scientists ever do at all inevitably leaving some parts of the virus's origin story ambiguous. Like many other conspiracy theories, the lab made hypothesis "exploits the open questions in an ongoing investigation," Dr. Ogbunu said. But there is no evidence so far to support a synthetic source for the virus. Dr. Yan's Twitter account was suspended in September 2020 for pushing coronavirus disinformation. She shared the "second Yan report" from a second Twitter account, which has gained more than 34,000 followers. Together, the papers written by Dr. Yan and her colleagues lay out what they identified as abnormalities in the genome sequence of the coronavirus. They suggested that those unusual features indicated that the virus's genome had been purposefully spliced together and modified, using the genetic material from other viruses a sort of Frankenstein's monster pathogen, Dr. Yan told Fox News in September. The cousins of the coronavirus that had been identified in bats, they said, were also fake, human made constructions, thus supposedly quashing the natural origin hypothesis. The authors also contended that the coronavirus's genome had been manipulated by scientists to enhance the virus's ability to infect human cells and cause disease. But outside experts have found no validity in either Yan report. The first was "full of contradictory statements and unsound interpretations" of genetic data from viruses, said Kishana Taylor, a virologist at Carnegie Mellon University. And the second Yan report "was even more unhinged than the first," said Gigi Kwik Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an author of a response debunking the original Yan report. The supposedly strange features found in the genomes of the coronavirus and its natural relatives aren't actually red flags at all, Dr. Ogbunu said. Viruses frequently move between animal hosts, changing their genetic material along the way sometimes even swapping hunks of their genomes with other viruses. And many of the purported abnormalities in the coronavirus are found in other virus genomes. The notion that the coronavirus was "designed" to be dangerous is also "just nonsense," Dr. Ogbunu said. Scientists don't know enough about viruses to predict which mutations would increase their lethality, let alone engineer these changes into new pathogens in the lab. Building the coronavirus from such a mishmash of genetic templates, as described by Dr. Yan and her colleagues, would also raise herculean logistical hurdles for even the most dogged scientists. Part of this process would require researchers to laboriously tinker with thousands of individual letters in the alphabet soup that is a virus's genome an absurdly inefficient scientific strategy, Dr. Rasmussen said. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," Dr. Rasmussen said. "And this is not that."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
An organization that advises several union pension funds invested in Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox called on Thursday for the company to overhaul its board and conduct a comprehensive review of its workplace culture in the wake of sexual and racial harassment scandals at its Fox News division. The organization, CtW Investment Group, sent a letter to Viet D. Dinh, the chairman of the board's nominating and corporate governance committee, accusing directors of failing to effectively address a "longtime ethics crisis" at Fox News, and risking the company's reputation, operations and long term value. "If the board was aware of the settlements and refused to investigate and mitigate the risk, instead allowing the problem to fester, then it failed in its risk oversight function and facilitated a tone at the top that permits unethical behavior by high performers," Dieter Waizenegger, CtW's executive director, wrote in the letter, referring to settlements paid to women at Fox News who made sexual harassment allegations. "If the information of the settlements did not reach the board," Mr. Waizenegger added, "then it failed to ensure that the proper corporate controls were in place." In a statement, 21st Century Fox said, "We take seriously all communications from shareholders and investment groups, and will respond accordingly." The move is one of the investment community's harshest public critiques of 21st Century Fox over its handling of the scandal at Fox News. The company has been dealing for more than a year with the fallout from a crisis that exposed a workplace that women said was rife with harassment and where they feared reporting inappropriate behavior. The scandal led to the departure of Roger E. Ailes, the founding chairman of Fox News; Bill O'Reilly, the former Fox News host; and several others. Even as 21st Century Fox tries to move on, the United States attorney's office in Manhattan is conducting a criminal investigation into Fox News's handling of the sexual harassment complaints. The company also faces continuing regulatory scrutiny in Britain over its 15 billion bid to acquire full control of Sky, the European satellite giant. The financial price of the scandal has mounted, with 21st Century Fox incurring about 50 million in costs tied to the settlement of sexual harassment and discrimination allegations involving Fox News in the year that ended June 30. That figure does not include a 40 million payout to Mr. Ailes or a 25 million payout to Mr. O'Reilly. And, according to CtW, 21st Century Fox could face penalties of 140 million if the Sky deal is delayed into 2018 and 164 million if it falls through altogether. The company said in a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month that it had "made significant changes to the leadership and management of Fox News Channel after allegations of misconduct at the Fox News Channel business." It also said it had hired a new global head of human resources at 21st Century Fox and a new head of human resources at Fox News. And, the company said, nearly 7,000 employees had received training about workplace behavior in the past 12 months. In addition, 21st Century Fox said it had approved the creation of a new "compliance steering committee" to be made up of company executives and answerable to the board. Jeff Bezos gives 100 million to the Obama Foundation. Stocks rise after President Biden says Jerome Powell will stay atop the Fed. CtW said in its letter that the changes were inadequate and that 21st Century Fox needed to commit to making corporate governance changes in order for the organization to support the re election of the board's audit committee members at the company's annual shareholder meeting next month. "We need not wait on the results of any U.S. attorney's office's investigation into what the board did or did not know regarding the settlements to conclude that the board failed," Mr. Waizenegger said in the letter. CtW called specifically for the resignation of Roderick Eddington, the company's lead director and the chairman of the audit committee, saying that he "clearly failed in his risk oversight responsibilities." The group is also urging that 21st Century Fox appoint two new directors with backgrounds in human resources, expand the number of independent directors and increase the number of women on the board. (The company board now has one female director.) In addition, CtW said 21st Century Fox should create a new committee composed of independent directors focused on "organizational culture, workplace safety and health, work force diversity and pay equality, and employee engagement and development." Charles M. Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, said the scandal at Fox News had raised concerns about management and board oversight of the parent company. The broader corporate governance issue at 21st Century Fox, Professor Elson said, was the company's dual class share structure, which gives voting rights to the owners of one class of stock but not to the other. The Murdoch family controls about 40 percent of the voting stock in the company, giving it significant sway over the board. "The question is, if the independent directors had known, could they have done anything?" Professor Elson said. Shareholders are expected to vote at the company's annual meeting on a proposal from the Nathan Cummings Foundation that would end the dual class share structure in favor of giving each share of common stock one vote. The foundation made a similar proposal with regard to 21st Century Fox's share structure in the past, and the allegations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination at Fox News have revived the focus on the company, said Laura Campos, the foundation's director of corporate and political accountability. "For us, that is underpinning many of the problems the company has faced," Ms. Campos said of the dual class structure. The 21st Century Fox board has recommended that shareholders reject the proposal, stating that "the current dual class capital structure continues to be appropriate and is in the best interest of the company and its stockholders." The calls for corporate governance reform at 21st Century Fox echo a push by shareholders for the Murdoch media empire to make changes six years ago after a phone hacking scandal in Britain prompted investor concern.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
When the Indian fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee debuted his fine jewelry at Bergdorf Goodman in January, he had big plans for promoting his collection. But the coronavirus outbreak forced him and the luxury department store chain to make some big adjustments. Social distancing rules in New York, for example, meant browsing at the Fifth Avenue store had to be relegated to the outside entrance instead of inside the plush jewelry salon for a soon to be engaged couple. And Mr. Mukherjee couldn't talk about his work in person. His appearance came via a video call in early June from his home in Kolkata, India. "The launch pop up had to be cut short because of the pandemic," he said. "But it was surreal to see wedding jewelry being sold on the sidewalk of Fifth Avenue!" The New Delhi based designer Tarun Tahiliani also has had to conduct business in a different way. He had his first Zoom fitting in June with a bride from Hyderabad, who after postponing her extravagant April wedding, opted for an intimate ceremony at home. This has been the new normal for the Indian wedding industry, known for its lavish affairs that can last for days, with many rituals and wardrobe changes. The industry is estimated at 50 billion, according to KPMG, second only to the United States, with about 10 million to 12 million weddings typically taking place in India each year. Of course, there won't be as many weddings this year. The pandemic has already wiped out the spring and summer wedding season. When a nationwide lockdown in India was announced on March 24, some couples postponed their weddings indefinitely, while others decided to have small home weddings instead. India's peak wedding and festive season, which is September to March, doesn't look promising either, as the current government mandate only allows for a maximum of 50 people at a wedding function a fraction of the typical guest list that runs into substantial three digit counts. Restrictions are being slowly lifted and design houses are cautiously reopening stores and production units, but the effect of the two month halt in operations has been colossal. Where does that leave the country's otherwise burgeoning bridal designers who thrive on multiday wedding celebrations, bridal trousseaus and generous budgets? For most, 2020 is a write off. "We proactively shut down all production and stores even before the official lockdown it meant going from 100 percent capacity to zero percent in a matter of days," said Mr. Mukherjee, who dresses about 4,500 brides a year, with prices per bridal outfit ranging from 2,500 to 23,000. We are anticipating a significant reduction in volume for the rest of the year." For Rahul Mishra, the first Indian designer to showcase at Paris Haute Couture Week, the decline in orders started at the end of February, especially from his Indian brides in Europe. Anita Dongre, who is known for her practical bridal lehengas, which retail for 1,000 to 10,000, had zero bookings in March and April. However, she is beginning to see an increase in inquiries. The hunt for that dream wedding outfit running your fingers over the gilded embroidery, twirling in front of the mirror during trials and shedding a happy tear when you find "the one" is a sacrosanct ritual for the Indian bride. Touching and feeling are the very essence of this world. Flagship stores are designed for the tactile experience as meticulously as the handcrafted collections they house. Every turn is a sensory treat, not mere window dressing, but a stage for a rite of passage to unfold. "The in store experience will be even more valued after the pandemic," said Mr. Mukherjee, who plans to open his flagship New York store next year. "Consumer expectations for beautiful, experiential retail stores will continue to rise." Mr. Tahiliani also feels that this luxury need not go away. He believes a circumspect approach, with strict adherence to hygiene, safety and an appointments only policy will do the trick. "The lightness of our bridal pieces defines our brand," he said. "It's the bulk of what we stand for. A client cannot gauge the weight of the garment until they try it on. One just cannot duplicate that experience." In July 2016, Mr. Mukherjee had skipped the traditional runway shows in favor of showing his collection on social media. So he is no stranger to using his Instagram page as a pseudo storefront, particularly for his overseas clientele (one third of his business comes from the United States). The brand is now encouraging the same purchasing pathway in India during the pandemic, complemented by partnerships with select online stores. "Technology and e commerce will play an increasingly important role in the luxury bridal wear segment," he said. "But not as a replacement for the in store experience, rather as an adjunct to it." Other designers, however, are placing more serious bets on their online presence as the way forward. Brands have hastened the start of their e shops, a need made more urgent in the face of waning opportunities to draw prospective brides to stores. Payal Singhal, a Mumbai based bridal designer, has had to cancel her summer pop ups and trunk shows in London, Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey and Vancouver, British Columbia. "The virtual experience is going to be more important than ever before," she said. "In 2013, we were one of the first Indian brands to launch an e commerce platform. We have revamped the front and back end, and introduced more products lines during this lockdown. New pieces are now being uploaded every week." Mr. Mishra, whose e store opened on July 7 to coincide with his couture fall 2020 21 release, is emphasizing emotional storytelling to make up for the absence of the original tactile experience. This includes documenting production processes and capturing the journey of a design that could eventually become someone's wedding outfit. "We are also working with interactive communication tools like intricate illustrations and imagery to highlight those minute aspects of a garment that can otherwise be missed when you're looking at it through a screen," he added. Most labels have two bridal collections a year, with seven to 75 designs in each line. But the last half of 2020 will be different. The plan for many is to reintroduce Spring Summer '20 collections that did not receive the usual spotlight they might have had. Ms. Dongre and Mr. Mukherjee will stick to their made to measure model, but probably require longer lead time. That's not to say that bespoke will be relegated to bottom drawer status. Mr. Mishra predicts shoppers being more enthusiastic about artisanal value, seeking their own customization. Mr. Tahiliani's bridal wear is divided into ready to wear and couture. For the latter, he showcases 10 to 12 samples annually along with archival swatches and panels, all of which can be fully customized. With weddings trending smaller, he said, he is confident brides will choose more subtle looks over blingy ones. "We can now give brides more refined thread work and exquisite detailing that can be appreciated up close rather than under the harsh lights of banquet halls where bigger weddings usually took place," he said. "So, I expect our couture to be much finer than ever before." The Indian textile and apparel industry employs 45 million people directly and 60 million indirectly, making it the country's second largest employment generator after agriculture. Karigars (or craftsmen) at the grass root level are the backbone of this business handmade and labor intensive bridal wear is heavily dependent on their specialized skills in Indigenous crafts. But faced with the current crisis, scores of migrant workers have chosen to return to their villages, leaving ateliers with skeletal staff to fill orders. Mr. Tahiliani's in house work force of 500 has been reduced to less than half its strength, so he is now organizing new centers in rural sectors with his old craftsmen. This decentralization of operations has allowed Mr. Mishra to resume production with 70 percent of his team (he says he employs about 1,000 artisans directly or indirectly). The designer championed "reverse migration" six years ago, urging his embroiderers to move back to their villages, while still working with them continually. "We now employ many such craft clusters around the country, which consist of communities working from their homes in their villages," he said. Some in the industry say there may be a shift in Indian celebrations. "Weddings might just go back to what they were meant to be more sober and toned down, which will have a different symbolism than the great big fat Indian wedding," Mr. Tahiliani said. "The luxury clothing sector will be affected more than we can imagine, and fashion must readjust its outlook. This is not the time for frothy celebrations." Continue following our fashion and lifestyle coverage on Facebook (Styles and Modern Love), Twitter (Styles, Fashion and Weddings) and Instagram.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
This is what the Arizona Diamondbacks' Chase Field looked like on opening day in 2016. This is what it will look like on Thursday, which was supposed to be opening day this year. Leave it to Rogers Hornsby, who starred for the St. Louis Cardinals a century ago, to find the words that neatly fit our troubled times. "People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball," Hornsby once said. "I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." Spring is here, but baseball alas is not. Major League Baseball had planned to open its gates on Thursday with a full slate of games, spread out from Toronto to San Diego, Seattle to Miami. It was to be the earliest leaguewide opener ever, with a few more off days baked into the regular season and the World Series still scheduled to end before November. "You get so close to opening day and the start of the season and it's not here," Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said on Wednesday. "All the work that goes into that, that's disappointing. That's frustrating. But you also temper it with: This is all bigger than me and us and baseball." Instead of games, we have negotiations, as the players and the owners try to account for service time in case the season never takes place. If a season is played, myriad details would have to be sorted: When would it start, how many games would be played and when would it end? Could there be more doubleheaders, with each game lasting only seven innings, minor league style? Perhaps neutral site postseason games stretching into November, and maybe beyond? It is all under consideration as baseball, like every other industry, plunges into the great unknown. As fans, we can dive into new baseball books "The Wax Pack" by Brad Balukjian, "Swing Kings" by Jared Diamond, "Buzz Saw" by Jesse Dougherty, and more. We can sharpen our knowledge from the trove of trivia quizzes on Sporcle. And we can hop into the YouTube time machine and pull up a game from the past. For its part, MLB Network is gamely simulating opening day on Thursday with a marathon of five past openers, from noon to midnight, and M.L.B. will stream 30 games on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube one classic game for each club. But even that fun is tinged with the uncertainty of the present. There's a rookie Derek Jeter in 1996, punctuating his first opener with a home run for the Yankees in Cleveland. Jeter is scheduled for induction to the Hall of Fame in July, but will it be safe to cram 80,000 people into cozy Cooperstown, N.Y.? There's Madison Bumgarner in 2017, homering twice for the San Francisco Giants in Arizona. Bumgarner is the new ace of the Diamondbacks, but when will he actually take the mound in Sedona red?	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
FRANKFURT The new president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, quickly responded to the latest developments in the sovereign debt crisis on Thursday, overseeing a cut in the euro zone's benchmark interest rate while warning of a mild recession. Two days after assuming office in one of the most turbulent phases in the history of the euro zone, Mr. Draghi signaled that he might be more willing than his predecessor, Jean Claude Trichet, to tolerate inflation in the name of economic growth. The bank cut the benchmark rate to 1.25 percent from 1.5 percent, a move aimed at putting more money into the European economy by making borrowing easier. Investors cheered the decision by pushing stocks higher in Europe and the United States. The cut, which surprised some analysts, may signal a shift in strategy or at least in tone at the bank, which oversees monetary policy for the 17 European Union nations that share the euro. Known for his caution, Mr. Draghi, formerly the governor of the Bank of Italy, was not expected to make bold moves so soon. But speaking to reporters after he presided as chairman of the bank's governing council for the first time, Mr. Draghi indicated that he felt he had little choice but to reduce interest rates. He warned that economic growth was likely to be significantly worse than the bank expected. That assessment came a day after the Federal Reserve also reduced its growth forecasts through 2013. While campaigning this year to succeed Mr. Trichet, Mr. Draghi emphasized his credentials as an inflation fighter and as a voice of fiscal prudence in his native Italy. But on Thursday, he played down the risks posed by inflation, which at a current annual rate of 3 percent is above the bank's target of about 2 percent. Slower growth, he indicated, would act as its own curb on inflation. "In such an environment, price, cost and wage pressures in the euro area should also be moderate," he said. "Today's decision takes this into account." At the same time, though, Mr. Draghi disappointed those who want the bank to help calm skittish global investors by aggressively buying European government bonds, using its ability to print money to reduce the risk that the Greek crisis might create a contagion infecting Italy, Spain and others. He stuck to the position that the bond purchases the bank has been making since the spring of 2010 were temporary and limited, and justified solely as a way for the bank to maintain its control over interest rates. Rather, Mr. Draghi said, it was up to national leaders to regain investor confidence by reining in spending and removing excessive regulations and other obstacles to growth. "The first and foremost responsibility for maintaining financial stability lies with national economic policies," he said. Mr. Draghi's statements on bond market intervention led some analysts to conclude that, despite the rate cut, he would not veer significantly from the path set by Mr. Trichet. Mr. Draghi described his predecessor on Thursday as a "role model." The bank has spent 173.5 billion euros, or 240 billion, intervening in bond markets since May 2010, a modest sum compared with the securities purchases made by the Fed or the Bank of England to help prop up their own financial markets and stimulate their economies. "The E.C.B. seems to be continuing to play its dangerous game of doing the minimum amount possible, counting on the European politicians to extinguish the fire," Jens Sondergaard, an analyst at Nomura, wrote Thursday in a note to clients. Still, some analysts said that Mr. Draghi's statements on bond buying should not be taken at face value and that the bank would intervene if necessary to save the euro. "If worse came to worst, the E.C.B. would buy government bonds on a massive scale," Jorg Kramer, chief economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, wrote in a note. But Mr. Draghi cannot say that out loud, the thinking goes, for fear that leaders like Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy would renege on promises to remove barriers to competition and improve economic performance. "It is understandable that they don't want to give governments a free lunch," said Marie Diron, a former European Central Bank economist who advises the consulting firm Ernst Young. European stocks rose sharply after the bank rate announcement. The Euro Stoxx 50, a barometer of euro zone blue chips, climbed 2.45 percent, helped by signs that Greece would move ahead with the bailout plan. The euro rose to 1.3812. The main United States stock gauges also rose. After just one meeting of the governing council, it was too early to say whether Mr. Draghi would set the bank on a new course. But he seemed to confirm predictions by some analysts that he would take a more nuanced view of inflation than Mr. Trichet, who was not an economist. Mr. Draghi has a doctorate in the field. Mr. Draghi on Thursday seemed at ease as the top official at the central bank, rather than just one vote on the governing council. He sparred confidently with reporters and seemed to answer questions more directly than Mr. Trichet, who had been prone to digressions. Mr. Draghi seemed to be "a bit more open," Ms. Diron said. She noted his frank use of the word "recession." "It is unusual that the E.C.B. would use these words before the data is published," she said. Mr. Draghi, however, also added an extra degree of formality to the monthly news conference, delegating an aide to choose questioners. Mr. Trichet made such selections himself. The rate cut is the first by the bank since May 2009. It came after interest rate increases in April and July under Mr. Trichet, which many analysts say have made Europe's economic woes worse than they would be otherwise. Mr. Draghi said the decision to cut rates was unanimous a surprise considering the reverence with which German members of the bank's governing council regard price stability. Mr. Draghi has assumed office with Greece's future in the euro zone in doubt. But he rejected suggestions that Greece could exit, saying there was no legal provision for the country to do so. "It's not in the treaty," he said. "I have nothing to add to that."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Global Business
JAKARTA Indonesia and India, the two emerging markets hardest hit in recent weeks by falling currencies and other financial troubles, took opposite tracks on Friday as both countries struggled to balance growth with the threat of inflation. In an interview here, the vice president of Indonesia characterized higher interest rates and a weakened currency as the "new normal." Boediono, the country's vice president, who uses only one name, said that Indonesia would face a tougher international financial environment in the coming months and should give greater emphasis to a stable currency, stable prices and a stable trade balance and not just pursue economic growth. "We have been addicted, so to speak, with an easy money environment for four years," said Mr. Boediono, the main architect of Indonesian economic policy since the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and 1998. "We know that we have to make some adjustments, and maybe by next year, we have to really, fully adjust to a new normal, so to speak, where easy money is no longer" available. But in Mumbai, the new governor of the Reserve Bank of India suggested that India faced less of an international threat after the Federal Reserve decided on Wednesday to continue its economic stimulus, at least temporarily. The governor, Raghuram Rajan, lowered a key interest rate on Friday by three quarters of a percent, although he raised another less important rate by a quarter of a percent. India pushed interest rates up sharply over the summer to make financial investments there more attractive and slow the fall of the rupee. Reversing part of that increase now "will provide a boost to growth, reduce the financing distortions that are emerging in the market, and reduce the strain on corporate and bank balance sheets," Raghuram Rajan, the new governor, said Friday at his first news conference on monetary policy. In monetary terms, India is zigging while Indonesia is zagging, despite the many common challenges that have pummeled their currencies and stock markets in recent weeks. Both must balance a need to preserve economic growth for large, heavily poor populations, while at the same time preventing a buildup of inflation that might discourage longer term investments a tricky balancing act that has bedeviled policy makers in the United States and other affluent countries over the years. India, with a population of about 1.2 billion, and Indonesia, population 250 million, are both struggling to modernize their infrastructure while stuck with complex land ownership laws that make it hard to redevelop cities rapidly. Both are wrestling with costly but politically popular fuel subsidies that are driving up government budget deficits, and both have indignant publics demanding an end to endemic corruption. Economically, both have sizable current account deficits compared to their economic output, together with nearly double digit inflation in consumer prices. Perhaps most important, both face national elections next year that limit their ability to make politically unappetizing economic decisions: India will elect a new Parliament by the end of May, while Indonesia will elect a new legislature in April and a new president in July. While Indonesia's ports and highways still have shortcomings, as does the country's bureaucracy, they are good enough that the country has emerged as one destination for the many companies shifting operations away from China in response to surging blue collar wages there. India's bureaucracy remains stifling, and the potholes and traffic on the country's roads are so bad that vehicles scarcely move faster than walking speed in some areas; in other areas, sometime gruesome crashes are a regular occurrence. Above all, India's is the more fractious democracy. Indonesia gave political independence to its central bank in 1999, right after the Asian financial crisis. The Bank of Indonesia raised short term interest rates last week, but the country's business community remains supportive Sofjan Wanandi, the influential tycoon who is the chairman of the Employers' Association of Indonesia, said in an interview this week that business leaders were ready to pay even higher interest rates as needed to control inflation. Open or closed on Thanksgiving? Here are stores' plans for Thursday and Friday. By contrast, the Reserve Bank of India is subject to the dictates of the government. The Confederation of Indian Industry, the country's most powerful business group, representing the large companies that tend to receive most of Indian bank loans, has been lobbying heavily in recent weeks for a full cut of one percentage point in lending rates. Emerging markets around the world have seen an exodus of investment, falling currencies and tumbling stock markets since May. That was when the Fed began signaling that it was preparing to start cutting back its purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage backed securities purchases that had helped keep long term interest rates low. Vice President Boediono of Indonesia, a former finance minister and governor of the central bank, said Friday that the Fed's decision on Wednesday to defer a reduction in economic stimulus offers Indonesia a breathing space but does not remove the necessity for prompt action by policy makers here. While avoiding specifics, Mr. Boediono appeared to hint that he did not expect recent market shifts to be reversed quickly. He said that Indonesia had to adjust "interest rates, even our exchange rate, to a new normal." He called for a series of supply side measures to address bottlenecks in the economy that could fuel inflation. These measures included easier land acquisition and permits for infrastructure projects as well as a new system of online education that would span Indonesia's huge archipelago, which stretches a similar distance as Seattle to Tampa. "Work hard on the supply side, then you can achieve a safe level of inflation without having to really tighten your monetary policy with the costs to growth and so on," he said. President Xi Jinping of China is scheduled to come to Jakarta next week. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia will hold discussions with him on some issues, including the South China Sea, Mr. Boediono said, declining to elaborate. Mr. Boediono said that he would discuss with President Xi the possibility of expanding the bilateral swap agreement between the two countries, but said that the amount of the expansion had not yet been decided. An expanded agreement would allow Indonesia to borrow more dollars from China if needed to buy rupiah in currency markets someday during another period of exchange rate volatility. Mr. Boediono was elected vice president in the summer of 2009 when President Yudhoyono won a second term. Legislative elections are scheduled for next April and presidential elections for next July; President Yudhoyono is not running for a third five year term because of term limits. As a technocrat with a limited political base, Mr. Boediono has not been expected to run for president. He said on Friday that he had no desire for public office after his term ends in October next year and hoped to focus on online education thereafter.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Global Business
In 1921, Anne O'Hare McCormick had little journalism experience when she wrote to Carr V. Van Anda, the managing editor at The New York Times. It might have been a long shot, but she asked if she could submit articles to the newspaper when she went to Europe with her husband. At the time, there were few women working as reporters, even fewer working as international correspondents. Most women wrote for the society pages. But the editor would be under no obligation to print her articles, and would have to pay her only if they were accepted. She would go on to overcome a mountain of obstacles for female reporters, earning worldwide respect and becoming the first woman to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize in one of its major journalism categories in 1937. It would be 14 years until the next woman would win. That is a striking contrast to the annual awards handed down this week, which included recognition of The Times's coverage of sexual harassment in Hollywood, media and other fields, an effort reported and edited mostly by women. (Women now have 39 percent of the bylines in The Times, just above the industry average of 38.1 percent, according to the Women's Media Center.) Ms. McCormick won her Pulitzer one year after becoming the first woman on the editorial board of The Times, writing three columns a week on world affairs. She had insisted that would not be improperly pigeonholed. In her 1936 job acceptance letter to Arthur Hays Sulzberger, the publisher of The Times, she made clear she wouldn't "revert to 'woman's point of view' stuff." "It gives me immense satisfaction to break a precedent, and even more to know that The Times at last wants me where I have long felt I belong," she wrote to Mr. Sulzberger. Her earliest work indicated she had superlative news judgment. In one of her first Times articles, dated June 24, 1921, she attended an address by Victor Emmanuel III, the king of Italy. But a different politician who had attracted little notice from other journalists caught her observant eye. "More interesting than the speech of the King was the sudden emergence of the new party of the Extreme Right. ... Benito Mussolini, founder and leader of the Fascisti, was among the parliamentary debutants; and, in one of the best political speeches I have heard, a little swaggering, but caustic, powerful and telling, he called upon the Socialists to disarm their spirits." She would go on to have several interviews with the dictator. Adolf Hitler agreed to meet with her, and she sat with Joseph Stalin for an unprecedented six hours. She interviewed Franklin Delano Roosevelt weeks before his death in 1945. At first, she traveled along with her husband, who had an import/export business. But as her stature skyrocketed, he quit his job to travel with her, according to "Women of the World: The Great Foreign Correspondents," a 1988 book by Julia Edwards. The next female winner wouldn't come until 1951, when Marguerite Higgins was part of a team that reported on the Korean War. 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. Women were rarely hired in Ms. McCormick's era, and those who were typically covered weddings and social events, said Maurine Beasley, a professor at the University of Maryland. It wasn't until the 1960s, after the Civil Rights Act, that more women had a chance at so called "hard news" jobs. Ms. McCormick "considered herself apart from other women journalists of the day," declining invitations to women only press events by Eleanor Roosevelt, Ms. Beasley said. "What Anne O'Hare McCormick did was so unusual," she said. "Women just didn't have that opportunity, and she didn't want to associate herself with those who were more limited and were dealing only with women's news." World War II presented more opportunities for women as men went away to fight, said Carolyn Edy, a professor at Appalachian State University who wrote a book about female war correspondents. The United States began accrediting more women as a propaganda effort to "show the friendlier sides of war," but few had the high profile assignments Ms. McCormick did. Ms. McCormick overcame the additional challenges one might expect of a woman working in newsrooms in the 1920s and 1930s. Editors were especially hard on her and nicknamed her "Verbose Annie," according to Ms. Edwards' book.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
Outfitters attribute several reasons for the increase in demand. "The National Park Service centennial in 2016 may play a role in the recent surge of popularity in outdoor recreation," said Steve Markle, vice president of sales and marketing at the rafting outfitter OARS. Mr. Markle reports a wait list of 650 people for 2019 Grand Canyon rafting trips and recommends travelers get in touch 18 months in advance if they want to secure a specific date. The increase in demand may also reflect a larger trend involving personal priorities. "People are spending more on experiences and less on things," Mr. Lake said. "We're seeing an increase in multi generational trips with families traveling together." (The minimum age can vary depending on the section of the canyon that will be traveled. For upper canyon trips, Western River Expeditions requires rafters to be 12 years old; for lower canyon trips, the minimum age is nine.) A lack of availability gives prime dates a feeling of exclusivity and travelers are reacting by planning far in advance. Customers who contacted Western River Expeditions for the 2018 sold out June and July departure dates often made immediate requests for similar dates in 2019. These travelers are added to the wait list and will be contacted first for reservations before 2019 dates open to the general public. How to increase your chances of rafting the Grand Canyon in 2018? Flexibility is key. "There are always last minute cancellations," said Sarah Owen of Grand Canyon Whitewater. "If folks are flexible with their dates, can go relatively last minute and their group isn't too large, it's reasonable to expect to be able to raft in the Grand Canyon the same season you book you trip," she said. In addition to adding your name to a wait list or e mail list, outfitters also recommend picking up the phone and speaking directly with them. "Call us, chat with us, we probably have a few options for you," Ms. Owen said. "We want to get you down there on the river."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
Erica Baum has been included in several exhibitions devoted to abstract photography, but this is misleading. Ms. Baum actually photographs concrete objects but presents them from unfamiliar angles, perspectives or distances so that the images appear abstract. She shows how the edges of a book, fragments of text or sewing patterns from the last century, displayed in her current show "A Long Dress" at Bureau offer a wealth of information that initially seems like innocent or irrelevant minutiae. The sewing patterns are captured with such detail that you can see their fibrous texture; they resemble fabric rather than photographic prints. With their red, green and black lines and numbers blown up in the images, some like "Edges Fold Fold" look like abstract geometric paintings from the early 20th century. Texts and direction lines on the patterns offer instructions about the alignment of busts, waists and shoulders. One pattern, for a bunny costume, orders you to "turn head right side out," pushing the show into a kind of surreal post human zone . The exhibition's title, "A Long Dress," comes from Gertrude Stein's prose poem "Tender Buttons," a contemplation of everyday objects. It adds to the sense that you're reading poetry rather than viewing templates contributing to a uniform language about human forms. Ms. Baum's work can be read through various filters, including conceptual photography and the philosopher Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish " (1975), a classic text on the institutional policing of bodies. The sewing pattern, with its basic lines and neutral color, seems like a bland and simple thing, but Ms. Baum reminds us that the devil is in taking such details for granted. MARTHA SCHWENDENER Works by 11 artists, in a variety of media, all have something to do with the movies, in "Make Believe," curated by Bruce W. Ferguson at Magenta Plains. In nearly every case, some ordinary aspect of filmmaking, like set design, takes on a weirdly unnerving quality when isolated from its context and presented in a gallery. Jennifer Bolande's plywood patterned curtains in the gallery's front windows and Sayre Gomez's life size trompe l'oeil storefront, installed against the back wall, make you uncertain whether you've just stepped into a gallery or out of one. Then a large potted plant, installed by Kerry Tribe under an enormous ceiling lamp, draws your attention magnetically, only to rebuff it again just as quickly. Two lush 1956 photographs taken by the movie star Yul Brynner, behind the scenes shots of "The King and I" and "The Ten Commandments," look as overproduced and artificial as the movies themselves, while Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler's 2009 video, "Grand Paris Texas," is a master class in elliptical understatement. Comprised entirely of interviews with residents of Paris, Texas, it circles around their relationships to the movies to the town's decaying theater, to Wim Wenders's "Paris, Texas" to expose the medium's seductive power to falsify. Brilliantly encapsulating the concurrent menace and pathos of American entertainment generally is Walter Robinson's "Strange Journey," a rough acrylic painting of a dark eyed man and blond woman ripped from some forgotten noir poster: Instead of using canvas, Mr. Robinson painted them on a Smurf themed bedsheet. WILL HEINRICH Late January is the dead of dull, gray winter in New York City, but Leah Guadagnoli's exhibition "Soft Violence" at Asya Geisberg Gallery will transport you imaginatively, at least to a warmer, carefree climate. Ms. Guadagnoli has filled the space with sculptural paintings in soothing pinks and blues and playful purples and yellows. They look like they would be equally at home in an Art Deco hotel in South Beach. Ms. Guadagnoli's works challenge viewers to figure out what they are, or what they could be . They are paintings, because they hang on the wall, and with their triangles, circles and diamonds, they follow a long tradition of geometric abstraction. (Ellsworth Kelly is among the predecessors who come to mind.) At the same time, they borrow from sculpture by using a handful of materials pumice stone, insulation board, upholstery foam to create distinct parts. These elements come together in an intriguing interplay of textures that seems to inform the show's title (the hardness and implied violence of the stone is softened by the foam and canvas). Their clean lines and visual harmony make them suggest design flourishes (a riff on the Memphis Group, say), but also logos in search of brands. Then, if you spend enough time with a work like "Pending" (2018), which contains a pale pink diamond in its center, touching another pink diamond that frames it, the suggestion of feminine spirituality arises a kind of primal aura emanating from an abstracted orifice. Ms. Guadagnoli's 2018 exhibition at Victori Mo was louder and kitschier. The pared down style on view here is a strong step. It offers the viewer more reference points and more imaginative possibilities. JILLIAN STEINHAUER The fulcrum of "Place/Image/Object," a wonderful three person show at Jack Barrett Gallery on Henry Street, is a series of perceptive ink drawings of trees, boats and buildings, most of them still in yellowing spiral bound notebooks, by 95 year old Fred Terna, who started making art in a Nazi concentration camp. The earliest piece in the show dates to September 1945, when Mr. Terna was convalescing outside Prague, and they continue through the early 1950s, when he and his wife, Stella, made their way to New York via Paris. In all of them, though the style varies widely, Mr. Terna's zeal in gathering visual details is leavened by the obvious joy he took in recording them.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
Matthew Prince, Cloudflare's chief executive. "It's dangerous for infrastructure companies to be making what are editorial decisions," he said. Why Banning 8chan Was So Hard for Cloudflare: 'No One Should Have That Power' Early Monday, 8chan, the anonymous message board where the man accused of carrying out the El Paso massacre posted his manifesto, went offline. The man most responsible for the outage wasn't Jim Watkins, 8chan's owner, or his son Ronald, the message board's administrator. Instead, the decision to take 8chan offline, at least temporarily, fell largely to Matthew Prince, the chief executive of the little known San Francisco company Cloudflare. Cloudflare provides tools that protect websites from cyberattacks and allows sites to load content more quickly. It is a critical tool for sites like 8chan where extremists gather. Without the kind of protection that Cloudflare offers, 8chan can be barraged by automated, hard to prevent attacks from its critics, making it nearly impossible to stay online. Mr. Prince has become an unlikely focal point for critics of 8chan and other vile parts of the internet. Cloudflare's service protects a large chunk of the internet, and for years, the decade old company avoided making decisions about which sites deserved protection and which did not. That changed in 2017, after white nationalists held a violent rally in Charlottesville, Va. After the rally, Mr. Prince was pressured to remove The Daily Stormer, a neo Nazi hate site, from Cloudflare's service. He eventually agreed to do so. It was a break from the company's content neutral stance, and Mr. Prince expressed reservations about his choice. "I woke up in a bad mood and decided someone shouldn't be allowed on the internet," he said at the time. "No one should have that power." 8chan is a megaphone for gunmen. 'Shut the site down,' says its creator. But as one of several internet executives with control over the web's most basic infrastructure, Mr. Prince does have that power. And in the wake of the El Paso shooting, the calls for him to exercise it by revoking 8chan's security protections grew louder. I wanted to talk to him about how he thought through the decision, and about how he eventually chose to effectively kick 8chan off the internet, if only temporarily. In two interviews on Sunday, Mr. Prince expressed a range of views about Cloudflare's responsibility with regard to 8chan. In a phone conversation in the early afternoon, Mr. Prince sounded torn: On one hand, 8chan was clearly reprehensible, and depriving it of the protection Cloudflare provides would rid him of a troublesome customer and a huge headache. On the other hand, banning 8chan could set a bad precedent, and it could make it harder for law enforcement authorities to monitor violent extremists. Cloudflare, like other tech companies with a window onto dark internet activity, can share information about crimes with investigators. Let Us Help You Protect Your Digital Life None With Apple's latest mobile software update, we can decide whether apps monitor and share our activities with others. Here's what to know. A little maintenance on your devices and accounts can go a long way in maintaining your security against outside parties' unwanted attempts to access your data. Here's a guide to the few simple changes you can make to protect yourself and your information online. Ever considered a password manager? You should. There are also many ways to brush away the tracks you leave on the internet. Banning 8chan "would make our lives a lot easier," Mr. Prince said, "but it would make the job of law enforcement and controlling hate groups online harder." Read the latest updates on the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio. Among Cloudflare employees, there was disagreement. Some thought that banning 8chan was a clear cut moral imperative; others thought it could create a slippery slope to censorship. Douglas Kramer, Cloudflare's general counsel, spent much of Sunday afternoon telling news outlets that Cloudflare would not ban 8chan because of its content, saying, "We're largely a neutral utility service." Hours later, Mr. Prince called me back. He had decided to cut off 8chan. He characterized the site as a "lawless" platform that had willfully ignored warnings about violent extremism. Its tolerance for hate, he said, made 8chan different from other sites where extremists gather, like Facebook or Twitter. "They've been not only actively ignoring complaints they receive, but sometimes weaponizing those complaints against people who are complaining about them," Mr. Prince said. "That lawlessness feels like a real distinction from the Facebooks of the world." Removing 8chan was not a straightforward decision, Mr. Prince said, in part because Cloudflare does not host or promote any of the site's content. Most people would agree, he said, that a newspaper publisher should be responsible for the stories in the paper. But what about the person who operates the printing press, or the ink supplier? Should that person be responsible, too? Ultimately, Mr. Prince said, he decided that 8chan was too centrally organized around hate, and more willing to ignore laws against violent incitement in order to avoid moderating its platform. The realization, along with the multiple mass murders that the authorities have connected to 8chan, tipped the scale in favor of a ban. What happened in Charlottesville? On Aug. 12, 2017, there was a white supremacist rally, called "Unite the Right," in Charlottesville, Va., in protest against the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, The event saw participants clash with counterprotesters and culminated with the death of one woman. Were there any criminal cases? Four white nationalists were sentenced to jail for beating a Black man. Several protesters and counterprotesters were convicted on various charges, including assault. James Fields Jr., a neo Nazi, was sentenced to multiple life sentences in federal prison for killing Heather Heyer when he drove his car into a crowd. What is this civil case? This trial takes aim at the organizers of the rally with plaintiffs seeking damages for the injuries they sustained. Lawyers are relying on a federal law from 1871 designed to protect the rights of free slaves against the Ku Klux Klan. Who are the plaintiffs? The nine plaintiffs include an ordained minister, a landscaper and several students. They are seeking damages for injuries, lost income and severe emotional distress. Who is being sued? The defendants in the Charlottesville rally civil case are drawn from a range of white nationalist or neo Nazi organizations, and include far right figures like Richard B. Spencer, Jason Kessler and Christopher Cantwell. They do not have a uniform defense. Why does this case matter? The trial will revisit one of the most searing manifestations of how hatred and intolerance that festers online can spread onto the streets. The plaintiffs say they decided to act after there was no broader federal or state effort to hold the organizers accountable. "If we see a bad thing in the world and we can help get in front of it, we have some obligation to do that," he said. Mr. Prince, who announced the removal of 8chan from Cloudflare in a 1,300 word blog post on Sunday night, still worries about setting a bad precedent. He theorized that a repressive Middle Eastern government could cite the 8chan example when asking Cloudflare to remove security protections for an L.G.B.T. group inside its borders, since it might technically be "lawless" to promote homosexuality in that country. "We have to make sure we're setting policies where we can push back on those things," he said. He added that even if a hacker took advantage of 8chan's lack of defenses, he did not expect the site to stay offline for long. Many companies now offer security services similar to Cloudflare's, and it might be possible for 8chan to find another provider in short order. (8chan was down for hours on Monday morning, although its administrator said on Twitter that the site would soon be back up after moving to another security provider, BitMitigate.) It is undeniably true that the underlying problem of online hate is bigger than one website, and that taking 8chan offline, even permanently, would not stop violent hatred from leaping off the internet and onto America's streets. There will always be another message board, another hosting provider, another security service willing to give harbor to extremists. But as he prepared to serve 8chan with an eviction notice, Mr. Prince sounded sure of his choice. "We'll see how this turns out," he said. "I don't think I'm going to regret this for a second."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
How to Get to 'Sesame Street'? These Days, It's by Video Conference On a rainy afternoon recently, Ernie the Muppet was trying to get through to his roommate Bert. Normally they would be together, side by orange and yellow side. Not these days. Peter Linz, the puppeteer who plays Ernie, the gleeful "Sesame Street" character, was in his small home office in Westchester County, N.Y., with the Muppet hoisted on his arm. He wore a headband with a mic around his forehead, and he peered into an ad hoc monitor set up on a music stand. Perched on a puppeteer's dolly three feet off the ground, he called to his teenage son to be quiet before he hit record. He did Ernie's tee hee giggle. Watching from a dozen screens around the country, a director, editor, producers, curriculum experts and other colleagues were all working at a distance and furiously fast. The newest "Sesame Street" special, "Elmo's Playdate," was taking shape. The special, which debuted April 14, features Elmo having a virtual meet up with his Muppet pals and celebrities like Lin Manuel Miranda and Anne Hathaway. "If Fallon and Colbert can do it, so can Elmo," said Ben Lehmann, executive producer of "Sesame." As the Covid 19 crisis keeps billions around the world cocooned in their homes, children's programming has been a salve and a brief flare of sanity for desperate caregivers. Screen time limits are fully out the window. When Disney Plus said it would release "Frozen 2" early, at the outset of the pandemic in the United States, the parental relief was almost palpable. Now, shows, channels and performers with a social message are starting to create content about the coronavirus, and the changes it has wrought for families. Aside from news and late night comedy, kids TV is just about the only live action genre in production for broadcast right now. But self taping with a puppet occupying (at least) one arm requires more than just dexterity. "There are so many moving parts," said Linz. "In the studio, you have a person who's responsible for each one of those moving parts." At home, he did the camera, lights, sound and Muppet maintenance; he also had to find a spot that could convincingly double for Bert and Ernie's apartment and position himself in such a way that Eric Jacobson, who plays Bert, could be edited into his frame later, from his own home shoot in Fairfield, Conn. They also realized that their smartphones were streaming video with a nearly one second delay enough to kill a Muppet joke riff. "What we learned is, we have to jump on the end of each other's lines," Linz said. In a knock knock joke, "I have to say 'Who's there?' before the end of the second knock." What might have taken an afternoon at the Sesame studios in Queens took days to shoot remotely. "It was a lot of work!" Lehmann, the producer, wrote in an email, as the special was being finished. "But everyone leaned into it. It's the way Sesame Workshop has always responded to the most pressing needs of kids. We try to evolve as they do." The demand is apparent. Downloads of the PBS Kids video and game apps have increased 80 percent in the last three weeks almost a million new downloads, said Lesli Rotenberg, chief programming executive and general manager of children's media and education at PBS. Streaming is up, too: In March, "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood," an animated spinoff of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" for the hard to corral preschool set, had 56.4 million streams, a spokeswoman said, up 15 percent from the previous month. And about 70,000 people have signed up in the past month for a daily newsletter from PBS with tips for navigating the new normal. The enormity of the social and economic changes means educational TV is shifting into overdrive to explain them. In the United States, "Elmo" will be simulcast in prime time on Tuesday on PBSKids, HBO and all other WarnerMedia networks a first for WarnerMedia. (The special will also air globally starting Wednesday, part of a larger Covid response effort; resources for families and providers can be found at Nickelodeon, which last month launched KidsTogether, an initiative to provide resources for home entertainment and learning, hosted a town hall to answer kids' questions. An economics professor even weighed in about the safety of the supply chain. (Butts will be covered, she assured no TP shortages.) Next up is a special on Noggin, a Nick offshoot, to help parents cope, too. Many programs already had material that could be repurposed about fighting germs, for example, or coping when routines are upended. "Daniel Tiger" resurfaced clips about both. "The harder work is putting our heads together and figuring out what to create for this moment," said Rotenberg. In mid March, PBS convened "a SWAT team," she said. One result was a series of public service announcements from "Odd Squad," a live action show about kid special agents who solve problems. Now they also demonstrate good sneeze hygiene. "Daniel Tiger," whose short songs about behavior soundtrack many toddler lives, has had parents publicly pleading for a dedicated coronavirus show. "This phrase is pretty abstract for children," said Emma Watkins, better known as Emma the yellow Wiggle. "We thought, we have to put it in a song and use it in a way to empower children." Their popular spin the video earned nearly a half million views in two weeks frames quarantining as a heroic move, with lyrics like, "We're staying at home to keep nana safe." Children's entertainers also heard a lot of anxiety around birthdays. "'Will I still turn 4 if I don't have a party on the weekend?' that seemed to be the main issue for children," Watkins said. (Response songs are coming.) For performers, there's anxiety, too. The Wiggles normally tour eight or nine months a year. Now the foursome are grounded, "isolated together," Watkins said. They shot their social distancing song in their own studio with just a camera operator, keeping a wide berth. They host daily live shows from their homes in Sydney. "It is about being creative and seeing how we can help," Watkins said. Sesame Workshop also sprang into action. In mid March, as their offices closed and the scope of what was to come became apparent, they packed up tripods for phones and other gear, sanitized the Muppets and shipped them to performers. Ernie arrived at Linz's home still damp. "I unwrapped him right away, and I let him sit for several days," for safety, said Linz, who has played Ernie since 2017 and worked with "Sesame Street" since 1991. On the rainy day shoot, a week and a half before the special was to air, Linz got advice from an editor about how to lock in focus he was shooting on an iPhone but not on its native camera app. With Ernie aloft "Jim Henson said, we're acting from the elbow up" he had his phone mirrored to his Apple TV and another small monitor set up to better view the puppet. He fluffed Ernie's hair between takes. (The muppets came complete with an emergency repair kit and, of course, a rubber ducky for Ernie.) They were shooting a goodbye moment; as Ernie gesticulated, Matt Vogel, the director, reminded Linz not to have Ernie touch his face. It was one of many signs of the bizarre circumstances. (Another was that Ernie was Bert less: Typically, Linz said, if the characters are in a scene together, they shoot together.) As weird and challenging as this Sesame episode was, it felt like the right thing to do, its creators said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Television
Would you like NASA to fly a drone across Saturn's largest moon, or to send a probe to collect samples from a duck shaped comet? From a dozen proposals to the agency's New Frontiers competition not unlike an interplanetary "Shark Tank" for a forthcoming robotic mission NASA announced these two finalists on Wednesday. "It's one of the most difficult programs to be selected for," said James L. Green, director of the planetary science division at NASA. "We fly only about two of these types of missions per decade." In the first proposed mission, Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return, or Caesar, a spacecraft would go to Comet 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko, previously explored by the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, and bring back a small chunk to Earth for closer study. In the second mission, named Dragonfly, a robotic drone would be sent to Titan, Saturn's largest moon, which has seas of hydrocarbons. The drone would be able to fly from one location to another and to perform detailed explorations of various terrains. The Caesar mission proposes collecting a sample from Comet 67P, last visited by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, and then bringing them back to Earth for scientists to study. Each team now will get 4 million and about one year to flesh out its idea. NASA will decide in mid 2019 which one of the two to build. The selected mission is to launch by the end of 2025. NASA flies two types of science missions. In the first kind, which includes the Mars Curiosity rover and an coming spacecraft that will explore Jupiter's moon Europa, the agency decides where it wants to go and then builds and operates the mission itself. But for the second type, NASA solicits suggestions from inside and outside the space agency. Previous New Frontiers missions include New Horizons, which zipped past Pluto two years ago; Juno, currently looping around Jupiter; and Osiris Rex, currently en route to an asteroid. For this round of New Frontiers, NASA will spend up to 850 million for the spacecraft, instruments and mission operations. Add in the cost of the rocket to get the spacecraft off the ground, and the total price tag will be about 1 billion. Steven W. Squyres, a professor of physical sciences at Cornell University who leads the Caesar proposal, said his team chose Comet 67P because of the wealth of data collected by the Rosetta mission, which flew alongside the comet from 2014 to 2016. "We are able to design our mission, design our spacecraft specifically for the conditions that we know to exist there," Dr. Squyres said. "And what that does is just dramatically improve the chances for success for a very difficult activity, which is grabbing a piece of a comet." Comets are believed to contain primitive ingredients from the early solar system that went into the building of the planets. Caesar would scoop up at least 100 grams from the comet, separating the volatiles constituents that could evaporate from the more solid substances. The spacecraft would then head back to Earth and drop off the sample in a capsule. "The sample will arrive back on Earth on the 20th of November, 2038," Dr. Squyres said. "So mark your calendars, and once it's been delivered to laboratories worldwide, I think it's going to produce groundbreaking science for decades to come." Powered by a chunk of plutonium, Dragonfly would take advantage of recent technological advances in flying drones. The craft would spend most of its time making measurements on the ground, but it would be able to fly tens or hundreds of kilometers through Titan's thick atmosphere to study other geologic terrains, said Elizabeth Turtle, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory who is the principal investigator for Dragonfly. "In this way, we can evaluate how far prebiotic chemistry has progressed in an environment that we know has the ingredients for life for water based life or potentially even hydrocarbon based life," Dr. Turtle said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
Thank you for this editorial. For the record, I'm a lifelong Democrat and will vote Democratic this fall, regardless. Defeating Donald Trump and saving our democracy is the most important thing. However, we still need a full, transparent investigation. Making allegations of sexual assault is not easy. Those who do so deserve fair and thorough investigations. We demanded one with Brett Kavanaugh, and it's no different now. As a party, we cannot say we stand for sexual assault survivors, yet turn our backs when it's something we don't want to hear. I'm disgusted by the attacks on Tara Reade, the insufficient mainstream media coverage, the slanted headlines and the flimsy excuses, such as that Joe Biden was already vetted when he ran for vice president. Hypocrisy looks bad no matter what side you're on. Innocent people have nothing to hide. They encourage full transparency. Yes, that means we need to look at the University of Delaware files. We deserve the truth, no matter what it is. I totally disagree with this editorial. I don't want an investigation. I want a coronation of Joe Biden. Would he make a great president? Unlikely. Would he make a good president? Good enough. Would he make a better president than the present occupant? Absolutely. I don't want justice, whatever that may be. I want a win, the removal of Donald Trump from office, and Mr. Biden is our best chance. Suppose an investigation reveals damaging information concerning his relationship with Tara Reade or something else, and Mr. Biden loses the nomination to Senator Bernie Sanders or someone else with a minimal chance of defeating Mr. Trump. Should we really risk the possibility? Martin Tolchin Alexandria, Va. The writer is a former reporter for The New York Times, a founder and editor in chief of The Hill, and was an adviser during the pre launch phase of Politico. His views are his own. (Editors' Note: This ID line has been revised from an earlier version to clarify Mr. Tolchin's former role at Politico.) Your editorial is infuriating. Not because of what you're asking for, but rather because the level of scrutiny you demand has been notably and consistently absent in every one of the numerous allegations against Donald Trump. For nearly four years we have seen the same depressing pattern: A woman comes forward to claim that Mr. Trump assaulted her, the press fixates on her for a few days and then the whole matter fizzles out. No matter what happens with Joe Biden, the American public deserves to see the media apply steady and sustained pressure on Donald Trump. Thus far, it has not been forthcoming. Why? The sexual assault allegations by Tara Reade after 27 years make me wonder about the timing of these charges. When Joe Biden was running as Barack Obama's vice president and would have been a heartbeat away from the presidency, why didn't Ms. Reade speak up then? Why suddenly now? Something seems odd about this. You report, "In 2017, Ms. Reade retweeted praise for Mr. Biden and his work combating sexual assault." What woman who has been sexually assaulted as claimed by Tara Reade praises her assailant for his work combating sexual assault? I am a retired attorney and a survivor of multiple MeToo experiences over my 66 years, including a violent rape. I loathe hypocrisy and try to avoid it and those who practice it. I disagree with nearly everything our current president does or says. I fear for the future because of the irreparable harm he has done to the country. I learned early in my career that the practice of law, and life in general, is a series of bad choices, particularly in bad times. The trick is to select the least awful option. I'm voting for Joe Biden for multiple reasons having nothing to do with his or President Trump's alleged conduct with women. That Rubicon has been crossed. We cannot survive as a democratic society with Mr. Trump in office for four more years. The need to get him out of office overrules every scruple we may have. I will live with my hypocrisy and believe that tens of millions of Americans will feel the same. I do not know whether something occurred between then Senator Joe Biden and Tara Reade, but I can say that it is highly unlikely that an event occurred as described. In 1993, a congressional staffer most likely would have been wearing something like a knee length tailored skirt and pantyhose. It would be extremely difficult for someone to reach below the tight skirt, then bring his hand up to the waist and then down into the pantyhose. The fact that this supposedly occurred in a public corridor makes the story even more unlikely. The pendulum has swung too far from women not being believed to every woman being believed. A story 27 years old. Perhaps absolutely accurate. Perhaps imagined, or enhanced over the years.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
I love Becky Sharp. She is cunning, devious and almost entirely unprincipled. She manipulates her friends and mistreats her child. She has an ambition so naked it deserves an NC 17 rating. Get to know her in "Vanity Fair," Kate Hamill's adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel, at the Pearl Theater. "Vanity Fair" follows Ms. Hamill's 2014 "Sense and Sensibility," a sparky adaptation of the Jane Austen classic that played like a gavotte danced at hyperspeed. Ms. Hamill reteams with the director Eric Tucker and again assigns herself one of the choice roles: Becky. Ms. Hamill and Mr. Tucker's "Vanity Fair" is a breathless thing and often too hectic. (To blink is to miss the Napoleonic wars.) But this show, like "Sense and Sensibility," is a gift to actors and a goody bag for its audience. So why not spend a couple of hours in the company of Becky. Born into penury and disgrace, Becky pulls herself up by her corset lacings, assisted by prettiness and wiles. After a brief introduction by a leering stage manager type (Zachary Fine), we find Rebecca Sharp about to leave the finishing school where she slaved as a charity pupil. Doomed to become a governess, she tries to duck her grim fate by seducing the brother of her best friend, Amelia (Joey Parsons). When that fails, she nearly pulls a Jane Eyre and marries her new boss (Brad Heberlee), only to hook up with his son (Tom O'Keefe) instead. And that's just the first act. An elfin brunette, Ms. Hamill doesn't look much like the Becky of the novel, but she pursues Becky's wickedness with delight and without apology, which is to say she's good at being bad. Her Becky is less disgraceful than Thackeray's, but lots more fiendish than in the 2004 Mira Nair film, where she was played by Reese Witherspoon. Ms. Hamill and Mr. Tucker have severe allergies to traditional costume drama. Here, the language is flexible, the staging galloping, the furniture whirled about on wheels. As when he's directing for his own Bedlam theater company, Mr. Tucker encourages the actors (who include Debargo Sanyal and Ryan Quinn) to indulge themselves. But they're having such a high old time that their pleasure is infectious. Less successful are the direct address monologues Ms. Hamill has interpolated, which state themes too baldly, and dance sequences set to the likes of "Thriller" and "Single Ladies," which blare the play's contemporary bona fides. This "Vanity Fair" doesn't need to try so hard to seem up to date. Buffoons, ninnies and prigs are not the stuff of historical curiosity. Neither are difficult women. But let's be clear. Becky Sharp is not a feminist heroine. She won't be joining any marches or knitting any hats. The status of women doesn't interest her. Money does. And position. And the men who can provide them. A girl's girl, she is not; a sociopath, she probably is. She is also a lesson in how exciting it can be when women do things and want things and get them. For the counterexample, just look to the self denying Amelia, who mostly exists to be virtuous and to show us that virtue is boring. This is not, by the way, a slight to Ms. Parsons, who shoulders this strangling conscientiousness bravely. This play provides a rare thing a female character who behaves just as badly as the male ones without being reformed or punished. (Here anyway. The end of the Thackeray novel is somewhat more cruel and more downbeat.) "Vanity Fair" is a nasty tale and Becky is a nasty woman. Good for her.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
BEST. MOVIE. YEAR. EVER. How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen By Brian Raftery Cinema's best year ever? For decades, Old Hollywood purists have argued for 1939, which brought us "Gone With the Wind," "Stagecoach," "The Women," "The Wizard of Oz," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Dark Victory," "Intermezzo" and many more. Others plant the flag for 19 seventy 9; lately, the writer Rich Cohen has been churning out essays on Medium in praise of that year's bounty: "Apocalypse Now," "Mad Max," "Being There," "Alien," "All That Jazz" and comedies such as "The Jerk," "The In Laws," "Life of Brian" and "Real Life." Now comes the culture critic Brian Raftery with "Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen." He focuses on a bumper crop of breakthrough, subversive, auteur driven movies virtually all of which were released theatrically in 1999 quoting the actor Edward Norton (of 1999's "Fight Club"), who is hard pressed to name any other 12 month span "that had more really original young filmmakers tapping into the zeitgeist." Raftery makes a persuasive, entertaining case for the enduring impact of a passel of classics, from "American Beauty" to "American Movie" to "American Pie." Among them: "The Matrix," "The Sixth Sense," "Boys Don't Cry," "Three Kings," "Being John Malkovich," "The Best Man," "The Insider," "The Virgin Suicides," "Magnolia" and "Election." He weaves together film history and cheeky anecdotes from Hollywood insiders, recounting a midnight rave here, a nude ski run there. His tone, like the period's, is jaunty but jaundiced. When "The Matrix" was conceived, he observes, "the mainstream web was still in its modem wheezing early days." "Fight Club," he contends, had "the proper alchemy of madcap and menace." Raftery's voice and thesis suit today's craving for Nineties Nostalgia. In what the author describes as a cinematic counterinsurgency, many Class of '99 filmmakers weaned on TV remotes, joysticks, music videos and the web dispensed with linear narratives and incorporated the "A.D.D. addled storytelling of modern nonfiction television." Chronology was crunched in the ecstasy laced "Go," the micro budgeted "Following" and "Run Lola Run," which played out like a video game. Lana and Lilly Wachowski's "The Matrix," as Raftery sees it, tapped into the idea that "online, reality was becoming bendable," a concept encapsulated in a revolutionary CGI sequence in which Neo (Keanu Reeves) miraculously evades a hurtling bullet. "'The Matrix,'" Raftery writes, "nudged viewers to develop their own slowed down, omniscient, bullet time view of the world around them: Who controls my life?" Indeed, the themes of "The Matrix," including our quest to decipher hidden, alternative realities, still bewitch us. (A few months ago, in fact, New York magazine published "19 Things 'The Matrix' Predicted About Life in 2019.") These maverick directors borrowed from hacker and web culture, their films foreshadowing social media's dark descent. The internet colors Spike Jonze's "Being John Malkovich," in which sojourners adopt the actor John Malkovich's body as their avatar. According to Malkovich himself, Charlie Kaufman's script addressed the media fueled "need we have ... to lead sort of virtual lives." This compulsion to recast one's identity was also at the twisted core of 1999's "The Talented Mr. Ripley" as well as "Man on the Moon," in which Jim Carrey essentially transformed himself (on set and off) into the gonzo performance artist comedian Andy Kaufman. Without the web, there would have been no "Blair Witch Project," the homemade sham snuff horror movie that became a case study in online promotion. The indie film's faux verite shared the fraudulent authenticity of a new genre, reality TV. And once "Blair Witch" went viral, as Raftery puts it, it helped "fringe fears go mainstream," a fright wig stepchild of Oliver Stone movies and "The X Files." Many of the movies, Raftery points out, came with a fin de siecle edge: a pervading apocalyptic angst. The story lines, with their aggrieved outsiders and collapsing families, prophesied our current condition, post 9/11 plagued as we are by forever wars, increasing wealth disparity and the oppressive rise of the autocrat, the bigot, the corporate state. Frogs rain from the sky in "Magnolia." The Burnham household implodes in "American Beauty." Sexual obsession and decadence envelop "Eyes Wide Shut." Angry young white guys rage against the machine in "Fight Club," whose release was postponed in the wake of the killings at Columbine. "Boys Don't Cry," which recounts the murder of Brandon Teena, a transgender man, was filmed, Raftery says, just as "Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, pistol whipped and tied to a fence in ... Wyoming." For all this, the book has its hiccups. Raftery, despite a nice shout out to John Hughes, favors '90s kids in crisis films over "crummier Reagan era teen movies." There's no mention of "Quiet: We Live in Public," the dystopian social experiment webcammed 24/7 on the eve of the new millennium until the cops shut it down. That said, Raftery dares to think bigger than the big screen. He explains that once HBO rolled out "The Sopranos" in January 1999, its influence would prove seismic: Thereafter, a generation's most engaging onscreen stories would be serials, viewed in our homes or on our phones. He notes, as well, that in 1999, when AOL began its 165 billion play for the Time Warner colossus, the deal presaged the current Digital Ice Age, in which tech (Netflix, Amazon et al.) is slowly slaying the Hollywood dinosaur. Raftery's right. Nineteen ninety nine did rewire how we tell stories in moving pictures. Morpheus, we're not in Kansas anymore. Then again, "Best. Movie. Year. Ever." may also be biased, inflating the significance of the cultural touchstones of its author's youth. In that regard, I'd like to speak up for 1968, which turned out "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Rosemary's Baby," "Yellow Submarine," "The Producers," "Bullitt," "The Lion in Winter," "Night of the Living Dead," ...	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Books
Confidence, Harvey writes, functions as a "de facto national currency." Strang had plenty of it. In the contest to succeed Smith, he staked out the anti polygamy position, contrasting himself with Brigham Young on the church's most divisive issue. That did not stop him from secretly marrying four "spiritual" wives, in addition to his long suffering legal wife, Mary. Strang's first "celestial marriage" was to an intelligent young woman named Elvira Field. Field cut her hair short, dressed in men's clothes and accompanied Strang on his evangelical tours, staying with him in his rooms and introducing herself as Charles J. Douglass, nephew of and personal secretary to the prophet. Having claimed a divine right to the lightly populated Beaver Island, Strang's subjects began counterfeiting money and practicing a form of religious piracy, "consecrating" gentile property to themselves with guns, swords and a fast schooner. President Millard Fillmore, who had been denounced in the press for going soft on Brigham Young and the Utah Mormons, dispatched an iron hulled Navy steamer to raid the island, arrest Strang and subdue his marauding followers. The factoid doesn't get much respect as a source of genuine historical insight, but Harvey deploys small scraps of knowledge to great effect. His account of Strang's rise and fall is littered with thumbnail histories of 19th century cross dressing, John Brown, John Deere, the Brontes, bloomers, the Underground Railroad, mesmerism, newspaper exchanges, the Illuminati and much else. This approach amounts to a sort of historical pointillism, bringing the manic, skittering mood of the era into focus. It is a style of history well suited to the antebellum decades, when American culture was most unabashedly itself uprooted, credulous and bold with scattershot plans for civic and moral perfection. Horace Greeley, who embodied that time almost as well as King Strang, wrote of living in "this stammering century." Harvey's wonderfully digressive narrative is interspersed with news clippings, playbills, land surveys and daguerreotypes, as if to periodically certify that all of this madness is really true. Strang himself, however, remains a cipher. Where did the calculation end and the delusion begin? Did he himself ever convert to his own gospel? In any case, the inner life of a prophet is less interesting than his or her effect on the world. Tinhorn revelators are seldom in short supply. Few of them secure private theocracies.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Books
SEATTLE When Texas officials pushed Amazon to pay nearly 270 million in back sales taxes in 2010, Amazon responded by closing its only warehouse in the state and scrapping expansion plans there. Two years later, the officials agreed to waive the past taxes in exchange for Amazon opening new warehouses. A similar scene played out in South Carolina, where officials decided in 2011 to deny Amazon a sales tax break. After threatening to stop hiring in the state, the company got the tax exemption by promising to hire more people. And last year in Seattle, the company's hometown, Amazon halted plans to build one tower and threatened to lease out one under construction when local officials pushed a tax on large employers. The City Council passed a smaller version of the tax, but the company helped finance a successful opposition to repeal it. Now, Amazon plans to lease out its space in the tower under construction anyway. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio called it a "shock to the system" when Amazon, facing criticism for the deal it reached to build a headquarters in the city, abruptly dropped the plans. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is still trying to woo them back. But the reversal mirrored the company's interactions with officials in other states. Virtually all of America's largest businesses drive a hard bargain with governments, angling for benefits and financial incentives. Amazon, though, often plays politics with a distinctive message: Give us what we want, or we'll leave and take our jobs elsewhere. The tactics help Amazon squeeze as much as possible out of politicians. "They are just as cutthroat as can be," said Alex Pearlstein, vice president at Market Street Services, which helps cities, including those with Amazon warehouses, attract employers. New York's experience with Amazon also exposed the company's limited experience with building community relationships. The company did not hire any local employees or lobbyists to connect with New York residents in advance of announcing the deal. Until recent years, almost no one at the company worked full time in community or government relations, though it now has more than 100 lobbyists registered in statehouses to push its priorities. That lack of a significant on the ground strategy helped doom the deal in New York, and it is causing headaches elsewhere. Amazon's promise to deliver practically any item within two days means that it needs warehouses near major population centers, not just where it gets the best deal. In Edison, N.J., noise complaints pressured the company to spend 3 million to build a high wall around a warehouse. Outside of Chicago in Joliet, Ill., Amazon pays for an extra police officer to help manage traffic and lawmakers want the company to do more. The company's initial pitch is usually simple, saying that its offices and warehouses will deliver quality jobs. And it banks on the public's widespread trust in the company's low prices, wide selection and fast delivery. Many politicians and locals are delighted when Amazon arrives and say that the company delivers the jobs it has pledged. Over all, the company has collected more than 2.4 billion taxpayer subsidies for its offices, warehouses and data centers, according to Good Jobs First, a nonprofit organization that tracks corporate tax breaks. A company spokeswoman said, "Amazon has created more than 250,000 full time American jobs and has invested hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy." She added, "We are active participants working to support the communities where we operate." Asked recently by a business publication if Amazon would change anything about the headquarters search in retrospect, Holly Sullivan, the Amazon executive who led the search, said: "You know, no. I think it was rewarding for us internally." Under a settlement in 2012, the state gave up on the tax charges in exchange for Amazon's promise to create 2,500 jobs and spend at least 200 million on facilities. Amazon also agreed to begin collecting sales tax and pay the state. Once the deal was reached, Amazon expanded rapidly across Texas, with millions in subsidies from the state. The company now operates about 20 sites in Texas. "In our viewpoint, it's a lot better to get them into compliance voluntarily than spend a whole lot of time fighting about the past periods," said Karey Barton, the state's associate deputy comptroller for tax. For one of the new warehouses, in San Marcos, between Austin and San Antonio, Amazon received a 16.6 million tax rebate. The warehouse has nearly 3,000 employees, making it the largest private employer in town. "Everything that they told us and promised us on the number of jobs and that kind of thing has surpassed their timelines," said Kristy Stark, the communications director for the City of San Marcos. "We have nothing but positive things to say." Amazon waged a nearly identical war in South Carolina, when officials, including then Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, opposed a sales tax break. It pulled job listings off its website for a warehouse under construction near Columbia and canceled contracts for the new facility. Amazon grew from start up to behemoth in Seattle, devouring new towers and buildable land. Nevertheless, the company kept its distance from local lawmakers. In 2009, the mayor and governor threw a groundbreaking ceremony for new Amazon buildings. No Amazon executives attended. In recent years, Amazon made some gestures of civic responsibility, including in 2017, when it committed to build a shelter for homeless families in a new tower. That year, Amazon also hired its first employee to build a team focused on philanthropy. More than a dozen people now work on that effort. But it didn't speak up on policy issues, including ways to address the skyrocketing housing prices in the area. That changed in 2018, when the City Council debated a tax on large employers, which was meant to pay for homeless services and affordable housing. Amazon was one of largest donors to a repeal campaign, which paid about 345,000 to a firm, Morning in America, to gather signatures and print fliers and shirts. With anger growing over the tax, the council relented and repealed it. "This is not a winnable battle at this time," Lisa Herbold, a member of the City Council, said before the vote. "The opposition has unlimited resources." As Amazon expands, including closer to more major cities like New York and Chicago, it is facing more local demands. "People think that Amazon is a 100 percent sleek machine," said Beth Gutelius, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago with a focus on warehouses. In reality, a lot falls through the cracks. "Even if they are trying to be strategic locally, they can't actually do it because they are so big and sprawling." In late 2017, Amazon opened a warehouse in Edison, N.J., near New York. The site used to be a quiet warehouse for comforters and bedding, but lights now shine and trucks rumble at all hours. Amazon made some changes, like having the trucks emit a low hiss, rather than beep, on the loading docks. But neighbors said commotion was still intrusive. Lisa Bukachevsky, who lives behind the warehouse, said she tried to hire a lawyer, but none would take her case. "They said, 'You don't have enough money to fight Amazon,'" she said. The town attorney took up the issue, and Amazon hired a sound engineer and then constructed the 20 foot tall wall that cost 3 million. The wall helps block the light, but not much of the noise, Ms. Bukachevsky said. She and her husband, Mark, say Amazon could have saved a lot of headache if it had consulted the community first. "I'm not anti Amazon," Mr. Bukachevsky said, adding that he owns Amazon stock. "I'm anti noise." In Illinois, Amazon initially resisted opening facilities because that would have required it to start collecting sales taxes, said John E. Greuling, the president of the Will County Center for Economic Development. But then, Mr. Greuling said, "They realized Illinois was too important a location for them." Just a few years later, the company has 7,000 people across five facilities in Will County, which includes Joliet, making it the largest employer in an area evolving into a major logistics hub. The first Amazon warehouse to open in Joliet received a state tax incentive of 71.5 million for up to 10 years. About two miles south of downtown Joliet, along State Route 53, a routine plays out several times a day that causes some dread among locals. Amazon employees' cars line up along a narrow street perpendicular to the highway. One after the next, they turn onto the busy four lane thoroughfare, creating a long caravan during shift changes. Local residents trying to maneuver their way along this major artery can get stuck sitting at stop signs for 5 or 10 minutes. Amazon pays a local police officer to manage the flow during the holiday season and is part of a public private group working to address traffic. Some local officials, including Denise Winfrey, the Will County board speaker, say they fear the deals that lured Amazon and other major companies to the region did not give the state enough resources to fix the infrastructure, which is increasingly stressed as Amazon and others use them. "If you're in the area, using the resources, you have the people, you're stopping through the neighborhoods, you're driving through the streets you have some responsibility to make sure that you are contributing positively to the community beyond the jobs," Ms. Winfrey said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
Roseanne Barr and John Goodman in the revived "Roseanne" on ABC. Its premiere on Tuesday earned the highest ratings for a network sitcom in almost four years. UPDATE: ABC canceled "Roseanne" on May 29, after the show's star and co creator, Roseanne Barr, posted a racist tweet. Read about the tweet and the cancellation here. On the morning after the 2016 election, a group of nearly a dozen ABC executives gathered at their Burbank, Calif., headquarters to determine what Donald J. Trump's victory meant for the network's future. "We looked at each other and said, 'There's a lot about this country we need to learn a lot more about, here on the coasts,'" Ben Sherwood, the president of Disney and ABC's television group, said in an interview. They began asking themselves which audiences they were not serving well and what they could do to better live up to the company name the American Broadcasting Company. By the meeting's end, they had in place the beginnings of a revised strategy that led the network to reboot a past hit centered on a struggling Midwestern family, a show that had a chance to appeal to the voters who had helped put Mr. Trump in the White House. On Tuesday night, the strategy proved more successful than the executives had hoped: "Roseanne" premiered to the highest ratings for any network sitcom in almost four years. The show's approach to sociopolitical issues its star and co creator, Roseanne Barr, plays an unabashed Trump supporter who spars with her liberal sister, played by Laurie Metcalf especially reverberated among heartland viewers. The top markets for the debut read like a political pollster's red state checklist: Cincinnati; Kansas City, Mo.; Tulsa, Okla. Liberal enclaves like New York and Los Angeles did not crack the top 20. Channing Dungey, the president of ABC Entertainment, said the success of "Roseanne" was a direct result of the post Election Day initiative to pursue an audience that the network had overlooked. "We had spent a lot of time looking for diverse voices in terms of people of color and people from different religions and even people with a different perspective on gender," Ms. Dungey said. "But we had not been thinking nearly enough about economic diversity and some of the other cultural divisions within our own country. That's been something we've been really looking at with eyes open since that time." As the Nielsen numbers for "Roseanne" rolled in, ABC executives went from gobsmacked Mr. Sherwood said he thought the early figures he had seen were a mistake to euphoric. "People gather round and they see themselves in this family," Mr. Sherwood said. "It speaks to a large number of people in the country who don't see themselves on television very often." By Thursday, this dusted off sitcom centered on a highly opinionated matriarch had become a flash point in the nation's culture wars. It had also spurred a cathartic response from many conservatives, who counted its opening night success as their own. Among those celebrating was President Trump, who called Ms. Barr to congratulate her on the "huge" ratings. On Thursday, he gave a shout out to the Emmy winning star during a rally in Ohio. "Look at Roseanne! Look at her ratings!" President Trump told the crowd of union workers, adding: "They were unbelievable! Over 18 million people! And it was about us!" 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. Right wing pundits praised the show as a mic drop moment for conservatives weary of being portrayed unflatteringly or ignored altogether on network shows. On Fox News, Sean Hannity congratulated her on her "massive audience," and Laura Ingraham approvingly played a "Roseanne" clip, saying, "Funny what can happen when Hollywood makes programming that's not condescending toward half the country." On Thursday, via Twitter, Mr. Hannity invited Ms. Barr to guest host his show. "DM me," Ms. Barr replied. Ms. Barr, 65, supported Mr. Trump in 2016, but she makes for an unlikely conservative standard bearer: Aside from her support of same sex marriage and abortion rights, she was once denounced by the elder President George Bush as "disgraceful" after delivering a lewd, off key rendition of the national anthem at a 1990 baseball game. On television, however, she plays a grandmother who is worried about paying the bills and grappling with a grandson who prefers to wear girl's clothing. The onscreen Roseanne makes for a sharp foil to Ms. Metcalf's character, who wears a "nasty woman" T shirt and accuses Trump supporters of "wrapping yourselves up in the flag and clinging to your guns." "The show doesn't advocate for Trump voters, but it respects them," said Alex Castellanos, a veteran Republican strategist based in Florida. "Apparently, this is still news to people in the entertainment business, that there is an American working class." For years, ABC focused on other demographic groups. With series like "The Bachelor," "black ish," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Modern Family," the network's lineup was notably diverse. But it was also geared toward upper middle class viewers, Ms. Dungey said. By November 2016, ABC was coming off a TV season when it had finished in last place among the four major broadcast networks, with little hope of escaping the ratings basement in the near future. Like other networks, it was also losing viewers to Netflix and other streaming platforms. The meeting that took place on the morning after Mr. Trump's surprise victory led the network to reconsider its strategy. Mr. Sherwood summed up what was going through his mind that day: "Given the declines of broadcast television, the year after year declines, are we programming in a way that is turning people off?" In response, ABC decided to back the singing competition show "American Idol" less than two years after it had been canceled on Fox, its original network home. "We went after it because that's a show that, fundamentally, is about the American dream," Mr. Sherwood said. "It's about a girl with a cowboy hat and a boy with a banjo and people from small towns where music has saved their lives in different ways." "Roseanne," which had its first run on ABC from 1988 to 1997, was another prime candidate for a reboot. It was a top rated comedy that had won its share of Emmys and Golden Globes not to mention that the woman who played its title character had become a vocal Trump supporter. Even as the president portrayed the success of "Roseanne" as a win of his own, however, ABC executives and "Roseanne" producers rejected the notion that the show's popularity was mainly because of its appeal to Trump supporters. "I would compare this to 'All in the Family,'" said Tom Werner, an executive producer of "Roseanne" and other hit sitcoms like "The Cosby Show" and "3rd Rock From the Sun." "A number of people watching 'All in the Family' said, 'Archie's a conservative and therefore it's a show about a conservative.' Well, it was made by Norman Lear. "Part of the reason the show is successful is because it taps into the frustration and disappointment that working class people feel about the economy right now," he continued. "But if you watch all the episodes, we don't really mention politics as much as we did in the pilot." Mr. Werner pointed out that "Roseanne" will deal with the opioid epidemic and immigration in its seven remaining episodes, adding that the president does not come up much as the show goes on. As a topical, working class sitcom led by a Trump supporter, "Roseanne" is unique for now. Its early ratings success is likely to spur copycats in Hollywood, which is not known for its high percentage of conservatives. "Money is the ideology of Hollywood," said Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center for media and society at the University of Southern California. "I can't imagine an executive who would turn down something for ideological reasons that they think has a chance to do a good number."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
If you are reading this hunched over your desk or smartphone, take this moment to loosen up your neck. Move it up and down. Now side to side. Roll it around clockwise and counterclockwise. Now retract it into your shell. Oh wait, you can't do that you are not a turtle. But have you ever wondered how these reptiles evolved to have such an interesting trick? Scientists have, and now after studying the cervical bones of a 150 million year old turtle fossil, a team of researchers thinks that most turtles developed the ability first as a way to spring their head forward quickly to snatch prey, rather than as a means of protection, as was previously thought. The ability further evolved in some turtles to become a crucial part of their defenses. The researchers published their study Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. Cryptodires include tortoises as well as most turtles: box turtles, sea turtles and alligator snapping turtles. They retract their necks straight back into their shells by folding the muscles vertically. Pleurodires include species that are mostly found in South America, Australia and Africa, like the matamata and snake neck turtles. They bend their muscles horizontally to pull their necks back to the side and tuck it next to their shoulder. Jeremy Anquetin, a paleontologist from the Jurassica Museum in Switzerland and the lead author, and his colleagues studied a 150 million year old turtle fossil that had some strange characteristics. The turtle, known as Platychelys oberndorferi, was from the Late Jurassic period and lived in what is today Germany and Switzerland. From its shell and skeleton the team could clearly tell that it belonged to the pleurodira group. But the shape of its two cervical bones suggested that it pulled its neck back vertically as cryptodires do, not horizontally. The neck also appeared to be unable to fully fold into the shell. "Why did it have this neck retraction mechanism? This turtle is very peculiar," Dr. Anquetin said. "Our fossil cannot retract it completely. It brings no value for protection, so we had to find an explanation for that." The team homed in on the creature's other features for clues. Its appearance was similar to modern bottom dwelling turtles, suggesting that it was an ambush predator like the matamata turtle or the common snapping turtle. The two modern species are distantly related, but they hunt using similar tactics. They both lurk among the plants that shroud the floors of ponds, swamps and shallow lakes. Once an unsuspecting fish gets close enough, they strike. "We can expect that our turtle was behaving the same way," Dr. Anquetin said. He and his team report that the neck mechanisms seen in their extinct turtle and in modern day cryptodires is an example of convergent evolution, meaning that both P. oberndorferi and present day cryptodires evolved the ability independently of each other because of the evolutionary advantages that it offered them in their environments. The method of retracting their necks straight back allowed them to rapidly shoot out their heads and catch darting prey more easily. The researchers acknowledge that their hypothesis needs further testing and that it does not offer an explanation for why pleurodira turtles evolved to pull their necks in sideways. James Parham, an assistant professor of geological sciences at California State University, Fullerton, who has done research on turtles and lizards but was not involved in the study, said in an email the paper showed that the evolution of neck retraction in early turtles was more complex than the binary of folding the neck to the side versus bending it in vertically that we have ascribed to the reptiles today. He added that the team did a good job showing the similarities between the fossil turtle and modern day ambush turtles, but he agreed that the authors' hypothesis needed further study. "They set the stage for some interesting new studies and force us to look at the evolution of these fossils in an entirely new light," he said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
AFTER the mortarboards are thrown into the air comes the reality of student loan payments. More than 40 million Americans are repaying more than 1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, according to the federal government. Most loans come with grace periods a span of time before you must begin making monthly loan payments of six to nine months, depending on the type of loan. It's a good time to get organized and familiarize yourself with your loans, so that you don't miss any payments and incur late fees. Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Edvisors.com, a financial aid site, suggests making a list of your loans, including the amount owed, the name of the lender or servicer and the date the first payment is due. The site offers a free online checklist. If you are unsure about the details of your federal loans the most common type of student loan, made or backed by the federal government you can look them up on the Department of Education's National Student Loan Data System. For details of loans from private lenders, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau suggests that you contact your school's financial aid office or review your credit report.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Your Money
Netflix has become one of the nation's all around distractions, acting as both a supercharged nanny and a nightly balm during the coronavirus crisis. It's not hard to imagine why. With an almost bottomless well of movies and serials that can be watched on almost any device, it's the kind of service that would be dreamed up by someone stranded on a desert island or stuck at home during a pandemic. More than 15.7 million people signed up for Netflix in the first three months of the year, when the coronavirus started to disrupt daily life around the world. That was a record for the streamer, according to its first quarter earnings announcement on Tuesday. Netflix has 182.8 million subscribers, making it one of the world's largest entertainment services. It added 2.3 million in the United States and Canada in the first quarter for a total of 69.9 million, and added 13.5 million internationally. The results offer a vivid snapshot of how the coronavirus has affected the streaming industry, signifying the first real test of how durable online video has been during the pandemic. Streaming has also become one of Hollywood's few lifelines at a time when the entertainment industry is at a virtual standstill. The company's letter to shareholders is normally a dry note about quarterly achievements, but this time it struck an emotional tone. "We have never seen a future more uncertain or unsettling," it read. "The coronavirus has reached every corner of the world and, in the absence of a widespread treatment or vaccine, no one knows how or when this terrible crisis will end." "It's an incredible tragedy for the world," Reed Hastings, the chief executive, said on the earnings call after the announcement. "Everyone is wrestling with the implications, both on health, hunger and poverty, and we too are really unsure about what the future brings." The company acknowledged that it had fared well during the crisis, but said it expected "viewing to decline and membership growth to decelerate as home confinement ends, which we hope is soon." It hasn't been an easy time for the industry as a whole. Broadcast and cable networks have been starved of their most important programming: sports. Advertisers have cut back on television spending by as much as 12 billion, according to the research firm eMarketer. And movie studios haven't been able to sell tickets ever since stay at home orders were put in place. How Theranos changed tech coverage: 'You can't just buy what they're selling.' One meme stock lawsuit against Robinhood is dismissed, but others loom. But Netflix has benefited. It doesn't have sports programming. It doesn't have commercials. It doesn't need movie theaters. Mostly. Hollywood studios have changed tack to release films on streaming services to reach their audiences. On Tuesday, Netflix announced that it had bought the rights to "Enola Holmes," a period film set in the Sherlock Holmes universe that features Millie Bobbie Brown, the star of the Netflix hit "Stranger Things." Legendary Entertainment, the studio behind the film, was originally considering a theatrical release. Netflix's original programming continued to draw audiences. More than 29 million households tuned into the third season of "Ozark," a crime drama starring Jason Bateman. The reality show "Love Is Blind" drew 30 million watchers. But the surprise hit was "Tiger King," a wildly popular documentary series about a tiger breeder and zookeeper in Oklahoma who ultimately landed in prison. The surreal saga was viewed by 64 million subscribers. Netflix faces a slew of deep pocketed competitors. The Walt Disney Company unveiled Disney Plus in November and has already racked up over 50 million subscribers. Comcast's NBCUniversal division launched Peacock last week to more than 15 million Comcast customers before making it widely available this summer. On Tuesday, AT T announced that HBO Max, its long awaited, multibillion dollar effort, would finally roll out on May 27. Mr. Hastings praised Disney. "I've never seen such a good execution," he said, echoing remarks he made in November. "Disney is the one we have the most to learn from in terms of entertainment," he said at the time. Netflix said on Tuesday that it expected the current quarter, which ends in June, to slow down a bit. The company has forecast 7.5 million new subscribers and about 6 billion in sales and 820 million in profit. As production companies have remained idle, a widening gap has opened up in the industry's content lineup. Netflix has also put productions on hold, but it is continuing to pay staff out of a 150 million fund it created to shore up the Hollywood economy. Ted Sarandos, the head of Netflix's content division, said the company was still well positioned for the year. "Our 2020 slate is largely shot," he said, later adding, "and we're pretty deep into our 2021 slate." The slowdown is a short term blessing. Netflix normally burns through a ton of cash to fund its content. Because the company pays for all of its productions up front before they are available to be watched it does not account for those costs until later, sometimes a year or more after it has spent the money. That allows Netflix to claim a profit despite spending more than comes in. The accounting practice is commonplace and is employed by every media company; Netflix just does it on a much bigger scale. Netflix saw a temporary bright spot here. The company had positive cash flow of about 162 million during the first quarter, though Netflix said it was not related to the slowdown. On a yearly basis, the company burns through as much as 3 billion in cash, but it anticipates that figure could fall to 1 billion this year. Revenue for the quarter reached 5.7 billion and profit was 709 million, which was below estimates.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
TAIPEI, Taiwan Before the Chinese police hung high powered surveillance cameras and locked up ethnic minorities by the hundreds of thousands in China's western region of Xinjiang, China's hackers went to work building malware, researchers say. The Chinese hacking campaign, which researchers at Lookout the San Francisco mobile security firm said on Wednesday had begun in earnest as far back as 2013 and continues to this day, was part of a broad but often invisible effort to pull in data from the devices that know people best: their smartphones. Lookout found links between eight types of malicious software some previously known, others not that show how groups connected to China's government hacked into Android phones used by Xinjiang's largely Muslim Uighur population on a scale far larger than had been realized. The timeline suggests the hacking campaign was an early cornerstone in China's Uighur surveillance efforts that would later extend to collecting blood samples, voice prints, facial scans and other personal data to transform Xinjiang into a virtual police state. It also shows the lengths to which China's minders were determined to follow Uighurs as they fled China for as many as 15 other countries. The tools the hackers assembled hid in special keyboards used by Uighurs and disguised themselves as commonly used apps in third party websites. Some could remotely turn on a phone's microphone, record calls or export photos, phone locations and conversations on chat apps. Others were embedded in apps that hosted Uighur language news, Uighur targeted beauty tips, religious texts like the Quran and details of the latest Muslim cleric arrests. "Wherever China's Uighurs are going, however far they go, whether it was Turkey, Indonesia or Syria, the malware followed them there," said Apurva Kumar, a threat intelligence engineer at Lookout who helped unravel the campaign. "It was like watching a predator stalk its prey throughout the world." A decade ago, the People's Liberation Army's hackers were notable not so much for their sophistication as for the volume of their attacks. But under threat of American sanctions, President Xi Jinping of China struck an agreement with President Barack Obama in 2015 to cease hacking American targets for commercial gain. The agreement stuck for a time, with a significant drop in Chinese hacks in the United States. Last fall, private researchers determined that over that same period China had turned its most advanced hacking tools on its own people. In overlapping discoveries, researchers at Google, the security firm Volexity and the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Public Affairs separately uncovered what amounted to an advanced Chinese hack against iPhones and Android phones belonging to Chinese Uighurs and Tibetans throughout the world. Lookout's latest analysis suggests that China's mobile hacking campaign was broader and more aggressive than security experts, human rights activists and spyware victims had realized. But experts on Chinese surveillance say it should come as no surprise, given the lengths to which Beijing has gone to monitor Xinjiang. Let Us Help You Protect Your Digital Life None With Apple's latest mobile software update, we can decide whether apps monitor and share our activities with others. Here's what to know. A little maintenance on your devices and accounts can go a long way in maintaining your security against outside parties' unwanted attempts to access your data. Here's a guide to the few simple changes you can make to protect yourself and your information online. Ever considered a password manager? You should. There are also many ways to brush away the tracks you leave on the internet. "We should think about smartphone surveillance being used as a way to track people's inner life, their everyday behavior, their trustworthiness," said Darren Byler, who studies surveillance of minority populations at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 2015, as Beijing pushed to crack down on sporadic ethnic violence in Xinjiang, the authorities grew "desperate" to track fast growing Uighur communications online, Mr. Byler said. Uighurs began to fear that their online chats discussing Islam or politics were risky. Savvier Uighurs took to owning a second "clean phone," said Mr. Byler, who lived in Xinjiang in 2015. On the streets of Xinjiang, the police began confiscating Uighurs' phones. Sometimes, they returned them months later with new spyware installed. Other times, people were handed back entirely different phones. Officials visiting Uighur villages regularly recorded the serial numbers used to identify smartphones. They lined the streets with new hardware that tracked people's phones as they walked past. The authorities dragged Uighurs off to detention camps for having two phones or an antiquated phone, arbitrarily dumping a phone, or not having a phone at all, according to testimonials and government documents. Over that same period, Lookout said China's mobile hacking efforts accelerated. One type of Chinese malware, known as GoldenEagle after the words hackers littered throughout their code an apparent reference to the eagles used for hunting in Xinjiang was used as early as 2011. But its use picked up in 2015 and 2016. Lookout uncovered more than 650 versions of GoldenEagle malware and a large number of fake Uighur apps that function as a sort of Trojan horse to spy on users' mobile communications. The malicious apps mimicked so called virtual private networks, which are used to set up secure web connections and view prohibited content inside China. They also targeted apps frequently used by Uighurs for shopping, video games, music streaming, adult media and travel booking, as well as specialized Uighur keyboard apps. Some offered Uighurs beauty and traditional medicine tips. Others impersonated apps from Twitter, Facebook, QQ the Chinese instant messaging service and the search giant Baidu. Once downloaded, the apps gave China's hackers a real time window into their targets' phone activity. They also gave China's minders the ability to kill their spyware on command, including when it appeared to suck up too much battery life. In some cases, Lookout discovered that all China's hackers needed to do to get data off a target's phone was send the user an invisible text message. The malware captured a victim's data and sent it back to the attackers' phone via a text reply, then deleted any trace of the exchange. In June 2019, Lookout uncovered Chinese malware buried in an app called Syrian News. The content was Uighur focused, suggesting China was trying to bait Uighurs inside Syria into downloading their malware. That Beijing's hackers would track Uighurs to Syria gave Lookout's researchers a window into Chinese anxiety over Uighur involvement in the Syrian civil war. Lookout's researchers found similarly malicious apps tailored to Uighurs in Kuwait, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Researchers at other security research groups, like Citizen Lab, had previously uncovered various pieces of China's mobile hacking campaign and linked them back to Chinese state hackers. However, Lookout's new report appears to be the first time researchers were able to piece these older campaigns with new mobile malware and tie them to the same groups. "Just how far removed the state is from these operations is always the open question," said Christoph Hebeisen, Lookout's director of security intelligence. "It could be that these are patriotic hackers, like the kind we have seen in Russia. But the targeting of Uighurs, Tibetans, the diaspora and even Daesh, in one case, suggests otherwise," he added, using another term for the Islamic State. One clue to the attackers' identities came when Lookout's researchers found what appeared to be test versions of China's malware on several smartphones that were clustered in and around the headquarters of the Chinese defense contractor Xi'an Tianhe Defense Technology. A large supplier of defense technology, Tianhe sent employees to a major defense conference in Xinjiang in 2015 to market products that could monitor crowds. As a surveillance gold rush took over the region, Tianhe doubled down, establishing a subsidiary in Xinjiang in 2018. The company did not respond to emails requesting comment.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Technology
Anyone planning to write a biography of a living person might be forewarned by Deirdre Bair's "bio memoir," her gripping account of uncovering the lives of Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beauvoir. The payoff was that her Beckett biography won the 1981 National Book Award and that, after Beauvoir, she went on to write books about Anais Nin, Carl Jung, Saul Steinberg and Al Capone. But that puts a gloss on the fraught journey described in "Parisian Lives." Having previously worked as a reporter and earned a doctorate in comparative literature at Columbia University, Bair first had to develop the wiles of a biographer to be patient, determined and thick skinned, seductive enough to persuade her subjects and their friends to reveal all, but not so seductive as to encourage her male interlocutors and then be skeptical of the stories she was told. In "Parisian Lives," which reads much like a "making of..." documentary, she gives us her off camera take on her first two biographies. And, to our delight, we become voyeurs. Can this inexperienced young American tame these two monstres sacres? Will she be hoodwinked by two larger than life writers who want to influence, manipulate, control, even censor her even as, all the while, they appear to cooperate? Bair was lucky. Out of the blue, she proposed a biography first to Beckett and, a decade later, to Beauvoir. Amazingly, both agreed. In November 1971, at her first meeting with Beckett, he observed, "So you are the one who is going to reveal me for the charlatan that I am." But an accommodation was reached. "I will neither help nor hinder you," he said. "My friends and family will assist you and my enemies will find you soon enough." Recording her every move in what she nicknamed her DD, her daily diaries, she went looking for anyone who had known Beckett in Dublin, London and Paris. Some spoke ill of one another and others offered bum information, while the most reliable reported back to Beckett on what she already knew. When she pressed him to clarify something she had heard, he indicated that "I was to accept his version and go no further." Only now, with hindsight, she writes, can she admit how she really felt: "most often, like a marionette, whose strings he was pulling, because I never knew where I stood with him." At times, he was fully cooperative, but things could suddenly change. "Whenever he felt that I was getting too close to something he was reluctant to make known, he could become clipped in his speech, cutting in his comments and dismissive of my work." If decoding Beckett were insufficient a challenge, Bair had not only to manage a family life and struggle to finance her travels but also to see her first publisher go bust, her second reject her "unpublishable manuscript" and her eventual publisher demand that Beckett initial every quotation from his letters and unpublished manuscripts. To her relief, he asked only to remove an adolescent poem of no consequence. "His word was indeed his bond," she declares. Bair's relationship with Beauvoir was easier. With Beckett, she was forbidden to tape record or take notes on their conversations; not so with Beauvoir, who evidently felt her every word was destined for posterity. Further, while Bair was in awe of Beckett, she grew fond of the author of "The Second Sex," perhaps because she too identified with feminism. For Beauvoir, though, it seemed more important for Bair to record her as a philosopher than as a feminist icon. The shadow Beauvoir was really trying to escape was that of Jean Paul Sartre, her partner in literary and sexual experimentation, who upon his death in 1980 made his adopted daughter, Arlette Elkaim Sartre, his sole heir. Beauvoir then did likewise with her companion and adopted daughter, Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, all of which complicated Bair's access to documents, letters and journals. Beauvoir herself was generally cooperative, but not always. Bair's inquiry as to how she and Sartre spent the Nazi occupation of France brought a "flash of real anger" and silence. And the topic of Beauvoir's same sex experiences, including with Sylvie Le Bon, sparked fresh fury. "'Oh sure, we kiss on the lips, we hug, we touch each other's breasts, but we don't do anything' and here another downward flick 'down there! So you can't call us lesbians!'" Bair was finishing this biography when Beauvoir died in April 1986 and she hurried to Paris to join the cortege as it made its way through the Left Bank to the Montparnasse cemetery, where Beauvoir belatedly rejoined Sartre. In contrast, when Beckett died in 1989, Bair recalls, "I did not react emotionally." By then, she had survived a different storm. A biographer, she was often told, was unworthy of the academic career she was pursuing. And many academics sniffed at her life of Beckett. Finally, in 1987, denied a promotion by the University of Pennsylvania, she resigned and fully embraced her life as a biographer. "I never did know how to play academic politics," Bair, now 84, recalls, "and I realize how fortunate I have been to be free from them, and to have spent so many years doing work that I love." How she reached this nirvana is a story well told.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Books
Irina Dvorovenko as an aging ballerina and James Snyder as an aristocratic thief in the Encores! production of "Grand Hotel" at City Center. "I'm so nervous. Why?" Tommy Tune, a tower of sartorial splendor in pinstripes and denim, asked at City Center on Wednesday night. "Guess it's because my baby's walking without me." Mr. Tune, the fabled Texas born showman, was speaking as a member of the opening night audience for the six performance Encores! revival of "Grand Hotel, the Musical." And while this singing, sighing adaptation of Vicki Baum's 1929 novel about desperate characters in Weimar Berlin has the usual official roster (credited and uncredited) of book and song writers, it has indeed always been regarded as Mr. Tune's baby. When it opened on Broadway in 1989, after a long and laborious gestation, "Grand Hotel" was acclaimed as a triumph of stagecraft over substance. Few critics seemed thrilled by the songs, the story or even the performances. What sent them into swoons was the look of the show (Tony Walton did the set) and the fluid, endlessly inventive mise en scene provided by Mr. Tune, its director and choreographer. "Grand Hotel" went on to run for more than 1,000 performances, a testament to the selling power of creative camouflage. Still, ever since its minimalist interpretation of "Chicago" slid from City Center to Broadway in 1996, Encores! has been inching ever further into the realm of full dress productions. As overseen by the director and choreographer Josh Rhodes, with a set by Allen Moyer and costumes by Linda Cho, this "Grand Hotel" is one of the most sumptuous pieces of eye candy ever to glitter from the City Center stage. As for what churns beneath its opulent surface, it's still a rather dreary slog. But perhaps that's appropriate for a show about fatal illusions of glamour in a dark and decaying world. The basis of the Oscar winning 1932 film, starring Greta Garbo and John Barrymore, Baum's novel was a paradigm of the oft recycled formula that assembles disparate, doomed souls in a single (preferably high toned) setting and sets them on a collision course ("Ship of Fools," "Murder on the Orient Express"). In the late 1950s, the team of Luther Davis (book) and Robert Wright and George Forrest (songs) did a stillborn adaptation that closed in San Francisco. Those are the names that are still appended most prominently beneath the title of "Grand Hotel, the Musical." But when Mr. Tune took on the assignment of artificially resuscitating the show in the late 1980s, he brought in the veteran Broadway composer Maury Yeston (who collaborated with Mr. Tune on "Nine") and book writer Peter Stone to add snap and sex appeal. Mostly, though, it was Mr. Tune and his design team that made this "Hotel" seem like a four star establishment. His production told simultaneous, overlapping stories of unraveling lives by keeping its cast in perpetual, precision tooled motion. And don't underestimate the appeal of the show's time and place Berlin, 1928 which immediately summoned memories of the sinister Broadway blockbuster "Cabaret." The Encores! "Grand Hotel," which deploys what feels like a city size ensemble, is similarly perfumed in divine decadence. It retains some elements of Mr. Tune's original staging, including the use of portable, gold wooden chairs, reconfigured in different patterns. This production also includes in addition to the requisite crystal chandeliers and sepulchral lighting (by Ken Billington) a central red carpeted staircase that seems to be waiting for Dolly Levi. As in the original, the orchestra (fluidly led, as usual, by Rob Berman) is visibly perched above the action, pouring out weltschmerz laden melodies that flow like a thick, high proof dessert wine. The hotel's population of guests look fab in their period glad rags. They include an over the hill ballet star (Irina Dvorovenko, in the Garbo part) who falls in love with an aristocratic thief (Barrymore's role, played by James Snyder); a poor but ambitious typist (Helene Yorke), working for a lecherous tycoon on the verge of bankruptcy (John Dossett); and a consumptive Jewish clerk (Brandon Uranowitz) who wants to live, live, live before he expires. As they embody various degrees of love, lust and last ditch deceptions, a cynical morphine addicted doctor (William Ryall) oversees the proceedings. "People come, people go," he observes, immortally. "Look at them living the high life! But time is running out." Small wonder that when "Forbidden Broadway" did its (priceless) parody, it was called "Grim Hotel." Mr. Rhodes's production isn't grim, but it's oddly uninvolving, and only some of the many cast members emanate the vivid magnetism that is a musical's life blood. They include Ms. Yorke (who has the period glamour poses down pat), Mr. Uranowitz, Mr. Dossett, John Clay III as a beleaguered hotel employee and, as a pair of terpsichorean bartenders, James T. Lane and Daniel Yearwood. Ms. Dvorovenko, who was a star of the American Ballet Theater (and a smash in the Encores! "On Your Toes"), seems too fresh and frisky to portray an aging diva. As her aristocratic suitor, Mr. Snyder has a gleaming trumpet of a tenor. But he generates the most chemistry with Mr. Uranowitz, with whom he performs a death defying Charleston in the production's high point, "We'll Take a Glass Together." Mr. Rhodes is a skilled traffic cop, and his choreography is appropriately restless and stylish throughout, though this is not the kind of show to make you feel like dancing. Its prevailing tone, of cautionary camp, is made clear when, early on, the cast forms a confrontational line at the stage's rim. "Look at us!" they seem to be saying. "We are so beautiful and so damned. Envy us! Pity us!" Think of it as a glossy tabloid set to swelling violins.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Theater
JOLIET, Mont. As darkness closed in, one hunter after another stopped at this newly opened game check station, deer carcasses loaded in the beds of their pickups. They had been given licenses for a special hunt, and others would follow. Jessica Goosmann, a wildlife technician with Montana's Fish, Wildlife Parks Department, stepped outside to greet them, reaching for the neck of each freshly killed deer to cut an incision and remove a lymph node for testing. On the edge of this south central Montana village, where deer hunting is a way of life, the game check station has become the front line of the state's efforts to stop the spread of a deadly infection known as chronic wasting disease. It has ravaged deer herds throughout the United States and Canada and forced the killing of thousands of infected animals in 24 states and three Canadian provinces. It has also been found in Norway and South Korea. With the disease widespread in Wyoming, the Dakotas and the province of Alberta, Montana officials had been bracing for its emergence. So in November, when biologists discovered it in six deer in this part of Montana and in another near the Canadian border, officials began setting up special hunts and stations for testing. "It wasn't a surprise that we found it," said John Vore, game management bureau chief for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife Parks. "It was a disappointment, but not a surprise." On Friday, the department announced that two more deer from this region, taken early in the special hunt, tested positive for the disease. Other test results are pending. Chronic wasting disease is a contagious neurological disease that infects elk, deer, moose and caribou, and reduces their brains to a spongy consistency. Animals become emaciated, behave strangely and eventually die. It's not known to be transferred to humans. Neither is it known to be spread from wild to domestic animals. There is no treatment, although a vaccine has been successful in tests in wild deer. It is among a class of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, or TSE. Most experts believe the infectious agent is something called a prion, a misfolded cellular protein found in the nervous system and lymph tissue. The disease was first noted in captive deer in Colorado in the 1960s. The most closely related animal disease is scrapie in sheep. "It's a very unusual disease," said Matthew Dunfee, an expert at the Wildlife Management Institute in Fort Collins, Co. and project director for the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance. "Some experts say it's a disease from outer space." The emergence of chronic wasting disease here is a blow to Montana, which prides itself on world class deer and elk hunting and where many people hunt both animals for subsistence. It has renewed a dispute over how Wyoming manages its elk, and sparked fears that the epidemic could grow much worse, even spreading into the vast wildlife herds of Yellowstone National Park, with which the states share a border. Montana will have to begin decades of surveillance in hopes of keeping the disease from spreading. Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, and Representative Ron Kind, Democrat of Wisconsin, have both introduced legislation to provide funding for states hit by the disease. If the disease prevalence is higher than 5 percent of the deer population, the state will step up its efforts to find and remove infected deer. "That could be increasing the harvest of bucks because bucks are two to three times more likely to be infected and to spread the infection," Mr. Vore said. "If there are hot spots within the broader area with high prevalence, we can go in and address deer density in those hot spots. If we have large aggregations of deer in an alfalfa field, for example, we want to address that." If it's under 5 percent, officials will continue to monitor hunters the way they are now and not do more aggressive culling. Hunters here are concerned, but waiting to see what happens. "Between deer and elk, all I eat is wild game," said Brodie McDonald, an electrician in Laurel, Mont., who brought his white tail buck in the back of a truck here to be tested. "If it comes back positive I won't eat it, but if it's negative I will," he said. "It worries me that it might become more widespread and you have to get every deer you shoot tested." The lymph nodes taken from the check station are tested at a lab in Fort Collins, Colo. Ms. Goosmann said hunters are notified if positive tests are confirmed, and should throw out the meat. And those who hunt in areas where the disease is known to occur should bone out their meat and not consume the brain, spine or lymph nodes, experts said. Though chronic wasting disease has not been detected in the vast herds of elk, or in deer and moose in Yellowstone, officials are worried it will find its way into the park and diminish the size of the herds. New York is the only state that has apparently been able to eliminate the disease through the culling of infected populations when first detected. Many states without the disease ban hunters from bringing in parts of the carcasses of deer they have killed in states with existing infections. Wyoming has become a center of concern for many biologists, who warn that the way that it manages its elk herds could exacerbate the spread of the disease should the infections turn up in feeding grounds. There are 22 state elk feed grounds and one federal feed ground, the National Elk Refuge, next to Jackson, Wyo., that feed elk in the winter to keep them from eating hay on ranches. The feeding concentrates the elk by the hundreds and thousands, a recipe for magnifying the incidence of disease, and spreading it, biologists say. The prions are believed passed through waste and saliva. In a letter to Keith Culver, president of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, Dan Vermillion, chairman of Montana's Fish Wildlife Commission, requested an end to the controversial practice. If not "we will all be culpable in leaving a greatly devalued landscape to future generations," he wrote. "As your neighbor, we ask you to begin the process of closing these feed grounds." Mr. Culver said the state had no plans to close the grounds. "We continue to look at ways to improve management of feed grounds," he said, noting that the disease has never been found in them and even if it were, it might not exacerbate the infection rates. "Elk are a herd animal and tend to congregate anyway."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
Jill Paton Walsh in 1995. After winning acclaim as an author of books for young adults, she achieved new success the next year with her first adult book, "Knowledge of Angels." Her books for young readers had won acclaim when, in 1994, one for adults made the Booker Prize shortlist but only after she had resorted to publishing it herself. Jill Paton Walsh was greeted with acclaim in the 1960s when she began writing young adult books that challenged her readers in both plotting and messaging. There was "Fireweed" (1970), a story of two British adolescents who set up housekeeping in a bombed out building during World War II. There was "Goldengrove" (1972), about two youths who navigate the transition from childhood to adulthood during an eventful summer. But in 1994 Ms. Paton Walsh achieved a whole different level of acclaim, by an unlikely route, with a book for adults, "Knowledge of Angels," a genre defying medieval fable about an atheist and a girl raised by wolves. Here she delved into themes of faith and reason and more. Yet despite her success with books for young readers, "Knowledge of Angels" struggled to assert itself: No one in her native England would publish it. "British publishers wouldn't even say what they didn't like about it," Ms. Paton Walsh told The Daily Mail of London that year, "so I couldn't even change it to suit them." And so, in a move that was rare for the time, she published it herself and had the last laugh. The book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, one of the top literary awards in the world, and is said to be the first self published book to make that elite list. Peter Lewis of The Daily Mail had a crisp rebuke for all those publishers 19 was the final count who had said no to the book. "To open it and start reading," he wrote, "is to be appalled by their lack of judgment." Ms. Paton Walsh died on Oct. 18 in a hospital in Huntingdon, England, near Cambridge. She was 83 and also lived in Huntingdon. Oliver Soden, her literary executor, said the cause was heart and kidney failure. Ms. Paton Walsh was a versatile writer whose more than two dozen books included several in the Lord Peter Wimsey detective series, which had been created by Dorothy L. Sayers (1893 1957). She completed "Thrones, Dominations" (1998), which Ms. Sayers had begun in the 1930s but never finished. Then Ms. Paton Walsh wrote three of her own Wimsey books, "A Presumption of Death" (2002), "The Attenbury Emeralds" (2010) and "The Late Scholar" (2014). As a child, Gillian spent part of the World War II years in Cornwall, on the coast. "A part of me is still rooted in that rocky shore," she wrote in the autobiographical series "Something About the Author," "and it appears again and again in what I write." Several of her young adult books have a seaside setting. She attended St. Anne's College, Oxford, graduating in 1959, and recalled listening to lectures there by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. "The subject of the lectures and tutorials was always literature or philology we wouldn't have dared ask those great men about their own work! but the example they set by being both great and serious scholars, and writers of fantasy and books for children, was not lost on me," she wrote in the autobiographical essay. She married Antony Edmund Paton Walsh in 1961 and had her first child with him. Finding domestic life somewhat drab, she began writing to relieve her boredom. An editor at Macmillan told her that her first manuscript wasn't good enough but took an option on whatever she would produce next. That was "Hengest's Tale," which she described as "a gory epic retold out of fragments of 'Beowulf.'" In 1966, it became her first published book. Next came "The Dolphin Crossing" (1967), followed by "Fireweed." Writing in The New York Times Book Review in 1970, the British children's book author and editor John Rowe Townsend called it "an outstanding novel for young people: original, haunting, poetic." Mr. Townsend would soon become a much bigger part of her life: They met in the early 1970s and began a relationship, although she remained with her husband until their children were grown. (He did not want a divorce because of his Roman Catholic faith; she had been raised in the church but called herself "a lifelong lapsed Catholic.") Her next young adult book, "Goldengrove," was about two youngsters accustomed to spending summers at their grandmother's seaside home and how one particular summer changed everything. Writing in The Times Book Review, Barbara Wersba, herself an author of young adult books, praised Ms. Paton Walsh's ability to write "as though she were still 12 years old." But, she wrote, that didn't mean that Ms. Paton Walsh's books were juvenile. "I find it significant that 'Goldengrove' will be marketed for children between the ages of 11 and 14," Ms. Wersba wrote, "and never reach their parents. The current division of fiction into Lots of Sex for the grown ups and Less Sex for the kids is not only silly but wasteful, for the grown ups are missing some beautiful and highly original work." Ms. Paton Walsh aged the "Goldengrove" characters in "Unleaving" (1976). In 1979, with "A Chance Child," she gave readers a compelling look at child labor in the 19th century. This 1979 book by Ms. Paton Walsh gave readers a compelling look at child labor in the 19th century. Her goal with her works for children, she told The Guardian in 1994, was to convey to them "that whatever they think of the world, it is actually much more complicated." "I hope to show them how difficult it is to make judgments," she said, "how often the bad person turns out to be good, that life is unexpected." She tried her first novel for adults, "Lapsing," in 1988. A tale about an Oxford undergraduate, the book drew on her own experiences with faith and love and earned good notices. So did a second novel for adults the next year, "A School for Lovers." But sales were modest, and when she shopped the ambitious "Knowledge of Angels," there were no takers in her home country though Houghton Mifflin had already published the book in the United States. The Guardian would describe it as "a compelling medieval fable centered on the conflict between belief and tolerance, and veined with a complex philosophical argument about the existence of God."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Books
The Food and Drug Administration warned last week that the risk of heart attack and stroke from widely used painkillers that include Motrin IB, Aleve and Celebrex but not aspirin was greater than it previously had said. But what does that mean for people who take them? Experts said that the warning reflected the gathering evidence that there was risk even in small amounts of the drug, so called nonaspirin, nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs, or Nsaids, and that everyone taking them should use them sparingly for brief periods. Millions of Americans take them. "One of the underlying messages for this warning has to be there are no completely safe pain relievers, period," said Bruce Lambert, director of the Center for Communication and Health at Northwestern University, who specializes in drug safety communication. But the broader context is important. The relative risk of heart attack and stroke from the drugs is still far smaller than the risk from smoking, having uncontrolled high blood pressure or being obese. At the same time, use of the drugs by someone with those other habits and conditions could compound the risk. "The additional risk is relatively small, but it could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for someone already at risk," Professor Lambert said. The evidence that the drugs increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and heart failure "is now extremely solid," he said. "I don't think we will ever see a study that says, 'Oops, Nsaids were safe after all,' " he added. The agency said it would ask drug manufacturers to change the labels to reflect new evidence that the drugs increased the risk of heart attack and stroke soon after patients first started taking them, and that while the risk was higher for people with heart disease, it surfaced even for people who had never had heart problems. Dr. Peter Wilson, a professor of medicine and public health at Emory University in Atlanta, was a member of an expert panel convened by the F.D.A. last year to sift through new evidence on the drugs, including a meta analysis of a number of scientific trials, as well as some observational studies. He offered a rule of thumb for the scale of risk based on studies he and others reviewed last year. The over the counter medications, which have the lowest doses, probably increased risk by about 10 percent, he said. Low dose prescription medications were likely to increase the risk by about 20 percent and higher level dose prescription medications by about 50 percent, Dr. Wilson said. He emphasized that there was significant variability in each estimate. For example, the risk for the over the counter drugs might be zero or might be 20 percent. "There is great concern that people think these drugs are benign, and they are probably not," he said. "The thought is these are good for short term relief, probably for your younger person with no history of cardiovascular trouble." People over 65 with a history of heart disease should be especially careful, Dr. Wilson said. Less clear is whether one of the drugs is safer than another, whether there is a safe minimum dose or minimum duration of exposure, or whether some populations might be less vulnerable. Dr. Sanjay Kaul, a cardiologist at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who was a member of the same expert panel attended last year by Dr. Wilson, said the evidence was too weak to tell if one drug was better than another. He said a more conclusive answer could come from a large randomized trial, called Precision, that is comparing the rate of heart problems among patients with high cardiovascular risk for ibuprofen (Motrin IB), naproxen (Aleve) and celecoxib (Celebrex). "The F.D.A. is basically hedging they still have questions," Dr. Kaul said. "It's messy, and the randomized trial is the only reliable way to sort it out." The agency's move is important, he said, because the drugs are so widely used, often for "little aches and pains" that do not warrant their use. "The point of this warning is that we have to be very careful," he said. "There has to be a good reason to take them. We shouldn't just be using these drugs willy nilly." But what practical advice does Dr. Kaul have for patients? "I'm not going to stop using these medications," he said. "But there has to be a good reason to use them." Professor Lambert said the warning might encourage people to manage pain without drugs, or to try to treat the underlying cause of the pain. One of the most effective treatments for arthritis pain, he said, is weight loss. (Less weight means less pressure on joints.) "It's a risk benefit decision," he said. "When people get cancer, we give them incredibly toxic drugs, but the extra benefit they get is worth it. For people who are in the habit of taking these drugs for headaches or mild pain, they might want to reconsider."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
A blue green algae bloom in Florida's St. Lucie River, which was made by the kind of cyanobacteria that thrived in the crater created by the Chicxulub event. The asteroid moved 24 times faster than a rifle bullet as it struck Earth some 66 million years ago. Its supersonic shock wave flattened trees across North and South America, and its heat wave sparked incomprehensibly large forest fires. The event lofted so much debris into the atmosphere that photosynthesis shut down. The non avian dinosaurs disappeared. And nearly 75 percent of all species were extinguished. At the point of impact, the picture was even more dire. The space rock left a sterile crater nearly 20 miles deep in what is now the Gulf of Mexico. Not a single living thing could have survived. But even at ground zero, life managed to return, and quickly. New findings published in the journal Geology last week revealed that cyanobacteria blue green algae responsible for harmful toxic blooms moved into the crater a few years after the impact. That's the blink of an eye, geologically speaking, and helps illuminate how life bounces back on Earth following cataclysmic events, even in the most devastated environments. In 2016, scientists drilled into the heart of the so called Chicxulub crater and excavated a 2,750 foot long core of sediments, allowing scientists all over the world, such as Bettina Schaefer of Curtin University in Australia, to parse the rocks for their own research. Those samples have answered a number of questions regarding the impact, but Ms. Schaefer wanted to better understand how life rebounded at ground zero. Although scientists had seen hints of early life before, the numbers were small and couldn't capture the entire picture. The issue is that not all micro organisms leave behind fossils. Instead, soft bodied organisms can be identified by the burrows they make and the molecules they deposit. Cyanobacteria, for example, produce fats that can be preserved in sedimentary rocks for hundreds of millions of years. So when Ms. Schaefer's team saw those preserved fats in the core near the time of the impact, they knew cyanobacteria must have been present. Crucially, the fats were deposited atop a layer of fossilized plants that were washed into the crater by the tsunami that followed, but below another layer of iridium that was deposited once the debris in the atmosphere rained back down on Earth after a few years. That suggests the bacteria began to populate the crater after the tsunami hit, but before the atmosphere cleared and the sun's light had fully returned. "The ones that were able to move in right away, the ambulance chasers, if you will, were these cyanobacteria," said Sean P.S. Gulick, a marine geophysicist from the University of Texas at Austin, one of the co chief scientists on the drilling expedition and Ms. Schaefer's co author. Moreover, the team was able to detect a host of other organisms that arrived on the scene later, which helped to better characterize the toxic waters that pooled in the crater. Some of the molecular fossils they discovered, for example, can only originate from organisms that live in waters devoid of any oxygen a so called "dead zone" similar to what occurs every summer within the contemporary Gulf of Mexico. Chris Lowery, a paleoceanographer at the University of Texas at Austin and an author on the recent study, suspects that the crater was only partially dead, in part because the team also saw evidence for fossils of plankton that rely on oxygen. Perhaps the crater's oxygen depleted waters existed within only certain layers of its water column. Or, like the dead zone in the modern gulf, maybe those waters were only seasonal. Knowing that life thrived in the Chicxulub crater while it was still fresh could help scientists better understand how living things adapt to catastrophe today, said Jason Sylvan, an oceanographer at Texas A M University who was not involved in the study. Already, climate change has raised temperatures, depleted oxygen and acidified waters in the world's oceans. But scientists remain unsure how microbial communities which help control the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere will respond. To better forecast our future, they will continue to dig up fossils of the past particularly those from one of the greatest extinctions on Earth.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
SHOWS: OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JUNE 19, 2016)(NBA TV BROADCASTER AND DIGITAL: MUST COURTESY NBA TV) (SOUNDBITE)(English) CAVALIERS PLAYER LEBRON JAMES SAYING: "You know for me I'm just, I'm true to the game and I know what I bring to the table, I came back for a reason, I came back to bring a championship to our city, I knew what I was capable of doing, I knew what I learned in the last couple years that I was gone and I knew if I had to, when I came back I knew I had the right ingredients and the right blueprint to help this franchise get back to, to a place that we've never been, that's what it was all about David (reporter in audience), I mean right now it's just excitement you know it's not even relief it's just excitement for us as a team, as a franchise, as a city, as a community, you know to be able to continue to build up our city, to continue to be an inspiration to our city, it means everything and I'm happy to be a part of it." // (SOUNDBITE)(English) CAVALIERS PLAYER KYRIE IRVING ON HIS GAME WINNING BASKET SAYING: "It was 89 89 for a good portion of the game, especially in that fourth quarter, so I was just thinking the next team that scores has a great chance of winning the championship and I hope that we can be the team that's on that end." // (SOUNDBITE)(English) WARRIORS PLAYER DRAYMOND GREEN SAYING: "It's been an amazing year, we just, we failed at one goal we had, you know but this whole season isn't a failure to me, you know we accomplished some great things, we didn't reach the end prize but there will be more years for that." // (SOUNDBITE)(English) WARRIORS PLAYER STEPH CURRY SAYING: "Yeah it stung, it sucked to watch them celebrate, we wish that would have been us but at the end of the day you congratulate them for accomplishing what they set out to do and it'll be a good image for us over the summer and all next season to remember so that we can come back stronger, that's all you can do."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
In 1962, Leonard Bernstein, presiding over a fund raiser in Washington called American Pageant for the Arts, introduced a 7 year old cellist named Yo Yo Ma. Among the honored guests were President John F. Kennedy Jacqueline, too and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Yo Yo, who had arrived to the United States from Paris a year earlier with his family, Bernstein said, would now perform the first movement of a concertino by Jean Baptiste Breval, accompanied at the piano by his 11 year old sister, Yeou Cheng Ma who, Bernstein added, was "pursuing her musical studies." Their performance, which was televised (and can be seen online), was remarkable. But around that time, with little explanation, her parents ended her violin lessons. She continued with piano, however, and for the next decade was her brother's primary accompanist. Already, it seemed, she was being directed away from a solo career and into a supportive role for Yo Yo, now the world's leading cellist . In 1962, the same year as the Washington performance, their father, Dr. Hiao Tsiun Ma, a conductor, musicologist and teacher, founded the Children's Orchestra Society in New York. That orchestra will celebrate its 50th anniversary there was a seven year hiatus from the late 1970s to the early '80s with a gala concert at Carnegie Hall on Thursday, including Rimsky Korsakov's "Scheherazade" and works by Koussevitzky and Bruch. When he founded the orchestra, Dr. Ma hoped that one of his children would take it over some day. That mission wound up falling to Yeou Cheng, who in 1984 became the orchestra's executive director even while working full time as a developmental pediatrician at Albert Einstein College of Medicine . Her husband, Michael Dadap a guitarist, composer and conductor is the orchestra's artistic director. This is not the way Dr. Ma Yeou Cheng, that is imagined her life in music unfolding when she was a child. She never considered taking over the orchestra following the retirement of her father in 1977 (which led to the hiatus). Everything changed when she met Mr. Dadap. "Michael was a touring musician," Dr. Ma, 67, said in an interview. "When we were courting, trying to decide what to do about family, I asked him if he was going to continue touring. He said he would really like to have either a music school or a children's orchestra. He didn't even know that I had this organization!" The orchestra restarted with less than 20 students. Then word spread quickly. "Someone started the rumor that Yo Yo Ma's sister was having an orchestra in Queens, and it was free," Dr. Ma said. "It was actually 25 a semester back then just enough to print the music for the students." It's "a blessing that I have my brother as my brother," she said. "He's very famous, so that always attracts attention. But we never said he was part of it." With steady work and endless fund raising, the Children's Orchestra Society grew. It now has an enrollment of about 145 students, mostly drawn from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and operates four orchestra divisions and numerous chamber ensembles. Mr. Dadap and Dr. Ma run the institution out of their house in Queens. Most rehearsals take place at the Long Island High School for the Arts in Syosset. Over the years, Dr. Ma has reduced her schedule as a doctor to devote more time to the orchestra. She teaches and coaches students, and occasionally performs concerts. She also actively plays chamber music with friends. Being essentially sidelined as a violinist at 11 was hurtful and confusing back then. The violin "was my voice," she said in a 1994 interview with The New York Times. "I couldn't stand it. All that work, and then, nothing." But today she expresses contentment with the course of her life. She believes deeply in the mission of the Children's Orchestra Society, which auditions all applicants but accepts everyone regardless of talent. "That goes back to the principle my father espoused, that music is a language," Dr. Ma said. "So our verbal logo is 'teaching children the language of music.' Very few children cannot learn a language. So, music should be accessible rather than exclusive." Dr. Ma estimates that a few thousand students have passed through the Children's Orchestra Society during the years she has been involved. Many young lives have been enriched by the association ; Dr. Ma recalls one especially. "At the time he was an angry teenager, so he wasn't very appreciative of our program," she said. "Then he became a missionary. His mom got sick, and we visited with him, and he said something amazing: 'Michael and Yeou Cheng not only taught us to love music, they taught us how to love.' I find that excruciatingly touching."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
A pessimistic attitude increases the risk for death from heart disease, a new study reports, while an optimistic outlook may have no effect at all. Finnish researchers followed 2,267 men and women 52 to 76 years old. At the start of the study participants were presented six statements and asked to rate, on a 0 to 4 scale, how well the statements applied to them. The text was either positive (for example, "In uncertain times, I usually expect the best") or negative ("If something can go wrong for me, it will"). The researchers also recorded subjects' cholesterol levels, blood pressure, glucose readings and other health and behavioral characteristics. The study is in BMC Public Health. During 11 years of follow up, 122 people died from coronary heart disease. After controlling for smoking, diabetes and other factors, the scientists found that those in the highest one quarter of scores on pessimism were more than twice as likely to die of heart disease as those in the lowest one quarter. But being optimistic had no effect on death rates one way or the other. "Your personality traits can make physical health worse," said the lead author, Dr. Mikko Pankalainen, a psychiatrist at the Paijat Hame Central Hospital in Lahti, Finland. "If you're pessimistic and have some health issues, then it's even more important to take care of your physical health."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Well
The Vanguard Group does its best to stay away from politics when advertising, going so far as to have a policy against marketing on overtly partisan websites. So it was a surprise to Vanguard, an investment management company, when it found its ads on Breitbart News, the hard right site that has become closely tied to President elect Donald J. Trump. An email from a client alerted Vanguard to the issue last week, prompting it to pull its ads from the site. Breitbart had been inadvertently included on a list of preapproved websites the company and its ad agency use to try to reach people who have visited Vanguard's site, said Emily Farrell, a spokeswoman. Vanguard is one of at least a dozen companies, including prominent brands like Allstate, Kellogg and Warby Parker, that have said recently that they will stop advertising on Breitbart. The brands have attributed their appearances on the site to the automated nature of online advertising, in which a complicated system of third party networks and agencies is used to place ads. That has cast a spotlight on how the zeal to capitalize on consumer data and advanced targeting technologies has resulted in some companies' being associated with sites they want to avoid. It is increasingly rare for marketers and their agencies to place ads directly on websites. Unlike advertising on television or in magazines, where brands often choose placements in advance based on content, marketers online deploy sophisticated technologies to target and personalize ads in real time for the people who are most likely to be interested in their products or services, wherever they may be roaming on the web. Kris Charles, a Kellogg representative, said that while the company reviewed sites for potential ad placements "using filtering technology to assess the words and phrases that make up a site's content," there is also "a very large volume of websites, so occasionally something is inadvertently missed." All of this has resulted in the kind of publicity and political repercussions brands were hoping to avoid. After Kellogg said it would stop advertising on Breitbart because the site was not "aligned with our values as a company," pointing to publicly available marketing guidelines, Breitbart started a DumpKelloggs boycott campaign. Larry Solov, Breitbart's chief executive, said in an editorial that the cereal maker "has shown its contempt for Breitbart's 45 million readers and for the main street American values that they hold dear." A spokeswoman for Breitbart did not respond to requests for comment for this article. Allstate responded to one consumer's complaint about its appearance on Breitbart by saying, "Unfortunately, the nature of internet media buys is such that we are not always able to receive full disclosure with regards to all of the websites on which our advertising may run," though it would exclude Breitbart from its ad buys in the future. The eyeglass company Warby Parker blamed "third party ad networks or ad exchanges," and affirmed its commitment to diversity and inclusivity. Other brands, including Nissan, have said they aim to reach as many customers as possible and do not plan to change their advertising strategy based on complaints from some consumers. The nuances of how a brand ends up on a website, however, are often meaningless to consumers who may associate the two regardless of whether they have a direct relationship which is being highlighted anew as tensions run high after the election. About two weeks ago, a Twitter account called "Sleeping Giants" was created with the goal of choking off ad dollars going to Breitbart, urging people to screenshot ads on the site, then post those pictures and flag the advertisers. (The New York Times is among companies that have been criticized for advertising on the site.) Workable, a start up that sells recruiting software and champions diversity, was flagged by the account, which has roughly 6,000 followers, for having a banner ad on Breitbart above the headline, "There's No Hiring Bias Against Women in Tech, They Just Suck at Interviews." A screenshot of the ad was posted and sent to Nikos Moraitakis, Workable's chief executive, who said he "nearly had a heart attack" when he saw it. What happened on Day 2 of Elizabeth Holmes's testimony. Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay 31 million to the 'House of Cards' studio after sexual harassment allegations. Workable's ad ended up on the site through one of the Google companies that brokers web ads, and Workable has now added Breitbart to an "opt out" list, Mr. Moraitakis said in an interview. But even as it has blocked Breitbart, "there's probably another 10 sites we haven't excluded," he said. "We rely on our ad networks to keep the networks clean, and then obviously, the big ethical question is what clean means," he said. "Unfortunately, these hate speech sites and fake news sites are a new breed, and I don't think Google has caught on to them." He added, "The unfortunate side effect of this is that to the consumer, it looks like we are directing our advertising dollars to a specific media site." Most ads are placed based on data about the user rather than the content of the website, and limits are set after the fact say, ensuring that brands do not show up next to pornography or neo Nazi literature. This process is known as blacklisting, and because of the sheer number of websites, brands tend to value its efficiency over any qualms they may have about appearing in the wrong place at the wrong time. To some, that illustrates the underlying problem. Joe Marchese, president of advertising products for the Fox Networks Group, said that while audience profile "matters first and foremost," there "has to be a better standard set for the environment" where an ad will appear. "When you buy so many sites that you don't know them all, there's almost no way to kind of guarantee you're not going to be supporting something fraudulent, sensationalist or alt right or whatever the content happens to be," he said. The uproar about Breitbart with the separate issue of fake news sites has sent advertisers to online ad verification companies like DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science. On Thursday, DoubleVerify added an "Inflammatory Politics News" category to a list of more than 75 categories that advertisers can choose to avoid. If selected, it will block ads from appearing on sites including Breitbart, Rawstory.com, WND.com, LibertyWritersNews.com and YoungCons.com, the company said. "With the surge in these new sites that are living on unsubstantiated stories that are oftentimes very politically charged, large brands are coming to us and ensuring that their ads don't appear on those kinds of sites," said Wayne Gattinella, the chief executive of DoubleVerify. Breitbart said in its editorial that Kellogg's move would have "virtually no revenue impact" on the site. While at least one ad tech firm, AppNexus, has barred Breitbart from using its tools, citing a violation of its hate speech rules, data from Ghostery, a data governance company, shows that the site works with many ad tech companies. And while select brands have pulled away from the site, plenty of others remain. Still, John Montgomery, executive vice president for brand safety at the advertising giant WPP's GroupM, predicts that the price of ads on Breitbart could decline, affecting the company's revenue, if enough "venerable brands" act. "Since the Breitbart issue came up, we've obviously been talking to our people internationally and making sure they have their clients understand if they don't want to be on political sites, we need to put them onto the blacklist," Mr. Montgomery said in an interview. "Particularly after the publicity of the election there are many big brands who are having these discussions with agencies right now."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Media
Astronomers announced on Tuesday that they have spotted a small moon around Makemake, one of the icy worlds beyond the orbit of Neptune. This distant region of the solar system, known as the Kuiper belt, has been one of intriguing mysteries. When the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto in 2006, it created a new category of celestial classification: dwarf planets, which are big enough to be round, but not big enough to be the gravitational bullies of their orbits. In addition to Pluto, three other Kuiper belt objects have been recognized as dwarf planets: Haumea, Makemake, Eris. "Makemake was the odd one out," said Alex Parker, a research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. "Makemake was the only one that didn't have a moon." Michael E. Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology who led the team that discovered Haumea, Makemake and Eris, and the moons of Haumea and Eris, had looked for moons around Makemake, too. He did not find any, but that was not necessarily the end of the story. "I've always been suspicious in the back of my mind," he said. Astronomers led by Marc W. Buie of the Southwest Research Institute decided to use the Hubble Space Telescope to take a closer look and see what might have been missed. They found a dot next to Makemake the moon, which, for now, is designated S/2015 (136472) 1 and nicknamed MK 2. "When the moon turned up in the data, it was not actually that faint," said Dr. Parker, who performed the image analysis. (For the astronomers, 1/1,300th the brightness of Makemake is considered not that faint.) The moon's orbit is almost edge on when seen from Earth. In the earlier observations, the moon was, by chance, too close to Makemake and obscured in the glare, Dr. Parker said. The astronomers estimate that MK 2 was about 13,000 miles from Makemake and orbits about once every 12 days. More observations will enable them to precisely trace the orbit, and that will give an accurate measure of the mass and density of Makemake. The discovery should also help resolve one of Makemake's mysteries: Temperature data has indicated that most of the surface is bright and cold, but some of it is dark and comparatively warm. Yet the brightness of Makemake does not change as would be expected if the dark spots were rotating in and out of view. Perhaps the dark, warm signal emanates not from Makemake's surface, but from a moon covered with a charcoal dark material circling Makemake. A dark, warm moon about 100 miles wide would largely agree with the observations, Dr. Parker said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
WHEN Maria Diomataris and her husband, Tony, moved to Commack seven years ago from Old Bethpage, they were looking for good schools and a larger property. "The prices were ridiculous in our area," Ms. Diomataris said. They bought a two story contemporary on half an acre for about 625,000, she said. The Long Island Expressway is embedded in the southern border of Commack, in the heart of Suffolk County; the Northern State and the Sagtikos Sunken Meadow Parkways crisscross it, and major roads pass through. But tucked behind the highways and the shopping areas on Jericho Turnpike, Veterans Memorial Highway and other busy streets are quiet neighborhoods, most created from the 1950s to the 1980s. "The Commack buyers are coming in for the schools," said William Tarantola, an agent in the Smithtown office of Coach Realtors, part of Christie's International Real Estate, who has lived in Commack most of his life. The schools have been excellent for the Diomatarises' son, Dean, now 13, and their daughter, Gina, 9, who have found caring teachers and fun activities. "My son is in basketball and trying out for wrestling," Ms. Diomataris said. "My daughter was in the chocolate club. It's great. They make things out of chocolate and then eat them." Among the many shopping areas, she said, the family favors a section of Jericho Turnpike that has a yogurt store, a pizzeria, a Greek taverna and a bowling alley. "We're really happy here," Ms. Diomataris said. As far as a Main Street is concerned, said Bruce Ettenberg, the president of the Commack Community Association, "as close as you get" to one is the stretch of stores on Veterans Highway that includes a Macy's, a Target and a Toys "R" Us, all connected by a parking lot. Like the Diomatarises, Mr. Ettenberg and his wife, Debra, moved to Commack with their two children because of the schools and because it was more affordable than places closer to New York City. But the Ettenbergs came 40 years ago, from Kew Gardens, Queens. They were able to buy a four bedroom colonial on half an acre for 40,000, "which was a lot of money for us in those days," Mr. Ettenberg said. Besides having no real downtown, he said, Commack straddles two towns, Huntington and Smithtown, with Townline Road the dividing line. Residents of one town are not allowed access to some parks and other amenities in the other town. Also, he said, the boundaries are confusing because they're different for the ZIP code (11725), the school district, the fire district and what in official parlance is the "census designated place" of Commack. To attract residents from both sides, he said, his group alternates its meetings between the Commack Public Library, on the Huntington side, and the Commack branch of the Smithtown Special Library District, which he helped to establish in 2001, he said, because residents on the Smithtown side felt they had the poorer library, which is now much improved. Among current issues, he said, is a campaign to keep 18 wheel trucks off two lane Townline Road. Debbie Virga, the community relations consultant for the schools, says the district runs several programs intended to foster neighborliness, including one that invites older residents to theatrical and other events in the schools. A 9/11 remembrance every year also attracts thousands to the high school football field, site of a memorial featuring a piece of World Trade Center steel. "People moved here because of the schools," Ms. Virga said, "but they stay here because of the people." Commack started as a country village with two hotels, a general store, a large school building, two churches, several shops and many large homes and farms, Bradley L. Harris wrote in his 2000 book "Commack ... A Beautiful Place," which covers local public education from 1899 to 1999. Like much of the rest of Long Island, Commack saw explosive growth from 1954 to 1966, fueled by the need for housing after World War II. Because developers usually built whole neighborhoods, Mr. Ettenberg said, similar houses are found within each area, with sometimes whimsical street names conferred at the outset. In one section, streets are named for sweets: Peppermint Road, Candy Lane, Marshmallow Drive. Another area uses plant names like Cornflower, Wood Sorrel and Wintercress Lanes, while a third has Native American names like Pawnee, Seneca and Seminole Drives. There's even a small "Gone With the Wind" pocket featuring Scarlett Drive, Rhett Court and Ashley Circle. More houses were built in the 1980s in the northern part of Commack, said Joanne Christoforou, an associate broker with Re/Max Beyond in Smithtown. Many of the newer houses are more expensive and spacious, and closer to North Shore beaches, she said. Some residents are now renovating the older houses, said Ronni B. Tranes, an agent in the Commack office of Coldwell Banker. "There are all different kinds of floor plans whatever fits your needs, large or small," Ms. Tranes said. The Hamlet, a gated community, offers upscale condominium town houses, she said. Commack covers 11.97 square miles. It is surrounded by East Northport and Kings Park to the north, Smithtown and Hauppauge to the east and Dix Hills and Elwood to the west. Census data published in 2011 cited 92 percent of its 36,124 residents as white, 0.9 percent as black and 5.4 percent as of Asian heritage; median household income is 108,311. Frank Brecher, a manufacturer's representative for heating and hot water products, said he had felt comfortable about Commack when he moved here from Wantagh in 1999. In Commack, he said: "There are no millionaires, no airs, no one with attitude. Everyone's just a regular Joe." A recent perusal of mlsli.com turned up 90 houses for sale, with all but two listed above 300,000 but only one over 1 million: a 2004 home on 1.04 acres at 1.25 million. As for condominiums, 17 were listed, ranging from 319,00 to 879,900. Homes are starting to move faster, said Mr. Tarantola of Coach Realtors, who ascribed the shift to low interest rates. In 2011, he said, the average sale price was 525,000 and the average number of days on the market was 150. In 2012, the average rose to 550,000 and time on the market dropped to 120 days. "If homes are priced competitively," he said, "they're moving." As proof of that, he cited the rise in the number of sales, to 288 last year, from 174 in 2011. Donald James, the superintendent of the Commack School District, put total enrollment at 7,200. Most students live in Commack, but the district also draws from small portions of East Northport, Dix Hills and Smithtown. There are four primary schools, two intermediate schools, one middle school and one high school. Last year the high school won the highest rating in Suffolk County (and No. 95 in the nation) in a U.S. News and World Report ranking of public high schools. SAT averages in 2012 were 531 in reading, 571 in math and 538 in writing, versus 483, 500 and 475 statewide. The Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center, which has an open membership policy, offers an indoor pool, summer camps, social services, classes, clubs, youth programs and a season of musicals. A private golf club offers different levels of membership, and public golf courses are available in nearby communities. Ms. Christoforou, the Re/Max broker, who has lived in Commack 30 years, says many residents visit North Shore beaches, including Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park. "People exercise on the boardwalk there in the morning, or jog on it," she said. "I walk more than jog." For residents on the Smithtown side and their guests, the 133 acre Hoyt Farm Nature Preserve is a popular spot. It includes nature trails, picnic tables, summer concerts, demonstrations of maple sugaring and a farmhouse that once belonged to John Wicks, who built its central portion around 1770. In 1910, Edwin C. Hoyt bought it, added two wings and grew apples and peaches. Some of the apple trees remain. Driving to Manhattan takes about an hour in light traffic. Residents take the Long Island Rail Road from Deer Park, Kings Park, Northport or Huntington. The ride from Deer Park takes as little as an hour; a monthly ticket costs 299 and a peak one way fare is 13.50. From Kings Park, on a different line, a direct ride takes an hour and seven minutes, but most trains require a transfer and take longer. A monthly is 334 and a peak fare 16.25. The ride from Northport is about 10 minutes shorter. Fares are the same as for Deer Park, as are those for Huntington, which is closer to Manhattan and has more direct trains. Native Americans named the area Winnecomac, meaning "pleasant land." Among Europeans who started arriving in the 1600s were Harneds, Morelands, Carlls and Burrs. A Carll farm given to the school district in 1969 is now the subject of litigation. The Burrs bred and trained trotting horses and built a track where the high school is today.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
THE student tour guide probably recognized the dazed look on our faces. We had driven six hours through cornfields to visit Grinnell College. The Iowa cornfields ended at the very edge of campus. "We are in the middle of nowhere," he acknowledged. Thus, student organizations offer distractions. "If you want to form a club devoted to solving Rubik's Cubes or watching 'Family Guy,' no problem. If you want to change the world or fight global warming, no problem." Later, I visited Grinnell's Web site to discover the range of club activities. There were the major food groups Christian groups, political groups, ethnic groups, oddball sports and things I'd never heard of, like the Grinnell Monologues, which exist to "perform a collection of monologues about gender and genitalia," and the Adventure Sewer Explorers, "dedicated to exploring sewers; good for town relations; will attempt to gather a library of material about sewer engineering." Organizations have gone viral. Harvard has more than 400, up from about 250 six years ago. The University of California, Berkeley, has more than 1,000 organizations. The University of Wisconsin, Madison, estimates more than 800, with a Web site that encourages students to "Discover your passions. Bring your resume to life." The Web site of the College of William Mary, which has 400 clubs, boasts "endless geekery from quiz bowl to Ping Pong to heavy metal." One Sunday at a hometown hotel, my family watched a video presentation for Carnegie Mellon. After becoming acquainted with various clubs devoted to building self propelled robot cars for Darpa field tests, an attractive student enthused about ballroom dancing. A few weeks later, the scene was repeated by a coed at Rose Holman Institute of Technology in Indiana. Given the institute's academic atmosphere, the video held out the promise of full body contact, a selling point for geeks and nerds and my son. Here's a quick quiz. What do the following have in common? One student affairs officer tried to reassure me, "College is where kids try out things they've only seen on the Internet." That remark covers a host of parental nightmares and a lot of neat stuff. There are clubs that challenge members to make a movie in 24 hours or write a novel in a month. In the realm of sweat, I found clubs for skateboarding, kickball, poker, Ultimate Frisbee, hacky sack and unicycling while playing the kazoo. No less competitive were dance clubs devoted to hip hop, swing, tap, square, bhangra and baile. Brown University has the Poler Bears, described as "psychedelic and silly, muscular and meta performative, abstract and out there . . . and yes, it can be unabashedly, gracefully, palm sweatingly, heart poundingly sexy as well." (The Poler Bears recently put on a Lady Gaga spectacular to raise money for a new pole.) Clubs today, it seems, exist to provide stress relief and a sense of community. For many prospective students, finding a group of like minded individuals will be the deciding factor. Asked about the phenomenon, Harry R. Lewis, former dean of Harvard College, confessed, "I often got calls from parents who asked, 'Why does Harvard have a mariachi band? I sent my son or daughter to Harvard to become an engineer, not to play in a mariachi band.'To which I would respond, 'Would you rather have them go out drinking?' "	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Education
Angry at the world, Jo softens after meeting Beauty, a kindred spirit without a family, too. On the ranch's sun kissed pastures, the girl and horse heal each other, until a fire destroys the stables at Birtwick. Struggling financially, John leases Beauty as a show horse to a wealthy equestrian family, the Winthrops, for their spoiled tween daughter Georgina (Fern Deacon). Jo despises Georgina's abusiveness toward Beauty the brat kicks holes into the horse yet Jo still falls for Georgina's dreamy older brother, George (Calam Lynch). Ultimately, Birtwick sells Beauty out from under Jo. Beauty, now forced to work for new owners, endures hardships: She performs grueling rescues of lost hikers and later pulls carriages through Central Park. Though Winslet is the marquee name on the cast list, "Black Beauty" materializes not as the horse's story, but Jo's. Unfortunately, even that character's grief is underwritten as she pines for a daydream teen romance and a reunion with her steadfast horse, rather than ever revisiting her parents' death. Avis loses the novel's sincerity by watering down Sewell's animal welfare plea. In this update, the humans are not as villainous. Beauty is not as prominent. And the novel's mustang spirit diminishes into a ho hum horse movie.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
TWO types of privacy violations scare people with wealth and a reputation to protect: the isolated annoyances and the breaches that go viral. How to prevent the privacy violations from happening or, if that fails, handling the fallout was the focus of a timely and provocative discussion on Tuesday. Eugene Callahan, a lawyer with Wormser, Kiely, Galef Jacobs, told a story about the first type of violation, the annoying kind. He said he recently looked down at his BlackBerry and saw an e mail sent from himself. Far from being a to do list, it was an entreaty from him to send money to Scotland to cover his hotel bill. Mr. Callahan, in New York at the time, knew his e mail account had been hacked. But rectifying the problem proved more difficult. "It took five days of talking with Microsoft to establish I am who I am," Mr. Callahan said at the discussion, "Family Reputation Management in the Internet Age," sponsored by Wells Fargo Private Bank. "It was a nightmare." Yet as isolated incidents go, it will do no damage to his image. When a privacy violation goes viral, though, the long term impact on someone's reputation is not so clear. That has become an issue for August Busch IV after his companion, an aspiring model, was found dead in his bed two months ago with a significant amount of a powerful painkiller, oxycodone, and cocaine in her system. Mr. Busch was the head of Anheuser Busch when it was sold more than two years ago to a Belgian company, InBev, a move widely criticized in St. Louis, his hometown. So he had no reservoir of good will to draw on when the death was reported. And an online search of his name quickly turns up a reference to the death. This is the nature of scandal today. It spreads quickly and leaves a seemingly permanent stamp on one's reputation. "Our society is built on a social contract," said Keith Whitaker, director of family dynamics at Wells Fargo Family Wealth. "This is a fundamental challenge for us around privacy and personal responsibility. We can't jettison our grandfather's past without taking personal responsibility for ours." Yet disclosure can occur on a smaller, almost inadvertent scale, and still have a troubling impact. Mr. Whitaker recalled a woman who was ostracized by her classmates for the first two years of college because she spoke openly about her family's wealth. For her, it was natural to travel on a private jet and to spend thousands on shopping trips to New York. Her classmates thought she was spoiled. The problem, he said, was that her parents had never talked to her about what she should and should not reveal about them. So what does a family do to protect its reputation, since its ability to earn a living is tied to its public image? In an age when even a sterling reputation can be quickly tarnished, the answers are not entirely comforting. PREVENTION The best advice is to avoid doing anything that can damage your reputation. But for families whose names are linked to their companies or status in their communities, even a small indiscretion can be magnified in the public eye. Parents, for instance, who fear having the family name dragged through the mud need to talk to their children about the value of that name. Susan Massenzio, director of family dynamics for Wells Fargo Family Wealth, said she stressed three points in talking about a family's financial reputation: education, communication and moral character. "The greatest limitation is fear," she said. "It's what drives the older generation to limit communication. Then the next generation finds out from others, and that's what we don't want." The lawyers participating in the panel discussion suggested using trusts to protect assets from lawsuits. But the real threat seems to be not in protecting the money you already have but in preserving your ability to make more and your children's chances to have their own careers. Even if no one in the family is doing anything to attract attention to your wealth, it is relatively simple to get extensive financial information on any family. Beyond social media sites, there are sites like Zillow that estimate the value of any home in America. Gideon Rothschild, a partner at Moses Singer, hushed the room when he discussed how much personal and financial information he found about himself on the Web site Spokeo.com. "It will tell you all about yourself your wealth, your income levels, homes, kids," he said. "A lot of the information they had about me was accurate." Spokeo is a virtual one stop shop for personal and financial information on anyone who has not opted out of its listings. The site draws from public records, but the information it aggregates is decidedly personal. Even if its estimates are off, the information gives people a sense of the broader picture and all in one place. Other sites, too, like ZabaSearch.com, offer financial details. "We talk to families about proper disclosure around wealth," Mr. Whitaker said. "We say, 'Your kids, through the Internet, know a lot about your financial situation.' It raises the question of what you want to disclose." So while you can keep a trust secret, it is much harder to keep your child or anyone who cares about your family from making an approximation of your net worth. Rather than pretend this is not the case, the panel agreed that it was better to tell them yourself. CRISIS MANAGEMENT The knee jerk reaction will always be to try to suppress a scandal. Calling your lawyers is a good idea, but using them to threaten or even to file a lawsuit may not be as effective as it once was. "We can use litigation as a tool, but they have to be careful," said P. Gregory Hess, a partner at Davidson, Dawson Clark. "Pleadings are full of hyperbolic and untrue statements that serve as a starting point. They could end up on the Internet." Instead, he suggested using mediation to try to contain information about the matter as much as possible. And if you know you are going to do something that will not be well received, the best way to protect your financial reputation is to plan ahead. Mr. Whitaker worked with a family who knew that selling their business, which had been linked to the same community for four generations, would paint them as rapacious heirs.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Your Money
The key question of turnout will depend on whether Democrats devise a successful post pandemic strategy to replace the armies of volunteers who went door to door canvassing swing districts in 2018. For the foreseeable future, campaign and get out the vote operations accustomed to relying on face to face contact will have to make radical shifts. Democrats, particularly progressive candidates, have eked out wins in recent contests by knocking on doors, taking voters to the polls for same day registration and collecting mail in ballots up to the last minute. All that will change. Mr. Garcia's surprisingly wide margin of victory in a race Democrats had expected to be close illustrates the challenge. Every registered voter in the district received a postage paid, mail in ballot, as will be the case statewide in November. Voters who returned the simple ballot skewed overwhelmingly old, white and Republican. An analysis by the firm Political Data Inc., which tracks ballots returned, showed the younger the voter, the less likely to vote. Fewer than 20 percent of 18 to 34 year olds cast ballots; twice as many voted who were between 50 and 65; and only among the oldest voters did turnout exceed 50 percent. Latinos were least likely to vote (21 percent), while 40 percent of whites cast ballots. To win back the seat in November, Democrats will need to motivate younger voters and Latinos, mirroring the challenge nationally for a party with a presidential candidate who has not generated enthusiasm among either constituency. "Yes, turn out Latinos. But you need to persuade us too. Especially if the G.O.P. candidate is Latino!" Antonio De Loera Brust, a Californian who worked on the policy staff of the Elizabeth Warren and Julian Castro campaigns, tweeted in response to the election result. He pointed to one of several recent analyses warning that Latinos, disproportionately hit by the health and economic consequences of Covid 19, might just stay home in November. In recent elections, last minute votes, by mail and in person, have skewed heavily for Democrats. Not this time. Voters who showed up at the handful of outdoor pop up polling places voted for the Republican two to one. Some told reporters they voted in person because they did not trust the Postal Service. Republicans have not won a statewide election in California since 2006. Democrats hold veto proof majorities in both houses of the State Legislature. The California of Ronald Reagan, ruled by Republican governors for all but 21 years of the past century, is gone. Yet Donald Trump raised more than 30 million in California, outstripping all of his Democratic challengers during the height of the primary campaign. In 2016, even as he lost the state two to one, he won more than four million votes.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Opinion
Achieving financial security in retirement is hard enough for most working Americans. But for those who lost their jobs just as the finish line was within sight, the whole notion may now seem out of reach. Older unemployed people face the double whammy of declining home values and an investment portfolio that has been treading water, at best. But they have also lost the one stabilizing factor that was supposed to see them through: a paycheck. That has forced many of these people and there are nearly two million of them over age 55 to make tough decisions about how to make up for the lost income, especially since it is taking them substantially longer than their younger peers to find work. In December, the average time someone 55 or older was unemployed was 52.2 weeks, according to the Labor Department; more than 210,000 others have simply quit looking. Being unemployed for a year is enough to burn through even the richest of emergency savings funds. So if you have lost your job, the first step, as one financial planner put it, is to do financial triage. You need to look at your cash flow, figure out how much you have been spending and decide the minimum you absolutely need to get by. "You cut as much as you can, and if you still come up short 500 a month, then you have to figure out the best place to get that money," said Dan Danford, a financial planner in St. Joseph, Mo. It may mean that you need to consider taking your pension a bit early, or finding a part time job. But there are several other little known tricks that will help you create a bridge of sorts until you either find work or manage to eke your way to retirement. REASSESS CAREER POSSIBILITIES Though easier in theory than practice, you may consider a second career in an area that you enjoy, perhaps on a part time basis, through much of your retirement. "It is not very often that we are forced to evaluate our career and to determine if we really want our old job back," said Alan Moore, a financial planner in Racine, Wis. He suggests thinking about it this way: Even if you earn only 500 a month working part time in retirement, it's equivalent to having another 150,000 in the bank, assuming that you pull out 4 percent of that money annually, an industry standard. "Plus, it is much easier to earn 500 a month than save an additional 150,000," he said, adding that he advises his clients to work with a career coach. Joshua Gottfried, a financial planner in Glastonbury, Conn., worked with a client who had lost his job as a plant manager. Without his income, Mr. Gottfried calculated, his savings would need to earn an unrealistic 8 or 9 percent return to meet his retirement goals. So he and his wife decided to take 15 percent of their savings to start a construction company. "If he can make 15 to 20 percent on the money he put in the business, and he can make 5 or 6 percent on his passive investments, then it will net out," Mr. Gottfried said. SOCIAL SECURITY For many healthy people, it is almost always worth waiting until your "full retirement age," at the very least, to begin collecting Social Security. But for those with few or no resources, collecting sooner may be the only option. There are a couple of workarounds, however, that may allow you to collect benefits on a spouse's record, while your own benefits continue to accrue. That is what Barbara Saltsman, 64, learned after she lost her job as a legal secretary in June. She had planned to work until she was 66, and while she has continued to scour the Web for new jobs, she hasn't been able to find anything that pays close to her old salary. "I have 40 something years of experience, and companies don't want to pay for it," said Ms. Saltsman, who lives in Chittenango, in upstate New York. Unemployment benefits were not enough to keep her finances afloat. So she thought she would have to take Social Security two years before her full retirement age, which would have substantially reduced her benefits. But when she visited her local Social Security office, the representative suggested collecting benefits on her deceased husband's record until she turned 70, when she could switch to her own benefits and collect more. You obviously want to avoid withdrawing money prematurely. Several financial planners suggest pulling from emergency savings if you have it or other taxable accounts before resorting to retirement accounts. But if you absolutely must tap these funds, some of these methods will help reduce the damage. DO NOT ROLL OVER YOUR 401(K) If you were laid off the year you turned 55 or older, you should think twice about rolling over your 401(k) or 403(b) into an I.R.A. You can withdraw money from the account penalty free (though you will have to pay income taxes), whereas you would have to wait until you turned 59 1/2 to use those funds in an I.R.A. This rule does not apply to people who left their employer, say, at age 54, and who want to pull money out at 55. TAP YOUR ROTH I.R.A. You can pull out all of your Roth contributions but not the earnings at any time and for any reason, free of tax and penalty. (If you converted a traditional I.R.A. to a Roth, that money could be pulled out, too, as long as it had been in the account for at least five years; each batch of money converted starts a new five year period.) PAY FOR HEALTH INSURANCE If you are out of work, you can also take an early, penalty free distribution from your I.R.A., to pay your health insurance premiums. To qualify, you need to have received, or be receiving, state or federal unemployment benefits for 12 consecutive weeks, according to Ed Slott, an I.R.A. expert and the author of "The Retirement Savings Time Bomb ... and How to Defuse It" (Penguin, 2003), though self employed people are also eligible. Another caveat: You need to pay for your insurance during the year you received unemployment benefits or the year after. In fact, paying for health insurance before you are eligible for Medicare is probably one of the biggest challenges of joblessness. Mr. Gottfried suggested looking at high deductible plans used in conjunction with a health savings account, which allows you to set aside money tax free that can then be used for medical expenses and premiums. "That might tide you over, especially when most of those H.S.A.'s will allow a transfer from a traditional I.R.A.," he added. "Or, if you put money into an H.S.A., you receive a deduction." ANNUITIZE YOUR I.R.A. OR 401(K) A tax break known as the 72(t) rule will also allow you to withdraw money without penalty from a 401(k) or traditional I.R.A. Using this method, you must withdraw a "series of substantially equal periodic payments" over a five year period or until you reach age 59 1/2, whichever is longer. The payout is determined by your life expectancy or the joint life expectancy of you and your beneficiary. But you cannot change the payment schedule otherwise, you will have to pay the 10 percent penalty.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Your Money
Experiencing another culture on your own terms, at your own pace, with a budget of your own choosing can be an incredibly rewarding and insightful adventure. But while some may find such a journey liberating, others might worry about safety or a period of solitude in a strange, unfamiliar place. Humans, after all, are social animals. Prospective solo travelers should know that, despite its label, solo travel does not have to mean you're alone all the time. There are local communities to safely interact with as well as fellow globe trotters in a similar position. A 2016 report from travel research company Phocuswright found that a whopping 72 percent of hostel guests in the United States were traveling alone. Airbnb saw similar a trend in its data, with cities like Ho Chi Minh City, Cologne, and Johannesburg experiencing more than a 130 percent increase in individual bookings in 2016. With solo traveling growing in popularity, it's clear there are options to socialize with other travelers it's just a matter of putting yourself in the right position to do so. Here are some tactics you can use to meet and befriend people abroad, from tried and true methods to innovative new apps and technology. The word free is in quotations because, assuming your tour guide is at least half decent, you should tip them at the end (many earn the majority of their income on commission). But these walking tours can be worth every penny. Not only will the guide give you an informed and hopefully entertaining view of the locale, but you'll have a chance to interact with other tourists and possibly come away with a new friend. The leisurely pace in between stops gives you the opportunity to chat with fellow tour goers, who you may discover are also traveling alone or as part of a small group they're willing to let you join. Prominent cities often have multiple specialized tours street art or local cuisine, for example which provide additional chances to meet people and further learn about the place hosting you. Several tour companies, like Sandeman's New Europe or Free Tours by Foot, have outposts in popular cities and are generally safe options for the solo traveler. But don't count out smaller or independent tour companies that may be better tailored to specific destinations. Visit the company website and read reviews left by travelers to make sure everything checks out. You can also look at ratings on separate websites like TripAdvisor for a more comprehensive view. If you're staying in a hostel, the staff often has relationships with tour companies in the city. A hotel receptionist or concierge would also have recommendations. So what's the appeal? Similar to walking tours, Airbnb Experiences can be a fun way to mingle with fellow sightseers while gaining firsthand knowledge from experienced locals. And while you do have to pay upfront, costs usually cover expenses like transportation, food, drinks or equipment. Each booking page includes information from the host on what items they'll provide, as well as what items you should bring, like activity specific clothing or extra cash (for souvenirs, for example). Since Experiences is embedded on the standard Airbnb platform, you'll want to show the same caution when booking activities as you would with booking housing. Make sure to read through the description and photos carefully and pay attention to the Experience's rating and reviews (Airbnb has neat little trophies visible on the page if the Experience has been rated five stars by a certain number of people.) If you have any questions or concerns, Airbnb will put you in touch with the host through its messaging system even if you haven't booked the activity yet. Prefer to cut out the middleman and connect directly with other travelers? Try your hand at the crop of social networking apps specifically designed for travel. Travello, free on iOS and Android, allows you to discover other travelers nearby, match itineraries for planned trips and join groups based on similar interests. You can also create a feed by posting photos and updates. Tourlina, also free on iOS and Android, is exclusively for women and operates a lot like a dating app by swiping on potential travel companions with similar itineraries and timing. Women can also use the dating app Bumble's BFF feature to meet platonic companions in the area. Other social media apps are 0ol options, with region specific Facebook groups and subreddits to engage with travelers, expats, and locals in your destination of choice. As with any first encounter brokered through social media, use caution when meeting people in real life. Meet in public spaces and consider video chatting beforehand. Travello also has a block/report feature if anyone conducts themselves inappropriately, resulting in an immediate ban from the app. In a world of hospitable hotels and authentic Airbnbs, why do travelers elect to stay in hostels? Two reasons, really: Hostels are cheap and sociable. You'll find college esque dormitories with common lounge rooms and kitchens, and sometimes a bar or cafe. It's an ideal environment to meet other travelers, and hostel staffs are well aware of this some will lead city tours or pub crawls designed to foster interaction between hostel mates. Others might host game nights in the common room or arrange family dinners. Popular booking sites include Hostelworld, Hostelz, Hostels.com, and Hostelbookers, and all feature reviews and detailed information about available amenities and each hostel's location. Novice solo travelers may want to consider staying near the city center for a convenient and safe option. During your research, pay attention to which hostels struck a chord with solo travelers in particular those likely facilitate group activities and also provide good security for individuals. Female solo travelers can also often stay in female only dorms. Hostels are perhaps the quintessential way for young people to travel, but you'll find all types of ages and backgrounds in one. And though the image of the lone backpacker bouncing from hostel to hostel has endured for decades, the data suggests the trend is more popular than ever. Aric Jenkins is a staff writer at Fortune magazine, based in New York City. He has been featured in Travel Leisure, Time, Newsweek, and Vibe, among others. You can follow him on Twitter or read more of his work here.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. When the Arizona Diamondbacks met with Zac Gallen late last season to review his rookie year, they issued a challenge. Gallen, a 24 year old right hander, had thrived in his first taste of the majors before and after his trade from the Miami Marlins and the team gave him a model for the kind of pitcher to emulate: Madison Bumgarner. Study him, Gallen was told, and learn all you can. At that point, the Diamondbacks did not know Bumgarner wanted to join them. He had played 11 seasons for the San Francisco Giants, helping them to three titles by becoming the best pitcher in World Series history: He allowed one earned run over 36 innings and got four wins and a save in five appearances. But the Giants were rebuilding, and Bumgarner had admired the Diamondbacks as a rival in the National League West, appreciating their effort and the competitive roster they had assembled. In December he signed with the Diamondbacks for five years and 85 million, giving Arizona an ace and making Gallen's studies much more efficient. "When I found out he was going to actually be in the clubhouse, picking stuff up was going to be a lot easier than trying to learn from across the field," Gallen said on Wednesday. "I was ecstatic when I heard that news." Bumgarner had a locker next to Johnson's as a rookie for the Giants in 2009. He found Johnson, who was finishing a Hall of Fame career, to be more engaging than he expected, and he considered himself lucky to have so many supportive teammates, like Matt Cain, to guide him. In Arizona, Bumgarner is returning the favor with Gallen. None Everyone Loves Ohtani: The Angels' two way star was a unanimous pick for A.L. M.V.P. and his superfans redefine devotion. Phillie Phavorite: Bryce Harper truly committed to Philadelphia and now he's back on top of baseball, winning the N.L. M.V.P. Cy Young Winners: Milwaukee's Corbin Burnes and Toronto's Robbie Ray had hit rock bottom before they worked their way up to stardom. Baseball Is Stuck in Neutral: The potential of a lockout has a star studded group of free agents waiting for the dust to settle. Free Agency Tracker: Get the latest updates on signings, contract extensions and trades. "I just try to treat people how I want to be treated, just the simple stuff, nothing fancy," Bumgarner, 30, said. "I'm looking for help from him and other guys as much as they're looking for stuff from me. The day you stop learning is the day you quit getting better." Bumgarner rebounded last season after missing parts of 2017, when he hurt his shoulder in a dirt bike accident, and 2018, when he broke his hand on a comebacker. He ranked second to Washington's Stephen Strasburg in innings among N.L. pitchers, with 207 2/3 , and while his earned run average was a career high 3.90, his underlying numbers were strong. "He figures out a way to compete even when he doesn't have his best stuff, and to me that's invaluable when it comes to a young staff like we have," said Arizona's Stephen Vogt, who caught Bumgarner with the Giants last season. "A lot of his numbers were up last year, like his spin rate, and he'll try whatever it takes to figure out how to get outs. He's an ultimate competitor." Gallen is Bumgarner's daily catch partner and has noticed the life on Bumgarner's fastball, though Bumgarner otherwise goes easy on him. ("He doesn't blow me up too much with his cutters and his sliders.") Gallen said he had tried to learn the intangibles of a proven winner. "He's pretty open," he said. "With a guy like that, you're usually feeling around, seeing how he's doing, but I was super pumped when he was like, 'Hey, listen, if you have any questions, ask me anything.'" Mike Hazen, the Diamondbacks' general manager, worked for Boston when stalwarts like Josh Beckett, John Lackey and Jon Lester helped pitch the Red Sox to championships. He cited them along with Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw as examples for Gallen and other Diamondbacks pitchers. "It's not always just raw stuff, it's work ethic, determination, execution, competitiveness," Hazen said. "We can't notice that all the time, because you take it for granted, maybe. But it is a separator, for me, with top of the rotation starting pitchers, that they have those types of skills. MadBum has them. Watching and modeling that behavior every day, it's got to help those guys." Bumgarner was hit hard by the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday, allowing five runs in two and two thirds innings, three on a long home run by Francisco Lindor. He said he was not concerned he often struggles in spring training but on the field he took things seriously, pounding his glove in frustration when his pitches missed their location. He takes the same approach to hobbies. The Athletic revealed last month that Bumgarner, who grew up in North Carolina and has a ranch in Arizona, uses an alias, Mason Saunders, to compete in roping events at rodeos in the winter. He has not discussed the topic since, but he said then that he did no activities strictly for fun. Bumgarner always needs an edge, and he said that was part of the reason he found the Diamondbacks appealing. Chasing the most lucrative contract from a major market team would not have been in character. "I like the way they go about it here it's more my style of baseball than a lot of places and I also enjoy being on an underdog type team, more so than the team that's supposed to win," he said. Bumgarner added that he always believes his team should win. But when others have doubt, it works to his team's advantage. "At least, it always has for me," he said. "I've never needed people's approval to think I was good or think I could be successful or win a game. I like it better when you're not expected to and then you do."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
WITH dozens of major car museums in the United States already vying for the attention of a select group of visitors, is it possible to create a new automotive showcase that will stand out from the crowd? That's a challenge David L. Madeira, chief executive of the LeMay America's Car Museum, has wrestled with for 10 years. "Our collection is unique enough that we think we can get most car enthusiasts to check out the museum once or twice," Mr. Madeira said in an interview here, a few weeks before the museum's planned opening on Saturday. "But how do you get the general public to visit and keep all of them coming back? That's the question." For Mr. Madeira and his staff, the task has included reshaping the vast automobile collection at one time a hoard of more than 3,000 vehicles of Harold E. LeMay into a facility worthy of an ambitious goal to be known as "America's Car Museum." Mr. LeMay, who died in 2000, was a local businessman whose companies did refuse collection, recycling, towing and auto salvage. The success of those ventures made it possible for him to indulge a passion for what might be generously described as eclectic car collecting. People who knew him tell of his buying a barn or field full of old cars just to save them from the scrap heap. Members of the museum staff have said they suspect even Mr. LeMay didn't know how many cars he owned. The sprawling LeMay collection has been pruned to around 1,500 cars, trucks and motorcycles, and plans are to have around 350 on display at any one time. The museum's guest curator, Ken Gross, has many treasures to choose among: brands including Duesenberg, LaSalle and Tucker are represented, and important vehicles like the first General Motors EV1, a Smokey Yunick Indianapolis racecar and a 1947 Ferrari Spyder Corsa are in the collection. The museum is in a new building with a hard to miss aluminum clad roof glinting in the sun, just off Interstate 5 in downtown Tacoma. Inside, there are 165,000 square feet of exhibit space. While that space is a definite asset, the key to meeting Mr. Madeira's projection of 400,000 visitors a year will be delivering a broad appeal that comes from tapping into the memories people have about the cars in their lives. "Enthusiasts only make up about 10 percent of the population, but everyone has a car they have passionate feelings about, whether it's the '65 Mustang they've always wanted to own or the first car they ever bought with their own money," he said. "And that's what this place is really all about America's longstanding love affair with the automobile." The plan is to fill these niches with changing exhibits that highlight the automobile's place in popular culture for instance, a display linked to a signature event like the Indianapolis 500 or a presentation that explains the booming interest in MGs, Minis, Triumphs and Jaguars that accompanied rock 'n' roll's British Invasion. There will even be an elaborate slot car racing track for a touch of hands on history. Not all the exhibits will play to visitors' nostalgia, though. Modern elements include a theater in the round named for a presenting sponsor, State Farm, state of the art racecar simulators and an exhibit that relates alternative powertrains from the earliest automobiles with those at the leading edge of what is available today or coming soon. Beyond those familiar trappings, the LeMay staff is working hard to transcend the traditional museum model. "This museum will really be about far more than the permanent collection and rotating exhibits," Mr. Madeira said. "Our goal is to be at the center of the enthusiast culture and a dynamic part of the local community as well." What this looks like in practice is a facility conceived to be as much a vibrant social scene as a repository for artifacts. For example, donors who contribute 100,000 or more to the museum gain access to an exclusive Concours Club lounge with private wine lockers and other perks; enthusiasts can also join Club Auto, which has a clubhouse with fantasy garage decor. Both membership levels also entitle donors to store their classic cars in the building, where they can be viewed by visitors wandering the museum's lower levels. The museum is also taking an active role in creating opportunities for its supporters to mingle, including special members only events like Wine and Wheels organized driving tours. Summer movie nights, concerts and other monthly events will be open to all. To house these gatherings, the museum's layout features a number of public spaces, including meeting rooms and banquet facilities suitable for serving as corporate hospitality suites or hosting a high school prom. Then there's the adjacent 3.5 acre show field with space for up to 300 cars. "We're planning to host a full range of events outside on the lawn," said Scot Keller, the museum's communications director, "from casual Saturday morning coffee and tire kicking sessions to high profile events like the Kirkland Concours d'Elegance." The goal in pulling all these elements together is to present the LeMay a 65 million effort over all, financed primarily through donations as a new center of car culture in America, more engaging than a clinical display of shiny machines parked behind velvet ropes. "Our hope is that this will be both a dynamic destination for car lovers from other parts of the country and around the world, and a place locals will want to visit again and again," Mr. Madeira said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Automobiles
As Danspace Project delves deeper into its "Platform 2016: Lost and Found," which looks at the effect that AIDS has had on generations of dance artists, it features a program dedicated to the work of John Bernd, who died in 1988. One of the first choreographers to incorporate gay themes and AIDS into his work, Mr. Bernd will be honored in "Variations on Themes from 'Lost and Found': Scenes from a Life and Other Works by John Bernd" beginning Thursday, Nov. 3. Ishmael Houston Jones, who along with Will Rawls organized "Lost and Found," directs the work, which features a cast of seven young dancers as well as the collaboration of Jennifer Monson (who danced with Mr. Bernd in "Two on the Loose," his last performance before he died), Nick Hallett and Miguel Gutierrez. "What do John Bernd's life and death signify?" Mr. Houston Jones writes in an essay for the "Lost and Found" catalog. As he points out, so many artists like Mr. Bernd died too soon; their work, no matter how important it was at the time, has vanished. But to Mr. Houston Jones, those artists "nevertheless laid the foundation for work being performed today. These are the lost unknown ghosts of AIDS." At least Mr. Bernd is not so unknown anymore. (danspaceproject.org)	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
Want to see a cosmic magic trick? Look to the sky early on Tuesday, and the crescent moon will make Mars disappear. Then about an hour later, the red planet will return, as if nothing ever happened. This celestial event is known as a Moon Mars occultation, and it occurs from some vantage point on Earth about twice a year, according to NASA. Skywatchers from much of North and Central America will have a front row seat to Tuesday's occultation, and those along part of the West Coast will have an especially good view, with a chance to watch the entire show before sunrise. This pre dawn meetup is a useful preview of how Mars will be central to space exploration this year. Three robotic rover missions are expected to launch to the red planet this summer one built by NASA, a second by China and a third produced by a European Russian collaboration. The United Arab Emirates will also launch a Mars mission, an uncrewed orbiter called Hope. Each space program is taking advantage of Mars and Earth getting closer in their orbits around the sun, which happens about every 26 months. The spacecraft are scheduled to arrive at Mars early next year. What is an occultation? Astronomically speaking, an occultation is when one object moves in front of another object in the sky from our point of view. The most famous example is a solar eclipse, when the moon momentarily slides in front of the sun. The moon also occasionally occults planets. That happens because the moon and the planets in our solar system all generally move along the same plane around the sun. "It looks awesome because you're watching celestial bodies appear to interact with each other," said Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. Occultations can occur between the moon and planets, with pairs of planets and also when planets or the moon cross paths with far away stars. Although from our perspective you might imagine two or more heavenly bodies colliding, such objects are millions of miles apart from each other (or even separated by light years). With the right telescope equipment, the results can be jaw dropping, like this lunar occultation of Saturn in 2019. "It's a really cool example and reminder of the three dimensional world we live in," said Dr. Faherty. When will it occur? The time of the event varies depending on what time zone and city you live in. Below are some general times for cities across the continental United States, according to EarthSky. For people in New York, the Moon Mars occultation will start around 7:36 a.m. Eastern, according to EarthSky, and will end around 9:05 a.m. Because the event will happen after sunrise, viewers on the East Coast will have a tough time watching it and will need a telescope. Those watching from Omaha, for example, will see Mars disappear around 5:52 a.m. local time and reappear just after sunrise around 7:18 a.m. Skygazers in Denver, for instance, will see the occultation begin at 4:41 a.m. and end at 6:02 a.m. In and around the Rocky Mountains, you will not need a telescope as the event will happen before sunrise and be visible with your naked eye. Dr. Faherty suggests bringing binoculars if you want to add to the experience. Skygazers up and down the West Coast will get to see the show, but those in Southern California will be especially lucky as Mars's disappearance and reappearance will be timed after moonrise and before sunrise. In Los Angeles, for instance, the occultation will begin at 3:38 a.m. and end at 4:29 a.m. Unfortunately for viewers in San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest, the moon will not be above the horizon before the beginning of the occultation. These viewers will miss the disappearance of Mars, but will be able to see its reappearance. People in San Francisco, for example, can see Mars hop out from behind the moon at 4:20 a.m. There will be four more Moon Mars occultations this year, although this is the only one that will be visible from North America. For lovers of the dark skies, Dr. Faherty said that even after the occultation ends, "the action keeps going," because the crescent moon will swing near Jupiter on Wednesday before dawn and then mosey up to Saturn on Thursday. And in October this year, Earth and Mars will be at their closest approach in two years, NASA says, which could offer strong views of the red planet to the naked eye.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
A roundup of motoring news from the web: According to a report from Automotive News Europe, Volkswagen said this week that a version of the coming Audi Q7 crossover would become the group's first diesel plug in hybrid vehicle. The report said that the Q7 diesel plug in hybrid model would be available in Europe and the United States after the new versions of the gasoline and diesel power Q7s were introduced next year. (Automotive News) Although 007 will be driving a Fiat 500 through Rome in the next James Bond film, the filmmakers couldn't resist adding an Aston Martin into the fictional secret agent's automotive quiver as well. But this time, it won't be a classic Aston, or even any of the models in the automaker's current lineup. Aston Martin unveiled a new DB10 especially for the movie. Only 10 are scheduled to be built. (Digital Trends) Cadillac said this week that in an effort to expedite its transition into a "global luxury brand," the automaker hired a new advertising firm. Lowe Campbell Ewald, the Detroit based firm that had handled Cadillac's account since mid 2013, was replaced by Publicis Worldwide, which is headquartered in Paris. (The Detroit Free Press) Not far behind General Motors' introduction of its new midsize Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks, Toyota announced this week that it would unveil a new version of its midsize Tacoma pickup at the Detroit auto show next month. The automaker did not provide further details, but the last all new Tacoma was the 2005 model. (The Detroit News)	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Automobiles
Jimmy Nelson in the 1950s with his fellow performers. Seated in front are Humphrey Higsbye, left, and Farfel. Standing are Danny O'Day, left, and Mr. Nelson. Perched next to Mr. Nelson is Ftatateeta. On Sept. 24, 1950, Jimmy Nelson, a skinny 21 year old ventriloquist, was introduced by Ed Sullivan on his Sunday night variety show, "Toast of the Town," as "the greatest I've ever seen in his field." Mr. Nelson was clean cut and genial, with an air of boyish mischief. His dummy was a smart aleck in a suit and bow tie. "My name is Danny O'Day," the dummy said to the audience. "This schnookle standing next to me is Jimmy Nelson. The kid thinks he's a ventrickolist." "That's ventriloquist," Mr. Nelson said, starting a rapid fire exchange with his dummy. It was an auspicious national debut for Mr. Nelson, who in the 1950s and '60s was one of the stars of the golden age of ventriloquism, performing with Danny and with Farfel, a quick witted hound dog. His contemporaries included Paul Winchell (with the dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff ), Shari Lewis (who gave voice to Lamb Chop, a sock puppet) and Senor Wences (whose characters included Pedro, a gruff voiced head in a box). They followed the lead of Edgar Berg en, the celebrated vaudeville and radio ventriloquist whose best known dummy was Charlie McCarthy. As successful as Mr. Nelson was on television and in nightclubs, he had a greater legacy as a ventriloquism teacher, via instructional albums he recorded in the mid 1960s. Mr. Nelson's "Instant Ventriloquism" album, recorded in 1964, inspired Jeff Dunham and many other practitioners of the art. Jeff Dunham, currently the most successful ventriloquist, credits his career to Mr. Nelson and his albums. "I don't think I would be where I am today, doing what I do as my profession, were it not for Jimmy and his wooden partners, Danny O'Day and Farfel ," Mr. Dunham wrote on Facebook. Mr. Nelson, who last performed a few years ago, died on Tuesday in a nursing facility in Cape Coral, Fla. He was 90. His wife, Betty (Mooney) Nelson, said the cause was complications of a stroke he had in May. The relationship between Mr. Nelson and Danny fascinated Jay Johnson, a ventriloquist who works with several dummies and is known for his role on the hit TV series "Soap" in the late 1970s and early '80s and a Tony Award winning 2006 Broadway show, "Jay Johnson: The Two and Only." "Jimmy was kind of this straight man with a little guy and a dog," Mr. Johnson said in a phone interview. "He didn't lose his personality; he didn't defer to them. He was a good friend, while Danny took no hostages." While Mr. Nelson, Danny and Farfel were seen on variety shows, they gained their earliest renown from the two years they performed live five minute commercials on the weekly "Texaco Star Theater Starring Milton Berle." Mr. Nelson and his dummies, along with guest stars like Ronald Reagan, mixed comedy with a pitch for the sponsor's gasoline. "The people at Texaco wanted a ventriloquist to do their commercials," Mr. Nelson said in "I'm No Dummy" (2009), a documentary about ventriloquists directed by Bryan W. Simon. "They caught my act at Radio City Music Hall and said, 'That's what we wanted.'" James Edward Nelson was born on Dec. 15, 1928, in Chicago. His father, James, was an accountant, and his mother, Winifred (Southorn ) Nelson, was a secretary. When Jimmy was 9, his Aunt Margaret gave him a life changing gift: a ventriloquist puppet she had won playing Bingo. After he brought it to show and tell in his fourth grade class, his teacher urged the boy, who was known to be shy, to perform with the puppet by reciting lessons with it. When he was in fifth grade, he and his father began to create routines. Television fueled his career, as it did other ventriloquists'. He became the host of a TV show in Chicago in 1950, billed as "America's newest ventriloquist sensation." His success there attracted Ed Sullivan's interest. For the next decade or so, Mr. Nelson was a staple on television (he hosted two short lived game shows) and entertained around the country. In 1964, the novelty company that was making children's versions of Danny and Farfel agreed to release his album "Instant Ventriloquism." Two years later, he recorded a sequel. As a teacher, Mr. Nelson focused on how to make difficult sounds easier to produce. "The albums gave people interested in the art form something to start with," Mr. Johnson said. "On one side were instructions. But on the other side, you got a script where you interacted with Danny, which gave you a sense of performing." In 1968, as ventriloquism's heyday was fading, Mr. Nelson and his wife, a singer, moved to Florida. While still performing, he also spent about 15 years as a spokesman for a local bank, starring in commercials that sometimes featured his daughter Elizabeth as well as Danny and Farfel . He announced his retirement from performing in 2014. In a letter that year to the International Ventriloquist Society, he wrote, "Danny Farfel are protesting but I just close the suitcase cover and listen to their muffled, 'Let me out of here.'" In addition to his wife and his daughter Elizabeth Chambers, he is survived by two other daughters, Marianne Taylor and Jane Nelson; three sons, Leejay , Larry and Jerry; six grandchildren; and two great grandchildren. His marriage to Margot Humphries ended in divorce. Mr. Nelson's Nestle's Quik commercials used benign humor to sell the popular chocolate mix. Danny played various roles, including astronaut, football player and racecar driver. In one of them, for example, Danny lies woozy on a table after being knocked out in a boxing match . "Oh, oh, Quik, I should have had more Quik," he says, sounding delirious. After Jimmy, as his trainer, mixes Quik into a glass of milk, Danny revives and says: "Step aside, Dad. Quik. Get Quik. It tastes like a million. Let me at 'em."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Television
Robert Stevenson, center, chief executive of Eastman Machine of Buffalo, says he has been forced to cut prices and lower his profit margins. "We are hardly making money, but we need to keep these customers and keep our factory going," he said. The dollar's sharp rise in recent months has left Robert Stevenson and Eastman Machine, his family's 127 year old Buffalo company, feeling the heat on both sides of the Atlantic. Confronted with a steep drop in the value of the euro against the dollar, customers in Europe warn that they can no longer afford to buy Eastman's American made cutting equipment without deep discounts. Buyers in America, meanwhile, are demanding lower prices from Mr. Stevenson, too, as European based rivals take advantage of the suddenly stronger dollar, which allows them to reduce prices on the machines they export to the United States without squeezing profits. In both cases, Mr. Stevenson has been forced to compromise, cutting prices and sacrificing profit margins to avoid losing business. "We are hardly making money, but we need to keep these customers and keep our factory going," he said. "This wouldn't have happened a couple of years ago." Indeed, the sharp rise of the dollar threatens to undercut one of the principal drivers of the recovery in recent years: strong export growth for American companies. At the same time, it is also raising concerns among policy makers at the Federal Reserve. Last week, Janet L. Yellen, the Fed chairwoman, warned that the stronger dollar was likely to weigh on exports, producing "a notable drag this year on the outlook." On Tuesday, McCormick Company, the spice producer, said the robust dollar would hurt results in the months ahead; other well known American companies like Tiffany and Oracle made similar pronouncements last week. More warnings are expected as companies begin to report earnings for the first quarter of 2015, which ends on Tuesday. Although the euro has rebounded slightly in recent days, with one euro now worth just under 1.10, the shared currency used by 19 countries in Europe is down sharply from 1.25 in December. Other currencies from different parts of the world, including the British pound, the Australian dollar, the Japanese yen and the Brazilian real, have followed a similar trajectory. Currency swings, though, can serve as a get out of jail free excuse for executives when their company's numbers fall short of Wall Street's expectations. "Every company out there will blame the dollar in some way, shape or form, but there is a reason for that," said Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. "Currencies are the hardest thing in the world to figure out because there are so many moving parts." The exact causes vary from country to country, but in most cases the dollar is surging because the United States remains an island of relative strength in the global economy. Another important contributing factor is the expectation that the Fed will increase interest rates later this year, even as the European Central Bank is keeping them low in a bid to stimulate the long dormant economy there. That anticipated gap in future yields, along with a desire among global investors for a safe harbor as tumult continues in Russia and the Middle East, is drawing cash from overseas into dollar denominated investments, pushing the value of the dollar higher. There are economic benefits, as well as costs, from this shift. Imported goods are cheaper for American consumers, limiting the threat of inflation and potentially giving the Fed more time before a rate rise kicks in. Similarly, travel abroad is becoming more affordable for American tourists. Still, for businesses that depend on sales overseas, and executives like Mr. Stevenson, the dollar's surge has meant both resignation and adaptation. "We are shopping more overseas," Mr. Stevenson said. "We're a microcosm of what's happening at a lot of U.S. companies. It costs the U.S. jobs, but we'd be foolish not to." For example, Mr. Stevenson is planning to buy a new control system for his factory that is made in Germany rather than the United States. With a price of several hundred thousand dollars, the currency savings are substantial. And while the machines Eastman sells in the United States and Europe will continue to be made in Buffalo, Mr. Stevenson said, he is shifting production aimed at the fast growing Indian market to China to gain an edge in pricing. "I'm not losing so much business," he said, "but it is hurting American jobs and profit margins." Were it not for the price pressure from European customers and the need to produce more of his products in China to sell to India, he figured, Eastman would employ 10 to 20 more workers in Buffalo than it currently does. "This has nothing to do with the wage scale," Mr. Stevenson added. "We're very competitive in terms of productivity. But the Indian market is taking off and we are being forced to manufacture outside of the U.S. to stay competitive there." Although the weaker euro tends to dominate the headlines when it comes to the dollar's rise, the decline of other currencies poses similar risks for many American companies. Still, sales and profits overseas are converted into dollars to calculate financial results each quarter, so United Technologies has been forced to bring down its estimates for 2015 revenue and earnings. With more volatility expected in the currency markets in the months ahead, many executives admit they have little control over such global economic shifts. "It's not that easy in the short term to move production one way or another, even though we have factories all over the world," said John Selldorff, who runs the North American operations of Legrand, a global manufacturer of electrical and data products based in France. Some companies employ complex hedging strategies using futures and other financial instruments. But that has costs of its own, Mr. Selldorff cautions, adding that he would rather make bets on what he knows electrical equipment than on the dollar's next move. "In the dozen plus years I've worked here, this stuff ebbs and flows," he said. "These are trends that you just have to work around."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
The Village Vanguard's legacy includes landmark live albums by John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Sonny Rollins. But history won't be enough to protect it from the economic impact of Covid 19. When Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah led his septet at the Blue Note in mid March, the headlines about coronavirus were growing more urgent by the day. But Mr. Adjuah, a New Orleans born trumpeter with a cutting edge style, had no idea that those performances would be his last shows or the Blue Note's for the foreseeable future. "You know, wash your damn hands," he told the crowd, as can be heard on "Axiom," a new live album culled from that weeklong residency. "But we're not running." The concert world as a whole is in crisis, but perhaps no genre is as vulnerable as jazz, which depends on a fragile ecosystem of performance venues. In pre pandemic New York, the genre's creative and commercial center, young players still converged to hone their craft and veterans held court in prestigious rooms like the Village Vanguard and the Blue Note. It's an economic and creative network that has sustained the genre for decades. But after suffering nearly six months of lost business, New York jazz venues have begun sounding the alarm that without significant government relief, they might not last much longer. Even with support, some proprietors said, the virus may have rendered their business model extinct. Most clubs have begun hosting livestreamed performances without in person audiences, providing some opportunity for musicians to return to work. But without the ability to practice their art in a tightly packed room breathing the same musty air as their audiences and feeling their response in real time musicians say they have lost access to the jazz world's most fertile terrain. "It's always been my laboratory," the renowned saxophonist Charles Lloyd said in an interview. "We need these venues, and it breaks my heart." Mr. Lloyd, 82, played with giants like Chico Hamilton and Cannonball Adderley while living in New York in the early 1960s, on his way to becoming a million selling crossover star in his own right. "You can bounce stuff off the audience," he said. "That experience is invaluable. You can't put a number or anything like that on it." In interviews, jazz musicians young and old expressed worry for the health of the genre, and their own careers, if the venue network in New York winds up decimated. Donny McCaslin, a saxophonist and bandleader, came to the city 30 years ago and worked the club trenches for years, learning on his feet and making a living gig by gig. That dexterity was part of what led him to be hired for "Blackstar," the final album by David Bowie, who saw Mr. McCaslin perform at the tiny 55 Bar in the West Village one night in 2014. "Part of the beauty of the local music scene here was that you would be stepping into these different environments night after night, and having to negotiate the different music," Mr. McCaslin, 54, said in an interview. Early in his career, he said, a typical week might mean a big band show at one club followed by blues at another. For younger musicians, Mr. McCaslin added, losing that system would be "devastating it's a breakdown of one of the most vital parts of how they develop." Jazz clubs are among the more than 2,000 constituents of the newly formed National Independent Venue Association, which has been lobbying Congress to be included in its next coronavirus relief bill. Progress has been slow, as the venues jockey for Washington's attention alongside restaurants, movie theaters and the thousands of other businesses that have suffered. The venue association gained an important ally last month in Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, who agreed to be a co sponsor of the Save Our Stages Act, a 10 billion bill that would authorize grants to independent venues, promoters and other parties in the live music business. At a news conference outside Baby's All Right, a rock and dance club in Brooklyn, Mr. Schumer said that allocating relief for venues "shouldn't be that hard." In the meantime, jazz's nationwide network has already begun to crumble. In Washington, a number of clubs have closed since the start of the pandemic, including Twins Jazz, which had been the last full on jazz club on the city's historic U Street corridor. Venues operating under a nonprofit model have found alternative means of support during the pandemic, and in some ways they have had more room to be creative. "There are a lot of grants available to nonprofits for Covid that were not available to for profit venues," said Rio Sakairi, the artistic director of the Jazz Gallery, a nonprofit in the Flatiron district. Smalls, known for its late night jam sessions, and recently incorporated as a nonprofit, was the first New York jazz club to livestream from its stage amid quarantine. That was on June 1, and soon numerous other clubs among them the Vanguard, Birdland and the Jazz Gallery followed suit; the Blue Note will join the bandwagon this month. At best, venue proprietors said, the streams may pay for themselves and give some work to musicians eager to play but they are less a long term plan than a gesture of perseverance. "We wouldn't be doing streaming if we didn't have any hope," Ms. Gordon said of the Vanguard. For musicians, the evaporation of live performance has been both a financial hazard and a creative frustration. Melissa Aldana, a 31 year old saxophonist, said in an interview that in July she left her rent stabilized apartment on the Upper East Side "the nicest place ever, the greatest deal" for Prospect Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn, to be closer to friends and fellow musicians during quarantine. Now she hosts socially distanced jam sessions at her home once a week, and plays with a group in Prospect Park. "What I'm missing is just, like, having the experience to play with musicians and connect," Ms. Aldana said. Before she moved to Brooklyn, in the dark days of spring, Ms. Aldana leaned heavily on the Jazz Gallery's Happy Hours: "That really kept me going a couple months, just having that human contact when I wasn't able to see anybody."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Music
Travelers seeking inspiration for 2018 trips may want to consider art exhibitions and cultural festivals. At the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., notable exhibitions include "Women House" (March 9 to May 28), which explores the role of women in American culture through photography, video, sculptures and large scale installation s, and "Heavy Metal Women to Watch 2018" (June 28 to Sept. 16), a showcase of contemporary female artists who work with metal. To see a different side of Picasso's work, plan a trip to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark. The exhibition "Picasso Ceramics" (Feb. 1 to May 27) includes 150 ceramics that reflect an experimental stage of the artist's career as he worked with new materials and glazes to create a range of sculptural pieces. Politics is the topic of a coming exhibition at SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico. In "Luke Dubois: A More Perfect Union" (Jan. 19 to April 4), democracy and elections are under the microscope. The most commonly used words in 43 State of the Union addresses are at the heart of a work called "Hindsight is Always 20.20."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
The 2015 finale of "Parks and Recreation," the NBC comedy set in a small town bureaucracy, took place in the future. I would not suggest that you watch it right now. I say that not so much as a judgment of its quality but because its vision of the years it flash forwarded to from 2017 to 2048 is, in retrospect, painfully optimistic. Things turn out for the best. People of different political beliefs get along. Characters find noble work in public service. There are no controversies over the wisdom of injecting bleach. Noticeably, the finale skips over the year 2020. (It does, presciently, mention an economic downturn somewhere before 2022.) The episode, written by a team of seven including the co creator Michael Schur, leans into the philosophy that powered the series: That friendship is not just a nice thing that generates laughs but an essential ingredient of a functioning society. The engine of the special, of course, is Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), who during the series's run was always That Friend the one who engineered scavenger hunts and waffle breakfasts and overelaborate goodbye tributes. Her devotion to her gruff former boss, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), and her best friend, Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), bordered on zealotry. She would take a bullet for them. Now the bullet she has to take is not being around them, except by video conferencing. (The in world Zoom equivalent being, of course, Gryzzl.) So she and her congressman husband, Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott), have turned their energy to advocating for people to connect with friends and focus on their emotional health. Which is exactly the therapy this half hour offers. The most hilarious moments end up coming from the supporting characters that populated Pawnee, Ind., who make up almost as vast a sitcom universe as Springfield in "The Simpsons." (The bits with Mo Collins's stir crazy local talk show host Joan Callamezzo and Jay Jackson's news anchor Perd Hapley are a reminder that, among other things, "Parks" was a sharp sendup of the media.) As the special round robins among the regular cast, the laughs are more of the gentle, I wonder what X would do in quarantine variety. Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) has accidentally locked himself in his shed; for the libertarian woodsman Ron, isolation is like coming home: "I've been practicing social distancing since I was 4 years old." Even catching up with our old pals bumps us up against grim reality. Ann is in Ann Arbor volunteering as a nurse in outpatient care. Andy, in his children's entertainer persona Johnny Karate, tries to assure kids that things will get back to normal, but loses the thread: "It might never happen. But it will eventually." (He speaks for us all.) Producing a very special episode of a beloved show in response to a crisis can always be dicey the less said about the post 9/11 "West Wing" one off, "Isaac and Ishmael," the better. For a drama today, the risk would be sanctimony or mawkishness. For a comedy it's that, well, a deadly plague is not funny. There is definitely an uneasy undercurrent in the "Parks" special, as there is now in every remote late night show interview and Zoom call sketch. The reason for all those toilet paper and home schooling jokes, after all, is the fear of disease and death. Throughout new TV today, it's the unspoken realities that often ring the loudest. So is "Parks and Recreation" too light and sunny to deal with this moment? It may be the classic comedy that's just light and sunny enough in part because that lightness has always been grounded, however subtly, in reality. Even fans tend to remember the show most for the goofs and inventions that came in the later seasons: Galentine's Day, Li'l Sebastian the minihorse, The Cones of Dunshire, "Treat yo' self!" But that first season was necessary. The show's ethos was that communities need to come together because that's the only way you get past really bad things. The "Parks" special is not political it breezes over the fact that Leslie, a feminist and Joe Biden stan, is probably not the most comfortable fit in Donald Trump's Interior Department. The series itself, though set in government, was rarely partisan. It was, however, extremely political in an everyday sense, as an embodiment of the idea that societies work best as partnerships, not as competitions of individuals. And that's exactly the sense in which the pandemic is political, down to the simple mechanics of transmission and prevention. It's not: I wear my mask so I can be safe. It's: I wear my mask so you can be safe, and you wear yours so I can be. We give up seeing each other, for each other. (For now, anyway. The real life stay at home order in Indiana is set to expire Friday.) It's this poignant dynamic showing you care by cutting yourself off that "Parks" was especially well suited to deal with. You could imagine the characters of, say, "Seinfeld" living quite happily alone, as long as the cereal didn't run out. Somewhere in Arlen, Tex., Hank Hill and his neighbors could still be stoically having a beer in the alley, only six feet apart. But the "Parks" gang were the best best friends on TV. You know how it must ache for Leslie to worry about her essential worker confidante Ann in another state, for Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) and Donna Meagle (Retta) to settle for clinking glasses virtually.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Television
Travel isn't just about frolicking witless on a beach and even if it is, so what? It supports the cabdriver and his family, the cook and her family, the hotel staffer and their orbit. According to the World Travel Tourism Council, travel accounts for one in 10 jobs globally, and the current shutdown threatens the livelihoods of 50 million people. Take cruises: According to the Cruise Lines International Association, nearly 1.2 million people are employed in the cruise industry, which many travelers are warned to avoid. Cruising's economic footprint spreads far and wide where ships dock. Derek Duncan, who I met on Tortola while researching a story on the British Virgin Islands in January, is a fireman who supports a family of five by using his four days off a week to drive cruise ship guests in open sided trucks to sites around the island. The cruise season, he said, typically dies in summer, so he has to make his money in high season, which is right now. And right now, sailings are being canceled. "We were worried about the hurricane season coming up, but already here comes coronavirus," he told me over the phone. As the daughter of parents in their 80s, I am not deaf to the argument that my travel could endanger them. But frankly, my trip to Costco could endanger them. My father and I are already practicing social distancing, which is heartbreaking. My mother is in memory care where no visitors are allowed. I wonder when I will see her again. When the virus subsides? When there is a vaccine in a year? Does she have a year? I am a traveler by trade, as well as temperament. I'm known to give a beach palapa about an hour before I'm off and exploring what else there is to do what markets, what trails, what street art. Hassles and delays aside, I enjoy airports for their energy and the intersection of humanity streaming through them (for best people watching, see Amsterdam's Schiphol, Doha's Hamad International or Singapore Changi). Instead of seeking out those crossroads of race, class, culture and nationality that make human civilization so infinitely fascinating, the world is a little smaller today as the virus travels and we stay put. For now.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Travel
CHICAGO The N.B.A.'s 69th All Star Game played out just as it was billed and it also veered wildly off script to a delicious degree. The evening, as promised, served as the emotional culmination of a days long Windy City tribute to Kobe Bryant, the former All Star killed in a helicopter crash last month. And then, without warning, Sunday's All Star Game managed to deliver a second half dose of the best, most competitive basketball seen on this stage in years. The result was the sort of spiritual lift, however fleeting, that this All Star weekend, and frankly this league, needed. In the face of considerable mocking and skepticism initially, league officials were cautiously optimistic that a significant format change to the game, with a Kobe inspired twist, would infuse its All Star proceedings with a much needed dose of competitive spirit. What they gratefully got Sunday night was a fourth quarter no one could have planned or promised, which had a United Center sellout crowd on its feet and led to countless participants raving about the changes afterward. The evening began with fans in prayer, song, poetry and shoe dedications everywhere you looked on the court all flowing from a moving pregame program devoted to the memories of Bryant and his daughter Gianna, who died along with seven other victims in the Jan. 26 helicopter crash. It ended with unprecedented defensive intensity for an All Star Game. Team Giannis' Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors took multiple textbook charges. Both teams agonized over numerous whistles as if something was truly riding on the outcome. Each side formally protested a call through get this a coach's challenge in what is still an exhibition game. All of it added up to a crunchtime of high drama that was totally organic. "We had a little bit of playoff intensity out there," said Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo, who captained one side, Team Giannis, against the Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James and his Team LeBron. It was Paul, in his role as president of the N.B.A. Players Association, who initially proposed to Commissioner Adam Silver that the league adopt what is known as Elam scoring. Based on the league's adaptation of the concept, a so called target score of 157 was established by adding 24 a nod to one of Bryant's jersey numbers to the total of the team in the lead after three quarters. So with Team Giannis holding a 133 124 edge on Team LeBron at that stage, Sunday's winner would thus be the first to reach 157 points in an untimed quarter. That commercial free quarter wound up lasting nearly 40 minutes. Leading Team Giannis, Coach Nick Nurse of the Raptors played the same five All Stars for nearly the entire period, while Team LeBron, led by Coach Frank Vogel of the Lakers, used only seven players. Two veterans, Paul, of Team LeBron, and Lowry, of Team Giannis, played all the important minutes over second year stars who actually started the game: Dallas's Luka Doncic and Atlanta's Trae Young. In perhaps the most telling illustration of how serious the fourth quarter was, both teams combined to shoot an under duress 35.5 percent from floor after connecting on a combined 55.5 percent of their shots through three quarters. The fact that the Lakers' Anthony Davis registered the clinching point for Team LeBron with a free throw naturally turned off some, most notably Philadelphia's Joel Embiid. The same was true for the fact that Davis's free throw followed a failed coach's challenge by Nurse after uncharacteristically heavy referee involvement, for All Star conditions, throughout the fourth quarter. Yet there was no disputing how much energy the new format gave a game that has increasingly troubled the league office in recent years. Silver himself, in March 2019, once described the previous round of big All Star format changes instituting a player draft and abolishing the East vs. West concept as putting "an earring on a pig." "None of us knew what to expect," James said. "But throughout the whole fourth quarter and at the end of the game, everybody was like, 'That was pretty damn fun.'" "The change helped the whole experience," Lowry said, even though the narrow defeat dropped his personal record in All Star Games to 0 6. Lowry, of course, was referring to the in game experience. Nothing could have completely offset the somber tone that prevailed over what is typically a celebratory convention for the league. As James put it, given Bryant's immense stature in the game, anything other than a steady stream of tributes and a melancholy vibe "would be uncivilized." Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers took home the first All Star most valuable player trophy to bear Bryant's name after leading Team LeBron with a game high 30 points. Everyone on Team Giannis wore No. 24, in Kobe's honor, while everyone on Team LeBron wore No. 2 Gianna Bryant's number. The occasion, with or without the wild finish, was always destined to morph into a pre memorial for Bryant: a prelude of sorts to the Lakers' official ceremony, scheduled for Feb. 24 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. On Saturday, I crossed paths with the former 76ers star Allen Iverson at a Panini trading card signing. On the eve of his usual stint as a front row spectator at the All Star Game, and bracing for how much sadness was looming, Iverson insisted he would be taking measures to mask his emotions from the cameras. "Trust me," Iverson said. "I'm going to have my glasses on, because I have an idea of what it's going to be." Yet when Sunday arrived, so much and so little went as planned. Iverson was a good example of that. For starters, he called an audible on his eyewear intentions. Iverson indeed packed some sunglasses with all the requisite winter gear he brought for a weekend that featured the coldest Valentine's Day on record in Chicago in 77 years. But the Hall of Fame guard decided to ditch them for his Sunday ensemble and lean into the bittersweet mood.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Sports
For 12 years, employees of Anbau, a luxury real estate investment and development firm, worked in a walk up on Fifth Avenue with no kitchen pantry to heat lunches or make coffee. So it was fitting somehow that the kitchen would become the focal point of the company's new offices, on East 26th Street, overlooking Madison Square Park. A boomerang shaped bar made out of Indonesian mango wood doubles as the reception area, making it the first place visitors see. With limestone countertops and stainless steel appliances, the area is more reminiscent of a residential kitchen than it is of an office pantry. In the months since the company relocated, Anbau has hosted cocktail parties in the same place where employees eat lunch and hold staff meetings. "When you have a cocktail party, where do people go? In a home, they go to the kitchen," said Barbara van Beuren, managing director of Anbau. "In an office, it's a place where people can gather. They are taking a break, where do they go? They go get a lot of coffee. A lot of interaction happens around a kitchen like space." In a nod to coffee shop culture, a growing number of companies are redesigning once purely functional pantries into office centerpieces, with bar stools along countertops, plush furniture and expensive coffee makers. Employers hope that much like the kitchen in a home, the one in the office will draw workers together creating a place that inspires collaboration. It has become especially popular for companies to offer now that some corporations have downsized in actual square footage, with more employees working remotely while others are squeezed into less space. "All of a sudden the pantry grew into something more important and the coffee got better," said Randolph H. Gerner, a principal at Gerner, Kronick Valcarcel Architects. "Starbucks began to tell us designers that a place where you can have a cup of coffee is a good work environment." As the trend picks up pace, the days might be numbered for the cramped office pantry like the one featured on the television show "Mad Men" where disgruntled secretaries huddle while coffee brews. Increasingly, it is being replaced with a version more like the one the character Hannah encounters at a magazine office on HBO's "Girls" a sleek, open and inviting space stocked with snacks and drinks for employees to sample. At the Herman Miller design campus in Holland, Mich., a 40 foot counter, staffed with baristas, gives employees a place to linger and work. Frequently, Mark Schurman, director of communications for Herman Miller, encounters colleagues in the cafe plaza when he arrives in the morning. If he has a question or information for a co worker, he can address the issue quickly and casually over a cup of coffee, rather than sending emails back and forth over the course of the day or wasting time trying to track someone down later. "It makes for a long walk from the front door to my desk, but in 15 minutes I have accomplished what might have taken an hour," said Mr. Schurman. "Suddenly, you've got that serendipity." Coty, the cosmetic and fragrance manufacturer, took the idea of creating a company gathering place a step further: Each of its five floors in its Empire State Building headquarters has a kitchen, dining room and living room. Decorated with midcentury furniture, the living rooms are lined with bookshelves and feature flat screen televisions. The kitchens have quartz countertops and stainless steel appliances. Since the offices opened in April, employees have held staff meetings in these spaces, curling up on the sofas with their shoes off, according to Catherine Walsh, a Coty spokeswoman. "The kitchen at home is where a family gets together to prepare a meal," said Laurent Lisimachio, a principal at Gensler, which designed Coty's new offices. "It's the most ancient form of collaboration that exists." Despite the enthusiasm from employers for more collaborative space, not everyone is convinced that workers prefer such an environment, especially if it comes at the expense of private space. "Collaboration is just this unbearable buzzword that has very little content related to what workers actually need," said Nikil Saval, author of "Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace." "There is this ideology of openness and collaboration and serendipitous encounters, but study after study shows that people want private space," he said. Whatever the benefits or appeal of collaborative space, businesses also have embraced open office design in part because the condensed layout lowers real estate costs. In the client portfolio of Jones Lang LaSalle, a commercial brokerage firm and property manager, the average amount of space per employee in Class A office buildings nationwide is now 170 square feet, including amenity space, down from 300 square feet in 2001. To make up for the major reduction in individual space, businesses have been adding more shared spaces, like larger kitchens, conference rooms and quiet retreat areas. Last year, the New York Foundling children's charity began reducing the office space in its Chelsea headquarters. The eighth floor, the first to be redesigned, now has a 200 square foot pantry intended for coffee breaks and informal meetings. While noise was initially a problem, particularly for employees seated nearby, signs were eventually posted, reminding people using the space to be quiet. The signs "definitely helped people lower the volume, and it's given everyone else permission to enforce the rules," said Bethany Lampland, chief operating officer of New York Foundling. "People can say, 'Hey guys, this is my work space.' " The pantry has long been a place where workers congregate away from their bosses. But an open design eliminates one of the few bastions of retreat and replaces it with a space where employee behavior must be impeccable at all times, since it is on display. "The fishbowl problem is very real," said Susan Cain, author of "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking." "People feel psychologically unsafe in radically open offices. Most of us don't want to be looked at while going about our day, performing routine tasks." Despite some of these concerns, the popularity of open kitchens continues to grow. At Brookfield Office Properties, the real estate company designed a 7,100 square foot social cafe at its 250 Vesey Street offices last year, with white tables, plum colored furniture and unobstructed views of New York Harbor. Although it has stainless steel microwaves, a flat screen television and a cappuccino maker, the space is not a cafeteria, but instead a place where employees hold staff meetings and work. "It's expensive real estate if all it's being used for is somewhere to get lunch," said Richard B. Clark, chairman of Brookfield.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Real Estate
WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve is expected to leave interest rates unchanged at its final meeting of the year on Wednesday as officials wait to see how the economy fares after they cut rate three times in 2019. The Fed chair, Jerome H. Powell, and his colleagues made an aggressive shift this year. After slowly raising rates between late 2015 and 2018 to keep an expanding economy operating at an even keel, they lowered them between July and October as President Trump's trade war roiled business confidence and global growth slowed. Their moves seem to have helped, and growth looks to be on sounder footing. Policymakers have signaled that they will now leave rates unchanged until something causes them to reassess the outlook, a message that economists expect the Fed to reaffirm in its post meeting statement and new economic projections on Wednesday afternoon. "Markets get, loud and clear, that the Fed feels the current policy rate is appropriate," said Michelle Girard, chief United States economist for NatWest Markets. Ms. Girard said investors would now be on the lookout "for any sign for any more information about what would lead to a change in their thinking." Trade remains a critical wild card for the central bank. Mr. Trump's spat with China and other trading partners continues to stoke business uncertainty and weigh on investment, and while the tensions have shown recent signs of easing, how they will end is anyone's guess. Barring a last minute delay, another round of tariffs on Chinese goods is to go into effect on Sunday, at which point the United States will have imposed levies on nearly every shoe, laptop and bicycle imported from China. "Policy changes in the speed of a tweet," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton. "As good as they feel about things, they also know how fast they can change." Recent economic data has been solid, allowing the Fed to remain patient. The job market is expanding, unemployment is at its lowest level in 50 years, and wages are gradually rising, which should fuel consumer spending. The expansion is powering through a record 11th year with steady growth. While factory activity remains subdued and economies abroad are shaky, both have shown improvement over the past month. At the same time, inflation remains mired below the central bank's 2 percent target. Without faster price gains, Mr. Powell and his colleagues are in no rush to raise rates to guard against an economic overheating. "We see a high bar for policy moves in either direction," economists at Goldman Sachs wrote in a research note previewing the meeting. Still, the economy's calm surface conceals longer term challenges, ones that Mr. Powell could be asked about during his 2:30 p.m. news conference, a half hour after the Fed's policymaking group, the Federal Open Market Committee, issues its statement. Interest rates are set in a range of 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent after the Fed's three cuts this year, leaving officials with limited room to lower borrowing costs to revive the economy in the next recession. The Fed cut rates by about 5 percentage points to near zero to help cushion the blow from the last downturn. Subdued inflation further limits that leeway, because the Fed's policy rate incorporates price changes. Lower inflation means less space to cut. Officials have spent 2019 carrying out a "framework review," re examining the way they approach their inflation target, their tools to combat economic slumps and their communications practices. Next year will be decision time: The process, which Mr. Powell instigated and which Vice Chair Richard Clarida is leading, is expected to wrap up in the summer. The central bank, before too long, may need to unveil a longer term fix for an obscure but critical market that has been in turmoil in recent months. Rates in the repurchase market, which banks and hedge funds use for short term loans, spiked in mid September. A confluence of factors including a corporate tax due date and a raft of Treasury bond issuance helped to create a cash squeeze, pushing the so called repo rates as high as 10 percent from around 2 percent normally. Covid's impact on the supply chain continues. The pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of the global supply chain and made all kinds of products harder to find. In turn, scarcity has caused the prices of many things to go higher as inflation remains stubbornly high. Almost anything manufactured is in short supply. That includes everything from toilet paper to new cars. The disruptions go back to the beginning of the pandemic, when factories in Asia and Europe were forced to shut down and shipping companies cut their schedules. First, demand for home goods spiked. Money that Americans once spent on experiences were redirected to things for their homes. The surge clogged the system for transporting goods to the factories that needed them and finished products piled up because of a shortage of shipping containers. Now, ports are struggling to keep up. In North America and Europe, where containers are arriving, the heavy influx of ships is overwhelming ports. With warehouses full, containers are piling up. The chaos in global shipping is likely to persist as a result of the massive traffic jam. No one really knows when the crisis will end. Shortages and delays are likely to affect this year's Christmas and holiday shopping season, but what happens after that is unclear. Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said he expects supply chain problems to persist "likely well into next year." The rupture spilled over to other important money markets, lifting the Fed's key interest rate briefly above its targeted range. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York intervened for the first time since the financial crisis to smooth things over. It has continued to do so, though officials have made it clear that they do not want to remain active in the market indefinitely. The Fed's own policy approach probably contributed to the September issues. The central bank had been gradually shrinking its portfolio of government backed bonds swollen by post recession stimulus programs until late this summer, draining money from the financial system in the process. As of October, it began to buy Treasury bills again to ensure that there are enough cash holdings at the Fed, or reserves, to keep markets well supplied. For now, Fed officials will probably signal that they are ready to act to keep money markets under control headed into the end of the year, when banks tend to hoard their reserves for regulatory reasons, potentially pushing repo rates up again. "I would expect them to effectively say that we're going to do whatever it takes to make sure that year end goes smoothly," said Michael Feroli, chief United States economist at J.P. Morgan. Political dynamics are also likely to be a consideration heading into 2020, even if Mr. Powell and his colleagues would prefer not to talk about them. Mr. Trump has regularly pressured the central bank to ease monetary policy more aggressively, calling for negative interest rates and labeling Mr. Powell both an "enemy" and a bad golfer over the last 12 months. The central bank, which is independent of the White House but answers to Congress, has done its best to stay out of the fray. But it could remain in Mr. Trump's sights as he returns to campaigning, given that he regularly criticized the Fed while on the 2016 campaign trail. "They'd really love to stay on the sidelines and stay out of the news in an election year," Ms. Swonk said. But if trade conflicts or other risks threaten the economy, the Fed will need to stand ready to move again, political cycle notwithstanding. "The biggest challenge is to stay on the sidelines," she said, "but to also know when that won't be right."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Economy
And other forms of exhilarating self expression from Undercover and Comme des Garcons, with a dose of the dominatrix at Hermes and a little latex at Nina Ricci. Sometimes during fashion week you just have to throw your hands up in the air and accept the fact that it doesn't make sense. Why should it? Nothing else really does. Look over there: Italy's going to the polls and Silvio Berlusconi may be back as a behind the scenes force; look over here and at Comme des Garcons, Rei Kawakubo has managed to make Susan Sontag's 1964 essay, "Notes On 'Camp' " into a mission statement in clothes. Look over there and President Trump is maybe, possibly, starting a trade war; look over here and Julie de Libran has reunited Bananarama for the Sonia Rykiel 50th anniversary. It's an intense, chaotic period. Designers are finally living up to it. You can give up or you can get inspired. The usual choice these days. It made Ms. Kawakubo, the Yoda of fashion, veritably verbose. (She has a tendency to utter a single not quite sentence of description backstage after a show via her husband, Adrian Joffe also chief executive of Comme des Garcons International.) Not only did she issue a lengthy clarification about her long term sense of identity with Ms. Sontag's essay, noting: "Camp is not something horribly exaggerated, out of the ordinary, unserious or in bad taste. This collection came out of the feeling that, on the contrary, camp is really and truly something deep and new and represents a value we need," but then she clarified what, exactly, that value was: "creation and free expression." This from a woman who hates to explain herself. She did it in mille feuilles of tulle and lace, and swirling collages of what looked like supersized silken pastel eye masks. In a giant, face framing flower and deconstructed Betty Boop sweater; with a little lilac leopard print riding hood and sequined slip dresses carried along on the cruise ship of a raspberry crinoline. With gold foil in parade float proportions. And everyone else did it by hooting with joy. Catharsis through camp. It's one way to go about it. Another would be the what you think you see is not what you get genius at Undercover, where Mr. Takahashi took the current obsession with millennials and the street wear they supposedly love into a whole different dimension. Not by catering or condescending to it but by transforming it, so what you thought you saw (denim; schoolgirl uniforms complete with striped blazers; varsity jackets; Prince of Wales check) was almost never what you got. Because what you were really seeing was, mostly, sweats. What appeared to be khakis with a navy polo shirt turned out to be a onesie (instead of the polo pony there was a slice of pie over the left breast); a puffer over an untucked shirt over a chino skirt turned out to be a single coat in three layers. Macs that seemed to be blowing in the wind were molded permanently into shape, a moment frozen forever with metallic threads; a bomber jacket in jade satin had a party peplum and puffed sleeves. It subverted assumptions about adult luxury, the adolescent tendency to under dress, and the multitude of possibilities in between. The thing that unites these designers is their complete and total zest for their ideas. They aren't trying to make clothes for everyone, or every part of a woman's life (what she wears to run out for the milk/drop the kids at school/go to the office/meet colleagues for a drink etc. etc.). They know the mythic "she" is perfectly capable of figuring it out for herself. What they are doing is demonstrating part of what Ms. Sontag said defined the concept of camp, which is a sensibility that "converts the serious into the frivolous" (which would be, to many, fashion). They aren't namby pamby about it. They are all in. So, mostly, is Junya Watanabe, who spliced oversized suit jackets to trenches to knits to parkas, most of it over chintz floral leggings or shirtdresses. Also Haider Ackermann, who is ever refining his odes to high voltage decay via a singular silhouette the strong, square shoulder, nipped in waist and lean leg; the flowing bias dress remade in materials of a lavish sheen.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Fashion & Style
Credit...Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times In Pandemic, More Are Paying for Direct Access to Their Doctors When the National Basketball Association announced that it would restart its season in a "bubble" at Walt Disney World in July, Kimberly Caspare, a physical therapist, was on board from the start. She has been working inside the bubble for nearly two months, focused on the Philadelphia 76ers, who made the playoffs and extended her stay there. But she has still made time for her patients back home in New York City, guiding them through one on one virtual sessions to provide relief to their aching joints with techniques usually rendered by her well trained hands. "I've fixed people's backs remotely," she said. "Through observation and how they move and function, I am able to reverse the cycle of the pain." Dr. Caspare has also been a beneficiary of this type of virtual medicine herself, including a virtual dental visit during which she participated in cleaning her own teeth. Concierge care, which offers personalized medical services for people who can afford it, has grown fast in the pandemic as patients seek direct access to physicians. Basic telemedicine can bring with it cumbersome insurance protocols and hard to navigate health care portals. Concierge care, which is typically not covered by insurance, gets around restrictions placed on doctors and other health care providers. But it comes at a steep cost: Prices for services can be two to three times higher, and that comes on top of annual fees. When more than 173,000 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus and millions of Americans remain out of work, the growing interest in concierge medical services may seem out of touch with the devastation the pandemic has inflicted. But the concept is expanding in other areas. The affluent are able to pay a premium for a luxury pursuit that was relatively affordable before the coronavirus crisis, like pampering themselves with a private manicure or hiring a personal trainer for a home workout. Doctors say they have had to expand their services or create new ones to meet the expectations of their wealthy patients. "This stuff always starts at the top of the market because insurance companies are not paying for this," said Dr. Yves Duroseau, an emergency room physician and adviser to OpenClear, which has offered about 600 in home coronavirus screenings in Miami and the New York area since March. OpenClear's in home tests cost as much as 1,000 and deliver results within 12 hours. There's an additional 1,000 fee for a medical professional to travel to the Hamptons to perform a test. For now, though, with single services that cost thousands of dollars, on top of five figure annual concierge fees, this niche is the province of wealthy patients. Dentists were hit particularly hard when the pandemic shuttered businesses, and many have continued to suffer because patients are returning slowly for routine care. One Manhattan Dental, which began last year as a concierge practice that does not accept insurance, had to alter its offerings to stay relevant for its clients. Dr. Robert Raimondi, a co founder of the practice, said the office had no telemedicine offering when the pandemic hit, because dental work usually requires a physical examination. Within a few weeks, the practice began offering virtual hygiene checks. Dr. Raimondi said it had started providing dental boxes with electric toothbrushes, different types of floss and toothpaste, tongue scrapes and mouthwash. A C.D.C. study finds stillbirths are higher in pregnant women with Covid. Canada expands its list of vaccines accepted for travel. Michigan recommends that all residents older than the age of 2 wear a face mask indoors. Now that the office is open, its offerings have evolved into private appointments 1,500 to be the only one in the office, compared with 295 for a regular cleaning. House calls are also available: 1,000 for the doctor to walk in the door, 500 for a cleaning and 600 for a whitening, up from 200 in the office. Dr. Caspare reached out to Dr. Raimondi from inside the N.B.A. bubble. She was looking for oral health advice because she was wearing a mask whenever she was not in her hotel room at Disney World. Her mouth was dry all the time, and she felt dehydrated from not drinking water as she normally would. He sent her some products and then coached her via Zoom. "When I'm in his office, it's a passive interaction," Dr. Caspare said. "I listen and I go home and forget half the things he said to me." Now, she has videos from the appointment as a reminder. "It's created more compliance because I can continue to view them," she said. Others doctors have developed new approaches. Dr. Erika Schwartz, an internist who specializes in hormone replacement therapy, has a practice in Midtown Manhattan called Evolved Science, but she has been able to work from her home in Greenwich, Conn. This summer, she added a pop up office in Southampton, N.Y., to serve clients who had fled the city. Taking over an empty office building, she set about recreating the soothing feel of her Midtown office. She charges a 12,000 annual concierge fee, which is separate from the cost of treatments her practice provides. Some treatments may be covered by insurance, but others may not, like intravenous drips to strengthen immunity, which start at 500, and hormone replacement, which run 100 to 200 a treatment. Dr. Schwartz formulated an antiviral, anti inflammatory and immune supporting IV for patients during the pandemic. Alana Dillon, a mother of four who splits her time between Manhattan and the Hamptons, went to Dr. Schwartz's pop up for her regular immunity boosting infusions. "They came out to my car and got me," she said. "It was very streamlined. It still had the luxury component that you feel at the Fifth Avenue office. It still felt very private and relaxing." Ms. Dillon said she would rely on tailored services, like IVs that support the immune system, even more to keep her body healthy during the pandemic. "What can we do to make our bodies more healthy to fight this virus? Right now, it's the focus of the practice," she said. Yet for those who don't summer in the Hamptons or feel inclined to make the trip into Manhattan, Dr. Schwartz can send her medical professionals to them. Jeff Villa, a private equity executive who lives in Brooklyn, used to enjoy traveling to her office, but that has become unattractive in the pandemic, he said. Instead, he has received preventive care, including an antibody test, in his home, a personal service that he said he would continue to rely on even after the pandemic. "It just saves me so much time," Mr. Villa said. These high end house calls do not come cheap. Dr. Marie V. Hayag, a dermatologist and the founder of Fifth Avenue Aesthetics, said she had done more than a half dozen visits, four by helicopter, to homes in the Hamptons. Her fee is a minimum of 5,000 a visit with transportation included. "I prefer helicopter transportation, but I've had clients' drivers take me back and forth," she said. Dr. Hayag can do most any cosmetic procedure in someone's home, but for a more serious medical issue, like skin cancer, she is limited to taking a biopsy. If her patient needs to come into the office, she offers the option of being the only person there, for an additional 2,000. "Everyone's stressed out, and they need more hand holding," Dr. Hayag said. She has always offered private time for clients, but she plans to continue doing house calls after the pandemic has passed. Continuing these new practices seems to be a trend across specialties. Dr. Caspare, the physical therapist, said that some patients were eager for in person appointments again, but that her practice is going to evolve. "We'll never go back to just in office," she said. "We're going to be more powerful in how we take care of others."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Your Money
BERLIN The power of a famous patron was on show this week in Berlin. The 67th Berlinale, the annual film festival, opened and so did the first exhibit by a U.S. artist, Joe Ramirez, 58, whose work caught the eye of the German filmmaker Wim Wenders ("Salt of the Earth," "Every Thing Will be Fine") after the two met three years ago. With a goodly crowd of German media in attendance, Mr. Wenders, 71, said he was "flabbergasted" by Mr. Ramirez's work as a meeting of painting and film, something that the German director said had long fascinated him. The American artist trained as a woodworker and fresco painter and restorer. He now specializes in and has patented a process of covering large wooden disks with gold leaf, then projecting slow motion films infused with allusions to old masters onto them. Other sources of inspiration for the dreamy film sequences include the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, Mr. Ramirez said.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design
It was 2007 when Peter Martins unveiled his "Romeo Juliet." At the time, the New York City Ballet production which began a run of nine performances on Friday at the David H. Koch Theater had one thing going for it: Mr. Martins's decision to cast his leads, particularly Juliet, young. (His Romeos required more experience and strength for partnering.) He worked with students at the City Ballet affiliated School of American Ballet, including the now esteemed soloist Russell Janzen, but eventually settled on two fresh company members for the premiere: Robert Fairchild and Sterling Hyltin. They zipped across the stage with a dewy intensity that served the story. Romeo and Juliet find themselves in over their heads, and the same was true of Ms. Hyltin and Mr. Fairchild: young dancers carrying a full length ballet that required both acting and the physical fortitude to navigate through Mr. Martins's roller coaster of backbends. Despite thin choreography and a crude, movable set by Per Kirkeby, the casting innovation created a singular realm in which characters could bleed into dancers, and dancers into characters. Why, then, eight years later, are we seeing the same leads on opening night? Debuts were reserved only for Lady Capulet (Rebecca Krohn, seductive and privileged), Friar Laurence (Aaron Sanz, lanky with slender, expressive fingers) and the Prince of Verona (Silas Farley, regal, grounded and holding the stage as if he'd been born there). Without the advantage of young dancers like, say, Mr. Farley as the star crossed lovers, the ballet doesn't come close to being an eloquent version of the tragic tale. On Friday, Ms. Hyltin and Mr. Fairchild were sincere, generous and, whenever possible, inventive, but they couldn't transcend this lightweight "Romeo Juliet."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Dance
If you're a hungry caterpillar and you've got a choice between eating a plant or another caterpillar, which do you chose? You pick your fellow caterpillar, scientists have found if the plant is noxious enough. In a study published Monday in Nature Ecology and Evolution, scientists sprayed tomato plants with a substance that induces a defensive response a suite of nasty chemicals and found that caterpillars became cannibals instead of eating the plant. "The plant rearranges the menu for the caterpillar and makes other caterpillars the optimal choice," said John Orrock, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Wisconsin Madison who led the study. His team's findings support a growing body of research suggesting that plant defenses are far more sophisticated than we've thought. Plants can't run or hide, but they possess powerful strategies capable of altering the minds of herbivores that try to eat them. The fight begins when an insect bites the plant, which triggers an immunelike defense response. The plant produces chemicals that hungry herbivores find toxic, unappealing or difficult to digest. For example, caffeine and nicotine, both toxic in high doses, are byproducts of the defense responses of tobacco and coffee plants. Dr. Orrock and his colleagues knew that a chemical called methyl jasmonate, which smells like limes or flowers, could induce this defense mechanism in tomato plants. They also knew that caterpillars, which eat the leaves of tomato plants, will turn on one another when the going gets tough. The scientists wondered how a plant's defense system would affect the caterpillars if they combined these behaviors. They sprayed tomato plants with either a neutral substance or varying amounts of methyl jasmonate to create graded levels of defense in the tomato plants. "You crank up the methyl jasmonate, the plant makes more nasty stuff," said Dr. Orrock. Then they put each plant inside an arena with eight caterpillars and watched for eight days to see how the caterpillars would handle two choices: Eat the plant, or eat your fellow caterpillar. The caterpillars munched the plants with no extra defenses down to bare sticks before turning on one another for nourishment. But faced with the well defended plants sprayed with lots of methyl jasmonate, the caterpillars gave up on the tomato leaves early. And like desperate characters in a cartoon island mirage, fellow caterpillars became appealing steak dinners. "You start the experiment with eight, and you end it with one or two," said Dr. Orrock. What makes this interaction more fascinating, scientists say, is the way some plants communicate defensive messages both within themselves and among other plants via chemicals that travel through the air. Once a plant is attacked, leaves on the opposite side of the plant, or on neighbors of the same species, detect these chemicals and plan early defenses. And, although unusual, the signaling can work across species, too: Sagebrush, tomatoes and tobacco plants, for example, can share defense messages, said Richard Karban, an ecologist who studies the interactions between plants and herbivores at the University of California, Davisand was not involved in the study. Dr. Orrock and his colleagues are now investigating what this airborne communication could mean for plants in conditions closer to those in the real world. Will a caterpillar move from one defended plant to its neighbor before cannibalizing? And if so, will the other plant already be prepared for an attack? Dr. Karban said he thinks better understanding of these interactions could one day make us less dependent on pesticides, but he's more excited about shedding light on the underappreciated complexity of plants. "Plants don't have noses, and yet clearly they can perceive and respond to smells. They don't have eyes, and yet they are very sensitive to the light environment," he said. "They're just far more capable of sophisticated behaviors than we have traditionally given them credit for."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Science
The story proceeds, day by day, from right before the hijacking to the aftermath of the rescue. Parallel stories unfold, each showing the tensions and divisions within one of the sides. On the plane and in the terminal and in a few flashbacks some of the militants air their doubts and debate tactics and ideology. The focus is not on the Palestinians but on Wilfried Bose (Daniel Bruhl) and Brigitte Kuhlmann (Rosamund Pike), German leftists associated with the Baader Meinhof group and drawn to the Palestinian cause. Wilfried experiences some qualms about the implications of being a German holding Jews at gunpoint, while Brigitte gobbles pills and maintains an air of steely ruthlessness. Meanwhile, Peres (Eddie Marsan) and Rabin (Lior Ashkenazi) are engaged in a complicated battle of wills. Peres, portrayed as an unsentimental hard liner an interesting contrast to his later dovish reputation pushes the prime minister, a more emotional and indecisive man, to approve a risky military response. Rabin, worried about the safety of the hostages and his own political future, broaches the previously taboo idea of negotiating with terrorists. As the decisive moment draws near, Mr. Padilha uses a dance performance by a company that includes the girlfriend of an Israeli soldier to amplify the suspense and vary the film's visual texture. It's a halfway effective conceit, showcasing his skill at pacing and crosscutting and relieving some of the claustrophobia of the tense indoor scenes in Entebbe and Tel Aviv. But the choreography also emphasizes the shallowness of the film, which gestures toward relevance without finding a coherent historical or political point of view. What should unfold like an unsettling chapter in a long, tragic story or a tale of cruelty and heroism feels more like an old TV show. Everybody is going through the motions.	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Movies
His visual style derives from a corner of life that we never even knew had a style that is, the classroom. It is hard to think of another artist who was more beloved than John Baldessari, who died Thursday at 88. Although he was not a household name, he was hugely influential as a professor, and helped establish Los Angeles as the country's reigning art school capital. A tall, soft spoken man with shaggy white hair and a biblical beard, Baldessari was easy to recognize. His champions like to say that he was "much more" than a teacher, but the statement offends, with its implicit suggestion that teaching is a mundane pursuit compared with the majesty of making art. The truth is that Baldessari not only loved teaching but made it the central theme of his art. As a founder of conceptual art and professor at the California Institute of the Arts (or CalArts), among other places, he seemed at once enamored of art history but alert to the comic absurdity of having his students strive to match the grandeur of the past. His visual style derives from a corner of life that we never even knew had a style i.e., the classroom. Many of his compositions feature photographs or text borrowed from disparate sources, and have the lucid, unadorned look of educational materials, especially flash cards and posters inscribed with useful information in sans serif, jumbo size type. Baldessari's best known work a lithograph, from 1971, titled "I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art" takes its inspiration from the improbable source of grade school punishments. The title sentence, jotted in neatly slanting cursive, is repeated 17 times, filling the page from top to bottom. It is certainly amusing: a sly assault on conceptual art, disparaging the movement's didactic, text heavy creations even as it doubles as a definitive example of one. Evocations of academic failure recur in Baldessari's work, perhaps nowhere more humorously than in the five foot tall painting titled "Wrong" (1966 68). It juxtaposes a fuzzy black and white photograph of Baldessari standing in front of a scrawny palm with a caption that says, in its pithy entirety, "WRONG." The artist conceived the piece, he explained, after reading in a how to photography book that you should never pose a subject in front of a tree, because the tree will look like it is growing directly from your subject's head. "Wrong" can feel like a tribute to the countless young artists and freethinkers who have had their tender egos crushed by someone who shouted "wrong" when they were right. Baldessari's work descends directly from that of Marcel Duchamp, the French born Dadaist who made art feel like a branch of philosophy. Duchamp, of course, favored art that offered evidence of ideas rather than craft, of brainy thinking rather than technical facility. In 1963, when Baldessari was still living in suburban National City, Calif., teaching art at a local school and spending his Sundays splashing out paintings in the big brush style of the Abstract Expressionists, he had a chance to see an important Duchamp retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum. It was a revelation. By the end of the decade, he had put down his brushes. He was turning out text laden paintings whose execution he outsourced to professional sign painters. Unlike Duchamp, whose work can be difficult and arcane, Baldessari is a conceptualist with a common touch. Or rather a common non touch. His work is accessible, unpretentious and occasionally glib, and it has proved irritating to some of his more theoretically inclined contemporaries. In 1969, in the essay "Art After Philosophy," Joseph Kosuth, a fellow devotee of text based art, derided Baldessari's artworks as so many conceptual "cartoons" that are "not really relevant to this discussion." But then Baldessari was never an artist's artist so much as a graduate student's artist. His openness and tolerant irreverence made him inordinately popular as a teacher, and his reputation soared when he arrived at CalArts, a no grades no requirements school, where he declined to teach painting and instead named his course, rather provocatively, "Post Studio Art." The implication was that the atelier was a thing of the past and students, instead of aspiring to Promethean creative heights, could be more contemporary as recyclers of found photographs and other appropriated material. Among his many memorable students who left California and carried his influence to New York are David Salle, James Welling, Barbara Bloom and Edward Henderson. Asked about his teacher's style, Mr. Henderson recalled, in a reverent tone, "Whatever he said meant 20 things." Many of his students kept up with him after they left school, and he amiably answered their phone calls and mail. Mr. Henderson pulled out an old postcard from Baldessari, circa 1983. On the front side, it shows an unironically cute scene at the Cincinnati Zoo: four white tiger cubs at play. On the flip side, in the space reserved for messages, Baldessari wrote a single sentence: "O.K., O.K., What were my last words to you?" The message bore no discernible relation to the photograph of the tiger cubs. In this way, it resembled his work. Text plus image and many possible paths between them. But it was not, of course, only Baldessari's former students who were thinking back to their vanished school days this week. Baldessari flourished in an age when American artists were in a back to school mood. In early generations, many of the best American painters could not afford college and had no educational degrees beyond high school, but the pursuit of an M.F.A. had become common among artists by the 1970s. The art school boom and general professionalization of the dreaming creative class helped pushed art in a conceptual direction, where it remains today, a Babel of borrowed images and languages. Baldessari, in his own work, questioned the limitations of teaching, and I suspect he will be remembered over time, somewhat like the great Josef Albers, as both an artist and educator. Baldessari was a brilliant Californian who saw the absurdity in almost everything, including the conceptual strategies he championed. He once said, "Great art is clear thinking about mixed feelings."	N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification	Art & Design

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