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When my father died last April in Baltimore, he had finally given up the desire to be buried next to his parents in a cemetery in Damascus, Syria. That he had time to ponder where to be buried was the burden of knowing for several years that he was dying. It was also the luxury, especially for a Syrian, of still having some choice in the matter. It is vulgar to even mention just one Syrian's death and unfulfilled desires, when dying has become the Syrian way of life and unfulfilled desires have become life's promise to Syrians. None have been shielded. Even the victors have lost. As Syria's president, Bashar al Assad, aided by his Russian allies, nears his brutal if pyrrhic recapture of the entire country by closing in on Idlib, there is yet a new way of Syrian death. In the past month, the bitter chill of winter has killed displaced Syrian children in the buffer zone along the Turkish border. Somehow the certainty that a Syrian will die today, tomorrow and the day after has perhaps been the permission to look away. My father's diagnosis came in the spring of 2013 before the chemical attacks, before Russian military involvement, before the siege and starvation of entire towns. Hope for Syria's future didn't yet seem foolish. His prognosis was so bleak that we didn't expect Syria's situation to change much in the time he had left. Burial there didn't yet seem foolish. But then, he outlived his prognosis at first, by months, then a year, then years. As his illness metastasized, so did Syria. Mr. al Assad's government escalated its brutality. Syrians were displaced in the millions both inside and outside the country's borders, and nightmares like the Islamic State came true. My father's calculations of where to be laid to rest were in constant revision, accounting for Syria's changing (mis)fortunes. His desire for more time also began to include a hope that he might live long enough to die at a moment when his death could be followed with a burial in his native soil. Long before Syria's current catastrophe, my father was constantly downsizing his dreams of Syria. He left his country a year before Hafez al Assad carried out the coup that ushered in the current regime, which has now been in power for nearly 50 years. My father's plan, though modified, remained to complete his medical training in the United States and move back to Syria to open a state of the art clinic and teach. In his early years in America, he worked by day in Baltimore and by night moonlighted 100 miles away in rural Maryland, saving money to buy expensive surgical equipment. Then the Assad regime survived, consolidating its power through vicious crackdowns. My father was close to securing a position in Aleppo when he was told he would have to join the Ba'ath Party, the only political party in Syria, if he wanted the job. The new regime set out to engineer a population as submissive as possible and delegitimize any opposition as either religiously fanatic, foreign funded, Zionist backed or an imperialistic endeavor. No political parties, no free press and no independent civil society initiatives were allowed. An extensive internal security apparatus spied on and terrorized everyone. My mother, who had been in Syria for the early years of the Assad regime, eventually vetoed any idea of return. So my father waited for something to give. When it didn't, he planned to split his time between the United States and Syria once he would semi retire and volunteer as a doctor if nothing else. That was at the end of 2010, right at the start of the so called Arab Spring, when I instead was the one to move to Damascus. In 2011, after Mr. al Assad responded to peaceful protests with gunfire, arrests and torture, my father would visit me there and ask me, with a note of desperation, what I thought would happen. I would reassure him that the future had finally arrived in Syria, that the country's long stagnation, its failure to harness the talents of its people and its existence merely to enrich a single family and its cronies was coming to an end. That optimism and naivete do seem so quaint now. It didn't go that way. Diseases metastasize and spawn new symptoms, but there is a reason medical vocabulary includes both cause and effect, and why curing the disease rids the body of the symptoms but curing the symptoms leaves the disease to fester. Similarly the audacious hopes and ambitions of Syrians for a new Syria sprouted tumors and mutations. During the initial protests in 2011, when Syrians asked the regime to curb its wanton corruption and cronyism, it responded with bullets. Such state violence scared many people back into submission, especially as it became clear the international community was not interested in protecting them. And it led many other Syrians, not surprisingly, to pick up arms. Concurrently, Mr. al Assad released criminals from his prisons who were likely to embrace violence against his regime, while targeing civil society activists and regular Syrians with mass arrests and forced disappearances. Nonviolence predictably gave way to violence. Al Qaeda affiliates and the Islamic State sought to replace the violent rule of Mr. al Assad with their own tyranny. Foreign fighters (and their brides) came from all over the world to force a dystopia on Syrians. Syrians who tried to fight the dictatorship militarily became beholden to fickle benefactors, who conditioned their support on Syrian fighters adopting their visions of what Syria should be. The Syrian government bet on and abetted such outcomes. The civilized frown when a government shoots unarmed protesters. But Mr. al Assad knew that the moral murkiness of an armed uprising, combined with a ready made "war on terror" discourse that flattens nuance, delegitimizes dissent, dehumanizes people and taps into a global psyche that so fears violence committed by Islamists that all sense of proportionality and history is lost, would provide much desired cover to its brutality. The regime wanted both domestic audiences and the international community to take its side, to stick with the clean shaven, designer suited devil it already knew well. Or at the very least, to look away. The world obliged. The global conscience was eased by the supporters of Mr. al Assad, weary journalists and observers reminding anyone especially lecturing Syrians that the opposition had been at best incompetent and at worst really bad. As if the responsibilities of objectivity stop at describing the trees and need not account for the forest. By the time my father's illness was diagnosed, he had stage four metastatic cancer. It had started in one organ and had already spread to two others. By the time he died, it was everywhere but the originating organ. Yet in medical terms, his cause of death was the original cancer. Under a microscope, the pathologist sees the tissue of the initially infiltrated organ whether it was the lung or breast or liver in all the other places it is metastasized. Syria is not a tragedy of unknowable causes or equitable blame. It is intellectually dishonest to say so. It is pathologically untrue. After my father outlived his prognosis and the West its patience, and transporting a body to Damascus began to seem like folly, he thought about going to Syria while still alive, to die there. But with no clarity on when that day would be, he chose not to be separated from us, a family that included his grandchildren. So again he asked that when the end did come we bury him back in Syria, next to his parents who he had spent a lifetime away from, in the cemetery beside the Chapel of St. Paul in Damascus. Syria continued to collapse, never quite bottoming out. In what would be his last year, my father renounced the desire completely. He didn't want to lie in a grave that couldn't be visited. Looking at me with blame and admiration, he said: "You won't be able to come. And there, who is left to visit me?" That mix of blame and admiration I imagine is familiar to other Syrians who also believed in possibility and hope when it all began, who never fathomed what Mr. al Assad and his military would unleash on a place we all supposedly loved, rather than relinquish even a modicum of power. Many such people are wanted by the regime. They were writers or attended protests or gathered humanitarian supplies for Syrians in need or simply said something on social media. Now they find themselves unable to return to their country and separated from their loved ones, including those they would want to call on at their graves. Even as our relatives admire the courage to have acted or just hoped, spoken or unspoken, the question hangs between us: Was the personal cost worth it? It is easier to look at Syria's unraveling and blame those who dreamed about a better future, who grossly miscalculated what Mr. ak Assad would do and the world would allow to happen. Confronting the real cause and holding it accountable, for now, seems impossible. Especially when the rest of the world is ready to normalize the regime's methods and its impunity. The equipment my father bought in the 1970s for a dream that never came into existence in Syria remains unpacked and unused in its original transportable cases, sitting in the back of a closet in Baltimore. They are brand new, yet years ago obsolete. In the early years of the uprising, I attended in Damascus (as an observer) meetings some held in secret with Syrians eager to prepare for a new tomorrow. They discussed citizenship and constitutions, thought hard about engendering solidarity across sects, about being inclusive, about building and strengthening civil society. They were giddy about birthing a new and better Syria. A decade later, those preparations and ideas remain untested and unused (except in some pockets where self rule briefly flourished before the regime or the extremists put an end to that). It is not so unpredictable that those who wanted to see that inclusive, democratic Syria would be drowned out by the elements who chose violence. It was the latter who had meaningful support from the United States, Turkey and the Gulf states in terms of money, arms, fighters and military strategists. It was also not unforeseeable that regular Syrians would fail to defeat a dictatorship that had the military backing of two powerful states Iran and Russia and was willing to decimate the country to maintain power. No great ideas of meaningful citizenship and rights for all peoples in a democratic state with clean institutions can defeat that kind of brute militaristic power at least not in the short term. The almost complete territorial victory of Mr. al Assad is not a statement on the worth, strength or ultimate potential of these ideas to triumph. These ideas should never be obsolete. But the tragedy in Syria surely is a statement on the commitment of the world to them. A tenuous, fragile deal between Turkey and Russia has given a pause to the Syrian regime's military offensive in the northwestern province of Idlib, where three million people face an uncertain fate. For several years, Mr. al Assad's regime has been corralling in Idlib the Syrians who object to its rule, who have nowhere else to go after multiple displacements and whom it suspects will not submit to its rule after what they have suffered. A long expected final push against Idlib could come anytime. For all the global dismay at the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding there, the sigh of relief from the world is quite audible. This exhausting and supposedly difficult to understand conflict seems close to being finally over. Soon money will be made in many countries as the regime turns to reconstruction which it will use to consolidate its gains, ensuring it remains in power. In the end, my father was not laid to rest in his homeland. But Syria did become a graveyard, where an aspirational vision of the world and of who we are and what we will tolerate now lies. We should bury there as well any complacency that we are immune today, tomorrow or the day after to the consequences of our failures. Alia Malek is the author, most recently, of "The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria." She is the director of the international reporting program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter ( NYTopinion) and Instagram. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
Some of the most marvelous success stories began with embarrassing failures. Thomas Edison, Soichiro Honda, even Henry Ford they all faced defeat, but went on to become great. That's how Rod Wade, an Australian, is looking at his failed effort to drive a 1930 Model A Ford across the United States from New York to Los Angeles in about 60 hours. The trip, which began on Staten Island on Oct. 14, was a tribute to H. Nelson Jackson and Sewall K. Crocker's cross country drive in 1903. Michael Flanders, also from Australia and Mr. Wade's co driver and mechanic, were making decent time after solving a puzzling engine cooling problem. But when the 40 horsepower flathead 4 cylinder engine's crankshaft cracked near Amarillo, Tex., their run was over. They had run into trouble earlier, in Indiana, when the top of the radiator became red hot and the bottom was cool. It took awhile to fix, but eventually they found a blockage in the cooling system and continued on their way. Everything was going fine until Amarillo. Mr. Wade had made this kind of long distance run before and with much better results. The car completed the Peking to Paris rally over the summer. Along with John Bell, the co driver, Mr. Wade finished 28th out of 35 finishers in the pre 1941 Vintageant category. Before beginning their trip across the United States, which they were doing to raise money for the American Kidney Fund, Mr. Wade and Mr. Flanders had taken the old Ford, which was named Tudor Rose, to a workshop in New Jersey and installed a new engine, just to be safe. "Because we set off to do this with all original equipment, we didn't go for a modern crankshaft on the rebuilt engine," Mr. Wade said. "We tried to do with what was available in 1930, and it can be sort of hit or miss." Mr. Wade said that he hoped to try again during the last week of November. Cooler temperatures at that time of year, he said, would be better for the engine anyway. He said they would have a 1988 Plymouth police car running alongside as a support vehicle. "We'll be racing not only against the clock, but against the weather as well," he said. "If there are icy roads, it's no go. You can't do a challenge like this on icy roads." Although Mr. Wade and Mr. Flanders arrived at the Pacific Coast minus the triumph, Mr. Wade said they were still happy to be there. "It's such a lovely place, we don't want to leave," he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
Five years ago, after an academic career in Europe, Benedict Beckeld gave up teaching for writing and returned to New York, where he had spent his teenage years. The timing was fortunate. His older brother, Baltsar Beckeld, was newly divorced and living on the ground floor of a two story, two family brick house in Borough Park, Brooklyn. Dr. Beckeld, who has a Ph.D. in philosophy, ancient Greek and Latin, moved in with him. His brother, an actor and former museum director, transformed the unkempt backyard, planting shrubbery and adding strings of solar lights that went on at dusk. The location was close to Dr. Beckeld's mother and stepfather, who also rented in Borough Park. The brothers paid a monthly rent of around 1,400. The landlady, who knew their mother, "gave us a friendly price," said Dr. Beckeld, 39, who was born and spent his childhood in Sweden. Last summer, after suffering from sudden stomach pain, Baltsar Beckeld received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Two months later, he died, at age 42. "My brother was the person I loved more than any other," Dr. Beckeld said. He knew he couldn't stay in the apartment. "It was too emotionally difficult for me to live in the place we had lived together," he said. So he prepared to move. He aimed to find a one bedroom rather than a studio, preferring not to sleep in the same room as his thousands of books, which collect dust, though he dusts often. He wanted a separate kitchen, too, so cooking residue and odors would not permeate the pages. With a budget of up to 2,200 a month, Dr. Beckeld thought he could find a place on the Upper East or Upper West Side of Manhattan. As a musician he plays the violin he was eager to be close to the city's cultural and arts institutions. An agent took him around. "This was my first time" apartment hunting in New York, he said. "I realized that when they say a one bedroom, they don't really mean a one bedroom they mean a glorified studio." Some listings referred to a "real" one bedroom, he added, "but that still includes a kitchen area in one of the rooms rather than a separate kitchen." He visited a fourth floor walk up, for 2,000, in the West 80s, across from a schoolyard. "The moment I walked in, I knew it was no deal," he said, as the kitchen and living room were one. "I would have had to cook, work, read and do everything in the same space, and the space wasn't large enough anyway." For 1,800, a ground floor apartment on Park Avenue near East 98th Street was comparatively large. But the area seemed rundown and loud; directly outside, Metro North train tracks emerged from underground. "I probably should have used Google Street View to rule out neighborhoods," Dr. Beckeld said. Seeing what his money would buy in Manhattan "definitely took the wind out of my sails." He learned that a suitable place would cost around 3,000. And without a regular job, it would be tough to meet a strict Manhattan landlord's income requirements. Dr. Beckeld writes primarily on philosophy (which he used to teach, along with classics); he also gives violin and foreign language lessons. "Since I lived away from them for 10 years on a different continent, I enjoy having what remains of my family not too far away," he said. Dr. Beckeld turned to Craigslist, and found a place in Ditmas Park that seemed suitable: The one bedroom, in a four story brick building dating to the 1920s, had 850 square feet, high ceilings and a separate kitchen overlooking an interior courtyard. The rent was 1,750. The building didn't have a laundry room, but there were plenty of other advantages, including big closets and updated appliances. Dr. Beckeld signed on in the fall. In the meantime, his mother, Simonne Beckeld Hirschhorn, had also been considering a move. She and her husband , Mordechai Hirschhorn, who were living on the third floor of a house in Borough Park, wanted more space. Maybe they could move into the Beckeld brothers' old place. It was bigger, and Ms. Hirschhorn could build a beautiful sukkah, the temporary structure constructed for the Jewish festival of Sukkot, in the well tended yard. Also, the apartment made her feel closer to Baltsar. "I asked Benedict, 'Would you feel creepy if we came to live here?' He said, 'No, on the contrary, you will make the place look so different anyway,'" she said. Ms. Hirschhorn, the director of a recreational program for Holocaust survivors, enjoys interior decorating. So in the winter, the Hirschhorns moved, too. "It made me feel this was my son's legacy to me," Ms. Hirschhorn said. "I felt a certain comfort in that. The grief is going to be with me the rest of my life no matter where I live, but here I feel the closeness of him. Here, he was happy." As for Dr. Beckeld's new home, he finds it quiet and well suited to his work. Bookcases line the living room walls. "I am fairly introverted, so sitting quietly in my office space and working is appealing to me," he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
LOS ANGELES Apple is going to the movies. The company, which is set to unveil its Apple Plus TV streaming service on Nov. 1, will enter the film business this fall with theatrical releases of three movies it acquired this year, Apple said on Friday. The effort will expand in 2020, when Apple plans to start producing its own films, some of which are being made in conjunction with the independent movie studio A24, the producer behind "Moonlight" and "Lady Bird," two people with knowledge of the company's plans said. Apple and A24 agreed last year to make movies together. The first movie that Apple has lined up for theatrical release is "Elephant Queen," a documentary centered on a 50 year old elephant. It will open in theaters in "select cities" on Oct. 18, the company said, before appearing on Apple TV Plus on the streaming platform's start date. The film, which the Toronto International Film Festival screened this month, is narrated by the actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. The next offering will be "Hala," a coming of age drama about a Muslim teenager played by Geraldine Viswanathan, who had a role in the 2018 comedy "Blockers." It will make its debut in what the company described as "select theaters" on Nov. 22 and go onto the streaming service in December. Apple acquired "Hala" after its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in February. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
LONDON This time it was the bidding that made people gasp. Banksy, the world's most famous street artist, joined the ranks of the world's most expensive artists Thursday night when his 2009 satirical painting, "Devolved Parliament," showing Britain's House of Commons populated by chimpanzees, sold for 9.9 million pounds with fees, or about 12.1 million, at Sotheby's, setting an auction high for his work. "This is like the moment Basquiat made it into the Soho galleries in the 1980s," Alex Branczik, Sotheby's head of contemporary art in Europe, said after the sale. "I've realized he's a serious artist, but he has such a broad popular base. He appeals to established and new collectors," added Mr. Branczik. "Devolved Parliament," a Victorian style oil on canvas showing the debating chamber of the House of Commons packed with earnest looking chimps, was being offered at the evening auction of contemporary art just four weeks before a Brexit traumatized Britain is due to leave the European Union. Signed and dated 2009, the painting, offered by a private collector, had been estimated to sell for between PS1.5 million and PS2 million, or 1.9 million to 2.5 million. Acoris Andipa, a London dealer who specializes in Banksy, called the 14 foot wide "Devolved Parliament" "an important piece," saying it was the most valuable work executed solely by Banksy to have so far appeared at auction. (Other pieces have sold privately for at least 3 million.) "It's just so topical. And the sale was perfectly timed for Frieze," Mr. Andipa added, referring to the contemporary art fair currently running in Regent's Park that always draws international collectors. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
The 2017 18 Premier League season begins today, with Arsenal taking on Leicester City, and there is a full slate of games throughout the weekend. But the cities that host the 20 teams, spread throughout England, have much more to offer than just soccer. Here are six locations worth exploring. Manchester has been in the spotlight for its two Premier League football teams and faded rock and house music scenes. It is also one of Europe's largest university towns. Thanks to rebuilding over the last 20 years, the city of Manchester has become a booming postindustrial metropolis, and the Greater Manchester region is the country's second most populated area, with 2.5 million residents. Alpacas graze at Vauxhall City Farm, with the St. George's Wharf development at left; the British Secret Intelligence Service headquarters at right. David Azia for The New York Times South and Southeast London is a conglomeration of formerly independent villages, boroughs, towns and green spaces that have long since been incorporated into London (roughly the equivalent of the vastly different neighborhoods that make up New York City's five boroughs). And just as a die hard Upper West Sider can't imagine going anywhere in Queens other than its airports, for most nonresidents of London's other half, the south side of the Thames might as well be the far side of the moon. Clockwise from left: choucroute garnie at Brasserie Chavot; eel salad at Terroirs; mushrooms in a bag at Social Eating House; and chicken livers with greens and anchovies at Terroirs. Luke Tchalenko for The New York Times Traditionally the best restaurants are not usually clustered in theater districts, and the restaurants you do find in those areas tend to prize efficiency over anything else. But in London, at least, that's not the case. Several really interesting restaurants exist in the heart of or just a few blocks from the West End. The former manufacturing town of red brick terraced houses and hosiery factories about two hours from London has received a lot of attention since researchers from the University of Leicester found a skeleton during an archaeological dig was that of Richard III, a monarch immortalized by Shakespeare, in 2013. Known for its cutting edge bars, offbeat galleries and ethnic restaurants, East London is by far the city's trendiest area, crowded with shoppers during the day and clubbers at night. You'll also find some of London's best fashion, craft and design businesses, mostly in renovated historic buildings and warehouses off leafy squares and winding streets. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night's highlights that lets you sleep and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If you're interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox. No, The 'D' Doesn't Stand for Donald President Trump was in Normandy, France, on Thursday, joining other world leaders in commemorating the Allied invasion 75 years ago. During a news conference with President Emmanuel Macron, a reporter asked if Trump would lead America in defense of France again. Stephen Colbert, as Trump, responded affirmatively. "Absolutely. I'd be right there. Especially now that those World War II soldiers are so old and easy to fight. I mean, just bingity bangity boom, nighty night, grandpa, beach saved!" STEPHEN COLBERT With Trump Away, Republicans Get Frisky Colbert also weighed in on the continuing fight over Trump's threat to impose tariffs on Mexico. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Financial Brokers Must Now Act in Your 'Best Interest.' What Does That Mean? The next time you shop around for financial advice, more investment professionals will be able to assure you that they're acting in your "best interest." But what's really in your best interest is understanding precisely what that means. A Securities and Exchange Commission rule that took effect on June 30 created a new standard for brokers to live up to: Those who sell financial products must act in their customers' best interest. But consumer advocates say investors could be led to believe they're getting more protections than the rule delivers. And the new regulation could soon have even broader influence: A complementary proposal from the Labor Department would allow financial professionals to accept payments like commissions when providing advice on your retirement money as long as they met the best interest standard. At the same time, more professionals may be able to skirt the rules altogether, consumer advocates said. "This is the new wolves in sheep's clothing," said Jamie Hopkins, director of retirement research at Carson Group in Omaha. The rule that recently took effect called Regulation Best Interest covers brokers, who often make commissions when they sell things like mutual funds or stocks and bonds to average investors. "Main Street investors will be entitled to recommendations and advice in their best interest the financial professional cannot put its interests ahead of the investor," said Natalie Strom, a spokeswoman for the S.E.C. But consumer advocates said that wasn't the same thing as putting the client first. "Notably, the rule does not say that best interest means that a broker must place the customer's interests ahead of the broker's, which is what most people would think a best interest regulation would include," said Benjamin Edwards, an associate professor of law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. That still allows brokers or their firms to consider their own pockets when making recommendations, he said. The agency calls the rule an improvement over the old standard, which required brokers to recommend products that were "suitable," based on factors such as the customer's age, goals and risk tolerance. The new rule also aims to rein in certain sales contests, for example, and requires brokers to consider costs, among other things. Consumer advocates fear that there will be confusion, though. The "best interest" rule sounds similar to the traditional gold standard obligation that certain other financial professionals must meet: fiduciary duty, which typically means working solely in the interest of the client. The kinds of professionals held to that standard include registered investment advisers, who are often paid flat fees for the time they take to give you advice, or a percentage of assets managed. The S.E.C.'s own investor advocate also voiced concerns about the potential for confusion. Customers will be harmed if the rule "is not enforced rigorously enough to demand behavior that matches customers' expectations," the advocate, Rick Fleming, said in a statement when the rule was proposed last year. If you want to be certain you're working with a financial professional who is truly putting your interests first, advocates suggest asking him or her a question: Are you acting as a fiduciary 100 percent of the time? Then ask for a signed oath saying as much. The broker should be able to fully explain how he or she is compensated. The new best interest rule could also have implications for your retirement money. In the complementary action, the Department of Labor proposed regulations concerning how financial professionals acting as fiduciaries must conduct themselves when handling their customers' retirement accounts. Under federal law, fiduciaries are generally prohibited from accepting payments that would pose conflicts of interest. The proposed rule would provide an exemption, allowing financial professionals to receive such payments, like commissions, as long as they adhere to a best interest standard that generally aligns with the new S.E.C. rule. The proposal tries to clear up any uncertainty created after a federal appeals court overturned, in 2018, an Obama era rule that was challenged by a team of lawyers led by Eugene Scalia, the current labor secretary. The overturned rule had allowed fiduciaries to accept commissions and similar payments only if they entered an enforceable best interest contract with the investor and eliminated or more significantly reduced conflicts of interest, legal experts said. The contract, along with other protections, would not be required under the newly proposed regulation. Emily Weeks, a spokeswoman for the Labor Department, said any firms or financial professionals who relied on the exemption would still need to acknowledge that they were acting as a fiduciary "and adhere to these stringent fiduciary standards as well as other consumer protective standards." But the proposal package also confirmed that fewer investment professionals are required to act as fiduciaries when handling their clients' retirement money, according to retirement law attorneys. Overturning the Obama era rule restored a large part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, which governs when an investment professional must become a fiduciary while handling retirement money. Under that law, fiduciary duty is triggered when an investment professional meets five conditions, including providing individual advice on a regular basis. But advocates say the rollback reopens loopholes that the overturned rule was meant to close. As a result, it may be easier for financial professionals to avoid becoming fiduciaries, said Jason C. Roberts, chief executive officer of the Pension Resource Institute, a consulting firm for banks, brokerage and advisory firms. Brokers can skirt the fiduciary standard by structuring their interactions with clients as educational in nature, he explained, and stopping short of what might be considered advice. "My clients, financial institutions, are going to be very pleased with this proposal, and the investor advocates are going to hate it," said Mr. Roberts, who is also a managing partner of the Retirement Law Group. "It is not taking anything away or raising the bar the same way the prior rule did." Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America, also said the new rule appeared to make it easier for a financial professional to avoid being a fiduciary when making certain kinds of recommendations on one off transactions. For example, there would be no fiduciary duty for an insurance agent who recommended rolling over the proceeds of a 401(k) plan into a fixed index annuity product in a one time sale, she said. "The new D.O.L. advice rule simultaneously makes it easier for firms to evade their fiduciary obligations and weakened those obligations where they do apply," Ms. Roper said. Stakeholders can submit comments on the new proposal for 30 days, ending Aug. 6; the Labor Department will review those comments and evaluate what, if any, changes are needed. But 21 advocacy and trade groups wrote a letter last week urging the department to provide more time to digest the proposal. "A 30 day comment period is an unreasonably short amount of time to provide thoughtful and comprehensive comments on this complex and highly technical proposal, which would affect our constituencies including virtually all Americans struggling to save for retirement in varied and far reaching ways," the groups wrote. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
In a move that could significantly expand the nation's testing capacity, the Food and Drug Administration has posted new guidelines that could pave the way for millions of people to test themselves for the coronavirus at home. The guidelines allow companies to develop and market testing kits with the tools to swab their noses and mail the specimens to any lab in the country. Efforts to contain the pandemic have been hobbled by a series of botched screening efforts. Initially, the Centers for Disease Control Prevention shipped flawed test kits to the states, and subsequent regulatory hurdles stymied the roll out of tests produced by private companies and commercial labs. Access to tests has been improving, but nationwide testing shortages continue to hamper the ability of health authorities to identify and isolate people who are infected. The F.D.A. said it hoped the new guidelines, posted on its site on Wednesday evening, would greatly boost the availability of tests by encouraging manufacturers to mass produce at home collection kits. "We are cutting the red tape to ease and expedite the development and agency review of novel tests," Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the F.D.A. commissioner, said in statement. Experts who were not involved with the project said they were optimistic about the prospects for home testing, but questioned whether the country's commercial labs could process a deluge of self collected samples. The F.D.A. acted after it extensively reviewed studies determining the viability of self collected samples that spent three days in a dry plastic tube and the accuracy of the testing method. The studies were conducted by UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation's major insurers, with support from the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. Scientists and public health experts said they hope the new guidelines will speed the production of inexpensive diagnostic kits that could be ordered online or purchased at pharmacies without a doctor's order. The tests could be administered at the first sign of illness, with results available as quickly as 24 hours after a specimen arrived at a lab, according to those involved with the studies. The Gates Foundation is moving to jump start those efforts. It is developing an app that could be used to order test kits, deliver lab results and assist with contact tracing, and the foundation provided technical support to U.S. Cotton, which will be making millions of polyester swabs. The goal is to produce a kit that costs under 5. Mr. Gates, the Microsoft co founder whose philanthropy has directed 250 million toward fighting the coronavirus pandemic, has expressed frustration in recent weeks with the slow pace of testing in the United States. In a statement Thursday, Mr. Gates said the new F.D.A. guidance would provide a much needed alternative to current coronavirus testing, which requires patients to visit a clinic or hospital staffed by health workers who must frequently change protective gear that remains in short supply. "Soon people should be able to get access to testing swabs just about anywhere and drop their samples in the mail," Mr. Gates said. "This should make it possible for testing to be safer and more accessible for everyone, something that's especially important for people with underlying conditions who can't risk going out and others who might not have easy access to health care." Virginia's new lieutenant governor elect says she won't force vaccines. The approval of the new guidelines was months in the making. It had been repeatedly delayed as agency scientists requested additional data to ensure that at home test specimens could endure a journey through the postal system or several days in street side collection bins awaiting pickup by Fed Ex and other courier companies. The new testing methods are based on studies that found virus samples could be transported in a dry plastic tube and remain stable for up to three days with temperatures as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Up until now, commercial labs have required swabs to be placed in tubes with a liquid transport medium, complicating the prospects for large scale home diagnostics that relied on the Postal Service or private delivery companies. The F.D.A. last month approved a diagnostic kit by LabCorp, but the test must be ordered by a doctor, and only LabCorp can process the specimens. The kit costs 119, further limiting its potential to address the country's need for millions of tests a day. A flurry of other diagnostics have become available in recent weeks, among them a saliva based test being rolled out in New Jersey, and a cheek swab being used by drive through test sites in Southern California. Scientists are working on a rapid test based on gene editing Crispr technology. Its backers said materials for each test would cost about 6. The F.D.A. last month forced two companies to withdraw at home kits they were marketing without authorization. A number of other tests that detect whether a person had been infected with the coronavirus have been plagued by inaccurate results. On Monday, the F.D.A. announced that companies selling antibody tests must submit data proving accuracy within the next 10 days or face removal from the market. Dr. Eric Topol, the director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, said that inexpensive, mass produced diagnostics could help states that lack the necessary testing capacity to ease shutdowns and social distancing guidelines, which have choked the American economy. "The only way to get our arms around this pandemic is to enable millions of people to get tested," he said. "Home testing is really the only way to do it." But Dr. Topol and other experts questioned how quickly home testing could be ramped up in quantities that would enable Americans to test themselves at the first sign of illness. Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Center of Infection and Immunity at Columbia's School of Public Health, said she worried commercial labs could be overwhelmed by millions of specimens. She also wondered whether health authorities have the capacity to act on the results and do labor intensive contact tracing, notifying people who might have been exposed to the virus and making sure they self quarantine. "Widespread home testing would be a game changer, but the logistics of this are going to be a huge challenge," she said. Increased testing in the United States has been hampered by a shortage of sterile swabs, chemical reagents needed to process samples and personal protective gear, which health workers need while swabbing a patient's nose. The F.D.A. has in recent weeks moved to address some obstacles. Last month, the agency provided emergency clearance for the use of foam or spun polyester swabs as an alternative to traditional medical grade swabs. And it also approved new guidelines paving the way for tests to be self administered with a simple twirl of swabs at the base of each nostril. Those guidelines, the result of separate studies by UnitedHealth Group and Dr. Yuan Po Tu of the Everett Clinic in Washington State, will give medical providers an alternative to the intrusive nasopharyngeal probes that sometimes result in false negatives. The deep probes, long the gold standard for diagnosing respiratory illnesses, require plentiful supplies of protective gear for medical workers. Inserting the probes in the nasal cavity can also be excruciating for patients. And the process sometimes provokes coughing, sneezing and vomiting in patients, which heightens the risks for medical workers. "It's really uncomfortable for patients it feels like getting water up your nose while swimming and to be honest, a lot of medical workers don't do it the right way," said Dr. Deneen Vojta, UnitedHealth's executive vice president of research and development. "This immediately expands access to testing because we have more types of swabs to use and patients can do it themselves, which greatly reduces the risks for medical workers." Though the Gates Foundation has been working with American companies to mass produce affordable test kits, its ultimate goal is to ensure that poorer nations have access to widespread testing. Dr. Dan Wattendorf, the foundation's director of Innovative Technology Solutions, said the discovery that coronavirus samples do not need to be kept cool as they travel to a lab had the potential to revolutionize testing in poorer countries that lack temperature controlled transport. This need has long been a challenge for public health experts seeking to contain outbreaks of diseases in countries with limited infrastructure. Dr. Wattendorf, a geneticist who works on efforts to expand diagnostics in the developing world, said preliminary research suggested those same findings might apply to other respiratory viruses as well. "If swab samples don't have to be refrigerated or preserved in liquid transport media, it means that testing can reach more people living in some of the most remote and vulnerable communities in Africa and Asia," said Dr. Wattendorf. "That ultimately benefits everyone because this virus has no respect for boundaries, social or geographic." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Dan Gurney, whose considerable achievements as a racing driver were the prelude to a career as one of the more influential forces in motorsports, will be presented with the Edison Ford Medal by the Henry Ford museum. The award, established by the museum in 1989, recognizes individuals who "fully leverage the creative, innovative and entrepreneurial spirit that resides in every one of us." Gurney, 83, is only the second person to receive the medal. The first was W. Edwards Deming, the champion of statistical process control and the person widely credited for Japan's industrial renaissance in the decade starting in 1950. Gurney's driving record included wins in 1950s British sports cars and Ford prototypes in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He is the only American to win a World Championship Formula One race the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix in a car designed and built by his own company, All American Racers. He was responsible for bringing Ford Motor together with the designer of Lotus cars, Colin Chapman, a move that changed the face of the Indianapolis 500 when Chapman's rear engine entries dominated the event. Gurney retired from driving in 1970 to devote all of his time to All American Racers, which is in Santa Ana, Calif. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
DENVER As the first brooding chords of the song "Let It Go" arose from the orchestra, a whisper of wonder overswept the audience. And then a mighty sound began. Oh yes, Caissie Levy, who plays that ice cursed royal in Disney's stage adaptation of the hit animated musical "Frozen," was muttering the first words of the ubiquitous anthem and winding up to blow the house down at the end of the show's first act. But the noise was the noise of little girls. Throughout the enormous Buell Theater, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts here, they and not a few boys were already singing along. And when, as the story demands, Elsa's somber dress magically transformed into a form fitting, ice blue, crystal studded gown, they shrieked in admiration. Some even stood, as if in solidarity, to show off the ice blue gowns they too had worn to the theater. This was completely adorable but also a little strange. How did the dark, neurotic Elsa along with her younger sister, Anna, and the prince and the ice monger and the reindeer and, yes, the goofball snowman get here? And what story were they telling in this sometimes charming, sometimes awesome, sometimes lumbering adaptation? But the success of "Frozen" as a film was already a bit odd, a freak of the tween zeitgeist more than a response to coherent storytelling. Remotely based on the 1844 Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Snow Queen," a parable about faith and friendship, the movie retained only the central metaphor of a woman who can freeze people's hearts with her witchcraft. In the Andersen story, she ensorcells a little boy she fancies and holds him in icy captivity until his saintlike friend Gerda finds and rescues him. In the screenplay for "Frozen," though, Elsa isn't an evil witch but a tormented blonde whose power tends to leak as if she were suffering from a form of magical incontinence. (She wears gloves to hold it in.) And the endangered youth isn't a handsome boy but the bumptious, ginger Anna, who endures many adventures and hardships while trying to redeem her sister. Instead of eros we have sisterly love, and instead of Christian faith we have pluck. The stage musical, directed by Michael Grandage, further revises those qualities, not necessarily on purpose. You don't notice it so much in Act I, which moves swiftly and hews fairly close to the movie's plot, though the trolls who know how to undo Elsa's magic are no longer embodied as talking boulders but as hunky Hidden Folk who sing in Norwegian. More consequentially, a dozen or so songs by Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez have been added to seven they wrote for the movie, making the first act a nearly sung through music drama. Several of the new ones flesh out subsidiary characters, including Hans, the foreign prince who romances Anna, and Kristoff, the backcountry lunk who helps her on her journey. These are typical second drawer Disney numbers: momentarily catchy, neat and to the point. But as the story (by Jennifer Lee, the movie's co screenwriter) develops, and especially in Act II, you become aware of major strains in the adaptation. They begin with the need to recreate onstage the magic carried out so effortlessly on film. Though the metamorphosing dress (by the costume designer Christopher Oram) is delightful, the other transformations, especially whenever Elsa gets into one of her ice manias, seem labored. Ms. Levy squats and swings her arms around Martha Graham style while some pretty but obvious projections do the rest. That feeling of heaviness enhanced by Mr. Oram's dark and gloomy sets, which reflect not only the northern setting but the psychological and ecological turmoil of the story also comes from critical choices the adapters have made. Perhaps because it would be unstageable, much of Anna's journey to Elsa's mountain lair is gone, as is the snow monster called Marshmallow who threatens her retreat. Instead we get a number called "What Do You Know About Love?" to introduce the romance between Anna and Kristoff. Though deliciously played by Patti Murin, Anna thus becomes a more conventional Disney girl, all signs pointing to marriage. At the same time, because of the stage musical's need to deepen character through song, Elsa becomes less conventional. Mostly seen alone, often in self imposed exile, she has little opportunity to bounce her feelings off other characters. As a result her new numbers, in addition to the big old one, become a string of super intense monologues, as if she were Hamlet or Sweeney Todd. She is always having dark epiphanies, but her epiphanies are mostly the same: There is something wrong with me. In the movie her neurotic tendencies, like her facial features, were easily smoothed away. But as played, quite well, by Ms. Levy, an actual human, you cannot help but feel the torture Elsa suffers. That's a brave enough choice on its own, but this is a Disney musical, and it does not comport very well with the comic numbers, including a bizarre second act opener by the choreographer Rob Ashford that features a naked sauna kick line. By the middle of that act, with new songs like "Monster" for Elsa and "Colder by the Minute" for the hard working ensemble, and with the never very logical plot rushing toward its conclusion, plenty of the Elsas in the audience had fallen asleep, perhaps in self defense. This is no disaster. Mr. Grandage, who staged rivetingly dour productions of "Frost/Nixon" and "The Cripple of Inishmaan" on Broadway, has five months to revise and refine the show. Some of his work will be done for him by the St. James itself, which seats 1,600 instead of the Buell's 2,800, and will help focus the audience on the less generic, more psychological tale he apparently wants to tell. And already much is right: The supporting cast is charming, the singing spectacular, the simpler effects including the crystal curtain for Elsa's palace and the part puppet, part human reindeer and snowman successful. But, like "Wicked" before it, "Frozen" is going to have to figure how to make the dark character less of a bore and the light character more compelling. (A reprise of "Let It Go," for Anna, might help with the latter.) For now the dominant element isn't ice but murk. The authors seem to have taken Elsa's warning "Don't let them in, don't let them see" too much to heart. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano once called Diego Maradona "the most human of the gods." Argentines were happy to edit that down, to the singular version of the last word. When Maradona died on Wednesday at age 60, many of his compatriots had known him their entire lives. He was the floppy haired former ball boy who went from juggling a ball at halftime of professional matches to playing in them as a 15 year old. He was a collector of championships, the scorer of unforgettable goals (and unforgivable ones, too), a player of incomparable talent and unimaginable excesses. But through it all, he was theirs the hero of a World Cup final in 1986, the loser in another in 1990 and Argentines worshiped him for that. It was the kind of devotion that allowed them to reconcile the many sides of Maradona, to embrace the victories he brought, to accept the defeats he endured, to make peace with his flaws, his feuds and his fights with the authorities. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Two new studies exposed rats and mice to high levels of radio frequency radiation the type emitted by your cellphone. But researchers said there was little cancer risk for humans. Despite years of research, there is still no clear answer. But two government studies released on Friday, one in rats and one in mice, suggest that if there is any risk, it is small, health officials said. Safety questions about cellphones have drawn intense interest and debate for years as the devices have become integral to most people's lives. Even a minute risk could harm millions of people. These two studies on the effects of the type of radiation the phones emit, conducted over 10 years and costing 25 million, are considered the most extensive to date. In male rats, the studies linked tumors in the heart to high exposure to radiation from the phones. But that problem did not occur in female rats, or any mice. The rodents in the studies were exposed to radiation nine hours a day for two years, more than people experience even with a lot of cellphone use, so the results cannot be applied directly to humans, said John Bucher, a senior scientist at the National Toxicology Program, during a telephone news briefing. The results, he said, had not led him to change his own cellphone use or to urge his own family to do so. But he also noted that the heart tumors in rats called malignant schwannomas are similar to acoustic neuromas, a benign tumor in people involving the nerve that connects the ear to the brain, which some studies have linked to cellphone use. He said that nearly 20 animal studies on this subject have been done, "with the vast majority coming up negative with respect to cancer." Other agencies are studying cellphone use in people and trying to determine whether it is linked to the incidence of any type of cancer, Dr. Bucher said. The Food and Drug Administration issued a statement saying it respected the research by the toxicology program, had reviewed many other studies on cellphone safety, and had "not found sufficient evidence that there are adverse health effects in humans caused by exposures at or under the current radio frequency exposure limits." The statement, from Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the F.D.A.'s center for devices and radiological health, also said, "Even with frequent daily use by the vast majority of adults, we have not seen an increase in events like brain tumors." The Federal Communications Commission sets exposure limits for radio frequency energy from cellphones, but relies on the F.D.A. and other health agencies for scientific advice on determining the limits, the statement said. For people who worry about the risk, health officials offer common sense advice: Spend less time on cellphones, use a headset or speaker mode so that the phone is not pressed up against the head and avoid trying to make calls if the signal is weak. Dr. Bucher noted that the radiation emitted increases when users are in spots where the signal is poor or sporadic and the cellphone has to work harder to connect. In December, California issued advice to consumers about how to lower their exposure, including texting instead of talking, keeping the phone away from the head and body while streaming, downloading or sending large files; carrying the phone in a backpack, briefcase or purse, not a pocket, bra or belt holster; and not sleeping with the phone close to your head. The two studies, involving 3,000 animals, are "the most comprehensive assessments of health effects and exposure to radio frequency radiation in rats and mice to date," according to a statement from the toxicology program, part of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The studies extend partial findings released in May 2016, which found small increases in the incidence of tumors in the brains and hearts of male rats, but not female ones. The new studies also found tumors in the brains and some other organs in the animals exposed to the radio frequency radiation. But Dr. Bucher said those findings were "equivocal," emphasizing that only the heart tumors provided evidence strong enough for the researchers to trust. Other possible effects need more research, he said. Others felt that even the ambiguous findings were of concern. Joel M. Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, said that based on the overall results of the study, the government should reassess and strengthen the limits it imposes on how much and what types of radiation cellphones can emit. Scientists do not know why only male rats develop the heart tumors, but Dr. Bucher said one possibility is simply that the males are bigger and absorb more of the radiation. The studies also found some DNA damage in the exposed animals, a bit of a surprise because scientists had believed that radio frequency radiation unlike the ionizing radiation in X rays could not harm DNA. "We don't feel like we understand enough about the results to be able to place a huge degree of confidence in the findings," Dr. Bucher said. A seemingly paradoxical finding that has also puzzled the researchers is that the rats exposed to the cellphone radiation actually lived longer than the controls. One possible explanation, Dr. Bucher said, is that the radiation may ease inflammation, and lessen the severity of a chronic kidney disorder that is common in aging rats and can kill them. Asked if there was any chance that cellphone use could help people live longer, Dr. Bucher said: "The extrapolation to humans requires a number of steps that go beyond the realm of what we're studying here. I don't think that question is particularly answerable at the moment." The reports issued on Friday were considered draft versions released for public comment and a review by outside experts on March 26 to 28 at the environmental health institute in Research Triangle Park, N.C. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Credit...Luke Sharrett for The New York Times HARLAN, Ky. Gov. Matt Bevin skillfully worked the room at the old courthouse building here in Harlan, one more town hall meeting in the long campaign toward next year's election. He deplored the parlous state of a half mile stretch of U.S. 421 and said 802,000 would be spent to rebuild it. He commiserated with the man who wanted to know how he should deal with the bears tearing through his trash bins, now that it's forbidden to shoot them. The line that got the governor a standing ovation, however, was about Medicaid. More precisely, about his plan so far frustrated by the courts to require thousands of able bodied Medicaid recipients between 19 and 64 to work, get training or perform community service for 20 hours a week to keep their health insurance. "Yeahs" rippled across the room as the governor extolled the value and dignity of work, which propelled him from a hardscrabble youth in rural New Hampshire to the governor's mansion in Frankfort. "People tell me it's too much to ask," he noted, incredulously, about his plan to demand that people on Medicaid get a job. "Baloney." And the line from Ronald Reagan got chuckles all around: "The worst thing you can hear," the governor told Harlan's gathered residents, is "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." "The SNAP card works every month; the kids eat two meals a day, but people don't think about where the food comes from and go vote for Republicans," said Larry King, a Kentucky farmer who is chairman of the Democratic Party in McCreary County, whose residents get 55 percent of their income from federal transfers. It's not just about Kentucky. Research by Dean Lacy at Dartmouth College on the presidential elections in 2004, 2008 and 2012 found that states receiving more federal spending for every tax dollar they contributed were more likely to go Republican. The phenomenon produced a 2004 best seller, Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter With Kansas?" It argued that Republicans drew working class voters to their platform against taxes and spending not with economic arguments, but by appealing to their conservative cultural preferences against gay rights, abortion rights, affirmative action and gun control. The contradiction has only become more pronounced over time. As Americans have grown more reliant on federal programs over the last 50 years, they have increasingly embraced the Republican Party, a trend put in stark relief by President Trump's 2016 victory. Of the 10 states in which government transfers account for the largest share of income, seven voted for Mr. Trump. Speaking to the economic and social anxieties of blue collar white voters over immigration, trade and demographic change, Mr. Trump has championed tax cuts for the well to do paired with benefit cuts for the struggling voters in his base. Transfers from the federal government account for more than half of residents' personal income in 11 counties across the country. Ten are in eastern Kentucky; another is in West Virginia. Nine of those sit in Kentucky's Fifth Congressional District, which was the first in the nation to declare a winner on election night, Nov. 6: Harold Rogers, a Republican who has held the seat since 1981. He won 79 percent of the vote. One meme stock lawsuit against Robinhood is dismissed, but others loom. A former Tesla executive's new sedan is a direct challenge to Tesla's dominance. Even excluding health insurance which some experts argue should not count people in this patch of Appalachia draw between a fifth and a third of their income from the public purse. Perhaps the politics of welfare is changing up to a point. Democrats made big gains this year in elections for the House and several statehouses, running largely on the promise that they would protect the most recent addition to the safety net: the Affordable Care Act, including the expansion of Medicaid in many states. But championing the safety net does not necessarily resonate in the places that most need it. Take Daniel Lewis, who crashed his car into a coal truck 15 years ago, breaking his neck and suffering a blood clot in his brain when he was only 21. He is grateful for the 1,600 a month his family gets from disability insurance; for his Medicaid benefits; for the food stamps he shares with his wife and two children. "Every need I have has been met," Mr. Lewis told me. He disagrees with the governor's proposal to demand that Medicaid recipients get a job. And yet, in 2016, he voted for Mr. Trump. "It was the lesser of two evils," he said. About 13 percent of Harlan's residents are receiving disability benefits. More than 10,000 get food stamps. But in 2015 almost two thirds voted for Mr. Bevin. In 2016 almost 9 out of 10 chose Mr. Trump. Conservative values surely run strong in this county of many churches and only one liquor store. But the politics of Harlan, a storied Democratic enclave whose yearlong strike against the Duke Power Company's coal mining interests in 1973 is seared into union lore, can't be explained simply by voters' cultural leanings. As Professor Mettler points out, the people who rely most on government transfers are least likely to vote. Only 31 percent of Kentucky's electorate voted in 2015; only 16 percent voted for Mr. Bevin. Participation was lowest in the counties most dependent on federal aid. The governor's victory was not propelled by the neediest Kentuckians. A cognitive disconnect is at play: People often don't link benefits they rely on with the idea of government welfare. Professor Lacy's research, for instance, suggests that ideology and identity influence how people perceive their benefits, and can outweigh their personal experience of such assistance. He finds that Democrats and African Americans, but not whites or Republicans, were much more likely as groups to feel they were benefiting from government programs in 2012, when Mr. Obama was president, than during the George W. Bush administration in 2008. But Harlan's experience suggests that the steepest barrier keeping voters from embracing the government payments that help them get through the day comes from fundamental mistrust. It's not necessarily that people here don't understand they benefit. They fear that Washington so distant from rural America does not understand their plight or have their interests in mind. "People in Harlan County have been on the front lines of the war on poverty for 50 plus years and can see its actual effects," said Preston Jones, the 31 year old assistant director at the Pine Mountain Settlement School, over the mountain from Harlan. "It is degrading." There are few open storefronts downtown, mostly occupied by disability lawyers and pawn shops. "The biggest business for a long time was the U Haul rental business as people moved out of state," said Jay Nolan, who runs a string of newspapers based in London, some 70 miles northwest. "In Harlan you had to wait for days to get one." Many people blame Mr. Obama's Clean Power Plan for killing coal and credit their vote for Mr. Trump to his promise that he would revitalize the industry. Some are skeptical of a government that saved Detroit's automakers but not Appalachia's lifeline. And this feeling is going to be hard to shake. Harlan has few answers to its economic tribulations: few roads linking it to the world's markets, few good broadband links, few college graduates, few investors willing to risk their money there. "Most of the kids from here who have a chance to go to university never come back," said Colby Kirk, executive director at One Harlan County, a nonprofit economic development group serving the area. Success, when it happens, happens on a small scale. This year, the Harlan County Chamber of Commerce gave its business of the year award to a fledgling coal mining company that has grown to 220 jobs, almost twice as many as last year. Therein lies a monumental obstacle to transforming the politics of America's safety net. As small towns lag behind prosperous urban centers along the coasts, as rural communities shed businesses and jobs, and as their residents turn to welfare as a last line of sustenance, the more they will resent Washington's inability, or unwillingness, to stem the decline. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Is the Fed at risk for real this time? Throughout American history, few institutions have inspired such persistent mistrust among voters and their elected officials as the mysterious authority that determines the value of their money. The Federal Reserve wasn't even around yet when the fiery Nebraska populist William Jennings Bryan rose to the Democratic presidential nomination in 1896 by charging that the gold standard that ruled monetary policy at the time was crucifying the workingman "upon a cross of gold" to serve bankers' interests depressing farm prices and crushing indebted farmers by limiting money in circulation. Since its inception in 1913, the Federal Reserve has been alternately accused of either making money too scarce and expensive or making it too plentiful and cheap. In 1981, a Democratic congressman, Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, threatened to introduce a bill to impeach the Fed chairman, Paul A. Volcker, and most of its other governors, accusing them of squelching the economy with tight monetary policy. Thirty years later, on the Republican presidential campaign trail, another Texan, Gov. Rick Perry, famously suggested roughing up the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, for "printing money" to stimulate growth: "I don't know what y'all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas." On Wednesday, a Federal Reserve led by Janet L. Yellen confirmed three years ago in the Senate by the tightest margin in at least 35 years is likely to get a taste of this vitriol. As my colleague Binyamin Appelbaum noted on Monday, the Fed is all but certain to raise its benchmark interest rate, setting itself on a path to prevent an acceleration of the economy and ward off an uptick in inflation a course that is in clear tension with President Trump's stated goal to stoke growth at all cost. The pressing question for this era of populist policy making and popular anger is whether the Federal Reserve as we know it arcane and academic, with the autonomy to set monetary policy as it sees fit will survive the tension this time. Given the ferocious discontent with the "establishment" stoked by Mr. Trump among his angry electoral base, the threat against the Fed this time seems of a higher order. As Adam S. Posen, an American economist who has served on the Bank of England's rate setting Monetary Policy Committee, told me, "The sense that the Fed's independence could be taken away by a simple act of Congress is very real." The pressure is already on. Mr. Posen, who now heads the Peterson Institute for International Economics, points out that the Fed already lost powers it deployed to counter the recession spawned by the financial crisis a decade ago: The Dodd Frank financial reform legislation stripped it of its authority to lend freely to nonbanks, which it used to keep money market funds, insurance companies and others that had bet on the wrong side of the housing bubble from imploding and taking the economy with them. Efforts that stalled in the last Congress to subject the Fed's funding to congressional approval, to reduce its discretion in setting monetary policy and to subject it to the oversight of Congress's Government Accountability Office have acquired a new lease on life, cheered from the right and the left. Disgruntlement in Congress will only grow worse as the Fed gradually winds down the enormous stash of bonds it built over the last eight years to support the mortgage market and encourage lending. This will inevitably push up long term interest rates and produce paper losses for the Fed as it marks the price of securities to market. As Donald L. Kohn, former vice chairman of the Fed, noted in an analysis of the Fed's independence three years ago, "it will be a complex exit involving many steps with lots of opportunity for kibitzing and objecting over a long period." Retail earnings and Black Friday: the week in business. Elizabeth Holmes will resume her testimony in her fraud trial. Congressional action might not be the Fed's biggest problem. Mr. Trump's appointments to the Federal Reserve Board could prove as destabilizing: Two of the seven positions are vacant, and a third will come open with the retirement of Daniel K. Tarullo in April. By the middle of next year, Mr. Trump will also have the opportunity to replace Ms. Yellen as Fed chief and Stanley Fischer as her deputy. Alan S. Blinder, a vice chairman of the Fed during the Clinton administration, recalls the damage caused in the 1970s by Arthur F. Burns, who Mr. Blinder said juiced up the economy as Fed chairman to help President Richard M. Nixon's re election bid and cracked down hard afterward. "I'm worried about the people Donald Trump will send over there," he told me. "If he sends over toadies beholden to Donald Trump, it would be a very serious threat to the Fed's independence." So what is Ms. Yellen's Fed to do? To a point, this is not just about the Federal Reserve. The European Central Bank, too, is navigating political waters charged with populist mistrust. In Britain, the Labour Party's shadow chancellor of the Exchequer has called for "democratic control" over interest rates. The argument for central bank independence is as powerful as ever. Political influence over monetary policy would produce more destabilizing booms as politicians pumped up growth to serve their electoral purposes and inevitable busts. Expecting consistency of elected officials is decidedly risky: The Republican accusation that the Fed was putting the economy at risk by keeping interest rates at rock bottom to help the Obama administration will inevitably spin 180 degrees now that Republicans control the White House. Still, not all the criticism is mendacious. The popular mistrust of central bankers should not be ignored. After all, central bankers failed to prevent the most devastating financial crisis in generations looking on idly, at best, while financial institutions peddled shady bonds to fuel a housing bubble of gargantuan proportions. And central banks have emerged, at least implicitly, with a bigger job than before, adding the preservation of financial stability to their duty to ensure low inflation and, in the Fed's case, full employment. Some central banks though not the Fed have been given new tools for this new job. Given this power, it is inevitable that the enormous discretion central bankers have in executing their mandate will inspire popular mistrust. "The financial crisis was very difficult to digest, costly, and had redistributional consequences," said Lucrezia Reichlin, former head of research at the European Central Bank and now a professor at the London Business School. "Central banks were at the center of the response, so the demand to open up this discussion is natural. We should not be afraid of talking about accountability." Perhaps. Perhaps there is a discussion to be had over whether the Fed should keep its role as supervisor of financial institutions, or whether the job should be placed with another agency. Maybe financial supervision should be made more rule based, less subject to regulators' discretion. Maybe there is a better way for Fed officials to communicate with Congress and explain the thinking behind their decisions. Maybe the Fed needs extra tools to impose limits on indebtedness, for instance, or to adjust monetary policy to serve measures of financial stability. Maybe it could benefit from a tweak in its mandate, to ensure a better balance between its goals of fostering employment and curbing inflation. And yet the populist streak driving through American politics seems unlikely to yield such measured outcomes. The Federal Reserve was designed to be insulated from the full force of democracy in order to protect its mandate from political opportunism, to ensure that policy hewed to technical expertise. It was designed precisely to protect it from a moment like this. One can only hope that the protections hold. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Roger Federer announced on Thursday that he had undergone surgery on his right knee and would miss a series of tournaments, including the French Open in May. The so called Big Three of Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, who have dominated the sport, will be down to the Big Two for as long as it takes for Federer to recover. Federer, who is ranked No. 3 and has won a men's record 20 Grand Slam singles titles, said the surgery had taken place on Wednesday. Federer, 38, said his doctors had confirmed after the procedure that "it was the right thing to have done and are very confident of a full recovery." He made it clear that he expected to be able to play at Wimbledon, which begins June 29. He has won eight singles titles there, a men's record, and held two championship points last year before losing in the final to Djokovic. "See you on the grass!" Federer said in his post. But there are naturally uncertainties about his ability to recover quickly and return to the fore at his age. "The big challenge in my experience is the older you get, the harder it is to come back from anything," Paul Annacone, Federer's former coach, said in a telephone interview. "But these all time greats are aberrations, not the rule, so you risk your own peril to predict what's going to happen, pro or con. In 2010, when I started with him, people were wondering when he was going to retire." This is only the second surgery of Federer's long career. He had the first in February 2016 to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee, which he injured while making a sudden movement as he was giving his twin daughters a bath. Though he returned to competition in April that year, he continued to struggle, and eventually cut short his season to further rehabilitate his knee and recover full fitness. He roared back after a nearly six month break to play some of his finest tennis: hitting through his one handed backhand with new power and conviction. He won the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2017 and the Australian Open again in 2018, shortly before returning to No. 1. It has been quite a tennis renaissance, but he will now be forced to take another extended break from competition. "I can promise you he is a very thoughtful decision maker," Annacone said. "I think probably he approaches everything from the macro perspective: what gives him the best chance to do well and stay really healthy for a longer period of time." Federer said he would miss the hardcourt events in Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami, as well as the French Open, the next Grand Slam event of the year, which is contested on red clay. Last year, Federer accumulated more than 3,000 ranking points in that phase of the season: winning titles in Dubai and Miami, reaching the final in Indian Wells and reaching the semifinals at the French Open in his first appearance at Roland Garros since 2015. Unable to defend those points this year, Federer's ranking will slip, but he should still be inside the top 10 in June, even after a four month break from competition. He should also still receive a high seeding at Wimbledon, which uses a formula that takes recent grass court results into account. Federer also announced that he would be unable to take part in a rescheduled exhibition on March 24 in Bogota, Colombia, against Alexander Zverev. That exhibition was originally scheduled for November but had to be canceled at the last minute after large scale demonstrations in Bogota led to the imposition of a curfew. The decision to call off that match left Federer in tears in the locker room. He was in tears again in Cape Town, South Africa, on Feb. 7, deeply moved as he and his longtime rival Rafael Nadal played an exhibition to benefit Federer's charitable foundation that drew a crowd of 51,954 to Cape Town Stadium. Federer showed no clear signs of a knee injury during that match, chasing down lobs and lunging for groundstrokes and volleys as he and Nadal played three sets of singles. But one of Federer's skills, Annacone said, is how rarely he discusses his injuries, "so you don't ever really know quite how healthy he is." "We take for granted the way he plays that he's generally pretty healthy, but he plays through a lot," Annacone said. He did openly struggle with his mobility and health during last month's Australian Open, experiencing some back and leg pain as he battled his way to the semifinals, saving seven match points in a quarterfinal victory over Tennys Sandgren, an unseeded American. There were concerns he might withdraw from his semifinal against Djokovic, but he decided to play after undergoing medical exams. He started strongly before losing the opening set in a tiebreaker, and then faded as Djokovic prevailed, 7 6 (1), 6 4, 6 3, on his way to the title. "He just got to the semis of the Aussie Open by the skin of his teeth basically, but he was there, and those are the moments all those greats live for," Annacone said. "So I'm not quite ready to write him off. And you look at his grass court record and how unique his game is for grass, I don't see any reason he can't still win Wimbledon." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
Keeping up with everything new on Netflix these days is practically a full time job. Just consider the Netflix original TV shows alone: The streaming service's business model involves producing or distributing more than a dozen entirely new shows each month, in a variety of genres, pitched to wildly diverging audiences. It's easy for even the most dedicated watchers to fall behind. What follows is a guide to getting to the essential Netflix original series more quickly. From reality series to kids' shows and from the Netflix originals everyone's talking about right now to the ones they should be this list is meant to help you get more out of your subscription. Somehow, the Netflix programming team keeps finding these absorbing and nuanced true crime docu series. Here, director Brian Knappenberger best known for the issue driven documentary features "The Internet's Own Boy" and "Nobody Speak" takes the tragic story of an 8 year old Los Angeles County boy's death by torture and uses it as a way into a larger critique of the social services system that allowed it to happen. The series covers the final days of Fernandez's life in often disturbing detail, but it also follows the crusading journalists who helped elevate his case to the level of a scandal. Reality TV often gets a bad rap justifiably for being contrived and sensationalistic, and yet at its best, the genre can be as richly dramatic as a great documentary. The creators of the acclaimed football focused Netflix series "Last Chance U" bring a similar kind of complex, multicharacter storytelling to the sport of cheerleading in their six part "Cheer." Set at a Texas community college, the docu series builds to a genuinely tense championship competition. But throughout it's more about the colorful personalities of these kids and coaches, who hope their abilities to leap, lift, climb and tumble will give them a shot at a better life. The British TV adaptation of the crime novelist Harlan Coben's 2015 book, "The Stranger," delivers what his fans expect: a twisty plot about an ordinary person whose life is knocked off course by a surprise revelation. Richard Armitage plays Adam Price, an upper middle class husband and dad who finds out from a mysterious woman that his wife harbors a terrible secret. Adam isn't the only one to whom this "stranger" shares some hard truths. As this mini series plays out, the hero allies with others who are trying both to recover from their encounters with this shady lady and to figure out what she really wants. Some of the brightest comic actors and writers of the past decade reunite for "Medical Police," a delightfully silly spinoff of the long running, now defunct Adult Swim series "Childrens Hospital." In this ten episode spoof of explosive international thrillers, Erinn Hayes and Rob Huebel play pediatric doctors who are drafted by the government into fighting bioterrorism, while Malin Akerman, Lake Bell, Ken Marino and Rob Corddry fill out the cast. The pandemic plot might strike some viewers as too real right now to be funny, but there's nothing remotely serious about it. This is a ridiculous parody of ridiculous movies. Like any good doctor, it does no harm. 'I Am Not Okay With This' Netflix and the producer director Jonathan Entwistle have struck a resonant chord with their adaptations of the graphic novelist Charles Forsman's books: first with the black comedy "The End of the ing World," and now with this low key fantasy drama about a teenager named Sydney, who discovers she may be have telekinesis. Like its predecessor, "I Am Not Okay With This" is primarily about what it feels like to be a misfit teen dealing with surging hormones and restless thoughts. As Sydney, the terrific young actress Sophia Lillis captures the rawness of adolescence, when every fleeting emotion burns like fire. Like "The Walking Dead," the horror fantasy comic book series "Locke Key" is a natural for television; its writer, Joe Hill, and its artist, Gabriel Rodriguez, have already broken the story into arcs for their graphic novel collections. Set in an old gothic Massachusetts house, the "Locke Key" TV show begins by introducing the home's latest occupants: a family in mourning, which discovers strange keys hidden around its new home. Each key has its own power, which the heroes must figure out how to use in order to ward off the evil forces that are getting closer, episode by episode, to slipping into our world. Read a New York Times interview with the show's star. Just when it seemed as if the producers of nature documentaries had photographed every possible animal in every possible way, the team behind "Night on Earth" comes along with special low light cameras, designed to show what the planet's diverse population of critters is up to under the stars. Like most modern wildlife focused docu series, "Night on Earth" also functions as a lesson, aimed at showing how the delicate ecological balance that sustains all life can too easily be disrupted. But the show mostly offers an opportunity to admire the ghostly images and eerie colors of the natural world, after dark. Read a New York Times article about the revived popularity of nature shows. Equal parts social experiment and reality competition, the international TV franchise "The Circle" has already fascinated and divided audiences in the Britain, the United States and Brazil with its clever integration of social media into an amped up popularity contest. (Netflix has just released the U.S. and Brazilian versions; a French one is coming soon.) Contestants on "The Circle" live in the same apartment building but interact only through a special app, through which they share details about themselves that are either honest, exaggerated or completely phony. Watching these people wrestle with their consciences if they do is entertaining and instructive. It's remarkable what it takes to make friends in 2020. Read a New York Times feature about the show. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Lisa Tremblay still recalls in horror the time her daughter Kristin pulled a hot dog crawling with ants from the garbage at a cookout and prepared to swallow it. Kristin has a rare genetic abnormality that gives her an incessant, uncontrollable hunger. Some people with the condition, called Prader Willi syndrome, will eat until their stomach ruptures and they die. And, not surprisingly, many are obese. "She's eaten dog food. She's eaten cat food," said Ms. Tremblay, who lives in Nokomis, Fla. When Kristin, now 28, was a child, neighbors once called social welfare authorities, thinking Kristin was not being fed because she complained of being hungry so much. Once an obscure and neglected disease, Prader Willi is starting to attract more attention from scientists and pharmaceutical companies for a simple reason: It may shed some light on the much broader public health problems of overeating and obesity. "These are remarkable human models of severe obesity," said Dr. Steven B. Heymsfield, a professor and former executive director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. "When we discover the underlying mechanism of these very rare disorders, they will shed light on garden variety obesity." One drug being developed to help obese people lose weight has shown some preliminary signs of success in patients with Prader Willi. The drug, beloranib, is believed to work by reducing fat synthesis and increasing fat use. In a small trial, it reduced weight and body fat and lowered the food seeking urge, according to the drug's developer, Zafgen. "This is the first thing that has really been tried and been at all successful in individuals with Prader Willi," said Dr. Jennifer Miller, associate professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of Florida and the lead investigator of the trial. There are reasons to be cautious about the link between Prader Willi and general obesity because the mechanisms behind both are not well understood and could be different. But Prader Willi patient advocates are actively encouraging the association in hopes that linking the syndrome to the broader problem will attract more academic and pharmaceutical industry research on their disease. "The more interest and research there is on it, the more it helps our kids," said Janalee Heinemann, director of research and medical affairs at the Prader Willi Syndrome Association. There are also reasons to be cautious about the Zafgen results. The trial involved only 17 people, and the main part of it lasted only four weeks. On some measures including the trial's primary one of weight reduction the difference between the drug and a placebo was not statistically significant. Still, Thomas E. Hughes, Zafgen's chief executive, said the results were strong enough that the company would conduct a larger study aimed at getting beloranib approved to treat Prader Willi. "It gives us a way to establish the benefit of our drug in what would arguably be the toughest of patients to treat," he said. Another company, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, plans to begin a study of its drug carbetocin soon. The drug works in the same manner as oxytocin, sometimes called the love hormone because it promotes human bonding. A small French study suggested oxytocin might not only improve behavioral problems associated with the disease but also curb appetites. Rhythm, a start up company, also plans to test its experimental obesity drug, RM 493, for Prader Willi. Arena Pharmaceuticals, which sells the weight loss drug Belviq, says Prader Willi is an area of interest. And some academic trials are underway as well, making for what advocates say is an unusual amount of activity. "Our biggest problem in 2014 and 2015 is making sure to have enough families to get the studies done," said Dr. Theresa Strong, chairwoman of the scientific advisory board of the Foundation for Prader Willi Research. The Prader Willi Syndrome Association knows of at least 8,000 Americans with the condition. Most patients are missing a chunk of chromosome 15. Others have two complete copies of the chromosome. Keeping weight in check is a constant battle for parents and caregivers. "We lock up our refrigerator. We lock up our freezer. We lock up the pantry," said Mark Greenberg of Denver, a consultant to a hedge fund whose 14 year old son Zachary has Prader Willi. The family even locks the garbage pail in the kitchen. Alarms sound if Zachary tries to leave the house. Appetite is a huge problem because it makes it impossible for people to live independently or to hold a job. Jim Kane of Baltimore, Md., said his daughter Kate, who has a high school diploma, has been fired from several jobs for taking food from other employees. She has also been arrested for shoplifting food, he said, once at an airport for taking a couple of granola bars. Scientists do not understand the mechanisms behind Prader Willi, though the insatiable appetite stems from dysfunction of the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls hunger. Researchers say that as with other diseases, including Alzheimer's and high cholesterol, many things might be learned from studying the most extreme or earliest onset cases. "These mechanisms, if we were able to understand them in Prader Willi, would shed an incredible amount of light on appetite," said Dr. Joan Han, an endocrinologist at the National Institutes of Health who is conducting research on the syndrome and other rare eating related disorders. Her own research, for instance, has found low levels of a protein called brain derived neurotrophic factor in the blood of people with Prader Willi. Other studies have also linked lack of the protein to obesity. But some experts say Prader Willi patients differ from other obese people in ways like their high levels of the appetite increasing hormone ghrelin. "There are some distinctive characteristics of Prader Willi syndrome that suggest it may not be a stand in or model for all of obesity," said Elisabeth M. Dykens, director of Vanderbilt University's Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, which studies developmental disorders. For Zafgen, however, Prader Willi represents a potentially faster path to the market for a relatively limited investment. While beloranib has shown good results in early studies as a treatment for general obesity, winning approval for that use will probably require clinical trials involving thousands of patients to rule out serious side effects. Winning approval for Prader Willi might require testing in only dozens or hundreds of patients. And there might be more tolerance of side effects because there is a desperate need for treatments. Also, since Prader Willi is a rare disease, Zafgen would qualify for tax breaks and some market exclusivity under the Orphan Drug Act and could potentially charge an extremely high price for the product. Zafgen's beloranib works by inhibiting methionine aminopeptidase 2, an enzyme. The inhibition appears to stimulate the burning of fat and reduce its formation. The 17 patients in Zafgen's study were residents of a home for people with Prader Willi in Gainesville, Fla., where diet is strictly controlled. During the study, the daily calorie intake was increased 50 percent to make it easier to see if beloranib affected weight and appetite. Kristin Tremblay was one of the participants in the study. Her mother said she did not notice big changes when Kristin came home right after the study ended. Oddly, however, Kristin did have trouble finishing one salad. And she had not gained weight despite the increase in calories during the study. "I would try it again," Ms. Tremblay said. "It certainly didn't hurt her." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Missions to Venus: Highlights From History, and When We May Go Back Carl Sagan once said that Venus is the planet in our solar system most like hell. So when are we going back? Astronomers on Monday reported the detection of a chemical in the acidic Venusian clouds, phosphine, which may be a possible sign of life. That has some planetary scientists itching to return to the sun's second planet, especially those who feel Venus has long been overlooked in favor of Mars and other destinations. "If this planet is active and is producing phosphine, and there is something that's making it in the Venus atmosphere, then by God almighty, forget this Mars nonsense," said Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at North Carolina State University. "We need a lander, an orbiter, we need a program." Venus is not easy to visit. Its carbon dioxide rich atmosphere is 90 times as dense as ours, and surface temperatures average 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Its surface pressure is intense enough to crush some submarines. The many Soviet visitors to Venus In 1961, the Soviet space program began trying to explore Venus. In the decades that followed, it shot dozens of spacecraft toward the world sometimes known as Earth's twin. While Soviet exploration of Venus started with many misfires, the country became the first to land a spacecraft on another world, and not long after, the first to take photos from the surface of another planet. Their engineering achievements were significant even by modern standards. After seeing their first round of spacecraft sent into the atmosphere squashed like tin cans, the Soviets realized just how extreme the pressure on Venus was. This trial and error led to the construction of five ton metal spacecraft built to withstand, even if for just an hour, the immense surface pressures. Then in 1975, the country's Venera 9 probe became the first to take images from the surface of another planet. The world officially met Venus. The images it and later missions sent back revealed a planet that was truly like no other: cracked terrain beneath hazy, diluted neon green light. The planet we thought might have been covered in oceans and akin to our own was instead an alien world with poison rain. Later missions in the Venera series into the 1980s gave scientists a better understanding of the planet's geological processes. Venera 11 and 12 both detected large amounts of lightning and thunder as they traveled to the surface. Venera 13 and 14 were both equipped with microphones that documented the sounds of their descent to the surface, making them the first spacecraft to record audio from another planet. In 1985 the Soviet Union concluded its Venus encounters with the twin Vega spacecraft, which each released large balloons loaded with scientific instruments, demonstrating the potential for probes that could float in the planet's clouds. The slowed pace of the Soviet space program toward the end of the Cold War halted launches to Venus. While the Russian space program has discussed future exploration of Venus, its concepts have not moved off the drawing board. NASA kept its sights on Venus, too Mariner 2 was the first American spacecraft to make it to Venus, in 1962. It determined that temperatures were cooler higher in the clouds, but extremely hot on the surface. In 1978, the Pioneer missions gave American researchers a closer look. The first of the pair orbited the planet for nearly 14 years, revealing much about the mysterious Venusian atmosphere. It also observed the surface was smoother than Earth's, and that Venus had very little or perhaps no magnetic field. A second Pioneer mission sent a number of probes into Venus's atmosphere, returning information on the structure of the clouds and radar readings of the surface. NASA's Magellan entered into orbit in 1990 and spent four years mapping the surface and looking for evidence of plate tectonics. It discovered that nearly 85 percent of the surface was covered in old lava flows, hinting at significant past and possible present volcanic activity. It was also the last of the American visitors, although a number of NASA spacecraft have used Venus as a slingshot as they set course for other destinations. Venus Express was launched by the European Space Agency in 2005. It orbited the planet for eight years and observed that it still may have been geologically active. The planet's only guest from Earth right now is Akatsuki, which was launched by Japan in 2010. The probe missed its meeting with Venus when its engine failed to fire as it headed into orbit. By 2015, the mission's managers had managed to steer it on a course to orbit and study the planet. It has since transformed how scientists view our clouded twin. In its study of the physics of the dense cloud layers of Venus, the mission has revealed disturbances in the planet's winds known as gravity waves, as well as equatorial jet streams in its atmosphere. Many missions back to Venus have been proposed, and some space agencies have declared ambitions of visiting the planet. But it's hard to say whether any will make the trip. India's space agency has proposed a mission called Shukrayaan 1, which will orbit the planet and primarily focus on the chemistry of the atmosphere. Peter Beck, the founder of Rocket Lab, a private company started in New Zealand that has launched about a dozen rockets to space, has recently spoken of sending a small satellite to the planet. NASA has considered a number of Venus proposals in the past decade, including two in 2017 that were finalists of NASA's Discovery program, which has previously sent explorers to the moon, Mars, Mercury and other destinations. But the agency instead selected a pair of asteroid missions. Also in 2017, for the larger, more expensive New Frontiers competition, NASA considered a Venus mission called Venus In situ Composition Investigations, or Vici, which sought to put two landers on the planet's surface. It was passed over for Dragonfly, which will send a plutonium powered drone to fly on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. NASA, however, did provide money for some of the technologies that Vici would need. And Venus proponents may have a new advocate inside NASA. Lori S. Glaze, the principal investigator of Vici, is now the planetary science division director at NASA. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
This year the Swiss watchmaker HYT is saluting the 200th birthday of another well known creation of Swiss provenance: Frankenstein's famous monster, which Mary Shelley dreamed up while visiting Lord Byron at Lake Geneva. In a promotional video, HYT's Dr. Frankenstein (played by the horology icon Laurent Picciotto) is elated, not when the hand of his piecemeal creature begins to twitch, but when its wristwatch shows signs of life. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
George Shannon with his late wife, Carol Sue Shannon, in April 2012. Mrs. Shannon, who died in 2017, had two strokes in 2010. When he began the caretaking process, he said he "began worrying less about me and more about her." Forty one years into his marriage, George Shannon became better acquainted with a woman he once took for granted, and fell deeply in love with her. "Such beautiful blue eyes and a great sense of humor," Mr. Shannon said. "I loved her more, I respected her more and I wanted to be with her more." They met in 1967 at a restaurant in the Pittsburgh area, where they both grew up. "I was sitting with a friend and when we got up to leave I felt a tug on my sleeve," he recalled. "When I looked over she handed me a slip of paper with her name and phone number on it, I guess she liked what she saw." Mr. Shannon was not flattering himself and another woman at the expense of his wife, with whom he was married for 48 years, nor was he revealing an extramarital affair. The woman with the blue eyes and the great sense of humor for whom he had a newfound, deeper respect was in fact his wife, Carol Sue Shannon, who died at age 70 in April 2017, seven years after suffering two strokes that led to myriad other physical setbacks and resulted in Mr. Shannon becoming her primary caretaker. It was an experience that became in essence a second tug on his sleeve, a chance to rejuvenate a marriage that he "had not paid much attention to," he said, for the better part of four decades. Mr. Shannon, now 73, who retired as a vice president for Northeast sales at a Georgia based company that maintained water quality for communities, sounded like a man drowning in sorrow when he talked about the cold, empty years of his marriage before becoming his wife's caretaker and rediscovering magic. "Carol never complained about anything or asked for anything, and I took advantage of that by being selfish and self centered," he said, pausing for a painful moment to clear his throat. "Everything I wanted to do, I did without first asking what she thought about me doing it," he said. "I'd say things like 'Carol, I'm going out to play golf,' or 'Carol, I'm going out drinking with some buddies,' and all she would ever say was 'that's fine.' She was always deferring to me because it was always all about me, but if I had to do it over again, I would certainly balance things a lot better." Mr. Shannon said that before his wife had her first stroke in April 2010 on the final night of a vacation in Cabo, San Lucas, Mexico, they had "a good relationship, though our love wasn't real deep." A month later she had a second, much more devastating stroke that drastically affected her speech and balance. She subsequently fell twice, which led to her breaking both hips, requiring surgery and a long rehabilitation. She would suffer yet another fall in which she broke a shoulder, and later had a heart attack that warranted triple bypass surgery. "Through all of those challenges she never lost her spirit, never lost her smile, and never complained," Mr. Shannon said. "Whenever someone asked how she was feeling, she would simply say to them, 'I'm fine.'" When he began the caretaking process, he said he "began worrying less about me and more about her." Mr. Shannon and his wife began growing closer and their feelings for each other intensified "until it got to the point where we were madly in love again," he said. "I felt humility for the first time in my life, my heart and soul opened up, and I could just feel that the special connection we once had was back again." Lara E. Fielding is an adjunct professor of psychology at Pepperdine University and a psychologist in private practice in Beverly Hills who specializes in using mindfulness based therapies to manage stress and strong emotions. She said the emotional transformations of Mr. Shannon and his wife during those last seven years of their marriage can be attributed to human nature. "A tragedy such as illness can absolutely bring couples closer as they fight a common foe together," she said. "We get closer when we find a space to be vulnerable together." "The usual day to day annoyances fall away," Dr. Fielding added, "and we remember what really matters, and we grow united in what's most important." Mr. Shannon still lives in Sewickley, Pa., a small town 13 miles outside of Pittsburgh, where he and his wife raised three sons, including Chad Patrick Shannon, 44, a lawyer turned writer who wrote with his father "The Best Seven Years of My Life: The Story of an Unlikely Caregiver." The self published memoir was released in December. It chronicles the metamorphosis of a distant to doting husband. "My dad was hard driving and demanding both as a spouse and as a parent," he said. "He was successful in business, but he was also this very serious, intense, Type A personality who all of my high school friends were afraid of." "My mom loved my dad, but to be honest, he wasn't fully in love with her until those final seven years," he continued. "But once he got there, he just wanted more and more of the true love they so enjoyed catching up on." In the memoir, Chad Shannon described the moment when his father came to a crossroads in terms of making caregiving decisions for his wife that would relentlessly test his resolve, and hers. "Most people's reaction to these circumstances would be to tumble into depression," he wrote. "Life has dealt you a bad hand. You're boxed in. It would have been so much easier for George to find someone else to take care of her than to do it himself. Bring strangers into the house to offer round the clock care. Put Carol in a home. Take the easy way out. But that isn't George. Self pity wasn't an option for him. If he ever felt sorry for himself, he never showed it. He was all in. When the relationship faced its drastic change, George totally accepted his fate and grew from it. He recognized anew that he was, as he puts it, 'terribly in love with this woman.' He found joy in a seemingly never ending task that would buckle most of us at the knees." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Representatives for Casanova, Don Q, Sheff G and Pop Smoke confirmed they had been removed from the bill. 22Gz could not immediately be reached for comment. Each of the artists cited by the Police Department has had encounters with law enforcement. Casanova, who served prison time in New York on a robbery charge, was recently named in federal testimony by the rapper 6ix9ine, who described a shooting between the artists' rival crews and named both groups as members of the Bloods gang. 22Gz was charged with murder in Florida in 2017, but the charges were dropped after police identified another man as the gunman. Sheff G, Don Q and Pop Smoke have each faced weapons charges. In a statement on Instagram, Don Q blamed "misinformation" from the Police Department. "I love my city and I never been in any gang activities or had issues at any of my previous shows," he wrote. "I hope the city will wake up and see that canceling me and my fellow NY artists isn't the solution, we just love what we do and want to perform for our fans." Casanova added in the comments that the decision "really hurts." Tariq Cherif, a founder and owner of Rolling Loud, suggested in a message on Twitter that the festival, which requires city permits, would not be allowed to return to New York City if it did not go along with the police request. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Is Jordan Peele's "Us" a metaphor for our politically polarized moment, a rallying cry for the dispossessed 99 percent or simply a nifty home invasion movie? This horror hit from the director of "Get Out" is designed to keep audiences guessing, and each viewer is likely to leave with his or her own interpretation of what the film really means. (Perhaps we should have known when the first image Peele released for "Us" was of a tantalizing Rorschach blot.) Below, we've rounded up some of the internet's most compelling discussions about Peele's new film. (Spoilers follow, naturally.) What do the Tethered represent? After several scenes of creepy build up, the "Us" protagonist Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) and her family come face to face with their own worst nightmares, though these invaders look awfully familiar. That's because the four red clothed figures who break into Adelaide's vacation home are twisted mirror images of her husband (Winston Duke), her two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex) and herself. Need help deciding what movies or TV shows to stream next? Subscribe to our Watching newsletter. Peele calls these doppelgangers the Tethered, and he provides ample exposition about who they are and what they're up to: Decades ago, a powerful cabal created duplicates of every American in a failed attempt to exert some sort of control over the populace. The project was shuttered, but the abandoned Tethered lived on in underground tunnels, gnawing on raw rabbit flesh until they could emerge and enact a bloody revolution. Still, for as much as we learn about the Tethered, it's tempting to read even more into what they may represent. Asked who they are, Adelaide's doppelganger provocatively replies, "We're Americans." "In 'Us,' the appearance of unity in a nation, in a person doesn't last long before being ripped away like one of the movie's masks," Manohla Dargis wrote in her review for The New York Times. "Peele piles on (and tears off) the masks and the metaphors, tethers the past to the present and draws a line between the Reagan and Trump presidencies, suggesting that we were, and remain, one nation profoundly divisible." Many pundits read "Us" as a socioeconomic satire, where the financially comfortable characters find themselves attacked by the Tethered, who stand in for those less fortunate. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair likened the film to "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells, describing "Us" as "a vague statement on inequity and class struggle, framed as a sort of unconscious Eloi vs. Morlocks system of oppression," while the writers at Yahoo Movies pointed out that the items used to slay the Tethered among them a golf club, a piece of geode art and a boat bought in an impromptu splurge "are all upper middle class status symbols." Given the trenchant way that Peele tackled race relations in "Get Out," it may be tempting to peer at "Us" through the same lens, even though the filmmaker has said that this entry is not explicitly concerned with those same themes. Still, when it comes to the issues of privilege that can undergird structures of racial inequality, "Us" offers plenty to chew on. Though we initially side with Adelaide and her family as they fend off seemingly unprovoked attacks, the plight of the Tethered proves persuasive, too. Read about how "Us" turned a weed anthem into a creepy horror theme. "Like many a Good White Person(tm) might say when confronted with the responsibility of righting systemic racism the humans are asking: Why should I have to be punished for something I didn't even know about, let alone do?" Brooke Obie wrote at Shadow and Act. "Judgment is not always about what you specifically or even consciously do; it can also be about what you should have known, what you didn't do, and what privileges you received at another's expense." Obie noted that in the film's final twist, the Adelaide we thought we knew is revealed to be a member of the Tethered who escaped long ago, leaving her people behind to wither as she ensconced herself in the better off upper world. "She sided with the privileged a long time ago when deciding who actually deserves humanity," Obie said. "It's a common thought process when people move up a rung or ten on the privilege ladder." Vox's Todd VanDerWerff concurred. "I don't literally have a shadow self," he wrote, "but there's some other person out there in the country right now who could have had my life and career but, instead, has some less comfortable one because he grew up with parents who didn't have enough money to send him to college, or because he grew up some race other than white, or because he was born a girl." Those blessed with power and privilege rarely want to lose their grip on it, VanDerWerff noted, "yet the very idea of society means we're all tethered together somehow, and the actions of those of us with power and money often make those without either jerk about on puppet strings, even if we never know how what we do affects our doppelgangers." What other double meanings are at play? Once you've got the final twist of "Us" figured out, it becomes clear that Peele has designed every scene between Adelaide and her doppelganger to work on two levels, depending on whether or not you know the truth. Peele even hints at Adelaide's true affiliation with plenty of clever foreshadowing: As The Wrap's Beatrice Verhoeven noted, "Adelaide's white shirt gets more and more red throughout the movie as blood gets on it." Are there other double meanings here that suggest new interpretations of the film? Peele once suggested that "Us" is about how we are all our own worst enemies, and indeed, these characters seem awfully unsatisfied. Adelaide's husband is jealous of those who are wealthier, her daughter bristles at pressure to become a track star, and a family friend (Elisabeth Moss) confesses to some plastic surgery while mulling a mooted dream of movie stardom. Each will eventually battle a doppelganger who serves as a living manifestation of those issues and insecurities. Another double meaning is right there in the title: "Us" is an acronym for the nation in which the doppelgangers claim conflicted citizenship. "This movie is about this country," Peele told Polygon. "And when I decided to write this movie, I was stricken with the fact that we are in a time where we fear the other: whether it is the mysterious invader that we think is going to come and kill us and take our jobs, or the faction that we don't live near that voted a different way than us." In that way, maybe it's fitting that the true meaning of the Tethered remains ambiguous: We will each see something different in them, and that will tell us something about ourselves. "We're all about pointing the finger, and I wanted to suggest that maybe the monster we really need to look at has our face," Peele said. "Maybe the evil is us." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
At 42, David Muir is the youngest person to anchor a network evening newscast since Peter Jennings in the 1960s. In nearly two years in the chair at ABC's "World News Tonight," Mr. Muir has overseen a ratings rise and scored high profile sit downs with President Obama, Tim Cook of Apple and Pope Francis. But it all began at the Roy H. Park School of Communication at Ithaca College in upstate New York, where Mr. Muir, class of '95, landed an anchor seat on the student newscast as a freshman. START EARLY I've wanted to be a journalist since I was 12. I began writing to local journalists, and started interning at the TV station in Syracuse when I was 13. I'd find myself carrying the equipment, sitting in the back seat, and going out in the field with reporters and photographers. The station was in between news directors. I believe to this day that the reason I was able to stick around was because there was no one there to tell me I couldn't. You don't have to know what it is you want to do at 12 or 13. But I did have a passion, and I always tell people to try to follow at least one of their passions, to turn an interest into a career. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
When a BuzzFeed News colleague and I sat down with Bernie Sanders in his Capitol Hill office in 2015, he started with a thank you for doing what you do to provide an alternative to the corporate media. We stammered a bit, and half apologized. We weren't really doing that, sir; our backers were venture capitalists. He'd have to find an alternative elsewhere. Bernie Sanders has been searching for that alternative to for profit media for a long time. Back in 1981, when he became mayor of Burlington, Vt., he turned to his staff and said: "We can't survive. We have to develop our own media." And while some left wing media outlets are now emerging, they're not going to flower in time to save his campaign. That became painfully clear last Wednesday when, after his stunning setback on Super Tuesday, Mr. Sanders bent the knee and submitted to a barrage of not particularly friendly questions from the most powerful progressive on TV, the MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. He had been avoiding the network, suspicious of its wealthy hosts and corporate owners. He told Ms. Maddow in mild exasperation that one of his challenges was "taking on the corporate media, if I might say so." It was clear the primary voting had shaken the Vermont senator's whole theory of the election that he could mobilize a huge new cohort of young people. At the same time, the events of the past week have validated much of his criticism of the media, the subject of a 1988 town hall with Mr. Sanders and the radical provocateur Abbie Hoffman. Mr. Sanders complained that Vermont's television stations had been "prostituted by commercials." (The video is a trip, and worth the click.) His main point: "The media itself is as important a political issue as exists." Mr. Sanders is right about that, and about two other big things: that much of the U.S. media still covers elections as if they're sporting events and that the affluent New Yorkers who run and appear on television networks are not inclined to like him. The narrative of Joe Biden's comeback was an irresistible story to the media one that often eclipsed the coronavirus, never mind discussion of health care or poverty on cable news in recent days. The distance between Mr. Sanders's supporters and media executives could be felt with particular intensity in the halls of MSNBC last week. After Chris Matthews, the beloved embodiment of MSNBC's establishmentarian centrism, compared Mr. Sanders's campaign to the Nazi invasion of France, Mr. Sanders's supporters began a drumbeat of criticism that helped lead to Mr. Matthews' ouster. When Joe Biden the Chris Matthews of politics emerged as the Democratic front runner on Super Tuesday, the on air relief at MSNBC was palpable. "What a whole lot of people here see," said one senior producer, "is the same thing as Trump." That perspective is widely shared in the news business: That Mr. Sanders and really any politician who is hostile, or even cranky, to the media is following in President Trump's footsteps. It's a canard. Mr. Trump is a star of the corporate media who hacked its commercial incentives to his advantage, delivering free lively entertainment to cable networks desperate for programming. Mr. Trump wants to control that media, and to discredit competing voices. Mr. Sanders wants to remake the media in a new model. "Trump knew how to weaponize that capitalistic greed against them, whereas Bernie's approach has been just to build those other channels," said Krystal Ball, a former MSNBC host who has emerged as a leading voice of the pro Sanders left. Ms. Ball's morning show for The Hill website is one of a handful of signs that the media landscape is beginning to shift in Mr. Sanders's direction. The show, which she co hosts with a young Trump backing conservative named Saagar Enjeti, posted impressive numbers on YouTube, with more than 3.4 million hours watched over the last month. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. The show's fans span left and right wing populism. They include leftist insurgents at The Intercept like Glenn Greenwald, who on Twitter called the show a "super perky radical trans ideological 21st Century subversive sequel to the Katie Couric/Matt Lauer morning Today Show in its heyday (minus all that unpleasantness)." Among its right wing admirers are Steve Bannon, Mr. Trump's former campaign adviser, who in an interview described Ms. Ball as "hard core," along with the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who texted that the two "seem to understand, better than almost anyone else talking about it, what's really happening in American politics." On Friday morning in their chilly Washington studio, over a standard issue cable news glass table, hosts and guests denounced blind support for female candidates as "lady boss yass queen feminism" and sneered at "woke tokenism." It's a kind of anti establishment "Crossfire" aimed at "hating each other as American people less and hating the elites more," as Ms. Ball put it. The other outlet seeking to fill the space where "the Trump and Bernie person meet" is Vice, the new television chief, Morgan Hertzan, told me. He says he's remaking the company's channel (formerly known as Viceland) based on research that shows there's a news audience alienated from "corporate media." The goal is to create an outsider's network in stark contrast to MSNBC's inside conversation. Mr. Hertzan said the network was recruiting top progressives to host a new wave of shows and developing a weekly program with Anand Giridharadas, an MSNBC enfant terrible whose book, "Winners Take All," denounces self serving billionaire philanthropists. Mr. Giridharadas said he wanted to make TV that is a rebuke to cable news as it now exists. "When you get to that level of television, everyone is prosperous at the table," he said in an interview. "I'm not sure I've ever sat next to an uninsured person on television. I sit next to uninsured people on the subway all the time." Vice and The Hill are not, in fact, socialist institutions. They are companies on the shaky edge of big American media. Their programming choices, echoing the YouTube success of companies like the The Young Turks and a handful of independent outlets, more likely mark the beginning of a new generation's dissent getting slickly packaged and sold to the mainstream. Vice will struggle with the decidedly old media problem of how to get cord cutters to watch a cable channel. But Vice's research, from the expensive strategy firm Magid, found what populists everywhere are discovering: Angry outsiderism is a growth industry. The new Vice mantra, Mr. Hertzan said, is, "The everything system is broken let's fix it together." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Health officials in several countries stricken by the Zika virus have given their female citizens an unprecedented warning: "Don't get pregnant." This startling advice has been greeted in many quarters with a mix of shock and derision. Medical historians said they had never heard the like. Advocates for women mocked it as unrealistic, disconnected from the difficult lives of women in a part of the world where contraception can be hard to obtain and abortion is often illegal. Yet a growing number of infectious disease experts say that delaying pregnancy could work and may be the most effective way to break the back of this global epidemic. Such a strategy would not stop the spread of mild illness that Zika causes in adults, or the surge in cases of Guillain Barre syndrome paralysis linked to those. But waiting through at least one hot, wet, high transmission season may save thousands of newborns from Zika's terrifying suspected consequences: abnormally small heads and brain damage. Dr. William Schaffner, the chief of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical School, even suggested that the Brazilian Army, which is set to go door to door this week looking for mosquito breeding spots and handing out pamphlets, ought to hand out condoms, too. "There will be pushback because it's a Catholic country," he said. "But it would send a message: 'Defer your pregnancy; be cautious now so you can avoid the hazard.'" In addition, Dr. Schaffner and other researchers said, if women can delay getting pregnant for as long as two years, a vaccine may arrive. Even if women wait for just a year, "there will probably be a big impact," said Scott Weaver, an expert on the Zika virus at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Five Latin American and Caribbean countries have advised pregnancy delays, for different periods of time. In Brazil, Dr. Claudio Maierovitch, head of surveillance for the Health Ministry, suggested in December that women in the most Zika infested areas postpone having children indefinitely. Officials in Ecuador recently did the same. Colombia's health minister, Alejandro Gaviria, urged women to wait six to eight months. Jamaica's Health Ministry suggested waiting up to a year. And El Salvador asked women to wait until 2018. The World Health Organization, however, is not endorsing the idea at the moment. "Theoretically, many have thought it may work," said Dr. Bruce Aylward, the organization's chief of emergency responses. But he said that the organization's position for now is that the best approach is to keep fighting the mosquitoes while working on a vaccine. Yet there is wide acknowledgment that mosquito control in Latin America and the Caribbean is failing. No country or territory south of the continental United States has been able to stop dengue or chikungunya, which are spread by Aedes aegypti, the same mosquitoes that transmit Zika virus. In response to calls for delaying pregnancy, women's groups have pointed out that many are unplanned or the result of rape or incest, and that birth control and abortion are often illegal or difficult to obtain. "In El Salvador, the recommendation to postpone pregnancy is offensive to women and even more ridiculous in the context of strict abortion laws and high levels of sexual violence against girls and women," Monica Roa, the vice president for strategy at Women's Link Worldwide, a women's rights group, told Reuters. Disease experts concede that those problems are real, especially for teenagers. But married women, especially those with a child or two and a relationship with a gynecologist, often can exercise some control over their pregnancies, experts argue, and husbands may cooperate because they do not want disabled children. They note that births per woman have fallen significantly despite Roman Catholic opposition to birth control and abortion a trend foreshadowed in Italy, Spain and Portugal. "The data backs that up fertility rates have dropped," said Dr. Albert I. Ko, a Yale School of Public Health infectious diseases specialist who works in Brazil. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization, many married women in some of the affected countries practice what it calls "modern methods" of birth control. In Colombia, the figure is 73 percent; in Brazil and the Dominican Republic, 70 percent; in El Salvador and Paraguay, 61 percent; in Ecuador, 58 percent. In other countries, however, the rates are lower, and the challenges will be greater. In Guatemala, it is 34 percent; in Bolivia, 32 percent; in Haiti, a mere 24 percent. Experts likened the idea of letting nonpregnant women be infected to the days before rubella vaccines, when some mothers let their young daughters play with rubella stricken children because it was mild in childhood but could devastate a young woman's baby. However, no country has openly advised its women to be bitten, because the risk of Guillain Barre paralysis, while small, exists. The most complicated problem, scientists said, was that no one knows exactly how much of a population must be sick and recover to create herd immunity. The virus moves quickly, suggesting that immunity would build quickly. Yap Island, in Micronesia, had a 2007 Zika outbreak that lasted less than six months but infected 73 percent of the population, presumably immunizing all of them. Other Pacific Island outbreaks petered out in five to eight months, suggesting a tipping point had been reached. "As soon as one case gives rise to less than one secondary case, the outbreak will decline and ultimately end," said Dr. Marc Lecuit, a Zika expert at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Something similar happened on Caribbean islands after chikungunya hit them in 2013. Outbreaks faded, suggesting that herd immunity was strong, when only 20 percent to 50 percent of the population was immune, Dr. Ko said. He did add that unusually dry weather, which slows mosquito reproduction, might have played a role. It is not clear, however, that lessons learned on islands can be applied on a huge, climatically diverse continent like South America. Although Zika has virtually disappeared from most of the Polynesian islands it swept through, it could establish itself on the continent as an endemic disease, returning every summer. That has happened in the United States. West Nile virus began in New York in 1999 and soared to a peak of 10,000 serious cases and 264 deaths in 2003. It then faded presumably because many Americans were immune because, as with Zika virus, 80 percent never show symptoms but do build antibodies. But it persists, at lower levels, and sometimes flares up, as it did in Texas in 2012, because there is still no vaccine. That uncertainty makes it hard to give women accurate advice on how long to delay pregnancy. "Telling people, 'Next year might be better,' might be good advice or it might be misleading, because we don't know how safe it will be," said Dr. Ernesto T.A. Marques Jr., a Brazilian vaccine researcher based at the University of Pittsburgh. A more sophisticated approach, he said, would be to advise women to avoid pregnancy each year from March through May, the intense mosquito season. Infection during the first trimester appears to pose the biggest danger. Advising women to put off pregnancy for a year or two or more "interferes in relationships," he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
'Am I Going to Have to Put Mickey Mouse in "American Horror Story"?' PASADENA, Calif. A top Fox TV executive said she was "shocked" when the deal between 21st Century Fox and the Walt Disney Company was announced. One of Fox's most prolific hitmakers, Ryan Murphy, said he was "very emotional" and weighing whether he would stick around when his deal with the studio ended later this year. Now that Rupert Murdoch has agreed to sell much of 21st Century Fox to Disney, there are many questions about what the fallout will be for Fox's vast and lucrative television properties. On Thursday, at a Television Critics Association news media event, top Fox executives tried to emphasize that it would be "business as usual" at least over the next year at both the TV studio and the broadcast network. "We have to operate as if this deal might not go through," said Gary Newman, co chairman of the Fox Television group. But if regulators approve the deal which Mr. Newman said he expected to happen it will disrupt the television industry, consolidating key properties within the Disney fold and potentially sending important producers and executives running for the gates. Mr. Murphy, the creator of hit shows like "American Horror Story," "Glee" and "Feud: Bette and Joan," has a deal with Fox's television studio, which produces shows for the Fox broadcast network, FX and other channels. Now, he could become one of the biggest free agents in Hollywood. "Three months ago, I thought I would be literally buried on the Fox lot," he said. Mr. Murphy initially had concerns about the deal, he said, because he has worked so closely with Fox executives for years, and his edgier content is not exactly in keeping with Disney's brand. "Am I going to have to put Mickey Mouse in 'American Horror Story'?" he said. (He added that Disney executives had assured him that he would not.) Mr. Murphy has only rarely taken on projects outside Fox, though he did reach a deal with Netflix last year to make a series about Nurse Ratched, from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Netflix has said it will spend up to 8 billion on content this year. Disney bought Fox's properties to beef up its own streaming service, meaning Mr. Murphy's next move will be one of the most consequential in the industry. Mr. Murphy said he was reassured by Disney's successful attempts at integrating companies like Marvel and Lucasfilm and by a phone call with the company's chief executive, Robert A. Iger. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. "I'm sort of interested to see what that company is going to look like before I make any decisions," he said. Another key is the future of the Fox broadcast network. While Fox's TV studio would become a Disney property, the broadcast network would join the Murdoch controlled company New Fox, which would also include Fox Sports and Fox News. But without an accompanying TV studio making programs, there's a strong belief among TV executives that the broadcast network responsible for hits like "The Simpsons," "24" and "Empire" would be a significantly less ambitious home for TV. With live ratings dwindling for all the broadcast networks, there has been an increased emphasis to buy shows from an in house studio to keep revenue streams high. Fox executives said Disney management had reassured them that they would not have to soften any of Fox's edgier content. "They are not acquiring Fox to somehow turn it into some form of P.G. company," Mr. Newman said. Dana Walden, co chief executive of Fox's television group, said any existing shows on Fox would remain on Fox and not transfer to Disney's ABC. She also emphasized that space on a broadcast network calendar remained a lucrative property, and that Mr. Murdoch's new company could ask for an ownership stake in any new TV show that it bought from an outside studio. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Apple's slate of original programming will now have something for the kids. In its first foray into children's programming, Apple announced on Wednesday that it has ordered two shows one live action, the other animated from Sesame Workshop, the maker of "Sesame Street." In addition, Apple has put a Sesame Workshop series centered on puppets into development. The announcement brought the number of series publicly confirmed by Apple to 15. The company has said it will start streaming its offerings next year, when it will begin competing in earnest against Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Next Monday will be a landmark day for those entertainment ambitions. That is when the crime drama "Are You Sleeping" is scheduled to go into production. The series starring Octavia Spencer, a project of Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine production company will be the first show from Apple's new slate to start filming. Other Apple series have experienced hiccups. Two of them a revival of the 1980s Steven Spielberg anthology series "Amazing Stories" and a drama with a morning show setting that stars Ms. Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston have seen changes in the executive producer ranks. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
MOST of you are probably not aware that, in the last month, many seniors in high school have learned whether they have been accepted to their top choice college. Or maybe you are. Maybe, even if you have no interest in this news, you've heard it reverberating on social media and across phone lines. Some call it celebrating. Others call it bragging. As a newcomer to all of this, I was fascinated by the self imposed rules that people have about how and when it's proper to boast about such an achievement. Some friends told me they thought it was fine for students to post about their acceptances and let their friends know, but too much for parents announce their son's or daughter's accomplishment online. Others felt that students should hold back in deference to peers who may have been rejected, but gave free rein to proud mothers and fathers. Watching people parse the sharing of good news made me think about the bigger issue of bragging. As I researched it further, it became clear that this is something most of us are conflicted about: we want to let people know about our successes, but we don't want to appear to be doing so. And we want to hear about others' victories, but not too often or too loudly. There is a common perception that it's more acceptable to brag now than it was in the past, especially about our children. It used to be that parents didn't want their children to get swollen heads (when's the last time you heard that expression?) or, for more superstitious reasons, feared that praise would bring on the wrath of the gods, or at least bad luck. Such trends are hard to measure. What is clear is that technology has provided "more outlets and a lot more reinforcement," said Susan Krauss Whitbourne, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "Every cute thing a baby does is on YouTube." There are many reasons people feel the need to publicize their successes, ranging from sharing the joy to one upping. But what research shows is that talking about ourselves just feels good. Diana I. Tamir, co author of the study and a doctoral student at Harvard, said the research focused not on bragging, but on answering neutral questions about one's personality. "When asked questions about themselves, there was more reward activity than when asked about someone else," Ms. Tamir said. And there was even more activity when the participants could choose to share information, by pressing a button, with someone outside the scanner. Another experiment found that people were willing to give up small amounts of money to reveal information about themselves, rather than talk about someone else. "I think there is a natural human tendency" to talk about oneself, Ms. Tamir said. "The interesting question is why we are motivated to share." Another interesting question is when sharing turns into bragging and the answer is often in the eye of the beholder. As one commenter wrote on the Canadian blog wondercafe.ca, "I wonder if it's sharing if I do it and bragging if someone else does it." Although boasting may seem more acceptable now, Susan A. Speer, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Manchester in England, has found that "self praise" is still largely considered unacceptable. Professor Speer, a conversation analyst, looked at a variety of data, from psychiatric interventions to everyday conversations, that involved self praise. The information came from the United States and Britain. In her study, published last year in the Social Psychology Quarterly, Professor Speer discovered that in almost every case, directly praising oneself seemed to violate social norms. She said people responded to self praise negatively or, more subtly, with a long silence or a roll of the eyes. She found that the only way to really blow your own horn or toot your own trumpet, as they say in Britain without alienating someone was to repeat something positive someone else said about you. It's easier for a listener to respond to this kind of self praise, Professor Speer said, by saying, for instance, "How nice someone said that." Examples? Complaining about e mail service from Cannes or about having to sign too many autographs. As Henry Alford wrote in The New York Times last November about his annoyance with this phenomenon: "Outright bragging expects to be met with awe, but humblebragging wants to be met with awe and sympathy." Oliver Burkeman, a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian, has also written about the art of boasting while appearing not to. He argued that while technology is partly to blame, so are these economic times, because there is great pressure in a highly competitive job market to portray yourself as better than everyone else. Often, the advice to would be braggarts is to "know your audience." Are the people you're telling (or tweeting or posting to) really interested in your child's sports victories or your brilliant cooking efforts, or should you save that information for your husband or the grandparents? The trouble, Mr. Burkeman told me, is that it has become harder to determine who your audience is. On Facebook, for example, friends can include everyone from family members to work colleagues you barely know. "It's unacceptable to brag about the achievements of your child to strangers, but to close friends it's great," said Mr. Burkeman, author of "The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking." Presumably, we would be sensitive to the feelings of an unemployed friend and not boast about a recent promotion. But when we're talking to a vast social network, we don't know whose buttons we're pushing. Such confusion may be why an August 2011 post on The Times's Motherlode blog on bragging about one's children got 141 heated comments. So to brag (or celebrate) or not? Professor Whitbourne suggests stopping before you open your mouth or type something and asking: "What are you trying to accomplish? What is your goal? You have to ask yourself, 'Why am I sharing my information?' " And while most of us find incessant braggarts annoying and avoid them if possible (hey, that's what the "hide" option on Facebook is for), Professor Whitbourne says it is also worth noting if you are constantly irritated by people's successes. Do they make you feel insecure or resentful? Why does it matter to you, and what can you learn about yourself? Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that questions of how to present ourselves in the best light are so complicated. As Professor Speer noted, researchers have found that it involves a delicate balance of "self enhancement, accuracy and humility." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Your Money |
How has the orchestra changed in 35 years? Well, obviously we've all gotten older. The reason I say that is it might be my 35 years there, which is half my life, incidentally I'll be 70 in January of 2020 but we still have a number of musicians who were there before I was. Some of them played in the very first concert. It was really an outsized chamber group rather than an orchestra then, a cross between a chamber group and a Quaker meeting: "The spirit moves me to play a B flat here rather than a B natural." All the things they joke about, Birkenstocks and homespun clothes, are not so far from the truth in certain ways. My job was to change it from a chamber group to a Baroque orchestra. As its first music director, I'd say, "We'll, we can discuss it afterward, but if I say it's a B flat, it's a B flat." That's what happens in orchestras. How has the music you play changed? It was very definitely only playing the Baroque greats heavy on the Bach, because the founder of Philharmonia was a pupil of Gustav Leonhardt. I remember a couple of years in, I insisted we do a classical concert, and do some Mozart. And we got grumblings from our audience! Pushing the envelope a little bit, stretching the repertoire is to me an important thing it keeps the musicians on their toes; it keeps me on my toes. We have a thing called New Music for Old Instruments where we commission new works. We've commissioned one from Matthew Aucoin coming up in a couple of seasons; next year, we'll be doing one by Caroline Shaw. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Credit...Filippo Massellani for The New York Times LOS ANGELES Mark Bradford, one of America's most acclaimed painters, could not figure out what to put in the grand rotunda. This artist, who is set to represent his country in May at the 2017 Venice Biennale, found an unusual way of working long distance. In a warehouse in South Los Angeles, not far from where he grew up, he created a full size model of the Biennale's United States pavilion, a stately building with echoes of Monticello. Then he spent the last year testing out his ideas in it. "This a Jeffersonian type space, something you see in state capitols," he said, pointing to its central dome. "I wanted it to feel like a ruin, like we went into a governmental building and started shaking the rotunda and the plaster started falling off. Our rage made the plaster fall off the walls." Sitting on a crate, his long legs extended, Mr. Bradford, 55, was confronting a pressing concern beyond exhibition plans: How can he represent the United States abroad at a time when as a black, gay man and a self proclaimed "liberal and progressive thinker" he no longer feels represented by his own government. The broad social changes in America from the police violence that ignited the Black Lives Matter movement to the messages of hate that he feels were unleashed by the November election fueled a personal sense of crisis that permeates much of his forthcoming show in Venice, "Tomorrow Is Another Day." 'Keep It Hot, Keep It Urgent' Mr. Bradford's replica, Doric columns and all, gave him a chance to try to bring something of the Giardini, the Venice park that hosts the national pavilions, to South Los Angeles and vice versa. In the rotunda, he first tried lining the walls with silver paper. Then he installed a colorful "waterfall" sculpture a cascade of paper strips. Finally, nine or 10 versions in, he realized he needed to "keep it hot, keep it urgent." He plastered the walls with what looks like a decaying mural: a gritty collage of fragmented images from cellphone ads scavenged from the neighborhood, which target the friends and family of prison inmates. "Receive calls on your cellphone from jail," they say in exchange for what turn out to be predatory rates. He calls the merchant posters "parasitic" for the way they profit from misfortune. And he sees his work as "a reminder: Don't forget there are people in need." Judging from the mock pavilion, the Venice show could be his most urgent exhibition to date. Inside, his roughly elegant abstract paintings have erupted into sculpture, and he is pushing the limit of how much personal and political weight an abstract canvas can actually carry. "Building the pavilion was great, because I was making this thing that's all about power into a safe place where I could play, have angst, fall on the ground," said Mr. Bradford, who, at 6 foot 8, was slouching to make himself more accessible. "It's like taking a hairbrush and lip syncing your favorite song in the mirror when nobody's looking." While pavilion funding comes primarily from a State Department grant of up to 250,000, it is not unusual for selected artists to bite the hand that feeds them. Several have questioned the Olympic sport model of "representing" a country, and some have made their Biennale art a platform for challenging such nationalism. In 2011, the artist duo Allora Calzadilla took on the American military complex by installing an upside down tank outside the American pavilion, with a treadmill on top used by a runner. (Roberta Smith of The New York Times called it "angry, sophomoric Conceptualism that borders on the tyrannical.") Mr. Bradford's exhibition is not as explicitly political but shaped as a loose journey of self discovery that can be read in mythological or biographical terms or, often, both at once. The mythological references first appear in a poem by Mr. Bradford hanging on the pavilion's facade, written in the voice of Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire, metalworking and sculpture. He encounters Medusa: "Mad as hell/I looked her dead in the eye/And he knew her." Mr. Bradford drew from one version of the Hephaestus myth, in which the boy breaks his foot when cast out of Olympus for trying to protect his mother from a punishing Zeus. "Somehow that story just rang true," Mr. Bradford said. "That's the story I heard growing up." His own life has a bit of an Olympian arc. His single mother raised him in a boardinghouse in South Central while building, at odd hours, her business as a hairstylist. After he was bullied for being, he said, "a sissy," she moved them to Santa Monica a more accepting, "Birkenstock wearing, fruit juicing" hippie enclave. Later, as a young gay man in his 20s, he wandered and traveled, feeling no reason to plan for a future when he saw so many men with H.I.V. dying. Finally he went back to school, studying art in community college before being accepted into the game changing California Institute of the Arts. After earning his B.F.A. and M.F.A., he was in his late 30s and working in his mother's salon when he created his breakthrough paintings: Agnes Martin inspired abstractions made from the white endpapers used in perming hair. "I liked how they pointed to the world," he said. "And I could get a whole box of endpapers for 50 cents. I would affix them to bedsheets, because I couldn't afford canvas." Soon that would change: The paintings caught the eye of the curator Thelma Golden, scouting at the time for her groundbreaking 2001 "post black" survey, "Freestyle," at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the collector Eileen Harris Norton, now a close friend and one of the few to see the mock pavilion in progress. (She called it a "powerful and complete experience I like that Mark is telling a full story.") This blistered skin is no accident. Mr. Bradford, who talks about feeling "pushed out" by his own country these days, says he first felt a profound sense of "expulsion" when the AIDS crisis hit hard with painful deaths, compounded by government indifference. The second gallery features another sculpture, "Medusa," made of black paper rolls as thick as fire hoses that have been soaked, wrung and shaped into coils that recall the snakes of Medusa's hair. Three new paintings, each named for a Siren, hang on the walls. They are his first endpaper paintings in 13 years and his darkest yet, the papers dyed to create a black on black palette. "I like the tension between the dark paintings, where everything is underneath, and the Medusa sculpture, this externalized rage," he said. Mr. Bradford used part of his 500,000 MacArthur "genius" grant for its start up costs. The group is now funded mainly through his art sales. While other artists today position their activism as artworks ("social practice" is the buzzword), Mr. Bradford does not regard Art Practice as his art project. He plays down his creative role, stressing the importance of working within the existing community fabric, even if it is torn and frayed. "You have to do a lot of listening for communities in need," he said. In the process of researching Leimert Park, he learned that 40 percent of the district's high school students were in foster care. He brought a similar approach to Rio Tera. "I had to ask myself when I got this pavilion, what do I want to do with this?" he said. "I knew I did not want to stand on the mountaintop as Mark Bradford but find a way to help build different relationships." He is hoping they will last long after his large paintings have left the United States pavilion and the summer crowds empty out of the leafy Giardini. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
Accomplished entertainer though he is, Tony Cleary who performs under the name of the Amazing No Instrumental Man doesn't have a thing on his creator. True, using only his mouth and hands, Tony is able to summon a church organ, a harmonica, a trumpet and, most amazingly of all, the fabled tenor John McCormack singing on a scratchy 78 r.p.m. record. Nonetheless, this virtuoso is strictly small time compared to Mikel Murfi, the inexhaustibly multifarious writer, director and sole performer of "I Hear You and Rejoice," which opened on Sunday night at the Irish Arts Center in Hell's Kitchen. Tony is a very minor character in a flashback within a flashback, to boot in Mr. Murfi's one man, one chair, 80 minute production. But Tony's turn in a less than sparkling village talent show might be seen as a miniature model for Mr. Murfi's far greater performance, in which an entire town is summoned into being. You should know that many of its inhabitants are inspired mimics of birds, livestock and one another which means that Mr. Murfi becomes, among other things, a sort of infinite and dizzying echo chamber. Imitative skills are essential in a place where storytelling, and the caricaturing of your fellow citizens, is what transforms a seemingly uneventful backwater into a soap opera of endless fascination. Gossip here magnifies the smallest details of daily life to the outsize proportions of legend. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Cedric Villani, a French National Assembly member, on a visit to Paris's 17th arrondissement on Jan. 25. He has noted that the first elected mayor of Paris, in 1789, was also a mathematician. PARIS On a Wednesday night in December, amid civic strife over proposed pension reforms, Cedric Villani, a prizewinning mathematician and a deputy in the National Assembly, packed the Trianon Theater and made the case that he should be elected mayor when Parisians go to the polls in March. "Is a scientist in politics incongruous?" he asked. "I do not believe that. Science can provide solutions to the greatest challenges of our time." Mathematician politicians are not unknown; the first elected mayor of Paris, in 1789, was Jean Sylvain Bailly, a mathematician, astronomer and revolutionary. In the United States, the pro science political action committee 314 Action has helped hundreds of candidates with STEM backgrounds run for office. Such candidates promise to add a certain je ne sais quoi to the political fray something intangible at the nexus of rigor, rationality, creativity and perseverance. Dr. Villani, with the campaign slogan "Le Nouveau Paris," envisions the City of Light as the city of the future: "Trust science, to invent new urban lives." Dr. Villani himself recently underwent a subtle reinvention taking scissors to his signature Chopin pageboy with iterative trimmings that eventually resulted in bangs. The new hairstyle did not go unnoticed. "My adversaries have made a good job of portraying this as the fact that I was hiding something, that I was pretending," Dr. Villani said during an interview a couple of days prior at campaign headquarters, a third floor flat with old oak floors and clean slate white walls, one block over from Notre Dame. Sitting on a sofa, he wore his usual three piece suit and a spider brooch perched on the lapel. Shoes off, he was in sock feet his preferred state for thinking and meetings and talks although these days it's a rare indulgence. "This is the laboratory of a new political bet," he said. "People here believe that it is not by following the rules of the political parties that you can improve the future." Scientifically, Dr. Villani does not lack for credentials. After winning the Fields Medal in 2010, he became a pundit for sexy math. As a member of Parliament, he led a task force on A.I. that produced the widely discussed report "For a Meaningful Artificial Intelligence: Towards a French and European Strategy." Perhaps it bodes well that one of Dr. Villani's areas of expertise is "optimal transport," investigating the most efficient allocation of starting points to end points. For instance, as Dr. Villani considered in a 976 page book on the subject "Optimal Transport: Old and New" there is the grand challenge each morning of transporting quantities of bread from bakeries to cafes. "The problem is to find in practice where each unit of bread should go, in such a way as to minimize the total transport cost," he wrote. "I've been tackling complex problems my whole life before entering politics," he said in the fall, when he confirmed his intentions to go it alone as a dissident candidate. (In July, he was passed over as the official candidate for President Emmanuel Macron's En Marche party.) On Jan. 26, the president received Dr. Villani for a meeting at the Elysee Palace and asked him to make common cause with the party candidate, but Dr. Villani refused. "My campaign for Paris continues in complete independence," he announced in a statement. As he noted in a text: "There is currently absolutely no reason to withdraw that I could possibly see ..." Macron's party then expelled Dr. Villani, who has already picked up support. Isabelle Saporta, an environmental journalist, moved to run under Dr. Villani's flag, joining a growing climate coalition. "Getting involved with a very great mathematician, an out of party man, seduces me," she told Le Monde. "To have reached that level of mathematics, it certainly implies that you are in love with mathematics," said Michel Broue, a mathematician at the University of Paris. "And if you love it, it's terrible to leave it." "Cedric always loves a challenge," said Sylvia Serfaty, at New York University's Courant Institute, and who studied with Dr. Villani at Paris's Ecole Normale Superieure in the 1990s. "The Fields Medal was a challenge for him. He did it, he got it. So once that was done, I think he was also just needing a new challenge." He entered European politics about a decade ago, and moving in those circles, he met Mr. Macron, with whom he shared a "neither left nor right" mantra. Nonetheless, when courted to run for Macron's party, Dr. Villani declined, twice. He was director of the Henri Poincare Institute and had big plans in the works. Then, a few weeks before the presidential election in 2017, came the "fake news," as he called it, proclaiming that he was indeed a candidate. "I saw that the idea was popular," Dr. Villani said so he reconsidered. He asked the advice of Jean Pierre Bourguignon, a former director of Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques and the outgoing president of the European Research Council. Dr. Bourguignon told him it was a bad idea. "I feared that his weight as a scientist would be jeopardized by becoming a political statesman," he said. "I was concerned that he would diminish his impact, rather than increase it." Dr. Villani is still wrapping his head around the transition. Sitting on the sofa, peering at his smartphone, he noted that the title of his latest book "Immersion: From Science to Parliament" has multiple meanings. "Immersion" describes his deep dive into politics (he considered titling it "Plunge"). And "with a little mischief," he wrote in the introduction, immersion also refers to a mathematical operation "by which one 'transports' a geometric object, without changing its intrinsic nature, into the heart of a new ambient geometry." "He comes from a world which is regulated by truth, or trying to approach truth," said Clement Mouhot, at the University of Cambridge, formerly a doctoral student with Dr. Villani, and a key collaborator. "Truth is more polemical in social sciences, but in mathematics it's not polemical. He has moved into another world which is regulated by other principles. Probably he sometimes gets it right, he sometimes gets it wrong." He got it right in responding to crude questions from a TV presenter who asked whether Dr. Villani was autistic. "What would it change anyway?" Dr. Villani replied. A G.O.P. pathway in Virginia. The win by Glenn Youngkin, who campaigned heavily in the governor's race on education and who evaded the shadow of Donald Trump, could serve as a blueprint for Republicans in the midterms. A rightward shift emerges. Mr. Youngkin outperformed Mr. Trump's 2020 results across Virginia, while a surprisingly strong showing in the New Jersey governor's race by the G.O.P. candidate unsettled Democrats. Democratic panic is rising. Less than a year after taking power in Washington, the party faces a grim immediate future as it struggles to energize voters and continues to lose messaging wars to Republicans. A new direction in N.Y.C. Eric Adams will be the second Black mayor in the city's history. The win for the former police captain sets in motion a more center left Democratic leadership. Mixed results for Democrats in cities. Voters in Minneapolis rejected an amendment to replace the Police Department while progressives scored a victory in Boston's mayoral race. But with politics come ideological triangulations, alliances and counter alliances. In 2014, Dr. Villani supported the incumbent, Mayor Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist, but her "method was lacking rigor, and results were not at the level of ambitions," he said. Currently, Ms. Hidalgo is ahead in the polls, but by some accounts the race is still open, with no candidate having a decisive edge. Scrolling through his smartphone in December, he marveled at the unfathomable complexities. "The combinatorics is amazing," he said. (Combinatorics is a branch of math concerned with combinations and permutations.) "It's really like a puzzle. You can meet a politician one day and three weeks later, it will be a different speech. Three weeks later again, it will be another one, and then another one." A call came in that he couldn't ignore. "May I? This is a bit of an emergency." It was a former M.P. who had promised her support, calling with the news that she would no longer be in the Villani camp: She was moving to the En Marche camp, in an act of revenge against the Socialists. "Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow," Dr. Villani replied. "That's politics," he said, afterward. "Politics is where rationality and irrationality meet. As well as passion." Dr. Villani's bet and conviction is that bringing science into politics is important at this moment, particularly. "It's my job to bring more rationality, but never forget the irrational side," he said. "There have been several times in the history of France in which science and politics were mixed together. It was always times of great social redistribution. One of these times was the French Revolution," he said. "One of these times was the Front Populaire, in the '30s. It would be a dream if it would be another one of these periods coming" a dream problem, with increasing degrees of difficulty. "He is not happy when things are easy," said Raphael Rouquier, another graduate of the Ecole Normale Superieure, now at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Politics is where he will have the hardest problems to deal with, so I am absolutely convinced that he is in politics for the long haul." Ultimately, he speculated, Dr. Villani wants to be president of the Republic. Dr. Villani, having put his shoes back on, dismissed that idea with a laugh. "This Paris election is so complicated, it is taking all my heart and brain," he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Clockwise from top left: Braylen Dion for The New York Times; Peyton Fulford for The New York Times; Braylen Dion for The New York Times; Peyton Fulford for The New York Times Clockwise from top left: Braylen Dion for The New York Times; Peyton Fulford for The New York Times; Braylen Dion for The New York Times; Peyton Fulford for The New York Times Credit... Clockwise from top left: Braylen Dion for The New York Times; Peyton Fulford for The New York Times; Braylen Dion for The New York Times; Peyton Fulford for The New York Times When Georgia went blue for Biden last month, some traced it to Stacey Abrams and her nonprofit Fair Fight, whose get out the vote playbook electrified the state. Others cited more college educated and older suburban voters. And though the election (and the upcoming Senate runoffs on Jan. 5) have focused new eyes on the state, it has long been a force of tradition and change. Atlanta, the capital, has a storied civil rights legacy, an influential hip hop scene and booming film studios. It is the birthplace, after all, of Martin Luther King Jr., the home of Tyler Perry Studios and where such as artists as Childish Gambino, Migos and Gucci Mane made their mark. Nicknamed "Hotlanta" or the ATL (after its bustling airport) by some, the city is also welcoming arrivals from New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere, drawn to not only to Atlanta's history and culture, but also its affordable spaces, agreeable weather and fantastic food. Here are six Georgians, newcomers and natives, who exemplify modern Atlanta. They are entrepreneurs, actors, artist and activists. What was the impetus for the Gathering Spot? I started the Gathering Spot in the wake of Trayvon Martin's murder with the belief that Black people should have a place to be more than tolerated, but celebrated. I also missed the access to community and thought leadership that I experienced during my university years and wondered why I couldn't find a place where that continued to happen. The club has hosted everyone from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to Drake. My partner TK Petersen and I are in the middle of opening a Gathering Spot in D.C. In Atlanta, our biggest export is our culture. In this city, we know each other across traditional lines of difference and have successfully brought thriving start up, big business, college and university, and creative communities together. Atlanta is also a city that is distinctly Black. This is one of the few cities where topics like diversity, representation and political power for Black people aren't aspirational talking points, but our historic and present reality. What did the 2020 elections reveal about Georgia? Georgia is a true battleground state, and more diverse and more progressive than what we get credit for. This election cycle is also showing that Georgia, like our country, is deeply divided. I'm optimistic though that what is happening in Georgia will inspire other communities to see that they, too, can mobilize new voters, shift their politics and successfully navigate tough conversations about their collective future. Now lives: In a two bedroom apartment in the Grove Park neighborhood of Atlanta with her partner Why did you move to Atlanta? My family moved us to northwest Georgia from Fullerton, Calif., in the mid 90s (they are originally from Mexico) and I moved to Atlanta in 2008. I was in and out of state colleges as a pre law student until I finally dropped out in 2010 and landed my first cooking experience as an intern at the former Tierra by the Atlanta Botanical Garden in Ansley Park. I've been cooking in this city ever since. Your cooking crosses over into activism. How did that start? In 2014 I was a chef for a University of Georgia summer program that traveled across the country. We were crossing through California's central valley, where many of the farm workers are from Mexico. This is where we harvest so much of the country's food and yet, for the locals, it is a food desert. This was a big moment for me. I realized as a chef you don't see all the hands that are behind your food orders. You don't know their cost of living or what wage they receive. After educating myself more, I started to take on roles having to do with food justice. What did the 2020 elections reveal about Georgia? The elections are demonstrating that there have been many groups of people that have been ready to be a part of the conversations that shape institutional change. They are also indicating that the youth is finally able to vote and that they will be heard. Tell us something surprising about Atlanta. There are many urban farms here that are also platforms for racial justice and activism, like Grow Where You Are, an organization that's been actively working in our communities for over a decade, and emphasizes the importance of land stewardship and food sovereignty as a human right. Now Lives: The upscale district of Buckhead in northern Atlanta. Why did you move to Atlanta? I moved here in 2018 when I was booked for the second season of "Dynasty." I thought initially I would be in the city for three and a half months but now, two and a half years later, I am still here, shooting the fourth season. How does it compare to other cities? I've lived In New York City and Sydney. In 2015 I moved to L.A. and enjoyed the outdoor lifestyle. It reminded me of Sydney, but because L.A. is the center of Hollywood and celebrity, there is an oversaturation of social media that gives it an underlying sense of superficiality. It feels like everyone is an influencer. Atlanta is a bit of an outlier. I really appreciate that Atlanta has a hustle, but on the flip side there is a slower pace and a day to day reality that feels more wholesome and authentic. What surprised you about Georgia? I thought the South was a place where everyone had a thick drawl and where I could find a lot of barbecue and Spanish moss dripping from the trees. I thought that it would be somewhat conservative and feel 50 years behind other international cities. But Atlanta feels very much in the center of everything and extremely progressive. After all, it's the birthplace of Martin Luther King. I'm reminded of that every day I drive by his childhood home on the way to work. What do you think the 2020 elections will mean for the future of Georgia? People outside the state are now seeing its potential. I think we'll be seeing more film production here, more people following in Tyler Perry's footsteps, more people moving here. Those of us who have been living here have known this, but the election is showing the results of this shift. It's really exciting to be here at this moment. Now lives: In a one bedroom apartment in Tucker, Ga., about 15 miles northeast of Atlanta. I am best known for my work spearheading the movement to change the Mississippi State flag.I recently returned from a five month national tour with Vote Common Good, of which I am the poet laureate. In Atlanta, my next project, Bars Blue Cups, will explore the intersection between hip hop and health. As a blueprint, I'll be using my own journey as an independent rap activist my failures, my triumphs and my journey of self discovery through health literacy, empowerment, mindfulness and self actualization. Why did you move to Atlanta? In 2017 while living in Brooklyn, my friend and fellow artist, Chris Wilson, introduced me to an organization called Breakout. After meeting co founder, Michael Farber, they flew me out to host an event in Atlanta and I fell in love with the city. Within a couple months, I relocated from Brooklyn to Atlanta to see how my talents can be of service here. How does Atlanta differ from other cities? I'm still new to the city, but so far I have seen flourishing Black businesses, collaboration within our community, sharing of resources and queer visibility on a level that I've not seen in other cities. Being from Mississippi, I'm used to the slower pace of the south, the complex history of institutional suppression and the erasure of anything that isn't straight, white, male or wealthy. Atlanta has some of those same components, like every American city, but it's not denied or hidden. What did the 2020 elections teach us? The elections proved what many of us have known and have been screaming about for years: that the survival of our nation is dependent on the intellect, power, magic and leadership of people of color and especially Black women. We've seen Georgia leaders like Wanda Mosley, LaTosha Brown, Stacey Abrams, Tamieka Atkins, come to the forefront of media attention fairly recently. Black women have always led movements from the back, but now the overdue acknowledgment, credit and visibility has caught up. How are recent transplants like yourself changing Atlanta? Their presence and investments could be destroying the very spirit that attracted them to the city in the first place. I've been meeting a lot of people moving here from N.Y.C. or the West Coast excited about buying property and starting businesses here in Atlanta. I understand the excitement. However, during my time in Brooklyn I've seen the devastation caused by outsider investment and corporate expansion, how it displaces family and sucks the soul out of entire communities. I'd just say be mindful of your presence, learn about the city's people and history, and respect those who are already doing great work here. My parents moved to Atlanta when I was 3, so I'm as native as you can get without being born here. As an artist you always think about moving to New York or Los Angeles because they are the country's important centers of art and culture. But I personally like that Atlanta has had to prove itself over the last 15 years or so. I love being the underdog. Without being cutthroat, artists in Atlanta have been able to build a community the way we want it to be. I'd rather be part of something that is in the middle of shaping itself rather than force myself into an existing ecosystem. Tell me about the city's art scene. There is a big D.I.Y. art movement in the city that includes small galleries and nonprofit art projects like The Bakery, Dashboard, Notch 8 and ABV, an agency and art gallery founded by artist Greg Mike. When I am out painting walls for OuterSpace, the streets are lined with people. I just finished a mural for Living Walls, a nonprofit started by Monica Campana to celebrate art in Atlanta that has over time turned into a juggernaut. How has race evolved for you here? Historically for me, the only colors that have mattered in the South, and especially in Atlanta, are Black and white. As a person that is neither shade, I had to blend into both those communities. But now there's a lot more acceptance of diversity. Southern hospitality is a legit thing: if you are a decent person you are typically welcomed with open arms, at least in Atlanta. Were you politically engaged in the 2020 elections? I tried to encourage people to register to vote by giving free portraits of John Lewis to those who did. Through that process, I met so many passionate people engaged in civic activity. It was so heartening for me to witness that firsthand. I think there is a common idea out there that one vote doesn't matter, but we saw just how some counties were won by just a few hundred votes. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Susan Sarandon hobbled into the restaurant in a cast boot and shiny Teamsters jacket emblazoned with the name "Sue." But Senator Cory Booker's first question for the actress was about a tattoo that runs down her back. ("It's my kids' initials and my granddaughter's," she replied.) When she returned the favor, challenging him to show his tattoos, Mr. Booker unbuttoned precisely one shirt button before admitting he didn't have any. "I'm boring that way," he said. Ms. Sarandon, 69, had fractured her ankle while hiking in Colombia. But the injury scarcely slowed her down, as befits a busy actress and perhaps even more prolific activist. Her film career spans more than 45 years and includes "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," "Bull Durham," "Thelma Louise" and "Dead Man Walking," for which she won an Academy Award as best actress in 1996, her fifth nomination. Her latest film, "The Meddler," will be released next month. Mr. Booker, 46, has also been a longtime activist for social justice. After Stanford University, where he played tight end on the football team, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University and earned a law degree from Yale in 1997. He moved to Newark, where he first worked as an advocate for low income tenants. The following year, Mr. Booker won a seat on the Newark City Council, and in 2006 he was elected to the first of two terms as mayor. In 2013 he won a special election to fill the seat of Frank R. Lautenberg, who died in office, making Mr. Booker the first African American to represent New Jersey in the United States Senate. He went on to win the regular election the next year. Famous for engaging his constituents and others on Twitter, Mr. Booker, a Democrat, has vowed to meet with all of his Republican colleagues in the Senate. His best selling book, "United," about finding common ground in a divided world, was published last month. Over an early lunch at Il Cantinori in Manhattan, the pair traded notes about what brought them both to genealogy television shows, the forces that led them to activism (as well as acting and politics) and their thoughts about "political correctness" in this election year. Susan Sarandon: That's a legitimate explanation of how I got into the business. I wasn't interested in acting. But it was the '60s. I was a seeker. And what acting depends on is imagination, which creates empathy and also leads to activism. PG: You weren't being demure, like Lana Turner, getting discovered at the lunch counter? SS: No. And it turned out that acting was a good approach to being in my life. PG: Tell us about that whiteboard. Cory Booker: That whiteboard isn't my origin story. That's like starting in the third act. My story starts with my dad, a black boy born to a single mother in a small town in North Carolina. It starts with my parents meeting in Washington, D.C., in the '60s, at a time of incredible activism. PG: Fair enough. But why the whiteboard? CB: I wrote things down because I was a black kid from the first black family to live in an all white town Harrington Park, N.J. . My parents had to fight to live there literally, physical fights. And they were always pushing me to take advantage of my blessings. PG: Tell us one thing you wrote. CB: I wrote down the grades I wanted in every class. My parents were obsessed with my education. And I knew that sports would be my ticket to opportunity. Those were my two main goals in high school. PG: Were your parents focused like that on you, Susan? SS: My parents had no idea what parenting was. I'm the oldest of nine kids. My mother was raised in foster care in an orphanage. And my dad's father died when he was young, and his mother was crazy. So these two met and, thanks to Catholic indoctrination on birth control, started having all these kids. Everyone did where I grew up. And I had to take care of them. CB: My parents may have crisscrossed the race lines, but there was so much unfinished business. My father was not going to let me sit back and just consume my blessings. He wanted me to contribute, and to do that, you have to be mission oriented. PG: Hence the whiteboard. Here's a weird coincidence: You both appeared on TV genealogy shows, looking for a missing ancestor. SS: And I had always been told that my grandmother, my mother's mother, had been such a terrible parent that her kids were taken away from her and put into foster care. But it turned out that she was knocked up at 12 by my grandfather, who was in his 20s and lived next door. She pretended to be 15 so they could get married. Pretty amazing, right? Then she disappeared and got connected with the mafia. She went to the track in limousines, and jazz clubs, and dated Frank Sinatra. But not a kind thought was given to the fact that she was just a kid. PG: It's a big moment in our relationship with our parents, when we see how deeply affected they were by their parents. CB: And it shows how connected we all are in ways we don't understand. PG: Which brings me to the big similarity between you: seeing others with compassion, whether they're film characters, like prostitutes or death row inmates, or citizens held down by generations of poverty. SS: We're all afraid of the same things. We all need the same things, too. I'm lucky to be in a business that's almost forced compassion. I get to show you that you can identify with someone you never thought you'd be able to feel for. That's what "Dead Man Walking" is about. We all make mistakes. But by connecting with the divine in each other, we can be redeemed. PG: Have you always felt the need to speak up, no matter the cost? SS: Even as a kid, I rotated my dolls' dresses so every one got a chance to wear the good one. I think it's innate. Or maybe it's about being the oldest kid in the family, the caretaker? But I suffer more from having an opportunity to speak up, and letting it pass, than I ever have from losing a role or being threatened or having people say nasty stuff about me. PG: Were you ever tempted to take a high priced job in a big law firm? CB: I reject the idea that the guy who comes out of Yale and goes to work in the projects in Newark is good, and the guy who goes to work for a white shoe law firm is bad. We're all mountain rangers. We all have peaks and valleys. I know a lot of people who work at nonprofits with men and women coming out of prison. But I also know lawyers at major law firms who help tremendously through pro bono work. Let's not judge. Let's draw inspiration from each other's stories successes and failures and realize we're all connected. SS: I knew Sister Helen Prejean for about a year before Tim Robbins started working on "Dead Man Walking." She didn't come to the death penalty like Arnold Schwarzenegger in an action movie. She started by simply writing a letter to a man on death row. It was a small act of kindness, nothing heroic. PG: That reminds me of the character in your new movie, "The Meddler": a "smother mother" whose little acts of kindness change her life after her daughter tells her to back off. SS: Words are powerful. And whether we're talking about kids in school or people running for president, slurs affect not only the person they're aimed at, but also the person saying them and the people who hear them. When you had Trump being laughed at for making fun of people at rallies and not being called on it for months I blame our corporate media for a lot of that. It should have been talked about. CB: There are always going to be people with hateful words in their mouths, and worse. Between 20 and 30 transgender Americans were killed last year for who they were. We had a church in South Carolina where someone walked in to kill black people specifically. But what concerns me more are all the good people who sit silent in the face of what's going on. We all have a choice. We can do nothing and accept things as they are, or we can stand up and take responsibility for changing them. SS: "Politically correct" is almost as good an expression as "right to life." There's nothing political about hatred, and there's nothing correct about it, either. We need to have a dialogue about where the hatred comes from. CB: To me, being silent in the face of injustice is the greatest threat we have. PG: O.K., last question: As you may know, Susan is the co founder of Spin, a Ping Pong club in New York City and elsewhere. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
CHICAGO At a Christmas party in December, Edwin Eisendrath, a former Chicago alderman, bumped into Jorge Ramirez, a labor leader. As guests nibbled on decadent desserts, the two men contemplated an audacious plan. Should they buy The Chicago Sun Times, the city's scrappy but perpetually endangered tabloid? Less than two weeks ago, their fledgling idea came to fruition, when a group led by Mr. Eisendrath overcame a rival bid by Tronc, the publisher of The Chicago Tribune. The deal not only saved The Sun Times from possible extinction, but also created a highly unusual arrangement: Labor unions now share ownership of a news organization that covers them closely, in what is still one of the nation's strongest union towns. Now that the acquisition has become official, Mr. Eisendrath, a Chicago native who has spent much of his career as a politician and business executive, is laying out his grand ambitions for The Sun Times. He wants to breathe new life into the newspaper, revitalizing it as a publication that tells stories of the working class and acts as a voice of the people. The idea is particularly resonant in Chicago, one of the last two newspaper cities in the country, and the place that gave America Studs Terkel and Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." "The North Star, for us, is great journalism that genuinely reflects the lives and interests of the working people of Chicago," Mr. Eisendrath, 59, said in an interview last week in his downtown office, a room with few trinkets or wall hangings but a sweeping view of the Chicago River. "Our story is such a Chicago story," he said. "There's such an overlap of identity between the city that we love and the group that we put together and this mission that we're on. We think we're going to serve the city really well." Along with Mr. Eisendrath, the new ownership of The Sun Times includes several private investors and the Chicago Federation of Labor, an umbrella organization whose president is Mr. Ramirez. Since the deal closed, Mr. Eisendrath has sprinted into action, assembling a board of directors, arranging new office space in the city's booming West Loop neighborhood and sketching out his vision. The deal also included The Chicago Reader, a weekly. The sale capped a tumultuous few months for The Sun Times. In May, Tronc said it had entered into an agreement to buy Wrapports Holdings, the paper's owner. The move, however, caught the attention of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, which immediately said it would investigate the possible acquisition The Sun Times is The Tribune's main competitor and asked other suitors to submit bids. Mr. Ferro donated his stake in The Sun Times to a charitable trust last year to avoid perceived conflicts of interest after taking a 44 million stake in Tronc, known then as Tribune Publishing. When Mr. Eisendrath's group emerged victorious, many in the country's third biggest city at least those who pay attention to the ownership of The Sun Times felt a sense of relief. "It would be wonderful to have a paper that attracted to its pages some of the literary ghosts of the great age of Chicago journalism," said Thomas Geoghegan, a labor lawyer and author in Chicago. "Those journalists back then were the voices of the working class, because they were working class.'' 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. Others were skeptical of how truly progressive the new owners are. "It will probably wind up being a Chicago political establishment oriented newspaper," said Don Rose, a longtime political operative in Chicago who has been critical of Mr. Eisendrath's political career. Mr. Eisendrath may seem to be an unlikely champion of the working class, given that he grew up wealthy on Chicago's North Side and graduated from Harvard. But he taught public school for several years and, at 29, represented the city's Lincoln Park district as an alderman. He said he believed in keeping a diversity of working class voices in newspapers. "The Sun Times has always had this in its DNA," he said. "Around the country, it's being lost, and I think it's one of the reasons that Americans all over the country have come to distrust journalism." Before the sale, some in Chicago feared that Tronc's ownership would shift The Sun Times, which has traditionally been a progressive counterpoint to the more conservative Tribune, to the right. Others thought Tronc would simply close The Sun Times. In a statement, a Tronc spokeswoman said the company had "always been committed to keeping The Sun Times an independent media voice within the city of Chicago." The deal's terms were not disclosed, but The Tribune reported that the purchase price was 1. Mr. Eisendrath's group also put aside more than 11 million to finance the newspaper's operations for roughly 30 months. Rocked by ownership turmoil and crippled by staff cuts, The Sun Times is hardly the same celebrated Chicago paper that won eight Pulitzer Prizes and once featured the columnist Mike Royko. Circulation has fallen to about 120,000, compared with roughly 350,000 a decade ago, and the paper, like most print publications, has struggled to figure out how to succeed in the digital age. Its website was clunky and outdated until a recent redesign. Still, the newspaper has a loyal following among minorities, progressives and members of Chicago's working class. Mr. Eisendrath's group also bought Answers Media, a production studio that could help The Sun Times make progress digitally. Even as the arrival of the new ownership group was met with optimism in some circles, it also sent ripples of alarm through some in the newsroom. Labor unions carry a lot of might in Chicago, raising questions about whether the new owners might try to influence coverage. When Mr. Ramirez came to the Sun Times building to introduce himself to staff members after the sale, he promised not to interfere with their work. "I'd be lying if I didn't say I was nervous in the beginning," said Jim Kirk, the publisher and editor in chief. "We cover the unions very aggressively." Mr. Kirk said he would like to add more cultural reporting in a city whose residents are obsessed with theater, art and architecture; more investigative reporters; and more feature articles about everyday life. So while the future of The Sun Times remains uncertain, the deal has preserved one of Chicago's beloved institutions for now. Peter Alter, a historian for the Chicago History Museum, said Chicagoans had a deep affinity for The Sun Times. "Even as far back as rising like a phoenix from the ashes in the 1871 fire, Chicago has seen itself as favoring the underdog and as a working class city," he said. The battle between The Chicago Tribune and The Sun Times, he said, "has that David and Goliath type aspect to it." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Media |
Here comes the biggest shopping weekend of the year. This Thanksgiving, Apiece Apart aims to make the whole experience more meaningful by recruiting 10 women led brands to donate 5 percent of total sales from Black Friday to Cyber Monday to Planned Parenthood. Support the cause from the comfort of your couch by purchasing a wrap style blanket coat ( 472.50) from the Apiece Apart website, or head to Rachel Comey, Creatures of Comfort and Maryam Nassir Zadeh if you're out and about in the city. At apieceapart.com. Rachel Comey is at 95 Crosby Street, Creatures of Comfort is at 205 Mulberry Street, Maryam Nassir Zadeh is at 123 Norfolk Street. The jewelry label Mateo New York will open a NoLIta boutique on Black Friday where you'll find lovely geometries like suspended diamond circular earrings in 14 karat gold ( 2,050). At 244 Elizabeth Street. That same day, the architecturally inspired outerwear company the Arrivals will open a pop up for the 3D printed homewares brand OTHR. A limited edition design in rose gold or silver that functions as zipper pull, key ring or pendant ( 150) is among the offerings. At 39 1/2 Crosby Street. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
A young Robert M. Lee outside the Harwyn Club on East 52nd Street in Manhattan, next to his 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Boano Cabriolet. Peter Markowski with the 1950 Ferrari 340 America he bought for 500. He kept the car until 1999. Rodolfo Junco de la Vega with his 1951 212 Inter, which he has owned for more than six decades. He displayed it at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance in Florida last March. Rodolfo Junco de la Vega with his 1951 212 Inter, which he has owned for more than six decades. He displayed it at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance in Florida last March. The 1951 Carrera Panamericana road race made a lasting impression on a journalist, Rodolfo Junco de la Vega, then in his 20s, who witnessed a winning performance by powerful sports cars from the nascent Ferrari factory. The race, running the length of Mexico over the newly opened Pan American Highway, drew entries as varied as Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Lincoln, Nash and Studebaker. But it was the cars from Italy that captivated Mr. Junco de la Vega. He vowed to own a Ferrari, sooner rather than later. That became a reality before the end of the year when he bought a 1951 212 Inter that a driver in the race, Piero Taruffi, had told him was available in Rome, Mr. Junco de la Vega said in a telephone interview. Sixty three years later, that impressionable reporter, now 92, still owns the car. He displayed it at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance in Florida last March. A 1 2 finish in the '51 Carrera Panamericana helped to make Ferrari's reputation on a world stage. Enzo Ferrari had been a racecar driver of fair success in the 1920s, and by the end of the decade, his team, Scuderia Ferrari, was the official manager of Alfa Romeo's factory racing effort. Leaving Alfa Romeo just before World War II, Enzo Ferrari established his own company building racecars, and in 1947 he unveiled the first model to bear his name, the 125S. Powered by a 1.5 liter V12, the 125S was soon followed by the 166 and 212 models. Racing versions carried the label of Export, and road cars carried the model name of Inter. Mr. Junco de la Vega's car is one of those Ferrari 212 Inter models. A coupe with bodywork by the coachbuilder Ghia, it was originally ordered by two brothers from Rome; when they no longer wanted to share a car, Mr. Junco de la Vega bought it. The earliest Ferrari road models closely related to their racing counterparts, aside from detuned engines and more substantial body panels than the lightweight track versions used were for many years unappreciated by collectors, or at least those who hoped to drive them regularly. In a telephone interview, Wayne Carini, owner of F40 Motorsports in Portland, Conn., and host of "Chasing Classic Cars" on Velocity TV, said that the civilian Ferraris were widely considered "noisy old trucks" and that many had "terrible brakes and handling." Mr. Carini, who has been repairing and restoring Ferraris since 1973, said that away from the racetrack, the most desired use of a vintage car is for long distance multiday rallies like the Colorado Grand or New England 1000 in the United States, or the Mille Miglia Storica in Italy. At events like the Colorado Grand, where many miles are driven at high elevations, the limited horsepower of pre 1959 Ferraris can disappoint. "All would change in 1960, with the introduction of the 250GT short wheelbase, perhaps the best GT car ever made," he said. Any shortcomings of the early cars were not enough to tempt Mr. Junco de la Vega to part with his '51 212 Inter. Over the years he has had many offers to buy the coupe; all were rejected. He always drove it regularly, though not for long distances. "I never abused it, nor did I ever store it," he said recently, adding that he still drives it once a week "to make sure it runs properly." Among the challenges of his being an early adopter was the lack of Ferrari service operations in Mexico. So after buying the car, Mr. Junco de la Vega went to the factory in Italy and got permission from Enzo Ferrari to spend time in the shop with the builders so he could learn how to service his own car. He performed all of his own work for years, and today is proud that the engine has never had more than routine maintenance in its life. The simple and elegant two door has never been restored. It was repainted in the original colors, black with a silver roof, in the 1970s. Mr. Junco de la Vega returned to the United States from Mexico in 1972 after ending his role in running the newspaper group founded by his father. Another long term Ferrari owner is Robert M. Lee of Reno, Nev. A real estate developer, conservationist, hunter and the founder of the luxury goods maker Hunting World who is in his mid 80s, he is also a keen car collector. In 1955, on his way to a safari in Africa, Mr. Lee stopped in Italy and had the opportunity to meet Enzo Ferrari in Modena. Anne Brockinton Lee, Mr. Lee's wife, said in an email message that Ferrari gave her husband explicit guidance: "If you ever buy a Ferrari, buy it from Ferrari," he said, patting himself on the chest, "not from Luigi Chinetti in New York." The next year Mr. Lee saw a Ferrari 250GT Convertible with a custom body by the coachbuilder Boano at the New York auto show. He fell in love with it and asked to buy it. Mr. Chinetti, well known as a successful racecar driver who had given Ferrari many of its early victories, was then the company's distributor for the United States. Mr. Lee was told that the car was not for sale. "It has to go back to Italy," Mr. Chinetti said, according to Ms. Lee. "Even I, Luigi Chinetti, cannot buy this car." Remembering his visit with Enzo Ferrari the previous year, Mr. Lee sent a telegram to Modena asking to make the deal. After Mr. Lee's 9,500 offer was accepted for a car that Mr. Chinetti had said cost 20,000 to build it was his. Concerns from the prospective owner regarding the roadworthiness of this 1956 model were retold in a news release from the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 2006, when Mr. Lee showed the Ferrari convertible at the giant collector event on the Monterey Peninsula of California. Mr. Lee, it seems, had told Enzo Ferrari that he was afraid to buy one of his cars. "I don't think it would run in the New York City jungle," he told the company's founder. Enzo Ferrari's reply exuded confidence: "If you buy a car from Ferrari, I guarantee it will run in New York City." That Mr. Lee did indeed run his car in New York City is apparent from a period photograph of the proud young man and his date parked in front of the Harwyn Club on East 52nd Street in Manhattan. While Mr. Junco de la Vega and Mr. Lee could certainly be placed in the category of wealthy young men, another long term owner of an early Ferrari had a rather different path to ownership. Not many teenagers living in the countryside of Vermont get the chance to buy a Ferrari and then keep it for almost 40 years. Peter Markowski, 65, recalls that his business, Restoration and Performance Motorcars of Vergennes, Vt., had its beginnings in his need to learn how to rebuild the engine of a 1950 Ferrari 340 America that he bought when he was 15. A neighbor of his, a former serviceman, acquired the Ferrari in Italy in 1958, giving the seller his Alfa Romeo and some cash. He brought it back to the United States and, as Mr. Markowski puts it, "terrorized the neighborhood," giving him a ride and letting him drive it at 14. At one point, the owner drained the oil for a change and forgot to refill it. With the engine mortally damaged, he agreed to sell the hulk to the young Mr. Markowski. The price was a payment of 500 and the labor to get a motley collection of Packards and Austin Healeys running, which were packed away in the neighbor's barn. Two years later, Mr. Markowski had his Ferrari running again. Similar to the learning experience of Mr. Junco de la Vega, Mr. Markowski served an unofficial apprenticeship, watching the mechanics at the Chinetti Ferrari dealership in Manhattan, and he was allowed to search through crates of old parts that might fit his rebuild project. He kept the 1950 Ferrari until 1999, when it was sold to finance an investment in a new type of internal combustion engine. In his business, Mr. Markowski has restored a number of early Ferraris for concours, rallies and vintage racing. Over the years, he has witnessed the transition of early road cars from being spare parts for vintage racing cars to their recent escalation in value. A 340 America like his former car would probably bring more than 6 million at auction today, based on sales of similar models. A Ferrari like Mr. Lee's 9,500 250GT could bring more than 3 million, according to collector car price guides, given that a standard body coupe of that model sold for 2.3 million at the Pebble Beach auctions this year. Some customers who bought Ferraris at Chinetti Motors had started their sports car experience in an MG or Jaguar XK120 and were ready to graduate to the next step. Luigi Chinetti Jr., who grew up around his father's dealership as a teenager during the '50s, said that many of the buyers were businessmen, artists and writers who lived with them every day. "They were not particularly temperamental and handled and stopped as well as most cars of the time, although, of course, nothing like the cars of today," he said of the early models. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
MEXICO CITY There is an old saying here: "When the United States gets flu, Mexico gets pneumonia." This year, it got a new punchline: "So what happens when the United States gets coronavirus?" There are few countries so connected economically. The United States buys more than three quarters of Mexico's exports, 358 billion worth in 2019; and it's home to 11 million Mexican citizens, who sent home a record 36 billion last year cash that especially helps the rural poor here. As the U.S. economy crashes over the cliff, it pulls Mexico along. Except Mexico falls harder. The double whammy of exports and remittances dropping is compounded by the collapse of beach tourism and oil prices. Adding to this, President Trump last week suspended much immigration. And then there's the losses from the partial lockdown that has shut shops, bars and restaurants across much of Mexico. The Swiss bank UBS predicted Mexico's economy will contract by 7.6 percent this year. Bank of America said the country's economy will shrink by 8 percent, while the Spanish bank BBVA predicted a stunning contraction of up to 12 percent. It's painful to envision what those cold numbers could mean in human terms. Besides the loss of jobs and savings, personal frustration and depression, could it translate to more malnutrition? And will this in turn lead to crime and unrest? The big task for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will be to avoid the worst consequences. Already, many of the country's working poor are struggling to get through the day, let alone the year. Juan Antonio Olivares, 38, sells orange juice at a stand in my neighborhood in Mexico City. He is still allowed to work, but if the government halts the informal economy, it could push people like him over the edge. While he used to make up to 2,500 pesos, or about 104 a week, his earnings have plummeted to less than 600 pesos, or 25, per week. Now he is barely able to feed his wife and three children back in his village outside the capital. "We are enduring with little, what is necessary to eat: rice, beans and tortillas," he said. At least he has some income, unlike a lot of workers including many valets, waiters, bellboys, shop assistants who have been furloughed without any compensation. Before too long, some could turn to extreme measures to get by, Mr. Olivares says. "If people are desperate then they are going to have to look for a way to eat, in a bad way, going robbing," he said. "This could get out of hand." A rise in antisocial crime is a big fear of the middle class here. Last month, criminals set up groups on Facebook and WhatsApp to organize "Covid 19 looting" in the poorer suburbs of the capital. People accused of being the ringleaders were arrested and Facebook took down the pages. But if looting occurs, it could threaten the food supply for all of us here. Mexico City residents have painful memories of a spike in mugging and kidnapping after the recession of 1995, when the economy contracted 6 percent, which is sometimes called the Tequila Crisis. Today's Corona Crisis is projected to cut even deeper. And while back then President Bill Clinton secured a bailout for Mexico, few here can imagine that Mr. Trump will act similarly (though he did back away from plans to suspend not just the issuing of green cards, but also guest worker programs). Perhaps the best hope for Mexico to try to limit the number of citizens being deported from the United States. President Lopez Obrador is under fire for his handling of the economic crisis. He has at least promised to give out millions of loans to small businesses and keep up his social programs, including those for students and pensioners. But he aims to fund these through cuts rather than debt. He ordered big businesses to not fire workers, while the country's biggest employers' lobby has repeated calls for the government to help pay wages and come to a national agreement to confront the crisis. Mr. Lopez Obrador sees debt as putting Mexico at the mercy of foreign powers, and is against bailouts, noting that tycoons have historically exploited rescue packages for their own benefit. And so while right wing governments in Washington and London are taking on huge debts to pump money into the economy, a self declared leftist in Mexico is preaching fiscal responsibility and telling people to tighten their belts. Another surreal spectacle is that while the Mexican government falters, drug cartels are giving out relief packages across the country. In the state of Tamaulipas, gunmen handed out boxes marked "Gulf Cartel" with goodies like cans of tuna fish, rice and toilet paper. In Guadalajara, the daughter of the imprisoned drug lord Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo, provided packages with the image of her father. At a recent news conference, President Lopez Obrador criticized these handouts, pointing out that cartels are driving murders to record levels. "Help would be not doing harm to anybody," he said. "We are attending to coronavirus, but disgracefully we go on having problems with homicides." Mr. Lopez Obrador is right in castigating the cartel killings, as he is right to fear foreign debt and bail outs being pilfered. But in the face of such a critical situation, he needs to take critical measures. While debt is bad, the damage of a deeper recession could prove even more expensive. While businessmen have gotten away with sweetheart deals in the past, business needs to be healthy enough to keep the country afloat. And national agreements and unity could help lift morale amid calamity. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
LONDON It sounds like an improbable movie pitch: Glamorous ballerina takes over beleaguered ballet company, suffering from budget cuts and a second string reputation. She hires a contemporary dance choreographer, who has almost no experience working with classically trained performers, to re envision one of ballet's most famous and best loved pieces. It's a daring perhaps foolhardy decision and she must persuade her board and executive director of its value, and raise the money. Then, a month before the premiere, the composer and choreographer part ways. Can a new score be written before the premiere? Will the dancers be able to adapt on time? The director dances the title role, as the ballet opens to rave reviews and rapturous audiences. Her company takes on a new life as a presence on the international scene and an impressive contender on home turf. This is what happened when Tamara Rojo, the Spanish born, former Royal Ballet ballerina, decided to commission a new version of the Romantic favorite "Giselle" (1841) for English National Ballet, the company she has run since 2012. As her choreographer, she chose Akram Khan, the British dance maker of Bangladeshi origin who rose to fame here with works that combined classical Indian kathak and contemporary dance techniques. "Giselle" premiered at the Manchester International Festival in 2016, and on Feb. 28 it will have its United States debut at the Harris Theater in Chicago English National Ballet's first North American appearance in 30 years. Debra Craine, the chief dance critic of The London Times, said Mr. Khan was a surprising choice because he had no history of making ballets. And "English National Ballet doesn't have the rich patrons that the Royal Ballet has," she said, "and really has to worry about the budget. To pay for itself, a full length ballet has to run for years, and that was hardly a sure thing." Mr. Khan's "Giselle," which blends elements of kathak's arm and hand work and an earthy rooted physicality with ballet's graceful lines and soaring jumps, cemented Ms. Rojo's reputation as a determined, risk taking presence. It gave English National Ballet a new allure, and brought Mr. Khan's work to the attention of ballet directors: "The phone hasn't stopped ringing from ballet companies," he said. One of those requests came from Patricia Barretto, the president and chief executive of the Harris Theater in Chicago, who said that as soon as she heard about the ballet, she was determined to present it. "The ballet couldn't be more relevant to the cosmopolitan city we live in," she said in a telephone interview. She added that the cost of bringing the 95 member company for four performances was high, around 1 million: "But we really believed in the importance of bringing this to Chicago." What does it mean to re envision a classical ballet? Why has this one sparked so much interest? Here is a primer on "Giselle," and edited excerpts from a conversation with Ms. Rojo and Mr. Khan. "Giselle," set to a score by Adolphe Adam, is among the earliest of the 19th century classical ballets that populate the repertory of most big ballet companies. Choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot (and later reworked by Marius Petipa) at a time when poets and artists were fascinated by the supernatural, Act I tells the tale of a young peasant woman, Giselle, seduced by Count Albrecht, who has disguised his noble origins. Once his betrayal is revealed, Giselle goes mad and dies of a broken heart. In Act II, she reappears as a Wili one of the spirits of young woman betrayed by their lovers, whose mission it is to dance any man they encounter to his death. But when Albrecht visits her grave, Giselle defies her destiny to protect him from the Wilis, redeeming his actions through her love. "Giselle" isn't an obvious candidate for revision or modernization, partly because it still works so well in its original form, partly because its evocation of the supernatural is so rooted in its time. And the ballet has already had one radical and very successful reworking in Mats Ek's 1982 version, set in a mental hospital. Why did you think this was a good idea? TAMARA ROJO I wanted to do a classical ballet from a new point of view, and I wanted the hardest one, the unquestionable one: "Giselle." I had seen the Bjork film "Dancer in the Dark," and I kept thinking: This is Giselle, and it is possible to tell this story in a new context. And it can be just as heartbreaking and disturbing, perhaps more, because I can relate to it. I had commissioned Akram to do "Dust," a short work for the first mixed bill I did as director; knowing the spirituality of his work, his talent for narrative, I thought he would be the perfect person to take it on. AKRAM KHAN When Tamara asked me, I did think a bit: Are you mad? I had barely seen a ballet, and knew nothing about "Giselle." I watched it on a DVD, then watched Mats Ek's version, which really blew me away. Then I thought, I really don't want to do this! Mr. Khan's "Giselle," designed by Tim Yip ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), is set beneath a vast, pitted and scarred wall, which separates the migrant garment factory workers from the wealthy "landlords" who have closed the factory, leaving the workers destitute in a makeshift camp, waiting for work and rescue. The parallels with today's political preoccupations whether in the United States or Brexit era Britain are striking. How far can you take a work away from its original form and content without changing its essence? KHAN That was a question we asked ourselves. We decided that as long as we had love, forgiveness and betrayal, it was still "Giselle." Act I was harder to rethink than Act II, which is about life and death, spirituality, the ethereal, themes that come more naturally to me. In Act I, the people onstage had to feel relevant to me. Who are they? What do they represent? Tamara and I talked a lot about that. For me, ballet, and for that matter kathak, the classical Indian dance form that I trained in, don't belong to a particular era. I wanted to make a piece that was also about what is happening to us right now, although I wasn't thinking about Brexit or anything specific when we were making it. ROJO I think when you have been inside an art form for a long time, you can lose perspective on what is interesting, what you can relate to. When you read the reviews of the first performances of "Giselle," you understand that the Wilis were really scary. Now we think of if as a "pretty" ballet, and it has lost some of that impact, which I think is brought back through this context of poverty and migration that Akram gives to the ballet. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
HEAT pouring from its carbon ceramic brakes, the Ferrari 458 Italia rests its heaving lungs at Monticello Motor Club, preparing for more shrieking laps to come. Perspiring and exhilarated myself, I have a moment to appreciate Ferrari's newborn beauty in repose at this private road course tucked below the Catskills. Today, as club members romp at this challenging track, the scene resembles an improptu Ferrari family reunion: there's the Italia's beach bum cousin, the California convertible; its just retired predecessor, the midengine F430; and from the traditional gran turismo side of the clan, a 599 GTB Fiorano with a V 12 engine. Not wanting to bruise anyone's feelings, I keep one thought to myself: my baby, the 458 Italia all right, so I'm just the nanny is definitely the prettiest. The smartest, too, thanks to the latest Formula One diet of Ferrari racing technology. And the Italia is also the second least costly Ferrari (after the California) at 230,275. That base price undercuts the 599 by over 100,000. What I'm about to say might enrage the guy struggling to keep a roof over a 10 year old Chevy. But if you have that kind of money, the Italia unlike some high priced, half baked exotics is worth every penny. The car's sensory experience is nearly unfathomable; barreling Woody Allen's Orgasmatron over Niagara Falls might get you close. Stumbling from the 458's cockpit after hours of g force frolic, it's easy to get caught up in woozy hyperbole. (See above.) But even with endorphins normalized, I declare the 458 is the best sports car I've ever driven, the current state of the art. Or maybe that's the art of the state, given that Ferrari's chairman, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, named the Italia after its homeland. Italy should cut Ferrari a check for such product placement. The Ferrari certainly buffs Italy's reputation for high design. It may also represent a revival of Ferrari's legendary styling form, which had shown signs of becoming secondary to remorseless function. Even some Ferrari owners agree that recent models, including the F430 and the limited edition Enzo, were becoming less purely sensuous, a pulse quickening quality that had always elevated Ferrari above more cold blooded sports cars. (I once parked a Lamborghini Gallardo next to an F430 and asked a few dozen passers by to judge which car was better looking. To my surprise, only a few men, and not a single woman, chose the Ferrari). The design also inhales cool air for the engine, brakes and aerodynamic downforce while dispersing gearbox heat and smoothing turbulence at the rear without a profusion of scoops and nostrils. In the nose, a pair of rubbery winglets deform nearly an inch at high speeds to reduce drag and lift. The cabin is all about the driver, with every control and display angled that way. Passengers are clearly meant to sit in awe, thankful to get a ride. A saffron colored tachometer nods to tradition and a 9,000 r.p.m. red line, but it is flanked by a Ferrari first: twin digital displays that flash everything from performance parameters to navigation maps and iPod playlists. A few critics have griped that these displays seem more Honda than Ferrari. But as with Lamborghini and its modern Audi based screen controls, I'm just grateful they work, in only mildly awkward style. In some Italian cars, you're lucky to find the AM radio. Continuing the Grand Prix fantasy, the Ferrari's steering wheel houses so many controls that there's barely room for the pretty pony at the center. Fire the red start button, and LEDs trace the rim of the wheel to to chart the engine's upward progress. The manettino not an obscure pasta, but Italian for "little hand" controls settings for Ferrari's remarkably transparent F1 Trac stability and traction systems, in tandem with an electronic differential that dynamically apportions torque between the rear wheels. Another switch adjusts the Ferrari's magnetic fluid shocks for especially bumpy roads. Even the turn signals and wipers are controlled by steering wheel buttons. The steering column eschews stalks entirely, leaving huge paddle shifters for the dual clutch, seven speed automated manual transmission. Citing indifference among potential buyers, the Italia does not offer a conventional manual. While I'd still prefer a clutch (and if you've got a quarter million to spend, why shouldn't Ferrari cater to your whims?), the Italia's transmission is a piercing riposte to My Left Foot purists. Yet owners may volunteer for 2 a.m. diaper runs just to hear that six figure exhaust note. It's one part classical, one part metal thunder, like a duet of Pavarotti and Chris Cornell. A trio of exhaust outlets, reminiscent of Ferrari's old F40 supercar, open the outside pipes to unleash sound under hard throttle. In the center of a space frame chassis lies the source of that racket, a flat crank, dry sump V 8 that makes 562 horsepower and 398 pound feet of torque from just 4.5 liters of displacement. That's an industry record in power per liter for an engine that breathes naturally, without air cramming aid from superchargers or turbochargers. Ferrari claims a 3.4 second run from a standstill to 60 miles per hour, a few ticks faster than the F430, and a top speed of 202 m.p.h. But the edge over the F430, as well as most other sports cars, isn't raw numbers. Instead, the Ferrari opens an unmatched window onto how a champion driver must feel. It's like waking up to find you can trade groundstrokes with Rafael Nadal, and even rip one past him on occasion. On Monticello's 4.1 mile, 22 turn course, the Italia shrieks past 160 m.p.h. on the back straight, thrillingly composed even as it brakes into bends and catapults out with shuddering force. Ferrari claims the newest F1 Trac and E Diff deliver 32 percent more longitudinal force leaving turns than the F430, and the seat of my pants doesn't argue. Nor does Bill McMichael, the track's chief executive, who is awaiting delivery of his own crimson Italia. And while I'm expecting a measured appraisal on Mr. McMichael's first trip in a 458, he instantly pegs the car above his own F430 Scuderia. "Even from the right hand seat, I can tell there's more grip, more power, better body control," he said with enthusiasm as we rolled into the pits. "It never puts a foot wrong." One problem must be mentioned. I had driven this identical car to Monticello a week earlier, when a wire worked loose and fried on hot metal. That put the car into limp home mode before the engine shut down entirely. In the Ferrari's defense, the rigors of track laps can take out any car though that caveat wouldn't have prevented a few choice Italian curses if I were the owner. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
LONDON A new rescue package for Greece is taking shape, one that would offer billions of euros in new loans in return for accelerated privatization and tougher tax collection measures on the part of the beleaguered Greek government, European officials said on Tuesday. While the agreement for as much as 60 billion euros ( 86 billion), would in theory address Greece's need for cash this year and next, it puts off for the time being a restructuring, hard or soft, of Greece's huge debt burden. At the deal's heart would be an informal understanding that the private sector holders of Greek government bonds might be persuaded to roll over their debts, or extend new loans when their older obligations come due. By taking on more dubious Greek risk backed by new money from Europe and the International Monetary Fund exposed banks would not just step back from the precipice of a "haircut," or a forced loss on their bonds, they might also hope that in another two years Greece will be in a better position to repay its debts in full. The expectation that Europe will again come to Greece's rescue bolstered both the euro and stocks on Tuesday. Yields on Greek 10 year bonds have dropped sharply, to 15.7 percent on Tuesday from a high of 16.8 percent last week. European stocks rose nearly 2 percent, and the United States market was up about 1 percent. "Restructuring is off the table," a senior official in the Greek Finance Ministry said. "For now it is all about growth, growth, growth." This person, who spoke on condition of anonymity while the talks continued, said an announcement from the European Union, the I.M.F. and the European Central Bank could come as soon as Friday or early next week. Later in June, the European Union first and then the I.M.F. would approve the additional financing, thus clearing the way for 12.5 billion euros to be disbursed to Athens at the end of the month. The new loans, however, will be forthcoming only if more austerity measures are introduced. Along with faster progress on privatization, Europe and the fund have been demanding that Greece finally begin cutting public sector jobs and closing down unprofitable entities. They also have been pressing Greek politicians to unite behind the new austerity package to help ensure it sticks, and are discussing a decrease in the value added tax as a concession to win support from the right of center opposition, which wants more tax relief to help the moribund economy. A team of bankers and technical experts from the international institutions have been in Athens for close to a month, trying to find a solution to Greece's financial condition. Harsh austerity measures have taken a severe toll on the economy, resulting in missed financial targets and the need for more public money. Adding to the urgency has been the persistent flow of deposits out of the banking sector. Since the crisis began, 60 billion euros in deposits have been withdrawn from Greek banks, about a quarter of the country's output. Bankers in Athens said that outflows were particularly severe last Thursday and Friday after comments later described as rhetorical by a Greek politician about the possibility that Greece could stop using the euro. With great reluctance, European governments have come to the conclusion that an additional 60 billion euros now, while politically unappealing, would be less costly than the unquantifiable public money that would be needed if a restructuring of Greece's debt produced a contagion that spread not just to Portugal and Ireland but possibly Spain and the financial system as a whole. But how an economy already in free fall will generate the growth to produce the needed budgetary surplus to start paying down its debt remains unanswered. "Greece's G.D.P. is already declining, and now the government will need to cut another 7 billion euros in spending," said Jason Manolopoulos, who manages a hedge fund based in Athens and Geneva and is the author of "Greece's 'Odious' Debt: The Looting of the Hellenic Republic by the Euro, the Political Elite and the Investment Community." "That is only going to make the debt to G.D.P. figures worse," he said. "There is no getting around it: Greece is insolvent." With a debt of 150 percent of G.D.P., that may well be so. But while skeptics like Mr. Manolopoulos are keeping the cash levels in their funds high, convinced that Greece will be required to default sooner rather than later, such a sense of pressing gloom has not yet become contagious. The big bet for Europe and the I.M.F. is whether private sector banks can be persuaded to keep their Greek exposure. This new approach is patterned on a 2008 pact called the Vienna Initiative, in which the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the I.M.F. persuaded banks with exposure in Hungary, Romania and other East European countries to keep their credit lines fresh while new public sector loans were provided to these countries. There is, however, a big difference between jawboning a regional public institution to lend more to a country in which it already has operations than persuading a risk averse commercial bank in France, Germany or Italy to lend more to a country that it wants to permanently cut ties to. What is more, there is a significant difference in the sums involved. A report Tuesday by the credit ratings agency Fitch suggested that the 50 billion to 60 billion euros being discussed might not be enough, and that as much as 100 billion euros in extra financing would be needed to give Greece the time and space to return to solvency. Another crucial point is the extent to which "reform fatigue" in Greece might prevent the ambitious deficit cutting targets from being reached. A recent survey by Kapa Research found strong support for privatization, but two other polls found support for the governing Socialists at the lowest level since 2009 elections. Prime Minister George A. Papandreou still has a comfortable majority in Parliament, but his credibility has been damaged as the economic growth stagnates and unemployment rises. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Laith Aqel, co valedictorian of his high school graduating class in Wayne, N.J., and juggler of too many activities to list, says he always envisioned himself on a classic New England campus with "Gothic architecture and big grass lawns." He weighed offers from Tufts University, Boston College's honors program and New York University. But when he leaves for college this fall, he will travel 6,900 miles to Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf. That is where N.Y.U. will open a campus in September with an inaugural freshman class of 150 students from 39 countries, a far cry from Mr. Aqel's old ideal. "N.Y.U. Abu Dhabi came and messed that all up," he said. "I think they're trying to create a new paradigm, which I never factored into my education." Indeed, Mr. Aqel, whose parents immigrated from Jordan when he was a baby, is part of a high stakes experiment in higher education what experts are calling perhaps the first truly international university, with top students and faculty from around the globe. American colleges have long had branch campuses and international programs in which students spend a semester or two abroad. But after years of planning, John Sexton, N.Y.U.'s president, is about to open the doors on a more ambitious project: a four year liberal arts research university in Abu Dhabi that will eventually have 2,000 undergraduates and share an island alongside future outposts of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums. It will be a full fledged sister school of N.Y.U. and issue its own diplomas. The new institution drew more than 9,000 applicants and has accepted fewer than 200. They are an elite group. The Abu Dhabi students have an average SAT verbal score of 715 and an average math score of 730, on par with Ivy League universities. Nearly 90 percent are bilingual. Several other American colleges trying to establish programs in the Persian Gulf in recent years have struggled to attract both students and financing. But N.Y.U. officials, encouraged by their recruiting success, say they are talking with the Chinese government about opening a Shanghai campus modeled on its Middle Eastern project. Others have taken notice. "We have lots of American universities engaged in various kinds of international activities," said Robert M. Berdahl, president of the Association of American Universities, a group of leading research institutions. "But the N.Y.U. model reflects a very different and thoughtful approach to what John Sexton and others perceive as the increasing globalization of higher education and the disappearance of traditional boundaries." Backed by the open checkbook of the Abu Dhabi government, the wealthiest of the seven United Arab Emirates, N.Y.U. Abu Dhabi scoured the planet for candidates. It called on the Institute of International Education, which administers the Fulbright scholarships, to help it identify 900 of the world's top high schools, and then pressed the schools for their best students. Though based in Abu Dhabi, students will be encouraged to spend time at some of N.Y.U.'s 16 other sites, on five continents more traditional study abroad centers with short term or narrowly focused programs. In a promotional booklet, the university sketched out a hypothetical plan for film and media majors, with sojourns in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Prague and New York. The project carries risks. While Abu Dhabi is a relatively modern, multicultural Muslim state, homosexual acts are illegal and the Internet is censored. And there is no guarantee that the seemingly limitless resources of its oil rich government will remain so, given the precarious global economy and Middle East politics. But the Abu Dhabi government has agreed to pay for the entire N.Y.U. project, though neither it nor the university has detailed a price. And the emirate has embraced N.Y.U.'s vision of a liberal arts institution with full access to ideas, books and the Internet. "They believe that Abu Dhabi can become, and will become, one of the idea capitals of the world a world city," said Alfred H. Bloom, vice chancellor of N.Y.U. Abu Dhabi and former president of Swarthmore whom Mr. Sexton recruited. Some in the new freshman class, including Mr. Aqel, have already used Facebook to discuss a possible civil rights club. "In a way, it's almost a challenge because we can't hold protests," Mr. Aqel said. "But I think we'll be able to find creative ways to circumvent restrictions while maintaining respect for our host country." He said he was persuaded to make Abu Dhabi his first choice after visiting in February. "I've never seen professors so excited to teach their students as well as learn from them," he said. "The greatest appeal is the student body itself. There's never been a more diverse group assembled." Much is still in planning. The island campus is not scheduled to open until 2014; until then, the university will use a temporary site in downtown Abu Dhabi. Though the university will eventually add a graduate program, it has not announced which subjects it will offer. But spending is well under way. After identifying the world's top high schools, N.Y.U. administrators held events in more than a dozen locations, including Shanghai, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Vienna and Sydney, Australia. They flew in guidance counselors and principals, pitching to them the concept of a global university with a student faculty ratio of 8 to 1. Each school was asked to nominate two students to apply. Erin Meekhof, an incoming freshman, at her parents' house. Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times Last fall, after narrowing the applications to about 275, the university began bringing groups of 50 to Abu Dhabi for long weekends, taking them to a mosque, the desert and the Emirates Palace Hotel for a resplendent dinner. For N.Y.U., it was a chance to winnow the pool. Professors gave sample classes and provided feedback to admissions officers on how students performed in group discussions. "The weekends were profoundly moving, and for the students, I think, formative experiences," said Dr. Bloom, who, along with Mr. Sexton, went on every admissions trip. He recalled one group that had visited the desert, enjoying camel rides and the sunset. On the bus back to the hotel, the candidates decided to translate the song "I Like to Move It," featured in the DreamWorks movie "Madagascar," into the 18 languages spoken by the group. "That's a great metaphor for what I see happening," Dr. Bloom said. While valuing academic prowess, N.Y.U. says it also looked for students who seemed intent on improving society. So those who had conducted medical research or promoted social justice had an edge. "One of the features of the student body is raw intellectual potency," said Mr. Sexton, who plans to teach a course on religion and government in the fall. "But what's especially unusual is that there's no real national center of gravity to the class. People who care about ideas care about testing the premises of their vantage points, and there's no better way to test those than to put oneself in a rigorous, civil conversation." Although the students come from 39 countries, with 43 languages, about a third are from the United States. The next four biggest sources are the United Arab Emirates, China, Hungary and Russia. Along with some 50 professors, the students will live downtown in a new high rise with art and music rooms, a fitness center and a dining hall. Mate Bede Fazekas, a Hungarian student who recently won a national piano competition and hopes to be a filmmaker, said he did not hesitate when his high school nominated him. "I can't imagine a better place for becoming a global citizen, that I believe is the way of the future," he said in an e mail message. "For a guy like me from Hungary, it is quite unreal." Another student, Erin Meekhof of Woodbridge, Va., applied for an early decision. She is interested in international relations and, during her trip to Abu Dhabi last fall, was captivated not only by her fellow candidates but also by the city's skyline. "There are minarets and all the different mosques and then in the distance you have skyscrapers," Ms. Meekhof said. "It was incredibly beautiful." As for the distance from her parents, Ms. Meekhof does not seem concerned. "If I went to a college in Virginia, I'd still be calling and Skype ing and e mailing, and they wouldn't be seeing me that often either," she said. "This will just be a little farther." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
Clinicians at public hospitals in New York City who have started seeing children separated from their families at the border are concerned about the psychological impact of the separation as well as the practical challenge of treating children whose medical history is unknown. At a news conference on Thursday, officials announced that at least 12 such children had been seen at public hospitals including Bellevue, Kings County and North Central Bronx, brought in by their new caretakers. Dr. Mitchell Katz, president and chief executive of NYC Health Hospitals, described the children "being brought in by loving foster families struggling to take care of these children," but aware that they have been traumatized by the separation. The announcement took place in the atrium of Bellevue, the oldest public hospital in America, founded in 1736 a reminder that these institutions have a long history of providing front line care to the marginalized, the dispossessed and struggling new arrivals. Dr. Daran Kaufman, the director of pediatric emergency services at NYC Health Hospitals/North Central Bronx, said that she had reached out to Dr. Katz because "all of us in our emergency department have been touched so deeply by this issue and the patients we've seen." The foster parents who have brought the children in, she said, "have been very caring, but they've also felt quite unsure how to address the needs of these children." The children who come in with medical issues such as asthma are without adult family members who can provide medical history, Dr. Kaufman said. In some cases, doctors have asked for details of past illness and treatment from older siblings who may themselves not even be teenagers. And then there are the children's emotional needs, which are far more difficult to address. Dr. Jennifer Havens, the director and chief of service of the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital Center, said that in the pediatric emergency room, doctors are accustomed to seeing adolescents who came to the United States without their parents, and have been placed by the government in the care of social service agencies. But now they have started seeing much younger children who were separated from their families at the border. Dr. Ruth Gerson, director of the Bellevue Hospital Center Children's Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program, said that helping these children presents special difficulties. "Typically as child psychiatrists we're helping children deal with trauma, whatever it is, after it's over and they're in a safe and secure environment," she said. "These kids are in the midst of ongoing trauma. They don't know if their families are O.K., and we as therapists are also in a much harder position we don't know how to help, we don't know the facts, it just makes trauma treatment so much more complicated." Young children who have suffered trauma may regress developmentally, she said, losing skills that they had mastered. Or they may have behavioral symptoms like severe tantrums or difficulty sleeping. "It's important for people to remember that young children can experience pretty severe depression and suicidal thoughts, even preschool children," she said, and caretakers should take any such statements from children seriously. "How do we understand a child who says they're hearing voices after a severe trauma?" Dr. Gerson said. In an adult, the diagnosis might be psychosis, but this may be how a child describes flashbacks or intrusive thoughts, common symptoms of PTSD. In older school age children and adolescents, she said, "depression can often look like irritability, a child who seems angry all the time, not necessarily sad and mopey." Caretakers should watch for any evidence of self injury, and again, be alert for behavioral changes as well as any expressions of despair. And all of this is more complicated if there are language barriers. While the Department of Homeland Security said on Saturday that more than 500 of the children had been reunited with their parents, it was not clear exactly how many children separated from their parents had come to New York or how many remain. Mayor Bill de Blasio said last week that 239 of them were in the care of Cayuga Centers in Harlem, one of a group of social service agencies that contract with the federal government to take in unaccompanied minors and place them in temporary foster care. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Thursday toured a residential facility housing some of the children, where an official said: "They have trouble sleeping, sometimes they're anxious, depressed, crying, primarily." The doctors speaking at Bellevue said that there are probably more of the children separated from their families coming in for care than the 12 who have been identified. "We don't ask about people's immigration status here because we want families and children who are concerned about their immigration status to feel safe coming here," Dr. Gerson said, "because our mission is to provide treatment." At the news conference, Dr. Katz called providing care for these children "a phenomenal use of Health Hospitals" to "be here for people, whatever the crisis," and Chirlane McCray, the first lady of New York City, thanked the clinicians at the city's hospitals who are treating these children "how every child should be treated." "We've just tried to show these kids kindness," Dr. Kaufman said. That means language and cultural competency they are able to speak to the children in Spanish but it also means trying to do a little extra for both the children and their caretakers. "We let them know they are welcome here, even though they've experienced such trauma, we have toys and books and gifts and we give as much as we can to the children and to the families caring for these children." In a psychiatric emergency room, Dr. Havens said, it's common to see children who have been taken away from their parents, often in traumatic circumstances. The difference is that usually those children have been removed because of abuse and neglect, and that's why there is trauma. "Taking a child away from their parents is a profound act," she said. Usually, "the only reason we do it in America is because we have determined the parent has committed a crime against the child this administration has warped that." "My biggest priority is to have people realize that developmental regressions, giant tantrums, sleep problems, hearing voices, can be a totally natural response to trauma," Dr. Gerson said. "We need to get these kids back with their families." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Well |
WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday for the first time in more than a decade, as it tried to keep America's record long economic expansion going by insulating the economy from mounting global risks. The widely expected quarter point decrease was the Fed's first since it slashed rates to near zero in 2008. But unlike those cuts, which were intended to rescue a failing economy, Wednesday's move was seen as a precautionary effort to protect the United States from slowing growth in China and Europe and uncertainty over President Trump's trade war. "The outlook for the U.S. economy remains favorable, and this action is designed to support that outlook," the Fed chair, Jerome H. Powell, said at a news conference after the decision. The cut, Mr. Powell said, was "intended to ensure against downside risks from weak global growth and trade tensions." It was a turning point, but one that disappointed both markets and Mr. Trump, who were hoping for a bigger rate cut. The Fed, which dropped its target rate to a range of 2 percent to 2.25 percent, stopped short of signaling the beginning of an aggressive rate cutting campaign. By the end of the day, the S P 500 was down 1.1 percent, the benchmark index's worst decline since May 31. The Fed suggested its move was a small adjustment meant to help the economy weather uncertainty. While Mr. Powell left the door open to additional cuts, he said officials did not expect this to turn into the sort of deep cutting cycle that the Fed has done in the past to avert or offset recessions. "It's not the beginning of a long series of rate cuts I didn't say it's just one," Mr. Powell said. "What we're seeing is that it's appropriate to adjust policy to a somewhat more accommodative stance over time, and that's how we're looking at it." Not every Fed official agreed with cutting rates at a moment when the economy continues to grow, unemployment is at a 50 year low and wages are beginning to rise. Both Eric Rosengren, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and Esther George, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, voted against Wednesday's decision, preferring instead to leave rates unchanged. Those were the second and third dissents of Mr. Powell's term as chair. Officials also announced an early end to their efforts to shrink the Fed's balance sheet, another attempt to keep the economy moving. The central bank's holdings of government backed bonds swelled during the financial crisis as the Fed bought assets to try to reinvigorate growth. Policymakers have been siphoning off securities to return the balance sheet to a more normal size, and that process known as quantitative tightening was scheduled to end after September. It will now conclude on Thursday. Central bankers are operating against a fraught political backdrop as they navigate an uncertain outlook. Manufacturing is slumping the world over, and growth is slowing in China and Europe. Mr. Trump's trade fights have also thrown the Fed a curveball, as the president zigzags between fighting and negotiating with China and threatening tariffs on large trading partners, like Mexico. That unpredictability has begun to weigh on business investment in the United States and abroad, sowing concern among Fed officials and prompting the central bank to shift policy. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. The Fed has gone from a steady campaign of raising rates in 2018 to signaling a patient approach throughout the spring to ushering in a rate cut in July. While the economy is strong and jobs are plentiful, Mr. Powell nodded to the impact Mr. Trump's trade approach is having on the Fed, saying the policy uncertainty is complicating its decision making. "I would love to be more precise, but with trade, it is a factor that we have to assess in kind of a new way," Mr. Powell said. Mr. Trump has blamed the Fed for slowing the American economy, criticizing its four 2018 rate increases and denouncing Mr. Powell's leadership. The president continued to assail the Fed on Wednesday, saying its move was too small. "What the Market wanted to hear from Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve was that this was the beginning of a lengthy and aggressive rate cutting cycle which would keep pace with China," Mr. Trump said in a tweet, adding, "As usual, Powell let us down." Markets were also looking to Mr. Powell for more. The widely expected move from the central bank was initially greeted with a shrug in financial markets, where investors have been factoring in a rate cut for months. But the stock market turned lower after Mr. Powell began his news conference at 2:30 p.m., as investors absorbed the chair's comments that the Fed was making a "midcycle adjustment" as a signal that the Fed was not headed toward a string of rate cuts, as investors had hoped. "People are saying, 'Oh gosh, you're not going to ease a lot in midcycle,'" said Matt Maley, an equity strategist at the brokerage firm Miller Tabak. Mr. Powell repeatedly suggested that the Fed viewed this cut as a recalibration, perhaps one that is more similar to two midcycle moves in the 1990s, when the Fed cut rates slightly to get the economy through periods of uncertainty. Both of those instances ended in 0.75 percentage points of rates cuts, though Mr. Powell said on Wednesday that he did not know whether this iteration would be "comparable or not" to previous midexpansion adjustments. The policy setting committee did not tip its hand about additional cuts in its statement, saying that "as the committee contemplates the future path of the target range for the federal funds rate, it will continue to monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook." The central bank is trying to extend a record long economic expansion, because officials believe that doing so will allow the Fed to achieve its goals of maximum employment and slow but steady inflation. The unemployment rate is hovering around its lowest level in 50 years, but that has yet to push wages drastically higher in a way that forces companies to lift prices more quickly. Inflation has run shy of the Fed's 2 percent goal since the central bank formally adopted it in 2012. A little inflation helps to grease the wheels of a healthy economy, allowing businesses to raise wages faster and lifting interest rates, giving the central bank more room to cut in the event of a downturn. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
The Week in Tech: Are Robots Coming for Your Job? Eventually, Yes. Each week, technology reporters and columnists from The New York Times review the week's news, offering analysis and maybe a joke or two about the most important developments in the tech industry. Want this newsletter in your inbox? Sign up here. Greetings from the real economy. I'm Steve Lohr, a tech reporter for The Times, and I tend to focus on the effects of technology beyond Silicon Valley. No question, the Valley is a wellspring of innovation and home to the ascendant digital corporate giants, both feared and admired. But it's just a sliver of the 20 trillion American economy. Technology is only a tool in service of greater ends, and those ends presumably extend beyond creating billionaires and enriching investors. The larger agenda, in economic terms, includes growth, productivity, living standards and jobs. Let's take one of those economic ingredients jobs. Forecasts of technology's impact on jobs run the spectrum from apocalyptic to sanguine, depending largely on the pace of progress in artificial intelligence. But there is a consistency to the serious research on the coming course of automation: In the near term, occupations are more likely to be transformed by digital technology than destroyed by it. But a decade or so out, there will be big changes. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that up to a third of the American work force will have to switch to new occupations by 2030. The work of the future, it seems clear, is going to be digitally inflected. Software skills are increasingly essential to every field. Most tech workers no longer work in the tech industry, and that trend is accelerating. The biggest challenge is finding pathways to good jobs in the modern economy for the two thirds of Americans who do not have four year college degrees. Addressing that challenge is the focus of policymakers, state and local governments, some companies, and several nonprofits like the Markle Foundation and Opportunity Work. These efforts are typically not far along yet, but the ones that seem to work best are collaborations public private partnerships that also involve nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. A new project adopting the collaborative model was announced this month in New Haven. The goal, said Gov. Dannel Malloy, is "cultivating the tech work force talent of tomorrow." The new venture aims to double the number of software engineering graduates in Connecticut over the next several years. Its educational partner is a college alternative start up, the Holberton School. Founded in 2015 in San Francisco, Holberton offers a two year program to create software engineers. Its graduates now work for companies like Apple, IBM, Dropbox and Tesla. The school charges no tuition, but graduates who get jobs pay the school 17 percent of their salaries for three years. After the Connecticut announcement, I caught up with Holberton's founders, Julien Barbier and Sylvain Kalache, both alumni of Silicon Valley companies. Their school is designed around projects and peer learning with mentors, but no formal teachers. Technical skills are only part of the program. Writing white papers, project reviews and public speaking are also emphasized. Critical thinking, teamwork and learning to learn are the higher order skills. Technology changes too fast, Mr. Barbier said, for expertise in a particular set of software tools to be a lasting asset in the labor market. "In two years, you do learn a craft that is in demand," said Mr. Barbier, Holberton's chief executive. "But this is really about self learning. If you can train yourself, you're never going to obsolete." In San Francisco, Holberton has enrolled a total of 300 students since it opened its doors two years ago and, with added space, hopes to bring in 1,000 students a year before long. At the New Haven school, which begins next year, Holberton plans to start with 30 to 50 students and then expand rapidly. Its model has made encouraging progress. But the big question for all the experiments intended to prepare people for the future of work is whether anything can scale up to the size of the challenge that America faces. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
Every month, Netflix Canada adds a new batch of TV shows and movies to its library. Here are the titles we think are most interesting for March, broken down by release date. Netflix occasionally changes schedules without giving notice. The ordeals of adolescent girlhood have been chronicled many times on screen, but not since Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" have they been as acutely registered as they are in Bo Burnham's directorial debut. "Eighth Grade" doesn't share the sourness of Solondz's film, however, empathizing strongly with Kayla (Elsie Fisher) as she posts would be viral videos, throws herself into awkward social situations and rolls her eyes at her overly attentive single father (Josh Hamilton), who doesn't know how to help her. Burnham is particularly smart about integrating social media and messaging into Kayla's story, and showing the ways they reinforce her isolation and desire to connect. In the aftermath of its false Best Picture win against "Moonlight," it's been easy to forget how much momentum and good will Damien Chazelle's throwback musical carried into Oscar night and how big a shock it was that it lost. But one of the benefits of "La La Land" not winning Best Picture is that it's no longer freighted by the "importance" that goes along with the title. Chazelle's musical pastiche about the Hollywood romance between an actress (Emma Stone) and a jazz pianist (Ryan Gosling) was always meant to be a light evocation of Gene Kelly and Ginger Rogers vehicles, coupled with the bittersweet quality of "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," and it's now free to be enjoyed on those terms. The superb character actor Chiwetel Ejiofor makes his directorial debut with this adaptation of the best selling memoir about a Malawian teenager who takes it upon himself to save his impoverished village. Maxwell Simba stars as William Kamkwamba, a boy who loses his education when his family can no longer afford to send him to school, but who become an autodidact to bring electricity and water to his drought ravaged area. Using scrap materials and science textbooks, he attempts to construct his own wind turbine. Ejiofor gives himself a key supporting role as Kamkwamba's father, who greets his son's initiative with a mix of pride and practical concern. Alfre Woodard has been acting in movies and on television for 40 years, and she's as vibrant and appealing as ever in "Juanita," a late in life road movie/romance that has been constructed around the title character's range and adventurousness. Adapted from Sheila Williams's novel "Dancing on the Edge of the Roof," the film stars Woodard as a middle aged woman who follows a one way Greyhound bus ticket from the Columbus, Ohio, projects to Montana, where she turns around a struggling diner and finds refuge (and love). But on a journey intended to liberate her, she worries about being tied down someplace else. Netflix's most prominent and promising film release in March brings together J.C. Chandor, the superb director of "All Is Lost" and "A Most Violent Year," and Mark Boal, the screenwriter of "The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty," for the story of an audacious heist that's somewhere between greed and justice. Oscar Isaac, Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal and Garrett Hedlund star as former Special Forces operatives who attempt to steal millions in cash from a South American drug cartel. The good news for them? The authorities won't care about a cartel getting robbed. The bad news? The cartel definitely will. With "The Thick of It," "In the Loop" and "Veep," Armando Iannucci firmly established himself as the most scabrous political satirist of the 21st century, but he goes back to the middle of the 20th for "The Death of Stalin," which digs into the chaos and folly that follow the death of a tyrannical dictator. The operatives surrounding Joseph Stalin in 1953 turn out to be just the sort of inept, backbiting sycophants that populate Iannucci's other comedies. What's different about "The Death of Stalin," beyond its sumptuous period trappings, is how well it captures the fear and paranoia that seized the Soviet Union during Stalin's rule and threw the country into a period of uncertainty after his death. Even by the hard partying, substance abusing, hotel trashing standards of '80s hair metal outfits, the members of Motley Crue were notoriously rambunctious, turning world tours into grotesque bacchanals that occasionally veered into the dangerous and self destructive. Their collaborative autobiography, "The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band," is a bracing read that chases stories of shocking indulgence with sobering notes about addiction and a deadly car crash. The Netflix adaptation was directed by Jeff Tremaine, the man responsible for the "Jackass" movies, which seems like the perfect match for this material. "Bohemian Rhapsody" this is not. 'Kubo and the Two Strings' Starts streaming: March 23 The Portland based production house Laika has produced some of the most distinctive and sophisticated animated features of the last decade, using a 3 D stop motion process to add tactility to odd little films like "Coraline," "ParaNorman" and "The Boxtrolls." Laika's "Kubo and the Two Strings" enters the world of ancient Japan, where a boy wielding a lute like instrument called a samisen tells stories out of dancing origami papers, but whose own life is destined to become the stuff of legend. His quest to stop the evil Moon King (Ralph Fiennes) is notably abstract for a mainstream family film, but it's mitigated by kid friendly team ups like a talking monkey (Charlize Theron) and a human insect hybrid (Matthew McConaughey). Over 30 years ago, Kevin Costner popped on a period fedora and tracked down the country's most infamous criminals in "The Untouchables." He's doing it again in "The Highwaymen," this time as a quick triggered Texas Ranger who comes out of retirement to catch Bonnie and Clyde. He and an ex partner, played by Woody Harrelson, are given maximum latitude as special investigators to end a robbery and killing spree that has left 13 cops dead, along with many others. Telling the Bonnie and Clyde story from a lawman's perspective sounds a little square, given the groundbreaking swagger of the 1967 classic starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, but there's something to be said for playing a good story straight. The brilliant Korean genre director Bong Joon Ho ("The Host," "Mother") made his English language debut with this futuristic "Ship of Fools," in which the planet has been rendered uninhabitable and what remains of humankind is packed onto a train to nowhere. But the rules of society still apply: The have nots are relegated to the dingy back cars of the train while the wealthy elite occupy spaces near the front, triggering a class war that threatens to send them off the tracks. Bong's diverse cast of American, British and Korean actors gives "Snowpiercer" the right international flavor, but it's Tilda Swinton who dominates as a Margaret Thatcher type who's a merciless enforcer of the status quo. Want more Canadian coverage in your inbox? Subscribe to our weekly Canada Letter newsletter. In December, the eight episode Netflix documentary series "Sunderland 'Til I Die" proved to be a fascinating look at a professional sports team during a serious inflection point in its history, when it was in danger of two straight relegations to lesser leagues. Now Netflix's latest sports doc series, "Cricket Fever: Mumbai Indians," goes behind the scenes of a more successful franchise, the Mumbai Indians, as it tries to follow a championship year in the Indian Premier League. That's hardly the adversity faced by Sunderland, but in the cricket crazed city of Mumbai, the pressure to repeat is enormous. The life and death of the Formula One racer Ayrton Senna was the subject of a uniquely compelling documentary, "Senna," told entirely through archival footage of interviews, family videos and hair raising moments from the racetrack. Now a producer from that film, James Gay Rees, has returned to the same world with "Formula 1: Drive to Survive," a 10 episode series about the athletes competing for the 2018 F.I.A. Formula One Championship, which starts in Melbourne, Australia, and ends in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Maneuvering lightweight vehicles at 200 m.p.h., the drivers risk their necks every time they turn the ignition, but they are able to check their daredevil impulses through intense focus, discipline and training. Even before discussion of Jeffrey Tambor's alleged abusiveness on set derailed promotional efforts for the first half of its fifth season, "Arrested Development" has struggled to find the same absurdist groove of its original Fox run in its Netflix revival, despite enjoying fewer creative restrictions. Yet there's always the lingering hope that Mitchell Hurwitz's comic serial about the life and crimes of the Bluth family could turn things around. "Season 5B" pivots around courtroom drama, as Buster (Tony Hale) stands trial for the murder of Lucille 2 (Liza Minnelli). Idris Elba isn't an actor known for his comic chops, but for a seven episode run on the fifth season of "The Office," his seriousness and chiseled good looks were turned against him, exposing a well disguised ineptitude. Created by Elba and Gary Reich, the British comedy series "Turn Up Charlie" works a similar dynamic, casting Elba as a hapless DJ and bachelor whose weaknesses are further revealed when he has to play daddy to his famous friend's troublemaking daughter (Frankie Hervey). Elba does some DJ ing on the side in real life, too, so at least that part of the show will stand to be authentic. In 2012, a 23 year old physiotherapy intern was gang raped and fatally beaten by six men on a private bus in South Delhi, a crime so horrific that thousands of protesters demanded (and received) legislative action to protect women against rape culture in India. The attack has been dramatized before, poorly, in Deepa Mehta's 2016 docudrama "Anatomy of Violence," but the seven part series "Delhi Crime," by the Indo Canadian filmmaker Richie Mehta, was received more warmly out of Sundance. Mehta's series deals with the police effort to investigate the crime, focusing on a female officer (Shefali Shah) with a personal interest in bringing the perpetrators to justice. Also of interest: "A Monster Calls" (March 1), "Dog Days" (March 1), "Space Jam" (March 1), "The Dark Knight Rises" (March 1), "Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj: Volume 2" (March 3), "Christopher Robin" (March 5), "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (March 6), "Lucy" (March 6), "After Life" (March 8), "Girl" (March 15), "Love, Death Robots" (March 15), "Selling Sunset" (March 22), "The Legend of Cocaine Island" (March 29) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
SHANGHAI The models wore traditional cheongsam dresses and medieval Chinese armor as well as the usual rainbow of shiny miniskirts at the Shanghai auto show this weekend, but the many midsize cars and sport utility vehicles on display made it look almost like an American auto show. Gone are the days when buyers in China, the world's largest car market since 2009, mostly purchased fuel sipping compacts and subcompacts. Their shift toward larger and ever more numerous vehicles is not only driving up China's oil import bill and contributing to pollution but is also fattening automakers' profits and manufacturers made clear over the weekend that they plan to infuse the market with large vehicles. General Motors announced that it would introduce nine new or restyled S.U.V. models in China in the next five years, and disclosed that it would build four more factories and add 6,000 jobs to accommodate its ever rising sales here. A Chrysler executive said that his company would start making Jeep Cherokees in Changsha in southern China by the end of next year. And China's domestic carmakers showed a wide range of S.U.V.'s, the heftier the better. Sedans were also bigger than at previous Chinese auto shows. Ford promoted its Lincoln brand, which it is bringing to China. Many manufacturers gave prominence to luxury cars, a nod to the rising affluence in China of the upper middle class and the wealthy. "Our focus is on luxury vehicles and S.U.V.'s going forward," said Bob Socia, president of G.M. China, which has been neck and neck for years with Volkswagen as the Chinese market leader. "Not long ago, both were considered niche segments," he said. "Both are now mainstream and growing rapidly." S.U.V. sales jumped 49 percent in March from a year ago as new models poured into the market. Overall auto sales in China climbed 13 percent in March and are on track for almost 21 million vehicles sold this year. By comparison, the latest forecasts in the United States this year are for a little more than 15 million vehicles. Both totals include sales of pickup trucks and other light commercial vehicles. Mr. Socia predicted that S.U.V. sales would double by 2015, to four million vehicles. But that would still leave them trailing midsize car sales, which have surged to five million cars a year. That has made midsize cars not only the largest market segment in China, but also bigger than the entire auto market in Japan, or the combined auto markets of Germany and Britain, said Jim Farley, Ford's executive vice president for global marketing, sales and service and of the Lincoln brand. Having opened one assembly plant in Chongqing last year, Ford is in the process of building another assembly plant, an engine factory and a transmission factory in Chongqing, as well as assembly plants in Hangzhou and Nanchang. Ford is predicting that the annual Chinese market will soar to 30 million cars and trucks by 2020. General Motors is forecasting 35 million by 2022. Fuel consumption concerns in China often focus more on the sheer number of vehicles being sold than on the fuel economy of each one. But while China is a negligible market for the true behemoths that remain fairly popular in the United States, like the Chevrolet Tahoe and the Lincoln Navigator, the upward creep in vehicle size in China toward midsize cars and S.U.V.'s is complicating policy makers' efforts to limit total oil use. S.U.V.'s and midsize cars in China tend to be a little smaller than in the United States. The S.U.V.'s are almost entirely what the auto industry refers to as crossover utility vehicles, which are built on car platforms instead of the heavier pickup truck underbodies that Detroit relied on in the 1980s and '90s. The shift toward bigger cars and S.U.V.'s, despite punitive taxes of as much as 40 percent on models with large engine displacements (more than 4 liters) is prompting concern in Beijing. Policy makers there are weighing whether to follow the example of the Obama administration and the European Union in increasing gas mileage regulations. Stricter rules could hurt sales of the largest models, but automakers have already been preparing by offering many cars and S.U.V.'s with slightly smaller engines than are used in the United States. "The most important discussion around this area is the changing fuel economy requirements," Mr. Farley said. Much of the change in Chinese automotive tastes is culturally driven. Until the last few years, sport utility vehicles were dismissed as looking too much like farm vehicles, at a time when many recent Chinese arrivals in cities were eager to shed any link to their rural pasts. Hatchbacks were also unpopular, as a big glass window in the back of a vehicle instead of steel enclosed trunk struck many buyers as unsafe, particularly after the crime waves that rolled through many Chinese cities in the 1980s and '90s. But public safety has improved in China, suburban and rural retreats from polluted cities have become fashionable and tens of millions of Chinese are now traveling overseas and becoming aware of the international popularity of higher riding vehicles. "S.U.V.'s were definitely uncool to drive here, and now something is changing they're cool," said Michael Dunne, an automotive consultant specializing in Asia. Personal injury lawsuits from rollovers have been costly for S.U.V. manufacturers in the West, but such litigation tends to be very rare in China. Virtually all of the vehicles sold in China are manufactured either by Chinese automakers or, more often, by multinationals in joint manufacturing ventures with Chinese automakers. Most Chinese automakers in turn are owned by local governments that also have considerable control over local courts, making the automakers nearly invulnerable to private litigation. Air pollution has become a big issue in China, particularly after severe smog early this year in Beijing. But Western and Chinese studies have attributed most of the smog to coal fired power plants, factories and diesel powered trucks and buses, not gasoline powered cars. One question mark hanging over the auto industry is the Communist Party's austerity and anticorruption campaign, in place since November. The campaign has hurt many luxury restaurants and some luxury retailers, especially in Beijing. But auto executives insisted that the program's effects on their sector had been more muted. Torsten Muller Otvos, the chief executive of Rolls Royce Motor Cars Ltd., said that sales in China of his company, a subsidiary of BMW, were up only slightly in recent months from a year earlier. But he attributed slower growth mainly to an inevitable stabilization of the Chinese luxury market as it has matured, not the austerity campaign. "Growth isn't any longer as explosive as it had been in the years before, but we are still satisfied," he said, while declining to provide sales data for China. For now, manufacturers in China are so focused on the Chinese market that exports are limited and mainly aimed at other emerging markets, with little sign of large scale shipments to industrialized countries. Mr. Socia of G.M. and other executives said that their factories could barely keep up with demand in China. John Burton, the general manager of the Fiat and Chrysler joint venture with the Guangzhou Automobile Group, declined to speculate on where and whether the company might export Jeeps from China. "Potentially we could," he said, "but if the Chinese market sucks them up then they'll stay here." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Automobiles |
On a gorgeous Monday night in Manhattan, with a number of guests venturing out to the rooftop terrace to watch the beginnings of a sunset, some of the most notable members of the American fashion, publishing and theater worlds gathered at the British Residence on East 51st Street to pay tribute to Anna Wintour. Ms. Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue and the artistic director of Conde Nast, had been named a dame by Queen Elizabeth II earlier in the year, and this cocktail party, hosted by Antonia Romeo, Her Majesty's consul general in New York, was a chance for those in her adopted land to celebrate the occasion. The designers Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Michael Kors mingled with younger counterparts like Tory Burch, Billy Reid, Thakoon Panichgul and Prabal Gurung, as well as the New Yorker editor David Remnick, the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and the model Gigi Hadid. Ed Filipowski, the president of KCD, a public relations and production firm, and his husband, Mark Lee, the former chief executive of Barneys New York, talked of flying to London this weekend to see the new National Theater production of "Angels in America" before heading to Los Angeles later in the summer to spend some time at the Beverly Hills home they had just spent two years renovating. The Proenza Schouler designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez chatted about their summer plans with the Broadway producer Jordan Roth. And the longtime Vogue contributor Andre Leon Talley reclined on the lone couch in the room, greeting guests as they passed by, including the Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo ("The Color Purple"). Standing beside a large portrait of the queen, Dame Anna thanked the 91 year old monarch, who has been on the throne 65 years, for "being an example to me that women can lead as well as men and often for a good deal longer." Ms. Wintour also spoke movingly of the very specific gift that she said her adopted country had given to her: the chance to make her name her own. "In Britain, bloodlines run heavy, and in any job I took I was known as the daughter of my brilliant father, the great newspaper editor Charles Wintour," she said. "In New York, nobody cared about my family. Frankly nobody gave a damn, and that freed me." Given her well known fund raising efforts and strong support for Barack Obama and, more recently, Hillary Clinton, it was no surprise that Ms. Wintour's speech included an allusion to the current political climate. "I would be humbled to be recognized for my work in journalism any year," she said. "But I am deeply proud to receive such recognition this year. It's an honor that I share with so many of you, whose writing and editing often leaves me in awe yes, I'm talking about you, David Remnick. This is a golden age of journalism, a time when those who have curiosity and a commitment to truth can do work for which their children will be grateful." Though the crowd was an undeniably starry one, the portrait of the queen was the closest the party came to having a royal presence. In the moments before Ms. Wintour's speech, the designer Carolina Herrera was talking to a small group that included the Tony winner Alex Sharp ("The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time"), and the subject of Prince Harry's increasingly public romance with the American actress Meghan Markle came up. "I had hoped Harry would have been here," one of them said. "Oh, but he is," Mrs. Herrera said. "He's there, standing in the back. Didn't you see him?" Immediately, heads turned and desperately craned for a better look, while Mrs. Herrera burst into a soft laugh and merrily glided away, clearly pleased with her joke. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The Bahamas resort Baha Mar has taken more than 10 years to open, but on Friday, the 4.2 billion, 1,000 acre development on a half mile of beachfront in Nassau is expected to finally debut at least, in part. Baha Mar comprises three hotel brands Grand Hyatt, SLS Hotels and Rosewood Hotels Resorts for a total of 2,300 rooms. Grand Hyatt, with 1,800 rooms, is the largest and will be previewing on opening day; with nightly rates in the mid 300 range, it's also the most affordable. The 300 room SLS, with starting rates at upward of 500 a night, will debut later this year, and the 200 room Rosewood, the most upscale of the three with room prices from 700, is scheduled to open next spring (Grand Hyatt is open for invited guests initially and is accepting paid reservations for late May). But accommodations are only a component of Baha Mar: The project also includes a 100,000 square foot casino the largest in the Caribbean that overlooks the ocean, according to Baha Mar's president, Graeme Davis; 42 restaurants and lounges; 30 luxury retailers including Rolex and Bulgari; an 18 hole Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course and Golf Club; 11 swimming pools surrounded by more than 250 palm trees; and a free standing Espa brand spa with 24 treatment rooms (white marble plays a prominent role). The casino, the golf course, seven of the swimming pools, a part of the spa and a handful of retailers and restaurants will be open on April 21, while the rest of the amenities are scheduled to be introduced over the next year. Large scale flashy resorts, in the vein of those in Macau and Las Vegas, may not be an anomaly today, but the drama leading up to Baha Mar's opening sets it apart from the bunch: The Nassau based development group BMD Holdings Ltd., led by the chief executive Sarkis Izmirlian, announced plans for the project, then a 1.6 billion venture, with much fanfare in late 2005. Construction did not begin until early 2011 and was funded through a 2.45 billion loan from the Export Import Bank of China, along with an 850 million investment from Baha Mar and a 150 million investment from the contractor, China Construction America. A scheduled opening in May 2015 never happened. With the project more than 90 percent complete, Baha Mar declared bankruptcy, saying that China Construction America had repeatedly delayed the venture by missing construction deadlines. The construction company issued its own accusations of mismanagement, and a bitter fight ensued. Around 2,000 employees, most of them Bahamians who had been wooed to the resort with promises of bright futures, were out of jobs. Baha Mar was at a standstill. Its revival happened last November, when the Hong Kong based conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises signed an agreement to buy the resort from the Export Import Bank of China for an undisclosed sum. Chow Tai Fook is involved in several businesses, including jewelry stores in Asia and casinos in Macau, and was already familiar with Baha Mar because it owns Rosewood Hotels Resorts, a brand that was set to be one of the project's hotel operators before the bankruptcy filing. The company is able to open Baha Mar so soon after agreeing to buy it, Mr. Davis said, because the Export Import Bank had invested 700 million to finish building the resort over the last 18 months. "What we bought is a property that was nearly complete," he said. For travel agents, the April 21 opening does not come without skepticism. Bobby Zur, who owns Travel Artistry, a consultancy in Franklin Lakes, N.J., and is on the hotel committee for the travel network Virtuoso, said that he was apprehensive about soft openings in general, particularly when it came to large scale resorts, but that Baha Mar had added challenges for the long term. "Creating a resort destination that has within it different levels of luxury and an appeal to disparate demographics can be done but isn't always easy to accomplish," he said. But Mr. Zur said he was optimistic about the resort because Rosewood was involved. "Rosewood is a brand that's very protective of its guests and who it partners with, so I feel more confident that the project will come out of the gates faster and more smoothly than it would have otherwise," he said. Dan Marmontello, the Caribbean product manager for CheapCaribbean.com, a site that sells affordable Caribbean and Mexico trips, will be staying at Baha Mar later this month as an invited guest. He said that he planned to sell the resort only if he thought that, after seeing it firsthand, it was ready to receive paying guests. "It doesn't matter that not everything is up and running," he said, "but we need to make sure that there are enough amenities available so that our clients can go and have a good time there." Baha Mar is one of the largest resorts to open in North America, according to Zachary Sears, a senior economist at Tourism Economics, which is part of the research firm Oxford Economics. Touches intended to be over the top are a trademark of mega resorts, and Baha Mar is no exception. Golfers, for example, can choose to rent one of more than 100 sets of top of the line clubs, including handmade Itobori clubs from Japan, which retail for 8,000, according to Sean Cracraft, the director of golf at the resort's Royal Blue Golf Club. Restaurants include an English pub with 24 beers on tap; the opulent, red hued Shuang Ba, where top chefs from China will visit and cook; a beachside conch shack; and Katsuya, an upscale sushi chain that started in the Los Angeles area. A big attraction may be the six minute nightly show at the fountains and lakes where water, illuminated with multicolored lasers, shoots 110 feet into the air, and a video with Bahamian dancers performing to high energy tribal music is projected against cascading walls of water. Mr. Davis said that much of Baha Mar's appeal was expected to come from its emphasis on Bahamian culture and the local environment. "Yes, we're about the sun and the sand, but we want to give people a richer experience than you get on the typical beach vacation," he said. The children's activities, for example, include visits to the property's aviary to learn about indigenous hummingbirds and butterflies and classes on Bahamian crafts such as basket weaving. Bahamian art is another focus: The property will display 8,500 pieces a mix of paintings, sculptures, ceramics and photographs by both established and emerging contemporary artists from the islands. There is a studio where artists in residence will work and teach classes. "There's not a lot of global awareness about Bahamian art or Caribbean art in general, but we're hoping that the resort will be a platform to change that," said John Cox, Baha Mar's creative arts director. Delayed hotel openings are common, but Baha Mar's trajectory is unusually long, said Reneta McCarthy, a senior lecturer at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University who is familiar with the resort and its history. "There's been a lot of buzz about this project and drama surrounding it for years," she said. " It's an ambitious venture, and all eyes will be on it to see how it fares." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
This year, more than most, offers plenty of excuses to celebrate the life and work of James Joyce. This January marked the 75th anniversary of his death. Bloomsday June 16 is the date on which his novel "Ulysses" is set. And December is the 100th anniversary of the publication of his first novel, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." I followed Joyce's trail earlier this year, a challenge because he was always on the move. But I pared my itinerary down to Dublin, where the Joyce family house hopped to avoid creditors; London, where he married; and Paris, where he joined fellow literary lions. Joyce was born in 1882, the eldest of 10 children, in Dublin and lived in as many as 20 homes during his family's downward mobility, which coincided with his childhood. A great place to contemplate his life in Dublin is with an overview. The James Joyce Tower and Museum on Sandycove overlooks the coast. As I stood outside the museum, beneath the flag fluttering in the strong wind, I surveyed a hill beyond the water, and felt the sea air washed over me. The author in 1904 briefly stayed in the museum's tower, which is featured in the opening of "Ulysses," but fled it after an altercation. The museum, which opened on Bloomsday 1962, now houses a trove of Joyce memorabilia, including photos, handwritten letters and first editions of "Ulysses" and other books. A few weeks after his departure from the tower, Joyce left Ireland. As I left the museum, I imagined a slim Joyce walking nimbly down the small and narrow steps down to the rocks and onto the street, running not only from the tower but from his country. Though Joyce essentially exiled himself from Ireland, Dublin celebrates the life of the native son who wrote about the city as both a setting and character. The James Joyce Centre on North Georges Street has three floors of information, memorabilia and documentaries of the author's life. Both the Joyce Centre and the museum at Sandycove display busts of Joyce's death mask, made two days after his death in Zurich in 1941. They also host the Joyce Circular Tour around the north inner city, which visits significant places in the author's life and work. The Dubliners Tour is a walk to locations from the "The Dubliners" short story collection and Joyce's life. A guide named Marty Gilroy took us on the circular tour, which is not quite circular: It begins at the center and ends at James Joyce's statue on North Earl Street. There, he quoted from a letter Joyce sent to his brother Stanislaus in 1905 while he was living in Trieste: "When you remember that Dublin has been a capital for a thousand years, that it is the 'second' city of the British Empire, that it is nearly three times as big as Venice, it seems strange that no artist has given it to the world." After living with a woman named Nora Barnacle for 27 years and having two children with her, Joyce traveled to London in 1931 to marry her to settle his family's inheritance. By then, he was famous, and though the couple tried to keep their nuptials secret, journalists followed them to their residence at 28B Campden Grove in Kensington. Joyce so disliked the place that he called it "Campden Grave," Nevertheless, a blue plaque hangs at the building 28 Campden Grove, distinguishing it as an English Heritage site. From Campden Grove, you could take walks that pause at other literary heritage sites. Five minutes away is the former home of the poet Ezra Pound, Joyce's friend, at 10 Kensington Church Walk; another 10 minutes in the opposite direction is the former home of T. S. Eliot, Joyce's contemporary, at 3 Kensington Court Gardens; and about three minutes away is the home of the novelist Ford Madox Ford, at 80 Campden Hill Road. Joyce lived in the city for more than 20 years, becoming an essential part of a literary community that included Pound, Eliot, Ford, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is also the place where he finished writing "Ulysses" and "Finnegans Wake" thanks to financial support from the editor Harriet Shaw Weaver and the publisher Sylvia Beach. Beach owned an English language bookstore and lending library called Shakespeare and Company, which opened in 1919 at 12, rue de l'Odeon. The bookstore was closed during the German occupation of France during the Second World War and never reopened. At the old location is a plaque that says in French: "In 1922, in this house, Sylvia Beach published Ulysses by James Joyce." A new Shakespeare and Company bookstore is near the Seine down a small curved street and overlooks the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was opened in 1951 and renamed in honor of Beach by George Whitman and is now run by his daughter, Sylvia Beach Whitman. It, too, has become a literary hub, with regular readings and events in addition to a cache of books for sale. The Hotel Lutetia, the last place Joyce stayed in the city, is currently under construction covered in taupe and scaffolding but is still worth a visit to see the vast architecture peering above the covering. Joyce completed "Ulysses" at the French writer Valery Larbaud's apartment on 71, rue Cardinal Lemoine. Larbaud was also one of the translators of "Ulysses" to French. A plaque at the building acknowledges its two famous residents. But perhaps the best way to commune with Joyce is to open up his books. No airfare is required for that. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Many families with the wherewithal to leave dense cities during the pandemic have headed to country homes to shelter in a bigger space. But a handful of families are in a position to do this to an even greater extreme, settling into remote places that they or their ancestors received through free land programs. Robert and Marne Sheldon, for example, can only access their second home by helicopter, and it is in a place where they are the only ones with lodging: the area that comprises Denali National Park in Alaska's interior wilderness although the park technically surrounds the family's land. Mr. Sheldon's father, Don Sheldon, claimed the 4.99 acre property under the United States Homestead Act in 1953, six years before Alaska became a state. He chose a nunatak, a glacial rock outcropping, where he built a mountain house that he would rent out and use as a base to survey the Alaska Range and to conduct mountain rescues. From 2015 to 2017, the younger Mr. Sheldon built a 2,000 square foot chalet with floor to ceiling windows and hammocks hanging off the side of the nunatak. The Sheldons rent it out as a luxury getaway that is just 10 miles from the summit of Mount Denali, the tallest peak in North America. The couple's three sons, ages 23, 21 and 18, are "training in everything from glacier travel to avalanche rescue," said Mr. Sheldon. "It's neat to see the next generation of Sheldons do the things my father envisioned." Free land programs have been part of America's DNA for centuries, encouraging families to settle in more remote or challenging environments. The nation's early land grant programs gave away land that had been seized from Native Americans. But land grants exist not just in history, they continue to provide opportunities for Americans to live in stunning locations or to pick plots in areas not yet settled. Many who have chosen this path feel like explorers or cherish the opportunity to build dream homes. Now they are finding an added, unexpected benefit: seclusion and security during a pandemic. In 1905, in the Coachella Valley of Southern California, Louis Wilhelm, a land developer, traded two mules and a buckboard wagon with a private landowner for the Thousand Palm Canyon. The next generation sold their shares of the property to a conservancy, which turned the land into the Coachella Valley Preserve. One of Louis Wilhelm's sons, Harold Wilhelm, traded his share for 835 acres in the Indio Hills, which is a few miles from the conservancy. Harold Wilhelm's granddaughter, Ronda Reil, is a part owner of the property, which sits on top of the San Andreas Fault and is known as the Wilhelm Metate Ranch. In some places, she said, you can see the earth's plates merging. "There are canyons with fossils, canyons with plates crashing, canyons that house animals, canyons with trees," she said. "I am still amazed by some of the stuff that happens with the formation of the rocks. We had a big rain and one of the canyons that is really narrow had these huge chunks of car sized rectangular cubes coming down." She knows this land is special. But it's also home, a place she's always known. "I know all the names of the plants and everything," she said. "It's just what we learned growing up." She was a teenager when the family acquired the ranch sitting on the fault line, and she has wonderful memories riding a dune buggy and running around the canyons, discovering new places. While she doesn't currently live on the land (she could, but it gets too hot in the summer) she regularly hikes and holds outings there with family and friends. Roger Federer filmed a tennis commercial there. Modern free land programs give Americans the chance to claim the best plots in areas not yet settled. A handful of cities across America still have modern free land programs in place. Smaller towns with dwindling populations, especially in the rural Midwest, are using them to entice people to move there and bring fresh life to the communities. This spring, the city of Duluth, in Minnesota, gave away lots to designers to come up with innovative solutions for the city's affordable housing shortage. For these cities, free land programs are a win win, a chance to utilize a resource they already have to encourage positive economic growth. "Picking out land is fun," said Morgan Laine, 22, an assistant manager for Walmart, who moved into a four bedroom home that she and her husband, Brad Laine, built on free land in Claremont, Minn., in mid March, just as the coronavirus lockdown was beginning. She and Mr. Laine, 26, a driver for FedEx, live there with their newborn son. Claremont is a small city in the southeastern part of the state. It has a population of 547 and a post office, a bar that serves food, a gas station, and two parks. "An ethanol production company is the largest business in town," said Connor LaPointe, the city administrator for Claremont. "It employs a few people." In an effort to spur economic development, Claremont has 15 quarter acre lots that it has been trying to give away since 2013. The lots are on an abandoned real estate development, and takers must meet an income threshold and agree to build a permanent home within 18 months. "We get calls three or four times a week," said Mr. LaPointe. "A lot of people lose interest when they find out they can't put a shed or their animals on the land." As only the third client to participate in the program, Mr. and Ms. Laine had their pick of land. They loved walking around the development, choosing the exact plot they wanted. They settled for one in the back that had more privacy. "We had to think down the road and picture what was going to be there," she said. "I kind of felt like an explorer." Osceola, Iowa, a city with a population of around 5,000, is also giving away empty lots around the city. "People get to choose," said Bill Trickey, the executive director of the Clarke County Development Corporation, which runs the free land program. "There are empty lots right next to the golf course or down the street from the elementary school. We gave away a property on a lake on the south side of town. They built a nice home there." One of the couples who participated in the program is Misty and Bryant Schiltz, ages 30 and 31. She works part time at Allegiant Airlines, and he is a commercial flooring installer. They have three children, 9, 8, and 6. They found a lot across the street from his parents' house and they hope to break ground soon. Without having to pay for the land, they are able to build their dream home. "On the main floor we will have the dining room, the living room, the kitchen, the laundry room, the office, and the master," said Ms. Schiltz. "We have a vaulted ceiling, and it's so open. We are going to have these really nice living areas that aren't separated by walls. I am assuming we will live here forever." Mr. and Ms. Laine decided to build a home in Claremont after not finding a home in the area that met their priorities. "My husband wanted a big garage because he is a motor head geek," she said. "For me, I was picky about the bathtub." Now they have a four bedroom home with two baths and a three car garage. She can see why few families have chosen the same path. "It was a lot harder than I expected," she said. "Our title company, I think they hated me by the time we were done. I called them every day for a week and a half to get our paperwork before they closed for the pandemic." And of course, the more remote the land, the harder the challenges. Ms. Reil doesn't live on her family's land in the Southern California desert, but her uncle has a cabin there, where he must bring his own water and use a generator for electricity. To help pay the property taxes on the land, the family leases land to Desert Adventures, which runs Red Jeep Tours. Mr. Sheldon also faces problems on his free land in Alaska: "It sounds silly but water is a major problem. You're in a sea of ice, but you have to turn that into liquid form, and it uses a tremendous amount of energy." Unlike settlers who explored the wild West and were plagued by diseases like cholera and dysentery, Americans who now live on free land are enjoying one advantage: a place to escape coronavirus. Ms. Laine said it's been helpful to live in an underdeveloped neighborhood during the pandemic. "You don't have to worry about people being on top of you," she said. "It would be nice to see this neighborhood develop, but maybe not to full capacity." The remoteness of many of these places and the low population density limits the risk of coronavirus. Lincoln, Kansas, a city of 1,300 people, has 19 free lots available. In early May it had zero Covid 19 cases, which Kelly Larson, the executive director of the county's economic development foundation, attributes to their way of life. "We are such an agricultural based community, we just have so much space," she said. "I go three or four mile walks and don't see a soul." Ms. Reil's land in the California desert has become even more valuable to her now that national and local parks are closed. "It's been really great because I can go run around in the open whenever I want," she said. For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: nytrealestate. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
The goal of the Fed's program is to bolster a critical corner of U.S. debt markets, not to make money for investment vehicles and investors. WASHINGTON Pacific Investment Management Company runs a hedge fund registered in the Cayman Islands, a common structure for avoiding certain U.S. taxes. But when a profit opportunity arose from the ashes of America's coronavirus crisis, that international location did not stop it from seizing the moment. The Federal Reserve opened a highly anticipated emergency lending program in June, a revamped version of one it used during the 2008 financial crisis. This time around, Congress stipulated that only American companies can participate as borrowers in such programs. Despite being offshore, Pimco's fund had an easy way to benefit. The offshore fund is invested in an entity registered in Delaware. That entity can be used by investment managers to buy and sell bonds. The Delaware operation borrowed 13.1 million from the Fed program by pledging a bundle of debt as collateral. Investors in the Cayman based hedge fund ultimately stand to profit from the transaction. The Pimco example is not unique other foreign investors have put money into U.S. based funds that are tapping the Fed program. That they found a way to participate in a program restricted to American borrowers highlights the potential for financial firms to make money from the Fed's market rescue programs, even if doing so means maneuvering around congressional limitations on eligibility. Investors earned double digit returns on the program during the 2008 financial crisis and they stand to profit this time around as well, as they collect interest on the debt bundles and, thanks to the Fed's cheap funding, pay very little to hold them. The Fed's program is intended to keep credit flowing through the economy, but its design has provided an opportunity for global financial players to profit from an initiative backed by taxpayer funding. That side effect could draw further scrutiny to the Fed's rescue efforts, which are already prompting questions from lawmakers about who benefits, and on what terms. The lending programs "drag the Fed into political crossfire," said Mark Spindel, chief investment officer at Potomac River Capital and an author of a book on the politics of the Fed. "The Fed is seen as the honest broker in town but just because you're the honest broker today, doesn't mean you're not going to face questions down the road." The goal of the Fed program in question, known as the Term Asset Backed Securities Loan Facility or TALF, is to bolster a critical corner of U.S. debt markets, one where loans are bundled and sold off to investors who are willing to take on risk in exchange for interest payments. That helps to keep the market for commercial mortgages functioning, and allows student loans and credit card debt to continue flowing to end users. The program was not created to make money for investment vehicles or the investors they represent. But because of the way TALF works, financial firms like Pimco's hedge fund can make a profit from it. A fund can buy those securities using some combination of cash and short term loans and then take them to the Fed in exchange for a TALF loan. The TALF loan can be used to pay back whatever money the fund borrowed to make the purchase in the first place, so that its holdings are financed mostly by the cheap Fed loan, and a sliver of its own money (what is known as a "haircut" in financial parlance). It essentially earns the difference between what it makes in interest from the securities and what it is paying on the Fed loan. Because investors have just a small amount of money at stake, returns on each invested dollar can be quite high. Investors said they anticipated high single digit returns in 2020, far lower than the double digit returns in 2008 but still generous. Ford and Rivian no longer plan to work jointly on electric vehicles. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand in her trial. Follow along with our reporters. Ken Griffin, head of Citadel, bid highest for a copy of the Constitution. The Fed has so far released detailed data only on TALF's first round of loans, though the program has since finalized two more rounds. The Fed will most likely release additional data in mid August. Pimco's Cayman Islands based fund, which has borrowed via a U.S. based entity called TOCU IX, is one of several foreign investors using an American investment vehicle to gain access to TALF. The pension plan of the Oxford University Press Group will tap the program through a fund set up by the New York based investment manager MacKay Shields. A Singapore based fund is a material investor in an offering by the giant financial firm BlackRock, according to the Fed's first round of detailed disclosures. The fact that some investors based overseas can make money from TALF does not break Congress's rules, but it may fall shy of what some lawmakers intended. They specified that loans, advances and asset purchases made under the Fed's programs should be restricted to "businesses that are created or organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States." But they said nothing about who could ultimately benefit. "There are going to be people who focus on this like a laser," Peter Conti Brown, a Fed historian at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, said of the fact that foreign investors in some cases benefit from Fed programs. But the reality, he pointed out, is that financial markets are global. "Others are going to say that there's no way to provide liquidity without benefiting international counterparties." And while Pimco's fund and other foreign investors may profit by participating in the program, their investment is also helping to keep more money flowing into the Fed's program, smoothing over U.S. securitization markets. That reality has presented a challenge for the Fed, which has had to walk a fine line between creating emergency programs that are effective while also making them politically palatable. Lawmakers want the Fed to help the economy, but have also warned the central bank against allowing companies to take advantage of taxpayer backed funding. When Republicans and Democrats were hammering out the details of their coronavirus rescue package in March, congressional leaders agreed to give the Treasury Department 454 billion to back up Fed emergency programs. The Fed requires a Treasury backstop for many of those efforts, to insure against losses in case borrowers default. But because the Fed did not expect to lose every dollar it lent out, it could use the 454 billion to field a huge rescue: potentially more than 4 trillion in loans to businesses, states and cities. The ability to supersize the coronavirus response package was an attractive proposition. But many lawmakers in both parties were wary about handing the Fed and the Treasury so much money. Many remembered the 2008 bank bailouts and the bad taste they had left behind. They did not want a repeat. So Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and key lawmakers agreed to terms that attached strings to the funding. Companies borrowing direct loans might be asked to try to maintain their payroll. Those who borrowed directly would also be banned from making dividend payments, and executives would face compensation limits. Only U.S. companies could borrow. Those requirements are generally guidelines rather than binding rules, given the way the programs work. The Fed has found itself being hammered on both sides some lawmakers have questioned whether the central bank is precluding companies from using its programs by being too strict, while others have warned it against letting big corporations and Wall Street firms benefit. Foreign investor participation in the TALF program could raise similar questions from lawmakers and the oversight groups set up to police where the funds are going. Mr. Conti Brown and others say that while Congress gave the Fed the room to make design choices, that will not insulate the central bank from critique. The fact that the Fed has discretion "is a byproduct of political compromise," Mr. Conti Brown said. But "the Fed is always open to criticism down the road." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Economy |
Your readers in Brooklyn are young, affluent and often creative. Are you seeking a similar demographic in Queens? In Brooklyn, the site is really focused on brownstone Brooklyn, so some of those traits you mention are increasingly inherent in that geography. I'm hoping that trying to cast a wider geographic net in Queens, I can reach a broader demographic. It's a bit self selecting. The people who are sitting at their desks all day long with time to cut corners and read blogs tend to be slightly more affluent. A blue collar worker who is on a factory floor or at a construction site doesn't have hours on end to flip through blogs, so that's a bit of a challenge. I am trying to use local contacts to recruit tipsters in a variety of neighborhoods. I got my first post from a woman who lives in Bayside, a neighborhood I've never spent any time in and I certainly wouldn't have known. There's a coffee shop in Manhattan called the Bean Bean, and it turns out they'd opened a new location in Bayside and it wasn't even on their Web site yet. She sent me a photo, and that's gold for me. That's all I want, a photo and three sentences about what this is and that it's open and a link to the Web site and a Google map so people can see where it is. If I could get a couple of those a day, I'd be thrilled. Besides Long Island City, which Queens neighborhoods are you watching? Astoria is the other obvious one. I've been trying every weekend to do an outing to a different neighborhood. I'm most interested right now in Jackson Heights, because not only is it very ethnically diverse, it's got very good train access and, for me and a lot of the readers in Brooklyn, it's got really nice old housing stock. There are lots of beautiful prewar apartments that you can get for half the price of what they'd be in Park Slope. If I had to buy something as an investment right now, I'd buy a prewar apartment in Jackson Heights. The other area that's interesting is Ridgewood. It's really this extension of Bushwick, but it's in Queens. The whole Brooklyn hipster thing has seeped over the border. There are blocks where you'll have nice old brick town houses that all look the same. I can't imagine that if you went and bought one of those homes for 600,000 today that in five years you'd be regretting it. Beyond that I honestly start to get out of my element. I've got a lot of weekend trips ahead of me. What about neighborhoods in Eastern Queens near the Nassau border? I don't think we're going to be doing comprehensive coverage of those areas. When I started doing Brownstoner, Ditmas Park in Brooklyn was kind of out there on the fringe. Now, people consider, should I move to Carroll Gardens or Ditmas Park? Part of what a blog does is provide a curiosity factor. If there's an incredible old house in Forest Hills, there will be voyeuristic interest. Or we can point to a tacky house in one of those outlying areas, too. I'm going to try to be incredibly comprehensive in the core western neighborhoods and do as good a job as we can as you go farther out. Will we see coverage of the Rockaways? I haven't been out there since Sandy, but one of my reporters will head out soon to do a photo essay. Rebuilding is something we'll be following. I know someone who is building a house in Red Hook and dealing with new rules for construction in 'Zone A' areas. The rules are brand new, and the Department of Buildings is still trying to figure out what they mean practically. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Credit...Tess Mayer for The New York Times How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? Jennifer Valentino DeVries, an investigative reporter, discussed the tech she's using. What are your most important tech tools for doing investigations, and how do they fit into your reporting process? People seem to think that investigative reporting involves secret techniques. But it is actually not that mysterious. The big "secret" is that I get time to do these stories so I can sift through thousands of records, or contact dozens of people before finding one who will talk with me. One of my favorite tools for investigations is an updated version of an old school newsroom feature: the New York Times tip line. (Please take this as a hint to send me your tips.) People who want to share evidence of wrongdoing can always mail us an actual letter, but now they also have the option of contacting us through SecureDrop, which is an encrypted submission system that uses anonymity software. After almost every article I have written, I have received useful tips about ways to extend that reporting. I write a lot about technology companies. To investigate them, I rely not only on help from sources but also on tests of the technology itself. Tech executives tend to stay on message and provide canned responses about how their company is committed to protecting user privacy. But if I can see, for example, that their website's code directs user location data to dozens of advertising firms' servers, I can raise deeper questions about what is really happening. I often use products like Google Chrome's Developer Tools to learn more about what is going on under the hood. I am fortunate to work with journalists who are adept with more complex code as well. For example, we recently analyzed data sent by mobile apps. Those apps sometimes make it hard to see the information they're sending, so my colleagues Michael Keller and Aaron Krolik used tools more commonly employed by computer security researchers to help reveal it. You've specifically written a great deal about privacy. How has your reporting on privacy issues changed the way you use technology for work and for play? I don't think it is realistic to expect people to abandon technology over privacy concerns. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. I use Google and Slack. Technology is an inextricable part of our society and the business world. That said, there are two products I would use if not for the nagging questions I have about data collection: DNA testing and in home voice assistants. I would love to get pretty charts about my ancestry. I would love to ask Alexa or Google to tell me the weather forecast so I don't have to look at a screen in the morning. But I just can't bring myself to do it, because the data involved my genetic information and recordings of what I say at home is just too sensitive. I take more steps to protect my privacy than the average person probably does. I regularly check my phone's location settings, and I use services that help stop online trackers. I have removed myself from a variety of data broker lists, which make your personal information widely available. But after covering this field for a while, I am under no illusions that I am able to fully protect my privacy, even with these procedures. You have written about how dozens of smartphone apps have recorded people's location data. How have you seen that data being used? 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. Advertising is the biggest business for such data by far. Companies can use your location data to profile you and show you the ads most likely to influence you. For example, if you go to an elementary school and back home every morning, you might be a stay at home parent. But the most interesting use I have seen has been by hedge funds. They look at this data to get ahead of the stock market, for example, by seeing which stores are having an uptick in customers before those stores report earnings. What steps do you take to protect confidential sources? When I began covering technology in 2010, my computer security sources introduced me to encrypted communications. We would use special chat programs and send our messages over the Tor anonymity network. It was a complicated setup, and not something I would be able to persuade most sources to undertake. Now, so many people know of encryption apps like Signal, which is as easy to use as any other texting app. It's so much simpler to get a source to take at least some steps to protect themselves. That said, it's important to keep in mind that these apps aren't foolproof. Many journalists have made mistakes in attempting to use secure communications. If you back up all your encrypted messages to your iCloud account, your use of encryption is pointless. The possible mistakes terrify me, and sometimes it's better to simply meet someone face to face and leave your phone at home. Outside of work, what tech product are you currently obsessed with? I have young children, and I think they are pretty much the cutest people ever. I'm a huge fan of limited photo sharing apps that allow a small set of people to see what they're doing in preschool and other daily activities. I literally just watched a video of my 2 year old dancing awkwardly. If people could do one thing today to protect their digital privacy, what would you tell them to do? It depends what you mean by "digital privacy." If your top worry is hackers, the best thing you can do is get a password manager instead of reusing the same passwords everywhere. If you are concerned about companies controlling your data, you face more challenges. It seems likely that a large part of the remedy in this area will involve changes to consumer protection laws, which have passed or are being considered in multiple states. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
CINCINNATI A rapidly growing sector for consumer research, coupled with a boom in construction and redevelopment, is renewing interest in Cincinnati's downtown. One measure of the city's new relevance is the 85 million Global Operations Center for General Electric, with construction to be finished next year, in the Banks, an 18 acre Ohio riverfront development between the city's baseball and football stadiums. The 12 story office building and the district will be served by a station stop on the 3.6 mile, 148 million Cincinnati streetcar line that is also expected to open next year. G.E.'s operations center, one of five the company is developing worldwide, contains first floor retailing, parking on the second floor and 10 stories of conference and office space, and can house up to 2,000 workers, 1,400 of them new to Cincinnati. The installation serves big development and manufacturing centers that G.E. operates in the United States, including lighting and aviation manufacturing sites in two Ohio cities. The center is being built with the help of 101 million in city, county and state tax and investment incentives. In exchange, G.E. committed to employ at least 1,800 people in Cincinnati over the next 18 years, with an estimated total payroll of 142 million annually to start, or an average of 79,000 a year. "Cincinnati was chosen due to G.E.'s longstanding presence in the state and southwest Ohio," said Dominic McMullan, a company spokesman, "as well as a pool of local talent and skills required for the roles in the Global Operations Center. In addition, the state, county and city provided a competitive incentive package to G.E." Another big project that is competing with G.E. for attention is the Dunnhumby Center just a few blocks away. The 140 million, nine story office building with 285,000 square feet opens in the spring, promising to restore the corner of Fifth and Race as one of downtown's most prominent addresses. Rising from a parcel that for more than a decade was a city owned surface parking lot, the new building sits atop 29,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and a six level, 527,000 square foot parking deck. It is a joint project of DunnhumbyUSA and the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation, the city's nonprofit real estate development organization, known here as 3CDC. The building houses DunnhumbyUSA, a market analytics firm begun in 2003 that is jointly owned by Dunnhumby, a British data analysis company, and Kroger, the grocery store chain, which is based here. Cincinnati's recovery follows three nights of riots in 2001, and a plunge in the number of residents and businesses, after the death of an unarmed black man shot by police. A period of social and economic reckoning followed, with public meetings and a federal task force that investigated police relationships with the city's black community and recommended significant changes. Thirty percent of the police force is black now, as is the chief of police. The city's big companies, in collaboration with Cincinnati and Hamilton County, also developed plans and investment funds for park reconstruction, business investments and new office and residential construction, all aimed at coaxing residents to live downtown and to establish more high paying jobs. In 2005, Fountain Square, Cincinnati's deteriorated cultural and economic center, was rebuilt, prompting new office and retail development nearby. By then, Dunnhumby, housed in a downtown office not far from the square, had grown from four employees in 2003 to almost 100 employees. Some of the young workers moved into the first new apartments developed by 3CDC in the Over the Rhine district, the late 19th century neighborhood where the riot started. Dunnhumby achieved its rapid growth by inventing the algorithms and big data analytics to help Kroger understand consumer buying habits. The firm's analysts, for example, found that men and women in two income households with children typically spent about 16 minutes in a Kroger store. That piece of data prompted new designs in product displays like one stop sections for preparing school lunches in stores that served upper income single family neighborhoods. Dunnhumby's clients include so many other big retailers and product companies, like Macy's, which is also based in Cincinnati, that it now employs 750 analysts, programmers, software developers and marketing specialists, nearly 600 of them working in the city. The company's new office building, large enough to house 1,100 employees, joins a host of other new or renovated buildings near Fountain Square, including the 56 million, 156 room, 21c Museum Hotel that opened in 2012 two blocks away. "We see applications for our work across so many industries. Big data really has no barriers," said Stuart Aitken, DunnhumbyUSA's chief executive. "We have 35 or 40 job openings right now we're trying to fill. We couldn't be in a better place than this city." The Dunnhumby Center is seen here as a kind of 21st century Kitty Hawk for a sector that Cincinnati executives call "consumer science." According to REDI Cincinnati, a regional business development organization, hundreds of consumer science data analytics firms now employ more than 54,000 professionals in Cincinnati and its near suburbs. Their work is related to some of the city's core marketing companies, which include Procter Gamble and other large consumer products companies that employ over 60,000 more brand professionals in and around the city, according to REDI Cincinnati. "Consumer science developed very fast here," said Johnna Reeder, REDI Cincinnati's president and chief executive. "You can see it becoming visible in new offices, and in the demand for new apartments all over downtown." Much of the focus of that interest is in Over the Rhine where 1,100 to 1,400 new residential units are either under development or planned over the next two years, said Anastasia Mileham, vice president for marketing and communications at 3CDC, the neighborhood's principal developer. That surge in interest follows 335 million in investment by 3CDC to renovate or construct new buildings for 176 apartments, 17 restaurants, 23 new offices and 14 retail stores. The total includes 48 million to restore Washington Park and build a parking deck underneath, a project completed in 2012. Additionally, 3CDC is supervising the 130 million restoration of Music Hall, a 136 year old, 3,300 seat performing arts theater in the district and home of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The project is financed by tax credits, city investments, grants and donations. Over the Rhine, which a decade ago had 500 vacant buildings and 700 vacant lots, has become one of Cincinnati's choice residential neighborhoods for young professionals, and is now a busy downtown office, retail and entertainment district. On Martin Luther King Day a year ago, the People's Coalition for Equality and Justice, a civil rights group, organized a demonstration to attract attention to housing displacement fostered by climbing real estate prices in Over the Rhine. Property values climbed over 25 percent in 2014, faster than any other Cincinnati neighborhood, according to Hamilton County figures. City officials responded that the 40 square block neighborhood has 1,000 units of affordable housing. Executives from 3CDC added that their projects incorporated space for subsidized work force housing. For instance, 30 of the 67 rental apartments in the four year old, 55 million Mercer Commons project are designated for families earning 26,000 a year or less. "There's been some public discussion about gentrification," said Randy Simes, an urban planner and editor of UrbanCincy.com, a news site that reports on the city's development. "Early on, it was less of an issue because there were so many empty properties. Now developers are coming in to buy properties that have residents. We're finding that some are upset because they need to relocate. Others welcome the opportunity to get out of the neighborhood." Ms. Mileham of 3CDC, a senior executive of a company that now employs 60 people and operates on a 5 million annual budget, said the city was "really changing." "So much is happening and it's happening now so quickly," she said. In December, 3CDC itself moved into a 28,000 square foot, four story, 86 year old brick manufacturing warehouse on Walnut Street, renovated at a cost of 7.1 million. The building is a microcosm of contemporary Cincinnati. Its new tenants a consumer science marketing firm, a law firm, a bar and restaurant, and an urban development agency form four of the important groups of the city's new economy and culture. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Careers (and lives) are lived in chapters. This seems so obvious, but tends to be a big aha moment for my coaching clients who are often so busy with day to day demands that they can lose sight of the bigger plan. Once you become more clear about what chapter you are currently in, or transitioning into ("adjusting to being a new parent", "career can move fast for a few years", "ready to return to work"), then you can clarify what your own definition of success looks like in that chapter. Indicators of success in the past might be less important in the current chapter, or vice versa. Those returning to work really benefit from asking themselves what are the "must haves" versus "nice to haves" in the relaunch chapter. There will always be the next chapter and you can re evaluate then. Be willing to live with a little uncertainty while you explore what's next. It can be a chicken and egg process: I have observed that many relaunchers don't want to be out networking to find their next opportunity until they can speak with 100% clarity about what they are looking to do next. As my clients tend to be accomplished professionals, it makes sense that they don't want to waste people's time or look indecisive. However, I find that lack of 100% clarity often becomes excuse number one for not getting out and talking to people. The irony is that only through an iterative process of narrowing down, speaking with people, and then further refining, do clients really zero in on what makes the most sense in their next chapter. It is fine to say that you are in exploration mode, but narrow it to two or three things you are most interested in pursuing that you can speak about in conversation. "I have no idea" is not acceptable. Your network is everything. Create a relaunching plan for yourself with specific and measurable objectives that will keep you on track during your exploration and job search. Most people benefit from a structured plan and reach their goals much faster. Consider a self assessment tool. I recommend several possible assessments including StrengthsFinder 2.0, Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Strong Interest Inventory and CareerLeader. Many clients find the insight and applicable strategies from their assessment results very valuable. Build a strong support system. To maintain a laser focus on your goals and to hold you accountable as you move forward, I strongly recommend enlisting an "accountability partner". That can be a trained coach or a dedicated friend, mentor or family member who will commit time to your progress. When life gets busy and overwhelming, remember that you do not need to do this alone. Also, stay in the conversation with like minded people. Change is hard, and it is not always clear who will be most supportive when starting a relaunch process. Seek out others who relate to your path of exploration and find a way to stay in regular contact. Several of my past coaching circles continue to meet on their own to this day, so please consider finding ways to keep the group in contact with each other. Ann Blinkhorn, a graduate of Harvard Business School, founded an executive recruiting firm, Blinkhorn, L.L.C., in 2009 after working for seven years as a leading executive recruiter at Spencer Stuart. She has led searches for chief executive officer roles and other senior level positions for a diverse range of clients including Comcast, Discovery Communications, Microsoft, Dow Jones, MTV Networks, PBS and Huffington Post, among others. Find your passion. If it isn't in an area where you have prior work experience, consider executive education or an advanced degree to gain background and skills. Pursue consulting or advisory board work in your chosen field to further bolster credibility. Leverage your network. Re connect with colleagues and former classmates who know your capabilities. Meet for informational interviews. Use informational interviews as a way to learn about possible job leads. Do your homework. Get up to speed quickly by understanding current industry trends. Conduct research on companies/organizations that are "best in class" in your chosen field. Read relevant industry and thought leader blogs. Manage your "brand" online and offline. Make sure your social media profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are up to date and consistent. Build a resume that provides more detail than your LinkedIn profile. Find balance. Structure child care and other household support systems to provide you with required flexibility. Be realistic about time commitments, and don't place the burden of figuring out scheduling on prospective employers. Carol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin are the founders of iRelaunch. They answered questions from New York Times readers on The Motherlode blog. Here are some additional tips they shared to help cover the major challenges and questions around returning to work after a break. Managing the "years out" on a resume and in interviews: You should not leave any time period unaccounted for on your resume. Include volunteer work experiences and describe accomplishments as you would any job. For example, "managed a team of 10 volunteers in running charity auction that netted local public high school 10% more than in prior year." If the volunteer work is directly related to your career goals, then call the initial section of your resume "Experience" and list it in chronological order, side by side with your paid prior work experience. If the volunteer work is not directly related, you may want to list it in a section below your work experience, perhaps calling it "Community Experience" or "Other Relevant Experience," so that your prior work experience is at the top of your resume, rather than further down. If you did not do much in the way of volunteer work or consulting you should just put: 2006 2012 Career Break: Took time out of the workforce to care for young children." Remember that, ideally, your resume will be the second point of contact a hiring manager has with you. The first will be via a networking contact. So it is likely the person will know you took a career break prior to seeing your resume. Don't be afraid to "own up" to how you spent your time. This is especially true in interviews. If someone asks you what you did between X and Y years, just state matter of factly, unapologetically, that "I took some time off to take care of my children (or my father), and now I can't wait to get back to work. I think I am well suited for this particular position because of the experience I had in x job and y volunteer work where I faced similar customer challenges." How to manage potential employers who consider you "overqualified for this job." Here's your answer: "One of my top priorities is to deliver excellent results to my employer, while also managing the rest of my life outside of work. So while it might look to you like I am overqualified for this position, this level is exactly where I want to be in my current life stage, and I intentionally sought it out. I feel confident I can deliver excellent results to you at this level of seniority." Return to previous job roles or consider new paths. Should people try to go back to what they did before? Not necessarily. We recommend that anyone who has been out of work for a long time do a self assessment to figure out whether their skills and interests have changed. We've developed a tool to help you do this called "The Job Building Blocks Worksheet". You can read more about it in our book, "Back on the Career Track", which is available at many public libraries or on Amazon. What we found when people go through this exercise is that about a third of people are interested in returning to exactly what they did before, about a third are interested in using their old professional skills, but taking them in a different direction (for example an investment banker becoming CFO of an independent school), and about a third are interested in relaunching in an entirely new field or function, often based on some sort of experience during their career break. (For example, a former currency expert with a special needs child becoming an advocate for special needs children at a nonprofit dedicated to this cause.) Ms. Cohen and Ms. Rabin have put together a detailed list of university, continuing education and company programs. Here is a sampling of programs from their list: | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Education |
Harland Svare, who played linebacker in the celebrated defense that helped take the Giants to three N.F.L. championship games in the 1950s and became, at the time, the youngest head coach in the N.F.L.'s modern history when the Los Angeles Rams hired him in 1962, died on April 4 at a nursing home in Steamboat Springs, Colo. He was 89. Svare's death was confirmed on Monday by the Yampa Valley Funeral Home in Steamboat Springs. His son in law, Cory Anderson, said that the cause was listed as respiratory arrest, although he had tested negative for the coronavirus. Playing for eight pro seasons, his first two with the Rams before joining the Giants in 1955, Svare was acclaimed for his football smarts at a time when shouts of "Dee fense!" cascaded from the stands at Yankee Stadium, the Giants' home field. Svare played in an innovative alignment installed by Tom Landry, the Giants' defensive coach, with four down linemen in place of the customary five or six men lines, a strategy to stymie the growing emphasis on the short passing game. Lining up at left linebacker, Svare was positioned alongside Sam Huff, the middle linebacker, whose ferocious tackling, portrayed in the CBS documentary "The Violent World of Sam Huff," came to glamorize defensive play. Together with Bill Svoboda and later Cliff Livingston at right linebacker, they played behind an outstanding front four, with Andy Robustelli and Jim Katcavage at the ends and Roosevelt Grier and Dick Modzewleski at the tackles, and in front of a secondary that included Emlen Tunnell and Jim Patton at safety and Dick Lynch at cornerback. The Giants routed the Chicago Bears, 47 7, in the 1956 N.F.L. championship game, then lost to the Baltimore Colts in the memorable 1958 sudden death overtime title game and again in 1959. At 6 feet tall and 215 pounds or so, Svare was relatively undersized even for a linebacker of his time. "Svare didn't have a muscle in his body, but he possessed remarkable intensity," Frank Gifford, the Giants' Hall of Fame back, recalled in "The Whole Ten Yards" (1994), a memoir written with Harry Waters Jr. Svare became the Giants' defensive coach in 1960 even while continuing to play, after Landry had left to become head coach of the expansion Dallas Cowboys. He retired as a player but remained the defensive coach under Allie Sherman when Sherman succeeded Jim Lee Howell as the Giants' head coach in 1961. The Giants again went to an N.F.L. title game that season, losing to the Green Bay Packers. Svare left afterward to join the Rams as defensive line coach. He was named the head coach of a losing Rams team midway through the 1962 season without any head coaching experience at the college or pro level. At 31 years, 11 months old, he became the youngest head coach in the National Football League's modern era, a distinction that has twice been eclipsed, by Lane Kiffin (31 years, 8 months), who was hired to lead the Oakland Raiders in 2007, and by Sean McVay, who holds the record as the youngest (30 year, 11 months), when he was named by the Rams in 2017. Svare's Rams went 0 5 1 for the remainder of the 1962 season, then posted losing records over the next three years. Svare was fired with a coaching record of 14 31 3. He was the Giants' defensive coach again in 1967 and 1968, then joined the Washington Redskins in 1969, overseeing their defense under Coach Vince Lombardi, the former Giants' offensive coordinator who had forged a Packer dynasty. Lombardi died of cancer in the summer of 1970, and Svare was out of a coaching job again. But he was hired by the floundering San Diego Chargers as their general manager in February 1971, replacing Sid Gillman, who remained as head coach. Svare took over the coaching as well late in the 1971 season, his Chargers going 2 2 under him. In November 1972, the Chargers' owner, Eugene Klein, startled their fans when he gave Svare a new five year coaching contract, though the team was continuing its losing ways. The Chargers finished that season at 4 9 1. The 1973 Chargers were at 1 6 1 when Svare resigned as coach, his teams having gone 7 17 2. After that season, the N.F.L. levied a total of 40,000 in fines against eight Charger players as well as Klein and Svare. The players were found to have possessed drugs, and Svare and Klein were penalized for lax oversight. The league did not disclose the nature of the drugs, but Svare said marijuana use was involved. At least one of the fined players said, however, that he had used amphetamines. Svare was fired as general manager in January 1976. Harland James Svare was born on Nov. 15, 1930, in Clarkfield, Minn., in the rural southwest part of the state. His father, Rolf, and his mother, Inga (Niebokken) Svare, were farmers. He was a lineman at Washington State and was selected by the Rams in the 17th round of the 1953 N.F.L. draft. Since he came from a state with a large Scandinavian population, he became known as Swede Svare, which was presumably pleasing on the tongue, although he was of Norwegian descent. Svare had nine career pass interceptions, one for a 70 yard touchdown run, and recovered five fumbles. He blocked a late Detroit Lions field goal attempt to preserve a 19 17 victory leading to the Giants' overtaking the Cleveland Browns to reach the 1958 N.F.L. championship game. He was named a second team All Pro by United Press International that season. After leaving football, he founded an institute devoted to physical therapy and promotion of good health habits. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
How far is Armando Iannucci's new HBO comedy, "Avenue 5," from his previous one, "Veep"? About a billion miles, give or take, or the distance from earth to Saturn, where the spaceship of the title is thrown off course, greatly increasing the time its load of unlucky tourists will have to spend on their interplanetary cruise. Set 40 years in the future aboard a vessel that looks like a cross between the Starship Enterprise and a high end mall, Iannucci's new show would seem to be a radical departure from the acrid, of the moment political satire of "Veep" and his earlier British series "The Thick of It." (Several of those shows' writers, including Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche and Will Smith, have joined him on "Avenue 5.") But there are recognizably Iannuccian things about this space com, which debuts Sunday. Like the politicians and operatives guiding the ship of state in "Veep," the crew members of the Avenue 5 are an often amoral, small minded and quarrelsome bunch whose constant sniping provides the bulk of the humor. Leading them is a captain, played by the "Veep" alumnus Hugh Laurie, who, like Vice President Selina Meyer, is not ideally qualified for his post. And there does seem to be satirical intent in "Avenue 5," although one of the show's major problems, through four of the season's nine episodes, is that it's hard to tell what the targets are. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
These Shrimp Leave the Safety of Water and Walk on Land. But Why? None Parading shrimp in the Lamduan rapids of Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. The shrimp stop swimming at dusk and gather near the river's edge. After sunset, they begin to climb out of the water. Then they march. All night long, the inch long crustaceans parade along the rocks. The parading shrimp of northeastern Thailand have inspired legends, dances and even a statue. (Locals also eat them.) During the rainy season, between late August and early October, tourists crowd the riverbanks with flashlights to watch the shrimp walk. Watcharapong Hongjamrassilp first learned about the parading shrimp, and the hundred thousand or more tourists who come each year to see them, about 20 years ago. When he started studying biology, he returned to the topic. "I realized that we know nothing about this," he said: What species are they? Why and how do they leave the safety of the water to walk upstream on dry land? Where are they going? Mr. Hongjamrassilp, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, decided to answer those questions himself. His findings appeared this month in the Journal of Zoology. Working with wildlife center staff members, Mr. Hongjamrassilp staked out nine sites along a river in Thailand's Ubon Ratchathani province. They found shrimp parading at two of the sites a stretch of rapids, and a low dam. The videos they recorded revealed that the shrimp paraded from sundown to sunup. They traveled up to 65 feet upstream. Some individual shrimp stayed out of the water for 10 minutes or more. "I was so surprised," Mr. Hongjamrassilp said, "because I never thought that a shrimp can walk that long." Staying in the river's splash zone may help them keep their gills wet, so they can keep taking in oxygen. He also observed that the shells of the shrimp seem to trap a little water around their gills, like a reverse dive helmet. DNA analysis from captured shrimp showed that nearly all belonged to the species Macrobrachium dienbienphuense, part of a genus of shrimp that live mostly or fully in freshwater. Many Macrobrachium species spend part of their lives migrating upstream to their preferred habitats. Most parading shrimp that Mr. Hongjamrassilp captured were young. Observations and lab experiments showed that these shrimp probably leave the water when the flow becomes too strong for them. Larger adult shrimp can handle a stronger current without washing away, so they're less likely to leave the water. Mr. Hongjamrassilp in the field, measuring the water's velocity. Walking on land is dangerous for the little shrimp, even under cover of darkness. Predators including frogs, snakes and large spiders lurk nearby, Mr. Hongjamrassilp says. "Literally, they wait to eat them along the river." And the shrimp can survive on land for only so long. If the parading crustaceans lose their way, they may dry out and die before they get back to the river. A few times, Mr. Hongjamrassilp came across groups of lost shrimp dead on the rocks, their once translucent bodies baked pink. Yet most navigate upstream successfully, and scientists have spotted other freshwater shrimp around the world performing similar feats, scaling dams and even climbing waterfalls. Leaving the water when the swimming gets tough may have helped these animals spread to new habitats over their evolutionary history, Mr. Hongjamrassilp said. Today, the number of parading shrimp in Thailand seems to be declining. He thinks tourist activity may be a factor, and learning more about the shrimp might help protect them. The study's authors made "some really excellent observations," said Alan Covich, an ecologist at the University of Georgia who was not involved in the research. But understanding why the Ubon Ratchathani shrimp move upstream, and how far they travel, will require more research, he said. "The most surprising thing to me was that it attracted so many tourists," Dr. Covich said. He doesn't know of any other example of people gathering to appreciate a crustacean in quite the same way. "We have crayfish festivals, we have all kinds of things," Dr. Covich said, "but generally it's people eating them, not watching them move." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Science |
Filled with some two dozen wire woven openwork sculptures by Ruth Asawa, the big second floor gallery at David Zwirner's West 20th Street space in Chelsea looks like a basketry forest, or a subaqueous garden, or a cloud of microbial life. The sight is one of the enchantments of the New York fall season. Asawa was born to Japanese immigrant parents in rural California in 1926, and grew up working on her father's farm. (She died in 2013.) On her one day off, Saturday, she went to Japanese school and learned calligraphy, and loved the challenge of having to "work so this round curve turns into the next stroke." During World War II, when she was in her teens, the family was confined, with other Japanese Americans, to internment camps, where she met artists who gave her drawing lessons. With the goal of studying art education, she enrolled in a teachers college in Milwaukee, but was eventually unable to get her degree because of her ethnicity. While at the school, she had encountered the future mail artist Ray Johnson (1927 1995), who, in 1946, was heading off to an experimental school called Black Mountain College in Asheville, N.C. She decided to go too. There she became a fully fledged artist herself. Under the tutelage of the emigre Bauhaus painter Josef Albers and the weaver Anni Albers, she learned that art, craft and design were inseparable; that all materials were potentially art materials; and that natural and abstract forms could be comparably organic. She studied with Merce Cunningham and incorporated the buoyancy of dance into her painted and woven forms. She also saw Buckminster Fuller raise his first geodesic dome. (Fuller later designed the wedding ring Asawa wore when she married Albert Lanier, a fellow Black Mountaineer. You can see it on her finger in a 1952 portrait by Imogen Cunningham.) In 1947, Asawa went to Mexico to teach, but once there she became, again, a student, learning from local craftsmen how to weave baskets from metal wire, which she started using as her primary medium. It was a tough, even punishing one. Wire was light and malleable, but when used for crocheting and weaving forms inside other forms, it could and did cut flesh, requiring Asawa to swath her hands protectively as she worked. As if in deliberate defiance of such physical challenges, she shaped sensuously curving and swelling sculptures that seemed to float, bubble light, in space. The Zwirner show captures that lightness in its Chelsea installation and gives it an ideal historical context in a show titled "Josef and Anni and Ruth and Ray" at its Upper East Side space. Here a collage made from dried leaves by Josef Albers, an abstract textile by Anni Albers and a marvelous early Ray Johnson painting called "Calm Center" of nested colored squares along with affectionate letters exchanged between all four colleagues together help explain where Asawa's magic came from, and how it would spread. Of her childhood experience with learning calligraphy she said, "It was like a dance. Lift your feet up and lift your hands." At Zwirner, lift your heart. One of the star performers in "Faust" was the American artist Eliza Douglas, who is Ms. Imhof's partner and her frequent painting collaborator, as evidenced by their joint New York gallery debut at Galerie Buchholz. Crowded with paintings they have made together and separately, their show communicates a smart, ambiguous, mostly unsatisfying polish at closer range. There's nothing new here, although everything is extremely well done. Ms. Imhof's main efforts are shiny acrylic monochromes (black, white or turquoise) on aluminum with impulsive flurries of scratches variants of zombie formalism that imply vandalism. "Baby, Baby" is also hers: a standard gestural abstraction centered on an octopus with an open mouth and a touch of Francis Bacon teeth. In the pair's collaborative canvases, their signatures form large, semi legible tangles variously fragmented, magnified and reversed, in snappy black on white. Consistent with their comment on the authorial aura, the works are made by assistants, and they veer close to the black and white irreverence of ones by Christopher Wool and Albert Oehlen, although those painters may also be intended targets. In addition, Ms. Douglas exhibits solitary efforts: suitably modish, performative canvases in which hyper realistic hands and feet are connected by improvised, abstract lines. The loose brushwork and the octopus return in a two panel collaboration that is obviously titled "A Hundred Thousand Dollars." The artists' signatures recur in works featuring Warholesque arrangements of images of Ms. Douglas. Doubts about these pieces can elicit another one: But maybe that's the point? For the time being, and especially when they're all ganged together as they are here, that may be enough. A pair of elegant black pumps with rosy interiors and deliberately bumpy surfaces are a flinty joke about gender roles, sex and mortality. A small bedroom without walls brings to mind an archaeological site like the ancient Anatolian city of Catalhoyuk, suggesting that domestic relationships haven't changed all that much since the introduction of agriculture. A paint smeared Adam and Eve titled "He" and "She"; a sensitive portrait bust of Ms. Saul's husband, the painter Peter Saul, with tender blue eyes and a stand of asparagus like brushes jammed into his crown; and several other ceramic people all seem intended to highlight every squalid embarrassment of the flesh. The first show here introduces eight artists of Grupo Ruptura, an influential 1950s movement in Sao Paulo of geometric abstraction that was more rigorous and utopian, if slightly less fun, than its counterpart in Rio de Janeiro, Grupo Frente. As their hometown metastasized and Brasilia started to rise, Sao Paulo artists such as Geraldo de Barros and Luiz Sacilotto painted totally abstract compositions spiraling curlicues in the former's case, cascading black and white stripes in the latter's that aimed to give form to the utopian dreams of a new Brazil. Judith Lauand, the group's only female member (still working at age 95), composed geometric outlines on circular supports that seem to take on three dimensions. A solid half of the artists in Grupo Ruptura were European immigrants, including the Austrian born Lothar Charoux, who made whispering compositions of orthogonal and diagonal lines, and Waldemar Cordeiro, from Rome, whose intriguing paintings of interconnected circles give a tiny hint of his future as an early computer artist. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
SAN FRANCISCO A British security researcher, who became an internet hero after he was credited with stopping a malicious software attack this year, was arrested at the Las Vegas airport and charged in connection with a separate attack. Marcus Hutchins, the researcher, was widely praised for identifying a way to disable the WannaCry malicious software, or malware, attack that seized hundreds of thousands of computers this year. Researchers credited Mr. Hutchins's discovery of a so called kill switch in the malware for stopping its spread and preventing the attack from infecting millions more computers. According to an indictment filed in federal court in Milwaukee that was unsealed on Thursday, Mr. Hutchins, 23, and an unidentified accomplice conspired to create and sell malware intended to steal login information and other financial data from online banking sites. Mr. Hutchins created the software and his accomplice offered to sell the program, known as the Kronos banking Trojan, for 3,000 on an internet forum, the indictment said. The accomplice sold a version of the Kronos malware for 2,000 in June 2015. The indictment did not include details on how widely that malware was used, or much specific evidence of Mr. Hutchins's involvement. The Justice Department said in a statement that a federal grand jury returned a six count indictment against Mr. Hutchins last month after a two year investigation. It said that the Kronos malware was built to "harvest and transfer" user names and passwords from banking websites from an infected computer. Kronos, according to the Justice Department's statement, has been configured to strike banking systems in a number of countries, including Canada, Germany, Poland, France and the United Kingdom. When the Kronos malware was first advertised in underground Russian forums in 2014, the asking price of 7,000 indicated that the selling of malware was a lucrative business. Kronos was promoted as a hacking tool that could retrieve data including user names and passwords, A.T.M. PINs, and personal information useful in cracking security questions. Earlier on Thursday, Motherboard reported that Mr. Hutchins had been detained at the Las Vegas airport after a week of attending both the Black Hat and Defcon security conferences. He had been scheduled to fly back to his home in the United Kingdom. The security community reacted with surprise and skepticism over the arrest of one of its well regarded stars. Some warned that claims against Mr. Hutchins could strain the relationship between "white hat" hackers researchers who look for software vulnerabilities to spot problems and fix them, rather than to commit a crime or sow chaos and law enforcement. Others were unconvinced that Mr. Hutchins would create such software for an attack. In July 2014, he asked on Twitter if anyone had a Kronos sample a seemingly odd request if he had created the malware. While the exact circumstances of Mr. Hutchins's involvement with the Kronos malware were unclear, security researchers have often skirted legal trouble while looking for vulnerabilities in computer code. In recent years, big tech companies have created "bug bounties" to formalize a process for researchers to report problems and to be compensated for their work. The Defcon conference, a freewheeling gathering of security experts from around the world, has also had a touchy relationship with law enforcement. In 2001, for example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a Russian encryption expert in his Las Vegas hotel room after he published software officials said could crack the security of some kinds of e books. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization, said in a statement that it was concerned about the arrest of Mr. Hutchins and was looking into the matter. The WannaCry ransomware infected computers running older versions of Microsoft Windows. Once spread, the software encrypted computers and locked users out of files, folders and drives. If an affected machine was connected to a network, other computers on the network could become infected as well. The attackers demanded that victims pay hundreds of dollars to a Bitcoin address. Mr. Hutchins was something of an accidental hero. According to an interview with The Guardian in May, Mr. Hutchins said he registered a website domain after discovering that the malicious software was trying to connect to it. By registering the domain for 10.69, he triggered a so called kill switch that halted the software's spread. His intention initially was not to stop the attack but to track its spread. Mr. Hutchins, who works as a researcher for Kryptos Logic, a Los Angeles based cybersecurity firm, said in the interview that he had skipped going to college and taught himself how to write software. The company did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Hutchins tried to remain anonymous, communicating with the media through his handle MalwareTech, but British tabloids revealed his identity. He was celebrated in the cybersecurity community for his achievement, winning a special recognition award at an SC Awards Europe industry event. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
The city of Brussels, headquarters of the European Union, last week introduced European Canteen, a series of modular picnic tables that will pop up in seven different parks throughout the summer, encouraging al fresco dining. In varying configurations, the 70 tables will rotate through seven parks in the city's European Quarter, where most E.U. related institutions reside. They include Meeus Square, Frere Orban Square, Leopold Park, Cinquantenaire Park, Place Jean Rey, the Schuman roundabout and the Esplanade in front of the European Parliament. The project's objective, according to its website, is "to improve the quality of life in the public spaces of the European Quarter." Offering one step hotel and exhibition bookings, 15 Philadelphia hotels have partnered with the Philadelphia Museum of Art to offer overnight packages that include two tickets to the museum's potential summer blockbuster, "Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand Ruel and the New Painting." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
Mr. Meedendorp said that the drawing is particularly interesting because it is more in keeping with van Gogh's earlier style than his later work when he lived in Paris. He added that the drawing shows that van Gogh's work evolved during his crucial years in the French capital from a formal style that he learned at the art academy in Antwerp just before arriving in Paris, and became increasingly experimental. "It's a kind of stylistic missing link between his Belgium and Paris time," said Fred Leeman, an independent van Gogh expert and curator of exhibitions by the artist, who is a consultant to the Van Vlissingen Foundation, which currently owns the drawing. The last time a new van Gogh drawing was discovered was in 2012. A year later, a new van Gogh painting, "Sunset at Montmajour" (1888), was also found. But these findings are relatively rare. Since the publication of the complete catalog of van Gogh's works in 1970, another nine drawings and seven paintings have been added, Mr. Meedendorp said. When it came to the Van Gogh Museum for research in 2012, the drawing was owned by an American private collector whose Dutch relatives had purchased the work from a gallery in the Netherlands in 1917, Mr. Meedendorp explained. But the museum did not publicize the finding at the time, at the request of the previous owner. Aside from Mr. Leeman, no other experts outside the museum have yet seen the drawing. Research by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the world's leading expertise center on the artist, found that "The Hill of Montmartre with Stone Quarry" came into the hands of van Gogh's sister in law, Johanna van Gogh Bonger, a meticulous keeper of van Gogh's materials, who numbered it "123" in her inventory. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
BRUSSELS At their first summit meeting in recent memory at which financial markets were not baying at the door, European leaders on Thursday sought to show they could confront the social cost of fighting the sovereign debt crisis, whose severity was underlined by new jobless figures that hit a euro era high. The infusion of some 1 trillion euros ( 1.3 trillion) into euro zone banks in recent months by the European Central Bank and a provisional agreement on a second package of loans for Greece have gone a long way toward easing fears of an imminent financial crisis or even the disintegration of the common currency itself. Final agreement on the bailout, however, was delayed as finance ministers waited to see if a related restructuring of Greek debts to private investors succeeded and if Athens fulfilled all the conditions it had agreed to. In the meantime, with more than one in 10 workers in Europe out of a job and government budget cutting intensifying the economic slowdown, leaders were looking for ways to reconcile the urgent need to stimulate growth with the stepped up budget discipline required under a new "fiscal compact," which was expected to be approved Friday. Yet that agreement, negotiated by 25 countries at the request of Germany, was under pressure even before it had been signed as evidence mounted that a recession forecast for the euro zone this year was already worsening public finances as well as increasing unemployment. The jobless rate in the 17 euro zone countries rose in January to 10.7 percent, from 10.6 percent in December. It reached the highest level since 1999, when the euro was introduced, according to Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency. Flagging economies like Italy and Greece were responsible for much of the increase. For all 27 European Union countries, the rate ticked up to 10.1 percent in January from 10.0 percent in December. European countries nonetheless diverged widely: Spain again topped the list with a 23.3 percent jobless rate, followed by Greece, at 19.9 percent in November. That compared with 4 percent unemployment in Austria and 5 percent in the Netherlands. The deficit figure, described as a "big setback" by the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, will prompt difficult negotiations within his coalition government on additional austerity measures. Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, a spokesman for the European Commission, said the Netherlands had been "very vocal in supporting the reinforcement of our fiscal surveillance rules." He added, "It is absolutely normal to think that the Netherlands will apply this same approach to its own fiscal policies." Others, though, are in even worse shape. On Monday, the Spanish government said that its budget deficit in 2011 was 8.5 percent, well above its 6 percent goal, and asked for more time to bring the level down, something Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, said could not yet be considered. Mr. Barroso urged political leaders to take the opportunity to focus attention on measures that could create jobs, especially for young people, like reallocating European Union funds earmarked for development. A draft of the summit meeting's conclusions emphasized the need for "determined action to boost growth and jobs," and for taking care when reducing spending. There was no talk of any fiscal stimulus to lift growth. Instead, the leaders looked set to reiterate their commitment to longer term structural measures like deepening Europe's 500 million person single market to new areas like services and e commerce. "Sustainable growth and jobs cannot be built on deficits and excessive debt levels," the draft conclusions stated. A final text was to be considered on Friday. Greece, which has been struggling to come to grips with a crushing debt, had hoped to get final approval from euro zone finance ministers on its second bailout, worth 130 billion euros. In a flurry of legislative activity in recent days, Greek lawmakers have passed a series of measures to meet the conditions for the rescue. The latest went through in the early hours of Thursday morning, cutting state spending on pharmaceuticals. Jean Claude Juncker, the president of the Eurogroup, a forum for euro zone finance ministers, said that the ministers were looking forward to a high level of participation by private creditors in the debt exchange. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said that the leaders must "discuss growth growth for Greece, but also in the European Union as a whole." But she also highlighted the importance she attached to the new fiscal compact, the adoption of which is seen as a condition for German support for additional steps to end the debt crisis. "This is a huge step that we've managed to take in a very short time," Mrs. Merkel said before the start of the meeting. "This is the first step toward a stability union, toward a political union. Further steps will follow." A report in the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung, citing unidentified government officials, said Thursday that Mrs. Merkel was considering dropping her opposition to an increase in the euro zone's firewall, or funds available for any future bailouts, because of mounting international pressure, most recently at a meeting of the Group of 20 leading economies last weekend. A decision on that issue, originally expected at the summit meeting, has been delayed until later in March because of Germany's reluctance to move, fearing that such a step could undermine market confidence, rather than bolster it. Herman Van Rompuy, who was appointed Thursday to a second term as president of the European Council, hinted at his support for a stronger firewall when he told reporters that "restoring confidence in the euro zone is a growth strategy in itself." But he added that he was "very much aware that this crisis and some remedies put social cohesion at stake. It can also damage the European idea itself." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Global Business |
I love games, but my wife, Mandy, hates the clutter. The other day, I spent a half hour rearranging the shelves to find room for a recent addition to my board game collection. Over the years, I have accumulated almost 150 games, several of which are still shamefully unopened. The only downside to my collection is the space that it fills. I have piles of games in, on top of, and around the heavy wooden shelves we use to store them. I love the fact that I have a game for everyone. Do you like interpreting art? Let's try Dixit. Want to play giant monster beat em up games with our children? King of Tokyo. Are you a die hard science fiction fanatic? Let's play Terraforming Mars. Do you prefer tactical games with amazing miniatures and have a couple hours to kill? It's time to break out Scythe. As a member of the Games team at The New York Times, I put a high value on making sure everyone is included in the fun. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Read about the events that our other critics have chosen for the week ahead. THE JEWISH SOUL: CLASSICS OF YIDDISH CINEMA at Film Forum (through July 3). Unless you caught the Yiddish language films in this continuing series on the Lower East Side in the 1930s and '40s, you've likely never seen them looking as good as these restorations. In the coming week, the spotlight is on the musical comedy "American Matchmaker" (on Sunday, Wednesday and June 7), the final Yiddish language feature made by Edgar G. Ulmer, best known for the great, subsequent Poverty Row noir "Detour." The Wednesday screening will feature a live performance by the Yiddish theater actor Shane Baker and the pianist Steve Sterner. 212 727 8110, filmforum.org NEW YORK AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL at various locations (through June 9). After starting on May 23 with a program at BAM, the 26th edition of the annual New York African Film Festival expands to Film at Lincoln Center in the coming week before concluding at the Maysles Cinema in June. Among the highlights are screenings of the Malian director Souleymane Cisse's "Baara" (on Monday), first shown in 1980, about a factory manager who has a crisis of conscience, and "Sarraounia" (on Tuesday), directed by the Mauritania born filmmaker Med Hondo, who died in February. africanfilmny.org JULIA REICHERT: 50 YEARS IN FILM at the Museum of Modern Art (through June 8). "American Factory" (on June 7), a look at what happened when the Chinese glass company Fuyao took over a closed General Motors factory near Dayton, Ohio, was a highlight of this year's Sundance Film Festival. But that film, directed by Reichert and Steven Bognar, is just one entry point into Reichert's long career as a documentarian, and this retrospective is a cross section of American social issues. "Methadone: An American Way of Dealing" (on Saturday and Thursday), co directed with Jim Klein, centers on the clients of a Dayton methadone clinic, many of them factory workers who have turned to drugs as a coping mechanism. Reichert's debut, "Growing Up Female" (also with Klein, showing on Saturday and June 8), examines the gender stereotypes applied to women in the early 1970s. 212 708 9400, moma.org | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
The narrator, Suzie, and her companions gather at the home of their friend, Clara ( Dennise Gregory ). They decide to play a game in which each girl has to share the most disturbing story she's ever heard. They tell tales of horror befalling girls of beauty and innocence, all of whom are about their age. They speak of attempted rape , of girls who murder and are murdered. Each story is told in unbroken close ups, which take up more than half the film's running time; and the camera lingers on delicate faces as they light up with passion, describing violence and violation. For each story, the speaker swears that it's true. Graham Swon wrote and directed this fright night, and his approach to horror could be described as a tease. Despite the narrator's promise that what we see are her own recollections, Swon's camera does not seem interested in the texture of life as it is experienced by teenage girls. There is no chatter, no laughter, no play or clash of personalities that take place outside the monologues they perform for one another other. Instead, Swon fixates on the theatrical spectacle provided by their fears and desires, as though they were seen through the eyes of a voyeur. In the end, the impression his film leaves is not of falseness exactly, but, eerily, of fetish. The World Is Full of Secrets | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
"I wonder what men's skin would look like if they were getting their eyes poked for 30 years," Diane Lane said. Diane Lane has been acting since she was a teenager, first in films like "A Little Romance" and "The Outsiders," and later in ones like "Unfaithful" and "Under the Tuscan Sun." This fall, you can see her in the final season of "House of Cards" and in the debut season of "The Romanoffs." With all that, Ms. Lane, 53, is no stranger to the makeup chair, the facialist's office and the judgmental beauty gantlet that can be Hollywood. The experience has given her opinions (and solid recommendations) on beauty. Raised in New York, Ms. Lane now lives in Los Angeles. I get exposed to so much product swag bags at a soiree, makeup artists on a shoot, on set. And if I'm traveling, I'm supposed to pop up like a Pop Tart and look fabulous somewhere. I would probably spend more time on other things if I could, but then, I make a living on my face, so there are different criteria when it comes to a beauty regimen. I don't use the "A" word, as in anti aging. I just remove myself from those associations. I'm so fed up with the marketing of fear. What I do now, I create a mantle when I go to sleep. When I wake up, all I do is spray some Lavender Hydrasol by Arcona and go with my own natural facial oils that I generate through the night. When it comes to choosing which skin care products I use, I keep going back to the women I actually have a whole lot of respect for. They are facialists who have their own product lines. I throw in some other stuff, too, but in general they are my tried and true. One of them was Arcona Devan . I used to go to her before she passed away. She was based in Los Angeles, and she came to me at the Roosevelt Hotel for the day of my Oscar nomination. She was that person in my life who was very kind and generous a large soul. Now I go to Chanel Jenae there. Besides the Hydrasol, I love the Arcona Toner Tea Bar, which is an actual bar I use at night. I love the idea of using bars of soap instead of plastic bottles. How many more bottles of plastic do we put in the ocean? I also like their Peptide Hydrating Complex AM/PM. You can't be a New Yorker without knowing about Tracie Martyn. I swear by her Amla Purifying Cleanser, which I use with a Foreo. (I go back and forth between that cleanser and the Toner Tea Bar.) I love the Foreo because instead of a scratchy brush, you vibrate the city grime out. I wish I knew to be gentle with my epidermis when I was 20 and had oily skin. And there is my beloved Verabella on the West Coast. She is Russian and the real deal. She has many products I swear by. I won't go into all of them because people will realize I have a cosmetics problem, and I don't want to out myself just yet. She has this calming rose cream called Bella Rosa that is wonderful. When you're having your face touched all dang day long for work, it's wonderful. I wonder what men's skin would look like if they were getting their eyes poked for 30 years. Verabella also has an amazing sunblock with SPF 45 that has cucumber and aloe in it. I also have Spa Technologies Regenerative Oil. And there's Eminence in there, too. I use their Stone Crop Serum, and they're organic. You've got to love that. I really enjoy loving my naked face, because if I fall more in love with the mask, that's depressing. I want to see me and not feel like I have to apologize by making changes. Also, I want some days off. When you're constantly required to have a quota of glamour, you just want to put on your bluejeans, no makeup and feel cute. Then you can appreciate the miracle of mascara when you have to be on again. I do swear by Dr. Bronner's chapstick. I'm also into big hats I bring my own shade. I don't care if I look like a gardener. Right now I probably have eight sun hats mashed up with reusable grocery bags in the back of my car. I probably need an intervention in this department as well. I keep all of my old perfumes. If I smell one, it'll take me directly to what it reminds me of. Sometimes it's a genie in a bottle that should definitely stay in the bottle. I once worked with a very famous actress who used perfume to give each character a reference. I suppose if there's one constant for me, it's any version of vetiver. I've always loved the men's fragrances of the '80s and '90s, like Perry Ellis for Men and L'Homme. Back then, I smelled like I had a boyfriend and got all the olfactive endorphins but didn't actually have to deal with one. I have great hair. But I also baby my hair. I don't blow dry it, and I've always cared more about how my hair felt soft and inviting. I didn't want it dried out and smelling like products. I never put alcohol on it if I can help it. Recently I was turned on to Hask hair products. I also really love Rene Furterer. The shea butter mask is fantastic, and the company is super evolved in the way they harvest for shea butter. They're not just grabbing the cheapest shea butter on the planet. I was blown away when I found out that they support the women and culture. It seems to be a very ethical company that goes above and beyond. I'm really enjoying Zoya nail polishes for manicures. I find they help make my nails stronger. I've gone to breath work workshops. I'm a fan of Max Strom he's a breath work teacher. He's done TED Talks and traveled all over the world. Breath is all we have. Aspire, respire, perspire you can't separate your breath from your experience. If I can dial back to whatever my breath is doing, then I can be more and more present or less and less whatever I need! The white flag went up a long time ago: I'm going to eat the bread. I'll have bacon once in a while, although it tortures me that animals are being tortured. I do believe in eating fewer and fewer animal products. I also believe that skin care truly starts from within. I probably drink olive oil that's how much I consume. I also take a daily dose of MSM. I've found it really helps my skin, hair, nails. I'm getting to a quarter century of yoga. It has served me well. I don't like cardio. I always feel like I'm running from a lion. The endorphins afterward are great, so obviously I'm just in denial about not wanting to get my heart rate up. I do love hiking. I can go up hills forever. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
One of the biggest makers of generic opioids in the United States has reached a tentative settlement of claims to avoid the first federal trial of drug makers, distributors and retail chains for their roles in the opioid epidemic. Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, a company investigators for the Drug Enforcement Administration once referred to as "the kingpin of the drug cartel," announced Friday that it had agreed to pay 24 million to two Ohio counties. Under the agreement, the company would also donate 6 million worth of drugs, including addiction treatment medications, to the plaintiffs, Cuyahoga and Summit Counties. The agreement came six weeks before the start of a trial that is intended to be a litmus test to help assess how much money the industry defendants in nearly 2,300 cases consolidated in federal court may eventually have to pay. The tentative agreement which applies only to the two counties and does not resolve other legal claims against Mallinckrodt is one result of a flurry of intensive bargaining in recent weeks among groups of defendants and plaintiffs in opioid cases nationwide . Judge Dan Aaron Polster of the Federal District Court of Northern Ohio, who is overseeing the trial and all the federal cases, has prodded the parties to reach a global settlement that resolves all claims. Such a settlement, one that would end all opioid related claims, is the ultimate goal of Mallinckrodt and a number of other corporate defendants, including Purdue Pharma, which is in intense negotiations with states, cities and counties. Mark Casey, Mallinckrodt's general counsel, said in a statement that resolving the Ohio cases "gives us the necessary time to continue to work towards a global resolution of the opioid lawsuits." Endo and Allergan have already settled with the counties Allergan for about 5 million in cash and Endo for about 10 million in cash plus about 1 million worth of medication. Remaining defendants in the initial Ohio trial include Johnson Johnson, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Walgreens, and the three giant drug distributors Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson. Typically, settlement agreements mean that sensitive documents about allegations and investigations are sealed, so that the public never has the opportunity to learn more about the matter. But also on Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, based in Cincinnati, ruled that documents in the federal opioid litigation, including those about Mallinckrodt, will remain largely unsealed . "It means that all of this information in the federal litigation, which is so vital to our understanding about what happened, how we got here, will remain open," said Adam Zimmerman , who teaches complex litigation at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Mallinckrodt's announcement also came at the end of a week of tough pretrial rulings against all the corporate defendants in the Ohio case by Judge Polster. Essentially, he said that lawyers for the counties had accumulated sufficient evidence to justify a jury trial over whether the companies had caused an epidemic of misuse of prescription painkillers. Although Purdue Pharma and its owners, members of the billionaire Sackler family, have gripped the nation's attention because their drug, OxyContin, was an early driver of the crisis, Mallinckrodt has had a much larger share of opioid sales, including of generic versions of oxycodone and hydrocodone. Between 2006 and 2012, Mallinckrodt manufactured nearly 38 percent of the opioid pills distributed in the United States, according to an analysis of federal data by The Washington Post. Purdue, by contrast, had about 3 percent of the market during the same period. In legal filings in July, plaintiffs' lawyers said Mallinckrodt's products accounted for a quarter of all the opioids dispensed in the two Ohio counties between 2006 and 2014. In 2017, Mallinckrodt settled with the Drug Enforcement Administration for 35 million, to resolve allegations that it did not report suspicious opioid orders to federal authorities, as required by law. Mallinckrodt, which is legally registered in Ireland, has had an aggressive lobbying operation in Washington. Lawyers for plaintiffs in the federal opioid litigation said in a statement that the proposed settlement would have to be approved by the county councils. Although a plan for the specific allocation of the funds has yet to be realized, lawyers said the settlement would help provide "both counties critically needed resources in the ongoing response to the opioid crisis as well as protection in any future insolvency proceeding by Mallinckrodt." Mallinckrodt's stock price swung widely this week after a report by Bloomberg on Wednesday that the company had hired advisers to explore restructuring and a possible bankruptcy filing. Its stock fell by about 40 percent between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, but it rallied by Friday, closing up nearly 18 percent at 1.87 a share. The company has lost much of its stock market value this year amid broader investor fears over the outcome of the opioid lawsuits as well as threats to sales of its lead product, Acthar gel, used to treat multiple sclerosis and seizures in children . The company's stock is down about 90 percent since January. Mallinckrodt's president and chief executive, Mark Trudeau , sought to play down reports that the company was considering restructuring. "Like any company, we hire advisers for all different types of things all the time," he said on Thursday at the Wells Fargo Securities health care conference in Boston. Mr. Trudeau also sought to distance his company from its opioid products, saying the drugs were a "legacy" that accounted for less than 10 percent of the company's sales. He said Mallinckrodt was looking for ways to get out of the business of selling opioids. "Fundamentally we are just not the best owners of this business," he said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
Forget images of hulking X ray machines and pocket size exam rooms framed by cinderblock. Forget the lingering odor of rubbing alcohol. New York doctors' offices have come a long way over the years. And in their latest incarnation, these spaces are increasingly attractive as residential properties, enticing buyers with their prime locations, sometimes lofty ceilings and unrivaled privacy. Often found in rental buildings turned co op, these properties are typically on the first floor, with limited light and minimal views. They were originally sold as doctors' offices. But in an era of rapidly shifting medical economics combined with scant inventory, a growing number are becoming available and drawing residential buyers, according to brokers who specialize in this market. "Of the 35 doctors' offices I've been involved with in the last year," said Jeffrey Tanenbaum, a former foot and ankle surgeon and now an agent at Halstead Property specializing in medical spaces, "25 percent have been able to be sold for residential use. I've noticed a tremendous increase in the number of owners asking their boards if they could sell their spaces for residential use. And because boards are aware of the changes in the medical world, they're allowing a different kind of buyer to acquire these spaces." This transformation can be seen at Philip House, a stately prewar condominium in Carnegie Hill where four offices used by psychiatrists and psychotherapists were converted last year into residential units. According to Susan Hewitt, a partner of the Cheshire Group, the developer, the units feature 11 foot plus ceilings, "much higher than normal," she said, and three have already been sold, for 2.9 million, 2.7 million and 1.5 million. The units, which Ms. Hewitt describes as maisonettes, have private patios and direct entrances through the lobby. "Such transformations typically require a gut renovation that includes installing a kitchen, new plumbing and electricity, reconfiguring spaces, and redoing floors," Ms. Hewitt said. "But once an owner installs new doors and windows, the apartments aren't especially dark. And it's certainly a way to get into a great building at a slightly lower price point." "As medical practices are getting larger and there are fewer single practitioner offices," Ms. Hewitt added, "the pricing of these units is more attractive for residential use. A doctor will want to pay 700 a square foot, but a residential owner will pay upward of 2,000 a square foot." Their rising profile on the market reflects a medical environment that has been transformed, particularly in the last decade, in part by the advent of managed care. Sasha Maslov for The New York Times "At both ends of the spectrum, the practice of medicine is changing," said Marisa Manley, the president of Healthcare Real Estate Advisors, an organization that helps members of the health care profession acquire and create labs and offices. "Many new medical school graduates don't want to be owners of a single practitioner office. They don't want to hang out a shingle. They want to be employees." "At the same time," Ms. Manley said, "older doctors are retiring. And those who remain find it much more advantageous financially to be part of a group practice, so the overhead can be spread over several people. The growing emphasis on electronic record keeping, which can be a costly undertaking, has helped fuel these changes." According to her and other experts, doctors are devising new arrangements for their practices. In place of the classic sole practitioner's office, they are joining group practices that require more space. Doctors might work out of friends' offices a few days a week, or negotiate what is called a desk licensing agreement, in which they rent space to colleagues. Whatever the route, the new configurations are making available an ever growing number of onetime medical spaces, typically in high end buildings on the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan. For prospective buyers, the allure can be considerable. In a borough dominated by apartments, these spaces offer the charm of an enviably situated private home. Because they are often reached via separate entrances, they allow their occupants to enjoy both the building's amenities and a level of privacy inaccessible to residents of higher floor apartments. Jack and Shelly Katz Biederman moved into such a space two years ago a 1,250 square foot ground floor apartment in the West 60s, just off Central Park, that had been an ophthalmologist's office. The apartment, for which they paid 640,000, included a full kitchen, albeit old and in terrible shape, and the certificate of occupancy allowed residential use, which is not always the case with onetime medical quarters. "For me, the issue was location," said Dr. Biederman, a veterinarian whose office is in Flushing, Queens. His mother lives just a few blocks away, and the couple's daughter, Maille, attends high school nearby. In fact Dr. Biederman is a particular fan of these spaces, and this is not his first. Seventeen years ago, after 38 years in Baldwin, L.I., he moved with his new wife and family to a former doctor's office on East 96th Street, drawn by a taste for city living and the nearness of Central Park. "That apartment had nominal light but was private and quiet as a mausoleum," Dr. Biederman said. "The ceilings were low, but we raised them a foot and a half." The gut renovation also involved ripping out old electrical lines and X ray wires. "We wanted more room, and we loved the challenge of redoing another office," Dr. Biederman said. At nine plus feet, the ceilings are higher than in many onetime medical quarters, and because theirs is a prewar building with thick walls, the space is unusually quiet. The couple enjoy a high degree of privacy and never have to wait for an elevator. None Testing the Limits: Only three of New York's 25 tallest residential buildings have completed safety tasks required by the city. The Downside to Life in a Supertall: 432 Park faces some significant design problems, and other luxury high rises may share its fate. Luxury Developers' Loophole: Soaring towers are able to push high into the sky because of a loophole in the city's labyrinthine zoning laws. An Evolving Skyline: The high rise building boom has transformed the city's skyline in recent years. Its impact will echo for years to come. Hidden Feats: Our critic looks at some supertall N.Y.C. buildings and how the ingenuity of engineers helped build landmarks. He acknowledged that such an undertaking is not for everyone. "You need an ability to see things differently, to use your imagination," he said. "But today, no one would ever believe this had been a doctor's office." Ms. Hewitt of the Cheshire Group said she first noticed these sorts of conversions nearly five years ago at Devonshire House, a luxury condominium in Greenwich Village. "With a number of doctors' offices, when the lease was up, there were three choices," she said: "to rent the space to another doctor, to sell it to a doctor, or to renovate it and sell it as a residential apartment. It wasn't a difficult decision, especially when there's so much demand for apartments." Two former medical offices on the building's ground floor were sold in 2012 and 2013 for residential use, she said, and a third is being renovated. From the perspective of Dr. Tanenbaum, the Halstead agent, these transactions also offer buyers other benefits. First floor renovations are easier than those on higher floors. New owners can decorate a vestibule to their own liking and can conceal a drab courtyard view with drapes. New air conditioning equipment can be used, to avoid the need for window units. Sheetrock installed to carve out small examining rooms can be ripped out to create good size bedrooms. "We'll be seeing more of this sort of shift in the future," he said, "especially because boards are becoming more open to the idea." Joan Goldberg, who spent two decades as a health care administrator before becoming a broker with Brown Harris Stevens, has also seen multiple examples of this sort of repurposing. "There are several kinds of people attracted by these apartments," Ms. Goldberg said. "Some have dogs that are afraid of elevators. Maybe the people themselves are afraid of elevators. Some are Sabbath observers and can't use the elevator on certain days for religious reasons. Some people simply want the privacy of their own entrance. "At the same time, buildings are very happy with the shift from medical use. For one thing, they don't want the traffic of patients arriving every five or 10 minutes, which is what it's like at doctors' offices these days." Even when medical offices are marketed with doctors in mind, brokers know that increasing numbers of residential buyers are keeping an eye out, as a new listing from Brown Harris Stevens suggests. "Spacious medical office at 1148 Fifth Avenue," the description reads. "This medical office, complete with a prime Upper East Side Fifth Avenue address, is being offered for the first time in decades ... With a separate Fifth Avenue entrance, this office has oversize windows facing Central Park and East 96th Street ... Also being offered as a possible residence." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
The New York Public Library is propelling classic literature to the forefront of technology with a series of Insta Novels stories on Instagram intended to reach to a larger audience, especially young readers. Its installment this week brought Charlotte Perkins Gilman's feminist short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," from 1892, in a collaboration with Mother New York, a creative agency. The work, which tells of a woman and her descent into madness through her own journal entries, and addresses gender relations, was viewed by 33,441 people in the first 24 hours. "'The Yellow Wallpaper' was an exciting option for the design team," Carrie Welch, the library's chief of external relations, said by email. "It's also a renowned piece of short fiction that touches on timely topics and is perhaps under the radar for many people, so it was an opportunity for the library to share a little known but acclaimed work." With a swish of a thumb, readers can flip through the digitized book, now shelved in the New York Public Library account's Instagram story highlights. It begins with a colorful cover design, and readers can swipe through the story written in type reminiscent of the original typeface. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
LONDON Michael Longhurst an award winning director behind acclaimed productions including the civil rights musical "Caroline, or Change" is to become the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in March 2019, the theater announced today. He will replace Josie Rourke, who announced her departure in January. When Ms. Rourke took up her post in 2012, she became the first woman to run a major London theater. During her tenure, she promoted the work of female actors and directors. "I saw my first show at the Donmar aged 15, and later even slept overnight on the street in the returns queue," Mr. Longhurst said in a statement. "I am so proud to undertake the challenge of filling this amazing space with exhilarating artists and important stories." Ms. Rourke said in a statement that she was thrilled by the appointment. "I know him to be not only one of the most gifted, original and impressive directors in the country, but also a deeply kind and thoughtful leader who commands huge respect in the theater community." The theater said Mr. Longhurst was not available for comment beyond his statement. He has received acclaim in Britain for his original productions, including a revival at the National Theater of "Amadeus," Peter Shaffer's play about Mozart's rivalry with the composer Antonio Salieri. The production incorporated musicians into the drama. Matt Wolf, reviewing it in The New York Times, called it a "vibrant staging." "If you're going to direct a play suffused with music, how appropriate to come up with a production that really sings," he wrote. Mr. Longhurst's award winning revival of Tony Kushner's musical "Caroline, or Change" is set to start a West End run at the Playhouse Theater in November. Mr. Longhurst, 37, has staged only one show at the Donmar: Amy Herzog's "Belleville" a play about the unraveling relationship of an American couple in Paris in 2017. It was not his most successful work; the theater critic Michael Billington, writing in The Guardian, said it "gradually dwindled into implausible melodrama." Mr. Longhurst has also directed on Broadway with the Tony nominated production of Nick Payne's "Constellations", which starred Ruth Wilson and Jake Gyllenhaal. He also gave Mr. Gyllenhaal his United States stage debut in a production of Mr. Payne's "If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet." The appointment has been welcomed on Twitter by London theater critics and playwrights: The Donmar's executive producer, Kate Pakenham, is also set to leave in June. But the two departures do not mean the end for women in leadership roles in London theaters. Vicky Featherstone is the artistic director of the Royal Court, for instance, and Michelle Terry is winning acclaim for her first productions at The Globe. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Silverstein Properties, the developer of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, is shifting gears to expand its presence in the city's corporate apartment market. Silverstein Properties bought the Beekman Tower Hotel on Tuesday for 82 million with Fisher Brothers and Capstone Equities, and plans to convert the traditional transient hotel at 3 Mitchell Place near 49th Street and First Avenue into furnished, luxury corporate apartments that will require a minimum stay of 30 days. The company already offers 107 furnished corporate apartments that require a six month minimum stay at its Silver Towers residential complex, on the south side of 42nd Street between 11th and 12th Avenues. In a similar vein, Silverstein Properties this month began renting 60 furnished, luxury short term office suites occupying 33,000 square feet on the 46th floor of 7 World Trade Center. It is marketing its corporate apartment and short term office suite businesses under a new Silver Suites brand. When completed, the Beekman Tower will be renamed Silver Suites Residences at Beekman Tower. The market for luxury corporate apartments in Manhattan is underserved and ready for expansion, according to Martin S. Burger, co chief executive of Silverstein Properties. The existing Silver Suites Residences at Silver Towers have had a 97 percent occupancy rate since the beginning of 2011. Those apartments studio and one and two bedrooms range from about 400 to 1,100 square feet, and rent at a 30 to 40 percent premium above market rate residential apartments in the complex. "Based on that experience and the occupancy we see, we've concluded there's a real need for this product type in the city," he said. Silver Suites' prime competitors in the sector right now are AKA, which between 2005 and 2007 converted three condominium buildings and one hotel into luxury corporate apartments, and Oakwood Worldwide, which rents corporate apartments in 33 residential buildings that are described by STR, a lodging research company, as midscale. The extended stay hotel brands of chains like Hyatt's Hyatt Place, Marriott's Residence Inn and IHG's Staybridge Suites also have a presence in the borough. In addition, the five Affinia Hotels in Manhattan of Denihan Hospitality, which originally served only the extended stay market, now cater to extended stay and transient guests. (Extended stay hotels tend to have shorter length of stay requirements than corporate apartments, which are usually in residential buildings.) Although over 12 percent of demand for hotel rooms in Manhattan is for extended stay lodging, only 3 percent of the borough's supply of hotel rooms is in this category, said Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University. He also said the greatest undersupply in extended stay housing is for what he called "upper upscale" accommodations, which have higher development costs and higher rates than those of Hyatt Place, Residence Inn, Extended Stay America and others. "Silver Suites is targeted at upper upscale demand," Mr. Hanson said. According to STR, for the first 11 months of 2012, the average occupancy rate for the 12 extended stay hotels in Manhattan was 87.8 percent, up 3.6 percent compared with the same period in 2011, while the average daily rate charged by these hotels was 269.89, up 3.6 percent over the same period in 2011. Jan Freitag, senior vice president of STR, called these statistics "indicators of a very healthy extended stay industry in Manhattan," and said it was "not surprising that real estate developers are targeting longer term clientele that does not want to be locked into a long term, annual lease." Ryan Meliker, a lodging analyst for MLV Company, a boutique investment bank in New York, said that "as office employment will continue to grow in Manhattan, so will the demand for corporate travel." According to CBRE Analytics, office employment is forecast to grow about 4 percent in 2013. Mr. Burger said Silverstein Properties and its partners will spend 25 million to renovate the Beekman Tower, an Art Deco building that opened in 1929 and was designed by John Mead Howells. The hotel's 174 rooms will be converted into 176 studio, one and two bedroom furnished corporate apartments, with an average size of over 600 square feet. All of the apartments will have new kitchens, bathrooms and floors. New mechanical systems, corridors, a lobby and a fitness center also will be built. Mr. Burger said he expected guests at the Beekman Tower to include people affiliated with the United Nations, pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer whose corporate office is at 235 East 42nd Street and nearby hospitals. The property will have a soft opening in September and fully open in early 2014. None Testing the Limits: Only three of New York's 25 tallest residential buildings have completed safety tasks required by the city. The Downside to Life in a Supertall: 432 Park faces some significant design problems, and other luxury high rises may share its fate. Luxury Developers' Loophole: Soaring towers are able to push high into the sky because of a loophole in the city's labyrinthine zoning laws. An Evolving Skyline: The high rise building boom has transformed the city's skyline in recent years. Its impact will echo for years to come. Hidden Feats: Our critic looks at some supertall N.Y.C. buildings and how the ingenuity of engineers helped build landmarks. The apartments at the Beekman Tower will require a minimum stay of 30 days, with rates comparable to "where the competition is, if not a bit under," he said. He added that the Beekman Tower's most direct competitor would be the AKA United Nations, followed by Oakwood, which has several East Side buildings. AKA charges 315 a day for a studio apartment and 425 a day for a one bedroom apartment in Manhattan, for stays of 30 days or longer. Oakwood rents range from 160 to 190 a day for a studio, and from 185 to 230 a day for a one bedroom apartment, all based on a 30 day stay. John A. Fox, a senior vice president of PKF Consulting USA, said the conversion of the Beekman Tower into corporate apartments made sense. "Transient hotels have not done particularly well that far east; a lot of transient guests like to be closer to Times Square, where things are going on," he said. "But longer stay guests are more willing to go a slightly farther distance from where they are transacting business to quieter areas." Mr. Meliker of MLV said extended stay brands of hotel chains could be more attractive to long term guests than Silverstein's apartments because they offer loyalty program points. Oakwood Worldwide also offers points in Marriott's loyalty program to guests at its ExecuStay corporate housing, which it bought from Marriott last year. Of Oakwood's 33 Manhattan apartment buildings, 21 are operated under the ExecuStay brand. Mr. Burger apparently is undaunted by these challenges. He said Silverstein is looking for land for new projects near Lincoln Center and in Hell's Kitchen that would be modeled after Silver Towers and would contain residential and corporate apartments. Silverstein also will operate a new hotel and private residences with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts at 99 Church Street, a project originally scheduled for completion in 2011. Mr. Burger said it is now expected to open by mid 2016. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
Re "Doctors May Face Impossible Decisions," by Ezekiel J. Emanuel, James Phillips and Govind Persad (Op Ed, March 16): Even in a crisis, self designated "experts" are trying to marginalize people with disabilities and seniors. Instead, let's develop policies that "flatten the curve" and prepare to treat all those who may find themselves vulnerable to Covid 19. People susceptible to infection have preached good hygiene and social distancing when sick long before this crisis. Now the world finally gets it. The response? Let's ration care to the most vulnerable and at risk patients. I did not fight for the Americans With Disabilities Act to let this country count people with disabilities as having less value than others. Those with underlying conditions should not allow self appointed "experts" to instill fear. If addressed appropriately, this crisis should lead to long term policies that support people with pre existing conditions and enhance our health care infrastructure to manage a crisis. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Opinion |
HOMELAND 9 p.m. on Showtime. Carried by Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a bipolar C.I.A. officer, and Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson, her mentor, this series begins its final run. When the show began in 2011, a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, Carrie was investigating a POW turned al Qaeda agent, who later became her lover. In battling the effects of the war in Afghanistan a conflict that has lasted a generation "Carrie was a kind of synecdoche for a rattled America," James Poniewozik wrote in his review for The New York Times. "She both fought the shadow war for us and felt it," he added. Now, in its eighth season, "Homeland" puts Carrie back in Afghanistan after months of Russian confinement. With the resurfacing of some Season 1 characters, the season places emphasis on Carrie and Saul's relationship over the years. THE 92ND ACADEMY AWARDS 8 p.m. on ABC. The 2020 Oscars will forgo a host for the second year in a row, citing success from last year's awards after Kevin Hart became enmeshed in controversy. Several nominees for the best picture title, including "Little Women" and Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood," are period pieces. Among the nominees for best director are Sam Mendes for "1917" and Bong Joon Ho for "Parasite," which is the only foreign film nominated in the best picture category. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
With a Move to Williamsburg, More Sleep and More Workouts Tiffany Do and Elish Le, both from northern New Jersey, met at Rutgers University. They later moved to Murray Hill in Manhattan, where they shared a two bedroom with another couple. The rent rose. So they moved to a tiny studio on the sixth and top floor of a walk up building on the Far East Side. The rent was low, just 1,810 a month, utilities included, but the living situation was difficult. "We definitely got what we paid for," Mr. Le said. Only one person could fit in the kitchen, which was tiny, with a refrigerator to match. The dish rack consumed the counter, so they improvised, balancing a cutting board on the stovetop. "I eat a lot of food, which means I need a lot of counter space and a full size refrigerator," said Mr. Le, 27, a personal trainer and a competitive powerlifter in the 220 pound weight class. Ms. Le, who works as a corporate recruiter in the fashion industry, is also a competitive powerlifter. Ms. Le, 26, made her grocery purchases according to how much she could carry, limiting soda to one bottle at a time. Food shopping "was one of the biggest headaches or stress points for me," she said. The many flights of stairs annoyed them both. "Just because I can handle it doesn't mean it makes my life any easier or adds value to my life," Mr. Le said. "I would prefer to leave my fitness activities to when they are planned and measurable." As their lease approached expiration last fall, the couple went on the hunt for someplace bigger and better. They budgeted about 2,500 a month. Meanwhile, last summer, they started training at a new gym in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Squats and Science Barbell, one of the few in the city suitable for competitive powerlifters, they say. The trip there took an hour each way. "In order to perform at my best, I need to use equipment that would best simulate competition conditions," Mr. Le said. "Because the equipment is so expensive and the sport is so niche, finding the right equipment is near impossible." Moving closer to the gym became a priority. They found a possibility in a small building on the Lower East Side, near Chinatown, where the monthly rent for a one bedroom was in the low 2,000 range. "We eat a lot in Chinatown, and the groceries are cheap," Ms. Le said. But the landlord declined to accept them because Mr. Le is self employed. They were intrigued by a new rental building, Fifth and Wythe, on the prime north side of Williamsburg. The lively neighborhood was appealing, filled with restaurants, coffee shops and people in their mid 20s. The project manager of the 164 unit building, Scott Bennett, a salesman at Citi Habitats, showed them several apartments. They chose an alcove studio. "It gave us what we didn't have before," Mr. Le said, referring to the spacious kitchen, the elevator and the easy access to transportation. The rent was 2,723, with one month free. A week before their lease expired, however, they learned that the Williamsburg building was not quite ready for occupancy. Their landlord would not let them remain for just a month. If they renewed the lease, they had to either find a tenant to take it over, or pay a two month fee to break it. Because of the delay, Fifth and Wythe offered one additional month of free rent. The couple also negotiated for 500 toward storage costs, which helped with "all the headache we were going through," Ms. Le said. Meanwhile, they considered another new rental building, the Williams, this one in South Williamsburg. The location was more industrial. They decided to wait for Fifth and Wythe. The couple put their belongings in storage and spent a month with Ms. Le's parents in New Jersey. In early winter, they arrived at Fifth and Wythe, glad to have, at last, a comfortable and convenient living situation for them and their dogs, Bear and Shyla. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
As we entered under a stone archway hugging two oversize wooden doors, a nattily dressed man motioned us through a glass door, then thrust black pocket size charge cards into our hands. Those cards (on which you run a tab and pay on the way out) at the ready, we set off to explore the 18th century palace that houses Palacio Chiado, which opened to a lot of buzz in April. Once the residence of the baron of Quintela, the space has been transformed into a particularly elegant food court. Its two floors offer seven stops, each spinoffs of existing restaurants. The building has undergone a major restoration, resulting in bright white molding, refreshed fresco murals and shiny stone stairways. The less showy ground floor contains more affordable choices, while upstairs, the decor and food turn fancier. At the tapas station Pateo no Palacio, crisp alheira sausage croquets were pleasantly smoky, and we found ourselves unable to get enough of a mildly chewy octopus salad with garlic, onions, cilantro and olive oil. From Burgers Feikes, we chose a "fake," a stack of juicy grilled eggplant medallions layered with chevre, caramelized onion and watercress; its only weak spot was a boring bun. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
With editors, models, designers, hair and makeup people, photographers, producers, sound engineers and the like all getting aboard, well, you do the math. According to IMG, about 100,000 travelers head to New York for fashion week alone. And speaking from experience, most of the people involved dread getting on a plane. If you can change even a small fraction of that, the possible halo effect could be huge, as Etihad has realized. Now the airline wants to be the default option when all those people going to all those fashion weeks need to book a flight kind of like how Peter Marino has become the default option when a luxury brand wants to reimagine a flagship store, and how Christian Louboutin has become the default option for a high heeled shoe. And it wants to attract everyone who wants a piece of that world, which if you go by the Instagram followings of, say, Gigi Hadid or Olivier Rousteing, is quite a lot. All of which sounds pretty good, except that Etihad, as it is well aware, has not traditionally been the fashion fliers' go to airline (those tend to be the usual suspects like Air France, British Airways and Delta, and some travelers were partial to the Concorde, before it was retired). If you listen to Patrick Pierce, Etihad's vice president of sponsorship,and Mark Shapiro, IMG's chief content officer, the airline has a lot of ideas about how to change all that. A special "fashion flight," with special fashion perks, on the big travel days between New York and London, or London and Milan? Why not! Amenities bags by a New York or Mumbai Fashion Week designer? Sure! Presumably, flight attendant outfits, too. The IMG fashion channel, M2M, offered as part of the entertainment system? Definitely. Also on the system, maybe, live streaming of runway shows, so if you missed them during the week, you could catch up with them on the flight home; premieres of fashion films; and possibly someday, because why not, you can dream the ability to watch a show from your seat, order a dress off the runway and have it at home when you land. It helps that Abu Dhabi is a hub between East and West. Etihad also has code share agreements with airlines such as Alitalia, all of which will be pulled into the fashion week deal. And it has cargo planes, so if a Paris based designer needs to ship a collection to, say, Japan, for a special event, the airline can do that. To oil the relationship wheels and to demonstrate what the airline can bring to the catwalk, it is co sponsoring the debut Oscar de la Renta show at Australian Fashion Week next month. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The new Dior is coming! Maria Grazia Chiuri, who revitalized Valentino with her partner in design, Pierpaolo Piccioli, has struck out on her own as the new artistic director of Dior, the first woman to hold the position in the 69 year history of the house. (She follows Raf Simons in the role, who has moved on to New York and to Calvin Klein.) What to expect? At the very least, the latest iteration of that most sacred Dior totem, the Bar jacket, first designed by Monsieur Dior himself and reinterpreted by all of his interpreters since Gianfranco Ferre in the '80s. In other words, the new, new, new, new New Look. The Spanish are coming! The morning starts with Loewe (for reference: "Lo WAY vay"), the Spanish leather goods house owned by LVMH. It is under the direction of Jonathan (a.k.a. J.W.) Anderson, the pontificating wunderkind, who recently released his first two fragrances for the house, Loewe 001 Man and Loewe 001 Woman. In short: Expect the Maison Unesco to be scented in a way that is evidently meant to suggest the awkwardness of a morning after encounter. Mmmm! Good morning to you, too, seat mate! | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
The fall of the Berlin Wall caused euphoria in the West. George H. W. Bush declared that "the end of the Cold War has been a victory for all humanity," and Vaclav Havel predicted Europe would create "a new kind of order" where the powerful would no longer suppress the less powerful and disputes would no longer be settled by force. How far away those days seem. What happened to this optimism? Why has the momentum toward democracy and international comity slowed? Why, as asks early in her new book, "are we once again talking about fascism?" Who better to address these questions than Albright, whose life was shaped by fascism and whose contribution to the cultivation of democracy as a stateswoman and private citizen is unparalleled? In "Fascism: A Warning" Albright (with Bill Woodward) draws on her personal history, government experience and conversations with Georgetown students to assess current dangers and how to deal with them. Albright does this via an examination of cases in Europe and America from World War I through the present day. From this, some patterns emerge. 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. First, fascism flourishes alongside economic, social and political chaos. Take the classic cases of interwar Germany and Italy. The Weimar Republic was buffeted by the Great Inflation and the Great Depression, violent left and right wing uprisings and the humiliation of a lost war, together with a punitive peace. Interwar Italy was battered by high inflation and unemployment, and paralyzed for almost two years by strikes and lockouts as left and right wing gangs battled in the streets. These conditions resulted in citizens who were fearful and desperate. While the turmoil in Europe after World War I was extreme, Albright notes similar dynamics in other places and times: Hugo Chavez's recent rise to power was fueled by deteriorating social and economic conditions and growing inequality in Venezuela; Viktor Orban came to power as Hungary was experiencing the painful fallout of the financial crisis; and Vladimir Putin emerged as Russia was in the midst of economic and national decline similar to that experienced by interwar Germany. (During the 1990s Russia's economy shrank by more than half.) But problems only become opportunities for fascists and other antidemocrats if their opponents can't or won't address them. A second factor emerging from Albright's cases is weak and divided oppositions. In interwar Italy liberal governments dithered while the country slid into chaos and the two largest parties, the Socialists and Christian Democrats, were more interested in defending the interests of their particular constituencies than democracy. In the Weimar Republic, the country's largest party, the Social Democrats, was more committed to democracy than its Italian counterpart, but it too faltered during the Great Depression and was continually attacked by antidemocratic left and right wing forces. While their opponents fought among themselves and let their country's troubles deepen, fascists offered voters simple explanations of their problems in the form of enemies like nefarious foreign powers or Jews, and simple solutions to them, namely replacing weak and unresponsive democracies with strong dictatorships truly responsive to "the people." Adolf Hitler once explained: "I will tell you what has carried me to the position I have reached. Our political problems appeared complicated. The German people could make nothing of them. ... I, on the other hand ... reduced them to the simplest terms. The masses realized this and followed me." Albright finds similar dynamics in many other cases. In her native Czechoslovakia after World War II the weakness of the country's president, Edvard Benes, facilitated Communism's takeover. In modern Hungary, the corruption and dishonesty of the governing Socialist party paved the way for Orban. In Russia, Boris Yeltsin's inability to halt his country's precipitous economic decline or the rapacious raiding of resources by oligarchs eased Putin's power grab. Finally, Albright's cases reveal a third factor in fascism's rise: the connivance of conservatives. In both interwar Italy and Germany conservatives believed they could control fascism and use its popular support to achieve their own goals. In Italy King Victor Emmanuel III and in Germany President Paul von Hindenburg were persuaded by conservative advisers to hand power over to Mussolini and Hitler, respectively, even though neither had won electoral majorities. So where does this leave us today? There are worrying parallels: Although the situation is not nearly as dire as the interwar period, Western democracy currently faces significant challenges. To avoid having these snowball into the type of crisis fascism feeds off, Albright hopes antifascists will learn from history. In the United States this means Democrats and Republicans must work together again to solve our country's problems and Republicans must not allow the fervidness of Trump's supporters to blind them to the danger to democracy that he represents. There are international parallels and lessons as well. During the interwar years Europe's problems were aggravated by America's withdrawal from the global stage; Albright worries that Trump's isolationism, protectionism and fondness for dictators are eroding America's ability to lead and help solve international challenges, deepening divisions within the West and emboldening antidemocratic forces. Despite all this, Albright is hopeful. She ends her book referencing leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela, who helped their countries move past periods of intense violence and division. Democracy's problems can, Albright assures us, be overcome but only if we recognize history's lessons and never take democracy for granted. "The temptation," she notes, "is powerful to close our eyes and wait for the worst to pass, but history tells us that for freedom to survive, it must be defended, and that if lies are to stop, they must be exposed." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Books |
Julius Alan Schorzman and Louis Edward Morton met as teammates while playing for the Seattle Quake Rugby Football Club, an L.G.B.T. inclusive rugby club, in May 2017. Mr. Schorzman had joined the team when Mr. Morton was away on a six month airline assignment in Chicago. "We met in a bar in Seattle after one of our team practices," Mr. Morton said. "Our eyes just locked and I was awe struck by his physical appearance. He was extremely handsome, and at 6 3 had an incredibly athletic build, I thought he was out of my league." They began a conversation, and it wasn't long before Mr. Schorzman was awe struck by what he called Mr. Morton's "piloting adventures," which included the story of a miraculous day in 2015 when Mr. Morton, a pilot who was then new to Alaska Airlines, was forced to ditch a Cirrus SR22 he was flying from California to Hawaii after a malfunction in the fuel system. Mr. Morton told Mr. Schorzman that after deploying the aircraft's parachute system and landing in the Pacific Ocean, he used the onboard life raft to wait for rescue from a nearby Holland America cruise ship. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Social networks produce inside jokes at a relentless pace. The best, worst, stupidest and funniest of those jokes become memes, and either you get them or you don't. But if you don't and, like me, you're a sad nerd desperate to understand the gags you're missing, there's a site dedicated to helping. Over the past several years, the website KnowYourMeme has become what Wikipedia is to information or UrbanDictionary is to esoteric sex acts. The site is a mostly reliable, crowdsourced translator of the internet's inside jokes. The site has a home page but, like Wikipedia, it is chiefly useful when looking up specific entries. It is amazingly comprehensive, given that it is run by a skeleton team of six writers and one developer out of a small office in Brooklyn, near the Williamsburg Bridge. But much of the work of the site is done by a group of 38 volunteer moderators. They're known as the meme council. These are some of their stories. Mr. Johnson grew up on a farm in Oklahoma with a spotty internet connection. That meant that unlike many other council members, the first internet communities he was a part of were not on networks like 4chan, Reddit, Twitter or even Facebook, which could take longer to load. Instead, he surfed JPToys.com, a website for fans of "Jurassic Park" toys, and BZpower.com, a fan site for the Lego toy line Bionicle (which has a hungry community of fans on social networks). Much of what Mr. Johnson does for the site may seem like busy work: He makes sure images are properly tagged, and edited. Mr. Johnson is an outdoorsman, and he has worked for the United States Forest Service, the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. But online, he said, he has found people who share some of his more esoteric interests, such as Japanese video games like Touhou, which he knows a great deal about despite never having played it. Those shared interests have made the meme council a comfortable place for Mr. Johnson, who feels close with several other moderators. "Some mods I would be more open to telling certain things about my life than my family or real life friends," he said. Hours spent moderating a week: "Pretty much all week for any time I can." A younger moderator, Mr. Tieu was introduced to KnowYourMeme in a little more standard way than Mr. Johnson was. He said that he was an outsider growing up and that social media platforms first Facebook and YouTube and eventually Twitter and Reddit allowed him to make connections more easily. Mr. Tieu found himself gravitating to memes early, hoping to ensure that people understood their source material. He said he was drawn to KnowYourMeme for its value as a database. "Yeah, I just kind of took stuff pretty seriously," he said. "And then I just kind of mellowed out." Despite Mr. Tieu's change in attitude, he continues as a prolific member of the meme council. He has helped write and edit dozens of pages on the site and created entries for the cartoons "Lolirock" and "Miraculous Ladybug," a French Korean cartoon that he remains passionate about. First internet communities: AOL chat rooms (specifically one devoted to the boy band Hanson), BBS forums Ms. Brennan is not on the meme council. A former staff member at Know Your Meme, she now works at Tumblr, where she works with various fan communities. But while at KnowYourMeme, Ms. Brennan worked as a liaison between the council and the rest of the staff. She said recently that the site skews male and that most of the current moderators are men, something she thinks shapes the kinds of memes that are likely to be given entries (and another quality the site has in common with Wikipedia). But Ms. Brennan said she thought a moderator's age was as big an influence on on site behavior as gender. And she praises moderators' passion and thoroughness. "I was the one always pushing them to cite their sources, and they're like, 'I already did,'" she said. Hours spent moderating a week: Three or four. (Mr. Turnage said he used to spend 20 to 30 hours a week, but changed his habits to focus on school and his personal life.) Mr. Turnage began to interact with internet communities when a college friend showed him 4chan, a sprawling web forum where much of internet culture is spawned. He was asked to join the meme council in 2014, after writing about 50 articles for the site. One of Mr. Turnage's main interests is the brony fandom, a community of adult fans of "My Little Pony." When pushed, he said it would be fair to call him one of the world's foremost brony historians. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
Castle hotels in England, Scotland and Ireland hold an undeniable "Game of Thrones" allure. For families, the notion of resting one's head where nobles once slumbered is part of the attraction. But participating in Old World leisure pursuits including archery and falconry often seals the deal. Ashford Castle in western Ireland has been inhabited for centuries by aristocrats (including the Guinness family, of brewing renown) and visited by luminaries like King George V, Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace of Monaco. This 13th century Anglo Norman castle delivers turrets, a moat and opulent rooms. But for children, the action is outside. In addition to offering kayaking and boating on the Lough Corrib, the 350 acre sporting estate is home to the oldest established falconry school in Ireland. For thrill seekers, interaction with a bird of prey during a "hawk walk" (the hawk will swoop down and gobble raw chicken from a child's glove) will be a highlight. (A deluxe queen room can accommodate a family of two adults and two children under 12; 775 euros, about 890, per room per night.) Gaelic glamour is also served at Dromoland Castle in County Clare, Ireland. The grounds are the backdrop for golf, falconry, archery, tennis, trout fishing and horse riding. From the castle, it is easy to take a day trip along the rugged coastline to the Cliffs of Moher, Limerick and the Burren, a landscape of fossils, limestone and rock formations. (Rates start at EUR410 per room per night inclusive of a full Irish breakfast for up to two adults and two children under 12 sharing.) Perched on a "Pride and Prejudice" worthy bluff in Devon, England, is Bovey Castle, the former estate of W.H. Smith (later to become Viscount Hambleden), in the middle of Dartmoor National Park. Recreation includes quad biking, archery, falconry, air rifle shooting and fishing. (Junior state rooms will fit a family of four PS369 to PS469, or 535 to 680, per night.) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
For those who are blind or have compromised vision, hearing is fine but touching is even better. Words merely explain. But touch can get at the soul of a thing. And what can touch reveal about a Broadway play? On Saturday some blind theatergoers attending the Manhattan Theater Club production of "Ink," at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, got to find out in what was described as Broadway's first touch tour. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Theater |
Credit...Tonje Thilesen for The New York Times When Abigail DeVille began site research for her public art project in Manhattan's Madison Square Park, she stumbled on a wild 1876 photograph of the Statue of Liberty's detached hand and flaming torch in the park. For six years, the surreal fragment was on view there to generate excitement and raise funds for the pedestal to hold the colossal statue coming to New York from France. "History had already done it for me," said Ms. DeVille, who knew instantly that the giant torch was the perfect form to contain materials and metaphors conjuring the struggle for liberty in America, past and present. The installation titled "Light of Freedom," the 39 year old Bronx artist's first solo exhibition in her hometown, opens on Oct. 27 in the park just north of East 23rd Street. There a 13 foot tall, rusted lattice structure evokes the silhouette of Lady Liberty's torch. Inside the handle is a weathered schoolhouse bell, a visual "call to action" according to Ms. DeVille. Dozens of mannequin arms, painted blue, are clustered inside the armature of the flame shape, suggesting both a wave and the hottest part of fire. This summer, Brooke Kamin Rapaport, the deputy director and chief curator at the Madison Square Park Conservancy, approached Ms. DeVille about making a piece that could address the tumultuous political moment and protests erupting across the nation after the killing of George Floyd. "The program needed to pose the question of how public art right now can impact people and communities and respond in civic space to this unprecedented time," Ms. Rapaport said. While an accelerated timeline for the conservancy, three months lead time for the artist was "almost luxurious," Ms. DeVille said, laughing heartily earlier this month at her small Bronx studio, where mannequin limbs cascaded in an unruly mountain. In 2017 alone, she completed 14 on site projects, including in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Miami. "I usually just land somewhere, research, gather materials and then install happens over two weeks," she said of her itinerant practice. When the show premiered, Mr. Deitch told The New York Times that Ms. DeVille's work had matured the most over the course of filming. He sold one of her inventive large scale collages to a Belgian collector for five figures. "That was a big encouragement to keep going on this path," she said. While at Yale University, where she received a master's in fine arts in 2011, Ms. DeVille was influenced by her grandmother's penchant for collecting houseplants, silverware, appliances, clothing and other random throwaways from her neighbors, calling her the "unofficial archivist" of her housing project in the Bronx. The objects were "the silent witnesses of all these people's lives," said Ms. DeVille, who surreptitiously carted some items back to school. "That shaped the way I thought about material." At Yale, she incorporated some of these castoffs into her first installation piece, "New York at Dawn," her response to a Federico Garcia Lorca poem referring to "a hurricane of black doves that paddle in putrescent waters." That was also her first use of a mannequin as a generic stand in for humanity. "It can speak very quickly to larger societal concerns," said Ms. DeVille, who sees herself working in the lineage of assemblage artists that include Noah Purifoy, Robert Rauschenberg and Louise Nevelson. At her studio, a mannequin wearing a space helmet and yards of glittery chain necklaces is a work in progress for the group show "Pedestrian Profanities," curated by the artist Eric N. Mack and opening at Simon Lee in New York on Oct. 29. "It's not that the Statue of Liberty is a myth this place has been a refuge for lots of people," Ms. DeVille said. She gilded the scaffolding to refer to Emma Lazarus's famous poem about the statue that includes the line, "I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" But Ms. DeVille's "Light of Freedom" commemorates the kind of efforts that have not been talked about or have been lost to history. "It's a response to what happened this summer and what's continuing to happen in terms of the calls for this racial reckoning," she said. "It's a monument to all of those things, and there is joy in that." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Art & Design |
The McTeigue McClelland workshop in Great Barrington, Mass., which combines the gem sourcing talents of Walter J. McTeigue with the jewelry making skills of the metalsmith Tim McClelland. GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. This small New England town in the heart of the Berkshires, a hilly region of rural western Massachusetts, welcomes a summer influx of city dwellers from New York and Boston drawn to its tranquil setting, colonial era charm and plethora of cultural goings on, from museums to symphonies. Surrounded by orchards and dairy farms, the area is not the most obvious place to buy high end jewelry. And yet, on any given afternoon, some of the country's most astute collectors can be found browsing the cases at McTeigue McClelland, a jewelry showroom, workshop and Great Barrington fixture for the past 18 years. The firm makes modern day heirlooms that combine the gem sourcing talents of Walter J. McTeigue a fourth generation gem dealer whose great grandfather procured stones for Tiffany Company at the turn of the 20th century with the jewelry making skills of Tim McClelland, a classically trained metalsmith enthralled with the history of alchemy and the oeuvre of the Art Nouveau master Rene Lalique. Their atelier is something of an anomaly. Unlike rival emporiums on Madison Avenue in New York or Bond Street in London, McTeigue McClelland doesn't advertise in glossy international publications, nor does it wholesale. Yet clients from around the world venture to the showroom in search of bespoke engagement rings, collectible gemstones and art jewelry made using centuries old techniques such as niello, an ancient Egyptian method that mixes copper, silver and sulfides to create a black inlay on metal. "It's always flattering when someone will make the effort to come here," Mr. McClelland said in late August as he led a visitor around the firm's new showroom, located in a landmark historical building on Main Street. He paused before a world map peppered with pins marking the locations of the firm's global clientele, including Singapore, Doha, Tokyo, London, Adelaide, Moscow and New Orleans. Mr. McTeigue and Mr. McClelland were themselves tourists before they decamped from New York to Great Barrington in the early 1990s. In 1996, they opened a small atelier down the street from their current location. Over the years, it became clear that the size of their 1,225 square foot boutique hampered growth. In 2012, the business partners learned that a Dolomitic limestone building with a commanding location on Main Street was for sale. Built by a local physician in 1850, the 6,000 square foot space was owned by a church for 90 years before Mr. McTeigue and Mr. McClelland bought it and devoted a year to renovation. The grand opening in August marked a new chapter in the firm's history. "This building is now worthy to travel to," Mr. McClelland said. "The old place was fine, but now there's a big payoff." While the company's bridal selection distinguished by antique stones in graceful settings that can be customized to suit individual tastes is what lures most buyers, the cases are stocked with plenty of eye candy to keep browsers occupied. Take one of the store's prized pieces, a 10.51 carat padparadscha sapphire mounted in a signature McTeigue McClelland ring style known as Flora, referring to a piriform motif that recalls the shape of petals. Named after the Sinhalese word for lotus blossom, the orangey pink padparadscha sapphire, famously found in Sri Lanka, is often compared to a tropical sunset. In the gem trade, discovering a sizable specimen in its natural, unheated form is like stumbling upon a snow leopard. The coveted gems are so elusive that people can spend years searching for one. That Mr. McTeigue was able to acquire the stone which is priced in the high six figures speaks to his extraordinary grasp of gemstone rarity, beauty and price, not to mention his connections. His great grandfather, Walter P. McTeigue, founded McTeigue Company in New York in 1895. The firm became an important supplier of gemstones and 18 karat gold jewelry to some of the most famous American names: Tiffany; Black, Starr Frost; Shreve, Crump Low. In 1990, Mr. McTeigue capitalized on that legacy by taking a job as director of purchasing at Harry Winston. His two year stint there gave him a crash course in the business but left him feeling disenchanted. He sought refuge in the Berkshires, where he tried his hand at dairy farming. He maintained his connection to the jewelry business by making frequent visits to New York. On one of those visits, he was able to persuade his friend Mr. McClelland the two met in 1984 in an elevator in the city's diamond district to relocate to Great Barrington. Mr. McClelland, a talented jeweler who studied at Boston University's now defunct program in artisanry, complements Mr. McTeigue's gemstone expertise with a deep knowledge of long forgotten jewelry techniques. The padparadscha ring, rendered in platinum and 18 karat bloomed yellow gold, offers a good example. "Blooming" is a chemical process from the Victorian era that strips the alloy from the surface of the gold to create a silky, burnished patina. Mr. McClelland discovered how to re create the technique by researching old books and consulting a chemist who had restored the patina to the Statue of Liberty. "A lot of what we do is take the bling off," Mr. McTeigue said. McTeigue McClelland's commitment to understated elegance characterizes everything in the showroom, from the custom built showcases handcrafted of American walnut wood to the Italian made forms used to display the jewelry, dyed to match a precise shade of chocolate brown. "There's a lot of soul and thoughtfulness to what they do, and they found it by sticking to what's true to them, which is staying in the Berkshires," said Talya Cousins, a New York based jewelry consultant who helped style the showroom on the eve of its grand opening. A bookcase displays objects chosen for their connection to the founders and the history of jewelry making, such as a crystallized version of "The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini," a Renaissance era goldsmith whose niello formula Mr. McClelland has co opted for his own inlay work. The curiosities underscore McTeigue McClelland's appreciation for the childlike fascination that jewelry inspires. "If you had one thing to say about me, it would be that I like to make jewelry that doesn't have a lot of context, that tries to get to the wonder of it," Mr. McClelland said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
If all you wanted for Christmas was a smarter "Black Christmas," you are in luck. The director Sophia Takal, who wrote the screenplay with the film critic April Wolfe, has taken the 1974 Canadian sorority slasher standard remade once before, in 2006 and run with it, emerging with a movie significantly different in style and tone from its source. This "Black Christmas" speaks to an era of campus curriculum debates and a national reckoning over the reporting of sexual assault. (Takal says she drew inspiration from the Kavanaugh hearings.) Instead of prank phone calls, it has strangers sliding into your direct messages. The bustle of activity mitigates a central implausibility of earlier versions, whose characters seemed slow to notice the missing women. The sorority's sisters are preparing for a talent show at which they plan to call out a graduated frat boy who raped the heroine, Riley (Imogen Poots), and escaped punishment. (This time, the police's hand waving of complaints is not portrayed as funny.) Kris (Aleyse Shannon) is circulating a petition against a plummy professor (Cary Elwes) who favors white male authors. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Movies |
Even children who have gone into anaphylactic shock from eating eggs should get flu shots, but from an allergist trained to handle emergencies, the association recommended. The rival American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology says on its Web site that children whose only reaction to eating eggs is hives can have flu shots in a pediatrician's office with a 30 minute observation period afterward, while children with more serious reactions like breathing difficulty or lightheadness should get them from an allergist, again with an observation period. Thomas Skinner, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said his agency's position was that people who have had a reaction to eggs should consult a doctor to discuss how severe it was and the benefits of vaccination. About 70 percent of all children allergic to eggs outgrow the allergy by age 16, Dr. Sublett said. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Health |
VAIL, Colo. The Vail festival spoils dancegoers. We start to feel that every theater should be surrounded by pine clad mountains and approached by a path featuring a rushing river (and at least one hummingbird). Such a setting seems right for several ballets, but none more so than George Balanchine's "Apollo," a work whose original setting is the base of Parnassus, with the young god ending the ballet by leading his three muses up the slope. "Apollo" was a theme ballet at this year's festival here. On Sunday it was the centerpiece of an all Balanchine quintuple bill (behind the stage, the top of a mountain was still lit by the sun as the performance began), with a prestigious cast; Herman Cornejo and Isabella Boylston, principals of American Ballet Theater in peak form, made their debuts as Apollo and Calliope. Terpsichore was New York City Ballet's Tiler Peck; Polyhymnia was Boston Ballet's Misa Kuranaga. Mr. Cornejo, a superb dancer and a Vail regular, reminded me at moments of the brilliantly dynamic Apollo of Mikhail Baryshnikov; and yet some quality of momentum was missing, as much psychological as physical. I don't doubt that Mr. Cornejo could be a marvelous interpreter of this role; one problem in this performance was surely that it was to taped music. Another is that Ms. Peck, while dancing Terpsichore with complete intelligence, as if giving a master class, doesn't seem to possess the role from within. She, dignified, and the more vital Mr. Cornejo stayed in different orbits. The Bach classic "Concerto Barocco" (1941), which opened the program, worked marvelously. Ashley Laracey stepped up into the central role (replacing Sara Mearns, who had altitude sickness), partnered by Russell Janzen; and Unity Phelan replaced Ms. Laracey. (All three are members of City Ballet: Ms. Laracey and Mr. Janzen are soloists, Ms. Phelan is in the corps. The eight corps dancers for this performance, glowingly devout, were from Colorado Ballet.) One pleasure was how well matched Ms. Laracey and Ms. Phelan are, with their vivid elegance of both proportions and manners; theirs was a spruce, cool as a mountain stream "Barocco," with Mr. Janzen conferring unusually heroic grace upon certain details in the central movement. This is Ms. Phelan's largest role to date; she registers beautifully. The ballet's architecture was ideally lucid at every moment. This was followed by the 1960 "Tschaikovsky pas de deux," danced by Misty Copeland and Joseph Gordon. Though Ms. Copeland's engaging stage manners and musicality were welcome, it was the young Mr. Gordon, still in City Ballet's corps, whose exceptional elegance and elan illumined this number. His remarkable jump, line and floppy haired good looks are known in New York; but what this performance (and the Balanchine "Stars and Stripes" pas de deux the previous evening) demonstrated was the exhilarating momentum his dancing exhibits during a solo variation. The evening continued after the intermission with the 1982 Stravinsky "Elegie," danced, on the previous evening, by Carla Korbes with moving purity. Even by the high standards of the stars assembled in Vail each festival, Ms. Korbes is a paragon, one of those rare dance creatures who truly seem like an apparition from an ideal realm. It was marvelous to have this on the same program as "Apollo" (1928): They're the last and first of his surviving creations omega and alpha. Connections have long been made between "Apollo" (a ballet whose jazzy rhythms are often overlooked) and Balanchine's 1970 Gershwin ballet "Who Cares?," which ended Sunday's program. But those parallels lie most clearly in the central format of one man and three women, whereas Sunday's version of "Who Cares?" was a concert arrangement of its solos and duets for three men and five women, with no corps de ballet. In the "I Got Rhythm" finale, three ballerinas briefly joined Mr. Gordon in a twinkling but faint echo of "Apollo." Otherwise and usefully this rendition of the Gershwin classic served to show yet other facets of Balanchine. His work always combine high and low art, but nowhere else did he so perfectly combine high classicism with casually vernacular grace. "Apollo" the ballet in which Balanchine first defined many aspects of his artistic character was the subject of another Vail program four nights before at the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek. With Mr. Cornejo and other dancers, the festival's director, Damian Woetzel, and his wife, Heather Watts both former City Ballet dancers enterprisingly showed many aspects of "Apollo," some of which were new to me. (Who knew that Balanchine characterized one step in Terpsichore's variation "as if throwing flowers"?) We were shown the way "Apollo" has begun and ended since 1980; the Prologue that Balanchine excised in 1979 and the pre 1979 staircase to Parnassus finale that he changed; and the solo that he restored in 1980. With great good humor, Ms. Watts (the first Terpsichore of both the 1979 and the 1980 revisions) related what Balanchine said on each occasion. They chose to close this event with the pre 1979 ending, in which not only Apollo and the Muses ascend the steps to full divinity but in which Apollo's mother, Leto (who in the Prologue gave birth to him), returns and gestures up to her son, as if in awe of the luminary she begot. Nothing could have demonstrated better why the old "Apollo" surpasses the abbreviated and diminished version danced at City Ballet today (without Prologue, it's nicknamed Pollo), with its fantail arabesque finale giving the ballet a "look ma, I'm a choreographer" ending. "Apollo" is the first of many Balanchine ballets that ends with the protagonist departing to discover a new world; and what makes its Prologue so moving is that Leto's birth pangs, her travail, her radiant opening of the legs, and the first artistic education of the boy god (in which her handmaidens give him his lute and help him play his first notes), all set the scene for the labors and gleaming discoveries of the ballet's main drama. Apollo and his muses are all artists; the process they go through is a form of childbirth, again and again. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
The newest street style fashion star has been photographed dining at Balthazar and Nobu, shopping at Barneys, vacationing in Marrakesh and the Napa Valley and going to the ballet in London. She favors Chloe, Marc Jacobs and Zara, and seems to have an occasional fondness for the color pink. Her name is Harper Seven Beckham, and if you didn't already know, she is the daughter and youngest child of Victoria and David Beckham. She was at her mother's fashion show on a frigid Sunday morning in New York this week, sitting in the front row with her father, the retired soccer star, and her three brothers, Cruz, 10; Romeo, 13; and Brooklyn, 16 the latter two also budding fashionistas. (Romeo has starred in a Burberry ad campaign shot by Mario Testino, and Brooklyn is a sometime model and aspiring fashion photographer.) Much like kindergarten contemporaries North West and Prince George, whose celebrity parents also command a global cult following, Harper has garnered a multimillion strong army of admiring fans on Instagram and other social media platforms thanks to her impeccable outfits. She has been featured on the websites of British Vogue and Elle UK and is the subject of a full time blog devoted to chronicling her every look, titled simply enough, "Harper Beckham." "Goodness, a full time blog just on her, does she really?" said her mother, Victoria Beckham, who was interviewed backstage after the show, with her family and well wishers milling around. "That's quite amazing. I had no idea. And perhaps a little odd." Ms. Beckham added: "I suppose it says a lot about the world we are living in today. And yet it doesn't surprise me. Harper is incredibly chic especially this morning in that coat from Christopher, and wears some incredibly sweet things. She's a very stylish little thing with her own sense of how she wants to dress. She tends to choose exactly what she wears herself." The premium brands that regularly feature in the wardrobes of pint size A list offspring, and the retailers that sell them, are reaping the rewards. Net a Porter has registered the domain name Petite a Porter, and Harrods of London recently expanded its children's wear department to 66,000 square feet. When a figure like Harper is spotted wearing one outfit, brands say, sales can skyrocket and pieces sell out only hours after a photograph appears online. "Our loyal customers are always interested in seeing who is wearing our clothes, and we do find that the clothes worn by Harper sell very quickly," said Princess Marie Chantal of Greece, creative director of the luxury children's label Marie Chantal in London. Pink velvet party dresses from the brand sell for around 280, while a pillar box red coat with a bow collar costs 395. "Victoria has been a great supporter over the years, and Harper has been wearing Marie Chantal since she was a baby," the princess said. "We are so happy that Harper still loves wearing our clothes even as she gets older." (The Harper Beckham blog lists 31 times that Harper has been photographed in Marie Chantal.) Eleanor Robinson, head of accessories and children's wear at Selfridges, said last week that best selling designer items in recent seasons for the upmarket British department store have included a Burberry trench worn by Romeo Beckham, Pink Dr. Martens and Charlotte Olympia kitty flats seen on North West; and items by Chloe, Bonpoint and Little Marc Jacobs that Harper has been spotted wearing. "Here in the United Kingdom especially, there is this very British sense of pride with celebrities and their children, and in particular with the Beckhams and Princess Catherine and Prince William," Ms. Robinson said. "These are family role models who dress their children beautifully, and consumers aspire to replicate this personal sense of style that also reinforces positive family ideals. Children's wear has become an increasingly important part of our fashion business." The person who runs the Harper Beckham fashion site, Anastasia Medvedeva, is a blogger based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She said the site got about 3,000 hits a day and was an "unremarkable" moneymaker, deriving its income from a few Google ads. "I first started eight years ago with a fashion blog about Suri Cruise because I loved her style when she was little, and have been a lifelong fan of Victoria Beckham, so a focus on Harper was a natural progression," she wrote in an email. "Harper is very popular because of who her parents are and their personal style." Despite the haute fashion pieces Harper sported supporting her mother at the Sunday show, another apparent factor behind her breakout street style star status is the quota of items she wears that are affordable for the general public, Ms. Medvedeva wrote, making copying her looks more accessible for many parents. Though the Bonpoint and Chloe dresses frequently worn by Harper can range from 100 to 250, Ms. Medvedeva wrote, she can often be seen in emerging brands like Billieblush, Gardner and the Gang, and Courage Kind, which are relatively more affordable. How aware Harper is of her style supernova status remains to be seen. She will return to school next week in London after her half term break. But her mother said she doubted the attention would deter Harper from continuing to wear her consistently favorite item. "More than anything," Ms. Beckham said, "she loves her football jersey." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Fashion & Style |
Forget celebrating the return of N.F.L. football by lauding Julio Jones's hands, Christian McCaffrey's legs and Lamar Jackson's arm. Let's celebrate it in a more ghoulish, and maybe pettier, way by looking at the players and teams who didn't fare so well. Some of the teams that acquired new passers weren't feeling so great on Monday morning. Tom Brady arrived in Tampa, Fla., on a wave of enthusiasm, but carrying his age, 43, along with those six Super Bowl rings. A game in New Orleans is not the easiest baptism, but his performance was lackluster: 23 for 36 for 239 yards with two interceptions, one of them a pick 6. Brady was soundly outplayed by the youngster Drew Brees, 41, and the Buccaneers lost, 34 23. Brady and Buccaneers Coach Bruce Arians on Sunday acknowledged that Brady was at fault on the picks. "I made some just bad, terrible turnovers," Brady said. "I obviously have got to do a lot better job." (Arians on Monday pointed a finger at receiver Mike Evans for the first interception.) Two Quarterbacks Looking Over Their Shoulders Rivers's replacement in Los Angeles, Tyrod Taylor, got a win, at least. But it was against the lowly Cincinnati Bengals, who were playing behind the rookie quarterback Joe Burrow, and it came by just 3 points. In a game that was poorly played by both sides, Taylor was an uninspiring 16 for 30 for 208 yards. There have already been calls to replace him with the first round pick Justin Herbert. As the Brady less New England Patriots were startling their fans with a quarterback, Cam Newton, who ran for 75 yards and threw for only 155, Ryan Fitzpatrick was throwing three interceptions for the Miami Dolphins, who lost, 21 11. Fitzpatrick's adjusted yards per pass figure was an anemic 1.9, comfortably the worst in the league. With the Dolphins unlikely to be sensational this year, fans may be clamoring for the rookie Tua Tagovailoa sooner rather than later. When the Houston Texans traded DeAndre Hopkins and a fourth round pick to the Arizona Cardinals for David Johnson and a second and fourth rounder, plenty of people said it was a bad trade. After Week 1, "bad" doesn't seem bad enough to describe the inequity of the swap. Kyler Murray connected with Hopkins 14 times for 151 yards, and the Cardinals, 6 1/2 point underdogs, won at San Francisco. It was a career high in receptions for Hopkins. (It's a good thing, too, because Murray didn't really play that well otherwise.) At least Johnson was OK for the Texans on Thursday in a loss to the Chiefs, rushing 11 times for 77 yards. Maybe just lock this one in for the rest of the season. Most of Sunday's games were fairly close. And then there was the Browns game. Cleveland lost to the Ravens, 38 6. Quarterback Baker Mayfield managed only 189 yards in the air, and the Browns never looked competitive. Yes, they were facing one of the best players in the game, the reigning most valuable player, Lamar Jackson, who completed 20 of 25 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns. But at least some of that success came because of Browns defensive lapses. The Browns have often been the butt of jokes, but when this season began, there was at least some optimism, thanks to running back Nick Chubb and hopes for improvement from Mayfield. The Browns were at least rated above the league's potential laughingstocks like the Jaguars, the Bengals, and um, "Football Team." Some went so far as to predict a .500 season, or better. After a schooling by a very strong team, the Browns may be resetting expectations. Kansas City's Clyde Edwards Helaire was the only running back taken in the first round of the draft, with the last pick of the round. He justified the selection with a 138 yard game on Thursday night. Could it have been the start of a renaissance for the running game? No. Although several runners got into the 90s on Sunday, not one hit the 100 yard mark. In last year's opening week, five rushers ran for 100. Season long, there were 108 100 yard games, an average of more than six a week. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Sports |
She started ballet lessons at 3 in North Carolina, but gave up dancing for college, then Harvard Business School and a career in the arts that eventually led her to become an executive at Lincoln Center. Now is returning to her first love: She will be the next executive director of American Ballet Theater, the company announced on Tuesday. Ms. Barnett, 37, will join Ballet Theater on Feb. 16, the company said. Ms. Barnett, currently the managing director of Lincoln Center International, which offers consulting and arts management training to clients around the world, will succeed Rachel S. Moore, who stepped down last year after running the company for more than a decade. "There's so much fondness for the company, its repertoire and its dancers," Ms. Barnett, who had Ballet Theater posters in her room as a teenager, said in an interview. "And I think that we can really build on that momentum to reach new audiences, new donors, new frontiers." Ballet Theater, which just celebrated its 75th anniversary, has had a number of artistic successes recently, particularly in its work with the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, its artist in residence. But it still faces financial challenges as it recovers from the lingering effects of the recent economic downturn: The company, which had a 43 million budget in 2014, ran a surplus that year but still had 8 million in outstanding debt, company officials said. And its 25 million endowment is considered small for a performing arts organization of its size and ambition. The company has gone through rocky transition periods in the past: When Ms. Moore was hired in 2004, she became its fourth executive director in four years. But company officials said they were confident that Ms. Barnett was perfect for the job. She was previously the senior director of Lincoln Center's capital campaign and its director of strategy and business development, and before that an associate producer of a production of "Long Day's Journey Into Night" that won a Tony Award in 2003 for best revival. Kevin McKenzie, who has been Ballet Theater's artistic director since 1992, and has been serving as its acting executive director since Ms. Moore left, said that the company had created a profile of what it wanted in a new executive director including fund raising skills, organizational ability and a talent for board building and that Ms. Barnett's resume jumped out at the search committee before they had even met her. "Kara fit those to a T, just on the page," he said. Ms. Barnett said her experience working at Lincoln Center, at a time when it was remaking itself both physically and organizationally, taught her that "tradition and innovation do not have to be opposites, that they can coexist and strengthen an organization." She said it was too soon to discuss plans for the company. But when asked if Ballet Theater might join troupes, like the Bolshoi Ballet and the Royal Ballet, that have expanded their reach through live simulcasts to cinemas, she said that it was worth considering. "I think that the digital space, in general, is one of those growth areas that A.B.T. should be actively exploring," she said. "Dance in cinema, dance in movie theaters, is part of a larger exploration that needs to happen as we think about growing audiences, diversifying audiences in this century, and I think that's just one of many, many opportunities for A.B.T.'s brand, A.B.T.'s dancers, A.B.T.'s repertoire to be exposed to and reach more people." In recent years, Ballet Theater has increased some of its activities outside of New York: last year it gave the world premiere of Mr. Ratmansky's historically informed production of "The Sleeping Beauty" at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, Calif., and moved his production of "The Nutcracker" there this winter from its old home in the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Donald Kramer, the chairman of the company's board of governing trustees, said in a statement that he thought that Ms. Barnett's "experience working with leaders of ambitious performing arts projects around the world bodes well for A.B.T. in its role as a leading national and international cultural ambassador." Mr. McKenzie said he hoped that the company could become more financially secure which, in turn, could allow it to experiment a bit more with its repertoire. "We're coming off this 75th anniversary with an awareness, I think, in the public's eye of what they have as a national institution," he said. "Now it's incumbent on us to not let that momentum stop and the prospects are very exciting. It's like just before you start that marathon: The prospects of winning are really exciting. But you do have 26 miles of pounding work to do to get there." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Dance |
Hopper, the airfare prediction and booking app, has introduced a feature that it says will offer travelers airfare deals they won't be able to find on any other booking platform, sent to their phone. While push notifications have become a key tool for many travel booking agencies, Hopper says it is the first major platform to use the technology to offer these kinds of special rates, which it is calling Secret Fares. Users of the app have the option of receiving push notifications on their mobile devices which, according to Hopper, contain exclusive international airfare deals that could cost up to 35 percent less than rates listed on other online travel sites. Secret Fares may also show up in searches on the app and are more likely to appear or be sent based on which destination cities the user is tracking using the app's "Watch" feature, Hopper said. ( Offers to other destinations may be suggested as well .) | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Travel |
In a closely watched legal battle with the potential for far reaching consequences in the film and television industry, a California appellate court on Monday dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought by the 101 year old actress Dame Olivia de Havilland against FX Networks. Ms. de Havilland had objected to her portrayal in the Ryan Murphy produced 2017 docuseries, "Feud: Bette and Joan," about the volatile relationship shared by Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. She is played by Catherine Zeta Jones. Her lawsuit, filed last June, was on multiple fronts, including that she did not consent to the use of her likeness in the show and that her portrayal is inaccurate, especially a scene where she is shown referring to her sister, Joan Fontaine, as a "bitch." "Books, films, plays and television shows often portray real people," the court decision reads. "Some are famous and some are just ordinary folks. Whether a person portrayed in one of these expressive works is a world renowned film star 'a living legend' or a person no one knows, she or he does not own history." FX tried to have the lawsuit tossed last summer, on the grounds of California's anti Slapp (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) statute, designed to quickly set aside lawsuits that may be designed to chill free speech. But a trial judge surprised legal observers by ruling that Ms. de Havilland had sufficient grounds to proceed with her lawsuit. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Television |
Emily Bode's new store is part shop, part clubhouse and a new vision for bricks and mortar. It is when you are a young designer who once made a raincoat of quilted see through plastic and inserted vintage copper pennies into every panel. It is when that same designer Emily Bode turned a love of vintage textiles like African country cloth, ticking torn from old French bedding, tablecloths embroidered with pirates' treasure maps and a storytelling gift worthy of the Moth into an award winning career. In the three years since Ms. Bode, 30, started a men's wear label that developed cult status among admirers of her blocky work wear in patchwork patterns and Colorforms shapes, she was named a runner up for a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award, was shortlisted for the LVMH prize and saw her designs snapped up by such savvy retailers as Bergdorf Goodman, Matches in London and the e tailer Moda Operandi Men. It takes a certain brand of optimism maybe the cockeyed kind for any designer to hang up a shingle when consensus holds that bricks and mortar is kaput. Thus a brisk recent morning found the designer scrambling under the balky roll down gate of a raw space in Chinatown with a reporter in her wake. It is an understatement to say a particular vision was required to imagine how, in just two weeks, the bare 790 square foot space would become a shop cum clubhouse with blocked out windows, a bar and an unsettling fountain in the form of a child draped in a fishing net. Yet vision is one thing the quietly determined Ms. Bode has in plentiful supply. The following conversation has been edited. You have all this frontage on Hester Street, and yet the plans you describe block out a large percentage of the windows? How come? We wanted the store to feel interior and domestic and to drive home the idea of a private selling space. We've been selling out of the studio for the past three years, and people like to come in and sit down and have a beer or a Coca Cola. That doesn't sound like a business model that would cut it on "Shark Tank." Forty percent of our business is producing designs made from domestic textiles, quilts and homespun linens from the 1800s, some of them with hand embroidery. We do a lot of custom work, and our top clients have an emotional response to the clothing. It resonates with them. So when people come into the studio, we want them to feel a genuine comfort, this feeling that is so close to home. Can you expand on that emotional aspect of your designs, which seems to be central to its appeal? A lot of these textiles are things that people quite literally grew up with. They say, "Oh, my grandmother had that quilt at the end of her bed." They're interested in learning. We can explain that it's a log cabin quilt and get into a whole discussion of the history of that type of quilting and be a little in tune with their own family history. And doing that we can tell our story better. We can talk as much as we want about the Bode story on social media and on our website. We can explain our way of thinking to Matches in London, but ultimately they're going to interpret what we're doing in their own way. Though that's fine, we wanted people to have a place where they could experience the narrative firsthand. How much of that narrative relates to your personal roots in this neighborhood? I live a few blocks from the store. My studio is a five minute walk away. This location is just off that stretch of Chinatown with Bacaro and Kiki's, but it's a little bit quieter, so it feels more private, like a destination. I like the idea that you have to explore a little to find us. Are you countering the loss of eccentric small scale retail to the relentless march of Chase branches and CVS? When I was growing up and traveling a lot my dad's a doctor, a diabetes specialist, and we got to travel with him to conferences my way of understanding a city was guiding myself through neighborhoods on foot. I would tear out the Lucky magazine city guides and go walking. And people don't do that so much anymore. I was thinking about the way people used to explore SoHo. They walked around the neighborhood. They found stores they didn't know they were looking for. But, again, how can that be workable as a business model in a city as costly as this one? I worked for Isabel Marant in SoHo as a sales associate. They have a bunch of stores in Paris, and every store is different. She has an understanding of her brand, so every store corresponds to the neighborhood it's in. Even though it's a multimillion dollar brand, people relate to it in individual ways. When we learned about branding in college, the rule was success has nothing to do with the way you explain the brand to consumers. It has everything to do with how people explain it so each other. No one disputes that a Bode garment looks like nothing from another brand. The most exciting thing is that people are beginning to recognize things as Bode. You see some comments online, or you hear people say, "Oh, that looked very Bode,'' or "That model looked very Bode.'' That's been the big jump. Bode shows always have a clubby vibe. Your last one, where your boyfriend's design firm, Green River Project, built out a SoHo gallery to look like a garage band's rehearsal space, felt like a big party for 500 of your closest friends. We've had to rely on friends for everything we've ever done. Green River Project envisioned all my shows so far, and this entire store concept. It's not like I designed it. It's all about working with people you're close to and being resourceful. That brings up the question of how much something like this costs. It was under six figures for the entire build out. We're totally self funded. That seems unusual given the amount of attention you've gotten even as a young brand. It made no sense at all for us to start a business being in debt. But isn't it also consistent with your kind of Yankee D.I.Y. ethos? For us, every single budget decision is major. A fixture came broken in the mail. Can we afford to replace it? The Green River Project couch we're using usually costs 1,000 a linear foot, but we saved money by upholstering it as a collaboration. It's like, how much is the roll gate going to cost to fix? But, you know, we're used to being that smaller, scrappier business. It would feel bizarre to do this any other way. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Style |
A 2,000 square foot restaurant space will become available Jan. 1 on the ground floor of this 1920 four story building in the High Line and Chelsea gallery district. The Red Cat, a restaurant that has been there for nearly 20 years, will close at the end of the year. The space, with 20 feet of frontage, offers an 800 square foot basement with a prep kitchen. Neighbors include the Drunken Horse wine bar and the Charlie Hewitt art gallery. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Real Estate |
By default, Windows 10 requires a password to get by the lock screen. This is designed to keep your computer safer, but you should go right to the desktop without a detour. It is possible to disable the password requirement by tinkering with your Windows settings, but this can be a security risk because anyone could then start the PC and get into your files. If the computer was not set to run Windows Spotlight, it may be running one of the many third party apps that show off a different photo from Microsoft's Bing search engine on the lock screen each time you log in. If you or someone else who uses the computer installed one of these programs on the PC, look for it in your apps list and turn it off or remove it. Personal Tech invites questions about computer based technology to techtip nytimes.com. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Technology |
'CAV/PAG' at the Metropolitan Opera (Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m., through Feb. 1). This traditional, satisfyingly visceral pairing of two verismo one acts, Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" and Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci," offers some potential pleasures in a revival of David McVicar's flamboyant production. The tenor Roberto Alagna, always super committed, takes on the hotheaded male lead in each opposite Ekaterina Semenchuk (and, later in the run, Eva Maria Westbroek) in "Cav" and his wife, Aleksandra Kurzak, in "Pag." Nicola Luisotti, a sure hand in the Italian repertory, conducts. 212 362 6000, metopera.org 'ACQUANETTA' at Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center (Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m., through Jan. 14). Inspired by cult horror films, Michael Gordon's one act opera (with a libretto by Deborah Artman and directed by Daniel Fish) ends up a reflection on identity and acting. It is a highlight of this year's Prototype festival of new music theater, which runs through Jan. 20 at a variety of locations and includes a characteristically bold and broad range of styles. prototypefestival.org ROOMFUL OF TEETH at Zankel Hall (Jan. 11, 7:30 p.m.). This intrepid vocal ensemble, whose repertoire of clicks, hisses, yodels and pitch bends borrows from styles that span the globe, includes here the shining, endlessly resourceful work that has become its standard, its "Born to Run" or "Let It Be": "Partita for Eight Voices," which won Caroline Shaw, a group member, the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013. The program is rounded out by premieres of pieces by two young artists from the jazz tradition: the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and the pianist Tigran Hamasyan. 212 247 7800, carnegiehall.org | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
Rory Ferreira, who records as R.A.P. Ferreira, with his "Purple Moonlight Pages" vinyl. He set the price at 77, unusually high even for a double LP. Over the last couple of years, Rory Ferreira, a.k.a. the avant garde hip hop artist R.A.P. Ferreira, noticed that on Discogs, an online record marketplace that specializes in resales, the physical versions of his albums were trading for several times their original price. So when planning the vinyl release of his latest album, "Purple Moonlight Pages," he decided to charge accordingly. "I'm not going to knock anyone's hustle. I just need to make sure mine is calibrated accordingly, too," he said in a phone interview last month. Charging 77 for an album might be a reach even in the best of times, but it's especially ambitious in the current music business climate, where the album itself has become increasingly devalued. The growth of subscription streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music has, in under a decade, almost completely detached albums and songs from a specific dollar value. So what, if anything, is an album truly worth in 2020? Depends on the business model. "I do think music has value, but the value is not on the monetary side," said Steve Carless, Nipsey Hussle's business partner and co manager. "Technology has deteriorated that." Thanks to the abstraction of the artist from the music on streaming services, and the rise of social media and the intimacy it creates between stars and fans, physical music is no longer the primary way artists capture their followers' attention and dollars. "Music has now become the vehicle," Carless added. "Before it was what was at the end of the equation. Now it's at the beginning of the equation." In short: For the most popular artists, the album itself is just one small part of a multiplatform business, and nowhere near the most profitable one. While they still do a healthy business in physical sales, and sometimes find ways to squeeze additional profits from it Taylor Swift recently offered eight different deluxe editions of her new album, "Folklore" generally the album is the thing that sets the table for far more ambitious revenue streams: merchandise, touring, licensing and more. That's at one extreme. At the other are small artists or labels with devoted fan bases, for whom the album remains at the center of the financial conversation, and still a lucrative proposition on its own. All of which is to say that it's harder than ever to determine, in a pure sense, the value of an album. Unlike in the CD or LP eras, when the market prices for records were essentially consistent, now the album is valued on a sliding scale for most people, using streaming services, access to an album is (or feels) free; the most dedicated, however, will put their money where their fandom is. It's another adjustment meant to keep the album chart as purely about music as possible (even as the very idea of an "album" as a formally aggregated work of art is now in crisis, following the rise of playlisting and the increasingly prevalent drip drip approach to releasing new music). But with the business of being a popular musician increasingly weighted toward non album revenue streams, the chart's entire meaning has become fuzzy. As before, an album needs to cost at least 3.49 to count on the charts, a number arrived at in 2011, when digital album sales were more of a threat than album streaming. Compared to a T shirt or hoodie that costs 50, or a concert ticket that might cost a few times that, that price of the album is incidental the monetary value of the fandom is captured by something other than the music. But this is a recent development. Before the streaming era, artists were attempting to extract maximum value from the album itself. Perhaps the highest profile example is the Wu Tang Clan album "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin." The group made one copy of it available, and it sold at auction in 2015 for 2 million to the since disgraced pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, who surrendered it to federal authorities in 2018. Part of the inspiration for the Wu Tang auction was the release of Hussle's 2013 mixtape, "Crenshaw." Hussle, perhaps the first artist in the modern era to propose a premium pricing model for a dying medium, offered physical copies of "Crenshaw," for 100, using the slogan "Proud2Pay." (The mixtape was available for free online.) He sold out 1,000 copies. To demonstrate that the "Crenshaw" release wasn't a fluke, he upped the ante with his next release, "Mailbox Money," offering 100 copies at 1,000; all of them sold out too. Carless described Hussle's intent as "Let's stop looking at the majority, focus on the minority" courting those listeners who were passionate and resourced enough to pay. The CD itself, numbered and signed, became "an important keepsake," Carless said, and it came with certain fan privileges a phone number they could use to reach Hussle, a private concert. (Hussle released "Crenshaw" the same year Patreon, which proposed a similar tiered model of financial relationship between artist and fan, opened for business.) Perhaps more crucially, Hussle's unconventional pricing model was also profitable at the album level. Generally speaking, a tiny sliver of top streaming pop stars can earn back the expenses of making an album purely on stream revenue. For the vast majority of artists, that's an out of reach goal. One group that still makes money off its music? The rap duo Run the Jewels. "I definitely know artists at both ends of the spectrum who look at it as a loss leader, but Run the Jewels just doesn't happen to look at it that way," said Amaechi Uzoigwe, the group's manager, who added that each of the duo's albums has been profitable via streaming and physical sales even though they give away downloads for free. What this underscores is something Hussle knew, and something Radiohead figured out more than a decade ago: There are tiers of fans. Some most, actually will pay nothing for music. But the few who are willing to pay can more than offset them. In 2007, Radiohead released its seventh album, "In Rainbows," via a pay what you wish download, and in various physical formats; three million people paid for a copy. On the online record marketplace Bandcamp, around 80,000 albums are sold per day. Half of them are digital: the average price for those albums many of which are pay what you wish is 9, though according to Joshua Kim, chief operating officer of Bandcamp, some fans will voluntarily pay several times that; in one case, a fan paid 1,000 for an album. Kim said that the fastest growing part of Bandcamp's business is physical sales, particularly vinyl. "We view Bandcamp as a place where music is valued as art," he said. "Physical formats are probably the most concrete expression of that." He likened consumers willing to pay a premium for music they can otherwise get for free to those who shop for organic food or ethically sourced clothing, finding value in "compensating artists fairly." That perspective is consistent with what Ferreira has seen in his fan base. He noticed at shows that some fans bought copies of albums they already owned "talismans," he called them as a show of financial and creative support: "I'm a poor guy from poor people from a poor place," he said. "Thinking that somebody might own several copies of one project just because they wanted you to keep going was totally foreign to me." In the living room of his home in Nashville last month, Ferreira laid out hundreds of record mailers and all the copies of "Purple Moonlight Pages," and planned for several days of work he is a business of one. Despite the pushback he received from some fans, Ferreira doesn't view his 77 vinyl as a premium product. He said that he values these newest songs, which were more expensive for him to make and reflect greater maturity as an artist, more highly than his older songs, and felt that should be reflected in the price. "The music is the premium product," he said. "It's just that there are some people who are at a place in their life where it's kind of nice to be able to style out and buy something nice that you believe in." For those people, he was excited about the process of individually packing up his albums and shipping them out. It was a way to keep his focus on the music, and its true value. "I don't want to sell a lot of T shirts," he said. "I did not start rapping because I like folding T shirts." | 0 | N24News: A New Dataset for Multimodal News Classification | Music |
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