When the state is silent, it becomes the citizen’s duty to speak up and express dissent – Khmer Times

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On Aug 11, violence broke out in Bengaluru claiming three lives and leaving several injured. The violence was in response to a derogatory social media post concerning the Prophet Muhammad by the nephew of a Karnataka Congress MLA. While the accused and numerous others, including several innocent people, have now been arrested, the incident has been reduced to ugly political slander. In February, riots broke out in Delhi after incendiary speeches by BJP Union Minister Anurag Thakur and ex-MLA Kapil Mishra. The hate speeches were a deliberate attempt to incite Hindus against Muslims and especially those protesting peacefully against CAA/NRC/NPR. The promulgation of discriminatory laws and policies such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) and other violent propaganda, reflect in-built prejudices of the ruling dispensation. And, prejudices only promote violence.

The Delhi riots left 53 dead, injured many more and resulted in severe loss of livelihood. Red tape surrounded access to medical attention and the lack of transparency about the arrests of several innocent people point to the deeply compromised institutional response. Meanwhile, several people have been detained and unfairly booked under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The trauma primarily to Muslims physical, emotional and psychological but also to the entire polity, will take years to heal.

The two incidents call to mind the publication of a derogatory pamphlet titled Rangila Rasul Colourful Prophet by Mahashe Rajpal in 1924 in Punjab. The pamphlet showed the Prophet Muhammad in a poor light. Mahatma Gandhi raised his voice against the publication. He responded with an article titled Hindu-Muslim Unity published in Young India on June 19, 1924: I have asked myself what the motive possibly could be in writing or printing such a book except to inflame passions. Abuse and caricature of the Prophet cannot wean a Musalman [Muslim] from his faith and it can do no good to a Hindu who may have doubts about his own belief. As a contribution therefore to the religious propaganda work, it has no value whatsoever. The harm it can do is obvious.

The aftermath of the publication of the pamphlet was bloody and was a reason for the enactment of Section 295A of the IPC that any person found guilty of deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs will be subject to imprisonment. Maulana Azad, a practising but secular Muslim, stated I am proud of being an Indian. I am part of the indivisible unity that is Indian nationality. I am indispensable to this noble edifice and without me this splendid structure is incomplete. I am an essential element, which has gone to build India. I can never surrender this claim.

India is defined by its multicultural texture. One way to look at this culture is as a land of Bhakti or Sufi philosophers of the likes of Thiruvalluvar, Basava, Tukaram, Bibi Fatima or Kabir, who spoke persistently of fostering peace and companionship of diverse communities. An attitude of intolerance and violence contradicts any faiths basic tenets of humanism. In fact, most Hindu shlokas (couplets) end with a shanti, an invocation of peace and restraint. However, there is now a politically-motivated polarity by intentionally maligning other religions and attempts to legally discriminate against people based on their religion. Many of us born in the Hindu religion, who either practise or culturally remain within its fold, need to ask ourselves some important questions. Is violence against unarmed human beings going to lead us anywhere near the spiritual goals promised by the best in our tradition? Is difference a justification for subjugation or annihilation of life?

Will the celebration of a temple constructed on the ruins of another place of worship give anyone punya (virtue)? It is an irony that when the life of Gandhi was taken by a Hindutva fanatic, they should become spokespersons against violence. As Hindus, we stand guilty unless we express our dissent.

Today, the silence of the state is deafening. The calibrated lack of response of the present government to the speeches by their own party members inciting violence, points to their sanctioning of the violence. True religious precepts have repeatedly affirmed that the structure of the place of worship is not necessarily the house of the deity. The temple in Ayodhya is a structure. Any place of worship built on the destruction of another has questions to answer. In the Ayodhya judgment, the Supreme Court said, The destruction of the mosque and the obliteration of the Islamic structure was an egregious violation of the rule of law. And yet, on Aug 5, the Prime Minister was present at the celebrations of a temple construction over the debris of a destroyed mosque.

In contrast, amid the recent riots in Bengaluru, several Muslim youths formed a human chain around a temple protecting it from mob violence. To equate nationalism with religion is logically inconsistent since God is believed to be omniscient and cannot have a nationality. Invoking such omniscience, Kabir asks in the song Tu hi tu: Where are you? In the ant or in the elephant? In the thief or the person in pursuit? It is a reminder that all humanity is bonded. It has also been reassuring to note that many members of the majority community have resisted the CAA, NRC and NPR. What gives us hope is that, even in the worst of times, acts of discrimination and violence can be countered in equal measure with courage and compassion.

Hinduism is a secular religion in its philosophical assumptions, as probably all religions are. Those claiming to speak for nationalism are forcing us to choose between manufactured polarities of being secular or being religious.

This article first appeared in the print edition on Sept 5 under the title Violence & complicity. Aruna Roy is co-founder Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan and Rajendran Narayanan teaches at Azim Premji University, Bangalore. Indian Express

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When the state is silent, it becomes the citizen's duty to speak up and express dissent - Khmer Times

X Museum | Because Everything Has to Start Somewhere Flaunt Magazine – Flaunt Magazine

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How has the pandemic affected your artistic practice?

Although my life on the surface has not changed much, the impacts on my mind and mentality have been quite prominent. I can clearly sense the demarcation of the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic worlds. In the face of a disaster that gradually spreads and submerges all, my stress response is stretched and lengthened because of it. This translates into the instantaneity of my creation: when working, I now spend less time on deliberation, and often go ahead with an idea without too much thinking. I also no longer isolate myself from the external world, since quarantine and lockdown paradoxically make me feel more connected to the world than before.

Do you have a set routine when creating artworks, or is your process randomized? Please describe either way?

I remember answering this question in 16 Personalities Test. They appear to be two distinctive approaches, but actually for me they are integrated into one. I work under a fully random, almost intuitive condition in which my creation follows a routinised convention. In almost every single piece of my work there coexist both randomisation and routine, persistently co-present in the beginning, during the making and till the ending.

Weve read that your artwork separates itself from the art scene. Do you feel thats accurate? Is the scene possible to escape? Is that a personal behavioral condition or is it more about your artistic output and subject matter?

We are all aware that the art scene is a cage, arent we? It is where Statues Also Die (Les statues Meurent Aussi (1953)). It is possible to escape the scene on the plane of religiosity: it is leaving in the heart[1]a separationhere and now. However, on the plane of reality where there is nowhere to escape to, I can only choose to stare, to look it in the eye. It is in this stare that it becomes the scene, rather than the art scene.

Would you agree there is a voyeuristic quality about your work that is different from other painters? Is painting fundamentally voyeuristic? Why or why not?

My painting does not originate from voyeurism, but I get what you mean. Audience may experience a voyeuristic quality, and this is because they cannot stand being directly exposed to the center of the scene hence subject to the stare (almost all of my paintings project the stare at the scene). Voyeurism is more of a description of where the audience stand the security of that spot, which allows them to see all and in the meantime hide themselves in the darkthe peephole is ready made.

Painting in its essence is not voyeuristic. However, it can be seen with the voyeuristic gaze, projected from the peeping eye. I think its more accurate to say that we are voyeurs of the reality rather than of painting.

When do you feel the most confident?

When a painting is completed.

Whats next?

Know myself, know the world; hopefully I can bring benefits to more people.

Pete Jiadong Qiang (b. 1991), lives and works in London. The artist explores the spaces of pictorial, architectural, and game, as well as interstices between the three through a Maximalist way of inquiries. His work encompasses architectural drawings, paintings, moving images, photogrammetry, augmented reality (AR) drawings, virtual reality (VR) paintings, and games.

Qiangs practice often revolves around the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), which have become an idiosyncratic research methodology within his distinct aesthetic spectrum. Qiangs work is often referred to as architectural Maximalism, oscillating between physical and virtual spaces in the contexts of ACG (Anime, Comic and Games) and fandom.

Pete Jiadong Qiang is currently a PhD student in arts and computational technology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and was trained as an architect (RIBA Part 2) in Architectural Association School of Architecture.

For How Do We Begin?, Qiang exhibited Queer Maximalism HyperBody as a research ideal that tries to establish a new inventive methodology of Queer Maximalism: virtual space-making within the game engine by incorporating materials and images from ACG (Anime, Comic and Games), fandom communities and autoethnography. Both visually and acoustically, this new entanglement will try to redefine the concept of Portal within multiple HyperBodies intermediating between physical and virtual spaces.

HyperBodies include virtual Portal and physical Portal. HyperBody Virtual Portal is the virtual space of Queer Maximalism output in game engines, and is the corresponding physical space of Queer Maximalism output in real life.

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X Museum | Because Everything Has to Start Somewhere Flaunt Magazine - Flaunt Magazine

The Men Who Reinvented Philosophy for Turbulent Times – The New York Times

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The first step was to twist free from the modern bourgeois worldview, or for that matter, from any framework or ideology that risked distorting the experience of reality. Back to the facts! became Heideggers battle cry, Eilenberger writes. This was a very appealing invitation for many students, including a young Hannah Arendt, who became one of his intellectual shock troops in the 1920s. Heidegger offered his audiences the opportunity to reclaim the question of Being (the German Sein) for themselves, to pose the question about what things are, about what reality really is, in a novel way that corresponded to their lived experience.

Heidegger understood his unmoored students. He contended that being human (Dasein) was a state of constant anxiety in the face of our own insignificance. Eilenberger, explaining Heideggers position, writes, Insight into our fundamental groundlessness is made possible by the knowledge of mortality but we cannot find our own salvation as something promised or revealed to us, we can acquire it only with an open and hence also fearful gaze into the abyss of our own finitude.

Heidegger spoke directly to war-weary individuals who were all too familiar with their own mortality and were looking, desperately, for a philosophy to think it through. Eilenberger rightly observes that Heidegger never faced mortal danger, but this didnt keep him from developing a charismatic philosophy fitted precisely to those who did. One of Eilenbergers achievements is to explain Heideggers efforts to position himself as the hero and sorcerer of post-World War I Germany and therefore foreshadow his full-throated support of the Nazi regime as it came to power.

Ernst Cassirer and Walter Benjamin shared at least one philosophical position: their mutual dislike of Heidegger. Cassirer and Heidegger were bound for conflict, and not only because Heidegger was an anti-Semite and Cassirer a Jew. Cassirer, the most intellectually traditional (and psychologically stable) of the magicians, sought to extend Kants project of enlightenment, grounded in rationality and the freedom it enabled, but also a broader humanism based on the advancement of science. By 1929, at their famous debate at Davos, he was fully eclipsed by Heidegger, who held that these philosophical goals were misguided from the start. Cassirer and his family fled Germany in 1933, the year that Heidegger delivered The Self Assertion of the German University. Cassirer would never again belong to such a university.

Walter Benjamin, the German Jewish philosopher, essayist and cultural critic, spent the better part of his professional life planning for what he described to his friend Bertolt Brecht as the demolition of Heidegger. Time of the Magicians explains how most of Benjamins plans, including this one, never came to fruition. Like Heidegger, Benjamin was a cult figure, but he lacked an organized following, at least in part because his philosophy, in Eilenbergers words, was about simply everything. Benjamin summoned Romanticism, Jewish mysticism, Surrealism and Marxism in an effort to reveal a new world (specifically the burgeoning urban landscape of modern Europe) that defies comprehensive explanation.

And what of Ludwig Wittgenstein, the most illusive and therefore most interesting of the philosophical wizards? I was first acquainted with his work in the course on philosophical logic in which the professor informed me that philosophy taught a student how to think. When I read the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which Wittgenstein completed as a German soldier in World War I, I concluded that it established the foundation for rigorous and indisputable claims to knowledge. It seemed to me that philosophy, in Wittgensteins hands, was something like an exact science, which established a system of propositions that perfectly represented the world. I was not alone in this gross misreading. At a crucial moment in Time of the Magicians, Eilenberger explains that an entire school of philosophy known as logical positivism was born of this exact misunderstanding of Wittgenstein.

The 526 numbered statements of the Tractatus are not the rigid elements of a formal system but rather the rungs of a very long ladder that a reader can climb in order to see the world rightly, perhaps for the first time. The book is an invitation to philosophize, an activity of seeing the world a little more clearly by clarifying the language and thoughts that we use to describe it.

Wittgensteins intent is to show what can be meaningfully expressed, but also, more important, to gesture at what lies beyond our ability to express. And a great deal lies beyond. One is left, in Wittgensteins words, to wonder at the existence of the world, which is precisely the opposite of explaining it fully. Philosophy is the activity of climbing a ladder, and once you reach the top, the ladder disappears.

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The Men Who Reinvented Philosophy for Turbulent Times - The New York Times

Terence Corcoran: You are not you, and other truths of the new world – Financial Post

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Diangelo, considered to be in the front ranks of white anti-racist thinkers, rejects the whole idea of individuality because it holds that we are each unique and stand apart from others, even those within our social groups. As for objectivity, Diangelo dismisses the idea that it is possible for individuals to be free of collective bias. Those tired old Enlightenment concepts make it very difficult for white people to explore the collective aspects of the white experience.

Under systemic collectivism, an aging Indigenous man can only see the world through his collective prism as an aging Indigenous man, not as an individual with his own intellect and thoughts. A young white woman working at a downtown Toronto bank can only grasp the world around her through her white female privilege. She cannot think for herself.

Not to be left out of the capitalism-bashing ritual is Desmond Cole. In his book, The Skin Were In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power, the Toronto journalist who was fired from the Toronto Star for failing to observe journalisms general adherence to objectivity, Cole states that White power works in concert with other forms of power including capitalism (the dominance of private profit over public benefit).

The physical bookshelves are filled with these ideas, as are the online services and publication lists of university presses, which crank them out by the hundreds.

The overthrow of these core concepts is a calculated and highly public effort to destroy the great fundamental principles that have lifted human beings from ignorance and servitude

These shots at capitalism and individualism as oppressive scourges did not fly into the text of todays best-sellers on the wings of a dove. They have been systematically implanted in the culture over the last half-century by ideological warriors camouflaged as opponents of racism, sexism, inequality, homophobia, colonialism. After straight-up Marxism had self-destructed by the middle of the 20th century, after the workers of the world failed to unite around a communist revolution, cabals of neo-Marxists developed new theories. If we cannot succeed with workers, maybe we can overthrow capitalism and its enabling Enlightenment individualism by appealing to a much larger middle-class population by weaving racism, sexism, inequality, globalization and climate change into one big movement.

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Terence Corcoran: You are not you, and other truths of the new world - Financial Post

Jari Kaukua: Al-Farabi Was a Representative Of an Enlightened Islamic Thought, Which Played a Great Role in Naturalization of Ancient Greek Heritage…

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As Kazakhstan celebrates the Anniversary Year of its medieval philosopher Abu Nasr al-Farabi (870-950), born on the territory of modern Kazakhstan 1150 years ago, The Astana Times is publishes a series of articles and interviews with world-renowned scholars, which specialize on al-Farabis legacy.

Abu Nasr al-Farabi. Photo credit: Platon.Asia.

Our correspondent Dmitry Babich interviews Jari Kaukua, professor and post-doctoral fellow at the department of social sciences and philosophy at the University of Jyvskyl, Finland

Al-Farabi translated some works of the philosophers of classical, pre-Christian Greece into Arabic and other languages available for the population of medieval Asia. Can we call him a medieval precursor of the modern concept of international science, knowledge without borders?

Jari Kaukua

Jari Kaukua: I think this is a fair general assessment of Abu Nasr al-Farabis activity. He and his peers seem to have worked under the assumption that science is not specific to any particular culture, religion, state, or ethnic group. The circle of Baghdad Aristotelians, to which Abu Nasr al-Farabi belonged, featured both Christians and Muslims. They were of course perfectly well aware that their science originated in a cultural context of Greece of the times of antiquity, foreign to both monotheistic traditions.

How did Al-Farabi manage to integrate the ancient Greek tradition into the framework of medieval Islam? Doesnt it show that enlightened Islam can be a vehicle for attracting non-Islamic scientific and cultural achievements, putting them to the service of people, including non-European nations? In this context, can we say that Al-Farabi and Al-Biruni, who also stems from the Central Asian region, were the precursors of modern reconciliation of faith and science, in which precise scientific knowledge peacefully coexists with the belief in immortality of human soul?

Jari Kaukua: I believe that Abu Nasr al-Farabi was consciously carrying on the project begun by earlier generations of Muslim philosophers, such as al-Kind and the circle of translators gathered around him. They had come up with the idea of applying the Greek philosophical and scientific heritage to the contemporary debate concerning the proper interpretation of the Islamic doctrine. As Dimitri Gutas has shown, for a brief but decisive moment in the eighth and ninth centuries CE, holders of political and economic power in the Abbasid state saw rationalist theology and philosophy as potential allies in the cultural sphere, and that the consequent investment in translation and indigenous Arabic literary activity is explicable in this way. In this sense, we can perhaps say that an enlightened Islam did indeed play a crucial role in the naturalisation of the Greek heritage.

Wasnt the work of these Islamic scholars more than 1000 years ago a precursor of a combination of scientific and religious knowledge in European New Times, which gave such a boost to Europes development and expansion?

Greek heritage needed naturalization not only in traditional Islamic areas, but also in Europe itself, where the Greek tradition had largely been forgotten in the medieval times. This naturalization was the work done for the benefit of what we can call now Eurasian world.

So, although Abu Nasr al-Farabi did not initiate the project of integrating the Greek tradition into Islam, he made a number of major contributions to it. Together with other Baghdad Aristotelians, he emphasised the methodological importance of Aristotelian logic and theory of science. He also found a way of reconciling the Islamic doctrine of creation and the Aristotelian view that the world is eternal. Finally, he came up with an influential Islamic version of the Platonic theory of the state.

Since I am not convinced that there is a widely accepted modern reconciliation of faith and science, the question about Abu Nasr al-Farabis role as a precursor of modernity is difficult to answer. I suppose we could say that Abu Nasr al-Farabis attempt to prove the existence of one first principle of all being (the God of monotheistic religions), and to trace other religious doctrines back to this principle without relying on the authority of revealed text, could still provide a paradigm for contemporary attempts at reconciliation between science and religion. When it comes to early modern European ways of thinking about the two, it seems to me that at least some prominent thinkers, such as the German scientist Leibniz, were building on a foundation partly laid by Abu Nasr al-Farabi and Avicenna. However, I hesitate to make a straightforward connection between the two epochs, simply because there was a variety of philosophical theories in the early modern period, and because we also have to bear in mind the influence of the intervening medieval Latin discussions.

What do you think about Abu Nasr al-Farabis concept of virtuous state? Abu Nasr al-Farabis idea of the state as a mediator, called to reconcile the interests of various groups inside society, isnt it still a timely reminder for modern politicians, who often build their careers on division and hatred between different social groups inside society and between different states on international arena?

Jari Kaukua: I think that Abu Nasr al-Farabis political theory is an admirable and fascinating attempt at reconciling the combination of political and religious authority in Muammads prophecy with classical political doctrine. Like Platos theory of the state, which Abu Nasr al-Farabi took on to develop, the result is an idealised form of aristocracy. As such, I am somewhat sceptical of its straightforward applicability today, or at any moment of history, for that matter. But if we read it as a form of critique that constructs an ideal, to which factual politics compares unfavourably, then I think it is still a potentially valuable text, and not just of historical interest.

Can we call Avicenna and Abu Nasr al-Farabi representatives of a peculiar Islamic medieval humanism? Werent they also early precursors of separation of religion and state in a region where Western thought traditionally did not expect such a separation? Recently, the works of Soviet scholar Artur Sagadeyev on Avicenna and Abu Nasr al-Farabi were republished in Russia. In one of his articles, Sagadeyev writes: The Moslem principle of unity of secular and religious power lost its vigour in the mid-tenth century AD, when the Khalif in Baghdad retained religious power, while emirs and sultans took secular power for themselves. Is it an exaggeration or a reflection of a little-known medieval reality?

Jari Kaukua: I suppose this depends on what we mean by humanism. Avicenna and Abu Nasr al-Farabi did believe that as rational beings, human beings are intrinsically valuable, inherently directed towards the good, and capable of acquiring knowledge by means of their intrinsic cognitive faculties. Having said that, as far as I can see, both were strict determinists (although this is somewhat controversial, some scholars would disagree), and probably did not think that human history is a story of any real progress. I also do not see any reason to see them as precursors to the secularist separation of religion and state. Religion is absolutely crucial, albeit instrumental, to Abu Nasr al-Farabis virtuous state, and although Avicenna did not write about statecraft as extensively, I think he would have agreed on this count.

I am not an expert on Islamic political history, but I do think that your quote from Sagadeyev is apt in at least one sense: the combination of religious authority and real political power that is characteristic of the early caliphate does disintegrate when we come to the eleventh and the twelfth centuries CE. Although the emirs and the sultans of course had to take religion into account in the legitimation of their policies, their power was not based on immediate religious authority of the sort that the caliph had. It is an interesting question whether Abu Nasr al-Farabi already saw this development when he discusses the various ways of distributing power in the absence of a perfect prophet or caliph.

What do you think about Abu Nasr al-Farabis concept of a virtuous political leader for a virtuous state? In Soviet times, this part of Abu Nasr al-Farabis philosophy was seen as idealistic, since real happiness was supposed to be achieved via a victory of oppressed masses in a class struggle. But doesnt history show that an enlightened absolute power can be relatively humane and supportive of social development? Isnt it an acceptable alternative for the modernist trend of division and all sorts of presumably progressive struggles (proletariat against bourgeoisie, racial minorities against the white majority, etc.)

As already indicated above, I personally think that Abu Nasr al-Farabis political theory is idealistic and inapplicable in reality. Obviously, I do not think that the Marxist view is the only real alternative either. As an offspring of a relatively liberal secular democracy, and even at the risk of a cultural chauvinism of sorts, I firmly believe that so far the most successful political regime has been a democratic regime founded on general welfare and good education of the citizens. I am painfully aware that a number of economic and political factors, not to mention climate change and its consequences, presently threatens the stability of many such regimes. Perhaps future political historians will deem them failures as well.

Be that as it may, the central reason why I think Abu Nasr al-Farabis political theory is too idealistic to be applicable is that I am disillusioned about the availability of perfectly enlightened autocrats. Moreover, real politics requires compromises which, together with the personal economic advantages that are frequently coupled with political power, are likely to corrupt even the most virtuous soul over the time of her absolute regime.

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Jari Kaukua: Al-Farabi Was a Representative Of an Enlightened Islamic Thought, Which Played a Great Role in Naturalization of Ancient Greek Heritage...

Rethinking Our Concepts of Disability to Meet Our Changing Social Worlds – James Moore

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A paper published recently in the Journal of Medical Ethics explores the relationship between disability and enhancement, and the importance of social context and environment in how they get defined. According to the group of authors, led by Nicholas Greig Evans, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, the most popular ways of thinking about disability and impairment often either discount certain types of disability or patronize the person with the impairment.

Going further, the authors explain how popular accounts tend to ignore how social stereotypes about disability can impact even those who do not identify as disabled or impaired themselves:

the tendency to focus on specific and often paradigmatic cases of disability and elide discussion of enhancement has a serious downside: it has the potential, among other things, to keep us from understanding cases of disability and impairment that are less apparent and well recognized. Aside from limiting our knowledge and understanding, it also keeps us from making interventions or undertaking further research that might concretely assist those populations . . .

There have been many different models of disability proposed over time, ranging from models based on social factors and human rights to those that link disability to technology. Recent events, like the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated economic and climate disasters, moreover, serve as ongoing reminders of how our abilities to act freely as individuals are always shaped by the broader socioeconomic dimensions of our lives. This insight echoes what critical psychologists have been saying for decades.

According to Evans and the other authors, most people thinking seriously about these issues agree that disability is a widely heterogeneous set of phenomena, so much so, they note that some have argued it to be a meaningless category in the abstract. For them, most existing models dont account for the way assumptions about disability are intertwined with assumptions about enhancement, insofar as both are shaped by which skills happen to be considered most valuable in a given social setting.

How we define either disability or enhancement, they propose, depends on how we compare the behaviors of a specific individual with a statistically relevant cohort group. Cohort group studies track changes in behavior and expressed capacities over time across individuals who live under similar conditions.

With this in mind, the authors suggest it could be useful to think about human abilities in general in terms of the concept of capacity space, which they define as the dynamic relationship between an individual person and their social and environmental milieu. From this perspective, phenomena we tend to call disability are inherently dynamic because they change over time, and they are relational because they are constituted through interactions between persons and the social tools (e.g., digital technology) they have available.

The concept of capacity space, the authors propose, provides a useful starting point for understanding the full variability and breadth of disability as a ubiquitous characteristic of the human species. To help illustrate this, they present a series of case studies that depict experiences of disability and enhancement that are often overlooked in the literature.

For example, they point to certain dysgenic effects in soldiers after WWI, where a high number of casualties left young men who were previously considered physically unfit among the only individuals available for military service.

In this instance, individuals who had been considered disabled relative to other soldiers before the war could have become normal, or even enhanced, simply because the cohort group against which they were judged had changed. This, the authors explain, is an example of how ones capacity space can be transformed even when ones individual abilities remain relatively consistent.

Another example they discuss is the many different variations of chronic pain. This is true both within the same individual as well as across different individuals. Some days are, of course, better than others, with factors ranging from diet, climate, and social contact, possibly having some effect on how chronic pain is experienced and managed at any given time.

Symptoms related to a diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), a hypermobility condition, for instance, might be relatively mild when compared to other individuals who are diagnosed with the same condition:

At times, the person is simply more flexible and mobile than their cohort, making them a better spokesperson. At other times, their joints dislocate unexpectedly, and they are incapacitated in significant ways. Is this person enhanced, disabled, or both, relative to their cohort?

Thinking about disability as something that any human can experience under the right set of conditions, and in entirely personal ways, represents a clear departure from approaches like welfarism, which posits a clearly defined line between disability and ability.

The authors define welfarist approaches to disability as those that posit a stable physiological or psychological property of a subject S that leads to a significant reduction of Ss level of well-being in some circumstance. From this perspective, disability is defined not according to how an individual can perform socially, but according to how the individuals sense of well-being is impacted by one of their personal traits.

Enhancement, by contrast, would be defined under welfarism by any stable property of a person that leads to a significant increase in that persons well-being. By focusing on psychological well-being, rather than social structures or medical status, the authors suggest, welfarist approaches to disability and enhancement account for something important that other models tend to ignore.

And yet, by framing disability as something intrinsic to each individual person, and defining welfare solely in terms of well-being, welfarist accounts risk marginalizing the consequences of prejudice and institutional discrimination for those who do not conform to conventional social expectations. They also fail to adequately account for the ways disabilities have different social implications across time and space, beyond individual well-being.

Such dimensions, the authors claim, are essential to experiences of disability. With their concept of capacity space, they underscore how time and space are not abstract categories; like disability itself, they are complex social realities that shape what individuals consider possible for themselves and others.

The authors are also cautious not to discount sociohistorical accounts of disability. Instead, they describe their project as complementary to such accounts. And yet, the importance of economics and social factors related to race and gender are given relatively little attention in their article.

It is hard to imagine how a cohort, or any other social group, for that matter, could be considered relevant to a persons lived-experience without accounting for the way self-image and self-performance are assigned value today largely in terms of capital.

Under current conditions of global capitalism, social networks are unavoidably shaped by the technologies, information, and capital that its members have access to. Indeed, enhancement and technology are so obviously linked in todays hyperconnected world that it would make little sense to propose a concept of one that cannot account for the other.

While statisticians have the luxury of selecting cohort groups based on analytic convenience, this is not true for those whose embodied natures fail to align with the skills deemed most valuable in todays information-based markets. These are issues that movements like transhumanism and posthumanism have been engaging with for decades, but they are, unfortunately, not given much attention by the authors of this paper.

****

Evans, N. G., Reynolds, J. M., & Johnson, K. R. (2020). Moving through capacity space: Mapping disability and enhancement. Journal of Medical Ethics. (Link)

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Rethinking Our Concepts of Disability to Meet Our Changing Social Worlds - James Moore

Beyond Wine: Album Review of The Flaming Lips – American Head (Sep 2020) – Vinous

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Album Review of The Flaming Lips - American Head

BY NEAL MARTIN| SEPTEMBER 02, 2020

In the 17 years since I first blighted music criticism with a monthly musical recommendation, I have only ever received one new release in advance, namely The Pipettes debut in 2004. There I was, clutching my promo CD, convinced that it was only a matter of time before the NME or Rolling Stone fight it out over my penmanship. The phone never rang. The Pipettes never troubled the top of the charts and remain a lost post-millennial gem, though lead singer Gwenno subsequently enjoyed critical and commercial success as a solo artist. Anyway, this months recommendation, The Flaming Lips American Head, constitutes the second album that I am reviewing before general release. Alas, that is not because music cognoscenti have awoken to yours truly being a modern-day Lester Bangs or Tony Parsons, rather that someone at their record company dispatched my pre-ordered album by mistake.

I am kind of glad they did. It offers me more time to savour the finest Flaming Lips album since 2002s epic Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots that marked their height of popularity thanks to the best happy/sad song ever written, Do You Realise? If you loved that album, or indeed their masterpiece, The Soft Bulletin, then listen to their 16th album American Head because they are cut from a similar cloth. There is all the patchouli-scented psychedelia that one expects from a Flaming Lips record, draped over Wayne Coynes gorgeous melodies, so melancholy but somehow uplifting. Without doubt American Head includes some of the best tunes that he has written in a career that remarkably extends back to 1984. A cursory glance at the song titles: Flowers On Neptune 6, When We Die When Were High, You n Me Selling Weed, At The Movies On Quaaludes and most explicit of all, Mother Ive Taken LSD...well, it is not difficult to spot the lyrical theme.

Yet the lyrics are much deeper than narcotic paeans. It dwells on the passing of time and the passing of lives, themes that run through much of Coynes work. He also ruminates what his country stands for in 2020, effectively portrayed in the promotional video as he wanders through a fiery wasteland wrapped in a Stars and Stripes flag like a soldier lost on a battlefield. To quote Coyne in Junes press release when the album was announced: So for the first time in our musical life we began to think of ourselves as AN AMERICAN BAND telling ourselves that it would be our identity for our next creative adventure. We had become a 7-piece ensemble and were beginning to feel more and more of a kinship with groups that have a lot of members in them. We started to think of classic American bands like The Grateful Dead and Parliament-Funkadelic and how maybe we could embrace this new vibe.

Occasionally in the past, Coyne has taken the psychedelia too far for my ears, but on American Head, the strange sound effects and surrealism are kept in check, allowing the melodies to breathe and flourish. Another feature that elevates it above previous recent releases are the inspired collaborations with country star, Kacey Musgraves. It seems an odd combination on paper, but it turns out to be a sublime partnership, not least on the stunning "God And The Policeman" and sublime aptly-titled comedown, When You Come Down, that reminds me of Primal Screams Shine Like The Stars. How refreshing to see a country singer take themselves out of their comfort zone and immerse their talents in an alternative genre. It lends romanticism, a sense of humanism to the album, her strong vocals complementing Coynes who has never possessed the strongest voice and sometimes strains to hit the high notes. That is part of the appeal - much like Bernard Sumner who strained to sing in early New Order songs until he demanded that they change the key to suit his range.

I bought the double album on tri-colour vinyl in a holographic gatefold sleeve directly from record label Bella Union limited to 500 copies and signed by Coyne. Its a stunning, high quality package. Most importantly, it is one of the best sounding pressings that I have heard in recent months.

Hats off to Wayne Coyne and his very able band. How many artists in the fourth decade of their career remain as enticingly outr and original, but as popular as ever, and produce some of their best music. Coyne still cuts a mystical, shamanic figure with his lions mane locks, greying with advancing years and yet he looks fantastic given how long hes been around. Its just a shame that COVID will deny us their legendary spectacular live shows. Fingers crossed for 2021. In any case, American Head will rank among the best albums of 2020.

Wine Recommendation

The woozy, dreamy soundscape of Wayne Coyne deserves a dreamy wine that may or may not make you woozy depending on how much you imbibe. Im thinking a 2017 Syrah from Cedro do Noval by Quinta do Noval in the Douro will be just the ticket. No LSD necessary.

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Beyond Wine: Album Review of The Flaming Lips - American Head (Sep 2020) - Vinous

Utopia of Asian, Western mythologies comes to Gallery Hyundai – The Korea Herald

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Choi Min-hwa poses in front of his Once Upon a Time paintings at Gallery Hyundai. (Gallery Hyundai)

The exhibition, Once Upon a Time, at Gallery Hyundai showcases 60 paintings and 40 sketches by Choi that were inspired by Samguk Yusa, a collection of legends and folktales mainly from Koreas Three Kingdoms (Goguryeo, Silla and Baekje) period compiled by the Buddhist scholar and monk Iryeon in 1281 during the time of the Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392).

Among the popular folktales from the Samguk Yusa are stories about the founding monarch of Silla Hyeokgeose -- said to have emerged from an egg -- a bear who became a human after eating garlic and the Indian princess Heo Hwangok, who became the wife of King Suro of Geumgwan Gaya.

"Joseon Port - Song of Gonghu II, by Choi Min-hwa (Gallery Hyundai)

Although the paintings were inspired by Samguk Yusa, they expand the realm of human imagination and present a utopia where boundaries of ethnic groups, nationalities and religions do not exist.

Choi began the new painting series in 1998 after traveling through Thailand and India, where he realized there was a lack of visual representations of mythological figures in Korean cultural tradition, compared to other cultures and civilizations. He then began traveling around the world, studying Western and Asian mythologies.

Twenty years worth of archival paintings and sketches on display at the gallery basement show how the artist developed his new painting series.

Until the 1990s, Choi was a representative artist of the Minjung Art movement that began in 1979 among artists who held that paintings should reflect social issues, as Korea was ruled by an authoritarian regime.

With Your Wakeful Eyes, which measures 7 meters in width, was used at the funeral procession for Lee Han-yeol, a university student who was killed in 1987 during a protest calling for democracy. The painting was damaged by police as they suppressed the funeral that turned into a protest rally.

The exhibition runs through Oct. 11 at Gallery Hyundai in Jongno, central Seoul. Online reservations are required in advance at its website at http://www.galleryhyundai.com due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)

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Utopia of Asian, Western mythologies comes to Gallery Hyundai - The Korea Herald

What’s New on Amazon in September: The Boys Season 2, Utopia, and More – TV Guide

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Fall is typically the most exciting time of the year for broadcast TV, as networks launch new shows and kick off fresh seasons of returning favorites starting in September. Due to production shutdowns amid the coronavirus pandemic, fall TV at least on broadcast networks is looking much more scaled down this year. But streaming services are still forging ahead, and there's an onslaught of original movies and shows, plus exciting new library acquisitions, heading to Amazon Prime Videothis month.

Amazon is making a strong case it should be your streaming service of choice this month thanks to exciting additions like The Boys Season 2. The superhero series will return on Thursday, Sept. 4 with new episodes and exciting new characters, like Shawn Ashmore's Lamplighter. But if you're looking for something a little more serious, you should mark your calendars for the Sept. 18 premiere of All In: The Fight for Democracy. The Stacey Abrams-led documentary examines voter suppression in the United States and aims to educate viewers about how they can protect their right to vote.

The Best Movies and TV Shows to Watch on Amazon Prime Video in September 2020

Check out everything that's coming to Amazon Prime Video throughout September below.

Sept. 1Movies1/11 Million Happy NowsA Birder's Guide To EverythingAbe & Phil's Last Poker GameAddicted To FresnoAlex CrossAmerican DragonsBachelor LionsBarney ThomsonBeach PartyBewitchedBig TimeBitter MelonBullyC.O.G.CarringtonCasino RoyaleClose Encounters Of The Third KindDark MatterDe-LovelyDefense Of The RealmDie, Monster, Die!Don't Talk To IreneDr. Goldfoot And The Bikini MachineEaten By LionsEmployee Of The MonthEnemy WithinExtreme JusticeFace 2 FaceGas-s-s-sI'd Like To Be Alone NowI'm Not HereKart RacerKramer Vs. KramerLakeview TerraceLord Love A DuckMan Of La ManchaMicrobe And GasolineMiss NobodyMuscle Beach PartyMusic WithinNo Way To LivePatriots DayRamboSex And The City: The MovieSex And The City 2SlashSlow BurnSnapshotsSunlight Jr.The Bank JobThe Billion Dollar HoboThe BirdcageThe Dunning ManThe FestivalThe Go-GettersThe GraduateThe Hanoi HiltonThe Haunted PalaceThe House On Carroll StreetThe Last House On The LeftThe MechanicThe Ring ThingThe Video DeadThe VisitorsThe Weight Of WaterThe White BusThe WoodsThe Yes MenTo Keep The LightThe Turkey BowlTwice-Told TalesTyler Perry's Daddy's Little GirlsWarrior RoadWeather GirlWhat Children DoWhat If It Works?Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?Yongary: Monster From The DeepZoom

SeriesA Chef's Life Season 1Cedar Cove Season 1Codename: Kids Next Door Season 1George Gently Season 1Hero Elementary Season 1How to Become a SuperStar Student, 2nd Edition Season 1I'm Dying Up Here Season 1Keeping Faith Season 1Last Hope with Troy Dunn Season 1Nazi Mega Weapons Season 1Stuck With You Season 1Texas Metal Season 1The Blood Pact Season 1The Bureau Season 1The Celtic World Season 1The Crimson Field Season 1The Jack Benny Show Season 1The Roy Rogers TV Show Season 1Wrong ManSeason 1

Sept. 2Hell On The Border

Sept. 4MoviesDino Dana: The Movie

SeriesThe Boys Season 2 [Trailer]

Sept. 16Blackbird

Sept. 18All In: The Fight for Democracy [Trailer]Gemini Man

Sept. 22The Addams Family

Sept. 25Judy

SeriesUtopia Season 1 [Trailer]

Sept. 28Force of NatureInherit The Viper

Sept. 29Trauma Center

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What’s New to Streaming in September 2020 – rutherfordsource.com

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Streaming entertainment can be overwhelming with so many streaming services adding new shows and movies every week. Here is a list of new releases this September 2020 playing on Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max.

Here is a list of all the new titles coming to Netflix for the month of September 2020. Highlights this month include a bunch of Netflix Originals including The Boss Baby: Get That Baby!, Ratched, and The Social Dilemma. Read More

September brings new Amazon Original Series and Movies including the sports docuseries All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur (2020); hip-hop inspired comedy, Get Duked! (2020); the highly anticipated season 2 of The Boys (2020); family-friendly and action-packed dinosaur adventure Dino Dana The Movie (2020) and the premiere of new series Utopia (2020), based on the British series of the same name created by Dennis Kelly. Read More

From current episodes and original series to kids shows and hit movies, Hulu has something for everyone. Here is whats coming to Hulu in September 2020. Read More

Disney+ is the dedicated streaming home for entertainment from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and more. Here is everything that is coming to Disney Plus in September 2020. Read More

From brand new series and documentaries to blockbuster movies, theres something for everyone in the family this July on HBO Max. Here is whats coming to HBO Max in September 2020. Read More

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Mysteries, violence, space invaders and happy pills: Here are 10 new TV shows worth watching this fall – ThePeterboroughExaminer.com

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been a blessing and a curse to television.

On one hand, TV has been one of our most faithful companions during these isolated, socially distanced months. Movie theatres are only now reopening but, since the world shut down in March, anybody with a screen, a cable account, internet access or an antenna has been able to fill their hours with TV shows.

On the other hand, TV production shut down along with everything else, putting a serious dent in networks and streamers schedules, leading to postponements and cancellations of numerous programs.

That being said, we havent run out of new things to watch just yet, nor are we likely to. And though the quantity has decreased, theres still quality to be found.

Ive been sampling new shows since last month and have chosen 10 to share with you. This is far from an exhaustive list but reflects my particular taste. The series are listed by premiere date.

The Sounds (Acorn TV, CBC)

I love a good twist, dont you? This Canadian-New Zealand co-production is full of them, including some that I doubt youll see coming. Its about a Canadian couple (played by Canadian Rachelle Lefevre and New Zealander Matt Whelan) who flee Vancouver for the small town of Pelorus, New Zealand, to escape his toxic, rich family and start an environmentally friendly business. Except husband Tom goes missing while kayaking in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds. In the search for Tom, secrets are revealed and wounds reopened, including a 15-year-old murder case involving a local Maori teen. (Two episodes are now on Acorn, with weekly episodes coming Mondays beginning Sept. 7. Weekly episodes debut Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. on CBC.)

Away (Netflix)

Take the emotional appeal of a family show and meld it with the dramatic potential of a serial set in space. Thats what this big-budget series does. Oscar-winner Hilary Swank stars as an astronaut leading a three-year, international mission to Mars. Talk about a tough work-life balance: overseeing the logistical and interpersonal demands of a dangerous mission while trying to be a wife and mother from afar as you hurtle through space. Swank is up to the task, as are the diverse actors who play her crew (Mark Ivanir, Vivian Wu, Ato Essandoh and Ray Panthanki), along with Josh Charles (The Good Wife) and Talitha Bateman as her husband and daughter. (Now streaming)

Brave New World (Showcase)

What does it mean to be human? This series, an adaptation of the dystopian 1932 novel by Aldous Huxley, takes another stab at the question. Futuristic New London where moods are controlled by happy pills, and monogamy and privacy are banned is contrasted to the so-called Savage Lands, where people are free to give rein to their emotions. Two charismatic leads, Jessica Brown Findlay of Downton Abbey and Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story), play Lenina and John, who represent the two sides of the divide. (Sept. 13, 9 p.m.)

The Third Day (HBO, Crave)

If youre in the mood for something creepy and mysterious, this six-parter should fit the bill. Movie star Jude Law leads the first three episodes as a man who essentially becomes trapped on a strange, foreboding island off the British coast when he does a good deed but you know what they say about no good deed going unpunished. In the second half, Oscar nominee Naomie Harris (Moonlight) is the outsider stirring up the locals. Emily Watson, Katherine Waterston and Paddy Considine also star. Dennis Kelly, the British writer and producer renowned for the U.K. version of Utopia (see below), created this one, too. (Sept. 14 at 9 p.m.)

Utopia (Amazon Prime Video)

Reviews of this drama are embargoed until Sept. 15, but you can connect some of the dots yourself by knowing its a remake of a violent British black comedy, also called Utopia, about a group of nerds obsessed with the unpublished sequel to a cult graphic novel believed to predict the future a novel also coveted by a secret organization willing to kill anyone who gets between them and it. The U.S. remake is by Gone Girl novelist Gillian Flynn, who describes it as The Goonies meets Marathon Man. It stars John Cusack, Rainn Wilson, Desmin Borges, Dan Byrd, Sasha Lane, Ashleigh LaThrop and Christopher Denham. (Sept. 25)

A Wilderness of Error (FX)

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TV viewers true-crime addiction isnt going away anytime soon and heres a new entry to feed the habit. It comes from the same producers who brought us the wildly popular The Jinx Jason Blum and Marc Smerling (the latter also directs). This one involves a shocking murder in Fort Bragg, N.C. in 1970: a pregnant woman and two little girls stabbed to death, and a convicted suspect (husband, father and army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald) who continues to maintain his innocence. The series is written by acclaimed documentary maker Errol Morris (Fog of War) and based on his book of the same name. (Sept. 25, 8 p.m.)

Fargo (FX)

Im cheating a bit here since Fargo is not a new show. However its anthology structure guarantees a new cast and new plot line every season, so its new enough. Im not allowed to review this one yet either. Just know that it maintains Noah Hawleys signature mix of violent crime drama, black comedy and quirky character study. Chris Rock and Jason Schwartzman lead the cast, which includes standouts like Jessie Buckley (Chernobyl), Ben Whishaw (A Very English Scandal), Timothy Olyphant (Justified), Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) and relative newcomer Emyri Crutchfield. (Sept. 27 at 10 p.m.)

War of the Worlds (CBC, CBC Gem)

One could argue we dont need yet another adaptation of the H.G. Wells story of alien invasion. One could also argue theres never been a better time for one, with the world still reeling from the coronavirus invasion. Setting the plot in the present day heightens its relatability in a way period pieces cant (the book came out in 1897, which is also when the TV version before this was set). These days, we can all relate to stay-at-home orders. Gabriel Byrne and Elizabeth McGovern lead a mostly French and British cast that includes La Drucker, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Adel Bencherif. (Oct. 7 at 8 p.m.)

Trickster (CBC, CBC Gem)

There is a healthy tradition of TV shows that revolve around young people touched by supernatural forces. Trickster, based on the novel Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson, joins that tradition while showcasing another: the Indigenous mythology of the supernatural being known as the Trickster. Such shows work best with a compelling protagonist at the centre, and producers here found a gem in newcomer Joel Oulette. He stars as teenager Jared, who navigates school, a part-time job and supporting his hard-partying mom (Crystle Lightning) and unemployed dad (Craig Lauzon) while dealing with the weird things hes seeing and the unsettling stranger whos come to town. (Oct. 7, 9 p.m.)

Departure (Global TV)

Air travel may be but a memory for most of us due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this event series has echoes of the not-so-distant past in its central mystery: a passenger plane en route from New York to London disappears over the Atlantic with 256 people on board. The British-Canadian co-production boasts a top-notch cast, including national treasure Christopher Plummer. Other Canadian talent includes Alias Grace and Frankie Drake Mysteries standout Rebecca Liddiard, Evan Buliung, Kris Holden-Ried, Allan Hawco and Mark Rendall, while the excellent Archie Panjabi and Shazad Latif, among others, hold up the British end. (Date TBA, although Americans will see it Sept. 17 on Peacock.)

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Mysteries, violence, space invaders and happy pills: Here are 10 new TV shows worth watching this fall - ThePeterboroughExaminer.com

The 12 Best Fall TV Shows to Keep on Your Radar – ELLE.com

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Time is a concept that has lost all meaning in the year 2020, yet its still wild to realize that our pandemic summer is drawing to a close. Ordinarily, the fall TV season would be right around the corner, with a slew of new shows debuting across network, cable, and streaming platforms. But the movie and TV industries have ground to a near-standstill thanks to COVID-19, and a majority of U.S. shows are still not back in production.

What does all of this mean for your viewing schedule? Youll see the biggest impact on broadcast TVthose shows ore generally picked up to series in May, begin shooting over the summer and premiere in September or October. Needless to say, none of that has happened, so the network schedule ispretty thin. Cable pickings are slimmer than usual too, but HBO, Showtime, and FX all delayed some shows from the spring and summer to make sure their fall schedules wouldnt be empty. Theres also plenty of new content coming from Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix. Here are 12 new shows that should be on your radar this fall.

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1Away

In this sweeping space drama, Hilary Swank stars as Emma Green, a formidable NASA commander embarking on a dangerous and unprecedented years-long mission to Mars, leaving behind her ailing husband (The Good Wifes Josh Charles) and teenage daughter. Leaving the planet for three years admittedly sounds pretty enviable right now, but Emma has to contend with mutinous crew members, life-threatening technical disasters, and a pressure-cooker environment as the international crew members try to figure out how to coexist.

Friday, September 4.

2Woke

New Girl's Lamorne Morris stars in this semi-animated Hulu comedy as Keef, a struggling cartoonist who self-identifies as "non-controversial," i.e. he tries not to talk about race. But after a run-in with a racist police officerand after inanimate objects come to life to confront him about racial inequalityKeef's worldview begins to change. The show sees him grapple with how to "stay woke" without compromising the mainstream success that finally seems within reach.

Wednesday, September 9.

3We Are Who We Are

Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino make his small-screen debut with this HBO miniseries, which tells a coming-of-age story set on an Italian military base. Two American teenagers (Jordan Kristine Seamon and Jack Dylan Grazer) meet on the base and form a friendship that becomes deeper and more complex over the years. Between the unique setting and Guadagninos track record with sumptuous romance, this looks unmissable.

Monday, September 14.

4The Third Day

If what youre craving is unsettling psychological drama, HBO has absolutely got you covered this fall. A co-production with Sky Atlantic, this British miniseries is split into two parts telling interconnected stories: Part one stars Jude Law as a grief-stricken man whos drawn to a mysterious island, while part two stars Naomie Harris as a strong-willed woman who arrives at the same island seeking answers. In between the two parts of the season, an immersive live event will air, which promises to allow viewers to inhabit the story as it happens. This was originally planned to be a live theater event, but its unclear what itll look like in the lockdown era. No matter what, were intrigued.

Monday, September 14.

5Pen15 Season 2

Hulus critically acclaimed cringe-comedy will return for a sophomore run, with Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle reprising their roles as awkward adolescent versions of themselves. Season 2 will reportedly bring more darkness and experimentation, although it wont involve a jump to high schoolErskine and Konkle have confirmed that both their characters will still be in seventh grade when the show returns.

Friday, September 18.

6Ratched

45 years on from the seminal Jack Nicholson-starring movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, we're getting the origin story of its unforgettable villain. Ratched is Ryan Murphy's third Netflix outingafter The Politician and Hollywoodand stars Sarah Paulson as a young nurse at a 1940s mental institution, who becomes more and more jaded by what she sees on the job. OFOTCN fans know Nurse Ratched as a sadistic monster more interested in punishing her patients than treating them, but this show promises to explore exactly how she got to that dark place.

Friday, September 18.

7Utopia

This intriguing conspiracy thriller is adapted from a British series of the same name from 2013, and the showrunner is none other than Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl and Sharp Objects. Utopia follows a group of comic book fans who bond online over their shared obsession with a fictional comic series named Utopia. But the gang soon discovers that the series isnt quite as fictional as they thought, and is in fact the harbinger of an apocalypse that only they can prevent.

Friday, September 25.

8The Comey Rule

Given the horrifying rollercoaster American politics has taken us all on over the last four years, its surprising, in a way, that there have been relatively few scripted Trump White House projects so far. Showtimes upcoming miniseries The Comey Rule dramatizes the fraught relationship between the president (Brendan Gleeson) and former FBI director James Comey (Jeff Bridges). We all remember the big moments, like Comeys fateful decision to publicly reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, and, of course, Trumps unceremonious firing of Comey in 2017but how about the right-out-a-mob-movie story of how Trump demanded loyalty from Comey over dinner? Or Comey hiding in a curtain to avoid Trump? You couldnt write fiction better!

Sunday, September 27.

9The Good Lord Bird

Adapted from James McBride's award-winning 2013 novel of the same name, this eight-episode drama takes place shortly before the Civil War. Though based on real events, the series is told from the perspective of a fictional enslaved boy, nicknamed Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson), who joins abolitionist John Brown (Ethan Hawke) and his army of soldiers fighting against slavery in Kansas.

Sunday, October 4.

10The Haunting of Bly Manor

Lets face it: Halloween this year is looking a little bleak, given that 99 percent of our go-to celebrations (trick-or-treating, costume parties, and, um, apple bobbing?) are off the table in these pandemic times. Thankfully, Netflix has your spooky content needs covered with this follow-up to 2018s emotional family horror series, The Haunting of Hill House. A few cast members return for Bly Manor, including Victoria Pedretti, who plays a young governess hired to take care of two newly orphaned children at a large, creepy country estate, and begins losing her grip on reality as shes plagued by apparitions. After Pedrettis heartbreaking performance as Nell in the first season, this showcase for her is sure to be intriguing.

Friday, October 9.

11The Undoing

Nicole Kidman reunites with Big Little Lies writer David E. Kelley for this miniseries, a psychological drama that looks deeply addictive based on the trailer alone. Directed by Susanne Bier, The Undoing stars Kidman as a successful therapist, Grace, whose enviable New York City life unravels in a matter of weeks. Plot specifics are being kept under wraps, but we know the unravelling involves a violent death, a missing husband (Hugh Grant), and in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only a chain of terrible revelations.

Sunday, October 25.

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Raised by Wolves: What REALLY Happened to the Gen-1 Kids? | CBR – CBR – Comic Book Resources

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Ridley Scott's Raised by Wolves holds a dark secret about what happened to the Gen-1 kids after a pair of robots raise them on a mysterious planet.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Raised by Wolves, available now on HBO Max.

Ridley Scott's Raised by Wolves kicks off with a pair of robots, Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim), coming to a mysterious planet, Keppler-22B, to colonizeit years after a religious war broke out on Earth. They were sent by the Atheists, who were battling with the Mithraic, followers of a god named Sol.

However, as the first three episodes play out, while the bots do manage to build a mini-society, the first batch of kids they raise, die with the exception of young Campion. But after weaving subtle hints of some misdirection, it turns out the deaths were indeed nature's fault.

RELATED:Ridley Scott Comes to TV With Eerie Sci-Fi Drama Raised by Wolves

Mother, reprogrammed after being a Mithraic war machine, uses her body to turn the embryos into children and raises them in the dusty terrain with Father, carrying the hopes of the Atheists on their backs. With six of the 12 embryos surviving, the robots build barracks, plant provisions called carbos (short for carbohydrates) and educate the kids on science as the means to true progress. They're non-believers and want to fashion a destiny based on their hands, not hoping and praying with an invisible force.

However, the utopia they're trying to establish takes a dark turn asthe kids dieout. Tally falls into a deep hole, with Walden, Gabby, Mariall and Spiria succumbing to disease. Only Campion is left, but he too shows minor signs of illness, although it may be that he's just frail. Still, it worries his parents as they start to think they're failing in their mission onlyfor everything to change 12 years later when the Ark, Heaven, comes with a new human contingent.

RELATED:Raised by Wolves: Ridley Scott Pits Humanity vs Androids in New Trailer

Mother kills Father for wanting to send Campion to mankind, and when Marcus and his knights try to kill her and take her son, she eliminates most of them before attacking the Ark. Mother crashes it but brings five kids back to her home. She wants her pack of six back again with Campion, even bringing Father back to help her fix the mistakes of old. However, once more signs pop up that these kids could be sick or worse, Father's worried the culprit is actually Mother due to her reprogramming failing.

Later, as Mother struggles with the kill-mode in her, the fear she inflicts into Campion when he sees her ruthlessly slaughtering Mithraic soldiers leaves herwondering if she's been subconsciously murdering her children. She asks a reborn Father to kill her if that's the case, as she might be losing herself to her bloodthirsty Lamia identity. But when Campion runs away with the pack and Father tries to load the carbos into a small ship from the Ark, the truth emerges. It turns out the carbos were poisoning the kids as it wasladen with radiation. The robots weren't affected but the kids were, leaving everyone wondering if it's the soil, monsters or maybe tech hidden below causing the problem. Regardless of the cause, though, even after Father brings Campion and Co. back home and proves Mother's innocence, it's still unclear how the kids will find a new source of food.

Created by Aaron Guzikowski and produced by Ridley Scott, Raised by Wolves stars Amanda Collin, Abubakar Salim, Winta McGrath, Niamh Algar, Jordan Loughran, Matias Varela, Felix Jamieson, Ethan Hazzard, Aasiya Shah, Ivy Wong and Travis Fimmel. New episodes arrive each Thursday on HBO Max.

KEEP READING:Ridley Scott's Raised by Wolves Debuts First Trailer, Key Art for HBO Max Sci-Fi Series

The Venture Bros.: Adult Swim Is Looking for Ways to Continue the Canceled Series

I'm a former Chemical Engineer. It was boring so I decided to write about things I love. On the geek side of things, I write about comics, cartoons, video games, television, movies and basically, all things nerdy. I also write about music in terms of punk, indie, hardcore and emo because well, they rock! If you're bored by now, then you also don't want to hear that I write for ESPN on the PR side of things. And yes, I've written sports for them too! Not bad for someone from the Caribbean, eh? To top all this off, I've scribed short films and documentaries, conceptualizing stories and scripts from a human interest and social justice perspective. Business-wise, I make big cheddar (not really) as a copywriter and digital strategist working with some of the top brands in the Latin America region. In closing, let me remind you that the geek shall inherit the Earth. Oh, FYI, I'd love to write the Gargoyles movie for Disney. YOLO.

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Identity Needs A Solution Capable Of Actually Winning – AdExchanger

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"Data-Driven Thinking" is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.

Todays column is written byJay Friedman, president and partner atGoodway Group.

In the cola wars, it was Coke vs. Pepsi. In the battle of the coasts, its New York vs. Los Angeles. Rap? Tupac vs. Biggie. And of course, Google vs. Facebook in the battle for identity supremacy.

Whats most notable in each of these classic rivalries, though, is that each is two-way. Third place isnt even in the discussion. Yet, thats how it appears the identity wars are being framed. That its third place thats up for grabs. Will it be LiveRamps ATS? The Trade Desks Unified ID? Or, perhaps Recurly, Piano, Zeotap, MediaWallah or one of the many others wins this portion of the market.

Meanwhile, the marketers that even have half of an eye watching this discussion are largely still putting the bulk of their money into Google and Facebook.But I dont think its third place thats up for grabs. I think its first.

Why is this believable? Because most marketers believe in the principles underpinning PRAM: Privacy is important, a healthy open internet is better for society, all marketers and publishers should have equal access to the mechanism for operating an addressable internet and dont break the law.

While ad techs typical timeline for consolidation and shakeout can last five or more years, identitys clock is ticking. IDFAs go away within a month. Cookies are still slated to be deprecated within 18 months. The industry doesnt have the time for the process to play out the same way it always has. This market must be shepherded to its steady-state, and its in the hands of publishers and advertisers to do that.

To get there, Id recommend we look at a few guardrails to keep us focused on the right outcome.

No kings needed

Maybe we should just king-make one of them and move on? I hear this unnecessary statement often. Government regulators in Europe, Australia, and the United States. are poised to act against this very notion with existing platforms. So, the solution is to make another? King-making is counter to the PRAM and IAB principles.

Open-source or trade-managed wont work either

If one end of the privatized spectrum is a handful of kings, the other end is a LUMAscape of companies all fighting to win the identity race. Neither of these solutions achieves marketers and publishers goals. The end solution must be open-source, or at a minimum managed by a trade association that listens to all but makes decisions for the greater good.

Win-win 100% positive for all

A mistake I see often is confusing the idea of a win-win deal with the idea that the end solution cant have any downsides for any party. Thats not win-win, thats a utopia. A viable solution will have downsides, but it will deliver on the PRAM and IAB principles.

There are firms whove taken funding that will no longer be relevant. One companys fingerprints will be on the solution more than another. Theres likely one bitter pill or another in here for all of us, and it will be a small price to pay as an industry.

A big olive branch to consumers

Speaking of bitter pills, Id recommend that PRAM and the IAB include a heavy olive branch to consumers in our way forward. As Brian OKelley famously said, advertising is no longer good when its creepy.

What if SKU-level retargeting was sacrificed in this way forward? Or, requiring at least three hours before retargeting? Perhaps cross-device retargeting requires a 24-hour delay? Even the appearance that our identities arent fully wired up together in the background would go a long way toward quieting the (oft misinformed) privacy and surveillance capitalism crusaders.

An open internet with an open mechanism for addressability is very achievable. Its time for our industry to play the long game.

Follow Jay Friedman (@jaymfriedman) and AdExchanger (@adexchanger) on Twitter.

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Identity Needs A Solution Capable Of Actually Winning - AdExchanger

Our 12 Most-Anticipated Premieres at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival – The Film Stage

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The fall film festival season is now officially underway with Venice Film Festival kicking off last week. Next on the calendar is the Toronto International Film Festival, which will understandably look quite different in the age of the pandemic. With limited-capacity screenings along with virtual offerings (geo-blocked to Canada), the overall lineup is drastically reduced from the standard hundreds of features down to the 50 or so that will premiere from September 10 through September 20.

Well be extensively covering the festival with reviews beginning to roll out this week, and ahead of the kick-off, were highlighting the 12 world premieres at TIFF were most looking forward to. Check out our preview below and return later this week for an overview of the must-see short films coming to the festival and more.

76 Days (Hao Wu,Weixi Chen,and Anonymous)

There will be many, many documentaries and narrative features in the years to come dissecting the coronavirus pandemic and its sobering effects on virtually every aspect of human life. One of the first non-fiction films out of the gate is 76 Days, which depicts the Wuhan shutdown and its 11 million inhabitants, which began on January 23. Co-directed by Hao Wu, whose Peoples Republic of Desire won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize for documentary, as well as Weixi Chen in his debut, and anonymous collaborators, their film explores the medical workers and patients on the frontlines of the crisis. We imagine it will not only be a harrowing look at how the virus took hold, but also a lesson in what the world couldve have done differently if only more caution was paid. Jordan R.

Ammonite (Francis Lee)

Francis Lee follows up his heart-wrenching drama Gods Own Country with Ammonite, which will have its world premiere at TIFF following being selected at both Cannes and Telluride. The film marks the British directors second queer feature as well as the second lesbian drama from distributor NEON this year, with Portrait of a Lady on Fire opening in February prior to the U.S. going into quarantine. Set in 1840s England, Ammonite follows fossil hunter Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and a younger woman Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) developing an intense relationship, intertwining their lives forever. Certainly the most-anticipated at TIFF, judging by Film Twitter fervor, well find out later this week if it lives up to the hype. Josh E.

Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)

When I saw an early still from Another Round, starring Mads Mikkelsen, I assumed it was a racing picture set in Europe, with the actor at the center drinking champagne from the bottle and surrounded by captains hat-wearing 20-somethings. Rather, Another Round is about racing to get tipsy. The title should have tipped me off, but the convivial fun pictured isnt an image Ive seen associated with drinking since John Cassavetes Husbands. Marking a reteam with The Hunt director Thomas Vinterberg, the story follows a group of high school teachers who try to maintain a level of inebriation throughout the day to see what it inspires in them. If Churchill won WWII in a heavy daze of alcohol, who knows what a few drops might do for them? Josh E.

Beginning (Dea Kulumbegashvili)

One of the biggest pleasures of any film festival is the arrival of a new voice. A title that has caught our eye in this regard is Dea Kulumbegashvilis directorial debut Beginning. Initially selected as a Cannes premiere, itll now debut at TIFF before coming to NYFF. Shot on 35mm and featuring a score by Nicols Jaar, the drama follows a Jehovahs Witness missionary who seeks justice in a remote Georgian village. While not much else is known about this Georgian directors debut, were hoping it will make for a major discovery this fall. Jordan R.

Concrete Cowboy (Ricky Staub)

Greg Neris novel Ghetto Cowboy has been adapted by first-time feature director Ricky Staub and co-written with producer Dan Walser for the intriguing drama Concrete Cowboy, starring Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things), and Jharrel Jerome (When They See Us). Having its world premiere in the Next Wave category, Concrete Cowboy stars Elba as a Black cowboy Harp on the streets of North Philly, who reconciles with his troubled son Cole, played by McLaughlin.When Cole agrees to do grunt work at his fathers stable his life begins to turn around. His new freedom comes under threat when childhood friend Smush, played by Jerome, tempts him with drug dealing. Josh E.

David Byrnes American Utopia (Spike Lee)

A perfect way to open this years TIFF, not to mention a movie of the moment if there ever was one, David Byrnes American Utopia is set to debut at the festival before NYFF and a premiere on HBO next month. Having had the chance to see the Broadway performance before the world was struck by the pandemic, American Utopia a euphoric, joyous experience that I imagine director Spike Lee will capture with much fervor and passion. Shot by Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dave Chappelles Block Party), I look forward to seeing what most caught her eye in this filmed version. Jordan R.

Fauna (Nicols Pereda)

Following up his TIFF, Locarno, and NYFF selection My Skin, Luminous, Mexican-Canadian director Nicols Pereda is back with the 70-minute Fauna. An clever, meta exploration of how the violence in Mexico reverberates through culture and imagination, it actually sets up a surprisingly humorous tale that should put this director deservedly on the radar of more viewers. Jordan R.

Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer)

After going Into the Inferno withClive Oppenheimer, the duo will look to the skies for their next cinematic exploration. With production already underway, Fireballfinds them exploring sites that may yieldinsight into comets and meteorites, helping them understand what they can tell us about the origins of life on Earth. With Herzogs singular voice, we look forward to his thoughts on the galaxy and, perhaps, our own planets demise. Jordan R.

Good Joe Bell (Reinaldo Marcus Green)

Since breaking out with the drama Monsters and Men, starring John David Washington, Anthony Ramos, and Kelvin Harrison Jr., director Reinaldo Marcus Green has been developing two major projects. While the pandemic delayed production of his Will Smith-led biopic King Richard, about the father of Venus and Serena Williams, hes completed Good Joe Bell, a drama which finds Mark Wahlberg returning to a more grounded, dramatic realm in the true story of an Oregon father who sets out to walk across American to raise awareness about the effects of bullying after his son committed suicide. It has the makings for a poignant, powerful drama with a script by the Brokeback Mountain team of Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Jordan R.

MLK/FBI (Sam Pollard)

Recent declassified documents show the length the FBI went to neutralizing King as an effective Negro leader, according to a memo from 1963. In Sam Pollards new documentary, MLK/FBI, he wrestles with Kings legacy as a Black Christian freedom fighter and alleged philanderer. Using research from David J. Garrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Pollard exegetes public knowledge of King through historical record, and parses through the FBIs made-up stories about the civil rights icon. Josh E.

The Inheritance (Ephraim Asili)

Ephraim Asilis feature debut invokes Godards La Chinoise in palette, structure, and playful didacticism to weave together the history of MOVE liberation group, the Black Arts Movement, and the filmmakers own formative experiences in a Black Marxist collective. The films central narrative follows a young man who inherits his grandmothers home and turns it into a Black socialist collective at the encouragement of his girlfriend. Produced, shot (on vibrant Super 16mm), written, and directed by Asili, it looks to be his break out after a handful of acclaimed shorts. Josh E.

True Mothers (Naomi Kawase)

Another Cannes-selected film that will be making its debut at Toronto International Film Festival this year is the latest drama from Naomi Kawase. The prolific Japanese directors new film True Mothers follows a couple struggling with infertility who are blessed with adopting a new daughter, only to have the daughters mother enter their lives years later. With the makings for a heartfelt look at what family means, we hope this is a TIFF standout. Jordan R.

Honorable Mentions

While weve focused on the world premieres above, theres also a handful of notable films coming to TIFF that have premiered elsewhere in the past months, some of which weve reviewed, including The Disciple, Nomadland, City Hall, Notturno, Night of the Kings, Pieces of a Woman, The Truffle Hunters, Falling, The Father, and Summer of 85. In terms of additional world premieres coming to TIFF, were also looking forward to the Naomi Watts-led Penguin Bloom, Joo Paulo Miranda Marias Memory House, and a work-in-progress version of Halle Berrys directorial debut Bruised, as well as the surprises that await in the lineup.

Follow our complete TIFF coverage here.

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Our 12 Most-Anticipated Premieres at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival - The Film Stage

Fall TV Preview 2020: New and Returning Shows to Watch – IGN India

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Fall is creeping in, which means that it's time to look forward to the TV shows that will be keeping us entertained during the chillier months of the year. Seeing as 2020 has been a most unprecedented year in every way, this year's Fall TV schedule looks a little different, so our Fall preview looks different too. Below, we've curated a list of 31 new and returning shows that we think are worth your time, including cult favorites that are being given a second chance in the wilds of 2020, K-Dramas that rival the grim menace of Hannibal, high-concept sci-fi shows, a new British action series from the twisted mind behind The Raid movies, and plenty of fresh comedies to keep you laughing.

In terms of scares this Fall, if you've been missing the undead in your life then you'll want to keep an eye out for the next generation of The Walking Dead stumbling to our screens (along with the long-delayed Walking Dead Season 10 finale, which is no longer a finale), while Netflix's follow up to its smash-hit horror series The Haunting of Hill House will be debuting just in time for Halloween. And you don't have to wait too long for your Fall TV fix: this week heralds the release of Ridley Scott's highly-anticipated TV series Raised By Wolves as well as the return of Amazon's superhero smash The Boys, which both premiere with three episodes before releasing new installments weekly. (We're also hoping for the premieres of Stranger Things Season 4 and Disney Plus' The Falcon and the Winter Soldier before the end of the year, and we'll update this list if and when they're confirmed for a 2020 release.)

Check out our top TV picks from the Fall schedule below.

This smash-hit K-drama has been taking the internet by storm and it's no surprise as this murder-mystery procedural is supremely bingeable. Flower of Evil centers on a perfect family with a dark secret: their successful, handsome patriarch is a notorious serial killer. That would be tough enough, but his wife just happens to be a local cop with a penchant for solving strange crimes...

Executive producer Ridley Scott brings this esoteric sci-fi drama to the Fall season. On a distant planet, two androids known only as Father and Mother have to raise a generation of human children after a cataclysmic event destroys Earth. Will they survive? And if not, will it be human nature or robot rebellion that will bring the downfall of the survivors? Seeming to sit somewhere between Lord of the Flies and Blade Runner, this is one of the shows we're most excited for this Fall. Check out our spoiler-free review of Raised By Wolves.

If you like your sci-fi a little more grounded (figuratively, not literally) then Away might be more your speed. Hillary Swank stars in this prestige offering as a mother, wife, and astronaut who leads an ambitious three-year mission to Mars. Away looks like it's equally as concerned with the familial life of its heroine as it is with her space adventures, offering up a family-drama tinged take on the genre, harking back to Netflix's Lost in Space reboot.

After the sterling sickness of Season 1, The Boys are back. Billy Butcher and crew caused chaos in their debut, destroying the reputations and lives of corporate superheroes The Seven. We pick up where they left off with Billy and Homelander missing, The Boys and The Seven on the hunt for their respective friends/enemies, and a scene-stealing new supervillain being introduced into the fold in the form of Aya Cash's Stormfront.

Co-created by cartoonist Keith Knight, Woke stars Lamorne Morris as an artist who is assaulted by the police just as his career is about to really get started. The incident makes Keef "woke," meaning in this context that he can see and hear all kinds of strange new voices and creatures around him. Think of They Live mixed with Bojack Horseman and you're halfway there.

Jude Law and Naomie Harris in a folk-horror fever dream? Yes, please. The iconic actors star here as visitors to a strange and haunting island where nothing is as it seems. Split into three parts -- Summer, Autumn, and Winter -- the show weaves the three apparently disparate stories together offering up secrets, twists, and unexpected connections. If you're looking for something to chill you this Fall, then look no further than The Third Day.

Get ready to get gory! Capcom's hack and slash classic Dragon's Dogma is coming to Netflix in the form of a gorgeous new anime series, just in time for the spookiest of seasons. As the game is an action RPG we expect lots of magic, mayhem, and monster hunting. We're hoping it'll be just as dark and delightful as the streamer's wildly popular Castlevania adaptation.

Though you might not be too excited about an animated Jurassic Park series, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous is here to surprise, delight, and scare. Following a group of teens beta-testing the new park's summer camp scheme in the lead-up to the events of the first Jurassic World movie, this is a great addition to Jurassic Park canon and offers up some legit scary moments.

Sarah Paulson and Ryan Murphy have been scaring the living daylights out of us for years with American Horror Story and they're teaming up again for this One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest prequel. Reimagining the origin of the notorious villain from that brutally bleak classic, Paulson takes on the titular role, aiming to bring a broader life and backstory to the tyrannical nurse.

If you didn't catch this hilarious nostalgia-fest the first time 'round, you've still got time to catch up before the second season hits. Created by and starring Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle, this series features the creators as themselves in middle school and it's just as gross, hilarious, and dramatic as being a teen actually was. The second season will feature more strange shenanigans that are likely to make you cringe and cry in equal measure.

Based on one of the best British TV shows ever made, Utopia focuses on a group of ragtag heroes who have to save the world via the medium of comic books. Without spoiling too much, the crew have to use the titular tale to uncover a shocking conspiracy and potentially take down a shady but powerful group who are orchestrating it. If this Rainn Wilson-fronted remake comes even close to the original, Utopia will easily be one of the best shows of the year.

The biggest true-crime release of the season, this new FX series is based on Errol Morris' novel A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald. It focuses on MacDonald, a military surgeon who was convicted of killing his family but claimed they were killed by a group of roving killers. The trailer hints that there may be more to the story than we know and that MacDonald may truly be innocent of the crimes which have kept him incarcerated since 1982.

Chris Rock stars in the latest season of the popular crime anthology as the head of a Black crime family in Kansas City. Rock and his crew have escaped the Jim Crow south for a better life and find themselves butting heads with the local mafia. But when the two bosses trade their youngest sons in an effort to forge a more solid alliance, their fates are changed forever.

The Raid's Gareth Evans turns his eye to the London streets in this smash-hit import from the UK. AMC has picked up the first season, which is just as brutal as Evans' previous work, and paints a grim picture of a London torn apart by international gang wars and struggles for power that are incited when the head of one of the biggest crime organizations is killed. Check out a behind-the-scenes look at Gangs of London here.

Another anthology horror series headed to our screens this Fall is Monsterland, based on Nathan Ballingruds short story collection, North American Lake Monsters. Starring, among others, Kelly Marie Tran, Kaitlyn Dever, Jonathan Tucker, Taylor Schilling, and Nicole Beharie, the show will tell eight stories of monsters, magic, and mystery.

Inspired by the writings of Bruce Lee and his dream for a TV series that was rejected by networks during his lifetime (and ripped off for the David Carradine-led Kung Fu), Cinemaxs stunning martial arts epic returns this fall. Andrew Koji leads the period drama as Ah Sahm, an enigmatic Chinese immigrant finding his way in San Francisco during the brutal Tong Wars.

Ethan Hawke stars as controversial abolitionist John Brown in this stylish limited series based on the novel of the same name by James McBride. The series is told from the point of view of Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson), a fictional enslaved boy who becomes a member of Browns motley family of abolitionist soldiers during Bleeding Kansas a time when the state was a battleground between pro- and anti-slavery forces and eventually finds himself participating in the famous 1859 raid on the U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry.

If you have zombie fatigue, The Walking Dead: World Beyond might offer a cure. Fresh, fun, and filled with dynamic new characters as well as a whole bunch of new TWD lore, this is a vibrant reimagining of the world first introduced in the comic books over a decade ago. Set in a safe-haven during the apocalypse, this is a world unlike any that we've ever seen in The Walking Dead universe before. Although things might seem like they're better in the walled compound, the horrors still creep in.

AMC's new anthology series is akin to Black Mirror if the theme of each episode was explored over a full season. The concept here is that we're 15 years in the future where the technology exists to find your soulmate via an app. Each episode will be a singular story highlighting the impacts, both good and bad, of the technology and how it changes the lives of those who interact with it.

Though it slipped under pretty much every radar when it was released on DC Universe and cruelly canceled after airing just one episode, thanks to the insanity of 2020, Swamp Thing is back. Beginning with a feature-length season opener, the story of Abby Arcane and the mythical Swamp Thing will air weekly on The CW and will be available the next day on The CW app.

The horrors of Silicon Valley and the dangers of A.I. are explored in Fox's new sci-fi drama which centers on a one-time wunderkind who has to battle his own brother in order to stop a rogue A.I. potentially taking over the world. In the vein of procedurals everywhere, that exciting setup will introduce us to a Homeland Security tech-division which is tasked with battling the A.I. terror.

We never thought it would arrive, but hell must have frozen over because the final episodes of Supernatural are coming and without some divine intervention the long-running show will finally end for good this November. The brothers Winchester are back for one final ride in Baby as one of the few shows from this year that will be debuting new episodes. Now the big question for the team that has guided the show for a decade and a half is... how do you finish a series like Supernatural?

Mike Flanagans stunning The Haunting of Hill House left viewers chilled when it dropped in 2018. His followup features a similarly spooky locale but with a new twist. Based on the classic horror novel The Turn of the Screw, Flanagan is turning his eye to Gothic Romance here, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't expect some solid scares and more hidden ghouls lurking in the shadows when The Haunting of Bly Manor premieres.

National Geographic's first scripted series for Disney+ is a fresh take on the story of Americas first astronauts, the Mercury 7, starring Patrick J. Adams, Jake McDorman, Colin ODonoghue, James Lafferty, Aaron Staton, Michael Trotter, and Micah Stock. The eight-episode series, based on the bestselling book by Tom Wolfe (which inspired the iconic 1983 film from Philip Kaufman), explores the early days of the space race from the perspective of the people leading the charge.

After that massive Season 2 time-jump, fans are eager to find out what's going to happen next to Michael, Saru, and the rest of the Discovery crew. Whatever happens next you can expect some episodes to be directed by Riker himself, Jonathan Frakes, and a whole bunch of deep-space-shenanigans when Discovery returns in October.

The last of Marvel's live-action shows from the Jeph Loeb era, this chilling take on a lesser-known Marvel character is arriving just in time for Halloween. Offering a fresh spin on the comics, the horror series centers on siblings Daimon and Ana Helstrom, the offspring of a horrendous serial-murderer who, according to the official description, "hunt the worst of humanity." Expect demonic scares and some deep-cut Marvel Comics easter eggs, even if it's unlikely to tie into the wider MCU.

We'd watch Anya Taylor-Joy in literally anything, but luckily the actress has a taste for interesting, complex roles that perfectly suit her diverse talents. Her newest project is the Netflix miniseries based on Walter Tevis' novel of the same name. The six-episode series focuses on Taylor-Joy's orphan chess prodigy as she battles with addiction and fights to become a Grandmaster of the game.

Disney loves to keep their cards close to their chest, so we don't know much about the plot of the hotly-anticipated second season, but it's a fair guess that the series will continue to follow the titular Mandalorian and his adopted alien child, aka the cultural phenomenon known as Baby Yoda. Anticipation is especially high given the rumors that iconic Star Wars characters like Boba Fett (reportedly again to be played by Temuera Morrison), Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), and Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) might be joining the cast in Season 2.

Yakko, Wakko, and Dot have been terrorizing Hollywood for decades, but it's been a while since we've seen them return in new stories. Luckily, Hulu is delivering an entirely new season of Animaniacs this November and it will even include other iconic Warner Bros. Animation characters like Pinky and the Brain. Get ready for some maniacal hijinx and likely a few celebrity cameos as the Warner siblings are unleashed once again.

Inuyasha shaped many of our teenage years and Rumiko Takahashi's beloved series is back. Following the children of Inuyasha and Kagome and the daughter of Sesshmaru and a mystery partner as they embark on a journey through time, this looks to continue the story in a perfect fashion. The series will air in Japan in October, but as Takahashi's US publisher Viz has been widely promoting the series we expect it to be hitting North American screens pretty soon after.

History Channel's epic and brutal series is coming to an end, with the final episodes set to air sometime later this year. After the devastating battle that capped off the first half of this season and the shocking power shift that it heralded there's plenty of questions to be answered and skulls to be cracked as we head into Vikings' final voyage.

What are you most looking forward to watching this Fall? Share your picks in the comments.

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Fall TV Preview 2020: New and Returning Shows to Watch - IGN India

Touch of Early October – But Minnesota is Getting Off Easy Compared to Much of USA – Minneapolis Star Tribune

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The United States of Weather Extremes

2020 has been a volatile, jaw-dropping year - and disruption applies to America's weather. In recent days I've witnessed things I've never seen before. 121F in the suburbs of Los Angeles. A 5 year drought fueling massive California wildfires, billowing smoke thousands of miles downwind. While the west bakes Denver just dropped 60 degrees in 2 days; from 100F to 30s and snow, in a meteorological blink of an eye. "Paulette" has formed in the Atlantic, the 16th storm and earliest P-name on record. And now there's Tropical Storm Rene, the earliest R-name on record.

Our instant autumn continues, after a warm, wet summer. Dr. Mark Seeley says the summer months will rank 17th wettest and top four warmest on record, statewide.

A stalled frontal boundary sparks rain from this afternoon into Wednesday, with temperatures 20-25F below average. Showery rains return late Friday into Saturday, but we salvage sunshine and low 70s on Sunday.

Yes, we will see more spasms of warmth, more 70s and a few 80s. My closet is a jumbled mess: jackets and shorts, together.

No shame in that.

Image credit above: NOAA.

2020: One of the Four Warmest Summers on Record for Minnesota. So says Dr. Mark Seeley at Minnesota WeatherTalk: "...On a statewide basis this was one of the top 4 warmest summers in history (since 1895, averaging nearly 3 degrees F above normal for all three months combined. The summer of 1988 remains the warmest in state history, but 2020 will follow close behind with 1933 and 1983. Within the climate station network of Minnesota this summer 135 daily maximum temperature records were set or tied, while 143 warm daily minimum temperature records were set or tied. The highest temperature was 102F at Granite Falls on June 7th. In addition, Benson, Sabin, Artichoke Lake, Milan, and Morris all reported at least one day with 100F as well..."

Photo credit: Paul Douglas.

Massive Smoke Plume. The smoke from scores of fires raging from California to Colorado encompasses much of the southwestern USA. Remember, we are at the beginning of the traditional fire season for western states. Image credit: AerisWeather.

Crazy Extremes. The map above shows predicted daytime highs on Tuesday (NOAA NDFD data) and potential records (boxed) across the USA. Nothing like easing into autumn. Map credit: weathermodels.com.

Everything is Connected. Typhoons in the western Pacific helping to amplify weather patterns thousands of miles downwind? Happens more than you suspect.

What's That Blue Stuff? Wet snow for the Nebraska Panhandle. Consider this a shot across the bow. No accumulating snow for Minnesota anytime soon, but the maps are looking more like late September - early October. Future radar loop courtesy of NOAA (NAM model), Praedictix and AerisWeather.

Slow Warming Trend - Sunday Probably Nicer Day of Weekend. Light rain and drizzle lingers into Wednesday, with a dry Thursday giving way to instabiiity showers Friday PM into Saturday, but by Sunday this latest slow-motion frontal boundary should finally shove east of Minnesota. Map sequence above: Praedictix and AerisWeather.

Don't Pack Away the Short Shorts Just Yet. Unusually chilly weather lingers into Wednesday, but temperatures will moderate later in the week with a streak of 70s likely next week as Minnesota temperatures return to average. MSP Meteogram: WeatherBell.

Frequent Cool Frontal Passages. The south and west is forecast to bake for most of September, but a series of Canadian swipes will take the edge off the heat for northern tier states, if NOAA's GFS model looking out 2 weeks is to be believed.

2020 Was Hottest Summer on Record for Dozens of US Cities. ABC News explains: "...Some of the nation's largest cities recorded their hottest climatological summers on record this year, including destinations like Phoenix, Tucson and Sacramento, according to the National Weather Service. In Phoenix, the country's sixth-largest city, residents saw average temperatures of about 96.7 degrees -- almost 1.6 degrees above the previous summer record, the NWS said Wednesday...Meanwhile, cities like Palm Springs, Las Vegas, Vero Beach, Florida, Flagstaff, Arizona and Sarasota, Florida, saw their hottest August temperatures ever..."

August 2020 Heat: World's Fourth Warmest on Record. Bloomberg reports: "August 2020 will go down asthe fourth-warmest on record worldwide, with above average summertime heat in the U.S. and Mexicotempered slightly by below average temperatures in parts ofthe Southern Hemisphere. Global temperatures for the month spiked around 0.9 degrees Celsius above the historical average, according to a new report by Europes Copernicus Climate Change Service. That reading came in lower than thesummers of 2018 and 2019, the agency said in a statement..."

Image credit: Copernicus.

Praedictix Briefing: Issued Monday morning, September 7th, 2020:

Southwest Heat Concerns

Excessive Heat Warnings. We are tracking a dangerous, historic heat wave across the Southwest continuing today across the region. Yesterday, Downtown Los Angeles (111F) saw their third warmest high in recorded history with Downtown San Francisco (100F) tying for their eighth warmest day on record. Meanwhile, the warmest temperature ever recorded in Los Angeles County (121F Woodland Hills) and San Luis Obispo County (117F Paso Robles) occurred yesterday as well. Dangerous, record breaking heat will continue across the region today with Excessive Heat Warnings in place, though it should likely be slightly cooler than yesterday in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. Heres a look at expected highs today across the region:

Extreme Fire Danger

Extreme Fire Danger Today. Meanwhile, the fire danger is ramping up quickly across the western United States. Due to a strong area of high pressure pushing south into the northern U.S. Rockies and a trough along the Pacific Coast, very strong offshore winds are expected across portions of the Pacific Northwest, in and around the Portland area, today. Widespread winds of 20-30 mph with gusts above 60 mph in higher elevations along with low humidity values and very dry fuels are leading to an Extreme Fire Danger. However, other areas of Critical Fire Danger are in place across the western United States due to very dry fuels (which the recent heat waves had contributed to), low humidity values, and gusty winds. Some of this is due to a strong cold front sinking south across northern California/southern Oregon eastward, and just due to the heating of the day in southern California.

Fire Danger Continues Tuesday. Critical fire danger will continue across several areas of the western United States Tuesday due to the continued low humidity values, gusty winds, and very dry fuels. As we head toward late Tuesday and into Wednesday, a Santa Ana wind event is expected across southern California.

Fire Weather Watches/Warnings. Due to the expected volatile fire weather conditions across the western United States, a wide area is under Fire Weather Watches and Warnings.

Ongoing Fires. Of course, we are still tracking numerous wildfires across the region - of which these expected weather conditions will not help containment. Of note are a couple of fires:

Get more information on wildfires burning out west from:

September Snowstorm

Winter Storm Warnings. Meanwhile, an area of low pressure will be dropping south into the Four Corners region as we head through today into Tuesday, bringing a dramatic blast of cold air and snow across the Rockies into the Front Range over the next couple of days. Snow will also be possible into the Black Hills of South Dakota. Ahead of this September snowstorm, Winter Weather Advisories and Winter Storm Warnings are in place, including in the following areas:

Snow Forecast. The heaviest snow will fall in the mountains at higher elevations where over a foot could be possible. Our forecast right now has Cheyenne picking up around 9 of snow with Denver seeing around 5 through the duration of the storm.

Denver Temperature Drop. Temperatures will quickly drop across the Denver metro as we head into the overnight hours. Highs in Denver today will top off in the low 90s, but quickly drop through the late evening hours to around 50F by 10 PM and into the 30s by early Tuesday morning with precipitation changing from rain to snow.

Atlantic Tropical Update

Paulette And Eighteen Forms. As we look at the Atlantic, we are tracking two named system out in the central and eastern Atlantic. Tropical Storm Paulette poses no threat to land over the next five days as it continues to move west-northwest to northwest. Some gradual strengthening is expected the next couple of days before it starts to weaken. Were also tracking Tropical Depression Eighteen out near the Cabo Verde Islands. That system is expected to become a Tropical Storm later today and due to that Tropical Storm Warnings are in place for the Cabo Verde Islands. It looks to strengthen into a hurricane later this week but should curve northward. Were also tracking an area of low pressure south of Bermuda that has a low (30%) chance of development as it continues to move westward. Meanwhile, another tropical wave will move off Africa in a few days with gradual development expected after that time (40% chance of development in the next five days).

D.J. Kayser, Meteorologist, Praedictix.

Does Warm Weather Impact Covid-19? There are no conclusive results (that I'm aware of) that indicate that hot weather reduces the odds of infection. Big Think analyzes some of the factors in play: "...One factor, according to Sciencing, that may increase your susceptibility in cold weather is how your sinuses respond to the humidity and temperature changes. Your nose is a natural air filter for your body. When you spend time in cold temperatures, your nasal passages dry out due to the constriction of blood vessels...One common reason why virus infections may become more common during cold months is that more people are spending time indoors (and together). As research has determined, social distancing can heavily impact the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Being clustered closer together indoors can increase the likelihood of transmission, giving the effect of the virus spreading faster in the colder months..."

File image: CDC.

How to Handle a Jerk. I needed this advice from The Wall Street Journal (paywall) now more than ever. This applies to social media, too. Don't engage, just mute, block or walk away. Here's an excerpt: "...Dealing with an everyday jerk is a two-part process. Part one: Do not engage. Once the jerkiness comes outin your example, when the guy began berating you for pointing out his errorseparate yourself from the encounter. Remember: Youre extremely unlikely to change someone elses bad behavior. And the more you call that person out, the more likely he or she is going to get defensive and double down on it. Keep calm and remain polite. Remove yourself physically if possible. Take some comfort in the fact that unless the person is a straight-up sociopath, he or she probably feels some sense of shame when left alone acting like an idiot..."

64 F. maximum MSP temperature on Labor Day (shortly after midnight).

75 F. average high on September 7.

67 F. Twin Cities high temperature on September 7.

September 8, 1985: An F1 tornado touches down in Faribault County causing $25,000 worth of damage, and hail up to 1 3/4 inches falls in Freeborn and Waseca Counties.

September 8, 1968: 1 3/4 inch hail falls in Goodhue County.

September 8, 1931: A record high is set in St. Cloud with a temperature of 102 degrees Fahrenheit.

TUESDAY: Dry start, PM rain. Winds: NE 10-20. High: 52

WEDNESDAY: More light rain and drizzle. Winds: NE 7-12. Wake-up: 45. High: 53

THURSDAY: Behold, the sun! Comfortable. Winds: S 3-8. Wake-up: 44. High: 63

FRIDAY: Sunny start, PM showers, T-storms. Winds: SE 10-15. Wake-up: 49. High: 66

SATURDAY: Unstable with more pop-up showers. Winds: NW 7-12. Wake-up: 56. High: 69

SUNDAY: Nicer day, plenty of sunshine. Winds: NW 5-10. Wake-up: 54. High: 68

MONDAY: Partly sunny, milder breeze. Winds: S 10-15. Wake-up: 50. High: 74

Climate Stories...

Climate Whiplash: Wild Swings in Extreme Weather Are on the Rise. Yale E360 explains: "...These wild swings from one weather extreme to another are symptomatic of a phenomenon, variously known as climate whiplash or weather whiplash, that scientists say is likely to increase as the world warms. The intensity of wildfires these days in places like California are a symptom of climate change, experts say, but the whiplash effect poses a different set of problems for humans and natural systems. Researchers project that by the end of this century, the frequency of these abrupt transitions between wet and dry will increase by 25 percent in Northern California and as much as double in Southern California if greenhouse gasses continue to increase..."

File photo: "Firefighters battle the Maria Fire in Santa Paula, California on November 1." AP Photo/Noah Berger.

Connecting the Dots. A consistently hotter, drier climate is helping to fan the flames of larger, longer, more extreme fires, especially California. Graphics above courtesy of Envent Lab.

Leeside, USA: The Making of a Climate Utopia. There is no Leeside (yet) but every community will have to use new methods and materials to build resilience, no matter what a more volatile climate throws at us. Here's an excerpt from Quartz: "Its 2057 and no life has been untouched by the realities of a warming globe. But mere decades ago, at the dawn of the 21st century, Americans were only just waking to this truth. Rising seas, powerful storms, and raging fires were destroying their cities, rendering homes uninhabitable, and dismantling livelihoods. Residents affected by such loss began to ask, Where will we go? In an increasingly isolationist world, many responded, Not here. But Leeside opened its doors. And after years of implementing innovative policies benefiting both the environment and the citys residents, the United Nations inaugurated Leeside as the United States first Green Haven in 2035. Now, the city is recognized as a model of successful adaptationphysical, economic, and socialto a world in which cities and their communities are transformed by the millions seeking shelter from the storm..."

Democratic Leaders Want to Know Why Facebook's New Oversight Board Won't Deal with Climate Lies. Seems like we have an algorithm (or oversight) problem, according to Mother Jones: "...The dispute is over a loophole in Facebooks leaky fact-checking operation that has allowed climate change deniers to circumvent fact-checkers and spread misinformation meant to mislead readers about the reliability of climate modeling. E&E News Scott Waldman reported how the denier group CO2 Coalition has been able to run ads on Facebook based on claims that arent supported by peer-review climate science. In one instance last year, Waldman found that independent fact-checkers flagged the post as false, temporarily blocked it, but a conservative staffer at Facebook overrode them to remove the false label. Ever since, the CO2 Coalition was able to share its false content because Facebook categorized it as opinion and therefore exempt from fact-checking..."

IPCC: the Dirty Tricks Climate Scientists Faced in Three Decades Since First Report. The Conversation lays out a persistent campaign of deception and disinformation: "...In 1996, there were sustained attacks on climate scientist Ben Santer, who had been responsible for synthesising text in the IPCCs second assessment report. He was accused of having tampered with wording and somehow twisting the intent of IPCC authors by Fred Seitz of the Global Climate Coalition. In the late 1990s, Michael Mann, whose famous hockey stick diagram of global temperatures was a key part of the third assessment report, came under fire from right-wing thinktanks and even the Attorney General of Virginia. Mann called this attempt to pick on scientists perceived to be vulnerable to pressure the Serengeti strategy..."

How Kids are Inspiring Adults to Address Climage Change. Here's an excerpt of a post at NC State News: "...As we all know, climate change is a highly politicized issue. Political ideology is consistently one of the major drivers of climate change perceptions, regardless how much people understand science. This might be because politics influences the types of information we seek and how we interpret it. In fact, one study found that the climate change risk perceptions of people who are better at science and numbers are more polarized. Kids, however, seem to behave in the opposite way. We did a study in 2012 that found that at low levels of climate change understanding, kids are just as polarized as adults. But, when they learn more about the science behind climate change, the ideology-driven polarization disappears..."

The Sitting President Has No Climate Plan. Why Isn't That Headline News? Maybe it gets lost amid the chaos, denial and campaign donations? Here's an excerpt from The Columbia Journalism Review: "THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES has no plan to address the climate crisis. This is not a partisan observation; it is a fact, supported by Donald Trumps own statements and the Republican Party platform, which, as in 2016, outrightly dismisses the climate threat and ridicules efforts to mitigate it. On August 23, the eve of the Republican National Convention, the presidents team released a bulleted list of Trumps priorities for a second term. The word climate did not appear once. Given the unparalleled and scientifically incontrovertible threat that climate change presents, this is shocking, though it is not a surprise..."

See the article here:

Touch of Early October - But Minnesota is Getting Off Easy Compared to Much of USA - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Predicting the Future: Marketing science or marketing myth? – CMO

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Kathy Benson

Kathy is the chief client officer for Ipsos Australia and New Zealand and has 29 years experience as a strategic researcher specialising in assisting companies and brands to stay in sync with consumers and abreast of the latest consumer trends and behaviours. Kathy has held the Australian Market and Social Research Societys professional accreditation of QPMR (Qualified Practicing Market Researcher) since its introduction in 2002, and conducts both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, combining advanced research capability with strong strategy skills. Kathy has directedmany large-scale and complex studies for clients across CPG and FMCG, telecommunications, financial services, entertainment and tourism, retail, education, infrastructure and transport.Kathy has a Bachelor of Business (with Distinction) and a Master of Marketing from Queensland University of Technology.

Unicorns, the Sunken City of Atlantis, Zeus: They are very famous. So famous in fact, that we often think twice about whether they are real or not. Sometimes if we talk about something widely enough, and for long enough, even the strangest fiction can seem like fact. But ultimately it is still fiction - stories we make up and tell ourselves over and over until we believe.

Some marketing commentators say attempting to predict the future falls into that realm. Future-spotting is impossible they say a fictitious story we are being told, or we are telling ourselves to meet an agenda, and mostly, it is an insidious agenda. It might be consultants attempting to make a sale, or marketing professionals trying to avoid the practical and harsh realities of dealing with current market situations.

For whatever reason, we have long been fascinated with all manner of crystal ball gazing such as future-casting, foresight and trends-watching. Why? What makes the future so important?

Quite simply, every single marketing initiative we undertake is an investment of critical and hard-fought dollars desperately anguished over. Marketers need to achieve a return on investment. The biggest success a marketing professional can achieve in their career is to understand not just what people want and need now, but to predict what they might want and need in the future. These are the latent needs in the market, the unknown unknowns, the problems people have they arent even aware of. And meeting these first can be Willy Wonkas golden ticket.

If 2020 is the year of marketing pain, 2021 might just be the year of marketing opportunity. Despite everything the world has withstood this year, the extent of change and volatility presents a wealth of possible and unfulfilled opportunity. Old entrenched behaviours have shifted and continue to shift, attitudes have pivoted, new needs have emerged, beliefs are evolving, and consumers are looking for inspiration and leadership. The next few years will be a utopia of opportunity for brands.

However, there is a massive stumbling block in front of us, and that is that we are scared. 2020 has left us feeling even less equipped than ever to take a chance on investing in new initiatives. However, when we think about it, our future was always uncertain. If someone had told us this time last year that wearing face masks outside would be mandatory in Victoria, that crossing Australian state borders required permission, or that cruises could be a thing of the past, it would have seemed like science fiction.

Most of us probably didnt think about it at all. Those who did probably envisioned 2020 being somewhat similar to 2019 with a few tweaks here and there. This time last year we werent all talking about an uncertain future and yet, it was just as uncertain then as it is now. Most of us dont bother, but even when we do, we are not great at predicting the future.

Here are a few examples of very bad predictions:

These predictions were made by experienced business professionals. But do a Google search of The Simpsons and their predictions, and they seemingly got it uncannily right up to 30 times.

Above: The Simpsons introduced the concept of a watch you could use as a phone in 1995, nearly 20 years before the Apple watch was released.

So, what is going on? How can industry experts on one hand get it so wrong while a cult comedy cartoon gets it right? Is it all just completely random, or is there any science to it at all?

There is a science and it is called Behavioural Science.

Behaviours change all the time, but normally they change at incremental rates and maybe not all at once. The impact of COVID-19 this year has created tsunami of change. Much of that change might revert, some might endure long-term and some might carry on and then fade away.

Figure 2 Ipsos Behaviour Change MAPPS framework

Whether we are trying to create behaviour change or determine whether a naturally occurring behaviour change will endure we need to look at five elements:

Abraham Lincoln once said: The best way to predict your future is to create it. Using Behavioural Science, brands and organisations can play a role in shaping the future by shaping peoples behaviours.

Understanding and practicing Behavioural Science principles can empower marketers to create their own future. There is no need to sit back and wait for the uncertain future to hit and nor is there any a need to make big, risky and ambitious predictions. The smart marketer will use a simple but effective four-step process:

The key to predicting the future is taking a scientific approach combined with creative thinking to build multiple future scenarios. How do we know which one will transpire? We dont, but the smart marketer develops a roadmap for each.

All scenarios have elements that will come true, but no single scenario is likely to happen in its entirety. They may all contain elements of the future but none of them is the future.

When it comes to predicting the future, it is not about being right, its about being prepared.

Tags: behavioural science, marketing strategy

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Predicting the Future: Marketing science or marketing myth? - CMO

David Byrne apologizes for blackface in 1984 Talking Heads video: ‘I have changed’ – USA TODAY

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Talking Heads frontman David Byrne talks about the musical, 'Here Lies Love' with star, Jaygee Macapugay. He co-wrote the immersive theater production with Fat Boy Slim. (November 21)

The former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne is expressing remorse for his "huge blind spot" after a1984 skit of the musician donning blackfacesurfaced.

Ina promotional videofor the 1984 concert film "Stop Making Sense,"Byrne portrays different characters as he interviews himself.At one point, he portrays an interviewer of color, where he wears brown body paint.

TheBritish-Americansinger, 68,tweetedTuesdaythat the resurfaced clip was brought to his attention recently by a journalist. Although he admits hehad "forgotten about this skit,"Byrne said he's"grateful" someone took the time to point out his"major mistake in judgement."

"To watch myself in the various characters, including black and brown face, I acknowledge it was a major mistake in judgement that showed a lack of real understanding," Byrnesaidin a series of tweets. "Its like looking in a mirror and seeing someone else- youre not, or were not, the person you thought you were."

More: Howard Stern addresses blackface skit that uses N-word after Donald Trump Jr. calls him out

Byrne said he hopes others can examine his past with "honesty and accountability," while having the "grace and understanding" to acknowledgethat "someone like me, anyone really, can grow and change."

David Byrne presents a trophy at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Barclays Center in New York.(Photo: Evan Agostini, Invision/AP)

"Id like to think I am beyond making mistakes like this, but clearly at the time I was not," he tweeted. "Like I say at the end of our Broadway show American Utopia 'I need to change too'..and I believe I have changed since then."

Byrne's 2019Broadway show "American Utopia" has been adapted into an HBO documentary directed by Spike Lee.

American Utopia playedat New Yorks Hudson Theatre from October 2019 through February 2020. A fall return was planned before the pandemic shuttered Broadway through the end of the year. The show features Byrne and 11 musical artists from around the world performing songs from the 2018 album of the same title, as well as Talking Heads hits.

The film will premiere at the 45th Toronto International Film Festival on September 10 and drop on HBO in October.

Spike Lee's David Byrne documentarywill open Toronto International Film Festival

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David Byrne apologizes for blackface in 1984 Talking Heads video: 'I have changed' - USA TODAY

Seattle Writer Nisi Shawl Casts a Spell on the Science Fiction Community – southseattleemerald.com

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by Beverly Aarons

In the Wizard of Oz (or The Wiz, if you grew up Black like me in the 80s) Dorothys ruby-red slippers could transport the wearer to anywhere in the world. Three taps and poof youre back in Kansas. Its that same magical spirit that science fiction writer Nisi Shawl taps into in their numerous tales of utopia which transport readers to future versions better versions of our world with just a turn of the page.

I think that writing was the closest that I could come to being a magician, which is what I really wanted to do, you know transform the world, Shawl said.

A winner of the 2020 Locus Award, a 2016 Nebula Award nominee, and the 2008 James Tiptree, Jr. Award winner, Nisi Shawl has been transporting readers to better worlds since they first published their short story I Was a Teenage Genetic Engineer in Semiotext(e) in 1989. They said that they want to write fiction from a place of hope, using compelling and realistic visions of a better world. When I asked Shawl during our telephone interview exactly what a better world would look like, their answer intrigued me.

I would say it would likely be some sort of socialism, Shawl said. The book Im working on now, Kinning, is the sequel to my first novel, Everfair. In it there are these Chinese anarchists running around in 1920 trying to get people to consume this plant material that causes empathy. They paused and gave a mischievous laugh. So I think it would be a very empathic world.

In Shawls vision of the future, people would treat each other like extended family. And in a healthy family there is empathy people care about what is happening to each other. Kinning will explore the process of making kin out of people who have no biological ties and who may even be oppressive. That surprised me. I wanted to know why Shawl believes it is important to make kin out of strangers even an oppressor.

Well, because when we make an in-group, a lot of times we do that by making an out-group, Shawl said. And that divides not just the world but our own selves. So to be whole selves, we need to be a more embracing community. We need to be a more inclusive community. Sometimes inclusion can come to [oppressors] as unwelcome, which is another thing Im trying to deal with in this novel. It can be overwhelming to be brought into a community that you have been trying to suppress.

Shawl believes that bringing an oppressor into community is critical because, Otherwise they will continue to try and suppress you successfully or unsuccessfully. They will keep trying.

But how exactly do you neutralize an enemy? The answer to that is something explored in the short story The Water Museum which is a part of Shawls collection of short stories, Filter House, and was recently featured on LaVar Burtons podcast.

The cultivation of better worlds isnt limited to Shawls fiction; its a lifelong journey to improve representation and diversity in the science fiction writing community. In 1997, Shawl helped found the Carl Brandon Society, an organization committed to addressing the representation of People of Color in the fantastical genres such as science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Shawl says that the reason the Carl Brandon Society exists is to give People of Color an opportunity to add their voices to the conversation about what our worlds future could/should look like. For Shawls part, its a world more hopeful than dystopian.

Theres an idea that science fiction, fantasy, and horror that all speculative and imaginative writing is a form of thought experiment, Shawl said. So you try to come up with a way in which the world is different and work out all of the ramifications of a change. Some of the changes in a story are based on fear. Some are based on hope. Some are completely neutral and then depend on the reader for the inflection. But I try to go for the stories that are based on a hopeful take on the world and an optimistic one.

And that optimism has fueled many of the changes that Shawl has experienced since the late 90s, a time when there were so few Black and POC science fiction writers getting published that Nisi could personally greet each one at the science fiction conventions they attended each year.

There were like four or maybe five black people I wont say writing science fiction getting science fiction that they had written published, Shawl said.

But now, when someone wants a tally of POC science fiction writers, dozens of names can be listed writers who are published with legacy publishers and small presses as well as self-published authors. Its the kind of result that makes Shawl hopeful for the future. But there are some drawbacks: as the number of successful Black and POC science fiction writers have ascended to prominence, fame, and recognition, racism driven by fear has emerged.

Shawl spoke of how science fiction and fantasy writer N.K. Jemison was called a half savage after winning multiple Hugo Awards for her writing.

Shes popular. Shes selling novels and short stories and shes not alone, Shawl said. Shes part of the movement, and thats threatened to some people.

Shawl said that for some authors, the large influx of Black and POC writers into the science fiction community threatens their profits. The racism emerges because they fear that if people are buying copies of that, then theyre not buying copies of someone elses stuff that is not part of that movement, Shawl said.

But newcomers shouldnt let the racism scare them away. A lot of progress has been made and the future is looking brighter for Black and POC writers. Shawl expressed gratitude for the white allies in the community who are working every day to make the science fiction industry more inclusive at all levels.

As for new writers who want to break into the industry and maintain a career, Shawl has some advice:

Shawl recounted their experience when they wrote about someone kissing the kitchen of a character and an editor said, nobody knows what youre talking about. But the kitchen is well-known in many African American communities to be the place between a persons hairline and their neck.

Shawl said that in these situations, its important to listen to your editors but also consider their bias and choose your battles wisely. In that case, Shawl defended the line and kept it in, but there may be cases where its not worth a fight.

Think about why you were saying things a certain way, Shawl said. Are you doing this because its the vernacular you grew up with? Are you doing it to show a distance? Think about those things and go to bat for what youre doing. You may succumb to the editors suggestion but at least show them that its something that youre considering and that youre not just, you know, being sloppy. Youre doing what youre doing for a reason.

Beverly Aarons is a writer and game developer. She works across disciplines as a copywriter, journalist, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and short-story writer. She explores futuristic worlds in fiction but also enjoys discovering the stories of modern-day unsung heroes. Shes currently working on a series of nonfiction stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things in their local communities and the world. In August 2018 she produced a live-action game and event where community members worked together to envision an economic future they truly desired to leave future generations. Shes currently writing an immersive play about the themes of migration.

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Seattle Writer Nisi Shawl Casts a Spell on the Science Fiction Community - southseattleemerald.com