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9 Standout Theatre Albums of 2019 – Playbill.com

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

The year 2019 was a fantastic one for theatre albums, but these nine stood out from the pack for their sound and singularity.

Cast AlbumsMoulin Rouge!Why its on the list: The ultimate pop playlist, sung by Broadways best, with explosive arrangements and orchestrations

Like the film that inspired it, Broadways Moulin Rouge! features a jukebox song list that covers decades of popular music, from Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend to Chandelier, among 69 others. But since its a Broadway cast recording, this album features all of those top 40 hits made their own by such Broadway favorites as Aaron Tveit, Tony winner Karen Olivo, and six-time Tony nominee Danny Burstein. Plus, original mash-ups like the Shut Up and Raise Your Glass, which combines Walk the Moons Shut Up and Dance with P!nks Raise Your Glass and Whitney Houstons I Wanna Dance With Somebody. The production of the Grammy-nominated cast album is aces, and the theatrical interpretation of the songs will make you hear the lyrics in a whole new light.

A Strange LoopWhy its on the list: A debut work from a fresh and exciting musical theatre writer

Michael R. Jackson may have written the worlds most meta musical; A Strange Loop tells the story of a black queer man writing a musical about a black queer man writing a musical about a black queer man. The show enjoyed its world premiere earlier this year at Off-Broadways Playwrights Horizons, where it quickly sold out and extended due to popular demand. The tuneful score takes a cue from subversive writers like Kander and Ebb, packing a punch by pairing insightful, bold lyrics with pop-infused music that youll be humming long after listening to this album. The work is Jacksons first musical to receive a major New York run, and was quite the debut.

HadestownWhy its on the list: The 2019 Tony winner for Best Musical and Best Original Score, the album of folk, funk, and jazz, proves musical theatre is no one genre

Though developed with a stage production in mind, most people first came to Anas Mitchells Hadestown through its concept album, released in 2010. The show has continued to develop and evolve through an Off-Broadway production (which was recorded live) and the current Broadway edition, fine-tuning Mitchells original vision to near perfection. Telling the mythical story of Orpheus and Eurydice (and Hades and Persephone) but with modern New Orleans-inspired flair, Hadestown is an emotional journey fully realized by Mitchell with a knock-out Tony-winning score and performances from such Broadway luminaries as Reeve Carney, Andr De Shields, Amber Gray, Patrick Page, and Eva Noblezada. As 2019s Tony Award-winning Best Musical (and now a 2020 Grammy nominee), Hadestowns Broadway cast album belongs on every theatre lovers shelf.Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish cast albumWhy its on the list: The only complete recording of Fiddler in Yiddish, plus bonus tracks of rarely heard cut songs in English

Any theatre fan worth their salt is liable to have at least one Fiddler cast album in their collection alreadyif not morebut this latest recording of the Bock and Harnick score makes a good case for adding yet another. Most importantly, the album preserves the score sung in Yiddish, the language that the denizens of Anatevka would have spoken themselves. Hearing Fiddler in Yiddish gives the entire affair another layer of authenticity and nuance, hearing the story of a people trying to hold on to their culture as their homes are being taken away in their language, a language that is in danger of disappearing completely in many parts of the world today. (Though the production was inspired by the recording of Shraga Friedmans Israeli production of Fiddler in Yiddish, that Israeli album does not contain every song and musical interlude.) The recording also preserves Steven Skybells Drama Desk-nominated performance as Tevye. This particular recording is also one of the most complete Fiddler albums ever released, with never-before recorded material from the show and several tracks of fully-produced songs cut during Fiddlers development period (some sung by orginal cast members like original Motel Austin Pendleton), making it a true must-have for Fiddler fans.BeetlejuiceWhy its on the list: A quirky, irreverent scoreand fan favoritethat put the show on the map, plus exclusive album-only material

This musical adaptation of the cult classic film is just as spookily hilarious as its source material, complete with a tour-de-force title role performance from its Tony-nominated leading man, Alex Brightman. Eddie Perfects score has quickly become a fan favorite, and the performances by Brightman along with Sophia Anne Caruso, Rob McClure, Kerry Butler, Leslie Kritzer, and the complete cast are, well to die for. The album also includes special lyrics changed exclusively for the Broadway album, and you cant hear them in the theatre or on any public performances. Any Beetlejuice fan will want the album, but this special material makes the album an even more unique memento of the Broadway show.

Solo/Duet AlbumsBen Platt: Sing to Me InsteadWhy its on the list: A Broadway performer for the ages meets original, soul-bearing songs

To say Ben Platt embarked on a meteoric ride to stardom after starring and winning a Tony for his performance in the title role of Dear Evan Hansen is a vast understatement. After making a splash on Broadway, Platt quickly came to lead such high profile TV and film projects as Run This Town and The Politician (and the upcoming 20-year film adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along). Theatre fans might have to wait a while to see Platt back on the stage, but he isnt letting his vocal chops go to waste. Platts debut solo album Sing to Me Instead, which he co-wrote, is a powerful mix of soulful original songs that show the Tony winners incredible vocal range. His music makes him a vulnerable yet relatable storyteller, his lyrics prove him an astute poet. Songs like Grow As We Go to In Case You Dont Live Forever make Platt seem wise beyond his years, yet bops like Share Your Address make you feel his youthful energy. A journey of romantic, familial, and self-love, Sing to Me Instead is a must-listen.

Watch Ben Platt Perform New Song to Celebrate His Album Drop

Brian Stokes Mitchell Plays With MusicWhy its on the list: One of the great remaining baritones of Broadway singing a symphonic album that includes the premiere recording of a Sondheim trunk song.

Whether starring on Broadway in Ragtime and Kiss Me, Kate or appearing in concert around the world, Brian Stokes Mitchell has a velvety-smooth voice that always makes for a wonderful album experience. In his latest solo album, Mitchell tackles some of the all-time great showtunes for Broadway baritones, including If Ever I Would Leave You and I Wont Send Roses; flips the script and covers several tunes usually sung by women, including Getting Married Today and Hello, Young Lovers; and even offers the premiere recording of Stephen Sondheims Flag Song, which was cut from Assassins. Not to mention the full symphonic album includes orchestrations and arrangements by Mitchell himself.

READ: Listen to an Exclusive Track From Brian Stokes Mitchells Upcoming Solo Album Plays With Music

Marin Mazzie & Jason Danieley: Broadway & BeyondWhy its on the list: The epitome of duet albums and to remember a Broadway legend

Three-time Tony nominee and Broadway favorite Marin Mazzie sadly passed away in 2018, but thanks to a Kickstarter campaign started by Mazzies husband and fellow Broadway star Jason Danieley, a recording of their final New York concert performance together lives on. Captured live at the pairs 2017 concert series at Feinsteins/54 Below, this truly special album features both Mazzie and Danieley revisiting songs from their Broadway careersRagtimes Back to Before for Mazzie and Curtains I Miss the Music for Danieleyalong with their takes on works by Kander and Ebb, Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and more.

READ: Jason Danieley Opens Up About His Last New York Performance With Marin Mazzie and the New Enduring Album

Musical Film ScoresFrozen 2Why its on the list: More original songs by winning team Bobby and Kristen Lopez sung by some of the best voices in the biz

With songs by Broadway writers Bobby and Kristen Lopez and voice performances by Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, and Jonathan Groff, Frozen has been a favorite among theatre fans since the film premiered in 2013. The entire crew is back this year for the follow-up film Frozen 2, which sees Anna and Elsa in an action-packed adventure that features even crazier vocal pyrotechnics than the original. This time, Groff gets a boy-band-style solo, Gad reminds us of his stellar comedy, and both Bell and Menzel have everyone wondering When are they coming to Broadway? Elsas new anthem Into the Unknown has been shortlisted for Best Original Song and the score has been shortlisted for Best Score at the Oscars 2020though nominations have not yet been announced. The The album also features a pop cover of Into the Unknown sung by Broadway Kinky Bootsalum Brandon Urie.

READ: 5 Standout Theatre Albums of 2018

9 Standout Theatre Albums of 2019 - Playbill.com

How Two Robots Learned to Grill and Serve the Perfect Hot Dog – Singularity Hub

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

The list of things robots can do seems to be growing by the week. They can play sports, help us explore outer space and the deep sea, take over some of our boring everyday tasks, and even assemble Ikea furniture.

Now they can add one more accomplishment to the list: grilling and serving a hot dog.

It seems like a pretty straightforward task, and as far as grilling goes, hot dogs are about as easy as it gets (along with, maybe, burgers? Hot dogs require more rotation, but its easier to tell when theyre done since theyre lighter in color).

Lets paint a picture: youre manning the grill at your familys annual Fourth of July celebration. Youve got a 10-pack of plump, juicy beef franks and a hungry crowd of relatives whose food-to-alcohol ratio is getting pretty skewedthey need some solid calories, pronto. What are the steps you need to take to get those franks from package to plate?

Each one needs to be placed on the grill, rotated every couple minutes for even cooking, removed from the grill when you deem its done, thenif youre the kind of guy or gal who goes the extra mileplaced in a bun and dressed with ketchup, mustard, pickles, and the like before being handed over to salivating, too-loud Uncle Hector or sweet, bored Cousin Margaret.

While carrying out your grillmaster duties, you know better than to drop the hot dogs on the ground, leave them cooking on one side for too long, squeeze them to the point of breaking or bursting, and any other hot-dog-ruining amateur moves.

But for a robot, thats a lot to figure out, especially if they have no prior knowledge of grilling hot dogs (which, well, most robots dont).

As described in a paper published in this weeks Science Robotics, a team from Boston University programmed two robotic arms to use reinforcement learninga branch of machine learning in which software gathers information about its environment then learns from it by replaying its experiences and incorporating rewardsto cook and serve hot dogs.

The team used a set of formulas to specify and combine tasks (pick up hot dog and place on the grill), meet safety requirements (always avoid collisions), and incorporate general prior knowledge (you cannot pick up another hot dog if you are already holding one).

Baxter and Jacoas the two robots were dubbedwere trained through computer simulations. The papers authors emphasized their use of what they call a formal specification language for training the software, with the aim of generating easily-interpretable task descriptions. In reinforcement learning, they explain, being able to understand how a reward function influences an AIs learning process is a key component in understanding the systems behaviorbut most systems lack this quality, and are thus likely to be lumped into the black box of AI.

The robots decisions throughout the hot dog prep processwhen to turn a hot dog, when to take it off the grill, and so onare, the authors write, easily interpretable from the beginning because the language is very similar to plain English.

Besides being a step towards more explainable AI systems, Baxter and Jaco are another example of fast-food robotsfollowing in the footsteps of their burger and pizza counterpartsthat may take over some repetitive manual tasks currently performed by human workers. As robots capabilities improve through incremental progress like this, theyll be able to take on additional tasks.

In a not-so-distant future, then, you just may find yourself throwing back drinks with Uncle Hector and Cousin Margaret while your robotic replacement mans the grill, churning out hot dogs that are perfectly cooked every time.

Image Credit: Image by Muhammad Ribkhan from Pixabay

This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through December 21) – Singularity Hub

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Computer Is Set to Complete Beethovens Unfinished SymphonyJustin Huggler | The GuardianIn the most ambitious project of its type ever attempted, a computer has been set to work to complete Beethovens unfinished 10th symphony. And they plan to put the results to the test in a public performance by a full symphony orchestra in Beethovens birthplace, the German city of Bonn, next year.

Scientists Are Edging Closer to Genetically Hacking a Christmas Tree That Doesnt Drop Its NeedlesChris Baraniuk | WiredMore than 100 million real Christmas trees are sold each year. Researchers are trying to unravel the vast and murky Christmas tree genome to create the perfect tree.

Here Are 19 Things That Made the World a Better Place in 2019Nicole Kobie | WiredMixed in amid the political chaos, climate crisis, and other human-made horrors, there have been shining moments in health, space, and even politics that suggest progress hasnt entirely halted. Here [is] our run-down of the most uplifting and inspiring news from 2019.

Watch a Full Flight Test of Liliums All-Electric Urban AircraftDarrell Etherington | TechCrunchThe race is clearly on to develop these vehicles in a bid to anticipate the next major sea change in how we get around cities, but what weve seen so far of these vehicles is usually quick clips and heavily edited highlight reels.Lilium,a Munich-based startup building their own urban air mobility vehicles, isshowing off a lot more than that today.

The 84 Biggest Flops, Fails, and Dead Dreams of the Decade in TechVerge Staff | The VergeTheworld never changes quite the way you expect. But atThe Verge, weve had a front-row seat while technology has permeated every aspect of our lives over the past decade. Some of the resultingmomentsandgadgetsarguably defined the decade and the world we live in now. But others we ate up with popcorn in hand, marveling at just how incredibly hard they flopped.

Image Credit: Denys Nevozhai /Unsplash

This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through December 21) - Singularity Hub

A New Anti-Aging Therapy Is Starting Its First Human Trialand It Costs $1 Million – Singularity Hub

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

Recent research on longevity is making the idea of an elixir of life sound increasingly plausible. But a startup thats started selling a $1 million anti-aging treatment is most likely jumping the gun.

Libella Gene Therapeutics says it will administer volunteers with a gene therapy that it claims can reverse aging by up to 20 years, according to OneZero. Despite the fact that this is the first human trial of the treatment, the company is charging volunteers $1m to take part. In an effort to side-step the FDA, the trial will take place in Colombia.

The therapy will attempt to repair peoples telomeres, the caps on the end of our chromosomes that shorten as people get older. Its long been thought that they play a role in aging, and efforts to extend telomeres in mice have shown that it can delay the signs of getting older and increase healthy lifespan, though its yet to be tested in humans.

Libellas therapy will use viruses to deliver a gene called TERT, which codes for an enzyme called telomerase that re-builds teleomeres, to the patients cells.

Experts told MIT Tech Review that the trial is unethical, poorly designed, and presents serious risks to participants, including the danger of activating dormant cancerous cells. But its also still unclear whether the trial will go ahead, because the company has made previous announcements before without following through.

Whether or not it does, though, medical treatments to head off the slow march towards death are likely to become increasingly common. A growing body of research suggests that aging is an entirely preventable condition and that there may be a variety of ways to treat it, from lifestyle changes to dramatic genetic interventions.

In 2017, scientists showed that using drugs to reprogram epigenetic markerschemical attachments responsible for regulating the genomein mice extended their lifespan by 30 percent. And in 2018, another team showed that using a combination of drugs to kill senescent cellszombie cells that leak harmful chemicals, damaging nearby tissuecould boost the longevity of mice by 36 percent.

Famous geneticist George Church has even launched a startup called Rejuvenate Bio that will use proprietary genetic treatments to prolong the lives of dogs, though he has admitted the ultimate goal is to extend its technology to humans. Last month Churchs group at Harvard also showed that using gene therapies to tackle three age-related diseases at once was effective in mice.

The first anti-aging treatments for people are already starting to appear as well. CEO of longevity company BioViva Elizabeth Parrish injected herself with a gene therapy similar to Libellas back in 2015, and the company has claimed it was successful in lengthening her telomeres, though results were never published.

Earlier this year a study on humans found that a cocktail of drugs could reset the epigenetic clock, epigenetic markers used to measure a persons biological age. The participants also showed signs of a rejuvenated immune system.

And more controversially, the FDA recently had to put out a public service announcement telling people to stop injecting blood plasma from younger people. The idea is built upon recent research that showed a rejuvenating effect in mice, but most experts say its far too early to apply it to humans.

Whether the FDA will be able to keep on top of this burgeoning and highly lucrative market remains to be seen, but given the potential side effects of many of these treatments, it should be a priority.

We also need to have a more in-depth conversation about what these longevity therapies mean for society. Assuming this new trial is effective, what does it mean if only those with $1m to spare get to extend their lives? If treating aging becomes trivial, how is that going to change the nature of our communities? These are questions that may become increasingly relevant in the coming decades.

Image Credit: Shutterstock.com

Retail Robots Are on the Riseat Every Level of the Industry – Singularity Hub

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

The robots are coming! The robots are coming! On our sidewalks, in our skies, in our every store Over the next decade, robots will enter the mainstream of retail.

As countless robots work behind the scenes to stock shelves, serve customers, and deliver products to our doorstep, the speed of retail will accelerate.

These changes are already underway. In this blog, well elaborate on how robots are entering the retail ecosystem.

Lets dive in.

On August 3rd, 2016, Dominos Pizza introduced the Dominos Robotic Unit, or DRU for short. The first home delivery pizza robot, the DRU looks like a cross between R2-D2 and an oversized microwave.

LIDAR and GPS sensors help it navigate, while temperature sensors keep hot food hot and cold food cold. Already, its been rolled out in ten countries, including New Zealand, France, and Germany, but its August 2016 debut was criticalas it was the first time wed seen robotic home delivery.

And it wont be the last.

A dozen or so different delivery bots are fast entering the market. Starship Technologies, for instance, a startup created by Skype founders Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla, has a general-purpose home delivery robot. Right now, the system is an array of cameras and GPS sensors, but upcoming models will include microphones, speakers, and even the abilityvia AI-driven natural language processingto communicate with customers. Since 2016, Starship has already carried out50,000 deliveriesin over 100 cities across 20 countries.

Along similar lines, Nuroco-founded by Jiajun Zhu, one of the engineers who helped develop Googles self-driving carhas a miniature self-driving car of its own. Half the size of a sedan, the Nuro looks like a toaster on wheels, except with a mission. This toaster has been designed to carry cargoabout 12 bags of groceries (version 2.0 will carry 20)which its been doing for select Kroger stores since 2018. Dominos also partnered with Nuro in 2019.

As these delivery bots take to our streets, others are streaking across the sky.

Back in 2016, Amazon came first, announcing Prime Airthe e-commerce giants promise of drone delivery in30 minutes or less. Almost immediately, companies ranging from 7-Eleven and Walmart to Google and Alibaba jumped on the bandwagon.

While critics remain doubtful, the head of the FAAs drone integration department recently said that drone deliveries may be a lot closer than [] the skeptics think. [Companies are] getting ready for full-blown operations. Were processing their applications. I would like to move as quickly as I can.

While delivery bots start to spare us trips to the store, those who prefer shopping the old-fashioned wayi.e., in personalso have plenty of human-robot interaction in store. In fact, these robotics solutions have been around for a while.

In 2010, SoftBank introduced Pepper, a humanoid robot capable of understanding human emotion. Pepper is cute: 4 feet tall, with a white plastic body, two black eyes, a dark slash of a mouth, and a base shaped like a mermaids tail. Across her chest is a touch screen to aid in communication. And theres been a lot of communication. Peppers cuteness is intentional, as it matches its mission: help humans enjoy life as much as possible.

Over 12,000 Peppers have been sold. She serves ice cream in Japan, greets diners at a Pizza Hut in Singapore, and dances with customers at a Palo Alto electronics store. More importantly, Peppers got company.

Walmart uses shelf-stocking robots for inventory control. Best Buy uses a robo-cashier, allowing select locations to operate 24-7. And Lowes Home Improvement employs the LoweBota giant iPad on wheelsto help customers find the items they need while tracking inventory along the way.

Yet the biggest benefit robots provide might be in-warehouse logistics.

In 2012, when Amazon dished out $775 million for Kiva Systems, few could predict that just 6 years later, 45,000 Kiva robotswould be deployed at all of their fulfillment centers, helping process a whopping 306 items per second during the Christmas season.

And many other retailers are following suit.

Order jeans from the Gap, and soon theyll be sorted, packed, and shipped with the help of a Kindred robot. Remember the old arcade game where you picked up teddy bears with a giant claw? Thats Kindred, only her claw picks up T-shirts, pants, and the like, placing them in designated drop-off zones that resemble tiny mailboxes (for further sorting or shipping).

The big deal here is democratization. Kindreds robot is cheap and easy to deploy, allowing smaller companies to compete with giants like Amazon.

For retailers interested in staying in business, there doesnt appear to be much choice in the way of robotics.

By 2024, the US minimum wage is projected to be $15 an hour (the House of Representatives has already passed the bill, but the wage hike is meant to unfold gradually between now and 2025), and many consider that number far too low.

Yet, as human labor costs continue to climb, robots wont just be coming, theyll be here, there, and everywhere. Its going to become increasingly difficult for store owners to justify human workers who call in sick, show up late, and can easily get injured. Robots work 24-7. They never take a day off, never need a bathroom break, health insurance, or parental leave.

Going forward, this spells a growing challenge of technological unemployment (a blog topic I will cover in the coming month). But in retail, robotics usher in tremendous benefits for companies and customers alike.

And while professional re-tooling initiatives and the transition of human capital from retail logistics to a booming experience economy take hold, robotic retail interaction and last-mile delivery will fundamentally transform our relationship with commerce.

This blog comes from The Future is Faster Than You Thinkmy upcoming book, to be releasedJan 28th, 2020. To get an early copy and access up to $800 worth of pre-launch giveaways, sign uphere!

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Image Credit: Image by imjanuary from Pixabay

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Retail Robots Are on the Riseat Every Level of the Industry - Singularity Hub

Ramiro Osorio of Teatro Mayor talks about the importance of inclusive culture for Bogot – The City Paper Bogot

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

At the helm of Bogots Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo, director Ramiro Osorio brings the best in performing arts for the capital. As the theatre approaches its first decade, intercultural dialogue, audience formation, youth engagement in the arts are among the many guiding principles of a theatre that transcends physical space.

The City Paper (TCP): Mr. Osorio, how would you describe Teatro Mayors accomplishments as it nears its first decade?

Ramiro Osorio (RO): This cultural center is among the most important of the city and has the unique characteristic of being both a public and a private entity. This allows us to generate interesting synergies and open our programming to endless possibilities. Our library receives a public of 60,000 visitors each month, this without including the 50,000 students enrolled in district schools who come here every month as part of the Cien Mil Nios al Mayor (100,000 Children to Mayor) initiative. Teatro Mayor has the singularity that comprises a library, a public park, two theatre venues and grounds to host events.

We receive close to a million visitors during the year, with resources for the library exclusively donated by the District. The theatre is a public-private agreement and the first experiment of its kind in Colombia. In this way, during nine and a half years, we have strengthened a model of cultural administration that guarantees longevity.

TCP: Does the success of preserving cultural patrimony and identity depend on the private-public model of administration?

RO: Co-responsibility is a key element as it permits cultural entities such as ours to commit to a long-term program with artists beyond local government time frames. At Teatro Mayor, we are already planning our 2023 cultural agenda with international acts and cultural organizations as all parties involved require planning and guarantees. Bringing great entertainment to Bogot is an expensive undertaking from booking a renowned soloist to operatic co-productions.

TCP: What role has Teatro Mayor played in positioning Bogot as a world-class cultural destination?

RO: The Teatro Mayor JMSD has become a brand and a reference around the world for hosting exceptional performances. Without sounding pretentious, we are a window on Colombian culture from the festivals we host to participative cultural engagement with diverse audiences. The role of citizens to enjoy and experience culture is an essential right and essence of public cultural policy. In order to deliver exceptional performances, we have to meet several requirements: design a program that caters to the rights of the general public to participate in their cultural expressions, provide access in the best possible conditions of equality to public services and infrastructure.

As we are a very diverse nation, and Bogot is home to people from all regions of the country who have a right to enjoy artistic references of their cultures, at Teatro Mayor we launch the great music festivals of the nation that take place outside of the capital, among them the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata, Mono Nez, and the Festival del Pacfico Petronio lvarez. This generates an identity effect with audiences who find in our theatre space of cultural values and traditions.

TCP: How does cultural inclusion influence the yearly program?

RO: It is a fundamental issue and one that guides the way we come up with every event. We consider a scenario like ours to be an extraordinary vehicle for citizen formation in the arts and nation-building. This is also why we emphasize so much on the dialogue between the many cultures that make up Colombia with those of the world.

National artists work alongside international artists from opera productions to joint concerts and lyrical duets. Without a doubt, word of mouth among artists based overseas, who talk of their experiences at Teatro Mayor and reference the city, allows us to engage easily with world-class orchestras, dance companies and other renowned cultural entities.

TCP: Using the Metropolitan series of live opera transmissions as an example, tell us about Teatro Mayors online digital expansion?

RO: As we have two theatres with fixed seating the main venue for 1,300 spectators and Teatro Estudio for 340, we cant expand capacity. What we aim for is a multiplying effect with technology by transmitting performances with Caracol TVs network and streaming though our own platform http://www.teatrodigital.org.

This permits us to present high-quality live acts like other great concert houses in the world. As of next year, every Thursday, we will offer free streaming of a performance. There have been concerts in which we have had at any given moment 900,000 viewers. If we take into consideration our physical audiences and online guests, 10 million have had access to our cultural line-up. This gives us enormous satisfaction because we want audiences to have an experience.

TCP: How can a theatre maintain interest with large audiences without becoming a fixture of the cultural scene?

RO: Festivals play an important part in generating peaks of interest through-out the year, and tailored presentations to those with specific interests. Take our Fado Festival as one example. This Portuguese art form has very consolidated followers, but what we have seen are audiences grow because of this genres extensive repertoire and interpreters. The encounter between artists and the audience in a setting that delivers an experience, and is friendly and generous, opens up personal spaces for cultural reflection. We try hard to transmit this to youngsters: the transformative power of art and culture in their lives. Since 2014 when we started Cien Mil Nios al Mayor, we have received more than 300,000 youngsters, many from vulnerable households. Next year alone we expect 65,000.

TCP: How do you see changes in your audiences? Is there a specific trend?

RO: Audiences around the world are aging, and the great challenge is how to draw in younger spectators. As a result, we are synchronized with many of the cultural events that take place in the city that dont necessarily involve the theatres infrastructure, such as Rock al Parque, Jazz al Parque, the Bogot Film Festival (Biff). When in 2012 UNESCO designated Bogot a City of Music, we set out to devise ways to promote musical movements, music academies, and open up spaces for creation and production. In 2013 we started the International Music Festival to take a profound look at the repertoire of a composer or significant time in music history. Held every two years, and with 60 concerts over four days, we have delivered Bogot is Beethoven, Bogot is Romantic Russia, and Bogot is Brahms, Schubert and Schumann. Our next edition in 2021 is Bogot is Baroque with an engaging look at Bach, Hndel and Vivaldi.

TCP: While a classical repertoire is essential to any theatre, dance also figures extensively in Teatro Mayors year-long program. What is the objective of Alma en Movimiento?

RO: It was created five years ago to give dancers visibility and help them perfect their art form. Next year, Alma en Movimiento becomes Teatro Mayors young dance company, and one of the few spaces in the city where talented dancers can grow and take that great leap toward their professionalization. The majority of our dancers who have passed through Alma en Movimiento perform with famous ballet companies in the world. As part of this initiative, we invite international choreographers to give master classes in genres from classical to contemporary and experimental.

TCP: With 135 events in the 2020 program and Canada invited as Guest Nation of Honor, what are some of the highlights?

RO: As mentioned earlier, its continuing the cross-cultural dialogue and covering a broad artistic spectrum from festival launchings to our Great Pianists series, family events and two operatic co-productions: Beethovens Fidelio conducted by Martin Haselbck and Mozarts Don Giovanni with musical direction by Mexicos Jos Arean. As members of Ola (Latin American Opera), these two operas are part of the 250th celebrations next year of Beethovens birth. Canadas acclaimed theatre company Robert LePage will stage the award-winning Ex Machina. The Winnipeg Ballet joins the program as part of the Canada year.

Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler and Turkeys Burhan Ocal Oriental Ensemble are fabulous interpreters of specific musical genres. We also welcome next year great pianists, among them Canadas Alexander Panizza, Khatia Buniatishvili (Georgia) and French Philippe Jaroussky, one of the most acclaimed countertenors of our times.

TCP: In a city with well-known mobility issues, how does Teatro Mayor cater to specific audiences that require assistance?

RO: Our weekend performances at 11:00 am and 5:00 pm are very family-oriented and popular with seniors. Many of these performances are free to the public or have reduced admission prices. We have to remember that access to culture is an inherent right of belonging to a society, and we firmly believe that by offering the very best, with great quality, we can enrich and transform lives.

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Ramiro Osorio of Teatro Mayor talks about the importance of inclusive culture for Bogot - The City Paper Bogot

US Forces Can’t Hide from Ubiquitous Satellites. They Need to Fool Them. – Defense One

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

A new generation of deception-and-denial ideas is needed to counter global monitoring from space.

We are accelerating, on the wings of 5G and long-endurance drones and low-earth-orbit satellites, toward a future where everyone will have easy access to realtime geolocation and even video of U.S. military forces. The countermeasures of past decades, from shutter control to careful timing of sensitive force movements, are all but drained of their potency. Powerful states and non-state actors alike will soon be able to track U.S. and allied military equipment, detecting patterns of training andoperations.

This phenomenon Ive called it a GEOINT singularity was not unpredicted. Nearly 20 years ago, a thesis titled The End of Secrecy by U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Beth Kaspar discussed the implications of transparency to U.S. military competitiveness and recommended a variety of activities ranging from innovating new doctrine and developing fast decision-making processes to integrating camouflage, concealment, and deception both vertically and horizontally into military operations. In her work, Lt. Col. Kaspar wrote, DoD should go back to basics and actively incorporate deception into all organizational levels and all levels ofwarfare.

Typical deception and denial techniques, such as camouflage, are well known to military operators and warfighters. But these ideas must be advanced in ways that adjust to frequent and continuous monitoring in various bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hyperspectral sensors can identify chemical elements from space and could, in principle, make a camouflage canopy stick out like a sorethumb.

The national security communitys attempts to maintain levels of opacity or surprise by limiting commercial space-based imaging have created a false sense of security and neglected developments that are not under U.S. regulatory control. Even today, exercising shutter control that is, ordering an American company to limit its overhead image collection at a certain time and place is time-consuming and cumbersome. Such requests must pass from the military operator to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Secretary of Defense, and to the Secretary of Commerce, who then notifies the company operating the satellite. And these limits have no bearing on high-altitude pseudo satellites, i.e., balloons; airplanes; international space companies; or, of course, foreigngovernments.

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Better deception and denial techniques would allow the military to dispense with the increasingly irrelevant tool of shutter control, lifting the regulatory burden on the domestic commercial remote sensing sector and helping compete on a global scale. It would also allow commercial imaging to support public messaging for national security without revealing the capabilities of governmentsystems.

U.S. military operators should be investing now in programs to mitigate the effects of a GEOINT singularity. Advancing and developing new deception and denial techniques may appear costly at first. But the alternative may be more expensive; indeed, restricting remote sensing licenses now would simply delay the cost to a later time when existing methods have become ineffective due to the growth of foreign remote sensingcapabilities.

A dont look at me approach to maintaining a military advantage is not feasible anymore. Instead, operators need to find new ways tohide.

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US Forces Can't Hide from Ubiquitous Satellites. They Need to Fool Them. - Defense One

Here’s a list of the best B.C. beers to drink in winter – Vancouver Is Awesome

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

There are certain beers that seem ideally suited to each season: fresh, light saisons and malty maibocks are perfect for spring; sessionable lagers, citrusy hazy ales and fruity sours cant be beat in the hot days of summer; while autumn is all about fresh hops, pumpkin beers and Oktoberfest mrzens.

And then there are the malty, woody, big and boozy beers that many breweries release in the darkest depths of winter: hefty barleywines and richly extravagant imperial stouts that turn the alcohol dial not just to 11, but often close to 12%, or even beyond. These small-batch behemoths demand extra care and attention from the brewers who make themsome spend time soaking up even more alcohol in bourbon barrelsand when they are finally released, beer geeks obsess over them, often buying several bottles to age in their cellars, building up verticals to compare vintages in coming years, and debating which years version offers the best flavour profile.

The English barleywine tradition dates back to the 1700s when brewers intended it to replace wine at the dinner table because of conflicts between England and wine-producing countries such as France and Spain. It was brewed to over 10% ABV and then laid down in wood for a year or more to mellow its character. Modern interpretations by craft brewers are often much hoppier than the original would have been, even dry-hopped much like a contemporary IPA.

Russian imperial stouts originated in 18th century England as well, brewed as extra stout porters for the imperial court of Czarina Catherine the Great in St. Petersburg. They proved to be popular both in Russia and at home in England, and continued to be brewed well into the 20th century. Contemporary craft breweries typically make them as dark, thick and rich as possible. The happy discovery that the roasty, chocolatey and coffee flavours in these big stouts taste even better with a bit of whisky added to the mix has led many brewers to age them in used bourbon barrels as well.

One of the leading producers of these styles in B.C. is Victorias Driftwood Brewery, which has produced its Singularity Russian imperial stout and Old Cellar Dweller barleywine annually since 2011. Put simply, co-founder and so-called Wizard of Wort Jason Meyer says, We like making them because we like drinking them.

Meyer acknowledges that these big, boozy beers are challenging to brew. High-gravity fermentations put extra stress on yeast and require longer conditioning periods.

Extraction efficiency is terrible when youre making super high-gravity beers, he explains. Youre leaving a shit-ton of sugar behind in the mash tun because youre usually sparging only minimally.

And then theres the artificial limit of 12% ABV, created by federal excise dutiesabove that, the tax rate jumps considerably. With Old Cellar Dweller, Meyer tries to brew it as close to 11.8% as possible.

Weve got an alco-meter that we paid handsomely for to make sure that we are not over the duty threshold, he says.

Singularity is even more of a wild card because it is aged in single-use bourbon barrels, which add additional alcohol along with flavour characteristics. Driftwood favours Woodford Reserve Double Oaked bourbon barrels.

Theyve been showing up every year nice and wet, not leaking, reeking of booze, Meyer says. Thats really what were looking for: we want them to smell heady and boozy like they just got drained the day before.

Singularity sits in these barrels for about six weeks, just long enough to gather as much bourbon character as possible without too much tannin.

Kent Donaldson, co-owner of Whitetooth Brewing in Golden, attended a beer festival in Sweden in 2015 where he tasted an imperial stout unlike anything hed had before.

The way it was described to me over there was that all the farms would grow their own malt and kiln it over an open flame, so it was invariably smoked, and then they used juniper boughs as a filter bed. The combination of the smoke and juniper berries seems to go together so well.

When he got back he sat down with Whitetooths brewer, Evan Cronshaw, and described it to him, hoping he could re-create it.

He pretty well nailed it right out of the gate, Donaldson says. Its such a big beer but its super smooth. Its got a subtle smoke, but then astringency from the juniper berries. So viscous you could almost stand a straw up in it.

The result, Truth Dare Consequence Nordic Imperial Stout (10% ABV), is the current reigning champion in its category at both the B.C. Beer Awards and Canadian Brewing Awards. Its an annual release that is very popular at the brewery.

We limit it to one 300-mL glass because we find its just over the top for some people. You have to be really careful with it. It is quite the punch in the head.

Sounds fantastic! Too bad its only available in Golden, but then again, maybe its time to plan a trip there this winter. I hear the skiing is pretty good there

Howe Sound Brewing // Woolly Bugger

Driftwood Brewery // Old Cellar Dweller

Central City // Thors Hammer

Sooke Brewing Co. // Barleywine

Persephone Brewing // Barleywine

Bomber Brewing // Russian Imperial Stout

Dead Frog Brewing // Commander

Driftwood Brewery // Singularity

Howe Sound Brewing // Pothole Filler, Megadestroyer

Moody Ales // Russian Imperial Stout

Parallel 49 Brewing // Russian Imperial Stout

Strange Fellows Brewing // Boris

Twin Sails Brewing // Str8 Flexin

Wordplay: That’s what I wasn’t going to say – Sydney Morning Herald

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

But then I hesitated. Maybe Id been too hasty, nabbing the obvious suspect without interviewing Miss Scarlett and Professor Plum. Perhaps there was an antonym within psychology literature or the Babel of options beyond my own glossary. Time to consult the crowd. Wisdom, said Socrates, is knowing you know nothing and the Greek strikes me as an intelligent bloke.

Albert Einstein, another bright spark, defined coincidence as Gods way of remaining anonymous. Cool then, if we could divine how God declares Their name in a singular event, then Bob was our uncle. I tweeted the question just as cops beseech the public, and waited for words of interest to arrive.

A trickle turned to gush as suggestions filled the screen, from singularity to disparity, from choreography to planning. Certainty and consequence came next, followed by fate and synchronicity, but none seemed a snug fit. Neologisms lobbed, ranging from nonincidence to cooutcidence. Not for the first time, my word quest had entered a mirror maze.

Not every rough has a smooth, yet English is home to a horde of esoteric antonyms.

Thats when the philosophers joined the debate. Azed a crossword syndicate in Britain tackled the matter in earnest: What we usually mean by coincidence is the absence of a causal explanation for two or more events occurring close together, i.e. it can only be explained by coincidence. Therefore, they concluded, the antonym must be causality, being the alternative explanation.

Compare that argument to Auric Goldfingers aphorism, the Latvian super-villain who tormented James Bond at Fort Knox, back in 1964. His take was simple: Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time, its enemy action. Meaning the flipside of coincidence must be happenstance. Or enemy action. I cant tell.

Soon I came to see the sense of another Twitter respondent: Your questions like asking after the opposite of humans or television. Just because theres X doesnt mean theres unX, so to speak. Not every rough has a smooth, yet English is home to a horde of esoteric antonyms.

Moontan, say, applies to pallid skin, just as aestivate counterweighs hibernate. Overdog translates as favourite, while kempt was revived as a wry joke, only to return to the dictionary as the equivalent of tidy, just as underwhelmed has overwhelmed popular speech lately.

Leaving me with the likelihood of incidence, my initial suspect if I recall. It also leaves me the chance to say happy holidays, as a stand-alone utterance, unless you happen to reciprocate the wish, which would then verge on coincidental. Possibly.

davidastle.com

Wordplay: That's what I wasn't going to say - Sydney Morning Herald

Nike Kaepernick ad will be among the most memorable from the 2010s – CNBC

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

Always' #LikeAGirl campaign.

YouTube

This decade, the ad campaigns that mattered did more than just try to sell stuff.

If there's a thread connecting the most memorable campaigns of the last 10 years, it's that big risks can pay off. Campaigns like Coca-Cola's "It's Beautiful" or Procter & Gamble's "#LikeAGirl" tried and succeeded in changing cultural conversation.

Here are some of the marketing campaigns that helped define the marketing and advertising world during this decade and continue to have an impact today.

What does it mean to do something like a girl? In 2014, a three-minute video from Procter & Gamble's menstrual hygiene brand Always asked a series of young people to act out various activities "like a girl." The young adult women and men flail their arms ridiculously or coif their hair as they pretend to run.

Then, the question is posed to younger children, who interpret it in a completely different way. When asked, "What does it mean to run like a girl?" one answers, "It means means run fast as you can."

A 60-second version of the video, done with Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett, marked the brand's Super Bowl debut, and it kicked off a cultural phenomenon. The three-minute version of the YouTube video has nearly 68 million views today.

"This is the type of campaign you put in a time capsule to give future generations a read on gender stereotypes in the 2010s," said John Osborn, the CEO of Omnicom Group media agency OMD USA. "In taking a phrase that people have used often, and used without thinking about what we were really saying, it transcended any one brand or product to create a much needed conversation around gender stereotyping."

It also felt personal, Osborn added.

"As much as this appealed to me on a professional level, it also really struck a chord for me as a father," he said. "It made me ask myself if I've ever put limits on my daughter because of her gender. That kind of reaction is the gold standard for a great campaign."

Scott Goodson, CEO of cultural movement firm StrawberryFrog, added that the campaign had the quality of galvanizing people to do something.

"It's relevant and provocative and full of meaning," he said.

President Barack Obama buys ice cream for his daughters Malia and Sasha at Pleasant Pops during Small Business Saturday on November 28, 2015, in Washington, DC. Obama to urge easing 401(k) rules for small businesses.

Getty Images

Credit card company American Express started the "Small Business Saturday" campaign in the dregs of a recession in November 2010. The company said it started the movement "to encourage people to Shop Small and bring more holiday shopping to small businesses."

It became official in 2011, when the Senate passed a resolution.

Now a veritable shopping holiday (celebrated even by former President Barack Obama) with name recognition that borders on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the campaign transcended a company and a moment. American Express estimates Small Business Saturday spending has reached $103 billion since the day it began.

Goodson said Small Business Saturday "took a stand for Main Street and small business, folks who never have any support and who find themselves in the direct line of fire from the Amazons of the world," he said. "Amex SBS is purpose marketing that works inside small companies and among consumers inside out. It takes the boring traditional credit card advertising approach and turns it into activism and a movement that millions want to join."

Patagonia's "The President Stole Your Land."

Generally speaking, brands like to keep their distance from politics. But in 2017, outdoor apparel company Patagonia changed the homepage of its website to display a sinister message: "The President Stole Your Land." It continued: "In an illegal move, the president just reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. This is the largest elimination of protected land in American history."

The company said it also planned to sue the Trump administration over the matter.

"Not only did they cater to their target, but they didn't lose the others," said Kristen Cavallo, CEO of The Martin Agency, which is owned by Interpublic Group of Cos. She said though the message created a lot of drama, it probably helped pave the way for Nike and Wieden & Kennedy's "Dream Crazy" campaign with Colin Kaepernick.

"They put everything on the line for their values, and they risked everything, and they didn't lose," she said. "That actually became a case study; that clients could take much bigger risks without the fear of so much backlash."

Burger King had perhaps the most dramatic brand turnaround of the decade, from the edge of death to the center of the cultural zeitgeist.

The burger chain's old advertising involved a plastic-looking Burger King crawling into consumers' beds to feed them burgers. In 2009, The Atlantic's Derek Thompson wrote that "to the surprise of nobody, Burger King's horrible, creepy advertising campaign is not working, and the company finds itself falling further behind McDonald's... " But now it's a powerful turnaround story.

In the last few years, Burger King has done a lot of crazy stuff to right the ship.

It ran a television ad that prompted Google voice devices to pull up Wikipedia and start listing the ingredients of a Whopper. It ran a "Whopper Detour" campaign, which offered 1 cent Whopper burgers to consumers who were geographically near a McDonald's restaurant. It ran a limited edition collection of "moody" meals for Mental Health Awareness Month, ribbing McDonald's by calling them "Unhappy Meals."

In Sweden, the restaurant launched a "50/50 menu," which meant consumers who choose to order from the menu would be randomly served a plant-based or regular meat patty. Consumers had to guess which one they had been served, then could scan their box to see if they were correct.

"I think they have done more than any other brand to define modern marketing," Cavallo said. She noted that the brand employs social listening tools to show up in cultural moments.

Even Burger King's competitors have been jealous at times. Deborah Wahl, former chief marketing officer of McDonald's and now global CMO of General Motors admitted it.

"Despite being a former competitor, I love what [CMO] Fernando [Machado] demonstrated with the Whopper Detour," she told CNBC in an email. "He tackled a business problem, used marketing technology as a solution, and framed it up in a customer relevant and compelling engagement that drove results."

Coca-Cola's 2014 "It's Beautiful" was simple in concept; the minute-long spot, done with Wieden & Kennedy, shows scenes of people of all backgrounds all over America with a version of "America the Beautiful" that is sung in a variety of languages.

As innocuous as that might sound, backlash to the ad was swift (Glenn Beck argued that it was "in your face" and intended to divide people).

Kasha Cacy, global CEO of Engine, said the spot was "so, so in their heritage" and was reflective of where the country was in that moment.

The company re-aired the ad during a pregame commercial break before the 2017 Super Bowl, with the tagline "Together is Beautiful," right when President Donald Trump's travel ban order had been announced.

Cacy said it's another example of a company that took a risk on something and had the social media machinery behind the scenes to manage the conversation.

"I don't think another brand could have done it as well as they did," she said. "As governments become incapable to make anything happen, there's this expectation that brands are going to fill that void."

"Imagine the Possibilities" campaign from Barbie

YouTube

Barbie doesn't look the way she used to. She also isn't just some pretty girl in a skirt.

Mattel was grappling with what consumers saw as being dated and out of touch with the women of today. The brand in 2015 launched "Imagine the Possibilities," a viral video with Omnicom Group's BBDO that showed little girls taking over the jobs they dream of, and what the company said was hidden-camera reactions.

"As society evolved, Barbie and Mattel were criticized for the make and look of Barbie dolls and the influence of that on young girls," said Alicia Tillman, chief marketing officer of software giant SAP. "They introduced this campaign to respond to the criticism and demonstrate the positive impact Barbie has on imaginations based on how consumers were using Barbie."

Not long after, in 2016, Mattel said a new line of dolls would come in a range of body types, skin tones, eye colors and hairstyles.

Finally, little girls' fantasies could look more like reality.

"It is a beautiful campaign that demonstrates the true purpose of Barbie and Mattel and will forever be one of my very favorites," Tillman said.

Colin Kaepernick in a new ad for Nike.

Source: Nike

Shares of Nike plummeted right after it released its ad campaign with Wieden & Kennedy for the 30th anniversary of "Just Do It," featuring former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The football player gained attention after he began protesting police brutality against African Americans by "taking a knee" during the national anthem in 2016.

But in the aftermath, sales exploded, despite a social media campaign to boycott Nike.

More importantly, Nike solidified its position as a brand willing to put it all on the line to show what it felt mattered.

The way Cacy sees it, "There were very few things that capture the attention of everyone the way that did."

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Nike Kaepernick ad will be among the most memorable from the 2010s - CNBC

What Merriam-Websters words of the year say about the past decade – WHNT News 19

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

(CNN) Whats in a word?

A lot, if you ask the folks at Merriam-Webster.

Merriam-Websters 2019word of the yearisthey.Last yearsword wasjustice. And theyear before that, it wasfeminism.

Peter Sokolowski, a lexicographer and Merriam-Websters editor at large, said that Merriam-Webster doesnt set out to capture the zeitgeist in its words of the year lists, like some otherdictionariesandlinguistic organizationsdo.

Instead, Sokolowski said that Merriam-Websters word of the year is determined by data: it must have seen a significant increase in lookups on the dictionarys website and app from previous years.

But taken together, these words show how we grappled with issues of political ideology, social justice, and identity politics.

They remind us about the biggest news stories of the past 10 years and how many of them havent gone away.

And they tell us about the broader shifts happening in our culture and big ideas that inspire us.

What it tells me is that words matter that people pay attention, Sokolowski said. People want to find more nuance, more history, more description, more accuracy in the definition.

Heres a look back at the past decade, as defined by Merriam-Websters words of the year.

2010:austerity Enforced or extreme economy, by one definition. This word kept coming up innews reportsabout the economic panic and protests triggered by thedebt crisis in Greece, referring to pay cuts in the public sector, tax increases and other measures intended toprevent economic collapse.

2011:pragmatic At the time,Merriam-Webster wrotethat the word could suggest a national mood, an admirable quality that people value in themselves and wish for in others, especially in their leaders and their policies. But in hindsight, Sokolowski said its just a word people look up a lot.

2012:socialism, capitalism This was an election year, and the word socialism was often thrown aroundin reference toObamacare, as well as after party conventions and presidential debates. And when people looked up socialism, they usually looked up capitalism too.

2013:science It might seem odd that people were looking upsuch a basic word, until you remember theconversations we were havingthat year. Federal funding cuts threatened the future of innovation. Discoveries about theHiggs bosonand successes incloning human stem cellsprompted philosophical and ethical debates. Climate change was treated like a subjectup for debate, and science itself was facing acrisis of skepticism.

2014:culture Another extremely broad word. Merriam-Webster said it conveyed a kind of academic attention to systemic behavior, and allowed us to isolate and talk about ideas, issues, and groups. News outlets covered hookup culture,rape culture,car culture the list goes on.

2015:-ism So this one isnttechnicallya word. But Merriam-Webster said the suffixrepresents a group of wordsthat were collectively looked up millions of times: socialism, fascism, racism, feminism, communism, capitalism and terrorism. With Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump announcing presidential runs, and attacks like the one at a South Carolina churchcalling into questionthe definition of terrorism, its easy to see why.

2016:surreal Merriam-Webster said peoplelook this word up spontaneouslyin moments of shock and surprise, defining it as marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream. The 2016 election comes to mind, but the dictionary also saw spikes after the Brexit vote, the Pulse shooting and Princes death.

2017:feminism Byone definition, it means organized activity on behalf of womens rights and interests. This was the year of the#MeToo movement, ofwomens marchesaround the world. It was the year Wonder Woman and The Handmaids Tale captivated viewers on screens big and small. Coincidence? Merriam-Webstersays not.

2018:justice The word wasat the centerof some of the years biggest stories: the Mueller investigation, Brett Kavanaughs hearing in Congress, criminal justice reform, as well as the fights for racial, economic and gender equality.

2019:they We talkeda lot about pronounsthis year, and Merriam-Webster noticed. The word is increasingly used to refer to someone whose gender identity is nonbinary, showing up in email signatures, Twitter bios and conference name tags. In September, Merriam-Webster added that definition to its dictionary,noting thattheres no doubt that its use is established in the English language.

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What Merriam-Websters words of the year say about the past decade - WHNT News 19

How to Avoid the Ghost of the Common Core in Social-Emotional Learning’s Rollout? Emphasize Local Control and Community Connection, Experts Say – The…

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

Students need to be mentally and emotionally well in order to learn at full capacity.

As much money and effort have been put into demonstrating that, the need to consider the whole child in education was never really the subject of debate.

Nobodys in favor of half-child education, quipped Chester Finn, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute senior fellow, during a discussion of social-emotional learning, or SEL, at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.

To his point, the goal of the Dec. 10 conversation at the conservative think tank among a high-profile panel of education researchers, policy people and advocates was not to debate whether social-emotional learning is necessary, but whether the movement swiftly building behind it is the most effective way to deliver on its promises.

Rick Hess, moderator and AEIs director of education policy studies, wondered if, as with other reforms, the enthusiasm for social-emotional learning at the national level would end up turning ideas into something they were never intended to be.

To prevent that, panelists agreed that the quickly growing field needs to carefully balance local priorities and values with instruction rooted in the more universally accepted science of human development that underpins SEL and its goals of teaching students skills like self-regulation, collaboration, social awareness and empathy.

Panelists pointed to standardized testing and Common Core as top-down reforms born out of widespread agreement that high standards and consistency from school to school were inarguably good. Once put into practice locally, however, they were plagued by controversy, resentment and unintended consequences.

Hess mused that social-emotional learning could go the same way if shoddy vendors and insufficient training opened the door for more political and ideological motivation to creep in.

If social-emotional learning became a bastardized version of itself, a cheap tack-on to academic curriculum, Finn argued that it may be no more than a distraction from academics. An Aspen Institute report found that social-emotional learning, when properly executed, improves academic outcomes, but Finn pointed out that the length and complexity of that report alludes to how difficult fidelity might be to achieve. If overtaken by ideologues, he predicted, SEL would find itself with a cadre of enemies.

Tim Shriver, one of the founders of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), might share Finns and Hesss concern for quality, but he doesnt see SEL as a negotiable value-add or a volatile movement waiting to fall into the wrong hands. Shriver sees social-emotional learning as inevitable, even if it cant be done perfectly.

Children are growing as emotional and social beings influenced by their environments all the time, he said. Many of the issues panelists pointed to as being on the rise among kids depression, suicide and bullying demonstrate what fills the void when instruction rooted in developmental science is absent.

Anybody who thinks the way weve done it is working is not paying attention to kids, Shriver said. We dont have a choice as to whether we have a social and emotional learning program in our school. We have a choice as to whether its any good.

To reach good, panelists said, requires governments, schools and funders to embrace a slow, intensely local roll-out of social and emotional learning, beginning with teachers. Not only would this help the quality of the programs as teachers have time to properly train and develop, they said, it would also address another great risk with social-emotional learning community disconnect.

This happens when local teachers and parents are not included in the conversation, said Devin Carlson, a University of Oklahoma researcher and associate director for education at the National Institute of Risk and Resilience, and community engagement, so far, has not been a strength of education reformers. These movements, he said, have a history of promising one thing the dignity of high expectations, for instance and delivering another such as constant test prep.

Both funders and governmental agencies usually drive things at a scale and speed that steamrolls communities, panelists agreed. In the rollout of the Common Core, as Karen Nussle, president of Conservative Leaders for Education, recalled, communities were left out of the conversation on why such a change was needed. Teachers and parents confused by, for instance, new ways of doing math unified against The Man, she said. The federal zeitgeist had failed to justify itself to them.

Repeating that with SEL would be an unforced error, she argued, because grassroots demand for it as a concept is already there. Parents want life skills and pro-social behavior from their kids, she said: They are terrified theyre not doing enough of that at home.

However, as other panelists pointed out, they might not want it in the form of transcendental meditation and Eastern philosophy.

Education is, by nature, formative, much in the same way that religion is, said Jay Greene, chair of the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform, and if schools begin to encroach on the areas of formation usually addressed by religion character, values, identity its as if were trying to start a new religion.

For nonreligious people, it will be difficult to get the benefits of what is essentially moral education without the icky God part, Greene argued. At the same time, he said, people who do have a religious tradition already have elaborate pedagogy around character that has been refined over centuries and millennia.

Social-emotional learning would be well served to find the common strands between these value systems rather than ignoring them, Greene advised.

To do so will take some reversal of what Teachers Who Pray founder and CEO Marilyn Rhames characterized as a scrubbing of God out of public education. While she did not advocate proselytizing or enforcing moral codes that violate the safety of others such as anti-LGBTQ policies Rhames did point out that to reject the work already being done by churches and places of spiritual guidance would be detrimental, even if those institutions dont reflect the entirety of what social-emotional learning is trying to accomplish.

Faith groups have been doing for generations what schools will require time to learn, Rhames said, pointing to a partnership in Nashville where churches offer afterschool social and emotional learning programs for public school students.

Many teachers have relied on personal faith for their own social and emotional well-being, and they will have a hard time divorcing the two, she said: I believe hope comes from a spiritual place. So does diligence and excellence.

None of the panelists addressed it at length, but the separation of church and state looms large over these types of discussions, with school districts left to contemplate the line between religion as a content subject and religion as an enforced practice.

Although values and goals differ from place to place, the science of learning and human development is not subjective, said Jacqueline Jodl, a University of Virginia professor and former executive director of the Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development. Social-emotional learning isnt pulled out of thin air, she said.

Panelists gave various examples of SELs universal foundations. Knowing that environment affects learning isnt a value-laden statement. Its scientifically based, they said. The effect of the stress hormone cortisol on the brain is a studied phenomenon, not an opinion.

Ultimately connecting the universal how of the human machinery and the local and personal why of education and identity requires trust, said Bror Saxberg, president of learning science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. He acknowledged the role of funders, like CZI, in giving permission to slow down and build that trust one community at a time.

The catch-22 for social-emotional learning is that the more success it sees, the more momentum could push it in the direction of the sweeping education reforms of years past. But it was exactly those funding tsunamis, bickering think tanks and cramped timelines that gave rise to grassroots movements against standardized testing and Common Core.

Better community engagement now, before mandates and assessments are imminent, could keep the grassroots on the pro-SEL side, Shriver said.

If we play the old game, were in trouble.

Disclosure: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Walton Family Foundation provide financial support to the American Enterprise Institute and toThe 74.

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How to Avoid the Ghost of the Common Core in Social-Emotional Learning's Rollout? Emphasize Local Control and Community Connection, Experts Say - The...

Ally McBeal was ahead of its time in depicting women’s inner fantasy life – SYFY WIRE

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

"I like being a mess. It's who I am."

When most think of Ally McBeal, they think of skirts and dancing babies. That's fair. Those are the elements the zeitgeist most ran with. They're the same elements that made so many people from dismissive male critics to the most ardent feminists view the show as damaging drivel featuring the most heinous villain in all entertainment: the at-times unlikable and selfish woman.

The language used to discuss just how much they detested this character was violent and over the top to the point of parody. Glenda Cooper wrote this in the Independent: "I can't help it. I just hate Ally McBeal with a pure vengeance. Not the series I have great affection for Richard Fish, Renee, Elaine et al. I would just find it perfect if they could take the eponymous heroine out of it. A sort of Not Ally McBeal. Or Ally McBeal Without That Irritating Woman ... Show me a shot of Calista Flockhart with that cute little scarf round her neck and I get a Pavlovian reaction. I feel my blood pressure rising and an involuntary snarling at the back of my throat. I want Dancing Baby to stop grooving and squash her." Even a mostly glowing piece from the New York Times was headlined "You Want to Slap Ally McBeal, But Do You Like Her?"

Much of this negative coverage was under the auspices of feminist theory. Entire academic papers were written about the character's potentialnegative impact. And famously, Time magazine featured thiscover:

Ally McBeal: wearer of skirts, haver of sex, killer of feminism. Daenerys Targaryen only wishes her titles could be so powerful.

But beyond what the late-'90smedia portrayed the show to be, or, more accurately, the character (the rest of the show was apparently fine, smacking of "I'd watch a show about/see a movie about/vote for a woman, just not that woman"), Ally McBeal itself and Ally herself was something much different. Both more and less powerful than the covers would have one think. Ally McBeal couldn't destroy an entire social movement. She could barely pull together her life and career, existing in a constant state of frazzle and insecurity, and clinging to the comfort of an inner fantasy world that helped make the real one make a bit more sense. That's why they hated her and that's why I loved her.

"I like being a mess. It's who I am."That line I opened the piece with is what I think of when I think of Ally McBeal. Today, the entertainment world is filled with neurotic women attempting to navigate love and career and society's expectations. I love them all, too, even the ones that same media that saw Ally as some harbinger of Gilead would later write off as "quirkalicious" or "manic pixie dream girls." Like Ally McBeal, these characters all suffer from the same impediment: being women wrong.

Ironically, the public perception and backlash to Ally McBealwas reminiscent of the way female insecurity and anxiety manifests. That we're failing, that we're too much or not enough, that we're causing problems, that we are problems.

Is it any wonder then why Ally repeatedly turns to her fantasies?

Enter the Dancing Baby, the arrows to the heart, and the revenge fantasies against bad men andtelemarketers with poor timingalike.

Using the narrative device of fantasy, something used quite commonly onscreen today, we see Ally's inner fantasies as visual components of the show, and we better understand her and the way her mind works, the way she sees the world. Like so many of us, Ally wants love, wants sex, wants connection, and when those things are difficult she looks inward. Imagination became a respite from her unhappy home life as a child and she turns to it again and again in adulthood.

She's a mess. It's who she is. And the world she creates may be messy, but it's hers. As her best friend and colleague John Cage (Peter MacNicol) says,"At some unconscious level, I think you know that the only world that ultimately won't end up disappointing you is the one you make up."

Maybe that's true of all of us. The real world can be disappointing. Society demands so much, our careers and emotions demand more, and sometimes entire magazines blame you for the downfall of women as a gender. Ally McBeal took all of the things that make existing as a woman hard and gave us a heroine who felt and experienced every bit of it. And yes she was selfish and flighty and wore short skirts. She was a mess. So are a lot of us. Messy, and insecure, and hyperfocused at times on the things that will ultimately hurt us or do us no good. But she was also smart, funny, a true romantic, and a character who deserved better than what she was given.

In another episode, John told Ally, "The world is no longer a romantic place. Some of its people still are, however, and therein lies the promise. Don't let the world win, Ally McBeal."

Here's to not letting the world win, to embracing fantasy, and to remembering Ally McBeal as more than her clothing.

See the article here:

Ally McBeal was ahead of its time in depicting women's inner fantasy life - SYFY WIRE

The Harvey Weinstein Settlement Shows He Still Hasnt Faced a True Legal Reckoning – IndieWire

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

Early on a late May morning in 2018, Harvey Weinstein shuffled into a downtown Manhattan police precinct. The disgraced mogul was turning himself in to the NYPD for a litany of sex crimes, including rape, a criminal sex act, sex abuse, and sexual misconduct. Hours later, he was arraigned in Manhattans Supreme Court. For many people in attendance (including this writer) and for those watching the events unfold from afar, it was a landmark event the first time Weinstein was forced to publicly face the charges against him from numerous victims. It felt like justice.

But over 18 months later, Weinstein still hasnt been tried, and last week the New York Times reported that Weinstein and the board of the bankrupt Weinstein Company reached a tentative $25 million settlement with dozens of the women who accused him of sexual assault. If the settlement goes through, it would effectively end the majority of lawsuits leveled against him and the company since 2017. The deal would not require Weinstein to admit any wrongdoing, or pay anything out of his own pocket; instead, insurance companies representing TWC would be on the hook for the millions.

Two years after Weinsteins supposed reckoning, its hard not to feel as if hes continuing to evade true justice. And if he does, who else will be able to get off so easily?

However, theres reason to believe that this is not the end of the story. Some of Weinsteins most high-profile accusers including Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, and Salma Hayek are not part of this claim. Neither is Ashley Judd, who has expressed her own desire to take Weinstein to trial. Nor does the settlement include two outstanding criminal cases, including the one that first brought him to court in May 2018.

The settlement is a complex shared payout to more than 30 actresses and former Weinstein employees who have accused the disgraced mogul of hundreds of sexually based crimes, from harassment to rape.Financial settlements can perpetuate the idea that accusers are looking to cash in on accusations, but the truth is when criminal charges arent possible, or are prohibitively expensive, the only recourse can be their assailants pocketbooks.

However, its still galling that Weinstein would personally pay nothing, admit no wrongdoing, and not have to worry about future repercussions for the dozens and dozens of criminal acts.

When Weinstein was outed in October 2017, the impact altered the zeitgeist. Soon, a slew of other heavy-hitters became exiles Brett Ratner, Kevin Spacey, John Lasseter, Bryan Singer as they faced their own exposs.

The response in Hollywood, especially among the industrys most empowered women, was just as seismic. Within days of the first Weinstein stories, the hashtag #MeToo was retrofitted for women abused by the entertainment elite before it circled back to founder Tarana Burkes original intention to shine a light on all stories of sexual abuse. Other outspoken talents created the Times Up campaign to deal with workplace sexual assault, harassment, and inequality first for Hollywood, and then for other industries.

Weinstein appeared in court this week looking feeble. However, he spent the summer appearing around New York City, including a dinner at Cipriani (the location of at least one of his accused sexual assaults) and attending at least two artist events at a Manhattan bar (where he was infamously heckled by a female performer) all without the assistance of a walker or a cane. Two handlers navigated him into the courtroom and if it was a bid for pity, it didnt work: His bail was raised to $5 million after he was accused of mishandling his ankle monitor.

There is still the possibility of a real legal reckoning, the kind of due process that has yet to truly hit the #MeToo movement. And no matter what happens, the movement goes far beyond just one man and his alleged crimes and punishments that may or may not ever come.

Two years ago, there was a cultural shift that forced greater awareness of sexual harassment and assault throughout the industry and well beyond it. The revolution might not be here yet, but the conversations continue and show no signs of letting up. Even if Weinstein wins one battle, hes already lost the war.

The Harvey Weinstein Settlement Shows He Still Hasnt Faced a True Legal Reckoning - IndieWire

Sat the good, bad and ugly – TT Newsday

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

Sat Maharaj -

EDMUND NARINE

SATNARAYAN MAHARAJ, tenacious fighter for Hindu equal rights in a hostile Afrocentric society, has departed; passed on to join the pantheon of TTs most illustrious ethnocentric promoters, foremost among them Eric Williams, Rudranath Capildeo, Bhadase Maraj, men reacting to zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, who could see only the empowerment of their own ethnic communities as compared to a quest for the illusive, all-inclusive and harmonious TT we so desire and truly deserve.

Maharaj was born April 17, 1931, 86 years after the Fatel Razack sailed from Calcutta to drop anchor in the Gulf of Paria on May 30, 1845, to unload the first human cargo of Hindus and Muslims destined for cane-cutting, and a clash of civilisations that reverberates to this day.

Contracted from India as indentured labourers, the Hindus, like the indigenous Caribs, Arawaks, and newly emancipated Africans, soon found themselves dominated by European capitalism and culture Eurocentrism.

Hindus embraced capitalism but rejected European customs, especially Christian religious worship, as compared to their practice of over 5,000 years of Hindu religion, philosophy, and culture.

The newly emancipated Africans, having no choice under Eurocentrism, practised a convoluted version Afrocentrism. The Europeans struck back. If Hindus were unwilling to accept European cultural institutions, then Hindus would have to pay a price.

That price was succinctly described by Marina Salandy-Brown: During my childhood I witnessed first hand the illiteracy, abject poverty and isolation of rural Indians from the rest of TT (Newsday, November 24). In essence, Hindus were ostracised from TT society.

In 1952, determined to combat the effects of Eurocentrism, concretised in the Hindu community as illiteracy and abject poverty, a young Hindu entrepreneur and wrestler, Bhadase Sagan Maraj, founder of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, and fighter against Eurocentrism and its lesser evil, Afrocentrism, launched a school-building programme in predominantly Hindu areas of Trinidad.

Upon Marajs death in 1971, his son-in-law, Satnarayan Maharaj, assumed leadership of the Maha Sabha.

Like Maraj who struggled against Eurocentrism, Maharaj struggled against Afrocentrism, the step-child of Eurocentrism.

Writing in the Express of October 21, 1971, Augustus Ramrekarsingh described the struggle as a continuity to make the Indians proud of their heritage in a society which was Christian and Afro-Saxon, hence hostile to them.

As head of the Maha Sabha, Maharaj built and improved schools, built and refurbished Hindu temples, and, most importantly, dedicated his life to maintaining both schools and temples.

Maharaj was no Gandhi who pursued equal rights for all Indians including Muslims, Dalits, and Brahmins in an independent India, and neither was he a Martin Luther King, the African American civil rights leader who dreamed of a day when little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls in an integrated American society, a society of equal rights for all.

Like King, Sat Maharaj dreamed of a day, not of African boys joining hands with Hindu girls in an integrated TT, but a day when educated little Hindu boys and educated little Hindu girls would arise from the ashes of the recalcitrant minority Eric Williams label of the Hindu community and take their rightful place as full-fledged citizens of TT.

If Maharaj was no Gandhi, no King, he certainly was no Makandal Daaga, the student activist who in 1970 sought to unite blacks and Indians in an effort to destroy the Afrocentric government and policies pursued by Eric Williams for the building of his new society guided neither by liberal capitalism nor by Marxism the dead-end concoction Williams latter-day acolyte, Selwyn Cudjoe, extols as the middle way; a rejection of capitalism to the Afro-Trinis economic peril.

Unlike Cudjoes middle way, Maharajs Hindus embraced capitalism. To his credit, he not only built schools, he also fought the Afrocentric Peoples National Movement (PNM) government all the way to the Privy Council to gain a licence for the creation of a Hindu radio station.

Maharaj practised an orthodox Hindu religious culture, while conversely engaging in an oftentimes acrimonious public race debate with Afrocentrist Cudjoe.

Those Maharaj-Cudjoe debates pursued very shallow ethnic interest, characterised by Cudjoes recollection of a Maharaj remark when he received public money for his private projects, I got mine, you go and get yours. The debates have deepened and widened the chasm between TT Hindu and African communities.

Sat Maharaj is dead, but his erstwhile fellow race debater, Selwyn Cudjoe, is alive to continue the divisive narrative.

In his latest Afrocentric salvo against the Hindus, Cudjoe writes: I wonder if she (Kamla Persad-Bissessar) is willing to tell the national community, in concrete terms, what the UNC (read Hindus) is willing to do about the disturbing disparities that exist in our society with regard to black young people as compared to young Hindu people, I might add (trinicenter.com November 20).

In the US that inherent accusation would be labelled passing the buck. Williams middle way or state capitalism provided jobs for Afro-Trinis while removing them from significant participation in business enterprise in the booming oil and gas economy. Now that state capitalism is in decline, so too are state jobs in decline. Thus, like Cudjoe, we must ask who should be blamed for the disturbing disparities that exist in our society with regard to black young people?

If Maharaj was no Gandhi, no King, no Daaga, then who was the real Maharaj? In private there must have been the virtuous Maharaj, but the public Maharaj that we know was the embodiment of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

To his credit, the good Sat created schools of excellence, created a Hindu radio station, made Indians proud of their heritage, while the bad Sat played an important role in deepening and widening the destructive schism between African and Hindu communities. The ugly Sat showed in his description of Tobago men as lazy and only looking for white tourists to rape.

Yet just as Eric Williams, Rudranath Capildeo, Bhadase Maraj have taken their place in the pantheon of tenacious ethnic Trini promoters, so too will Satnarayan Maharaj take his place.

Maharaj will be remembered and even memorialised not only as a Hindu-to-the-bone but for generations of educated little Hindu boys and educated little Hindu girls to come, he will be remembered as a hero, as an icon, and to his greatest satisfaction, as a Hindu Trini-to-the bone.

Sat Maharaj

Continued here:

Sat the good, bad and ugly - TT Newsday

The words and phrases that defined the decade – Mashable

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

We shape language as much as it shapes us. And it's constantly evolving.

The top 10 words and phrases that defined this past decade arent all necessarily new, but they did gain mainstream popularity, relevance, and acceptance between 2010-2019. To crown these winning terms, we consulted with a swath of experts, including internet linguist and author of Because Internet, Gretchen McCulloch; Ponoma College sociolinguist Nicole Holliday, as well as Dictionary.com's lexicographer Heather Bonikowski and senior research editor John Kelly.

Whether or not the following words and phrases and the many more they spawned over time (bolded throughout) have short or long lives after the decade, they certainly captured the ideas and phenomenons that ruled this moment in our zeitgeist.

Over the past decade the hashtag changed the way we use social media, launched revolutionary social movements, and bled into IRL vernacular.

Tech innovator Chris Messina first told Twitter it should use hashtags in 2007 to create "channels" people could use for discovery. The nascent social media platform reportedly told him "these things are for nerds," doubted they'd become much of a thing, but then eventually embraced them anyway in 2009. By 2010, not only did Instagram also start using hashtags but they became integral to organizing a number of social movements on Twitter, from the Arab Spring, the Tea Party, and later Occupy Wall Street.

Twitter helped sound the alarm on important global issues.

Image: vicky leta / mashable

That legacy continues to thrive to this day, with #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo leading to revolutionary social change because their message can spread online on a global scale. Hashtags and the activists behind them used this power to bring widespread awareness to phenomenons like police brutality and enthusiastic consent, making room for citizen journalism and (from the more cynical perspective) slacktivism.

But outside that monumental impact, hashtags forever changed the way we shared experiences and information online. They enabled real-time, live-blogging of breaking news, like that time some guy on Twitter accidentally broke the news of the Osama Bin Laden raid.

Ironically, hashtags also opened the door for Twitter Moments and Trending Topics, which similarly gather conversations around a single topic, but without relying on the hashtag to do so. The hashtag still has pull at the end of the decade, but there are new ways to lasso together our fast-paced online conversations, too.

Every generation needs a derisive label for their trendy young people.

The peace-loving boomers in the 1960s were called a bunch of long-haired no-good hippies. Millennials in the 2010s became the vintage flannel and skinny jean-wearing hipsters who fetishize retro-tech like polaroid cameras. They come in various subcategories, too, whether it's lumbersexual, normcore, or nerd.

Dictionary.com traces the word hipster back to "hepster," first used in the late 1930s in reference to an in-the-know (aka "hip") "person who is knowledgeable about or interested in jazz." That still aligns with our modern stereotypes of arrogant hipsters blindly following of-the-moment trends who were, like, totally into that alt indie-pop band before everyone else was. Apparently some scholars even speculate that "hipster" eventually became "hippie," before then coming back again.

Aside from millennials, hipsters are also closely associated with the phenomenon of gentrification. Affluent, usually white young people take over low-income neighborhoods, spiking up the cost of living and displacing the communities that were there before. That's why the "hipster coffee shop" has become a favorite strawman to deride liberal hypocrisy.

We were over hipster before everyone else was.

Image: vicky leta / mashable

According to Dictionary.com, the connotation that hipsters appropriate marginalized cultures was there early on, too, as evidenced by Norman Mailer's popular 1957 essay The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster.

The exact parameters for what a hipster even is changes depending on what's en vogue at any given moment. But one specific shift we're seeing at the end of the decade is the notion that all hipsters are millennials. After killing just about everything else, soon millennials will see the death of their own relevance as the target demographic, giving way instead to Generation Z.

Ok Zoomers!

The modern concept of an American culture war dates back to the early 90s. But the polarizing "battle lines" only truly seem to have solidified in the 2010s.

Perceived threats to one's race, gender, religious, and cultural identity are one of the only commonalities shared by both sides.

Generally-speaking, partisan politics used to be defined by economics. But the past decade saw a sharp rise in increasingly personal and identity-driven political divides. Identity politics doesn't just refer to its derogatory connotation of social justice warrior snowflakes advocating for cancel culture and political correctness (though that's part of it). The rise of the alt-right, modern white supremacy, and men's rights activists show how perceived threats to one's race, gender, religious, and cultural identity are one of the only commonalities shared by both sides.

In truth, definitive, hard facts about the culture war why it began (like online echo chambers), when it began, or even the exact nature of its existence are kind of impossible to determine in any level-headed manner while we're in the thick of it.

But what's undeniable is its impact on language, with each side forming its own set of distinct terminology: problematic, microaggressions, virtue signaling, toxicity, gaslighting, safe spaces, triggered, red pilled, Q-anon, incel. In a world of alternative facts, when even words like fake news coined for the specific purpose of trying to objectively measure our post-truth existence lose all meaning, it's hard to be sure of anything.

Throughout the decade, climate change deniers like President Donald Trump have been claiming that "they" (whoever the fuck "they" are) changed the name of environmental collapse from "global warming" to "climate change" because the earth isn't getting warmer.

He is wrong.

Scientists have pushed for the switch from global warming to climate change since 2005 because it more accurately describes the fuller scope of what's happening. Global warming is only one factor within the larger umbrella of climate change. Before even that, in politics the switch happened under none other than former President George W. Bush for more dubious reasons, with one memo suggesting it be used because climate change sounded "less frightening" than global warming.

They were actually right. Studies have shown people to be less responsive to the term climate change. That might be part of why the general public's adoption of the term has been much slower than the political and scientific communities. But it seems the general public has latched onto climate change more in recent years. Comparing the two terms using Google Search trends shows climate change has overtaken global warmings search popularity since 2015.

However, to offset some of the psychological disadvantages of climate change, the advocacy group Public Citizen urged people to retire climate change in lieu of "climate crisis," and notable publications like The Guardian have followed suit. The idea is to remain scientifically accurate while also bringing back the sense of urgency and need for action appropriate to the scale of the calamity. Climate strike was even Collins Dictionary's Word of the Year in 2019, since its usage shot up 100-fold from 2018 to 2019.

Still others encourage even more dire language, with teen activist Greta Thunberg preferring terms such as "climate breakdown, climate crisis, climate emergency, ecological breakdown, ecological crisis and ecological emergency."

News alert: climate change isn't always warm.

Image: vicky leta / mashable

In his 1996 essay "Content is King," Bill Gates rightfully predicted how the internet would usher in a revolution in the way we think about, produce, supply, and monetize information and entertainment. With the hindsight of the 2010s, we can now say this bold title undersold exactly how radical that shift would be.

In the age of content creators, content marketing, #sponcon, influencers, vloggers, bloggers, streaming services, cinematic universes, and binge-watching, content isn't just king. It's everything from the peasants to our higher power.

Of course, people were blogging and vlogging basically since the internet's inception. But 2010 saw the first-ever Vidcon, an indication of content creation's growth and professionalization. With it came the idea that anyone can create content, proliferating the conceit of a personal brand, an acknowledgment that our online personas are curated ideals rather than our authentic selves.

While Netflix and Hulu launched their streaming services in 2007 and 2008, respectively, Netflix changed everything in 2013 with the release of its first slate of originals, including House of Cards. In 2019, we're still in the thick of the streaming wars, with old media mega-corporations like Disney only just now beginning to enter the fray.

Content is Prison.

Image: vicky leta / mashable

Alongside all that came the mainstreaming of expanded universes, a concept previously relegated to nerdy niches like comic books and fanfiction. But cultural phenomenons like Marvel and Game of Thrones gave way to the rise of IP (intellectual property) as the cash cow corporations feed with a never-ending stream of new content.

Content is the vague, ephemeral, yet omnipresent digital material that rules us all.

Internet culture obviously predates the 2010s (just ask AIM, Livejournal, and Tumblr). But what is new to the decade is a more complete interweaving of digital and pop culture. Digital culture became even more trendy, resulting in two distinct categories of people: those who know all the memes and are very online, or those who well... arent (aka locals).

As is to be expected, often this divide falls down the demographic lines of those who are "pre-internet" (adults before the web), "full-internet" (grew up alongside the web), and "post-internet" (born to a world ruled by the web). But the normalization of social media platforms made it so that following or not following the norms and memes of internetspeak is more of a choice now rather than predetermined by age.

Grandma can be very online if she wants to!

Image: vicky leta / mashable

For better or worse, the democratization of content creation on the internet also led to a blurring of lines between internetspeak and slang from marginalized groups. Some phrases like "on fleek" and "yaaas queen" have clear origins in black culture and queer drag culture respectively. Similarly "woke," "lit," and "throwing shade" all trace back to black culture, but following widespread generic online adoption theyre often deemed dead by the communities that originated them. Brands and influencers go on to make money by parroting them anyway, effectively whitewashing or pinkwashing their origins.

The question of whether the vast majority of internet slang should be considered cultural appropriation has no easy answer. But recognizing that the marginalized groups who popularize them are often quickly forgotten as the originators tells us a lot about the limits of a digital democracy.

In the 2010s, emoji became the most popular form of online gesture communication (though GIFs can serve a similar function as well). All that means is, in order to offset the lack of physical information we usually get from an IRL conversation, we started using symbolic images and icons.

From eggplants to prayer hands, the meanings of emoji took on a life of their own outside of just what each literally depicts. Some have even made it into IRL vocabulary, because we all know what "heart eyes" means when a friend asks if their outfit is cute.

And for that we're .

To reiterate, while most of the terms we're including in this section were coined decades ago by scholars, we're pointing to their popularization in the mainstream discourse outside of academia during the 2010s.

Inclusivity and intersectionality arrived in a big way on the mainstream stage during the 2018 Academy Awards, and not without some backlash. Much of their history and original meaning was lost in translation of their widespread adoption over the decade, leading some to criticize them as catch-all, meaningless buzzwords that lead to only superficial politically correct checklists.

Many wrongfully believe inclusivity and intersectionality can be used interchangeably.

New terms help give marginalized identities a voice.

Image: bob al-greene / mashable

Intersectionality specifically describes the often overlooked and unique discrimination experienced by people of multiple overlapping marginalized identities, like race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. It enables us to address the subtleties of colorism, or the need for nonbinary and genderqueer versions of Latin identifiers like Latinx, Afro-Latinx, and Chicanx

Inclusivity, on the other hand, is a more broadly applicable framework to ensure spaces and policies take all forms of identities into account to avoid discrimination and oppression. The past decade saw some promising linguistic growth around more widely-accepted inclusive language, with the American Psychological Associations official addition of the singular they/them and Merriam Webster naming the pronoun their Word of the Year in 2019.

Inclusivity allows us to call out TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) and bi-erasure, for example, or to encompass a fuller spectrum of gender and sexual identity with a +, as in LGBTQIA+.

Intersectionality, inclusivity, and online activism became the defining components of what some now call fourth-wave feminism. Often associated with the #MeToo, Time's Up, and Women's March movements, it focuses on addressing the systemic power imbalance embedded in issues like sexual harassment, body shaming, slut shaming, and rape culture.

Back in 2011, we could do little more than scoff at the liberal leaderless protest movement that occupied Wall Street for months. Yet by the end of the decade, it's become clear just how effective it was at not only bringing widespread but long-lasting awareness to the movement's core issues.

"We are the 99%.

In 2019 many of the slogans (the 1% and we are the 99%) and concepts (the corrupting force of money in politics and widening income inequality) popularized by Occupy Wall Street continue to take center stage in national conversations like Democratic primary debates.

The Occupy protests evolved and matured beyond their initially more anarchist messines, and now an "eat the rich" and "fuck you pay me" mentality rings out in certain corners of the internet with a regularity we couldn't have predicted nine years ago.

We didn't just rail against the injustices of old establishments throughout the 2010s, though.

While the rest of the country still languished in the consequences of the 2008 recession, Silicon Valley and startup culture saw exponential growth. Another piece of tech speak coined in the 1990s went on to take over in 2010s: disruptive innovation.

Everything from Uber (which beta launched in 2010), tablets (the iPad released in 2010), rise of the cloud (iCloud launched in 2011), the proliferation of smart devices utilizing it (aka the Internet of Things), and various dongles (popularized in 2013) to connect them changed our ways of life.

Disruption, uh, isn't always great

Image: Vicky leta /mashable

The sharing and gig economy took over so rapidly that laws and policies still have yet to catch up in any effective way. Internet privacy concerns finally became unignorable with the cloud, and the seedy underbelly of Big Data profiteering showed itself through Facebook. A framework to ensure people's right to be forgotten is only just starting to emerge.

In 2010, society-shattering tech began to feel more inescapable than inspiring. Its unstoppable influence and power led to a general disillusionment with the utopian ideals the tech industry pedaled about connecting in a digital democracy.

Weve been through a lot over the past ten years. But we made it! And we lacked no ingenuity in the words we used to describe the journey.

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The words and phrases that defined the decade - Mashable

Femtech in 2019: 13 Trends And Highlights In Womens Health Technology – Forbes

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

There is an ongoing debate about what is included in the definition of Femtech, and the need to think beyond reproductive health and make the field more inclusive. However, there is power in using terminology that creates visibility for concepts or issues that have long been widely overlooked. Femtech has and continues to serve the purpose of creating a catchy reference to a business sector that primarily addresses the health and wellness needs of women -and people who experience similar health issues- through software, diagnostics, products and tech-enabled health services.

As this category continues to grow and be fueled by unwavering founders, investors and leaders, its impact is expanding beyond healthcare and into other domains, from workplace regulations, to advocacy against gender biases in advertising, from financial equity to state legislation.

2019 was an inflection point for this space which is on the path to becoming a consolidated $50 billion dollar industry (estimated for 2025 by F&S), while improving the lives of millions of women and their communities. To celebrate the accomplishments of leaders and visionaries who persisted, even after hearing for the hundredth time that the problems they were solving were too niche, heres a selection of the trends and highlights in Femtech in 2019.

Graphic by Vanessa Larco, Partner at NEA. $310M represents mid-year; $730M represents investment at ... [+] publishing date.

1. The Fertility Space Is Ready To Harvest What It Sow

Data Bridge, a research firm, predicts that by 2026 the booming global fertility industry could reach $41bn in sales, from approximately $25bn this year. No wonder investors are writing checks.

Manhattan based Extend Fertility brought in new talent into their leadership team, announced a $15 million Series A and total rebrand. Competitor egg-freezing and fertility clinic Kindbody also raised $15 million earlier this year, plus another $10 million from GV last week, totalling $31.3 million in capital raised. The company plans to support employers in offering better fertility benefits to their employees.

Nextgen Jane, a data-driven health company for women and people who menstruate, raised $9 million Series A. Its smart tampon platform allows users to collect menstrual and cervicovaginal samples and ship them off to a lab for in-depth analysis and disease detection.

2. At-home Testing Grows As Modern Consumers Demand Convenience And Affordability

Modern Fertility announced a $15 million funding round led by Forerunner Ventures to expand its affordable at-home hormone testing service and continue to collect anonymous data to contribute to womens health research and product development

Consumer lab testing platform Everlywell, which also provides womens health testing, raised $50 million this spring. The Texas-based company serves hundreds of thousands of customers, simplifying the often cumbersome and confusing diagnostic lab testing process.

3 . Female Founders Took A Stance Against Reproductive Health Bans, Unlocking Support From 200 CEOs

The initial 7 signing CEOs included Cora, Dame, Thinx, Sustain, Clary Collection, Fur and Loom. In their NYTs open letter they demanded that the CEOs of companies that use feminism and womens empowerment as marketing arsenal take a stance for womens rights, following the passing of bills restricting access to reproductive health services in several states. Weeks later, almost 200 CEOs and executives supported the movement under: Dont Ban Equality. The participating organizations and executives included big household names like H&M, tech entrepreneurs including MakeLoveNotPorns Cindy Gallop and Unbounds Polly Rodriguez, wellness founders Emily Weiss from Glossier and OUAIs Jen Atkins, and prominent investors such as Anu Duggal from Female Founders Fund and Wests Joanna Rees.

4. The Power of Community Support And Science In The Preconception Period

When it comes to maternal health, the conversation mostly revolves around (successful) pregnancy and motherhood. However, the ups and downs of the preconception journey are often left out of the conversation, causing many to feel lost and isolated.

Peanut, the social network for mothers, announced a $5 million funding round and the launch of TTC, a new site within Peanut specifically designed for the needs of women who are trying to conceive. Additionally, former CEO of RockHealth Halle Tecco launched Natalist and raised $5 million to address the gap in the market for better designed products and a more intelligent platform that supports the preconception journey.

5. Finance Meets Femtech To Increase Access To Family Planning

Cost is still the main barrier to access to fertility treatment, as explained in this white paper of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. 80% of people who undergo fertility treatment have little to no coverage and accrue an average of $30k in debt.

Fertility benefits company Carrot Fertility launched its Visa Carrot Card early this fall, the first fertility debit card for employees who have access to Carrot at work that makes it easy for employees to pay for treatment like egg freezing, IVF, and adoption, among other services.

Future Family aims to tackle the problem offering personalized financing plans for IVF and egg freezing, under a subscription payment model. Future Family recently announced that it will be offering free fertility testing for all members.

6. Menstrual Wellness Management Keeps Growing And Celebrates Two Exits

This is L. and competitor Sustain were both acquired this year by P&G and Grove Collaborative, respectively. This is L.s deal is said to be around the $100 million.

San Francisco-based Cora, which sells organic personal care items closed a $7.5 million Series A led by Harbinger Ventures. Additionally, femcare meets CBD, the darling wellness category of the year, in Daye, a startup that has developed a new type of tampon to help tackle dysmenorrhea. It raised $5.5 million this year, led by Khosla Ventures.

There is in fact a growing interest in the intersection of menstrual health and pain management that startups like FLO Vitamins and Elix are also tackling.

7. Digital Health Attracting Consumers Who Want A Better Experience

Navigating healthcare is a burdensome process that Millennials and Gen Z mostly dread and that can put people at risk due to health concerns that arent properly addressed.

Tia Clinic started as a digital womens health solution and has now gone brick and mortar. The startup opened its first location in NYC this year and memberships sold out in the first few weeks. Allbodies launched with the mission of covering the reproductive and sexual health questions and needs of all people, particularly addressing those areas that are still highly stigmatized.

Going back to the subject of inclusivity, Queerly Health, a digital health startup democratizing access to LGBTQ+ health and wellness, has had its first launch in NYC. Queerly Health will be linking LGBTQ+ inclusive providers with gay women, queer women, trans women, and gender variant folks (who may be assigned female at birth), among others. As explained by CEO Derrick Reyes, Queerly Health recently started enrolling providers in NYC and will be available to the public in 2020.

8. Progyny became the first fertility benefits company to ever IPO

Family benefits company Progyny (PGNY) went public on October 25. At the offering price, Progyny raised $130 million, and reached a fully diluted market value of $1.3 billion.

Fertility benefits coverage is consolidating as a must-have as more studies reflect that this is a key element in talent retention and employee satisfaction -62% of employees who had their IVF sponsored by their employer expressed that they were more likely to stay longer with the company.

9. One Billion in Funding: Investors Are Watching

Frost & Sullivans report stating that Femtech would reach $50 billion value in the next 5 years, paired up with the recent wins by leading companies and the awareness generated by the female entrepreneur community, has helped the space get on the radar of prominent investors. Just to name another example, Mahmee, a startup tackling the maternal health crisis, announced a $3 million round that included Serena Williams, Arlan Hamilton and Mark Cuban as investors.

This year the space surpassed $1 Billion in total funding since 2014. According to data provided by venture capitalist Vanessa Larco, Partner at NEA, this years total funding in the Femtech category falls just short of $750 million. Larco, who sits on the board of Cleo, a fertility to parenting employee support system, is a firm supporter of the space and hopes to see more exits in the near future: We need the investment community to see that you can make money while making a positive impact on womens health. The bigger the exits, the more money gets invested in the space, and the more companies we will see that should drive better outcomes. Its really the boost we need to get the flywheel going. Thats how you get a venture-funded industry going. And Im eager to see this happen as a woman and investor.

A celebrated funding round this year Elvies $42 million Series B led by IPGL, which was labeled as the largest in Femtech. In all fairness, this is strictly the largest funding round by a female founded Femtech company. However, if we look at the total market, we see that out of the 4 biggest funding rounds in Femtech, 3 were raised by companies founded and built by men (Nurx, Hims/Hers, Ro/Rory). In fact, two of these four were initially mens health companies, primarily selling on-demand pharma products, that then launched women-centered verticals (Hims/Hers, Ro/Rory).

10. Audioerotica Is Bringing Sexy Back

Think inclusive erotica and porn meet sexual wellness. Four companies aim to revolutionize the way people, and specially women, perceive and consume erotic content: Quinn, Dipsea ($ 5.5 million raised), Ferly, and Emjoy all have created digital platforms where audio is the main format, and science and a deep understanding of womens psychology are key elements.

This is part of a larger trend led by rising intimate and sexual wellness startups made by women for women that are creating safe spaces for sexual health education and conversation, while also transforming the way society views womens sexuality at every different stage in life.

Another female-founded startup addressing womens sexual health is Rosy, a digital health solution that supports women experiencing low libido.

11. Maternity And The Workplace: Transforming Culture Through Innovation

The struggle of juggling being a parent and thriving in the workforce is real, especially for women. The work/house role division is no longer set in stone, and employers need to think about supporting womens return after pregnancy and offering fathers the right to extended parental leave.

This creates an opportunity for technology to help reduce existing frictions. Companies innovating in the working mother space include wearable, silent breast pump makers like Elvie or Willow, lactation digital health solutions and communities like Pumpspotting, postpartum telemedicine and parenting benefits like Maven and Cleo, and milk shipping services like Milk Stork for lactating employees that need to travel for work.

12. Destigmatizing Menopause

Out of all of the life stages a woman goes through, menopause is probably the most overlooked by society. Ageism has made women practically invisible in the media after 45, and it transpires into the way we think about healthcare in perimenopause and menopause.

Gennev is an online clinic dedicated exclusively to this stage of life. Founder and CEO Jill Angelo raised $4 million this year and is excited to be launching an annual Zeitgeist study on menopause based on a survey of 6,000, the largest of its kind. Angelo adds that as women live longer and have more wealth than ever, they demand more information about their bodies and they want more care options whether that be traditional hormone therapy or lifestyle-based options for relief.

Elektra Health is another platform for women navigating perimenopause & menopause. Over 80% of women suffer debilitating symptoms (anxiety/depression, brain fog, hot flashes...) as a result of hormonal menopausal shifts, yet 75% of those who seek care dont receive it. Elektra is organizing monthly salon events with leading experts and, starting in 2020, will provide a virtual clinic for New York-based patients.

13. CPG Giants, Pharma, Insurers and Accelerators Make Moves Into The Space

P&G Ventures partnered with Vinetta project earlier this year to source its next billion dollar brand from the community of entrepreneurs, and has expressed a strong interest in the menopause space as well as aging.

Johnson and Johnson has been co-sponsoring innovation summits with a focus on womens health. Additionally, J&J has partnered with accelerator Founders Factory, which is launching a health hub in NYC. The project will be headed by former Techstars Managing Director Maya Baratz Jordan, and is said to focus initially on womens health.

Finally, Pharma companies are paying attention as DTC birth control startups like PillClub, Nurx and Simple Health gain traction among consumers. Insurer Axa, on the other hand, recently announced it will be selecting a group of women entrepreneurs for its first Femtech acceleration program.

Growing amounts of funding, acquisitions, Series A and B, growing consumer demand, and the attention of the biggest healthcare players... It all points out to an exciting 2020. Any bets? Ill be sharing some investor takes on whats to come in the next article.

Read the rest here:

Femtech in 2019: 13 Trends And Highlights In Womens Health Technology - Forbes

The best climate change charities to donate to – Vox.com

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

If youre reading this, chances are you care a lot about fighting climate change, and thats great. Maybe youre thinking about making a donation to the cause on Giving Tuesday, and thats great, too.

Climate change is the biggest emergency facing humanity. Our global response to it has been, in a word, pathetic. Over the past decade, our carbon dioxide emissions have actually risen 11 percent. We need to reverse that trend and fast.

The trouble is, it can be genuinely hard to figure out how to direct your money wisely if you want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Theres a glut of environmental organizations out there and a lack of rigorous research on their impacts and cost-effectiveness, though thatll hopefully change soon with the arrival of brand-new evaluators like Giving Green and ImpactMatters.

Ive written before about how billionaire philanthropists can spend their money to fight climate change. But lets face it: Most of us are not billionaires. While they can afford to spend influential sums on, say, trying to get a Democrat elected president, we might have only $10 or $100 to spend.

So if youre in this camp and you want to have the greatest impact possible per dollar donated to the fight against climate change, where should you give?

Below is a list of six of the most high-impact, cost-effective, and evidence-based organizations. (Im not including bigger-name groups, such as the Environmental Defense Fund or the Sierra Club, because most big organizations are already relatively well-funded.) The six groups here seem to be doing something especially promising in the light of certain criteria: importance, tractability, and neglectedness.

Important targets for change are ones that drive a big portion of global emissions. Tractable problems are ones where we can actually make progress right now. And neglected problems are ones that arent already getting a big influx of cash from other sources like the government or philanthropy, and hence could really use money from people like us.

Founders Pledge, an organization that guides entrepreneurs committed to donating a portion of their proceeds to effective charities, used these same criteria to assess climate organizations. Its comprehensive report, released in 2018, informed my research and the list below. As in that report, Ive chosen to look at groups focused on mitigation (tackling the root causes of climate change by reducing emissions) rather than adaptation (decreasing the suffering from the impacts of climate change). Both are important, but the focus of this piece is preventing further catastrophe.

Ive also intentionally selected organizations that are tackling this problem on different levels. Some advocate for high-level policy change or engage in long-term research, while others are achieving immediate emissions reductions through activities like stopping deforestation.

Dan Stein, director of the new Giving Green initiative at IDinsight, an organization that uses data and evidence to combat poverty worldwide, says we should have a diverse portfolio of mitigation strategies. There should be some short-term projects that give us certainty about reducing emissions now, he told me. But I also buy the argument that thats not going to be enough we need some moonshot projects.

Its very difficult to do a comparative cost-effectiveness analysis of different climate projects, and experts freely admit theyre not 100 percent sure theyve made the best recommendations. Sometimes theyll change their recommendations as new evidence comes to light. Likewise, I may update this piece as more information becomes available.

With that in mind, here are the organizations where your money will likely do the most good.

What it does: The Coalition for Rainforest Nations is unique in that its an intergovernmental organization of over 50 rainforest nations around the world, from Ecuador to Bangladesh to Fiji. It was formed after Papua New Guineas Prime Minister Michael Somare gave a speech in 2005, and since then its been partnering directly with governments and communities to protect their rainforests.

The Coalition championed something called the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism. Among other things, it ensures developing countries get paid if they can show that theyve been preventing deforestation, a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions, and environmental degradation. This was folded into the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and enshrined in Article 5 of the Paris agreement. The Coalition now concentrates on implementing REDD+ and on increasing public and private funding for it.

Why you should consider donating: This group is believed by Founders Pledge to have had a huge impact on reducing emissions through REDD+. The group also played a big role in securing an agreement on forestry in the Paris agreement.

According to Founders Pledges cost-effectiveness model from 2018, a donation of just 12 cents to the Coalition for Rainforest Nations will avert approximately a metric ton of CO2 (or the equivalent in other greenhouse gases). This means that if you donate $100, you can avert around 857 metric tons of CO2.

These are definitely just estimates, but still, thats pretty damn good! For comparison, the average American causes around 16 metric tons of emissions per year. And most organizations cant avert a metric ton for less than $2.

If you like the sound of this, you can donate here.

What it does: The Clean Air Task Force is a US-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that has been working to reduce air pollution since its founding in 1996. It led a successful campaign to reduce the pollution caused by coal-fired power plants in the US, helped limit the US power sectors CO2 emissions, and helped establish regulations of diesel, shipping, and methane emissions.

Why you should consider donating: In addition to its seriously impressive record of success and the high quality of its research, the Clean Air Task Force does well on the neglectedness criterion: It often concentrates on targeting emissions sources that are neglected by other environmental organizations, and on scaling up deployment of technologies that are crucial for decarbonization yet neglected by NGOs and governments. For example, since 2009 its been working on a campaign for tax incentives for carbon capture and storage.

Founders Pledge estimates that a donation to this group would avert CO2 at a rate of $1 per metric ton. So, if you donate $100, you can avert around 100 metric tons of CO2 (or the equivalent in other greenhouse gases). Not bad!

You can donate here.

What it does: The Information Technology and Innovative Foundation, a highly regarded US think tank, runs the Clean Energy Innovation program. That program looks into smart clean energy research and development and the effectiveness of increasing spending in that space, then advises policymakers on the best course of action.

Why you should consider donating: Lets Fund, which is guided by the principles of Effective Altruism in its recommendations, argues its the best place to donate for climate change.

Heres why: By 2040, around 75 percent of all emissions will come not from the US or the EU, but from emerging economies like China and India. So in addition to reducing emissions at home, we need to make it likelier that those countries will reduce their emissions, too. A great way to do that is to stimulate innovation that will make clean energy technology cheaper everywhere. For example, if you bring down the cost of low-carbon technology in the US, you can make it competitive with fossil fuels in China and India, encouraging its use. Thats called a global technology spillover.

Lets Fund compared 10 innovation-stimulating policies (like carbon taxes, deployment subsidies, and cutting fossil fuel subsidies) and found that increasing budgets for public clean energy R&D is the most effective.

This sort of R&D is also neglected; only 0.02 percent of world gross domestic product is spent on it annually. (In the meantime, were spending 300 times that 6 percent on the energy we use up!)

In advanced economies like the US and EU, we can unilaterally increase how much we spend on R&D no international coordination necessary. That, Lets Fund says, makes this much more politically tractable than carbon taxes. And as my colleague David Roberts has written, Innovation is perhaps the one climate policy that virtually everyone agrees on, across the ideological spectrum. Even US Republicans support it, at least notionally.

You can donate here.

What it does: Rainforest Foundation US works to protect the rainforests of Central and South America by partnering directly with folks on the front lines: indigenous people in Brazil, Peru, Panama, and Guyana, who are deeply motivated to protect their lands. The foundation supplies them with legal support as well as technological equipment and training so they can use smartphones, drones, and satellites to monitor illegal loggers and miners, and take action to stop them.

Why you should consider donating: Rainforest Foundation US has shown an unusual commitment to rigorous evaluation of its impact by inviting Columbia University researchers to conduct a randomized controlled trial in Loreto, Peru. Starting in early 2018, researchers collected survey data and satellite imagery from 36 communities partnered with the foundation and 40 control communities. The analysis is ongoing, but the preliminary results are promising.

We see tentative findings that along the deforestation frontier where deforestation was most likely to occur there are reductions in the rate of deforestation, said Tara Slough, the Columbia University researcher leading the study, in a presentation this September.

Given that this year has seen massive fires and a surge of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, an ecosystem on which the global climate depends, it now seems like an especially good time to directly support the indigenous people who are holding the front line for all of us.

You can donate here.

What it does: Based in London and Brussels, Sandbag is a nonprofit think tank that uses data analysis to help build evidence-based climate policy. It advocates for carbon capture and storage in the EU, pushes for strong carbon pricing, and works to accelerate the coal phase-out in Europe so as to ensure all plants are closed before 2030.

Why you should consider donating: Since it focuses on the EU which is not projected to be one of the biggest emitters and so is not as high-priority a region as Asia or Africa Sandbag scores lower on the importance criterion than the groups mentioned above. But its still among the best groups out there (it made the Founders Pledge shortlist), particularly because its one of the few European charities working on carbon capture and storage, a sorely neglected mitigation strategy. And it works to change European legislation on climate by working with and influencing key policymakers.

You can donate by going here and clicking on the section on funding.

What it does: The Climate Emergency Fund is different from the groups listed above. It was founded very recently this July with the goal of quickly getting money to groups engaged in climate protest. It has already raised over $1 million and disbursed about $800,000 of it in 26 grants to groups it has vetted. The grantees range from the well-established 350.org to the fledgling Extinction Rebellion, an activist movement that uses nonviolent civil disobedience like filling the streets and blocking intersections to demand governments do more to stave off mass extinction.

Why you should consider donating: Because its so new, the Climate Emergency Fund definitely has less of an evidence base than the organizations listed above, so well have to monitor its impact and cost-effectiveness. But it offers something important: immediacy. As David Roberts wrote for Vox:

The money is going to everything from hiring organizers to buying signs and bullhorns to organizing school trips. A second round of more than 30 grants is in the works, representing over $2 million more. The fund is currently raising money, accepting donations large and small. ... [The founders] came together around a shared conviction that street protest is both crucially important to climate politics and a longtime blind spot for environmental philanthropy.

And theres evidence that focusing on movement-building is essential in the climate fight. If youre skeptical that street protest can make a difference, consider Harvard political scientist Erica Chenoweths research. Shes found that if you want to achieve systemic social change, you need to mobilize 3.5 percent of the population, a finding that helped inspire Extinction Rebellion. Thats not an impossible proportion of people to get into the streets particularly if the activists doing the work get funded.

Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, recently told me that building the climate movement is crucial because although weve already got some good mitigation solutions, were not deploying them fast enough. Thats the ongoing power of the fossil fuel industry at work. The only way to break that power and change the politics of climate is to build a countervailing power, he said. Our job and its the key job is to change the zeitgeist, peoples sense of whats normal and natural and obvious. If we do that, all else will follow.

You can donate to the Climate Emergency Fund here.

Its worth noting that there are plenty of ways to use your skills to combat climate change. And many dont cost a cent.

If youre a writer or artist, you can use your talents to convey a message that will resonate with people. If youre a religious leader, you can give a sermon about climate and run a collection drive to support one of the groups above. If youre a teacher, you can discuss this issue with your students, who may influence their parents. If youre a good talker, you can go out canvassing for a politician you believe will make the right choices on climate.

If youre, well, any human being, you can consume less. You can reduce your energy use, reduce how much stuff you buy (did you know plastic packaging releases greenhouse gases when exposed to the elements?), and reduce how much meat you consume.

Research shows that its very difficult to convert people to vegetarianism or veganism through information campaigns, which is one reason why I did not recommend donating to such campaigns (there are more cost-effective options). But with Impossible Whoppers and Beyond Burgers now available in so many grocery stores and restaurants, you can transition to a more plant-based diet without sacrificing on taste.

You can, of course, also volunteer with an activist group whether its Extinction Rebellion, the Sunrise Movement, or Greta Thunbergs Fridays for Future and put your body in the street to nonviolently disrupt business as usual and demand change.

The point is that activism comes in many forms. Its worth taking some time to think about which one (or ones) will allow you, with your unique capacities and constraints, to have the biggest positive impact. But at the end of the day, dont let the perfect be the enemy of the good: Its best to pick something that seems doable and get to work.

Sign up for the Future Perfect newsletter. Twice a week, youll get a roundup of ideas and solutions for tackling our biggest challenges: improving public health, decreasing human and animal suffering, easing catastrophic risks, and to put it simply getting better at doing good.

Follow this link:

The best climate change charities to donate to - Vox.com

Dancing Astronaut’s BIG 100Top 25 Artists of the Decade – Dancing Astronaut

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

by: David KlemowDec 19, 2019

2010 may as well have been a lifetime ago. At the breakneck pace by which dance music throttles through the stratosphere, the decade is ending in an entirely unrecognizable place from where it began. For contextten years ago, Electric Daisy Carnival was held in Los Angeles, not Las Vegas, where the Los Angeles Rams now play. Only 250,000 people were paying for a Swedish music streaming service called Spotify, and Billie Eilish was finishing up second grade. Its been a wild ride through the 10s, largely soundtracked by EDMs global boom into a multi-billion dollar industry. Ten years ago our culture was creeping out of South London basements and New York warehouses, and now were performing at the Olympics.

So now, as the single most important, historic, and certainly memorable decade dance music has ever seen draws to a close, we had to figure out a new way to break down how far the culture has come. One master list couldnt possibly reflect the decade in review. In effort to properly recognize the remarkable collection of events that has brought us here, were tweaking our typical end-of-the-year model. Instead, were dividing the decades most deserving into a handful ofunique categories.

In review of 2010 2019, the most important factors that shaped the decade were Artists of the Decade, Labels of the Decade, Albums of the Decade, and Most Impactful Moments of the Decade. Together, they comprise Dancing Astronauts decade-end collection. Introducing,The Big 100.

Among the greatest techno deities stands Richie Hawtin, watching another ultra successful decade shrink in his rearview mirror. Hawtins emphasis on the intersection of technology and his craft have made him one of the most dynamic minds in all of electronic music, from his CLOSE live show to the production of his own Model 1 mixer. Hes clocked two Essential Mixes in the last decade, hosted a beloved party series on Ibiza, hit a list of the most prestigious festivals and events across the world, performed unforgettable back-to-back sets with deadmau5, brought techno to the Guggenheim, and even resurrected his Plastikman alter ego. Electronic music went largely mainstream in the 10s, but that didnt stop Hawtin from holding it down for the underground with a firm, unrelenting grip.

Lorin Ashton, better known to his loyal fans as Bassnectar, has spent the decade swallowing crowds with his proprietary blend of bass, punk rock, and electronica, with a fanbase perhaps best compared to the millennial generations Deadheads.

In the last ten years, the Bassnectar team has established themselves as an elite live entertainment group, capable of packing stadiums and festivals alike, from selling out Madison Square Garden for Bass Center VIII in 2014 to their homegrown, three-day, sold out, Deja Vroom Festival in Cancun. Selling out has become status quo for the project fronted by Ashton, whose decade-long staying power is fueled by the the ever-evolving bass landscape. Ten projects in ten years stamp a mark of prolific output from Ashton. From Divergent Spectrum (2011) to Unlimited (2016), the beloved king of bass claimed two No. 2 slots and three No. 1s on Billboards US Dance Album charts. Whats more, Bassnectar has supported some of the most successful bass music innovators of the day such as G Jones, Eprom, ill Gates, while uplifting the likes of PEEKABOO, and more. Chris Stack

Just as RL Grime did for trap and Flume did for future bass, tropical houses moment in the sun during the middle of the decade cant be discussed without crediting Kygos championing of the genre. The Norwegian hitmaker may even be the first real star of the streaming era, amassing a billion streams by 2015, just a year after his emergence, becoming the fastest artist on Spotify to achieve the benchmark. Behind his brand of sun-soaked poolside house, Kygo carved out his place in the decades top echelon, culminating in a historical performance at the Rio Olympics closing ceremony.

Easily one of Australias brightest musical exports of the decade, Anna Lunoe firmly holds her place as one of dance musics favorite curators while simultaneously rocking crowds as a triple threat producer, DJ, and singer. From her Beats 1 stint to appearances on Mad Decent, Fools Gold, Future Classic, and Ultra, Luney commands a certain sway among DJ circles while still maintaining her status as one of the most down-to-earth selectors in the game. In the summer of 2016, the Bass Drum Dealer made history alongside Alison Wonderland by becoming the first solo female DJs to perform on the main stage at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas.

You never know what youve got until its gone. Well, in the case of Noisia, that couldnt be more on the nose. In 2019, the seminal Dutch drum n bass trio announced an impending split in 2020, exactly 20 years after their formation. Fear not, for a victory lap is in order for one of the most influential dance groups of all timehitting major festivals and events next year for an extended farewell. The decade was ushered in by their debut studio album Split The Atom in 2010, they helped break Skrillex to the world, they did their part to put British hip-hop on the map well before grime took a hold of the cultural zeitgeist with I Am Legion alongside Foreign Beggars, and now, after a monumentally successful run, Noisia is ready to hang it up in search of new creative journeys. Though, as the decade draws to a close and bass music currently commands more sub-genres and new incoming talent than any other category of electronic music, Noisias impact on that cant be understated.

Theres no talking about the last decade in electronic music without acknowledging trap musics moment. In 2012, Henry Steinway was already enjoying a successful career as a DJ, known as Clockwork. But the moment he donned the RL Grime moniker and he and Salva laid their unforgettable spin on Kanye Wests Mercy, things changed forever. Not just for Steinway, but for electronic dance music as a whole. Trap, or rather, hip-hops emerging intersection with club music, would go on to fuel the next two years of electronic musics meteoric rise, and firmly establish RL Grime as the genres forefather. His sound has changed considerably since his take on Benny Benassis Satisfaction, and hes become a label head in the latter part of the decade, championing a new wave of talent under the Sable Valley banner. This decade wouldnt be what it was without RL Grime.

Mat Zo has spent the decade keeping us guessing in the best possible ways. Hes been a chameleon of styles and genres, with a catalog that spans some of dance musics finest imprints. Not to mention founding his own esteemed label by the middle of the decade, Mad Zoo. But while Zo has shared his affinities for trance, bass, electro, and drum n bass in nearly equal measures over the last ten years, hes also been a vocal critic of dance musics shortcomings, generating a voraciously loyal fanbase in the process. His two studio albums, 2013s Damage Control and 2016s Self Assemble still deserved repeated plays as some of the most innovative works of the decade, and with allusions to a third LP sometime in the future, look for Mat Zo to continue commanding the respect hes earned as a new decade unfolds.

One would be hard pressed to imagine electronic dance music in 2010 without One playing in their head. Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso, and Steve Angello acted as a critical authority in early 2010s, ushering in dance musics global invasion with a commanding presence. The Swedes transported their electro and progressive house sound across the Atlantic and in the process, issued a new rockstar archetype that had everyone from Miami to Ibiza rocking a black v-neck and skinny jeans. Every single release the group delivered touched the charts, including the likes of Save the World Dont You Worry Child, both of which earned Grammy nominations. The Swedish supergroups impact was perhaps felt the most when, at the top of their game, they decided to call it quits on the Mafia life amid rising inter-group tensions and an unsustainable lifestyle. Their dissolution in 2013 was the first real massive victory lap EDM had ever seen; our parents would equate it to an Elton John or Kiss farewell stadium tour. The trios not-so-secret reformation in 2018 precisely exemplified their international notoriety when they took on closing duties at Ultra five years after they initially said goodbye. Between show cancellations and an absence of new music following their realignment, Swedish House Mafias final moments of the decade were undoubtedly less than ideal, but the new era only holds inklings of promise as they build upon their celebrated legacy. Ross Goldenberg

As trance legends, Above & Beyond have sustained themselves as one of dance musics most beloved artists of the decade for a multitude of reasons. Despite their artistic evolution from their Oceanlab work to critically acclaimed Group Therapy and their more modern dance stylings, one defining characteristic has remained constantan innate dedication to their community through the power of music. The groups unmistakable synergy across their Group Therapy Radio program, live shows and musicality, the English dance outfit never cease to champion music in a way that unites their listeners through the boundaries of country lines and language. Above & Beyonds proven longevity and ability to break down fans emotional pretenses and build them back up have made them an unstoppable force on the international dance circuit. Whats moreAnjunabeats and Anjunadeep have become mainstay brands for dance music fans across the globe, providing further evidence that the trio have undoubtedly earned a place among the top artists of the decade. Jessica Mao

Eric Prydz makes our Top Artists of the Decade list not by riding the surging wave of any particular trend but by simply honing his own craft year after year which translate into some of the most technologically forward performances in the dance music space. The Prydz sound falls somewhere between the progressive and electro side of house music, but his exceptionally unique flavor profile, paired with a fervor for melodies that are as sophisticated as they are aurally pleasing has given the Swedish icon a signature sound all his own. Of course, Eric Prydz is a seasoned veteran of electronic music, but between his thriving alter-egos (like Pryda and Cirez D), set lists of largely unreleased tunes, and a live show as ambitious as anybodys in the industry, its crazy to think that Eric Prydz best decades could still be ahead of him. Josh Stewart

Its almost comical to think that a decade ago, Gesaffelstein was just in the zygotic stages of his career. Prior to 2010, Michel Lvy had but three releases to his pseudonym obscure cuts which showed promise, but belied the magnitude of what was to come. Albeit, its unlikely that even Lvy himself could have imagined the heights his grandeur would reach by 2020. By reaching into the deepest chasms of musical possibilities, Gesaffelstein ascended to the pinnacle of a tower he himself built. His absence for most of the decades latter half was palpable, fraught by many imitators, but zero duplicators. To dub Gesaffelstein as the greatest artist of the century would only modestly stretch the limits of journalistic objectivity. As such, including him as one of the decades best is a no-brainer. Gesaffelsteins unprecedented talents have proven to serve as a stark beacon across the barriers of dance music. His is a light so overwhelming in its grace, that it casts over all contenders a shadow as dark as his Vantablack armor. Will McCarthy

Few artists took as much advantage of dance musics crossover into pop culture as Calvin Harris. The Scottish hitmaker started the decade as an already firm force in dance music, going on to found Fly Eye Records at the onset of the decade. By the middle of it he was producing chart-topping hits with Rihanna and commanding the second largest headlining crowd Coachella had ever seen. By the tail end of the 10s, Harris had a platinum plaque on his wall, working with Pharrell, Migos, Frank Ocean, Travis Scott, and Ariana Grande, closing in one nearly $200 million in earnings. From a dollars perspective, 2010 2019 unquestionably belonged to Calvin Harris.

Even as the entertainment industrys most elusive creators, Daft Punks impact can be felt all over the decade. From their contribution to Disneys Tron: Legacy to producing for the decades most dominant R&B force, the Android keep an omniscient eye over the ever-evolving music landscape. And each time they drop in, whatever they offer feels so new and fresh, it proves that Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter command a level of influence unknown to any other musical artist today. Their signing to Columbia Records and subsequent critically lauded 2013 comeback LP, Random Access Memories, was one of the biggest releases of the decade, and while theres never any promise the two knighted French visionaries will ever have more to offer, we take comfort in knowing theyre never really that far away.

Claude VonStrokes band of rump-shaking house aficionados were happy holding down their lane, representing the bay area with their looney, groovy brand of club music. But as house music splintered throughout the decade into sub-genres and movements, San Franciscos Dirtybird Players rose to the top of their respective game behind the papa bear leadership of VonStroke. Now, as a momentous decade for Claude nears its conclusion, the man who started out hosting barbecues in the park with nothing more than friends, a sound system, and delicious grilled meats has become an accomplished events curator behind the ultra-successful BBQ and Campout events that represent the labels humble beginnings. Now, Dirtybird and their brand of zany, fun-loving house music chugs into the next decade, their ethos being more of a movement, or even a family now, than a record label and its fanbase. It wouldnt have been possible without everyones favorite camp counselor, and for that Claude VonStroke easily places among the greatest artists of this decade.

ZEDDs near-singlehanded blurring of the pop and EDM lines made this an unforgettable decade for the Russian-German DJ/producer. Starting out as one of Skrillexs earliest protgs, ZEDD carved out an incredibly prosperous decade, ending it as one of the highest paid DJs in the world year-over-year clocking well over a $100 million over the last five years behind massive streaming numbers and a dominating track record of marquee Vegas residencies. He covered Forbes 30 Under 30 issue in 2017 after two ultra-successful LPs: True Colors (2016) and Clarity (2014), that peaked at No. 2 and No. 1 respectively on the US dance charts. Furthermore, the classically trained musician helped champion the likes of Alessia Cara, Maren Morris, Grey, Ariana Grande and more as his steep ascent to pop musics top echelon continued to trend upward. ZEDD continues to help bridge the gap between pop production and EDM, and with a new decade set to unfold, hes primed to write his trajectory through 2020 and beyond.

Despite an aversion to the fanfare and celebrity that being global superstar DJs entails, Justice quietly, authoritatively defined the decade behind their characteristically stoic French cool. Before 2010, the duo was instrumental in laying the groundwork for dance musics global takeover with material like We Are Your Friends and D.A.N.C.E., but with 2011s Audio Video Disco, Gaspard Aug and Xavier de Rosnay went from multi-faceted creatives to electronic music icons. The record led to a headlining Coachella set in 2012 and a live album, Access All Arenas the following year. By the end of the decade, the pair had enjoyed a relative hiatus and come back with Woman, a Grammy-winning Woman Worldwide live record, and a return to visual media with IRIS: A Space Opera by Justice. The pairs French disco and house roots bled into harder club sounds, cinematic progressive rock, metal, and more. When they re-emerge in the next decade, expect their influence to be as profound as ever, even if it takes a different shape entirely.

Dillon Francis inclusion on this list may come as a surprise, though, when factoring in the fact that he might be EDMs first crossover pop culture star speaks volumes to his impact on the decade. Francis, Dancing Astronauts Artist of the Year in 2018, started the 10s as a festival undercard act; a goofy white kid messing around with the burgeoning Latin-influenced moombahton that Dave Nada was credited with creating around the time. Ten years later and Francis is back to championing Latin sounds, even scoring a Latin Grammy nomination on the way, but not before he went full circle with a highly publicized Columbia Records deal and subsequent move to independent status. He delivered a full-length studio record, a handful of mixtapes, and a jump to TV to boot. Francis may have been among the first DJs to master branding oneself, and as the decade reaches a wrap, hes undoubtedly done his part to earn a designation as one of the most impactful artists in dance music today.

A decade can seem to be an eternity in the lifespan of electronic music, but Alex Ridhas musical journey began long before 10 years ago. Since the latter aughts, Boys Noize has been one of the most formidable figures in the adjacent realms of electro, techno, and acid house. In both his music and his live shows, the Berliner savant has set himself apart from the crowd with an unforgiving energy. From Power to Mayday and beyond, Boys Noize has packed sonic punch after punch with a punk-infused clamor that makes Sid Vicious seem more like Sid Rather Polite.Of course, Ridhas musical output is by no means limited to his Boys Noize oeuvre. Perhaps no one else in dance musics history has had a keener eye for recruiting collaborators. In his pairings, Ridha is a legend thrice over alongside Skrillex, Mr. Oizo, and Chilly Gonzales, hes headlined festivals, and created some of the most delightfully aggressive, utterly bizarre, and mystically soothing songs of the electronic music zeitgeist. Indeed, Dog Blood, Handbraekes, and Octave Minds could all reasonably be considered among the best acts of the decade in their own rights.

Most recently, Ridha has begun a crossover into the deeper house and techno scene with his ELAX alias, apparently vying for a fifth spot in the proverbial dancehall of fame. And, as 2020 ushers in the 15th anniversary of his Boysnoize Records imprint, there is little doubt that his continued contributions to the field will earn him countless more. Will McCarthy

Few have done more to bridge the gap between DJ culture and hip-hop than Brooklyns Alain Macklovitch, better known as A-Trak. Considering house music and hip-hops origins are about as close as Isaac and Ishmaels, its surprising that nobody has ever stood so firmly on both sides of the fence as Fools Gold Records co-founder. In a previous life he served as Kanye Wests touring DJ. In the years between 2010 2019, A-Trak successfully ran one of dance musics most in-demand labels, branded events offshoots, dabbled in fashion, founded an awards contest to keep turntablism alive, and creatively bounced between electro, trap, disco, house, and hip-hop with the likes of Young Thug, Baauer, Dillon Francis, GTA, and more.

During the decade where ten new DJs cropped up every day, A-Trak spent the last ten years reminding us why real DJing is so important while putting on a continuous masterclass in what that actually looks like.

It would be a stretch to imagine that Flume had pictured back in 2010 where he would be in 2020. In 2011, Harley Streten was an unknown bedroom producer in Australia with dreams of grandeur. A pairing with friend Emoh Instead brought about What So Not, and by 2012, Streten had released a self-titled LP under his own Flume moniker. What happened next would change the course of dance music for the decade. At the top of their joint game, What So Not split with Emoh taking the reigns on the project himself. Flume would go on to follow up with a sophomore studio LP in 2016 that netted him his first Grammy the following year. Following Flume and Skins respective successes would have been a tall order, but after a deserved hiatus, Flume capped the decade with some of his most ambitious works to date, proving that perhaps Streten is a once-in-a-generation talent whose mind and scope of capabilities as a producer largely overshadows electronic dance musics confines.

Hes the father of future bass, a genre thats captivated the masses in the latter part of the decade, formulating his own sound thats gone on to be duplicated innumerable times since his emergence. All the while, he managed to work with an incredible cast of collaborators that includes Beck, Lorde, AlunaGeorge, Raekwon, Vic Mensa, Vince Staples, Andrew Wyatt, and SOHPIE. Flumes dance between brash experimentalism and forward-thinking that still incorporates massive mainstream appeal make him an easy contender for Artist of the Decade.

It isnt too farfetched to postulate that by the end of his career, Porter Robinson will have been one of the most influential dance artists of all time. In his first decade as an electronic music superstar, the North Carolina-born Robinson went from wide-eyed bedroom producer with a serious anime fascination and an ear for how 8-bit video game music could inspire an entire generation of kids to one of the most brilliant minds electronic music has ever seen. Thats to say nothing of his Grammy-nominated side project Virtual Self.

But the metamorphosis from the 19-year-old that made complextro hits like Language to the forward-thinker than brought us his opus on the emotional, conceptual Worlds two years later was one of deep introspection. With a throttling ascent to DJ stardom alongside ZEDD and Skrillex on the first Mothership Tour came a halting realization of EDMs confines, and only after breaking down that barrier for himself was Robinson able to emerge even more focused and driven on making something that matters. Five years after Worlds, theres no doubt it was one of the most important albums of the last ten years, cementing Porter Robinsons place among the top DJs of the decade.

For better or worse, 2010 2019s most memorable moments can be quantified by the moves of the late, great Avicii. His name was synonymous with dance musics light speed rise to popularity over the last ten years. From the global ubiquity of Levels to his tragic death on April 20, 2018 with so many moments both bright and interminably dark in between, Avicii simply defined electronic dance music. There isnt much to say about Tim Berglings legacy that hasnt been said over the last year and a half since his passing, but suffice it to say that dance music would not be where it is today without the Wake Me Up producer. Moreover, wherever it winds up being 10 years from now will surely bear the mark of his influence too. Rest in peace, Avicii.

Think about dance music like a family tree for a moment. Picture the deadmau5 family tree, so to speak, over the course of this last decade. It starts with Skrillex just before Scary Monsters and runs all the way down to current torch carriers like REZZ and the next generation of dance minds like Rinzen. Then think about the branches of that treewho else came as a result of Skrillex, REZZ, and others going on to stardom? deadmau5s impact in dance music is simply inescapable. Since the release of his Grammy-nominated 44=12 in December of 2010, the Mau5 has spent the decade pushing the technological boundaries of music creation and performance forward. All while beefing with Disney, scoring films for Netflix, scooping up four Grammy and six Juno nods, successfully running one of the greatest labels in dance music, and in his free time adopting the power of live streaming to give fans an intimate inside look at his processes. Todays global dance music industry has been undoubtedly shaped for better or worse by Joel Zimmerman, making him a shoe-in for one of the top artists of the decade.

To adequately cover Diplos contribution to the culture over this last decade would take a dissertation. Love him or hate him, Diplo has soundtracked the decadetheres no two ways about it. From Major Lazer to Jack , with LSD, Silk City, and not one but two successful solo projects in tow, to say Wesley Pentz is the busiest man in music would be a pitiful understatement. And that would be to say nothing of launching three successful labels in the last decade. Hes brought sounds from all over the world to the masses, from the Afro-Caribbean to country western, while still managing to proctor some of the most consumed pieces of media in human history on the mainstream front. From Beyonc to the NFL, one cant open their cell phone or turn on the television today without being more than two degrees of separation from something Diplo is up to. Yet somehow, the next decade is likely to promise even more from Blondre 3000, and we cant wait to see it materialize.

This may have been the easiest placing on this list. There simply wouldnt be a decade in dance music to talk about without Skrillex. The Recess producers trajectory to the top of electronic music, and thereafter, is really reflective of dance musics global expansion over the course of the decade, isnt it? The parallels between the two journeys are clear, but the examination of their intersections proves unequivocally how instrumental Skrillex was in transforming dance music to the global enterprise it is today. Sold out Mothership tours, scoring for Disney, working alongside Mariah Carey, FKA Twigs, Rick Ross, Chance The Rapper, Kelsey Lu, Justin Bieber, and so many more in between, the sum of Skrillexs work over the last ten years far outweighs the individual parts, of which there are too many to count. He went from stage-diving dubstep kid, proctoring the most aggressive sounds American audiences had ever heard, to esteemed dance music producer, successfully running a label that for most of the decade promised electronic musics fiercest works. Then somehow, without a shift in momentum, Moore took his stardom to the top of the pops, all while maintaining a humility that has forced us to change our collective notion of celebrity.

But for a screamed-out punk from LA just trying to find his next creative outlet to transform into the undisputed king of popular music has been a remarkable journey to watch, cover, and enjoy. And yet somehow, the closing of the decade only seems to mark the end of the foreword in Skrillexs book.

Tags: Above & Beyond, Anna Lunoe, avicii, Big 100, calvin harris, deadmau5, Dillon Francis, diplo, End of Decade, eric prydz, Richie Hawtin, skrillex, Swedish House Mafia

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Dancing Astronaut's BIG 100Top 25 Artists of the Decade - Dancing Astronaut

9 books to read this summer now you have free time – Fashion Journal

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Danzig

WORDS BY SASHA GATTERMAYR

Clothes for the mind.

Okay, so you might not actually have more time than you usually do. With Christmas lunches, delayed reaction times and plans postponed from October because this glistening holiday break already felt on the horizon, your calendar is probably pretty booked.

But, unpopular opinion: The week between Christmas and New Year is actually my favourite time of year. It feels like the whole world is moving in slow motion. The heat sets in, exiles to hometowns or down the coast commence, free to air TV pulls out reruns of the most ancient relics in its back catalogue and afternoon napping is democratised, no longer reserved solely for the elderly or infantile.

So no, you may not have more time. But what you have is the illusion of more time. And sometimes, thats all an idea needs to spark its journey from motivation into practice.

To feed that kernel of motivation, and the perennial New Years resolution thatthis will finally be the year you get back into reading, I have taken the liberty of curating a list of the books you should read this summer. Because finding your groove will be immediately stymied by the overwhelming dearth of recommendations and possibilities to dive into. So here is a dip, if you will, into the proverbial literary ocean.

1. My Brilliant FriendElena Ferrante

Youve heard about her,you may have watched bits of the HBO series and you might have even claimed to have read her. But nows the time to dive headfirst into the giddy headspin that is the Neapolitan novels. The quartet following the lives of Lenu and Lila from girlhood to old-age has sold over 10 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most successful literary debuts in a generation. Adding to the air of excitement is the mystery surrounding the author. The name Elena Ferrante is a pseudonym, meaning no one knows the identity of this blockbuster writer who blends fiction with philosophy. Knocking off this addictive series over the summer break will place you firmly in the cultural zeitgeist.

Read when:You wish you were in Italy not part of the office skeleton staff.

2. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention EconomyJenny Odell

Im not one for self-help books, but this feels more like punchy cultural criticism. The kind that makes you nod with agreement and reel with recognition at the same time asking: How can someone say exactly what I feel?. Jennys ability to articulate our attachment to the technological world provides a non-condescending roadmap for the future of personal philosophy. Its more about understanding where we are now and where our agency lies, rather than telling you how things used to be in the old days and that you shouldnt be addicted to your phone. Shes an artist and professor by trade, and it shows.

Read when:Youve been hoping to use this break to get some perspective.

3. Lie with MePhilippe Besson

Following the blossoming relationship between two 17-year-olds in 1980s France, this slim piece of fiction wafts the same scent asCall Me By Your Name butwith the spark and intensity that Acimans more melancholic rendering of love lacks. In an ironic twist of 80s adolescent nostalgia, it is translated by Molly Ringwald (yes, that Molly Ringwald).

Read when: You want to cry over a summer fling but dont have a summer fling to cry about.

4. BunnyMona Awad

PartHeatherspartThe Secret History, four women attending an MFA all call each other Bunny and lure the unremarkable Samantha into their dark clique. A campus of intelligent sociopaths rapidly turns into a community of straight-up psychopaths, but you only realise when its too late to do anything about it. Wicked, funny and quick, its the perfect literary concoction of summer drama.

Read when:You just got your Year 12 score and already miss the theatrics of school.

5. Find MeAndre Aciman

Picking up whereCall Me By Your Name(the novel, not the film) left off, Aciman returns to the fractured stories of his beloved characters twenty years on from their initial summer meeting. Split into four sections and divided between Elio, Oliver and Sami (Elios father), the sparkle of love is dimmed by the passage of time and re-examined with a wistful air of missed opportunities.

Read when:Youve re-watchedCall Me By Your Name and dont want the steamy dream of a summer sexual awakening to end.

6. Salt, Fat, Acid, HeatSamin Nosrat

Chef and writer Samin Nosrat is one of the most delightful people on the internet. Her exuberant personality bleeds into her writing and her cooking, making the whole experience of reading a 600-page cookbook utterly pleasurable. Its like learning how to make really good food from a really wise friend.

Read when:Your New Years resolution is to FINALLY learn how to cook.

7. Trick MirrorJia Tolentino

The long-awaited debut from theNew Yorkers sensationally popular staff writer exceeded high expectations. Essays on internet culture vary from Fyre Festival to reality TV to the vastness of the wedding industry with wit and self-awareness. Youll be impressed by how perfectly someone can discuss the inanities of everyday life and make them glisten with philosophical insight and precision. Then you remember shes hailed as the voice of a generation and worthy of succeeding Joan Didion, and it kind of makes sense.

Read when:You want to impress your friends with nuanced perspectives on the contemporary condition over an Aperol Spritz.

8. The Patrick Melrose novelsEdward St. Aubyn

If you didnt catch the television adaptation last year, you might have missed the revival St. Aubyns notorious character underwent at the hands of Benedict Cumberbatch. Patrick is five years old when the first novella begins, charting a single evening from multiple characters as a horrifying and life-altering incident is privately inflicted on the small boy. Each book picks up more than a decade after the one before, as Patrick flits impatiently from rural France to New York to 80s London. Heroine-addicted, high functioning and tormented, he makes you hate him and adore him all at once as the harshness of reality chases at his coattails.

Read when: You finish the Neapolitan novels and youre ready to follow the life of another memorable character from childhood to harrowed middle age.

9. She SaidMegan Twohey and Jodi Kantor

The two New York Times investigative journalists who broke the Weinstein story recount the months it took to get it published. From finding witnesses who were willing to talk to dramatic confrontations between lawyers and informants in office lobbies, follow behind the scenes of a story that ignited a movement.

Read when: You need a beachside pageturner.

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9 books to read this summer now you have free time - Fashion Journal

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