India’s top tech architect talks about the tech behind GST, data empowerment – FactorDaily

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Pramod Varma, the chief architect and technology adviser for ID project Aadhaar, is also an adviser to the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the company that has built the technology to enable the rollout of the new tax. A quintessential technocrat, Varma wears several hats: he is CTO, EkStep, a not-for-profit creating a tech-enabled platform to improve literacy; adviser to the National Payments Corporation of India; and architect, IndiaStack, a set of APIs aimed at leveraging Aadhaar, Indias ambitious citizen ID project, to solve the countrys real world problems. Varma is also on the boards of several technology startups.

FactorDaily caught up with Varma to understand the technology behind the GST regime, the power of data, and Indias data privacy law. Edited excerpts:

Q: We are going from a data poor country to a data-rich country. On the personal side it is Aadhaar and on the business side it is GST Networks which is enabling data richness. What are the ramifications GST specifically has for the future of data and its use in India?

A: One of the unfortunate things that happened in the United States or the developed western society is the concentration of data with one or two companies or the government. No one else benefits out of that. I am hoping the data laws that India is creating is not just about data protection, but also about data empowerment. Law should ensure it empowers individuals or SMEs and ensure right to access ones data. If it is only about protection, we will end up with black boxes of data sources! It is useless. Instead, individuals and SMEs should be able to build their digital assets through accessing their data resulting from digital participation.

Law should ensure it empowers individuals or SMEs and ensure right to access ones data. If it is only about protection, we will end up with black boxes of data sources

Aggregate data is hugely valuable in this age of big data and machine learning. The use of that data will remain locked within the entity keeping the data. Even if they protect it from theft etc, they will still use the data and insights derived from it. Thats what companies like Facebook and Google are doing. Billions of dollars are at stake there for them.

I sometimes fear that we have so much of public discourse on data protection that we will have a protection law and not an empowerment law. If any entity holds any data against yours or my identity, it must be clearly said that it is co-owned. That means, by ones right to access their own data, these entities should give machine readable data back to users which people can use it to get access to various services. So, the footprints that you leave behind will become useful to you.

Also read: Turning the debate on Indias data protection laws

The discourse should not be against digitisation, because we cant go back to the dark ages, you know. Then you shouldnt have internet, you shouldnt have mobile phones. Point is, can India leapfrog in data regime with both protection and empowerment given equal weightage? That is a powerful way of empowering people to participate in digital system, behave well, and earn digital assets!

I sometimes fear that we have so much of public discourse on data protection that we will have a protection law and not an empowerment law

If SMEs and companies cannot take advantage of their own GST data, machine readable and digitally signed for higher trust, for getting better lending rates or invoice discounting and manage their cash flow, we would have created just a tax filing system which is necessary but not sufficient.

GST will be a very powerful system and enable positive incentives if the overarching data empowerment factor comes in. Otherwise GST may become a one-sided tax payment system. I am hopeful India will get it right.

Q: Havent countries like China made use of that system? Because Alibaba the commerce data was available. Credit systems were developed.

A: Not for the people in terms of using their data outside Alibaba ecosystem. Where is Alibaba or Amazon giving back the data? Even most of our banks do not give us digitally signed machine readable data, instead they give PDF or unsigned Excel sheet that no other entity trusts. By the way, some have started doing it which is great. EU is getting their PSD2 (revised payment service directive) implementation soon which will force banks to provide data. So, companies like Alibaba or Amazon or Facebook or Google are surely using the data to provide further services within their closed system and keep the users locked in.

Q: As an adviser to the GSTN, what are some of the technology issues that you had to address?

A:The concept of the tax system as an Open API-based platform is the biggest thing that we were able to bring to this system. From the tax department perspective, a portal is sufficient. Go to the portal and file taxes, no? Upload your excel or pdf and youre done. The tax system is a just a vertical closed solution, right? And we were saying no. The platform you are building has to be open for further innovation and empowerment of taxpayers. While aportal is needed, it needs to be built on its own APIs.

Now, the GSTN has a tax payer authentication API, as a derivative of the tax filing system! You can do a KYC on a company with nothing to do with tax! Lets say you want to give a loan to a company, or you want to sign up as a petrol bunk merchant or something. Today, how do you do KYC? Its enormously costly, pretty much paper based and low trust. How do you know the people representing the company is indeed authenticated? Today, everyone takes all the paperwork and redoes all these checks, which is avoidable repeated cost. With the GSTN API, you can do this because you already have a GSTN ID and people who are signatories of the company have their IDs are attached so you can actually authenticate a company.

The GSTN system is expected to handle 3-4 billion invoices every month each having 100 to 200 line items. Unlike Aadhaar, GST is going to be a big bang rollout and not a gradual one

The second big influence we could bring in is build vs buy. Generally in any large system like this there is this question. Should we just buy a system and customise? Here at the GSTN, we said we will build because anyway you wont get what you want (if you buy). And you have some heavily customised product that you have no control over because you dont have the source code or the intellectual property. How can you build a national, critical infrastructure where control of the IP and source code is not with you? So we said, it has to be built and it has to be built using open source.

The third one was about using open source to build. So it was also very much debated. When we put out the RFP saying open source be used, there were enough complaints! Thankfully we had a good strong committee. In addition, MeitY policy already articulates this clearly.

Q: How are APIs going to help?

A: Its a fundamental belief. People like us who build digital infrastructure believe that a solution in a box is never possible in a large diverse country like ours. We cannot have one guy saying that I know the solution, heres my app, and it solves all the worlds healthcare problems or education problems. We must always take an infrastructure building view especially when building public goods. Open APIs are fundamental for creating well encapsulated building blocks that others can use to further build specific solutions.

The GSTN has done the right thing in building APIs first and then building portal which works off the same APIs. Ecosystem partners who are building products for SMEs etc can also get access to these APIs and allow end users to use their app

In the case of GST, how can we expect one portal will serve the needs of very large companies as well as small SMEs? That too with different language skills, different technology needs, etc. The GSTN has done the right thing in building APIs first and then building portal which works off the same APIs. Ecosystem partners who are building products for SMEs etc can also get access to these APIs and allow end users to use their app. For example, if one small SME is using MS Word to create invoices, it should be as easy for them to upload those invoices right from MS Office to the GSTN. Tax filing should be integral part of doing business and not as a painful, costly extra process.

It is also based on the belief that you can never build an app that fits all. For a small SME sitting in a small town in Tamil Nadu may need a much simpler app on her mobile in Tamil. How can you say the same portal should also work for a large company having millions of invoices? It is unfair to expect government to build many apps. While there is a common portal to get started, we must let entrepreneurs build specific solutions to meet the needs of people.

Q: If you look at India right now, theres this whole digital revolution thats happening. How do see this playing out and data tying into this?

A: Again, I just want to say keep it simple. Its not confusing. Do we have a choice not to digitise? In my opinion, whether we like it or not, internet and mobile phones and digital platforms are here to stay. When this happens, there is an explosion at which digital footprints are created, every interaction is creating a digital footprint. Unfortunately if we do not design the systems and laws correctly, this data will stay very concentrated with few entities. That should never happen. I think India has the golden opportunity to fix that upfront.

Q: The technology sophistication of Aadhaar and GST is enterprise class. What are the main features?

A: Within the Aadhaar system, 600 million plus authentications are done every month now. A billion plus people are already in the database. The GSTN system is expected to handle three-four billion invoices every month each having 100 to 200 line items. Unlike Aadhaar, GST is going to be a big bang rollout and not a gradual one.

For such scale and national critical systems, reliability of the system is very important. Its about having a failure resilience within all components of the system. Most important, its about the re-factorability of the system. That means, knowing that you will not get everything right in the beginning, how do you constantly re-factor so that years later you still have an evolving system. You dont want an ageing system. You want a system that can easily adapt and evolve.

Most important, its about the re-factorability of the system. That means, knowing that you will not get everything right in the beginning, how do you constantly re-factor so that years later you still have an evolving system

When you say enterprise class, for me, its about reliability, well designed security, resilience to failure knowing failure happens, and most importantly re-factorability. Then there are the obvious must have features such as scalability, traceability etc.

Q: In your opinion, what are the constituents of digital india? Not the government program called Digital India, but what are the constituents of India as a digital nation? What are the blocks?

A: I think, there are primarily three parts to it. One is the physical infrastructure, the connectivity. All that falls into that bucket. National fibre network, telcos expanding 4G network, TRAIs initiative on public WiFi, etc. are all part of that.

The second one is a software stack that will allow a billion people and millions of companies to digitally interact seamlessly with low cost and high trust. So the real question about India Stack was not about anything else. It was about creating shared infrastructure on which inclusive services can easily be built in a cost effective fashion. These days, with India Stack, a bank or MFI can now effectively offer their services to much wider use base without high cost. Otherwise, everybody has to build their own vertical stack, right? Does anyone write a web server anymore? I wrote a web server in 1995. Its stupid to write a web server these days. Why? Because of commoditisation of infrastructure layers.

Also read: To pay or not to pay GST, mull bloggers, app developers. Theres no escaping it, say experts

What is commoditisation really? Creating shared infrastructure. So that you and I dont have to write a database or web server anymore. We have to do it at scale. So,the digital software stack is a shared infrastructure that allows very easy assemblage or solutioning. People who build solutions can assemble something much faster and cheaper today than 10 years ago.

The third part of Digital India is digital literacy. Thats huge and necessary for a country like India. Its about literacy, awareness, behaviour, thinking whats right and whats wrong. Physical society evolved over centuries. But, we dont have centuries unfortunately, with the digital world. Its happening in a decade. I am afraid there is no simple answer but to constantly evolve!

Disclosure: FactorDaily is owned by SourceCode Media, which counts Accel Partners, Blume Ventures and Vijay Shekhar Sharma among its investors. Accel Partners is an early investor in Flipkart. Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the founder of Paytm. None of FactorDailys investors have any influence on its reporting about Indias technology and startup ecosystem.

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India's top tech architect talks about the tech behind GST, data empowerment - FactorDaily

The work is not undignified, but how you treat domestic workers is – Open Democracy

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Paid domestic work is not recognised in my country, neither socially nor economically. This absence of recognition is experienced by thousands of women who do this type of work, and the valorisation that we receive or lack thereof is reflected in the terms used to describe our work.

The terms that are usually used for people doing paid domestic work are often pejorative. For example, servidumbre (servitude), is a term that originated in feudalism and whose meaning doesnt correspond to the notion of workers as subjects of law. Another term commonly used is domstica (domestic), which evokes the treatment of animals that are tamed to live in peoples homes.

For these reasons, a few years ago, we began insisting on being called domestic workers, as this term reflects that we are indeed subjects of law. However, our recognition as workers should not only be reflected in our designation, but must also manifest in concrete ways on both social and economic levels. In other words, we would like our work to be seen in the same way as any other type of work.

I am one of over two million domestic workers in the country, which represents 10% of women currently employed in Mexico without employment benefits or social security. And today, through this text, I want to claim my rights and those of my compaeras.

Defending my rights as a domestic worker has been a process of building awareness, surmounting obstacles, and personal empowerment.

When I was a girl, I lived experiences that marked my life: poverty and the lack of opportunities, including the opportunity to study. But these were also the factors that allowed me to make important decisions for my life in the future.

At the age of ten, my father sent me to work for a family so that I could continue my studies. However, my heavy workload meant that I worked far more than I was able to study, and the opportunity of having an education became more distant each day.

At the age of 14, I left Oaxaca, my state of origin, to move to Mexico City, a city as big as it was diverse and rife with discrimination. Working in peoples homes was my only option, since I was a minor and had progressed very little in my studies, a constraint that remains common for many women in our country. In fact, female domestic workers have an average of two to three years less education than the rest of the employed population and begin working as domestic workers when they are minors in many cases.

While I abandoned my dreams, I committed myself to taking care of children, keeping houses clean and organised, having breakfast ready, and waiting for my patrones (employers) with a set table and fresh food. This is what all my days looked like for many years: I took care of lawyers, legislators, teachers, feminists, and public workers, and ironically, they did not take my rights seriously. Many of them were afraid that I would leave them. They told me I was like family, and yet would give me leftovers to eat or demanded that I wear a uniform. They would go on vacation, but left me behind to work, since that was when the house had to be cleaned or the piled up work had to be done.

They told me I was like family, and yet would give me leftovers to eat or demanded that I wear a uniform.

In this field of work, affective relationships often blur the lines between labour and voluntary acts of goodwill, but what we seek are working relationships based on mutual respect.

Psychologically, many domestic workers experience blackmail from employers who dont want them to leave. This is especially true when it comes to childcare, since we establish very close relationships with the children, which might in turn make us accept mistreatment from the parents.

Not only did I abandon my dreams and the security of my surroundings, I also experienced racial and class discrimination, as well as exploitation and low salaries because of my age.

But one day, as a teenager, I decided to free my dreams from inside the four walls of a house. Not because the job was indecent, but because I felt I needed to strive towards my goals, regardless of my young age. Many of my compaeras live in conditions of marginalisation and exploitation, with little value given to their labour and to their person.

I realised that domestic work, which remains undervalued and invisible to many, is valuable for workers, but also for employers. It was not the act of caring for an employer that reduced my dignity or violated my rights as a person and a worker, but rather the way most of us have been and continue to be treated. So I learned to claim those rights and seek out dignified work conditions.

I wanted to break barriers and convince other domestic workers, employers, and the government that dignified work and regulation is everyones responsibility and that we must be protected and supported by a just and fair legal framework. So I decided to become a human rights activist after having been discriminated against, mistreated, and exploited as a domestic worker for over 20 years.

Since the age of 29, I have been a part of the Conlactraho foundation, which serves as a trade union school. I served as general secretary there 18 years after its creation, taking up diverse roles in which I had the opportunity to participate in the creation of ILO Convention 189 on domestic workers. I also had the great opportunity to collaborate with colleagues from other continents in the creation of the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF). In 2000, I founded the Centro de Apoyo y Capacitacin para Empleadas del Hogar (CACEH), with the goal of creating an alternative space for implementing strategies for the recognition of domestic workers rights and to strengthen the collective organisation for social dialogue at a national level. Until December 2016, I was Latin America's regional coordinator for the IDWF.

This fight has not been an easy process but it has been very satisfying and challenging to bring domestic workers issues into the public agenda. This is because while the public sphere is destined for men, the private sphere is usually destined for women, and often comes with problems of discrimination, mistreatment, abuse, exploitation, and in some cases, child labour.

I had the great opportunity to represent domestic workers in the debates that took place in the ILO in Geneva, Switzerland for the creation of Convention 189, which was approved on 16 June 2011 and whose ratification in Mexico is currently but a governmental promise. While the government appears to be open to ratifying this convention, they do not seem willing to incorporate any of its stipulations into existing Mexican laws.

We aim to dignify the work of the 2.4 million domestic workers and we are convinced that we will be heard.

We now have a collective national organisation where workers can exercise their individual and collective rights, thanks to the creation of the first national domestic workers union in Mexicos history, which is a monumental advancement. These rights include autonomy, collective agreements, and the right to strike or protest if a worker experiences a rights violation, for example, by being fired without justification. This came as the result of more than 15 years of struggle from our sector, which has been socially invisible.

We aim to dignify the work of the 2.4 million domestic workers and we are convinced that we will be heard. This is why we promote the ratification of Convention 189, which will allow for millions of domestic workers to leave their informal conditions and have the ability to exercise their rights as workers, to be recognised and to access justice.

We dont want any of our domestic workers to experience injustices or for any employer to go through complicated procedures if they want to register their employees with social security, as there are currently no appropriate paths to do so.

Due to the lack of legislation in Mexico to protect domestic workers and as a way to support the ratification of Convention 189, we consistently execute a campaign called Ponte los guantes por los derechos de las trabajadoras del hogar!, which translates to Put your gloves on for the rights of domestic workers!

Our struggle reached an international level and the domestic workers of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are united today through the IDWF, with the mission to turn our rights into a reality.

During the entire process of creating the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras del Hogar (SINACTRAHO) which counted more than 100 members when it was established in 2015 community support has been fundamental. This includes other unions, feminist and human rights organisations as well as the employers collective Hogar Justo Hogar, an organisation that was formed recently to raise awareness about how improving the work and life conditions of domestic workers can also benefit employers and society as a whole.

Many of you are employers of domestic workers. After reading these lines, I urge you to call us domestic workers, as we are subjects of law. And I want to invite you to reflect about our labour, which was perhaps invisible to you up until now, because this is an issue that affects all of us.

Ponte los guantes por los derechos de las trabajadoras del hogar!

Put your gloves on for the rights of domestic workers!

A previous version of this piece was published in Spanish at La Silla Rota.

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The work is not undignified, but how you treat domestic workers is - Open Democracy

Apple Expands Bet on Cutting Edge Privacy Technology – Wall Street Journal (subscription)

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Apple Expands Bet on Cutting Edge Privacy Technology
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Last year, Apple Inc. kicked off a massive experiment with new privacy technology aimed at solving an increasingly thorny problem: how to build products that understand users without snooping on their activities. Its answer is differential privacy, a ...

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Apple Expands Bet on Cutting Edge Privacy Technology - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Inside Facebook’s speech recognition factory – CNBC

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Over time, Facebook could make the Oculus speech recognition technology work offline, Philip said. The company also may eventually support languages other than English.

Beyond that, Facebook employees weren't specific about exactly where the company is headed.

At a high level, said Deng, "we want to build a deep semantic understanding of people's interests, and also of content."

It's possible to guess about what could come next if you think about where Facebook excels. The company has data about your interests, your friends' interests and their friends' interests. It has users' pictures, videos and text posts, along with articles and other content that people have shared on the social network over the years.

"Other voice assistants may be geared toward what they have data for," Deng said.

Today, Facebook is all about community. That's another good guideline to consider when you imagine what sorts of voice-activated experiences Facebook might decide are worth pursuing.

"The stuff we would attempt to do has to be lined up with the mission and also the data that we have here," Deng said.

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Inside Facebook's speech recognition factory - CNBC

Technology and digital banking could help refugees – EUobserver

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The average refugee is displaced for a decade. Take a moment to think about that.

Uprooted from their home. Fleeing for safety. Forced to desperately try to rebuild better lives for themselves and their families. Food, shelter and other more traditional forms of aid are vital in meeting their immediate needs in the aftermath of conflict.

But the shocking length of displacement and the fact that 60 percent of refugees are living in cities and communities not refugee camps means that handing out stuff is no longer sufficient.

Technology and digital banking, in particular, can offer some solutions. Refugees are people who have the ability to decide for themselves what their needs are, and the response system needs to be shaped towards that fact.

At the International Rescue Committee (IRC), we know that the refugee crisis is manageable not unsolvable. Manageable if we rethink our perception of todays refugee, and exploit the digital opportunities for delivering aid and vital services.

That means treating refugees as wed like to be treated ourselves. Not with prescriptive solutions to the challenges they face, but with the tools and resources they need to write their own story.

World leaders will meet at the end of this week (7-8 July) in Hamburg, Germany, for the G20 summit.

The German presidency of the G20 has shown their commitment to this kind of bold thinking. They have focused on building the resilience of refugees. Labour ministers, digital ministers, finance ministers and business leaders have discussed this at the highest levels.

Now is their opportunity to translate words into action.

Refugees resilience depends on structural changes that allow for self-reliance, rather than entrapping people in a system of dependence. That means safe and decent work, education, and a secure digital way of managing finances.

Refugees, who may be displaced for generations, need to manage their savings and wages. For over 60 percent of the worlds adults, a bank account is a given. But right now, many refugees are being denied that right only seven percent of adults living in crises have one.

We must do better to help people fleeing a crisis, to overcome barriers to banking that include lost or invalid identity documents and inflexible rules.

We are pleased that the German presidency has pushed up the financial inclusion of refugees and migrants in the G20 agenda. Now the G20 must commit to the financial resilience and inclusion of refugees, and deliver policy solutions to address barriers.

For many refugees, their mobile phone is their lifeline, including for managing and receiving finances. So digital connectivity is key.

The G20s digital ministers agreed a target for all people around the world to have access to the internet by 2025. But the IRCs research has found that high-risk, disaster-prone countries are too often neglected in initiatives to expand digital infrastructure.

Lets help refugees build their independence and get online whilst on the move. In the short-term, this means emergency electronic payments from aid agencies (cash relief) and, in the longer-term, money transfers, salaries and mobile banking. A secure, pro-market solution that helps to integrate refugees into a new economy.

This week, world leaders will have the opportunity to define G20 commitments and set the agenda for action when they come together in Hamburg.

They will also have the opportunity to bring business together with government and humanitarian agencies in support of refugees.

Lets start to shift the mindset of a helpless population of refugees, who bring with them a "burden" of expense, and begin to recognise refugees as intelligent, independent and resilient people, who want to re-build their future for themselves and their families.

Lets bank on a better future for them and let them define their own opportunities. Its self-defeating not to offer them the services and tools technology offers to rebuild their lives. And it will be better for everyone in the long term.

Daphne Jayasinghe is an Economic Recovery & Development Policy Adviser at the International Rescue Committee.

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Technology and digital banking could help refugees - EUobserver

A Quantum Principle Could Change Wireless Charging Technology Forever – Futurism

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In Brief Scientists have found a way to introduce a quantum principle into wireless charging systems. This innovation could expedite charging time and functionality while doing away with the previous limitations of wireless charging tech. A Better Range

While wireless chargingis an improvement over amess of entangled wires, the technology does not solve the issue of mobility your phone still needs to remain in one place to charge. This could change with the development of a new type ofcharging.

Current wireless charging devices operate using an electromagnetic field. For the power transfer between the charger and the device to remain optimal, the distance between the two must remain fixed. However, ateam out of Stanford has created a charger that cantransfer power to moving devices up to a meter away. Their research has been published in Nature.

The system uses a quantum mechanical principle called parity-time symmetry. Essentially, this means their charger can automatically adjust its power flow depending on the situation. The researchers demonstrated their device using an LED bulb. When the bulb moved further away, the distance was mitigated by the charger. This allowed the bulb to retain its brightness despite the motion.

Though this study only demonstrates the technology at a minor level, if scalable, it could essentially enable us to charge devices at the optimum rate despite a varying distance. This has exciting applications in a number of fields beyond just allowing you to comfortably use your phone while charging it.

Theoretically, it could revolutionize our ability towirelessly charge electric vehiclesas charging devices could be built into roads to charge the EVsas they drive past.The study also cites the potential to charge medical implants more efficiently. These devices are all implantedat slightly different depths, which can make charging them using existing technology complicated. This new technology would give patients the ability to move around while charging, as well.

While the teams technology is still in its nascent stages and has only charged a single moving LED so far, the concept has the potential to radically change how we power our lives in the future. Now, its just a matter of scaling it up.

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A Quantum Principle Could Change Wireless Charging Technology Forever - Futurism

Technology to WIPED OUT by sun’s radiation before world is plunged into ‘solar minimum’ – Express.co.uk

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Experts believe we are on the brink of a solar minimum.

The sun follows cycles of roughly 11 years where it reaches a maximum and then a minimum, with the latter seeing the less heat emitted.

Professor Yvonne Elsworth at the University of Birmingham says that the next solar minimum could be in about two years but before then, the sun is expected to unleash significantly more radiation towards Earth.

Solar minimums create a heap of cosmic ray activity, which cause air showers of particles which pummel the atmosphere.

GETTY

These storms can wreak havoc on global technology as the radiation which strikes our planet heats up the outer atmosphere, causing it to expand.

This means satellite signals will struggle to penetrate the swollen atmosphere, leading to a lack of Internet service, GPS navigation, satellite TV such as Sky and mobile phone signal.

GETTY

Additionally, increased currents in the Earths magnetic field or magnetosphere could theoretically lead to a surge of electricity in power lines, which can blow out electrical transformers and power stations leading to a temporary loss of electricity in a region.

Prof Elsworth says that experts are already seeing signs that the solar minimum is coming.

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She wrote in a study: This is not how it used to be and the rotation rate [of the sun] has slowed a bit at latitudes around about 60 degrees.

We are not quite sure what the consequences of this will be but its clear that we are in unusual times.

However, we are beginning to detect some features belonging to the next cycle and we can suggest that the next minimum will be in about two years.

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Technology to WIPED OUT by sun's radiation before world is plunged into 'solar minimum' - Express.co.uk

Trump hails NAFTA progress, says Mexico will pay for wall – Reuters

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HAMBURG The United States is making very good progress on trade issues with Mexico, President Donald Trump said on Friday after a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, but he also repeated a pledge to make the southern neighbor pay for a border wall.

"We're negotiating NAFTA and some other things with Mexico and we'll see how it all turns out, but I think that we've made very good progress," Trump said on Friday after the meeting at the Hamburg summit of 20 large economies.

In response to a shouted question from a reporter to Trump about whether he still wants Mexico to pay for his proposed border wall, the U.S. leader said, "Absolutely."

Pena Nieto, whom Trump called his "friend," added that the meeting would "help us continue a very strong dialogue" on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Disputes over migration, Trump's proposed border wall - which Mexico has repeatedly said it will not pay for - and his claim that free trade with Mexico costs jobs in the United States, have strained relations between the two countries since Trump's November election.

Pena Nieto's spokesman, Eduardo Sanchez, called in to local Mexican broadcaster Radio Formula from Hamburg, stating that the two presidents did not discuss the proposed border wall.

"That subject was not part of the conversation," he said.

"The wall was not the issue," said another Mexican official familiar with the meeting, adding that the meeting went well.

The two leaders reviewed progress made on all the issues on the bilateral agenda, the official said.

Trump and Pena Nieto also discussed the start date for the NAFTA talks, the official said.

The two presidents also explored a possible guest worker program for migrants in the agriculture sector as well as the importance of "modernizing" NAFTA, according to a statement from Mexico's foreign ministry released after the meeting.

(Reporting By Roberta Rampton in Hamburg; Additional reporting by Dave Graham and Adriana Barrera in Mexico City; Editing by Noah Barkin and Jonathan Oatis)

Wall Street extended gains in late morning trading on Friday, powered by robust jobs data and a rebound in technology stocks.

NEW YORK The New York Federal Reserve said on Friday it increased its estimates on the U.S. gross domestic product for the second quarter and third quarter to their highest levels in a month based on the latest U.S. payrolls, service and factory activity data.

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Trump hails NAFTA progress, says Mexico will pay for wall - Reuters

How Xi and Trump Can Make Real Progress on North Korea – The New Yorker

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The Presidents Xi and Trump have several things in common: both entered professions in which their fathers gave them natural advantages. (Xi Jinpings father, the revolutionary hero Xi Zhongxun, helped build Chinas Communist Party; Donald Trump inherited a fortune, and a real-estate business, from his father, Fred.) Xi and Trump both perceive the world in zero-sum terms. Both dispute the notion of loyal opposition. And both favor coercion over consensus.

But, in most respects, Trump struck the Chinese leadership as an oddity, and, as soon as he became President, Chinese leaders started reading his books in search of clues to his thinking. From The Art of the Deal they concluded, among other things, that Trumps theatrical demands are only a tool of negotiation. Trumps approach, according to Cheng Li , of the Brookings Institution, who researches Chinese lite politics, was clear: You should put some of your demands outrageously high, so you will never be a loser.

The Chinese leaders reading paid off. When Trump and Xi met for the first time, at Mar-a-Lago, in May, Xi was unruffled by Trumps assertions of bravado, including his revelation, during dessert, that the United States was about to fire missiles at Syria. Xi succeeded in handling Trump. Emerging from the Citrus Summit, Trump made no mention of tariffs or trade war; he proclaimed great chemistrynot good, but great and hailed Xi as a very good man with an incredibly talented wife. Trump, like many, had looked at Xis genial half-smile and succumbed to the misreading that they were in agreement. A Chinese editor in Beijing once told me, of Xi, Hes round on the outside and square on the inside; he looks flexible, but inside he is very hard.

Xi, for his part, did not bother to reciprocate Trumps outpouring of emotion. Though Trump asserted that he would succeed in persuading Xi to choke off trade to North Korea, as a way to curb its nuclear program. (Trump tweeted, I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea.) An Arab foreign minister who visited Beijing shortly after the trip told me privately that, given all of Trumps campaign talk of China raping the United States, Chinese officials were very pleased to have mollified him at his own country club.

Unsurprisingly, the one-way romance proved fragile. Last week, after Trump realized that Xi was not going to pressure Pyongyang into submission, the White House announced sanctions against Chinese entities accused of aiding North Koreas weapons programs. The Administration also announced a $1.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, moved U.S. ships into contested waters in the South China Sea, and dusted off threats of tariffs and a trade war. In a dyspeptic phone call with Trump, Xi complained about these moves as negative factors.

Then things got worse. On July 4th, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un personally led the test-launch of the countrys first intercontinental ballistic missile. Kim defiantly crossed a de-facto red line that Trump had drawn in January, when he said that such a test wont happen. For most Presidents, the public failure of a central pillar of foreign policy would be humbling, but Trump is disconnected from the details of diplomacy, and he directed his frustration, via Twitter, toward China: So much for China working with us - but we had to give it a try!

Now the U.S. and China can, in theory, start the real work of forging a response to the Korean crisis. John Delury, a North Korea expert at Yonsei University, in Seoul, told me, Unfortunately, Xis own ties with Kim Jong-un are tenuous, and thus Beijing is of not much use in getting a read on Pyongyang or facilitating diplomacy. Trump, for his part, seems to be moving away from the notion that China can solve the North Korea problem for him, which is a mark of progress in his learning curve.

At the G-20 meeting in Hamburg this week, the worlds attention will focus largely on Trumps meeting with Vladimir Putin. But Trumps meeting with Xi will have more immediate relevance in dealing with the Korea crisis. In an op-ed published in the Washington Post on Thursday, Jake Sullivan and Victor Cha, foreign-policy advisers in the Obama and Bush Administrations, respectively, proposed a new approach to getting China invested in freezing the North Korean missile tests. Instead of threatening North Korea with cutting off trade, they propose, in effect, paying it to cut off missile tests. The basic trade would be Chinese disbursements to Pyongyang, as well as security assurances, in return for constraints on North Koreas program. . . . If North Korea cheated, China would not be receiving what it paid for. The logical thing would be for it to withhold economic benefits until compliance resumed. The Times outlined a similar idea in an editorial of its own this week.

This approach is no silver bullet, but, in the land of lousy options, as diplomats call the North Korea problem, it is as good as any, in part because it does not rest on a false understanding of the other party. The relationship between Xi and Trumpleaders of the worlds two largest economies, a rising power and an addled power, straining to coexistmay well prove to be the most consequential diplomatic liaison of its time.

It is too soon to know whether Xi and Trump could build a genuine relationship, but, until now, they have been operating on separate wavelengths, intersecting only at moments of superficial understanding. In Chinese, this is known as a chicken talking to a duck. Both sides are talking, but neither truly understands the other.

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How Xi and Trump Can Make Real Progress on North Korea - The New Yorker

DeKalb County makes progress in water billing crisis – AJC.com – Atlanta Journal Constitution

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Since April, DeKalb County has reviewed and released8,000 water bills it identified as inaccurate last fall. Only 20 bills have been disputed - progress for a county trying to resolve a problema decade in the making, CEO Michael Thurmond said at a meeting with county commissioners on Thursday.

Homeowners received incorrect bills for thousands of dollars.

Some of those disputes are the result ofstartlingly high bills, but Thurmond reassured customers that they will not be penalized for any errors DeKalb made in billing.

The county is focusing on billing for only the most current billing period as they await an official solution for backbilling. Our goal is to have our 184,000 customers receiving regular bills monthly or bimonthly. No decision has been made by administration about backbilling, Thurmond said.

>> Subscribers can read more about the updates inDeKalb water billing crisis at myajc.com

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DeKalb County makes progress in water billing crisis - AJC.com - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Marlins Notes: Trade Targets, Volquez, Sale Progress – MLB Trade Rumors

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I tend to agree with most of that, stretch123But I wouldnt include Bour in the trade away list. He is already 29, but is an Arbitration control player until 2021. Hes certainly performing very well this season, and belongs in the Build Around group. Plus.They dont have another 1B in the system to take his place.

Stanton will bring back salary relief, or some seriously good prospects, but not both. The Cardinals need him badly, and have the pieces to acquire him. They wont like the salary commitment, so maybe the Marlins keep part of the money, but get better prospects in return. Weaver and Bader get the conversation going, with another pitching prospect added.

Ozuna is a bat that could bring back a #3 SPtheyve tried to get a #1 or #2 and failed already. Maybe Ozunas production this season will change that.

Ramos to the Nats makes the most sense, but Im just not sure what theyd give up to get him. Youre not getting a Robles or Fedde for him.but you might pry away either Voth or Cole (but they are both back end starters at best)

Oddly, the biggest haul would come from Yelich, if they traded him away. Im not suggesting that they do, just making a note on that.

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Marlins Notes: Trade Targets, Volquez, Sale Progress - MLB Trade Rumors

Sixers see progress from Furkan Korkmaz during win over Spurs in Utah finale – Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia

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Sixers see progress from Furkan Korkmaz during win over Spurs in Utah finale

SALT LAKE CITY There's much more to what Furkan Korkmaz brings to a game than what can be found by examining a box score.

One of the reasons that the Sixers drafted Korkmaz and worked to bring him over from Europe is his versatility. Korkmaz is a sharpshooter on the surface. Dig a little deeper and you will also find a rookie forward who is willing to pester opponents on defense and set up teammates for quality shots.

It helped Korkmaz have a bigger impact in the Sixers' 94-86 victory over the Spurs to close out their final day at the Utah Jazz Summer League on Thursday (see Instant Replay). He finished with 10 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals in 29 minutes.

Korkmaz tries to influence every part of the game while he's on the court because it fits with what he wants to accomplish as a basketball player.

"Everyday I try to think about it, how to get better and better, Korkmaz said. So I have to be better. I know that.

Count the Sixers' coaching staff among the believers who see him reaching his desired destination. They love his fluidity on the court. They see a player with a diverse skill set who plays at an effective pace and has a feel for the game.

For the Sixers, it adds up to a player who has barely even tugged on the ribbon holding together the package holding his potential.

As each minute adds up, as each touch adds up, as each shot adds up, as each possession adds up, he's just going to become more comfortable, Sixers Utah Jazz Summer League coach Billy Lange said. Then you're going to just see the whole skill set he has."

Korkmaz can expect to see big minutes and get plays drawn up for him when the team starts playing in the Las Vegas Summer League this weekend. Lange believes keeping Korkmaz in the game and letting him play through mistakes will make him a better player and build his confidence.

For his part, Korkmaz wants to reward that confidence through applying himself on both ends of the court.

"It's not just about shooting, Korkmaz said. It's also defense. [Even] if your man scores over you, you just have to keep up and try to give 100 percent."

Miles stepping up For the second consecutive game, the second unit gave the Sixers a major lift in the second half and opened the door for a fourth-quarter rally. The Sixers outscored San Antonio 66-33 in bench points.

Isaiah Miles took the lead in fueling the comeback. He finished with a team-high 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting and seven rebounds in just 22 minutes off the bench. His biggest highlight came on a reverse layup in the fourth quarter that put the Sixers ahead for good during a decisive 11-0 run.

Miles, a rookie forward out of Saint Joseph's, has impressed the Sixers' coaches with his determination and motor whenever he steps onto the court.

"He's a fighter, Lange said. What I mean by fight is he's not going to look at the score and let that dictate his attitude. He just goes in and plays with a strong pace about him, just attacking the offensive glass. He's a confident shooter. He's got a high motor on the offensive end."

Miles joined the Sixers summer league squad a full season removed from a breakout senior campaign with St. Joes. He led the Hawks in both scoring and rebounding in 2015-16, averaging 18.1 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.

Dominant defense Second-chance points kept the Sixers in the game during a close loss to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday. This time, against the Spurs, the Sixers used their defensive pressure to create extra shots and force San Antonio into a ton of mistakes.

The Sixers forced 25 turnovers to offset 19 of their own. They took full advantage of those miscues, scoring 31 points off of turnovers. The Spurs, on the other hand, totaled just 14 points off of turnovers.

Korkmaz and Jonah Bolden set the tone, finishing with a team-high three steals apiece. Seven different players recorded a steal for the Sixers.

SALT LAKE CITY Two close losses did not turn into a third one for the Sixers. They closed out their stint in the Utah Jazz Summer League on a satisfying note, rallying in the fourth quarter to beat the San Antonio Spurs 94-86 (see Instant Replay).

The Sixers came out on top without top pick Markelle Fultz in the lineup. Fultz did not start or play because the coaching staff decided to rest him ahead of the Las Vegas Summer League this weekend. In Fultz's absence, the Sixers' second unit stepped up to the plate and carried their team to victory.

Led by 18 points from Isaiah Miles, the Sixers finished with 66 bench points. Four of the six players who came off the bench scored in double figures including Jonah Bolden (16), Brandon Austin (15) and Isaiah Briscoe (10). With the spark they provided, the Sixers surged past the Spurs midway through the fourth quarter and never looked back.

Here are five other observations from Thursday's game:

Once Furkan Korkmaz fully gets his legs under him, the Turkish rookie has the potential to impact a game across the board. Korkmaz did a little bit of everything against the Spurs on Thursday (see story). He stole the ball. He set up teammates for easy baskets with crisp passing. Most importantly, he helped key the decisive 11-0 fourth quarter run that put the Sixers ahead for good with a timely three pointer.

After suffering a fourth-quarter collapse against the Celtics, the Sixers showed mental toughness in the fourth quarter both against the Jazz and the Spurs. They used a rally to threaten Utah in the final minute and then finished off a rally against San Antonio. This could bode well in tight games in Las Vegas.

Bryn Forbes has the makings of being a dangerous shooter for San Antonio. Forbes scorched the nets from the perimeter in a win over the Celtics on Wednesday. The Sixers did a good job of holding him in check. Forbes did finish with 21 points, but he went just 3 of 10 from outside.

The Sixers did a good job of getting out in transition, largely because of their success with forcing turnovers. They finished with 15 fastbreak points while limiting the Spurs to just sixpoints in transition.

Offensive rebounding is a strength for this Sixers' summer league squad. The Sixers corralled 10 offensive boards and finished with 16 second-chance points. It marked the second straight night they held an advantage over their opponent in these categories.

SALT LAKE CITY No Markelle Fultz equaled no problem for the Sixers.

This time, they finished off a fourth-quarter rally with a victory. The Sixers downed the Spurs 94-86 on Thursday in their Utah Jazz Summer League finale. They finished with a 1-2 record in Utah.

A balanced offensive effort aided the Sixers in their comeback. Five players scored in double figures, led by 18 points and seven rebounds from St. Joes product Isaiah Miles. Jonah Bolden chipped in 16 points and eight boards.

San Antonio struggled with turnovers and the Sixers took advantage. They forced 25 turnovers and scored 31 points off those takeaways.

Turning point Down eight points late in the third quarter, the Sixers ran off three straight baskets over the final 30.3 seconds of the quarter. Isaiah Briscoe started off the flurry with a reverse layup, Miles tacked on a dunk and James Blackmon, Jr. finished it all off with a fadeaway jumper to beat the buzzer. Their efforts helped the Sixers tie it at 70-70 early in the fourth quarter.

Furkan Korkmaz sparked another run for the Sixers after burying a three-pointer four minutes into the fourth quarter. It touched off a 11-0 run that gave them an 83-79 lead. Bolden tied it on a dunk and then the Sixers took the lead on a reverse layup from Miles.

Fultz watch Top pick Fultz did not play for the Sixers on Thursday. The team designated it as a rest day for him ahead of the Sixers trip to Las Vegas to participate in summer league action there.

With Fultz on the bench, Larry Drew II started at point guard and served as the primary ball handler. Drew finished with two points, five assists and two turnovers in 30 minutes. The 6-foot-2 guard appeared in 12 games for the Sixers during the 2014-15 season. He averaged 3.8 points and 3.8 assists.

Team leaders Bolden and Miles led a tough second unit, combining for 34 points and 15 rebounds. Brandon Austin added 15 points and Briscoe chipped in 10. Korkmaz was the lone starter to score in double figures, totaling 10 points.

Bryn Forbes led San Antonio with 21 points on 7 of 17 shooting. Cory Jefferson was the only other Spurs player to finish in double figures with 11.

Key stat The second unit came to life for the Sixers. Bench scoring helped the team keep pace with the Spurs for much of 40 minutes. The Sixers totaled 66 bench points compared to 33 for San Antonio.

Top Sixers plays Blackmon provided the biggest highlight in an end-of-quarter flurry for the Sixers in the third. He turned a turnover by Davis Bertrans into a fadeaway jumper that beat the buzzer by 0.2 seconds. It gave the Sixers valuable momentum going into the fourth quarter.

The Sixers tied and passed the Spurs in the final quarter thanks to a pair of great plays from Bolden and Miles. Bolden tied the game at 79-79 on a dunk and then Miles gave the Sixers the lead for good on a reverse layup with 4:32 remaining.

What's next? The Sixers head down to Las Vegas to continue summer league play this weekend.

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Sixers see progress from Furkan Korkmaz during win over Spurs in Utah finale - Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia

Review: Poem 88’s Correspondences series brings us back to balance – ArtsATL

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I love the conceit of Poem 88s summer series Correspondences, a series of short exhibitions inspired by the Swedish scientist, theologian and philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg (16681772). But you dont have to understand the mystic thinkers ideas in order to get it. Correspondences references the notion that instances of good mitigate bad in order to restore balance.

Yes, please.

Correspondences began Saturday, June 17, with the reception for Art Vandenbergs Steles, photographs and sculptures made to celebrate and honor the natural world. Using found, simple materials, Vandenberg erected simple, temporary monuments while taking walks along the shore for this body of the work. Most of the show consists of photography in the form of 13- to 15-inch acrylic-mounted digital archival prints, though there are a few sculptures made of found boards, sticks, canvas, rope and other materials, too.

The photographs rely on the artists subtle arrangement of found objects that he encounters on walks. Shorn of its former marker, a rusty road sign post augmented by three carefully balanced stones is the subject of Stele 3 Stone (2017). The stacked rocks recall Andy Goldsworthys manipulations of nature, but Vandenbergs work seems neither derivative nor unnecessary. Its significant that Vandenberg not only uses the physical components of the environment but also human-made objects, too. Simple but effective, Steles pictures a partially darkened plank upright in the sand against a cloudless blue sky. Notwithstanding its beachy appeal, it is eerily monolithic. Kubricks quintessential monolith comes to mind, as do its many associations with technology, humanity and history.

Despite the connections of the show to Swedenborg (and by extension the often technophobic romantics and transcendentalists he inspired), Vandenbergs work takes a slightly different slant. Vandenberg studied both art and information and computer science at the advanced level, earning masters degrees from Georgia State University and Georgia Tech. Perhaps his ideology reflects his dual backgrounds. Vandenberg ascribes to transhumanism, which advocates an anti-essentialist embrace of technology. Simply put, technology is a good thing that can improve human lives. Thus, Vandenbergs choice of camera the one on his phone is perfect. Not only does it embrace new media, it has an egalitarian undertone: to me it suggests that snapping photos of a sunset or even a guilty-pleasure selfie does not really interfere with the authenticity of a moment but rather commemorates it.

Vandenbergs #Tipis are on long-term display in the adjacent Floataway Community Center, offering a further correspondence and deeper insight into his practice. Inspired by the catalog for the Met show The Plains Indians: Artists of the Earth and Sky, the symbology is intricately developed, reminiscent of ancient pictographs. The #Tipis stand for key moments for the artist. #WalkaboutTipi, for example, represents the pivotal year in Vandenbergs life when he transitioned back to art-making after a career in information technology. However, I find the #Tipis less effective than the simpler Steles photographs. Further, despite genuine respect for the artists developed system of personal iconography, I find them potentially problematic due to the appropriation of Native American culture.

The reception for Steles also included a cleansing performance by Karen Tauches and Stephen Fenton. The experimental augmentation of snippets of news broadcasts by Fenton was accompanied by bell sounds by Tauches. Ultimately, these events and exhibitions are more than pleasing sounds and pretty pictures of nature; they are optimistic calls to action.

Again yes, please.

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Review: Poem 88's Correspondences series brings us back to balance - ArtsATL

Review: Paranoia thriller It Comes At Night is impressively tense and … – Norfolk Eastern Daily Press

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PUBLISHED: 08:49 07 July 2017

Michael Joyce

Joel Edgerton as Paul in It Comes At Night. Picture: A24

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It Comes At Night (15)

****

As the title suggests, this is a scary film; it just isnt the scary film that the title suggests.

A virulent contagion, which manifests as pus-filled boils, has swept the globe, pitting neighbours against one another for survival in Trey Edward Shults slow-burning psychological thriller.

Paul (Joel Edgerton) and his wife Sarah (Carmen Ejogo) decide to ride out the storm with their son Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr) by living in a fortified shack in the middle of the woods, monitoring each other for signs of infection.

One night, the family wakes to noises in the house and Paul realises to his horror that someone or something from the outside has gate-crashed the sanctuary.

This is a reflection on the great myth of survivalism. Edgerton has barricaded his family away and behind a locked red door, the rest of the world is a great unknown.

Its like 10 Cloverfield Lane, but with reasonable people, trying to deal reasonably with an unreasonable situation. Its impressively tense and the air of paranoia is magnificently sustained, with a minimum of incidents. The music score by Brian McOmber works wonders and the nighttime scenes of lamplight against wood panelling are ineffably creepy.

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Review: Paranoia thriller It Comes At Night is impressively tense and ... - Norfolk Eastern Daily Press

The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers – Film School Rejects – Film School Rejects

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What are Coen Brothers films all about?

Nihilists. Fuck me. I mean, say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude at least its an ethos. Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski

The solution of the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of this problem. (Is not this the reason why those who have found after a long period of doubt that the meaning of life became clear to them have been unable to say what constituted that meaning?) Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

To write about the Coen Brothers is to confront, head on, lifes hardest problem. Im not talking about the problem of film criticism generally, nor of identifying why Joel and Ethan Coen are among our greatest living filmmakers. These problems, though they confront me presently, are not all that hard. But usually, when one studies a filmmaker, there emerges in the work a distinct perspective on life a philosophical point of view, which style and story jointly reveal. And although countless words have been spilled on the philosophy of the Coens films, no one has yet produced a summary that the Brothers themselves would endorse. Themes and motifs recur, but meanings are elusive. The most one can say is that the work is so meticulously well-crafted that it feels meaningful, even as conclusive statements of purpose escape us. Thus in a Coen Brothers film, as in life, were left asking: is all this meaning merely apparent?

Notoriously resistant interview subjects, the Coens have managed to ascend through the ranks of the cinematic canon without ever showing their philosophical hand. Theyve now claimed every accolade: Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Adapted Screenplay; the Palme DOr, Best Director, and Grand Jury Prizes at Cannes; Best Director from the DGA; Original and Adapted Screenplay from the WGA. Their films have inspired multiple books, including one that explicitly claims to deal with their philosophy. But when pressed for insights about their work, they tend to downplay its significance. one that explicitly claims to deal with their philosophy. But when pressed for insights about their work, they tend to downplay its significance. Asked in 1998 about his philosophy of filmmaking, Ethan replied, I dont have one. I wouldnt even know how to begin. Asked in 2001 about his creativity, Joel quipped, I guess it beats throwing trash for a living.

So what are we to make of the fact that these masters of the craft claim, or at least imply, that they have nothing to say? One option is to let the work speak for itself. Beginning with their startlingly assured 1984 debut, Blood Simple, the Coens have produced three decades worth of highly distinctive work. Their films span many genres and tones, yet all retain the clear signature of their makers. That Coen style, such as it is, has more to do with rhythm, tone, and characterization than visual flair. Its a feeling of faint tragedy amid the humor or faint humor amid the tragedy. Consider Anton Chigurhs sardonic use of the word friendo for his future victims in No Country for Old Men, or the Folgers tin used to hold Donnys ashes in The Big Lebowski.

One topic about which the Brothers are forthcoming in interviews is the many influences that feed into their work. Although they dont consider themselves film fanatics of the Tarantino variety, their love of Old Hollywood noir and screwball in particular is everywhere on display. 2003s Intolerable Cruelty is an out-and-out screwball film, while 2000s O Brother, Where Art Thou? takes its title from Sullivans Travels, directed by the great screwball master Preston Sturges. Aided by longtime collaborator Roger Deakins, the Brothers elegantly revived the black-and-white noir in 2001s The Man Who Wasnt There. And just last year, they released Hail, Caesar! a noir-screwball film about Old Hollywood.

Though theyve made many period pieces, the Coens use the past in much the same way as their genre predecessors, as fantasy rather than historical reality. Its not about reminiscence, they have said, because our movies are about the past we have never experienced. Its more about imagination. Such fantasizing makes the problem of meaning all the more vexing because the Coens cant be accused of commenting on a history they never claimed to represent. Hail, Caesar! in particular, was accused of ignoring topics like race and gender in the 1950s altogether a critique that the Brothers rebuffed by claiming this is not how they think of stories. It often seems that the Coens wish their films could be seen in a vacuum, as self-contained pockets of meaning without reference to the larger world.

And yet their two greatest films (at least by award-count) Fargo and No Country for Old Men are also among their most realistic. Both films invite the viewer, in their opening sequences, to regard the films as more than mere stories. Fargo bears an opening placard announcing, This is a True Story a choice the brothers made specifically so that audiences wouldnt see the movie as just an ordinary thriller. And Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in No Country concludes his opening monologue with the evocative phrase, OK, Ill be a part of this world.

No Country, in particular, is worth dwelling on, not only because its a perfect piece of filmmaking, but also because it provides insight into the brothers ambivalence about meaning. Ed Tom Bells speech at the films opening expresses a fear that the Coens seem to share: namely that, if he agrees to engage with the violence and tragedy of the world, it may overcome him. It may force him to say, as he does, I dont know what to make of that. Similarly, it would seem that the more of the real worlds senselessness they allow into their work, the harder it might become for the Coens to make meaning. Such meaning might not be there at all.

Of late, the Coens appear to be rebounding back and forth between addressing and ignoring this problem. No Country was followed by the farcical Burn After Reading. A Serious Man, the Coens most direct treatment of meaninglessness, gave way to True Grit, a downright pious film. And Inside Llewyn Davis, which directly mocks arts pretensions of meaning, was followed by Hail, Caesar!, which embodies that very mockery, by being (seemingly) meaningless itself. If the trend holds, we should expect the Coens next outing to tackle the question of meaning head-on once more, trying again to be a part of this world.

There is wisdom to be found, perhaps unsurprisingly, in The Big Lebowski. Many mistook that films sage ethos of acceptance for nihilism, but the Coens resisted this label. For us, the nihilists are the bad guys, Joel told Michael Ciment and Hubert Niogret in 1998, and if theres a preferred moral position, itd be that of Jeff Bridges, though its difficult to define! Though theyve grown to doubt it in recent films, the Dudes fluid perseverance his abidance, as it were might be a solution to the specter of nihilism that haunts the Coens. Not unlike Marge Gundersons down-home goodness in Fargo, it does not oblige one to make sense of the horrors of the world only to persist in being good despite them.

Jeff Bridges summarized it well: I think [The Big Lebowski]s a film about grace, how amazing it is that were all allowed to stay alive on this speck hurled out into space, being as screwed up as we all are. Like, Fargo had a moral resonance to it. This one, I think, does as well. It may not be apparent to most people at first. But working in it, kind of bathing in this thing, it rang for me. Its not a real clear thing that you can say, Thats what it means. Its a little different. Perhaps we can say, then, that the Coens philosophy is summarized in the Wittgenstein quote above (Ethan wrote his thesis at Princeton on Wittgenstein). Or, less pretentious, and more concise: the Dude Abides.

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The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers - Film School Rejects - Film School Rejects

Steve Vizard’s Vigil at Arts Centre Melbourne reveals trauma … – The Age

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THEATRE VIGIL Book & Lyrics: Steve Vizard, Music: Joe Chiadamo Arts Centre Melbourne, Until July 8

Eddie Perfect lambasted the lack of support for Australian musicals on social media recently. He was right to be angry. When something as sparkling and original asVigilcomes along (nurtured to fruition by institutions like the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and The Arts Centre) you get a sense of what we're missing out on.

The talent pool underVigilruns deep indeed. It has sprung to life from Steve Vizard's witty character-based comedy, his brisk gift for lyrics and narrative and emotional intelligence; from Joe Chiadamo's melodic songs, which range through terrain as diverse as parody and heartfelt ballad; and the divine Christie Whelan, whose star quality is no secret, but who gets to spread her wings as a performer here embracing a rare chance to make the audience ache with sorrow, as well as cackle with delight.

Careening between hilarity and desolation, this intense one-woman musical compresses a gamut of conflicting emotion into one final evening between mother and daughter.

Whelan plays Liz, a wild child who rocks up to her mum's hospital ward on Christmas eve, after a long stint overseas. She plans to whip out overdue gifts, borrow some money and bugger off again, but the spectre of death intervenes.

As Liz holds vigil over her silent mother, a welter of grievance and memory, love and pain pours out of her. Trauma lurks underneath her rootless hedonism, and fortunately for us, Liz is a whiz at defensive humour giving Whelan an opportunity to showcase sharp comic impersonations, sketch comedy inFast Forwardmode, and musical hijinks, including a scream of a song (a kind of solo duet) where she embodies male and female lust at a suburban barbecue.

Under the laughter, suffering. Whelan is deeply moving when her character's guard drops, and nails Chiadamo's strongest melody, One More Breath, through three clever variations that capture the shock of unexpected grief, regret at time wasted, and resolve to seize the day.

A few weak spots exist moments where the comedy is slightly overstretched, one confessional number where I heard an uglier, more bitter song in my head than what Whelan performed butVigilremains a captivating new musical.

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With brilliant composition, writing, acting and vocals, with direction and design that augment intimacy at every point, the show makes you want to laugh and weep, sometimes both at once. A must-see for music theatre fans, and anyone who has ever lost a loved one will well up at the labile emotional odyssey it portrays.

This review was written from a preview.

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Steve Vizard's Vigil at Arts Centre Melbourne reveals trauma ... - The Age

Reporter strips naked to quiz nude swingers on their love of wife-swapping in bizarre telly segment – The Sun

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The Sun
Reporter strips naked to quiz nude swingers on their love of wife-swapping in bizarre telly segment
The Sun
Standing without a thread on them, couples at the clothing-optional Hedonism II resort in Negril spoke on camera about how they got into swinging and embarrassing moments they've had. Carli asked one nude couple what they ask each other once they ...

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Reporter strips naked to quiz nude swingers on their love of wife-swapping in bizarre telly segment - The Sun

Seven businesswomen on what would change if more leaders were female – Women’s Agenda

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Its no surprise that men continue to dominate major leadership positions across almost all industry sectors in Australia.

Meanwhile, most women continue to go un-recognised for their efforts, with more than two thirds of major, non-gendered accolades going to men.

But, what if it were the other way around?

We posed the question to a number of Australian businesswomen: What would change if there were more women in leadership?

Katrina Barry, Managing Director at Contiki, the travel company that has perfected the art of travel for 18-35 year olds

If there was a balance of women and men in leadership, traditional gender roles of breadwinner and homemaker would be shattered with the sexes needing to share responsibility.

In the current environment, more pressure is placed on men to be the sole or majority earner and this often leads to sub-optional career choices based on securing the right path or highest paying job.

If both men and women had the ability to break stereotype and pursue passions rather than financial outcomes then both might find better fit and greater satisfaction, also a greater productivity and economic performance that correlates to more women in leadership.

Kate Morris, CEO and founder, Adore Beauty Australias leading online shopping destination for beauty and cosmetics.

With more women in leadership, Australian companies would all be more successful!

There are numerous studies showing that gender-diverse leadership produces better business outcomes, including profitability, innovation, customer experience, and employee retention. Particularly in retail where women are responsible for 85% of purchasing decisions there is a very strong business case for having more women in leadership positions.

Rebekah Campbell, co founder of Hey You, the order ahead app

Becoming a mother has fundamentally changed my outlook and the way my brain works. Mothers have hyperactive empathy programming. We couldnt tolerate harm to anyones children and were all someones child.

Mothers are also very future focussed. We value theworldwere passing on to our children over the lifestyles we lead today. Ifmore womenand mums were in leadership rolesthen climate change, environmental protection, the fight against infectious diseases, peace and equality would outrank economic rationalism and small-minded protectionism.

Taryn Williams, Founder & CEO, theright.fit

I think the world would improve if more women were in leadership, because we would build better, more balanced and representative workplaces.

As a tech founder, Im incredibly passionate about increasing the number of women who study STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and helping them to see that working in a tech company is a viable (and exciting!) career option for them.

When a business of any kind, but especially a technology company, has a good representation of different ages, ethnicities, and importantly genders, working in the company, we build better products that serve the needs of the client better because all the needs of the market are understood and represented. This makes for more successful and more profitable companies, so to me, its a no brainer!

DrAmantha Imber, Founder and CEO, Inventium, Australias leading Innovation Consultancy

Women have been shown to be decidedly more suited to management positions than their male counterparts, naturally ranking higher in general than men in their abilities to innovate and lead with clarity and impact.

Having a more balanced female view would bring much-needed diversity to the discussions. Diversity is hugely beneficial for innovation, and the world can always do with more of that.

JulieDemsey, General Manager, SBE Australia delivering the Springboard Enterprises Accelerator program supporting female lead tech companies ingrowing and scaling their businesses.

Having more women leading businesses will help us eradicate gender bias bothconsciousandunconscious.

Young girls and boys alike benefit from seeing strong, successfulfemales leading healthy profitable businesses. They will expect this to be the norm and see this as how the world is rather than how it could or should be. As these beliefs change, so too will the tendency for bias and we will find an equality in the workplace. I hope to see this in my lifetime.

Kristy Chong, CEO & Founder of Modibodi, the revolutionary womens high-tech underwear company that empowers women of all ages, shapes and sizes to live a better life.

As for major changes, we paint women out to be nurturers and peacemakers but I do not think these qualities are female specific. The major beliefs and attitudes between men and women in Australia are mostly the same, but the resources to support women and the education around equality and what that means is still lacking.

As a result Australia is still a male dominated society.

So if more women leaders we would achieve equality, because ultimately we have more to gain.

Originally posted here:

Seven businesswomen on what would change if more leaders were female - Women's Agenda

Censorship – Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Censorship is when an authority (such as a government or religion) cuts out or suppresses communication.

This has been done widely. All countries, religions and societies have their limits as to what can be said, or written or communication by art or nowadays by computer.

Certain facts are changed or removed on purpose. This may be done because it is considered wrong, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or other authority. This can be done for different reasons.

A censor is a person whose job is to look at all types of media and remove material. There are many reasons to censor something, like protecting military secrets, stopping immoral or anti-religious works, or keeping political power. Censorship is almost always used as an insult, and there is much debate over what censorship is and when it is okay.

When there is freedom of speech and freedom of the press, most information can published. However, even in developed countries with much freedom of the press, there are some things that cannot be published. For example, journalists are usually not allowed to publish many secrets about the military, like where troops will be sent on a mission. Pornography is censored in some countries because it is seen as not moral. For these reasons, the government might arrest anyone who publishes it.

Most often things are censored for one or more of the following reasons:

There is much debate about when censorship should be allowed. For example, U.S. President Richard Nixon censored the New York Times when they tried to publish articles about the Pentagon Papers, a group of classified military documents that showed that Nixon and the military lied about the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court in New York Times Co v. United States overturned the censorship, saying that Nixon had not shown it would be dangerous to the military, just embarrassing. In other countries, journalists and bloggers (who are usually not seen as journalists) are sometimes arrested for saying bad things about the government. In Egypt, Kareem Amer was famously arrested for insulting Islam and calling the president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, a dictator. [2]

Governments are not the only ones who censor information. For example, when the history department at Middlebury College did not allow professors to accept Wikipedia as a source in papers, some said it was censorship.[3] This was because the department was telling professors (who usually have academic freedom) what works they should and should not accept. Sometimes, a group or a website will not allow some facts, articles, and pictures that they do not think should be seen. There is much debate over the difference between censorship and editing, that is, deciding what should or should not be published.

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Censorship - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia