Category Archives: Evolution

Each year, Herms sets a creative theme for its design studios, with the aim of sparking conversation and providing some unified direction among its myriad propositions, ranging from entry-level scarves to high-end handbags and custom yacht upholstery for the happy few. This years theme, the Odyssey, is about confronting the worlds uncertainties without losing our identity, chief executive Axel Dumas said in a July presentation.

Its an apt metaphor for the French brand to adopt as it navigates the post-Covid fashion market: On the one hand, Herms ultra-classic, stable positioning at the top of luxurys pyramid has made it one the sectors largest and most resilient players, with sales bouncing back quickly from coronavirus lows as consumers flocked to its range of timeless, status-conveying items. On the other hand, despite its aura of staid permanence, Herms recent statements suggest a faster pace of change at the company, including adding new product categories and ramping up initiatives linked to sustainability, technology and omni-channel retail to meet the demands of the market.

Sales in the first nine months of this year rose 60 percent year-over-year, and by 43 percent compared to 2019s pre-pandemic levels, Herms said Thursday. With full-year sales expected by analysts to exceed 9 billion ($10.5 billion), the house is in striking distance of reclaiming its title as luxurys third-biggest brand (behind Louis Vuitton and Chanel) from Gucci, which surpassed Herms in 2017 but has rebounded more slowly from the pandemic.

The 2021 numbers look as if the pandemic never happened, or even a bit better, Bernstein analyst Luca Solca said. The brand remains in a league of their own, according to Citi analyst Thomas Chauvet.

That Herms has come out ahead of the pack following the coronavirus crisis is no surprise: The brand has long been luxurys most defensive player, insulated from market shocks by a deep well of client demand that exceeds supply for its prized Birkin and Kelly bags, despite the company ramping up production by opening new manufacturing sites each year. (The bags have an outsized financial impact for Herms as fans of the brand are known to court salespeople by loading up on other items and tend to jump at any chance to finally acquire one of the bags crisis or not.)

Whats perhaps more noteworthy is how much the brand is foregrounding new initiatives and innovations, challenging its reputation for playing it safe.

Tradition and experimentation

Herms is moving forward with the rollout of its nascent beauty unit, which debuted last year with a line of lipsticks packaged in eye-catching striped enamel tubes. The new division has since added the brands first-ever makeup, a range of $77 blushes announced with an influencer marketing campaign that triggered unboxing videos galore. (The campaign was a rare move for Herms, which has typically avoided the practice of gifting products to influencers.) The new division launched in July in China and is now rolling out a line of nail polishes and hand creams ahead of the holiday season.

The companys Perfume and Beauty unit still makes up less than 5 percent of sales. But beyond its financial impact, the division is giving the brand new topics to drive the marketing conversation and a chance to play at a lower price point than ever before ($200 neckties and $450 scarves had previously been the groups entry-level items par excellence).

While the brand doesnt sign endorsement deals with celebrities, recent efforts to push into the spotlight have paid off on the red carpet as well. The brand managed for the first time in recent memory to cozy up to a star and dress her for the Oscars, outfitting director Chlo Zhao in an Herms gown as she won both Best Picture and Best Director for Nomadland.

And while other brands have dipped in and out of the wearable tech space with one-off partnerships that often felt forced, Herms pursued the category further this year by launching new items with Apple, building on a partnership that goes back to the launch of the first Apple Watch in 2014. It designed leather cases for the California tech giants new line of AirTag geo-trackers, as well as revamping the design of its popular Apple Watch wristbands to fit a new-generation model being launched this month.

When Herms does something they usually dont try to make a splash. They dont come out and say: Were preparing for the next wave of young clients. But they are making changes, Zuzanna Pusz, luxury analyst at UBS, said.

The brand is also spotlighting efforts related to sustainability, a subject where it typically tries to fly under the radar: In March, the brand for which prestigious leather goods make up half the business became the first major luxury name to experiment with mushroom-derived leather substitutes when it used a material called mycelium on a special edition of its Victoria duffle. And in September it opened the first dedicated store for its Petit h line of upcycled leather items made from remnant materials.

In its quarterly results presentations this year, the brand has started adding a list of favourable designations in various sustainability and corporate responsibility rankings. Its a sign theyve understood investors care about this, Bernsteins Solca said.

Influencer marketing campaigns, red-carpet celebrity placements and touting sustainability wins might all sound like par for the course for a top luxury brand. But the moves each represent a shift for tradition-steeped Herms.

Chloe Zhao poses in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, April 25, wearing Herms. Getty.

Further evolution could be on its way.

While the brand doesnt seem close to giving up controversial exotic skins, like Chanel, in a meeting with analysts Thursday the brands management said it was limiting production of items like top-priced crocodile-skin Kelly bags as it worked to increase its control of the supply chain for those materials down to the farm, citing ethical factors as well as a desire to boost quality.

The brand has also said it wants to update its approach to e-commerce. Herms regional e-commerce sites have always been managed as their own stores, managing their own stocks independent of brick-and-mortar boutiques (and with little access to sought-after bags). The gap between the e-commerce and physical store assortment means younger shoppers cant effectively indulge their proclivity to inform themselves about products and prices online before visiting stores. Now, CEO Axel Dumas is considering a more integrated approach. Its very important to think in terms of omni-channel and let clients decide where they want to buy, he said.

Related Articles:

Hermes New Bet on Mushroom Leather

The Humanity of Herms

Herms Shrugs off China Slowdown, Sales Beat Forecasts

Read more from the original source:

Tracking the Evolution of Herms - The Business of Fashion

On June 25, Tyler, the Creator released his sixth studio album, "Call Me If You Get Lost."

The album, his first since 2019's "Igor," is an amalgamation of his experiences and life lessons, touching on themes such as success, unrequited love and identity (links to albums contain explicit lyrics).

There are songs like "Lemonhead," where Tyler is braggadocious and ruminating about his material wealth, and songs like "M-ss-" and "Runitup," which simultaneously sift through his own childhood memories and the summer uprisings of 2020. More personally driven songs like "Wilshire" explore his romantic shortcomings and display Tyler at his best, where listeners hear his succinct, powerful storytelling and his growth from the early, controversial days of his career.

In a world that represses Black men, Tyler's work, while controversial, has served as a stubborn rejection against the white status quo. Zoomers, specifically black zoomers, admire his work because he routinely broadcasts different, complicated, yet authentic parts of himself. As a Black zoomer, particularly as a Black Catholic zoomer, his work feels refreshing.

Born in 1991 in Ladera Heights, California, Tyler formed the infamous millennial rap collective, Odd Future, at 16 years old, which brought something unique to rap and more broadly, contemporary pop culture. Tyler and other musicians like Frank Ocean, Hodgy Beats, Left Brain and Casey Veggies, who were all either teenagers or young adults at the time, created their own sound and style, combining indie, hip-hop and skater culture.

Though there were some critics and cultural gatekeepers who were impressed by the journey Odd Future was embarking on, especially on work like "The OF Tape Vol. 2 '' and "12 Odd Future Songs," others were confused and shocked by Odd Future's unorthodoxy. Along with their embrace of various subcultures, these teenagers adopted some rather preposterous methods at gaining attention. Sometimes they would ingest cockroaches, other times they would carelessly blurt out homphobic slurs.

In his solo work, Tyler adopted, and amplified, the horrorcore a subgenre within hip-hop music Odd Future became known for.

His first studio album, "Goblin," was released two years after his 2009 mixtape, "Bastard," and contains many of the elements found in horror rap: violence, homophobia, suicidal ideation and psychological horror. At times, the 15 tracks feel like a gory journey one just wants to end. On "Yonkers," Tyler opens with the line, "I'm a f---ing walking paradox," before verses touching on sex, dinosaurs, Jesus and suicide. On "She," the fourth track filled with '80s synths, chunky drums and Frank Ocean's heart-wrecking voice, Tyler narrates the inner monologue of his alter ego while committing femicide.

The album, and Tyler's work more broadly, has been criticized for its misogyny and sadism. When publicly addressing the critiques, Tyler would often mention how these weren't his thoughts. Rather he was writing through the perspective of an enigmatic alter ego. However, the whole point of pristine and emphatic storytelling is to masterfully convey the point in question and on "Goblin," the plotlines were always murky.

While "Goblin" was never a display of ardent and skillful narration, Tyler slowly evolved as a rapper, from an abrasive lyricist to a dynamic chronicler.

On 2013's "Wolf," he showcases his lyricism and art outside of the bloody, violent scenarios he described in his earlier work, especially on songs like "Tamale," which was a record so distinctly Californian, showcasing the undeniable effect of Latinx culture around Los Angeles. Although Tyler's third studio album, "Cherry Bomb," was a bit bloated and lagged and demonstrated his early musical tendencies, like those seen on "Goblin," it was filled with an appreciable amount of glimmers, foreshadowing the musical heights Tyler would reach in the coming years on projects like "Flower Boy" (2017) and "Igor" (2019).

Both albums show him transform melodically, and he becomes more mature. Earlier on in his career, Tyler framed his homophobic outbursts as harmless jokes. But underneath the radar, this homophobic rhetoric was a way of shielding himself from his own truth regarding his sexuality. Once he was able to be more upfront about his queer identity in "Flower Boy," his music felt less stifled. The artist blossomed and grew into something magical, transporting listeners while challenging us to more fully center and understand the nuances of Black, queer identity.

As a Black Catholic teenager, seeing a Black man who is in the alternative space has affirmed my identity in such an important way. His music has helped me to think more deeply about redemption and what it means to shed toxic masculinity.

Tyler's artistic and personal evolution shows young people like me that we can be different while retaining our blackness. And while Tyler, the Creator is an atheist/agnostic, I see how God moves through the rapper's work and evolution.

View post:

'Call Me If You Get Lost' and the evolution of Tyler, the Creator - National Catholic Reporter

Photo: Peter Brandt/Getty Images

These are the stories making headlines in fashion on Friday.

Tracking the evolution of HermsHerms is undergoing something of a transformation as it navigates the current state of retail. "On the one hand, Herms' ultra-classic, stable positioning at the top of luxury's pyramid has made it one of the sector's largest and most resilient players, with sales bouncing back quickly from coronavirus lows as consumers flocked to its range of timeless, status-conveying items," writes Robert Williams for Business of Fashion. "On the other hand... Herms' recent statements suggest a faster pace of change at the company, including adding new product categories and ramping up initiatives linked to sustainability, technology and omni-channel retail to meet the demands of the market." {Business of Fashion}

Founders Studio wants to support Black-owned beauty and wellness brandsMarketing agency BrainTrust is introducing Founders Studio, a branch of the company to "facilitate access for Black founders of beauty and wellness brands to the resources they need to strengthen their businesses," writes Beauty Independent's Rachel Brown. Founders Studio has already racked up an impressive group of corporate partners, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Salesforce, Afterpay, Clearco and SHE Media. {Beauty Independent}

The FTC may be cracking down on MLMsMulti-level marketing companies like LuLaRoe have been exempt from the FTC's "business opportunity rule" which establishes a set of requirements for people trying to get others involved in a business opportunity for the last decade. But that could be changing, reports Emily Stewart for Vox: "The FTC announced in June that it would review the business opportunity rule as part of a revised 10-year review schedule and there is hope that, this time around, MLMs might be roped in."{Vox}

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Must Read: The Evolution of Herms, A New Resource for Black-Owned Beauty and Wellness Brands - Fashionista

While orbiting south of the runway in preparation for landing, both the unmanned aircrafts engines shut down unexpectedly. The External Pilot on the ground, who was visual with the aircraft, took control and landed it without further incident.

The dual-engine shutdown was likely to have been caused by an on-aircraft data error. Various safety actions, including improvements to the aircrafts hardware and software, and the Ground Control Station software, have been taken to reduce the risk of a reoccurrence.

History of the flight

The unmanned aircraft, G-TEKV, was returning to Lydd Airport from a flight over the English Channel. Flight operations were conducted from a Ground Control Station (GCS) where the crew control the aircraft from takeoff to landing and operate the payload to fulfil the mission objectives. The GCS contained two stations, the flight GCS (fGCS) and the mission GCS (mGCS). The fGCS focused on all aspects of the control of the aircraft platform, whereas the mGCS focused on the mission goals and operation of the payload.

The GCS was manned by the Mission Commander (MC), the oncoming Internal Pilot (IP), the off-going IP, and the Payload Operator (PO). An External Pilot (EP)1and a Maintenance Technician (MT) were positioned at the side of the runway abeam the intended touchdown position for the aircraft and both could communicate with the IP through airband radios.

While the aircraft was orbiting off the coast prior to transiting back to the airfield, the two IPs conducted a handover; the off-going IP remained to act as a second pilot to assist with the conduct of the remainder of the flight. Meanwhile the EP advised that the wind favoured a landing on Runway 03 with a light crosswind.

The aircraft transited towards the airfield at 700 ft amsl to remain clear of the cloud and icing. On reaching Echo Point, overhead the airfield (Figure 1), the aircraft entered an orbit while the IP, assisted by the off-going IP, proceeded to load the mission waypoints for a landing on Runway 03.

Meanwhile, the EP reported to the GCS that he could hear the aircraft but was not visual with it. The MC instructed the IP to descend the aircraft to 600 ftat which point the EP confirmed that the aircraft was visual and clear of cloud.With the aircraft established at 600 ft in the orbit at Echo Point and the mission points uploaded, the IP informed the EP that the aircraft was set up for the landing. The EP acknowledged and the IP switched the aircraft to route mode2 to proceed with the approach and landing on Runway 03. After the aircraft completed two more orbits, the crew in the GCS noticed that it did not appear to leave the orbit at the expected point to establish itself downwind.

As the aircraft flew the final orbit, the EP outside was expecting the call downwind from the GCS team. He noticed the aircraft level its wings, as expected when departing the orbit, but observed the nose drop more than normal. At this point the EP became aware that he was not able to hear the aircrafts engines. He operated the throttles and confirmed that there was no engine response. The EP switched to fly-by-wire (FBW)3 mode, took control of the aircraft, confirmed control response, and instructed the MT to inform the GCS about the complete loss of engine power.

While this was happening, the flight team in the GCS was first alerted that something was amiss when they observed the aircraft fly on a westerly heading towards the runway and not along the expected track to establish itself downwind parallel to the runway.

None of the team reported seeing or hearing any alarms or warnings. The MC noticed that the height of the aircraft appeared low, and the off-going IP then noticed that the displayed parameters for both engines indicated zero rpm.

The MC, unaware that the EP had already taken control of the aircraft, gave instructions to the IP to advise the EP to do so and went outside the GCS to observe the aircraft. The MT advised the IP that the EP had already taken control and so, from that point on, the IP provided speed information to the EP until the aircraft had landed.

The EP assessed the conditions and positioned the aircraft on final approach; it landed without further incident.

June 2020 event

This event followed a related one that occurred in June 2020 where, during an integration ground test of equipment onto a new AR5 aircraft at the manufacturing and development site in Portugal, both engines shut down, uncommanded by either the GCS or the EP.

Full report here

Read the original post:

AAIB investigation to Tekever AR5 Evolution Mk 2, G-TEKV - sUAS News

Compared to the pioneering days of networking, todays publisher-wide WLAN and Gigabit Ethernet networks are almost boring: Thanks to the full-time care of our admin colleagues, both work just as smoothly as the gigabit fiber optic connection to the Internet, via which all of our companys media c t, heise online, iX, Mac & I, Technology Review, Make and whatever they are called find their way into the public eye.

It was already clear in 1983, in the year the ct was founded, that a network infrastructure had to be set up. However, the term was not even thought of by the professional admin at the time. The first three editorial colleagues, editor-in-chief Christian Persson, his deputy Detlef Grell and first editor Andreas Stiller, had to design the network in parallel to the editorial work and also set it up themselves.

A shared printer was needed to print out and proofread manuscripts, and file sharing was needed to get contributions from the MS-DOS platform of the time to Macs. On the Macs, the DTP department created the printing documents with the Quark XPress layout software. It quickly became clear that printer and file sharing services would speed up work considerably.

Thought and done. This is how the first network specification, called the Turnschuhnetz, came about: the editorial teams only printer was enthroned on a mobile pedestal in the form of a tea trolley that rolled from desk to desk as required. The manuscript files were written on floppy disks and the several meters distance between the editorial office and the DTP was overcome using sneakers. On the Macs, a converter program grabbed the manuscripts and converted the DOS umlauts, quotations and line breaks to their Mac counterparts.

The floppy disks used initially had a capacity of 360 kilobytes and the maximum transfer speed of the sneaker network was around 6 kbytes per second. However, the editors hardly ever exhausted the capacity, the manuscripts often only took up a few kBytes on the floppy disk. Experts estimate the effective transmission speed to be around 0.05 kByte / s. That didnt change later when the capacity of the floppy disks doubled.

The replacement of the sneaker network was indicated when the first editors with Mac specialization joined the growing editorial team at the end of the 1980s due to lack of space, the Macies moved into an adjoining room in the eastern part of the building and self-deprecatingly founded an AppleTalk segment called the Ostzone.

This first editorial network demanded as much respect as it demanded ridicule: AppleTalk was as slow as a snail with at most 230.4 kBit / s. The first generations of ARCNET or Ethernet networks already reached the megabit level. ARCnet achieved a maximum of 2.5 Mbit / s, Ethernet up to 10 Mbit / s.

At the beginning of the era of local area networks, the word compatibility must have been missing in the guidelines of Apple and Microsoft developers, at least Macs could not talk to PCs by default. This required expensive additional software such as DAVE for MacOS.

But every Mac came with most of the networking hardware out of the box. For actual networking, you only needed an adapter box, which Apple offered in the USA for just 50 US dollars around 90 euros today, adjusted for inflation. For other network technology you had to shell out a multiple of it. An AppleTalk segment could be up to 300 meters long and connect up to 32 nodes (Macs and printers). And even back then Apple showed with AppleTalk what the company wanted in terms of user comfort: An AppleTalk network required maintenance in the blink of an eye. It was enough to plug the network cable into a free adapter socket. The Mac automatically received an address and was ready to transfer data.

However, Apples pretty idea was not of practical importance for the editorial team. The sneaker network was only replaced at the end of 1992 by 10Base2, one of the first Ethernet generations.

Disclaimer: This article is generated from the feed and not edited by our team.

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The evolution of local networks: This is how the c't editors networked - Market Research Telecast

We Were Here Forever has just been given a release window of Q2 2022, along with more information about the series' return to Castle Rock in this fourth instalment. Total Mayhem Games' co-founder and managing director, Lucia de Visser, and producer, Geoff van den Ouden, took the time to answer some of our burning questions about the mystery-filled co-op puzzle games inspiration, achievements, walkie-talkies, and more await...The first game in the series, We Were Here, initially launched onto PC in 2017, followed by We Were Here Too in 2018. In September 2019, Total Mayhem Games decided it was time to bring We Were Here to the Xbox platform. "We Were Here is a unique game series and practically a genre on its own. We really loved bringing the series to Xbox, but we also knew that because of its uniqueness we should make an effort to offer people a glimpse or taste of what the series is about," says the duo. "Fortunately, Xbox felt the same way and we came up with a joint strategy to get the Xbox community acquainted with We Were Here." The collaboration between the companies saw We Were Here enter as a Games with Gold title. "Within the first week, over a million people had downloaded We Were Here and players who had never heard of our franchise before, suddenly found this really fun co-op series to play with a friend. So yeah, it was really great to offer We Were Here to the community through Xbox Games with Gold."

The popularity of the series is due to the unique gameplay it offers, and just like any great game, inspiration was key in laying the foundations for things to come. "Weve always loved games like Myst, Portal 2, and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. However, the thing that really got us on track to create an asymmetric puzzle game was some user tests we did with actually locking people up in a room with puzzles." This was the lightbulb moment that would later spawn the walkie-talkie mechanic for which the series is known, and the reason that players are split up when attempting to solve puzzles. "During these tests, we noticed that the experience was even more intense when the players werent physically in the same room and had to describe things to each other in order to help their partner progress or escape. That became the basic principle of the We Were Here series."

"At Total Mayhem Games we love the mystery around We Were Here, and we love that we have a fanbase that is actively trying to figure out what is going on in this castle," they say. "Our audience deserves more clarity on the narrative and what goes on in this creepy place." Those of you with a keen interest in the series might have worked out that the Jester in the trailer is a direct reference to We Were Here and We Were Here Too. You would be correct in that assumption, as We Were Here Forever tells the story of the explorers left behind in the first two games the return to Castle Rock doesn't mean there isn't plenty of mysterious goodies to uncover. "In We Were Here Forever, every player will get a far better idea of what is going on in Castle Rock," says the pair, also teasing "a special treat for the troopers that try to explore and retrieve all of the lore."

The walkie-talkie mechanic is a staple in the We Were Here series. It's the number-one most important feature that ensures you and your partner can communicate when solving puzzles. You can of course use Xbox Live Party Chat to easily chat to your partner, but that's no fun the walkie-talkie offers the most realised experience for the game, plus you get to say 'over' at the end of every sentence. "Once we had decided to make an asymmetric co-op puzzle game, we had two challenges: People had to communicate with each other while they werent in the same space, and we wanted to add a bit of tension and difficulty to the whole talking mechanism," they say. "It really gives you the feeling that you are an explorer trapped in a creepy castle with the walkie-talkie being your last resort, instead of you just playing some video game with a buddy from the comfort of your own home."

While the team creates achievements for the more casual players, it's important to them to create a list that caters to fine folks like yourselves that often want to unlock everything. "The 'I want to explore and do it all' player is the more interesting one to create achievements for. We love to reward them for all the extra effort they put into the game, but also, we dont want to make it too easy." When looking at the completion times here on TA for the three currently available games, you can see that Total Mayhem has consistently worked to add extra value with each title. We Were Here kicked off the series with a one-to-two-hour completion time, followed by We Were Here Too's two-to-three-hour estimate, and ending with We Were Here Together, which jumps right up to around six-to-eight hours. "We actually have a few speedrunners and achievement hunters in our beta crew who help us determine what would be the best pace to earn certain achievements. On top of that, we love to tease you to understand more of the mystery of Castle Rock in order to really get to 100% completion."

We Were Here Forever is set to launch sometime during Q2 2022, and you can be sure that we'll let you know when we have a solid date for it. Have you enjoyed the series so far? Excited for the next chapter? Let us know!

See more here:

Total Mayhem Games on the evolution of Games with Gold success story, We Were Here - TrueAchievements

On Tuesday night in Milwaukee, the Nets will open their tenth season as Brooklyns team, then after a short stop in Philadelphia, theyll be back at Barclays Center for Opening Night. There, its expected a full house, 17,732 fans, will greet them and hope this is it. Waiting till next year, that tired Brooklyn slogan that began with the Dodgers. will finally have reached its expiration date.

As Ian Eagle told reporters earlier in the week on a YES Network conference call, the Brooklyn Nets fan has evolved and matured, literally as well as figuratively.

From my perspective, everything has been trending up, Eagle said. The move to Brooklyn was a mystery for many of us that were holdovers from New Jersey because we had no idea how the team would be embraced. And each year, weve seen this buildup of interest.

Now this 10-year period youre talking about, its a generation, potentially, of fans, kids that were 5, 6, 7 years old that are now 15, 16, 17 and have basketball opinions and have formed a passion for this team. Ive seen it. Ive seen it being around the arena.

So has Sopan Deb who writes of that transition in his Nets season preview for Sundays New York Times.

I really feel like this is the final act in the renaissance of Brooklyn and giving Brooklyn its rightful place in the world, and that has tremendous importance for the city going forward, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a longtime Brooklyn resident, told Deb last June while sitting courtside at Barclays Center. He was talking about a hoped-for championship last year, but the words will work just as well in 2021-22.

Getting there, as Deb writes, has been a long journey, filled with angst on the court and off (We see you, Kyrie, or maybe we dont.) When Barclays Center finally opened for that first season, after nearly a decade of shifting politics, undercapitalization then a rescue by an unlikely champion in the person of a Russian oligarch, ownership didnt know what to expect.

We didnt have a fan base for New York or Brooklyn at all, said Irina Pavlova, then a top executive in Mikhail Prokhorovs ONEXIM holding company. It was zero. It was starting from scratch, especially in a city like New York, where the Knicks are such an institution.

So, even though the team held trademarks for both New York Nets and Brooklyn Nets (still do), Pavlova said they went with Brooklyn, even creating what is now the teams unique chant, Brooook-lyn, (trying it out for the first time in a preseason game in of all places, Atlantic City.)

Now, as Eagle said and Deb wrote, the Nets have their own native fans. The Brooklyn-as-cool theme worked and as the Brooklyn Brigade, the 96 of the most loyal fans, proves, is its manifestation in the arena Section 114 in the past, Section 1 from now on.

A motley crew if there ever was one, their unifying principles are loyalty to the team ... and creativity, Brooklyn creativity, in putting together made-for-TV chants. The group isnt limited to Brooklyn residents. New Jersey, Staten Island and Long Island are represented, too, but its very much Brooklyn, or Brooook-lyn.

Deb interviews several of them, starting with its founder, a Brooklyn-born Nigerian-American investment banker with a degree from Harvard and as good an understanding of Brooklyns essence as the original marketers. He is what they hoped for.

You can travel the whole world and youre not going to find people more proud of where theyre from than New Yorkers, and I think that goes especially so for people from Brooklyn, Edemeka said.

At first, Edemeka mined the comment section of NetsDaily offering tickets to games, tickets he paid for. He was about Brooklyn, not so much the Nets.

I dont have any of that emotional baggage, Edemeka told Deb talking about what came before in New Jersey. I didnt live through 12 and 70. Im unburdened by that legacy.

Deb also introduces his readers to those other denizens of the Block, where the Brigade hangs, as well as others around the building. Theres Giovannie Cruz of Elizabeth, N.J. who admits that he had to take a long walk after the Game 7 overtime loss to the Bucks. I didnt want my son to see me too animated and use too much colorful language.

And Dawn Risueno who splits her loyalties between the Nets and Yankees and annually makes road trip across country with her husband, keeping in touch with her Brooklyn-based family of fans that now includes seven grandchildren as well as her two children.

They didnt have a choice in the matter, Risueno told Deb, speaking of her children and grandchildren. Since they came literally out of the womb, Ive had them in Nets outfits.

Theres also Richard Bearak, who works with the likely future mayor, Eric Adams at Brooklyn Borough Hall. He was at the last Nets championship game, out on Long Island, when the New York Nets won the ABA championship in 1976 with Dr. J, Julius Erving, leading them. He has literally seen it all.

When Barclays first opened to the public, Bearak told the Times, the arena was a tourist attraction that drew fans of winning, opposing teams.

A third of the crowd could have been supporting Golden State, Bearak, 63, said. At Madison Square Garden, its really hard to be a fan of another team and expect to be there in droves.

Now, thats changed as anyone who sat through the pain of Game 7 back in June knows. Ian OConnor of the Post who attended his fair share of big games at Madison Square Garden, wrote that even the most vaunted Garden crowds were never louder. Afterwards, those same fans, a little subdued, filled the entrance plaza and side streets, wishing each other well until the next time, so many of them wearing black-and-white (which is now the second best selling team gear in the NBA. Not bad or a team that was 31st back in New Jersey, behind the defunct Seattle Supersonics.)

There is, as always in any story on Nets fans a growing genre by the way mention of the competition between the two New York teams, the other one being the New York Knicks who play in another borough, Manhattan. There are enough metrics to argue convincingly that the Nets are moving on the Knicks. But John Abbamondi, the CEO of the Nets and BSE Global, Joe Tsais holding company, thinks while that competition is nice, it may soon become passe.

We dont want to be just the most popular N.B.A. team in New York City, Abbamondi told Deb in an interview at Barclays before that Game 7. We want to be a global sporting icon on the level of a Real Madrid or Barcelona. Thats our aspiration.

Fans, of course, would be happy with just the Larry OBrien Trophy.

Read more from the original source:

NETS 2021: The evolution of the Brooklyn fan now 10 seasons on - NetsDaily

Ford Motor Co. this week is bringing its portfolio of buzzed-about new vehicles including the all-electric F-150 Lightning, Bronco and Mustang Mach-E to the streets of downtown Austin, Texas, for what it's describing as an "immersive" pop-up experience for consumers.

The free 10-day event, which kicked off Friday and runs through Oct. 24, is yet another example of automakers finding new ways to get their product in front of prospective customers beyond reveals and displays at traditional auto shows.

Auto companiessee such opportunities for consumers to experience new vehicles as keyas they transition to technologically-advanced electric vehicles that may be new to many drivers. And the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in cancellations of many of the majorauto shows over the last year and a half, accelerated some of these changes as event organizers looked to outdoor events as safer alternatives to more traditional formats and automakers grew accustomed to revealing new cars virtually.

Last month, for example, the Detroit Auto Dealers Association hosted an outdoor auto event called Motor Bella that served as an alternative to the North American International Auto Show, canceled two years in a row because of the pandemic, and which focused on giving consumers the chance to experience new vehicles and technologies via cruises, off-roading demonstrations and laps around the race track. DADA plans to incorporate such experiences into the Detroit auto show, which is expected to return to the city next fall.

Automakers also see events such as Ford's "Built to Connect" in Austin as a way to introduce consumers to new vehicles they may not be able to findon dealer lots that have been left bare in recent months due to supply-chain issues.

"Consumers, when they have a chance to not only ride in them but maybe do something a little different ... they can see how that vehicle fits better into their lives," Raj Register, head of global brand experiences for Ford, told The Detroit News. "That's why we prioritized this, to give consumers an idea of what Ford has to offer, as well as thinking about all the reveals and launches that we've had over the last year during this pandemic where we had to reveal things virtually. This is also an opportunity for us to carry on that excitement, especially with some of our iconic vehicles like Bronco."

The Austin event is organized around three themes: Built to Electrify, Built Wild and Built Tough.

The Built to Electrify exhibit highlights Ford's electric vehicle portfolio, including the forthcoming F-150 Lightning as well as the Mustang Mach-E, which launched late last year and is the Dearborn automaker's first fully-electric vehicle. Attendees have the opportunity to participate in a zero-to-60 ride in the Mach-E.

In the next nine to 10 years, almost 50% of our portfolio will be electric vehicles," said Register. "And many of the consumers that we have now reserving vehicles and even purchasing vehicles are new to the brand."

The Build Wild demonstration puts consumers in the passenger seat of Ford's resurrected Bronco so they can experience the SUV's off-road capabilities via drives through sand andwater and up a hill.

Built Tough highlights Ford's truck lineup, including its new Maverick compact pickup and various F-150 models. It includes a trailer tow assist demonstration.

This isnt for everyone, but we do think that a lot of people are looking to engage with the vehicles very differently, versus just going and seeing something static," said Register.

Still, she said, Ford doesn't view thistype of event as a replacementfor more traditional auto shows:We see as a complement. Our goal is not to replace auto shows. This is a way for us to meet consumers where they are.

Ford selected Austin for the event, she said, in part because the automaker has a strong dealership network in Texas. The company recently announced it would spend $90 million in Texas as part of a broader $525 million investment over the next five years in auto technician training.

Depending on how the Austin event goes, Ford could look to expand the concept to additional markets in the future, Register said.

jgrzelewski@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @JGrzelewski

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Amid auto show evolution, Ford hosts 'immersive' pop-up in Texas - The Detroit News

While it can sometimes seem like humanity is hell-bent on environmental destruction, its unlikely our actions will end all life on Earth. Some creatures are sure to endure in this age of mass extinction and climate crisis. Over time, they will adapt to a harsher world weve helped create, evolving to meet the moment as best they can.

Some of these transformations have gotten underway in our lifetimes. Climate change, some research suggests, is already shape shifting animals shrinking certain migratory birds and speeding up the life cycles of amphibians, for example. No one knows exactly what changes to plants and animals will transpire in the years to come. Still, evolutionary biologists say its worth trying to imagine what creatures will evolve in the future.

I do think its a really useful and important exercise, Liz Alter, professor of evolutionary biology at California State University Monterey Bay, says on the latest episode of Unexplainable, Voxs podcast about unanswered questions in science. In thinking about the animals of the future, Alter says, we must consider how were changing the environment now. Its a very sobering thing to think about the long future, she says.

I spoke to several evolutionary biologists and paleontologists who, along with Alter, helped me imagine what animals might exist one day say, millions of years into the future and how our actions could spur their arrival. At the very least, its reassuring to know that life almost certainly will find a way, with or without us.

But it may never be the same.

What animals are likely to exist tens of thousands, or even millions of years from now?

Thats the big question I posed to everyone I spoke with, and their responses fell along three main lines of thinking.

Some started off by thinking about which animals alive today are most likely to endure human-caused climate change and mass extinction. (Scientists have identified five major extinction events in natural history, and many say we are living through or on the cusp of a sixth one now, caused largely by human activity.) Others began by imagining the potential environments of the future, and what adaptations might lead creatures to survive in them. A third group thought about the deep history of life on Earth, and what types of animals that used to roam the planet might return, in new forms, long after we are gone.

First off, the survivors: These are rats, rodents, and also things like cockroaches and pigeons, said Jingmai OConnor, a paleontologist at the Field Museum in Chicago. These animals are doing just fine despite the worst that were doing to this planet.

If these species survive the ecological changes that are occurring now, they might also evolve to fill ecological space left behind by extinct animals. For instance, if tigers go extinct in the next million years, perhaps flightless, carnivorous pigeons and rats will grow to the size of ostriches and snack on the animals that tigers once ate. Its impossible to predict which specific adaptations might emerge in which animals, but its clear that as some species die off, they leave a gap in the food chain that can be filled by other species.

In the far, far future, rodents are especially well poised to thrive if mammal species continue to go extinct. By introducing rats everywhere weve settled, humans have increased the genetic diversity of rats, which makes them more adaptable to their surroundings. More genetic diversity means potential solutions to different [environmental] challenges they might face, says Alexis Mychajliw, a paleoecologist at Middlebury College. Already, scientists have noted rats evolving adaptations to thrive in specific cities, like New York. They might even be able to further adapt to living amid heavy metal pollution and radioactivity, or to be able to eat toxic waste, Mychajliw says.

And if life on land grows too harsh, rats may be able to slowly adapt to water. Perhaps their evolutionary descendants will lose their fur or sprout flippers, developing streamlined bodies suited for a fully aquatic existence. Other marine mammals, like seals and whales, have followed this path in their transition from land-dwelling creatures to aquatic ones.

Again, these specific evolutionary paths are pure speculation. But experts say theyre within the realm of possibility.

The second way to think about animals of the future is by imagining the environments of the future. Environments can drive evolution by exerting selection pressure, favoring some traits over others. For example, some birds have evolved long, pointy beaks to draw nectar out of flowers.

If anything, there will likely be plastic in the environment well into the future. Of all the elements that humans have introduced into the environment, plastic waste is already ubiquitous, and remnants of it might linger for millennia if humans go on producing it as we have. Plastic is a big source of carbon, which all living things depend on, said Sahas Barve, an evolutionary ecologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Plastic, he added, could become food, and any animal that can exploit that will be successful.

In a way, this development would kind of go full circle: Many plastics are made from petroleum, which is called a fossil fuel precisely because it derives from ancient, transmogrified plant and animal remains. So new life forms could learn to eat the leftovers of really, really old ones.

Termites could be one such critter. These insects already have a gut microbiome a collection of microorganisms that help with digestion that breaks down cellulose. Like plastic, cellulose is made of a complex carbon polymer, so its not a stretch to imagine termites adapting to break down another polymer like plastic.

I could easily imagine them evolving a microbiome that helps them then digest plastic, Barve says. Some fungi and bacteria, including some found in the stomachs of cows, are already able to break down plastic.

The distant future is also likely to be more watery, as sea-level rise decreases the portion of the planet covered by dry land. In envisioning a world of rising seas and altered coastlines, some scientists think about how certain animals might take to living in more marine environments.

Sharlene Santana, a professor of biology at the University of Washington, considers how a bat species might evolve to live off of, and around, the oceans. She imagines a bat with a six-foot wingspan taking shape, capable of gliding like an albatross instead of flapping its wings, perhaps covering hundreds of miles in search of food or islands to roost. It might use finely-tuned echolocation to sense ripples in the water in order to detect fish. (In fact, some bats already do this.)

This bat is doing something that bats cannot do today, which is to sail and soar on ocean air currents for very long distances, Santana says. I call it the sailing bat.

Many of the scientists who spoke to Vox imagined a future environment where humans are no longer around. In doing so, they often drew from animals that existed on Earth before our time perhaps these types of creatures could make a return down the line.

If humans were to go extinct, our carbon emissions could still remain in the air for a long time, Alter, the Cal State professor of evolutionary biology, said. That could lead to boom times for plants, some of which can thrive in a CO2-dense atmosphere.

The increased density and diversity of plants, in turn, might eventually increase the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere. Researchers have hypothesized that the growth of insects depends in part on the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere, which could lead to insects developing larger bodies, Alter says. So a future, oxygen-rich world is one that might be able to foster rabbit-sized praying mantises, or ants as large as hummingbirds and dragonflies as large as hawks, Alter said.

It sounds extreme and these visions of the future are merely educated guesses. Then again, something like it has happened before: About 300 million years ago, in the Carboniferous era, the atmosphere was more than 30 percent oxygen, compared with 21 percent today. The fossil record reveals that insects around that time were far larger.

Mairin Balisi, a paleoecologist at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, thinks about what type of apex predators might rise to the top of the food chain if humanity does blink out. To that end, she considers what predators existed before humans.

When we think about large predators in North America alone, we think of the gray wolves, the mountain lion, or the grizzly bear, Balisi says. But large predators on the continent were much more common up until around 12,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene epoch or most recent Ice Age, with many species of saber-toothed cats and bone-crushing canines roaming the land.

In a future world devoid of human beings, Balisi speculates, such large predators might be able to evolve once again. She is most confident about the saber-toothed cats, whose long, sharp teeth and bulky limbs evolved independently multiple times in the last 40 million years. If some lineage of felines persists eons into the future, history could very well repeat itself.

Modern humans have only been around a few hundred thousand years, but what we do today is likely to have ripple effects for how the natural world looks tomorrow.

The evolution of life depends on the genetic and development toolkit as we know it today, says Santana, the biologist at the University of Washington. Because theres natural variation between animals, some are better at competing for resources and surviving, with the least helpful traits tending to fizzle out, while others crop up with new adaptations. As species continue to go extinct, whether due to habitat loss, agriculture, poaching, or human-caused climate change, many potential sources of diverse life are extinguished from the future, too.

Scientists can still imagine a world where animals that are endangered today carry on and start new branches on the evolutionary tree. The future doesnt have to belong to just the rats, pigeons, and insects. As long as manatees, polar bears, and monarch butterflies are around, for example, there remains the possibility of their descendants entering the picture sometime in the future.

All of which is worth thinking about if we are to take full responsibility for our role in shaping what the planet will look and feel like long after were gone. When we imagine what creatures could come next, we can ask ourselves: What future do we want for the planet? How hard are we willing to work so that future generations of humans are still around to live alongside it?

Giant bugs evolving in the future would be really, really cool, Alter said. Especially so, she added, if humans are actually around to see them.

In the meantime, while its heartening to imagine how different species might bounce back in millions of years, you dont want to stop investing in the life thats around us today, said Mychajliw, the Middlebury paleoecologist. Theres a lot we can do right now to ensure that we protect species, protect their genetic diversity, and protect their ability to respond to change.

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What will animals of the future look like? We asked 7 scientists. - Vox.com

It's long been overlooked, but it's now impossible to deny the huge global impact that Black beauty has had over the past century. For too long, so many have been quick to either trample on, take credit for, or just completely ignore the efforts of Black creators, artists and business owners. It's been exhausting and caused ruptures across the beauty industry.

Growing up in a predominantly white area, my Blackness stuck out, making me immediately different. This was made ever more obvious by the lack of products available for my skin. Each Saturday shopping trip with my school friends would see them picking up a host of different foundations and concealers, whereas my experience always left me empty handed.

After a taxing year for Black and ethnic minorities in 2020, the UK governments Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities determined that structural racism in the UK does not exist, although outright racism still persists. The commission focused on education, but it's undeniable that racial bias exists within many major business structures - including the beauty industry.

A Guardian article last year stated that Black business owners often face greater difficulty in getting access to the funds necessary to keep their enterprise afloat and are twice as likely to have loan applications rejected in comparison to white business owners. This prompted eight UK-based Black-owned beauty brands to collaborate on the #pullupchallenge, and ask the beauty industry to do better in making sure to give Black-owned businesses a seat at the table.

Slowly, more Black-founded and Black-owned beauty brands are getting the recognition they deserve with help from initiatives like UOMA Beautys Pull Up For Change, by Sharon Chuter, which uses its Small Business Fund to support Black businesses.

The beauty industry has made huge leaps in recent years in terms of diversity and inclusion. When you browse any high-street store your eyes are now met with a plethora of shades to suit just about every skin tone. But, while its always encouraging to look ahead - and there is still a lot of work to be done - its important to look back at how Black beauty has evolved to lead us to this moment.

The idea of a monolithic beauty ideal is so far from realistic

Most of the Black-owned beauty founders I spoke to launched their brands from a need to make space. How do I create a space that is safe for everyone? How do I change this monolithic view of beauty and make beauty varied? Chuter questioned. Shes right the idea of a monolithic beauty ideal is so far from realistic. In fact, even the term, Black beauty is reductive, whereas it actually encompasses a broad spectrum of skin tones, hairstyles, and textures. Emolyne Ramlov, founder of beauty brand Emolyne echoes Chuter, telling me, I also felt majorly underrepresented as someone from an African heritage where the majority of the beauty market is focused on more of a one-size-fits-all notion in terms of colour.

Despite the fact that the number of Black-owned brands we see on shelves today has increased rapidly, many of the founders have faced distinctly similar challenges to get there as Black entrepreneurs. Dr Esho, founder of Esho Cosmetics tells me, In many ways I have felt like a unicorn isolated. Stats show it's harder to get venture capital investment for Black-owned companies. Our brands often do not meet the criteria for investment, so you have to wonder why that is. Make-up artist Joy Adenuga concurs, saying, the major challenge from the beginning, and still is a challenge, is race. Ive lost count of how many opportunities were presented my way but got taken away once theyve realised Im Black. These words hit me with a sharp sting; this feeling of being judged on race is all too familiar.

With these brand founders all having faced such specific challenges, it would be naive to put this down to coincidence.

What in the talcum powder was on your face in the Nineties?! Chuter exclaims. The 1990s was really the birth century for ethnic make-up brands. The first pioneering Black beauty brand was Fashion Fair, which launched in 1973 in America, at a time where Black women were mostly neglected and discounted in popular culture. The brand broke new territory; before, there was no way of finding foundations with darker shades, and many people who were darker used formulas with ground-up chalk and unsafe ingredients. The Nineties saw a boom of ethnic aisles in American drugstores thanks to the popularity of supermodels including Naomi Campbell and Iman, but these were often pushed to the back of shops, and there were no luxury offerings. Chuter tells me: If you wanted to be Black-owned [in the Nineties], you had to be cheap. Even the bigger brands would make products for darker skins that looked - and were - cheap, as if that was the way they thought they would get to us.

However, its fair to say that the aesthetic Black women were aiming for was far more chic than cheap. Adenuga describes the Black make-up trends in the Nineties as a predecessor for what we now refer to as a natural, soft, glam look. She continues: Celebrities like Lauryn Hill, Halle Berry, Naomi Campbell and Aaliyah wore more understated lip shades likes plums and browns, naturally thick eyebrows and more of a subtle smoky eye. Liha Okunniwa, founder of Liha, adds that the look was about always making sure you are glowing from head-to-toe. Glowing skin, now, is universally considered the Holy Grail. But during the Nineties, there was still a severe lack of shades for all, with Okunniwa noting that she had to use a dark brown eyeliner for her lips during the decade.

Then came the Noughties, which really saw its own evolution within the Black beauty sphere. Emolyne tells me: Pat McGrath has always been a driving force, but especially in this era when she won the LOreal Pro-V Makeup Artist of the Year award two years running. Pat McGrath Labs, the brand from the iconic British make-up artist, was one of the most highly anticipated releases of the decade, with sleek, luxury packaging and inclusive shades really raising the bar in the wider beauty industry. Adenuga describes the look of the Noughties as a bit more glam, playful and experimental. Were talking emerald green and blue eyeshadows, thinly plucked eyebrows and heavily glossed lips lined with a brown or plum liner. McGrath's products really provided all the tools for this look, and Black women didnt have to compromise on quality.

Keisha East notes one of the biggest transformations to the beauty world was the inception of Fenty Beauty in 2017. It changed the game again, making it super accessible to find all types of shades in mainstream stores. Upon its creation, it was announced that Rihannas eponymous brand would be releasing 40 shades of foundation. Until this point, many brands would release around half of that number with just three or so darker shades, under the assumption that either darker skin tones would have to fit into this one-size-fits-all, or go elsewhere. Since then weve seen a dramatic push to incorporate more deeper tones into foundation lines across the board.

Theres no such thing as multicultural beauty," Chuter feels - it should be a given that 'beauty' is inclusive of difference by its very nature. Instead, she suggests, we should call out brands as monocultural if they aren't welcoming of diversity.

In order for something to be truly inclusive, it has to start from the inside. Beauty companies must have diverse teams so that this change is organic, and theyll be able to point out the specific flaws in shades and products before they hit shelves.

The beauty world has come on leaps and bounds, but lets face it, theres still work to be done - and its not just on Pat McGrath and Rihanna to pioneer the changes. Chuter is right, the world is a bad place only because were unwilling to accept each others differences. So let's get accepting; we can't stop now.

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The evolution of Black beauty - harpersbazaar.com