Category Archives: New Utopia

Atomic Heart reemerged during Gamescom with a new trailer devoted solely to showing off its impressive, Bioshock-esque combat. Over three minutes of gameplay footage shows off the carnage you'll unleash against adversaries, both artificial and organic.

Players wield melee weapons or firearms in one hand and more, shall we say, unconventionalabilities in the other. That includes electrifying targets with lightning bolts, tossing them aroundwith a telekinesis-like power, freezing foes solid with an ice blast, or using wires to hijack machines. The action-packed video shows off how players can creatively combine their arsenal to dismantle and disembowel anything standing in their way.

Atomic Heart was first announced in 2018 and takes place in an alternative futuristic version of the Soviet Union in 1955. Robotic technology flourished post World War 2, allowing humanity to create ahigh-tech utopia. Unfortunately, thesemechanical helpershave started rebelling against their human creators. If that wasnt enough, killer mutants born from secret experiments have also run amok. Players control private agent P-3, who embarks on a secret mission to get to the bottom of whats caused this seemingly perfect society to collapse and clean up this mess.

Atomic Heart launchesthis fall for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Its also launching on Xbox Game Pass.

Continue reading here:

Atomic Heart Dazzles In Action-Packed Combat Trailer - Game Informer

If, in the winter of 2021, you had been wandering through downtown Reykjavk, you might have registered the thud-thud-thud-thud of a lockdown house party. Squeezing her Christmas bubble of friends into her living room, Icelands most famous citizen was throwing another of her crazy DJ nights, where 20 people could come and I always ended up DJing just gabber.

According to Bjrk, the nails-hard 90s Dutch techno style is the perfect soundtrack to Covid life. Theres always a BPM in our bodies, you know? And I think through Covid we were all pretty lazy, just sitting home reading books, so when we got drunk or partied it was like we went a little bit mental, then we just fell asleep before midnight. Slow energy, but then it goes double. And that, she realised, is a little bit gabber.

Icelands hardline response to Covid protected its tiny population from the worst of the pandemic. Please dont let this come out like a brag, because we felt for you guys, but we actually didnt have that much of a life change, she says. Besides, being confined to Iceland is Bjrks idea of a good time. Despite having spread herself around the world for almost four decades, Bjrk still claims to be such a homebody. For her, the nadir of the pandemic was the day the local swimming pool shut.

In person today in a fragrant hotel in east London Bjrk is always in motion. There is a fidgety energy to the 56-year-old that seems innate and unchanging, as if her fame as a child singer gave her the confidence not to bother growing up. Maybe it is something to do with the bottom-line feminism of a country where grownup women can be drinkers, shaggers and prime ministers (more on her later) without much controversy. Intermittently jumping out of her seat, Bjrk is dressed down in a crayon-red asymmetrical dress by Kiko Kostadinov (she obligingly yanks out the label to check), a jacket covered in scales of shimmering blue silk and clompy lace-up platform shoes, with streaks of bronze on her eyelids.

Covid delivered Bjrk back to her homeland at a transitional time. Her nest was emptying. Her daughter, sadra (who also goes by Doa), was all grown up, studying, acting and making films and music of her own. Bjrks mother, Hildur Rna Hauksdttir, the hippy homeopath who nudged her on to the stage as child, had died in 2018 after a long illness. After two albums made in the maelstrom of heartbreak and divorce, Bjrk fell back to earth with a soft thud, thinking about her ancestors, her descendants and the land of fire and ice that binds them.

Her new album is called Fossora, the feminine version of the Latin word for digger. On the cover, she is a glowing forest sprite, her fingertips fusing with the fantastic fungi under her hooves. Compared with the cloudy electronics of 2017s Utopia, it is organic and spacious, earthbound rather than dreamy, and filled with warmth and breath. It is also a world of contrasts: the albums two lodestones are bass clarinet and violent outbursts of gabber. There are moments of astonishing virtuosity and bewildering complexity and, like much of her recent music, a resistance to easy melody. Bjrks journey from 90s dance-pop to something more like surreal opera has more in common with Scott Walkers graceful trajectory than those of 90s peers such as PJ Harvey.

Like all Bjrk albums, Fossora is a reaction to its predecessor. Soft and light as candyfloss, Utopia was a survival mechanism out of the heartbreak story she had told on 2015s Vulnicura, which diarised her split from the artist Matthew Barney in blow-by-blow bleakness. What she calls the emergency album and the rescue album popped out like airbags, with barely two years between them, despite the technical challenges Bjrk set herself (such as the four months it took to figure out the reverb on Utopias flutes).

This time, she decided to take as long as she needed and allow myself the luxury of not having any willpower. Lockdown made that easier. I dont think Ive been that much home since I was 16. Guilty to admit it, but I was eating chocolate pudding every day, she says with a grin. Usually, on trips back to Reykjavk, she wouldnt even bother to unpack. This time, her empty suitcase went up on the shelf. I got really grounded and I really, really loved it.

Between the gabber eruptions, Fossora offers tender songs written for Bjrks mother, a poem by the 18th-century fisherwoman and drifter Ltra-Bjrg, the buttery voice of Serpentwithfeet and backing vocals from Sindri, her son, and Doa, who lends a pristine, folky tone to Her Mothers House. I asked her to write about saying goodbye to the nest and [said] she didnt have to just be nice, she says, clearly proud. Its me making fun of myself for being a bit clingy. (They also appeared together in Robert Eggers Viking saga The Northman, with Doa playing an enslaved Irish person snatched away to Iceland and Bjrk playing the Seeress, her eyes hidden under sea-snail shells while prophesying a violent death for Alexander Skarsgrd.)

Despite hyping Fossora as an album for people who are making clubs in their living room, rumours of Bjrks rave album have been greatly exaggerated. I was trying to take the mickey out of myself, she says with a sigh, her accent still a jolly mixture of Nordic rolled Rs and cockney slang. Here I am, this lady stuck in my living room in lockdown, and its a really serious song for four and a half minutes. And then its one minute of she bolts up from her chair and starts pumping her arms to a silent beat WOO!

She gives me a visual description of Fossora. If Utopia was a magical retreat from the black lake of misery she plunged into on Vulnicura (pull all the teeth out, no violence like a pacifist, idealistic album with flutes and synths and birds), then Fossora shows life in this dreamland. Lets see what its like when you walk into this fantasy and, you know, have a lunch and farrrrt another gleefully rolled R and do normal things, like meet your friends.

This earthiness is trowelled by the albums sextet of bass clarinets, an instrument chosen not for its gloominess, as in Mahlers 6th Symphony, nor its smoky luxury, like Bennie Maupins playing on Miles Daviss Bitches Brew, but for its potential as percussive artillery. Bjrk wanted them to sound like Public Enemy, like duh-duh-duh-duh, like boxing, she chirps, before squatting in demonstration of the metre-long instruments heavyweight attack.

Then there is the hard techno. On heavy rotation at Bjrks living room parties were Gabber Modus Operandi, two Indonesian punks who alloy folk styles such as Balinese gamelan with abrasive western gabber, footwork and noise. Theyre taking tradition into the 21st century, which I really respect. They do it like nobody else, Bjrk says.

She had a feeling they would be on the same wavelength. When Ican Harem and DJ Kasimyn first spoke to her over a video call, she explained she was making her mushroom album. Its like digging a hole in the ground. This time around, Im living with moles and really grounding myself. I dont know if thats too far-fetched for you guys, but I have to speak in this sort of music lingo, she told them. And they were like: Oh, its funny you say that, but last week we took some gamelan drums and dug them in the ground and played them there and recorded it. So, yes, we know what you mean. She laughs. Literally! I was just talking metaphorically! The duo emailed her beats, which she painstakingly edited into Fossoras fiddly time signatures, resulting in blasts of what the trio call biological techno (also the name of their WhatsApp group chat).

Two songs, Sorrowful Soil and Ancestress, are tributes to Bjrks mother, who divorced her husband, an electrician and trade unionist, when Bjrk was a baby and went to live in a commune of Hendrix-loving hippies. Having trained in alternative medicine, she wasnt happy to be surrounded by white coats when she got ill towards the end of her life. She didnt agree with all that, says Bjrk. She was in the hospital a lot and it was really difficult on her. It was quite a struggle.

Bjrk is steely as she recounts those distressing couple of years in and out of hospital. Her lyrics, too, are stark in their grief: The machine of her breathed all night while she rested / Revealed her resilience / And then it didnt, she sings over leaping strings and gongs on Ancestress. Hildur Rna was 72 when she died. Thats quite early. I think me and my brother were not ready to we thought she had 10 years left. So we were like: Come on, and getting her to fight and and it was like she had an inner clock in her and she was just ready to go.

In 2002, at the same age Bjrk is now, Hildur Rna went on hunger strike to protest against the US company Alcoa building an aluminium smelter and 11 dams for a hydroelectric plant in the Icelandic highlands. She said: I have a famous daughter, and Ive never used her name ever before, but in this case it was needed. Bjrk was supportive of her mums activism, but no doubt relieved when, after 23 days, frail and delirious from surviving on herbal tonics, Hildur Rna ended her fast.

The smelter and the dams were eventually built. Since then, Bjrk has dedicated much of her time to raising the alarm about environmental devastation. She once ditched a performance at Iceland Airwaves festival to protest against plans to build more than 50 dams and power plants. She interviewed David Attenborough for a TV documentary about music and the natural world. Her 2019 Cornucopia tour featured a video message from the climate activist Greta Thunberg. The Biophilia Educational Project, which bloomed from her 2011 app/album, has become a functioning school syllabus designed to get kids exploring music and science.

In 2019, Bjrk and Thunberg allied with Icelands prime minister, Katrn Jakobsdttir, to declare a climate emergency, a move they hoped would force an official response from the government. But when the time came to make the announcement, Jakobsdttir backed out. I kind of trusted her, maybe because she was a woman and then she went and did a speech and she didnt say a word. She didnt even mention it. And I was so pissed off, Bjrk recounts, practically spitting. Because Id been planning that for months.

A few years ago, she might have kept quiet and held the line. Now, her disappointment has spilled over into exasperation and perhaps a touch of activist burnout. She says: I wanted to be backing her up. Its hard to be a female prime minister; shes got all the rednecks on her back. But she hasnt done anything for the environment.

In her own world, Bjrk remains in control, leading orchestras and choirs of increasing size (52 singers at last count) and collaborating with her pick of musicians and designers. Yet, at heart, she is still a freewheeling romantic, a fountain of blood in the shape of a girl, as she sang 25 years ago on Bachelorette. I feel, as a singer-songwriter, my role is to express the journey of my body or my soul or whatever, and hopefully I will do that till Im 85, or however long I live. I try to keep the antennas up and read where my body is at.

As is obvious from the songs Atopos and Fungal City (His vitality repolarises me / My north/south shifts to east/west) Fossora is an in love album but there are two different love objects at play, she winks, refusing to say more. I suggest that her relationship songs often read like confrontations, punctuated by the sort of difficult questions one regrets asking too late at night. On Atopos, she quizzes: Are these not just excuses to not connect? No, she says after a moments thought it is the other way around. Sometimes, when I really love someone, I will have an interrogation lyric and its disguised as my doubts, because I want to be nice but its actually their doubts.

Bjrks homecoming marks a new cycle. The dust has settled. Im just really happy to be back home and Im such a homebody and Im really Icelandic, she gushes. The swimming pool is open again. She is closer than ever to her fellow local musicians, many of whom joined her for last years Bjrk Orkestral concert series at Harpa hall in Reykjavk, a madly ambitious project that she worked on through repeated pandemic postponements.

At her managers suggestion, she has been digging into the archives to make a podcast series about her discography; it is due in autumn. Watching her old TV interviews in preparation, she found herself thinking: Wow, shes cocky! But basically Im saying the same things. Im in London and Im just like: Can I go home now?

Fossora will be released this autumn on One Little Independent Records

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'I got really grounded and loved it': how grief, going home and gabber built Bjrk's new album - The Guardian

A new study is calling on Quebec to rethink the way it funds universities. The study by the Institut de recherche et d'informations socioconomiques (IRIS) concludes that the tuition model no longer makes sense and that the province has the means to eliminate it.

"High fees and the prospect of going into debt discourage future students from pursuing their studies, especially the less well-off," study co-author Samuel lie-Lesage said in a press release.

"At the same time, the need to pay off their debts may lead many of them to favour jobs where income is the highest, without regard to the true social utility of these jobs."

Researchers estimate that tuition-free university would have a price tag of $1.2 billion annually, or 0.009% of the current provincial budget.

"Not only is free education financially viable, but it is a very small price to pay to avoid the many failures of the neoliberal model," lie-Lesage continued.

The study points to other social democracies where there's no tuition for university attendance, such as France and the Scandinavian countries in Europe, and Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay in South America.

"We must break with the widely held belief in public discourse that indexation is a 'reasonable compromise;' conversely, the abolition of tuition fees is not a utopia held by a few students, but the solution designated by many states," other study co-author ric Martin implored.

The U.S. is the obvious example of a country where tuition and debt have run amock. According to Martin, tuition fees there "have increased by more than 25% in 10 years and by about 500% since 1985, while total student debt is now close to $1.7 trillion."

The release of the IRIS study coincides with the Biden administration's decision to cancel between $10,000 and $20,000 of student debt for some holders.

Martin insists the transition to free post-secondary education will take a paradigm shift.

"It's time to start questioning the growth-oriented logic to which our universities are subjected today. Universities are bottomless pits and do not need more and more resources to compete internationally. This concept, in addition to encouraging the growth of research activities that are harmful to the environment, serves in turn to legitimize the increase in tuition fees under the pretext of underfunding."

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Free University In Quebec Is Possible & Worth Making A Reality, A New Study Says - MTL Blog

He's played a Dothraki chieftain, the king of Atlantis, a visually-impaired warrior of the post-apocalypse, and now are you ready for this one? a horned dream demon by the name of "Flip." Jason Momoa is literally the stuff that dreams are made of in Netflix's first teaser trailer for the streamer's upcoming fantasy feature:Slumberland.

Slated to hit our screens this fall, the project marks the second Hollywood team-up between Momoa and Hunger Gamesvet Francis Lawrence after their collaboration on See for Apple TV+. That show's third and final season premieres tomorrow Friday, Aug. 26. Written by the duo of David Guion (Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb) and Michael Handelman (Dinner for Schmucks), Slumberland seems to channel everything fromLittle Nemo in Slumberland (the film itself was inspired byWindsor Mccay's Little Nemocomic strip character) and Inception to The Polar Express andThe Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Marlow Barkley (Single Parents) stars as a young girl who embarks on a whirlwind adventure in the land of dreams, allying with an eccentric outlaw (the aforementioned entity played by Momoa) and fleeing nightmares in the hopes of seeing her late father (Godzilla vs. Kong's Kyle Chandler as a kindly lighthouse keeper) one last time.Chris ODowd (The Starling), Weruche Opia (High Desert), India de Beaufort (Firefly Lane), and Humberly Gonzalez (Utopia Falls) co-star.

Feast your eyes on the teaser below:

"I've got to tell you, to play in this role really unlocked a lot of things for me," Momoa explained during a recent interview with People. "I actually got to watch it with my children yesterday and with Marlow and her family. It's weird when you tear up watching your own stuff.It blew me away, and I just was so emotional. This role just let me really be free, and the character is so fun."

"Working with Jason onSee, I saw characteristics in his personality that I knew would work really well with Flip," added Lawrence. "So it was fun to do something completely different for the both of us that also allowed us to stretch our creative muscles in new ways."

The director produced the movie alongsidePeter Chernin (Hidden Figures), Jenno Topping (See), and David Ready (Red Sparrow). Guion, Handelman, and Ray Angelic (Project Power) are executive producers.

Slumberland awakens on Netflix Friday, Nov. 18. Luckily, there's plenty of dream-related content on the platform with the first 11 episodes of The Sandman.

Looking for more fantasy films?Click herefor our list of the best fantasy films available on Peacock. If you want to see more of Momoa's badassside, don't fret. The actor will be playing the central villain of next year's Fast X.

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'Slumberland': Jason Momoa shows off his whimsical side in teaser trailer for Netflix fantasy flick - Syfy

NOMADays 2022 is a gathering for digital nomads and remote workers named, The Entrepreneurs Congress for Perpetual Traveling.

It will be held in a magnificent 1,000-year-old crypto castle tucked away in the rolling hills of the beautiful German countryside. It now has a variety of new features and pleasant surprises as a result of recent renovations.

The conference will welcome digital nomads and future nomads from around the world from August 26-28 for an event that offers many opportunities to share, expand, and learn more about the global nomadic movement.

NOMADays will be the focal point for the most recent nomadic trends and topics in nomadism

The second NOMADays installment is being kindly hosted by the Staatenlos core team and the core team of the famous crypto castle in Germany.

Three days of this gathering will be devoted to learning about and interacting with people from all walks of the nomadic lifestyle.

In an effort to create a strong environment where all nomads may survive and succeed in a market that is always expanding, NOMADays aims to exchange knowledge, experiences, connections, and resources.

The appeal of the nomadic way of life is far more than just a passing fad. In reality, there are currently more than 35 million digital nomads in the world, and during the next few years, that figure is predicted to double.

The NOMADays Congress will introduce its guests to this growing community, with lectures, seminars and panel discussions all centered around the theme of nomadic travel.

Creating a sustainable, socially and culturally diverse society is the goal of the Crypto Castle community.

The guardians of the castle are restoring an iconic and abandoned relic into a contemporary utopia of possibilities in collaboration with locals, area actors, and ideas from Berlins global community.

If you want to retreat from the city and immerse yourself in the thriving tech community, you can book a stay at the castle for three hours (for meetings) to three months. Theres an on-site chef and an activity schedule to keep guests engaged.

Link:

Crypto Castle In Germany Hosting One Of The Coolest Digital Nomad Conferences - Traveling Lifestyle

Flo Milli has spent the past three years winning over the world with her contagious energy and sharp tongue both in and out of the studio. Hailing from Alabama, the 22-year-old born Tamia Monique Carter has had a similar trajectory to most musicians in the digital age, building a fanbase through TikTok. Songs like the hater-bashing "Beef FloMix" landed her what could have been momentary attention, but instead she ascended from obscurity to virality and beyond with the release of her impressive breakout album, Ho, why is you here? in 2020.

Its an amusing title, but the record proved the ultimate vehicle for the rapper's depth of talent, boasting a highly-calculated cadence and biting delivery over bubble-gum trap beats. With You Still Here, Ho?, released last month, Milli felt she still had something to prove to nay-sayers. "It's a statement for people who talked about me or people who said that I was a one-hit wonder or a TikTok artist, or not versatile, she tells us. It's like, you still here, ho?"

As an early bloomer in the industry, Milli arrived with braces and a baby face at just 19, carrying the confidence of someone much older, something she was instilled with in childhood. I grew up in a house full of women all we did was argue," she says. That was my practice right there, to stand up for myself. In high school, she remembers achieving a level of self-belief that many of her peers were unable to attain. "Of course, at a young age, having confidence can be a hard thing because other girls didn't have it, she explains, candidly. They thought I believed I was better than them, but I just was comfortable in the skin that I was in."

Lending some of that same attitude to listeners, You Still Here, Ho? a brash and playful 17-tracker is a light-hearted, head-turning, immediate pick-me-up of an album. With it, Milli has curated a compilation of musical affirmations like "Hottie", "Big Steppa" and "Conceited"; tracks that ooze self-assurance and invite fans to share in that mentality.

When it comes to her rivals though, if lyrics are anything to go by, Milli doesnt welcome that kind of confidence; shunning the idea that they might have the courage to compare themselves to her, indirectly disparaging her excellence."I'm not really a calm person, she admits, referring to the albums confrontational quality. The aggressive tone reflects my personality, it's who I am. I use it as a way to express myself.

The album opens with welcome message from the illustrious Flavor of Love star and self-titled Head Bitch in Charge, Tiffany Pollard, who commands listeners to "get in line, peasants". It sets the tone for the rest of the record perfectly. "I think I just needed her energy, Milli says. She did exactly what I needed her to do and brought everything to life that I wanted." Millis love affair with reality TV a medium which has inspired much of this album hits hardest when it comes to Bad Girls Club. In one of the multiple nods to the show,she recreates a confessional sequence in the music video for "Tilted Halo". As a true BGC stan, she goes on to get lost in the drama that played out across 17 seasons during our conversation,gleefully detailing the most memorable fights.

Standout messages from the album are directed specifically to Black women. On tracks like "P.B.C" an acronym for "pretty, Black and cute" she uplifts and carves out space for a community that has disproportionately been put down and disenfranchised. On her lead single Conceited, she raps: You never dated a chocolate bitch / You want a model bitch off of the internet, celebrating the beauty of her dark skin.

Filled with "bad bitch anthems", You Still Here, Ho? serves as the ultimate mood-booster, something Milli reveals was highly intentional. While in the studio, she envisioned her fans "twerking in the car, flipping their hair and voguing" to the music. "I picture them getting lit with their friends. I picture them turning up any way possible," she says.

And undoubtedly, with Milli as the soundtrack, thats exactly what theyre doing right now. You Still Here, Ho? opens up a portal to self-possession a utopia in which Flo Milli is cheering us on, urging us to hop out of our bag and hop in a car to the function.

Follow i-D onInstagramandTikTokfor more music.

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Photography Stephen Velastegui

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Flo Milli wants you to twerk in your car to her new album - i-D

The first thing that will come to mind is Ethereum mining, but it is not the only factor in the equation. Intel, AMD and Apple are selling much less, which is a clear indication of what is happening. COVID inflated the market and after that event, things are getting back to normal.

Get a graphics cardfor many months, has been a true Utopia. We have seen how some models were sold up to x3 times more than the recommended or normal price. For months there was speculation about graphics cards, but that time is over and we are in the opposite case.

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIAduring the presentation of the companys accounts, said that prices will go down. He wanted to make it clear that they are not going to give away their graphics cards, but they will cut prices a lot. As she has highlighted, they will lower it by below the recommended priceto speed up your departure before the arrival of the RTX 40 Series.

Our strategy is to sell well below current direct sales levels in the market to give the channel a chance to correct. Well do it for a couple of quarters or so.

The data shows how the company has sunk in sales in the consumer segmentCome on, gaming graphics cards. Where the company shows positive data is the professional segment, achieving an increase in sales.

He also wanted to make it clear that the sales have increased by 70% compared to 2020. So it is not that the company is in crisis, simply the market has changed. What has been missing, as always, is a lack of foresight on the part of the company. It was clear that the market would normalize sooner rather than later and they have manufactured more graphics than necessary.

Huang has also made it clear that new NVIDIA graphics cards will be released in September. These new RTX 40 Series they should offer a big jump in performance over current models. But at the moment everything is rumors and information, in many cases, contradictory.

Due to the current situation of excess RTX 30 Series graphics cards, it would not be ruled out that the RTX 40 Series were absurdly crass. Already the RTX 3090 have an MSRP of 1,500 euros and the RTX 3080 an MSRP of 1,000 euros, totally surreal prices. Some rumors suggest that the RTX 4090 could be around 2,000 euros, so we are going to a meaningless hardware market.

But of course, all this is cabal according to rumors and the latest move made by the company. Then, we will have to see if all this becomes reality or has been a little (or a lot) of smoke.

Read the rest here:

NVIDIA says they have produced more graphics cards and will lower prices - Gearrice

The euphoric headlines are everywhere this month:

Democrats Enter the Fall Armed With Something New: Hope(New York Times)

Democrats Are Starting to See a Path to Victory in November(Vanity Fair)

Jubilant Senate Democrats head home with momentum(Washington Post)

Many in the media really,reallywant you to believe that the Democratic agenda led by President Biden is capturing the hearts and minds of voters. That what was supposed to be a red wave is now becoming a ripple, with the Blue Team instead poised to make gains in November.

Its all wishful thinking, if recent polls particularly one from NBC News on Sunday are any indication. Because any objective person who understands political history knows its hard to envision how a president who is polling lower than any first-termer in polling history (from Truman to Trump) can possibly galvanize voters to pull the lever for his party.

According to NBC News, Joe Biden is polling at 42 percent approval and 57 disapproval, which is unchanged from May. Reuters has the president at 38 percent approval and 57 percent disapproval. His RealClearPolitics average is hovering around 40 percent approval.

But how can that be? The Inflation Reduction Act was given a big thumbs-up by more than a few news outlets and journalists who called it a health care and climate bill that would reduce not just inflation but prescription drug prices, too, while saving the world from the impending doom of climate-induced destruction.

Those surveyed in the NBC poll see things much differently, however.

When asked, for example, if the Inflation Reduction Act would positively impact their lives, 71 percent said it would either have no impact or would negatively impact them. When asked ifthe country is on the right track, just 21 percent said yes.

As for inflation, economist Mark Zandi, who is often quoted by the White House, finds that Americans are spending more than $400 dollars per month more for crucial items such as food, gas and clothing than they were a year ago. So much for the presidents claim that the country is experiencing the financial utopia of zero inflation.

The high cost of food, in particular, is taking a toll. According to the national charity Feeding America, 45 percent of food banks are seeingan increase in demand, while 25 million adults, per the U.S. Census Bureau, sometimes had not eaten enough in the previous week the highest numbers since December 2020, when the pandemic was still raging.

As forthe The United States economy is not in a recession argument, also courtesy of Democratic leaders and many media cheerleaders, 68 percent of those polled feel we are, in fact, in a recession. Two straight quarters of negative growth, and with price increases still at a 40-year high, tend to feed that perception.

Looking ahead to Novembers midterm elections, 47 percent of registered voters prefer Republicans winning control of Congress, while 45 percent want Democrats in charge, per NBC.

In 2010, President Obama, polling higher at the time than Biden is today, lost 63 seats when congressional ballot polling showed a 2-point edge for the GOP in the summer of that year.

As for abortion being a huge issue in the coming election, following the Supreme Courts Dobbs decision, think again:It ranks sixth, with just 8 percent saying it is the most important issue to them. Climate change, a big part of legislation in the Inflation Reduction Act, clocked in with 9 percent saying it was most important to them.

So, given all these numbers from a poll that was weighted more towards Democratic voters than Republican, whats the source of all the Democratic momentum seen by those who cover this stuff?

Perhaps its something which, in the sales world, is called hopecasting, a term applied to those hoping for a result to become true rather than looking at facts and numbers.

A CNN piece that wasnt labelled as opinionrecently declared: Next time you stop at a gas station, think of it as a $100-a-month tax cut. Or a maybe $100-a-month raise. The steady drop in gas prices over the last few months has turned into an unexpected form of economic stimulus, coming at a time when the Federal Reserve is trying to cool the economy and battle rising prices with higher interest rates.

Get that? Because gas prices have fallen from an all-time high in recent weeks, you just earned a $100 raise! Sure, gas prices are still 75 cents higher than they were a year ago, but that doesnt count, apparently. Its like your company cut your pay by $200, only to give you a bonus that equals half of the cut and called it a raise.

In theend, theperception of Bidenas president is still there: too old, too slow to react to crises, as polls show. And inflation is still there.Gas pricesare still where they are and could begin to rise again, according to top analysts. Crime is still a huge issue, and so is the U.S. border. This may be the reason why so many Democratic candidatesdont want to campaign with Bidenor feature him in ads.

Unless conditions on the ground change, dont expect the presidents poll numbers or his partys dim prospects to change much as it pertains to control of the House of Representatives. The party in power almost always loses seats.And dont expect that to change in 2022, despite those euphoric headlines.

Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist.

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The media myth of Democratic momentum - The Hill

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. Jean-Remy Monnay, the founder and artistic director of The Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York insists the mission of the company is to tell good stories.

The best stories, he says, are those with a good dramatic core and informs and introduces an audience to unknown events and experiences. He insists they are not only stories for Black audiences.

Even with the title Black Theater in the companys title and producing many plays center about racism, Monnay insists the stories they tell are about injustice. Everyone will enjoy and learn something from attending one of our productions, he says. Its sad to realize the stories we tell are buried and almost forgotten.

As a case in point, he points to the play, Flyin West that the company is offering tonight through Sunday at the G.E. Theater at Proctors. I spend as much time coaching the characters about the history of the time the play is set, the social conditions and the political culture as much as I do working on character development. I am always reminding the actors people in the audience are learning this part of United States history for the first time.

He is right.

Probably most people know of the Homestead Act of 1862. Likely, fewer know little more than it granted 160 acres of land, mostly in the middle-west and western parts of the country, to anyone who would live on and improve the land for six years. Hardly anyone realizes the bill was altered over the years and changed the face of the country.

Sadly, no one associates the Act with forcing the relocation of Native American tribes to provide space for the beneficiaries of the Homestead Act.

On a positive note it provided former slaves an opportunity for starting a new life. Indeed, Nicodemus, Kansas, in which the plays is set, had a population of 26,000 African-Americans, many of which were single women.

Between 1865-through 1877 Nicodemus was one the largest and most prosperous Black communities in the country.

With Post-Reconstruction politics creating Jim Crow laws, the plight of the former slaves and women became worse and made migrating a viable option for the poor and harassed. The success also opened doors for white speculators to exploit people out of the land they developed.

Monnay feels the play is important on many levels. One is to show that the west was not settled only by white males. Flyin West takes place in 1898 and centers about four totally divergent women who formed a family to settle the land.

Sophie and Minnie, who are as close as sisters, shares their homestead with an elderly neighbor. Miss Leah, who was born into slavery, lives with them and is cared for by other women. Fannie and a neighbor Wil (correct) Parish are in love, but are too shy to admit it.

He also points out the freedom the women sought was not only political. They craved independence to raise a family who could work together to cultivate the land. The dream was to live in a Black utopia.

That dream changes when Sophies younger sister, Minnie, returns from London where she married Frank, an older man who is of mixed race. They come to visit, but Frank begins to lust after the womens success.

Frank introduces into the play the issue of mixed-race marriages in the 19th and 20th centuries. He is self-loathing as he considers himself white and is so light-skinned he often passes as white.

However, after his father died he is rejected by his white relatives and is cut off from the family fortune.

He takes his anger out by beating his wife and trying to swindle the women so he can sell and ingratiate himself with wealthy white land speculators.

One theme within the play that Monnay especially admires is the strength and sisterhood amongst the women. He seems particularly fond of Miss Leah. Who verbalizes the plays belief that the future of the women is dependent that they remember their pasts and the injustices they overcame.

He promises that the audience will care about each woman, admire their tenacity and strength of character. He also believes a lot of people will be googling the Homestead Act.

The play will be a staged reading with actors performing in costumes. They will have script in hand.

Flyin West plays at the G.E. Theatre at Proctors in Schenectady. It is offered at 7:30 p.m. Thursday Saturday, and 4 p.m. Sunday. For tickets go to capitalrep.org

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Flyin West at Proctors tells of neglected Black history - The Saratogian

By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Drones will not be allowed to fly in the exclusion zone of Supertechs illegal twin towers when they will be demolished on August 28, officials said on Wednesday. They added that drones will be allowed beyond the exclusion zone only on the basis of permission from the police.

The nearly-100 metre tall structures taller than Delhis iconic Qutub Minar in Noidas Sector 93A would be razed to the ground on Sunday. While all residents of two adjoining societies Emerald Court and ATS Village would be evacuated, an exclusion zone has been marked around the twin towers where no person, vehicle or animal would be allowed during the demolition process, theofficials said.

The exclusion zone will include an area of 450 metres in front side of the twin towers overseeing a road and a city park. On the other sides of the towers, the exclusion zone will be till 250 metres, said Gautam Buddh Nagars Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters) RamBadan Singh.

The exclusion zone will be a no fly zone for drones. However, drones could be used beyond the exclusion zone but for that a permission would be required from the local police well in advance, he said.The exclusion zone also includes a patch of Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, where vehicular traffic would remain halted from 2.15 pm to 2.45 pm on August 28, he said.

The measures are being taken as safety precaution, according to officials, who said around 3,700 kilograms of explosives has been rigged into the skeletal structures of the twin towers for implosion.

The demolition of Supertechs twin towers in Noidas Sector 93A comes in pursuance of a Supreme Court order that found the structures to be illegal and built in violation of norms.

People living in residential complexes around Supertech's twin towers here will be relieved that the skyscrapers no longer cast a shadow on their homes.

But as the demolition day approaches, there is a palpable anxiety.

The nearly 100-metre tall towers, which came up illegally in Emerald Court's premises, will become India's tallest structures to be safely demolished by implosion technique in pursuance of a Supreme Court order.

Around 5,000 residents of the neighbouring Emerald Court and ATS Village societies will be the most impacted when the structures go down at 2.30 pm on August 28, leaving behind a whopping 55,000 tonnes of debris.

Emerald Court's Rajesh Rana (63), whose flat in Aster 2 tower is just nine metres from the twin towers, said these days the demolition is the only topic of discussion for them and it has been like this since the last few weeks.

"Of course, there is anxiety among people but we are more happy than worried about the demolition. It's a result of a long struggle for us,"Rana told PTI, expecting the demolition process to be successful.

ATS' residents' group president Atul Chaturvedi, a retired central government bureaucrat, said, "Considering that it's an unprecedented event with not much documentary evidence of such demolitions except for the Maradu complexes in Kerala, there is a fear of the unknown among residents."

According to officials overseeing the evacuation preparations, all residents of Emerald Court and ATS Village in Sector 93A, along with more than 150 pets, will have to vacate their homes by 7 am while the security staff of these societies will also be moved out at latest by 12 pm on Sunday.

Around 2,700 vehicles from both societies will also be removed.

The residents would be allowed to return after 4 pm only after safety clearance from officials.

Uday Bhan Singh Teotia (75), the president of Emerald Court residents' association said, "The adjoining Parsvnath Srishti, Parsvnath Prestige and Eldeco Utopia have offered to provide space in their community clubs to anyone from our societies who want to go there for the demolition period."

While some residents are considering the offer, a large number of them are planning to move to their relatives' homes in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, and Ghaziabad even as some have planned to go on a vacation to places like Uttarakhand and Rajasthan among others, ATS' Chaturvedi told PTI.

Sabiqa Abbas of Emerald Court said the anxiety among residents is palpable and been part of their daily discussions of late.

"The support of our residents' groups and flow of information regarding the do's and don'ts for the evacuation on August 28 has been good,"she said, standing on her ground-floor apartment's balcony with the soon-to-be-demolished towers in sight.

She and her family members, including her husband, an infant and parents-in-law, will be going to their relatives' place in Noida on August 28.

Meanwhile, nearby private Felix Hospital announced reserving 50 beds on the day of demolition in case of any emergency.

"There is a likelihood of huge dust from the demolition causing health-related issues for the next seven to 90 days among the nearby residents,"Felix Hospital's Dr D K Gupta said.

The hospital's advisory urged residents in nearby areas to wear masks, eyeglasses, avoid going out in the wake of the demolition, use skin moisturisers and consult a doctor in case of irritation in the eyes.

(With PTI Inputs)

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Demolition of Noida Twin Towers: No fly zone for drones on August 28; mixed feelings among residents - The New Indian Express