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Category Archives: New Utopia

Satellites in IoT Applications: Valuable Resource to Big Industries – Programming Insider

Posted: March 23, 2021 at 2:17 pm

The number of devices connected to the global network exceeded the number of people on the Earth more than 13 years ago somewhere between 2008 and 2009. In that period, the Internet of Things (IoT) was born. In 2020, it reached more than 20 billion connected objects. The growth rate is huge, and the network load is even bigger. Experts predict the number of applications connected to IoT triple or even quadruple by 2025. Terrestrial communication technologies cannot support all the needs of the IoT sector, and satellite technologies can play a key role here. And that is mostly thanks to the growing popularity and availability of satellite pictures. The market now offers numerous online platforms that provide free high resolution satellite imagery to be used for different purposes.

Satellite networks can provide global coverage and connect things into the IoT ecosystem even in remote areas, where it is hard or even impossible to deliver the terrestrial connection. They also have a permanent resilience level that is needed to provide stable and bankable connections within the world.

Satellites can give a real kick for IoT development, especially in such big industries as agriculture, mining, forestry, environment monitoring, public infrastructure management, or logistics. Here we will focus on some of them.

Examples of IoT Smart Applications

The applications of the Internet of Things technologies are very diverse. Their capacity can be applied to a lot of industries that require reliable data analysis for making fast and far-reaching decisions.

Smart Farming

Farmers all over the world are looking for a way to improve their productivity to be ready to produce more food for the growing population. Using modern digital tools, satellite images, historical and the latest weather data, etc. they can define their problem areas, growth points, and come to precision farming with its higher level of yields and profit.

Smart Mining

Mining is developing where natural resources are located. It can be some of the most remote parts of the Earth where there are no connections with the outer world except satellite services. Using satellite-based solutions in mining operations means communication maintenance, location monitoring, and potential threats prediction for the involved staff.

Smart Logistics

Today transportation assets become more connected to IoT. Logistic companies track their trucks, ships, and airplanes, and that is not the only application of satellite technologies for this industry. They can also be used to gather big volumes of data, analyze and share it with interested parties. This will provide new ideas for increasing operating efficiency and security at all stages of the delivery process.

Smart Cities

Smart cities are not a utopia anymore, especially with satellite-based solutions. They allow for being more efficient and organized. For example, city traffic monitoring can be the solution to the traffic jams problem or show the roads condition. Spreading of global internet connection will help to gather more information about problem areas, react to accidents, or tackle other urban challenges.

Satellite IoT Services

There are 2 types of connectivity services that the satellite industry offers to meet IoT market demands.

Sat-IoT Backhaul Service

The satellite IoT Gateway Backhaul works similarly to the GSM or WiFi Backhaul services. It develops as a new application of the SATCOM satellite system. With low-cost localized gateways, it can connect thousands of close-by IoT-devices with ultra-low-cost radio transmitters that work through terrestrial radio transmission standards. The ability to connect these gateways means the new branch of satellite application within the industry.

Direct to Satellite Service

Combining reliability and latency of satellite networks with low cost and low power makes the direct to satellite service play the core role in monitoring and data analysis for a wide range of industries. Logistics, tracking, insurance, remote assets monitoring, mining, energy, agricultural sectors, public infrastructure, governmental and public security sectors will take advantage of the direct satellite-IoT connectivity.

Overall, we live in the moment of fast IoT development, and using satellite networks can be and will probably be a valuable resource for the productivity growth of the big industries.

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Martin Solveig and Kungs are Streaming a DJ Set Atop the French Alps for Tomorrowland Winter – EDM.com

Posted: at 2:17 pm

Since the 2021 edition ofTomorrowland Winterwas frozen by the icy bite of COVID-19, theiconic festival brand is going virtual.

In lieu of the the snowy festival utopia, which debuted in 2019, Tomorrowland is hosting a one-of-a-kind streaming event live fromAlpe dHuez, ascenic ski resort situated in the Central French Western Alps. On Thursday, March 25th, they will air a series of live performances from the resort, which they transformed "into a stunning concert venue for a magical winter wonderland."

Tomorrowland Winter organizers have tapped an all-French lineup for the festivities, recruiting dance music superstars Martin Solveig and Kungs, who will perform a collaborative DJ set for the first time ever. Joining them at a skyscraping elevation of 6,889 feet for the 2.5-hour show will be French compatriots Ofenbachand Klingande.

"The COVID-19 pandemic made us realize how precious small things are," Solveig said. "Were on top of the world here at Alpe dHuez and feel very lucky to be part of this."

"Im working on a lot of new music at the moment," added Kungs, who said he's debuting a new song during the stream and planning to release an album sometime after summer 2021. "The vibe of the album Im working on is really happy and positive."

You can tune into the virtual Tomorrowland Winter event on Thursday, March 25th at 16:00 CET (11AM ET, 8AM PT), exclusively on Tomorrowland's website.

Facebook: facebook.com/TomorrowlandWinterTwitter: twitter.com/tmlwinterInstagram: instagram.com/tomorrowlandwinter

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Wyoming’s schools at risk as the state’s extraction industries erode – High Country News

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Home to 649 people, Shoshoni is one of the many small towns in Wyoming where the school district is the biggest employer.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

This story was originally publishedbyThe Wyoming Tribune EagleandThe Hechinger Reportand is republished here by permission.

Annie Good and her co-teacher have made their fifth grade classroom a homey space for their 33 students. The room is on the south wing of the sprawling K-12 education complex in Shoshoni, Wyoming,a town of 649 people.

The $49 million school building, up the road from the abandoned storefronts downtown, can make visitors look twice, said Christopher Konija, Shoshonis police chief, who is also town clerk and treasurer.

Its like looking at two different worlds, he said. To me, the school what it looks like and what it represents shows the potential for Shoshoni.

The state-built, modern building is just one brick-and-mortar example of how Wyoming has poured its mineral wealth into its school system ever since the state Supreme Court heard a series of cases starting in 1980 challenging the equity and adequacy of school funding in Wyoming.In 1995, the court found that legislators were indeed responsible for budgeting enough money to fund aqualityeducation for all Wyoming children. And though such findings are not uncommon nationally, the result in Wyoming has been to make it the biggest spender per student in the Mountain West and one of the biggest in the United States.

Wyomings per-pupil expenditure in 2017 was $18,221, compared with the national average of around $13,000.

Wyomings per-pupil expenditure in 2017 was $18,221, compared with the national average of around $13,000, according toEducation Weeks Quality Counts 2020report, which adjusts the numbers for regional cost differences. The report gave the state an A in spending and an A-minus in equity for an overall grade of A-minus (achieved by only one other state, New Jersey). WyomingsNational Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, too, are consistently higher than the national average and on par with Northeastern education strongholds like New Jersey.

But as the states once-booming coal, oil and gas industries erode, maintaining those funding levels would mean raising taxes in one of the countrysmost conservative, tax-averse states.

For years, fossil fuel money has paid for competitive teacher salaries, drawing educators to Wyomings constellation of small schools. Its part of the reason why Good, the fifth grade teacher at Shoshoni, moved to Wyomingsix years ago with her husband and two young daughters. Shed been living and teaching in Arizona, which spends less than half of what Wyoming does per student. She wanted better teaching conditions and pay for herself (her monthly salary nearly doubled when she moved) and a better education for her girls.Wyoming prides itself on being a red state, it just doesnt realize which red it is, said Richard Seder, an education policy consultant who has worked for the state. Using Wyomings unmatched mineral wealth to offer every student access to the same high-dollar education was the socialist utopia to have everything and never have to pay for it.

Students work in Shoshonis updated welding lab, which it upgraded last year with the help of a $122,000 grant from the state.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

According to data from the Wyoming Department of Education, as of the 2019-20 school year, about 53% of the revenue in Fremont County School District 24, which consists of only the Shoshoni school, came from local taxes; 43% came from the state. TheConocoPhillips Lost Cabin natural gas plant30 miles away in Lysite pads the district with more local revenue than many others have. (The adjacent Fremont County School District 25 got 78% of its revenue fromthe state in the last school year.) During the years Shoshoni was constructing the new school building, the state paid more than half of the districts budget, which is a relatively modest $9 million.

Figures like that are not uncommon in the nations least-populated state, which typically serves around 94,000 K-12 students total, or roughly the same student population as Denver. Over the past 20 years, Wyoming, which is the nations single largest producer of coal, has used approximately $2.5 billion from federal coal-lease bonuses and federal mineral royalties to build more than 70 new schools, like the one in Shoshoni, and improve hundreds more.

Essentially what Wyoming did was export the cost of its education system to people outside of Wyoming, Seder said. Tying school funding to mineral wealth meant local taxpayers did not think about the amount spent on education in their state in terms of their own pocketbooks.

... the predictable bust cycles [in the fossil fuel market] have brought the chickens home to roost.

Unfortunately, the predictable bust cycles [in the fossil fuel market] have brought the chickens home to roost, he said.

Since 2008, which was the peak of production in the Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana, where more than40% of the nations coalis produced, a drop in market demand has driven a steep decline in Wyomings primary revenue stream. When including volatile oil and gas revenues, mineral extraction has accounted for anywhere from 50% to almost 70% of Wyomings general fund over the years.

In 2019, Wyoming produced 277 million short tons of coal, according to theWyoming State Geological Survey, compared with 466 million short tons in 2008. Reduced energy demands during the COVID-19 pandemic have driven down coal, oil and gas consumption even more. In March 2020, Wyoming had 21 active oil and gas rigs in the state.Now it has five.

In a state where half of the land is managed by the federal government, President Joe Bidens recently announced moratorium on newoil and gas leases on federal lands 92% of natural gas and 51% of oilin Wyoming is produced on federal lands could make things even tighter for schools, said Jillian Balow, the state schools superintendent. Balow joined education chiefs in North Dakota, Montana, Alaska and Utah last month toask Biden for an exemption.

This is a lockdown of an industry that our students in Wyoming really depend on, Balow recently toldFox News Dana Perinoin response to the temporary ban. The Wyoming Department of Education estimated that oil and gas produced in Wyoming contributes $740 million to public education per year and that federal royalties paid to the state on oil and gas contribute $150 million per year to K-12 funding.

Eli Bebout, the recently retired former president of the Wyoming State Senate and a 1964 graduate of Shoshoni High School, said it was time to find a new solution for school funding, because coal is not coming back, and oil and gas are not looking good either.

A view of the road through the Wind River Canyon in Fremont County, Wyoming. The state reimburses school districts for 100% of transportation costs, which allows buses to regularly transport students long distances through Wyomings wide-open spaces.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

Back when Bebout was in school, traveling for a ballgame was often a reminder of the wealth disparities dotting Wyomings vast terrain of oil fields and coal mines.

Wed go to some of those school districts that had a lot of oil production, and there was a clear imbalance in what they were able to provide for their students, he said. It wasnt just athletics. It was in the band, it was in all kinds of extracurricular activities and in the schools themselves. Classes were larger in those days, too, he remembered.

During his tenure of more than 25 years in the Legislature, Bebout, a Republican, consistently questioned school funding levels, suggesting money does not necessarily enhance performance.

There was a balance that needed to be obtained, he said. But instead of finding a balance between the low side and the high side, we all went to the high side.

State Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, who chairs the Senate Education Committee now, shares a similar perspective. He said Wyoming spends too much in the way of administrators, some of the activities and busing students. He also thinks too much is spent on school facilities.

Scott said he sees taxes as a necessary evil and prefers to look first for ways to trim the states education budget. Were in the process of seeing how far we can get that way, he said. After weve done that, then will be the time to look at increasing taxes to pay for what we want in education.

Bruce Thoren, superintendent of Fremont County School District 24, knows what he wants in education. He wants the plentiful resources he has now, the ones that fuel his small districts93% graduation rate. He wants the social worker who teaches lessons about conflict resolution and growth mindset to all 383 students at Shoshoni. He wants the sometimes-expensive interventions needed to help special education students. And he wants those buses, which travel through winding mountain passes and fat slices of desert to allow kids to compete in basketball games, attend FFA conventions or just get to school. In wide-open Wyoming, buses represent academic opportunity.

Fremont County School District 24 Superintendent Bruce Thoren, who says having a nice school building is a source of pride for the whole community, not least the students.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

Without that opportunity to do whats in the best interest of the kid and whats best going to meet their needs at that time, instead of turning into a productive member of society, they may just be a drain on society, said Thoren, who greeted nearly every student by name on a mid-morning stroll down the freshly painted blue and white corridors of the school he considers a second home.

Sitting in his office overlooking the school parking lot, where the Big Horn Rams basketball team had just begun spilling off a bus after a four-hour ride, Thoren said he supports raising a tax to preserve the current school funding system and to keep Wyomings small communities like Shoshoni alive.

Until recently, Shoshoni students attended school in a 1930s-era building that had weathered the wear-and-tear of many generations walking through its doors. The building was eventually demolished and the state built thenew135,724-square-foot school in 2016. A school building as nice as the one the town has now is more than just a place to hold class, Thoren said. Its a matter of pride for the whole community, and for students not least of all. You dont see any trash in the parking lot when you pull up now, he said. That level of pride wasnt there at the old school.

Historic photographs of the original 1930s-era Shoshoni School building hang on the wall in Shoshoni Town Hall. The building underwent several renovations before it was demolished. The state of Wyoming spent $49 million to build a modern school, which opened in 2016, up the road from the old one.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

A wide range of scholarship has explored whether more money for schools directly improves student academic outcomes, but the results are inconclusive, said David Thompson, a professor of education at Kansas State University. Measuring the value of intangible benefits, like students sense of pride in their school buildings, is even more difficult.

Experts do, however, accept the notion that countries that make higher investments in education have greater levels of social stability and economic productivity than those that dont, Thompson said.

Better-funded schools will most likely have higher test scores and graduation rates, he said. If you begin to withdraw resources, I think youll see those numbers go in an unfavorable direction.

Thompson, who co-edited the 2019 book Funding Public Schools in the United States and Indian Country, describes Wyomings constitutional mandate to fund an equitable education as one of the strongest in the nation and one he wishes other states would replicate.

But Thompson said suggesting replication to policymakers usually gets them running the other way.

Thats because in most other states, sales tax, income tax and property tax make up the three-legged stool of school revenue bases. But in Wyoming, energy production revenues have allowed it to avoid relying on taxing residents until now.

Shoshoni Mayor Joel Highsmith has lived through boom and bust in his hometown, which sits at the base of the Wind River Canyon, just off the highway tourists use to get to Yellowstone or Jackson Hole. Back when he attended the old Shoshoni High School between 1967 and 1971, the town was still years away from the uranium bust that hit in the 1980s.

There was a lot more prosperity at the time, he said. Shoshoni was filled with a lot more young people, because there was a lot of work.

Shoshoni sits at the intersection of U.S. Highway 26 and U.S. Highway 20. The now-closed Yellowstone Drug Store in Shoshoni was once a popular pit stop for milkshake-hungry tourists on the road to Yellowstone or the Grand Tetons. But steady economic decline has left the town with one place to buy food: The Fast Lane Inc. convenience store and gas station.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

These days, the school district is the towns biggest employer. Next in line is a mushroom farm, followed by the only place in town to buy a candy bar: The Fast Lane Inc. convenience store and gas station.

Attracting new businesses to town is one of Highsmiths primary goals as mayor. Hes been close a few times. This time last year, California-based pet supply company Laube Co. came to the area looking for a place to build a factory and warehouse. They were very, very impressed, he said, but the town didnt have a big enough facility to accommodate Laubes timeline.

Hes had interest from a few more businesses, but hes worried about which way the school funding fight will go. Owners of a new business will want good schools to send their children to, he said. And theyll want a qualified workforce.

Highsmith hopes the districts technical offerings, including a state-of-the-art welding lab, which was upgraded last year with the help of a $122,000 grant from the state, will help develop that workforce and be a selling point for some of the companies scouting his town.

Austin Sullivan, a ninth grader whos attended Shoshoni since kindergarten, has been spending several hours a week in the lab rebuilding a motorbike he daydreams about racing through the Bighorn Basin.

Its actually my dream to become a mechanic, said Austin, who started taking career and technical education courses in seventh grade.

Training future mechanics like Austin, along with young experts in other high-demand and emerging technical fields, is key to the states future, said Michelle Aldrich, state director of Wyomings career and technical education programs.

If were going to diversify Wyomings economy and our tax base, we have to attract business and industries that dont rely on the extraction industry, Aldrich said. In order to do that, were going to have to have a trained workforce.

I hope weve learned our lesson not to put all of our eggs in one basket, she said.

Students eat lunch under the high ceilings of Shoshonis cafeteria. In sparsely populated Wyoming, the majority of schools have remained open for modified in-person instruction this year despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kathryn Palmer for The Hechinger Report

Back in Shoshoni, though, there is really only one egg in the towns basket. Its the school.

The school could be the deciding factor in whether or not his plans to revitalize Shoshoni come to pass, Highsmith said. Thats why he and Konija, the town police chief, have decided that despite their general desire to keep taxes low, they support raising taxes to save their states schools.

Refusing to even talk about it, Konija said, is essentially signing the death warrant for Wyoming.

Kathryn Palmer is an education reporter for The Wyoming Tribune Eagle.This story aboutschool fundingwas produced byThe Wyoming Tribune EagleandThe Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for theHechinger newsletter.EmailHigh Country Newsat[emailprotected]or submit aletter to the editor.

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X-Men Reveals Which Mutant Powerhouse Is Still in Love With Cyclops – CBR – Comic Book Resources

Posted: at 2:17 pm

The latest issue of S.W.O.R.D. reveals another mutant powerhouse who has romantic feelings for the original leader of the X-Men.

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for S.W.O.R.D. #4 by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia, VC's Ariana Maher, and Tom Muller, available now.

Joanna Cargill, or Frenzy, was once one of the X-Men's most vicious enemies, and her transition to joining the team as an effort at redemption has made her no less fierce. But she has had a weak spot for the X-Men's leader, Scott Summers/Cyclops, ever since the two of them experienced life as a romantic couple in an alternate reality.

And as the she and the other space-based mutant of S.W.O.R.D. deal with the King in Black crossover in S.W.O.R.D. #4, Frenzy shows that she still carries intense feelings for Scott and believes she always will, even though they have gone unrequited for years.

RELATED: Age of X: What Happened in the X-Men's Weirdest Alternate Timeline

Created by Bob Layton and Keith Pollard, Frenzy first appeared in X-Factor #4 in 1986. With invulnerable skin and immense superhuman strength, Frenzy was a dangerous threat during her years as a supervillain. She first operated as a mercenary before becoming one of the founding members of the Alliance of Evil, which served Apocalypse. After that, she was a long-standing member of the Acolytes and worked closely with Magneto while he ruled over Genosha. When Exodus disbanded the Acolytes while mutants were an endangered species following House of M Frenzy eventually became a citizen of Utopia. Her shift towards heroism and fascination with Cyclops began soon after as a result of the "Age of X" event.

"Age of X" was a 2011 crossover between various X-Men titles. It took place in an alternate reality where, following an event in which Jean Grey's Phoenix power killed thousands of people, the United States became an anti-mutant dystopia, with Sentinels and government forces hunting down any and all mutants. Even non-mutant heroes like the Avengers were mostly bigots tasked with hunting mutants. Magneto led the remaining mutants in a desperate battle for survival from in Fortress X, a citadel that served as that reality's equivalent to Utopia. Human forces tried to breach the fortress daily, but the X-Men's counterparts held them off.

RELATED: X-Men: Psylocke's Daughter Is Still Marvel's Greatest Tragedy

When Legacy (Rogue's counterpart) sees this timeline's being arrested close to the outside of the fortress she finds her camera with a photograph showing a world of white. When Legacy, Gambit and Magneto free Kitty and Charles Xavier from the fortress' brig, the rescued mutants explain that their world isn't real. The current reality had been created by Legion, Xavier's son, after a new personality took over his body when Dr. Nemesis was attempting to treat his mental illness.

At the end of the event, reality is restored to normal, though many of the mutants involved still remember their experiences in the other world. In the Age of X reality Frenzy and Basilisk (Cyclops' counterpart) were married and when they first see each other back in the real world, they instinctively kiss. Emma Frost interrupts them, after which Scott's memories return and he sheepishly apologizes.

Frenzy would later talk to Scott about her lingering feelings but he rejected her. Regardless, her experiences in the Age of X were shown to have an important influence on her and she chose not to have her memories of the timeline erased as most others did. The experience was a significant motivating factor in her decision to join the X-Men.

S.W.O.R.D. #4 shows that despite them remaining unrequited, Frenzy still has strong feelings for Cyclops. While she was battling Kid Cable (who had been possessed by Knull) he threatened to make her kill everyone she loved. Frenzy replied that "I've only ever loved one person. And if he'd felt the same, you'd be my stepson," of course referring to Cable's father, Cyclops. Unfortunately for Frenzy, Scott isunavailable, having reignited his longtime relationship with Jean Grey.

KEEP READING: X-Men: King in Black Teases Serious Trouble In a Vital Partnership

Spider-Man: Scarlet Spider Still Struggles With Being Peter Parker's Clone

Gregory Mysogland is a freelance writer living in Fairfield, Connecticut. He is a lifelong fan of comics and film, especially the superhero genre and currently works as a Freelance Comics Features Writer for CBR. He graduated from Fordham University with a major in Film and Television and minor in Journalism in 2020. He has previously reviewed comics, films, and television for Sequential Planet. In addition to his media interests Greg enjoys playing basketball, watching the New York Giants, and going to the beach.

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This Artist Captures the Not-So-Happy Endings of Indian Marriages – VICE

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Now, a Mumbai-based artist is trying to break down what many women in Indian marriages go through in a country which places a high premium on the institution and unfairly so on its women.

An anonymous artist who identifies herself only as SmishDesigns online has opened her first solo exhibition in Mumbai. Befittingly titled Pati, Patni, Aur Woke to channel what it means to be husband and wife in a woke era, the title is a play on the 1978 Bollywood film Pati Patni Aur Woh (the Husband, the Wife, and the Other).

This is an exhibition that delves into the many layers of marriage as an institution, and how women are disadvantaged within it, Smish told VICE over email I try and capture the many disbenefits that women are subject to within wedlock, while also covering the subtleties of this patriarchal norm that suffocates women..

Millions of women in India are expected to leave their jobs or forego their education after getting married, while many families pride themselves in allowing their daughter-in-laws to work or study after marriage.

This exhibition, in a way, is an attack on the much abused term sanctity of marriage, a term often used by the judiciary of the country to silence married women and their struggles, added Smish. At the same time, it is a celebration of women who are now starting to realise their individuality and voice outside of this institution.

The exhibit brims with scathing, ironic references to the grim reality of Indian brides. In one image, a woman decked up in traditional Indian wedding attire also wears a black eye as she writes UTOPIA across a mirror with her red lipsticka colour thats important in most Hindu weddings, and which is often the colour of the brides wedding dress. This art piece references the fact that India recorded a 10-year high of domestic violence complaints by married women during the COVID pandemic, exemplifying how the deep-rooted issue has only gotten worse for women stuck at home with abusive husbands.

Another artwork shows a woman next to a TV, microwave, and pressure cooker with the title Bride with dowry! Exclusive Sale in India. This is also a cheekily devastating reference to the illegal and archaic, but commonly practised dowry system, where the family of the bride gives gifts or money to the groom and his family, often under deep pressure and in the face of poverty. The inspiration for amplifying this issue came after an incident in February, where a woman died by suicide in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, after her husband and in-laws physically assaulted her and demanded dowry. This, heartbreakingly, is just one of many such incidents, often lumped together as dowry deaths.

For this exhibition, Smish drew inspiration from anecdotes of friends and family, bearing witness to a culture where the onus and blame of marital mistakes tends to be shouldered by the wife. Ive grown up seeing excessively bad marriages around me in which women were expected to compromise and be flexible to adjust to their situations, no matter how bad their conditions were, she said.

Much of Smishs work is closely connected to her political opinions, with her art serving as a platform to express solidarity with some of Indias biggest protest movements, including the ones against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, and the ongoing farmers protests. But the backlash and trolling that artists opposing the powers that be often face has also created a fearful online environment. This also explains Smishs decision to remain anonymous, a question those admiring her art have repeatedly asked her about. The current climate makes every creator nervous, whether an artist, comedian, or filmmaker, she said. I do get anxious when I create art now, but somehow I keep doing it. When I did start it [her account on Instagram], I was a budding art student and I would often post my photography or work on it, but no personal pictures. After 2019, I started to post a lot of protest art on it, and realised that I was more comfortable with it being anonymous as it gave me a lot of freedom to express myself wholly and unwaveringly.

For Smish, the line between social, personal and political issues is really thinas yet again illustrated in her new series. All three of these things played a factor in my decision to address this topic. Women have no bodily autonomy when in wedlock because the judiciary of India doesn't recognise marital rape as a crime, so here personal becomes political. Even in cases of dowry and domestic abuse, Indian women rarely find solace in the laws that continually fail to protect them. I wouldnt say its the entire institution of marriage I have a problem with but how profusely the society, law and social structures mandate a womans agency within it.

For Smish, this series also serves to confront the very institution of marriage itself. I view the institution of marriage from a very cynical standpoint because it's a system designed to suppress a woman's agency and bodily autonomy, pan India. Unless there are laws working in favour of women and supporting them within wedlock, unless the society doesn't mandate a woman's choices to practise her agency, I see no point in subscribing to such an institution personally.

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Nadia Lim gets her hands dirty a year on from lockdown – Stuff.co.nz

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When she was a child, Nadia Lim and her lizard caused a car crash.

I was the kid who was entertained for hours catching little frogs. That was my idea of fun, she recalls.

I had pet lizards that I would catch during school lunchtime. Then Id sneak them back in the car on the way home. Until one escaped and ran all over the car and caused an accident.

When Lim was six, the family moved to Kuala Lumpur for six years, where the chance to get out and into nature was limited (we had snakes in our garden, in the long grass. If you found one, you had to call the local snake control guy, and hed come and chop its head off. It was quite horrific). But from a young age, she was interested in how things grow.

READ MORE:* Nadia Lim's rooster is living it up at her idyllic farmhouse near Queenstown* Nadia Lim gives fans a peek into her semi-underground glasshouse * Nadia Lim launches lockdown cooking show* Nadia Lim and husband have gone 'back to the land' in rural South Island

She remembers helping her grandmother in her garden, back in New Zealand, weeding and learning in equal measure.

These days Lim, the woman with her name on more than 10 cookbooks, one picture book and a magazine, the co-founder of My Food Bag, the winner of MasterChef, the host of New Zealands favourite lockdown cooking show, and as of next week, Lifes newest columnist, is still happiest getting her hands dirty, chasing chickens and pruning pea shoots on her farm, just outside Arrowtown.

The family - Lim and husband Carlos Bagrie have two sons, Bodhi, 4, and River, 2 - upped sticks for the country just months before Covid-19 hit, finding their special slice of paradise after years of searching for the right property.

MATT QUEREE/Stuff

The joy of being forced to slow down was a treasured time for the 35-year-old as both a mum and a cook.

We feel so lucky and so grateful for the timing of our move, she says, a year on from the country being put into Level 4 for the first time. And we are so lucky to have all the space that we do.

The space - both physically and mentally - helped, at least in part, with Lim becoming New Zealands Queen of Lockdown Cooking last year. Her off-the-cuff TV show, Nadias Comfort Kitchen, filmed at home on the farm, with Bagrie behind the camera and her boys running around in the background, was watched by more than 1.2 million of us. We lapped up the idyllic country kitchen scenes, and her ideas for what we could cook when wed lost the ability to easily nip to the supermarket, deep in Level 4 drudgery.

Lim says during that lockdown, she went to the supermarket just twice - and (ironically) only to buy supplies needed for the TV show.

[During lockdown] we had all our own vegetables, and hunted meat, Carlos would go out and get rabbits, deer, goat. We had wild boar bacon and sausages already made, luckily. And we had our own honey and eggs, so we were pretty much self-sufficient.

Im inundated with the amount of produce we grow. We dont have to buy anything, except for flour, milk, oil, salt, pepper - and wine! she says.

Its clear Lim knows she is fortunate. But the joy of being forced to slow down was a treasured time for the 35-year-old as both a mum and a cook. And it allowed her to indulge one of her greatest passions in the kitchen - ingenuity.

I get an almost anxious feeling in my stomach if there is waste. And lockdown made me become even more resourceful. I would not waste a single scrap. I was going out and picking elderberries and making syrup. It was almost like this squirrelling activity, where you were stockpiling for a rainy day.

Its a feeling she thinks many of us shared, coupled with a chance to stop, and concentrate on the simple things, when what was going on in the world around us was far from straightforward.

People really, really enjoyed getting back to basics. And thats what a lot of us are missing in our crazy, busy lives right now. Im a hypocrite - I fill my days up, and I cant say I have a simple life, because I fill it up from head to toe doing all sorts of things. But lockdown really honed in on the fact that, deep down inside, everyone craves simplicity.

And hopefully people have held onto some of that. I know I still think about it.

It wasnt perfect though. Balancing working from home with two young kids was never going to be. And Lim says like many children, her eldest son struggled after the initial excitement of having the family all in one place for such a long time.

To begin with, [the kids] thrived, she says. Hanging out with mum and dad, and the novelty of it all. But at the three-week mark, [Bodhi] started to go, what is going on? How long is this going to drag on for? And he started getting quite depressed. It was really sad to see that in a little three-and-a-half-year-old. Hed just lie around, and you could see his brain thinking, what is going on?

It was a situation even us grown-ups struggled to comprehend at times. In the same boat as parents around the world, Lim and her husband explained things to their children honestly.

Weve never hidden anything from them, and that goes for life and death on the farm, too. [Bodhi] knows exactly how that works; from when he was two, and he could understand words, wed show him things, and explain that this animal is dead. Poor animal. And it was the same explaining coronavirus, we just explained how it was, and he seemed to respond well to being told the truth.

For Lim, a self-confessed introvert, the time away from the hustle and bustle of normal life was a welcome retreat. While she wasnt exactly putting her feet up - remember that making-a-TV-show-from-scratch decision - there was a comfort in the wider world slowing down.

We are quite isolated here, but I don't mind that. Ive never minded that. I could quite easily become a bit of a recluse, she says, with a bit of a laugh. It felt like we had gone back in time...which I loved, because I should have been born 100 years ago, she says.

I was very busy. But I think I was mentally and physically okay almost by default. Because there were no cars, and because there were no planes, all you could hear were the birds - day and night. And thats got to be so good for your mental health.

And for someone consumed by food, this rural life is utopia.

Lim has just finished writing best before dates on egg cartons for her chickens finest, as she starts to wander around her garden. While we speak, she talks admiringly of the 7 hectare of sunflower fields, and the golden ripples of ripening barley. Soon, she and Bagrie will be planting a sea of blue lupin, and hopefully adding more to their collection of 12 bee hives.

Later, our conversation will be interrupted by Rocky the rooster, normally the farms alarm clock, cock-a-doodling the day awake at 5.40am. Today, he just wanted to (loudly) remind Lim he still needed feeding.

[The farm] is pretty much all we think about and talk about, and it forms part of the bigger picture with what weve always been involved in with food, Lim says, reflecting on a career that started 10 years ago when she swapped her job as a dietitian to take the MasterChef crown.

Ive always been involved with whats on your plate, and Ive felt a deep responsibility to be involved with how the food gets there.

Its all constant, constant learning. I knew this already, but the best farmers are observers of nature. You have to look, every day, at how things are changing. I keep a little diary, and so does Carlos. But you take notes, and it really does teach you; you start to pick up on natures rhythm and become almost quite in tune with it.

Todays entry is going to be about her cauliflower and the current battle with white butterflies. Yesterday, she wrote about a heritage corn experiment which proved exactly where in the garden gets just enough sun to ensure a bumper crop - or at least, where to avoid.

But its the same as my cooking; its mostly self-taught, and is helped by an innate interest in it.

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JR: Indy is ‘the best place’ for Wentz to turn career around – CBS Sports Radio – CBS Sports Radio

Posted: March 20, 2021 at 3:18 am

The Indianapolis Colts are adamant about Carson Wentz's ability to take the franchise to new heights. But is the 28-year-old quarterback still capable of fulfilling such a tall order?

The answer is yes, according to JR.

"Carson Wentz should view this trade, this opportunity, this fresh start in Indianapolis, he should view this just as utopia," JR said on CBS Sports Radio's JR SportBrief show on Thursday. "He should take the bull, grab it by the horns, win the division, and set his career back up. Because for what we saw last year, Carson Wentz wasn't a Pro Bowl player. Carson Wentz wasn't an ascending star. Carson Wentz played a role in the Philadelphia Eagles becoming a joke. You can also thank Howie Roseman for that as well -- shoutout to the man who runs the show in Philly. Oh yeah, that's right, they did win a Super Bowl a few years ago and then they fell into the toilet...

"Carson Wentz can escape that. And I believe, in Indianapolis, this is the best place for Carson Wentz to turn it around. And I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to say that the Colts will go to the playoffs with Carson Wentz, and for right now, I would favor them to win the division. Let's see how they round out and try to bring back some members of that defense... But this Colts team, Carson Wentz, is he going to bounce back? I think the answer is yes. I don't think there's a better spot for him to bounce back with than his old coach, Frank Reich, in an offense that doesn't need to solely rely on him."

Wentz, the second overall pick in the 2016 draft, started and played only 11 games for the Philadelphia Eagles last season. He finished the campaign with career-low marks in touchdowns (16), completions (251), completion percentage (57.4), and passing yards (2,620). To make matters worse, Wentz also threw a career-high 15 interceptions, and was sacked 50 times.

The bar should be set somewhat high for Wentz in Indianapolis, as the Colts (11-5) finished the 2020 regular season as an AFC wild card team. And if Wentz is wondering what the franchise is looking for in terms of production, 39-year-old quarterback Phillip Rivers threw for 4,169 yards and 24 touchdowns in 16 games last year.

You can follow the JR SportBrief show on Twitter @JRSportBrief and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.

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Justine Allenette Ross on black utopias, black trauma, and the power of visual language – Creative Boom

Posted: at 3:18 am

Her most recent work, The Negro Series, is her reaction to black trauma without depicting it. So far, it comes in three parts: 'Brunching Negros', 'Negros in Nature' and 'Negros at Home Minding Their Business'.

"I wanted to create a world where black people are safe. Specifically, 'Negros at Home' was a reaction to Breonna Taylor being killed in her home and how, unfortunately, it was a reminder that black people aren't safe in their places of residence. I didn't want to react to the trauma by depicting it. Instead of showing trauma, I wanted to show the opposite. A 'Utopia of Black people' that lets them be themselves and relax," says Justine.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Justine on her black utopias, the power of visual language and more.

I was always the class artist. I was the weird kid in school who didn't match, who was always walking around with a sketchbook in her hand. I was not a cool kid. My family is artsy, so I always had support, going into my career.

After graduation from college, I gained experience at both a screen printing and embroidery company and as an art director at an ad agency. That was fun. A video or production company would come in and give a presentation of their work; the nice thing about this that there would always be wine and cheese and crackers! I don't know many jobs where you can get kinda tipsy at, so that was cool cue Madmen jokes. All very bad for my waistline.

It was a rigorous job but also super rewarding. It gave me the experience of working with clients, creating art for everyday use and making art very quickly. It also gave me a sense of quality control, which helped me scrutinise my work. Overall it made me a better illustrator and designer.

When that was over, I took the time to figure out where I wanted to take my art and what I wanted to do with it. Once Covid-19 hit, I decided to take all this free time and draw like a madwoman.

Justine Allenette Ross, "The Negro Series"

Justine Allenette Ross, "The Negro Series"

I would describe my work as observational, figurative, playful, cartoony, chaotic, and human, with a touch of umami. I think it's obvious that I grew up watching Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

I hope my work ages gracefully that people will always get lost in it. I want my illustrations to look like the viewer just stumbled upon a moment.

Yes, I want all work to be consistent, but at the same time, I'm not so beholden to a particular style that I can't switch it up for each illustration; I always try to give the piece what it needs. I ask myself, "What does this piece need to communicate my point?"

My main goal artistically is for my work to have a universal quality to it. I'm a relatively jaded and pessimistic person, so I think that's why my art is sooptimistic? I want to create the opposite world that lives in my head.

Justine Allenette Ross, "The Negro Series"

Growing up, I was surrounded by black art. It's all over! It's at your auntie's house and hair salons. I discovered Annie Lee, and she became a huge influence on me. Her work is figurative, and the way she tells visual stories is like no other.

Emory Douglas and Corita Kent are also huge for me, along with Chris Ware. Emory Douglas did work for the Black Panther Party, Corita Kent was a mid-century designer, and Chris Ware is a cartoonist and graphic novelist. In general, American comics from the '90s to the early '00s inspires me greatly.

But my favourite artist is definitely Keith Haring. His work has the universal quality to it without being vague or broad, incredibly approachable and inviting. He managed to make art that had a mass appeal without composing his vision or toning down who he was. He even made t-shirts and pins for people who couldn't afford his paintings or go to his galleries. His art is unifying. He truly made art for the people, and I admire him greatly for that.

Other than that, I'm constantly inspired by music: my two favourite artists are Beyonce and Sufjan Stevens, creators of worlds. It's umami your ears. I want to make umami for your eyes.

Justine Allenette Ross, "The Negro Series"

Justine Allenette Ross, "The Negro Series"

The Negro Series came from the comedian Dulc Sloan referring to herself as a "Brunch Negro". The term was so funny and sticky that I couldn't get it out of my head, so I decided to make some art out of it.

When I got back home from Northern Michigan, I decided to continue the series with a new theme, 'Negros in Nature'. I wanted to show black people enjoying nature and being unapologetic about it.

Then, since we're all stuck at home due to Covid-19, I made a series focused on being home. I had Breonna Taylor on my mind, and her situation weighed heavy on me, so I wanted to create a series where black people were safe in their homes. I named it 'Negros at Home Minding Their Business'.

With the 'The Negro Series', I wanted to combat collective trauma by envisioning a utopia where black people can be safe and themselves. We see so many depictions of black trauma, and I never felt compelled to add to that, so with this series, I hope people see my work and feel relieved, seeing black people being normal and happy. The series is ongoing, so stay tuned!

Justine Allenette Ross, "The Negro Series"

Justine Allenette Ross, "The Negro Series"

The pandemic is a double-edged sword for me; there was a lot of death. But being at home gave me time to focus on my craft and decide what I want to say in my art and what I want to put into the universe. I've been drawing like a madwoman, and as a consequence, my artwork has gotten better. Covid-19 gave me focus, as morbid as that sounds. I'm also a huge introvert, so staying at home and drawing was not a huge adjustment for me.

What's keeping me motivated during this time is such a positive reception of my work. People have been so positive about my output and my illustrations that it gives me the confidence to keep going. Illustration is such a lonely job that when I have the opportunity to work with clients or to collaborate with someone, that also helps. It keeps me normal.

Justine Allenette Ross, "The Negro Series"

Justine Allenette Ross, "The Negro Series"

Tactically, the best way for an artist to make a better world is to lend their creativity and vision to causes they believe in. Make signs for a protest, hit up your local non-profit to see if they need any creative services.

Holistically, however, the best way for an artist to create a better future is to do work that is true to themselves and their passions. If you're passionate about climate change, do work about that. If you're a feminist, do work about that. If you love house plants, draw house plants! Create honest work that's important to you, and by doing that, you'll show why what you're passionate about should be important to other people. If you're true to yourself, it's better for the planet.

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Predictions Friday: The Show Must Go On – Awards Daily

Posted: at 3:18 am

Hollywood, and the media that revolve around it, is having a moment.

In Hollywood, during the Red Scare, the fear that crippled the industry, turned everyone against each other. The paranoid frenzy that led many to suspect that movies were somehow carrying dangerous anarchist messages was not only about exposing communists in their midst, but also about implicating anyone who might be associated with anyone who might be a communist. Communism was the thing, coming out of World War II, that scared Americans so much they were willing to turn in their friends, people they knew, because they had to turn on someone. They felt threatened by something they could not see or prove it could be anywhere, in anyone.

The era of paranoia would eventually produce some great art. But to get to the art they had to be able to face the truth, the dark truth, the hard truth about what was actually happening versus how people were behaving inside the bubble of hysteria.

Humans are built for this kind of dynamic: build a utopia, protect that utopia, purge undesirables. Were living through one right now not just in Hollywood, not just in the awards race, but on the Left overall. While most industry members and most Americans are not on board with what has come to be known as cancel culture, they will not speak out against it and, if given the chance, they will join in; if you are the person doing the accusing, then its likely you wont be one of the accused. But really, anyone is vulnerable. Every day there is a new sacrifice, with no apparent end in sight.

I bring all of this up because were heading right into the center of the storm as we barrel towards the Oscars. Can the awards race even survive this level of intense scrutiny, where guilt and crimes are decided in the moment and punishment is enacted immediately, without any sort of rational perspective or due process. One after the other they fall an old tweet, something said once, something worn once, even if you just defend people who have been cancelled you too will be targeted, as I have personally found out too many times on Twitter. They rationalize it and justify it as holding people accountable for the bad things they do, as though there are people who are walking around who have never said or done or thought a bad thing.

The Golden Globes and the BAFTA and the Oscars have all been exposed, dismantled, transformed. But have they been forgiven? Are they still seen as part of the systemic racism that the Left believes is everywhere in this country, in everything and in every person? As someone, a white person, said to me on Twitter yesterday, Whiteness is evil. Well, okay, so how do you come back from that? The answer from Twitter is always do better. That is supposed to be mean choose better, think better, watch better, read better, speak better uphold the high ideals that will offer up redemption instead of persecution.

Varietys Clayton Davis has written a scathing indictment of the Golden Globes that essentially says even making the hires they plan to make isnt going to fix their problem of systemic racism. He doesnt use that term but it is very much his point.

The organization has reportedly turned down press conferences for Black-led projects like Bridgerton, Girls Trip and Queen & Slim, giving various excuses that left some filmmakers with no real chance at attention from the Golden Globes, which are a strong precursor to the Academy Awards and the Emmys. Black artists and Times Up have called for radical change within the organization, calling for accountability from NBC Universal which hosts its annual show. Over 100 publicists have sent a letter to the HFPA stating they were instructing their clients to not work with the HFPA until lasting change to eradicate the longstanding exclusionary ethos is addressed.

Its infuriating how easily the HFPA could fix the problems, but transparency is something the HFPA does not seem interested in. They seem to be only concerned with what director DuVernay recalled during her press conference for Netflixs When They See Us more came in the room when the pix were to be taken, at which time two peddled their scripts. In fact, the grip n grin ritual of having the members take pictures with stars at the end of press conferences is another antiquated ritual that should be retired.

Message for the HFPA: If you want better press, then be better press. Simple as that.

I dont disagree with Davis on his premise, that the hirings alone will not solve the problem they want solved because I dont think any film awards can meet the new standards. The reason being, you are dealing with power as the desired goal but the road getting there is about something ephemeral and subjective as our relationship to film and art. But what is the problem they want solved? What is the end goal? What is the point of any of film awards? The problem is with the members and the membership, it has been said, but what happens if they make all of those changes, add new members, do whatever is required of them to justify their annual showcase of contenders en route to Oscar and they still dont pick the right nominees? Ill never forget when I was part of the Womens Journalist Film Critics groups and they chose Argo over Zero Dark Thirty. It is not always the case that voters will comply with a political desire for change. Why, because art is, well, art. It doesnt always or necessarily follow that black members will always choose black films or black-themed films. Will that be the requirement for new members?

Missing in this conversation, and in Davis piece, is what the end result would look like. What would be an idea Golden Globes? Or BAFTA? Or Oscars?

Its a reality that for decades Hollywood sold stories that ignored oppressed and neglected groups or even mocked them. But that isnt true anymore. Our art now has been cleansed of any kind of potentially offensive content, probably to the point of making it less like art and more like a corrective guidebook for how were all supposed to be. Art is a way to expose truths in ways people cant or dont expect, but it cant really do its job if it is being monitored and disciplined for correctness at the same time.

Ralph Fiennes talks about the aspect of monitoring or policing art in a recent interview with the Telegraph:

I get worried if its decided that certain classical plays are irrelevant. I think often theres a superficial reading Restoration drama is colonialist, hierarchical, quasi racist. But theyre just plays. You can turn them on their head. The danger is of labelling stuff. These texts are there so pull the humanity out of them, pull out the stuff thats relevant. If youre going it doesnt tick these boxes, youre lowering the portcullis of judgement before youve even got into the room with it. I think thats troubling.

He praises artistic free-spirits from other disciplines citing Picasso and Henry Miller. We need to have those voices that risk being offensive. How sad if we sat on any expressive voice that could shake the scenery, that could get inside us and make us angry and turn us on. I would hate a world where the freedom of that kind of voice is stifled.

There is a very high likelihood that Fiennes will be made to apologize for having said what he actually thought instead of speaking in a way that wont offend, which is how 99% of people in the public eye speak. Or maybe no one will care. Either way, he seems to be saying what a lot of artists probably are thinking but cant say. If we cant have a conversation how can we ever reach agreement or anything?

Another piece from Persuasion talks about how the book world is changing too, called Beware of Books! A new moralism is gripping the literary world, treating grownups like children.

It starts this way:

Literature used to be a place for transgressive ideas, a place to question taboos, and seek naked insights into humanity. It no longer is.

Critics, writers and publishers are today enforcing a new vision that treats books less as a vehicle for artistic expression than as a product to be inspected for safety and wholesomeness. In the past few years, this has only gained momentum, with much of what is written about literature, old and new, becoming a series of moral pronouncements.

And it ends this way:

None of this is to say that the inequities of our time cant be addressed by other meansthrough economics and elections, through debate and compromise. But we must ask ourselves: Is this frenzy for censure, moralizing, and a seemingly endless expansion of the definition of harm, how well correct current disparities and historical wrongs? Is this how we intend to talk about art from now on? Which is to say, wed just talk politics, and hardly mention art at all.

The Oscars, the Globes, all of film awards are, for the foreseeable future, in the grips of a new moralism. There is no doubt about that. It springs from the need to be good. Goodness is the currency. But no human can be good all of the time. Sooner or later, their badness has to come out one way or another. Right now, that way is in chasing down anyone who commits a thoughtcrime, or says something offensive, or disagrees with the status quo. This is everywhere on the American Left right now, from politics to art and yes, to the Oscars.

Art has survived through phases of persecution, paranoia and great social upheaval. It survives because it has to. Humans will always need it as a way to relieve pressure, to expose hidden truths and to point out hypocrisy. I worry that so many young ones are growing up now believing they can and should police art the way they police their favorite influencers: watching everything they do to make sure it is 100% correct.

The broad prediction is that it is probably going to be a painful next two months. It will be painful in a lot of ways for a lot of different reasons, not the least of which is that so many of us are still trapped inside with only social media algorithms to bounce ideas off of.

And now, onto the reason you clicked on this link. Oscar predictions.

Predicting the Oscars is probably not going to be hard this year. The choices are limited as it is. There is a frontrunner and likely that frontrunner will carry through to the end of the season, April 25. I expect, when the Oscars are finally done, there will be a heavy sigh of relief that they (the awards community writ large) will be off the hot seat. Hopefully by this time next year we will have more than Twitter to shape our world view, our conversation, and our community.

Best Picture1. Nomadland (Globe/Critics Choice winner Picture and Director, Scripter winner, PGA/DGA nominee)2. Minari3. Promising Young Woman4. The Trial of the Chicago 75. Judas and the Black Messiah6. Mank7. Sound of Metal8. The Father

Best Director1. Chloe Zhao, Nomadland (DGA)2. David Fincher, Mank (DGA)3. Lee Isaac Chung, Minari (DGA)4. Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman (DGA)5. Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round

Best Actor1. Chadwick Boseman2. Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal3. Anthony Hopkins, The Father4. Steven Yeun, Minari5. Gary Oldman, Mank

Best Actress1. Andra Day, The United States v. Billie Holiday1. Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman3. Viola Davis, Ma Raineys Black Bottom4. Frances McDormand, Nomadland5. Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman

Mulligan is coming in with more nominations, Andra Day only has the one for Best Actress. But Days work is powerful enough that it could pull an upset, potentially. She won the Globe already but is not nominated for the SAG or the BAFTA. Mulligan is nominated for the SAG but not the BAFTA. So its a mess. And if it aint, itll do til the mess gets here.

Best Supporting Actor1. Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah2. Lakeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah3. Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami4. Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 75. Paul Raci, Sound of Metal

Best Supporting Actress1. Youn Yuh-jung, Minari2. Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm3. Amanda Seyfried, Mank4. Olivia Colman, The Father5. Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy

Best Adapted Screenplay1. Nomadland2. One Night in Miami3. The White Tiger4. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm5. The Father

Best Original Screenplay1. Promising Young Woman2. The Trial of the Chicago 73. Minari4. Judas and the Black Messiah5. Sound of Metal

Best Costume Design1. Ma Raineys Black Bottom, Ann Roth2. Mank, Trish Summerville3. Emma, Alexandra Byrne4. Mulan, Bina Daigeler5. Pinocchio

Best Original Score1. Soul, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste2. Mank, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross3. Minari, Emile Mosseri4. Da 5 Bloods, Terence Blanchard5. News of the World, James Newton Howard

Best Sound1. Sound of Metal2. Soul3. Greyhound4. Mank5. News of the World

Best Film Editing1. Sound of Metal2. Nomadland3. The Trial of the Chicago 74. Promising Young Woman5. The Father

Best Cinematography1. Mank2. Nomadland3. Judas and the Black Messiah4. News of the World5. The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Makeup and Hairstyling1. Ma Raineys Black Bottom2. Mank3. Hillbilly Elegy4. Emma5. Pinocchio

Best Production Design1. Mank2. Tenet3. Ma Raineys Black Bottom4. News of the World5. The Father

Best Visual Effects*1. Tenet2. Love and Monsters3. The Midnight Sky4. Mulan, Sean Faden,5. The One and Only Ivan

*No clue. No Best Picture nominees. But Tenet is the only one with both Prod and VFX.

Best Documentary Feature1. Crip Camp2. Collective3. My Octopus Teacher4. Time5. The Mole Agent

Best Animated Feature Film1. Soul2. Wolfwalkers3. Onward4. Over the Moon5. Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

Best International Feature Film1. Another Round, Denmark2. Better Days, Hong Kong3. Collective, Romania4. The Man Who Sold His Skin, Tunisia5. Quo Vadis, Aida?(Bosnia and Herzegovina

Best Documentary Short Subject1. A Love Song for Latasha2. Colette3. A Concerto Is a Conversation4. Do Not Split5. Hunger Ward

Best Animated Short Film1. If Anything Happens I Love You2. Burrow3. Opera4. Genius Loci5. Yes-People

Best Live Action Short Film1. Feeling Through2. The Letter Room3. The Present4. Two Distant Strangers5. White Eye

Best Original Song1. Speak Now, One Night in Miami2. Fight for You, Judas and the Black Messiah3. Hear My Voice, The Trial of the Chicago 74. Hsavk, Eurovision Song Contest5. Io Si, Seen, The Life Ahead

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How close are we to becoming the Jetsons? – Ericsson

Posted: at 3:17 am

Back in the nineties, my favorite TV show was called Tomorrows World, a UK-based show which ran for a whopping 38 years on the BBC. It discussed the latest developments in science and technology (just look at this snippet of what the home in 2020 would look like).

Back then, the future was extra exciting. Technology would make our lives infinitely easier wed be commuting to work in electric, automated cars, and life at home would just be one smooth series of button pushing.

The height of this slightly skewed future gazing was my favorite Saturday morning space-age animated sitcom, The Jetsons, which first aired in the 1960s. The Jetsons are a middle-class family of four Jane, George, and their two kids, Elroy and Judy who live in a space town called Orbit City in the year 2062. Buildings in Orbit City are built on adjustable columns, an architectural style that isnt too far a leap from Seattles Space Needle. The familys apartment is huge, colorful and minimalist, and they travel by flying car, space board or a pneumatic tube.

In one sense, its a space utopia. But the Jetsons are human after all, and they often get themselves into the usual family arguments or awkward situations that many Earthbound families do today.

Having not seen the Jetsons for many years, I wondered if any of the technology in the show had actually became a reality. The Simpsons famously has an uncanny ability to predict the future including Trump as President and a virus sweeping the globe. So how well did the Jetsons creators do in predicting how wed live in the future?

Probably the most familiar concept of them all. Video calling is the norm in the Jetsons, although they call it a televiewer and it comes in the form of a large fixed screen, rather than a mobile device. Wherever theyre located, connectivity is always crystal clear low latency and high throughput has clearly been a major success in Orbit City. Could it be an evolved version of 5G? High speed connections, billions of connected devices, and transforming communication from your handheld device to whole industries the evidence certainly points in that direction, especially if we consider George Jetsons job

Caption: Is connectivity in a Jetsons world a distant cousin of 5G?

When it comes to work, the familys father figure, George Jetson, is a Digital Index Operator at Spacely Space Sprockets, although its hard to distinguish what he actually does during the day apart from button pushing. Hes also often late to his desk, even though he doesnt have to work until 11am, and he finishes just three hours later.

Interestingly, during a confrontation with his boss about how much hes been thinking about a certain issue, his boss responds, You THINK?! Your machine is meant to do the thinking, Jetson! It seems that in Orbit City, Industry 4.0 has reached its zenith. Work life isnt much more than checking a few monitors and doing as little hands-on work as possible, as exemplified by Georges outburst after a hard day on the job: I pushed the button on and off five times!

Orbit City reflects many of the future predictions for industries like manufacturing. The expansion of 5G and cellular technology will reshape many sectors of society and transform industries, increasing efficiency and productivity in the process. With that, comes a widely recognized fear that automation will make people jobless. But many also see the benefit of expanding automated jobs to free up workers for other, more meaningful work. In Ericssons Creative Machines report for example, half of workers claimed that having an AI to help them improve their workcapacity or do simpler work tasks would bea good idea.

We could also see the expansion of remote robotics controlling one or a series of machines from a distance. While we may not be carrying out tasks with our feet up quite like George Jetson, but he certainly knows a thing a or two about using technology to his advantage.

Hear about the future with remote robotics from Azimeh Sefidcon, Research Director for Cloud Systems and Cloud Platforms at Ericsson

Home cooking at the Jetsons is my kind of cooking. Kitchen aesthetics may not have changed that much in Orbit City, but when you can order a meal from a wall-mounted menu (otherwise known as a food-o-mat), Im all in. But even the machines in 2062 have their glitches overdoing the eggs and burning the toast are common occurrences.

I doubt the Jetsons do their own food shopping I cant see George or Jane running out of milk on a Saturday morning. Again, it seems that automated decision making and zero-touch consumption is a concept that isnt too far away. Imagine refrigerators that reorder the groceries, or virtual assistants that take care of all the boring aspects of home life paying bills, setting up bank transfers, staying on top of insurance policies. Its all highly likely.

Chores are obviously a thing of the past in the world of the Jetsons. Robotic vacuum cleaners are widely available, as they are today. Theres also Rosie the sprightly rent-a-maid, who despite being a slightly outdated model, ends up as a well-loved member of the family. Importantly, shes not just a robotic cleaner shes a confidant, and has her own firm opinions about things. In this sense, Rosie may just reflect whats to come for virtual home assistants. According to our 10 hot consumer trends report, half of survey respondents with virtual assistants believe that their devices will soon understand our emotions, and will likely act on situations rather than commands. Further, 42 of respondents claim that they think their virtual assistants will soon know them better than their friends do reassuring, or unnerving?

Robots also help the family get dressed in the morning via long, extendable arms that emerge from the wardrobe. This might be a step too far for me, but we should perhaps consider the kinds of clothes we might wear in a Jetsons world. According to a recent ConsumerLab study Connected Intelligent Machines, 76 percent of consumers say that by 2030, therell be intelligent posture-supporting suits that help people maintain the correct position during daily activities. Further, 71 percent predict that by 2030, well have AI assistants that translate everything we say to code, giving us humans the power to program any device to do what we ask. The world will truly be your programmable oyster.

It may not come as a surprise that the main form of transport in 2062 is a nimble little flying saucer or flying car. Despite the Jetsons having zero gravity on their side, flying cars may not be as far off as you might think. In September 2020, a Japanese company test piloted a manned flying car using drone technology. The flight only last four minutes, but the company is planning on launching the vehicle in 2023 with the possibility of air taxis coming on to the market in the next few years.

And who wouldnt love a skateboard turned hovering spaceboard for a future Christmas? The Jetson children use this as their main mode of transport a kids dream, surely? Unfortunately, it seems that, alongside Back to the Future fans, its here were the furthest away from a Jetsons lifestyle. Nevertheless, what we are seeing today is digital technology increasingly influencing and innovating within the automotive industry. Think connected vehicles, in-car AR services, and automated public transport perhaps not quite as space age, but out there, nonetheless.

Many of the concepts in the show are certainly plausible. Heightened communication, automation, and using technology for an efficient lifestyle are all points to consider. We should remember however, that we can never fully predict the challenges that might affect how technology develops in the future, as Nigel Willson, speaker, influencer, and advisor on AI, innovation, and technology, points out:

Programs like The Jetsons piqued our imagination, showing us exciting ways our future could unfold, from gadgets in the home to the way we might be working. Now with the rapid acceleration of new technologies, the future seems much closer, and new programs like Black Mirror can make it seem less exciting and more foreboding.

The reality is our world is a rapidly and ever-changing place, in which predictions of our future become much harder. For example, our lives have been immeasurably altered by a pandemic, the impact of which no one could have predicted as we started 2020.

In my future, I would love to see robot helpers, flying cars and a much reduced working day! But my greater hope is that we see a fairer and more equitable future for everyone as our world becomes an ever-shrinking sphere, and our lives become interconnected and interdependent, with technology and connectivity used as the enabler to make that happen. We all need to take the opportunity to dream big!

For Michael Bjrn, Head of Research Agenda and Quality at Consumer & IndustryLab, theres also one major factor that the Jetsons missed:

One thing that is completely missing from the world of the Jetsons is how digital and physical experiences will complement each other and form a merged reality perspective. We may still be a few years away from what the Jetsons could do, but once we get there, we will speed quickly past them into a future where an internet of senses makes any experience possible. The Jetsons need jets to fly, for example, but we might be flying just by waving our arms!

Caption: Get a taste for the Internet of Senses.

The Internet of Senses is the concept that in the future well be able to experience the internet with all our senses. We could taste food made locally in Japan, we could travel to Peru through our connected thoughts, and we could experience the touch of a new garment on a virtual trip to a department store.

Im sure even the Jetsons would have been taken aback at those kinds of digital possibilities. However technology develops, it will clearly help us experience the world in a completely new way by 2062. Even so, Ill still be holding out hope for that spaceboard

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Explore our10 Hot Consumer Trends 2030report to find out how the internet of senses is shaping consumer expectations.

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How close are we to becoming the Jetsons? - Ericsson

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