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mariacallous · 15 days ago

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I was 12 years old when the far-right English Defence League (EDL) marched through my town of Luton. Teachers at my all-boys, majority Muslim state comprehensive told us to stay indoors. We were overwhelmingly working-class, the children of taxi drivers and factory workers for whom racist violence was a regular occurrence.

Many of us aligned with people organising the counter-demonstrations against the EDL and soon found other common ground. Alongside antifascism, the activists were vocal on foreign policy issues such as Iraq and Palestine, as well as the domestic issue of austerity.

When I visited my old school recently, I found very different political alliances. Teachers expressed concern about the growing influence of rightwing figures such as Andrew Tate. The influencer is part of a wider network, known loosely as the “manosphere”, which comprises anti-woke culture warriors, get-rich “crypto bros” and Donald Trump supporters. Here were young Pakistani and Bangladeshi boys taking part in a community that includes many who openly despise them. For example, Tate has previously met Tommy Robinson “untold times”, and in a 2022 interview he claimed that the EDL co-founder was “doing his very best to protect England from Islamisation”. To the surprise of many, later that year Tate converted to Islam.

It’s easy to understand the appeal of these influencers, who pose as self-help gurus, speaking directly to insecure young men of all races seeking to live better lives. The growing mental health crisis among young people and the longstanding stigma attached to any discussion of it in the Muslim community leads many vulnerable young men to seek solace in the words of influencers whose videos reference depression, anxiety and how to find motivation to move forward in life.

These young men quickly become enamoured of influencer lifestyles and seek to emulate them. Tate, in fact, grew up on the deprived Marsh Farm estate in Luton, and flaunts his money and flashy cars to impressionable young people. Crypto bros, made hyper-accessible through YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, actively encourage followers to invest in stocks and shares. A year-nine student approached me after I had given a talk at my former school and asked: “How do I become a millionaire without going to school?”

These young people are entering into an economy that is unequal, a society that is atomised and workplaces that are insecure. The idea that you can rise with your class rather than out of it has all but vanished. In Luton, nearly half of children are growing up in poverty. When ethnicity is factored in, figures show that in the UK, 67% of Bangladeshi children and 58% of Pakistani children are living in poverty. Like many areas of Britain, our town has been affected by deindustrialisation, cuts to public services and the resulting loss of social infrastructure. The decline in these spaces – youth clubs, libraries and community centres – has meant a decline in social interaction, too; the void has been filled by social media platforms.

During the Jeremy Corbyn years, many young people had a sense of hope that the state could improve their lives. I remember the long queues of young people outside the polling stations in Luton in 2017, and how many registered to vote at the stalls we used to run at the local sixth-form college. Many of us canvassed for the Labour party in Luton and in neighbouring Bedford. We were promised rent controls, the abolition of tuition fees, free travel, free wifi and an increase in the minimum wage.

Now, in the absence of such a project, many are increasingly turning to individual solutions peddled by online influencers. Why dismantle the system when you can become one of its beneficiaries? Why favour higher taxes that might one day come at your expense?

The pipeline for men of colour subscribing to rightwing influencers online to voting for rightwing parties at the ballot box was made clear during the US election. A record 46% of Hispanic voters opted for Trump – a 14-point increase from 2020. Trump also saw modest gains among Black men. Minority communities have suffered from the effects of globalisation, deindustrialisation and decline.

For far too long in the UK, progressives have taken for granted the votes of Black and Asian communities – but recent electoral events and reports show that this is ill-informed. Take Brexit: it is often depicted as the revolt of the white working class, but diverse towns and cities such as Luton, Bradford and Birmingham also voted to leave the European Union. A new report by UK in a Changing Europe shows British Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean and non-white Muslim and Christian voters are particularly likely to hold socially conservative views on issues such as crime and foreign aid in comparison with those from other ethnic or religious groups. Meanwhile, British Indian and Chinese voters are more likely to hold rightwing economic views. Both the former and current Conservative leaders, Rishi Sunak and Kemi Badenoch, are representative of this wider shift. Many ethnic minority voters already hold rightwing views, and we may see this point of view grow in younger generations as the online culture they consume is dominated by the right.

On the Marsh Farm estate where Tate grew up, there is an alternative model of self-help being pioneered by local residents. Marsh Farm Outreach prides itself on collectivism and face-to-face social interaction. Its bottom-up community-organising approach transformed a derelict 17th-century farmhouse into a community hub. The building is now home to a DJing academy for local children excluded from school, Luton’s first Black radio station and a restaurant and bar. Here, on the estate, few young men believe there are any heroes in Westminster coming to save them, but they have found support in a local community.

Bringing young people into their physical communities, and out of their online ones, may be one way to counter the rise of the right. As these young people reach voting age, time is running out for the Labour party.

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m0thisonfire · 2 years ago

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*Smacks the top of DeadSpace! Starscream’s helm*

This bad boy has seen so many horrors beyond Cybertronian comprehension-

I know the Holoform Au is gonna win on the poll, but lately I’ve been on a Dead Space kick, and decided to at least get DeadSpace! Starscream’s design and modifications down. Because I love him, and I love putting him through the horrors, and he has not left me alone-

Notable Autobot modifications-

Starscream had his main frame reformatted, keeping his flight frame base but adding denser material for defense and durability for deep dive repairs in more unforgiving environments, most noticeable around his chassis and abdomen. He has flashlights/headlights installed in the front of his chassis for dark environments.

Orange and red biolights have also been added to illuminate dark spaces.

The Autobots have also , reluctantly, allowed him to keep his guns upon the human assistants’ requests and insistence. A mod has been added to his right servo allowing hologram transmissions and holographic control panels he can interact with. On his left servo, a mod was added that allowed a weak telekinetic tether to move objects for engineering purposes.

Human added modifications-

Wings- The humans in charge of helping reformat him decided it would be a good idea to give his wings more mobility and movement for him to easily maneuver into places. With his permission and guidance, they managed to remove certain plating and hinges to allow his wings free range mobility. He noticeably emotes with them, showing many emotions and a new range of body language

Peds- One human noted how quickly he could move with his thrusters. One main concern of theirs was him being able to control the power of the thrust when he was in more compromising positions, especially in Zero-G where gravity and weight couldn’t counter the output. Starscream agreed to have modifications done to his heel thrusters, and now, while forced to output a much lower force at first, can better control hovering and direction changes, even upside down. He still retains his high-speed flight abilities for more speedy requirements, upon his request.

Another ped modification was the addition of voluntary magnetic control. Starscream now has the ability to latch onto metal walls and ceilings at will for better reach and support. Most effective in Zero-G environments

Welding/Gas Mask (planning on redesigning at some point)- An important modification done by the humans, who had the concern of him being exposed to toxic material and high temperatures that could damage his vents and faceplates. Made from the same material guarding and adorning his chassis, his mask allows him to filter toxic air and protect against high ranging temperatures he may be exposed to.

Back Mod- A modification that allows him and human teammates to survey his damage and vitality status. A glowing orange that changes color and placement the more damaged or repaired he gets. The lower the durability to his armor, the lower and deeper red the mod readings become. When he is at full durability, the light is a bright orange.

#dead space au #transformers animated starscream #tfa au #transformers animated #tfa starscream #tfa #DeadSpace! Starscream #putting him through the horrors putting him through the horrors putting him through the horrors putting #m0th draws

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t1meslayer · 7 months ago

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It's peanut butter jelly T1me!

... Alright, now @alchemicallymoon doesn't have to call the authorities.

You know the drill — go check out my latest Dungeon Meshi fanfic, "Peanut Butter & Jelly." Then click that button down below to read my completely overindulgent author's commentary!

Dungeon Meshi... Ah, Dungeon Meshi.

I wrote my first DunMeshi fic "Scrambled Eggs" when Trigger's anime was beginning to air. Maybe this was a silly idea given it's a post-canon event, thus alienating the people who might've been curious to join community spaces after watching the first couple of episodes. However, I read through everything before the anime started on the recommendation of friends (including my collaborating body of spiders @trybard) and fell deeply in love.

No joke, some things in that story changed my life at the exact moment I needed it. I couldn't hold myself back when it came to appeasing the DunMeshi faithful among us.

And hey... It worked out! "Scrambled Eggs" became my most successful fic of all time, sitting at over 250 Kudos as of this writing.

I can't judge any fanfiction.net metrics because that site doesn't even have a Dungeon Meshi tag... But that's a whole other story.

That Farcille story was not the only idea I had logged in my Notes app, but needless to say that success did encourage me to continue sooner rather than later.

... Perhaps a little bit later following self-imposed hiatuses for my poll-winning Stardew Valley fic "How You Get The Girl" and the first part of my ambitious Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fic "Fallout." But I have also been doing some Meshi writing for the Dungeon Meshi Cookbook Zine?

That brings us to "Peanut Butter & Jelly." I believe it's mandated by law that all DunMeshi stories are named after a relevant food item or monster within their narrative.

In this case, the titular sandwich was my inciting incident. I've recently found myself working retail for the first time, stocking shelves at a major brand store. One day I was pushing merchandise on the aisle with peanut butters and jellies and thought, "Senshi would make a killer PB&J."

My first developmental task was deciding what kind of monster could be cooked into the sandwich. One early source I came across was a blog for fantasy author Alex Maven, in particular the article "TENDING A GARDEN OF TERROR: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO PLANT MONSTERS IN 5E DND." This introduced the vegepygmy:

I haven't played much Dungeons & Dragons outside a "Gaming in American History" class during college, so I can't say I'm an expert in the subject. But I gathered through Maven's site and fandom projects like the Forgotten Realms Wiki that vegepygmies are forest-dwelling, humanoid rot creatures created by exposure to Russet mold spores who tend to use basic tools such as slings. They can drop skins upon death, which Maven describes as an item that "looks like a furry patch of mold. It has not much use to leatherworkers but can prove to be really useful to alchemists, healers, and medicinal experts."

A few details were simplified for my fanfiction (let's call those "creative liberties" ala Ryoko Kui's unique takes on classic monsters), but the gist still felt right: forest creatures using a weapon that fires small projectiles.

What better projectiles to find in a forest than hard-shelled nuts?

I imagined something like walnuts, but the semantics don't really matter. For the most part this was set-dressing to write a story in which the main party gets to interact, unlike my isolated Farcille piece. That's where this became a "lost chapter" set prior to the discovery of Thistle's home on the Dungeon's bottom floor.

I channeled my best Ryoko Kui absurdist cover art for the featured image, though using digital collage. Originally I planned to use full color, but a fun idea came later to desaturate things for more accurate manga sensibilities:

For comparison

The impetus to write this piece when I did was two-fold. On one hand, I had time to kill during production on "Fallout," and it only felt right to do a bit of extra prep for another Dungeon Meshi zine application I've had my eyes on.

On the other hand, I became obsessed with DunMeshi's second ED for a good while. Especially this frame with Kabru's party, and the implication that Rin is constantly on the verge of wiping her entire team on accident:

Kabru fic one day.

Later I became obsessed with DunMeshi's second OP. Long-time fans may remember when I had matching levels of anime opening brain rot for my Jujutsu Kaisen Satosugu fic "Infinitesimal Distance."

Obsession, it turns out, can be good for creating silly art.

I tend to give myself a challenge for each fanfic to help further my craft. This time, the challenge was to capture these wonderful characters in a way that matches the rhythms of the original series. I pulled from the styles of a few older pieces to differentiate stages in what Alchemically put as the manga's "kill-cook-eat" formula:

The brief Laios battle uses a Falin flashback ala the manga's Living Armor arc. I used text formatting and alternate tense to separate this moment as in my Splatoon fic "Yesterday is But Today's Memory." ... Also the action is almost directly lifted from my friend's Stardew Valley OC Lotus fighting a skeleton in "Willow."

I used a bit of funky text placement with sub- and superscript formatting to convey motion with details like Izutsumi's yawn in the post-battle cooldown period, like my ScarVi fic "Paradiso."

Senshi's cooking segment is vaguely reminiscent of the recipe at the start of my Breath of the Wild fic "Recipe to Please a Princess." I used blockquotes to convey Senshi instructions as "narration," interspersed with character reactions and interplay.

Finally, I discovered that you can set a "Heading 3" HTML format over empty text to create double-lined dividers. Thought that would be a fun way to present the final ingredients list (sans nutritional information - I'm barely qualified enough to write a recipe without looking up guides on how to make peanut butter and how to make jam).

Speaking of that splash screen... We should talk about the stand-out part of this fic.

My drawing!

That's right, I draw now. Expect to see a lot more funky stuff.

I took a figure drawing class hosted by one of my friends recently, which coincided with seeing fics written by lovely folks like @flutefemme and @duelbraids that utilized custom artwork. Extra special shout-outs to duelbraid's "Splatsville Daily's Concert Review" for inspiring this artwork insertion via a whole Getty Images pastiche.

Incredibly cool idea!

Go follow them. I'm not asking.

For my sandwich art, I looked at references for braided challah and whole grain breads (since I figured that was more natural for the setting than a "Wonder Bread" look), and drew those overtop the shape of stacked slices using real-life bread reference. The knife and plate are also based partially on utensils I used for reference.

My backdrop is simple, meant to look like the plate is atop a transition point between patches of tall grass and worn pathing in the forest clearing within which our scene is set.

Creating a recipe title card ala banners in Dungeon Meshi's anime (used to great effect with bits such as the dragon meat bundles rolling past Senshi) and an ingredient list ala the manga came later.

However, I do think it's fun that the titles look imposed over the food, rather than blending too much into the background.

===

Bonus content for those still reading along:

You can see me practicing bread on the opposite side of the page in this sketchbook. Plus, my "Fallout" teaser image is bleeding through.

===

In terms of actual writing quirks I'll be brief. My favorite part of this piece is the smaller arguments and references throughout.

Laios and Falin's childhood village having no magic uses, which means no ice cream [ :( ]. This points to the negative reactions people had when Falin discovered her own magical aptitude.

The introduction of Laios' party ending with Izutsumi just being. Izutsumi. I'd draw later attention to an "Izutsumi thinks about herself" joke with some fun gender(tm), but this early moment was meant to convey my intentions for capturing DunMeshi style.

Yes, Laios talking about using mold powers to regenerate limbs is a reference to Resident Evil Village. No, I have not played most Resident Evil games.

Chilchuck's laughter being stylized as "nahaha" draws a connection to Izutsumi's similarly smarmy sense of humor. It's also a reference to how PokeMas wrote Rika during a story event around the time I was writing this. I feel like those characters sound similar!

Marcille does ritualistic morning hair care. IYKYK.

Izutsumi flies across the sky like a startled cat in an old cartoon.

Chilchuck is tired of everyone using his lockpicking set for odd jobs like mimic meat retrieval and walnut cracking.

Laios wants to get Namari some slings to inspect!! I just think they were really chill buds, actually. He'd probably get her hyperfixations, even if he doesn't get armor.

Marcille's holier-than-thou speech about assuming there's some sexism in Senshi's Scooby-Doo party division is cut off by Chilchuck digging into the idea of the Canaries existing at all. What are they, some kinda Suicide Squad?

Izutsumi is always hesitant about their food. Luckily, this is perhaps the least monster-filled meal yet - unless you're Laios, using leftover Changeling sauce that was meant to be an ointment. He's a freak like that.

Food opinions: Senshi likes crunchy peanut butter. Marcille cuts the crusts off her sandwiches.

I actually presented a poll to my beta reader wondering whether Chilchuck or Izutsumi would chuckle first at Marcille using the term "nut butter." Izutsumi won handily.

Most divorced dad definitely made his daughters sandwiches. That's, like, the one real divorced dad meal I'd expect.

For those in the know on events in the manga, Laios noticing some droppings on the floor is a pretty solid indication of what story beat the gang is approaching within the fiction...

Finally, I know one of peoples' favorite parts about "Scrambled Eggs" was the sheer amount of food-related descriptors. I'm not sure I had quite as deft a hand this time around since most of my energy went toward dialogue interplay, but hopefully you still got your money's worth!!

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miroslavcloset · 2 years ago

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Hi! Would I be able to get Benji hcs of him being child hood best friends with another footballer and he’s been secretly in love with her?

Childhood friend and crush of Benjamin Pavard -Imagine-

A/N: I've been scrolling through polls here and answering every single one with Vanilla Extract. Yes. Anyways, Thank you very much for the sweet request bestie <3 Loved the scenario. Hope you like it!!

Benjamin's love of the sport didn't come from anywhere, actually, in the beginning, it wasn't even his idea. One of his friends, a girl who lived not too far from his home was the one who made him fall in love with the game in the first place.

You were the kind of girl who would take the initiative, even explaining to him how the whole game worked, well as far as you understood when first meeting Benjamin as children. Going to play together became usual, and getting to know each other to develop a friendship that would last even after going to separate places every once in a while.

The spark in your eyes when talking about the sport you enjoyed was the first thing he loved about you, the effort you put in the training, may it be in school or when you started dreaming about being professional about it, something few actually achieved.

Your relationship was one of those where more than friends, you were each other's confidence source, a safe space where you could be yourselves freely, without any judgment or the pressure of expectation. Without even noticing how it came to be, Benjamin knew you were a vital part of his happiness, a feeling of comprehension and inspiration, that emotion that anyone else would have called love.

Luckily for both, their careers would follow similar paths, being able to pursue your main interest in common. When you started to earn attention from the french clubs, Benjamin was the first one supporting you, celebrating by your side. His desire to be at the level of the person he cared about the most started to ignite a flame in his matches and training, and his skills gained notoriety as well.

One of your favorite moments together was when you could celebrate together the jump to the professional fields of football. Your success was an achievement for him, and his promotion was one for you as well, it was the epitome of the bond that tied you both together, that had got you both closer with every passing year.

When the international compromises started, the distance did as well. The texts and the video calls replaced the long conversations you used to have while sharing laughs and playing friendly games. That was the first time Benjamin thought about talking to you about his feelings, the way he wanted to be at your side.

His favorite part of the season is when you get to play in the same city, both of you escaping the training and meeting to have something to drink and tell each other how everything was going in your respective clubs, and lives. Also, something that was kind of a tradition between you two, playing together where no one could bother you and take some pictures together so the distance wouldn't be so hard to endure.

One thought he had to himself was that the female division didn't get as much attention as the masculine, and he would love to see you get the full recognition you deserved... Even he thinks you'd be glowing while receiving a trophy and being received as a hero in Paris. That's what the person he adores truly deserves.

Disclaimer under the cut

DISCLAIMER: This is just fiction and imagined scenarios written by a fan of the aforementioned player, in no way intended to harm anyone in any shape or form. I do this as a hobby, to practice my writing and English skills since it is not my first language (and because I love him, of course, I do) so thanks for reading! <3

#benjamin pavard x reader #benjamin pavard imagine #benji #benjamin pavard #france nt x reader #france nt #fc bayern munich #fc bayern #bayern munich #fc bayern x reader #football player x reader #football imagine #football fanfic

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badreane · 2 years ago

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EVALUATION

At the end of each of our team meetings, we unknowingly evaluated ourselves in how we achieved or underachieved our goals with every CPS step. We entered each meeting with a goal in mind - defining our problem, ideating or implementing - and we celebrated when we accomplished our task or we quickly called out when we missed our mark. In instances of the latter, we synced the in the following days until we had it right. We haven't conducted a post-mortem evaluation of our entire journey - only in-process checks and improvements. Because we're too preoccupied with our deliverables, we haven't dedicated the time and space to evaluate our CPS process performance. I will say, based on our work style and preference - and because a large number of us are analytical thinkers - if we were to conduct a thorough, in-depth evaluation of our group CPS process performance, we would probably use the "polls, voting, and ranking" method. We appreciate feedback and data doesn't lie. Another method we could also use is "metric and rubrics." We developed a checklist, per our assignment, to evaluate other groups and it's clear, simple, and comprehensive. We very well could use the checklist we created on ourselves to gauge and measure our implementation.

I went out of my comfort zone, again, with this project and tried my hand at doing things I don't ordinarily do. It felt really great to hear positive feedback and encouragement, but I would love to get constructive criticism - like a performance review you would get at your job. I was particularly struck by Prof Siegel's note that "the essential purpose of a design process is really all about self-management. The primary function of evaluation is self-improvement. Take this opportunity to better yourself." This distilled comment encapsulates all the things I need to remember in any job or project I pursue.

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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Is a Big Tech Overhaul Just Around the Corner? The leaders of Google, Facebook and Twitter testified on Thursday before a House committee in their first appearances on Capitol Hill since the start of the Biden administration. As expected, sparks flew. The hearing was centered on questions of how to regulate disinformation online, although lawmakers also voiced concerns about the public-health effects of social media and the borderline-monopolistic practices of the largest tech companies. On the subject of disinformation, Democratic legislators scolded the executives for the role their platforms played in spreading false claims about election fraud before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter, admitted that his company had been partly responsible for helping to circulate disinformation and plans for the Capitol attack. “But you also have to take into consideration the broader ecosystem,” he added. Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg, the top executives at Google and Facebook, avoided answering the question directly. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle returned often to the possibility of jettisoning or overhauling Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that for 25 years has granted immunity to tech companies for any harm caused by speech that’s hosted on their platforms. These Big Tech companies are among the wealthiest in the world, and their lobbying power in Washington is immense. Besides, there are major partisan differences over how Section 230 ought to be changed, if at all. But lawmakers and experts increasingly agree that the tide is turning in favor of comprehensive internet regulation, and that would most likely include some adjustments to Section 230. To get a sense of where things stand, I caught up by phone with Jonathan Peters, a professor of media law at the University of Georgia, who closely follows Big Tech regulation. Our conversation has been lightly edited and condensed. In her introductory remarks at the hearing today, Representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois said, “Self-regulation has come to the end of its road.” What does she mean when she talks about an era of “self-regulation” on the internet? And how was that allowed to take hold? The background of this hearing is that platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, and big parent companies like Google, have come to have an enormous amount of power over the public discourse. And the platforms routinely conduct worldwide private speech regulation, through enforcement of their content rules and their community guidelines, deciding what may be posted, when to honor any request to remove content and how to display and prioritize content using algorithms. Another way of putting it is that they are developing a de facto free-expression jurisprudence, against the background of the platforms’ business and legal interest and their self-professed democratic values. That has proved extremely difficult in practice. The internet exists on a layered architecture of privately owned websites, servers and routers. And the ethos of the web, going back to its early days, has been one governed by cyber-libertarianism: this theory that by design this is supposed to be a relaxed regulatory environment. What these hearings are trying to explore is the question, as you mentioned: Have we reached the end of that self-regulatory road, where the government ought to have a greater role than historically it has had in this space? With all of that in mind, is antitrust legislation from Congress likely? How does President Biden’s arrival in the Oval Office change the prospects? It’s interesting: If you look at what Biden has said as a candidate and what Biden has done as president, they’re a little bit different. As a candidate, Biden said he would favor revoking Section 230. He does not have even the Democratic votes to go through with a full revocation of Section 230, although an amendment might be possible. I think he’s facing the political reality that that is going to be a harder sell than he had initially thought. In terms of whether broad antitrust legislation might pass this Congress, it does seem possible. Antitrust issues in the social media space have generated a lot more interest in the last couple of years than they have in the last 15 or 20 combined. If I could put that in just a little bit of historical context for you: 2019 marked the 100th anniversary of a monumental dissenting opinion in a Supreme Court case called Abrams v. United States. That was a case in which Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes really gave rise to our modern First Amendment, and the enduring concept of the value in a market of free trade in ideas. With the rise of social media, our free-speech landscape today looks exceedingly different than it did when Holmes wrote those words. He was warning of the dangers of the government’s ability to censor critics or other disfavored speakers, whereas now the entities best able to restrict our speech are nongovernmental internet and web platforms. So, many traditional First Amendment principles don’t map easily onto our reconstructed speech landscape. And I think the central concern at the heart of these antitrust cases is the power that is at the heart of what these companies do. It’s not that they produce widgets; they play a significant role, every day, in public discourse on matters of public interest. Have the events of Jan. 6 and the entire experience of the 2020 election — which was riddled with false information about elections and voting — affected the likelihood of change? Did it really turn up the urgency in a meaningful way around web regulation? I would say that it did. And it also clarified the differences, in terms of why the Democrats believe that reform is necessary and why the Republicans believe that it is. There is a growing consensus that we need more regulation to ensure the openness and usefulness of the web, but Democrats and Republicans disagree on why. Democrats generally would argue that the platforms allow too much harmful user content to be hosted and spread — the kind of misinformation and disinformation we saw around the 2020 election, some of which of course contributed to or caused the Capitol insurrection. I would say that Democrats are also concerned with bullying, harassment and threats; hate speech; criminal activity that occurs on social media platforms; and the presence of dangerous organizations like terrorist groups or violently graphic content, and the effect those might have. Republicans, by contrast, have sounded some of those same concerns. But they have focused a lot more on their concern that platforms censor conservative viewpoints — that the platforms are engaging in viewpoint discrimination. I’m not convinced that there is evidence of that, but that claim was made more loudly after President Trump was deplatformed by several of these major social media companies. I think it gave them another arrow in their quiver to try to advance that rhetorical argument that they had been making before the Capitol attack. From Opinion America’s gun problem is simple. The political inertia on the issue is more complicated. On an average day in the United States, more than 100 people are killed by guns. Most Americans want Congress to do something about this crisis, but for years, their representatives have offered them only political theater. Why? It’s not for lack of understanding of the problem, the cause of which is actually quite simple: The United States has a staggering number of guns. Over 393 million, to be precise, which is more than one per person and about 46 percent of all civilian-owned firearms in the world. As researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have put it, “more guns = more homicide” and “more guns = more suicide.” But when it comes to understanding the causes of America’s political inertia on the issue, the lines of thought become a little more tangled. Some of them are easy to follow: There’s the line about the Senate, of course, which gives large states that favor gun regulation the same number of representatives as small states that don’t. There’s also the line about the National Rifle Association, which some gun control proponents have cast — arguably incorrectly — as the sine qua non of our national deadlock. But there may be a psychological thread, too. Research has found that after a mass shooting, people who don’t own guns tend to identify the general availability of guns as the culprit. Gun owners, on the other hand, are more likely to blame other factors, such as popular culture or parenting. Americans who support gun regulations also don’t prioritize the issue at the polls as much as Americans who oppose them, so gun rights advocates tend to win out. Or, in the words of Robert Gebelhoff of The Washington Post, “Gun reform doesn’t happen because Americans don’t want it enough.” On Politics is also available as a newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Is there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Source link Orbem News #Big #Corner #Overhaul #Tech

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gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years ago

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In a Year of Zoom Memorials, Art Exhibit Makes Space for Grief

Tami Roncskevitz has attended two Zoom memorials for her daughter, Sarah, a 32-year-old emergency room social worker who died of covid on May 30. But she longs to gather Sarah’s friends and family together in one place so they can embrace and mourn together.

This story also ran on Los Angeles Times. It can be republished for free.

“It just isn’t the same,” said Roncskevitz. “You feel like your grieving is not complete.”

With more than 520,000 in the nation lost to the coronavirus, the United States has millions of people like Roncskevitz whose grief is compounded because families — which, in her case, includes Sarah’s fiancé and two young children — have been unable to publicly celebrate the lost lives with in-person memorials.

Honolulu artist Taiji Terasaki is stepping into that breach with a project to commemorate fallen health care workers.

Terasaki first projects an image of the deceased onto a screen of mist droplets. He then photographs several dynamic, ephemeral portraits of the mist projections, and then prints these photos onto a long scroll. The effect is a mashup of traditional kakejiku, or Japanese hanging scrolls, and a gigantic filmstrip.

Each scroll is then placed in an inscribed wooden box and can be unfurled for display.

The effect is bittersweet, said 59-year-old Roncskevitz, who lives in Benicia, California, and saw the images online.

“I can see her smiling face, but I can also see it evaporating in that picture,” she said. “For me, I feel like it’s representative of Sarah’s body dissipating, and her spirit moving forward.”

So far, Terasaki has created 15 mist portraits for health care workers, who include radiologists, janitors and nurses. The scrolls can be unfurled up to 20 feet and are currently installed in the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles, which is closed due to covid restrictions. But the exhibit, called “Transcendients: Memorial to Healthcare Workers,” will make its world debut virtually on March 13, along with other artwork Terasaki has made to commemorate pandemic heroes. “Transcendient” is Terasaki’s neologism from “transcendent” and “transient”; it’s a concept he has used in past exhibits on immigration, the U.S. migrant border crisis and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Terasaki passed his lockdown time cutting photographs and weaving them back together to create pixelated, screen-like images of people who had helped others during the pandemic. He posted these works on Instagram every day for 100 days.

As deaths mounted, he decided to create memorials and came across “Lost on the Frontline,” a collaborative reporting project between KHN and The Guardian. The series features short profiles of health care workers who have died of covid, as well as investigative stories about the lack of personal protective equipment many workers endured as they showed up for work during the pandemic.

“Who’s sacrificing the most? It’s these health care workers who are out there risking their lives,” said Terasaki.

Terasaki reached out to KHN to see if he could add to the collaboration with the memorial scrolls, and then set out to contact the families featured in Lost on the Frontline.

Expanding the project to incorporate art is going to widen the project’s reach, said Christina Jewett, KHN’s lead investigative reporter for Lost on the Frontline. To date, the team has identified more than 3,500 health care worker deaths caused by covid and is the most comprehensive database to date, as states have different requirements about recording and reporting these deaths.

Helena Cawley contributed a portrait of her father to Terasaki’s project to keep his memory alive. She recalled receiving the news that her father had unexpectedly died of covid. Cawley let out a primal scream and dropped to the floor, sobbing.

This was March 30, back when covid tests were scarce, hospitals were scrambling to obtain ventilators and masks, and the U.S. had just passed 3,000 deaths from the disease.

Cawley’s father, 74-year-old hospital radiologist David Wolin, was the first person Cawley knew who tested positive for the virus. A month later, Wolin’s wife, Susan, Cawley’s stepmother, also succumbed to the disease.

Related Links

‘It Doesn’t Feel Worth It’: Covid Is Pushing New York’s EMTs to the Brink

When Covid Deaths Aren’t Counted, Families Pay the Price

Health Workers and Hospitals Grapple With Millions of Counterfeit N95 Masks

More ‘Lost on the Frontline’

“It’s so great to have people remember him and think of him and want to honor him,” said 41-year-old Cawley. “I love having his name out there and letting people know who he was.”

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bigyack-com · 5 years ago

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DealBook: Watching for Christine Lagarde’s Stance as Head of E.C.B.

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Looking for clues on Lagarde’s thinking as E.C.B. chief

As the I.M.F.’s managing director, Christine Lagarde was one of the most recognizable and powerful women on the planet. But as she takes on her new role as president of the E.C.B., few know her worldview or how she might operate as a central banker. That could begin to change today. Analysts and investors will be listening closely for clues about her stance on various issues when she gives her first news conference in the role. One of the main questions will be whether the central bank’s fire hose of economic stimulus is doing more harm than good, Jack Ewing of the NYT writes. Ms. Lagarde has signaled that she will question the assumptions underlying central bank policy since the euro began to circulate two decades ago. And she is overseeing a comprehensive review of central bank strategy that could redefine its role. “She’ll be very pragmatic, in my opinion, as was her predecessor and as I was myself,” Jean-Claude Trichet, who led the E.C.B. from 2003 to 2011, told Bloomberg. Any hint that she is willing to extend her predecessor Mario Draghi’s approach by cutting rates further or increasing asset purchases could fuel a bond rally, Bloomberg says.

U.K. vote signals return to big government spending

As voters in Britain go to the polls today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made “get Brexit done” his mantra, while his main rival, Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party, has made health care his top priority. Big government spending is making a return in the main parties’ agenda, the WSJ writes. Mr. Johnson has vowed to spend 100 billion pounds ($132 billion) on infrastructure and billions more on policing and health care, while Mr. Corbyn has promised to put hundreds of billions into recasting Britain as modern state-run economy. Public spending is back in favor around the world, even among some parties that traditionally favor balanced budgets and mistrust big government: • President Trump cut taxes and increased military spending, moves that have pushed the U.S. budget deficit to $1 trillion. • Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan approved a $120 billion stimulus program to revive growth and help regions hit by a typhoon in October. • Spain and France are relaxing budget goals to pay for tax cuts and more social benefits, and the typically frugal Netherlands, Finland and Germany are increasing spending on welfare, the military and infrastructure. More: Whoever wins the British election is on track to be the country’s most consequential leader since Margaret Thatcher, a Politico analysis says.

Confident in the economy, Fed keeps rates steady

The Fed’s final meeting of the year brought an end to rate cuts for 2019, and officials penciled in no rate changes next year, writes the NYT’s Jeanna Smialek. The Fed’s rate policy will remain in place until inflation rises persistently, Jay Powell, the Fed chair, said after the meeting yesterday — a wait-and-see approach that indicates the Fed’s level of comfort with the U.S. economy. The Fed cut rates three times this year “to guard the economy against the fallout of President Trump’s prolonged trade war and slowing growth abroad,” Ms. Smialek writes. But officials have shown signs of increasing confidence. “Our economic outlook remains a favorable one,” Mr. Powell said. More: The Fed wants to avoid the prospect of the U.S. entering a low-rate, low-inflation, low-growth trap.

How to make capitalism work again

American capitalism is at an inflection point, with enormous levels of inequality, declining economic mobility, less-competitive markets and an unsustainable fiscal trajectory, Henry Paulson and Erskine Bowles write in a NYT Opinion article. But they say the solution is not to blow up the system or to maintain the status quo. Proposals addressing universal basic income, “Medicare for all” and direct taxes on wealth “are fundamentally misguided and would result in economically harmful outcomes that could put our economy on an unstable and precarious path,” they write. Other policy solutions could allow more people to share in America’s success, they say. The writers’ proposals: • Investing in human capital, including education and productivity. • Looking at more efficient ways to encourage work by supplementing wages. • Correcting the country’s fiscal trajectory by raising more revenue, slowing the growth rate of health care spending and making Social Security sustainable. • Overhauling the tax code to make it more progressive and take in more revenue. Related: New York, London and Hong Kong are international financial centers, but they matter less in a world that is deglobalizing, Greg Ip of the WSJ writes.

Will North America’s trade deal increase auto jobs?

The Trump administration has claimed that the North American trade pact, which is almost certain to become law, will add 76,000 jobs in the auto sector, but experts are not so sure, writes the NYT’s Niraj Chokshi. “It’s not at all clear that there is going to be a positive effect on jobs in the auto industry,” an economics professor told Mr. Chokshi. Provisions in the deal aimed at lifting employment could drive up the cost of making cars, which could reduce demand and jobs. Unions have also expressed doubt. The deal does little to address the outsourcing of jobs, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said Tuesday, a sentiment echoed by the United Automobile Workers union. There is little evidence that the trade pact will provide the job increase that President Trump has promised, but many industry officials expressed relief that an agreement had been reached, because continuity and certainty are vital to the auto industry. More: Concerned about the trade war, the Business Roundtable lowered its forecast for economic growth next year for a seventh straight time. (CNBC)

Weinstein Company poised to pay accusers $25 million

Harvey Weinstein and the board of his bankrupt film studio have reached a tentative $25 million settlement with dozens of his alleged sexual misconduct victims, the NYT’s Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor report. The deal would not require the once-towering Hollywood producer to admit wrongdoing or pay his accusers himself, according to lawyers involved in the talks. Some key points: • More than 30 alleged victims would share in the payout. • Potential claimants who join in the coming months could also receive a share. • The payout would be part of an overall $47 million settlement that is intended to close out the company’s obligations. • More than $12 million of the settlement would pay legal costs for Mr. Weinstein, his brother Bob and four members of the company’s board. The agreement would end nearly all of the lawsuits filed against Mr. Weinstein, although it requires a court’s approval and final signoff by all parties. And he still faces prosecution on criminal charges in New York.

Revolving door

Praveen Akkiraju, a managing partner at SoftBank Vision Fund, is departing to explore working with early-stage start-ups. (Bloomberg) Harold Hamm will step down as chief executive of Continental Resources and take a board role. James Littlefair resigned from the Treasury Department after his mother pleaded guilty to illegally helping him graduate from Georgetown University, a case that was part of the nationwide college admissions scandal.

The speed read

Deals • Nestlé has agreed to sell its U.S. ice cream business to Froneri in a deal valued at $4 billion. (Reuters) • Britain’s competition regulator said it had “serious concerns” about Amazon’s purchase of a stake in the online food delivery group Deliveroo. (Reuters) • Shares in XP, the Brazilian financial services group, jumped on their debut in New York after completing one of the year’s largest public offerings. (FT) • WeWork’s rival in China, Ucommune, filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. (Axios) • Problems in the I.P.O. market could hurt the S&P 500. (CNBC) • Companies are on track to raise more money through initial public offerings on Nasdaq this year than on the New York Stock Exchange. (WSJ) • The Hudson’s Bay chairman, Richard Baker, won the support of the proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis for a takeover of the Canadian retailer. (Reuters) Politics and policy • The Justice Department’s inspector general painted a bleak portrait of how the F.B.I. used its surveillance powers in the Russia investigation, but told lawmakers that he had no evidence that any mistakes were made out of political bias. The findings about surveillance are important beyond partisan politics. (NYT) • The E.U.’s climate plan would pay nations that rely heavily on fossil fuels to change their ways. (NYT) • Should Joe Biden pledge to serve just one term as president? His top advisers and prominent Democrats have revived a long-running debate. (Politico) • Infrastructure, housing and climate change are among the top issues that mayors want the Democratic 2020 presidential candidates to address if elected. (Axios) • How President Trump and the Democrats parted ways on lowering drug prices. (Politico) Trump impeachment inquiry • The House Judiciary Committee opened debate yesterday on two articles of impeachment against President Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. (NYT) • What to expect from the debate, a process that lets committee members propose changes to the articles of impeachment. (NYT) • Democrats are offering the weakest case for impeachment since Andrew Johnson, the WSJ argues. (WSJ Opinion) • The all-hands-on-deck atmosphere in the White House is a change from just weeks ago, when Mr. Trump’s aides dismissed the idea of a war room. (NYT) Tech • A new policy at YouTube to police material is a response to criticism that the video service hasn’t done enough to curb bad behavior. (NYT) • Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s space venture, will today try this year’s third launch and landing of its New Shepard rocket. (CNBC) • Facebook’s ranking on Glassdoor’s list of best places to work slid for a second year in a row, tumbling 16 spots to 23rd. (CNBC) • Siri and Alexa are listening to people’s most intimate moments. (Bloomberg) • George Laurer, the inventor of the bar code, has died at age 94. (NYT) Best of the rest • Investors are gritting their teeth for a “low-return decade.” (FT) • Rising bond defaults in China raise questions about whether Beijing can effectively address its huge debt problem. (NYT) • Aramco reached Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s $2 trillion goal after a surge on Day 2 of trading. (Bloomberg) • JPMorgan Chase is taking a bigger swing at wealth management in an effort to better compete with big-bank rivals. (WSJ) • A Maryland real estate company surprised its employees with $10 million in holiday bonuses, with the average bonus being $50,000. (WaPo) • The “Succession” star Nicholas Braun is set to play the WeWork founder Adam Neumann in a limited-run TV series about the company. (Hollywood Reporter) • Bankrupt American brands like Toys ‘R’ Us and Tower Records are thriving in Japan. (CityLab) Thanks for reading! We’ll see you tomorrow. We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [email protected]. Read the full article

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myreadingexperience · 7 years ago

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The most comprehensive and coherent book on data collection and surveillance I have stumbled upon: Data and Goliath, by security expert Bruce Schneier. Because I’ve read it in parallel with others, I cannot tell if it is this one, or another, or the whole reading process, that has put forth a really good accound of bulk collection of data, but from the very beginning, the book puts it transparently: just by carrying a phone in your pocket, you are telling phone companies where you are. This is not a bargain you signed for, but it’s how phones work. This data can (and has been used) by governments to determine where citizens are and if they had been at a certain place at a certain time (ex. Kiev 2014 protests, Michigan 2010 labor protest). Mass surveillance can single out profiles of people, censor and discriminate on any criteria: race, religion, class. Even when it is just metadata, it covers an amazing amount of information (for example, you can tell what is someone’s network of close friends and aquaintances by their phone calls, and can figure what’s going on if they call an abortion clinic). „Data is content, metadata is context”, Schneier writes to explain, and metadata is enough to say lots about anyone, and much easier to process (in 2014, former NSA director Michael Hayden said „we kill people based on metadata”). To the author, the future is one in which store clerks, your car, and even billboards, will know you and what you want. Video footage is like „herd immunity, but in reverse” – once enough people will record it, you’ll be in one. Information-age surveillance looks like a panopticon more efficient than Bentham could have ever imagined. Even anonymized collection can be easily de-anonymized if one has access to the large google search database, for example. Schneier likes to turn it around: „Imagine that the US government passed a law requiring all citizens to carry a tracking device. Such a law would be immediately found inconstitutional. Yet we carry our cell phones everywhere. If the local police department required us to notify it whenever we made a new friend, the nation would rebel. Yet we notify Facebook.”

One can’t go no-where on the internet, as long as surveillance is its business model. „Our relationship with many of the Internet companied we rely on is not a traditional company-customer relationship ... we’re products those companies sell ... the relationship is more feudal than commercial. The companies are analogous to feudal lords, and we are their vassals, peasants, and – on a bad day – serfs. We are tenant farmers for these companies, working on their land by producing data that they in turn sell for profit. ... we trust the feudal lords to treat us well and protect us from harm.” US is the internet hegemon because it has a larger intelligence budget than the rest of the world combined, because the physical wiring causes the traffic to cross its borders, and because the most popular hardware and software is subject to its laws. Corporate and government interests collide, and technology can be used both ways, as corporate tools for blocking employees from „emailing confidential data can be used by repressive governments for surveillance and censorship.... the same anti-censorship tools that Saudi and Iranian dissidents use to evade their governments can be used by criminals to distribute child porn.” If we are generating so much data and storing it indefinitely, what can we do to control what will be known and used about/against us in the future? The situation can look like Minority Report, mixed with some Orwellian fear and Kafkaeque surrealism: you won’t even know what could be held against you, and maybe you haven’t even done anything yet. According to Schneier (& research), post 9/11 surveillance has already caused self-censorship – a study conducted after the first Snowden articles found that people didn’t want to talk about NSA online, and another poll found that half of Americans have changed what they research because of surveillance. If all laws could have always been enforced through such overwhelming surveillance, then we probably would have never had black rights, women rights, gay rights. The controls we put on the governments that rule over us „need to work not only when the party we approve of leads the government but also when the party we disapprove of does”. Depending on how our data will end up being used, it could influence the way we are treated not only in employment, but also by insurance companies, by banks or by educational institutions (in 2000, Wells Fargo bank created a website to promote home mortgages, its calculator referred white residents to white neighborhoods). And of course, it can be used to manipulate public opinion, by filtering what you are shown. Unfortunately for the US, this is starting to cost it some money: people are fleeing US cloud providers, not buying US equipment and not trusting its companies.

Schneier makes another, very important, argument: data mining doesn’t work for finding terrorists, although it is collected with this excuse. For advertising, it can be successful even with a large error rate, so it works best when „you’re searching for a well-defined profile, when there are a reasonable number of events per year and when the cost of false alarms is low”. When billions are wasted on masss surveillance programs, they are not being invested in investigation and emergency response, „tactics that have been proven to work”. Although attackers have the upper hand, as it is easier to find a vulnerability than it is to patch up all of them, „widespread encryption has the potential to render mass surveillance ineffective and to force eavesdroppers to choose their targets”. This would finally be a step towards security, as having systems with backdoors for governments to get in certainly isn’t safe, despite the NOBUS promise („nobody but us”, a NSA saying for zero-day vulnerabilities that no one else could find or use, of which the US is stockpiling in the hundreds, probably).

Not all is lost, and Schneier urges us to not be fatalists. He writes that „the general principle here is that systems should be designed with the minimum surveillance necessary for them to function, and where surveillance is required they should gather the minimum necessary amount of information and retain it for the shortest time possible”. Secondly, we need transparency in the algorithms that judge us on the basis of our data, from search engines to credit score systems. Ceding power to others is essential for societies to fuction, and for democratic societies, we need „transparency, oversight and accountability”. The first question is – are the rules imposed the correct ones?, and the second – are they being followed? Third, we need laws to protect whitsleblowers (law professor David Ponzen contends that „democracies need to be leaky”, and etnographer danah boyd calls whistleblowing „the civil disobedience of the information age”) - they provide an extra oversight mechanism. Fourth, we need international agreements that „would recognize a country’s duties don’t entirely stop at its borders”, and protecting foreigner’s privacy is just as important. Fifth, Schneier proposes NSA’s espionage mission to be separated from its surveillance mission – NSA should deal with foreign millitary targets, while the Department of Justice should do targeted and legally permissible surveillance activities. Sixth, we need open spaces on the internet that are not government or corporate controlled, „common-carrier social networking areas that the owners are not allowed to monitor or censor”. Seventh, data controllers should be held accountable, as right now the cost of privacy breaches falls on the people (an idea from law professor Michael Froomkin is requiring agencies to file Privacy Impact Notices, similar to Environmental Impact Reports). Because Schneier writes extensive suggestions for companies, governments and citizens, I might have missed some, however, he leaves us with an important question: „how do we design systems that make use of our data collectively to benefit society as a while, while at the same time protecting people individually?”.

ps. I’ve also started reading Ferrante’s third book in the Napoletan Novels series, “Those who leave and those who stay”, and I’m checking from time to time “The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us” by Christophe Bonneuil.

#data #bruce schneier #security #surveillance #cyber #ferrante #literature #summer read #finished book #research #just wondering #anthropocene #novel #nsa #suggestions #encryption

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nofomoartworld · 7 years ago

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Hyperallergic: A Retrospective of Andrew Wyeth, a Painter Both Loved and Loathed

Andrew Wyeth, “Anna Christina” (1967) tempera on panel, 21 ½ x 23 ½ in. jointly owned by the Brandywine River Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, anonymous gifts, 2002 (© 2017 Andrew Wyeth/Artists Rights Society (ARS))

CHADDS FORD, Pa. — Riddle me this: Is the Whitney Biennial a real Whitney Biennial if it goes without protest? In 1960, back when the exhibition was held annually, Edward Hopper urged Andrew Wyeth to sign his letter protesting the near exclusion of realist painting. The artist declined, distancing himself from the New York art world’s socio-political arguments, content with what was in front of him, like Giorgio Morandi with his bottles. Yet, from the late ’60s on, Wyeth would be labeled a reactionary — which is rather like taking issue with a rock for not taking issue with you — and conservative, overlooking John F. Kennedy honoring him in 1963 with a Medal of Freedom for depicting “verities and delights of everyday life” in the “great humanist tradition.” To this day his East Coast critics spend a surprising amount of energy dismissing his relevance.

Jerry Saltz’s 2009 obituary on Wyeth begins by claiming “almost no one in the art world ever thought of or cared much about [him]” thereby slighting Alfred Barr, Elaine de Kooning, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, for starters. More, Robert Hughes did a 180 switch, lauding the painter after his death. “[I]n over three decades in the art world, I have never heard one artist, art student, teacher, critic, collector, or curator mention his name,” Saltz goes on. One wonders whether he missed his wife Roberta Smith’s 1998 New York Times review “New Light on Wyeth’s Outer and Inner Landscapes” on Wyeth’s Whitney Museum show. Was he also completely unaware of photographer Collier Schorr’s obsession with Wyeth’s Helga pictures? “Wyeth was considered so conservative,” Saltz continues, “that even the Metropolitan Museum of Art declined an offer to exhibit his work.” No. The first one-person exhibition the Met ever gave to a living American artist was “Two World’s of Andrew Wyeth: Kuerners and Olsons” curated by director Thomas Hoving in 1976, previewed by Grace Glueck and reviewed by Hilton Kramer in The New York Times, where more argument ensued.

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw doesn’t ignore art history in her recent piece “Andrew Wyeth’s Black Paintings,” published in the exhibition catalogue for the Brandywine River Museum of Art’s present retrospective on the painter; she rewrites it. It’s not apparent she saw her claimed point of departure: the 2001 “Andrew Wyeth: Close Friends” exhibition of seventy-four works he made of his African-American friends and neighbors over a seventy-year span. But in Shaw’s retelling, Wyeth is a racist oppressor who exploited poor blacks for his own artistic ends. “My issue is more with my field, rather than with the paintings,” Ted Loos cites her as saying, which implies a personal agenda guiding her efforts. It’s helpful to understand this motive, because doing so gives context to the reliably derogatory insinuations and defamatory takes on Wyeth and his art — all free of responsible research.

Shaw makes much of Wyeth’s lifelong black friend and frequent model David Lawrence’s nickname “Doo-Doo,” (which the Wyeth family spelled “Dodo”) to insinuate Wyeth gave him this disparaging moniker. Unmentioned is who dubbed him this — Dodo’s cousin, mom, the mailman? — and that it was only decades later (in the 1950s) “doo-doo” picked up its scatological connotations. So, for the record, Wyeth did not in fact call his best friend “shit.” But Shaw did substantially misrepresent two people’s lives by getting the etymology of six letters wrong. It may seem trivial to address this, but one must select examples of her speculative trivialities when their accumulation is the whole of her piece.

Shaw holds up Senna Moore as the most artistically violated of his models, especially in “Dryad” (2000/2007), where the painter darkens her skin to envelop her within a tree’s shadow. (Dryads are mythological beings that live inside trees.) The incurious takeaway is, in Wyeth’s paintings, “black bodies could be eliminated entirely.” Despite her simplistic reading, Shaw indicates no knowledge that Senna Moore is actually alive — and perhaps available for an interview (as is a male model). In opting out of this exchange, to quote the writer’s own words, Shaw “eliminated entirely” the very black female voice she arrogated herself to speak on behalf of. Knowing none of Wyeth’s models or the artist, Shaw could, to recall her accusation, “exert a great deal of control over how [s]he imagined them.”

Andrew Wyeth painting “Vivian”; still from Andrew Wyeth: Self-Portrait (Snow Hill), directed by Bo Bartlett

In Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania over 100 works by Andrew Wyeth are on display at the Brandywine for Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect, a comprehensive exhibition covering works from 1936 to his last in 2008, titled “Goodbye.” An agrarian in an age of war, living “farm to table” in contemporary parlance, his subjects — neighbors, the fields, woods, and streams, dilapidated houses, interiors mixed with still lifes, scandalizing nudes, shorelines, boats, and boots — have potential to inspire and disgust, weary and delight, according to the viewer and often the era’s politics.

Were Wyeth not so beloved by the general public, it’s unlikely the critics — mostly writing in the popular press — would have been so committed to scorning him. The policing of borders separating fine art from illustration was first-order, boring business for critics whose opinions on Wyeth were evidently ignored, if they registered at all with collectors and postcard-buyers alike. Surveys conducted in 1973 and 2006, years bookending Wyeth’s most tarred and feathered moments in the press, evidenced no alteration in the museum-going public’s approval: 86% for “enjoyment” of his paintings, according to exhibition exit polls by Wanda M. Corn and Lynda M. O’Leary. Wyeth sought to make images widely intelligible and by succeeding in that, rendered third-party mediation largely irrelevant, surely a sore spot for professional mouthpieces of taste. This meant authoritative interpretation of his art was his own, exemplified by Thomas Hoving’s choice to interview the artist for the 1976 exhibition catalogue, rather than commission essays.

Wyeth, elsewhere, writes: “I think one’s art goes as far and as deep as one’s love goes. I see no reason for painting but that. If I have anything to offer, it is my emotional contact with the place where I live and the people [I know].

This quote is slightly revolting in its sentimentality. We rid ourselves of softer emotions in 20th-century art. But “deep love” is not saccharine if we imagine that Wyeth had been a poet, novelist, or essayist. Think of beauty, for example.

“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.”

Okay, that one’s by Toni Morrison. See? It’s nice. It’s a literary attitude, perhaps, that’s needed to enter the world of Andrew Wyeth, which is not to say it’s easy. Francis Weiss, in the academic reader Rethinking Andrew Wyeth, posits Robert Frost as akin to Wyeth in artistic aim. “You and I have something in common,” Frost wrote Wyeth, “that almost makes me one wonder if we hadn’t influenced each other, been brought up in the same family.” They both aimed their art at the common viewer, eschewing urbane tastes, crafting work within a familiar tradition.

Despite the criticism claiming Wyeth’s weathered pastorals were escapist, the works are, like Frost’s poems, a space for darker dreaming and experiencing alienation, isolation, and a distinctly 20th-century form of anxiety. “At its most aesthetically convincing,” Donald Kuspit holds, “Wyeth’s art brings us to consciousness of the body’s existence — bodiliness as such, bodiliness as the essence of existence.” This seems right. All of his works, at least from the late 1940s on, are relentlessly focused at an observational level, almost cruel at times, while suffused with a range of moods, from the austere to the theatrical, as if visual facts were a container for fictions. Or, invoking the novelist Émile Zola’s words: “a corner of creation seen through a temperament.”

The Japanese see abstract meanings too. In the new catalogue for the Brandywine exhibition, Shuji Takahashi reveals why Wyeth’s work is collected in Japan more than in any other country but this one, and why Wyeth felt more understood there. His paintings reflect “the Japanese sense of life and death, a belief … that people are part of the great cycle of nature.” The tempera “Thin Ice” (1969) in the show is the most abstract piece, and is exhibited in America for the first time in decades. The orange and brown leaves in a stream under an ice sheet suggest a painter who could’ve been an accomplished abstract artist had he not found the genre dull.

The Japanese never succumbed to the form of western modernity Wyeth’s art rejects, that is, the separation of truth from beauty. Here, what is beautiful cannot be true, and what is true cannot be beautiful. Europe caught this earlier, with the First World War — hence Dadaism — and then this view rose in the United States with WWII. Jackson Pollock and the Abstract Expressionist’s bent toward self-obliteration was incommensurable with a tenacious realism holding forth that humans are inherently dignified. Pop Art then successfully brought back realist imagery, but only by exhausting the meaning of the images’ referents. It’s striking to note Wyeth’s painting of Tom Clark in “Chester County” (1962) was made the same year Warhol introduced his serialized images of Campbell’ Soup. Wyeth was pursuing the human affect in his paintings that Pop Art was laying to rest.

When Robert Rosenblum said in 1977 that Andrew Wyeth was both the most overrated and underrated living American artist, he had it right. The “best” and “worst” artist would’ve been better candidates, but in accounting for collective perceptions, Wyeth did divide. This friction is playing out at the Museum of Modern Art right now. “Christina’s World” (1938), the famous painting of crippled Christina crawling up a hill toward home, was acquired as a work then considered categorically modern, surrealist. But as its popularity grew with the public, the museum’s curatorial thrust instead went toward Abstract-Expressionism, forcing MoMA into its present fix. It keeps the painting at home to do the heavy lifting — it’s their Mona Lisa for ticket sales and merchandising — but rejects displaying it as a great work of art. It’s rarely lent, citing concerns about its condition, a claim contradicted by their relegating it to the heavily trafficked hallway, to be appreciated en route to the toilet. Thus the rub: the museum’s curators let visitors know Wyeth is not a canonical artist, to be put in an legitimate gallery space, while also being substantially reliant on his work for financial support.

The artist’s watercolor landscapes are often considered his best works, or to his dedicated detractors, the least bad — which might in part be due to their purported affinity to Abstract Expressionism. Regardless, they are great works. There are no physical, mental, or material intermediaries between the artist’s spirit and his image. Wyeth’s brush does not represent the subject; it discovers it. The painting is a visual artifact and its process of making are the result of an experiential whole of pointed intention. Mistaking his facility as bravura, which is often done with these works, is like mistaking the beauty in an athlete’s skill — hard won by discipline — for ease.

Given that so much handwringing has been generated about Wyeth for at least the last fifty years, his work is already interesting. The criticisms against him are more rich, varied, and contradictory than any other artist of the 20th century, with him being both lascivious and sexually repressed, impossibly fantastical and boringly descriptive, embarrassingly sentimental and oppressively racist, idyllic and depressed, undeservedly famous and nobody at all. The reasons to like him are less fanciful and few. He was a good guy, made likable pictures, and was a fantastic painter with a rare deftness of touch, able to make innumerable paintings of the same hill and never repeat himself, nail a subject in six seconds or six months, paint from imagination a picture more convincing than a photograph, keep brushes wet for 75 years, and have it in him to paint a “Goodbye” when he knows it’s time to go.

Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect continues at the Brandywine River Museum of Art (1 Hoffman’s Mill Road, Chadds Ford, PA) through September 17, 2017.

The post A Retrospective of Andrew Wyeth, a Painter Both Loved and Loathed appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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batclevercandystudent · 6 years ago

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Are you looking for an honest (and easy to understand) SiteGround hosting review?

Cool, I’m glad you’re here. This article is for you.

Here’s the thing …

After reading countless hosting reviews myself and searching for the fastest WordPress hosting I could find – I found SiteGround.

As of today, I have been using SiteGround for 5+ years. In that time, I’ve learned the pros AND cons – the ins and the outs.

So I decided to write a fluff-free SiteGround WordPress hosting review to share what I’ve learned.

I’m going to go in-depth, but at the same time keep the jargon out of it.

Whether you are looking to get a side hustle idea going, you’re starting a podcast, or you want to get an online business idea up and running, this review is exactly what you need to choose your website hosting.

Here’s what we are going to cover in this review.

SiteGround hosting reviewed

Another WordPress hosting review?

What is website hosting and why is it important?

My love and hate relationship with SiteGround

My recommendation (fully explained)

Final verdict: do I recommend SiteGround?

Another WordPress hosting review?

If you’ve been looking for a hosting company that you can trust your online business with, you’ll find the internet flooded with hundreds if not thousands of hosting reviews. Most of them are total BS.

Unfortunately, they’re mostly written to talk YOU into buying the hosting that offers THEM the highest commission.

Do I get paid a small commission if you decide to purchase SiteGround hosting through a link on this page?

Yes, indeed.

Is that why I chose to write a review about SiteGround?

No. I’m writing this because I’ve been using SiteGround since 2014! And it’s the one that powers my entire online businesses today.

It’s also why I recommend SiteGround as the very first tool on my best online business tools page.

Here’s a screenshot of my bill for SiteGround’s GoGeek Hosting

Bottom line: I’ve used SiteGround long enough (5 years) and am aware of pretty much everything there is to know about it.

Also, I host this website with them. Further on in this article, I’ll show you the results of some speed tests I ran while writing this.

Affiliate Disclaimer: This review contains affiliate links that pay me a commission if you sign up through them. However this in no way affects my recommendation. I do not recommend SiteGround for everyone. (more on this later)

What is website hosting and why is it important?

If this is your first time building a website, you might not know what website hosting even is. While this can be intimidating, it doesn’t have to be. Once you understand the fundamental principles of how hosting works it’s quite simple.

For simplicity, here’s a quick breakdown.

A website is a bunch of different files connected to the internet. These files hold data and need a ‘space’ that’s secure and accessible to the internet.

This ‘space’ is what a hosting company offers.

As you can see, your website host is responsible for holding all the data of your online business.

This is why website hosting is super important to your success, and in no way should be neglected.

Here’s what happens when your hosting service sucks.

A host to a website is what a foundation is to a house. If it’s shaky, it’s all going to come tumbling down.

My love and hate relationship with SiteGround

Just like in every relationship you will have the good and the bad. The same is true with SiteGround.

While there’s a ton that I love about this hosting, there are also a few things I don’t.

Here’s a brief breakdown.

What I love about SiteGround web hosting

1) Well-trained customer service

Sure, if you’re an experienced website developer, you don’t need customer support. However, for the rest of us, it’s crucial.

When you’re new to the world of WordPress and websites, you’ll run into problems and when you do – having reliable support to get help from is a real lifesaver!

SiteGround’s customer support is excellent! Stellar, in fact.

They invest in trained experts, not general support that acts like they understand your problem.

At times when I’ve had to communicate with them, I’ve found their customer reps to be extremely friendly, helpful, and patient.

You have multiple ways to reach them ranging from live chat, telephone to a ticket based system.

Note: They even tell you how many customers are ahead of you, and in most cases the wait time is minimal!

2) 99.99% uptime rating

Uptime is the number of hours your website is live and available on the internet. Downtime is the exact opposite.

Ideally, you want 100% uptime because a downtime implies your website is not accessible to people trying to access it.

To a business, this can lead to lost traffic, leads, and sales — lost because you chose a crappy hosting company and your website is down.

Downtime can also have a negative impact on SEO, and this will prevent your website from getting to the first page of Google, and that’s the last thing you want.

Fortunately, SiteGround offers 99.99% uptime which in the web hosting industry is the gold standard.

Note: If you ever experience more than 0.1% downtime on a yearly basis SiteGround will compensate you credit in your next subscription.

Cool guarantee, bro. I’d rather have a site that doesn’t go down.

4) An extremely intuitive interface

Another benefit of SiteGround hosting is how it simplifies the complex process of managing a website server – right from setting up the website to creating a new one and later transferring it.

A glance of SiteGround’s interface consists of well-organized and highly descriptive icons that make it extremely easy to identify what’s what.

Their hosting is great for anyone new to websites, as you won’t have to spend a lot of time trying to figure things out.

Alright, on with the SiteGround reviews!

5) Free website migration (for GrowBig/GoGeek)

If you already host a website with another service, you will need to do a website transfer, which can be a difficult and complicated process.

If you don’t have the technical know-how, you’re going to run into problems. Sure you can hire an expert to transfer it for you, but this comes with its own set of challenges.

Fortunately, SiteGround simplifies this process by handling the transfer for you – and for free!

What does ‘free’ really include?

SiteGround’s free website transfer lets you move everything from your old host – the website, FTP accounts, configurations, etc. – at no extra cost.

Note: this service is free exclusively to GrowBig and GoGeek tiers.

Basically, you’re going to have everything transferred from your old host by an expert who knows what he’s doing – and that means no bugs, unforeseen issues, or downtime!

Okay, how does the website transfer work?

Step 1: Sign up with SiteGround

The first step is to sign up with SiteGround. Remember, if you want to take advantage of the free website transfer, you’ll have to pick either the GrowBig or the GoGeek plan.

Step 2: Request your website transfer

After you’ve signed up with SiteGround you have two ways to request a website transfer:

1) Request website transfer through the setup wizard:

I recommend this method if you haven’t set up an account with SiteGround.

All you have to do is select Transfer a website in SiteGround’s Account Setup Wizard and click Confirm.

Next, an inquiry will be generated to which SiteGround’s amazing support team will promptly respond.

2) Request website transfer through support section:

Alternatively, you can directly raise a support request by heading to your SiteGround User area and then to Support > Request Assistance From Our Team > Proceed to contact us here link.

Among the list of services select Advanced Technical Services and click the ‘Transfer Website’ option.

From the dropdown under Select Account choose the website you want to transfer. Next, choose the radio button ‘I am transferring from another web host.’

Note: If your previous host is not running CPanel you will have to transfer email accounts, configurations, etc. manually.

Lastly, fill in the all the required fields and click Submit. SiteGround’s support team will be notified about your inquiry and get back to you.

CLICK HERE TO TRANSFER YOUR WEBSITE

5) Cloudflare CDN with one-click activation

Setting up a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can be complicated. However, with SiteGround you can activate your CDN with a single click.

Cloudflare’s CDN significantly reduces page load time and is recommended by WordPress in their speed optimization Guide.

6) Great affiliate program (Up to $150 commission!)

Another thing worth mentioning is SiteGround’s affiliate program that offers generous payouts of up to $150 per referral.

Now while this may not be directly related to the hosting itself if you use it right — you can pay for your entire subscription by simply recommending it to friends and family.

Pretty cool right? Yeah, I thought so too.

Alright, you get it, I’m a HUGE fan of SiteGround.

But what do other people think of it? Let’s take a look.

SiteGround Reviews: What Do WordPress Users Think?

Lastly, I looked at what the community has to say about SiteGround. In my research, I found a popular WordPress hosting group on Facebook.

As you can see, it’s not just me. Many other WordPress enthusiasts recommend SiteGround as their #1 hosting solution.

This is just one of many other polls conducted where SiteGround takes that number one spot – and for a good reason!

What I don’t like about SiteGround

Now onto the bad stuff you won’t see in those “genuine” SiteGround hosting reviews.

1) Higher renewal prices

SiteGround may seem quite affordable at the beginning especially with all the services they offer.

However, when the time comes to renew your bill will be quite hefty. This is because their first subscription is offered at an introductory price!

The renewal price is much higher than their introductory price, which will come as a shock.

When you look at the hosting service you’re getting in return, you’ll find the cost well justified.

Here’s the thing, if your online business can’t afford to pay your hosting after a year, you’re doing something wrong.

2) Limited resources (and the hidden benefit)

While SiteGround’s features are amazing, they are not the most generous in sharing their resources.

The three plans offer a limited amount of bandwidth and storage, which could be troublesome if you have a massive site.

But remember, I run 5 websites and get 10s of 1000s of visitors a month, all on my single GoGeek account. With 100% uptime!

That said, here’s exactly what you’ll get with your SiteGround hosting account.

You’ll get a limited amount of space. This varies with the plan you sign up for:

10GB of storage for StartUp plan

20GB of storage for GrowBig plan

30GB of storage for GoGeek plan

But where’s the hidden benefit I mentioned?

This limit on storage per account is a blessing in disguise and benefits you and your websites.

How exactly?

Multiple users share a single server in a shared hosting plan. So if one user experiences a surge in traffic, he’ll end up using more resources from that server.

This means fewer resources for others in the same pool, and you don’t want that!

However, by setting a limit on the space per account SiteGround ensures everyone uses the server fairly – this ensures that no one ends up hogging more server space and resources.

This translates into a faster website for you!

With the pros and the cons behind us, let’s move this SiteGround hosting review onto a comparison of the three tiers.

Tier Comparison: StartUp vs. GrowBig vs. GoGeek

StartUp GrowBig GoGeek $3.95/mo $5.95/mo $11.95/mo Single Unlimited Unlimited 10GB 20GB 30GB 10,000 visits monthly 25,000 visits monthly 100,000 visits monthly Get Started Get Started Get Started

What is the best SiteGround tier?

The three tiers offered by SiteGround all have their limits (bandwidth and storage), but these limitations are not linear – making some SiteGround hosting tiers better than others!

Wait… what?!?

Let’s crunch a few numbers:

StartUp 10,000 monthly visits for $3.95 = 2,500 visitors per dollar spent

GrowBig 25,000 monthly visits for $5.95 = 4,200 visitors per dollar spent

GoGeek 100,000 monthly visits for $11.95 = 8,300 visitors per dollar spent

As you can see, you spend less by going for the supposedly more expensive tiers like GrowBig and GoGeek.

However, that doesn’t mean that I recommend everyone sign up for the GoGeek tier.

I do recommend GrowBig over StartUp.

For just $2 per month more (as compared to Startup), you can host multiple websites and accommodate an additional 15,000 visitors every month!

Before making a decision, ask yourself the following questions:

Do you want to host single or multiple websites?

How much traffic do your websites get?

Do you have a high requirement for resources?

First, realize your hosting needs, as that should make it clear as to whether the GrowBig or GoGeek plan is right for you.

Now, let’s take a look at my decision to use SiteGround’s GoGeek for my online business.

SiteGround’s GoGeek plan: reviewed and tested

Why did I get GoGeek in the first place?

When I was looking for hosting, I wanted something that could handle my high-traffic websites and at the same time wasn’t too expensive.

SiteGround GoGeek plan was the best option for me. It was just as fast as a dedicated hosting solution (and at the same time it didn’t empty my wallet.)

Siteground themselves refer to this plan as a semi-dedicated hosting. The servers are built with state-of-the-art infrastructure and shared amongst fewer users than the lower tiers.

Is GoGeek the fastest WordPress hosting?

We live in a world where we can get everything at our fingertips, and the same is the case with websites. That’s why I demand the fastest WordPress hosting I can find, and you should too.

If a visitor experiences slow loading websites, they will most likely go somewhere else, and this is the last thing you want.

Although SiteGround uses state-of-the-art servers that render high performance, I decided to validate it further by running a bunch of speed tests. The results were awesome.

Using GTmetrix, my website reported a loading time of only 2.3 seconds!

When I ran a speed test using Pingdom the loading speed reported was even less at 1.03 seconds.

Finally, Google’s own PageSpeed Insights gave my website a page speed score of 99 out of 100!

As you can see, the results are pretty darn good and well above the average page load time.

With testing complete, I think choosing SiteGround was a good choice for my websites.

Best reasons to get the GoGeek tier

Reason #1: Resources are shared amongst fewer users

Although GoGeek is technically a shared hosting plan, it’s shared amongst only a few users. This results in GoGeek users getting access to far more resources than the other (lower) tiers.

SiteGround claims GoGeek users use up to four times more server resources than lower tiers!

For this reason, SiteGround calls it a semi-dedicated hosting solution.

Reason #2: Priority support (under 10 minutes!)

Now, while SiteGround’s customer service is excellent regardless of the tier you choose, it gets even better with the GoGeek Plan and their dedicated priority support.

In the past, I’ve had technical issues resolved within minutes, all thanks to the priority support available with the GoGeek plan.

They say time is money, and SiteGround’s GoGeek plan is made to save you both!

Reason #3: State-of-the-art server infrastructure:

With GoGeek being a semi-dedicated hosting plan, it uses superior server architecture.

Their servers are similar to ones used by a dedicated host – think SSD powered storage, NGINX, and CDN – top-notch tech that will make your website load extremely fast. As we saw in my tests above.

Reason #4: One-click staging

People often refer to staging as a benefit that’s nice to have. I disagree. To me, it is an essential feature.

What is website staging?

Staging is a carbon copy of your website that you can create with a single click.

This copy of your website is where you can do work, fix errors, or install new plugins. Once you’re happy with your changes, you click one more button and all your changes get pushed to your live website!

This enables you to work on your website without the fear of breaking anything.

This feature is handy if you’d like to test new code, or plugins before implementing them onto the live version of your website.

Reason #5: Automated backup (with assisted restore)

SiteGround automagically performs daily backups and holds 30 copies of your site in storage. 30 copies!

With this kind of automated backup in place, you never have to worry about your website again. If it crashes, click restore!

So if you screw up and break your website, SiteGround will manually restore it for free!

Reason #6: E-commerce ready (plus PCI compliant with free SSL)

GoGeek servers are PCI compliant with free Let’s encrypt SSL. This makes it extremely easy to set up a safe and legal e-commerce website without hassle.

In 2019, every website should be secured and using an SSL certificate. In fact, Google is going to start penalizing sites that don’t use SSL.

To give you some background on SSL, here’s what Google says about securing your website.

I mention the free SSL certificates because there are hosting companies (cough, cough… GoDaddy … cough) who still charge their “valued customers” $50+ per year for SSL!

Final verdict: Do I recommend SiteGround?

We’ve reached the end of this SiteGround hosting review, and you probably are wondering if I recommend it?

Yes, absolutely.

In my opinion, if you’re serious about the security and speed of your online business, SiteGround is the best option you can find among WordPress hosting providers.

SiteGround is one of the few hosting providers recommended by WordPress, and that says a lot about their quality as a WordPress host.

Sure it can be a little bit expensive, but if you want excellent service, a blazingly fast website, and peace of mind with automatic backups, then SiteGround is the perfect choice for you.

Well then, you have to be ready to pay a bit more. But remember, you always get what you pay for.

Get Started Right Now and Get Up to 70% Off SiteGround

The post SiteGround Hosting Review: A Comprehensive Look at the Pros and Cons appeared first on Hack the Entrepreneur.

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lolajgt-blog · 4 years ago

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After all this you still may not be able to sell the property

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lifeonashelf · 5 years ago

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CLAPTON, ERIC

Before we get started, I should probably mention that it might be helpful to regard this piece as sort of a “to be continued…” affair. A handful of entries from now, the subject on my docket will be Cream, whose work is such a vital part of Eric Clapton’s canon than any appraisal of them will unavoidably qualify as a supplemental appraisal of him. I’m sure I will have some nice things to say about Cream since I think they were a pretty excellent band (although time will tell… as you’ve surely gleaned by now, these essays often encompass topics that have absolutely nothing to do with the artists I profess to be evaluating; I can’t predict where my mind will be when I get around to writing about Cream, so it’s entirely possible I’ll end up writing about Mork & Mindy or something instead). However, for our purposes here, I think it will serve us better if I focus exclusively on Clapton’s work as a solo artist. Which is likely to engender a far different climate than the forthcoming Cream-slash-Mork-slash-Mindy piece since I think 85% of the music Eric Clapton made after Cream disbanded is dreadfully fucking lackluster.

When I was learning to play guitar as a teenager, there were several monthly magazines devoted to that pursuit, all of which I perused religiously. (For the benefit of any millennials reading this: “magazines” were similar to books, except they were shorter and usually had more pictures in them—and “books” were similar to the missives your hyper-dramatic friends constantly post on Facebook, except they took a little bit longer to read, were written with proper grammar, and the stories in them weren’t all a bunch of histrionic bullshit—also, “grammar” refers to the coherent presentation of words that aren’t abbreviated or misspelled).

Much like any periodical dedicated to a singular subject, magazines like Guitar World regularly featured articles which graded the luminaries in their particular field—in GW’s case, these usually took the form of arbitrary ranking reports on “The 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time!”. I assume modern publications still rely on similarly banal and undemanding space-fillers: “The 10 Most Lethal Armor-Piercing Shells!” in Guns & Ammo, perhaps, or “The 4 Hottest Members Of 5 Seconds Of Summer!” in NAMBLA Monthly (for the benefit of any tweens reading this: if you ever encounter anyone who subscribes to this magazine, get out of their van immediately).

Of course, discerning readers must surely recognize the flaws inherent in any classification system which surveys qualifications that are subject to myriad personal tastes and biases—in other words, lists like those are completely goddamn meaningless (after all, designating any member of 5SOS as the hottest is utter lunacy; who could possibly make a firm decision between such dreamy candidates with any degree of certainty?). In the post-internet world, such items would qualify as your basic gratuitous clickbait. Yet at the time, I scrutinized those rankings with great interest, and I even took an undue amount of pride in finding some of my favorite guitarists logged at prominent positions on the docket—whenever Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil cracked the Top-20, I figured maybe the editors who put that particular list together actually knew their shit.

The cast of musicians who regularly occupied the apex slots in these polls never changed all that much—it seems to be universally agreed among everyone who reads magazines like Guitar World that the greatest player of all time is either Eddie Van Halen or Jimi Hendrix, which is a verdict I don’t have a strong argument against. Jimmy Page was usually ranked around #3 or so, and I never had any problem with that either because he’s Jimmy fucking Page. The rest of the Top-10 was a bit more fluid, with different architects wandering in and out of contention based on what was happening in their contemporary careers when the list was published. A few guitarists were ubiquitous placeholders who merely shifted numbers from year to year, like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, who seemed to always be classed in the Top-10 despite neither of them ever recording a single piece of music I would listen to on purpose.

Another omnipresent figure on these rosters was Eric Clapton, who was perpetually enumerated in the uppermost echelons of the guitar-god hierarchy, sometimes even slotted way up in the Top-5. A recent poll on ranker.com with 500-thousand tallied voters escalated the matter by rating Clapton as the THIRD greatest axe-wielder of all time, just below Jimi and Jimmy. And despite my cognizance that these standings are fundamentally inconsequential, the net result of Slowhand’s recurrent designation as one the most prodigious craftsmen in the history of his art-form is that for my entire life I have been systematically instructed to distinguish Eric Clapton as one of the greatest musicians of all time. Which is an assertion that rings as patently incorrect when you actually listen to his music.

There’s nothing incendiary about Clapton’s guitar playing, nothing particularly inimitable about his style. He didn’t develop a new musical language for his instrument to sing with—Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, and Jimmy Page all did that, but not Slowhand. The two main things Eric Clapton did exceptionally well were splicing a strain of safe white-boy blues into a strain of nonthreatening AOR rock and building the bulk of his career on serviceable renditions of songs written by other people. Whether this particular musical aesthetic appeals to you is irrelevant; no matter how much you like his version of “I Shot the Sheriff”, a modest benchmark like that is not indicative of genius, it is merely indicative of a seasoned session musician plying his trade. Make no mistake, Clapton is a very good guitar player, and I get the sense he’s a nice enough dude. Nevertheless, while the ability to knock out solid cover tunes might curry plenty of favor on Tequila Tuesday at the local dive bar, that skillset alone does not signify any form of virtuosity.

Timepieces—the 7x Platinum-selling 1982 greatest hits album most likely to represent Eric Clapton in the collections of casual fans—features ten songs culled from his 1970’s harvest, the most acclaimed era of his solo career. Of those ten tracks, Clapton is only credited as a songwriter on three cuts, and only one amidst that trio names him as the sole songwriter. This seems to reveal that out of all the most enduring tunes he released during his most enduring era, this musician alleged to be among the greatest of all time was only able to piece together one outstanding song when left to his own devices. Sure, “Cocaine” and “Layla” are fairly strong by any standards (although, Clapton didn’t write the former and merely co-wrote the latter), but the rest of Timepieces is notably unremarkable as far as best-of showcases go—unless the one major thing your life has been missing is the opportunity to hear Eric Clapton tackle the novelty number “Willie and the Hand Jive” like he was submitting it for the opening credits of a sitcom.

Then there’s the knotty matter of “Wonderful Tonight”, the only song on Timepieces credited singularly to Clapton—and, arguably, the only one of his solo period creations that has prevailed in a comprehensive cultural sense. You won’t meet too many wedding DJ’s who don’t have “Wonderful Tonight” in their arsenal, and I’m positive plenty of couples have selected the track to accompany their first dance at the reception. The tune has been widely appropriated as a naked avowal of love and devotion—and, hey, why not? Is there any woman in the world who doesn’t appreciate being told she’s wonderful?

However, sometimes songs get borrowed for things that don’t necessarily match up with their essence. Consider Green Day’s “Time of Your Life”, which will probably be played over every high school graduation slideshow in the civilized world for the next several decades because of its lyrics about turning points and forks stuck in the road—this, despite the fact that the proper title of the song is “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” and the refrain “I hope you had the time of your life” was actually penned as a derisive fuck-you aimed at an ex-girlfriend who jilted Billie Joe Armstrong. In some cases, the intended meaning of a tune doesn’t really matter; once it becomes transcendently popular, it means whatever the people who made it transcendently popular want it to mean. And before you know it, teenagers are dancing to a song about a bitter break-up at their senior proms without any apperception of irony.

This is why I’ve always been fascinated by the quixotic ideals that have been ascribed to “Wonderful Tonight”. Though the swooning masses have evidently chosen to accept that song as a chronicle of the profound romance nurtured by two lovers throughout a night on the town, to me the lyrics tell a far different story.

My sad tale is about a woman fretting woefully as she dolls herself up to attend a party with her carping husband, nervously asking him, “do I look alright?” She’s well aware that to this imperious man, her physical attractiveness is her primary asset; he regards her as a prop, an arm-candy accessory that buttresses his inflated sense of prestige. When the couple arrives at the gala, the caddish groom basks in the attention of the numerous leering men who crane their necks to look at his trophy (“everyone turns to see this beautiful lady that’s walking around with me”). Each swiveling head substantiates his ego, confirms that he is a superior alpha-male because he has managed to ensnare such a stunning female specimen—“I feel wonderful tonight,” he tells her, and this declaration might as well be a cackle of triumph.

His supremacy established, he then proceeds to get absolutely shit-faced. The song doesn’t specify whether his recreation of choice is alcoholic or narcotic or both, only that by the time he’s finished indulging in his spree of hedonistic rapture he’s “got an aching head.” The brevity of the account doesn’t allow a verse which elaborates on his conduct at the festivity, but we can reasonably assume this sort of character becomes a boorish lout when he’s intoxicated—just imagine the undignified behaviors a man like that adopts under the influence while his unfortunate wife helplessly watches on, mortified; perhaps Clapton is being kind by sparing us that part of the saga.

When the bender is over, he is too wasted to drive, so the onus of shuttling him home falls upon his submissive mate. And she is further demeaned when she has to then assist him as he staggers to bed. There, just before slipping into black-out unconsciousness, he slurs to her, “you were wonderful tonight.” A backhanded compliment, surely, reminding her of her place, letting her know that shutting up and looking pretty while he has all the fun is precisely what’s expected of her. “You were wonderful tonight,” he gabbles again, twisting the knife, reiterating that the evening is now over and she will once again curl up on her side of the mattress neglected and unsatisfied and cry herself to sleep while his insensate carcass snores and farts beside her.

[Okay, I made all that shit up. But now that I read the lyrics again, they don’t necessarily contradict my facetious analysis, so the above interpretation might actually be right on the money. Besides, if twelfth graders can slow-dance with their sweethearts to the soundtrack of a disintegrated relationship, then I can make “Wonderful Tonight” be about a doomed and loveless marriage if I want to.]

The other most obvious benchmark in Clapton’s solo catalog is his MTV Unplugged release, which shifted over 26-million copies and still holds the distinction of being the best-selling live album of all time. (For the benefit of any millennials reading this: “Unplugged” was a program that MTV produced during the prehistoric age of their existence, back when they had to lower themselves to airing rubbish like music videos and concerts because there weren’t enough quality reality shows being made about teenagers who have babies and get plastic surgery to fill their broadcast schedule). The network’s marketing strategy for the Unplugged series was actually quite ingenious: in addition to airing hour-long presentations of sets like Clapton’s in prime time, select songs from these shows were earmarked as “singles” and those individual performances were slotted into heavy rotation among the other hit videos of the era, a model which allowed MTV to essentially promote their own albums as frequently as they wanted. Since the channel’s driving ethos at the time was to pummel their audience with constant spins of even the most mediocre clips until viewers decided those songs must be cool because MTV played them all the time, plenty of latently unexceptional offerings like Clapton’s Unplugged were given a ready platform to become smash hits (lest we forget: this approach was so insidiously effective that even Mr. Big and Wilson Phillips achieved Platinum sales figures in 1992).

Hell, even I bought the fucking CD (I never bought those Mr. Big or Wilson Phillips records, though). I’ve listened to Unplugged a couple times while shaping this write-up, and I still have yet to locate a shred (pun possibly intended) of persuasive evidence that Eric Clapton is one of the greatest guitar players of all time anywhere on this disc. The revue has a couple of high-points—the version of “Tears in Heaven” here is indubitably definitive and “Layla” fares surprisingly well in a slower, stripped down form—but as a whole the album is an unadulterated slog, laden with an abundance of instantly-forgettable renditions of unessential blues tunes that are reduced to benign dentist-office white noise by the neutered arrangements which were integral to the Unplugged format. What these moments actually demonstrate—rather than Clapton’s mastery—is that a style of song-craft which was initially channeled straight from wounded souls into ragtag instruments doesn’t translate very convincingly to a fleet of $5,000 guitars; in a fundamental sense, Unplugged’s glossy and pristine studio-audience presentation, every chord perfectly EQ’d and in-tune, strips away whatever raw immediacy cuts like Son House’s “Walkin’ Blues” may have possessed in their primal form. I’m not earnestly criticizing Eric Clapton for his professionalism, but since the thrilling quintessence of live music is the anything-can-happen spontaneity of the stage, it’s difficult to get overly invested in the meticulously premediated and pokerfaced routine captured for this specific document.

The album does indeed embody Clapton’s mien—capable musicianship and a batch of songs unlikely to offend anyone’s sensibilities—but the guitarists who truly belong in the realm of the immortals are those whose work sounds like an existential search for deeper sonic truths. The notes they strike broadcast more than chords, they transmit fever and fire, each one eddying uncontainable passion from their hearts to their fingertips. This is why procedural players like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai have never been engaging: their main artistic drive has always seemed to be showcasing how many arpeggios they can execute, and the soulless military precision of that execution doesn’t convey any sincere affection for their craft—listening to Satch and Vai et al do their thing is kind of like watching a squad of soldiers marching in lock-step; you get the sense the last thing on those lads’ minds is how pleasant it is to be getting some fresh air. And my reaction to Unplugged is similar: Slowhand’s rigid delivery of tried-and-true fret phrases he can undoubtedly strum in his sleep by now doesn’t rouse much in the way of excitement; since Clapton doesn’t sound like he’s overly interested in challenging himself, he doesn’t challenge me either.

Ironically, at this very moment, my heart is seized by the precise melancholy sensations that are metaphorically denoted as “the blues.” I won’t go into a whole thing about it, but I assure you I am sad as fuck right now. Yet, even though I always seek out music I can relate to in times of pathos, somehow hearing Eric Clapton chirrup about drinking “Malted Milk” isn’t doing a whole lot to make me feel better—hearing Greg Puciato shriek his way through The Dillinger Escape Plan’s tempestuous masterpiece “Farewell, Mona Lisa” might do the trick, but not this shiny and innocuous enactment that would sound equally at home on a Jack Johnson record as it does on Unplugged. And this is usefully underscoring why Clapton’s work is so profoundly dull to me: despite being an artist who has devoted most of his catalog to the blues, a genre whose lyrical dominion deals exclusively in heart-borne emotions, his music doesn’t make me feel a goddamn thing. When I get low like this, I know from experience that I can release some of those negative energies by weeping, or wailing, or screaming my fucking head off. But try as I might, I can’t think of a single occasion when the balm my soul cried out for was twelve tasteful bars in the key of E with some gentle, susurrated crooning on top.

So you 26-million consumers can keep your guitar-hero, and his bubbly acoustic blues, and his songs about rakish men who disgrace their wives at parties. I don’t give a shit if Slowhand is ranked 16 spots higher in Guitar World—fucking give me Kim Thayil any day.

August 4, 2018

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