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shemakesmusic-uk · 3 years

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Wallice has shared her subversive new single 'Hey Michael'. 'Hey Michael' amplifies her blood-thirsty nature, a revenge anthem that finds Wallice turning into a worse villain than her erstwhile love interest. A song about toxic tendencies and how they manifest in our lives, 'Hey Michael' twists and turns around American Psycho imagery. Wallice labels "a revenge anthem for anyone who has encountered a gaslighting, manipulative person. It’s what I wish I would have said to all the ‘Michael’s’ I have met in my life. It can be substituted by many names, we all know or have met a ‘Michael’ though. Somehow the world revolves around them and they just can’t catch a break, because they never do anything wrong and it’s usually your fault. You should have listened to your gut instinct and swiped left on this Michael. This isn’t a man-hating song, it’s just something many people can relate to. Sometimes it’s embarrassing to admit just how bad a friend, date, or romantic partner was and a lot of the time, I would just smile and laugh off stupid remarks but when I think back, I wish I had told them off. But at the same time, my persona in the song is not the best person either. I literally say: I think I want to start a fight, which one is your girlfriend? The whole song is funny because I am so focused on how shitty Michael is that I don’t even think about how shitty I might be as well." Directed by Phil Stillwell, the video takes place at a house party, with Wallice interacting with various 'Michaels' before her behaviour spirals into something much, much worse. [via Clash]

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In the same vein as Massive Attack’s suburban groove and social commentary in the mid 90’s, KITA have captured the rhythm and heartbeat of suburban Pōneke; a city abuzz with a vibrant music and dramatic performance scene in their brand new track and official video, ‘Private Lives’. Weaving together elements of vintage rock, pop and soul, and warm hints of synth, KITA have created a skin-prickling piece of magic with ‘Private Lives’, a deeply beautiful track penned in 2020’s lockdown, that delves into the unknown of what happens when the blinds are shut – the parts of life that are unseen by others. "Standing from my kitchen window during lockdown in Aotearoa, sinister thoughts entered my mind about what could be happening behind closed doors for people”, says front-woman Nikita 雅涵 Tu- Bryant. The video tells the story of a father and daughter’s relationship amongst snapshots of everyday life and its monotonous anonymity, while things aren’t always what they appear on the surface. Late at night the father can finally reveal his true self, adorning makeup and sequins, only to be spied by his daughter. The two then share a special moment of dressing up and dancing together, a true celebration of individuality, self-love and the beauty of self-expression.

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'Just Chemistry' is the third single from Dance Lessons, a London-based, female-fronted and produced trio, creating what they define as Serrated Pop. 'Just Chemistry' is a delicate hymn to the unspoken. Dance Lessons return with their signature sound – minimal production, sleek vocals and intricate arrangements. Ann says: “'Just Chemistry' is about the over-complication of our relationships. It’s about the things that are left unsaid in-between the awkward text messages and conversations, and how the absence of knowing can be misinterpreted as doubt. Last year was a difficult one. For a long time, I felt at the mercy of my emotions. I doubted where things were going. I lived in the future and found it hard to commit to the present. But these moments of not knowing can be equally thrilling and beautiful. And that’s what the song is about: finding beauty in the unspoken. In most cases, it’s chemistry that makes us fall in love. Things end, all is temporary. Let’s not go to war with one another over it.” Nat says on the video: “A friend told us about this weird and wonderful house in North London that feels a little like stepping into an acid trip. We obviously wanted to check it out. It’s completely surreal, all over the place (in a great way) and generally eclectic, which felt inherently us. We instantly wanted to do something there and asked the owner for permission to shoot a music video. We filmed during lockdown and were let loose embracing all the oddness of it. Ann also designed and created the outfit she wears in the video, something she does with most of her wardrobe. It was shot, directed and edited by our hugely talented friends Ben Hanson and Simon Frost from Borderland Studios.”

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Returning with her first offering of the year, North London’s rising star Laurel Smith is ready to reveal her anticipated new single, ‘Out the Cage’ accompanied by an action packed and thrilling cinematic style music video directed by Jeremie Brivet and Jai Garcha. Sticking to her winning recipe of moody, dark, electro-pop production paired with effortlessly edgy tales of narrative lyricism, ‘Out the Cage’ is the next huge single from the young, innovative artist that is sure to follow the same trajectory of success as its predecessor, ‘Game Over’ released late last year. A songwriter and recording artist, Laurel Smith has been writing songs since the age of sixteen. With each single she’s released, Laurel has continued to adapt her sound and aesthetic, consistently honing her craft and evolving her brand. She has carefully carved out her place in an ever crowded industry and proceeds to turn heads at every corner. “‘Out The Cage’ is a song about breaking out from your constraints, both physical and mental. Although it can be interpreted in any way, when I wrote it I created a story around a bored housewife, falling out of love with her husband, she fantasises about tying him up and leaving him to be a badass assassin in a video game type world, roaming the city at night and living a life of unpredictability and excitement”.

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Hailing from the Philippines, singer-songwriter Laica is coming off a breakout 2020. Now the 21-year-old is gearing up for the release of her debut album I’m so fine at being lonely. The first single off the project, 'love u lately' is here, accompanied by a music video directed by Cooper Leith. 'Love u lately' is a relatable and infectious track. The song revolves around dating, understanding mixed signals, and the confusion that surrounds that world. Lyrically, Laica walks us through her experiences here, voicing her thoughts and frustrations about someone who she just can't seem to read right. Production-wise, the track is carried by a pulsing synth and a groovy bass. Together, the track feels upbeat. The vibe created by the production stands in contrast with the more emotional lyrics, making the track complex and interesting. The music video takes the concept of 'love u lately' to the extreme, in a fun and playful way. Laica is seen capturing her dream boy and attempting to use witchcraft to finally win him over. The video has a very DIY feel, which could serve to add to the reliability of the track. It’s a great extension of the track and taps into everyone’s most fantasy-driven realities. [via Earmilk]

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At first, Emily C Browning wasn't sure what to think. Spurned, rejected, and cast aside, she was angry, furious, and - at times - utterly bereft. Usually she'd utilise songwriting as a vessel for her emotions, but when she was so conflicted, and feeling so negative, that it just didn't enter her mind. The Christchurch, New Zealand artist needed to take a step back, and when she located some perspective, she was ready to act. New single 'I Wasn't Into You Anyway' is a soaring slice of revenge, one that finds Emily C Browning taking full control of her music. Her first solo production credit, its reminiscent of those surging, empowering Maggie Rogers bops, while also containing similar DNA to Sharon Van Etten's work. Lyrically, it's absolutely her own creation, with Emily leaning on those often-hidden feelings. She comments... "Everyday for a month I wrote in my journal: I want to write a song about feeling rejected. But I couldn’t figure out how to keep it light and funny, it can be quite a painful topic and I didn’t want to sound too heavy. But I kept working on it everyday and came up with this song. I then spent another month recording it, trying to capture a sound that stayed upbeat and playful. I put so much time and energy into the song that I ended up completely forgetting about the person who rejected me in the first place (honest, I swear)." [via Clash]

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Alt-pop force Holly Humberstone returns with new single 'Haunted House'. The songwriter's potent debut EP Falling Asleep At The Wheel was a sensation, racking up more than 100 million global streams. A bona fide phenomenon, Holly returns with a single that displays a more nuanced, reflective side to her work. 'Haunted House' digs into childhood, and looks at the way memory can frame the way we construct our identities. She comments: "I wrote this song about the old and characterful house I grew up in. The house is such a huge part of who I am and our family. With my sisters and I moving out and living separate lives, coming home feels very comforting and one of the only things keeping us all connected." Playing with concrete imagery and no small degree of invention, 'Haunted House' connects art to life in an enchanting fashion. She adds: "The house is almost falling down around us now though, and we’ve realised that pretty soon we’ll be forced to leave. There’s a cellar full of meat hooks and a climate so damp mushrooms grow out of the walls. Loads of people have probably died here in the past but I’ve always felt really safe. It’s like a seventh family member. It’s part of me." [via Clash]

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In 2019, the Boston-born and Brooklyn-based indie rock album Crumb released their debut album Jinx. Crumb haven’t yet announced plans to follow that album up, but they’re definitely working towards something. Last month, the band came out with a one-off single called 'Trophy.' Now, they’ve followed that one with two new tracks, and they’re both winners. The new songs 'BNR' and 'Balloon' both fit nicely into Crumb’s comfort zone. The band’s sound is a rich, sophisticated take on psychedelia, with blissed-out lead vocals from Lila Ramani and with some great funky drum action. The band co-produced both songs with Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado, who’s done great recent work with people like Father John Misty and Weyes Blood and the Killers and who knows how to make oblique ’70s-style pop sound good. But Crumb themselves deserve a ton of credit for coming up with a sound this layered and weird. They’re the rare circa-2021 band who might remind you of Broadcast. In a press release, Ramani says, “‘BNR’ is an ode to my favorite colors. I had a weird obsession with those colors in winter 2018-2019 and felt like they would follow me around everywhere I went." 'BNR' also has a cool music video. Director Joe Mischo starts the clip off as a hallucinatory reverie, but he turns it sharply towards horror at the end. [via Stereogum]

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Last year, Limerick poet/musician Sinead O’Brien released her debut EP, Drowning In Blessings. It was a unique work, a handful of songs featuring O’Brien’s sing-speak over spindly, post-punk guitars. It garnered O’Brien a bit of buzz overseas, and it left you wondering where she might take her music from there. Now, O’Brien’s back with a new song called 'Kid Stuff.' “‘Kid Stuff’ shows up all different tones on different days,” O’Brien said in a statement. “There’s something alive in it which cannot be caught or told. It is direct but complex; it contains chapters. This feels like our purest and most succinct expression yet.” Like Drowning In Blessings, 'Kid Stuff' found O’Brien working with Speedy Wunderground mastermind Dan Carey. Musically, it hints at a level up moment for O’Brien. There was something alluring and jagged about Drowning In Blessings, but 'Kid Stuff' places her usual approach over a song that is surprisingly groovy — maybe even a little danceable. It comes with a video directed by Saskia Dixie. [via Stereogum]

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Das Beat are made up of German actress and vocalist Eddie Rabenberger and Agor of Blue Hawaii. The pair have just shared their first single 'Bubble' online now and are set to release their debut EP Identität on June 4 via Arbutus Records. Born in Berlin during 2020’s legendary lockdown, Das Beat seeks to blast both boredom and boundary. Dabbling in German New Wave, Italo Disco, Indie & Dance, their sound is unified by vocals from Eddie Rabenberger, sung in German and English. Amidst playful lyrics one finds a strong underlying pulse (das “beat”), pinning down the duo’s meandering atmospherics, dreamy synths, guitars and percussion. The duo is half-Canadian and half-German. Agor (of Blue Hawaii), moved to Berlin from Montreal in 2018. Eddie is a theatre actress originally hailing from a small town in Bavaria. Together they find a strange but alluring symbiosis - like Giorgio Moroder meets Nico, or Gina X Performance meets The Prodigy.

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St. Vincent has fully embraced the ’70s aesthetic for her retro-sounding new record, Daddy’s Home. Now, she’s diving headlong into the animation styles of the era with the video for 'The Melting of the Sun'. Presented as a “betamax deluxe release” rip from “Candy’s Music Video Archives,” the clip blends live action shots of St. Vincent herself with the wavy, intermittent animation frames any Schoolhouse Rock student is familiar with. The psychedelic lines fit a song called 'The Melting of the Sun' perfectly, as do the drawings of the legends mentioned in the song’s lyrics like Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, and Tori Amos. St. Vincent co-directed the clip with Bill Benz, while Chris McD provided the animation. [via Consequence]

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Bay Area slowcore trio Sour Widows have released a new single, 'Bathroom Stall,' from their forthcoming EP Crossing Over, which they announced last month with its title track. The song’s build-up is subtle and poignant like Sufjan Stevens, but Maia Sinaiko’s evocative, sweeping vocals are one-of-a-kind, and the lyrics are graphic and tragic: “Do you remember it like I do?/ Your lips turned blue I had my fingers in your mouth/ And I couldn’t get them out.” Sinaiko said of the song: "This song is about a relationship I had with someone who struggled with addiction, who very tragically passed away three years ago while we were together. It’s about some moments we shared, and how it feels to walk around carrying that person and those experiences with me while the world stays normal. I wrote the song because I wanted to preserve and document what happened to me. to write out the scary stuff and just let it sit there forever. I think its funny that its called 'Bathroom Stall' and that it has that image in it: the song goes from heavy and dark to ordinary and totally pedestrian in a sentence, which feels absurd. And that’s kind of what it’s like to grieve. That’s kind of what’s hard to explain about grief, how absurd it is. Part of you goes to a different planet and part of you stays walking around like an alien on Earth, going to the bathroom and looking at the moon and shit." [via Stereogum]

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As JUNO-nominated singer Kandle Osborne prepares to launch her new project, Set The Fire this spring, she shares the album’s third single, 'Misty Morning.' From being penned on a napkin while abroad to a Vancouver studio, 'Misty Morning' is a sonic journey that echoes soulful vulnerability and an honest reflection of realizing true love. For the video, Kandle reconnects with 'Honey Trap' director, Brandon William Fletcher, to create classic 40s noir-inspired cine-magic, filmed along the Vancouver coastline and within the lush landscape of Stanley Park. Kandle says: “‘Misty Morning’ is my first real love song, captured on a napkin while in Ischia, Italy when I was truly happy. My songwriting usually comes from a place of turmoil and catharsis, but this was simply a snapshot of a perfect, vulnerable moment. In recording it, I wanted to hide behind lush orchestration, but my producer/ best friend Michael Rendall had other ideas. He wanted to strip it down to just piano & a single vocal to take me out of my comfort zone and re-capture the open-hearted feelings I had while writing it. The song and the recording both hold for me a time when I dropped my guard for pure authentic love in spite of all my flaws and failures. In that moment, I felt my true value as a whole person for the first time.”

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On 'Vertigo,' Alice Merton’s first single of 2021, the 27-year-old describes the long road from uncertainty back to self-confidence. It emphasizes the unrest that seizes her again and again, the thought: “Why can’t I just let it go?” These contradicting thoughts and emotions that are so familiar to all of us sum up to an overwhelmingly positive effect - 'Vertigo' leaves you empowered rather than anxious: A powerful indie pop arrangement with distorted guitars, plus Alice Merton’s crystal-clear voice. The result is reminiscent of the British Invasion, with no air of self-doubt. With its energetic live qualities, 'Vertigo' feeds an appetite for summer festivals and concerts that will definitely return at some point. Largely responsible for this is the Canadian producer Koz, a multiple Grammy nominee, who has worked with Dua Lipa ('Physical') among others. Here, too, he adds on to what has already made Alice Merton stand out from the crowd in the past - her classic pop appeal - with an uncompromising and indie attitude. This enables Alice to take another big step: She equally encourages a shaken generation and herself that there will be easy summers again. That you can dance again and lie in each other's arms. That it is absolutely fine to have many facets, to not always be clear, and that strength and weakness are not mutually exclusive.

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Canadian artist Olivia Lunny's new release 'Sad To See You Happy' is a shamelessly poppy track centering an acutely relatable break-up narrative. The Canadian artist follows up her breakthrough success with a bouncy cut to soundtrack 2021’s long-awaited spring. There's a relatable tale of break-up at the heart of the gloriously poppy new single, belied by percussive instrumentation that creates a warm, nostalgic feel. [via Line Of Best Fit]

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After sharing the single last month, Charlotte Adigéry is now revealing the brand new video for ‘Bear With Me (and I’ll stand bare before you)’. The first new music since her 2019 debut EP Zandoli, Charlotte says of the video, “The video is about being confined thus confronted to the way we live. The cruel irony of having the privilege of standing still, questioning and observing my life in all safety while others are fighting for theirs. On the other hand, the video is about trying to stay sane while feeling that the walls are closing in on you. Embracing boredom and finding joy in the little things in life.” Director Alice Kunisue adds, “When I listened to Charlotte’s song and what it meant for her and Bolis, I wanted the video to visually encapsulate that feeling of being stuck inside and confronted to our deeper selves while paradoxically sensing the chaos going on in the outside world without being able to do anything about it. Choosing to film an apartment room from one single angle was a way to reflect that narrowness of thought that we all experienced, but also a constraint that allowed us to explore and develop visual ideas within a narrow system, in a way having to think only inside the box, which artistically was a fun challenge.” [via DIY]

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Millie Turner has shared a video for ‘Concrete Tragedy’. It’s a cut from her upcoming mini-album Eye Of The Storm, set for release on May 16, which also features a rework of breakout song ‘(Breathe) Underwater’. “This video is a visual representation of dancing on your own,” she says of the clip. “Combining the many parts of who we are when we’re by ourselves, I wanted it to feel like you’re entering a world of imagination that comes alive when we express ourselves.” [via Dork]

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Doja Cat and SZA have come together for a new single called 'Kiss Me More.' When the song was announced Wednesday night, the internet flipped out, which is to be expected with these two — especially Doja Cat, who is regularly going viral these days for all kinds of reasons. When it comes to collaborations, she always finds the best people. That includes Saweetie, who appeared on Doja’s recent 'Best Friend' but then claimed that it was released against her wishes. Given SZA’s long history of public frustration over TDE Records holding back her new album, she is probably happy to have any new music out. Despite recent single 'Good Days' hitting the top 10, her restless fanbase is still awaiting a follow-up to 2017’s iconic Ctrl. 'Kiss Me More' is the first single from Doja’s new album Planet Her, scheduled for release this summer. It returns to the disco vibes of Doja’s #1 hit 'Say So,' this time with no apparent resemblance to any Skylar Spence song. [via Stereogum]

#videos of the week #wallice #kita #dance lessons #laurel smith #laica #emily c. browning #holly humberstone #crumb #st. vincent #sour widows #kandle #alice merton #olivia lunny #charlotte adigery #millie turner #doja cat #sza

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arcticdementor · 5 years

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To be sure, this is a man speaking. But the fundamental quality of this kind of approach to art, culture, the public square, and the rest of it, is evidence of a disordered and out of control femininity. And an equally dysfunctional and abdicating masculinity. A comment left by Youngamconreader on another thread got me thinking about this. I think there is a direct connection between the sexual orientation and gender identity and "alternative family" topics that this blog often discusses, and what's going on in a story like this one, here. I think we are collectively experiencing a massive breakdown/derangement of sex, of masculinity and femininity, and the damage is felt in every single corner of our society and our politics. The "pink police state" (Poulos--check him out) that is coming into being is the product of a miserable and frustrated femininity, which holds the field almost without opposition due to the near-complete abdication of men, who are, sometimes I think almost "to a man," in today's society, nihilistic and disengaged. For those who would say Trump proves that this is not true, I would say look at how he stands alone--at least in America and indeed in the Anglosphere. Everybody agrees that he is sui generis; all of the establishment of his own party just wants things to go back to the way they were; there is nobody who even remotely resembles something like a successor. Also, it is telling that one of the major reasons he won is because he is an online troll, but rich and famous enough to do it under his own name; he is the stand-in for huge numbers of men who have nothing but contempt for today's world but who only reveal their views and feelings anonymously. In large measure, men are opting out. Our bourgeois and hugely wealthy and powerful nation is decadent and its people are soft and domesticated; and, what is worse, the men of sensitivity and intelligence, of taste and discernment, are disgusted by what they see -- a rotten culture of placelessness, hideous architecture and built environments, unbelievably bad art and culture, degenerate music, films made for lowest-common-denominator global audiences, films that are so much more hideous than what was being done for decades, even as early as the 1930s, that it boggles the mind (every single person involved in CGI production should be lined up and shot), universities that have destroyed their own liberal arts programs -- OK, I need to stop myself, but you get the point, they are disgusted by what they see -- primarily they are disgusted by the *domestication* of the people they are supposed to look up to and/or emulate -- and they withdraw. We know about the video game and pornography addicts, the shut-ins, the "incels," but there is very much more to it all even than that. In the meantime, there is relentless, endless, earnest propaganda directed at women like a fire hose, constantly telling them that the essence of their own womanhood is bound up with their bourgeois career success. Nonstop messages received during their schooling, on TV and the movies and the internet, from bougie parents, tell them that they should reach for the stars (by *working*, always by working) and never to settle for just being a mother or just a wife. This has been going on for a long time, and many Boomers are certainly true believers in it -- my Boomer mother certainly believes it like a religion, God bless her -- and it is certainly true that if you have no training or career you are going to be more financially dependent and/or more financially precarious, and the Boomers, who divorce at the drop of a hat, greatly fear that. But my generation and the generations after (I was born in the early/mid 80s) have been taught constantly and relentlessly that work/career is identity, is the *point* of life, and quite frankly women got it MUCH more than men did, since the idea was to correct or change the unfairnesses/biases/power imbalances of the past. And it has resulted in a huge number of women who are unhappy and unfulfilled. It turns out that a life of making PowerPoints or pushing papers or running workplace conflict-resolution trainings or whatever do not really fulfill people; those women who substitute career for family entirely, or who find themselves torn between the two and not very sure they are finding a balance that they will ultimately be very happy about when they look back on their life, know that something is not right. I think we all used to have a much saner approach back in the day, before "career" was a word much used, and before resume/CV culture was so widespread; people may have been a lot poorer, but at least they understood that a job was about doing something that somebody or other had to do, and putting food on the table and a roof over the head of their kids; at least people weren't being sold a bill of goods by their parents, their teachers, authority figures, and the culture as a whole about what the point of being human and living life really is. I don't blame women for being unhappy -- I think the way our culture *relentlessly* propagandizes women that their very femininity and their very identity is bound up in bourgeois career success is one of the very cruelest aspects of life in "late capitalism." It is worse for them than for us men. It is not just that there is nothing wrong with having and raising children -- an incredibly difficult and honorable job. It is that the vast majority of people are not going to find true purpose and meaning in a consumer capitalist society (or probably any other society) just via their work alone. Selling phones or cutting hair or writing ad copy or processing loan applications or playing the Pachabel Canon for the three billionth time at weddings might not be so bad, you might even like it OK most of the time, but it is not the same thing as, say, raising your child, at least not for most people, and certainly bourgeois career success should not be so incredibly inappropriately stressed in our society to the point where increasing numbers of women -- women who want kids! -- are waiting until they are 37 to start families and freezing their eggs and the rest of it. It is just cruel and it alone by itself is enough to make me strongly dislike this consumer capitalist system we live in. Women are unhappy and are sort of flailing about projecting their unmet needs and frustrated desires in numerous directions. They are frustrated with the aforementioned nihilistic and disengaged men, they are pissed that they work outside the home and inside it too and they still struggle to make ends meet and especially to find the time they need, they lose out because a consumer capitalist society constantly f***s them over by creating an arms-race situation for intrasexual competition. In a more conservative and traditional society, say a society that frowns on makeup, women do not have to compete in that sphere. But in a society like ours, if certain women have the money and time to do a lot with makeup, then suddenly large numbers of women have to spend the time and money on it too just to compete or keep up. This does not make women better off. A consumer capitalist society squeezes them constantly. A society in which the health-care system is a disaster -- and I don't care if you hold the typical liberal views about why it's a disaster or the typical conservative views about why it's a disaster -- hurts women more because they rely on it more for basic biological reasons. Woman carry a human being inside them for a significant period of time (if they have kids) -- nothing men have to deal with ever compares to that health/biological-wise. All that said, women today -- who are not being well served by our current economic/cultural/social orthodoxy, at all -- are playing a major/primary role in this disordered and I think semiapocalyptic woke politics. Chesterton was not afraid to write, and did write, about why he opposed women's suffrage, and he said that in human history, women *have* been queens (including some very good ones), have been monarchs, have certainly wielded power -- but it is precisely in the context of *democracy* that they have not had the vote, not in human history or at least Western history. And, indeed, as he put it, women have/had not been given the vote precisely because they are in some sense too powerful, they are absolute rulers in their bones in a way that men are not. There is something to this, even if in our age we cannot tolerate or hear it. One of the things that amuses me is the way -- and they used to do it more often than they do now, but perhaps you know what I mean -- conservatives often lament or attack depictions, in TV or movies, of the married couple where the man is a stupid shlub while the woman is the smart, knowing, sensitive, and competent one. I agree with the conservatives who see this as anti-male---sure. But to me, it really means something else. The reason we see men depicted this way and women depicted that way is because men tolerate it and women would not tolerate the reverse. What it means is that men give in, don't want to deal with it, don't want to fight, while women will NOT let it go, will do what it takes to make the man understand that it is NOT worth his time and energy to go there, to do X annoying or undesired thing, etc. So, we have men depicted as losers, and women depicted as anything but. There is a lesson here. This is *exactly* the same dynamic that we see with conservatives and liberals, with the Republican and Democratic parties! If, for example, Roe v. Wade was overturned, there would be an efficient, effective, organized, identify-every-single-pressure-point-and-*squeeze* response from upper middle class women that would bring the entire Republican Party to its knees within days. It would be a massacre the likes of which you have never seen. Every single HR and public relations department of every single company on the Fortune 500 list would tell the wholly owned and wholly craven Republican Party exactly what to do--stand now right now-- and that would be that. I don't mean to say that conservatives are all men and liberals are all women, but the conservative "spirit" of the current moment is very male (the natural law arguments! Good Lord!) and the liberal "spirit" of the moment is very female. And it is no contest, at all. Women understand that men are less socially adept (quick: what is the ratio of male autists to female autists?) and that men, while unquestionably stronger physically, are more conflict-averse and more predictable (as everybody knows, men want certain things and it's pretty easy to know exactly what they are and to use that information to one's advantage; whereas, as Freud so perfectly distilled, the question of what women want is itself so difficult to answer as to be a kind of female superpower) -- and women use this for everything it's worth. And today, in our democracy, we see the consequences, as a kind of feminine disordered or frustrated impulse holds the field basically unopposed. This idea that this mural -- to get back to the topic of the original post! -- needs to be torn down because "it makes the children feel unsafe" -- here we see a feminine sensibility both disordered and displaced but winning the field because there's hardly anything else with the will to stand up to it. The masculine counterpoint to this smothering mother has withdrawn -- perhaps to 4chan, perhaps to Pr0ntube. Conservatives used to love pointing out that in the inner city, the family had completely broken down to the point where the matriarch/mother was the only influence in childrens' lives and husbands and fathers had ceased to exist. Well, we see that now in our society/culture as a whole. Somehow, the mother alone, the feminine quality alone, does not yield great results, when not counterbalanced with the masculine.* Things become disordered and even monstrous. I am a gay man, and I can't help but think that, when I do this, when I write about this stuff, Camille Paglia (PBUH) should be my model and my inspiration, because she saw so clearly, and so strikingly, from the outside, so to speak, the great and immortal interplay and relationship between male and female that produces *all* of us, and that is essential to -- not only beauty and art, but order, form, and *lastingness*, things that do not die. We all and every one of us need a society in which the male and the female are counterbalanced and juxtaposed and brought together in a great tension and a great union. The disordered and indeed cataclysmic collapse of the male and female counterbalance is impacting us everywhere, and in ways we do not even realize -- I firmly believe that. There must be a return and rediscovery of the masculine force and the masculine will -- to connect this to the posts about open borders, to a masculine will that says "no, I am drawing a line" -- how many of you have read Sexual Personae, and the CENTRAL role that the idea of "drawing the line" plays in that book? Men "draw the line," which is why men have dominated almost beyond measure the realm of visual art in human history. There must be a return to this, or the nation will dissolve into the primordial swamp that Paglia says represents--not the feminine, but the feminine when outside of civilization, the feminine in a state of nature and crude and unformed.

Matt in VA

#quote #long quote #very long quote #matt in va #the american conservative #comments section

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deafaningphysicalcomputing · 4 years

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Floor Crawler

As part of the experiments portfolio assignment I will be documenting the progress of constructing and coding a floor crawler bot.

Equipment used:

1 x Arduino Leonardo

1 x CNC shield

2 x Two Phase Stepper motors (Jumper Cables)

2 x 8 cm Diameter wheels

1 x 3.7 V Series Battery Tray

4 x Samsung INR18650-25R Lithium Ion Batteries

1 x Ultrasonic Rangefinder HR-SR04 w/ jumper cables

2 x Sheets Midwest White Styrene .040 x 7.6″ x 11″

4 x Strips of Sprue sourced from Games Workshop sprues

10 x Mixed size clamps

1 x Revel Contact Cement

1 x Hobby Knife

1 x Pair of Scissors

Constructing the Crawler:

Part of the challenge with building the crawler was creating a chassis capable of bearing the weight of all the components. The biggest concern was the motors, as these weighed 250g (0.55lb) each. This meant that the chassis had to bear a weight in excess of 500g (1.10lb) to hold two motors, Arduino, shield, ping sensor, battery tray and batteries.

In addition to this, suitable materials for the chassis were fairly limited. This was because they had to be large enough to form the base and stiff or sturdy enough to bear the weight. This immediately ruled out materials like card as, whilst easy to acquire in large sections, they were far too flimsy to bear the weight. The only suitable materials available were styrene plasticard and model sprue.

However, like card they were too flexible for use so had to be stiffened through engineering tricks and simple reinforcement. The first attempt got off to a poor start, as the base was far too small to hold all of the components. With this initial set back in mind, I set about creating a new, much larger one with excess room for components to be added as necessary. In order to stiffen the base a method of diagonal strips of material was used. This involved placing two strips of sprue inside the base and a series of styrene strips placed on the bottom. This massively helped stiffen the base of the crawler allowing it to bear the weight of all components on the board, without flexing excessively.

For holding everything together I used Revel Contact adhesive as this would ensure a firm bond to hold the chassis together. To ensure a flat surface and to prevent air bubbles compromising the structure by forcing the styrene apart, I used small modelling clamps to hold components down whilst the glue cured.

The next step was to create housing for the individual components with the first being the battery tray. It was formed from four pieces of styrene attached to the base with a small hole added in front of the wires where they protrude from the battery tray. This would allow the battery tray to fit snugly into the housing without needing to flex the wires over the housing.

Next was the housing for the Arduino and shield which was formed the same way as the battery tray housing. However, this was slightly higher to account for added height of the shield, with a section cut out for the cable which connects the power cables to the Arduino and Shield.

To finish the base of the crawler I added two plastic bottle caps to each end of the base. This served two purposes; to prevent the crawler from grinding wither end of it’s chassis into the floor and the other being to reduce the extremes of highs and lows that would drastically throw the sensor off. The only complication with this was that the caps proved to be unaffected by the glue, this resulted in one incident where a cap popped clean off of the chassis.

The ping sensor was the final component to be attached, after connecting the jumper cables the last problem was to attach it to the chassis facing forwards. This was done by simply blue tacking the sensor to the front.

Motors and rubber bands:

With the chassis completed it was then that the real problem of creating the crawler raised it’s head. The attachment of motors to the chassis was the biggest problem as there was no concrete method. To ensure they were even and central, several layers of styrene squares were layered together to form a sort of bracing block that would be sandwiched in between the two motors to ensure enough clearance between the wheels and the chassis. The block also featured a gap between the two sides so as to allow the wiring to go through unobstructed.

The initial method, which was really more on paper than in practice, was building a cage of styrene around the motors and then boxing them in with strips of plasticard, like door bars to keep them in. After much discussion with other people, however, the idea was ultimately scrapped.

The second method was the use of brass wire bent to form braces that would hold the motors on the chassis. However, this method was also scrapped due to the difficulty in forming a perfect fit around the motors and the realisation of a better solution.

The third and final method was the use of rubber bands as I thankfully had a small bag full of them. This was to prove the simplest and most effective method of getting the motors fixed on the chassis.

Of Code and Complications:

After the success of getting motors onto the chassis, I then encountered the next big problem of this project, programming the Arduino. Because I have not had much experience with coding an Arduino, let alone coding stepper motors, tinkering with the code proved more problematic than expected.

The easiest parts were accessing the accelStepper Library which can be found in the Arduino coder and finding code for running the echo sensor as both were online and accessed from the Arduino Forums, courtesy of Isaac100 who wrote the base code for the ping sensor to work found at https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/Isaac100/getting-started-with-the-hc-sr04-ultrasonic-sensor-036380.

Modifying the code for the motors and the ping sensor to work together proved to incredibly finicky, the code also proved to be frustratingly temperamental with the crawler often racing in random directions. This is aptly shown in the demonstration video as the crawler appears to take on a life of it’s own.

Video of it running:

youtube

Self reflection:

Things I did well:

Built a frame that was easy to construct for fairly cheap and could bear the weight of all components easily.

Was able to work around physical issues fairly well such as attaching the motors to the chassis and work with unusual solutions such as the use plastic bottle caps as skis.

Things I could improve:

Organise the wiring so that it is less messy and less likely to interfere with the wheels. This could be done with the use of rubber bands to tie the cables together as a substitute for actual cable ties.

Spend less time on the physical aspects of the crawler and instead focus more on the coding of the crawler. This would be possible with more practice at coding and gaining a better understanding of how the code interacts.

Conclusion:

Ultimately the idea itself was almost turned into reality but suffered at the last hurdle with a major roadblock which could have been overcome with enough time and experimentation to work out the kinks in the code.

Final Code:

#include <AccelStepper.h>

// ENABLE pin, inverted #define NOT_ENABLE_PIN 8

// The X Stepper pins #define STEPPER_X_DIR_PIN 5 #define STEPPER_X_STEP_PIN 2

// The Y stepper pins #define STEPPER_Y_DIR_PIN 6 #define STEPPER_Y_STEP_PIN 3

// Define some steppers and the pins the will use AccelStepper stepperX(AccelStepper::DRIVER, STEPPER_X_STEP_PIN, STEPPER_X_DIR_PIN); AccelStepper stepperY(AccelStepper::DRIVER, STEPPER_Y_STEP_PIN, STEPPER_Y_DIR_PIN);

const int trigPin = 12; const int echoPin = 13; float duration, distance;

void setup() { pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT); pinMode(echoPin, INPUT); Serial.begin(9600);

// Enable drivers pinMode(NOT_ENABLE_PIN, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(NOT_ENABLE_PIN, LOW);

stepperX.setMaxSpeed(800.0); stepperX.setAcceleration(400.0); stepperX.moveTo(200);

stepperY.setMaxSpeed(800.0); stepperY.setAcceleration(400.0); stepperY.moveTo(200);

}

void loop() { int stepsToObs; digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW); delayMicroseconds(2); digitalWrite(trigPin, HIGH); delayMicroseconds(10); digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);

duration = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH);

distance = (duration*0.0343)/2; stepsToObs = distance/8; Serial.print("stepsToObs "); Serial.println(stepsToObs); Serial.print("Distance: "); Serial.println(distance); Serial.print(" X "); Serial.println(stepperX.distanceToGo()); Serial.print(" Y "); Serial.println(stepperY.distanceToGo());

// Change direction at the limits if (stepperX.distanceToGo() == 0 ){ if(stepperX.currentPosition() > 0){ //stepperX.moveTo(-stepperX.currentPosition()+stepsToObs/2); stepperX.moveTo(-200+stepsToObs/2); }else{ stepperX.moveTo(200); } } if (stepperY.distanceToGo() == 0){ if(stepperY.currentPosition() > 0){ //stepperY.moveTo(-stepperY.currentPosition()+stepsToObs/2); stepperY.moveTo(-200+stepsToObs/2); }else{ stepperY.moveTo(200); } }

while (stepperX.distanceToGo() != 0 && stepperY.distanceToGo() != 0){ stepperX.run(); stepperY.run(); } }

Bibliography:

Arduino (2020) Arduino Available at: https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/Isaac100/getting-started-with-the-hc-sr04-ultrasonic-sensor-036380 (Accessed: 20th May 2020)

Arduino (2020) Info Protoneer Available at: https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/Isaac100/getting-started-with-the-hc-sr04-ultrasonic-sensor-036380 (Accessed: 18th May 2020)

Arduino (2020) Arduino Available at: https://www.arduino.cc/en/tutorial/stepperSpeedControl (Accessed: 24th May 2020)

Arduino (2020) Arduino Available at: https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=563007.0 (Accessed: 28th May 2020)

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mattgoaklandart · 5 years

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Interactive Art Conceptual Response #1

1. I’m particularly fascinated with the head and facial area, but more specifically eyes. Eyes have long been held as one of if not the most significant sensory organ on the human body from a symbolic standpoint. Spiritually they were considered to act as a window to the soul and were representative of one’s morality and intelligence. The eye of God, for example, is an all-seeing omnipotent force that no one can escape. From a more scientific standpoint humans do indeed express emotions with their eyes and surrounding features, and pet owners can even tell how their furry friends feel thanks to this nonverbal communication. These are often very subtle motions, and it is a skill we have been developing over a long time (and still are!).

Hair is also a physical attribute I find interesting, and unlike eyes it is considerably unique to human beings. Well not so much body and pubic hair, but rather the hair you’ll find on one’s head. Hair is extremely versatile in how it shapes one’s face and has become an expansive art form throughout history. This is in part thanks to the numerous differences in traits, be it color, length, weight or texture, that you’ll find across our genetics. Albert Plehov, a Russian artist and photographer, teamed up with hairdresser Marina Roy for a series titled “The Art of Hair” in 2016. The project is still ongoing and strips the figures of all qualities and atmosphere apart from their follicles, including clothing (although underwear is provided as needed). The photos range from quaint to striking, at times used to obscure the figure while exaggerating it in others. I’m especially enamored with shots where the hair has been stretched and pulled from the scalp to ridiculous lengths, appearing ethereal like clouds scraping the tips of mountains.

2. In a world of limitless potential I’d likely be working on masks and helmets, and while they wouldn’t serve the higher utilitarian purposes of robotic limbs or performance-enhancing robot powered exoskeletons I would aim to give them helpful functionality. Many of our senses, or at least the 5 roots senses we’re taught in school, are based in our heads and could be directly influenced by digitally enhanced headwear. Eyes could be given night-vision visors that allow for visibility in the darkness or have adjustable optics as a digital replacement for glasses. Ears could be outfitted with sound enhancing apparatus to help the audibly impaired, or equipped with an adjustable barrier to block sound in areas where loud noise is a consistent threat. Voice-modifiers could be installed near the mouth to hide one’s identity or to make the user sound more/less imposing. Not all these changes would be super useful, but they’d at least be fun or experimental.

Enhancing the eyes sounds most fun to me, not only for functional reasons but cosmetic as well. Some enhancements are more direct, like colored contacts to change the iris, but indirect means such as glasses and visors come with fun possibilities. In my previous post I discussed the iconic nature of the Daft Punk helmets and how they came to be as beloved as their accompanying music. The sleek exterior of polished metal is enhanced by an assortment of dazzling lights that blink and flash during performances. The visors obscure the eyes but still allow the wearer to see, which is achieved with darkened plastic that creates a kind of one-way mirror. This gives the user a mystifying shroud not unlike the stoic nature of real robots, yet the lights can substitute as a means of expression if employed properly.

3. Plastics and polyesters are synonymous with the style I’m attracted to for a few reasons, but largely because they evoke a futuristic vibe with their sleek and reflective properties. Holographic fiber is particularly pleasing with its metallic appearance, yet it has the malleability of fabrics that allow it to bend and fold in unique ways.

I’ve notice over time my angle for démodé futuristic concepts: the flying hover cars of the 1950’s, bulky space suits with gratuitous rings and antennae, exaggerated robots with simple geometric features and bright flashing lights. It’s entertaining to go back and analyze how the people of yesterday envisioned today, and startling at times to learn what they nearly predicted. It can invoke an odd sense of surrealism, like cracking the spine of a book printed 50 years ago or hooking up your old game system only to seamlessly pick up an adventure you started that summer before 7th grade. The past and present are complementary sensations when properly balanced, like salty and sweet flavors rolled into one. I yearn to strike this balance and exhibit how cool futuristic design can be, or at least showcase it’s worth in modern design.

I’ve never been particularly savvy with fashion, so I figured I’d need to do a little research before I could possibly confess my affection for any particular style. After careful consideration it seems that cyberpunk fashion impresses me the most, even if doom and gloom isn’t an emotion I typically wear outward. The abundance of sleek, black leather and concealing accessories like gloves, scarves, and hoods are fun components (albeit gauche in excess, to the point one might consider the look “edgy”), and appearances range vastly from bulky androgynous cloaks to tight revealing jumpsuits that crank sex appeal up to a 10. I’m drawn towards the middle of these two extremes, revealing the form of the body but in a subtle manner that shows minimal skin. Cyberpunk is especially cool to me because it often mirrors the hypothetical not-to-distant future of the post-singularity, and sometimes the dark realities of the present. Blade Runner and Akira are fantastic interpretations of the present from the past, looking at trends and habits of the past to cut a path 30 years forward.

4. The EL Wire, NeoPixel Strips, and LED Matrix grids are super awesome uses of light, and I’m excited to implement them into my work in some fashion. Although the matrix grids seem a bit complicated, I watched a video explaining their implementation when I was researching the Daft Punk Helmets. With some patience and assistance from the internet I should be able to work my way into them one step at a time. The video on costume lighting tips also mentioned the use of voice activated sensors with light technology, which I think could add an extra layer of panache to my futuristic visor/mask should it come to fruition. I’m wondering how difficult it can get to hide or even install boards and wires while making these projects, it seems like a lot to fit into spaces that at times don’t fit much more than the designated body part. Perhaps this is when extensions and/or modifications are needed on pre-existing parts? Seems like a lot, but I’m excited to get into it.

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airoasis · 5 years

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Maintaining Regular & Effective Contact in Online Classes

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/maintaining-regular-effective-contact-in-online-classes/

Maintaining Regular & Effective Contact in Online Classes

My understanding is that they looked at over ninety two guides, and i know for a indisputable fact that mine was looked at. If you happen to educate online at MJC, it’s most certainly that your course was checked out. The advice from the accreditation company caught us by using surprise, partly considering that we now have probably the most great trainings in the state. It was once fairly easy: We need to show evidence that common and amazing contact is going down, they usually might no longer in finding evidence or at the least effortless proof that that used to be taking situation. Most of you may have been doing general and powerful contact for a long time. What the accreditors have requested of us is solely to tweak our publications in order that it is evident to them that that is what is going on. I do not think delivering typical mighty contact is always elaborate, but it does require time and that i feel you need to be very intentional.Spend half an hour here, half of an hour there, and it does not emerge as a chore, particularly. It is fun. As we have evolved to Canvas, Canvas lends itself quite well to this potential to engage with our scholars on on a widely wide-spread basis. I know that if we can use the tools embedded inside Canvas to their true competencies, we will be competent to do higher usual amazing Contact, and with a bit of luck expand our success charges. As a husband and a father and as a pastor, it can be rather rough for me to fit college inside my schedule. So it was relatively particularly nice to be equipped to have a category like Kim’s that may be equipped to cater to an individual with my agenda type. And the expertise was once top notch. I made up our minds to take online lessons on account that it is much more handy for me, for the reason that that i’m a mother of two children, and it is rather a lot simpler for me to work from house and even take them to McDonald’s or to my sister’s residence and get work finished there.So probably the most jobs I’ve had, the occasions I’ve had to work, on-line classes labored exceptional round my schedule. In the summer of 2016, I used to be a victim of gun violence. But i did not let that discontinue me from getting an education. Although I wasn’t equipped to stroll to campus, I did the alternative, which used to be online classes. When I decided to take on-line courses, I was once a bit of concerned, due to the fact that i know that i’m a visible arms-on learner. I used to be just a little concerned that I should not have enough help with a web based classification, however I discovered that this targeted path had an strong quantity of help with the trainer, as good as the opposite students in the type. Some things that a collectors might not see is the style of communication that we use with Zoom, electronic mail, mobilephone conversations, the chats which are included in Canvas. I had been within the addiction of sending out weekly e-mails to my pupils, to let them recognize what used to be coming up this week, to motivate them to work, and to allow them to comprehend when they’re doing a excellent job.I simply got here to find out that none of these e-mails get recorded in any way that the accreditors know about. So I needed to change how I did things to make use of the Canvas Announcement procedure as a substitute, and that may be a very simple repair, and i suppose the accreditors will love it significantly better. So one first-rate method to document normal amazing Contact is to make use of bulletins to advertise those hobbies. So if it can be something like an place of business hour, you should use bulletins to ask every body to the administrative center hour, to talk about one of the key principles that you may help scholars work on in the course of these workplace hours. Bulletins are a really high-quality option to exhibit someone outside of the class what occurs on a commonplace groundwork inside the class. Kim certainly did use the announcements function and it used to be very important to me. A week she’d put up our weekly module on there, and it would say, "howdy this is what you’re gonna be doing for this week," and he or she continually made that as an Announcement, so it is rather necessary for me, each time I got on Canvas, to see the little megaphone that stated, hiya you might have an Announcement on there, and i was once invariably watching to understand what used to be happening.So she used it, and it without doubt helped me out to grasp the place I used to be at for the week. Sure, I participate in every single discussion, each single week. Mid-semester, we talk about stress discount, i will get correct in there and talk about my stress together with the pupils. An extra factor that I find irresistible to do within the Discussions is, i’ve a few informal forums in my classification, which is Lifespan development, which might be snapshot galleries. So when we’re speakme about children, I recommend that scholars put up photos of the youngsters in their lives and talk about them. And this isn’t required, there aren’t any facets attached, however pupils love this mission. I almost always require the students to no longer handiest respond to the question that they are being given for that chapter, but also that they have to respond to 2 of their classmates. And once they try this, they set up a dialogue.And so it starts offevolved this dialog, the place the pupils quite often instances will go above and past that minimal of two replies, and abruptly you may have this thread of dialog. And it’s very average, and it looks like some thing that you simply would in finding in a physical classroom environment. I feel that some instructors have reservations about participating in discussion forums; either they’re afraid that they will sway the whole discussion the pupils take part in, or that the pupils are going to shut down on the grounds that the instructor is part of that group. I do not to find that in my classes in any respect, but it has rather a lot to do with the way you installed the discussion issues. Moving faraway from summarizing the knowledge within the textbook or my lecture, and having the scholars go one step further into really applying the fabric to their life…Relatively opens up an capacity to express opinions, perspectives, views. I in finding that when I take part within the discussion project and put up on the discussion Board, My scholars get quite excited and enthusiastic, and it fosters a bigger level of participation amongst them. Posting whatever that is a just right instance of a top-point-incomes reply is first-rate. The secret that I located is really valuable is always have two discussion boards strolling, and alter them each couple of weeks. The 2 dialogue boards you will have to have walking must be one that’s substantive, that’s regarding your category and has to do with the fabric you’re instructing; however also have a type of a fun, social discussion board where men and women actually discuss. Like i have a dialogue board about, "What else is problematic on your existence?" And the students speak to each other and aid each other, and share their suggestions for find out how to make tuition work for them… And the the social interaction on that board brings pupils to the opposite boards, and will get them to do their homework and to look at the movies that go with the lectures.If we’re engaged with our students, serving to them be taught, asking leading questions, getting them to consider a little deeper about an idea that they lift, they’re going to be able to profit from that dialogue. Shelly rather participated in each dialogue board we had, It used to be really worthwhile, to see the trainer’s factor of view, and the other pupils’ perspectives on each discussion. Good on a weekly foundation, i’m utilising the project feedback device. I annotate greatly, after which in the feedback field, I refer pupils to the suggestions so that they comprehend that it is there and why they could have ignored some aspects. I customarily additionally go away comments if they did a really good job. I fairly like the feature of the pace-grader function in Canvas, it makes it possible for me to move from student to scholar; and not handiest am I ready to of direction supply them points or a grade, however i can leave feedback in the grade e-book.And in doing that, i will be able to tell them why they acquired the ranking that they did. And furthermore to utilizing rubrics, i admire to give them quite a lot of feedback, and i take advantage of individualized feedback, as good as some which might be– I’ve saved for that distinctive challenge. And i have been playing around with using audio feedback, which the students actually adored. It was once a new project for me, and this subsequent semester i am gonna are trying video. So we’re gonna attempt to take that up a notch. On Canvas, the instructors, while you publish an venture, they have got the capability to offer you feedback principally on that venture, and it’s whatever that best you and your instructor can see, it is now not open to the whole classification, which is first-class. And i did have one mission the place I was having difficulty with the program, and so I got a comment after submitting, that the trainer said, "This wasn’t what I expected," or "i’d have finished this differently," and i was once in a position to reply inside that thread, "that is what used to be going on, and so this is how i attempted to correct it." after which she came again with a remark, and we did have a little of a discussion, the place I was once able to gain knowledge of what I might have executed and she or he was also ready to gain knowledge of the difficulties that I had with the project, and then we each variety of going forward were ready to use that safely for the following task, which used to be best.So my pupils most commonly inform me that once they see the first tutorial video i have made for them, it feels like it’s an actual type or that they’ve an actual teacher. And what that rather method is that they think that they have got an trainer who is in the class with them, who’s speakme to them and is a man or women that they may be able to know and realise when you consider that of facial expressions, tone of voice… Matters that don’t come through text by myself. So video is a method that we can put ourselves into the class with our pupils. So students love video games, simply as a lot as everyone else; and the extra which you can make studying enjoyable, the more engaged students are usually. So we used a sport called Kahoot at present, which is pleasant for a face-to-face environment, and then we mentioned how you would use gamification in an internet atmosphere, too. I believe that standard and powerful Contact helps inspire pupils to think linked, and to consider part of the online group.It is not what I expected when I first began teaching online, but it surely’s quite profitable to see pupils help every different and turn out to be leaders. We want all people to consider like, on the finish of that semester, that online classification made a difference. It allowed them to do some thing that they otherwise would now not be equipped to do. I find assisting my pupils to be essentially the most profitable a part of my job. And so there may be nothing that makes my day greater than having a scholar electronic mail me and say, "Oh gosh I raised my grade on this challenge, and thanks so much for your support." So the standard powerful contact is essential, it can be tantamount, it is paramount, it is– it can be main. This classification surprised me. It used to be this kind of small unit category, I wasn’t expecting it to be fun. Taking online lessons has modified the best way that I be taught in an powerful way, and i am so completely satisfied that I took this classification. It’s one of my favourite courses, due to the fact the teacher quite participated, and i did not anticipate that at all. Online lessons at MJC allowed me to suit college into my life, instead than having to make my life revolve round college.That was once fine. These online courses that I’ve taken, principally with Nancy, have taught me loads and have gotten me the job that i have now. MJC’s on-line direction was once competent to let me be the daddy that I needed to be, the husband that I wanted to be, and the individual that I wanted to be; and nonetheless provide me the possibility to get my degree. And that is precious to me. .

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batterymonster2021 · 5 years

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Maintaining Regular & Effective Contact in Online Classes

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/maintaining-regular-effective-contact-in-online-classes/

Maintaining Regular & Effective Contact in Online Classes

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wristwatchjournal · 4 years

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Swiss Watch Industry CEOs Speak Out About How To Do Business Post-Pandemic

Young Deok Seo sculpture from the MB&F MAD Gallery

In six months, the pandemic crisis seems to have transformed the way the watch world works more profoundly than the industry has changed in the last decade. The acceleration of digital technology, the polarization of brands, and the experimentation with new formats and concepts are just some of the consequences. We interviewed brand executives to assess the effects of this historic moment.

The CES tech show has already announced what next year will look like: This major event will be held in an exclusively digital format. “Amid the pandemic and growing global health concerns about the spread of COVID-19, it’s just not possible to safely convene tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas in early January 2021 to meet and do business in person,” said Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of CTA.

For the watchmaking industry, too, there is no guarantee that next year will be any less troubled than the one that is currently unfolding. Beyond its direct commercial impact, the pandemic crisis seems to have transformed the way the watch world works more profoundly in six months than the industry has changed in the last decade.

We’re seeing several notable consequences, beginning obviously with an acceleration of the digital transition, in the form of presentations by teleconferencing to replace physical exhibitions, increased investment in social networks, and the launch of e-commerce platforms as a substitute for exclusive boutiques.

Polarization also seems more pronounced, between the “blue chips” of the watchmaking industry (most notably the large independents and artisans with limited production) and the rest of the pack. In this respect, the accelerating fusion between the primary and secondary markets should also be highlighted, with the value of pre-owned watches increasingly influencing that of new watches.

An unstoppable avalanche has swept away all pre-crisis concepts and stripped everything bare. We’ve entered a period of transition that is both frightening and exciting, promising a time of experimentation with new concepts amid the uncertainty, and new horizons for the watchmaking world.

In these unprecedented circumstances, we interviewed several CEOs representing a variety of economic realities to find out their assessment of the effects of the crisis and learn how they intend to bounce back, particularly with regard to the presentation of their new models following the cancellation of almost all physical shows.

Manuel Emch (Louis Erard, Raketa): “The logic of our launch strategy is being reversed.”

For the former head of Jaquet Droz and Romain Jerome, who now works as a consultant and board member for various brands including Louis Erard and Raketa, the “forced march” toward a more digital approach will eventually lead to a much more hybrid system for the watch industry: “Success comes from the multiplication of distribution channels,” he says.

Manuel Emch has witnessed the transition for himself: while Louis Erard hasn’t focused on e-commerce until this year, the independent Swiss brand should achieve 15% of its turnover online in 2020. While that’s not enough to make up for lost in-person sales, it’s a decent result, particularly as the onset of the pandemic crisis served to hasten a transition that had already been planned, albeit over the longer term. “Within five years, it is quite conceivable that half of the brand’s turnover will be generated online,” says the expert.

The system set up by Louis Erard now also allows its representatives to order online. “This was not part of the initial plan, but it’s one of those unintended consequences that occurred with the interruption of physical transactions,” explains Emch. “Our relationship with our retailers is being digitized, with positive effects on financing, stocks, and transparency.”

In fact, Louis Erard’s entire launch strategy has been modified or even reversed. Rather than waiting for one or two major events to present its new products, the brand founded in 1929 will from now on “flatten” its production calendar throughout the year and seize opportunities as they arise. For instance, drops are planned for next year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan, and Art Basel.

The brand is also planning to multiply creative collaborations with “outsiders” such as industrial designers, in order to extend its reach outside the traditional watch world and its traditional clientele. “The idea is to offer a continuous animation of our collections throughout the year,” says Emch. “This is key in a highly saturated digital communication environment.”

For the manager, the industry has entered a new era of permanent crisis whose only stable component is… instability: “Only a creative, light, and agile structure can adapt to shorter and more violent business cycles. Louis Erard and Raketa, as smaller independent brands, have always had to navigate a hostile environment, which means they have developed a corporate culture that has become a competitive advantage today. In previous times of crisis, everyone tried to imitate Rolex, but that’s an impossible model to replicate. Brands have to find their own path.”

Maximilian Büsser (MB&F): “We quickly saw who we could rely on.”

It may seem paradoxical, in view of the immense uncertainty that reigns in the watch industry today, but if the pandemic has one silver lining for brands, it is in the way it has “clarified” their relations with partners, both in production (suppliers) and sales (retailers). It’s a crash test that demonstrates with stark clarity which partners can work effectively with a brand during a crisis.

Maximilian Büsser, the founder of MB&F, is well aware of the phenomenon. “In such difficult times for the industry (and the planet), we quickly saw who we could rely on, and it is with them that we will build the future.” Just 10 of the watchmaker’s 26 representatives worldwide account for 75% of its turnover.

“We had to develop a binary approach because we have neither subsidiaries nor volumes of new products to send around the world,” says Büsser. “These 10 retailers will each receive prototypes of our new releases for a few days, to allow them to explore the timepieces. The others will have digital presentations.”

Word of mouth and social networks, as well as a strong partnership with retailers, will continue to form the basis of MB&F’s business strategy: “For almost ten years now, the company’s goal has been not growth, but rather the realization of our creative projects,” Büsser emphasizes. “The first half of 2020 actually saw historic sell-out levels for the brand (volumes were up 45% over 2019, our reference year), despite the fact that the majority of our retailers were closed for several months, and travel was impossible.”

The brand is taking part in the Geneva Watch Days, which focus on European customers and media. “Before COVID-19, I hadn’t heard of Zoom or Microsoft Teams,” says the entrepreneur. “Today it is the new standard. But when you put so much love and work into finishes like ours, it’s virtually impossible to convey that digitally — even our photos don’t do them justice.” As for 2021, it’s still terra incognita as far as presentations are concerned: “If Watches & Wonders takes place in April, we will continue to participate, but nothing is confirmed at this point.”

Stéphane Waser (Maurice Lacroix): “We have already gone to Plan B.”

For Stéphane Waser, the reality of the post-COVID-19 world has made possible scenarios that had hitherto remained mostly experimental. The Managing Director of Maurice Lacroix is uncompromising: “We have already gone into ‘Plan B‘ mode because we will never go back to the previous situation.”

He shares his observations about the last few months: “Digital is a possible tool for introducing new products, but the presentations must be designed and developed specifically in this direction. More effort is required in terms of preparation to reach the same level as physical interaction. An in-person event with 200 to 300 guests transformed into a Zoom session is not efficient, and the impact is very minimal. Some car brands experienced this last spring, following the cancellation of the Geneva International Motor Show.”

The technology itself has taken a leap forward as a result of the crisis, notes Stéphane Waser — in fact, we have seen an increasing number of launches of new teleconferencing solutions, which allow for better online interaction. The brand will be present at the Geneva Watch Days and will simultaneously host video conference sessions for retailers and journalists who cannot attend.

The manager shares another observation: given the interruption in tourism and travel, it’s vital now to “think local” first and foremost, as well as to take into account the probable drop in customer purchasing power as a result of the pandemic: “In times of predicted recession, consumer confidence calls for caution.” Maurice Lacroix, which returned to more accessible models under Stéphane Waser’s mandate, notably via the Aikon line, intends to engage with this new reality.

Wilhelm Schmid (A. Lange & Söhne): “Online shopping still plays a minor role in our business model.”

Like several brands in the Richemont Group, A. Lange & Söhne (A German, not Swiss company) will participate in September in one of the few physical trade fairs of 2020: Watches & Wonders in Shanghai, strictly reserved for the Chinese market. “I am looking forward to this event, where we will be able to showcase our new timepieces once again face-to-face — with all the necessary safeguards, of course,” says the German brand’s CEO, Wilhelm Schmid.

Before the coronavirus, Schmid was very often on the road, presenting high-end timepieces whose value is best appreciated through touch and feel. Over the past few months, he has relied on videoconferencing. “Among our customers who have spent the last few months in the confinement of their homes, there is an increased interest in new watches. After we presented our novelties digitally, I talked to customers from all over the world via Zoom. Such conversations take place in an equally pleasant atmosphere as in a one-on-one meeting. (…) In doing so, we have gained valuable new experience and insights from which we will benefit in the future.”

However, the CEO stresses the temporary and limited nature of this type of presentation: “The pandemic has taught us how flexibly we can adapt even to the most radical changes, at least for a limited period. (…) But however good they may be, my personal assessment is that entirely digital presentations will never be able to replace the feel and touch of our watches.”

In the price segment occupied by A. Lange & Söhne, e-commerce remains very limited, despite the acceleration of the digital transition in recent months. “For the time being, online shopping still plays a minor role in our business model. In most cases, the purchase decision process has been prepared online. But the majority of our customers come to the store to confirm the expectations they have established on the internet before reaching their final purchase decision. (…) I would not rule out the idea that purchasing habits may eventually change and that recent events will accelerate this development. Either way, we will be prepared.”

Like many executives, Wilhelm Schmid advocates the need for “an intelligent interaction of different channels and techniques” and for more touchpoints between the brand and its customers. The omnichannel model seems tailor-made for the watch industry, and the pandemic crisis is certainly accelerating the digital component of this strategy.

Photo credit: Johann Sauty

Sascha Moeri (Carl F. Bucherer): “An ever more personal approach to luxury.”

As the world’s leading watch retailer, with dozens of physical points of sale in Europe and the United States, the Bucherer Group has naturally been very heavily impacted by the pandemic crisis. The Lucerne-based giant also sells its own watch brand, Carl F. Bucherer, headed by the energetic Sascha Moeri, who remains confident in the resilience of his brand: “Our company has gone through many crises in the past and will also manage this one. We focused on what we have done best in the past 132 years: watchmaking.”

In the last two years, the brand invested in e-commerce, notably through JD.com in China, as well as on the Bucherer and Tourneau (acquired by the group in 2018) online sales platforms. “In the future, the most successful brands will be those that are able to orchestrate the right balance of on- and offline touchpoints,” says Sacha Moeri.

He quotes Jörg G. Bucherer, the third-generation family member at the head of the group, who once said: “You cannot replace a handshake.” But in these times when even handshakes are off-limits, the CEO continues, “obviously (…) digital communication is more relevant than ever.” For Moeri, luxury is going to be defined above all by an increasingly personal shopping experience.

This is key to Carl F. Bucherer’s future strategy: to increase the number of individual appointments to present its models around the world. The brand is inaugurating a new concept of physical launches, the first stage of which will take place in Geneva at the end of August.

Jean-Marc Pontroué (Panerai): “Think national rather than international.”

With its design center in Milan, Panerai was confronted early on with the effects of the pandemic, which first hit Europe in northern Italy. “Our priority was to protect our employees and to ensure a certain level of activity,” says CEO Jean-Marc Pontroué. “With regard to our 740 employees and 19 subsidiaries, we had to show common sense and agility. In particular, we adopted a new approach to working via videoconferencing with our employees, as well as with our 150 stores and 400 business partners.”

The supply chain was also reviewed, with the aim of allocating additional quantities to markets such as China, which experienced “massive growth” after the end of the crisis in the country. “However, we have limited all shipments to countries that were suffering from total or partial closure,” explains the CEO, who also stresses the importance of organizing presentations “nationally rather than internationally”, a strategy the brand has found to be “effective”.

Panerai has also invested in new digital concepts: In July, the brand launched a new digital platform called PamCast offering virtual trips, from a tour of Florence to the ocean depths.

“I firmly believe that we are much stronger today than in the past,” says Jean-Marc Pontroué. “Panerai has demonstrated its strong resilience and its ability to adapt very quickly to a new scenario. One of the great assets of digital is that it allows us to address everyone. This period should serve to strengthen links with the members of our community, through the multiplication of points of contact. We are ready to take on the challenge of improving the shopping experience.”

Final thoughts

The impact of this pandemic crisis can be divided into two major effects: In the short term, the past six months have been a period of intense experimentation, resulting in the implementation of strategies (particularly digital) in just a few weeks that would have taken months in the normal (and long) course of things in the watch industry.

This experimental phase has happened across the entire watchmaking spectrum, regardless of the size of the brands in question. The fact that Patek Philippe now authorizes e-commerce in certain cases is a clear indication of this.

In the long term, the risk is that the effects of the pandemic crisis will lead to a deep economic recession. Watchmaking has already been hit hard by the halt in transcontinental travel. Chinese visitors will be staying at home for an indefinite period – one that will certainly be counted in years. For watch brands, this means re-exploring national clienteles and local markets, and knowing how to appeal to new generations, particularly in the more mature economies.

This return to a domestic strategy will certainly be the most lasting effect for an industry that has been buoyed by the wave of globalization over the last two decades. In concrete terms, it means empowering local teams, who are best able to understand the expectations of their compatriots. The way in which watchmaking operates is bound to undergo a profound transformation.

In this new landscape, it remains to be hoped that national economies will resist the effects of the pandemic better than expected, as the future of watchmaking will increasingly depend on local purchasing power.

Serge Maillard is CEO of Europa Star, a family-owned publishing house founded in Geneva in 1927, which specializes in the world of watches. For almost a century, the company has been circulating print publications globally, and has recently started to make its horological archives accessible online.

The post Swiss Watch Industry CEOs Speak Out About How To Do Business Post-Pandemic appeared first on Wristwatch Journal.

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micaramel · 4 years

Link

Artists: Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff

Venue: The Downer, Berlin

Date: June 18 – August 1, 2020

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of The Downer, Berlin

Press Release:

I’ve known Calla and Max for a decade now. I’ve seen the spaces that their work endeavored to create. I have happily (occasionally begrudgingly) been a part of some of their exhibitions and projects during the course of this time. I once read from receipts pictured in a series of photographs after having installed them in front of a live audience; I performed in a play they wrote and directed about an in-fighting but enterprising band of squatters who run a ramen restaurant out of an apartment they share; I helped assemble banquettes in their theater, hung and painted backdrops, operated the video camera, mopped floors, and built architectural models. I’ve sold their work to collectors and donated my own paintings to their benefit auctions. Our lives are closely connected and likely will be for their remainder. This show has nothing to do with our shared history, so I will refrain from dredging up too much more of it after this paragraph. But unlike any other thus far, this show is charged with a particular energy for me. Calla and Max had a big influence on the circumstances that brought me to Berlin, Also, it was through their initiative that the Downer began.

In my eyes, the core of Calla and Max’s work is the idea of community and shared experience. It examines the ways in which these ideas can be deployed against authority or serve to reinforce it. For as long as I’ve known them, and longer, their work has brought people together. Using friends as models, actors, performers and collaborators, they have created and fostered communities. As the complexities and personalities of those communities bristled against one another, they have likewise served as mediators, confidants and — conversely — the objects of disparagement. They have founded and operated bars, venues and theaters, with each space comprising some ratio of these component parts. Their first was a ‘bar’ in their shared studio at Cooper Union — which was more of a sculpture that encouraged people to get together and have a beer. Then followed Times Bar in Berlin, founded in collaboration with Lindsay Lawson, New Theater and TV Bar, which just reopened after a few months of Covid-19 provoked shutdown (and which you should go visit). Calla and Max’s practice is, on one hand, institutional critique and, on the other, embodiment of the institution.

The series of photos that I installed and read from in 2013 pictures artists sorting through their receipts, presumably in preparation to submit them to the tax office. The photographs don’t picture the artists themselves, just out of focus glimpses of them in front of or behind receipts piled on kitchen and cafe tables. Each piece was given the instructive title of the artist’s first name, the city (always Berlin) and a period of time (i.e Spring 2013). In a simple gesture the gut-leadening feeling of dealing with anything related to taxes is communicated. For artists and artworkers in particular, who exist in an industry where passion for art is often exploited to extract unpaid labor, the quarterly conundrum of what is and isn’t a warranted write off is evoked. Was that book for enjoyment or research? Was that dinner business or pleasure? Should I have been paid for this or was I volunteering? Where do fun and labor coincide and how can they be properly distinguished when friendships blur into professional relationships? This anxiety isn’t really related to taxes — that question is quickly answered with, “write off as much as you can get away with” — but these photos indicate a deeper existential uneasiness about the ways in which we are evaluated. Moreover, they say something about the ways in which we evaluate our own lives and work, and the relationships that often straddle the blurry boundary between them.

My definition of a scene would be: a recognizable movement in which the participants’ activities — as artists, performers, personalities, whatever, really — draw them into the same chapter of collective imagination, compounding the significance and reach of their ideas. Scenes have driven the advancement of art for a few hundred years and have been allowed to more or less write their own histories. The overlapping scenes that Calla and Max have cultivated over the past decade provided fodder for their own artistic work, as well as giving inspiration and a platform to their myriad members. Relationships extend beyond Berlin and the physical spaces they have helmed, situating Calla and Max’s work within a growing, networked alliance of artists — many of them also involved in organizing project spaces or artist run galleries.

I’ve met lots of people through Calla and Max and I imagine a lot of people reading this feel the same way. Sometimes being introduced felt uncanny, as if the scene was manifesting its connections after it had already made them algorithmically. Other times I’ve been surprised to meet someone at New Theater or TV Bar who was so unknown to me that my first conversations with them felt revelatory, despite the fact that, superficially, our lives bore so much similarity.

The way that people get to know one another and end up influencing each other is something that has been parodied in Calla and Max’s plays. Many of them open on a group that has ended up together more or less by chance. “Farming in Europe” featured a cadre of restaurant workers — a textbook example of multifaceted, diversely motivated collaboration. A gang of dejected vacationers populated “News, Crime, Sports,” a play that was set on an unmoored and un-captained cruise ship. The ragtag band of squatters who sell ramen out of their home in “Apartment” seemed to have fallen in with one another out of sheer necessity. In these arenas, characters quibble over ideological differences and willingness to contribute to a collective cause. They ridicule each other for their shortcomings, pontificate about the meaning of life and agonize over how to solve their problems. They also kind of take care of one another. Their haphazard convergence nearly always ends in haphazard goodbyes, but they usually manage to have a revelation or two along the way.

A scene, of course, is also an element of theater. The artists that have coalesced around Calla and Max’s organizing efforts feed one scene that cannibalizes itself for inspiration in others. The characters in their plays are — like all works of fiction — mash-ups of real personalities. Some ended up playing versions of themselves. Others didn’t have to look far for someone to imitate — they were probably sitting in the first three rows. Casts of mostly untrained actors, who were performing mostly for their friends, took scripts into their own hands, whether intentionally or not, returning them to the collective through misremembered lines, unscripted giggles and embellishments that kept the balance of who’s-using-who in a kind of limbo. This cultivated antiprofessionalism has become a hallmark of Calla and Max’s projects, giving them both a liveliness and an easily accessed escape hatch. If you don’t take something too seriously no great disappointment can come from it.

I would venture that we exist in a moment that is anxiously and unrecoverably disconnected from earlier utopian artistic scenes. One of the reasons is that everything is so connected already. There are increasingly fewer insights and ideas to share offline as the internet swallows and aggregates, and we increasingly substitute our collective consumption for shared experience. Does a group of people who have seen the same meme constitute a scene — not really, right? Interestingly, Calla and Max almost never use the events at their spaces as documentary subjects. Occasionally they will exhibit used, purpose-built furniture or show photos that picture dirty tabletops or half full glasses. But it’s hard to track down images of their friends socializing or even of their plays being performed. When they do ask friends and collaborators to pose, it’s almost always in a quasi-fictional role — in costume, or at least with ample stage direction. Beyond headshots, this same feeling is conveyed in their series of photographs of friends’ apartments made-up for AirBnB. These depict idealistically polished, yet inherently blemished living spaces that are uncomfortably braced for evaluation. Real spaces fictionalized for someone else to imagine themselves in. Documenting something or someone being candidly themselves is resolutely, almost inherently, barred from Calla and Max’s vocabulary. As if to acknowledge that we live in the moment of the curated feed, where everything is staged and everybody is acting as their own director, giving stage direction to the leading character of their own auto-drama.

When not focusing on fictions, their photographs often focus on the liminal — the absent or the accumulation that starts to make itself heard from the wings. The ostensible subjects of their photos are usually only tangentially related to a larger subject, like a newspaper, an empty cocktail glass or a receipt. In a large series of photographs of apartment viewings from different cities, the subjects were the desolate interior landscapes that serve as a backdrop for hopeful projection. Shot in black and white and printed in a darkroom — decidedly the opposite method of image making employed by the real estate industry — these photos occasionally feature glimpses of other visitors to the viewings. Mostly they feature the product of an emptying out, volume exchanged for capital. In a funny way, they are almost antithetical to the AirBnB stagings — one attempts to conjure domesticity with no props, and the other attempts to hide the props to allow potential guests to conjure domesticity in someone else’s home. Neither strategy is as helpful as you would hope.

A third, more recent series of photographs that also relate to living spaces pictures vignettes of the residence of the US Ambassador to Germany, which is a private home that changes occupancy with each diplomatic appointment. The photos were lit using theater lights from New Theater, giving the scenes an amber melodrama that heightens the antiquated domestic setting, questioning the relevance of the pomp of this classic American excess. At the same time, diplomacy gestures towards a version of interpersonal interaction that yields more than just a social life. Are the machinations, backstabbing, and insider trading of the artworld all that different?

Having sought places to stage performances, serve drinks or host conversations for over a decade, it’s no surprise that Calla and Max’s work also obsesses over real estate. What good is an eager audience without a space to host them? And as art and performance have increasingly dematerialized themselves to fit onto laptop and iPhone screens, Calla and Max have doubled down on their belief in physical space as paramount in provoking thought and fostering friendships. The question of art’s influence on real estate has been scrutinized by artists for 50 years or more, but this link is calcifying as art is more and more frequently deployed in an effort to gentrify. Artists face the paradoxical sociopolitical inner-turmoil of occupying both sides: they are often economically and ideologically linked to those who face displacement and, conversely, dependent on and symbolically linked to those profiting from the displacing. A big, and seemingly growing share of art collectors are making fortunes in real estate. As an artist, striving for patronage and solidarity presents contradictions without easy resolutions. In a sense, this horrible dilemma could be seen as another, deeper motivating factor in Calla and Max’s practice — to create a space that masquerades as something more functional than it actually is. A ragtag gang of artists play-acting the operations of a legitimate business. Theirs is an institution that aims to welcome as many as possible and preside over none of them. Art should aim to do the same.

Patrick Armstrong

Link: Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff at The Downer

from Contemporary Art Daily https://bit.ly/3fBOZk6

#micaramel

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kansascityhappenings · 5 years

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Questions swirl around Epstein’s monitoring before suicide

NEW YORK — One of Jeffrey Epstein’s guards the night he hanged himself in his federal jail cell wasn’t a regular correctional officer, according to a person familiar with the detention center, which is now under scrutiny for what Attorney General William Barr on Monday called “serious irregularities.”

Epstein, 66, was found Saturday morning in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a jail previously renowned for its ability to hold notorious prisoners under extremely tight security.

“I was appalled, and indeed the whole department was, and frankly angry to learn of the MCC’s failure to adequately secure this prisoner,” Barr said at a police conference in New Orleans. “We are now learning of serious irregularities at this facility that are deeply concerning and demand a thorough investigation. The FBI and the office of inspector general are doing just that.”

He added: “We will get to the bottom of what happened and there will be accountability.”

In the days since Epstein’s death while awaiting charges that he sexually abused underage girls, a portrait has begun to emerge of Manhattan’s federal detention center as a chronically understaffed facility that possibly made a series of missteps in handling its most high-profile inmate.

Epstein had been placed on suicide watch after he was found in his cell a little over two weeks ago with bruises on his neck. But he had been taken off that watch at the end of July and returned to the jail’s special housing unit.

There, Epstein was supposed to have been checked on by a guard about every 30 minutes. But investigators have learned those checks weren’t done for several hours before Epstein was found unresponsive, according to a person familiar with the episode. That person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and also spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second person familiar with operations at the jail said one of the two people guarding Epstein in the hours before he was found with a bedsheet around his neck wasn’t a correctional officer, but a fill-in who had been pressed into service because of staffing shortfalls. That person also wasn’t authorized to disclose information about the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

It wasn’t clear what the substitute’s regular job was, but federal prisons facing shortages of fully trained guards have resorted to having other types of support staff fill in for correctional officers, including clerical workers and teachers.

The manner in which Epstein killed himself has not been announced publicly by government officials. An autopsy was performed Sunday, but New York City Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson said investigators were awaiting further information.

The Associated Press does not typically report on details of suicide, but has made an exception because Epstein’s cause of death is pertinent to the ongoing investigations.

A private pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden, observed the autopsy at the request of Epstein’s lawyers. Baden was the city’s chief medical examiner in the late 1970s and has been called as an expert witness in high-profile cases, including O.J. Simpson’s 1995 murder trial.

The House Judiciary Committee demanded answers from the Bureau of Prisons about Epstein’s death. Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, and the panel’s top Republican, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, wrote the bureau’s acting director Monday with several questions about the conditions in the prison, including details on the bureau’s suicide prevention program.

Inmates on suicide watch in federal jails are subjected to 24 hours per day of “direct, continuous observation,” according to U.S. Bureau of Prisons policy. They are also issued tear-resistant clothing to thwart attempts to fashion nooses and are placed in cells that are stripped of furniture or fixtures they could use to kill themselves.

Those watches, though, generally last only 72 hours before someone is either moved into a medical facility or put back into less intensive monitoring.

The jail does have a video surveillance system, but federal standards don’t allow the use of cameras to monitor areas where prisoners are likely to be undressed unless those cameras are monitored only by staff members of the same gender as the inmates. As a practical matter, that means most federal jails nationwide focus cameras on common areas, rather than cell bunks.

Lindsay Hayes, a nationally recognized expert on suicide prevention behind bars, said that cameras are often ineffective because they require a staff member to be dedicated full time to monitoring the video feed 24 hours a day.

“It only takes three to five minutes for someone to hang themselves,” said Hayes, a project director for the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives. “If no one is watching the screen, then the camera is useless. There are a lot of suicides that just end up being recorded.”

On the morning of Epstein’s apparent suicide, guards on his unit were working overtime shifts to make up for staffing shortages, one person familiar with the matter said. The person said one guard was working a fifth straight day of overtime and another was working mandatory overtime.

Epstein’s death cut short a prosecution that could have pulled back the curtain on his activities and his connections to celebrities and presidents, though Barr vowed Monday that the case will continue “against anyone who was complicit with Epstein.”

“Any co-conspirators should not rest easy. The victims deserve justice and they will get it,” he said.

According to police reports obtained by the AP, investigators believed Epstein had a team of recruiters and employees who lined up underage girls for him.

In a court filing Monday, Epstein’s accusers said that an agreement he negotiated with federal prosecutors in Florida over a decade ago to grant immunity to his possible accomplices should be thrown out now that he is dead. Under that 2008 agreement, Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution-related state charges and served 13 months behind bars.

At the time of his death, Epstein was being held without bail and faced up to 45 years in prison on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges unsealed last month.

Epstein’s death is the latest black eye for the Bureau of Prisons, which was already was under fire over the October beating death of Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger at a federal prison in West Virginia. The bureau is part of the Justice Department and falls under the attorney general’s supervision.

Taken together, the two deaths underscore “serious issues surrounding a lack of leadership” within the bureau, said Cameron Lindsay, a former warden who ran three federal lockups, including the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

A defense attorney for Epstein, Marc Fernich, also faulted jail officials, saying they “recklessly put Mr. Epstein in harm’s way” and failed to protect him.

Staffing shortages worsened by a partial government shutdown prompted inmates at the New York City jail to stage a hunger strike in January after they were denied family and lawyer visits.

Eight months later, the jail remains so short-staffed that the Bureau of Prisons is offering guards a $10,000 bonus to transfer there from other federal lockups.

In the wake of Epstein’s suicide, union president Eric Young of the American Federation of Government Employees Council of Prison Locals said a Trump administration hiring freeze at the Bureau of Prisons has led to thousands of vacancies and created “dangerous conditions” for prison workers and inmates.

In a statement, Young said that teachers, clerical workers and other support staff are regularly used to fill in for guards, and many guards are regularly forced to work 70- and 80-hour weeks.

Suicide has long been the leading cause of death in U.S. jails overall. In the federal system, suicides are rarer. At least 124 inmates killed themselves while in federal custody between fiscal years 2010 and 2016, according to the most recent statistics available from the Bureau of Prisons.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/08/12/questions-swirl-around-epsteins-monitoring-before-suicide/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/08/13/questions-swirl-around-epsteins-monitoring-before-suicide/

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touristguidebuzz · 7 years

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Royal Caribbean Is Rolling out New Tech to Make Cruising Easier

At an event last week in Brooklyn, Royal Caribbean Cruises showed off an app that lets users order a drink and have it delivered to wherever they are. It's one of a series of tech advances that the cruise company is rolling out. Diane Bondareff / Invision for Royal Caribbean Cruises

Skift Take: The cruise line tech race is heating up, and that means travelers should prepare for some changes. While ideas such as virtual reality dining are fun, more fundamental innovations including facial recognition, easier activity reservations, and drink delivery should have a greater impact on the cruise experience.

— Hannah Sampson

Royal Caribbean Cruises unveiled a vision of a cruising future that includes virtual reality dining, drinks that find passengers wherever they are, stateroom ceilings that show the sky, and boarding made simple by facial recognition technology.

Not to mention driverless shuttles.

At events last week at the Duggal Greenhouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the cruise operator showed off some of the changes that are coming soon to ships, as well as ideas that may not materialize at all.

But the overarching theme was about innovating to remove hurdles that cruise passengers might encounter as they seek vacation bliss. The buzzwords were the same popular terms that are often invoked by travel companies: frictionless, on-demand, artificial intelligence, chat, virtual, automation.

“In today’s world, technology and making things easier is no longer a very nice thing to have,” said Royal Caribbean Cruises Chairman and CEO Richard Fain. “The truth is technology is simply something that people expect. It’s an entry requirement, it’s not an option.”

Under the “making things easier” category, the cruise operator showed off a facial recognition feature that is meant to streamline the boarding process, as long as passengers submit their photo in advance. That is expected to be in use by late next year at PortMiami when the new megaship Symphony of the Seas arrives.

Also coming soon: A more robust app that allows travelers to plan activities well in advance and even check out shore excursions through virtual reality videos. That app will also eventually include a virtual concierge — essentially a chatbot — as well as artificial intelligence capabilities that help make even the earliest planning decisions. Less practical uses are rolled into the app as well, including augmented reality boardwalk-style games and “x-ray vision” to see through walls.

One feature that the company showed off last week allows passengers to order a drink and have it delivered right to them. In the demonstration, servers carried a drink along with a phone that displayed the face of the person who made the order.

Ships are also being updated to replace old door locks with mechanisms that allow for keyless entry via the app.

The company, which owns the Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Azamara Club Cruises brands, also displayed some ideas that are still being tested or are in a very early conceptual phase. A driverless shuttle picked up guests at the event from the dock where they arrived via water taxi and took them a short distance to the building. Royal Caribbean is testing the vehicle for possible use at ports.

And a futuristic stateroom featured screens in the ceiling, floor, and walls that displayed images of the water below, sky above, and scenery outside. The idea was that live cameras would stream the images to the video screens. Executives said some of the ideas in that room could end up in future cabins.

Royal Caribbean is also testing a dining concept where passengers strap on a virtual reality headset — the scene changes with each course — and grab what looks like cartoonish bite-sized blobs of food to eat.

Cruise industry expert Stewart Chiron, CEO of CruiseGuy.com, said he thought the virtual reality elements stood out.

“Passengers being able to prescreen destinations and plan excursions in advance will be a huge help,” he said. “Virtual reality dining was very interesting. Being transported to an exotic destination and dine digitally was very novel.”

A Slow Rollout

The basic version of the app is expected to be in use of 13 percent of the 48-ship fleet by the end of this year, half of the ships by the end of next year and the entire fleet by the end of 2019. Fain said the app will be frequently updated.

He said the company was taking an “expanding universe” approach to introducing new technology, continually improving the product rather than a “big bang” strategy of perfecting the product before announcing it.

“The beauty of the big bang approach is it’s all there at once but you can never get it right the first time,” Fain said. “So we follow the expanding universe approach. We bring it out slowly.”

Tim Klauda, vice president of product for digital experience, described the philosophy as “baby steps to awesome.”

The cruise company has been taking those steps for years already. In 2014, Royal Caribbean International launched what it described as “the world’s first Smartship,” Quantum of the Seas. That included many features that are being taken to a new level now, including luggage tracking, virtual balconies, and wristbands that unlocked doors and bought items.

Cruise Line Competition

And Royal Caribbean is not the only cruise company thinking about these issues. Larger rival Carnival Corp. announced in January at the electronics show CES that it was unveiling near wearable tech to allow for greater customization and personalization. The Ocean Medallion is meant to serve as a locating device, room key, and credit card substitute — and to generate data about each passenger’s preferences.

The first previews of the technology were supposed to be shown off to media this week, but a full launch on the initial ship has been delayed until early 2018. Instead, the disc-sized gadgets will be introduced first to one group of staterooms, with more added later.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, the world’s third-largest cruise company, has not sketched out its tech plans, though the CEO hinted recently that news is forthcoming.

Steve Wieczynski, an analyst with Stifel, asked about the issue during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

“When we look at your competitors, it seems they’ve been getting more aggressive on the technology side of things, trying to improve the customer experience both the fore-boarding and then post-boarding, also trying to capture more of that onboard spend,” he said. “Where do you guys stand in terms of trying to keep up with your competitors? We haven’t really heard any big over-the-top type of announcement from you guys, but I assume you’re not sitting back either and not doing anything on that front.”

Norwegian president and CEO Frank Del Rio said everyone should stay tuned.

“I’m pleased to see what others are doing,” he said. “We will be announcing our strategy very, very soon.”

Del Rio said the company has had success with tech-centered innovations for experiences on ships, including virtual reality games and a racetrack on the new Norwegian Joy.

“We expect to engage and be competitive — and like I said, stay tuned for more,” he said.

Fain offered a nod to earlier technology that has inspired cruise lines: Disney’s MagicBand.

“It was really quite special,” he said. “It was a big advance.”

Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean have hired former Disney employees to work on their digital innovations, including Klauda, who was vice president of digital design at Disney Parks & Resorts.

“We’re all chasing the same thing, which is an amazing guest experience,” Klauda said.

Capturing The Next Generation

Morningstar analyst Jaime Katz said in an interview that the tech she saw from Royal Caribbean reminds her of what Carnival has been talking about, just in app form.

“The question is do you want your phone or do you not want to bring your phone with you?” she said.

One big difference between the two projects is that Royal Caribbean is using an open-source model that revolves around an app, and Carnival is installing significant hardware in the form of cables, sensors, readers, and portals.

“For both of them, what it really means is you get to continue to capture consumer behavior and sort of toggle the onboard spend behavior,” she said.

“Everybody’s trying to be more relevant,” Katz said. “If you can get the next millennial on, they maybe stick with the brand longer. You have 40 years of cruising ahead for that cohort.”

In a note to investors, William Blair leisure analyst Sharon Zackfia pointed out that millennials will be in their “prime years for family cruising” by 2020.

“We believe Royal’s digital strategy should position the company well to attract the new- to-cruise market, particularly millennials, given its social connectivity and mobile platform,” she wrote.

For Chiron, the cruise expert and broker, the updates sounded like a good way to streamline an experience that can still have too much friction.

“New technologies will simplify cruising and remove unnecessary delays which includes boarding ships, making purchases and waiting in lines,” he said. “Definitely a step in the right direction.”

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rollinbrigittenv8 · 7 years