#asia society texas center

[post-hummus]

While I haven't posted much about it here, I'm part of a lil' theatre prop & puppetry studio in Houston🎭 and this is what we've been up to since the holidays:

12 rotating animal masks for “The Big Swim”, an upcoming Lunar New Year show in collaboration with Houston Grand Opera & Asia Society Texas Center! 🧧

Design by Afsaneh Aayani

Built by Corey Nance, Sasha Blaschka (that's me!), and Regine Gwyneth Templonuevo

It was really an honor to build such fun designs and I'm grateful to work alongside my amazing studio mates. We've invested many long, dedicated hours to this project, and I’m simply amazed at how much progress we’ve made working as a team.

It can be demanding work, but that deep-rooted sense of fulfillment & gratification always keeps us looking forward to the next project! 🙌

(I'll be posting behind-the-scenes photos over on my insta stories)

[90363462]

Now he’s worthy of prison and most likely be somebody’s girlfriend..🤔

Male Ego Is Killing Black Women

A man recently murdered a woman after she beat him in a basketball game—a senseless and bizarre example of the dangers of all-too-common misogyny.

This article originally appeared on levelman.com

Of all the examples that highlight the dangers posed by the fragility of men, few have frustrated me as much as the story of Asia Womack, a 21-year-old Black woman who was murdered in Dallas last week due to a man’s bruised ego over losing a basketball game. Yes, you read that right.

“This was supposed to be a friend of Asia’s. She’s eaten with the man,” Asia’s mother, Andrea Womack, told Dallas’ Fox 4 News. “She’s fed him, and he turned on her and killed her in a vicious way.”

In her obituary, the family notes the young woman affectionately referred to as “Fat Baby” had a lifelong love of basketball. She was also an active churchgoer who participated in the youth ministry at the Gospel Tabernacle Church in neighboring Mesquite, Texas, and studied kinesiology at Texas A&M Commerce. The obituary indicates Asia was known for having “a big heart filled with so much love, joy, and laughter” and describes her “smile that could brighten your day.” 

The circumstances that have caused Asia’s loved ones to never see that smile again center on a pickup game she played last Monday evening. “We’re taking it kind of hard because it was senseless,” Asia’s aunt Juanita Smith explained to another local affiliate, NBC DFW 5. “I just don��t understand why you kill somebody over a basketball game.”

Asia’s family members acknowledged to reporters that there was some “trash talk” involved, but that sounds like any other sports game played. There’s no reason for anyone to die over that. 

The Womack family’s pastor, Rev. John Delley, told CBS11 that he, too, had trouble understanding how a basketball game could result in this type of violence. “This is so senseless... you are embarrassed because a female beat you in basketball?” 

With respect to the pastor, the use of “female” here has a lot to do with the underlying sexism that undoubtedly motivated Asia’s shooter. 

I’m not saying the use of “female” alone makes a man a killer, but men who fail to see women as people deserving of equal respect often use that as a noun in place of “woman.” Asia might have been a female basketball player, but she was a woman. Women deserve that distinction for the sake of their humanity, not to mention proper grammar. 

Asia’s alleged gunman, 31-year-old Cameron Hogg, is said to have been unable to handle not only the loss, but the teasing and taunting that erupted in response to losing presumably a low-stakes game to a woman.

Nevermind the fact that she’s a decade younger than him. Or that she apparently was a skilled basketball player. All that matters is that she was a woman, ergo, less than. 

Based on the available reporting, Hogg seemed very intentional in allowing his frail ego and sexism to push him to violence. After he was said to have taken his kids and brother home, he returned to the park and shot Asia five times as she was walking home. His car is believed to have been captured speeding away by a nearby surveillance camera.

He left her dead on the sidewalk.

We live in a society that continues to instruct men to view women as not only weaker than men, but to see them as objects to be dominated by men. So men are told that they can’t lose anything to a woman—certainly not anything that requires physicality. When a man does, it’s not a testament to the athleticism of a woman but the perceived inadequacies of the man who lost.

It’s an attitude you often find in men who play sports, but it applies to men collectively in their broader treatment of women. And when it comes to Black women in particular, this mindset leads to a dangerous reality.

In “Black Women Deserve The Right To Be Free From Violence,” Alicia Nichols and Christina Jones write: “In 2020, every day in the United States, four Black women and girls were murdered by their husband, boyfriend, father, or another man they knew.  In 2019, Black women accounted for 14 percent of the female population in the United States, while 28 percent of the females killed by males in single victim/single offender incidents where the race of the victim was known were Black. Firearms were the weapon most commonly used by males to murder Black women in 2019.” 

As other Black women have expressed in response to Womack’s killing, the violence and attitude behind her death are common—and they can trace their own stories of men or boys losing their cool over “losing to a girl.” It makes me think of some of the little boys I’ve been tempted to stomp out for trying the same thing with one of my nieces.

None of this can change unless we confront misogyny at every level in every single person. Otherwise, we are complicit in the spread of violence against women. 

There are so many four-letter words I want to use to describe a man like Cameron Hogg, but punk feels most fitting. A bench warrant has been issued for his arrest, but at present, he has not been apprehended.

“Detectives are still working the case,” said Dallas PD’s Kristin Lowman in a recent interview. “No one is in custody at this time. They’ve been working it since Monday night trying to find justice for Miss Womack.”

Someone that violent, stupid, and Black will most certainly be caught in due time. And while I won’t meet violent acts with violent rhetoric, I hope the rest of his life is marred by misery and containment. 

And I want that misery to be spread to all men like him. Because women like Asia Womack shouldn’t have to die over a weak man and his pathetic ego. 

They should be able to celebrate their wins in peace.

Michael Arceneaux is the New York Timesbestselling author of I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyoncé, I Don’t Want To Die Poor, and the forthcoming I Finally Bought Some Jordan’s.

More From Level Man:

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[alin-tocmacov]

Asia Society Texas Center

Houston, USA, 2023

C&G Partners

[houstonfilmcommission]

THIS MONTH! The 16th Indian Film Festival of Houston runs FRI2/23 - SAT2/24 at Asia Society Texas Center. #FilmHouston #VisitHouston #FilmFestival Schedule/Tickets --> https://iffhinc.org/programs-2024/

[reggiejamz]

In a Museum somewhere. (at Asia Society Texas Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn-2aamO7lN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[iv3-b33n-st4rl0ck3d]

Cults

Cult is the term commonly used for a new religion devoted to a living leader and committed to a fixed set of teachings and practices. Such groups range in size from a few followers to worldwide organizations directed by a complex chain of command. Members of these groups generally consider them to be legitimate religions and rarely call them cults. Most historians of religion use the more neutral term new religious movement instead of cult. Because there is no one definition of cults, their number and membership today cannot be accurately measured.

Kinds of cults. Traditionally, the term cult referred to any form of worship or ritual observance, or even to a group of people pursuing common goals. Many groups accepted as religions today were once classified as cults. Christianity began as a cult within Judaism and developed into an established religion. Other groups that began as cults and developed into organized churches include the Quakers, Mormons, Swedenborgians, Christian Scientists, Methodists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Seventh-day Adventists. For a discussion of cults in the ancient world, see Mysteries .

During the 1960's, new religious movements spread and flourished in the United States. Since that time, negative publicity about cults has altered the meaning of the term cult. Today, the term is applied to groups that follow a living leader who promotes new and unorthodox doctrines and practices. Some leaders demand that members live apart from everyday society in communities called communes. Leaders claim that they possess exclusive religious truth, and they command absolute obedience and allegiance from their followers. Some cults require that members contribute all their possessions to the group. None of these characteristics are unusual in the history of religions. But they tend to create suspicion among outsiders, especially those whose family members join such groups.

Modern cults. Probably the most notorious new religious movement of the late 1900's was the People's Temple, a group led by the Protestant clergyman Jim Jones. Hundreds of his followers moved into a rural commune called Jonestown in the South American country of Guyana. They lived under Jones's absolute rule. In 1978, members of the People's Temple killed a U.S. congressman and three journalists. Jones then ordered his followers to commit suicide, resulting in the deaths of more than 900 people, including Jones. See Guyana (History) .

Another controversial group was the Branch Davidians, led by the self-proclaimed prophet David Koresh. In 1993, a 51-day confrontation between the Branch Davidians and federal forces near Waco, Texas, ended with a tragic fire in the group's compound. More than 80 Branch Davidians died, including Koresh.

Some movements regarded as cults did not begin as religious groups. A movement called Synanon was originally organized in California to rehabilitate drug addicts. It changed into a commune that won legal recognition as a religion.

Two of the largest groups regarded as cults in the United States had origins in Asia. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly called the Hare Krishna movement, was established in 1966. Its leader, the Hindu teacher A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, had come from India to the United States in 1965. During the 1960's and 1970's, he established many centers in the United States and other countries. Many members of ISKCON wear orange robes similar to those worn by Indian holy men.

The Unification Church, founded by the evangelist Sun Myung Moon, is an adaptation of Christianity. Its members, commonly called "Moonies," believe in a cosmic struggle between the forces of good and evil. The Unification Church has been aggressive in seeking conversions. Like many other cults popular in the 1970's, however, it began to adopt a more moderate tone in the 1980's.

Less aggressive and more loosely organized cults tend to stress such personal spiritual practices as meditation. Transcendental meditation, for example, offers forms of meditation practice to participants but does not require adherence to specific religious creeds. See Transcendental meditation.

Source:

[gravitascivics]

A GENERAL INABILITY

Funny how national events – or events that capture the national attention – stir one’s memory.  To this writer, the attack on the national Capitol last January 6th was such an event.  He recalled something he read some years ago.  That being the late Christopher Lasch’s book, The Culture of Narcissism.[1]  When Lasch wrote that book, he seemed to be motivated in part to explain the prevalence of leftist, anti-war demonstrators and of the then popular cultist movements. It seems that what he had to say then, in the late seventies, has relevance today.

         His basic area of concern is how bourgeois society has lost its ability to meet challenges.  Not only was the Western world unable to think of big solutions, but there also seems to be a lack of willingness to even try. And that state is not a reaction to a lack of such challenges; they are out there and threaten to overwhelm those societies, including the US.  One can say that even though Lasch wrote this work some thirty years ago, his concerns are still affecting those nations today.

         It is as if classical liberalism,[2] a central strain of belief in the West, has lost its ability to account for multinational corporations or be able to sustain a welfare state.  More targeted in his comments is that that liberalism’s approach, that of science, has not developed effective policies to address the ongoing human/social problems that keep afflicting the West.  

For example, while the loss of manufacturing jobs in the West to developing, low wage countries – mostly in Asia – has left behind segments of those western countries in dire economic straits, none of the western countries seem to devise the policies that would meet that challenge.  Here is one account of this lack of development:

Even if the loss of manufacturing jobs in advance economies may have contributed relatively little to aggregate inequality in advance economies, the negative consequences appear to have been sizable and persistent for some groups of workers and their communities.  Expanding access to programmes that facilitate the reskilling of displace workers and reduce the costs of their reallocation, as well as strengthening safety nets and targeted redistribution policies, can help soften the blow imposed by structural transformation and help ensure that the gains of productivity growth are shared more broadly.[3]

While this transformation has been going on since the seventies, this cited account was written in 2018.  In all that time no meaningful program has been developed to provide the reforms that would reestablish those workers’ prior standing.  They, the dispossessed, instead have become prime candidates for radicalization.

         Lasch writes, “The natural sciences, having made exaggerated claims for themselves, now hasten to announce that science offer no miracle cures for social problems.”[4]  Why this interruption to a history of ongoing successes and advancements?  According to Lasch, one change has been significantly less reliance on the study of history.  

And he not only points out that there is a lack of objectified history (which scientific bias would prefer), but a history soaked in “moral dignity, patriotism, and political optimism.”  That is a history that not only tells of the past but does it with a dose of encouragement, praise, or castigation when a historical tale merits such an account.

         The assumption was that before the post-World War II period, the people were able and disposed to learn from the past, but now the message is that the past is irrelevant.  It stems from the notion that now is modern and then was, well, then and irrelevant to modern challenges.  And this sense for contemporary conditions and their qualitative qualities seems to have affected those in power up and down the political power grid. And when problems are not fixed or are not even meaningfully addressed, distrust by those in harm’s way follows.

         Recently, after giving conservatives a healthy dose of criticism, this writer pointed out that liberals have their own shortcomings as well.  He then stated that that criticism waited for another venue to express some of that message.  Here it is. Yes, over reliance on government has led to the diminution of local governance.  This nation, in many areas, has experienced over-governance by empowered, far-off bureaucracies with dehumanizing regulations about how local things should be done.  Please do not interpret this with a non-nuanced eye.

         It is not an either/or issue, but one of degree.  In a world of multinational corporations with enormous power, it is often the case that only central governments can meet the challenges they, the corporations, create or ignore.  The trick – as it is with most of life – is to hit the right combination.  But there is more to this general problem area than merely not reading history.  And addressing that other area or areas will be done at some later posting.

         But for now, this posting leaves the reader with this quote from Lasch:

The inadequacy of solutions dictated from above now forces people to invent solutions dictated from below. Disenchantment with governmental bureaucracies has begun to extend to corporate bureaucracies as well – the real centers of power in contemporary society.  In small towns and crowded urban neighborhoods, even in suburbs, men and women have initiated modest experiments in cooperation, designed to defend their rights against the corporations and the state.  The “flight from politics,” as it appears to the managerial political elite, may signify citizen’s growing unwillingness to take part in the political system as a consumer of prefabricated spectacles … not a retreat from politics at all but the beginnings of a general political revolt.[5]

Well, now thirty plus years later, as events in Texas this last week indicate – and while the problems with the power there is due to the mismanagement of a state, not a national entity – that revolt still has a way to go.

Perhaps if the states’ civics curricula were guided not by a natural rights point of view – one that blends in with Lasch’s observation for a preference of objectified studies – but one guided by federation theory, then, at least, how young people are taught about government and politics might help.[6]  It has come to this writer’s attention that the state of Florida is going to consider in its legislature’s next session a mandated change in its public schools’ civics curriculum to offer a more local emphasis.  Hopefully, that comes about, and the resulting change will be effective.

If change along the lines that Lasch suggests does not take place, what then?  He goes on to address the way this whole current situation creates the conditions that generates a generation of radicals such as those who took it upon themselves to attack the US Capitol.  As hinted to above and reflecting the reason this writer presently took up this topic, when this blog again addresses it, it will share Lasch’s attempt at predicting in more detail.

[1] Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (New York, NY:  W. W. Norton and Company, 1979).

[2] One can see classical liberalism as a main element of the natural rights view, that his blog claims has taken prevalence since World War II.

[3] Oya Ceasun and Bertrand Gruss, “The Declining Share of Manufacturing Jobs,” Vox(EU)/CEPR (May 25, 2018), accessed February 23, 2021, https://voxeu.org/article/declining-share-manufacturing-jobs .  British spelling.

[4] Ibid., xiv.

[5] Ibid., xv.

[6] If the reader agrees, this writer’s book, Toward a Federated Nation, might assist educators and interested citizens to bring about such a shift.  See Robert Gutierrez, Toward a Federated Nation: Implementing National Civics Standards (Tallahassee, FL:  Gravitas/Civics Books, 2020).  Available through Amazon.

[jamesworrell007]

Best Restaurant to Eat in with Family in Bangkok

Bangkok has consistently been a foodie heaven, with knockout dinners on pretty much every square. While the road food here is still best in class, the city has likewise rethought itself as of late with an extraordinary cluster of top notch food alternatives and incredible connoisseur choices from around the world. Indian Chef Garima Arora will astonish your sense of taste with lovely takes on Asian charge utilizing the freshest privately sourced fixings at the honor winning Gaa, while Thai cook Bee Satongun has won culinary expert of the year respects just as being granted a Michelin star for her brilliant real Thai manifestations at Paste. Mezzaluna, set 65 stories up at the Lebua, has Bangkok's best view, however it additionally has 2 Michelin stars and the honor winning food of Japanese cook Ryuki Kawasaki. Other really great Thai-impacted spots incorporate the interesting manifestations at Canvas and the extraordinary Thai tasting menu at Saawaan. For valid elusive Thai dishes at exceptionally reasonable costs, both Supanniga and The Local are the best places around, and on the off chance that you need Isaan northeastern flavor, head to consistently packed Baan Som Tam.

It's not just Thai food that guests are coming to Bangkok for the time being however. Notwithstanding Gaa, Japanese highlights profoundly on the Bangkok menu. For innovative sushi, Isao will take your breath away and is most likely the lone eatery in Bangkok that has a line out the entryway 365 days per year. There are a large number of Italian spots to look over, however for a genuine trattoria, head to Appia. For French, Le Normandie not just serves the best haute food French for a significant distance, yet it additionally has two Michelin stars. You most unquestionably will not be going hungry in this city.

Also Check out Bangkok Pet Friendly Apartments for Rent

Canvas - THONGLOR

Material, granted a Michelin star in the most recent (second) release of the Michelin Bangkok Guide, features privately sourced Thai fixings, a considerable lot of which coffee shops may not be comfortable with, presenting great six and nine-course tasting menus of nearby top choices that have been given a global contort utilizing reformist cooking techniques. The eatery additionally features the incredible culinary abilities of Chef Riley Sanders, who along with a heavenly and efficient group, runs an amazing open kitchen, getting burger joints one of Bangkok's best gastronomic encounters.

Sanders hails from Texas, and after a stretch at the famous Uchiko Japanese combination café in Austin, went to work with 3-star Michelin Chef Laurent Gras at the eminent L20 in Chicago. Be that as it may, following this he shunned ascending the conventional stepping stool and rather got a position cooking on a personal ship, where he was given free imaginative reach in the kitchen, permitting him to sharpen his specialty considerably more. All the more significantly, the work gave Sanders both the time and cash to travel, his other energy, and he left out traveling all throughout the planet, tasting his way through business sectors, road food, and fancy foundations everywhere on the globe.

Material is the result of Sanders being attracted to Bangkok and its astounding culinary culture, and he's raised neighborhood and regularly exceptional fixings higher than ever. Take the soy-smoked ruler mackerel arranged sous vide and presented with an orgasmic glue made of subterranean insect eggs, dill, and horseradish. Sanders says that this was enlivened by Western "shrimp and steak" menus, just here transforming the mackerel into the "surf" joined with one of Thailand's most unordinary inland fixings, the subterranean insect eggs.

Sitting at the open counter here is a delight, as you will watch Sanders and his group in real life, just as being given the story behind each dish and its fixings as they are served. You discover that the heavenly frog comes from a homestead in Khao Yai and that the palatable blossoms presented with it are from Samut Prakhan (a territory adjoining Bangkok), and that the most delicious nectar you've at any point tasted (served on new gooseberries in season over sorbet) comes from stingless honey bees that are from Chantaburi, and produce an exceptionally thought sweet nectar.

Supper here is an otherworldly occasion where no one can tell what's coming straightaway. Take the "rice bread." Served as a modest canapé, this is really one of the menu knockouts and will leave you wishing you had a portion to bring home. Produced using natural rice from Surin Province, it's presented with earthy colored margarine and yellow stew emulsion, and finished off with salted egg yolk and toasted tacky rice. Light and delightful, Sanders says the thought behind it was to serve the Thai staple of rice as a variant of the Western staple of bread.

Most suitably named, Canvas includes a cook whose craftsman's range is a melange of tones, ensured to leave your sense of taste asking for additional, and is a most meriting passage into the Bangkok Michelin guide and foodie feasting scene that has cleared the city.

Suggested for Best Restaurants since: Canvas highlights Thai-impacted imaginative food made by a rising star youthful American gourmet specialist and is genuinely one of Bangkok's ideal.

Dave's master tip: Take the BTS Skytrain to Thonglor and afterward either stroll up Thonglor (Sukhumvit Soi 55) ten minutes to arrive or probably snatch a taxi. The café is soon after Thonglor Soi 5 on your lefthand side.

Glue BANGKOK - PATHUMWAN

Exemplary Thai food is eminent world over, yet once in a while does one discover it introduced in a particularly imaginative manner as at Paste. Glue Bangkok is the brainchild of Australian honor winning cook Jason Bailey and his Thai accomplice Bongkoch "Honey bee" Satongun, who got approval for their Thai cafés in Australia and afterward migrated to Bangkok, carrying innovative and quality food with them. Bailey presently centers around the business end and undertakings for Paste, while Satongun runs the kitchen, zeroing in on unique Thai flavors and surfaces, with fixings sourced straight from the producer and best business sectors in the country. The eatery got a Michelin star and Satongun has won gourmet specialist of the year praises to go with a large group of different honors. Customary Thai food is done here with lovely inventive turns and an absolute regard for taste blends enough to wow the most insightful coffee shop. Attempt the impeccable Andaman lobster with fresh fish skin or the watermelon and ground salmon with betel leaves and shallots, both are sublime. The café used to have a branch over on Sukhumvit 49, yet has moved to the luxurious Gaysorn Plaza, carrying some refined genuinely refined feasting to Bangkok's most exquisite mall.

Suggested for Best Restaurants on the grounds that: For genuinely creative and legitimate high end food Thai cooking, Paste sticks out.

Dave's master tip: Paste is situated on the third floor of the Gaysorn Plaza. Bring the immediate passage into Gaysorn from the Chidlom BTS skytrain station. Reservations are fundamental.

MEZZALUNA - BANGRAK

Mezzaluna is Bangkok's most chic eatery, and eating up here 65 stories over the Chao Phraya River and the Bangkok horizon is one of the top encounters one can have while around, particularly as the café has been granted two stars by the Bangkok Michelin guide, and highlights the sense of taste boggling cooking of gourmet expert Ryuki Kawasaki, who has monitored Michelin kitchens in France, the U.S., and his local Japan, and was named Chef of the Year by the Escoffier Society while working at Twist by Pierre Gagnaire in Las Vegas.

Assuming control over the rudder at Mezzaluna in 2015, Kawasaki has joined his standout French cooking procedures with the absolute most only sourced fixings to be found in Asia. Take the Niigata Murakami Wagyu meat for instance, which Kawasaki brings only to Thailand from Japan. The hamburger comes from a little variety of painstakingly chose, top notch calves from Niigata Prefecture, which are raised on rice straw, roughage, and premium compound feed, giving the meat a smooth surface and totally soften in the mouth taste. It is served here at Mezzaluna with dark truffles and barbecued over binchotan charcoal, and is the mark dish featuring an extraordinary seven-course tasting menu

Everything about the feasting experience at Mezzaluna is done to most extreme flawlessness. A flock of staff drifts around your table, never neglecting to see whether you need more bread or water, continually bringing sense of taste boosts before dishes, and giving itemized clarifications of the multitude of enamoring manifestations. A specialist sommelier comes out to clarify each wine matching presented with the food, giving the causes of each container, however praising its features and flavor profiles, and the basement here is one of the best taking all things together Bangkok, with a few of the wines served being select to Mezzaluna.

The menu at Mezzaluna is occasional, changing like clockwork, despite the fact that dishes like the Wagyu meat are constantly highlighted. Gourmet specialist Kawasaki says, "My enthusiasm is to make encounters that rouse and leave enduring recollections for individuals I share them with, and our culinary excursion at Mezzaluna comprises of different surfaces, flavors, artisinal occasional items, and cooking procedures."

This is a whole eating experience at its best, from gourmet expert to worker to table to the mood. Now, the sky (and potentially even a pined for third star) is the breaking point for Mezzaluna and its elite player culinary expert.

Suggested for Best Restaurants in light of the fact that: For Bangkok's most exquisite high as can be Michelin-granted greatness, you can't top Mezzaluna

Dave's master tip: Reservations are fundamental here, and it merits coming right on time for a nightfall drink at the Distil Bar, found just beneath the Mezzaluna.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Historic blast of polar vortex sets scores of records, scatters rare May snow in Eastern U.S. (Washington Post) A blast of Arctic air marched south across the eastern Lower 48 to start the weekend, bringing winterlike temperatures to millions of people and even a confetti of snowflakes. Records fell like dominoes as the icy air mass spilled south, first lapping at the Midwest before surging all the way east to the Atlantic. It’s one of the most prolific late-season cold outbreaks on record, thanks to a piece of the low-altitude polar vortex breaking off and meandering uncharacteristically far south. From Texas to Maine, record lows for May 9 fell in every state in the eastern half of the Lower 48 north of Florida. Several locations also registered their lowest May temperatures ever recorded and coldest weather this late in the season. Lows dipped into the 20s in 20 states.

A distinct possibility: ‘Temporary’ layoffs may be permanent (AP) In late March, Britney Ruby Miller, co-owner of a small chain of steakhouse restaurants, confidently proclaimed that once the viral outbreak had subsided, her company planned to recall all its laid-off workers. Now? Miller would be thrilled to eventually restore three-quarters of the roughly 600 workers her company had to let go. “I’m being realistic,” she said. “Bringing back 75% of our staff would be incredible.” Call it realism or pessimism, but more employers are coming to a reluctant conclusion: Many of the employees they’ve had to lay off in the face of the pandemic might not be returning to their old jobs anytime soon. Some large companies won’t have enough customers to justify it. And some small businesses won’t likely survive at all despite aid provided by the federal government.

One-Third of All U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Are Nursing Home Residents or Workers (NYT) At least 27,600 residents and workers have died from the coronavirus at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities for older adults in the United States, according to a New York Times database. The virus so far has infected more than 150,000 at some 7,700 facilities. Nursing home populations are at a high risk of being infected by—and dying from—the coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is known to be particularly lethal to older adults with underlying health conditions, and can spread more easily through congregate facilities, where many people live in a confined environment and workers move from room to room. While just 11 percent of the country’s cases have occurred in long-term care facilities, deaths related to Covid-19 in these facilities account for more than a third of the country’s pandemic fatalities.

Coronavirus shuts the Mexican beer industry down, and the country is running dry (Washington Post) During the bone-dry days of Prohibition, Americans slipped over the border to guzzle beer in Mexico. A century later, Mexican towns are the ones going dry. The government has largely shut down beer production, saying that it is not essential during the country’s coronavirus outbreak. The last bottles of Tecate, Corona, Modelo Especial and Dos Equis for Mexican consumption rolled off the lines in early April. “Many people are desperately searching for beer,” said Raúl Funes, the head of a craft-brew association in Tijuana, just south of San Diego. “It’s like toilet paper.”

The red flags of Colombia (Washington Post) When the food supply at the community shelter had dwindled to a single package of Swiss chard, Robinson Álvarez Monroy stepped outside and hung a red scarf. Across Colombia, the red flag—or scarf, or towel, or T-shirt—has come to symbolize an urgent need for assistance. It’s a cry for help. In some places, the scarf, towel, or T-shirt has been waving for more than a month. Colombia had reported more than 10,000 cases of the coronavirus and 420 deaths as of Friday night, far fewer than South American neighbors Peru, Ecuador and Brazil. But lockdowns have devastated the region’s fragile economy, and the informal laborers who must work to eat. People in the slums say help comes from those who see the flags and stop to give them food.

Pandemic shows contrasts between US, European safety nets (AP) The coronavirus pandemic is straining social safety nets across the globe—and underlining sharp differences in approach between wealthy societies such as the United States and Europe. In Europe, the collapse in business activity is triggering wage support programs that are keeping millions on the job, for now. In contrast, in the United States more than 33.5 million people have applied for jobless benefits and the unemployment rate has soared to 14.7%. Congress has passed $2 trillion in emergency support, boosting jobless benefits and writing stimulus checks of up to $1,200 per taxpayer. That is a pattern seen in earlier economic downturns, particularly the global financial crisis and the Great Recession. Europe depends on existing programs kicking in that pump money into people’s pockets. The U.S., on the other hand, relies on Congress taking action by passing emergency stimulus programs. Economist Andre Sapir, a senior fellow at the Bruegel research institute in Brussels, said budget policy in the U.S. plays partly the role that Europe’s welfare system plays because the American welfare system is less generous and a recession can be much harsher on workers.

French parents anguish over sending children back to school (AP) As France prepares to start letting public life resume after eight weeks under a coronavirus lockdown, many parents are deeply torn over a question without a clear or correct answer: Should I send my child back to school? Due to the slow startup, as well as ongoing fears about COVID-19 in hard-hit France, school attendance will not be compulsory right away. Parents and guardians may keep children at home and teachers will provide lessons like they have during the nationwide lockdown. Returning students will find their classrooms running differently. Teachers will wear masks and remind children to social distance from each other and to wash their hands several times a day.

Italy has long been Europe’s wild card. The coronavirus has upped the risk. (Washington Post) After two months of ambulance sirens, mourning and isolation, this is the damage report from Italy: The novel coronavirus death toll has surpassed 30,000. The country is hurtling into its steepest recession in modern times. Tourism has gone bust. Many restaurants and shops lack the cash to ever reopen. The government’s brittle finances are becoming ever more stretched. All the while, many Italians feel embittered and alienated. They are disappointed in the continent’s early response to the pandemic and its fallout. Anti-European sentiment has spiked. So has the uncertainty about what might happen next in Italy’s topsy-turvy politics. Even before it was hit by one of the world’s deadliest outbreaks, Italy was seen as the wild card of Western Europe—flirting on-and-off with populism, sometimes seeming to be only one mismanaged crisis away from becoming the continent’s next Brexit or Greek-style debt disaster. Now that crisis has arrived, and what hangs in the balance is not just Italy’s stability but that of Europe, as well.

In Japan, pandemic brings outbreaks of bullying, ostracism (AP) The coronavirus in Japan has brought not just an epidemic of infections, but also an onslaught of bullying and discrimination against the sick, their families and health workers. A government campaign to raise awareness seems to be helping, at least for medical workers. But it’s made only limited headway in countering the harassment and shunning that may be discouraging people from seeking testing and care and hindering the battle against the pandemic. Apart from fear of infection, experts say the prejudice against those even indirectly associated with the illness also stems from deeply rooted ideas about purity and cleanliness in a culture that rejects anything deemed to be alien, unclean or troublesome. Medical workers risking their lives to care for patients are a main target, but people working at grocery stores, delivering parcels and carrying out other essential jobs also are facing harassment. So are their family members.

Infections rise in Asia (AP) China and South Korea reported new spikes Sunday in coronavirus cases, setting off fresh concerns in countries where outbreaks had been in dramatic decline, and new protests against pandemic restrictions erupted in Germany despite the easing of many lockdowns in Europe. Worldwide, health officials are anxiously watching to see just how much infection rates rise in a second wave as nations and states emerge from varying degrees of lockdown. Later Sunday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was expected to take a different tack, keeping most restrictions in place as he reveals a ‘road map’ for the future of the country that has the most official virus deaths in Europe at over 31,600.

Virus Forces Persian Gulf States to Reckon With Migrant Labor (NYT) The Kuwaiti talk show panelists were holding forth on an issue that the coronavirus has pushed to the forefront of national debate: whether their tiny, oil-rich monarchy should rely as heavily as it does on foreign laborers, who have suffered most of the country’s infections and borne much of the cost of its lockdown. “Go to malls in Kuwait—would you ever see a Kuwaiti working there?” said one guest, Ahmad Baqer. “No. They’re all different nationalities.” Not long after, a South Asian man slipped into the camera frame, serving tea to each panelist from a tray. He appeared three times during the program, his presence unacknowledged except by one panelist who waved away a fresh cup. In the Middle East’s wealthiest societies, the machinery of daily life depends on migrant laborers from Asia, Africa and poorer Arab countries—millions of “tea boys,” housemaids, doctors, construction workers, deliverymen, chefs, garbagemen, guards, hairdressers, hoteliers and more, who often outnumber the native population. They support families back home by doing the jobs citizens cannot or will not take. But as oil revenues plummet, migrant labor camps become coronavirus hot spots and citizens demand that their governments protect them first, the pandemic has prompted a reckoning with the status quo. “The two things that Gulf countries depend on the most, oil prices and foreign workers, these two have been hard hit with the coronavirus,” said Eman Alhussein, a fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “The coronavirus has unleashed all these issues that have been put on the back burner for a long time.”

South Africa’s alcohol ban during lockdown reveals its deadly drinking habits (Washington Post) South Africa has taken some of the most drastic measures in the world to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus, but one has generated fierce debate like no other: a ban on the sale, and even transport, of alcohol. On one side: drinkers who say their rights are being impinged on and bottle shop owners and liquor companies that are going broke. On the other: a public health system that is unburdened by thousands of monthly hospitalizations resulting from accidents and violence attributed to drunkenness. More than 5,000 fewer admissions to trauma units per week can be attributed to the alcohol ban, according to Charles Parry, director of alcohol research at the South African Medical Research Council. The council’s data also shows a decrease in excess deaths in South Africa, suggesting that the lockdown, with its alcohol ban and decrease in vehicle use, may have saved the lives of more South Africans than the 186 that the coronavirus is confirmed to have killed so far. “Instead of patching people up with stabbing wounds, nurses can focus on training how to handle covid cases,” Parry said, referencing covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. “Based on our model, at least 15 people who would have otherwise died from alcohol-related traumas are being saved every single day.”

[huttson-blog]

FemFest brings Asian-American female voices to the stage — Houston Chronicle

FemFest brings Asian-American female voices to the stage — Houston Chronicle

Read more at Houston Chronicle

— by Wei-Huan Chen: Two arts organizations in Houston have come together for an unprecedented project – a festival specifically celebrating Asian and Asian-American female writers.

FemFest Houston: Voices of Asia is a collaboration between Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre Company and Asia Society Texas Center…

Image courtesy of Houston Chronicle

[babysilverblog]

Always an extra fun night at the night festival @asiasocietytx ! The Youkai woodblock exhibit was so cool (at Asia Society Texas Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkkIVG6sQzV/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[hakesbros]

San Antonio, Tx Business Actual Estate For Sale

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[beinglibertarian]

The Waste of A Wall

The big, beautiful border wall is always on President Donald Trump’s mind. “Build the wall” is chanted at rallies. The wall was used as an excuse when Trump University lost in court. Now, to force its construction, the Trump administration is using deplorable treatment of illegal immigrants as a bargaining chip. We have been told time and again how Mexico is paying for said wall despite attempts to wrangle it into an immigration bill and to have Congress allocate taxpayer money to fund it. All of this for a $25 billion price tag.

But that pales to the actual waste.

The upfront price tag might be $25 billion, but how much will it cost to maintain this wall? Let’s use a car as an example: you buy a $25,000 car and spend 1% of its value on maintenance; about $250 a year. Some years will be more, some will be less. So a guesstimate would be $250 million a year for upkeep – every year until when exactly?

The Constitution makes no mention of the border, but it does have the 5th and 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process of law before seizure of property. That’s important because the United States doesn’t actually own the border with Mexico. Most of the border is owned by private citizens; some of whom will willingly sell their land to the government, but some will not. So the government will confiscate it by force with eminent domain. Those cases will be adjudicated in court, consuming more time, money and resources. In the end, the government will likely get what it wants through theft from people through tyrannical force.

The ecological impact of the wall is incalculable. Animals migrate across the border. The semi-arid and arid regions of the southern border are delicate ecosystems and, when altered, many species struggle to adapt. How many animals’ extinctions is a wall worth?

Would a wall even work? There is a preponderance of evidence to the contrary, going back thousands of years.

Let’s begin with the most famous wall: the Great Wall of China. It took hundreds of years to construct. Sections were built upon the bones of the dead workers, and it never kept anyone out. Mongul invaders routinely raided China. Increasingly, more resources were needed to maintain and expand it, with little effect upon raids.

How about more modern examples? After World War I, France built the Maginot Line; defense structures along the German border to protect against a future German invasion. Manned by the most experienced French soldiers, bunkers, concrete fortifications, anti-tank obstructions, and machine gun nests were simply bypassed through the Low Countries. After the success of the Maginot Line, the Germans in turn built the impenetrable Atlantic Wall. Then came the Berlin Wall, a symbol of everything wrong with communism, that still could not stop 5,000 people from wanting to be free and risking everything to attain that freedom.

The most modern example is the Israeli West Bank barrier. Israel controls the West Bank where many Palestinians and Israelis live. They built a security wall to control and restrict travel of the people that live there.  Yet there are still terror attacks. Mortars and rockets fly perfectly fine over the wall, terrorists still tunnel beneath it, and there are even attacks using incendiary balloons and kites.

The purpose of the great southern wall is to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs. How successful would it be? Not very. According to Pew Research, 26% of illegal immigrants come from Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Europe and the Caribbean, most of whom simply overstay their visas. Unless we are building a wall 30,000 feet high to keep out airplanes, ¼ of illegal immigration will be unaffected.

Then there is the drug angle. The War on Drugs has failed. After 40 years, $1 trillion, countless lives lost and ruined, a wall will do nothing more than be a speed bump. 40% of illegal drugs do not cross the southern border. The current scourge fentanyl is manufactured in China, and because of its potency, minute amounts can be trafficked through any open door into the country.  A single person can carry a few ounces that would be enough fentanyl to kill dozens. In addition, drug and human traffickers are extremely innovative. They use submarines, tractor trailers, drones, the postal service, cannons, tunnels, speed boats, planes, hidden car compartments, balloons, or they just walk right through one of the open doors. As long as there are doorways of legal immigration, of free travel and exchange of goods, there will be illegal crossings and drugs trafficked.

It wouldn’t be the government without some fearmongering, so what about those terrorists sneaking across the border? Some suspected terrorists have been apprehended, but no one has ever entered this country through the Canadian or Mexican borders and plotted or carried out a terrorist attack. This scare tactic invented by the Bush administration after 9/11 still persists.

Most people can agree that we need border security, but not at a $25 billion dollar price tag for something that is obsolete even before it is built. Republican congressman William Hurd, who represents 820 miles of the Texas-Mexico border, introduced a bill for a “SMART wall” of radar, lidar, drones, cameras, and sensors. All are far cheaper than a physical barrier, cheaply replaceable and cheaply upgradeable. That bill was introduced on 27 January 2017; it has not even gone to committee for consideration or debate. Hurd’s fellow Republicans’ vision has been obscured by the wall.

The border boils down to some basic economics of supply and demand. Illegal immigrants are looking for a supply of jobs, safety, and freedom. Because of quotas and a terrible system of legal immigration there will always be illegal immigrants in America. The harder it is to become a legal citizen, the more illegal immigrants there will be. The demand is unaffected. If the wall was built tomorrow, it would simply shift where illegal immigration comes from. Same with drugs, except we have actually tried to affect both sides of supply and demand with no change in outcome. A hard truth is that people in America demand drugs, and they will get their drugs somehow. Prohibition, or a wall, will not change this, but simply change where it comes from.

We can live in an utterly safe and secure society depending how many freedoms you want to give up. We can cede more money and power to the government, or we can work on real world solutions. Walls, either physical or mental, are an impediment to the free exchange of ideas and to the very idea of free people. By erecting walls, we are not keeping people out – we are forcing ourselves in.

Sources:

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https://ift.tt/1QVqVKD

https://ift.tt/ZEJ8Bi

https://ift.tt/2tmZe4S

https://ift.tt/2MLyjIV

hurd.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/hurd-introduces-21st-century-smart-wall-legislation

* Michael Telesca is a seasoned salesmen and amateur/hobbyist writer who hates seeing money wasted whether it be personal or tax dollars and people’s freedoms being trampled upon.

The post The Waste of A Wall appeared first on Being Libertarian.

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[houstonfilmcommission]

NEXT MONTH! The 16th Indian Film Festival of Houston runs FRI2/23 - SAT2/24 at Asia Society Texas Center. Info/Schedule --> https://iffhinc.org/programs-2024

[pinoyscientists]

Meet Jaimee-Ian Rodriguez, astrophysicist-in-training

1) What do you do?

I am an undergraduate student pursuing a bachelors degree in Physics and pursuing a career in Astrophysics. I've participated in research on galactic dynamics and evolution. In particular, I focus on star formation in dwarf galaxies and how it is regulated by supernovae feedback and photoionization. I've worked with high-resolution simulations, which are really cool and teach you a lot about the technical, computational side of science.

2) Where do you work?

I split my work among a lot of places throughout New York City. My home institution is Hunter College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY). My research is based at the American Museum of Natural History and the Center for Computational Astrophysics. I also recently began collaborating with a postdoc up at Harvard University. 

The decentralization of my work started just as a consequence of the fact that Hunter itself does not participate in much astrophysical research. I'm glad that I've been able to expand my networks in this way. It's been a great exercise in stepping out of my comfort zone and has encouraged me to step out even further, leading me to places and platforms like this!

3) Tell us about the photos!

[Top:] Presenting the research I conducted this summer as part of the Banneker & Aztlan Institute at Harvard University. It was a beautiful program that not only engaged underrepresented students like myself in research, it also engaged us in critical theory that exposed the sources of oppression in our society and prompted us to lead the way to solve these problems. 

The slide pictured is actually from the portion of my talk in which I address the non-science aspects of that experience, and I draw this analogy which compares political/scientific superpowers to large galaxies whereas island nations (like the Philippines) would be dwarf galaxies, and how, even though public perception has a bias towards the larger/more powerful countries which obscures the hard work done by those elsewhere, the work done in smaller countries and smaller institutions is no less significant.

[Bottom:] With some other students in the program kayaking in a nature reservation near Harvard. It reflects what I do to enjoy and nourish myself; I really love being in nature. The great thing about astronomy (and the sciences in general) is that you get to travel pretty frequently, and you get to see all these new sights. I love to hike around New York, but some of the best sights I've seen were in Maryland and Utah, when I visited for conferences.

4) Tell us about your academic career path so far. 

I was born and raised in New York, and being American-born has afforded me a lot of privilege. This is something I have to thank my parents for, who immigrated from the Philippines in the 90s. I went to a relatively small high school called Newfield High School before going to Hunter College. I'll be applying for graduate programs this fall to pursue a PhD. Some of my top choices include University of Texas at Austin, Harvard, and University of Washington.

5) Anything else you’d like to share?

I advocate for equality and justice in academia, the dominant institutions in the United States, and the world at large. I do so mainly through the clubs I head in school-- the Coalition for the Revitalization of Asian American Studies at Hunter (CRAASH) and the Society for Physics and Astronomy. We bring attention to issues of inequality and oppression through workshops, movie screenings, and other activities.

My ambitions extend beyond just getting a PhD and attaining existing research positions. I plan on creating my own research project soon (hopefully through the Fulbright Program) which would push the boundaries of what I can do solely in astronomy and in the US. My current, rough draft idea involves gathering and examining the wealth of astronomical knowledge in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and empowering budding scientists in these areas by providing resources in whichever way I can. This idea is still a long way from becoming reality, however, I do want to make sure I work with the communities to establish goals that are not only relevant to me, but also to the people I interact with. If you are reading this and have any ideas, or just want to get into contact, feel free to email me. I'm happy to respond!

[houstontexasinfo]

Best restaurants in Houston Texas

When it comes to choosing the best restaurants in this city, you will run out of options. The place is a hub for tourists from different regions, and you can expect good quality food catering to all types of food lovers. The popular restaurants in Houston Texas are often crowded during weekends, and you have to book your table in advance. There are many other well-known restaurants that cater to tourists from different countries by serving their favorite dishes. This is the city where people have different tastes, and there are ample restaurants where they are served some of the best delicacies. You may ask for any cuisine and find one of the best restaurants for the same in this city.

Killen’s Barbecue

This is one of the busiest restaurants in the city. You may have to wait sometime to get your table as the place is crowded on most occasions. They serve the best-smoked meats and pork sandwiches. You can even enjoy cold beers or some juice at this outlet. Even though it is small in size, it is very popular among the locals.

Verdine

The restaurant serves lunch and dinner in the best ambience. It is well known for its amazing interiors. If you are a big fan of vegetarian food, you have many options, including vegan food. Some of the unique dishes include slow-cooked jackfruit and pickled red onions. You can even order your favorite burgers or mushroom foods at this outlet.

MAD River Oaks

This is the place to be in Houston Texas, if you love the nightclub atmosphere. It is well known for its Spanish dishes, and you get a vintage feel as you enter the space. The place also serves the best drinks, and many locals visit the restaurant to enjoy their evenings with friends and family members. It is also a great place for tourists to try some amazing Spanish foods.

Pondicheri

This is the hub for the Asian community in Houston. You can find several Indian street foods in this place, and vegetarian dishes with lots of masalas are the most popular dishes in this place. If you want to try some exotic spicy foods, you have to try this restaurant at the Asia Society Texas Center.

There are several other restaurants in the city that are frequented by both locals and tourists. Depending on your choice of foods, you can choose the suitable option close to your location.

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