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loughlinpatrick · 5 years ago

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People Evolve – Writing Does, Too. So, What’s Next for Literature?

It’s time to write the next chapter of the story of literature. Photo: Nong Vang // Unsplash

Literature comes in many modes, modes which have been changing and adapting over millennia. We’ve had oral storytelling, the origin of many fairytales ingrained in our culture, written texts, which have contributed to the literary canon, and filmmaking, an extremely recent phenomenon when you consider all of human history but one that has definitely left its mark on our culture at large. As the methodology of literature has evolved, we’ve never entirely left any mode behind.

For example, oral storytelling has minted many ‘YouTube millionaires’ who’ve risen to fame through their use of the notable “story time” video format, which consists of them delivering (usually extremely exaggerated) stories about their lives to camera. So, when thinking about the future of literature, the question you should be asking isn’t “What will replace our current modes of literature?” but rather, “What new technology will complement these existing modes?”

The Answer Starts With Interactive Fiction…

Game on! Is the future of literature already here? Not quite… Photo: Florian Gagnepain // Unsplash

You might think the answer lies with video games, a format that has built upon filmmaking by adding a layer of perceived interactivity that makes players feel like they control the story. Many popular releases have taken this a step further in recent times, with the indie game ‘Until Dawn’ (2015) allowing players to achieve a range of possible endings, and more recent entries in the ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ (2014) series having “good” and “bad” endings. This style of interactive media allows consumers to feel more ownership over a particular narrative, but is the feeling of ownership among fans necessarily a good thing to foster?

This possessiveness over literature is one of the three main ingredients in “toxic fandom” according to media critic Rachael Lefler, who says possessive fans see media as “a territory or property they own.” In western culture, this can manifest as newly-hired female writers for the series ‘Rick & Morty’ (2013) facing harassment from fans who perceive them as “forced-SJW hires” who are ruining “their” show, as well as similar sexist harassment targeted at Marvel writers for a viral selfie.

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Ahead of its time? ‘Perfect Blue’ (1997) explores toxic fandom in Japan.

Toxic fandom isn’t just a Western problem – similar issues occur with fan behaviour toward Japanese J-Pop idols. The anime-psychological thriller ‘Perfect Blue,’ (1997) which features a stalker tormenting and impersonating his favourite J-Pop idol, explores this issue in-depth as it pertains to Japan.

The level of interactivity applied to modern texts can also be harmful to fandoms, in that it can be difficult for fans to know where the interactivity ends. Netflix demonstrated this with their first foray into the interactive film genre, ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ (2019), which had some fans convinced that there was a sixth “secret ending” within the movie in addition to the five main endings that were known. The ambiguity led to many online fan communities wasting hours of their time looking for clues to the alleged secret ending; this was ultimately a wild goose chase which only served to make it even more apparent that the film did not function as a text with a satisfying and “complete” plot.

Great as a game — not so much as a narrative; ‘Bandersnatch’ fell flat for some ‘Black Mirror’ fans. Photo: Netflix

However, even with texts that are not inherently interactive, such as HBO’s ‘Westworld’ (2017) – itself a meta-commentary on the limits of interactive texts. The show employed a trans-media strategy that allowed fans to access “secret” websites belonging to organisations and characters in the show. These websites then contained clues as to what would happen in future episodes of the show, but this led many fans to obsessively analyse trailers and posts from Westworld’s social media accounts to find more clues and secrets that weren’t there. In both of these cases, the expectations of the writers and viewers didn’t match up, leading viewers to look for deeper layers of interactivity that didn’t exist.

A Healthy Author-Reader Dialogue is Key.

Dedicated fans want to add to the story! Photo: Kaitlyn Baker // Unsplash

The tenacity of consumers of media to run with a story and build upon it has been apparent for decades, with growing online communities allowing fans to discuss media and even write fan-fiction to add on to the plots of their favourite texts. Some of these fan-fiction works have even entered mainstream consciousness, with backing from legacy media helping to turn well-known fan-fiction into physical books and globally released films. Two key examples of this phenomenon are ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ (2015) which was initially ‘Twilight’ (2008) fan-fiction, and the romance movie ‘After,’ (2019) which was originally fan-fiction about Harry Styles.

This tenacity of fans for storytelling is what helped the success of the comedy movie ‘Clue,’ (1985) based on the murder-mystery board game of the same name. The film had three different endings, with each cinema that showed it only receiving one conclusion. The film’s writers believed that this gimmick would allow “super-fans” to see the film multiple times, but ‘Clue’ ended up being a box-office flop. It was only through television re-runs that the film was able to build up an online fan community that enjoyed writing alternate endings and become the 80s cult classic that it is today.

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Fans of ‘Clue’ who’d watched it in different places were very confused when talking about it!

So, we’ve learned that it’s crucial to balance the expectations of an audience with the ambitions of a work’s creator, and this is a lesson that I employed in writing my mystery-novel series, ‘Revenge in Ridgeview.’ My series contains three mystery novels, and in writing them, I communicated extensively with my audience (at the time: only my friends who I badgered into reading them). As I was releasing the books online with a chapter a week (on the very same platform where ‘After’ was first published), I was also able to engage with readers of my work from other countries. The dialogue I had with my readers allowed me to ask them questions at the end of the first book, a key one being “Who is your favourite character?” Then, (as all authors feed off your tears) I made sure to give that character a terrible time in subsequent books. Yes, I upset quite a few of my friends; no, I’m not ashamed.

The Future is Personalised.

Is this the future of literature? Photo: Markus Spiske // Unsplash

So, now we can answer the question we’re here to get to the bottom of: what is next for literature? Well, taking the lessons we’ve learned, we can see that the next mode of media will be something that relies on computers, as seen in the way video games built upon filmmaking. However, unlike video games, writers will likely want to take back some of the feeling ownership over their texts. So, in essence, the mode will be interactive, but in a way where readers don’t know that they’re interacting with it. How can we accomplish this? With personalised literature; you wouldn’t “choose your adventure,” the adventure would choose you.

Netflix and other streaming services are already in a unique position to make this happen; they’ve collected mountains of data from every single profile on their service: your watch habits, when you watch, where you watch from, and as seen in the aftermath of their ‘Bandersnatch’ experiment, they even store the choices you make when viewing their interactive originals, forever. So, what would this allow writers to do?

Well, we’ve already seen that demonstrated way back in 1985 with ‘Clue,’ where cinemas had alternate endings; Netflix could do the same thing, but this time, instead of showing a random conclusion to a viewer with no idea of how they would react, Netflix could instead determine the “best ending” for the viewer and show them that one. The company is already experimenting with this to a certain extent: Netflix presents the episodes of ‘Love, Death & Robots’ (2019) in different orders for different users.

Journalists can also take advatage of personalised literature. Photo: Mr Cup / Fabien Barral // Unsplash

Furthermore, while I’ve avoided discussing non-fictional literature in so far, the news media is also in a unique position to take advantage of our move toward personalised texts.

For example, BBC News has been trialling personalised articles – or “perceptive media” as they call it – on their website since mid-2012 in a bid to appeal more to young adult readers. These efforts have allowed them to add a local angle to specific stories with a national focus by using the user’s location, such as showing local crime statistics in an article that discusses national trends.

The BBC also experimented with reports covering developing stories by adding personalised summaries based on previous articles on the topic that a user had read; they quickly scrapped this feature because “participants quite rightly asked how we knew what they’d read.” So, not all personalisation is well-received – sometimes it’s just too creepy – but journalists should still experiment in this area.

The Discussion Continues…

Lights, camera, action! Let’s hit record on the next phase of literature. Photo: Thomas William // Unsplash

As I noted earlier, the delivery of texts will always adapt. We’ve had oral storytelling, writing, filmmaking, video games and interactive fiction, and it’s likely that next, we’ll have personalised literature. This next mode certainly won’t be the last, and it won’t come without flaws. There’s still an ethical debate to be had about whether these big companies should even have your data in the first place, and about how they’ll use it.

For example, could streaming services like Netflix edit out scenes featuring LGBTQI couples if they detect that a viewer is homophobic, and would it be ethical to do so? I used my dialogue with my audience to create a text that would challenge them, but services with a financial incentive (and lots more of your data at their disposal) may not have the same moral imperative. So, let’s start having that conversation, so we can make sure that the future of literature is a good one.

Update: My friends are still upset about what I did to their favourite character. The power of knowing your readers, I guess?

#storytelling #writing #filmmaking #journalism #literature

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ruminativerabbi · 6 years ago

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Three Good People

Just this week, three separate emails landed in my inbox that actually made me feel encouraged and hopeful about the future. Since so much of what I’ve written about lately has been so dour and/or anxiety-provoking, I thought I’d change up the pace this week and write instead about three recent events that made me feel hopeful about the future.

First up was the speech delivered at an American Jewish Committee forum in Brussels last week by Sebastian Kurz, the chancellor of Austria (and at age thirty-three the youngest serving head of government in the world). My feelings about Austria in general are complicated, and not least of all because my initiation into the whole world of Shoah-displaced people was via my parents’ next-door neighbors who were refugees from Austria and whose stories of life in Nazi Vienna were beyond terrifying. Nor have my sentiments become less complex with the passage of time, as I continue to marvel at the Austrians’ post-war success in turning themselves from a nation of avid Nazi supporters who enthusiastically welcomed union with Germany in 1938 into, by war’s end just eight years later, a victim nation to be pitied and rebuilt. Nor was this a momentary lapse of reasonableness: the so-called “victim theory,” according to which Austria had nothing for which to apologize and no sins for which to atone became the foundational idea of post-war Austria for decades and decades, only giving way to a more nuanced understanding of Austria’s role in the war (and in the exile and extermination of its Jewish citizenry) after Kurt Waldheim, a former Nazi officer, became Federal President of Austria in 1986 and forced the issue onto the public stage both in Austria and abroad.

That was then, however. And now is a whole ’nother story. I first became interested in Sebastian Kurz when I read a transcript of a speech he delivered last June in Jerusalem at a forum sponsored by the American Jewish Committee. One by one, the man addressed every skeleton in his nation’s closet, forcing both air and light into that traditionally very dark space and speaking words that would once have seemed impossible to hear from an Austrian politician.

First, he took on the myth of Austrian victimhood. “Austria used to see itself as the first victim of the Nazis,” he said plainly enough. But then he went on to make his real point. “That is certainly true for all those who fought in the resistance, whom we cannot thank enough. But the ones who gathered in large numbers in Vienna in March 1938 [i.e., when Germany incorporated Austria into the Reich] were not victims. The ones who watched and participated when their neighbors were robbed, thrown out, and murdered were not victims. And the ones who committed the terrible mass murder of Jews were not victims at all. To remember means to admit the truth. At that time, many Austrians supported a system which killed over 6 million Jews from all over Europe and beyond, among them more than 60,000 fellow Austrian Jewish citizens in Austria alone!”

I was impressed. But he went much further. He admitted that Shoah survivors were specifically not welcomed back to Austria after the war and that his nation’s lack of generosity towards people who had been publicly humiliated and robbed of their possessions was a heavy burden all Austrians must now bear. And then he went on to talk about the efforts being made to foster what he called “a culture of commemoration” in Austria’s schools and to create a Shoah memorial in Vienna. Finally, he spoke warmly about his nation’s ongoing support for Israel, announced a million-Euro gift to Yad Vashem, and concluded with these words: “Let me state very clearly: Austria supports Israel and the global fight against anti-Semitism not for political or economic reasons, but as part of our friendship, of our moral obligation, to humanity. Only if Jewish people can live without restriction in peace and security can the eternal call “never forget” truly become a “never again.”

But that was last year’s speech and now, just this last week, Chancellor Kurz was back at an AJC forum, this one in Brussels, to talk about the resurgence of European anti-Semitism. I listened carefully and I recommend that my readers all do too. (You can click here to hear the speech, which is only less than twenty minutes long. Skip forward to the eleven-minute mark in the clip, which is where Kurz begins to speak. There is no translator; Kurz speaks in excellent, clear English.) Again, he speaks openly about the grief and guilt he feels as a citizen of Austria when he contemplates his nation’s role in the Shoah. (He uses the term “Shoah” too, which also impressed me for some reason.) He resumes his theme about the importance of supporting Israel, which he references as a “stronghold of democracy, rule of law, and prosperity in the Middle East and in the whole world.” But this speech was primarily about anti-Semitism and I found his comments so important that I want to share them with you all in detail.

He declares openly that, in his opinion (as in mine), “anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are often two sides of the same coin.” The latter especially is not to be confused with being opposed to this or that Israeli policy; anti-Zionism is the global refutation of Israel’s right to exist and the Chancellor correctly understood that there can be no more precise definition of anti-Semitism than that. Particularly moving were his comments about anti-Semitism on the micro level: “No one, no matter who they are, where they are from, or what their faith is, must ever feel afraid to walk in the streets of any European country. We owe this assurance to all people in Europe and especially to the Jewish community.” Try to imagine Kurt Waldheim saying those words other than perhaps sarcastically!

I encourage you to watch the speech and to listen. There are so many horrific things in the world, so many haters, so much violence, so many reasons to feel unsafe and insecure. And then this one person appears on the stage, this very young man, who seems to see things clearly, who is in a position to make a huge difference, and who does not seem to fear speaking his mind openly and courageously. I listened to the youtube clip three times in a row and can only say that Sebastian Kurz accomplished something that I can’t recall an Israeli or American politician doing in quite some time: he made me feel fully hopeful that there are good people in the world…and that the world will be a safer and better place because such people exist in it.

And then I listened to two other speeches and was just as impressed. It was, given my generally dour mood over these last months, a remarkable experience.

First, I listened to the speech Representative Steny H. Hoyer (D-Maryland) delivered at AIPAC last Monday. He’s a good speaker, but it was the content of his remarks that I found so heartening: here was a Democrat—and not just a Democrat but the Democrat serving as House Majority Leader—who spoke passionately about his support for Israel in the way that was clearly meant to distance himself and his colleagues from the two outspoken anti-Israel Democrats in the House, Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). When he dared any who would accuse Israel supporters of dual loyalty to include him in their charge, he sounded to me like an old-time Democrat for whom standing with Israel publicly and unambivalently would have been as natural as supporting any other one of our nation’s allies. His language was clearly aimed at those, like Omar and Tlaib, who frame their criticism of Israel using anti-Semitic tropes. He said that he and most Democrats stand “proudly and unapologetically” with Israel. He announced plans to lead a large delegation of Democrats to Israel later in the year. But most heartening of all was when he said this: “I am part of a large, bipartisan coalition in Congress supporting Israel. I tell Israel's detractors: accuse us. And millions of Americans, regardless of race or faith or partisan label, stand with Israel because they understand why our relationship with Israel is so important. Accuse us all!” He took a lot of heat for those words later on, including from some of his own colleagues, and tried to make it clear that he was speaking for Israel rather than against any specific individual. But his words were clear and heartfelt. I came away remembering that although Israel has some vocal enemies in Congress, it also has many friends…among whom Steny Hoyer certainly deserves to be numbered.

And then I listened to my third speech of the week, the one delivered at AIPAC by Joan Ryan, who just quit the Labour Party after forty years as a Labour M.P. in the British House of Commons over the issue of the anti-Semitism that has gripped the party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbin, whom she described openly as someone who “proudly declares Hamas and Hizbollah to be his friends” and who now “seeks to demonize and delegitimize Israel.” She isn’t alone, of course: nine other Labour M.P.’s have quit the party in recent weeks over the rampant anti-Semitism and virulent anti-Israelism of is leader. For her decision to join them, she has been rewarded with what she herself characterized as a “torrent of abuse” that included threats of murder and rape. And yet she has stood her ground and spoke at AIPAC with a kind of confidence born of profound conviction.

I’d like to give her the final word because I was so impressed with her remarks. “Sticking to your convictions,” she said, “isn’t always popular but it is always right.” (We all think that in theory, but which of us has paid the price Joan Ryan has for putting our money where our mouths are?) And then, after mentioning the vicious threats she has had to endure, she waved them all away graciously and bravely, noting that threats like that only strengthen her resolve to stand up for British Jews from attacks from the right and from the left, and to stand up for Israel. And she openly called on us all to “stand together—proud of each other and proud of Israel in the battles that lie ahead.”

So after so much dour news from so many different quarters and for so many months, these three speeches helped me recall that there really are decent people out there who have no trouble standing up for what they perceive to be right. That none of the people cited above is Jewish or a citizen of Israel also means a lot to me: it’s so easy to feel alone in this uncaring, dismal world that it is incredibly encouraging to recall that we aren’t alone, and that Israel also isn’t. The sonim won’t go away. But apparently neither will the good people. And where good people stand their ground and face down their foes, history has taught us again and again that they eventually prevail.

#Steny Hoyer #Joan Ryan #Sebastian Kurz

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theseadagiodays · 5 years ago

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April 20, 2020

No more muzzling my words

OK, so I’m just going to say it. There are times when this really stinks. And it actually feels good to give myself permission to admit that.

One of my favorite novelists, Anne Patchett, author of Bel Canto, also wrote a memoir called Truth & Beauty about her lifelong best friendship with someone who struggled with cancer since childhood. What I remember most is her friend’s very unusual way of enduring horrific hardships that included having her jaw surgically removed, (no less in the middle of self-conscious adolescence). To feel better about her own situation, she would regularly re-read The Diary of Anne Frank in a sort of schadenfreude effort to remember that there were people who’d had it far worse than herself. However, these contrived gestures only took her so far.

I guess the truth is, there is only so much glass-half-full thinking any of us can exercise. Realizing this, I was relieved to hear Brene Brown’s recent podcast about Comparitive Suffering,

https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-on-comparative-suffering-the-50-50-myth-and-settling-the-ball/

Here, she recognizes that while the daily news barrages us with crises much greater than our own (lost jobs, health, and even loved ones), many of us feel guilty for bemoaning our own losses at this time, because we think we should be grateful for what we have. Certainly, this universal suffering has allowed us to gain some clearer perspective on our lives and our blessings. And the fact that the entire world is experiencing some similar aspects of this reality has enabled us to build real global empathy. However, it is also true that each micro-loss deserves its own relative mouring period. So, I am going to give myself a little license to acknowledge what I am grieving at this time. But I wanted to find a creative way to do this. So, I am going to write a love letter to the time before COVID, identifying the things I truly miss. This idea came out of an exercise we led with my non-profit’s Women Rock group. They are co-writing songs to express the myriad of feelings they are having during this period. In one song, they plan to write about the solace that nature brings them right now. But they also want a vehicle to communicate their challenges. In other words, they want somewhere to “deposit the negative,” because this can actually be very healing: to name what’s wrong, genuinely feel the impact of it in your life, and then let it go. The etymological root of the word de-posit means to put (poner), away (-de). Ironically, this is similar to the origin of the word positive, which is to formally lay down (or to state absolutely). So, perhaps by absoluting stating what we feel bad about, we leave room to feel good about what’s left.

But in case this is just a little too sad for some people to read, try imagining the theme song to Jimmy Fallon’s regular Thank You Notes segment, for a bit of comic relief while you read. Here he is in his At-Home Edition, writing some with his daughters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6x2UgPVYJs

Vancouver Mural Festival on Main St

Dear pre-COVID days,

I remember how good it felt to walk down Main St and hug everyone from my neighbor, to my colleague, to the barista. You were so open in the way you invited human touch on a daily basis.

I was so grateful that you allowed me the opportunity to interact with people from all different walks of life. You let me work in so many different environments, from elementary schools, to prisons, to seniors centres, where I was privileged to hear people’s stories as they found their own creative voices.

I loved being free to spend time with my family even though they live far away. You made it possible to see my parents in Arizona, and my brother in NY, and my uncle in Colorado, and my in-laws in Ontario, every year, despite the distance.

I enjoyed all of the opportunities you gave me to experience live art. You animated my world and made it technicolor, with concerts, dance clubs, galleries, theatre performances, and different arts festivals every week.

I loved how healthy I felt running around the tennis courts at Queen Elizabeth Park. You made it so easy to exercise my lungs, my legs, my arms, my focus, my flexibility and my stamina all at the same time.

I felt so much passion for the adventures that you brought me to. You generously satisfied my infinite curiosities with music projects in Zambia, and holidays in Hawaii, and cultural immersions in Guatemala.

I miss all of the the ways you let me love and live and work and play freely. And I long for the day you return,

Laura

April 21, 2020

Neighborhood Art

There are so many signs that we are all missing connection and stimulation during quarantine. But the human spirit is extremely buoyant. So, we’ve found remarkable ways to share artistic moments through the walls of COVID.

In Rome, locals are projecting classic films against their apartment building facades: https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/lockdown-rome-lights-up-with-cinema-by-night.html

In Berlin, neighbors are displaying art installations from their balconies:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/berlin-artists-turn-their-balconies-mini-galleries-180974677/

An art installation by Raul Walch, created for the “Life, art, pandemic and proximity” project

In Ohio, kids play cello duets for an elderly neighbor:

And right here in Vancouver, people lead streetside Zumba classes as seniors home residents dance along:

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1716406851557

April 22, 2020

Earth Day in Isolation

I am hardly the first to note that while this virus has taken so much from mankind, it has also given Mother Earth the long-awaited rest she so deserves. There have been plenty of photos of Himalayan mountain tops viewed from Indian cities for the first time in decades, or Orcas returning to Vancouver’s shores to prove this.

In another gift to our planet, appropriately on Earth Day here in BC, where it has oddly not rained for 30 days, it appears that Gaia is being showered with much needed rain for her day of celebration. And even a sun-worshipper like me has been doing rain dances lately, to ensure that our city will not be shrouded in smoke from a fire-ravaged province, as we have been for the past two summers.

On a different note, a more distorted personification of nature has been touted by many a cynical observer in recent weeks, citing Covid as retribution against humans from a vengeful Mother Earth. I do not subscribe to such punitive thinking. But I do believe there are environmental lessons to be learned from this crisis if we listen closely enough.

Writer Kristin Flyntz makes this point more beautifully than I ever could, in her Greatful Web post: https://www.gratefulweb.com/articles/imagined-letter-covid-19-humans Here, instead of a love letter to pre-Covid days, she has imagined the letter that Covid might write to humans. The tone is intentional and generous but also insistent. It is spoken as if from a friend not an enemy. And it proposes that we ask the hard questions: “As the health of a tree, a river, the sky tells you about the quality of your own health, what might the quality of your health tell you about the health of the rivers, the trees, the sky, and all of us who share this planet with you?”

Another letter, falsely attributed to Bill Gates, whose proven himself to be a true leader of responsiveness in this critical time, also had similar things to say. The anonymous writer claims that this time: “is reminding us that this Earth is sick. It is reminding us that we need to look at the rate of deforestation just as urgently as we look at the speed at which toilet rolls are disappearing off of shelves. We are sick because our home is sick.”

And as usual, artists are responding too. The NY-based NGO, Earth Celebrations has postponed their Virtual Earth Day Pageant for May 9th in the interest of garnering more public participation, with a callout for anyone who wants to craft a costume, mask, puppet, etc. All are welcome. And more details can be found here: https://earthcelebrations.com/?fbclid=IwAR30nj7NtS52E-RLjpvz739L-3fcp-DtnJ1YeVE8Roln4vJXPC7bzBLxew0

April 23

Virtual Festivals

If you’re looking for an alternative to Netflix and chillin’, there are endless arts festivals that have moved content online, for your streaming pleasure. So, I thought I’d recommend a few interesting ones here.

If it’s efficiency you’re after, when browsing thru infinite entertainment options, the Social Distancing Festival does all the work for you, by scouring the globe to curate the best livestreamed events they can find. Links include everything from modern dance to virtual gallery tours to musical theatre:

https://www.socialdistancingfestival.com

Myseum of Toronto’s Art in the Time of Covid - work by Evgeni Tcherkassk

For some lighter fare, this Edmonton Series hosts nightly cabaret, music, and comedy acts performed by local artists from their homes.

https://www.citadeltheatre.com/2019-2020/stuckinthehouse?utm_source=Citadel+Theatre&utm_campaign=67600c620f-Stuck-in-the-House&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_482a5c3fca-67600c620f-80741247

And if you’re looking for a bit more sophistication, Toronto’s Festival of Literary Diversity has managed to move online, and it starts next Thursday. Their line-up features many of Canada’s finest emerging and established voices. My personal favorite, Mona Awad will be reading from her new novel, Bunny, which was the funniest read I’ve had in ages. In this high art version of Mean Girls, she nails the pretentious banter of grad school writing cliques with a dash of magical realism. https://thefoldcanada.org

April 23

Creative Gratitude

Florida police thank-you

Our shared appreciation for front line workers has become a true muse for collective community creativity.

Clockwise: Navajo muralist Ivan Lee; local Vancouver sidewalk; Long Island artist, Kara Hoblin

But this one takes the cake for audacity!

https://gfycat.com/magnificentabsolutegosling-health-workers-coronavirus-thank-you-meme

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anachef · 6 years ago

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Guest Review: Experience Carnevale (with a Vegan Option!) at Disney Springs’ Maria & Enzo’s Ristorante!

The following is a guest post by my good friend Daniel Wanderman of WanderDisney.com. WanderDisney is a website (and instagram account!) dedicated to building a database of Disney related locations across the world, categorizing them and putting them on a map to make it easy for you to visit the next time you’re traveling the world or looking to expand your Disney knowledge. Daniel has been a friend since the early days of DFB and I’d be grateful if you’d take a peek at his amazing site!

The Carnevale festival takes place every year on the streets and canals of Italy’s island city of Venice. Dating back to the 12th century, Carnevale celebrates a political victory of the Republic of Venice. Upon hearing news of the win, the citizens took to town squares (or piazzas) to celebrate with music and dancing.

Dancing at Maria & Enzo’s Carnevale!

The festivities became so popular that this turned in to an annual event for the few weeks leading up to Lent each year. During Carnevale, Venetians adorn intricately decorated masks in order to hide their identity in an effort to “cross classes”, as laws dictating the class system were suspended during this time.

Masks and stilt walkers at Maria & Enzo’s Carnevale!

Today, Venice still celebrates this Mardi Gras-like event with concerts, costumes, street entertainment, and of course, food and wine. Masks of all kinds are sold on the streets year-round in Venice, and some can even be found in Epcot’s La Gemma Elegante shop, where masks are sold along with other authentic souvenirs from Italy.

This year, Maria & Enzo’s Ristorante brought the spirit of Carnevale to Disney Springs with live entertainment and a special menu every night from February 22 through March 5.

Entrance to Maria & Enzo’s

We stopped by for dinner on the first night to check out the unique festivities. The restaurant’s entrance, in addition to its usual hostess stand, had the added presence of entertainers and signs advertising the event. Jugglers and stilt-walkers, among other entertainers, rotated in and out of the restaurant, giving the crowd outside a sneak peek of what was going on inside the old (fictional) “Trans Global Airways” Terminal where Maria & Enzo opened their restaurant.

Hostess Stand and Entertainers at Maria & Enzo’s Entrance

Maria & Enzo’s Exterior

Usually, when entering the “Passenger Check-In” area and main room, you are greeted by “flight attendants” who take you to your table, making you feel like Frank Abagnale in “Catch Me If You Can.” Today, we entered the same way but with the slight twist of masked “flight attendants” in the true spirit of Carnivale.

View from the Waiting Room into the festive Dining Room

Photo opps while waiting!

As we entered the high-ceilinged dining room, the space was alive with music and dancing.

Main Dining aglow!

The dining room was decked out with moving lights across the ceiling, balloons, beads, and no shortage of masks decoratively hung about the room.

Beautiful decor for Carnevale!

Masks, beads, and lights!

Masks hanging along the balcony

Streetmosphere-like performers “Mario” (also known as Tony of Tony’s Town Square) and “Carmella” were the masters of ceremony for the event, and the story goes that they have just arrived from Florence to entertain and sing for the crowd. Mario is a direct descendant of Maria and Enzo (their grandchild or great-great-grandchild, depending on who you ask…), and the two have been married for 25 years. In between leading the crowd in sing-alongs (think “That’s Amore”), the couple would walk the floor, taking time to meet-and-greet with guests at each table.

Mario and Carmella

Other entertainers such as face-painters, dancers, stilt-walkers, balloon artists, and musicians wandered the restaurant, ensuring its patrons were kept amused.

Strolling musicians for Carnevale!

Carmella with her mask!

Stilt walker waits for the elevator.

Off to the side was a man painting masks, free of charge (first come, first served), and a masked woman walked around handing out beaded necklaces and cheap, plastic masks so everyone could participate in the revelry. We were happy to see that all of these “enhancements” were free-of-charge to diners.

Complimentary mask painter at Carnevale!

Mask painter at Carnevale

Beads and masks for everyone!

Speaking of free, we found out that guests who make a reservation for dinner during the Carnevale event can receive a complimentary bottle of wine for every two entrees purchased. To participate, you must make your reservation in advance by calling (407) 560-8155 or emailing [email protected]. Free alcohol in Disney? As the Italians say, “a Carnevale ogni scherzo vale!” which means, “anything goes at Carnevale!”

The restaurant had a revamped menu for the special event, including a $45 “Feast of Carnevale”.

Carnevale Menu

Drink menu for Carnevale

Due to our recent vegan awakening, options were limited to Minestrone Alla Siciliana (without cheese), Misticanza Salad (vegan as-is), and the Spaghetti alla Chitarra (substitute meatballs and cheese for sauteed veggies). We ordered all three, and our friend Pat ordered the Fettuccine Cacio e Pepe.

Dinner Menu for Carnevale

Complementary bread service and the (free) wine came out first. The wine was a Piccini Chianti, 2017. A quick Google search revealed its approximate retail price of $12. It was dry and dark, fine for us non-wine-snobs who appreciate a fine free adult beverage.

Free wine!

Next came the soup and salad. We were impressed by the soup as it was thick and hearty. Instead of pasta, a good amount of veggies and beans filled the bowl.

Minestrone Soup

The salad was fresh, and the fennel was sliced thin, like prosciutto. We enjoyed the salad, too, as the dressing was light and refreshing.

Salad at Carnevale

When it was time for entrees, Pat’s Fettuccine came out first with a (surprise) poached egg on top. He enjoyed the dish, but mentioned that it was good but not amazing. “I’ve yet to have amazing cacio e pepe” were his exact words.

Cacio e Pepe

Our spaghetti was deconstructed per our request. The pasta was al dente, and we were surprised that the vegetable side was so good: string beans and regular and purple cauliflower. I guess we had low expectations for a modified dish like this, but these were definitely fresh and thoughtfully cooked veggies.

Deconstructed Spaghetti at Carnevale

The service was a bit slow but staff apologized as it was their first night with a new menu, so we understood there might be some kinks to work out. Though the event was loud at times, we really enjoyed the high-energy atmosphere and appreciated the free extras thrown in. It’s a great experience for kids and those not able to make the trip across the Atlantic to experience the real Carnevale for themselves.

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What would your favorite part of Maria & Enzo’s Carnevale be: the decor, the entertainment, or the eats? Let us know in the comments below!

Celebrate Carnevale at Maria & Enzo’s Ristorante in Walt Disney World’s Disney Springs!

Limited Time Valentine’s Day Menu at Maria & Enzo’s and Enzo’s Hideaway in Disney Springs!

9 Best One-Credit Restaurant Values on the 2019 Disney Dining Plan

from the disney food blog https://ift.tt/2VDauGQ via https://ift.tt/LNvO3e

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connorrenwick · 4 years ago

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Friday Five with Dr. Harriet Harriss of Pratt School of Architecture

Professor Harriet Harriss (RIBA, PFHEA, Ph.D.) is a talented and qualified architect, as well as Dean of the Pratt School of Architecture in Brooklyn, New York. Her teaching, research, and writing focus upon pioneering new pedagogic models for design education, as captured in her book Radical Pedagogies, and for widening participation in architecture to ensure it remains as diverse as the society it seeks to serve, a subject she investigates in her other book, A Gendered Profession. Today Dr. Harriss is joining us for Friday Five and sharing just a few things that are inspiring in her own life.

1. Prospect Park Dog Beach As both a dog owner and a runner, living within close proximity to a green space is essential. Brooklyn’s Prospect Park offers an especially sublime space for canines to indulge their aquatic instincts, particularly when the morning light etches their wet fur in outline. Prospect Park also interests me for other reasons. Designed by the same landscape architects as Manhattan’s Central Park – Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux – it symbolized a visionary understanding of the need of all city residents, whatever their economic circumstances, to have free and easy access to the natural environment. From a runner’s perspective, the park offers something quite unique: the opportunity to run almost alone around a quiet (if artificial) lake at 6am on a weekend, or to join a sizable pack of other runners at 6am on a weekday by following the road that circumnavigates the park. Runners typically come in all shapes and sizes, and this often reminds me of how irrelevant our differences seem when our purpose unites us.

Image via Web Gallery of Art

2. Jan Davidsz de Heem, Still Life with Ham, Lobster and Fruit, c.1653 The New York Metropolitan Museum has an exceptional collection of 17th Century still life paintings, that for a former Northern European, capture something of the coolness of light and sense of damp that I’m familiar with. I’ve always found this genre of painting fascinating. At first glance, the assortment of fruits, meats, plants and bowls speaks of a kind of wealth and excess that only a tiny minority of 17th Century Europeans could ever afford. Upon closer inspection however, the rotting fruit and dying flowers evoke a sense of death not life, hence earning the title, memento mori, the memory of death. More recently, art historians and scholars have written extensively about the latent symbolism and multi-layered narratives within each hour glass, apple and decomposing grape that these pictures capture in exquisite detail. From my perspective however, I feel the work reminds us of the disproportionate inequalities created by Europe’s brutal exploitation of its colonies, a legacy that is still very much present and problematic, even today.

Photo by Steve Cadman

3. The Dunboyne Road Estate, 1965, Camden Council, London One of London’s most overlooked architectural icons is the Dunboyne Road Estate, built as part of a huge post-war effort to rehouse the 1.5 million Londoners left homeless after the Blitz bombings of the Second World War. At the time, the London Borough of Camden was considered radical in their ambitions to provide well-designed, affordable homes to their residents and the 71-flats succeed in integrating housing and habitat quite wonderfully. Each home has both a private terrace and access to communal gardens, with dual-aspect windows ensuring residents benefitted from as much natural light as possible, something that all New Yorkers can relate to. The estate is now Grade II listed but it was the first major work by architect Neave Brown, who like it so much that he lived there for the rest of his life. It’s considered an architectural icon because despite often historically inaccurate bad press, concrete construction – often broadly described as Brutalist (meaning raw concrete) – can result in delightfully humanistic designs rather than uninhabitable bunkers as the public are too often led to believe.

Photo courtesy Naama Agassi

4. Hairy Jewelry by Naama Agassi A rising number of women product designers are offering fresh takes on everyday objects, and Hairy jewelry by Naama Agassi is an excellent example of this. Her hair-derived jewelry is designed to be worn on areas of the body where body hair is typically considered unacceptable for women in most western cultures. Agassi took her cues from the colors and tasseled elements of ceremonial uniforms, and in doing so made something that was otherwise considered contemptible into something both captivating and compelling. The work speaks to two of my current preoccupations, firstly, the need to see more women designers impact the designs we use in everyday life and, secondly, the power and value of repurposing often overlooked, yet highly sustainable materials in innovative ways.

Photo via Public Radion International

5. Greta Thunberg Since buildings emit almost half of the carbon dioxide produced in the U.S., architects have a huge role to play in responding to the climate crisis. Greta Thunberg is both an environmental activist and – to me – a design icon, because her message is doing more to make us think about the seriousness of the situation than any current piece of legislation, building code, historic style or genre has ever succeeded in doing. Her message is forcing architects to reassess not only the products but the processes within the architecture industry. By choosing to re-purpose instead of new build, by working towards carbon-neutral construction, and by recognizing that our responsibilities as designers extend beyond client and contractor to the local and the global requires a necessary and urgent shift in how we perceive the scale of the problem. Not only this, but Thunberg’s generation, despite seemingly impossible odds, are showing those in power how positive change can be peacefully achieved. We are learning more from them about bravery, integrity and what it means to be a human than they have ever learned from us.

Books by Dr. Harriet Harris:

via http://design-milk.com/

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bountyofbeads · 5 years ago

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A Narrative Collapses as Trump Tweets: ‘It Doesn’t Really Matter’ https://nyti.ms/2RcGKQB

Excellent idea on the part of the UK, France and Germany. Only the targeted country is wrong. It shouldn't be Iran - it should be the United States, fair and square. Iran did not rip up the JCPOA - the US did. Iran strictly observed ALL the terms of the deal - the Americans simply walked away from it. Iran kept repeating all along, even under the rapidly increasing US sanctions' pressure, that they will adhere to the terms of the agreement, as long all other parties do as well. The Europeans first stood up to the American bullying - then caved.

"The Europeans want to save the deal and persuade both Washington and Tehran to begin a new set of negotiations about missile development and Iran’s regional activities, a senior European official said." THAT would be a reasonable deal and so much better for all involved than the original one that only called for slowing nuclear development for a decade or so while not at all addressing all the more widespread, important issues for the region and world. No one wants war with Iran but Iran must act differently in the region.

France, Germany and U.K. Serve Notice on Iran Under Nuclear Deal

The European nations triggered a dispute mechanism in the 2015 pact, a first step toward reimposing United Nations sanctions.

By Steven Erlanger | Published

Jan. 14, 2020Updated 8:27 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted Jan 14, 2020 |

BRUSSELS — Britain, France and Germany on Tuesday formally accused Iran of breaking the 2015 agreement that limited its nuclear program, taking the first step toward reimposing further United Nations sanctions.

The European countries triggered the dispute resolution mechanism under the 2015 deal, setting the clock running on what could be some 60 days of negotiations with Iran about coming back into full compliance. That process could end up with a “snapback” of United Nations sanctions on Iran that had been suspended under the deal, including an arms embargo.

The move, which had been expected for more than a week, was delayed when the United States killed a top Iranian commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, with repercussions that are still playing out in Iran and across the region.

GermanForeignOffice

✔@GermanyDiplo

In light of the Iranian non compliance with the nuclear agreement, Germany, France and Great Britain have triggered the Dispute Resolution Mechanism within the framework of the #JCPoA.

joint statement of the three Foreign Ministers: http://diplo.de/2292574

Joint statement by the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom on the Joint...

We, the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, share fundamental common security interests, along with our European partners. One of them is upholding the nuclear…

auswaertiges-amt.de

6:11 AM - Jan 14, 2020

President Trump withdrew in 2018 from the deal, which was negotiated under President Barack Obama, and he has imposed several rounds of American sanctions on Iran. In response, Tehran has repeatedly moved beyond the limits that the agreement had placed on its uranium enrichment, raising fears that it could be close to building an atomic bomb.

The Europeans want to save the deal and persuade both Washington and Tehran to begin a new set of negotiations about missile development and Iran’s regional activities, a senior European official said.

But the three European countries, all signatories to the deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, clearly felt that they had to respond to Iran’s movement away from compliance.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany said that they had warned Iran on Dec. 6 that “unless it reversed course, we would have no choice but to take action within the framework of the JCPOA, including through the dispute resolution mechanism.”

But Iran “has chosen to further reduce compliance,” the statement said. “We have therefore been left with no choice,” but trigger the mechanism “in good faith, with the overarching objective of preserving the JCPOA and in the sincere hope of finding a way forward through constructive diplomatic dialogue.”

The three countries reiterated that they opposed Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from the deal and were not joining his campaign of “maximum pressure” to cripple Iran economically. “Our hope is to bring Iran back into full compliance,” they said.

There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.

The 2015 agreement restricted how many centrifuges Iran could use to enrich uranium — increasing the percentage of U-235, the rare isotope crucial to its use in nuclear fission — how highly it could enrich the metal, and how much uranium it could stockpile.

It has taken a series of steps beyond those limits, trying in vain to pressure the Europeans to make good on a commitment to ease the economic pain of American sanctions.

Earlier this month, in response to the Suleimani killing, Iran said it would no longer abide by any restrictions in its uranium enrichment, but without specifying what it would actually do, which was taken by the Europeans as a useful ambiguity.

Mr. Trump’s harsh sanctions include a prohibition on banking transactions with Iran — a very difficult prohibition to work around, given the global reach of American banks.

The Europeans have struggled to get a barter system working to circumvent the use of the dollar and American banking systems, adding to Iranian frustration as the United States sanctions take a toll on the country.

The Europeans, especially Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, want to give a nod toward Mr. Trump while also trying to bring urgency to diplomatic efforts to get new talks underway.

In a BBC interview Tuesday morning, Mr. Johnson spoke flatteringly of Mr. Trump and said he wanted to avert further military confrontation between Iran and the United States. “Let’s dial this thing down,” he said.

“President Trump is a great deal-maker, by his own account,” Mr. Johnson said. “Let’s work together to replace the JCPOA and get the Trump deal instead,” he added, though it was not clear what such a deal would look like.

In a separate statement, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of Germany said, “We could no longer leave unanswered the increasing Iranian violations of the nuclear agreement unanswered.”

“Our objective is clear: We want to preserve the agreement and reach a diplomatic solution within the agreement,” he said. “We will tackle this together with all partners in the agreement. We call on Iran to participate constructively in the negotiation process that is now beginning.”

But there was some skepticism that the time was right for talks.

Robert Malley, who heads the International Crisis Group and helped negotiate the nuclear deal, said on Tuesday that Mr. Trump and his aides would feel now that Iran was weakened by the sanctions and the protests in the streets after the shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner. The Americans would be unlikely to want to give Iran any concessions to start the talks, he said, let alone the lifting of American sanctions that Iran insists must be a precondition.

At the same time, Mr. Malley said, senior Iranian officials would not want to be seen talking with Trump administration officials responsible for the killing of General Suleimani, a very popular figure in Iran who was considered its second most important leader.

“The Europeans are trying not to offend Trump too much but also trying to keep the JCPOA alive,” he said. “But the U.S. now thinks it’s winning,” he said, “so the Europeans are trying now to avoid it all going off the rails.”

Mr. Malley said he did not agree with triggering the dispute mechanism now, given the newly complicated setting, but said that doing so was “is not fatal” to the deal. “The only way forward now is to use the time to try to get the U.S. and Iran to talk,” he added.

Last week Mr. Trump urged the European signatories to abandon the nuclear deal; as late as Sunday, the three European leaders pledged to salvage the deal and again urged Iran to return to full compliance.

Russia and China, also signatories to the nuclear deal, have supported the efforts to preserve it, including the purchasing of some Iranian oil.

In their joint statement, the three European foreign ministers urged all sides to negotiate and said: “Given recent events, it is all the more important that we do not add a nuclear proliferation crisis to the current escalation threatening the whole region.”

*********

Trump lies even when there is no reason to lie. Lying is his main form of communication. Then the people that work for him have to lie to support his lies. How do they live with themselves.? Four embassies were going to be attacked? That was the 3rd or 4th version of the story at least! They are all lying so much that they cannot remember which lie they are supposed to be telling. Just business as usual for the Trump administration.

The sad part here is that the media just rides along on this roller coaster without once calling this clown out for what he is; a blatant, unabashed liar. There is no policy here. No planning, no thought, no strategy. Just a clown sitting on the toilet with a phone tweeting lies and conspiracy theories and ineptitude and, and, and...I say now as I've said too many times before; how could so many people in this country really believe that this clown was really fit to handle the office of the Presidency in the most powerful nation on earth. Especially based on his track record. Or, as he so eloquently put it pertaining to Suleimani, "because of his horrible past". If that's justification enough for a drone strike assassination, well then, you know the rest..

A Narrative Collapses as Trump Tweets: ‘It Doesn’t Really Matter’

President Trump cited Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani’s “horrible past” as possibly reason enough for the drone strike that killed him.

By Annie Karni | Published Jan. 13, 2020

Updated Jan. 14, 2020, 7:08 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted Jan 14, 2020 |

WASHINGTON — In the 10 days since it carried out the drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the Trump administration has been struggling to draft an after-the-fact narrative to justify it. On Monday, President Trump put an end to that hash of explanations. “It doesn’t really matter,” he tweeted, “because of his horrible past.”

Until that message on Twitter, the administration had insisted in various ways that General Suleimani, Iran’s most important military official, was planning myriad “imminent” attacks. The unraveling of the explanations accelerated over the weekend after Mr. Trump said four embassies were under immediate threat, a charge that his own administration could not back.

With the president’s latest utterance, he bolstered critics of a strike that had raised fears of an all-out war with Iran and had led Iraq to call on the United States to leave the country. And, the critics wondered, was it reckless and irresponsible for the United States to kill Iran’s second most important leader if the reason did not “really matter”?

“Trump has finally admitted the true motivation for the killing of Suleimani who had American blood on his hands: retaliation,” said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, who is sponsoring legislation to prevent the administration from spending federal funds on unauthorized military action in Iran.

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump

The Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners are working hard to determine whether or not the future attack by terrorist Soleimani was “imminent” or not, & was my team in agreement. The answer to both is a strong YES., but it doesn’t really matter because of his horrible past!

11:09 AM - Jan 13, 2020

Mr. Khanna and other congressional Democrats, who have complained about having been left in the dark both before and after the drone strike, interpreted Mr. Trump’s tweet as proof that he must seek authorization from Congress for any future strikes.

“I’ll say it again: THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DON’T WANT ANOTHER WAR BASED ON FALSE INTELLIGENCE,” Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California, tweeted.

The administration’s explanations for the strike have been shifting from day to day, and Monday was no exception. Mr. Trump’s tweet came in response to unflattering articles about how Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper appeared to contradict the president’s claim that he believed there was an imminent threat on four American embassies in the Middle East.

But Mr. Trump said he did not see any inconsistencies at all.

“It’s been totally consistent,” he said late Monday afternoon as he left for New Orleans for the College Football Playoff championship game. “We killed Suleimani, the No. 1 terrorist in the world by every account. Bad person, killed a lot of Americans, killed a lot of people. We killed him.”

He added: “When the Democrats try and defend him, it’s a disgrace to our country. They can’t do that. And let me tell you, it’s not working politically very well for them.”

Still, the confused messaging from Mr. Trump and his top officials after the most high-stakes decision of his presidency threatened to undercut the message the administration was sending to Iran, experts said.

And that message was further undercut by other tweets that Mr. Trump sent on Monday morning. One of them included a photoshopped image of Senator Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi wearing a turban and a head scarf in front of an Iranian flag, claiming it showed “the corrupted Dems trying their best to come to the Ayatollah’s rescue #NancyPelosiFakeNews.”

The retweeted image was the most extreme version of a sentiment that the president spent the morning advancing by retweeting criticism of Ms. Pelosi, and suggesting that she was a supporter of the Iranian government.

Ms. Pelosi has criticized the Trump administration for the killing of General Suleimani, saying it risked a “dangerous escalation of violence” and was based on questionable intelligence.

The president’s stream of Twitter posts targeting her appeared to be an attempt to assail her credibility the same week she was expected to send two articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump to the Senate. The tweet was also a reminder of the way Mr. Trump has in the past harnessed fears of Muslims and terrorism for his own political purposes.

Responding on Twitter, Mr. Schumer asked, “President Trump: How low can you go?”

Dana Shell Smith, a former United States ambassador to Qatar, wrote on Twitter that Mr. Trump was engaging in “hate speech against an entire religion.”

Mr. Trump’s retweet was also not the first time Republicans have tried to link Democrats to the Iranian government through the use of doctored images.

Representative Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, posted a photograph last week of former President Barack Obama shaking hands with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. That image, however, was revealed to be doctored years ago. Mr. Obama never met Mr. Rouhani in person.

During his presidency, Mr. Trump has also used Twitter to share videos posted by a fringe British ultranationalist group purportedly showing Muslims committing acts of violence.

“This tweet contrasts so starkly with the seriousness of the actual situation with Iran,” said Ben Rhodes, a former top national security aide to Mr. Obama. “We are in the midst of a roiling crisis with Iran that is largely of Trump’s own making, and yet he continues to view that largely through the prism of pretty ugly domestic politics.”

Mr. Rhodes said the tweet underscored how Mr. Trump’s outlook had not changed since he first ran for office. “Trump views Iran policy as if it’s 2015 and he’s campaigning for president, not as if it’s 2020 and he is facing a crisis with huge real world dimensions for nuclear weapons, war and peace, and the Iranian people,” Mr. Rhodes said.

White House officials have often tried to sidestep answering for content that Mr. Trump shares online, but on Monday the press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, defended the photoshopped image. In an interview with Fox News, Ms. Grisham said the president was “making clear” that Democrats were “parroting Iranian talking points, almost taking the side of terrorists.”

She added that Mr. Trump was “making the point that the Democrats seem to hate him so much they’re willing to be on the side of countries and leadership of countries who want to kill Americans.”

Mr. Trump and the Republican National Committee specifically targeted Ms. Pelosi for a statement she made on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, when asked whether she supported anti-government demonstrations there that have emerged after Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner shortly after it took off from Tehran.

Ms. Pelosi said there were “different reasons why people are in the street,” noting that the current protesters were reacting to Iran’s military admitting it accidentally shot down the Ukrainian airliner. She did not directly answer a question about whether it would be a “good thing if they brought the regime down.”

During Ms. Pelosi’s interview with George Stephanopoulos, she also said the Trump administration had not been “straight with the Congress of the United States” in its explanations for why it decided to target General Suleimani when it did.

The Trump campaign is hoping that the killing boosts his popularity. But a recent USA Today/Ipsos Poll found that a majority of respondents, 52 percent to 34 percent, viewed Mr. Trump’s action as “reckless.”

Mr. Trump spent the weekend expressing support online for the people of Iran calling for political and economic change, who participated in the largest popular protests in the country in more than 10 years.

On Monday morning, Mr. Trump lauded the protesters for supporting the United States. “Wow! The wonderful Iranian protesters refused to step on, or in any way denigrate, our Great American Flag,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “It was put on the street in order for them to trample it, and they walked around it instead. Big progress!”

A spokesman for Ms. Pelosi did not respond to a request for comment about Mr. Trump’s posts.

______

Catie Edmondson contributed reporting.

*********

Iran is a fairly well-educated, culturally advanced society as a whole. It baffles me that the Islamist hardliners are able to maintain power. I understand their control of the military through allowing the military to profit handsomely off the declining economy, but at some point, popular discord should begin to erode that commitment. Of course, I come to that conclusion as a rational person, not a hard-boiled religious zealot.

The US is walking a fine line as well. Has anyone in Washington thought of what the ramifications would be if Iran becomes a failed state? I am confident the White House hasn’t. I don’t see it as being in anybody’s interest to have the Iranian civil structure collapse.

Iran’s Grim Economy Limits Its Willingness to Confront the U.S.

Fearful of public anger over a plunging economy, Iran’s leaders appear to be turning inward, pulling back from escalation.

By Peter S. Goodman | Published Jan. 13, 2020 Updated 6:44 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted January 13, 2020 |

LONDON — Iran is caught in a wretched economic crisis. Jobs are scarce. Prices for food and other necessities are skyrocketing. The economy is rapidly shrinking. Iranians are increasingly disgusted.

Crippling sanctions imposed by the Trump administration have severed Iran’s access to international markets, decimating the economy, which is now contracting at an alarming 9.5 percent annual rate, the International Monetary Fund estimated. Oil exports were effectively zero in December, according to Oxford Economics, as the sanctions have prevented sales, even though smugglers have transported unknown volumes.

The bleak economy appears to be tempering the willingness of Iran to escalate hostilities with the United States, its leaders cognizant that war could profoundly worsen national fortunes. In recent months, public anger over joblessness, economic anxiety and corruption has emerged as a potentially existential threat to Iran’s hard-line regime.

Only a week ago, such sentiments had been redirected by outrage over the Trump administration’s Jan. 3 killing of Iran’s top military commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani. But protests flared anew over the weekend in Tehran, and then continued on Monday, after the government’s astonishing admission that it was — despite three days of denial — responsible for shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner.

The demonstrations were most pointedly an expression of contempt for the regime’s cover-up following its downing of the Ukrainian jet, which killed all 176 people on board. But the fury in the streets resonated as a rebuke for broader grievances — diminishing livelihoods, financial anxiety and the sense that the regime is at best impotent in the face of formidable troubles.

Inflation is running near 40 percent, assailing consumers with sharply rising prices for food and other basic necessities. More than one in four young Iranians is jobless, with college graduates especially short of work, according to the World Bank.

The missile strikes that Iran unleashed on American bases in Iraq last week in response to Gen. Suleimani’s killing appeared calibrated to enable its leaders to declare that vengeance had been secured without provoking an extreme response from President Trump, such as aerial bombing.

Hostilities with the most powerful military on earth would make life even more punishing for ordinary Iranians. It would likely weaken the currency and exacerbate inflation, while menacing what remains of national industry, eliminating jobs and reinvigorating public pressure on the leadership.

Conflict could threaten a run on domestic banks by sending more companies into distress. Iranian companies have been spared from collapse by surges of credit from banks. The government controls about 70 percent of banking assets, according to a paper by Adnan Mazarei, a former I.M.F. deputy director and now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. Roughly half of all bank loans are in arrears, Iran’s Parliament has estimated.

Many Iranian companies depend on imported goods to make and sell products, from machinery to steel to grain. If Iran’s currency declines further, those companies would have to pay more for such goods. Banks would either have to extend more loans, or businesses would collapse, adding to the ranks of the jobless.

The central bank has been financing government spending, filling holes in a tattered budget to limit public ire over cuts. That entails printing Iranian money, adding to the strains on the currency. A war could prompt wealthier Iranians to yank assets out of the country, threatening a further decline in the currency and producing runaway inflation.

In sum, this is the unpalatable choice confronting the Iranian leadership: It can keep the economy going by continuing to steer credit to banks and industry, adding to the risks of an eventual banking disaster and hyperinflation. Or it can opt for austerity that would cause immediate public suffering, threatening more street demonstrations.

“That is the specter hanging over the Iranian economy,” Mr. Mazarei said. “The current economic situation is not sustainable.”

Though such realities appear to be limiting Iran’s appetite for escalation, some experts suggest that the regime’s hard-liners may eventually come to embrace hostilities with the United States as a means of stimulating the anemic economy.

Cut off from international investors and markets, Iran has in recent years focused on forging a so-called resistance economy in which the state has invested aggressively, subsidizing strategic industries, while seeking to substitute domestic production for imported goods.

That strategy has been inefficient, say economists, adding to the strains on Iran’s budget and the banking system, but it appears to have raised employment. Hard-liners might come see a fight with Iran’s archenemy, the United States, as an opportunity to expand the resistance economy while stoking politically useful nationalist anger.

“There will be those who will argue that we can’t sustain the current situation if we don’t have a war,” said Yassamine Mather, a political economist at the University of Oxford. “For the Iranian government, living in crisis is good. It’s always been good, because you can blame all the economic problems on sanctions, or on the foreign threat of war. In the last couple of years, Iran has looked for adventures as a way of diverting attention from economic problems.”

How ever Iran’s leaders proceed, experts assume that economic concerns will not be paramount: Iran’s leaders prioritize one goal above all others — their own survival. If confrontation with outside powers appears promising as a means of reinforcing their hold on power, the leadership may accept economic pain as a necessary cost.

“The hard-liners are willing to impoverish people to stay in power,” said Sanam Vakil, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, a research institution in London. “The Islamic Republic does not make decisions based on purely economic outcomes.”

But Iran’s leaders need only survey their own region to recognize the dangers that economic distress can pose to established powers. In recent months, Iraq and Lebanon have seen furious demonstrations fueled in part by declining living standards amid corruption and abuse of power.

As recently as November, Iran’s perilous economic state appeared to pose a foundational threat to the regime. As the government scrambled to secure cash to finance aid for the poor and the jobless, it scrapped subsidies on gasoline, sending the price of fuel soaring by as much as 200 percent. That spurred angry protests in the streets of Iranian cities, with demonstrators openly calling for the expulsion of President Hassan Rouhani.

“That’s a sign of how much pressure they are under,” said Maya Senussi, a Middle East expert at Oxford Economics in London.

In unleashing the drone strike that killed General Suleimani, Mr. Trump effectively relieved the leadership of that pressure, undercutting the force of his own sanctions, say experts.

Within Iran, the killing resounded as a breach of national sovereignty and evidence that the United States bore malevolent intent. It muted the complaints that propelled November’s demonstrations — laments over rising prices, accusations of corruption and economic malpractice amid the leadership — replacing them with mourning for a man celebrated as a national hero.

A country fraught with grievances aimed directly at its senior leaders had seemingly been united in anger at the United States.

“The killing of Suleimani represents a watershed, not only in terms of directing attention away from domestic problems, but also rallying Iranians around their flag,” said Fawaz A. Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics.

Mr. Trump had supplied the Iranian leadership “time and space to change the conversation,” he added. Iranians were no longer consumed with the “misguided and failed economic policies of the Iranian regime,” but rather “the arrogant aggression of the United States against the Iranian nation.”

But then came the government’s admission that it was responsible for bringing down the Ukrainian passenger jet. Now, Iran’s leaders again find themselves on the wrong end of angry street demonstrations.

For now, the regime is seeking to quash the demonstrations with riot police and admonitions to the protesters to go home. But if public rage continues, hard-liners may resort to challenging American interests in the hopes that confrontation will force Mr. Trump to negotiate a deal toward eliminating the sanctions.

Iran may threaten the passage of ships carrying oil through the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for more than one-fifth of the world’s consumption of liquid petroleum. Disruption there would restrict the global supply oil, raising the price of the vital commodity. That could sow alarm in world markets while limiting global economic growth, potentially jeopardizing Mr. Trump’s re-election bid, as the logic goes.

Iran previously had a different pathway toward gaining relief from the sanctions: Under a 2015 deal forged by President Barack Obama, the sanctions were removed in exchange for Iran’s verified promise to dismantle large sections of its nuclear program.

But when Mr. Trump took office, he renounced that deal and resumed sanctions.

The Iranian leadership has courted European support for a resumption of the nuclear deal, seeking to exploit divergence between Europe and the United States. The Europeans have been unhappy about Mr. Trump’s renewed sanctions, which have dashed the hopes of German, French and Italian companies that had looked to Iran for expanded business opportunities.

Whatever comes next, Iran’s leadership is painfully aware that getting out from under the American sanctions is the only route to lifting its economy, say experts.

The nuclear deal was intended to give Iran’s leaders an incentive to diminish hostility as a means of seeking liberation from the sanctions. Mr. Trump’s abandonment of the deal effectively left them with only one means of pursuing that goal — confrontation.

“They see escalation as the only way to the negotiating table,” said Ms. Vakil. “They can’t capitulate and come to the negotiating table. They can’t compromise, because that would show weakness. By demonstrating that they can escalate, that they are fearless, they are trying to build leverage.”

Some interesting Readers comments on the above article. I would love to know what you 🤔 think!!

"Regardless of who is elected President in November 2020, the powers of the Presidency must be restrained. No President, Democratic or Republican, should be able to start a war on his or her own. No President should be able to unilaterally impose tariffs. And no President should be able to declare emergencies without the approval of Congress." DAVID LEVNER, NY, NY

"How much more can this country endure with insanity at our helm? “It doesn’t matter” that Iran has been stirred up? Doesn’t matter that 176 innocent people lost their lives needlessly because the US created chaos in their country? Doesn’t matter?" MIMA, HEART SNY

" Suleimani was an evil person responsible for thousands of deaths. No question there. Yet Kim Jong-Un is an evil person, responsible for thousands of deaths—and he and President Trump "fell in love" (Trump's own words). This wild, impulsive inconsistency is a perfect example of why Trump is absolutely unfit for office."

LEWIS SINCLAIR, BALTIMORE

"I thought there was a process called international law in which persons accused of war crimes are brought to trial in The Hague. This happened with the leader of Serbia, for example. If there were charges to be brought against the Iranian commander, that could’ve been done in accordance with international law. Instead, it seems the United States decided to break with the rule of law and instead pursue individual justice, further eroding international law and order." PACO, SANTA BARBARA

"A spokesman for Ms. Pelosi did not respond to a request for comment about Mr. Trump’s posts." Pelosi refuses to dignify tweets by treating them as policy statements. Good for her. As for the tweet itself, it's not really that different from Dubya's administration's backtracking from the WMD argument that I seem to remember ..."

S. NORTH, EUROPE

"On Monday, President Trump put an end to that hash of explanations. “It doesn’t really matter,” he tweeted, “because of his horrible past.” Gosh, you know it doesn't really matter if America dumps trump "because of his horrible past." I wish all media would agree to go 7 days without one picture or story about trump. There are plenty of other topics to cover and I for one would love to see 7 days devoted to the fires, rising sea levels, volcanoes, human interest stories, etc. Just one week to rest my weary brain of trump saturation." NAN, PRESCOTT WI

" All I can do is shake my head in disbelief and sadness at trump's lack of concern for the killing of the general. Similar to the killing of the Saudi Arabian in Turkey at the hands of the Prince. Similar to locking children up. "It really doesn't matter." How much longer will I have to shake my head in disbelief and sadness at his cruelty?" ESP, ILL

"So the trump campaign was "hoping that the killing boosts his popularity". Unbelievable. Thankfully, the poll referenced indicates the majority of respondents thought it was a reckless thing to do. Had it indicated otherwise, I could easily believe he would be looking for someone else to kill. It's crazy stunning to even acknowledge that a president of the United States ordered a person killed, with all the seriousness of ordering breakfast, and that his reason for doing so "doesn't really matter". How in heck did we get here and nearly forty percent of Americans think this is ok?"

DEB, BLUE RIDGE MTNS

*********

Iran Protests Rage Over Downed Jet, as Other Nations Seek Redress

Protesters chanted against Iran’s clerical rulers for a third day, while Ukraine’s foreign minister said five countries would seek action against those responsible.

By Ben Hubbard | Published Jan. 13, 2020 Updated 3:16 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted January 13, 2020 |

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Protesters and riot police faced off in at least two cities in Iran on Monday, a third day of angry demonstrations at the country’s leaders after the government acknowledged having shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing 176 people.

The protests are the most recent spillover from escalating regional tensions between the United States and Iran that built up to President Trump’s decision to kill a high-ranking Iranian general, and Iran’s firing missiles at United States forces in Iraq in response.

After days of denials, Iran acknowledged early on Saturday that it had shot down the Ukraine International Airlines flight on Wednesday, blaming the attack on human error. But the government’s obfuscation has angered many Iranians, already squeezed by poor economic conditions exacerbated by United States sanctions, and some took to the streets soon after.

Videos from inside Iran shared on social media on Monday showed university students in Isfahan and the capital, Tehran, chanting against the country’s clerical rulers while riot police deployed nearby.

The extent of the protests and the amount of violence used to try to stop them were hard to assess because of tight restrictions on social media and the news media inside the country. Videos from previous days have shown protesters carrying off bleeding comrades while gunshots echoed in the background.

The authorities in Iran denied that security forces had opened fire.

“At protests, police absolutely did not shoot because the capital’s police officers have been given orders to show restraint,” Hossein Rahimi, the head of Tehran’s police, said on Monday, according to state-run news media.

Late Sunday, Mr. Trump warned Iran not to target the demonstrators. Framing himself as a supporter of the media, which in other circumstances he has frequently disparaged, Mr. Trump exhorted Iran’s leaders to allow unfettered reporting.

“To the leaders of Iran — DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS,” he wrote on Twitter. “Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching. Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free! Stop the killing of your great Iranian people!”

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

To the leaders of Iran - DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS. Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching. Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free! Stop the killing of your great Iranian people!

8:48 AM - Jan 12, 2020

The Ukrainian plane took off from Tehran on a flight to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, before dawn on Wednesday, and barely two minutes later it was struck by an anti-aircraft missile fired by an Iranian crew. Iranian forces had fired missiles at American forces in Iraq hours earlier, and were on the alert for retaliation by the United States.

In addition to the domestic outrage, Iran may also face demands for compensation from nations whose citizens were killed on the plane, Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko of Ukraine told Reuters on Monday in an interview in Singapore.

“We have created this group of foreign ministers from the grieving nations. On Jan. 16, we will meet in person in London to discuss the ways, including legal, how we are following this up, how we are prosecuting them,” Mr. Prystaiko said, referring to the Iranians.

The talks would include five nations, he said: Canada, which lost 57 citizens, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Sweden and another country he did not identify.

They and other nations have pushed for greater international involvement in the investigation of how the crash happened, and Mr. Prystaiko said Tehran had agreed to hand over the jet’s black boxes for analysis, but had yet to set a date to do so.

Mr. Prystaiko separately told the BBC in an interview broadcast Monday that President Hassan Rouhani of Iran had accepted full responsibility for the crash, without trying to shift the blame onto the United States for escalating overall tensions in the region.

“At least at the presidential level, nothing of this nonsense was mentioned,” Mr. Prystaiko said, describing Mr. Rouhani’s phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Saturday. “He tried to do his best to explain that it was human error, that no one who is to be punished will escape the punishment.”

Tensions between the United States and Iran have soared since 2018, when Mr. Trump pulled the United States out of an international agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear program and imposed the first in a series of sanctions on Iran to punish it for what his administration sees as its destabilizing activities across the Middle East.

After a number of attacks on United States assets and allies in the Middle East in recent months, Mr. Trump ordered the killing on Jan. 3 of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds force. He headed Iran’s efforts to support and direct allied militias in the region.

Those militias include an Iraqi group that fired rockets at a military base in Iraq late last month, killing one American contractor. United States forces retaliated against militia bases, killing more than two dozen fighters, and militias responded by surrounding the American Embassy compound in Baghdad, breaching its perimeter wall, setting fires and throwing rocks.

The killing of General Suleimani in a drone strike at the Baghdad airport raised fears that Iran or its network of allies across the Middle East would respond against the United States and its allies, possibly igniting a regional war.

On Wednesday, Iran responded by firing a barrage of missiles at two military bases in Iraq that host United States forces, inflicting some damage but killing no one. The Ukrainian jet crashed after being struck in the air by an Iranian missile a few hours later.

______

Anton Troianovski contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine.

*********

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processcalledxerography-blog · 6 years ago

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Meghan Markle's Mama Doria Ragland Arrived In London.

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militaryspouse101 · 7 years ago

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New Post has been published on Military Spouse

New Post has been published on http://militaryspouse.com/military-life/military-branches/coast-guard/happy-227-birthday-coast-guard/

Happy 227 Birthday, Coast Guard

President George Washington established the U.S. Coast Guard on Aug. 4, 1790, when he signed the Tariff Act that authorized the construction of 10 vessels, referred to as “cutters” to enforce federal tariff and trade laws and prevent smuggling.

Referred to as the Revenue Cutter Service for more than a century, it was renamed the Coast Guard in 1915. In 1967, it was transferred to the Department of Transportation before being transferred to the Department of Homeland Security, where it resides today.

The Coast Guard serves dually as a federal law enforcement agency and military force, protecting the U.S. in peacetime and in war. It protects more than 100,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways, and safeguards an Exclusive Economic Zone comprising 4.5 million square miles. More than 56,000 Coasties operate a fleet of 243 cutters, 201 fixed and rotary-wing aircraft and more than 1,600 boats.

On an average day, the Coast Guard:

Conducts 45 search and rescue cases

Saves 10 lives

Saves over $1.2 million in property

Seizes 874 pounds of cocaine and 214 pounds of marijuana

Conducts 57 waterborne patrols of critical maritime infrastructure

Interdicts 17 illegal migrants

Escorts 5 high-capacity passenger vessels

Conducts 24 security boardings in and around U.S. ports

Screens 360 merchant vessels for potential security threats prior to arrival in U.S. ports

Conducts 14 fisheries conservation boardings

Services 82 buoys and fixed aids to navigation

Investigates 35 pollution incidents

Completes 26 safety examinations on foreign vessels

Conducts 105 marine inspections

Investigates 14 marine casualties involving commercial vessels

Facilitates movement of $8.7 billion worth of goods and commodities through the nation’s Maritime Transportation System

Coast Guard Core Values

Honor. Respect. Devotion to Duty.

Read on to see what some Coast Guard spouses have been doing with their time!

Here’s what our Coast Guard Spouse of the Year community is up to:

I have continued to write a column about military family life for the Coast Guard every two weeks. I started writing it as a volunteer effort four years ago, and From the Homefront has been a great way to show how dynamic and resilient our families are. I’m also a member of the board of directors for the Military Family Advisory Network, where I have the chance to serve families of all branches of service and to make sure they get the support they need. I also volunteer my time as an Arlington Lady, making sure that no member of the Coast Guard family is buried alone.

Our family moved to the Washington, D.C., area a few years ago and, after struggling with unemployment at our previous station, I was able to find work teaching media law at The George Washington University and at the University of Florida.

My husband is stationed at Coast Guard headquarters, where he is the chief of aviation forces. Last year was the 100th anniversary of Coast Guard aviation, so it has been an exciting time to be here!

~Shelley Kimball, 2013 AFI U.S. Coast Guard Spouse of the Year

My husband, 12-year-old son and black lab PCSed from Rhode Island to Astoria, Ore., at the end of June. I am going into my third year working full time with Semper Fi Fund. I am a graphic designer/photographer and website administrator. This past year I was able to travel for many of our Team Semper Fi and Community Athlete events – Boston Marathon; Beat the Bridge, Jacksonville, N.C.; Tunnel to Towers, New York City; and the Marine Corps Marathon, Washington, D.C. Last year during Thanksgiving week, Semper Fi Fund was given a PSA in Times Square. Eleven of my images were chosen and displayed in bright lights during one of the busiest travel times in NYC – what an amazing feeling that was!

I have been a photographer for almost 18 years. My passion is photographing high school seniors, military families, service members and children. I finished up my fourth year volunteering with Military Spouses of Newport – the local all hands spouse club. I was the Hospitality Committee Chair from 2013-2015 and President from 2015-2017.

~Stacey Benson, 2015 AFI U.S. Coast Guard Spouse of the Year

While stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, I met with Senator Nelson, Mrs. Nelson and Mrs. Ray (PACAREA Admiral’s wife) to discuss Kodiak work-life/family issues and with Superintendent MacDonald (Kodiak Island Borough School District) regarding Education Opportunities for Military Children. Our superintendent was asked to provide input for the entire state of Alaska.

I also participated in Mishap training with Air Station Kodiak. Essentially this was a drill to practice if one of our aircraft when down. We role-played our participation and brainstormed what if scenarios. It was the most important and beneficial training I ever participated in. It was also the most emotionally draining.

I worked with Safe Routes to School, a local organization to create the first Bike Rodeo on Base Kodiak. This free event provided bicycle helmets, bike tune ups, taught street safety and obstacle courses.

In 2016 we PCS’d from Kodiak to NAS Pensacola where my husband was promoted to CPO. He is in a very unique position as a composite instructor. In a nutshell, he is a Coastie working for the Air Force on a Navy base. It’s been an interesting year. Before leaving Kodiak I became an ombudsman trainer. While I am not able to be an ombudsman at this unit it is an invaluable resource that is near and dear to my heart.

Due to the unique nature of this assignment I decided to take this time for myself to focus on me. I finally put my big girl panties on and took the teaching certification exams for the state of Florida, earning my Special Education Teaching License, became a Registered Behavior Technician and will enroll in a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analysis) program to provide ABA therapy to children on the spectrum (a dream of mine).

Rob and I have three boys (Robert 13, Chris 11 and Paul 8). This summer we adopted the best dog ever — a black mouth cur named Bruno!

~Danielle Medolla, 2014 AFI U.S. Coast Guard Spouse of the Year

It was PCS season for us. We transferred over the summer and are settling into the same city where our oldest son is stationed. I am working diligently on starting up a multi-unit spouse club at our new duty station and assisting with doing the same at our old one. I’ve also continued my efforts to assist special needs families throughout the Coast Guard, starting with District 7. I recently traveled to Dubai for a Lifestyle Rewards vacation I earned from Jeunesse Global. While there I enjoyed a desert safari, which included an off-road sand dune excursion, a once-in-a-lifetime camelback ride, and an extravagant torch-lit dinner at a desert oasis with belly dancers for entertainment!

My husband and I recently dove in to a monthly fitness challenge presented by Cerno called #GiveASquat (spearheaded by Michelle Aikman, 2016 AFI Air Force SOY). We’ve rallied together active duty service members and spouses across the country, friends and fitness instructors from local YMCAs, and fellow Jeunesse Independent Distributors to donate their squats to assist with completing the challenge. In turn, the sponsor of the month makes a financial donation to the benefitting nonprofit of the month. Our team #Squattin8ers takes pride in our work with this program and intends to continue building awareness of the challenge! Be sure to check out gocerno.com/giveasquat or the Facebook Group “30-Day GiveASquat Fitness Challenge” for more details!

~Mary Nelson, 2017 AFI Coast Guard Spouse of the Year

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

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The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

May 18th is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (#GAAD), so as part of that I'd like to shed a little light on some recent advances in the field of accessibility for blind gamers.

Accessibility for blind gamers has been a difficult area for the games industry. And under-served audience who want content, developers who want to offer it, yet often an unnecessary technical barrier between. That is finally starting to change.

Blind gamers are a great audience to develop for. An eager, underserved audience with a hunger for content, and loyal fans and advocates for people who provide it. A fantastic group to work with, always eager to help. It’s an audience that is often written off as too small or as acts of altruism, but actually that’s not necessarily the case.

There are a couple of mobile games now that have tracked data on their blind players, with some interesting results. MUDRammer, an iOS MUD client. Blind accessibility took about a day to implement, and after implementation the developer found that 14% of his players were blind. The app sells for $5 a time, so he made an instant profit. And Solara, which is a visual strategy game so took a bit of effort to get it accessible, about 1 week of dev time. The tracked the data, and it came out at around 1% of their players, which is around the proportion of the population who are blind. That 1% however played for much longer than any other players, and spent much more on IAPs as a result – they were Solara’s whales.

Just anecdotally I’ve even known a blind gamer to spend over $1000 on IAPs for one single game.

These things all come down to the same phenomenon; catering for an underserved audience. There’s high demand, and low competition. When a game surfaces that is blind-accessible, word gets around the blind gamer community very quickly.

So there can be a real business case. But you do have to be realistic, the audience size is low and the functionality is niche, without benefit to other players. So for it to be financially viable you really need to;

1. Create a mainstream game that happens to also be accessible, rather than building niche games only for blind gamers.

2. Keep your costs low.

Unfortunately, the second point has been a real blocker. There are many games that are perfectly mechanically suited to blind accessibility, with gamers requesting it and the developers wanting to implement it, but the technology has made it unfeasible, too difficult and expensive.

Screenreaders

Blind accessible games fall into a few camps:

1. Games that have accidentally accessible gameplay, due to good sound design and sometimes assists (e.g. Killer Instinct)

Blind gamer Carlos Vasquez (OBSKHRattlehead) competing at EVO, playing Mortal Kombat X through good sound design alone

2. Audiogames, designed from the ground-up to be played primarily through audio (e.g. Papa Sangre)

3. Games that are have gameplay that is compatible with external screen-reader software (e.g. King of Dragon Pass)

It’s predominantly the third item that I’m going to discuss a little with this post. However, screenreaders are also relevant to the other two. Mainstream games with audio-accessible gameplay, such as Killer instinct, would still benefit from screenreader accessibility as cost effective way to make their UIs blind accessible, and the UIs for dedicated audiogames are often based on screenreader compatibility too.

Screenreaders are the primary way that people with low or no vision interact with technology. They literally read out what’s on the screen, via configurable synthesised speech. All modern desktop/mobile operating systems have screenreader software built in.

Cursor based navigation doesn’t really work if you’re blind, so instead on PC navigation is through moving through each item on the screen in a linear fashion. On mobile it’s a big different, you still have the choice of cycling through each element in turn but it also changes the way that gestures work, so that you can drag your finger around the surface of the screen and it will speak out whatever your finger is over.. so rather than a linearised equivalent, you can use your finger like an eye and build up a mental picture of the layout of the screen.

If you're developing a native app it is easy to make your app compatible with screenreaders. The biggest piece of work involved just making sure things are labelled correctly, and the software takes care of the rest. As using decent labels should just be standard practice anyway, it can even be so straightforward that it is possible to do unintentionally.

Blind gamer Debbie Fisher with Hanging with Friends, a game that she was able to play using a screenreader without developers having put in any blind-specific dev time

However it relies on the screenreader software being able to look at the native UI elements present, and engines do not output any native UI elements. As far as the OS is concerned game rendered by an engine is pretty much a single UI component containing a bunch of pixels.

This is where the cost barrier comes in. It means the only option for a developer using an engine is to either recreate screenreader type functionality within a game, to record voiceover for all interface elements, or to dump their engine and start again natively. In some rare instances one of these three options is chosen, but generally none of them are are either realistic or financially viable for most developers.

This causes all kinds of problems, including difficulties with dev/gamer relationships. I’m not going to go into detail on that here, but it is something that I’ve written about before.

Unity accessibility plugin

That has now changed, Michelle Martin has just released a plugin to work around it by essentially replicating the entirely of the iOS and Android screen readers inside Unity (quite a feat!). So once you have that installed, it's almost as easy to make your UIs blind accessible as it is in native app development. It’s just about making sure UI elements have the right attributes (sensible labels, indication of state where necessary, and optional usage hint if needed), and that the right text strings are sent when the player needs to be notified of something happening (e.g. “you have a new chat message in your inbox”, “building complete” etc). All of the gestures, focus handling and so on are taken care of for you. And best of all, it’s a standardised set of information that works across different platforms.

Adding accessibility information to game UI using the UAP plugin

There are plenty of game mechanics that just aren't suitable for blind accessibility, but if in particular you're building an interface based game without need for precise timing (as many mobile games are, from Football Manager to Words With Friends, Reigns to Hearthstone), it's now drastically easier to tap into that underserved and very loyal audience.

More info:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SJuQWf7p9T4

http://ift.tt/2qv8tAp

http://ift.tt/2pbZ1hH

It would be better for the engines to handle this kind of thing be default at engine level rather than going through a plugin. But Michelle’s work plugs that gap, and allows devs a way in that wasn’t previously there. It is currently mobile only with some limited functionality working on PC, but she’s looking at getting it working across as many platforms as possible.

Tolk

For PC games there’s a library called Tolk, by Davey Kager. This is a simpler push system to the Unity Accessibility Plugin, it essentially just waits for text strings to be sent to it, and then pushes them on out to the various different PC screenreaders available.

http://ift.tt/2qvr9QM

Even though it is push based, meaning you have to handle focus management yourself, and implement your own system for relaying UI labels to the library on focus, it’s still pretty straightforward. Here’s an example of a game that uses it, Skullgirls, it took a total of five hours to implement:

https://mobile.twitter.com/MikeZSez/status/857516611925704704

Every area of the Skullgirls UI is screenreader accessible on PC, using Tolk

Xbox

Hot off the press from this year’s GDC are two new APIs from Xbox, that work across both Xbox and PC. One for text to speech for UI, and another for text <-> speech for in-game communication.

So firstly the text to speech for UI. The Xbox has had a text to speech system for some time now for navigating system menus and some third party apps, but it has now been made available for game developers to use. It is a very similar system to Tolk – just send a text string to it and it will be read out. So it isn’t a full screenreader, you still need to have focus management and a way to send the messages implemented at game level (or better still Unreal/Unity etc. if you’re listening - engine level).

Xbox Narrator

As with Tolk it doesn’t have an engine-side set of attributes for states etc, so you need to plan for that kind of thing yourself, for example stating that a button is a button, and whether a checkbox is ticked.

Then the second API, the text <-> speech for online communication. This is a great piece of functionality for people with all kinds of impairments, not just physical but temporary and situational too. It quite simply transcribes in near-realtime all voice messages to text, and all text messages to voice. It isn’t perfect, but is a great start, and can make a huge difference in the ability to participate of anyone who has difficulty seeing or reading text, difficulty hearing, or difficulty speaking.

Live text <-> speech transcription in action in Halo Wars 2

More information on both of the Xbox APIs, together with a range of other Xbox functionality for both players and developers:

http://ift.tt/2pbV2Sk

Contact the Xbox accessibility team if you’re interested, they are keen to help devs with implementation.

Testing

Even if your game is mechanically suited to blind accessibility and has a solution like one of the above implemented for accessible UI, either on its own or in conjunction with gameplay accessible through sound design, that’s no guarantee that the game is blind accessible. An interesting example being and audio game called Ear Monsters. The dev thought it would be sensible to auto rotate the screen in case blind gamers couldn't see that they were holding it the wrong way up, but then getting a load of feedback from blind gamers who couldn't play it.

He had been designing to a picture in his head of how people in general hold devices, not thinking that of course people who have no vision have no reason to hold a device up to their face or even in front of them. The players in question had been playing with it on their lap, with the far end sloping slightly downwards away from them, so the auto rotate was actually causing the game to be upside down.

As previously mentioned, blind gamers are fantastic bunch to work with and get feedback from. If you want to find blind gamers to test with, check the forums at audiogames.net and applevis.com, they’ll be falling over themselves to help. You can also find people through social media, for example a twitter people search for ‘blind gamer’. For in-person, your best bet is local blindness organisations and groups. The national orgs can sometimes be a bit understandably protective over their members, but if you get in touch with one of the groups in your local city they’ll be very keen to help.

"The blind community is ready to work with you. We want to play with your games"

- Brandon Cole, #GAConf 2017

What does it all mean?

Blind-accessibility is an area that is really starting to gain traction now.

There isn’t a magic button to make games accessible to blind gamers, and the number of games that are mechanically suited to blind accessibility is smaller than the number of games that are not. But for the right games, the barriers are tumbling down, the doors are opening up.

This is great for blind gamers, great for the industry in general. And also an opportunity like never before for developers who are willing and able to get in there early, while competition is still low.

Republished from http://ift.tt/2qOaVCS

#IFTTT #Blogger

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jeniferdlanceau · 8 years ago

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All-women design shows are "snowballing" in New York following Trump inauguration

Multiple female-only design exhibitions have opened in New York as designers and curators aim to highlight the "inequities that still exist" in the industry.

During this month's NYCxDesign festival, two major shows are featuring only female designers. Egg Collective's Designing Women includes work by 15 New York-based individuals and studios, while Chamber's A Room With Its Own Rules brings together items by women from around the world.

On top of this, design store The Future Perfect is displaying furniture by all-female studio Rooms, while Lindsey Adelman and Bec Brittain have put on their own shows.

This follows a surge of women-only design exhibitions elsewhere in the world, many of which were spurred by the inauguration of President Trump earlier this year, and subsequent wave of global protests and "women's marches".

Egg Collective founders Hillary Petrie, Crystal Ellis and Stephanie Beamer organised the Designing Women exhibition, on show in New York this month

The trio opened its first Designing Women exhibition at the beginning of May, with the aim to bring together and support New York's female designers, as well as raise money for a local girls charity.

They invited women they knew in the industry to participate, and received and "overwhelmingly positive response". Since opening, feedback from others in the community and show attendance have also been affirming.

"That's what felt like we made the right decision, and were striking the right tone at the right time," Beamer told Dezeen. "It's been snowballing ever since."

Designing Women brings together 15 of New York's female designers and studios, and is raising money for a local girls charity

The current political climate was a major impetus for Designing Women. Following last year's US election campaigns and Trump's victory, the group realised that attitudes towards women had not moved on as much as they had previously thought.

"We've been sitting back on our haunches, feeling like we're moving in the right direction," said Beamer. "But since the election, people have really realised that maybe we aren't."

In response, they chose this month's design festival to highlight and celebrate the work of their female peers.

"That's what people are wanting in this climate – to make positive moves and consolidate with their community, and look for ways to make the best of what's happening, and finally change what has been unequal forever," added Hillary Petrie, another of Egg Collective's founders.

Matylda Krzykowski selected only women designers for her A Room With Its Own Rules exhibition at Chamber

The same week, Chelsea gallery Chamber also opened an exhibition of work exclusively by female designers. Curator Matylda Krzykowski used the fourth and final show in her domestic-themed series for the gallery to spotlight women working across art, architecture and design around the world.

"I did three shows, and during the whole process, I realised that there are so many fantastic women that are under represented," Krzykowski told Dezeen. "I had plenty of women in the other shows, but it's different if you put them all together."

Some of the work in the A Room With Its Own Rules exhibition is also politically charged. Johanna Grawunder has designed a glowing-pink lighting installation titled Pussy Grabs Back, in reaction to Trump's now-infamous taped comments about women in 2005.

"I believe that we have to focus on thriving, and really think about the possibility that we will soon arrive in this post-patriarchal context that society has been longing for a long time, but it hasn't happened," said Krzykowski.

A Room With Its Own Rules features some politically motivated work, including Johanna Grawunder's glowing-pink lighting installation titled Pussy Grabs Back

Lindsey Adelman, a figurehead in New York's design community, has contributed pieces for both Designing Women and A Room With Its Own Rules.

"Right now it's really amazing, there's this force of momentum with all-women design shows happening right now," she told Dezeen.

The designer echoed Egg Collective's view that there had perhaps been a complacency around gender parity up until last year, but that recent political events have spurred a renewed push for equality.

"Since the election, since the marches, it's probably happening in every industry that women are feeling like 'oh so much happened in the 60s and 70s for women's rights', and then we got maybe a little complacent," Adelman continued. "Now it's time to say 'oh no we actually have to get out there again and be heard, and give our energy and time and attention to this event'."

Lindsey Adelman has organised her own show, Afterglow, to coincide with this month's NYCxDesign

She does, however, believe that the situation for female designers has improved since setting up her studio in 2006, and that now is a better time than ever for women in design.

"What's happening more than ever is that it's not as if doors were closed," said Adelman. "I've never found that doors were closed, but I did notice that I had to open the doors, because nobody's opening them for you."

"But now I think those doors have been opened, so it's a lot easier and more comfortable for women."

Recent developments for women in the creative industries include a new publicly editable directory that can be used by conference organisers to source female speakers for panel discussions, and the launch of an initiative called JustDesign.US that certifies architecture firms actively practising diversity and equality.

The Future Perfect is hosting a display of furniture by Rooms – an all-female studio based in Tbilisi. Photograph by Lauren Coleman

The New York designers and curators all believe that their efforts this month are helping to make progress with gender parity, but know there is still much more work to be done.

Some design brands still have many more male designers on their books then female. And the first Dezeen Hot List – a guide to the most talked-about names in the industry, determined by search data – was lacking considerably in women.

"We haven't gone past patriarchy yet – far away from it," said Krzykowski. "We just need to look at the power in a lot of institutions. In the design context, it's usually men."

"Look at Capellini, who basically worked only with men. Vitra, who has Hella Jongerius between a whole range of men. So even when you walk into the offices, you see a huge big picture with a lot of men," she added.

"We are not at the tipping point yet – we are on the stage before."

Egg Collective's Designing Women is on show at 304 Hudson Street until 26 May 2017, and Chamber's A Room With Its Own Rules can be seen at 15 West 23rd Street until 15 July 2017.

The Future Perfect is hosting furniture by Rooms through July 2017, and Lindsey Adelman's Afterglow exhibition is on view at 1 Great Jones Street until the end of May 2017.

Directory of female creatives aims to tackle the "stone-aged" under-representation of women in design

The post All-women design shows are "snowballing" in New York following Trump inauguration appeared first on Dezeen.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217598 https://www.dezeen.com/2017/05/13/all-women-design-shows-snowballing-new-york-following-trump-inauguration-nycxdesign/

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juliandmouton30 · 8 years ago