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matildainmotion · 4 years ago

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Your Permission to Belong: a Deep Yes and a New Verb: To Matronise.

It turns out we are all imposters, or at least most of us feel we are. Although I knew this - it’s why I wrote a blog about it last month - I am still amazed and troubled that it is true. That so many of us feel like we don’t cut it, even in the context of a group like Mothers Who Make (MWM) that aims to be welcoming, inclusive, accessible. It has left me pondering on the opposite of Imposter Syndrome, on what it is that makes you, me, any of us, feel that we belong, that we have a right to be here. Who says? What or who gives us a sense of permission?

Permission -it’s a difficult word, not the obvious go-to one when on a quest for a sense of belonging. I associate it most immediately with stern, finger-wagging teachers, or ‘keep off the grass’ notices- with authority figures and forces that have the power to deny access. In its origins (Latin, permitere) it means to allow through, to let pass, which is why I think it is the key to our sense of belonging. Before we can belong, there is always a threshold moment, a point at which we are allowed to pass. Imposter Syndrome comes about when you feel you sneaked across the border - you are wandering about without a permit and it is only a matter of time before someone finds you out. No one gave you permission.

This is a top down model. The supplicant asks, waits anxiously to see if permission will be granted or denied by the authorities. It is a hugely powerful model. I still remember the first time I managed to get funding, the money was a minimal sum but far more significant was the feeling that someone had chosen me, had granted me permission to make a piece of work. Given how small the grant was, why couldn’t I have made it anyway?! Because I wanted an external authority to tell me I could. I wanted to be patron-ised.

Whilst, in theory, being a feminist and all, I didn’t agree with the patriarchal structure of this system, I was hopelessly hooked into it. I was a good girl, or desperate to be so, to acquire paternal approval to affirm my right to be or do anything. It has taken me becoming a mother to feel, viscerally, how problematic this top-down model of permission-giving can be.

As someone who had long identified as the supplicant, it was rather a shock, when I became a parent, to find myself in the position of authority- the one to dish out or withhold the permissions, in a hundred small ways, many times a day and I have found it exhausting. Perhaps because of this, I fear I am a permissive parent- I often allow my children to do what they want. Irrespective of what parenting methods you believe in, I think it is significant that being ‘permissive' has negative connotations. To say yes too often is a no-no. When I do say no, I have been struck, as my children grow, by the force of their reactions. They rage at first – which is hard - but then they walk away, which is harder. My daughter goes into a corner. My son has been known to make it out the door and down the lane. Both have told me I am the worst mother in the world and that they are in the wrong family - they don’t belong (their shared sense of melodrama is evidence to the contrary, but I refrain from putting this to them in the moment). My daughter is particularly sensitive to any of her wishes, ideas, words not being given full approval. Her back rounds, her head bows, the tears start. Sometimes this happens, not when I have frowned at her, but when I have condoned her brother. She is convinced that it is impossible for me to love her if I also love him. In other words, if she is to belong, she feels someone else must be left out- her inclusion only counts if he has been excluded. Needless to say, I find this very distressing. This is not what I want for her or her brother. And this is not what I want for MWM. I do not want to lead a movement that makes people feel left out, or as if they are imposters, one that furthers the dominant narrative around belonging- that some are allowed in, while others aren’t. What to do?

I remember back to a project I ran before Mothers Who Make called Permission Improbable, a play on the macho action spy movies, Mission: Impossible. The project, which I lead through Improbable, had the modest ambition of changing the world by supporting more women and non-binary people to improvise. Improvising, at its heart, is a game of permission-giving. In the absence of a writer or director - the usual authority figures - you have to practice giving your permission, saying yes, to the other players, the audience, to yourself- your impulses, feelings, thoughts. You never say no. It is not that every patch of grass in an impro scene can be trampled on, but rather that if someone puts up a ‘Do Not Walk Here’ sign everyone on stage says ‘yes’ to it, to the idea of it being part of the story. How ever many lawns are out of bounds, there is a deeper yes always at work- a common ground beneath the turf.

This presents a different model of permission-giving, not top-down, but reciprocal, and unconditional. We say yes to each other, and we say it together, without deliberation. Saying this deep yes to our ideas and impulses is not easy. We have been schooled to look outside ourselves, and upwards, for permission, and we have been trained to say ‘no’- sometimes with good reason. Sometimes ‘no’ keeps us alive. However too many ‘no’s may keep us less alive than we might be. It takes practice to say ‘yes’ but it is worth practicing. Arguably it is THE practice - the only thing you ever really have to practice, as a maker, as a mother- saying a deep “Yes.”

Image by Zoe Gardner @limberdoodle

I remember there was a time as a teenager when I ruthlessly dismissed my mother’s opinion of anything I did. She was my mum, massively biased - she’d always think what I had made was good so her positive feedback didn’t count. Retrospectively I disagree with my teenage self - I believe my mother’s validation of me counted hugely. I think it always counts. There is a place for discernment, but not at the expense of the first, fundamental practice, the ‘yes’ that gets us over the threshold.

When framed in this way, I actually think I need to be more permissive with my children. I need to practice, every day, saying a deep ‘yes’ to them, even or especially in the moments I am not allowing them to do something. As their mother I am their initial threshold, my body was the border they crossed into life. It is my task to say ‘yes’ to them. Yes, you are allowed to be here. Yes, you belong. I realise the children, in their own way, always say this kind of deep ‘Yes’ back to me, even when they are telling me I am the worst mother in the world. I believe that if I can engage in this reciprocal, unconditional model of permission-giving, it can result in a form of belonging that is not ‘in’ or ‘out’, inclusion/ exclusion - not another binary, but an ongoing dynamic process called community. And that is how I want to run Mothers Who Make, and in particular how I want to run our ‘Matronage’ membership scheme.

Let me do a brief re-cap on the Matronage story for anyone who doesn’t know it. In 2019, after a year of writing funding applications for MWM to councils, trusts (the UK patrons of the arts) and receiving no money - money being the major way in which permission is granted or denied in our culture - I was tired. I wanted to find a way to sustain the movement that was in line with the movement, that supported women/ non-binary carers to support themselves and one another, so I launched the Matronage scheme - if we could reach 300 Matron Saints, paying £1 to 10 per month, we could just about keep going. So far, a year on, we have 150.

My vision for Matronage is to see if it is possible to run a membership scheme powered entirely by the impulse to include, not by patronising ‘exclusive, members-only offers.’ I want to build a scheme that is accessible to anyone, no matter their financial status. There are benefits for signing up as a MWM Matron, but the primary, underlying one is that in doing so you are performing a radical act of permission-giving. It is a way to say a deep, resounding YES, to yourself and to others who care about creating and create whilst caring. Yes, you have a right to be here, Yes, your caring matters, Yes, your making matters too. And, yes, if you are reading this, you belong, no matter what your gender identity is, what your making practice is or isn’t, no matter whether you have children or not. Because, whilst it is important to practice saying ‘yes’ to yourself and your ideas, I do not think it is possible to do it all alone. We do need permission from outside ourselves, but we can give it to each other. Even if, like me, you do not identify as being someone important enough to hand out a permit, actually you are- I see it every time I run a MWM meeting or Mother Den. We can allow each other to pass through to a place of belonging, and it is a practice - we must do it over and over again. Let’s call this process ‘being matronised.’

To become a Matron Saint, you can pay anything from £1 per month to £10 per month - you choose. Most people pay £3, but if you can afford it £5 or £10 is brilliant. If you can’t £1 is fine. And if you cannot afford any monetary contribution then you can get in touch and we can playfully, joyfully, shamelessly, work out another kind of offering that you can make. Money is the fastest, and ironically often the cheapest way of saying ‘yes!’ but there are many others.

For now, when you become a Matron Saint you can:

-Attend as many International MWM peer support meetings as you like.*

-Attend as many Mother Dens as you like.*

-Attend any of the MWM Specials.*

-Write a Matron Saint interview, published online, celebrating you and your caring and creating.

-Apply to our Mother Pot commissioning fund once we reach 300 Matron Saints (when this happens a month of our Matronage will go back out to the matrons).

-Take part in our peer-mentoring scheme when I manage to launch it (watch this space!)

-Last but not least, you will give yourself and others permission. Permission to step over whichever thresholds you are teetering on. Permission to belong. And here is a new idea to make this tangible: when you become a Matron I would like to post you a ‘book of permissions,’ a living document to which you can add and which you will pass on to the next Matron, and so and so forth - a way to matronise one another. Such a list reminds me of what is apparently the nation’s favourite poem - Warning- the one in which the poet (Jenny Joseph) lists the outrageous things she will permit herself to do when she grows old - wear purple, pick flowers in other peoples’ gardens, learn to spit. I want to read your equivalent lists for now - let’s not wait till we grow any older.

Here, then, are your questions for the month, and I hope you will feel able to sign up as a Matron, invite others to do so (all genders welcome, non-mothers too), and write your answers in the new MWM book:

What do you need in order to feel you belong? What permission are you waiting for? Can you give it to yourself? Can you give it to others? Can you say a resounding ‘Yes’ to whatever it is you want to create in this world?

To become a matron go here:

https://www.nowdonate.com/checkout/td65v9xn404udt23p91c

To sign up as a matron and offer something other than money email me: [email protected]

*These particular matronly offers are, unless otherwise stated, open to women and non-binary folk only.

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dk-thrive · 5 years ago

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Being locked up in a house...will not be the same

I am writing to you from Italy, which means I am writing from your future. We are now where you will be in a few days. The epidemic’s charts show us all entwined in a parallel dance.

We are but a few steps ahead of you in the path of time, just like Wuhan was a few weeks ahead of us. We watch you as you behave just as we did. You hold the same arguments we did until a short time ago, between those who still say “it’s only a flu, why all the fuss?” and those who have already understood.

As we watch you from here, from your future, we know that many of you, as you were told to lock yourselves up into your homes, quoted Orwell, some even Hobbes. But soon you’ll be too busy for that.

First of all, you’ll eat. Not just because it will be one of the few last things that you can still do.

You’ll find dozens of social networking groups with tutorials on how to spend your free time in fruitful ways. You will join them all, then ignore them completely after a few days.

You’ll pull apocalyptic literature out of your bookshelves, but will soon find you don’t really feel like reading any of it.

You’ll eat again. You will not sleep well. You will ask yourselves what is happening to democracy.

You’ll have an unstoppable online social life – on Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, Zoom…

You will miss your adult children like you never have before; the realisation that you have no idea when you will ever see them again will hit you like a punch in the chest.

Old resentments and falling-outs will seem irrelevant. You will call people you had sworn never to talk to ever again, so as to ask them: “How are you doing?” Many women will be beaten in their homes.

You will wonder what is happening to all those who can’t stay home because they don’t have one. You will feel vulnerable when going out shopping in the deserted streets, especially if you are a woman. You will ask yourselves if this is how societies collapse. Does it really happen so fast? You’ll block out these thoughts and when you get back home you’ll eat again.

You will put on weight. You’ll look for online fitness training.

You’ll laugh. You’ll laugh a lot. You’ll flaunt a gallows humour you never had before. Even people who’ve always taken everything dead seriously will contemplate the absurdity of life, of the universe and of it all.

You will make appointments in the supermarket queues with your friends and lovers, so as to briefly see them in person, all the while abiding by the social distancing rules.

You will count all the things you do not need.

The true nature of the people around you will be revealed with total clarity. You will have confirmations and surprises.

Literati who had been omnipresent in the news will disappear, their opinions suddenly irrelevant; some will take refuge in rationalisations which will be so totally lacking in empathy that people will stop listening to them. People whom you had overlooked, instead, will turn out to be reassuring, generous, reliable, pragmatic and clairvoyant.

Those who invite you to see all this mess as an opportunity for planetary renewal will help you to put things in a larger perspective. You will also find them terribly annoying: nice, the planet is breathing better because of the halved CO2 emissions, but how will you pay your bills next month?

You will not understand if witnessing the birth of a new world is more a grandiose or a miserable affair.

You will play music from your windows and lawns. When you saw us singing opera from our balconies, you thought “ah, those Italians”. But we know you will sing uplifting songs to each other too. And when you blast I Will Survive from your windows, we’ll watch you and nod just like the people of Wuhan, who sung from their windows in February, nodded while watching us.

Many of you will fall asleep vowing that the very first thing you’ll do as soon as lockdown is over is file for divorce.

Many children will be conceived.

Your children will be schooled online. They’ll be horrible nuisances; they’ll give you joy.

Elderly people will disobey you like rowdy teenagers: you’ll have to fight with them in order to forbid them from going out, to get infected and die.

You will try not to think about the lonely deaths inside the ICU.

You’ll want to cover with rose petals all medical workers’ steps.

You will be told that society is united in a communal effort, that you are all in the same boat. It will be true. This experience will change for good how you perceive yourself as an individual part of a larger whole.

Class, however, will make all the difference. Being locked up in a house with a pretty garden or in an overcrowded housing project will not be the same. Nor is being able to keep on working from home or seeing your job disappear. That boat in which you’ll be sailing in order to defeat the epidemic will not look the same to everyone nor is it actually the same for everyone: it never was.

At some point, you will realise it’s tough. You will be afraid. You will share your fear with your dear ones, or you will keep it to yourselves so as not to burden them with it too.

You will eat again.

We’re in Italy, and this is what we know about your future. But it’s just small-scale fortune-telling. We are very low-key seers.

If we turn our gaze to the more distant future, the future which is unknown both to you and to us too, we can only tell you this: when all of this is over, the world won’t be the same.

~ Francesca Melandri, A letter to the UK from Italy: this is what we know about your future (The Guardian, March 27, 2020)

#Francesca Melandri #flu #pandemic #Italy #gratitude #hope #future #health #covid-19 #wuhan #coronavirus

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odinsonsobsessed · 5 years ago

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Damn Him

Inspired by the pictures and gifs of Wimbledon 2019

You can hardly stay focused on anything with an excited Tom dressed in a new suit for a day at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. All you want to do is peel that expensive suit off of that body.

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston/Reader || Word Count: 1.6k || Rated: T || Warnings: Tom Hiddleston being a full course meal. I mean seriously, how does it get any yummier than him?

Steps were heard in the hallway coming toward your bedroom. Perfect timing, you had just slipped into your floral dress and you needed to be zipped up.

“Will you zip me up?” You called out and not but a few seconds later, you felt his fingers on your back. Tom pulled on the zipper for what seemed like a century, his movements were slow as if he were savoring the task. His breath hit the back of your neck and was soon replaced with his lips as he pressed a couple of kisses to the nape.

“Is this new?”

You bit your lip, “Yeah…” Your reply was breathless and you mentally cursed him for doing this to you before the two of you went out for the afternoon.

“I like it. Fits you perfectly.” His lips touched your cheek in a quick peck as he moved around you to the closet.

So do your clothes. You thought with a grin.

With your bottom lip between your teeth, your eyes were glued to his deliciously curved backside as you watched him go, his navy blue pants hugged him generously, giving you a very pleasing view. His light blue dress shirt was tight around his upper back and shoulders, showing off his lean but muscular build. The view was brief as he disappeared into the closet, but returned a few moments later with his new racket patterned tie that you had gotten him for this birthday a few months back. It warmed your heart to see his eyes light up when he'd opened it that day, a long lasting smile graced his lips and you knew he loved it.

“Return the favor?” He asked but you were already holding out your hand for him to pass you the tie. You ran your fingers along it, feeling its tiny ridges as you held it in your grip before looping it around his neck so that you could fasten it. You noticed the childlike grin on his face, the one he typically got when he was about to go somewhere that he thoroughly enjoyed.

“Are you excited?”

His grin never faltered as he shook his head stiffly, trying not to move too much as you fixed his tie. “No… Maybe."

“Don’t lie to me. You’re ecstatic. You can barely keep still.” You giggled, thinking about how adorable it was that this kind of stuff made him this happy. It was the little things.

Tom chuckled sheepishly, “It’s supposed to be an interesting tournament this year. A lot of promising players.”

You finished up with his tie and couldn’t help but stand up on the tip of your toes with your arms draped around his neck to give him a kiss. He placed his hands to your back and brought you a little closer, bringing your lips more firmly against his. You groaned into the kiss as he ran his warm, slick tongue across your bottom lip. Pulling back, you gave him a playful glare, "Now that's not fair. We don't have time for this."

"You started it." He gave your lips a short, chaste kiss and removed himself from you.

"Wh- How do you figure that?!" You called after him as he walked away. Tom left you to go finished getting ready, leaving you standing there with your heart beating fast and wondering how in the hell you started it. If he was talking about your quickly intended kiss, then he was wrong! It wasn't your fault he responded so well to it.

You shook your head as you slipped on a pair of heels and went to fetch your jewelry, your mind completely stuck on that kiss. Damn him.

As you were putting your earrings in, you saw him step into view by the reflection of the mirror on your vanity.

Oh fuck me.

Now with his completed look in your view, you felt all of your breath leave your lungs. He looked like a damn treat. No, scratch that. He looked like an entire fucking meal. A majestic lion is what really came to mind when you first laid eyes on him, his mane and beard was groomed to your liking. His naturally waved hair slicked back and his beard neatly trimmed. Your eyes wandered downward to the rest of his body. The darkness of his suit made him look taller than he already was, the jacket fit him to a T. Now that you had distance between you, it gave you a better view of his whole situation... and more importantly, his package situation.

You swallowed, returning your attention to the earring you had tried to stick into your earlobe at least five times, but failed. Your distracted movements had seemingly gone unnoticed by Tom, who had come up behind you to place his hands onto your waist.

"Are you ready to go? Our car will be here in ten minutes."

"Yeah, almost." Finally, you focused and got the earring to cooperate and thread into your ear.

Tom's hands slid his hands to your stomach, pulling you against his chest in a warm embrace. You rested your arms on top of his and squeezed them in return. You turned your head and he kissed you a couple of times before pulling back to look at you. "You look absolutely beautiful, my darling. You make me a proud husband."

You giggled, gazing into his pretty blue eyes that were staring back into yours. "I'm just as proud to be your wife. Look how handsome you are in your new Ralph Lauren suit. Such a stud."

Tom glanced down at himself and you felt the tips of his curls brush against the side of your neck with the tilt of his head. "Is that what this is?" He mumbled and a chuckle escaped his lips as he looked back up at you with a playful grin, "A stud, huh?"

"Yes," You sighed dramatically, "I'm going to have to bat all the old ladies off of you today."

"Nevermind that you imply that only someone old would be attracted to me or that Tennis is only spectated by older individuals…" You couldn't help but giggle at his hilarious assumption. He raised his eyebrows in a playfully shocked look, "You would harm all of those elderly women?"

You let a wicked grin form on your lips, "You make me do crazy things, Mr. Hiddleston."

Tom laughed, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "Crazy things, hm? Why don't you show me what-" His suggestion was cut short by his cell phone ringing in his pocket. He pressed a kiss to your cheek and answered the call, walking off to talk to the person on the other end of the line.

You assumed that it was your driver, reaching over to take your small handbag from the vanity and following him out. Sure enough, Tom was ushering you out of the house and into the car.

The whole way over, you glanced over at Tom as he chatted with your longtime, trusted driver about today's plans, all the while unknowingly holding your undivided attention as his hand held yours between you, his thumb brushing your knuckles constantly, almost like he was reminding you that his sexy self was sitting there so close. They discussed what they thought the outcome would be and other Tennis related politics, which kept him too busy to catch you eyefucking him in his suit.

You wanted nothing more than to thread your fingers into that golden brown hair and tug him to you. Fantasies about fucking him in the backseat right then and there ran wild in your mind.

Damn him.

As much as you loved to see his suit on, you couldn't wait to take it off of him later. No really, you couldn't wait. You couldn't focus on the match, you didn't have a clue most of the time. You tried not to keep looking at him during the entirety of the event, but you couldn't help it. He just looked so good. Thank goodness for that unfaltering focus of his, you were free to oogle him as much as you had liked without him scolding your lack of attention toward the game.

The day dragged on, seeming like it lasted for weeks before you were finally on your way home. Tom was in a good mood, chatting happily with driver about the outcome while your hand rested on his thigh, mostly going unnoticed. He draped his arm around you when you'd done it, but that's about it. Gosh, he was so oblivious sometimes. Sometimes he had no idea the affect he had on you.

The moment the driver stopped outside of your house, you were ready to go inside. Obviously, Tom was not. He kept his conversation going, his enthusiasm would have been cute if arousal wasn't swirling around in your belly with anticipation.

Finally, after you couldn't take it anymore, you laid your hand gently on his arm, "Tom…"

He looked at you with the realization that you were waiting on him and flashed you an apologetic look. "Sorry love. We'll go inside now." He turned back to the driver and said his goodbyes before the two of you exited the car.

You thought you were home free when Tom stepped out of the car, until the driver said something and Tom turned back to answer him.

"Ohhhh no you don't." You tugged Tom's arm and he gasped, quickly saying goodbye to him.

"What's this about?"

"I've been mentally undressing you all day, I'm not waiting a second longer." You grabbed his tie and pulled him toward the house as he grinned at you.

"So about these crazy things I make you do, Mrs. Hiddleston. Care to show me now?"

"Oh trust me, Mr. Hiddleston, I plan to."

@fandom-and-feminism @fadingcoast @igotloki @mrshiddleston-uk @nikkalia @manager-of-mischief @spidey-bites @kcd15 @dangertoozmanykids101 @xxloki81xx @devilbat @furstinnajoelle @exbandragirl @sabine-leo @screw-real-life-i-pick-fandoms @officiallyunofficialperson @joyofbebbanburg @littlefrogstuff @wolfsmom1 @wrappedinlokisarms @scorpionchild81 @theoneanna @drakesfiance @awkwardfangirl2014 @archy3001

#tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston/reader #tom hiddleston x reader #damn him #wimbledon2019

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azan33111-blog · 8 years ago

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Shaista Plushy Lawn Embroidered Collection 2017-18 Vol 1 is available in stores. First of all winter season is almost end and spring summer season is coming .Therefore Shaista Plushy Lawn is launched for spring summer season. This embroidered lawn collection is fully color full and stylish.

Shaista Plushy Lawn Collection 2017 Vol 1

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#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Shaista Plushy Lawn Embroidered Collection 2017-18 Vol 1 Shaista Plushy Lawn Embroidered Collection 2017-18 Vol 1 is available in stores. First of all winter season is almost end and spring summer season is coming .Therefore Shaista Plushy Lawn is launched for spring summer season.

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bellesdomain · 7 years ago

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Starlight Express 6.0 - Mama the Steamer

Photos 1-3 - Reva Rice as Mama, dress rehearsal Photo 4 - Andrew Lloyd Webber and Reva Rice, opening night June 2018 Photo 5 - Regi Jennings and Reva Rice, closing night May 2018

OK. so. why.

WHY did they change Poppa’s gender, not Electra? Why do we not have a female Electra? Who asked for Mama? Who thought this a good idea? Where did this even come from? How does this fit the story?

Apparently, they had international auditions, and there were 10. TEN applicants to play this role. I mean, I know they’ve struggled to find performers for Poppa - how many mature black guys want to learn to skate and move to Germany for a role? Do they somehow thing there’ll be more mature WOMEN in musical theatre, prepared to learn to skate and move to Germany? let alone try to maintain the racial diversity.... If they’d spent the last 20 years actively seeking to keep the cast diverse, maybe there’d be enough women who’s previously performed in the show who’s want to come back when they’re in the 30-60 age bracket (and haven’t settled down, had a family, moved career to something where there’s actual opportunities for mature women unlike the vast majority of musical theatre...)

They’ve pulled off an amazing coup in getting Reva Rice to join the cast. But unless she decides to permanently move to Bochum, who’s next? Who is going to replace her? And in this rumoured new UK/English language production, who’ll be Momma there? Who else has the skill set to perform this role? Maybe... 3, 4 other ex-Starlighters that I know of are still actively performing, have the soul voice, and aren’t white. Maybe 3.

Then there’s the role. Poppa’s big numbers - Poppa’s Blues, the Starlight Sequence, and Light at the End of the Tunnel - all fall comfortably in a tenor range. (I’m a trained singer with a fairly good alto range, I can hit Poppa’s notes for the big songs). But there’s also a lot of recit - the story telling conversations, and those are all baritone. The vocal range goes way down there. You can style it out, sprechgesang it, fake it.... But it’s not ideal and not kind to the other characters.

Not Kind? HAVE YOU HEARD THE STARLIGHT SEQUENCE NOW??? Mama is simply in a different key to Rusty. It just cuts back and forth in the most jarring manner. (then poor Rusty’s vocal range is so abused in “I Do” as well....) Reva apparently can’t get those bottom alto notes? Or they decided to mess about with it because of reasons?

Is Mama special for being a female champion steam engine, or is her gender unremarkable? Why does she introduce herself with the “I Got Me” melody, as if she were one of the coaches? (Since both Mama and Coco are Engines, the coaches clearly have a problem with Engines shoving them around, not Men... not all engines are men, so it’s an Engines vs Coaches issue, not Male vs Female. and if Mama uses “I Got Me” because she’s a girl, why doesn’t Coco use it too?)

ANYWAY. COSTUME.

Now bear in mind the first three photos are from a dress rehearsal, and the final image with Andrew Lloyd Webber is from opening night. The difference that is immediately apparent is her wig - in the intervening week she gained a headscarf, and the wig is re-styled to look a lot better. It looks atrocious in the first images, but credit where it’s due, by opening night the wig looks fine.

So Mama’s basic costume, as seen in the race picture, is exactly what I hoped to see. She’s wearing the exact same design as Poppa, bit scaled and tailored to a female cut. The only discrepancies are her under-shirt is painted into more, less the white/grey base but painted an “old gold”, and the neckerchief she wears is more subdued than Poppa’s bright orange. These tweaks are an improvement in my mind, as the costume is more cohesive, less high contrast between the overalls/shirt which isn’t an important detail.

We see Mama’s Blues - she has new set details surrounding her, a dilapidated water tower and bridge behind her (are they to scale? or is the buffer seat to scale? because those elements are NOT to scale with each other....) She’s wearing a grubby old apron - suggestive of Grandma in the kitchen or in the garden at home, this works. We’re seeing her in her own space, in private, hanging out with her friends / adopted kids. You can bet she’s already offered them all some iced water. She takes off the apron as a symbol of getting up, going out there to RACE - which is perfect story telling.

And then it all falls apart. Mama gets a skirt. Because she’s GIRL and GIRLS WEAR SKIRTS. How else would we know she’s a GIRL if she’s not in a SKIRT?!

WHY???

Especially after we’ve already seen her throughout the show (the skirt only appears for Light at the End of the Tunnel) - we know the character, we’re comfortable with her already, but she has to be swathed in a massive amount of fabric to close out the show?

Allow me a brief ramble about skirts in European Fashion History. Skirts have always existed to slow women down. Our ancestors could do so much DESPITE their skirts, not because of them. Little girls have to be careful of their pretty dresses while their brothers climb trees. Girls have to be careful not to have a Marilyn Monroe incident and let their skirts blow up. Skirts are a hindrance to physical activity - even the shortest skater dress skirts, purely decorative, are symbolic of this feminine archetype that women are to be slow, careful, cautious, take care of their appearance, to be decorative, not physically active. (I’m sitting here wearing a dress right now, but if I wanted to mow the lawn, I’d have to change first) Skirts represent the feminine home-maker, the wife, mother, source of comfort and refinement. This is not a negative association necessarily, it’s simply the connection that’s made. Look at our four classic coaches - Pearl the First Class carriage, ultimate in luxury. Dinah the Dining Car - table-service, stylish restaurant. Ashley the Smoking Car - a comfortable lounge car where you can relax and smoke. All three, appropriately, wearing skirts. Then there’s Buffy the Buffet Car - serving quick snacks and drinks, not somewhere to linger, no-frills supplying your needs. For speed and efficiency? No skirt.

So, why does Mama (and Coco, I’ve got a big problem with her design too) wear a skirt? With this symbolism behind the garment, how on earth is is appropriate for an Engine to represent comfort and domesticity? Why does Mama gain this at the end of the show, when her part in the narrative is complete? What further development of her story does this costume change represent?

Why bother?

So in conclusion, I have a big problem with the concept of Mama (as opposed to a female Electra which would have made a much stronger story). I almost love her costume design. And then they ruin it at the end. I’m very sceptical about Mama’s longevity - I think casting will be nigh-on impossible while maintaining any integrity to the character, and I’d much rather have Poppa back than scraping the barrel to find someone approximately appropriate to play Mama in years to come. and sort out those keys.

#Starlight Express #Starlight Express Bochum #StEx 2018 #Poppa the Steam Engine #Mama the Steam Engine

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leviathangourmet · 6 years ago

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In the highly controversial area of human intelligence, the ‘Greater Male Variability Hypothesis’ (GMVH) asserts that there are more idiots and more geniuses among men than among women. Darwin’s research on evolution in the nineteenth century found that, although there are many exceptions for specific traits and species, there is generally more variability in males than in females of the same species throughout the animal kingdom.

Evidence for this hypothesis is fairly robust and has been reported in species ranging from adders and sockeye salmon to wasps and orangutans, as well as humans. Multiple studies have found that boys and men are over-represented at both the high and low ends of the distributions in categories ranging from birth weight and brain structures and 60-meter dash times to reading and mathematics test scores. There are significantly more men than women, for example, among Nobel laureates, music composers, and chess champions—and also among homeless people, suicide victims, and federal prison inmates.

Darwin had also raised the question of why males in many species might have evolved to be more variable than females, and when I learned that the answer to his question remained elusive, I set out to look for a scientific explanation. My aim was not to prove or disprove that the hypothesis applies to human intelligence or to any other specific traits or species, but simply to discover a logical reason that could help explain how gender differences in variability might naturally arise in the same species.

I came up with a simple intuitive mathematical argument based on biological and evolutionary principles and enlisted Sergei Tabachnikov, a Professor of Mathematics at Pennsylvania State University, to help me flesh out the model. When I posted a preprint on the open-access mathematics archives in May of last year, a variability researcher at Durham University in the UK got in touch by email. He described our joint paper as “an excellent summary of the research to date in this field,” adding that “it certainly underpins my earlier work on impulsivity, aggression and general evolutionary theory and it is nice to see an actual theoretical model that can be drawn upon in discussion (which I think the literature, particularly in education, has lacked to date). I think this is a welcome addition to the field.”

So far, so good.

Once we had written up our findings, Sergei and I decided to try for publication in the Mathematical Intelligencer, the ‘Viewpoint’ section of which specifically welcomes articles on contentious topics. The Intelligencer’s editor-in-chief is Marjorie Wikler Senechal, Professor Emerita of Mathematics and the History of Science at Smith College. She liked our draft, and declared herself to be untroubled by the prospect of controversy. “In principle,” she told Sergei in an email, “I am happy to stir up controversy and few topics generate more than this one. After the Middlebury fracas, in which none of the protestors had read the book they were protesting, we could make a real contribution here by insisting that all views be heard, and providing links to them.”

Professor Senechal suggested that we might enliven our paper by mentioning Harvard President Larry Summers, who was swiftly defenestrated in 2005 for saying that the GMVH might be a contributing factor to the dearth of women in physics and mathematics departments at top universities. With her editorial guidance, our paper underwent several further revisions until, on April 3, 2017, our manuscript was officially accepted for publication. The paper was typeset in India, and proofread by an assistant editor who is also a mathematics professor in Kansas. It was scheduled to appear in the international journal’s first issue of 2018, with an acknowledgement of funding support to my co-author from the National Science Foundation. All normal academic procedure.

Coincidentally, at about the same time, anxiety about gender-parity erupted in Silicon Valley. The same anti-variability argument used to justify the sacking of President Summers resurfaced when Google engineer James Damore suggested that several innate biological factors, including gender differences in variability, might help explain gender disparities in Silicon Valley hi-tech jobs. For sending out an internal memo to that effect, he too was summarily fired.

No sooner had Sergei posted a preprint of our accepted article on his website than we began to encounter problems. On August 16, a representative of the Women In Mathematics (WIM) chapter in his department at Penn State contacted him to warn that the paper might be damaging to the aspirations of impressionable young women. “As a matter of principle,” she wrote, “I support people discussing controversial matters openly … At the same time, I think it’s good to be aware of the effects.” While she was obviously able to debate the merits of our paper, she worried that other, presumably less sophisticated, readers “will just see someone wielding the authority of mathematics to support a very controversial, and potentially sexist, set of ideas…”

A few days later, she again contacted Sergei on behalf of WIM and invited him to attend a lunch that had been organized for a “frank and open discussion” about our paper. He would be allowed 15 minutes to describe and explain our results, and this short presentation would be followed by readings of prepared statements by WIM members and then an open discussion. “We promise to be friendly,” she announced, “but you should know in advance that many (most?) of us have strong disagreements with what you did.”

On September 4, Sergei sent me a weary email. “The scandal at our department,” he wrote, “shows no signs of receding.” At a faculty meeting the week before, the Department Head had explained that sometimes values such as academic freedom and free speech come into conflict with other values to which Penn State was committed. A female colleague had then instructed Sergei that he needed to admit and fight bias, adding that the belief that “women have a lesser chance to succeed in mathematics at the very top end is bias.” Sergei said he had spent “endless hours” talking to people who explained that the paper was “bad and harmful” and tried to convince him to “withdraw my name to restore peace at the department and to avoid losing whatever political capital I may still have.” Ominously, “analogies with scientific racism were made by some; I am afraid, we are likely to hear more of it in the future.”

The following day, I wrote to the three organisers of the WIM lunch and offered to address any concrete concerns they might have with our logic or conclusions or any other content. I explained that, since I was the paper’s lead author, it was not fair that my colleague should be expected to take all the heat for our findings. I added that it would still be possible to revise our article before publication. I never received a response.

Instead, on September 8, Sergei and I were ambushed by two unexpected developments.

First, the National Science Foundation wrote to Sergei requesting that acknowledgment of NSF funding be removed from our paper with immediate effect. I was astonished. I had never before heard of the NSF requesting removal of acknowledgement of funding for any reason. On the contrary, they are usually delighted to have public recognition of their support for science.

The ostensible reason for this request was that our paper was unrelated to Sergei’s funded proposal. However, a Freedom of Information request subsequently revealed that Penn State WIM administrator Diane Henderson (“Professor and Chair of the Climate and Diversity Committee”) and Nate Brown (“Professor and Associate Head for Diversity and Equity”) had secretly co-signed a letter to the NSF that same morning. “Our concern,” they explained, “is that [this] paper appears to promote pseudoscientific ideas that are detrimental to the advancement of women in science, and at odds with the values of the NSF.” Unaware of this at the time, and eager to err on the side of compromise, Sergei and I agreed to remove the acknowledgement as requested. At least, we thought, the paper was still on track to be published.

But, that same day, the Mathematical Intelligencer’s editor-in-chief Marjorie Senechal notified us that, with “deep regret,” she was rescinding her previous acceptance of our paper. “Several colleagues,” she wrote, had warned her that publication would provoke “extremely strong reactions” and there existed a “very real possibility that the right-wing media may pick this up and hype it internationally.” For the second time in a single day I was left flabbergasted. Working mathematicians are usually thrilled if even five people in the world read our latest article. Now some progressive faction was worried that a fairly straightforward logical argument about male variability might encourage the conservative press to actually read and cite a science paper?

In my 40 years of publishing research papers I had never heard of the rejection of an already-accepted paper. And so I emailed Professor Senechal. She replied that she had received no criticisms on scientific grounds and that her decision to rescind was entirely about the reaction she feared our paper would elicit. By way of further explanation, Senechal even compared our paper to the Confederate statues that had recently been removed from the courthouse lawn in Lexington, Kentucky. In the interests of setting our arguments in a more responsible context, she proposed instead that Sergei and I participate in a ‘Round Table’ discussion of our hypothesis argument, the proceedings of which the Intelligencer would publish in lieu of our paper. Her decision, we learned, enjoyed the approval of Springer, one of the world’s leading publishers of scientific books and journals. An editorial director of Springer Mathematics later apologized to me twice, in person, but did nothing to reverse the decision or to support us at the time.

So what in the world had happened at the Intelligencer? Unbeknownst to us, Amie Wilkinson, a senior professor of mathematics at the University of Chicago, had become aware of our paper and written to the journal to complain. A back-and-forth had ensued. Wilkinson then enlisted the support of her father—a psychometrician and statistician—who wrote to the Intelligencer at his daughter’s request to express his own misgivings, including his belief that “[t]his article oversimplifies the issues to the point of embarrassment.” Invited by Professor Senechal to participate in the proposed Round Table discussion, he declined, admitting to Senechal that “others are more expert on this than he is.” We discovered all this after he gave Senechal permission to forward his letter, inadvertently revealing Wilkinson’s involvement in the process (an indiscretion his daughter would later—incorrectly—blame on the Intelligencer).

I wrote polite emails directly to both Wilkinson and her father, explaining that I planned to revise the paper for resubmission elsewhere and asking for their criticisms or suggestions. (I also sent a more strongly worded, point-by-point rebuttal to her father.) Neither replied. Instead, even long after the Intelligencer rescinded acceptance of the paper, Wilkinson continued to trash both the journal and its editor-in-chief on social media, inciting her Facebook friends with the erroneous allegation that an entirely different (and more contentious) article had been accepted.

At this point, faced with career-threatening reprisals from their own departmental colleagues and the diversity committee at Penn State, as well as displeasure from the NSF, Sergei and his colleague who had done computer simulations for us withdrew their names from the research. Fortunately for me, I am now retired and rather less easily intimidated—one of the benefits of being a Vietnam combat veteran and former U.S. Army Ranger, I guess. So, I continued to revise the paper, and finally posted it on the online mathematics archives.

On October 13, a lifeline appeared. Igor Rivin, an editor at the widely respected online research journal, the New York Journal of Mathematics, got in touch with me. He had learned about the article from my erstwhile co-author, read the archived version, and asked me if I’d like to submit a newly revised draft for publication. Rivin said that Mark Steinberger, the NYJM’s editor-in-chief, was also very positive and that they were confident the paper could be refereed fairly quickly. I duly submitted a new draft (this time as the sole author) and, after a very positive referee’s report and a handful of supervised revisions, Steinberger wrote to confirm publication on November 6, 2017. Relieved that the ordeal was finally over, I forwarded the link to interested colleagues.

Three days later, however, the paper had vanished. And a few days after that, a completely different paper by different authors appeared at exactly the same page of the same volume (NYJM Volume 23, p 1641+) where mine had once been. As it turned out, Amie Wilkinson is married to Benson Farb, a member of the NYJM editorial board. Upon discovering that the journal had published my paper, Professor Farb had written a furious email to Steinberger demanding that it be deleted at once. “Rivin,” he complained, “is well-known as a person with extremist views who likes to pick fights with people via inflammatory statements.” Farb’s “father-in law…a famous statistician,” he went on, had “already poked many holes in the ridiculous paper.” My paper was “politically charged” and “pseudoscience” and “a piece of crap” and, by encouraging the NYJM to accept it, Rivin had “violat[ed] a scientific duty for purely political ends.”

Unaware of any of this, I wrote to Steinberger on November 14, to find out what had happened. I pointed out that if the deletion were permanent, it would leave me in an impossible position. I would not be able to republish anywhere else because I would be unable to sign a copyright form declaring that it had not already been published elsewhere. Steinberger replied later that day. Half his board, he explained unhappily, had told him that unless he pulled the article, they would all resign and “harass the journal” he had founded 25 years earlier “until it died.” Faced with the loss of his own scientific legacy, he had capitulated. “A publication in a dead journal,” he offered, “wouldn’t help you.”

Colleagues I spoke to were appalled. None of them had ever heard of a paper in any field being disappeared after formal publication. Rejected prior to publication? Of course. Retracted? Yes, but only after an investigation, the results of which would then be made public by way of explanation. But simply disappeared? Never. If a formally refereed and published paper can later be erased from the scientific record and replaced by a completely different article, without any discussion with the author or any announcement in the journal, what will this mean for the future of electronic journals?

Meanwhile, Professor Wilkinson had now widened her existing social media campaign against the Intelligencer to include attacks on the NYJM and its editorial staff. As recently as April of this year, she was threatening Facebook friends with ‘unfriending’ unless they severed social media ties with Rivin.

In early February, a friend and colleague suggested that I write directly to University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer to complain about the conduct of Farb and Wilkinson, both of whom are University of Chicago professors. The previous October, the conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens had called Zimmer “America’s Best University President.” The week after I wrote to Zimmer, the Wall Street Journal would describe Chicago as “The Free-Speech University” based upon its president’s professed commitment to the principles of free inquiry and expression. Furthermore, Professor Zimmer is a mathematician from the same department and even the same subfield as Farb and Wilkinson, the husband-wife team who had successfully suppressed my variability hypothesis research and trampled on the principles of academic liberty. Surely I would receive a sympathetic hearing there?

And so I wrote directly to Professor Zimmer, mathematician to mathematician, detailing five concrete allegations against his two colleagues. When I eventually received a formal response in late April, it was a somewhat terse official letter from the vice-provost informing me that an inquiry had found no evidence of “academic fraud” and that, consequently, “the charges have been dismissed.” But I had made no allegation of academic fraud. I had alleged “unprofessional, uncollegial, and unethical conduct damaging to my professional reputation and to the reputation of the University of Chicago.”

When I appealed the decision to the president, I received a second official letter from the vice-provost, in which he argued that Farb and Wilkinson had “exercised their academic freedom in advocating against the publication of the papers” and that their behavior had not been either “unethical or unprofessional.” A reasonable inference is that I was the one interfering in their academic freedom and not vice versa. My quarrel, the vice-provost concluded, was with the editors-in-chief who had spiked my papers, decisions for which the University of Chicago bore no responsibility. At the Free Speech University, it turns out, talk is cheap.

Over the years there has undoubtedly been significant bias and discrimination against women in mathematics and technical fields. Unfortunately, some of that still persists, even though many of us have tried hard to help turn the tide. My own efforts have included tutoring and mentoring female undergraduates, graduating female PhD students, and supporting hiring directives from deans and departmental chairs to seek out and give special consideration to female candidates. I have been invited to serve on two National Science Foundation gender and race diversity panels in Washington.

Which is to say that I understand the importance of the causes that equal opportunity activists and progressive academics are ostensibly championing. But pursuit of greater fairness and equality cannot be allowed to interfere with dispassionate academic study. No matter how unwelcome the implications of a logical argument may be, it must be allowed to stand or fall on its merits not its desirability or political utility. First Harvard, then Google, and now the editors-in-chief of two esteemed scientific journals, the National Science Foundation, and the international publisher Springer have all surrendered to demands from the radical academic Left to suppress a controversial idea. Who will be the next, and for what perceived transgression? If bullying and censorship are now to be re-described as ‘advocacy’ and ‘academic freedom,’ as the Chicago administrators would have it, they will simply replace empiricism and rational discourse as the academic instruments of choice.

Educators must practice what we preach and lead by example. In this way, we can help to foster intellectual curiosity and the discovery of fresh reasoning so compelling that it causes even the most sceptical to change their minds. But this necessarily requires us to reject censorship and open ourselves to the civil discussion of sensitive topics such as gender differences, and the variability hypothesis in particular. In 2015, the University of Chicago’s Committee on Freedom of Expression summarized the importance of this principle beautifully in a report commissioned by none other than Professor Robert Zimmer:

In a word, the University’s fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the University community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed.

#censorship #academics #academia #regressive left #academic corruption #science #article #news #archive

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adalineswardrobe · 4 years ago

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classyfoxdestiny · 3 years ago

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‘Arrogant and dismissive’: Tories failed to consult police on new plan for tackling crime #ٹاپسٹوریز

New Post has been published on https://mediabox.pk/arrogant-and-dismissive-tories-failed-to-consult-police-on-new-plan-for-tackling-crime/

‘Arrogant and dismissive’: Tories failed to consult police on new plan for tackling crime

Britain’s most senior police officers were not consulted about Boris Johnson’s new plan to “beat crime” – or even aware it was being drawn up, The Independent can reveal.

The measures, which the prime minister unveiled on Tuesday, include electronic tags on burglars, longer sentences for some crimes, and an extension of controversial blanket stop-and-search powers.

But police bodies and victims’ advocates say they were not involved in the formulation of the “beating crime plan”, and were only sent the full details on Tuesday – a day after it had been distributed to members of the media.

The 50-page document is believed to have been written by central government in a matter of days, and contains some measures that had not been requested by criminal justice agencies or experts.

Anger is also growing among rank-and-file police officers, who lashed out at government “gimmicks” days after a vote of no confidence in the home secretary, Priti Patel, over a pay freeze.

Martin Hewitt, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which represents the country’s most senior officers, said on Tuesday: “We received the plan today and will now be reviewing it carefully to understand how we deliver it operationally.”

He said it appeared to contain a mix of issues where police had previously engaged with the government and “some new ideas”.

Neither the NPCC, the Police Federation, the Police Superintendents’ Association nor the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners were formally consulted on the plan.

Police chiefs were first informed of its existence, but not its full contents, in a briefing with the policing minister Kit Malthouse on Monday evening.

The shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, told The Independent: “This just goes to show how out of touch, arrogant and dismissive of policing this Conservative government are. Little wonder that the plan itself is paper-thin and contains nothing new.

“To not even consult officers on a plan for policing is ridiculous – perhaps they were worried about picking up the phone after the insulting zero per cent pay award offered this week.”

Boris Johnson says stop and search policy is ‘kind and loving’

In a letter delivered by hand to Downing Street on Tuesday afternoon, the Police Federation said its 130,000 members were “sick of gimmicks and government contempt for police”.

“Just this weekend, we found out through a Sunday newspaper column about a new so-called beating crime plan,” said the letter to the prime minister.

“We don’t need old ideas presented as new. We need genuine investment for the whole of the criminal justice system and genuine consultation over new ideas. Without that, this is just another ill-thought-out initiative.”

Senior officers said many measures in the plan, including making the contact details of neighbourhood police officers available, were already in place, and money pledged for violence reduction units had already been spent.

The £31m expansion of a project to reduce offending driven by drug addiction had been requested by senior police officers, but a controversial expansion of stop-and-search powers was not. When asked why a consultation had not taken place, the Home Office claimed it had been “talking to” the NPCC, senior officers and the National Crime Agency about the plan since late May.

The government’s plan will relax the conditions needed for police to stop people without suspicion – a practice that critics say is ineffective and racially disproportionate – although the results of a 2019 pilot of the changes have never been published.

Senior police officers, including the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, have been vocal in their support of “intelligence-led” stop and search, but the section 60 powers being expanded allow anyone in a designated area to be searched if there are fears of violence.

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19 July 2021

Commuters, some not wearing facemasks, at Westminster Underground station, at 08:38 in London after the final legal Coronavirus restrictions were lifted in England

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18 July 2021

A view of spectators by the 2nd green during day four of The Open at The Royal St George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent

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17 July 2021

Cyclists ride over the Hammersmith Bridge in London. The bridge was closed last year after cracks in it worsened during a heatwave

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16 July 2021

The sun rises behind the Sefton Park Palm House, in Sefton Park, Liverpool

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15 July 2021

Sir Nicholas Serota watches a short film about sea monsters as he opens a £7.6 million, 360 immersive dome at Devonport’s Market Hall in Plymouth, which is the first of its type to be built in Europe

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14 July 2021

Heidi Street, playing a gothic character, looks at a brain suspended in glass at the world’s first attraction dedicated to the author of Frankenstein inside the ‘Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein’ experience, located in a Georgian terraced house in Bath, as it prepares to open to the public on 19 July

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13 July 2021

Rehearsals are held in a car park in Glasgow for a parade scene ahead of filming for what is thought to be the new Indiana Jones 5 movie starring Harrison Ford

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12 July 2021

A local resident puts love hearts and slogans on the plastic that covers offensive graffiti on the vandalised mural of Manchester United striker and England player Marcus Rashford on the wall of a cafe on Copson Street, Withington in Manchester

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11 July 2021

England’s Bukayo Saka with manager Gareth Southgate after the match

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10 July 2021

Australia’s Ashleigh Barty holds the trophy after winning her final Wimbledon match against Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova

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9 July 2021

England 1966 World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst stands on top of a pod on the lastminute.com London Eye wearing a replica 1966 World Cup final kit and looking out towards Wembley Stadium in the north of the capital, where the England football team will play Italy in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday

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8 July 2021

Karolina Pliskova celebrates after defeating Aryna Sabalenka during the women’s singles semifinals match on day ten of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London

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7 July 2021

The residents of Towfield Court in Feltham have transformed their estate with England flags for the Euro 2020 tournament

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6 July 2021

A couple are hit by a wave as they walk along the promenade in Dover, Kent, during strong winds

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5 July 2021

Alexander Zverev playing against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round of the Gentlemen’s Singles on Court 1 on day seven of Wimbledon at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club

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4 July 2021

Aaron Carty and the Beyoncé Experience perform on stage during UK Black Pride at The Roundhouse in London

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3 July 2021

England’s Jordan Henderson celebrates after scoring his first international goal, his side’s fourth against Ukraine during the Euro 2020 quarter final match at the Olympic stadium in Rome

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2 July 2021

Dan Evans serves against Sebastian Korda during their men’s singles third round match at Wimbledon

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1 July 2021

Prince William, left and Prince Harry unveil a statue they commissioned of their mother Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday, in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, London

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30 June 2021

Dancers from the Billingham Festival and Balbir Singh Dance Company, during a preview for the The Two Fridas, UK Summer tour, presented by Billingham International Folklore Festival of World Dance in collaboration with Balbir Singh Dance Company, inspired by the life and times of female artists Frida Kahlo and Amrita Sher-Gil , which opens on July 10 at Ushaw Historic House, Chapel and Gardens in Durham

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29 June 2021

A boy kicks a soccer ball in front of the balconies and landings adorned with predominantly England flags at the Kirby housing estate in London

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28 June 2021

Emergency services attend a fire nearby the Elephant & Castle Rail Station in London

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27 June 2021

People walk along Regent Street in central London during a #FreedomToDance march organised by Save Our Scene, in protest against the government’s perceived disregard for the live music industry throughout the coronavirus pandemic

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26 June 2021

A pair of marchers in a Trans Pride rally share a smile in Soho

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25 June 2021

Tim Duckworth during the Long Jump in the decathlon during day one of the Muller British Athletics Championships at Manchester Regional Arena

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24 June 2021

A member of staff poses with the work ‘The Death of Cash’ by XCopy at the ‘CryptOGs: The Pioneers of NFT Art’ auction at Bonhams auction house in London

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23 June 2021

Bank of England Chief Cashier Sarah John displays the new 50-pound banknote at Daunt Books in London

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22 June 2021

Actor Isaac Hampstead Wright sits on the newly unveiled Game of Throne’s “Iron Throne” statue, in Leicester Square, in London, Tuesday, June 22, 2021. The statue is the tenth to join the trail and commemorates 10 years since the TV show first aired, as well as in anticipation for HBO’s release of House of the Dragon set to be released in 2022

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21 June 2021

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon receives her second dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine

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20 June 2021

Joyce Paton, from Peterhead, on one of the remaining snow patches on Meall a’Bhuiridh in Glencoe during the Midsummer Ski. The event, organised by the Glencoe Mountain Resort, is held every year on the weekend closest to the Summer Solstice

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19 June 2021

England appeal LBW during day four of their Women’s International Test match against India at the Bristol County Ground

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18 June 2021

Scotland fans let off flares in Leicester Square after Scotland’s Euro 2020 match against England ended in a 0-0 draw

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17 June 2021

Members of the Tootsie Rollers jazz band pose on the third day of the Royal Ascot horse racing meet

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16 June 2021

A woman and child examine life-size sculptures of a herd of Asian elephants set up by the Elephant Family and The Real Elephant Collective to help educate the public on the elephants and the ways in which humans can better protect the planets biodiversity, in Green Park, central London

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15 June 2021

Hydrotherapists with Dixie, a seven-year-old Dachshund who is being treated for back problems common with the breed, in the hydrotherapy pool during a facility at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home’s in Battersea, London, to view their new hydrotherapy centre

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14 June 2021

Scotland’s David Marshall in the net after Czech Republic’s Patrik Schick scored their second goal at Hampden Park

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13 June 2021

Raheem Sterling celebrates with Harry Kane after scoring England’s first goal of the Euro 2021 tournament in a match against Croatia at Wembley

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12 June 2021

Oxfam campaigners wearing costumes depicting G7 leaders pose for photographers on Swanpool Beach near Falmouth, Cornwall

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11 June 2021

Members of the Vaxinol team, who are commercial, industrial and residential cleaners specialising in disinfection and decontamination, use electrostatic spray systems to deep clean the Only Fools Bar in Liverpool

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10 June 2021

A woman walks her dogs as the incoming tide begins to wash away the heads of G7 leaders drawn in the sand by activists on the beach at Newquay, Cornwall

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9 June 2021

Adam Chamberlain, 45, general manager of Big Tree pub in Sheffield, has put up over 500 flags, taking 36 hours, in preparation for Euro 2020, which kicks off this weekend

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8 June 2021

REUTERS

The plan also promises “league tables” for the time that local forces take to answer 101 and 999 calls, but critics have questioned how useful the measure would be in judging the quality of police responses.

In a foreword to the plan, Ms Patel and the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, hailed it as the government’s “blueprint for cutting crime, increasing confidence in the criminal justice system as a whole and putting victims first”.

However, victims’ advocates said they had not been consulted ahead of the document’s publication.

Claire Waxman, the victims’ commissioner for London, said the proposals showed a “disappointing lack of commitment to victims” and would not ensure they receive justice.

“Despite referencing victims over 100 times throughout this plan, there is very little of substance that will actually lead to an improved journey through the justice system,” she said.

“How can we plan to send a higher volume of people through the system when the length of time for investigations, charging decisions and court dates are at an all-time high?”

Downing Street did not answer The Independent’s questions on allegations that the plan was drawn up in a matter of days without consultation with police, but insisted it contained new measures and a “fresh commitment to the country, as we build back from the pandemic, to have less crime, fewer victims and a safer society”.

The Home Office said: “Working hand in hand with the police has been a cornerstone of this government’s plans to deliver less crime, fewer victims and a safer society. Over the past two years, we have been working with the police to tackle homicide, serious violence, and neighbourhood crime.”

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fumpkins · 5 years ago

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There are two near-perfect options for e-readers. And then there are the rest.

Trust us—if you were reading “War and Peace,” that hammock wouldn’t be half as comfortable. (Perfecto Capucine / Unsplash/)

E-book readers are one of the clearest signs the future is now—having an entire library in your pocket powered by a battery that almost never runs out is exactly what my seven-year-old self was dreaming of (sorry, iPhone).

If you love reading but are still new to e-readers, you’re in for a serious treat. It’s never been easier to carry around what would be a large hardcover to read on your commute or your vacation. And if you’re stuck with an old e-book reader and want to upgrade, now is a good time to do it. Unlike smartphones, the e-book landscape shifts glacially, but there are a few great options that weren’t available a few years ago.

The library conundrum

E-book readers aren’t really standalone devices—they’re the hardware expression of a whole software ecosystem. This means that depending on where you buy your e-books (Amazon, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, the Kobo store, etc), you will only be able to read your book on devices with a specific operating system.

Buy Little Women on iTunes and you’ll only be able to open it on the iBooks app on your Apple devices. Porting the same file to your Kindle (Amazon), or even reading it on the Kindle app for iPadOS or iOS, isn’t a simple process and requires breaking the digital rights management (DRM) seal that protects the file.

If you’ve already amassed a sizable e-book library and want to update your e-reader, the most important feature to look for is compatibility. If you have a Kindle, stick with Kindles, and if you have a Kobo, stick with Kobos. Switching operating systems involves changing your entire ecosystem; if you do so, be prepared to buy your entire library all over again.

If you’re buying an e-reader for the first time, you’ll definitely have more freedom. But still, choosing which store you want to go with is a major decision because you’ll have to stick with it at least for the foreseeable future.

Since the word “Kindle” is now synonymous with “e-reader,” it might seem Amazon has already won the e-book war, but the online retailer is not the only option. There are two other major choices with dedicated hardware available: the Kobo Store, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store.

There’s not a lot of difference between these alternatives. If there’s an independent author you love and they only publish on one store, that might be a reason to choose one over the other, but beyond that, all stores largely stock the same array of titles and let indie authors self-publish.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store raises a few red flags, though. After pulling out of the UK in 2016 (and leaving existing customers in a bit of a bind), they’re now only available in the US. Plus, their update their hardware less frequently and users have flagged their plastic build as inferior to that of Kindles and Kobos.

If you’ve already invested in Nook and have no problems accessing their store, sticking with it is not a bad idea, but given these circumstances, it’s definitely hard to recommend buying one as your first e-reader.

The Kindle is by far the most popular line of e-readers. If you’re getting an e-reader for the first time, going for a Kindle is a safe bet. Amazon is clearly committed to its roots as a bookseller and is highly likely to stick around and keep providing support for your device.

If you dislike Amazon’s business model, question their ethics, or simply don’t want to give even more money to a billionaire like Jeff Bezos, then a Kobo is an easy choice. Their hardware is every bit as good as Amazon’s, and their wide range of available titles will definitely satisfy all your reading needs.

The easy choice: Kindle Paperwhite

Is the lawn wet? Worry about your pants. The Kindle Paperwhite is waterproof. (Jingda Chen / Unsplash/)

For most people, the Kindle Paperwhite is the e-reader to buy. Sure, there are cheaper devices out there, but this one hits the middle ground between price and performance perfectly. And with Amazon’s huge e-book store, you’ll never be short of something to read.

It’s hard not to love it. It features a flush 6-inch, 300ppi E Ink touchscreen display that looks great, and at 6.4 ounces—about the weight of three Snickers bars—it’s easy to carry around. The device is IPX8 waterproof rated, so a few splashes by the pool, or even a quick dunk, won’t harm it. The LED front light makes it easy to read anywhere, whether in direct sunlight or curled up next to a flickering fire, and, if you have an Audible account, you can connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones and listen to audiobooks.

An 8GB Kindle Paperwhite with Special Offers (Amazon’s euphemism for those personalized ads that appear on the block screen) is $130, although it’s regularly on sale for as little as $85. The 32GB model with worldwide cellular service and no ads goes for $180.

The contender: Kobo Clara HD

The screen on the Kobo Clara HD resembles natural light depending on the time of day. (Perfecto Capucine / Unsplash/)

If you’re already tied into Kobo’s ecosystem, the Clara HD is a great upgrade to older models like the Glo or Touch 2.0, and if you’re looking for a new e-reader, it’s definitely the best non-Amazon option—though it’s hard to recommend it over the Paperwhite for any other reason.

It’s got a similar 6-inch, 300ppi front-lit E Ink touchscreen display, which is super easy to read on. What sets the Clara HD apart (other than the fact that it’s not tied to Amazon) is that it’s slightly smaller and lighter, but these differences are minimal and don’t have a huge effect on user experience. One nice touch is that the screen tints more toward yellow as the day goes on, but unlike its Kindle counterpart, it’s not waterproof and doesn’t have Bluetooth capabilities.

The 8GB Clara HD is $120, although it’s sometimes on sale for $100, and doesn’t come with any euphemistically titled ads.

What else is out there?

The Paperwhite and Clara HD are the best products in their respective lineups, but they aren’t the only ones. If neither of our suggestions work for you, you’re not out of luck.

More Kindle options

Amazon also sells the Kindle—an entry-level model—and the Kindle Oasis, but both miss the mark for totally different reasons.

At $90, the Kindle is too close in price to the Paperwhite to be worth the tradeoffs. It’s not waterproof and only has a 167ppi screen, so text will look noticeably fuzzier. The screen feels less premium, as it’s noticeably recessed—the bezel casts a slight shadow and it feels like one of those old-school ATM touch screens you had to thump to get it to simply register a touch. If you’re not sure whether you’ll use a Kindle or not, it can be a good taster, but it’s an inferior device.

The Kindle Oasis, on the other hand, starts at $250 and features a cool asymmetric design, aluminum body, an automatically adjusting 7-inch screen, and physical page buttons. It’s an absolute delight to use, but it’s hard to justify the $120 price increase over the Paperwhite, especially since I’ve found its battery life to be significantly worse.

Keep in mind that Amazon also carries a line of devices called Kindle Fire, and even though they can be used to read books, they’re strictly tablets, not e-readers. You can always try for one of these, but they’re an entirely different product.

More Kobo options

The Kobo Libra H2O, at $170, is worth a look. Like the Kindle Oasis, it has a 7-inch screen and an asymmetric design with physical buttons to turn your pages. It’s also IPX8 waterproof and, at only $40 more than the Clara HD, the premium features don’t come with the Oasis’ ludicrous price tag.

With 7.8-inch and 8-inch screens, respectively, the Kobo Aura One ($280) and Kobo Forma ($250) just won’t slip into a jacket pocket or small bag, so they’re almost too big to carry easily. Other than the bigger screen (which ends up being more of a fuss than a plus) there’s no way to justify their prices over the Libra H2O.

Nook options

The problem with Barnes & Noble’s Nooks isn’t the devices, it’s the ecosystem itself. Considering its fluctuation in size, if one of the three big e-book reader makers fall, odds are it’ll be Barnes & Noble. With that said, if you’re looking for a Nook, you have two options.

The Nook GlowLight 3 is big, plasticky and, despite having a similar screen and the added page-turn buttons, feels like a cheaper knock-off of the Paperwhite. It’s a decent e-reader, but at $120, the GlowLight3 is the same price as the Clara HD and impossible to recommend over it.

The GlowLight Plus has a 7.8-inch screen and IPX7 waterproofing, but is otherwise largely the same as the GlowLight 3. At $200, it’s a bit pricey and, just like it’s older brother, simply hard to recommend over anything else.

New post published on: https://livescience.tech/2020/04/25/there-are-two-near-perfect-options-for-e-readers-and-then-there-are-the-rest/

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iol247 · 5 years ago

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A letter to the UK from Italy: this is what we know about your future

The acclaimed Italian novelist Francesca Melandri, who has been under lockdown in Rome for almost three weeks due to the Covid-19 outbreak, has written a letter to fellow Europeans “from your future”, laying out the range of emotions people are likely to go through over the coming weeks.