Daily Archives: June 24, 2021

Aziz Ansari. (Photo by Cian Oba-Smith / Netflix)

In 2009, comedian Aziz Ansari closed his first stand-up special, Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, with a story about attending an R. Kelly concert. The five-minute bit folds in anecdotes about the R&B singers onstage antics and concludes with an impression that electrifies the crowd. But the part of the joke I remember most is when he talks about walking through the concert with his friend and collaborator Jason Woliner. Jason tells him, Hey Aziz, me and you are the only two white people at this concert. Aziz responds, First of all, Jason, Im not white. Second of all, youre the only white guy at this concert. We might kill you, Jason!

Its a tossed-off joke that encapsulates why I liked Ansari as a teenager in the late 2000s. It was less the fact that he was an Indian American in the spotlight and more about how he engaged with his race. In his stand-up, as well as on the low-budget sketch series Human Giant he starred in and cocreated with Woliner and fellow comedians Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer, Ansari never felt the need to aggressively spotlight the racial elephant in the room. He discussed it casually and with the confidence of an assimilated first-generation immigrant raised on American pop culture. (I remember being particularly tickled by the fact that he and I were listening to the same indie rock records at the same time.) I never read this as a premeditated elision on his part. I saw it as a tacit acknowledgement that there was no need to speak to his difference because doing so would lend credence to the false assumption that he shouldnt be there at all. His down-to-earth persona successfully rendered the cover for Intimate Moments, which features him holding a snifter of brandy in a tailored suit standing in front of an enormous taxidermied bear in a mahogany-paneled room, an ironic sight gag.

This front came to be unsustainable. Ansaris profile rose considerably with a lead role on an acclaimed network sitcom (Parks and Recreation) and a string of supporting turns in studio comedies. He began performing stand-up to large arenas where his nascent Chris Rockinspired approach to comedy craft appropriately prospered. He slowly transformed from a comic whose jokes hinged on the absurdity of someone like him hanging onto the fringes of celebrity culture into a public figure who could conceivably be friends with people like Kanye West. His image became more refined over the years, as if there were a conscious attempt to become the smooth operator on that Intimate Moments cover. This ambition culminated with his Netflix series Master of None, which stars him playing Dev, an actor in his early 30s navigating single life in New York City.

As Ansari became more ubiquitous, my interest in him turned tepid: At its best, Master of Nones first two seasons were pleasant, sometimes funny, occasionally sweet, and featured a few standout episodes. At the same time, the show often played like an elaborate Tinder profile for Ansari, an outlet for him to look cool, eat well in beautiful locales, and date beautiful women with light comedy and lighter drama to justify the indulgence. The series also became a playground for Ansaris clumsy allyship. Well-intentioned episodes like Ladies and Gentlemen, where Dev receives a crash course in male privilege and sexist microaggressions, could come off as didactic and self-congratulatory. Throughout the series, Ansari evinced a desire to please that was previously obscured, or at least offset, by other aspects of his career. Sometimes Master of None made good-faith efforts at examining race or religion, probably because they came from a personal place, but his fixation on positioning himself on the correct side of the sociopolitical zeitgeist betrayed a dramatic pledge of fealty to a presumed white, liberal audience. A charitable reading of this shift was a sincere attempt to grow through his work. In practice, however, it often felt like a performance of progressive virtue, constantly trying to hit the proper notes without ever really playing the music.

Though it would be inaccurate to suggest a clean, one-to-one relationship between the real Ansari and his character in Master of None, Ansari as well as cocreator Alan Yang clearly mined their respective autobiographies for the series. In a way, Ansari inverts the tradition of comics crafting self-deprecating alter-egos to poke fun at themselves, and the results are discomfiting: His fictional counterparts sensitivity and progressive bona fides felt overly rehearsed. To my eyes, theres a real desire to be portrayed as a cosmopolitan figure with a loftier identity than comic. This isnt an ignoble objective in and of itself, but its awkward when theres no attempt to disguise such a motivation.

Ansaris latest special, Aziz Ansari: Right Now, arrived on Netflix one year after he was accused of sexual misconduct by a woman who relayed her story of an unpleasant date with the comic to Babe.net. Visibly chastened by the experience, Ansari arrives on stage to the Velvet Undergrounds Pale Blue Eyes wearing a Metallica T-shirt and jeans instead of a suit. He sits on a stool and frequently speaks in a hushed tone. He mostly forgoes the performative braggadocio typical of his previous specials for a more conservational approach. Spike Jonze captures him in 16mm closeup in an attempt to lend him some grace. These are calculated moves on his part, an effort to rehabilitate or modulate his established persona: Its a vision of Ansari if he had remained in touch with his more modest alt-comedy roots. He literally looks more comfortable.

He delivers a solid set with some strong moments, including a fair amount of engaging crowd work that never reads like hes filling time, but the performance resides under a strange, muted cloud. At the top of the show, Ansari briefly addresses the accusation against him in broad yet sincere terms. He doesnt excuse his behavior, nor does he say anything except the bare minimum about the situation. However, more potently, he also discusses routines from his previous specials that have aged poorly, like the R. Kelly story. He pokes fun at himself (Like, all the wording I used was the worst possible wording) and acknowledges that some of his old jokes have curdled without over-excoriating himself for it, recognizing that comedy is as much about phrasing as it is a snapshot of the cultural moment when its performed.Current Issue

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At the end of the show, Ansari expresses gratitude to the crowd because he saw the world where he doesnt ever get to do this again and that, in a way, it felt like he died. However, he was glad that the old Aziz was gone, because his former self was always looking forward instead of taking stock. Ansari does himself no favors by employing this melodramatic framework, because his larger point has power: A public humiliation at the height of a cultural reckoning regarding sex and power provided him with a different perspective on his personal values and made him reexamine his professional ambition. Like in Master of None, one might wonder if this conciliatory performance was overly rehearsed as well. Nevertheless, it made me curious what, if anything, was in store for him.

Master of Nones third season recently premiered on Netflix with little fanfare or advance warning after a four-year hiatus. Titled Master of None Presents: Moments in Love, it stars Lena Waithe, who plays Devs Black queer friend Denise, previously the focus of the Emmy-award winning second season episode Thanksgiving, which chronicles the characters coming-out story. In the new season, Denise, now a successful novelist struggling to write a second book, lives in a beautiful cottage in upstate New York with her wife Alicia (Naomi Ackie). Over the course of five episodes, Ansari, who directs and cowrote the season with Waithe, follows the couples relationship as it slowly collapses after they decide to have a child together. Though Dev appears in the first episode and briefly in the third, Ansari is not a major on-screen presence in the season.

Lena Waithe and Naomi Ackie. (Courtesy of Netflix)

Ansaris general absence, the change in setting, and the shift in character focus arent the only aspects that separate Moments in Love from Master of Nones previous two seasons. Theres a marked tonal shift as well, from a light comedy-drama with a romantic core to a serious adult drama. Though the series was never a straightforward comedy, its playful attitude has been exchanged for a self-consciously mature mood. This comes through in the subject matter, which involves infidelity and miscarriage and the complications of in-vitro fertilization, but its also exhibited in Ansaris formal choices. The entire season is primarily filmed in lengthy, static single takes. He emphasizes the spaces that Denise and Alice move through and the silences that pass between them. He lingers on the good moments between them and the ugly moments that percolate over time. The primary referent appears to be Ingmar Bergmans Scenes from a Marriage, befitting the shared subject matter, but Ansari could easily be swiping from any Criterion Collection filmmaker who employs a master-shot style (Ozu, Haneke, Akerman, etc.).

As much as Master of None changes, the more it stays the same. Ansari falls into the same trap he did in the second season by appropriating filmmakers more talented than he is, which only serves to highlight the pitfalls in his work by comparison. In the second season, he liberally borrowed from the Italian film canonFellini, Antonioni, Rossellinias well as the French New Wave, presumably to capture the wide-screen cinematic feeling of traveling to a new country or falling in love. (He makes this idea extra explicit by using a wide-screen aspect ratio as well.) Its one thing to include a cheeky homage, but to superficially parrot a coterie of master filmmakers styles to provide a prestige sheen is a fools errand, a misguided pretension.

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Its even worse in the third season because it only spotlights the self-seriousness of the writing. Master-shot filmmaking asks a lot from a viewer, mainly patience and rigorous attention, which means that either the frame itself or the action within the frame must be engaging. Unfortunately, Moments in Love features little of either. Ansaris compositions are clean but dull, and while Denise and Alicia are sensitively rendered on the page, Waithe and Ackie rarely compel as a pair. More often than not, they seem like they represent the idea of a relationship rather than a lived-in one. Were supposed to be witnessing two people desperately playing house while ignoring the self-evident fissures in their relationship. Instead, Moments of Love mostly features interminable single shots of a lifeless couple.

The seasons obvious standout is its fourth episode, which follows Alicia as she goes through the highs and lows of IVF with only a sympathetic nurse to accompany her in her journey. Ackie rises to the occasion and provides a committed acting showcase, sensitively conveying Alicias courage as well as her considerable fear. The episode features many of the problems that dog the rest of the season, mainly the plodding pace, but Ackie can command the frame and draw an audience into her emotional domain. Her scenes with Waithe, which dominate more than half the season, are much less successful. Waithe coasts on laid-back swagger and hits the same emotional beats within the same narrow register while Ackie alternates between being a partner and foil for that energy. The couples fundamental unbelievability combined with Ansaris auteur posturing makes the attempts at realism moot.

Its possible to view Ansaris adjustments to the series, including decentering himself on screen, as another attempt to change with the times, an approach introduced in Aziz Ansari: Right Now. Yet this concerted effort to evolve in the public eye only raises questions about what type of evolution it is and whether its shallow or meaningful. As a younger man, I responded to Ansaris wide-eyed jester routine because he was something of an outsider. But after years of him wearing ill-fitting insiders clothing, the question remains: Is he offering a sincere personal inquiry or merely trying to keep up with fluctuating standards of goodness?

Read more from the original source:

The Unfinished Evolution of Aziz Ansari - The Nation

The period preceding the emergence of behaviorally modern humans was characterized by dramatic climatic and environmental variability it is these pressures, occurring over hundreds of thousands of years that shaped human evolution.

New research published today in theCambridge Archaeological Journalproposes a new theory of human cognitive evolution entitled Complementary Cognition which suggests that in adapting to dramatic environmental and climatic variabilities our ancestors evolved to specialize in different, but complementary, ways of thinking.

Lead author Dr. Helen Taylor, Research Associate at the University of Strathclyde and Affiliated Scholar at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, explained, This system of complementary cognition functions in a way that is similar to evolution at the genetic level but instead of underlying physical adaptation, may underlay our species immense ability to create behavioral, cultural and technological adaptations. It provides insights into the evolution of uniquely human adaptations like language suggesting that this evolved in concert with specialization in human cognition.

Credit: University of Cambridge

The theory of complementary cognition proposes that our species cooperatively adapt and evolve culturally through a system ofcollective cognitivesearch alongsidegeneticsearch which enables phenotypic adaptation (Darwins theory of evolution through natural selection can be interpreted as a search process) andcognitivesearch which enables behavioral adaptation.

Dr. Taylor continued, Each of these search systems is essentially a way of adapting using a mixture of building on and exploiting past solutions and exploring to update them; as a consequence, we see evolution in those solutions over time. This is the first study to explore the notion that individual members of our species are neurocognitively specialized in complementary cognitive search strategies.

Complementary cognition could lie at the core of explaining the exceptional level of cultural adaptation in our species and provides an explanatory framework for the emergence of language. Language can be viewed as evolving both as a means of facilitating cooperative search and as an inheritance mechanism for sharing the more complex results of complementary cognitive search. Language is viewed as an integral part of the system of complementary cognition.

The theory of complementary cognition brings together observations from disparate disciplines, showing that they can be viewed as various faces of the same underlying phenomenon.

Dr. Taylor continued, For example, a form of cognition currently viewed as a disorder, dyslexia, is shown to be a neurocognitive specialization whose nature, in turn, predicts that our species evolved in a highly variable environment. This concurs with the conclusions of many other disciplines including paleoarchaeological evidence confirming that the crucible of our species evolution was highly variable.

Nick Posford, CEO, British Dyslexia Association said, As the leading charity for dyslexia, we welcome Dr. Helen Taylors ground-breaking research on the evolution of complementary cognition. Whilst our current education and work environments are often not designed to make the most of dyslexia-associated thinking, we hope this research provides a starting point for further exploration of the economic, cultural, and social benefits the whole of society can gain from the unique abilities of people with dyslexia.

At the same time, this may also provide insights into understanding the kind of cumulative cultural evolution seen in our species. Specialization in complementary search strategies and cooperatively adapting would have vastly increased the ability of human groups to produce adaptive knowledge, enabling us to continually adapt to highly variable conditions. But in periods of greater stability and abundance when adaptive knowledge did not become obsolete at such a rate, it would have instead accumulated, and as such complementary cognition may also be a key factor in explaining cumulative cultural evolution.

Complementary cognition has enabled us to adapt to different environments, and may be at the heart of our species success, enabling us to adapt much faster and more effectively than any other highly complex organism. However, this may also be our species greatest vulnerability.

Dr. Taylor concluded, The impact of human activity on the environment is the most pressing and stark example of this. The challenge of collaborating and cooperatively adapting at scale creates many difficulties and we may have unwittingly put in place a number of cultural systems and practices, particularly in education, which are undermining our ability to adapt. These self-imposed limitations disrupt our complementary cognitive search capability and may restrict our capacity to find and act upon innovative and creative solutions.

Complementary cognition should be seen as a starting point in exploring a rich area of human evolution and as a valuable tool in helping to create an adaptive and sustainable society.Our species may owe our spectacular technological and cultural achievements to neurocognitive specialization and cooperative cognitive search, but our adaptive success so far may belie the importance of attaining an equilibrium of approaches. If this system becomes maladjusted, it can quickly lead to equally spectacular failures to adapt and to survive, it is critical that this system be explored and understood further.

Reference: The Evolution of Complementary Cognition: Humans cooperatively adapt and evolve through a system of collective cognitive search by Helen Taylor, Brice Fernandes and Sarah Wright, 16 June 2021, Cambridge Archaeological Journal.DOI: 10.1017/S0959774321000329

See more here:

Complementary Cognition: The Evolution of Collective Intelligence - SciTechDaily

So far in the Fantasy Historian series weve focused on epic performances, both from individual players and entire lineups. In this article, we studyhow the game has changed.This discussion will center around the evolution of the NFL with, as always, the resulting fantasy implications.

Data, unless otherwise specified, comes from nflfastR.

Lets start with some Kirk Goldsberry-esque cartography charts to visualize the current state of NFL aerial attacks. The coordinate data is thanks to Ethan Douglas and Sarah Mallepalle et al.(you can find the data here). Base code for the charts is from Thomas Mock.

The below visuals show the distribution of hot spots for NFL incompletions and non-TD completions in 2020. The redder the area, the more passes in that spot. The line of scrimmage is shown in blue at the zero-yard line, and all passes are relative to that location. Of course, in real life, these passes occurred at lines of scrimmage all over the field.

Note that completions did occur further than 20 yards from the line of scrimmage, there just wasnt enough density to show up on this chart (less than 5% of completions).

Lets take a look:

Overall, to complement these charts, its important to remember that teams have been getting much better at passing. Glancing at the annual passing stats from Pro Football Reference shows how basically every major statistic (Att, Cmp, Cmp %, Yds, TD, INT) has improved over the past few years.

Indeed, possibly because passing has gotten better, teams are deciding to do it more often. Pass probability (% of plays that are pass plays) has slowly but steadily increased, paced by the total number of plays per game. These two factors combined mean, simply put, more passing plays overall! All told, this data implies that pass-catching RBs are more valuable than ever.

A perhaps surprising trend is the percentage of passes out of the shotgun formation. This has risen sharply since the early 2000s, and is now sitting above 80%. Just two decades ago, the probability was flipped: there was just about a 20% chance of shotgun formation on a passing play.

The dream of every fantasy manager is to roster a bell-cow back: the type of RB that dominates his teams backfield. Of course, NFL head coaches and offensive coordinators arent playing fantasy football, and the backfield by committee is a common rushing approach.

In this set-up, teams spread out their carries and targets to multiple running backs; often, one back will specialize on first downs, another on third downs, another as a change of pace RB, etc. To put it simply, this can make fantasy football difficult. More mouths to feed means that production is more opaque and generally harder to predict (and diluted across different players).

Unfortunately, committees areon the rise! Check out this chart, as well as some discussion points, below:

Given the physical nature of the sport, one of the best ways to track the trends of football is to analyze the physical traits of the players themselves.

In this section, we visualize player height and weight, measured at the weekly level and aggregated to a season-long average, among players who scored 3 fantasy points or more (standard scoring). Lets start with height:

The moves have been more significant and aligned in weights:

Lets now consider actual fantasy scoring (Half PPR) since 1999.

I know what you and Kyle are thinking: where is all of the kicking analysis? Fear not!

Like passing, NFL teams have gotten much better at kicking. Teams have been sending it more often and from further out: 3 yards deeper on average over the past two decades. Kickers have stepped up to the plate, delivering more accurate performances and being blocked far less.

___

Any other trends youd like me to investigate? See anything that looks off? Message me on Twitter.

Read more from the original source:

The Fantasy Football Historian: Evolution of the NFL - The Fantasy Footballers

In spring 2020, BBVA Research began to analyze the COVID-19 impact on consumption in its geographies thanks to the use of big data technologies. The aggregated and anonymized transactional data of the millions of transactions carried out with BBVA cards or registered in BBVAs point of sales terminals are a very useful tool for monitoring the economic evolution of the different countries where the bank operates.

Users can adapt BBVA Research's interactive graphics (which are optimized for PC desktop viewing) as follows:

In the graphs, you can choose the elements you want to analyze: country, sector of the economy, shopping channel (physical, online, ATMs, ...), etc. By clicking on each of the countries in the legends it allows you to hide or display them.

Within each graph, in the upper right menu, you can (from right to left): compare all the data for a specific time period or view them individually by series, place the values per axis of each series at any time time, reset axes, return to the entire graph from an interval, reduce or increase by zooming, move the graph, zoom in at a certain time interval (activating the magnifying glass, then clicking on an area of the graph and dragging the cursor to select the interval) or download the graph in image format.

The following is a month by month compilation of content that shows the economic recovery in Spain and the world:

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The road to economic recovery: the evolution of COVID-19s impact on consumption - BBVA

Photograph courtesy of Niin

Fifty years ago, smoking was commonplace. That's because scientists hadnt yet learned about the harmful effects of cigarette smoke. Once scientists began to realize that tobacco smoke caused a wide range of health problems, they started pushing for an end to traditional cigarettes.

This led to the adoption of the vape as a smoking alternative. While the first electronic cigarette was devised in the 1930s, it wasn't until the 1990s and early 2000s that it started gaining traction. Then, in 2003, Hon Lik created the first commercially successful electronic cigarette.

Since then, vaping has developed into a thriving industry and has served as an alternative to smoking for millions of people around the world. However, despite its clear advantages, vaping isnt right for everyone and isnt the ideal way to enjoy nicotine in all situations. For example, vaping indoors isnt allowed in many public settings. In situations like this, a different way to enjoy nicotine is needed.

Enter nicotine pouches.

They're smokeless, theyre discreet, theyre convenient, and according to the 250% sales increase in 2019, theres a strong demand for them in the United States.

While pouches offer a significant improvement over previous nicotine consumption products, they still have one fatal flawtobacco.

As the industry continues to evolve, consumers are constantly looking for better ways to enjoy nicotine. One of the most recent product categories that arose to meet consumers' desire to avoid tobacco and its inherent properties are tobacco-free nicotine pouches.

What are tobacco-free nicotine pouches exactly? Theyre basically the same thing as traditional nicotine pouches, however, they are made with synthetic nicotine that is not derived from tobacco. As such, they do not contain any tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs), which are thought to be some of the most potent carcinogens in tobacco products.

In European countries, such as Sweden, tobacco-free pouches have been popular for quite some time. However, until recently, only tobacco leaf-free nicotine pouches, like Zyn and Velo, had been available in the United States.

Today, tobacco-free nicotine pouch brands are becoming increasingly popular in the US as a simpler way to enjoy nicotine without the effects of tobacco.

One of the first brands that rose to meet the growing demand for a truly tobacco-free pouch product in the US was California-based NIIN with its signature line up of Zero Tobacco Nicotine Pouches, available in five long-lasting flavors (Citrus Chill, Wintergreen, Cool Mint, Spearmint and Cinnamon) and two nicotine strengths (3mg and 6mg).

Recognized by their bold, modern branding and signature zero ring emblem, NIIN Primed Pouches are made with synthetic TFN nicotine.

By focusing on innovation and quality, NIIN has created a modern nicotine product that is discreet, convenient, non-combustible, smoke-free, odor-free and mess-free and most importantly, 100% tobacco-free.

To learn more about NIIN Pouches or to inquire about wholesale/distributor opportunities, please visit https://niinpouches.com

This post is sponsored by Niin

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The Evolution of the Tobacco Industry: From Smoking to Vaping to Smokeless - CSPDailyNews.com