Daily Archives: December 5, 2021

As Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner prepare for the imminent birth of their second child, Scott is lawyering up for his massive Astroland Festive lawsuit battle with some major muscle from former Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein legal teams. It also appears his highly anticipated new album, Utopia, is on permanent pause.

Travis Scotts highly anticipated, Utopia, was just removed from his Instagram bio, according to internet sleuths.

The album has been in the works for almost 2 years and fans have been waiting patiently. The album push was fully underway, with 2 new singles dropped recently, Escape Plan and Mafia. It appears Scott is battening down the hatches as he prepares for the long legal battle ahead.

Travis Scott and Live Nation have been hit with over 250 lawsuits for over $2 Billion and are hiring lawyers from the top law firms in the country.

Scott has turned to Daniel Petrocelli, the head of litigation at OMelveny & Myers LLP, a Los Angeles-based firm with one of the top entertainment practices in the country to help his case. Petrocelli has represented Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein in the past.

This weekend will mark just one month since Travis Scotts deadly Astroworld Festival tragedy where 10 people lost their lives and over 300 people were injured. The streaming platform, Hulu, began advertising a documentary on it and immediately received blowback from infuriated fans saying its too soon. The streaming giant abruptly removed the ads for the doc after the social media uproar.

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As Travis Scott Awaits The Birth of Kylie Jenner Baby #2, Hes Assembling A Powerful Legal Squad And Has ... - SOHH

Fresh out of the barbers chair from the Dominican shop around the corner, Wiki moseys down Forsyth Street on a weekday afternoon in Chinatown. Rocking an orange Avirex jacket, its easy to spot him from a block away. To many born and raised in the five boroughs, the jacket brings back memories of mid-2000s Jim Jones DVD shoots, days in the city that are gone but not forgotten. Wiki is proud of it. This is not a nostalgic New York costume to me, says the 28-year-old. I come from that era of Dipset. I know the history.

Born Patrick Morales, Wiki was raised in the Upper West Side, but Lower Manhattan is where he roamed free. As a latchkey teenager, he rode the 1 train south on Broadway and kicked it downtown, wasting hours walking from Greenwich Village to Soho to the Lower East Side to Chinatown before heading back home. For years now, the unofficial border between Chinatown and the Lower East Side has been Wikis home base, even as the area has undergone extreme gentrification. On weekends, specifically, it turns into a playground for transplants, usually college students or twentysomethings, to get piss-drunk and scream up and down the sidewalks. Shit gets me hot, he says as he pulls out a grinder outside of Spicy Village. But I cant leave. Someone needs to be there. Not to regulate or anything, but just to keep a piece of real New York there. The pockets still exist, but theyre getting smaller and smaller.

This past October, Wiki put out Half God, produced entirely by Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn-based Navy Blue. Its his best solo album to date. Over Navys wide array of beats, which range from loops smokier than a barbeque pit to head-boppers perfect for frozen subway rides, Wiki narrates coming-of-age stories of living in a city that means everything to him but is constantly scrubbing away its past. This theme of erasure isnt always overt. Sometimes, its happening in the background, and other times hes addressing it head-on. You got it twisted, this aint yours just cause this is where you buy/You the gentrifier, terrorizer, not the terrorized, he raps on The Business, sounding like hes at a breaking point. The song is directed at a generation of out-of-towners who badly want to claim New York culture but dont want that culture to interfere with their utopia.

For Wiki, Half God marks a restart. He was once the teenage phenom frontman of Ratking, a trio that cemented a legacy in the city behind their DIY shows and the 2014 album So It Goes. That impact was both good and bad. The good: Who wouldnt want to be a part of a significant hip-hop crew in underground New York rap lore? The bad: Every solid solo tape he has released since 2015s Lil Me had to compete with Ratking nostalgia.

Next, Wiki had to overcome a personal rut. Ive been in the game 10 years. It starts to feel like a job, he says. I was feeling stagnant, in a relationship and in my music, and I was drinking a lot. During the pandemic, he began to piece together Half God with Navy Blue. He was like, I want to produce your record, this is your story, Wiki recalls. The process was reinvigorating. Through a smile big enough that I can see the golds in his mouth, he remembers drinking non-alcoholic Heinekens at L.A. sessions with Navy, Earl Sweatshirt, and the Alchemist that left him particularly inspired. It meant a lot to me to be around my peers, and they were showing so much love.

Half God is a Wiki albumnot a Wiki, formerly of Ratking, album. Theres no twist to it; just inspired raps over beats that provide the perfect canvas for them. Its intimacy and detail expand outward so that nearly any native New Yorker could identify with many of the anecdotes: the homey feeling of posting up on your block; the simple pleasure of the go-to sandwich at your favorite corner store; the rush of catching feelings amid a bustling city of more than 8 million and suddenly feeling like theres only one other person who matters.

Its great hip-hop, and thats more than enough. Im sometimes around indie producers, and theyre like, You dont have to prove yourself as a rapper anymore, but what they dont get is that every time I rap, Im proving myself, says Wiki. It doesnt need to be more complex, it doesnt need to be a mix of genres or experimental just for the sake of it. Dont belittle my craft. I can expand within it without sacrificing one bar.

From Forsyth Street, Wiki leads me east to a bench surrounded by plants in Seward Park, where he sometimes sits in the mornings with a coffee to write. In this spot, you can watch longtime residents and new neighborhood invaders exist without acknowledging each other. Just outside the park, the newcomers, in their Instagram-ready outfits, drift in and out of the hip coffee shops and restaurants. Inside the park, local teenagers run pickup basketball games, and older women gather around a table to play mahjong. Its the perfect scene for a Wiki song.

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Live From Wikis New York, With Love - Pitchfork

This article was originally published by Hakai Magazine.

Theres a long-standing conundrum in ecology called the paradox of the plankton. Famously articulated by ecologist George Evelyn Hutchinson in 1961, the paradox explores how odd it is that there are thousands of species of phytoplankton in the upper reaches of the ocean. The top few meters of water are basically a well-mixed soup, meaning all of these species of phytoplankton are relying on the same nutrients. The theory of competitive exclusion says that one of these species ought to be a little stronger, and should out-compete the rest. But none has. Why?

Hutchinson published the paradox at the height of the Cold War, when the air was thick with debates over the values of competition and the sharing of resources. Ecological thinking was itself dominated by the idea that competition drives some species to thrive and others to go extinct. But Hutchinson saw this way of thinking as an oversimplification, and he held up phytoplankton as an example of how there must be additional forces shaping biodiversity.

Over the past few decades, ecologists have suggested many explanations for why multiple phytoplankton species persist, including the effects of rapid environmental shifts, the existence of species codependencies, the uneven distributions of phytoplankton species, and the fact that some phytoplankton release toxins that may give them an edge over the competition. But a new study by Oregon State University ecologist Michael Behrenfeld and his colleagues seeks to solve the dilemma by taking a different perspective: the planktons.

Read: A slimy calamity is creeping across the sea

Phytoplankton are so small, and the distances between them so vastfrom their perspectivethat its likely phytoplankton arent competing at all, says Behrenfeld. If you imagine that a phytoplankton is roughly the size of a trees root ball, he says, the next nearest phytoplankton would be kilometers away.

A phytoplanktons small size also means that it experiences water as a thick substance, perhaps akin to how honey feels to us. When an individual phytoplankton moves, a layer of water called the boundary layer moves with it. This means that phytoplankton spend most of their time firmly separated from one another.

When you think of it that way, its like, well, how can phytoplankton that are that physically distant actually directly compete with each other? Behrenfeld says.

Inspired by this insight, Behrenfeld decided to model phytoplankton biodiversity using an approach called neutral theory. Rather than modeling the ecosystem dynamics as competition-fueled, this framework says that a community loses species when, by chance, too many members die at the same time, and gains species when they immigrate or when genetic mutations create them anew.

For about a thimbleful of water, neutral theory worked greatthe number of species Behrenfelds model predicted to be present was about what scientists have observed in at-sea surveys. But when he scaled the model up to represent a larger body of water, a crack began to form.

We have to remember that the water is being mixed continuously, Behrenfeld says. In a world dictated by neutral theory, phytoplankton would have to die at an unreasonable rate to make room for all of the new plankton coming in from other parts of the ocean. Instead of explaining why there is more than one phytoplankton species, Behrenfelds neutral-theory-based model predicted that there should actually be an astronomical number of phytoplankton species.

Read: A troubling discovery in the deepest ocean trenches

So Behrenfeld and his colleagues considered other forces that could limit the number of plankton species even in a competition-free utopia, such as how attractive phytoplankton are to predators, how fast they reproduce, and how asexual reproduction affects genetic variation within a species. Their work paid offadding these elements to their model gave them close to the same number of species that scientists have observed in the ocean.

Nick Record, a computational ecologist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine, says Behrenfelds results highlight how the oceans constant churning forces scientists to come up with new ways of thinking about relationships between species. Marine systems are really different from those on land, he says. And they behave in these really different ways.

Yet Record has a different take on the paradox of the plankton. Its not really a paradox to be solved, Record says. Its part of a narrative.

Rather than assuming that some solutions are right while others are wrong, Record thinks that all proposed solutions to the paradox point to a bigger truth about marine ecosystemsthat they are complex enough that ecologists may never find a one-size-fits-all model to describe how they function.

Perhaps the next 60 years will see just as many proposed solutions to the paradox as the last. And maybe thats exactly how it should be when it comes to a good paradox.

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How Can the Ocean Have This Many Types of Plankton? - The Atlantic

In October, the Eagleswood Land Use Board approved two projects that will make the small town a destination for weddings, dining and entertainment.

The Farm on Main is a 20-acre utopia of nuptial celebration, hidden in plain sight at 450 Main St. (Route 9). The property is owned by Tom and Jessica Scangarello of Surf City-based Bay Avenue Plant Co. They are working with select local vendors to offer wedding events awash in rustic elegance and luxury.

According to the resolution prepared by Land Use Board attorney Terry Brady and certified by secretary Kathleen Wells, the applicants had previously received approval for a single-family dwelling use, a horse barn and grazing area, five greenhouses, a detached garage, a farm equipment storage area, and an event venue building with a pond and dock. They returned for approval to include an event tent, to be used between April 2022 and March 2023, while the previously approved event venue building is being constructed, with continued use of the tent on an occasional basis.

Along with their planner, Tom Scangarello Sr., they testified to the design and purposes of the proposed temporary tent, which will be dismantled after each event. Portable restrooms and handicap access will be provided.

Just up the road, Hollow Pines is the new restaurant that will replace Sleepy Hollow at 475 Main St. On behalf of the Tide Table Group partners, Melanie Magaziner and William Mehl gave testimony, seeking approval to construct a two-story addition to the existing development at the site.

According to the resolution, the addition measures 3,900 square feet on the first floor and 1,375 square feet on the second floor, with 49 new parking spaces, a fire suppression water tank, and a new outdoor seating and dining area associated with an outdoor bar.

Variances and waivers were requested for sign setback, parking spaces (98 are proposed where 209 are required), interior lot curbing and surfacing, and an Environmental Impact Statement.

Mehl and Magaziner, along with engineer Robert Sive, environmental consultant Chris Dolphin and architect Sean McGovern, testified that the originally proposed stage area is being eliminated, thus removing the use variance aspect of the application; and that the water tank height will be reduced to meet the townships height limitations, thus removing the bulk variance aspect.

The proposed restaurant/bar/game (e.g., duck pin bowling) operation will have no more than 20 employees onsite at any one time. The second floor will not have any restaurant tables, but rather will be used for the games. Shade trees along Route 9 will be located inside the right-of-way and curbs and sidewalks will be installed along Route 9. A design waiver is requested for curbs in the interior parking area, which will be gravel with wheel stops for designating parking spaces.

A shuttle for pick-up and drop-off of patrons will be provided to assure safe travel. The applicant has applied for a jurisdictional determination letter from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection regarding the applicability of CAFRA regulations, based upon the number of parking spaces existing and to be added. The lighting will be on (shielded from residences) from dusk until one hour past closing, which will be 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. The applicant will utilize the existing front sign in its present location. The lots will be consolidated to reflect one single tract and use.

Victoria Ford

victoria@thesandpaper.net

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Farm on Main, Hollow Pines Green-Lighted in Eagleswood - The SandPaper

In one tweet Jack was gone.Twitters chief executive Jack Dorsey resigned abruptly on 29 November, after months of pressure from investors who objected to his part-time approach to leading the social media company he founded.

His replacement, 37-year-old Parag Agrawal, the companys former chief technology officer, got straight to making changes. Overnight Twitter announced a new anti-doxxing policy, designed to remove unauthorised images of people.

Doxxing, the practice of revealing personal information such as address, phone number or bank details about a targeted individual was already banned, as were abusive messages and threats. Now the unauthorised posting of peoples photographs, with or without abuse, can lead to a users account being suspended and the material removed.

The American right, already outraged over Twitters permanent ban on Donald Trump early this year for inciting violence, is furious about the new measure. Anti-fascists also complained that accounts dedicated to tracking far-right extremists were immediately suspended.

But the move has a wider significance. Agrawal has made a more fundamental admission that could change the way all social media is regulated. If you read the new rules for posting content on Twitter, it is now beyond reasonable doubt that the company is a publisher with an editorial policy.

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It reserves the right to remove pictures of people. But if the pictures are of a public figure, or if they are of an ordinary person shared in the public interest or add value to public discourse they are exempt from removal. Likewise, if an image is already being used in the mainstream media, it could be exempt.

Who decides? Agrawal and his techbro employees in California. Based on what criteria? Twitters new policy says the misuse of photographs has a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities. These are tough decisions to make, as every newspaper, magazine and TV news editor knows. But done right, they will make Twitter a more tolerable place for users, and presumably a more attractive space for advertisers.

[see also: Twitter could be better off without Jack Dorsey]

Agrawal signalled his desire for a tougher editorial policy last year: Our role is not to be bound by the First Amendment [which protects freedom of speech], but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation he told MITs Technology Review.

In addition to banning Trump, Twitter imposed during the 2020 US election an extra step in the process of retweeting someone elses content, which asked people to read before retweeting. It also routinely identifies alt media sites such as RT and Redfish as Russia state-affiliated media. The libertarian utopia of a global free-speech platform that Dorsey designed in 2006 is gone forever, destroyed by trolls, bots, governments and, arguably, by human nature. I do not lament its passing.

When I first joined Twitter in 2009, having been inspired by the Iranian democracy uprising, it was a liberating experience. We were at the height of horizontalist activism, of swarming, of ad-hoc alliances seeking the truth.

During the Libyan uprising of 2011, for example, activists would post requests for information on the weapons used against them by Gaddafis military, and within minutes expert voices from around the world would post details of weapons, calibres, suppliers and ranges.

Twitter and Facebook were such powerful tools for social justice movements that back then it seemed impossible that they would ever become weapons in the hands of dictators and oligarchs. The first attempts of the powerful to suppress social media failed. Egypts Hosni Mubarak tried to switch off Facebook, but was still overthrown. Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdoan, too, suppressed it repeatedly, but the activists found work-arounds.

It was only around 2013-14, after the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine and the suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, that elites around the world understood: the only way to take down a free information network is to fill it with noise. This noise proliferated in the form of troll farms, doxxing, hate speech, bots (fake accounts generated by artificial intelligence) and disinformation.

The algorithms of the social media giants did the rest. Report after report shows that Twitter, Facebook and YouTube deployed algorithms that rewarded outrage, hate and prejudice. Facebook has buried negative internal reports about its content. It still makes billions of dollars.

In the brief history of the contaminated social media contaminated by far-right activist groups, disinformation networks and states what were once dubbed networks of outrage and hope became the means of imposing despondency and despair.

When Facebook tested its own algorithm in India this year, by setting up a fake test user that simply followed recommendations generated by Facebook itself, the account was quickly swamped in anear constantbarrage of polarising nationalist content, misinformation, and violence and gore. The project manager reported: Ive seen more images of dead people in the past three weeks than Ive seen in my entire life total.

The solution has been staring us in the face for years. It is to regulate the social media platforms in the way we regulate newspapers, radio channels, movies and TV.

The tech giants argument was that they were only platforms for content generated by third parties. This was never true. Each of the platforms deploys decision-making algorithms that determine what content is prioritised, and its been repeatedly shown that the algorithms themselves are flawed.

Twitter, for example, admitted that its algorithm was automatically cropping photos of people in a racially biased way, and that it was amplifying right-wing politicians and media outlets more than left-wing ones. How and why it does so is complex a result of the way right-wing people use Twitter, the language of right-wing politics and probably flaws in the algorithm itself, reflecting the assumptions (and negligence) of the people who designed it.

The problem is further complicated by the fact that Twitter, like all social media companies, allows the algorithm to redesign itself using machine learning. Ultimately, it can take decisions no human being has mandated.

Regulators, with those in Europe taking the lead, have up to now focused on forcing the tech giants to publish details of the algorithms they use, and to conduct risk assessments of the content they are disseminating.

But its time to do more. Both in the UK and the European Union there is no First Amendment right to disseminate hate speech and incitement. That is why newspapers self-regulate and the government regulates both broadcast and film content.

Hence, if the Daily Mail publishes an article about refugees that generates an avalanche of racist abuse, it will often close its comments section rather than waste time policing the abusive content. And if the BBC finds itself with video of an atrocity, or a crime, or a moment of death, its own rules usually require it not to publish.

We can debate where the line should be drawn. But in a civilised society it will always be drawn through a debate between journalists, politicians, consumers and lawyers. In the rules-free world of social media, it is being drawn arbitrarily, reluctantly, by unaccountable executives according to principles that remain opaque.

Britains forthcoming Online Harms White Paper takes a light-touch approach, designating Ofcom as the social media regulator but requiring companies merely to introduce procedures and risk assessments to prevent harm. But it maintains the fiction that there is a distinction between platforms serving third party content and media organisations that publish content they have created.

Once you understand what algorithms do, the fiction evaporates. The algorithms currently deployed create a toxic user experience, amplify hate and prejudice, and make decisions beyond human control. Any corporation using such algorithms, especially where there is no transparency and no public change log, should be designated as content producers.

The executives at Facebook and Google know this moment is coming, which is why theyre making so many concessions and apologies. Jack Dorsey, in his own way, was one of the last believers in the fiction of the neutral platform protected by Americas First Amendment.

Now Dorsey is gone, Twitter needs to get real. It is surely one of the biggest purveyors of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia and sheer toxicity in history. It could shed millions of fake accounts tomorrow. It could publish its algorithms. It could require all users to have real identities, even while some might legitimately maintain pseudonyms.

It could, in short, mature into the kind of platform that helps maintain democracy, civility and truth. Instead, it is one weaponised to destroy them.

[see also: What the Online Safety Bill means for social media]

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It is time to regulate Twitter and other social media platforms as publishers - The New Statesman