Daily Archives: December 25, 2021

MIAMI, Dec. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Maritime Management LLC, based here, has reported that a ship under the company's management, the M/T Tropic Breeze, was struck last night at 22:03 p.m. by the super yacht M/Y Utopia IV approximately 15 miles NNW of New Providence Island, The Bahamas. The 160-foot tanker was traveling on its proper watch en route to Great Stirrup Cay when it was rear-ended by the 207-foot super yacht. The catastrophic force of the collision pierced the stern of the tanker causing the tanker to sink to the ocean floor at an estimated depth of 2000 feet.

Fortunately,the crew of the Tropic Breeze were uninjured, have been rescued and safely returned to a company-owned facility on shore.

The tanker's cargo included all non-persistent materials LPG, Marine Gas and automotive gas all of which are lighter than water and will evaporate if exposed to surface air. The Tropic Breeze, sailing under the flag of Belize was recently inspectedin December of this year and was found by the authorities to be fully compliant with all national and international safety and vessel integrity standards.

Due to the depth of the ocean at the location of the sinking, it has been determined that the tanker cannot be safely salvaged.

Relevant Bahamian authorities have been notified and Maritime Management continues to work with local and international maritime authorities and marine experts to ensure best outcomes with minimal environmental impact.

Maritime Management has expressed its sincere gratitude to Bahamian authorities for their support and assistance throughout this incident and are particularly grateful to the crew of the M/Y Mara who responded to the Tropic Breeze's distress call and rescued all seven crew members on board the sinking tanker.

Media Contact:Sean FitzgeraldWitt O'Brien's[emailprotected]

SOURCE Maritime Management LLC

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M/T Tropic Breeze Struck by Mega Yacht Utopia IV and Sinks Off the Coast of New Providence Island - PRNewswire

The Great White Way was darker on Christmas Eve as two Broadway productions permanently closed due to surging COVID-19 cases.

The shows Waitress and Thoughts of a Colored Man said on Friday that their productions would not reopen after performing their final shows earlier this week, according to Playbill.

Sara Bareilles Waitress returned to Broadway in September and was expected to run through next month, but its limited engagement at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre was also thwarted by cases of the virus among its cast and company, the outlet said.

The Tony-nominated hit was known for being the first Broadway musical composed, written, directed, and choreographed by women. It played 1,544 performances since 2016.

Thoughts a Keenan Scott II play which explored a day in the life of seven black Brooklyn men had 79 performances at the Golden Theatre, but was besieged by COVID cases among its cast members. Its final show was Wednesday.

While this is not the outcome we had hoped for, being part of this historic season on Broadway has been the greatest privilege of our lives, producers Brian Moreland, Ron Simons, Diana DiMenna, Kandi Burruss, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Samira Wiley said in a statement, according to the Playbill.

The theatre industrys great return is about so much more than the success or failure of any single production. As a community, we remain undeterred, unflinching, and unstoppable. We have never been prouder to be theatre makers than at this very moment.

David Byrnes American Utopia, Come From Away, MJ The Musical, The Lion King, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Dear Evan Hanson, Hamilton and Aladdin were among the other productions that announced additional canceled shows on Friday.

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'Thoughts of a Colored Man' and 'Waitress' go dark on Broadway amid Omicron - New York Post

Blockchain and crypto assets have made tremendous strides in 2021 in virtually every way. The current year did not necessarily get off to an amazing start for the global crypto asset space. Nonetheless, the digital assets managed to make a mark.

Moreover, NFTs and stablecoins left a mark as well. Now as 2021 comes to a close: it is the time for lists, predictions and forecasts for 2022.Forbes released some insights to discuss these projections.

The global market for non-fungible tokens hit $22bn (16.5bn) this year as the craze for collections such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and Matrix avatars turned digital images into major investment assets.

NFTs confer ownership of a unique digital item upon someone, even if that item can be easily copied. Ownership is recorded on a digital, decentralized ledger known as a blockchain. But, this buzz might fade away. The article notes,

NFTs will become boring. This might strike some readers as a bit of a reach, especially since there is so much that is misunderstood by the mainstream marketplace in terms of how non-fungible tokens (NFTs) operate and are valued.

Not as scintillating as watching NFTs prices vacillate, but blockchain enabled ownership appears to be the future of NFTs for mainstream adoption.

Mainstream use of stablecoins is picking up, with the market growing from $5 billion in December 2019 to more than $158 billion in December 2021. One reason for this growth is stablecoins inherent advantages over current financial technologies.

For instance, stablecoins can be transferred instantaneously to anyone around the world with little to no transaction cost.A similar sentiment was projected in this article.

As the calendar flips to 2022, and as geopolitics continues to influence and partially direct the crypto-asset conversation, the rise of stablecoins is a trend that cannot be ignored.

Ergo, stablecoins are expected to become mainstream.

These are here to stay as noted in the article.

With the adoption of crypto-asset payments by major organizations such as PayPal, Visa, and Mastercardduring 2021, the trend toward crypto-assets being used for transactional purposes seems to be a permanent one.

Love cryptocurrencies or hate the very idea of them, theyre becoming more mainstream by the day. Cryptocurrencies have surged so much that their total value has crossed more than $2.5 trillion. Thereby, rivaling the worlds most valuable company such as Apple.

At this size, its simply too big for the financial establishment to ignore.Bitcoin the largest crytpocurrency could see the most anticipated triple figures next year. During this year, BTC did exhibit some of its historical volatility. Thereby ranging from lows around $30,000 to all-time-highs of nearly $70,000. This is why, the said article asserted,

Setting aside market volatility, and seeking to remain as objective as possible, the case for $100,000 bitcoin seems to have support points.

Rising inflation, the continued monetary easing around the world and the proliferation of crypto assets all support this claim.

Theres a buzzword that tech, crypto and venture-capital types have become infatuated with lately. Conversations are now peppered with it. Web3. Right now, the idea of the entire Internet reinventing itself may sound like some far-away digital utopia.

But Web3 is the new buzz and generating lots of new money, particularly from crypto investors.

The report stated,

If 2021 was the year that Web3 became a buzzword, 2022 will be the year that the values behind Web3 start to make a lasting impact on the way we operate as a society.

Furthermore, the expected prominence of Web3 has been widely acknowledged.

Web3 projects tend to be more inclusive and supportive. Given the nature of shared ownership, peoples success is closely tied to the quality of contributors in their network. This dynamic creates a more collaborative work environment, shared Julia Lipton, founder of Awesome People Ventures.

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NFTs, stablecoins, Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies: How it's going, what it will be like in 2022 - AMBCrypto

Travis Scott continues to receive plenty of public backlash for his deadly Astroworld Festival which occurred last night. Despite all of the noise though, the Houston superstar continues to give back to communities, especially in his hometown.

According to TMZ, Travis and his Cactus Jack Foundation are distributing over 2,000 toys to 2,000 children in the Houston area. These are children who come from families who have difficult times in being able to meet Christmas needs for the holiday.

Six Houston housing authority areas will be visited in total, before Christmas arrives. Among the type of toys that have been handed out so far are dolls, golf sets and keyboards. The items were all lined up at tents which displayed signs for the Cactus Jack Foundation.

In addition to Travis good deeds with his Christmas giveaways for the children, he is also trying to help fix the Astroworld Fest issues. He has since been offering to cover burial costs for the families of the deceased, but several of those have since denied the offers.

Travis went on to speak with Charlamagne Tha God in his first interview since the tragedies, and emphasized that he wants to help the healing process in any way he can. He also added that he didnt intend for anyone to be harmed that night, on November 5.

As artists, you trust professionals for when things happen that people can leave safely. And this night was just like a regular show, it felt like to me, as far as the energy. People didnt show up there just to be harmful. People just showed up to have a good time and something unfortunate happened and we just need to figure out what that was.

In the aftermath of the Astroworld Fest injuries and deaths, Travis removed Utopia from his Instagram bio. This is the title of his upcoming fifth studio album.

Prior to Astroworld Fest, Travis didnt provide an official release date for Utopia. On the day of the festival though, he did put out two new singles in Mafia and Escape Plan. Even with Travis getting canceled on social media, both songs were able to debut in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Travis Scott dropped a 2 song pack with songs titled Escape Plan and Mafia pic.twitter.com/RlCTCvXHsx

Flame.Travy (@FlameTravis3) November 5, 2021

In the midst of the Astroworld Festival madness, Travis is also preparing to get ready to become a father again. Back in August, it was announced that he and his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner are expecting baby number two.

This pregnancy news went on to be confirmed by Kylie on Instagram, in a hype video. The two currently have a 3-year-old daughter, Stormi. As of now, it still hasnt publicly been revealed regarding what the gender of the second child will be.

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Travis Scott Hosts Holiday Toy Giveaways In Hometown Of Houston - The Blast

After growing up in a Zimbabwe convulsed by the legacy of colonialism, when I got to Oxford I realised how many British people still failed to see how empire had shaped lives like mine as well as their own

The Amazon founders relentless quest for customer ecstasy made him one of the worlds richest people and now hes looking to the unlimited resources of space. Is he the genius our age of consumerism deserves?

Although femicide is a recognised crime in Mexico, when a woman disappears, the authorities are notoriously slow to act. But there is someone who will take on their case

Josiah Elleston-Burrell had done everything to make his dream of studying architecture a reality. But, suddenly, in the summer of 2020, he found his fate was no longer in his hands

When a Chinese billionaire bought one of Britains most prestigious golf clubs in 2015, dentists and estate agents were confronted with the unsentimental force of globalised capital

Johnson is the archetypal clown, with his antic posturing and his refusal to take anything seriously. So how did he end up in charge?

In 2019, the body of a man fell from a passenger plane into a garden in south London. Who was he?

My parents were determined to avoid heroic medical interventions in their dying days, even before the pandemic. Why wasnt anybody listening?

Something is badly wrong at the heart of one of Britains most important ministries. How did it become so broken?

Its hard to convey the full depth and range of the trauma, the chaos and the indignity that people are being subjected to while Modi and his allies tell us not to complain

They used to look like quagmires, ice rinks or dustbowls, depending on the time of year. But as big money entered football, pristine pitches became crucial to the sports image and groundskeepers became stars

As a child, I fled Afghanistan with my family. When we arrived in Britain after a harrowing journey, we thought we could start our new life in safety. But the reality was very different

A growing chorus of scientists and philosophers argue that free will does not exist. Could they be right?

During the second world war, Chinese merchant seamen helped keep Britain fed, fuelled and safe and many gave their lives doing so. But from late 1945, hundreds of them who had settled in Liverpool suddenly disappeared. Now their children are piecing together the truth

One of Britains most influential scholars has spent a lifetime trying to convince people to take race and racism seriously. Are we finally ready to listen?

Last year, three cryptocurrency enthusiasts bought a cruise ship. They named it the Satoshi, and dreamed of starting a floating libertarian utopia. It didnt work out

Growing up in Essex, my summers in Iran felt like magical interludes from reality but it was a spell that always had to be broken

Listening to the women who alleged abuse, and fighting to get their stories heard, helped change the treatment of victims by the media and the justice system

An intrepid expert with dozens of books to his name, Stphane Bourgoin was a bestselling author, famous in France for having interviewed more than 70 notorious murderers. Then an anonymous collective began to investigate his past

Nina Gladitz dedicated her life to proving the Triumph of the Will directors complicity with the horrors of Nazism. In the end, she succeeded but at a cost

And finally: In case youre curious, these were our Top 10 most read pieces of 2021 and these were the 10 most read pieces from our archive.

Follow the Long Read on Twitter at @gdnlongread, sign up to the long read weekly email here, and find our podcasts here

Show your support for the Guardians open, independent journalism in 2021 and beyond, including the long read

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The best of the long read in 2021 - The Guardian

LONDON: There is probably no chart position more fought over than the Christmas number one. This year, it looks like LadBaby will steal their fourth chart win in a row a new record if successful with a song featuring Elton John and Ed Sheeran. But what does it really take to propel a song to the coveted spot during another COVID Christmas? And what makes for good Christmas music the kind that we want to consume throughout the festive season?

We know Christmas music when we hear it, but it's not always obvious what features (if any) it needs to have to pass the yuletide test. Plenty of explicitly Christmas-themed songs will have certain musical characteristics, even though they're always optional. These include a major key, an accessible pitch range and a moderate tempo, making them both easier to sing and easier on the ear.

Certain sounds, too, like sleigh bells, the celeste, the glockenspiel, and a choir also signal the holiday. For over a month, this music is ubiquitous: people do not necessarily pay for or try to hear it, but it's there anyway, like acoustic wallpaper.

The fact that it's hard to escape Christmas music might account for the eye-rolling that greets it every year. It's understandable that we might recoil from the sound of yet more Slade and sleigh bells in the context of overflowing car parks and endless queues.

Sometimes the music's idealised qualities can even instil melancholy. Hearing a romanticised version of family and togetherness can provoke a keener sense of their absence, and lock out listeners who cannot join in the reindeer games.

The artificial or fantastical side to the music can be even more off-putting given the commercialised climate in which these sentiments are shared.

The very idea of chasing the top spot on the chart appears in some ways disconnected from the true meaning of Christmas. It suggests competitive zeal and commercial reward rather than communal values and selflessness. This tension might be one reason why several performers have hitched their chart bid to charitable causes.

A festive chart rebellion

Yet for all the ways it is easy to tire of Christmas songs' excesses, to many people it matters what music we should value at this time of year. People notice the music's political and ideological trajectory and can mount a rebellion when they feel that the falseness has gone too far.

Look no further than the successful campaign in 2009 to install 'Rage Against the Machine's Killing In The Name' at the top of the UK chart and prevent yet another X Factor single from being number one. It was everything Christmas songs are not, or at least not supposed to be (although there is certainly some form of protest, albeit of a less revolutionary kind, in John Lennon's 'Happy Xmas and Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas').

It indicated that some people care whether the number one position goes to another schmaltzy ballad. I suspect listeners did not need an excuse to rebel against X Factor's then-monopoly, but the fact that the campaign happened at Christmas suggests that the rebels found a cause.

The power of popThis upset, however, is a departure from the norm. One has only to look at the list of Christmas number ones to see on the one hand their variety, but on the other, how they gravitate towards a particular type of popular music.

In trying to define pop, the rock writer Simon Frith considered it to be what is left when one strips away rock, country and the other venerable popular genres.

The leftover category of pop, loosely defined, is designed to appeal to everyone: often family-orientated, musically conservative, professionally produced, unobtrusive, and a conduit for clich and commonplace emotional states like love, loss, jealousy. How Frith characterises this residual class of music resonates strongly with typical Christmas music.

As he also points out, such music, despite its purported banality, can be put to affecting use. Its participatory quality and way of gathering memories and associations lend themselves to ritual and strong personal resonances.

These factors, among others, might help explain why we gravitate towards such music at this time of year. Looking at the influence of Victorian Britain on modern Christmas celebrations, the musicologist Sheila Whiteley highlights the importance of family (both literal and the wider idea), as well as a utopia of shared values.

Perhaps this sense of sharedness pushes the significance of Christmas week's number one beyond that of whatever is at the top of the charts at any other time of the year.

The number one place is the result of a popularity contest among music fans. While the metrics have changed across the decades, the principle of success has not. Chart positions represent a ranking arrived at nationally, suggesting a consensus, even if you were not among those who supported the winner.

Perhaps something is appealing in the perception that people without necessarily meaning to have sent something to the top of a public list, indicating that many others enjoy it. It hints at the social and communal.

Perhaps the specific holiday also multiplies these factors and makes them that bit more important. It appears to represent consensus at a time when animosities and hostilities are to be set aside (in theory at least) and when a social rapprochement descends like light snow for a couple of days.

In particular, our need for a sense of togetherness cannot be underestimated amid COVID restrictions and reduced social interaction. The feeling of common consent, tacit agreement and shared sensibilities appeals more keenly when people perceive its absence elsewhere.

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Is it the 'festive spirit' or there's more to Christmas hits that we can't stop listening to? - Economic Times