Category Archives: New Utopia

The charge that Donald Trump is a fascist has now become the staple meme, the meta-story, if you will, of leftist rhetoric and media coverage of the president. Legal scholar Juan Cole describes Trumps election this way: How the U.S. went fascist. Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns terms Trumps presidency Hitleresque. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow reveals, Ive been reading a lot about what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor, because I think thats possibly where we are.

These accusations, in some form or another, are endorsed by leading lights in the Democratic Party, by foreign leaders, and even by such Republicans asJohn McCain and Christine Todd Whitman. Even some fascism experts have endorsed the analogy between Trumps America and fascist regimes. Historian Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler, insists that Trumps tenure so far is based on a playbook written in German. That playbook is Mein Kampf.'

Certainly the Left at times accused Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush of being fascists. But that was throwaway rhetoric. In Trumps case, they mean it. The charge of fascism is used to justify unprecedented forms of resistance to Trump: attempting to subvert his election even after he won, refusing to attend his inauguration, disrupting inauguration events, seeking impeachment even without a shred of impeachable evidence, advocacy of a military coup, and even presidential assassination. If Trump is a fascist or some kind of Nazi, it seems legitimate to get rid of him by any means necessary.

But is he? Here I examine the five main characteristics that are routinely cited to prove Trump's fascism and nascent Nazism.

Reactionary.The reactionary charge, recently circulated in The New Yorker, is convenient for the Left because it associates conservatism and fascism with the past, and distinguishes it from progressivism, which is obviously concerned with the future. What makes the charge believable on the surface is that Trump, like most conservatives, seems to want America to get back to the good old days. Isn't that what Hitler promised to do? Wasn't his Third Reich a reactionary attempt to restore the First Reich of Charlemagne and the Second Reich of Bismarck?

Perhaps, but Trump's promised restoration is concerned with bringing back jobs. It is also about making government smaller and less bureaucratic. It is not about repealing progress in America on civil rights or women going to work. It is not about sending gays back into the closet. So, too, modern conservatism is about restoring the ideals of the founders, not the actual agrarian, undeveloped world in which the founders lived. So the right seeks to apply old principles which it considers enduring or permanent truths in our new situation today, so as to create a better future. There is nothing reactionary about that.

Nor were Mussolini's fascism or Hitler's national socialism reactionary in the classic sense. "All of Hitler's political ideas," Stanley Payne writes in "A History of Fascism," "had their origin in the Enlightenment." Historian Richard Evans that "none of the voters who flocked to the polls in support of Hitler" sought "to restore a lost past. On the contrary, they were inspired by a vague yet powerful vision of the future." This vision invoked symbols from the past, but it "did not involve just looking back, or forward, but both."

One of the groups that most strongly supported fascism in Italy was the self-designated futurists. Led by Filippo Marinetti, the futurists championed fast cars and new technologies and viewed themselves as on the cutting edge both of the sciences and of art. This was the group that encouraged fascism and Nazism to use new advances in technology and up-to-date techniques of media and propaganda. Historian Zeev Sternhell concludes that far from being reactionary, "The conceptual framework of fascism was nonconformist, avant-garde, and revolutionary in character."

The fascists and the Nazis sought to create a new man and new utopia freed from the shackles of the old religion and old allegiances. The whole mood of fascism and Nazism was beautifully captured in the Nazi youth depicted in the movie Cabaret, who sings not about a lost past but rather that "tomorrow belongs to me." Fascism's appeal was, as both its critics and enthusiasts recognized at the time, more progressive and forward-looking than it was backward and reactionary.

Authoritarianism.This is a big one, based on what the Left insists is a shared characteristic of Trump and fascist dictators. Even historian Timothy Snyder, a reputable scholar of fascism, affirms that Trump is an authoritarian in the manner of Hitler and Mussolini. Now Hitler and Mussolini were indeed authoritarians, but it doesn't follow that authoritarianism equals fascism or Nazism. Lenin and Stalin were authoritarian, but neither was a fascist. Many dictators Franco in Spain, Pinochet in Chile, Peron in Argentina, Idi Amin in Uganda were authoritarian without being fascists or Nazis.

Trump admittedly has a bossy style that he gets from, well, being a boss. He has been a corporate boss allof his life, and he also plays a boss on TV. Republicans elected Trump because they needed a tough guy to take on Hillary; previously they tried bland, harmless candidates like Mitt Romney, and look where that got them.

That being said, Trump has done nothing to subvert the democratic process. While progressives continue to allege a plot between Trump and the Russians to rig the election, the only evidence for actual rigging comes from the Democratic National Committee's attempt to rig the 2016 primary in favor of Hillary over Bernie. This rigging evoked virtually no dissent from Democratic officials or from the media, suggesting the support, or at least acquiescence, of the whole progressive movement and most of the party itself.

Trump has criticized judges, sometimes in derisive terms, but there is nothing undemocratic about this. Lincoln blasted Justice Taney over the Dred Scott decision, and FDR was virtually apoplectic when the Supreme Court blocked his New Deal initiatives.

Criticizing the media isn't undemocratic, either. The First Amendment isn't just a press prerogative; the president, too, has the right of free speech.

Authoritarians undermine legitimate structures of authority; has Trump or the GOP done this? Some progressives accused the GOP Senate leadership of undermining checks and balances by invoking the "nuclear option" to shut down a Democratic filibuster and confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Yet these progressives forgot to mention that it was former Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid who first invoked the "nuclear option," and Republicans were thus merely acting on his precedent.

Authoritarians often try to run your private life. Think of the way that authoritarian regimes like the Nazis and the Soviets sought to regulate the way that people worshipped or what they read or how they conducted their everyday life, a mindset captured in the Nazi saying that "only sleep is a private matter." Do you think Trump remotely cares how you live your private life? Does it matter to him which deity you worship or what book you read? Of course not.

Authoritarians strike fear into their opponents, while the very fact that Trump is flayed daily across countless media platforms shows that his opponents feel quite free to speak their minds. Consider a telling contrast. Hitler wiped out his opponents in the infamous Night of the Long Knives on June 30, 1934. Mussolini silenced his critics by taking over the presses and had one of his prominent opponents, Giacomo Matteotti, murdered.

Consider what Trump did, by contrast, to the singer Cher, who once said "some nasty sh**" about him. "I knocked the [sh**] out of her" on Twitter, Trump boasted, "and she never said a thing about me after that." He let her have it on Twitter. This is hardly the mark of an authoritarian.

Nationalism.If there is one feature that progressives consider essential to fascism and Nazism, it's nationalism.

Clearly Trump is a nationalist, and the modern American Right is nationalist and comfortable with the symbols of traditional patriotism, such as the waving of the flag or boisterous renditions of the national anthem and "God Bless America." By contrast, the modern Left is internationalist it has little patience with displays of traditional patriotism and this seems to distinguish the Left on the one hand, from the Nazis, the fascists and the American conservatives on the other.

Yet is nationalism or even ultra-nationalism sufficient to make one a fascist? Was Mussolini more of a nationalist than, say, Churchill or De Gaulle? George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were nationalists. The French revolutionaries were all nationalists. Nelson Mandela was a nationalist. Castro was a nationalist who coined the revolutionary slogan, "The Fatherland or Death." Che Guevara was a nationalist, as was Pol Pot. Even when he lived in England and South Africa, Gandhi was a dedicated Indian nationalist. Stalin was a nationalist who championed "Mother Russia." Obviously it makes no sense to call these men fascists.

It is also worth remarking that if Hitler and Mussolini were nationalists as they unquestionably were they were nationalists of a very different type than American conservatives. "Mussolini was not a traditional nationalist," historian Zeev Sternhell writes. A. James Gregor goes further. "Mussolini was opposed to traditional patriotism and conventional nationalist appeals." Early in his career Mussolini ridiculed the Italian flag and called the army "a criminal organization designed to protect capitalism and bourgeois society." Hitler called himself a nationalist but he refused to call himself a patriot.

Both sought a new type of nationalism which involved loyalty not to the nation as it was but to the new nation they sought to create. Fascist nationalism called upon citizens to subordinate their private concerns fully to the centralized state. This type of nationalism let's call it statist or collectivist nationalism more closely resembles the American Left than the American Right, since the American Right holds, with Reagan, that "government is not the solution. Government is the problem."

Militarism.Another characteristic regularly used by progressives to link Trump to fascism and Nazism is his alleged militarism. In March The Washington Post featured a headline charging, "The Trump Presidency Ushers in a New Age of Militarism." Now fascism and Nazism were indeed militaristic. Hitler and Mussolini were both veterans of World War I, and of course they were, along with their Japanese allies, the joint perpetrators of World War II.

Even so, historian Stanley Payne writes that "fascism is usually said to have been expansionist and imperialist by definition, but this is not clear from a reading of diverse fascist programs." Indeed "several fascist movements had little interest in or even rejected new imperial ambitions," while others advocated war that was "generally defensive rather than aggressive."

I mention this not to exonerate fascism and Nazism on this score, but to highlight that we should not confuse the incidental features of an ideology with its central characteristics. If fascism was imperialistic because it flourished in the interregnum between two world wars, it doesn't follow that fascism is inherently militaristic or that militarism is one of its defining features. By analogy, if the American founders were farmers, it doesn't follow that farming was central to the American founding. Leftists seem to routinely attribute the accidental features of Nazism and fascism to the ideologies themselves.

Trump is not a militarist. He is, in fact, less militarist than his party. Of course Trump wants to defeat ISIS militarily, but this is because ISIS is a terrorist organization that seeks to destroy America. In early April this year, Trump ordered a strike against a Syrian airfield. This seems to have been an outraged response to horrific pictures Trump saw showing the victims of a chemical gas attack by the Syrian despot Bashar Assad. Trump's action was a surprise to his critics and supporters alike, neither of whom expected Trump to intervene in this way.

The conventions of social media do not require that we check out the backgrounds of the people that we retweet.

Trump's Syria action seems anomalous given his general semi-isolationist stance. While the GOP generally supported Bush's invasion of Iraq, for instance, Trump campaigned for the presidency on his opposition to the war. If Trump wanted to annex Mexico and make it part of Greater USA, then he could be accused of imitating Hitler's Lebensraum. But nothing could be further from Trump's mind. He has outlined a vision of a less interventionist America that focuses on its own internal problems.

Racism and xenophobia.This is the final and most incendiary charge. Every comparison between Trump and the Nazis goes here. By way of a single sample, Elizabeth Warren explains Trump's rise as the product of an "ugly stew of racism." Perhaps the strongest basis for the charge is that the Left has uncovered some white supremacists and anti-Semites who say they back Trump. One of them, Richard Spencer, held a notorious rally in which he and his few dozen supporters cried out, "Hail Trump."

Spencer seems here to be doing his best Hitler imitation. Yet if these racists and anti-Semites endorse Trump, Trump himself doesn't endorse them. The best the Left can show is that Trump has retweeted some statements by white nationalists even though the statements themselves are benign. I retweet people all the time without knowing much about them. The conventions of social media do not require that we check out the backgrounds of the people that we retweet.

Notice that over the course of American history, many racists voted for Lincoln who actively courted the anti-immigrant, Know Nothing Vote and Wilson and FDR, who also actively sought the votes of avowed racists. It doesn't follow that Lincoln, Wilson and FDR were racists. Lincoln clearly wasn't a racist. Wilson was; the evidence on FDR is somewhat ambiguous. My point here, however, is simply that the racist vote by itself doesn't make its beneficiary a racist.

Obviously, the question still remains: Why do these guys like Trump if Trump isn't a racist like them? One possible answer is that these are jobless guys, losers in society, some of them total imbeciles. Whatever they call themselves fascists or whatever frankly, I don't believe they are fascists or know much about fascism. Hitler would have sent most of them straight to the gas chambers. (Let's recall that one of the earliest categories of people Hitler euthanized were the so-called "imbeciles.") It's quite possible that these guys support Trump because they expect him to bring back unskilled jobs. In other words racists might still like Trump for reasons that have nothing to do with racism.

Trump was being at worst somewhat insensitive. Insensitivity is not the same thing as bigotry.

Once the charge of having racist supporters is relinquished, not much else remains. Is Trump a racist and xenophobe because he "hates immigrants" and once called a Hispanic federal judge a "Mexican?" Yes I know; the judge in question is a U.S. citizen. I'm a U.S. citizen, so that would be like calling me an "East Indian." Even if someone else intends to insult me by calling me an Indian, I'm not offended; what's the big deal? Even for those who are thin-skinned, Trump was being at worst somewhat insensitive. Insensitivity is not the same thing as bigotry.

Trump's statements about Muslims cannot be termed racist for the simple reason that Islam is a religion, not a race. Can they, however, be termed xenophobic? Let's consider Trump's executive order banning travel to America from several Muslim-majority countries. These happen to be countries that breed terrorists. They are also countries where the vetting of people, some of whom have been displaced from their homes and communities, is especially difficult. Locke says that whatever other tasks a government undertakes whether humanitarian or otherwise its primary duty is to protect its own citizens from foreign and domestic thugs. That isn't fascism; it's classical liberalism.

Similarly, classical liberalism holds that a liberal society is a social compact among citizens who agree to come together for certain benefits and protections that they seek in common. In exchange for these protections and privileges, they give up the exercise of some of their natural rights. The point here is that natural rights belong to everyone, but civil and constitutional rights are the product of a social compact. It follows, therefore, that civil rights belong only to citizens. Aliens who are not part of the American social compact don't have any constitutional rights. Again, Trump in denying that illegal aliens have a constitutional right to be here is in the mainstream of the liberal tradition.

Trump isn't against "immigrants" for the simple reason that illegal aliens are not immigrants. Leftists in Congress and the media routinely and deliberately conflate legal and illegal immigrants, as in New York Gov.Andrew Cuomo's comical rant, "We are all immigrants," and this front page headline in The New York Times: "More Immigrants Face Deportation Under New Rules."

According to this leftist narrative, my wife Debbie (immigrant from Venezuela) and I (immigrant from India) are Trump's targets, and we should be living in fear. But this is a lie, and Cuomo and the editors of The Times know it. Trump has no intention to send us packing to our countries of origin. Trump's distinction is between legal immigrants and lawbreakers who seek to circumvent the immigration process.

This is not a racial distinction. Trump has never said that America is a white man's country or that brown or black people should not emigrate here. Most legal immigrants today come from Asia, Africa and South America, and Trump seems fine with that.

Contrast Trump's position with that of Hitler. The Jews of Germany were legal immigrants or descended from legal immigrants. They were German citizens. Yet Hitlerdid not consider them to be true Germans. The Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship. So for Hitler the line was not between legal and illegal immigrants. It was not even between immigrants and native-born Germans. Rather, it was a racial line between Nordics or Aryan Germanic people on the one hand, and Jews and other non-Aryan "inferiors" on the other.

Finally, there's anti-Semitism, a charge that has been made against Trump by Senator Al Franken, among others. But nothing could be more absurd. Trump is, if anything, philo-Semitic. This shouldn't come as a surprise. He has a Jewish daughter-in-law, a Jewish son-in-law who is also one of his closest advisers, a daughter on whom he dotes (who converted to Judaism), and Jewish grandchildren.

As we can see from his April 2017 Holocaust remembrance speech widely praised by Jewish leaders and his May address at Israel's Yad Vashem memorial, Trump is unapologetically pro-Jewish and pro-Israel in way that his predecessor Barack Obama never was. In the words of Israel's prime minister, Netanyahu, "There is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than President Donald Trump." In sum, Trump is no racist, no anti-Semite, and no fascist.

Dinesh D'Souza's new book, "The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left," is published by Regnery.

(photo credit, homepage and article images: Gage Skidmore)

See more here:

Dinesh D'Souza: Debunking the Lie That Trump Is a Fascist - LifeZette

Press Release

This month saw Utopia Creations, Leeds's most exciting sales and marketing firm open a second office in the city, to increase their dominance in the region

2017 has been great so far for Utopia Creations as they launch their newest office in Leeds, the sales and marketing specialists are pleased to offer further representation for new and existing clients.

Utopia Creations specialises in a personalised form of direct marketing which allows them to connect with their customers' ideal consumers on a face-to-face basis. By encouraging one-to-one interactions between brand and consumer, Utopia Creations can drive long-lasting and personal business relationships between brand and consumer. In turn, this often leads to increased customer acquisition, brand awareness and brand loyalty for their clients.

About Utopia Creations: http://www.weareutopia.co.uk/about-us/

Direct event marketing strategies have unique capabilities, including reaching customers in targeted areas, in a low cost zero commitment platform. The one-size-fits-all approach can secure important live markets and can allow strategies to be tailored to reach their maximum potential.

Utopia Creations expose the top reasons why brands need to utilise event marketing:

Face-to-face selling builds relationships and ultimately builds trust. Consumers are becoming increasingly picky with their vendors, choosing those who are socially and economically conscious. Person to person promotions allows brand image and vision to be shared readily. Trust is easier to establish when working face to face with customers. Dedicated sales agents are on hand to answer questions, demonstrate products and offer a friendly smile throughout the entire experience.

A high level of personal service leads to additional referrals, which can result in increased sales. Satisfied customers become mini ambassadors who spread a positive message about their experience with a brand. Referrals from friends or family hold considerable value and are more likely to influence a decision that a manufactured advertisement regardless of how engaging it may be.

Face-to-face selling simplifies complexity, getting to "yes" faster. Irrespective of product or service being sold, a face to face sales set up is streamlined and offers the consumer more opportunities to tailor their packages to ensure maximum effectiveness is achieved. What's better than a private executive to provide expert advice on options and offer their experience to maximise the potential of the new investment.

Utopia Creations are excited to increase their market reach through 2017 and beyond, the possibilities for their clients is endless.

Source: https://salesandmarketing.com/content/3-benefits-face-face-relationship-selling

To find out more about Utopia Creations, follow them on Twitter @UtopiaCreation_ and find them on Facebook.

Go here to see the original:

Utopia Creations open new office to dominate Leeds market - Journalism.co.uk

Written by Shruti Dhapola | Updated: August 3, 2017 10:40 am The worst nightmare in this scenario is of the creation of a new-age Frankensteins monster, a super-intelligent entity that is beyond human control. (Illustration: C R Sasikumar)

What is artificial intelligence (AI)? Why is there so much discussion in science and tech circles about it?

Artificial Intelligence comes from computer systems that have been programmed to or have learnt to do tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence. Many apps and software are already making mundane work easier by doing a certain part of it for us, based on acquired intelligence. Companies like Uber are working on cars that travel from point to point, negotiating hurdles on the way and taking decisions on their own to ensure the journey is event-less.

While the full evolution of AI can open up a world of incredible possibilities, a fear many scientists have had is of computers beginning to gradually start doing things differently from the way in which a human programmer would do them. The worst nightmare in this scenario is of the creation of a new-age Frankensteins monster, a super-intelligent entity that is beyond human control.

And what was the exchange between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg about?

It started when the Facebook CEO was asked his views on AI during a Facebook Live Q&A on July 23. A viewer referred to fears expressed by Musk about AI getting out of hand (details in next question). Zuckerberg rejected Musks fears. I have pretty strong opinions on this. I am optimistic, he said. And I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios I just, I dont understand it. Its really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible.

Two days later, Musk hit back. Ive talked to Mark [Zuckerberg] about this. His understanding of the subject is limited, he tweeted on July 25. Zuckerberg didnt respond to this tweet, but wrote a Facebook post congratulating the AI team at his company, and reiterating his faith in the ability of AI to do good.

One reason Im so optimistic about AI is that improvements in basic research improve systems across so many different fields from diagnosing diseases to keep us healthy, to improving self-driving cars to keep us safe, and from showing you better content in News Feed to delivering you more relevant search results, he wrote. Every time we improve our AI methods, all of these systems get better. Im excited about all the progress here and its potential to make the world better.

So why is Musk apprehensive about AI?

The comment that Zuckerberg got asked about was made on July 15, when Musk told the National Governors Association summer meeting at Providence, Rhode Island: I have exposure to the very cutting edge AI, and I think people should be really concerned about it. I keep sounding the alarm bell, but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they dont know how to react, because it seems so ethereal.

Musk has held such views for several years now. In 2014, addressing students at MIT, he had said, I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, its probably that Increasingly, scientists think there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we dont do something very foolish. In the same speech, Musk compared AI to summoning the demon, and warned we might not be able to control it.

Also in 2014, Musk had tweeted: We need to be super careful with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes.

In June 2016, he told The Code Conference (where industry influencers have in-depth conversations about the current and future impact of digital technology on our lives), I dont love the idea of being a house cat, adding that the way to avoid that fate was a neural lace, a sort of injectible mesh that fits on the human brain and gives it digital computing capabilities. Creating a neural lace is the thing that really matters for humanity to achieve symbiosis with machines, he tweeted on June 4, 2016.

In February 2017, Musk reiterated the need for humans to become cyborgs through a merger of biological intelligence and machine intelligence to keep up with the robots that would soon take away a huge number of jobs. During his July 15 speech, he stressed on enforcing immediate regulation of AI: We need to be proactive about regulation instead of reactive, he said. Because I think by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, its too late. Governments couldnt afford to wait until a whole bunch of bad things happen, because AI represents a fundamental risk to the existence of civilisation, Musk said.

Is Musk alone in taking a grim view of AI?

No, Musk isnt the only one who believes unregulated AI could be a disaster for humanity. In an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Reddit earlier this year, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said that in a few years, AI would be strong enough to warrant concern. Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking had told the BBC in 2014 that the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.

Okay, but didnt Facebook panic and shut down its AI programme this week?

There have, indeed, been reports about Facebook shutting down one of its AI programmes, apparently because things went out of control with two chatbots that had started to talk to each other in a language humans could not understand. The reason Facebook shut the programme, however, was not runaway AI rather, it was only that the programme could not have brought any benefits to the company.

The programme in question allowed bots (autonomous programmes on a network) to communicate and negotiate with each other, in ways similar to humans. Unveiling the programme in June 2017, Facebook had said that these AI chatbots could create their own sentences, and did not have to stick to a script.

The problem was that the language they created to negotiate made sense to them, but could not be understood by humans and was, therefore, useless. This is how the conversation between the chat agents went:

Bob: I can i i everything else

Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to

Bob: you i everything else

Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me

Finally then, does AI really pose an existential threat to humanity?

It is important to understand that most research is still in the machine learning stage which entails teaching these deep neural networks (which mimic the human brain) something over and over again, depending on the task. For example, to ensure a programme or machine can recognise images and identify them correctly, the machine learning exercise would involve showing this network millions and millions of images, until it can identify them correctly.

AI is a complex subject; it would be simplistic to look at it as all bad or all good. But robots and AI taking away middle-class, manufacturing jobs in the not-so-distant future is a very real prospect that will have to be addressed by governments sooner than they probably think. Then theres the question of removing racial/class/gender bias from AI-driven programmes Microsoft was forced to shut down its chatbot Tay within 16 hours of launching it in March 2016 after Tay quickly learnt, and tweeted offensive material.

On the other hand, research shows AI can help identify diseases much better, faster, and be a boon to medical research. Self-driven cars are already here in fact, Elon Musks Tesla cars have an Auto-Pilot mode, which is self-driven. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Samsung, all are relying on AI in some form in their products. There is little doubt that sooner or later, discussions about its impact on humanity will move to public, legislative and policy making fora.

For all the latest Explained News, download Indian Express App

See the article here:

Ideas: Mark vs Musk, or utopia vs dystopia - The Indian Express

Bjrk shared an at once informative and not-so-informative post on Instagram this morning:

Over a year ago, actually, Bjrk announced that she was working on a utopian follow up to her last album,Vulnicura(which with both apocalyptic grandeur and granularity documented a breakup, and which the artist compared to hell). And, from the looks of it, that new album will soon be upon us; in fact, its already available to pre-order on her website though that doesnt mean the site provides any details about the content, or the title, or even the release date.

However, Bjrk recently did a soon-to-be-released interviewfor the cover story ofDazeds Autumn issue,that in part details the upcoming album and the magazine shared a preview of that feature today. The album, it notes, sees her collaborating once again with Arca, and she calls their work together the strongest musical bond [shes] ever had.

Bjrk also tells the magazine, This is like my Tinder albumIts about that search (for utopia) and about being in love. Spending time with a person you enjoy is when the dream becomes real. I, personally, want to hear a Scruff album from Bjrk but we cant have everything. Beyondwhat may or may not be poetized versions of swiping left set to sonic imaginings of the movements of tectonic plates, Bjrk also hints at a political drive for the album, a utopian dream to contrast the surge in right wing populism. She says, If were gonna survive the situation the world is in today, weve got to come up with a new plan. Especially now, this kind of dream is an emergency.

Visit link:

Bjrk's Utopian Follow-Up to 'Vulnucira' Will Soon Be Upon Us - Flavorwire

Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for 2017 ESSENCE Festival

Amazon sees your Confederate, HBO, and might be raising you Black America, a new series in very, very active development about what America would be like today if freed slaves had been given Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabamaas reparations after the Civil War. If thats ringing bells, youve probably been following the PR problem HBO has been having with its own in-development alternate-history series, which imagines a much more Man in the High Castletype present, where the South has seceded and slavery was both kept around and turned into a modernized arm of the economy over time.

Two of the Amazon programs biggest behind-the-scenes differences are that its being made by a black creative team, and that, while Confederate already has a series order, as of now Black America still needs to go through the pilot process at Amazon in hopes of getting picked up. There is a scenario in which it might get pre-green-lit by the streaming giant say, if it landed a few big-name talents but, at this time, it will still have to compete with the other series hopefuls.

According to Deadline which broke the news about Black Americas details today this isnt a rapid-fire response to Confederate, either. The show has been in the works for more than a year, but its producer Will Packer and creator Aaron McGruder only decided to go public now with its specifics. Because of all the Confederate headlines, Packer told Deadline he wanted to make sure the creative community knew that there was a project that preexisted, and we are pretty far down the road with it. He also addressed the impact of creating a place like New Colonia, the hard-won utopia at the center of Black America. It was something that was personally intriguing for me as a black American. You would be hard pressed to find many black Americans who have not thought about the concept of reparation what would happen if reparations were actually given.

As for all the trouble around Confederate a show from the creators of Game of Thrones that brings the darkest postCivil War timeline to life Packer had a few thoughts on that, as well. The fact that there is the contemplation of contemporary slavery makes it something that I would not be a part of producing or consuming, he told Deadline. Slavery is far too real and far too painful, and we still see the manifestations of it today as a country, for me to ever view that as a form of entertainment.

The web series based on James Cordens segment is coming to Apple Music.

Ben and Susies reunion is now a Parks and Rec reunion.

From The Postman to 2012, this isnt the way the world ends.

Will Ferrell is producing a comedy with Adam McKay for the streaming service.

Senator Franken suspected it might happen when he noticed a certain vice-president missing.

See where Aubrey gets his moves from.

Jack Thorne wrote the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play.

According to Wests legal team, the company that insured his last tour is failing to pay the artists rightfully deserved loss claims.

Cosbys retrial is just three months away.

The favorite skivvies of Ansel Elgort, Emma Watson, Marion Cotillard, and Carmelo Anthony.

Sometimes to make a King of Queens reunion happen, you need a little death.

Moynihan called the last year one of his hardest and weirdly, maybe, deep down, one of my favorites.

Nice to see he has some outside projects.

Hell or High Water, The Babadook, and more.

The answer may surprise you.

Its like Strangers on a Train for Instagram.

Say hello to The Tick and Comrade Detective.

See original here:

Amazon Is Developing Its Own PostCivil War Alternate-History Series Called Black America - Vulture

Fish Griwkowsky/Postmedia Network

Serena Ryder is one versatile Canadian -- moving like a confident ghost through the walls of folk, country, lite rock and, lately, the sort of Autotuned, positive power pop that makes it seem like the entire history of rock and roll happened at once. Tonight, perhaps, until sometime around the break of dawn.

Ryder has in her quiver a bumping and moving collection of arrows to follow up 2012's hit Stompa. That 2012 album, Harmony, took her international, going platinum here and nabbing the singer another two of the Junos she's been shelving since the get-go.

Powerful and delicious, Ryder's new collection, Utopia, is like a snowball made of ice cream -- pick your favourite flavour, it's likely there. (OK, maybe not doom metal, but give her time, people.)

It's the old Willie Nelson trick: pleasing the cowboys and bikers at the same time -- although in Ryder's case you really do get the feeling she's aiming directly for the centre of the sun, in a good way, hoping to warm us all.

But why did it take her five years to release a follow-up album? Well, as the 34-year-old's been burning rubber in the industry since childhood, the simplest answer seems to be "because she could." She even relaxed, almost, which we'll get to. First, though, that hypnotic video, pushing forward through the triangles and singing faces "

Q. The video for Electric Love is so money - how much did that thing cost? Just kidding. But really, you must be happy.

A. I don't think I've done a video like that - it actually looks like an iTunes commercial or something. It was a bunch of different fans of my music that came to try out - who's not going to get in? Just have some fun, pretend you're singing!

Q. Recap the story of what happened between all the good things that happened after Harmony to the point where you released Utopia. Five years!

A. We toured almost three years on that record, which was amazing. I'd been doing this since I was eight years old, but Harmony was where I got songs on the radio. But I was exhausted, and that's what happens, especially if it's successful - you're always touring. After that cycle I decided I actually want to live a little bit, so instead of hanging out in Toronto, I moved to L.A. where I have a bunch of friends. I always wanted to live by the ocean, close to Venice, to Marina del Rey, and just had a really inspiring time. Everyone was constantly writing and making art so, instead of taking a break, I instantly started writing. I'd never written that way before where I was writing just for the love of it. I just got the bug. Over the course of two years, I ended up writing almost 100 songs. The theme of the album started coming out, my never-ending search for balance. One of my best friends is Simon Wilcox, a brilliant human being and songwriter and artist. We'd write a song in, like, two hours. Simon told me the First Nations story of the two wolves, everyone having a dark wolf and light wolf that live inside of them, battling each other. The one you feed is the one that wins.

Q. That's why there are wolves all over the album.

A. That was the beginning of it. I could see how this story can relate to every single human being. I'm kind of annoyed at that whole movement of The Secret and if you just think positive thoughts, positive things will happen. But there's so much truth and lessons in feeling sad, having that balance. It's a First Nations story, it's not my story to tell, but I learned from it. I thought, what if you feed both of them? If neither wolf is hungry, they're not going to be at battle with each other.

Q. You've been vocal about the dark side and depression before.

A. The reason I brought it out into the light during my last album is I feel like the worst part of any sort of depression or any sort of mental-health issue is that people feel totally, totally alone. The only way I've ever known how to express that is through my art and music. The only way I've really found help in my life is through that as well, relating to art and music, because it's something that can articulate it like nothing else. Relating is the most important thing -- because there's no winning. If you think there's a battle, there's going to be one for the rest of your life. When fans come up and say it helped to talk about it, I have to say I was doing it to help myself.

Q. I think the song Ice Age is the winner, that one really kills me. There's something very Canadian about talking about thawing.

A. (Laughs.) It's one of my favourites to perform.

Q. You've got an amazing voice, I think you can hit almost any note you want to -- I'm thinking Sanctuary. How do you feel when you're singing those songs where you really belt it out, compared to the faster pop songs?

A. I always do sway more to the songs where I can really put myself there emotionally. I'm glad you brought up Sanctuary, that's my favourite song on the entire record. There's something about holding a note when you're saying something poignant, holding that space -- it's almost meditative, it gives you that experience.

fgriwkowsky @fisheyefoto

. . . .

If you go

Celebrate Ontario150 in Sudbury with a free concert featuring Serena Ryder, Coleman Hell, Mia Martina and Jonathan Roy.

The ONtour concert series will be held at the Grace Hartman Ampitheatre in Bell Park on Aug. 19 from 6-9 p.m.

The ONtour concert series will provide the soundtrack of summer 2017 -- showcasing some of Ontario's brightest musical talent and enhancing its reputation as one of the most vibrant and diverse live music venues in the world. This all-ages event is rain or shine. To learn more about ONtour, please visit ontario.ca/ONt

Read more:

Serena Ryder back and coming to Sudbury - The Sudbury Star

LAST week's announcement that new petrol and diesel cars will be banned in the UK by 2040 might have come as a surprise to many car enthusiasts but do fan boys dream of electric cars? And is an electric future really all it's cracked up to be? We look at the pros and cons for the future of motoring.

So you've swapped your old gas guzzler for an environmentally friendly electric car: you can give yourself a gold star for your ethical choices, right? Not so fast. Last year Amnesty International raised concerns that leading electric car makers General Motors (GM), Renault-Nissan and Tesla had failed to disclose the steps they are taking to ensure that cobalt mined by child labourers as young as seven in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is not used in their batteries. "Electric cars may not be as clean as you would think," says Mark Dummett, researcher at Amnesty International. "Customers need to be aware that their green cars could be linked to the misery of child labourers in the Democratic Republic of Congo." Analysts are also expecting a 100-fold increase in the production of lithium, the key component of electric car batteries, much of which comes from South America, particularly Chile and Bolivia places not known for their sparkling record on workers' rights.

Silence: golden or deadly?

This brave new world of motoring is virtually silent. No combustion engine means that typical engine noise is substituted for the benign hum of the electric motor. According to Which Car: "It makes for an eerily quiet, but ultimately relaxing, drive."

But Rodney Kumar, of road safety charity IAM Roadsmart, says it might also mean that we have to rethink road safety. As he points out, we're used to listening as well as looking; a key safety message that doesn't hold when it comes to the electric car. "People need to be aware that they won't hear what they can see," he says. "We might need to bring road safety back into schools too so that children are able to learn how to react."

Robo-mobile

In the next 20 years cars are likely to become autonomous, indeed Tesla's Elon Musk says all his cars come equipped with the hardware needed to drive themselves. "Wouldnt it be handy if your electric car could drive itself to a near charging station while you slept, and returned ready for the next morning?" said a member of the Which Car team. "The technology were already glimpsing today, most famously from Tesla, may make that possible in the future, but naturally were a long way from that becoming publicly available."

Electric buses are likely to go the same way, especially as low-emission zones become more widespread. Meanwhile Volkswagens research group this month announced that it was working on a "mobile charging robot prototype" why get out of the car to connect it to the charger when the machines can do it for you?

Grid lock or renewable revolution?

The experts are agreed that if half of the UK's cars went electric tomorrow, the National Grid would not cope. But it's claimed there are solutions. According to Michael Rieley of Scottish Renewables, renewable energy has a part to play and Scotland has the wind and wave power to be an important part of that solution. Ian Crowther of the AA agrees. "There needs to be investment in carbon-neutral power generation," he says, claiming just half a dozen solar panels could potentially charge your car for free.

Range rovers

So far most electric cars don't have the range that most drivers are looking for. Though the Nissan Leaf, first launched in 2010 has a range of between 70-100 miles, most mass-market electric cars have slightly more, while Renault's recently launched Zoe again fully electric has a range of 250km and cars such as Teslas electric vehicles can run for 334 miles.

Though it doesn't yet compete with the 400-500 miles a petrol or diesel car would run before having to fill up, that is set to change, according to Chris Lilly, content manager of Next Green Car. "In the last 18 months we've seen the range of electric cars increase by about 50 per cent and I would expect that rise to continue," he says. For those who can't handle so-called "range anxiety" there's always the hybrid car, allowing petrol to take over when the charge runs low.

Volvo has recently announced that all their cars will be electric or hybrid from 2019 and, according to Which Cars, pure electric cars will be ubiquitous within the next decade.

Charging solutions

Currently charging is not exactly quick and easy; on a home plug socket it can take all day or night, while standard council chargers allow access for two to three hours, which should allow you to get home. As Kumar of IAM Roadsmart points out, if each car takes three hours at a charging point, just eight cars in one 24-hour period could use it. "We'd need to move pretty fast on improving the infrastructure if we were going to avoid logjams," he says. But Lilly claims that faster charging is well within our sights, with super-charge points already capable of charging car battery within the hour and ultra-fast chargers now being rolled out elsewhere in Europe. It's only a matter of time before petrol stations start installing them too, he argues.

He admits that for those without off-street parking, home charging is tricky. Cables leading across pavements pose "a health and safety nightmare", he adds. But some London lampposts have already had charge points installed and "induction" charging is being trialled, which means you simply have to park over a charge point set in the road and the car charges using the same technology as your electric toothbrush.

The AA is already planning to include charging points on its app and route planners, though it points out other maps such as the ZapMap also exist: just put in your destination and the car decides how much charge is left and identifies chargers en-route.

Cost considerations

In terms of upfront costs, electric cars are still generally more expensive than conventional ones though Telsa's latest Model 3, at 26,650, is pitched as an "affordable", mass-market family vehicle. Renault and Nissan are also getting around the costs by offering deals where buyers lease the battery. For example, the UKs best-selling electric, the Nissan Leaf, is 16,680 with the battery on lease for a monthly fee, rising to 21,680 if you buy the battery outright.

The electric version of the Golf, the e-Golf, will cost you 32,190 to buy (or 27,690 after the government grant for plug-in vehicles is applied) that's 9k more than the petrol version.

They are, however, very cheap to run. Travelling 100 miles in an electric car will cost 3-4 depending on energy tariffs, compared with 15 in a petrol car and grants of 75 per cent of the cost of a home charger are available. Also, since April this year, only zero-emission vehicles like electric are exempt from paying car tax.

Read more:

Electric dreams? Utopia or dystopia - Herald Scotland

2. Art and food

My art and the food have equal weight. Good art conditions require the winter weather and waves, to prep the surface. I draw in the sand with a stick and rake, and take aerial photos of the drawings before they disappear. I also do huge designs of vehicle tracks. Ive exhibited at MoMA PS1, and a number of companies have commissioned artwork from me. O.I.T.F. requires the seasonal harvest, and good weather for being outdoors.

3. Feast in the field

One of our May dinners was at Front Porch Farm in Healdsburg, Calif.

A satellite crew of people who travel to dinners under their own power helps us set up, serve and clean up at events. I cook when theres no guest chef.

At dinners I park the bus near the table in a particular way so its not only a mobile office but also part of a composition (or part of the work scene, in an artistic sense).

Rolling along

All seven of us live and work on the bus. I like to travel in the captains seat across from the driver and take in the view when Im not working somewhere on the bus. I rarely drive it, but Im going to this year.

4. Devices welcome

The dinette, our main work area, is often packed with people and productivity. But generally were not all working at the same time, and I work wherever I can find a seat.

Now you see it

The entire office converts to sleeping quarters for eight.

The desks disappear into the beds and come out again in the morning.

Each desk has a cup holder so drinks dont slide, and we put a soft rubber mat under a laptop to keep it secure.

5. Cubbies

Everyone gets a cubby for work items, and a storage area in the back of the bus for personal items.

We have lots of outlets for chargers and charging stations. I went way overboard and had these installed all over, but Im glad I did.

Work habits

Everyone has a water bottle and they tend to be left all over, coloring the interior of the bus. Mine is green and seldom has water in it. The crew tells me to drink some water if I get grumpy.

I make drawings and illustrated stories and give them away to staff, customers, farmers, and chefs. Quick, and here you go.

I always have Sharpies, crayons and cheap blank notebooks around for writing and drawing.

Soothing sounds

My assistant Seth brought a small music box on the bus and eventually gave it to me after I kept asking for it. It plays You Are My Sunshine. The bus driver controls who gets to play what. Like being silly, music is great for keeping spirits up on the long drives.

Bus-less trip

We recently made it to Chile without the bus. I may transport it to other countries on a container ship in the future. My brother, an organic farmer who inspired me, advises on farming in Chilean orchards, so we had to go there. We organized a dinner while there.

6. Reading time

The bus has books like Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia, which examines utopian impulses. Its critical to thoughtfully consider what we do. I also have copies of my cookbook. I doodle on it when someone wants a signed copy.

Restroom niceties

The bathroom, especially the shower area, is tiny. The shower nozzle is like a kitchen faucet nozzle. Im 6-4, so I prefer to shower somewhere else. Sometimes we stay in hotels or a farmer has extra room.

Interview conducted and condensed by Patricia R. Olsen.

Read more from the original source:

A Mobile Office for Farm-Based Dinners Travels the Country - New York Times

Africa Utopia is an annual festival celebrating the arts and culture of one of the worlds most dynamic and fast-changing continents. Championed by Senegalese singer and human rights advocate Baaba Maal, the annual program features a range of talks, workshops, music, performances, fashion, and food.

8 AFWL Designers (past and present) showcased 9 capsule collections on a specially made catwalk on Southbanks outside terrace for this years Africa Utopia.

The designers were:

Slow-Case by Odette Steele. Her remit was to highlight the throwaway culture of the Western world and how many of these unwanted fashions end up in Africa Markets. Odette showed her textile training to up cycle and redecorate the plain western textiles into something desirable and luxurious.

A past AFWL designer, Bola Obileye of Tote Collections showed us her love of vintage 1950s glamour with petticoat-ed rockabilly dresses in African print (of course!), mixed with Roy Lichtenstein pop art inspired pencil skirts and clutch bags. Totally inspiring!

New-comer and freshly graduated Abisola Akanni showed us a collection of menswear that was full of fun, colour, drama. Our male models absolutely loved this collection and didnt want to take it off! Abisola is so unassuming, it makes us marvel at her imagination and we cant wait to see what she shows on the AFWL catwalk and in the future.

AFWL Head Stylist couldnt help but bring two collections to the catwalk. Womenswear full of slinky glamor and shine; and menswear showing tailored dinner jackets paired with Japanese Obi belts and Africanized kimonos.

2 Nigerian menswear designers took the stage, Kola Kuddus and Del Africa, showing a modern twist on traditional Nigerian menswear. Ombr print and out of the ordinary embroidery took wax print to the next level and we loved it. We have to get more of these designs in London.

London based designer Yemzi wowed us with a complete print free collection, dark and moody, but beautifully tailored bang up to date playsuits, shorts, jackets that made out models bounce the runway. She promises a new collection for Africa Fashion Week in August. We cant wait to see it!

AFWL veteran designer Tina Ugo of Didi Creations showed next level caftan designs. Beautiful sexy caftans netted, bold print, lace. All paired with head wraps and slink. Beautiful.

Credits Brand: African Fashion Week London | @afwlondon Photography: Rod Leon

Celebrating African Fashion & Style One of the many threads that unite our continent!

Connect with us! Send an email: style@bellanaija.com Follow us on Instagram: @bellanaijastyle

Original post:

#AFWL2017: Africa Fashion Week London 2017 Designers Shine at Africa Utopia - BellaNaija

Over a year on from first seeing it and Ctrl remains one of our favorite VR movies. Breaking Fourth pushed the medium forward with a short story that looked past the awe of VR and told something shocking and memorable. After a long wait, the teams next experience has finally been revealed, and its called Utopia 6.

We dont have much to go on right now other than a small plot outline. Utopia 6 is set 200 years in the future and depicts a world ruined by war and disaster. The top 1% of the worlds eagerly awaits Utopia 6, a luxurious city that puts the worlds past behind you. In the film, youre taken on a tour of this new world with the CEO of its creator, Utopia Life Corporation. His assistant, Bea, joins you, but it soon becomes clear she is struggling to adapt to this strange new world.

Thematically, the piece is about the struggles of adapting to new communities and overcoming outsider status. Its directed by David Kaskel and Nathan Miller and written by Jo Harper. Its set to last 10 minutes.

Want a first look at it? The World Premiere will be held at the FuturePlay VR event during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from August 3rd 26th. We dont know about a wider release just yet, although Ctrl is now available on everything from Gear VR to PlayStation VR, so hopefully well see Utopia 6 follow on soon.

Read the original:

Utopia 6 Is The New VR Film From The Makers Of Ctrl - UploadVR