Category Archives: New Utopia

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Press release from the issuing company

Combined Locks, Wis. -Appleton Coateds newFind Your Utopiaswatchbook helps corporations, designers, and printers map their creative course with the power of print.The swatchbook guides users towards the best Utopia coated paper for their projects. It also powerfully showcases print excellence on all grades and finishes.

Combining vivid photography and superb printing, our latest swatchbook demonstrates Utopias unique attributes, while emphasizing the excellent value, first-class service, and environmental sustainability that comes with every order, says Ferk X. Goldinger, Appleton Coateds marketing manager.

The swatchbook explains the entire Utopia family of five high-quality coated papergrades:

Goldinger continues, The entire Utopia product line is made in the USA at our mill. Its complete range of matching text and cover weights, in extra bright white, blue-white, and warm ivory shades, delivers the right solution for every project and budget. It offers reliable, consistent performance and the smoothest, most uniform surface available today. Plus, all grades are Lacey Act compliant and all are acid-free, pH neutral, and elemental chlorine-free.

The new swatchbook is available from Appleton Coated Merchant Distributors and from Appleton Coated Sample Servicessampleservices@appletoncoated.com Find your merchantwww.appletoncoated.com

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Find Your Utopia with Appleton Coated's New Swatchbook - What They Think

A Swiss-Swedish startup wants to bring the power of big data and social-media analysis to the music business, offering artists instant insight into where and how their songs are playing so they can market more effectively to fans.

Utopia Music Group is being billed as a new kind of record company by its founder,Mattias Hjelmstedt. Like an old-school label, Utopia Music will also produce and book live performances and handle artist logistics, such as flights, cabs and hotel rooms.

Source: Utopia Music Group

But the company claims to offer more -- artificial-intelligence software that sifts through data gathered from sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Augmented with the information coming from YouTube, radio playlists and music-streaming services, it spits out insights that pinpoint, for example, where musicianss fastest-growing audiences are. The intel can be used to boost income with better decisions about marketing campaigns, live concerts and promotions.

Today the music world is so digital that you can essentially see the result of marketing seconds later, Hjelmstedt said in a phone interview ahead of this weeks Winter Music Conference in Miami.

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In a departure from traditional label deals, Utopia Music will sign artists to open-ended contracts, allowing them to walk away at any point, Hjelmstedt said. The programmer and serial entrepreneur, who founded cloud-based TV service Magine AB and co-founded video-on-demand company Voddler, is convinced that artists will stick around once they see the benefits of an AI-infused marketing strategy that captures global data on listening habits and emerging trends compared with the standard spray and pray approach, he said.

Were a blend of a record label, a publisher and a management company that works with artists to shrink the value chain and use technology to transparently extend their reach, Hjelmstedt said. Record companies today dont use much of the modern marketing technologies, they sort of throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.

The company, which is currently funded by the Swede and a small group of investors, plans to raise a larger sum at the end of the third quarter to invest in management companies and artists to tap into existing revenue streams, Hjelmstedt said.

These days, artists earn more touring than on distribution and the industry is very old-fashioned, with concert bookings still based on personal contacts, according toHjelmstedt. Utopia Music can see that an artist should tour tomorrow in Queens, New York, for instance, because their fan base is surging there.

That can change the entire industry for touring so the artist is always where theyre hottest, boosting income significantly, he said.

Utopia Music is based in Zug, Switzerland to take advantage of the best international corporate laws to enhance artist revenue,Hjelmstedt said. Utopia has its main operational office in Barcelona, where local laws are forgiving to startups, and it has satellites in Los Angeles and New York.

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This Swiss Startup Is Bringing AI to the Music Label Business - Bloomberg

Hans Holbein the Younger's oil painting of Sir Thomas More, 1527.

In 1516, Thomas More was at the top of his game. He was widely recognised as one of the great intellectuals of Europe; a key adviser to princes and prelates, and an esteemed colleague of the greatest thinkers of the age. That summer, while he was pondering the implications of taking on heavier responsibilities at the court of Henry VIII a decision that eventually cost him his life he visited his old friend Erasmus, and he wrote a little book.

This book coined a word that changed the world: Utopia, or, to give it its full title, The New Island of Utopia. It was an arch little Latin pun: u-topos meant "no place", but sounded the same as eu-topos, a "beautiful place".

Why a new island? Because More's world had just been shaken to its foundations by the discovery of "the New World", a term which had itself only come into use a decade or so before. And the New World suggested the possibility of human societies living in utterly novel ways. People with eyes in the middle of their forehead, perhaps, or with strange rituals and beliefs, or as More supposed people who did not know the gospel of Christ, yet behaved better than the Christians who did.

More's Utopia was not paradise or heaven. It was constructed and built by humans, yet so designed as to bring out the best in us and prevent the worst. It was this combination of wild fantasy, on the one hand, and what we would now call "regulatory design", on the other, that distinguished More's inventive text. The fantasy of a new island from a new world gave him the freedom to think through conventional wisdom, and excoriate the society, values, and customs of the world he lived in where religion corrupts faith, money corrupts politics, self-interest rules everywhere and justice is not to be found.

Sound familiar? Are we condemned to this one narrow and unforgiving path through life, More asked? Or should we re-imagine what our world could be like, if only we could start afresh?

That was Utopia's bold challenge. It might be thought to be the very first science-fiction novel every written, and many that followed in its wake owe Utopia an enormous debt. More's book had effects not just in literature but in the real world, where thousands of communities from that day to this have sought not just to dream utopia but to build it, on some new island of their own: from New Australia in Paraguay, to Utopia in the Northern Territory.

Yet after 500 years, utopia seems further away than ever. Indeed, the whole language of political vision, ambition, and dreaming has become a byword for pointlessness; even for fanaticism. The victims of Pol Pot's utopia can be counted in the millions; that of Karl Marx, some would say, in the tens of millions.

But here in the "new island" of Australia, what is striking is the lack of vision. We seem to be faced by the most crucial and far-reaching of problems: climate change, global inequality, terrorism and authoritarianism as far as the eye can see. Yet our political discourse does not seem up to the task. Politics appears nothing but the pursuit of the narrowest of middle grounds. The 24-hour media cycles encourage the same narrow discussions, the same refusal to think ambitiously or imagine more far-reaching questions. Our country, like the ostrich, has its head in the sand paralysed by fear and consumed by denial.

So what have we lost by refusing to look to the horizon? by refusing to re-imagine our world and, in the process, cast a seriously critical eye on what now counts as received wisdom? This critical imagination seems to have wholly deserted us. The funny thing is scientists now think there is not one universe but an infinite number, constantly popping up like bubbles of gas on the surface of a marsh. But just as scientists are finding the truth in a universe of infinite possibility, our politics seems determined to shut our options down, insisting there is no choice but the world, the society, the economy good grief, even the housing market we happen to have now.

On the 500th anniversary of More's little book, the time has surely come to take some risks. The goal will not be to find a utopia that everyone can agree on. On the contrary,More's imaginary world was designed to place in stark relief the failures and the betrayals of the world as it actually existed. Utopia is u-toposno place. Rather, it is a thought experiment against which to test our beliefs, to challenge the order of things, and to measure our world against our needs and desires. Without it, Australia eu-topos is slipping away, leaving us victims of the future, rather than its architects.

Professor Desmond Manderson is director of the ANU's Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities. The centre, with the National Library and Radio National's Big Ideas, will host a roundtable at 6pm on March 28 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Utopia's publication. The roundtable will feature Peter Singer, Alexis Wright, Russell Jacoby and Jacqueline Dutton. For tickets, see the National Library's website.

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500 years after Sir Thomas More's Utopia, what have we learned? - The Sydney Morning Herald

Berlinische Galerie/Kai-Annett Becker Paul Scheerbart: Nusi-Pusi, 1912

Walter Benjamin contrasted the well-ventilated utopias of the distinctive German writer and illustrator Paul Scheerbart (1863-1915) with the overheated fantasies of the Surrealists. To bring our culture to a higher level, Scheerbart argued in Glass Architecture (1914), his marvelous utopian novel in the form of an aesthetic manifesto, the heavy Wilhelmine buildings of brick and stone needed to be replaced with glass, which lets in the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars, not merely through a few windows, but through every possible wall, which will be made entirely of glassof colored glass. One of his rhyming aphorisms might be translated: Without a palace of glass/ Life is a pain in the ass.

Scheerbart lived mainly in Berlin, in bohemian chaos and near starvation, according to one biographer. He drank, heavily, with August Strindberg and Edvard Munch, pored over Huysmanss novels with their Symbolist illustrations by Odilon Redon, and wrote copiously, first art criticism and then fiction, poetry, and plays, with little popular success. Often characterized as a fantasy writer prone to hallucinatory visions of inner and outer spacewith early stories set in heavily exoticized Arab landsScheerbart could also bring an odd, Borgesian precision to novels like his 1910 Perpetual Motion: The Story of an Invention, or to the high-tech schemes of a Chicago-based, glass-obsessed architect in his 1914 novel The Gray Cloth with Ten Percent White: A Ladies Novel (both of which are available in English). Disappointment with how his visionary stories were illustratedby some of the best illustrators of his age, such as Alfred Kubin and Flix Vallottoninspired Scheerbart to take up drawing himself.

In a recent exhibition and accompanying catalog, the Berlinische Galerie has brought some of Scheerbarts most indelible images together with the graphic work of two artists he inspired: the modernist architect Bruno Taut (who built a pineapple-shaped glass dome building in Cologne in Scheerbarts honor) and the little-known outsider artist Paul Goesch (killed by the Nazis in 1940, in their murderous purge of the mentally disabled), whose miniature and colorful architectural visions owe something to Scheerbart.

Scheerbarts drawings, airy nothings composed of dotted ink, are as well-ventilated as his utopian novels. To illustrate his asteroid fantasies, based on early photographs of outer space, Scheerbart perfected a distinctive style of vanishing pointillism. Beyond Neptune, on the other asteroid ring discovered there, he confidently informed Kubin, there are stars that consist solely of masses of air in which the new beings hover about as if in a dream. ScheerbartsJenseits-Galerie(Gallery of the Beyond), a folio of ten masterly lithographs published in Berlin in 1907, purported to depict such new beings, always equipped with a human face. One, evidently distant from the Sun, bristles with frozen stalactites.

Another has a volcano sprouting, like inspiration, from its head.Ein Luft-Bonaparte(An Air-Bonaparte) would seem to be another airy nothing encounteredout there, though its snail-like body and tentacles might suggest a submarine origin instead. Its S-shape and the absence on the sheet of his customary signature S raise the possibility that Scheerbart was modestly depicting himself as a conquering Napoleon of the Beyond.

In his futuristic writings, Scheerbart presciently predicted the rise of China, the formation of the European Union (which he hoped would reduce international conflict), and the nightmare of aerial bombardment, which he thought, mistakenly, would be so terrible that it would put an end to war. (He is rumored to have starved himself to death in protest of World War I.) In Transportable Cities (1909), more hopefully, he imagined lightweight urban clusters that could be packed up and moved, by car, from place to place. At the beginning of culture, man was a nomad, and in the end he will be a nomad once more. Walter Benjamin saw in Paul Klees little sketch of an Angelus Novus the sorrowing Angel of History, facing the horrors of the past, with outstretched wings, and helpless to do anything about them. It is tempting to see Scheerbarts Ein Zukunftskind (A Child of the Future) as an equally alarming vision of the future. With its lobster claws jutting directly from its temples, this hovering creature looks perfectly capable of surviving us all. Scheerbarts signature S looks like its larval form, patiently waiting its own turn on our blighted planet Earth.

Modern Visionaries: Paul Scheerbart, Bruno Taut, Paul Goesch is published by Scheidegger & Spiess and distributed by the University of Chicago Press.

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A Well-Ventilated Utopia - The New York Review of Books

Swedish Fetishism may include coveting idyllic countrysides, lively urban centers, and universal healthcare. Also: great ski gear.

When New York City shut down lastweek for a blizzard that never came to be, a particularly quirkyhashtag poppedup on Instagram and Twitter feeds across the Eastern seaboard: #hygge, the Danish lifestyle movement fetishizingall things cozy. Yet, according to The Cut and Vogue, #lagom is the Scandinavian trend we need in 2017.

Named after a Swedish concept (roughly translatedas not too much, not too little),the phenomenon is just the latest instance of Americas longstanding fascination with Sweden, known for its attractive, leggy populace, austere design aesthetic, and unusually cheerymusic.

For left-leaning Americans, however, the nations primary appeal stems from its reputation as aprogressive utopia, arguably Scandinavias most successful example ofmixing socialist politics and a capitalist economy.Offeringfree college, universal health care, and a robust social safety net, Swedens egalitarian reputation became anespeciallypoignant fantasyafter the 2016 election. Then, on February 18,Trump opted to defendhis controversial travel ban byvaguely invokinga phantom Swedish terrorist incident, bafflinghis constituents and renewingour fervor for the apparent liberalwonderland.

That night, Leif Pagrotsky, Swedens consul general in New York City and one of the nations top diplomats, was watching the Saturday evening news. The attack was news to Pagrotsky, news to everybody in Sweden. So hespent the rest of his weekend researching whether there was anything to Trumps claims. By Monday, the official Swedish response had been determined: a polite, quizzical note sent to the White House, along the lines of Pardon?

Pagrotskys own response wasmore sardonic. After a Twitter user discovered that the biggest incident of Sweden last night was a horse called Biscuit being rescued from a well, he tweeted,tongue firmly in cheek, Thanks to your prayers #MakeBiscuitDryAgain.

Pagrotsky, adapper 65-year-old, is aNordophilesdream.He hasexceedingly fine manners and exactly the minimalist chic office decor onemight expect from a man whos been called the ambassador of IKEA meatballs.Grinningslyly over a demitasse of strong Swedish coffee, he recalls, I wanted to circulate the news that Biscuit had been rescued, so everyone could sleep well at night.

Though he was amused, Pagrotsky doesnt think Trumpwas firing randomly. The seasoned politician has seen his wee country of 10 million garneran outsized share of U.S. attention, used as a political ball in your ping-pong matchfor decades. Thesame perks that delightprogressive Americans have turned Swedeninto a useful bogeyman for conservatives who fear the creep of socialism.

Back in the 1960s, Eisenhower called Swedens social welfare system a breeding ground for sin, nudity, drunkenness, and suicide. In 2009, when the U.S. government was bailing out major corporations from failure, Bill OReilly wrung his hands over the idea thatwe might morph into Sweden. And Marco Rubio fired shots at Bernie Sanders last year, suggesting hed make a great Swedish president. (Pagrotsky is quick to pointout that Sweden has a king, not a presidentand that The New Yorker is very good at cartoons.)

Despite the toxicity of Trumps Sweden claims, Pagrotsky says hes gratefulthat so many Americans are eager to learn more about his homeland. He fondly recalls that after OReilly insulted Sweden, Jon Stewart sent a crew to the country to uncover its faux horrors. Pagrotsky was interviewed for The Daily Showsegment; hes still recognized by strangers.

Still, Pagrotsky believes our view of Sweden can be rather two-dimensional. We revel in its perennialranking as one of the top 10 nations onthe World Happinessreport, its low unemployment and crime rates, and even its charmingleaders like Pagrotsky himself, who gladly participatein gay pride marchesandkick off their shoes for summervacations.

Yet Sweden isno Shangri-la, and Pagrotsky believes its unwise to focus only on the positive.Days after Trumps impetuous comment, a small riot broke out in one of Stockholms suburbs, which Pagrotsky attributesto general discontent among a poor and disenfranchised immigrant community. A few cars were burned, no one was seriously hurt, but we are not such a dramatic country, he says. These things are upsetting to us.

Eventually, it was revealed that Trumps initial comments were inspired by a largely discredited documentary calledStockholm Syndrome, which had recently been featured on a Fox News segment. It presented a Sweden being torn asunder by open bordersMuslim immigrants robbing, raping, and killing the native population, while draining the countrys finite resources. As incendiary as the film was, Pagrotsky admits that his country struggles with immigration, as well.

In response to a global migration crisis in 2015 (specifically the news of thousands drowning in the Mediterranean), Sweden opened its borders to refugees from some of the worlds most desperate nationsAfghanistan, Syria, and Somalia. But when no other European countries besides Germany followed suit, Sweden was quickly overwhelmed. The borders closed up again, and tiny Sweden experienced a tough reckoning.

It was a very hard decision, says Pagrotsky. You see, our immigration policy is based on compassion, an attempt to alleviate suffering. We do not accept immigrants because we need more workers, or because people need more servants in their homes.

Pagrotsky will not condemn or criticize Trump, at least not to a reporter. He says you can guess his views based on past political alignments (he leans left), but it would be foolish to close doors by spouting off his personal views. Though he likes to promote Swedish values like workplace equality, and sometimes these values can run afoul of U.S. policy, Pagrotsky says hiscountry is far fromperfect; its dangerous to assume that anywhere on Earth is.

My job is to make people understand what we do, and why we do it, he says. Its not to say the rest of the world who does not do it is bad or inferior or stupid. That's not my thing.

When I ask him about a Swede I recently met who claimed that approximately 99.999 percent ofSwedes hate Donald Trump, Pagrotsky grows circumspect. I think, perhaps this is an exaggeration, he says, a light twinkle in the eye. I would guess its more like 90 percent. Then he laughsit turns out histossed-off figure is verifiable.Actually, I read a poll.

Portraits of Leif Pagrotsky by Martin Adolfsson courtesy the Consulate General of Sweden. Top images via Getty (left to right: by Ivan Dmitri/Michael Ochs Archives and Michel Setboun) and Pixabay.

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Liberal America Has A Sweden Fetish - GOOD Magazine

Press Release

Rebecca Haigh of sales and marketing firm Utopia Creations has been on an exciting business trip to Florida where she connected with fellow industry leaders in a fun-filled coaching trip

The American retreat organised for business owners in the sales and marketing industry was an exciting travel opportunity for Miss Haigh of Utopia Creations as a business owner. She was able to connect with some of the most successful CEOs around the world. What's more, the trip provided a chance to meet new professionals with a range of skills. It became a vital networking opportunity for Utopia Creations. Miss Haigh was able to establish new contacts in previously unchartered areas, an essential for any expanding business.

About Utopia Creations: http://www.weareutopia.co.uk

Beyond a good chance to network, business retreats demonstrate why business owners need to keep business moving forward. As Miss Haigh explains, "Going away can be the best remedy for popping the entrepreneurial bubble immersing oneself in the busy-ness of the day to day running of a business can lead to stagnation and a lack of fresh ideas. Sitting and contemplating things can be invaluable. Utopia Creations values any chance to learn and absorb new information, while realising it is crucial to take the time to process new information and integrate it into the business initiative.

Outings can prove a valuable investment in any business. The most obvious things can go amiss if a company's directive is too caught up in its immediate surroundings. Miss Haigh was grateful for the chance to relax and refresh after a busy first quarter in business, as well as to meet people with a different manner of doing things, Variety is the most sure-fire survival tactic in the business world, she noted.

Going abroad can be an exciting learning experience for all professionals in the sales and marketing industry. Utopia Creations feels that many skills can be learned through travel such as time-management, networking and people skills.

Utopia Creations offers regular travel opportunities to their contractors. Even their branding is based on Miss Haigh's own love of travel. Having moved from Brazil, she launched Utopia Creations in Leeds last year. Rebecca Haigh has always believed happy people perform better and for this reason, the company regularly runs fun activities for its employees. Though today's business world is making it increasingly difficult to find a balance between work and life, marketing consultancy Utopia Creations is the exception. From team building activities to nights out and road trips, the company is always looking for new ways to inspire and energise their workers.

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Utopia Creations are passionate about face to face marketing and believe great results are born from personalisation and positivity. Follow them on Twitter @utopiacreation_ and Facebook.

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Utopia Creations travels to Florida - Journalism.co.uk

PH

Attack Of The 50ft Women:

How Gender Equality Can Save The World! by Catherine Mayer (HQ, 20)

During the q&a session at the end, Mayer found herself asking whether anyone else thought there should be greater focus on gender issues in mainstream politics.

An appeal for like-minded people to join her later in the bar led to the seeds of a new political party being sown.

In Attack Of The 50ft Women, Mayer tells the story of the evolution of the Womens Equality Party, a party that in the London elections in May 2016 polled a 5.2 per cent share of the vote, despite having existed for just over a year.

Mayers book goes beyond the brief history of the party to look at gender imbalances across the globe and in all walks of life. Her argument is that gender inequality is detrimental to men and women alike.

This could easily have been a book of pure rhetoric albeit inspiring and engaging rhetoric but her arguments are backed up by comprehensive research, not least with regard to the economic implications of the gender gap. She cites multiple studies linking female executives with profitability and a report forecasting a boost of 8.3 trillion to global GDP by 2025 if the gender gap narrows.

Mayer also argues that the structures of patriarchy, not least the pressures on men to be alpha males, harm men as much as women: Because of these structures, boys struggle at school; suicide rates are highest among young males, who are also more likely to murder and be murdered; and men drink more heavily and more frequently end up in prison.

However, the book focuses primarily on the inequities faced by women. She describes the glass cliff and saviour effect where women are catapulted to positions of power only when crisis hits (sound familiar, Theresa May?) then cast aside when stability resumes. She investigates global inequalities in pay and the restrictions faced by both mothers and fathers.

Comprehensive, wide-ranging and journalistically rigorous, Attack Of The 50ft Women is an important and timely book. Buy it for yourself, your husband or partner. Most importantly, buy it for your children.

Hannah Beckerman

[PH]

Utopia For Realists: And How We Can Get There by Rutger Bregman (Bloomsbury, 16.99

Should all human beings be paid a living wage regardless of whether they work or not? Rutger Bregman, a 28-year-old Dutch historian and economist, passionately advocates the Universal Basic Income.

In his new book, Bregman suggests governments could work towards a new Utopia by abandoning the welfare system and giving everybody free money.

Immediately we imagine everyone spending all day with their feet up watching TV before cheerfully collecting a pay cheque. But Bregman cites numerous studies that suggest people receiving his Universal Basic Income would carry on working as normal.

He also provides the facts and figures to show how unemployed people receiving Universal Basic Income are more likely to find work than people on means-tested benefits. Whats more, our current welfare system costs more to administer than it saves the taxpayer

And we will all be grateful for the money as more of us are forced to job-share and work fewer hours as technology makes our jobs obsolete.

Poor children tend to be less well educated, they work less and have worse health. If these problems were eradicated by Universal Basic Income, each child would have effectively paid back the extra money received by the time they reached middle age.

I was moved and convinced by Bregman saying we might not achieve Utopia but could find solace in working towards a fairer world.

Bregmans style is sometimes cheesy but his book is energetic, passionate and rigorously intelligent. His commonsensical ideas deserveto be gratefully welcomed.

Jake Kerridge

VERDICT: 4/5

[PH]

Fancy an escapist read? Fanny Blake chooses the best new womens fiction

Orange Blossom Days by Patricia Scanlan (Simon & Schuster, 13.99)

La Joya de Andalucia is a plush seafront apartment complex on the Spanish coast and home to a community of residents from all over Europe.

They include an Irish couple woken from their dream of a leisurely retirement by the demands of their family, a Texan wife who pursues a younger man and a Spaniard in a difficult marriage who sets his sights on the presidency of La Joyas management committee.

A bright, sunny read in which these lives interweave with unexpected results.

The Little Teashop Of Lost And Found by Trisha Ashley (Bantam, 9.99)

Alice Rose was found abandoned as a baby near Haworth on the Yorkshire moors and she returns years later to look for her birth mother.

At the same time she is transforming a rundown caf into a premier afternoon tearoom. She quickly makes friends, including a dishy neighbour, but the path to achieving her goals is littered with obstacles, the story of Alices birth and abandonment adding depth and poignancy.

[PH]

The Little Breton Bistro by Nina George(Abacus, 12.99)

From the author of The Little Paris Bookshop comes a new life-affirming novel. On a day trip to Paris, Marianne Messman throws herself into the Seine, desperate to escape her loveless marriage.

However fate intervenes and she is rescued from the brackish water. In hospital, Marianne spies a small painted tile of a Breton fishing village which beckons her to a new life, so she follows her heart to Kerdruc in Brittany.

At sixty years old, she believed her life was over, but the message of this gentle but pacey page-turner is that new loves, new friends and confidence can be found at any age.

Secrets Of A Happy Marriage by Cathy Kelly (Orion, 14.99)

The build-up to Edward Brannigans 70th birthday celebrations proves a catalyst for family drama. His new wife Bess is struggling to fit in, his daughter Jojo loathes her new stepmother and his niece Cari must face her ex-fianc at the party. Its an involving, heart-warming read about family, friends, love and disappointment.

About Last Night by Catherine Alliott (Michael Joseph, 12.99)

Molly, a widow, lives alone in a remote crumbling farmhouse. Her unexpected inheritance of a London house offers the change she longs for except first she will have to evict the elderly gent who lives there. The decision to return to the capital is complicated further when a figure from her past appears. An engaging, light-hearted romp.

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Equal writes and the best new women fiction: Book reviews - Express.co.uk

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This is one of the most important documents ever created in human history. Our Constitution can trace its roots back to ancient Greece, through the Roman Republic, the Magna Carta, the Iroquois Confederation and many other political philosophies of history. Today, our Constitution is the pinnacle of political freedom. This document may remain the pinnacle for many centuries, but I am sure someday it will serve as the base document for something better. In the meantime we need to exercise great caution that we do not destroy this great document. It is certainly possible, even likely, we will destroy this document in an ill-advised effort to find utopia.

Nothing in our Constitution is new, nor was new at the time of adoption what was new is that all the great ideas of history were debated by people who read history and knew it well. They disagreed and argued about things and came to the miraculous document that governs us today.

When they argued about right vs. left they were not talking about the political spectrum we refer to today they were arguing about tyranny versus anarchy. What was the proper balance between being a subject of an all-powerful king and having no government at all?

How could we find elusive balance between enough government and too much government?

They knew that every true democracy in history fell apart and was replaced by a tyrant. It is an unavoidable truth; democracies fail every time and are universally replaced by the guy with the strongest contingent of armed alpha males.

So how did they solve the problem of democracies and still have a government that reflected the will of the people? How would they resolve the various interests of widely differing states?

This was one of the three great issues requiring extreme patience they truly wanted consensus, not just majority rule. This is why there were 60 votes taken before the Electoral College was finally adopted. Sixty votes and weeks of discussions were required before consensus was obtained, not just a majority vote.

This miraculous document, which governs only about 5 percent of the population of the world, enabled this meager population to create more wealth and spread it to more people than any other government in all of history. Not only has America created more wealth than all nations in all of history combined, it is also the most generous government in all history. Americans have given more to the rest of the world than the combined population of all other people in history.

Now, we want to go down the path of democracy and soon tyranny simply because Chris Wallace, in October of 2016, didnt ask Secretary Clinton if she would accept the results of the election.

What does giving up the Electoral College really mean to New Mexico? Elections will be decided in a few of the most populous cities in the country, period.

New Mexico has been the best predictor of presidential elections since 1912. We picked the winner in every presidential election except two: We voted for Ford in 76 and for Clinton in 16. New Mexico is important; thus most candidates come to New Mexico. Removing our meager electoral vote truly makes us useless fly-over country.

Our founders were adamant, we must teach history. If not we are doomed to repeat the seemingly perpetual collapse of great societies, and once again be relegated to the death and destruction that follows.

Now we are ignorantly proposing the elimination of the brilliant Electoral College, thus driving us toward the path of democracy, then tyranny.

For the sake of our children, keep the Electoral College as it was gifted to us. Let us not destroy the Hope of the world America and Americas Electoral College.

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The Electoral College is right for New Mexico - Albuquerque Journal

Ex Machina (dir. Alex Garland,2015).

The title of Alex Garlands 2015 thoughtful psychological thriller Ex Machina derives its name from the ancient Greek phrase deus ex machina, meaning god from the machine. By omitting the deus from the films title, its clear Garland wants his audience to question both the roles of God and man. Theres the godly referencing and positioning of Oscar Isaacss secluded genius, Nathan, the creator of Ava, a robot with consciousness played by Alicia Vikander. And Avas emotional existence itself goes against the idea of the natural in God, since she is a manmade creation. Meanwhile, the natural world of Ex Machinathe trees that blend Nathans perfectly rectangular home into the forestacts as a direct juxtaposition to the technological imagery that fills the rest of the film.

The films concern with the inner workings of its human and non-human characters and clever seduction of the audience earns it the title of a classic film. This (rightful) praise allows Ex Machina to be placed with the great films of the science fiction genre, like Blade Runner (1982) and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). And with these classic films comes the comparison with and influence of the first feature-length science fiction film, Fritz Langs Metropolis (1927). To compare Metropolis with Garlands debut feature can seem contrived; Metropolis longevity has been proven with the test of time, while Ex Machina was only released two years ago. Moreover, both films are trying to do different things, with Langs film presenting a conflicted utopia (one where the very world some call a utopia is seen as a dystopia by others) and fear-of-the-other through a robot. Meanwhile, Garland ensures he subverts the typical representation of the robot as a source of evil by establishing a contrast between Avas lack of knowledge against Nathans constant surveillance.

However, the central themes of both films (the idea of utopia and how the robotic is an inevitable part of the utopian world, for good or bad) remain the same. Exploring the differences between both Metropolis and Ex Machina through these themes allows audiences to view the shifts in representations of robots, utopia, and nature.

Utopia is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a real place which is perceived or imagined as perfect, and its clear from Metropolis two central locationsthe underground of the workers and the aboveground of the established peoplethat the films utopia lies solely on perception rather than a fair society. With its symmetrical Expressionistic buildings and emphasis on height over width, the city Metropolis is not afraid of its ability to be seen; instead, it wants to be seen from the highest point beyond the clouds. Unlike Ex Machina, Lang omits nature from the city of Metropolis until the dnouement of the film. When the threat of the robotic Maria, a clone of the protagonists (Freder, played by Gustav Frhlich) love interest, is at its height yet nearing its conclusion, Lang reintroduces the natural elements of fire and water. Nature works against the robotic Maria (played by Brigitte Helm, who also plays the human Maria) rather than working as an intrinsic part of her world.

However, when viewing the subversions of various science fiction tropes Garland creates in Ex Machina, Metropolis lack of nature can be seen as more of a reflection on mankind than on the other-ness of the robot.

The brief opening of Ex Machinathat can be seen as more of a prelude rather than an introductionshows the protagonist (Domhnall Gleesons Caleb) texting his friends the news that he has been accepted onto Nathans program. Audiences first meet Caleb through the computer screen, his face recognized by the computers sensors while his friends remain invisible through their mobile phone-only existence. Whilst we arent provided with much scenery, with the minimalist background emphasizing the strive for perfection through technology, what is provided tells us that Calebs world is far removed from the natural and instead in the middle of a quest for artificial perfection.

By contrasting this opening void of minimalism to the forestry of the natural world where Nathans hidden experiment resides, it becomes clear that Ex Machina is not necessarily an exploration of nature, utopias, or A.I., but instead an exploration of ideas that are explored through these science-fiction conceits. Garland questions the role of society and inclusion vs. seclusion through Nathans home, with the role of the observer complicated by the three main characters; theres Nathans omniscient, god-like stance enabled by his technology, and Calebs observations of Ava in order to see whether she can pass the Turing Test are complicated further by Avas subtle but deductive observation of everything that surrounds her.

Importantly, however, Garland does not create a film that is paranoid about A.I. In an interview for the Guardian, Garland describes the sense of possibility in Ex Machina, saying whereas most AI movies come from a position of fear, this one comes from a position of hope and admiration. As one lecturer states, the machines, the robots, are projections of us. Theyre dreams or metaphors for our own anxietiesideas externalized in controllable and malleable forms.

However, the controllability of Ex Machinas Ava results in a different conclusion to Metropolis. Where the former concludes with the A.I., the New Human, finding her place in the world, Metropolis assures its audience that the status quo is going to be preserved. In terms of utopia, this means the world and people of the underground and aboveground have the chance to become one, with the biblical imagery of the flood and the heart mediating the head and hands cementing this. The threat of the Other represented through the robotic Maria, whether thats femininity or leadership itself, has gone; its characters come to be relocated in a new, semi-utopian, world.

Meanwhile, Ex Machina uses Calebs character to seduce the audience. According to Garland, if the film functions, something is happening to the audience which is equatable with what is happening to the protagonist So as hes being seduced, were being seduced. And as were being confused, hes being confused. The film has no concern with providing answers or relieving anxieties, instead unsettling its audience by unravelling the carefully constructed world as each session with Ava moves the film along. Ex Machinas construction can be seen as both manipulation as well as another series of ideas. For example, the wide windows in the opening of Nathans home suggests a sense of freedom and connection to the natural. But, of course, the windows are merely more transparent barriers between the technological worlds, linking with the transparency of the mesh that makes up Avas body.

Whats more, when audiences are first introduced to Ava, Garland places her within a one-dimensional triptych of layers of nature. Theres the first triptych in the far background of the forest and stream of water, the second holds the possibilities of new technology, of Ava, and the third the disconnectedness of humankind. Avas curiosity also plays into the sense of nature that surrounds her, with her understanding that she is alive, and therefore impermanent, allowing her to explore questions about art and the outer world.

Ex Machina is a film that asks questions rather than providing answers to them, and its questions and curiosities are extracted from its robot rather than the human characters. In a masterclass at the National Film and Television School, Garland described how the noises of Ava were purposefully made to sound like the heartbeat, stating that these noises make you feel she is alive. And its Ava who often feels more alive than the two humans that fill most of the film. Even after seeing another A.I., Kyoto, tearing the skin from her torso and face, the blood that pours from Calebs arm or the red stain that spreads across Nathans plain white shirt feels more alien than the magnetic body of Ava.

Metropolis concludes with nature ridding its city of the robotic, which comes both in the form of Marias robot as well as the workers of the underground, who are often stuck in a repetitive trance-like routine. Importantly, the robotic Maria is never referred to as a woman, with characters instead using the pronouns he and referring to the robot as The Machine Man. By ignoring the gender off of which the robot Maria is based, this machine man does not speak to the anxieties of what the robot can do, but instead the anxieties of what man can do, since it is was Rotwang who created this invention.

Freder also has a journey with nature, with his beginnings in the pleasure gardena juxtaposition of the natural and unnaturaljourneying him down into the looking glass, to quote Calebs character in Ex Machina, of the machine world. Where Freder travels from the natural to the dark or unnatural, or from his constructed utopia to a nightmarish hell for the people beneath him, Caleb journeys from his hollow world to the contrasts of Nathan and natures creations. The nature of the semi-utopia in the end of Metropolis exists for its people, while the natural world of Ex Machina, and more specifically the forestry that conceals Nathans home, concludes by existing for Ava; the natural (the nature of the world) and the unnatural (a manmade machine) work together in these final moments.

However, its clear once Ex Machina reaches its dnouement that these contrasts arent as juxtaposing as once thought. Like Ava, Caleb and Nathan use their ability to lie and manipulate to gain what they want, and Nathan constantly refers to the programming of humans by nature or God in comparison to his programming of Ava. While Nathan does this to further cement himself in his egotistical self-view that he is a god, the programming of humans and A.I. creates similarities between the two.

The conclusion of Ex Machina furthers this search for the similarities between humans and A.I. rather than the differences. Avas body is seen in a reflection of a window, mirroring the opening shot of the reflection of Calebs coworkers. The comparison immediately relates the human and the non-human, while the moving bodies that walk through Avas still reflection make her seem like a ghost or a specter. No answers are provided as to whether Ava is free, but the important part of this ending is that Garland ensures the concentration and the questions created are on Avas feelings, on how she feels, and that should be answer enough.

Continued here:

The Nature of Robots - Film School Rejects

KRIS BOULT

Last updated14:30, March 17 2017

SIMON O'CONNOR/Fairfax NZ

Utopia multimedia festival in Huatoki Plaza is set for busy weekend

A new type of festivalthat seemusicians, street artists and sculptors collaborate together to create and showcase their talents has come to New Plymouth.

The Utopia Multimedia festival, which runs till March 26, iscurated by well known New Plymouth art and music festival organiser Anand Rose, sculptor Steve Molloy and artist Phil Jones in conjunction with the New Plymouth District Council.

Rose said the aim of the long running event was to increase the vibrancy in the CBD area through art.

SIMON O'CONNOR/Fairfax NZ

Phil Jones' work is well known around New Plymouth.

Although the festival has been running for a weekthis weekend looks set to be a busy one with visitors flocking in from around NZ for the Womad festival .

READ MORE: *Arts snippets: Coming up in Taranaki's arts and entertainment scene *Central city gets 'free taste of Womad' during pop-up concert *Jet-powered push bike can reach speeds of 120kmh

"Womadweekend will be a big one,"Rose said.

"We're really looking forward to hosting people from outside of town and showingthem what we can offer"

ProminentNew Plymouth artist Phil Jones, whose mural ofeelgraces the Huatoki plazaand who is also responsible for turning electricity transformer boxes into works of art, has a studio in the plaza that provides thebackdrop for the festival.

The studio isa vibrant and funkyopenbunker typespace that houses a DJ booth, comfy chairsand an eclectic mix of art work.

"Phil's studio is the perfect environment for the festival, it provides a good indoor/outdoor flow for people," Rose said.

Positive feedback after a successful launch last weekend had organisers optimistic about hosting future festivals, perhaps even expanding.

"We're definitely looking to build on it in the future" Rose said.

-Stuff

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Utopia Multimedia Festival brings artistic talents together in one place - Taranaki Daily News