Category Archives: Post Human

Angelo Plessas was doing plank pose in the narrow space between the foot of his bed and the hotel wall. Several of his quilted sculptures were spread out beneath him to soften the hard floor. Hotel staff dropped off warm meals several times a day.

It is sort of like a residency, the Greek artist told me over a WhatsApp call on day seven of his 14-day quarantine in an 18-square-meter room in Seoul. (The artist had been uploading the footage to Instagram as a kind of performative ritual.) Following his stay, Plessas planned to head to a sacred mountain to meet the South Korean shaman Dodam, with whom he is collaborating for the 13th Gwangju Biennial.

Production still from John Gerrard Mirror Pavilion: Leaf Work (Derrigimlagh) (2019). Courtesy of the artist.

Its not exactly how Plessas imagined he would return to South Korea after an initial trip there in late 2019. Back then, a large group of international artists, shepherded by artistic directors Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala, went on a series of site visits ahead of the esteemed exhibitionAsias largest and oldest. At the time, the virus was perhaps already somewhere in the world, but it was nowhere near their imaginations.

Since then, Gwangjus organizers have had to delay, adapt, rethink, and rework to accommodate a constantly shifting public-health situation. After two postponements, the biennial is preparing, finally, to open on April 1. (South Korea has been praised for its response to the pandemic; its most recent seven-day case count came in at under 500.)

Yet the opening will look very different from the buzzy biennials of previous years. Of the 69 participating artists (who are responsible for 41 new commissions), only four individualsincluding a two-person collectivewere able to travel to South Korea to install their works in situ.

Natasha Ginwala (R) and Defne Ayas (L). Photo: Victoria Tomaschko.

The challenges posed by the lockdown era have rushed the biennial circuit into a future that many were already discussing. Had the daring, female-led show in South Korea intended to be a spectacle reminiscent of biennials past, it likely would have been rendered moot by the pandemic.

But neither Ayas nor Ginwala wanted to continue with this machine of biennials, as Ayas put it. Instead, they sought to offer an antidote to it, by exploring spirituality, resistance, and community healing. The events of 2020 gave those themes a new sense of urgency.

We were ready to debunk the biennial format and stretch it, but we did not know we would be stretching it this much, Ayas said with a laugh from her own room a few floors above Plessas. The cracks we were looking into just got deeper.

Video still from Theo Eshetus, Ghostdance (2020). Courtesy of the artist.

The biennial, titled Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning, comes at a moment when loss, grief, and separation are globally felt. And so the duo has gravitated toward two seemingly disparate themes: shamanism, a dominant form of spirituality in South Korea, and technology. A form of cosmic gravitas pulses through the exhibitions preamble of essays, talks, and online programming.

The surreality of the enterprise was clear from conversations with a number of participants who traveled to Gwangju for the opening. All were performance artists whose works could not be presented remotely. Plessas, who came from Athens, shared his hotel wall with Canadian conceptual artist Judy Radul.They would see each other for brief moments when they picked up their food in the hall.

The shows co-curator Defne Ayas, meanwhile, was in her room on video calls with Ginwala, who was already on the ground helping to install the show. It will beset across four locations over a now-shortened four weeks: a historic theater, a sacred mountain, a classical biennial hall, and the Gwangju National Museum. One could consider the Internet the fifth, unplanned venue.

Still from Judy Raduls Good Night Vision (2013). Courtesy the artist.

For the artists who did travel to Gwangju, the mandated pause was surprisingly welcome. There is something special about stopping just before you make an artwork and waiting for two weeks, having the time to just keep thinking about it, Radul said.

Ahead of the trip, she worked closely with two South Korean musicians on her eerily prescient commission. With help from Gina Hwang, who plays a geomungo (a plucked guitar-like instrument), and Hannah Kim (who plays the more percussive janggu drum and gong), Radul created a psychedelic, folkloric soundscape that she plans to record live inside a historic theater.

To film it, she long ago decided to use heat-tracking camerasa medium she began exploring in 2013that will record the heat imprints created by the musicians. Another camera will be pointed at the audience, should there be one come April. There is, of course, a certain irony to preparing this work in a world where free movement is contingent upon body temperature. (Radul was having her temperature taken at the hotel every few hours.)

Proximity, touching, creating sound in a room togetherall of this has shifted, she said.The questions around biennials, where we just drop in and drop out, have been posed for years now. It does make you wonder what you will do for art. We are finding out right now what artists actually bring to a scenario when they show up or dont show up.

OS Session, 2019, V.A.C. Foundation, photo: Marco Franceschin.

Participation in the show has been challenging even for artists who could not show up in person. Korakrit Arunanondchais new video,Songs for Dying, reflects on his own losses this past year, including the death of his grandfather. Itpairs footage drawn from pro-democracy protests in Thailand (whereArunanondchai moved from New York at the beginning of the pandemic) and the 1948 Jeju Island massacre in South Korea with the minutiae that comes from witnessing the death of a loved one. His incisive editingmoving between surrealism, the news cycle, and a very personal narrativefeels fluid and familiar after the past year.

The artist directed the South Korea portion of the videowhich captures a shaman conducting a ritual for the dead on Jeju Islandremotely after it became clear he would be unable to travel.It was hard, he said. I work with hidden narratives to begin with. And often, the thing that pulls you in is not what you can find on the internet. (The films second chapter, Songs for the Living, will be shown at the Migros Museum in Zurich in September.)

Video still from Korakrit Arunanondchai, Songs for Dying (2021). Co-commissioned by the 13th Gwangju Biennale, Han Nefkens Foundation and Kunsthall Trondheim. Courtesy the artist.

While the biennial plays an important role in the regionit was created to process and memorialize the Gwangju Uprising in 1980attendance will necessarily be limited.Then, there is the so-called art world to consider. The traveling band of curators, writers, collectors, and art dealers that would normally attend will also be in absentia. Even the participating curators and artists will have packed up and left.

Thats where the fifth venue, the online forum, comes in. Artists have generously shared their processes and created new online commissions. The catalogue chronicles a year-long conversation that was once meant for Gwangju, but which has now become more global.

Ayas spoke of a mad loyalty that the artists and curators have for one another and for the project. All that matters, she says, is that it installs itself in peoples minds in some important way. In our case, the biennial is not small, but we know from experience that small can also be beautiful and more meaningful, she added.

Emo de Medeiros, Kaleta/Kaleta (2016). Courtesy of theartist.

Her conviction begs the question: how much did wereallysee of these massive shows when we were running around previews trying to take it all in? Perhaps the slow and virtual drip of Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning offers a teachable moment. Maybe we do not need to see the whole in order to be touched by a part.

This biennial was prophetic, in a way, because it was predicting the penetration of the virtual and this post-human feeling of virtuality, Plessas said from his hotel room. It will be interesting to see how it will be remembered.

The 13th Gwangju Biennale is on view from April 1 to May 9.

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Why the Artistic Directors of the Gwangju Biennial Are Quarantining for Weeks (and Working Overtime) to Mount a Show Very Few People Will See - artnet...

Nearly half of people believe those who lost their job during the pandemic were likely to have been underperforming, a survey has found.

In findings that will raise fears over inequalities in Britain, a study of attitudes by researchers at Kings College London showed a significant minority thought a widening post-Covid income gap between white people and BAME groups would not be a problem.

This analysis throws up the complexity of peoples view about inequalities, said Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which will use the research for its five-year review of inequalities. The British public is clearly concerned about some inequalities, but also sets great store by individual responsibility.

People care more about differences between geographical areas than races, genders and generations, found researchers in the study entitled Unequal Britain.

The findings may suggest widespread support for the levelling up agenda espoused by the government as the country attempts to rebound after Covid, the authors said. But it will also raise questions about the popularity of anti-inequality policies focusing on ethnic minorities and women.

Unemployment rose to 1.74 million people this week, its highest level in five years and business shutdowns are disproportionately affecting women and ethnic minorities.

In one of the starkest findings, one in eight Britons (13%) said they think black people are more likely to be unemployed and have lower incomes because they lack motivation or willpower.

This attitude was held by more than one in five of the Conservative voters polled, compared with less than one in 20 Labour supporters. Overall, 47% said those inequalities are because of discrimination but strikingly racist views remain, with 4% of respondents saying inequality was because most black people have less in-born ability to learn. The researchers discovered this by asking questions rarely posed in the UK, but often included in US social surveys.

The authors said the overall findings showed meritocratic and individualistic tendencies are likely to temper calls for action on inequality.

There is a strong belief in meritocracy in Britain that hard work and ambition remain key drivers of success, and this colours views, even during a pandemic, the report said. Despite the exceptional circumstances [of Covid], Britons are more likely to think that job losses caused by the crisis are the result of personal failure than chance.

The view that individual performance was important in determining whether workers were made unemployed during the Covid crisis was held by 47% of people. Only 31% put it down to luck. Study author Bobby Duffy, professor of social policy at KCL, said this was surprising. By 57% to 39%, Conservative voters are much more likely than Labour voters to attribute these job losses to poor performance at work.

Of the more than 2,000 people polled, the largest number thought gulfs between geographical areas of more and less deprivation were the most serious form of inequality faced by the nation, followed by income and wealth. This view was held by Labour and Conservative supporters alike one of the only issues in the study that united the political spectrum.

Duffy said this rare moment of unity in attitudes toward inequalities points to [support for] policies that are not just about moving the odd government department [out of London] or listening more to the north it is the sense of supporting local community initiatives. It is something that has been underemphasised since the late 2000s.

Less than half of people polled put racial differences in their top three or four most serious types of inequalities and less than a third included gender inequality.

Amid evidence of adverse labour market consequences for women in Britain resulting from the crisis, the study found that a third of people would not consider it a problem if inequality between genders got worse because of the crisis.

These findings underline all too clearly the increased importance of place in debates about politics in general and inequality in particular, said Prof Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe, which collaborated in the study. The government should view this emergent consensus as providing a window of opportunity to act on the ambitious promises it has made to level up the country.

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Job losses in pandemic due to performance issues, say nearly half of Britons - The Guardian

The 2017 Lexus NX was an impressively premium compact crossover that felt unrelated to its humble Toyota underpinnings when we last reviewed it. Now alleged images of the latest update to the edgy crossover have leaked online revealing a dramatically updated interior.

Lexus engineers claimed back in 2015 that the NX had reengineered at least 90-percent of the vehicles parts independently from the Toyota Rav4 it is based on, using multiple different manufacturing processes. Every time weve driven the NX, those claims have proven to result in a comfortable, premium ride and user experience in spite of some tricky and confusing interior controls and infotainment systems.

Images reveal an exterior that is a modest update to the current vehicles angular and edgy signature bodywork. The NX gets an expected LED and DRL signature update in the lights as well. The real revelation in these leaked images, which were originally posted on the ClubLexus forums and reported via Autocar, is that the Lexus NX interior has undergone a much-needed overhaul and digital upgrade.

The leaked images of the NX interior reveal a new screen infotainment interface slightly angled toward the driver. Considering the lack of physical buttons anywhere within reach of driver or passenger, it appears the screen will take over almost all of the system, media and vehicle setting adjustments save for that suspicious little blurry knob by the drivers knee. There also still appears to be a physical volume knob and physical temperature climate controls.

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The old wretched Lexus touchpad is apparently gone, as are most of the outgoing models hard, pale black plastic button and trimmings that bewilders the otherwise premium character of the current NX. There now appears to be a wireless charging pad for phones and other devices.

A second digital screen sits ahead of the driver in place of physical vehicle information dials. One leaked image shows a centralized numerical speed readout hovering above what appears to be a cruise control vehicle distance graphic. The dashboard appears to have a cutout for a heads-up display projector, and Im also moderately pleased to find some paddle shifters sticking their ears out from behind the steering wheel. It may be a sporty novelty, but its nice that Lexus is still committing to it for those of us (me) who enjoy them.

Lexus has sold an average of around 55,770 NX models per year over the last six years, and almost exactly that many in 2020. Hence its obvious why the changes outside arent radical, but the stuff owners will touch has improved dramatically. Its not clear when Lexus intends to officially unveil the new NX crossover, but its now likely soon. The current car starts at $37,610 but theres no indication of the new models price. In the meantime, there are plenty of images of it from the now-deleted forum post for you to check out in full over on Autocar.

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Here's The Leaked Lexus NX Way Before You're Supposed To See It - Jalopnik

Apple this week introduced a new Ethics and Compliance webpage on its official website that highlights some of the companys policies created to ensure that its business conduct complies with the law.

On the webpage, which was quietly launched within Apples main website, the company details how it ensures compliance at Apple, the conduct of company business policies, and how they conduct independent assessments to guarantee that these policies are effective among employees.

Apple conducts business ethically, honestly, and in full compliance with the law. We believe that how we conduct ourselves is as critical to Apples success as making the best products in the world. Our Business Conduct and Compliance policies are foundational to how we do business and how we put our values into practice every day.

Apple says that all employees need to make sure that they have read and understood Apples policies before joining the company, and also again each year. At the same time, the website states that Apple has teams focused on business conduct and political, antitrust, health, and anti-corruption compliance.

There are also links to PDF files that detail how the company ensures compliance for each of these topics, which also includes Apples responsibility for human rights and environmental protection in its supply chains.

We conduct internal and third-party independent assessments of our programs to ensure they are effective. We make changes to our policies and our training to reflect emerging trends. Apples Chief Compliance Officer provides regular updates to the Audit and Finance Committee of the Board of Directors.

You can access the new Ethics and Compliance webpage and find more information about it on Apples official website.

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Apple debuts new Ethics and Compliance webpage with details on conduct policies and more - 9to5Mac

Limural

I never imagined I'd ever be writing about a haircut kit, much less debating with myself if I should buy one (spoiler alert: I did), but these are strange times. The first time I posted a deal about barber clippers I hadn't had a haircut in two months. As the months went by, my appearance started to increasingly track toward "bass player in 1968 psychedelic band," rendering some kind of DIY haircut essential. At the time, here in Los Angeles all barbershops and hair stylists were closed, and these kinds of clipper kits were off-the-chart expensive -- finding one for even $75 was a bargain. Thankfully, prices have settled and right now you can get a Limural Professional Cordless Clippers kit for $31.95when you click the product page coupon code and also apply discount code RRNISWYGat checkout.

That's about $17 off the regular price of $49 and is the lowest we've ever seen this model sell for. The kit includes the wireless clipper with a digital status display and five-hour runtime. It comes with six guard attachments (ranging in size from 3mm to 19mm), a comb, barber cape (the kind that traps hair, not the kind that helps you fly) and other miscellaneous accessories.

Subscribe to CNET's Cheapskate newsletter and save on everything from phones to gadgets and more.

I'll be honest: Prior to buying this model, I'd never taken a clipper to my own hair and so I don't know exactly what to look for in a product like this. But this one has 4.8 stars from over 6,800 reviews on Amazon, and I've used it successfully on my own head several times now. So if you're looking for a way to get a trim without breaking the bank or waiting till the vaccine makes its way to you, consider this kit -- and let me know in the comments if you're cutting your hair at home, or waiting it out until the world opens up again.

Read more:How to cut your hair and do your nails at home

This article was previously published. It has been updated with the latest deal.

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Cut your own hair with this $32 haircut kit because we never leave home anymore - CNET

As both an advocate and a survivor, Kelly Franklin says seeing Canadian politicians declare a national day for human trafficking awareness is a big step to validating the experiences of victims.

I actually cried because of what this means to validate a victim-survivor experience, what families have gone through, to say Canada cares was the most important message I took away.

Franklin is the chief executive director and founder of Courage for Freedom, a registered charity focused on delivering front-line support for sexually assaulted minors and raising awareness about sex trafficking.

Monday, Feb. 22 marks the first National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in Canada. On Feb. 15, federal members of Parliament (MP) unanimously agreed on the motion to adopt the day, coinciding with the 2007 declaration to condemn all forms of human trafficking and slavery.

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Canada is saying, hey, this is happening here, and Parliament is acknowledging it, we are standing with victims and survivors, and thats a big win because when we listen to survivors, the work starts to happen, said Franklin.

For Franklin, the day will go a long way to helping them raises awareness about the issue and is a way to help hold the government accountable every year for what they are doing to combat the issue.

According to a 2018 Statistics Canada report on trafficking in Canada, 28 per cent of all trafficking victims in the country are under 18, with 75 per cent of all victims under 25.

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At least 60 per cent of all trafficking victims in the country come from Ontario and over 97 per cent of all victims are female.

The government of Ontario reported that the average age for victims targeted is just 13 years old.

For Elgin-Middlesex-London Conservative MP Karen Vecchio, having Feb. 22 declared a national day of awareness was a non-partisan issue.

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I think with one of these topics its not party-related, this is something all parliamentarians agree on, and thats because we see it happening in our own community, Vecchio said.

This is an incredible thing where you see everyone has one goal and you dont see that a lot.

Vecchio was one of several politicians who helped advocate for the day before formally adopting it. Politicians made a point to take it to debate and talk about the impacts of the day before adopting it.

Feb. 22 is already a day recognized in both Ontario and Alberta and Vecchio said bringing it across Canada is a great way to build on the work the two provinces have already been doing.

For those trying to figure out how to mark the day, Courage for Freedom has a social media campaign to acknowledge it.

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Two years ago, Courage for Freedom, along with several victims, launched Project ONroute, a provincial human trafficking awareness campaign in Ontario.

The campaign took over the screens at 20 ONroutes in Ontario for 30 days to spread awareness about human trafficking.

This year, because of the pandemic, the campaign has developed as a virtual social media campaign called the Eradicate Challenge, asking everyone to print off the #Eradicate Challenge signs and share a video or photo holding the sign to spread awareness about the buying and selling of children in Canada.

Full details on the campaign and how to participate are available on the Courage for Freedom website.

2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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It validates the experience of survivors: Marking the 1st National Human Trafficking Awareness Day - Global News

Children make up a small percentage of the overall COVID-19 death toll in the US, but the majority of the adolescents who have died from the virus so far were children of color.

As of February 11, 241 kids died from COVID-19, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 75% of COVID-19 deaths among children were kids of color.

The CDC study looked at 121 deaths among children between February and July 2020 and found that 45% were Hispanic, 29% were Black, and 4% were non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native.

The death rate among children of color is higher than the death rate of adults of color compared to their white counterparts. Adults of color are more than twice as likely to die from the coronavirus.

NPR reported that similar to adults, underlying conditions like asthma, obesity, and cardiac issues are a risk factor for children to develop severe illness.

Altogether, there have been more than 3 million coronavirus cases among kids, about 13% of the overall number of cases in the US.

However, while many kids who died from coronavirus complications end up in the hospital, many have died at home or in the emergency room, NPR reported.

Tagan, 5, fell sick in October and her mother Lastassija White took her to the hospital after she woke up vomiting in the middle of the night, The Washington Post reported.Doctors at Northwest Texas Healthcare System hospital sent her home and told her to isolate after she tested positive for coronavirus. That night, White found her unresponsive.

Kimora "Kimmie" Lynum was 9 when she died from COVID-19 and no one knew she had the virus until after she died, the Post reported.

Lynum told her mother that she had a stomachache one day in July and after her temperature shot up to 103, she was rushed to the hospital where doctors did not test her for the coronavirus and sent her home. She seemed to be doing better and playing but six days later she took a nap and was later found unresponsive.

Several factors, including underlying conditions and multisystem inflammatory syndrome a very rare post-inflammatory condition that impacts kids weeks after a coronavirus infection could lead to death, the Post reported.

Another factor was simply a lack of awareness at the start of the pandemic that kids could be severely impacted by the virus.Dr. Preeti Malani, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Michigan told NPR: "for a long time, it was believed that children didn't die from this."

Have a news tip? Contact this reporter atsalarshani@insider.com

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Kids represent a small fraction of overall COVID-19 deaths in the US but 75% of them are children of color - Business Insider

In recent decades, however, booms have become less common. Growth never took off after the mild recession that hit in 2001, and while the unemployment rate hit a half-century low after the last recession, it took a decade to get there.

There are reasons to think this recovery could be different. For one thing, the economy was fundamentally healthy when the recession began. There was no housing bubble; household debt was low; banks werent sitting on a tower of dubious loans that could collapse at any moment. That means there is no reason, at least in theory, that the economy cant pick up more or less where it left off.

Policymakers have also responded much more aggressively to this crisis than to past ones. The Fed moved quickly to prevent the pandemic from setting off a financial crisis. Congress spent trillions of dollars to make sure unemployed workers could keep their homes and feed their families, and to help small businesses.

Those efforts were far from a total success. The unemployment system buckled under the crush of applicants, and millions had to wait weeks or months to get benefits, if they got them at all. Government aid was inadequate, or came too late, to save thousands of businesses. State and local governments have slashed jobs. Hunger rates have risen.

But government aid appears to have been largely effective at preventing deep structural damage that could prevent a strong rebound. There has been no wave of foreclosures or corporate bankruptcies. Rates of entrepreneurship have soared, signaling that Americans are optimistic and have access to the capital necessary to act on that optimism.

Even if there is a strong rebound, however, economists warn that not everyone will benefit.

Kara Gray and her husband, Christopher DeSure, spent years building their small Ohio construction company into a successful business. Then the pandemic shut them down, and, having a daughter at home with a compromised immune system, they havent felt comfortable returning to in-person work.

With the housing market strong, Ms. Gray is confident they will be able to get back to work once the pandemic is over. But she worries they wont be able to take full advantage of the boom. She and her husband were forced to spend the money they had set aside to buy a house, and have fallen behind on bills and run up credit card debt. That could make it hard for them to qualify for a mortgage or for a business loan to expand their company.

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On the Post-Pandemic Horizon, Could That Be an Economic Boom? - The New York Times

On todays episode of The Jabot, Im joined by Leigh Vickery.Shes the Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer atLevel Legal, as well as an entrepreneur shes thefounder of a queso company, Queso Mama. We talk about her turn from a cheese dip maven to legal technology, the kinds of changes the legal industry should be making to make greater diversity strides, the ways the legal industry is changing as a result of COVID-19, and how this is a moment for innovation in the industry.

The Jabot podcast is an offshoot of the Above the Law brand focused on the challenges women, people of color, LGBTQIA, and other diverse populations face in the legal industry. Our name comes from none other than the Notorious Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the jabot (decorative collar) she wore when delivering dissents from the bench. Its a reminder that even when we arent winning, were still a powerful force to be reckoned with.

Happy listening!

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email herwith any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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Making The Legal Industry More Human In a Post-COVID World - Above the Law

Federal investigators are looking into what caused an uncontained, catastrophic engine failure on a United Airlines flight bound for Honolulu, Hawaii, that left Denver a half-hour late on Saturday and proceeded to drop large chunks of debris on a northern suburb and park before landing safely back at Denver International Airport.

Provided by Ashly McGarity

No injuries were reported as of Sunday morning neither among the 231 passengers or 10 crew members, nor anyone in Broomfield, about 25 miles northwest of the airport.

The right engine failure, which authorities have not provided any details for the cause of the malfunction, was described as an explosion both on the ground and from passengers.

My wife and I were sitting in the living room, reading the paper, when we heard a loud bang, Broomfield homeowner Kirby Klements said Saturday, standing in front of the engine ring, which was taller than him and destroyed the cab of his truck. First, I thought it was debris from a trampoline from my neighbors yard. Came out and looked at it and knew right away that it was the front of an engine of an airplane.

Broomfield police said debris landed in Commons Park where soccer practice was going on and in at least two neighborhoods. Police spokeswoman Rachel Welte said that the department was securing the scene and all the debris for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the major malfunction and aftermath.

Heather Solar and the girls team she coaches were among a half-dozen teams practicing at Commons Park on Saturday afternoon when she heard the noise. A large piece from the plane fell 10 feet from where she was standing. She and the other coaches told their players to grab their bags, cover their heads and run either to their cars or to the nearby park shelters.

Honestly, what I thought it was first I thought we were being bombed, Solar said. There was so much debris in the sky.

David Delucia, who is from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and his wife were on the Boeing 777-200 wide-body airliner, and said the plane began to lose altitude right after the sound of the engine exploding.

Everything started shaking, like the worst turbulence you can imagine, he told The Post on Saturday. When we started to descend, we started going down through the clouds. People were saying that they were dumping fuel while it was going on. We were getting information (from passengers) on the right side that it was on fire all the way til we landed.

Ashly McGarity was seated with her boyfriend on the right side of the plane. She said she was a little worried before takeoff because she saw a dark discoloration on a flap of the wing it looked burned. She took photos of it.

Within minutes after takeoff, McGarity and her boyfriend, Skyler Jones, saw sparks flying outside, and Jones saw the explosion. He said the couple held each other and prayed for the best.

The plane made an emergency landing at 1:35 p.m. Saturday, Denver Fire Department spokesman Capt. Greg Pixley said.

Former NTSB Chairman Jim Hall called the incident another example of cracks in our culture in aviation safety (that) need to be addressed.

Hall, who was on the board from 1994 to 2001, has criticized the FAA over the past decade as drifting toward letting the manufacturers provide the aviation oversight that the public was paying for. That goes especially for Boeing, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Investigators trying to figure out what caused United Airlines planes engine to explode, scatter debris across Broomfield - The Denver Post