Add to favorites

Operators are authorised to apply exceptional traffic management measures

The European Commission has publicly thanked major streaming providers for their efforts to throttle their bandwidth use, amid growing pressure on European internet infrastructure, as hundreds of millions of citizens across the continent spend more time online at home for work and recreational purposes.

The EC confirmed that it had spoken to the CEOs of Netflix and YouTube to ask them to reduce bit rates in the EU for the next 30 days (Netflix and YouTube will both switch video playing quality to standard definition by default) and pointedly told ISPs that there is wriggle room in existing open internet legislation.

The Commission added that it had set up a special reporting mechanism (BEREC) to monitor the internet traffic situation. Any major internet outage at a time of heightened social pressure, mandatory confinement across many member states and high reliance on networks could wreak havoc that policy makers are keen to avoid.

Commissioner for internal markets Thierry Breton commented that: As millions of Europeans are adapting to social distancing measures thanks to digital platforms, helping them to telework, e-learn and entertain themselves, I warmly welcome the initiatives by Google and Netflix to preserve the smooth functioning of the Internet during the COVID19 crisis.

I highly appreciate the strong sense of responsibility shown by the two streaming services. We will closely follow the evolution of the situation together. I will also continue to discuss with other relevant services.

A 2019 Global Internet Phenomena Report from Sandvine found that Netflix alone accounted for 12.6 percent of the all downstream traffic on the internet.

Google accounted for 12 percent of overall internet traffic.

David Belson, director of Internet research and analysis at the Internet Society told Computer Business Review that: The concerns over breaking the Internet are unfounded for a variety of reasons, including the deployment of Netflix caches within subscriber networks and participation in local Internet Exchange Points, as well as their use of adaptive streaming technologies that automatically adjust stream quality in real time based on network conditions and available bandwidth.

He added: Regulators should be pushing telecommunications service providers to commit to make high-speed broadband connectivity more widely available within their countries, and to ensure that it is affordable to all, and holding these providers accountable to their commitments.

The push to reduce internet traffic by streaming platforms follows calls from the EU for users themselves to be conscious of their internet uses during this time of increased demand.In what is seen as early preventive exercises the EU is asking internet users to reduced data consumption by viewing content in lower resolutions.

Extreme Networks CTO, Eric Broockman told Computer Business Review: Asking Netflix to reduce its streaming rates merely alleviates the symptoms of a more fundamental problem, instead of tackling its roots especially as a lot of other streaming, video conferencing and cloud services will continue to put unusually high volumes of data across networks.

He added: In an ideal world, network operators would obviously upgrade their infrastructure and invest in cloud-based solutions to make their networks as agile, resilient and flexible as possible. However, the reality is that this is a race against time for network operators that need to find a solution to this problem now, rather than in a few months or years down the line.

So, in the short term, what network operators could do to reduce the pressure on their networks and ensure connectivity for all is to deprioritise non-essential traffic coming from applications such as online gaming. This would then free up bandwidth for essential services, including voice & video traffic, and ease the pressure on the network without impacting service levels too much.

The Commission added: [We] remain fully committed to ensuring an Open Internet in the EU and to enforce the Open Internet Access provisions of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120.

(The Regulation prohibits operators from blocking, slowing down or prioritising traffic.)

Pursuant to the Regulation, operators are authorised to apply exceptional traffic management measures, inter alia, to prevent impending network congestion and to mitigate the effects of exceptional or temporary network congestion, always under the condition that equivalent categories of traffic are treated equally.

This could become relevant, following the confinement measures taken to address the Covid-19 crisis. Operators can avail themselves of this exception, if such traffic management measures are necessary to solve or to prevent the congestion.

View post:
Is the Internet Going to Break Under the Pressure of Traffic Surges? - Computer Business Review

As NBC drama Chicago Med airs its 100th episode, Tee looks back on the path that brought him here. (Photo by Elizabeth Sisson/NBC.)

Actor Brian Tee has one of those faces you could recognize anywhere. Some might think of him as the one and only D.K. Drift King from The Fast and the Furious franchise, while others may recall the iconic red headband he sported as Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat: Legacy II.

Wherever you might remember Tee from, one things certainhes no new player in this game. Lately, hes been stealing hearts (and saving some) as the dashing Dr. Ethan Choi on NBCs adrenaline-pumping drama, Chicago Med. As the series gears up to air its landmark 100th episode tonight, March 18, find out what brought Tee to the hallowed halls of the Gaffney Chicago Medical Center.

How did you first get into acting and decide to pursue drama at the University of California, Berkeley?

Ive only felt grace twice in my life. The first was when I found acting, or acting found me. In high school I was a jock/sosh who didnt get very good grades (for an Asian). I luckily got into California State University, Fullerton and there is where it all changed. I was skating by when I came across an elective called Acting for Non-Majors. I felt it was an easy A, so I quickly enrolled. The very first day of class changed my life. I found that drive, that passion and got bit by the acting bug. From that day forward I knew what I wanted to do and never looked back. I transferred to a junior college in an attempt to get into a UC system program luckily, Berkeley accepted me.

Finding acting was the first time grace was bestowed on me the second was when I met my wife.

Has your background in drama and theater influenced your career on-screen?

Absolutely. My drama and theater background was the foundation of what I do, practice and continue to learn today. Its where I first found myself and nurtured my talents. It crafted the fundamentals of my work and is always something I try to go back to doing when I can.

As an actor whos played significant roles in several franchises that are iconic to the AAPI community, how have you watched diverse roles evolve over your time in the industry?

I will forever be grateful for the roles Ive played in the past. From D.K. to Shredder, its what established my career and led me to where I am today. But my role as Dr. Ethan Choi is the perfect example of diverse roles evolving. No stereotypes or tropes, just a human character.

Its interesting, in the last two decades a lot has changed. There may be more opportunities for diversity, but have the roles truly changed? I am proud to say my role on Chicago Med is a part of that evolution and I hope that it only influences other creators to write more grounded, full characters of diversity. What I am certain about is that the want and need for AAPI voices and diverse stories to be heard is at its height. So its up to us to push forward the evolution of diverse roles.

Youve also appeared in a number of international films, including the hit rom-com Wedding Palace. What led you to explore opportunities in Korean film?

Ive always been a big fan of international movies and have had the opinion that some of the best films have come out of Korea. So when an opportunity to be a part of a Korean feature came through, I jumped at the chance to work with some truly talented filmmakers from Korea.

It was no surprise that Parasite got the recognition it deserved, but there was a piece of me that thought, the recognition for Korean cinema in general was a long time coming.

How would you say that your Chicago Med character, Dr. Ethan Choi, stands apart from mainstream portrayals of Asian American doctors?

Interesting question Id first start by saying there hasnt ever been many lead Asian American doctors on TV period, so its hard to compare. That said, in comparison to Asian stereotypes, Id say Dr. Choi is hands-down the opposite of any character Ive ever played in the past. He is a fully developed character, with his own flaws.He is a war vet, a first responder and a hero. And in our show [he] has a masculine sex appeal that is rarely seen in roles for Asian American men in the industry. So on all those levels of breaking stereotypes, Dr. Choi absolutely stands apart.

As you anticipate the 100th episode of Chicago Med, airing today, what are some of your favorite memories in creating this series?

Some of my favorite memories in creating the series are the character itself. Never have I ever had the incredible opportunity to play and create a character with such depth and development. The creatives just had me in mind and wrote for me, and for that Im grateful. I feel we really broke new ground without hammering it, but just writing him as a human that I have had the honor of playing and creating with them.

As an Asian American actor, when you are cast in a role of this caliber, with such wide viewership comes great responsibility. There are very few Asian American series regulars on TV, especially on my network. So it is something I am constantly conscious of, and take great pride in representing a positive, un-stereotypical character for the mass audience to enjoy, appreciate, relate to and especially learn from.

What do audiences have to look forward to for Dr. Choi in this episode?

In Episode 100, you will see another side of Ethan audiences have not seen before. His emotions finally get the better of him. In most situations Dr. Choi stays pretty level headed and is rarely rattled, but here you will see him cross certain lines. Even in the toughest of situations and circumstances Ethan only bends, but in this episode, he finally breaks.

In this current time of crisis, is there any advice or knowledge youve picked up from playing a doctor on TV that youd like to pass on?

Only that Im not a real doctor and if youre in trouble, dont look at me for medical help leave that to the real heroes! But also, please please take care of yourselves. Follow all the guidelines of hygiene and social distancing because the healthcare system depends on it.

Chicago Med airs at 8/7c on NBC.

Excerpt from:
Q&A: Get To Know Brian Tee, The Man Behind The Scrubs - Character Media

We can sometimes find a calm awareness inside us, an inner space with a universal quality, something that seems to exist inside all of us.

Finding this calm inner space is useful to us. The realization of universal consciousness brings with it a sense that were part of something much larger than our everyday life might suggest.

It reminds us that were the human expressions of a conscious intelligence that exists throughout the Universe.

Were the living expressions of a cosmic intelligence thats transforming itself into the precisely orchestrated biochemistry of our bodies, allowing us to live life as a human being.

Whenever we want to, we can tune into and access the transformative power of this cosmic consciousness inside all of us. The universal conscious awareness has an unlimited capacity for change and evolution.

We can find an intuitive realization of the presence of this spatial conscious awareness, whenever we inwardly focus our attention.

In our busy everyday world, we can sometimes lose touch with the spaciousness inside us that allows us to realize this cosmic connection, and find ourselves getting snagged up in our thinking.

Were not our thoughts about ourself however, were the universal conscious space in all of us thats giving rise to thoughts. Our thinking appears in this universal space and tugs at our attention, distracting us from being consciously present.

Sometimes these thoughts can separate us from other people, tell us were separate from the world or make us unhappy in some way.

When we can tune in to an unlimited source of inspiration and intelligence inside ourselves, however, we dont need to think ourselves into being unhappy, hurt or diminished by our everyday life experiences.

Tuning in helps us bounce back from unfortunate circumstances and makes us more resilient.

We can reach into the inner conscious space with our attention, and it dissolves us into itself. We can realize and know the cosmic space as one conscious awareness in all of us.

Knowing this unlimited cosmic intelligence inside ourselves, helps us find the intuition and insight to change our life for the better, if we need to.

Consciousness in all space is transforming cosmic energy into clusters of tiny resonances inside the living cells of our body, like three-dimensional music.

This conscious cosmic space looks through all of us and sees itself, appearing as a world. Were consciousness in the Universe transforming itself into living beings.

We can reconnect every day with this cosmic awareness inside all of us.

Paul Mulliner is a writer and digital artist

This article was first published here on Medium.com

Read more:
Knowing the Universe - Thrive Global

Following final evenings Season 3 premiere of Westworld, viewers had been handled to a six-minute featurette that went inside the episode and tried to the touch on its many features like the tone for the new season, the design of the actual world, utilizing Singapore as the future, what these fundamental characters need, and way more.

General, youll be able to actually inform that theyre treating Season 3 as a contemporary begin. They should be conscious of the blowback they bought from Season 2, and they alsore making strikes to attempt to reestablish the viewers whereas additionally bringing them into a brand new setting. I believe the smartest transfer right here is the introduction of Aaron Paul as Caleb. Paul excels when enjoying a personality whos tough round the edges however has a superb coronary heart, and placing him with Dolores is a pleasant solution to stability her out and present that not all of humanity are wealthy, evil bastards. You additionally want an viewers surrogate just like how we had younger William (Jimmi Simpson) in Season 1. There must be somebody who has our sympathies and whos studying about the stakes together with the viewers, and Paul is just about good for that. Additionally, as a soccer fan, I hope we get extra Marshawn Lynch as a result of hes pleasant.

Try the Westworld featurette under, and click on right here for a recap of the season premiere.

Right heres the official synopsis for Westworld:

Comply with the daybreak of synthetic consciousness and the evolution of sin on this darkish odyssey that begins in a world the place each human urge for food will be indulged. Aaron Paul, Vincent Cassel, Lena Waithe and Scott Mescudi be part of Evan Rachel Wooden, Jeffrey Wright, Thandie Newton, Ed Harris and extra for the upcoming third season, which can discover questions on the nature of our actuality, free will and what makes us human.

The rest is here:
Westworld: Six-Minute Featurette Takes Us Behind the Scenes of the Season 3 Premiere - Checkersaga

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, we're all being told to avoid touching our face to stop the spread of the virus.

But it's much easier said than done. In California a health official was videoed licking her finger straight after emploring the public to not touch their face.

So why do we touch our faces and is it easy to break the habit? We put those questions to behavioural psychologist Dr Sarah Cowie from the University of Auckland.

Why do we touch our face?

There are lot of reasons why we do it. The most obvious one is that we have an itch we need to scratch. But also, we seem to touch our faces more when we feel anxious or when we are concentrating on something or trying to keep our attention on a task. There's a school of though that says this face touching might have a social function that might show that you are sort of self-aware. There's also a school of thought that says this could be some sort of leftover behaviour from primate grooming that's just kind of come through evolution. So nobody knows quite why we touch our face for these reasons, but there are definitely some environmental triggers that tend to occur before we are likely to touch our face.

What are those triggers?

There are three main triggers. One of those is that when people are concentrating on something, and particularly when you're trying to keep your attention focused on a task, often we find people touch their faces at that kind of point. When you're feeling a little bit anxious, that's also another situation where people tend to be touching their faces. And then for very practical reasons, if you're itching or need to adjust your lipstick or whatever. That one is probably a little bit more conscious but again, a lot of the time we'll just brush hair out of the way or itch your browwithoutas much as a thought.

How do we break the habit?

It's a little difficult, because the thing with habits is that very often we don't realise we're doing them, so they are actions that occur without aconsciousthought. And it turns out that we probably touch our face somewhere more than 23 times an hour. And if you think about all the time your remember touching your face, you might think that's not possible, I don't touch my face that much. But people touch their face a lot. Of course, it becomes worse when you are thinking about it and trying not to touch it. So habits are tricky things to break, particularly when you have a long history of engaging in those habits.

When I think about not touching my face, it's like it becomes more itchy? It's like it wants me to touch it, is that natural?

It certainly seems like it is. The thing is to try and shift the focus from not doing it to being more aware of those environmental triggers that are likely to make you want to touch your face. So rather than going through and saying 'okay, today I am not going to touch my face', shift focus and think, well can I be a little bit more aware of my surroundings and what I'm going through, and then I can recognise when I'm likely to be touching my face and hopefully redirect that behaviour. How can we encourage children to not touch their face?

So part of it is recognising some of those behaviours are not behaviours anybody is consciously aware of doing. Trying to make sure your environment isn't overly stressful, but also just using the normal kinds of techniques and approaches you would use for any sort of behaviour with your children or indeed anybody around you. For example, incompatible behaviours, so getting children to do something else with their hands so they can't touch be touching their face. Having things like stress balls, or even encouraging people to put their hands in their pockets or play a game with your hands. Obviously it's not possible in all sorts of situation, but it's a good starting point. So, if you're encouraging any sort of behaviour, rather than justsaying 'don't do that', or explaining not to do it, reward when it doesn't happen, reward when you're doing something else. So, just some of the strategies you'd use for beating other behaviour.

Should we all buy fidget spinners and stress balls?

There are whole bunch of really strange things coming out to help, like you can get a wristband that vibrates when it seems like you're moving your hands towards your face, or there is an app that tracks your movements and tells you off when it seems as if you are tracking towards your face. Some of those are towards making you aware of the situations where you're likely to be touching your face. but the other thing is stress balls and fidget and spinners and anything that you can do with your hands - take up knitting - but something that's incompatible with touching your face.

The rest is here:
Touching your Face: Why do we do it and how to stop - RNZ

Rob Halford is ready to go when Hammer calls to ask him your questions. Ive been looking forward to this, says the Metal God, who released a Christmas album last winter and will be fronting Judas Priests 50th anniversary celebrations this year.

What follows is a conversation that produces tears, laughter and interesting revelations...

Why not? Those records, Jugulator [1997] and Demolition [2001] are both part of the great history of Judas Priest. And Tim is a good friend of mine. Ive never done any of the songs that he sang on but Id definitely have a crack at them. Im up for that.

"When? It could happen at any time, it wouldnt need to be an anniversary. Before we go onstage we have a jam, and thats time when ideas from leftfield are thrown around. Thats probably how well do it. Itll just happen and itll be brilliant.

Usually its the ballads. I can really let rip on the screaming metal ones; I feel loose, free and comfortable on those. Its a song like Beyond The Realms Of Death [from Stained Class, 1979], Angel [Angel Of Retribution, 2005] or the acoustic version of Diamonds And Rust [Sin After Sun, 1977] is the most difficult.

"Anything that demands an enormous amount of tension becomes harder as you get older. You really have to zone in and focus more.

There are so many of them, arent there? Theres one band I really like from Cannock and theyre called Wolfjaw a three-piece band thats not exclusively metal, theyre hard rock but they have great arrangements. Theyve been bashing away quietly and strongly on the underground but I think that their moment is coming soon. Give them a listen.

I dont like using the word best in that context. We had Iron Maiden open for us at the start of their career [in 1980] and they were brilliant. Saxon did the same and they were also brilliant. Oh god, there were so many.

"More recently we had Uriah Heep open up for us in America and they were brilliant. Theyve been around just as long as Priest and theyve got a catalogue of incredible songs. So theres another great example.

Absolutely they do and Ive been putting my two pennorth into Priests music for most of my life, but its concealed by smoke and mirrors. Take a song like Evil Never Dies [from 2018s Firepower]. I make some digs there and I know what I mean, but heres the thing, especially for a band like Priest: music is about escapism.

"If I hear one more thing about Brexit, I dont know what I will do. To me theres a place for politics and I applaud bands that make it important in what they do, but with me the clues are there if you want to look for them.

Thank you, I just put one up for Throwback Thursday! Its of me by the gate in the place in the Yew Tree Estate in Walsall where I used to live. Im holding a copy of the vinyl of the Killing Machine album.

"Its a double-throwback because it was 41 years ago when that album came out. I dont think I will be joining Twitter. Its a place for strong opinions; most discussions that I read seem to end with, Fuck off, you wanker. If I went on there Id probably be banned within an hour.

Its a pretty straightforward choice. One would be Ronnie James Dio; I listen to him nearly every day. Id have to pick my mate Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, who is phenomenal. And lets go with one from the very beginning of this form of music Robert Plant [of Led Zeppelin].

"Ive always enjoyed the bluesier elements of his vocals and the Ooohs and Aaahs that they threw in were important; they may not have been words but Planty taught me how to connect on an emotional basis with that type of phrasing.

It was a conscious decision. The band- members all spoke between us about the need to make a statement about the metal we were making. At that moment in our career we felt it was important to pull together and create something that was truly significant. Thats why we hid ourselves away at Miraval Studios in the south of France where nobody could find us. We worked hard every day to make that album.

"One of the great lessons of having had a long life with a band is that sometimes you must do these things sit back, take a minute and contemplate what you want to reinforce. With Painkiller we had to remind people that Judas Priest was a strong, British heavy metal band.

We played lots of and lots of shows with Motrhead and I always found it amusing that after theyd played Lemmy would put his hair in a turban. I made a point of going to see him after each show and Id always end up sitting on Lemmys lap. Imagine that! The Metal God sitting on Lemmys lap, with his hair in a turban.

"Theres also a bittersweet one regarding a photo on my Instagram. After a South American tour together we were heading back to Los Angeles. It had been a long, long flight. Lemmy had been sitting by himself and you generally didnt want to get too close to him if that was the case, but I went and said thanks for a great tour. We had a bit of a chat and internally I felt something was going to happen. [Rob falls silent, trying to compose himself].

"Sorry thats an upsetting memory. I asked him for a selfie and he said fuck off, but we took it anyway and its the last photograph of me and Lemmy together. I still miss Lem and everything he stands for in rocknroll. But the music will last forever. Thats what I tell myself whenever Im feeling down.

The main catalyst was the chance of working with my brother Michael [on drums] and my cousin Alex [Hill, the son of Priest bassist Ian Hill]. Id always wanted to do that. I love Christmas music and I can never get enough of it, so thats why we made Celestial.

With so many choose from thats very tough, but if you put a gun to my head Id go with Sad Wings Of Destiny and British Steel. Its incredible that we made British Steel, which had the iconic Living After Midnight and Breaking The Law, in just 30 days.

I really like the Necromancer outfit Im wearing on the current tour, with the purple top hat and the cane. Weve always had that element of heavy metal razzle dazzle. Ha, how the fuck did that come out of my head? But you know what I mean.

Weve got a massive warehouse full of props in Leicestershire; its like a heavy metal Aladdins Cave and this question reminds me that I must go there for a mooch around. Ive got a very treasured etching given to me by the late Maurice Jones, the promoter of the first Monsters Of Rock Festival, so Ill go with that.

After 58 metal years it becomes harder and harder. Rest is very, very important. Mine has become a bit like an old Morris Minor it takes three days to get it going but it works just fine once its warmed up.

See the original post here:
Rob Halford Q&A: His best Lemmy story and why he won't be joining Twitter - Louder

MARCH 16, 2020

I WAS FIRST INTRODUCED to Dao Stroms writing over 13 years ago when a mentoring professor gave me a copy of her collection of short stories, The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys. At the time, I was trying to write a book that didnt quite know what it wanted to be: a hybrid of anecdotal research, autobiography, failed memory, and fiction. I was frustrated by the absence of literary models in my life. Stroms book was unique though I read avidly, I had not yet encountered a book whose sentences conversed with me, rather than speaking above me. I admired the fact that these stories did not offer definitive, epiphanic resolutions, focusing on the interiority and intimate experiences of the characters as they process the world around them.

The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys is a collection of four linked stories about four different Vietnamese-American women living in the United States, inspired by Nina Simones song Four Women. It engages with issues of gender, inheritance, language, and the search for home. For me, it felt like the very beginning of a rich, ongoing dialogue which has evolved within and between Dao Stroms successive publications, the memoir We Were Meant To Be a Gentle People (accompanied by a song cycle, East/West) and the poetry collection You Will Always Be Someone From Somewhere Else.

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Dao Strom about The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys and the many beginnings it inspired.

MEGHAN LAMB: In your preface to The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys, you explain that the book almost wasnt published, in part because its original publisher a major house in New York didnt feel it was enough of a novel. Rather than change or adapt your books linked novella structure, you found a new home for it. What was that process like? Did this process lead you to formally reevaluate and redefine yourself as a writer?

DAO STROM: I think that I have always been a writer working in between genres and mediums, but I just didnt fully know it at first. My first novel, Grass Roof, Tin Roof, was actually a series of short stories linked together by short, lyrical fragments. So, the loosely linked four-novella structure of The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys was, really, a natural evolution from my first novels form. The plain fact to state here may be: I was not a novelist or meant to be one, at least not in the traditional sense of one continuous narrative that follows one protagonist all the way through.

Losing that first book contract was initially a shock, but it was also, in the end, liberating. It woke me up to the realities of publishing and it set me on a different course. I would have to stake my own claim to make my own forms.

As it went: I did one more round of edits and retitled the manuscript, and my agent was diligent and determined about finding the manuscript another home. But following The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys, my writing did indeed change taking a more hybrid tack: between prose and poetry, image and text, engaging the aural senses too. My failure to fit in resulted, ironically, in my going further afield. In looking back now, I see that it all evolved as it was meant to. I already had a visual background (having studied film) and a separate practice as a musician and songwriter. The hybrid-literary form allowed me to dissolve boundaries between my own different realms of voice.

The novella, too, is a form that inhabits a neither/nor realm, willing neither to compress nor elongate itself. Ive always liked structures that allow for deeper immersion, while at the same time employing techniques of tension and truncation. In looking back, I will own that I could not have written any differently than I did. The writing dictated its desired parameters; I still work this way now, as opposed to trying to impose structure onto the work.

Ive reread The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys numerous times over the past decade, and Ive been struck by the ways rereading feels like an archiving of the self: a cataloging of who I was at different points in my reading. Do you experience a similar kind of self-archiving, rereading your own work? Can you trace your evolution as a writer in these pages, or do they feel fully distinct from the work youre doing now?

There are emotional truths that I myself went through in each one of the stories in The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys. For instance, the first story is one of the most painful to reread now, because for me what it catalogs is a lot of internalized racism and intense self-scrutiny, even self-loathing, that was related, but in an unacknowledged way, to race, to becoming aware of what it means or what it may look like being Asian in America.

Mary, one of the protagonists in the book, is a lot like me during my early college years. She is trying to exempt herself from certain aspects of her racial experience, which is something a person of color who has grown up steeped in white culture might well do. She also projects a lot of that scrutiny onto her male friends, who are also Asian-American, and who are her most real relationships despite all her affectionate energies poured toward an absent (white boy) lover. But although I gave Mary a lot of my own traits and experiences from that age, in some ways I also put her at a greater disadvantage, making her even more alienated than I was at the time.

There is a truth about a father that arises in Marys story; in my own life, I also learned a truth about my father, though a little earlier, in my adolescence. Mary does not arrive at any emotional resolution about this or her other affections. For me, the story is a sort of time capsule of a period of disconnection and an emotional what-if as if someones emotional bearing continued along that path. In my real life, however, some of the events and relationships I drew from to write the story have continued, resurfaced, even evolved in wondrous ways.

Memory also constantly changes memories. I dont perceive things in the same way that I did when I was writing those stories. So, I might say Im also glad I captured what I did when I did, with the particular sensitivity I had in that period toward those insecurities, desires, melancholies, et cetera. Reading back, some of it is entertaining, even humorous, to reencounter. The second story, Walruses, for instance, has a lot of very real, sometimes quietly absurd, details that occurred during a time that felt to me psychically gray, slightly harrowing, and formative. The story captures all that for me while riding its own fictional currents.

On the subject of self-archiving: Did the autobiographical elements in The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys feel like a prelude to the personal explorations in your later work? Have your feelings toward these experiences changed in the process of recasting them as fiction, nonfiction, or poetry?

Pieces of me are laced throughout these stories, no doubt, and a sort of self-traveloging reverberates throughout my work. I am most certainly an interior-oriented writer who uses the self as an ongoing repository. But none of it is precisely or wholly me, and in my day-to-day life, Im actually a private person, not too prone to sharing. But I am interested in the mind and memory as material, and this is a tactic I employ even as a fiction writer. Perhaps my fundamental interest, really, is perceptions and how we string them into patterns by which we tell ourselves stories or try to make sense of living. I am always, always aware of every memory, every story, being a result of choices in perception and construction.

With We Were Meant To Be a Gentle People and my work since, Ive started dealing more directly with perception, constructing the self/identity, constructing meaning, and simultaneously, questioning it all. Ive started questioning the factors that feed into our perceptions and how they are retained as memory, as history, and so forth. In my writing life in my mid-30s and on, it may seem I dropped the artifice of fiction, to wrestle more directly with the material itself but this is not to say construction and artifice are not still a part of the process.

Another common element in these works is the word gentle (which appears in two titles) and the bent of the long titles themselves. None of this was conscious, but I do think something is hinted at in those titles. From the Gentle Order stories to the hybrid elements of We Were Meant To Be a Gentle People and the Somewhere book, a gentling an acuteness of perception definitely plays a part. In all the works, I see threads about looking closely, about heeding the small, about seeking an order to the pieces of ones life.

The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys features narratives from three very different Vietnamese-American mothers. Has your relationship with these fictional mothers changed over time, as youve raised your own son into a young adult? Do you find yourself identifying more or less with any of the mothers in this novel?

These mothers span different degrees of remove from their Vietnamese backgrounds, no doubt, and it is maybe only in the Interlude between the second and third stories that the specter of Vietnam looms visibly. I feel the most empathy for the mother in that piece and the ways in which she navigates her trauma distantly, through so many omissions and orders her present life to be as small and manageable as possible. Some of her tendencies I look at with affection the covering of everything in plastic, the appliances never used for their designated functions, details Ive observed in many refugee households while also aware of the role of disruptive trauma in ones past, that can underlie such habits, which Im aware exist in myself, too, truthfully.

I dont remember how it came to me anymore, but somehow the impulse arose to give that mother a child who would look at her only as a mother, his harbor and anchor, who in his child innocence would not know how to read her except through a lens of love. This seemed like a grace to offer that mother, and maybe to offer the book as a whole too. Its also apt that, in a book designated to consist of four stories narrated through womens voices, I would break my own rules and drop in a fifth story from a young males viewpoint I have a hard time staying inside the lines, once a frame is drawn. It also felt fitting to imagine this male figure who was connected and yet different from the mother and sisters, maybe a little more at ease in himself (he also is not a refugee, but second-generation born in the United States), and who would be nothing but good-natured toward them. The female protagonists in all the other stories are to some degree displaced from their birthland. Maybe I was forecasting a type of male emotional capacity I wanted these women characters to encounter.

The mother Im perhaps closer in experience to is Sage, in the last story, who is mixed-race and completely estranged from her cultural background. Though she has traits in common with me, I made her more rootless, more displaced from her Vietnamese-ness than I am. One of my favorite mothering scenes in the book comes when Sage arrives at a party (after she and her friends have marched in an antiwar rally) to find her son delighting in being wrapped up in a string of green Christmas lights. When I reread that moment, I am still transported, still pleasantly disarmed by how the children light up the page and imbue the story with a kind of gentle surreality. This sits in subtle counterpoint to the adult navets and interpersonal confusions also at play in the story.

Do you and your son talk about your own memories of Vietnam? As a third-generation Vietnamese American, how does he process your shared or un-shareable experiences?

My son over the years has spent a lot of time reading over my shoulder. Ive made it a point to let him know about our past, especially my parents. He knows that his grandparents were writers, that his grandfather spent a decade in the communist reeducation camps, that erasure and trauma have been a part of our history, and that Ive been trying, in my art, to reconnect and reconcile with that history, its estrangements and echoes.

Inherited trauma is very real, and I believe that part of learning to live with it is being able to recognize it. I grew up with parents who believed it necessary to sever from the past, which was not uncommon for the first generation. I wanted to give my son what I didnt have: a sense of access to the past and, hopefully, to a different kind of future as well. I took my son back to Vietnam when he was 15, and we are going again now, when he is 20. I am sharing my journeys with him, but Im also aware he has his own journey and will integrate the past however he needs and chooses to, if at all. My simplest hope is that he should know where and what he comes from, while on a personal level be able to see the grace and resilience that lie behind him he has grandparents, for instance, who have lived remarkable lives, who made difficult and selfless choices in the face of crises. I cant know, of course, what my son really feels or will do with this information, but I hope in the end that he will draw strength from it.

Meghan Lamb is the author of All of Your Most Private Places (Spork Press, 2020) andSilk Flowers(Birds of Lace, 2017).

Continued here:
Artifice Is Part of the Process: An Interview with Dao Strom - lareviewofbooks

Artist Jorge Larrea is known in Montclair to alumni of Northeast Elementary as their beloved former art teacher. Larrea has also had his work One featured at Montclair Public Library. Now Larrea will have his first solo exhibition, opening this Thursday when Clerestory Fine Art presents Awake in Dreams: The Visual Immersions of Jorge Larrea.

Awake in Dreams features large oil paintings meticulously rendered with geometric and organic shapes, creating dreamlike worlds where human figures intertwine with their surroundings. Larrea sat down with Baristanet to share more about his Ecuadorian background and the influences of Renaissance painting on his surreal compositions.

Where are you from? And what was your upbringing like?

I grew up in an upper middle class family in Quito, Ecuador. I went to eight different schools because I was expelled from so many of them. My grandmother called me rebel without a cause.

What was your first brush(!) with art making?

When I was in Pre- K, this kindergarten boy had his work chosen for a show in school. I remember it was a bull-fighter, done with all these amazing colors. I was so in awe of him, he became my herohe was probably five. Since then, I wanted to be able to create art. When I was 10, my mother signed me up for art classes downtown. I would take the bus from home, by myself, a couple times a week. I remember my first painting was a lake; I loved drawing the waves in the water.

Whose art has influenced or intrigued you?

Salvador Dali I love his work. I love his imagination, skill, the technique he used, the colors. When I came to the United States and enrolled in art classes, I loved the Renaissance masters. Eventually when I studied surrealism in college, I tried to apply that concept, painting without thinking. But then I remember buying my first canvases and I said, okay, Im going to try what the surrealists did and see what happens.

What is your experience with teaching? How has it impacted your work?

Teaching, especially elementary school students, made me more playful. Seeing in kids the joy of creating constantly reminded me to just do it without a lot of overthinking or planning ahead.

And if you ask the kids at Northeast, their favorite class was art. It was awesome to be able to teach their favorite subject.

How did you begin to synthesize philosophical language with your art? Was it a conscious choice, or did it just happen?

Everything in nature has evolution. What Im expressing as an artist has to do with what lifes all about. Feeling organisms, thinking organisms and spiritual organisms, and how we are connected with the whole. We are all one with the universe, Mother earth.

Some of your pieces are filled with extremely intricate line work; how do you create these structures?

When I was a kid, I remember my mom showing me the veins on leaves. Veins are everywhere, in tree trunks and fruits, in our skin, in the sky, water and sand. So thats when I began to feel like we are all interconnected. When I paint, I want to feel and show those connections. All of those lines show me the energy of life, and also how veins and roots and nerves and electrical charges, are all speaking to each other.

Can you talk about your symbolism and use of color?

When youre sitting in front of a dark painting and feel melancholic and sad or maybe introverted, and then you take 10 steps to the right and see a yellow and red painting and feel uplifted and happy thats when I understood how wonderful color was.

I learned from Dali how images can convey so much. How they can connect our minds to our subconscious, how you can be reminded of dreams or different states of mind.

When these symbols come onto the paper or the canvas, I want them to have the right colors. Its about the power of color as energy and the power of the symbols to say so much about our inner selves.

Is there a piece from the show you are most excited about or has an interesting backstory?

My largest painting Will is also the one that took me the longest. The reason why its probably my favorite is because it embodies my philosophy and also my influences. The colors are very much like Latin American colors, very strong, very powerful and all balanced, as rich as possible. The influence of the Renaissance, the linear perspective, the balance, and the human figures are very idealized.

I use the symbol of the sperm because it could be in the animal world, in nature, in human life. It represents the wheel of life, the ability to become something else, to create something new.

You always need to overcome things. You always need to overpower certain things. You always need to compete with others. And competition is necessary because without it, there is no evolution.

What advice do you have for young artists?

When I teach, I noticed how kindergarten kids make art without thinking, without ego, without looking at each other. They just do. Then, the older they get, the more self conscious, the more fearful they become. They are afraid to show weaknesses or to be bad. The advice I would have for all ages is like the Nike Ad, just do it. Dont think about it. Just see what happens without comparing yourself. Competition is great, as long as its healthy and natural. The competition comes after the fact of doing it. You dont want to do something to compete, you want to compete as you do.

Clerestory Fine Art presents Awake in Dreams: The Visual Immersions of Jorge Larrea, March 12April 24, 2020. Meet Larrea at an opening reception on Thursday, March 12 from 7-9 p.m. Additional public programming will accompany the exhibition, including an evening featuring both stand-up comedy and Clerestorys widely popular silent disco, kids tours, a special tour for high school students, artist talks in both Spanish and English, and an Art and Finance panel discussion geared towards budding collectors. For more information, visit the Clerestory Fine Art website and follow on Instagram.

See original here:
Conversation With Jorge Larrea: "Awake In Dreams" Solo Exhibition at Clerestory Fine Art - Baristanet

SBL continues to push the boundaries of the classic supply chain model and commits to minimizing the company's carbon footprint within five years.

CLIFTON, N.J. (PRWEB) March 16, 2020

On March 13, 2020, Glenn Langberg, CEO of Seaman's Beverage and Logistics (SBL), announced that the company would be carbon neutral by 2025. As a rapidly growing logistics and outsourcing provider, SBL has become increasingly conscious of the environmental impact of modern logistics operators.

Recently named to the NJBIZ Fast 50 for the third consecutive year, the Entrepreneur 360 list, and the Inc. 500 in 2019, SBL continues to challenge the classic supply chain model. Last year, Seaman's had a shipping accuracy rate of 99.9%. Adept at leveraging and broadening producer relationships, streamlining costs, and growing profitability for its clients throughout the United States, Seaman's is also a market leader in outsourcing services. The company's commitment to green logistics is a natural evolution for its premier logistics, warehousing, back-office, outsourcing, and last mile services in the New Jersey and New York regions.

The carbon-neutral initiative by Seaman's Beverage and Logistics will include the installation of photovoltaic solar panels, a transition to energy-efficient lighting, a complete migration to electric vehicles, and the transformation of the current warehouse to a Net Zero energy building able to supply and sustain its own power over the course of a year.

"We want Seaman's Beverage and Logistics to be a differentiator in its industry, distinguished by a first-class logistics strategy and active membership in the global business community," said Langberg. "SBL is fully committed to adopting environmentally responsible and sustainable practices that will complement its commitment to operational excellence."

For the original version on PRWeb visit: https://www.prweb.com/releases/seamans_beverage_and_logistics_sbl_announces_the_company_will_be_carbon_neutral_by_2025/prweb16982653.htm

See the original post:
Seaman's Beverage and Logistics (SBL) Announces the Company Will be Carbon Neutral by 2025 - Benzinga

However, you only need to read a few trading reports coming out of multi-national organisations, observe the chaos in the travel industry, and see your own stocks and shares rapidly plummet in value to appreciate the level of turmoil that COVID-19 is having on the economy. I work with over a thousand challenger food brands where many of the founders are understandably concerned about the impact of the pandemic on their business and livelihoods.

As I type this, I receive an email from Propel info news with the subject line Coronavirus hits high-street football by 26% as if to prove the point.

At Young Foodies we are facing the challenge head on so we can help our brands through what may be a difficult few months ahead. We have already kicked off crisis planning with regular community calls and webinars, ensuring small businesses feel supported and are given up-to-the-minute expert guidance.

Things are volatile right now and the mood in the community is that of understandable concern, but the very entrepreneurial spirit that brought them into business in the first place, is what is truly shining through. And its wonderfully inspiring.

There is an unbelievable amount of noise in the market at present and so what we need now more than anything else is positivity and collaboration. As a community we share an upbeat, positive outlook. In fact I see a few positive longer term impacts:

Accelerating online growth We are already seeing online delivery and e-commerce demand go through the roof as more of the population works from home and stockpiling restrictions come into play. We are hearing through our network that online demand has increased by over 100% in one week in some cases.

This poses major operational challenges for many of the online grocers, marketplaces, and logistics providers supporting them. As an example, Ocado has had to take down its app and other online retailers are experiencing delivery delays. Observing this stress-test is painful right now but we will need to wait to see the longer-term uplift for these operators. The message here is that if you sell through online channels, or are considering creating a new online channel, now is the time to make the most of it but you will need to ensure you have the delivery capability to cope with the execution. In the longer term, if done well, e-commerce could become a highly successful DTC sales strategy.

The rise of the responsibly built business I feel like Ive been preaching for years about the need to build solid businesses, not just building them at speed. It is at times like these that those brands built on weaker foundations may struggle most. Use this unprecedented market challenge as the catalyst for more positive behaviours and procedures. The pursuit of revenue over profit and businesses that require excessive external financing to remain a going concern may be encouraged to critically assess their business operations to release margin points and reduce overheads. Although some of this may involve the difficult decision to make the business leaner by reducing head count where necessary, the long-term view is a more stable well-run business ready to capitalise on opportunities when the time comes.

Trust jumps into the driving seat Whilst traditional shopping habits have temporarily been abandoned for panic-driven stockpiling, trust that they will return to a more stable state. Trust plays an increasingly important role in buying decisions. The evolution of the conscious consumer has forced brands to demonstrate their business beliefs outwardly and demonstrate authenticity in their statements.

With the ubiquitous fear and anxiety now gripping global populations, trust and loyalty will be even more important for those looking to prosper when the dust settles.

Ultimately, the consumer is still there, they are just behaving differently for the time being, so its not time to be reactive and completely change strategy, but rather re-direct, re-purpose and be prepared for all eventualities. Fortunately for the community, Young Foodies Brexit preparations will prove useful as we have already conducted risk assessments based on uncertainty.

Originally posted here:
How small brands are rising to the Coronavirus challenge | News - Speciality Food