OCTOBER 19, 2019

ERIK DAVISS NEW BOOK is at once a brilliantly original study and a recap of familiar themes the author has been pondering for the past two decades. Like his pioneering 1998 debut, TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, High Weirdness explores the way modern networked society tends to inspire revivals of hermetic and other occult traditions. It thus updates Daviss analysis of the convergence of contemporary occult and psychedelic subcultures in Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica (2010). And, like his 2006 volume,The Visionary State: A Journey Through Californias Spiritual Landscape, High Weirdness shows how this epochal conjuncture of mystical worldviews, magical practices, and psychoactive lifestyles expresses a uniquely West Coast sensibility, a fusion of NorCal hippie utopianism and SoCal punk paranoia.

High Weirdness is a revised version of Daviss PhD thesis, produced under the auspices of the Program in Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism in the Department of Religion at Rice University. As Davis remarked in a 2015 LARB interview, he had long contemplated stepping back from the challenges of freelance life and shoring up the more scholarly side of my writing and research through an encounter with an academic discipline. Happily, this encounter has in no way scotched his restless, omnivorous intelligence or defused the offbeat punch of his gonzo style; indeed, it has helped him to see himself as a kind of counter-public intellectual who brings rigorous theoretical and methodological approaches to bear on some seriously weird shit. While he still views his own writing as part of the same stream of feral, fringe, psychedelically-inflected thought that is his analytic subject, he can now scrutinize these oddball perspectives using all the tools of modern philosophy, cultural studies, and comparative religion. The result can be at times a bit overwhelming as Davis struggles to synthesize a welter of theories, from William Jamess radical empiricism to Bruno Latours Actor-Network Theory to the materialist psychoanalysis of Flix Guattari (and much more) but it is never pedantic or boring.

The core of High Weirdness is a careful study of three major psychonauts Terence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson, and Philip K. Dick all of whom, under the influence of far-out fictions, esoteric doctrines, and various controlled substances, were bombarded by a series of hallucinatory visions that were arguably mystical and indubitably life-changing. Seven chapters devoted to these thinkers lives and work are bookended by a wide-ranging exordium that develops a concept of weird naturalism to account for their quasi-mystical experiences, and a coda that explores why this freaky occultural mindset should have emerged precisely when and where it did: in early 1970s California. Daviss introduction makes clear that a key historical development was the psychedelic transformation of esotericism and the occult, which spawned a countercultural zeitgeist fusing the delirious whimsies of LSD gurus with a hybrid pop-hermeticism la Aleister Crowley and a Westernized Tao out of Mircea Eliade via Alan Watts. This potent brew was laced, as the dreamy 60s gave way to the fidgety 70s, with even more outr ingredients, from the tabloid conspiracy theories of UFO cultism to the posthuman pulp metaphysics of H. P. Lovecraft.

The result, in Daviss words, was a weirding of religious experience that ushered in a consciousness culture of intense, enchanting, and liberating altered states, navigated by a restless mode of subjectivity that I call the centrifugal self. This deracinated ego, adrift amid a kaleidoscopic relativism of arcane beliefs and alternative lifestyles, was less a coherent identity than an endlessly mutating project: On the one hand, the decentered self becomes a charged vector of exploration and creative re-invention; on the other, it spins like an aimless and lonely satellite through random space. As Davis argues in his concluding chapter, this nomadic subjectivity was particularly suited to if not outright engendered by the complex and abstract behavior of networks, systems, and information ecologies that emerged as a new social paradigm during the postwar years, especially in California (here, Davis builds thoughtfully on Manuel Castellss 1996 sociological classic, The Rise of the Network Society). The quasi-mystical perception that everything in a network is potentially connected gave rise to both libertarian dreams of empowerment, including the hacker ethos of information freedom, and conspiratorial fantasies of mind control, such as the belief that a psychic mafia of paranormal researchers might be soften[ing] peoples brains telepathically.

There is thus a key ambivalence a strangely doubled gnosis at the heart of the visions Davis anatomizes: they seem to give access to higher states of reality while at the same time suggesting that this contact could be manipulative or delusional. A deep strain of doubt underlies the surface credulity: all three psychonauts reported encounters with enigmatic nonhuman intelligences they could neither shake nor entirely believe in. A cautionary counterexample is provided by another figure who didnt quite make it into Daviss mystic pantheon: neuroscientist John Lilly, who used sensory deprivation as a trigger to extra-human communication and supraself metaprogramming, but who eventually became convinced, under the dissociative influence of ketamine, that a Borg-like Solid State Intelligence was in the process of conquering all biological, carbon-based life in the universe. McKenna, Wilson, and Dick all came close to surrendering to such crippling chimeras themselves, but each was saved, finally, by a capacity for wry humor, cool pragmatism, or skeptical self-analysis. Moreover, Davis is less interested in appraising the putative truth of their mystical visions than he is in exploring the rhetorical and conceptual resources these garage philosophers marshaled to narrate and interpret their experiences, in a series of highly imaginative, curiously engaging, and boldly genre-bending texts.

The first and in many ways the least interesting figure Davis discusses is McKenna, a modern techno-shaman who, when he wasnt hymning the ethno-botanical (if not extraterrestrial) powers of psilocybin mushrooms, was claiming to have discovered a fractal math underlying the I Ching that, when read alongside the patterns of the Mayan calendar, forecast an imminent global apocalypse. (McKenna died in 2000 and so was not around to see the failure of his prediction or of the big-budget film based upon it, Roland Emmerichs silly 2009 spectacle, 2012.) While all three of Daviss psychonauts were a bit sketchy and egotistical, willing to shade the facts in the service of a good story (Davis defends them, fondly but cogently, as bullshit artists), it is McKenna alone who comes across to me at least as a flamboyant fraud. Like Wilson and Dick, he was a voracious autodidact, and he could vent his weird fund of erudition a compound of pulp sci-fi, McLuhanist media babble, half-digested Buddhism, and drug lore in intense and witty raps of cannabis-fueled eloquence. (In later years, he became, like his friend and fellow con man Timothy Leary, a fixture on the college lecture circuit, and budding bohemians can readily access his loopy musings online.)

Davis does his best to argue for McKenna as a genuine counterculture intellectual, a psychedelic alchemist who used DMT, magic mushrooms, and other potent substances as metabolic triggers for extra-dimensional experiences. A less generous way to put it is that he was a drug nut not that theres anything wrong with that, but his motives, frankly, come across as more shallow and self-serving than the other two pop-mystics Davis groups him with, whose drug use was more incidental to their visions and who, for all their nascent messianism, never really fancied themselves as gurus.

That said, McKenna was, of the three, the most ardently and admirably peripatetic: rather than waiting for enlightenment to arrive, he actively hunted it down. Davis chronicles his youthful 1971 foray, accompanied by brother Dennis, into the Amazon jungle in search of indigenous psychoactives rare plants and fungi that put Terence in touch with a higher intelligence, either posthuman or nonhuman, which he dubbed the Logos (for his part, Dennis was either transformed into an oracle or had a gibbering breakdown in later years, he wasnt quite sure himself). The brothers Experiment at La Chorrera led to two co-authored books: The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching (1975), which ambitiously constructs a syncretic folk science of New Age shamanism, and the flipped-out, psy-phi Magic Mushroom Growers Guide (1976), in which the drug, personified as an alien ambassador, peddles a dreamy fantasy of cosmic symbiosis. (Ever the huckster, Terence had returned to the States with a hoard of psilocybin spore-prints that he marketed to avid heads under his Lux Natura brand.) Caveat emptor.

The second psychonaut to whom Davis introduces us Robert Anton Wilson was, I think, an altogether more intriguing cat. Born in 1932, he was 14 years older than McKenna and thus had been compelled to carve out a social niche for himself before the 60s made hippie entrepreneurialism a feasible option. A modestly successful freelance journalist, he served, for much of the 1960s, as associate editor for Playboy magazine, where he was in charge along with his friend and colleague Robert Shea of the letters Forum, which the duo remodeled into a clearinghouse for [] alternative views, from right-wing libertarianism to psychosexual anarchism. A bookish pothead with a pronounced trickster streak, Wilson proposed to Shea that they consider the worldviews animating the missives they received as all equally valid, a hypothesis that fed into a lengthy manuscript the pair drafted between 1969 and 1971, eventually published in three volumes as The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975).

The apotheosis of 1970s conspiracy culture, a cross between the pomo delirium of Thomas Pynchon and the earnest hysteria of a Xerox pamphleteer, the trilogy is a bracing tabloid bath of satiric paranoia that I seem to like rather better than Davis does (he claims to find its blend of pulp indulgence and ironic, avant-garde affectation off-putting). Davis is interested in Illuminatus! primarily as a gateway drug that leads to Wilsons later work, as well as for what it reveals about the Discordians, a real-world group of social and spiritual pranksters with whom Wilson was closely associated. Davis warmly defends Discordianism as more than a parody religion; it is rather, he claims, a life-affirming neo-paganism that forges a deep link between anti-state politics and the esoteric imagination. Certainly, its impish ironies are vastly more entertaining than McKennas mycelial metaphysics.

In his later solo effort, Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (1977), Wilson started to weave the raw material of the trilogy into a more personal, meditative brief for pluralistic psychedelic pragmatism. After leaving Playboy in 1971, the author finally took the plunge into the swirling currents of acid evangelism and pseudo-liberatory eroticism; he joined a small coven in Mendocino, performed rites of Crowleyan and Tantric sex magic, used a tape machine for consciousness re-programming, and generally let his freak flag fly. After a few years of this bizarro diet, Wilsons innate skepticism began to fray in the face of hypnotic patterns of synchronicity and visionary trances that seemed to channel transmissions from higher dimensional intelligences [in] the star system Sirius. The author had entered what he called the Chapel Perilous: either he was truly experiencing an epochal brain change that gave him access to astral realms, or he was being seduced by madness into scripting his own life as a four-dimensional coincidence-hologram.

Happily, this great satirist of conspiracy theory managed to shake off the grip of the hallucinatory schemes in which he had trapped himself, surfacing as a kind of bemused agnostic armed with the practical counter-magic of reason itself. Much of his later writing was devoted to constructing an elaborate but highly playful personal mythology (he remained active well into the 1990s, including penning a sometime column for the pop-hacktivist journal, Mondo 2000). This dialectic of development is considerably more arresting and provocative than anything McKenna put himself through; indeed, as Davis argues, Cosmic Trigger was a major attempt both to communicate the pathological extremes of extraordinary experience and to rescue its author from mysteries whose infectious charisma is nonetheless sustained, and even broadcast, through the act of writing itself. (The book is still in print from Hilaritas Press, but I would personally much rather locate a copy of the authors ultra-rare hippie porn novel The Sex Magicians [1973], which Davis describes as a goofy romp that draws as much from Playboy as from the sleazy excesses of underground comix.)

The final section, on Philip K. Dick, stands out for three reasons. First, it is longer by half than the previous parts, thus suggesting that Davis considers Dick to be a more complex and/or interesting figure than the other two psychonauts. Second, it focuses on someone who had a long career as a celebrated SF writer before his early 70s mystical encounters turned him into a purple sage; he thus had greater narrative skills and generic resources to draw upon when fashioning accounts of his otherworldly exploits. (He was also, quite simply, smarter than either McKenna or Wilson that is to say, more learned, as opposed to just well read.) Finally, this section is the only one that doesnt feature a collaborator, a doting brother or Playboy buddy; instead, Dick had to struggle through his perplexing cosmic baptism more or less alone (though Davis does explore the network of friends and correspondents he regularly bounced ideas off of). As a result, these chapters are more sober and contemplative in tone, and the experience of reading them can be both painful and profound, especially if you are already a fan, like me, of their subjects body of work.

On the one hand, its unfortunate that the wild spiritual ride Dick endured during the final decade of his life, which has generated a host of subcultural responses ranging from a Tarot deck to an R. Crumb comic, has somewhat eclipsed or, rather, subsumed his specifically literary achievements. On the other hand, if it werent for the interest generated by the authors purported brush with extrahuman otherness, his work might well have slipped down the memory hole that has engulfed so many of his genre contemporaries. Instead, Dicks fiction is widely available in editions that are often now shelved with Literature instead of SF in bookstores, and 13 of his best novels have been enshrined in a three-volume set from the Library of America, under the editorship of avid Dickhead Jonathan Lethem. It was also Lethem, along with scholar-editor Pamela Jackson, who persuaded Houghton Mifflin, in 2011, to publish a thousand-page curation of fragments from Dicks Exegesis a personal journal the author began keeping in the wake of the theophanic irruption that scrambled his life in early 1974.

In a 2012 LARB review of The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick, I attempted to summarize the authors experiences:

Recovering from oral surgery in February 1974, pumped full of Darvon, lithium, and massive quantities of megavitamins, he began experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations initially sparked by a Christian girls fish-icon necklace but eventually taking the form of a pink laser shooting highly coded information into his opened mind during a series of hypnogogic visitations. Over time, the intrepid author developed an elaborate vocabulary to describe the transfiguring effects of these extraterrestrial dispatches. According to this private argot, on 2-3-74 [i.e., in February and March of 1974] Dick underwent a powerful anamnesis, stimulated by mystical contact with VALIS (Vast Active Living Intelligence System, sometimes also called Zebra or, more simply, God), that unshackled his genetic memory, permitting him to see through the Black Iron Prison of our world into the macrometasomacosmos, the morphological realm of the Platonic Eidos, in the process revealing himself to be a homoplasmate, an incarnation of the Gnostic Logos subsisting in orthogonal time.

As this breathless litany perhaps suggests, the Exegesis is a phantasmagoric rats nest of deranged erudition, feverish guesswork, and scathing self-analysis, with Dick like Wilson in Cosmic Trigger painfully pondering whether he just might have lost his mind. In my previous review, I question[ed] whether this manuscript should have seen print at all, given its often embarrassing rambling and autodidactic fanaticism, with Dick latching onto any stray thread to spin out his cosmogonic web, and I said that it was hard to imagine that there is a widespread audience for this strange assemblage of obiter Dick-ta, even among PKDs more hardcore followers.

Daviss High Weirdness, with its three long chapters parsing Dicks unruly speculations, will very likely test that assumption. Over the course of his own career, Davis has stoutly put his shoulder to the Dickian wheel: the first glimmering of this book project was an undergraduate thesis he wrote at Yale on Philip K. Dicks Postmodern Gnosis, and he labored heroically alongside Lethem and Jackson to midwife the Exegesis, soliciting, coordinating, and in many cases drafting the books superb arsenal of annotations. While Davis does take a few nose-dives down beguiling rabbit holes in his chapters on Dick in High Weirdness, he also provides the most comprehensive and convincing account of the authors mystical experiences I have read, shrewdly navigating between the Scylla of reducing these visions to phantasms of madness or drug abuse and the Charybdis of embracing them as emanations of godhood (the excellent footnotes cite the full range of extant views, and there are a lot of them). Above all, Davis is superbly attentive to the textual nature of Dicks experiences, the way narrative retrospection and redaction both in the Exegesis and in his later published fictions worked to give shape to amorphous events usually experienced on the hazy brink of sleep. Indeed, the authors speculative frenzy in some ways simply shows Dicks plot-weaving imagination in paranoid overdrive.

I will leave it to scholars of religious studies to assess the fitness of Daviss mobilization of Neoplatonic and esoteric discourses in his analysis of Dicks supermundane visions. In terms of the sociocultural contexts Davis cites, I was particularly struck by the evidence he musters for the influence of the 1970s Jesus Movement on at least the outward symbols, if not the redemptive heart, of Dicks evolving creed; these Jesus Freaks were especially active in Orange County, a locale the author quite understandably viewed as emblematic of a foul, fallen world. Whatever the triggering phenomenon, Dick came to believe, at least some of the time, that he was still living in apostolic times, and that the intervening centuries of history were a fabulation. As Davis meticulously documents, this conviction led the author to recast his earlier novels, many of which had depicted delusory worlds manipulated by cynical puppet-masters, as looming prefigurations of the Black Iron Prison he now glimpsed all around him. Conversely, his nocturnal oracles obsessively masticated and transformed in the Exegesis came to provide the numinous fodder for a series of late-career novels, including the cryptic, metafictional VALIS (1981) and the deeply poignant Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982), published shortly after the authors death. As Davis movingly puts it, Dicks final novels were more than disguised testimonies, they were also self-cures for the ravages of revelation.

The proximate cause of Dicks untimely death was a series of massive strokes, though his lifelong abuse of amphetamines was undoubtedly a contributing factor. Unlike McKenna and Wilson, Dick was not particularly fond of psychedelics, or street drugs of any kind, as his 1977 quasi-memoir of his years shepherding a crash-pad of hippie drop-outs, A Scanner Darkly, makes plain. A knowledgeable and compulsive pillhead, he preferred the quantifiable mood modulations of psychiatric scripts. By the time the Gnostic Logos came a-calling, he had already transformed himself into a kind of pharmaceutical cyborg, stuffing his face with Benzedrine tablets he kept in a jar in the refrigerator, along with doses of Stelazine to take the edge off. Davis describes the astonishing regimen in some detail, but he doesnt fully explain how this teeming pharmacopoeia fits into the counterculture scene his other psychonauts inhabited. And while he does discuss the way that amphetamine use shaped and supported the rapid-fire, immersive, and deeply personal way [] Dick wrote his [SF] books, he doesnt really speculate about its impact on the composition of the Exegesis, much less attempt to describe the way a speed-freak mythopoesis might differ from the psychedelic kind generated by a classic head such as McKenna.

Indeed, the main failing of the book, in my view, is the relative lack of comparative analysis of the three authors and their visionary worldviews. There is a bit of this work in the concluding chapter, but it seems half-hearted, with Davis toting up shared motifs like UFOs, the star system Sirius, and H. P. Lovecraft before proceeding to his anatomy of the nascent network society within which their mystic schemas emerged. Ultimately, High Weirdness displays the weaknesses of many PhD dissertations: an opening chapter choked with theoretical references is followed by a series of more or less discrete case studies, the whole capped by a too-brief conclusion that belatedly seeks to sketch some essential connections.

But I have very seldom encountered a dissertation as engaging, as insightful, or as compellingly written, much less one so clearly driven by a personal passion for its subject. High Weirdness is a richly rewarding study of three maverick talents, the occult incubi that plagued them, the ambiguous gospels they formulated, and the sun-kissed, dope-saturated milieu that cradled and nourished it all. I recommend this book very highly indeed.

Rob Latham is a LARB senior editor.

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The Ravages of Revelation - lareviewofbooks

Three-year education partnership provides technology and curriculum in U.S., India and Nigeria

Palo Alto, CA, Oct. 14 /CSRwire/ - Today on International Day of the Girl, HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) and nonprofitGirl Risingannounced the launch of new curriculum and technology solutions that will equip up to ten million students and teachers. The multi-year partnership extends to communities in the United States, India and Nigeria, and is a critical component in reachingHPs goal of enabling better learning outcomes for 100 million people by 2025.

We are thrilled to once again partner with HP a company committed to social impact and at the forefront of innovation in the classroom to radically scale our efforts to ensure girls everywhere have the knowledge, skills and confidence to decide their own futures, said Christina Lowery, CEO of Girl Rising. We are devoted to this cause because it is a proven catalyst: giving girls access to education and opportunity is the most effective factor in transforming pressing global issues including health, poverty, and climate change.

HP believes that education is a fundamental human right that creates pathways to new opportunities. Today, more than 130 million girls around the world continue to lack access to education and women account for two thirds of the 750 million adults without basic literacy skills. HP will include Girl Risings teacher training modules focused on youth empowerment and life skills in HP Education Edition PCs. Targeted toward primary and secondary schools, HP will also deploy a suite of curricula and a library of content to accompany the HP School Pack, a suite of software pre-loaded onto HPs EHP Education Edition PC.

HP prides itself on bringing out the best of humanity through the power of technology, said Michele Malejki, Global Head, Social Impact Programs, HP. Girl Rising is doing groundbreaking work to empower women and girls around the world. This has never been more important, and our collaboration will equip millions of both students and teachers with the curriculum and technology they need to thrive.

With the goal to develop the next generation of female leaders, the HP Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurship (HP LIFE) a free e-learning program from the HP Foundation created to support entrepreneurship and skills development will provide additional curriculum in the three markets. HP School Packs, a suite of software for educators, will also be available for the duration of the program. HP will evaluate additional opportunities for Girl Rising content and curricula distribution, including new products and services, as well as additional partners to scale the program over the next three years.

Global education opportunities

Building on the groundbreaking work of each organization and their previous collaborations - launching the Hindi language version of Girl Rising in India in 2015, celebrating every day gender equality champions around the world throughthe Girl Rising Creative Challengein 2018, and the production and distribution ofBrave Girl Risingearlier this year- HP and Girl Rising are now scaling efforts to improve learning outcomes and gender attitudes for both boys and girls.

HP continues to advance education opportunities for women and girls around the world. Last month during UN General Assembly,HP Inc. and UN Women signed an agreementto advance education, entrepreneurship and digital learning for women and girls in five priority countries: Senegal, South Africa, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Morocco.

HPs partnership with UN Women through two UN Women initiatives Second Chance Education and African Girls Can Code possesses immense potential to both scale and address the lack of investment in women and affording them access to opportunities for career work and economic growth.

Both India and Nigeria have rapidly growing populations of young people with extreme numbers of children not in school - 41 percent of the population in Nigeria is under the age of 16, with 10.5 million out of school and India has the worlds largest population of 10-24 year-olds, 47 million of which will drop out of school by the 10th grade. The burden on education in both countries is overwhelming and new, innovative solutions are vital to advancing change.

About Girl Rising

Girl Rising (GR)s mission is to change the way the world values girls and invests in their potential. Driven by decades of research demonstrating that educating girls is one of the most effective ways to address our worlds most pressing issues including health, poverty, peace and stability and climate change, GR creates original media and creative campaigns about the universal benefits of educating girls. Working with local partners, GR reaches youth and their communities through customized curricula designed to build skills and confidence and address powerful social norms that hold girls back.

About HP

HP Inc. creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through our portfolio of personal systems, printers and 3D printing solutions, we engineer experiences that amaze. More information about HP Inc. is available at http://www.hp.com.

Additional Resources:

Media ContactTom Suiterwww.hp.com/go/newsroomTom.Suiter@hp.com

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HP Inc. and Girl Rising Mark International Day of the Girl with Partnership to Empower 10 Million Students and Teachers - CSRwire.com

Looking for something family-friendly to do in Atlanta this weekend? As the weather turns to more fall-like temperatures, you'll find plenty of outdoor events celebrating the UGA Dawgs, your own dogs and more.

RELATED:10 Atlanta festivals you don't want to miss this October

And if you'd rather stay inside, you'll have your choice of activities including a sneaker convention and Chinese ribbon dance production.

Check out the following 16 things to do in metro Atlanta this weekend:

Cobb

HarvestFest. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19. Free. Glover Park at Historic Marietta Square, 50 N. Park Square NE, Marietta. 770-794-5601.mariettaga.gov.

This annual festival features Scarecrows in the Square, arts and crafts, Touch-A-Truck, inflatables, a costume contest and more.

Owl-O-Ween Hot Air Balloon Festival. 6 p.m.-11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18 and 4 p.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19. Fifth Third Bank Stadium, 3200 George Busbee Parkway NW, Kennesaw.https://owl-o-ween.com/.

Bring your family to the 7th annual Owl-O-Ween Hot Air Balloon Festival, which features tethered balloon rides, hot air balloon glows, live entertainment, trick-or-treating, costume showdowns, a kids' zone and more.

Sneaker Con Atlanta. Noon-7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19. $25 plus fees. Cobb Galleria Centre, Two Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 770-955-8000.sneakercon.com.

Buy, sell or trade your kicks with other like-minded sneaker fans at Sneaker Con. You can also have your sneakers authenticated at the event.

Xfinity Movie Series. 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18. Free admission. The Battery Atlanta, 800 Battery Ave. SE, Atlanta.batteryatl.com.

The Xfinity Movie Series kicks off with a showing of "The Goonies." Bring a lawn chair or blanket if you'd like.

DeKalb

Dunwoody Community Tailgate. 1 p.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19. Free admission. Marlow's Tavern, 1317 Dunwoody Village Parkway, Suite 102, Dunwoody.https://www.facebook.com.

Watch UGA take on the Kentucky Wildcats on a big screen at the tree-lined lawn along the parkway. An on-site DJ will be featured during commercials, along with giveaways. You can buy tailgate-themed foods from Marlow's Tavern and play games such as cornhole and giant Jenga.

Stone Mountain Highland Games. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19 and Sunday, Oct. 20. $18-$20 adults per day, $5 for children age 4-12, plus $20 parking per vehicle per day. Stone Mountain Park, 1000 Robert E. Lee Blvd., Stone Mountain. 770-521-0228.stonemountainpark.com.

Scots or "Scots for the Day" will gather for the Stone Mountain Highland Games and activities including Highland dancing, athletic events and piping and drumming.

Brookhaven Arts Festival. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19 and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20. Free parking and admission. Apply Valley Road, Brookhaven with parking behind the Brookhaven MARTA Station.https://www.brookhavenartsfestival.com/.

Over 120 artists from across the country will participate in the Brookhaven Arts Festival, which also features a new kids' section, music and food and drink as well as a classic car show from 1 p.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 20.

Atlanta Audubon Society Field Trip. 8 a.m. Friday, Oct. 18. Free. Murphey Candler Park, 1551 W. Nancy Creek Drive NE, Atlanta. 404-308-6279.https://www.atlantaaudubon.org/field-trips.html.

Explore lake, wetlands and mixed woods habitats as you look for resident and migrant birds. The walk is suitable for people over 14 years old.

North Fulton

St. Mary of Egypt International Fall Festival. Noon-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19 and Sunday, Oct. 20. $1 admission, children 12 and under free. St. Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church, 1765 Woodstock Road, Roswell.stmaryofegypt.org.

Try exotic homemade foods and desserts, browse and buy from diverse vendors and artisans and enjoy musical entertainment and children's events.

Johns Creek Arts Festival. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19 and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20. Green space across from Atlanta Athletic Club, 1930 Bobby Jones Drive, Johns Creek.splashfestivals.com.

The 8th annual Johns Creek Arts Festival will feature 130 artisans and their paintings, pottery, metalwork, folk art, jewelry, glass and more. You'll also find a kids' zone and will be able to listen to varied live music.

Milton Haunted House on the Hill. From sundown to 10:30 p.m. nightly in October. 820 Dockbridge Way, Milton.https://www.facebook.com.

Michael Myers, the haunted forest and spooky spirits welcome you to drive by the annual Milton Haunted House on the Hill. If you'd like to find Pennywise, you'll have to get out of your car, but please stay off the yard. Props will be limited on rainy nights.

Music Under the Pines. 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18. $27. Matilda's, 850 Hickory Flat Road, Milton. 678-480-6932.https://www.matildasmusicvenue.com/music.

Enjoy music from Granville Automatic, a duo of Nashville songwriters influenced by The Smiths, Emmylou Harris and Simon & Garfunkel. Bring your own food and drink and come by on the day of the concert if you want to put your name on a table to reserve it. Otherwise, it's first-come, first-served, so you may want to bring your own table and chairs.

Gwinnett

PAWFest. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19. Free, with some activities extra. Praise Community Church, 329 Grayson Highway, Lawrenceville.https://gwinnetthumane.wixsite.com/pawfest.

Bring your leashed dogs to the Gwinnett Humane Society's PAWFest for activities such as lure chasing, a parade, disc dog demos, silent auction, carnival games, $5 nail trims and $12 rabies shots. Dogs will be available for adoption, and you can watch football games at the DAWG-Zone.

AutumnFest. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19. Main Street, downtown Logainville.loganville-ga.gov.

Officially welcome fall with craft and food vendors, live entertainment and plenty of kids' activities.

Ribbon Dance of Empowerment. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20. $17-$24. Infinite Energy Center, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth. 770-626-2464.infiniteenergycenter.com.

This educational, entertaining production intertwines Chinese dance, history, culture and personal story telling. An original mini dance-drama also tells the story of Chinese-Americans growing up in the South.

Sugar Rush. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19. 5039 West Broad St., Sugar Hill.cityofsugarhill.com.

Join in the fun at Sugar Rush, an arts festival celebrating performing, visual and culinary arts. Artist vendors, a juried art show, inflatables, an arcade, arts and crafts and more are featured.

RELATED:Diwali 2019: Where in Atlanta you can celebrate the festival of lights

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Dawgs and dogs: 16 things to do in metro Atlanta this weekend - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Melody Newcomb for BuzzFeed News; Nina Subin

Last August, when the writer Meghan Daum published her essay Nuance: A Love Story on the Medium publication GEN (where shes a biweekly columnist), it touched a nerve. The love story, as detailed in this 28-minute read, was about how Daum a lifelong self-described liberal fell into a YouTube hole populated by the intellectual dark web, the sticky neologism that applies to a loosely connected group of professors and podcasters, including Jordan Peterson, Christina Hoff Sommers, and Joe Rogan.

The groups members, first introduced to the mainstream by a 2018 New York Times piece by Bari Weiss, present themselves as self-styled public intellectuals who argue that their values of reason, which can easily be interpreted as hate speech, are under attack from todays politically correct attitudes. Daum refers to her new friends (which shes careful to note include a handful of this cadre of the intellectual dark web) as Free Speech YouTube. In the piece, she outlines how she went from watching Bloggingheads.TV to curling up with a two-hour interview with Evergreen College professor Bret Weinstein, the locus of a campus controversy on racism and intolerance, on The Rubin Report, a YouTube show hosted by Dave Rubin. I was invigorated, she writes, even electrified, by their willingness to ask (if not ever totally answer) questions that had lately been deemed too messy somehow to deal with in mainstream public discourse.

For longtime fans of Daum, Nuance was befuddling, dissonant, and troubling. Daum is something like a senior statesperson for the young, striving white nonfiction woman writer. Her 1999 breakout essay and subsequent 2001 essay collection, My Misspent Youth, is a cult classic about the pleasures and perils of pursuing a passion for an intellectual life. Her books captured a generations experience in funny and devastating prose: In 2010, she published a memoir about yearning for real estate, Life Would Be Perfect if I Lived in That House, and her fourth book, 2014s essay collection The Unspeakable, looked dead in the eye of traumatic events: sick parents, the question of motherhood, and near-death experiences. She was able to write personal essays from a white liberal feminist perspective that pulled off the neat trick of seeming utterly confessional while also sharply summing up the zeitgeist.

So how did Daum, critically acclaimed and considered a voice of a generation (X, in this case) as well as a pioneer of the 2000s personal essay boom, end up publicly sympathizing with a cohort of self-described public intellectuals who make their money claiming to own social justice warriors?

In some ways, Daums pivot isnt surprising. For many years, she has been a writer committed to saying Hey, maybe its like this and not this. Part of that perspective is her love of nuance; its also a useful contrarian pitch against whatever might be the days accepted ideology among mainstream medias centrist liberalism. (For anyone looking to be published: Editors will often respond to pieces that can be sold as edgy and against the grain, especially when youre just starting out.) As a white woman who votes Democratic, Daum can explore more conservative perspectives and give credence to what she views as its more palatable ideas, if only because they wouldnt affect her day-to-day existence.

Her new book, The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through the New Culture Wars, out on Oct. 22, continues in this vein, wrestling back and forth with what the polarization of America means in a world where a significant part of life is played out on the extremes of the internet. But instead of documenting her life experiences, something at which she excels, Daum spends far more time arguing over simplified conservative and liberal talking points, exposing her blind spots to the current issues that color our experience: race, gender, capitalism, the internet, and power.

In 1996, a 25-year-old Daum had the break that most writers dream of, selling an essay to the New York Times Magazine about how Generation X reacts to the message of safe sex. Published under the title Safe-Sex Lies: the final edit was abrupt, not all that coherent, gratuitously provocative, and suggested that I might have had unprotected sex with upward of five hundred people, as Daum would write in the Believer years later. The Times received hundreds of letters in response, Daum appeared on NBC Nightly News in black leather boots, and she had her first experience of what it was like to be the voice of a generation.

Three years later, the New Yorker published Daums essay My Misspent Youth. Its a psychologically astute portrait of a suburban New Jersey twentysomething who accrued more than $60,000 in debt in order to achieve a life that had less to do with overt wealth than with what I perceived as intellectual New York bohemianism. She discussed her student loans from her Columbia masters degree, credit card debt acquired from dental care, freelance taxes, and daily purchases of fresh flowers. She was funny and self-aware about why she was pursuing a romantic version of poverty. Daum closes with the ultimate flex: While she had a very, very good time in New York, she writes that shes now moving to Nebraska, where she can afford the price of living. (Thanks to a freelance career that she says yielded around $40,000 a year 20 years ago good for her!) The essay is a wonderful piece of writing, and still feels fresh in 2019 even if the average debt for a suburban girl turned aspiring bohemian may be a little bit higher these days, and the possibility of making a living wage as a freelance writer is increasingly diminishing.

How did Daum, a pioneer of the 2000s personal essay boom, end up publicly sympathizing with a cohort of self-described public intellectuals who make their money claiming to own social justice warriors?

My Misspent Youth would also be the title of Daums first essay collection, published by the now-closed indie publishing arm of the late magazine Open City. Its best essays were concerned with the minutiae of Daums twentysomething life: On the Fringes of the Physical World discussed an internet courtship that consisted of enthusiastic emails; American Shiksa detailed what its like falling for Jewish men when youre not Jewish; and Variations on Grief is a tough, honest essay about a friends death at 22, in which Daum writes, Brian is someone who accomplished nothing in life other than his death.

In 2003, Daum published her first novel, The Quality of Life Report, a funny and light read that the original paperback cover marketed as edgy chick lit. By 2005, Daum had landed a weekly op-ed column for the Los Angeles Times, a position that she held for over a decade. In 2010, Daums second nonfiction book came out, Life Would Be Perfect if I Lived in That House, and it solidified her position as a writer who could be wry and heartbreaking.

When Daum released her second book of essays in 2014, The Unspeakable, I wrote in a review for Flavorwire that Daum was like a big sister to me, warm and realistic and not afraid to seem like an asshole. There are some duds in this book do I have to dig into Honorary Dyke, an essay whose cringey title really says it all? but there are resonant essays too, like Matricide, about her mothers death, and Diary of a Coma, about her own near-death experience. Instead of boilerplate reactions to brutal life events, Daum was willing to express her ambivalence in the face of subjects as heavy as death.

Theres an essay at the heart of The Unspeakable, one that shows the force of Daums talent, called Difference Maker. She writes about her experience as a volunteer court-appointed advocate for foster children, centered on her relationship with a young kid named Matthew. Age, race, and circumstances mean that as much as Daum wants to be a positive presence in this kids life, shes trying her best in a situation thats set up to hurt, and Matthew is well aware of it too. This attempt at caretaking contrasts with her own explorations of potential motherhood, a subject about which she is mostly conflicted, and she remains rooted in that ambiguity as she and her husband deal with the aftermath of a miscarriage. All of this familial questioning in her marriage is referred to as the Central Sadness, and it holds a lot of weight especially when compared with Daums faltering forays into the foster care system.

On the heels of this book, which won the 2015 PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction, Daum edited Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision NOT to Have Kids. I interviewed her when the book was released, noting its calm, fair tone and lack of sneering at either side. She said, The conversation [on whether to have kids] gets framed in this hyperbolic way that doesnt serve anyone. At the time, I appreciated her thoughtfulness, and her willingness to discuss, off the record, the looming specter of my own mothers death. Daum was frank and unsentimental. It wasnt what youd expect to hear from a writer and death can inspire the most sentimental clichs. At the time, her words served as a kind of balm as I was stuck in a liminal space, waiting for the next terrible phone call that would change everything.

Daum didnt set out to write a book thats nearly punditry; as she writes in the introduction of The Problem With Everything, it began as a critique of the current state of the womens movement, delving into her frustrations about the lack of shading and the bluster from social media. Over the period in which she wrote the book, starting in late 2016 and finishing earlier this year, the work shifted from being solely concerned with feminism to looking at sexual harassment at work, sexual assault on campus, comedy, the #MeToo movement, identity politics, social media politics, divorce, the intellectual dark web, Bari Weiss, and aging.

Daum wrestles with both sides of issues in a manner that she would classify as the pursuit of nuance, but too often she just ends up seeming out of touch with peoples everyday lives and excessively attuned to arguments on the internet. She writes, for example, about the term woke in a manner that is wholly ignorant of the words roots in black activism she attempts, embarrassingly, to coin the term wokescenti about NPR-listening liberals turning the term into a catchall for yuppies who love to virtue signal and tone police.

As a white woman who votes Democratic, Daum can explore more conservative perspectives and give credence to what she views as its more palatable ideas, if only because they wouldnt affect her day-to-day existence.

Then again, Daum oversimplifies constantly. Take her perspective on #MeToo and its consequences. Discussing the Shitty Media Men list in the first essay, "Sign the Petition: From the Meat Grinder to #MeToo," she jokes, Weird lunch! Welcome to publishing! Im going to write a memoir of my early days in New York and call it Weird Lunch. Shes wary of the idea that #MeToo will fundamentally change how men and women treat each other in the workplace and in relationships.

For Daum, #MeToo is less about women coming forward with stories of sexual misconduct and potentially changing society, and more about younger feminists cluelessness. She takes special pleasure in criticizing an as told to Babe.net piece about Aziz Ansari, widely considered by conservatives and some older feminists (such as Daphne Merkin and Caitlin Flanagan) as a classic case of #MeToo run amok. Daum claims that the story, about a young womans experiences with Ansari, was received entirely along generational lines: Older feminists thought this was an unremarkably bad date, while younger feminists thought it was assault. She fails to recognize how many millennial feminists were skeptical of Babes decision to publish the story, and how many millennial feminists are, in general, skeptical or ambivalent about some of #MeToos influence. Weiss, whos made a career of pointing out that her peers are wrong, naturally pops up as the only millennial with a tolerable point of view because she claimed that Ansaris only problem was not knowing what his date wanted. (The two are now friends: Daum appeared at the Moderate Chic book party for Weisss How to Fight Anti-Semitism; Weiss will be interviewing Daum on her book tour.)

Daum is all over the place, arguing against one strawman after the next from a perspective that ends up feeling blinkered. She raves about her childhood, growing up in the 70s as a kid, gender-neutral, and not being classified as a girl. She argues that this shared childhood is why Generation X is invested in being tough. She compares this toughness to what she classifies as the millennial obsession with fairness, which, to Daum, creates a slippery slope toward a sense of protracted victimhood.

She argues against corporate feminism, circling back over and over to the idea of branded products imprinted with words like badass or male tears, which she views as part of the angry younger generation. Shes a bit obsessed with ironic feminism, in fact, citing memes that are nearly a decade old. (She mentions confused Betty White GIFs so often that Im convinced were not on the same internet.)

But again, Daum fails to recognize the fact that millennial feminists have also been critical of the commodification of womens empowerment. Jia Tolentino discusses a similar scourge in a small section of her new book, Trick Mirror, called The Story of a Generation in Seven Scams, digging into #GirlBoss corporate feminism trends (she also cites the male tears mug). The difference between the two writers to some people, the voice of Generation X and the voice of the millennial generation, and who are both compared ad nauseam to Joan Didion is that Daums observations ultimately peter out after shes satisfied with berating angry millennial straw women. Tolentino, with the advantage of her experience at Jezebel, places the corporate feminism trend in a greater context; internet memes go mainstream, she argues, due to the celebration, exploitation, and mainstreaming of feminism under capitalism.

Its hard to know, according to Daums worldview, who the real villains are.

By writing that current feminism is angry, Daums arguments have more than a whiff of maternalistic condescension. She writes that young women swear a lot and that their language ruins the efficacy of their protests against the cruelty of the current age, a both sidesism that she admits can be boiled down to respectability politics. She applauds the Freedom Riders of the civil rights movement for being dressed well; she then, with all the cluelessness of white feminism, wonders why young women of today cant do the same.

Its hard to know, according to Daums worldview, who the real villains are. Shes correct in saying that when Justice Brett Kavanaugh was first nominated to the Supreme Court, the sexual assault reports distracted from Christine Blasey Fords testimony a subject thats reported on with far more authority in Jodi Kantor and Megan Twoheys recent book, She Said. But then Daum uses the bizarre rhetorical tactic of trying to establish that women can be abusers too by writing, Raise your hand if youve ever threatened to harm yourself if a man breaks up with you or doesnt want to see you anymore. She follows this up with seven other mundane and ridiculous hypotheticals. To quote Tolentino once again, Daum relies on the kind of whataboutism thats appealing to people who wish to seem both contrarian and intellectually superior.

Whats frustrating about Meghan Daum is that, ultimately, she is a good writer. She knows how to put together an argument (even when shes only arguing with herself). The effect can be seductive. But the aimlessness throughout The Problem With Everything is confusing even though, in some ways, it feels as if shes been writing toward this kind of contrarianism throughout her whole career. Exploring both sides is an obsession that doesnt feel particularly useful or urgent. It seems to me that these times call for action rather than intellectual hedging.

The conservative streak that blossoms here may turn Daum into a full-on professional pundit, someone with a future discussing the problem with something women, men, misogyny on someones angry podcast. Its a shame, however, as theres so much more to pay attention to these days so much more thats worth the time of someone as smart and concerned as Daum is. Younger writers like Tolentino have taken on the internet and expanded what it means to write about this new world from a feminist perspective, looking at how capitalism affects young people, even when they dont see themselves as consumers. The feminist perspective that Daum brings here isnt nearly as expansive, let alone accurate, at times.

The lasting image Ive retained from The Problem With Everything is one of a woman alone at her computer, in her New York apartment, reading as much as possible and arguing with herself. Its a lonely image of someone producing writing of the laziest sort: shaped by YouTube, Twitter, the 24-hour news cycle. It is the image of a working woman writer looking at something like her own impending obsolescence and lashing out at the present.

For the first time, Daums writing feels evanescent, and thats because shes solely interrogating the online world, and not herself. At the heart of things, these incoherent arguments seem to be someone wanting despite their best instincts to connect.

Elisabeth Donnelly is a journalist and screenwriter. She has written about books, culture, and other passions for numerous places from Oprah to Topic Magazine to New York City Ballet. You can find her writing at elisabethdonnelly.com. Shes currently working on a nonfiction book about wellness.

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How Did This Liberal Feminist Writer Fall In With The Dark Web? - BuzzFeed News

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October 18, 2019

This holiday season, Jordan Brand celebrates the power and impact of the Air Jordan I franchise withnew interpretationsandcollaborationsin the Fearless Ones collection, along with fresh articulations of contemporary classic colorschemes. Eachpair servesto extend the defining spirit of the pioneering silhouette.

The Fearless Onescollection is led by theAJI High FlyEase, which exemplifies the symbolic power of the AJI as a conduit for stories thatshare what it means to be fearless. The remainder of the Fearless Ones collection follows this theme by highlighting communities,collaborators (cultural leaders from across the globe whoinspire people to reach new heights in their respective fields)and illuminating stories connected to MJ'sintrepid drive.

Taking insights and inspiration from adaptive athletes, the Air Jordan I is the first Jordan Brand shoe to feature Nike FlyEase technology. The AJI High FlyEase adds the new benefit of easy entry while staying true to the silhouettesiconic look, colors and materials. It features a zipper and strap FlyEase System for easy, one-handed heel entry andexit, and an adjustable eyestay hook and loop for top entry.

Women's Air Jordan I High OGFearlessMade to shine, this AJI features a textured upper with metallic rose gold panels and a Fearless Ones branded insole.

Air Jordan I High Zoom FearlessLike the OG, which was a culture-shifting movement disguised as a basketball shoe, the AJI High Zoom is more than meets the eye. Using an iridescent-inspired upper, the color shifts with the light, beautifully displaying another side to its appearance and challenging viewers to appreciate what lies beneath the surface. Additional details include full-length Zoom Air for superior cushioning and an icy sole with a color fade and Z (Zoom) graphic.

Air Jordan I High OG FearlessInspired by the first three AJI patent leather mid colorways, this version pays tribute to MJs basketball journey by combining University Blue and Gym Red on a patent leather upper. The original black/gold patent leather colorway sees its tribute come to life on the gold jeweled Wings Logo.

Sky Jordan

Theclassic "Shattered" colorway is now available in the kid-exculsive Sky Jordan silhouette. The shoe features a Wings-inspired forefoot strap for easy in and out.

Sky Jordan

ThisSky Jordan,featuringa Wings-inspiredforefoot strap for easy in and out, carries the famous University Blue colorway.

Air Jordan I Low React Fearless Ghetto GastroCreated in collaboration with the culinary collective, Ghetto Gastro, this silhouette brings a new flavor to the AJI. Inspirations include comfort, unity and the streets of New York City where design, art and empowerment intersect.

Air Jordan I mid SE Fearless Blue the GreatDesigned in collaboration with Los Angelesbased artist, Blue the Great, this AJI leans on his love for primary colors on a suede and corduroy upper with his BTG artist signature featured on the heel.

Air Jordan I mid SE Fearless FacetasmBrought to life by cutting-edge Japanese brand, FACETASM, this AJI is inspired by their expression of Tokyo and features their signature crinkled look, a woven brand label and heel tab for easy entry and exit.

Air Jordan I mid SE Fearless Maison Chateau RougeParisian lifestyle brand Maison Chteau Rouge applies African-inspired design cues and hand-stitched details to the AJI mid to honor its founders roots.

Air Jordan I mid SE Fearless Melody EhsaniLos Angelesbased designer Melody Ehsani brings her signature style and message of self-expression, female empowerment and paradox to the AJI mid. Highlights include a decorative gold watch dubrae and hand-lettered quote on the midsole that reads: IF YOU KNEW WHAT YOU HAD WAS RARE, YOU WOULD NEVER WASTE IT." Additional hidden inspirational messages from Ehsani are hidden throughout.

Air Jordan I mid SE Fearless Edison ChenCLOT founder Edison Chen adds his personal twist to the AJI with a woven nylon upper and fadeaway Swoosh that represents the hidden details revealed under the shoes upper by natural wear or customization. A Chinese token-inspired design detail spells out Jordan.

Three Air Jordan I releases this season will celebrate iconic MJ stories with a fresh perspective on the cherished colorways.

Air Jordan I High OG Black/OrangeHighlighted by a crinkled patent leather upper, this AJI uses Black, Orange and Sail for a fall-inspired colorway.

Air Jordan I Retro High BloodlineA new take on the iconic black and red colorway, this AJI High features a leather upper for a refined look and feel.

Air Jordan I Come Fly With MeDressed in a premium black leather upper, this AJI mid pays homage to a classic 90sJordan campaign that asked, Who said man was not meant to fly?

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Jordan Brand Fearless Ones Air Jordan I Collection - Nike News

THIS MONTH, Tate Modern will mark the third anniversary ofUniqlo Tate Lateswith a free evening of art, music and film.

These after-hours eventshave attracted over 350,000 visitors to since they began in 2016, becoming one of the UKs largest museum late programmes and providing a vital platform for Londons creative talent.

On the evening of October 25, Tate Modern will celebrate Kara Walkers spectacular Hyundai Commission,Fons Americanus.

Takinginspiration from thisbreath-taking 13-metre-high fountain in the atmospheric surrounds of the Turbine Hall, Octobers Uniqlo Tate Late will exploreideas of freedom, monuments and personal and collective memories.

The evening will include an eclectic array of music, art, discussion, film and workshops:Gal-demwill host a series of conversations and pop-up readings in the Turbine Hall from texts inspired by Walkers works, which will be performed by young creatives includingAbondance MatandaandKai Isaiah Jamal.

BroadcasterZezi Ifore,poet Bridget Minamoreand curatorPriyesh Mistrywill be part of a panel discussion reflecting on Walkers work and how artists can communicate unsettling histories.Visitors will have the opportunity to come together in a round table discussion on monuments, museums and (post)colonial memory organised by researcherShelley Angelie Saggar.

A Vibe Called Techwill run a series of workshops exploring the role of technology as both a tool of empowerment and oppression. Artists, writers and activists includingShiraz Baujoo,Tanya Compas,Inua EllamsAnya Rao-MiddletonandRyan Lanjiwill discuss the theme of memory in15 minute art chats.

In a full gallery takeover, events will spill out into the Terrace bookshop where spoken word artist and writerIsaiah Hullwill be reading from his debut poetrycollectionNosebleeds. NTS Radio have programmed a special soundtrack for the evening with DJs in the Terrace Bar and The Tanks, featuringLA Timpa,Oli XL,Sandra JP,Cherrie FlavaandChampagne Funk.Visitors can also enjoy pop-up food stalls and bars serving Ume Lager, a new bespoke brew created in collaboration with Tate Modern, UNIQLO and Harbour Brewery and available exclusively at the gallery.

Taking place on the last Friday of every month, Uniqlo Tate Lates have quickly made their mark on Tate Modern and Londons wider cultural scene, offering a free and accessible creative hub for people to come together, socialise and exchange ideas.

Over the past three years, pioneering programmes have created memorable moments for hundreds of thousands of visitors, from celebrating women in the arts to exploring the global influences that shape our arts and culture.

These evenings have also showcased emerging talent alongside well-known DJs and world-famous artists. Highlights from previous nights have included an international premiere by Kahlil Joseph, a major installation of Jenny Holzerstruisms, a specially-composed version of Yoko OnosMend Piece, and unique video projections from Solange Knowles Ferguson and Wolfgang Tillmans.

Uniqlo Tate Lates will continue into 2020, exploring themes inspired by Tate Moderns programme of exhibitions and displays, and turning the volume up on Londons creative talent.

October 25, then every final Friday of each month (except December)18.00 22.00 (with the Terrace Bar staying open until 22:30)Admission freeFor information call +44(0)20 7887 8888 or visit tate.org.uk

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Celebrating three years of Uniqlo Tate Lates - The Voice Online

On a recent weeknight in midtown Manhattan, a trickle of professional women wearing sheath dresses and smart blouses swept into a delicately lit penthouse. The space they entered was filled with women quietly working and chatting, seated on an array of curved pastel furniture, designed to fit the precise ergonomic specifications of the average woman. The womens computers bore stickers reading Im With Her, Hermione 2020, and Cornell. The colour-coded bookshelves behind them included works such as 50 Ways to Comfort a Woman in Labor, Suffragette: My Own Story, and Cunt: A Declaration of Independence.

It was a typical Wednesday night at The Wing, an exclusive club that describes itself as a network of work and community spaces designed for women of all definitions. For between $185 and $250 per month, US Wing members or Winglets, as the company sometimes calls them can use the space to work, eat, socialise, breastfeed, shower, network, exercise, nap, reapply their makeup, meditate or all of the above. In other words, The Wing is a one-stop shop for the performance of contemporary mainstream feminism, a meticulously curated space where women can blow-dry their hair or stage a small coup, depending on the day.

Audrey Gelman, the companys co-founder and CEO, often tells The Wings origin story roughly as follows: she was working as a press secretary, and later as a political consultant, dashing from city to city and from meetings to parties. This lifestyle forced her to change her outfits in Starbucks and Amtrak bathrooms, places she found semi-degrading. She dreamed of having a more dignified place to go, where women like her talented, outgoing, highly ambitious could find like-minded souls, get changed and charge their phones in peace. Thus the idea for The Wing was born.

The company now has eight locations three in New York City, and one each in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Washington DC, with five more scheduled to open imminently. Its first international outpost, on Great Portland Street in London, opens next week. Second locations in London, San Francisco and LA are in the works; there will be 20 Wings by 2020. Over the past two years, The Wing has raised $117.5m in funding, attracting a formidable and diverse array of investors, whose ranks include Serena Williams, President Obamas friend and former senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, and members of the US womens soccer team.

Since the moment it opened its doors three years ago, The Wing has attracted the kind of buzz, funding and controversy usually reserved for projects involving Gwyneth Paltrow or Lena Dunham. (Not totally coincidentally, Dunham is a close friend of Gelmans and a Wing founding member. Gelman had a cameo on Girls, and was famously the basis for the character of Marnie.) The attention The Wing generates is, in large part, because it was founded upon a paradox: its brand is steeped in the feminist language of emancipation, empowerment and equality, while its business is based on one of societys most elitist institutions: the private members club. The result is that the company has become a kind of proxy for national debates over issues of gender, race, inclusivity, intersectionality and the limits and possibilities of neoliberal democratic politics. And yet, the number of people who actually belong to The Wing is still pretty small it aims to have about 15,000 members by the end of the year, slightly less than the monthly circulation figures for The Cricketer magazine, and 16 times less than the total youth membership of the RSPB.

Because The Wing is in part a co-working space, many of its members hail from professions in which office space is a rare commodity the creative class of writers, editors, freelancers, artists and influencers who make up the media. Handily, these are precisely the same kind of people who like to tweet, Instagram and write about the world as it looks from The Wing. This has ensured that even its minutest details, from the coffee to the furniture to the lunch offerings to the customised scented candles in the gift shop, have been deemed worthy of an article of their own. It also means that The Wing has been the subject of seemingly endless criticism accused of being too rich, too white, too cis-gendered, too feminist, not feminist enough, too liberal and not liberal enough. One former employee described it as a super-toxic place, while a British member told me that upon walking into The Wing in New York, she felt that she had found her holy grail.

That Wednesday evening in Manhattan, Wing members sat with their guests, sipping ros and snacking on seasoned popcorn as they waited for the evenings event to begin. It was nominally a talk by the writer Caitlin Moscatello, whose new book tells the stories of first-time female candidates running for office, but it was more like a political strategy meeting for women who were thinking of running themselves. Sitting in the audience felt like being entrusted with trade secrets. Moscatello sat between Kimberly Peeler-Allen, co-founder of Higher Heights, an organisation that works to elect black women, and Catalina Cruz, the newly elected assemblywoman for New Yorks 39th district.

After the three speakers finished their discussion, a woman in the audience raised her hand and introduced herself to the group. She was planning a run for local office, but had yet to announce. Please dont repeat this! the woman told the crowd. Cone of silence! exclaimed Peeler-Allen. As Cruz went on to describe the personal and financial strains of campaigning, the woman who had announced her run looked increasingly stricken. Youre scaring me! she said. Youll be fine, girl, said Cruz. Just get yourself ready.

It was just the kind of exchange that The Wing has been designed to generate. One of its press representatives described it to me as an accelerator for the coming revolution, a place where women are preparing to leap year into a more egalitarian future. In the US, it has become an almost compulsory campaign stop for women, trans and non-binary political candidates. Three of the women running for president have visited in the past year, and a Wing spokesperson told me that the other two front-runner Elizabeth Warren and Senator Amy Klobuchar are actively discussing doing so. The companys corporate ranks are stacked with former Democratic political operatives who worked on Hillary Clintons presidential campaigns or in the Obama administration.

To belong to The Wing is to join this in-crowd, a kind of utopian shadow government. Theres a secret smile that you share with the other women in the elevator, said Jess Lee, a partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia, which led the The Wings latest $75m funding round. And it was true I found myself giving a look of ambiguous fellowship to the women I encountered in The Wing, and felt a slight twinge of embarrassment at the check-in desk as they swiped their membership cards and glided away, while I announced myself as a journalist, there to report on the workings of their private club. At Moscatellos event, I laughed and clapped along with the women in the audience as they shared strategies for their political triumph. In the elevator on the way out, an older woman turned to me and two young women and gave us the secret smile. So, are you all going to run? she asked.

The Wing opened its doors on 10 October 2016, four weeks before the presidential election. One of the very first events it held was an invitation-only very adult sleepover featuring face masks, monogrammed pyjamas and pillow fights. The next one was a public phone bank and debate watch party in partnership with Clintons presidential campaign, which invited women to spend three hours calling members of the public and urging them to vote the first woman into the Oval Office. Gelman and her co-founder Lauren Kassan hoped that their company would flourish alongside a Clinton administration, buoyed by the arrival of feminisms golden age.

On election night, about 175 women gathered in the Wings Flatiron location to watch the results come in. Like just about everyone else in New York, they expected it would be a celebratory event, a coronation. But as the evening drew on, and it became increasingly clear that Clinton was not going to win, the mood shifted. Oh my goodness, you could feel it getting colder, says Nol Duan, a Wing founding member. At one point, Gelman, wearing a backwards baseball cap and a pink Madam President T-shirt, sat down and held Duans hand.

The Wing was heavily aligned with Clinton, yet among the Democratic partys young, progressive voters, Clintons strain of establishment politics was swiftly disavowed. In no time at all, the former secretary of state had become both a feminist martyr and a political liability, a flawed candidate whose defeat everyone felt they should have seen coming.

Almost everyone I spoke to about the company said it would be a different place if Clinton had won. Instead of being just a beautiful space for women to revel beneath a shattered glass ceiling, it became, for its members, a place to take shelter. It was a really sobering moment, Kassan told me. I think there was already the demand and excitement, and I think that we realised just how important it was now.

A few days later, The Wing briefly opened its doors to all women who felt they needed a place to regroup. Gelman and Kassan gave the organisers of the Womens March on Washington access to the space, and in January, they hired buses to take 100 Wing members to Washington to participate. The Wing began to emphasise civic and political programming, ramped up hiring and continued planning to expand. In interviews, Gelman has articulated the mission in overtly political terms: Being a girl is no longer politically neutral. Your identity, whether you like it or not, is now political, she told Elle in 2017.

Clintons loss marked the unravelling of the already tenuous coalition of American feminists. The 2017 Womens March was the largest single-day protest in US history, but it quickly became known more for its controversy and in-fighting than for its transformative politics. The Wing was born into a world in which women were banding together in new and enlivening ways, but often doing so in competing camps. To many, Clintons Sandbergian, Lean In brand of corporate feminism had been fully discredited and a more radical approach was needed, while others felt that the emergency of President Trump in the White House meant that this was a time for progressives to unite, rather than pursue potentially divisive new policies.

The Wing has found itself trying to please all sides, in the process finding itself attacked from all sides, often within its own walls. It is an easy target, and the fact that it is owned and operated by women makes it all the more so. Where its programming and brand have conflicted with the aims of progressive politics, its members have called the company out. Yet anyone who criticises The Wing may expect to be swiftly criticised in turn, on one side for poking holes in an otherwise admirable project, and on the other for paying it any attention at all. All parties involved might expect their exchange to be followed by a polite reminder of the specific actions that The Wing has taken to respond to the initial criticism, and perhaps an invitation to continue their discussion in a panel event. To begin to reckon with The Wings project is to risk entering an ouroboros of doom, as the writer and illustrator Shelby Lorman put it. It feels like such a perfect metaphor, she said, for the many tangled and charged disagreements over what it means to be a modern woman, feminist and political subject.

Before any woman sets foot in The Wing, she will, in all likelihood, already know what it looks like. Every corner of every branch seems to have been designed specifically for Instagram, which is to say that the furniture and art and food and plants and people feel as if they have been carefully chosen to telegraph that they are coveted, consumable goods. The company posts mock-ups of every new space months before it is built, so that women between the ages of 26 to 35 living in major metropolitan areas and possessing roughly $2,000 of annual disposable income can begin to imagine themselves wandering around there. (The companys omnipresence on social media is another reminder that its power derives from not letting everyone in and letting everyone know about it.)

Every outpost contains careful local touches, and each projects an air of strained yet somewhat soothing whimsy. In the Soho premises in New York, I walked up a set of stairs that read Its not a reach when we climb together, before settling in to enjoy a fork the patriarchy grain bowl on a blue pastel desk. In its Washington DC outpost, located above a spa in Georgetown, one of the toniest corners of the city, there is a conference room named K Street, after the citys main lobbying thoroughfare, and a phone booth named after Anita Hill, legal eagle. The Wing London, a five-storey penthouse in Fitzrovia, will offer a tearoom, terrace, fitness room and floral patterned tile floors, as well as a portrait gallery featuring the likenesses of Diane Abbott, Mary Beard and Amal Clooney, among others. It is the first members club in London that has signed on to the mayors living-wage pact, and proceeds from its cafe and its programming will benefit local charities. There will be trellises, black-and-white tiles and chandeliers. I was very inspired by the British countryside, Laetitia Gorra, the companys director of interiors, told me.

Walking through one of the Wings premises can sometimes feel like exploring what would happen if Oliver Bonas were to design a luxury corporate office: lots of pastel and very few sharp edges. The walls, cushions and seating offer an array of muted pink, mustard and rose-gold hues, a colour scheme chosen in part for its calming effect. The air conditioning is usually set at 22C (72F), to accommodate womens slightly lower skin temperatures. Chiara de Rege, who helped design the first few locations, said that the goal was to make them feminine, but not girly girl or precious. Hilary Koyfman, who collaborated with De Rege on the early design, has described the overall aesthetic as kind of like Mad Men without the men.

There is certainly something beautiful and powerful, even alchemic, about being in a women-only space. For some women, it is a place to find support, friendship and inspiration, where they do not have to apologise for anything or worry about their things being stolen or their drinks being spiked. Two locations currently offer childcare services, while every location features a private nursing room for new mothers. Each Wing also offers a luxurious beauty room with a wide array of hair and makeup products. These beauty rooms, staff told me, are a key part of the companys storytelling. They are designed to make life easier, as Gelman once said, for the kind of woman for whom part of being successful is not only making sure that you know everything thats going on in the news and that youve responded to every single email in your inbox, and that nothing is on fire in your house, but also looking good because it is whats expected of you and can make you feel more confident.

Yet, for its critics, this point of articulation is where the alchemy dissolves: instead of being a place that seeks to lift all women up, it becomes a place where one must constantly consider how well one is performing both feminism and femininity. And with any performance, this can be exhausting, and always carries the risk of failure. Spending time at The Wing, I was reminded of the kind of ideal woman that the writer Jia Tolentino described in a recent essay: she has expensive hair and expensive skin, she is successful and svelte. Todays ideal woman is of a type that coexists easily with feminism in its current market-friendly and mainstream form, she writes. This sort of feminism has organised itself around being as visible and appealing to as many people as possible; it has greatly over-valorised womens individual success.

Some of the tensions within this brand of feminism can be glimpsed, not too surprisingly, at The Wings in-house shops, where it sells T-shirts, bags and hats with slogans like casual business woman and annihilate the patriarchy on them. There are workout clothes and $17.50 keychains. When I visited the Soho location in early August, the shop was selling a range of colourful award ribbons, printed with lines such as Wow, youre not sexist, Best ally, and Youre my Wingman of the year. As Jezebel has reported, some of the merchandise resembles that of other feminist artists. The ribbons, for example, seem to be emulating the work of Shelby Lorman, whose book Awards for Good Boys satirises the low standards to which men are held. Lorman first spotted The Wings version of the ribbons on Instagram. I thought it was amazing and hilarious, because they are awards for men, for sale for $6, but theyre stripped of humour, so its literal, she told me. I truly dont think that anything could be funnier because if they did borrow my work, they have totally missed the point. And they are monetising the missed point, which is kind of genius. Its so sinister and so evil that I kind of love it.

Ever since it first opened its doors, The Wing has struggled to define who exactly it is for. Its representatives, describing its membership policy, use the words exclusive and inclusive in the same breath. No one gets rejected, they told me. Applicants are merely placed on the waiting list 35,000 people have applied so far when their preferred space is at capacity. Yet, in a 2018 presentation to the New York City Commission on Human Rights, The Wings attorneys stated that it is highly selective and that only around 40% of applicants are admitted. Aspiring members must explain how they have promoted or supported The Wings mission of advancing women, and also describe the dinner party of their dreams.

The commission was investigating the company for discriminating on the basis of gender. (New York law requires it to investigate any complaint it receives. The investigation closed in March 2019.) At first, the club refused to allow men into its spaces, even as guests. A former employee told me that one of the first things they were taught was how to keep men out: Block them with your body, push them to the elevator, push the elevator button. But outward appearance does not always correlate with gender identity; the employee witnessed instances where individuals who presented themselves to the check-in desk at The Wing were misgendered by staff. In August 2018, a serially litigious 53-year-old man sued The Wing for up to $12m for rejecting his application, claiming that he had been denied entry because of his gender. After the lawsuit was filed, and as a result of conversations with its trans and nonbinary staff and members, The Wing adopted a formal membership policy that would evaluate applicants based on their commitment to The Wings mission, regardless of their perceived gender or gender identity. In a letter to members announcing the new policy, Kassan and Gelman wrote that they would be working to actively incorporate the perspective of trans and non-binary members into our offerings. The language of guest emails was changed from shes landed to theyve landed. The policy also meant that men could enter the space as guests and apply for membership, if they really wanted to.

The companys success is partly due to the fact that, over the past five years, the identity-based members club has emerged as a powerful trend. In the US, The Wing already has too many competitors and imitators to list, which have names such as The Lola (Atlanta), The Broad (Richmond), The Assembly (San Francisco), The Riveter (Seattle) and The Hivery (Mill Valley). In London, womens clubs such as The AllBright and The Trouble Club already occupy part of The Wings target audience. In November, Ethels Club, the first private social and wellness club designed with people of colour in mind, will open its doors in Brooklyn. The Wing was created for a certain type of woman, which, from my point of view, is not for me, Ethels Club founder, Najla Austin, told me. Im looking for my people. Its not unlike religion. If you write down the similarities of Catholicism and a social club, theyre not that different.

Akilah Cadet, who runs a diversity and inclusion consulting firm in Oakland, had a similar first impression of The Wing, and decided that it probably was not for her. But then Yari Blanco, at the time The Wings senior manager of culture and diversity, reached out to her about her work, and Cadet decided to join the club. Being a member, she rightly predicted, would bring in business. Honestly, my objective was like, get this money, so thats what I did, she told me. She said her application to the San Francisco location was fast-tracked, and soon she found herself at an event thrown specifically for black women. At one point, a white woman stood up on the couch and announced that they would be giving away T-shirts reading phenomenally black. Cadet raised her concerns about the event to Blanco and her team, criticising what she perceived to be a lack of serious thought about the way the event was organised. Two days later, she found herself on a panel at The Wing sponsored by Secret deodorant, where she got a new client.

The company has made similar missteps along the way, and has almost always made concerted efforts to correct them wherever they arise. Nol Duan, the founding member from New York, who is Chinese American, told me that when The Wing held an event for Asian women, they posted an Instagram story intended to celebrate the clubs women from Asia. Duan did not attend, but some of her friends did. They were like: were not women from Asia, were American, she said. What I really love about Wing members is that they are willing to speak out, including against the company, Duan added, noting that the company had changed in response to criticism. I can see from personal experience that it has come a long way since they first launched, she said.

Cadet took it upon herself to point out instances where The Wing could be more attentive to diversity and difference. Eventually, she was doing so much work for The Wing that she said they offered her a complimentary membership, and she frequently used the space to hold meetings in San Francisco. Like many of its critics, Cadet tries to view the company with generosity.

Lately, however, maintaining this nuanced view has come to require a more intricate set of mental gymnastics. At the end of May, a racial confrontation occurred at the West Hollywood branch. According to reporting by the online magazine Zora, Wing member Asha Grant, the director of The Free Black Womens Library Los Angeles, and her guest were harassed in the parking lot by an unaccompanied white woman guest who began yelling at them after Grant took what she felt was her parking space. The harassment and racist threats continued inside, where the white woman gave the middle finger to Grant, her guest, and another black club member, Stephanie Kimou. In an attempt to ease the situation, staff offered Kimou, Grant and her guest a free meal, but the white woman was not asked to leave the premises.

News of the incident spread quickly. In mid-August, Kimou and Grant posted on Instagram announcing that they were cancelling their memberships. After the initial allure of their perfectly designed co-working spaces, beauty rooms stocked full of Glossier and Goop, the lattes and their commitment to diversity, the facade started to crack and what was underneath all that pink felt oppressive and debilitating, Kimou wrote in her post.

Other black members began quitting The Wing. They didnt think it was going to get to this level, Cadet told me. On 5 September, Gelman and Kassan sent an email to all Wing members that finally acknowledged what had occurred: Our handling of it left everyone feeling disappointed, and the black member felt especially unprotected and let down, they wrote. In the following weeks, they would hold gatherings in every city with the goal of improving community understanding and mutual trust, which the executive team would attend. Eleven days later, members received another email from Kassan and Gelman in which they apologised for the ways weve fallen short, and made commitments to pay more attention to racial inclusion, including reworking the clubs code of conduct and changing member orientation to address issues of race and racial empathy. Two days after that, on 18 September, Gelman appeared on the cover of Inc. magazine in a long-sleeve black knit dress, her hands resting on her pregnant torso. She became the first visibly pregnant CEO to grace the cover of a business magazine.

On 6 September, the day after the first email from Gelman and Kassan went out, I visited the companys new headquarters in the East Village in New York. Zara Rahim, senior director of strategic communications, gave me a tour around the four-storey office, which is located in what was once a hospital for German immigrants and later expanded to include a dedicated womens wing. In the basement, the only place in the building where I spotted several men, the tech team was hard at work. Upstairs, we popped our heads into a mint-green conference room, where a planning meeting for the London launch was underway.

Rahim and I settled into a couch in Kassans office, where Kassan greeted us wearing a yellow plaid jacquard blazer and a logo necklace bearing The Wings hero W, which looks something like the Wonder Woman logo, but softer, rounder, cuter. While Gelman, as CEO, is the public face of the company, Kassan, as COO, tends to handle operations behind the scenes. Before this venture, Kassan was the first employee at the fitness chain SLT, which specialises in high-intensity reformer pilates (motto: better sore than sorry), and then moved on to Classpass, a fitness class app. She rarely gives interviews, but by the time we spoke, Gelman was busy preparing to go on maternity leave and Kassan was taking over some of her duties.

Kassan was excited for the London launch, which she told me had been years in the making. She would be bringing her whole family over to celebrate the opening. I asked her about the recent email to members and about the common criticisms of the company. Diversity had been a part of who we are and what weve cared about since the beginning, she explained. That shows up through our programming and through our products. When things happen, we want to be transparent and clear about that because there are things that happen outside in the world that we cant control. And we want to create a space to be able to have these honest and hard conversations.

Kassan had less time for the criticism that membership is too expensive. I think the price point is just she lowered her voice to a whisper bullshit. The Wing is, indeed, more affordable than the vast majority of its competitors. As women, we undervalue what were providing and serving, Kassan said. We get criticised about that, and we feel proud of what were doing. In London, membership will cost 170 per month for access to a single location, and 240 for access to all locations. Approximately 7% of Wing members are awarded scholarships, which last for two years and cover the full cost of membership, and the company is planning tiered membership rates to expand access in the future.

The more time I spent speaking to the companys critics and supporters, the clearer it became that the controversy it generates has far more to do with what it claims to be rather than what it actually is. Last month, for instance, it debuted a members-only job marketplace that allows members to post listings and hire one another. From a business perspective, this is a savvy move giving ambitious women yet another reason to want to join, while connecting bosses who are members with a pool of promising candidates. But this is a very narrow vision of feminism. Of course, many talented people will gain new opportunities through this service but, equally obviously, its exclusivity threatens to exacerbate the same kinds of inequality that The Wing claims to want to combat.

Feminism, for me, is fundamentally about collective struggle, not individuals, says Sarah Banet-Weiser, a scholar of communication and gender studies at the London School of Economics. The Wings strain of feminism, she argued, is something else: Theyre empowering women to be better economic subjects within capitalism, empowering women to network, to get a raise, to address the pay gap. Those are real things, but they are really tied to capitalist logic. As a former employee put it, The Wings feminism is less about making the world more equitable as it is about making sure women are given equal opportunities to make money: Its like, you only make $1m? Well, this man makes $2m! You could make $2m if only it werent for misogyny. (One recent post from The Wings Instagram feed read: Mood: CE0,000,000.)

Progressives often talk about The Wing in the same way they talk about the Democratic party: its not great but maybe things will get better, maybe the politicians will figure it out, maybe the world The Wings founders imagined they would serve will one day emerge. One vocal supporter of The Wing is, somewhat surprisingly, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Gelman hosted a fundraiser for Ocasio-Cortez at her home in Brooklyn last summer and, a few months later, the politician told Glamour: The Wing isnt just a functional space, its a real symbol of whats happening in our country. She called the company one of the most potent forces that weve seen emerge in politics this year.

Many of the people I spoke to for this piece were disappointed in The Wing for a variety of reasons, but hesitant to publicly criticise it. They had made good friends there, and saw all the work that staff were putting in to make it a better place. They had low expectations for corporate behaviour, and saw The Wing doing a better job than most companies when it comes to addressing its failures. They understood the paradox of a company whose profitability rests upon both expanding its tent and guarding the entrances. I really wonder what the plan is to grow while staying true to their values, one San Francisco-based member told me. Maybe they have something up their sleeve, they have a ton of really smart women working for that company, but I dont see it. Cadet also felt burned out by her experience. I want this to go well. I want this to be a good thing, she said. I dont know, maybe Ive done all that I can do. (And when you write that, say that I was gazing off into the distance, she joked.)

The opening of the London branch comes as The Wing seems to be reckoning with its first few years. Last week, The Wing unveiled a mural advertisement on a street corner in Shoreditch in east London. In a bright coral hue, it introduces The Wing as the first place in London to solve the dual epidemic of mansplaining and manspreading. After it went up, Rahim texted me a photo of a handful of men and women pausing in front of it, presumably wondering what a thing called The Wing could be and what it might become.

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The Wing: how an exclusive women's club sparked a thousand arguments - The Guardian

Ashley McBryde will be presented with a special honor at this year's CMT Artists of the Year ceremony:McBryde will be receiving the Breakout Artist of the Year Award for 2019.

The country music newcomer has had a whirlwind couple of years: She released her debut album,Girl Going Nowhere,in 2018, to widespread critical acclaim, and received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album in 2019. She's also nominated for New Artist of the Year at the upcoming 2019 CMA Awards, and was named New Female Artist of the Year at the 2019 ACM Awards.At the 2019 CMT Music Awards in June, McBryde received the Breakthrough Video of the Year honor, for the music video for "Girl Goin' Nowhere."

The "A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega" singer has already begun preparing her sophomore album. She recently released the lead single, "One Night Standards," from the project. McBryde hasn't reveled much about the unnamed album; however, the singer says it will be out in 2020, according to Nash Country Daily.Early next year, she'll be hitting the road with Luke Combs, on his What You See Is What You Get Tour.

The 2019 CMT Artists of the Year ceremony will also honorDan + Shay, Kane Brown, Thomas Rhett, Luke Combs and Carrie Underwoodas this year's artists of the year. Additionally,Reba McEntire will be honored with the prestigious honor of Artist of a Lifetime.

The 2019 CMT Artists of the Year will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on Oct. 16. The ceremony, set to take place in Nashville at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, will air live on CMT at 8PM ET.

29 Songs from Women You Need to Hear Today:

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Ashley McBryde to Receive Special CMT Artist of the Year Award - Taste of Country

ByScottDouglas Jacobsen

Around the world, around the world Good Fellas: Say, Hello, to my Little (Scientific) Friend!

The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not byfaith, but by verification.

Thomas H. Huxley

Im an atheist, and thats it. I believe theres nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for people.

Katharine Hepburn

How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant? Instead they say, No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way. A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.

Carl Sagan

Im not sure why I enjoy debunking. Part of it surely is amusement over the follies of true believers, and [it is] partly because attacking bogus science is a painless way to learn good science. You have to know something about relativity theory, for example, to know where opponents of Einstein go wrong. . . . Another reason for debunking is that bad science contributes to the steady dumbing down of our nation. Crude beliefs get transmitted to political leaders and the result is considerable damage to society.

MartinGardner

The evidence of evolution pours in, not onlyfrom geology, paleontology, biogeography, and anatomy (Darwins chief sources),but from molecular biology and every other branch of the life sciences. To putit bluntly but fairly, anyone today who doubts that the variety of life on thisplanet was produced by a process of evolution is simply ignorant inexcusablyignorant, in a world where three out of four people have learned to read and write.Doubts about the power of Darwins idea of natural selection to explain thisevolutionary process are still intellectually respectable, however, althoughthe burden of proof for such skepticism has become immense

Daniel Dennett

My fathers family was super Orthodox. They came from a little shtetlsomewhere in Russia. My father told me that they had regressed even beyond amedieval level. You couldnt study Hebrew, you couldnt study Russian.Mathematics was out of the question. We went to see them for the holidays. Mygrandfather had a long beard, I dont think he knew he was in the UnitedStates. He spoke Yiddish and lived in a couple of blocks of his friends. Wewere there on Pesach, and I noticed that he was smoking.

So I asked my father, how could he smoke? Theres a line in the Talmudthat says,aynbein shabbat vyom tov ela binyan achilah. I said, How come hes smoking? He said, Well, he decided thatsmoking is eating. And a sudden flash came to me: Religion is based on theidea that God is an imbecile. He cant figure these things out. If thats whatit is, I dont want anything to do with it.

Noam Chomsky

Young earthcreationism continues apace in Canadian society, and the global community(Canseco, 2018a). Canada outstrips America, and the United Kingdom outstripsCanada, in scientific literacy on this topic of the foundations of thebiological and medical sciences (The Huffington Post Canada, 2012). Here wewill explore a wide variety of facets of Canadian creationism with linkages tothe regional, international, media, journalistic, political, scientific,theological, personality, associational and organizational, and others concernspertinent to the proper education of the young and the cultural health of theconstitutional monarchy and democratic state known as Canada. [Ed. Some partswill remain tediously academic in citation and presentation cautioned.] Letsbegin.

To start ona point of clarification, some, asRobertRowland Smith, seem so unabashed as to proclaim belief in creationism a mentalillness (2010).Canseco (2018b) notes how British Columbia may be leadingthe charge in the fight against scientific denial. The claim of belief increationism as a mental illness seems unfair, uncharitable, and incorrect(Smith, 2010). A belief creationism considered true and justified, whichremains false and unjustified and, therefore, an irrational belief systemdisconnected from the natural world rather than a mental illness. The AmericanPsychiatric Association (2019) characterizes mental illness as Significantchanges in thinking, emotion and/or behavior. Distress and/or problemsfunctioning in social, work or family activities.

A mentalillness can influence someone who believes in creationism or not, but a vastmajority of adherence to creationism seems grounded in sincere beliefs andnormal & healthy social and professional functioning, not mental healthissues. Indeed, it may relate more to personality factors (Pappas, 2014). Othertimes, deliberate misrepresentations of professional opinion exist too (Bazzle,2015). It shows in the numbers. Douglas Todd remarks on hundreds of millions ofChristians and Muslims who reject evolution and believe in creationism aroundthe world (2014), e.g., Safar Al-Hawali, Abdul Majid al-Zindani, Muqbil binHadi al-Wadi`i and others in the Muslim intellectual communities alone.

On the matter ofif this particular belief increases mental health problems or mental illness,it would seem an open and empirical question because of the complicated natureof mental illness, and mental health for that matter, in the first place. Existentialanxiety or outright death anxiety may amount to a non-trivial factor of beliefin intelligent design and/or creationism over evolution via natural selection(UBC, 2011; Tracy, Hart, & Martens, 2011). On the factual and theoreticalmatters, several mechanisms and evidencessubstantiate evolution via natural selection and common descent, includingcomparative genomics, homeobox genes, the fossil record, common structures,distributions of species, similarities in development, molecular biology, andtransitional fossils (Long, 2014; National Human Genome Institute, 2019;University of California, Berkeley, n.d.; Rennie, 2002; Hordijk, 2017; NationalAcademy of Sciences, 1999). Some (Krattenmaker, 2017) point to historic lows ofthe religious belief in creationism.

Notto worry, though, comedic counter-movements emerge with the Pastafarians fromthe Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Josh Elliott (2014) stated, The Churchof the Flying Spaghetti Monster was founded in 2005 as a response to Christianperspectives on creationism and intelligent design. It allegedly sprang from atongue-in-cheek open letter to the Kansas School Board, which mocked educatorsfor teaching intelligent design in schools. The most distinguished scientistsin Britain have been well ahead of other places in stating unequivocally theinappropriate nature of the attempts to place creationism in the scienceclassrooms as a religious belief structure (MacLeod, 2006). Not only in law, thereare creationist science fairs for the next generations (Paley, 2001).

Politics, science,and religion become inextricably linked in Canadian culture and society becauseof the integration of some political bases with religion and some religiousdenominations with theological views masquerading as scientific theories, asseen with Charles McVety and Doug Ford (Press Progress, 2018a). Religiousgroups and other political organizations, periodically, show true colors(Ibid.). Some educators and researchers may learn the hard way about theimpacts on professional trajectory if they decline to pursue the overarchingtheoretical foundations in biological and medical sciences life sciences;some may be seen as attempting to bring intelligent design creationism into theclassroom through funding council applications (Hoag, 2006; Government ofCanada, 2006; Bauslaugh, 2008).

It can be seen asa threat to geoscience education too (Wiles, 2006). According to Montgomery (2015),the newer forms of young earth creationists with a core focus on the biblicalaccounts alone rather than a joint consideration with the world around us takea side step from the current history. For the first thousand years ofChristianity, the church considered literal interpretations of the stories inGenesis to be overly simplistic interpretations that missed deeper meaning,Montgomery stated, Influential thinkers like Saint Augustine and Saint ThomasAquinas held that what we could learn from studying the book of nature couldnot conflict with the Bible because they shared the same author (Ibid.).Besides, the evidence can be in the granite too (Plait, 2008).

There does appeara significant decline in the theological and religious disciplines over time(McKnight, 2019). Khan (2010) notes the ways in which different groups believein evolution or not. In fact, he (Ibid.) provides an index to analyze thedegree to which belief groups accept evolution or believe in creationism. Thesebeliefs exist in a weave alongside antivaccination at times (oracknows, 2016).Even for foundational questions of life and its origin, we come to theproposals reported by and found within modern science (Schuster, 2018). Therecontinue to exist devoted podcasts (Ruba, 2019) to the idea of a legitimate falsely, so-called conversations about creationism.

Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist (2018d) reflected onthe frustration of dealing with dishonest or credulous readings of thebiological and geological record by young earth creationists in which only some,and in already confirming-biases, evidence gets considered for the reportagewithin the young earth creationist communities by the young earth creationistjournalists or leadership. Live Science(2005) may have produced the most apt title on the entire affair withcreationism as a title category unto itself with the description of anAmbiguous Assault on Evolution by creationism. There continue to be bookreviews often negative of the productions of some theorists in thecreationist and the intelligent design camps (Cook, 2013; Collins, 2006; Asher,2014). Others praise books not in favour of creationism or intelligent design(Maier, 2009).

Mario Canseco in Business in Vancouver noted theacceptance by Canadians of evolution via natural selection and deepbiological-geological time at 68% (2018b). One report stated findings of 40% ofCanadians believing in the creation of the Earth in 6 days (CROP, 2017). Thefoundational problem comes from the meaning of terms in the public and to thecommunity of professional practitioners of science/those with some or more backgroundin the workings of the natural world, and then the representation andmisrepresentation of this to the public. There is work to try violate the AmericanConstitution to enforce the teaching of creationism, which remains an openclaim and known claim by creationist leaders too (American Atheists, 2018).

We can seethis in the public statements of leaders of countries as well, includingAmerica, in which the term theory becomes interpreted as a hunch or guessrather than an empirically well-substantiated hypothesis defined within thesciences. We can find the same with the definitions of terms including fact,hypothesis, and law:

Thishappened with American Vice-President Mike Pence, stating, a theory of theorigin of species which weve come to know as evolution. Charles Darwin neverthought of evolution as anything other than a theory. He hoped that someday itwould be proven by the fossil record but did not live to see that, nor havewe. (Monatanari, 2016). As Braterman (2017) stated or corrected, The usualanswer is that we should teach students the meaning of the word theory asused in science that is, a hypothesis (or idea) that has stood up to repeatedtesting. Pences argument will then be exposed to be what philosophers call anequivocation an argument that only seems to make sense because the same wordis being used in two different senses. Vice-President Mike Pence equivocatedon the word theory.

Some politicians,potentially a harbinger of claims into the future as the young earthcreationist position becomes more marginal, according to ONeil (2015), Lunneytold the House of Commons that millions of Canadians are effectively gaggedas part of a concerted effort by various interests in Canada to underminefreedom of religion. Intriguingly enough, and instructive as always, theNational Center for Science Education (NCSE) conducted Project Steve as aparody and an homage to the late Stephen Jay Gould, in which the creationistsattempt to portray evolution via natural selection as a theory in crisis throughthe gathering of a list of scientists who may disagree with Darwin (n.d.)becomes one methodology to attempt to refute it or to sow doubt in the minds ofthe lay public. One American teacher proclaimed evolution should not be taughtbecause of origination in the 18thcentury (Palma, 2019). Onemay assume for Newtonian Mechanics for the 17thand 18thcenturies.RationalWiki, helpful as always, produced a listing of the creationists inaddition to the formal criteria for inclusion on their listing of creationists(RationalWiki, 2019d), if curious about the public offenders.

Unfortunatefor creationists, and fortunate for us based on the humor of the team at theNCSE, there is a collected list of scientists named Steve who agree with thefindings in support of evolution via natural selection in order to point to thecomical error of reasoning in creationist circles because tens of thousands ofresearchers accept evolution via natural selection and a lot with the nameSteve alone while a select fraction of one percent do not in part or in full(Ibid.). Still, one may find individualsas curators as in the case of Martin Legemaate who maintains Creation ResearchMuseum of Ontario, which hosts creationist or religious views on the nature ofthe world. In the United States, there is significant funding for creationismon public dollars (Simon, 2014). Answers in Genesis intended to expand intoCanada in 2018 (Mehta, 2017a) with Calvin Smith leading the organizationalnational branch (Answers in Genesis, 2019a). Jim McBreen wrote a lettercommenting on personal thoughts about theories and facts, and evolution(McBreen, 2019). Over and over again, around the world, and coming back toCanada, these ideas remain important to citizens.

York(2018) wrote an important article on the link between the teaching ofcreationism in the science classroom and the direct implication of institutesbuilt to set sociopolitical controversy over evolution when zero exists in thebiological scientific community of practicing scientists. Other theoriespropose interdimensional entities in a form of creationism plus evolutionaryvia natural selection to explain life (Raymond, 2019). Singh (n.d.) argues forthe same. This does not amount to a traditional naturalistic extraterrestrialintelligent engineering of life on Earth with occasional interference orscientific intervention, and experimentation, on the human species, or someform of cosmic panspermia.

Thisseems more akin to intelligent design plus creationism and an assertion of additionalhabitable dimensions and travellers between their dimension and ours. In otherwords, more of the similar without a holy scripture to inculcate it. [Ed. Assome analysis shows later, this may relate to conspiratorial mindsets in orderto fill the gap in knowledge or to provide cognitive closure.] Whethercreationism or intelligent design, as noted by the U.S. National Academy ofSciences (2019a):

Intelligent design creationism is notsupported by scientific evidence. Some members of a newer school ofcreationists have temporarily set aside the question of whether the solarsystem, the galaxy, and the universe are billions or just thousands of yearsold. But these creationists unite in contending that the physical universe andliving things show evidence of intelligent design. They argue thatcertain biological structures are so complex that they could not have evolvedthrough processes of undirected mutation and natural selection, a conditionthey call irreducible complexity. Echoing theological argumentsthat predate the theory of evolution, they contend that biological organismsmust be designed in the same way that a mousetrap or a clock is designed thatin order for the device to work properly, all of its components must beavailable simultaneously.

Evolutionarybiologists also have demonstrated how complex biochemical mechanisms, such asthe clotting of blood or the mammalian immune system, could have evolved fromsimpler precursor systems

In addition to its scientific failings, this andother standard creationist arguments are fallacious in that they are based on afalse dichotomy. Even if their negative arguments against evolution werecorrect, that would not establish the creationists claims. There may bealternative explanations

Creationists sometimes claim that scientists have a vested interest in theconcept of biological evolution and are unwilling to consider otherpossibilities. But this claim, too, misrepresents science

The arguments of creationists reverse the scientific process. They begin withan explanation that they are unwilling to alter that supernatural forces haveshaped biological or Earth systems rejecting the basic requirements ofscience that hypotheses must be restricted to testable natural explanations.Their beliefs cannot be tested, modified, or rejected by scientific means andthus cannot be a part of the processes of science.

Disagreementsexist between the various camps of creationism too. These ideas spread all overthe world from the North American context, even into secular Europe (Blancke,& Kjrgaard, 2016). Canada remains guilty as charged and the media continuein complicity at times. Pritchard (2014) correctly notes the importance ofreligious views and the teaching of religion, but not in the science classroom.Godbout (2018) made the political comparison between anti-SOGI positions andanti-evolution/creationist points of view. This reflects the political realityof alignment between several marginally scientific and non-scientific views, whichtend to coalesce in political party platforms or opinions.

Copeland (2015)mused, and warned in a way, the possibility of the continual attacks onempirical findings, on retention of scientists, on scientific institutes andresearch, reducing the status of Canada. This seems correct to me. He said:

To an Americancontext, this can reflect a general occurrence in North America in which theAmericans remain bound to the same forms of problems. The attempts to enterinto the educational system by non-standard and illegitimate means continues asa problem for the North Americans with an appearance of banal and benignconferences with intentional purposes of evangelization. One wants to assumegood will. However, the work for implicit evangelizations seems unethical whilethe eventual open statements of the intent for Christian outreach in particularseems moral as it does not put a false front forward. Indeed, some creationistsmanaged to construct and host a conference at MichiganState University (MSU) in East Lansing (Callier, 2014). It was entitled TheOrigin Summit with superordinate support by the Creation Summit (Ibid.)Creation Summit states:

Creation Summit: confronting evolution whereit thrives the most, at universities and seminaries!

We may have been banned from the classroom,but banned does not mean silenced. By booking the speakers and renting thefacilities on or near college campuses, we can and still do have an impact forproclaiming the truth of science and the Bible.

Creation Summit is visiting college and universitycampuses through-out the country, bringing world renowned scientists before thestudents. Modern sciences from astronomy to genetics have shown that Darwinsstory is no longer even a feasible theory. It just does not work. It is only amatter of getting the word out to the next generation. So we work with localCreation groups and schedule a seminar with highly qualified scientists withtangible evidence as speakers. Many of these scientists were once evolutionbelievers, but their own research convinced them that evolution is not viable.Students, many for the first time ever, are discovering that the Bible is true that science and Genesis are in total agreement. And, if Genesis 1:1 can betrusted, so can John 3:16. (Creation Summit, 2019)

A partisan grouphosting a partisan and religious conference with the explicit purpose ofreducing the quality of cultural knowledge, of science, on campuses, as theybring scientists [who] were once evolution believers, but their own researchconvinced them that evolution is not viable (Ibid.). Mike Smith, the executivedirector of the student group at MSU, at the time stated, the summit is not overtly evangelistic we hope to pave the way forevangelism (for the other campus ministries) by presenting the scientificevidence for intelligent design. Once students realize theyre created beings,and not the product of natural selection, theyre much more open to the Gospel,to the message of Gods love & forgiveness (Ibid.).

There canbe inflammatory comparisons, as in the white nationalist and teaching &creationism and teaching example of Robins-Early (2019). This comes in a timeof the rise of ethnic nationalism, often from the European heritage portions ofthe population, but also in other nation-states with religion andultra-nationalism connected to them. Creationists see evolution asintrinsically atheistic and, therefore, a problem as taught in a standardscience classroom. Beverly (2018) provided an update to the Christiancommunities in how to deal with the problem from Beverlys view and othersperspectives of atheistic evolution. Beverley stated, The battle line thatemerged at the conference is the same one that surfaced in 1859 when CharlesDarwin released his famous On the Origin of Species. Then and now Christiansseparate into two camps those who believe God used macroevolution (yes,Virginia, we descended from an ape ancestor about 7 million years ago), andthose who abhor that theory (no, Virginia, God brought us here through specialcreation) Leaders in all Christian camps agree that one of the main threats tofaith in our day is the pervasiveness of atheistic evolution. (Ibid.).

Their main problem comes from the evolution via naturalselection implications of non-divine interventionism in the development of lifewithin the context of the fundamental beliefs asserted since childhood andoft-repeated into theological schools, right into the pulpits. The samephenomenon happened with the prominent and intelligent, and hardy for goodreason, Rev. Gretta Vosper or Minister Gretta Vosper (Jacobsen, 2018m;Jacobsen, 2018n; Jacobsen, 2018o; Jacobsen, 2019n; Jacobsen, 2019o; Jacobsen,2019q; Jacobsen, 2019r).

One can seethe rapid growth in the religious groups, even in secular and progressiveBritish Columbia with Mark Clark of Village Church (Johnston, 2017). Some notethe lower education levels of the literalists, the fundamentalists andcreationists, into the present, which seems more of a positive sign on thesurface (Khan, 2010). Although, other trends continue with supernatural beliefsextant in areas where creationism diminishes. Supernaturalism seems inherent inthe beliefs of the religious. Some 13% of American high school students acceptcreationism (Welsh, 2011). Khan (2010) notes the same about Alabama andcreationism, in which the majority does not mean correct. Although, someAmericans find an easier time to mix personal religious philosophy with modernscientific findings (Green, 2014). Christopher Gregory Weber (n.d.) and PhilSenter (2011) provide thorough rejections of the common presentations of aflood geology and intelligent design.

Garner reported inthe Independent on the importance ofthe prevention of the teaching of creationism as a form of indoctrination inthe schools, as this religious philosophy or theological view amounts to onewith attempted enforcement by religious groups, organizations, and leaders,often men into the curricula or the standard educational provisions of acountry (2014). Professor Alice Roberts (Ibid.) stated, People who believe increationism say that by teaching evolution, you are indoctrinating them withscience but I just dont agree with that. Science is about questioning things.Its about teaching people to say I dont believe it until we have very strongevidence.

Vanessa Wamsley(2015) provided a great introduction to the ideal of a teacher in the biologyclassroom with education on the science without theist evangelization ornon-theist assumptions:

Terry Wortman was my science teacher from mysophomore through senior years, and he is still teaching in my hometown, atHayes Center Public High School in Hayes Center, Nebraska. He stilloccasionally hears the question I asked 16 years ago, and he has a standardresponse. I dont want to interfere with a kids belief system, he says. ButI tell them, Im going to teach you the science. Im going to tell you whatall respected science says.

Randerson(2008) provides an article from over a decade ago of the need to improve educationalcurricula on theoretical foundations to all of the life science. As MichaelReiss, director of education at the Royal Society circa 2008, said, Irealised that simply banging on about evolution and natural selection didntlead some pupils to change their minds at all. Now I would be more contentsimply for them to understand it as one way of understanding the universe(Ibid.).

Indeed,some state, strongly, as Michael Stone from TheProgressive Secular Humanist, the abuse of children inherent in teachingthem known wrong or factually incorrect ideas, failed hypotheses, and wrongtheories about the nature of nature in addition to the enforcement of areligious philosophy in a natural philosophy/science classroom (2018). In anycase, creationism isnt about proper science education (Zimmerman, 2013).

CreationMinistries International a major creationist organization characterizescreationism and evolution as in a debate, not true (Funk, 2017). Pierce (2006),akin to Creation Ministries International, tries to provide an account of theworld from 4,004 BC. People can change, young and old alike. Luke Douglas in ablog platform by Linda LaScola, from The Clergy Project, described a story ofbeing a young earth creationist at age 15 and then became a science enthusiastat age 23 (2018). It enters into the political realm and the social andcultural discourses too. For example, Joe Pierre, M.D. (2018) described theoutlandish and supernatural intervention claimed by Pat Robertson in the casesof impending or ongoing natural disasters. This plays on the vulnerabilities ofthe suffering.

However, otherquestions arise around the reasons for this fundamental belief in agency behindthe world in addition to human choice rather than human agency alone. Dr. JeremyE. Sherman inPsychology Today(2018), who remains an atheistand a proper scientist trained in evolutionary theory, attempts to explain thesense of agency and, in so doing, reject the claims of Intelligent Design.Regardless of the international, regional, and national statuses, and thearguments for or against, American remain a litigious culture. Creationists andIntelligent Design proponents met more than mild resistance against theirreligious and supernaturalist, respectively, philosophies about the world, asnoted by Bryan Collinsworth at the Center for American Progress.

He provided some straightforward indications as to the claims to the scientific status of Intelligent Design only a year or thereabouts after the Kitzmiller v Dover trial in 2005. Legal cases, apart from humour as a salve, exist in the record as exemplifications of means by which to combat non-science as propositions or hypotheses, or more religious assertions, masquerading as science. All this and more will acquire some coverage in the reportage here.

Court Dates Neither By Accident Nor Positive Evidencefor the Hypothesis

The theory that religion is a force for peace, often heard among the religious right and its allies today, does not fit the facts of history.

StevenPinker

I feel like I have a good barometer of being more of a humanist, a good barometer of good and bad and how my conduct should be toward other people.

Kristen Bell

Thewhole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and henceclamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of themimaginary.

H.L.Mencken

The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other religions were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.

Oliver Stone

God, once imagined to be an omnipresent forcethroughout the whole world of nature and man. has been increasingly tending toseem omniabsent. Everywhere, intelligent and educated people rely more and moreon purely secular and scientific techniques for the solution of their problems.As science advances, belief in divine miracles and the efficacy of prayerbecomes fainter and fainter.

Corliss Lamont

There exists indeed anopposition to it [building of UVA, Jeffersons secular college] by the friendsof William and Mary, which is not strong. The most restive is that ofthepriests of the different religious sects, who dread the advance ofscience as witches do the approach of day-light; and scowl on it the fatalharbinger announcing the subversion of the duperies on which they live. In thisthe Presbyterian clergy take the lead. The tocsin is sounded in all theirpulpits, and the first alarm denounced is against the particular creed ofDoctr. Cooper; and as impudently denounced as if they really knew what it is.

Thomas Jefferson

A common error in reasoning comes from the assertion of the controversy,where an attempt to force a creationist educational curricula onto the publicand the young fails. This becomes a news item, or a series of them. It createsthe proposition of a controversy within the communities and, sometimes, thestate, even the nation, as a plausible scenario as the public observes thelatter impacts of this game literally, a game with one part including theWedge Strategy of Intelligent Design proponents playing out (Conservapedia,2016; Center for the Renewal of Science & Culture, n.d.). The WedgeStrategy was published by the Center for the Renewal of Science & Cultureout of the Discovery Institute as a political and social action plan with aserious concern over Western materialism that (it claims) has no moralstandards and the main tenets of evolution create a decay in ethical standardsbecause materialists undermined personal responsibility, and so was authoredto overthrow materialism and its cultural legacies (Conservapedia, 2016).The Discovery Institute planned three phases:

Phase I. Scientific Research, Writing & Publicity

Phase II. Publicity & Opinion-making

Phase III. Cultural Confrontation & Renewal

(Center for theRenewal of Science & Culture, n.d.)

TheDiscovery Institute (Ibid.) argued:

The proposition that human beings arecreated in the image of God is one of the bedrock principles on which Westerncivilization was built. Its influence can be detected in most, if not all, ofthe Wests greatest achievements, including representative democracy, humanrights, free enterprise, and progress in the arts and sciences.

Yet a little over a century ago, thiscardinal idea came under wholesale attack by intellectuals drawing on thediscoveries of modern science. Debunking the traditional conceptions of bothGod and man, thinkers such as Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freudportrayed humans not as moral and spiritual beings, but as animals or machineswho inhabited a universe ruled by purely impersonal forces and whose behaviorand very thoughts were dictated by the unbending forces of biology, chemistry,and environment

The cultural consequences of this triumphof materialism were devastating

Materialists also undermined personalresponsibility by asserting that human thoughts and behaviors are dictated byour biology and environment. The results can be seen in modern approaches tocriminal justice, product liability, and welfare. In the materialist scheme ofthings, everyone is a victim and no one can be held accountable for his or heractions.

Thestrategy of a wedge into the institutions of the culture to renew the Americanlandscape, and presumably resonating outwards from there, for the recapture ofthe citizenry with the ideas of Western civilization, human beings created inthe image of God, and the rejection of Darwinian, Marxian, and Freudiannotions of the human race as not moral and spiritual beings (Ibid.). As thisgame continues to play out, more aware citizens can become irritated andlitigious about the infringement of Intelligent Design and creationism in thepublic schools through an attempted enforcement.

Then the responsebecomes a legal challenge to the attempted enforcement. From this, some of thecreationist community cry victim or utilize this legal challenge as a purportedexample of the infringement on their academic freedom, infringement on theirFirst Amendment to the American Constitution right to freedom of speech orfree speech, or the imposition of atheism and secular humanism on the public(the Christian community, the good people), and the like; when, in fact, thislegal challenge arose because of the work to bypass normal scientific procedureof peer-review, and so on, and then trying to force religious views in thescience classroom often Christian. Some creationist and biblicalfundamentalist outlets point to the calls out of creationism as non-science,i.e., it goes noticed (The Bible is the Other Side, 2008). It even takes upQuora space too (2018).

Althoughindigenous cosmologies, Hindu cosmology, Islamic theology, and so on, remain asguilty in some contexts when asserted as historical rather than metaphorical orreligious narratives with edificative purposes with, for example, someaboriginal communities utilizing the concept of the medicine wheel forcounselling psychological purposes. Some remain utterly firm in devotion to afundamentalist reading or accounting of Genesis, known as literal Genesis, asa necessity for scriptural inerrancy to be kept intact, as fundamental to thetheology of the Christian faith without errors of human interpretation, and tothe doctrines so many in the world hold fundamentally dear (Ross Jr., 2018).The questions may arise about debating creationists, which Bill Nye notes as animportant item in the public relations agenda not in the scientific one as notrue controversy exists within the scientific community (Quill & Thompson,2014). Nye explained personal wonder at the depth of temporality spoken in themoment here, Most people cannot imagine how much time has passed in theevolution of life on Earth. The concept of deep time is just amazing (Ibid.).

Hanley talkedabout the importance of sussing out the question of whether we want to bancreationism or teach from the principles of evolution to show why creationismis wrong (2014). Religion maintains a strong hold on the positions individualshold about the origin and the development of life on Earth, especially as thispertains to cosmogony and eschatology beginning and end, hows and whys relativeto human beings (Ibid.). Duly noting, Hanley labelled this a minefield; ifthe orientation focuses on the controversial nature of teaching evolution vianatural selection, and if the mind-fields so to speak sit in religious,mostly, minds, then the anti-personnel weapons come from religion, notnon-religion (Ibid.). Religion becomes the problem.

This teachingevolution, or not, and creationism, or not, continues as a global problem(Harmon, 2011). Harmon stated, Some U.K. prointelligent design (ID) groupsare also pushing to include alternatives to evolution in the countrys nationalcurriculum. One group, known as Truth in Science, calls for allowing such ideasto be presented in science classroomsan angle reminiscent of academicfreedom bills that have been introduced in several U.S. states. A 2006overhaul of the U.K. national curriculum shifted the focus of scienceinstruction to highlight how science works instead of a more just the factsapproach (Ibid.).

Ghose, oneducation and religion links to creationism, stated, About 42 percent espousedthe creationist view presented, whereas 31 percent said God guided theevolutionary process, and just 19 said they believe evolution operated withoutGod involved. Religion was positively tied to creationism beliefs, with morethan two-thirds of those who attend weekly religious services espousing abelief in a young Earth, compared with just 23 percent of those who never go tochurch saying the same. Just over a quarter of those with a college degree holdcreationist beliefs, compared with 57 percent of people with such views who hadat most a high-school education, the poll found.

Pappas (2014b)sees five main battles for evolutionary theory as taught in modern scienceagainst creationism: the advances of geology in the 1700s and the 1800s, theScopes Trial, space race as a boon to the need for science as Dr. NeildeGrasse Tyson notes almost alone on the thrust of scientific advancement andfunding due to wartimes stoked (e.g., the Americans and the Soviets), ongoingcourt battles, and the important Dover, Pennsylvania school board battle. GlennBranch at the National Center for Science Education provided a solidfoundation, and concise one, of the levels of who accepted, or not, the theoryof evolution in several countries from around the world stating:

The evolutionist view was most popularin Sweden (68%), Germany (65%), and China (64%), with the United States ranking18th (28%), between Mexico (34%) and Russia (26%); the creationistview was most popular in Saudi Arabia (75%), Turkey (60%), and Indonesia (57%),with the United States ranking 6th (40%), between Brazil (47%) and Russia(34%).

Consistently with previous polls, in the UnitedStates, acceptance of evolution was higher among respondents who were younger,with a higher level of household income, and with a higher level of education.Gender was not particularly important, however: the difference between male andfemale respondents in the United States was no more than 2%.

The survey was conducted on-line between September7 and September 23, 2010, with approximately 1000 participants per countryexcept for Argentina, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa,South Korea, Sweden, Russia, and Turkey, for which there were approximately 500participants per country; the results were weighted to balance demographics. (2011a)

We can findcreationist organizations around the world with Creation Research and CreationMinistries International in Australia, CreaBel in Belgium, SociedadeCriacionista Brasileira SCB, Sociedade Origem e Destino, and Associao Brasilerade Pesquisa da Criao in Brazil, Creation Science Association of Alberta,Creation Science Assoc. of British Columbia (CSABC), Creation Science ofManitoba, LAssociation de Science Crationniste du Qubec, Creation Science ofSaskatchewan, Inc. (CSSI), Ian Juby Creation Science Research &Lecturing, Big Valley Creation Science Museum, Creation Truth Ministries, Mensa International Creation Science SIG, Creation Research Canada, CreationMinistries International Canada, and Amazing Discoveries in Canada, Assoc. AuCommencement in Franch, SG Wort und Wissen and Amazing Discoveries e. V. in Germany,Noahs Ark Hong Kong in Hong Kong, Protestns Teremtskutat Kr and CreationResearch Eastern Europe in Hungary, Creation Science Association of India andCreation Research And Apologetics Society Of India in India, and Centro StudiCreazionismo in Italy (Creationism.Org, 2019).

Furthermore, /Creation Research Japan CRJ and Answers in GenesisJapan in Japan, Korea Assn. for Creation Research KACR in Korea, gribu zintin Latvia, CREAVIT (CREAndo VIsion Total) and Cientficos CreacionistasInternacional in Mexico, Degeneratie of Evolutie?, Drdino.nl, and Mediagroep InGenesis in Netherlands, Creation Ministries International New Zealand andCreation Research in New Zealand, Polish Creation Society in Poland, ParqueDiscovery in Portugal, Tudomnyos Kreacionizmus in Romania, Russia (Nonelisted, though nation stated), SIONSKA TRUBA in Serbia, Creation MinistriesInternational Singapore in Singapore, Creation Ministries International South Africa and Amazing Discoveries in South Africa, SEDIN ServicioEvangelico Coordinadora Creacionista in Spain, The True.Origin Archive andCentre Biblique European in Switzerland, Christian Center for Science andApologetics in Ukraine, and Creation Science Movement, Creation MinistriesInternational United Kingdom, Biblical Creation Society, Daylight OriginsSociety, Answers in Genesis U.K., Edinburgh Creation Group, Creation ResourcesTrust, Creation Research UK, Society for Interdisciplinary Studies, andCreation Discovery Project in the United Kingdom (Ibid.). Mehta (2019b)described the weird nature of some of the anti-evolution content produced byorganizations such as the Discovery Institute, best known for IntelligentDesign or ID. In these contexts of creationist and Intelligent Design groupsattempting to enforce themselves on the population, American, at a minimum, courtcases arise.

Ofthe most important court cases in the history of creationism came in the formof the Scopes Trial or the Scopes Monkey Trial, H.L. Mencken became morefamous and nationally noteworthy, and historically, with the advent of thisreportage on Tennessean creationist culture and anti-evolution laws in whichindividuals who taught evolution would be charged, and were charged, as in thecase of John T. Scopes (Jacobsen, 2019). The cases reported by the NCSE (2019)notes the following other important cases:

1968, inEppersonv. Arkansas

1981, inSegravesv. State of California

1982, inMcLean v.Arkansas Board of Education

1987, inEdwardsv. Aguillard

1990, inWebsterv. New Lenox School District

1994, inPeloza v.Capistrano School District

1997, inFreilerv. Tangipahoa Parish Board of Education

2000, MinnesotaState District Court Judge Bernard E. Borene dismissed the case ofRodneyLeVake v Independent School District 656, et al.

January 2005,inSelman et al. v. Cobb County School District et al.,

December 20, 2005,inKitzmiller et al. v. Dover

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Canadian's and Others' Convictions to Divine Interventionism... - News Intervention

Librarians are upset and banding together following a recent decision by a major publishing house to limit their access to e-books.

Beginning Nov. 1, Macmillan Publishers, one of the so-called Big Fivepublishing companies in North America, will only allow libraries to purchase one copy of each new e-book for the first eight weeks after it has been released.

Librarianswho saythe decision is unfair to readersare campaigning against it.

"Don't treat us like an adversary,we're a stakeholder,"said Ignacio Albarracin, public service manager of the Prince George Library, in an interview on CBC's Daybreak North.

Albarracin said the company is restricting sales because it thinks it will be good for their bottom line, but libraries are a primary customer for publishing houses and would buy more e-books if pricing and licensing terms were better, he said.

'We nurture a culture of readers, so I think we definitely put back into the marketplace more than we put out," said Albarracin.

In a letter from Macmillan PublishersCEO John Sargent to Macmillan authors, illustrators and agents, Sargent says the company is responding to growing fears that library lending was "cannibalizing sales."He writes the new terms are designed to protect the value of the author'swork.

According to Albarracin, retaile-book sales have started to level off but are dramatically increasing at libraries. He said demand has grown in Prince George, and more than 65 libraries in North America have reached ayearly e-book circulation of at least one million.

"It doesn't matter the size of the library,if you're the Toronto Library or you're the Prince George Library.Now, you have one copy for all of your readers so it leads to a lot of frustration," said Albarracin.

All theBig 5 publishers, which include Harper Collins,Hachette Book Group, Penguin Random Houseand Simon & Schuster, have alreadymoved away from a perpetual ownership model, which allowed libraries to keep e-books in circulation permanently.Now, they employ various short-term options with access to books expiring after a few years or followinga set number of loans to library users.

The Canadian Urban Libraries Council, which represents more than 40 libraries across the country, isco-ordinating with the American Library Association and the Urban Libraries Council in the United States in an effort to encourage publishing companies to work with libraries to come up with solutions that balance everyone's needs.

The American Library Association has launched an online campaignto try to stop Macmillan's embargo.

Albarracinsaid he is concerned about the domino effect of Macmillan's decision andthat smaller publishing houses willfollow the company's lead. If attempts by the library industry to convince the publisher to reverse its decision are unsuccessful, he hopes the public will pressure elected officials to get involved.

To hear the complete interview withIgnacio Albarracinon Daybreak North,tapon the audio link below:

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Libraries push back against publishing house decision to limit their access to e-books - CBC.ca