Patels Copperfield looks like an Asian masquerading as Charles Dickens English hero born to a privileged mother(Morfydd Clark, who later in the film show up with incestuous bizarreness as David Copperfields love interest). There is no explanation at all as to why Davids mother is unmistakably Caucasian while the son looks as brown as the toast she enjoys at her breakfast every morning.Much later David has a Caucasian friend James whos played by Aneurin Barnard and his mother is a Black woman played by Nikki Amuka-Bird! Jamess mother has an important role in the impressionable David life.When they are together I could only see the films producers trying to please as many communities and countries as possible. This is Gone With The Wind with blizzards blowing away physical credibility.

It was very hard for me to concentrate on the characters function in the sprawling Victorian coming-of-age saga when the director was way too taken up with converting Charles Dickens epic novel into a cauldron of cultural cosmopolitanism. Lets look beyond colour and race by all means. But not at the cost of a films credibility!

This version of David Copperfield displays a distinctive atmospheric flavour, but little else. The characters are stifled by their cinematic creators insouciance, a creative aggression that takes Dickens book by the horns, if you know what I mean . The film is crisp in tone and cockily non-literary on flavour. Though the novel is here blissfully dismantled , the essence of the original and much of the story and characters remain.

There is a fine supporting cast of British/English actors bustling around in their eye-catching costumes trying to look as eccentrically Victorian as wine forgotten in a sailors cellar.

Yes. Dickens novel has travelled far and wide. It has now reached a place where the author would find it hard to recognize his hero. Dev Patels David Coopperfield is a very enthusiastic performance. It is also very brown.

Image Source: Instagram/aneurin.b , IMDb, youtube/searchlightspictures

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The Personal History Of David Copperfield Review: Dev Patels Performance As The Title Character Of Dickens' Classic Is Very Enthusiastic - SpotboyE

Bhavana Acharya

At a time when stock markets have charged ahead and worry about volatility is in the air, most conservative or moderate risk investors are told to turn to hybrid funds. The equity-debt blend helps keep returns afloat across equity and debt market cycles, goes the understanding.

Within hybrid funds, though, there are six categories. Each is distinct from the other in its performance potential and risk level. All hybrid funds dont automatically suit all investors or all time-frames. Heres how the hybrid fund categories compare on key performance metrics.

The hybrid categories considered here are as follows: arbitrage, equity savings, conservative hybrid, balanced advantage, and aggressive hybrid. Multi-asset allocation funds have been skipped though they are hybrid funds, there are very few funds in this category to identify category trends; these funds also need a much longer timeframe for performance assessment and as it is new category, we do not have such a long track record.

Losses and volatility

Hybrid funds can be used primarily for two reasons:

-to give better returns than debt without going after pure equity. This is mostly for the more aggressive investors who want more mileage from their investments.

-to give some exposure to equity without the attendant risk. This is more for moderate and conservative investors, who dont want to miss better returns but cant take the risk that comes from pure equity.

Either way, whats key here is the risk containment. That can be measured by the occurrences of losses, the depth of such losses, and how volatile returns can be. So, consider the past three years, since it covers different equity market cycles. The table below shows the worst return each category has delivered on an average, for different time-frames within this three-year period.

Based on rolling return for each period from Nov.2017 to Nov 2020

As you can see, arbitrage funds are the best at keeping losses in check. The category that slips the most during corrections is the aggressive hybrid category. Stretching this period farther back to five years also sees hybrid aggressive funds fare similarly; the categorys worst average one-year performance was a 22.6 percent loss.

Now, consider the frequency at which such losses occur. The table below shows the proportion of times each category slipped into losses, on an average, for different time-frames. This time, were going further back to 2015.

Based on rolling return for each period from Nov.2015 to Nov 2020

The sharp sell-off in March-April this year sent many equity savings and balanced advantage funds tumbling. For many equity savings funds, this swift correction accounted for much of the periods where shorter-term returns slipped into losses. This goes to show that even in categories where equity exposure is low, a quick and steep stock market fall can wipe out a chunk of the gains.

Volatility in returns tracks the same trend. Aggressive hybrid funds are by far the most volatile, followed by balanced advantage funds. Conservative hybrid and equity savings funds are similar in terms of volatility while conservative hybrid funds are predominantly debt, bond prices do react to interest rate changes or expectations and there will be volatility to that extent. This apart, where conservative hybrid funds adopt duration to book gains on yield rallies, volatility can see a spike.

Portfolios and risks

So what explains the differences in loss probabilities and volatility within each category? The answer lies in how much each category holds in equity, derivatives, and debt. In their derivative calls, funds primarily take the opposite position in the futures market on the stocks in their portfolio (they also take other mispricing opportunities, all collectively termed as arbitrage).

This serves to negate equity risk; the more a fund takes these derivative calls, the less equity it has thats left open to market movements. Its this open or unhedged equity that influences losses, volatility as well as returns.

Arbitrage funds hedge the entire equity exposure, which makes them the lowest risk hybrid funds. And therefore, they do not show loss instances beyond any one-month period. Aggressive hybrid funds dont hedge at all, except in rare cases. The extent to which they fall is thus the highest among hybrid funds. And given that these funds also dip into mid-cap and small-cap stocks, periods such as 2018 and 2019 saw these funds slide more than some large-cap equity funds.

The table below shows how the unhedged equity has been over the past 12 months, other than arbitrage funds. The same trend will hold for earlier periods as well.

Conservative hybrid funds are the lowest on equity exposure. Given SEBIs rules, these funds cannot go above 25 percent in open equity. On an average, in the past year, these funds have held 21 percent in equity. But on the flip side, with no restrictions on debt, some conservative hybrid funds have significant credit risk. More, their changing debt strategy also lends to uncertainty.

Balanced advantage funds are free to change allocations based on market conditions, unlike equity savings funds which need to define their exposure to equity, debt and derivatives in their mandate. The category, therefore, sports wide differences in their equity, derivative and debt holdings as well as the manner in which these change over the months.

Performance across time-frames

On the other hand, when markets rally or over the long term, funds with a bigger open equity exposure will deliver better. On a rolling three-year return in the past eight-year period, the average return for aggressive hybrid funds was 9 percent. The best return in this period was a good 20.1 percent. Thats far above balanced advantage funds, where the maximum return was 16.2 percent.

However, in categories such as arbitrage or even equity savings, returns will be similar whether long-term or short. Arbitrage funds are very similar to liquid funds in terms of return; they do not gain from equity market movement. Equity savings funds have low equity allocations, which caps how much returns can rise even in prolonged market rallies.

The table below shows the average returns for one-year, two-year and three-year periods for each category based on rolling returns since 2017.

How to know which category to use

Two factors help determine whether hybrid funds will work for you and which one to go for timeframe and risk appetite. Another factor that can play a role is your need for tax efficiency.

For a very short-term horizon of six months to one year, arbitrage funds can be used by those who seek tax efficiency, as an add-on to debt holdings. No other hybrid category fits.

For timeframes of 1-3 years, equity savings funds can similarly be used by those in the higher tax-brackets. These funds offer a better return profile than arbitrage funds. As with arbitrage, use them along with debt funds. High-risk investors can allocate more to these funds, while conservative investors need to keep exposure limited.

You can also use conservative hybrid funds for 2-year holdings and longer, but fund selection needs care. These funds can change debt strategies, take on duration risk, or credit risk. You may inadvertently have a riskier fund than the timeframe calls for. Balanced advantage funds work for a 2-3 year horizon but only by aggressive investors, when used along with pure debt funds.

For a 3-5 year timeframe, balanced advantage funds fit well as they do not fall as much as hybrid aggressive funds do, while being better on returns than equity savings or conservative hybrid funds. Exposure can be decided based on risk level.

Very long-term portfolios can use any category. But note that arbitrage and equity savings funds would be lower-returning than debt funds. Balanced advantage funds can partly replace debt funds for very aggressive investors who do not prefer debt funds. Aggressive hybrid funds can be used for equity exposure, but note that it may be easier to maintain an asset allocation using pure equity and pure debt funds.

Read this article:
How to choose the right hybrid fund based on your investment horizon - Moneycontrol.com

Conscientiousness, defined as "wishing to do what is right, especially to do one's work or duty well and thoroughly," has emerged as the key trait requirement for astronauts that will live and work on the surface of Mars millions of miles from Earth, according to a new study.

This trait was identified as more important than honesty, humility, emotionality, extroversion, openness and agreeableness.

"Conscientiousness, an individual personality trait, can be thought of as a pooled team-resource," said Julia McMenamin, the study's first author and a doctoral student in psychology at Western University in Canada, in a statement. "The more conscientiousness a team is, the better they will likely be at accomplishing tasks."

Conversely, traits like "social loafing," or the habit of a team member putting in less effort than when they work solo, are undesirable in a potential Marstronaut. Traits that seem counterproductive and negative behaviors are likely to cause more trouble and disruptions in a team environment.

The researchers consider these traits and behavior "non-negotiable" for long-duration spaceflight crews.

A careful focus on crew selection, emphasizing effective communication and very detailed work and planning processes, could help avoid any negative factors.

Some of the same things identified in the study could be used to help people coping with isolation during the pandemic as well.

Currently, NASA is targeting the 2030s for the first human mission to Mars. Depending on the alignment of Mars and Earth for launch and landing and the duration of the mission on the Martian surface, this crew could spend five years together -- not including training together beforehand.

To test what this crew dynamic might be like ahead of a real mission, researchers studied a team of five "astronauts" during an exercise analogous to a Mars mission. This event was hosted by the Austrian Space Forum in Oman in 2018. The Dhofar region of Oman is a good analog for the Martian environment in terms of isolation and extreme conditions.

McMenamin was joined by Natalie Allen, a professor of psychology at Western Univeristy, and Ottawa-based space exploration company Mission Control Space Services Chief Science Officer Melissa Battler for the study.

The AMADEE-18 analog space mission lasted for four weeks. Five astronauts, including four men and one woman between the ages of 28 to 38, lived in a simulated Mars environment.

Before, during and after the mission, the astronauts filled out surveys addressing the performance of their team and any team conflicts as well as their stress levels.

At the end of the mission, the astronauts rated themselves and each teammate. They also answered questions about their behavior in their respective roles and identified any counterproductive behaviors, including social loafing.

This particular team worked well together as a team, but the researchers were not surprised because they had prepared for their "mission." The team was also supported by field and mission control teams.

The team members were also familiar with each other before the mission began. All of these factors can be identified in examples of positive teamwork on Earth, the researchers said.

"How familiar team members are with one another has been shown to help teams work better together likely because it provides team members with knowledge about each other and helps them communicate better and more efficiently," McMenamin said.

Stress is a common negative factor that can influence team performance on Earth and in space. It's distracting, increases anxiety, causes cooperative difficulty, increases task overload and contributes to destructive emotions.

"Anyone who has worked on a team knows conflict amongst team members can harm team performance and make for a negative experience. When people argue about how to get things done, or get into personal disagreements, there is less time and energy left for completing tasks," McMenamin said.

"What's interesting is that there are different types of conflict, and so long as interpersonal issues and arguments about how to go about accomplishing tasks are avoided, differences in views and opinions might actually improve team performance likely because this allows for the team to benefit from each member's knowledge and perspective."

Given that this particular analog mission only lasted for about a month, the researchers are interested to know how things might play out over the course of a long-duration mission.

"Major issues caused by psychological distress and interpersonal problems don't tend to show up until months or even years spent in an isolated, confined, and extreme environment, which highlights the need for longer-duration simulations," McMenamin said.

Being a good team player has almost always been part of the astronaut playbook, going back to the days of the Apollo missions.

Former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino spoke to CNN in September about the Netflix series "Away," which focuses on an international crew leading the first human mission to Mars. Massimino served as a consultant for the show.

The show crew was most interested in hearing about the human side of being an astronaut, Massimino said. For example, they asked him about the emotional aspects of leaving your family behind on Earth, the camaraderie between the crew and "what it's like in your heart and soul, rather than the process," he said.

Massimino, who flew on multiple missions during the Shuttle era, told them that "the Earth looks like heaven. It makes you realize we're so lucky to be here."

Regarding the teamwork aspect of spaceflight, "we really do love each other as astronauts," Massimino said. "It's like a hybrid between a family member and a friend. You really do care about each other. And there were seven of us on the Shuttle crew. We became like a family, having all of these experiences in training and spaceflight. They're extraordinary and there is not anything I wouldn't do for these people."

Massimino was selected to be an astronaut in 1996. When asked about the traits that would be important for astronauts going to Mars, he said he feels that the selection process would be similar to the way NASA chooses astronaut candidates now for long-term spaceflight on the International Space Station.

"We're looking for people who would be good candidates for long-duration spaceflight that get along, personalities that would let things roll. If things go wrong, you make mistakes because you're not perfect, you need to be able to roll with it. They should be able to contribute and be a good positive crew member, not only for their crewmates, but the people helping them back on Earth."

One of the most important aspects that helps the crew's morale and performance is a connection to Earth and the people they care about on it -- something that will be increasingly more difficult as a spacecraft leaves Earth for Mars, causing communication delays.

People tend to think of astronauts as superheroes, Massimino said.

"But we're really just regular people who care about each other and have really awesome jobs."

Visit link:
Astronauts on a Mars mission will need to be 'conscientious' to work well together - CNN

November 23, 2020 12:00 ET | Source: Wisekey International Holding SA

WISeKeys Cybersecurity AI technology creates a platform that helps connected devices to become intelligent devices, organize themselves into trusted networks to learn from attacks, defend themselves, and transfer this intelligence to other devices within the network

FacebookLinkedBig Data collected from IoT devices can help WISeKey customers detect and predict future behavior and optimize productivity across industries through predictive maintenance on equipment and machinery

Geneva, Zug, Switzerland November 23, 2020 WISeKey International Holding Ltd (SIX: WIHN) (WISeKey), a leading Swiss cybersecurity and IoT company announced today that it has fully integrated the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) chip embedded with cryptographic Root of Trust (RoT) and problem-solving Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions as part of its Vertical IoT Platform. WISeKeys IoT cybersecurity Vertical Platform allows IoT devices to organize themselves into trusted networks based on mutual authentication, identity and integrity.

The integration of arago technology is accelerating this process as arago has a large recurring customer base and licensing model which is expected to bring significant synergies to WISeKey and strengthen WISeKeys position in the fast-growing Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) market. The ability to authenticate and remotely manage millions of networked, automated devices and equipment is becoming pervasive: from the factory floor, to the hospital operating room, to the residential home, everything from refrigerators, watches and wearables, to wine bottles, is connecting and communicating via the Internet.

WISeKey owns everything necessary to authenticate users and devices. With arago, the authentication is extended to data and action. The arago platform has an oAuth-based identity that is used to control access to any data point or AI activity which can easily be integrated with the WISeKey services.

The increasing adoption of AI and IoT convergence is one of the primary factors that is driving the growth of the market. Over the past five years, a rapid surge in the adoption of AI IoT cloud services has been witnessed. It is driven by its capabilities to provide enterprise wide array of resources they can utilize to scale, orchestrate, and support their operations.Addingsecure AI cloud services from Switzerlandin cooperation witharago, using Swiss data centers and Swiss alps mountain bunkers to store the personal data generated by users and enterprises. WISeKey, is the first e-security company in the world to offer decentralized Trust Models and PKI architecture. In addition, WISeKey allows data ecosystems to be federated via a unique digital identity, enabling users to interact while maintaining control of their personal data. Users have the have the freedom to choose where their data resides and who is allowed to access it. By decoupling content from the application and digital identity itself, users will be able to use their data as currency and develop digital data dividends-based solutions as consumers have a right to know and control how their data is being used and be able to monetize their data.

The WISeKey IoT cybersecurity Vertical platform is producing an unprecedented amount of Big Data as WISeKey has an install base of over 1 billion IoT secure microchips since 2010 invirtually all IoT sectors(autonomous cars, smart cities, drones, anti-counterfeiting, smart lights, servers, mobile phones, etc.). Big Data collected from IoT devices can help WISeKeys customers detect and predict future behavior and optimize productivity across industries through predictive maintenance on equipment and machinery.

As the rapid expansion of connected devices and VaultIC chips connected to the IoT continues, the sheer volume of data being created by them will increase to a mind-boggling level. This data will hold extremely valuable insight into whats working well or whats not by pointing out conflicts that arise and providing high-value insight into new business risks and opportunities as correlations and associations are made.

The IoT Industry is a game changer new business segment for WISeKey. An estimated 50 billion IoT devices are expected to be connected by the end of 2020, while worlds population is estimated to grow to 6.8 billion; thus, there will be more than 7 IoT devices per person connected to the internet by 2020.

As a result, it is anticipated that this year already the number of IoT devices will surpass the number of mobile devices. By 2021, this number is expected to grow to 1.8 billion PCs, 8.6 billion mobile devices, and 15.7 billion IoT devices, and by 2035, the amount of data usage is expected to grow more than 2,400 times, from 1 exabyte to 2.3 zettabytes. A huge and increasing amount of sensitive data that will need to be protected by the IoT chips (such as the ones produced by WISeKey) will be interchanged between connected devices and back-end servers, allowing companies to provide users with new type of applications. These applications will be designed to offer increased control over the use of resources, improve efficiency in power grids, optimize processing of information in industrial environments, secure autonomous vehicles, provide better and higher quality healthcare services and personalized experience for shopping or leisure, among others.

This new technology enables IoT connected devices which can provide a recognized identity and a valid integrity report to communicate with peer devices within the community. WISeKey offers a range of contact and contactless secure microcontrollers that share consistent secure 8-/16-bit RISC CPU performance, strong security mechanisms, and enhanced crypto engines to optimize performance and power consumption. The products also provide high-density, low-power EEPROM technologies. Designed to meet the most stringent security requirements, many of these products are EAL5+ Common Criteria security-certified.

This new capability will enable authenticated sensor data. Currently, most IoT devices are not built with embedded secure systems, which makes these devices vulnerable to exploits. By integrating AI into the IoT hardware and platform, objects connected to the Vertical Platform can develop their own cybersecurity behavior and make smarter and safer decisions.

Objects secured with these IoT chips produce a huge amount of Big Data that when analyzed with AI can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens. The WISeKey platform allows the IoT device equipped with these chips to send authenticated data to the cloud using a dual factor authentication at the device level. Imagine a smartcard sending authenticated data of each component of the car to predict when these parts will require maintenance and to digitally sign all the logs required to prove that service was provided. This platform which can be used in different industrial applications allows optimized productivity across industries through predictive maintenance on equipment and machinery, creates truly smart homes with connected appliances and provides critical communication between devices including self-driving cars and smart homes. The possibilities that IoT brings to the table are endless.

WISeKeys technology creates a platform that helps connected devices to become intelligent devices that can learn from attacks, defend themselves, and transfer this intelligence to other devices within the network.

Additionally, WISeKeys technology provides smaller IoT manufacturers that do not have the resources or expertise to perform thorough security analysis of their products will the ability to adopt this platform, reducing the number of unprotected products that are released to consumers.

About WISeKey

WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the pervasive computing shaping todays Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens. Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKeys Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (RoT) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visitwww.wisekey.com.

Press and investor contacts:

Disclaimer:

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of the Swiss Financial Services Act (FinSA), the FinSAs predecessor legislation or advertising within the meaning of the FinSA, or within the meaning of any other securities regulation. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.

The securities offered will not be, and have not been, registered under the United States of America Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States of America, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of said Act.

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WISeKey's Cybersecurity AI technology creates a platform that helps connected devices to become intelligent devices, organize themselves into trusted...

George Bernard Shaw once observed that all - [sic] he referred to - as "progress," - depends upon the unreasonable man or woman.

His argument was that the reasonable man/woman adapts themself to the world whereas the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to themself. In the current political crisis surrounding our ongoing - should've been settled two plus weeks ago plus election, I find myself at a loss as to what he meant by "progress" in that adage as I watch the machinations of the defeated sitting lame duck president and the cult of Covidiot unreason that panders to him and his unlawfulness and supports this.. frankly, Tripe.

What used to be the party of Lincoln almost in its entirety in the body politic refuses to admonish this dangerously reckless, feckless despot and his refusal to accept the votes of the American populace on Nov. 3, almost three weeks ago; something never seen by myself as a septuagenarian. Note: my milestone birthday only slightly preceded the election!

Now via telephone the sitting lame duck, attempting to coerce a Republican election canvasser in a predominantly African-American Wayne County, MI. into not certifying the election results. Note: she attempted vis-a-vis a sworn affidavit the following day to reverse her prior first, non certification, then certification! WTF?

Enter Lindsey Graham: the most disingenuous yet.Threatening a secretary of state! 52 US Code - 20511 could slap his ass in jail for 5 years for his collusion with this scheme. Trust he's all lawyered up on the taxpayer's dime.

Jon St.Laurent No. Bridgton, Maine

Read more from the original source:
Letter to the Editor: What used to be the party of Lincoln - Daily Bulldog

The socialist says, Lets talk about it. When you get into socialism you will be told by the communist: My way or youre dead. Communism is the goal.

The state will determine who is allowed to have children, which children are to be born and when it is time to die.

A quote from George Bernard Shaw: I also made it quite clear that Socialism means equality of income or nothing, and that under socialism you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly fed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed whether you like it or not. If it were discovered that you had not character enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner, but whilst you were permitted to live you would have to live well.

Health care for the elderly? No elderly, no problem.

Communist tactic: Accuse your opponents of your own evils. The DNC/CPUSA are examples of all the names they have called President Trump. They are the liars, hypocrites, frauds, homophobes, bigots, racists. Donald Trump is an honest man, a man of moral integrity. He is a leader! One of We the People.

President Trump, stay the course. This past election is a fraud put forth by the DNC/CPUSA and the RINOs. It is intended to destroy this great nation and turn it into a communist state.

See the rest here:
Letter to the Editor: First socialism, then communism - North Platte Telegraph

In last Sundays Inquirer, Pastor Nicolas ORourke, the organizing director of Phillys Working Families Party and a leader of the local progressive movement, penned an op-ed confirming that, now that the election was over, the jockeying for political IOUs had begun.

It was our work, our connections with voters, and our vision that brought [Joe Biden] to victory, ORourke wrote. Biden owes our movements a great deal of thanks for getting voters out to the polls for himAs usual, the Democratic Party played to a mythical swing voter while taking Black and brown voters for granted.

In a post-election joint statement, local progressive and Democratic Socialist leaders, like Councilmembers Helen Gym, Kendra Brooks and Jamie Gauthier, as well as state rep Liz Fiedler and State Senator-elect Nikil Saval, echoed ORourkes clarion call.

Tell me if this isnt an apt description of what we need right now: A liberalism without elitism and a populism without racism.

Politics is about understanding when you have leverage, and then cashing it in. Make no mistake what ORourke et al are up to. Some might call it spin; theyre going about the business of trying to build leverageeven when the facts arent on their side. Because any fair-minded analysis of the election has to conclude that, yes, Trumps petulant voter fraud claims are specious, but so too are these progressive victory laps.

The truth is, Bidens outperformance of Hillary Clinton in the pragmatic center of our politics was the difference between winning and losing. According to exit polling, Biden won independents by 14 points (Trump won them last time) and won 64 percent of self-described moderates. He also did eight percentage points better than Clinton with working class voters. He took 36 percent of white voters without a college degree, up 6 percentage points over Hillary. Not only that, Biden significantly outperformed Hillary among seniors and in the suburbs. Despite record turnout of 65 percent, on the other hand, Philadelphia actually produced less of a plurality for Biden than Hillary had posted.

This tells us a number of things. For one, that Bernie Sanders was wrong when he proffered that, if only ever more progressives turned out, a new majority would emerge: The key to this election is can we get millions of young people who have never voted before into the political process, many working people who understand that Trump is a fraud, can we get them voting?

Related from The Philadelphia Citizen:

I Call Them Momola and the Mensch

Catching up with Delaware Rabbi Michael Beals, also known as Joe Bidens rabbi

Ruy Teixeira, the progressive demographer, explained the difference-maker in a smart New Yorker autopsy. The theory that Biden would win, to a great extent, because he could reduce the white, non-college deficit turned out to be true, he tells John Cassidy.

In other words, the masses arent as progressive as the progressives would have us think. We need more data on this, but it seems likely that, as vulnerable swing state congressional candidates have complained, calls to defund police, embracing socialism, and a seeming tolerance of looting were a drag on down-ballot Democrats. (Sanders and his local acolytes are keen to tell us that public opinion polls show a majority of Americans supporting Medicare for All, for example, but they leave out that, when told that such a program would result in 160 million Americans losing employer-based healthcare and the obliteration of the health insurance industrywith its tens of thousands of middle class jobsit kinda loses its progressive appeal.)

It should come as no surprise that, post-election, a phalanx of interest groups are now boxing each other out in the hopes of cashing in their chits. Its natural, on some level, harkening back to the famous JFK quote: Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. Its also a sign of the times. Politics has become a short-term I got mine game.

But beyond all the spin, there just may be a harbinger of hope in this years election results. It will take some doing, but Biden has the opportunity to be the first politician since Robert Kennedy to build a coalition driven by both African-American and white working class support.

In other words, the masses arent as progressive as the progressives would have us think.

This was the strategy presciently laid out two years ago for Democrats by Richard Kahlenberg, senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a progressive, independent think tank. In a Century Foundation report titled The Inclusive Populism of Robert F. Kennedy and an op-ed in The New York Times, Kahlenberg held up Kennedys stirring 1968 presidential primary campaign as a model for a worker-based, multi-racial political coalition thatand tell me if this isnt an apt description of what we need right nowoffers a liberalism without elitism and a populism without racism.

Yes, Kennedy was the beloved brother of a martyred president, but, during his inspiring run of primary victories prior to his tragic assassination, hed found a message that resonated with groups that had long been purposely set against one another. And so this scion of a dynastic family set out trying to persuade both groups that they were stronger together. We have to convince the Negroes and the poor whites that they have common interests, RFK told legendary New York newsman Jack Newfield.

Related from The Philadelphia Citizen:

Winning and Losing On Election Night

Whos up? Whos down? And is there a path forward for a President Biden to change the tone of our politics?

And so we got Kennedys populism without racism when hed call out wealthy tax cheats on the stump, just as we got his liberalism minus the elitism when hed call himself an Opportunity Democrat and argue for rewarding work rather than perpetuating a welfare system that, he held, had demeaned its recipients. Hed hold up the innovative public/private economic revitalization program hed instituted in Brooklyn as an example of what it means to invest in people, at the same time that hed condemn the lawlessness of looting without apology, always reminding voters that law-abiding inner city residents and businesses deserve the same expectation of safety as those in the suburbs.

Kennedy was a uniquely gifted politician, with a more finely-attuned ear than even his brother. (If youre unfamiliar with the 68 Kennedy campaign, read Jules Witcovers account of it, 85 Days: The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy, or just check out this moving video.

Rather than pander, he challenged the voter, as at Notre Dame during the Indiana primary, when Kennedy was booed by his anti-war base for wanting to abolish college draft deferments. Youre getting the unfair advantage while poor people are being drafted! he bellowed. Once, when asked by a college student who was going to pay for the social programs he was proposing, he responded, you are, before connecting his response to an ethos his otherwise odious father had instilled in the Kennedy brood: To whom much is given, much is required.

This was, in its frankness and its soaring, heartfelt rhetoric an atypical campaign. Kennedy would close his stump speeches by appealing to the inner idealist in all of us: As George Bernard Shaw wrote, Some men see things as they are and say why/I dream things that never were and say why not? (During a torrential downpour in Indiana, the candidate ad-libbed: As George Bernard Shaw wrote, head for the buses! he yelled, leading a run to shelter.)

Could Kennedys upstart and ill-fated 68 campaign provide something of a roadmap for Joe Biden, a way to unite Blacks and working-class whites on a common agenda? Kahlenberg thinks so. During one of the debates, Trump was goading Biden and saying he wouldnt even say the words law and order, Kahlenberg said when I caught up with him earlier this week. And I thought Bidens response was pitch perfect, and something right in keeping with Robert Kennedy. He said, Im for law and order, with justice. A lot of Democrats wont say the words law and order because theyre afraid of sounding racist. Of course, when Trump says those words, it is racist. But Biden putting those three things togetherlaw, order and justicewas perfect, because its where Americans are.

Biden has the opportunity to be the first politician since Robert Kennedy to build a coalition driven by both African-American and white working class support.

Building such a coalition wont be easy, of course. It would mean that progressives, when in conversation with whites who shower after work, would have to resist the urge to effectively say, What you dont understand about yourself is by telling a middle-aged factory worker he is privileged. It would mean that AOC, et al give up trying to force utopian policies on those who represent unsafe districts. It would mean being okay with universal policies that disproportionately benefit African-Americans, as opposed to those that directly target African-Americans; think, student debt forgiveness or the $15 minimum wage as opposed to reparations for slavery, likely a non-starter without control of the U.S. Senate.

For Biden, it would mean governing from the middle outsomething he was clear about in the election, and rewarded for, especially by African-American voters. Rather than paying back individual groups by pursuing, say, D.C. statehood and the slashing of federal police funding, hed do well to prioritize an infrastructure plan that puts Black and White workers to work, together.

If he does that, and if progressives dont go to war with the Biden administration, which would only presage the surrendering of the House in 2022, they will be embarking on a vision first given voice by a star-crossed pugilistic idealist in the turbulent Sixties: You know, Ive come to the conclusion that poverty is closer to the root of the problem than color, Bobby Kennedy said then. I think there has to be a new kind of coalition to keep the Democratic party going, and to keep the country together: Negroes, blue-collar whites, and the kids.

See the original post:
Is Joe Biden the new RFK? - The Philadelphia Citizen

C

oronavirus is a battle against pathogens and spike proteins. But it is also a battle against misinformation and anxiety. Now that a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech could be approved next month, and a large trial of the Oxford/AstraZenica vaccine has shown it is effective, public trust is suddenly imperative. Foolish fictions or unnecessary anxiety about vaccination are no longer just odd theories touted by people ignorant of medicine. They could be much more dangerous than that.

There is a lot to be done before we can safely land back in the lives we once led. An approved vaccine will be a major logistical challenge for a government that hardly inspires confidence on that account. Storage will be needed for those vaccines that are only stable at minus 70C. Mass vaccination centres will have to be established rapidly, in sports halls and car parks, to match 10 million doses to the public. Even if capacity is built for 1.2 million doses to be administered a week, it will take five months to vaccinate everyone over the age of 65.

Yet the major problem might be rhetorical. Research by the Vaccine Confidence Project has that, in this country, only 52 per cent of people are confident that vaccines are safe. One study found only a third of British people would be willing to get a coronavirus vaccine. The same is true elsewhere. A Gallup poll found only 58 per cent of Americans willing to be vaccinated and only 54 per cent of the French are currently happy to take the jab. A sceptical public could yet prevent herd immunity through vaccination which looks like our best option to beat the virus. The Prime Ministers Covid communication has been erratic, veering between baseless optimism and apologetic gloom about lockdown. Flanked by his chosen scientific experts, Boris Johnson now faces a task of persuasion. He needs to take on each objection to the vaccine and calmly debunk them.

People will naturally worry that safety might have been compromised in the tearing hurry for a vaccine. In fact, the current researchers are standing on the shoulders of many who have gone before. The existing technologies are being adapted to Covid-19. Science does not start with a blank sheet of paper every time. The process of regulatory approval has, indeed, been speeded up, but that does not mean its hurdles have been lowered. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is emphatic that this is not the case. All vaccines approved will be closely monitored, as is the usual practice, and then reviewed in a years time.

Mr Johnson needs to show us that the chance of death or serious side-effects are undetectably small. The process has included the large trials, with 30,000 volunteers in the case of Pfizer and Moderna, in which side effects, which usually manifest quickly, would have shown up. The Prime Minister will also have to educate us in the prevalence of coincidence. During a mass vaccination programme some people will die of heart attacks and strokes on the same day. It will be easy for anyone looking for false associations to suppose that one event caused the other.

Along the way Mr Johnson will have to remind the public that there is no reputable evidence to link vaccination programmes with autism, no spooky links to 5G masts, and no evidence that children can be overloaded with vaccines and no evidence that vaccines help to transmit epilepsy, diabetes, or hepatitis. All that conspiracy theorists need these days is an internet connection and their lie can travel the world before the truth has got its boots on.

The anti-vaccine band have a recognisable strategy. In any range of scientific studies there are likely to be outliers, studies which stripped from context, appear to suggest that a vaccination is unsafe. Or, if no such experiment is available, they select refuted studies and appeal to the authority of pseudo-science. If they do not have even that to go on, they make it up.

Vaccination is, in fact, one of the greatest contributions to public health that has ever been devised by human ingenuity. The late Victorians introduced compulsory vaccination in Britain in the face of clever flapdoodle from high-profile fools such as George Bernard Shaw. The anguish averted is incalculable. Smallpox has been eradicated worldwide and polio and measles are close to extinction. We need to be calm about Covid. We can just about glimpse the road out of the woods. Lets take it.

Read the original here:
The vaccines are on their way. Our next task? Persuade people to take them - Evening Standard

Tom Zuehlke wears many hats at West Allis Village Playhouse. He directs and produces and serves on the theater companys board of directors. Off the Cuff spoke with him about past and future.

You have been Board Secretary for 20 years for the playhouse. What has that been like for you?

Being on the board has been a real rollercoaster ride for me. During my time as secretary, the Village Playhouse has gone through a myriad of changes. In 1999, we lost our venue on the Milwaukee County grounds when the Plankroad School was demolished. For the next 15 years, we were a vagabond troupe, performing in a variety of venues, including church gymnasiums and library basements, other theater companies, or anywhere we could find a stage.

Then in 2014, several Village Playhouse members purchased what is now our home at Inspiration Studios in West Allis. It was a challenge to survive those homeless years, but it created opportunities to produce theatre in different ways. To have a thriving community theatre is an often difficult-always rewarding task, which has been both anguish and fun for the board members.

You have also directed and produced shows since 1984. Describe these roles and how they came to be.

I was first hired to direct Our Town in 1984. I was a Theater Studies major at UWM, and took classes in acting, lighting, Theater History and Stage Management. My directing classes made me realize this was a way to incorporate every aspect of theater. It was natural to take on the producers role since I then got to put together a complete team. Getting everyone to be part of the big picture process is most enjoyable.

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Have you ever performed in productions?

I have. Mostly at UWM I did some Shakespeare, then other classics such as Camelot. I did The Scottish Play with the old Milwaukee Players and a traveling company called Theatre-RX which did shows for medical professionals. Also, a touring production of Love Letters. With the playhouse, I have only acted in one full-length play, but have performed in several one-acts in our festivals. Most recently, I was in a one-person show, which I wrote, titled, An Evening with Me, as a fundraiser for Village Playhouse.

What is most gratifying about these roles?

When the final light fades, and the sold-out audience rises to acknowledge what theyve experienced, that is most gratifying. It doesnt happen often, but when it does- Wow!

Do you feel a comradery with the performers?

Absolutely! As an actor, director or producer, you are a team. You stay long after the final curtain falls. I have several friends from that first VP show I did in 84, and the list continues to grow. My theatre friends are my extended family.

What is the line-up for the next 6 or 7 months?

In December, we will be producing a radio play version of Little Women. This will be a virtual performance only. Come January, our virtual shows will be two, one-act plays which would have been part of our 35th Annual Wisconsin Playwrights One-Act Play Festival (which was cancelled in June). We plan to return to live shows in February with a yet-to-be-determined play. March will be the last of the one-acts from last June, and in April, were doing three George Bernard Shaw pieces: Overrules, How He Lied to Her Husband and Passion, Poison and Petrification. June will see us return to the stage with our 36th Annual Playwrights Original One Act Festival.

For more information on Village Playhouse and their performances, please go to VillagePlayhouse.org. The playhouse is located at 1500 S. 73rd St.

Nov. 20, 2020

9:02 a.m.

Original post:
Village Playhouse Has Run Planned Through June, 2021 - Shepherd Express

Farrar Straus Giroux, 769 pages, $40

Alex Ross capacious and enthralling new study, Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, is perfectly timed. Richard Wagners music, particularly that for his epic, doom-suffused opera, The Ring of the Nibelung, could easily supply our brutalist era with its big-screen soundtrack, starting with the exhilarating Ride of the Valkyries and closing with the orchestral Sturm und Drang of its over-the-top finale, in which celestial Valhalla goes up in flames, the Rhine River overflows its banks, and the age of gods and heroes reaches its apocalyptic end.

Without serious competition, Wagner (1813-1883) is easily the most divisive of all the great composers. To some listeners, his music sounds bombastic, long-winded, and boring 90 percent of the time and yet redeemed by the sheer wonder and transcendent beauty of that remaining 10 percent. Other listeners worship, if only metaphorically, at Bayreuth, Germany long the home of an annual Wagner festival like so many Parsifals genuflecting before the Holy Grail. Yet still other opera devotees, aware of Wagners anti-Semitism, refuse to listen to his music at all. It doesnt help either that the so-called Sorcerer of Bayreuth was the favorite composer of the Third Reichs unspeakable Fhrer.

While I am hardly The Perfect Wagnerite as Bernard Shaw titled his monograph interpreting the Ring as a parable of class struggle I have seen two different stagings of The Flying Dutchman, own CDs of the major operas, can never quite remember whether Here Comes the Bride rings forth in Lohengrin or Tannhauser (its Lohengrin), and find that even now my pulse races and my palms break out in a sweat whenever I hear the Love Duet or the Liebestod that ecstatic vision of love after death from Tristan und Isolde.

I first discovered Wagner, indeed discovered opera, through Tristan. I still remember feeling slack-jawed with amazement as Ludwig Suthaus and the electrifying Kirsten Flagstad, in a celebrated performance directed by Wilhelm Furtwangler, finally surrender to their aching love for each other and almost literally sing their hearts out, their voices intertwining, sobbing, soaring as the two are carried away by wave upon wave of overpowering desire, their rapturous transports finally climaxing in soul-shattering cries of release, while the full orchestra blankets the ill-fated lovers with crescendos of voluptuous sound. In that little record-listening booth at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, I quickly understood why Victorian mothers refused to allow their daughters to hear such music. This wasnt just a 40-minute duet, it was aural sex.

Alex Ross first book, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (2007) garnered widespread praise. His second, Listen to This (2010), assembled columns from The New Yorker magazine, where he is music critic. Ross tells us that he began work on Wagnerism in 2008, adding that the extensive research for this cultural history of art and politics in the shadow of music became the major educational experience of his life.

In Wagnerism, the reader will duly find a potted biography of the composer and, scattered throughout, synopses of his operas, but mainly this is a far-ranging survey of how various people and institutions responded to Wagners music and used it for purposes of their own. In these 700-plus pages you will learn what Wagner meant to Nietzsche and Baudelaire, to the modernists James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, and Thomas Mann, to 19th-century occultists, symbolist painters, pioneering feminists, and gay poets, to revolutionary Russians and Nazi apologists, and even to the visionaries behind Apocalypse Now and Star Wars.

Wagners exceptionally lively afterlife derives not only from, in Willa Cathers phrase, his ever-

darkening, ever-brightening music, but also from his use of multivalent symbolism, especially in the Ring cycles Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung. In 2020, for instance, these music dramas seem to anticipate the political turmoil of recent times, as they track the thefts and shady deals that lie behind excessive wealth, the ethical impairment resulting from the hunger for power, the heartless exploitation of an underclass, the flouting of sexual prohibitions, and, more than anything else, repeated betrayals of trust.

Ross points out that the composer himself appears to have invented that key object of modern fantasy, the accursed ring of unimaginable power. Whats more, Wagners libretto is a work of literature, as witnessed in a majestic bilingual edition available this fall from the Folio Society.

Throughout his book, Ross draws on the research of numerous scholars and specialists (always acknowledged) and quotes well from his older sources. John Ruskin described the comic opera Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg as sapless, soulless, beginningless, endless, topless, bottomless. To knit together the elements of In Search of Lost Time, Proust employed Wagner-style leitmotifs, such as a haunting musical phrase by his imaginary composer Vinteuil. Speaking of Siegfried, Ross himself wittily concludes, that stupidity is his tragic flaw. He calls Parsifal a sacred opera with a spooky heart, links its eerie Mass-like ritualism to the esoteric ceremonies of Theosophists and Rosicrucians and notes that Philip K. Dick responded profoundly to its religious syncretism. A chapter on early Black Wagnerians includes that ardent Germanophile, W.E.B. Du Bois.

In Wagners operas, sums up Ross, we see the highest and the lowest impulses of humanity entangled. In Wagnerism, however, those impulses aesthetic, sexual, philosophical, and political are deftly teased out, then enticingly presented for the general reader. The result is a superb example of cultural history and, given its themes, a work surprisingly relevant to this plague-ridden, watershed year.

Continued here:
Signs of the times: "Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music" by Alex Ross - Santa Fe New Mexican