All posts by Lynxotic News Staff

Andrew McGowan, Jennifer Slotnick, Hoa Tran, Eric Cho, Kat Lee, Madison Santel and Danny Leeds
Business, Sustainable Energy

How Electric Trucking Options are Coming to Freight Businesses 

There’s been a lot of talk lately about transitioning to sustainable energy sources, and for good reason. With the threat of climate change looming, it’s more important than ever that we work to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

Transportation options that are more sustainable than gas-powered vehicles and also much cheaper are out there. Believe it or not, sustainable energy transport is not only possible; it’s becoming increasingly popular as companies and consumers alike move towards greener options.

In this post, we’ll explore how transport companies can transition to sustainable energy transportation. We’ll also look at some of the challenges and benefits associated with making this switch. So if you’re interested in learning more about sustainable energy transportation the information below may be useful.

What Is Sustainable Energy Transportation and Why Is It Important?

At its core, sustainable energy transportation refers to any form of transport that relies on renewable energy sources or non-polluting fuels. Sustainable energy sources include electric or solar power plus things like wind farms and biofuels.

Many freight companies are looking into sustainable energy transportation because it helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. In fact, the transportation sector is responsible for a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States—nearly 30 percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Furthermore, changing regulations and consumer preferences may significantly impact the future of sustainable energy transportation. For example, many cities are now starting to implement strict emissions standards for taxis and buses, which could result in more companies shifting towards electric or hybrid vehicles.

For transportation businesses to remain competitive in the future, it’s important to start exploring sustainable energy transportation options now. Not only will this help reduce their impact on the environment, but it will also help them stay ahead of the curve.

Challenges of Transitioning to Sustainable Energy Transportation

Of course, making the switch to sustainable energy transportation isn’t without its challenges. Perhaps one of the biggest obstacles for transport companies is investing in the new technologies and infrastructure required for these types of vehicles. For example, electric vehicles need charging stations, and solar-powered vehicles may need special equipment to harness the sun’s energy.

Another challenge that transport companies face is changing consumer behavior. While there is a growing interest in sustainable energy transportation options, many consumers are still unfamiliar with these technologies or are hesitant to switch from traditional methods like gas-powered vehicles.

This means that transport companies need to find ways to educate consumers about the benefits of sustainable energy transportation and convince them to make the switch. This can be a costly and challenging process, but it’s essential if we want to see widespread adoption of these technologies.

The final challenge to consider when transitioning to sustainable energy transportation is the availability of resources. Currently, sustainable energy sources like solar and wind power are still not as widely available as fossil fuels. This means that transport companies need to be strategic about where they source their energy and how they use it.

However, despite these challenges, more and more transport companies are making the switch to sustainable energy transportation. And as more businesses and consumers become educated about the benefits of this technology, we’ll likely see even broader implementation in the future.

Benefits of Transitioning to Sustainable Energy Transportation

Despite the challenges that come with transitioning to sustainable energy transportation, there are also a number of benefits that make the change worth it.

For one thing, sustainable energy sources like wind and solar power are becoming much cheaper than traditional fossil fuels. Using sustainable energy can help companies save money on fuel costs, as renewable energy is more affordable, in aggregate, compared to conventional fossil fuels.

As an example, at Cross Country Car Shipping detailed examples are shown breaking down the cost of shipping vehicles across the country. In the future, this cost could be greatly reduced as more transport companies start using sustainable energy.

Additionally, sustainable energy transportation options are becoming increasingly available as more companies invest in this area. This means that transport companies have more choices when it comes to finding vehicles and technologies to meet their needs. Plus, these types of vehicles produce fewer emissions, which can help improve air quality and reduce health problems like asthma.

The benefits of transitioning to sustainable energy transportation are clear. And not only will they help transport companies save money and reduce their environmental impact, but they’ll also help these businesses remain competitive in an ever-changing marketplace.

How Can Transport Companies Make the Switch to Sustainable Energy Sources?

Making the switch to sustainable energy transportation can be challenging, but it’s essential work that must be done if we want to see a more sustainable future for transportation. 

There are many ways transportation and shipping companies can transition to sustainable energy sources. Some possible strategies include investing in electric or hybrid vehicles, using solar power, and utilizing renewable fuels like biofuels. Additionally, companies may need to make changes to their infrastructure and educate consumers about the benefits of sustainable energy transportation to facilitate this transition. 

Transitioning to sustainable energy transportation is an important step many companies are taking to be more environmentally friendly and cost-effective. And while the challenges involved in this process should not be underestimated, the potential benefits make the switch well worth it.

The Takeaway on Transport and Sustainable Energy

As the world looks for ways to become more environmentally friendly, many transport and shipping companies are making the switch to sustainable energy transportation. This transition can be challenging, but it comes with many benefits that can help businesses save money. It’s also an important step in protecting our planet for future generations.

There are a few key things that companies need to think about when it comes to making the switch to sustainable energy, including harnessing the right technologies and communicating the benefits of this transition to consumers. And with some forethought and planning, companies can make the switch successfully while helping to protect our planet for years to come.​

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Observation, Politics

After the insurrection, America’s far-right groups get more extreme

As right-wing groups reorganize after the Capitol riot, scholars of the movement foresee increased polarization

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

As the U.S. grapples with domestic extremism in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, warnings about more violence are coming from the FBI Director Chris Wray and others. The Conversation asked Matthew Valasik, a sociologist at Louisiana State University, and Shannon E. Reid, a criminologist at the University of North Carolina – Charlotte, to explain what right-wing extremist groups in the U.S. are doing. The scholars are co-authors of “Alt-Right Gangs: A Hazy Shade of White,” published in September 2020; they track the activities of far-right groups like the Proud Boys.

What are U.S. extremist groups doing since the Jan. 6 riot?

Local chapters of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Groypers and others are breaking away from their groups’ national figureheads. For instance, some local Proud Boys chapters have been explicitly cutting ties with national leader Enrique Tarrio, the group’s chairman.

Tarrio was arrested on federal weapons charges in the days before the insurrection, but he has also been revealed as a longtime FBI informant. He reportedly aided authorities in a variety of criminal cases, including those involving drug sales, gambling and human smuggling – though he has not yet been connected with cases against Proud Boys members.

When a leader of a far-right group or street gang leaves, regardless of the reason, it is common for a struggle to emerge among remaining members who seek to consolidate power. That can result in violence spilling over into the community as groups attempt to reshape themselves.

While some of the splinter Proud Boys chapters will likely maintain the Proud Boys brand, at least for the time being, others may evolve and become more radicalized. The Base, a neo-Nazi terror group, has recruited from among the ranks of Proud Boys. As the Proud Boys sheds affiliates, it would not be surprising for those with more enthusiasm about hateful activism to seek out more extreme groups. Less committed groups will wither away.

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How does that response compare with what happened after 2017’s ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville?

Neither the Capitol insurrection nor the Charlottesville rally produced the response from mainstream America that far-right groups had hoped for. Rather than rising up in a groundswell of support, most Americans were appalled – some so much that they have abandoned the Republican Party.

Additionally, right-wingers have been hit hard by the post-insurrection actions by large technology companies like Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google and Amazon. They took down far-right group members’ accounts and removed right-wing social media platforms, including permanently blacklisting Donald Trump’s Twitter account and temporarily blocking all traffic to Parler, a conservative social media platform. Those steps are more significant than earlier moderation and algorithm changes those companies had undertaken in previous efforts to curb online extremism.

Another major difference is the lack of regret. Nobody on the right wanted to be associated with Charlottesville after it happened. Figureheads of the far right who had initially promoted that rally saw the negative public reaction and distanced themselves, even condemning the “Unite the Right” rally.

After the insurrection at the Capitol, their response was different. They did not split and blame other right-wing groups. Instead, conservative and extreme-right circles have united behind a false claim that they did nothing wrong, and alleged, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that left-wing activists assaulted the Capitol – while disguised as right-wingers.

Are extremist groups attracting new members?

Some members have left extremist groups in the wake of the Jan. 6 violence. The members who remain, and the new members they are attracting, are increasing the radicalization of far-right groups. As the less committed members abandon these far-right groups, only the more devout remain. Such a shift is going to alter the subculture of these groups, driving them farther to the right. We expect this polarization will only accelerate the reactionary behaviors and extremist tendencies of these far-right groups.

Right-wing pundits and conservative media are continuing to stoke fears about the Biden administration. We and other observers of right-wing groups expect that extremists will come to see the events of Jan. 6 as just the opening skirmish in a modern civil war. We anticipate they will continue to seek an end to American democracy and the beginning of a new society free – or even purged – of groups the right wing fears, including immigrants, Jewish people, nonwhites, LGBTQ people and those who value multiculturalism.

We expect that these groups will continue to shift more and more to the extreme right, posing risks for acts of violence both large and small.

Have far-right extremists’ views toward the police changed?

With a Democratic administration and attorney general, the far right will no longer view federal law enforcement agencies as friendly, the way they did under the Trump administration. Rather, they view the police as the enemy.

Even before Joe Biden took office and the Republicans officially lost control of the U.S. Senate, the Capitol riot showed this divide between right-wing extremists and police. A Capitol Police officer was assaulted with a flagpole bearing an American flag, and some members of the mob were police officers and military personnel. Many more were military veterans.

It’s not clear what this different view of law enforcement means for police officers, active-duty military and veterans who are members of right-wing groups. But we anticipate that only those who are most zealously committed to far-right causes will remain active. That, in turn, will push those groups even farther to the extreme right.

Has anything changed for militias since Biden has become president?

In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report warning about the growing membership in far-right groups, including their active recruitment of military veterans. Shortly after the report was released, Republicans in Congress pushed for the report to be retracted and for dramatically reducing the federal effort to monitor far-right groups in the U.S. This permissive atmosphere allowed far-right groups to grow and spread nationwide.

The Trump administration further served far-right groups by failing to pay out federal grants for grassroots counterviolence programs, by refusing to help local law enforcement agencies with equipment or training to deal with these groups, and by routinely downplaying the violence perpetrated by these white power groups. Essentially, far-right groups were unpoliced for the past decade or more.

But that approach has ended. Merrick Garland’s appointment as Biden’s attorney general is a big signal: In his career at the Department of Justice before becoming a federal judge, Garland supervised the investigations of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing.

These were two of the most noteworthy acts of far-right domestic terrorism in the nation’s history. Garland has said that he will make fighting right-wing violence and attacks on democracy major priorities of his tenure at the head of the Justice Department.

In January, Canada designated the Proud Boys and other right-wing groups as terrorist organizations, which puts pressure on U.S. law enforcement to reconsider how they evaluate, investigate and prosecute these extremist groups. Beyond law enforcement’s treating these far-right groups like street gangs, there are also laws in place to combat violence associated with domestic terrorism.

It appears that U.S. prosecutors may finally begin to take seriously the violent actions of Proud Boys, especially as more and more members are being charged with coordinating the breach of the U.S. Capitol Building.

But as police power comes to bear on these violent right-wing groups, many of their members remain at least as radicalized as they were on Jan. 6 — if not more so. Some may feel that more extreme measures are needed to resist the Biden administration.

Matthew Valasik, Associate Professor of Sociology, Louisiana State University and Shannon Reid, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of North Carolina – Charlotte

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Books, Branding, Business, Tech

We are All Search Hostages until the Internet is Free of the Big Three: How they Block Your Life

Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Adobe Stock

This is a tiny snippet from an upcoming exposé of the inner workings of the nightmare produced by Facebook, Google and Amazon

Isn’t it funny that the so called bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000 which resulted in a nearly 75% drop in the tech heavy NASDAQ index by March, 2000. Ultimately, among survivors and upstarts, the winner-takes-all saga led to no less than three trillion dollar companies.

If the internet is, or at lest was, a dead end for any company trying to profit, how could these few have profited so obscenely in such a short time?

Most of the answers to that question attempted for the last two decades have been blatant hero worship and “to the victors go the spoils” nonsense with hardly any media attention paid (at least until around 2016) to the deeper, and darker, story that explains this regrettable paradox.

While the truth, particularly when it comes to tech and the internet, is often maddeningly complex, hiding behind a veil of complexity is a standard technique for anyone wants to keep their billion dollar golden geese a secret, shell companies, offshore banking, derivatives and “CDOs” and the like all benefit from being opaque and complex.

And while the absolute details would take mountains of pages to explain, mainly to explain away all the contradictions, the base issues are at the same time, in many ways, insanely simple.

Fraud, Ponzi schemes, illegal monopolistic behavior, all the usual suspects are not only present but rampant and rancid like a planet sized pile of moldy cheese.

And those are the larger threads, the ones that fit into a framework of past anti-trust cases and prior greed fueled crime sprees.

The devil as they say, is always in the details. Here are a few, some general and others much more specific, that point to how we could have gotten to this absurd destination.

Google and the “hiding engine” from hell

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While it is lovely that Google “allows” us to find out Lucille Ball’s birthday with a single click – or the capital of Afghanistan just as easily, what if you are looking for something a little less obvious? What if the information you need is worth something? What if you need fair, honest advice or even wisdom?

You’re out of luck. Since the entire basis for this business to to charge you (or somebody, regardless) for information that is, in reality, publicly available (the internet is public after all and the information on it does not belong to google), the primary function of Google’s vaunted trillion dollar algorithm is to hide any information of value from you until they have extracted a price.

Since they are known as a “search engine” this is counterintuitive but it will make more sense as we delve into the other two “winners” of the dot-com era. Each of these three companies share this one thing in common. They are all build to exclude, hide and criminally manipulate essentially public information for the benefit of a private enterprise. k?

Facebook and the lure of “exclusive membership”

As has been well documented, to the extent of having been memorialized in a feature length hollywood film, the fast start in membership that Facebook achieved was based on two “triggers” related to exclusivity and “hiding” of information. The first was, during the initial launch at harvard and for a period of time at various other colleges and universities, a requirement for membership was “proof” that you were a student in the form of an “edu” suffixed email. This added popularity to the site as those joining felt they had not only potential access to others where they went to school, but also would not be associating with non-students, or in the extreme initial example, not socializing with non-harvard people.


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While this seems innocuous enough and a great marketing ploy, indeed it was heralded as genius by hundreds of sycophantic scribes, the next bit is where the system that exists to this day became an engine for corporate greed at the expense of virtually the entire world population.

Once you join Facebook, you are “allowed” to have contact only with “friends” that authorize you to do so. But the recommendations for “friending” those people, other than from your own laborious manual searching, are controlled by Facebooks algorithms.

This is a familiar tune. The real purpose of this structure was not to give you exclusivity or for you to benefit from the “wisdom” of the algorithm, but to block private and, in particular, business entities from coming in contact with you without first paying Facebook. In other words, using its log-in membership system and proprietary software labyrinth as a private, separate internet sphere, it was able to build the largest network of phantom tool booths the world has ever seen and now collects hundreds of billions simply because “the public” has opted-in and has no idea what an open alternative would look like or the damage that has been done by this harmless seeming “social platform”.

The real potential of networked human communications, a.k.a. the internet, is almost totally lost to history, with the surviving structure entirely based on the systems that these three giants have constructed with a view to nothing more than private, personal enrichment.

While this opinion may seem harsh, looking at the inner workings of the software and who financially benefits vs. who loses (a.k.a. everybody else) will, in time expose one of the greatest swindles ever perpetrated on the public, in this case the entire world population, or at least the population of internet users across the globe.

Amazon and the alleged layers of deceit and corruption beyond all imaginings

It is fairly common these days to hear criticism of Amazon and “worlds richest man” Bezos, which is understandable since the operation is so massive and, like any huge concern, likely to step on a few toes here and there, regardless.

Naturally there is also plenty of hero worship, particularly the insane love of “Bezonomics” and a cult of personality toward the founder and CEO for, well, stepping on the most faces of any human, other than perhaps Genghis Kahn.

Again, the real devil is in the details. It is easy to defend any criticism of the company by pointing out the “good” that it has done or continues to do and to create a “straw man” argument that the company should somehow get “credit” for those things and that they somehow offset any valid critique.

That is like saying someone who succeeded in getting elected president by bribing millions of voters should therefore be allowed to wage war or imprison anyone he likes since he has earned “credit” by doing right by those who were bribed.

There a little story, told to us by an anonymous source, who’s stories have all checked out before, that illustrates the system at work when you step onto the private property of Amazon’s web site.

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Again search is at the center of the story, as is the requirement to log in and agree to terms and conditions. This is tantamount to agreeing that you are leaving the public sphere and are agreeing to abide by the rules and be subject to the whims of the private entity on whose “sole property” you are now “standing” / shopping.

In that private world Amazon, and by extension Bezos, not only play god, they are god.

To illustrate this fact let’s say you have a 7 year-old child that loves a certain children’s character and you want to buy a book that has “pop-up” cut-outs to entertain and delight. And this exact item can be found via “search”.

Naturally, you type in the name of the book or character and perhaps add “pop-up”. What shows up in the “search” results is exactly what you are looking for. It’s the precise item and it looks exactly as you had hoped. Then you look at the price. $50. Hmmm that’s a little high you think. With a little further research you find out that the “MSRP” for this item, a.k.a. the list price is $30 which seems a bit odd.

You keep trying to search and click any link on the site that will lead you to the same item at a more reasonable price – but that is only available “used” and you will not purchase a used item for your child!

In the end you rationalize, it must be a very rare item to have such a high price, and since the Amazon search results “must be scientific” there are apparently no lower priced copies available. So you buy it.

This scenario was repeated hundreds if not thousands of times for this one product over a period of several months. And likely was repeated millions of times over a period of years across thousand, if not millions of items. So what?

The search is rigged, that’s what. How do I know? The person that related this story was the seller, in 2014, of over 1000 copies of the item at $50. He did not create this fraud, merely piggybacked on what Amazon itself had set up. Only they have control of the search results.

What’s the big deal you say, after all there were no cheaper units available so it is just “surge pricing”; supply and demand, right?

Wrong. There was, after all, another listing of the same item, expertly hidden by Amazon, where only a hacker or software expert could find it. On that listing, for those that Amazon chose not to swindle, was the exact same item for the standard, heavily discounted, price of $16 or nearly 50% off the list or MSRP. You see, the result is, regardless of who is selling the item, Amazon earns triple (triple the fees) when the price is higher, as in this example.

This is not an isolated “mistake”. Many who have experience working inside the Amazon system have seen literally thousands of similar examples all tied to this “malfunctioning” search engine.

What’s more a calculation of the possible financial benefits during the time in question amounted to nearly the entire reported net profit of the entire company. It was common knowledge that the company was reporting little or no net profit during many years, even as it remained a darling of stockholders.

And if any one would bring such a specific case to Amazon’s attention? Naturally they would blame the seller, software issues, the moon and the stars, anything but admit that they use every inch of their private real estate for one purpose and one purpose only, to maximize the amount of money that ends us in their accounts.

And many who are reading this still don’t get it. “Why not?” It’s capitalism after all! To the victor go the spoils! Hail Ceasar! Heil Hitler. It’s your internet. Not theirs.

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Entertainment, Movies

Adam Sandler Wins Best Actor for “Uncut Gems” at NBR Awards, Foreshadowing Potential Oscar Nomination

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https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/independent/uncut-gems/uncut-gems-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Official Trailer for “uncut gems”

A Sleeper Perhaps but Talent beneath the Camp and Quantity

On December 3rd, the National Board of Review (NBR) announced its award recipients for 2019. The NBR celebrates excellence in the art of filmmaking, and its annual awards stand as testaments to that celebration and a precursor for the Academy Awards in February. 

This year the NBR viewed over two hundred movies from blockbusters to indie flicks and they finally came out with their top picks. As a big win for Netflix, the Board gave Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” the honor of Best Picture. Meanwhile, Quentin Tarantino won Best Director for “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.” 

Neither of these wins is necessarily surprising. From a critical perspective, these two cinematic epics were probably the most highly rated films of the year, and their directors are a couple of the most renowned auteurs still working today. Similarly, on the talent side, Academy Award winning actress Renée Zellweger won Best Lead for her role as Judy Garland in “Judy.” Fellow Oscar winning actress Kathy Bates won the Best Supporting Actress title for her performance in “Richard Jewell.” And then, to no one’s shock, three-time Oscar nominee Brad Pitt won Best Supporting Actor for Tarantino’s film. 

Again, most of these outcomes were relatively expected. The real shocker on the awards list, however, falls under the Best Actor category, where the NBR deemed Adam Sandler’s role in “Uncut Gems” the greatest leading performance of the year—and this is a year where he was competing with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Joaquin Phoenix, and many other revered stars.

The fact that Adam Sandler is a talented actor is not necessarily a revelation. The fifty-three year old performer has had a very respectable career. In the nineteen-nineties he made headlines as a regular on “Saturday Night Live,” and starred in widely-appreciated comedy films such as “The Waterboy,” “Happy Gilmore,” and “Billy Madison.”

In the past decade or so, however, Sandler has been reimaged as a less-than-stellar leading funny man. With critical monstrosities such as “Grown Ups,” “Grown Ups 2,” “Jack and Jill,” “Pixels” and “The Cobbler” under his belt, Sandler is not as loved as he once was, and his brand of humor is often seen as predictable and patronizing.

“Uncut Gems” is not a comedy in the traditional sense, though. Instead, it is a crime-dramedy indie flick directed by Josh and Benny Safdie of 2017’s “Good Time.” Sandler, likewise, does not play his go-to goofy-dad character, and his performance is more than just an amalgamation of potty jokes and funny voices. While he still portrays a family man in the film, he plays a New York City jeweler deadest on making money through a series of high-risk bets. His actions lead him into a maze of perilous actions as he fends off against real-world enemies while trying to keep his family and finances afloat.

In short, “Uncut Gems” is a neo-noir style dark comedy. It is a long way off from “Big Daddy” and “The Wedding Singer.”

The film also won Best Original Screenplay for its script, which the Safdie brothers wrote with Ronald Bronstein— another person they collaborated with on “Good Time.”  “Uncut Gems” also made the NBR’s list for top ten movies after “The Irishman,” falling in with titles such as “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Marriage Story,” “Ford v Ferrari,” and five others features. 

Adam Sandler responded to his recognition with jested ambition. On “The Howard Stern Show,” he jokingly threatened to make a new movie worse than anything he’s ever made before if he does not win an Oscar for the film. Clearly, the man has a sense of good-humored self-deprecation. At the same time, though, even he knows that his work in “Uncut Gems” is above standard. The mere fact that Sandler is promoting the film is a telling fact, as the actor/producer rarely does press tours for his own work.

Of all People Adam Sandler as Best Actor at the Oscars?

As unexpected as Sandler’s potential appearance at the 92nd Academy Awards may be, perhaps it is subtly overdue. Despite his more recent body of work, Sandler has a long list of impressive titles to his name. He was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2002 for his performance in “Punch-Drunk Love.” During Sandler’s run on “SNL,” the show was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and his return to the show as the host this year earned him an Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series nomination. He has voice acting recognition from the Annies and Behind The Voice Awards, a Funniest Actor nom from the American Comedy Awards, and is in the running for Best Actor at the 2020 Independent Spirit Awards.

Maybe an Oscar—or at least a nomination—is not as far off as it might seem for Adam Sandler. Last year Viggo Mortensen won Best Actor from the NBR, and was then nominated for an Oscar months later. Two years before that, Casey Afleck held the NBR title, and he went on to win the Oscar that following February. 

This could be a turning point for Sandler, a moment where his career gets a much needed second-wind. It could demonstrate his talent to a wider audience and make him a contender for more serious and mature roles in the future.

The NBR awards ceremony will take place in New York City on January 8th, where Sandler will be honored. “Uncut Gems” premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in August, screened again at the Toronto Film Festival in September, and received positive reviews throughout. It comes out in limited theaters across the U.S. on December 13th and will have a wider release on Christmas Day.

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Breaking News, Climate Solutions

UN Climate Conference Kicks Off in Madrid: U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says America is Still on Board

Taking stock after a 4 year Pause

On December 2nd the 2019 UN Climate Conference began in Madrid, Spain. Called COP25, this Madrid Conference is the first worldwide meeting focusing on the climate crisis since 2015’s COP21—also known as the Paris Climate Agreement. The Chilean Government is heading the Conference with Minister of Environment of Chile Carolina Schmidt acting as Conference President. As locational hosts, the Spanish government is also helping the Conference with logistical matters.

Shortly before the Conference began, the World Meteorologist Organization released a report showing that the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is at an all time high. Around the same time, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres set the tone of the meeting by claiming that the “point of no return is no longer over the horizon.” This is but a glimpse of what is at stake at COP25.

Over the next two weeks, the Conference expects to receive over 29,000 guests, among them are fifty heads of states and representatives from over two-hundred nations. As for the United States, President Donald Trump and key members of his administration have been absent from the event so far. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi entered the meeting with a strong message of reassurance. Beside a team of fifteen U.S. Democratic lawmakers, Pelosi promised the UN that America is still on board with the fight against climate change, even through President Trump recently withdrew the nation from the Paris Climate Accord.

When COP21 took place four years ago, President Obama was still in office, and he agreed to cooperate with the conditions set about at the Conference. These conditions included keeping global temperatures levels within no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, limiting greenhouse gas emissions to what is naturally sustainable, and wealthier countries supporting developing nations in their switch to renewable energy

Trump’s Oil Driven Agenda Rejected by Pelosi and her Constituents

After Trump entered office in 2016, though, his conservative administration immediately campaigned to pull America out of these terms. Prioritizing the U.S. economy and wanting to support domestic fossil fuel producers, Trump officially removed America from the plan in November.

Pelosi’s opening message on behalf of the American government is therefore a bold one, going against the intentions and outlook of the country’s sitting president. Nevertheless, it is one that both Americans and people across the world can take comfort in. After China, the United States produces more carbon dioxide than any other country. Thus, our participation in the battle against climate change is crucial if worldwide change is ever to be achieved.

Also within the first day at the conference, leaders from the European Union spoke up, expressing the bloc’s concern for the environment and its eagerness to prioritize the issue going forward. Overall, the rhetoric is strong on day one.. all the same, this is only the beginning, the tasks are daunting and there is lots of work left to do.

Even if we as a planet do come to a diplomatic agreement on how to lower our carbon footprint, there is no guarantee that every nation will live up to expectations. Although the outlook for international cooperation seemed promising immediately following the Paris Conference, five years later, progress has been halting and breakthroughs hard to some by. 2019 is still expected to be one of the hottest years on record, and the 2010s will undoubtedly be the warmest decade of all time.

The Conference will continue through Friday, December 13th. By that time, the world will hopefully have made some progress toward an intergovernmental plan for how to attack this global challenge. Far more will, in any event be needed, as a plan, however well intentioned, is only as good as the action it evokes.

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Entertainment, Movies

Disney+ & “The Mandalorian” Tops Netflix’s “Stranger Things” as America’s most In-Demand Streaming Series

“Baby Yoda” a.k.a. “The Child” – Photo / Disney

Streaming Wars heating up and Disney+ lets loose the First Salvo

Disney+ launched in early November, and it quickly became a major contender in the world of streaming. Achieving over 10 million subscribers within a single day, the Walt Disney Company’s new site entered the streaming war with a bang, immediately establishing itself as a fierce competitor with other services such as Amazon, Hulu, Apple TV+ and Netflix.

As of right now, Netflix still reigns supreme as the most popular streaming service out there. However, Disney+ recently got their first leg-up on the streaming frontrunner, as their original series “The Mandalorian” topped Netflix’s “Stranger Things” as the most in-demand series in America according to Parrot Analytics.

“Stranger Things” Season 3 came out this past July, and it swiftly broke records as the most highly-demanded direct-to-streaming show ever created. The show then held the number one spot for an astounding twenty-one weeks. After just three episodes, though, “The Mandalorian” reached 100 million demand expressions, besting Netflix’s record and leaving the cross-generational sci-fi bildungsroman “Stranger Things” in the dust.

“The Mandalorian” was one of the most highly anticipated shows of 2019 well before Disney+ launched. An original program for the streaming service, “The Mandalorian” is also the first live-action series to take place in the Star Wars universe.  It thus has a built in fan base as well as a talented cast and crew—including “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau as executive producer and “Game of Thrones” actor Pedro Pascal playing the titular bounty-hunter protagonist.

Baby Yoda is a Meme Factory already and may be Christmas Merch Hit

What is really leading the “The Mandalorian” to success, however, is the sensational “Baby Yoda” character, who debuted in the opening episode and has since become an integral part of the plot. The wide-eyed, adorable alien has ambiguous origins, but he looks like an infant version of the legendary Jedi Master Yoda, and he is effectively stealing the hearts of audiences everywhere.

Disney did not reveal “Baby Yoda”—actually called “The Child” on the show—until the series premiered. Since then, however, they company has begun capitalizing on his (or her?) cuteness with merchandize, making “The Mandalorian” an even bigger money-maker than it would otherwise be as just a high-demand subscriber magnet for Disney+.

Of course, having more “demand expressions” does not definitively mean that “The Mandalorian” is more popular than “Stranger Things.” Parrot Analytics estimates how highly demanded a show is using audience statistics as well as digital imprint data across multiple media platforms. Essentially, even though Netflix still has more subscribers to watch “Stranger Things” than Disney+ does for “The Mandalorian,” the latter is getting more buzz, appeal, and views altogether.

No Binge Watching as Episodes are Released in Sequence

Unlike Netflix series, which come out with entire seasons at once, “The Mandalorian” is getting released one chapter at a time. The first season will have eight episodes total with the last one premiering on December 27th—and season 2 has already been ordered. Furthermore, Disney+ has many additional original shows lined up for its future, including two more Star Wars series and three Marvel series. “The Mandalorian” is thus a strong starting point for Disney+ and a positive indicator that its subscribers will go up with the more original content it releases.

Netflix, however, is not out of the picture just yet. Although it will be losing a lot of its library as the streaming wars intensify, Netflix has been investing more in original productions lately. The service’s recent movies like “The Irishman,” “Marriage Story,” and “The Two Popes” have received lots of critical praise. Likewise, “The Crown” came out with Season 3 in early November, creating yet another increase in demand.

Lastly, Netflix already announced “Stranger Things” Season 4, which will likely come out in 2021. A lot could obviously take place between now and then, and there is no guarantee what will happen with Disney+, “The Mandalorian,” or the streaming wars in general before that comes out. Nevertheless, “Stranger Things” is bound to bring Netflix yet another spike in demand when it returns. Let’s just hope the service is still afloat at that time to make the most of it.

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Climate Solutions, Observation

Los Angeles Aims For 25% Less Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 2028: Electric Vehicles Are The Key

LA Takes Tackling Smog and CO2 Emissions Seriously

Technology leaders from the city of Los Angeles recently announced what they are calling the Zero Emission 2028 Roadmap 2.0. In this outline, the leaders propose a plan by which the bustling metropolis reduces its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% within the next eight years—an ambitious and unprecedented goal that outdoes both the California State and Paris Climate Accord proposals.

Los Angeles is known as a progressive place, filled with creative people willing to adapt to new ideas and fight for just causes. Nevertheless, the SoCal city is also known for its soul crushing traffic. Even with four million residents, finding an Angelino without reason to complain about the town’s constantly congested crisscrossed freeways and lack of reliable public transportation is nearly impossible.

The Californians who devised this plan were not unaware of LA’s traffic issues. Since Many of them live in the city, these tech leaders can tell from the air pollution alone that vehicles are Los Angeles’ heaviest contributors to carbon emissions. If they are serious about their plan, which appears to be the case, then they will have to do something fast about all the cars and trucks smogging up the roads.

The obvious solution would be to create a more effective mass transit system in Los Angeles. However, with an infrastructure unfit for trains and countless failed attempts to move LA drivers onto buses, such a change is unlikely to catch on now. Instead, the planners are looking to the future of electric vehicles for a possible answer to the city’s pollution problems.

The Zero Emission 2028 Roadmap 2.0 focuses heavily on LA’s transition towards EVs. Specifically, by 2028, the plan aims for EVs to account for 80% of all vehicles sold in the city. Simultaneously, it wants LA and the surrounding area to create more EV-compatible infrastructure and zero-emission goods, rebranding the City of Angels as the EV Capital of the World.

City Proposed Solutions as Federal and State Level Options Failed

Of course, not all vehicles emit equally. If Los Angeles wants to achieve its goal by 2028, then it first needs to attack the heavy-duty, gas-guzzling vehicles—buses and trucks. Luckily, as of this year especially, there are many plus-sized EVs for the city to choose from. Tesla recently released the Cybertruck, and many even larger zero-emission vehicles are on the way from a wide variety of car and truck manufacturers. The California Air Resource Board is even proposing an Advanced Clean Truck regulation, which would require one out of every five trucks sold in the state by 2030 to be zero-emission models. 

Earlier this year, however, the state of California lost a battle against the Trump administration (as well as a few car manufacturers) for the right to set its own emissions standards. While the Golden State was denied the right to hold itself to a higher ecological standard than the federal government mandates, individual cities have a little more wiggle room. Therefore, Los Angeles is not just creating these standards for itself; it is hoping that these efforts will inspire other municipalities in California and around the nation to follow suit. If the federal government will not solve the problem, and the state governments are barred from taking action, then perhaps it is up to the local governments to evoke change from the bottom up.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is in full support of the plan. Known to be an environmentally sensitive politician, Garcetti proposed a Green New Deal to the city back in April, outlining ways for LA to combat climate change. The Zero Emission 2028 Roadmap 2.0 is therefore in his wheelhouse, as it accelerates the already ambitious conservation goals set out in the previous proposal. Also supporting the plan are the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and the Transportation Electrification Partnership (TEP) as well as private sector partners Tesla, BMW, Audi, BYD, Greenlots, and Proterra.

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Business, Tech

The iPhone 12 could see a Serious Sales Boom for Apple due to 5G and Starlink Internet

Video
https://www.apple.com/105/media/us/iphone-11-pro/2019/3bd902e4-0752-4ac1-95f8-6225c32aec6d/films/product/iphone-11-pro-product-tpl-cc-us-2019_1920x1080h.mp4

Rumors Already Predicting big things for the iPhone 12: 5G plus Starlink will only Add to the Furor…

Seems like just yesterday that Apple Inc. released the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro. Consumers are still riding high on the hype and performance of these latest smartphone models. Nevertheless, Apple is already looking to the future and creating estimates for the iPhone 12 in 2020. According to Digitimes, Apple expects that the iPhone 12 will be one of the company’s most successful models.

While the 11 and 11 Pro are expected to have sold 80 million units by the end of 2019, Apple predicts that they will receive over 100 million orders for the 12 next year. 

Apple anticipates such high figures for the iPhone 12 in part due to oncoming innovations in 5G and satellite Internet. While the software and hardware details of the new phone remain shrouded in mystery for now, there is high confidence that the device will be built for the latest advances in Internet speed and 5G networking—a powerful upgrade that is bound to bring in many customers. 

Right now, the term “satellite Internet” may seem like something slow, old-fashioned, and used only by people living in remote locations where traditional broadband sources are unavailable. This may be the case at the moment, but new technology known as “Low Earth Orbit” micro-satellites could bring satellite Internet access with fiber optic speeds and beyond. Constellations of these micro-satellites could not only deliver the internet to more people around the world, they could potentially reinvent satellite Internet as a high-speed and perhaps even premiere way for virtually all people to get online.

Many tech companies have been trying to perfect micro-satellites and get the upper hand and dominate the skies. Leading the charge is Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which intends to cover the stratosphere with thousands of low-orbit satellites through its StarLink initiative. The company has already gotten approval by the FCC to launch several thousand micro-satellites into the sky, and they intend to keep launching more until they have a massive interconnected network of satellites orbiting the globe.

Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson & OneWeb, Google, and Facebook are all playing competitive catch up with SpaceX on the micro-satellite front. Jeff Bezos has been pursuing Project Kuiper, a satellite-oriented task which aims to provide worldwide broadband access via space. While certainly not as far along as StarLink, Kuiper plans to have hundreds of satellites in the sky in the near future.

Google has an alternative route to Low Earth Orbit micro-satellites, relying on weather balloons with antennas to stand in for cell towers and provide service to greater areas—an initiative that the company has coined “Loon.” Simultaneously, Facebook tried to make headway with its “FreeBasics” project, whereby the social network also wants to get more people active and connected on the web, and, of course, logged into its Social Network. 

5G Speeds will be the Big Upgrade but the extended Competition and Coverage of Satellites are Next

After purchasing Intel’s 5G modem unit earlier this year, and with 5G modems by Qualcom already widely expected to be in the iPhone 12, Apple is uniquely positioned to be at the forefront of this looming expansion of mobile data networks and satellite internet access points.

It’s important to remember that 5G and satellite internet both have the potential to be much faster than current broadband connections. However, the roll out timing is uncertain and the speed increases will depend on various systems and stages of network build as well as many other factors. For example, an ultra fast satellite system is being built by LeoSat which will be used by Enterprise level customers at up 5.2 Gigabits, close to double the speed of fiber, but this will be exclusively business users, at least initially.

It is the sheer breath of competition and the wide array of systems in the mix that insures that there will be more options, and more speed coming online by 2021. Not only for mobile phones but for mobile laptops and as wireless home and business routing systems also.

What all this means, in a nutshell, for Apple, is that more people will want to buy smartphones that are capable of accessing these newer, faster internet providers. If StarLink (or any of the other upcoming satellite services) can provide a greater fraction of the world with Internet access, more people will desire the latest devices to make full use that Internet. Likewise, these consumers will also want the device that is most compatible with 5G and micro-satellite technology.

Given Apple’s record, the company will probably release the iPhone 12 in September, 2020. 5G will already be in an ongoing build-out phase, with T-mobil launching on December 6, 2019 and Verizon, AT&T and Sprint already in the mix. StarLink will likely not be up and ready by that time—they are aiming for an initial roll out to start as early as mid 2020 and with continuous expansion to 2022 and beyond. However, the project will certainly be further along in becoming a worldwide sensation, with launches of multiple satellites happening every few months.

With 5G speed, and an Operating System fit for the latest forms access in its arsenal, and with the fastest chips and most powerful software and systems to accommodate the added bandwidth, the iPhone 12 has the potential to be a blockbuster of historic proportions, even by Apple’s high standards.

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Climate Solutions

Carbon Dioxide Levels Reach Record High: Dire Statistics ahead of Climate Change Conference

Important Metrics that Measure the Danger Timeline…

The World Meteorological Organization released a new report stating that the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has reached a record high. According to scientists, the planet’s atmosphere had an average greenhouse gas concentration of 407.8 parts per million in 2018. This is an all time high and a significant increase from the 405.5 parts per million average from 2017.

These figures are not a natural occurrence, and they are indeed very dangerous. The last time the Earth had these levels of greenhouse gases trapped in its atmosphere was over three million years ago, and the climate then was certainly not hospitable for humankind.

The level of carbon dioxide amongst other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased tremendously since pre-industrial times, showing a direct correlation between human emissions and climate change. As more fossil fuels are burned on Earth, more carbon enters the sky, thus trapping heat and disrupting the environment.

Therefore, as emissions increase, we can expect the climate crisis to accelerate. Higher CO2 levels will take a greater burden on natural carbon drains like forests and oceans. Likewise, with the temperature spike, polar ice will melt quicker, sea levels will rise, air will dry up, and the world will face more severe natural disasters—the recent floods in Venice and fires in California are already evidence of this occurring.

Based on the way world leaders are responding to the climate crisis right now, it is unlikely that the trend of increased carbon emissions will be reversing itself anytime soon. As 2019—soon to be one of the hottest years on record—comes to a close, we can expect that the annual average amount of carbon in the atmosphere to go up yet again. 

UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid will Address many issues, Including this Data

This unfortunate news comes at a pressing time, as the UN Climate Change Conference takes place next week in Madrid, Spain and will continue through December 15th. Currently there is a drastic gap between the world’s climate goals set in the 2015 Paris accord and the amount of actual progress that has taken place. The UN recently reported that global greenhouse gas emissions would need to drop 7.6 percent each year after 2020 in order to stabilize the atmosphere and reach the ambitions we settled on in Paris. 

The UN’s proposition is directly antithetical to the emission-increasing trend that has been going on since the Industrial Revolution. It may seem like a reversing of progress, but it is a step that the world needs to take in order to maintain the human race. Nevertheless, it is still a step forward, by taking it the world will come up with new ways to solve problems and produce energy without burning fossil fuels. 

Thus, even in these ecologically treacherous times, a shred of optimism remains. Rethinking our practices and prioritizing environmental conservation is not a suggestion, but a necessity in the modern era. But by making such changes, we will also be making innovations and continuing to grow. Despite the bleak horizon, if addressed properly, this challenge has the potential to bring out the very best of humanity.

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Climate Solutions, Politics

More Than Meets the Eye: Our National Parks are not Expendable in the Fight Against Climate Change

Zion National Park, Utah – Photo / Adobe Stock

President in the Pocket of Big Oil stands in charge of National Treasures

When it comes to environmental issues, Donald Trump has not been a friend of the environment, and that is putting it lightly. Since entering office, Trump has pulled America out of the Paris climate agreement, repealed several eco-friendly acts from the Obama administration, and opened up federally protected land for privatization and extractive industries. 

Most of this new real estate comes from National Parks, Forests, and Wildlife Refuges, all managed by the Department of the Interior. Aside from being areas of dense plant and wildlife, these spots are crucial parts of the American experience. They preserve some of the nation’s most breathtaking landscapes and deepest natural history. They are America’s last piece of what Henry David Thoreau would call “the sublime”—a term he barrowed from Immanuel Kant to describe nature’s unfathomable and soul captivating beauty. 

Understandably, in a world undergoing a climate crisis, it may not seem imperative that world leaders preserve beauty per-se. Environmentally speaking, there are certainly bigger fish to fry right now. However, as stunning as National Parks are, they offer far more than just beauty. The Parks have ecological significance beyond measure and ignoring their importance now could actually have immense detriments to our ongoing battle against climate change.

Historically, the reason that Congress created the National Parks Service at the turn of the twentieth century was to preserve nature. Seeing the environmental detriments of overhunting and overfishing in certain areas of the country, conservationists realized that some of America’s most luscious wildernesses would soon disappear if they did not press for protection. 

Because of this precedent, the National Parks to this day are places where animals and plants can run wild and fulfill their natural duties. Collectively, the Parks are homes to millions of trees across the nation. These untouched forests are enormous natural carbon drains. If we were to open up this land for consumption, we would run the risk of deforestation and losing these carbon-sucking plants, thus contributing immensely to global warming.

“We’re never going to solve the climate crisis … he is an oil president, his cabinet is an oil cabinet. He is bought off by fossil fuels, and a lot of people in the Senate, a lot of Republican candidates, are too, we can’t solve the problem when we have elected officials who are paid by the fossil fuel industry.”

– Jane Fonda

Similarly, if we allow for private industries to drill, mine, or develop on the land, then habitats would be lost, water could be contaminated, and lots of the Earth’s rich nutrients would be infringed upon. The same could go for hunting and fishing. While each of these latter two activities are sustainable in small doses, if overdone (particularly on corporate levels), then the victimized species could become threated quite quickly. 

Consequentially, with an already unbalanced ecosystem, we cannot expect the world to respond to these changes in natural ways. Therefore, when we disrupt the pristine National Parks, we could inadvertently be accelerating the climate crisis.

Sunrise over Schwabachers Landing in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming – Photo / Adobe Stock

Priceless Resources could be lost, Forever

Of course, the Parks have not gone entirely untouched in their hundred-plus year existence. With the advent of the automobile, the government built roads through the land, cleared campsites, and erected service buildings, allowing travelers to journey through and see everything the Parks have to offer. Throughout all of this, though, the Department of the Interior has always prioritized sustainability, making sure that the development is minimalist and that the guests remain frugal during their visits.

Trump, however, even wants the to privatize the Parks’ campsites. This means that the price of pitching a tent could go up—potentially making the traditionally affordable Parks an exclusive luxury. More importantly, though, if the camps become privatized, there is hardly as much of a grantee that they will remain eco-friendly. For one example, the privately owned camps could have more lenient rules when it comes to sanitation and littering. Clutter and trash will not only hurt the Parks aesthetically, but it will also hurt them environmentally, as ecosystems will not be able to thrive with improperly disposed plastic and Styrofoam taking up space. 

Moreover, if the Trump privatizes the camps, who’s to say that the buck will stop there? Given Trump’s environmental record and business mind, perhaps the “camps” will eventually not be “camps” at all. Perhaps they will evolve into full-on resorts with hotels, pools, and parking lots paved over the land that Americans have treasured and fought so hard to protect for generations.

Granted, there is nothing wrong with a little tourism in our National Parks. In fact, even extractive industries have their merit at times. If people did not have the chance to appreciate and gain from the Parks, then we would probably not prioritize them as much as we do. Nevertheless, the Parks do more than just please the eye. They are natural oases for many species, each contributing a vital part to an ecosystem. This keeps the natural world in check and if it goes unchecked, then we will be sacrificing far more than just the animals, plants, and views. The ultimate burden will always come back to people.

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Tech

Tech Weekend Update: iPhone 12 5G Revolution, Tesla’s Genius Strategy and Netflix’s Epic Fail…

Ford Announcement is Harbinger of Avalanche of New EV Models are on the Horizon from virtually every Major Automaker

But the genius and power, seldom singled out for praise of any kind (even among Tesla fanatics), in finding “sexy” ways to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and of waging war against the capitalist world that itself created the problem of Global Warming, is mind-bendingly fantastic.

T-Mobile to Launch 5G Network Nationwide in December: iPhone 12 could start 5G Revolution

5G Network to be Available in Over 5,000 Cities through T-Mobile in 2019… Recently, T-Mobile announced that they are set to launch their 5G network nationwide in over 5,000 cities next month on December 6th. This comes after a successful trial period in select cities where their millimeter wave 5G was deployed for testing. For … Continue reading

Netflix: Smell the Roses or Binge in Overdrive @1.5 Original Speed

To survive this oncoming competition, Netflix has been looking for ways to distinguish itself. It has done this partially by creating more original content and making a name for itself as a production company. At the same time, though, Netflix is also trying to get creative within its… Continue reading

Tesla’s Success Story of ‘Zero Emission Sexy Fun’ is at a Tipping Point: now the entire Auto Industry Races to Join In

The backbone of the fossil fuel strangle-hold on the world economy is cars and, particularly in the US, a transportation infrastructure based on solo drivers and individual cars. Because of this, a fossil fuel alternative is hard to obtain without the use of fossil fuels themselves… Continue reading

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Business, Politics, Tech

Amnesty International Calls Out Google and Facebook for Lack of Cyber-Security And Invasion of Privacy

Consensus Building Rapidly Against the Business Models of Internet Giants

Earlier this week, Amnesty International, a non-governmental organization from the UK, called Google and Facebook’s practices of omnipresent surveillance on people around the world an “assault on privacy.” The organization, which focuses on human rights, recently released a report outlining how these two major tech companies hold too much power and should change their business models to stop infringing on users’ personal information. 

Amnesty International’s accusations may seem extreme, but that does not mean that they are inaccurate. While Google and Facebook might appear to be free websites, the reality is that you pay for their services with your data. Whenever you search for something, you feed the sites information—information that they can sell, manipulate, market, or use for a countless number of other things, some of them perhaps unethical.

The upside is that data is cheap, and therefore these websites are not about to start charging you. The downside, however, is that there are really no limits to how tech juggernauts like Google or Facebook (or Apple, or Amazon, or Microsoft for that matter) use the data you provide them. No concrete laws in the United States monitor these companies’ use of data, and given that the Internet was built as a place of free-flowing information, there are no internal boundaries that stop these websites from taking full, unrestricted advantage of your information.

This is not the first time that Facebook and Google have been called out for issues regarding privacy and cyber-ethics. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has found himself before Congress on more than one occasion recently. Ever since it became known that Cambridge Analytica used web data to falsely advertise on Facebook during the 2016 elections, the social network’s surveillance tactics have been in question.  

Benign Monarchs? Not Likely.

As for Google, the website practically has a monopoly on web-searches across the world. The search engine accounts for 90% of the Internet searches on Earth, and it is not always transparent about what it does with the resulting data. With such huge numbers, though, Google can afford to distribute your extensive information to just about anyone—even government organizations or institutions with malintent.

The two companies usually respond to these kinds of accusations with vague optimism about current and future cyber-safety. Google claims to have changed its model within the last year, making the site more user-friendly and giving its patrons more control. Meanwhile, Facebook has largely stood its ground when it comes to online freedom. Zuckerberg and other Facebook officials have suggested that they will heighten security, but they simultaneously stand by that censorship on any scale is constrictive and antithetical to the website’s intent.

Facebook also owns Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and several other websites/apps that are used across borders, making the issue a conglomerate and worldly one. Although they are both American companies by origin, both Facebook and Google are international entities. Thus, creating laws around their practices is a complicated and culturally sensitive process.

At the same time, though, these enterprises have been going unchecked and unchallenged for well over a decade now. When they started, the digital world was much smaller and very different than it is now. Technology has changed, and so has the world— now the rules that govern it must follow suit.

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Entertainment, Movies

5 New Movie Releases this Weekend: Check out the future fare from Lionsgate, Focus Features and More

Video
https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/lionsgate/knives-out/knives-out-trailer-2_h1080p.mov
New Official Trailer for “Knives Out”

This weekend has a number of new movie releases to look out for so we decided to choose five to showcase and feature in this post.

https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/lionsgate/knives-out/knives-out-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Original Official TraileR for “Knives Out”
https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/focus_features/dark-waters/dark-waters-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Official Trailer for “Dark Waters”
https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/universal/last-christmas/last-christmas-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Official Trailer for “Last Christmas”
https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/paramount/playing-with-fire/playing-with-fire-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Official Trailer for “Playing With Fire”

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Breaking News, Business, Politics, Tech

Apple Announces a $2.5 billion plan to combat California Housing Crisis

Photo / Apple

Apple’s Ambitious Commitment for Affordable Housing in California

Earlier today, Apple announced its $2.5 billion commitment to combat the housing affordability crisis in California.

$1 billion is designated for an affordable housing investment fund that provides an open line of credit to develop and build new low-to moderate-income housing at a faster rate and lower cost. Another $1 billion is designated for a first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund that will provide first-time homebuyers with financing and downpayment assistance with an emphasis on accessibility to first-time homeownership for service personnel, school employees, and veterans.

The remaining $0.5 billion will be for more specific projects that require immediate attention in the San Francisco Bay Area. $300 million will fund Apple-owned and available land in San Jose for affordable housing development. $150 million will go directly to a housing fund specifically for the Bay Area, which currently faces the brunt of the housing crisis. And finally, $50 million will be set apart to support vulnerable populations that will focus on driving systemic change across the many factors affecting homelessness. The $50 million will primarily go to “Destination: Home” to support their efforts to address homelessness in Silicon Valley, after which Apple will make similar efforts to combat homelessness throughout California.

Why is a Tech Company suddenly interested in affordable housing?

Before Silicon Valley became the vibrant tech powerhouse that it is today, and as well as one of the primary driving forces for the San Francisco Bay Area housing crisis, it was the home of Apple and thereby the birthplace of revolutionary personal technology.

Because of Apple’s historical impact on revolutionizing technology for the entire world since it introduced the Macintosh in 1984, the company felt a civic responsibility to alleviate the outrageous condition of California’s housing market that’s exacerbated by being a career destination for the ever-growing tech industry that they initiated into the world.

“Before the world knew the name Silicon Valley, and long before we carried technology in our pockets, Apple called this region home, and we feel a profound civic responsibility to ensure it remains a vibrant place where people can live, have a family and contribute to the community.”

– Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

The Golden State has yet to End its Gold Rush of Population Growth

As California increasingly becomes a more desirable place to live through a variety of factors, the cost of living skyrockets because residential properties increase in both scarcity and value and makes affordable housing availability unable to keep up with the state’s population growth.

It doesn’t help that the presence of the booming tech industry in the San Francisco Bay Area brings in an additional influx of tech professionals at a rapid pace. At this point, only tech professionals who make six-figure salaries could barely afford to live in the area while valuable community members like teachers, firefighters, and emergency first-responders are forced out.

“Affordable housing means stability and dignity, opportunity and pride. When these things fall out of reach for too many, we know the course we are on is unsustainable, and Apple is committed to being part of the solution.”

– Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

After having studied the housing issue in-depth, Apple’s full commitment to the state, in partnership with Governor Gavin Newsom, the state of California and community-based organizations, aims to provide statewide housing support that will be fully utilized in approximately two years, depending on housing project availabilities.

Photo / Apple

“The sky-high cost of housing — both for homeowners and renters — is the defining quality-of-life concern for millions of families across this state, one that can only be fixed by building more housing. This partnership with Apple will allow the state of California to do just that.”

– Gavin Newsom, Governor of California

Additionally, the capital returned to Apple through this project will be reinvested into future projects over the next five years. In the meantime, Apple is looking for private developers who are ready to start construction on affordable housing projects in the Bay Area as soon as possible.

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Business, Lifestyle, News, Politics, Tech

Zuckerberg Skillfully Cornered on Facebook Policies by AOC at D.C. Hearings

Video
Photo Graphic Collage / Lynxotic

Zuckerberg stumbled and evaded while attempting to respond to AOC on Facebook Behaviors and Policies, especially its Political “Lie Exemption” Policy

While Mark Zuckerberg’s controversial Libra cryptocurrency project is what initially got him into the House for another hearing on October 23rd, the House Financial Services Committee Members took this as an opportunity to express their concerns about Facebook’s paramount involvement in a variety of controversial issues.

Each committee member was given five minutes to address their Facebook policy concerns with Zuckerberg, and they did not waste their time, especially Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as she interrogates him regarding Facebook’s influential role in endangering the nation’s democracy and general safety.

Here’s a brief rundown of the topics she addresses that continue to put Zuckerberg and his insidiously dangerous Facebook ‘megaphone‘ under hot water to this very day:

Libra Cryptocurrency: Another Scam to hide behind an Outsourced Entity in order to Evade Accountability? This time, he’s going for the Poor and “Unbanked”

On June 14, 2019, Zuckerberg released his plans to launch a cryptocurrency project called Libra on Facebook, and since then, it’s been facing a lot of criticism from the government and anti-trust regulators.

The Libra cryptocurrency is a part of Facebook’s future mobile payment system, proposed at Facebook’s annual developer conference in April. The crypto currency project aims to allow Facebook’s 2.4 billion worldwide users to exchange payments with minimal fees and without the need for a third-party software.

“It’s not that Facebook is evil, which it may or may not be. Facebook hasn’t shown an ability to think through unintended consequences or prevent bad actors from weaponizing its platform.”

ScotT Galloway, Marketing Professor at NYU, Author of “The Four”, well-known for his unsparing critiques of influential tech companies

But, while the idea appears to have good intentions behind it, much like many of Zuckerberg’s other ideas, the problems and potential dangers are in the details.

So, the real issue is in how the Libra cryptocurrency project can potentially influence Facebook’s extremely wide global user base in a number of negative ways.

“If 50 percent of Facebook users all of a sudden use this coin, then you potentially have a new reserve currency globally. If you would weaponize a global currency and start monkeying with it, you could have what capitalists fear more than war: a recession–or some sort of a global economic meltdown.”

SCOTT GALLOWAY

California Representative Congressman Brad Sherman interrogated Zuckerberg extensively on this topic during the Financial Services Committee Hearing, which illustrated these repercussions specifically.

Brad Shermon eloquently points out a pattern that Zuckerberg struggles to answer. He appears to be attempting to hide behind platitudes of egalitarian ideals in order to avoid accountability for content controlled by his platform.

“…but for the richest man in the world to come here and hide behind the poorest people in the world and say that’s who you are trying to help, you are trying to help those to whom the dollar is not a good currency—drug dealers, terrorists and tax evaders..”

Rep. Brad Sherman to Zuckerberg at the House FInancial Services COMmittee Hearing

Cambridge Analytica: AOC cites Facebook’s Biggest Scandal that brought ‘Catastrophic Impact’ to American Democracy in the 2016 Election

But the House Financial Services Committee wasn’t having it, and AOC Exposes Facebook’s Flaws for All to See:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez begins her five-minute interrogation by citing Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal from 2018. Her reasoning is that, before even considering the Libra cryptocurrency issue, it’s important to analyze how Facebook handled Cambridge Analytica because the Libra cryptocurrency project has potential for far worse.

Essentially, AOC gave Zuckerberg a chance to make a case for himself. He had an opportunity to show that he and Facebook are equipped to adequately deal with the repercussions of establishing Libra, and to answer this fundamental question: has Facebook learned from its past mistakes regarding the Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal so that they could take the necessary actions to ensure that data scandals won’t happen again?

Next she asks, what year and month did Zuckerberg first become aware of Cambridge Analytica? He doesn’t remember, but it was probably around March 2018, when the scandal became public.

When did Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg become aware of Cambridge Analytica? Again, Zuckerberg says he doesn’t know, so AOC asks a follow-up question. Did anyone on his leadership team know about Cambridge Analytica prior to when the initial report came from The Guardian on December 11, 2015? Now, for this one, Zuckerberg believes that this was the case and that members of his leadership team were tracking it internally. Additionally, he takes this opportunity and appears to try to avoid responsibility by saying that he was aware of Cambridge Analytica as an entity, but he also wasn’t aware of how they were using Facebook specifically.

When was the issue discussed with his board member Peter Teal? Once again, Zuckerberg proclaims his ignorance, to which AOC iterates that his answers are unacceptable. It is unacceptable that he did not properly discuss the “largest data scandal” with respect to his company that had “catastrophic impacts on the 2016 election.”

While Zuckerberg flaggingly scrambles to defend himself by explaining that they did discuss the issue when it happened, he fails to answer whether Facebook is capable of being accountable for their actions by addressing their mistakes with handling data privacy so that they wouldn’t be repeated. If Facebook truly cared about handling data privacy, then they would have taken extensive measures to address the issue. Maybe then, Zuckerberg would’ve actually remembered enough about the issue to answer AOC’s questions.

Read more: Zuckerberg claims Facebook is the ‘5th Estate’ while in Reality he runs Algorithmic Dictatorship

Facebook Policy allows Politicians to Pay to Spread Misinformation

Zuckerberg’s seemingly flagrant irresponsibility with regards to handling Facebook leads AOC to confront him on the current hot topic: “Facebook’s official policy to allow politicians to pay to spread disinformation in 2020 elections and in the future.” She demands to know how far this policy could be pushed before Facebook decides to fact-check and take down these posts, because, again, they have the potential to influence the next election directly.

Could politicians enact voter suppression by advertising wrong election date to zip codes with primarily black communities? Zuckerberg vaguely explains that content will be taken down if it were to cause an obvious immediate harm. Okay, but what if it’s not obvious? Will his answer suffice then? The answer is likely no, because infinite ways can be found to dodge this issue, then, once again, and we’re back to square one.

Further she presses him, Could she (AOC) run ads targeting Republicans in primaries saying that they voted for the Green New Deal? Zuckerberg is unsure, but answers that she probably could. Elizabeth Warren recently did something similar in her “Zuckerberg Supports Trump” ad.

Does Zuckerberg see the potential problem here with a complete lack of fact-checking on political advertisements? To that, he appeals to common morals: lying is bad. His logic is that he doesn’t want to prevent constituents from seeing that politicians had lied, which clarifies that Zuckerberg won’t take these ads down.

The problem with this logic is that the general public is assumed to have the ability to differentiate between lies and the truth. But, as this current presidency has proven, many, if not most, people clearly do not.

Thoughts on Zuckerberg’s On-Going Dinner Parties with Far-Right Figures? Debatable, or so he tries to imply.

Further, Zuckerberg’s on-going dinner parties in which he cultivates relationships with known politically far-right figures is also suspicious. After all, there have been numerous times that alt-right entities abused social media platforms in the service of discrimination and hate crimes.

Did Zuckerberg discuss the alleged social media bias against conservatives, and does he believe that this bias exists? Zuckerberg indicated that he couldn’t remember the question or answer it, appearing to want to avoid confirming or denying these associations under oath, so AOC moved on.

Next she asked Zuckerberg to explain why he named the Daily Caller, a publication well-documented to have ties to white supremacists, an official fact-checker for Facebook? Once again, Zuckerberg tries to escape responsibility by saying that they don’t actually appoint independent fact-checkers and that they come from an independent organization called the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) that has rigorous standards for who they allow to serve as a fact-checking entity.

White-supremacist-tied publications meet a rigorous standard for fact-checking? Zuckerberg had no answer, which is again, an indicator that she had pushed him into areas he would prefer to avoid. After research, it turns out that he lied, or at minimum mis-led in his answer on multiple points, First, the (IFCN) have generally “certified” a total of 62 organizations globally, but it is, indeed, Facebook and presumably Zuckerberg personally, that chose the 6 in particular that are Facebook partners.

There’s a Pattern Here: Facebook and other Social Media Platforms Need to be held Accountable

Clearly, Zuckerberg still thinks that he could get by with excuses in an effort to absolve himself from the endless blame that Facebook receives from The Media for meddling with numerous socially-influential affairs.

It’s hard not to notice that while Mr. Zuckerberg has been given many chances to make amends for Facebook’s failures, the opportunity has been for naught, apparently, because his private for-profit company is only interested in maintaining user engagement, which he now claims is in the name of free speech and equality. However, clearly, these cannot actually be achieved without specifically executing processes that address the discriminatory practices.

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Entertainment, Movies

“Loro” Looks at the Luxury and Lavishness of a Contemporary Italian Aristocrat: Berlusconi

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https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/ifc_films/loro/loro-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Photo / Focus Features

Italian Import Out Now in USA theaters

Paolo Sorrentino is no stranger to creating stories about the culture of wealth in his country. Several of the Itlaian director’s movies, including the Oscar winning “The Great Beauty” (2013), focus on aristocratic men and the lavish lives they lead. However, Sorrentino’s latest movie, “Loro” seems to up the ante in this regard and deliver an in-depth look at the wild and crazy, yet true life of Silvio Berlusconi at the height of his unbelievable career.

Silvio Berlusconi is a billionaire businessman who, in the mid-2000s, served as Prime Minister of Italy. As a businessman and as a politician, he was egocentric, extravagant, and above all, rich. And he wasn’t afraid to show it either. As Sorrentino’s film will show, he filled his life with parties, women, and luxuries beyond the scope of most mortal men. 

“Loro” aims to capture Berlusconi’s excessive lifestyle not only though narrative, but also through form and style. From the marketing alone, one can already tell that ornate set designs, infectious music, and loud energy fill this movie to the gills. Sorrentino is also reuniting with his signature cinematographer, Luca Bigazzi, who for “Loro,” seems to employ a technique of broken symmetry and jarring light, perhaps representing the zaniness that was Berlusconi.

Almost reliably, though, behind every story of wealth and rambunctiousness is a deeper layer of corruption, investigation, and deceit. Berlusconi’s story is no exception. The Loro, after all, refers to a group of fellow Italian businessmen and politicians who surrounded Berlusconi, aiding the man while also trying to get closer to the seat of power.

The movie will focus in particular on Sergio Morra, a sex-trafficker who manipulated and took advantage of Berlusconi as a client. It is but one example of the way lies and exploitation crept into Berlusconi’s eccentric little circle and those closest to him turned against him.

Trump Comparisons Inevitable?

Don’t paint Berlusconi as the victim just yet, though. Of course, the same also occurred the other way around. While Berlusconi served as the Prime Minister, he constantly—weather in material or symbolic ways—acted hedonistically, using his power and influence for jobs and treats that were not always in the country’s best interest. He acted similarly as a businessman, having huge control over Italian media to shape the ways people saw the country while he was in office.

For modern American viewers, this begs the question of weather or not “Loro” is meant to be a Trump analogy. The film is not American-made, but it will be getting an American release on September 20th. It will be a challenge for contemporary audiences to watch the story of Berlusconi, a businessman turned politician, and not think of the current man in the oval office. The Trump administration and American politics may not be as blatantly scandalous or sexy as the Italian scene, but intension aside, perhaps the movie will still be able to resonate on multiple levels.

Silvio Berlusconi has been the subject of several documentaries and feature films over the years, but never in such a forward fashion or from such an established director. With a two-and-a-half-hour runtime, “Loro” is bound to be an exciting and enlightening experience. Let’s hope that the audiences can keep up.

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Movies

‘American Dreamer’: Comedian Jim Gaffigan Defies Expectations as Anti-hero and Leading Man

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https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/independent/american-dreamer/american-dreamer-trailer-1_h1080p.mov

Deep waters run Dark in Ride-share Dramedy

Looking at the poster for the new movie “American Dreamer,” one might immediately assume that it is a lighthearted comedy. Even watching the trailer, you may find yourself waiting for it to turn comedic and for the premise of a down-on-his-luck rideshare driver to crack a joke and become burlesque.

However, the laughs never come, and instead of becoming lighter, the tone grows darker. Suddenly, you realize that “American Dreamer” is not a comedy at all, but a suspenseful thriller about drugs, kidnapping, and domestic drama.

Our initial expectations of humor in “American Dreamer” are due to the fact that the movie stars Jim Gaffigan, a renowned stand-up comedian who is best known for his self-deprecating stage presence as a buffoonish and lazy glutton. His most recognizable jokes are about food, he has written a book titled “Dad Is Fat,” and his current tour is called the “Secrets and Pies Tour.”

Gaffigan became a household name in 2005 when he released the hit comedy album “Beyond the Pale,” which features his famous “Hot Pockets” bid. Gaffigan’s success as a comedian has since earned him many roles as an actor. He has appeared in numerous movies and headlined his own sitcom titled “The Jim Gaffigan Show” on TV Land. All of these roles are relaxed and cheerful. For the most part, they just have the recognizable stand-up playing the same persona that he depicts on stage. 

“American Dreamer” is something different, though. In it, Gaffigan plays the leading man, but the movie’s tone offers close-to-no comedic relief. Gaffigan’s character, Cam is a tragic father figure, a desperate divorced parent struggling to pay child-support. In order to make ends meet, Cam eventually starts chauffeuring a drug dealer around town.

From here, it looks like “American Dreamer” is taking a page directly from Clint Eastwood’s “The Mule” or TV shows like “Breaking Bad” and “Ozark,” employing the trope of average, but helpless people getting involved in the dangerous world of drug trafficking. Already, this is pretty sinister and uncharted territory for Gaffigan, but the plot only becomes more ominous when Cam kidnaps the drug dealer’s child for ransom, making him an undisputed anti-hero.

For the rest of the film, we are in a state of dramatic irony, as the drug dealer is trusting Cam to transport him while he tries to figure out what happened to his son. Little does he know that the culprit is actually right in front of him, right in the driver’s seat.

Clearly, the movie provides an opportunity for Gaffigan to play a new kind of character and branch out from his type-casted routine. Unfortunately, early reviews of the film have not been flattering, calling it clichéd and flat. However, despite their complaints about the movie as a whole, most critics have been relatively satisfied with Gaffigan’s performance.

Other than the leading comedian, “American Dreamer” touts a pretty novice cast and crew. German filmmaker Derrick Borte directed “American Dreamer,” and the decision to cast Gaffigan can perhaps be attributed to him along with producer Scott Floyd Lochmus and casting director Matthew Messinger. Actors Robbie Jones, Isabel Arraiza, and Tammy Blanchard co-star alongside Gaffigan. Overall, there are very few recognizable names attached to the project, not to mention the extensive list of indie studios behind the film—Saban Films, Storyland Pictures, XYZ Films, and Sugar Studios LA to name a few.

No Free Rides, Ever

At the end of the day, though, it may still be difficult to see a man that is known for innocent Hot Pocket and bacon jokes play such a complicated and immoral character. Going back to the movie’s mere poster, it is hard to look at a picture of Jim Gaffigan starring intensely at the camera and take it seriously, even (and perhaps especially) when he is surrounded by flames above the punny tagline “There Are No Free Rides.” 

Given the persona that Jim Gaffigan is associated with, “American Dreamer’s” intensity could read as ironic, and familiar audiences may always be fighting an impulse to laugh at it. This makes it all the more difficult for Gaffigan’s character to come off as authentic. And the most tragic aspect of all this is that the comedian may really be a capable of playing diverse roles, but if this debut for him flops, even if it is for reasons beyond his control, it may restrict him to playing the funnyman for the rest of his career.

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Entertainment, Movies

‘Downton Abbey’ Crosses The Atlantic For The American Big Screen

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https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/focus_features/downton-abbey/downton-abbey-trailer-2_h1080p.mov
2nd Official trailer for “Downton Abbey”

“Downton Abbey” will go down as one of the most prestigious and decorated television shows of the current decade. The period-piece debuted in 2010 on the UK’s ITV network and then aired in the states on PBS. It quickly gained a strong following and immense critical acclaim on both sides of the pond. During the show’s six seasons, it earned nearly a dozen Golden Globe nominations and wins along with countless Prime Time Emmy, BAFTA, and SAG Awards. 

The show took place in the early twentieth century and it chronicled the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants on an English countryside estate. The plot is fictional, but it incorporated historical events such as British elections, the sinking of the Titanic, the Irish War or Independence, and World War I, showing how these incidents affected the characters.

https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/focus_features/downton-abbey/downton-abbey-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Original Official trailer for “downton abbey”

The series ended with its praised finale in 2015, and at the time, it seemed like the story was over. In 2018, however, production began on a movie that would continue the Crawley family’s narrative. Now the film is finished and like the television show before it, it is coming across the Atlantic to show its face in America.

Michael Engler, who directed several episodes of the show, returned as director for the “Downton Abbey” film, and showrunner Julian Fellowes is credited as the movie’s sole writer. Cast members Michelle Dockery, Matthew Goode, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern and Maggie Smith amongst others from the show are also coming back for the film. 

Likewise, the film’s production designer Donal Woods and costume designer Anna Mary Scott Robbins are also veterans from the show, so the movie will happily retain the series’ signature post-Edwardian western European aesthetic.

As far as the plot goes, the movie picks up in 1927, two years after the events of the series finale. It focuses on Downton Abbey’s patrons preparing for a visit from King George V and Queen Mary, and all the consequential bustle and scandal that takes place within the estate.

https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/focus_features/downton-abbey/downton-abbey-featurette_h1080p.mov
Official trailer Featurette for “downton abbey”

The film came out in the UK first and it received pleasant reviews. It currently holds a fresh 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a comfy 7.8 stars on IMDb—higher than both Ad Astra and Rambo: Last Blood, its two main competitors for this weekend. Critics are saying that it captures the charming energy of the show well and that the cast has not missed a beat in reprising their beloved roles. 

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Entertainment, Movies

“Ad Astra” will play with our Minds and Hearts, can it live up to Astronomical Expectations?

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https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/fox/ad-astra/ad-astra-trailer-2_h1080p.mov
Above: Official Trailer 2 for “Ad Astra”

Director James Gray has certainly made some interesting movies in his career, but none have been as star-studded and hyped as the upcoming “Ad Astra.” Set to be released September 20th, “Ad Astra” is an original science fiction odyssey based on the screenplay written by Ethan Gross alongside Gray himself, and starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, and Liv Tyler.

The plot looks complex and enthralling, as an astronaut played by Pitt crosses the solar system in search of answers about his deceased father. In a movie market where superheroes and fantasy tend to dominate the science fiction genre, “Ad Astra” looks like it will be a refreshing return to hard sci-fi, where the science is realistic and integral to the story. 

Of course, that does not mean that the film will be a two-hour Neil Degrasse Tyson lecture. The trailer promises a high degree of action and emotion along with some great performances. Most notably, having Brad Pitt as the movie’s main protagonist comes at a good time, as Pitt’s recent performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood has earned the actor a late resurgence in popularity and buzz.

https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/fox/ad-astra/ad-astra-moon-rover_h1080p.mov
Official Moon rover sneak peek clip from “ad Astra”

Perhaps just as captivating as the talent on screen, though, is the talent behind the camera. After all, a movie that takes place in space is only going to get so far without strong visual effects and cinematography. In “Ad Astra,” Brian Adler of “Avengers: Endgame” is helming the position of visual effects artist, and Academy Award nominee Hoyte Van Hoytema — best known for movies like “Interstellar,” “Dunkirk,” and “Her” — is director of photography.  This, along with a compelling score from composer Max Richter, is bound to make “Ad Astra” a treat for all senses.

In more ways than just Van Hoytema’s cinematography, “Ad Astra” looks quite reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar.” They are both examples of indie directors gaining enough of a reputation to piece together their own big-budget science fiction movie, and then using that opportunity to create something remarkably original and compelling within the genre. 

At the same time, however, James Gray never had a groundbreaking studio Batman franchise to launch him into the spotlight. While “Ad Astra” may be getting more marketing and attention than any of Gray’s previous films, it is not guaranteed that it will rake in anything close to the $677 million that “Interstellar” earned in 2014. Then again, “Ad Astra” was made on an $80 million budget. While this is a far greater budget than any of Gray’s previous projects, it is hardly half of what it cost to create “Interstellar.”

We should not get caught up in the numbers, though. After all, even if “Ad Astra” looks similar to “Interstellar,” there is no assurance of them being comparable as final products. For all of the potential and prestige that “Ad Astra” touts, there is the risk that it will turn out less like the renowned “Interstellar” and more like the lackluster “Passengers”—the star-studded original sci-fi movie that managed to flop at the box office despite looking like a guaranteed success on paper.

https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/fox/ad-astra/ad-astra-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Original official trailer for “Ad Astra”

Like deep-space itself, “Ad Astra” will likely deal with dark matter and other mysterious phenomena that it is not willing to reveal until the film hits theaters. The movie is destined to play with our minds as well as our hearts, but how it will do so in terms of narrative remains justifiably clouded. Lets hope that the film delivers on its cosmological story, makes the most of its talent, and maybe even launches James Gray to a new directorial status, allowing him to create more original movies with the budget to back them.

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Entertainment, Movies

‘Rambo: Last Blood’: Which America Will The Iconic 80s Action Movie Hero Be Fighting For In 2019?

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https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/lionsgate/rambo-last-blood/rambo-last-blood-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Official Trailer for “Rambo: Last Blood”

It may not be clear on the surface, but the Rambo franchise has traditionally been one of the most politically timely franchises in American movies. Behind all of the action, violence, and testosterone, the four Slyvester Stallone-starring movies all have narratives that match senses of American morale at the time of their respective releases.

The series’ original trilogy came out during the Reagan administration and their depiction of American heroism very much fit the kind of national mythos that the country pined for at the time. 1982’s “First Blood” showed Rambo returning from Vietnam. While it showcased the vulnerabilities of Vietnam veterans in America, it more potently reaffirmed these vets as tough, hard-bodied war heroes.

The 1985 sequel then gave Rambo the chance to go back to Vietnam and rescue stranded POWs, rewriting America’s military failures as victories. Once again, it fit in with Reagan’s hyper-nationalistic vision of the country. “Rambo III” then took the character to Afghanistan and showed him as more of an aggressor. Nonetheless, the film depicted this aggression in a positive light, once again paralleling Reagan’s sense of America’s purpose in the world, and specifically its actions during the Soviet-Afghan War.

Then, the late 2008 sequel, simply titled “Rambo,” again showed Rambo rescuing Americans from foreign enemies. While a long way off from the Reagan administration, Rambo’s 2008 return was still timely, as it was fit for a post-9/11 America that perhaps yearned for 1980s-style Hollywood protagonists to come back and depict uncompromising, triumphant heroics on the screen. After all, this was the same decade that also saw the return of Indiana Jones, “Die Hard’s” John McClane, and Rocky.

The character’s history and its alignment with American politics then raises the question—why is Rambo coming back in 2019?

It has been over eleven years since Stallone last played Rambo. Now he is saddling up the guns, knives, bows, and arrows for what seems like the last time in “Rambo: Last Blood.”  Rumors of a fifth installment to the franchise date back to 2010, when Millennium Films hinted at a sequel to their 2008 movie. Setbacks and wrong turns, however, have delayed the project until now. 

So far, every Rambo movie in the franchise has had a new director—Stallone himself directed the 2008 installment. For “Last Blood,” those reigns have been handed off to Adrian Grunberg, an up-and-coming filmmaker who has far more assisting credits to his name than his three directorial titles. However, he likely has good source material to guide him, for Stallone and Matthew Cirulnick wrote the screenplay.

Plot-wise, “Last Blood” will focus on the aged John Rambo (even more aged than he was in 2008) rescuing his niece, who has been kidnapped by Mexican Cartel. It sounds quite similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1985 “Commando” and Liam Neeson’s Taken movies, employing the father-daughter (or in this case uncle-niece) kidnap and rescue trope. This convention is not a negative one necessarily. In fact it has produced some very good movies. Nevertheless, it has been done many times before.

At the same time, Last Blood also looks like it will mix up expectations a little by adding a dash of Western influence into its action narrative. Most of the movie is likely to take place in Mexico and the trailer shows Rambo living on a desert ranch, riding horses to the tune of a country remix of Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Old Town Road.” 

After all, Rambo has always been a bit of a cowboy hero for a newer generation. Like Henry Fonda’s Wyatt Earp or John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards, Stallone’s Rambo is a loner, deadest on justice in an unjust society. Perhaps the version of Rambo we will see in “Last Blood” will be closer to Wayne’s Rooster Cogburn, though, the old cowboy who resurfaces for one final job in 1969’s “True Grit.”

Still, the original question remains—why is Rambo coming back now? And what kind of America will he be fighting for this time around?

Hitting a Nerve or Missing the Mark?

Despite how platitudinous of a statement it may be, America is very divisive at the moment, likely more so than when Rambo debuted during the Reagan administration or even than when he returned in the Bush years. What exactly is worth fighting for is not agreed upon across the country. Therefore, the larger socio-political interpretations of Rambo’s contemporary motivations will be harder to place.

Among the “Last Blood’s” themes will probably be revenge and redemption, as well as service, family, and pride. In today’s America, though, none of these terms are one-track, uniform signifiers. They have different definitions based on who you are talking to and what you are talking about. American mythos comes in many different forms, and Hollywood may be left-leaning when it comes to the stories it produces, but Rambo has traditionally been a red-blooded hero.

Nevertheless, it is not as if Rambo was walking around in the previous four movies with Reagan-Bush stickers pinned on his chest and anti-democrat slogans stitched on his sleeves. Politics were rarely made explicit in the films, and such interpretations, naturally, are voiced after the movie is finished and released to the general public.

Realistically, it is more likely that Rambo is coming back in 2019 because he is a valuable piece of intellectual property and studios want to capitalize on the retro-hero turned badass old-timer fad popularized by Hugh Jackman in “Logan” and Jamie Lee Curtis in “Halloween”.

Likewise, Stallone made a splashing comeback when he reprised Rocky in the Creed franchise, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. If he can still play Rocky to perfection after forty years, then why shouldn’t he be able to play Rambo?

Of course, no movie will ever be free from ideology, but “Last Blood” was, no doubt, made more with entertainment and marketability in mind than social commentary. After all, most people remember the Rambo movies not for their theoretical significance, but for their characterization, action, and excitement. In the end, there will be many ways to read “Rambo: Last Blood,” and they should be explored within the context of the franchise’s legacy.

For now, though, choosing to close the film theory and history books and simply enjoy the movie as good old, popcorn entertainment is viable, and quite possibly, the most appealing option.

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Entertainment, Movies

‘Where’s My Roy Cohn?’: Ruthless and Unscrupulous Trump ‘hero’ in Documentary Film Exposé

Video
https://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/sony/wheres-my-roy-cohn/wheres-my-roy-cohn-trailer-1_h1080p.mov
Above: Official Trailer for “Where’s My Roy Cohn?”

Ask anyone who took American history in high school if they have ever heard of Roy Cohn, and you may get blank stares. Of course, those who lived in the United States during the sensational attorney’s controversial career should recall the name, but otherwise, this immensely powerful, remarkably influential, and at times, terribly harmful figure in American politics has mostly been kept in the dark, hidden away in a backlog of national figures despite the tremendous effects he’s had on the country.

The son of a New York City judge, Roy Cohn was born in the year 1927. After a Jewish upbringing in the Bronx, he received a BA and JD from Columbia University and made a name for himself as a prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice. He was particularly successful in locking up Communists and soon became a close member of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s counsel.

For the next few decades, he had vast, yet subtle influence over American politics, informally advising presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and even representing a young Donald Trump in a business case. He stood as a pillar of xenophobia and homophobia, ingraining such values into our leaders, all in the interest of preserving a perverse image of the American way.

Indeed, Cohn is not the kind subject often discussed in a civics classroom. However, he is the perfect anti-hero for an enlightening and entertaining cinematic experience. With feature films like “Vice” focusing on Vice President Dick Cheney and docuseries like Netflix’s “The Family” about White House evangelist Douglas Coe, there is an obvious market for media that digs deep into the true stories of individuals manageing to garner and manipulate power without ever really entering the spotlight—individuals like Roy Cohn.

A Cinéma-Vérité view of Corruption as a Lifestyle

Sony Pictures Classics’ documentary “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” screened earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and it is getting a wider release at the end of the week. Behind the camera is journalist-turned-director Matt Tyrnauer, who has previously proved his affinity for creating historical bio-docs with 2008’s “Valentino: The Last Empire” and 2016’s “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City.” 

“Where’s My Roy Cohn?” of course places the attorney’s controversial work with American politicians at the story’s core, unveiling in striking detail the level of silent sway he managed to attain over some of the nation’s most public leaders. However, Tyrnauer’s film does not end there. The documentary does a thorough investigation into Cohn as a human being, starting at his childhood to try and understand the origins of his narrow American vision and his insatiable drive for preserving it.

The doc will also look at Cohn’s personal complications as an adult. Although the lawyer worked with Senator McCarthy to rid the federal government of homosexuals during the 1950s Lavander Scare, Cohn himself was allegedly attracted to men. Whether as a latent power trip or a hidden secret, Cohn reportedly had sexual relations with many men throughout his life, and suspicions surrounding his sexual orientation continued and even intensified after he died of AIDS in 1986.

Cohn with senator Joseph McCarthy Photo / Sony Pictures Classics

The documentary will also view his career as more than just the facts. Continuing with the intimate approach, the movie will look at the personal relations he held with Washington’s most powerful people. It will investigate what happened behind closed doors between him and sitting presidents, and it will look at the master-apprentice dynamic that he held with Trump during the 1970s.

Evidently, there is more to Cohn than just the egregious effects he had on policy and national morale. For everything he did on paper, Roy Cohn was a human, and the human soul is a convoluted thing. He is definitely not an American hero.

In fact, one could even call him a villain, but as Freddy Kruger, Jason Voorhees, or Dick Cheney have proved before him, villains, especially ones that hold power in the palm of their hands, make for fascinating movie topics. And if “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” approaches the topic of Cohn well, maybe the audience will also be able to learn something about America along the way.

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