Pelican Press

Thailand Deports Dozens of Uyghurs to China, Activists Say – The New York Times Thailand Deports Dozens of Uyghurs to China, Activists Say – The New York Times Thailand Deports Dozens of Uyghurs to China, Activists Say The New York TimesThai PM says rights must be followed, amid concern over Uyghurs ReutersThailand deports dozens of Uyghurs to China BBC.comThailand deports 40 Uyghurs to China Bangkok Post Source link #Thailand #Deports #Dozens #Uyghurs #China #Activists #York #Times Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

*** asylum claims hit highest level since 2002 *** asylum claims hit highest level since 2002 The number of people claiming asylum in the *** in 2024 has exceeded the previous recorded peak in 2002, according to figures released by the Home Office. In the year to December 2024, 108,138 people claimed asylum – an increase of 18% compared with 2023 and almost twice what it was in 2021. The new high follows an uptick in recorded small boat arrivals in recent years. The number of small boat arrivals also increased in 2024 – 25% higher than in 2023 – but the figure was 20% lower than in 2022. The *** now receives the fifth largest number of asylum seekers in the “EU plus” area at a time when the government is under pressure to cut the asylum decision backlog. These figures, which cover the end of the Conservative government and the start of Labour, show the number of cases awaiting an initial decision fell by five per cent last year – with 90,686 cases, relating to 124,802 people, pending a decision as of the end of 2024. The number remains higher than before 2022. The *** is also sending more people into immigration detention. This figure increased by 12% last year – an uptick after a downward trend since 2015. Meanwhile, 8,164 people were forcibly returned to another country, an increase of 28%, with Albanians the most common nationality among enforced returns. There has been a sharp increase in people granted citizenship, with numbers rising from 130,568 in 2020 to 269,621 in 2024. This is a figure that also represents its highest level since the government began recording in this way. Source link #asylum #claims #hit #highest #level Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The Nabataeans are Coming | History Today The Nabataeans are Coming | History Today The volte face has been astonishing. Until 2017, or thereabouts, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was seen as the hallmark of Islamic puritanism, where compulsorily veiled women were forbidden to travel without their male guardian’s permission, shops closed during prayer time, and the ‘religious police’ brandished canes to marshal the faithful into mosques. Pre-Islamic history was the ‘time of ignorance’ (‘jahiliyya’) and tourism, when allowed, was restricted to small groups of well-paid foreign business people and pilgrims visiting the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. But since the ascendancy of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (usually known as MBS) under his father King Salman (who succeeded to the throne in 2015) things have changed dramatically. Women may now drive. Cinemas and concert halls that religious leaders, including the grand mufti, once regarded as sources of depravity are opening, along with ‘entertainment cities’ and American-style theme parks. All are part of Vision 2030, an ambitious programme aimed at weaning the country’s economy off oil. Vast investments are being made in tourism, and Arabia’s pre-Islamic history – once condemned as idolatrous – is central to it. The Nabataeans Amid this rediscovery of Arabia’s past, much is being made of the potential of the AlUla Oasis, located in the northwest in the vicinity of Madain Saleh, also known as al-Hijr or Hegra. Madain Saleh was the second city after Petra (now in neighbouring Jordan) created by the Nabataean kingdom that flourished from the late third century BC until it was annexed by the Romans in AD 106. Writing in the first century BC the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus described the Nabataeans as a nomadic tribe of traders who avoided agriculture, fixed dwellings, and wine, while pursuing a profitable trade in frankincense, myrrh, and other spices from Arabia Felix (now Yemen) as well as bitumen from the Dead Sea. As Arabic-speaking nomads who ventured across vast desert spaces, they maintained a culture of secrecy about the origin of their goods, including the coastal ports they frequented, and the locations of cisterns and wells. After becoming a Roman client state they protected the Empire against other Arabian tribes, extending their domain as far north as Syria, clashing with the forces of King Herod before the emperor Trajan took control of Petra and converted their kingdom into the Roman province of Arabia Petraea. Nabataean deities included the high god Dushara (whose shrine has been found at Puteoli near Naples) and al-Uzza, one of three goddesses said to have been worshipped in Mecca before Islam. In 2008 UNESCO awarded AlUla World Heritage status as ‘a major site of the Nabataean civilization’. The site contains an ensemble of tombs and monuments cut into the local sandstone that bear ‘outstanding witness to important cultural exchanges in architecture, decoration, language use and the caravan trade’ linking the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. While Madain Saleh might be less impressive than Petra (which now sees nearly a million visitors per year), its huge tourist potential is clear. Destination desolation This poses a problem for the Saudis. Tradition – buttressed by the conservative clerics who dominated Saudi culture before MBS’s ascent – once warned Muslims against visiting Madain Saleh where, according to the Quran, God had struck down its people for idolatry. The British poet and traveller Charles Doughty, who visited Madain Saleh in 1876 as part of a pilgrim caravan, confirmed that the ulama (Islamic scholar-authorities) taught ‘that men’s prayers may hardly rise to Heaven from the soil of Madain Saleh’. The most pious pilgrims refused to drink from the local well for fear of its curses. Doughty wrote that even by the time of the Prophet Muhammad (c.560-632) – who, it is now said, turned his face away while passing the site – its ‘desolate places’ had long passed into legend. Entering one of Madain Saleh’s caves, Doughty found ‘grave-pits, sunken side by side, full of men’s bones strewed upon the sanded floor’ and noticed ‘a loathsome mummy odour’ that was ‘heavy on the nostrils’. Judging from the latest images available online – some of them shared by historians and other media personalities who have accepted the Saudi state’s invitation to visit and promote the site – the makeover is now complete. The AlUla website shows staged photographs of ‘adrenaline-pumping activities’ such as rock-climbing on sandstone cliffs, monumental contemporary art works, and ‘panoramic walks’ along the streets of AlUla old town, where Western-attired couples ‘walk the streets of history … along the world’s largest hand-painted carpet’. All this at the place once occupied by the ancient Thamud tribe whose people, according to the Quran, were destroyed by God for rejecting the Prophet Saleh, after whom the Nabataean city received its Arabic name. Crucially, the new offerings at AlUla acknowledge 200,000 years of history; the Saudi state appears to have embraced the Nabataeans. [Hidden Content] Saleh, ruins of the second city of the Nabataean kingdom, Saudi Arabia, by Ali Lajami, 2022. Public Domain. This embrace has been a slow process. From the 1970s the Saudi government began cautiously introducing archaeology into the nation’s history curriculum, with regional museums permitted to show exhibits from Arabia’s pre-history. Museum captions use the international Gregorian dating system, thereby avoiding references to ‘pre-Islamic’ and ‘Islamic’ periods. Sites such as Madain Saleh became part of the Saudi national heritage rather than a relic of a forbidden jahiliyya past. Taboos against Muslims visiting the cursed site were loosened and in 2011 Madain Saleh appeared in the popular television show History of the Prophets, with presenter Sheikh Nabil al-Awadi relating the story of the Prophet Saleh and the punishment God inflicted on the Nabataeans (known by the Quranic name of Thamudis) against the backdrop of Madain Saleh’s sandstone crags and tombs. ‘Lies and charlatanry’ The new presentation of AlUla has all the cultural hallmarks of Western consultancies. Just as the Scramble for Africa in the 19th century was driven by competition between rival European powers, the 21st-century Scramble for Arabia (or its money) has been driven by competition between rival consultancies such as the McKinsey corporation and the Boston Consulting Group. The impression of sales pitches aimed at the upper end of the Western tourist market is reinforced by images of the AlUla Wellness Center, where visitors may improve their breathing techniques in a ‘full moon sound bath’ by a Nabataean temple, as well as having counselling sessions with a famous Californian therapist and yoga instructor. Opinions of contemporary ******* scholars towards the practice of yoga – which also had ancient, pre-Islamic origins – may vary, but that of the respected Hanbali scholar Sheikh Muhammad Saleh al-Munajjid – who studied with Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz (1912-99), the eminent grand mufti of Saudi Arabia famed for his fatwas condemning anyone disputing the geocentric view that the sun circles the earth – is unequivocal. Yoga, al-Munajjid preaches, is a form of idolatry ‘based on lies and charlatanry’ that may appeal ‘to simple minded people who are weak in faith’. Some yoga postures imitating animals detract from human dignity including ‘adopting nakedness and resting on all fours’. He has also criticised the tendency of yoga practitioners to encourage a vegetarian diet ‘for which ****** has not revealed any authority’. The learned sheikh’s fatwas – his online responses to believers’ questions delivered on his website IslamQA – no longer bear the authority of the Saudi state. Launched in 1996, IslamQA is now banned in the kingdom as only the Dar al-Ifta’ – the official religious establishment under government control – is authorised to issue fatwas. A less contentious aspect of Vision 2030 is its embrace of art. Madain Saleh has hosted a number of installations as part of Desert X. Its co-curator, the Brazilian Marcello Dantas, sees the show as celebrating the ‘********** of this landscape in people’s minds … a new interpretation of a very ancient place with a forgotten history’. One of its most striking installations, by the Kuwaiti artist Monira al-Qadiri, is composed of large-scale bronze sculptures inspired by meteorite fragments found by Harry St John Philby, friend of Ibn Saud, the modern kingdom’s founder, and father of spy Kim Philby, when he crossed the Empty Quarter in 1932. Object lesson The transformation of a once cursed site into a tourist destination is part of a broader project – rationalised economically – whereby the kingdom’s role as guardian of Mecca and Medina is being subsumed into a national movement built around the person of MBS. International tourism is intended to wean Saudi society off its dependency on hydrocarbons, while international sport will wean it off Wahhabi puritanism, without challenging the legitimacy of the ruling Saudi clan. The idolatrous Nabataeans are incorporated into the new national narrative as an object lesson. The direction of travel was indicated in the 1970s by Allamah Tabatabaii, a famous scholar who preached that lessons could be learned from visiting the relics of now vanished ‘kings and rebellious pharaohs’, with their ‘grand dwellings and luxurious thrones’. ‘God has simply left them there for future generations to glean advice from and by which people can see and learn.’ This aligns with the new dogma proclaimed from Saudi pulpits. The crown prince is ‘singularly gifted’. Threats against his reforms threaten international security, peace, and stability. The faithful can now visit Nabataean monuments safe in the knowledge that they form part of the historic fabric of God’s chosen country. And so can international tourists. Malise Ruthven is the author of Unholy Kingdom: Religion, Corruption and Violence in Saudi Arabia (Verso, 2024). Source link #Nabataeans #Coming #History #Today Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Magnitude 3.0 earthquake shakes East Kimberley town Magnitude 3.0 earthquake shakes East Kimberley town A magnitude three earthquake has been recorded near a remote East Kimberley mine site, with Geoscience Australia confirming it struck the region early Thursday morning. Source link #Magnitude #earthquake #shakes #East #Kimberley #town Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The Legend of Buffalo Trace’s ‘Intense’ Bourbon Just Keeps Growing The Legend of Buffalo Trace’s ‘Intense’ Bourbon Just Keeps Growing The most premium offering in Blanton’s bourbon lineup recently earned another major award as the Best Single Barrel Bourbon. Three tops of different Blanton’s Bourbon bottles shown from the neck up against a blurred background of twinkly lights Every product is carefully selected by our editors. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more Buffalo Trace’s portfolio of bourbon brands is stacked with names most ******** fans could recite by heart even under anesthesia. Still, few of the ******** juggernaut’s iconic labels have cultivated a collector following like Blanton’s. Case in point: The now famed Blanton’s superfan with a collection worth ~$250,000, Dominic Guglielmi, whom we’ve had the privilege of speaking to on multiple occasions, turned his quest to secure every Blanton’s offering released into a glorious ******** online archive and eventually a book. With a catalog of over 50+ expressions in its history, there are plenty of unicorn Blanton’s bottles that only a handful of collectors will ever lay eyes on. But to Blanton’s credit, the brand has also made an effort to make the most coveted expression in the permanent lineup more accessible (loosely speaking) over the last several years. Here’s everything you need to know about Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel. Blanton’s SFTB Is Blanton’s in Its Purest Form Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel is “dumped” directly from Blanton’s Gold Barrels and bottled unfiltered at cask strength. – Credit: Ben Bowers As the name implies, Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel is dumped from barrels and directly bottled, unfiltered, and at powerful cask strength, making it one of, if not the purist forms of Blanton’s available for tasting. The specific whisky pulled straight from the barrel happens to be Blanton’s Gold Edition, which was officially brought to the U.S. in the summer of 2020. It’s the same as standard Blanton’s in every way, except that it’s 10 proof points higher at 103 vs. the standard 93. In case you’re confused about the existence of Blanton’s Gold Edition, our former drink editor, Will Price, provided a nice summary of the Blanton’s lineup well back in 2020. “The standard lineup includes Gold, Special Reserve (called Green), and a barrel-proof variant called Straight From the Barrel. Gold is the first of the international Blanton lineup to come to the US. The reason for the odd split is murky. The short version is a Japanese company called Takara Shuzo owns Blanton’s brand and distribution rights everywhere except the US, where Blanton’s is distributed by Buffalo Trace. Buffalo Trace still distills and ages for every expression — domestic or international.” Like its non-cask-strength Blanton’s Gold cousin, Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel (often abbreviated to SFTB) is Blanton’s 6—to 8-year-old bourbon bottled at full power—128 proof. As Buffalo Trace describes it, the bourbon is known for its “strong “intense, and powerful” flavors of dark chocolate, caramel, and nuts, as well as a spicey finish that’s typical of super-high-proof bourbons. It Used to Be Export-Only Before 2020, the best way to score a bottle of Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel was to head to Japan. – Credit: Buffalo Trace SFTB used to be available only in international markets and was probably easiest to find in Japan. But as with Blanton’s Gold, Buffalo Trace announced that Blanton’s SFTB would also be available in the U.S. starting in the fall of 2020 on a “very limited basis”. Better yet, the U.S. versions would ship in the typical 750ml bottles (international bottles are only 700ml.) Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel Keeps Stacking Accolades Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel keeps earning major awards, further solidifying its status as one of Buffalo Trace’s premier bourbons. – Credit: Ben Bowers Earlier this February, the 2025 World Whiskies Awards USA winners were unveiled at a gala in Kentucky. The event spotlighted the best American-made ******** across a range of specialized categories. Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel was named the Best Single Barrel Bourbon at the event. It had also previously earned a Silver Award in the Best Single Barrel Bourbon category in the 2022 World Whiskies Awards. The bottle has also stacked awards from the arguably more prestigious San Franciso World Spirits Competition, including Gold in 2022 and Double Gold in 2023, among others. Well-known ******** writer and reviewer Fred Minnick even shared an anecdote about his experience reviewing ******** for the 2017 San Franciso World Spirits Competition, in which Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel was robbed (in Minnick’s opinion) of the Best Bourbon prize. But SFTB has also earned plenty of praise from other sectors of the ******** community long before now. Most memorable, perhaps, is Breaking Bourbon writer Jordan Moskal’s key question at the end of his review published back in 2016. “Why isn’t this a part of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection yet?” The question seems more pertinent than ever, given Blanton’s SFTB impressive trajectory since then. Whether it’ll ever receive that distinction from Buffalo Trace remains to be seen, though it feels unlikely. For now, at least, Blanton’s SFTB easily deserves consideration as one of the premium whiskeys the distillery makes, not named Van Winkle. Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel Source link #Legend #Buffalo #Traces #Intense #Bourbon #Growing Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

While Overwatch 2 Felt the Heat From Marvel Rivals, Netease Believes “market is large enough to accommodate two excellent games” While Overwatch 2 Felt the Heat From Marvel Rivals, Netease Believes “market is large enough to accommodate two excellent games” The battle for dominance in the hero-shooter genre has been heating up recently, with Marvel Rivals making a very stunning debut and quickly grabbing all the players’ attention. On the other hand, the former leader, Overwatch 2, has struggled to keep up. The game has shown the appeal of the hero-shooter genre. | Image Credit: NetEase Games Over a week ago, Overwatch 2‘s director even acknowledged the pressure the team has been under, especially after Rivals‘s rapid success. In a surprising twist, NetEase made a bold statement, suggesting that the playerbase and market (in China) are big enough for both games to thrive and grow. Marvel Rivals rises, but Overwatch 2 stays competitive with its big return The developers want to co-exist with other titles. | Image Credit: NetEase Games Since its launch, Marvel Rivals has become the talk of the gaming world. With an impressive player base and steady growth, it quickly became a formidable player in the hero shooter genre. It has continued to impress players and build on its early momentum with Season 1. This success has many left wondering if Overwatch 2 could keep up with the rising star or if it will get left behind. After all, the game experienced a significant drop in players. Yet, it seems that the rivalry with Rivals has only fueled the fire for Blizzard. Not only is Blizzard gearing up for its return to China with Overwatch 2 and with the help of NetEase, but also in its recent earnings call (via TheGamer), NetEase believes that the market in China is large enough to support both games simultaneously. We believe the market is large enough to accommodate two excellent games. This statement suggests that the competition isn’t just a matter of survival for one game but an opportunity for both titles to expand their reach and innovate further. With the ******** market now set to embrace both titles, it’s clear that the genre is only getting more competitive and exciting for players. Competition keeps the genre alive and evolving Both the games are evolving due to friendly competition. | Image Credit: Blizzard The arrival of Marvel Rivals sparked an undeniable sense of competition, and in many ways, this rivalry is benefiting both titles. Since it took off, developers at Blizzard have stepped up their game in response. The competitive pressure has resulted in some exciting updates for Overwatch 2, including the return of the beloved 6v6 mode, new game modes, and fresh hero additions. This influx of new content is a clear indication that the developers are listening to the community and are committed to evolving the game in exciting ways. At its core, competition pushes developers to be more creative, refine gameplay mechanics, and stay engaged with their player base. This rivalry between Marvel Rivals and Overwatch 2 is helping both games stay on their toes and evolve, benefiting players who get to enjoy new features, heroes, and modes. In the end, as NetEase wisely pointed out, the market is large enough to support both titles, and the hero shooter genre is set to grow even more vibrant in the years to come, with plenty of exciting content. Source link #Overwatch #Felt #Heat #Marvel #Rivals #Netease #Believes #market #large #accommodate #excellent #games Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Nvidia’s auto segment revenue surges to record high on demand for driver-assist tech Nvidia’s auto segment revenue surges to record high on demand for driver-assist tech Signage at the Nvidia Corp. offices in Taipei, Taiwan, on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Photographer: An Rong Xu/Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images U.S. chipmaker Nvidia’s auto segment revenue more than doubled in the latest quarter to a record high on strong demand for driver-assist software. While the company’s biggest revenue stream by far is chip systems that power artificial intelligence, Nvidia has predicted its products that power driver-assist technology could become its next “billion-dollar” business. Revenue of Nvidia’s automotive and robotics segment rose 103% year on year to $570 million in the fourth quarter of the 2025 fiscal year. That brought the segment’s revenue for the fiscal year to $1.69 billion, above $1 billion for a second-straight year. The latest increase in revenue was due to to sales of Nvidia’s “self-driving platforms,” according to the company’s CFO. “This growth highlights Nvidia’s increasing exposure to powering ADAS, autonomous vehicles, and robotics through its DRIVE platform and related technologies,” Brady Wang, semiconductor analyst at Counterpoint Research, said in an email. CEO Jensen Huang said in Nvidia’s earnings call the company expects that “every single one” of the 1 billion cars on the roads today “will be robotic cars” that collect data which Nvidia-supported AI systems can help refine, according to a FactSet transcript. Automotive and robotics is “getting ready to take off,” likely due to investments in autonomous vehicles such as Waymo and Tesla, Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said in an email. Munster also estimated that around 15 companies are building humanoid robots, potentially increasing demand for Nvidia chips. “The performance of that segment is an important story below the fold that’s not getting much attention because it’s small,” he added, “but they can be a much ******* part of revenue going forward.” Autos and robotics unit currently accounts for 1.45% of Nvidia’s total revenue. Counterpoint’s Wang expects this growth to continue with Nvidia’s “increasing adoption of L2+ and more advanced systems”. Several ******** electric car companies, including BYD, Nio and Zeekr, use Nvidia’s driver-assist chip systems. “In addition to autonomous driving, I also anticipate that robotics and physical AI will experience a hype,” Wang added, “followed by real-world applications in the coming years, sustaining the long-term growth of this sector.” Source link #Nvidias #auto #segment #revenue #surges #record #high #demand #driverassist #tech Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Instagram Reportedly Considering Launching a Standalone Reels App as a TikTok Competitor Instagram Reportedly Considering Launching a Standalone Reels App as a TikTok Competitor Instagram is deliberating over plans of launching a standalone app for its short-form Reels video content, according to a report. With this purported launch, the social media platform is expected to introduce itself in the short-form video app space. It is largely dominated by TikTok — the ByteDance-owned video-hosting service which recently made the headlines over its proposed ban, although the decision was reversed albeit for a limited ******* of time in the US. Instagram’s Reels App Launch According to a report by The Information, Instagram head Adam Mosseri told the company’s staff about the project involving a potential app for Reels. It is said to be codenamed Project Ray and along with Instagram Reels, it may also show three-minute videos. The standalone app is rumoured to offer a vertically similar scrolling experience as TikTok. With this, the Meta-owned social media platform aims to improve recommendations for new users and existing users in the US, as per the report. While Instagram is yet to acknowledge these plans, the development comes at a time when TikTok is under immense scrutiny regarding US regulations which initially resulted in its ban in the US. Although the decision was later reversed, it was only granted an extension for operating on US soil for a ******* of 75 days, which ends on April 5. Meanwhile, its parent company is now said to be in talks with the new Donald Trump administration which enables a US-based company to earn a large share, allowing the app to maintain its availability in the country. If this move comes to fruition, it would be the second app to be launched by Instagram in 2025, building upon the debut of the Edits app last month which lets creators edit their videos with even more creativity and precision than what the social media platform currently offers. Currently limited to iOS, it is a mobile video editing solution with a suite of creative tools such as enabling high quality video capture, dedicated tab for drafts and videos, and camera settings for resolution, frame rate and dynamic range. Source link #Instagram #Reportedly #Launching #Standalone #Reels #App #TikTok #Competitor Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

FBI Confirms North Korea Behind Bybit Hack, Calls for Industry-Wide Crackdown – CCN.com FBI Confirms North Korea Behind Bybit Hack, Calls for Industry-Wide Crackdown – CCN.com FBI Confirms North Korea Behind Bybit Hack, Calls for Industry-Wide Crackdown CCN.comFBI accuses North Korean-backed hackers of stealing $1.5 billion in crypto from Dubai-based firm ABC NewsThe Largest Theft in History – Following the Money Trail from the Bybit Hack EllipticBybit Hack Traced to Safe{Wallet} Supply Chain Attack Exploited by North Korean Hackers The Hacker News Source link #FBI #Confirms #North #Korea #Bybit #Hack #Calls #IndustryWide #Crackdown #CCN.com Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Interview: Mark Greaney on the ‘Gray Man’ Series and His Reading Life Interview: Mark Greaney on the ‘Gray Man’ Series and His Reading Life With “Midnight ******,” the latest installment just out, he disclosed in an email interview the weird way he names his characters — and his love for Martin Short. SCOTT HELLER What books are on your night stand? I am reading “Flames of Heaven,” by the criminally underappreciated thriller author Ralph Peters, probably for the fourth time. It’s one of my favorite novels, and it captures the chaotic end of the Soviet Union so well. I consume books for research and right now I’m exploring the history of the Irish Republican Army. On my night stand is “Four Shots in the Night,” by Henry Hemming, nonfiction about an assassination in Ulster in 1986. What’s the last great book you read? “Heat 2,” by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner. As both a massive fan of the 1995 film and a cynic, I wasn’t expecting much from a sequel, but I was blown away. The book is a masterpiece, and I can’t wait for the movie! Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel as if you were supposed to like, and didn’t? It’s probably heresy to say this — I’ll start by saying I love James Bond books and movies. The first Bond film I ever saw was “Moonraker.” It’s ridiculous; astronauts battling with space lasers and metal-jawed villains … but I was 11 years old, so I thought it was the most extraordinary piece of cinema ever created. I wonder sometimes if seeing “Moonraker” at that age fostered my love for the genre. That said, “Goldfinger” was not a great book. Ian Fleming put in too much golf and not enough … you know, secret agenting. Who’s your favorite fictional villain? Anton Gruber from “Nothing Lasts Forever,” the novel adapted into the movie “Die Hard.” He isn’t nearly as quippy and charming as his cinematic counterpart, but he’s still a near-perfect “baddie.” What’s the last book you read that made you laugh? “I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend,” by Martin Short. I’ve been a huge fan since I was a kid. His autobiography is as hilarious and wonderful as he seems to be. The last book that made you furious? “Red Notice,” by Bill Browder. This nonfiction account of the Kremlin-sanctioned ******* of a Moscow-based lawyer after the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from Browder’s company reads like a top-notch thriller. This book, and the equally infuriating and compelling sequel, “Freezing Order,” should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the nature and magnitude of state-endorsed crime and corruption in Russia today. What’s the most terrifying book you’ve ever read? “Four Battlegrounds,” by Paul Scharre. It’s all about the future of artificial intelligence, including, but not limited to, the weaponization of the technology. Scharre lays out the incredible challenges the world will face in the years to come. Do you have sources in the C.I.A. that help with your research? I speak exclusively with ex-agency personnel, but I do have quite a few contacts who are currently employed in other government agencies, as well as the military. When I worked with Tom Clancy years ago it opened a lot of doors for me. How do you know when you’ve included enough technical information to make spycraft believable? How do you know when enough is enough? This is a topic I discuss with other authors all the time. There’s a danger of going too deep into the weeds with details, and I never want my books to feel like advertisements for certain brands of equipment, or how-to manuals of vehicle surveillance tactics or other esoteric aspects of tradecraft. A little goes a long way. What’s the most memorable thing that happened to you on a research trip? I don’t suppose I’ll ever top flying in a Navy F-18 over the Gulf of Mexico, making seven and a half G turns, passing Mach 1, and flying in formation during strafing runs at a Navy range near Hattiesburg, Miss. The most intense two hours of my life, no question! How do you name your characters? My answer is absurd, but true. I go online and pull up the website of the national volleyball league in whatever nation my character is from. I then pick a couple teams at random, then find given names on one team and surnames on the other, making sure the names work well together and don’t sound too much like other characters in the same book. I use volleyball because it’s random; nobody knows volleyball players’ names! Did the casting of Ryan Gosling in “The Gray Man” affect how you continue to write the character? I thought he was a perfect choice, very in line with the Court Gentry in the books, so his casting hasn’t really changed how I write the character. Gosling played him capable but vulnerable, smart but fallible, and that’s how he’s written. You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Winston Churchill and David Sedaris. That would be a weird night. Source link #Interview #Mark #Greaney #Gray #Man #Series #Reading #Life Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Help! I’m Insecure and Don’t Trust My Partner Help! I’m Insecure and Don’t Trust My Partner Similarly, he and the woman at pickleball might bond over the fact that they’re both navigating relationships with people struggling with addictions, but he seems to disregard how the intensity of their interactions might affect you — or what need he’s filling for himself that goes beyond this commonality. (If this pickleball pal were a man, would he behave in the same way?) All this is to say, your feelings matter — and it doesn’t help you, your partner or your relationship to keep them to yourself to avoid causing him discomfort. If you want to “live more securely,” you’ll need to show up authentically and ask the same of him. The goal of the conversation isn’t to tell him what he can and can’t do; it’s to let him know how his actions impact you and for you to understand where they’re coming from. You might say something like: I’m really enjoying our relationship, and I want to tell you more about me and learn more about you as we continue to get closer. When we play pickleball together, I feel excluded because of how you approach the woman we play with. I understand you have something important in common, but the intensity of the way you’re drawn to her leaves me feeling ignored and unimportant, like a third wheel. Something similar happens when you talk about your attraction to other women, and I wonder why you choose to share that with me. In the past, I’ve had a tendency to feel insecure; I also know that sometimes when I feel this way, it’s not about my past but about something that needs attention in the present. I hope that by talking about this, you might become more sensitive to my feelings. It would be great if we could all enter relationships by handing our “operating instructions” to the other person. Instead, we learn how the other person operates — what buttons not to push, what makes things run smoothly — through direct and honest communication. The more we do this, the more we become attuned to each other’s emotional landscape, which allows each partner to develop an awareness of the other’s tender spots and treat them with care. But if this doesn’t happen with your partner — if he continues to discuss his attraction to other women or doesn’t try to make space for you at pickleball (and maybe go to Al-Anon for the bonding and conversations about recovery that he’s seeking) — you’re still doing the work of learning to trust yourself. Because you’ll realize that what you experienced wasn’t the same old jealousy — it was wisdom. Trust it, and find someone willing to be gentle with your heart. Want to Ask the Therapist? If you have a question, email *****@*****.tld. By submitting a query, you agree to our reader submission terms. This column is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Source link #Insecure #Dont #Trust #Partner Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Winter Books to Read to Escape the Cold Winter Books to Read to Escape the Cold There’s a lot to be said for a chilly book, which can be suitably evocative in the dead of winter. But with much of the United States trudging through seemingly endless weeks of gray skies and frigid temperatures, with only faint glimmers of relief in sight, sometimes you just need an escape. As you wait for the ice to melt and the mercury to rise, it can help to immerse yourself in some literary heat. Whether they’re languid lakeside romances, sandy sci-fi epics or swashbuckling adventures on the high seas, the best warm-weather books instantly transport you from the doldrums of winter to somewhere toastier. Here are 10 books whose heat emanates from every page. By Carley Fortune A wistful, sun-kissed romance about young love, friendship and regret, Fortune’s immensely likable debut novel is set over the course of a half-dozen summers in the heart of idyllic ********* cottage country, where the teenagers Persephone and Sam slowly develop a life-changing relationship. Fortune’s subtle writing is suffused with heartache, and she does an especially good job capturing the unmistakable aura of summer on the lake in small-town Ontario — a setting that shimmers with heat and makes Sam and Percy’s passionate love story breezy and inviting. By Larry McMurtry This sprawling, Pulitzer Prize-winning western by the author of “Terms of Endearment” has all the hallmarks of a classic adventure story: An odd-couple pair of retired Texas Rangers are its gunslinging heroes, a quixotic mission to drive an unruly cattle herd from Texas to Montana fuels its narrative arc and a ruthless Comanche outlaw is its menacing villain. But “Lonesome Dove” is stark and unsentimental. Far from romanticizing the Old West, McMurtry rigorously dismantles its mythology, tearing through a white-hot epic of cruelty, loyalty and betrayal with brutal candor. Read our review, and explore more of McMurtry’s essential works. By Rachel Cusk Cusk’s bracingly intelligent novel, the first in a trilogy that also includes “Transit” and “Kudos,” is written in the form of 10 one-sided conversations, as the unnamed narrator — a thinly veiled stand-in for the author — pingpongs between interlocutors who regale her with anecdotes, diatribes and confessions, all delivered to the reader in the narrator’s carefully calibrated secondhand. “Outline” is a book of almost shocking perspicacity, pinning people down for inspection like butterflies on a cork board. It’s also, in its summery Athens setting, drenched in sunshine — a holiday abroad that brings all too much to light. Read our review. By Frank Herbert Arrakis, the harsh desert planet at the heart of Herbert’s space epic, is certainly sweltering, and the author makes you feel every heat wave and sandstorm: By the end of the book, you’ll be longing for a drop of freezing rain. And if Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-nominated pair of “Dune” movies already inspired you to check out the original source material, you may also enjoy the sequel, “Dune Messiah,” which follows the rebel-princeling-turned-emperor Paul Atreides as he attempts to undo the damage caused by his rise to power. (Villeneuve has said that an adaptation of this book is also in the works.) Listen to our film critic discuss how Herbert’s novel was transformed for the screen on the Book Review Podcast. By Shannon Chakraborty Pirates, sword fights and seafaring abound in Chakraborty’s adventure novel, the first in a planned trilogy that has the scope and scale of a rousing epic. But while the tale is magical — Amina, the legendary pirate at the heart of the story, does battle with a giant octopus-scorpion hybrid, among other mystical baddies — the writing is grounded in historical realism, drawing from Islamic folklore and the medieval politics of the Indian Ocean. Like Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series, the book combines naturalism with swashbuckling fun, sweeping you away while keeping one eye fixed firmly on reality. Read our review. By Patricia Highsmith “The Talented Mr. Ripley” has been adapted for film and television many times — most recently in the Netflix mini-series “Ripley,” which stars Andrew Scott as the titular **** man. Yet Highsmith’s original novel remains inexhaustible, as wry and sharp today as it was when it was published in 1955. Its dreamy Italian setting, first on the shores of the Amalfi Coast and then amid the cafes of Rome and the canals of Venice, is so powerfully intoxicating that it’s not hard to sympathize with Tom Ripley’s all-consuming desire to claim it as his own — even if his methods for securing this eternal summer (identity theft, fraud, the occasional *******) are extreme. The novel’s sequels, particularly “Ripley’s Game,” are equally compelling. Discover more essential works by Patricia Highsmith. By Ann Patchett As endearingly cozy as it is charmingly nostalgic, Patchett’s novel follows three adult sisters — Emily, Maisie and Nell — who, sequestered at their family cherry orchard in Michigan during the Covid-19 lockdowns, induce their mother, Lara, to finally recount the bittersweet saga of a long-ago romance with her co-star in a summer stock production of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” The lazy summer days and long, wistful nights are rendered lovingly, in prose our critic called (not unkindly) “resolutely folksy,” rife with “pies and quilts and nettlesome goats.” In other words, it’s the perfect salve against the cold. Read our review. By Marlowe Granados It’s the summer of 2013 in Bed-Stuy, and Isa and Gala, a pair of 20-something best friends, are intent on living lives of leisure and luxury — even if they don’t have any money. Splitting a bed in their seedy sublet, selling old clothes at a weekend market and meeting men of dubious character at chic clubs, Granados’s aspirant It Girls are glamorous but not vacuous, ingratiating themselves into “important” New York circles while remaining savvier and wittier than the social climbers in their orbit. The novel has a light touch, seared with the heat of an urban summer, but it’s undergirded by an astute, Wharton-esque social commentary that brilliantly satirizes a certain strain of millennial angst. Read our review. By André Aciman Aciman’s 2007 coming-of-age novel chronicles an intense, short-lived romance between two young men: the unabashed 17-year-old Elio and Oliver, a charismatic 24-year-old American scholar. Both the book and its 2017 film adaptation, directed by Luca Guadagnino, are richly evocative of ardent desire and burning summer love, whisking the reader away to the northern Italian countryside in the 1980s for the kind of obsessive, all-consuming fling that can change a young life forever. Read our review of the novel, and of its 2019 sequel, “Find Me.” By Álvaro Enrigue; translated by Natasha Wimmer The story of Hernan Cortés, the Spanish conquistador whose arrival at the floating city of Tenochtitlan initiated the fall of the Aztec Empire, would be a sound basis for a muscular work of historical fiction in the vein of, say, Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall.” But the ******** writer Enrigue is up to something much more unconventional with “You Dreamed of Empires,” a wild, madcap spin on a true tale. Dreams, drug trips, gore and tongue-in-cheek anachronisms crop up on almost every page, while the hothouse atmosphere of the emperor Moctezuma’s labyrinthine palace is so vivid you can almost feel the walls sweat. Read our review of the novel, which was one of our 10 Best Books of 2024. Source link #Winter #Books #Read #Escape #Cold Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

If Zelenskiy says minerals deal isn’t finalized, invitation to meet Trump may not make sense If Zelenskiy says minerals deal isn’t finalized, invitation to meet Trump may not make sense WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A White House official on Wednesday raised doubts about whether an invitation to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet U.S. President Donald Trump would make sense given Zelenskiy’s comments that a minerals deal is not complete. “If the Ukrainian leader says the deal isn’t finalized, I don’t see why an invitation would make sense,” the official told Reuters. “There’s an expectation that his coming is to recognize a final position (on the minerals deal) and he is not at a final position in his own words in this new wording.” The official said Zelenskiy’s latest comments from Kyiv suggest the minerals deal is not completed. Trusted news and daily delights, right in your inbox See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that he had reached a “preliminary” deal with the U.S. on minerals. Trump on Tuesday told reporters he had heard Zelenskiy was coming to the White House on Friday with the expectation that the minerals deal would be signed. He did not say Zelenskiy had been formally invited. (Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Sharon Singleton) Source link #Zelenskiy #minerals #deal #isnt #finalized #invitation #meet #Trump #sense Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

WARRIORS: Abyss Review | TheXboxHub WARRIORS: Abyss Review | TheXboxHub Review – It may be a departure from the usual formula of the Warriors franchise, but it all works very well in WARRIORS: Abyss. Source link #WARRIORS #Abyss #Review #TheXboxHub Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

‘Last Breath’ Review: Three Men and a Crisis ‘Last Breath’ Review: Three Men and a Crisis I can’t swear to it, but I have a suspicion that Woody Harrelson signed on to star in the deep-sea adventure “Last Breath” only when assured he wouldn’t have to submerge so much as a toenail in water. As Duncan Allcock, the leader of a three-man dive team on a perilous North Sea mission, Harrelson not only remains impressively bone-dry throughout, he even manages to spend most of the movie seated. Allcock’s dive buddies are not so lucky, and we soon learn why one of them, Dave Yuasa (Simu Liu) — unforthcoming to a fault — is filmed early on pumping even more volume into his already generously sculpted upper body. This visual shorthand is one of the movie’s most common tics, both forewarning and a lazy substitute for fully realized characters and revealing dialogue. In Harrelson’s case, this takes the form of an entrance that screams “mildly eccentric, extremely chill old-timer” as Allcock shows up for duty in a Hawaiian shirt and ill-fitting khakis, a queen-size floral pillow under one arm and a bag of chocolate treats in the other. The character is so clearly suggestive of the man who plays him, I fully expected him to pull out a *****. Cinematic comfort food disguised as a disaster movie, “Last Breath,” blandly directed by Alex Parkinson, is based on the 2019 documentary of the same name, which Parkinson directed with Richard da Costa. The actual events must have been nail-biting: In 2012, during a routine repair of an oil pipe, the young diver Chris Lemons (here played by Finn Cole in a role that requires little beyond looking meltingly cute and credibly unconscious) was cast adrift in deep water without access to oxygen or communications. Yet Parkinson and his fellow writers (Mitchell LaFortune and David Brooks) seem unable to shape a gripping narrative, and we’re given no real sense of who these people are outside their dive suits. Unspooling in large part in near-pitch blackness, “Last Breath” struggles to convey urgency. Far above Lemons, in the safety of a diving bell, Allcock — a veteran diver on what he believes is his final mission — and Yuasa wait impatiently for an opportunity to rescue their teammate. From time to time, the camera peeks above the ocean surface to watch the crew of their dive ship (including the always-enjoyable Mark Bonnar as the dive supervisor) scramble to overcome an electrical failure. Underwater, however, everything moves with a dreamy sluggishness that the time clock onscreen, counting down Lemons’s remaining minutes of reserve oxygen, does little to dispel. A movie of barely sketched personalities and trite emotional stakes (the lovely Bobby Rainsbury, as Lemons’s anxious fiancée, is especially underserved), “Last Breath” is disappointingly shallow and fatally lethargic. Harrelson, though, seems delighted: Perhaps only Woody could headline an action movie and be virtually stationary for the duration. Last Breath Rated PG-13 for oxygen deprivation and deep-sea heroics. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters. Source link #Breath #Review #Men #Crisis Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

NASA launching its SPHEREx and PUNCH space missions on March 2 after delay: How to watch live – Space.com NASA launching its SPHEREx and PUNCH space missions on March 2 after delay: How to watch live – Space.com NASA launching its SPHEREx and PUNCH space missions on March 2 after delay: How to watch live Space.comNASA, SpaceX Update the Launch of Space Telescope and Sun Missions NASA BlogsNASA’s New Mission Will Create The Most Colorful 3D Map of The Entire Sky ScienceAlertWatch Live: NASA Is Launching a Space Telescope That Could Rewrite the Universe’s Origin Story SciTechDaily Source link #NASA #launching #SPHEREx #PUNCH #space #missions #March #delay #watch #live #Space.com Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Pirate Trails Review | TheXboxHub Pirate Trails Review | TheXboxHub Review – With a cheap price tag and the promise of easy achievements and bags of Gamerscore, Pirate Trails is very much what you would expect Source link #Pirate #Trails #Review #TheXboxHub Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Etsy Loses Its Meme Stock Shine – Is It Still a Buy? Etsy Loses Its Meme Stock Shine – Is It Still a Buy? Shares of Etsy (NASDAQ:) are down approximately 7% since the company reported earnings on February 19. Concerns over slowing growth are overriding revenue and earnings that were up on a year-over-year basis and a dirt-cheap forward price-to-earning (P/E) ratio of around 8x. However, this is just a continuation of a trend that’s been in place since November 2021. ETSY stock is down over 80% from its meme stock-fueled high of around $295 per share. While ETSY shareholders may cry foul at being lumped in with meme stocks like GameStop (NYSE:) and AMC Entertainment (NYSE:), the fact remains that, like GME and AMC, investors pushed ETSY stock to an unsustainable level. And if you bought at the top, you’ve likely already sold at a big loss. But with the stock trading at levels not seen since 2019, some investors are wondering if it is now a strong long-term buy. Unfortunately, it may be that the stock is fairly priced. Growth Is Slowing, and It May Not Be Just the Economy With quarterly revenue topping $850 million, Etsy has become more than just a niche site for hobbyists. However, investors are concerned about the company’s slowing revenue growth. In the last 12 months, ETSY’s revenue growth has only increased by 2.18%, which is significantly lower than its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.9%. If you’re an investor or considering getting involved with ETSY stock, you could explain that away by pointing to the broader economy. Etsy is a two-way site that derives a healthy amount of its revenue from the listing fees that sellers pay for listing their items and the 5% fee it collects from each *****. In 2020 and 2021, that revenue surged as many investors decided to try their hand at turning their hobbies into secondary, or primary, income. To illustrate that point, active sellers on ETSY jumped approximately 75% between 2020 and 2021 to 7.5 million. However, in January 2025, that number had stayed the same and was down 8.5% from the prior year. So now you have the same number of net sellers, but quarterly revenue growth is at its lowest level since the company went public in 2014. And in the company’s recent earnings presentation, gross merchandise sales (GMS) were down 4.4%. GMS measures the dollar volume of transactions occurring on the platform, which is more meaningful than revenue, which was up 2.2% year-over-year. Once again, if this was a one-year phenomenon, you could explain it away. But this is now four straight years of declining GMS. That fact, combined with a flat to lower number of sellers suggests that the value proposition of the platform may be declining. Etsy May Be a Better Trade Than an Investment At a time when retail stocks are under pressure, investors are right to be concerned about whether ETSY stock is a solid long-term investment. The bull case for Etsy is that it’s a small player with a tremendous growth opportunity in an e-commerce space that still has years of strong growth ahead. However, the trends suggest that Etsy is having a hard time breaking away from the perception that it’s just a niche site. Of course, things could change. Investors won’t get more information until Etsy reports earnings again in May. Until then, ETSY stock appears to be more interesting as a short-term trade than an investment. The stock price has been consolidating, and the move higher on February 24 could be sustained if volume moves back to the average. The Etsy analyst forecast on MarketBeat gives the stock a consensus Hold rating with a price target of $58.78, which is 9.8% higher than the closing price on February 24. That’s intriguing, but it’s also mostly due to two analysts, Canaccord Genuity and Truist Financial, that give ETSY stock a $70 and $67 price target, respectively. ETSY stock may be worth holding onto if you’re looking for a stock with long-term potential. But with many other compelling options in the retail/e-commerce space, it’s hard to look at ETSY as more than a Hold right now. Original Post Source link #Etsy #Loses #Meme #Stock #Shine #Buy Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

A Barbershop Owner in Los Angeles May Help You Find Your Next Date A Barbershop Owner in Los Angeles May Help You Find Your Next Date I’d argue that the finest a man can look is after he has received a fresh hairstyle at a barbershop or salon. Many would agree, including Julian Saluta, the founder of TheGallery DTLA, a barbershop in Los Angeles. His clients come to him not only for shape-ups, braids and trims, but also in hopes of being featured on the shop’s Instagram and TikTok pages, where Mr. Saluta posts his version of personal ads. “What if I just post my clients and it’s like hitting two birds with one stone?” Mr. Saluta said he found himself wondering. “I get to show off their haircut, and also I get to show a diversified roster to the public and, half the time, they are available and they are looking to date.” Mr. Saluta, 30, founded TheGallery about two and a half years ago and began posting the videos on TikTok last spring. Eventually he started to include a short bio, “yearbook-style,” as he described it, along with their age and height. It quickly took off on TikTok, and earlier this year he began sharing the videos on the shop’s Instagram page as well. He posts his clients around three times a week, and while the page features mostly men, his clips also include people of different genders, and feature various ethnicities and ******* orientations. Each video showcases a variety of freshly coifed singles, including one who’s listed as looking for “someone to make pizza for” and another who’s in search of a “coffee shop romance.” In one video, Mr. Saluta posted about clients who were specifically looking to date people who are *******. He also has videos for people who are part of L.G.B.T.Q. communities and posts themed videos for holidays like Valentine’s Day. Mr. Saluta, who born and raised in the Philippines and has been cutting hair since he was 14 years old, described his relationship with his clients as one similar to that of a therapist, as many of them, who have been coming to him for years, talk to him about their lives. The posts started off as a lighthearted way to promote his business, but he soon realized many of his customers were struggling in the dating scene. “As I’m cutting their hair, all their problems seem to be the same,” he said. “It’s like, where do we go to meet someone special? Where do I go to meet someone that’s not the bars, that’s not the clubs or doesn’t involve drinking or online applications like Tinder or Hinge?” Eventually, customers started coming to him asking to be featured on the page, he said. Mr. Saluta often shares the social media handles of the people he is featuring, and when he doesn’t, his followers reach out to him directly for contact information. He said he received about 10 to 30 inquiries on average. Some have resulted in dates; others have resulted in flings. Most have resulted in a flurry of fawning comments. Felix Martinez, 28, is one of the clients who ended up in a long-term relationship after being featured in a video. Mr. Martinez, who said he had been a client of Mr. Saluta since he was in his early 20s, didn’t expect to meet someone after being featured on TheGallery’s TikTok page last summer, and thought the whole thing was funny. But he was interested in meeting new people, so he gave it a shot. Soon after being featured, Mr. Martinez began gaining new followers, including one woman who caught his eye. “So I slid in the DMs like, ‘Hey, do we know each other?’” he said. “And she just said that I was cute and that I caught her eye.” Nearly three weeks later, they went to eat ramen together and have been dating ever since. Many businesses use social media gimmicks to promote their work and attract new customers (and there are other barbershops and salons, possibly inspired by TheGallery, that post about their single clients). But Mr. Saluta said that in addition to helping his business, he was trying to build a community via the shop and to boost his clients’ confidence. He has hosted a few mixers for platonic and romantic connections, and he is planning more in the future. With some of his videos gaining more than one million views, he sees them as something that can increase the odds that his clients find romance. It’s giving people a platform, he said, adding, “It’s empowering my clients.” Send your thoughts, stories and tips to *****@*****.tld. Source link #Barbershop #Owner #Los #Angeles #Find #Date Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Stormont Ministers agree programme for government Stormont Ministers agree programme for government Brendan Hughes and Jayne McCormack BBC News NI Liam McBurney/PA First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly The Stormont Executive has agreed a long-awaited programme for government, BBC News NI understands. A virtual meeting of ministers lasted about 40 minutes on Thursday morning, a day after plans to agree the document were pulled at the last minute. The first and deputy first ministers are expected to do a press conference later on Thursday. The document will have to be delivered to the assembly first on Monday before it can be published to the wider public. It is understood the document contains a number of targets alongside the executive’s nine main priorities. Taoiseach visit cancelled Meanwhile a visit by the taoiseach Michéal Martin to Belfast today has been postponed. He was due to visit Stormont for the first time since being re-elected taoiseach last month. The Irish government said that the meeting has been pulled due to a schedule change. When was the last programme for government agreed? It has been some time since a Stormont executive agreed a finalised programme for government. The last time an executive managed to get one over the line was during the assembly’s fourth term between 2011 and 2015. One was also agreed in 2016 and went out to public consultation. But before it could be passed, the power-sharing institutions collapsed following the resignation of then Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. Source link #Stormont #Ministers #agree #programme #government Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Bee Flowers Review | TheXboxHub Bee Flowers Review | TheXboxHub Review – A simple tile swapping puzzler, you’ll be done with everything Bee Flowers has to offer in just an hour or so. Source link #Bee #Flowers #Review #TheXboxHub Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Inside Jack Whitten’s Queens Studio Inside Jack Whitten’s Queens Studio FEW ARTISTS ARE as closely associated with Lower Manhattan as Jack Whitten, the subject of a major retrospective opening this month at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. In 1962, as a student at Cooper Union, he became one of the first artists to settle below Canal Street, at an address on the corner of Lispenard and Church that had once belonged to the abolitionist David Ruggles and been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Frederick Douglass had stayed there for a few days in 1838 after escaping from Maryland in disguise. Whitten occupied the space for 40 years, engaged in an endless exploration of abstract painting that, as he put it near the end of his life, went “beyond the general notions of race, gender, nationalism.” His work influenced generations of artists — from Andy Warhol to Glenn Ligon — but looked like nothing else before or since. He knew everyone who passed through the downtown art scene: Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, Norman Lewis, Louise Bourgeois, Kate Millett, Bob Thompson, Ishmael Reed, James Baldwin, John Coltrane, Alma Thomas, Jasper Johns, Amiri Baraka, Jean-Michel Basquiat. By 2001, though, Whitten was looking for a new place to live and work, somewhere he could make larger paintings. He and his wife, Mary, now 84, who ran a paper-conservation studio at 36 Lispenard, had spent summers in a fishing village on Crete ever since their honeymoon in 1969, and they returned to New York that September reluctantly. It was muggy and hot, but on the 11th the heat broke and the morning was bright and clear. Whitten noticed a fire truck and a film crew outside. Two brothers were making a documentary about a rookie firefighter and were embedded with Ladder Company 1 of the New York Fire Department as they responded to a call about a possible gas leak. When Whitten went down to investigate, there was a loud noise that sounded like a jet engine accelerating, and one of the filmmakers happened to point his camera in the direction of the World Trade Center, 14 blocks south, in time to capture American Airlines Flight 11 crashing into the North Tower. In the footage, which would soon be looped on TV, you can hear Whitten shouting “holy [expletive]!” in disbelief. That was how the artist ended up on a quiet block in Woodside, Queens, in a former carriage house beneath the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road. He worked there until his death at age 78 in 2018, living nearby in Jackson Heights. The first and arguably the most famous work he made in Queens was the 10-by-20-foot “9.11.01,” a yearslong effort. Throughout his life, Whitten had made elegy paintings for figures ranging from Lena Horne to Malcolm X to Basquiat, deploying abstract forms as a kind of allegory for his subjects. A 1992 painting for Miles Davis — a grid of acrylic-and-polyethylene tiles rendered in ******, white and gray — resembles an astrological chart. The World Trade Center’s destruction left Whitten questioning how art should respond to traumatic moments in history, much as the Cuban Missile Crisis had decades earlier. He embedded those doubts in “9.11.01,” an anxious mosaic of thousands of plaster molded tiles cast in acrylic paint. Completed in 2006, it broadened the parameters of what a painting could be — not just in terms of its size but also of its blurring of the lines between collage, sculpture, abstraction and figurative representation. At its center is a form inspired by the pyramid on the U.S. dollar bill. Around it, Whitten’s brushstrokes look like dust or smoke, as if the pyramid is collapsing into itself. Some of the pigments included ash from Whitten’s potbellied stove and blood from a butcher’s shop. He was memorializing America but also, it seemed, his own career. THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE, Whitten “witnessed these pivotal moments of history,” said Michelle Kuo, the curator of the MoMA show. Mary described Whitten — who claimed that all artists are “participants in an act of history” — as a Zelig-like figure. He was born in Bessemer, Ala., in 1939. His father was a coal miner who died when Whitten was 5, his mother a deeply religious seamstress and activist who helped prepare ****** voters for so-called literacy tests designed to prevent them from registering. As a child, Whitten saw burning crosses and Klan hoods, and was shot at while trying to fish in the Cahaba River. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., he participated in a demonstration against segregation at the state capitol in Baton Rouge, La., in 1960, when he was an art student at Southern University. From their offices, people emptied egg cartons and jars of ****** onto the protesters praying below. Whitten would later write that if he didn’t leave the South, “I would be killed or I would end up killing somebody.” Somehow, Kuo said, “he channeled that anger into visionary beauty.” Whitten saved almost everything, from drawings he made at Cooper Union that were dismissed by his professors to the bones of his daily lunch: a whole fish. He even saved the excess paint from completed works to use in later paintings and sculptures. “He was aware of his self-worth,” Mary said. After he died, she and the couple’s daughter, Mirsini Amidon, 52, the manager of her father’s estate, decided to keep the studio as Whitten had left it. Empty wine bottles sit on a table by the kitchen. On the stove is a stack of books he was reading — travelogues by Patrick Leigh Fermor, essays by John Berger, “Being and Time” by Martin Heidegger. His brushes and smock are still there, as if Whitten had simply gone home for the night. On one wall are a picture of a Jasper Johns “Target” painting and photographs of Whitten receiving the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2016. Besides using it as an office for the estate, the family has no concrete plans for the space; for now, it won’t become a museum or have public hours. It merely stands as evidence of all the time Whitten spent here, as he tried to get the thoughts out of his head and onto the canvas. Photo assistant: Jordan Macy Source link #Jack #Whittens #Queens #Studio Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

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With Video Mapping, Destination Weddings Can Happen Anywhere With Video Mapping, Destination Weddings Can Happen Anywhere When Jonathan Dubin, 34, and Madison Bigos Dubin, 30, hosted their wedding reception last October, they transported their guests to Upper Antelope Canyon in Arizona. Only the reception was held at Cipriani 25 Broadway in downtown New York. The couple accomplished this sleight of hand through video mapping, or video projections that effectively paint large surfaces like walls and ceilings. “I had to remind myself that I was in a ballroom because the atmosphere was so immersive,” said Hutton Bailey, a guest who flew in from Chicago. Mr. Dubin said the images of Upper Antelope Canyon were intended to evoke the feeling of celebrating inside the canyon, which is near the resort where the couple would be honeymooning in Utah. Panoramas of the New York City skyline followed. The finale was aerial views of the Empire State Building as the D.J. and a saxophonist played a rendition of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” while many of their 250 guests sang and danced. Mr. and Ms. Dubin, both real estate entrepreneurs in New York, said that video mapping appealed to them because it immersed their guests in places they love. For Ms. Dubin, who is from Minnesota, it was an opportunity to give family and friends from home “a quintessential New York experience.” With couples increasingly integrating technological innovations into their weddings, video mapping is gaining popularity at ceremonies and receptions, according to event planners and other wedding experts. Julie Novack, a founder and chief executive of PartySlate, an event planning platform, said that video mapping has its roots in the corporate and nonprofit world. (It has also long been used in contemporary art.) “It was first widely adopted by companies around a decade ago for product launches and to project their logos,” she said. “It’s now finding its way into social events like weddings. ” Victoria Dubin, Mr. Dubin’s mother and an event planner in New York, said such projections are increasingly an element of the weddings she plans (including her son’s). One couple she worked with in May 2022 chose one that evoked an Italian Renaissance garden with mossed walls, fountains, statues and frescoes on the walls. “The bride and groom thought about getting married in Europe but chose to bring their vision of Europe to New York,” she said. Video mapping can come at a high cost, with pricing falling within a broad range. Patrick Theriot, a projection designer and the founder of See-Hear Productions, based in Covington, La., who designed the Dubins’ projections said, “Projecting on the side of a forty-story building may require $100,000 or more in just hardware rental, but projecting on a wedding cake may require an equipment rental of less than $5,000.” According to data from the wedding platform Joy, video mapping was a $3.9 billion market globally in 2023 and is projected to surpass $4.8 billion this year. The company’s chief executive, Vishal Joshi, estimates that wedding video mapping is currently a $100 million industry in the United States, with couples projecting onto cakes, dance floors or entire venues. The Temple House in Miami has an in-house production team that creates content. Couples can choose from their extensive projection library, which includes a starry night, fireworks, sparkling rain, disco ****** and the Italian Riviera. They can also request custom projects. Omar Lopez, director of events at Candela La Brea, a venue set in a 1920s building in Los Angeles’s Miracle Mile, said, “We host around eight weddings a year that use video mapping, and that number is growing steadily.” Henry Rodriguez, 46, who works for an education nonprofit, and Suriel Castro, 35, an office manager who lives in Long Beach, hosted their ceremony and reception there last August, which was attended by 225 guests. Both events included backdrops of cherry blossom trees. When it was time to dance, the room alternated between rotating disco ****** and flashing lights. “We wanted to create a nightclub ambiance,” Mr. Rodriguez said. He said they spent more than $3,000 to include the projections, and “the expense was well worth it.” Video mapping isn’t limited to indoor areas. Alyssa Carrai, 27, a photographer, and Daniel Carrai, 26, a creative director and founder of the production studio Sever, who live in Charlotte, N.C., included it in their wedding reception last April. The celebration, which 75 guests attended, was at the Andrews Farm, in Midland, N.C, in an outdoor area with a swimming pool and white house. Mr. Carrai, who has used video mapping in his work with music artists, designed an abstract chrome silver projection that was displayed on the home’s exterior and resembled moving water. “It felt like you were moving through water when you walked by,” he said. “Our guests told us the projection was unlike anything they had ever seen.” Source link #Video #Mapping #Destination #Weddings #Happen Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]