#iphone stop forcing me to capitalize challenge

[scoopertrouper]

tonight i’m contemplating the vol. 2 scene between robin and steve outside the trailer, when they’re making molotov cocktails and prepping for their red dawn last stand in the upside down.

their conversation is interesting to me from a narrative standpoint because of the way it foreshadows but also kind of serves as a red herring for the end of the season/series.

like they start off talking about vickie and her bf, which segues them into the crucial heart of the discussion — “not everything has a happy ending” “don’t i know it” “i’m not talking about romance, i have a terrible feeling it’s not going to work out for us this time” — and it got me to thinking (slash reeeeaching).

usually when anvil-y doom and gloom conversations like this are dropped into media, they exist almost entirely to be proven right in the short-term and wrong in the long-run. so yes — team hawkins lost the day, but it’s stranger things not game of thrones so we know they’re gonna win the war.

in the short-term, robin experiences a setback with vickie but the ending of the season shows us that that probably won’t be the case in s5. (assuming vickie stays on? i doubt they’d introduce amybeth just to give her all of five minutes.)

and, again, in the short-term, steve is disappointed/denied a happy ending once more as he sees jon and nancy reunite, but in the long-term…? hmmmmmm. much to consider.

[vegetalass]

hcs of the gang being quarantined in one big house together maybe?? 🥺 lub ur writing

i lub u, anon!!🥺 sorry this took forever!

General 

Oh my godddddddddd

They had to stop doing movie nights because there was too much fighting 

They tried to set it up such that everyone got a turn to pick a movie but there were still complaints

Now, movies are viewed at random and the policy is that 

1. The TV is first come first serve

2. You have to announce when you’re using it

3. Anyone is allowed to join you 

This has stemmed into multiple people shouting “IM WATCHING _____” at random times

And yes, people will try to hide the remote (mostly Sean)

If they can find it, that is

The lines between public and private property have been blurred. Everything must be labeled or there is a chance someone will take it 

You can risk it, but it’s not recommended since they’re all dudes and will most likely eat anything 

And even with your name on a box of graham crackers, there’s still a chance someone will stick their hand it in and steal a few

All the dudes walk around in their Long Johns like it’s not awkward

They have to do their own laundry so everyone is missing socks

Or they have extras

And wet laundry is constantly being left on the ground if it’s unattended and someone needs the washer 

Arthur

This dude double dips 

He licks the spoon and puts it back in, too 

Gets yelled at a lot for this, but never remembers to stop

Everybody is afraid to touch all of the dips now because of this 

And Hosea has to start buying separate ones just for Arthur

He’s the one who takes 3 hour baths 

I imagine that there’s multiple bathrooms in the house but not enough for everyone so there are definitely times when people are like “WTF, Arthur you’re still in there?” or “Where’s Arthur?” 

Usually it’s Charles or John because they don’t mind sharing a bathroom with each other 

Cue Arthur having accidentally fallen asleep in the tub 

But yea he’s just chilling in there, otherwise

Started the quarantine off by trying to fix up the house… But immediately got lazy

There’s probably a number of things he keeps saying that he’ll “get to, eventually”

The only reason Dutch hasn’t called someone is because it’s a PANDEMIC

Technologically challenged 

Barely knows how to turn on the TV and still uses an iPhone 5 that has pretty much stopped working

John has given up trying to explain how to make things fullscreen on YouTube

Because of this, probably spends most of his time wandering around the yard and reading or journaling

Tilly even bought him some scrapbooking supplies, which he’s been trying to use 

Little washi tapes and highlighters because she knows it can’t get too complicated too fast 

She also makes him an Instagram account so he can take photos or post art

But figuring out how it works is a losing battle, and he never remembers to use it, anyway 

“I think we should get a pet” 

Everyone: “Arthur... Do we look like we take care of ourselves? 

If anyone tries to talk about how annoying the quarantine is, starts ranting about people who refuse to take it seriously

And the conversation ends up spiraling into him blaming capitalism for everything

John 

Every other meal he eats is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or Doritos

He does that thing where he wraps a bowl or plate in plastic wrap so he doesn’t have to wash it 

Doesn’t clean up after himself

Leaves used tissues, slimy butter knives with PB on them, and crusty socks laying around 

Unluckiest of them all 

His snacks get taken the most, the bathroom is always occupied when he needs it, never gets to use the TV, his laundry is always moved, etc. 

Always ends up using the bathroom when there’s no toilet paper

Texts Arthur for help and then makes an announcement in the group chat about “common courtesy” 

Nobody replies

His texts are full of messages to Abigail that all say the same thing

“Help.” + “Please come get me” + “I hate it here”

They’re all left on read except for the occasional response asking if he needs anything from Target

The list he sends back is like four paragraphs long and it’s all dumb stuff 

He’s like “FaceTime me when you get there, I wanna go shopping too”

Doesn’t even really want to leave the house for necessities, so he has to do stuff like water down his soaps or steal other people’s toiletries just to prolong how often he needs to go shopping for himself

He’s the one using Irish Spring from the dollar store mixed with water or a block of orange Dial soap that hasn’t been touched in five years 

Charles tries to throw away an empty hand soap and John is like “THERE’S STILL SOAP IN THERE LOOK” *mixes water with it* 

Steals razors and Shampoo 

Thinks conditioner is “unnecessary” and “doesn’t do anything” 

Complains about being bored but doesn’t bother to do the things people that people offer

Charles 

Voluntarily becomes a recluse 

Not because he wants to but because everyone else is too annoying to deal with 

He’s forced to start using the internet and when he’s not on the computer he’s trying to block out the noise of the 8 other men he lives with just living 

Going on walks is his other hobby

Also probably buys one of those adult coloring books to color

Like Athur, Charles hogs the bathroom 

It’s not as bad as Arthur since he’s not in the tub for the whole time but he really will spend an hour getting ready in the morning for absolutely no reason 

If anyone asks about it he just tells them that since they’re in quarantine there’s no reason to rush 

But he does get yelled at if there’s no other bathrooms available 

Becomes a self-care connoisseur 

Walks around in a bathrobe and face mask just to try and achieve some sort of zen 

Literally the only one who doesn’t walk around half naked

Besides Hosea, the one of the only guys who tries to wake up on time and eat three healthy meals a day 

The house is entirely dark and he’s eating toast while Hosea makes coffee 

It’s awkward, not because they’re weird about each other but because no one else is awake and it’s quiet for once 

Dutch is the third person up and Charles leaves the kitchen by the time he’s around 

Gave up trying to do the dishes and only cleans what he uses

Sometimes if he feels like being nice he’ll do Arthur’s dishes, too 

But only if he gets something back in return, like Arthur doing his laundry or something

The only one who changes his bedsheets on the regular

Him and Kieran are the only ones trusted by Hosea to leave the house safely 

Micah 

Everyone is surprised Micah isn’t dead yet

Everyone is constantly fed up with him for something or for just being irritating 

And try to ignore him for the most part, which is hard

Tries to defends himself with “Well, you don’t have to bother me if you don’t want to” 

Doesn’t clean up after himself, either

John leaves more mess, but Micah does worse stuff 

While John just leaves his dirty peanut butter knives around, Micah does stuff like forget to put the mayo back in the fridge, leave the bread bag out and open, forgets to bring his used dishes to the dishwasher, throws his trash in other people’s trash cans, leaves his wet laundry in the dryer, etc. 

If it’s annoying and gross, he does it 

And tries to eat food that other people have made for themselves or don’t want to share with him 

Dutch is the only one who shares with him willingly

Does not pick up his hair from the bottom of the shower

And doesn’t clean the sink after he shaves

Honestly, I doubt any of the drains in the house work properly because so much shaving goes on 

It’s honestly surprising to everyone that he takes the quarantine seriously 

Accuses people of being sick even though all of them have barely left the house… 

Wears a mask inside when he’s feeling salty 

He doesn’t even care about the mask, it’s just to make people feel gross and bad about themselves

Besides Sean, he’s always trying to hog the TV

And everything he watches is annoying, pretentious, or both

Complains about there being “nothing to watch” despite always having something on and refusing to stop

Tries to smoke inside and literally always get busted for it

Even if other people are doing it too, he’s the one who doesn’t even bother to be by a window when he does it

His room is always off limits 

If you need something from him you need to knock and wait in the doorway

Also does the “You’re too close… Step back, please” thing

And if anyone gets mad, says it’s a pandemic and he’s just trying to be SAFE

Mostly does this to feel powerful

Turns in to Uncle Jr. with all the complaining and berating he does

Uncle is honestly offended

Hosea

The only person allowed to do the shopping 

He gave up trying to give people lists because the groceries they came back with were never right 

Either too few, too many, not the right stuff... You name it 

See here for more

That’s why, despite being the oldest, he’s the one who goes grocery shopping for meals twice a week 

Refuses to buy alcohol because of incidents that they’ve had

Can’t stop people from sneaking it, though

Similar to Dutch in that he gets annoyed when people oversleep, but because its quarantine, he tries to not mention it, and at the worst, gets passive aggressive 

Tries to make a chore chart for people to follow but it gets ignored

He ends up having to force people to do things by reminding them constantly 

He’s the one who starts opening people’s doors in the morning and turning on the lights

Makes everybody start eating on paper plates with plastic silverware because he’s tired of trying to make people use the dishwasher 

Arthur doesn’t know how, John doesn’t put his plates in the right place, Charles refuses to since no one else contributes to keeping it neat, Micah doesn’t even know they have one, Kieran also can’t fill it correctly... 

Basically, it’s too much for Hosea to handle 

His dinners are all Costco pre-made meals that can be made quickly 

Frozen lasagna and prepackaged salad type stuff 

He’s the guy who falls asleep on the couch sitting up while watching TV and if you try to talk to him he says “I’m awake” without opening his eyes

And if he’s using it, don’t even think about suggesting to change the channel 

The answer is and always will be no

Even when he’s not really paying attention

And it’s either on the History Channel or Discovery Channel

Always complaining about how cold his feet are

Doesn’t let anyone touch the thermostat

He’s an in real life Elf on the Shelf

Dutch 

If anyone, and I mean anyone starts sleeping in, he gets in a really pissy mood 

“While I’m up, doing work for you, you’re sitting in bed being lazy!!!” and “What do you mean you don’t understand why! Why should I have to tell you why wasting the day is annoying to all those who are working!” 

Even despite this, he can’t actually change the fact that no one wakes up on time

And it’s not like the work he’s doing for them is very important

He’s the one who thinks that a pandemic is the perfect time to be or do something useful

Eat healthy, write a book, pump iron… Anything

And when people complain about being useless he’s like “You have all this free time!!!1! Stop complaining!!! You can do anything!!!” 

And if he’s doing something he considers useful, yells at people who try to bother him 

Arthur: “Hosea wanted to know-”

Dutch: *doing sit ups* “CAN’T YOU SEE I’M BUSY?” 

When it’s his turn to cook dinner, he’s making 8 boxes of Trader Joe’s mac and cheese in a huge pot and calling a meal

Literally the only meal no one complains about 

He won’t clean the pot when it’s finished, though

Literally just cooks and leaves it out for someone else to deal with

Another self-care aficionado 

Also walks around in a bathrobe and face mask 

He’s worse than Charles though, because while Charles wears pants... Dutch will be booty ass naked under his 

Also keeps trying to make homemade masks and scrubs and walks around in those, too 

He’s like “This is a good one, I can tell already” 

Everyone: “Dutch... is that... mayo... in your hair?”

Annoyingly good at monopoly

Does not invite Molly over and gets yelled at over FaceTime

Cue everyone eavesdropping on their arguments

Goes on power walks

Yells at people when they listen to loud music with swear words 

Honestly, always yelling at people

“Can somebody get me my slippers? Arthur? John? Hosea? AnYoNe!!!”

Kieran 

Spends the least time in the bathroom because he’s afraid of getting yelled at 

Does everything in five minute increments 

Except for showers, when he allows himself ten minutes

Barely 

Most of what he eats is just microwave popcorn and shredded cheese

He’s the one asking people if they want to go on “family walks” with him

Literally no one joins him 

Also tries to play board games with everyone

This goes a little better at least because Hosea will sometimes play and if he’s there, a few people will definitely join 

Very bad at monopoly

The most conscious about wearing a mask 

The others wear them but Kieran is the one who wears double masks, gloves, and carries around Febreeze 

Also will get mad if anyone forgets their “safety equipment” 

Or if they’re within six feet of him in public

Props to him though for staying healthy 

I’ve mentioned this before, but... Spends most of his time playing games on a big tablet wearing headphones

Candy Crush and FarmVille and Words with Friends and stuff like that

Though all of his internet friends are weird old ladies he doesn’t know��

Everyone is mad at him for sending non-stop game notifications, too

Hosea is the only one who responds to any of them 

He’ll never admit this, though

Also tries to start doing arts and crafts 

Mary-Beth started telling him about the various crafts she’s been doing, so he’s started trying to follow along, too 

Things like crocheting or popsicle stick art 

His stuff all looks bad, but he’s just happy to be doing it

And to be FaceTiming Mary-Beth

When he gets to choose a movie, he’s picking a “family-friendly” movie like Inside Out or Lilo and Stitch 

Everyone starts out being mad but they all end up watching the whole thing without complaining 

Heated debates ensue, too 

For example, like about whether Flynn should’ve cut Repunzel’s hair in Tangled 

“YOU’RE GONNA LOOK AT ME AND TELL ME THAT I’M WRONG?” 

Charles + Arthur vs. Dutch + Bill

Makes meatloaf or Hamburger Helper like once a week

They’re basically the only thing he knows how to make 

Sides with Arthur when he suggests getting a pet

Wears a Snuggie 

Doesn’t change his socks 

Javier

Plays his own music very loudly and won’t turn it off or down if you ask 

Either that or he’s practicing guitar 

It’s not really that bad but when you can’t escape it.... People get mad 

The only saving grace is that the singing is usually in Spanish so it’s not as bothersome

The door to his room is always closed

Refuses to open it

To talk to him, you have to knock and then he’ll exit

Dutch is the only one allowed in and he thinks Javier’s rules about entering are creepy so never does it

Javier cooks his own food and won’t share

Only makes enough for exactly one person so even if he wanted to, there’s not enough

Eats dinner in his room to prevent people from bothering him or asking for some

However, he has the biggest stash of quarantine snacks… 

No one knows where he gets them

And getting him to share is like trying to do a drug deal, but he’s not against it as long as he gets something in return 

He didn’t personally cook all these snacks so the rules are different 

His room is full of scented candles to make it smell better since the whole house kinda smells like Boy 

Buys a gamer chair at the start of quarantine 

Claims it’s more comfortable than the office chair that Dutch and Hosea chose for everyone

Everyone is jealous

Wears fuzzy pajama pants only 

Sean

Sean is the one sleeping in

Never sleeps in his bed and just falls asleep wherever, basically

Usually the couch

Because he’s always snoozing, he’s the one who watches the most TV

Micah claims this isn’t “fair,” despite doing the same thing

And even if he’s not watching TV, he’s just using the couch to watch Tik Toks full volume 

Tries to make his own Tik Toks, but they either stink or no one wants to participate

Constantly having people get mad at him for recording them 

Stopped wearing clothes the moment quarantine started

Always in a tank top and his underpants 

It’s kinda weird 

People cared at first but by now they can’t be bothered to complain since they’re 

1. Used to it 

2. Probably start doing the same thing

Leaves his laundry laying around

Also won’t share anything he’s eating 

Gets mad when people steal food

Doesn’t address anyone in particular though, just walks around yelling about how “nobody has the common decency not to steal” 

Has food delivered almost every other day 

No one knows where he’s getting the money from, either

Everyone think it’s a waste

Mostly because he doesn’t share, but also because all hell broke loose when Hosea found out about an expense called “delivery fees” 

Also has a stick up his ass about wasting food 

Started yelling about this randomly, too 

If he can’t force someone else to finish leftovers, he forces himself to finish them 

Probably gets caught watching a certain type of nasty video a lot

Lowkey it probably happens to everybody at least once

Yells at anti-maskers 

Tries to wrestle the other boys and gets his ass handed to him

Bill

Possessive of everything 

Usually he’s not this bad but being cooped up with a bunch of thieves and liars doesn’t make him confident that his Circus Animal cookies will last very long 

Doesn’t share anything and very adamant about making sure there’s labels on things so nothing gets mixed up

Also makes his own space in the fridge with tape 

BILL’S SPACE DO NOT TOUCH 

And will start yelling in anything is moved 

Not as bad as Sean though because he only cares about his own stuff

The whole thing is super hypocritical though, because he definitely steals other people’s stuff

If he gets caught, claims “it’s only fair” 

Hosea has to buy him soap because he won’t buy it himself

Definitely the one who learns how to make prison hooch with cranberry juice and yeast

And the one who eats all of the ice cream 

Even the nasty flavors 

Wears the same clothes everyday because since he’s not working, “they’re not dirty” 

They start getting holes in them, though

If anyone tries to suggest something for him to do, he gets mad and claims he “knows how to entertain himself”

Also constantly accusing people of being in his space or business 

Ends up starting a ton of fights over this and then complaining about how mean everyone is to him 

He’s not doing it on purpose, though 

Ends up buying some kind of gaming console to pass the time

If he buys an Xbox, he shares with the rest of the boys

If he buys a nintendo switch, he starts playing Animal Crossing and doesn’t put it down for weeks 

Out of everyone… He’s the one who takes the pandemic the least serious 

He follows the rules because he doesn’t want to be eaten alive by any of the boys, but he probably thought the virus was a hoax at first 

He learned his lesson the first time he tried to go out without a mask and got locked in the car, though

Forgets to flush the toilet 

His room is dirty

[aaronthomasglesenkamp]

“From the Inside-Out”

Written by: Aaron Thomas Glesenkamp

Written on 10/15/2020 at 11:51AM SLC, UT

There’s so much going on in the world and there can be so much to get caught up in the world of 2020. The fire’s of California, [currently] the Corona Virus, the 2020 Election, modern pop-culture media, other world crises/accomplishments around the world; Almost anything you can think of, you’re able to observe from the comfort of your own phone, or even hand. Yet, are our minds shaped and trained well enough with our own personal thoughts- to go and seek other information about the world? In other words: Are we happy with ourselves before we are able to look down at our phones and be happy for others? Are we looking down at our phones and shaping good thoughts about external forces because we are happy? Or are we looking down at our phones and trying to compete and degrading our personal achievements? And rather, we are tearing things apart because our inner-thoughts with ourselves lie restless. Poison or prosperity? I believe social media can be degrading towards your mental health, if you’re not happy with you first.

Being a person who comes from hardly anything, the one thing I do know is that I come from that which is much more great and for that I’m grateful. With that in mind and being humbled throughout my entire life experience, as difficult as it may have been (with wavering artistic beliefs/view points and the struggle of personal hardships) I know this is all one big collective. And no matter how difficult it may seem, you just have to come to love all of it- as one large collective, because it all exists. No matter how chaotic things may seem. No matter what you’re given, or what you “think” you aren’t, you’re given everything you need for a reason. Some days are harder than others- but it’s up to you and your ultimate choices on how you feel and react to what’s put out in front of you- with the two pulling powers of positivity and negativity. Thus, creating your reality. Everyone, it seems these days, is a beautiful model with the “perfect body.” Or they have the most “beautiful clothing and goods,” and that may seem true because societal capitalism has taught us “more expensive” is “more beautiful.” But that’s what we’ve been trained. The more hormones you’re able to buy, to pump your- already perfect- body full of drugs “looks better.” Though I ask you, if they seem beautiful from the exterior, do you think their insides match their outsides mentally? Their muscles on the exterior may flex and look appealing, though when they open their mouths, do their words shape thoughts and actions that are just as beautiful? Do they flex their inner-mind muscles, as well?

I believe one of the most challenging and complex things in this world is to be able to teach and train your ego-mind to be tamed. Either if you’re broke and jealous of everyone around you- are you able to realize you have everything you need, although it may not seem like much? It’s still everything. If you don’t look like the person that’s in the picture- are you able to get up out of bed healthily to strive towards your goals? If you don’t have everything you want- are you still blessed with a job and privilege to be able to work towards more? I see a world around me as I try I’m trying to tame my own mind- but dancing in a world with people that seem to forget these simple essentials. Amongst the trials of COVID, I think the lesson that we’re all forgetting, is that we’re all privileged with life right now. We’re all able to wake and continue on- now just decide what team of good and evil you’re playing on with your thoughts and actions. It’s not what’s on the outside that makes a person- it’s everything that’s on the inside that makes a person beautiful. With our iPhones, apps, or social technology- it’s easy to just glance at the exterior and make an instant assumption or judgement. Funny how something so small, can hold such power or build gigantic barriers between one another- withholding true human connection or more intimate relationships, and has the ability to create false beliefs. Some days it feels bigger than the Great Wall of China’s (you’re welcome Mr. President for the positively- quirky reference towards China.)

Too often I find myself looking down at my iPhone or browsing social media, and thinking “I’m not good enough.” Or “I want what they have.” Though, with acknowledgment of these thoughts, what do I need to do? Loose the potentially-toxic influences. If those are my thoughts I need to rid them or be absent of the potentially harmful thoughts I may create, and and just keep working towards becoming the wonderful person I already know I am. Beauty shines from the inside, out. So stop focusing on the external forces at play, and let go of them if they affect you illy. Start working towards making your heart and happiness feel better on the inside. Start treating others how you want to be treated, genuinely (absent of selfish intent,) so it comes back to you.

Everything in the Universe has checks and balances. Choose what is “for you” amidst the chaos. It’s not to say you shouldn’t care about everything and everyone, but there are some fights that are unable to win. You can only do so much, but start with what you “can do.” The one fight you are able to win, is the war within side yourself with your thoughts and actions you create. What do you choose to occupy your mind with? The news? Your family? Ads and material items? Friends posts? Positive affirmations?

Sometimes I find that the news and friends posts can be degrading towards my positive mentality, because I need to keep the focus on me. No ones perfect, but just like exercise self-love is something you need to practice, and with constant flexing that gets stronger over time- and In-turn so will you. Don’t stray down a road of thought that is competitive or jealous of: “that’s where I’d like and aspire to be.”

You already have everything, because you’re alive!

Rather, just stay focused on the main prize, the present now. And say, “this is where I should be grateful to be every moment and I’m lucky to even try to be able to attain what I can how I can, with what I’ve been given because I’m here. Love starts with me. Thank you.” May not be much- or seem like it, but that statement requires more inner-flexing. Just be grateful that you’re able to be here and that there’s still plenty of love left in your heart even after what and how you’ve individually been taught and learned from life. Know that everything makes you stronger. And from that, be grateful, stay present, and hopefully striving forward- flexing your inner-muscles.

There’s no one to compete with, because you’re blessed to be “you.”

Someone will love you for all that you are, regardless of what you have. Because you’re doing what’s good and true for you- and they see you from the inside out first.

[sinrau]

Tristan Harris, former Google design ethicist and co-founder of Center for Human Technology, appears before Congress in “The Social Dilemma.” (Netflix)

Picture, if you will, a high-tech voodoo doll of you on a server somewhere. Probably more than one server.

While the makers of that reverse-engineered avatar might not be sticking literal pins into it, in “The Social Dilemma,” filmmaker Jeff Orlowski makes a fine case that in mining data from your onscreen interactions, they are constructing a predictive version of you and trying to prick your interests and put a spell on your attention in historically unprecedented ways. (“The Social Dilemma” began streaming on Netflix this week.)

The quotes Orlowski begins his wake-up call of a documentary with — and peppers throughout — aren’t easy to top. There’s Sophocles’ “Nothing vast enters the world of mortals without a curse.” And this from sci-fi giant Arthur C. Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” And this wry quip from data-visualization guru Edward Tufte: “There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software.”

Yet, here’s one to add: “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” It may not be as elegant as the others, but it represents the tone taken by the tech leaders interviewed by the Boulder-based director who investigated the extraordinary problems wrought by big-tech behemoths, particularly the ones that have entangled so many in the vast web of social media: Twitter, Facebook and Google.

Among the documentary’s smart and personable talking heads: Justin Rosenstein, co-inventor of Facebook’s “like” button; Tim Kendall, former president of Pinterest and former Facebook director of monetization; and Shoshana Zuboff, author of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.” (That book’s subtitle: “A Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.”)

Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google, became notable for writing an early internal and legendary document questioning the addictive tendencies of smartphone tech. Think Jerry Maguire’s manifesto after his dark night of the soul. Harris caused a buzz and then, well, crickets. He went on to co-found the Center for Humane Technology, a non-profit promoting the ethics of consumer tech.

RELATED: Watch this very real Netflix doc about a man who welded himself inside a “killdozer” and destroyed half of Granby

These days, Silicon Valley is referred to in much the way we talk about Hollywood or Washington: It is a global economic force, a wielder of spectacular power, somehow exemplary, too, of some more honorable ideals. Orlowski went to one of its feeder schools.

“I was class of ’06 at Stanford. When we all graduated, that was (around) the birth of the iPhone and the birth of apps. So many of my closest friends went directly to Facebook, Google or Twitter. Multiple friends sold their companies to Twitter for exorbitant amounts of money,” Orlowski said on the phone before his film’s world premiere at January’s Sundance Film Festival.

The project came out of conversations with those friends “who were starting to talk about the problems with the big social media companies back in 2017, at the birth of the tech backlash that we’ve been seeing. Honestly, I’d heard nothing about it, knew nothing about it.”

So many of his creative, thoughtful friends were working in new tech that Orlowski wondered, “How’s it a problem?” A fan of long-form journalism, he set out to answer that question and a few others. “For me, this process was two years of being an investigative journalist. (Of doing) first-hand research with the people who make the technology and trying to understand what the hell is going on.”

Director Jeff Orlowski attends the World Premiere of “The Social Dilemma,” an official selection of the Documentary Premieres program at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. (Azikiwe Aboagye, provided by the Sundance Institute)

He is not alone in trying to wrap his brain — and ours — around that. Orlowski was among a cluster of storytellers at January’s Sundance Film Festival, posing timely questions about societal costs of seemingly free platforms — quandaries that have been reflected in a deluge of headlines about big tech’s role in our lives, in civil discourse, in democracy. (The film’s final cut includes a few recent images of news footage hinting at the rough tango between our lives and the Twittersphere around COVID-19.)

Two other high-profile projects that should prompt a rethink were Shalini Kantayya’s “Coded Bias,” about the MIT Media Lab, where research uncovered just how racially biased facial recognition software is. It’s a searing yet inspiring look at what happens when the people making tech’s design choices, and building its algorithms, create for people who look exactly like them. Co-directors and Karim Amer and Guvenc Ozel’s vivid virtual-reality living-room installation, “Persuasion Machines,” depicts with its jaw-dropping environment the data-mining excesses of a “smart home.”

There have always been concerns about the amount of private information that customers seem so willing to cede with little regard for security. But social media is proving itself a voracious beast. It’s less about identity theft than the potential for manipulation on a mass scale. Advances in AI and machine learning have added a special — arguably dystopian-courting — wrinkle.

It’s little surprise, then, that Orlowski is asking urgent questions. He’s forged a place in the documentary vanguard. He first made a splash when he trailed environmental photographer James Balog around Greenland, Iceland and Alaska. With stunning images, Balog documented the calving of ice shelves, the receding of glaciers, and Orlowski documented him.

The resultant work, “Chasing Ice” (2012), was gorgeous and chilling — in all the wrong ways. It was a different kind of climate change doc, not a screed but a nature film that made a compelling case that there are seismic — likely irreversible — changes afoot. It won an Emmy. (Traveling through Denver International Airport, you may have stopped to watch Balog’s mesmerizing time-lapse video for his Extreme Ice Survey work.)

Orlowski’s 2017 follow-up, “Chasing Coral,” won an Emmy for Best Nature Documentary.

“This is the beginning of a decade of films about technology and the consequences of technology,” Orlowski said of the company. “There’s so much at risk and so much at scale, the way technology is designed.”

In both “Chasing Ice” and “Chasing Coral,” he worked to make concepts starkly or strikingly visual. He faced a similar challenge with “The Social Dilemma. “We were trying to think of ways to show people what’s happening on the other side of their screens that’s invisible,” he said. “How do you show people something that is literally impossible to see? You can’t see what’s happening on the servers, right? You can’t even see the servers. But how are the algorithms designed and what are they doing that control 3 billion people?”

The number is not far off: According to German data-statistics tracking company Statista, there are currently 3.5 billion smartphone users.

For “The Social Dilemma,” Orlowski weaves a narrative tale about a multiracial family wrestling with the role of tech in their home. Think of it as a dramatization of concerns. The strategy evolved out of his own response to the news he was hearing from his Silicon Valley friends and their worries around the industry’s overreach.

“Because of the way they were describing it, every time I looked at my phone, I kept seeing a manipulative machine on the other side trying to puppeteer me. For the year I was on Facebook, I thought, ‘I’m being used.’ And it gave birth to this narrative storyline we figured out this way to interweave with the documentary.”

As a filmmaker, it was a chance to direct actors. Vincent Kartheiser of “Mad Men” plays the three-yammering embodiments of AI, dialing up the needs, nudging impulses and commanding the attention of Ben. Skyler Gisondo portrays the increasingly distracted high schooler. Helping create this intricate dance between the interviews and narrative was Oscar-winning editor Davis Coombe, a local filmmaking luminary. (He also co-wrote the doc with Orlowski and Vickie Curtis.)

“I really loved doing all that,” said Orlowski. “The writing, the shooting, the directing. All of the narrative stuff was really fun and brought, I hope, a different dimension.”

Ben and his family are intended to represent the ways many of us interact with the technology, not as designers but as Instagrammers and Tweeters, friends and over-sharers, TikTok-ing kids and their aggravated parents.

Of course, recanting can be a tricky thing. We admire people who see the flaws — even corruption — in a system and alert us to the dangers. But we can also be suspicious of their declarations. Indeed, there is an undercurrent of quiet hubris intermixed with the insider cautions of a number of Orlowski’s experts.

An intentionally witty moment comes early in the movie when, after a few of them have reflected on the unintended consequences of tech, and the sense that it was meant to help not harm. Although each had been a chatterbox of insights and perspectives, every one of them grows silent, looking for all the world stumped by the simple question that Orlowski asks: “So what’s the problem?” More than once, an interviewee reminds us that one of the tools to address the hyper-speed amassing of power and profit is rather old-school: regulation.

Even more illuminating than confessing their own addictions to email, or push notifications, or Twitter are the moments when these engineers, software designers, marketing whizzes share their own practices for themselves — or their family’s rules for their children — about social media.

“I’ve uninstalled a ton of apps from my phone that I felt were just wasting of my time … and I’ve turned off notifications,” said Rosenstein.

“Never accept a video recommended to you on YouTube. Always choose. That’s another way to fight,” said Jaron Lanier, one of tech’s most innovative minds turned most trenchant critics.

“We’re zealots about it. Crazy,” said Allen, asked about social media and his children. “We don’t let our kids have really any screen time.”

And perhaps the most timely advice: “Before you share, fact check,” said Renée DiResta, research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory. “If it seems like something designed to push your emotional buttons, it probably is.”

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, In The Know, to get entertainment news sent straight to your inbox.

A Boulder filmmaker’s new Netflix documentary will make you want to delete social media forever

[spicynbachili1]

In China’s Xinjiang, surveillance is all pervasive |

There are few tougher locations for a international journalist to report from China than Xinjiang.

Particularly now.

Safety has been bolstered amid a brand new marketing campaign, which the federal government says is geared toward eradicating “Islamic extremism” in a province the place greater than half the inhabitants is Muslim.

Two weeks in the past state TV aired footage of what have been described as vocational colleges displaying Muslim women and men being taught language and job expertise. Most have been Uighur, a Turkic-language people who find themselves ethnically distinct from the Han Chinese language.

China’s leaders argue harsh measures are wanted to forestall violence related to Uighur separatism; violence that, they are saying, has claimed the lives of a whole lot of Chinese language individuals up to now decade.

Uighur safety personnel patrol close to the Id Gah Mosque in Kashgar in Xinjiang on this 2017 photograph [Ng Han Guan/AP]

Human rights teams say the faculties are, in truth, an unlimited community of re-education camps the place detainees are held indefinitely with out cost and compelled to denounce their religion and recite Communist Celebration propaganda.

The Economist journal lately described Xinjiang as “the proper police state”.

Throughout a short go to there two weeks in the past I noticed nothing to dispel that view.

‘Kill, kill, kill’

The surveillance is all pervasive. Streets bristle with CCTV cameras. In some cities there at the moment are police posts each 30 metres.

Since I used to be final there three years in the past, there is a new addition to the huge safety community of police and elite particular forces; a motley assortment of shopkeepers armed with wood sticks who’ve been skilled in safety measures. Twice a day exterior their premises they rehearse their defensive drills, generally shouting, “Kill, kill, kill.”

In 2015, it was nonetheless attainable to speak to native individuals, albeit discreetly. Not now.

For a Uighur to speak to a international journalist is to danger arrest. By coincidence, one of many Public Safety Bureau officers assigned to tail us – Michael – had been my minder throughout my earlier go to. And this time he wasn’t going to let the Al Jazeera crew out of his sight.

He was there to welcome us again as we have been making an attempt to examine right into a lodge, the place I had stayed on earlier visits.

Xinjiang: The story Beijing would not need reported | The Listening Put up

The sheepish workers at reception instructed me my reserving had been cancelled on the orders of the native authorities. A resigned shrug of the shoulders. There was nothing they might do.

As an alternative we have been supplied rooms in a government-owned lodge, the place uniformed and plain-clothed police lounge within the sprawling foyer.

Sinister, surreal, absurd

Xinjiang in the present day is each sinister and surreal, however sometimes the absurd makes an look. The ringtone on Michael’s telephone performs George Michael’s I am By no means Gonna Dance Once more. George Michael grew to become the soundtrack of our temporary keep in Kashgar, as a result of his telephone by no means stopped ringing.

Filming and reporting in Xinjiang has at all times been tightly managed. Nevertheless it’s in overdrive now.

I used to be compelled to delete numerous footage surreptitiously recorded on my iPhone. One confirmed a safety checkpoint, one other a padlocked Uighur store.

In a near-deserted market a giddy trio from native TV turned up. The reporter – like Michael – was additionally a Uighur. She needed to interview me about my impressions of Kashgar. I declined.

If I had instructed the reality our go to may need come to an excellent swifter finish than it did. Undeterred, the TV crew tagged alongside, that means our group had now grown to 10, lowering nonetheless additional any hopes of speaking to somebody – anybody.

One query hangs within the crisp autumn air: the place are all of the younger males? China’s authorities is eventually offering a few of the solutions. After denying the existence of internment camps, state-controlled media now proudly defend the coverage; a coverage that by many accounts is now being expanded.

China defends internment camps for Uighur Muslims

Kashgar, nearer to Baghdad than it’s to Beijing, is the biggest Uighur metropolis and is claimed to have 4 camps holding 120,000 individuals. The most important is reportedly in Quantity 5 Center Faculty, however I might not get to glimpse even the surface of that college. Based on Michael, such camps do not exist in Kashgar.

‘Love the Celebration’

As an alternative of a re-education camp we have been proven the surface of the Id Gah mosque, the largest in China. There’s been a mosque on this web site for greater than 600 years. A part of its facade is now peeling.

For the principally Chinese language guests, the mosque is simply one other vacationer attraction. Within the recessed entrance armed safety guards sit beneath a pink banner exhorting worshippers to, “Love the Celebration, love the nation.”

On a wall reverse the mosque, looped photos of President Xi Jinping, taken throughout his journey to Xinjiang in 2014, are projected onto an enormous display screen. One reveals him surrounded by a gaggle of smiling Uighur youngsters.

It was shortly after this journey that greater than 40 individuals have been killed throughout a bombing and knife assault within the provincial capital, Urumqi. The federal government blamed Uighur separatists, and the crackdown started.

The traditional a part of Kashgar stays closed. It was apparently being rebuilt, simply because it was the final time I used to be right here in October 2015. As an alternative we have been taken to a pretend model of the Previous Metropolis, full with cultural performances reflecting distant – versus latest – Uighur historical past.

It was simply after my colleague had taken the traditional metaphorical picture of a caged hen that the temper of our hosts began to vary.

‘Whose facet are you on?’

They suspected – rightly – that we weren’t shopping for into the sanitised narrative. In a small native cafe, the place we had stopped for a break, a very hostile feminine official from the native propaganda division demanded to take a look at every little thing we had thus far filmed.

Al Jazeera World – The Uighurs: Exterior Exile

She turned her ire on my Chinese language colleague. “Whose facet are you on?” she yelled.

At first we refused her demand. By now there have been 15 uniformed and plain-clothed policemen crammed into the tiny cafe. Taking part in to the gallery, Ms Yang introduced loudly: “We have to preserve them in Kashgar for additional investigation.”

The implication was clear. We’d not be allowed to go away until our materials was vetted. At instances like this my speedy concern is for my Chinese language colleagues. I’ve a international passport. They do not and don’t have any safety.

We have been held for 2 hours, throughout which era they inspected each body we had shot. They managed to make sure our deleted recordsdata couldn’t be recovered. It had been day for Kashgar’s propaganda division.

The surveillance began even earlier than I had left Beijing.

As an accredited journalist, my title had been flagged the second I checked in for the flight to Urumqi. 4-and-a-half hours later plain-clothed police have been ready for me within the arrivals corridor. Given I gave the impression to be the one non-Asian face I would not have been exhausting to identify.

An hour later the identical males appeared within the foyer of my lodge. One even took the room subsequent to mine, presumably to see if I tried to interview anybody there.

At first they stopped us filming innocuous avenue scenes. They later relented, however solely permitted filming of their presence. “Don’t discuss to anybody,” we have been repeatedly warned.

Safety officers favour informal avenue fashion with ironic thrives. My favorite: “Depart Me Alone.”

There was no likelihood of the Al Jazeera crew being left alone in Xinjiang. Within the Kashgar lodge there have been not less than 20 officers within the foyer, there for only one purpose: us.

Surveillance state

Official figures present China’s surveillance funds now outstrips the quantity spent on defence. I puzzled what the associated fee to Chinese language taxpayers had been of the operation to watch three journalists.

Strange Uighurs spend a lot of their life queuing. Outdoors Urumqi’s worldwide bazaar, Uighurs and Han Chinese language lined up at separate safety checkpoints. Uighurs are searched extra completely. Naturally, we weren’t allowed to movie any of that.

China seeks to revive ‘Silk Street’ challenge

Not like my earlier go to, we additionally weren’t allowed to movie inside a Uighur house. In that case, I may need seen if it was true that every one knives now should be chained to partitions.

Xinjiang is on the coronary heart of certainly one of President Xi Jinping’s signature financial insurance policies; the One Belt, One Street initiative. The plan envisages revitalising the fabled Silk Street buying and selling routes to hyperlink China to Europe and the Center East by means of huge infrastructure tasks.

However for that formidable plan to work, Xinjiang has to work.

China’s leaders say Uighurs are benefiting from poverty eradication programmes. On October 24, the Individuals’s Every day reported greater than $6bn had been spent on enhancing the lives of virtually two million Uighurs.

However that’s nonetheless a drop within the ocean in comparison with what the federal government is spending on safety and surveillance in Xinjiang.

And one thing else is clearly obvious.

Xinjiang has turn into one other space that’s now all however off limits to international journalists.

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)(window, document,'script','//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');

fbq('init', '968100353246427'); fbq('track', 'PageView');

from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/in-chinas-xinjiang-surveillance-is-all-pervasive/

[weeklywtf-blog]

This is how we start

Move on. Accept it. Donald Trump is the president, now get on with your life." The apathetic and lackadaisical party line of the right and the lazy seems to be everywhere this week; shouting at you from Facebook, glaring at you from your iPhone screen, inserting its shiftless, unsolicited message into our daily lives. What the right does not understand is that THIS IS moving on. We the people are forging ahead to form a more perfect union, to establish social justice, to insure the welfare of all human beings by actively resisting the offensive rhetoric that got this Cheeto-colored demagogue elected. This is not a moment, this is a movement. This is the awakening of a population, a mobilization of the like-minded, a call to action for any person that values fundamental human rights.

Before this moment in history, I would have told you that I am not a political person. To me, "politics" was a far-off land in which the pant-suited played but the actual dealings on that distant shore had little, if anything, to do with my everyday life. That is just not going to cut it anymore. It is no longer cute or acceptable or respectable to lack a political identity. If you posted an American flag bikini selfie on the Fourth of July captioned with some variation of #redwhiteandbooze but didn't vote in the presidential election, you, my fellow millennial, are the problem.

The right, I admit that I don't understand them, but I hope to someday find common ground in conversation, to find hope in our collective humanity. I don't understand them, but I can grasp their desire for the left to move on. What I cannot understand, what I cannot fathom, is the vast majority of humans who claim to know better while still insisting that "we need to get over it. I didn't vote for him but nothing is going to change". To that population I say: your privilege is showing and it is not a good look. To the humans who insist "we need to let it go" what I hear is "I am indifferent, I am lazy, educating myself is arduous". And it is tough. Staying informed is difficult. Weeding through the muck is laborious. Re-teaching yourself sixth grade social studies so you can understand the real news when you finally find it is challenging. But democracy is demanding our participation.

Before this election I lived in an ivory tower built on a foundation of privilege; but that foundation is cracking and I urge you to get out, or get buried. Since November my emotions have wandered through the neighborhoods of despair and despondency but yesterday, participating in the Women's March in the capital city of the great red state of Texas, I felt the quietest, most soothing whisper of hope. Donald J. Trump may prove all of us wrong, he may do great things as the leader of our free world; but if he doesn't, if he continues to deny climate change, to perpetuate the idea that healthcare and education are a privilege to be purchased, to use fear as a tool for division, to ignore the global community under the ill-advised mantra of "America first", well then, we will be watching. If nothing else, Donald Trump is the revolting orange catalyst that engaged and empowered a population. On November 8th his victory awakened the intellectual masses; forcing us to evaluate our role in the political beast that is democracy, urging the formally self-identified "not political" persons into activism. His triumph compelled the previously reticent liberals to wake the hell up; now that we're paying attention, please, we cannot stop.

Our future depends on vigilance; we cannot let this self-obsessed would-be dictator, who has both the complexion and empathetic capacity of a stale cheese ball, become the new normal. These are extraordinary times and we will rise to the occasion; we must preserve the ideals that this country was built on and that we still hold dear. We must continue the fight for liberty and justice for all. We must stay awake, we must stay engaged, we must participate. We will not accept the exclusive and hateful rhetoric of the current administration; and we will remind you, President Trump, that no one grabs Lady Liberty by the pussy.

[mrmichaelchadler]

True/False 2019: Over the Rainbow, Midnight Traveler, Treasure Island, Let It Burn, A Wild Stream

My third trip to Columbia, Missouri to attend the True/False film festival confirms that the setting has become a source of comfort in these trying times. Each year, talented filmmakers, artists, writers, and journalists convene to witness the year’s best crop of non-fiction filmmaking. In between films, they soak up great food, cheap drinks, and smart talk. The festival’s precise, specific programming identity has always been its greatest asset, and this year was no exception. Programmers Chris Boeckmann, Abby Sun, and Amir George put together a lineup that challenges instead of placates and embodies diversity rather than merely paying it lip service. Its lack of cynicism and its commitment to promoting/exhibiting capital-A Art never fails to overwhelm me, especially considering it exists adjacent to an industry defined by slick, commercial interests. I’m eminently grateful to take a minor part in such a joyous excursion each year.

Over the course of five days, I saw many films that raised provocative questions, shined a light on unseen corners of the world, and remained in my head long after I left the theater. Here is the first of two dispatches from the festival.

“Over the Rainbow”

Popular documentaries like Alex Gibney’s “Going Clear” and the A&E series “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” might have exhausted new information about the controversial religion, not to mention sated audiences’ appetites for disturbing scoops about cult-like brainwashing. However, director Jeffrey Peixoto doesn’t adopt an exposé angle with his experiential feature “Over the Rainbow,” which has no fresh revelations about Scientology. Instead, he takes an observational tact by interviewing current and former Scientology members about the origins of their New Age faith. Peixoto spent almost a decade gaining the trust of his subjects and, subsequently, their confidence in his project shines through the film. In turn, “Over the Rainbow” becomes a compassionate, nuanced discourse on faith as an operating principle in one’s life, especially when the religion in question is in its most nascent stage.

Given what we already know about L. Ron Hubbard, David Miscavige, and the organization’s history of abuse, it’s tempting to think that Peixoto takes a naïve, even immoral, stance with “Over the Rainbow.” Does giving documentary subjects the space to wax poetic about their history with Scientology amount to a tacit endorsement of the religion itself? That might be the case if Peixoto’s formal approach didn’t systematically defamiliarize the vast majority of “Over the Rainbow’s” participants. Aided by an unnerving score from Australian electronic group HTRK, Peixoto films the Scientology members in lingering long takes that render their visages alien and unknowable. (It’s no coincidence that “Over the Rainbow” opens with a discussion of the psychology of UFO abductees.) In between the interviews, Peixoto fills the frame with ominous B-roll footage of Scientology retreats that compliments equally ominous footage of anonymous strangers walking in an urban metropolis or abandoned country roads. All life becomes a series of abstract, alienating enigmas when viewed through a narrow worldview. 

“Over the Rainbow” doesn’t unsettle because of what its subjects explain or disclose but rather how Peixoto presents them, i.e. people who have gotten so in touch with themselves that their relationship with the rest of the world has been corrupted. The gap between the subjects’ comfort on camera and their non-fiction staging creates a nerve-wracking liminal expanse for the viewer. “Over the Rainbow” might run the risk of confirming pre-conceived biases from those within or adjacent of the organization, but to claim there’s no moral dimension to the film would be abjectly false.

“Midnight Traveler”

Hassan Fazili’s “Midnight Traveler” might be the most compelling argument for the iPhone (and, presumably, Cloud storage) as the best available vehicle for vérité filmmaking. Fazili brings gripping immediacy to his three-year, 3,500-mile asylum journey from Afghanistan to Germany after he and his family are targeted by the Taliban. Three different iPhones capture the danger and uncertainty inherent in such a voyage: Fazili and his family are often forced to sleep in the woods or in abject housing conditions while facing prejudice because of their refugee status. Yet, Fazili, a sentimentalist as well as a staunchly political filmmaker, also includes plenty of warm scenes with his family as they try to carve out something that resembles a normal life amidst the global chaos. (It helps that his two young daughters, Nargis and Zahra, are adorable testaments to the resiliency of children.) An existential road film with life-or-death stakes, “Midnight Traveler” presents a ground-floor portrayal of the refugee crisis that smartly privileges experience over solutions.

Screenwriter and editor Emelie Coleman Mahdavian deserves credit for shaping a lucid narrative from hundreds of hours of footage, even if, as a result, “Midnight Traveler” occasionally suffers from a neat storytelling sensibility. It’s not difficult to imagine a fiction adaptation of Fazili’s film, considering that all the A-to-B, three-act elements are already present. However, Mahdavian finds sideways approaches to Fazili’s story that impress, e.g. close-ups of Zahra’s bedbug bites that cover her arms and face communicates the dehumanizing condition of refugee camps better than standard B-roll footage. Interestingly, “Midnight Traveler” introduces but never resolves the tension between Fazili’s filmmaking impulses and the responsibility he feels towards his family. Whenever Fazili’s wife, Fatima, implores him to stop filming, he almost always refuses. Later, when Zahra goes missing for an hour, Fazili chastises himself for even considering how he might film her safe return. It’s an overwhelming concern, but one that’s dwarfed by the myriad practical complications Fazili and his family face as they try to find safekeeping.

Similarly, the way “Midnight Traveler” touches upon, but doesn’t directly analyze, a litany of political issues—xenophobic bigotry towards global migrants, the hijab as a symbol of oppression and/or cultural pride, broad institutional failures to protect marginalized communities fleeing state violence—only amplifies their resonance. These topics are the fabric of Fazili’s life, not abstract notions primed for TV pundit debate. It’s a feature not a bug that Fazili and Mahdavian allow these ideas to pulsate in the background rather than touting them front-and-center for easy liberal digestion. Sometimes the best tactic is to let the footage speak for itself.

“Treasure Island”

One of the more whimsical entries at True/False this year, “Treasure Island” offers a broad portrait of a suburban Parisian water park. Director Guillaume Brac exploits his unfettered access to capture multiple groups that flow amongst each other: jubilant swimmers itching for a good time, exhausted security guards who try to keep kids from sneaking inside the park without paying, and administrators making decisions behind closed doors that keep the lights on and people safe. The park’s recreational modus operandi connects them all even if their intentions are at cross-purposes.

Brac crafts a hazy, semi-utopian landscape in “Treasure Island”; it’s a place where multiculturalism exists without much consequence and life’s nasty realities are elided for fun under the sun. Splashes and joyous screams dominate the sound mix. Teens and twentysomethings eagerly flirt with each other in between awe-inspiring water stunts. In this regard, “Treasure Island” embraces its liberated French core: a sequence featuring a hunky lifeguard and two young women culminates with his arms around both of them, smirking up a storm, and repeating the mantra, “Life is great.” Brac contrasts the park’s charged adult energy with scenes of children embarking on their own carefree parallel journeys, as if to suggest that the space exists to be consumed from multiple vantage points. Frederick Wiseman’s institutional approach meets a pop sensibility in “Treasure Island,” which is content to privilege leisure over sharp insight.

“Let It Burn”

Maíra Bühler makes the admirable choice to resist almost all exposition for her film “Let It Burn,” a profile of São Paulo’s Parque Dom Pedro hostel that houses and employs drug addicts, until the very end. It’s only then that she explains that Brazil’s newly elected conservative government plans to shutter the harm reduction program that keeps this community off the streets. This choice retroactively provides weight to the purely observational film that otherwise offers dignity to people written off by society at large. 

Culled together from four years of footage, “Let It Burn” carves room for strung-out citizens to exist outside of a punitive system, illustrating how their addictions operate while refusing to let it wholly define them. Men and women frequently break out into song, cannily performing for the camera and themselves. Violence permeates the environment but it’s presented as an unfortunate byproduct of a program designed to support instead of punish. Idealistic activists who run the hostel strive to keep the order while maintaining empathy for their charges. Lovers quarrel and make up. Tenants ride the elevator for amusement as much as they use it for transportation. Even as “Let It Burn” occasionally gets mired in repetitive rhythms, or too frequently loiters in overly familiar footage, Bühler’s generous eye keeps the whole project afloat. Judgment isn’t in Bühler’s vocabulary. Instead, “care” is the operative emotional framework.

“A Wild Stream”

Two men bonded by circumstance on the coast of Sea of Cortez, Omar and Chilo spend their days fishing and their nights drinking in a shack. Though not fast friends, they eventually reach an appreciably understanding of each other, partially because their isolation from larger society necessitates a relationship of some sort. 

Their chemistry grounds Nuria Ibáñez Castañeda’s “A Wild Stream,” which splits its time between character study and regional portraiture. She captures the sea as a prideful entity, one that will exist long after Omar and Chilo have gone, but emphasizes the loneliness of the men who dedicate their lives to its upkeep. Castañeda strips away the rest of the world from her frame and only hints at a larger world outside of Omar and Chilo’s eye line. Thus, the coast becomes a confessional space for Omar and Chilo; they’re cautiously vulnerable with each other while maintaining enough emotional distance so that neither gets too uncomfortable. Suggestions of past lives, lost children, and scummy citizenry are bandied about, but Castañeda never pushes for explication. This approach might render “A Wild Stream” an opaque work for some, but any time the film threatens to get into the weeds, Castañeda returns to fishing and the mundane joys of working with ones hands. It turns out that nature and friendship are still sustainable resources.

from All Content https://ift.tt/2u6aLWU

[investmart007]

DETROIT | President and stars join in epic farewell to Queen of Soul

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/h5Jgag

DETROIT | President and stars join in epic farewell to Queen of Soul

DETROIT  — Former presidents and preachers joined a parade of singers Friday in a hip-swaying, piano-pounding farewell to Aretha Franklin, remembering the Queen of Soul as a powerful force for musical and political change and a steadfast friend and family member.

“Aretha’s singing challenged the dangling discords of hate and lies and racism and injustice,” the pastor William J. Barber II said. “Her singing was revelation and was revolution.”

In a send-off both grand and personal, a celebrity lineup of mourners filled the same Detroit church that hosted Rosa Parks’ funeral and offered prayers, songs and dozens of tributes. Guests included former President Bill Clinton, former first lady Hillary Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson.

Robinson, the Motown great, remembered first hearing Franklin play piano when he was just 8, and he remained close to her for the rest of her life. They talked for hours at a time.

“You’re so special,” he said, before crooning a few lines from his song “Really Gonna Miss You,” with the line “really gonna be different without you.”

Late Friday, Franklin was laid to rest in a mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery, the final resting place of her father and two of her sisters.

The epic funeral unfolded on the same day as services for Arizona Sen. John McCain in the nation’s capital, creating a challenge for some news networks trying to show both ceremonies. The McCain memorial, with its reverential silence and ramrod-straight honor guard, contrasted sharply with the joyous remembrance in Detroit.

Bill Clinton described himself as an Aretha Franklin “groupie,” saying he had loved her since college. He traced her life’s journey and praised her as someone who “lived with courage, not without fear, but overcoming her fears.”

He remembered attending her last public performance, at Elton John’s AIDS Foundation benefit in November in New York. She looked “desperately ill” but managed to greet him by standing and saying, “How you doing, baby?”

Her career, Clinton noted, spanned from vinyl records to cellphones. He held the microphone near his iPhone and played a snippet of Franklin’s classic “Think,” the audience clapping along.

“It’s the key to freedom!” Clinton said.

Lasting just over eight hours, the service at Greater Grace Temple encompassed many of the same elements and emotions that were hallmarks of Franklin’s more than six decades on sacred and secular stages. She was remembered as the pride of Detroit and a citizen of the world.

Actress Cicely Tyson reworked the Paul Laurence Dunbar poem “When Malindy Sings” to “When Aretha Sings.” Music mogul Clive Davis, who helped revive Franklin’s career in the 1980s, described her as a loving friend and a dedicated and unpredictable artist, whose passions ranged from soul to ballet. He remembered her turning up at a tribute to him in a tutu.

“There was the Queen of Soul, accompanied by members of the City Center Ballet Company,” he recalled, with Franklin “doing well-rehearsed pirouettes and dancing with most impressive agility and dignity. It was wonderful.”

Music was in abundance, of course. Jennifer Hudson, whom Franklin said she wanted to play her in a movie about her life, brought the crowd to its feet with a rousing “Amazing Grace.” Ariana Grande sang one of the Queen’s biggest hits, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and Faith Hill performed “What a Friend We Have In Jesus.”

The Aretha Franklin Orchestra opened the funeral with a medley featuring “I Say a Little Prayer,” ”Angel” and other songs she was known for, along with such gospel numbers as “I Love the Lord” and “Walk in the Light.”

Gladys Knight segued from “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Near the end, Stevie Wonder brought the dwindling audience to their feet, swaying to his classic tribute to love, “As.” Jennifer Holliday ended the funeral with “Climbing Higher Mountains,” an uptempo gospel original by Franklin herself.

A statement from former President George W. Bush that was read to the crowd said Franklin would “continue to bring joy to millions for generations to come.” The Rev. Al Sharpton read a statement from former President Barack Obama, who wrote that Franklin’s “work reflected the very best of the American story.”

Sharpton received loud cheers when he denounced President Donald Trump for saying that the singer “worked for” him as he responded to her death. “She performed for you,” Sharpton said of Franklin, who had sung at Trump-owned venues. “She worked for us.”

“She gave us pride. She gave us a regal bar to reach. She represented the best in our community,” Sharpton said.

Many noted her longtime commitment to civil rights and lasting concern for the poor. The Rev. Jesse Jackson recalled Franklin raising money for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and urged attendees to honor her memory by registering to vote. Her friend Greg Mathis, the reality show host and retired Michigan judge, recalled his last conversation with her. They talked about the tainted water supply in Flint. “You go up there and sock it to ’em,” she urged Mathis, paraphrasing the “sock it to me” refrain from “Respect.”

Franklin died Aug. 16 at age 76.

Her body arrived in a 1940 Cadillac LaSalle hearse. She wore a shimmering gold dress, with sequined heels — the fourth outfit Franklin was clothed in during a week of events leading up to her funeral.

The casket was carried to the church that also sent Franklin’s father, the renowned minister C.L. Franklin, to his and Parks’ final resting place at Woodlawn Cemetery, where the singer will join them. Pink Cadillacs filled the street outside the church, a reference to a Franklin hit from the 1980s, “Freeway of Love.”

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced during the service that the city would rename the riverfront amphitheater Chene Park to “Aretha Franklin Park.”

Family members, among them granddaughter Victorie Franklin and niece Cristal Franklin, spoke with awe and affection as they remembered a world-famous performer who also loved gossip and kept pictures of loved ones on her piano.

Grandson Jordan directed his remarks directly to Franklin, frequently stopping to fight back tears.

“I’m sad today, because I’m losing my friend. But I know the imprint she left on this world can never be removed. You showed the world God’s love, and there’s nothing more honorable.”

By Associated Press

[giancarlonicoli]

                           by

Vitaliy Katsenelson

                                       Mon, 07/09/2018 - 16:30                                                0            SHARES                

When we bought SoftBank a few years ago it was relatively unknown to most US investors. Some of our clients even thought it was a bank. Today Softbank is a daily staple in the business news. It has raised a $100 billion private equity fund. Its leader, Masayoshi Son, is either praised as a visionary or called a Japanese cowboy.

I don’t fault the media for the latter characterization – as you’ll see in the article, Mr. Son has the intestinal fortitude to make enormous and often controversial bets. Like the rest of us, Mr. Son doesn’t walk on water, and thus over the years not all of his bets have worked out. But he has become one of the richest people in Japan and has built Softbank into one of Japan’s largest companies by being a very original thinker. As you read this article I’d like you to think about Masayoshi Son in the context of the following quotes from Albert Einstein:  

“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”  

To some of my readers this article will look familiar. If that is the case, skip the intro and go to the “Valuation” and “Additional Thoughts” sections of the article, which are completely new.

Introduction

Masayoshi Son, the Korean-Japanese, University of California, Berkeley-educated founder of one of Japan’s most successful companies, SoftBank Group.

Like Buffett, Son is a tremendous capital allocator with a highly impressive record: Over the past nine and a half years, SoftBank’s investments have delivered a 45% annualized rate of return. A big chunk of this success can be attributed to one stock: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, a $100 million investment SoftBank made in 2001 that is worth about $80 billion today.

Though you may put Alibaba in the (positive) black swan column, Son’s success as an investor goes well beyond it — the list of his investments that have brought multibagger returns is long. The 57-year-old Son is Japan’s richest person, and SoftBank, which he started in 1981 and owns 19% of, has a market capitalization of $72 billion.

Like Apple co-founder Jobs, Son is blessed with clairvoyance. He saw the internet as an transformative force well before that fact became common knowledge. In 1995 he invested in a then-tiny company, Yahoo!, earning six times his investment. But he didn’t stop there; he created a joint venture with Yahoo! by forming Yahoo! Japan, putting about $70 million into a company that today is worth around $8 billion. (Yahoo! Japan is a publicly traded company listed in Japan.)

What is shocking is that Son saw that the iPhone would revolutionize the telecom industry before Apple announced it or even invented it. See for yourself in this excerpt from an interview with Charlie Rose, where Son describes his conversation with Jobs in 2005 — two years before the iPhone was introduced:

“I brought my little drawing of [an] iPod with mobile capabilities. I gave [Jobs] my drawing, and Steve says, “Masa, you don’t give me your drawing. I have my own.” I said, “Well, I don’t need to give you my dirty paper, but once you have your product, give me for Japan.” He said, “Well, Masa, you are crazy. We have not talked to anybody, but you came to see me as the first guy. I give to you.”

Like Virgin Group founder Branson, who created Virgin Atlantic Airways in the U.K. to compete against the state-owned behemoth British Airways, Son started two telecom businesses in Japan — one fixed-line and one wireless — with which he challenged the state-owned NTT monopoly. In 2001, disgusted with Japan’s horrible broadband speeds, he convinced the government to deregulate the telecom industry. When no other companies emerged to rival NTT, Son took it upon himself to start a fixed-line competitor, Yahoo! BB (broadband). Thanks to him, now Japan enjoys one of the highest broadband speeds in the world and Yahoo! BB is a leading fixed-line telecom.

It took Son four years to bring his broadband business to profitability. This is how the Wall Street Journal described that period in 2012: “The problems at the broadband unit contributed to losses for the entire company for four consecutive years. Mr. Son set up an office in a meeting room 13 floors below his executive suite to be closer to the problem unit. He slept in the office at times and routinely summoned executives and partners for meetings late at night. . . . He worked out of the meeting room for 18 months, until the broadband unit had cut enough costs and moved enough customers to more lucrative plans.”

A normal person might have taken a break and enjoyed the fruits of his labor at that point, but not Son. Just as his broadband business went into the black, Son executed on his vision for the internet and bought Vodafone K.K., a struggling, poorly run wireless telecom in Japan. SoftBank paid about $15 billion, borrowing $10 billion.

Fast-forward eight years, and SoftBank Mobile is a success. It is one of the largest mobile companies in Japan, even faster-growing than DoCoMo (a subsidiary of almighty NTT). Today it spits out about $5 billion in operating profits annually — not bad for a $5 billion equity investment.

Son has a highly ambitious goal for SoftBank: He wants it to become one of the largest companies in the world. Unlike the average Wall Street CEO, whose time horizon has shrunk to quarters, Son thinks in centuries: He has a 300-year vision for SoftBank. Practically speaking, 300 years is a bit challenging even for long-term investors, but at the core of his vision Son is building a company that he wants to last forever (or 300 years, whichever comes first).

Son views SoftBank as an internet company and is committed to investing in internet companies in China and India. He believes that as these countries develop, their GDPs will eclipse those of the U.S. and Europe.

Jobs, Branson, Buffett — it is rare for somebody to embody strengths of each of these business giants. None of them has the qualities of the other two. Buffett is a business builder but does not run the companies in his portfolio. Branson is not a visionary — in his book Losing My Virginity he admits to not seeing analog music (CDs) being destroyed by digital music (iTunes) and demolishing his music store business. Jobs probably came the closest, as both a visionary and a business builder, but he was not known for his investing acumen.

Valuation (updated)

You’d think SoftBank would be priced to reflect Son’s premium. Instead, its stock currently trades at around a 50% discount to the fair value of its known assets (SoftBank has about 1,300 investments, many of them not consolidated on its financials).

The gap between what SoftBank is worth (its fair value) and its stock price has widened substantially over the last few years despite the stock’s appreciation. Our fair-value estimate of SoftBank shares is about $80.

Frustrated with SoftBank’s valuation, Son has begun to make strategic moves to deleverage SoftBank. Last February, SoftBank announced it may take its Japanese telecom business public. SoftBank is expected to sell about 30% of its stake and should raise about $20 billion.

SoftBank owns a large chuck of Didi, the largest Chinese ride-hailing company, a Chinese version of Uber, which in fact bought Uber’s assets in China. Didi is a privately held company. Recently SoftBank announced that it is going to sell its shares of Didi to Vision Fund for $20 billion. Vision Fund is a $100-billion private equity-like investment vehicle created by Son. SoftBank owns one-third of Vision fund and has an even larger economic interest in it.

And then there is Sprint — SoftBank owns 82% of its publicly listed shares. After dating T-Mobile for almost a year, Sprint and T-Mobile finally decided to merge. There is a chance that the government might not approve this merger, but we think the probability of approval is high. The telecom industry requires scale: the cost of a network (cell towers, equipment, and spectrum) is mostly fixed, and profitability of a carrier is for the most part determined by the number of users.

T-Mobile and Sprint are each half the size of giant incumbents Verizon Communications and AT&T, which achieved their size through dozens of acquisitions. The combination of Sprint and T-Mobile would reduce competition in the short run, but in the long run it would create a strong and viable competitor and thus stable prices for consumers. T-Mobile and (especially) Sprint on their own would eventually get marginalized into irrelevance by AT&T and Verizon by the large cost of 5G rollout.

If the merger goes through it would improve the optics of SoftBank’s balance sheet. SoftBank owns 82% of Sprint and thus has to consolidate Sprint’s $30 billion of debt on its balance sheet. Despite SoftBank’s control of Sprint, in the event of bankruptcy SoftBank is not liable for Sprint’s debt. After the merger SoftBank will own around 27% of the combined entity and thus, magically, the debt of the new company will migrate from SoftBank’s balance sheet to the balance sheet of Deutsche Telecom — the majority owner of T-Mobile.

Between the sale of Didi, the Japanese telecom IPO, and the Sprint/T-Mobile merger, SoftBank should see its debt drop by about $70 billion. The current discount between the fair value of SoftBank’s assets and its stock price is caused by the perception of enormous leverage, and as the leverage gets cured so will the perception.

Conclusion

There are many ways to look at SoftBank. You can think of it as buying a stock at a roughly 50% discount to the market value of its assets or as a way to buy Alibaba at less than half its current price. Alibaba is a great play on the Chinese consumer who is spending more and more money shopping online. Alibaba is synonymous with Chinese online shopping, whose growth may accelerate with higher smartphone penetration and, just as important, the ongoing rollout of a fast wireless LTE network.

You can also look at SoftBank as a vehicle through which to invest in emerging markets — not just China but India as well. It is almost like hiring the combination of Buffett, Branson and Jobs to go to work for you investing in markets whose economies in a few decades will surpass that of the U.S., while also investing in a segment of the economy — the internet — that is growing at a much faster rate than the overall economy. And, of course, you have Masayoshi Son, the Buffett-Branson-Jobs fusion, making these investments for you. With SoftBank at this valuation, you can ditch your emerging-markets mutual fund.

Additional thoughts

Some additional thoughts. I don’t expect every bet Mr. Son makes in Vision Fund to work out. Not at all. I look at Vision Fund as a portfolio of bets. For instance, his investment in WeWork and WeWork’s valuation make me cringe. I am also concerned that he feels the need to spend $100 billion all at once. There will be a time when this money will buy a lot more than it does today.

I feel uneasy that the $100 billion will be like a pig going through the python of Silicon Valley, inflating the prices of technology companies. But a few things let me sleep well owning Softbank: First, Mr. Son owns 20% of the company – every dollar Softbank spends, 20 cents are his. As Nassim Taleb would put it, Mr. Son has skin in the game. Second, the discount of Softbank stock to the fair value of its assets is so huge that it could absorb the blow-up of Vision Fund. And finally, I remind myself that I’d probably have had a similar feeling of uneasiness about Mr. Son’s decisions at any time in his 30-plus-year career (PCs in the ’80s, Internet in the ’90s, telecom Japan and internet in China in the ’00s). And this is when I remember Einstein’s quotes.

P.S. To understand Mr. Son’s thinking, read my article on exponential growth. To understand the structure of Vision Fund, read this article.

Vitaliy Katsenelson, CFA Student of Life, CEO

I am the CEO at Investment Management Associates, which is anything but your average investment firm. (Seriously, take a look.)

I wrote two books on investing, which were published by John Wiley & Sons and have been translated into eight languages. (Even in Polish!)

In a brief moment of senility, Forbes magazine called me “the new Benjamin Graham.” (They must have been impressed by the eloquence of the Polish translation.)

Not receiving my investment articles? Sign up here.

[whosbahd]

Green Mountain Growler: 2 weeks of awayness, in 3.5 days.

As a father of 3 I had high expectations for a solo Father’s Day long weekend getaway. Dirt, the unknown, the wildcamping... a different kind of adventure from the daily constant-party of having 3 kids at home, work, routine etc etc.. And just like all proper vacations and adventures, the trip starts as soon as it’s on the calendar. Bikepacking is so simple, yet the constant dialing in of gear and of route, amounts to hours of late night planning and assessment - should I take the full length sleeping pad, or the 3/4 length that weight 100grams less? 

Some thoughts and photos of the trip below.

My Ride With GPS Route: Green Mountain Gravel Growler- 3night Abrviated note, some POI (camping , food etc.) I did not visit. Others are from the BP.com original track. Strava, day 1/2  Strava day 3/4

The  original Green Mountain Gravel Growler route and information

My expectations and hopes were high. The plan was to follow a slightly altered Green Mountain Gravel Growler route, covering  220miles (20,000′ of up) in 3.5days. I expected rolling hills, great views, some river swimming, and of course excellent food and beverages. High mileage days, unknown track- pretty much an ideal few days. 

Meh... is what i have to say about this brewery...overdone and maybe because there are so many other options, but Heady T isn’t what it used to be. 

My 3.5 day abridged Green Mountain Gravel Growler entirely and fully  over delivered.  In addition to meeting my expectations of challenging mixed terrain miles, I was energized and in awe of the architecture and the people I met. The quiet and reserved homesteads melded into the landscape. There were plenty of impeccably maintained homesteads and sagging funky farm houses. The ‘fabric’ of the landscape and culture was pure VT .

Like there are micro climates on each side of a hill, where forest patterns change and cool breezes come and go, the cultural and physical fabric varied. It takes a while to notice this, but as you go through multiple backwoods dirt road communities you sense the subtle changes in society and land development.

Looking back, I say it felt like 2 weeks away in 3.5 days. True. My body feels great and strong, my excitement for further summer family riding and camping is ramping up.

when was the last time you asked a farmer to camp on her land and woke at sunrise to the sounds of birds all around you?

Met a lot of young rippers out there. 

The people (and Angora goats) I encountered in Vermont were welcoming and not overly chatty. The annoying New Yorkers that flocked the trendy breweries stuck out and were almost physically repulsive in context to plain and simple friendliness the village store cashiers, old guys fishing, farm girls, diner regulars, and artist communities that I encountered. One bickering family of New Yorkers were so annoyingly arguing about nothing at all, that I had to leave the building. 

Of course as a brewery tour the trip did not disappoint, mostly because where there is good beer, there is good filling food. The tour circles arguably the IPA capital of the world. I did not linger and have a few of anything. It was all business: rest the legs, slow sip enjoyment of tasty coldness to lighten the brain,  and keep going.… My favorite beer? This sour. 

Yes, this Hogback Mountain Sour was my favorite beverage on the trip, found at the hopping Saturday Waitsfield Farmers Market  Apparently it pairs great with Yak sausage topped with eggs.  Everything on sample by Hogback was excellent...I almost had another. But Lincoln Gap was an hour away.

My first night, I camped with these folks. IN just a couple weeks, the boystrous crew cut a barn frame. The crane arrived for the raising the morning I left. After having ribs at Lost Nation in Morrisvegas (Morrisville), this hearty band of timber framers, invited me for smoked meat and beers! and a hot tub soak! 

Said ribs. This brings us to the bike and gear.  The GT Grade carbon Ultegra. It is a great bike. It’s a fast gravel ripper with a very very comfortable and unique rear end - slender compliant seat stays that soak up so much. It’s super light and very durable - I have ‘underbiked’ a lot on it and it has always impressed with it’s composure. 

Gearing:  I was on a 52/36 - 11-36 Ultegra drivetrain. Ideal for me, would have have been a 38t x 11-42 ish 1x drive-train.  The 52 chainring was great on a few occasions but really not necessary. A dropper post and beefier tires, 40mm>2.1”, would have been welcomed on this ride. 

Bags are all Revelate Designs, I’ve been amassing over 5-10 years. First ride with the Tangle framebag and it was great as it forced my knees apart a bit, keeping them healthy and mashing pedal stroke composed. 

Huge shout out to Hampshire Bicycle Exchange in Amherst for helping me get kitted out over the years. And to Northampton Bicycle, for the Grade and last minute help dialing in my new  cassette (thanks Neal!) 

Unknown to me, this field led to splendid singletrack that dropped into Montpellier. 

 The GT Grade can only take up to a 35mm tire.. but I think I found a perfect match: The WTB Cross Boss 35mm are fantastic semi-aggressive durable tire that roll well on roads. On this trip I dialed in the pressure between 30ish and 55 psi a few times and the tires responded fantastically. (Grail/DT240 wheels. ) 

As a mountain biker first and foremost that enjoys exploring rough trail, I am better suited for one of the new breed of 27.5” Adventure bikes. Ibis Hakka MX, next Warbird, or similar ti custom is on my list. Isn’t it amazing how there is always an N+1 vision that will genuinely up your riding ? 

yes please. 10am coffee stop.

TIP: Weed out necessary stuff. Load up at home and ride uphill for a few minutes. You’ll get a sense if you’re carrying too much weight (probably are) , before starting your trip. Make a list and edit it at the end of your trip, for the next one. Carrying too much is okay when you’re traveling flat, but if your route has a lot of climbs - go as light as you can!

one of the best coffee experiences of my life. 

Favorite gear items: Bedrock sandals. I purchased these after seeing them on bikepacking.com  They are my favorite footwear. Each long break, I took off my stiff Sidis which made a huge difference in recovery and general enjoyment. Highly recommend these sandals. 

Shelter: Nemo Apollo 3. 

 In need of a 1 person shelter option, I bought the Nemo Apollo 3  . I found it for a crazy good price and it over delivered. Hardly any weight, easy to setup and pleasurable to sleep in . I’ll echo other reviewers by saying this is NOT a 3 person tent.  1 + bike/gear or 2 + gear only.  It’s nice to know that in case of severe rain , I could have brought my bike and packs in the tent with me. The Nemo mesh bivvy was great on one night when mosquits were bad.  

Weight - After day 1 , I unloaded about 3-4 lbs of excess- giving it to my cousin in Craftsbury: ‘extra riding and camp clothes, sleeping bag outer layer for 30degrees, rain gear, battery lipstick storage, heavy bar light.  This made a huge difference and I feel no loss.  I slept in my warm layers, wore the same bibs each day, and got rained on in my riding clothes.. no problem at all . I am confident that I could have ridden forever with my setup, assuming regular food stops. It took several trips,  but I think my list is dialed now. Food- meat sticks , occasional chocolate, and electrolites were all I carried. The Epic brand bison, salmon, venison meat bars were a particular favorite that I found all over. 

Tip: keep some meat for beastly dogs!  I almost wielded a large stick to defend myself from a large territorial dog coming down in Waitsfeidl. Fortunately a taste of dried salmon allowed me to throw the second piece, and bolt down the hill to safety.

Maps, route building, and tech Garmin 820 for turn-by turn. I forgot to put in auto-sleep mode and burned through 50% in the first couple hours. I never had an y problem running out of juice. Iphone 7plus with GaiaGPS downloaded maps and route for backup , phone in airplane mode. I paid for the RWGPS $6/mnth version to easily edit the original Growler Route, added a bunch or points of interest, and then uploaded to Garmin and GaiaGPS. My confidence in route building and nav has increased tremendously.

singletrack for breakfast!

Route improvements and notes: Out of Little River State Park, mountain bike singletrack would be a better climb. Look at the trails on OSM or Strave Heatmaps and map some switchback climbs  to the higher singletrack and forest road. 

Heading South of Montpellier, it would have been preferred to stay on the Boyer St Forest singletrack (awesome trails!) instead of bomb down the extremely washed out road.  Tip: Wild camping.  Use google maps to scope out potential wild camping spots and add them to your route as points of interest. I added a couple potential spots in each landing spot. Even though local advice and invitations were much better, it was nice to know I had some options ready. I also scoped out friendly looking farms ahead of time( CSAs, homesteaders, etc)  one of which provided an amazing camping spot. Next year, my teen son and I hope to bikepack in Europe!  Cheers!

[ramialkarmi]

Snap is pricing its IPO today — here's the case for and against investing

Snapchat's parent company, Snap Inc., is set to price its initial public offering after the close on Wednesday, allowing investors to decide how much the social media company is ultimately worth.

The company is officially seeking to raise as much as $3.2 billion and pricing shares at $14 to $16. That would value it between $19.5 billion and $22 billion. However, as Business Insider on Tuesday reported, there is enough demand to drive the share price to $17 or $18, which would value the company around $25 billion.

Snap's IPO was already oversubscribed by at least $6.8 billion heading into the weekend, Business Insider reported. 

About a quarter of new shares sold in the IPO could go to long-term investors who will be required to hold the stock for a year, the company said in a regulatory filing. In exchange for a guaranteed block, the big investors may agree not to dump the stock — though Snap's filing says it may waive the lockup requirement.

The roadshow in New York last month drew a standing-room-only crowd of nearly 500 people that one attendee said included "the entire hedge fund mafia."

Business Insider spoke to a handful of prospective investors and others close to the deal about the pros and cons. In most cases, these people declined to be identified because they were not permitted to speak to the press.

By now, the books have closed and the IPO investors are locked in. Everyone else will get a chance to make the same call when the stock begins trading on Thursday. 

Here are the four key issues prospective investors in Snap are wrestling with, according to investors we spoke with:

Valuation: Snap's $22 billion valuation at the top end of the IPO price range has been described as "smart" and conservative. However, Snap has no profits, and one venture-capital firm predicts it won't stop the red ink flowing until 2020.

Slowing user growth: In the fourth quarter of 2016, Snap posted the slowest growth rate for any of the 12 quarters for which it reported numbers. It told prospective investors that the rate was partly due to problems with Android, and that it has focused on quality rather than quantity in terms of users. Still, some are "freaked out" about the slowdown.

Monetization: Snap has only just started focusing on monetizing its users through advertising, and Goldman Sachs has forecast that Snap will increase revenues fivefold by 2018. However, some are concerned about Snap's niche demographic and the management team's ability to execute. One prospective investor said the success of the sales/advertising part of Snap's business is "TBD."

The competition: The question of whether Snap should be concerned about Facebook — and Instagram, which Facebook owns — was an important element of the roadshow both in New York and London. On one hand, Snap has a reputation for innovation. On the other, Facebook is a $390 billion giant with deep pockets and a huge user base.

Below are the more in-depth bull and bear cases for buying a piece of Snap:

SEE ALSO: INSIDE THE ROADSHOW: Snapchat just met with prospective investors in NYC and faced tough questions

DON'T MISS: How Imran Khan swapped Wall Street for a huge role at Snapchat and earned $150 million in 2 years

BULL: Snap's potential $22 billion valuation

Snap's proposed valuation has raised some eyebrows on Wall Street, as people close to the company had for months floated the idea that it would be valued at up to $25 billion.

One person close to the deal, with a vested interested in seeing it succeed, told Business Insider that Snap is playing it safe with the intention of going higher as soon as demand merits. Conversely, asking for the full $25 billion and being forced to roll it back if investor demand isn't high enough would be a worse outcome that would taint the company's trading debut.

Though the company said it was seeking to price shares at $14 to $16, this person said the only acceptable price, in reality, is $16 per share or more. This person expects Snap's order book to be oversubscribed, meaning there will be demand for more shares than it is selling.

A hedge fund manager who attended the New York meeting told Business Insider that "the bankers are being smart about the pricing."

"You could make the point it's too low, but the bankers are being smart enough about not having another Facebook," he said, referring to the plunge that Facebook's stock took in the months after its IPO before shares eventually recovered. "I think they're pricing it at a very reasonable amount. Even if you're a skeptic, the valuation is coming out at a level where you almost have to look at it."

He added:

"If you're bullish, what you want to spin is at the end of day is that Facebook's market cap is $385 billion. Snapchat is coming about $20 billion enterprise value. When you think of enterprise value to opportunity set, it's a fairly palatable valuation. ...

"A similar way to look at it is to look at Twitter as a comparison, with a $12 billion market cap. They have a user-base problem, monetization problem, and they're still worth $12 billion. The premium that Snapchat is coming out as versus Twitter isn't that bad for what I'd argue is a much better program."

BEAR: Snap's potential $22 billion valuation

Still, not everyone is sold on Snap's valuation. GP Bullhound's Manish Madhvani told Business Insider that Snap represents a "very risky" investment.

Addressing Snap's valuation, Madhvani told Business Insider: "Is it worth that? I think you can see a clear path to where they're going to get to monetization of 1.5, 2 billion quite easily from what they are at the moment. But can they go massively beyond that? That's the bet you're really taking."

Snap had revenue of $404 million last year, and Goldman Sachs is forecasting that the company will hit $2 billion in revenue by 2018. Snap's net losses, however, deepened to $515 million in 2016, versus $373 million the year before.

Silicon Valley VC firm Goodwater Capital, which does not have a stake in Snap, estimates the red ink won't stop flowing until 2020.

Atlantic Equities research analyst James Cordwell wrote in a recent note that while the Snapchat app was an "impressive 'made for mobile' service" that was popular among young users, it would be difficult to expand its audience base beyond this demographic.

"With expansion beyond the core audience likely challenging, sustainability of engagement concerns to persist, and margins structurally lower than peers, we do not see upside to the $14-$16 IPO valuation range," Cordwell wrote.

Another investor, who specializes in tech, put it this way: "I'm bullish in the sense that I think Snap can be a multibillion company that generates lots of profits and revenue. ... But the question for me is if you're trying to go public at $22 billion and you have no profits today, if you're an investor, you really need to be compensated for that risk. You need it to be a $50 [billion] or $70 billion company for it to be worth it. I'm bearish on their prospects of getting to that level."

BULL: Snap's slowdown in user growth

In the fourth quarter of 2016, Snap says it had 158 million daily users, an increase of 48% from a year earlier. That's the slowest growth rate for any of the 12 quarters for which it reported numbers.

It's hard to make a bull case for a statistic like declining growth, but one person close to the deal laid out a counterargument. Essentially, this person said, Snap emphasizes the quality of engagement over quantity of users. Spiegel wants existing users to really enjoy the product and is focused on innovating to make it more usable.

Part of that means users must have higher-end smartphones. Snapchat works best on iPhones, and while some problems persist on Android and other phones, Spiegel says he will not dilute the product to make it work on every phone. At the roadshow, Snap attributed the slowdown in growth to persistent problems with accessing the app on Android.

So unlike Facebook, which has nearly 2 billion users around the world, Snap is not focused on non-iPhone-using customers in places like the developing world because those markets are not easily monetized. The logic is that advertisers want to reach North America and develop Europe rather than the rest of world.

Goldman estimates that the company could grow its daily average users to 221 million in 2018, up from 158 million late last year, Business Insider previously reported.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

[ramialkarmi]

WALL STREET SPEAKS: The case for and against investing in Snap's massive IPO

Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. is set to price its initial public offering, or IPO, on Wednesday, allowing investors to decide just how much the social media company is ultimately worth.

The company is seeking to raise as much as $3.2 billion and pricing shares at $14 to $16. That would value it between $19.5 billion and $22 billion. The deal is already oversubscribed, according to Reuters. 

Tuesday's roadshow in New York drew a standing-room-only crowd of nearly 500 people that one attendee said included "the entire hedge fund mafia."

They raised questions about Snap's advertising revenue, slowing user growth, and competition with Facebook, among other things. Now the question is whether or not they and others will buy in.

We spoke to a handful of prospective investors and others close to the deal about the pros and cons. In most cases, these people declined to be identified because they were not permitted to speak to the press.

Below are the bull and bear cases for buying a piece of Snapchat.

SEE ALSO: INSIDE THE ROADSHOW: Snapchat just met with prospective investors in NYC and faced tough questions

DON'T MISS: How Imran Khan swapped Wall Street for a huge role at Snapchat and earned $150 million in 2 years

BULL: Snapchat's potential $22 billion valuation

Snap's proposed valuation has raised some eyebrows on Wall Street, as people close to the company had for months floated the idea that it would be valued at up to $25 billion.

One person close to the deal, with a vested interested in seeing it succeed, told Business Insider that Snap is playing it safe with the intention of going higher as soon as demand merits. Conversely, asking for the full $25 billion and being forced to roll it back if investor demand isn't high enough would be a worse outcome that taints the company's trading debut.

Though the company said it was seeking to price shares at $14 to $16, this person said the only acceptable price, in reality, will be $16 per share or more. This person expects Snap's order book to be oversubscribed, meaning there will be demand for more shares than it is selling.

A hedge fund manager who attended the New York meeting told Business Insider "the bankers are being smart about the pricing."

"You could make the point it's too low, but the bankers are being smart enough about not having another Facebook," he said, referring to the famous plunge that Facebook's stock took in the months after its IPO before shares eventually recovered. "I think they’re pricing it at a very reasonable amount. Even if you’re skeptic, the valuation is coming out at a level where you almost have to look at it."

He added:

"If you're bullish, what you want to spin is at the end of day is that Facebook's market cap is $385 billion. Snapchat is coming about $20 billion enterprise value. When you think of enterprise value to opportunity set, it's a fairly palatable valuation ... A similar way to look at it as to look at Twitter as a comparison, with a $12 billion market cap. They have a user base problem, monetization problem and they’re still worth $12 billion. The premium that Snapchat is coming out as versus Twitter isn't that bad, for what I’d argue is a much better program."

BEAR: Snapchat's potential $22 billion valuation

Still, not everyone is sold on Snap's valuation. GP Bullhound's Manish Madhvani Snap told Business Insider Snap represents a "very risky" investment. 

Addressing Snap's valuation, Madhvani told Business Insider: "Is it worth that? I think you can see a clear path to where they're going to get to monetization of 1.5, 2 billion quite easily from what they are at the moment. But can they go massively beyond that? That's the bet you're really taking."

Snap had revenue of $404 million last year, and Goldman Sachs is forecasting that the company will hit $2 billion in revenue by 2018. Snap's net losses however deepened to $515 million in 2016, versus $373 million the year before.

Silicon Valley VC firm Goodwater Capital, which does not have a stake in Snap, estimates the red ink won't stop flowing until 2020.

Atlantic Equities research analyst James Cordwell wrote in a recent note that while the Snapchat app was an "impressive 'made for mobile' service" that was popular among young users, it would be difficult to expand its audience base beyond this demographic.

"With expansion beyond the core audience likely challenging, sustainability of engagement concerns to persist, and margins structurally lower than peers, we do not see upside to the $14-$16 IPO valuation range."

Another investor, who specializes in tech, put it this way: "I'm bullish in in the sense that I think Snap can be a multibillion company that generates lots of profits and revenue... But the question for me is if you're trying to go public at $22 billion and you have no profits today, if you're an investor, you really need to be compensated for that risk. You need it to be a $50 or $70 billion company for it to be worth it. I'm bearish on their prospects of getting to that level."

BULL: Snap's slowdown in user growth

In the fourth quarter of 2016, Snap says it had 158 million daily users, an increase 48% from a year earlier. That's the slowest growth rate for any of the 12 quarters for which it reported numbers.

It's hard to make a bull case for a statistic like declining growth, but one person close to the deal laid out a counter-argument to those concerns. Essentially, this person said, Snap emphasizes quality of engagement over quantity of users. Spiegel wants existing users to really enjoy the product and is focused on innovating to make it more usable.

Part of that means users must have higher-end smart phones. Snapchat works best on iPhones, and while some problems persist on Android and other phones, Spiegel says he will not dilute the product to make it work on every phone. At the roadshow, Snap attributed the slowdown in growth to persistent problems with accessing the app on Android.

So unlike Facebook, which has nearly 2 billion users around the world, Snap is not focused on non-iPhone-using customers in places like the developing world because those markets are not easily monetized. The logic is that advertisers want to reach North America and develop Europe rather than the rest of world. 

Goldman estimates that the company could grow its daily average users to 221 million in 2018, up from 158 million late last year, Business Insider previously reported. 

  See the rest of the story at Business Insider