Infoman

Member since 2017-07-15T03:50:57Z. Last seen 2025-01-02T20:05:01Z.

2729 blog posts. 128 comments.

Followers: 0 Following: 2

Posts by Infoman

• 
  

  Infoman

  For today’s students as for past generations, going to college involves learning to embrace freedom and resist authority.

  The Wall Street Journal 09/9/2023

  For today’s students as for past generations, going to college involves learning to embrace freedom and resist authority.

  My parents didn’t go to college, but they saved up so that their children could, and in 1975 I arrived with enthusiasm and some trepidation for my first year at Wesleyan University. At that time, my image of college students was that of young people demanding rights while chanting slogans and holding up protest signs. I had no idea that commentators were already lamenting that my generation of undergrads was so much less focused on politics and the public sphere and that we were “grinds” working away to climb the meritocratic ladder. For me, there was no ladder; being a student was about rebellion and freedom.

  I didn’t know then how far back this idea of student freedom went. Town-gown tensions are as old as higher education itself. In medieval universities, there were already complaints that students—small groups of young people learning from master theologians—were not following the rules of host cities like Bologna and Montpellier. In the first decades of the 19th century, American students were notorious for their unruliness. At schools like the University of Virginia and Princeton, they caroused, brawled and rode horses through the campus in the middle of the night.

  And they made a show of their independence through insolence. Typical pranks played on instructors included locking them in their rooms, dousing them with water and trying to make them trip and fall as they moved about campus. The perpetrators of these shenanigans saw themselves as members of a new type, “the college man.” The pious American hope to use higher education to instill morals and develop character in students seemed to result in its opposite: young people determined to create a lifestyle defined by their own enthusiasms.

  These well-heeled young men were the ancestors of the fraternity brothers of the 20th century. As historian Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz has shown, fraternities were often driven by their fight against the authority of the faculty and administration. They demanded personal freedoms like the right to drink and spend time with women, and they rejected the idea that they should have to work hard to get decent grades on their way to professional school or the business world. They depended, we might say, on the rights of legacy, and they insisted that what they learned through friendship and sports was more valuable than anything professors might devise.

  Images of the student as a college man or “frat boy” gave way during the civil-rights movement and the Vietnam War to that of the student radical marching in the street. The ends sought by each generation were very different, of course, but each saw itself in opposition to established authority.

  That was the image of the student I had when I arrived at college, but by the time I graduated it seemed that students had become more concerned with the personal liberties of sex, drugs and rock ‘n‘ roll. Unruly protesters were giving way to careerists interested in getting good grades and positive recommendations to professional schools. One could still find campus radicals—I certainly found my share at Wesleyan—but the energy had shifted to libraries, science labs and the kinds of lifestyle experiments that could be conducted in the privacy of one’s own dorm.

  Critics of the older, cranky sort, still smarting from the protest culture of the 1960s, retooled their antagonism toward the young in the 1980s. The political philosopher Allan Bloom argued that, under the guise of promoting tolerance and democracy, students were being molded into people who could no longer respond to the most important and enduring questions of human life. In his book “The Closing of the American Mind” (1987), Bloom established a model to which op-ed writers ever since have frequently aspired.

  But his surprise bestseller was not just a cri de coeur from someone whose favorite canonical texts no longer received the attention he’d been taught to give them. It was also a diagnosis of the flip side of the 1960s’ ideas of tolerance: nihilism and a growing inability to take ideas or character seriously. When everyone has a right to their opinions and all opinions are to be treated with equal respect, there’s no reason to develop a meaningful perspective on the good life, or to seek the highest truth.

  Bloom’s critique of student culture sounded the alarm about its narrow-mindedness and its failure to consider alternatives to the prevailing campus orthodoxies. He saw no freedom there. Conservatives followed suit in a litany of complaints about political correctness and, more recently, so-called wokeness. Students today are said to be both ayatollahs for social justice and cosseted kids afraid of getting hurt.

  Jonathan Haidt and Gregg Lukianoff’s “The Coddling of the American Mind” (2018) described a generation of young people infected by “safetyism.” Like those who thought Benjamin Spock’s postWorld War II child-rearing lessons ruined the generation who became protesters in the late 1960s, Haidt and Lukianoff blamed overly protective parents for a generation of students who seek safety at the expense of learning.

  Another critique blames the faculty for indoctrinating their meek mentees in the phony progressivism of identity politics. Students are taught to be afraid to say the wrong thing or to identify with the wrong group; under the guise of wanting to help others, they learn only to protect themselves. Instead of learning freedom, critics complain, young people are learning to “cancel” anyone whom they might find threatening.

  College campuses have long been a screen upon which the broader culture projects its anxieties about political and social change, economic dislocation and the decline of traditional values. Whether accusing students of radicalism or conformism, apathy or grade-grubbing, nearly all critics bemoan what they perceive as the inability of undergraduates to think for themselves.

  Thinking for oneself is, of course, the quintessential Enlightenment ideal: “Dare to know,” urged Immanuel Kant in his 1784 essay, “What Is Enlightenment?” And in my experience of more than four decades on campus, this ideal remains a lodestar for educators in America.

  It’s not hard to find examples on today’s campus of illiberal students, if that’s what you’re looking for, but it’s even easier to find open-minded ones. You can still discover campus radicals, as I did 50 years ago, and also student-athletes and their fans who seem to live for the next home game. Yet students today are wary of stereotypes. No one wants to be just a jock or just a Social Justice Warrior. When you look beyond the headlines at the diversity of college campus cultures around the U.S., it’s clear that there is no monoculture in higher education.

  Faculty and administrators must work to keep it that way. We must cultivate intellectual diversity to set a foundation for lifelong learners, people whose openness to ambiguity will enable them to navigate in our world with integrity, humility and compassion. Of course, we do need people graduating with skills that allow them to stand on their own feet economically.

  We also desperately need members of communities—citizens who have learned to think for themselves in the company of others because as students they have practiced the arts of curiosity, judgment and creativity. This is the grand freedom of being students: exploring how best to interact with the world, absorbing its lessons and responding to them creatively.

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/11
• 
  

  Infoman

  In First Year, King Proves Surprisingly Popular

  MAX COLCH­ESTER

  The Wall Street Journal 09/9/2023

  LONDON—King Charles III became monarch a year ago with the potential for much to go wrong. He was following Britain’s longest-serving and much-beloved monarch Queen Elizabeth II, he had a record of outspoken activism and his son was taking potshots at the monarchy from his new home in America.

  But a year on, Charles has proved surprisingly popular, with a regal recipe largely taken from his late mother— whose first rule was always to steady the ship by being as uncontroversial as possible.

  “I think he has made the transition to head of state more easily than some of us had feared,” says Robert Hazell, an expert on the British constitution and professor at University College London.

  A year into his reign, Charles’s popularity has stabilized, with 62% of Britons having a positive opinion of him, according to a YouGov survey at the end of August, down from 70% around his mother’s funeral, but far higher than when he was heir in waiting. A steady two-thirds of the British population want to keep the monarchy.

  The royal family, meanwhile, is in robust financial health, thanks to a windfall from its property holdings. The continuing saga of his estranged younger son, Prince Harry, who spent months dishing dirt on the Windsor franchise via Netflix and a book, was met with silence from Buckingham Palace, and the scandal has largely faded from public view. The ever-fickle British tabloids have thrown their weight firmly behind the new king, and against Harry.

  Before he acceded to the throne, some courtiers feared the future king would set out to take the monarchy on a new, more interventionist path. Throughout his life, Charles had been outspoken about his views on several topics—from the importance of protecting the environment to his distaste for modern architecture—and there was concern these traits would spill over onto the throne, damaging the long-held convention that the monarch should be politically neutral and harming its popularity.

  Furthermore, Charles came with baggage. He was the oldest man to accede to the British throne. His second wife, Camilla, who was long held in lukewarm regard following the death of Charles’s first wife, Princess Diana, was to be called Queen.

  His aides stressed that the campaigning ways would be dialed down and that he would focus on convening others to solve societal problems.

  Royal experts say Charles has molded himself into a “grandfather of the nation” figure.

  Unlike his mother, who generally didn’t let people touch her, Charles hugs, warmly shakes hands and tells jokes, says Ingrid Seward, the editor of Majesty Magazine. “I think he seems to have mellowed as a person since the death of his mother,” she says.

  On Friday, to mark his mother’s death the king attended memorial prayers at a church near his Balmoral residence in Scotland. He issued a statement to the nation saying, “I am deeply grateful…for the love and support that has been shown to my wife and myself.”

  The king has also sought to only subtly tweak ancient royal traditions to nod to the more diverse realm over which he rules. During his coronation this year, representatives from non-Christian religions played a big role, with people of several faiths participating in the entry procession. Shortly after becoming king, Charles was photographed sitting crosslegged on the floor of a Sikh temple with an orange scarf over his suit.

  He has only slightly chafed against the conventions of Britain’s unwritten constitution, under which the monarch should only act on the advice of government ministers. The king’s desire to appear at the COP27 climate change conference in Egypt was barred by Downing Street. So he held a reception in Buckingham Palace, with dignitaries from across the world to discuss climate change.

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/11
• 
  

  Infoman

  The Power to Decide How You Feel

  Wall Street Journal 09/9/2023

  feelings, in the enterprise of your life, are like weather to a construction company. If it rains or snows or is unseasonably hot, it affects the ability to get work done. But the right response is not trying to change the weather (which would be impossible) or wishing the weather were different (which doesn’t help). It is having contingency plans in place for bad weather, being ready, and managing projects in a way that is appropriate to the conditions on a given day.

  The process of managing this weather is called metacognition. Metacognition (which technically means “thinking about thinking”) is the act of experiencing your emotions consciously, separating them from your behavior, and refusing to be controlled by them. Metacognition begins with understanding that emotions are signals to your conscious brain that something is going on that requires your attention and action. That’s all they are. Your conscious brain, if you choose to use it, gets to decide how you will respond to them.

  Everyone—even the most privileged among us—has life conditions they would like to change. As the early sixth-century Roman philosopher Boethius put it, “One has abundant riches, but is shamed by his ignoble birth. Another is conspicuous for his nobility, but through the embarrassments of poverty would prefer to be obscure. A third, richly endowed with both, laments the loneliness of an unwedded life.”

  Sometimes it’s possible to change your circumstances. If you hate your job, you can usually look for a new one. If you are in a bad relationship, you can try to improve it, or leave it. But sometimes it isn’t practical or even possible. Maybe you hate the weather where you live, but you have family there and a good job, so leaving wouldn’t make sense. Maybe you have been diagnosed with a chronic illness for which there are no promising

  Arthur C. Brooks is the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School and professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. Oprah Winfrey is a global media leader and philanthropist. This essay is adapted from their new book, “Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier,” which will be published on Sept. 12 by Portfolio.

  treatment options. Perhaps your romantic partner has left you against your wishes and cannot be persuaded otherwise. Maybe there is something you don’t like about your body that isn’t possible to change. Maybe you are even in prison.

  Here, metacognition comes to the rescue. Between the conditions around you and your response to them is a space to think and make decisions. In this space, you have freedom. You can choose to try remodeling the world, or you can start by changing your reaction to it.

  Changing how you experience your negative emotions can be much easier than changing your physical reality, even if it seems unnatural. Your emotions can seem out of your control at the best of times, and even more so during a crisis—which is exactly when managing them would give you the greatest benefit.

  That can be blamed in part on biology. Negative emotions such as anger and fear activate the amygdala, which increases vigilance toward threats and improves your ability to detect and avoid danger. In other words, stress makes you fight, flee, or freeze—not think, “What would a prudent reaction be at this moment? Let’s consider the options.”

  This makes good evolutionary sense: half a million years ago, taking time to manage your emotions would have made you a tiger’s lunch. In the modern world, however, stress and anxiety are usually chronic, not episodic. Odds are, you no longer need your amygdala to help you outrun the tiger without asking your conscious brain’s permission. Instead, you use it to handle the nonlethal problems that pester you all day long. Your work is stressing you out, for example, or you aren’t getting along with your spouse. Even if you don’t have tigers to outrun, you can’t relax in your cave, because these ordinary things are bothering you.

  No surprise, then, that chronic stress often leads to maladaptive coping mechanisms in modern life. These include the misuse of drugs and alcohol, rumination on the sources of stress, self-harm, and self-blaming. These responses don’t just fail to provide long-term relief; they can further compound your problems through addiction, depression, and increased anxiety. What these coping techniques do is try to change the outside world—at least as you perceive it. People who misuse alcohol often say that a few drinks turn off the day’s anxieties like a switch; problems (temporarily) are less threatening.

  Metacognition offers a much better, healthier, and more permanent solution. Consider the emotions that your circumstances are stimulating in you. Observe them as if they’re happening to someone else, and accept them. Write them down to make sure they are completely conscious. Then consider how you can choose reactions not based on your negative emotions, but rather based on the outcomes you prefer in your life.

  For example, let’s imagine you have a job that is really bringing you down. Let’s say you are bored and stressed, and your boss isn’t competent. You come home every day tired and frustrated, and you wind up drinking too much and watching a lot of dumb television to distract your mind. Tomorrow, try a new tactic. During the day, take a few minutes every hour or so, and ask, “How am I feeling?” Jot it down. Then after work, journal your experiences and feelings over the course of the day. Also write down how you responded to these feelings, and which responses were more and less constructive.

  Do this for two weeks, and you will find you are feeling more in control and acting in more productive ways. You will also be able to start seeing how you can manage your outside environment better, perhaps making a timeline to update your résumé and asking a few people for job market advice, and then you might actually start looking for something new.

  Boethius, it turns out, was a master of this, and in circumstances much worse than yours or mine. He wrote the words quoted previously from a prison cell while awaiting execution in 524, after being accused of conspiracy against the Ostrogothic King Theodoric—a crime of which he was likely not guilty, but for which he was ultimately executed. Boethius could not change his unfair circumstances. However, he could and did change his attitude toward them. “So true is it that nothing is wretched, but thinking makes it so,” he wrote, “and conversely every lot is happy if borne with equanimity.”

  Metacognition requires practice, especially if you haven’t ever thought about it before. There are four practical ways to get started.

  When you experience intense emotion, simply observe your feelings.

  The Buddha taught his followers that to manage emotions, one must observe them as if they were happening to someone else. In this way, one can understand them consciously and let them pass away naturally instead of allowing them to turn into something destructive. Try this yourself when, for example, you have a strong disagreement with your partner or a friend and are feeling angry. Sit quietly and think about the feelings you are experiencing. Observe the anger as if it were happening to someone else. Then say to yourself, “I am not this anger. It will not manage me or make my decisions for me.” This will leave you calmer and more empowered.

  Journal your emotions.

  You may have noticed that when you are upset, if you write about what you are feeling, you immediately feel better. Journaling is in fact one of the best ways to achieve metacognition, because it forces you to translate inchoate feelings into specific thoughts. This in turn creates emotional knowledge and regulation, which provide a sense of control. Recent research shows this clearly. In one study, college students who were assigned structured self-reflective journaling were better able to understand and regulate their feelings about school.

  For example, if you are feeling frantic about all the things you need to do, without metacognition there is no way to organize the problem in your mind. On a busy day, start with your coffee and calmly make a list of the things you need to do, in order of importance. You will feel much more in control, and you will also have the presence of mind to decide which things get done today, which you will leave until tomorrow, and which you might even decide to do…never.

  As another example, say you are in a relationship that is souring against your wishes. Don’t use a confrontational reaction right off the bat. Instead, take a few days to record what is happening as accurately as possible, as well as your reaction to it. Write down different ways you might react constructively, based on different possible responses from the other person. You will find that you are calmer and better able to cope with the situation, even if it feels unfixable.

  Keep a database of positive memories, not just negative ones.

  Mood and memory exist in a feedback loop: bad memories lead to bad feelings, which lead you to reconstruct bad memories. However, if you purposely conjure up happier memories, you can interrupt this doom loop. Researchers have shown that asking people to think of happy things from their past can improve their mood. You can reap similar benefits in a systematic way by keeping a journal of happy memories and reviewing it when you feel down or out of control.

  Look for meaning and learning in the hard parts of life.

  Every life contains authentic bad memories. We’re not suggesting that you try to reconstruct a past that expunges them or makes them rosy. In some cases, that would be impossible—they are just too painful. Furthermore, some terrible memories can lead us to learning and progress or keep us from repeating mistakes.

  Try methodically to see how such painful memories help you learn and grow. Scholars have shown that when people reflect on difficult experiences with the explicit goal of finding meaning and improving themselves, they tend to give better advice, make better decisions, and solve problems more effectively.

  In your journal, reserve a section for painful experiences, writing them down right afterward. Leave two lines below each entry. After one month, return to the journal and write in the first blank line what you learned from that bad experience in the intervening period. After six months, fill in the second line with the positives that ultimately came from it. You will be amazed at how this exercise changes your perspective on your past.

  For example, say you are passed over for a promotion at work. You are understandably disappointed and hurt, and you want to either vent about it to friends or put it out of your mind. Before you do either of those things, write down “Passed over for promotion” in your journal, with the date. In a month, go back to it, and record something constructive that you learned, such as “I mostly got over the disappointment after only about five days.” Then, after six months, go back and write down something beneficial, such as “I started looking for a new job, and found one I like better.”

  When it comes to our emotions, most of us have more power than we think. We don’t have to be managed by our feelings. We don’t have to hope that tomorrow will be a happy day so we can enjoy our lives, or dread our negative feelings because they will make our happiness impossible. How our emotions affect us, and our reaction to them, can be our decision.

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/11
• 
  

  Infoman

  House Prices On Rise Again In U.S.

  BY NICOLE FRIED­MAN

  The Wall Street Journal 09/9/2023 Lat­est data sug­gest real-es­tate down­turn could be shorter than fore­cast

  Home prices aren’t falling anymore.

  After declining on a yearover-year basis for five consecutive months—the longest run of declines in 11 years— U.S. home prices rose in July.

  The surprisingly quick recovery suggests that the residential real-estate downturn is turning out to be shorter and shallower than many housing economists expected after mortgage rates soared last year.

  Scarcity is a big reason. High interest rates have prompted homeowners to stay put rather than buy new homes and take on more expensive mortgages, resulting in an unusually low inventory of homes for sale.

  Many potential home buyers have given up their search because mortgage rates recently hit a two-decade high. But the homes that do list often receive multiple bids, driving up the final sales price.

  The result is a market in which the overall volume of transactions has fallen dramatically. Sales of previously owned homes are now down about 36% from January 2022. But prices are generally holding firm outside of a few trou

  ble spots.

  The national median existing-home sale price rose 1.9% in July from a year earlier to $406,700, the National Association of Realtors said. Prices in 30 of the 50 biggest markets hit record highs in August, mortgage data and technology company Black Knight said.

  Sales could keep shrinking in the coming months as mortgage rates hover above 7%, and the housing market heads into the typically slower fall and winter. But even if that happens, prices are unlikely to fall significantly, economists say, because there still aren’t enough homes for sale to meet demand.

  “Even in a market where demand has been hammered by higher rates, the supply just isn’t there,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. “Short of a flood in supply, it’s hard to bring these prices down.”

  Swonk is one of those who didn’t see this coming. In late 2022, she called for home prices to fall 20% nationally this year. Now, she says, prices are likely to end the year up slightly from last year.

  Other economists have also torn up bearish forecasts. A panel of more than 100 economists and housing analysts surveyed by Pulsenomics in March expected home values to fall about 2% year-over-year by the end of 2023. When surveyed again in August, the panel predicted prices would rise 3.3% this year instead.

  Stubbornly high prices would likely keep home-buying affordability near its worst level in decades. The NAR housing-affordability index, which factors in family incomes, mortgage rates and the sales price for existing singlefamily homes, fell to its lowest level in almost 38 years in June. That month, the total value of U.S. homes rose to $46.8 trillion, a record high, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.

  New listings of homes for sale are so low that bidding wars are still breaking out. Homes sold in July received an average of three offers, according to the NAR, even with overall sales activity shrinking. Active listings in August were 7.9% lower than a year ago and down 46% from August 2019, according to Realtor.com. (News Corp, parent of The Wall Street Journal, operates Realtor.com.)

  In many markets, “if you see a house on a Tuesday you like, you more than likely have to put in an offer by Thursday morning at an elevated price,” said Matthew Ricci, a homeloan specialist at Churchill Mortgage in Cranston, R.I. “The overall theme in most of those areas is still limited inventory.”

  Katie and Chris Weber discovered that when they moved in the spring from Michigan to Connecticut with their four children. They found a fivebedroom house in Coventry, Conn., that was listed for about $700,000. They beat out competitors by offering $752,000 and agreeing to delay the closing to accommodate the sellers’ schedule, while the Webers lived in a hotel for seven weeks.

  “It was beyond stressful,” Katie Weber said.

  Her parents, George and Ann Media, moved to Connecticut around the same time and lost out on seven offers to buy homes before having their eighth accepted.

  “We had to overbid,” George Media said. “We lost houses by a hundred grand. It’s absolutely nuts.”

  Financial conditions help explain the lack of inventory. Mortgage-lending standards have tightened since the 2008-09 financial crisis, and homeowners can largely afford their monthly payments. Most also have equity in their homes due to price appreciation.

  Most homeowners have also locked in a low mortgage rate, and the gap between what they pay now and what they would pay for a different home is too big for many to justify making a move.

  The average principal and interest payment for homeowners with a mortgage was $1,355 in June, Black Knight said. The median payment for those buying a home with a 30-year fixed-rate loan in July, by contrast, was $2,306.

  Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cited the housing market’s strength as a sign the economy might not be slowing as much as expected. “After decelerating sharply over the past 18 months, the housing sector is showing signs of picking back up,” he said in August in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

  Price declines have been most significant in Western markets that were already expensive, such as Seattle, and in cities that grew quickly during the pandemic, such as Austin, Texas.

  Prices are still down on a year-over-year basis in 14 of the country’s 50 biggest markets, led by Austin, where prices fell 11.9% in August from a year earlier, according to Black Knight. But on a national basis, prices rose 2.3% year-over-year in August, Black Knight said.

  Even in Seattle, “you did not see the prices drop as much as people were expecting,” said real-estate agent Junior Torres. Seattle home prices soared 314% from January 2000 to their peak in May 2022, and slid 10.5% between May 2022 and June 2023, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

  The market isn’t as competitive as it was in 2021, when rates were low, Torres said. But buyers still often vie against one or two other bidders and need to pay above the list price to win, he said.

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/11
• 
  

  Infoman

  The Boy and the Heron review – Miyazaki’s last movie is a fitting swan song

  Si­mon­pil­lai in Toronto

  The Guardian (USA) 09/9/2023

  Purported to be the master Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s last movie, maybe, The Boy and the Heron is a gentler and slower though no less soulful addition to his canon. The film, about a young boy slipping like so many Miyazaki protagonists to a world unencumbered by mortality, takes its time to get going. Meanwhile, it’s preoccupied with those who have no time left.

  It’s a fittingly solemn swan song for the 82-year-old film-maker who – with films like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away – has taken us to magical worlds where human and animal anatomies are free to make exchanges while industry and nature become harmonious in ungodly ways. The catbus in Totoro always struck me as a cuddly response to a Cronenberg monster.

  The Boy and the Heron, the director’s first feature since he last retired with 2013’s The Wind Rises, has all the Miyazaki hallmarks: the anthropomorphic animals, the tiny grannies with disproportionate facial features who can just as easily be magical creatures and a tempting food scene – animated jam looks ready to drip off the screen. Miyazaki has few surprises left, but in The Boy and the Heron, it’s the familiar that feels like a comforting hug.

  The film is already a box office hit in Japan, where it was released in July with no advance promotion – as if in secret. The Japanese title is How Do

  You Live?, taken from Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel. Yohino’s book appears in The Boy and The Heron, a text the film’s young protagonist Mahito (Soma Santoki), who is somewhat inspired by Miyazaki himself, picks up and reads during a pivotal moment.

  The film gets going with an evocative, harrowing and dream-like cold open. Sirens breaking the silence at the dead of night before ashes and embers float into the frame. It’s the second world war. A Tokyo hospital has been firebombed and Mahito realizes his mother is on shift. The frame captures his mad scramble to the hospital – legs flurrying like a spider’s – against the chilling stillness of the background. He arrives at a vision perhaps more spiritual than literal, as fire tears at his mother’s flesh, or at least peels at the ink that makes up her animated skin. What could be a horrifying sight is made comforting, as she’s not consumed by the flames so much as she becomes one with them.

  A few years after the tragedy, Mahito moves to sprawling estate in the country, still crippled by grief. His father, who, like Miyazaki’s own, runs a factory producing aircraft parts, is newly married to his former sister-inlaw, who is expecting. Mahito struggles to settle in, not even warming up to the squadron of excitable grannies scurrying around the property, fawning over corned beef and canned salmon imported from the city, or that heron that creates a nuisance by the window.

  The film lingers aimlessly here, completely unhurried, as if patience building while letting us sit in Mahito’s grief. Miyazaki tends to make movies about strong, fiery female characters, the types who appear in smaller roles in The Boy and the Heron. Mahito, the rare male protagonist, is purposefully lifeless, his glazed-over reserve keeps things emotionally cold. Only the mischievous granny keeping things amusing alongside that pesky heron, with human teeth and gums garishly protruding from its beak as it beckons towards something beyond.

  Eventually Mahito is tempted to search for his late mother in a tower protruding from the earth, which is a portal to the alternate worlds we sign up for in Miyazaki films. There we find a shipwreck so overgrown with moss and fern it has become an inhabited island that hosts a whole circle of life. A Moby Dick-sized catfish is gutted and consumed by little pillowy white creatures called warawara. They will transcend and become people in another dimension, if they’re not first mauled by starving pelicans. As usual for Miyazaki, the graceful and grotesque are mere brush strokes apart.

  Miyazaki has explored grief and the afterlife in the past. He’s a film-maker that has been both haunted and at peace with such thoughts throughout his whole career, which is perhaps why every film is positioned as though it’s his last.

  The Boy and The Heron is no exception. Though this is an uncommonly mature and joyous meditation on death and legacy, one that paints death as a new beginning, a transition to another time and place, where nothing actual seems final. For a film-maker like Miyazaki, that’s the perfect note to go out on.

  The Boy and the Heron is screening at the Toronto film festival and will be released in the US on 8 December with a UK date to be announced

  and they have finally got rid of Batfleck, a sense of doom is all around us. Comics legend Mark Millar has spoken about 2019’s Avengers: Endgame being the last great Marvel movie –what about Spider-Man: No Way Home or Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? – while David Ayer went on record to discuss how having 2016’s Suicide Squad taken away from him by Warner Bros almost broke the up and coming filmmaker, while ruining his relationship with Hollywood.

  Let’s listen to Millar first. “It was amazing in 1999 when Marvel cracked the code and made these things great,” the Scot tells the New York Times. “It wasn’t just that the technology caught up to the material – it was that the people who made these movies treated them with real dignity.”

  Adds Millar: “Everything since then … I feel that the people involved haven’t loved the material the way that Sam Raimi loves Spider-Man, or Christopher Nolan [who] read 50 years worth of Batman comics before he started doing Batman.”

  This is a comic book auteur who knows a thing or two about spiky invention, the creator of Kick-Ass, Wanted and Marvel’s Civil War. Millar is an ideas man, one with the ability to breathe life into an entire genre by viewing it through a skewed prism. While both

  Wanted and Kick-Ass made it to the big screen, Hollywood has generally opted for a slightly more orthodox take on the whole superhero fandango, and yet it’s still intriguing to note that such a major player in the field reckons the clock stopped four years ago. Since then, Marvel has expanded on to the small screen via Disney+, refracted its initial linear storyline into a thousand multiversal realities and helped inspire Oscar-winning efforts such as Everything Everywhere All at Once. Yet according to Millar, it all stopped mattering the minute Iron Man sacrificed himself for the greater good in the finale of Endgame.

  Ayer? The failure of Suicide Squad stands as an indictment of Hollywood’s hyperactive approach to film-making. This was a film-maker with nothing but positive notices in his wake prior to signing on to direct what was pitched as the ultimate bad guy movie. It had Will Smith as Deadshot – an actor with an almost supernatural ability (at the time) to rock up the box office billions – and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, during a period when you couldn’t have found an ingenue with more hype if twentysomething Lauren Bacall had suddenly stepped out of a time machine and made herself available for duties. Yet Warner, according to Ayer, panicked after the critical brickbats aimed at Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the adulation targeted towards the then-recently released Deadpool,

  and (as was widely documented at the time) handed rewrite duties to the team who came up with the movie’s popular first trailer.

  We may yet see Ayer’s darker, original version of the movie, though time has moved on and not every filmic revision has the impact of, say, the 1992 director’s cut of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. In the meantime, Marvel needs to find the next great superhero flick and hope that it reignites interest in the genre.

  Is that movie Fantastic Four, now not due out until 2025 after writer’s strike delays, but still sitting pretty in the cosmic fantasy future, a sparkleeyed panacea primed to cure all superhero fatigue?

  Previous big screen adaptations of the classic silver age comic book beloved of hippies and true believers alike would suggest that this is something of a minor effort in the pantheon. And yet, Marvel has pulled off similar tricks before – if you had told anyone back in 1999 that movies about Iron Man and Black Panther would one day gross more than $1bn each, they would have looked at you like you just stepped out of one of Doctor Strange’s mystical wormhole portals from the exotic land of Kamar-Taj. In terms of the history of comic books, this is one of the last remaining A-list properties to have never been brought effectively to the big screen. And Marvel now has the chance to succeed where previous rights holders 20th Century Studios so abominably failed.

  The latest casting rumours suggest we might even be getting the luminous Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, with Josh Hartnett as Doctor Doom and Matt Smith or Adam Driver as Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic. It could happen, and director Matt Shakman might just find a way to make this the most intriguing superhero movie since Endgame.

  Then again, there’s a version of reality out there where superhero movies dwindle until they are, like the once great western, an occasional, whimsical fancy for niche audiences and historical specialists. The worry is that if even expert super-fans such as Millar and Ayer have lost faith – the former, to be fair, believes it is only a matter of time until the genre experiences a renaissance – it could be a long way back for Joe Public.

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/10
• 
  

  Infoman

  Rage against the machine? Why AI may not mean the death of film

  Brooks

  The Guardian (USA) 09/9/2023

  One of the hottest tickets at the 80th Venice film festival isn’t a movie at all but a VR installation on the event’s selfstyled “Immersive Island”. Each user sits at a computer and answers a series of personal questions, which the exhibit – in the space of a few seconds – converts into a bespoke portrait of their life. The project, Tulpamancer, is officially the work of Brooklyn-based artists Marc Da Costa and Matthew Niederhauser. In practice, though, it amounts to a creative collaboration between the user and AI.

  Generative AI plays the role of Sleeping Beauty’s bad fairy at Venice. The ongoing writers and actors’ strike was largely prompted by fears over the new technology’s impact on film and TV production and has resulted in numerous star performers deciding to skip this year’s festival. But in the meantime, AI – unwelcome, uninvited and arguably misunderstood – has already joined the party. It’s hiding in the cracks of the films on the main programme and helping facilitate the creation of the XR (extended reality) pieces on the island.

  For the organisers of the festival’s pioneering Venice Immersive section, the repercussions of the WGA and SagAftra strike has brought some significant side benefits. Foot traffic to the island is up on previous years. Tick

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/10
• 
  

  Infoman

  ‘She is a snake – in the most positive way!’ How Taylor Swift became the world’s biggest pop star, again

  D'Souza

  The Guardian (USA) 09/9/2023

  Last month, Taylor Swift wrapped up the first leg of the Eras tour – a career-spanning, three-hours-plus stadium spectacular that’s proved to be the year’s single most significant pop culture phenomenon, Barbenheimer be damned.

  Eras has generated an estimated $5bn boost to consumer spending in the US, forcing cities to ramp up underprepared public transport systems and world leaders to turn into reply guys: Justin Trudeau pleaded with her on Twitter to come to Canada. And fair enough: I saw the final US Eras show in August and found it to be one of the most euphoric concerts I’ve ever seen, a reminder of Swift’s singular generational talent.

  When Eras concludes in November 2024 it is likely to be the highest-grossing tour of all time with an estimated $1.4bn in revenue – half a billion more than Elton John’s farewell tour, the current record holder. Even a filmed version of Eras being released in US cinemas in October brought in $37m the day that tickets went on sale. All told, the tour has re-established Swift as the most successful pop star in the world,

  after a few years in which a resurgence seemed far from likely.

  By the time the South American leg commences in November, Swift will have released her third album in 12 months, the re-recorded version of 1989. It’s the album that, on its original release in 2014, made her as omnipresent as Michael Jackson and Madonna had been in the 80s. Newspapers and blogs obsessed about “the squad” – the revolving clique of models, actors and musicians that surrounded her. But by the end of the attendant world tour she was being accused of self-serving and superficial “girl boss” feminism and there were public squabbles with Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj and Calvin Harris. A fierce backlash was soon under way.

  But next month, when Swift releases 1989 (Taylor’s Version), it’s possible that it may debut with higher firstweek sales than the album it’s recreating; her current cultural dominance makes the original 1989 era look small scale. How has Swift managed to restore her stature without succumbing to the pitfalls that felled her last time?

  In the immediate aftermath of the 1989 fallout, Swift broke her pattern of releasing a new album every two years, instead waiting three to return in 2017 with Reputation, billed as her retort to the haters. Louis Mandelbaum, host of the pop music podcast Pop Pantheon, says that Reputation is “actually more interesting than that: it’s really about her finding refuge in a new relationship in the face of [being] ostracised”, but its presentation – she wiped her once effusive social media accounts and adopted gothic imagery – allowed Swift to play with her newly tarnished image. “She attempted to parlay the negative press about her into the narrative of the record; like, ‘I’m taking ownership over how you view me,’” he says.

  Many fans now feel Reputation is underrated, but “relative to 1989, it was less [commercially] successful. And she was so intent on responding to the backlash that she obscured what the album actually was.” In 2019, Swift released her seventh album, Lover, a record that literally wore its heart on its sleeve to affirm that she had moved on from the drama and was happy. It was one of her least successful records, her first since 2010’s Speak Now’s to not produce any US No 1 singles.

  Its release did, however, coincide with another feud: the original masters of her first six albums were acquired by manager Scooter Braun and then resold without Swift’s approval. She announced that she would release notefor-note re-recordings of the albums in order to devalue the Braun-owned versions.

  Mandelbaum says that Swift’s feud with Braun “allowed her to gain a certain amount of empathy from the public that she had lost at the peak of her post-1989 era. It was easy for most pop fans to say: this male music executive is attempting to steal the art of this female singer-songwriter. It then allowed her to put the focus back on her songwriting: ‘I should own my songs because I wrote them in my bedroom when I was 15 years old.’”

  The pandemic provided another boost: in 2020, Swift surprise-released Folklore and Evermore, two albums produced with the National’s Aaron Dessner that repositioned her as a serious musician, not just a pop star. Maltese-British singer-songwriter Lauren Aquilina, a Swift devotee who supported her on her 1989 tour, cites Folklore as her favourite of Swift’s albums, calling it “so well rounded and sure of itself” and the work of “somebody who has absolutely mastered their craft”. The lyrical focus turned outwards again, giving new fans “an opportunity to appreciate her storytelling”.

  Swift started releasing the Taylor’s Version re-recordings in spring 2021 andput out another original album, Midnights, in 2022. That record “brought some of those more folky storytelling elements into the pop stuff, and blended them naturally,” Aquilina explains, saying that songwriting-wise, Swift has now “proved she can do whatever she wants to do”. She hasn’t left the charts since, breaking records for having the most albums in the US Top 100 and becoming the first act since the Beatles to have songs from three different albums in the US singles chart.

  Crisis publicist Lauren Beeching says that beyond the musical talent it’s Swift’s ability to recast her image that’s given her such longevity. “She is a snake in the most positive way,” she says, referring to an insult hurled at and then reclaimed by Swift during the Reputation era. “She sheds her skin and becomes a new version of herself to fit in with today’s culture. You never know what will come next, which is what keeps her fans so engaged.”

  Now Swift is more famous than ever, fans and critics are wondering if another backlash is brewing. The Eras tour has become a huge story, not just for Swift’s performance but for its unprecedented cultural and political impact – Ticketmaster’s mishandling of the Eras tour rollout, criticised by Swift, has led to an antitrust investigation – while moments from the show constantly go viral online.

  Swift has seemingly put up the “squad” bat signal, being spotted with Gigi Hadid, the Haim sisters and Blake Lively, and her dating life is back in the news: in January, she broke up with Joe Alwyn, her partner of six years, and was soon linked to Matty Healy, firebrand frontman of the 1975. Healy got in hot water for laughing along with racist jokes on a podcast, leading extreme Swifties to petition her to break up with him. Some fans have also expressed disquiet at the endless stream of special-edition merchandise that Swift puts on sale – the same record in various vinyl colourways, endless associated apparel – feeling gouged by what some are calling her “capitalist era”.

  But the nature of fame has changed since Swift’s last fall from grace, and in her favour. When Swift released 1989, there was no way to be a megastar pop icon without blanket media coverage, meaning that there was a vast audience forced to interact with Swift content who didn’t actually want to see it. Beeching says that, at that point in time, Swift “was so analysed – the poor girl couldn’t even go on a date without receiving a ludicrous amount of hate”.

  Today there is less of a monoculture, and conversation is chiefly driven by users of TikTok, Reddit and X. The fandoms that have emerged on those social media platforms are siloed and diffuse; the algorithms that serve users content are prone to showing them things they are already predisposed to like. This ecosystem has spawned celebrities such as the video game-esque vlogger Pinkydoll, dancer turned pop star Addison Rae and riotcausing Twitch streamer Kai Cenat – hugely famous to those who are interested, largely unknown to those who are not.

  “We’re in the era of everyone being a cult star, from Taylor, down to Charli XCX,” says Mandelbaum. “There is less imperative for pop stars to create music that’s all-encompassing; all Taylor has to do is play into what her fans want from her.” Swift can be the most famous person in the world to those who love her, while remaining out of the feeds of those who don’t.

  In her second go at pop’s peak, Swift is therefore more insulated against the forces that precipitated her downfall last time, while her songs remain heavily played on still-important legacy platforms such as pop radio. And Eras has its own promotional power: the Lover album track Cruel Summer has exploded in popularity off the back of the tour, leading Swift to push it as a single. The re-recording project means she has gone from one album every two years to two or three a year, along with deluxe editions, meaning there’s a constant drip feed of new music being uploaded to streaming services. Swift had four albums in the US Top 10 at once this summer, matching a record set by Herb Alpert in 1966.

  For aspiring stars, pop’s new economy has proved challenging. Last month, a Billboard report detailed the music industry’s struggle to mint new A-listers – managers and industry executives bemoaned the fact that the last big pop star to break was Olivia Rodrigo in 2021; one lamented that “people are just buried in content”. Younger stars such as Sabrina Carpenter and Afrobeats singer Rema may be netting significant streaming hits, but it takes a far bigger push than it used to for a star to break through to Swift level, simply because even if your feed is flooded with videos of Carpenter, it is likely that the person sitting next to you on the train is only seeing clips of Rema.

  For Swift, this is a boon. There’s just too much content online for any one person to become significantly overexposed and fewer avenues for fans or haters to air grievances that will be seen by broad swaths of the population. It’s also the reason why Healy, who has faced his fair share of controversies, has proven remarkably weatherproof, and the attempted cancellation-byassociation of Swift went nowhere.

  As Mandelbaum says, Swift’s prime mode these days is fan-service. “Even people that don’t like her begrudgingly admit that she has achieved so much through her own merits and talent and vision,” he says. But they’re not the point. “She is only in communication with the people that love her, and doesn’t need to care about the people who don’t – because there are just so many people that love her.”

  ets to the exhibits have all sold out. “The strike has also helped us attract more focus from the press,” says cocurator Michel Reilhac. “That’s because there are less of the usual things that they focus on. Fewer stars on the red carpet mean journalists look elsewhere for their stories.” For an emergent artform, press coverage is crucial. It ensures that the experimental prototypes which are unveiled on the island can at least be read about outside Venice.

  The downside is that Venice Immersive – with its XR experiments and VRChat tours – risks being tainted by fears over AI; viewed as the outrider for a potentially hazardous future. “People seem to think that XR is only about the technology and so they lump it all with AI,” says Liz Rosenthal, Reilhac’s

  co-curator. “Someone asked me yesterday, ‘Oh, are you getting lots of AI things funded now?’, which is a complete misunderstanding of what AI is. AI is just a workflow tool, like an editing or post-production tool. We have pieces here that use AI, but we’re not dependent on it. So there’s a big confusion around the issue.”

  In Reilhac’s view, the XR community – which is still finding its range and seeking an effective model of distribution – remains altogether too small to be seen as a threat to the traditional entertainment industry. “There’s hardly any market [for XR work]. There’s no money in it. And I think that’s actually a beautiful feature of the community. It’s still a bit of a utopia, based on everyone helping each other and sharing ideas, because no one’s in it for the money. So I don’t think the studios associate us with AI. And even if they did, we’re not significant enough to be a threat.”

  Elsewhere on the island I meet Paul Raphael, the co-founder of the immersive art company Felix & Paul Studios and co-creator of the mixed media animation Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens. Raphael explains that most XR creators are independent agents, non-unionised and still working on the experimental outer limits of the entertainment industry.

  “Union laws and guidelines don’t really apply in the XR world,” he says. “The fact that it’s a new medium means it’s not regulated yet. But as we go forward, it will have to be. Right now the artform is small enough and young enough, and the distribution channels aren’t there yet, which means that it hasn’t broken through to reach a mass audience. As soon as it does, the situation will change. If the unions are able to survive the strikes, there is no question in my mind that the XR industry will eventually become a part of that structure.”

  Raphael used predictive AI as a tool on The Seven Ravens in order to assist with the tracking of the exhibit’s digital animation. With Tulpamancer, though, the technology’s role is more central. Generative AI effectively mines the archive of information that it receives from each visitor. It digitally edits and illustrates your written responses and then delivers this back in the form of a dreamlike spiritual audit. “The yearning to explore distant lands beckons you, resonating deep with your being,” reads the computer print-out that I receive at the end of my own visit. “The call of Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Japan resonates alongside your family commitments and financial restraints.” I’m also assured that all the information I typed in at the start is deleted the instant the experience is complete

  Niederhauser has spent the past week in Venice, ensuring the exhibit runs smoothly and observing the reactions of those who try it. Some come out tearful and joyous. Others, though, emerge disconcerted and disturbed. Such a breadth of response has made Tulpamancer one of the hits of this year’s festival. But it also reflects our own ambivalence towards generative AI, our fraught relationship with a technology that takes its lead from both the best and worst of humanity. The future will be interesting and does not necessarily spell disaster. “AI is not the ultimate good,” Niederhauser says. “But it’s not the ultimate evil either.”

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/10
• 
  

  Infoman

  The Guardian view on Brexit’s fantasy: waking to a nightmare foretold

  Guardian (USA) 09/9/2023

  In the ninth season of Dallas, the 1980s blockbuster TV show about Texas oil barons, the handsome young scion of the Ewing dynasty – Bobby – appeared in the shower of his ex-wife and true love Pam even though the character had been killed off a year earlier. Dumbstruck viewers had to swallow the idea that 12 months’ worth of storylines had all been a dream. But the show’s declining ratings suggested the audience missed Bobby – and waking up from a slumber offered the cleanest way to recover Dallas’s mojo. Across Britain, lots of voters must think the same might be true of Brexit, reasoning that the decision to leave the European Union is a nightmare that the country needs to wake up from.

  That might be one cause for the UK’s decision to sign up as an associate member of the EU’s £85bn Horizon research programme. Being outside the project meant UK science lost funding, collaborations, and key contact with EU universities. Getting back into the scheme – or at least most of it – was the right thing to do, because being fully outside was an exercise in self-harm. Negotiations to return were going nowhere until the Conservative party relieved itself of the delusional idea that the Irish border would be unaffected by leaving the EU, with its “Windsor framework”.

  This outbreak of realism in Rishi Sunak’s Tory party is down to selfinterest. Like Dallas’s falling ratings, the Conservatives’ poll standings are heading south. Public opinion has swung away from Brexit, with more than half the country thinking it was wrong to leave the bloc. Crucially, a chunk of 2016 leave voters have changed their minds because Brexit hasn’t delivered either on promises that it would energise the economy or on reducing immigration. Rather, leaving the EU probably made the cost of living crisis worse.

  Even Brexit’s true believers see that “global Britain” is a middleweight, rather than a heavyweight, in trade terms – and one so inexperienced that the UK came off worse when it signed a deal with the smaller economy of Australia. As voters lose faith in the government’s ability to control the UK’s borders, it is not easy to square a trade deal with India that might make it easier for citizens of that country to gain entry to the UK.

  The Tory party, however, has not changed as much as the UK. In 2019 most Conservative members were willing to countenance the destruction of their party to achieve Brexit. Mr Sunak, who was a Brexiter in 2016, is now having to clean up a mess that he helped to create. But neither the prime minister nor any of his ambitious rivals can ever admit this in public – or even perhaps to themselves, given the emotional and ideological sunk costs involved. Nigel Farage’s ability to wreak havoc in Tory ranks is another reason the party is still in favour of Brexit and won’t change its mind.

  Rejoining is probably a hard sell for the EU. Brussels gets the better end of the “trade and cooperation agreement”, as it helps goods exports but does little for services, Britain’s strength. Better, more equitable relations might be obtained in 2025 with the five-year review of the agreement. The dream of Brexit’s sunlit uplands has died. Britain has woken to a more prosaic view: that whoever wins the next election will be moving towards closer relations with Brussels, not moving further away.

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/10
• 
  

  Infoman

  The Guardian (USA) 09/9/2023

  The days of signing on the dotted line may be numbered.

  The federal government has announced it is taking statutory declarations into the digital age, saying it will accept electronic signatures and video link witnessing from next year.

  It makes permanent a change introduced during the pandemic, when attending a justice of the peace (JP) for a statutory declaration – a practice that goes back to the 19th century – was forbidden under lockdown restrictions.

  Try our quiz:Whose scribble is that? Can you match the famous identity to the signature?

  Legislation introduced this week by the federal attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, will also allow people to digitally execute a statutory declaration using the online platform myGov and the myGovID Digital ID.

  Dreyfus says the bill is intended to keep with the changing ways of Australians.

  “This bill will respond to how Australians want and expect to engage and communicate digitally with government by providing options to make commonwealth statutory declarations facilitated by technology,” he says. “This bill is an important milestone in driving the digitisation of government services.”

  While a signature in ink has been used for hundreds of years to record someone’s agreement, consent or to verify their identity, its digitisation would leave it as a relic of the past.

  Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

  Meryl Kane is a JP at Chatswood Library, in Sydney’s lower north shore, and she believes that with digitisation, something fundamental and tangible could be lost in the process.

  “I think a signature will always hold a bit of power, but we are possibly losing something here,” she says.

  “There’s always a visceral aspect associated with signing on a dotted line,

  that just doesn’t come with pressing a button.”

  Kane doubts the move to digitise the signature would spell the end of a traditionally written one, especially considering how arduous organising a digital identity could be.

  “Particularly for the older generations, or for people where English isn’t their first language, the process of getting your digital identification is actually quite a long one and I doubt many people will do it until they actually find they need to.”

  In its announcement, the government says the move could save over $156m each year, hundreds of thousands of hours and be a productivity winner for the private sector.

  With Australians spending an estimated 9m hours each year executing and processing more than 3.8m statutory declarations, the hope is the measures will smooth out the process.

  But the state president of the New South Wales Justices Association, John Brodie, is also not as convinced, saying there are security concerns the move does not address.

  Brodie says digitisation could “debase” the authenticity and importance of documents such as statutory declarations and affidavits by opening the door to hackers and scammers. He also questions the government’s promise to implement its fraud and security arrangements.

  “Progress is great, but we all know that anything electronic is suspect to scamming, and that it can be accessed by those who want it,” Brodie says. “The acceptance of a stat dec as a proper legal document is not something we want to change. And anything modern or super modern that might undermine the integrity of that document shouldn’t even be considered.”

  Brodie says video link witnessing does not provide enough security to ensure someone is not being coerced into signing anything.

  “This provides ways to undermine the statutory declaration, and opens up ways for someone to be coerced; there just isn’t enough safety around these measures, particularly for the vulnerable.”

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/10
• 
  

  Infoman

  What a year of King Charles has shown us about how he wants to reign

  Davies

  The Guardian (USA) 09/9/2023

  As the king spends the first anniversary of his mother’s death, and of his accession, at his Scottish highland retreat on Friday, he may reflect back on a year of historic transition not seen in 70 years.

  Suggestions that Charles, 74, sees himself as a “caretaker king”, keeping the throne warm for the new Prince of Wales, who will be the real reformer, is not a scenario recognised at Buckingham Palace.

  There have been no eye-catching reforms in his first year, and he can be fairly described as the “cautious” king. But there are clues to his aspirations in the small changes.

  He has turbo-charged royal receptions, harnessing their soft-power to the maximum, sources point out, in the knowledge he can no longer speak out publicly on subjects he remains passionate about.

  So, the “convening” king is a label it seems he will accept.

  When advised by Liz Truss’s government not to attend the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt, he instead hosted an eve of Cop27 reception for international representatives at Buckingham Palace. He found a way to remain a leader in the field of the climate crisis, albeit within the new constitutional parameters that constrain him.

  Now, “informal formality” are the bywords. Receptions are larger-scale events – such as that in February for the British east and south-east Asian communities. The nature of these receptions has changed from the late queen’s days, precisely because Charles is no longer able to become involved in certain areas, sources indicate.

  He also sees himself, as head of state, of being a symbol of continuity and stability, said sources. The political turbulence of the early days of his reign saw him no sooner having his first meeting with one prime minster than he was on to his second.

  He has made his debut as king on the international stage, addressing the German Bundestag, a first for a British monarch, and a similar honour will be accorded in France this month when he addresses their parliamentarians. He has also hosted the US president, Joe Biden, and the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa.

  But, while he would like to be seen as a unifying figure, the challenging dynamics of his own fractured family have dominated his first year. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s protracted onslaught against the royal family and institution in general, and Harry’s criticism of his father in particular, have played out across the world.

  From Charles there has been silence. It has never been an established position that nothing would be said, rather in what way would saying something make things better. So far, there has not been a day when he has thought saying something was going to make things better, the Guardian understands. His love for his younger son, though, is demonstrated in his invitation to Harry and Meghan to his coronation, although only Harry turned up and then made a swift exit back to LA.

  Another early challenge was the race row involving Lady Susan Hussey, the late queen’s lady-in-waiting, and a black female charity reception guest, Ngozi Fulani, of Sistah Space. Some royal observers were surprised at the speed and ruthlessness with which Charles’s aides dealt with the fallout. Hussey immediately resigned from the royal household for making “unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments”, and later offered an apology in person, which Fulani accepted.

  For Charles – who is very close to Hussey, godmother to William – it was a difficult situation. “One could almost argue it was dealt with too swiftly. The reaction to that was surprising, particularly from the Prince of Wales,” said Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty Magazine, noting Hussey was soon back in the royal fold.

  “I suppose it was important to be seen to be addressing the issue head on, as opposed to the way that other issues, such as bullying allegations, are being treated as private matters,” Little added, referencing bullying allegations made against, and denied by, Meghan.

  Another challenge Charles faces is the “slimmed-down” monarchy he is said to have wanted, which now looks positively skeletal. The Princess Royal may have had a point when she told Canada’s CBC News that a slimmed down monarchy “doesn’t sound like a good idea from where I’m standing”.

  With Andrew and Harry out of the picture, and the death of the late queen, what to do with all the patronages is a big question. In the official coronation photograph featuring the remaining 11 working royals, the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra are 87 and 86 respectively, the king, 74, the queen, 76, Princess Anne, 73, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester 79 and 77 respectively, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh 59 and 58 respectively, while the Waleses are both 41.

  “The Duke of Kent and the Gloucesters and Princess Alexandra, they can’t take on anything more. They will keep going as long as they can,” said Hugo Vickers, a royal historian. “You’ve lost Prince Andrew and Prince Harry. It’s a big issue, I think. You can see what Princess Anne means.”

  How the king will overcome this remains to be seen, but an ageing royal family could affect its popularity. While the most recent YouGov poll shows a majority (59%) think Charles is doing well, support for the institution in general fell as those questioned got younger, with 80% of the over-65s voicing their approval but only 37% of 18- to 24-year-olds.

  He will also have to contend with an increasingly vocal republican movement. While said to be genuinely pleased with the response he gets on the streets during engagements, he cannot ignore the protests and chants of “not my king”. The over-zealous policing of the coronation led to 64 arrests, some not even protesters, it later emerged. Only five people have so far been charged, and half told they will face no charges or fines.

  The necessary integration of two householdsafter the late queen’s death has inevitably led to a reduction in staff, and the king is also, reportedly, setting about reducing the number of middle managers in his employ.

  “If a whole layer of middle-management is to be removed then that’s a necessary step that maybe should have been taken some time ago. He obviously sees a need for modernisation, and it looks like he’s going through the process at the moment,” said Little.

  The monarchy is due to receive a huge pay increase, with public funding through the sovereign grant rising £86.3m this year to £126m in 2025 due to the formula based on crown estate profits, the Guardian has reported.

  Charles’s address to the nation, delivered after his mother’s death, laid out a blueprint for his reign: his solemn pledge to “uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation” and acknowledgment that his new responsibilities mean it will “no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply”.

  “It was brilliant. I don’t think the late queen had to set out a blueprint about what she was going to do, but that is what we expect these days. And it certainly hit all the nails on the head. And he has kept to it,” said Vickers.

  It was a message “that was very much reinforced by Prince William leaping up on to the stage at the [coronation] concert and giving that Shakespearean speech, basically he was then saying: ‘I’m going to be the one talking now,’” added Vickers.

  Charles has previously insisted he knew he couldn’t meddle once king. “But saying it and doing it are two very different things, and that doesn’t mean to say that he won’t at some point interfere,” said Little. His first big personal project as monarch to be launched in the autumn is a national initiative to tackle food waste, led by Dame Martina Milburn, the chief executive of the Prince’s Trust. “And you wonder how political that might be, so that remains to be seen,” he added.

  One surprise omission in Charles’s first year has been the lack of Commonwealth activity – he is king of 14 other countries, with some debating whether to ditch him. Perhaps it is down to lack of time in a busy year, said Little. “But there hasn’t yet been the Commonwealth activity in the way you might expect there to have been.”

  By and large, it is Charles the “cautious” king we have seen so far. “He is the best prepared Prince of Wales that the UK has ever had. Clearly we are unlikely to celebrate the silver jubilee of King Charles III. But he could be king for 20 years,” said Little. “To be described as a ‘caretaker king’ for two decades is doing him a great disservice. He clearly has a lot of offer. We have yet to see some of his potential. But it’s early days.”

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/10
• 
  

  Infoman

  The US should not normalize Modi’s autocratic and illiberal India at the G20

  Ja­son Stan­ley

  The Guardian (USA) 09/9/2023

  In December 2021, President Joe Biden hosted an event billed as a “Summit for Democracy”. Biden opened his address to the summit by describing his motivation for holding it: “in the face of sustained and alarming challenges … democracy needs champions”.

  Since that time Biden has embraced, as allies, autocrats and wouldbe autocrats all over the world, including the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who US intelligence has said was responsible for the brutal murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. More recently, Biden invited Benjamin Netanyahu, who is presiding over the destruction of Israel’s democracy by targeting its judicial system, for an official visit to the United States.

  Biden is right that there is an everlarger club of backsliding democracies, with the US among them. And the American president is not the only openly hypocritical leader in this club. In fact, he is not even close to the worst offender.

  This September, India is hosting G20 leaders under the banner of “One Earth, One Family, One Future”. As a part of the transition to India’s assumption of this position, Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, has leaned heavily on these themes in promoting India as an inclusive, emerging global power.

  Yet behind these lofty ideals lies a very different, and dangerous, reality.

  Those in Modi’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), are hardline Hindu nationalists. Their ideology holds that India was originally a pure Hindu state, with minorities, such as India’s large Muslim population, the supposed result of colonization by outside forces.

  The hallmarks of fascism are everywhere. School textbooks are being rewritten to reinforce the fake history behind BJP’s Hindu nationalist agenda. Topics like the theory of evolution and the periodic table have been replaced with traditional Hindu theories, and academics have been silenced for calling out the BJP’s election malpractices. The government has weaponized education in the manner typical of fascist regimes such as Russia. There are other clear indications of India’s slide towards fascism. On press freedom, India ranks 161st out of 180 countries, sandwiched between Venezuela (at 159) and Russia (at 164).

  Modi and the BJP have proven themselves to be fluent hypocrites on the world stage. Under the banner of anticolonialism, the party isreplicating Britain’s colonial practices.

  In 2005 Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat, was denied entry to the US because of his role in ethnic violence that left over 1,000 people dead, the vast majority of them Muslims. According

  to a recently declassified report from the British Foreign Office, the Hindu mobs'"systematic campaign of violence has all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing” and “Narendra Modi is directly responsible.”

  He’s much more powerful now, but the playbook remains the same. India’s minorities face lynchings and the bulldozing of their homes, among other abuses. Ten percent of the world’s Muslims live in India, over 200 million in all; as Gregory Stanton, the founder and director of Genocide Watch, has warned in a US congressional briefing, we are seeing in India the beginning of what would be by far the largest genocide in history.

  And it’s not just Muslims who are at risk. In Manipur, over 150 people have been killed since May 2023 in a vicious ethnic conflict pitting Hindus against Christians. More broadly, since Modi took over in 2014, hate crimes against minorities have increased by 300%.

  History tells us that this is how it works. Fascism grants the dominant majority special status, targeting national minorities by threatening their equal citizenship. In 2019, India passed a Citizenship Amendment Act that granted a fast track to citizenship for non-Muslims who lack documentation as citizens. The National Registry Act, already implemented in the Indian state of Assam, is a seemingly contradictory effort to expel illegal immigrants. It demands that residents provide proof of their citizenship in India, essentially a birth certificate, or face expulsion. Yet 38% of Indian children under five lack a birth certificate.

  This tangle of laws exemplifies the blatant hypocrisy of India’s ruling party, leaving India poised to disenfranchise much of its Muslim population.

  Nor is the problem only domestic. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, India has become one of the world’s largest importers of Russian oil – essentially propping up Russia’s occupation and genocide of its peaceful neighbor. Genocidal regimes support one another, in an alliance of evil, and the rest of the world must stand against them.

  So, has the US been listening? The answer is clearly no. In June, Biden gave Modi’s visit a red-carpet treatment. Jack Kirby, a US national security official, has made light of objections to Modi, declaring that “India is a vibrant democracy. Anybody that, you know, happens to go to New Delhi can see that for themselves.” With America’s help, the G20 platforms BJP’s transparently hypocritical embrace of humanitarian and liberal ideals.

  The US public and their leaders are paying attention, at least somewhat, to Russia’s genocide in Ukraine. But the collective shrug at a potentially vast genocide in India (as well as the ongoing genocide in Sudan) raises an obvious concern: is the US public’s standard for this crime much higher when black and brown people face the threat?

  Jason Stanley is a professor of philosophy at Yale University, and the author, most recently, of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/10
• 
  

  Infoman

  Take another look at Joe Biden. His is the presidency progressives have been waiting for

  Jonathan Freed­land

  The Guardian (USA) 09/9/2023

  The tragedy of Joe Biden is that people see his age, his frailty and his ailing poll numbers and they miss the bigger story. Which is that his has been a truly consequential presidency, even a transformational one. In less than three years, he has built a record that should unify US progressives, including those on the radical left, and devised an economic model to inspire social democratic parties the world over, including here in Britain.

  Sadly for Biden, politics and government are different things: it takes more than a record of good governance to get reelected. For one thing, voters cast their ballots less as a verdict on the past than as an instruction (or hope) for the future. And the fear, shared by 76% of Americans, according to a poll this week, is that Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is simply too old to lead them there. Put aside the fact that his near certain opponent in November 2024, Donald Trump, is only three years younger. Trump has a presence and vigour, an ability to project himself, that Biden does not. And that simple fact affects – distorts – the entire way the Biden administration is seen. As one observer puts it, “the vibes are off ”.

  The challenge for Democrats is to use the 14 months between now and election day to get past that, to point out the malignancy of Trump and the danger a second Trump presidency would represent to the republic and the world – and also to make the positive case for what we might call Bidenism. Luckily, that is not a hard case to make.

  That’s because, though elected to be no more than a calm hand on the tiller, a stopgap, interim leader who might allow the country to steady itself after four years of Storm Donald, Biden has confounded that expectation. He has none of the stage presence of his old boss, Barack Obama – who never had any trouble with vibes – but he can already claim to have achieved much more.

  Top of the list is, characteristically, something that sounds boring but is of enormous significance: the Inflation Reduction Act, passed last year. That seemingly technocratic piece of legislation actually achieves two epochal goals. First, it hastens the day the US makes the break from fossil fuels – by making clean energy not only the morally superior option for both industry and consumers, but the financially superior one too.

  It does that through a massive raft of tax breaks, subsidies and incentives all designed to encourage the production of wind turbines, solar panels, ever improving battery technology, geothermal plants and the like, along with tax credits aimed at making electric cars irresistible even to those middleAmerican consumers more concerned about their wallets than the burning planet.

  The estimated cost of $386bn is huge, but that’s not a limit on how much Biden has committed to spend. On the contrary, if the demand is there for solar panels or electric vans, Biden’s law obliges the US government to keep spending. A calculation by Credit Suisse reckoned the figure could rise to $800bn, which will in turn unleash $1.7tn in private-sector spending on green technology. Small wonder that everyone from environmental activists to Goldman Sachs hailed the act as a “gamechanger” in the fight to tackle the climate emergency.

  But the second goal of the legislation is almost as significant. Biden insisted that this surge in green manufacturing would happen inside the US, thereby reviving industrial towns and cities in decline since the 1980s. It is US factories that are getting the subsidies to build all this clean tech – alongside an earlier, huge package of infrastructure spending – restoring jobs to workers who had long been written off.

  The Inflation Reduction Act is the centrepiece of Bidenomics, an approach that resurrects Democratic principles discarded in the Bill Clinton years, seemingly for ever: old-school industrial policy centred on an activist state making serious public investment in manufacturing; muscular regulation of corporations; and warm encouragement of unionised labour. (“When unions win, Americans across the board win,” says Biden.) Which is one reason why the AFL-CIO trade union, echoing Goldman Sachs, also hailed the act as a “gamechanger” for working people.

  The passage of the legislation – all the more remarkable given a Senate then split 50-50 between the parties – and its impact are set out in an outstanding new book on the Biden presidency, The Last Politician by Franklin Foer. He describes how Biden, whose hands were already full with the Covid pandemic and the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, was not content simply to be a caretaker manager, troubleshooting crises. Instead, “he set out to transform the country through some of the biggest spending bills that have ever been proposed”, Foer told me when we spoke this week.

  The result is that Biden has “redirected the paradigm” of US economic life in a way that will affect Americans “for a generation”. While Obama and Clinton were “deferential to markets”, says Foer, Biden has reversed “the neoliberal consensus” in place since the Ronald Reagan era. He doesn’t leave corporations alone; he gets stuck in, taking on de-facto monopolies, reviving “anti-trust” policies that had long been abandoned. (“Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism,” insists Biden. “It’s exploitation.”) “Like Reagan, Biden is resetting the economic trajectory of the nation,” adds Foer. “In fact, as a matter of substance, he is the most transformational president since Reagan.”

  Internationally, the change is not as dramatic, but Biden is credited with bringing stability after the chaos and dictator-coddling of the Trump years and, especially, for building and maintaining a western alliance in support of Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian imperialism. Others admire his handling of China: robust, without crossing the line where a cold war turns hot.

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/10
• 
  

  Infoman

  Us open 2023 woman final

  全埸人為coco 打氣，皆因－個係美國人，身體細小，仲係黑人teenager，有信仰，有美國夢，口齒伶俐，另一個白俄羅斯人，世界排名第一，仲係高大強壯白人美女，可惜eq 甚低

  全埸人為弱者coco 打氣，令人感動

  2023/09/09
• 
  

  Infoman

  Buddy Oliver follows in chef dad’s footsteps

  Guardian 09/9/2023

  Buddy is a 12-yearold schoolboy from Essex, with a large family and a shock of blond hair. He also happens to have an extremely famous father: the TV chef Jamie Oliver. Perhaps not coincidentally, this week Buddy acquired a commission for a TV series of his own. In a programme for the BBC, it was reported, Buddy will teach other children recipes and helpful tips. Dad may be one of the country’s most famous and influential chefs, but in this case, a source told the Sun, “Buddy is the star of the show.”

  His surname, of course, will have been a factor – and Buddy is far from the first son or daughter of a TV chef to venture into the worlds of cookery or presenting. Jack Stein, the son of Rick, is the chef director overseeing menus at his father’s eponymous restaurant group, and has presented cookery shows on SBS and UKTV Food.

  Emily Roux, the daughter of the former Masterchef presenter Michel Roux and the granddaughter of Albert Roux, spent some of her own chef career working at the family’s restaurant, Le Gavroche. Luciano Pierre White and Sam Worrall Thompson, the sons of Marco and Anthony respectively, are both chefs.

  Perhaps closest to Buddy’s experience is that of Gordon Ramsay’s daughter Tilly, who like him grew up on the fringe of her father’s celebrity. In 2015, she was given her own CBBC TV show, Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch, in which the then 13-year-old Tilly cooked meals for her large and noisy family at their Los Angeles home and elsewhere.

  If some “nepo baby” accusations are inevitable, and a family leg-up no doubt offers a significant boost, sustained success in the competitive and volatile restaurant world is near impossible without talent and hard work too (Jack Stein, for instance, was voted best chef at the 2023 Food Magazine reader awards).

  And Buddy is no newcomer either to cookery or TV, having a great deal more presenting experience than Jamie did when he burst on to British TV in 1999, aged 23. Like all his siblings, Buddy has been cooking with his parents (and appearing in videos) since he was a toddler, helping his mum, Jools, rustle up “a really cool supersmoothie” or rolling out some pasta with his dad.

  Since 2020 he’s been fronting videos himself, at first hosted on Jamie’s social media channel. Cooking Buddies, his own YouTube channel, now has 133,000 subscribers. It’s that, just as much as his famous name, that is likely to have enhanced Buddy’s appeal to TV commissioners, notes Vanessa Hartley, the head of social at Tribal Worldwide, a branding and social media agency. “To me, [those social media numbers] essentially represent a baseline viewership at launch. So the BBC are going into this knowing that there is already interest – it’s almost as if a pilot had been done for them already.”

  One one key point, the family connection is extremely important, says Hartley. “Personally I think the interesting bit of this is actually Jamie’s following, [because] I’m pretty certain that Jamie Oliver posting about the show on his own channels will be tied into [the broadcaster’s] contract.” That kind of money-can’t-buy endorsement to the chef ’s many millions of followers would be any broadcaster’s dream, she says.

  None of which should detract from Buddy’s natural talent. Confident and charming, he’s definitely a chip off the old block, says Cathy Harding, the founder of Cook Stars, which provides cookery lessons in schools, for councils and privately across the UK.

  “He’s got his dad’s charisma,” she says, “and I especially love that they actually let him be a child – they leave in the little mistakes that he makes. I find that really endearing – because that’s exactly how it is in our classes – it’s certainly never perfect.”

  Having a young cook on TV to inspire other kids will be “brilliant”, agrees Helen Gubbins, a mother of two from Edinburgh who started a blog, cooking with my kids. co.uk, sharing recipes she uses with her own children at home.

  “Having someone their own age can really inspire other children to give it a go,” she says. “They can relate to it so much more than if a grownup’s making it.”

  For home cooks or wildly famous ones, “sometimes it’s important that you take a step back and let them just get on and do it”, says Gubbins. “Something might not turn out perfect, but if it’s homemade food, it’s always going to taste pretty good. And they get a lot of satisfaction too.”

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/09
• 
  

  Infoman

  Fish Oil Failure Shines Grim Light on America’s Memory Crisis

  USA TODAY US Edition 07/9/2023 Amer­ica’s Top Mem­ory M.D. Re­veals Why Fish Oil Doesn’t Pro­tect You from Se­nior Mo­ments – and the #1 Al­ter­na­tive

  More than 16 million Americans suffer from age-associated cognitive impairment, and according to nationwide research, these numbers are only rising.

  Thankfully, anti-aging specialist and best-selling author Dr. Al Sears says there’s an easy way to banish senior moments and brain fog for good.

  It’s a safe, natural compound called DHA – one of the building blocks of your brain. It helps children grow their brains significantly bigger during development. And in adults, it protects brain cells from dying as they get older.

  For years, most people thought fish oil was the best available source of DHA…

  But industrial fish farming practices have depleted the nutritional content of nearly every fish oil you can buy.

  Today, roughly 20 million Americans are wasting their money on fish oils that hardly do anything at all.

  And since they think they are addressing the problem, fish oil’s failure has led to America’s memory crisis continuing to grow practically unchecked.

  Fortunately, Dr. Sears says, “there’s still hope for seniors. Getting more DHA can make a life-changing difference for your mental clarity, focus, and memory.”

  Dr. Sears, a highly-acclaimed, board-certified doctor— who has published more than 500 studies and written four bestselling books — says we should be able to get enough DHA in our diets… but we don’t anymore.

  “For thousands of years, fish were a great natural source of DHA. But due to industrial fish farming practices, the fish we eat and the fish oils you see at the store are no longer as nutrient-dense as they once were,” he explains.

  DHA is backed by hundreds of studies for supporting razor-sharp focus, extraordinary mental clarity, and a lightning quick memory… especially in seniors.

  So, if you’re struggling with focus, mental clarity, or memory as you get older…

  Dr. Sears recommends a different approach.

  THE SECRET TO A LASTING MEMORY

  Research has shown our paleo ancestors were able to grow bigger and smarter brains by eating foods rich in one ingredient — DHA.

  “Our hippocampus thrives off DHA, and grows because of it,” explains Dr. Sears. “Without DHA, our brains would shrink, and our memories would quickly fade.”

  A groundbreaking study from the University of Alberta confirmed this. Animals given a diet rich in DHA saw a 29% boost in their hippocampus — the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory. As a result, these animals became smarter.

  Another study on more than 1,500 seniors found that those whose brains were deficient in DHA had significantly smaller brains — a characteristic of accelerated aging and a weakened memory.

  PEOPLE’S BRAINS ARE SHRINKING AND THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW IT

  Dr. Sears uncovered that sometime during the 1990s, fish farmers stopped giving their animals a natural, DHA-rich diet and began feeding them a diet that was 70% vegetarian.

  “It became expensive for farmers to feed fish what they’d eat in the wild,” explains Dr. Sears. “But in order to produce DHA, fish need to eat a natural, marine diet, like the one they’d eat in the wild.”

  “Since fish farmers are depriving these animals of their natural diet, DHA is almost nonexistent in the oils they produce.”

  “And since more than 80% of fish oil comes from farms, it’s no wonder the country is experiencing a memory crisis. Most people’s brains are shrinking and they don’t even know it.”

  So, what can people do to improve their memory and brain function most effectively.

  Dr. Sears says, “Find a quality DHA supplement that doesn’t come from a farmed source. That will protect your brain cells and the functions they serve well into old age.”

  Dr. Sears and his team worked tirelessly for over two years developing a unique brain-boosting formula called Omega Rejuvenol.

  It’s made from the most powerful source of DHA in the ocean, squid and krill — two species that cannot be farmed.

  According to Dr. Sears, these are the purest and most potent sources of DHA in the world, because they haven’t been tampered with. “Omega Rejuvenol is sourced from the most sustainable fishery in Antarctica. You won’t find this oil in any stores.”

  MORE IMPRESSIVE RESULTS

  Already, the formula has sold more than 850,000 bottles. And for a good reason, too. Satisfied customers can’t stop raving about the memory-boosting benefits of quality-sourced DHA oil.

  “The first time I took it, I was amazed. The brain fog I struggled with for years was gone within 24 hours. The next day, I woke up with the energy and mental clarity of a new man,” says Owen R.

  “I remember what it was like before I started taking Omega Rejuvenol… the lack of focus… the dull moods… the slippery memory… but now my mind is as clear as it’s ever been,” says Estelle H.

  “My mood and focus are at an alltime high. I’ve always had trouble concentrating, and now I think I know why,” raves Bernice J. “The difference

  that Omega Rejuvenol makes couldn’t be more noticeable.”

  And 70-year-old Mark K. says, “My focus and memory are back to age-30 levels.”

  These are just a handful of the thousands of reviews Dr. Sears receives regularly thanks to his breakthrough memory formula, Omega Rejuvenol.

  WHERE TO FIND OMEGA REJUVENOL

  To secure bottles of this brain-booster, buyers should contact the Sears Health Hotline at 1-800-351-4066. “It takes time to manufacture these bottles,” says Dr. Sears. “The Hotline allows us to ship the product directly to customers who need it most.”

  Dr. Sears feels so strongly about this product he is offering a 100% money-back guarantee on every order. “Send back any used or unused bottles within 90 days and I’ll rush you a refund,” says Dr. Sears.

  The Hotline is taking orders for the next 48 hours. After that, the phone number may be shut down to allow for inventory restocking.

  Call 1-800-351-4066 to secure your limited supply of Omega Rejuvenol. Readers of this publication immediately qualify for a steep discount, but supplies are limited. To take advantage of this great offer use Promo Code

  when you call.

  通過分享 PressReader

  通過新聞連接世界

  2023/09/07