Extreme Escape

Extreme Escape

January 20, 2017

Some people will do anything to avoid the new administration

The Short Version

Six people entered a dome on top of the most active volcano in Hawaii and won’t come out for eight months as part of a NASA-sponsored study of the effects of living in an environment similar to that found on the planet Mars. Scientists are hoping that the results of this study will help them to prepare for eventually putting people on the red planet sometime in the 2030s. One of the “perks” to being in the dome is complete isolation from news media.

A Few More Details

While many of us might like to escape today’s inauguration of the new president, six people found a very extreme way of doing so by volunteering for an eight-month study that places them in a dome that sits on top of the most active volcano in Hawaii. That sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

Actually, this isn’t a political statement but rather a scientific study. That the study started yesterday is purely coincidental. This was planned long before the election. No one really looked at the calendar.

The study, which is sponsored largely by NASA, is designed to take a look at what might happen, physically and psychologically, to people confined in an atmosphere similar to what would be found on the planet Mars. Of course, there’s a lot of difference between Earth and Mars, especially in regards to gravity. Being on top of an active volcano is about as close as scientists could come to replicating the martian environment. Anyone who has ever been on top of a volcano understands just how unfriendly and unforgiving the terrain can be.

The six people who entered the dome, four men and two women, won’t have a lot of space and won’t have much in the way of food choice. Their diets will consist mostly of dried food with the occasional treat of —wait for it—Spam. Sounds thrilling, doesn’t it? I’m anticipating some dramatic weight loss on the part of the participants. Yet, it is still likely better than the environment in Washington, D.C. at the moment.

The University of Hawaii operates the dome, called Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS, and NASA has dedicated more than $2 million to this stage of the project. There are other martian simulations being operated in different places in the world, but this one is special because the terrain so closely resembles what Mars would actually offer. This allows scientists to study not only how the crew interacts inside the dome, but how well they perform simple activities such as using a robot to fetch packages left for them.

Now, don’t go getting the idea that this is all fun and games. The dome has a small kitchen, a lab, and very small sleeping accommodations, such as what might be found in a martian space station. The dome is not airtight, but when members of the crew go outside, they have to wear space suits to simulate the limited movement. They will have no physical contact with the outside world. Even their limited digital communication with the support crew has a 20-minute delay, the amount of time it would take an email message from Mars to reach Earth. On a good day.

And what happens if the volcano decides to get nasty while they’re there? There are extraction plans in place, NASA says. However, there’s no word as to whether those plans include Matt Damon.

Haven’t We Done Domes Before?

Yes, we’ve stuck people in numerous domes before. There have been two previous studies for Mars deployment, one lasting a year and the other eight months. And there will likely be more studies after this as researchers attempt to improve the experience based on what they’ve learned from previous studies.

What they’re hoping to avoid is the complete meltdown that occurred back in the 90s with Biodome 2, an experiment in Arizona that went totally out of control. That dome was air tight and attempted to replicate multiple environments. Carbon dioxide levels were out of control, plants and animals were dying, and the participants were at the point of not even speaking with each other by the time they left the dome.

Of course, even that failure taught us a lot of lessons that factor into this current study. Everyone is hopeful that the test will go well and that participants won’t have too much culture shock when they emerge in eight months.

Had we known the election was going to end like this, a lot more people would have likely volunteered, don’t you think?

Photography / PotD

Jenn King: A Mini Gallery

January 19, 2017

I hate saying goodbye

I’ve said many times before that models inevitably come and go. Young women who are bright, talented, and intelligent are not likely to stay stuck in a place that does not offer them enough opportunity or challenges for being their best. Models move away and, too often, we never see them again. We try to get over it.

When Jenn King announced a couple of weeks ago that she is moving to Austin, TX, my first response was to give her a hard time about moving to a state governed by some of the most stupid and backward people the planet has ever seen, such as Rick Perry and Ted Cruz. Fortunately, Austin is the type of city that insulates itself from most of the idiocy around the state, but still, it’s Texas. As an Okie, I hate seeing a friend move to an under-developed country. [insert evil grin here]

I hadn’t considered how many times we’ve shot with Jenn over the past few years. Since we first met, she’s married and has a wonderful baby girl and expanded her career as a florist, which is ultimately what takes her away from us. However, as I was looking through photos earlier this week, I realized just how many pictures I have of Jenn and didn’t want her to escape without a final look at all the beauty she’s brought into our lives.

While I could endlessly extol her virtues as a model, I have to admit that my favorite set with Jenn came very early one morning as we did portraits of her and her daughter. It was early and baby girl wasn’t too sure what to think about the old guy that was trying to take her picture. She warmed up, though, and took some beautiful pictures. Then, as we were paused between shots, a deer wandered nearby. Baby girl looked over at the deer, pointed, and called it a dog. Her sweetness and innocence made me smile.

So, without droning on forever, here is a brief look back at some of our favorite shots with Jenn. By the way, I have to thank makeup artist Danelle French for introducing us in the first place. Danelle did most the makeup for these shoots, just please don’t ask me to remember who else was involved. I’m not that talented. I’m old.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”9619″ layout=”contain” columns=”2″]

Current Issues / News & Comment

The CIA’s New Rules

January 19, 2017

The things they want you to know

The Short Version

The Central Intelligence Agency released a new set of rules and guidelines yesterday that detail exactly what kinds of information they are allowed to collect on American citizens and how long they are allowed to keep it. This is the first time the agency has published the full set of rules without redactions. The rules have been updated for contemporary digital information sources.

A Little More Detail

We all want to know when the CIA is gathering information on us, don’t we? In fact, the agency is typically focused on foreign interests rather than domestic. Domestic issues are the responsibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, there are instances, such as when a US citizen might be responsible for passing protected or top secret information to a foreign source, when the CIA is allowed to collect data and analyze that data over a period of time.

The whole issue of what the CIA collects and why came to a head back in 2013 when Edward Snowden leaked information showing that the National Security Administration had been collecting and storing communications data on Americans without their knowledge or permission. That upset a lot of people and as a result, Congress passed a resolution requiring the intelligence agencies to develop new rules within two years.

What was released yesterday was the CIA’s response to that requirement and the changes are significant. The last time the rules were updated was 1982, long before the Internet or cell phones or Facebook gave us ways of communicating internationally in real time. One of the big issues is how long the agency can hold on to information for analysis and with whom that information can be shared, something that is an especially sensitive issue for civil rights advocates.

Unlike the 1982 rules, which were released with heavy redactions, the new rules were published in whole and are completely open to the world. A summary of the rules can be found here while the full detail of all the rules can found here.

What All Is Covered

We should probably note first that these rules can be changed at any time for pretty much any reason and that the public does not have to be notified of those changes. Also, the changes do not cover covert operations or special assignments authorized by the Department of Justice or the Attorney General. That being said, here are some of the major topics covered under the new rules:

Collection of information, including techniques and sorting
Handling of unevaluated information
Retention of information concerning US persons
Participation in organizations in the US
Compliance and oversight
Lots and lots of exceptions

Of course, the incoming administration could change, adjust, or eliminate any of these rules, but doing so would largely be seen as undermining the public’s faith in the agency.

Current Issues / News & Comment

Avalanche!

January 19, 2017

Earthquake and snow proves deadly

The Short Version

30 people are missing and most presumed dead after earthquakes and heavy snowfall resulted in an avalanche that buried Hotel Rigopiano in the mountainous region of central Italy. Rescue crews had to dig their way through several feet of snow just to get to the remote spa location. Initial calls to survivors have yielded nothing but silence and the entire situation looks quite grim.

Update:

4:54:59 PM EST 4:55:16 PM: 10 people have been rescued as efforts continue on into the night. Four bodies have also been removed from the snow. At least 20 others are still missing. Some reports say the guests had gathered in the lobby, awaiting evacuation from the earthquakes, when the avalanche hit. The force of the snow not only broke through walls but shifted the entire building some eleven yards or more off its foundation. There is still considerable criticism being directed toward an official who refused to believe the initial report of the avalanche and waited several hours before sending out rescue crews. A survivor said all the guests had checked out and were waiting for transportation that had been delayed because of blocked roads. Prosecutor Christina Tedeschini has opened a manslaughter investigation to determine whether the disaster could have been avoided.

05:04:56 AM EST 01/20/2017: Rescuers continued working through the night as hopes of finding any survivors dims. Two bodies have been found and two more have been located but not recovered. Rescuers are going slowly amidst fears that as snow is removed weak walls could cause the snow to fall in on top of them. Snow continues to fall, further hampering the ability of rescuers and big equipment trying to get to the hotel. An investigation has begun as to why it took 11 hours before anyone got to the site of the avalanche. Power continues to be out at most homes in the area and most roads are impassable.

12:02:18 PM EST: The only rescuers who have gotten through have been on skis, which limits the amount of rescue work they are able to do. Heavy equipment is struggling to get through all the snow. One survivor reports that it took two hours of calling immediately after the avalanche before anyone believed that anything bad had even happened. One person trapped in the hotel was able to get out a message that said, “Help, we’re freezing to death,” but the message did not say where in the resort the person was located. As darkness descends upon the region, there is still no power to the area, making it difficult to utilize even the most basic of rescue efforts.

A Little Background

The Hotel Rigopiano is a very popular spa destination nestled in the remote mountains of Italy’s Abruzzo region in the central part of the country and located in the Gran Sasso National Park. The hotel caters primarily to foreign tourists and provides a multi-lingual staff to accommodate guests in their native language. One of the attractive features of the hotel is its remote location, well away from the noise of any other tourist destinations.

What Happened

Earthquakes. Four tremors hit central Italy yesterday, ranging from 5.3 to 5.7 on the Richter scale. Seismologists registered more than 100 aftershocks as the effect was felt throughout the mountains. This came on top of more than three feet of snow that had already isolated much of the region, making travel difficult. The hotel’s website on Wednesday morning advised using snow chains to get to the resort. Several of the smaller towns in the region were reporting problems with power being out and the hotel’s phone service had gone out due to the snow as well.

All this proved to be deadly as aftershocks from the earthquakes shook loose tons of snow that crashed into the hotel and through its walls without any warning. Early video from rescuers shows snow blasted through exterior walls and into guest rooms. Crews have been working through the morning in an effort to find any survivors. So far, two have been found, but both of those had actually been outside when the avalanche hit. No one inside the hotel has been found alive yet.

While an exact count of people potentially trapped in the hotel is not known, there were 30 guests registered in addition to staff, which could ultimately push the number of missing above 40. There is also a slim possibility that some local people were in the hotel, having been moved there after previous earthquakes made their homes unsafe. However, there is no confirmation of Hotel Rigopiano having taken any of those additional guests.

All this comes after heavy earthquakes in the region killed some 300 people last August.

Rescue efforts are ongoing, but there appears to be little hope as crews still receive no answer to their constant calls.

Current Issues / Fashion / News & Comment

Look Who’s Walking

January 18, 2017

The fashion runway just took an interesting spin

The Short Version

Buzz Aldrin and Bill Nye will take to the runway for Nick Graham’s Men’s show titled “Life on Mars: Fall-Winter 2035.” Aldrin was the second person to set foot on the moon, and Bill Nye is an avid advocate of space exploration. Graham’s menswear line for fall/winter has a futuristic look and considers what might be appropriate for life on the red planet.

Not Your Average Model

We’ve seen a few exceptions to the standard model casting in the past couple of seasons, but I don’t think anyone else would have thought of casting the 86-year-old former astronaut and national hero, Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin has strongly encouraged the US to explore further into space and has stated frequently that he believes we can live on Mars by the year 2035. The astronaut told WWD, “I’ve walked on the Moon, so how hard can it be to walk in a fashion show. Nick’s collection is very Mars-friendly and every astronaut should look their best when they land there.”

In addition to Aldrin, Graham has brought along science educator Bill Nye to narrate the event and Graham has even gone so far as to design a set of limited-edition bow ties with Nye’s help. For those of you not in the loop, bow ties are a standard part of Nye’s iconic wardrobe. Nye’s voice is a familiar one and adds a serious tone to the presentation without getting too academic.

And what might we be wearing on Mars? Graham tells WWD the January 31 show will include sharkskin suits, metallic rainwear, and space-oriented formalwear. Wool and wool-blended tailored clothing and outerwear will also be presented, along with “space-themed dress shirts, neckwear, scarves, and accessories.”

Spaced-theme dress shirts sounds like something astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson might wear, but there’s no mention of his inclusion in the program. Maybe he’s out of town that day.

Mens week fashion shows don’t typically draw the level of attention that is found at the women’s ready-to-wear shows a couple of weeks later. Many designers have abandoned men’s week and include men’s fashion in their more popular ready-to-wear shows. Graham’s inclusion of a space theme and popular icons should help bring some attention to his collection from science fiction fans, a group few fashion labels consider in their marketing. Whether that group will actually go out and purchase the clothes, however, may require more motivation than Aldrin and Nye.

Current Issues / News & Comment

Pardon Me

January 18, 2017

Or at least commute my sentence

The Short Version

President Obama pardoned 64 and commuted the sentences of over 200 people yesterday in one of the largest groups of commutations by any president. Included in this list was Chelsea Manning, the transgender former Army analyst convicted of leaking top secret material to WikiLeaks in 2009 and former Marine general James E. Cartwright who plead guilty to making false statements to the FBI. Many people are upset by Ms. Manning’s sentence commutation while others are wondering if this may open the door for prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Matters Of Distinction

Right off the bat, we need to make a couple of points clear. A presidential pardon largely removes one’s crime and its effects. All rights are restored and the legal record of the conviction is expunged. Commuting a sentence, however, does not remove the conviction nor many of the penalties related to that conviction. All commuting a sentence does is let a person out of jail sooner. They are still subject to reporting laws, may not regain the right to vote, and cannot be considered for any form of federal employment. All pardons and commutations are permanent and cannot be undone.

A Little More Detail

President Obama had already surpassed the record for the number of people he has pardoned or for whom he has commuted sentences. Mr. Obama has long considered the imprisonment of non-violent drug offenders to be a matter of injustice and the majority of his pardons and commutations have been focused toward releasing non-violent drug offenders from jail. Not a lot has been written or said about any of these actions, though they’ve been ongoing for quite a while.

What got everyone’s attention yesterday was the commutation of the 45-year sentence given to Chelsea Manning. Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan called the act “just outrageous,” saying that ” “Chelsea Manning’s treachery put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation’s most sensitive secrets.” Ms. Manning, who was known as Bradley at the time of arrest, has presented some interesting problems for the federal prison system, however. Being held in the men’s facility at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary subjected Ms. Manning to severe abuse and mistreatment from other prisoners. At the same time, the system was unable to provide the transitional medical care Ms. Manning needed. She had attempted suicide twice in the past year.

Chase Strangio, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Ms. Manning, said that Obama’s action could “quite literally save Chelsea’s life.”

In addition to Ms. Manning and General Cartwright, President Obama pardoned San Francisco Giants Hall of Famer Willie McCovey and hotelier Ian Schrager, both of whom were convicted of tax evasion, as well as commuting the sentence of Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lopez Rivera, an ultranationalist who, at age 74, is no longer considered a threat and would have otherwise likely died in prison.

The White House also announced that several more pardons and commutations would be announced on Thursday, the last day of President Obama’s administration. However, most of those will, again, be centered around drug offenders and no “big names” are expected.

Not For Everyone

What’s worth noting is who is not on any of the lists for pardons or sentence commutation. Edward Snowden, who, like Manning, leaked top-secret information to WikiLeaks, is not on the list. The White House has said that Snowden has not applied for clemency.

Also missing from the list is Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for first-degree murder in the shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents during a 1975 conflict on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, has widely been considered to have been convicted unjustly. Yesterday, James Reynolds, the federal prosecutor responsible for Peltier’s conviction, published a letter in the Chicago Tribune urging Peltier’s release saying “The government has gotten almost 41 years, and 41 pounds of flesh; Peltier is old and sick, and in my opinion, any more time served would be vindictive.” However, the White House has not responded on the matter.

There is also some speculation as to whether Ms. Manning’s clemency opens the door for some action against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. However, again, there is no official word from the Justice Department regarding those rumors. Given the timing and transition about to take place, it is unlikely that the Justice Department would initiate any new activity that would require completion by the new administration.

Current Issues / News & Comment

Don’t Get Sick

January 18, 2017

Healthcare confusion is a good excuse to take care of yourself

The Short Version

After a party-line vote during a late-night session of Congress allowed for the complete dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, joined by Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, released a statement yesterday saying that repealing the healthcare law without a replacement would result in 18 million more uninsured Americans. However, that assessment was made on previous legislation. No new legislation has been submitted yet and the president-elect has promised “universal coverage.” With all the confusion, the best advice, for now, is to take care of yourself and not expect anything from Congress.

A Little More Detail

Congress scared a lot of people last week when it passed a bill changing the rules for repealing the Affordable Care Act. The vote was largely along party lines, 51-48, and came in the wee hours of Thursday morning while most Americans were sound asleep. At first, because a protective clause regarding pre-existing conditions and other coverage was removed from the nonbinding resolution, many people were under the impression that coverage for pre-existing conditions had been removed. It hadn’t. All the resolution did was make it easier for Congress to repeal existing healthcare legislation by allowing the Senate to pass such a bill with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes currently required.

Still, mention healthcare and one suddenly has the attention of millions of Americans who would not have any insurance coverage without the Affordable Care Act. So, the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation took a look at the last bill in which Congress attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and calculated the cost. Their determination was that should Congress follow a similar pattern and repeal the law without any replacement, insurance costs would soar and 18 million people who currently have coverage would lose it within the first year. Were no replacement offered, the number of uninsured Americans would swell to 56 million by 2026. One has to admit those are pretty scary numbers.

However, there is currently no serious bill before Congress that would gut the Affordable Care Act. At this point, the House of Representatives is still arguing over smaller, more petty details and the Senate is fully consumed in hearings for Cabinet appointees. Any omnibus bill that would completely repeal the Affordable Care Act with any hope of receiving the president’s signature is still several months away.

Add to that the promise of GOP leaders to retain the pre-existing condition coverage and the president-elect’s promise for universal coverage and the waters get even more muddy. If the incoming president is going to hold out for a replacement plan that covers everyone, then Congress has to dramatically alter its approach away from anything they proposed last year. This could potentially set the stage for disagreement between the president and congressional leaders, further delaying any kind of repeal and replace legislation.

At this point, there is absolutely no certainty of any kind as to how Congress might actually handle changes to the healthcare laws. The confusion is frustrating and leaves millions of Americans in limbo regarding long-term healthcare.

Time To Self-Medicate

Given all the confusion and uncertainty regarding the healthcare laws, doctors are taking a more cautious approach and advising patients to maintain current medication and to take more responsibility for their personal health where it is reasonable to do so. Here are some of the recommendations being offered:

See your physician for a regular checkup, making sure prescriptions and treatment plans are up-to-date.
Make sure all scheduled vaccinations are up-to-date.
Maintain a healthy diet that is appropriate to both your age and physical needs. Not everyone should eat the same things.
Stay active with an appropriate exercise plan that does not present a high level of risk.
Avoid high-risk activities where possible. Now is not the time to undertake something that might leave one in need of long-term healthcare.
Stay away from unproven forms of “alternative” medicines that could complicate healthcare.
Those in high-risk categories, such as the very young and very old, should avoid contact with highly infectious environments and limit some public activities during high-risk seasons.

In short: don’t get sick. There is no promise that anyone will be covered for any form of healthcare in the future, regardless of what Congress and the president-elect might say. Taking responsibility for your own healthcare and that of your children is something we all should be doing anyway. It probably doesn’t hurt to start a savings account to use in the event of a medical catastrophe, such as a car accident or a rabid squirrel attack if you can afford to do so.

We’ve not lost everything yet, but to the degree we can prepare for the worst we are better off.

Current Issues / Fashion / News & Comment

The First Lady’s New Clothes

January 17, 2017

She’s not going naked. Probably.

The short version

Speculation is high regarding which designer might be selected to outfit soon-to-be first lady Melania Trump for the inauguration and its related parties. Normally, whoever is selected receives a noticeable market bump from the relationship. However, since December many designers have been saying they want nothing to do with anything or anyone related to the incoming administration. This raises the possibility that the new first lady may have to buy off the rack.

The core of the problem

Normally, dressing the First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) is a huge honor. Fashion industry reports show hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue going to designers who FLOTUS wears to special events such as state dinners. No event is more special than the inauguration and the formal balls that evening. Everyone in fashion is watching to see not only which designer the new first lady chooses, but how her taste in clothing matches up in comparison to her predecessors.

For most women, the task of getting dressed revolves around decisions such as which blouse isn’t stained and which pair of slacks aren’t too tight around the waist. For the first lady, however, the label in the clothing is often as important as the garments themselves. The first lady is, after all, a representative of the United States. Therefore, she is expected to wear predominantly American designers. This is going to be all the more true now given her husband’s rhetoric about things being made in America. While she might look good in a Versace dress, the backlash would be significant.

Equally important is how much the dress costs, which is something that could be a significant issue for the incoming first lady. More than a few president’s wives have been criticized for wearing garments whose price tags were dramatically out of reach of the average American. However, given her previous position as the wife of a billionaire, the new first lady isn’t especially accustomed to worrying about price tags. Expect significant backlash if she repeatedly wears dresses with high five-figure pricing.

Those are the normal problems with dressing a first lady. This year, however, there is a new matter: designers don’t want anything to do with her husband’s politics. The row started back right after the election when designer Sophie Theallet, who dressed Mrs. Obama on multiple occasions, penned a widely-publicized open letter stating that she would not dress the incoming first lady. Ms. Theallet said: “The rhetoric of racism, sexism, and xenophobia unleashed by her husband’s presidential campaign are incompatible with the shared values we live buy.”

Since then, the number of designers speaking up about the issue has been significant, to the point that many are wondering who, if anyone is going to dress the first lady, or if she might end up buying off the rack. Since first ladies are expected to look their very best, custom-fitted clothing has been the norm for generations, but the lack of cooperating designers may leave this FLOTUS with little choice.

Who is saying no

Marc Jacobs
Derek Lam
Tom Ford
Timo Weiland
Philip Lim
Humberto Leon
Naeem Khan
Josef Altuzarra
Donna Karan

These are the most recognizable names on the list. Many other designers have declined to make a public statement. However, it is also likely that Alexander Wang and Jason Wu, both of whom dressed Mrs. Obama, would likely decline.

Who is saying yes

The incoming first lady isn’t without options. A few designers have stuck their necks out to say they will dress the first lady. However, there is no confirmation that anyone has been selected and no one has been seen entering or leaving the Trump residence.

Tommy Hilfiger
Diane Von Furstenberg
Sam & Libby
Marcus Wainright (rag & bone)
Thom Browne

It is worth noting that none of the designers state a dislike for the new first lady herself. Rather, it is the association with her husband’s policies that cause significant philosophical issues. Aside from all the controversy her husband creates every time he picks up a phone, this issue may determine whether the new first lady gets along with the social elite. All eyes will be on her this Friday. This first decision is extremely important.

Current Issues / News & Comment

Making Enemies Of Friends

January 17, 2017

No one likes a bully

The short version

The president-elect is not making himself popular among our European allies. He has criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel, called NATO outdated, and threatened the German auto industry with a 35% tariff. Europe is not responding positively to such aggression and is making it well known that they have every intention of standing up and not taking any bullying from the president-elect once he’s in office. The rhetoric is getting tense.

The actual offense

This whole mess started over the weekend when the Great Orange president-elect criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her country’s acceptance of a large number of refugees from Syria and other countries. His remarks were part of an interview with the Times of London that appeared in Sunday’s edition. In that interview, the president-elect said, the European Union had become “a vehicle for Germany” and predicted other countries would leave the EU. He also criticized Ms. Merkel specifically, saying, “I think she made one very catastrophic mistake, and that was taking all of these illegals … And nobody even knows where they come from. So I think she made a catastrophic mistake, very bad mistake.”

That one would be bad enough. Germany is a critical ally in Europe, both economically and in terms of defense. Unfortunately, the president-elect wasn’t done.

The Great Orange told German newspaper BILD that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is obsolete. He said, “It’s obsolete, first because it was designed many, many years ago. Secondly, countries aren’t paying what they should.” He also said NATO didn’t deal with terrorism.

Finally, there was this gem, again published in BILD: “If you want to build cars in the world, then I wish you all the best. You can build cars for the United States, but for every car that comes to the USA, you will pay 35 percent tax,” the president-elect said. “I would tell BMW that if you are building a factory in Mexico and plan to sell cars to the USA, without a 35 percent tax, then you can forget that.”

The fallout

Understandably, no one in Europe is taking the president-elect’s words too kindly, especially the Germans. I’ve heard a lot of German over the past 34 years and I heard some words yesterday I’ve not heard before. If the president wanted to make enemies of our closest allies, he’s doing a very good job. Europe understands what happens when bullies are allowed to have their way. They fought that war long before we got into it. They’re not keen on letting it happen again.

Francoise Holland, President of France, plans to hold the Great Orange accountable. He told CNN: “[Europe] has no need for outside advice to tell it what it has to do. I thought, frankly, it was inappropriate for a president-elect of the United States to be stepping into the politics of other countries in a quite direct manner. He’ll have to speak for that. As of Friday, he’s responsible for that relationship.”

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s Foreign Minister spoke to the anxiety among NATO members: “I’ve spoken today not only with EU foreign ministers but NATO foreign ministers as well and can report that the signals are that there’s been no easing of tensions.”

As to the whole auto tariff thing, Matthias Wissmann, the president of Germany’s VDA automotive association, said, “In the long term, the United States would be shooting itself in the foot by imposing tariffs or other trade barriers.” He noted that German carmakers have quadrupled light vehicle production in the United States over the past seven years to 850,000 units, more than half of which are exported outside the US.

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that rather than trying to penalize German carmakers, the United States should instead respond by building better and more desirable cars.

Evercore ISI analysts said: “It is surprising that Trump singles out the carmaker that exports more vehicles from the United States than any other manufacturer.”

What happens next?

Of course, no one can predict the future, but the president-elect’s words are extremely inflammatory and sound dramatically protectionist. If he continues this level of rhetoric as president, a couple of things are likely to happen.

First, he’s going to find other world leaders resistant to anything he proposes, no matter what it is. He now has a reputation as a bully and no one trusts a bully to be true to their word. As president, he and his Secretary of State will have to work hard to win back that trust if they want any cooperation from our allies at any level.

Second, equally crippling tariffs could come from the EU and other countries, such as Mexico. The US imports more than it exports, which is already an economic problem. World leaders have historically gone tit for tat any time the US threatens or imposes tariffs. Don’t expect this round to be any different. Unfortunately, higher tariffs hurt Americans as they force prices higher on many every-day goods.

The alliances formed during and after World War II are strong and no one is likely to completely walk out on the US just yet. However, our allies will not allow themselves to be bullied.

Current Issues / News & Comment

Remembering Gene Cernan

January 17, 2017

The last man on the moon

The short version

Commander Gene Cernan, the last astronaut to leave footprints on the moon, died quietly at his home in Houston yesterday, surrounded by his family. He was 82. Commander of Apollo 17, he spent 75 hours on the lunar surface. Cernan left there on December 14, 1972, and no one has ever been back, something that bothered him greatly. A native of Chicago and a Purdue University graduate, Cernan was the epitome of overcoming obstacles and doing one’s best.

What else you should know

Gene Cernan was born in Chicago in 1934, right smack in the middle of the Great Depression. Neither of his parents went to college, but they taught Gene the value of working hard and reaching for something better. That lesson stuck. The Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering he received from Purdue University in 1956 was the first of multiple academic achievements.

Cernan joined the Navy right after college and became a naval aviator, something that was a bit of a challenge because of his height. At six feet tall, Cernan’s was a common height for astronauts, but a bit large to fit in the cockpit of a Navy jet. Not only did he manage to do so, however, he recorded over 5,000 hours of flight time and some 2,000 aircraft carrier landings, one of the most difficult things to do in an airplane.

Cernan made three trips into space and his first, aboard Gemini 9, may have been the most harrowing. During that trip, Gene became only the second person to attempt a space walk. It didn’t go well. He had difficulty controlling his body in the weightlessness. The visor on his space suit fogged over from the condensation in his breath making it difficult to see. He struggled to pull himself back into the orbiter. Cernan lost 13 pounds on that trip, calling it the “spacewalk from hell.”

Offered positions on other Apollo missions, Gene held out for one where he was Commander. He wanted to be in charge of the mission and be able to walk on the moon himself. While none of the lunar missions were easy, Cernan made it look that way and made the most of his 22 hours on the lunar surface. He later wrote: “To go a quarter of a million miles away into space and have to take time out to sleep and rest … I wished I could have stayed awake for 75 hours straight. I knew when I left I’d never have a chance to come back.”

Most recently, in 2014 Cernan completed his documentary film, The Last Man On The Moon, which received general release just last year. The documentary chronicles the trip to the moon and Cernan’s life afterward. Throughout his life he was an active advocate for continued space research and returning to the moon, despite opinions of those in Congress who feel such trips are a waste of time and funding.

A little bit of trivia

Before leaving the moon, Cernan wrote “TDC,” his daughter’s initials, in the dust of the moon. Those initials, along with Cernan’s footprints, are still visible on the moon’s surface.

Current Issues / Fashion / News & Comment

May Covers April Vogue

January 16, 2017

Because political fashion is a thing

The short version

British Prime Minister Theresa May is going to be on the cover of American Vogue in April. Photographer Annie Liebowitz snuck across the pond and took the PM’s pictures at May’s country estate. This is the first time any British Prime Minister has appeared on the cover of the American fashion magazine.

A little more detail

Vogue magazine’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, seems to be getting a little more politically involved of late. Just earlier this month she was seen leaving Trump Tower after a meeting with the president-elect. Now, the Guardian is breaking news this morning that UK Prime Minister Theresa May is going to be the cover girl for the April edition of the American magazine. This is kind of a big deal on two different fronts.

First, the April issue of Vogue is not its largest. March holds that title. There are a lot of people who only buy the March and September issues because that is when all the fashion labels buy multi-page ads for their upcoming seasonal collections. After that big issue, April comes in pretty thin and doesn’t get a lot of attention. Putting the PM on that cover could do a lot to boost sales, especially if there’s anything in the content that might prove controversial.

Second, this has never been done before and wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to make happen. Ms. Wintour was directly involved in securing the Prime Minister for the shoot. Rather than taking the pictures at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the PM, they waited until May was out at her country estate known as Chequers. This avoids the controversy of an American company using the Downing Street residence for profit, and also made it easier to keep the photo shoot under wraps.

To capture the Prime Minister, Wintour sent the woman who is arguably the best portrait photographer in the US: Annie Liebowitz. Liebowitz is the biggest photographic gun in the large Condé Nast arsenal and her choice is significant. Either British photographer Nick Knight or Italy’s Steven Meisel would have been more convenient, and probably less expensive. In choosing Leibowitz, Wintour makes sure the pictures have a distinctly American tone to them, something not duplicated in any of the other Vogue brands.

As for why the British Prime Minister would even be a candidate for the Vogue cover, Americans need to understand that May absolutely loves everything to do with fashion. She is much more flashy about her appearance than, say, the late Margaret Thrasher was. She’s been known to wear leopard print to official functions and has even been criticized by some in the Conservative party for wearing very expensive leather pants. We are all more accustomed to heads of state keeping their attire quiet and unremarkable. May breaks that mold in a rather strong way.

Still, the timing here is interesting. America’s soon-to-be first lady last appeared on the cover of Vogue immediately after her wedding in 2005. The magazine has a tradition of featuring the first lady at least once during her husband’s administration, going all the way back to Helen Taft. The current first lady, Michelle Obama, has appeared on the cover three times since 2009. Yet, when it comes to putting her successor on that enviable place, Wintour is having some difficulty finding a designer who is willing to dress Mrs. Trump. Because the magazine’s relationship with designers is critical, it cannot afford to dress the first lady, or anyone else, in a designer’s clothing without their blessing. While Mrs. Trump will certainly eventually get her first lady cover, it could be a while. So, the British PM gets to go first.

Are we making too much of this?

Absolutely. If Ms. May wasn’t such a politically controversial figure herself, given that whole Brexit thing, and if the political divide in the US weren’t as ferocious, then this would certainly be a page-six, one-column story. Politically, however, the stakes are high. Being in charge of Britain’s exit from the EU isn’t exactly a great way to make new friends and the PM can use all the moral support she can get, even if it’s not from her own constituents.

Ultimately, this is a brilliant power move by Anna Wintour designed with one purpose in mind: sell more magazines. That’s her job and she does it better than anyone else. While other magazines have been in decline, the Condé Nast titles Ms. Wintour oversees have all seen increases in revenue. Now, she’s taken one of the least read issues of the year and made it a must-buy. Every other publisher is green with envy. Fortunately, green is a good color for April.

Current Issues / News & Comment

Northern California Has Too Much Water?

January 16, 2017

charles i. letbetter - flooding california

Folks in Sacremento aren’t crazy about surfing city streets

The short version

With all the heavy rain and snow that Northern California has received the past couple of weeks, the decision was made yesterday to open the Sacremento weir, flooding crops and fields in an effort to avoid flooding in the city of Sacremento. This is a huge undertaking that is almost certainly going to affect some food prices as flooded crops are completely lost. The move was a bit of a gamble but had to be done.

What the hell is a weir?

noun

1. a small dam in a river or stream.

2. a fence, as of brush or narrow boards, or a net set in a stream, channel, etc., for catching fish.

For the purposes of this conversation, go with the fence concept. In the case of the Sacremento Weir, this is a 100-year-old monstrosity consisting of 48 wooden gates, each of which has to be opened manually by a state worker with a long hook. The poor guy had to get up and wander out there in the middle of the night to open these things and let the water flow downstream. The gates can’t be shut until the water behind them recedes below the gates, which could take a while.

Additionally, there are five other weirs and several spillways upstream. This is all a very complicated but effective means of flood control.

Who made this decision?

No one person makes the decision to open the weir and flood the fields. It’s actually a rather complicated process. That’s a good thing.

Water levels 3.5 miles downstream from the weir must be at least 30 feet.
Reliable forecasts must indicate that the water will continue to rise.
Water levels at various upstream lakes have to be considered.

Ultimately, if all the boxes are checked then the Department of Water Resources makes the call and opens the weir after publishing their intention to do so. No farmers are caught off guard or anything. The water drains mostly into fields such as rice paddies and other row crops that can handle a little extra water. That doesn’t mean crops aren’t damaged, but the damage isn’t as severe as it would be with more fragile crops.

And even with all this water, California is still technically in a drought. They have a long way to go.

Current Issues / News & Comment

Consolidation Of Wealth

January 16, 2017

Charles i. letbetter - economic dispairty

They’re rich, but they’re nice guys

The short version

Oxfam, the non-profit charity that fights global poverty, released a report early this morning showing how the consolidation of global wealth is now centered in the world’s eight richest people. These people, all guys, six of which are Americans, hold more wealth than half the world’s population. Oxfam sees this as a bad thing, especially given that the bottom 3.6 billion people struggle to even put food in their mouths and keep a roof over their head.

A little more detail

The timing of the report is important because the World Economic Forum kicked off early this morning in Davos, Switzerland. The event is a gathering that usually occurs during a bit of a global downtime, bringing together world leaders and the world’s wealthiest business leaders to discuss world problems. It’s a security nightmare. Can you imagine if the alleged Islamic State were able to get a bomb into this place? The event is also criticized for being nothing more than an excuse for the rich to get together and party while using their money to influence international politics. And you don’t even want to get started on all the conspiracy theories. So, Oxfam is directing their paper at all these rich people in hopes of influencing their conversation.

Fat chance? Maybe not. There are a couple of things worth noting. One is that the chair for this event changes every year and this year Pakistan’s Academy Award-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy becomes the first artist to ever take on that distinction. Given Chinoy’s history of using her film to highlight the plight of women around the world, the odds are probably higher than normal that the group will at least discuss the Oxfam report.

Secondly, the Forum’s own report, released last week, says that Capitalism, as we know it, needs to be reconsidered. This has to make at least some of those attending the conference, including the US president-elect, a little nervous. There are several of those attending who are well aware of the economic disparity and in favor of doing something to alter the current situation. That could be bad news for those whose riches have taken advantage of the capitalistic system to keep wages down and people around the world under foot. The Oxfam report is fodder for those who support change.

Who are the super-rich?

For the most part, they are names Americans already know. Here’s the list:

Bill Gates: $75 billion
Amancio Ortega: $67 billion
Warren Buffett: $60.8 billion
Carlos Slim Helu: $50 billion
Jeff Bezos: $45.2 billion
Mark Zuckerberg: $44.6 billion
Larry Ellison: $43.6 billion
Michael Bloomberg: $40 billion

What can be done about the situation?

Here are the five recommendations made by Oxfam:

Stop offshore tax dodging which costs the US and developing countries more than $100 billion each year.
Raise the minimum wage so that working families can make a living wage.
Fight discrimination of all kinds and ensure equal pay for equal work.
Build and invest in a social safety net for everyone.
Ensure every person has access to affordable, high-quality healthcare and education.

What chances are there of any of these things being adopted by the world leaders attending the conference? I wouldn’t expect much out of China, Russia, and the US, but in smaller countries, where social and political power is more responsive, there’s a decent chance.

Art / Editorial / Fashion / Photography

Rain Delay: A Gallery

January 15, 2017

Our first editorial shoot of the year didn’t go as planned

Model: Cassie Kerns
Hair & Makeup: Kat

Hey, look! A brand new gallery with brand new pictures! How long has it been since we did that? Uhm, a long time. And this one almost didn’t happen, either. The weather this week sucked and I woke up Thursday morning wondering if I could even hold the camera. The first thing I did was pull the camera from the bag to see if I could keep it steady. I could, but it hurt like hell. The thought of canceling crossed my mind. A year ago, I would have. I really needed to shoot, though. I needed the chance to be expressive. Plus, I didn’t want to let everyone down.

Our original plan was to shoot most of this set outdoors. I’ve not shot much outside the past two years and was really anxious to get in some winter shots, even without the snow and with all the grey clouds. I knew I could make that work. That wasn’t going to happen, though. As we prepped for the second look, the rain that had been a mild annoyance whipped itself up into a major problem. Wind blew a hard, cold rain sideways. Our outdoor plans flew away. I was pissed. I really wanted those outdoor shots more than anything. I struggled to keep any sense of composure as I mentally re-worked the concepts for the limited conditions.

We continued shooting, Cassie and Kat keeping a positive, professional attitude despite the lack of space and forced changes in concept. My hands felt like they were on fire as I held the camera. Cassie was wonderful, even finding a way to sit in the window when there really wasn’t any place to sit in the window. We worked through the last two looks and I felt certain we had some strong images. I was hoping that I wouldn’t open them to find them blurred by a trembling hand. I kicked myself for not pulling out the tripod.

Much to my delight, the number of blurred shots was minimal. In fact, curating this set was quite challenging. Cassie’s experience as both a model and an artist comes through quite strongly and I was pleased with how Kat’s makeup communicated just as well in black and white as it did in color. There are more images we’ll save for a later day.

What we have today are the images that appealed to me on first pass. That’s not to say there aren’t others that might end up being stronger, but these are the ones that shouted at me as I poured over the RAW images. I’ve divided the four looks into six visual sets of five images each. These include the teaser images we released earlier.

The first two sets are fashion editorials based loosely on concepts and styling from Unconditional vol. 4 Winter and Poland’s K Mag No. 85. The changing background color represents the versatility of the trench coat, something that has become a fashion staple regardless of the season. The high-waisted slacks are a more of a fashion argument, a continual theme that designers explore then drop, perfect for that blank expression so popular in Europe.

Stretch and Hold is the concept enveloping the second two sets. Our purpose here is two-fold. First, it’s a muscle study with an emphasis on the obliques, upper trapezius, serratus anterior, deltoids, sternocleidomastoid, and anterior scalene muscles under the stress of holding a stretched pose. Those are best seen in the black and white images. Second, the stretched deltoids and latissimus dorsi muscles gave us a good opportunity to highlight the beautiful artwork on Cassie’s back and sides. The muscles pulling upward give us an especially good look at the details of the center artwork.

I Am Real is a set of five portraits based on the tattoo on the inside of Cassie’s left arm. The struggle to be real, to be one’s self, is one with which a lot of people can identify. Full of emotion, we struggle to create individuality, pulling ourselves from the amber haze of social nomenclatures and fighting to find clarity and focus amidst insecurity and uncertainty. Cassie does a wonderful job of giving physical embodiment to emotions many have difficulty expressing.

Rain Delay is the title set and I think everyone’s favorite. There is a peacefulness to sitting in the window wrapped in the softness of a cable knit sweater while sipping a hot beverage (coffee, in this case). The wind and rain has subsided a bit at this point, but the raindrops clung to the window as a reminder of the contrast between the harshness of the outdoors and the comfort of being inside. Thoughtful and contemplative, these images capture a warmth and beauty we all want for our winter’s survival.

I hope you’ll take your time going through the 30 images below. If you click on any of the photos, the display transitions to a slideshow for easier viewing of the individual photos.

Our tremendous thanks to Cassie and Kat for their incredible effort and help in making these images possible. I’m still hoping we get to do those outdoor shots, somewhere, somehow, very soon.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”9518″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]

Current Issues / Just For Fun / PotD

Complete Randomness For A Saturday Morning

January 14, 2017

charles i. letbetter - Plan for pink 'pussyhats' in Washington after Trump's inauguration

This isn’t really an article

I just am in the mood to write and throw some words together in a form that slightly resembles sentences.

I let myself “sleep in” for this first time in forever this morning. Sort of. I still had to get up and let the dog out and feed him, pay some attention to the cats, refresh the water bowls. Those things have to happen on schedule or there are messes made in direct retaliation. Animals are ruthless that way. Still, I let myself stretch out on the couch and snooze for another 45 minutes. That leaves me now, though, with this need to write without actually having anything that I’m supposed to write.

Stream of consciousness. Or, perhaps more accurately, stream of unconsciousness. I’m awake but there’s a large part of me that doesn’t feel awake. The children, of course, prevent anyone in the house from getting any sleep once they’re up, and they’re always up too fucking early. Always. All of them. Not just ours but every child across the planet. Too damn early. It’s a conspiracy. I blame school. They have to get up so fucking early for school that their little bodies are unable to make adjustments for the weekend. School shouldn’t start before 9. Ever.

Wait, I’m going to need pictures for this, aren’t I? Damn. I already know I don’t have anything that fits. Oh well, that doesn’t seem to bother anyone too much. At least, if it does, they never say anything. Not to me. I’m told there are people talking behind my back. Spineless chickens. There are so many easy ways to contact me, especially through our Facebook page, and rarely does anyone bother to do so. Not to complain.

Old and slow with a sense of humor

I’m old and don’t get around like I once did. A friend from California is in town this weekend and it would have been nice to go out and catch up with her last night, but no, between the threat of ice and the deep desire to commune with my pillow nothing happened. I’d still like to see Sam, hear what adventures she’s had in SoCal, so maybe we’ll be able to work something out. Still, I’m old and one of the hallmarks of age is not just a lessened ability to be mobile, but less desire. Sad, really.

Which is why I just saw Deadpool for the first time yesterday. I sat here and watched it with my 18-year-old son, who, like his brothers, is a comic book nerd. No, I’m not sure how it happened that all three of them are that way. Anyway, we sat here and laughed all the way through the movie. Then, because timing is everything, this morning I come across this interview about the sequel. I am now uncharacteristically excited about a sequel that I probably won’t see until 2019 or so. You would think with all the technology they’d find a way to put these things together a wee bit faster. But then, writing. That still takes as long as it always has.

Even though I’m old and slow, though, hearing the six-year-old Tipster call me a “jack a-s-s” through the door still makes me laugh. Hard. She just did it again. She knows she’s not supposed to say the word ass because we don’t have a donkey so it’s an adult word. She can spell it, though. And she does. This morning, I’m a jack a-s-s because I won’t let her stand in the hallway right in front of her step-brother’s door making noise. “Go back to your room and close your door,” I told her. That makes me a jack a-s-s, in her opinion, and it also makes me laugh. Perhaps I shouldn’t. Perhaps I should be upset. But you know what? I’m not. She’s not actually saying the word. She created a workaround to express herself. I’m good.

Hashtags that are too damn long

#WhatIWouldTellA15YearOldMe is trending. I’m guessing the hashtag was started by a 16-year-old. Twitter only gives you 164 characters to begin with. By the time you add that hashtag you only have 112 characters left with which to give yourself a world of useful advice. That’s not going to be nearly enough room, dude. 15-year-olds need a lot of advice. They won’t listen to it, of course, because they’re 15. They think they know everything already. We all did. We forgot it all by the time we were old enough to actually use that alleged wisdom, though.

#WhatIWouldTellA15YearOldMe is still too long for a hashtag, though. What’s even more disappointing is all the really lousy advice people were giving themselves. Like, “he’s not really that into you.” REALLY? You have 112 characters to give yourself advice that will make your life better and that is how you’re going to use it? You might want to take another swipe at that, Skippy. Or wait another 15 years.

When I think back to when I was 15 years old, I’m embarrassed. I mean, it’s one thing to not fit in, which I didn’t. Or, at least I didn’t think I did. It’s another problem altogether to feel as though you need to exploit just how different you are, which I did. So, what advice would I really like to give my 15-year-old self if I thought there was a bat’s chance in hell of my listening (I wouldn’t)? Something like this:

Stop trying to please your parents so goddam much and find out who you really are.
A fair portion of your classmates are gay and too scared to admit it. Support them without outing them.
Wear jeans.
Stop skipping biology.
Don’t let your parents determine who you date. Open your damn mouth and ask the girl out.
Go ahead and fucking rebel. Yes, there will be consequences, but you’ll be better in the long run for having done so.

“There is a law about staying up all night”

Those are the most recent words from the angry six-year-old. I have no idea what she’s talking about. To my knowledge, no one stayed up all night. No one wants to stay up all night. Although, there are times it certainly feels like we did. Six-year-olds, much like 15-year-olds, say a lot of things that don’t make sense. I wonder where they get it from? Oh, wait, I may have an answer for that.

Peta has bought shares in Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH). Something about crocodiles and handbags.

The Uneasy Truth Behind Amazon’s Hiring Blitz And What Startups Are Doing To Fix It. So, you’re telling me all this job growth may not be a good thing long term?

Senate intelligence panel to probe Russia hacking. That article isn’t nearly as interesting as the headline makes it sound. There’s no intelligence and they’re not actually inserting things into Russians. Dammit.

Plan for pink ‘pussyhats’ in Washington after Trump’s inauguration. Don’t even try to tell me you don’t want to read that article. Politics aside, the thought of 200,000 women wearing pink pussyhats on their head makes me wish I was there to take pictures. These women are marching for a cause but don’t think for a moment they won’t take their pussyhats and party like hell afterward. Feminists really know how to pound some liquor.

C’mon, work with me here. That pun is funny.

I’m glad I’m not an Oscar Meyer wiener

That is what I do not want to be.
For if I were an Oscar Meyer wiener,
There would soon be nothing left of me.

Don’t pretend you didn’t just sing that in your head. Unless you’re like, 15 years old, in which case you’ve no clue what the reference is in the first place. We don’t always end up being what we wanted to be when we were 15. Hell, when I was 15 I didn’t even have a good grasp of what the possibilities actually were. What’s worse, there are more opportunities now than ever and I still don’t think we’re doing enough to help 15-year-olds achieve the broader vision of what they have the potential to do. We’re failing.

But, within the realm of things I’m glad I’m not, an Oscar Meyer wiener isn’t the worst possibility. I wouldn’t want to be any of these things, either:

Owner of a fake news site or a fake online magazine. Both are matters of vanity on the part of the people who own them. Both are meant to deceive. Both are trash.
Member of the president-elect’s transition team. There’s nothing good about being that close to the Great Orange.
Part of the maintenance crew at Trump Tower. Can you imagine the amount of puke they must have to clean up after people meet with the president-elect or his staff?
A Washington, D.C. police officer having to work the inauguration crowd next Friday. Feel sorry for those people. They’re not going to have a good day.
Stuck on an icy road in Missouri. The second death was just reported. Nothing about the weather down there is good at the moment.

So, we’ve established that life could be worse. That doesn’t mean that it can necessarily be better. Not right now. Not under these circumstances. Not with the $11 I have in my wallet. I already have coffee and chocolate and scotch. I already have a hot fiancé. I already have incredible kids. There may be a lot of things that I want, but that doesn’t mean any of them would make my life any better. Quantity does not determine quality.

Okay, I wouldn’t mind being a Nobel prize winner. That would be cool. Nothing I do really qualifies me for any of their categories, though.

Annnnnnnnd, I’m done writing now. My fingers just said, “stop.” Not audibly, of course. They’re just starting to really, really hurt. Fucking pain. I’d complain but you wouldn’t understand, and if you did it would only be because you’re suffering the same thing and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Well, maybe the president-elect’s thumbs, if that would keep him off Twitter.

I need more coffee, too. And I suppose I should find some pictures to slap on here. I think I know where to look. Totally not related to anything I’ve written, but they’re pictures that are part of a story. You like a story, don’t you? Of course you do. Especially when you get to make up the details for yourself.

Have fun with life.

Current Issues / News & Comment / video

5 Things You Should Know: 01.13.2017

January 13, 2017

charles i. letbetter - 5 Things You Should Know: 01.13.17

05:04:22 01/13/2017

Is Anybody Out There?

Here it is, the first Friday the 13th of the year. Of course, there’s trouble brewing as temperatures going into this evening sit right on the cusp of providing freezing rain or sleet and making everything a mess. Best guess at this point is that most of the mess is going to stay South of Indianapolis, but expect this evening’s rush hour to be a pain in the ass. Of course, why should traffic be any different from the rest of the day?

And that is why this is likely to be the last edition of 5 Things You Should Know, at least in this format. It’s too much of a pain in the ass for the few people who bother to read or view it. We spend at least six hours, often more, sorting through the news, choosing the right stories, and then selecting pictures. And for what? No one’s watching. On average, we have the same five people visiting every day. The past two weeks we’ve been asking for sponsors and gotten no response. Maybe it’s time to move on.

But did anyone notice?

Anyone who is plugged into any form of media the past twelve hours already knows that there was a ten-minute span yesterday when the C-Span feed was replaced with the feed for Russia Today¹. The switch occurred about 2:30 Thursday afternoon as Congresswoman Maxine Waters was trying to convince her more ignorant colleagues why the Securities and Exchange Commission is actually an important part of our government. The feed cut Ms. Waters off mid-sentence and went to music.

You’ve seen this story all over the media because Russia Today has been implicated by US intelligence as participating in the Russian effort to interfere with and influence the presidential election. Could this have been more of the infamous hacking over which everyone has been arguing? Probably not. The private company that owns C-Span released a statement saying that it was much more likely that the error was due to a routing problem.

The question that is on my mind is how long it took before anyone actually noticed that there was an interruption? It’s not like C-Span is the highest-rated network in the country. Most the people who watch it are hard-core political nerds and reporters desperately looking for something resembling a story. If Russia wants to really undermine faith in our political system, perhaps they should consider hacking the feed for the inauguration next week. Although, once again, would anyone notice?

Applying a little lube

We know Congress is about to screw us. They said when they were running for election that they were going to screw us and for some stupid reason we voted for them anyway. So, we should not be surprised by the fact that Congress is about to make it easier for them to repeal the Affordable Care Act². Assuming the House of Representatives votes along party lines, which is what they’ve been doing the past six years, they’ll change the rules today so that repeal bills can pass through the Senate without chance of a Democratic filibuster.

This is the type of action that you might think would be illegal. After all, the Consitution created the allowance for a filibuster so that the minority party could at least give the majority party a chance to think before they did something stupid. However, Republicans don’t like to think and they certainly don’t want to give the American people time to rally around a filibuster and express their disagreement with what politicians are wanting to do.

The rule change does not require a presidential signature. Once both bodies have approved the change it goes into effect. Be sure, this is all about making it easier for the rich to avoid paying taxes and to eliminate things such as Medicaid expansion and subsidies to help pay for health insurance. This bill is nothing more than the lube being applied before we all get screwed. This is the Congress you elected. Don’t act so fucking surprised.

Fashion isn’t so profitable

We’ve talked frequently before about how fashion retail tends to be in a tailspin. Now, it would seem that at least some designers are getting caught up in the downturn as well. Bibhu Mohapatra, the New York-based Indian designer who has often dressed Michelle Obama, filed for bankruptcy this week³. Fortunately, this does not mean that the colorful designer is going out of business. Rather, the bankruptcy protection allows the company to restructure its debt and continue operating.

What this underscores is just how difficult it is for an independent label to survive in the current fashion climate. Mohapatra is one of a handful of small labels that operates on both sides of the Atlantic and has a reasonably strong following. However, with the general climate in fashion going toward more casual wear and a fast fashion model, designers like Bibhu find themselves in a position of having to alter both their aesthetic as well as their business model if they hope to keep up.

This also puts a light on how dependent small designers are on department stores. Mohapatra’s collection is available largely through upper-end retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fith Avenue, both have which, like many fashion retailers, have struggled to maintain their clientele. The struggles at the store trickle down to the designers whose operations are too small to open their own storefronts. The debt restructuring should make the small brand more attractive to investors. We know LVMH has been doing some shopping and the brand might fit well within that conglomerate.

Trying to find something different

Hedi Slimane seems to be having some difficulty finding where he fits best. The former creative director at Yves Saint Laurent, who left suddenly without explanation last March, was probably hoping that another label would want to take advantage of his often controversial design habits. They didn’t. While there were plenty of transitions throughout the fashion industry last year, none of the major labels even expressed an interest in Slimane. So, he has decided to become a photographer, instead⁴.

Now, to be fair, this isn’t totally an out-of-reach move for the now former designer. When he was at Saint Laurent, he would sometimes step behind the camera to shoot the brand’s campaign himself. However, we should also note that his doing so largely copied that same habit by Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld and neither of them manage to actually impress anyone who knows anything about fashion photography. At least Lagerfeld has some experience behind him whereas Slimane has none.

So, here goes the designer into a crowded field of people who know a lot more about photography than he does, banking largely on the recognizability of his name to make up for a lack of talent and experience. What we’ve seen from him so far is a very high contrast black and white style that falls flat and fails to show any real imagination. While I never really liked Slimane as a designer, I don’t think photography is where he belongs, either. Perhaps he should enroll in a community college somewhere.

And finally …

All good things must come to an end, as we know, and often times those ends come without much fanfare or appreciation for what was accomplished. Many people retire and find themselves sitting alone on park benches talking to the pigeons while wondering if anything they’ve done in their life is worthwhile. Joe Biden will not be one of those people, however. After nearly 50 years of public service, the last eight spent as the ultimate sidekick to President Obama, Biden finally got some recognition yesterday in the form of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with distinction⁵.

Almost immediately, video of the moment when the vice president realized what was happening went viral. Somehow, despite existing in an atmosphere where nothing seems to ever be secret, the president and his staff were able to surprise his friend with the nation’s most prestigious non-military award. I’ve no clue what Joe thought was about to happen, but he was clearly caught off guard and had to turn away and wipe tears from his eyes as the president made the announcement.

While vice presidents generally come and ago without much notice or notoriety, over the past eight years Joe Biden has become the nation’s favorite grandfather figure and his BFF relationship with the president has inspired thousands of memes and points of humor, which the pair have played up much to everyone’s delight over the past year. What we don’t want to overlook, however, is that Vice President Biden would be deserving of this award even if he wasn’t so chummy with the president. His is a record of incredible service and when he boards the train back to Deleware next week, we’re going to miss him very much.

And that’s it. We’re done. I have no idea what’s coming next, if there’s anything coming at all. What I do know is that the lack of response we’ve gotten to this format requires I take a step back and consider some form of change. I thought there might be value in cutting through all the mass media bullshit and fake news. Apparently, I was wrong. So, we’ll take the weekend off, re-evaluate what seems reasonable, and perhaps come back with something new. Or not. Either way, good luck and have a good day.

Art / Photography / PotD / studio nudes

On A Rainy Morning: Mini Gallery

January 12, 2017

charles i. letbetter - on a rainy morning

Just a sample of what’s coming

Model: Cassie Kerns
Hair/Makeup: Kat

Click on any image below to view a larger version

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”9481″ layout=”contain” columns=”2″]

Look for more in our full gallery this Sunday

Current Issues / News & Comment / video

5 Things You Should Know: 01.12.2017

January 12, 2017

charles i. letbetter - 5 Things You Should Know

04:31:02 01/12/2017

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Some days you need a compass

Wow! Here it is Thursday and the wind is back as it blows us toward a weekend of freezing temperatures and possibly icy conditions across the Midwest. The Northwest is still getting pummeled by rain and snow in record-setting amounts. In fact, they’ve had so much snow that officials closed Crater Lake National Park due to avalanche concerns.

Trying to look at the world through media reports is confusing as hell. When there’s no actual news, we get a lot of news-looking articles that don’t really tell us anything of value. Sometimes you have to piece the information together to get the full picture. That’s what we’ve done this morning. We’ve sifted through the actual facts and have 5 Things You Should Know.

Making corporate crime personal

Americans are known for having notoriously short-term memories so don’t feel too bad if you thought the whole mess over the Volkswagon emission-cheating scandal was over. Nope, far from it. These things take time to wind their way through the court and it gets all the more complicated when multiple countries are involved. The US can’t just reach across the Atlantic ocean and demand that someone from another country follow our laws. So, the fact that we’re just now seeing a resolution to the scandal really isn’t that surprising.

What we’ve seen in the past two days is that VW has pled guilty to criminal charges after installing software in diesel engines on nearly 600,000 VW, Porsche and Audi vehicles in the U.S. that activated pollution controls during government tests and switched them off in real-world driving¹. The software allowed the cars to spew harmful nitrogen oxide at up to 40 times above the legal limit. As a result, the US has fine the company $4.3 billion, the largest fine against an automaker ever, and yes, VW is going to pay the fine.

What you should know, though, is that the Department of Justice also indicted six high-level VW executives yesterday, which is seen as a major step in holding individuals responsible for corporate crimes, something that has been extremely difficult in the past. Now, since all six are German citizens, actually arresting them is difficult. Germany doesn’t extradite their own citizens outside the EU. However, it effectively prevents those executives from traveling outside Germany. This is a huge win for consumers and the Justice Department.

They China Syndrome

While everyone has been distracted by possible spying and interference from Russia, another larger and potentially far greater danger has been growing in the South China Sea as China has made some very strong and deliberate moves that the US should find more than a little worrisome. Earlier this week, Taiwan was intimidated into launching fighters and naval vessels as China’s only aircraft carrier sailed through the Strait of Taiwan in a very obvious display of power². This is just the latest in a series of military events where China essentially shakes its fist at the small country.

Then, yesterday, Secretary of State nominee and former head of Exxon Mobile, Rex Tillerson, told the Senate Confirmation Committee that China should be denied access to the islands it built and then militarized in the South China Sea³. Tillerson didn’t state what legal justification the US might use in interfering in matters in the South China Sea, but it puts further stress on the relationship between China and the incoming administration.

What you should know now is that earlier this morning China launched a new electronic intelligence ship⁴. Care to guess where they put it? That’s right, the South China Sea. The activity we’ve seen in that region over the past few months is some of the strongest China has made in the past 50 years. We need to remember, though, that China is also deeply embedded in the US economy. Any action we might take against them would likely be met with a response from Beijing that could send the US economy into a tailspin. The ramifications are extremely troubling.

Redefining the press

If it seems as though every media outlet on the Internet is talking about the president-elect’s news conference yesterday⁵, the reason may be because not since the Nixon administration has the relationship between the press and the White House been so strained. While I strongly agree that the exchange between the Great Orange and CNN’s Jake Tapert was one of the most childish displays of narcissistic bullying we’ve seen to date, the fact remains that he is the new reality and media needs to adjust to deal with him more effectively.

One of the ways that is happening is that Facebook has decided to take on a larger role in journalism⁶. What makes this something you should know is that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was very adamant in defending the social media powerhouse against charges that fake news posted on the site may have contributed to the outcome of the presidential election. What we now know is that roughly 40% of American adults get their news from Facebook⁷. What we see on Facebook we generally consider to be true, whether we admit it or not.

The Facebook Journalism Project, which was announced on the website yesterday, works in three ways:

The collaborative development of news products
Training & tools for journalist to enable better use of Facebook
Training & tools for the general public, including efforts to curb hoaxes

Exactly how legacy media outlets will respond to the project is still uncertain, but at least Facebook is stepping up and recognizing its role in the dissemination of news. This won’t make presidential press conferences any less vile, but hopefully, it will prevent the kind of unsubstantiated news stories at the center of that exchange from becoming a problem.

Up, up and away

So, with all the stress and anxiety going on across the US at the moment, perhaps you’re thinking it might be nice to get away for a while, maybe enjoy a Spring Break somewhere different, even if you’ve not been a college student for 30 years or more. The problem is, you’re an adult. You have too many responsibilities and too little expendable cash. How can you afford to go anywhere? The Icelandic airline WOW would like to solve that problem for you by offering tickets from the US to Europe for as little as $70⁸.

Oh yeah, there are some catches to that price. What you should know is that not every seat on the plane qualifies for the severely discounted rates. You’ll pay to check your bags and if you want anything to eat or drink during the long trip you’ll need to bring those yourself. WOW is only offering the service from LAX and SFA to Stockholm, Sweden; Bristol, England; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Edinburgh, Scotland. Oh, and there’s no Wi-Fi on the planes, either.

Still, this low-cost discounted rate for international travel may be the wave of the future. WOW’s CEO Skuli Mogensen thinks that eventually you might not pay for a ticket at all and that airlines will make their profit through ancillary costs and fees. Norwegian Air plans to make similarly discounted flights available later this year when it adds new planes⁹. This particular sale only last through April 5, though, so if you’re going you might want to make that reservation sooner rather than later.

And finally …

I’m beginning to think that there’s not anything that Taco Bell won’t try to stuff into or wrap around a taco. The fast food favorite of munchie-ridden stoners and college students everywhere has announced, and I swear I am not making this up, that it plans to go nationwide later this month with a taco shell made entirely of—are you ready?—fried chicken⁹. You may now take a moment and pick your jaw up off the floor. This is really coming to a Taco Bell near you.

This new culinary curiosity is being called the Naked Chicken Chalupa and, according to the chain, the entire shell is made of all-white seasoned chicken. They then fill that thing with lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese and avocado ranch sauce. Apparently, this mess has tested well for two years in Bakersfield and Kansas City, though I don’t know that I would necessarily consider either of those places culinary capitals by any stretch of the imagination.

There’s no word yet as to how much this new source of indigestion might cost you. Remember that you’ll want to eat the thing immediately and not let it sit on your dashboard or coffee table overnight. Being chicken, it should be consumed hot to avoid any chance of contracting salmonella. Of course, if you’re eating at Taco Bell you’re probably not too worried about food poisoning in the first place, are you?

That’s all the time and space we’re willing to commit to this morning. If you’re in the Midwest, watch out for possible Thunderstorms midday. Wherever you are, please stay safe. We like you. Both of you. Until tomorrow, good day!

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Current Issues / Fashion / News & Comment / video

5 Things You Should Know: 01.11.2017

January 11, 2017

charles i. letbetter - As gloomy and gusty as today is, we felt like we needed a pick-me-up. Some people would call these outtakes and destroy them. We call them fun and make a mini-gallery. Better look. We might have a picture of you in here. ;) #TuesdayMotivation

04:26:16 01/11/2017

https://youtu.be/WPa5-84svbg

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Wait, it’s only Wednesday?

Hi there, welcome to Wednesday, January 11. If you’re like me, this week seems to be taking forever. At least we’re past the severe wind and thunderstorms of yesterday. Today should be a lot calmer and afternoon temperatures are going to feel more like April instead of the middle of January. Don’t worry, it doesn’t last long. We’ll see more rain tonight, though not as much as the West coast is getting. Temperatures fall Thursday night and we could be looking at a very slick weekend. Maybe a slow-moving week isn’t a bad thing.

Locally, you’ll just want to largely stay away from the West side of Indianapolis as the Rockville Bridge at 465 is being demolished after being hit by a semi truck yesterday morning. That mess will likely last a month or more. Black Senators testified against Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions yesterday. And a new Pew survey says police officers are more reluctant to make stops and use force. A lot happened in the past 24 hours and not everything you’ve heard is verifiable. Here are the five things you should really know.

Taliban Terror In Afghanistan

The Taliban is taking responsibility for twin bombs in the Afghanistan capital city of Kabul that killed 28 and wounded at least 72, then later a third attack occurred at the guesthouse of the governor of Kandahar, injuring the Ambassador and other diplomats from the United Arab Emirates¹. A suicide bomber struck first followed by a car bomb in Kabul. Those two attacks did the majority of the damage with the attack against the Ambassador coming later.

The attacks in Kabul were carried out near a government center where several lawmakers have offices. At least four police officers were among those killed. The Taliban, which is a hyper-right-wing extremist group, once ruled Afghanistan with an iron fist until it was toppled by American forces in 2001. In the fifteen years since, they have been a constant and often deadly source of terror throughout the region as they attempt to wrestle back some form of control.

If all this sounds familiar, it is. This kind of battle in Afghanistan has been going on for decades. The mountainous geography of the country provides plenty of hiding places for small terrorist cells and makes it difficult to directly attack those responsible for giving the orders. While US forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001, Russia had an unsuccessful war against the Taliban prior to that. This is not a group that is easily eliminated through conventional warfare. Expect this to continue until someone finds a solution.

Dylann Roof Gets To Die

After telling a South Carolina jury that, given the chance, he’d do it again, Dylann Roof was sentenced to death yesterday for the murder of nine black people attending a Bible study at a Charleston church. In doing so, Roof becomes the first person to be ordered executed for a federal hate crime. The jury, deliberated a mere three hours, most of which was procedural, bringing to end a trial in which the accused often acted as his own attorney and refused to offer testimony in his own behalf.

Roof had specifically selected the Emanuel AME Church, the South’s oldest black church, with the intention of bringing back segregation or starting a race war. He sat through 45 minutes of the Bible study and waited until the group was praying before opening fire, at times standing over his victims and shooting them a second time to make sure they were dead. His crime didn’t have the effect he wanted, though. If anything, it can be attributed for bringing the Confederate battle flag down from the South Carolina statehouse.

There is some speculation that Roof might have avoided the death penalty had he used mental health records that allegedly show a history of mental illness. However, Roof refused, saying that he didn’t believe in psychology and didn’t want to do anything that might embarrass his family any further. Roof was stoic as the verdict was read with only a few family members showing any sympathy for him.

American Made In Canada

American Apparel finally sold in a bankruptcy auction with Canadian clothing giant Gildan taking on the manufacturing equipment and intellectual property rights of the once-edgy fashion retailer³. However, Gildan did not take on the leases for the manufacturing facilities, nor did it pick up any of the brands’ 110 retail stores. This leaves open a lot of questions as to where the clothes might be made and whether Gildan might close any or all of the current retail outlets.

The hot button issue here, though, is the manufacturing locations more than the retail stores. American Apparel has long touted its “Made In America” label, but Gildan would not promise that all the American manufacturing facilities would remain open. While Gilden currently manufactures thread in South Carolina and Georgia, the only garment they currently make in the US is socks. The greater majority of their 42,000 employees are in low-cost Caribbean and Central American countries.

For their part, Gildan executives say they will consider the feasibility of maintaining current manufacturing facilities as they develop an integration plan over the next several weeks. Be sure, though, everyone in fashion is watching. The president-elect has been bullying manufacturers to make more in the US, but with Gildan being Canadian-owned the orange one’s tweets may not have as much effect.

Saying Goodbye To An Old Friend

As President Obama gave his farewell address in Chicago last night, the last planned speech of his presidency, he did so with his popularity rating 20 points higher than that of the incoming president-elect and the gratitude of a large portion of the nation⁴. The rhetoric was soaring and emotional, the same sort of speech that got him elected in the first place, full of hope and encouragement with a definite eye toward the future.

While the president touted this success and admitted some failures, the portion of his speech that brought out the tissue was when he spoke of his wife, Michelle, and the journey they have made together the past eight years. Referring to her roots from the often-troublesome South side of Chicago, the president thanked her for taking on a task she didn’t ask for and making it her own, as well as making the White House, “a place that belongs to everybody.⁵” By the time he finished, I’m pretty sure even the security team was needing tissues.

Speculation has been high as to what the president might do next. He has frequently said that he’s not going away, but as to exactly what role he might take on next is uncertain. Perhaps that is why streaming music provider Spotify posted a job opening yesterday for “President of Playlist.⁶” The job description includes a requirement of “at least eight years experience running a highly-regarded nation” and a Nobel Peace Prize. There is no word yet as to whether Mr. Obama is considering the position.

And finally …

File this one under “What The Living Fuck Are You Thinking?” Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of the former Senator and nephew of the late president John F. Kennedy, said yesterday that he has been chosen to review vaccine safety and science. Kennedy said that the president-elect, “has some doubts about the current vaccine policy. He asked me to chair a commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity. I said I would.⁷”

Immediately, this announcement set off all kinds of bells and whistles within the medical community. The common fear is that such a commission would give credence to a widely and frequently discredited study linking vaccinations to autism. Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University who advises the federal panel that sets U.S. vaccine policy, said the Kennedy news, “raised issues that have been settled securely and completely by good science.”

In typical fashion, the president-elect’s transition team attempted to walk back Kennedy’s statement late Wednesday, saying that “no decisions have been made at this time.” However, one has to wonder why the new administration would even allow this issue to come up. The only purpose it serves is to undermine the good faith and credibility of the medical community at a time when health care is already a national concern. This move is not just stupid, it’s careless, which appears to be a hallmark of the new administration.

For better or worse, that’s all we have time for today. Be watching for slick spots as you’re out this morning and gear up for the possibility of more thunderstorms tonight. We’ll keep an eye on the news, sort through the unsubstantiated rubbish, and whittle it down to digestible chunks tomorrow. Have a good day.

Art / Photography

Not Your Average Portrait: A Mini Gallery

January 10, 2017

charles i. letbetter - Not your avg. portrait

Because faces are so much fun

Everyone likes a good portrait, but there are times when we’re shooting when we just have to take a break and be silly for a moment. Then, there are the times when something happens and we don’t realize it until later. This mini gallery is a combination of both. We went all the way back as far as 2003 for some of these. Sometimes the subjects knew what they were doing, other times they had no clue. Unfortunately, all but a couple I’ve lost contact with, which is rather sad.

Anyway, here’s the gallery. I hope it gives you a few giggles.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”9440″ layout=”contain” columns=”2″]

Art / Long Read / pop culture / PotD

Sports Are Not Art

January 9, 2017

How can people not tell the difference?

I am not an athlete. One look at me pretty much lets one know that. Not that I didn’t try, though. All through Jr. High I did my best to fit it. I tried ’em all: football, baseball, and basketball. One coach even let me on the basketball team in eighth grade. I played for the last three minutes of one game where we were already losing by 18 points. Other than that, I did my best to be encouraging from the bench. Because of my experience, however, I have an incredible amount of respect for those whose eye-hand coordination is sufficient to allow them to be successful at a sport or two.

When I got older, I tried my hand at some other sports that weren’t quite as dangerous, such as tennis and racquetball. Uhm, did I say they weren’t dangerous? That would be an error. One of my worst sprains ever came from diving across a racquetball court and missing the damn ball. It was fantastic exercise, mind you, but I was repeatedly covered in bruises and spraining something, which probably contributes to the arthritis pain I have now.

Sports are wonderful. I can sit and watch football for as long as the chips and beer hold out. I can watch baseball live if there are plenty of hot dogs, and I can sometimes even tolerate an NBA game as long as 1. I didn’t pay for the seats, 2. We start drinking upon arrival, and 3. I don’t have to drive home, ‘cuz I’m not going to be sober by the time we hit the fourth period. I have absolutely no axe to grind with sports in general. I’ve even been out on the golf course and am pretty sure the solution to doing well is taking four or five Xanax before hitting the course. Although, that probably violates some rule about athletics and drugs.

So, given that sports are sports and involve getting all sweaty and worked up and physical in one way or another, I am totally perplexed why entire athletic organizations would get so freaking upset by being told that they’re not arts. What the literal fuck? How can anyone in their right mind even begin to put the arts and sports in the same basket? Why would you even want to try? They are both two very distinct and different things with two dramatically different purposes. Why are we even having this conversation?

Blame Meryl Streep.

Here’s What Happened

When I wake up each morning, one of the first things I do is check to see what’s trending on Twitter. I try to prepare for our 5 Things You Should Know article before I go to bed each night, but there’s always the chance something can happen while I’m sleeping. I went to bed Sunday night before the Golden Globes because, 1. we had been up 17 hours already and was exhausted, and 2., find awards shows to generally be a complete waste of time. Monday morning, however, I get up to see that not only is #GoldenGlobes trending, so is #SportsAreNotArt and #MerylStreepForPresident. That was my first clue that something of reasonable significance had taken place.

Sure enough, it didn’t take long to discover that Ms. Streep had pretty much eviscerated the president-elect, who deserves every last bit of the condemnation heaped on him last night. That was a big story in of itself. What was getting just as much attention, at least on Twitter, was when Ms. Streep had said that football and MMA are not art.

Oh. My God. You would have thought that Ms. Streep had plunged a dagger into the very heart of the planet and that we all were about to die. The President of MMA even wrote and posted a huge ass response trying to convince Ms. Streep and the rest of the world that there is something remotely artistic about two people stepping into the ring and proceeding to pummel each other to the point of concussion and, most likely, permanent brain damage. Yeah, some people apparently think that there’s an art to bleeding.

Now, before we go too much further, we should take a look at Ms. Streep’s words in context. So, here’s a larger version of what she actually said:

I was born and raised and educated in the public schools of New Jersey. Viola [Davis] was born in a sharecropper’s cabin in South Carolina, came up in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Sarah Paulson was born in Florida, raised by a single mom in Brooklyn. Sarah Jessica Parker was one of seven or eight kids from Ohio. Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy. And Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates?

And the beautiful Ruth Negga was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, raised in — no, in Ireland, I do believe. And she’s here nominated for playing a small-town girl from Virginia. Ryan Gosling, like all the nicest people, is Canadian. And Dev Patel was born in Kenya, raised in London, is here for playing an Indian raised in Tasmania.

So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick ’em all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts. They gave me three seconds to say this, so. An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that — breathtaking, passionate work.

The longer point Ms. Streep would go on to make is how the president-elect continually demonstrates a lack of regard for anyone who is not white and rich and that the press needs to habitually call him out on his nonsense. Like the opinion or not, Ms. Streep has a right to it and since she had the platform to make that opinion heard she had every right to take advantage of that situation.

What she said about football and mixed martial arts not being the arts, however, is correct. They’re not the arts. They never have been and they never can be in their current forms. Moreover, we really don’t want to think of them as art. To put athletics into the art basket would require fundamentally changing their reason for existing. We wouldn’t like most sports if they concentrated on being artistic. We want them to be the physical display of training and skill in a competitive format that they are. We like them that way.

So, what’s the difference, really?

The MMA world seems to be much more upset about Ms. Streep’s remarks than is anyone in the NFL. Bellator CEO Scott Coker even took the time to write and tweet a response which says in part:

Please be my guest at the LA Forum on January 21st and you will see that Mixed Martial Arts is truly artistic – which will feature fighters from all over the world competing at a world class level.

Now, in case you’re not a huge MMA fan, which I am not, we looked up the event scheduled for the LA Forum on January 21. The multi-bout card includes the following people beating the living hell out of each other: Tito Ortiz and Chael Sonnen, Georgi Karakhanyan against Emmanuel Sanchez, Paul Daley against Brennan Ward, and Ralek Gracie against Hisaki Kato. The event is broadcast free on the SPIKE cable network. All the young men on the card are big, tough, and athletic. I’m sure they will all give their best in the ring. Those who enjoy watching this type of competition will be thrilled. However, not a damn thing about this event is going to be artistic except, possibly, the singing of the national anthem.

Why? Because sports are not arts. In case you were sleeping during your humanities class, or completely skipped out that semester, the are five basic arts: painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry. Those have existed since the beginning of time and deserve to be respected as such. As society developed, somewhere along about 3,000 BCE, theatre and dance were added to the list. As part of that gradual progression and the development of technology, film was added as an extension of the theatre. Photography, video production/editing, design, sequential art, conceptual art, and printmaking have been added as an extension of painting. Arts related to painting, sculpture, and architecture as generally classified as visual arts while those related to music, dance, and theatre as classified as performing arts.

Now, please, take a close look. Do you see anything in that list that looks like a competitive sport? Granted, dancing is extremely athletic, which probably explains why I suck at that, too. Still, a dance performance isn’t a competition like a sport is. No one keeps score. There’s no audience hoping that the prima ballerina pulls a hamstring so that the understudy can win. Dance is not a sport. Sport is not an art.

While I could spend hours nit-picking all the minute details that hold arts apart from sport, the primary difference is that one is a competitive exhibition whose purpose is to determine a definite winner while the other is a presentation for the visual and visceral pleasures of its audience over that of those creating. Athletes want to win, to beat their competition. Artists want only to please an audience in some form or fashion. There’s no contest. In the case of visual arts such as painting, sculpture, and architecture, there’s not even an end point so long as the works still exist. They can go on and deliver pleasure and expression for centuries provided they are given appropriate care.

To be art the work has to attempt some significance outside itself, either through its impact on society and culture or to the greater art itself. There must be an aesthetic element to the work and contain an element of emotion that varies from artist to artist and work to work. Art requires no participation of anyone outside the artist and yet is fulfilled in its exhibition. If one is an Art History major, one classifies art through both form and function. Art requires a unique creative act whose interpretation is variable by either the performer or the audience, and sometimes both.

I suppose, if one really stretches the definitions, one might claim that some sports figures are artistic in their work, but then we still come back to the fact that sport must, inherently, be competitive. Sport is a contest; there is a constant adversary. The fundamental of success in sports is that one follows the rules for their function within their sport or one is disqualified and penalized. Even in a sport seemingly as benign as golf, one must still exhibit some form of aggression against that stupid little ball if one hopes to ever win. None of those things are appropriate for art.

And none of this explains why anyone would bother to be upset that the two are distinct and separate entities. I don’t recall ever seeing anyone trying to turn art into a sport. Most artists I know would bristle at the very idea. So why would a sport try to portray itself as an art? What is the purpose of such an attempt? Are athletes feeling left out that, despite their million dollar salaries, they’re somehow left out or cheated by being portrayed as artists? If football players want to feel more like real artists, then perhaps they could start by attempting to get by on one-tenth their current salaries; that would still have them being paid more than most artists. I simply cannot imagine why anyone in sports would be offended by Ms. Streep’s comment.

The only thing I can surmise is that the athletes who are upset are simply jealous that there’s an arena from which they are excluded, which is interesting since I’ve known multiple athletes who were also wonderful artists in genres that are actually art. It’s not that the person can’t be an artist, but more that the sport itself isn’t art.

Sports are sport, and they’re a lot of fun and have an important place in our society. The arts are art, and they’re a lot of fun and have an important place in our society. Yet, art and sport as distinct, separate entities occupying different spaces that have no need to overlap. Together, with other fields such as science and math, and philosophy and literature, they make our world a very wonderful place to be. We don’t all need to occupy the same space. Be cool with what you are and let others be what they are and we’ll all get along much better.

Art / Current Issues / News & Comment / video

5 Things You Should Know: 01.09.2017

January 9, 2017

04:42:27 01/09/2017

https://youtu.be/Y1dUZDI66As

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A lot of news, but is it art?

Welcome to another Monday. Temperatures are still cold out this morning, but by mid-afternoon, we might just make it above freezing for the first time in several days. This is the beginning of a warming trend that will see central Indiana near 60 degrees by Thursday, but with that comes a reasonable chance for rain every day except today. By next weekend it will be cold and wintery again, so enjoy the warmer weather while you can.

The weekend managed to conjure up a fair bit of news for this morning. McDonald’s has sold most of its business in China and Hong Kong to investors who can help them grow. Turkey claims they’ve killed more than 40 ISIS fighters over the weekend, and the Friday’s Ft. Lauderdale shooter is likely facing the death penalty. Yet, it’s an award show that seems to be getting all the chatter this morning. Let’s look at our 5 things you should know and see if we can figure out why.

But first, the weather

We tend to look at the weather in terms of local forecasts and are typically thankful when everything is benign and quiet. A little bit of snow in the wrong place can be a real problem with it hits in the South, such as it did on Friday and Saturday last week. But what you might have missed was a massive winter storm that hit Europe over the weekend, leaving at least 20 dead and closing businesses and services across much of the continent¹.

Those of you familiar with European geography know that, like the US, Southern Europe rarely sees a touch of winter. The Greek Islands are a popular winter tourist destination because they tend to stay warm. The same is true for Southern Italy. Yet, both are frozen over today and have a heavy blanket of fresh snow, closing ferries, ports, and schools. Overnight temperatures in Northern Europe reached as low as -22° F, which contributed to many of the deaths. Many of those dying are homeless and immigrant people with insufficient shelter.

At the same time, however, the Western US is getting hit with a storm of its own. Hundreds of homes have been evacuated in Nevada and in Northern California police are rescuing people from cars as the strongest winter storm to hit that region in 10 years pummels them with more water than they can handle². This is on top of the more than six feet of snow dumped on the Sierra Nevadas in the past week. What you should know is that this is normally a high desert region that sees less than eight inches of rain a year. They’re looking at a very rough start to their week.

Death of a diplomat

People in Iran are mourning the death of Former Iranian president Akbar Rafsanjani who died Sunday at age 82³. This is important because Rafsanjani, who was a political moderate, played a large role in the election of Iran’s current president, Hassan Rouhani and was a force within Iran for supporting the current nuclear agreement between that country and the West. Without Rafsanjani, Rouhani faces considerable objections from Iranian hardliners in favor of ditching the agreement and developing Iran’s nuclear program.

Given the rhetoric toward Iran from president-elect Donald Trump, many moderates and Middle Eastern academics feel that Rafsanjani’s death could not have come at a worse time. With political instability on both sides of the nuclear agreement, fears are high that the whole thing might fall apart without Rafsanjani’s voice working to keep both sides calm. Any political misstep on either side now could have catastrophic results.

In a country that has often been isolationist and protective, Rafsanjani was a rare voice of reason who advocated not only stronger ties with the West but closer relations with Iran’s Middle Eastern neighbors. A three-day period of mourning has been declared and the former president’s funeral will be held on Tuesday.

Using trucks as weapons

We may soon begin seeing a more diligent inspection of trucks on city streets as, once again, a truck has been used as part of a terror attack, this time in Jerusalem⁴. At least four Israeli soldiers were killed and 17 people wounded as a Palestinian driver rammed his truck into a crowd at a popular tourist attraction. This is the deadliest single attack in the region which has seen a considerable amount of violence over the past year.

This time, however, the US has a direct role in the causation for the attack. Tensions in the region have been high based on president-elect Trump’s statement that he plans to move the US embassy to Israel to Jerusalem. Palestinians have warned that such a move would have dire consequences, which has many wondering if this was merely a warning of what might be to come should the president-elect follow through on his promise.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is blaming the so-called Islamic State, however, given that organization’s recent use of a truck at a market in Germany that left 12 dead. The truck driver was a Palestinian man from a nearby neighborhood known for being home to other terrorists in the region. Security cameras show the truck barreling through the streets at a high rate of speed toward a group of soldiers, and then backing up rapidly after hitting them. The driver was shot dead by other Israeli soldiers surviving the attack.

Ending the program but not the controversy

Following the death of Tilikum, the orca that killed a trainer at Sea World back in 2010, Sea World San Diego has announced that it is ending its Killer Whale show⁵. The final presentation featuring trainers interacting with the giant mammals was held yesterday afternoon. Sea World says it plans to redesign the large tanks and open a new orca exhibit in the spring that is more of an educational experience. Visitors will see how orcas eat and interact with each other rather than with a trainer.

Don’t think this is an end to the controversy surrounding the Sea World program, though. Tilikum died at an estimated age of 36. While that might seem old compared to the life of your family pet, orcas in the wild have been known to live well over 200 years, with some estimated to live another century beyond that. The effect of captivity on the giant animals dramatically shortens their lifespan, no matter how well their care might be.

What you should know is that Sea World parks in Orlando and San Antonio will continue their orca shows through 2019. Attendance at all Sea World parks has fallen off since the documentary Blackfish criticized the conditions of the orcas at Sea World, specifically Tilikum, saying that captivity makes the massive mammals more aggressive. Sea World has also announced they are laying off some 320 people across its 12 parks, none of which are likely to affect the orca programs.

And finally …

The first big awards show of the new year, the Golden Globes, was held last night and, as one might expect, the tabloids and entertainment news is full of chatter about who won what⁶. Now, before anyone busts a gut, we can tell you that the musical La La Land took the lead with seven awards, which definitely brightens its chances going into the Oscars. Tracee Ellis Ross, took the award for best actress in a TV comedy for “Black-ish,” the first black woman to win in that category since 1992. Emma Stone won for best movie actress in a comedy or musical, and Billy Bob Thornton won for best actor in a TV drama.

What has tongues wagging fiercely this morning is Meryl Streep’s acceptance speech after winning the Cecile B. DeMille award, where she called the president-elect a bully and challenged the press to hold those in power accountable. What is getting the most attention, however, is when she said, “Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick ’em all out you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”

That comment set off a firestorm about athletics not being the arts. MMA supporters especially took exception, given the word “arts” is in the title. Stop and think about it, though. We don’t called anyone a football artist, we call them “players.” We call those who participate in MMA “fighters,” not artists. Just so we’re clear, the Fine Arts always have been, and continue to be painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry extending to dance and drama. Modern modifications include film, photography, and other visial elements, but they do NOT include athletics. Those are sports. Don’t get confused.

And that’s all we have time and energy for this morning. Being a Monday, I’m sure there will be a lot happen throughout the day today. We’ll watch it all and we’ll be back in the morning to sift through all the nonsense. Enjoy the warming weather if you can and we’ll back tomorrow.

###

Art / Photography / PotD / studio nudes

Pushing Color: A Gallery

January 8, 2017

Color is more than a saturation level

We’re focusing primarily on black and white this year, but as we were playing with the concept of color film yesterday, the conversation turned to color and how to boost it without adjusting the saturation levels. That got the wheels moving in my head. There are literally thousands of ways to boost color without ever touching the saturation sliders in Photoshop. We didn’t take time to explore all of them, but we did apply ten different methods to the photos below, each generating a different result.

Which method is best? That’s totally up to you. Different methods fit different purposes and intent. This is where one’s artistic intent come into play. Some methods are certainly more palatable to a broad audience than others, but we don’t always want to appeal to a broad audience, do we? So, take a look and consider what you can do without touching the saturation slider.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”9389″ layout=”contain” columns=”2″]

Art / Photography

Kodak Returns To Film

January 7, 2017

charles i. letbetter - Ektachrome Returns

Photographers said they want it, but will they use it?

For the past five years, photographers everywhere, especially us old guys, have lamented the loss of film. When Kodak filed for bankruptcy we saw the writing on the wall. Films began dropping one by one until the only films the once-dominant company still had on the market were Kodak Gold 200, Kodak Ultra Max 400 and a series of professional films. Kodak’s premier color film, Ektachrome, was killed off in 2012.

However, what was old is suddenly new again. Take music, for instance. Vinyl had been declared dead a long time ago, but in the past two years it has begun making a comeback and now accounts for eleven percent of the music market. Could the same thing happen in photography? Is it time to bring back film?

That’s the gamble Kodak is making in announcing that it’s bringing back the Ektachrome film line later this year. They’re hoping that the difference between a good film image and a digital image will be enough to spark a retro revolution that will produce an increased demand for film. The timing seems to be right. The film has been off the market just long enough for old-school photographers and photography school instructors to start missing it. This could be the next big thing in photography.

Maybe. Even if Ektachrome takes off in popularity, there are still some photographers face in using the film, and the first one comes with the cameras themselves. Anyone who has started in photography in the past 15 years without going to photography school hasn’t used a film camera. That’s going to be a problem because film cameras don’t have all the onboard tools that many digital photographers have come to rely upon. Want to change ISO? Have to change the film. Spot metering? Doesn’t exist except in hybrid cameras. Connectivity and GPS? Uhm, check your phone. There is no “landscape” mode, no “black and white” mode, and definitely no “art” mode. You have to know the film, know how it works, and adjust your settings manually to get the best shot.

The second issue, especially for photographers not in major metropolitan areas, is going to be finding someone who can actually process the film. While Ektachrome isn’t quite as challenging as Kodachrome was, it still takes a technician who knows what they’re doing with the chemicals or else it comes out looking like garbage. And if you need to modify the film, good luck. It is extremely challenging to work with as a slide film. While there are still several places that have the ability to process the film, almost all are in major metropolitan centers. That can be a major pain in the backside for anyone who lives and works in a rural area. And do we even want to start talking about turn around times?

Yeah, there are some problems. Yet, for those clients who really want film, this is quite possibly the film they want, especially if you’re shooting outdoors where Ektachrome does its best.

Now, I can hear digital shooters saying, “Yeah, but I can get the same effect with a Photoshop action.”

That produces two questions. First, if you’ve never shot the film then how do you know how the digital emulation should look? I’ve looked at four different popular emulation action sets and all four of them produce dramatically different results. How do you know which one is correct? The answer is: you don’t unless you have shot with the film. A lot.

The second question is WHY? Why would a digital photographer want to emulate a film look other than for the fun of it? Okay, maybe that’s enough reason for some people. But while there may be a market for film prints, the market for emulated digital prints doesn’t exist. Then, once again, there’s also that nasty problem of emulators not being especially accurate. Let me give you an example.

One of the most flexible film emulation filters is located within the Nik Collection, which happens to be free. The emulation within the Nik Collection is preferable to a Photoshop action because it actually gives the photographer the ability to make adjustments to allow for situations where the software misreads the photo in some way. Where actions require the photographer to compensate for a yellow/red saturation that is too high, the Nik Collection filters allow one to adjust those channels and bring them back into the range of something that’s actually usable.

Does the end result match what is achievable in film? I suppose it’s possible, but one has to be ready to work with the software on pretty much every image.

Here’s what I’m talking about. Below, we took five outdoor photographs and processed them using Nik’s Ektachrome 400 emulation. For the sake of comparison, we left the default settings in place. We’ll show the raw image first and then the emulation.

original

emulation

original

emulation

Original

emulation

Original

emulation

original

emulation

You’ll have to decide for yourself which version is preferable. You can see through the succession that the emulator tends to have some challenges with yellow and red. This is interesting given the actual film tends to push saturation on blue and green. Can it be adjusted within the filter? Yes, but one would have to know exactly which adjustments to make where, wouldn’t they?

I’m not against film emulators. They can be fun and interesting study tools, but they don’t take the place of actual film. One has to shoot differently with film than with a digital camera. There are no short cuts. “Fixing it in post,” becomes a matter of cost and skill, not convenience.

I’m excited about the return of Ektachrome and I may even dust off my old Canon F1 and shoot a roll or two if I come across some extra cash. Make no mistake, though. It’s not shooting with a digital. Don’t think you can just grab your grandfather’s camera and start shooting. Film is still for people who actually know what they’re doing behind a camera.

Take care.

Current Issues / News & Comment / video

5 Things You Should Know: 01.07.17

January 7, 2017

06:02:29 01/07/2017

https://youtu.be/4MvFw37SdSk

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No rest because of the wicked

Ah, Saturday, we’re supposed to have a little lighter fare today, aren’t we? I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible. For those of us here in the Midwest, we’re waking up to temperatures at or below zero, which makes being out at all for any length of time rather dangerous. It’s not going to get much warmer, either, as highs today will still be well below 20 degrees. Be thankful that you’re not in the Carolinas or Eastern Tennessee, however, as they got socked pretty hard with a winter storm yesterday. Fortunately, it was not as widespread as initially feared.

For a Saturday there are a surprising amount of things to talk about. Indianapolis had two more murders overnight. The president-elect is attempting to pick on Arnold Schwarzenegger over television ratings, and prison gangs in Brazil decapitated some 30 inmates as the violence there continues to escalate. These are not the type of things we like to deal with on a Saturday, but they are things you need to know. So, adult up and let’s look at our top 5 things you should know.

This isn’t supposed to be possible

Americans were taken aback yesterday when 26-year-old Esteban Santiago of Anchorage, Alaska, a National Guard veteran who served in Iraq, stepped off a plane in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, retrieved his legally-checked baggage, pulled out a gun and started shooting¹. Witnesses say there was no apparent motive or reason to his shooting. Santiago simply shot at anyone and everyone until he was out of ammunition. By the time he was done, five were dead and eight others injured.

Immediately, people begin asking how and why this happened here, in Ft. Lauderdale of all places. Naturally, it’s too early to have all the answers, but a couple of things are evident at this point. First, Santiago’s family states that he had been receiving mental health care and that he “wasn’t right” after returning from Iraq². This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of soldiers having emotional and mental difficulties after returning from service. We also have to realize and come to grips with the fact that the mental health care we give our veterans sucks. If mental health proves to be part of the cause, then we all have to accept part of the blame.

At the same time, many are wondering how he was able to get a gun through the airport in his luggage. Guess what: it’s perfectly legal. Guns can be shipped in checked luggage as long as they are locked, ammunition is stored separately, and shipped in a hard-sided container. All Santiago had to do was retrieve his hard-case from the baggage area. He then went to the bathroom, assembled and loaded the weapon, and came out shooting. It’s up to the ATF now to determine whether this calls for a change in the rules. I think a lot of people flying would support that.

Russian hacking isn’t done

The National Intelligence director released a declassified copy of the same report given to President Obama and the president-elect yesterday, and what they are saying is a bit more frightening that what we first thought. There is a lot of information in the report, of course, but one of the most troubling items to stick out is the prediction that, even though the election is over, the Russians aren’t done hacking³.

The report is the most detail we’ve seen yet from national intelligence sources concerning the source and severity of Russian-backed hacking efforts regarding the election. According to the assessment, intelligence agencies have a “high amount of confidence that the GRU (a top Russian intelligence agency) relayed material it acquired from the DNC and senior Democratic officials to WikiLeaks.” While the public version lacks the supporting evidence, since that is necessarily a closely-guarded secret, the information made available makes a very strong case against the Russian government and Vladimir Putin.

Contents of the report stand in strong opposition to statements made by both the president-elect and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange this week⁴, both of whom denied any involvement by Russia in the election. However, what you should know is that the report is the combined work of 17 different intelligence agencies with thousands of people involved at various levels. This is much more in-depth and authoritative than a tweet pulled out of someone’s ass.

Retail continues to suck

If there is an industry that is currently in decline more than fashion retail, please let me know what it is. Just two days after Macy’s and Sears both announced large layoffs and store closings, The Limited, headquartered here in the Midwest in New Albany, Ohio, announced that it is closing all of its brick-and-mortar stores at the end of business this Sunday⁵. That’s right, they’re only open today and tomorrow and then they’re gone.

While the store will continue to operate online, the website is showing a 50% discount across the board, indicating a severe inventory sell-off as stores begin shipping back whatever is left on their shelves when they close Sunday evening. This is a huge blow not only to the retail sector, but also to the suburban malls in which most Limited stores are located. As both retail fashion and mall shopping decline, they leave in their wake a significant blight of empty stores and large, vacant buildings.

This doesn’t come as a big surprise to The Limited’s employees. The company had announced back in the fall that it would be closing some stores and laying off employees. Both the CEO and CFO left at the end of the year with no replacement. Some stores have already been offering steep discounts up to 90%. If you have some expendable cash, this might be a good day to go shopping, but don’t expect there to be much left. No new inventory has come to the stores since the first of the year.

Other people looking for work

The Limited employees aren’t the only ones looking for work. United States Ambassadors appointed under the Obama administration are expected to resign and return home by January 20⁶. The mandate applies only to politically-appointed positions and not career diplomats. On one level, this is pretty much business as usual during a presidential transition period.

However, what is different this time around is the requirement that everyone actually be back by the inauguration. Typically, exceptions are made for those who have children in school as well as politically sensitive locations such as Germany, Canada, and Great Britain. Failing to leave some ambassadors in place means that the United States has no Senate-confirmed envoys in those countries until Congress gets through the painfully long process of approving the president-elect’s appointments.

The move not only shows complete disregard for the importance of a cohesive foreign policy, but also leaves our closest allies without a diplomatic relationship with the White House. Ambassadors are now struggling to find new accommodations and secure visas for families who need to stay until the end of school.

And finally …

We can end today on a bit of a high note as employment figures released yesterday showed the economy creating 156,000 new jobs last month even as unemployment ticked up a tenth of a percent to 4.7⁷. This is seen are solid growth despite the minor increase in unemployment. Hiring has continued a slow but steady increase over the past seven-and-a-half years, climbing steadily from the recession President Obama inherited from the Bush administration.

Even the unemployment was good news. The reason for that small increase was that more people were looking for jobs during the period, something that had been a point of concern for economists who were afraid too many people had simply given up. Healthcare was the sector with the largest employment gains, with restaurants and bars coming in a close second. Manufacturing finally managed to add a few new jobs last month as well, after having lost the previous four months.

Those who are gainfully employed are also making more with hourly wages up 2.9 percent, the biggest jump in the past seven years. What remains to be seen, of course, is whether this upward trend continues under the new administration. While the president-elect has bullied some companies into keeping jobs in the US, the actual number of those jobs has not been significant and could still result in yet another retreat in the manufacturing industry. We’ll just have to wait and see.

That’s all we have time for today. With weather as cold as we’re experiencing across the Midwest this morning, you’ll want to exercise extreme caution if you get out. Better yet, just stay home, stay safe, and catch up some reading. We are, again, taking tomorrow off, hoping nothing major happens over the next 24 hours or so. We’ll be back bright and early Monday morning. Enjoy your weekend.

photography

Some people will do anything to avoid the new administration

The Short Version

A Few More Details

Haven’t We Done Domes Before?

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I hate saying goodbye

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The things they want you to know

The Short Version

A Little More Detail

What All Is Covered

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Earthquake and snow proves deadly

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Update:

A Little Background

What Happened

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The fashion runway just took an interesting spin

The Short Version

Not Your Average Model

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Or at least commute my sentence

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Matters Of Distinction

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Not For Everyone

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Healthcare confusion is a good excuse to take care of yourself

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A Little More Detail

Time To Self-Medicate

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She’s not going naked. Probably.

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The core of the problem

Who is saying no

Who is saying yes

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No one likes a bully

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The actual offense

The fallout

What happens next?

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The last man on the moon

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What else you should know

A little bit of trivia

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Because political fashion is a thing

The short version

A little more detail

Are we making too much of this?

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Folks in Sacremento aren’t crazy about surfing city streets

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What the hell is a weir?

Who made this decision?

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They’re rich, but they’re nice guys

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A little more detail

Who are the super-rich?

What can be done about the situation?

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