December 8, 2017

No Image

Entertainment December 8, 2017

Today in Movie Culture: 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' Easter Eggs, 'Star Wars' vs. 'Transformers' and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Easter Eggs of the Day:

You’ve watched the new Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom trailer, now watch Mr. Sunday Movies humorously highlight the Easter eggs and other things you may have missed:

[embedded content]

Fake Trailer of the Day:

New York Magazine’s Vulture blog imagines what Quentin Tarantino’s version of Star Trek will look like:

[embedded content]

Dream Crossover of the Day:

Optimus Prime and the Autobots go up against Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire in Alex Luthor’s fan-made Star Wars vs. Transformers fan trailer:

[embedded content]

Mashup of the Day:

Liam Neeson’s Taken character and the iconic villain Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men have a chat in the latest Phone Fights video:

[embedded content]

Vintage Image of the Day:

Maximillian Schell, who was born on this day in 1930, and Montgomery Clift rehearse a scene for Judgment at Nuremberg, for which Schell won an Oscar, in 1961:

Actor in the Spotlight:

Ben Stiller also recently had a birthday, so IMDb compiled this montage of his movie roles over the years:

[embedded content]

Year-End Recap of the Day:

Here’s another look at the best movies of 2017 in a video montage cut by Artur Zavgorodnij:

[embedded content]

Reworked Movie of the Day:

What if The Royal Tenenbaums featured only contemporary music of the time on its soundtrack? Filmmaker Kentucker Audley shows us in this silly video:

[embedded content]

Cosplay of the Day:

This is some good quick parody cosplay inspired by today’s release of the Alita: Battle Angel trailer:

I’m on top of this, guys!!! Check out my Alita Battle Angel Cosplay!!! #official#cosplayer#AlitaBattleAngelpic.twitter.com/QkVrTBoFrH

— Kim Horcher (@kimscorcher) December 8, 2017

Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 35th anniversary of the release of Sophie’s Choice. Watch the original trailer for the classic Meryl Streep movie below.

[embedded content]

and

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Business December 8, 2017

Tax Bill Favors Adding Robots Over Workers, Critics Say

Equipment at the Custom Group in Woburn, Mass., includes automated robotic cutting tools.

Chris Arnold/NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Chris Arnold/NPR

Republicans call their tax bill the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. But critics say maybe it should have been named the Tax Cut and Robots Act.

That’s because it doesn’t create new tax incentives that specifically encourage companies to hire workers and create jobs, some employers and economists say. But it does expand incentives for companies to buy robots and machines that replace workers.

Republicans say that lowering taxes will boost the economy and spur job creation. But critics say that the tax legislation would create an imbalance favoring machines over workers.

“I think they really need to re-look at the name [of the bill] and add the missing component of the worker,” says Carl Pasciuto, president of Custom Group, a high tech manufacturing company in Woburn, Mass.

Carl Pasciuto, president of the Custom Group, says he needs well-trained workers more than he needs equipment.

Chris Arnold/NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Chris Arnold/NPR

His factory floor is full of machines that look kind of like enclosed ski gondolas. Inside them, oil is being sprayed on blocks of metal as automated robotic cutting tools zip around shaping the aluminum or steel into precision parts for nuclear submarines, jet planes, and a range of other applications.

There are many more machines here than actual workers. And under the emerging tax bill (there are two versions — one in the House, one in the Senate), companies would have incentives to buy more.

For one thing, they could write the full value of the equipment off their taxes right away.

Pasciuto says he’s definitely OK with that. “Absolutely. We’re always happy to get any break we can get,” he says.

But Pasciuto says he needs well-trained workers more than he needs equipment. “The equipment is readily available. The workforce isn’t,” he says.

The Custom Group creates precision parts for nuclear submarines, jet planes, and a range of other applications.

Chris Arnold/NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Chris Arnold/NPR

Pasciuto says he has positions that he can’t fill because he can’t find skilled workers. So he’s sometimes forced to buy machines to do the work.

But he says he already has a training facility at his factory. Pasciuto says he and other employers would definitely take advantage of a tax incentive to train workers and it would create more jobs.

“I think that the federal government really needs to look at what they put in the bill and even it out from an equipment side to a training side as well,” Pasciuto says.

And some labor economists agree. Daron Acemoglu is an economist at MIT who researches automation and robots and their impact on the labor market. He says automation is often a good thing. It can increase productivity and be an important part of keeping the U.S. economy competitive.

But, he says, “the problem is when you subsidize heavily the adoption of machines instead of people.”

Then you’re putting your thumb on the scale against workers, Acemoglu says.

He says the Republican tax bills would do that. And here’s how. Suppose a business could buy a machine to replace three workers, but there’s no great cost savings. “That means that machine is not a great machine,” Acemoglu says. “It’s fine, but it’s marginal.”

So if the tax policy was neutral, the business probably wouldn’t buy the machine and it would keep the workers employed. But Acemoglu says even the current law favors machines, and the Republican tax bills tip the scales even more. So if you buy the machine, you’ll get “a huge handout from the government,” he says.

Students enrolled in a training program gather around a computer controlled metal forming machine at the Custom Group. Pasciuto, the company’s president, says he and other companies would take advantage of a tax incentive to train more workers.

Chris Arnold/NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Chris Arnold/NPR

Like Pasciuto, Acemoglu would like to see incentives for hiring and training.

“To balance the scales it would be good to encourage firms to invest in their workers,” Acemoglu says. Germany “has invested much more in robots than we have,” he says. But it’s done it in a way “that still has kept employment growing in the manufacturing sector.”

Acemoglu says building hiring and training incentives into the tax bill could have helped push the U.S. more in that direction.

Gavin Ekins, a research economist with the conservative leaning Tax Foundation, says it’s OK that the scales are tipped toward machines. “In the long run it’s better for the economy,” he says.

Ekins says some machines kill jobs, but others create jobs. If you buy a backhoe, for example, people have to build it and someone has to drive it. And he says incentives for training programs would be great to have down the road if Congress would design effective ones and pass them into law.

But he says there wasn’t time to devise good incentives for training workers in this legislation.

Ekins does agree with Acemoglu on one thing. The House version of the bill would drastically raise taxes on many graduate students and workers who get free tuition.

And he says in an economy that needs a better-skilled workforce, “taxing the benefit of getting a free education — this is something that really shouldn’t be taxed.”

Ekins hopes the Senate version wins out on that point.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Sports December 8, 2017

Hope Solo Announces She Is Running For U.S. Soccer Presidency

U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo during the quarterfinal match against Sweden at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the last match in which she played. Solo announced Thursday she is running for the U.S. Soccer presidency.

Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

Hope Solo, the goalkeeper who was a key part of winning U.S. teams at the Olympics and World Cup, has announced her candidacy to be the next president of U.S. Soccer.

“What we have lost in America is belief in our system, in our coaches, in our talent pool, and in the governance of US Soccer,” Solo wrote in an extensive Facebook post on Thursday. “We now must refocus our goals and come together as a soccer community to bring about the changes we desire.”

Current U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati declared Monday that he would not seek re-election, flinging the race wide open.

In her post, Solo tells the story of her own decades-long experience in the U.S. soccer program, whose women’s national team has often been the best in the world while the men have made only intermittent progress.

“I was just a kid from a lower-middle class family in Richland, WA,” she writes. “My parents gave me a great life but they had no choice but to say ‘no’ time and time again to the outrageous expenses that we would incur with every team, every tournament, and every camp. I was the best player in the state, but I couldn’t afford gas money to drive across the mountains to play in tournaments, stay two nights in the hotel and eat out.”

The cost of youth soccer is often pointed to as one reason the U.S. men’s team has not become an international power, despite the United States’ wealth, large population and success in other sports.

Solo laid out a platform of four core principles: creating a winning culture, equal pay and opportunities for women, addressing “pay to play” and lack of diversity in youth soccer, and bringing transparency to U.S. Soccer governance.

She is one of at least nine candidates. The first seven to declare were all men, including current Vice President Carlos Cordeiro and two former players who are now TV commentators, Kyle Martino and Eric Wynalda.

Solo is the second woman to throw her hat in the ring this week, after Kathy Carter announced her intention to run. Carter, a former NCAA goalkeeper, has been the president of Soccer United Marketing, which is both the marketing arm of Major League Soccer and holds the marketing rights for U.S. Soccer and the Mexican national team, The New York Times explains.

Candidates for the job must secure three nominations from members of the organization or athletes on its board. Solo’s spokesperson toldSports Illustrated that she had secured the necessary nominations ahead of Tuesday’s deadline to be an official candidate in the February election.

Solo is recovering from shoulder surgery and hasn’t announced her retirement, SI reports, but she hasn’t played in a game since the U.S. team’s loss to Sweden at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She called the Swedes “cowards” after the loss and was subsequently suspended from the team and had her national team contract terminated. She’s also had brushes with the law in recent years, including a domestic violence case from 2014 and an incident in which her husband was arrested on suspicion of DUI while driving a team van in which she was the passenger. He later pleaded no contest.

The race marks a watershed moment for U.S. Soccer. Gulati has been the head of the governing body for 12 years, overseeing a period of growth “in revenues, registrations, opportunities for women, governance and international stature,” according to ESPN.

But his tenure as president was upset when the men’s team lost to Trinidad and Tobago in October, which SI‘s Grant Wahl called “the most surreal and embarrassing night in US soccer history.” The loss meant that the team failed to qualify for next summer’s World Cup.

“[T]he loss to Trinidad was painful, regrettable and led to a lot of strong emotions,” Gulati told ESPN. “And to be honest, I think at this point, that’s overshadowed a lot of other things that are important. So fair or not, I accept that and think it’s time for a new person.”

Gulati continues to hold two powerful perches: a seat on the FIFA Council and chairman of the united bid by the U.S., Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 World Cup.

The outgoing president told ESPN on Monday that he had met with seven of those who have declared their candidacies.

“I think several of them would be in for a pretty big shock about what the job is — it’s not just about national teams,” Gulati said. “It’s about 4 million registered players, referees, medical safety, grass-roots stuff. It feels like that stuff gets ignored sometimes.”

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Entertainment December 8, 2017

Perceived As Prophetic Of A Bloodless Coup, Zimbabwean Artist's Profile Rises

Jah Prayzah

Zimbabwe’s bloodless coup, which took place in mid-November and brought to an end the 37-year rule of Robert Mugabe, certainly had its political casualties. With an uncertain future ahead the artist Jah Prayzah, born Mukudzei Mukombe, appears to be benefitting from a serendipitous album release, seen by some as prophetic of the dramatic November change.

Prayzah, born Mukudzei Mukombe on July 4, 1987, has seen his popularity spike as never before in the wake of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ascendance to the presidency. Everyone, from the elderly to kindergartners, can be heard in the streets singing songs from Kutonga Kwaro, the album Prayzah released Oct. 13 — almost exactly one month prior to Mugabe’s ouster.

[embedded content]

Prayzah’s fans describe Kutonga Kwaro as prophetic, as if the singer knew that the military — whose uniform he performs in — would imminently intervene in Zimbabwe’s political affairs. Indeed, some of the lyrics in its title track seem to be praising the military for seizing control: Prayzah laments, in the vernacular Shona language: “Behold, I am here, the soldier is ruling, he makes the orphans happy… “

[embedded content]
YouTube

In another, “Ndin’Ndamubata” — which translates literally to “I have caught him, do you want to be happy?” — Jah Prayzah could appear, in hindsight, to be asking Zimbabweans if they are happy that Mugabe had been forced to vacate the presidency.

“Music is an art; people can have their own interpretations, but I always sing to make people enjoy the music and that’s it,” Jah Prayzah tells NPR.

Before his recent rise, Prayzah was openly threatened when a faction of the ruling Zanu-PF party still loyal to Mugabe accused him of singing songs positively portraying Mnangagwa. At one point, Prayzah arrived late to a show, causing fans to pelt him in what some of the people who attended described as “a politically motivated attack.”

After Mnangagwa was named by Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party as successor to Mugabe following Mugabe’s forced removal by the country’s military, Prayzah — who was in Australia at the time — received a hero’s welcome at the recently renamed Robert Mugabe International Airport. A massive convoy of cars made up of fans playing his songs in their vehicles met his arrival, and the subsequent procession brought business to a standstill for a couple of hours in downtown Harare. Afterwards, Prayzah performed at Mnangagwa’s inauguration, held at the National Sports Stadium — which was filled to its 60,000-person capacity — performing several encores.

Commenting on the march that was held by Zimbabweans in support of the military takeover, Jah Prayzah said he was happy that there was unity of purpose in the country.

A banner displayed during the presidential inauguration ceremony of Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare, Zimbabwe, on November 24. Mnangagwa was sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president after Robert Mugabe’s forced resignation.

NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

“I am overjoyed to see Zimbabweans coming together as one; I am happy that Zimbabweans marched in peace,” he says.

The question remains of what kind of leader Mnangagwa will be. As NPR’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reported, the former vice president oversaw the country’s intelligence services, which were often wielded by Mugabe to stifle dissent, sometimes violently. “We are celebrating, but we need to be cautious,” the journalist Andrew Meldrum told NPR. “This is not a revolution to bring reform.”

As the U.S. State Department wrote in 2009: “The ruling party’s dominant control and manipulation of the political process through violence, intimidation, and corruption effectively negated the right of citizens to change their government.” While the president has changed, the party, ZANU-PF, has not.

As a recording artist in Zimbabwe, Prayzah has another concern he’s equally unlikely to solve: piracy. Some street traders are reportedly making huge profits from copies of Kutonga Kwaro.

“I sell a minimum of 100 compact discs per day containing Jah Prayzah’s music alone, and that is good for my business. I know that he is not benefitting anything from the sale of his music that we reproduce illegally, but I have to eke out a living under the difficult economic climate that we find ourselves,” said 29-year-old vendor Kelvin Kamoto. “I have a degree in economics,” Kamoto claimed, “but I can’t find any work because of the country’s high unemployment rate. So the only source of income that I have is selling popular CDs.”

Frank Chikowore is a freelance journalist based in Harare.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)