Month: January 2021

Categories
Business

Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit blasts satellites into house from 747

Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit blasts satellites into space from 747

Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit with a missile under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 aircraft launches July 10, 2019 in Mojave, California, in a major drop test of its high altitude satellite launch system.

Mike Blake | Reuters

Virgin Orbit, the rocket company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, successfully launched its first satellites with its novel air launch system.

The California-based company said 10 mini-satellites had been launched into space by the same rocket launched from the wing of an old Boeing 747 jumbo jet as it flew over the Pacific.

The jet, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, took off from Mojave Air and Space Port at around 10:50 a.m. PST on Sunday. Almost 60 minutes later, the LauncherOne missile dropped it approximately 50 miles south of the Channel Islands in California at an altitude of 35,000 feet.

When released, the rocket engine ignited and launched LauncherOne into space. About two hours later, 10 shoe box-sized satellites developed by universities and selected by NASA were deployed at an altitude of 500 km. The satellites are used for space exploration purposes.

“A new gateway to space has just been opened,” said Dan Hart, CEO of Virgin Orbit, in a statement. “That LauncherOne successfully entered orbit today is testament to the talent, precision, drive and ingenuity of this team.”

The successful launch came after Virgin Orbit attempted to launch a rocket in May last year. The company diagnosed the failure of a high pressure fuel line in the engine, which shut down the rocket shortly after launch.

“Virgin Orbit achieved what many thought was impossible. It was so inspiring to see our specially customized Virgin Atlantic 747, Cosmic Girl, launch the LauncherOne rocket into orbit,” Branson said in a statement.

“This great flight is the culmination of many years of hard work and will also unleash a whole new generation of innovators on their way into orbit.”

Thanks to Virgin Orbit’s launch technology, the company can theoretically launch rockets from almost anywhere on earth at short notice. There are plans to launch missile-bearing 747s from Cornwall, England, for example.

Branson hopes to take advantage of the growing demand for small, relatively cheap satellites. He’s not the only billionaire involved in the space race. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Tesla’s Elon Musk are also building spaceships to capitalize on the fast-growing industry.

Virgin Orbit describes itself as a “dedicated launch service for commercial and government-built small satellites”.

The company is planning the official transition to commercial service for its next mission, adding that it has already booked later launches from clients such as the US Space Force and the UK Royal Air Force, as well as companies like Swarm Technologies, Italy’s SITAEL. and Denmark’s GomSpace.

Virgin Orbit is a spin-off from Branson’s space tourism company Virgin Galactic. Virgin Orbit is a completely separate company and is privately owned by Branson’s multinational conglomerate Virgin Group.

The speculation about how much Virgin Orbit has invested so far has varied widely. Estimates range from $ 400 million to $ 500 million and even over $ 700 million.

In an interview with CNBC in October, Hart declined to comment on how much Virgin Orbit has spent to date, but said it was “discussions” about further investments, with the company about $ 150 million in new Strive for capital.

Investors include Branson’s Virgin Group and Mubadala Investment Company – the United Arab Emirates’ sovereign wealth fund, which also has a significant stake in Virgin Galactic.

Categories
Health

Twins With Covid Assist Scientists Untangle the Illness’s Genetic Roots

Twins With Covid Help Scientists Untangle the Disease’s Genetic Roots

What Ms. Burkett and Ms. Miller experienced was not the norm. Many of the conditions that can increase a person’s risk for severe Covid – obesity, heart disease, diabetes, smoking – are heavily influenced by the environment and behavior, not just genetics. A person’s history of fighting off other coronaviruses such as those that lead to colds can also affect their likelihood of developing a serious case of Covid.

Some researchers have also suggested that the amount of coronavirus a person ingests could have an impact on the severity of the condition, a trend that has been documented in other infections.

Updated

Jan. 18, 2021, 11:13 p.m. ET

“It makes the difference if your immune system is actually able to suppress the infection or if it is much more difficult to fight it when all of your cells are infected at the same time,” said Juliet Morrison, a virologist at the University of California in Riverside.

Michael Russell, 29, wonders if he tracked down more of the virus in the days after meeting his family on July 4 than his twin brother Steven did this summer.

Both brothers began to develop symptoms shortly after the celebration ended, around the time Steven returned to his home in Arlington, Virginia. The virus saddled Steven with a sore throat and a headache – a “mild, cold-like” illness, he said.

A few days later, Michael, who lived at home with his parents, had much more severe symptoms: a sore throat, chills, shortness of breath and fatigue, which banished him to his bed for a whole day. About two weeks passed before he could smell or taste the cinnamon-dusted popcorn that he regularly consumes.

The twins’ parents also had bad Covid symptoms, so Michael had to isolate himself with two other infected adults. Sitting together in the same house could have exposed him to a larger dose of the virus, the brothers said. But they added, that’s just a guess.

Categories
World News

Europe Welcomes Biden, however Gained’t Look forward to Him

Europe Welcomes Biden, but Won’t Wait for Him

As a politician facing the mid-term congressional election, Biden will be like a laser focus on the pandemic, reopening the economy, unemployment, infrastructure, healthcare and an economic stimulus in his first year. Said Kupchan. “There will be a lot less time, energy and money for foreign policy.”

Sophia Besch and Luigi Scazzieri from the Center for European Reforms argue in a new paper that “many Europeans want to forget about Trump’s presidency that ever took place”. But they add: “Europe cannot look any further to the US for important questions about what its interests are and how to pursue them.”

This is especially true for defense, which is where most European leaders agree that more needs to be spent.

The German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer claims that the Europeans cannot replace America as a security service provider, as can the Central and Eastern European heads of state and government. Others, however, notably French President Emmanuel Macron and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Fontelles, argue that Europeans cannot be sure of America’s reliability.

Mr Biden’s victory should not distract or discourage Europeans from an aim of more independent defense and more strategic autonomy, they say, even in the context of NATO.

There are certain issues such as terrorism, instability in North Africa and migration that Europeans feel they need to be able to act more effectively on themselves.

“Where we Europeans have to pay attention to our expectations of the Americans is in our neighborhood,” said Nathalie Tocci, director of the Italian Institute for International Affairs. On issues such as Belarus, Ukraine and the Balkans, “coordination with the US is important, but we cannot expect the US to step up its engagement,” she said.

Categories
Entertainment

Pixar’s ‘Soul’ Has a Black Hero. In Denmark, a White Actor Dubs the Voice.

Pixar’s ‘Soul’ Has a Black Hero. In Denmark, a White Actor Dubs the Voice.

COPENHAGEN – Like most of their peers around the world, Danish film critics first hailed “Soul,” Pixar’s first animated feature film that enthusiastically focused on black characters and African American culture, and praised the sensitive, joyful portrayal of a jazz musician on a quest for one meaningful life.

The film has been described as “a miracle” by one reviewer in Denmark and “beautiful and life-giving” by another.

What the Danish press, by and large, initially failed to focus on was the race of the characters. However, that changed after the film was released on December 25th, when the knowledge spread that the Danish-language version had been dubbed mainly by white actors. This is also the case in many other European-language versions of “Soul”.

While the movie’s voice-over casting is barely public knowledge in most countries, in Portugal more than 17,000 have signed a petition asking Pixar to redesign the local edition with color cast members. “This film is not just another film, and representation is important,” the petition said.

Joe Gardner, the main character in “Soul”, is Pixar’s first black protagonist. The studio took steps to accurately portray African American culture by hiring Kemp Powers as co-director and establishing a “cultural trust” to ensure the authenticity of the story. Actor Jamie Foxx, who voices Joe in the English-language original, told the New York Times: “Playing the first black lead in a Pixar movie feels like a blessing.” (To make matters worse, due to various plot machinations, Joe is voiced by Tina Fey for a decent portion of the film, a decision that has generated some criticism.)

In the Danish version, Joe is voiced by Nikolaj Lie Kaas, who is white. When the national newspaper Berlingske interviewed scholars and activists who expressed their disappointment with the fact that the casting was an example of structural racism, a heated controversy erupted which led Lie Kaas to issue an explanation as to why he was accepted the role.

“My position in relation to any job is very simple,” he wrote on Facebook. “Let the man or woman who can do the job the best they can get the job.”

Asta Selloane Sekamane, one of the activists who criticized the casting in the Berlingske article, said in an interview that no one could say there wasn’t enough black talent to star because color actors were hired to cast some of the votes express smaller parts. “It can’t be the constant excuse, this idea that we can’t find people who meet our standards,” she added. “It’s an invisible bar that connects qualification with white.”

Mira Skadegard, a professor at Aalborg University in Denmark who studies discrimination and inequality, said resistance to allegations of structural racism was not surprising. “In Denmark we have a long history of denial about racism and a deep investment in the ideal of equality,” she said.

“We don’t really see this as a criticism of institutions and structures. We see it as a criticism of who we are, ”she added.

In Denmark and Portugal, dubbing is generally reserved for animation and children’s programs. In other European countries, including France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, most mainstream foreign films are dubbed and the practice is viewed as an art in its own right – one based on practitioners’ ability to be inconspicuous.

“The best dubbing should go completely undetected,” said Juan Logar, a leading Spanish dubbing director and voice actor.

“My job is to find the voice that best fits the original,” said Logar. “Black, white, Asian, it doesn’t matter.”

The German voice actor Charles Rettinghaus expressed a similar feeling. In his 40-year career, he has been the voice of actors such as Jean-Claude Van Damme and Javier Bardem, but he said he feels a special connection with Jamie Foxx, who he has featured in more than 20 films, including the German version of “soul”.

Despite being white, Rettinghaus said he didn’t feel compelled to abstain from any black roles, adding that the same opportunities should apply to actors of all races. “It doesn’t matter if you’re black, you should and are allowed to synchronize everything,” he said. “Why shouldn’t you play a white actor or an Indian or an Asian?”

Kaze Uzumaki, a black colleague from Rettinghaus, said it was more complicated. Uzumaki names the character of Paul in “Soul” and has lent his voice to the German versions of dozens of other American films and TV series. Almost without exception, his roles were originally played by color actors.

“I really didn’t like it at first,” he said. “But I thought I would feel more comfortable doing the role than many other white colleagues who don’t have a good command of the English language and can’t really tell what a black person sounds like.”

Uzumaki said he called color doctors on hospital shows only to learn from the director that he sounded “too educated.”

“They don’t even realize that they are racist,” said Uzumaki. “But every time a director says something like, ‘No, you sound too polished. You know how to talk, right? ‘I feel like I’ve been hit in the face with a stick. “

Discrimination is often double-edged. Ivo Chundro, a Dutch color actor who named the role of Paul in “Soul” for distribution in the Netherlands, said: “The directors will only cast white actors for white parts and tell the color actors: ‘No, your voice is not’ . t know enough. ‘”

Some directors say demographics limit choices. “We don’t have a second generation of immigrants in Spain,” said Logar. “Except for a few very young children, there aren’t many black actors born here who speak Spanish without an accent.”

Color actors like Chundro and Uzumaki claim that these directors just don’t look too closely. But there are signs that things are gradually changing. In 2007 a voice actor in France told actress Yasmine Modestine that her voice was wrong for a role because she was a mixed race. Following her complaint, the French Equal Opportunities Commission examined the dubbing industry as a whole and found a culture of prejudice and stereotypes.

Since then, the possibilities for voice actors of color have expanded there. Fily Keita, who voiced Lupita Nyong’o in the French-language version of “Black Panther”, said that she didn’t feel held back as a black actor working in the industry. She has also cast roles that were originally played by white actresses such as Amanda Seyfried and Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

“I love to dub because it’s a space of freedom,” she said. “Where you are not limited by your looks.”

Chundro, the Dutch actor, said the Black Lives Matter movement was starting to shift the conversation around race and representation in the Netherlands. He cited a demonstration in Amsterdam in June to open eyes to ongoing racism.

“I used to have a lot of discussions about racism that people just didn’t understand,” said Chundro. But the protest “was like a bandage torn from a wound and it’s been a lot easier to talk about since then,” he added.

With that greater awareness, there are more possibilities, he said. “There’s more work out there and I’m getting a lot more busy.”

Sekamane, the Danish activist, also attributed changes in attitudes to the movement. “I’m 30 years old and all my life I’ve been told that racism is on my mind,” she said. “It wasn’t until last year that the conversation changed thanks to Black Lives Matter.”

Categories
Business

Buyers Push Residence Depot and Omnicom to Steer Adverts From Misinformation

Investors Push Home Depot and Omnicom to Steer Ads From Misinformation

Businesses over the past few years have struggled to reach potential customers while making sure their online ads don’t appear in the presence of dubious, suspicious, or potentially harmful content. AARP, mentioned in the NewsGuard report as one of the companies that had served ads on websites that advertised false voting claims, said that despite strict surveillance procedures, some ads had slipped through the cracks.

Capitol Riot Fallout

Updated

Jan. 17, 2021, 10:05 p.m. ET

“We follow strict ad placement protocols, but no system is 100 percent foolproof,” said Martha Boudreau, executive vice president of AARP, in a statement.

An internal AARP review found that “a tiny fraction” of its ads, less than 1/100 of 1 percent, were displayed on NewsGuard-flagged websites, Ms. Boudreau added.

Matt Skibinski, general manager of NewsGuard, said companies should treat websites that post misinformation the same way they should treat websites that promote behavior that is inconsistent with their corporate values ​​or post content they do not wish to be associated with.

“Many brands have someone whose job it is to ensure that ads don’t appear in what they consider unsafe or unsuitable environments. This includes violence, pornography and gambling,” Skibinski said. “We need the industry to see misinformation in this category – to cause harm in the real world.”

NewsGuard reported that Procter & Gamble ads were running on The Gateway Pundit, one of the websites that published misinformation about elections. In an email, Procter & Gamble announced that the website was not being advertised on purpose. Erica Noble, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, said if the company’s ads are displayed on a website that doesn’t meet standards, they’ll be removed quickly.

“These are all standards that were put in place long before the horrific events of January 6, but we know they are now becoming more important again,” she said.

Categories
Health

UAE on observe to vaccinate half its inhabitants by finish of March

UAE on track to vaccinate half its population by end of March

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The United Arab Emirates are on the way to vaccinate half of its population against the coronavirus before a deadline it set itself in late March, according to the country’s health authorities.

The little desert sheikh of 10 million began delivering its vaccination campaign to the public late last year after making China’s Sinopharm vaccine available to frontline health workers and government officials in September. In terms of vaccination rates, the UAE’s national program is the second highest in the world after Israel.

More than 1.8 million people have already received the Sinopharm vaccine, which is available to all citizens and residents free of charge. That is more than four times the vaccination rate per capita in the US. The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine developed in the USA and Germany is launched in Dubai. He is currently in the first phase, which is reserved for people over the age of 60, existing health conditions and frontline workers.

A health worker shows a dose of the Chinese vaccine Sinopharm Covid-19 in a vaccination center in the Jordanian capital Amman on January 13, 2021.

Khalil Mazraawi | AFP | Getty Images

Both vaccines require two shocks 28 days apart, and 28 days after receiving the second shot, patients are no longer required to be quarantined but are required to continue wearing masks and practicing social distancing, as the country’s national emergency crisis and disaster management agency does did said

And while taking the vaccine is optional, it is highly recommended, according to NCEMA. Government employees in Abu Dhabi who choose not to take any of the vaccines are required to do a PCR test every two weeks.

“We are very pleased with the progress we have made,” UAE deputy minister for culture and public diplomacy Omar Ghobash told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Sunday. “Of course there are people who still get sick and sadly die, but overall we think we’ve managed to strike a balance between health and safety on the one hand and economic viability on the other.”

Sinopharm developers say the vaccine is 86% effective while the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is 95% effective, although some health professionals have expressed skepticism about the Chinese-made vaccine as there is no published data on its development and its Studies are available. In November, UAE leaders including the ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum tweeted pictures of themselves receiving the Sinopharm shot.

The vaccinations progress below the peaks in some cases

Since late December, cases in Gulf Land have risen in less than three weeks as tourists flocked to Dubai’s fully open beaches, restaurants and shopping malls. Although visitors may require a negative PCR test result before boarding or upon arrival, many suspect that a transmissible strain of virus, first identified in the UK, is at least partly to blame for the large number of British tourists staying in the emirate on vacation.

The spike in cases – now averaging more than 3,000 a day compared to around 1,000 a day in late December – led the UK to remove the UAE from its “safe travel corridor” despite UK travelers being excluded from many countries for fear of the new strain of the virus . The UAE had successfully kept their case numbers below 2,000 per day for all of 2020.

The UAE has recorded 256,732 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 751 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. A record number of 3,453 cases was recorded on Sunday.

Women sunbathers sit on a beach in the Gulf emirate of Dubai on July 24, 2020, while the Burj al-Arab Hotel can be seen behind it. After a painful four-month hiatus in tourism that ended in early July, Dubai is paying off as a safe travel destination with the resources to ward off coronaviruses.

KARIM SAHIB | AFP via Getty Images

Still, it seems that the party city and regional trade capital Dubai will continue their vaccination campaign, at least for the time being, while keeping their tourism-dependent economy open.

The neighboring oil-rich capital Abu Dhabi was now much more conservative and required a series of negative PCR test results over a period of several days for anyone wishing to enter the emirate – including from other emirates in the country.

In Dubai, the wearing of masks is still required in all public places, with the exception of activities such as eating or doing strenuous exercise. The authorities remind residents of social distance. The emirate’s openness, which has gradually increased since the summer, was due to one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in March and April.

Until the New Year, the Dubai government allowed residents to hold gatherings of up to 30 people in their homes. Hotels that were once almost empty now have an occupancy rate of over 70% as tourists flee their own countries for reasons of normalcy and warm weather.

“You balance personal responsibility with an economy that needs to move forward,” Ghobash said of the country.

“Vaccinate the largest percentage of society possible” is the country’s goal, NCEMA tweeted earlier this month, to “gain access to vaccine-acquired immunity that will help reduce the number of cases and control the disease” .

Categories
Business

World’s ‘ethical failure’ WHO says

World's 'moral failure' WHO says

Healthcare workers administer the COVID-19 vaccine to residents of the Jackson Heights neighborhood at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church on January 10, 2021 in Tampa, Florida.

Octavio Jones | Getty Images

LONDON – The head of the World Health Organization said Monday the fair distribution of coronavirus vaccines was “seriously at risk”.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of a “catastrophic moral failure”, saying “the recent emergence of fast-spreading variants makes the quick and fair introduction of vaccines all the more important.”

But he added that this distribution could easily become “another building block in the wall of inequality between the world’s owners and non-owners”.

“With the use of the first vaccines, the promise of fair access is seriously jeopardized,” he said at a meeting of the WHO Executive Board.

While more than 39 million doses of various vaccines have now been administered in at least 49 higher-income countries, only 25 doses have been administered in one of the lowest-income countries.

“I have to be dull, the world is facing catastrophic moral failure and the price for that failure is paid for with life and livelihood in the poorest countries in the world.”

At the beginning of his speech, Tedros emphasized that developing and approving safe coronavirus vaccines less than a year after the virus emerged in China in late 2019 was an “amazing achievement and a much-needed source of hope”.

However, he added, “It is not right for younger, healthier adults in rich countries to be vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries.”

“There will be enough vaccines for everyone, but right now we must work together as a global family to prioritize (those) who are most at risk of serious illness and death in all countries.”

Without naming names, according to Tedros, some countries and companies speak the language of fair access but continue to prioritize bilateral deals, bypassing COVAX, which is driving prices up and trying to jump to the top. “That’s wrong,” he said.

COVAX is a global program jointly led by an international vaccine alliance called Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, and the WHO. It was established to ensure equitable access to vaccines for every country in the world. The goal is to deliver 2 billion doses of safe, effective vaccines that have passed regulatory approval and / or prequalification by the WHO by the end of 2021.

The WHO urged wealthier countries that had pre-ordered millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines, such as the US, UK and Europe, to share some of those vaccines with COVAX so they could then pass them on to poorer countries.

Wealthier nations have been accused of “hoarding” more vaccines than they need, even though the vaccine supply is still in its infancy, as mass vaccination – which began in the West in December – is largely still in its first phase of distribution.

Tedros urged countries with bilateral agreements with vaccine manufacturers and controls of supply to “be transparent to COVAX on quantities, prices and delivery dates” and to share their own doses with COVAX once they have vaccinated their own health workers and older populations.

Categories
Politics

Rivals Mock Andrew Yang: 5 Takeaways From the Mayor’s Race

Rivals Mock Andrew Yang: 5 Takeaways From the Mayor’s Race

Andrew Yang made a splash last week when he entered the mayor’s race and injected energy into what had been a relatively calm and polite campaign season.

Other campaigns pounced on Mr. Yang, questioning his authenticity as a New Yorker and his commitment to the city. While their excavations highlighted some of his weaknesses, they also revealed how the candidates view Mr. Yang as a threat.

The campaigns also released their fundraising numbers last week, showing which candidates are in the strongest financial position while a former Wall Street executive, known for a #MeToo complaint, stepped into the lesser-known Republican field.

Here are some key developments in the race:

Even before Mr. Yang even entered the race, he had made fun of a comment on social media to the New York Times explaining his decision to leave New York City for his Hudson Valley weekend home at the start of the pandemic.

That was before the bodega incident.

The day after Mr. Yang ran a personal campaign launch in Morningside Heights, he posted a video on Twitter about his love for bodegas – a safe stance few would question. But Mr. Yang recorded the video in a spacious, glitzy shop that few New Yorkers would consider a bodega.

The video got Mr. Yang more ridiculed – and 3.7 million views by Sunday afternoon.

Rival campaigns took other blows on him. After Mr. Yang finished a tour of the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, the campaign by Eric Adams, president of the Brooklyn borough, said, “Eric doesn’t need a tour of Brownsville. He was born there. “

The campaign manager of Maya Wiley, a former attorney for Mayor Bill de Blasio, threw Mr. Yang’s evasive maneuver from the presidential campaign to the New York Mayor’s race: “Maya is running – not as a backup plan – but because she has devoted everything to life to improve, empower, and uplift the New Yorkers. “

Mr. Stringer’s campaign spokesman, Tyrone Stevens, also dug: “We welcome Andrew Yang to the Mayor’s Race – and to New York City.”

The choice of music for an official launch or acceptance speech for a candidate is usually a calculated decision. Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” was Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign theme song; Lordes “Royals” preceded Mr de Blasio’s 2013 victory speech.

Mr. Yang came to his kick-off event in Morningside Park in Manhattan and danced to the Drake song “God’s Plan,” which includes the lyrics, “They Wish Me / Bad Things.”

Indeed, Mr. Yang was faced with a flurry of questions from journalists about why he had left town during the pandemic and why he had not voted in local elections. An important question is whether Mr. Yang sees the job as a stepping stone to running for national office again – like Mr. de Blasio, who received criticism for his poor offer for president in 2019 and several trips to Iowa.

When asked by the New York Times whether he would pledge not to run for president during his tenure as mayor, Mr. Yang declined. But he said being Mayor of New York would be the job of a lifetime.

“New Yorkers have nothing to fear,” he said.

Mr. Yang made a suggestion that the city should take control of the subway away from the state. There is only one obstacle: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, who has taken near complete control of the transit agency and is not known to relinquish power.

“Who knows? Maybe he’ll be happy when the city takes it out of his hands,” Yang said to reporters who had gathered on a subway platform and laughed in disbelief at the thought.

He spent his first day campaigning through four of the city’s five counties (sorry, Staten Island). At NY1’s Inside City Hall that evening, Mr. Yang disappointed some by saying the city may not close the Rikers Island prison by 2027.

“Rikers Island should be closed but we need to be flexible on the timeline,” he said.

Mr. Yang pointed to an important confirmation when he came on the trail: Representative Ritchie Torres of the Bronx, a rising star in the Democratic Party who helped counter criticism that Mr. Yang had no contact with the city.

Mr. Torres and Mondaire Jones are the first openly gay black men to serve in Congress, and Mr. Torres has been campaigned for. He had met or had conversations with Ms. Wiley, Mr. Adams, Mr. Stringer, Raymond J. McGuire, and Shaun Donovan, a former housing secretary under President Barack Obama.

Mr Torres said he gave the lost campaigns a heads up on his decision, despite being intrigued by the vote on the indictment against President Trump.

“No mayoral candidate supported me in my race,” said Torres. “I didn’t owe anyone anything.”

Mr. Torres said Mr. Yang’s endorsement of a universal basic income would be a victory for the South Bronx county, which he represents, one of the poorest in the nation. He said that he also likes the fact that Mr. Yang is not part of the city’s political establishment.

The confirmation enables Mr. Torres to coordinate with a moderate progressive colleague. If Mr. Yang wins, it would strengthen Mr. Torres’ standing and give him a powerful ally in the town hall.

When asked about the response to his decision, Torres said, “Eric Adams was friendly, most were disappointed, and one campaign was particularly hostile.”

Several people familiar with the discussions said the McGuire campaign responded with hostility. Mr. Torres met with Mr. McGuire, a former Wall Street executive, at an event in the Hamptons this summer, and his campaign believed they had the inside track.

Mr. McGuire’s campaigning denied being upset about the nudge.

“Ray is not a politician and has no grudge,” said his spokeswoman Lupé Todd-Medina. “He looks forward to working with the congressman when he’s mayor.”

Many officials who have worked in and around the city government appreciate Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner who, as a trusted manager, is able to help drive the city’s recovery from the pandemic. But she falls behind in the money race.

Ms. Garcia raised approximately $ 300,000 and did not qualify for any public matching funds.

However, recent records showed that Ms. Garcia received campaign contributions from a number of high-ranking New Yorkers, including Joseph J. Lhota, the former head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who ran as Republican against Mr. de Blasio in 2013. Polly Trottenberg, the city’s former traffic commissioner; and Kathryn Wylde, the head of a prominent group of companies. Ms. Wylde also donated to Mr. McGuire, who is popular among Wall Street donors.

Monika Hansen, Ms. Garcia’s campaign manager, said that many city employees support her offer.

“Kathryn has the support of the makers of the New York government at every rank,” she said.

A lesser-known candidate, Zachary Iscol, a nonprofit leader and former Marine, has raised nearly $ 750,000 and expects to soon qualify for the relevant funds.

Another candidate who worked in Mr de Blasio’s administration is struggling: Loree Sutton, a former veterans affairs commissioner who has $ 398 on hand and $ 6,000 in outstanding debt. She said her campaign has had some problems but is reorganizing and “is in this race and in to win it”.

The democratic primary in June is expected to decide the mayor’s race. The registered Democrats in New York City are far more numerous than the Republicans. But there’s also a Republican primary in June, and a new candidate entered the race last week: Sara Tirschwell, a former Wall Street executive who once filed a #MeToo complaint against her boss.

In an interview, Ms. Tirschwell referred to her experience as a single mother and moderate Republican with liberal social views. She highlighted her “leadership skills” as a rare woman who held high positions in financial companies.

“I think there is a need for a moderate in this race, and it’s not clear that a moderate will survive a Democratic elementary school in New York City,” she said.

Ms. Tirschwell, who grew up in Texas, echoed the complaints of many Republicans – and some Democrats – that “Bill de Blasio is probably the worst mayor in our lives.” But she didn’t want to talk about the recent violence in Washington or the impeachment of Mr Trump.

“This race is about New York, and it’s about New Yorkers and the crisis this city is facing, and that’s what my campaign is focusing on,” she said.

Other names that have popped up in Republican Elementary School: John Catsimatidis, the billionaire of the Gristedes grocery chain; Fernando Mateo, a taxi driver attorney linked to a scandal surrounding Mr de Blasio’s fundraiser; and Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels.

Categories
Health

Discovering a Foothold for Nordic Snowboarding in Rural Alaska

Finding a Foothold for Nordic Skiing in Rural Alaska

It was minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit and a lot of the kids were wearing jeans. You forgot to bring snow pants again. But they still wanted to go skiing, and that’s why we were there, so we took them to ski – even if some of the less appropriately dressed kids returned early.

I was in Nulato, a Koyukon-Athabascan village of a few hundred people on the Lower Yukon River in Alaska’s western interior. I volunteered as a ski trainer with a program called Skiku – a playful portmanteau of the Inupiaq word for ice, Siku, and the English word ski.

Skiku’s goal is to create, or in some cases continue a tradition of Nordic skiing in rural Alaska, both as a healthy pastime and as a means of transportation.

In the years leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, dozens of villages participated in the program, most of which were visited by a group of trainers each spring. (The ski equipment stays all year round.)

I’ve been on the program since 2015 when I first traveled from my home in Fairbanks to the Inupiat village of Noorvik on Alaska’s west coast. I had never been to an Alaskan village before, most of which were Alaskan.

It’s not uncommon for white urban Alaskans like me not to have been to the smaller villages of the state. Most of the villages are inaccessible by road and most people do not leave without a specific reason.

In recent years it has been unexpectedly satisfying to see the sport prevail in the community. Some of the younger children – for whom seven years is literally a lifetime – have never known a world without annual visits from Skiku.

The best skiing at Nulato was on a snowmobile trail near the school that made a 1.6 km loop. We drove the same lap over and over again. The other coaches and I took turns at the end of the pack as we found it impossible to stay warm while skiing with the slowest kids.

The trail went into a wetland area before going back through the forest and it was good for skiing in every way. Although Nulato has a well-developed road network with little traffic, the roads are icy and unforgiving for the children who inevitably fall down. Snowmobile trails generally make for much better skiing.

The streets don’t go that far either, as all streets in Nulato are local – that is, there are no streets in or out of town. The only way to reach the village is by river or by air.

Although I visited six villages as a volunteer ski trainer, the photos shown here are from Nulato in 2020, Arctic Village in 2018 and two trips to Kaktovik in 2018 and 2019.

The trips to Arctic Village and Kaktovik were part of a separate (and unspecified) program set up by one of Skiku’s founders, Lars Flora, a two-time Winter Olympic player. Lars’ program is slightly different from Skiku; It includes skijoring – being pulled on skis by mushing dogs, which is as fun as it sounds – and kite skiing. But the general idea is the same.

The Arctic Village is at the foot of the Brooks Range, just outside the southern border of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which the Trump administration opened to fossil fuel development. Kaktovik is located on an island in the Beaufort Sea, off Alaska’s north coast and within the confines of the Refuge.

The area around Kaktovik is called the coastal plain for a reason: in winter, when the sea is frozen over, Kaktovik is one of the few features on a blank, white canvas that is not interrupted even by the sea.

North Rope oil platforms are not visible from either village, but the effects of the oil money are very evident. Kaktovik is located in the North Slope Borough, which has high property tax revenues from its oil infrastructure in Prudhoe Bay, as well as other revenues from the oil industry. The school district is well funded and many of the residents are shareholders of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, an Alaska-based company that handles many profitable oil contracts.

Arctic Village, on the other hand, is not part of the North Slope Borough and does not benefit from oil development to the same extent. Unlike the shiny school in Kaktovik, it was difficult to find a toilet that worked in the school in Arctic Village.

(Tragically, Harold Kaveolook School in Kaktovik was destroyed by fire in February 2020. In rural Alaska, where schools serve as community centers for people of all ages, the loss of the school was enormous.)

Skiing at Arctic Village was second to none. Most locals only heat their homes with wood, which they collect from the many snowmobile trails that wind through the village and into the surrounding forest. And since the residents often drive older two-stroke machines that lack the strength to climb steep hills without running on them, the paths are all gentle and without abrupt curves on the slopes – ideal paths, in other words, for skiing.

Kaktovik is a more difficult place to promote skiing. The terrain is completely flat, and without any significant topography, skiing in the wind-hammered tundra outside the village is not that attractive. When we took the children outside, we often made jumps on mounds formed by the multi-story snowdrifts.

When I visited Kaktovik in early May 2019, we couldn’t ski outside for the first half of the week due to a relentless wind storm. When the wind finally subsided, the other coaches and I were walking in weak sunlight at 11 p.m. and were attacked by a polar bear.

The rest of the week was spent on a very limited schedule. When we were skiing, it was under the supervision of two village bear guards armed with weapons. (Kaktovik is a top polar bear spotting destination in late summer, but this troubled truce with the bears is creating increasing problems with encouraged bears coming into town.)

There is a lot of misunderstanding in the cities about rural Alaska. In the worst case, urban Alaskans often view the villages as desolate and uninviting places. But during my time as a ski instructor, I found exactly the opposite.

The tight social fabric in small towns is often found repeatedly. But in rural Alaska, it’s something that is felt in subtle ways – how the older children help the younger ones without a trace of resentment, or how all adults in the city are essentially custodians for all children.

During my time at Skiku, I understood my home state much better and improved my humiliatingly somber understanding of its physical and cultural geography. Sometimes I think that’s the real value of the program: to get us white urban Alaskans into the villages to see what life is really like there, we can stop doing apocryphal and reductive narratives. After all, without Skiku, it would be difficult for me to find a reason to spend a week in a different village every year.

But in the end my personal motives don’t matter, and the children don’t care if they teach me about their lives. They just love to ski.

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Business

The Races Are Digital, and So Are the Advertisements, however the Cash Is Actual

The Races Are Digital, and So Are the Ads, but the Money Is Real

It takes more than gas to get a racing car running.

It takes money. And money needs sponsors. And sponsors need viewers who they hope will become customers. Which became a problem for motorsport when Covid-19 closed tracks around the world early last year. The financial drought brought teams, tracks and racing series from extinction.

The industry turned to an emerging phenomenon – simulated racing. In these extremely realistic video games, cars obey the laws of physics and run on reproductions of real routes that are accurate down to the last lane.

In an experiment, NBC and Fox replaced the canceled races with sim races. Nobody knew if digital cars would attract viewers and pay off for sponsorships. Traditionally, racing cars served as high-speed billboards with consumers asking for the engine oil that proved the winning car superior. Could a sim car sell engine oil that has no engine or oil?

Ten months into the experiment, sim races seem to be paying off as the television and web audiences helped save the 2020 season. And now Sim Racing is giving the teams a new source of income, giving sponsors a more responsible form of marketing, and engaging a young audience that motorsport has had a hard time conquering. Sim Racing will soon be facing the real test: Can it bind fans and sponsors when real cars are back on real tracks and real spectators are in the stands?

Racing video games are not new. In 1977 Atari you could play Indy 500 and Street Racer. In the 1990s, more demanding Formula 1 games – albeit with blocky graphics – flourished. The graphics were further developed in successive generations of game consoles from Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo. At a glance, you may not even notice that the races are being simulated.

Desktops also run highly complex networked games such as iRacing, which has been chosen as the platform for a number of racing organizations including NASCAR, IMSA, IndyCar and the W-Series. Formula 1 chose its own commercial game from Codemasters.

Many professional racing drivers used the games privately for training. Due to the fidelity of the tracks, drivers can at least remember the layout. Some teams use special simulator software to optimize the setup of their actual cars before a race.

Sim Racing builds his driving skills to the point that some players, like William Byron, have created real cars. Mr. Byron, a NASCAR Cup series driver, now owns an eNASCAR team that won $ 100,000 in prize money in the 2020 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing series.

For years, professional drivers have sneaked into online competitions unannounced. For fans, it’s like joining a pickup basketball game and finding LeBron James on the court.

Automakers see the branding value of games. Chevrolet announced news when its simulated C8.R mid-engined Corvette was added to iRacing’s IMSA range in September. Like manufacturers as diverse as Mazda and McLaren, Chevy licenses its vehicles for dozens of games, including Forza, Project CARS, and Gran Turismo Sport.

Gamers may not be the primary market for a $ 60,000 Corvette, said Kevin Kelly, a Chevrolet spokesman, “but it’s a chance to stay loyal to the brand.”

Sim racing was an afterthought until technology, social media and real racing grew together about three years ago, said Bryan Cook, who was hired by Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR to fans) to handle social media in 2009. He expanded to iRacing four years ago and started a private league where JGR professional drivers competed against “your average Joes,” he said.

A year before the pandemic, iRacing became an official part of the JGR marketing program, offering sponsors a younger audience and social media data for a fee.

“You get to the point where the drivers have to be paid,” said Mr. Cook. “There are equipment needs. We said we really have to cover our costs here. “

Sims had their big break on March 22nd, when both eNASCAR and virtual Formula 1 races were shown on television instead of canceled races. The eNASCAR race drew 910,000 spectators, less than the three million typical for NASCAR, but more than the 400,000 typical for a virtual race.

“We realized this could be a real replacement for these NASCAR races,” said Brad Zager, Fox Sports’ production and operations manager.

The first F1 replacement race, the Virtual Bahrain Grand Prix, drew a total of four million viewers on digital and television, less than the 34 million average for an actual race but ahead of the 1.8 million average for pro-digital Run.

Last year “F1 Esports offered a new level of awareness for F1 Esports”, said Julian Tan, head of the department for digital business initiatives and esports at Formula 1. “We have digital record numbers of engagement in Austria and even in our esports Content seen Our official virtual championship last winter had record numbers. “

Broadcast TV is validated, but only part of Sim Racing’s reach. Livestreams could reach 400,000 viewers via YouTube, Facebook and Twitch, said Anthony Gardner, president of iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations. The social interactions – tweets, likes, comments – during the races are more valuable.

“The social media contacts are millions of times in a race,” said Gardner. These interactions provide customer data and the ability to speak directly to consumers.

Suddenly the sim racing audience was big enough to deserve attention but too new for marketers to capitalize on. Sponsors took different approaches, but all targeted an elusive new audience. NASCAR’s fan base has declined with age since 2005. Sim Racing attracts a younger and more racially diverse audience – attractive to sponsors and leagues.

“It’s really hard to reach this 18- to 35-year-old,” said Patrick Daugherty, who manages Valvoline sponsorships. “Gaming over-indices with young DIY enthusiasts.”

The company signed with Parker Kligerman, a celebrity racing driver and eNASCAR driver, before Covid-19 hit. “The audience and engagement exceeded our expectations,” said Daugherty. “We were really lucky and will renew ourselves with these guys in 2021.”

Despite being NASCAR’s official grill, Pit Boss Grills couldn’t afford to sponsor a front-line racer that is said to cost up to $ 35 million. That has changed with eNASCAR.

“This gave us the opportunity to become a major sponsor,” said Carlos Padilla, Director of Brand Partnerships. “It made it possible for us to be on a live broadcast about a car, if you want to call it that, at a price that is feasible for a company of our size.”

It cost four numbers per race to be seen by a million TV viewers – a bargain.

Discouraging iRacing seems like a circuit’s best interests, but Richmond Raceway first sponsored a team about three years ago. It built a simulator in a disused racing car for fans to try out. This innovation prompted Daytona International Speedway to borrow the car.

Not only has this raised Richmond’s profile, but sponsors’ money has also turned it into a five-figure profit.

“Marketing was the original goal,” said Brent S. Gambill, a spokesman who previously worked for the route and now for NASCAR’s mid-Atlantic region. “When it started, we spent money to be part of something. In the second year we made money. “

The online audience gives sponsors a chance to measure responses to certain offers, taglines, and prices in ways that television doesn’t.

However, a tsunami of data is not always helpful. “It would be fantastic for us if we could say that a million people watched last week and bought 200,000 cars this week. I don’t know if we’ll ever make it, ”said Paul Doleshal, general manager, Motorsports and Assets for Toyota Motors North America. “We’re drowning in information now.”

That makes it difficult to compare Sim Racing’s sales performance with Real Racing’s. But it can be a contentious question for a couple of reasons.

On the one hand, the two worlds are intertwined – the performance on the virtual track can have real effects.

When Darrell Wallace Jr., known as Bubba, finished a virtual race in frustration in April, sponsor Blue-Emu dropped him and tweeted in part: “Bye bye Bubba. We care about drivers, not slackers. “Kyle Larson, a driver, made a racial mistake during a sim race, lost sponsors, and was banned from NASCAR and iRacing. He will return to NASCAR in October.

The second reason is that while winning helps, it is not the only reason a fan will buy a car product.

“It’s not just about the literal oil,” said Eric Schwartz, a professor of marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “It’s about being a trustworthy brand that understands this world of racing.”

After all, Sim’s simplest brand attraction is that it delivers viewers. “This is a way to get eyeballs for the brand to keep track of,” Schwartz said. “If Valvoline doesn’t sponsor a team, the competitor will.”

It will take time to know if sim race fans are turning into real racing enthusiasts and vice versa, but Fox has five sim races planned for its FS1 network this year.

“You have so many options with iRacing,” said Fox’s Zager, envisioning a field race one week and Daytona the next. “ESports became a very big buzzword when the pandemic hit,” he added. “But iRacing just went to the front of the field and no one caught up.”