Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Good morning, early birds. A corruption investigation into Border Force has created multiple divisions, and a school in the Melbourne suburb of Preston will reportedly be closed for the rest of the week after a year 5 student tested positive for COVID-19. It's the news you need to know, with Chris Woods.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, reports that a corruption investigation into Border Forces $573 million Cape-class patrol boats contract has created multiple divisions within the federal anti-corruption agency running the inquiry, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.

ACLEI, which is investigating Border Force over allegations it funnelled $39 million from a national security project to defence company Austal in order to prop up its financial position, has reportedly seen planned hearings scrapped, counsel assisting removed, and claims it is a toothless tiger.

As The Mandarin explains, the news comes as the Morrison government defends against claims it is delaying plans for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission, with Attorney General Christian Porter claiming legal complexities such as retrospectivity mean the government was not inclined to release draft legislation during the pandemic.

In unrelated news, The Guardian reports that acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge has appealed a federal court ruling that he engaged in criminal conduct by detaining an asylum seeker granted a visa by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

PS: The Sydney Morning Herald also reports thatsenior advisers from Gladys Berejiklians office have been called before a parliamentary inquiry to explain why the premier handed out $250 million in council grants without any signed paperwork.

According to the ABC, East Preston Islamic College in the Melbourne northern suburb of Preston will be closed for the rest of the week after a year 5 student tested positive for COVID-19, with residents of surrounding suburbs now urged to get tested if they have symptoms. The states health department has also issued an updated list of exposure sites in Shepparton.

Elsewhere, the Herald Sun ($) reports that Victorian Police Minister Lisa Neville has has confirmed she has been ordered by the hotel quarantine inquiry to submit a sworn statement over a phone call with an unidentified person at the premiers office, made in the minutes leading up to the decision to use private security.

And in advance of businesses reopening with indoor dining restrictions, the Andrews government has announced that venues can use existing outdoor spaces such as streets, footpaths, carparks and nearby parks and public land without the need for a planning permit. However, according to The Age,the need to comply with council by-laws could render the promise unworkable.

The New Daily reports that, LNP leader Deb Frecklingtonhas made an election pledge to create curfews in Townsville and Cairns for young people, a plan that would include slapping parents with $250 fines if children are found out at night without a reasonable excuse.

Critics point out that the curfew would disproportionately target Indigenous teenagers or kids from disadvantaged homes Townsville, notably, has recorded white supremacist vigilantes targeting Indigenous youth while Amnesty announced the policy may breach international law.

Elsewhere, The Guardian reports that Coalition senators Matt Canavan and Eric Abetz, former deputy prime minister John Andersonm,and News Corp columnist Miranda Devine have endorsed Toowoomba doctor David van Gend for LNP pre-selection, despite his support for conversion therapy a process the International Rehabilitation for Torture Victims considers torture and opposition to abortion and climate science.

On the topic of law and order, yesterday saw multiple stories of police abuse:

The latest New York Times ($) investigation into Donald Trumps tax history has unearthed bank accounts in China, Britain and Ireland held under corporate names.

The Chinese account is reportedly controlled by Trump International Hotels Management LLC, and has paid more than US$180,000 in taxes to China from 2013 to 2015; this is significantly more than the $750 he paid in US federal income taxes during the first year of his presidency, and the zero dollars he paid in 10 of the past 15 years.

Elsewhere, The Daily Poster reports that Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has doubled-down on climate denialism and refused to commit to recusing herself from cases involving oil companies, despite recusing herself as a lower-court judge from cases involving Shell Oil because her father worked at the company as a top attorney for decades.

Finally, in news that would make Peter Dutton blush, NBC reports that lawyers appointed to identify migrant families separated by the Trump administration say they cannot find the parents of 545 children, about two-thirds of whom were deported to Central America without their children.

I wish they had approached my position as they approached Gladys. I would probably be in a different position if they had, but good luck to her.

Barnaby Joyce

The former deputy prime minister throws a pity party over the real jihad he faced over his romantic tryst in 2018 ($), while failing to note that he went a touch further than an affair by approving two newly-created MP jobs for his former staffer/current partner Vikki Campion.

As a Crikeysubscriber, you hardly need convincing about the threats that media monopolies pose to democracy.

You already know that, as James Murdoch says, News Corps output is rife with hidden agendas and disinformation designed to confuse public debate.

You know that News Corp is no longer interested in reporting facts. It operates like a mafia syndicate with a well-funded protection racket for politicians who back its commercial interests and espouse hard-right ideology on issues like climate change.

Where does the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) end and the National COVID-19 Commission begin?

Thats the question being asked after another eye-opening appearance by commission chair, former Fortescue boss Nev Power, at Senate estimates yesterday.

Power, appearing alongside Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, faced questions about the commissions high-level access to cabinet documents and ministers, including aboard Powers private plane.

Inked-up Aussies can now walk straight from the tattoo parlour to a blood donation centre to give plasma. Gay men, on the other hand, still have to remain celibate for a year before donating even if theyre married or monogamous.

The new rules for tattooed Australians came into effect earlier this month as the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood tries to pull new donors especially those who arent afraid of needles into its centres amid dwindling donations during the pandemic.

Alleged Vatican payments linked to George Pell case referred to Victorian corruption watchdog

Childs suicide prompts WA Police admission accused sex offenders bail should have been opposed

Pope Francis pushes new boundaries and expresses support for same-sex civil unions

Retail sales offer cautious optimism for Christmas shopping season

ASIO warns MPs they are potential targets for foreign interference

Crowns ex-chair Rankin faces ASIC referral over China arrests, Packer threat

ACCC puts News Corp on notice that its closely watching newswire duel

Senior Army officer admits to inquest there were warning flags before death of PTSD soldier

Scott Morrisons excuses for failing to establish a federal integrity commission dont hold water Katharine Murphy (The Guardian): The speaker of the House of Representatives, Tony Smith, didnt like Anthony Albaneses opening jab in question time on Wednesday: where the bloody hell was the federal integrity body the government has long been promising but serially failing to deliver? The speaker thought Albaneses framing was ironical (and possibly provocative, given where the bloody hell was a marketing line developed during the prime ministers Tourism Australia days).

PM must replace Linda Reynolds with Peter Dutton at Defence ($) Greg Sheridan (The Australian): When he comes to do his cabinet reshuffle, probably early or mid-December, Prime Minister Scott Morrison should move Linda Reynolds out of Defence and replace her with Peter Dutton. Defence industry has been alive with rumours that both Reynolds and the Defence Industry Minister, Melissa Price, were likely to be moved. Now a widespread view in the government is that replacing Reynolds with Dutton would be the best move, but its unlikely to happen.

AEMO leads global push for $10 trillion of investment in next 10 years to slash emissions Ketan Joshi (RenewEconomy): Between various energy forecasts of the coming decades, one consistent trend emerges: in power systems around the world, renewables wind and solar will grow far faster than has been previously predicted. The economics have changed at breakneck pace over the past decade, meaning these technologies are now the default replacement for existing coal and gas-fired power stations. That means more effort is needed to ensure grids are upgraded and updated to suit new forms of energy technology.

Canberra

Peter Dutton, department secretary Michael Pezzullo, Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd will address the SMH/Age virtual National Security Summit.

Senate estimates will hear from Australia Post and Australia Council; Attorney-General portfolio; Finance; and Agriculture.

Melbourne

In the Wheeler Centres latest digital event, Creative Careers, Liminal magazine founder and PhD student Leah Jing McIntosh, and journalist and documentary filmmaker Santilla Chingaipe will discuss the changing landscape of the arts in Australia in conversation with Footscray High School student Felix Briggs.

The Lost Dogs Home will run webinar event, Helping your dog cope with your return to work.

The rest is here:
Crikey Worm: Border Force to be reckoned with - Crikey

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COVID-19, the disease it causes, surfaced in late 2020, and now had become a full-blown crisis worldwide. Over fifty key countries had declared a national emergency to combat coronavirus. With cases spreading, and the epicentre of the outbreak shifting to Europe, North America, India and Latin America, life in these regions has been upended the way it had been in Asia earlier in the developing crisis. As the coronavirus pandemic has worsened, the entertainment industry has been upended along with most every other facet of life. As experts work toward a better understanding, the world shudders in fear of the unknown, a worry that has rocked global financial markets, leading to daily volatility in the U.S. stock markets.

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Gutter And Window Cleaning Service Market Incredible Possibilities, Growth with Industry Study, Detailed Analysis and Forecast to 2026 - The Think...

Gutter and Roof Vacuum Cleaners Market Overview 2020 2025

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Surviving the Aftermath is the latest game to shed its Epic exclusivity and appear on Steam, along with its 11th update. It's not quite finished yet, though, and will stay in Early Access until next year.

It's a follow-up to the excellent Surviving Mars, but this time developed by Iceflake Studios instead of Haemimont Games. It remains a survival management game, but instead of setting up a colony on Mars, you're trying to rebuild after the apocalypse.

When I played last year, just before it made its surprise launch on the Epic Games Store, it felt a bit more conventional than its predecessor. The flow of Surviving Mars and the complexities of providing the basic necessities for human life made it feel like a milestone in the nascent survival management subgenre, while Aftermath starts out a lot more evocative of more familiar city builders, though not without post-apocalyptic twists.

Radiation, meteor showers, deadly storms and understandably depressed survivors all create wrinkles as you try to get your town off the ground. There's the world beyond the town to explore, too, which gives you more opportunities to get resources at a time where everything is scarce. And like Surviving Mars, there's a good chance you'll lose some survivors, whether it's from illness or because a meteor flattened their home.

It's had plenty of updates since then, however, so this Steam version will probably be quite different from the one I played a year ago. Update 11's focus is on quests where you'll send your survivors out to search for people, explore dangerous locations and, apparently, make some tough choices.

Iceflake Studios is also hanging out in our forums at the moment, as it's this month's Studio Spotlight guest. If you've got any questions for the team, give them a holler.

Follow this link:
Surviving the Aftermath sheds its Epic exclusivity and launches on Steam - PC Gamer

According to a police incident report written up in the early hours of April 1, Stanimirovic was found, still alive, beside the road a few minutes after midnight by two officers responding to reports of gunshots in the area. They found him lying on his left side, wearing dark shorts, a red sweatshirt and croc-type sandals, with a blue towel placed on his neck to stem the blood from a wound to his upper jaw.

He was found conscious but he could not pronounce a single word, said the report.

The police followed the trail of blood to Riveras house, where two officers were shot dead.

A few hours later, in Villavicencio Hospital, Stanimirovic was pronounced dead.

Stanimirovic was widely reported to be a high-ranking member of the Balkan Keka group, wanted on cocaine charges, the reports said, in Spain, Germany and Portugal. Spanish authorities, however, told BIRN they had no record of him. German and Portuguese authorities did not respond to BIRN questions.

In Colombia, he was unknown to authorities, his previous entry into the country triggering no alarm bells at the border.

Family holds out hope Stanimirovic still alive

Lawyer Aleksandar Scekic said the Stanimirovic family in Serbia still has no confirmation of whether he is dead or alive.

Nothing has come officially. They hope hes alive, Scekic, the familys lawyer, told BIRN.

The [Serbian] embassy in Washington is trying to get information from Colombia.

Scekic also said Serbian police and Interpol were involved in the case. He disputed reports that Stanimirovic was involved in crime, saying they were inaccurate and that the family has no idea what he was doing in Colombia.

The police, however, say the circumstances of his death point strongly to criminality and likely involvement in drug trafficking.

According to the Meta police commander, Colonel Berdugo, the investigation uncovered a link between Rivera and the Gulf Clan, arguably one of the most powerful Colombian criminal groups active today. That link has never previously been acknowledged by authorities.

Riveras own association with Stanimirovic, therefore, could corroborate what has long been suspected that ties have been established between Balkan cartels and the Gulf Clan, reflecting the growing presence and power of Balkan drug groups in Colombia.

Certain groups from the Western Balkans have moved up the value chain in the past 20 years, from small-time crooks and couriers to becoming major distributors of drugs in networks that stretch from Latin America to Western Europe and South Africa, the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, GITOC, wrote in a report in July.

Balkan criminal groups visiting Colombia tread carefully, GI-TOC wrote, travelling without contraband or suspicious quantities of cash, keeping a low profile and rarely staying no longer than a month. They often travel in multinational groups to avoid suspicion, and where necessary use high-quality false identity documents.

According to Felipe Tascon, an expert on Colombias cocaine economy who has worked with the Colombian state and the European Union on the issue, the lack of concrete evidence of Balkan criminal activity in the country likely only reflects how effective and disciplined Balkan criminals have been at keeping a low profile, as well as the relatively low numbers of Balkan visitors compared to other foreign criminal operatives.

We hear a great deal about an invasion of Mexican traffickers that are active here in Colombia, apparently a far greater number than any European group, and yet during my fieldwork in the likes of Tumaco, I have never met a Mexican or even heard a Mexican speaking, Tascon said.

So it is not unreasonable to believe that other nationalities could be here in much smaller numbers without being detected.

Read the original:
Marcos and Soldado: Colombian Shootout Sheds Light on Balkan Drug Ties - Balkan Insight

That the Inca sacrificed people to appease their gods is well known, but a discovery in Peru sheds new light on a far more common sacrificial practice: the ritual offering of highly prized and ornately decorated llamas.

Four naturally mummified llamas have been uncovered during the excavation of Tambo Viejo, an Incan administrative centre.

Archaeologists say the extraordinarily well-preserved specimens, sacrificed more than 500 years ago, may have been killed not only to please the gods to ensure successful harvests, healthy herds and victory in war but also to win over newly conquered locals.

Historical records indicate animal sacrifices were important to the Inca, who used them as special offerings to supernatural deities, said Dr Lidio Valdez, from the University of Calgary, who uncovered the remains with a team of archaeologists from San Cristbal of Huamanga University. This was especially the case of llamas, regarded second only to humans in sacrificial value.

Spanish conquistadors documented how llamas would be killed by the hundreds as ritual offerings to the gods, but radiocarbon dating found that the offering of the four Tambo Viejo beasts took place after the region was peacefully annexed by the Inca. Further excavation revealed evidence of a big party, including large ovens and other traces of feasts and celebration.

The offerings likely were part of much larger feasts and gatherings, sponsored by the state, said Valdez. The state befriended the local people with food and drink, cementing political alliances, whilst placing offerings allowed the Inca to claim the land as theirs.

Excavation at Tambo Viejo started in 2018 and has found a large plaza, an Inca ushnu (a symbolic or religious structure), and that an important road from the Nazca Valley stopped at the settlement.

When the conquistadors arrived in the Inca empire, they observed that the native people worshipped a variety of deities that were said to govern aspects of life including the sun, rain and rivers.

Although human sacrifice was part of appeasing these deities, llamas were the preferred offering. Bernab Cobo, a colonial-period Spanish chronicler, wrote that brown llamas were sacrificed to the creator god, Viracocha, and white llamas to the sun.

The rituals would happen at key times of the year: in October, 100 llamas would be sacrificed to promote rain, and in February another 100 were sacrificed to stop it.

The Tambo Viejo discovery, published in the journal Antiquity, gives new insight into the rituals. The llamas were decorated with valuable bracelets and string and buried alive alongside decorated guinea pigs. Their graves were marked with tropical feathers, perhaps to further cement the Incas new authority over the land.

The archaeologists wrote in their research: Through these ceremonies, the Inca created new orders, new understandings and meanings that helped to legitimise and justify their actions to both the conquerors and the conquered.

Read the original here:
Sacrificial llamas found buried in Peru shed light on Incan rituals - The Guardian

Golden Brooks stars in A Long Look in the Mirror, a new short film that shines a light on breast cancer.

Sadly, [breast cancer] is a condition that really hits African-American women, says Brooks (Girlfriends, Blunt Talk).

A Long Look in the Mirror is part of BET Hers initiative called The Waiting Room, which promotes Breast Cancer Awareness. Written by Deshawn Plair & Sade Oyinade and directed by veteran actress Vanessa Bell Calloway it takes a look at a broken relationship between Cynthia (Brooks) and her daughter, Tianna (Trinity Hawkins) thats tested after Cynthia receives a cancer diagnosis and struggles to cope with the disease and with Tianna. Victoria Rowell co-stars as Dr. Williams.

Its a scary moment when you hear the diagnosis that you have breast cancer, says Brooks. Whats important when something like that happens is that it becomes part of your story. Early detection is everything. As women, we just have to really be on it so its good to get those Pap smears and mammograms.

Brooks, best-known to viewers for playing Maya Wilkes on Girlfriend for eight seasons, says she felt really female-empowered during shooting, since A Long Look in the Mirror featured a predominantly female production team. I love the fact that BET Her pays attention to the female side of the story, she says. Theres a female producer and director Vanessa Bell Calloway. It felt great to be a part of this machine that was running on all this estrogen.

Theres a scene in the movie where Cynthia removes her wig after undergoing chemotherapy and that, says Brooks, took a real emotional toll on her.

Hair is our crown. Its our call to fame, our morning glory, she says. Its not the be-all and end-all, but I think whats so interesting is that [Cynthia] is very youth-obsessed. She has a very young boyfriend and looks are everything to her and then it all comes full circle.

When all is said and done she has to take her wig off and look in the mirror and see this is really who she is, Brooks says, and thats a hard thing for her to do and she gets angry.

But that moment is real, she says. [Her wig] is just a vanity aspect of us as women, especially as black women, and to take that journey was definitely eye-opening for me. I think it exposes us, and its important for our community to see us as actresses strip down to that role the make-up, lashes, the hair, the outfit, the nails its really shedding light on breast cancer but, at the same time, freeing us to say I can take roles where I can be the person whos not completely put-together.'

And, Brooks says, the movie has made her view life differently, particularly when it comes to her 11-year-old daughter.

I look at [the movie] as a coming-of-age story about a mother and a daughter, she says. It goes into so manydifferent chapters from birth to toddler to preteen to adult and all of that. God forbid that something should happen to me or vice versa.

My daughter and I are so close and mothers are expected to be superheroes, she says. I feel like that with my own mom. It doesnt matter what color, race, culture or gender your mom is she wears the cape.

More here:
Golden Brooks sheds light on breast cancer in 'A Long Look in the Mirror' - New York Post

By Dwight BrownNNPA Film Critic

Fiery rhetoric. Conflicting politics. Angry activists. Heated demonstrations. Violent police clashes. Government subterfuge. Duplicitous judges The anti-war uproar of the late 60s is so relevant today. One particular incident pulls all those volatile elements under one roof, into one courtroom: The historic Trial of the Chicago 7.

Writer/director Aaron Sorkin won a Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Social Network and marked his directing debut with Mollys Game, a film about a woman who ran high-stakes poker games. Both projects were based on true stories, which would lead audiences to believe that fact-based films are Sorkins thing. Theyd be right. Here, he pulls together the bits and pieces, participants and locations, rivalries and relationships of people involved in a trial that defined a movement. With meticulous research, his reflection on the historic Chicago trial seems to be mostly in words, versus action. Similar to his approach to Mollys Game, dialogue supersedes other modes of conveying a story. This very intellectual reinterpretation is fact-filled to the point of being dense. Yet it is emotionally charged enough to be compelling.

In 1968, MLK and RFK have been assassinated. President Johnson is sending more and more troops to fight in Vietnam, an endless war involving 30,000 American casualties and counting. Fathers, sons and brothers die. Vice President Hubert Humphrey will be formally named the Democratic Partys presidential candidate, and anti-war activists mount their protests in the streets and parks in Chicago, Illinois. Mayor Richard Daley employs the National Guard and the CPD on the demonstrators. A bloody battle ensues. Protestors, police and civilians are injured.

In 1969, eight people are charged with conspiring to start a riot defined as a plan among two or more people conspiring to plot across state lines. The case is presented in a courtroom by lead prosecutor Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Inception), at the behest of the U.S Attorney General John Mitchell, who serves under President Richard Nixon. A guilty verdict could land the defendants in jail for decades. Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon) quickly shows he is the boss in his courtroom, even if hes a bit ditzy. The accused feel like they are part of a media circus, and act accordingly:Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything) and Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp) head the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); counter-culture activist Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong, Mollys Game) lead the Yippies (Youth International Party); organizers David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), John Froines (Danny Flaherty) and Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins) represent Mobe (National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam); and Black Panther Party Chairman Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Watchmen) is on trial too, morally supported by fellow Panther Fred Hampton (Kelvin Harrison Jr., Waves) and getting occasional assistance from defense attorney William Kunstler (Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies), who is actually representing other defendants.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Fred Hampton in The Trial of the Chicago 7. (Niko Tavernise/NETFLIX 2020)

Thats a lot of characters, moving parts and subplots for any audience to discern and remember. Yet as the prosecution makes its case and those on trial claim their innocenceeither reverently (Hayden), with rebellion (Seale) or party antics (Rubin and Hoffman)following who is who and why they do what they do is an achievable goal for attentive audiences, though probably not for casual viewers. Under Sorkins guidance, everything plays out accordingly. Flashbacks to the riots and debated events are displayed, breaking up the certain monotony of a pure courtroom drama.

From a historical standpoint, whats on view is pretty flabbergasting. The governments case is more about retribution than defending the country from anarchists. The prosecuting attorney has just enough consciousness to keep the audience guessing about his intentions. Friction between the white activists and lone black defendant boils over into heated discussions about racism and how the petulant schoolboys have parents who can save them, and the Panther does not. He has no sense of entitlement. No safety net. Clashes between the always irreverent Yippies and the more sober SDS are equally contentious. In these striking ways, Sorkins script has just enough of an unpredictable edge to keep that average egghead, history buff, counter-culture devotee or child of the 60s engaged.

Some of the outdoor scenes look like a set, even if they arent. The interiors (production designer; Shane Valentino, Nocturnal Animals) fair better. Exterior and interior shots, from lighting to composition, (director of photography Phedon Papamichael, Ford vs. Ferrari) are fine. The wardrobes for the lead actors make sense (costume designer Susan Lyall, Mollys Game) but the clothes on the demonstrators look like they were bought from TJ Max and never worn before. It takes a full 2h 10min to retell this drama/history/thriller (editor Alan Baumgarten, Mollys Game) and there are not many extraneous moments. Its a pity that the over-hyped musical score does a disservice to the beginning of the film (composer Daniel Pemberton, Mollys Game).

The cast is pretty earnest. You never question their conviction or strategy for their performances. Frank Langella is suitably wicked and crazed. Mark Rylance plays Kunstler as bright, courageous and a bit of a showman. Strongs performance as Rubin greatly outweighs that of Cohens Hoffman; the former is a real actor and the latter is a British actor/comedian who cant go as deep or master a Worcester, MA accent. Similarly, the pivotal role of Tom Hayden was given to British Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne who emotes well but cant mimic Haydens Michigan accent and doesnt resemble him at all. Bobby Seales outrage is well represented by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Ditto Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Hampton who is equally electric.

As a director, Sorkin is better at the inside scenes, less deft at the outside crowd sequences that look fake and arranged. It takes a director with a great feel for action to make demonstrations and riots look real. Hes not there yet, and that may not be his goal. Staging all the actors of this fairly large cast while theyre indoors seems to be more in his wheelhouse. He gives the cast and characters time to shine. Even when their monologues get preachy or sound too perfect. Even when their overly academic discussions feel more like lines from a play than real life.

As you get caught up in the bickering, betrayals and last-minute revelations, its almost easy to forget why the activists put so much on the line and why the government focuses so much attention on them and not the cause of their ire. That all becomes clear in one extremely profound moment when the names of the soldiers who died in Vietnam are read aloud. Its the money shot. Heartbreaking. A supreme injustice is exposed. Its the reason why they crusade and why audiences may care about this film.

Premiers on Netflix on October 16th.

Visit NNPA News Wire Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com and BlackPressUSA.com.

Excerpt from:
Film Review: 'The Trial of the Chicago 7' sheds light on historic moment - Northdallasgazette

For a while, though rarely now as I get older, white women used to tell me I was good-looking for an Asian. I used to believe it myself. Until I moved to Korea when I was 23, visiting for the first time since my adoption at age two, I dated only white women. As an adoptee with white parents, whiteness was the model of desire I knew. For an Asian seemed as desirable as I could get.

During my childhood, my parents insisted that we were the same as any other family which, because they were white, I took as saying I must be as white as them to be their son. If I were white, I would be accepted became because I must be accepted, I must be white.

I wasnt able to see myself clearly. I mean this literally. One day, I stood at the mirror and suddenly realized that I was Asian. I cant remember where this thought came from, but it is a realization that is common for transracial adoptees with white parents. I used to wonder what took me so long to see myself. Now I wonder what I saw before that day. A white boy with white skin? Or did I simply assume that the image in the mirror was white, because it was normal and normal was whiteness?

It wasnt my gaze with which I looked, of course. It was my parents. I saw who they wanted me to see. That is the thing about desire: it comes from the outside. Desire is a story in which you are a character.

When the film The Big Sick, starring Kumail Nanjiani, came out in 2017, it seemed like progress for Asian American representation yet it received mixed reactions from Asian American critics, especially south Asian American women who wrote about the films stereotypes of brown women. The most difficult sequence to watch is a montage that switches back and forth between shots of Kumail the main character courting a white woman, Emily, and shots of him tossing images of brown women into a cigar box one after the other, each deemed unworthy by comparison.

Its a striking sequence, making literal Kumails rejection of brown women in exchange for whiteness. The film heavily links Kumails masculinity to the performance of race and sexuality he picks up Emily after she jokes that he might be good in bed and he writes her name in Urdu. He hides his relationship with Emily from his parents, and when he finally tells them about her, he is the one who connects his love for Emily to his nationality. In the face of their disappointment, he demands to know why they immigrated in the first place if they didnt want him to become American, completing his association of Americanness with whiteness.

As an isolated case, the film would still be problematic, but what really frustrates critics like Tanzila Ahmed and Amil Niazi is how frequently stories about Asian American masculinity rely on sex with a white woman. As early as 1982, scholar Elaine Kim noted this trope in Asian American literature, where the symbol of the white woman indicates an Asian American male character has been accepted into society or not. If the terms of masculinity are white, women of color are excluded.

But so are all people of color.

In fact, Kim found that one other group of writers also symbolized white women as access to American masculinity: straight white male writers writing about Asian male characters.

In other words, the story of how we view Asian American masculinity can be understood as a story about white male insecurity.

Perhaps some history is necessary. The current stereotype of Asian American men as emasculated, weak, and effeminate can be traced back to white insecurities over the male Chinese labor force during and after the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the late 19th century.

Chinese railroad workers were both valued and devalued as men. Railroad work was seen as exclusively male, and Chinese men were expected to work more, in more dangerous situations, and take less pay than white counterparts. In addition, it was cheapest to prohibit wives and children from joining them, which also conveniently limited population growth (the 1875 Page Act legalized this prohibition). By 1880, there were 27 Chinese men for every one Chinese woman, and with the railroad completed, the economic value of Chinese masculinity decreased while white fear of Chinese masculinity increased.

Out of this context, two different stereotypes of Asian American men emerged: emasculation and hypermasculinity (two sides of the same racist, misogynist, homophobic coin).

The current stereotype of Asian American men as 'emasculated', 'weak', and 'effeminate' can be traced back to white insecurities

Leading up to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigration completely, much of the propaganda depicted Chinese men as out to rape and pillage. Specifically, to rape white women and pillage white mens jobs. White masculinity depended on the sexual and economic possession of white women. By 1907, white masculinitys fear of its own emasculation produced anti-miscegenation laws that promised to revoke citizenship from any white woman who married an Asian American.

If the hypersexualization of Asian American males was an expression of white male insecurity, their desexualization was an attempt to ease that insecurity.

Despite depictions of Chinese men as desperate for white women, they were also represented as asexual or homosexual (both considered antithetical to white masculinity). Labor and immigration laws further contributed to the emasculation, as Asian Americans were forced to take any work they could get, namely the work white men didnt want, often service jobs like cooking and laundering. (This is where the stereotype of the Chinese American laundromat comes from.) This work was seen as womens work, and further associated Asian American men with sexual and gender deviance. The effect helped both to address white male anxiety and to establish white heterosexual masculinity (and patriarchy) as the norm.

Anxiety haunts desire.

In 2014, Elliot Rodger, half white and half Asian American, killed six people and injured 14 in an act of revenge against white women.

Its an injustice, he explained in a 100,000-word manifesto, that he was still a virgin, a condition he linked to being Asian American. In a particularly self-hating passage, he writes: Full Asian men are disgustingly ugly and white girls would never go for you Youll never be half white and youll never fulfill your dream of marrying a white woman.

In his twisted mind, Rodger managed to turn his self-hatred into the beliefs both that he had a right to white womens bodies because he was white and that he was not attractive to white women because he was Asian. Neither of these inventions, notably, are really about Asian American desire at all. These are problems of the limited male imagination. Rodgers was especially problematic.

In Lacanian psychoanalysis, a persons desire is not self-made but rather is the desire of the other. You experience this phenomenon when you dress as someone else would like you to dress, or when you act in a way you hope will attract the attention of your crush.

That is the thing about desire: it comes from the outside. Desire is a story in which you are a character

This theory of desire seems especially useful in explaining the model minority stereotype that Asian Americans find success by working hard and following the rules and why some Asian Americans perform the stereotype so dutifully. To be the model minority is to fulfill the desire of the other. That is, you perform the stereotype because it is the performance that whiteness wants from you. Just as I saw in the mirror what my parents wanted from me.

What makes the performance so alluring is that you also feel yourself become desirable to yourself. We internalize the others gaze whether the other is our beloved, or society and soon enough the desire seems like our own.

For straight Asian American men, this means wanting to be wanted in the way white heteronormative men are wanted. If an Asian American man can win the love of a white woman, he thinks, then he might have a claim to America in all its whiteness and straightness and maleness after all.

Such is the storyline of Adrian Tomines 2007 graphic novel, Shortcomings, about an Asian American man, Ben Tanaka, so obsessed with sleeping with a white woman that his relationship with an Asian American woman goes to hell.

Ben begins the book as essentially the model minority hes in a relationship with an attractive Asian American woman, he lives comfortably in California, he owns a movie theater and has enough money to drop everything and fly to New York on a whim but he is far from happy. Throughout, he makes snarky jokes at the expense of his own perceived emasculation (such as how small his penis is). He has internalized the white male gaze so completely that he doesnt even need anyone else to put him down; he can do it himself. Like Rodger, he blames his unhappiness on not being able to have sex with a white woman. He doesnt feel masculine enough. He doesnt feel wanted enough.

If an Asian American man can win the love of a white woman, he thinks, then he might have a claim to America in all its whiteness and straightness and maleness after all

Tomine is clear that Ben is no hero, that he is his own biggest problem. The tone is critical. Ben doesnt get any happier even after he fulfills his dream of having sex with a white woman, it doesnt make him any more masculine. The dream, and the masculinity, was never his to begin with. The best he can do, in the wreckage of his life, is to see that it has been a wreck for a while. The book ends ambiguously, with Ben in an airplane, flying home, perhaps ready to see himself for the first time.

Its necessary to link Asian American masculinity to the model minority myth and a hierarchy of racist stereotypes. Deeming Asian Americans the model minority was a divide-and-conquer strategy, to pit Asian Americans against African Americans during the civil rights movement. African American masculinity has long provoked white fear of emasculation. Pitting a desexualized Asian American model minority against the hypermasculine stereotype of Black men marks (yet) another attempt to make Black men responsible for white male fear.

In the white imagination, Asian American masculinity symbolizes what white men fear about being less masculine than Black males. That is, that societal power may come at the cost of sexual power. The model minority Asian American male might become a doctor or lawyer or engineer, but he cant get the girl.

This is the imagination with which Kumail courts Emily in The Big Sick. Though he finds some kind of love in the end, its hard not to see in that love the images of all the brown women that he threw aside (and, eventually, burned).

When I returned to Korea for the first time since my adoption, I met a woman I would love for the rest of her life. I mean, we got married. I also mean, she died young. It was in her desire that I was able to see what for an Asian meant. I had been carrying those three words at the end of every sentence. I had needed them to remind me that someone else was looking. Then I didnt any more.

Widowed now, I desire in the shadow of desire. When I dress up, my kids ask who Im trying to impress. No one will see you, they say. They wear their pyjamas all day, except on our daily walk. I say I will see myself, but they are not convinced.

Once, in a bar, a white woman tried to pick me up with the line, Once you go Asian, you never go Caucasian. A bad rhyme, I thought. That was all she saw. So I ran.

I mean this literally: I opened the door and fled.

Read more from the original source:
'Good-looking for an Asian': how I shed white ideals of masculinity - The Guardian

A new genus and species of mammaliaform that lived during the Triassic period has been identified from a partial jaw with teeth found on the eastern coast of Greenland. It represents the earliest known example of a dentary bone with double molariform roots and a crown with two rows of cusps, and offers insight into mammal tooth evolution, particularly the development of double-rooted teeth.

An artists impression of Kalaallitkigun jenkinsi. Image credit: Marta Szubert.

The newly-discovered mammaliaform species was a shrew-like animal about the size of a large mouse, probably covered with fur.

Named Kalaallitkigun jenkinsi, it lived during the Late Triassic epoch, around 215 million years ago.

Its partial left dentary, with two teeth still preserved in their respective alveoli, was found at the Liasryggen site located on the left bank of the Carlsberg Fjord, Jameson Land, East Greenland.

I knew it was important from the moment I took this 2 cm (0.8 inches) specimen off the ground, said Dr. Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki, a paleontologist in the Department of Organismal Biology in the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University.

Kalaallitkigun jenkinsi exhibits the earliest known dentary with two rows of cusps on molars and double-rooted teeth.

These anatomical features place it as an intermediate between the mammals and the insectivorous morganucodontans, another type of mammaliaform.

Digital rendering of the holotype left dentary of Kalaallitkigun jenkinsi from the mid-to-late Norian of the Fleming Fjord Formation, East Greenland: (A) the life position of the preserved part of the dentary; (B-D) the dentary in labial (B), lingual (C), and occlusal (D) views; (E-G) the only preserved premolariform in labial (E), lingual (F), and occlusal (G) views; (H-J) the only preserved molariform (m2) in lingual (H), labial (I), and occlusal (J) views. M1-3 mark the position of molariforms (2 is double rooted); pm1-4 mark the position of the premolariforms (1 is single, 2 is double rooted); c marks the position of the canine; (A, G, and B) 1-b4 indicate cusp assignments in the molariform. Abbreviations: ang. reg. angular region, cre. crest, premolar. premolariform, molar. molariform, cor. pr. coronoid process, cor. fos. coronoid fossa, M. tempo. fos. M. temporalis fossa, V3 no. V3 notch for the mandibular nerve entering the mandibular canal, Mec. sul. Meckels sulcus, mand. ca. for. mandibular canal foramen, mas. fos. masseteric fossa, lat. rid. lateral ridge, postd. tr. postdentary trough, med. rid. medial ridge, and sym. symphysis. Image credit: Sulej et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2012437117.

The structural changes in the teeth are related to changed feeding habits, the researchers said.

The animals were switching to a more omnivorous/herbivorous diet and the tooth crown was expanding laterally.

Broader teeth with basins on the top surface are better for grinding food. This development also forced changes in the structure of the base of the tooth.

Our discovery of the oldest mammalian ancestor with double-rooted molars shows how important the role of teeth was in the origin of mammals, said Dr. Tomasz Sulej, a researcher in the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

I had this idea to look at the biomechanics and the collaboration with the engineers turned out great.

It seems that the fossils of close mammalian ancestors must be looked for in even older rocks.

The discovery is reported in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Tomasz Sulej et al. The earliest-known mammaliaform fossil from Greenland sheds light on origin of mammals. PNAS, published online October 12, 2020; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2012437117

Read more:
215-Million-Year-Old Fossil from Greenland Sheds Light on Origin of Mammals | Paleontology - Sci-News.com