Showing all posts tagged: current affairs
2023 Emmy Awards postponed until January 2024
28 July 2023
Organisers of the annual Emmy Awards have postponed the 2023 ceremony, originally scheduled for Monday 18 September, until January 2024, citing the on-going WGA and SAG-AFTRA screenwriters’ strikes, according to a Variety report:
Vendors for the 75th Primetime Emmys have been told that the ceremony will not air on September 18 — the first time that there has been official word that the date has been pushed, Variety has learned exclusively.
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Global boiling replaces global warming as world swelters through July
28 July 2023
The world has sweated through its hottest three weeks on record, as heatwaves continue to ravage parts of the northern hemisphere. Possibly the last time temperatures were this warm was one hundred thousand years ago.
Typically these records, which track the average air temperature across the entire world, are broken by hundredths of a degree. But the temperature for the first 23 days of July averaged 16.95 degrees Celsius (62.51 Fahrenheit), well above the previous record of 16.63 degrees Celsius (61.93 Fahrenheit) set in July 2019, according to the report.
I’m dreading the upcoming Australian summer. As I type, the forecast high today is 23° Celsius, in this part of the world the July (middle of winter) average is meant to be closer to about 16° Celsius.
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climate change, current affairs, environment
Man apologises for social media threats against Yumi Stynes
27 July 2023
A man has apologised to Australian author Yumi Stynes after making threats against her through social media last week. Stynes has been subjected to a barrage of online hostility recently, amid a backlash against Welcome to Sex, a sex education book she co-authored with Melissa Kang. Some people have been angered by a selection of illustrations in the book that they perceive to be pornographic in nature.
A twenty-three year old man, Eli Engwicht, was arrested by police after being identified as one of the people making the threats, and appeared in court in Sydney yesterday. After his appearance, he issued an apology to Stynes:
“I apologise to Yumi Stynes and her direct family members for the inconvenience and the trouble and the threats that I have sent,” Mr Engwicht said outside court. “I’m sorry. This is a public and sincere apology (for) … my wrongdoing.”
The matter is expected to return to court in September, after Engwicht indicated he would plead guilty to the charges against him.
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books, current affairs, Melissa Kang, Yumi Stynes
Customer abuse sees Welcome to Sex removed from Big W shops
20 July 2023
Australian discount chain store Big W has withdrawn copies of Welcome to Sex from bookshelves, following repeated instances of staff being abused by customers angry that they stock the book.
Co-written by Melissa Kang, a doctor and associate professor at the University of Sydney, and Australian writer and broadcaster Yumi Stynes, Welcome to Sex, is, according to publisher Hardie Grant, a frank, age-appropriate introductory guide to sex and sexuality for teens of all genders.
Critics of the sex education book claim Welcome to Sex strays well beyond being a guide to reproductive sex, by discussing of a number of other sexual activities, even if only briefly.
Having concerns about certain of the merchandise a shop sells is one thing, but being hostile to retail staff, who are only doing their jobs, is unacceptable. While no longer available in store, the title remains available for purchase through the Big W website.
Update: 9NEWS reports that Welcome to Sex has topped the Amazon Best Sellers list, and sold out in some bookshops, since the controversy surrounding the title’s content flared up last week.
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books, current affairs, Melissa Kang, Yumi Stynes
2023 Asian American Literature Festival abruptly cancelled
19 July 2023
A biennial event, the Asian American Literature Festival (AALF) was first held in Washington D. C., capital city of the United States, in 2017, and then again in 2019. After Covid lockdowns put paid to the 2021 event, organisers and participants were keenly anticipating the 2023 festival, scheduled to take place in August.
But two weeks ago, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC), producers of the AALF, abruptly cancelled the 2023 event, citing “unforeseen circumstances”, says Sophia Nguyen, writing for The Washington Post:
The event, produced by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC), was relatively new. But it had already gained a loyal following for its intimate feel and experimental bent, hosting themed escape rooms and calligraphy tutorials alongside the more standard literary fare of readings by best-selling authors. The 2023 iteration was expected to draw thousands of attendees to Washington in early August. But just weeks before writers from across the world were due to land, the Smithsonian abruptly canceled the event, citing “unforeseen circumstances.”
Unforeseen circumstances.
It defies belief an event of this scale, with many people travelling a distance to attend — including a number from Australia and New Zealand — were offered, at least initially, such a feeble line. I can’t imagine anyone not expecting better of an institution such as the Smithsonian.
When contacted for further clarification by WTOP News about the “unforeseen circumstances” resulting in the festival’s cancellation, an APAC spokesperson appeared to imply preparations for the festival were behind schedule:
Linda St. Thomas, chief spokesperson for the Smithsonian Institution, said the event planning process “did not meet Smithsonian expectations” and the institution’s “goals for an in-person event.”
But AALF partners and participants rejected the suggestions, in an open letter sent to the Smithsonian, written on Monday 17 July 2023:
On July 14, The Washington Post reported on the cancellation, including an official statement from the Smithsonian alleging that the festival was canceled due to failures in preparation by the planning team. We must rebut this immediately: from the partners’ perspective, everything was on track; we had no concerns with putting on our programs in a month’s time. In fact, many of us have participated in AALF in years past and have returned due to our confidence in working with this planning team. The article itself confirms that the allegations are false.
The letter goes on identify what AALF partners and participants see as the actual cause of the 2023 event being cancelled: concerns the Smithsonian have with what they see as “potentially sensitive or controversial content”. In particular, a program exploring the work of trans and nonbinary authors:
Additionally, we are deeply troubled to discover that a driving factor behind the festival’s cancellation might have been the Smithsonian’s desire to censor trans and nonbinary programming. A program intended to celebrate trans and nonbinary authors, as they face unprecedented levels of violence, book bans, and anti-trans legislation, was set to take place at the festival. The Washington Post article reported that the Acting Director instructed the planning team to submit a report under Smithsonian Directive 603 to identify potentially sensitive or controversial content, which she received on July 5.
If correct, this is a disturbing development, at a time when civil liberties are increasingly being questioned, and some minority groups are experiencing elevated levels of vilification. While it is unlikely the cancellation of the 2023 festival can be overturned at this stage, if you feel strongly about the Smithsonian’s decision, you can add your signature to the open letter here.
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current affairs, events, literature
Barbie film banned in Vietnam over Nine-dash line map scene
7 July 2023
American actor and filmmaker Greta Gerwig’s new film Barbie, has been banned by Vietnam’s Department of Cinema, on account of a scene depicting a map of the South China Sea. The map in question features the “nine-dash line“, which represents a territorial claim over the waters by China, a claim Vietnam, and indeed an international court, have dismissed.
But Barbie isn’t alone in being banned in Vietnam. Pine Gap, a TV mini-series made in Australia in 2018, was likewise not broadcast for the same reason.
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current affairs, film, Greta Gerwig
Self identity, work, careers, Gen Z are doing it differently
4 May 2023
Generation Z has an identity crisis. People aged between about ten and twenty-six say they struggle to define who they are. Other demographics, I dare say, would have no such trouble. But, according to recent research carried out by in Australia by Snapchat, zoomers, as Generation Z members are also known, are pretty clear on other things.
When it comes to the identity of others around them though, Gen Z dislike binary definitions, and not just those applied to gender:
More than half (56%) of Australian Gen Z have said they don’t like binary definitions based on sex, gender, ability or culture, and prefer to just be defined as themselves.
Many zoomers also see themselves as intersectional, being people who embrace a number of identities. Gen Z may not have been the first demographic to realise just about everyone is really intersectional, but they may be the first to consider being intersectional as part of who they are.
Gen Z also takes a different view to work and careers. They’re keen to avoid burnout, and what they call the nine to five hustle:
That’s not to say that Gen Z are shunning work however. The vast majority (87%) have said they’re actively seeking new ways to earn money outside of a traditional job, with side gigs and passive incomes (e.g. selling handmade goods, investing in the stock market and cryptocurrency, or becoming a blogger or influencer).
Eighty percent of zoomers say they would prefer to work on a freelance basis, or be self-employed. About sixty percent of survey respondents say they’ve taken courses (from “traditional learning institutions”) to skill themselves for this sort of work.
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current affairs, economics, trends
Australian Writers’ Guild stands by Writers Guild of America
3 May 2023
The Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG) has issued a statement of support for the strike action presently being taken by Writers Guild of America (WGA) members. The AWG has asked its members to refrain from having any involvement with active projects within the WGA’s jurisdiction:
With strike action now in force, the AWG advises members not to work on active projects within the jurisdiction of the WGA, to pitch new projects designed for production within the jurisdiction of the WGA, or to cross picket lines, actual or virtual, for the duration of the strike.
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Instagram creators launch news reading app called Artifact
3 February 2023
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, creators of the original Instagram, who sold the photo-sharing to Facebook for one billion dollars in 2018, have launched a new app called Artifact. Rather than curating photos though, Artifact serves up popular news articles and blog posts:
The simplest way to understand Artifact is as a kind of TikTok for text, though you might also call it Google Reader reborn as a mobile app or maybe even a surprise attack on Twitter. The app opens to a feed of popular articles chosen from a curated list of publishers ranging from leading news organizations like The New York Times to small-scale blogs about niche topics.
Artifact sounds like the sort app I could make use of, but ads appearing on the news pages the app displays, don’t make for a smooth reading experience, according to John Gruber, writing at Daring Fireball, who has been trialling Artifact:
I’ll give it some time, but at the moment, it’s a disappointment. The articles they show come directly from publishers’ websites, but because Artifact isn’t a web browser, per se, there’s no ad filtering. It’s just ads ads ads, interrupting seemingly every single article, every couple of paragraphs. This same “man, I miss ad blockers” feeling strikes me when I use Apple News too, but Apple News articles have way fewer ads, and better ads, than what I’m seeing so far in articles I read in Artifact.
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current affairs, technology, trends
When the famous die, people flock to their Wikipedia pages
14 September 2022
When someone famous dies, visits to their Wikipedia page usually surge, as this visualisation by The Pudding shows. Sometimes the count goes off the scale. A case in point is late musician Prince. When he died in 2016, his Wikipedia page was viewed over eleven millon times in the two days afterwards.
More than 1,300 notable people died in the past three years, according to Wikipedia. Here are 84 who got over half a million pageviews in the first 48 hours after their deaths. Although no one grabbed our attention quite like Prince, the spike in pageviews after a celebrity’s death can often overshadow that of other major events, even a presidential inauguration.
One can only imagine what the pageview numbers will be for British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, who died last week. Incredibly, or perhaps not, her death was noted on her Wikipedia page within seconds. Editors of the online encyclopaedia were also swift to change the page of then Prince Charles, to King Charles III, this before his regnal name had been officially confirmed.
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