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2023年7月21日星期五

The Data Don’t Really Support the Most Popular Happiness Strategies

When it comes to life hacks, the secret to happiness is among the things people seek the most (along with how to get rich), at least according to internet searches. And there’s no dearth of advice on how to get happier, from expressing more gratitude to practicing mindfulness and meditation to exercising.

Some of these strategies are so entrenched in the modern consciousness that you’d be excused for thinking there’s a lot of scientific evidence behind them. All those people on the internet and running wellness centers can’t be wrong. Or can they?

In a study published July 20 in Nature Human Behavior, happiness researchers at the University of British Columbia report that for the most popular happiness strategies there is at best little solid, scientifically sound evidence—and in some cases, there is none.
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Like many in the happiness field, Elizabeth Dunn, professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, and Dunigan Fox, a PhD student in Dunn’s lab, took for granted that the strategies many people turn to in order to boost happiness came to prominence because the data documenting their effect justified the connection. But a recent push among experts in the psychology field to apply more stringent measures to research studies and the interpretation of data made the pair question how strong the historical happiness-research data really was.

In 2010, after a major psychology journal agreed to publish a paper purporting to find evidence for extra sensory perception, many researchers in the field questioned how data supporting what they felt was an impossible conclusion could be included in a reputable scientific publication. That criticism led to a reassessment in the field of how data are collected, how they are analyzed, and how much adjustment of the data occurs in the interpretation phase to fit pre-specified hypotheses. The problem wasn’t unique to psychology research, but, says Dunn, “we were the most proactive in combating the problem and making it central to reforming our field. The little techniques that people used to massage the data and thought was like jay walking, was really more like robbing the bank in terms of how big an impact they have.”

Some of these strategies included selective reporting of only certain segments of data collected during a trial, or excluding certain participants, or controlling for certain criteria such as age—all of which can cumulatively affect the outcome. Researchers may have good reasons for these practices, including the fact that there may not be sufficient data on specific age groups, for example, to make an analysis statistically relevant. But while “there may be justifiable reasons for making these decisions, they could lead to findings that are not as reliable,” says Folk. “It’s like throwing a dart on the wall and drawing the bullseye afterward.”

After 2011, those in the psychology field informally agreed to apply more rigorous standards to their research, by creating a system where scientists could pre-register studies and their planned methods for collecting and analyzing data in different online databanks (a popular one, Open Science Framework, is operated by the Center for Open Science, a non-profit group of scientists working to promote transparency and reproducibility of scientific data). That would, in theory, discourage adjusting their methods or analysis in any way once the data were collected. “The only way to cut short the incredible flexibility that’s occurring with data interpretation is to tie our hands ahead of time,” says Dunn. The commitment isn’t binding in the sense that it’s not connected to funding or academic appointments, but reviewers who evaluate papers before publication could consult the database and monitor adherence.

She and Folk investigated how many of the studies involving the five most popular happiness strategies promoted in media coverage of the topic included such pre-registered studies. The strategies included:

expressing gratitude
increasing social interactions
practicing mindfulness or meditation
spending more time in nature
exercising

They started with more than 22,000 papers involving these methods, and determined that only 494 properly compared the interventions to a control, as well as excluded specialized groups of people such as those with depression who could confound the results. Of that group of studies, only 57 were pre-registered and constructed in such a way that their results were statistically well-powered.

When Dunn and Folk then looked at each specific strategy, they found that studies exploring gratitude and social interaction were the only methods that had pre-registered and well-powered studies supporting them. On the one hand, says Folk, “it’s understandable that people continue to think there is a ton of well-supported evidence behind these strategies.”After all, he says “there is plenty of research prior to 2011 that shows evidence that these strategies can improve happiness,” says Folk. “At the time, it was the highest quality evidence that was available. But there was a problem with the way the research was done, although nobody realized it then.”

Even with the two methods that had the strongest evidence behind them—expressing gratitude and becoming more socially engaged—the researchers found that the effects were short-lived. Writing lists of things for which you are grateful or writing letters to people expressing gratitude can both improve mood—but only temporarily. Similarly, becoming more socially engaged by speaking to strangers could also improve positive mood for short periods, but the studies did not include looking at the effect of spending more time with close friends and loved ones.

Their findings don’t necessarily mean that the strategies won’t contribute to improving people’s mood and increasing happiness, but the durability and strength of the effect isn’t clear from the existing data. “I think there is good reason to believe that they do work,” says Folk. “But I think it’s important to understand that they might not work for everybody.”

source https://time.com/6296357/happiness-strategies-lack-data/

The Navajo Suffered From Nuclear Testing. Oppenheimer Doesn’t Tell Our Story

Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated Oppenheimer comes to the big screen five days after the 44th anniversary of the Church Rock uranium mill spill, when 94 million gallons of radioactive waste poured into the Puerco River, spanning northwestern New Mexico and northern Arizona, and across the Navajo Nation. Children played in the contaminated water, while livestock drank from radioactive aquifers. What came next—cancers, miscarriages, and mysterious illnesses—is a direct consequence of America’s race for nuclear hegemony. It’s an accomplishment built on top of the bodies of Navajo men, women, and children—the lived experience of nuclear weapons development in the United States. But, as usual, Hollywood chose to gloss over them.
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The Navajo people cannot afford to be, yet again, erased from history. Hollywood has a lot of work to do, and they can start by standing with the Navajo people and urging Congress to provide just compensation for victims of radiation exposure.

As part of this effort, we must all recognize the continued suffering and sacrifice that built the atomic era. From the 1940s to the 1990s, the U.S. used the Navajo Nation to supply them with uranium for the manufacture of nuclear weapons and energy. While ownership of the mines was transferred from the federal government to private companies in 1971, the U.S. failed to enforce proper safety standards, leaving the sites unregulated until 1990 when the last mine closed. More than 500 now abandoned mines cover our land as a result. Miners and their families were kept in the dark about the heinous dangers of radiation exposure, so they went about their daily activities like any other community. Workers drank the mine’s cool spring water, while their wives washed their yellowed work clothes. Families built homes with local rocks and sediment and let their children play for hours on uranium byproducts, including mine debris piles. Despite the U.S. government’s awareness of the risks inherent in uranium mining, most Navajos did not know what radiation was—let alone the danger presented by every second of exposure.

Growing up in a community that has an abandoned uranium mine in Red Mesa, Arizona, I witnessed firsthand the heartbreaking and enduring consequences of uranium mining on my people. Despite the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in 1990, justice remains elusive for Navajo families who have suffered from the devastating and long-lasting health and environmental effects of the uranium mining industry on Navajo land.

While RECA has provided life-saving healthcare coverage for some uranium miners, the legislation’s limited scope has left many Navajo people suffering from radiation exposure without any compensation. The list of diseases covered by the law is, to start, woefully incomplete. Renal cancer, nephritis, and kidney tubal tissue injury are just some of the conditions that were initially excluded because of a lack of available scientific data connecting them to radiation exposure. RECA also excludes Navajo miners employed after 1971 from eligibility for compensation. Yet, the work they did, and the dangers they faced, remained exactly the same.

This is not a problem of the past. As of August 1, 2022, more than 53,804 claims have been filed under RECA. Of those, more than 12% identified as Navajos. Navajo miners and their families suffer a wide variety of cancers and radiation-related illnesses, with new victims regularly diagnosed. Women living near the mines have experienced stillbirths and miscarriages at abhorrent rates and their children carry the physical legacy of the Cold War through developmental delays, chromosomal aberrations, and other birth defects.

The Navajo people have suffered and sacrificed so much, while directly contributing to our country’s post-war pursuit of nuclear superiority. And while our Navajo Code Talkers are esteemed for heroically saving countless lives in the South Pacific during World War II, our uranium miners have largely been overlooked. The only thank-you for their years of patriotic service has been death, disease, and decades of advocacy to recognize their sacrifice.

Time is slipping away for Navajo uranium miners and their descendants, their hopes dangling in the balance. With each passing day, their weary bodies bear the weight of diseases inflicted by their labor; the clock ticks, mercilessly. As they wait for existing claims to be processed and for expanded eligibility through the RECA amendments, their precious time on this earth dwindles, a poignant reminder of the urgent need for justice and compassion.

The legacy of uranium mining on the Navajo is a perpetual blemish on our nation’s history with its Native people, and the disregard of our stories from media and movies like Oppenheimer can’t mean a continued erasure in U.S. policy. Acknowledging the harm done means living up to the intended purpose of RECA: to compensate all those impacted by the harms of the nuclear age. It is only then that my people can begin to heal and our beautiful and sacred land can be restored. We need the world to hear us and provide the justice that has long been denied to our people.

source https://time.com/6296470/oppenheimer-navajo-uranium-mining-essay/

Ruth Handler Is the Key to Barbie. What To Know About the Doll’s Controversial Founder

When Greta Gerwig embarked upon her journey to create a story about a doll with no personality or inner life, she turned to Barbie’s history for inspiration. Mattel, Barbie’s parent company, led the filmmaker through an “immersion” experience—or Barbie bootcamp—that outlined the iconic doll’s long history, from her debut at the Toy Fair in New York City in 1959 to her status as the world’s most recognizable toy with over a billion dolls sold.

Gerwig latched onto the relationship between Barbie’s inventor, Ruth Handler, and Handler’s daughter Barbara, for whom Barbie is named. During an interview for TIME’s recent cover story on Barbie, Gerwig told me, “A Barbie movie is only ever going to be a mother-daughter movie on so many levels because it was Ruth Handler and Barbara—that was the relationship.”
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And so Handler had to be in the movie. She first appears as a mysterious woman in a 1950s-style kitchen tucked away inside Mattel’s headquarters. Later, the film reveals that Handler is in fact the creator of Barbie and a God-like figure to Margot Robbie’s character, one of many Barbies who resides in idyllic Barbie Land. Played by Cheers alum Rhea Perlman, Gerwig portrays Handler as a kind yet imperfect deity. Here’s everything you need to know about Barbie’s creator and how she factors into the Barbie film.

Read More: How Barbie Came to Life

How Ruth Handler invented Barbie

Ruth Handler revolutionized the toy industry when she invented a mainstream doll with the proportions of an adult female. Before Barbie came along, girls mostly played with baby dolls, an act that conditioned them to be mothers. In the early 1950s, Handler had the rather revolutionary idea that playing with dolls modeled on grown-up women would help girls imagine what they might be when they grew up. Handler drew inspiration from her daughter Barbara, who would play dress-up with paper dolls. She would eventually name her iconic doll Barbie, after her daughter.

Handler had already co-founded Mattel with her husband in 1945 to sell picture frames before they pivoted to doll furniture and, eventually other toys. But when she pitched the idea of an adult-looking doll to the company’s executives, they balked: No mother, they argued, would buy their daughter a doll with breasts. The idea stalled until 1956 when, on a European vacation, Handler saw a German doll called Bild Lilli in a store. The doll was based on a comic strip about a pin-up with a voluptuous figure and was designed as a sexy trinket for soldiers during World War II. Handler brought one of the dolls back to the U.S. to prove to Mattel’s designers that they could produce something similar.

Barbie debuted at the 1959 Toy Fair in New York City wearing the now iconic black-and-white striped bathing suit that Barbie star Margot Robbie dons in the opening of the film. The fashion doll immediately became a hit, and buoyed Mattel to success. Fans clamored for Barbie to have a boyfriend, so Ken (named for Handler’s son) was introduced in 1961. Barbie eventually transitioned from a fashion doll who just played dress-up into a career woman—who played dress-up as a doctor or astronaut in addition to a fashionista.

In her book Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Living Doll, author M.G. Lord argued that Barbie is the most potent icon of American culture of the late 20th century. “She’s an archetypal female figure, she’s something upon which little girls project their idealized selves,” she writes. “For most baby boomers, she has the same iconic resonance as any female saints, although without the same religious significance.”

Ruth Handler was a complicated woman

As Barbie hints, Ruth Handler was a complex lady. In 1978, Handler and several other Mattel executives were indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy, mail fraud, and giving the Securities and Exchange Commission false financial statements for the company. She pleaded no contest. She was fined $57,000 and sentenced to 2,500 hours of community service.

Handler had a second act in the 1980s selling a totally different product. During a scene in Barbie Handler references her mastectomy, and the Barbie creator did indeed battle breast cancer. She saw a need for life-like prostheses designed by and for women and sold a product called Nearly Me. She led a team of eight women, most of whom were breast cancer survivors, who would visit department stores and train sales staff to fit customers. Her sales tactics included what she called her “strip act,” which involved removing her shirt to demonstrate that nobody could see or feel the difference between her real breast and her prosthetic one. People magazine featured her in such a pose. She even fit First Lady Betty Ford for the prosthesis after her mastectomy. Handler eventually sold the company to Kimberly-Clark in the 1990s.

Toward the end of her life, Handler reflected on her life as the inventor of an adult-shaped doll and a pioneer in prosthesis. According to the Los Angeles Times, she was fond of saying, “I’ve lived my life from breast to breast.”

Ruth Handler as God of Barbie Land

In the Barbie movie, the Ruth Handler role is a spiritual one. She shows up in a retro kitchen randomly tucked away in Mattel headquarters to comfort Barbie during a moment of existential crisis. She helps her escape the Mattel suits who want to put Barbie back in a box. At the time, Barbie doesn’t know who the woman is, but it is clear they have a spiritual connection.

Toward the end of the movie, Ruth reveals her identity to Barbie, insisting that of course a woman was Barbie’s original inventor—despite the fact that the Mattel boardroom is now currently dominated by men. She cracks a joke about now being beatific—referencing both her struggle with cancer and her money troubles with the government—but says that Barbie was designed not in the image of any one woman, but to be aspirational.

Barbie and Ruth have a conversation that echoes the heavenly train station moment in Harry Potter in which Dumbledore helped Harry realize he had the option to live or die. Similarly, in a glowing space, a holy Ruth councils Barbie on what it would mean to become fully human, face mortality, and leave Barbie Land to live in the real world.

In my interview with Greta Gerwig for TIME’s cover story on Barbie, the writer-director told me that Ruth and Barbie touch hands twice in the movie, once over tea and again at the end of the film. Gerwig modeled the hand touch on the fresco of God giving life to the first man that appears on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Here, Ruth as God instills life not in first man but in woman—specifically a doll who has long been a symbol of what womanhood ought to be (for better or worse). When Barbie leaves Barbie Land, she is leaving a matriarchal version of Eden to enter a much messier real world. It turns out, in Barbie anyway, god is a woman and a rather complicated one at that.

source https://time.com/6293762/barbie-movie-ruth-handler/

An Exhaustive List of (Almost) Every Single Reference in the Barbie Movie

This post contains spoilers for Barbie

During the filming of Barbie, Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChap hosted a film festival of sorts for the cast and crew that would serve as inspiration for the movie. Robbie, the star of Barbie and its producer, had long discussed with writer-director Greta Gerwig how the visual palette of the film would draw from images ranging from the stagecraft of 1950s musicals to the color pops in Jacques Demy films. And the movie’s many jokes riff on some of the most popular moments in cinematic history, from the introduction of 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Matrix and even (surprisingly) The Snydercut of Justice League.
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It’s virtually impossible to compile an exhaustive list of every single reference made in Barbie. Gerwig and her partner and co-writer Noah Baumbach have stuffed it with so many gags and nods to various pieces of art that only multiple viewings will reveal all of the film’s secrets. But here is every Easter egg that we could find.

Read More: Our Cover Story on Barbie

2001: A Space Odyssey

The internet has been chattering about this one ever since the first teaser trailer for Barbie dropped. That spot spoofed 2001′s famous opening scene by replacing apes with little girls smashing their baby dolls when they discover the first doll who looks like an actual grown woman: Barbie.

Pygmalion

On a plot level, Gerwig and Baumbach are drawing inspiration from the Greek myth of Pygmalion (as written by Ovid), a sculptor who creates a statue meant to represent the perfect woman and then falls in love with his own creation. The story has been adapted many times over, including in George Bernard Shaw’s play of the same name and the musical My Fair Lady. In this case, Ruth Handler is the creator and Barbie is supposed to represent the perfect woman. Gerwig explores the impossibility of a single doll representing an entire gender, not only by adding a multiplicity of Barbies to the movie (played by different actors) but by showing how Barbie’s supposed perfection rubs some of the human girls who play with her the wrong way. Like the statue Galatea in Pygmalion, Barbie eventually does “come to life” by venturing into the real world, learning about death, and trading her Dream Life for an existence that’s more flawed but rewarding.

The Philadelphia Story

Gerwig told Letterboxd that she asked Margot Robbie to watch Katharine Hepburn’s performance in The Philadelphia Story as inspiration for Barbie. In that movie, the incomparable Hepburn plays a woman who is worshipped by men, like a goddess, because she is so cold and distant. It is only when she begins to fall apart emotionally in the film that she discovers something new about herself. Similarly, Gerwig envisioned a movie in which Barbie’s perfect world is punctured by thoughts about mortality, and it’s only then that Barbie begins to discover the beauty of life.

The Wizard of Oz

A classic tale of a young woman venturing into an unknown land, Barbie is kind of Wizard of Oz in reverse: Barbie travels from what we would consider a wonderland to the real world. Barbieland has a pink brick road in place of a yellow brick road, and if you look closely you’ll see The Wizard of Oz is displayed on the marquee of the Barbieland cinema.

Clueless

Barbie’s getting-ready routine pays homage to another fashion-forward blonde, Alicia Silverstone’s Cher, brushing her hair and browsing her high-tech closet in Clueless. In the Architectural Digest tour of Barbie’s Dreamhouse, Robbie talks about how Clueless set the high bar for cinematic closets, one that the crew of Barbie tried to meet. Just like Cher, Barbie will go on to discover that there is a deeper meaning to life than clothes.

An American in Paris

Barbie’s mornings also mimic how Gene Kelly’s character wakes up and gets ready in American in Paris. Gerwig actually references quite a few Gene Kelly movies in Barbie. We’ll talk about Singin’ in the Rain later.

The Truman Show

Gerwig talked to The Truman Show director Peter Weir about how he shot his movie about a man unknowingly living on a reality TV set. Not only does Barbieland mimic the artificiality of The Truman Show in concept, but Gerwig and Weir discussed how to physically light their sets to capture that feeling.

The films of Jacques Demy

Gerwig has credited the French filmmaker with inspiring how she layered colors (particularly different shades of pink) in Barbie so everything would pop instead of clash. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort, and Model Shop all served as aesthetic inspiration.

Saturday Night Fever

The disco number at the beginning of the movie (which is briefly interrupted by Barbie querying her fellow dolls as to whether they ever have thoughts of death) is an homage to John Travolta’s dances in Saturday Night Fever, down to the costuming.

The Red Shoes

Kate McKinnon plays Weird Barbie—a Barbie that’s been played with too hard and so has a wonky haircut and marker scribbles all over her face. When Robbie’s Barbie begins having thoughts of death, the other Barbies in Barbieland urge her to visit Weird Barbie for answers. Gerwig modeled the scene of Barbie walking up the stars to Weird Barbie’s abode on a scene from Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell’s 1948 romantic drama The Red Shoes. The soundstage feel of that movie heavily influenced the look of Barbieland.

The Matrix

Weird Barbie is the mystical guide you see in a typical adventure movie, laying out the quest. At the end of her spiel, Weird Barbie offers Robbie’s Barbie two options, represented by two shoes: Choose the stiletto heel and stay in Barbieland or choose the Birkenstock and venture into the real world. It’s a riff on the Red Pill-Blue Pill moment from The Matrix.

Proust

While Barbie is on the run in the real world, the Mattel executives are endeavoring to put her back in her box. The smell of said box triggers a Proustian sense memory from Barbie of her birth. (In Remembrance of Things Past, a bite of a madeleine has a similar effect on a character.) Will Ferrell’s CEO character then cracks a joke about how poorly “Proust Barbie” sold.

The Shining

When Barbie ventures from Barbieland into the real world to figure out why she is suddenly having thoughts of death, she discovers that a mom named Gloria (America Ferrera) has been playing with her and has essentially imprinted on Barbie. When they meet, they realize they’re having the same thoughts of death, of depression, and of cellulite. Gloria’s daughter, when she discovers this information, asks her mom if she and Barbie are “shining” right now, a reference to the mystical ability to establish a telepathic connection in the Stephen King’s horror story The Shining.

Top Gun

When Barbie returns to Barbieland, she finds that the beach where the Barbies usually play volleyball has been overrun by Kens. The Barbies are instead serving as fawning cheerleaders. It’s the first hint that the power dynamics of the matriarchal Barbieland have suddenly flipped. You cannot have a bunch of Kens playing shirtless beach volley ball on the beach and not be referencing that scene in Top Gun.

Sylvester Stallone’s penchant for mink coats

Sylvester Stallone apparently had a thing for fur, often donning mink coats and fuzzy vests in the ’70s. When Ken discovers the patriarchy, he adopts the look in a bid for macho cool.

The Snydercut

Yes, Barbie makes fun of Mattel. But the movie gets in a few barbs directed at studio Warner Bros. as well. When the Kens turn Barbieland into a Kendom, they essentially hypnotize the Barbies into becoming housewives. Gloria, Barbie, and others have to remind all the zoned-out Barbies that they’re actually accomplished writers and doctors and politicians in order to overthrow the patriarchy in Barbieland. When one of the Barbies, played by Alexandra Shipp, wakes up from her daze, she says, “It’s like I’ve been in a dream where I was really invested in the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League,” which if you followed the toxic (male-driven) online campaign around that movie as closely as I had to for work, is pretty hilarious.

The Godfather

Once each Barbie snaps out of her daze, she is sent to distract a Ken while another Barbie is stolen away and reprogrammed by Robbie’s Barbie and Gloria. Issa Rae’s President Barbie pretends to be interested in Simu Liu mansplaining Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic masterpiece The Godfather. In one of the funnier line readings in the film, she asks “Oh, are you watching The Godfather,” putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable to seem ditzy. Liu’s Ken jumps at the chance to talk over the entire movie in a bid to impress her.

Grease

The Barbies eventually trick the Kens into breaking into two factions and fighting one another. The fight turns into a dance-0ff, and Ken’s numbers in Barbie have a “Greased Lightnin'” vibe, especially when Ken wears all black like Travolta.

West Side Story

The other ultra-famous musical involving rival gangs: one can’t help but think during the Battle of the Kens of the many different iterations of the rumble in West Side Story, which usually mashes up dance and fight choreography.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

When the realize they’ve been tricked, all the Kens ride on imaginary horses across the Kendom. The sight gag recalls a famous recurring joke in Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which the knights ride fake horses while their squires hit coconuts together behind them to imitate horses’ feet.

Singin’ in the Rain

The entire aesthetic of Barbieland has a purposeful Golden Age of Hollywood feel to it. The backdrops, including the sky, are hand-painted to give the movie that specific feeling of soundstage musicals from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. When the Kens are fighting on the beach the background suddenly changes to a pastel background with the Kens dressed in monotones. They perform a rather balletic number which, set against that backdrop, recalls Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse’s famous dream-within-a-dream dance in Singin’ in the Rain.

The Sistine Chapel

As Greta Gerwig shared with me for TIME’s cover story on Barbie, there are two shots in the movie in which Barbie’s hand touches that of Ruth Handler, Barbie’s creator. The trajectory of their hands is modeled after the specific positioning of God’s and Adam’s hands in Michaelangelo’s Creation of Man painted on the Sistine Chapel. In this case, Ruth Handler is God to her creation, Barbie, who as a doll has long represented all women.

More from TIME

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source https://time.com/6295889/barbie-movie-the-matrix-the-godfather-references/

2023年7月20日星期四

Adidas and Ye’s Secret Battle Over a $100 Million Marketing Fund

Beneath the very public collapse of Adidas AG’s multibillion-dollar sneaker deal with Ye is a private legal battle over a $100 million-a-year marketing fund.

The fund, from which Adidas claims the rapper diverted $75 million, has come to the fore as the two sides trade accusations behind closed doors over the partnership that imploded last year, sending the German apparel maker reeling.

Details of the dispute, which is being conducted through an arbitrator, had been closely guarded until they were accidentally revealed in a related hearing in May, when the parties’ lawyers discussed them in open court. Bits and pieces of the conflict have also been seeping out in legal filings, including one in which Adidas alleges that the hiphop artist formerly known as Kanye West and his fashion brand Yeezy LLC “mishandled virtually all of the marketing funds”—including by deploying them for unauthorized purposes.
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“There is nobody in the courtroom, your honor, other than the parties and their counsel,” Mark Goodman, an attorney for Adidas, told US District Judge Valerie Caproni at the hearing in Manhattan as he prepared to talk about information submitted under seal.

“That’s fine,” Caproni said, according to a transcript of the hearing. “Be aware it’s possible a reporter could walk in at any time.”

And then one did. The lawyers, who didn’t notice, went on to discuss the previously undisclosed marketing fund that Adidas executives had put in place.

‘Economic Rubble’

Adidas claims that last year it paid $50 million into a Yeezy bank account in Wyoming, where the rapper/designer used to live, and $25 million into Yeezy’s JPMorgan Chase account in New York, all to be put in a special pot for marketing. Instead, it alleges, the money was immediately transferred into a separate, general account where it was commingled with other Yeezy funds, in violation of their agreement.

Adidas is locked in secret arbitration with Ye and three of his companies claiming he single-handedly reduced the promising venture to “economic rubble.” It is pursuing an accounting of the funds and a return of the $75 million, minus any amount Yeezy can show was used for valid marketing purposes, as well as unspecified monetary damages.

Ye has said the designer shoe is on the other foot.

“No one should be held in that position where people can steal from them and say we’re just paying you to shut up,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg in September shortly after firing off a series of Instagram posts hammering Adidas executives, and just before the deal went kerflooey. “That destroys innovation. That destroys creativity. That’s what destroyed Nikola Tesla.”

A heavily redacted copy of Ye’s arbitration counterclaims includes the accusation that Adidas copied Ye’s designs to make its own lower-priced shoes. Adidas claims it owns all of the Yeezy shoe designs, which Ye has publicly said are his.

The dispute became public when Adidas went to federal court in New York to try to freeze the $75 million to prevent Ye from dissipating it or moving it out of reach.

William H. Taft V, a lawyer for Adidas, declined to comment on the dispute. A lawyer for Ye didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Deal’s Implosion

The partnership fell apart in October after Ye chastised the executives and went on a series of antisemitic rants. Since then, it’s been nine months of operational and legal headaches for the German sportswear company. The breakup blew a hole in Adidas’s finances.

The company is now trying to recoup some revenue by selling $1.3 billion in leftover Yeezys, while donating some proceeds to charity. Even so, it found itself facing what could be its first operational loss since the early 1990s.

To make matters worse, shareholders filed a suit against Adidas in Oregon in April, alleging that former management failed to disclose issues between the company and Ye, and asking to represent a larger class of investors.

The contract between Adidas and Ye is contained in a 53-page licensing and endorsement agreement signed in May 2016, as well as in a series of amendments, letter agreements and payment confirmations that later became part of the deal. It includes confidentiality provisions intended to keep secret the details of the agreement and the Yeezy business. One requires Ye’s company to return any unused, or misused, marketing funds received from Adidas in the previous year, according to the shoe maker.

Under the terms of their deal, Ye’s business collected royalties from every pair of shoes sold, making up the bulk of his payouts, which surpassed $200 million in 2020, according to a cash flow document prepared by UBS and reviewed by Bloomberg News. On top of that, he received a marketing fee to promote the shoes — $51 million that year, or about 3% of net sales, according to the document.

It’s unclear exactly what the marketing money was used for. Ye has said that in 2019 he took out funds for marketing Yeezy to use on Sunday Service, his gospel choir tour that played shows at Coachella, Howard University, in Jamaica and at his homes in California and Wyoming. He said it cost about $50 million.

Based on the in-court disclosures, Caproni later ordered both sides to uncover previously blacked-out information related to the marketing payments from more than 450 pages of court filings in the case. She denied Adidas the freeze. The dispute is now back in private arbitration.

source https://time.com/6296200/adidas-ye-100-million-marketing-fund/

2023年7月19日星期三

How to Keep Your Home Cool in Extreme Heat

Global temperatures have reached alarmingly high levels across the U.S., Europe, and Asia as heat waves set record highs this week.

Parts of European countries including most of Italy, eastern Croatia, southern Spain, southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro are under red alert, the European Union’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, as of July 18, Phoenix had experienced 19 consecutive days of 110°F temperatures or higher. And Beijing is also experiencing a record stretch of 95°F heat.

The extreme heat comes as weather phenomenon El Niño, which occurs every two to seven years and brings higher global temperatures along the northern hemisphere, takes place. It also arrives at a critical point in global warming.
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“Extreme heat events in the United States are already occurring and expected to become more common, more severe and longer lasting due to climate change,” said Claudia Brown, a health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some scientists say that 2023 could be the warmest year on record, posing a problem for millions across Europe where air-conditioning is relatively rare. Only about 3% of homes in Germany and less than 5% of homes in France have an air cooling unit in their home, according to the Washington Post. That’s compared to 90% of homes in the U.S.

TIME spoke to experts about how to keep cool in your home. Here’s what they said.

Block out sunlight

The main thing to do when attempting to keep your house cool, is to block sunlight from entering the home.

“What you want to do is stop the heat before it gets through the glass or any other wall,” David Wright, a solar environmental architect, says. “You can use outside shading techniques or shades that go up and down and block sunlight at certain times of the day, or horizontal shading devices like arbors, trellises, and awnings.” Any sort of plant life that can absorb sunlight before it hits a wall is helpful, he adds.

While blocking sunlight and heat from the outside before it has a chance to enter the home—such as by having trees around your house—is the most efficient way to keep your home cool, there are tricks for people living in apartments too, says Wright, pointing to blackout curtains as a good option.

“If sunlight is allowed to come through glass into the house, once it gets inside and strikes an object,” explains Wright, “the wavelength goes from long wave to shortwave. And the short waves don’t go back through the glass. That’s what traps heat.”

Homeowners can opt for insulated glass or low-e glass—which has a thin coating that reflects heat—to prevent heat from entering the home. Applying a tint to windows in your home may also be beneficial, Miami Chief Heat Officer Jane Gilbert writes to TIME in an email statement.

Gilbert adds that residents can paint their roof a reflective white to help block out sunlight, while Wright suggests people invest in a heat pump or air conditioner to help with additional cooling.

Improving insulation in ceilings, attics, crawl spaces and even walls, will also reduce heat, according to Gilbert. Residents can also get a deal when fixing their homes as “utilities offer rebates and the IRS provides tax credits for insulation,” Gilbert tells TIME.

Use the nighttime to your advantage

If you live in a house with thermal mass (meaning it’s made of brick or concrete and retains heat well), Wright says that you can try to cool your home at night without air conditioning. He suggests homeowners take note when the outside temperature drops below the interior temperature, and then open all the windows and doors that you can.

Of course, Wright mentions, this should only be done if safety is not a concern. Low lying windows or doors are especially beneficial when doing this technique because hot air rises.

Wright also mentions that any part of your house that is built into the ground, like a basement, is going to be much cooler than other parts of your house because it is touching the surrounding earth, which is likely cooler than the air temperature. Spending time there may be optimal for cooling.

Know when a fan is efficient

Wright says that ceiling fans with large paddles, or Casablanca fans, are most helpful. “It pushes the heat up toward the ceiling and provides evaporative cooling around the body of the person,” Wright tells TIME.

Sonia Singh is the marketing communications supervisor for Maricopa County, Ariz., where Phoenix is located. There, it can get so hot that simply slipping on the concrete can lead to second-degree burns. Singh says that fans “become insufficient for cooling the air at a safe temperature” when its hotter than 90°F. At that temperature, residents without air conditioning should move to a space with air conditioning.

Know when to move to a cooling center

Brown emphasizes that air conditioning is the most efficient way of staying cool when temperatures are particularly high.

“When it’s extremely hot, spending time in locations with air conditioning, particularly during the hottest hours of the day, is going to be your best line,” Brown says. “If you do not have air conditioning in your home, we do recommend going to public places where there is air conditioning such as shopping malls, public libraries, or public health sponsored heat relief shelters (sometimes these are referred to as cooling centers). Gilbert adds that anytime there is a heat advisory or heat warning and you do not have air conditioning, you should move to a cooling center.

Brown adds that staying cool should be a community effort, and asks that residents check on their neighbors who may not have any family members nearby or live alone.

If you or someone you know is feeling confusion, headache, or dizziness, they may be facing a heat-related illness. People should also watch out for muscle spasms, nausea, or profuse sweating.

source https://time.com/6295911/how-to-keep-house-cool-extreme-heat/

The Radical Joy of Breastfeeding My 3-Year-Old

I’m not supposed to say that I breastfeed my 3-year-old because I like it. I’m supposed to say he needs it, he won’t quit. That I’m surrendering my body and time on the altar of attentive, attached motherhood. He enjoys it too, of course. He usually asks. I rarely offer. We do it a couple of times a day. More on weekends or when he’s hurt, sick, or just wants to. It also feels good. To me. It eases my anxiety. It is sentimental, sensory, and sensual. It fills me with love.

My son is large—in the 99th percentile for weight and height—so when he sits in my lap, his legs extend off the furniture, though he tries to curl them to become the smaller baby he once was. He squeals, then smushes my breast to his face with both hands, sometimes sucking and looking at me, sometimes drinking while driving a Matchbox car along my collarbone.
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Years earlier, back in college, I sat beside a mother on an airplane who asked if I minded as she nursed her toddler. I said no, of course not. She schooled me on benefits for babies and the politics of nursing in public. I nodded, tried not to look. I remember feeling a blend of sympathy and discomfort as I tried on a mother identity in my mind—imagined whether I would ever breastfeed in that way, in public, a kid old enough to run, to feed himself, to speak multiclause sentences. It was my first exposure to a person nursing in front of me. I would barely experience that again until my own baby was at my breast.

Breastfeeding is necessary and magical, yet American society stymies it from go. Babies need near constant access to their mothers’ bodies and uninterrupted time to figure out feeding, all but impossible in a country that sends a quarter of moms back to work two weeks after birth, denies postpartum support and paid leave, and assaults women’s autonomy. Any modicum of breastfeeding tolerance is for infants doing it, “breast is best” and all. It’s taboo to practice extended breastfeed (i.e., to breastfeed full-on kids). Calling it “extended” makes it an oddity—past what is expected, normal, or reasonable. Beyond its purpose to supply a product that can be extracted in private, fed to your kid by anyone. A pediatrician and an obstetrician separately told me that breastfeeding beyond six months is “just for the mom.” It’s almost certainly not. But so what if it is? It’s curious that when the act tips from benefiting babies to benefiting mothers, the censure flares.

The bulk of research devoted to understanding breastfeeding is on the nutritive benefits during the first six months to the first year of an infant’s life.While bodies like the WHO recommend breastfeeding babies for up to two years or beyond, we know practically nothing about breastfeeding beyond year one because we don’t study it. Still, we do know that breastfeeding’s rewards for mom–at least for the period that’s been the focus of research–are manifold and significant. It has been linked to a reduction in breast and ovarian cancer, and thanks to the oxytocin hit you get when you do it, you may experience a reduction in postpartum depression, stress, and anxiety. It can feel good in your head, in your body. It can create a closeness with your kid. Yet, by the time breastfeeding moves beyond necessity, beyond engorgement, spraying milk everywhere and soaking clothes, you’re urged to quit. Because doing it “for the mom” is wrong.

No one should feel shame about their feeding choices—everyone should make decisions that suit their body and family. I really appreciate that my kid comes to nurse for comfort, to regroup, as a pick-me-up or expression of love, rather than for a meal. Most women won’t experience this. The majority of people giving birth want to breastfeed, but only a quarter of moms exclusively breastfeed for their infant’s first six months as the CDC recommends.

We’re told infant feeding is individual choice. But the hurdles are institutional. “Women not meeting breastfeeding goals is presented as individual failure. That is such a lie. It’s such a fiction,” says Katie Hinde, a lactation researcher and professor of evolutionary biology at Arizona State University. We should receive far more support—from caregivers, health providers, work, family, the government, society. We all deserve the possibility of breastfeeding our kids for as long as we want, if we want to at all, but it’s a choice far too few people get to make.

Even for those who manage to overcome the societal stigma and dearth of support to breastfeed babies in the early months, extended breastfeeding remains largely elusive, because stopping is what’s expected, or demanded. What feels like a natural conclusion to breastfeeding is actually a confluence of forces masquerading as care. As concern for mom, even—her body, space, money, and time. Breastfeeding your kid takes away your productivity and time with other people, so the pump and the bottle are presented as paths to freedom. Instead, they are the beginning of the end.

I think about this now, as I look forward to returning home at the end of the day to nurse my kid who is almost 4. It’s when my shoulders lower, I exhale deeply, snuggle him close, look in his eyes, and get a shot of oxytocin. To nurse is to be flooded with love. Sometimes I wonder why we must find verbal substitutes for what our bodies know and can communicate.

We are a universe away from the existential chaos of infant feeding—stressing that he isn’t getting enough ounces, trying to soothe cracked nipples, and being milked by my partner to unclog my ducts. Breastfeeding now feels gratifying, pleasurable, and anxiety reducing. The longer I do it and enjoy it, the more radical it feels. I’m saying I can do with my body what I want.

This article has been adapted from Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood, by Allison Yarrow. Copyright © 2023. Available from Seal Press, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

source https://time.com/6294064/extended-breastfeeding-mothers-benefits-essay/

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2023年7月21日 星期五