October 7, 2022

President Biden signs executive order aimed at legal reboot of EU-US data flows

https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/07/eu-us-data-privacy-framework-executive-order-signed/



U.S. president Joe Biden has signed an executive order attached to reupping a flagship data transfer agreement with the European Union — with the goal of making life easier for businesses that need to export EU user-data to the U.S. for processing.

The White House announced the development in a statement today — saying that the “Executive Order on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities” would “direct the steps” that the U.S. will take to implement its commitments under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF), as the new arrangement is being called.

The new framework is intended to replace the defunct EU-U.S. Privacy Shield (which was invalidated by the bloc’s top court back in July 2020); and its much longer-lived predecessor, Safe Harbor (struck down by the CJEU in October 2015, following the 2013 disclosures of U.S. government surveillance programs by NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden).

So this is yet another (third time lucky?) attempt to bridge the gap between two very different legal frameworks in order to ensure that EU users’ personal data can keep flowing over the pond.

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October 7, 2022

Tip One Back at the 34 Best Breweries in the U.S.

me: (yes I know some are missing like Hill Farmstead, Trillium, 3 Floyds, Russian River, Toppling Goliath, Tree House, Cycle, The Alchemist, etc etc)

Dank IPAs, crispy pilsners, mouth-puckering fruited kettle sours—at these beer dens, the world is your oyster stout.

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/best-breweries-in-america



We live in a golden age of craft brewing, one where more than 8,000 breweries are currently pouring everything from juicy hazy IPAs and tangy goses to traditional Belgian ales and, believe it or not, session-style stouts. Sure, there are the punch-to-mouth double IPAs—they’re not going away, neither are the hazys—but classic styles and beer-flavored beers are making an unabashed comeback on taps everywhere. The 30-plus breweries on this list range from old-school favorites making new waves to up-and-comers offering destination-worthy pours. As chosen by our own brewery brain trust of beer minds, here are the best breweries to grab a pint right now.

(random)







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October 6, 2022

Showgirls Stabbed on Las Vegas Strip Outside Encore

Multiple Las Vegas showgirls were injured in a mass stabbing along the Las Vegas Strip outside Encore in Nevada, according to an ABC 13 reporter.

https://heavy.com/news/showgirls-stabbed-on-las-vegas-strip-outside-encore/

Las Vegas police Capt. Dori Koren said in an October 6, 2022, news briefing that there are eight total victims with two people deceased and three in critical condition. The other victims appear stable, he said. A kitchen knife was found at the scene. The suspect is in custody. Encore at Wynn Las Vegas is a resort/casino.

Koren would not confirm that the victims were showgirls or street performers. Those reports came from local journalists who spoke to witnesses at the scene, and it’s not clear how many of the victims were showgirls.

KTNV-TV reported that the suspect was arrested in front of Venetian and had “blood on his sleeves.” That station reported, per a witness, that one victim “appeared to have been stabbed in the Fashion Mall and was ‘laying on the ground near the shops.'” Multiple 911 calls came in regarding a series of stabbings.

Here’s what you need to know:

https://twitter.com/joemoeller44/status/1578115785628602368
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https://twitter.com/joemoeller44/status/1578105819291217920
https://twitter.com/joemoeller44/status/1578112693570969600

October 6, 2022

Fever Ray - 'What They Call Us' (Official Video) just dropped! first new Fever Ray song in 5 years

Karin Elisabeth Dreijer is a Swedish singer-songwriter and record producer. Dreijer was one half of the electronic music duo The Knife, formed with their brother Olof Dreijer. Dreijer released their debut solo album under the alias Fever Ray in January 2009. Their second studio album, Plunge, under the same alias, was released in October 2017.

Dreijer's vocal style is notable for both shrill and deep tones, and also the use of multitracked vocals, with different uses of pitch-shifting technology on each track, creating an intricate and mysterious effect. Visually, they employ the use of masks, face and body paint, intricate costumes, and other theatrical elements in photo shoots, videos and live performances, during which they often perform behind a gauze screen that partially obscures the audience's view.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/fever-ray-what-they-call-us/



The video for “What They Call Us,” Karin Dreijer’s first new song in five years as Fever Ray, opens on Dreijer as a sallow office drone, greenish circles beneath vacant eyes, half-eaten watermelon lying masticated on their desk. Then, they travel via desk chair to darker, torchlit realms, office suddenly yielding to forest. By video’s end, Dreijer is lying in a pile of Xeroxes of their own face and inciting their coworkers into a Matrix Reloaded–style bacchanal. Like every Dreijer visual, it hypnotizes without quite explaining itself, but the overarching theme seems to be yearning from within spiritual imprisonment.

In the past, Dreijer has relished transforming themselves into a mournful bridge troll, a growling demon, an avenging angel. But on “What They Call Us” they sound like no one but themselves, singing the slow, stepwise melody in their tremulous lower range. “First I’d like to say that I’m sorry,” they sing, husky-voiced, eyes burning out of the camera. “The person who came here was broken/Can you fix it, can you care?” Co-produced with their brother, the Knife’s Olof Dreijer, the song seems to be holding its breath for the answer: The bass drum reverberates into high-ceilinged space, while a flanging keyboard provides the neuron crackles of a nervous system seething with need and hurt.

October 6, 2022

BIG unveils spiral-shaped modular housing development in Aarhus

https://www.dezeen.com/2022/10/03/big-housing-sneglehusene-aarhus-denmark-curved-modular/









Architecture studio BIG has completed six curved housing blocks that combine to form a spiral shape at the Sneglehusene development near Aarhus, Denmark. Containing 93 homes, the Sneglehusene housing for developer Taekker Group forms part of the Nye neighbourhood to the north of Aarhus and was created using a modular system developed by BIG and contractor CJ Group.









The six curved blocks, which vary from one to four stories, spiral out from a central park designed by BIG Landscape surrounding a small pond. The overall design for Sneglehusene, which translates as the snail houses in reference to the developments' spiral form, was based on the Dortheavej Residence housing that BIG and CJ Group previously created in Copenhagen.





"As an architect, one typically only gets to build a house once," said BIG partner Finn Noerkjaer. "With the Sneglehusene, we were given the opportunity to evolve our housing concept from an earlier project, while also developing the buildings' own identity." "Our modular concept has made it possible for us to maintain simplicity in the execution despite the construction's complexity, and we have been allowed to improve the concept with all our experience," he continued.



The development has a similar aesthetic to the Copenhagen housing, with the blocks broken up to create a "porous wall". As at Dortheavej Residence, a distinctive checked pattern was created by stacking two modular structures with the indented modules having 3.5-metre high ceilings and the protruding ones 2.5-metre high ceilings.

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October 6, 2022

Gables and chimneys inform Magdalene College library by Niall McLaughlin Architects

https://www.dezeen.com/2022/10/03/magdalene-college-library-niall-mclaughlin-architects/









Niall McLaughlin Architects referenced the brick and timber architecture of the University of Cambridge's historic Magdalene College in the design of its Stirling Prize-shortlisted New Library. London-based Niall McLaughlin Architects won the project via an invited competition in 2014 to provide new facilities alongside the college's Grade I listed Pepys Library.











With the brief calling for a building that would last 400 years, the studio responded with a design that uses modest forms and natural materials to create a diverse range of reading spaces. The New Library is the first substantial addition to Magdalene College's main campus in 50 years and was recently shortlisted alongside five other schemes for this year's prestigious Stirling Prize.











Organised on a tartan grid, the library features reading rooms topped by lantern skylights and lined with bookcases. They are connected by a network of passageways that frame views out to the adjacent gardens and river. Contrasting openness and intimacy, a triple-height entrance hall leads into a central double-height reading room flanked by smaller square spaces. Above, an enfilade along the building's eastern offers views out over the college.











"The main library is a suite of interconnecting rooms lined with bookcases, reading desks and galleries, arranged on a tartan grid between interconnecting passageways," explained Niall McLaughlin Architects. "The stepping of these spaces in section is followed by the stepping of the plan form, which allows the building to address the differently-scaled garden spaces on its east and west elevations," it continued.

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October 6, 2022

Towards social sustainability: a social taxonomy

A ‘social taxonomy’ should be developed as a counterpart to the green investment taxonomy, with comprehensive employee involvement.

https://socialeurope.eu/towards-social-sustainability-a-social-taxonomy


A social taxonomy could help steer investment finance towards companies committed to decent work (Gorodenkoff/shutterstock.com)

An increasing demand for financial products which address environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria underpins the political project to push sustainability through the financial sector and to direct investments towards sustainable economic activities. But lack of clear definitions makes it difficult to evaluate social investments and resources and thus steer them toward socially-responsible activities and enterprises. A social taxonomy would aim to address these issues and harmonise how social aspects are measured.

These considerations prompted the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) of the European Union to draw up an own-initiative opinion in August. In its view, it is necessary to adopt a holistic approach to EU taxonomy, with both environmentally and socially sustainable aspects. The challenges are enormous: the green transformation, the economic and social impact of the pandemic, the Ukraine war and resulting geopolitical tensions. The minimum investment shortfall in social infrastructure has been estimated at around €1.5 trillion for the period 2018 to 2030. A social taxonomy could provide guidelines for investments with a positive social impact.

Three main objectives

Yet social sustainability is not even in its infancy. The European Commission was asked to publish a report by the end of 2021, to assess the options available for extending the scope of the EU taxonomy to ‘other sustainability goals such as social goals’. The report however risks death by commission neglect. In this context, the Platform for Sustainable Finance (Platform) has already presented a concept.The Platform proposes a similar structure for the social taxonomy as for the environmental taxonomy. Three main objectives would address the key stakeholders of a company, complemented by sub-objectives:



Sustainable management objectives, such as transparent and non-aggressive tax planning, should also be incorporated into the social taxonomy. As with the environmental taxonomy, the ‘do no significant harm’ principle should apply, in addition to minimum protection, so that none of the three main objectives is significantly impaired by a corporate activity.

‘Social washing’.....................

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October 6, 2022

From 'free-market' to subsidised capitalism

To deal with the climate crisis, governments must recognise that only the state has allowed the last three crises to be contained.

https://socialeurope.eu/from-free-market-to-subsidised-capitalism



There has been a revolutionary transformation of capitalism, the western economic system, in just over a decade. Four extraordinary events have demonstrated that, in most countries, the relationship between the state and the market has been transformed, radically altering the economic system. The impact on politics is being felt but has it has yet to be fully recognised, especially by progressives.

The first major change was the response of nation-states to the collapse in 2008 of the model of neoliberalism—of ‘rational’ actors operating in ‘free’ markets—with the financial crisis. The state rescue of private financial companies cost taxpayers in all countries vast sums. In the United Kingdom, the National Audit Office put the bailout of the banks at £1 trillion at its peak. In the United States, among many estimates, one figure of $500 billion was advanced. As for Ireland, it cost €64 billion—more than twice total tax revenue in 2010—to rescue its banks.

The pandemic precipitated a second massive intervention by states worldwide through business subsidies. In the US, for example, in one estimate this amounted to $600 billion directly—2.7 per cent of gross domestic product—plus $1,350 billion in interest and other supports.

The third crisis, of energy, has states once more intervening in the market to spend yet more billions in supports to business and to citizens. The US and European governments have been expending vast fortunes in subsidies to companies to continue operations and to citizens to pay their bills. Governments are also spending billions in rescuing key companies, such as Germany’s gas importer Uniper.

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October 6, 2022

Tackling the roots of gender-based violence

A new declaration based on the Istanbul convention carries forward the struggle against a pervasive social phenomenon.

https://socialeurope.eu/tackling-the-roots-of-gender-based-violence


Changing times: Roddy Doyle’s 1994 TV series Family, portraying a Dublin working-class mother trying to free herself and her children from her violent partner, led to death threats against the writer (RTE)

Last week, a significant step in strengthening strategies across Europe to tackle domestic violence was taken in Dublin, when 38 out of the 46 members of the Council of Europe adopted a joint declaration. This aims to tackle the cultural norms which perpetuate the crime and pledges a series of steps to promote the gender equality which can help prevent domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. This ‘Dublin declaration’ will strengthen the action being taken by member states to secure implementation of the Council of Europe’s landmark 2011 Istanbul convention, on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

In particular, the declaration requires signatory states to ensure that children’s voices are heard in child-custody disputes where domestic violence is a factor. There are commitments to include specific roles for men and boys in strategies to combat violence against women and girls. At all levels in school and college curricula, non-stereotypical role models and non-violent conflict resolution are to be promoted, as well as in-service training for those working in criminal justice, to challenge biases which could impede effective protection of victims.

‘Significant and important’

In an Irish context, the Women’s Aid organisation in Dublin, which has been campaigning to combat domestic violence nationally for many decades, described the declaration as a ‘significant and important’ step for women and children across Europe. The National Women’s Council in Ireland also strongly welcomed the declaration, pointing out that it ‘takes a long-term approach to preventing domestic violence [and] targets the need for cultural change across institutions and society which is badly needed to address the causes of domestic and gender-based violence’.

The focus in the declaration on victim-centred approaches—notably in ensuring victims’ safety and support and full respect for their human rights—has also been widely welcomed by victims’ and survivors’ groups in Ireland. Indeed, adoption of the declaration comes three months after the justice minister, Helen McEntee, published the third Irish national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, and it aligns with commitments made when Ireland ratified the Istanbul convention in March 2019.

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October 6, 2022

Tackling the roots of gender-based violence

A new declaration based on the Istanbul convention carries forward the struggle against a pervasive social phenomenon.

https://socialeurope.eu/tackling-the-roots-of-gender-based-violence


Changing times: Roddy Doyle’s 1994 TV series Family, portraying a Dublin working-class mother trying to free herself and her children from her violent partner, led to death threats against the writer (RTE)

Last week, a significant step in strengthening strategies across Europe to tackle domestic violence was taken in Dublin, when 38 out of the 46 members of the Council of Europe adopted a joint declaration. This aims to tackle the cultural norms which perpetuate the crime and pledges a series of steps to promote the gender equality which can help prevent domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. This ‘Dublin declaration’ will strengthen the action being taken by member states to secure implementation of the Council of Europe’s landmark 2011 Istanbul convention, on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

In particular, the declaration requires signatory states to ensure that children’s voices are heard in child-custody disputes where domestic violence is a factor. There are commitments to include specific roles for men and boys in strategies to combat violence against women and girls. At all levels in school and college curricula, non-stereotypical role models and non-violent conflict resolution are to be promoted, as well as in-service training for those working in criminal justice, to challenge biases which could impede effective protection of victims.

‘Significant and important’

In an Irish context, the Women’s Aid organisation in Dublin, which has been campaigning to combat domestic violence nationally for many decades, described the declaration as a ‘significant and important’ step for women and children across Europe. The National Women’s Council in Ireland also strongly welcomed the declaration, pointing out that it ‘takes a long-term approach to preventing domestic violence [and] targets the need for cultural change across institutions and society which is badly needed to address the causes of domestic and gender-based violence’.

The focus in the declaration on victim-centred approaches—notably in ensuring victims’ safety and support and full respect for their human rights—has also been widely welcomed by victims’ and survivors’ groups in Ireland. Indeed, adoption of the declaration comes three months after the justice minister, Helen McEntee, published the third Irish national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, and it aligns with commitments made when Ireland ratified the Istanbul convention in March 2019.

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