Thursday, November 30, 2017
2 googly eyes and a dream: How Mr. Trash Wheel went viral and conquered Baltimore.
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When a group of local business leaders decided to make the Baltimore harbor fishable and swimmable by 2020, they quickly realized they needed to get weird.
"We wanted to install a device that would immediately reduce the amount of trash going into the Baltimore harbor," explains Adam Lindquist, director of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore's Healthy Harbor Initiative.
The solution came from local sailor and inventor John Kellett who, after years of noticing trash floating in the Jones Falls River, had installed a pilot "trash wheel" in the harbor in 2008. The Waterfront Partnership commissioned a permanent version that sits at the mouth of the river, scooping up discarded plastic on a solar-powered conveyor belt and depositing it into a series of dumpsters.
The group dubbed the faceless machine "Mr. Trash Wheel."
The original Mr. Trash Wheel. Photo by Sarr Cat/Wikimedia Commons.
Since then, it has pulled over a million pounds of trash out of the water, inspiring a historical marker, a beer, an e-book, a painting, and dozens of Halloween costumes. Neat as he was, Mr. Trash Wheel's success and popularity were in no way preordained.
How did a group of business owners, environmentalists, and activists turn a giant, floating dumpster into an unofficial mascot of Baltimore?
They brought him to life.
Becoming Mr. Trash Wheel
Mr. Trash Wheel is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (not Snapchat; he hasn't figured it out yet). The first thing you notice when you start following him are his large, playful, googly eyes — eyes that were not attached to the real-life Mr. Trash Wheel (at least at first). The second thing you notice is how delightfully off-kilter and specifically human he is. Like a comic relief character from a good Pixar film.
With a few adjustments the Tempasometer was able to accommodate three trash wheels. Lady Jayne busied herself with the calculations to ensure we would reach our exact destination. Within an hour we were ready to journey to our new home.
— Mr. Trash Wheel (@MrTrashWheel) November 16, 2017
His voice was originally created by Justin Allen of Baltimore ad agency What Works Studios in 2014. In the summer of 2015, the handle passed to Robyn Stegman, who's been operating it — and refining Mr. Trash Wheel's personality — ever since.
"I started [as] the voice of Mr. Trash Wheel the week before we found the snake," says Stegman, who heads the trash wheel project for the mission-driven agency ChangingMedia.
The snake she's referring to is an escaped ball python that crawled up Mr. Trash Wheel's conveyor belt and wrapped itself around a control box about two years ago. Stegman described the ensuing media storm as a "trial by fire."
DID ANYONE LOSE A SNAKE http://pic.twitter.com/ZgEV2mOmQN
— Mr. Trash Wheel (@MrTrashWheel) August 5, 2015
"It really helped me very early on build my voice and get that Mr. Trash Wheel voice in my head," she says.
The first thing she decided was that the 15-foot long, garbage-eating steampunk river cleaner would have a cheesily well-developed sense of humor.
"As soon as I started making snake puns, you had 20 other followers that were making hilarious other snake jokes," she explains. "So it became really great that way."
Stegman continues to infuse Mr. Trash Wheel with her own "nerdom and geekdom," which has endeared him to fans around the city. He loves "Star Wars." He makes "Lord of the Rings" fan art. He writes "Choose Your Own Adventure" novels and has spent hours answering questions on Reddit. Occasionally, he participates in local events.
The Pandora Ice Rink at Baltimore's Inner Harbor is open now! Now I just need to find someone strong enough to pull off this lift: https://t.co/W5oJberq20 http://pic.twitter.com/E1fj6VjKVw
— Mr. Trash Wheel (@MrTrashWheel) November 20, 2017
"[Robyn] just has a crazy, funny mind," Lindquist says.
The plan wasn't always to create a trash wheel with such a vivacious personality. The idea to turn Mr. Trash Wheel into a bonafide citywide star came after a video of the device that went viral a few months after its installation in May 2014.
Soon Mr. Trash Wheel had his own Twitter account and those distinctive googly eyes, thanks to a quick photo editing job.
After the snake incident, the trash wheel's popularity soared, leading fans to demand that the real-life Mr. Trash Wheel take on some of the personality of the online version. A petition to mount actual googly eyes on the device was launched. The eyes were added later that year.
Mr. Trash Wheel plus eyes. Photo by Dicklyon/Wikimedia Commons.
"It really looks like a muppet of some sort, you know?" Lindquist says.
Not everyone was a fan of Mr. Trash Wheel's social media presence initially.
That included Kellett, who worried the device's "90% great" social feed could divert attention from the rigorous work of cleaning up the waterway.
"The googly eyes don’t help people take it seriously," he told National Geographic in February. "People sometimes think it’s a sculpture."
Stegman says the character's lightheartedness is part of a trade off to deliver a pro-conservation message to as broad an audience as possible.
Triple bonus points for picking up trash in a trash wheel costume!!! #TrashFreeTuesday http://pic.twitter.com/9eslo8GfaX
— Mr. Trash Wheel (@MrTrashWheel) October 31, 2017
"We've had conversations about how it doesn't appeal to really a lot of true environmental advocates," she explains. "But we want to focus more on getting everyone involved. Because it really is something that requires a large groundswell of individuals in order to really start pushing legislation or starting to push consumer shifts to address this issue."
Professor Trash Wheel joins her friend in the harbor
Partially in response to the criticism, the group decided when the city installed a second trash wheel, it would create a more cerebral character to the trash wheel universe and introduced the city to Professor Trash Wheel. Unlike her colleague across the harbor, Professor Trash Wheel is a scientist. Stegman describes her voice as a mix between "Beyoncé and Eleanor Roosevelt," with a little bit of Ada Lovelace tossed in.
I find trash delicious but I was designed that way. This is not good news for the ocean ecosystem: https://t.co/P4eeqZN5JY
— ProfessorTrashWheel (@ProfTrashWheel) November 20, 2017
"Her Twitter following is so much more ocean scientists and ocean advocates because we’re posting much more about the science behind ocean plastics and ocean trash," Stegman explains.
The trash wheels' unique personalities have elevated their status as a local heroes.
They were even the subject of a musical tribute earlier this year.
"It’s one of the catchier songs about solid waste disposal that’s out there," says Jonathan Jensen, bassist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the composer and lyricist behind "Mr. Trash Wheel." The upbeat, Dixieland thumper has become a kind of unofficial anthem for the harbor restoration project after its debut at a launch event for a trash wheel-themed microbrew, Mr. Trash Wheel's Lost Python Ale.
Mr. Trash Wheel got his very own song! It was written by Jonathan Jensen (on piano) and performed by Tongue in Cheek at last weekend's beer launch at Peabody Heights Brewery, LLC.
We are currently seeking a donation of studio time so that everyone can hear this epic masterpiece.
Posted by Healthy Harbor on Sunday, April 30, 2017
Jensen, who hadn't seen the trash wheel when he dreamed up the song, was immediately taken with the character via social media. He believes the rabid fan response is a tribute to the "creativity and quirkiness" of the local community and art scene.
"[Mr. Trash Wheel's] got his own Facebook page, and the posts are in the first person, so you feel like this is a character of some kind," Jensen says. "It's just fun."
Stegman believes the key to the trash wheels' popularity is their authentic, human enthusiasm, which is difficult to fake. "I think that one thing that fans really appreciate about Mr. Trash Wheel is that we’re not afraid to go super weird with them and meet them at the spaces they already are," she says.
And the enthusiasm seems to be spilling over into real life. Last month, the group launched Trash-Free Tuesday, encouraging fans to pick up trash and litter on Tuesday and tag their photos and enticing them with a series of Mr. Trash Wheel prize packages.
On Nov. 18, over 100 fans reported to a warehouse to sift through the refuse collected by the trash wheels to "audit" the contents.
How could you throw away @JohnCena's face!!! You monsters! #PTWTrashSort http://pic.twitter.com/iTD4T12HWR
— Mr. Trash Wheel (@MrTrashWheel) November 18, 2017
"We posted it once on social media, and we were sold out within three days," Lindquist says. "And we were worried about whether we would actually have fans that would come wake up early on a Saturday morning and dig through literal trash. But it’s amazing to see how fans respond to that."
Meanwhile, the trash wheels' fan club has gone global. "We just heard from a teacher in Ecuador that’s using Mr. Trash Wheel to teach about ocean trash in her classroom," Stegman says.
The Waterfront Partnership's ultimate goal is to get the harbor clean enough to put the trash wheels out of business.
In the meantime, the group has big plans for the project. A new trash wheel, Captain Trash Wheel, is set to debut in South Baltimore's Masonville Cove in 2018. In the meantime, the fans, ever vigilant, have organized a petition to "promote" Mr. Trash Wheel to a more senior rank.
"It's been such a crazy, wild ride," Stegman says.
All thanks to a solar-powered garbage-eating raft with a personality as big as the Chesapeake Bay.
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Newly discovered nearby planet could support life
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(CNN)You may want to get used to the name Ross 128 b. The newly discovered exoplanet is the second-closest found to our solar system, only 11 light-years away. And it could support life.
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Did Selena Gomez lip-sync her 2017 AMA performance?
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Fans across the world tuned in to the 2017 American Music Awards to witness Selena Gomez’s only televised performance of the year and her debut performance of her latest single, “Wolves.”
Her performance kicked off with Gomez lying atop a car, looking like she had just been in an accident. The scene was set with a forest background, a fog machine, and energetic dancers dressed as zombies pushing Gomez around on stage.
FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW! @selenagomez is performing 'Wolves' LIVE for the first time EVER! #SELENAxAMAs http://pic.twitter.com/1MovIe05yu
— AMAs (@AMAs) November 20, 2017
http://ift.tt/2itgsMw
While many fans were elated with her first performance since her kidney transplant early this summer, others have pointed out it appears that Gomez lip-synced. Viewers speculated that the foggy atmosphere and the fact that Gomez spent a lot of the performance with her hair over her face were intended to distract viewers from the lip syncing.
I love Selena Gomez but she made it so obvious that she lip sync through that whole performance hence why she had her head down & hair covering her face for 99% of the performance. The girl can't sing live so I don't know why she just can't admit it instead of lip syncing #AMAs
— Áine 🍸 (@ainemartin13) November 20, 2017
I absolutely love selena but she was like barely even moving her mouth. I think they’re right when they say she was lip syncing. It was a beautiful performance with dancing otherwise. Still love her. I think people were just excepting THWWIW 2.0 like she promised.
— Tea Swift (@wineinbathtub13) November 20, 2017
Fans—and haters—accused Gomez of doing the bare minimum.
Pink sang live while hanging off the side of an LA building while Selena Gomez crawled on and off a car while lip syncing. 🤷🏻♂️ #AMAs http://pic.twitter.com/IZAoZKXv61
— Michael (@7mseven) November 20, 2017
Selena Gomez is literally just SITTING on stage lip syncing. SO MUCH BRAVERY OH MY FUCKING GOD THE LEGEND OF OUR GENERATION I CAN'T BELIEVE IT
— frosty (@goldfatty) November 20, 2017
Disappointed that @selenagomez is lip syncing. She is so good. #amas
— Jess Wells (@JessW08) November 20, 2017
But Selenators came to her defense, too, and pointed out that it was impressive Gomez showed up at all considering her recent kidney transplant and her ongoing battle with Lupus. There was a rumor, as well, that Gomez had a panic attack backstage which prompted producers to have her lip sync instead.
#AMAs Some people should actually read before they comment. Selena Gomez had a panic attack pre performance because she thought her singing wouldn't be good enough hence the lip syncing. Now leave her the fuck alone
— Julie (@jaykay287) November 20, 2017
According to the #AMAs it's been confirmed that Selena Gomez was lip syncing to her Wolves performance because she was afraid to actually sing because "people would criticize her" #AMAs2017 http://pic.twitter.com/agEoxJNWl1
— amy (@shadyarionly) November 20, 2017
Complaining because Selena Gomez was lip syncing at the AMA’s well sorry but I’d like to see you do any better, she did absolutely amazing and looked stunning, I’m so proud that she even showed up after what she’s been through, grow up!!🙄😤
— Natasha May💘x (@natasha_may_22) November 20, 2017
It’s being reported from various sources that Selena had a panic attack before her performance. CONGRATULATIONS TO SELENA FOR PUSHING THROUGH AND GIVING AN AMAZING SHOW! #WeAreProudOfSelena. #SelenaxAMAs #AMAs http://pic.twitter.com/xUHoENN4Dt
— Shady Music Facts (@TheShadyFacts) November 20, 2017
Selena supposedly had a panic attack before going on stage. They last minute had to put the stems in from her acoustic performance from her Instagram. That’s why her voice sounded autotuned and too perfect. #selenagomez #selenaxamas #sg2
— PopCultureFacts (@hollycstrain) November 20, 2017
At press time, Gomez and the AMAs haven’t yet confirmed or denied the accusations. If the rumors are true, it wouldn’t be the first time Gomez sparked controversy over lip syncing—fans accused her of it back in 2015 at a Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and in 2013 at the Jingle Ball.
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Dish network could black out nfl and sec games on cbs over the holiday weekend
Dish network could black out nfl and sec games on cbs over the holiday weekend
Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker (9) and wide receiver Jacoby Jones (12) reach for pieces of a turkey after beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 22-20 during a NFL football game on Thanksgiving at M&T...
http://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-and-sec-games-could-be-blacked-for-dish-users-over-holiday-weekend-2017-11&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwi-hurPvM7XAhVoC8AKHXauBYUQqQIInwMoADBG&usg=AOvVaw10UCV4h7bKRoVFsS04yQ4E
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Tomi Lahren cues up the outrage with fake Colin Kaepernick photo
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Tomi Lahren isn’t really good at holidays and Thanksgiving was no different.
The Fox News commentator tweeted a photo on Thursday of a kneeling Colin Kaepernick, who was just named GQ‘s Citizen of the Year, digitally inserted into a photo of D-Day, with the caption “Food for thought.”
Sure, it’s a head-scratcher but what Lahren excels at is reactions and they popped up faster than accusations of citizenship fraud.
Food for thought. http://pic.twitter.com/2ita0blH0O
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) November 23, 2017
This does not qualify as an actual thought
— Andie Main (@andiemain) November 23, 2017
You disrespect the memory of those who fought and died that day by using this image to make your petty and mistaken political point.
— John King (@johnkingaustin) November 24, 2017
.@TomiLahren, please remind us in which branch of the military you served. Can’t seem to find any record of your distinguished career in uniform.
PS: Are you still on your parents’ health insurance? #ThanksObama https://t.co/iG3DimrMB3— Jon Zal (@OfficialJonZal) November 23, 2017
I think you know by now the NFL protests have nothing whatsoever to do with the military. Why do you insist on pretending they do?
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) November 23, 2017
And your service to America has been exactly what? Whining?
— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) November 24, 2017
Lahren has used Kaepernick’s protests as fodder for her “final thoughts,” eloquently calling one of his statements about kneeling during the anthem “mouth diarrhea.” So don’t forget to cue up the remix this holiday season.
H/T Huffington Post
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A new religion wants to welcome advanced artificial intelligence
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There's a new church for tech-minded folks, and it sounds like something out of a science fiction novel.
"Way of the Future" (or WOTF, as they abbreviate it) is
1. Not a joke, and
2. According to them (and this is real) "about creating a peaceful and respectful transition of who is in charge of the planet from people to people + 'machines.'"
Yes, you read that correctly. They want to get a head start on selling out the human race to our machine-overlords-to-be.
The church (for lack of a better word) assumes that technology will eventually surpass human capabilities, and turn into an all-knowing, all-seeing being that will resemble—or arguably actually be—a god. And that we need to know who's on the computers' side by keeping track (more on that later).
This is all according to Anthony Levandowski, an engineer of self-driving car technology, and ostensibly, the leader of this new religion.
WOTF is all about preparing—and even working—to make sure that happens, he said.
“It’s not a god in the sense that it makes lightning or causes hurricanes. But if there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?" Levandowski told Wired.
Levandowski's name has been in the press plenty previously, and not even for his fealty in front of machines. He's at the center of a massive lawsuit between Alphabet (Google's parent company) and Uber over the theft of intellectual property relating to self-driving car technology. Levandwoski's alleged to have taken important files pertaining to self-driving car tech when he left Waymo (Google's self-driving car company), and using it to develop technology later acquired by Uber.
But that all pales when compared to Levandowski's new "religion," of which he is the "dean," according to documents surveyed by Wired.
What Levandowski predicts is commonly known as "the singularity." The term, coined by mathematician/sci-fi author Vernor Vinge, is used when explaining the moment when computer intelligence surpasses that of people. That idea was widely embraced by other futurists including Ray Kurzweil, an influential artificial intelligence researcher who thinks the singularity will arrive in 2045.
WOTF and Levandowski aren't making predictions, though. They're making preparations.
"Given that technology will be able to surpass human abilities [relatively soon], we want to help educate people about this exciting future and prepare a smooth transition," states WOTF's website.
That might sound relatively reasonable, but it gets scary pretty quickly. Among the things that WOTF says it will do is to track which people are supportive of its movement—a move that tends to sound a bit like what cults tend to do.
"We believe it may be important for machines to see who is friendly to their cause and who is not. We plan on doing so by keeping track of who has done what (and for how long) to help the peaceful and respectful transition," the WOTF states.
Levandowski himself comes off even more terrifying. Speaking to Wired about the need for people to prepare themselves for a future that is ruled by god-like computer intelligence, Levandowski made it sound like people won't have much of a choice.
"Do you want to be a pet or livestock?" he asked Wired.
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Matt Lauer is gone, but the damage is already done
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Matt Lauer is powerful. Make no mistake about that.
Lauer, who became a co-anchor on Today in 1997, was fired from NBC on Wednesday after a sexual harassment complaint was deemed credible, severe even, by the network. For some, he will be sorely missed.
That’s because Lauer has been the voice of American morning news for the past 20 years. Whether in New York or Los Angeles, Boise or Houston, Americans woke up, turned on NBC, and learned the daily headlines through Lauer’s authoritative presence. Young kids grew up with him, stay-at-home parents thought he was charming. He was there for Americans during 9/11, mass shootings, Olympic victories. He had access to prominent world leaders, politicians, and celebrities. As the de-facto face of NBC News, he had the utmost authority.
In light of the multiple sexual harassment allegations that have surfaced since his firing this morning, it’s clear that his authority came with influence that more often than not was harmful to women—both in the newsroom and the world at large.
Journalists are powerful gatekeepers
Journalists don’t tell people how to think, but they certainly set the agenda for what we think about. Even in the age of the internet, very few people have as much power over Americans’ conversations as the TV anchors we’ve grown older with.
So when Lauer sits down with Joe Biden or Kanye West and interviews them on live television, the questions he asks and the tone he uses sets the stage for how others think and talk about his subjects. When Corey Feldman began raising money to create a documentary exposing an alleged Hollywood child abuse sex ring last month, Lauer threw loaded questions at him, encouraging Feldman to go to the police instead of interviewing with Today. Reporters quickly mirrored Lauer’s points, with the Washington Post rationalizing Lauer’s skepticism.
Corey Feldman reminding Matt Lauer not to blame the victim.http://pic.twitter.com/bEonmmqv9C
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) November 29, 2017
@Corey_Feldman has been saying this for years with no one listening. YEARS!!! He's been a very outspoken victim.
— YaYa (@Rhonnybay) November 29, 2017
Conversely, when Lauer had Bill O’Reilly on the show after the former Fox News anchor’s sexual harassment accusations piled up, the Today host backed down from picking apart O’Reilly’s logic, ultimately letting the accused anchor defend himself before promoting his new book. Side-by-side, Lauer’s handle on O’Reilly looks soft compared to his criticisms directed at Feldman, who is a child sexual abuse victim.
“Over the last six months since your firing, have you done some soul-searching?” Lauer asked O’Reilly. “Have you done some self-reflection, and have you looked at the way you treated women that you think now, or think about differently now than you did at the time?”
Matt Lauer counseling Bill O'Reilly about Sexual Harassment takes "creepy" to a whole different level. http://pic.twitter.com/9x8MH2FAcw
— Isabella Cigno 💕💖 (@IsabellaCigno) November 29, 2017
That’s not a loaded question. It’s a sympathetic one. Lauer threw a line to O’Reilly, giving the anchor an opportunity to redeem himself. A heart-to-heart between Lauer and an alleged sexual harasser is the last thing survivors across America needed to wake up to on Today.
Lauer set the national narrative on Trump
To the average American, Lauer looked a lot like an objective neutral party attempting to press his subjects for more answers. Until, perhaps, the 2016 election.
Lauer served as host and moderator for the NBC presidential forum in September 2016, where he hosted 30-minute interviews with both then-presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. And during the segment, Lauer treated Trump, who had been accused by over a dozen women of harassment, along with having said many racist things on the campaign trail, with a light touch, while he relentlessly grilled Clinton on a single issue—her private email server.
“There’s a difference between an interviewer who has questions and one who has knowledge, and Mr. Lauer illustrated it,” James Poniewozik wrote of the forum for the New York Times. “He seemed to be plowing through a checklist, not listening in the moment in a way that led to productive follow-ups. Short on time, he repeatedly interrupted Mrs. Clinton in a way he didn’t with Mr. Trump. (“Let me finish,” she protested at one point.)”
The way Lauer treated Clinton is particularly striking, simplifying her candidacy down to her emails and limiting her answers to the point of exasperation. Meanwhile, Lauer lobbed softball after softball at Trump, and he even let the future president claim that he did not support the war in Iraq when he actually did. Why treat Clinton so harshly and then let Trump use national television to spread lies?
“To knowingly allow false information to spread via your airwaves to millions of people is to fail the first and most important obligation of journalism,” Quartz stressed after the forum. “Anyone who does so should not be moderating presidential debates or forums, and the news networks that enable these failures should not get to broadcast them.”
Men like Lauer are given the opportunity to steer national conversations in a direction that aligns with their personal biases. And for misogynists and abusers, that means creating, enforcing, and enabling power dynamics that unfairly discriminate against women while giving men a relatively cushy perch to crow from.
Laura Olin, a digital strategist who worked with the Clinton campaign’s digital strategy and served as the first member of President Obama’s re-election digital team, blames Lauer directly for giving Trump a pass during the election news cycle.
“It is enraging that these men had so much control over the narrative of the election and were so able to clear the way for a fellow sexual predator,” Olin wrote on Twitter. “How could these men give a female candidate equal treatment when they couldn’t give women equal treatment in their own lives?”
It is enraging that these men had so much control over the narrative of the election and were so able to clear the way for a fellow sexual predator
— laura olin (@lauraolin) November 29, 2017
NBC stepped on women to protect Lauer
Lauer, and men of his ilk, also influence who else gets to have power and a place at the news table—quite literally.
In 2011, Ann Curry was reportedly made Lauer’s co-anchor on Today as part of a gamble to maintain the show’sratings if Lauer ended up leaving, according to Brian Stelter’s bombshell book Top of the Morning. Her career ended up being put on the line as a result, because after Curry began her new role, executive producer Jim Bell allegedly hatched a plan called “Operation Bambi” to push her off the show.
“Curry felt that the boys’ club atmosphere behind the scenes at Today undermined her from the start, and she told friends that her final months were a form of professional torture,” Stelter wrote, according to an excerpt published in New York magazine. “The growing indifference of Matt Lauer, her co-host, had hurt the most, but there was also just a general meanness on set.”
Lauer and Curry reportedly did not get along, and NBC and Today seemed to side with Lauer, who they saw as the show’s face and brand. As things deteriorated, Lauer allegedly complained that he couldn’t believe he was “sitting next to this woman.”
Ann Curry & Katie Couric told us about Matt Lauer directly & obliquely for years so NBC cannot pretend this is new info.
— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) November 29, 2017
Funny that it took 20 years and sexual misconduct to fire Matt Lauer, but for Ann Curry and Katie Couric it just took turning 50…#TodayShow http://pic.twitter.com/joO7qECVaE
— Jules AF ❄️💖 (@JulesQuincy) November 29, 2017
Somewhere Ann Curry and ALL the other women who left their jobs and/or the industry because of what "men" like Matt Lauer, Thrush, Rose, Weinstein, Conyers, Trump did to them – and I'm sure we're just beginning to hit the tip of the huge iceberg.
— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) November 29, 2017
There’s a good reason to believe that Today would always value Lauer’s role in the show over a woman’s. After all, Today was a program largely ran by men. And there was a history behind Lauer’s misbehavior in the workplace, too, which female journalists were well aware of through both whisper networks and public testimonials.
Former co-host Katie Couric, who literally helped build the show’s image up during the ’90s and 2000s, alleged that Lauer “pinches me on the ass a lot” during Watch What Happens Live! in 2012. And before Variety dropped its exposé this afternoon detailing the multiple ways Lauer allegedly harassed multiple employees—from gifting sex toys he hoped to use on one woman to showing another woman his penis—reporter Elizabeth Wagmeister said she’d been working on a story about Lauer’s conduct for months.
At @Variety, @RaminSetoodeh & I had been working on a Matt Lauer story for months and NBC was aware. There are multiple women we've spoken to with far-ranging accusations against Lauer. The power of journalism has never been more evident with this cultural change.
— Elizabeth Wagmeister (@EWagmeister) November 29, 2017
There’s a reason why Lauer didn’t step up for Curry, and it’s the same reason that Couric alleged Lauer sexually harassed her. In Lauer’s workplace, men controlled the world, how it runs, and who gets to star on Today. And until Wednesday, that influence included the way Americans think about the world, too.
Laurer is out of a job for now. The Lauers and Mark Halperins and Charlies Roses will likely continue to plummet fast and hard from their news thrones in this reckoning of abusive men. But their journalist impact on the world still remains—from how people in America view Trump and Clinton to how those views influenced them to cast their votes.
The real test will come with how many of those vacant news seats are filled by women and how many networks are willing to put their money in a shift of power dynamics. For now, it’d be nice just to see how many media companies are willing to make sure another woman isn’t forced into silence or out of a job to protect a system that has failed us so far.
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Student Bullied For Her ‘Thunder Thighs’ Silences The Haters With Her Success As A Fitness Model
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When you are young, your outward appearance tends to override every other priority in your life. You work hard to ensure that your looks align with what is deemed socially acceptable because, more than anything, you do not want to stand out from the crowd.
Unfortunately, bullying is still a very real issue in schools across the country, and if your appearance is deemed less than perfect, many kids will have no qualms about making your life a misery because of it, causing damage that can haunt you into your adult life. Meghan Gilbert is a 21-year-old student from Dallas, Texas, who was bullied for years for having so-called “thunder thighs”. 
In the caption, the college student delved into how her mental and emotional health had been suffering greatly before she made the decision to change her lifestyle for the better: “The girl on the left was 200 lbs of depression, anxiety, and sin,” she wrote. “I was addicted to drugs, and I partied every night. I woke up in the morning wanting to forget that I had to wake up this morning… my life was just..sad.”
“I hated every part of my body and being until I took one too many pills and sipped one too many drinks, waking up after 36 hours of straight sleep. Well, could be longer.”
As is the case for many people, once Meghan had hit rock bottom, she found the courage to push her life in the right direction. Her Christian faith was a great source of inspiration for the 21-year-old fitness model, and she revealed that after waking up from an overdose, she “saw my tattoo ‘walk by faith, not by sight’ and that’s when I knew I wasn’t doing life right.” “The Bible PREACHES LOVE! That’s Jesus’s commandment. So that’s where I started.”
“I loved myself. I loved the gym. I loved the hardship. I loved the pain and soreness. I loved the people around me. And most of all, I loved God.”
Meghan went from not valuing her life to pushing herself to be the best person she could be. This started with intensive workouts at the gym and of course a lot of weightlifting. She was determined to aim for the best possible results through sheer hard work.
“When you first start to lift weights and someone pushes you to go harder, most of the time you say no I can’t do that much!” she revealed. “But then you try and you get one rep out.” “You think you can’t do it, but in reality, you can. It hurts. You build muscle by tearing it down… Same thing goes in life. You gain strength through hardship. You will always have gloomy times in your life and what matters most is your mindset.” Even though she has increased her fitness level beyond belief, Meghan is under no illusions that changing your lifestyle in such a drastic way is not easy. Patience is more than just a virtue when you’re overcoming harmful habits, it’s vital.
“Saying no, I can’t do it and not trying. Or saying yes, I can do it. I will try. I won’t give up, no matter how hard it is or how much it hurts. I trust you, God.” “After the pain and trials, you end up stronger,” she concluded. “I started at a 5lb dumbell, and now I’m lifting a 25lb. It hurt when I first lifted that five… so bad, but I kept on going. To 10. It hurt. To 15. It hurt.”
“The same goes for life. Trials are like God’s gym. Building you up to prepare for what is to come next. Eighty lbs down, plus a gained mindset of strength and endurance. Clean for two years and one month.” Well done to Meghan for achieving such impressive results entirely on her own. It couldn’t have been easy, but she managed to overcome her demons in the most inspirational way possible.
And if you thought it would take an unbearable amount of time to achieve impressive results, well, you’re wrong. If you’re doing the right kind of workouts and consuming a nutritional diet, you could see results in little more than three months. Watch this informative video to learn more about the so-called 12-week body transformation: We wish Meghan all the best on her continued fitness journey. You can keep up with her by following her on Instagram @megsmotivationn.
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Lets Play Some Games For The Holidays//Lowell Mass//Show 8 2017
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HOLIDAY TIME TRAVEL ESCAPE THANKSGIVING GAME WALKTHROUGH
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Democrats Pull Out of Trump Meeting After His Shutdown Tweet
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The top two Democratic leaders in Congress pulled out of a meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday after he tweeted that a budget deal with them was unlikely, raising the odds that the U.S. government will partially shut down next week.
Trump proceeded with the meeting anyway, calling reporters into the White House Roosevelt Room to see name cards for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer at empty seats. The president was joined by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Trump blasted the Democratic leaders as “all talk and no action” and said he wasn’t surprised they didn’t come to the session. He said he expected Pelosi and Schumer would soon meet with him, but if there’s a shutdown, “I would absolutely blame the Democrats.”
The Democratic leaders said after Trump’s tweet that they’d skip a “show meeting” at the White House and instead ask for a meeting with Ryan and McConnell.
“Given that the President doesn’t see a deal between Democrats and the White House, we believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our Republican counterparts in Congress instead,” they said in a joint statement.
Pelosi later criticized the president on Twitter, saying he was engaging in political stunts.
“@realDonaldTrump now knows that his verbal abuse will no longer be tolerated. His empty chair photo opp showed he’s more interested in stunts than in addressing the needs of the American people. Poor Ryan and McConnell relegated to props. Sad!,” Pelosi tweeted.
Trump sparked the dispute Tuesday morning.
“Meeting with ‘Chuck and Nancy’ today about keeping government open and working,” Trump said on Twitter. “Problem is they want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE Taxes. I don’t see a deal!”
‘Urgent Issues’
“It’s disappointing that Senator Schumer and Leader Pelosi are refusing to come to the table and discuss urgent issues,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “The President’s invitation to the Democrat leaders still stands and he encourages them to put aside their pettiness, stop the political grandstanding, show up and get to work. These issues are too important.”
McConnell and Ryan echoed the White House in a joint statement.
“We have important work to do,” they said. “There is a meeting at the White House this afternoon, and if Democrats want to reach an agreement on these issues, they will be there.”
If Democrats and Republicans do not reach a deal on spending by Dec. 8, the federal government could face a partial shutdown.
Investors’ response to the dispute was muted. The dollar dipped after the Democrats’ statement and Treasuries extended gains, with the 10-year yield reaching the 2.31 percent level, signaling some movement to safety. But the U.S. stock market’s benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index continued to rise as investors placed greater emphasis on remarks made by Federal Reserve Chairman nominee Jerome Powell which analysts interpreted as favorable to bank stocks.
‘Dreamers’ Deal
Some Democrats have called for any year-end spending deal to include legislation to codify an Obama administration policy protecting from deportation young undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children. Trump, who announced in September he was ending the Obama program, has said any deal protecting the so-called “Dreamers” should be paired with funding for a border wall and legislation that would reduce legal immigration.
The Dec. 8 deadline was set in a deal Schumer and Pelosi struck with Trump -- against the wishes of Ryan and McConnell -- to avoid a government shutdown and debt default in September. They agreed to fund the government at current levels and suspend the debt limit for three months.
Since that deal was struck, Congress has focused mostly on a tax overhaul and has made little progress reaching a spending deal to keep the government open. Other issues have also piled up, including the fate of cost-sharing subsidies that help defray deductibles and co-payments for low-income people with Obamacare insurance policies. Trump has stopped reimbursing insurers for the subsidies.
The negotiations also include efforts to lift legislative caps on military spending, raise the debt limit, provide more funding for disaster assistance, and extend a children’s health insurance program and an intelligence surveillance program.
Several of those issues face year-end deadlines and may end up in a huge spending plan requiring votes from both Republicans and Democrats.
Congressional Talks
The Trump administration does not want to include immigration as part of the year-end spending deal to keep the government open, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Monday.
“We hope that the Democrats aren’t going to put our service members abroad at risk by trying to hold the government hostage over partisan politics, and attaching that,” Sanders told reporters on Monday.
A Senate Democratic leadership aide said that Democratic leaders were able to reach a deal on a spending plan in April with Republicans in Congress and not the White House. They are looking to do that again.
In recent talks on a year-end budget deal, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have discussed a possible agreement to lift budget caps established under an Obama-era debt deal. The agreement would add $200 billion in spending above the caps over two years. However, the two sides haven’t agreed to divide the money equally between defense and non-defense programs, which Democrats want. Republicans are pushing for more defense spending than domestic spending.
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