Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 916

Benedict Cumberbatch Charms Reddit, Responds to Assange

With Julian Assange and WikiLeaks waging a war against the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring The Fifth Estate, the actor used his Reddit AMA today to combat Assange's charges against the film, in between igniting fan girl and boy fantasies of course. 

Earlier this week, WikiLeaks—in addition to releasing The Fifth Estate script with their annotations—released a letter Assange wrote to Cumberbatch in January after Cumberbatch tried to initiate a dialogue while researching the role. "You will be used, as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it," Assange wrote. "To present me as someone morally compromised and to place me in a falsified history. To create a work, not of fiction, but of debased truth. Not because you want to, of course you don't, but because, in the end, you are a jobbing actor who gets paid to follow the script, no matter how debauched." 

When asked about the letter on Reddit and whether it affected how he portrayed the activist or made him second guess his work on the film, Cumberbatch explained that it "galvanized me into addressing why I was doing this movie." He continued: 

He accuses me of being a "hired gun" as if I am an easily bought cypher for right wing propaganda. Not only do I NOT operate in a moral vacuum but this was not a pay day for me at all. I've worked far less hard for more financial reward. This project was important to me because of the integrity I wanted to bring to provocative difficult but ultimately timely and a truly important figure of our modern times. The idea of making a movie about someone who so far removed from my likeness or situation who brought about an ideal through personal sacrifice that has changed the way we view both social media, the power of the individual to have a voice in that space, and be able to question both the hypocrisies and wrongdoings of organizations and bodies of powerful people that rule our lives... This resonated deeply with my beliefs in civil liberty, a healthy democracy, and the human rights of both communities and individuals to question those in authority. I believe that the film, quite clearly, illuminates the great successes of wikileaks and its extraordinary founder Julians Assange.

WikiLeaks has tried to make it seem as if Cumberbatch was unhappy with the way he portrayed Assange in the film, cherry picking quotes from various interviews, including one in The Guardian which said that "when Cumberbatch first read the script, he worried that it cast Assange as some kind of cartoon baddie." But Cumberbatch clearly stands by the film and his performance, writing that he "wanted to create a three dimensional portrait of a man far more maligned in the tabloid press than he is in our film to remind people that he is not just the weird, white haired Australian dude wanted in Sweden, hiding in an embassy behind Harrods" and that he is "proud to be involved in tackling such a contentious character and script." The film received tepid reviews at the Toronto Film Festival, though Cumberbatch's performance was lauded.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the Reddit AMA, Cumberbatch was far more lighthearted. When asked whether he and fellow British nerd heartthrobs Matt Smith (the most recent Doctor on Doctor Who) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki in The Avengers) "have cheek bone polishing parties" he responded cheekily: "We like nothing better than buffing our Zygoma. And imagining a horny time traveling long overcoat purple scarf wearing super sleuth nordic legend f--k fantasy. Get to work on that, internet." We're sure the Internet has, Benedict. We're sure. 

       

Brody Gets an Audiobook to Tell His Side of the Story on 'Homeland'

Homeland's soldier/congressman/terrorist/fugitive Nicholas Brody hasn't been around or the first two episodes of the third season of the show, but he'll get 30 minutes all to himself to explain what he's been up to—just not exactly on the TV show.

While we still don't know how the show will reintegrate Brody into the story line, Ellen Gamerman of The Wall Street Journal reports that Audible — an Amazon subsidiary and the nation's largest seller of audiobooks — will release a 30 minute audiobook following Sunday's episode, featuring actor Damien Lewis giving insight into just what Brody's been up to in his run from the law. Basically, if you wanted to listen to a half an hour long Brody monologue, this is for you. (Spoiler alert: He's been blamed for an enormous terrorist attack on CIA headquarters.) 

And lest you think this is just going to be information you've already heard just in a different format, Jeffrey Godsick of Fox Consumer Products said the audio book, titled "Phantom Pain," is "by no means a rehash—it's a fresh new take." 

So, who's ready for Dana's 30-minute audio book about her stint in rehab? 

       

Why We Worry About DC Comics's Gay Characters

At a Marvel-dominated panel on LGBT characters and allies in comics at New York Comic Con, we couldn't help but talk about what that other major comic company was doing — and how an exec there said a gay marriage can't happen in its pages because heroes aren't supposed to be happy.

"It's just lazy storytelling," Marvel writer Marjorie Liu said of Marvel rival DC Comics, drawing the loudest applause of the night. Liu, to be sure, is one of Marvel's most progressive writers. In the pages of Astonishing X-Men, Liu wrote the company's first gay wedding for its gay Canadian superhero Northstar. And she also wrote plots and storylines for the lesbian X-Man, Karma, and the bisexual son of Wolverine, Daken.

"What kind of stories are you telling?" Liu wondering, questioning the plots and usage of LGBT (and heterosexual) characters in DC's world. Here's the audio:

Room 1A-14 in the bowels of the Javits Center was filled with people wanting to find answers to Liu's question for DC — and, for that matter, the rest of the comic world. How are LGBT issues like the dissolution of the Defense of Marriage Act and the current state of anti-gay Russia finding their way into the pages of comic fiction? And what kind of freedom do writers have in pursuing these stories? 

The answers varied by company. Liu actually revealed that she wanted to create a girlfriend for Karma, a Vietnamese lesbian with the power the possess other people's minds, but didn't get to. She and her Marvel colleagues also said that major LGBT rights-changing events like same-sex marriage in New York and the Supreme Court ruling on DOMA played major roles in conceptualizing storylines for their LGBT characters.

And, still, there are struggles. Archie, for example, which has an openly gay character, was the target of a vocal One Million Moms campaign. But Dan Parent, the artist who introduced Kevin to the pages of Archie, explains, "We just want Kevin to be Kevin in America," Parent said, noting that his favorite stories are when Kevin just gets to be one of the kids at Riverdale. 

Parent is right. Ultimately, the goal for LGBT people in real life and LGBT characters fighting the good fight frame by frame is to have homosexuality be as regular as heterosexuality. That's equality. And equality means that gay characters should be allowed to have just as miserable marriages and relationships as their heterosexual counterparts do. And comic book writers, editors, and artists can play a major cultural part in making this happen. 

At Marvel, editor Daniel Ketchum will tell you that a lot's changed in his seven years there. He's seen a time when there was an order not to show the company's two gay teen characters, Wiccan and Hulkling, kissing. Flash forward to present day, and Ketchum is getting to fiddle with a Hulkling-Wiccan storyline that now involves a young man named Prodigy, a black, bisexual former mutant who has an interest in Hulkling.

"And all of a sudden it's not just ... a gay couple just because they're the only gay guys on the team, but holy crap we have three guys who can explore and how they fit," Ketchum said, realizing his double entendre. 

But characters are still at a point where writers like Greg Pak still have some concern mainly because mainstream entertainment has a history of gay and lesbian characters who have been portrayed as murderers and connivers (see: Rope). That gives him some pause in creating gay characters who may be villainous—he doesn't want to be enforcing a stereotype or damaging the work of the gay rights movement. Then again, part of gay characters being like any others should also allow them to be awesome villains.

"I don't want to just react against stereotypes all the time," Pak said, referring to an Asian American character that he re-created as a genius. "No one character should have to sustain the hopes and dreams of a community." Unfortunately, for gay characters and LGBT people, it sometimes feels like we're still at that point. 

       

If Wall Street Is More Open to Women than Comics, We Have a Problem

For a brief moment on Thursday afternoon at New York Comic Con, a group of women there to talk about women in comics talked instead about Wall Street. They pointed out that the male-dominated financial industry was closing the gender gap better than what's going on in mainstream comics. 

"I took a look at the numbers and said 'Wow Wall Street does a better job,'" said Amy Chu, publisher and founder of Alpha Girl Comics. After Chu, who holds an MBA from Harvard, let loose with that revelation, fellow panelist Becky Cloonan chimed in with her own number-crunching, noting that around 40 percent of attendees at New York Comic Con are women. "But just 6 percent of the special guests are women. We have to work on this," Cloonan said. 

Those two observations about women in the comics industry punctuated an afternoon of discussion about how far women working in the comics industry need to go before a "Women in Comics" panel isn't necessary. Women — as Chu, Cloonan, and their fellow panelists, creator Erica Schultz and librarians Claudia McGivney, Megan Kociolek, Emily Weisenstein and Laura Pope-Robbins will tell you — have come a long way in comics, closing the gender gap in the independent comic industry.

But in the creative departments at the Big Two, Marvel and DC, they still have a way's to go. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2012 that women were still a minority at those two companies. The reality, then, is that strong female characters like Wonder Woman, Storm, and Rogue aren't being written and helmed by wonder women. 

The real-life struggles for women to make their mark in the mainstream comic industry come against the backdrop of Sheryl Sandberg's popular "lean in" mantra. And these battles show that higher-ups don't seem invested in marketing to young women despite the success of young adult novels like The Hunger Games and its iconic heroine Katniss Everdeen. Cloonan said she had written and pitched a series aimed at women in college and older. "We don't know how to sell it," came the inevitable response. 

The hope for women like Chu and Cloonan is with youth. Because of technology and digital comics, there's been a democratization of the industry. Going to the comic book store isn't necessary anymore, and the intimidation factor is gone. And that's in turn allowed girls and women to read more.

Women make up some 20 percent of the digital comic readership, Comixology, a digital comic platform, reports. What's more, that number has quadrupled since Comixology first came on the scene in 2007. What female creators are banking on is that these women will inevitably grow up, will hopefully not stop reading, and maybe, just maybe, eventually make the industry more balanced than Wall Street. 

       

Chemical Weapons Watchdog Wins the Nobel Peace Prize

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has been named the recipient of the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

For the second year in a row, the name of the winner was leaked early. Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported early on Friday morning that this year's award would go to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, defying odd-makers who had predicted that it would go to Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai. NRK correctly the predicted that the European Union would win last year's prize, despite the highly secretive nature of the committee's work.

The OPCW is tasked with destroying the chemical weapons that belong to Syria, but as many people were quick to point out, they haven't actually accomplished that task yet. (However, the Nobel spokespeople insisted that the award was given for their overall body of work, not what they've done in Syria.) Others have also noted the irony that OPCW has won the award in 2013, the first year in decades that chemical weapons were deployed in battle on a large scale. The committee itself even pointed out that the United States and Russia have yet not destroyed all of their own chemical weapons, despite signing the treaty that created the OPCW and demanded that countries disarm.

It seems that once again, the Nobel committee (despite their official stance stating otherwise) decided to use the award as a symbolic gesture and a hopeful reminder of what needs to be done, as much as a recognition of past achievements.

OPCW has NOT been given the #NobelPeacePrize because of Syria but because of its long standing work.

— Nobelprize_org (@Nobelprize_org) October 11, 2013

Shocked Malala didn't win Nobel peace prize. OPCW wins same way Obama did in '09 - w/no actual work to judge, just hoping for a good ending

— Maria Abi-Habib (@Abihabib) October 11, 2013

It doesn't address why the Nobel committee keeps awarding prizes to people and organisations before they've actually done anything.

— Matthew Teller (@matthewteller) October 11, 2013

Colleague just pointed out that one V.Putin has done rather more to stop the use of chem weapons in Syria than OPCW.

— Damon Wake (@damonwake) October 11, 2013

Group wins #NobelPeacePrize for a job they haven't finished. Looking forward to my Nobel Lit prize for that book I haven't started writing

— Julia Macfarlane (@juliamacfarlane) October 11, 2013

It also seems that the general public was not only ones suprised by the OPCW's win:

@OPCW Please contact us @Nobelprize_org we are trying get through to your office.

— Nobelprize_org (@Nobelprize_org) October 11, 2013

Here are the names of all the other Nobel winners, announced earlier this week. A list of all previous Peace Prize winners can be found here.

Monday, October 7
Physiology or Medicine: James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman, and Thomas C. Südhof

Tuesday, October 8
Physics: François Englert and Peter Higgs

Wednesday, October 9
Chemistry:  Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt, and Arieh Warshel

Thursday, October 10
Literature: Alice Munro

Friday, October 11
Peace: Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)

Monday, October 14
Economic Sciences: 1:00 p.m. CET at the earliest (7:00 a.m. EDT)

       

Two Men Arrested for Organizing a 'Taliban Coat Drive'

The NYPD has arrested two men on allegations that the men were conspiring to collect and provide winter supplies to members of the Taliban. Humayoun Nabi and Ismail Alsarabbi (of Queens and Brooklyn, respectively) were allegedly attempting to shipments of coats, socks, and shoes to Afghanistan, though no shipments ever actually got sent out. The men were charged with second-degree soliciting or providing support for an act of terrorism and fifth-degree conspiracy.

According to a criminal complaint filed by the Queens District Attorney, Nabi told a confidential informant "that the source of the Americans’ strength is their equipment, specifically good jackets, good goggles, good GPS." He admitted four days ago that he engaged in the scheme because, "he hates the United States, Jewish people, and U.S. soldiers specifcally [sic] and that he wanted to give those fighting the Americans equipment that would level the playing field."

Alsarabbi says that his client had "no idea" about the scheme. Alsarabbi is a naturalized citizen from Kuwait and Nabi is a Pakistani national.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told the press that, "the cold weather gear and electronics that the pair sought to provide could have endangered the safety of Americans as much as supplies of guns and ammunition," which is maybe a tad bit hyperbolic, but point taken.

       

Everyone Can Search for You on Facebook Now

A recent change to Facebook's privacy settings now makes it possible for all users to be found through the site's search function. Previously, users could specify whether or not they wanted to show up in search results, but the social network quietly removed that privacy feature today, downplaying its removal in a blog post.

In a blog post announcing the change, the company's Chief Privacy Officer, Michael Richter, gave several reasons for the change, such as that:

The setting also made Facebook's search feature feel broken at times. For example, people told us that they found it confusing when they tried looking for someone who they knew personally and couldn't find them in search results, or when two people were in a Facebook Group and then couldn't find each other through search.

That second example is understandable, but that first example is the function doing exactly what it was supposed to do.

Facebook says that currently only a "single-digit percentage" of their users had the setting activated, While that may seem low, at 1.2 billion profiles, Facebook is arguably past the point where framing privacy policy decisions in terms of percentage of users is a compelling case. For instance, even if it was only 1 percent of users taking advantage of the feature, that's still 12 million people who didn't want to be easily found.

In its move to Graph Search, Facebook emphasized the privacy controls it has for individual posts as a away to avoiding prying eyes. In other word, as Valleywag put it:

Basically, Facebook puts the onus on its users. With every photo and status update and comment you share, you have to think about who you want to be able to see it now or search for it in perpetuity. Realistically, who's gonna do that?

The feature disappeared for users who hadn't activated it a few months ago, but should now have disappeared from all users' settings.

       

In Two Weeks, Same Sex Marriage Can Begin in New Jersey

A ruling by a New Jersey State Superior court judge on Thursday effectively ruled that same-sex marriage will be allowed in the state beginning on October 21st. The ruling from Judge Mary Jacobson is the latest in a series stemming from her ruling in late September that New Jersey must allow same-sex marriage in order for couple's to receive federal benefits.

On Thursday, Jacobson denied a request from the state to delay the weddings until the state, under the direction of Republican Governor Chris Christie, could launch an appeal. The judge wrote in her decision that, "There is no ‘public interest’ in depriving a class of New Jersey residents their constitutional rights while appellate review is pursued," and that, "On the contrary, granting a stay would simply allow the State to continue to violate the equal protection rights of New Jersey same-sex couples, which can hardly be considered a public interest."

Last June's decision by the Supreme Court that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional is central to Judge Jacobson's ruling, stating that not allowing gay marriage subsequently prevents certain citizens from being able to receive federal benefits that come with a marriage license. Jacobson wrote that the state failed to present a valid enough case for delaying same sex marriage and "simply cannot justify depriving plaintiffs and other same-sex couples of equality in the form of access to important federal marital benefits."

Christie's office has not issued a statement on the ruling yet, but they did immediately following the ruling ask the appellate court to grant a stay. The state legislature passed a same-sex marriage law in 2012 which was then vetoed by Christie, who wants come to a decision on the subject by referendum. The state has until January to override his veto.

       

Poultry Plant at the Heart of a Salmonella Outbreak Won't Have to Close

U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted a shutdown threat against California-Based Foster Farms on Thursday, after the company demonstrated improved conditions following a salmonella outbreak linked to three of its plants. The outbreak has sickened 278 people in 17 states since March, mostly confined to the west coast, is particularly resistant to antibiotics. 42 percent of those infected have been hospitalized — an unusually high percentage. 

Foster Farms had to meet a Thursday deadline to show improvement after receiving a letter from the USDA on Monday, warning the company that the sanitary conditions at its plant "could pose a serious ongoing threat to public health." The letter notes that Foster Farms was cited 12 times since January for unsanitary conditions (you can read the full letter here, via the LA Times). The USDA, along with the CDC, have handled the outbreak in the midst of a partial government shutdown. That shutdown has crippled the agencies' ability to handle health crises exactly like this one. 

In case you're not clear on what salmonella is, the Associated Press helpfully explains: 

Salmonella can contaminate meat during slaughter and processing and is especially common in raw chicken. The infections can be avoided by proper handling and cooking of raw poultry. The pathogen causes diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within a few days of eating a contaminated product and can be life-threatening to those with weakened immune systems.

Despite this, Foster Farms has not recalled the chicken connected to the ongoing infection — nor is it required to by law. Instead, the company has advised customers to thoroughly cook chicken. The company's CEO Ron Foster apologized for the outbreak in a note on the Foster Farms' site: "On behalf of my family I am sorry for any foodborne illness associated with Foster Farms chicken," he said.

       

Kenneth Bae's Mother Is in North Korea to Visit Her Imprisoned Son

Kenneth Bae, an American citizen currently imprisoned in North Korea, will get a visit with his mother Myunghee Bae on Friday for the first time in his 11-month imprisonment, according to Bae's family. Myunghee Bae arrived in the country on Thursday to see her ailing son, who was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor earlier this year. 

Bae, 45, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in April on charges of "hostile acts" against North Korea. The American was a tour guide and evangelical missionary based out of China for several years before his detention in North Korea last November. Officials there have thrown a number of accusations his way, including a conspiracy theory that Bae was part of a Christian plot to overthrow the government.

After serving a few months in a prison camp, Bae was transferred this summer to a hospital due to illness. According to the Associated Press, his ailments include "diabetes, an enlarged heart, liver problems and back pain," along with a weight loss of over 50 pound since his imprisonment. In a video statement filmed before her departure, Bae said "I want to see him and comfort him and hold him in person," adding, "I miss him so much." Her trip will last 5 days. 

Bae's family have suffered a handful of dashed hopes for his release in recent months: In August, the State Department made plans to send its first official representative in two years to North Korea in order to ask for Bae's freedom. But that trip was cancelled by North Korean officials. Soon after, Dennis Rodman announced his second trip to the country to visit his friend Kim Jong Un, after the former NBA player announced he would do something about Bae's plight several months ago. But, it turns out, Dennis Rodman doesn't actually care about Bae.