Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 947

NAACP President Ben Jealous Will Resign At the End of the Year

Benjamin Jealous, who became the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 2008 at age 35, will resign at the end of the year. His reason? according to an interview with USA Today, Jealous would like to spend more time with his family. He and his wife, civil rights lawyer Lia Epperson, have 2 young kids, ages 7 and 13 months. 

Here's what he told the paper: 

"Leadership knows when to step up and when to step down...This day I can say with pride that I'm prepared to step down and make room for the next person who will lead this organization to its next chapter."

The organization's youngest-ever president, now 40, will make a formal announcement on Monday. After that, he'll start looking for work teaching at a university somewhere in the DC Metro area. Jealous published an essay with the Wall Street Journal on Sunday outlining his vision for the future of race relations in America. This has been a relatively high-profile time for the organization, and for Jealous, personally. In the wake of George Zimmerman's acquittal for killing Trayvon Martin, Jealous and the NAACP called for the Department of Justice to pursue criminal civil rights charges against Zimmerman. In his essay, however, Jealous addressed the more general priorities laid out by Frederick Douglass, to make "the most perfect national illustration of the unity and dignity of the human family:"

First, we need to internalize one simple truth: the civil rights battles of the last century took place largely in the court house, but the civil rights battles of this century will take place largely in the state house and on the local level. Winning these battles will require more than just good lawyers – it will also require a majority of voters who share Douglass’ vision of a united nation.  

The NAACP hasn't yet announced a successor for Jealous. 

       

Dennis Rodman Met Kim Jong Un's Secret Baby Daughter

Dennis Rodman broke some news on North Korean Kim Jong Un's baby daughter on Sunday during an
    

Sochi Wants the IOC to Back Them Up Against Anti-Gay Law 'Speculation'

The organizers of the Sochi Olympics, coming to a Russia near you in February 2014, are so worried about the effects of sustained criticism of the country's anti gay laws that on Sunday they asked the International Olympic Committee for some help. The laws, which have absolutely overshadowed the games themselves as the countdown begins, has prompted calls for boycotts and protests as many wonder how safe LGBT athletes will be in the country during the games. 

At issue is a series of anti-gay laws passed earlier this year in Russia, which ban the distribution of LGBT "propaganda," or basically anything that portrays gays and lesbians as "normal," and gay and lesbian relationships as "socially equivalent" to heterosexual ones. The laws also allow the government to detain foreigners suspected of being gay — which would be problematic, to say the least, for an openly LGBT athlete. Russia has said they won't enforce those laws for the duration of the Olympics, yet the overall hostility towards LGBT people in the country hasn't exactly helped to smooth things over. A legislator in the country, for instance, is currently trying to push through a bill that would take away children from LGBT couples. 

Here's the request, from Sochi Olympics head Dmitry Chernyshenko, made at the organizing body's general assembly on Sunday: Chernyshenko asked the IOC to calm down "those who are still trying to speculate on this very transparent and very clear topic," adding, "It's very important to have your support to stop this campaign and this speculation regarding this issue."According to the Associated Press, the request may have earned the Sochi team at least some support from the IOC: President Jacques Rogge said that the group would tell athletes, once again, not to protest or make political statements during the games. Rogge added that at this point, he's satisfied with the explanations from Russia on their plans for the games, at least as it pertains to what seems to be his main area of concern: the athletes themselves: "the constitution of the Russian federations allows for homosexuality," he said, adding, "we have received strong reassurances that this law will not affect participants in the Sochi Games."

       

Meet 'Titstare,' the Tech World's Latest 'Joke' from the Minds of Brogrammers

It's hard to single out the worst part of Titstare, a "joke" app presented Sunday at TechCrunch's Disrupt 2013 startup conference hackathon. Everything about it — the name, the concept, the presentation, the context — is just jaw-droppingly "no." And yet, it just happened on a stage, before an audience that, from the video, sounded at least somewhat receptive to it. 

Titstare, from Australians Jethro Batts and David Boulton, was the first presentation of the day. As Boulton explains in the presentation, their product, which was meant as a joke, "is an app where you take photos of yourself, staring at tits." Here is that presentation: 

It's as if the brogrammers seen here didn't know their audience wasn't all bros like them. There's a lot going on here, not the least of which is the broader context of discussions on the public alienation of women in tech. There's also the exasperating repetition of moments like this at big tech industry conferences. And here, broadly, are some notable parts of the whole debacle, ranked from least worst to worst: 

The Least Worst:  TechCrunch's apology for the presentation (as you'll note, the AOL-owned company had to apologize for two presentations on Sunday. We'll get to that): 

We apologize for two inappropriate hackathon presentations earlier today. We will more carefully screen from now on.

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) September 8, 2013

The company later posted a much more thorough apology to its site, after removing the videos in question: 

Normally our hackathons are a showcase for developers of all stripes to create and share something cool. But earlier today, the spirit of our event was marred by two misogynistic presentations. Sexism is a major problem in the tech industry, and we’ve worked hard to counteract it in our coverage and in our own hiring.

Today’s issues resulted from a failure to properly screen our hackathons for inappropriate content ahead of time and establish clear guidelines for these submissions. Trust us, that changed as soon as we saw what happened at our show. Every presentation is getting a thorough screening from this hackathon onward. Any type of sexism or other discriminatory and/or derogatory speech will not be allowed.

You expect more from us, and we expect more from ourselves. We are sorry.

This response: 

@nostrich @OConnorB_ where do i upload my titstare photo pic.twitter.com/NKi1EJ4BJF

— Sarah Pavis (@spavis) September 8, 2013

The Bad:  The Titstare guys didn't see it coming. Just before their presentation, the duo, who also apparently run something that allows users to send "abusive" post cards in the mail, tweeted out a preview for their "product" 

Our TechCrunch Hackathon entry. It's all south from here. pic.twitter.com/eDmpSQrUvS

— Hate You Cards (@HateYouCards) September 8, 2013

For which they apologized as Twitter picked up on the presentation: 

#titstare guys here, sorry if we offended some of you, very unintentional. Just a fun Aussie hack.

— Hate You Cards (@HateYouCards) September 8, 2013

Their sexist jokes were terrible. Underneath the trivialization of women's consent, the Just For Men approach to an audience that did, in fact, include women and the concept itself, the "Titstare" presentation was full of hacky humor. Their tagline? "It's the breast, most titillating fun you cans have."  Adria Richards was apparently on stage during the demo. 

Pro hackathon tip: Don't demo http://t.co/uIeugRwQpJ when you're onstage with @adriarichards. Or ever, actually.

— Rafe Needleman (@Rafe) September 8, 2013

Richards, in case you've forgotten, tweeted out a photo of two developers at the PyCon conference last March, after she apparently overheard them exchange sexist jokes. 

A legion of spambots is defending the product: 

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and targeting individual critics: 

Achievement Unlocked: revenge-spammed by a network of Twitter bots. http://t.co/zgZSSlsKBu

— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) September 9, 2013

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The Worst: 

There was more than one awful, bro-ish routine. 

Via Valleywag, meet "Circle Shake." The app's presenter demonstrated his product by simulating masturbation on stage. 

A nine-year old girl, who presented at the hackathon, saw the whole thing. 

There goes my attempt to teach my 9yo girl how welcoming tech industry is to women :-/ cheers Aussies & wank app guy @tcdisrupt #hackdisrupt

— Richard David Jordan (@richarddjordan) September 8, 2013

The Disrupt SF Hackathon's cutest moment. A 9-year-old girl presents her hack http://t.co/vGBwwmyw0R… http://t.co/bHZfE66tDY

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) September 8, 2013

And now everyone is going to talk about the "fun Aussie hack" instead of her awesome presentation. 

       

One Direction Fans Wanted to Kill Someone, Again

One Direction fans are, uh, excitable. If anything bad happens to their beloved boys, they tend to fly off the handle right away and have an ugly habit of, well, threatening to kill those who cross their favorite boys. 

In case you just emerged from the mole society at the center of the earth, One Direction is a group of pretty boys from England and Ireland. There's Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and the boy-king Harry Styles. Teenagers, twenty-year-olds and adults follow their every move with a religious fervor. It can be slightly terrifying for outside observers who aren't well-versed in their ways. Like religious figures, should you harm one of the boys you will find yourself on the wrong end of some scary death threats. That's what Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor learned the hard way on Sunday after he tackled Louis Tomlinson during a charity soccer match:

Look at the floppy haired boy flop around after being tackled by that big brute of a professional soccer player. The horror! In response, One Direction threatened to kill the guy on Twitter: 

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There are even more death threats rounded up here by Fox Soccer's Thomas Hautman. As Hautman points out, Tomlinson is signed to non-professional contract with the Doncaster Rovers. Tomlinson plays his first game with the club on September 18, so it's not like he doesn't know his way around a pitch. Sometimes tackles go wrong and you get injured. It's not a big deal. 

But it's the Directioners that took things too far. Again. This is a recurring pattern with One Directioners, after all. Something happens to the boys that bothers them and then kill, kill, kill! In July, British GQ put all five boys on their September issue cover. In response, Directioners threatened to "shove bleach into [British GQ's] [bums] and pull out [British GQ's] eyes with a spork," among other things. That doesn't even cover the threats directed at the American GQ, who had nothing to do with the One Direction covers at all. One Directioners also threatened to kill members of The Who after it was rumored the seminal 70s rock band was going to sue the youngsters over similarities between One Direction's "Best Song Ever" and The Who's "Baba O'Riley." God forbid you end up dating one of the One Direction boys. Then it really gets ugly. 

So, thankfully, things seem to be changing within the One Direction community. Some fans are trying to calm the more murderous ones by pointing out that maybe threatening to kill anyone who touches your boyband heroes isn't a great idea: 

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Cooler heads seem to be prevailing. Now please don't kill me for writing this. 

       

Buckingham Palace Guards Still Don't Recognize Prince Andrew

Being a British royal must be a rough life, especially if you get mistaken for a trespassing intruder by some overzealous guards patrolling the Buckingham Palace grounds. That's what happened to Prince Andrew this week, the poor guy. 

He doesn't have the name recognition of the younger, snappier royal family members, but you would think Andrew's been around the palace long enough to know who he is. Well, apparently not. The Sunday Express reported Andrew went for a walk in the gardens on Wednesday evening when two guards approached the Queen's 53-year-old son with their guns drawn and demanding identification. Andrew was forced to the ground before he identified himself. "There is a high turnover of the police on duty at the Palace, but you’d think anyone would know what Prince Andrew looks like," a "royal insider" told the Express. 

Unsurprisingly, the royal family member was reportedly livid for being mistaken as a commoner by the two palace guards. But cooler heads eventually prevailed on Sunday, when Prince Andrew announced he was "grateful" for the apology he received from Scotland Yard. "The police have a difficult job to do balancing security for the Royal Family and deterring intruders, and sometimes they get it wrong," he said. 

See, the Buckingham Palace guards were already having a rough week. On Monday, a 30-year-old man scaled the palace fence and broke into one of the state rooms before tripping some motion sensors. When the guards finally found him, he was trying to break a window with a fire extinguisher to get out. He was arrested, and so was another man standing outside the palace who police believe was an accomplice. So things were a little tense this week. 

       

The '12 Years a Slave' Hype Won't Slow Down

After its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival last week, and a screening Friday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, the hype surrounding Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave reached a high point. It is undeniable -- this is the movie you need to see. Don't expect that hype to stop until the Oscars are over and the movie walks away with more than one statue. 

The reviews that trickled in Friday night and Saturday morning were excited, superlative, and unanimously positive. They all had one overwhelming message: 12 Years a Slave -- the third from director Steve McQueen, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender as slave and slave owner, respectively -- will be a movie to mess with come award season. Buzzfeed's Adam Vary called it "most emotionally powerful film I have seen in a decade," in his initial reaction. "The Oscar race has been pronounced over, six months before the ceremony itself," writes the Guardian's Catherine Shoard. Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman says it's a "landmark of cruelty and transcendence." This is not last year's Django Unchained, then.

"So... yeah. The stuff you're reading about 12 YEARS A SLAVE that sounds like it must be hyperbole? Kinda isn't," NPR's Linda Holmes added on Twitter. 

This kind of breathless praise shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who read the early reviews of of Telluride. That festival isn't as widely attended as TIFF, but the movie's brilliance was perfectly on display to those in attendance then. The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg didn't mince words last weekend in his report on the premiere: 

Indeed, I believe that it will strongly contend for noms in the categories of best picture, best director (McQueen, for biting off more than ever before and capably chewing it), best actor (Ejiofor, for his total commitment in every scene of the film), best supporting actor (Fassbender, for playing a brutal Southern slave owner), best supporting actress (N'yongo, for portraying a slave who endures heartbreaking brutality), best adapted screenplay (for John Ridley's take on Solomon Northup's 1853 autobiography of the same title) and best original score (Hans Zimmer).

A shorter summation of Feinberg's comments: 12 Years a Slave will contend for every major award it possibly can on Oscar night. 

So, uh, that means it's pretty good, right? Maybe worth the $10 to see it at the theater?

       

The President's Final Syria Push Is On

The President only has a matter of days to convince Congress, the Senate, and the rest of the nation that striking Syria as punishment for the chemical attack that killed 1,400 people is a good idea. The administration is making a final, manic, positively mad dash to sway everyone to their side. 

Because impassioned, well argued speeches from Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. ambassador Samantha Power weren't enough. There's no smoking gun, no slam dunk, no physical evidence tracing the chemical attack definitively back to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The country doesn't want another war. Whatever the explanation, the country is seemingly not behind the President's desire to attack Syria. But this last push before it goes before the legislative body hopes to change that. 

On Saturday, the first volley was thrown. The public was given a small glimpse into the case administration officials were using to sell Senators on an attack during classified closed door meetings. CNN's Jake Tapper got ahold of the 13 video playlist, many previously available on Youtube, administration officials are using in conjunction with intelligence and satellite information to argue Assad was responsible for the attack in Damascus (warning: this content is graphic): 

"Many of the videos have been posted on the Internet before, but this collection of footage is significant because the intelligence community has given it a stamp of authenticity," Tapper says. "While the videos are hard to watch, they do not prove who is responsible for the attack, nor do they provide an answer for whether military strikes are the correct course." That must be why the President is also spending his weekend selling a strike during phone calls with other lawmakers. 

Sunday is a quiet day. There will be major leaks to major papers, certainly, but they have not been published yet. The future is still unwritten, or, at least, being revised by an editor. But then, on Monday and Tuesday, that's when the real fun begins. The National Journal's White House pool reporter Matt Vasilogambros reported today that Obama will sit down and tape interviews with ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and PBS. Those interviews will all air on their respective channel's nightly news broadcasts. The President will be all over your television news, no matter your preference, slant, or party. "That Obama will talk to Fox News shows how aggressively White House is trying to sell its Syria policy to a fractious Republican electorate," reporter Gabriel Sherman said on Twitter. 

On Tuesday, the President will sit down and lay out his case again. This time it won't be on a holiday weekend, or through the filter and restrictions of an interview with a news anchor. Obama will address the nation, call on the oratory skills that helped him through two elections to convince the country this is the right thing, and do what every President before him since Reagan has done.

Then it's out of his hands and up to the House and Senate. There'll be nothing else he can do. 

       

Tokyo Will Host the 2020 Summer Olympics

The International Olympic Committee decided that Tokyo, Japan would be the host city for the 2020 Summer Olympics games on Saturday during meetings in Buenos Aries, Brazil. 

Tokyo beat out two other cities -- Madrid, Spain and Istanbul, Turkey -- to earn the right to host the Olympics, which will bring in millions and millions of revenue for the city and its surrounding area. Madrid was the first city eliminated after a close run off against Istanbul, with the Turkish capital winning by a 49-45 vote. IOC members then chose between Istanbul and Tokyo.

The competition gets fiercer every year between communicating municipalities for the prestige, and the cash, that comes with hosting an Olympic games. The financial benefits are undeniable. 

But there were obstacles Tokyo had to overcome before earning the right to the Olympic pot of gold that awaits them. The Fukushima nuclear disaster -- and the ensuing, bungled clean up -- put Tokyo's chances seemingly at risk. But the concerns over holding the games in Turkey after the recent upheaval and protests were even greater. The benefits of holding the games in Tokyo -- where there's already a thriving economic pillow supporting the games -- won out in the end and produced a massively one-sided vote. 

As soon as the announcement was made, some people had ideas for mascots: 

The mascot of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is obviously a kaiju.

— Michael Roston (@michaelroston) September 7, 2013

Fukushima Godzilla mascot pls

— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) September 7, 2013

Others noticed this had been foretold by the great seers of our time: 

Just to remind everyone, Tokyo received the 2020 Olympics in the movie "Akira." Otomo Katsuhiro called it 30 years ago.

— Brett Fujioka (@Brett_Fujioka) September 7, 2013

       

This Year's Super Bowl Halftime Show Isn't Very Jersey

This year, the NFL's Super Bowl will broadcast live from Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just a few scant minutes on the highway from New York City. So it's at least a little surprising the league didn't book a halftime show that might draw on the area's rich musical history, right? Not really. 

On February 2, 2014, two teams will play football in Metlife Stadium -- home to the lowly New York Jets and superior New York Giants -- to decide who was the best in the National Football League this year, in a game commonly known as the Super Bowl, the cumulation of the roaring furnace of another NFL season worth billions and billions of dollars. At the game's midway point, music will play, as is custom. 

And that performance's headliner will be Bruno Mars, someone with deep ties to the New York/New Jersey area, according to the Los Angeles Times' Joe Flint and Gerrick Kennedy and the Associated Press's Howard Fendrich. The NFL will make the news official at a Times Square press conference on Sunday. 

Wait a minute -- the kid's from Hawaii? He's the least Jersey or New York performer they could get? He's a talented musician, sure, and he plays his own instruments and makes some catchy, dancey rock music. But there plenty of other options the league could have chosen that would excite people, both nationally and locally, while staying true to the game's location. Some locals openly campaigned for Jon Bon Jovi, as Jersey as anyone, to headline the half time show. The case isn't a hard sell. The group is old, yes, but they're charismatic, fun and know how to play humongous stadiums. Plus, they're promoting an album and would be used to playing outdoors in New Jersey on a cold, February night. On top of all, that the crowd for Bon Jovi at Metlife would be insane. You might actually hear cheers for once. Jets fans might feel something that resembles happiness, something they're not used to. There's no ruling out a surprise appearance from the 80s band, but that seems unlikely. Sorry, guys. Not this year, not in the NFL. 

Booking Bruno Mars instead would be shocking until you remember the NFL never chooses their halftime based on where the game's being played. Last year, at Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Houston, Texas-born and raised Destiny's Child blew the roof off the Superdome. The year before, at Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, Indiana, a combination effort from Madonna, LMFAO and Cee-Lo Green underwhelmed. When you think Indianapolis, you think about Madonna, right? In 2011, at Super Bowl XLV in Dallas, Texas, the NFL booked the Black Eyed Peas to headline. They're from L.A. The only time in recent memory when the Super Bowl half time was booked to appease locals was in 2010, in Florida, when the league got The Who to play a set of hits, a nod to the state's popularity with retirees. 

So enjoy your Bruno Mars, everyone. Hopefully he plays "Treasure," which is a very good song.