Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 153
May 9, 2017
How to Pick a Travel Agent
Finding the right travel agent is like finding the right doctor, according to David Kolner, who oversees the travel agent membership program for Virtuoso, a network of more than 15,000 agents globally. “This may sound extreme — after all, they’re only booking your travel — but your leisure time is one of your most valuable assets, so why would you trust just anyone with it?” he said.
Here, he shares his tips on how to find the perfect agent:
DO YOUR HOMEWORK Finding the right agent requires research. Start by asking friends and relatives for recommendations — if people you trust are happy with their travels, Mr. Kolner said, chances are you will be, too. You can also ask for recommendations on Facebook. In addition, Virtuoso has a catalog on its site of 4,000 advisers; you can search by geographic location, areas of specialization and languages spoken. Other travel networks with agents include the American Society of Travel Agents, the Signature Travel Network and American Express Travel. You can also check out reviews of agents through a Google or Bing search or sites like Yelp.
FIGURING OUT YOUR NEEDS Do you want someone who is a specialist in a particular destination to assist with planning one specific trip, such as a gorilla trekking adventure in Rwanda? Or are you looking for someone who can help plan your travel for years to come, effectively someone who becomes a specialist in you? These can be the same person, Mr. Kolner said, but knowing what you want from the outset may lead you to a different adviser.
HOW INVOLVED DO YOU WANT TO BE? Some advisers like to plan every aspect of a trip, from booking airfare to making dinner reservations, while some are happy to offer a second opinion about your own research. Some prefer phone interaction, while others are comfortable conversing via email or text. It’s important, Mr. Kolner said, to work with an adviser who matches your travel planning personality. You can find out if advisers are happy to hold your hand or leave you alone by asking them directly. “You’ll find that most are forthcoming about their communication style and travel planning process,” he said.
DON’T BE SCARED OFF BY FEES It’s not uncommon for advisers to charge a fee for their services, which could range from $50 to several hundred dollars, depending on the complexity of the trip. Mr. Kolner said charging fees was a growing practice because advisers spent several hours planning their clients’ trips and would have difficulty making a sustainable living without being compensated for their time. “You are paying for an adviser’s knowledge and for the perks they’re able to score for you,” he said. The extras advisers can get their clients at no cost could include room upgrades, early check-ins and late checkouts at hotels and airport transfers.
[image error]
Source:
Everything You Need to Know About How to Travel to Cuba
Cuba just may be the most exciting travel destination that’s a quick flight away from the United States. But it requires a lot more advanced planning than its Caribbean neighbors.
There’s no place in the world like Cuba, particularly right now. Only 103 miles away from the United States (that’s about the distance between New York City and Philadelphia), the largest island in the Caribbean has lived through a complicated estrangement from its nearest neighbor since 1961. What Americans call “the embargo,” and what Cubans call “the blockade,” has arguably done more (or at least as much) to shape Cuba’s present as its 1959 revolution. Since President Obama lifted many of the longstanding travel restrictions for U.S. citizens when he restored diplomatic ties with Cuba in 2015, Americans are now able to experience a country that, in the 1950s, they flooded with tourists. (Now, Cuba is probably flooding your Instagram feed.) What has happened since that high-rolling (and often mob-backed) heyday for American travel is a little paradoxical: almost nothing has changed, and almost everything has.
[image error]
Many Americans describe Cuba as being lost or frozen in time, and this is true—while Havana is a magnetic, lively city, there’s been very little new construction since 1959. But Cuba also wears those six decades, more or less, on its sleeve—the half-century old cars chugging around the city neither look, nor sound, new. The ripple-effect of U.S.-Cuban relations touches almost everything having to do with the island, from the paperwork you have to fill out before your Havana-bound flight to the dearth of shampoo once you arrive. (We recommend you bring your own.) If relations continue to thaw, travel will likelier become easier for American visitors, but in the meantime, you’ll get the most out of your Cuba trip if you plan ahead. Here are all the nitty gritty, unsexy details you’ll need to know before you leave.
The paperwork
Here’s the good news: all the paperwork you have to do can be handled at the airport before departure. Tourist travel remains prohibited for U.S. citizens, but most trips fall under one or more categories of “authorized travel” permitted by the U.S. government. If you plan, on your visit to Cuba, to hear live music, you can confidently check off “public performances” as your reason for travel. If you plan to stay in a “casa particular,” accommodations provided by a private family, you can check off “support for the Cuban people.” If you plan to visit a museum, you can check off “educational activities.”
The Cuban government, on the other hand, welcomes you as a tourist. Some airlines allow you to purchase your $50 Cuban tourist visa, which you’ll pick up at the airport, ahead of time. Other airlines will sell the visa to you at the airport before your departure. If filling the tourist visa out by hand, write with care—if you cross anything out, you have to buy a new one. Make sure to keep it somewhere safe: You’ll present the visa upon your arrival in Havana, and again when you leave the country. If you lose it, you have to buy a new one. Not fun.
The money question
Cuba has two currencies, the CUP—the peso that most Cubans earn and use—and the CUC—which is linked to the American dollar and which is what tourists use. (You get one cuck joke. Use it now. Get it out of your system.) This system exists so that tourists don’t inflate costs for normal Cubans and so that Cubans can charge tourists prices they are used to paying—creating what’s essentially a local price and a tourist price. For instance, a Cuban might pay the equivalent of 5 cents to go to the Museo de las Bellas Artes, but an American tourist would pay the equivalent of 5 dollars. Expect to pay in CUCs, and make sure the change you receive is in CUCs too.
In Cuba, you can’t use credit or debit cards from U.S.-based banks. (Even if you do have a non-U.S. bank, few places take cards.) This means you have to bring all your money with you on the plane. And be sure to ask for new bills from your bank: the Cuban government will not take wrinkled, torn, or old bills. Cuba also charges a 10% fee for American currency—you can get around this by bringing Canadian dollars or euros; the exchange rate will almost certainly be less than the 10% fee. Do you research, and check exchange rates before you travel.
[image error]
So how much should you bring? Havana is cheaper than, say, New York, but still within the same realm of cost. So, no $15 cocktails, but expect to pay $3-$8 for a mojito or daiquiri. Taxi rides will likely be your biggest expense: they can range between $10 and $30 for inter-Havana travel. Budgets will vary depending on the traveler and the itinerary, but if you have paid for your lodging ahead of time, planning on $200 per day is a safe bet, plus another $200 for emergencies. It’s better to bring too much than too little.
Where to stay
In Cuba, tourists can choose between services offered by the government or by private individual. In general, you will always get a better deal and higher quality when you go with private enterprise, particularly when deciding where to stay.
All hotels in Cuba are government-owned and operated. Havana has some truly beautiful old hotels built before the Revolution—the Saratoga, the National—which are arguably worth the extra expense. Still, a real taste of Cuban life can be found by staying with actual Cuban citizens in their homes, a style of accommodation called a casa particular. Casas are also a great place for food: almost all offer delicious and huge breakfasts for about 5 CUC per person. Most casas also serve dinner, which are some of the most affordable, generous, and best-tasting meals you’ll find in Cuba. Meals for two often look like they could feed a family of at least four. AirBnB is a dependable, but not the only, way to book and pay for a casa particular ahead of time.
Getting around
There are about 150,000 cars in Cuba, a country of 11 million, and a big percentage of them are nearly 70 years old. They are a precious and limited resource in Cuba—expect to pay commensurately. A cab from the airport into Old Havana should cost at most 30 CUC. You can arrange for cars ahead of time through your hotel or casa, but in Havana there are taxis everywhere and everyone wants to give you a ride. It’s worth planning ahead if you have a particular schedule to keep to, or you want to lock in a specific price, or you want to ride in a specific car. Your casa or hotel will likely be able to help you out here. The quality of cars varies really widely, from dreamy candy-colored Cadillacs that have been lovingly cared for to fume-filled Soviet wrecks that look like they drove out of Mad Max. Also, say goodbye to seatbelts.
Leaving Havana
If you’d like to travel outside of Havana, you have a few options.
Rent a car. Rental cars are the only new cars on the island, so you won’t have to worry about getting a vehicle in bad repair. There are also so few cars on the island, period, that you don’t really have to worry about other drivers outside of Havana. You’re not going to run into a gridlock on the interstate.
Hire a private car. A private car ride from Havana to Viñales, a rural tourist town about two and a half hours away, can cost at least 100 CUCs. You can arrange and pay for one online through the Cuban government before you leave or you can arrange for one once you arrive, but making arrangements in person will give you the greatest flexibility and the most freedom to negotiate.
Take a taxi collectivo, which is a shared private car. Prices are comparable to the official bus routes, but you have more flexibility with regards to pick-up time and location. In Havana, it’s easy to arrange a taxi collectivo outside the city’s Viazul bus station, but it’s a conversation you can broach with any taxi driver. (If they can’t give you a ride, they certainly will know someone who can.) A taxi collectivo from Havana to Viñales can cost about 20 CUC per person, and they can pick you up and drop you off at your accommodations.
[image error]
Ride on the tourist-only Viazul bus. Cheaper than a taxi collectivo (it costs 12 CUC per person from Viñales to Havana) and often more comfortable, the buses are new, air conditioned, and plush. The ride takes a bit longer, because it makes several stops and you have to get yourself to and from the station. You can buy tickets online ahead of your trip, but only a limited number are available for sale on the internet: a bus that appears to be sold out online probably isn’t sold out in person; you can always go to the station in person to check.
Buy a ticket for an inclusive tour. Many companies offer tours from Havana to other parts of the island. Many people, for instance, visit Viñales by way of a day-tour from Havana. On the plus side, you are more likely to be interacting with English speakers and you don’t have to worry about making all the arrangements yourself. On the minus side, you may get a rushed orcursory experience of the place you are traveling to.
Eating and drinking
As with lodging, private is better than government when it comes to food. Take advantage of the meals your casa offers: cheap, delicious, plentiful, and flexible to your schedule. Outside of casas, the best places to eat food are restaurants known as paladars. Originally conceived as private homes that offered meals for purchase, the paladar industry has gotten so big that you won’t ever mistake one for someone’s private home.
The best paladars, especially in Havana, require a reservation. Do this ahead of time—many have websites and all have phone numbers. (The best way to call a Cuban landline is by using the Skype app for your cell phone.) The best and most successful restaurants all have plenty of English speakers employed, so you don’t have to worry about the language barrier to make those phone calls. Once you arrive in Cuba, have your casa host or someone at your hotel reconfirm all your reservations by phone. Paladar owners realize that plans often change once people arrive in Cuba; they will drop your reservation if they don’t hear from you. Plan to tip 10 percent on meals.
An important note to keep you mobile and happy: You can only drink the tap water if it has been boiled. A lot of casas will offer boiled water in a central location (like their kitchen, or in a fridge), or else will provide bottled water for purchase or included with your room.
Speaking
Spanish is extremely useful here, but not mandatory. People manage to make themselves known, one way or another. That being said, even just a few words can make a big difference. It’s worth breaking out (or downloading) some flashcards. Unless you are fluent, make sure you have the Spanish language dictionary for the Google Translate app downloaded on your phone. It’s a little awkward, but better than being completely unable to express yourself.
Staying connected
Yes, there are a few places to get access to the internet in Cuba, but why not just give up? You’re not going to get a better excuse not to check your email that being in Cuba. Put your phone on airplane mode, and just use it to take pictures, punch something into Google Translate, take notes, or look at maps. Maps.Me will allow you to download searchable maps of Cuba to use offline. You’ll be able to use it to find businesses, addresses, and get directions, even in airplane mode.
If you insist on using the internet, there are many wifi hotspots available across the country—often around tourist-heavy areas (the airport, hotels) or in parks; you buy access to them by the hour, which is easiest to do at the front desk of a hotel. You’ll receive a card with a temporary login and password, then you connect to the network with “ETECSA” in the name. After you join the wifi network, click on the “Learn more about…” link to bring up the login page. To use the phone in Cuba, ask your hotel or casa host. They’ll also make phone calls for you on your behalf, if you need to confirm a reservation or order a taxi.
On the street
[image error]
Havana is one of the safest cities in the world, and Cubans (as much as this can be said of any nation of millions of people) are very friendly. However, because the disparity between the CUP (the Cuban peso) and the CUC (the tourist currency) is so large, it is highly advantageous for anyone in the proximity of a tourist to try and earn their money. Taxi drivers and casa owners can make more money in a day than a doctor—the highest paid government position in Cuba—makes in two months. As a result, in touristy-heavy areas, you’ll likely be approached pretty constantly by people who want to offer you a taxi, show you a menu for a restaurant, sell you cigars, or lead you to a good music spot for a tip. You can either ignore (faster but more rude) and they’ll leave you alone, or engage in conversation but explain why you won’t be taking them up on their offer (pleasant but time consuming). If you are interested in what they are trying to sell you (this goes for taxis in particular), don’t be afraid to haggle.
One group of people to always give money to, however, is musicians: small groups will often set up in public establishments, play a few songs, and then pass around a basket for donations. It’s appropriate to pay between $1 and $5 per basket-pass, and it’s one of the most wonderful parts about walking around Havana.
[image error]
Source:
http://www.gq.com/story/how-to-plan-cuba-trip-advice
May 8, 2017
Facebook campaigns against fake news in UK ahead of election
Facebook has announced a national print advertising campaign in the UK to educate the British public about fake news, as part of a concerted global effort to crack down on the false information epidemic it has seen on its platform.
The social network’s full-page print ads will appear in four UK newspapers on Monday, including the Telegraph, Times, Metro and Guardian, reproducing the same 10 tips to spot fake news that it launched on Facebook itself last month. The move, which comes a month before the UK general election, follows similar newspaper ads in Germany and France last month ahead of their elections, in newspapers including Bild, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Le Monde and Les Échos.
“People want to see accurate information on Facebook and so do we. That is why we are doing everything we can to tackle the problem of false news,” said Simon Milner, Facebook’s director of policy for the UK. “To help people spot false news, we are showing tips to everyone . . . on how to identify if something they see is false.” The 10 tips include watching out for fraudulent web addresses and manipulated photos, as well as considering the source and tone of a story, such as whether it is a joke.
The latest campaign is one part of Facebook’s evolving response to accusations the group was responsible for influencing the US presidential election, through the spread of fake news stories and “filter bubbles”. Since November, it has been working with American fact-checkers such as Snopes and Politifact, later expanding to partnerships with non-profits and media companies in Germany and France.
“Obviously they are trying very hard to reduce this problem because they are facing regulatory pressure in the UK, Germany and elsewhere, they have to be seen to be doing something,” said Professor Charlie Beckett, a media expert at the London School of Economics.
“And they are genuinely engaging with it. They want to signal to everyone that they take this seriously.” Facebook also said it had removed tens of thousands of fake accounts in the UK alone over the past two months. This spring clean, the company said, would “reduce the spread of material generated through inauthentic activity, including spam, misinformation, or other deceptive content that is often shared by creators of fake accounts”. The new activities reflect an effort by Facebook to head off a potential reaction from lawmakers, similar to those in Germany pursuing fines for fake news.
[image error]
Source:
https://www.ft.com/content/3b9700ce-31ad-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a
Bill Gates is helping India win its war on human waste
October, 2, 2019 is an important date for India’s government.
Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth, it marks the proposed finish line for “Clean India,” the country’s ambitious plan to install 75 million toilets around the country.
Right now, 600,000 of the world’s 1.7 million who die annually from unsafe water and sanitation (due primarily to open, unclean toilets) live in India. As billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates recently wrote on his blog, those kinds of conditions make a plan like Clean India worthy of both praise and financial support.
Over the past several years, The Gates Foundation has donated millions in aid and grant money to both federal governments and private companies. Some of those donations were used to created high-tech toilets for use in low-income countries.
In 2012, the Gates Foundation issued a challenge to design a revolutionary toilet that was safe, sustainable, and affordable. The four winning designs were awarded grants totaling $3.4 million, with the expectation that they could help transform underserved areas.
[image error]
The largest grant, for $1.3 million, went to RTI for its Integrated Waste Treatment System. The toilets disinfect liquid waste, dry out and burn solid waste, and turn that waste into electricity that further powers the toilet. Each unit costs roughly $2,500 and can accommodate 50 people per day.
Another design is the eToilet, India’s first automatic, unmanned, electronic public toilet. Lights switch on only during use, in order to save energy. Meanwhile, voice commands help people use the toilet correctly. Each use costs only a few cents.
Gates says that the presence of toilets isn’t enough to improve sanitation. People still need to use those toilets.
“Clean India has ingenious ways of tackling that problem,” Gates wrote. In certain places, groups of children will team up to alert people defecating out in the open that public toilets are the smarter and safer option. Billboards remind people the toilets exist. Even the country’s money features the Clean India logo.
More than 30% of India’s villages have been declared free of open defecation, Gates wrote. Last year, the rate was only 8%.
The program is one of Gates’ favorites, he says, because it shows a government can make gigantic leaps in public health so long as it focuses its attention on the problem, measures it, and uses the feedback to tweak the system. Gandhi’s 150th birthday is two and a half years away, and India seems fully set on meeting its goal.
“It is a great example for other countries and an inspiration for all of us who believe everyone deserves a chance at a healthy, productive life,” Gates wrote.
Source:
http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-india-war-on-human-waste-2017-5
5 things you need to know in Australian tech today
Welcome to a brand new week – check out these must-read tech stories:
1. A Melbourne fintech is celebrating a $17 million funding round. Foreign exchange startup Airwallex got the attention of some serious players in global commerce for its latest capital injection, including card giant Mastercard, famous VC brand Sequoia China and Chinese web conglomerate Tencent. Read more here.
2. Facebook’s Australian revenue instantly multiplied 10 times after the laws came in last year to stop offshoring of local sales. The social media giant went from $33.6 million in Australian revenue in 2015 to $326.9 million for last year, after the Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law came into effect on January 1, 2016 and a company restructure. However, Facebook Australia saw its “costs of revenue” soar from $0 to $275.2 million, which meant an almost complete offsetting of the spectacular rise in local revenue. Read more on how the company made just $3 million in net profit after paying $3.27 million in tax.
3. Google Australia merely doubled its revenue in 2016 as a result of the Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law, but will be fighting an amended tax assessment that the Australian Taxation Office issued it after year end. The internet giant’s Australian arm racked up $1.14 billion in revenue and $104.7 million net profit, which it attributed partially to the restructure and partially to actual growth in operations. Read more on its results.
4. A debt collection startup has scored $1 million in seed funding from Westpac’s Reinventure. InDebted, which is already in operation in Australia, will use the cash to expand overseas to use technology in an industry that’s been slow to move out of pen and paper processes. Read more on the other angel investors.
5. IBM shipped malware on USB sticks sent out to customers. The tech giant has advised that USB drives sent with Storwize flash and hybrid corporate data storage systems should be destroyed, after it was discovered some software on the drives contained malware supposedly served up from a North Korean website.
[image error]
Read more at https://www.businessinsider.com.au/5-things-you-need-to-know-in-australian-tech-today-2017-5#LA9Xmhrd6QfDLtA4.99
This startup’s ‘software robots’ are taking the jobs of low-skilled office workers
The $30m raised last week by UiPath, which builds apps to automate repetitive office work, is the largest investment a Romanian startup has ever received.
Its tools are used by leading companies working in financial services, insurance, and healthcare, and each software robot license can replace up to five low-skilled full-time human employees, UiPath says.
The firm’s software robots mimic human users. Once installed on a computer and trained to perform certain tasks, they can read screens the way a human does and can perform a broad range of tasks, such as saving email attachments from clients, extracting data from a particular field in a bill, and importing that data into a company’s software, where it can be manipulated by a human employee.
A software robot could be trained to install Office copies on Windows machines, for example. It knows where and when to click next, and to check certain buttons. Of course, it still needs to wait for files to copy during certain steps of the installation process.
One of the unusual approaches that UiPath has adopted is that it offers its software free to companies with a turnover below $1m.
UiPath was founded in Romania in 2012, by former Microsoft software developer Daniel Dines, now CEO, and Marius Tirca, CTO.
It grew from 10 people employed two years ago, to 150 today. About 100 of them are still located in Bucharest, Romania, where the tech team is located. The company has physical offices in New York, London, Bangalore, Tokyo, and Singapore, and plans to set up shop in Hong Kong and Sydney.
UiPath’s turnover is undisclosed but the management says it increased sixfold in 2016, and most of the customers are US and European. CEO Dines said he’s working with two Top 10 Fortune Global companies, among others.
A competitor to Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism, UiPath says it will use the money raised in the series A round led by venture capital firm Accel Partners to expand the business and develop its technologies.
CTO Tirca said his tech team is working on adding more cognitive capabilities to the software, such as natural language processing and machine learning. Work is also going on to improve the way the robots handle unstructured data.
UiPath plans to double the team by the end of this year, tapping into Romania’s vibrant tech talent pool. The salaries it offers are among the highest in the country, but its technical job interviews are among the most difficult. The management wants to recruit the best and brightest, regardless of their experience in the field.
The robotic process automation market is expected to approach $9bn by 2024, according to Grand View Research. It reckons small and mid-size companies will benefit most from automation, as software robots are 65 percent less expensive than full-time employees. Forrester estimates that, by 2021, there will be over four million robots doing office, administrative, sales, and related tasks.
[image error]
Source:
China’s WeChat blocked in Russia
Chinese internet giant Tencent said Saturday its messaging app WeChat had been blocked in Russia, adding it was in touch with authorities to resolve the issue.
WeChat, known as Weixin in China, is the world’s most popular messaging service, with 889 million global users by the end of 2016.
As well as messaging, it also offers payment, ride-hailing and other services, and Tencent has ambitions to spread the app beyond China.
It is unclear how many users WeChat has in Russia.
“We’re experiencing a block and we’re deeply sorry,” a Tencent official said on a company microblog.
“Russian regulations say online service providers have to register with the government but WeChat doesn’t have the same understanding (of the rules),” the official added.
A spokesman for Russia’s telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor said the messaging service “did not provide its contact information for the register of information distribution organizations.”
“We are sending letters to iTunes and Google Play to block the app. We await a reaction. If it does not follow, access to the messenger will be limited through telecom providers,” Vadim Ampelonsky told state-run RIA Novosti Friday.
Earlier in the week, Roskomnadzor placed Blackberry Messenger and Line on its list of banned services for the same reasons, RIA reported.
A law passed in 2014 requires foreign messaging services, search engines and social networking sites to store the personal data of Russian users inside Russia.
Sites that breach the law are added to a blacklist and internet providers are obliged to block access.
The law prompted criticism from internet companies but entered into force in September 2015, with professional networking site LinkedIn blocked after it was found to have broken the law.
China also has strict internet regulations.
Communist authorities censor online content they deem politically sensitive, while blocking some Western websites and the services of internet giants including Facebook, Twitter and Google with a vast control network dubbed the Great Firewall of China.
Tencent became China’s most valuable firm in September, beating state-owned telecom behemoth China Mobile and nearly reaching half of Apple’s valuation.
[image error]
Source:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2017/05/08/chinas-wechat-blocked-in-russia.html
Prince’s Famous Vault Opens: Inside His Vast Archives’ Uncertain Future
Soon after Prince signed on to star in 1984’s Purple Rain, he got to work writing songs. Before filming even began, he had more than 100 ready. He obsessively recorded over the next nine months, at his home studio and in front of audiences at Minneapolis’ First Avenue. “We rehearsed for six months, and he documented everything,” says guitarist Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution. Only nine of those songs made it to the final soundtrack, and the unreleased material has tantalized fans for 33 years. Now, some of it will finally see official release. On June 9th, Warner Bros. will release an expanded edition of Purple Rain, with four discs including extended tracks, B sides, and a DVD of a March 1985 concert with the Revolution in Syracuse, New York (with a 20-minute “Purple Rain”). Most intriguingly, the set features a full disc of outtakes from the sessions. Some of them, including the full version of “Father’s Song” and the studio version of “Electric Intercourse,” have never circulated before.
It’s the first big posthumous release delving into what Prince’s estate has said are “thousands upon thousands” of tapes in the singer’s vaults at Paisley Park, his home in Minnesota. In 2014, Prince told Rolling Stone the vault includes unheard albums with the Revolution, the Time and Vanity 6. “I didn’t always give the record companies the best song,” he said.
[image error]
But the rest of Prince’s catalog has been caught in the kind of legal chaos that has surrounded his estate since his death last April. In February, Universal Music Group paid $30 million for the rights to distribute music Prince recorded after he left Warner Bros. in 1996 (he re-signed with the label in 2014). Even more exciting for fans, Universal announced that, beginning in 2018, it would “obtain U.S. rights to certain renowned Prince albums release from 1979 to 1995.” The deal also included unreleased material from throughout his career.
But that deal is now essentially dead: Sources close to Universal say it is seeking its money back for misrepresentation after discovering that it might not have access to Prince’s pre-’96 material until 2021, making the deal considerably less appealing. No plans for more archival releases have been announced; it is also unclear which vault material Warner Bros. owns, and for how long.
Prince’s estate has been in similar limbo. He kept no will, leaving his sister Tyka and five half-siblings to battle it out for estate control. As that was sorted out, a Minnesota court appointed a financial firm, Bremer Trust, as a special administrator. The company got to work making deals, from streaming to merchandising, to meet a $12 million estate-tax payment. But Bremer clashed with the family; the court has put another bank, Comerica, in charge, appointing Troy Carter, Lady Gaga’s former manager and now an executive at Spotify, to oversee the archives and future deals. The company met its first test when it put a stop to Deliverance, a six-song EP of unheard Prince music recorded between 2006 and 2008, co-written and produced with engineer Ian Boxill. “Ian had access to a lot more material they worked on together,” says David Staley, co-founder of Rogue Music, who announced the EP. “He felt this small selection was something Prince would have wanted out.” Comerica filed a restraining order to halt the sale of the EP; CD versions of it are sitting in a warehouse until the issue is resolved. (Last week, a court ordered Prince’s estate to post a $1 million bond in advance of the upcoming trial that will determine the fate of the release.)
[image error]
Source:
‘Teen Mom’ Farrah Abraham sparks controversy at MTV Awards with Bollywood-inspired look
Farrah Abraham stirred controversy when she arrived at Sunday’s MTV Movie and TV Awards wearing a Bollywood-inspired dress.
The 25-year-old “Teen Mom OG” star wore a three-piece pink and gold sari featuring a headpiece and a bindi on the red carpet. The look was by Taal Boutique & Bridal, according to TooFab.com.
FARRAH ABRAHAM PRAISES TRUMP
[image error]
But some viewers were not feeling the reality star’s ensemble.
Critics took to social media to express anger over Abraham’s outfit. Some accused her of cultural appropriation.
@SimonSaran @F1abraham Degrading Indian culture
— Kathlene kopp (@Kathlenekopp1) May 8, 2017
@FluentInPopCult @F1abraham @MTV@MTVAwards @TeenMom Looks like she is appropriating marriage.
— Mindy Hammer (@MindyHammer1) May 8, 2017
This is the last person I ever want to see wearing indian clothes & representing Bollywood anything #gross #farrahabraham https://t.co/8eqmPzTQ5D
— Kaitlin Elizabeth (@kaitlinram1003) May 8, 2017
The mother of 8-year-old Sophia told TooFab that she “wanted to bring culture to the red carpet” and wasn’t worried “at all” about any backlash for the look.
“I think this will inspire others to embrace new cultures and have good experiences,” she said, adding that the gown made her feel “freaking amazing, Bollywood and sexy!”
“I’m speaking proof that you can be a mother, you can be strong, you can be sexy, you can be whatever you want,” she said. “You can be fearless. So yes, all moms can get their sexy back, like Justin Timberlake.”
[image error]
Source:
