The second single from London-based duo Quenta, “The Two of Us” grips with a heady hip-hop and art-pop fusion, reminiscent of Demon Days-era Gorillaz. Described as “a journey into the realms of relationships, lovers or friends,” “The Two of Us” meshes hip-hop rhythms with dark brass components. The vocals emit a range of charisma and personality, practically laughing with menacing appeal upon the “it’s just the two of us,” beginnings.

An ominous swell past the one-minute mark excels into a bouncier piano-forward pull, as a mellower vocal disposition emerges alongside. The rise from hip-hop mystique into smooth-flowing pop and “game over!” vocal snippet makes for a compelling sound, reflecting the project’s eclectic and creatively melodic sound — even if it’s at time unsettling. “The Two of Us” is a creative success from Quenta.

Quenta also has an upcoming full-length on the way.

! Last year, Los Angeles-based indie singer/songwriter Tanner Houghton debuted his solo moniker Oh Bummer! with a new EP, Losing Sunlight. That debut found Houghton fusing his laid-back, indie slacker aesthetic with trip-hop-inspired beats from producer The KickDrums, crafting a woozy and charming style of indie pop with an insular frame. Houghton describes his sound as “songs that are a conglomeration of my manic ADHD thoughts - the diary of an overthinker.”

Later this year, Houghton is set to share his forthcoming sophomore EP. He has already teased the record with its lead single, “Talk About It All The Time,” and today he’s back with an early listen to another new track, “Listen Up,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Listen Up” is another of Houghton’s breezy genre fusions, pulling together a sunny guitar line, mellow beat, and insistent hook. Samples from vintage TV shows color the margins of the track while Houghton’s expressive vocal delivery adds some melancholic shades, contrasting his easygoing style with introspective lyricism. Houghton explains of the song, “‘Listen Up’ is an empathetic take on what I know about my late father. He was taken by brain cancer when I was five, and lost the ability to walk long before that. I have memories of him trying with all his might to get up out of his wheelchair and walk, only to hit the ground. He contained multitudes, and seemed to carry so much darkness and light in his heart. Even though he hurt people I love, I stand firm in the belief that love is what heals. This all relates to me and my younger self too - lost, angry, confused. Constantly falling and sinking deeper into that black hole. I needed love and support more than anything, but you can only receive those things if you let them in.”

Yet, despite the track’s themes, the results feel brilliantly sweet and summery. That balance is central to Houghton’s music. He explains, “I remember sitting in an old abandoned Victorian house in Echo Park 4 years ago, writing this song and screaming the hook, ‘Sat and I watched you fall apart’ with my best friend Sasha on guitar. I kept the demo this whole time knowing it could be something special. Oh Bummer! is my first solo musical project at 27 years old, and it is the perfect outlet for me to express my love for hip-hop, while adding in some pop and folk-punk sensibilities. Little did I know the name Oh Bummer! would be so fitting, as it’s become abundantly clear that no matter how bouncy and fun the beat behind me is, I’ll find a way to make sure the theme of the song is as heavy as my heart. And if you met me in person, you’ll see why - I carry myself with whimsey to compensate for all of the weight underneath. Oh, bummer.”

Check out the song and video below. The sophomore EP from Oh Bummer! is due out later this year.

Local Natives are releasing a new album, Time Will Wait For No One, on July 7 via Loma Vista. Now they have announced some in-store performances at three Southern California record stores and shared a live performance video for the album’s recent single, “NYE.” Check it all out below.

Time Will Wait For No One includes three singles the band shared last year: “Just Before the Morning,” “Desert Snow,”and “Hourglass.” “Desert Snow” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then when the album was announced they shared another single from it, “NYE,” via an amusing music video, and announced some tour dates. “NYE” was also one of our Songs of the Week.

For the album the band worked with three producers—John Congleton (Angel Olsen, Death Cab For Cutie, St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten), Michael Harris (Lana Del Rey, Feist), and Danny Reisch (Sun June, Other Lives)—recording at various studios around Los Angeles.

The band collectively had this to say about the album in a previous press release: “Former selves melting away as some of us became fathers, endured periods of isolation, loss, and identity crisis. The highs and lows we were feeling at the same time were so extreme. There was a moment halfway through making the album, we played one of the most emotional concerts of our lives. A sold out show at the Greek Theater in LA, our first performance in almost two years, and we didn’t know if it would be our last. As individuals and as a band, we were on the verge of a collapse. Time flows on uncontrollably and change is relentless, and the people you love are the only constants. Out of that reckoning we dissolved everything down to start again, and had the most prolific period of songwriting in our history. This is the first chapter, Time Will Wait For No One.”

Whenever one of the members of Local Natives get married, the rest of the members become their wedding band. During the wedding of the band’s Ryan Hahn, he got to watch the rest of the band perform without him for the first time, as they covered some of his favorite songs (including one by The Strokes). That inspired “NYE.”

Hahn further explians: “I was so psyched watching the guys play this from the audience, something I’d never seen before, that I thought we had to do a fast and wild song, and ‘NYE’ was born.”

The rest of Local Natives’ lineup is Taylor Rice, Kelcey Ayer, Matt Frazier, and Nik Ewing.

Local Natives released an EP, Sour Lemon, in 2020. Their most recent album was Violet Street, which was released in 2019 on Loma Vista.

Local Natives SoCal In-Store Tour Dates:

July 11, 2023 - Hollywood, CA - Amoeba July 12 - Long Beach, CA - Fingerprints July 15 - Encinitas, CA - Lou’s Records

Local Natives Tour Dates:

August 1, 2023 - Los Angeles, CA - Ford Theater (Hummingbird 10th Ann. Show) August 2, 2023 - Los Angeles, CA - Ford Theater (Hummingbird 10th Ann. Show) August 18, 2023 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue^ August 19, 2023 - Milwaukee, WI - The Pabst Theater^ August 20, 2023 - Detroit, MI - Majestic Theatre^ August 22, 2023 - Boston, MA - House of Blues^ August 24, 2023 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club^ August 25, 2023 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club^ August 26, 2023 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE^ August 27, 2023 - Philadelphia, PA - Franklin Music Hall^ August 29, 2023 - New York, NY - Pier 17^ September 8, 2023 - Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre* September 9, 2023 - Cleveland, OH - House of Blues* September 11, 2023 - Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall* September 12, 2023 - Nashville, TN - Marathon Music Works* September 13, 2023 - Atlanta, GA - The Eastern* September 15, 2023 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues* September 16, 2023 - Austin, TX - Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater* September 17, 2023 - Tulsa, OK - Cain’s Ballroom* September 19, 2023 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren* September 21, 2023 - Denver, CO - Mission Ballroom* September 22, 2023 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot* September 23, 2023 - Bozeman, MT - The Elm* September 25, 2023 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre* September 26, 2023 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre* September 27, 2023 - Portland, OR - McMenamins Grand Lodge* September 28, 2023 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater* September 30, 2023 - Del Mar, CA - The Sound*

^ w/ Annika Bennett

• w/ Halfnoise

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Osees Powerlift Their Way Through Synth-Punk on New Single and Video “Goon”

On their second single from their upcoming album, Intercepted Message, “Goon” wastes no time to turn the amps up with the help of some tasteful 80s synths.

June 23, 2023

Osees - Photo by Titouan Massé

Osees – Photo by Titouan Massé

Released just before they embark on their North American tour, garage-punk band Thee Oh Sees, currently going by Osees, are switching lanes into synth-punk on their latest track and video, “Goon.” Once a solo project of guitarist and vocalist John Dwyer, the band is known for constant name changes and reinventions from album to album. On their second single from their upcoming album, Intercepted Message, “Goon” wastes no time to turn the amps up with the help of some tasteful 80s synths. Ad

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Complete with verses and a chorus that comes rapidly in just over two minutes of track time, Dwyer’s voice, using his gravelly diaphragm, shouts like there’s no tomorrow. From the jump, the drums go at lightning speed without slowing down for a second, fitting for “your 24-hour news cycle eyes,” as Dwyer put it when describing his intentions behind the song. The quote also applies to the lyrics, with Dwyer seemingly speaking to conformities and embracing himself as a goon while simultaneously raising hell on the guitar. Ad

The music video clocks in at the same exact time as the song, keeping matters concise and tight. Perhaps just as tight as Zack Palmisano’s muscles, the focal point of the video. Alone in a mostly empty gym, he pumps iron through constantly changing frames, taking note of posters that tell him to “work hard” and “use every single inch.” He takes the latter to heart and comically uses his hard-on to lift heavy weights like the star of an absurd 80s movie à la Repo Man. artist to watch in 2023

“Goon,” described by Dwyer as “a pop record for tired times. Sugared with bits of shatterproof glass to put more crack in your strap,” just about captures that essence and then some. It also helps that the music video works so well with the track and understands how much it will get your blood flowing. But that should be expected from a band that, after more than twenty studio albums, still manages to keep everyone guessing about what’s around the corner.

“Goon” by Osees is out on all streaming services. For more on their upcoming album and North American tour, including a date at Substance Festival in LA on November 9th, follow them on Bandcamp and their website.

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A stirring single from Chicago-based band SOFT CHARM, “soup” launches quickly into an exhilarating guitar-laden soaring amidst a calming acoustical pulse. The caressing vocal tone emerges amidst a lusher backing disposition; the seamless alternations between urging contemplation and subsequent soaring reminds fondly of Japanese Breakfast.

“Everything that you believe in is a lie,” the vocals let out, the bitter truth contrasted by the exuberant guitar play. The lyrics play poignantly, with this particular line reflective of current society’s trend toward false truths. The track itself “poses itself as a challenge” to such blind acceptances, and does so in rousing form with the climactic rock production.

Check out the band’s track description:

“soup” is a song about brainmelt. Lyrically it weaves gently but potently through subjects such as reproductive justice, gender affirming healthcare, gun control, and police brutality. It poses itself as a challenge to those who may be blindly accepting and reciting dangerous conservative rhetoric. A leftist manifesto tucked into an upbeat sway and melody, reminiscent of an early 2000s indie / pop rock ballad.

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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of June 2023’ Spotify playlist.

Leaders of SAG-AFTRA signaled they are making good headway in contract negotiations with the major studios, suggesting Hollywood may avert a second strike.

In a video message to members Saturday, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland shared no details of the talks, but said they were progressing well.

“We are having an extremely productive negotiations that are laser focused on all the crucial issues you told us are most important to you,” Drescher said.

The talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers began June 7 and are being closely watched in light of the ongoing writers’ strike, which began May 2.

The writers’ strike has brought nearly all scripted production to a halt in Los Angeles. But an actors’ strike could be even more destabilizing for the film and TV industry.

An agreement with the actors, coming on the heels of a contract recently negotiated by the Directors Guild of America, would likely put more pressure on Writers Guild of America and the AMPTP to resolve their standoff, although guild leaders have stressed they would not be bound by terms negotiated by other guilds.

Actors have been vocal in their support of writers and share many of the same demands to boost pay and improve working conditions that they say have eroded during the streaming era.

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SAG-AFTRA members have already authorized their leaders to call a strike if they can’t reach a deal on a new film and TV contract before their contract expires June 30.

The last time actors went on strike was in 2000 in a dispute over their commercials contract. The previous actors’ strike against the major film and TV studios was in 1980.

Despite the tensions, SAG-AFTRA leaders expressed optimism they could reach a deal that would avert another walkout.

“We have a very narrow window of time remaining before our contract expires,” Crabtree-Ireland said in the video. “We remain optimistic that we will be able to bring the studios, networks, streamers along to make a fair deal.”

SAG-AFTRA, which represents some 160,000 performers and broadcasters, is seeking increased wages to counter inflation, higher residuals from streaming and protections from the use of AI. Additionally, the union wants to bolster contributions to its health and pension plans and curb the practice of self-taped auditions, a trend that accelerated during the pandemic.

The video message was first reported by Deadline.

Although What Matters Most is his first studio album since So There, his collaboration in 2015 with the string ensemble yMusic, Ben Folds has been keeping himself busy. Aside from his day job as the artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, he’s written a memoir (A Dream About Lightning Bugs), launched a podcast, displayed his photography in galleries in the U.S. and Europe, and appeared onscreen in films and television (including the hit Amazon Prime series The Wilds.). He’s also been nominated for an Emmy for his composition and performance of the theme song to the Apple TV special It’s the Small Things. So, what made Mr. Folds go back into the studio to make something as old fashioned as a pop record?

We spoke to Folds, who made a name for himself in the mid to late 1990s with Ben Folds Five, about the new album (recently released by New West) and whether it’s better to retire or turn into a heritage act.

Ian Rushbury (Under the Radar): You’ve said that What Matters Most has a specific sequence which builds to a finale. Was that always the concept or was that organic?

Ben Folds: I remember talking to Scott Litt, the guy that produced R.E.M. and he said they were a fucking mess at the start of their sessions but then right at the end, when you don’t think the goal is going to be scored, you kick the ball through 36 pairs of legs and the goalie’s hands and you score. They did that over and over again with their music. I kind of think that this album had a little bit of that going on.

I was looking to make an album that made a trip because I felt that life is like that. I believe that keeping an LP as the template is the best way to make records. It gives you something to focus on—a format, a time limit and an intermission, because, in the era where everyone forgot about vinyl, I was one of the people that didn’t. Every single one of my records was pressed on vinyl and I was always so concerned about how long the programs are on each side and where the highest dynamic is. I always have those things in mind. I wanted it to be a journey. Sometimes, I got a little bit lost; I thought I was in the park but I was actually on the highway, but that’s fine. I felt my way through.

There’s a cinematic feel to the record and it finishes on a real high with “Moments.” Did you always have in the back of your mind that it was going to end on something uplifting?

I’m willing to admit that I’m not very good at [writing] an utterly positive song. And that’s my problem! I eventually went to my friends Tim Harrington and Paul Wright from Tall Heights for help. I had the first line of the song and I told them, “It needs to be like this but I just can’t do it,” and they finished writing the song for me. It became an “era” thing—my era is not that good at “everything’s gonna be okay” songs. In the ’90s, we thought that everything was gonna be okay but now, when we know everything isn’t gonna be okay, the kids like some fantasy! They’re cool with it. Kids can write positive songs now and I admire that.

One track on What Matters Most—“Exhausting Lover”—is a candid recounting of a liaison with an aggressive groupie, ending with some bizarre flagellation involving a length of Hot Wheels track. Please tell me this is drawn from experience?

I hate to tell you this but it’s a product of amalgamation, exaggeration, and straight up fiction. I did want to write a song like Ice-T’s “The Girl Tried to Kill Me.” It’s so good—what he really nailed in his song was the absurdity of it. How artists have a really inflated idea of who they are. It’s dudes telling stories and they get crazier and crazier. It’s okay with me if people think it’s true. I made most of it up—sorry! Let’s say the guy in this song is just some kind of middle American middle-class kid who’s in over his head. Just when he starts thinking, “I think this might not be the girl of my dreams!” she turns around with a piece of Hot Wheels track in her hand!

Another track I thought was really interesting was “Kristine From the 7th Grade.” It’s got a European feel to it. It’s quite unusual for an American artist to write like that.

Oh yeah, you’re gonna hear Nino Rota in there, and Jacques Brel. Definitely a European influence. You can’t erase Leonard Cohen from the equation either. The song is definitely within the field of rock ‘n’ roll but it owes as much to Neil Hannon [of The Divine Comedy] as it does to any American artist. It’s funny—I don’t know why that song came together in such a way after the content of the lyric.

You’re in the middle of a pretty exhaustive world tour, including a return visit to The Royal Albert Hall in London in November. Surely all the stresses and strains of tour bus life are behind you now?

My initial plan was that this was going to be my last album. I mean I’m 56, why should I be shaking my ass on stage in leather pants after this? I’m not saying I’ll never tour again, but I felt I needed to document my feelings about the changing world in a musical time capsule. I felt like the guy on the hill with a long beard looking down from his cave, saying, “Oh God I suppose I’d better come down from the cave and scare some children,” and go back home.

Have you still got the legs for the leather pants?

I’ve still got the stick-like pins I’ve always had and I’m going to shake my ass one more time. But the day after the Albert Hall I’m gonna be stuffing my face with cake.

Do you feel that more, older artists should be leaving the stage, rather than just carrying on regardless?

I do feel for all of us. Some artists are hard-wired to do what they do. It’s a working-class job—I don’t care how much fucking money you make; this is manual labor. You show up and you get paid. It’s an honest day’s work. Some of these guys have been doing it since they were 15 years old. Who are we to tell them that they can’t go out and make an honest living anymore? When I first heard the term “heritage artists,” I thought, “Are you serious here?” I am not going to be a heritage artist! I’m not saying that I’m retiring from stuff. I just don’t plan to do any of that album cycle stuff where you make an album and you go on tour.

I’ve spent my whole life learning a craft. What I need to capture about this requires every bit of craft that I can muster. The kids don’t got the craft now. They’ve got another kind of craft and that’s fine, but they haven’t got that classic ’70s songwriting craftsmanship. The art of shaking a song out of your sleeve. So, I think it’s time for the old fella to come down from the cave, show some kids how to dot I’s and cross T’s and write a proper three-verse song with a great chorus and modulations and cool chords and metaphors and all kinds of good shit. Then I can head back up to the cave and hang up my leather pants

TOKYO, Japan – Japan’s military is testing Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service with an eye to adopting the technology next fiscal year, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday, June 25, citing unnamed government sources.

The Ministry of Defense already has access to communication satellites in geostationary orbit, but use of Starlink technology, operated by Musk’s SpaceX, would add a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, the Yomiuri said.

Countries around the world are seeking to build resilience against the risk of jamming of communications or attacks on satellites in the event of conflict.

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have been testing Starlink since March with the system deployed in about 10 locations and in training, the newspaper said.

Defense ministry spokespeople could not immediately be reached for comment on the report outside business hours.

Starlink technology is being deployed by Ukraine on the battlefield, and Russia is attempting to block its use in the region. Musk said in October SpaceX could not afford to indefinitely fund Starlink’s use in Ukraine.

The US Defense Department said this month it had contracted to provide Starlink services there. – Rappler.com

Should go without saying, but:

Telegram and Twitter were big spreaders of misinformation during the Russian coup attempt. Credit: Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The potential coup attempt in Russia by a paramilitary organization may already be over(opens in a new tab), but the misinformation sure did flow during the breaking global event.

On Friday, news quickly spread that the Kremlin-aligned private army known as Wagner Group, led by "Putin's chef" Yevgeny Prigozhin, was leaving the war in Ukraine and marching towards Moscow. This breaking news caught many by surprise, and people flocked to social media in an effort to make sense of what appeared to be a coup attempt.

However, with information sparse as events in Russia were still unfolding, misinformation and wild speculation ran rampant online, showing that modern day social media and internet news sources are still highly flawed and lacking.

A major issue with this particular event is that many of the most popular platforms in the country aren't ones that get much use in the western world. Telegram, for example, is extremely popular in non-English speaking countries like Russia. Much of the breaking news surrounding the coup attempt was first being posted there, and in Russian.

English speakers not only had to understand the language, but be familiar with which Telegram channels were legitimate sources of information. Due to lackadaisical moderation on the platform, many English-language users that are on Telegram tend to be far right-wingers and biased towards Putin's regime. These accounts are not the best sources of information, if they even have any actual on-the-ground info to begin with.

Much of what flowed on Telegram eventually did make its way to English-speaking users in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere via Twitter. And that poses yet another problem. Since Elon Musk acquired the platform, Twitter has gone through changes that don't exactly bode well for it as an invaluable breaking news resource like it once was.

For example, prior to Musk, the blue checkmark meant that a user was verified by Twitter as the journalist or expert that the individual claimed they were. Remember, the purpose of the checkmark was to make sure these users couldn't be impersonated. Now, however, anyone who pays $8 per month for Twitter's premium subscription service, Twitter Blue, gets a blue checkmark.

Furthermore, those paid blue checkmark users now get priority placement in Twitter's For You feed algorithm, and in the replies to other users' tweets. And, echoing the issue on Telegram, many Twitter Blue subscribers are not far, ideologically speaking, from the Putin regime.

​​"It's probably not good that during a major breaking news event, the ongoing Wagner mutiny in Russia, the majority of viral false and misleading claims are from accounts with Twitter Blue subscription, whose posts are promoted by Twitter's algorithm," observed(opens in a new tab) Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist that covers disinformation and conspiracy theories at BBC Verify.

The issues on Twitter became so obvious that they quickly even became meme-fodder(opens in a new tab) on the platform. For example, many blue checkmark users began spreading information in long tweet threads about the Russian coup, regardless of the fact that they had no expertise on the matter.

It also didn't help that Elon Musk, who owns the platform and has more than 144 million followers, decided not to use his reach to promote experts or journalists on the ground. Instead, Musk deemed(opens in a new tab) a cryptocurrency and tech entrepreneur who hosts larger Twitter Spaces audio chats, the provider of the "best coverage of the situation," and referred his followers to their account.

And unfortunately for those most affected, like people living in Russia, online information was hard to come by as well. Internet observatory NetBlocks reported(opens in a new tab) that the country's major telecommunications providers were blocking users from accessing Google's popular news aggregator, Google News.

Wagner Group now appears to have reversed course and will no longer march towards Moscow. Instead, the paramilitary group will join the Kremlin and again turn their focus to Ukraine, the country that Russia has invaded, to continue a war that has been subjected to its own disinformation campaigns. However, this potential coup, which lasted less than 24 hours, put a big spotlight on how the internet may be worse off than ever before when it comes to spreading accurate information during breaking global news events.

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The most decorated infield in Dodgers history started, of all things, with one small, harmless lie.

On June 23, 1973, the Dodgers were stifled in the first game of a doubleheader by the Cincinnati Reds. They lost 4-1. They recorded only seven hits. And before that day’s nightcap, manager Walter Alston looked for a way to shake up his lineup.

Utility infielder Steve Garvey was the solution.

“I was sitting at my locker,” Garvey recalled, “and Walter Alston came by and stopped me and asked me, ‘Have you ever played first?’ ”

Garvey hadn’t, not really. There was one time in Little League, another in triple A and a handful of appearances in the first few years of his big league career, including coming off the bench 10 days earlier following some behind-the-scenes work at the position throughout the season.

“But,” Garvey added with a grin, “I wasn’t gonna tell him.”

Instead, Garvey coolly fibbed to his manager. “Oh, sure,” he answered. Thus, that night, he lined up alongside Ron Cey, Bill Russell and Davey Lopes.

For the next 8½ years, the Dodgers’ infield rarely changed again — the quartet going on to collect a combined 21 All-Star Game appearances, four National League pennants and a memorable 1981 World Series title playing alongside one another.

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“It’s one of those things in Dodger history that,” Cey said, “you don’t go back too many times over 50 years.”

Indeed, a half-century later, that Dodgers infield was honored Friday night before the team’s game against the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium. The three Southern California residents of the group — Garvey, Cey and Russell — were at the stadium to throw out the first pitch and watch a pregame video tribute.

More than that, though, they relished standing alongside one another on the same field they called home for almost a decade.

“It’s just like your family,” Russell said. “We didn’t take anything for granted back then. You had to be successful to be together that long.”

That, the foursome was. Cey went to six straight All-Star Games from 1974 to 1979. Russell made the Midsummer Classic in 1973, 1976 and 1980. Lopes was a rookie of the year finalist in 1973, a Gold Glove winner in 1978, and a four-time All-Star from 1978 to 1981.

And then there was Garvey, who not only became a four-time Gold Glove winner at his adopted first base position but also won an NL Most Valuable Player Award in 1974 and appeared in eight consecutive All-Star Games through 1981 — the year the four infielders helped lead the Dodgers past the New York Yankees for the franchise’s first World Series title in 16 years.

“When you look at the accomplishments, the longevity, the contribution to the Dodger organization and baseball,” Garvey said, “all four of us have taken a lot of pride in it.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1491937

> Using surveys, cognitive tests and brain imaging, researchers have identified a type of depression that affects about a quarter of patients. The goal is to diagnose and treat the condition more precisely.

Happy Gilmore is happy for Happy Gilmore.

On Friday, Adam Sandler congratulated the high school golfer who goes by the same name as Sandler's 1996 character in the movie after he announced his commitment to play at Ball State as a member of the Class of 2024.

"Go get em Happy," Sandler wrote on Twitter, quoting Gilmore's announcement post. "Pulling for you."

The real life Gilmore, who was born Landon James Gilmore, expressed excitement at getting a response from the movie star.

"My life is complete," he replied.

Live Leaderboard: US Open Tournament Scores, Schedules, Pairings and More

Per Golf.com, Gilmore, who attends Indiana's Bloomington High School South, earned the nickname "Happy" as a child because he can hit the long ball like Sandler's character. When he was nine, he won a long-drive contest at a junior event.

The name stuck and the senior plays it up. He enters all tournaments using the moniker and even posed for a picture wearing a Boston Bruins jersey like Sandler's character. Unlike Sandler's character, Gilmore does not play hockey.

Gilmore said people still get fascinated at his name, but he's risen on his own merit. Earlier this month, he tied for seventh in the Indiana high school state championship and helped his team to a fourth-place finish.

“I don’t think it adds any pressure to me,” Gilmore told the IndyStar. “But I do know that whatever I do is going to be seen. Especially as far as leaderboards when people are scrolling down and see ‘Happy Gilmore’ they are going to look at it, obviously. So I do know that, but I don’t let it get in my head or that I have to play good because of it. I just go out and do my thing.”

Over the course of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s extravagant three-day state visit to Washington, which featured a tented dinner on the South Lawn and a rare joint address to Congress, he and President Biden frequently spoke of their nations’ shared democratic values.

But that lofty rhetoric papered over the reality that in India, the hugely popular Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have advanced policies that discriminate against Muslims, Christians and other religious minorities and limit freedom of speech and the press.

At the White House on Thursday, Modi offered a rare response to a reporter’s question about his government’s handling of religious minorities and free speech amid concerns about the erosion of human rights in India.

“We have always proved that democracy can deliver. And when I say deliver, this is regardless of caste, creed, religion, gender,” Modi said. “There’s absolutely no space for discrimination.”

Foreign policy experts, democracy advocates, Indian dissidents and even the U.S. government disagree with his assessment. The State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom has accused Modi’s government of overseeing arbitrary killings, restrictions on freedom of expression and the media, and violence targeting religious minorities.

Human rights groups have accused his government of undermining democracy, including by passing a citizenship law that discriminates based on religion and revoking the special autonomous status granted to India’s only Muslim-majority territory, Jammu and Kashmir. In April, top opposition leader and vocal Modi critic Rahul Gandhi was expelled from parliament after a court convicted him of defamation for mocking Modi in an election speech.

India has also become an especially difficult place to be a reporter. The nation’s ranking has slipped to No. 161 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, a list compiled by Reporters Without Borders. Afghanistan, Venezuela and South Sudan rank higher.

In February, Indian tax authorities raided local BBC offices weeks after the British broadcaster aired a documentary on Modi’s role in anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002, when he was the state’s chief minister. The government attempted to ban the documentary, labeling it “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage.”

I know a bit about the anxieties of reporting in Modi’s India. As a reporter for BBC News in 2019, I covered his reelection campaign.

Before traveling to New Delhi, I was summoned to the Indian Embassy in Washington, where I sat down for chai with an official from the BJP, Modi’s party, who quizzed me on my family’s background and my plans in India.

I recounted my father’s journey from southern India’s Chennai, then known as Madras, to the U.S. in 1965, his life in Chicago as a doctor and my work as a journalist.

I didn’t tell him I planned to travel to Assam state’s border with Bangladesh to interview some of the millions of Muslims who would be rendered stateless under a citizenship law that would pass in Modi’s second term. I left out my plans to write about the similarities between Modi’s policies and those of then-President Trump.

That reporting led to an onslaught of hate mail and social media harassment, but I was able to return home. The same can’t be said for the Indian journalists who have been detained or bullied for scrutinizing the BJP.

Last year, 10 human rights and democracy organizations called out Modi’s government for targeting journalists, saying it had “emboldened Hindu nationalists to threaten, harass, and abuse journalists critical of the Indian government, both online and offline, with impunity.”

“This government has employed a range of tactics to chill free expression,” said Nadine Farid Johnson of PEN America, a nonprofit organization that advocates for free expression.

She pointed to the Indian government’s more recent effort to purge textbooks of references to the Muslim Mughal dynasty, the nation’s founding as a secular republic and Gujarat state’s anti-Muslim violence on Modi’s watch.

“It actually mirrors what we’re seeing here in the U.S. — these legislative efforts that have used government power to censor the diversity and complexity of our own country’s history — something we’ve seen the [Biden] administration speak out against,” Johnson said.

For Biden, the focus on shared democratic values was an awkward feature of Modi’s visit. Critics say his warm welcome of Modi undermines his messages about the threats to democracy posed by Trump, his 2020 — and potentially 2024 — Republican opponent.

At Modi’s welcoming ceremony Thursday, Biden made oblique references to human rights, hailing freedom of expression and religious pluralism as “core principles” for both countries. At a news conference that day, the president said universal human rights faced challenges “in each of our countries” but remained vital to both nations’ success. When asked by a reporter about the criticism that his administration was overlooking India’s crackdown on dissent, Biden said the two leaders had a “good discussion” about democratic values.

The administration’s feting of Modi stretched into Friday at the State Department, where Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken hosted a luncheon in the Indian leader’s honor. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former PepsiCo Chief Executive Indra Nooyi and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi nibbled on samosas as Harris and Blinken praised the U.S.-India partnership.

“Both countries wear the democracy label on their sleeves,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center. “It’s a challenge for the administration, because they would like to be able to use that democracy story in India as a way of underscoring the importance of U.S.-China competition and working with like-minded democracies to counter China — but they really can’t because of the democracy struggles in India.”

The U.S. should also acknowledge its own struggles with democracy, he added, pointing to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Even if the scale of the democratic backsliding in India is significantly higher than in the United States, I think the objective for the administration would be not to make it seem like it’s lecturing India,” Kugelman said. “That’s a point of sensitivity in New Delhi and among Indians on the whole — that the U.S. is a hypocrite.”

Biden administration officials have made clear that Washington’s economic and security partnership with New Delhi outweighs most other considerations. The U.S. holds more military exercises with India than with any other country, according to the State Department. And Washington became New Delhi’s largest trading partner in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, called the deepening of ties with India a “hinge moment in geopolitics,” and said he didn’t think Modi’s lavish visit undercut the president’s broader narrative of a values-based foreign policy.

“We are dealing with the gathering and march of autocratic forces in ways that are not in the United States’ national interest, and ... we do need to rally the values, norms and forces of democracy to push back against that,” he told a group of reporters Tuesday. “And that is a point the president has made consistently since he came into office. But he has also been clear that in that larger effort, we need constructive relationships with countries of all different traditions and backgrounds.”

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Home decor color trends come and go, but classic white linens—like bedding, towels, and tablecloths—never go out of style. Sure, being a neutral color helps, but there’s a certain comfort that comes from being able to look at white bedsheets or a washcloth and immediately know whether they’re clean.

Unfortunately, getting to that point is easier said than done. Here are three mistakes to avoid when washing whites. Don’t make these mistakes when washing white linens

With more than 20 years of industry experience, Wayne “The StainMaster” Edelman, CEO of Meurice Garment Care, has successfully tackled the toughest of stains, and is a whiz at washing whites. Below are three common laundry mistakes, and his tips for dealing with them:

1. Thinking white is the absence of color

First things first: White isn’t the absence of color—it is a color. “Most think that fabrics are white at their core,” says Edelman. “But white textiles are dyed white, and fade like any other color.” 2. Using chlorine-based bleach

One of the first things people learn about doing laundry is that bleach is the most effective way to get whites sparkling clean. But bleach can cause the fibers in the fabric to deteriorate, and while it does remove stains, it can also leave your laundry more yellow than white.

“The best way to brighten and restore stained and darkened white linens or towels is to soak them in warm water [and] laundry detergent, and use a sodium-based bleach like OxyClean,” Edelman says. 3. Missing clear stains

Not all stains show up right away on white linens. “Clear stains like sunscreen, white wine, and glue, may not always be seen on your white furnishes or towels, but they, in fact, are sugar stains and will caramelize overtime,” Edelman explains. This is why a napkin or towel may be white after you wash it and put it away, then look yellow when you pull it out next.

To prevent this from happening, Edelman says that you should always pre-soak or treat white linens if you know something was spilled on them—even if you can’t see the stains.

For nearly three years, Roscoe Rike has been picking up his hormone-replacement therapy prescriptions at the same Walgreens in Oakland without a hitch.

That changed on Monday when the 30-year transgender man said he was denied his medication because of the pharmacist’s religious beliefs.

“It was just really surreal,” said Rike, who recorded part of the exchange at the pharmacy. “I know that transphobia and transphobic people exist, but that was my first experience of a perfect stranger doing something like that to my face.”

The exchange occurred Monday morning at the Walgreens in the 5000 block of Telegraph Avenue.

In a statement, a Walgreens spokesperson said the company was unable to discuss specific patients but said policies were in place to assure all patients are helped even in the “very rare” situation when employees have a religious belief that prevents them from helping the customer.

“In an instance where a team member has a religious or moral conviction that prevents them from meeting a patient’s need, we require the team member to refer the patient to another employee or manager on duty who can complete the transaction,” the statement read. “These instances, however, are very rare.”

The spokesperson confirmed that the company was reviewing the Oakland incident.

On Monday, Rike said he’d spoken to a Walgreens employee earlier that day to make sure his medication was ready for pickup but sensed something was awry when the pharmacist behind the counter unexpectedly asked him why he was taking the medication.

“I was like, ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business, really,’” Rike said. “I was initially confused for a second, but right away I could sense that, OK, we’re doing this.”

The pharmacist then told Rike he would have to call his doctor to find out what the medication was for. When Rike pushed back, the pharmacist told him that he wouldn’t give him the prescription because of his religious beliefs.

That’s when Rike said he decided to record the encounter on his phone.

“So right now, you’re going to tell me you’re going to deny me my medication because of your personal religion?” Rike is heard saying in the video. “You’re not my [expletive] doctor.”

The pharmacists is seen looking at a computer screen and clicking on a mouse silently for a few seconds.

“So you think you know better than my doctor? Is that what’s going on?” Rike asked.

“I just need to know your diagnosis,” the pharmacist responded.

“Why? That’s none of your [expletive] business!” Rike said. “It’s always the religious people that have the most [expletive] hate in their hearts. You’re disgusting.”

During the incident, Rike said the pharmacist told him he could return to the store after noon, but that seemed unfair to him.

“Why should I have to wait two hours for something that’s ready?” he said. “Only thing that is keeping me from getting my medicine, that my doctor prescribed me, is this dude not doing his job.”

When Rike asked to speak with the manager, he said, the pharmacist ignored him.

Another employee contacted a manager, who apologized for the incident and gave Rike his medication.

Rike said he’s aware that pharmacists are allowed to refer patients to someone else if they have a religious objection but that doesn’t make sense.

“If you follow a religion that is going to prevent you from doing your job and provide medical care to people, then you need to not be in the medical profession dealing with the public,” he said.

Since Monday, Rike has considered changing pharmacies, or signing up for a home delivery service. He said he doesn’t want to deal with a similar situation again.

He hesitates to make any changes just yet, though.

“There’s a part of me that’s like, why do I have to change how I do things? I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “I should just be able to go to my local pharmacy and get my medication like everyone else.”

Rep. Troy Carter wants the White House to pull two judicial nominees in his state that were OK’d by Louisiana’s GOP senators. | Mariam Zuhaib/AP Photo

Officially, House Democrats have no say over presidential nominations. Unofficially, they’re wading knee-deep into confirmations they think the party is botching.

Top Congressional Black Caucus members are steaming that the Biden administration isn’t adequately consulting them on judicial nominees. Swing-district Democrats want the Senate to pick up the pace on filling key vacancies. And progressives are furious that the chamber still hasn’t considered Julie Su’s nomination as Labor secretary.

The Senate broke for a recess on Thursday with no plans to vote on Su, whom Biden nominated in late February to be his administration’s first Asian American Cabinet secretary. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a member of the progressive “squad,” called it “racist” and “embarrassing” that the Senate hadn’t advanced her nomination.

“It’s once again the party harming itself,” he said, adding he hoped undecided senators will “get on board.”

It’s a reflection of House Democrats’ growing frustration in the minority, where the party and its powerful Black Caucus have little sway over legislation. Instead, they’re trying to exert power by catching the ear of the president, his top aides and the Democratic Senate — sometimes prompting intra-party tension as House lawmakers step into already crowded lanes.

Under split government, the Democratic Senate has spent much of its time this year on nominees, including an array of diverse judges with progressive bona fides as well as several with Republican backing. Still, House Democrats are smarting that their Senate colleagues aren’t more aggressive in their tactics. And senators are brushing off some of the suggestions from the lower chamber.

The Black Caucus met with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients last week and advocated for changes to Senate precedent that would make it easier to confirm defense and judicial nominees. They’re not yet convinced, though, that the White House will be receptive to their broader concerns about the lack of input top Black Democrats have on nominees.

“The proof will be in the pudding. The action — we haven’t seen that,” Black Caucus member Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.) said in an interview. “So we’re hopeful that we will get some action soon … but as of right now, we’re still waiting.”

Carter may best exemplify House Democrats’ frustrations. He wants the White House to pull two judicial nominees in his state that were OK’d by Louisiana’s GOP senators — a necessity under the current nomination process — and says he wasn’t properly consulted as the only Democratic lawmaker from the state.

Under Senate customs, home state senators are able to unilaterally stop a nominee by refusing to return what are called blue slips. On the Louisiana judgeships, the two Republican senators negotiated with the White House for two years before the nominations of Jerry Edwards Jr. and Brandon Scott Long were rolled out earlier this month.

“I’ve been very clear on my position of blue slips. I think they’re antiquated. I think they’re vestiges of Jim Crow, and they should be abolished,” Carter said.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who just returned blue slips for the two nominees, called Carter a “good man” but advised him to take his complaints to the White House. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has rejected calls to scrap the blue slip process, said he would move forward on the confirmations.

“We went through the process honestly, directly as I had hoped they would. And I’m not going to back away from it at this point,” Durbin said.

Then there’s Scott Colom, a potential Mississippi judicial nominee, who is being denied a blue slip by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.). Former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) said he is encouraging Colom to keep fighting, hoping the Senate will find a way around one senator’s blockade.

“Maybe this is a circumstance where the blue slip should not be honored,” Jones said.

Senate Democrats’ refusal to change the blue slip process is aggravating members of the Congressional Black Caucus, some of whom hail from blue districts in Republican southern states who believe the deference to red-state senators deprives Democratic lawmakers of a voice.

“Durbin, as chair of the Judiciary Committee, has unilateral authority to change, reform, and at least modify the practices of the blue slip, and it’s in the administration’s best interest that they do it,” said Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), chair of the Black Caucus. Horsford is also pushing for a rules change to circumvent Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) hold on military promotions, though senators are trying to find another solution first.

Durbin acknowledged the concern about getting blue slips in red states and said he’s “frustrated because Republican senators aren’t moving quickly enough.” Still, he’s hardly alone in his reluctance: Many Democrats see the slips as a way to retain some influence the next time a Republican wins the White House. And for an often dysfunctional Senate, the Louisiana nominees are widely viewed as a success.

The level of House interest in Democrats’ nomination process is deep in the weeds. Just last week, a group of Democrats led by Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) sent a letter to Biden urging him to nominate a new head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a job that’s been vacant after the withdrawal of Ann Carlson’s nomination. The White House confirmed to the group that they received the letter.

“It’s an important position to fill,” Lee said. “So I think it’s something that needs to happen sooner rather than later.”

For now, Democrats seem most concerned with Su’s stalled status, which is frustrating Senate and House progressives alike. Key senators, including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) remain publicly undecided on her nomination, leaving her in limbo.

“There are some people who think: ‘Don’t bring up anything unless you’re guaranteed the votes,’” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “That’s not my view. My belief is that under democracy, your constituents have a right to know where you come from.”

Sanders would be comfortable keeping Su in the job as an acting Labor secretary even if she falls short of confirmation. But the White House does not want to hold a failed vote on her nomination, according to a Democratic aide granted anonymity to discuss strategy.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in an interview that Su is “a great nominee and we’re still working it, the White House is working it.”

Schumer has touted the diverse slate of judges and nominees that have gone through the Senate in the past two and a half years. The Senate just confirmed Biden’s 100th district court judge, augmenting its 35 appeals court judges and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

White House spokesperson Emilie Simons touted Su’s credentials for the top labor job, including Democrats’ support for her deputy job and “support from business and labor groups across the spectrum.”

Biden’s lost some nominees to Senate politics, but overall his confirmation record in the chamber is strong given Democrats’ narrow majorities. But the victories aren’t enough to satisfy many House Democrats at the moment; they’re focused on the fight in front of them.

“I still remain confident that Julie is going to pull through,” said Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), who’s helped lead the Asian Caucus’ advocacy for her.

The global economy will grow slower in the 21st century than economists have expected, a finding that has implications for our ability to adapt to climate change in the coming decades, according to new research.

A new study projecting the economic futures of four income groups of countries over the next century finds growth will be slower than predicted, with developing countries taking longer to close the wealth gap and approach the income of wealthier nations. What economists have thought of as a worst-case scenario for global economic growth may, in fact, be a best-case scenario, according to the new study published today in Communications Earth & Environment.

The findings suggest governments need to start planning for slower growth and wealthier countries may need to help lower-income nations finance climate change adaptations in the coming decades, according to the study authors.

"We're at a point where we maybe need to significantly increase financing for [climate] adaptation in developing countries, and we're also at a point where we might be overestimating our future ability to provide that financing under the current fiscal paradigm," said Matt Burgess, a CIRES fellow, director of the Center for Social and Environmental Futures, and assistant professor of environmental studies at CU Boulder who led the new study.

"We can now start to winnow down the range of possibilities and move forward in more tangible ways," said Ryan Langendorf, a postdoctoral scholar at CU Boulder and co-author of the new study.

In the new study, Burgess and his colleagues used two economic models to project how much the global economy will grow over the next century and how quickly developing countries will approach the income levels of wealthier nations.

Both models found the global economy will continue to grow, but that growth will be slower than most economists expected and there will be a larger income gap between wealthier and poorer nations. This means richer countries may need to help finance climate adaptations for poorer countries, and debt-ceiling crises, like what the United States experienced this spring, may become more common.

"Slower growth than we think means higher deficits than we expect, all else equal," Burgess said. "That means debt would likely become more contentious and important over time, and could mean more frequent debt-ceiling fights."

Similar to a flight emergency, where individuals should put their own oxygen masks on first, wealthier nations should focus on getting their own financial houses in order so they can be in a position to support lower-income nations in financing climate adaptations, according to the researchers.

"We're talking about relatively less growth, relatively more inequality, but we're still talking about a world that is richer than today and more equal across countries than today's world," Burgess said.

Still, many wealthy nations are accustomed to growing their way out of debt, but that may not be possible under the new scenario, according to Ashley Dancer, a graduate student at CU Boulder and co-author of the study.

"The next question is: what are some ways that we should be or could be helping [lower-income countries] adapt, if the expectation is that they're not going to meet the level of wealth that would allow them to do that quickly and aggressively?" Dancer said.