Fifteen years after her death, the singer's impact is still felt
25 AUGUST 2016 ROLLING STONE MOSI REEVES
It is one of the greatest moments in modern soul history: The first few seconds when Aaliyah Haughton, then only a 15-year-old newcomer, opens her cover of the Isley Brothers' "At Your Best (You Are Love)" with a few seconds of a cappella brilliance. "Let me know … let me know," she sings with grace, before offering a wordless cry with incandescent softness.
Back in 1994, Aaliyah's career-defining interpretation topped out at Number Six on the Billboard Hot 100, but that was due to radio programmers and BET's Video Soul spinning R. Kelly's "Gangsta Child" remix, which relied on a bass-heavy G-funk beat and an alternate vocal from Aaliyah that's more restrained than the version on her debut, Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number. But from its release, the LP version drew a cult following, first through constant airplay on the late night mix shows that still populate black radio; and then through samples and homages like Drake's "Unforgettable" and Frank Ocean's rendition for his recent "visual album" Endless.
Like so much of Aaliyah's career, "At Your Best (You Are Love)" didn't seem revolutionary at the time of its release. She emerged from the world of black pop, and a part of the music industry that sold plenty of records – all three of her albums are certified multi-platinum – but didn't draw much serious critical attention until just before her tragic death at the age of 22 on August 25, 2001. In retrospect, however, Aaliyah is widely recognized as one of her generation's biggest innovators.
... In a perfect world, Aaliyah would be in her late thirties. Perhaps she would have danced alongside Monica, Tweet and Fantasia during their tribute to Missy Elliott at VH1's Hip-Hop Honors; and would have performed alongside Elliott at the Super Bowl in 2015. Maybe she would be like Mary J. Blige, periodically updating her sound with newfound collaborators like Disclosure and Kanye West; or she'd be like Beyoncé, a pop queen whose throne is never in dispute. Unfortunately, we'll never know the direction Aaliyah's career would have taken. It's that sense of lost possibilities that has burnished her legend, just as it did with past soul geniuses who passed before their time like Donny Hathaway and Minnie Riperton. We can imagine Aaliyah as the princess of R&B who lost her life at the tender age of 24. But it's better to imagine all the ways she's still be changing pop music if she were still here. Read More
“Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.”
― B.F. Skinner
Japan Paralympic squad receives spirited send-off for Rio Games
2 AUGUST 2016 JAPAN TIMES KAZ NAGATSUKA
Paralympic sports have been receiving greater attention in recent years.
As a result, Japanese athletes were even more excited about competing in the upcoming Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games when they attended a warm send-off reception at a Tokyo hotel on Tuesday.
The Japanese delegation will dispatch a total of 127 athletes — 83 men and 44 women — and 65 coaches and staff members to Brazil for the Sept. 7-18 Paralympic Games. The nation set a goal of winning 10 gold medals and finishing within the top 10 in the gold-medal rankings for the 15th edition of the Summer Paralympic Games.
In the 2012 London Games, Japan captured five gold, five silver and six bronze medals and placed 24th in the gold-medal table.
Hiroya Otsuki, the leader of the delegation, said at a news conference that it would be his sixth Paralympics to get involved yet the circumstances for Paralympic sports in Japan have clearly changed over the years, partially thanks to the country’s capital, Tokyo, winning the right to host the next Summer Paralympics in 2020.
“In order for us to have a satisfactory Paralympics in 2020, how well we are going to perform in this Rio Paralympics will be important,” Otsuki said. “And I’m not referring just to what kind of results we will have, but it’ll also be important for our athletes to enjoy the moments.”
Making his fourth Paralympics, wheelchair basketball player Reo Fujimoto said that the Rio Paralympics would carry a little different meaning toward the Tokyo Games.
“I’ve played wheelchair basketball for 15 years, but I’ll be playing in this Rio Games a little differently,” said Fujimoto, who was named captain of Japan’s delegation. “How we’ll perform in it will determine where we will be on the map (of the Paralympics) toward the Tokyo Games in 2020.”
Yui Kamiji, a female wheelchair tennis player and two-time Grand Slam tournament singles winner, said: “It’s been my goal to win a gold medal in the Paralympics. Younger wheelchair tennis players have lately been increasing and to get even more attention for the sport when we have the Tokyo Games, we would like to do our best this time.”
Kamiji, 22, will be Japan’s flag bearer at the Rio Games.
Atsushi Yamamoto, a silver medalist in the men’s long jump (T-42 class) in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and a former world-record holder, said that he feels greater expectations for himself for this upcoming Paralympics than previous ones. “I see more media reporters and I know that’s a sign of how much we are getting attention,” said the 34-year-old Yamamoto, who’ll compete in sprint disciplines in Rio as well.
Female track and field athlete Wakako Tsuchida is a Japanese Paralympic legend, having previously gone to six Paralympics, competing in both the Winter and Summer Games.
Tsuchida, 41, has participated in track disciplines in recent Summer Games (and speed skating in the Winter Games), but will focus just on the marathon in Rio, aiming to capture the gold.
The Tokyo native insisted that the 2012 London Games was the best Paralympics she’s ever been a part of, but she hopes the Rio Games will be a great experience.
“I’m excited about what we’ll experience in Rio,” said Tsuchida, who’s racked up seven Paralympic medals, including three golds. “And we’ll need to end the Rio Games on a high note so we’ll relay it to the Tokyo Games.” Read More
Bys crash survivor violently tossed awake to horrific scene
2 AUGUST 2016 ASSOCIATED PRESS SCOTT SMITH, CHRISTOPHER WEBER
ATWATER, CALIFORNIA (AP) -- Leonardo Sanchez was sleeping peacefully on a bus carrying him to Oregon to pick blueberries when he was suddenly thrown face-first into the back of the seat in front of him, awakening him to a horrific scene of chaos and death.
The bus carrying Sanchez and about 30 others on a pre-dawn journey through California's agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley had somehow plowed head-on into a highway pole that nearly sliced it in half. Five people died and at least 18 were hurt.
... Lesser injured like himself climbed out on their own, fearful the bus might catch fire. The 55-year-old farmworker said he was left with pain in his stomach and a bruised jaw and mouth.
"It was too much. It was a very ugly accident. Thanks to God that I got out of there alive," he said.
The bus was traveling north up State Route 99, which cuts through the center of California farm country, and was only about a couple miles from its next stop when the crash occurred.
The still-intact sign it hit stuck out from the roof of the crumpled bus hours after the crash as crews prepared to move the vehicle. Wreckage and debris including seat cushions, drink containers, pillows and a blanket were scattered in lanes and on the highway's shoulder. Read More
Wall-climbing mini robots build "entirely new structures" from carbon fibre
2 AUGUST 2016 DEZEEN RIMA SABINA AOUF
Graduate shows 2016: University of Stuttgart graduate Maria Yablonina has devised a new method of construction using mini robots that is cheap, fast and can create structures that would otherwise be impossible to build (+ movie).
Instead of using one or two large robots, Yablonina and the university's Institute for Computational Design (ICD) developed a carbon-fibre fabrication method that involves many small robots. These look like Roomba vacuums and could fit inside a single suitcase.
The agile robots, which climb walls and ceilings, work in concert to pull fibre filaments across a space, creating a structure onsite.
"We are only at the very beginning of exploring the true architectural potential of this fabrication system," said architect and ICD director Achim Menges. "But we are convinced that its main advantage is that you can build entirely new structures that would be impossible to materialise otherwise."
"Pragmatically, smaller robots will be cheaper and, in working collaboratively in larger numbers, faster than the established systems," he told Dezeen.
A graduate student of the university's ITECH course, Yablonina developed the project with the ICD and the Institute for Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE). The departments are behind the carbon-fibre Elytra Filament Pavilion currently on display at London's V&A museum.
The project constitutes a form of "swarm construction" – a fabrication method, predicted to be common in the future, that involves swarms of small robots working together.
Titled Mobile Robotic Fabrication System for Filament Structures, the project features robots that use sensors and suction to travel across any horizontal or vertical surface, including existing architecture.
Their size and mobility means they can reach areas and create structures that large industrial robots cannot.
"Working with many small robots rather than one or two big ones extends the design space significantly and allows us to tap into the unique possibilities of filament structures," said Menges. Read More
Cute cat can tell something’s different after its beloved mouse toy goes through the wash
31 JULY 2016 ROCKETNEWS24 OONA MCGEE
It’s never fun when someone makes a change to our things, no matter how well-intentioned they may be. Whether it’s washing a toddler’s comfort blanket or simply buying the wrong brand of laundry detergent, just the smallest change to the look and smell of a well-worn item can make it seem completely foreign to our senses, and it’s a problem that afflicts members of the feline world too.
Since posting the video online, it’s received more than 17,000 likes and retweets, with users leaving comments like:
“This cat’s facial expression is just too adorable!” “I’ve never seen a cat cocking its head to the side at an extreme angle like that before!” “I’m going to wash my kitten’s toy to see if it reacts in the same way.” “The different smell in the air must be confusing.” “OMG this is honestly too cute. I wish these two could come and join my family.”
Following the video, the two friends were thankfully reunited; despite the little mouse’s trip through the washing machine, the cat’s love for its toy was too strong to keep the two apart! To see the two cuddling contentedly, you can visit the cute kitty’s website, Funny Cat Rikku, for all the adorable photos. Read More
Did you know curry is so popular in Japan there is a series of Indian restaurant music CDs?
31 JULY 2016 ROCKETNEWS24 MASTER BLASTER
■ Where curry is king
For those who have never been to Japan, it might comes as a surprise that Indian restaurants – or more specifically curry restaurants – are really popular. However, just staying one night in an urban area of the country will reveal how prevalent they are.
... ■ And you may ask yourself, “How did it get here?”
Curry first made its way to Japan around the turn of the 19th century when Japan had opened its borders for easier international trade. Curry was indirectly introduced here by the British who had co-opted it from their then-colony of India. As such, there were some changes such as a lighter and sweeter taste, which caught on well in Japan.
The British curry, or “curry rice” (kareraisu) also referred to simply as “curry” or (kare), became a permanent fixture in Japanese society and opened the door for more authentic “Indian curry” (indo kare) restaurants to set up shop in the land of the rising sun. Although their curries are closer to home, they’ll still serve sweeter and milder variations that the people here have come to know and love.
... ■ Come for the curry, stay for the ambiance
Indian curry restaurants are often small independent establishments and can also include shops run by people from Nepal, Bengal, or other South Asian countries. While these differences do bring some subtle variety to the flavor and decorations to these eateries, they all tend to be extremely similar to one another.
They all have the same color scheme which runs from mustard yellow to orange or brown. They are all adorned with posters and art from their native countries, and they all pipe in Indian music like that Panjabi MC song from a while back (the version without Jay-Z).
■ Indo Kareya No BGM
Whenever I visit one of these places the music always stands out for me. It’s a strange mix of feelings. I’m not really familiar with Indian music so on a whole it tends to sound alien to me, and yet I’ve gone to Indian curry restaurants enough times that these songs also feel very familiar.
I think a lot of Japanese people feel the same way, which is why Victor Entertainment released a series of CDs featuring the most frequently played songs in Indian curry restaurants in Japan. Different albums of Indian Curry Shop Background Music (Indo Kareya No BGM) contain different areas of Indian music such as Hold the Rice which highlights Indian classical music or Spicy with its more up-tempo and bass-heavy tracks possibly found in the more trendy curry places.
There’s also The Road to Maharaja which contains songs by superstar Rajinikanth.
A new edition, Indian Curry Shop Background Music: 2020 will be released on 21 September. It carries an updated track list of the songs that soak into our brains like so much sauce into the crevices of naan. Read More
Pope to Young on Poland trip: Believe 'in a new humanity'
31 JULY 2016 ASSOCIATED PRESS FRANCES D'EMILIO
KRAKOW, POLAND (AP) -- Pope Francis told young people who flocked by the hundreds of thousands to his words Sunday that they need to "believe in a new humanity" stronger than evil, and cautioned against concluding that one religion is more violent than others.
Organizers of the Catholic jamboree known as World Youth Day estimated 1.5 million youths attended his Mass at a meadow near Krakow, many of them having camped out in sleeping bags from a vigil service of prayer, singing and dance performances the previous evening.
The jamboree, meant to infuse young Catholics with fresh passion for their religion, was the main reason Francis came to Poland on a five-trip, which also took him to the former Nazi Auschwitz death camp, where he prayed in silence and reflected on what he called "so much cruelty," and to a church in Krakow, where he prayed that God protect the world from the "devastating wave" of terrorism.
... Flying back to Rome Sunday night from Krakow, he was asked by reporters why he has never used the word "Islam" when denouncing terrorist attacks.
Francis said he thinks "it's not right to identify Islam with violence."
He added that every religion has its "little group of fundamentalists.'" He said that if he speaks of violent Islam, he'd have to speak of violent Catholicism, since Catholics kill, too.
Referring to Isis, also known as Islamic State group, Francis said it "presents itself with its violent identity card, but it's not Islam.'"
... The pope used his several encounters with the young pilgrims - from mega-gatherings to a private lunch with only a dozen people from five continents - to encourage a new generation to work for peace, reconciliation and justice.
God, said Francis in his final homily of the pilgrimage, "demands of us real courage, the courage to be more powerful than evil, by loving everyone, even our enemies."
"People may judge you to be dreamers, because you believe in a new humanity, one that rejects hatred between peoples, one that refuses to see borders as barriers and can cherish its own traditions without being self-centered or small-minded," Francis told his flock.
Earlier in his pilgrimage, Francis had expressed dismay that many people and places aren't welcoming enough to refugees or those fleeing poverty in their homelands.
After more than 1 million people arrived on Europe's southern shores last year, some nations on the continent, notably in central and eastern Europe, hastily built fences to keep the refugees out. Poland has been among the EU countries that have refused to take in many Muslim refugees, saying it has already welcomed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian immigrants. Read More
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