Latest news with #Millet
New Indian Express
27-04-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
National-level Old Seeds Fair in Alluri Sitarama Raju district evokes good response
VISAKHAPATNAM: The 'National-Level Old Seeds Festival - Eastern Ghats Biodiversity Fair' was organised at Killoguda village in Alluri Sitarama Raju (ASR) district on Saturday. The event was conducted under the aegis of the Sanjeevini NGO. Farmers, tribals, and voluntary organisations from various states engaged in seed conservation, organic fertilisers, and natural farming took part in the festival. Over 60 stalls featuring traditional heirloom seeds and indigenous products were set up, drawing the interest of visitors. Participants from the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, Wayanad in Kerala, Koraput in Odisha, and Araku and Rampachodavaram regions in Andhra Pradesh exhibited a wide variety of native seeds and products. Local tribal communities interacted with the participants, learning about different crop varieties, seeds, cultivation methods, and market opportunities. They shared their experiences related to traditional tribal farming practices. The festival began with a floral tribute to late Pachari Ammaji, a key figure associated with Sanjeevini NGO's earlier initiatives in tribal welfare and seed conservation. A traditional seed procession was held, with villagers of Killoguda showcasing the seeds they had preserved. Cultural programmes, including Koya horn performances and Dhimsa dances by artist groups from Chinturu and Araku, were held as part of the celebrations. Among the notable participants were Raimati Guria, recognised nationally as the 'Millet Queen of India,' and Pangi Vineetha, recipient of the Andhra Pradesh State Award for excellence in organic farming. Delegates from different regions interacted with them to learn from their experiences in sustainable agriculture practices. Sanjeevini NGO General Secretary Devullu said the Old Seeds Festival aims to conserve traditional food crop seeds.
New York Times
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Book Review: ‘Atavists,' by Lydia Millet
ATAVISTS: Stories, by Lydia Millet Lydia Millet is a prolific writer who has won big accolades, and yet somehow I've never read her work. So there's no way for me to contextualize her latest collection of stories, 'Atavists,' and say the things reviewers often do about a book being a departure or the apotheosis of a lifetime spent perseverating on a theme. I can, however, acknowledge why Millet has been so praised: She knows how to put a story together. How to pace drama and consummate tension, when to turn up the volume and when to leave us alone with what she's put in motion. 'Motion' is a good word for how this collection of stories operates; it meanders through the lives of various characters who are related to or know one another, and the result is an ecosystem that satirizes left-wing culture in the aftermath of Covid. Most of these stories do not stand on their own — they aren't meant to — which puts a lot of pressure on their cumulative power to stir in readers both the dread and joy of being alive (this being, IMO, the bar that fiction needs to clear to be great). 'Atavists' succeeds on the dread, less so on the joy, which perhaps speaks to just how grim it feels to be a liberal in this country today. Not because we've lost power but because we've lost our way. In this collection, we liberals are mostly ridiculous, feckless, insipid and sometimes just sad. The title of the book suggests Millet is exploring character traits that are primordial (as in essential) or anachronistic (as in ill-fitting). Both interpretations seem viable for the 14 people we meet here, each one an 'ist' — the tourist, artist, cosmetologist, etc. — as they wrangle with first-world problems that belie a society in collapse and disarray. Consider the story 'Futurist,' in which an academic rightly accuses another of plagiarizing one line in a paper he wrote 12 years earlier. The accused retaliates by combing through the accuser's social media for transgressions: 'You had to play a trump card, in the culture wars. And in the current climate, that card was racism.' He finds an old post on which he could 'stake out a racism claim for sure,' though his effort results only in her posting a retroactive 'Content Warning.' Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Los Angeles Times
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Waiting for Godot' — or some sort of sign — in Lydia Millet's latest short stories
At one point in Lydia Millet's latest collection, 'Atavists,' a minor character posits that people 'invented time. That it was all at once and everywhere. But minds weren't able to grasp that, so they had to divide it into sections.' In Millet's capable hands, those sections are 14 interconnected short stories about Southern California neighbors, colleagues and families grappling with the end of the world. Millet's definition of the end of the world is expansive: Sometimes, the world is microcosmic and social. Other times, it's the end of a long-held identity. Always, it's the endangered globe. But Millet's deftly told tales — in 'Atavists,' as in her other novels and collections — demonstrate how a narrative framework creates meaning for human life. We seek the kind of meaning that divides time into manageable fictions like eras or generations. The conceit of the short story allows Millet to show how personalities assert themselves and simultaneously explore our interconnectedness as a species. There's a 'Waiting for Godot'-ness to these tales, each of them examining an archetype like 'Tourist,' 'Artist,' 'Futurist' or 'Optimist' in the context of the post-pandemic era. Climate change and impending catastrophe loom over every story. Millet plays with the title and with the idea of atavism, in which an ancient trait asserts itself by skipping forward a few generations to suddenly appear in the gene pool. So, too, does she reference Joseph Campbell's work while pushing back against any simplified theology of storytelling, suggesting instead that tying ourselves to the wheel of his heroic archetype is a burden. Millet demonstrates both how the characters of our era are manifestations of older types, yet they're also a springboard for how people will define themselves in the future. She revels in complication. Take, for example, 'Dramatist,' the second story of the series. In this story, Nick, a member of one of the two families appearing most often in the collection, is a disillusioned book-smart Stanford grad fixated on the idea that he should be writing, yet unable to put words to paper. The central tension in Millet's work comes from the sense that we're all doomed: She writes that 'stories seemed more and more useless,' and references the old line about fiddling while Rome burns. Unsure of his creative and professional roles, Nick is living back home with his parents while he LARPs, bartends and tries unsuccessfully to write a screenplay. Millet's characters reflect the real trend of Gen Z students returning to the nest to save money or find their passions, providing the author with the opportunity to explore generational friction in these households. Yet here the juxtaposition of age doesn't provide any argument that one generation is best; each age just presents a different lens for viewing. Rather than presenting a simple binary of misunderstanding between young and old, Millet's 'Tourist,' the tale of single mom Trudy and her son, and 'Artist' and 'Gerontologist,' which detail Mia's role as a volunteer in a senior living center, demonstrate how youth isn't ignorance, just as age isn't an assurance of safety or wisdom. The characters in these households are often parents caught on the back foot. Their children seem rudderless, but they approach the world with more dexterity. Like Nick, perhaps one of the most world-aware characters, they are constantly seeking a peaceful reckoning between their creative impulses and the darkness of the world they've inherited. Nick is aware of the world's ridiculousness, and he's tortured about it. Mia is one of several young adults in 'Atavists' who demonstrates creativity in doing: Her art is to serve as an ambassador from the new world to the old. She starts by helping seniors with their phones and expands her role into many, many examples of helping them survive by retaining dignity. Millet wants us to consider whether we're consumers or creators at heart. 'Atavists' focuses on social acuity and awareness, but also how our baser natures exert themselves today: Trudy obsesses over an old friend's posts on social media. A scorned woman sneaks into a past lover's house to mess with his mind. Tech-bro jargon invades stories that focus on trust, and Buzz, a father in another of the two families at the heart of these stories, peeks into the browser history of his daughter's husband while he contemplates major changes to his own life. 'Atavists' bounces from one home to the next. Sometimes these characters aren't sympathetic, but that's hardly the point. They're inventions of character, against type, and of how our lives rebound off one another. There are perks: Nick and his sister grow closer through technology: 'So now she felt closer. Though farther away,' as the characters find connection over FaceTime. Trudy's son Sam is at ease with his friends in a virtual realm. While older characters lament a loss of connection, efforts to bridge technological divides demonstrate how cross-generational bonds are possible. All of these people feel the 'sadness of wanting. The sadness of hope,' yet there are solutions. If the world outside is doomed, there's great affection in these stories and in finding each other, along with great awareness of what it means to be a neighbor or a regular customer — or even a viewer of someone else's life on social media. Maybe we're 'all waiting for something that never comes,' thinks Helen, Mia's mother, in 'Optimists.' 'A sign, maybe. Written across the sky by a thousand jet planes. In synchronicity. And once we see it, well, then we may do something.' Stories are the sign. 'Atavists' begs us to keep reading. Partington is a teacher in Elk Grove and a board member of the National Book Critics Circle.
New York Times
10-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
NWSL Denver hires Jen Millet as its first president: Colorado native ‘excited' for another build
NWSL Denver has named Jen Millet as the team's inaugural president, the team announced Thursday morning. Millet, a native of Colorado, is the expansion club's first hire, and joins the franchise after two years at another expansion side, Bay FC, where she served as the club's chief operating officer. Advertisement In Denver, Millet will be tasked with leading the club's business operations, including partnerships, ticket sales, marketing and venue operations, the team said. 'People might say I'm crazy to do back-to-back builds,' Millet told The Athletic on Wednesday. 'But I actually love this kind of work, and so I'm excited to get going.' Millet is the team's first hire since NWSL Denver was awarded the NWSL's 16th franchise in January. While the team has shared a flurry of announcements in the months since, the club is deep in the process of building out their front office, the club's sporting side and their brand identity. In making her move to Denver, Millet returns to her hometown roots. She attended Cherry Creek High School and University of Colorado at Boulder. Her two sisters in the area were 'lobbying' for her return over the Christmas holiday, she said. Their push only grew as rumors swirled that Denver was close to landing the NWSL's newest team. 'I was looking at all the possible markets that the league was considering, I was paying kind of close attention to Denver,' Millet said. 'When they were awarded the bid, I was like, 'I want to learn more about this ownership group,' so I networked through.' So, Millet networked her way to Cohen and those with Project Level, the subsidiary of Ariel Investments that invested in the club. Their conversations were telling, she said. 'Hearing how they shared the mindset that a women's sports team can be a global franchise … and their willingness, and, clearly, (their) ambition to invest in this club, those things were massively appealing,' Millet said. Millet plans to hit the ground running in Denver after finishing up a few projects with her former club, she said. Her immediate focus will be to digest what's already been done in Colorado and finding ways to further engage with the growing fan base there. Millet joins NWSL Denver after two years with Bay FC. The club is currently in a precarious chapter, after resistance to its plans to build a training center on Treasure Island and an ongoing league investigation into head coach Albertin Montoya. Advertisement Millet said her decision to leave Bay was largely because of her desire to return to Denver. Her experience at Bay, she said, will be beneficial for her next job. 'I feel like I'm so fresh from some immediate value adds,' Millet said. 'You don't always get a chance to get a redo on a launch, and I kind of do.' While at Bay, Millet led the club's day-to-day business operations. She is credited with guiding the club to a top-three ranking in ticketing revenue and a number one ranking in merchandise sales, per Denver's announcement. Before that, she served as chief marketing officer with the NBA's Golden State Warriors, where she led marketing for the team and Chase Center. She also served stints at Pandora, Rdio, StubHub and Live Nation.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DOJ Asserts Trump Hypothetically Has Power To Purge All Female Agency Heads, Or Those Over 40
The Trump Department of Justice asserted in court Tuesday that, under their theories, the President's removal power is so all-encompassing that he could fire all female agency heads, as well as those over 40 years old. The startling admission came in response to a federal judge's hypothetical. 'Could the President decide that he wasn't going to appoint or allow to remain in office any female heads of agencies or any heads over 40 years old?' Judge Karen Henderson, a Reagan appointee on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, asked Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric McArthur Tuesday in proceedings over the fired board members of two independent agencies. 'I think that that would be within the President's constitutional authority under the removal power,' he responded, adding that 'there would be separate questions about whether that would violate other provisions of the Constitution.' Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee on the panel, then swooped in to try to salvage the moment, saying to the DOJ attorney that he didn't think 'you would have to go there,' pointing to the protections of the 14th Amendment. The stunning moment, two minutes into arguments over the firings of board members at the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board, encapsulated just how broadly Trump's vision of presidential power sweeps. The DOJ is aiming to get these cases to the Supreme Court, where it's betting that enough of the right-wing justices will agree to overturn the high court's own precedent on independent agencies — encapsulated primarily in a 1936 case called Humphrey's Executor — and axe the removal protections that keep leadership at such entities as the NLRB or MSPB insulated from political will or vindictiveness. If the DOJ wins, as many experts predict it will, the entire executive branch would come under Trump's direct control, allowing him even greater power over federal policy, and leaving virtually no barriers to his mass firings of civil servants in favor of political stooges. At the district courts, before these two cases were consolidated, the proceedings were fairly rote: The judges acknowledged, one explicitly, that they were 'speed bumps' en route to the Supreme Court and still bound, at least for now, by the precedent upholding these removal protections. Tuesday's hearing at the appellate court unwound differently. Walker, the Trump appointee, and Judge Patricia Millet, an Obama appointee, sparred throughout, only barely directing their rebuttals to the lawyer instead of each other. Millet took a posture more in line with how the district judges have handled the cases: Humphrey's Executor — which upheld removal protections for certain multi-member agencies — is still good law, and the lower courts have no choice but to follow it. 'Our test for whether the Supreme Court has gotten rid of something is pretty strict — we don't get to treat it like some kind of Rorschach test and we see in it whatever we wish,' Millet said. 'I'm just curious why the Justice Department thinks the courts of appeals have the ability to do what the Supreme Court itself has again and again expressly declined to do,' she added of overturning Humphrey's Executor. Walker, though, all but subbed in as a DOJ lawyer, trying to find a way that the panel could rule in favor of the government despite the hulking obstacle of Supreme Court precedent. 'Even when a precedent is binding, there's often debate and difficulty about how broadly or narrowly to read it,' Walker said, arguing that subsequent cases have shrunk Humphrey's Executor to the point of near-nonexistence. That line of argument prompted Millet to ask what agencies would still constitutionally retain their removal protections under such a microscopic reading of Humphrey's Executor. The DOJ's McArthur could only name the Administrative Conference of the United States, a purely advisory agency that produces recommendations to make the government operate more efficiently. Walker took the unitary executive theory, the vision of massive presidential power that underlies the DOJ's posture, a step further. He brought up a separate case, where the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission is arguing against the Secretary of Labor, to ask how, under the DOJ's theory, federal courts can be allowed to get involved in an 'intra-executive branch dispute.' The question, which McArthur largely dodged, is a striking one at a moment where federal courts have proved to be the sole backstop to Trump's razing of the executive branch. Walker also took a shot at one of the district judges, who had called Trump's firings 'blatantly illegal,' saying that if the precedent ends up being overturned, it wouldn't have been an illegal action retroactively. Henderson, the Reagan-appointed third judge on the panel and likely deciding vote, kept her cards closer to her chest. She expressed doubt about the injury caused to the fired board members, perhaps signaling low odds that the district court orders — which restored the board members to their jobs, at least temporarily — will be extended as the litigation proceeds. But she also expressed concern about the firings depriving these agencies of the quorums on their boards that they need to function. McArthur took a big swing in response, arguing that restoring the illegally fired board members would create a 'heavy cloud of illegitimacy over every official act they take.'
