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Art Fair earrings made from skateboards, Trump protests and gravel pit worries
Art Fair earrings made from skateboards, Trump protests and gravel pit worries

Gulf Today

time4 hours ago

  • Entertainment
  • Gulf Today

Art Fair earrings made from skateboards, Trump protests and gravel pit worries

An oil painter, when he struggled to run my credit card, let me take home a small print — a still life labeled 'skull and ivy' — without cost. I looked in awe at large, textured landscapes and colorful abstractions I would have loved to prominently place in my living room (in the vain hope the pricey pieces would go unharmed by NERF bullets, basketballs or any number of makeshift projectiles). And I purchased — after excessive deliberations over color and shape patiently tolerated by the booth attendant — the coolest earrings. They are playful, graphic and cleverly crafted from broken skateboards by North Carolina artist Tara Locklear. (Yes, I assured my co-worker, I will wear them.) Oddly, I know, for a journalist and life-long Michigan resident, I had never been until this week to the Ann Arbor Art Fair, which kicked off Tuesday and began in earnest Thursday, and I quickly came to realize I've been missing much. I long heard local warnings of traffic tangles, parking perils and insufferable crowds. Sure the mild Thursday weather helped, but I found none of those things, not really. On a work break, I spent longer than I should have and I could have spent far longer perusing those many tents. Thomas LeGault performs a live painting in his booth during Art Fair in downtown Ann Arbor. Tribune News Service Puffer fish flying above the sea. A watercolor Brussel sprout composed on a paint color sample. Antlers sprouting from a coral-like clay pot. So many beautiful, unusual or unusually beautiful items. I didn't buy a lot; my art budget is small. But I found joy in the looking, the exploring. Eventually, I did return to work. Art Fair has taken over the town, yes, but it's not the only news of the week. For one, protesters again hoisted signs in opposition to President Donald Trump. 'Good Trouble Lives On' demonstrations were planned throughout the nation and Ann Arbor in honor of U.S. Rep. John Lewis on the five-year anniversary of his death Thursday, July 17. Reporter Nicholas Alumkal was there to collect activists' thoughts. 'It just seems like our country is being led by an incapable madman,' said Lois Maharg, holding a sign with the initialism GOP standing for 'gutless, obsequious panderers' near Veterans Memorial Park. 'Our whole government is just being canceled. Democracy is canceled, and I am very concerned about that.' In Ann Arbor Township, residents are concerned about the Vella Pit, a gravel and sand mine on Earhart Road. Operator Mid Michigan Materials seeks a permit to create an approximately 59-acre lake to extract material from below the water table. This comes after some residents' drinking water wells ran dry and a lawsuit alleging the gravel pit is responsible is pending; settlement talks are underway, the township supervisor told Jen Eberbach last week. Michael Watts, a resident, said there are 'ongoing issues,' and 'distrust' of the mining company, as wells slowly recover. Ceramic artwork by Corey and Stacey Bechler of Bechler Pottery on display in their booth during Art Fair in downtown Ann Arbor. Tribune News Service Back in Ann Arbor, in another lawsuit, two taxpayers are challenging city ballot proposals A and B, up for an Aug. 5 vote, as perpetrating a 'fraud upon the electorate.' Voter approval would allow the city to sell the Library Lane property to the Ann Arbor District Library and undo a 2018 city charter amendment declaring it must become a downtown urban park and civic commons. The ballot wording, which city officials say would be legally compelling, states the city could sell the land 'for the purpose of building a mixed-use development that includes additional library services, housing, retail and programmable open public space.' Opponents and the complaint, however, argue the library could do whatever it wants with the property after the city transfers it for $1. Mayor Christopher Taylor called it 'campaign disinformation in the form of a lawsuit,' and district library Director Eli Neiburger, in response to critics, said the proposals aren't giving away the property to developers. In tragic news, a 25-year-old father of four, DaJon Ryans, died in an Ypsilanti shooting. Two men have since been arrested and charged, but not with murder. Reporter Jordyn Pair is revealing the details. At the University of Michigan, the Board of Regents agreed to fire a professor in the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and two Ann Arbor institutions — one of them UM — were awarded millions for startups and entrepreneurs. To end, as I always like to do, on a softer note: 11-year-old Tucker Lambert of Saline Township is doing some heavy hauling to fund his UM ambitions. Farmers' pains — field rocks — are dollars for the quiet, young entrepreneur. Enjoy the Art Fair! I might have to return. I keep thinking of these small, ceramic vases sold by a Florida artist... If you would rather not, I hear there are a whole lot of chicken dinners available this weekend in Manchester. Tribune News Service

Opinion: Learning to manage your cloud storage
Opinion: Learning to manage your cloud storage

The Star

time7 hours ago

  • The Star

Opinion: Learning to manage your cloud storage

The easiest way to copy your files from OneDrive back to your computer is to use a browser to log into your OneDrive and download the files. — Photo by Nick on Unsplash This week a reader is having a problem with Microsoft OneDrive. 'I had been keeping all of my files off of OneDrive successfully for several years. Somehow in the last year, all of my files, documents, photos, etc., have been moved to the OneDrive cloud storage. I want everything back and nothing left on the cloud. Each time I have followed Microsoft's instructions on how to do this, it doesn't work. It places everything back on my hard drive as 'copies' of everything in the cloud, leaving all of the originals on the cloud. I am at my wits' end! I want to turn OneDrive off permanently once I finally get everything back.' Not everyone is comfortable with their files being stored in the cloud. You can see what local folders are set to sync to the OneDrive cloud by clicking on the OneDrive cloud icon in your system tray and choosing the gear icon on the top right and choosing Settings. At the top of the Settings page is a button to Manage Backup, which is where you can pick which of your local folders are automatically synced to OneDrive. You can check here to see if your Desktop, Documents or Downloads folders (or others) are set to sync. Make your own choices here. You can also pause syncing all your files under the gear icon. The easiest way to copy your files from OneDrive back to your computer is to use a browser to log into your OneDrive and download the files. The OneDrive web interface will show you exactly what files are in the cloud. You can select the files and/or folders and click the download button. I recommend you save them to an external hard drive or flash drive. Once you have your files safely onto whatever drive you choose, you can unlink your PC from OneDrive. Under the gear icon, select the Account setting and click 'Unlink this PC.' Finally, you can uninstall OneDrive under your computer's Settings by selecting Apps or Apps & Features, then choosing Microsoft OneDrive from the application list, clicking on it and selecting Uninstall. – Tribune News Service

Tariffs can be damaging to Hollywood's film industry
Tariffs can be damaging to Hollywood's film industry

Gulf Today

time18 hours ago

  • Entertainment
  • Gulf Today

Tariffs can be damaging to Hollywood's film industry

Alexis Alexanian, Tribune News Service When a country like Armenia sends a film out into the world, it's not just art. It's a way to preserve memory, to reach a scattered diaspora. Each film offers the world stories that might otherwise be forgotten. So when President Trump proposes a 100% tariff on all films 'produced in foreign lands,' the damage isn't limited to foreign competitors or outsourcing studios. It threatens to shut out small nations like Armenia, for whom cinema is a lifeline. The proposal hasn't taken effect — yet. But July 9 marked a turning point in Trump's broader tariff agenda, with a deadline for reimposing sweeping trade penalties on countries deemed 'unfair.' While the situation for films remains unclear, the proposal alone has done damage and continues to haunt the industry. The tariff idea arises from the worldview that treats international exchange as a threat — and cultural expression as just another import to tax. Take 'Amerikatsi' (2022), the extraordinary recent movie by Emmy-winning actor and director Michael A. Goorjian. Inspired by his grandfather's escape from the Armenian genocide — smuggled across the ocean in a crate — the project is not just a movie; it's a universal story rooted in the Armenian experience, made possible by international collaboration and driven by a deep personal mission. Goorjian filmed it in Armenia with local crews, including people who, months later, would find themselves on the front lines of war. One was killed. Others were injured. Still, they sent him videos from the trenches saying all they wanted was to return to the set. That is the spirit a tariff like this would crush. Armenia is a democracy in a dangerous neighborhood. Its history is riddled with trauma — genocide, war, occupation — and its present is haunted by threats from neighboring authoritarian regimes. But even as bombs fall and borders close, its people create. Films like 'Aurora's Sunrise' (2022) and ' Should the Wind Drop' (2020) carry voices across oceans, turning pain into poetry, history into cinema. These films don't rely on wide releases. They depend on arthouses, festivals, streamers and distributors with the courage and curiosity to take a chance. A 100% tariff would devastate that. Indeed, the ripple effects of such a tariff would upend the entire global film ecosystem. Modern cinema is inherently international: A Georgian director might work with a French editor, an American actor and a German financier. So sure, many American films use crew and facilities in Canada. But international co-productions are a growing cornerstone of the global film industry, particularly in Europe. Belgium produces up to 72% of its films in partnership with foreign nations, often France. Other notable co-production leaders include Luxembourg (45% with France), Slovakia (38% with Czechia) and Switzerland (31% with France). These partnerships are often driven by shared language, which is why the US is also frequently involved in co-productions with Britain as well as Canada. Israel too has leaned into this model, using agreements with countries such as France, Germany and Canada to gain access to international audiences and funding mechanisms. The US government cannot unmake this system and should not try to do so. To penalise 'foreign-made' films is to punish Americans too — artists, producers and distributors who thrive on collaboration. You can't build a wall around storytelling. Supporters of the tariff argue it protects American workers. But Hollywood is already one of the most globalised industries on Earth, and the idea that it suffers from too many foreign films is absurd. If anything, it suffers from too few. The result of this policy won't be a thriving domestic market — but a quieter, flatter, more parochial one. A landscape where the next 'Amerikatsi' never gets seen, where a generation of Armenian American youth never discovers their history through a movie screen. If America still wants to lead in the 21st century — not just militarily and economically but morally — it should lead through culture and avoid isolation. Stories like 'Amerikatsi' remind us why that matters. A film that begins with a boy smuggled in a crate across the ocean ends with a message of joy and resilience. That's not just Armenian history — it's American history too. It cannot be separated. Unless we want that kind of storytelling priced out of our cinemas (and off our streaming platforms), we must keep the doors open. For America to turn its back on stories like these would be a betrayal of everything film can be. And it would impoverish American society too. That way lies not greatness but provinciality.

Stop playing whac-a-mole with forever chemicals
Stop playing whac-a-mole with forever chemicals

Gulf Today

time18 hours ago

  • Health
  • Gulf Today

Stop playing whac-a-mole with forever chemicals

Lara Williams, Tribune News Service The more you learn about PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — the worse it gets. Though improvements in monitoring and remediation techniques are welcome, what the world needs first and foremost is a universal ban on the chemicals. In fact, we needed it yesterday. There are more than 10,000 PFAS, also known as 'forever chemicals,' and they're used almost everywhere, including in nonstick cookware, waterproof clothing, smartphones, packets of microwave popcorn, hair conditioners, fire-fighting foam, pacemakers, pesticides and dental floss. They don't readily degrade; they also don't stay where we put them. As a result, we can now find PFAS in places such as our blood, human breast milk, Antarctica, wild animals and tap water. In the Netherlands, people have been warned not to eat the eggs from their backyard chickens by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment due to high levels of the chemicals. Though it's not yet clear why home-produced eggs have higher amounts of PFAS than commercial ones, one theory is that earthworms now contain such chemicals, and hens like to eat the worms. An analysis by environmental groups Wildlife and Countryside Link and the Rivers Trust found that nearly all rivers, lakes and ponds in England exceed proposed safety limits, with 85% containing levels at least five times higher. France has banned tap water in 16 communes due to PFAS contamination, while a piece of investigative journalism called the Forever Pollution Project located 23,000 contaminated sites across Europe and a further 21,500 sites of presumptive contamination. I expect we haven't seen the last of the tap water bans. If the scale and extent of the pollution are hard to get your head around, the health implications are worse. PFAS have been linked to increased risk of various types of cancer, fertility problems, birth complications, delays to puberty and weakened immune systems. They've also been associated with increased cholesterol levels and kidney problems. We're looking at an issue analogous to climate change — right down to lobbying and cover-ups by PFAS manufacturers. Internal documents from 3M Co., one of the original and largest producers, and chemical firm DuPont de Nemours Inc. revealed that the companies knew the substances were accumulating in people and showing signs of toxicity for decades without telling anyone. While 3M still maintains that their PFAS-containing products are 'safe' for their intended uses in everyday life, in December 2022 the company announced it will discontinue the use of PFAS by the end of 2025. Together, the firms have had to pay billions in lawsuit settlements related to their pollution, with more possibly to come as injury cases hit the courts. As with carbon dioxide, the longer we keep emitting PFAS into the environment, the worse the problem gets and the harder it is to clean up with remediation technologies. While the PFAS market globally is worth just over $28 billion, the cost of cleaning up all the related pollution in the UK and Europe could be €100 billion ($116 billion) a year if nothing is done to stem the chemicals' steady flow into the environment. And that doesn't factor in the health-care costs, which the Nordic Council of Ministers estimates is at least €52 billion annually. Though some consumer brands such as outdoor gear retailer Patagonia Inc. and fast-food chain McDonald's Corp. have committed to phasing out PFAS from their products and packaging, others have been dragging their feet. A team of researchers, lawyers and journalists has also exposed a huge lobbying campaign against proposed restrictions in Europe, showing entrenched resistance to change. So we need a ban, but so far, we've only seen piecemeal prohibitions targeting either a specific chemical or, in a couple of leading countries, sectors. The import and sale of PFAS-treated clothing, shoes and waterproofing agents will be barred from July 2026 in Denmark, while the chemicals have been banned in paper and board food packaging since 2020. The country has also recently announced a ban on 23 pesticides that can form a very mobile form of PFAS called trifluoroacetic acid. France, meanwhile, has banned PFAS in several consumer product groups, including textiles, cosmetics and ski wax. Cookware, however, has been excluded from the ban after a campaign led by the French maker of Tefal pans, Groupe SEB. Though it's a start, exempting a sector for which safe alternatives are readily available is, frankly, scandalous. A universal ban may be on its way. In 2023, five European Union member states — Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Norway — submitted a proposal to the European Chemicals Agency, which two scientific committees are now examining. The ban covers both consumer and industrial applications, with time-limited exemptions expected for some uses where there are no alternatives, such as medical devices. What's most significant about the restriction is that it takes a precautionary approach, regulating all 10,000-plus PFAS as a group rather than individually. According to CHEM Trust, a charity focused on harmful synthetic chemicals, under the current rate of regulation that analyses each chemical individually, it would take more than 40,000 years to get through them all. So the EU ban will be a huge step forward with positive impacts beyond its borders. But we'll be waiting a while for it to come into effect — if everything goes smoothly, we're likely looking at 2028 before sectors transition to new rules. Meanwhile, progress elsewhere is pitiful. The UK government published an interim position on PFAS management in June, but this has been criticized by scientists for opting not to target all chemicals at once and instead creating their own groupings. Not only is this risky, failing to regulate compounds that lack toxicity data, but it lacks urgency. In the US, the Trump administration has pulled nearly $15 million in research into PFAS contamination of farmland, while the Environmental Protection Agency has announced plans to rescind drinking water limits for four forever chemicals. Of course, even banning the use of all PFAS tomorrow won't do anything for the substances already in our bodies and drinking water. But we know that restrictions help. Two chemicals — PFOS and PFOA — are already banned in Europe. A 2023 study showed that blood concentrations of the chemicals have declined substantially over time in Denmark. It's time to stop playing Whac-a-Mole with chemicals that we know are bad for us and our environment. If we take action now, we might stand a chance at cleaning up the mess we've made.

'I Know What You Did Last Summer' review: The last one wasn't good either...
'I Know What You Did Last Summer' review: The last one wasn't good either...

The Star

timea day ago

  • Entertainment
  • The Star

'I Know What You Did Last Summer' review: The last one wasn't good either...

I Know What You Did Last Summer Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson Cast: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols, Freddie Prinze Jr, Jennifer Love Hewitt The rebooted I Know What You Did Last Summer feels more like a recycled I Know What You Did Last Summer. This legacy sequel to the 1997 horror hit, which followed in Scream's reawakening of the teen horror machine, follows the familiar beats of the original film, except with less personality and a total lack of suspense. With results this tepid, who cares what you did last summer? On a cliffside road one night, a group of CW-ready North Carolina friends — including Danica (Madelyn Cline), her best friend Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) and her fiancé Teddy (Tyriq Withers) — are party to an accidental death they sort of maybe had a hand in partially causing. Ok, time to start taking bets on who's going to die first. They try to keep the incident a secret amongst themselves, but a year later it comes back to haunt them in the form of an anonymous letter sent to Danica which reads in full, I know what you did last summer. Stop me if you've heard this one before. Enter the hook-wielding killer, who inspired enough references to the Gorton's Fisherman back then that there's no need to rehash them here. The difference is this time around there's precedent for the events, which means all sorts of references to 'The Slaughter of '97', which the town attempted to bury in an effort to rebrand itself as the Hamptons of the South. That also means bringing original stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. back into the fold to reprise their original roles. You'd think the Ghost Whisperer would know better than to stick around a town with a serial killer. Look, we're in an era where everything that was once old can always be new again, where nothing or no one ever really dies until they're buried 6 feet deep, and even then things are open to negotiations. I Know What You Did Last Summer was never that good the first time around, and co-writer and director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (2022's dark comic teen thriller Do Revenge) doesn't do much to spice up this revisited take. The characters are flat and unlikeable, the staging of the horror sequences is clumsy, and the kills are wan and uninspired. What are we doing here? I Know What You Did Last Summer isn't quite scraping the bottom of the barrel — that would be an Urban Legend reboot/sequel, quite frankly — but it's a lifeless attempt to squeeze blood from a stone that didn't have much to offer in the first place Nostalgia is overrated, Jennifer Love Hewitt's character says at one point late in the movie. You said it, sister. – Adam Graham/The Detroit News/Tribune News Service

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