No matter how fantastic, how unreasonable, how seemingly unattainable, Dubai makes a business of satisfying your worldly desires. You can ski in a sprawling indoor resort, golf off the top of a skyscraper, shop with sharks, hang out in a mechanized dinosaur park. But good luck finding a local bunch of carrots.

Although their perception of color is limited, new research suggests that dogs routinely discriminate between objects based on their hue.

	Courtney shared this story from Sociological Images:
	Good reading for today.

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Leontine G. sent in a troubling example of the framing of children’s deviance, and their own complicity in this framing. She included two links: one to a Today show story about a 7-year-old boy who took his family’s car on a joyride and got caught by police, and one to a CNN story about a 7-year-old boy who took his family’s car on a joyride and got caught by police.  Different 7-year-olds.  One white, one black.

The white boy, Preston, is interviewed with his family on the set of the Today show.  Knowing his kid is safe, his Dad describes the event as “funny” and tells the audience that if this could happen to a “cotton candy all-American kid like Preston,” then “it could happen to anybody.”

When the host, Meredith Vieira, asks Preston why hid from the police, he says, “cause I wanted to, and she says, “I don’t blame you actually.”  With Preston not too forthcoming, his Mom steps in to say that he told her that “he just wanted to know what it felt like to drive a car.”  When Vieira asks him why he fled from the police, he replies with a shrug.  Vieira fills in the answer, “You wanted to get home?”

Vieira then comments on how they all then went to church.  The punishment?  Grounded for four days without TV or video games.  Vieira asks the child, “Do you think that’s fair?”  He says yes.  And she continues, “Do you now understand what you did?”  He nods and agrees.  “And that maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing?”  He nods and agrees.  “You gonna get behind the wheel of a car again?”  He says no.  Then she teases him about trying out model toy cars.

They conclude that this incident just goes to show that “Any little kid, you never know what can happen…” and closes “I’ll be seeing you at church buddy boy!”

The video:

All in all, exactly what you’d expect from the Today show: a heartwarming, human interest story with a happy ending. The child is framed as a fundamentally good kid who was curious and perhaps a bit impetuous. When he has no answers for Vieira’s questions, she slots in innocent ones.  And the mild punishment is seen as incidental to the more important idea that he learned something.

This story contrasts dramatically to the CNN story about Latarian Milton, a black 7-year-old who took his family’s car on a joy ride.  I’ll put the video first, but be forewarned, it’s disturbing not only because of the different frame placed on the boys actions, but because of the boy’s embracing of the spoiled identity (apology for the commercial):

With an absolutely polar introduction of “Not your typical 7-year-old,” this story is filmed on the street. Whereas the Today show screened the chase footage in real time, this one is sped up, making it seem even more extreme.

The interviewer, off-camera, asks Latarian why he took the car. He replied: “I wanted to do it ’cause it’s fun, it’s fun to do bad things.” The interviewer asks further, “Did you know that you could perhaps kill somebody?” And he replies: “Yes, but i wanted to do hoodrat stuff with my friends.”

The interviewer asks him what punishment he should receive and Latarian offers a punishment very similar to Preston’s: “Just a little bit… no video games for a whole weekend.” In a more longer version of this news story, now taken down, the camera focuses on a reporter who explains that the police plan to go forward with charges of grand theft against him.  While he’s “too young to go into any type of juvenile facility,” he says, “police say they do want to get him into the system, so that they can get him some type of help.”

The implication here, of course, is that this child is not innocent or impetuous like Preston, he’s a pre-criminal who needs “some type of help.” The sooner they get Latarian into “the (prison?) system,” the better. No cotton candy kid this one.

Unfortunately, Latarian says all the right things to make the narrative fit. He says he likes to do “bad” things, calls himself a “hoodrat,” and seems unremorseful, even defiant, for at least part of the interview (he looks a bit sheepish in the end when he finds out his grandmother is going to have to pay for the damage he did to other cars).

One way to interpret this is to say that Latarian IS a pre-criminal. That he DOES need to get into the system because he’s clearly a bad kid.  Someone inclined to believe that black people were, in fact, more prone to criminal behavior could watch these two videos and feel confirmed in their view.

But there is good evidence that people, beginning as children, internalize the stereotypes that others have of them.  As Ann Ferguson shows in her book, Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity, black children, especially boys, are stereotyped as pre-criminals; not adorably naughty, like white boys, but dangerously bad from the beginning.  And studies with children have shown that they often internalize this idea, as in the famous doll experiment in which both black and white children were more likely than not to identify the black doll as bad (see this similar demonstration of white preference on CNN and a discussion of the original doll experiment at ABC).  So I think this terribly sad story of Latarian is showing us how children learn to think of themselves as deviant and bad from the society around them.  Latarian, remember, is seven, just like Preston.  They’re both children, but they are being treated very differently, as these programs illustrate, and it is already starting to sink in.

Originally posted in 2010. Re-posted in solidarity with the African American community; regardless of the truth of the Martin/Zimmerman confrontation, it’s hard not to interpret the finding of not-guilty as anything but a continuance of the criminal justice system’s failure to ensure justice for young Black men. Crossposted at Racialicious and Love Isn’t Enough.

Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

Foreign men used to be accused of heading to China to find a wife. Now they go there in search of an ex-wife.

Or at least, that’s what some of them have been doing. A recent audit of Beijing real estate purchases revealed a growing side business among real estate brokers: finding an eligible Chinese woman willing to marry a foreigner so that he could buy an apartment or two, and then promptly divorce him (link in Chinese), as the Beijing New reports. The two brokerage agencies that the government cracked down on had already arranged 17 “divorce support” marriages. One Beijing woman involved in the business had married and divorced three men in five months.

Why would either party want to do this? Buying homes in China is very difficult for foreigners. To be eligible, foreigners typically must provide the authorities with five consecutive years worth of Chinese tax receipts. That policy has barred newcomers and the unofficially employed from property investment.

However, foreigners married to Chinese nationals are allowed to buy up to two homes, no tax documents needed.

It’s a way of limiting speculative investors from entering the market to keep a lid on the country’s bubbly housing market, long a struggle for the Chinese government and a source of public ire. Among Chinese nationals, divorce is already a popular way of sidestepping property restrictions.

It’s unclear how long the “divorce support” business has been going on, but the Beijing News report said a random sweep of real estate brokerages in a foreigner-heavy area of Beijing suggests that the practice is fairly widespread. The report said that the fee for “divorce support” runs between $4,900 and $8,150. And it’s not just men who benefit. Some brokerages offered temporary husbands to enterprising foreign women.

But why would foreigners who aren’t planting roots in Beijing want to buy into the likely property bubble? After all, Beijing’s prices are already off the charts:

But after a lull in 2012, the investments are popular again (note that it includes commercial and residential property, though):

That might be because the market shows few signs of peaking. Despite slowing growth and new measures to control the market, real estate investment continued to boom in the first half of 2013. Total investment in real estate (including both residential and commercial) surged to nearly $600 billion in H1 2013 (link in Chinese), a 20.3% increase from H1 2012.

The remarkably varied and colorful interiors of golf balls are revealed in the photo series “Interior Design” by photographer James Friedman.

via Feature Shoot

Historical Map: Bank-Monument Tube Stations Cutaway (1990s?)

Not a traditional transit map per se, but a stunningly beautiful technical illustration of the interlinking tubes and tunnels that form the connected Bank-Monument tube station complex in London. Built as separate stations, but linked by escalators in the 1930s (the depiction of which proved a permanent puzzle for H.C. Beck on his Tube Map), the complex is the ninth-busiest London Underground station,

What I love here is that we’re looking at over 100 years of infrastructure development: the original Monument station (first called “Eastcheap” and then “The Monument”) opened in 1884; the “City” end of the Waterloo and City Line in 1898; Bank station (named after the Bank of London) opened in 1900. Over 100 years after the first part of the complex was opened, the deep station for the DLR was completed in 1991.

Compare to a similar cutaway of the Hudson River Tubes from 1909.

(Source: Original source unknown, image from skyscrapercity.com forum post)

The Tumblr What Netflix Does is drawing attention to the company’s practice of showing wider-screen movies — films shot in the “Scope” formats, in the neighborhood of 2.39:1 instead of the standard widescreen ratio of 16:9.

For over a decade, aboriginal children and adults were unknowingly subjected to nutritional experiments by Canadian government bureaucrats, a new report claims.

The Spirit is Weak with these Ones

The XXXII Olympic Summer Games in 2020 will be hosted by one of three candidate cities: Madrid, Istanbul, or Tokyo, following the 2016 games in Rio De Janeiro. The three candidates were selected by the International Olympic Committee out of a group that also included non-selected applicant cities Baku, Doha, and Rome (which withdrew its bid shortly before the applicant files were due). The International Olympic Committee will elect the host city on 7 September 2013. Here is a look at the logos of each of the hopefuls (and not so hopefuls).

2020 Candidate Cities

Madrid / Design by Tapsa and original designed/concept by: Luis Peiret

The year 2020 will mark Madrid's third consecutive attempt for the summer games--but this third time is not the aesthetic charm. The final mark, which was released in January of 2012, is the bastardized child of the Spanish Olympic Committee's marketing plan to open source the mark design through a national competition.

Luis Peiret's playful and abstract representation of the Puerta de Alcala (above) -- in which the five arches of the Puerta de Alcala represent the five continents -- was selected. It was a handsome and strong mark that clearly and strongly stated the personality and fortitude of Spain, but was then heavily modified. The final "20020" mark is an example of "design by committee" and the failures that come with such additional involvement. The fresh cut to the base of the logo gives a nice crown-like shape to the overall mark; however, this is the only nice thing I have to say.

The legibility of the original "M20" script was completely discredited upon manipulation and severely criticized by the country as a whole, being mocked via the Twitter hashtag #Madrid20020. The alterations continued with the removal of the original color gradients--doing away with black entirely--switching instead to flat colors and the color purple, thus misrepresenting the five Olympic colors. The final and possibly most embarrassing error was the misspelling of Madrid with the addition of an accent over the "i."

Let this be a clear lesson in the power of intellectual property to young designers and design students: own your work. Thankfully, the Spanish can breathe a sigh of relief since this is just the bid and won't represent the final games in "20020" if they come to Spain.

Istanbul / Design by N/A

This will be Istanbul's fifth attempt to bring the Olympic Games to Turkey, having previously submitted four different bids (2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012), two of which have led to Olympic candidacy (2004 and 2008) though ultimately failing to be awarded the Games.

Istanbul was awarded the candidacy to host the 2020 Games in May of 2012, winning this honor thanks to an untraditional "pattern mark." The simply-complicated, mono-weight pattern is a fresh point of view for branding the Games. Its heavily horizontal orientation is something that has never been seen in and Olympian mark--I appreciate that. The pattern mark had massive potential to expand however with the announcement of Istanbul's candidacy, the Turkish IOC released an online vote in which the public can choose between five Tulip marks, each nearly as disappointing as the other.

The final mark that was selected for Istanbul's candidacy is a painterly version of a tulip--a traditional symbol for the city--that contains elements of Istanbul's skyline which revolve around the Maiden's Tower. Conceptually, the upper orange portion of the mark not only symbolizes a sunset over the city but also the European side of Istanbul, while the lower potion, which is separated by the Bosporus, represents the Asian side and the city as a whole with traditional turquoise symbolizing Turkish culture--the turquoise gem having origins in Turkey.

However conceptually sound, the mark's aesthetics do not mix well. The paint-like texture of the tulip clashes with the realistic, vector based cityscape. The designer should should have limited him/herself to concentrating on one cohesive look. The mark feels even further disconnected through its accompanying modern and disproportional typeface. The kerning is quite silly and rushed, providing a disappointing base for the mark.

Another mark that was clearly designed and then convoluted by an indecisive committee.

Tokyo / Design by Ai Shimamine

Tokyo, who hosted one of the most beautifully branded Games in 1964, was selected as a Candidate City for 2020 in September of 2012. Originally considering Hiroshima as the main bid for the 2020 Games, Tokyo was ultimately selected by the Japanese IOC after poor public reaction and funding issues for the first bid.

The mark was designed by fourth year student Ai Shimamine, who participated in a design competition to create a logo for Tokyo's bid. The circular wreath of cherry blossoms, Japan's most celebrated flower, takes the cake for cultivating a happy, peaceful, and comforting feeling (something the other two Candidate Cities don't take advantage of), setting Tokyo apart from the playing field. The circular shape symbolizes a sense of eternity; accompanied by the playful cherry blossoms, it further evolves to express the eternal happiness which the Games inspire. Each individual petal within the circular wreath shape of the cherry blossoms represents the interconnectivity and interdependence of the world.

Accompanying the Olympic colors, the design incorporates a traditional Edo period purple, which was used in cultural festivals and events during that time--a simple and comforting connection back to Japanese heritage.

A mark that is fully thought through to the smallest "Rising Sun" detail that divides the type is, hands down, my favorite mark of the three Candidate Cities. It is a reminder that once every four years I become a kid again, full of excitement and hope. Congrats to Ai Shimamine on making her country proud.

2020 Non-selected Applicant Cities

Doha / Design by N/A

While failing to become a Candidate City for the 2020 Games (in addition to a 2016 attempt), the mark presented by Doha was inspired by the Arabic word for Doha, "ad-dawha," which translates to "the big tree." This is a reference to the prominent tree that stood at the site where the original fishing village arose on the eastern coast of the Qatar peninsula, and it is considered to be a symbol of cultivation.

The Doha Olympic Committee used this inspiration to create an edgy, youthful, and fruitful mark that feels tailored to the sleek, Armani Exchange-ish life that can be had in Qatar. The dark colored trunk of the mark illustrates the region's strong historic heritage, while the lively firework-like leaves display the excitement and growth of the city and the Games to come.

The clever addition of purple to the mark, which is the color of the Qatari flag, links the people of Qatar back to this international competition and furthers Qatar's presences in the Olympic community--something that Madrid should learn from.

With that said, I'm sad to report that the tailored typeface works but is a bit expected. The type as a whole feels like a missed opportunity to play with contrasting shapes and to really let the mark vibrate in a good way. There are only so many tailored curves one mark can handle, and the Doha mark has reached that limit.

Overall, the mark was a move in the right direction, with its simple formal shapes and clever coloring. It is a mark that easily benefits the branding as a whole through its readiness to be dissected into patterns, shapes, and icons to carry the Qatari story from beginning to end. Sadly, the games will pass over Doha in 2020. Here's to seeing what handsome mark the Qatar Olympic Committee creates for the 2024 bid.

Baku / Design by N/A

Baku, Azerbaijan also participated in bidding for the 2016 Olympics which were ultimately given to Rio de Janeiro. With high hopes, Baku submitted its second bid for the 2020 Games with a beautifully inspired Azerbaijani carpet mark.

Baku's mark rallies behind the concept and slogan of "Together We Can" and does so in an iconic and sophisticated manner. The weave of the four individual pieces subtly spells out Baku's "dream date" of 2020 in a Pentagram-like "ah-ha" moment. That feeling of surprise, excitement, and discovery illustrates what the games are all about.

The strong, geometric mark embraces subtle and carefully-handled gradients that help diversify the primary colors--simple yet complicated, in other words--creating a pleasant and harmonious feel. The neutrality of the mark lets each individual associate his or her own meaning to the mark and in turn creates a stronger bond with the Games in Baku. This is a symbol that any athlete would tattoo on themselves.

Unfortunately, in May of 2012 it was announced that Baku had not been selected as a Candidate City. A shame to see such a handsome mark be washed away.

Rome / Design by N/A

Rome previously hosted the 1960 Summer Games and failed to hold the 2004 Games to Athens in a final round of voting by the IOC. Rome developed a bid for the 2020 Games after being nominated by the Italian National Olympic Committee, but the Italian government withdrew its support from the bid on the eve of the delivery of the application files, stating that it would not be a responsible use of money in "Italy's current condition."

The mark that accompanied the failed bid is a simple and awkwardly drawn illustration of the Colosseum that was born out of the conceptual statement: "A time of history." The mark itself feels rushed--with how the bid ended, I would not be surprised if it was done under several restrictions. The misproportioned mark is neither distorted nor refined enough to look purposeful and and falls into the grey area of an amateur and naive designer. Accompanied with a lackluster color gradient, it is easy to say that this is a blatantly missed opportunity to demonstrate Rome's history though a single mark.

Thankfully, Da Vinci won't be turning in his grave since Rome's bid never saw the light of day.

Joe Nocera, columnist for the NY Times, has waved the technological white flag of surrender on behalf of his generation.

In a recent column he said: "I acknowledge I’m at the age where I’m losing the battle to keep up with technology."

That's such crap. This is a columnist at the NY Times? He's willing himself into obsolescence. My own opinion -- if he's too lazy or stupid to get with technology, which today is incredibly dumbed-down and easy to learn -- then they should get a person Nocera's age who's not so quick to give up on themselves. This guy is taking up space and using it for no good purpose. And it's not as if the Times lacks for such willful ignorance among its columnists. It's all over the op-ed page.

My recommendation for the Times is that they send Nocera to remedial tech boot camp. Find him a tutor who will tell him how Twitter works. Show him how to take a picture with his smartphone. Show him how to install the Instagram app. In a couple of weeks, he'll see how ridiculous the idea that, at age 61, you can't get on board with the latest mobile technology. It's designed for idiots who can't be bothered to read docs, for crying out loud.

And by the way, no columns about the boot camp while you're in the boot camp.

PS: An even better idea. Get someone Nocera's age who has lived a life in tech, who loves it, and empathizes, and can explain it. There are lots of us. The Times is doing its readers a disservice by telling them a 61-year-old can't understand the arc of tech. Go the other way. Set the expectation that they can.

PPS: Get Diane Rehm to explain it to you. Once a guest on her show said her listeners were too ignorant to understand the First Amendment. She got livid. My listeners are the smartest, most informed people in the world, she said.

betype:

Rum You Complete my Coke.

The Art Institutes, one of the nation’s largest for-profit school systems where people can receive an education in photography, has come under fire. Last month, the US Department of Justice filed a massive lawsuit against the company behind the schools, Education Management Corporation, accusing it of fraudulently collecting $11 billion in government aid by recruiting low-income students for the purpose of collecting student aid money. Whistleblowers claim that students graduate loaded with debt and without the means to pay off the loans, which are then paid for with taxpayer dollars.

David Walker at PDN writes,

At the Art Institute of Pittsburgh campus alone, there were reportedly about 600 photography students pursuing a bachelor of arts or associates degree as of last summer, says Kathleen A. Bittel, the whistleblower whose testimony before a US Senate committee last fall helped trigger the federal lawsuit against EDMC.

[...] “Where are 600 photography graduates going to go? You cannot absorb that many in one city. How are they going to make money?” she says.

Bittel says EDMC had plans last summer to increase its photography student enrollment by adding a 12-15 month diploma to the program. The new degree was intended to attract students who wanted a “quick fix” in the form of a degree they could earn faster than an associate’s degree with minimal effort, Bittel says. “If the bachelors students can’t find jobs, where are the students with [12-month diplomas] going to go?”

One former student they contacted commented that, “It’s like they’re pumping photographers out like little cookie cutters.”

Original Source

NPR

In Wake of Zimmerman Verdict, Obama Makes Extensive Statement on Race in ... New York Times WASHINGTON — President Obama, making a surprise appearance on Friday in the White House briefing room to address the verdict in the Trayvon Martin killing, spoke in personal terms about the experience of being a black man in the United States, trying ... African-American leaders hail Obama's remarks as a major step forwardCBS News President Obama: “Trayvon Martin could have been me.”MiamiHerald.com Essay: President Obama's deeply personal take on the Zimmerman verdictWashington Post USA TODAY -Los Angeles Times -ABC News all 4,319 news articles »

This may be the most important tweet in the history of arms control:

Panamá capturo barco de bandera Norcoreana proveniente de cuba con cargamento bélico no declarado http://t.co/MdWGfbXvVJ—
Ricardo Martinelli (@rmartinelli) July 16, 2013

That’s Panama’s President Ricardo Martinelli revealing missile parts concealed beneath a cargo of Cuban sugar. The compartment was discovered in the North Korean freighter Chong Chon Gang, homeward bound from Cuba. Law enforcement seized the vessel as it traversed the Panama Canal, subdued a rambunctious crew and a captain who reportedly preferred suicide to capture, and discovered a load of what Cuba calls “obsolete weapons“—”two anti-aircraft batteries, nine disassembled rockets, and two MiG-21 aircraft,” apparently heading to North Korea for repair. The sugar, some theorized, was a payment for the work.

How did Panamanian authorities catch this big fish? Well, it wasn’t as hard as you might think.

• This isn’t the first time the Chong Chon Gang has been caught riding dirty. In 2010, Ukranian authorities found over a hundred capsules of codeine on the freighter, along with AK-47 ammunition the captain said he traded with Somalis for food, 23 bottles of brandy and a secret compartment containing even more illicit drugs. North Korea’s government has a reportedly lucrative drug business.
• The ship strayed out of home waters. After the Ukrainian incident, arms trafficking expert Hugh Griffiths began monitoring the vessel’s location, mostly in Asian and European waters. It hadn’t visited the Western Hemisphere since 2009, so when it set course for Cuba, maritime observers took notice. After crossing the canal on May 31, it  apparently shut off its automatic tracking system, only reappearing again on July 10, raising something of a red flag. On July 3, meanwhile, a North Korean military delegation visited Cuba.
• The North Koreans are always getting caught in the arms business. The country supplied 40% of the ballistic missiles (pdf) purchased by developing nations between 1995 and 2009. Clients have included Pakistan, Iran, the Congo and Libya, and parts have been frequently seized, most recently in 2010 at the Port of Piraeus in Greece and 2009 in Thailand.

• They may have had US help.  US authorities have been praising Panama’s decision to search the Chong Chon Gang. While it’s not clear how much information from US intelligence sources played into the capture of the freighter, it’s known that they keep close tabs on North Korean vessels.

While the fate of the 35 crew members and their captain remain unclear, Martinelli’s government has said that it will relay the matter to the United Nations. Inspectors will determine whether Cuba and North Korea violated security council sanctions on weapons trade. Whether that conclusion will matter to the governments in frequently intransigent North Korea is an entirely separate question. But it’s a setback for Cuba’s government, which has hoped to cultivate better relations with the United States.

The numbers: Mixed. Mammoth toymaker Mattel posted a quarterly profit of $78.3 million, or $0.21 per share, well below analyst expectations of $0.31 per share. Revenue edged up 1% from a year earlier to $1.17 billion. Mattel’s quarter was mired by asset impairment charges; the company has yet to specify the amount of the charges, but they are presumably substantial given the disappointing net income numbers.

The takeaway: Down with Barbie. Up with American Girl. Mattel’s slim revenue growth depends increasingly on the success of its American Girl brand, not its longtime sweetheart, Barbie. Barbie sales plunged another 12%, marking the fourth straight quarter drop, while American Girl sales jumped another 14% due to strong US and international growth. As we mentioned last quarter, Mattel hit a homerun with its American Girl dolls despite a weakening toy industry. American Girl now accounts for 40% of Mattel’s growth, according to CEO Bryan Stockton.

What’s interesting: Doll sales are growing fast, which has helped boost Mattel’s American Girl. Doll sales jumped 11% in the US and 4% in Europe in May alone. But unlike with Barbie, Mattel has used American Doll to squeeze everything it can out of the craze, creating entire ecosystem of products that cater to the American Doll. American Doll owners spend an estimated $500 per doll on accessories, including furniture, clothing, movies and magazines. Kids can take their dolls into American doll stores for tea, or dinner, or a haircut (all for a price, of course). Those real-life interactive experiences are proving attractive in an era of child-oriented mobile devices and new technologies. And for the tech-savvy, American Girl is also dominating social media.

Vertigo has released the first look at J.H. Williams III's interior art for his and Neil Gaiman's "Sandman: Overture" miniseries, along with the first issue's cover by Dave McKean.

The show ran for seven seasons and a total of 145 episodes. Many of the episodes followed a similar structure “out-of-town crooks pull a robbery, Duke boys blamed, spend the rest of the hour clearing their names, the General Lee flies and the squad cars crash".

Link

Dreamworks has released the first trailer for The Fifth Estate, a film about WikiLeaks starring Benedict Cumberbatch as founder Julian Assange. The film, directed by Bill Condon, is based on controversial novels Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange and the World’s Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg and WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy by British journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding and will premiere in theaters on October 18th, 2013.

Triggering our age of high-stakes secrecy, explosive news leaks and the trafficking of classified information, WikiLeaks forever changed the game. Now, in a dramatic thriller based on real events, THE FIFTH ESTATE reveals the quest to expose the deceptions and corruptions of power that turned an Internet upstart into the 21st century’s most fiercely debated organization. The story begins as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl) team up to become underground watchdogs of the privileged and powerful. On a shoestring, they create a platform that allows whistleblowers to anonymously leak covert data, shining a light on the dark recesses of government secrets and corporate crimes. Soon, they are breaking more hard news than the world’s most legendary media organizations combined. But when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they battle each other and a defining question of our time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society—and what are the costs of exposing them?”

images and video via The Fifth Estate

In HateSong, we ask our favorite musicians, writers, comedians, actors, and so forth to expound on the one song they hate most in the world. 

The hater: Music is the through-line in David Lynch’s career. While his films can vary wildly in tone, pop songs and each film’s score have roundly been front and center, or lurk around every other frame. With the upcoming release of his second solo studio album, The Big Dream, Lynch burrows deeper into music and seemingly further away from film. A huge proponent of transcendental meditation (or TM), the cerebral Lynch has a very personal relationship with music, so much so that The A.V. Club was requested to refrain from actually saying the title “It’s A Small World” throughout the entire interview. A code word for the song, “Flappy,” was predetermined before the interview.

The hated: The Sherman Brothers’ “It’s ...

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