What identity crisis

His life oscillates, as everyone's does, not merely between two poles, such as the body and the spirit, the saint and the sinner, but between thousands and thousands. ― Hermann Hesse, The Steppenwolf1 Contrary to common belief, our results reveal that cooperation can emerge among selfish individuals because of selfishness itself: if the final reward for being part of a society is sufficiently appealing, players spontaneously decide to cooperate.  ― Bravetti & Padilla, An Optimal Strategy to Solve the Prisoner's Dilemma In a little while ― Thom Yorke, Radiohead, How to Disappear Completely We enter 2019 as residents of  a world full of constant changes, persistent annihilation-level threats, and exhaustive information overload. Our attempts to keep up — with an avalanche of tweets and social media posts, with news breaking by the hour, with a seemingly endless scroll of political scandals — are futile. And when we find ourselves unable to … [Read more...] about The One Big Reason America Feels Disintegrated

This Nov. 22, 2019 photo, shows the renovated Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska. The house now has double the amount of retail space and more displays and attractions for visitors. (Alistair Gardner/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner via AP) less This Nov. 22, 2019 photo, shows the renovated Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska. The house now has double the amount of retail space and more displays and attractions for visitors. (Alistair ... more Photo: ALISTAIR GARDINER, AP Photo: ALISTAIR GARDINER, AP Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Image 1 of 3 This Nov. 22, 2019 photo, shows the renovated Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska. The house now has double the amount of retail space and more displays and attractions for visitors. (Alistair Gardner/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner via AP) less This … [Read more...] about Santa Claus House: Everything is merry year round

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s unity government is expected to remain in place despite the formal expiration on Thursday of the U.S.-brokered deal between two electoral rivals whose internal feuding has undermined efforts to battle the Taliban and stabilize the country. The deal was negotiated by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014 following elections in which Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah claimed victory. The deal made Ghani president, and Abdullah reluctantly accepted the secondary role of chief executive. It obliged the two to govern together for two years, during which time electoral reforms and electronic national identity cards would be introduced and parliamentary and district elections held. The deal also included the convening of a Loya Jirga — or grand council of community and religious leaders — to potentially approve the creation of a prime minister’s post, which would be filled by Abdullah. None of the commitments have … [Read more...] about Afghan unity deal expires, but gridlocked government remains

During the 9-day run of Egypt’s 3rd edition of the El Gouna Film Festival, Hollywood actors rubbed shoulders with regional movie stars. Gracing the red carpet along the Red Sea coast was action hero Steven Seagal, of Under Siege fame. The 67-year-old spoke to Rebecca McLaughlin-Eastham about the evolution taking place in Hollywood’s entertainment industry right now. The anchor of Inspire Middle East asked the actor if the creative, technological and pay-scale changes in the sector, were a good thing. “I think that’s a little bit of a political question,” said Seagal, “But to be honest, I think in some areas there’s inspirational, wonderful progress and in other areas it’s kind of tail-spinning in another direction. So, it’s kind of two different worlds going in opposite directions.” When asked what his advice to aspiring actors trying to break into the industry would be, the producer and performer had this to say: “For … [Read more...] about Action man Steven Seagal & actress Hend Sabry attend El Gouna Film Festival

James Graham's new play deals with the big issue of our day: the power of the surveillance state and the ability of the internet to determine our identities. Taking the form of a theatrical collage, the play also relies heavily on the verbatim testimony of seven members of the Guardian staff. But, although I found the result endlessly fascinating, the mass of information and the diversity of styles means the promised debate never really matures. The chosen form ensures that the Writer and Director are central characters. At first the Writer, experiencing his own crisis of identity, goes to an analyst who talks of our culture's "pathological intrusiveness." This leads to a discussion about the difference between privacy and secrecy. This, in turn, opens up an exploration of the near-impossibility of privacy in the digital age. To reinforce the point, the audience is asked to keep its smartphones switched on; and, in a highly interactive evening, we see how our tastes and preferences … [Read more...] about Privacy review – Taut drama short-circuits the crucial debate

A couple of years ago, I sat in on a workshop for young Muslim writers offered as part of the Royal Court's Unheard Voices programme. Out of that came this first play by Rachel De-lahay being presented in the bustling Bussey Building in London's Peckham before moving to the Theatre Upstairs. And it makes for a lively, vigorous evening even if the production, which seats the audience in the middle of a large, rectangular space, sometimes leads to tennis-neck. De-lahay has confronted a living issue: the tensions between black and Asian people living on a big Battersea estate. What sparks the crisis is the purported rape of a 14-year-old Asian girl by a black gang. This not only triggers local riots, but exposes the fissures in the relationship between the Pakistani Soriya and the African-Caribbean Marcus, who are of mixed-race parentage and have just moved in together. To complicate matters further, Soriya is torn between her lover and her white, flat-sharing, female best friend who goes … [Read more...] about The Westbridge – review