BJ세야의 ‘강제 아웃팅 방송’에 비판이 쏟아지다
각종 여성혐오성 발언으로 구설에 올랐던 아프리카TV BJ 세야가 이번에는 ‘동성애자 아웃팅 방송’으로 논란을 빚…
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Monthly Archives: December 2017
I Cannot Visualise Anything. I Close My Eyes And Only See Grey
I Cannot Visualise Anything. I Close My Eyes And Only See Grey
I first became aware of my ‘condition’ as a small child. I could not get to sleep, and my father or my sister would say, “Just close your eyes, and picture sheep jumping over a wall. Count the sheep. You’ll soon go to sleep”. I tried, but told them I couldn’t see anything when I closed my eyes, just a greyness. Nobody believed me. “Don’t be silly everybody can see pictures when they close their eyes”. This was news to me, and I decided not to mention it again.
I was always getting told off for ‘telling stories’, making things up. Ironic that I am now a scriptwriter. I never told anybody else about my condition, because, it didn’t appear to affect my life too much. I must admit there were times when I wished that I could close my eyes and think of my late mother’s face. She had passed away when I was six. Apart from that, it was just natural to me.
My family were quite creative. My father was an amateur tenor opera singer. My sister was an accomplished pianist. My father’s idea of family entertainment was for us all to read Julius Caesar. I could recite Mark Anthony’s speech when I was about eight.
Because of this background, when my big sister said “I know. Let’s write a musical”, it didn’t occur to me to question her. Of course, I presumed that, being the musician, she would write the songs, but, no, she said she would write the story and I could write the songs.
I was too young and innocent to object. I had no knowledge of music theory, so I guessed that I should think them up in my head. After all, that’s how I listened to music most of the time. So, I wrote my first song ‘Under The Moonlight’. It was awful, bit it was a complete song.
My sister soon lost interest, but I had gotten the bug. I even wrote a rough play. It had an opening dream sequence, that I soon realised was too complex for the stage, so I reimagined it as a feature film.
In all these imaginings, I never closed my eyes to visualise anything. I couldn’t. I could write songs with my eyes wide open, and visuals, I just described on paper.
At fifteen, I saw The Beatles for the first time, and knew what I would be doing for the rest of my life.
I started writing songs in earnest, formed a school group; eventually made records, turned professional, toured Europe, and then the band broke up in 1973.
I went into the business full time and I am now a music supervisor in the film, industry. I have also written four screenplays.
In none of my creative endeavours have I needed to ‘visualise’.
The matter of my ‘condition’ didn’t come up again, until in my thirties, and suffering from major stress, I started seeing a stress therapist.
Now, I was asked to lay on the therapist’s bed, to close my eyes and ‘Imagine your favourite place, a place where you felt peaceful.’ Once again, I could only see grey clouds. I decided to say nothing, but mentally ‘spoke’ the details of my favourite place, as if I was narrating a radio programme. Surprisingly, it worked, and I was able to successfully receive stress therapy and eventually deep meditation.
I have no idea if these two things are connected, but I have always had a shocking memory for events in my life. However, I can recall every song I ever wrote, and when I had a hard drive crash on me, I was able to recall in detail four film scripts.
Again, I have no idea if there is any connection, but I have a very high sense of audio, specifically music. I don’t have to close my eyes to ‘hear’ music. In times of great stress, my coping mechanism is to imagine a symphony orchestra playing.
I dream every night, and have had vivid Technicolor dreams. So what that tells the scientists, I don’t know.
It was with a sense of relief that I discovered that my condition had been researched and give a name – Aphantasia. Apparently not an illness, more like having blue eyes instead of brown, and I accepted this.
However, a couple of weeks ago, on a whim, I Googled ‘Is there a cure for Aphantasia’.
Not surprisingly the answer was ‘no’ but then I found a website, where it gave exercises to overcome the condition. I started to do them and within a few attempts, I was able to conjure up colours at will for the first time in my life. Then gradually shapes. Most notably a ‘wall’ of what looked like bathroom tiles in a vivid blue. I am hopeful.
Would I have swapped my life in music to not have Aphantasia if that was the reason for my musical gift. The answer would be No!
Life Less Ordinary is a weekly blog series from HuffPost UK that showcases weird and wonderful life experiences. If you’ve got something extraordinary to share please email [email protected] with LLO in the subject line. To read more from the series, visit our dedicated page.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/aphantasia-close-eyes-visualisation_uk_5a31403ee4b07ff75aff78b3
USA Today: Trump ‘Not Fit to Clean the Toilets’ in Obama’s Library or Shine George W. Bush’s Shoes
USA Today: Trump ‘Not Fit to Clean the Toilets’ in Obama’s Library or Shine George W. Bush’s Shoes
USA Today‘s editorial board rips Donald Trump in a new editorial reacting to his sexist attack on Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
Wrote Trump in the tweet: “Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office “begging” for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!”
Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office “begging” for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2017
A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush.
This isn’t about the policy differences we have with all presidents or our disappointment in some of their decisions. Obama and Bush both failed in many ways. They broke promises and told untruths, but the basic decency of each man was never in doubt.
Donald Trump, the man, on the other hand, is uniquely awful. His sickening behavior is corrosive to the enterprise of a shared governance based on common values and the consent of the governed.
…It is a shock that only six Democratic senators are calling for our unstable president to resign.
The nation doesn’t seek nor expect perfect presidents, and some have certainly been deeply flawed. But a president who shows such disrespect for the truth, for ethics, for the basic duties of the job and for decency toward others fails at the very essence of what has always made America great.
Read it all HERE.
The post USA Today: Trump ‘Not Fit to Clean the Toilets’ in Obama’s Library or Shine George W. Bush’s Shoes appeared first on Towleroad.
USA Today: Trump ‘Not Fit to Clean the Toilets’ in Obama’s Library or Shine George W. Bush’s Shoes
The World Generated 4,500 Eiffel Towers’ Worth Of Electronic Waste Last Year
The World Generated 4,500 Eiffel Towers’ Worth Of Electronic Waste Last Year
The world produced 44.7 million metric tons of electronic waste in 2016, according to a new United Nations report. To put that in perspective, that’s equivalent to the weight of 4,500 Eiffel Towers. Laid out in a line, the waste would stretch from New York to Bangkok and back ―28,160km.
Global e-waste ― discarded electronic and electrical goods such as mobile phones, laptops, televisions, refrigerators and electrical toys – rose 8 percent from 2014 to 2016, according to the Global E-waste Monitor 2017 report, published on Wednesday.
“One of the key findings is the amount of electronic waste is growing, and that’s both in terms of absolute value as well as per inhabitant”, said Vanessa Grey of the UN’s International Telecommunication Union and co-author of the report.
The falling cost of electrical items is one of the reasons for the increase, according to the UN, as it means devices are more affordable around the world. There are now more mobile phone subscriptions than people in the world and around half of the world population (3.6 billion) uses the internet.
The biggest e-waste culprits per capita were Australia and New Zealand, according to the report, where 17.3kg of waste was produced per person and only 6% was formally collected and recycled. Europe is the second largest producer, generating 16.6kg per inhabitant, although it had the highest collection rate (35%).
E-waste is the world’s fastest growing waste stream and the bad news is its growth shows no sign of abating. The report predicted e-waste would increase a further 17% by 2021, reaching 52.2 million metric tons.
Despite these quantities, very little is recycled. Just 20% was reported as being collected and recycled in 2016. The report estimates that 4% is thrown into normal waste. But there is much less clarity on where remaining 76% ends up.
“It’s probably dumped, it’s burned, it’s traded or it’s recycled, but then very likely under inferior conditions so that there’s obviously huge impacts on the environment but also on human beings,” said Grey. And of course, there are the old gadgets languishing in people’s drawers.
The impacts of e-waste are stark. It often contains toxic metals such as lead which leach into the environment polluting soil and water supplies. It also releases toxic fumes which have major health implications for the often informal waste pickers in low income countries who dismantle the waste with little, if any, safety equipment.
There’s also an economic loss from dumping e-waste. The UN calculates the recoverable materials lost – which include gold, silver and copper – amount to $55 billion.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that even collecting 50% of mobile phones in Europe at the end of their life and re-using, remanufacturing or recycling them would save over $1 billion (£750 million). “The electronics industry operates on an outdated, wasteful take-make-dispose model,” said a spokeswoman for the Foundation.
Professor Lenny Koh of Sheffield University Management School, who has researched the economics of electronic waste, said understanding the value of this waste stream is not just about resource use and efficiency, “but also about being able to reduce our reliance on virgin materials, conflict materials, and focusing on more renewable resources.”
The UN report calls for new business models which, for example, rent rather than sell mobile phones to customers and ensure they extract value from the old phones once they are returned.
Joost de Kluijver, director of Netherlands based NGO Closing the Loop, pointed to Apple, with its focus on urban mining, and Fairphone, the maker of ethical modular phones, as examples of businesses making progress on the issue but said this knowledge needs to be shared globally to make a real difference.
Action is also needed at government level. While 66% of countries have national e-waste legislation, according to the report, it’s not translating into action. This is partly down to a serious lack of data. Only 41 countries collect official data on e-waste, said Gray, adding: “If you don’t know the basic statistics, well, then you really don’t know what’s happening.”
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www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/electronic-waste-recycling-un-report_uk_5a311ae1e4b07ff75aff1c25
