Around The Web | What We’re Reading
As leaders descend on Hamburg for the much-anticipated G20, the world holds its breath for several reasons: one being any awkward Trump moments that arise, or tweets for that matter, embarrassing America any further, the other being any casualties arising from the several major protests planned. But while this gathering may be taking center stage, Angela Merkel’s husband will be taking the opportunity to distract the First Lady with his own environmental agenda. Family members forming their own political agenda seems to be all the rage at the moment.
Someone who will be sitting on the sidelines eagerly turning her critical eye on the elite conference is author Naomi Klein, who this week has written about the exploitation by corporations at times of disasters. Cue driverless cars making ethical and moral decisions about who lives and dies, mixed in with celebrities who have died with their hands on the wheel. Enjoy this weeks’s roundup.
“After a secret video of him dancing went viral on YouTube, Hiroyuki Imamura was dubbed the God of Dance Dance Revolution.” In this incredibly endearing video, meet the king of the arcade dance mat game and watch him bring his dancing whizz to a beautiful cross-section of Japanese landscapes.
“Grace Kelly’s car went off a curved road right near where she’d filmed the infamous Hitchcockian classic To Catch a Thief (her daughter, Stéphanie survived). James Dean, who had a raging passion for cars, was only 24 when his Porsche 550 Spyder got into a fatal collision.” Photographer Christophe Rihet displays his eery photographs capturing the roads of Hollywood that have claimed the lives of some of its brightest stars. Take a look.
“There’s a gender pay gap in our country that arises perhaps from ‘personal decisions,’ or having children and leaving the workforce. That’s one thing,” she said. “But the disclosure we’re looking for is like positions, like seniority.” Natasha Lamb, a managing partner at a major Boston investment company, attended a series of shareholder meetings for companies like JP Morgan and Mastercard, to ask them if they would simply publish a report on their gender pay gap. This is what happened.
“While Angela Merkel carefully navigates around sensitive topics such as climate change to ensure it doesn’t derail the summit, her husband, Joachim Sauer, is not beating around the bush.” As the G20 summit gets into full swing in Hamburg, the German Chancellor’s husband is planning a tactical tour of a climate change lab to entertain guests Ivanka and Melania Trump… Awkward?
“Shock tactics follow a clear pattern: wait for a crisis (or even, in some instances, as in Chile or Russia, help foment one), declare a moment of what is sometimes called “extraordinary politics”, suspend some or all democratic norms – and then ram the corporate wishlist through as quickly as possible.” The inimitable Naomi Klein warns of the opportunism of those in power when disasters such as Grenfell Tower strike, including a worrying link between Hurricane Katrina and Donald Trump’s closest allies.
“For example, one study found that a brief loving-kindness meditation reduced prejudice toward homeless people, while another found that a brief mindfulness training decreased unconscious bias against black people and elderly people.” A series of studies show that practicing mindfulness might be the answer to our tendency towards prejudice and bias. Will you try it?
“Imagine you are driving down the street when two people — one child and one adult — step onto the road. Hitting one of them is unavoidable. You have a terrible choice. What do you do? Now imagine that the car is driverless. What happens then? Should the car decide?” Until now it was thought that robotic vehicles couldn’t make moral and ethical choices, but an important study in Germany suggests this might not be true.
