It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. | | Tom Cruise is fantastic as drug smuggler Barry Seal in "American Made" (Universal Pictures) | | | | “It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice.” |
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| rantnrave:// I'm not a big fan of TOM CRUISE the movie star. The action movies are fine, but just fine. I'm a big fan of Tom Cruise the actor. RISKY BUSINESS, THE COLOR OF MONEY, RAIN MAN, MAGNOLIA, TROPIC THUNDER, THE FIRM, TAPS, and more. The roles where he disappears into the character. You're not aware he's Tom Cruise. Yesterday, I went to an early screening of his new film AMERICAN MADE. The story of ADLER BERRIMAN "BARRY" SEAL who was one of the most daring smugglers of the 1980's. A pilot who ran drugs and arms before being assassinated. He worked with all the MEDELLÍN CARTEL all-stars. OCHOA, ESCOBAR, and others. And also the CIA, DEA, CONTRAS, OLIVER NORTH, NORIEGA and god knows who else. He was smart, innovative and reckless. He loved the thrill. His story is well-known to me. Between WWII obsessions, I dig deep into organized crime and drug cartel stories. Director DOUG LIMAN and writer GARY SPINELLI did a great job. It jumps right in. The stories (mostly true) are literally insane. Hard to believe. But they happened. The pace of the movie is perfect. Fast. Cruise's frenetic performance leads us. Your heart pounds. Things get so nuts. Seal is in the middle of so much all happening at once. It felt like the cooking / cocaine / guns / helicopter scene in GOODFELLAS for 2 hours. It doesn't let up. The TOP GUN irony that he plays a pilot in this one wasn't lost on me. Seal is not MAVERICK. I dig the subject so went in positively biased. We know many did what he did for the money. It's clear that was secondary to him. He did it for the rush. The thrill. Go see it next month. Then read all you can on Seal... Thank you to my pal CBS NEWS President DAVID RHODES who indulges my 3700 questions about politics every time we have lunch. I'm a novice and scared... SIRI is the APPLE MAPS of voice recognition. Unless I speak super slow and down to it. Or I have marbles in my mouth... My nieces and nephew don't breathe fire but they can destroy as much in the same timeframe as a dragon... I know more about OTT than life... My rearview mirror can see the dawn of time... Congrats to MICHAEL and ERIC EISNER on on PORTSMOUTH FC... Happy Birthday to GARY STIFFELMAN, FALON ROZ FATEMI, RICHARD WOLPERT, ANDY ABRAMSON, SHARI BROOKS, and MARK LUKASIEWICZ. | | - Jason Hirschhorn, curator |
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| Hannah Dreier spent years covering the implosion of Venezuela. Her takeaway is a sobering one: There’s no rule that says that a miserable situation has to end, just because it’s too miserable. | |
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This Russian mathematician-turned-hacker has cracked slot machines worldwide. His secret: seeing through pseudo-random numbers. | |
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On Thursday, July 20, we gave a presentation at the 2017 Global Sports Summit (GSS) entitled “The Future of Sports Media: The War for Consumers’ Time and Attention” (our entire 63 minute video, embedded at the bottom of this blog). The GSS is an annual event for owners of sports teams and their senior staff including NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, etc. | |
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How does a town go from logging and livestock to bits and bytes? Tiny Prineville, Oregon, is finding out as huge data centers from Apple and Facebook transform the timber town into a recreational hub of mountain bikers and craft brewers. | |
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Fast food did not just find its way to low-income neighborhoods. It was brought there by the federal government. | |
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From planes tracking drug traffickers to those testing new spying technology, US airspace is buzzing with surveillance aircraft operated for law enforcement and the military. | |
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One of America's most popular business opportunities is financially jeopardizing millions. | |
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For years, historians have blamed King Leopold of Belgium. But did they fall for Allied propaganda? | |
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Emotional intelligence tops the list. | |
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How the Fox morning show evolved into Donald Trump’s posse. | |
| In the heated and polarized political climate we live in, what began as a modest protest via open letter by four local musicians has become something of a "cause célèbre" for conservative cultural critics. On August 1, an Op-Ed by radio talk show... | |
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Silicon Valley says it is committed to racial diversity in its workforce. But the numbers tell a different story. | |
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Demonized as immigrants. Mistaken for Muslims. For more than a century, Sikhs in the U.S. have faced suspicion and violence. | |
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A writer ventures out of his 'male bubble' to find a medical jungle crowded with toxic treatments, false diagnoses, and shame. | |
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It’s more than a pivot to video -- it’s an evolution of text. | |
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| The Music Business Journal |
Record labels and publishers no longer serve as the music industry's "bank." But just as there are alternative sources for digital distribution, social promotion, and recording, so are there new sources of funding that give artists new options. | |
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In Season 2 of "Master of None," creators Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang boldly draw on Italian film classics, and apply their cinematic sensibility to the problems of the present. The end result is a fantastically creative and artistic spin on the modern romantic comedy. | |
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As the Voyager mission is winding down, so, too, are the careers of the aging explorers who expanded our sense of home in the galaxy. | |
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"Lie" has always been a "nitroglycerine type term," but it's being used more often now, Jeff Greenfield says. Kathleen Hall Jamieson says "I worry about the casual use of the word lie" when "we clearly don't know that it was deliberate." | |
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IGE used low-wage Chinese workers to amass virtual goods, then sold those goods to wealthier gamers for real cash. Company employees posed as random U.S. residents and took other steps to shield their role in these transactions, according to interviews and internal company documents. | |
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The tech industry is using its outsize influence to combat environmental product standards | |
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This is not history. This is humanity. This is now. This is a living lesson for us as a people. | |
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As the founder of a high growth successful startup, you may feel like you are constantly failing. You are not alone in this. Most startup founders I know feel like they are screwing up on a weekly or monthly basis, even if their business is growing well. | |
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