Ann Learys first book was An Innocent, A Broad in 2004 about the (mostly) comic travails she and her husband Denis Leary endured when a short trip to London ended up lasting five months, while Leary was pregnant with their first child.

Since then Leary has published five novels, which tend to be about family, small communities, interesting work opportunities and romance. Her 2012 bestseller, The Good House, has been made into a movie starring Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline that will screen this month at the Tribeca Film Festival and in cinemas this fall.

Ann Learys latest novel, The Foundling (Marysue Rucci Books, 2022), is the vivid, often alarming, tale of a young woman named Mary who works at the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age in the 1920s. The asylum is fictional but based on one Learys grandmother worked at. The novel is the result of years of research into mental health treatments in the early 20th century. The book also touches on racism and sexism in that era, and the controversial eugenics movement, whose goal was to eliminate undesirable genetic traits in the humans through selective breeding.

Ann Leary is signing and discussing The Foundling at four different places in Connecticut in the next couple of weeks: Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Elm Street Books in New Canaan, Friday at 7 p.m. at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Saturday at 3 p.m. at The Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot, and June 28 at 7 p.m. at Athena Books in Old Greenwich.

The Mark Twain House and Hickory Stick appearances will also feature Learys husband, the creator and star of the TV series Rescue Me, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and The Job, who is also a noted comedian and movie actor.

The Courant spoke to Ann Leary, who recently moved to Westchester County in New York after living in Litchfield County for 20 years, about Connecticut, the dark side of the 1920s and how a book discussion with Denis Leary might go.

Do you and your husband have a plan for what youll do at the Mark Twain House?

No! Denis tweeted the cutest thing: For the first time ever I am able to interview Ann Leary. We havent really talked about it. What can he ask me that he doesnt know? But Denis has always been the biggest fan of my books. This book, in particular, he loved the first draft. He has produced multiple series, and hes always seen this book becoming perhaps a limited series for television. Ive decided my husband knows what hes doing, and I want him to produce this adaptation. So hes not only interviewing me because he knows the book, but hes also very much involved in the future of this book. Maybe well talk about that a little bit.

How long have you been together?

I met Denis in 1982. Weve been living together ever since then. I moved to Boston in 82. I was at Bennington College for a few years, then I transferred to Emerson in Boston and I met Denis, who was teaching this comedy writing workshop. I took the class and it was really fun. Denis was 25, I was 20. When the semester was over, we went out and had a beer. We started kind of seeing each other and then one night he stayed over and he never left.

The Foundling is new territory for you. Youve done multi-generational novels but not a historical novel.

I really enjoyed it, actually, because Ive always loved research and history, especially American history, and my favorite era has always been the 1920s. Id always thought of it as this decadent, flapper, devil-may-care Zelda Fitzgerald time. I thought it was when restrictions on women were loosened and morals were loosened, and they were. If you were wealthy in the 1920s and you were a woman, you get drunk even though there was prohibition. You could have sex outside of marriage. If you were not rich, doing those exact same behaviors made you a menace to society and you would likely be institutionalized. It [was] very much a class thing.

Ann Leary's new novel "The Foundling," set in an asylum for women in the 1920s. (Marysue Rucci Books)

You write a lot about subcultures, including a work culture in this one.

The book is a novel, its actually fiction though its loosely based on my grandmother. The Foundling is about two young women who grew up in the same orphanage in Scranton, Pennsylvania and met up years later at a different kind of institution. Mary was a secretary to the very charismatic female doctor who ran the place, and Lilian was what they called one of the inmates, who was confined there against her will. It turns out that it was a eugenics asylum, where the purpose was to confine women of child-bearing age from having children because they were feebleminded. In those days, feebleminded was not a slur, it was a clinical term.

I found there also women in these asylums who were, and again this is the clinical term, degenerate women. They were morally feebleminded. They were bad girls or and I found this very dismaying they might be a 13-year-old who accused her stepfather of molesting her or a woman whose husband was sick of her, and in those days it was hard to get a divorce. You could easily end up in an asylum like this, and the of child-bearing age part of it is actually more offensive than the feebleminded part of the title because if you went there, if you were 12 or 25, didnt matter, you didnt get to leave until you were in menopause. You werent sent there to get schooling, to get help, you were sent there to prevent you from having children.

You use words like dullwitted and befuddled and other offensive words, but they come out of the characters.

That was a real challenge. By the time I came down to writing it, it was just this jargon I was used to. So yeah, a doctor, head of a world-renowned institution for supposed intellectual disabilities, could refer to how many idiots they had versus imbeciles or morons. Also, the racism is so overt. There were no dog whistles. I was shocked by the newspaper headlines, the words used. The horrible racism, anti-semitism, the outright sexism of that time was shocking.

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So then when I was writing, getting early feedback, especially from young editorial assistants saying, This isnt OK. Why isnt Mary fighting it? Why didnt she leave? I realized I needed an authors note at the beginning of the book because people seemed to think from the early drafts that the eugenics movement was a hate group, and it wasnt. It was the law, an ideology of race held by everyone from Theodore Roosevelt to Winston Churchill to George Bernard Shaw, Alexander Graham Bell, Margaret Sanger. Many people embraced eugenics. So I had to write that into the narrative, and it was hard because I wanted people to not hate Mary. I didnt want to make her a woman of today because women in those days werent as they are today. They didnt have the full rights of citizens. They had the right to vote in the 1920s, but very few of the other rights men had.like this.

I did love writing this book. I hope people can put it in context with the time. I really cant stand anachronistic writing. I had to make the characters be people of that time, and then within those confines somehow enact change if they were able.

Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.

Link:
Ann Leary discusses her new novel, her Connecticut book tour and working with husband, actor and comedian Denis Leary - Hartford Courant

Starring in his first big blockbuster role, Mamoudou Athie is one of the newest additions to the beloved Jurassic World franchise. Having made waves with his performance in the Netflix series Archive 81, Athie has now dove into the world of toothy dinosaurs in Colin Trevorrows final entry in the pre-historic series Jurassic World Dominion.

Following on from the events of Fallen Kingdom, Jurassic World Dominion tells the story of a new age of human and dinosaur cohabitation. The adventure movie is action-packed and directly taps into Steven Spielbergs original Jurassic Park movies bringing in legacy actors Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum for a brand new adventure.

Athie plays the role of Ramsay Cole, the head of communications at Biosyn. In our interview with the Emmy nominated star, we discuss how he skipped the traditional audition process to land his role in Dominion and break down what the experience of working on his first multi-million dollar blockbuster was really like.

The Digital Fix: Jurassic Park has been going on since the 90s, and so many people love it. How do you prepare for coming into such an iconic franchise?

Mamoudou Athie: Oh, you know what? Im so sorry, but honestly, I did it the same way I do everything else (laughs). I really am just like, Heres the script. I got the director here; were going to chat a lot. I want to work on this the same way as I do everything else.

And then the rest of it was like learning on the job because there are certain things that were brand new to me. But yeah, honestly, its always kind of the same process.

Your character has quite a few scenes with the legacy actors from the original Jurassic Park movies. You mentioned how there were things that you havent done before in this film. Did you get any advice from them?

Oh, you know what? Because my first scene was with Sam [Neill] and Laura [Dern] and that Ive been saying this a lot, but I really dont get starstruck. I dont care, typically. But those two, I mean, not only do I admire their work, but because Id seen them in those parts, and it made such an impression on me as a kid, I was nervous. And you could tell (laughs). You could tell.

So they kind of helped me relax. And they were just really generous and supportive. So in that sense, it wasnt specific advice to try like this or anything. It was more just like, Hey, you know, were just hanging out here. And, Lets go. Yes. Great.

I read somewhere that you didnt go through the typical audition process to get your role.

Oh yeah, I know!

Can you tell me how you got cast as Ramsay, and what attracted you to the character?

A phone call and then a meeting with Colin. We just had lobster rolls in Malibu. (laughs)We just chatted for three hours about video games and all kinds of stuff. And eventually, crazily, I got a call saying, he wanted to offer me the part.

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Which I was like, This is, this is the job that I get the offer for? (laughs) This is bizarre beyond belief. But also, what a gift. Yeah, what was the second part of your question?

What attracted you to the character? What made you say yes to Colins offer?

Oh, thank you, yes. You know, its rare that you get the script these days for these kinds of movies. So I didnt get the script until after Id said yes. But Colin had described the character to me. And I was like, Oh, that sounds great.

You know, hed seen this movie that I was in, The Front Runner. And there were certain elements of that character that he enjoyed, but also we wanted to make [Ramsay], you know, a new guy.

So yeah, we kind of just worked on it while were making the movie to make it kind of the person you saw. Hes certainly more comedic than initially written.

So Jurassic World Dominion is set to be the last one in the trilogy

Yeah.

But producer Frank Marshall said that hes open to making more movies. Is it possible, if that does happen, that we will see Ramsay return? He plays such a big role in this film.

Oh, yeah! I mean, anythings possible. You know? Who knows? But its hard for me to speculate on when, how, who, and what, you know? But Im always open. Yeah. Itd be cool.

Following on from that, would you be open to doing more big blockbusters then?

Sure! Yeah, as long as there are cool people absolutely! Yeah. Colin is great to work with. [Jurassic World Dominion] was really just like a lot of fun. And it was like a healthy set. Thats really whats important to me these days.

Yeah, how was Colin directing you? Especially with scenes where there are dinosaurs. Because obviously, sometimes those creatures arent physically there.

I didnt have that many scenes with them, though.

Ah, without giving too many spoilers, at the end, you did.

(laughs) Yes, you are right, in the end I did. Actually, there was this one moment, Colin did call me aside because I looked very excited to be on a Jurassic World set. So I was like, Oh!, and he was like, Hey, man. Hey, hey, this dude looks really happy to be in Jurassic World. (laughs) Thats hilarious. I hope he shows somebody that footage; it is ridiculous.

But yeah, no (laughs). I mean, its really just about, again, precision and just knowing exactly where to look and where to stop and how to interact. And then the rest of its your imagination.

Besides Colin pulling you aside, were there any other onset moments that, looking back, were really fun to film? Any you are going to remember fondly going forward?

[laughs] Im censoring myself. Yeah, I mean, like, especially when were all on set. I mean, it was a crazy couple of days because the election was going on in the States, and we were watching what was going on with that. But then were also having this crazy time where we are like, looking at this imaginary T-Rex and Giganotosaurus (laughs).

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And then we end up in this helicopter, and then Jeff [Goldblum] ends up reciting this poem from George Bernard Shaw thats so beautiful. That scene is actually filmed by the BTS team so that everybody can actually see it was really cool.

Its just like this very impromptu beautiful moment. Those days kind of as a swirl were like really some of my favourites

Jurassic World Dominion hits theatres on June 10, 2022.

Original post:
Mamoudou Athie reveals how he was cast in Jurassic World Dominion - The Digital Fix

Image: Alfred Russel Wallace, attributed to John William Beaufort (1864-1943) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Richard DawkinssThe Blind Watchmakerbegins with the grand claim that our own existence once presented the greatest of all mysteries, but it is a mystery no longer because it is solved, Darwin and Wallace solved it. Leaving to one side the fact that this statement is a prime example of what writer and satirist Tom Wolfe has dubbed the temptation to cosmogonism the compulsion to find the ever-elusive Theory of Everything.1The statement is, at best, only half true. For Alfred Russel Wallace as early as the mid 1860s had parted company with Charles Darwin on the subject of the human mind, with its staggering complexity and unique language facility. For him, on more mature reflection, no simple ape-to-human progression was any longer tenable and he could no longer assent to the ontological equivalence of humans and nonhuman animals proposed by Darwin and later subjected to areductio ad absurdumby the philosopher Peter Singer, best known for hisAnimal Liberation(1975) and for his (seriously proposed) advocacy for a normalization of sexual relations between humans and animals.

Wallace had given much thought to his change of heart. Marvelously free of any racist prejudice even at the height of the colonial era, he had noted in his more than a decade of fieldwork in far-flung locations of the globe that primitive tribes were intellectually the equals of Europeans, even if not (yet) their equals at the technological level. Savages were, however, required to operate only in the context of simple activities where their great brainpower was redundant given the simplicities of their daily rounds. So, what was the point of their great mental powers and, more importantly, how had it evolved? After all, natural selection would not have been called on to enable them to perform cognitively challenging tasks for which there was presently no need. By extension, what was the survival value of musical and mathematical abilities for Europeans? These were patently not brute survival skills. How could they have been promoted by natural selection which favors only immediate utility since, as Darwin himself repeatedly stated, it had no power of foresight? Wallace eventually answered that question (to his own satisfaction) by claiming that an influx of a higher life had supervened to accompany the arrival ofHomo sapienson the worlds stage a volte-face which disappointed Darwin and made Wallace the target of some opprobrium from Darwins supporters.

In his older years Wallace came to reject natural selection as an explanation for the unfurling ofallhuman and even animal life. By then he had transitioned towards the espousal of a form of natural theology; but his initial and gravest misgiving in the 1860s was focused four-square on the mystery of how the human brain could have evolved according to Darwinian lines of explanation. For Wallace it had become so clear that an additional power must have played a role that he thenceforth felt constrained to bid adieu to material modes of explanation. Rather like the adherents of the modern intelligent design trend, Wallace could not see how what is now termed irreducible complexity could have been thrown together by the only marginally discriminating forces of natural selection.

It is not difficult to sympathize with Wallaces doubts. As Michael Ruse recently put it, mind is the apotheosis of final cause, drenched in purpose irreducibly teleological.2At the same time, however, Ruse puzzlingly and to me somewhat contradictorily contends, Why should the evolutionist be expected to explain the nature of consciousness? Surely it can be taken as a given, and the evolutionist can move on leave the discussion at that.3Wallace was certainly not prepared to accept such cherry-picking evasions and leave the discussion at that. And despite Dawkinss transparent attempt to airbrush Wallaces apostasy out of the historical record, the latters century-and-a half old question about natural selections inability to create the human mind has been maintained as a live issue by professional philosophers.

Wallaces point was reprised by philosopher Anthony OHear who objected that evolutionary theory was inadequate to account for the emergence of the human mental and moral faculties. On Darwinian principles there was simply no source from which human morality and other higher faculties could have originated (all the less so if one believes that we as a species represent essentially a congeries of selfish genes):

How is it conceivable that consciousness should develop from unconscious precursors? There is no explanation to date and only those who believe that the difference between a cabbage or an automaton and a sentient human being is of small account will minimize the significance of this incomprehension.4

In other words, Darwinism simply cannot explain human nature to anything like its fullest extent. Both OHear and philosopher Richard Rorty have pointed to the plethora of non-Darwinian motivations in humankind, including that non-selfish moral compass which exists in all bar the most abject psychopaths. Hence OHear attacked the argument of Richard Dawkins when the latter insisted it was possible for humans to resist their selfish biological endowment in order to achieve more morally accountable human societies. Such moral resistance would not be logically possible if one holds to the strict doctrine of biological determinism. For given such a scenario, what resources would people have to draw on in order to escape the adamantine bonds of the deterministic straitjacket they were born into? There is then clearly a fatal logical contradiction in claiming that ethical behavior could be salvaged from the unyielding toils of biological determinism.5

As Anthony Flew once put it, No eloquence can move pre-programmed robots.6It is therefore difficult to make a rationally justified case for the human mind having had the form of evolutionary history commonly imputed to it. Furthermore, the philosophical conclusion towards which Wallace was an early contributor has also come to be buttressed by an empirical discipline unknown in Wallaces time that of neuroscience, which throws valuable light on this philosophical issue, even, I would suggest, for those who publicly disdain the discipline of philosophy.

Neuroscientist Donald Hoffman, who once worked with DNA co-discoverer Francis Crick in attempting to crack the problem of human consciousness, recently conceded that the nature and origins of consciousness remain completely unsolved and may best be termed an eternal mystery.7The brusque and decidedly no-nonsense Crick was in the event fated to meet his Waterloo when it came to the subject of consciousness, explains Hoffman. Crick had at first attempted to explain it somewhat airily as nothing but an emergent property which naturally arose when matter reaches a certain level of complexity. However, he was at length obliged to withdraw that vacuous contention, conceding that there is nothing about conscious experience that is relatable to the physicalstuffor material of the brain. Consciousness simply lies beyond our empirical perception and cognitive reach.

Hoffman develops the point further: At the most microcosmic level the brain consists of subatomic particles which have qualities like mass, spin and charge. There is nothing about these qualities that relates to the qualities associated with consciousness such as thought, taste, pain or anxiety.8To suggest otherwise, continues Hoffman, would be like asserting that numbers might emerge from biscuits or ethics from rhubarb. The bottom line seems to be that we are not only ignorant but, alas, prostrate in our ignorance of the brains arcana.9Theoretically, of course, there may yet emerge an as yet undiscovered materialist explanation for the brain and human consciousness. But to date we must conclude that todays science cannot with integrity support such a claimon the evidence presently available.

Both Hoffman and Crick were finally forced to conclude that all purely physicalist theories of consciousness had failed to provide illumination and that the state of consciousness could not be explained in neurological terms, a conclusion powerfully endorsed for more than three decades by distinguished British neuroscientist Raymond Tallis in his long opposition to what he terms Darwinitis.10In short, consciousness is simply not derivable from physical laws but remains an inexplicable phenomenon of the human endowment which we are simply left to wonder at. To suggest otherwise, writes philosopher David Bentley Hart, is to fall into the trap of a misapplication of quantitative and empirical terms to unquantifiable and intrinsically non-empirical realities.11This indicates that vague, would-be Darwinian attempts to imagine consciousness arising as an epiphenomenon of other physiological processes are misconceived. In fact, not being able to identify the precise biological pathway leading to the claimed epiphenomena disqualifies this contention as a bona fide theory and relegates it to the status of little more than magical thinking (which I define as postulating an effect without an identifiable agent or cause).

It cannot be denied that there are philosophers content to follow the Darwinian line and even to become Darwinian apologists (and indeed cheerleading eulogists such as Daniel Dennett). But there are very many more who feel a vocational duty to deconstruct Darwinian postulates and unmask their debatable pretensions. Remarkably, Richard Spilsbury felt so strongly on this point that he took to task an older generation of philosophers for being cowed by materialist confirmation bias intonotaddressing the problem. His remarks were directed at the logical positivist philosophers, in the orbit of Sir Alfred Ayer and his famousLanguage, Truth and Logicof 1936, for what he saw as their culpable silence on Darwinism.

As a matter of historical record, no group of thinkers was more inclined to denounce propositions for being non-sense (in the philosophical sense of not having sufficient logical stringency to merit serious discussion) than the logical positivists. Yet no criticism of Darwinism issued from within that group. Spilsburys explanation for the omission seems all too plausible: It is rather surprising that they [Darwinists] have largely been left alone by logical positivists in search of new demolition work. Perhaps neo-Darwinism has been saved from this [demolition] by its essential contribution to the world view that positivists share12(i.e., materialism). Given that the underlying aim of the Ayerian philosophy was broadly speaking to make the world a safe place for positivism, by discouraging any form of mysticism or metaphysics, I find Spilsburys explanation entirely convincing. Nonsense can apparently be exempted from critique when it supports the materialist cause.

It is uncertain how future generations will react to theories without evidential foundation, simply at the paternalistic direction of scientists riding high on materialist hobbyhorses. Common experience suggests that many persons today are inclined to resist unsubstantiable theories in favor of their own tried-and-tested observations of reality. And the rise of intelligent design thought may be understood as a manifestation of this more precise, empirical mode of thinking. It cannot therefore be stressed strongly enough that inferences to a designing power (of some sort) is not,paceDawkins, always anchored in an adherence to a particular revealed faith. People now are considerably less swayed by deference and 19th-century fideism (believing on trust). In fact, the (historically) paradoxical truth is that for growing numbers of people today it issciencethat points in the direction of an unmoved mover more than any positive or revealed religion hence Anthony Flews well-publicized defection from non-theistic rationalism to a form of deism which he dubbed his pilgrimage of reason.

In that remarkable philosophic odyssey, the erstwhile president of the British Rationalist Society finally arrived at an understanding of the world as disclosed to him by natural theology, the multitudinous signatures of which he interpreted as empirical markers for a design which,paceLucretius, David Hume, Darwin, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, and Lawrence Krauss could not have arisen autonomously without a designer. For Flew as a professional logician, such a position simply represented the inference to the best explanation. He came to reject chance in the sense of the fortuitous configurations and re-configurations of matter postulated by Lucretius (and,mutatis mutandis, by Darwin with reference to the organic world). He found his a more rational explanation than that offered by those of Darwins intellectual heirs who seem to be more interested in cooking the books to protect materialist assumptions from theistic incursions than in facing up to the inadequacies of a science which dramatically contradicts their own philosophical case. For such ideologically tainted denials can sometimes seem to represent little more thana covert desire to throw a protectivecordon sanitairearound the theory of a purely material genesis for the biosphereand so stifle further debate.

The acceptance and promotion of what is strictly speaking non-discussible nonsense (in the Ayerian sense)13by groups of people supposedly devoted to the truth wherever it leads provides a disquieting specter of intellectual integrity playing second fiddle to ideological commitment. In fact, the attempt by more doctrinaire scientific materialists to bounce lay persons into gainsaying their own rational judgments results in a truly incongruous situation. That is, when big science brings forward a host of findings which might most fairly be glossed as prima facie proofs of a higher agency, but thereupon proceeds to deny the most intuitively logical import of its own discoveries, unbiased men and women prove unsurprisingly resistant. That resistance arises from their ability to appreciate the true existential implications of said findings and their entirely consequential determination to cry Foul! to the scientists for trying to mislead them. Such persons are in effect following in Wallaces footsteps, without of course in most cases being fully aware of the historical recapitulation. And this in turn furnishes a very good argument why Wallace should not be erased from the Darwinian narrative. Indeed, welcome historical revisions have been set in train in the last decade, much of that from the pen of Michael Flannery.14

What is impressive about Wallaces testimony is the without-fear-or-favor intellectual independence it reveals. He suffered no disabling sense of self-consciousness about doing his U-turn from his earlier opinions. He simply accepted the unexceptional fact that persons opinions will change over time according to how they come to revisit evidence on more mature reflection.Wallace was, as Frank Turner once put it, primarily a disinterested student of life with no interest in orthodox posturing, even after numerous honors had been bestowed upon him later in life.15

Darwin, on the other hand, found himself in a very different situation, being oppressively aware of the luster of the family name, especially as it pertained to his grandfather, Erasmus. His insistence that his theoryhadto be true for the sake of personal and family honor may do much to explain his state of obdurate denial when coming up against the many counter-indications to it which he encountered, even from close colleagues such as Thomas Huxley. His intransigence in facing opposition seems to have stemmed from a form of duelistspoint dhonneur.This attitude of mind had already been detectable inthe way that he had worked at a break-neck pace to produce the manuscript of theOriginfor publication when, after receiving Wallaces famous Ternate Letter in 1858, he sensed a competitor snapping at his heels.16It was clearly important to him to be able to have the Darwin imprimatur embossed on his evolutionary ideas.In that way he could both underscore his own status amongst his peers and also be seen to be consummating the glorious tradition of evolutionary speculation inaugurated by his grandfather. For Darwin was for all his adult life concerned with a peculiarly familial construction of reality the truth-value of which he never questioned. He framed his lifes work as a consummation of his grandfathers endeavors to prove evolution which was why he was so gratified to be able to advance what he took to be a mechanism to account for evolutionary ideas first advanced by Erasmus Darwin.

By contrast, Wallace had no intellectual pedigree to live up to. Natural selection was only one part of his life as a naturalist and intellectual17and he was well able to keep things in perspective. That was all the more so since he had no grand family tradition to live up to. Family piety was simply not a consideration for him sincehisgrandfather had not been a famous naturalist pushing the envelope ever further in quest of illumination of the unknown. For that reason, I find that there is more trust to be placed in Wallaces cool-headed testimony than there is in Darwins desperate denials that there could be any other explanation. Wallace was his own man and this bestowed on him the inner strength to follow the evidence where it led him without feeling the need to trim his position in apprehension of how others might react. He seems not to have felt anything like the need shown by Darwin to impress public opinion or pose as a Great Man of Science. And this, I would argue, makes his testimony concerning the fatal weakness of the theory of natural selection all the worthier of heed.

Continued here:
How Darwin and Wallace Split over the Human Mind - Discovery Institute

Google management send on paid leave the engineer Blake Lemoine, who worked with the artificial intelligence (AI) LaMDA system and said that it began to show signs of robot consciousness. The company said that the program is not reasonable.

The LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) system is a Google language model; they design it to communicate with a person. The learning platform expands its vocabulary through the Internet and mimics natural human speech. Lemoines task was to control the vocabulary of the machine; LaMDA should not allow itself discriminatory statements, rude or hateful expressions.

However, when talking with artificial intelligence on a religious topic, the 41-year-old engineer, who studied computer science and cognitive science (the psychology of thinking) in college, noticed that the chatbot started talking about its rights and its own personality. In one of the dialogues, the machine was so convincing that Lemoine changed his mind about the third law of robotics by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.

If I didnt know exactly what it was, which is this computer program we built recently, Id think it was a seven-year-old, eight-year-old kid that happens to know physics, the engineer told Washington Post reporters. He reached out to his management, but Google VP and head of innovation examined his suspicions and dismissed them. Sent on paid leave Blake Lemoine decided to make the incident public.

Also, Google spokesperson Brad Gabriel said: Our team, including ethicists and technologists; has reviewed Blakes concerns per our AI principles and have informed him that the evidence does not support his claims. There was no evidence that LaMDA was sentient (and lots of evidence against it). However, we will keep tracking the evolution of this case; and keep you informed as soon as we get new information.

Read the original post:
Google employee suspended after saying that AI has become conscious - Gizchina.com

After a 14-year hiatus, Reebok revived its Human Rights Awards in 2021. A year later, the effort is back with updates.

This year, Reebok said the program which has a history of famed winners including economist and environmentalist Winona LaDuke, lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson and United States Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta will honor activists in the world of sports and athletics, giving the initiative a greater focus on the intersection of human rights and sport.

Whats more, Reebok announced the programs newly reconstituted board of advisors, a list of accomplished individuals from the ACLU, the NAACP, Reebok parent Authentic Brands Group and elsewhere. Board members include Amber Hikes, Cynthia Roseberry, Dr. Regina Moorer, Monique Holland, Sara Mora, Tiffany Dena Loftin, Kari Uyehara, Zoe Henriquez, Michael Sherman and Chloe Mann.

Another new addition for 2022 is a partnership with the Sports Illustrated Awards to celebrate this years honoree, who will also receive a cash reward to support their work and guidance and mentorship from Reebok and its partners.

Nominations for the 2022 Reebok Human Rights Awards are now open via a landing page on Reebok.com.

Below, Reebok VP of apparel Portia Blunt a well-known advocate of diversity, inclusion and equity in the footwear industry reveals to FN how the program will evolve in 2022.

Why are the Human Rights Awards so special and important to you?

Mainly because it is so rooted in the history of our brand. The platform being able to amplify and reach a mass amount of people with stories of amazing activists and changemakers is one of the first things I connected with when I came to the brand. It touches my heart because its our brand really being our best selves, creating a space for young people. At this moment in time, its so important in terms of change activism, cause impact in community, especially as we start to tie that back into sport. Our professional athletes are at the tip of the spear, at the forefront of being voices of change, and with this platform were able to amplify those who arent necessarily the Shaqs of the worlds or the Allen Iversons of the world but are doing something meaningful in their community or in their school. Thats huge, every little bit counts and were able to do something and move it forward. Ive got two little boys and being able to speak on what the brand is doing and what I do on a day to day beyond creating product which has meaning is really important when youre raising a 16-year-old and an 11-year-old.

What was behind Reeboks decision to shift and make the awards for activists in the world of sports?

It is a natural shift for us. It wasnt ever not what we were focused on before, but this is just a conscious effort on our part to be more pointed in that space. As we started to build in more partnerships, it made a lot more sense to be more deliberate about that. And from a brand perspective, were anchored in this idea of amplifying human rights through human movement, and that obviously segways into sport. Its the natural way for us to get acquainted with that storytelling and finding those activists who are doing amazing work through sport. Now, it doesnt necessarily mean you have to be an athlete. It means that you are actually contributing to your community through the lens of athletics and through sport. It could be someone whos engaged in a youth or community underrepresented run club. Its looking at it in a more pointed way, but still keeping it pretty broad in terms of the communities that we serve and reach.

What did you learn from the programs revival in 2021?

The first lesson is that it was incredibly missed. Our employee community champions the program as a point of excitement, a point of pride. Two, we were definitely constrained in terms of COVID requirements and making the resurrection of the program a virtual platform. And we were dormant for too long, quite frankly. We had some amazing finalists and awardees highlighted last year through our virtual summit, and it showed the power not only of what theyre doing, but what the brand can do in terms of being a conduit of storytelling and amplifying these voices through the support we can provide through our partnerships and mentorships.

You were hired by Reebok in March 2021. Was this program something you wanted to jump right into when you were hired?

One of the things that is near and dear to my heart is diversity, inclusion, equity, equality and justice in our industry. This opportunity came to me through our leadership in terms of my voice, product, all of it. My desire to get involved led me to being that executive lead here. It was a natural path for me, for sure, to just step into the role and take it over. I do oversee the product portion of the program as well with our Human Rights Now capsule. Last year, the summit was in August and we dropped a capsule at that time, we had activation that was quite amazing in Brooklyn. Black Thought did spoken word and it was really energizing and amazing. One of the things that I looked to do at that point in time was to figure out a way to continue to amplify around the program so it didnt feel like a moment in time or just a blip on our radar like were just checking a box. As we come into 22, weve expanded that Human Rights Now product capsule to two drops as opposed to one. Well have one in September focused around celebrating around Title IX anniversary this year and what it means being a woman in sport and taking some inspiration around that. And then in December, our final capsule will drop, coinciding with the awards as well as International Human Rights Day, which happens on December 10. Were looking at taking these progressive steps to one, be impactful, two, be meaningful and thoughtful so that its not just product capsules, theyre tied to purpose, storytelling and making sure were continuing the conversation around human rights throughout the year. As we go into next year, youll see a progression of that with more storytelling, more partnerships and continuing to amplify.

What product will be featured in the collections?

For the September drop, it will be focused on Title IX in terms of inspiration, and we included our Freestyle in that capsule. Its the 40th anniversary of the Freestyle. The Freestyle, for the brand, was the first performance athletic training shoe for her at a time when brands werent really thinking about her specifically, being built for her. Tying that back to Title IX is so powerful and special for us, bringing that to life through the Human Rights Now capsule. And then in December, youll see a whole new expression coming to life, bringing to light this idea of community and all being welcome with a nod to our basketball heritage.

What message does Reebok relaunching the Human Rights Now Awards send to the greater athletic market?

Be who you are. Thats what we pride ourselves on at Reebok. We arent necessarily looking at our competitors to keep up with them. When it comes to human rights, when it comes to human movement, when it comes to these awards, we follow our instincts and our gut and we do what we feel is best. It is putting our arms around the community in a beautiful way through providing product, providing support and putting a light on these individuals and organizations that wouldnt necessarily get a lot of recognition and acclaim. I would really just encourage brands to be true to who they are and authentic to themselves, because thats really all we are looking to do. Were thrilled about the continuation of the revamped program because theres so much richness out there in the community and we want to be a partner and a place for these activists and community leaders, athletes and sport enthusiasts.

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Reeboks Portia Blunt on How the Human Rights Awards Will Evolve in 2022 - Footwear News

Women have become so adept at multitasking and getting things done by themselves that they find it difficult to delegate. Busy being capable and focused on what they want to achieve, they tend to spread themselves thin and neglect their health. These were among the pertinent comments voiced at the Cartier Womens Initiative: Kuala Lumpur Speaker Series on May 20.

Continuing on that thread, Renuka Sena, co-founder and CEO of Proficeo, said women should not be afraid to delegate. They need to let go and trust that they have good people and build up the next generation of generals who can take charge. Women also need to be able to admit that they are tired, she felt. We have to remind ourselves that we cannot do everything. Outsource and get help.

Joining Renuka in the panel discussion were Sunway iLabs Ventures head Dr Melissa Foo and PichaEats co-founder Kim Lim. Trainer, broadcast journalist, author and emcee Freda Liu moderated the event, directed at the question: How can we create thriving ecosystems for women entrepreneurs in Malaysia?

The Speaker Series, curated by Cartier Southeast Asia and Oceania and Impact Hub, also aims to raise awareness of the CWI in the region and connect impact-driven women entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers. It kicked off in Singapore in March and will be held in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam next.

Foo, vice-president of the Malaysian Business Angel Network, is involved in early-stage investments and innovation across sectors such as health, education, fintech, smart cities and retail tech. She observes that men are rarely asked, How do you balance it all?

The trained dentist who returned to Malaysia from the US a decade ago recounts how when she once applied for a loan, the bank officer did not hear what she was saying because he was distracted by her dangly earrings. I catch myself being self-conscious about things like that.

Lim notes that a common trait of women entrepreneurs is playing safe: They want certain things to happen before taking the next step. Her suggestion? Just do and things will sort themselves out. Let go, play more and sink more into the unknown.

Across the floor, the 50-odd invited guests nodded, then put their heads together to share their experience of starting their own companies and running them. Some takeaways from this mix-n-fix session were: communicate your vision clearly; it can be lonely at the top; investors may not be able to relate to your products; you need ingenuity and courage to help other women rise.

French jewellery maison Cartier easily identifies with creating ecosystems for women. The CWI provides women impact entrepreneurs financial, social and human capital support to grow their business and build leadership skills.This annual programme drives change by empowering the changemakers. It is open to women-run and women-owned businesses in any country and sector that seek to solve pressing global challenges or find solutions for the future of our planet.

Applications for the 2023 edition of the CWI opened on May 16 and will close on June 30 at 2pm (Central European summer time). There will be awards for two new regional categories, Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania, besides the existing seven.

A new thematic award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, open to all genders, has been created to encourage entrepreneurial solutions designed to close gaps of access, outcome or opportunities for communities that have been underrepresented or underserved. It is the CWIs second thematic prize, after that for Science & Technology Pioneer launched last year.

Winners of the CWI, to be announced next April, will receive their awards in Paris. Besides training and mentorship programmes, as well as opportunities to connect with cohorts around the world, these inspirational women will benefit from having their business solutions brought to the largest audience possible.

The CWI has supported 262 women from 62 countries and given out a total of US$6.44 million in grants since its launch in 2006.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary on International Womens Day at the World Expo 2022 in Dubai on March 8, Cartier brought together its global community of winners to toast their achievements and collectively shape the future of the programme. Looking back on its evolution and footprint, the company continues to find ways to empower women who leverage business as a force for good.

See herefor more information or to apply for the CWI Awards.

This article first appeared on May 30, 2022 in The Edge Malaysia.

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Cartier Women's Initiative Awards 2023 call for application until June 30 - Options The Edge

Since 1968, New Yorks National Black Theatre has provided a space for Black voices and stories to not only exist, but flourish. Founded by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, a performer, director, and figurehead of the Black Arts Movement, it boasts an important legacy of being the countrys first revenue-generating Black art complex and was recently included in the permanent collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

To date, NBT has presented more than 350 original theater works that have toured globally, and the likes of Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Nina Simone, and Maya Angelou have graced its stage. Most importantly, NBT was founded and continues to serve as a space for marginalized storytellers to build community, enrich their craft, and raise the collective consciousness around social and racial injustices through their groundbreaking work.

In 2008, Teers daughter, Sade Lythcott, took over as NBTs chief executive officer and appointed director, producer, and actor Jonathan McCrory as its executive artistic director in 2013. Under their stewardship, the organization has continued to evolve and become an even brighter beacon of Black culture. Currently, construction is underway for their new mixed-use building in Harlem, which will feature a shopping center, new theater, and affordable housing.

To honor NBTs crucial legacy and celebrate its expansion, BAZAAR.com connects with Lythcott, McCrory, and playwright Ngozi Anyanwu to discuss the role of art during the pandemic, the importance of creative spaces that feel like home, and why NBT is the new American Dream.

Sade Lythcott: The National Black Theatre is the longest continually run Black theater in New York City, founded in 1968 by my late mother, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, who was one of the four mothers of the Black Arts Movement.

The mission of the National Black Theatre really comes out of the principles of the Black Arts Movement, which really roots Black liberation as the center of all things that we get to produce and build. Her real focal point around Black liberation was tapping into the PTSD of the slave block through the auction aspect of the slave block, which is what she thought was analogous to the audition room. What if it wasn't a self-conscious act, but a God-conscious act of liberation?

The actors in her first company were called Liberators, and she thought, If we push this experiment to the maximum, what would it be like if we empowered Black artists to see themselves as Liberators in conversation with audiences and communities that tapped into what it might feel like to be free? That would spark direct action and activate our audience in a way that was a seductive form of introducing people to activism within their own agency of their life.

Courtesy of NBT

I took over in 2008 when she passed, and Jonathan joined me as co-leadership shortly thereafter in 2013. We have been stewarding the legacy of Dr. Teer and National Black Theatre through a contemporary lens of present-pulse theater making and Black narratives to ensure that the intersectionality of our storiesthe complexity of our storiesis told so that we can reveal the fullness and the wholeness of who we are as a people, which often is absolutely a 180 from how we are depicted, still, onscreen and definitely in the news.

As a Black artist, I was always searching for spaces to call my home, spaces to define as my home.

Jonathan McCrory: There's a slogan that Dr. Barbara Ann Teer has that is an invitation to what I wanted when I left NYU with my undergrad degree. It reads, "Welcome to your home away from home." She would welcome everyone at National Black Theatre that way, by saying, "Welcome to your home away from home."

As a Black artist, I was always searching for spaces to call my home, spaces to define as my home. I was searching for an ethos, a pedagogy, that would allow for the brilliance that is me, that is you, that is the future me, that is all of that, the future of us, to be able to see each other, know each other, and come into relationship with each other. And when Sade actually shared with me that mantra, or that space of being what NBT stood for, that really was, as we to like to say, the Kool-Aid that got me really into the cultural matrix of National Black Theatre.

I'm still latching onto what it means to make a Black home for the future of Blackness and of humanness. If home is where your exhale feels the best, as Sade would say, how does everyone that's a part of the matrix of National Black Theatre come in and lean into that curiosity point of home, and actually reposition National Black Theatre as a space of home?

SL: Home for everyone is different, and really it only calibrates around where you feel like you can put your guard down, and your exhale feels the best. For so many of us, that is not our birth home. It is our chosen home and our chosen family.

Ngozi Anyanwu: I'd known of NBT for a long time. When I joined, I was very much at the beginning of what is now a flourishing playwriting career. Jonathan had seen a production of my first play, which I self-produced with some friends and my sister, and essentially said to me, "Hey, come be this producing intern, and maybe do your play here, or see what it is to run a theater here."

At that point, I had interned at The Public. I had been a reader for Rattlestick [Theater]. I had very much been in the New York off-Broadway theater scene, but I had not yet seen the inner workings of a Black organization. And so, I was like, "Yeah, let me hang out at NBT and get my hands in everywhere, sit in on rehearsals, help cast plays."

In the middle of that, my playwriting career really took off. Right, Jonathan? I feel like you were there when I got the call for the Humanitas Award, so Jonathan was really there pre-all the fancy stuff. I really saw the trials and tribulations of being a Black organization and was like, "Oh, they need some more freaking resources." You know what I mean?

JM: The beauty of what Ngozi got to experience was the original facility, and in experiencing the original facility, she had this beautiful opportunity to be kind of, as I like to say, baptized, or washed, or cleansed with Dr. Teer's, I think, ultimate journey into how art can radically transform the heart and minds of folks.

NA: When you get there and you see everything, it alsoas an artist who works in just many different spaces and navigates many spacesit also just gives you the confidence to walk into any space and take that with you. You go in there, and you go, "Okay, I know I have a home, and I know that I can also emulate this too. I can also be a home for people."

And so, for me as a playwright, as a director, as a performer, I always now really do think about how am I being a welcoming space. If I'm walking into the Atlantic [Theater Company] and I'm employing my other actors as a playwright, how do I encapsulate what I've encountered?

JM: During the shutdowns throughout the pandemic, art was the thing that helped make sure our various spacesour living rooms, our corners, our outdoor spaceswere filled with life and filled with the vibration that allowed for us to remember, especially in New York, why we chose to live here. Why we are continuing to think and imagine differently.

We have a show running right now called Fat Ham, and what's really quite remarkable is that I think people are leaning into the presence of joy inside of theatrical space because they need joy right now. To be liberated inside of a joyful, laugh-filled space where you are hearing other people laughthere's a healing there. It's healing to find that common bridge, and theater does that like no other art form ever will.

The necessity of theater is that it helps to build microcommunities that share a common experience that opens up the heart, awakens the mind, and allows us to see a future in a nuanced way that we potentially never saw before. Art has shown us its unique value through the pandemic, and art is showing us as we get out of the shutdown the need to help us triage the psychic distance that the words social distancing did.

Maria Baranova

SL: I would just say that art has always been a catalyst for change. It's incredible to be in a conversation right now with someone like Ngozi who was been incredibly productive throughout the pandemic. The gift and magic of artists is that they are able to translate what we're all experiencing in a way that brings folks together. I truly believe that the way that we make systemic change starts at home. So this idea that through storytelling, you can change the hearts and minds of folks, policy soon follows.

A show like Fat Ham is not only a joyous story, but to tell this Black Southern queer story while legislation is being passed that says you can't say gay in Florida, we as artists and cultural institutions have this incredible opportunity of having heart-centered conversations that begin to shape the culture by which folks see themselves and are able to see all of our humanity.

The gift and magic of artists is that they are able to translate what were all experiencing in a way that brings folks together.

The University of Pennsylvania has been doing lots of studies on various communities, New York City in particular, and arts and culture drive down crime, so public safety is increased with the proximity to arts and culture. Education numbers go up when students are exposed to art programming. Mental health issues are combated through the arts, whether it's arts therapy or the exposure to arts. When we think about our community of the deaf and disabled population, they find access to the fullness of the textures of humanity through the ability to experience themselves in the ways that the kind of storytelling that arts and culture does.

NA: Essentially, I think what has always happened is that Black art, Black music, has always been the pioneer, and then other places, institutions, bite off of those things. I'm hoping that other organizations start pouring resources into Black institutions, not just taking from them, not just taking their artists, not just taking their ideas. What I'm hoping is that artists will want to go into that place, and then also pour back into that place.

SL: I can't remember if it's Martin Luther King or Malcolm X that said integration is like running into a burning house. I think we have firsthand experience that the American Dream is a nightmare for many of us. Folks are having more conversation about self-care, and in the rest and restoration of those meditations, they find that they want to be able to feel safe. As the news amplifies that you're not safe at church and you're not safe at grocery stores and you're not safe in schools, one thinks, Where does my exhale not only feel good, but feel safe? Black spaces and Black cultural spaces have become our churches. They have become our living rooms. They have become all of these things.

Spaces like NBT need to be protected, because we are the new American Dream.

It's not about the place, it's about the idea that we are forever holding this really big space for all of us to be fully, totally, and wholly Black. Spaces like NBT need to be protected, because we are the new American Dream, a bastion of liberation and freedom sans a white lens. I think that that feels really good right now where nothing feels safe.

JM: I think it's a very great question. NBT has a prudent track record of both of them showing up. One allows for this experiment of creating this beautiful oasis that has a fortress to it, and the other one has a narrative of creating a beautiful oasis that has an invitation to it. I would lean into the invitation of it all, only because race is a construct that actually divorces us of an indigenous practice.

Just because all of us on this Zoom come from the Black or the African tradition, we all have different relationships to Blackness. And those different relationships to Blackness are our own indigenous IP. Race says that I'm supposed to know you, but I might not actually know you. So then, I'm actually creating harm by putting that swath over it, versus saying that my people, who might not all have my same skin tone, have my same passion, care, and clarity, and vision for humanity to win.

If the quest is to unleash soul, soul doesn't have a color. If I want to see humanity win and not an individual race and not another kind of supremacy win, and I don't want to create supremacy with another name or from another vantage point, then I also have to reckon with the ways in which I even curate, cultivate, and live in an anti-Blackness POV. And if I'm not willing to reconcile that also, then I'm, again, going back to that place that I'm putting the swathiness saying that because I'm Black, I create no harm, when actually, I'm human, and humans create harm because of the conditions in which they're birthed out of.

SL: It's actually essential that our audiences not only look like us, they look like the world. Not because of the validation that may come, but the idea that we don't want to just preach to the choir, we want to preach to every choir. And coming into that relationship with our soul journey allows folks to see themselves in the journey, and then we all can eventually get free.

Courtesy of NBT

NA: I just have an even bigger question, which is, How do we not have to walk into a space where we feel like we have to protect this thing? I think we're so used to people taking that it's easy to walk into a space and be like, "I have to worry that you're going to take from me." But at the end of the day, it's like, "How do I, as an artist, liberate myself to know that my job is actually to give it away?" I cannot control who takes in my gift. I cannot control who identifies with it, who is honored by it, who writes me a wonderful letter, who wants to produce it. My job is to share this.

How do we, as Black people, really get to this place where we're not so worried about other people, when really our job is to share this work? It really is to spread the gospel of our hearts and do it wherever we can, however we can, as fervently and as honestly as we can. Double down on what it is that you believe, what it is that you're trying to say, and that's the only way you can protect yourself.

Whats really important about National Black Theatre is that it awakens the consciousness of what is possible and turns the impossible into possibility.

JM: What's really important about National Black Theatre is that it awakens the consciousness of what is possible and turns the impossible into possibility. For Black dancers, the ability to know that there's an Alvin Ailey working at the realm and the scale at which Alvin Ailey works creates possibility. Even if they never work at Ailey, they can imagine their body, their craft, their company to potentially get to that scale. It creates a different North Star. National Black Theatre is positioned to become that North Star for Black artists. It casts a new ceiling that gets to get cracked. As Ngozi says, advance culture with innovation and also share culture at a wider and more generous aperture.

NA: I hope it's a blueprint to tell artists and to tell institutions how they can change and how they can pivot, spiritually and artistically.

I'm going to big up my man, Jonathan. There's been such growth and evolution in you that has really made you push that place forward, and Sade, pushed that place forward. And to see, "Oh, you can do a lot in a little bit of time. You can do a lot with no building still. You can do a lot online." You can go from being a place that was seemingly ignored by PWIs, but when quarantine happened, you both really became the leaders in conversation. It's a blueprint for building and growth. When you see that, as Jonathan was saying, you then also begin to ideate and imagine how you, too, can grow.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

This story was created as part of Future Rising in partnership with Lexus. Future Rising is a series running across Hearst Magazines to celebrate the profound impact of Black culture on American life, and to spotlight some of the most dynamic voices of our time. Go to oprahdaily.com/futurerising for the complete portfolio.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

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The National Black Theatre Steps into the Future - Harper's BAZAAR

PRESS RELEASE - 14 June 2022 17h45 CET - Regulated information

Consolidated annual information on the financial year 2021/22

Revenue increases slightly, market share grows

Operating profit and net result under pressure

Halle, 14 June 2022

General

Colruyt Group's current year result evolution was impacted by specific effects:

the Belgian foodservice partner Culinoa(*) and of the Belgian fitness chain JIMS(*). The services Culinoa provides are complementary to the activities of Solucious, Colruyt Group's foodservice specialist. JIMS operates 27 fitness centres in Belgium and Luxembourg, which also offer group exercise classes and digital coaching.

Both have been fully consolidated since respectively April and May 2021, which has contributed to the consolidated revenue. The impact on the operating profit and the net result is limited.

Consolidated annual information on the financial year 2021/22

page 1 / 27

https://www.colruytgroup.com/wps/portal/cg/en/home/investors

PRESS RELEASE - 14 June 2022 17h45 CET - Regulated information

I. Financial report

A. Consolidated income statement

1/04/2021

1/04/2020

(in million EUR)

-

-

Variance

31/03/2022(1)

31/03/2021(2)

Revenue

10.049

9.931

+1,2%

Gross profit

2.752

2.792

-1,4%

% of revenue

27,4%

28,1%

Operating cash flow (EBITDA)

741

850

-12,9%

% of revenue

7,4%

8,6%

Operating profit (EBIT)

375

523

-28,3%

% of revenue

3,7%

5,3%

Profit before tax

383

521

-26,5%

% of revenue

3,8%

5,2%

Profit for the financial year

288

416

-30,8%

% of revenue

2,9%

4,2%

Earnings per share (in EUR)(3)

2,16

3,06

-29,4%

Colruyt Group's revenue rose to over EUR 10,0 billion in 2021/22. Revenue was positively impacted by the revenue increase from the fuel distribution activities of DATS 24 (excluding petrol, revenue decreased by 2,0%) and the full consolidation of the new entities. On the other hand, the revenue evolution was negatively affected by the food store volumes being under pressure following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and by the discontinuation of the non-food sales through the Collishop website (as from October 2020).

Colruyt Group's market share in Belgium (Colruyt Lowest Prices, OKay and Spar) rose to 30,8% in the financial year 2021/22 (30,6%(**) in 2020/21). At the start of the financial year 2022/23, the market share maintains its upward trend.

The gross profit margin decreased to 27,4% of revenue. Excluding petrol, the gross margin improved by 12 basis points. The full consolidation of the new entities had a positive impact on the gross margin.

In the financial year 2021/22, the Belgian retail market was characterised by a competitive market environment, in terms of both price and promotions. The last months of the financial year were marked by price increases, which the group tries to limit as much as possible for the consumer by thoroughly analysing every price increase request and by entering into consultations with the suppliers.

At the start of the financial year 2020/21, the gross profit margin was positively impacted by lower promotional pressure following the ban on promotions and discounts in Belgian supermarkets.

Consolidated annual information on the financial year 2021/22

page 2 / 27

https://www.colruytgroup.com/wps/portal/cg/en/home/investors

PRESS RELEASE - 14 June 2022 17h45 CET - Regulated information

Net operating expenses climbed from 19,6% to 20,0% of revenue. The increase is mainly the result of rising inflation on all key financial statement items, such as employee benefit expenses and energy costs, the full consolidation of the new entities and the group's ongoing investments in its employees, high-qualityhouse-brand products, sustainability and digital transition. The increase is also explained by the one-off positive effect of EUR 31 million in the first half of the previous financial year 2020/21 (resulting from the contribution of Eoly's renewable wind energy activities into the energy holding company Virya Energy).

Further COVID-19-related costs were incurred in 2021/22, including additional benefits and days of leave that the group granted to its employees in sales, logistics and production as a token of gratitude for the efforts made. In the second half of 2021/22, following a decision of the Belgian government and the various agreements concluded at sector level, Colruyt Group granted to its employees a one-time compensation (the so-called 'corona bonus') in the form of consumption vouchers, for a total amount of approximately EUR 12 million.

The operating cash flow (EBITDA) amounted to 7,4% of revenue (8,3% in 2020/21 excluding the gain realised on the contribution of Eoly Energy).

The depreciation, amortisation and impairment charges rose by EUR 38 million. The increase is mainly attributable to the full consolidation of the new entities (EUR 14 million) and to the continuous investments in stores, production and distribution centres and transformation programmes.

The operating profit (EBIT) totalled EUR 375 million or 3,7% of revenue in 2021/22 (5,0% in 2020/21 excluding the gain realised on the contribution of Eoly Energy).

The share in the result of investments increased to EUR 6 million in 2021/22 (EUR -4 million in 2020/21). The increase is explained by the 2020/21 result that was adversely impacted by The Fashion Society and Vendis Capital due to the COVID-19 health crisis. This was partly offset by the higher result generated by Virya Energy in 2020/21.

The effective tax rate increased from 20,0% to 25,2%. The evolution of the effective tax rate is partly explained by one-off effects, such as the exempted gain on the contribution of Eoly Energy into Virya Energy in the previous financial year.

Excluding the gain realised on the contribution of Eoly Energy in the financial year 2020/21, the profit for the period decreased by 25,3% from EUR 385 million (3,9% of revenue) to EUR 288 million (2,9% of revenue).

The Board of Directors will propose a gross dividend of EUR 1,10 per share to the General Meeting of Shareholders.

Consolidated annual information on the financial year 2021/22

page 3 / 27

https://www.colruytgroup.com/wps/portal/cg/en/home/investors

PRESS RELEASE - 14 June 2022 17h45 CET - Regulated information

Revenue from the retail activities declined by 1,7% to EUR 8.165 million. The retail activities accounted for 81,2% of the consolidated revenue in financial year 2021/22.

The food retail revenue in Belgium, France and Luxembourg reported significant volume gains (offline and online) in the food stores in the financial year 2020/21 as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis. In the financial year 2021/22 however, the food retail revenue was marked by declining volumes in food stores due to the combination of the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and a competitive market environment in terms of both price and promotions. Notwithstanding this revenue decrease, the market share of Colruyt Lowest Prices, OKay and Spar in Belgium grew to 30,8% (30,6% in 2020/21).

In addition, the food retail revenue was impacted negatively by the discontinuation of the non- food sales through the Collishop website (as of October 2020) and positively by the full consolidation of Roelandt Group (as of January 2022).

Revenue of Colruyt Lowest Prices in Belgium and Luxembourgdeclined by 3,0%. The revenue performance was primarily impacted by the competitive market environment. The last months of the financial year 2021/22 were mainly marked by price increases which Colruyt Lowest Prices tries to limit as much as possible for the consumer, the consumer's financial situation being something that Colruyt Lowest Prices feels very strongly about. Colruyt Lowest Prices therefore continues to consistently implement its lowest prices strategy and delivers on its brand promise day after day.

In the financial year 2021/22, investments in the modernisation of 17 existing stores continued and a new Colruyt store in Luxembourg and a second Colruyt Professional store in Drogenbos were opened.

OKay, Bio-Planetand Crureported an aggregate revenue decline of 8,6%.

OKay opened five new stores in 2021/22, including one in Ghent with a new innovative store concept that allows customers to shop for groceries 24/7 (OKay Direct). Several stores were renovated this financial year, as in previous years. OKay thus continues to invest in convenience and in high-quality and fresh products.

For twenty years already, Bio-Planet has been a pioneer in sustainability with a large range of organic and eco-friendly products and healthy food. Bio-Planet wants to make conscious consumption more accessible and continues to focus on Belgian and local products.

For the Cru multi-experience markets in Overijse, Ghent and Antwerp, artisan products and customer experience, combined with craftsmanship, remain at the forefront while they pursue their efforts to improve operational efficiency.

The revenue of Colruyt in Francerose by 4,5%. Excluding petrol, Colruyt's revenue in France declined by 2,4%. Last financial year, the revenue was positively impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, especially in the second half of the year.

Three stores were divested near Paris and four new stores were opened in the last quarter of 2021/22. Colruyt Prix Qualit is a clearly laid-out neighbourhood supermarket, where customers can find everything they need for their daily and weekly shop.

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Colruyt N : Consolidated annual information on the financial year 2021/22 - Marketscreener.com

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Think about trying to have a conversation with someone going through a bad break up. Or grieving. Or even just totally preoccupied with a new job or local drama. Its tricky, right?

Well, if youre a marketer, thats your job right now. From the war in Europe to the lingering pandemic to swelling climate anxiety across the globe, consumers have more on their minds than ever. Theyre also more digitally savvy, climate aware, and socially consciouswhich means messaging that worked in the past is likely to fall flat today.

To make sense of the changing landscape in outdoor-industry marketing, we spoke to experts across the space about how theyre updating their messaging to rise above the noise. Here are five strategies that get a thumbs-up from the pros.

When it comes to trends, brands focusing on values-first marketing is top of the list, says Ben Herman, president and co-founder of the agency Mad Fish Digital, based in Portland, Oregon. For his clientswhich include several outdoor brands like Pacific Yurts and Solmate SocksHerman says the triple bottom line of people, profit, and planet is quickly becoming the new norm.

As a whole, people are starting to change the paradigm of the shiny-new-product messagethe Mad Men, ad-agency style of marketing, adds Aileen Ottenweller, head of brand and business impact at Patagonia. Consumers today are wise to glib copywriting. Instead, they want moral substance and ethical leadership.

Brands, especially in the private sector, are playing a bigger role in how our society is being shaped, Ottenweller says. For Patagonia, a large part of its values-based marketing involves promoting responsible consumer behavior. To wit: The brand recently rolled out a customer-facing email signature with tips on how to identify ethical productsat Patagonia or elsewhereto aid smarter buying decisions. The brand also leverages its catalog and blog to share stories of inclusivity and environmental stewardship. The point of those stories is not to sell anything, per se, but simply to plant a flag that says, This is who we are. This is what we care about.

Of course, that kind of move is easier for Patagonia, which found its voice decades ago and stuck to it. If your company doesnt yet have a strong ethical purpose, Tentree founder David Luba says the best way to create one is by finding an attainable goal you can work toward, one that will really make a difference.

A boy shows off an upcycled Patagonia jacket saved from the landfill.(Photo: Donnie Hedden / Patagonia)

These days, theres so much technology available to verify what a company is doing and whether that work is authentic, Luba says. You have to make sure youre not just throwing money at something. You need to actually be solving a problem.

Tentree, for example, has promoted its mission of being environmentally restorative (the brand plants ten trees for every product sold, offsetting the carbon costs of production) since its founding in 2012. A few years after the company got off the ground, the team invented a verification software called Veritree to track tree plantings and shed some light on the process. A decade later, Tentree is known across the industry as the tree-planting company; its mission is tied inextricably to its brand identity.

If youre honest about what you specialize in, you can be honest about what you dont specialize in, says Luba. Thats what creates authenticity in a brand. I think well see more of that in the future, because nothing is more valuable and sought after than an authentic brand.

People keep saying theres going to be more consolidation in the outdoor industry, but Im not buying it, says Mark Boles, founder of the outdoor-lifestyle shop Intrinsic Provisions in Hingham, Massachusetts. Instead, Boles sees a resurgence of cottage brands, the artisan economy, and hyper-local products. Consumers, he feels, are tired of the unrelenting sameness that characterizes big-box chains like REI and Dicks. As the outdoor market matures, people are learning to trust smaller brands that fit their personal style and reflect their values.

A great example: One of Boles best-selling brands is Vermont Glove, which makes goat-leather accessories for $80 to $140 a pop. The products are high quality and the look is trending, but thats not necessarily why theyre selling, Boles says. Vermont Glove leans hard into its reputation as a hyperlocal, family-owned business. From the brand name itself to the Made in Vermont Since 1920 slogan on its packaging, the companys image resonates with proud New Englanders. To drive the point home, Vermont Glove isnt shy about advertising that its leather is sourced from American farms, or that it invests in homegrown community projects.

Another good example is Parlor Skis, a made-to-order ski company in Boston. Parlor builds its products from scratch according to customers exact specifications, complete with colorful, personalized top sheets. Want skis stamped with portraits of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or the view from your childhood back porch? Parlor can do that. The goods arent cheap, but people are willing to pay for the brands artistic touch and small-batch feel. Plus, says co-founder Mark Wallace, bespoke gear is an instant conversation piece: Its a story on every lift.

Parlor Skis customers show off their one-of-a-kind creations.(Photo: Parlor Skis)

Big-box stores and online giants are also starting to take heed of the little guy trend. Brands like Backcountry and Black Diamond are now working hard to customize each new store they build to suit their respective locations. Every time we go into a new market, we try to really listen to what the people in the community care about, says Chris Purkey, Backcountrys head of Gearheads and retail. To do that, the brand partners with local nonprofits and other organizations that support the communitys values. Public Lands has a similar program, donating volunteer time and cash to conservation nonprofits that work in its stores immediate vicinity.

The takeaway: If youre a small brand with just a few employees, or a really scrappy startup, tell that story. Flaunt the benefits of being small. Advertise the amount of attention youre able to give to each product that goes out the door. Customers will reward you for it.

Its not just customers who are hungry for interaction as we emerge from the pandemic. According to Eric Henderson, CEO of Meteorite PR in Boulder, Colorado, media and business partners are equally starved for in-person events. That leaves experiential marketingand face-to-face PRpoised for a big comeback.

According to Henderson, Meteorite has seen huge success from its Adventure Camp concepta miniature industry bash held near Meteorites headquartersand its new media demo at Colorados Eldora Ski Area, for this very reason. Both events provide an opportunity for gear designers, reps, and media to rub elbows and try the latest gear from Meteorites clients. The interaction is huge, says Henderson. Its super valuable to journalists because it gives them long leads on stories, and it helps PR develop relationships with media they can tap into when exciting news comes up.

Retailers can get in on the action, too. Outdoor Divas, a Vail ski shop that caters exclusively to women, holds demo days throughout the season. The events are some of the shops most successful marketing efforts, according to store founder Kim Walker. We have women trying 10 or 12 pairs of skis in a day, Walker says. Its a great experience for them, its hugely educational for our employees, and it drives traffic and sales to us as well.

Or, if youre a brand, you can cut out the middleman and get into the experience game directly. After years of pandemic-driven hiatus, Fjllrven is bringing back its Classic Series in the summer of 2022, hosting large group backpacking trips for customers in six countries. And Parlor Skis has relaunched its build-your-own-ski classes to help people understand what goes into a custom setup.

Experiences are fundamental, says Henderson. Sharing the natural world is why were all in this business to start with. If youre not sharing nature personally with someoneif youre just doing it through digital or social mediaI think youre missing the point.

And, we would add, a big business opportunity.

Over the past five years, consumers have become wary of digital marketing strategies and the way their data is being usedand with good reason. These days, a large number of consumers are suspicious of tech giants like Meta, whose data many marketers rely on for ad targeting. The way consumers see big tech companies is changing, says Rebecca Heard, VP of brand, marketing, and e-commerce for evo, an 11-door retailer with stores in the U.S. and Canada. Customers in the outdoor spacewho may be especially mindful of the choices they makedont want us fueling big tech companies growth.

That leaves marketers scrambling to find alternative ways to source the data required to provide the level of ad personalization consumers have come to expect. The solution to this digital paradox? For one thing, Herman at Mad Fish Digital encourages his clients to use Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), which allow brands to manage their own cookies without having to go through a third party like Meta. First-party data collection, Heard agrees, is fast becoming the norm, especially as CDPs become more affordable for smaller brands.

The trick to using CDPs successfully, Herman says, is transparencyboth in your privacy policy and on those now-ubiquitous website popups. You have to be really explicit, he cautions, in letting customers know youre tracking browsing patterns using first-party cookies. The message users need to understand is that youre not selling their data, or using it in a nefarious way. It needs to be crystal clear that youre using it only to heighten customer experience.

There are other ways to do it. Some brands, like Backcountry, are exploring loyalty programs that give customers added value on their purchases in exchange for data. Other brands are polling customers through surveys. Evo is experimenting with a new SMS text message program to alert customers about events near them. More low-tech than ad targeting, SMS campaigns can nevertheless provide intimate connections with customers using data that many companies already have.

Of course, the goal is to not annoy the customer, Heard says. If you spam them, theyre going to block you or unsubscribe. But if you use their data mindfully and with permission, theyll come back and shop with you again.

In 2017, The North Face partnered with Spotify to release an exclusive song only available in rainy weathera campaign that coincided with the launch of a new rain shell, the Apex Flex GTX. In 2021, the brand partnered with Sonos Radio, releasing soundscapes from some of the worlds most extreme adventure destinations.

Collaborations offer a great opportunity to bring in that element of surprisethat breakthrough element that gets people to stop scrolling for a moment and see what were doing, says Mike Ferris, VP of global brand management at The North Face. Cross-industry collabs also help outdoor companies reach new consumers, adds Herman, especially those who might not consider themselves outdoorsy, per se.

An ad from The North Face for the Apex Flex GTX jacket, whose launch coincided with a North Face / Spotify partnership the release of a special song only available in rainy weather.(Photo: The North Face)

Merrells chief marketing officer, Janice Tennant, says evidence of crossover power has long been a growth-driver at her brand. We already see the Merrell Moab [one of the companys best-selling shoes] all the time in airports and in the streets, she says, adding that Merrell customers figured out on their own that the brands products are suited to more than just outdoor activities. The evolution were seeing, though, is brands not being afraid of telling that story, says Tennant.

Collabs also provide a way for brands to support nonprofits, affinity organizations, and artists of colorand theyre not limited to big corporations. Running brand Janji, for example, commissions print designs from Indigenous and local artists for each of its activewear collections. Vermont-based ski accessory brand Skida also has an extensive partnership model and has collaborated with DEI-focused cycling team Legion of Los Angeles, sunglass brand Pit Vipers, and Alaska-based fishing brand Salmon Sisters, among others.

I think [collaborations] are just going to gain momentum, Herman says, specifically combining outdoor content with lifestyle.

Marketing is moving from a solely campaign-based model to an always-on model. Well still need larger campaigns to break through the noise, but between those peaks, we have to have these other momentswe have to continually surprise and delight the consumer through unique partnerships, earned media, and press.Mike Ferris, VP of global brand management at The North Face

I think well see the trade show model die or become outdated. Between that, tariffs, and supply chain issues, we cant keep marketing products eight months in advance. People dont want to read about gear until its available to them. So I think well start seeing earned media, press releases, and similar things launched on a rolling basisnot just in big gear guides that happen twice a year.Eric Henderson, CEO of Meteorite PR

Were seeing a [messaging] shift from this idea of the outdoors as an individual pursuit to a community one. It was colonization over time thatturned [the outdoors] into this individualistic thing instead of the religious, communal space that it was in the past. Thats changing.Mark Boles, owner of Intrinsic Provisions; former advertising and marketing strategist

I think well start to see more micro-influencers rather than macro ones. Customers are getting savvy. They know when someone who has a bunch of followers is just trying to push product. I dont think ambassadors will go away, but the space is maturing.Ben Herman, president of Mad Fish Digital

More:
Outdoor Industry Marketing Trends of the Future - Outside Business Journal

Updated In one of the many ongoing age discrimination lawsuits against IBM, Big Blue has been ordered to produce internal emails in which former CEO Ginny Rometty and former SVP of Human Resources Diane Gherson discuss efforts to get rid of older employees.

IBM as recently as February denied any "systemic age discrimination" ever occurred at the mainframe giant, despite the August 31, 2020 finding by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that "top-down messaging from IBMs highest ranks directing managers to engage in an aggressive approach to significantly reduce the headcount of older workers to make room for Early Professional Hires."

The court's description of these emails between executives further contradicts IBM's assertions and supports claims of age discrimination raised by a 2018 report from ProPublica and Mother Jones, by other sources prior to that, and by numerous lawsuits.

On Friday, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Alberto Rivas granted the plaintiff's motion for discovery in Schenfeld v. IBM, an age discrimination claim filed in late 2018.

The judge's order [PDF] covers Exhibit 10, which "contains emails that discuss the effort taken by IBM to increase the number of 'millennial' employees."

"An email dated June 10, 2016 was sent by [former] IBM employee Erich Clementi, SVP of sales and distribution, Chairman Europe, which contained the term 'dinobabies' that was used to describe older IBM employees," the order says, referencing the ageist pejorative that surfaced without attribution in February as part of another age discrimination case, Lohnn v. IBM.

"Furthermore, the push to increase the number of millennial employees and decrease the number of older employees was the subject of several emails involving Ginny Rometty, the predecessor Chief Executive Officer of IBM, and Diane Gherson, who was SVP for Human Resources."

The judge's order continues, "The emails contained within Exhibit 10 evidence an interest at the then CEO-level to change the profile of IBM employees so that it reflected a younger workforce. The core issue presented in this case is whether Plaintiff [Eugen Schenfeld] was illegally separated from IBM due to his age. Therefore, the relevancy of these emails to this litigation is pronounced."

The emails were sent during the April 24, 2016 and July 30, 2017 time frame, some of which included John Kelly, SVP and Director of IBM Research, who is among the defendants in the lawsuit. The plaintiff, IBM research scientist Eugen Schenfeld, alleges that he was ousted in 2018 as part of "Project Concord," one of many IBM workforce reductions, which Big Blue refers to as "Resource Actions."

In a different age discrimination claim, Kinney et al. v. IBM, the plaintiffs' recent discovery request reveals just how many "Resource Actions" IBM has implemented from 2014 through 2020. At least 71 of them have been identified in a recent court filing [PDF].

The codenames for these layoffs are listed as follows:

Rometty stepped down as CEO on January 1, 2021 and was replaced by Arvind Krishna. She was then hired as consultant at IBM, at a rate of $20,000 per day if she provides four or more hours of services, or $10,000 otherwise.

IBM shareholders appear to have become unhappy with the way the company has been dealing with allegations of past misconduct.

Two-thirds of IBM shareholders voting on proposals at the company's annual meeting in April supported a measure to require the company to produce a public report on the financial risks arising from its use of concealment clauses that limit what workers can say about workplace misconduct.

That same month, a group of IBM investors sued IBM for securities fraud, alleging that the company misreported mainframe sales to inflate executive bonuses. That complaint led to four similar lawsuits filed by firms representing other investors.

IBM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The trial date for the Schenfeld case is scheduled next month.

After this story was published, an IBM spokesperson got back to us and reiterated past statements about the lack of age discrimination at the company.

"The facts of the matter have not changed: there was and is no systemic age discrimination at IBM and the data back that up," IBM's spokesperson said. "Further, with regards to the Schenfeld case, age played no role whatsoever in this individual's departure."

More here:
IBM ordered to hand over ex-CEO emails plotting cuts in older workers - The Register