Saturday, December 2, 2023

The Morning: Why don’t we dance more?

We need to use our bodies for something beyond mere practicality.
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The Morning

December 2, 2023

Good morning. Dancing offers an opportunity to use our bodies for something beyond mere practicality. Why don't we do it more?

María Jesús Contreras

Making moves

Remember Snowball, the sulphur-crested cockatoo whose fancy footwork to the Backstreet Boys' "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" brought him viral fame in 2007? I recently rewatched the video, and it holds up. Here is this bird, perched on the back of a chair. As the song opens, he appears to be sketching out his moves, getting a feel for the song. When the chorus arrives, he shrieks and grooves, he high-kicks and head-bangs, settling into his rhythm, possessed by the beat.

The video of Snowball is astonishing because of how humanlike he is. Look, an animal moving spontaneously to the music, just like we do! Or, rather, just like we can. We can dance, but how often do we, really? Aside from weddings or other milestone occasions, when was the last time you really cut a rug?

We don't dance as much as we could, or as much as we want to, because we're afraid to look foolish. That greeting card exhortation to "dance like no one's watching" caught on for a reason.

When I was in high school, a group of friends and I would regularly park a car in our town's commuter train station parking lot, blast some music from the stereo and dance. There, in one of the weird open spaces suburban teenagers can own after dark, we'd move just to move, trying out our bodies in space, together, before hitting the local diner for grilled cheese.

Those nights were exhilarating, opportunities to turn off our brains and let loose, to express ourselves physically, outside of the limited vernacular we normally afforded ourselves as self-conscious teenagers.

When you ask people why they don't dance more, they get pensive, maybe a little defensive. They don't have time, they don't have the opportunity, what are they going to do, go to a club? These are people with responsibilities, with jobs and children! Dancing, one person suggested to me sadly, is something you do when you're young and then you stop.

This perception of dancing as unserious, as something frivolous people do, like eating a bowl of whipped cream or sleeping until noon, seems inaccurate, especially once you start deliberately dancing more, as I've tried to lately. I'm not talking about complicated choreography that requires learning moves or executing steps; I mean simply moving spontaneously to music.

If you start looking for opportunities to dance, you find them. While cooking dinner or cleaning the house. Instead of running in place at the crosswalk during a jog. Perhaps a spontaneous living-room disco with your kids. It's sort of miraculous: Each little break offers a little dose of endorphins. A little moment of expression. Of returning to yourself in the midst of an otherwise chaotic life.

We're busy. We're tired. Most of our movement in the course of a day ends up being about utility. We move to get from here to there, to accomplish tasks or as part of an exercise regimen. Dancing is a way of reclaiming movement, of deciding how you want to use your energy and your body rather than just getting things done.

It's holiday party season. There might be opportunities for dancing, should you wish to avail yourself of them. You could find a dance party, or occupy a parking lot, or a corner of the subway, or just the one square foot of space in front of the sink while you do the dishes. Or, if you need more persuasion before you bust a move, you could watch the CBC documentary "Why We Dance," a lovely exploration of cultural and evolutionary rationales for dancing. But honestly, you don't need an occasion or a good reason or any reason at all. Put on whatever music makes it impossible for you to sit still (I'm partial lately to "New York Groove" by Ace Frehley) and do your best Snowball (manic screeching optional).

For more

  • Need some inspiration? Try dancing with the stairs.
  • Travel the world through these dance tutorials.
  • "Shouldn't we engage in celebratory movement at least some small part of the time?" From 2013, "Why Don't We Dance Anymore?"
  • The choreographer Pina Bausch famously said, "I'm not interested in how people move but what moves them." Gia Kourlas says a new production of her work is "alive, with blistering clarity."
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THE WEEK IN CULTURE

A man with long hair and bangs wears a leopard-print sleeveless top. He's holding a triangle-shaped guitar upright.
Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel in "This Is Spinal Tap." Entertainment Pictures, via Alamy
  • The director Rob Reiner said a sequel to the 1984 mockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap" would begin filming in February and would feature Paul McCartney and Elton John.
  • The racketeering and gang conspiracy trial of the Atlanta rapper Young Thug began this week, and is expected to last almost a year. Here's what to know.
  • Pub-goers across Dublin raised a pint to Shane MacGowan, the lead singer of the Irish folk-punk band the Pogues, who died this week at 65.
  • ​The Mellon Foundation ​has now pledge​d a ​total ​of $500 million ​to build ​new and reimagined monuments​ in U.S. public spaces over the next five years.
  • A court in Illinois rejected an appeal by the actor Jussie Smollett, who was seeking to overturn his conviction for reporting a fake hate crime in 2019.
  • Hundreds of ancient artifacts from Crimea, including ceramics and jewelry, were returned to Kyiv after a legal battle between Ukraine and Russia over their ownership.
  • The New York City Ballet reached a deal for a new contract with the union representing its musicians, which includes a 22 percent increase in compensation over three years.
  • Mark Cuban, in addition to selling his majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks, announced that he would leave ABC's "Shark Tank" after 16 seasons.
  • A piano with a curved keyboard, conceived by the architect Rafael Viñoly​, made its debut at Carnegie Hall.
  • Brenda Lee​'s "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" has been a holiday staple for 65 years. Lee, who recorded it at 13, has never rested on her laurels.

THE LATEST NEWS

Sandra Day O'Connor

A photo of Justice O'Connor standing in sunlight in her black Supreme Court robe, her right hand over her heart. The stars of the American flag can be seen behind her, out of focus.
Sandra Day O'Connor in 2005. Matt York/Associated Press
  • Sandra Day O'Connor, the retired Supreme Court justice and the first woman to serve on the court, died at 93.
  • O'Connor, whom Ronald Reagan appointed in 1981, was a decisive vote in cases on sex discrimination, voting rights and religion over her 24 years on the court.
  • A moderate conservative and pragmatist who sometimes sided with the court's liberals, O'Connor voted to uphold abortion rights and affirmative action. Her departure from the court, to care for her sick husband, accelerated its rightward shift.
  • O'Connor was raised on an Arizona cattle ranch, entered Stanford at 16 and graduated near the top of her law class. She was the last Supreme Court justice to have held elected office, serving in the Arizona State Senate before becoming a judge.

Congress

  • The House of Representatives voted to expel George Santos, a New York Republican who lied about his background and faces federal fraud charges. "To hell with this place," Santos said as he left the Capitol.
  • Santos is the sixth lawmaker to be expelled from the House in U.S. history, and the first who was not either convicted of a crime or a Confederacy supporter.
  • More than 100 Republicans voted to expel Santos. One, Max Miller of Ohio, said the Santos campaign had fraudulently charged his and his mother's credit cards.

Israel-Hamas War

  • Israel said it had launched 200 strikes into Gaza since fighting resumed yesterday. Air-raid sirens in Israel warned of possible incoming rockets.
  • Gazan officials accused Israel of striking southern Gaza, where many displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
  • Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, blamed Hamas for the cease-fire's end and said he had seen signs that Israel had begun to take new steps to protect Palestinian civilians.
  • The resumption of fighting left dozens of hostages still in Gaza and reduced the amount of aid entering the enclave, which had increased during the truce.

Other Big Stories

CULTURE CALENDAR

🎬 "Poor Things" (Friday): This movie, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos ("The Favourite") and adapted from a 1992 novel of the same name, has an odd premise. Here goes: Bella (Emma Stone), an unhappily married woman, kills herself and is brought back to life by a scientist (Willem Dafoe) who gives her the brain of her unborn baby. The film won the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival, where it roused Oscar buzz for Stone's performance.

🎧 "Pink Friday 2," Nicki Minaj (Friday): After delays, Minaj is poised to release her first album in five years. The release comes during a year in which she made Billboard and Vibe's "Greatest Rappers of All Time" list, created in honor of hip-hop's 50th anniversary. It's an album Minaj has spoken about with pride: "It just dawned on me," she wrote this week, "I am about to release one of the greatest albums of ALL TIME."

The Holiday Sale. This Cooking offer won't last.

Less mess, less stress. A Cooking subscription brings you easy recipes plus step-by-step guides, videos, photos and more. Subscribe and save 50% on your first year of Cooking.

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RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Julia Gartland for The New York Times

Classic Hot Chocolate

Doesn't the first weekend of December officially kick off hot chocolate season? Try this recipe, which calls for a combination of unsweetened cocoa powder and chopped bittersweet chocolate (or chocolate chips), making it extra rich and deeply flavored. Sweeten it to taste, and float marshmallows or whipped cream on top for a snowy white cap. Dutch-processed cocoa will give you the darkest color and most complex flavor, but natural cocoa powder will also be delightful, lending fruitier, brighter notes. And if you happen to have some early holiday cookies already at hand, dunking is highly encouraged.

REAL ESTATE

Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

Instagrammable desks: Can bright colors and modern design lure workers back to the office?

Convertible apartment: This home in Geneva has only one door.

Offering support: How responsible are you for helping your elderly neighbors?

What you get for $5 million in California: A 2023 house in Palm Springs, a hillside home in Malibu or a hacienda-style retreat in Sonoma.

The hunt: These are our editors' favorite home-buying stories this year, from New York to California to Greece.

LIVING

A pixelated close-up of a smiley face oriented sideways. A black-and-white mouse icon hovers in the bottom right.
Steven Puetzer/Getty Images

"Delulu": Here's how a shorthand term for delusion became popular among Gen Z.

Walking: Go for a stroll outside London.

Forgetfulness: Improve your short-term memory.

Cold cuts: As charcuterie boards have become more popular, mortadella is now a hot item.

ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER

Decorate your Christmas tree like a pro

You need more lights than you'd think to make your Christmas tree a top-tier twinkler — about 100 lights per foot of tree. We know it sounds excessive. But after test-trimming trees using varying amounts of lighting, Wirecutter experts found that fewer lights seemed more Scrooge-y than sparkly. A pro tip to get your tree even more dazzling? Instead of winding your lights around the tree, try stringing them vertically in a zigzagging pattern to give the tree more twinkly depth. — Elissa Sanci

GAME OF THE WEEKEND

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe. John David Mercer/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 8 Alabama, SEC championship: Fans of college football were given a respite this year from Alabama, which has dominated the sport for much of the past decade. Not that Alabama wasn't good — it's in the conference title game, after all — but an early-season loss seemed to dash any national championship hopes. Since then, though, the Crimson Tide have been on a tear. They have won 10 in a row, most recently a thrilling, last-minute victory over rival Auburn. If they beat Georgia today, they have a shot at making the College Football Playoff. But that's a big if: The Bulldogs haven't lost a game in two years. 4 p.m. Eastern on CBS

For more

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was bottleful.

Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week's headlines.

And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Connections.

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa

P.S. David Sanger tells the back story of writing Henry Kissinger's Times obituary.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.

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These cryptos could skyrocket by January

Previous highs could get left in the dust …..............................................................................................

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Dear Subscriber,

The SEC has been taking shots at the crypto space for quite a while now and things just went to a new level after it filed new lawsuits against the biggest exchanges in the United States.

At the heart of the debate is this idea of what constitutes a security and what constitutes a commodity.

Which is why I'm so excited about one crypto in particular.

As I explain in this video alert, it's backed by gold bars on a 1-to-1 basis.

Moreover, it is run by a U.S.-based company that is already regulated by major financial governing bodies.

So, while there are obviously no guarantees, it seems like the one major crypto (other than Bitcoin) that is likely to be left alone by the SEC.

And even if I'm wrong, it still carries big advantages over plain old gold bars.

For starters, investors can buy it or sell it in practically any amount they like.

Because it's a crypto, it also trades around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It has extremely low commissions compared to many of the traditional choices available.

Plus, owners can request their share of the physical gold backing this investment any time they like!

Again, more details on this particular investment are near the end of this quick informational video.

Better yet, you'll also get the names of seven cryptos to avoid and a whole lot more … including strategies to earn Bitcoin without even risking any investment money.

Just click here now and the presentation will start playing automatically.

Best wishes,

Nilus Mattive
Nilus Mattive

11780 US Highway 1,
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33408-3080
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اتصال الوزير بلينكن برئيس الوزراء العراقي محمد شياع السوداني

Department of State United States of America

ترجمة مقدمة من وزارة الخارجية الأمريكية



وزارة الخارجية الأمريكية
مكتب المتحدث باسم وزارة الخارجية
1 كانون الأول/ديسمبر 2023
قراءة

يعزى ما يلي للمتحدث الرسمي باسم وزارة الخارجية ماثيو ميلر:

تحدث وزير الخارجية أنتوني ج. بلينكن مع رئيس الوزراء العراقي محمد شياع السوداني، ودعا الوزير بلنكن الحكومة العراقية إلى الوفاء بالتزاماتها لناحية حماية كافة المنشآت التي تستضيف موظفين أمريكيين بناء على دعوة الحكومة نفسها وملاحقة المسؤولين عن شن هجمات ضد الموظفين الأمريكيين في العراق.

 وتطرق الوزير بلينكن ورئيس الوزراء العراقي إلى موضوع النزاع بين إسرائيل وحركة حماس الإرهابية وناقشا ضرورة تجنب اتساع رقعة الصراع. وتحدث الوزير عن الوضع الإنساني في غزة وعن عملنا مع العراق وغيره من الشركاء الإقليميين لتحديد الخطوات التي نستطيع اتخاذها الآن لوضع أساس للسلام العادل والمستدام.


للاطلاع على النص الأصلي: https://www.state.gov/secretary-blinkens-call-with-iraqi-prime-minister-al-sudani-3/#:~:text=Secretary%20of%20State%20Antony%20J,on%20U.S.%20personnel%20in%20Iraq.

هذه الترجمة هي خدمة مجانية، مع الأخذ بالاعتبار أن النص الانجليزي الأصلي هو النص الرسمي.


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Canada Letter: Relatively rapid military procurement

To avoid a seemingly endless process, the government takes some political heat.
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Canada Letter

December 2, 2023

Canada Fast-Tracks 10.4 Billion Dollar Military Purchase

By Canadian standards, the 10.4 billion Canadian dollar military purchase announced this week moved at light speed, possibly within as little as nine months.

Airplanes sit in a hangar.
U.S. Navy Poseidon planes at a base in Japan. Adam Dean for The New York Times

Traditionally when Canada goes shopping for major military items like aircraft, the process turns into a Wagnerian opera of epic length and complexity. Political grumbling surrounded this purchase of at least 14 Boeing maritime surveillance planes too, but it remained on a fast track, partly because the government was willing to endure some backlash to make it happen.

While there are many examples of Canada's sluggish military procurement, the most dramatic was the recent fighter jet replacement program. In 2010, the Conservative government under Stephen Harper, the prime minister at the time, said that it would buy 65 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin.

The deal was immediately opposed by the Liberals. Their opposition intensified after the auditor general concluded that the purchase was made without a "fair competition" and that the estimated cost of 9 billion Canadian dollars was a severe underestimate. The estimated program cost had soared to 45.8 billion Canadian dollars.

A lieutenant monitors a screen on a reconnaissance plane.
The government said that no other aircraft of the Poseidon's type was currently in production. Adam Dean for The New York Times

After he formed his first government in 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau canceled the deal and started a new shopping program for fighter jets. Because of the added delay, the government also picked up some new F-18 jets from Boeing and 25 used ones from Australia to tide the Royal Canadian Air Force over.

After all of that, the end result was that Mr. Trudeau's government reversed its previous opposition early this year and said that it would buy F-35s after all, 88 of them for a total program cost of 70 billion Canadian dollars.

The first F-35s could arrive as early as 2029, two decades after the Conservative announcement.

But this time Mr. Trudeau's government accelerated the purchase.

Unless things take an unexpected turn, the first of the newly purchased Boeing P-8A planes — which are basically Boeing 737 airliners stuffed with various kinds of sensors, weapons, computers and workstations for analysts — will begin flying with the R.C.A.F. in 2026. The estimated program cost is 10.4 billion Canadian dollars, of which just under 6 billion dollars is the purchase price of the planes. (The program cost includes weapons, training simulators, spare parts and renovations at the Air Force bases in British Columbia and Nova Scotia where the planes will be stationed.)

As with the 1980s vintage CP-140 Aurora planes they will replace, the main duty of the newcomers will be tracking submarines. But, as is the case now, they will most likely perform a number of other tasks ranging from tracking drug smuggling in the Caribbean to monitoring pollution in Canada. The R.C.A.F. turned to its Auroras to help search for the doomed Titan submersible earlier this year.

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And the Poseidon is not used by just the United States. Several other allies including Britain, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand already fly the plane, allowing, among other things, Canada to swap crew members and parts during joint exercises.

But even before the announcement was made, Premier François Legault of Quebec, Premier Doug Ford of Ontario, Yves-François Blanchet, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, and a parliamentary committee all criticized the government for not opening up the contract to bidding. In particular, they wanted it to consider a proposed marine surveillance plane from Montreal-based Bombardier.

Mr. Blanchet said the government was "rejecting" Quebec and Canada for a "flying dinosaur" from Boeing.

Several of Canada's closest allies use the plane. Adam Dean for The New York Times

Bill Blair, the defense minister, said that the Poseidon was the only aircraft of its type actually in production and was the only option that guarantees the Auroras will be replaced as they reach the end of their in-service lives starting in 2030.

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"The fact that it met all of the requirements that the Air Force defined for us really made this not only the right choice, but frankly the only choice," he told reporters.

Not mentioned by Mr. Blair or the other cabinet ministers was Bombardier's weak track record when it comes to timely development of new planes. A series of delays played a major role in the failure of its ambitious plan to take on Boeing and Airbus in the airliner market. Despite over $1 billion in government investments, Bombardier effectively turned over that airplane, originally known as the CSeries, to Airbus in exchange for nothing.

Philippe Lagassé, a professor at Carleton University who studies military procurement, said he found it a notable break from the past that the government decided to act quickly rather than go through a protracted bidding process.

Exactly when the government decided to go with just the Boeing plane is not clear. But in March it made a preliminary inquiry with the United States government about buying Poseidons. (Boeing is not allowed to sell the plane directly; the purchase is being made between the two governments.)

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Professor Lagassé said that several factors most likely went into the government's decision to go through a swift, sole-sourced contract. On top of the Poseidon's availability, he said, there were also indications that Boeing might end production of the plane.

And, he said, the government clearly also decided that it could defend its decision even if it would disappoint or anger some people and groups.

"In the past, there might have been more caution and more hesitation, particularly around the political risk or risk around how the other companies might react," he told me.

Trans Canada

A Sikh temple.
The Guru Nanak Gurdwara temple in Surrey, British Columbia, near where Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot and killed. Jackie Dives for The New York Times
  • This week an indictment released in the United States charged that an Indian government official directed an unsuccessful murder plot against a Sikh separatist in New York and linked the plan to the killing of a Sikh nationalist in Surrey, British Columbia — an allegation raised months ago by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. My colleague Norimitsu Onishi writes that the American charges have shored up Mr. Trudeau's allegations, which India vigorously denied.
  • Canada's standoff with Google came to an end this week when the tech giant agreed to provide 100 million Canadian dollars a year in compensation to publishers in Canada for its use of their news material. But Meta, the parent company of Facebook, remains at odds with the government, Vjosa Isai reports.
  • A man who was a teenager when he killed one woman and seriously wounded another was sentenced as an adult this week after his conviction. For the first time in a case involving violence against women in Canada, the judge also declared the brutal attack to be an act of terrorism because the man used a sword inscribed with a sexist epithet and carried in his pocket a note promoting an ideology of violence against women.
  • Marty Krofft, who was born in Montreal and joined his brother in creating fantastical children's television programs, including "H.R. Pufnstuf," has died at the age of 86.
  • Two Canadian nutrition researchers discuss how our need for protein changes with age.
  • And Daniel Levitin, a professor emeritus of psychology and neuroscience at McGill University, talks about the reliability of Christmas music for self-soothing.

A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported about Canada for The New York Times for two decades. Email austen@nytimes.com

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