Tag: bbc
BBC host Danny Baker fired after comparing royal baby Archie to a chimp
One of Britain’s best-known broadcasters was fired by the BBC on Thursday for a tweet he wrote comparing the new royal baby to a chimp.
Danny Baker, 61, tweeted out a photo of a chimp in a suit holding hands with a smartly dressed couple, writing, “Royal baby leaves hospital.”
It sparked instant outrage because of the clear racist undertones against Duchess of Sussex Meghan, 37, whose mom, Doria Ragland, is African American.
Baker admitted it had been a “stupid unthinking gag” — but insisted it was an innocent dig at the royals that was being wildly misinterpreted.
“Never occurred to me because, well, mind not diseased,” he wrote. “Soon as those good enough to point out its possible connotations got in touch, down it came. And that’s it.”
He later called the backfired joke “grotesque” and “an enormous mistake,” sending a message to Harry and Meghan’s newborn Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, “Here’s to ya Archie, Sorry mate.”
His apologies were not enough, however, with him soon tweeting, “Just got fired.”
“This was a serious error of judgment,” insisted a BBC spokesman, saying the joke “goes against the values we as a station aim to embody.”
“Danny’s a brilliant broadcaster but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us.”
Baker remained defiant, damning the call to fire him as a “masterclass of pompous faux-gravity”
“Took a tone that said I actually meant that ridiculous tweet and the BBC must uphold blah blah blah,” he added. “Literally threw me under the bus. Could hear the suits knees knocking.” He ended the message, “#F–kem.”
Royal baby Archie was born Monday, with proud parents Meghan and Prince Harry publicly debuting him Wednesday.
Photo Credit: nypost.com/AP
‘Zoo hypothesis’ may explain why we haven’t seen any space aliens
Article via NBC
The hypothesis holds that they can see us, but we can’t see them.
Ask your friends why scientists have failed to find extraterrestrials, and you can be sure at least one of them will offer the following answer: Humans are not worthy.
We’re flawed beings. We routinely threaten one other, not to mention other species and the environment. That doesn’t sound very civilized, and it offers a plausible explanation for the lack of alien contact. Perhaps the extraterrestrials know we’re here but don’t want to deal with us — either by communicating or by visiting.
This idea is endlessly appealing. It’s also old. In 1973, MIT radio astronomer John Ball published a paper in which he suggested that the lack of success in uncovering cosmic company wasn’t due to a lack of aliens. It was because these otherworldly sentients have agreed to a hands-off policy.
They’ve kept their distance not because we’re imperfect, but because of our right to pursue our own destiny. Diversity is something that everyone in the cosmos is assumed to value, so life-bearing worlds should be left to their own evolutionary development.
It may occur to you that Ball’s idea sounds something like Star Trek’s famous “prime directive,” which forbade spacefaring members of the Federation from doing anything that might interfere with other cultures or civilizations, even if that interference was well intentioned. The MIT astronomer was proposing that we’ve failed to make contact with aliens not because we’re unworthy, but because we are worthy — the way endangered eels are.
Ball went further, proposing that we may live in a metaphorical zoo — a kind of cosmic Eden. The aliens of the galaxy have somehow arranged things so that our planet is shielded from them by one-way bars: They can observe us, but we can’t observe them.
One nice thing about this conjecture is that it offers a solution to a long-standing puzzle known as Fermi’s Paradox. Broached nearly 70 years ago by physicist Enrico Fermi, it rests on the fact that the universe is very old. Consequently, if intelligent life is commonplace, then some of it is surely advanced enough to have colonized the entire galaxy. We should see evidence of aliens everywhere. The fact that we don’t might be explained by Ball’s hypothesis — we’re being deliberately isolated.
The zoo hypothesis has been in the news recently because it also provides justification for an activity known as METI, short for Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Simply stated, METI practitioners transmit radio signals into space with the hope of provoking a response from any aliens who might pick them up. In 2017, a Norwegian antenna was used to beam a message to a star system 12 light-years away.
Earlier this month, this whole enterprise was discussed by researchers at a meeting in Paris. Douglas Vakoch, the president of METI International, a San Francisco-based organization that organized the Norwegian transmission, invoked the zoo hypothesis as a possible justification for broadcasting. After all, if the hypothesis is correct, then it’s understandable why our efforts to find signals from space have been unsuccessful. We’ve been mindlessly pacing our Earthly cage while the extraterrestrials maintain their distance and keep watch.
But as Vakoch argues, this one-way scenario might be changed. If a zoo animal suddenly starts barking through the bars, saying “I’m here and I think you’re out there,” those on the other side might respond.
Simply put, METI’s deliberate transmissions might lead to a discovery of cosmic company because the broadcasts would tell the aliens that we no longer require their helicopter parenting. We’re adult enough for them to get in touch.
Still, the zoo hypothesis is dependent on Earthly life being really important — our existence is apparently significant enough that it dictates the behavior of societies that might be millions or billions of years more advanced. And Ball’s idea requires a galaxy-wide compact to keep all evidence of intelligent inhabitants — radio signals, laser flashes end even the construction of easily detected megastructures — from being visible by earthlings. How would you do that, even if you’re a highly advanced alien?
In addition, the idea that all extraterrestrials are keen to keep the evolution of our planet free and natural sounds odd, self-centered and a bit too altruistic. Let’s face it: The prime directive has never been in fashion with us. Indeed, we seem to prefer the opposite: On Earth, we interfere with one another’s cultural development all the time.
So the zoo hypothesis seems more than a little forced. On the other hand, I have to admit that it’s cagey.
Kanye West’s Sunday Service playing Coachella
Article via BBC
Kanye West has spent the last year making headlines for everything except his music.
But fans of the artist have been treated to something special each Sunday over the past few months.
Tune into Kim Kardashian’s Instagram Stories and there you’ll find Kanye and a choir belting out renditions of some of his most famous songs – as well as bits of music that seem to be brand new.
Known as Kanye West’s Sunday Service, it’s been announced the act is heading to Coachella Festival in California to perform on Easter Sunday.
But what is it?
Religion has always been important to Kanye West’s music.
And he’s got a famously big ego.
So when he debuted Sunday Service at the beginning of 2019, and it looked like he was starting his own church, people weren’t that surprised.
A lot of what goes on at Sunday Service remains pretty secretive – people are even reportedly made to sign non-disclosure agreements.
But from the snapshots we’re shown it all seems to centre around the choir/live orchestra.
Whether it’s Jesus Walks, Father Stretch My Hands Pt.1 or Lift Off, Sunday Service often seems to showcase a reinterpretation of Kanye’s tracks.
And music seems to be the main aspect to the service that makes it spiritual.
The congregation
Unsurprisingly, with Kanye and the Kardashians involved, Sunday Service has become a bit of a celeb hot spot.
A Sunday Service invitation is the “most prestigious, highly-coveted” invitation possible for musicians in LA, according to Variety – which describes it as “where spirituality and exclusivity meet”.
Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom are among the A-listers who’ve been spotted there.
But Sunday Service has also led to a whole host of new fans for five year old North West – Kim and Kanye’s oldest child – because of videos like this.
There’s speculation that Kanye West’s Sunday Service could be leading up to another gospel album from the rapper – a few years after the gospel-influenced The Life of Pablo came out.
Kanye had promised an album at the end of last year – called Yandhi – which was delayed.
Whatever is happening with new music, one thing is definite: the people at Coachella look like they’re definitely in for a treat.
Check out some Lovelyti videos:
(Part 1) “Ye Vs.The People”+Daz Dillinger Issues “Crip Alert” Against Kanye West
(part 2) Kanye Gets Checked By TMZ’s Van Lathan After Calling Slavery “A Choice”
kanye’s crazy twitter drama
Facebook to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger
Article via BBC
Facebook plans to integrate its messaging services on Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
While all three will remain stand-alone apps, at a much deeper level they will be linked so messages can travel between the different services.
Facebook told the BBC it was at the start of a “long process”.
Once complete, the merger would mean that a Facebook user could communicate directly with someone who only has a WhatsApp account. This is currently impossible as the applications have no common core.
The work to merge the three elements has already begun, reported the NYT, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2019 or early next year.
Shared data
Mr Zuckerberg is reportedly pushing the integration plan to make its trinity of services more useful and increase the amount of time people spend on them.
By effectively joining all its users into one massive group Facebook could compete more effectively with Google’s messaging services and Apple’s iMessage, suggested Makena Kelly on tech news site The Verge.
“We want to build the best messaging experiences we can; and people want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private,” said Facebook in a statement.
“We’re working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks,” it added.
The statement said there was a lot of “discussion and debate” about how the system would eventually work.
Linking the three systems marks a significant change at Facebook as before now it has let Instagram and WhatsApp operate as largely independent companies.
The NYT claimed that Mr Zuckerberg’s championing of the plan to connect the messaging system had caused “internal strife”. It was part of the reason that the founders of both Instagram and WhatsApp left last year.
The decision comes as Facebook faces repeated investigations and criticisms over the way it has handled and safeguarded user data.
Comprehensively linking user data at a fundamental level may prompt regulators to take another look at its data handling practices.
The UK’s Information Commissioner has already conducted investigations into how much data is shared between WhatsApp and Facebook.
Air India flight attendant falls from plane
An Air India flight attendant has been injured after falling from the door of a parked aeroplane at India’s Mumbai airport.
Harsha Lobo was preparing the flight for boarding to Delhi on Monday morning when the incident happened.
Ms Lobo, 52, suffered a fracture and other injuries and has been taken to a hospital.
Air India, the country’s national carrier, said in a statement that it was investigating the incident.
“In an unfortunate incident, one of our cabin crew (members), Harsha Lobo, fell down on the tarmac from the Boeing-777 aircraft door while closing it,” the airline said.
Doctors attended to Ms Lobo at the Mumbai airport before sending her to the hospital.
“She is conscious and well-oriented but has sustained compound (open) fracture of right lower leg bones and multiple blunt injuries,” an airport official was quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper.
Last week, an Air India plane travelling from the southern Indian city of Trichy to Dubai sustained damage after hitting the airport wall during take off.
The plane, which was carrying 130 passengers and six crew members, was diverted to Mumbai, where it landed safely.
The incident came weeks after more than 30 passengers aboard an aircraft of Indian carrier Jet Airways had to receive treatment after pilots “forgot” to turn on a switch regulating cabin pressure.
Article via BBC