Dog spent days outside Turkish hospital waiting for owner ISTANBUL (AP)

 

— A devoted dog has spent days waiting outside a hospital in northern Turkey where her sick owner was receiving treatment.

The pet, Boncuk (Bon-DJUK), which means bead, followed the ambulance that transported her owner, Cemal Senturk, to hospital in the Black Sea city of Trabzon on Jan. 14. She then made daily visits to the facility, private news agency DHA reported on Wednesday.

Senturk’s daughter, Aynur Egeli, said she would take Boncuk home but the dog would repeatedly run off and return to the hospital.

Hospital security guard Muhammet Akdeniz told DHA: “She comes every day around 9 a.m. and waits until nightfall. She doesn’t go in.”


“When the door opens she pokes her head inside,” he said.

On Wednesday, Boncuk was finally reunited with Senturk when he was pushed outside in a wheelchair for a brief meeting with his dog.

“She’s very used to me. And I miss her, too, constantly,” he told DHA.

Senturk was discharged from the hospital later on Wednesday and returned home with Boncuk.

 

Google threatens to withdraw search engine from Australia

 

Google has threatened to remove its search engine from Australia over the nation's attempt to make the tech giant share royalties with news publishers.

Australia is introducing a world-first law to make Google, Facebook and potentially other tech companies pay media outlets for their news content.

But the US firms have fought back, warning the law would make them withdraw some of their services.

Australian PM Scott Morrison said lawmakers would not yield to "threats".

Australia is far from Google's largest market, but the proposed news code is seen as a possible global test case for how governments could seek to regulate big tech firms.

Tech firms have faced increasing pressure to pay for news content in other countries, including France, where Google struck a landmark deal with media outlets on Thursday.

In Australia, the proposed news code would tie Google and Facebook to mediated negotiations with publishers over the value of news content, if no agreement could be reached first.

Google Australia managing director Mel Silva told a Senate hearing on Friday that the laws were "unworkable".

"If this version of the code were to become law, it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia," she said.

But lawmakers challenged this, accusing Google of "blackmail" and bullying Australia for raising the reform.

Mr Morrison said his government remained committed to progressing the laws through parliament this year.

"Let me be clear: Australia makes our rules for things you can do in Australia. That's done in our parliament," he told reporters on Friday.

Why is Australia pushing this law?

Google is the dominant search engine in Australia and has been described by the government as a near-essential utility, with little market competition.

The government has argued that because the tech platforms gain customers from people who want to read the news, the tech giants should pay newsrooms a "fair" amount for their journalism.

In addition, it has argued that the financial support is needed for Australia's embattled news industry because a strong media is vital to democracy.

Media companies, including News Corp Australia, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, have lobbied hard for the government to force tech firms to the negotiating table amid a long-term decline in advertising revenue.

Meanwhile, Google's revenues have increased markedly in the same period, amounting to more than $160bn (£117bn) globally in 2019. In the same year, Google was reported to have made $3.7bn in gross revenue in Australia.

Of that revenue, $7.7m was generated from news content, Google said in a blog last year.

Google's threat to remove its entire search product is its most severe yet. News accounts for just 12.5% of Google searches in Australia, according to lawmakers.

media captionWATCH: Who are the 'big four' and just how much power do they have?

If the law is passed, the news code would initially apply only to Facebook and Google, the government says.

If Google withdrew its search engine, Australian internet users would be forced to use alternatives such as Microsoft's Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo!

 This is a highly unusual threat.

Google dominates the search engine market with a nearly 90% market share. Almost all its revenue is from ads. For Google to threaten to pull out of an entire country suggests the company is worried.

Australia is nowhere near its biggest market. But Google execs are fearful about the precedent these new laws could set.

Google has had a very profitable pandemic so far, while many local newspapers have struggled. That doesn't look good - Australian politicians aren't the first, and won't be the last, to point that out.

Google says it wants to help fund original, local journalism.

But clearly it believes that what is being proposed in Australia could fundamentally hurt its business model if replicated elsewhere.

 

Ms Silva said the laws would set "an untenable precedent for our businesses and the digital economy" if Google had to pay for link and search results.

This was not compatible with the free-flowing share of information online or "how the internet works", she argued.

"We do not see a way, with the financial and operational risks, that we could continue to offer a service in Australia," she said.

Last week, Google confirmed it was blocking Australian news sites from its search results for about 1% of local users. It said it was an experiment to test the value of Australian news services.

Facebook last year also threatened to stop Australian users from sharing news stories on the platform if the law went ahead.

The social media giant repeated that position on Friday, with executive Simon Milner telling the Senate hearing it was "a potential worse-case consequence".

He said Facebook derived almost no commercial benefit from having news content on its platform.

Both firms have argued that news organisations already get the benefit of platforms driving readers to their websites. Google has also cited its Google News partnership as evidence it supports journalism.

What's been the reaction?

Australians have expressed confusion and anger online at both sides. Some have debated whether they could get by using other search engines.

Others have questioned if the removal of the search engine would also remove Gmail, Google Maps and Google Home services - something the company has not made clear.

Earlier this week, US trade representatives urged Australia to drop the laws which they said attempted regulation "to the clear detriment of two US firms".

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, said Australia's plan would make the web "unworkable around the world".

 

Could Google really leave Australia?

Why would Google pull out of Australia?

The government is introducing a law to address a long-bubbling row over whether tech giants should pay for news that appears in search or is shared on their platforms.

The proposed law would mandate that Google has commercial agreements with every news organisation - or enter forced arbitration, something Google says is "unworkable".

"If this version of the code were to become law, it would give us no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia," the regional director, Mel Silva, said.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Google: "We don't respond to threats".

What alternatives are there?

Google has about 90-95% of the search engine market share in Australia - similar to the rest of the world.

But other options for search exist - mainly Microsoft's Bing, and Yahoo, but also privacy-focused ones like DuckDuckGo.

But while site analysis firm Alexa ranks Google as the most-visited site on the internet, Yahoo lies at 11th, and Bing at a distant 33rd.

Would Google disappearing really affect people?

In 2018 a writer for Wired magazine spent three months using Bing exclusively - and concluded that it worked fine almost all the time.

But in very specific cases - such as finding old articles - he struggled, because the techniques he learned for search using Google didn't deliver the expected results.

And Google is not just a search engine - its search technology also powers services such as Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube, among others.

It's unclear at this stage if Google's threat - if carried out - would affect those other apps.

Alternatives to these do exist, but are little-used and the Google apps are seen as essential by many consumers.

When Huawei phones lost access to Google services amid a row with US regulators, they found it much more difficult to sell phones in the West.

Could this set a global precedent?

Australian Senator Rex Patrick told Google: "It's going to go worldwide. Are you going to pull out of every market, are you?"

But Google and other companies affected - like Facebook - are based in the US.

And the US government - at least the previous administration - has urged Australia not to "rush" the new law, warning that it is "extraordinary" and may have "long-lasting negative consequences".

While there is no exact match for this scenario, Google has left a country before due to local laws.

Google has been largely unavailable in mainland China since a row in 2010 over alleged Chinese hacking, during which it stopped censoring search results for Chinese users.

There's also a different - but similar - row happening in Europe.

How much money is Australia worth to Google?

Compared to China, Australia is a much smaller potential market.

Google Australia made A$4.8bn ($3.7bn; £2.7bn) in revenue in 2019. Advertising revenue made up most of that, at A$4.3bn. But factor in all the expenses, and Google Australia made A$134m in profit for the year.

To put that in context, Google's parent Alphabet has an estimated US$100bn or more of cash on hand to cover any revenue gaps.

But it's about more than money.

The wider concern is whether Google wants a modern Western democracy to showcase how using its competitors can be perfectly viable.

Can't Australians just use US Google instead?

It's possible that Google could redirect Australian Google users to the US (or another) country's version of Google. That would likely strip out localised search results, but keep the service accessible.

But it may also be that Google would block Australian users based on their geographic location as determined by an IP (internet) address.

One simple way around that is using a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, which makes your computer look like it's somewhere else - a trick often used by the tech-savvy to access streaming services in other countries.

media captionEXPLAINED: What is a VPN service?

But it is slower, and reputable providers require a subscription - a hassle many people would rather avoid for simple search results.

 

What does Australia want Google to pay?

Exactly how much money is at issue is undecided.

The proposed law involves bargaining and arbitration, leaving the matter open - if Google can't reach agreement with a news outlet, a judge would decide what is "fair".

But the government has said it wants "fair" payments to news organisations, which have seen print advertising revenue fall by three-quarters over the past 15 years.

In contrast, digital advertising on major platforms like Google and Facebook has risen dramatically over the same time.

Would it really help publishers?

Australia has a vibrant news industry - media titan Rupert Murdoch, who owns News Corp, was born there.

His outlets would benefit, as would public broadcasters such as ABC News in Australia.

ABC's funding has been cut by hundreds of millions of dollars since 2014, resulting in cuts to services.

Local newspapers have also been hurt in the demise of advertising - with more than 125 News Corp-owned regional newspapers going online-only earlier this year, resulting in hundreds of job losses.

Thank You, Polybius

 

Thank You, Polybius

By Tom McCune

Trying to design the ideal form of government is an old game. It goes all the way back to ancient Greece and probably farther.

Both Plato and Aristotle took a crack at it. But it is Polybius we need to thank today. Polybius was the first to write that a mixed government made up of separate “branches” might be stable enough to survive the cycles of collapse, revolution, civil war and mob rule that had plagued the ancient city-states since the beginning of time. The authors of the U.S. Constitution didn’t make up that idea all on their own. They got it from Polybius, by way of some Enlightenment philosophers like Montesquieu.

Plato identified the natural forms of government as aristocracy, timocracy (rule by affluent warlords), oligarchy (rule by wealthy elites), democracy and tyranny. He theorized that societies start with aristocracy (the highest form) and, over time, degenerate through all of the other inferior forms. Plato hypothesized that one way to break this cycle was to have an aristocracy led by philosopher-kings who were wise and selfless. But ultimately, Plato threw in the towel and said that while a constitutional government of written laws might be “second best” it might actually be viable in the real world, whereas the concept of the philosopher-king was not.

Aristotle rejected Plato’s proposal for an aristocracy of philosopher kings, but accepted some of Plato’s other ideas. Aristotle identified three “true” governments, each of which degenerates into a perverted form over time. In his framework, royalty degenerates into tyranny, aristocracy degenerates into oligarchy, and polity (constitutional government) degenerates into democracy. Aristotle considered pure democracy to be an inferior form of government, although he found it to be the least harmful of the degenerate forms and he suggested that a “mixed” form of government incorporating elements of democracy, oligarchy and polity might be best.

It was Polybius who identified a cycle of governmental forms that societies seemed doomed to endlessly repeat abetted by revolutions, rebellions and civil wars: 1). monarchy, 2). kingship, 3). tyranny, 4). aristocracy, 5). oligarchy, 6). Democracy and 7). ochlocracy (mob rule). After that, the cycle starts all over again with the rise of a new monarchy. But Polybius was also the first to explicitly propose a government with one branch resembling monarchy (the executive), a second resembling democracy (the people/legislature) and a third resembling aristocracy (the council of elders). He suggested that such a government might create a system where “no part should become unduly predominant, and be perverted into its kindred vice; and that, each power being checked by the others, no one part should turn the scale or decisively out-balance the others; but that, by being accurately adjusted and in exact equilibrium, the whole might remain long steady like a ship sailing close to the wind.” (Please note that Polybius did give credit to the constitution of Sparta for some basic ideas).

For 2,000 years, nobody really had a chance to try Polybius’ idea in its pure form (Up until 1789, that is). After the single-branch Articles of Confederation failed to create a satisfactory government for the young United States, the framers tried to create a more perfect union using Polybius’ basic idea. That more perfect union has been tested in recent days, just as Plato, Aristotle and Polybius predicted. It has been tested before and will surely be tested again. But the “equilibrium” proposed by old Polybius has served us well for 232 years and is the best bet we have for safety, security, stability and freedom in the future.

I would only quibble with his notion of an “exact” equilibrium. Modern game theory has looked at the idea of equilibrium quite extensively. One view is that complex systems are never exactly in equilibrium, but the struggle between the competing components always pulls them back into balance. Maybe that is what we have recently witnessed on the national scene.

Nobody ever claimed our system is the most efficient form of government. But, considering the alternatives, I’m with Polybius.

Tom McCune is an architect and member of the Belmont City Council.

Kapesovo: The 16th century Greek village where all inhabitants have ancient Greek names

 

Kapesovo: The 16th century Greek village where all inhabitants have ancient Greek names

by PAULINA KARAVASILI

Every Greek village, big or small, has its own beauty, uniqueness and special history.

From strange stories about how they received their names, to how many years they have been inhabited, villages and their traditions are a big part of Greek culture.

Many villages, both in mainland Greece and on the Greek islands, also stand out for their local dialect – which even Greeks from different areas themselves cannot understand – their local dishes and all the goods they produce.

Kapesovo, a green, picturesque, stone village of just 51 residents, that belongs to the Municipality of Zagori, is known for another, very unique reason; almost all its residents have ancient Greek names.

This is a tradition which has been passed down from generation to generation for many years, and the locals of Kapesovo still continue to proudly follow it.

 Photo from Instagram by costislamprou

Kapesovo has been inhabited for about 4 centuries and was founded around the 16th century. It is located 43 km from the popular city of Ioannina, and it is also a short driving distance away from the gorge of Vikos.

The little village is also connected to other neighbouring villages, such as Vradeto, through stone paths, which are remarkable not only because of their charm, but also because of they way they are built, with thin stone floors.

Besides its natural beauty, Kapesovo is an excellent example of traditional continental architecture. Impressive stone houses, well-preserved cobbled streets, imposing mansions, are all sitting harmoniously on the top a of an imposing mountain, and create the perfect winter landscape.

Along with other villages in the area, it is perched above the ravine of Mezaria mountain in Zagori, at an altitude of 1120 m, and has been characterized by historians as a traditional Greek settlement.

In the 16th century, 20 families from the small village of Kapuska, which is located nearby Kapesovo, moved to the stone village and started building their own little community from scratch.

The first population census in the village, in 1928, counted 124 people, while the latest census in 2011, counted almost one third of the initial population, just 51 people, as many residents moved to bigger metropolitan areas.

Even though today Kapesovo is smaller than ever before – in terms of it population – it is also louder than ever, as it has become a beloved touristic destination over the winter months.

In the centre of the village, there is one of the most beautiful monuments of the whole Zagori area, the stone church of Agios Nikolaos, which was built in 1793. The interior of the church is filled with extraordinary frescoes, made by the famous Kapesovite painters, with clear western influences.

In fact, the entire village of Kapesovo is famous for its artistic roots. During the 17th and 18th centuries, many of its inhabitants distinguished themselves around Greece as admirable artists. Some were painters and architects, while others were woodcarvers and hagiographers. Many of the churches of the villages in the Zagori and Epirus areas, were built and decorated by the locals of Kapesovo, who were known for their artistic talent.

Most of the residents of Kapesovo have ancient names, such as Plato, Clearchus and Thucydides, which are much rarer to find in all other parts of Greece.

This particular tradition started in the beginning of the 19th century for two main reasons: On one hand because Kapesovo’s inhabitants received classical education and studied ancient philosophers and writers, and on the other hand, because they wanted to keep alive their Greek spirit and what they called their “Greekness”, of their then Turkish-occupied village, during Ottoman rule.

Kapesovo, along with other villages in the northern Greece, belongs to Zagorochoria (villages of Zagori), which is a complex of 46 villages in total, all with their own beauty and grace.

Zagorochoria are one of the top travel destinations among Greeks, and are particularly famous for their stone houses, lush forests, secret little paths, and natural landscape, which changes from green to orange every season of the year.

 

playwrights

 * FREE THEATER ONLINE ***


Black Box New Play Festival
Jan. 21 – Jan. 31, 2021
Thurs – Sun @ 7:30pm
The 24th annual new play festival will feature world premieres of short plays written specifically for Zoom, to view online from the comfort of your own home. Performances are free to watch and will be streamed online at 7:30pm EST Thursday through Sunday each week (link to be provided) – no downloads necessary!

First Week: January 21 – 24
Decade by Decade by Barbara Anderson
Directed by Trent Dawson
It’s a Thursday morning two years since the pandemic began in the Brooklyn home of Maria, Andrew, and their son Jared. Maria works as a Covid tracer and Jared is an internet influencer, but Andrew was forced into early retirement from his much-loved teaching career. In fact, everyone over sixty is considered too vulnerable to work or to even leave their homes. Andrew does his best to retain his role as the family provider, but what begins as a typical Thursday soon becomes a day when secrets are revealed and actions must be taken.

Surf’s Up by Ken Levine
Directed by Elizabeth Bove
Peter announces to his Millennial daughter, Wendy, that he has quit his job and is going on an “endless summer” to surf around the world. And he invites her to shake up her button-down life and join him.

Trading Places by Roger Collins
Directed by Noel MacDuffie
A father and his teenage daughter, separated in Cyberspace, debate the sanctity of raising mother from her grave after one year of interment. The father prevails and they intone an incantation and resurrect the matriarch. But yet another debate ensues – who will join whom seems to be at issue. As the time for their decision grows short, they rehash their relationships until, suddenly, darkness looms over all three and the matter is decided.

Second Week: January 28 – 31

Covid Chips by Mark W. Sasse
Directed by Mike Mroch
As restaurants in New York State begin to re-open during the COVID-19 crisis, Mr. Jawarski, from Peppy’s Pub in Jamestown, receives a Zoom call from an Albany health official making sure that Peppy’s is compliant. As Mr. Jawarski continues complying with new regulations, the health official keeps making additional Zoom calls to bring attention to another matter of omission.

Women Underground by Kay Ellen Bullard
Directed by Justin Braun
Three women living lives of quiet desperation find themselves buried in the rubble of a bank explosion. Each has her own past experiences that could impact their survival strategy. Is any rescue even possible if you’ve already been living the equivalent of a buried life?

Every Single Sunday by Chris Karmiol
Directed by Whitney Stone
Different generations attempt to make a virtual connection and it doesn’t go too smoothly. But that’s okay… it wasn’t meant to.

Register for free tickets


*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

Blue Pearl Theatrics - A Monologue Festival Competition & Short Film
Are you a writer that's willing to take an audience down the rabbit hole?
CORRUPTION INC. is a powerful two-fold project encompassing an exciting and exclusive livestream monologue festival competition and culminating in a critically important theatrical short film featuring a series of chosen monologues which will be produced and showcased on various digital platforms and submitted to film festivals across the country.

***

theREP is looking for scripts that use theatre to address injustices, inequities, and cultural collisions, providing a voice for the unheard on stage, in the workplace, the Capital Region and beyond. Specifically seeking scripts with racial, ethnic, generational, religious and gender diversity. Scripts that engage art and social justice.

***

TEDxAsburyPark is seeking Readings and Performances of one minute or less on the topic of “Treat Others as You Wish to be Treated”, aka “The Golden Rule”, which is a cornerstone of most world cultures, religions and creeds.
TEDxAsburyPark will showcase a community production of the best 30 readings/performances for a LIVE virtual audience on April 1, 2021.

*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***


*** HAPPY ENDINGS ***

There Must Be Happy Endings by Megan Sandberg-Zakian is an exploration in the personal dramaturgy of the mind and spirit. In her first book of essays, the author takes a deep dive into the works that have made a lasting impression upon her. They are an extension of her need to share stories through theatre. Whether by quoting Homer, The Dark Knight or Annie, these essays draw the reader into the author’s personal story by circumnavigating the landscape of the greater western narrative. She tells us why happy ends are important and why they are especially important to her. Her title essay isn’t demanding sappy closure but commanding a divine right to culminate our narratives with an end to the suffering within them. 

More...


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Winner of six Korean musical awards and the Richard Rodgers Award, MAYBE HAPPY ENDING makes its English-language debut! When two obsolete helper-bots discover each other in late 21st century Seoul, they have a surprising connection that challenges what they believe is possible for themselves, relationships, and love. Looking past our era of technology-driven isolation, this heartfelt love story celebrates a magical and bittersweet reawakening to the things that make us human.

More...


***

Romeo lives, and so does Juliet: in the Viennese adaptations, tragedies have happy endings and German Enlightenment plays feature a Hanswurst.

As a result of the reforms introduced by Joseph II the Burgtheater rose to become the most highly-regarded theatre in the German-speaking countries. For the first time Shakespeare’s plays were performed in German, albeit in adaptations written specially for the Viennese stage that were often very different from and somewhat disrespectful to the originals. The Emperor issued a formal instruction that they were to be given happy conclusions known as ‘Viennese endings’ and were not to contain sad scenes (funerals, deaths, and so on) in order to avoid depressing audiences. Plays such as Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet thus had to undergo radical alterations. There is no record of what contemporary audiences thought about this.

More...


***

Happy Ending is an alarmingly universal 21st century play, set in surroundings that many women all over the world have experienced first-hand. Gov gives her subject a distinctive Israeli twist. Some 20 years after Margaret Edson’s Wit presented an American English professor facing down terminal cancer alone in a hospital room, Gov shows us a different kind of woman dealing with the disease in the context of a group. Like Edson’s Professor Vivian Bearing, Talia Roth is professionally successful, intelligent, and sharp-tongued. But she is also a famous Israeli actress, instantly recognizable to the hospital staff and other patients.

More...


***

To Actresses, Greek Tragedy Offers Many Happy Endings

Pat Carroll was attracted to the role of the Chorus of Mycenae in Sophocles' ''Electra'' because of its spareness, its necessity, its raw and relentless candor. ''There is no subtext,'' Ms. Carroll said. ''What is said is what is meant.''

She was also grateful for the part, period, because she is 71, and there are few female roles of comparable force for women her age. ''That's another reason why, over the past 12 years I have done nothing but classical work,'' Ms. Carroll said. ''You aren't categorized into an age category. You are free to be any age you want to be.''

More...


***

On the battlefield of politics coming armed with a shield and sword will do you little good. One must learn to stroke their opponent with one hand and fight them with the other. Boom Theatre Company presents the first full-length show of their fourth season, Hillary: A Modern Greek Tragedy with a (Somewhat) Happy Ending, and as the title states elements of mythology blend into recent politics as if it were the way these two stories have always been told.

Directed by the company’s Artistic Director, Ryan Nicotra, this relatively new work by Wendy Weiner makes its East Coast premier with Boom, and is shaking up the events of the Clintonian presidency with a new mythological twist. The story becomes a political recap of the 90s, flashing before the audiences’ eyes with humorous infusions of the Greek Gods, presented with the framework of a chorus to narrate the particulars.

More...


***

Why were you drawn to Happy Ending?

I chose this comedy for our debut at Anacostia Playhouse because of the history of the playwright, Douglas Turner Ward, and the theatre group he co-founded, Negro Ensemble Company. The Negro Ensemble Company was created in the early 1960s when there were no outlets for the wealth of Black theatrical talent in America.

The main catalyst for this project was the 1959 production of A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, a gritty, realistic view of Black family life. Playwrights writing realistically about the Black experience could not get their work produced, and even the most successful performers—such as Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen—were confined to playing roles as servants. Disenfranchised artists set out to create a theatre concentrating primarily on themes of Black life.

Ward’s play highlights Black life and creates characters of emotional depth and variety.

Describe the play for us.

Happy Ending is a social satire set in the 1950s about two sisters and domestic workers, Vi and Ellie; their idealist nephew, Junie; and Ellie’s husband, Arthur. These characters, who depend on income from their white employers—the Harrisons—have just discovered that the Harrisons are getting a divorce, which may cause the employees to lose their jobs It’s a play that everyone can laugh at, learn from, and watch to see characters come to life.. The story of how extended families in the Black community are struggling to make ends meet is relevant today.

More...

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