All posts tagged: Freefall

Zack Polanski’s approval rating enters freefall in humiliating blow | UK | News

Zack Polanski’s approval rating enters freefall in humiliating blow | UK | News

A deepening antisemitism scandal has sent Zack Polanski’s approval ratings into freefall, with over 30 Green Party candidates allegedly facing accusations of posting antisemitic content online. Close to a dozen candidates have reportedly been suspended by the party since the campaign began, with further cases still being examined. Police arrested two on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred. The Express reported how Polanski’s own conduct came under scrutiny after he backed a social media post attacking officers who arrested a man suspected of stabbing two Jewish men in Golders Green. Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, responded with a public letter warning the Green leader was stoking “rising tensions.” His apology did not extend to withdrawing the underlying claim – Polanski maintained he was “very concerned” by footage of the arrest, and hit back at Rowley for using an open letter, calling it an inappropriate way “to do politics.” What did Zack Polanski say about the antisemitism allegations? Polanski insisted there were only a “handful” of cases and that the “vast majority” of candidates …

My helicopter went into freefall – inside an active volcano | Helicopter crashes

My helicopter went into freefall – inside an active volcano | Helicopter crashes

The 1993 erotic thriller Sliver should have ended differently: Zeke, played by William Baldwin, was scripted to fly a helicopter towards an active volcano, after Sharon Stone’s character, Carly, reveals she’s the killer. The pilot, Craig Hosking, had been tasked with flying low over Hawaii’s Kīlauea volcano, accompanied by the director of photography, Mike Benson, and his assistant Christopher Duddy, to film the bubbling lava and white plumes of smoke escaping from the Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent. It was a clear day on the Big Island when Duddy watched a corkscrew trail form in the smoke behind the helicopter, and he remembers thinking: “I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this.” It was November 1992, and a big storm was due to hit the area, so they were shooting as much footage as they could along the coast, capturing the rainforest and brilliant blue ocean shimmering against the black lava of the volcano, before the weather disrupted production. But as they dipped over Puʻu ʻŌʻō for a second time, the helicopter’s engine failed. Their visibility …

Bifurcation Nation & The TINA Economy’s Freefall

Bifurcation Nation & The TINA Economy’s Freefall

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via Substack, The term “The K-Shaped Economy” has entered the lexicon to describe the divergence of the top tier of earners and owners of capital from the lower tiers, as the trajectory of the first is up and that of the second is down. While the “The K-Shaped Economy” offers visual clarity, it’s ultimately an abstraction. Longtime correspondent Harvey D. recently offered a more accurate term, The Bifurcation Economy, which describes (as he put it) the reality that 50 miles outside major US cities, the precarity and quality of life is Third World. I modified his term to Bifurcation Nation, to express that the widening divide isn’t just financial, it describes everything from healthcare to social / political power. I’ve assembled a few charts to illustrate the range of this Bifurcation between the top tier and the rest. Here is the S&P 500 (SPX) stock market index, representing the wealth of corporations and the top 10% who own their shares, rising at a 45-degree angle, and consumer sentiment, representing the real-world economy, sliding down a 45-degree angle. …