In the Oscar-winning film American Fiction, the irritable protagonist Thelonious “Monk” Ellison describes his work as follows: “I just invent little people in my mind and make them have conversations with each other.” The film, which director Cord Jefferson adapted from Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, grapples with stereotypes and the ways we’re asked to perform our identities. For Monk, this turns into a satirical quest to write a “Black” book under a pen name, which plunges him into an outlandish world of tropes.

American Fiction layers farce upon farce and is one of the more searing considerations of the contemporary impulse to leverage identity for nefarious (and capitalist) purposes. In Monk’s world, “inventing little people” becomes a meta exercise that leads to more and more absurdity.

The artist Ronald Jackson extrapolates the narrative further in his solo presentation opening this week at Galerie Myrtis. Known for his vibrant portraiture, Jackson creates a sort of casting list for an imagined screenplay that titles the exhibition: An American Fiction.

Through a suite of new oil paintings, the artist playfully envisions a troupe of figures, their names, and their roles. A portrait of a Black man with dreadlocks and red handkerchief tied around his neck, for example, is titled “Pervis Brown: The Apprentice of Oddly Uncommon Trades, played by Cornelius Dunston in AN AMERICAN FICTION.” All of the works are named in this vein, seeding the viewer’s understanding of the imaginary screenplay.

Jackson is familiar with this witty, cross-disciplinary approach. In an earlier body of work, he invented Johnnie Mae King, a recurring character for whom the artist invited the public to imagine a backstory through flash fiction and other writings. This figure also donned Jackson’s signature mask, which frequently appears in An American Fiction, too. He writes about the motif:

I use the mask not to conceal but to signal that a rich, un-excavated narrative exists beneath the surface. It asks the viewer to consider what lies beyond the visible role, prompting a question central to performance: are we admiring the superficial? Do we distinguish between the performer and the character being played? Do we recognize that there is likely a very different reality than the one being presented to us?

A playful, innovative approach to some of the most pressing questions in today’s culture, An American Fiction runs from September 5 to October 3 in Baltimore. Find more from Jackson on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article In ‘An American Fiction,’ Ronald Jackson Casts an Imagined Screenplay appeared first on Colossal.

Fraudsters have found a new use for ASCII smuggling, typically used to hide malicious prompts intended for AI models, in an old-school attack method: email phishing. Microsoft uncovered a massive phishing campaign using invisible Unicode tag characters that peaked at more than 2.37 million messages in late February, remained elevated during weekdays over the next three months, and gradually declined by mid-June. “As AI-era attack methods become better understood, threat actors may adapt them for use in more traditional threats such as phishing and spam,” Redmond’s researchers Noam Kochavi and Sarah Wolstencroft said in a Thursday blog. “This case illustrates how techniques that emerge in AI security research can quickly cross over into established attack ecosystems, reinforcing the need for defenders to view emerging threats through a cross-domain lens.” ASCII smuggling involves using invisible or non-rendering Unicode characters to hide content inside text that appears normal to humans, and this makes it a popular technique for indirect prompt injection attacks. In these, an attacker hides instructions for an AI assistant in invisible Unicode characters, and embeds those malicious prompts inside a webpage or document. A human can’t see them, but a model can, and it decodes them as text - and may then follow the attacker’s instructions to leak data or take unauthorized actions. Instead of using ASCII smuggling for prompt injection, however, Microsoft’s security team spotted someone using invisible characters – inserting Unicode tag spaces between letters – to split financial-lure words in phishing emails in an apparent attempt to evade keyword matching and other content filters. So, for example, instead of writing “funding” in the email, the attackers wrote “fun⟨U+E0020⟩ding.” “When we looked at a sampling of the flagged messages, the surprise was there were no smuggled instructions to an AI assistant,” Kochavi and Wolstencroft wrote. “Instead, the invisible tag characters were inserted inside common financial keywords, splitting them apart so that a literal signature or keyword match would fail.” Redmond first detected the ASCII-smuggling signature in early February, flagging about 21,000 messages on February 8 before the number skyrocketed to more than 1.3 million the next day. Most of these emails came from about 150 finance-themed sender domains, and they continued for the next three months, dropping sharply after May 15 but continuing with occasional smaller spikes through at least mid-June. The security researchers pointed out two notable characteristics, including sending massive numbers of emails on weekdays and then going silent over the weekend. The campaign also had a long, gradual decline. “After an intense first phase, with weekday volumes of 1 to 2.37 million messages, peaking on February 26, the numbers stepped down slowly to roughly 80 percent less per weekday by late March.” It then dropped significantly after May 15, continuing with lower activity through mid-June. According to Redmond, the most important thing defenders can do to protect against Unicode tag blocks in phishing emails is to verify that normalization and tokenization pipelines handle tag characters consistently. “Any content that will be evaluated by keyword, signature, or regex logic should first have invisible and non-rendering Unicode code points stripped or folded, so that splicing them into a word no longer defeats the match,” the threat hunters wrote. This same control can also help reduce the threat of ASCII-smuggling against AI assistants that ingest email content. Microsoft also suggests scanning for behavioral indicators. “The observed activity had a distinctive shape: bulk volume from churning, finance-themed disposable domains, on a strict weekday-on / weekend-off schedule,” Kochavi and Wolstencroft warned. “A sudden spike of tag-block characters concentrated on finance-themed senders, switching on and off weekly, is a high-confidence campaign indicator.” ®

Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli has reflected on his Friday at the Italian Grand Prix as he prepares to take a grid penalty ahead of Sunday's race.

Lando Norris cut a downbeat figure after Friday practice at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, claiming that McLaren are “not in the fight for pole at all” as things stand.

WASHINGTON (ANP/RTR/BLOOMBERG) - De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump gaat een programma opzetten waardoor rundveehouders hun eigen vlees mogen verwerken en direct mogen verkopen aan consumenten. Volgens Trump hoeven rundveehouders daardoor niet meer met grote vleesverwerkende bedrijven en tussenhandelaren te werken en zullen de prijzen van rundvlees dalen.

Hij gaat daar een decreet voor ondertekenen. Trump zegt dat grote vleesverwerkers een monopoliepositie hebben. Het gaat dan bijvoorbeeld om bedrijven als JBS en Tyson Foods. De president stelt dat die bedrijven misbruik hebben gemaakt van hun machtsposities door hoge kosten te vragen aan veehouders.

"Vandaag pak ik het monopolie van vleesverpakkers aan", aldus Trump in het Witte Huis. Hij voegde daaraan toe dat vleesverwerkers niet blij zullen zijn met het nieuws. Hij zei ook dat er verscherpte inspecties op het gebied van voedselveiligheid zullen zijn bij rundveehouders.

Verder zei de president dat hij een order zal ondertekenen waarbij het land van herkomst moet worden vermeld bij rundvlees uit het buitenland. Ook geeft hij rundveehouders toestemming om hun dieren en gemeenschappen te beschermen tegen de Mexicaanse wolf die volgens Trump voor tientallen miljoenen aan schade heeft aangericht en ook een gevaar vormt voor mensen. De Mexicaanse wolf komt voor in het zuidwesten van de Verenigde Staten en was in het verleden bijna uitgestorven.

Before his home grand prix, the Mercedes driver opens up on his rocky debut season and quest to become the first Italian world champion since 1953

If Kimi Antonelli feels any pressure as the favourite to take the Formula One world championship at just 20 years old and in his second year in the sport, it is imperceptible. He admits F1 can be brutal but a thing of beauty too, a labour of love for the Italian who has been a revelation this season.

Compelling and brilliant, that he is also endearing and likable marks Antonelli out as more than just a potential champion. Sitting in the Mercedes motorhome it is impossible not to be struck by how young he looks, the tousled hair, engaging smile and eyes gleaming with youthful enthusiasm. He speaks with an open candour, the air of a kid in a sweetshop who still can’t quite believe all those sherbet lemons are there for the taking.

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The Gunners will have a look at what they could have won when the former Villa man lines up against them, having made a flying start for Xabi Alonso’s team

Chelsea thought they had little chance of signing Morgan Rogers at the start of the summer. Xabi Alonso and the club’s recruitment team had the England international as a priority target but a deal seemed unlikely. Chelsea had endured a disappointing season, missing out on European football after finishing 10th, and their expectation was that Rogers would leave Aston Villa for Arsenal.

It was towards the end of the World Cup that Chelsea were made aware of a window of opportunity. Although Arsenal could claim to be London’s top dogs after winning the Premier League they dithered in talks with Villa, raising the prospect of another club stepping in.

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Massachusetts mother accused of fatally strangling her children faces possibility of retrial after judge declares mistrial

• Full report: Judge declares mistrial in Lindsay Clancy case

• Clancy judge declares mistrial – what happens next?

The trial of Lindsay Clancy that gripped headlines in recent weeks, drawing renewed attention to the state of maternal mental healthcare in the US and postpartum psychosis, has ended with a mistrial.

This now leaves Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of fatally strangling her three children in January 2023 who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, open to the possibility of a retrial with a different jury.

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Waar zou een band die zich Kiwi Jr. noemt nou vandaan komen? Dat leek me een (te?) voor de hand liggende openingszin voor deze Closing Time. Voor de zekerheid zocht ik het toch nog even op. Canada.

Maar wat maakt het ook uit. Het is gewoon een sympathiek, opgewekt liedje om goedgemust het weekend in te gaan, mede dankzij die vrolijk rinkelende twaalfsnarige gitaar.

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Ja blijft een interessante. De Britse aanwezigheid op die eilanden is ouder dan het land Argentinië, dat natuurlijk zelf een grote koloniale bezetting is. Maar goed, er is olie gevonden, en nog belangrijker: volgens Milei overweegt Trump om zijn Falkland-beleid te wijzigen. Milei zegt: "Onlangs verklaarde president Trump dat de VS hun historische standpunt ten aanzien van de Malvinas opnieuw aan het evalueren zijn." Maar dat is wel een héél ruime interpretatie van wat Trump desgevraagd daadwerkelijk zei, namelijk: "I always review every position – that’s just one of many". Wel bleef hij opzettelijk ambigue over de vraag of hij Engeland zou helpen in het geval van een Argentijnse invasie, omdat Engeland hem onvoldoende hielp in de Straat van Hormuz. Ook benadrukte Trump dat Engeland niet hetzelfde land is als in 1982, en hij zeer betwijfelt of Engeland het eiland nogmaals zo snel zou kunnen herovereren. Is wel zo.

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Fried Egg Sandwich -- 2 year cheddar, bacon, avocado, roasted tomato basil aioli

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Kodak Gold 200 with Mamiya 645 Pro and Sekor 35 mm

Feyenoord verkocht in de laatste dagen van de transferwindow Ayase Ueda aan Lille, maar zag geen nieuwe spits ervoor terugkomen. De Rotterdammers gaan het seizoen in met Nacho Ferri en Shaqueel van Persie. Of zijn er nog andere opties?

In Rotterdam vindt komend weekend het 48 Hour Film Project plaats. Binnen 48 uur wordt er door honderden deelnemers een korte film gecreëerd. Elk team krijgt een genre toegewezen en er moeten een paar verplichte elementen in de film komen te zitten. Vijf vragen aan organisator Marc Eikelenboom.

In Rotterdam vindt komend weekend het 48 Hour Film Project plaats. Binnen 48 uur wordt er door honderden deelnemers een korte film gecreëerd. Elk team krijgt een genre toegewezen en er moeten een paar verplichte elementen in de film komen te zitten. Vijf vragen aan organisator Marc Eikelenboom.

The Straits Are Not OK. (archive link) Not the fun kind of piracy like Napster, either.

Approximately 90 percent of traded goods are shipped by sea. Disruptions caused by a war over vitally important naval choke points are not new, nor are their calamitous economic effects. Trump's war has catalyzed a reversion to a period before Great Britain and the United States enforced the neutrality of major global waterways in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a deliberately manufactured situation that modern Americans inherited without remembering or understanding that it was artificial, and like everything artificial, needed to be maintained.

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A world order enforced by the United States was morally unpalatable for many people on the American left. But when isolationists imagined a world without U.S. hegemony, they envisioned a world order characterized by mutual restraint without considering who might enforce this situation. As we are now seeing, the alternative to some kind of enforcement of a consistent world order is not an acephalic, mutually respectful world, but recurrent, destructive wars. Within this more bellicose world, every single power bordering an important shipping channel is likely to remember it has a potential throat hold on the world economy, and eventually they will act accordingly. The Iranian-allied Houthis in Yemen are already attempting to contest the Bab el-Mandeb passage from the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea. If I were one of Russia's enemies, I would be seriously contemplating the old significance of the Oresund and the Turkish Straits. If Finland and Estonia block the Gulf of Finland, Russia could not export oil through this route or resupply Kaliningrad.

The comfort of the rich (that's you, almost certainly, even if you're broke) and the lives of the poor are both contingent upon global trade, and the situation of the previous 100 years is a highly artificial and anomalous one, which the Trump Administration has done a great deal to unravel with the attack on Iran. In addition to possibly providing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps with an independent source of income (via tolls collected on the Strait), the effort has exposed weaknesses in the US Navy's ability to respond to 21st-century threats and depleted the Navy's capacity to respond to other challenges for perhaps years to come, while munitions supplies are rebuilt. And the US Navy is a load-bearing structural member of the world economy.

The first mistake that folks make here is to assume that trade is a relatively small part of the global economy. It is an easier mistake to make in a place like the USA, which is very big and thus trades with itself more than most, but globally trade makes up between a quarter to a third of all economy activity.

The second potential mistake here is to assume that all of this trade is mostly a luxury: that it just accrues to the rich or to rich countries or to big corporations. We may remove the 'rich countries' here right off: a lot of the countries with very high trade-to-gdp ratios (imports+exports, thus the ability to exceed 100%) are poor countries (the other big group are small, rich countries): countries like Vietnam (190%), Djibouti (206%), Namibia (108%), Somalia (128%), Libya (137%), Guinea (103%) and so on. We'll come back to this in a moment, but a breakdown in global trade is actually especially bad for poorer, developing countries.

In the developing world, access to global food markets is an essential lifeline. Most developing countries, especially across Africa, are net-food importers, some quite substantially so. Moreover, whereas food imports in developed countries are often 'exotic' foods that grow in other climates (think bananas away from the equator), for developing countries, these are often bulk staples. As we saw in 2008-2010 and again in 2022 and may grimly see again soon, increases in the price of bulk stable foods are associated with political instability and suffering in the developing world. Because if the price of bread goes up by 25% in the United States, for most Americans that is annoying, but in many developing countries it means people go hungry because they cannot afford food.

A lot of people stand to be poorer for a long time, and a lot of people (mostly in Africa) are likely to starve. If you're in the class of people who demand good coffee, times might get tough, or the habit significantly more $$.