Conspiracy theory

A conspiracy theory is an explanatory or speculative hypothesis suggesting that two or more persons or an organization have conspired to cause or to cover up, through secret planning and deliberate action, an event or situation typically regarded as illegal or harmful. Since the mid-1960s, the phrase has denoted explanations that invoke conspiracies without warrant, often producing hypotheses that contradict the prevailing understanding of historical events or simple facts.

One common feature of conspiracy theories is that they evolve to incorporate evidence against them, so that they become unfalsifiable and, as Michael Barkun argues, "a matter of faith rather than proof." The term conspiracy theory has thus acquired a derogatory meaning, and is often used to dismiss or ridicule unpopular beliefs.

Usage of the term

People formulate conspiracy theories to explain, for example, power relations in social groups and the perceived existence of evil forces. Conspiracy theories have chiefly psychological or socio-political origins. Proposed psychological origins include projection; the personal need to explain "a significant event [with] a significant cause;" and the product of various kinds and stages of thought disorder, such as paranoid disposition, ranging in severity to diagnosable mental illnesses. Some people prefer socio-political explanations over the insecurity of encountering random, unpredictable, or otherwise inexplicable events. Some philosophers have argued that belief in conspiracy theories can be rational.

Mystery meat navigation

Mystery meat navigation (also known as MMN) is a disparaging term coined in 1998 by Vincent Flanders, author and designer of the website Web Pages That Suck, to describe a web page where the destination of the link is not visible until the user points their cursor at it. Such interfaces lack a user-centered design, emphasizing aesthetic appearance, white space, and the concealment of relevant information over basic practicality and functionality.

The epithet "mystery meat" refers to the meat products often served in American public school cafeterias whose forms have been so thoroughly reprocessed that their exact types can no longer be identified by their appearances: like them, the methods of MMN are clear to the producer but baffling to the consumer.

Flanders originally and temporarily described the phenomenon as Saturnic navigation in reference to the Saturn Corporation, whose company website epitomized this phenomenon. Flanders writes, "The typical form of MMN is represented by menus composed of unrevealing icons that are replaced with explicative text only when the mouse cursor hovers over them".

United Talent Agency

United Talent Agency (UTA) is a talent and literary agency with offices in Beverly Hills, California and New York City. UTA is one of the largest talent agencies in the world, with 200 agents representing actors, writers, directors, producers, recording artists, below the line talent, IP rights holders, emerging technology companies and corporate brands in a variety of practice areas including film, television, music, digital media, intellectual property, computer and video games, commercials, fine arts, voiceovers, endorsements, branding & licensing, corporate consulting and entertainment marketing.

Beginnings

UTA was founded in 1991 as the result of a merger between two literary and talent agencies, the Bauer-Benedek Agency, headed by partners Marty Bauer, Peter Benedek and Jeremy Zimmer, and the Leading Artists Agency, formed by partners Jim Berkus and Gary Cosay. UTA seemed well positioned for success by bringing the best agents in from a variety of agencies. Their first packages on shows included hits like The Simpsons, Married...With Children, and The Wonder Years. Others represented by the agency included movie writer/directors Lawrence Kasdan, Brian De Palma, Steven Soderbergh, and brothers Joel and Ethan Coen; Seinfeld creator/writer Larry David; and actors Mike Myers, Bridget Fonda, Alan Alda, and Charles Grodin. As its business grew, the firm soon began to add agents to the 26 it started with.

It Gets Worse

"It Gets Worse" is a single by Mindless Self Indulgence, released worldwide through Bandcamp, iTunes, and Amazon as a MP3 download on December 3, 2013.

It is the third track (Track #3) on their fifth studio album titled How I Learned to Stop Giving a Shit and Love Mindless Self Indulgence.

Music video

The lyric video for "It Gets Worse" was uploaded onto the band's YouTube account on October 13, 2013. Created by M. Dot Strange, the video projects animated lyrics of the song in front of an animated background by using samples of Jorden Haley's art made specifically for their fifth album, How I Learned to Stop Giving a Shit and Love Mindless Self Indulgence.

Track listing

New (album)

New (stylised as III☰III) is the sixteenth studio album by Paul McCartney, released on 14 October 2013 in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States. The album was his first since 2007's Memory Almost Full to consist entirely of new compositions.

The album was executive produced by Giles Martin, with production by Martin, Mark Ronson, Ethan Johns and Paul Epworth and it was mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, New York. McCartney has stated that New was inspired by recent events in his life as well as memories of his pre-Beatles history. He added that some of the arrangements are unlike his usual rock recordings, and that he specifically sought out younger producers to work with. He and his stage band performed in various venues to promote the album, along with promotional events held through social media.

The first single, "New", and the album were met with a generally favourable reception from music critics. The album peaked at number 3 on the UK Albums Chart and on the US Billboard 200.