Money talks
“For the majority of my life I have had the privilege of never having to worry about money. But for most people money is a survival dance… now money too is part of my survival dance. I don’t want to be somebody sitting on piles of money… I want to build something that is bigger, means more and can sustain us and other people.” Singer Charlotte Church (pictured) on the huge cost of turning a 16-century mansion in Wales into an off-grid, seven-bedroom eco retreat, quoted in The Daily Telegraph; she paid £1.5m for the property and the renovations will cost another £1.2m
“To Nigerian parents… all the sacrifices they are making are to ensure that their children have a better, more financially stable existence than they had… As far as they could see, being in the arts was antithetical to being financially stable, let alone the acting profession, where they saw no real evidence of success for black people.”
Actor David Oyelowo on his parents’ reaction to his choice of career, quoted in The Times
“This idea that we flew around empty planes just to avoid refunds is mad. [It’s] much cheaper to sit the plane on the ground and just do the refunds.” Ryanair chief executive Michael O’ Leary denies that his airline flew empty planes to avoid paying money to passengers, quoted in The Times
“Those lights where mosquitoes fly into the zapper? When you’re a young actor you run to success, which also includes fame. And the minute you get there you can get burnt… I’m lucky I got famous when I was 33, not 23. I’d have been shooting crack into my forehead if I had been 23 and given money and success.”
Actor George Clooney, quoted in The Sunday Times
bylinetimes.com
The Turkish authorities have been using artificial intelligence to hunt down former military officers involved in the botched July 2016 coup, says Stephen Delahunty. A unit of the Turkish navy is using an algorithm known as a “FETO-meter” to gauge who might have been guilty. The Turkish government refers to the Gulen movement, an organisation led by an
exiled Turkish cleric who was blamed for the uprising, as FETO (“Fethullah Terrorist Organisation”). The algorithm sifts through data collected from internet records and telephone calls to reach its verdict, and has reportedly processed “at
least 810,000 individuals from a number of official agencies”. It analyses around 400 absurdly wide-ranging criteria, including which banks and messaging apps people use; getting divorced between 2015 and 2016, and having a disabled child were also signs of possible guilt. A former lieutenant commander, Hacer Caylak, says she had been identified “because one of her three children has Down’s Syndrome”. One former frigate commander, Huseyin Demirtas, has said that once identified by the algorithm, “as a citizen you are dead”.