【推荐2】It’s been three decades since The Color Purple (1985) brought Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel to life. The 1985 film earned 11 Academy Award nominations with its heart-wrenching yet inspiring story of a young Black woman getting through the hardships of rural Georgia in the early 1900s. The Color Purple 2023 film is a musical adaptation with a different vibe, though according to award-winning filmmaker Dawn Porter, it’s still “a timeless story of love, friendship and power.”

Oprah Winfrey—the film’s producer—has encouraged viewers to wear purple when seeing the movie, referring to its holiday release as a “purple Christmas.” In a video posted to her Instagram account in May, she said, “OK, y’all have seen the trailer, and I’m giving you six months to get your outfit together for opening day. All things purple. What you gonna wear? Color purple.” And she’s led the way to promote the movie at press events, award shows, talk shows and early screenings.

But beyond pure marketing, purple holds a greater meaning here. According to cultural critics, it’s a symbol of power, ambition and luxury, as well as creativity, independence and peace—things the movie’s main character, Celie, does not have due to years of domestic violence. Thus, it’s very much a cultural moment when people wear purple in solidarity(团结一致) to support the movie and embrace this theme of empowerment, just like wearing pink to see Barbie (and black to see Oppenheimer, for that matter).

Thirty-three years later, The Color Purple continues to attract audiences, especially Black women. It’s these themes of sisterhood, spirituality and self-discovery that make the book and its adaptations so timeless. “Shakespeare can be performed so many times and in so many forms,” Porter says. “This is a classic text that has the same power.”

【推荐2】TVs are entering a new phase. Just when we were getting used to Ultra HD 4K televisions, the industry is gearing up to start pushing (still extremely pricey) upgrades to 8K sets. And talk about weird: Samsung and Apple became official frenemies by including an app for iTunes on Samsung’s newest TVs.

Walking the show floor this year, I picked these products — some practical, some downright strange—that captured the spirit of where things are headed … or at least the creativity that makes CES (消费电子展) so much fun.

This is 2019’s must-have television for billionaires and wannabe James Bonds. With the tap of a button, LG’s 65-inch TV dramatically rises from a long box where it is rolled up inside. How did they do that? The screen uses plastic and OLED tech, which in addition to having fantastic image quality is also capable of bending. (Coming this year, we’ll also be getting smartphones with foldable OLED screens.) The idea is you can place your TV in front of a window without having it block the view all the time. But with a TV like this, who wants to be inconspicuous? Go ahead and show off: LG says it can withstand being rolled up for at least 50, 000 cycles.

Samsung TVs will now support an app for Apple’s iTunes movies and TV shows. That means you can buy video from Apple without plugging in Apple’s own streaming box, the Apple TV. And new sets from a variety of makers including Samsung and LG will also support AirPlay 2, Apple’s tech for beaming music, pictures and video from iPhones and Macs to the big screen. Why is Apple suddenly playing nice with other hardware brands? It’s part of a bigger push by the tech giant into making money through services, including subscriptions for music and (perhaps soon) streaming video.

【推荐1】Google recently announced that it has begun using carbon-free electricity from a geothermal (地热能) project to power data centers in the state of Nevada.

Tim Latimer is chief and co-founder of Fervo Energy based in Houston, Texas. His company is working with Google on its geothermal project. Latimer said that getting electricity on the grid from geothermal resources is an event many new energy companies never reach. He added that he believes geothermal energy will become more well-known than in the past.

The International Energy Agency(IEA) has long suggested geothermal could be an answer to climate change. The IEA said in a 2011 document that geothermal could reach 3.5 percent of global electricity production each year by 2050. The Paris-based international group says geothermal energy could prevent almost 800 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Fervo Energy is using this first test to launch other projects that will provide more electricity to the grid. The company is currently completing some work in southwest Utah for a 400-megawatt project. Google and Fervo Energy started working together in 2021 to develop geothermal power. The plant near Winnemucca, Nevada, is now operating and is sending about 3.5 megawatts to the grid.

Google announced in 2020 that it would use what it calls “carbon-free” energy every hour of every day, wherever it operates, by 2030. Many energy experts believe huge companies like Google can play a part in increasing the use of clean energy.

Terrell noted the company was also an early supporter of wind and solar projects, helping those markets grow to where they are today. “It’s a very similar situation. Now that we’ve set a goal to be 24/7 carbon-free energy, we have found it will take more than just wind, solar and storage,” Terrell said.

The United States leads the world in using heat from the Earth for electricity production. U. S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said earlier this year that advances in new geothermal systems will help introduce this form of energy to areas where it has been thought to be impossible. This makes it possible to find energy in more places.

【推荐3】On January 14, 2006, Ben Keene received an email that changed his life. He had just taken a sip of hot tea when the message popped up, and Keene did a double-take at the subject line: “A TRIBE IS WANTED”.

From there, Ben co-founded Tribewanted, an eco-friendly sustainable community existing in the virtual world of the internet and on an actual desert island at the same time.

With huge media interest, the courageous and bold idea could have had enormous consequences for tourism. The idea behind Tribewanted was to recruit (招募) a group of similar people online before heading to the Fijian Island of Vorovoro to build a sustainable community alongside the local native tribe.

The idea was swept along with a flood of interest, with the island lease (租约) was secured, the virtual community sprung to life. All major decisions on the island were voted on by an online tribe that anyone around the world could join. The idea was so exciting that the journey was turned into a 5 part BBC series “Paradise or Bust” and a book, Tribewanted.

Ben spent 10 years building and expanding Tribewanted beyond the crowdfunded sustainable-tourism villages on an island in Fiji, to a beach in Sierra Leone and a farm in Umbria. He faced challenges including a fire sweeping through the island in the first week of the project, a military coup (政变), and a hurricane that threatened to destroy the emerging village. Online disagreements also made decision making hard and pushed the project to the edge.

The project survived, and for a while, thrived. From there Ben joined Escape the City, a global community with the mission to help one million people to do work that matters to them and the world, inspiring thousands of talented career changers and ambitious businessmen to take the leap and launch their ideas into the world. Ben led the Escape school team for 5 years, and became a business advisor and guider at Virgin Startup, and Zinc. Ben has supported and guided thousands of people to set up impactful businesses on a limited budget.