Congressman and insider trading

Patrick Queen stood at the microphone adjacent to the Ravens’ practice field in Owings Mills on Thursday fielding questions about his future in Baltimore. Nearby, general manager Eric DeCosta jogged up a set of stairs leading into the offices of owner Steve Biscotti’s castle. For now, Queen remains a Raven. For how long remains to be seen. Last month, the Ravens declined Queen’s fifth-year option , making the 23-year-old a free agent after this season — if he isn’t traded or signed to an extension before then. “It’s a blessing in disguise,” Queen said during voluntary organized team activities Thursday. “You see guys go both sides of it and get paid either way. “I’m not focused on the future. I’m focused on right now. If I take care of my business, all of that will fall into place.” It just might not be in Baltimore. While the Ravens’ decision to decline Queen’s option was anything but a surprise, it was perhaps telling. Last season, Baltimore acquired All-Pro … [Read more...] about Patrick Queen on his future with Ravens: ‘This is where I want to play’

Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photo: Getty Images Early this year, Google teased a fundamental change to its core product, the search engine through which much of the world accesses the web. Soon, the company said, Google would start using AI to “distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats.” By May, the company had a real product to share. For Google, it was an obvious and incremental feature update combining two of the company’s products: a text generator plugged into a search engine, basically. Searchers ask a question, and Google tries to answer it with short, article-style “snapshots.” For publishers, however — of news, how-to content, reviews, recommendations, reference material, and a range of other content one might describe as existing to “distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats” — it looked like nothing less than an existential crisis. Google was getting into content, automating the … [Read more...] about Will Google’s AI Plans Destroy the Media?

A portly sexagenarian, Michel Djotodia had dressed for his coup d’état, donning desert camouflage, a turban and sandals like those of the rebels in his region of the Central African Republic. Mr. Djotodia, a wily opportunist who has had many occupations but has rarely if ever been called a soldier, in late March rode with a rebel convoy through Bangui, the capital, just hours after President François Bozizé had fled . Mr. Djotodia’s men pried open the front gate of the Ledger Plaza hotel, a newly inaugurated five-star palace financed by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan dictator, as guests cowered inside. He inquired about a room. Hours later, Mr. Djotodia, whose name was little known in Bangui and whom few analysts viewed as a figure of much political consequence, proclaimed himself president. Changing his fatigues for dark dress suits, he continues to maintain his hold on that title, despite an outcry from governments around the world that have refused to recognize … [Read more...] about Mystery Shrouds Rise and Aims of Rebel at Helm of Central African Republic

Newly Reviewed Chelsea Joan Brown Through June 17. Matthew Marks Gallery, 522 West 22nd Street, Manhattan; 212-243-0200, matthewmarks.com . You could call the mature style of the great American painter Joan Brown (1938-1990) extra-late Egyptian, with her figures often rendered fully frontal or fully in profile. This formality — along with expanses of startling solid colors — contributes to the hypnotic stillness of her mainly autobiographical works. (Besides painting, her interests included her family, Hinduism, ballroom dancing, serious amateur swimming and Egyptian art.) It’s not always clear what Brown, who appears in six of the paintings here, is thinking about, but the seriousness is undeniable. So it’s not surprising that this show of a dozen paintings, mostly from the 1970s, includes “The Visitor” (1977). It depicts the artist seated with an Egyptian pharaoh at a restaurant. The pharaoh is deep turquoise — the color of Egyptian faience — as is the wall … [Read more...] about What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in June