DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ For Mormon Missionaries, Some ‘Big, Big Changes’
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Lauren Jackson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Andres Gonzalez, 19, stands on the balcony of his Los Angeles apartment, his hands in his suit pockets. It is his first week as a missionary, but today, instead of approaching people on the street, he is shooting a video that he will later post to social media. After about a dozen takes, he is successful. If you would like to learn more about Jesus Christ,” he says to the camera in Spanish, “contact me.”Mr. Gonzalez is the image of the modern missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has changed many of its practices — from how missionaries preach to how they dress. The faith, long known for sending tens of thousands of neatly and formally dressed young people across the globe each year to preach door to door, is encouraging new missionaries to spread the gospel on social media and, for some, with acts of community service closer to home.

Persons: Andres Gonzalez, Jesus Christ, ”, Mr, Gonzalez, of Jesus Christ Organizations: of Jesus Locations: Los Angeles

☆ The Tyranny of Hotness
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Lauren Jackson | More About Lauren Jackson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A beautiful person is so often a confrontation. Why would an attractive person toil for a reaction if they don’t have to? Stand-up stages are crawling with beautiful men. Jimmy Fallon smiles boyishly on late night. One annoyed late night writer complained to his peers: “You’ve let the popular kids appropriate the very art form that helped you deal.”

Persons: Jason Zinoman, Chris Rock, Jimmy Fallon, boyishly, Trevor Noah, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Newhart, Jim Gaffigan —, “ You’ve, ” Organizations: charmers

☆ Israel’s Ticking Clock
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Lauren Jackson | More About Lauren Jackson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the hours after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Benjamin Netanyahu appeared ready to send his troops storming into Gaza. Israel’s initial ground invasion was slow and secretive, more of a crawl than a sprint. (Read what we know about the battle for Gaza City so far.) The Israeli government sees the group as an intolerable threat on its border after the Oct. 7 attack, which officials say killed roughly 1,400 people. Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction; one of its leaders recently promised to keep attacking until Israel was destroyed.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Organizations: White Locations: Israel, Gaza, Las Vegas, —, Gaza City

The network is made up of tunnels, where most Hamas fighters are likely living alongside stockpiles of weapons, food, water and, now, more than 200 Israeli hostages. The Israeli military first launched an intense air attack targeting these tunnels and has now sent in ground troops to destroy them. Eliminating the tunnels would go long way toward breaking Hamas’s control over Gaza. But after Israel withdrew its forces and settlers from Gaza nearly two decades ago, Hamas vastly expanded the underground network. Hamas has a long history of terrorist violence — both the U.S. and the European Union consider it a terrorist group — and the tunnels allow its members to hide from Israeli air attacks.

Persons: Israel Organizations: Hamas, U.S, European Union Locations: Gaza, Israel

A writers’ strike has frozen Hollywood for months. Writers and studios have reached a tentative deal, the Writers Guild of America announced yesterday. The tentative deal includes most of what the writers sought. In the coming days, union members will vote on whether to approve the agreement. “We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional — with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” the W.G.A.

Organizations: Studios, Writers Guild of America

It was near midnight, in a storm, on a dirt road in the middle of Mongolia. “Go for it.”Cole accelerated and the front tires plunged off an unseen embankment, slamming onto the rocks below. We were perched at a precarious angle, and the front half of the truck was submerged. Drawn by the noise, two young men came over from a nearby tent camp. One waded toward the car into the waist-deep water with a message typed on Google Translate: “This is dangerous.” I was too embarrassed to be scared.

Persons: Cole Paullin, ”, “, ” Cole Organizations: Google Locations: Mongolia

☆ The Success of Mormon Fantasy Writers
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-03 | by ( Lauren Jackson | More About Lauren Jackson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An epic origin story, a charismatic leader, a generational saga: Is this the description of a fantasy novel, or a religion’s history? For Mormon authors, the line is blurry. Drawing inspiration from their religion, Mormon writers have filled young adult best-seller lists with fantasy and sci-fi novels, Abby Aguirre reported for The Times. First, the church, officially called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, encourages members to become strong readers and public speakers from a young age. The religion also embraces the family-friendly entertainment that the Y.A.

Persons: Abby Aguirre, Stephenie Meyer’s, Orson Scott Card’s, ”, Ally Condie’s “, of Jesus Christ, churchgoers Organizations: The Times, of Jesus

Hurricane Idalia intensified overnight and is now a Category 4 storm heading toward Florida’s Gulf Coast. The strongest part of the storm will be over Florida’s Big Bend, where the state’s long peninsula curves to meet its Panhandle. More than half of Florida’s western coastline is at risk of life-threatening storm surges, as rising ocean water floods towns. Tallahassee is preparing for outages that could last days, expecting its strongest storm in decades. That’s partly because of human-driven climate change, which appears to have contributed to record-breaking ocean temperatures off the Florida coast.

Persons: Idalia, You’re, Ron DeSantis, ”, Heath Davis, “ Organizations: Carolinas, ”, Florida National Guard, California . Locations: Florida’s Gulf, Big Bend, United States, West, Central Florida, Georgia, Florida, Tallahassee, Tampa, Naples, Fla, California, U.S

☆ Wedding Season, Disrupted
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Lauren Jackson | More About Lauren Jackson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The blackout stranded wedding guests in transit, turned off a blow dryer as a bride was getting ready, and cut the lights and sound at reception halls. Still, many couples went ahead with their ceremonies. Now, as they approach their 20th anniversaries, my colleague Sadiba Hasan called some of the couples and asked: Did a wedding day crisis set up your marriage for success? On the morning of her wedding, she had been worried about the flowers. “I thought that the shade of purple of the flowers was not what I thought it was supposed to be,” Dr. Stollman, 44, a dentist, said.

Persons: Sadiba Hasan, Dvasha Stollman, Stollman, “ Locations: Midwest

☆ Threads Takes on Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Lauren Jackson | More About Lauren Jackson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To many users, Twitter had become like a bad boyfriend. Other tech companies, like Substack, tried to offer frustrated Twitter users a new place to go, but none was compelling enough to pose a viable alternative — until now. This week, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, released Threads, its Twitter competitor. More than 70 million users have joined Threads in the last few days, blowing past the audience sizes of Twitter’s other challengers. For people who liked Twitter but didn’t like the changes that Musk put in place, or had grown tired of his antics, the emergence of Threads is exciting.

Persons: Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s, Substack, Meta, Twitter Organizations: Twitter, Meta, Facebook

☆ A Driver’s License for the Internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Lauren Jackson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

So when it rolled out a new feature — voice chatting with other users — he wanted to try it. But first, he had to pull out his driver’s license. These checks are popping up across the internet as part of a global push to protect children’s safety. As of this month, seven states have passed laws requiring age checks for users on websites like Pornhub. Lawmakers in Congress have introduced a bill to create a minimum age for social media use, too.

Persons: Jack Merrill, Jack, what’s, Roblox Organizations: Lawmakers Locations: Chicago, Britain, Italy, Japan, France

☆ A Climactic Opening
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Lauren Jackson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Today is something of a curtain raiser for the U.S. National Parks system, ushering in its busiest season. Last year, nearly 312 million people visited the parks, hiking across the Grand Canyon, posting Instagram stories from Joshua Tree and waiting for Old Faithful by Yellowstone’s rainbow pools. On Memorial Day last year, so many people headed to the sites that many of their parking lots were full by midmorning. At Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, home to 50-million-year-old rock formations, park rangers start clearing the way for visitors weeks ahead of the busy season. Similar preparation plays out at the system’s parks around the country.

☆ ‘The Diplomat’ vs. Reality
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Lauren Jackson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Here’s what other ambassadors told my colleagues working in Mexico, Australia, China and elsewhere:What the show gets wrongPart of the fun of “The Diplomat,” as with any workplace show, comes when it departs from reality. “I have a different memory of the confirmation process,” Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, told my colleague Motoko Rich. “The show may get the diplomatic life right, but their grasp of American politics and the U.S. Senate? “The speeches every diplomat wants to give his or her boss. Not exactly the daily course of business.”A Vogue photo shoot: Multiple former ambassadors said the racks of outfits in the show were unrealistic.

☆ Storm to retire four-time WNBA champion Bird's number 10 jersey
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 19 (Reuters) - The Seattle Storm will retire four-times WNBA champion Sue Bird's No. 10 jersey, the team said on Thursday, months after the 42-year-old called time on one of the most decorated careers in basketball. "When Sue came to Seattle, they embraced her and obviously she embraced Seattle back," said former team mate Breanna Stewart. The five-time Olympic gold medalist earned a record 13 WNBA All-Star selections during her career and is only the second Storm player to have her number retired after Australian three-time WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson. Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York, editing by Pritha SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Global inflation, war in Ukraine, transformational Supreme Court rulings, midterm elections, the Winter Olympics and the World Cup … this was an eventful year. We’ve chosen 52 people to test how well you recognize some of the defining personalities of 2022. We’ll show you a face; you tell us the name (and there are hints to help you out). At the end, we’ll show you how you did compared with other Times readers.

Search resuls for: "Lauren Jackson"

15 mentions found