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☆ Whatever happened to the two-door car?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-20 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

There are still two-door cars today, of course, but they’re almost all high-performance sports cars not intended for comfortable cruising. For car designers, two-door models can offer more striking proportions to play with, long hoods that evoke power and tapered, aerodynamic back ends. Today, it’s rare to see a two-door car that isn’t a performance model like the Mustang or Corvette. Today, if you have a two-door car and you have kids, you also have a backache. While some two-door cars used to be bargain items – the cheapest entry-level cars were almost always two-door hatchbacks – today two-door models are seen mostly in European luxury car showrooms.

Persons: Ricardo Montalbán, Brian Rabold, Bob D'Olivo, ”, Kevin Kirbitz, who’s, “, Rabold, ” Rabold, Scott Krugger, Kia Rio, You’ve, Gorden Wagener Organizations: CNN, Chrysler, Network, Riviera, GM, Ford Thunderbird, Chevrolet Corvette, Thunderbird, Ford, Stellantis’s Dodge, Nissan, Cox Automotive, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Benz, American Mercedes Locations: Chrysler Cordoba, Cordoba, United States, American

☆ Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus: Why moon-landing missions are hard to do
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Kristin Fisher | Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

The lunar lander called Odysseus or IM-1, created by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines, is barreling toward the moon. If it fails, Odysseus would become the third lunar lander to meet a fiery demise on the moon in less than a year. Russia’s first lunar lander mission in 47 years, Luna 25, failed in August 2023 when it crash-landed. Overall, more than half of all lunar landing attempts have ended in failure — tough odds for a feat humanity first pulled off nearly 60 years ago. The US remains the only country to have put humans on the lunar surface, most recently in 1972 with the Apollo 17 mission.

Persons: Odysseus, Luna, Ispace, Japan —, hasn’t, Scott Pace, George Washington, “, ” Pace, Artemis, ”, Greg Autry, “ There’s, India’s, Jitendra Singh, Satish, Satish Baby, ” Singh, Astrobotic, Steve Altemus, it’s, Glynn Lunney, ” Autry, “ Neil, Armstrong, “ We’ve, Joel Kearns Organizations: CNN, Technology, Policy Institute, ”, Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management, State for Science, Indian Space Research Organisation, Space, Getty, Economic Times, NASA, Payload Services, Johnson Space Center, AP Locations: United States, Houston, Japan, Soviet, States, China, India, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, AFP, New York, Los Angeles, what's

☆ Alaska Woman Gets 99 Years in Catfish Murder-for-Hire of Best Friend
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Jesus Jiménez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An Alaska woman who arranged to have her best friend killed in 2019 after a man she met online promised her $9 million to do so was sentenced on Monday to 99 years in prison, state prosecutors said. Judge Andrew Peterson of Anchorage Superior Court sentenced the woman, Denali Brehmer, 23, of Anchorage, who pleaded guilty last year to one count of first-degree murder in the death of the friend, Cynthia Hoffman, the Alaska Department of Law said in a statement. Evidence presented at the sentencing showed that Ms. Hoffman, 19, was fatally shot on June 2, 2019, on a bank of the Eklutna River near Thunderbird Falls and that her body was later placed in the river, according to the Department of Law. Prosecutors later learned that Ms. Brehmer had been hired to kill Ms. Hoffman in exchange for millions of dollars. During the hearing, Judge Peterson described the murder of Ms. Hoffman as “tragic and senseless,” the Department of Law said.

Persons: Andrew Peterson, Cynthia Hoffman, Hoffman, Prosecutors, Brehmer, Judge Peterson, Ms Organizations: Anchorage Superior Court, Alaska Department of Law, Department of Law Locations: Alaska, Anchorage, Thunderbird

☆ Kissinger’s Legacy Still Ripples Through Vietnam and Cambodia
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Mike Ives | More About Mike Ives | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

Mr. Kissinger, who died on Wednesday, shared the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the peace accords that ended American involvement in the Vietnam War. The fighting between North Vietnam and U.S.-backed South Vietnam did not end until the North’s victory in 1975. Mr. Kissinger defended his wartime decisions for years afterward. Within Vietnam, Mr. Kissinger’s role in the war was contentious well before the fighting ended. When President Barack Obama visited in Hanoi in 2016, he said the United States would rescind a decades-old ban on sales of lethal military equipment to Vietnam.

Persons: Henry A, Kissinger, Mr, Lyndon, Richard M, Le Duc Tho, Duong Quoc, Hun Sen, ”, “, Pen, Sok, Hun Sen’s, Barack Obama, Biden’s, Chau Doan, Sun Narin, Lee Wee Organizations: Communist, Johnson Library, Museum, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, U.S, Cambodian People’s Party, Vietnam’s Communist Party Locations: Cambodia, Vietnam, U.S, China, Southeast Asia, North Vietnam, Saigon, United States, America, Austin , Texas, Vietnamese, Hanoi, “, Khmer, Khmer Rouge, ” Vietnam, Washington, United, Russia

☆ Detained, missing or under investigation: Business leaders in China face an ‘aggressive’ crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Hong Kong CNN —Business leaders in China are under immense pressure, as the country’s leader Xi Jinping intensifies a regulatory crackdown on companies and strengthens its control of the economy. They face rising risks, including the possibility of police raids and detentions of staff, in the world’s second largest economy. A former banker, he has invested in a series of Chinese companies since 2000 and brought their shares to the public markets in mainland China and Hong Kong. No end in sightThe crackdown this year has spooked the business community in China, but it is not unfamiliar. Xi launched a sweeping regulatory crackdown on the private sector in 2020, which wiped trillions of dollars off the market value of Chinese companies worldwide.

Persons: Xi Jinping, ”, Doug Guthrie, ” Guthrie, Tencent, Chen, Zhao Bingxian, “ China’s Warren Buffett, Zhao, Guthrie, “, Zhou Zheng, Zhou, watchdogs, Zhang Hongli, Bao Fan, Bao, Xi, Kevin Frayer, Mauro Guillen, ” Guillen Organizations: Hong Kong CNN — Business, China Initiatives, Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management, CNN, Cyberspace Administration of China, Wohua Pharmaceutical, Central Commission, National Supervisory Commission, COFCO, Industrial, Commercial Bank of, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Locations: China, Hong Kong, Communist, Beijing, Arizona, Shenzhen, “ Beijing, DouYu, Shandong, Commercial Bank of China

☆ I was drowning in student-loan debt, so I bought a house and flipped it. I used the profit to pay off my loans.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-22 | by ( Ryan Crawley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Since I couldn't pay down my debt, I bought a house, flipped it, and then sold it. I used the money I made to pay off all of my student loans, and now I feel free. Between rent, utilities, car insurance, and student loans, I was breaking even every month. I wondered how I could pay back my student loans within a few years instead of decades, and I started brainstorming ways I could save money. I immediately paid off all of my student loansWith the money from the sale, I brought my student-loan debt down to zero.

Persons: Sallie Mae, I'd, I'm Organizations: HGTV Locations: Lake Thunderbird , Illinois

☆ Matthew McConaughey’s Book for Children Came to Him in a Dream
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-21 | by ( Emily Bobrow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Matthew McConaughey insists that “the only” role he ever truly wanted to play was that of dad. “It just seemed like it was the greatest thing a man can do,” he says. “I was shaking everyone’s hands, saying, ‘Nice to meet you, sir,’ and what hit me in that moment was that all of them were fathers,” he says. The churchgoing McConaugheys live on the quiet outskirts of Austin with his nonagenarian mother, having fled the paparazzi-plagued beaches of Malibu over a decade ago. When McConaughey travels for work, his family comes, too.

Persons: Matthew McConaughey, ”, “, ’, Miller, Camila Alves McConaughey, McConaughey Organizations: Triumph Thunderbird Locations: Uvalde , Texas, ” McConaughey’s Texas, Austin, Malibu

Suzanne Somers, the effervescent blonde actor known for playing Chrissy Snow on the television show “Three’s Company” and who became an entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author, has died. Somers faced some backlash for her reliance on what she’s described as a chemical-free and organic lifestyle to combat the cancers. On “Three’s Company,” she was the ditzy blonde opposite John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt in the roommate comedy. “The show’s response was, ‘Who do you think you are?’” Somers told People in 2020. Somers did reconcile with Ritter before his death, and then with DeWitt on her online talk show.

Persons: Suzanne Somers, Chrissy Snow, ”, Somers, Couri Hay, Alan Hamel, Bruce, “, ‘, Oprah Winfrey, she’d, Bruce Somers, Hamel, Steve McQueen, “ Bullitt, George Lucas’s, Richard Dreyfuss’s, Lucas, ” Somers, John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt, would’ve, Ritter, ‘ John Ritter, DeWitt, ” Hamel Organizations: New York Times, American Cancer Society, Thunderbird, Rockford, “ Three’s, ABC, CBS News, People Magazine Locations: Palm Springs , California, San Bruno , California, ”, Vegas

To get there, the country needs to rope in young scientists, startups, investors, and private industry partners, none of whom respond well to a closed-off approach, senior ISRO scientists said. Publicising ISRO scientists' achievements has given them more confidence and brought space startups to the door, asking for guidance as they plan private launches. A more responsive agency makes such partnerships more attractive, private space insiders say. "Private industry does not need help, they need predictability," said D S Govindrajan, president of Aniara Communications, which provides satellite services for emerging markets. Modi's government, heading for elections next year, is pushing the development of India's space industry.

Persons: Namrata Goswami, Narendra Modi, Sruthi Parupudi, Somanath, Govindrajan, Ashok Sharma, Somak Raychaudhury, Raychaudhury, Nivedita, Gerry Doyle Organizations: ISRO, Handout, REUTERS, Rights, Indian Space Research, YouTube, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, Aniara Communications, NASA, University of New, Australian Defence Force Academy, Indian, NewSpace India, Indian Space Association, Ashoka University, Thomson Locations: India, Indian, Ahmedabad, U.S, China, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Bengaluru

☆ Generative AI is coming for the visual effects industry: What the technology means for the future of animation
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Four VFX artists told Insider that AI could boost productivity and inspire creativity. Four visual-effects artists spoke to Insider about how generative AI could change their industry. Given its impressive capabilities, they believe AI has the potential to save visual-effects artists time on laborious tasks and create new forms of storytelling. Generative AI is impressing VFX artists — but it's not ready for prime timeAll four VFX artists who Insider spoke with said the quality of AI-generated animations impressed them. McCarron believes that the technology will enhance the quality of artists' work — not take over.

Persons: Runway's, Sebastien Francoeur, Francoeur, it's, Paul Franklin, Franklin, Christopher Nolan's, Mark Chavez, Jennifer Twiner McCarron, McCarron, Rick, Morty, It's, Mark Patch, Patch, Chavez, — Organizations: Adobe, Marvel Studios, Disney, International Alliance, Employees, Thunderbird Entertainment, Netflix, PBS, Marvel Locations: Hollywood

Our experts choose the best products and services to help make smart decisions with your money (here's how). As a child, my grandmother used to give my sister and me a quarter when she came to visit. That rebuke unconsciously taught me I shouldn't ask for money, and it held me back for years. My mother, utterly mortified, sent me to my room with the stern admonishment that asking for money was not polite. I found it was as difficult to accept money as it was to ask for it, especially if it happened to be a gift.

☆ As US military recruitment dips, elite Air Force demo pilots seek to be ‘beacon of excellence’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Haley Britzky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Hampton, Va. CNN —In a small conference room just off a runway at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, some of the US Air Force’s most elite F-16 pilots were gathered. This year marks the team’s 70th anniversary – it was established in 1953, six years after the Air Force split from the Army and became its own service. A US Air Force Thunderbird F-16D Fighting Falcon flies overhead. US Air Force Thunderbird F-16D Fighting Falcons fly in a diamond formation. Anthony Nin Leclerec/US Air ForceBut Grindstaff, like so many throughout the military, said the Air Force seemed like it would provide him a pathway to more opportunities in life.

☆ Elite Israeli reserve fighter pilots and intelligence officers boycott training to protest against Netanyahu's right-wing government
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Reserve pilots in a top Israeli air force squadron are boycotting training in an anti-government protest. Thirty-seven of the 40 reserve pilots in Israeli Air Force's 69th Squadron joined the protests by refusing to attend pre-scheduled training this week, the Jerusalem Post reports. The 69th Squadron is one of Israel's most prestigious air force units, according to Haaretz. The Israel reserve is 465,00-strong, and the mandatory service is part of the national ethos. Critics of this plan by Netanyahu's right-wing government say that this will weaken Israel's courts, and reduce civil liberties, per Reuters.

☆ His Grandmother’s Ford Thunderbird Took 40 Years to Restore
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( A.J. Baime | Photographs Matt Martian For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Rick Steiner , 65, a retired engineer living in Tucson, Ariz., on his 1955 Ford Thunderbird, as told to A.J. My grandmother was a World War II Gold Star wife. What that means is, she was the wife of a soldier killed while serving his country. My grandmother raised four children and put them all through college, through engineering school, law school, dental school and nursing school. When she finally got her last child through school, she bought this 1955 Thunderbird, which was a shock to everybody.

☆ PwC invests $140 mln in China tourist hub for learning centre
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

HONG KONG, Dec 10 (Reuters) - PwC said on Saturday it plans to invest more than 1 billion yuan ($140 million) to establish an education and innovation centre China's island province of Hainan, a tourism hub. The Reimagine Park project, to occupy 16 acres in Sanya in the Chinese southern province, is due to open in 2025. "I have absolutely no doubt the China market will rebound," Raymund Chao, chairman of PwC Asia Pacific and China, told Reuters, after Beijing this week eased many of the nation's strict COVID-19 curbs. The accounting and consulting firm partners with business schools such as INSEAD and Thunderbird School of Global Management to provide learning and training opportunities at the park for executives in the business community, it said. ($1 = 6.9559 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Selena Li; Editing by William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China's economy is 'in deep trouble' as Xi heads to Communist Party congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“Xi’s leadership is not causal for China’s economic rise,” said Sonja Opper, a professor at Bocconi University in Italy who studies China’s economy. Bloomberg/Getty ImagesThe International Monetary Fund recently cut its forecast for China’s growth to 3.2% this year, representing a sharp slowdown from 8.1% in 2021. Under Xi, China has not only become more insular, but has also seen the fraying of US-China relations. He is expected to secure an unprecedented third term in power at the Communist Party Congress that begins on Sunday. “Moreover, growth is not the only source of legitimacy and support for the Communist Party, and Xi has increasingly burnished the Communist Party’s nationalist credentials to appeal to patriotism as well as pocketbooks,” he added.

☆ Why your car's speedometer goes up to 160 mph
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-10 | by ( Matt Mcfarland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

It displayed a classically-styled speedometer that reached 160 mph, an auto industry norm. As early as the 1920s, cars could be purchased with speedometers going as high as 120 mph, according to Bruce Woolsey, president of Michigan-based auto parts supplier Bob’s Speedometer. The first 160 mph speedometer he’s aware of was in the Cunningham C-3 from the 1950s. Apple Carplay's speedometer includes a 160 mph speed limit in one version. AppleFollowing Claybrook, auto safety leaders have turned to other tactics to address speeding.

☆ Facultatea Inginerie Economică și Business de la UTM – Cercetări în context global
▼ + stars: | 2020-12-21 | by ( Onixmedia Srl | ) diez.md time to read: +2 min

univ., dr. Rina Țurcan, șefă Departament EM, și conf. Obiectivul major al acestei colaborări este de a realiza cercetări privind înțelegerea driverilor de schimbare a culturii, leadershipului, dezvoltarea încrederii la nivel mondial. Prin colectarea datelor din peste 160 de țări, studiul devine unul unical în sensul amplorii și complexității cercetării. Este o oportunitate excelentă pentru colaborare cu destinși savanți din diverse țări și, ulterior, dezvoltarea unor noi proiecte internaționale de cercetare. ###Acest material a fost scris și redactat de echipa UTM.

Persons: Mansour, Rafael Ciloci, . Rina Țurcan, Iuliu Țurcan Organizations: Business, UTM, Google, Global Management, Arizona State University, GLOBE Locations: străinătate, Arizona State, SUA, Moldova

☆ Unearthing the Secrets of New York’s Mass Graves
▼ + stars: | 2016-05-15 | by ( Nina Bernstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +51 min

Then, like more than a million men, women and children since 1869, she was consigned to a trench on Hart Island. Citing security, the city’s Correction Department also repeatedly rebuffed The Times’s requests to witness Hart Island burials firsthand. hart island Future plots Future plots Active trench 2000s 1990s Hart Island N.Y.C. He readily remembered the Dickerson case as a financial disappointment, but said he was hearing of his ward’s Hart Island burial for the first time. When she died, Ms. Murray had $6,887 left in her personal account at New Surfside.

Persons: Alon Sicherman, Micah Dickbauer, Leola Dickerson, Zarramen Gooden, Milton Weinstein, Hart, shrouds Hart Island’s, Ruth Proskauer Smith, Arnold, Timothy Daniels, Melinda Hunt, Hunt, Hart Island’s, “, snatchers, New York State’s, Jim Crow, Gwendolyn Burke, Burke, ”, David Minton, Dickerson, We’re, Mango’s, Joseph Dixon, Helen Katz, Johnny Maddox, Constance Dickerson Williams, Grandma Leola, Dickerson’s, Dr, Michael Katz, Ms, Katz, Maddox, Bernice, Thackus Dickerson, sheriff’s, Jay Stuart Dankberg, ” Mr, Dankberg, exposés, —, ” Felice Wechsler, Constance Mirabelli, Mirabelli, John, Jo Ann Douglas, Mirabelli ”, Douglas, Ciro Ferrer, Ferrer, Regla, Nicholas S, Ratush, Ferrer’s, Ilda, Mr, Julie Bolcer, ” Zarramen, Rita Nelson, Malondya, Doris McCrea, Audrey Ponzio, McCrea, Jonathan Mawere, Emmett Pantin, Sgt, Gerard Pantin, ” Sergeant Pantin, Jason Chiaramonte, Hey, Jason, Chiaramonte, ” Ms, Bolcer, McAllister, Hurricane Sandy, Amy Koplow, Einstein, ” Michael Wynston, Weinstein’s, Wynston, Weinstein, Lynda, abusiveness, Michael, wouldn’t, Barry Gainsburg, they’re, Monica Murray, Maureen, Linda, doesn’t, ” Maureen Eastman, St . Lucia, Murray, Eastman, Grandma, Charles, Murray’s, ’, Sheryl Hurst, Rodeph Sholom, Terry Saunders, Lady Thiang, Hurst’s, James Hurst, Hurst, Sally Kaplan, Sheryl, ’ ” Organizations: The New York Times, New York Times, Sears, Roebuck & Company, city’s, Information, New York University School of Medicine, New York, Department, Times, The Times, Columbia College, United, New, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Social, Atlantic City, Army, Queens County, Medicaid, Government, Hygiene Legal Service, Medical, Continental, Care, Hart, ”, Offshore Hospital, Hospital, Rivals, American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service, Queens, Nassau Community College, Bellevue Hospital, Association, Center for Nursing, Rehabilitation, Irish, New Surfside, Facebook, Jewish Locations: Hart, New York City, Long, Alabama, New York, Bronx, . New York, New, Dakota, Manhattan, New York State, Jerusalem, Southern, morgues, Philadelphia , New Haven, United States, Ohio, American, Harlem, Rikers, hart, Pleasantville, N.J, Tuskegee, ”, Milton, New Jersey, Queens, Queens County, Pensacola, Fla, Atlantic, West, St, Cuba, Trench, Elmhurst , Queens, Havana, Elmhurst, Far Rockaway, Brooklyn, Turners Falls, Iraq, Trinidad, Florida, Afghanistan, they’re, Midtown Manhattan, Bellevue, Hurricane, St ., Creedmoor, Arizona, Farmingdale, Jersey, —, California

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