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☆ Camels evolved from a cold-weather ancestor. We could learn from their remarkable transformation
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Bill Weir | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

“Gentoo penguins are big climate change winners in the Antarctic,” Heather Lynch told me. Conversely, the more flexible gentoo penguins keep moving farther and farther south, chasing new prey, and even abandoning nests to increase the odds of long-term survival. Julian Quinones/CNNThe gentoo population has exploded by as much as 30,000% in just a few years. Bill Weir/CNNHere lieth the lesson of the camel and the gentoo: Heat will move us, one way or another. I just know River won’t be satisfied without a magic plot twist that somehow saves all creatures great and small.

Persons: Bill Weir, —, “, ”, Bill, CNN's, Julian Quinones, Camels, CNN Bill, I’d, ” Heather Lynch, penguins, we’ve, it’s, Xiulin Ruan, CNN Julian Quinones, “ Don’t, Energy's Organizations: CNN, Brooklyn, Central Park Zoo, CNN Penguins, Stony Brook University, gentoo, Purdue, International Energy Agency, Global Locations: Canada, North America, dromedaries, Sudanese, Egypt, Southern Ocean, Antarctica, Manhattan, British Columbia, Yorkshire, England, Phoenix, Japan, Seville, Spain, Miami, Los Angeles, Angeles, Olivia, Colombia, CNN Seville, China, India, Maine

☆ Donald Trump Isn’t Funny Anymore - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-20 | by ( David Kamp | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The person of whom I speak is, of course, Donald Trump. So when I came across a fledgling satirical magazine, Spy, that articulated precisely what I was thinking, I was smitten. In its inaugural issue, Spy named Mr. Trump one of the “10 Most Embarrassing New Yorkers,” noting his tackiness, his shady tactics as a landlord and his “hustler-on-his-best-behavior manner.” Yes! I joined the staff full-time in 1989 and we continued to chronicle Mr. Trump’s offenses against taste and decency. We came up with a slew of epithets for him, including the one that stuck, “short-fingered vulgarian.” Then, as now, Mr. Trump was thin-skinned, and obsessed with his press coverage.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Mike Wallace, ”, breathlessly, “, nickels, I’d revel, we’re, James Austin Johnson Organizations: dimes

Leon Wildes, a prominent immigration lawyer best known for his landmark, yearslong fight in the 1970s to prevent John Lennon from being deported and enable the former Beatle to receive permanent residency in the U.S., has died at age 90. Thanks to Wildes' ingenuity and the shocking twists of politics in the 1970s, Lennon's deportation was delayed and ultimately revoked. His honors included the Edith Lowenstein Memorial Award for excellence in advancing the practice of immigration law and the Elmer Fried Excellence in Teaching Award. He attended Yeshiva College as an undergraduate and became interested in immigration law after working with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in the late 1950s. Wildes published articles in the Cardozo Law Review among other journals and wrote a book on the Lennon case, “John Lennon Vs. the USA,” that came out in 2016.

Persons: Leon Wildes, yearslong, John Lennon, Wildes, Englewood , New Jersey Mayor Michael Wildes —, Dad, Michael Wildes, Weinberg, “, ” Leon Wildes, Alan Kahn, Lennon, Yoko Ono, ”, Kahn, Jack Lemmon, Yoko Moto, Ono, Kyoko Chan Cox, John, Yoko, Richard Nixon, Lennon's, Nixon, Sen, Strom Thurmond, Thurmond, John Mitchell, Richard Kleindienst, J, Edgar Hoover, Fred Astaire, Dick Cavett, Saul Bellow, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, “ Leon, ” Lennon, Nixon's, Mitchell, Sean, Norman Mailer, Gloria Swanson, Barack Obama, Mick Jagger, ” Jagger, ” Wildes, Benjamin N, Edith Lowenstein, Elmer Fried, Alice Goldberg Wildes, “ John Lennon Vs, John Lennon ”, Pennyblackmusic.co.uk Organizations: Lenox Hill Hospital, Englewood , New Jersey Mayor, Wildes, New York University School of Law, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Apple Records, Beatles, South Carolina Republican, Naturalization Service, Los, Nixon, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva College, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Cardozo Law, Beatles Fans Locations: U.S, Manhattan, Englewood , New Jersey, Olyphant, England, New York City, Vietnam, Tokyo, British, London, Los Angeles, New York, Norman, Pennsylvania, Chicago

REFORM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama police officer is on leave after video circulated on social media showed her appearing to shock a handcuffed and compliant man with a stun gun and telling him to shut up after he cried out in pain. The video shows a white female police officer shocking a Black man after placing him in handcuffs and leaning him against a car. In the 45-second video clip, which went viral, the handcuffed man is not resisting and tells the officer he has a gun on him. She then appears to shock him with the stun gun pressed to his back and tells him to be quiet. "The Reform Police Department is aware of a video circulating involving a citizen’s arrest on December 2, 2023.

Persons: ”, Micah Washington, Melody Davis, Richard Black, ’, Dana Elmore, Elmore, ” Jalexis Rice, Washington’s, WVTM, ” Rice, “ Organizations: Police, Reform Police Department, Alabama, Bureau of, Agency, Reform City Hall, Associated Press, Washington Locations: Ala, An Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Reform, Washington

☆ When Ruthless Cultural Elitism Is Exactly the Job
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +13 min

Talk When Ruthless Cultural Elitism Is Exactly the JobI wonder if any of the many literary greats represented by Andrew Wylie ever considered using his story. I don’t think that’s ever happened. I think that’s the wrong way to look at it. Do you think that’s a phony attitude? Is there some defense of cultural elitism that you want to make?

Persons: Andrew Wylie, Wylie, scalawag, Andy Warhol’s, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Martin Amis, John Updike, Borges, Calvino, Sally Rooney, Salman Rushdie, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Wylie’s, ’ backlists, ”, understatedly, It’s, I’ve, Jesus, Andrew, Gerard Malanga, I’m, doesn’t, it’s, I’ll, “, You’ve, Robert Frank, Allen Ginsberg, “ Don Quixote ”, that’s, what’s, you’re, Orhan Pamuk, Italo Calvino, Naipaul, Nabokov, accrues, We’re, David Marchese, Alok Vaid, Menon, ordinariness, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Downey Jr Organizations: Houghton, Paul’s, Harvard, New York Times, Harvard Business School, Getty, Disney, Marvel Locations: Houghton Mifflin, St, New York

☆ Sigrid Nunez’s Art of Noticing
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Wyatt Mason | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Growing up on Staten Island, Nunez was an outsider to the literary world. Her father immigrated to the United States illegally at some point — facts on his life are scant, according to Nunez — working in a hospital kitchen and Chinese restaurants. Home difficulties aside, Nunez was an avid reader and a strong student, which earned her the scholarship to Barnard. Auden and Susan Sontag (who later hired Nunez as a typist, a period memorialized in Nunez’s one memoir, “Sempre Susan”). Silvers was notorious for yelling at his staff or barely noticing them, for expecting them to stay until all hours, as he would.

Persons: Nunez, Nunez —, ”, Barnard, Virginia Woolf, Nunez’s, “, Hardwick, — Hardwick, Robert Silvers, Barbara, Jason Epstein —, Mary McCarthy, Truman Capote, Edmund Wilson, Saul Bellow, W.H, Auden, Susan Sontag, Susan ”, — Martin Scorsese, ” Nunez, Silvers, Barbara Epstein Organizations: Army, Putnam, The New York, New York City, New York Locations: Staten, United States, Lowell, New York

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bryce Harper has manhandled postseason pressure with the ease of one of his swings -- bat tucked behind his helmet, short ground step, then, whack! Maybe a hyped Harper will bellow, “ This is my house!” standing on second base after a go-ahead double. He hit three homers and batted .462 in a four-game NL Division Series win over Atlanta that moved the Phillies on the cusp of a second straight World Series trip. Inside the jubilant clubhouse, the Phillies had their fun, spraying Harper with beer and gleefully yelling, “Attaboy, Harper! Trea Turner became the first Phillies player with four hits in a postseason game when he went 4 for 4 in Game 4.

Persons: — Bryce Harper, Harper, Bryson Stott, Red, ”, Stott, Tommy John, “, ” Harper, Philly, “ Attaboy, Orlando Arcia, Harper ”, Arcia, Michael Harris, I’m, ” Stott, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos, It’s, Rob Thomson, ” Castellanos, it’s, LeBron James, Tiger, you’re Organizations: PHILADELPHIA, Liberty Bell, Phillies, NL, Atlanta, Arizona, Philly, Harper, ” Braves, Braves, MLB, Washington Nationals Locations: Vegas, Philadelphia

☆ Fact Check-Video of 'African President' reacting to Trump arrest is satirical
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A video of stand-up comedian Benjamin Bankole Bello dressed as his stage character, “President Obonjo of the Republic of Lafta,” urging the release of former U.S. President Donald Trump following his arrest in August is satirical. Several clips of Bellow dressed as the character can be found on his TikTok (here) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/obonjo/) accounts. Ian Hawkins, a spokesperson for Bellow, told Reuters in an email that the clip showed Bello commenting in character as President Obonjo. “President Obonjo of Lafta Republic is a comedy character who has appeared in a TV special on ITVx and at numerous comedy festivals in the UK. Video shows comedian Benjamin Bello, not an “African president.”This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.

Persons: Benjamin Bankole Bello, Obonjo, ”, Donald Trump, Trump, Biden, “, Conservative Donald Trump, Bellow, Ian Hawkins, Bello, ” Hawkins, Benjamin Bello, Read Organizations: Facebook, Conservative, “, Reuters Locations: Republic of, Atlanta, Georgia, America, Republic of Lafta, Lafta Republic

☆ Opinion | Nikki Haley Is the Best Trump Alternative
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

She was the candidate brave enough to state the obvious truth that Trump took decades of G.O.P. The other candidates assumed the usual conservative postures about cutting taxes and spending, but she introduced the reality: Under Trump, the G.O.P. She seems to be one of the few candidates who understands that to run against Trump you have to run against Trump. Haley, by contrast, seems to believe that voters are intelligent enough to be treated as adults. But if any of my friends and acquaintances want to stop Trump, this is their moment to give Haley her chance.

Persons: Trump, Ron DeSantis, Haley, Saul Bellow, Ramaswamy, Mike Pence, Pence, Reagan, haven’t Organizations: Trump, Republican, hokum, Tea Party

☆ Good Night, Sweet Prince
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( A.O. Scott | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

What I mean is that I liked him better, and trusted him more. But it was also easy to imagine arguing about all that over drinks and cigarettes, thanks to Amis’s inexhaustible intellectual brio and his undentable good humor. That quality, even more than his satirical flair or the buoyant elegance of his prose, marks his greatest feat of self-invention. Whether these are still — or ever were — defining characteristics of American culture is an argument for another day. The point is that they were decidedly not attitudes associated with English writers up until then, especially not those of Kingsley Amis’s generation.

☆ Opinion: A cerebral rock star is dead
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Opinion John Avlon | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

He is the author of “Lincoln and the Fight for Peace.” The views expressed in this essay are his own. These celebrated writers were the subject of long-form profiles and occasional tabloid scandals, treated as cerebral rock stars and voices of their generation. They were a post-punk crew that migrated from the UK to the US, including Hitchens, Tina Brown and Salman Rushdie. In his final book, “Inside Story,” part memoir and part novel, Amis returned to his friendship with Hitchens in the 1970s, prior to their becoming famous. It chronicles a doomed affair, flashing forward at times to the decline of their friend Saul Bellows from dementia, as well as Hitchens’ death.

☆ China's yuan falls below a key dollar level for the first time this year as the economy's rebound sputters
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Filip De Mott | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

That's the first time this year that China's currency undercut that key psychological level. The yuan has fallen more than 4% from a January high as hopes for a big post-pandemic rebound fade. In previous situations where the yuan weakened past the threshold, China responded with sharp intervention. The yuan's slump also comes as China is placing increased effort on promoting the currency in global trade. But seeing the recent drop, exporters are holding onto their dollars, in case the yuan keeps falling, according to Bloomberg.

☆ Opinion: Happiness is a trap. Here’s what to pursue instead
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Opinion Monica C. Parker | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Monica C. Parker Elena RossiniBetween chief happiness officers, the Happy Planet Index, Gross National Happiness, and the World Happiness Report (Finland scored the highest again this year), it seems as though happiness has some good PR. This one is: What if we’re so fixated on happiness that we’ve failed to question whether happiness is what we should be pursuing? We resist negative emotions such as sadness or fear at our peril. Even better than embracing your negative emotions is embracing both positive and negative emotions at the same time. Wonder makes us less stressed and feel like we have more time.

☆ Why Did I Spend My Last Birthday Alone in Alaska? Ask My Astrologer.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Mya Guarnieri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

I’m deep in an Alaskan forest halfway through an 8K race when I find myself alone. Above me, 100-foot spruces bend and bellow, set upon by wind so loud I mistake it for an airplane. I see my 7-year-old daughter’s chubby cheeks and dirty blond curls, my 5-year-old son with his thumb in his mouth. I was all swagger: Back when I lived in Jerusalem, I ran on isolated trails in the forest almost every afternoon. And being in Alaska — with its vastness, the way it dangles, lonely, at the edge of the continent — has only magnified those feelings.

☆ Taylor Swift sends powerful message to women on tour
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Emily Halnon | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —My first stirrings of discomfort at Taylor Swift’s show in Las Vegas hit after the infectious beat faded from fan-favorite “Cruel Summer,” the second song in her supersized set. Challenging double standardsTaylor Swift flexes during her performance at Allegient Stadium in Las Vegas. And whether we were cringing in our seats, like me, or cheering her on, also like me, her words delivered a powerful message. Like Swift, who will perform for over three straight hours on every night of this 52-stop tour, I’m also an endurance athlete. Over the course of this tour, millions of women will watch her share her success.

☆ Walter Mosley Thinks America Is Getting Dumber
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +17 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk Walter Mosley Thinks America Is Getting DumberWalter Mosley is best known as one of contemporary literature’s pre-eminent crime novelists, but he’s actually four or five different writers rolled into one. You have to tell stories about real people experiencing it and not real people with a Ph.D. People who are not stupid but ignorant, who don’t know things about the world. There are people who don’t know how to spell, they don’t know how to think. You have these people coming out into the world, and they don’t know what to do. That’s going to happen.

☆ Here's what mattered in hedge funds and asset and wealth management in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Jeffrey Cane | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

To be sure, some big investors like macro hedge funds have been notable exceptions to the market gloom. As we do our own account settling for the year, here is some of our best reporting on the buy-side: hedge funds, asset managers, and wealth management. Tiger, Tiger burning bright. Four years later, the hedge fund, founded by two former Millennium executives, has yet to live up to the lofty expectations for it. Among the money managers benefiting from these political moves are Bank of New York Mellon and Federated Hermes.

☆ U.S. imposes sanctions on Iran-based foundation over Salman Rushdie bounty
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Daphne Psaledakis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on an Iranian foundation it accused of issuing a multi-million dollar bounty for the killing of novelist Salman Rushdie, who was attacked at an event in August. Rushdie, 75, lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand following an attack on stage at a literary event in western New York in August, his agent said. Friday's action freezes any U.S. assets belonging to the foundation and generally bars Americans from dealing with it. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran's supreme leader, 33 years ago issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie a few months after his novel "The Satanic Verses" was published. Rushdie, who was born in India to a Kashmiri Muslim family, has lived with a bounty on his head, and spent nine years in hiding under British police protection.

☆ Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye following attack, agent says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 23 (Reuters) - Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand following an attack on stage at a literary event in western New York in August, his agent said. Wylie described the author's wounds as "profound," and noted the loss of sight of one eye. Khomeini's successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was suspended from Twitter in 2019 for saying the fatwa against Rushdie was "irrevocable." He is being held without bail in a western New York jail. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Maria Caspani, Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Student loan forgiveness application is in a beta period. Here's what to know if you apply
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Wpadington | Istock | Getty ImagesWithout much fanfare, the U.S. Department of Education made available on Friday evening an early version of its student loan forgiveness application. A number of Republican legal challenges have been brought against the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan, risking to put the policy in jeopardy. Any borrower who has already received forgiveness will likely get to keep it, even if the courts block the President's plan. After a borrower applies for forgiveness, they'll receive an email confirmation from the Education Department, Kantrowitz said. Make sure your servicer, as well as the Education Department, has the most recent contact information for you.

☆ Cormac McCarthy's Venomous Fiction
▼ + stars: | 1992-04-19 | by ( Richard B. Woodward | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Finished off with one of his twinkly-eyed laughs, this mealtime anecdote has a more jocular tone than McCarthy's venomous fiction, but the same elements are there. Each of his five previous novels has been marked by intense natural observation, a kind of morbid realism. A cult figure with a reputation as a writer's writer, especially in the South and in England, McCarthy has sometimes been compared with Joyce and Faulkner. Says the historian and novelist Shelby Foote: "McCarthy is the one writer younger than myself who has excited me. I told the MacArthur people that he would be honoring them as much as they were honoring him."

Persons: McCarthy, wildness, blurbed, Joyce, Faulkner, Saul Bellow, Shelby Foote, Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Hemingway Organizations: MacArthur Locations: hovels, East Tennessee, American, England, Texas, Mexico

☆ ‘Secrets, Lies, and Consequences’ Review: Murder on Campus
▼ + stars: | 1991-05-21 | by ( Richard Babcock | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

In a city with a thick portfolio of unsolved cases, the May 21, 1991, murder of the religion professor Ioan Culianu stands out as one of Chicago’s strangest. The fact that the murder took place at the University of Chicago’s divinity school underlines the mystery. Much of the intrigue centers around Eliade, an admired professor who had come to the U.S. after World War II. Suggestions of a youthful dalliance with Romanian fascism surfaced occasionally, but Eliade was known at the university as a generous colleague and teacher. A chair was named for him in the divinity school.

Persons: Ioan Culianu, —, Mircea Eliade —, Eliade, Saul Bellow Organizations: University of Locations: Romanian, Romania

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