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☆ What Chinese Calligraphy Taught Me About Myself
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Jerrine Tan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

In calligraphy, the idea is to replicate the old masters’ techniques, thereby refining your own. I was trying to make sense of this tangle by writing lines, but at its heart, calligraphy is a sensuous practice. As a bodily practice, calligraphy could transcend its own cultural constraints. I had been learning calligraphy to try to get in touch with my cultural roots, but what I was really seeking was a return to myself. In my visceral responses, I observe how calligraphy reveals our intuition for beauty.

Persons: ”, “, nudged, tingle, Roland Barthes, I’ve, Jerrine Tan Organizations: verve, City University, City University Hong Kong Locations: City University Hong

☆ Stockton Rush: What we know about the Titan submersible's pilot
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Rush has approached his dream of deep-sea exploration with child-like verve and an antipathy toward regulations — a pattern that has come into sharp relief since Sunday night, when his vessel, the Titan, went missing. But in 2004, he told Smithsonian, the dream shifted after Richard Branson launched the first commercial aircraft into space. “I had this epiphany that this was not at all what I wanted to do,” Rush told the magazine. The commercial sub industry is “obscenely safe” he told Smithsonian, “because they have all these regulations. He also asked Rush about what the vessel’s “MacGyvery” components — like the plastic PlayStation controller and LED lights that Rush bought from an RV retailer.

Persons: Jacques Cousteau, Rush, MacArthur, you’re, ” Rush, Alan Estrada, ”, Richard Branson, Kirk, OceanGate, Greg Gilbert, Estrada, “, David Lochridge, OceanGate hasn’t, David Pogue, You’re, Pogue, plumb, Nick D’Annunzio, TARA, Celina Tebor, Sam Delouya Organizations: New, New York CNN, Stockton Rush, verve, Princeton, Smithsonian Magazine, McDonnell Douglas Corporation, UC Berkeley, Smithsonian, Enterprise, OceanGate, Everett, NASA, CBS, Boeing, University of Washington, USA, Michelin Locations: New York, Seattle, Washington

☆ Opinion | Casey DeSantis Is Your Obsession. Jill Biden Is Mine.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Frank Bruni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

And I challenge you to find me one voter, just one, whose pro or con decision about Trump hinged on his third wife. I’d forgotten all about her until she came up the other day in a Daily Beast headline that called Casey DeSantis “the Walmart Melania.” Better than “the Bergdorf Melania,” which would be redundant. But while we tend to exaggerate the importance of what a spouse does in public, we sometimes shortchange the relevance of what a spouse does in private. That’s where and how Casey DeSantis probably matters most. The political spouse I observed most closely, Laura Bush, was much more consequential behind the scenes than in front of the cameras.

Persons: Casey DeSantis, They’re, they’re, Michael Kruse, Laura Bush, George W, ’ Organizations: Trump, Walmart, Politico, verve

☆ Stream These 9 Shows and Movies Before They Leave Netflix in June
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Jason Bailey | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

(Chappelle notoriously walked off the show during production of its third season, with only enough material for three episodes in the can.) ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ (June 30)There may have been better early-2000s romantic comedies, but this 2003 hit from Donald Petrie may be the most early-2000s romantic comedy. Scott’s frequent leading man Denzel Washington brings tormented complexity to the grizzled hero, whose shift at M.T.A. dispatch is disrupted by a madman (John Travolta) whose crew takes over a subway car and holds its passengers hostage. And James Gandolfini is wonderful (and miles from Tony Soprano) as the city’s mayor.

Persons: ‘, Dave Chappelle’s, Chappelle, Rick James, Lil ’ Jon, —, Donald Petrie, Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Kathryn Hahn, McConaughey, Petrie, ‘ Jerry Maguire ’, Cameron Crowe, Tom Cruise, Renée Zellweger, Crowe, ’, Antonio Banderas, ”, Salma Hayek, Guillermo del Toro, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Sedaris, Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Scott’s, Denzel Washington, John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Tony Soprano Organizations: Dave Chappelle’s Comedy, verve, Hudson, Fun Locations: Pelham, York City

☆ ‘White Men Can’t Jump’ Taught a Master Class in Talking Smack
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Calum Marsh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

What Billy understands, and what the movie so beautifully expresses, is that streetball is about more than merely who is the most accomplished player. When Billy drains a three-pointer in a shootout, Sidney nonetheless derides his style: “No aesthetic beauty whatsoever,” he jeers. Or as one of Sidney’s friend puts it, after Sidney’s more elegant three in reply: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Only “White Men Can’t Jump” has captured the power of talking smack. “You’d rather look good and lose,” he tells him, “than look bad and win.” It’s an apt diagnosis, but it cuts both ways.

☆ UK housebuilders face slow and painful refurb
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 1 (Reuters Breakingviews) - UK housebuilding is facing a bleak future. In previous slowdowns, the UK’s Conservative Party bailed out the sector with packages like Help to Buy, which subsidized mortgages to help buyers. After Wednesday’s 9% share price decline, it’s share price is now worth less than half of what it was before the outbreak of Covid-19. With little help on the horizon, UK housebuilders face a slow and painful rebuild. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ AXA’s fling with Monte Paschi ends on high note
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

With its 200-million-euro investment in Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI), the French insurer was one of the largest backers of a crucial 2.5-billion-euro capital increase that the hard-beaten lender secured in November. For AXA, supporting the cash call was instrumental to protect its existing insurance distribution partnership with Monte Paschi. The French insurer said on Tuesday it had sold 100 million shares, nearly 8% of Monte Paschi’s total, at 2.33 euros each, pocketing 233 million euros. That’s a 17% gain from the 200 million euros it invested in the cash call. Monte Paschi’s recent strong share-price performance has in any case more to do with the improved economic outlook in Europe and rising interest rates than with any merit of its own.

☆ China’s Li Auto drives a fine profit line
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, Feb 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The $25 billion electric-car maker Li Auto (2015.HK) is in charging mode. On Monday it reported a net profit of 265 million yuan ($38 million) for the quarter ending December as sales of its family-friendly sport-utility vehicles zoomed 66% from a year earlier. What’s more, unlike other battery-powered groups, Li offers “extended range electric cars” that combine a motor with a smaller battery. Li sees the direction of travel and will soon launch 100% battery-powered products. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Abrdn turnaround is still a marathon, not sprint
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Abrdn (ABDN.L) still has one big problem. Chief Executive Stephen Bird’s turnaround at the $5 billion asset manager is gaining traction. Full-year results on Tuesday showed that interactive investor, the savings platform he acquired last year, grew revenue by 20%, despite lower trading volumes. Assets under management fell 19%, after factoring in falling markets and client outflows, to 376 billion pounds, while operating profit fell 55%. That may cost some 200 million pounds, nearly double the unit’s 2022 operating profit.

☆ Japan Post’s deal will test interest rate optimism
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, Feb 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The $12 billion triple initial public offering of the Japan Post Group by the government in 2015 was done in the name of economic efficiency. After a brief rally, the collective market value of the three companies it comprises has declined from a peak of 18 trillion yen to below 10 trillion yen, per Datastream. The Ministry of Finance holds over a third of Japan Post Holdings (6178.T), which in turn retains big stakes in the banking and insurance units – although it has trimmed the latter to below 50%. Japan Post Holdings plans to unload shares worth up to $9.3 billion, Reuters reported, reducing its stake to below 65%. It’s a huge deal in a rickety market but the prospect of interest rate normalisation could see more investment into domestic banks – Japan Post Bank shares have rallied this year alongside local peers.

☆ Warren Buffett’s greatest hits lose their verve
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Feb 27 (Reuters Breakingviews) - After writing bangers for decades, it makes sense to keep playing them over and over. Warren Buffett mostly trotted out his greatest hits over the weekend in his latest annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) shareholders. It’s a testament to Buffett’s proven ability to ride out economic storms, even though the $670 billion company’s size makes it ever harder to outperform the market. Buffett’s missive accompanying the financial results was among his shortest, at fewer than 3,500 words, in nearly 60 years of writing them. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ North Carolina Town Spends Nearly a Decade Fighting Over a Traffic Circle
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Scott Calvert | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

PINEHURST, N. C.—Local road projects are often contentious affairs that drag on. But perhaps no town has gone round and round—and round and round—with as much verve as this community has over a traffic circle. Some 50,000 cars a day motor around the big roundabout on the edge of Pinehurst, a pleasant village shaded by tall pines and best known for hosting the U.S. Open golf championship.

☆ These innovation stocks owned by Cathie Wood have double-digit upside, according to analysts
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Cathie Wood just scored her best month ever as her innovation stocks staged a big comeback, and some of her darlings still have double-digit upside ahead, according to Wall Street analysts. Wood's flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) jumped 27.8% in January alone, notching its strongest month since its inception in 2014 . We looked at companies with at least five analysts covering them, and these names below all have more than 10% upside in the next 12 months, according to FactSet. Wall Street analysts are most bullish on Ginkgo Bioworks , seeing the stock rally more than 140% in the next 12 months. Other biotech names in the space that analysts love are Verve Therapeutics , CRISPR Therapeutics , Beam Therapeutics and Twist Bioscience.

☆ Apple is looking for a top sales executive to spearhead a giant advertising push in sports and streaming. Here are 16 execs who could score the job.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Claire Atkinson | Lucia Moses | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Netflix also conducted a search before hiring two Snap executives, Jeremi Gorman and Peter Naylor, to lead its new ads business. XandrLesser, a longtime digital ad executive, has extensive experience working on issues around the future of digital marketing. McDonald has a ton of other digital ad sales and publishing experience. She helped launch Modi Media, ad buying giant GroupM's addressable TV business, before joining TV adtech startup Cadent. UnivisionValentino runs Disney's digital ad business as EVP, client and brand solutions.

☆ I lasted as a Hollywood assistant for less than a year. Being a constant target for terrible behavior simply wasn't worth $15 an hour.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Eboni Boykin-Patterson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In 2019, I was an assistant at a major Hollywood talent agency, ICM, for eight months. I'd pretty much always wanted to work in the entertainment industry as a screenwriter — I wanted to tell diverse stories. We all had the same plan: Do a year or two, make some connections, and then leave to one of the coveted creative jobs that only former Hollywood agent assistants have access to. This Hollywood assistant lifestyle just isn't conducive to any of that. If you work in Hollywood and would like to share your story, email Eboni Boykin-Patterson at eboykinpatterson@insider.com.

☆ From Amazon to The Trade Desk, experts predict these companies will be the most active acquirers of advertising businesses next year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

There's a strong interest from acquirers in hot trends like commerce media and data consultancy. Experts predicted the companies most likely to be acquirers of advertising businesses in 2023. Many industry observers expect advertising industry M&A deal volume and value to be down next year due to volatile macroeconomic conditions. Experts across the advertising industry — from consultants, to agency executives, analysts, investors, and adtech leaders — named the companies likely to be active in the advertising M&A market in 2023 and why. Apple could make an under-the-radar adtech acquisition for its sleeping giant advertising businessIndustry insiders predict Apple has big plans for its $5 billion-and-growing advertising business next year.

☆ Are You ‘Extremely Hardcore’ or Not? How Elon Musk Is Dividing Silicon Valley’s Elite
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Christopher Mims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Elon Musk has sometimes seemed like the person Silicon Valley would create if venture-funded engineers figured out how to build humans in a lab: the bold innovator fearlessly disrupting one industry after another with a nerdy verve. And yet these days, Silicon Valley’s investors, leaders and commentators are profoundly divided about tech’s billionaire icon, in ways that are revealing about Mr. Musk and about the state of the industry.

☆ Nonstop partying, lavish spending, and sexual-harassment accusations: Inside the self-destruction of Pollen, the music startup once worth $800 million
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Melkorka Licea | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +41 min

About 400 Pollen employees were camped out in Mendocino County, California, for five straight days of partying. Two former Pollen employees told Insider that they recalled the assistant telling them about Callum's inappropriate comments at the time. (The Pollen representative said Callum and Bedi didn't date at Pollen or at any other company connected to Pollen. Out of 360 events Pollen announced over the past 12 months, 39 were canceled, the Pollen representative said. (The Pollen representative said that "out of hundreds of thousands of customers, fewer than 100 people were moderated" online.)

☆ Here are Tuesday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Tesla, Hostess, Home Depot, Rivian, Netflix & more
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Here are Tuesday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Atlantic Equities names Coca-Cola as a top 2023 pick Atlantic Equities said it sees "category momentum" for shares of the beverage giant. JPMorgan reiterates Apple as overweight JPMorgan cut its price target on Apple to $190 per share from $200 due to supply chain challenges concerns. JPMorgan names Amazon as a top 2023 pick JPMorgan said Amazon is the "most diversified mega-cap across revs/profit & has numerous large growth opportunities." JPMorgan resumes DuPont as overweight JPMorgan resumed coverage of the stock and said it sees several positive catalysts ahead. JPMorgan names Bank of America a top 2023 pick JPMorgan said it likes the stock due to a "lower share of nonprime consumer loans."

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves in the premarket: General Mills, Steelcase, Lucid and more
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Peter Schacknow | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Lucid (LCID) – Lucid rallied 5.% in premarket trading after the electric vehicle maker raised more than $1.5 billion in a series of stock sales. Rocket Lab (RKLB) – Rocket Lab fell 1.3% in premarket action after announcing a delay in its first rocket launch from the United States. Rocket Lab cited both poor weather conditions as well as regulatory delays stemming from the processing of documentation by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration. As a result, Rocket Lab cut its revenue forecast for the fourth quarter. BMO expects positive announcements from Beam's partner Verve Therapeutics (VERV) to help drive the stock higher.

☆ BMO upgrades this gene-editing play, sees shares returning 65% next year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

BMO Capital Markets sees a big year ahead for biotech company Beam Therapeutics . Analyst Kostas Biliouris upgraded shares to outperform from market perform, saying he expects updates next year on a key partnership will drive upside for the gene-editing technology company. Beam has a partnership with biotech company Verve Therapeutics , which is using Beam's base editing technology for its VERVE-101 program. "We believe these catalysts will have a direct readthrough on BEAM, each driving a ~10%+ upside (stock moves here)." Shares of Beam Therapeutics are down more than 49% in 2022, while Verve Therapeutics is off by about 51%.

☆ How a gene-editing breakthrough from a Harvard lab saved the life of a girl with leukemia
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A 13-year-old girl was the world's first patient to get a cell therapy called base editing in May. Base editing is a new gene-editing technology that could lead to cures for many diseases. Alyssa, 13, was the first-ever patient to receive a base-edited cell therapy after enrolling in a clinical trial in May. Base editing allows scientists to make ultraprecise changes to single letters of DNA in cells. Alyssa, a teenager in Leicester, England, received a base-edited cell therapy to treat her leukemia.

Dec 12 (Reuters) - News Corp (NWSA.O) named Sunday Times editor Emma Tucker the new editor of the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires on Monday. In his new role, Murray will take on “several critical growth projects supporting News Corp,” the company said. That vision appears to align with that of the Journal's publisher and Dow Jones chief executive, Almar Latour, who is credited with leading the digital transformation of the publication, which now boasts more than 3 million digital subscribers. “Emma is a brilliant, inspiring editor, with digital nous and the highest standards of integrity,” Thomson said in a statement on Monday. “She has been a thoughtful custodian of The Sunday Times and will bring verve and virtue to Dow Jones.

☆ Croatia vs Brazil: Vatreni have 'nothing to fear' ahead of quarterfinal clash against 'terrifying' Seleçao, says head coach
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Matias Grez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

“I try to adapt to the characteristics of the players,” Tite told reporters after the match, according to Reuters. “Sure, some love to complain when they see other people’s happiness and we Brazilians are a joyful people, so it will always bother,” Vinícius told reporters, per Reuters. Croatia has a remarkable recent record in World Cup knockout matches. Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images“Brazil is the favorite, let’s face it,” Dalić told reporters, per Reuters. “Brazil is the most powerful and the best national team at the World Cup.

☆ Why are there so many shock results at this World Cup?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Ben Morse | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

We’ve seen plenty of World Cup shocks over the years, but this year’s edition has seen more than most. Lionel Hahn/Getty ImagesA World Cup like no otherThis World Cup is a first for many reasons. The World Cup’s natureGiven the nature of the World Cup – teams thrown together in a tournament setting from across the globe – fans often see clashes which they’re not accustomed to. This concoction has, over the 90 years of the World Cup, regularly led to shock results. From the US beating England in 1950 and North Korea upsetting Italy in 1966 to Senegal beating defending champion France in 2002 and Algeria – in its World Cup debut – beating West Germany in 1982, World Cup history is littered with surprises.

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