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☆ School children are using AI image generators to create indecent fake images of classmates, an internet safety organization warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Schools have told a child protection organization that AI image generators are being used to make indecent content. AdvertisementChildren are using AI image generators at school to create indecent content of other children, experts on online child safety warned on Monday. The UK Safer Internet Centre is calling for "urgent action" to help children understand the risks associated with such AI images, which it says legally constitute child sexual abuse material. Emma Hardy, the UKSIC director, said the AI images were photorealistic and comparable to professional photos. Getty/Amy SussmanThe rise of AI image generators has come with plenty of controversy.

Persons: —, Emma Hardy, UKSIC, David Hardy, Bunny, Getty, Amy Sussman Organizations: Safer, Service, SAG Locations: Spanish

☆ ‘Harmony’ Review: Barry Manilow Writes the (Broadway) Songs
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Jesse Green | More About Jesse Green | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

How strange and, in the end, how ironic that a German singing group, founded in the chaotic last years of the Weimar Republic and forcibly disbanded less than 10 years later, should call itself the Comedian Harmonists. Yet on the evidence of the Barry Manilow musical “Harmony” — for which, yes, he wrote the songs (along with his longtime lyricist, Bruce Sussman) — the internationally famous all-male group had the “harmonist” part of their name just right. Neither the guys nor the grim and eventually bludgeoning show have a gift for levity. Though its title makes it sound as if “Harmony” would be calm and golden, its story isn’t an uplifting one. Soon the brotherhood, symbolized in sound by their questing choral closeness, goes sour — a story that, to be effective, needs vivid contrast so we know what’s been lost.

Persons: Harmonists, Barry Manilow, Bruce Sussman, —, Manilow, what’s Organizations: Socialism Locations: Weimar Republic

☆ Opinion | Why Aren’t More People Getting Married? Ask Women What Dating Is Like.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-11 | by ( Anna Louie Sussman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Having written about gender, dating, and reproduction for years, I’m struck by how blithely these admonitions to get married skate over people’s lived experience. On the rare occasions that women are actually asked about their experiences with relationships, the answers are rarely what anyone wants to hear. In the late 1990s, the sociologists Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas interviewed 162 low-income single mothers in Camden, N.J., and Philadelphia to understand why they had children without being married. “Money is seldom the primary reason” why mothers say they are no longer with their children’s fathers. “There are women that are just out here trying, and the men aren’t ready,” she told me.

Persons: I’m, people’s, Kathryn Edin, Maria Kefalas, “, “ ghosted, ”, Camino, William Julius Wilson, Nora Ephron, Kearney, Daniel Cox Organizations: American Enterprise Institute Locations: Camden , N.J, Philadelphia

☆ Grimes chased Elon Musk across at least 12 different locations to serve him custody papers, including X headquarters and a horse farm
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Grace Kay | Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Grimes said she served her former partner Elon Musk with custody papers last month. Elon Musk with custody papers last month. One of the process servers even went to a horse farm that had been tied to the billionaire. One process server even tracked Musk's private jets in order to confirm the best place to contact the billionaire, Grimes' court papers state. Two process servers also attempted to serve Musk at Shivon Zilis' house.

Persons: Grimes, Elon Musk, Musk, —, Claire Boucher, Tesla's Austin gigafactory, she'd, Christopher Melcher, Walzer Melcher, Melcher, Amy Sussman, WWD, Grimes should've, he's, Tell Elon, Zilis Organizations: Service, Musk, SpaceX, Penske Media, Getty Locations: Texas, San Francisco, Boca Chica , Texas, Austin, Boca Chica, California

☆ Barry Manilow Finally Gets His Wish: a Broadway Show
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Jesse Mckinley | More About Jesse Mckinley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One possible turning point in the show’s luck, Carlyle said, was the addition of a narrator character — an older rabbi played by Chip Zien — who walks the audience through the various eras of the show. “For me as director, it unlocks the whole show because previously it was kind of a six-headed dragon. In addition to his younger self the show would also include his older self, a rabbi, serving as a narrator. “And suddenly for me, it was like, now the story has a point of view,” Carlyle said. Writing in The New York Times, Elisabeth Vincentelli praised the songs “crafted in a defiantly classic mold,” which steer the show back to “solid emotional ground.”

Persons: Sussman, Manilow, Warren Carlyle, Tonys, Kate ”, Carlyle, Chip Zien —, “, ” Carlyle, —, Elisabeth Vincentelli Organizations: Museum of Jewish, The New York Times Locations: British

☆ Americans Are Splurging on Pint-Sized Pet Pampering
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-16 | by ( Joseph Pisani | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Berkus and Brent said they designed for little creatures as they do for people—using clean lines and neutral colors. There’s no neon seaweed or sunken pirate ships. Instead, they went with green plastic olive trees and black pottery that fish can swim into. Berkus, left, and Brent attend Nate + Jeremiah For Living Spaces at HNYPT. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Living Spaces

Persons: Brent, Nate, Amy Sussman, Getty

☆ El Salvador’s abortion laws are notoriously harsh. These women say they were convicted of homicide after having stillborn babies
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-08 | by ( Catherine E. Shoichet | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

CNN —A sign greets visitors arriving at a sun-filled two-story house in El Salvador’s capital. But within El Salvador, a largely Catholic and evangelical Christian country, some viewed the women’s accounts with skepticism and hostility. Again, the UN’s human rights office weighed in, calling El Salvador’s laws “draconian.”Two months later, 11 justices from El Salvador’s Supreme Court commuted Vásquez’s sentence, saying evidence in the case did not prove that she had taken any action to end her baby’s life. The Harvard professor has been studying these women’s cases and the impact of El Salvador’s abortion restrictions for years. This shows her after a visit in August 2018, six months after El Salvador's Supreme Court commuted her sentence.

Persons: Teodora Vásquez, they’ll, It’s, El Salvador, it’s, Vásquez, who’ve, “ We’ve, ” Vásquez, “, ”, Teodora, Oscar Rivera, Salvador Melendez, Jocelyn Viterna, ” Viterna, Viterna, Dana Sussman, —, Benedicte, Ra’ad Al Hussein, José Miguel Fortín Magaña, Jose Cabezas, El, ‘, ’ ” Vásquez, Libres, who've, Jessie Wardarski, “ I’ve, Jacqueline Castillo, “ It’s, ” Castillo, she’s, Mujeres, there’s, Marvin Recinos, She’s, Merlin Delcid, CNN’s Tierney Sneed Organizations: CNN, El, Getty, Hollywood, Amnesty, of Women, Harvard University, Salvadoran, Pregnancy, UN, Human Rights, El Salvador’s Institute of Legal Medicine, Reuters, Citizen Group, Harvard, Mujeres Libres El, Inter, American, of Human, “, of Steel Locations: El Salvador’s, “, Libres El Salvador, Mujeres, Salvadoran, El Salvador, United States, New York, El, San Salvador, Mujeres Libres, Mujeres Libres El Salvador, AFP

☆ Jaden Smith says he took magic mushrooms as a young adult. Brain experts who study psychedelics warn that wasn't a good idea.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Adam Barnes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Jaden Smith said his mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, introduced him to magic mushrooms. Jaden Smith recently discussed his introduction to psychedelic mushrooms by his mother, Jada Pinkett Smith — who has credited mushrooms as helping her overcome crippling depression. (L-R) Jaden Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Will Smith. Trey Smith, Willow Smith, Jaden Smith, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett Smith at the premiere of Apple Original Films' "Emancipation" on November 30, 2022. There are too many unknowns and too much to lose with a developing brain," psychiatrist and neurobiologist Dr. David Feifel told Insider.

Persons: Jaden Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith —, Jaden, Smith, Dustin Hines, Rochelle Hines, Will Smith, Amy Sussman, WireImage, —, Trey Smith, Willow Smith, Hines, it's, psychedelics, Dr, David Feifel, Feifel, haven't Organizations: Service, psychedelics, University of Nevada Las, Hines, National Survey, FDA, Apple Locations: Wall, Silicon, Denver

☆ BTS 10th anniversary: K-pop sensation’s decade-long style evolution
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Oscar Holland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —This week marks 10 years since K-pop sensation BTS burst onto the South Korean music scene in a flurry of chunky chains, baseball caps and spiky hair. BTS pictured at a photo call for the Incheon Korean Music Wave festival in 2013, just months after the band debuted. Han Myung-Gu/WireImage/Getty Images BTS sport colorful streetwear to perform on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in November 2017. RB/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images BTS appears at the American Music Awards in 2017, when they became the first Korean group to perform at the annual ceremony. Amy Sussman/Getty Images Photos: BTS' decade-long style evolution Prev NextNowhere is this more evident than on the red carpet.

Persons: Louis Vuitton, Jungkook, Valentino, Dior, Calvin Klein, Han Myung, Jimmy Kimmel, Griffin, Jordan Strauss, David Becker, Amy Sussman, Lee Ha, jeong, Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello, Kim Jones, Jin, Suga Organizations: CNN, Hit Entertainment, Incheon Korean Music, Bauer, BTS, Entertainment, MTV Locations: Korean, Seoul, South Korea, Jimin

☆ Biden bets DeSantis’ ‘Florida blueprint’ will help him flip the Sunshine State and win reelection
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Edward-Isaac Dovere | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Shevrin Jones, a Florida state senator and member of the Biden campaign’s advisory board of elected officials, said he’s eager to tell the country the story of what he’s seen under DeSantis’ leadership. Biden and DeSantis and their wives walk to meet with local residents affected by Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers, Florida, on October 5, 2022. The voter registration advantage Florida Democrats had when President Barack Obama narrowly won the state in 2012 has flipped to Republicans. An adviser to the former New York City mayor told CNN that so far, there has been no outreach to Bloomberg’s operation from either the Biden campaign or the DNC. There was also a fleeting belief that they could push Biden over the top in Florida – though Trump ended up carrying the state by 3 points.

☆ Nina Gold on creating film stars, audition tapes, and why she'll never act
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Thomas Page | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

This is the same Nina Gold who’s made a successful career casting some of the defining films and TV shows of this century. “I still don’t really understand what it is that makes acting good,” she says. For “Bad Sisters’” smarmy, abusive antagonist John Paul, Gold cast Claes Bang. For Gold and her team – rising to six people, depending on projects – it’s a lot of logistics and audition tapes. Gold cast Taylor-Johnson in his breakout role as John Lennon in “Nowhere Boy” (2009) at age 18-20, she guesses, but had been auditioning him since about the age of nine.

☆ Joe Biden to attend $25,000 per person fundraiser during NYC campaign cash blitz
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

US President Joe Biden speaks about the creation of new manufacturing jobs at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC, April 25, 2023. A Biden campaign spokesman declined to comment. An NBC News poll shows 46% of the Republican primary voters support Trump over other declared and potential rivals, including former Florida Gov. The majority of those surveyed said they would prefer that neither Biden nor Trump run for president. Trump and Biden combined to raise almost $2 billion during the 2020 election cycle, according to data from OpenSecrets.

☆ ‘Harmony,’ a Manilow Musical Set Under Nazis, Is Broadway-Bound
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Michael Paulson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

“Harmony,” a musical about a German singing group upended by the rise of Nazism, will finally open on Broadway this fall with songs by Barry Manilow and his longtime collaborator, Bruce Sussman. The show, which Manilow and Sussman have been developing for more than 25 years, tells the true story of a sextet that ran afoul of the Nazi regime because the group featured both Jewish and non-Jewish members. The ensemble was called the Comedian Harmonists. “They represent everything I love — they’re a combination of The Manhattan Transfer and the Marx Brothers, with complicated harmonies — and funny as hell,” said Manilow, who wrote the show’s music. “When we dug into it, it just killed me: Why don’t we know about them?”Sussman, who wrote the book and lyrics, said the show was “about the quest for harmony in what turned out to be the most discordant chapter in human history.”

☆ The Arnaults are betting big on K-Pop, and it shows the power of South Korea's luxury spending machine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Experts tell Insider this is a calculated move to tap into the booming South Korean market. A targeted move to win over the South Korean marketBTS member Jimin (left) and BLACKPINK singer Rosé. "Fashion trends tend to be created and adopted in South Korea, before being diffused to other markets in Asia," Dubois said. She also said South Korea is "increasingly known" for its K-Pop stars, movies, and shows in the US — which helps with promotions stateside too. Once the COVID situation settles, it is possible that Chinese tourists, with their spending power, return to Korea," Kim said.

☆ First-time homebuyers face a lose-lose scenario
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Matt Turner | Dave Smith | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

On the agenda today:But first: Our LA bureau chief Alison Brower has been at the Sundance Film Festival this week. Brooke Shields attends the 2023 Sundance Film Festival "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields" Premiere at Eccles Center Theatre on January 20, 2023 in Park City, Utah. Amy Sussman/Getty ImagesIt was impossible not to feel optimistic about the state of independent film at the opening weekend of the 39th Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Insider's Alison Brower writes. The party scene was as lively as ever, anchored by HBO Documentary Films' annual shindig at Ruth's Chris Steak House. Many experts worry that without some type of major intervention, the obstacles facing first-time homebuyers will continue to get worse for years to come.

☆ Elon Musk says Twitter's decision to hire a law firm that he'd previously criticized and boycotted was the result of an employee 'error'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter hired a law firm that CEO Elon Musk publicly criticized last month and said "thrives on corruption." Musk told Reuters on Friday that hiring law firm Perkins Coie was "an error on the part of a member of the Twitter team." He added that the firm "will not be representing Twitter on future cases." Musk told Reuters on Friday that Twitter's hiring of Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie was "an error on the part of a member of the Twitter team." Musk didn't immediately respond when asked if Perkins Coie would continue to represent Twitter in those cases, Reuters said.

☆ How Anti-Abortion Activists Bought Access to the Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Katherine Long | Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

In exchange for as little as a few thousand dollars in contributions to the nonprofit, these people received easy access to events where Supreme Court justices would be. Supreme Court Historical society trustee Jay Sekulow, center, represented President Trump during the latter's impeachment trial in 2020. Anti-abortion advocates cheer in front of the Supreme Court after the decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores was announced in 2014. Alito did not respond to a request for comment on his involvement in the Supreme Court Historical Society. Supreme Court justices, though, aren't even required to stay within those weak guardrails because no code of ethics governs justices' behavior.

Carl Icahn had a textbook strategy for the Nevada-based energy utility Southwest Gas Holdings. In August, Southwest Gas' board decided against a divestiture, and the sale of subsidiaries that Icahn had urged remains uncertain. "Shareholders don't want to hear it, but you really have great difficulty selling a company at a good price today," the widely followed activist investor Icahn told Insider. via CNBCBut, like Icahn in the case of Southwest Gas, participants in this new onslaught may find themselves confounded by an increasingly complex and fraught business environment. According to Lazard, 37% of activist campaigns this year were launched by first-timers, the highest proportion since the company started tracking these figures in 2015.

Carl Icahn had a textbook strategy for the Nevada-based energy utility Southwest Gas Holdings. In August, Southwest Gas' board decided against a divestiture, and the sale of subsidiaries that Icahn had urged remains uncertain. That means that the sale of companies like Southwest Gas is off the table for the time being — or will get done at prices far lower than before. via CNBCBut, like Icahn in the case of Southwest Gas, participants in this new onslaught may find themselves confounded by an increasingly complex and fraught business environment. According to Lazard, 37% of activist campaigns this year were launched by first-timers, the highest proportion since the company started tracking these figures in 2015.

☆ Corporate America is bracing for a rise in activist investing. Meet the 13 lawyers on speed-dial when companies and investors fight for boardroom control.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Law firms including Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP and Schulte Roth & Zabel are go-tos for activist investors looking to change how companies do business. Kai Liekefett, who co-chairs Sidley's shareholder activism practice, last year successfully defended cloud company Box Inc. in a proxy fight by Starboard. Liekefett has also defended clients against major activist investors including Carl Icahn and Trian Partners. He has advised clients against major activist investors including Trian, Carl Icahn, Starboard Value and the billionaire Paul Singer. Lawrence Elbaum and Patrick Gadson, Vinson & ElkinsPatrick Gadson (L) and Lawrence Elbaum (R), co-heads of Vinson & Elkins' shareholder activism group.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso insisted he's not white, but really Italian — and thus "Latin" — during an awkward debate moment Tuesday in the nation's second-largest city. Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso speaks at Emerson College Los Angeles on Oct. 7, 2022. The mayoral hopeful said he's, for decades, led efforts to bring more education opportunities and healthcare to Black and Latino communities in Los Angeles. "I connect with the Latino community but quite frankly my job as mayor is to connect with every community — the Latino community, the Black community, the Asian community, right? Caruso' "Latin" identity comment drew a harsh reaction, ranging from scorn to mockery.

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