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☆ 6 Podcasts About the Perils (and Joys) of Modern Dating
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Emma Dibdin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Last year marked the 10th anniversary of Tinder, the swipe-based dating app whose mainstream success completely redefined the rules of romance. While early episodes of the podcast featured recorded sets from those live shows, it’s since evolved into a more intimate format. Starter episode: “Gearóid Farrelly”Although it lasted less than two years, this soulful, searching series about digital courtship feels as if it was around much longer. That’s in large part because it shape-shifted midway through its run when its host, Andrea Silenzi, went through a breakup. Opting to use her own situation as “a storytelling device,” Silenzi shares her confusion and heartbreak as she chronicles the indignities (and occasional joys) of app-based dating.

Persons: Naomi Ekperigin, Andy Beckerman, Beckerman, Michelle Buteau, Rachel Bloom, Bowen Yang, “ Gearóid Farrelly, Andrea Silenzi, Silenzi, Donald Trump’s Locations: New York

☆ Opinion | Margot Robbie’s Sly Interpretation of the Feminine Ideal
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In particular, I continue to marvel at the performance of Margot Robbie, who played the titular heroine — Stereotypical Barbie — and who I think isn’t getting enough credit for holding the movie together. She must journey to the real world, leaving an army of other Barbies behind, to get back to a state of unquestioning bliss. She grudgingly takes Ken (a perfectly doltish Ryan Gosling) with her, and in the real world he discovers the concept of patriarchy. A movie called “Barbie,” and Barbie didn’t always feel like the main character. I also kept thinking about Robbie as Stereotypical Barbie.

Persons: Barbie, Barbie ”, Margot Robbie, Barbie —, Ken, Ryan Gosling, Manohla Dargis, Ken’s, Robbie, Weird Barbie, Kate McKinnon, — didn’t, Allan, Michael Cera, Barbie didn’t, — Organizations: House Locations: America

☆ NASA's James Webb Space Telescope spotted a question mark in deep space. It could be 2 galaxies colliding.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Sonam Sheth | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope spotted a question-mark-shaped object in deep space. The question mark could be two galaxies colliding, interacting, and distorting each other. Is that a giant question mark? What are you playing at, James Webb Space Telescope? The bigger pictureWebb wasn't looking for a question mark.

Persons: NASA's James Webb, James Webb, Joseph DePasquale, Space.com, Adriana Manrique Gutierrez, STScI, Matt Caplan, Caplan, Webb Organizations: Service, Telescope, NASA, ESA, CSA, Telecope Science Institute, Illinois State University Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ Opinion | Barbara Kingsolver Thinks Urban Liberals Have It All Wrong on Appalachia
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( The Ezra Klein Show | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +58 min

It’s like there’s no point in asking who started this because it’s a really, really old antagonism. I think that’s probably what’s most critical right now is that all of our entertainment, our news media, it’s all made in cities. And he’s really pretty horrible, and he doesn’t feed them enough, and that’s really sad. You’re going to have a flat tire, and the guy that pulls up to help you is going to tell your dad within minutes. It’s not like most books you’re going to see.

Persons: Ezra Klein, ezra klein, —, Hernan Diaz, Barbara Kingsolver, “ David Copperfield ”, Dickens, It’s, barbara kingsolver, you’ve, ezra klein We’re, Nobody, I’d, I’ve, Bobby Ann Mason’s, “, — Wendell Berry, Robert Penn Warren, James Still, Harriette, Taylor Greer, you’re, George Washington, ” he’s, — he’s, he’s, I’ll, They’re, George W, Bush, they’re, barbara kingsolver You’re, we’ve, That’s, that’s, I’m, ” barbara kingsolver, barbara kingsolver Oh, barbara kingsolver ezra klein barbara kingsolver, ezra klein Yes, we’re, Charles Dickens, “ David Copperfield, ”, Tommy, ” It’s, ezra klein There’s, barbara kingsolver There’s, Tommy Traddles, Tommy Waddles, who’s, He’s, We’re, Tommy’s, she’s, it’s, Beth Macy, overdosed, ” ezra klein, There’s, grandkids, they’ve, Dori, doesn’t, Peggot, Frances Goldin, Arwen Donahue, She’s, Beth Macy’s, Lazarus, Laline Paull, ezra klein Barbara Kingsolver Organizations: New York, Fiction, Trump, Nicholas County High School, DePauw University, Walmart, The New York Times, . Times, New York Times, Farmers, “, Knoxville —, Purdue Pharma, Purdue, aha, Scots Locations: Appalachia, It’s, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, U.S, exploitations, Congo, Caribbean, Indiana, Nicholas, Arizona, Europe, Tucson , Arizona, Tucson, Paris, Athens, France, “ Shiloh, MAGA, America, Brazil, Eastern Europe, There’s, California, New York, “, Tommy, Pennington, Knoxville, there’s, nove, Lee County, that’s Lee County, that’s, United States of America, who’s, New York City

☆ What happens when ChatGPT tries to create crochet patterns
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-08 | by ( Aj Willingham | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

ChatGPT, a publicly available language-learning AI, was not designed to create things like crochet or knitting patterns. Before we begin …A few notes on my methodology:For every crochet pattern I generated, I used the prompt “Create a crochet pattern for (blank).”I followed the crochet pattern exactly. At first glance, ChatGPT’s crochet patterns look and read exactly like a crochet pattern. In a traditional crochet pattern, instructions for assembly would note specific places and methods to attach pieces, along with photos or notes on particularly tricky steps. Theoretically, it would be possible to create AI that generated amazing crochet patterns, but that would require very specific training and programming.

Persons: ”, AJ Willingham, ChatGPT, ’ AJ Willingham, You’ll, Yoda ’ AJ Willingham, Yoda, Casey Miller, ” Miller, It’s, Antarctica ’ AJ Willingham, “, Al Arab ’ AJ Willingham, CNN I’ll, Khalifa, you’ve, Eliot, don’t Organizations: CNN, Antarctica, Burj Al, Burj Locations: Kennesaw , Georgia, Antarctica, Al Arab, Al, Arab, Dubai, Burj, Arab’s

☆ White people meals? The story behind China’s ‘coldest’ food trend
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Maggie Hiufu Wong | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

CNN —In China – the land of hot noodles, steaming rice and warm soups – a new and unlikely food trend has swept across the country’s social media platforms in recent weeks. “I feel it’s important to recognize that perception is an evolving concept,” says British Chinese chef Andrew Wong, the third-generation owner of London’s two-Michelin-star Chinese restaurant, A. Wong. The only ceremonial effort was putting them in a lunchbox,” wrote one user on Xiaohongshu, a popular Chinese social media site. I found out today that on Chinese social media, there’s a trending hashtag that translates to white people meals lol“I was so tired I ate a white people meal today”One of hashtags is also “white people meals are still meals” pic.twitter.com/VGdedgrV2F — Yan Fan 📍Tokyo - we’re hiring! “I don’t like the term ‘white people meals,’ even when it’s used in a joking manner,” says Voon.

Persons: ”, Andrew Wong, Wong, “, 📍T, witter, –, ake, ong, sian, haring, eason, egan, orth, rbanized, ould, sia, ike Organizations: CNN, ust Locations: China, Europe, bologna, British, ried, ife

☆ The Outsize Genius of ‘I’m a Virgo’
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Phillip Maciak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

One of Cootie’s first rebellions is his insistence on trying a Bing Bang Burger, whose comically unappealing commercials he sees constantly on TV. It is fastidiously, hilariously committed to the bit, constantly doubling down on the logistics of Cootie’s bigness. “I’m a Virgo” comes on the heels of a few ingenious experiments in TV surrealism, from “Atlanta” to “Undone” to the recent farce “Mrs. Its fantastical concept works in metaphor just the same way it works in fact, as it reminds us with proud bluntness. “I’m a Virgo” is a visual and ideological counterpoint to all this.

Persons: Burger, Cootie, Jharrel Jerome, hilariously, “, Davis, Riley, Felix, ”, ” Felix Organizations: “ Atlanta, Marvel Locations: “, .

☆ Illumina announces CEO transition plan as Francis deSouza resigns
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Illumina on Sunday announced its board of directors has accepted the resignation of CEO Francis deSouza, just weeks after activist investor Carl Icahn failed to oust him from the biotech company. "It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve Illumina," deSouza said in the release. Similarly, in an open letter to Illumina shareholders in April, Icahn accused deSouza of "desperately, hilariously and, most of all, unsuccessfully" trying to spin "decidedly mediocre" quarterly results during a press tour. In late May, Icahn had urged shareholders to vote off deSouza and Chairman John Thompson from the nine-member board. Shareholders booted Thompson, but deSouza held onto his role until Sunday.

Persons: Francis deSouza, Illumina, Carl Icahn, Charles Dadswell, Illumina's, DeSouza's, deSouza, Icahn, John Thompson, Thompson Organizations: Illumina Inc, Economic, Sunday Locations: Davos, Switzerland, Illumina

☆ Apple's Vision Pro isn't just a 'headset,' stupid — it represents the next big frontier of spatial computing
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Peter Csathy | Fearless Media | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

He writes that Apple's latest $3,500 gadget is not just a VR "headset," but a bigger tech opportunity: spatial computing. Apple at long last revealed its long-anticipated "next big thing" — its Vision Pro — two days ago at its annual WWDC. "Minority Report" come to lifeViewed with the broader lens it deserves, however, Apple's Vision Pro represents so much more. It represents the dawn of an entirely new mass market and transformational tech opportunity of so-called "spatial computing." Spatial computing is essentially the film "Minority Report" come to life, three-dimensional computing divorced from the confines of physical screens.

Persons: Peter Csathy, Nanea Reeves, Tim Cook, Ralph Lauren, Joanna Popper, Bob Cooney, Evan Helda, Pierre, Stuart Rostain, Amy Allison, Tripp, Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's, Steve Jobs, Cook, Bob Iger, Jobs, Iger, Read Organizations: Creative Media, Morning, Fearless Media, Apple, CAA, Barnum, Amazon, Spatial Computing, European VRDays Foundation, Women, Disney, Pixar, Creativie Media Locations: Malibu, Netherlands

CNN —Harrison Ford is a thriving action star at 80 years old. Recalling a moment on the “Dial of Destiny” set in a new Esquire interview published Wednesday, Ford said that he intentionally brushed off the help of a gaggle of stuntmen who rushed over to assist him off a horse after he finished a horseback riding scene. “And I don’t mean that we didn’t make ambitious movies before,” he added. If I’d been less successful, I’d probably be a better parent,” he said, adding, “I accept my flaws and my failures. The “Regarding Henry” star and his current wife Calista Flockhart share son Liam, 22.

Persons: CNN — Harrison Ford, Ford, Indiana Jones, ”, stuntmen, “, gropers, ” Ford, Hilariously, I’d, Mary Marquardt, Benjamin, Willard, Malcolm, Georgia, Melissa Mathison, Henry ”, Calista Flockhart, Liam Organizations: CNN

☆ 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.

☆ Lewis Capaldi Will Break Your Heart. (But Don’t Take Him Too Seriously.)
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Jon Caramanica | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At the Grammys in 2020, he had an Andy Kaufmanesque face-off on the red carpet with an unsuspecting Ryan Seacrest. Sometimes, they happen when he’s onstage — at one recent concert, the crowd finished the songs that he couldn’t. But the tics subside when he’s at ease: When fans came up to him outside the Ear Inn to chat, they all but disappeared. “Every piece of content or thing I see with my name next to it is closely followed by Tourette’s. Which is mental, ’cause then I’m like, Billie Eilish has Tourette’s, and she doesn’t bang on about it like I do.”He continued, “It feels dirty.

If the Fed opts to pause, Treasury yields are expected to decline. Stocks that could gain on falling interest rates Here are the top stocks that are poised to move higher if the Fed signals it will pause rate increases. The gold miner benefits from a rise in gold prices, and in general, gold tends to rise when interest rates fall. Meanwhile, genetics company Illumina should gain if interest rates fall, according to its correlation to the SHY ETF. Stocks poised to gain on rate increases However, if the Fed suggests rate hikes will continue, short-term Treasury yields will likely go up, benefiting these stocks.

☆ Carl Icahn calls Illumina Q1 results ‘very disappointing,’ slams cost-cutting plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Carl Icahn on Friday called Illumina's first-quarter results "very disappointing" and slammed the DNA sequencing company's new plans to cut costs. "Illumina CEO Francis deSouza seems to believe that he can fool all of the people all of the time," Icahn wrote. Illumina's stock is down more than 9% since the company reported earnings. In that missive, Icahn also took shots at cost-cutting plans Illumina unveiled to improve its shrinking margins. Illumina reported a negative operating margin of 5.7% for the quarter, down from 15% during the same period a year ago.

☆ The Fox-Dominion Settlement
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week's best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson and Dan Henninger. Images: Reuters/Shutterstock Composite: Mark KellyThe wailing you heard across the land Tuesday afternoon was the sound of thousands of journalists lamenting the settlement of the defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News. An entire industry of reporters has been denied the schadenfreude of seeing their hated political and media competitor in the dock. An hilariously revealing courtroom account in Politico laments that “hopes were dashed—dreams torpedoed” by the settlement. The settlement is a victory for Dominion, which said Fox will pay $787.5 million.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly joked about losing track of assets worth millions of dollars
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Bankman-Fried joked about losing track of millions of dollars in assets, a debtors' report said. The document accused the individuals in charge of FTX and Alameda of misusing funds and lying. In an internal communication cited in the report, Bankman-Fried once said FTX's sister company Alameda Research was "hilariously beyond any threshold of any auditor being able to even get partially through an audit." According to the report, Alameda struggled to understand what its own positions were, "let alone hedging or accounting for them." This inner circle reportedly included Bankman-Fried, FTX cofounder Gary Wang, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, and FTX's former engineering director Nishad Singh.

☆ From threatening skeptical execs to approving expenses with emojis, here are the 6 most damning claims from FTX's first debtors report
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Sam Bankman-Fried threatened FTX employees who voiced concerns about its business practices. The report, which is 45 pages long, compiled interviews of 19 former FTX employees and "received substantial information through counsel" for five others. 1) SBF threatened FTX execsMultiple FTX execs were threatened after voicing concerns over the company's business practices. As a result, the report says: "Senior FTX Group personnel scrambled to cobble together purported policies that could be shown to auditors. One former executive described Singh's and Wang's oversight on FTX Group as: "If Nishad [and Gary] got hit by a bus, the whole company would be done."

☆ I can't stop watching these hilariously bad AI-generated videos of celebrities like Will Smith and Scarlett Johansson
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The internet is freaking out over clips generated by AI text-to-video generator ModelScope. The AI-generated videos come after a recent AI-generated picture of the Pope when viral. The videos were made using ModelScope Text to Video Synthesis, a free AI video generator that AI firm Hugging Face released to the public last week. That may be because the Modelscope tool is trained on images scraped from stock photo sites, according to Vice. AI image generators have also been found to produce images that reflect racial and gender stereotypes, and can spread misinformation.

☆ Fact Check-Satirical edit of TikTok hearing asks if TikTok can talk to the plane on airplane mode
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A clip from TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew’s testimony before the U.S. Congress has been edited to include satirical audio. this entire hearing was hilariously humiliating for those asking the questions.” Another example can be seen (here). The video has a TikTok watermark with the username “@barneyplease” and was shared on TikTok (here) on March 25, 2023. The word “airplane” does not appear in transcripts of the hearing (here) and (here). Reports on how social media users shared videos on TikTok critical of Congress members after the hearing can be seen (here), (here) and (here).

☆ A 'Mean Girls' star described the career setback that made him feel like "someone had died," and the au pair job he took after playing Kevin G
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Eboni Boykin-Patterson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Rajiv Surendra played hilariously memorable character Kevin G in "Mean Girls." He said that after 'Mean Girls,' he had a career rejection that altered the course of his life. "I worked really really hard to try to get this part. The "Mean Girls" star recognized how strange the choice seemed from the outside, looking in. "Even when we were filming 'Mean Girls,'" he said, "they called me Martha Stewart because they knew I did pottery and knitted and everything."

☆ History With a Headache for LeBron James
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Jason Gay | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

These are strange days for the NBA, a thriving podcast content farm with a sturdy side business of playing organized basketball games. On Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks traded with Brooklyn for the point guard/chaos agent Kyrie Irving, eager to pair him with their young superstar, Luka Doncic, and see if he lifts the franchise, or hilariously steers it to the brink of avoidable self-destruction. More likely, he does a little of both.

☆ A Hilariously Awkward Way to See London? Pose for a Personal Photo Shoot
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Dale Hrabi | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

If you’ve never trotted blindly down historic stone stairs while a photographer yells “Big smile! Big smile!” then let me fill you in: The risk of disaster is considerable. Especially when he’s commanded you to gaze dreamily off to your left—twisting your head to simulate a jawline—instead of where you’re going. Those outside London’s Royal Exchange, from which officials proclaim the accessions of monarchs as locals shout “Hip! As I wobbled down those storied stairs last October, not one Londoner cheered me on.

☆ Final farewell: From Sidney Poitier to Pope Emeritus Benedict a look back at the influential figures who died in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +55 min

Other world leaders who died in 2022 include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died in August. The final days of 2022 saw the loss of some exceptionally notable figures, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2022 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___Dan Reeves, 77. A Cuban-born artist whose radiant color palette and geometric paintings were overlooked for decades before the art world took notice. A prolific character actor best known for playing villains and tough guys in “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and other films.

☆ Yeezy without the Ye? Who is new ‘sole’ owner
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Jon Sarlin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

While the Adidas statement definitively closes the door on selling Yeezy branded products, according to legal experts I talked with, it opens the door for them to rebrand the existing Yeezy designs sans Ye. Haff told me that the “sole owner” sentence in Adidas statement is a legal “warning shot” to Ye. Could Ye now build out his own Yeezy fashion brand? Adidas’ Yeezy sneakers were some of the most coveted and influential shoes, often selling for thousands of dollars on the resale market. Last month, Cowen analyst John Kernan estimated that the Yeezy brand accounts for 4 to 8% of Adidas’ overall revenues.

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