DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Opinion: ‘Self Reliance’ takes on American individualism at its most absurd
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-12 | by ( Opinion Noah Berlatsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —Hollywood films of diverse genres have one point in common — they’re all about the most important person in the universe. That most important person could be an amnesiac assassin fighting a mysterious government conspiracy, or some guy (or girl) seeking true love. They are the main character; everyone else is secondary. The goal of life is success and self-actualization as the main character of your own dream. He’s the most important person in a whole range of familiar narratives, all crammed haphazardly into a 90-minute run time.

Persons: Noah Berlatsky, Noah Berlatsky Noah Berlatsky, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Tim Ferriss, Marianne Williamson, Jake Johnson’s, you’d, Tommy Walcott, Johnson, Natalie Morales, Andy Samberg, John Wick, baddies, Tommy, isn’t, Maddy, Anna Kendrick, —, he’s, squinty, “, ”, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Tommy isn’t, what’s, Barbie ”, “ Oppenheimer, we’d, you’ve Organizations: CNN, Hollywood, Truman Locations: Chicago

☆ Family of Last Child Hostages in Gaza Await Their Return
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Dec. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

By Eli BerlzonHOLON, Israel (Reuters) - Yosi Shnaider watched a home video on his phone from his apartment near Tel Aviv. Hamas infiltrators seized the Bibas family, along with more than 200 other people, during the Oct. 7 killing spree through southern Israeli towns that sparked the devastating war in Gaza. More than 100 hostages were freed in a week-long truce that ended on Friday, but the Bibas family - two children and their parents - were not. "And I'm thinking to myself, a young baby, small baby like Kfir, is crying. After two months in captivity, their age and ginger hair have caused the Bibas children to stand out among the scores of hostages.

Persons: Eli Berlzon HOLON, Yosi Shnaider, Ariel Bibas, Ariel, Kfir, he's, Shiri Bibas, Yarden, Shnaider, Shira Bibas, Eli Berlzon, Michal Yaakov Itzhaki, Ari Rabinovitch, Howard Goller Organizations: Hamas Locations: Israel, Tel Aviv, Gaza

☆ Palestinian man grieves for 3-year-old granddaughter killed as she slept in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Jomana Karadsheh | Florence Davey-Attlee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Picking through the rubble of his destroyed home, Khaled Nabhan lifts a doll that had belonged to his granddaughter and kisses it. Khaled said he woke up screaming for his children and grandchildren, struggling to walk through the dark and the wreckage to find them. In one clip, Nabhan throws his granddaughter into the air and catches her while Reem giggles with delight. In the battered bedroom of their house in Gaza, Nabhan showed CNN where his daughter Maysa — Reem and Tarek’s mother — was sleeping when the house collapsed. Reem Nabhan.

Persons: Khaled Nabhan, Tarek, Nabhan, “, ”, Clutched, Khaled, CNN Nabhan, Reem, “ I’ll, Maysa —, —, Maysa, ” Maysa, Reem Nabhan, António Guterres, Israel, Reem's, ” Nabhan Organizations: CNN, Palestinian Ministry of Health, West Bank, UN, ” Locations: Al Nuseirat, Gaza, Israel

All the while Eliza Babinska charged along, energy spilling out of her body like sparks of electricity. “Eliza hates this,” Vasilisa, her older sister, said with a giggle. When Vasilisa first saw her perform, she said: “I was like, that’s my sister? I saw her face, and I was like, whoa.”Even the way Eliza holds her head in class is imposingly regal. On the subway, her chin started to droop, almost as heavily as her eyelids.

Persons: Pati, Eliza Babinska, —, “ Eliza, ” Vasilisa, Eliza, Julia, Vasilisa, “ Organizations: New York City Ballet, School, American Ballet Locations: Queens, Manhattan, barre, droop

☆ Peoplehood is a 'workout for your relationships'—I tried it to make new friends: Here's how it went
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-11 | by ( Renée Onque | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

1 thing that makes us feel happy and live longer is positive relationships with romantic partners and friends. To remedy this sometimes intimidating process, Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler created Peoplehood, a "workout for your relationships", to help people find community. To get a better sense of the experience, I attended a Peoplehood gather. Peoplehood gathers are led by a guide, and she prompted us to start the experience with breathwork. The first one was pretty simple; we were asked to share our name and something that felt true for us.

Persons: Julie Rice, Elizabeth Cutler, Ruth Zukerman, Rice, they're, Peoplehood, Renée Organizations: Harvard, CNBC Locations: New York City, Chelsea, Manhattan

☆ EXCLUSIVE: Listen to 1-hour all-hands Alameda Research meeting where Caroline Ellison admitted the crypto firm took FTX customer money
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Caroline Ellison held an all-hands meeting with Alameda employees where she admitted to taking FTX customer funds. The news sent shockwaves through the office of Alameda Research, the crypto trading firm also owned by Sam Bankman-Fried. AdvertisementAdvertisementAt the all-hands meeting, Ellison appeared "sunken, kind of slouching," and "did not display confident body language," Drappi said. At the meeting, Drappi asked Ellison whether she was aware that Alameda was taking customer money without their permission. Bankman-Fried's lawyers argued Thursday that Ellison's statements at the meeting went far beyond what Bankman-Fried intended to tell Alameda employees.

Persons: Caroline Ellison, Sam Bankman, —, Fried, Binance, Ellison, Christian Drappi, Drappi, Rick Best, — Ellison, Gary Wang, Nashad Singh, Wang, Singh, FTX Organizations: Alameda, Service, Alameda Research Locations: Alameda, Hong Kong, Japan, YOLO

NEW YORK (AP) — The actor picked to play the iconic, baby-faced flapper Betty Boop in a new stage musical is a triple threat from Texas with a contagious laugh. Jasmine Amy Rogers will star in “BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical” making its debut this fall in Chicago with hopes that it can charm itself to Broadway. I have so many people around me that are helping me find her and bring her to life, and so it’s really, really exciting,” Rogers told The Associated Press before her official unveiling Wednesday. Betty Boop has been a queen of animated cartoon characters since 1930, wearing round eyes, a strapless minidress, with a garter peeking out above her knee and large hoop earrings in her ears.

Persons: Betty Boop, Jasmine Amy Rogers, “ BOOP, ” Rogers, Jerry Mitchell, Rogers, Nancy ”, they’ve, ‘, ’ ”, Mitchell, Tony, “ Kinky Boots, ”, Rotten, “, She’s, David Foster, Susan Birkenhead, Bob Martin, Betty, she’s, “ I’m, Jasmine, Gretchen Wieners, ” “, ‘ ’, it’s, I’ve, Roger Rabbit, ___ Mark Kennedy Organizations: Broadway, Associated Press, Alliance Theatre, Manhattan School of Music, ” Fleischer Studios Locations: Texas, Chicago, Atlanta, New Jersey, Nancy

☆ Lizzo preaches self-love and acceptance. But backstage, her team was mocked and bullied, designer says in a new lawsuit.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Diana Dasrath | Tim Stelloh | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Daniels was fired after she complained about Nomura, according to the suit. Nomura told Daniels never to interact with Lizzo or to dress attractively in front of her because it may make Lizzo jealous, the suit said. Alleged slurs, threats and offensive impressionsNomura allegedly mocked Lizzo and her dancers with what the lawsuit described as a "stereotypical sassy Black woman imitation." After Daniels complained to Gugliotta, Lizzo's tour manager, she allegedly asked Daniels to surreptitiously record Nomura, according to the suit. Daniels declined, believing it would be unethical and possibly illegal, and continued to work for Lizzo, according to the suit.

Persons: Lizzo, Asha Daniels, Daniels, Amanda Nomura, Nomura, Ron Zambrano, Zambrano, it's, Melissa Viviane Jefferson, Carlina Gugliotta, Gugliotta, Quincy, she's Organizations: Ball, NBC, Superior Court, Big, Touring Inc, NBC News, Black, Lizzo Locations: Flushing Meadows Corona Park, New York City, Taylor, Los Angeles

☆ Mom takes son to Churchill, Canada, for a week of education no school can match
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Terry Ward | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

We were in Churchill, a town of roughly 900 people nicknamed the “Polar Bear Capital of the World,” in Canada’s Manitoba province. A male polar bear rests during a Tundra Buggy ride into the Churchill Wildlife Management Area in August. People have to learn to co-exist with polar bears in Churchill, where some of them stay waiting for sea ice to refreeze. Hudson Bay polar bears are among the most vulnerable on Earth because of loss of sea ice, with their numbers in sharp decline. They arrive as soon as the sea ice breaks up to feast on small fish called capelin that spawn here.

Persons: we’re, I’d, Nico, Ursula, Jim Baldwin, Baldwin, Alex Cupeiro, “, Terry Ward, you’re, Terry Ward I’d, we’d, Barba, can’t, Jennifer Diment, “ Churchill, Ward, Chantal Maclean, ”, ” Maclean, ” Nico, Chantal, he’d, John Gunter, Fronters, velcroed, Indiana Jones, Joe, he’d maxed, Sandra Cook, Churchill Organizations: CNN, Polar Bears, Churchill Wildlife Management, Churchill Wildlife Management Area, Frontier North, Zodiac, Helicopters, Bear Holding, “, Churchill Locations: Churchill, Canada’s Manitoba, Florida, Hudson Bay, Hudson, Tampa, Winnipeg, Churchill’s, Svalbard, Norway, Stockholm, Oslo, Toronto, Denver, Vancouver, Washington, Ithaca, SS Ithaca

☆ Blister Your Vegetables
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Tanya Sichynsky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Auspiciously, we were seated right away, and we ordered a round of beers and some edamame. Overcome by the sort of silliness a spontaneous summer day affords you, our table soon descended into an all-consuming giggle pit. Between fits of laughter and played-out bits, we came up for air only to snack on the warm pods, which arrived unexpectedly blistered by a grill, rather than blanched or steamed. The pleasantly smoky exteriors yielded to beans that had retained some of those fire-kissed flavors. There’s a certain bliss to blistered vegetables.

Locations: Prospect, Yorker

☆ Laughter: An essential feature of human social interactions
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Adrienne Wood | University Of Virginia | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Known as a “play signal,” mammalian laughter accompanies playful interactions to signal harmless intentions and keep the play going. And laughter is an essential feature of human social interactions. For humans, laughter has expanded from its original function as a play signal to serve a variety of social functions. I suspect people borrow and transform the play signal of laughter to influence situations that, on their face, have nothing to do with play. All laughter serves genuine social functions, helping you navigate complex social interactions.

Persons: overexplaining, It’s, Mayur, aren’t, Adrienne Wood Organizations: CNN, University of Virginia, National Science Foundation

☆ Dua Lipa must face lawsuit claiming she copied 'Levitating'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska/File PhotoNEW YORK, Aug 8 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Manhattan said the British pop star Dua Lipa must face a lawsuit accusing her of copying her 2021 megahit "Levitating" from a 1979 disco song. The lawsuit, filed in March 2022, claimed that "Levitating" shared "compositional elements" with "Wiggle," most significantly by duplicating its opening melody. Defense lawyers argued that it was implausible to believe that Lipa, 27, heard "Wiggle" before writing "Levitating." Failla's opinion does not cover the plaintiffs' claim that "Levitating" copied another song, "Don Diablo," to which they owned a copyright. The case is Larball Publishing Co et al v Lipa et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.

Persons: Dua Lipa, Maja Smiejkowska, Katherine Polk Failla, L, Russell Brown, Sandy Linzer, Failla, Jason Brown, Don Diablo, Lipa, Bosko Kante, Jonathan Stempel, Leslie Adler Organizations: Dua, REUTERS, U.S, Warner Records, Larball, Court, Southern District of, Thomson Locations: London, Britain, Manhattan, British, Lipa, Los Angeles, Florida, U.S, Southern District, Southern District of New York, New York

☆ Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Great ‘Indiana Jones’ Adventure
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

Talk Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Great ‘Indiana Jones’ AdventureThere’s a photo of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, taken at an Emmys afterparty in 2019, that captures, better than any other contemporary celebrity photo I’ve seen, the enduring allure and glamour of Hollywood success. Phoebe Waller-Bridge with Harrison Ford in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm Ltd. Christ, I don’t know the answer. Now people could be like, “I’ve got a show,” but you don’t know where it’s going to go out, you don’t know how many people are going to see it. Whereas before you’re like, no one cares, no one’s watching, no one’s going to give you anything, but you’re going to do it anyway, now you’re like, they’re going to give you everything!

Persons: Phoebe Waller, Indiana, “, Waller, Indiana Jones, James Bond, ”, ’, I’ve, I’m, Harrison Ford, “ Indiana Jones, ” Jonathan Olley, —, I’ll, We’re, you’ve, it’s, “ I’ve, ” Waller, ” Luke Varley, he’s, Josh Cole, Phoebe, they’d, I’d, what’s, David Marchese, Emma Chamberlain, Walter Mosley Organizations: Indiana Jones, Amazon Studios, Lucasfilm, “, BBC, YouTube, Cal Newport Locations: British, Waller, “, America

[1/5] A lion is seen inside an enclosure at NAMA Zoo in Gaza June 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed SalemGAZA, June 6 (Reuters) - Large paintings of a bear, an elephant and a giraffe decorate the outer walls of NAMA Zoo in Gaza City, but none of these wild creatures is represented live among those caged inside. There were once six zoos in Gaza, a narrow coastal enclave which has been closed off behind security walls since 2007. The original animals at the zoo were smuggled through tunnels from Egypt over a decade ago. Gaza lacks the medical facilities to treat animals like lions and tigers.

Persons: Mohammed Salem, Mahmoud Al, Sultan, Fouad Saleh, Nidal Almughrabi, Bernadette Baum Organizations: REUTERS, Thomson Locations: Gaza, Mohammed Salem GAZA, NAMA Zoo, Gaza City, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, South Africa

U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes said Artikal Sound System failed to argue that the writers of "Levitating" ever had access to the group's 2017 song "Live Your Life." Sykes gave the group an opportunity to file a new complaint. Representatives for Lipa and Artikal Sound System did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Sykes on Monday agreed with Lipa that Artikal Sound System's complaint failed to show that the defendants could have encountered its song before writing "Levitating." Sykes said this was not enough to demonstrate the song was widely disseminated enough that the "Levitating" songwriters could have heard and copied it.

Persons: Florion, Lipa's, Sunshine Sykes, Sykes, Sandy Linzer, Russell Brown, Don Diablo, Blake Brittain, Richard Chang Organizations: Singer Dua, Skanderbeg, REUTERS, Dua Lipa, Warner Records, U.S, District, Thomson Locations: Tirana, Albania, British, Los Angeles, Florida, New York, Lipa, Washington

☆ Opinion: The surprising antidote to burnout
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Opinion Tess Taylor | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Community feels good. Activism feels good. Cultivating feels good. Sometimes we go out and work in community because we want to alter and renew our sense of what is possible. Last year, author Laura Vanderkam wrote in The New York Times that quitting is not the answer to burnout.

☆ Job interview tips to help you get hired: What to say, mistakes to avoid, how to answer key questions and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Cindy Perman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Career coach Natalie Fisher said there are four common reasons why you might get a job interview but not a job offer: 1. The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It": Pump yourself up before you walk into a job interview. Interview tips from an HR pro who tracked her job search on TikTokAnd finally, a few job interview tips from Jordan Gibbs. Here are a few of her top job interview tips: Never count your chickens before they're hatched. Read more job interview tips from Gibbs and how she ultimately landed her job.

☆ The $113,000 GMC Hummer EV is an incredibly silly vehicle, but is also one of the most fun models I drove all year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Hummer EV Edition 1 costs $113,000 and is ridiculously large. It's ridiculously hugeThe 2022 GMC Hummer EV Edition 1. But loads of funThe GMC Hummer EV Edition 1. As I drove around and towered over the other, lesser cars, I couldn't help but giggle at the sheer absurdity of the Hummer EV. The 2022 GMC Hummer EV Edition 1.

When Tioni Theus woke up, most mornings, the first thing she did was turn on music. Tioni’s most frequent social media posts were videos of herself singing along to music, smiling and mugging for the camera. But in recent years she had begun to gravitate toward gritty, emotional rappers and singers like Rod Wave, whose songs explore the painful underside of street life. (“Daddy gone and mama couldn’t save me/So hard times made me,” he raps on his song “Thug Life.”) Read MoreTioni, right, with her family. But as with many aspects of Tioni’s life, the stakes were higher than they should have been: Both investigators and some family members have suggested that she may have been a victim of human trafficking.

☆ The $113,000 Hummer EV is totally outrageous in every way — and that's what makes it such a good time
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-26 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The GMC Hummer EV is ridiculously large, astonishingly quick, and excessive in every way. GM lent me a Hummer EV Edition 1, which retails for around $113,000. First, the basicsThe 2022 GMC Hummer EV Edition 1. The Hummer EV pickup launched in late 2021, and an SUV is on the way for 2023. What falls short: New Hummer, same problemsThe Hummer EV is wildly inefficient compared to its competitors, which is both unfortunate and on brand.

☆ I drove a $2 million electric car with 1,900 horsepower and saw the unimaginably fast future of supercars
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

I drove the Pininfarina Battista, a new electric supercar that costs $2.2 million and up. The Pininfarina Battista. Tim Levin/InsiderThe $2.2 million, 1,900-horsepower electric supercar is mind-bendingly, frighteningly quick, promising to hit 62 mph from a standstill in less than two seconds. The Pininfarina Battista. The Pininfarina Battista.

☆ Inside the frightening, thrilling experience of driving the quickest car in the world, the $2 million Pininfarina Battista
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

I tested the Pininfarina Battista, a dizzyingly quick electric supercar that costs $2.2 million and up. That's kind of what driving the Pininfarina Battista is like. The Pininfarina Battista. Tim Levin/InsiderThe $2.2 million, 1,900-horsepower electric supercar is mind-bendingly, frighteningly quick, recently claiming the world acceleration record for a street-legal car. The Pininfarina Battista.

☆ Anna Faris identifies director she accused of inappropriate touching on set
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The actor said she was left “angry and hurt and humiliated” by Reitman, who directed with a “reign of terror.”“One of my hardest film experiences was with Ivan Reitman,” Faris told her “Unqualified” guest Lena Dunham. Faris said that an accident occurred in the makeup trailer before she was supposed to be on set for the first time. Her hair designer knocked over a jar of wig glue and it got on Faris’ costume, which resulted in Faris being “20 to 25 minutes” late to set. “I was terrified on my first day that Ivan thinks I’m some kind of diva that doesn’t come out of her trailer,” Faris said. That was a weird moment.”Back in 2017, Faris revealed for the first time that a famous director slapped her butt on set, but she did not reveal the director by name at the time.

This piece has been adapted from "We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered in a New Era of American Extremism," by Andy Campbell. Indeed, leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups face seditious conspiracy charges over what the Justice Department believes is an outsize role in the planning and execution of the insurrection. In an interview with me, one of the antifascists, a woman who supports medics in the field at demonstrations, recalled a harrowing scene in which a group of Proud Boys had her crew cornered and outnumbered, when one of them lunged at her:The Proud Boys started spraying something into the crowd. Those concerns are paramount for all antifascist activists, but especially among women fighting back against misogynist groups like the Proud Boys. Excerpted from "We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered in a New Era of American Extremism by Andy Campbell.

☆ A weed gummy theory for the Fed’s high-stakes interest rate gamble
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Here’s the thing: The Fed right now is wearing blinders, and it only cares about bringing down inflation, my colleague Paul R. La Monica writes. The Weed Gummy TheoryThere’s an analogy offered by investment analyst Peter Boockvar last month that I can’t stop thinking about. He compared the Fed to an eager but inexperienced consumer of weed gummies, which, notoriously, take longer than anyone expects to kick in. Bankruptcies: Rate hikes make it more expensive for companies to pay down debt, increasing the risk of corporate bankruptcies and defaults. The so-called PPI, which tracks what suppliers charge other businesses for goods and services, showed prices going up 8.5% from a year ago.

Search resuls for: "giggle"

25 mentions found