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☆ He’s Been Dead for Nearly 10 Years. Now He’s Narrating Your Audiobook.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Edward Herrmann, a prolific actor who narrated dozens of audiobooks, has been dead for almost a decade. But that hasn’t prevented him from being the voice of several recent audiobooks. Mr. Herrmann’s latest work is generated by DeepZen Ltd., a London-based artificial-intelligence startup that was given access to the actor’s past recordings with his family’s permission. From that trove, DeepZen said it is able to generate any sound and intonation that Mr. Herrmann would have used if he were narrating these new books himself.

☆ He’s Narrating Your New Audiobook. He’s Also Been Dead for Nearly 10 Years.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Nestlé Says Less Than Half of Its Main Portfolio Is Ranked as Healthy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Joshua Kirby | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Nestlé SA promised it will work to boost the nutritional value of its snacks, drinks and food products, after most of its portfolio was rated as unhealthy. Less than half of Nestlé’s main food-and-drink portfolio is considered healthy, according to the results of an international nutrient profiling system that the Swiss food company published for the first time. Nestlé started using it last year with the aim of boosting transparency about the nutritional value of its products. “Our focus is on improving the nutritional value of our products,” Nestlé said. The rankings from the Access to Nutrition Initiative rate companies on their practices and disclosure, including on ensuring healthy products and influencing consumer choices.

☆ Albert Reichmann’s Miami Beach House Asks $29.9 Million
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Sarah Paynter | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Be the first to know about the biggest and best luxury home sales and listings by signing up for our Mansion Deals email alert. The family of the late real-estate developer Albert Reichmann, who fled Nazi invasions across Europe in his childhood and later helped Jewish residents leave the Soviet Union, is listing his waterfront Miami Beach home for $29.9 million.

☆ Entenmann’s is bringing back its see-through packaging
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ ‘The Last Campaign’ Review: The Battles of Sherman and Geronimo
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Andrew R. Graybill | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

That, however, is considerably more overlap than between the protagonists featured in H.W. Brands’s latest book, “The Last Campaign: Sherman, Geronimo and the War for America.” Despite their twin billing, the general and the Apache leader do not cross paths in the book, and apparently never met. Moreover, while “Heat” remains original and taut (despite its nearly three-hour runtime), “The Last Campaign” is predictable and baggy, following an established path now beaten to dust by generations of professional and popular historians. At first blush, author and subject seem well matched. Mr. Brands is a talented storyteller, with a novelist’s feel for pacing and detail.

☆ Credit Suisse finds new genre of loose crisis talk
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Reuters reported on Monday that financial regulator Finma is reviewing remarks the Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) chair made in a punishing period late last year. He said in early December that outflows during October, mainly in wealth management, had “completely flattened out”, “partially reversed” and “basically stopped”. He could argue that the outflows had indeed stabilised when he spoke, but then deteriorated again afterwards. Either way, the usual argument for speaking up is to counteract negative rumours, which in Credit Suisse’s case swirled on social media. Credit Suisse’s 6% share fall after the Reuters report suggests that silence might have been a better guard against both risks.

☆ The 2023 Super Bowl Ads Will Feature Booze, Betting and Jesus
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Megan Graham | Patrick Coffee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +10 min

The Super Bowl ads on Sunday are poised to promote an unusual mix of alcohol brands, gambling and Jesus. The Super Bowl still regularly draws an audience of around 100 million people, making it TV’s biggest event of the year and advertising’s biggest night. Planters’ Super Bowl ad features comedians mocking Mr. Peanut. The ads are likely to strike a lighter tone than the occasionally somber messages of Super Bowl ads in recent, highly politicized years or the early pandemic, said Anjali S. Bal, an associate professor of marketing at Babson College. Many Super Bowl advertisers have again released their ads well before Super Bowl Sunday to increase their chances of being seen.

☆ Unilever’s New Chief Faces Tough Balancing Act
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Aaron Back | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Unilever posted lukewarm results on Thursday that underscore the challenges awaiting its incoming chief executive. The maker of Dove Soap and Hellmann’s Mayonnaise said it saw underlying sales growth of 9.2% from a year earlier in the fourth quarter thanks to sharply higher prices. Pricing was up 13.3%, while volumes declined 3.6%. Outgoing Chief Executive Alan Jope said on a conference call with analysts that the company will need to raise prices even more to offset continuing cost inflation this year.

☆ Super Bowl ads lean on stars, humor to grab attention
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] Musician Ozzy Osbourne takes part in a Super Bowl ad for Workday, in this undated handout photo provided by Workday. Big-name celebrities are not uncommon in Super Bowl ads. A 30-second Super Bowl spot this year sold for a little over $7 million, according to a person familiar with the ad sales. “Advertisers want people talking about their brand, and not just during the 30 to 60 seconds of (Super Bowl) air time,” Rucker said. Some stars will poke fun at themselves or their careers in Super Bowl ads.

☆ Bayer’s rude health lays better path for breakup
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Aimee Donnellan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Activists like Jeff Ubben’s Inclusive Capital Partners may now, however, be in a better position to push for a breakup. Smaller peer Bluebell Capital Partners has also bought in recently. Using UBS forecasts, they would be worth 50 billion euros and 88 billion euros respectively. Its smaller consumer drugs division might fetch another 18 billion euros, using peer Reckitt Benckiser’s (RKT.L) 12 times multiple. Add them up, take off debt, pension liabilities and a further 6 billion euros of future Roundup litigation costs, and Bayer’s equity could be worth nearly 110 billion euros.

☆ Six N.F.L. Players Show Football’s Grind on Their Feet and Hands
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Ken Belson | Joe Drape | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +19 min

Players Show Football’s Grind on Their Feet and HandsOver the course of the long and brutal N.F.L. season, players’ feet and hands take a beating on nearly every snap. But in practice a few days later, he was running drills and landed awkwardly, spraining an ankle and stretching the tendons in his right foot. The next week Jones caught six passes for 109 yards and three touchdowns as the Jaguars shocked the Dallas Cowboys, 40-34. “The therapist spends a lot of time on my hands and feet,” he said.

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - British fund manager Terry Smith accused Unilever (ULVR.L) on Tuesday of "virtue signalling" with its ethically-focused marketing, in his latest salvo against the consumer goods giant. Yet the company had recently added activist investor Nelson Peltz to its board. On Tuesday, Smith reiterated "we don’t know how well it (Hellmann's) would have grown without the (virtue signalling) 'purpose’", adding that "maybe Hellmann’s would be growing as fast or even faster without its ‘purpose'". The words virtue signalling were struck through in Smith's letter. "Shouldn’t we have some idea how Unilever and its management have performed before they are allowed to do any more acquisitions?

Musk's email said hiring Perkins Coie was "an error on the part of a member of the Twitter team." A Perkins Coie spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk tweeted on Dec. 8 that Twitter "isn't using Perkins Coie" as outside counsel and urged other companies to boycott the firm. He singled out a former Perkins Coie lawyer, Michael Sussmann, who advised Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign while at the firm. In May, Musk tweeted that Perkins Coie and another large law firm were made up of "white-shoe lawyers" who "thrive on corruption."

☆ France stand firm to overpower gallant Morocco
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Mark Gleeson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"There's emotion, there's pride, there's going to be a final step, we've been together with the players for a month, it's never easy, there's happiness so far," said coach Didier Deschamps. France found themselves in an absorbing battle as Morocco showed them no deference and made many chances of their own, coming close to an equaliser. The world champions’ defence had to scramble several times, including a late goalline clearance and Morocco struck the post with a spectacular bicycle effort. France swept forward and converted their first chance through Hernandez to put their opponents on the back foot. NO FAIRYTALEWhile there was to be no fairytale continuation of their unprecedented run to the last four, Morocco exited with their heads held high.

☆ Grant Wahl: A charming, kind and talented journalist
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Don Riddell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The American soccer journalist Grant Wahl, who’d also been covering the game at Lusail, had died. The LED board shows a photo of Grant Wahl prior to the quarterfinal match between England and France. Wahl pictured at an awards ceremony in Doha during the World Cup. Grant Wahl (left) being interviewed by CNN's Don Riddel in Qatar. He was charming, kind and just so happy to be covering his eighth men’s World Cup and the game he loved.

☆ France tops England 2-1 to advance to World Cup semifinals
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

AL KHOR, Qatar — Kylian Mbappe and France made it back to the semifinals of the World Cup on Saturday by beating England 2-1. The Moroccans became the first African team to reach the semifinals at the World Cup by beating Portugal 1-0. England, which lost to Italy on penalties in the final of last year’s European Championship, reached the semifinals at the 2018 World Cup. After scoring 12 goals on the way to the quarterfinals in Qatar, England trailed in the match for the first time at the World Cup. Mbappe is the leading scorer at the World Cup with five goals, one more that Giroud and Lionel Messi.

☆ Chess.com, Magnus Carlsen Court Filings Fire Back at Hans Niemann’s Allegations in Cheating Lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Andrew Beaton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Lawyers for world champion Magnus Carlsen and Chess.com moved to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Hans Moke Niemann, the teenage American grandmaster who is facing bombshell cheating allegations, writing in court filings Friday that Niemann’s claims are a public relations ploy with no factual or legal basis. Chess.com’s filings say that Niemann’s complaint presents no evidence for any sort of conspiracy to damage his career, and that Niemann has failed to plausibly show how anything Chess.com has said about him is false.

☆ Rape charge in Australia Parliament case is dropped over mental health worries
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

The Associated Press does not usually identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but Higgins has chosen to identify herself in the media. Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold said he dropped the case based on medical evidence that a trial could cost Higgins’ life. While the decision to drop the case was disappointing, Higgins’ health came first, the statement said. Speak up against rape, speak up against injustice, to speak up and share my experiences with others. I told the truth no matter how uncomfortable or unflattering to the court,” a tearful Higgins told reporters outside court.

CNN —Iran state media has called for the US to be kicked out of the 2022 World Cup after the United States Soccer Federation changed Iran’s flag on its social media platforms to show support for protesters in Iran. A now-deleted graphic of the Group B standings posted on Saturday displayed the Iranian flag only bearing its green, white and red colors. “We have the main flag on our website and other places.” The emblem is currently back on the flag on US Soccer’s social media channels. A US soccer federation screenshot displaying Iran's national flag on social media without the emblem of the Islamic Republic. “No matter how much I can respect what you did inside the pitch, those remarks about Iran Culture, Iran National Team and my Players are a disgrace to Football.

☆ Iowa GOP threatens to move caucuses to Halloween to mess with Democrats
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Natasha Korecki | Natasha Korecki Is A Senior National Political Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

But if a different state were to move into Iowa’s slot for Democrats, Kaufmann said he will make sure he keeps jumping so Iowa’s Republican caucus goes first. Kaufmann’s position could complicate the overall schedule even more since New Hampshire has a law on the books that it has to hold its primary just after Iowa’s caucuses. That old system began with the Iowa caucuses, then went to the New Hampshire primary, Nevada and South Carolina. Dozens of states have now applied to take one of the early state positions. The Democratic National Committee’s rules and bylaws committee is scheduled to meet in early December in Washington to discuss the presidential primary schedule.

☆ California mother charged after 3-year-old son dies of fentanyl overdose
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Marlene Lenthang | Marlene Lenthang Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

A California mother has been charged with child endangerment after her 3-year-old son died of a fentanyl overdose earlier this year, police say. Jennifer Mae Niemann, 30, was the primary caregiver of the boy and was present when her child died on May 4, the San Luis Obispo Police Department said Thursday. Police received a call at 10:15 p.m. local time about an unresponsive 3-year-old boy who was turning blue and not breathing at a home in the 1600 block of Mill Street in San Luis Obispo. The boy was transported to a nearby hospital but never regained consciousness and was pronounced deceased that evening. On Monday, San Luis Obispo Police detectives went to San Diego to attempt to locate Niemann, who they described as transient, and she was located Tuesday and taken into custody.

☆ Trial abandoned in high profile Australian Parliament rape trial over juror misconduct
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

“I have received evidence that at least one juror has had access to research material that was not provided to the jury during the trial,” McCallum said. “It is beyond question the conduct of a juror is such to abort the trial,” she added. The jury was supposed to reach its verdict solely on the evidence presented during the 12-day trial. Speak up against rape, speak up against injustice, to speak up and share my experiences with others. I told the truth no matter how uncomfortable or unflattering to the court,” a tearful Higgins told reporters outside court.

☆ Antoine Griezmann scores ‘Olimpico’ goal as Atlético Madrid beats Real Betis 2-1
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( George Ramsay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Antoine Griezmann scored twice, including directly from a corner, as Atlético Madrid defeated Real Betis 2-1 on Sunday to move up to third in Spain’s La Liga. The French international scored his second through the legs of Silva after neat interplay with Ángel Correa and substitute Matheus Cunha. It was a frustrating end to the game for the home side, which is now fifth in La Liga – three points behind Atlético and 11 behind leader Real Madrid. Lewandowski’s first-half effort, which came after a brilliant run from Dembélé, took the Polish striker to 12 goals in La Liga this season – five more than any other player. Barça is now three points behind Real Madrid, its only defeat in the league coming in El Clásico earlier this month.

☆ How Nedd Brockmann 'went through hell and back 10 times' as he ran nearly 2,500 miles across Australia in 47 days
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( George Ramsay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —To get a sense of how vast Australia really is, just ask Nedd Brockmann. Brockmann finishes his record run at Bondi Beach in Sydney. With my little figure now, I was getting thrown around.”Over the course of his 47-day run, Brockmann learned to endure. “I think 70-80% of it was like: we’re in the depths of hell,” he says, “and 20% of it was pretty okay.”Huge crowds turned out to welcome Brockmann at Bondi Beach. “People were just so inspired by the getting up each day, and that’s what this run became,” says Brockmann.

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