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☆ A newly-released map has sparked a treasure hunt for $19 million of Nazi loot – but US soldiers may have got their first
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A map indicating where the Nazi loot might be buried was released in The Netherlands. The trove was said to have been buried by four German soldiers in World War II and has never been found. The map indicates the treasure is buried near the town of Ommeren in the municipality of Buren, central Holland. The Buren council website warned, "Experts point out that the area is close to the frontline of the Second World War. Nothing was found, and it was suspected locals may have seen the German soldiers burying the loot and liberated it themselves.

☆ 411 is going out of service for millions of Americans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Starting in January, AT&T customers with digital landlines won’t be able to dial 411 or 0 to reach an operator or get directory assistance. The human telephone operator, a job that came to be dominated by White women during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 2021, there were fewer than 4,000 telephone operators, down from a peak of around 420,000 in the 1970s, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. “0” became universal for operator assistance and “411” was the number for directory assistance. By 2004, at the dawn of the smartphone age, 56,000 people were employed as telephone operators.

☆ Barbie's creator wanted Ken to have more of a 'bulge' — but Mattel refused to give the doll a prominent crotch
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Barbie creator Ruth Handler wanted the Ken doll to have a "bulge," she wrote in her autobiography. "Both the all-male design and marketing staffs, however, disagreed, so the groin on the first Ken doll was as smooth as Barbie's." "Ruth felt the design team lacked 'the guts' to give the Ken doll even the suggestion of male sex organs," Gerber wrote. "But Ruth was not political or prone to dwell on the root of cultural standards," Gerber wrote. A range of Barbie dolls for sale during the 2015 National Barbie Doll Collectors Convention.

☆ Brazilian soccer legend Pelé, winner of 3 World Cups, dead at 82
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Scott Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Showing a natural skill for the sport, Pelé eventually joined a youth team coached by the former Brazilian national team player Waldemar de Brito. Keystone/Hulton Archive/GettyBy 16, Pelé made the Brazilian national team and was playing in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. In the 1966 World Cup, Pelé played in only two of three games, scoring one goal, as Brazil was eliminated in the first round. In 1970, Pelé got World Cup redemption, going into Mexico with a Brazilian squad some considered the best team ever. He took part in World Cup draws, inaugurations and ceremonies and was involved in various Olympic opening and closing ceremonies.

☆ The tragic story of the only 3 cosmonauts who died in space
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

This Soviet crew had spent 23 days in space, setting a new record for human space flight endurance, and were finally coming home. They gathered existing equipment and hastily put together a space station that was launched on April 19, 1971. A treadmill was installed on the Salyut 1 and the cosmonauts forwent their space suits in the space station and Soyuz. But a few missteps on the ship and by the Soviet space program led to the tragic deaths of the cosmonauts. According to Siddiqi, the death of the three cosmonauts had a lasting impact on the Soviet space program afterward.

☆ Angelo Badalamenti, ‘Twin Peaks’ composer, dies at 85
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Angelo Badalamenti, the composer behind several beloved soundtracks, including David Lynch’s cult hit “Twin Peaks,” has died at 85. Badalamenti and Lynch worked together for decadesBefore he was a film composer, the Brooklyn-born Badalamenti was a musical jack-of-all-trades. “I tried to make the music have a haunting feeling,” Badalamenti said in 2019 of his “Twin Peaks” score. Film writer Scott Tobias remembered the immediate impact of watching “Twin Peaks” for the first time and recognizing it was something special. “One of the greatest.”Kyle MacLachlan, who played the unusual, coffee-loving Agent Dale Cooper on “Twin Peaks,” called Badalamenti a “brilliant and talented maestro who was a master at setting a mood.

☆ Putin's war in Ukraine looks more and more like a failure. Past Russian leaders haven't survived similar mistakes.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Joy Neumeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Instead, Russia's failing war effort has raised doubts about Putin's hold on power. For now, Putin looks secure, but past Russian leaders have suffered at home for blunders abroad. By the following summer, the Germans had taken huge swathes of Russian-controlled territory and a million Russian soldiers were dead. Captured Russian soldiers after the defeat at Tannenberg, in present-day Poland, on August 30, 1914. After an ineffectual troop surge, Gorbachev gave up on trying to improve the situation, and the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in February 1989.

☆ Is this the last Christmas for Sears?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

Easterling was at the Sears in her hometown of Jersey City, New Jersey, one of only 15 full-line Sears stores still open. The two started a catalog business selling watches and jewelry in 1888, incorporating under the Sears Roebuck name in 1893. The Sears catalog was the way many Americans first started to buy mass-produced goods. File photo/AP People shop inside a Sears store in Morton Grove, Illinois, in 1961. AP Soldiers guard a Sears store in Baltimore after riots broke out following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

☆ Lawsuit alleges investor Leon Black raped a woman inside Jeffrey Epstein's home
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN Business —Billionaire investor Leon Black has been sued by a woman alleging he “brutal[ly]” raped her at Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in spring 2002. Wigdor filed Pierson’s complaint Monday under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. The firm’s Doug Wigdor helped advocate for the new law, which was passed in May and went into effect last week. After that he called again and asked to see her, according to the complaint, but Pierson refused to see him again. In 2008, Epstein pled guilty in Florida to two felony offenses: procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution.

☆ Saudi Arabia’s victory over Argentina is the greatest upset in World Cup history, says data company
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Alasdair Howorth | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

According to sports data group Gracenote, Argentina’s 2-1 defeat by Saudi Arabia in their Group C match is the biggest upset in World Cup history. All the pre-match talk focused on Messi, one of the world’s greatest ever players who is likely playing his last World Cup. According to Gracenote, the previous most surprising World Cup win was USA’s victory against England in 1950, in which the American team had a 9.5% chance of victory. David Cannon/Getty ImagesDiego Maradona had taken the world by storm at the 1986 World Cup, delivering a succession of spectacular individual performances as Argentina claimed its secondd title. Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesAhead of the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, football had been fully professional in England for decades, though this was the English team’s first appearance at a World Cup having chosen not to appear in the previous three tournaments.

☆ Is Patagonia the end game for profits in a world of climate change?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Trevor Laurence Jockims | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

As far back as 1985, Patagonia deployed portions of its profits to the environment, via an "Earth tax." "The Patagonia model is a little more sophisticated." It often is very attractive from a corporate tax perspective, too, which has been noted of both the Ikea and Patagonia business models. One hundred percent of Patagonia profits are now committed to its new non-profit Holdfast Collective — which owns all of the company's non-voting stock (98% of the total stock). "What people fail to understand about Patagonia, both the past and the future, is that we are unapologetically a for-profit business, and we are extremely competitive," Ryan Gellert said.

☆ Bono’s new book is more than a rock star memoir. It’s also a powerful tribute to America
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

Born Paul David Hewson in Dublin, Ireland, Bono is a global rock star, an activist and an entrepreneur who is currently touring the US to promote his memoir. Bono’s book, though, is more than a rock star’s memoir. A belief in America as an idea, not a religionAs any casual fan of U2 knows, U2 has long had a close relationship with the US. Martin Luther King Jr., with their song, “Pride (In The Name of Love).”In “Surrender,” Bono pays tribute to America itself. “The search for common ground starts with a search for higher ground,” Bono writes in the memoir.

☆ Guy Fawkes Night: What those fireworks and bonfires are all about
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Francesca Street | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —Every year on November 5, skies across England, Scotland and Wales are illuminated by fireworks as Brits head out into the night to enjoy Guy Fawkes Night celebrations. Also called Fireworks Night or Bonfire Night, this autumn tradition has been a staple of the British calendar for the past 400 years. A photograph from 1955, depicting children at a school in Surrey, England, preparing the Guy Fawkes Night bonfire. What’s Guy Fawkes Night like today? Lewes Bonfire Night celebrationsEffigies of former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and fellow UK Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg are paraded through the streets of Lewes during traditional Bonfire Night celebrations in 2019.

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☆ Atthaya Thitikul: Thai teen becomes second youngest women's world No. 1 golfer
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Jack Bantock | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

In doing so Thitikul becomes the second youngest golfer to reach the summit of the women’s game. Already a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour, Thitikul is also only the second player – after Park Sung-hyun – to have reached the world No.1 slot in their rookie season. Henderson has since racked up eight wins on the LPGA Tour, her most recent coming at the LA Open in April 2021. She won her first LPGA Tour event in March 2022 at the JTBC Classic in Southern California (pictured), and in May, rose to No. 1 ranking in 2015, and today boasts 17 victories on the LPGA Tour.

☆ An embarrassing defeat 73 years ago is a preview of the problems China would face in an attack on Taiwan today
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Benjamin Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The Chinese Communist troops who stormed Kinmen island in October 1949 expected a quick victory. The planChinese Communist troops take prisoners at bayonet point after heavy fighting in Shanghai on May 21, 1949. Kinmen Island, 59 square miles in size and home to some 40,000 people, was essential to this plan. A model of a soldier in a bunker near the Hujingtou Battle Museum in Little Kinmen, Taiwan in April 2018. By day's end, the PLA troops who had retreated to the beaches had also surrendered.

☆ Ryan Fox: Heir to cricket and rugby excellence, New Zealand golfer blazes his own trail
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Jack Bantock | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Central Press / Hulton Archive / Getty ImagesThen came Wallace’s son-in-law Grant Fox, a name that needs no introduction to anyone familiar with rugby. Both Wallace and Fox were individually honored during Queen Elizabeth’s reign for services to their sports. If that wasn’t enough family sporting heritage, Wallace’s brother and son – George and Gregory – both played first-class cricket for Auckland. “It’s pretty cool to be the third generation of my family to represent New Zealand,” Fox told CNN’s The Jazzy Golfer. Marty Melville / Getty ImagesNot playing his first tournament until 18, Fox was a late bloomer, but made up for lost time emphatically.

HONG KONG — Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s first two terms in power were marked by intensifying competition and tensions with the United States. The United States does not seek conflict with China, Biden told a meeting of his top military advisers Wednesday. “China stands ready to work with the United States to find the right way to get along with each other in the new era,” he said. But China under Xi has a “superficial stability,” Johnson said. Hulton Deutsch / Corbis via Getty ImagesAt 69, Xi has appointed no obvious successor, indicating he may plan to stay in power indefinitely.

☆ Bono Is Still Trying to Figure Out U2 and Himself
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +28 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk Bono Is Still Trying to Figure Out U2 and HimselfThere are different Bonos to different people, including the man himself. You say, “But you’re U2 — you don’t need that.” What’s interesting is that we want that. But I also wrote the book to try to figure out what was going on with U2. They sound like U2 songs. Do they sound like U2 songs?

☆ Angela Lansbury, beloved star of ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ dead at 96
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Brian Lowry | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Lansbury also amassed 11 Emmy nominations for her role as Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote,” but never won. Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images Lansbury, seen here in 1945, moved to United States from England in 1940. Ron Frehm/AP Lansbury celebrates the 100th episode of the TV series "Murder, She Wrote" in 1989. Mychal Watts/WireImage/Getty Images Lansbury, with various Broadway cast members, performs at the Light the Lights Broadway Is Back! Jonathan Brady/Getty Images Lansbury attends the 25th anniversary screening of "Beauty and the Beast" in 2016.

☆ Mountain Girl’s heartbreaking memoir: An icon of the Sixties opens up about Jerry Garcia, Ken Kesey, and what the age of free love was really like
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-09 | by ( David Kushner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +40 min

Now 76 and living in Oregon, Mountain Girl has gave us an exclusive look at her memoir. Altamont, the free concert that Mountain Girl and Jerry Garcia helped organized, was meant to revive the spirit of the Sixties. Today, 60 years since she took that ride with Neal Cassady, Mountain Girl is still forging her own path. Before I leave Kesey's farm, Mountain Girl and I walk outside to the old brown barn where Furthur now rests. But for Mountain Girl, it lives forever, an emblem of everything her generation believed in, and all that they achieved.

☆ A 3-way game of geriatric chicken featuring Trump, Biden, and Bernie has younger Democrats and Republicans itching for change
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Darren Samuelsohn | Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The 2024 presidential race is already coming into view. These are arguments Biden is readying to run on as Trump — despite his numerous legal troubles — flirts with another White House bid. It's also the case that Sanders' 2024 aspirations remain in their own holding pattern until Biden makes his own formal declaration of his intentions. It's a fact the White House doesn't want to talk about. "The fact they both made it to the White House makes them think they both know how to get to the White House," said Brinkley.

☆ Queen Elizabeth led the UK for 70 years. Here are the most important lessons on leadership from her reign.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-14 | by ( Rachel Durose | Shana Lebowitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Queen Elizabeth II, who died on September 8, was the longest-ruling monarch in British history. Queen Elizabeth II didn't build such a devoted following by merely wearing a crown. Here are the most meaningful leadership lessons from Queen Elizabeth II's reign. To counteract this declining public image, Queen Elizabeth II led the United Kingdom by putting her people above all else, McGovern said. Queen Elizabeth II making her first Christmas broadcast to the nation from Sandringham House in Norfolk, England on December 25, 1952.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II inspects a guard of honor at the Presidential palace in New Delhi during her visit to India in 1997. Queen Elizabeth II meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Buckingham Palace in London, England in 2015. “If you don’t see people mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth in India, (it is) because she doesn’t have that connection with the new generation of Indians,” Ravi Mishra said. Queen Elizabeth II meets Indira Gandhi at Hyderabad House in Delhi, India, in 1983. The proposition before this house is the principle of owing reparations … the question is: is there a debt?… As far as I’m concerned, the ability to acknowledge a wrong that has been done, to simply say sorry, will go a far, far, far longer way than some percentage of GDP in the form of aid,” Tharoor said.

☆ Cloud of colonialism hangs over Queen Elizabeth’s legacy in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-10 | by ( Stephanie Busari | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Lagos, Nigeria CNN —The death of Queen Elizabeth II has prompted an outpouring of reflection and reaction online. Among the worst atrocities under British rule occurred during the Mau Mau uprising, which started in 1952 – the year Queen Elizabeth took the throne. Queen Elizabeth II on her way to the Kumasi Durbah with Kwame Nkrumah, President of Ghana, during her tour of Ghana, November 1961. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip wave to a crowd of schoolchildren at a rally held at a racecourse in Ibadan, Nigeria, February 15, 1956. Queen Elizabeth II dances with President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, during her visit to Accra, Ghana, in 1961.

☆ Why is Friday the 13th unlucky? The cultural origins of an enduring superstition
▼ + stars: | 2021-08-13 | by ( Christobel Hastings | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

There’s even a name to describe the irrational dread of the date: paraskevidekatriaphobia — a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a fear of the number 13. What we do know, though, is that both Friday and the number 13 have been regarded as unlucky in certain cultures throughout history. Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" popularized the erroneous theory this is the original of the Friday the 13th superstition. If we dig deeper, though, we also find evidence that both Fridays and the number 13 have long been regarded as a harbinger of good fortune. “Every time I’ve won an award I’ve been seated in either the 13th seat, the 13th row, the 13th section or row M, which is the 13th letter.

Persons: Judas Iscariot, Jesus, Roberto Serra, ” Charles Panati, Loki, Hodr, Balder, Panati, Jesus Christ, Knights Templar, Dan Brown's, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Solomon, Steve Roud, “, Thomas W, Jason Voorhees, Alamy, Dan Brown’s, you’d, ”, Frigg, Norse, Frigga, ” Panati, Taylor Swift, Larry Busacca, I’ve, it’s Organizations: CNN, Iguana Press, Knights, Hulton, Fertility, MTV Locations: Greece, Italy, Valhalla, Scandinavia, Europe, Britain, Ireland, “

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