All posts tagged: Created

He created an outrageous home from Disneyland and pop-culture moments

He created an outrageous home from Disneyland and pop-culture moments

Published by Sam Flores

Brandon Shahniani is obsessed with the 1980s sitcom “The Golden Girls,” so much so that he decorated his breezy bedroom in pastel tones that would make Blanche Devereaux, the show’s famously flirtatious character, green with envy. “I want to live in 1980s Miami Beach,” says the 28-year-old who’s the co-owner of the Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain in South Pasadena, a Disney adult, and occasionally, the drag persona known as ’Naynay. “When I ask myself, ‘Where would I want to wake up?,’ the answer is right here,” he says. “And I sleep really well here.” His bedroom, which he calls ’Naynay’s Expo Beach Resort, looks and feels like a hotel, with a soothing scent reminiscent of Coppertone sunscreen coming from a specialized scent-delivery machine, a resort activity schedule on the dresser and an emergency evacuation map on the back of the door. “At ’Naynay’s Expo Beach Resort, there is a light sunscreen scent that, along with the music and the visual queues, makes you actually feel like you’re on vacation in Miami Beach in …

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair review – the TV magic they’ve created here is absolutely miraculous | Television

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair review – the TV magic they’ve created here is absolutely miraculous | Television

Published by Sam Flores

At this point, Bryan Cranston is firmly entrenched as one of the world’s finest actors. He has seven Emmys, two Tonys and a Golden Globe to his name. History, quite rightly, will remember him as one of the greats. That said – and this really wasn’t a sentence I expected to write a couple of hours ago – there is a distinct possibility that the greatest work of his entire career might be the scene in the Malcolm in the Middle revival where he thrashes around naked as he is overcome by a drug-induced ego death. Perhaps this does make some small amount of sense. Although Malcolm in the Middle became best known as an absurd counterpoint to Breaking Bad – the sheer dramatic intensity of the latter playing against the generic sitcom daddery of the former – those of us who always loved the show knew that Cranston spent a lot of it going full throttle. Malcolm in the Middle, after all, was the sitcom that kept cutting back to Cranston having his back …

Howard Stern’s former assistant sues, claiming famed radio personality created hostile workplace

Howard Stern’s former assistant sues, claiming famed radio personality created hostile workplace

Published by Daniella Wilson

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Howard Stern’s former assistant is suing the famed radio personality and his wife for allegedly subjecting her to a hostile work environment while employed at their 20,000-square-foot Hamptons estate, according to court filings reviewed by The Independent. In a state lawsuit filed Sunday, Leslie Kuhn, who began working for Stern in 2022 as his office manager at SiriusXM, says she was made the shock jock’s executive assistant the following year, and relocated to Southampton, New York, in 2024 – at the pair’s request – to provide “assistance with such things as managing the staff of the mansion, setting staffing schedules, completing staff payroll and managing general household operations, including Beth Stern’s extensive at-home feline rescue and fostering operations.” Beth Stern is a longtime animal activist who rescues and fosters abandoned dogs and cats, and is the national spokesperson and …

How Bravo Cast, Created New Series

How Bravo Cast, Created New Series

Published by Daniella Wilson

The smallest state with the biggest attitude is already making waves in the Real Housewives franchise.  Last May, Bravo announced that Rhode Island would be the latest addition to its repertoire, enticing viewers to see what the women of the teeny tiny state could be getting into. As it turns out, there’s a lot going on in the smallest state in the nation.   The arrival of the new series arrives amid the landmark 20th anniversary of the whole franchise itself, as The Real Housewives of Orange County debuted on March 21, 2006. It’s a monumental year for the reality television phenomenon that will later be celebrated with The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th special this year.  NCBUniversal’s evp of unscripted content, Rachel Smith, tells The Hollywood Reporter that it was not a “conscious decision” to launch a new series, even though it’s such “an auspicious occasion this year.” Instead, The Real Housewives of Rhode Island naturally presented itself.  Creating a new Real Housewives is a tall task, one that can be birthed in …

Discover the Retirement Home for Elderly Musicians Created by Giuseppe Verdi: Created in 1899, It Still Lives On Today

Discover the Retirement Home for Elderly Musicians Created by Giuseppe Verdi: Created in 1899, It Still Lives On Today

Published by José Betancourt

Among my works, the one I like best is the Home that I have had built in Milan for accom­mo­dat­ing old singers not favored by for­tune, or who, when they were young did not pos­sess the virtue of sav­ing. Poor and dear com­pan­ions of my life!  —Giuseppe Ver­di Is there a rem­e­dy for the iso­la­tion of old age? What about the jol­ly fra­ter­ni­ty and com­pet­i­tive­ness of an art col­lege dorm, as envi­sioned by opera com­pos­er Giuseppe Ver­di? Short­ly before his death, the com­pos­er donat­ed all roy­al­ties from his operas to the con­struc­tion and admin­is­tra­tion of a lux­u­ri­ous retreat for retired musi­cians, designed by his librettist’s broth­er, archi­tect Camil­lo Boito. Com­plet­ed in 1899, Casa Ver­di still serves elder­ly musi­cians today—up to 60 at a time. Res­i­dents of Casa Ver­di include alum­nae of the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Opera and the Roy­al Opera House. Guests have worked along­side such nota­bles as Chet Bak­er and Maria Callas. Com­pe­ti­tion for res­i­den­tial slots is stiff. To qual­i­fy, one must have been a pro­fes­sion­al musi­cian or music teacher. Those select­ed enjoy room, board, and med­ical …

The books that created the César Chávez myth — and those that brought him down

The books that created the César Chávez myth — and those that brought him down

Published by Sam Flores

Covered marquees. Downed statues. Painted-over murals. A canceled holiday. California has effectively exorcised César Chávez from the public sphere just weeks after a New York Times investigation found two women who said the legendary labor leader sexually assaulted them when they were teenage girls in the 1970s. Just as explosive was the revelation by his longtime lieutenant, Dolores Huerta, that he raped her in the 1960s. My prediction for the next place we’ll see a Chávez purge: books about him, which number into the dozens and span from academic treatises to children’s tales. But before critics relegate those texts to the banned section, folks should read some of them to see how writers helped establish the Chávez myth and propagated it for decades. The books that created the Chávez legend The tendency to elevate him above other activists was there from the start. In 1967, John Gregory Dunne published “Delano: The Story of the California Grape Strike,” which saw the author (and husband to Joan Didion) capture the essence of el movimiento in its earliest …

‘Typosquatting’: How to spot fake news sites created by AI – The Observers

‘Typosquatting’: How to spot fake news sites created by AI – The Observers

Published by Sam Flores

Courrier France 24, Sud Ouest Direct, 20minutes.com… they sound like real news outlets, but they are not. Learn how to spot sites created by AI. Since 2023, fake media sites, often created by AI, have been appearing online. The sites publish articles aimed at misleading users or getting views for ad revenue. Here are four tips for spotting fake media sites. Tip #1: Check the URL In 2023, an article appeared online that looked like it was published by the French newspaper Le Parisien. Using the same logo and graphic style as the real newspaper, the article reported that wheat from Ukraine, meant for children in Africa, was instead being used as pig feed in Europe. But the URL – “leparisien.ltd” – showed that the article was fake. The newspaper’s real address is “leparisien.fr”. Imitating a site by using a URL that is close to the real one is called “typosquatting”. Tip #2: Check the real news site. See whether the article appears on the real news site. If you search for the pig feed article on …

How Chuck Norris Created the Manosphere

How Chuck Norris Created the Manosphere

Published by Daniella Wilson

In 2010 I visited Asheville, North Carolina, to cover an inaugural film event called ActionFest, inspired by Chuck Norris and co-founded by his brother Aaron. For three days in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, audiences turned out to see movies Chuck Norris was in, movies Chuck Norris liked and movies that as far as I could tell had nothing to do with Chuck Norris but that made people spew Chuck Norris Facts anyway. Having just turned 70 and endured more above-the-neck roundhouses than a human head was built to endure, the real Norris was slowing down and not a major presence at the festival. The people lining up for all-day passes didn’t care. To them Norris wasn’t a personality — he was an idea. And this was an event designed to celebrate that idea. Norris died last week at 86. Mostly obituaries dutifully cited his long career. In fact it unspooled in three acts, each of which would have been impressive on its own. First came martial arts. Norris held black belts in karate, taekwondo, Tang Soo Do, …

‘Zombie’ cells created by transplanting genomes into dead bacteria

‘Zombie’ cells created by transplanting genomes into dead bacteria

Published by skeptic

Colonies of bacterial cells under a microscope. The blue colony is expressing the synthetic genome; the white colonies are Mycoplasma capricolum cells that survived the mitomycin C treatment Nacyra Assad-Garcia A living, synthetic cell has been made by transplanting a complete genome into a dead bacterium, bringing it back to life. The breakthrough could help synthetic biology live up to its huge, but still distant, promise of engineering organisms to create sustainable fuels, pharmaceuticals and new materials. Synthetic biology involves tweaking biological systems or creating new ones to introduce novel functions, such as rewriting yeast DNA so that the organisms make desirable chemicals. In an effort to make more versatile engineered microbes, in 2010 researchers synthesised a bacterial genome and then transplanted it into a living cell, creating what they called the first synthetic cell. But there was a problem. It was very difficult to be sure whether the cell was truly being governed by the synthetic genome rather than its original genome, because bacteria frequently absorb genetic material from the environment and add it …