All posts tagged: Shaped

How Silicon Valley shaped Fed nominee Kevin Warsh

How Silicon Valley shaped Fed nominee Kevin Warsh

Published by Sam Flores

With his penchant for suits, ties and sweater vests, Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh doesn’t share the rumpled look of many of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs he calls friends. But they still count him as one of their own. “You wouldn’t be hanging out with us if you were as normal as you claim to be,” Palantir CEO Alex Karp told Warsh on a podcast in 2022. If confirmed by the Senate, Warsh wouldn’t just be the wealthiest Fed chair in history, he would also be the most tech savvy and the closest to the tech bro community to ever sit in the office. Warsh’s connection to Karp and other titans of Silicon Valley such as reclusive PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang and prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen go back decades — to college at Stanford and to investments made alongside some of them beginning soon after Warsh resigned as a Fed governor in 2011. Those connections and his focus on tech investments have shaped Warsh’s almost evangelical view of how …

From ‘market value’ to levelling up, the manosphere is shaped by a financial mindset

From ‘market value’ to levelling up, the manosphere is shaped by a financial mindset

Published by Sam Flores

Louis Theroux’s recent Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere shines a spotlight on masculinity influencers and the dangers of online misogyny, conspiracy theories and anti-feminist ideologies. Responses to the documentary have ranged from outrage to disbelief, criticising how the manfluencers treat the women in their lives and discussing the importance of role models in countering manosphere influences. But what has been less talked about is how it reveals the relentless pursuit of financial gain driving these “manfluencers” and the language they use to normalise their views. Amid a cost of living crisis and a declining job market, Theroux shows why “manfluencers” resonate so strongly with their target audience of boys and young men. Theroux meets four key figures in the manosphere, all of whom sell a carefully curated lifestyle based on conspicuous consumption, hypersexuality and an “alpha masculinity” mindset to their millions of followers. Although this may seem like a tempting lifestyle to some, the main effect is to reinforce a sense of inadequacy and failure among their audiences. Do this enough times, then you can …

‘It was an exorcism’: how heartbreak, queer rebirth and finding love over Only Connect shaped Wendy Eisenberg’s stunning new album | Music

‘It was an exorcism’: how heartbreak, queer rebirth and finding love over Only Connect shaped Wendy Eisenberg’s stunning new album | Music

Published by Sam Flores

It’s 30 December 2023. Wendy Eisenberg is walking and cannot stop. At an all-night rave in Bushwick featuring Detroit house legend Theo Parrish the previous night, they became paralysed by anxiety, returned home, “threw up a lot” and then set off with no destination in mind. “I walked for that entire day,” Eisenberg says by video call from their Brooklyn home. “I couldn’t stop moving my legs. I felt like I needed to reauthor myself, and this was how I was going to do it.” While out on their fevered walk, Eisenberg ran into an old friend. “She told me: ‘You seem like you’re having a kind of exorcism.’ Then she added: ‘Maybe just play some guitar?’” Thus diagnosed, Eisenberg went home immediately and began writing the music that became their sublime new self-titled album. “I remember reading how Cat Power wrote Moon Pix in 10 hours, in a dream state,” says Eisenberg. Many of these songs were written in a similar state, across three or four months after that “strange, mystical moment”. In the …

How Taylor Frankie Paul’s controversies shaped her journey to the Bachelorette

How Taylor Frankie Paul’s controversies shaped her journey to the Bachelorette

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Scandal has lined every step of the way throughout Taylor Frankie Paul’s rise to fame, and the controversy surrounding the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star is only becoming more complicated. Just days away from the premiere of Paul’s already divisive turn as the lead of The Bachelorette, reports emerged that production on SLOMW’s fifth season has been paused amid what police confirmed is an active domestic assault allegation regarding Paul and her ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen. The Draper City Police Department said that “allegations have been made in both directions,” but that no charges have been filed yet. News of the alleged dispute, first reported by TMZ, came as a shock to SLOMW fans who had hoped that Paul’s recent search for love on ABC’s infamous dating show would put an end to her toxic on-and-off relationship with Mortensen — who …

Why some people still believe that aliens shaped ancient civilisations

Why some people still believe that aliens shaped ancient civilisations

Published by skeptic

Could ancient humans really have built the pyramids without extraterrestrial help? Or do such questions reveal more about modern anxieties than the past itself? The idea that aliens assisted the builders of ancient monuments was promoted by the Swiss author Erich von Däniken in his bestselling book Chariot of the Gods – published in 1968. Von Däniken died in January 2026, but his vision of ancient astronauts still captivates millions. The author had pointed to ancient structures such as the pyramids, along with enigmatic ancient artefacts, as supposed evidence that beings from beyond Earth shaped the civilisations of the past. Though these ideas have been repeatedly debunked, television shows such as the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens continue to air similar narratives. Erich von Däniken’s theories emerged at a distinct historical moment. They crystallised during the cold war, amid fears of nuclear annihilation, the space race and rapid technological change. As humans prepared to leave Earth, while simultaneously confronting their own destructive power, the idea of ancient astronauts offered both cosmic reassurance and existential drama. The …

The cyberpunk classic that shaped modern sci-fi is finally coming to TV — everything we know

The cyberpunk classic that shaped modern sci-fi is finally coming to TV — everything we know

Published by skeptic

Between Severance, Pluribus, For All Mankind, Foundation, Silo, Dark Matter, and more, Apple TV+ has absolutely marked itself as the premiere streaming service for science fiction TV. They’re now taking on their biggest challenge yet: a TV adaptation of Neuromancer, William Gibson’s 1984 novel about a hacker who gets caught up in a globe-trotting conspiracy. Neuromancer is a hugely influential book, but despite numerous attempts has never been adapted for the screen. If anyone can do it, it’s the sci-fi nerds at Apple TV. What is Neuromancer about? The seminal cyberpunk story Credit: Ace Neuromancer is about Case, a hacker who takes a job working for a shady ex-military officer named Armitage. Along with the cybernetically enhanced Molly, who’s also working for Armitage, Case looks into his employer, and ends up going down a rabbit hole that leads to the Tessier-Ashpool family, who have created a pair of artificial intelligences that want to merge into a super-intelligence. Along the way, Case will meet a sociopathic thief named Peter Riviera, the enigmatic Lady 3Jane, and her ninja …

Habermas, the Philosopher Who Shaped Germany’s Post-War Conscience

Habermas, the Philosopher Who Shaped Germany’s Post-War Conscience

Published by Sam Flores

BERLIN, March 14 (Reuters) – Juergen Habermas, best-known for his theory of political consensus-building, shaped the discourse of post-war Germany ⁠more ⁠than any other popular intellectual. He died on Saturday, aged 96, in ⁠Starnberg, Germany, the publisher Suhrkamp said. Over the course of seven decades, his public interventions – from searing critiques of fascist thought in the 1950s to more recent ​warnings against resurgent militarism and nationalism in Germany – steered the country at critical junctions.  Not only his longevity, but also the renewed relevance of his ideas are remarkable in a country where post-war pacifism is waning and the far-right Alternative for ‌Germany (AfD) has become the second-strongest party in parliament. Born on June ‌18, 1929 to a bourgeois family in Dusseldorf, Juergen Habermas underwent two surgeries after birth and in early childhood for a cleft palate. A resulting speech impediment is often cited as having influenced his work on communication. He was raised ⁠in a staunchly Protestant household. ⁠His father, an economist, joined the Nazi party in 1933 but was no more than …

The apocrypha, Christianity’s ‘hidden’ texts, may not be in the Bible – but they have shaped tradition for centuries

The apocrypha, Christianity’s ‘hidden’ texts, may not be in the Bible – but they have shaped tradition for centuries

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — Of Jesus’ 12 disciples, Saint Peter is one of the most important. In the Book of Matthew, Jesus declares that Peter is the “rock” on which “I will build my church,” and Catholic tradition considers him the first pope. Martyred in Rome in the first century, Peter asked to be crucified upside down so that he would not die in the same way as Christ. However, that famous story is not in the Bible. It appears in a text called “Acts of Peter,” an “apocryphal” writing. In ancient Greek, “apocrypha” means “hidden.” The word is used for texts that are not part of an approved set of religious books, especially Christian texts outside the official biblical canon. Yet these books are not so hidden. Some of them, like Acts of Peter, have shaped Christian tradition for centuries and are read by many people today. These stories are not only fun to read, but also provide valuable information about ideas that interested early Christians. In my research as a scholar of early Christianity, …

‘Europe’s political landscape is shaped by two men who hold it in contempt: Trump and Putin’

‘Europe’s political landscape is shaped by two men who hold it in contempt: Trump and Putin’

Published by Sam Flores

In their own way, a Russian and an American are shaping the Europe of tomorrow. As the war in Ukraine enters its fifth year, Vladimir Putin continues to fuel a sense of a lasting threat hanging over Europe. Meanwhile, another year of unfettered Trumpism in the White House has deepened the ideological divide between Europe and the United States. Europeans have drawn their lessons from this almost simultaneous double pressure. They have begun to rearm after spending too long reaping the dividends of the end of the Cold War. They also now realize how urgent it is to achieve at least some strategic autonomy from a US that has become hostile to them. Whatever the uncertainties of current events, Europe’s political landscape remains fundamentally shaped by two men who hold it in contempt. The cordial exchanges at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February did nothing to resolve the underlying dispute dividing the West. When US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in his speech that the US does not want “allies to be shackled by …

Kelly Klein: The Muse Who Shaped ’90s Fashion With Her Friend Carolyn Bessette Kennedy

Kelly Klein: The Muse Who Shaped ’90s Fashion With Her Friend Carolyn Bessette Kennedy

Published by Sam Flores

Together with Kelly, Calvin Klein took his eponymous brand to the next level. She was the one who came up with the idea of adapting men’s underwear for women. From the casual comment “there’s something sexy about wearing your boyfriend’s underwear” came one of the brand’s best-sellers and iconic designs, generating $70 million in 1984. Kelly Rector became a true reflection of the Calvin Klein woman, one who encapsulated glamour and sophistication in a simple cashmere knit dress. The couple married in 1986 while on a business trip to Rome. She wore an ensemble of silk pencil skirt, matching blazer, and a lace bodice, designed by Calvin. They were married until 2006, when their divorce was made official, although the couple had separated 10 years earlier. Ron Galella, Ltd./Getty Images But beyond being Calvin Klein’s wife or his muse, Kelly now defines herself on her Instagram account’s bio as a “designer, photographer, interior designer, author, ceramacist, and mother.” She has edited seven photography books. The first one, Pools, launched in 1992 at a party in …