Saturday, September 26, 2015

TIME

TIME

Everyone Is in Love With Michelle Obama’s Amazing Vera Wang Dress

Posted: 26 Sep 2015 07:42 AM PDT

It started with an Instagram post. First Lady Michelle Obama teased a photo of the decor for Friday night’s China State Dinner, that offered a glimpse at the glamour to come.

First glance at tonight's China State Dinner.

A photo posted by First Lady Michelle Obama (@michelleobama) on

Needless to say, the First Lady looked stunning in the custom black Vera Wang mermaid gown she donned for the dinner, during which Hollywood bigwigs hobnobbed with Silicon Valley masterminds and international officials, and the Internet pretty much freaked out about it.

Renowned fashion designer Vera Wang tweeted it was “such a privilege” as an American of Chinese heritage to design the First Lady’s gown.

From Twitter to the First Lady’s own Instagram comments, to the President himself, few could help but note Mrs. Obama’s posh and glamorous look.

 

See the Terrifying Glass-Bottomed Bridge 600 Feet Above a Chinese Canyon

Posted: 25 Sep 2015 03:29 PM PDT

If you’re scared of heights, this bridge is not for you. A high-altitude glass-bottomed bridge opened Thursday in China, offering brave visitors dizzying views of the canyon floor 600-feet below them.

The bridge opened in Shiniuzhai National Geological Park in the Hunan province, and is thought to be the highest glass-bottomed bridge in the country, according to China Daily.

The BBC reported that the bridge is expected to be the longest glass-bottomed bridge in the world, almost 1,250 feet long, and among the highest as well. The canyon is the same one that inspired Halleluja Mountain in James Cameron’s Avatar movies, according to WIRED, and the architects specifically designed it so that it would “disappear” into the sky.

The developers plan for the bridge to host fashion shows, and they planned a specific area for bungee jumping.

This Congressman Drank From the Pope’s Abandoned Glass of Water

Posted: 25 Sep 2015 01:57 PM PDT

Most people took no notice of the glass of water that Pope Francis paused to sip from during his historic address to Congress on Thursday. But for Rep. Bob Brady of Pennsylvania, the vessel became the focal point of the speech.

While the majority of Congress members rushed towards the Pope as he stepped down from the podium on to the House floor, Brady made his way to the lectern to collect the Holy Father’s discarded water. He then brought the glass back to his office before drinking from it.

The Congressman shared the ‘holy’ water with his wife, Debra, and two of his staffers, according to ABC News.

“I took a sip out of it.” Brady told the Philadelphia Daily News. “How many people do you know that drank out of the same glass as the Pope?”

Brady then invited Sen. Bob Casey into his office to view the glass. Casey brought along his wife and mother, and the “three dipped their fingers into the glass,” the Daily News reported. “Pictures were taken, joy was in the air.”

The Congressman said he plans to keep the rest of Papa Francisco’s beverage to sprinkle on his grandchildren.

 

There Is Now a $25,000 Manicure at a California Salon

Posted: 25 Sep 2015 01:55 PM PDT

A nail salon in Orange County, California, recently started offering a diamond manicure that can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 — or more, depending on what type of GIA-graded diamonds the customer picks.

For these appointments, Images Luxury Nail Lounge is closed to other customers. A jeweler is brought in to present a selection of diamonds that the client can choose from. Champagne is served, and pampered patrons can elect to have an hour-long massage, facial, makeover, eyelash extensions or a waxing and threading service as well.

Images Luxury Nail Lounge

 

 

Watch Pentatonix Perform “Where Are Ü Now” by Jack Ü and Justin Bieber

Posted: 25 Sep 2015 12:03 PM PDT

Pentatonix, a group made famous by the a cappella competition show NBC’s The Sing-Off, released a music video Friday for its cover of the electronic dance music hit “Where Are Ü Now” by Jack Ü, featuring Justin Bieber.

The track appears on their upcoming self-titled album that is expected to be released on October 16.

The new video starring Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kirstin Maldonado, Avi Kaplan, and Kevin “K.O.” Olusola, comes a few weeks after they released an original song “Can’t Sleep Love,” an attempt “to prove we can write,” Hoying recently told Entertainment Weekly.

 

This Desk That Converts Into A Bed Takes Napping Up A Notch

Posted: 25 Sep 2015 11:45 AM PDT

The invention of the nap desk is bringing a whole new level to feeling like you live at work. Greek Design firm Studio NL has created a workstation with a lower panel that doubles as a single bed for all your work-napping needs.

While appearing at first glance to be a normal desk, the hybrid features a front panel that slides out, and a side panel that folds into an elevated headrest. A few easy adjustments transforms your workspace into a comfortable resting area.

“The main concept was to comment on the fact that many times our lives are ‘shrinking’ in order to fit into the confined space of our office,” Athanasia Leivaditou, designer of the desk, said. “Eventually, I realized that each civilization may have a very different perception of things depending on its social context. For example, this desk could be used for a siesta or for a few hours of sleep at night on those days when someone struggles to meet deadlines.”

And with recent studies suggesting that the negative health effects of a sleepless night can be combatted by a quick snooze, it seems like the perfect time for the “1.6 S.M. of Life” prototype to hit the market.

It also seems like the perfect time for you to volunteer to be the first in your office to test it out.

News Anchor Says Leonardo DiCaprio Painted Mona Lisa, Is So Close to Being Right

Posted: 25 Sep 2015 11:26 AM PDT

Leonardo DiCaprio just added another impressive feat to his long list of accomplishments: painting the Mona Lisa.

That is, according to Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, who accidentally attributed the famed painting to the actor rather than to artist Leonardo da Vinci. Smith did not acknowledge the blunder and continued his report on the research in identifying the Mona Lisa model.

It’s an understandable verbal miscue – confusing the actor’s similar-sounding name with his 15th-century namesake. (DiCaprio’s mother reportedly named him Leonardo because his first kick in the womb occurred while she admired a da Vinci masterpiece in an Italian museum.) It would’ve hurt more if Smith’s mistake was crediting DiCaprio with an elusive Oscar instead.

This article originally appeared on EW.com

Burger King Will Offer Whoppers With Black Buns

Posted: 25 Sep 2015 11:14 AM PDT

Turns out the rumor about Burger King offering black hamburger buns in U.S. stores is not just a rumor.

Starting September 28, the $4.99 “Halloween Whopper” will come with a black hamburger bun as a special promotion for Halloween.

The buns are baked with A.1., according to a news release. “Layered between the buns is savory flame-grilled beef topped with melted American cheese, ripe tomatoes, fresh lettuce, creamy mayonnaise, A.1.® Thick and Hearty Sauce, crunchy pickles, and sliced white onions.”

The news comes a year after Burger King Japan tested burgers with black hamburger buns, black cheese, black ketchup, all made from squid ink and bamboo charcoal.

National Zoo’s Giant Panda Cub Named ‘Bei Bei’

Posted: 25 Sep 2015 10:45 AM PDT

The month-old giant panda cub at the National Zoo officially has a name: Bei Bei.

First lady Michelle Obama and Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan announced their name choice at the National Zoo in D.C. on Friday. “Bei Bei” means “precious treasure,” Zoo Director Dennis Kelly told reporters, and invites a host of ‘baby’ (or ‘bae’) wordplay.

Obama and Peng chose the name together from a list of finalists from zoo and Chinese officials, and revealed the choice by unfurling scrolls for an audience of schoolchildren. The announcement took some panda enthusiasts by surprise, since the zoo in the past has followed Chinese tradition of waiting 100 days to name the pandas.

“The giant panda exemplifies the common bond between China and the United States,” Ms. Peng told reporters. “We do need more bonds to bring the people of our two countries ever more closer and I think the giant panda is one of those bonds we can celebrate to achieve that goal.”

The announcement introduces potential confusion for future panda identification: Bei Bei has a 2-year-old sister, Bao Bao, whose complementary name also means “precious” or “treasure.”

6 Things to Expect From Trevor Noah’s First Show

Posted: 25 Sep 2015 10:10 AM PDT

On Sept. 28, Trevor Noah will take the reins of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, filling the still-warm seat vacated last month by Jon Stewart. For Noah, who was relatively unknown before the network named him Stewart’s successor, the gig offers him his biggest stage yet—and the opportunity to win over Stewart’s fans, many of whom are still working their way through the Five Stages of Grief.

But Noah’s Daily Show will not be served by comparisons to Stewart’s. Comedy Central, certainly, is courting the millennial crowd with the 31-year-old host, and his outsider status—Noah was born and raised in South Africa—stands to bring a new perspective to a show about American politics. Here’s what we can expect from Noah’s first show on Monday night—and from episodes to follow:

1) The Guests: Comedy Central announced that comedian Kevin Hart will appear on Noah’s first episode Monday night. On Tuesday, Noah will interview Whitney Wolfe, founder and CEO of the dating app Bumble, followed by New Jersey governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on Wednesday, and musical guest (and Taylor Swift fan) Ryan Adams on Thursday. If the first week’s crew is any indication of what’s to come, Noah will feature a carefully considered balance of prominent figures from the political, business and entertainment worlds.

2) The Set: Journalists at a press conference held by Noah on Friday tweeted pictures of his new set, which looks…not all that different from his predecessor’s. He’s got the expensive-looking wooden desk, the this-is-a-serious-news-show world map and monitors aplenty for skewering Fox News (and MSNBC, if he is to be an equal opportunity critic) in high-definition. If Noah’s Daily Show is going to differ greatly from Stewart’s, its distinctions won’t lie in the aesthetics.

3) The Fodder for Jokes: Much of Noah’s stand-up material, especially once he moved to the U.S. from South Africa, mined the humor in his difficult upbringing. Noah was born to a white father and a black mother in a country that outlawed racial intermarriage and grew up in a turbulent household with a violent stepfather. Though it’s not a childhood that seems to lend itself to comedy, Trevor learned to tell his life story through humor—as he recently told Jerry Seinfeld in an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, “Literally everything has a funny side.”

Given that the The Daily Show is by nature a show about the news, Noah’s focus will certainly veer away from the personal and toward the political—an area in which he’s already begun proving his chops. Having come to America as an adult, his outsider status has afforded him a unique perch from which to observe (and criticize) American social norms and political theater. One of the reasons Comedy Central hired him, according to president Michele Ganeless, is his ability to see American culture as someone who is not quite steeped in it: “He is a student of our culture,” she told GQ. “But he looks at it from a very different perspective.”

4) The Controversial Jokes: After Comedy Central announced that he would replace Stewart, Noah came under fire for jokes he made several years ago that many considered not only offensive to Jews and women, but also simply unfunny. Noah addressed the controversy, telling GQ that he was an “idiot” for making those jokes, and that he’s grown in the intervening years.

Still, it’s almost unimaginable that Noah will abandon the provocative sensibility that characterizes so much of his comedy. On The Late Show last week, he told fellow Daily Show alum Stephen Colbert that Stewart’s advice for him, going into the show, was to “trust your discomfort. If you feel uncomfortable, that’s the way you should be going.”

5) The Politics: For many liberals, Jon Stewart was a beacon of sanity and a sharp observer of the hypocrisy of conservatives—though he did admit to voting Republican (in 1988, for George H.W. Bush). The million-dollar question for Noah, of course, is his own political persuasion, and how it might inform the show. When asked about his politics at the press conference Friday, he avoided a direct response. “I want to point out both sides, just trying to find the truth of the matter,” he said, according to Deadline.

He accepted the description “progressive,” but not “political progressive,” and offered examples of more liberal views (he’s in favor of marriage equality) and more conservative leanings (he agrees with some of Rand Paul’s ideas about social security). Noah also stated that he wasn’t coming out of the gates with a ready list of scapegoats. (See: Jon Stewart, Fox News.) “I don’t have targets yet,” he said. “I get to forge my own relationships. I get to discover the people I know and loathe.”

6) The Trump Jokes: Many fans were surprised that Stewart would end his term just as election season was heating up. The show’s coverage of past elections, after all, won Stewart and his team a Peabody Award. For Noah, it’s a golden opportunity to recapture audiences whose feelings about the election are more validated by can-you-even-believe-this-nonsense comedy than by straight news coverage—and there is virtually no way he won’t accept the challenge.

Noah put his presidential humor into practice on The Late Show last week, offering an impression of the kind of evasive answers he observed at the most recent Republican debate. At the Entertainment Weekly Emmys party last week, he confirmed that he’s eagerly anticipating his platform as a fake election pundit. “I am approaching [election year] with glee,” he said, adding that the Trump jokes, for better or for worse, are far from over. “Donald Trump has made it even more pleasurable.”
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