An immigration tale that's a tribute to Charlie Chaplin
Has an ahoy ever been so exuberant? In Synetic Theater's terrific 'The Immigrant,' travelers sailing to Ellis Island erupt in joy upon glimpsing the Statue of Liberty. They burst into dance and gymnastic derring-do: Lindy Hop. Eastern European folk steps. A built-from-bodies hoop that a joyful passenger recklessly dives through.
The sequence not only is fun to watch, but it also seems to sum up a vision of America's potential. Those huddled masses are still yearning to breathe free, but, in the meantime, they sure can gambol, displaying their energy, talent and belief in the nation's promise.
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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Sacramento-area students win trips to national landmarks in semiquincentennial contest
What does America mean to you? Two Sacramento-area students won a national competition for their answers to that question as part of the build-up to next year's celebrations of the nation's 250th anniversary. Mélanie Golé, who just finished fourth grade in Rancho Cordova, and Evelyn Bravo, who completed tenth grade in Sacramento, were among the 75 first-place winners of the 'America's Field Trip' contest, the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, known as America250, announced on Wednesday. Each of the contest participants — who numbered in the thousands, according to the commission — submitted art or writing in the spring. Now, each winner will travel to one place on a menu of national landmarks, ranging from Mount Rushmore to the Angel Island Immigration Station in Marin County. Golé, who attends Riverview STEM Academy, painted the Statue of Liberty standing atop two layers — a foundation of Americans in different professions and historical figures including Ruth Bader Ginsburg and George Washington. 'I chose the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of our country and its freedom because it was a gift from France to the United States,' Mélanie said. 'So it also shows friendship and our strength working with other countries.' Her father is from France, and her mother, Sabrina Abbott, explained that the family maintains dual American and French citizenship. Mélanie said she used paint, oil pastel, marker and colored pencil for the composition. 'She worked on it for a long time,' Abbott said. 'She would have to walk away, come back another day, work on it.' Evelyn Bravo, who attends Las Flores High School's virtual study, submitted an essay for the contest after her older sister, Aiyana, was one of last year's winners. The contest will also be held next year before July 4, 2026, 250 years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Evelyn said she wrote about her multiracial identity — her mother being Black and white, her father Mexican — to illustrate that 'you can be from a different place and still be part of America.' She also wrote about her passion for crocheting, which she is trying to turn into a business. 'Since America thrives off of business owners, I want to be a business owner myself,' she said. This year, California has the most first-place winners of any state, with 11 — four more than the next state, New Jersey. More information about the celebration and contest can be found at
CNN
3 days ago
- CNN
He drove a bulldozer at Asia's first World Expo. Now, he's one of the event's star architects
In 1970, when the World Fair came to Asia for the first time, Shin Takamatsu was just a student. The aspiring architect was studying at Japan's Kyoto University while supporting a wife and young child, but he desperately wanted to be involved. This was, after all, one of the foremost architectural showcases in the world: over its history, iconic landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, and the Space Needle were first displayed at the event. So when he heard that the event's construction site in nearby Osaka needed bulldozer drivers, he jumped at the chance, quickly getting his license and taking up a lucrative part-time job that gave him a front-row seat to watch the expo come to life. 'It was an exhilarating feeling to be in the middle of a tremendous creative phase,' Takamatsu recalled. 'Many dazzling, futuristic buildings were being constructed. But as I watched them, I felt that something was missing.' As a student, he didn't know exactly what that was. But the experience stayed with him, and over the years, it shaped his approach to architecture. 'I came to realize that the future cannot be envisioned solely by looking forward. By looking toward the past and interpreting and understanding it, we can develop a perspective on the future,' he said. In his latest project, his architectural philosophy and personal story come full circle: at Expo 2025 Osaka, Takamatsu returns to the event as the architect behind one of its most striking buildings. The pavilion — run jointly by housing company Iida Group and Osaka Metropolitan University — is modeled after a Möbius strip, which 'continues endlessly in a single loop,' and reflects 'reincarnation or sustainability,' explained Takamatsu. The pavilion looks like a delicately wrapped gift box, covered in a vibrant red, cherry blossom-adorned Nishijin brocade — a traditional textile that has been woven in Kyoto for 1,500 years and is typically used for luxury goods, like kimonos and obis, a kind of belt sash. Over 3,500 square meters (37,600 square feet) — the equivalent area of more than eight basketball courts — of the handmade silk material covers the pavilion's exterior, setting a Guinness World Record for the largest building wrapped in Jacquard fabric — a material with the design woven directly into the textile — and another for the largest roof in the shape of a fan. For Takamatsu, the historic textile represented the perfect way to bridge the past and future. 'It is the culmination of techniques that have been continuously refined over those 1,500 years,' he said, adding that architecture like this 'cherishes history and traditions, while proposing a future based on them.' While the use of fabric in architecture is uncommon, textiles have been used in manmade structures for tens of thousands of years. Bedouin tents in the Middle East, Native American teepees, and yurts in the Steppes of Central Asia and Mongolia are all examples of nomadic, semi-permanent structures where fabric provides warmth and protection from the elements, while being lightweight and flexible enough to carry. But modern architects have been reluctant to use fabric in construction, said Sukhvir Singh, a design professor and textiles expert at Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary University, in India, which he attributes to a lack of familiarity with the materials and their technical properties. It wasn't until the 1960s that architects began experimenting with fabrics: German architect Frei Otto was one of the pioneers of lightweight architecture, and at Expo 1967, hosted in Montreal, his design for the German Pavilion used a tensile steel structure to support a lightweight polyester canopy, leading to its nickname, 'the floating tent.' Since then, textiles have been used frequently in temporary structures for major events, such as the Olympics or World Expos. 'During these mega gatherings, we have less time, and we have to erect many buildings as soon as possible,' explained Singh, adding that textiles, which are lightweight and are largely prefabricated off-site, are often the obvious solution because of their low cost, flexibility, and ease of installation. And there's been a lot of development in the strength and durability of fabrics in recent decades, with carbon fiber-enhanced fabrics that 'are stronger than steel,' as well as 'high-performance textiles' that can provide added functionality to building facades, such as self-cleaning or energy harvesting, said Singh. But using handmade silk brocade is quite different from using synthetic polyesters, and there were many technical challenges to overcome for Takamatsu's pavilion. For example, the textile is 'weak against rain, typhoons, and wind,' so it had to be given a special coating and insulating layers to make it fire and climate-resistant, explained Takamatsu. The fabric was made by HOSOO, a company that's been weaving Nishijin brocade since 1688. Takamatsu approached Masataka Hosoo, the 46-year-old, 12th-generation president of the family business, about four years ago — who was eager to take on the 'unprecedented challenge' of transforming a heritage textile into an architectural structure. 'In fact, I had been nurturing the idea of architectural textiles for over a decade,' explained Hosoo. Nishijin brocade had been declining in demand for decades: in 2008, sales of the fabric had fallen by 80% from 1990. Hosoo saw the need to adapt his family business to modern consumers' needs. So in 2010, the company developed 'the world's first loom' capable of weaving Nishijin textile with a width of 150 centimeters (58 inches), nearly five times the typical width, according to Hosoo. 'Expanding this technique to a much wider format was a significant challenge, requiring extensive innovation and technical precision,' he added. The larger loom enabled the company to apply its fabric beyond kimonos, into products such as cars, camera accessories, and furniture, and has led to collaborations with luxury brands like Gucci and Four Seasons. When it came to weaving the brocade for the pavilion, the larger loom was essential — and even then, it still took a team of multiple artisans and engineers two years to produce the required volume of fabric. 'The shape itself isn't that difficult, but because it's a form that writhes like a dragon, each part has to be bent, and no piece is identical,' said Takamatsu. To help with this process, HOSOO developed proprietary 3D software that could map out the textile, aligning the pattern precisely across the complex curves of the building. 'The possibilities for textiles are limitless. We're excited to further explore how textiles can transform architecture and expand into entirely new domains,' said Hosoo. The Expo in Osaka will run for six months, through to October 13 — at which point, the future of the kimono fabric-covered pavilion is unknown. Historically, Expo pavilions are 'momentary' pieces of architecture that are often dismantled. Some architects lean into that, with eco-friendly construction materials that can be recycled or biodegrade quickly, or modular designs that are easy to disassemble and rebuild. On the other hand, some structures have become so iconic, they've outlived their intended six-month lifespan by decades: the Crystal Palace, which housed the inaugural World Expo in London in 1851, was relocated after the exhibition and remained standing for more than 80 years; and the 'Atomium,' the flagship structure of the 1958 expo in Brussels, Belgium, was so popular that the city decided to keep it, renovating the monument in 2006. In terms of engineering, 'creating architecture that only lasts six months is the same as creating one that lasts 100 years,' said Takamatsu. So while the future of the brocade-covered pavilion is uncertain, Takamatsu hopes it will be relocated to a permanent location, such as the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Looking around the Expo site, Takamatsu is heartened by the varying responses to the event's theme, 'Designing Future Society for Our Lives.' Whether the buildings live on or not, the ideas behind them will — which Takamatsu hopes will inspire a generation of architects, just as they did him in 1970. 'It's not just one design, but rather, various designs resonating with each other, creating a future that sounds like a symphony. I believe this is the greatest message of this pavilion, as well as the many other pavilions at the Expo.' Additional reporting by Yumi Asada and Hazel Pfeifer, CNN.
Yahoo
4 days ago
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People Are Sharing Their "Rare" Phobias, And It's Actually Super Fascinating
Reddit user nitin_is_me recently asked people to share their "rare" phobias that others often don't believe they have. Here are some of the phobias folks shared: 1."Kosmemophobia. It's a phobia of wearing or touching jewelry or small, intricate metal things. For me and probably most others with this phobia, it's not really a fear but more of a strong dislike of being in contact with, or sometimes even seeing, jewelry. Small, dangly things are the worst offenders for me." —Downtown-Assistant1 2."I had a friend who's afraid of inflated party balloons, which I learned about the hard way. One time, for my birthday, my girlfriend at the time had arranged for my housemate to let her and two friends in, and they spent a few hours blowing up balloons and filling my bedroom. The next day, my neighbor (the friend in question) asked me about the surprise my friends left in my bedroom. I told her to go check. She screamed and ran back home crying, which I did find odd. It wasn't until an hour later that her boyfriend called me out for making her go into a balloon-filled room. Only after I looked very confused did he ask if I knew about her phobia. I did not." —uitSCHOT 3."Stickers, but in particular, fruit stickers. I will vomit sometimes just from having to touch one to throw it out. I usually use a folded-up napkin to pick them up so I don't have to touch them. Sometimes my husband leaves them around, and it makes me so anxious." —riverwheel 4."My brother is terrified of butterflies. He says it's something about the way they move. He found out when we went through a butterfly house at a theme park. They wouldn't let him go back out the entrance, so he was army crawling and sobbing through the whole place. It's super irrational. He's shoved his girlfriend into the street to get away from them, and he'll jerk his car out of the way." —dumplingdoodoo 5."Large human statues like the Statue of Liberty. It's a form of megalophobia. I can't even look at photos of them, and I'm not enjoying writing this." —Roots_Manuka 6."Ketchup. The smell of it makes me physically gag and almost throw up, and the thought of it touching my skin makes me incredibly anxious, but it's a widely loved condiment, so I try and deal with it — usually by spraying my hands with perfume and covering my nose when in fast food places." —Fantasydreamer2450 "I have a phobia of ketchup. I'm not sure why, but ever since I was little, it was beyond just not liking it. I have had full-blown panic attacks because it touched my food. Even if it was on one fry that someone else ate and it didn't touch anything else, I cannot manage. I will refuse to touch the plate. I may start hyperventilating near it, so my boyfriend no longer eats it around me. If I know he's eaten it, I can't kiss him for the rest of the day. I'll feel like there's still some on or around his mouth. Even knowing it was near him makes me think twice before hugging him because what if some ketchup got on him and now it's touching me?" —nocomment413 7."Hair. I know it's strange. I'm disgusted and so freaked out by hair that's not attached to someone. I can't touch my own hair out of the drain without some layers of paper towels. A pube or leg hair in the bathroom from my husband makes me want to puke. Random hair in a public sink? I'll have nightmares about it that night." —macaron1ncheese 8."I have a fear of buttons, as in clothing buttons. However, not a fear of buttons that are attached to clothes, more like random, unknown buttons. If I touch them, it causes me to gag and sometimes vomit. I believe it's called koumpounophobia. I've had this reaction since I was a small child. In kindergarten, they used to have a cookie tin full of buttons for crafts. I couldn't touch them." —delroy13 9."Dead insects. I never kill so much as a mosquito with my bare hands. I can kill very small moths with a shoe or a vacuum cleaner now because we had three invasions of these pests: they ate my clothes (twice) and my food (once). But if there is a dead insect of any kind on my desk, I have to leave the room. If there is a vacuum cleaner available, on a good day, I can vacuum them. But I can't touch them with the tube or watch the moment they are sucked into the cleaner. We cohabited with a wasp's nest in our bedroom a few years ago. I can live with the living ones; I dread the dead ones or the ones fighting death and dying in front of me." —Hornkueken42 10."I can't deal with anything eye-related. I can't use contacts or put in eye drops. I have to look away if others are doing it. Even watching my girlfriend put on make-up gets me. I can watch gory horror scenes, but the second eyes are involved, I'm a total baby." —Pissed_With_A_Boner 11."Anything man-made in water. I can't go to a swimming pool because of drains, ladders, those floating things that separate lanes, etc. I won't go in the water near a pier, bridge, or boat. Even if someone put a plastic chair in a pool, I'd get panicked." —Jadeinda 12."Escalators. I had a traumatic experience on one, and I still have a physical anxiety response when I get on a fast-moving downward escalator. I thought it would go away over time, but 20 years later, it hasn't subsided." —Karenins_Egau Related: People In HR Revealed Truly Unhinged Reasons Employees Got Fired, And My Jaw Is On The Floor 13."I've had bouts of casadastraphobia, which is an irrational fear of falling into the sky, especially at night. It's worse if I'm lying on my back. Yes, I know it's impossible, but it's very similar to the fear of vertigo if you look down from a tall building. It sucks." —Killybug 14."Teeth. I like brushing my own teeth; I can't stand NOT having clean teeth, but anything involving others' teeth or anything scraping on my teeth (I HATE cleanings at the dentist, it's like nails on a chalkboard) sets me right off. When I was a kid, I also hated the sensation of having loose teeth. As soon as a tooth wiggled even a little bit, I'd pull it right out. The memory still makes my skin crawl, and the clicky squelch sound…" —BabaTheBlackSheep 15."I'm mycophobic. I will cry and scream if I have to touch a mushroom in the outdoors or clean out something with mold. Especially those pancake-looking mushrooms on trees, or the weird ones that look like ears, or the jelly ones, ones that look like nets…NO. The only ones I can tolerate are clean, cut mushrooms from the store. And ONLY certain kinds. I'm still not a fan of eating them, though." —chanyeol2012 16."Agrostophobia is a fear of grass in general. I'm only afraid of TALL grass, but that's the closest way to define my fear, I think. I absolutely cannot force myself to walk through an area where the ground cover of any kind is taller than the shoes I'm wearing. It freaks me out. I'll go a mile around the long way to avoid walking through a 20-foot patch of it." —Exotic-Blacksmith-56 17."Dinosaurs. When I was around 5, I had untreated anxiety. One night, while having an anxiety attack, I went crying to my parents to soothe me. When I walked into the TV room, they were watching Jurassic Park, right at the scene with the T-Rex in the rain. I watched in stunned, anxiety-riddled silence as the T-Rex ate the guy in the toilet. If that hadn't cemented a lifelong fear of dinosaurs in me, a very similar thing happened maybe a year later, but with Godzilla." —MentallyPsycho 18."Bellybuttons. Seeing one isn't a problem, but seeing one being touched...I'm really not comfortable even writing this." —MicroCosno Related: 15 Times Someone Bravely Took A Photo Of The Very Worst Design This World Has Ever Seen 19."My husband's so scared of snakes that he can't even look at a picture of one. When he's going to see a movie, he will wait until someone he knows has seen it and ask them if there are any snakes in it, so he knows if it's okay for him to go. He's currently playing an Indiana Jones game on his Xbox, and I've had to offer to play through the bit with snakes for him because he's stuck there." —tiptoe_only 20."Deep water that I can't see the bottom of. The ocean is fine as long as I can stand it, or the water is clear, and I can see the reef. Any kind of lake or lagoon where I can't see? Fuck that. Also, any kind of outlet, grate, or anything underwater. Those jets in the pool that spray water out? Nope. The grate where water is sucked into the filtration system? Fuck no. The hole in the side of the pool where the pipe goes through? I don't go near that side of the pool at all. I even get the absolute creeps if my foot touches the spot in the hot tub where it sucks the water in." —puzzledpilgrim 21."I have a fear of tall staircases with spaces between the steps or ones that wind so that you can look over the rail and see straight down. It's not heights. It's stairs — any stairs where you can see through them. So there's a tower in this state park we go to where you can see through the slats the whole way up, and I can't do it. Or if I force myself to go up, I can't get down." —Hedgehog_Insomniac 22."Cockroaches. My heart rate jumps, and I hyperventilate and panic. I won't even go into a room if there's one. Even a picture scares me." —Illustrious_Hand_03 23."Blimps. I've never met anyone else afraid of them. They are terrifying, and I will start to shake, cry, and have a full-on panic attack. I've never been in one or seen one up close, but at one point, my local airport had one for like a week or two. I was in the garden, saw it, and ran for cover. It was so weird! They will not have one again! I can safely say that because I work as a safety manager for said airport. I will do everything I can to never have one here again!" —Imagra78 24."Goats. I know it's a weird phobia, but their eyes are terrifying. Their horizontal pupils scare the living s@#t out of me. It's an irrational fear. I've scuba dived and met octopuses with similar horizontal eyes, and I wasn't afraid. But somehow, goats are terrifying. I can't explain it." —Pretend_Analysis_359 25."Talking into phones, radios, speakers, etc. I don't know what it is. It seemed to develop around the age of 18, when I would burst into tears if a phone rang and nobody immediately answered it. Through constant exposure, I've managed to mostly get over it. I still feel uncomfortable and stressed, but I can deal with it now. I always keep my phone on silent, though." —Sajiri 26."My sister is deathly scared of lizards. Her heart rate rises, she panics, starts kicking things, and runs away. She won't calm down for hours." —Even-Construction-10 27."Mascots or people in similar costumes. My parents would drag me to see the Easter Bunny or Santa, and I would be SOBBING. Even still, my fight or flight response kicks in when I see a mascot or something similar." —xscapethetoxic 28."Cats! For as long as I can remember, they've always given me the heebie-jeebies. I get along fine with kittens, but larger cats…nope! I know some people who absolutely adore their cats, and I understand why. They're lovable animals. That's why I don't talk about my phobia much. If someone asks whether I'm a dog or cat person, I always say dog and rarely explain why I don't like cats. Most people don't realize how deeply terrified I am of them. Everything about cats scares me — how soft they are, their hissing, the way they slither against you, even the sounds they make. Whenever I'm around one, my heart rate skyrockets within seconds. I often just hope and pray that it doesn't come near me, fearing it will pick up on my anxiety and approach for that very reason. Internally, it's much worse than I let on. I struggle with this fear and always have, far more than anyone might realize from the outside." —pearlsandposh 29."Mirrors at night. I cannot have mirrors in my bedroom for this reason." —Demonicbunnyslippers 30."I'm not sure I'd call it a phobia, but wind turbines really freak me out. I get a sense of impending doom the closer I get to one, and I get a cold shiver down my back. I have no idea why." —lpar00197 31."Driving. I don't know what it is, but every time I try, I am guaranteed to have a full-on fight or flight meltdown where I'm sobbing and feel like I can't breathe. It just feels like TOO MUCH and TOO FAST. I don't know what to focus on, but you have to focus on EVERYTHING. I can't tell if I'm too far over in the lane. I have to focus on that while focusing on speed, if someone is trying to merge, if I'm trying to merge, when I need to slow down, if someone else is driving unsafe nearby, if a person is walking in front of my car in a parking lot, or if someone is crossing the street when they shouldn't be. Then I have to make sure I don't lose focus on literally everything and space out while driving a death trap on wheels." —dollkyu 32."Emery boards. I assume it started as a texture thing (there are a lot of things I can't touch, like pottery) and progressed. Folks think it's hilarious. I've had folks leave them lying on work keyboards or taped to gifts. It's embarrassing because I know how irrational it is." —Mammoth_Geologist917 33."I have a huge phobia of getting my blood drawn. Needles don't necessarily bother me, as I have eight piercings and have no issue getting shots, but the idea of a needle going into my vein and taking my blood makes me faint." —MacheteAndMeatballs 34."Chalk. I can't stand the feeling, the texture, the dust, or the sound of it being used. I can't touch it or be near it." —Froggirl26 35."Driving through a car wash. I'll be a passenger, but being the one to drive through it causes panic." —Key-Wallaby-9276 36."Revolving doors and getting trapped or otherwise injured while travelling through one. Like, what if the bag I'm rolling through gets sucked under and then I fall and it squishes half my body? Or my coat/sweater/shirt gets trapped in the side, and I slowly get run over by the side of the door? Or it comes up too quickly behind me, hits me in the back, and I fall? Etc., etc., etc." —Aromatic-Cook-869 "I am genuinely terrified of shower drains. I don't know if it's an established, known phobia, but they're horrifying. I always feel like if I look down one, there will be an eye staring back at me. They make me so paranoid." —bri_2498 Do you have an extreme yet uncommon phobia? Tell us about it in the comments or share anonymously using this form. Also in Internet Finds: Tattoo Artists Are Sharing The Tattoos They Felt REALLY Uncomfortable Doing, And I Have No Words Also in Internet Finds: 23 People Who Tried Their Best, But Crapped The Bed So Bad Also in Internet Finds: "I've Worked In Various Prisons. I Will Take A Men's Over Women's Any Day Of The Week. Shit Is Scary": Former Female Inmates Are Sharing Their Most Disturbing Prison Experiences, And My Jaw Is Literally On The Floor
