Latest news with #Charisma
Japan Times
6 days ago
- General
- Japan Times
This charming Shiba enjoys life's simple pleasures
This beautiful Shiba in her golden years is named Charisma, and time with her, as they say of charismatic people, may indeed inspire devotion. Charisma has a quiet charm, rooted in her love of a simple life and simple pleasures. Sweet and friendly, this smiley Shiba lost her home when her elderly owner was hospitalized. She came to ARK as 'quite a chubby girl,' but has since dieted down to a perfect curvy 8 kilograms. Soft toys are one of Charisma's go-to pleasures, and she can still play like a pup. Then there's snoozing in her bed, another favorite pastime. She also enjoys massages and will happily cozy up with you, especially if there's a good facial massage to be had. While she has a taste for life's simple pleasures, Charisma won't hesitate to let you know when something rubs her the wrong way. | Kana Matsutani Though she is a connoisseur of life's simple pleasures, Charisma is also ready to let you know when something rubs her the wrong way. It's a two-way street. Give this girl time to get to know you and you'll get to bask in her affection, day and night. If you are interested in adopting, email ARK at Tokyoark@ or call 050-1557-2763 (English or Japanese) Monday to Saturday (bilingual) for more information. Animal Refuge Kansai (with offices in Kansai and Tokyo) is an NPO founded by U.K. native Elizabeth Oliver. It is dedicated to rescuing and rehoming abandoned animals. All animals are vaccinated, neutered and microchipped. Prospective owners are required to undergo a screening process. Web:
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Professional Body Language Experts Interpreted What Donald Trump Might've Actually Thought About Elon Musk Bringing His Son To A Press Conference
President Donald Trump hosted quite a unique joint press conference alongside billionaire Elon Musk at the Oval Office on Tuesday, and body language experts think the event revealed quite a lot. Trump began the conference by giving Musk, his most powerful adviser, the floor to speak about efforts to downsize the government via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative the Tesla and SpaceX CEO is leading. Trump claimed during the conference that DOGE has found 'billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse' in government spending — though neither Trump nor Musk offered specifics. The president signed an executive order later that day to continue downsizing the federal workforce and to expand government hiring power for DOGE. The Musk-led initiative has already faced several lawsuits and court orders since it was established last month. But the one-of-a-kind conference spurred a lot of reactions on social media. Trump was seated at the Resolute Desk for the duration of the discussion, while Musk — who was not elected to office by American voters, and who has been criticized for the lack of transparency into DOGE operations — stood nearby with his 4-year-old son. Clips of the preschooler's typical 4-year-old behavior during the conference, such as picking his nose, made rounds on the internet. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell said on Tuesday night that Trump's conference with Musk — the richest man in the world and now a 'special government employee' — displayed 'the most powerless image of a president of the United States ever created by a camera.' Read on to hear what experts have to say about Trump's body language during the conference, and what it could mean. Trump was seated during the conference while Musk stood nearby. What might these different positions display? Patti Wood, a body language and nonverbal communication expert and author of SNAP: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma, told HuffPost that she thinks Musk's standing 'shows a certain level of power over Trump, who is sitting.' Wood also pointed out that Musk's casual attire (he sported a black 'Make America Great Again' cap) compared to Trump's more formal attire also sent a message. 'Musk wearing a T-shirt, coat and a cap shows he doesn't feel a need to dress up or honor Trump by wearing professional clothing,' she said. Karen Donaldson, a communication and body language expert, told HuffPost that she believes Trump and Musk's different positions showed the 'trust and respect' that the president has for the billionaire X owner. It conveyed that Trump has no need to 'pronounce his authority or position' over Musk. Denise M. Dudley, a psychologist and author of Making Relationships Last, told HuffPost that the standing vs. sitting positions could have been planned with the intention to show Trump in a more dominant position with Musk standing several feet behind him. What do experts make of Trump's overall body language while Musk was speaking to reporters? Dudley thinks the president appeared 'bored' while Musk spoke. 'He nods his head in agreement at semi-appropriate moments, but he mostly just sits there with his hands folded,' she said, adding that she thinks Trump was in an 'unnatural' position having to sit quietly while someone else talked — and without having the 'limelight directed toward him.' She added that Trump's body language showed that he was 'fake listening' because his nods were 'totally random' and he sported a 'vague, fixed' facial expression while Musk was speaking. Donaldson pointed to the brief moments in which Trump gave a slight smile at Musk, saying it possibly conveys somewhat of a 'proud papa moment.' Mark Bowden, body language expert and author, said that when Trump smiled and laughed while Musk shared various claims about Social Security fraud, it showed that the president enjoyed Musk's remarks and that 'he knows that these exaggerated examples will resonate most with the public.' Bowden told HuffPost that he thinks the president exhibited a 'protective gesture' — looking away, inspecting his hands, covering his knuckles and pursing his lips — when Musk said, 'Obviously, we want to make sure that people who deserve Social Security do receive it.' There were 'mistimed and miscommunicated regulatory signals between them,' he said, adding that 'Regulator signals are gestures that help us understand who should speak when.' 'Unfortunately, the optics of this could suggest that Trump fundamentally disagrees with Musk — or at best, is visibly indifferent to Americans receiving the Social Security they deserve,' Bowden said. Wood thinks that Trump and Musk's different standing/sitting positions put the president in the less powerful position — and Trump, as a result, exhibited stress. 'Musk standing behind him, making Trump have to turn around awkwardly to interact, immediately reduces Trump's power,' she said. 'You can see Trump's stress by the way he holds his own hand.' She said that Trump holding his right hand down in a soft fist while his upper hand clamped over it is a 'gesture that indicates he wants at some level to fight Musk (the fist) but is keeping himself from doing it.' Wood also pointed out that throughout the conference, Trump made the effort to nonverbally interact with Musk, and not necessarily the other way around. She said that this stands out because typically, when people are speaking to Trump, they turn to face him, and the president rarely physically turns his 'body windows' — which means, for example, his heart, neck, mouth and eyes — towards people he's interacting with, Wood explained. What can we take away from Musk bringing his 4-year-old son to the conference? People on social media criticized Musk for bringing his child to the press conference, with some accusing the billionaire of using his son as a distraction. Even the child's mother, Canadian pop singer Grimes, criticized Musk for taking their son to the Oval Office press conference, writing on X, formerly Twitter: 'He should not be in public like this.' Bowden said that he believes Musk's son's presence was clearly used as a 'symbol' of Trump's power. 'If you can have the wealthiest person on the planet in a room, standing with their child, still wearing their coats and hat, then clearly, you are the more powerful one,' he said. As for Musk, Bowden thinks the Tesla CEO used his son as a distraction, particularly at one point, when he appeared to deflect a question by jokingly saying that his son, who was then on his shoulders, was sticking his fingers in his ears. A reporter had asked Musk to divulge more information about the fraud his DOGE team has claimed to have seen within the Treasury Department. 'In this moment, Musk uses his son as a vehicle to justify his own discomfort,' Bowden said. 'He takes off his hat, brushes his hair back, and swings from side to side — all nervous adaptive behaviors.' Wood called the situation bizarre, saying that Musk was trying to contain his preschooler while talking about 'making significant, impactful changes' like slashing federal budgets. She thinks Musk was likely advised that having his son there would make him look 'warm and fuzzy,' but that instead it made him look 'clownish' and 'Trump ineffective by association.' She said that Trump made 'failed' efforts to interact with the 4-year-old at points in the conference. 'Trump's look of overt anger on his face, tilted shoulder placement that shows displeasure, while he seems to have to sit there and take it,' she said about the president's overall demeanor. Donaldson doesn't think Trump seemed 'overly bothered or concerned' by the child, and that when the 4-year-old became more vocal at the beginning of the conference, Trump seemed to try to silence him in a 'very calm, grandparent-like fashion.' Dudley believes Trump looked irritated during the event when Musk made a joke that 'gravitas can be difficult sometimes' after his son began speaking. 'No one really laughs,' she said about the reaction to Musk's joke. 'And Trump makes a very weak smile — almost a smirk. I think this moment is important. I think Trump is doing his best to show approval of (and solidarity for) Musk's decision to include his son in the conference.' 'However, I think Trump is annoyed,' she added. 'Trump keeps his hands tightly clasped together on his desk and looks down for a while.' 'Trump's body language says that he was not in favor of having a kid attending his important press conference,' she later added. What did Trump's body language convey when a reporter asked Musk about his potential conflicts of interest as the DOGE leader? During the conference, a reporter asked Musk whether he would be 'policing' himself due to his potential conflicts of interest as head of DOGE, considering his companies have received billions of dollars in federal government contracts over the years. Dudley thinks Trump's body language showed quite a lot at that moment. 'This is one of the few times when Trump looks at the camera, intertwines his fingers, looks at the camera again, frowns, wiggles around a little, and then starts looking back at Musk,' she said. 'He keeps his fingers intertwined while frowning.' She said she initially thought Trump's behavior revealed a nervousness due to the reporter's question, but then wondered if Trump was 'trying to wake himself up.' 'Maybe it's a bit of both,' she said. 'The question probably did make him uncomfortable, and he probably became very interested in how Musk was going to answer it, but I also think this is where Trump lost his focus and wanted to be done with the conference.' With the increasing power given to Musk's DOGE and ongoing calls for more transparency, it continues to be important to keep up with Trump's executive actions and any nonverbal cues that might reveal any information about Trump and Musk's allyship. This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
CBC
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Fisher River Cree Nation sisters to compete at World Championship Hoop Dance Contest
Social Sharing A trio of Manitoba sisters are off to the 35th annual World Championship Hoop Dance Contest in Phoenix, Ariz., this month. Kimberly, 17, Charisma, 15, and Nakiyah Mason, 8, will dance at the Heard Museum in Phoenix as part of the world championships, where more than 100 dancers from different corners of Turtle Island will compete on Feb. 15-16. The sisters from Fisher River Cree Nation are going to the championships in the desert region for the second time. "We are so very excited. We've been looking forward to this all year, and all the training that we're doing, it's all leading up to this competition," Kimberly said. What is hoop dancing? Hoop dancers perform with hoops approximately 60 centimetres in diameter. Up to 28 hoops can be used during the solo dance. "Hoop dancing is a storytelling dance. It celebrates the story of life, culture, experience, and shows the stories while you're dancing," Charisma explained. And the youth movement in hoop dancing is growing, said Michael Webb, the Heard Museum's public engagement manager. The Heard is a private museum that showcases Indigenous art in the U.S. "Each competitor brings their own unique style and own unique teachings from a place with intention of healing but in a competitive nature." The Mason sisters found hoop dancing nearly 10 years ago. "Over the years, we've just grown with it, and now it's become a part of who we are — something we express ourselves in," Kimberly said. "As soon as we were introduced to it, it became a part of us. I can't really remember not seeing hoop dancing and not being a part of that hoop dance family along with it, since it's always been with us." Last year, Nakiyah, who was just seven, placed seventh in her category. Family is a big part of their hoop dance experience, as the Mason family will spend nearly 30 hours together in a vehicle for the drive to Phoenix. They are looking forward to that part of the experience, too. "It's not like you do this many times. It's special to us. There's only this competition once a year, and we're in Canada, so it's not that easy to drive over there," Kimberly said. Charisma agrees. "It's going to be worth it. We're hoping to enjoy it, which I definitely think we would." 119 dancers last year In Phoenix, the dancers will be greeted by a year's worth of hard work by organizers and volunteers. There were 119 dancers at last year's event, and there are hopes that this year will be even bigger. "You realize, wow, these people are flying in, driving in, committing to a whole week off work, just to be here for two days," Webb said. "I understand more and more the stories and logistics. You see 100 of these applications and really do get a grasp of where people are coming from." This year, in addition to the hoop dance championships going on outside, inside, the Heard Museum will feature a hoop dance exhibition, featuring artifacts and history of the dance. The Hoop Dance World Champion will be crowned in each category on the Sunday of the competition. Charisma is optimistic.
