Latest news with #RedBalloon
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The perfect last-minute Mother's Day gift that every mum will love: 'Deliciously serene'
One of the nation's top chefs has created the ultimate gift for mums this Mother's Day - and it's the ideal 'all-in' present from family members. Tucked away in a lush corner of Sydney lies the spectacular Botanic House - a gorgeous hideaway in the iconic Royal Botanic Gardens. And as a delectable treat, renowned chef Luke Nguyen has curated a very special degustation experience on RedBalloon, blending South East Asian flavours with native Australian ingredients - many of which can be found in the surrounding gardens. Designed to awake the senses, the $380 1.5-hour experience for two is served share-style with paired wines. As guests are sat in their garden oasis they can admire glimpses of Sydney Harbour while they savour delights like dumplings, chicken rice paper rolls, steamed coral trout and sticky date tamarind pudding. Highlights include seared Hokkaido scallops, Nem Nuong lemongrass pork, BBQ roasted duck and smoky char-grilled beef short ribs, with wines from Orange, NSW, France and Germany. Botanic House is widely regarded as one of the nation's 'hidden gems', with the multi-level dining adventure, as they describe it, perfect for long lunches, laid-back coffee dates and gorgeous dinners. Nguyen is all about 'celebrating nature's bounty', with the chef prioritising fresh, locally sourced ingredients as he infuses Vietnamese flavors with an Aussie flair. The chef famously also offers the ultimate date experience, with special curated picnic boxes designed for couples looking for something a little different. The $90 boxes serve two and are available Monday to Sunday between 11am and 3.30pm (pre-ordered). The boxes include an array of mouthwatering treats, from Vietnamese prawn crackers to coral trout, prawn and scallop spring rolls. Other highlights include caramelised pork belly bao buns, lemon myrtle chicken, jellyfish, cabbage and Asian herb salad and a Pandan lava cake with jackfruit sticky rice, coconut cream and seasonal fruits.
Forbes
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
How Will Jonathan Anderson Fit Into His New Role At Dior Homme?
PARIS, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 29: Fashion designer Jonathan Anderson walks the runway during the Loewe ... More Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2024 fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week on September 29, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) The fashion world has been playing musical chairs over the past few months, with many houses experiencing some of the shortest creative director tenures to date. Designers are leaving long-standing roles to take up positions at rival luxury brands. It started with a new appointment at Maison Margiela, followed by departures from Proenza Schouler, and most notably, Donatella Versace stepping down after 27 years at the helm of Versace. Now, the shake-ups are even more surprising—Demna, formerly of Balenciaga, is heading to Gucci, while Loewe's Jonathan Anderson is moving to Dior Men. Jonathan Anderson, best known for his acclaimed tenure at Loewe, carved out a distinct design language rooted in a fascination with kitschy, mismatched craft. His work blurred the lines between haute couture and camp, delivering a refined yet fantastical aesthetic. Anderson frequently experimented with silhouette, played with odd proportions, and embraced contradiction—often creating pieces that felt both subversive and whimsical. This vision was evident in his now-iconic "Minnie Mouse" heels, or the "Toy Pump," which distorted the foot's form to mimic the exaggerated shape of Minnie's footwear. It also shown through the surreal Red Balloon leather heels and the life-sized anthurium flower dress worn by Taylor Russell on the cover of Dazed's The Beautiful Issue, Winter 2022. For a time, through Anderson's lens, fashion became a space for fantasy. Taylor Russell for Dazed Magazine Jonathan Anderson is, by nature, a reserved figure in personality. After his shows, he often forgoes the traditional designer walk, rarely speaks to press, and offers little access to the behind-the-scenes process. His personal style is equally understated—typically just a T-shirt and jeans, even post-show. 'It's taken me many years to try to put myself out in front of the camera because I think part of me likes to be the puppeteer behind the scenes,' he told Fashion Neurosis. Yet, his designs have always stood in contrast to that quiet demeanor. Will we see a tenure akin to Jacquemus, one that redefines French style by merging the refined tastes of older generations with the playful, romantic sensibilities of their younger counterparts—introducing softer tones and unexpected color into formal silhouettes? Or will Anderson upend Dior's aesthetic entirely, pushing men's fashion into a new, uncharted era? As he noted in a 2015 interview with Numéro, 'The idea of codes is obsolete because audiences get bored within 24 hours. Today, we must entertain—that's the challenge across all industries.' It seems increasingly likely that Anderson will bring a singular, deeply personal perspective to Dior Men—perhaps echoing the legacy of Hedi Slimane, a former creative director of Dior Homme. 'I love a blank sheet each time,' Anderson told Vogue. 'There are some people I really admire. If you look at Phoebe [Philo], or Hedi [Slimane], or Helmut Lang, where there is a very tight aesthetic—I really appreciate that.' This suggests a possible direction: refined but not overly tailored, personal yet elevated, embracing modernity while honoring the classics—a fluid blend that dissolves the strict boundaries between traditional menswear codes. He elaborated further, referencing the evolution of cultural dynamics: 'Andy Warhol birthed this idea of pop culture that ultimately younger people are consuming, and the hierarchies are different now. In fact, you realise that all these hierarchies are starting to disappear through inter-pollination.' Anderson's Dior may not be about rewriting the rules, but rather blurring them—creating a space where personal expression and house heritage coexist.
Forbes
09-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Mentorship As A Strategic Advantage: A Low-Cost, High-Impact Approach
Andrea Wenburg is the host of the Voice of Influence podcast and author of mentor guide "Set Up for Success at Work." getty Who did you admire as a young professional? Did someone ever take an interest in you and invest in your professional growth? Who taught you the ropes? Mentors help younger people find their way as they navigate the professional landscape, and the mentor relationship gives older generations a quality opportunity to pass on their hard-earned wisdom. Intentional mentorship programs are a strategic advantage in 2025 because, in the midst of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, companies need to make the most of the resources they already have. Emerging leaders seek guidance, companies need younger employees to stay engaged and connected, and seasoned professionals want to leave a lasting legacy. According to the latest Freedom Economy Index report, conducted by PublicSquare and RedBalloon in 2024, "68% of small business owners find Gen Zers to be the 'least reliable' of all their employees." Additionally, "71% of employers say Gen Z is the most likely group to have a workplace mental health issue." Mentorship helps develop younger employees so they learn important skills like professional communication, networking and professional representation of themselves and their company. 'Kids these days' are similar to every other generation; they just face the challenge of finding their place in the world with a different set of experiences and tools. Personal disconnection is one of the biggest challenges they deal with, and mentorship helps them feel more connected to people and to the company while growing in their professional savvy at the same time. 2. Boosts Employee Engagement And Retention Younger employees are eager to grow in their careers. They want to believe there is a place for them to step into leadership and long-term success at their company. The 2023 "Adobe Future Workforce Study" found that 83% of Gen Z workers believe that having "a workplace mentor is crucial for their career." Without professional and career development opportunities, they are more likely to disengage and look for a path forward in another company. A positive mentor experience helps people feel connected, hopeful and invested in the company culture. It can be difficult to know how to relate to someone who is different from you. Intentional mentorship programs provide an opportunity for cross-generational relationship building. In turn, this impacts the level of trust and respect among those involved, fostering a supportive work environment and opening the door for continuous learning and growth. Mentorship programs are a simple, low-cost way to make a difference in engagement and adaptability, but they need the right balance of freedom and structure to make them worth the effort. 3 Keys To A Successful Mentorship Program 1. Make It Clear That Mentorship Is A Value And Priority For The Company When the C-suite initiates the creation of a formal mentorship program, it signals that mentorship is a priority, making employees more comfortable dedicating time to it. Communicating why mentorship matters to the organization is essential, but sharing a personal story of how mentorship has shaped your own career can make the message even more impactful. Framing the program as a formal invitation rather than a requirement allows employees to self-select, leading to higher engagement and more meaningful participation. 2. Create A Clear Structure Use the following questions to provide a general structure that will ensure the program is a strategic investment for your organization. • Goal: How many people do you want to engage in mentorship in the next 12-month period? • Content: What topics do you want mentorship to cover? • Pairing: How will mentors and mentees pair up? • Time Allotted: What frequency and duration should be allotted for sessions? What are the clear start and end dates of the formal relationship? • Accountability: What is the mechanism for accountability to ensure time is well spent? 3. Equip Mentors And Mentees With The Right Tools Mentorship is commonly a part of our company's leadership development programs, and we've found the following resources to be most beneficial to the mentorship relationships. • A list of willing mentors makes it easy for mentees to reach out and ask someone to be their mentor. • A kick-off meeting checklist helps the mentor and mentee set expectations. • A mentorship guide helps kick-start conversation and ensures that required topics are covered. • An expectation for documentation of each session ensures that key growth points or topics covered are recorded. • A certificate of completion for both the mentor and mentee acknowledges their investment in their professional development and the success of the company. Final Thoughts The work culture landscape looks different than it did years ago, but those of us who have been at work for a while may not feel the disconnection as intensely as our younger counterparts because we can rest on the foundation of many years of developing relationships and becoming comfortable in our careers. Is it time for your company to implement a low-cost program to develop younger employees, help seasoned professionals pass on their institutional knowledge and bridge the generational gap to create a supportive, continuous learning culture? Urge leaders to turn mentorship into a strategic advantage at your company. Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
WIRED
20-03-2025
- Business
- WIRED
Low-Cost Drone Add-Ons From China Let Anyone With a Credit Card Turn Toys Into Weapons of War
Mar 20, 2025 5:00 AM Chinese ecommerce giants including Temu and AliExpress sell drone accessories like those used by soldiers in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Photograph: Anna Barclay/Getty Commercial quadcopters have been on the mainstream gadget scene for 15 years, proliferating across industries and among hobbyists. There's a swanky DJI store on New York City's Fifth Avenue, and you probably have a neighbor, not to mention a roofer, who owns a drone. So when researchers at the embedded-device security firm Red Balloon started seeing surprising quadcopter accessories on Chinese shopping platforms like Temu and AliExpress, they didn't think much of it at first. As with any popular gadget type, there's a whole ecosystem of niche, wacky, and comical add-ons available for drones. But the more Red Balloon CEO Ang Cui thought about it, the more unsettled he and his colleagues became about how cheap and easy it would be for anyone to buy seemingly disparate add-ons that could easily turn a mainstream quadcopter into a war machine. The accessories the researchers found include AI drone guidance modules—essentially small mounted cameras that use object recognition to identify humans and road vehicles at long range—and miles-long fiber optic tethers. Like plugging an ethernet cable directly into your laptop, miles-long tethers allow drones to fly around a large area without being vulnerable to disruption by signal jammers. The researchers recognized them from battlefield footage and other reports that such tethers—not to mention AI guidance modules—are being used by both sides in the Russia-Ukraine war to drop explosives or autopilot crash entire drones themselves into tracked objects without requiring operator control. The fact that battlefield technology is widely available in the United States and around the world at low cost augurs a climate in which any actor—from criminal syndicates to paramilitary groups, from disgruntled employees to ostracized teens—can quickly and cheaply gather the needed equipment to remotely go on a destructive and violent rampage. 'The more we looked at this and started to see the big picture, the more my heart sank, because these are toys that are really amazing at killing people,' Cui tells WIRED. 'This tech didn't exist in the commercial space two years ago, it wasn't in demand from hobbyists, but now manufacturers are making it for war and it's spilling over.' The Red Balloon researchers found that long-range quadcopters are readily available on marketplaces like AliExpress for under $300, with many priced at around $200 each. And the unit price of a long-range drone can drop even lower when purchased in bulk. The researchers noticed sellers who were claiming that they ship 60,000 of the long-range drones per month. They purchased a 1-mile-long tether from a seller on AliExpress for about $260 and another that is 7.5 miles long for about $700. Meanwhile, the researchers also purchased an AI guidance module from a different AliExpress seller for $325. Cui and his colleagues also purchased cargo holders that strap to drones and can be used to transport beer cans or water bottles, but could also be loaded with mortar bombs. These were $106 each. In the two months since the researchers made the purchases, they say the prices of most of the products they bought have even dropped slightly. 'This equipment is mainstream, but it does not just cost a few dollars to make, so I think this stuff is being sold either at or below cost,' Cui says. In December the Kyiv Post reported of the Ukrainian military's own long-range, tethered drones, that, 'currently about 40 percent of the components [are] sourced locally in Ukraine while, because there is limited domestic microelectronics manufacturing capability, the rest are imported, primarily from China.' AliExpress parent company Alibaba and Temu did not respond to requests for comment from WIRED about whether such accessories—which are not inherently weapons themselves—pose any risks or have purchasing restrictions imposed on them in any markets. 'I don't know a hobbyist that wants to fly a drone miles away with a tether to drop a water bottle in someone's yard,' says Dave Torres, Red Balloon's head of FPGA security. 'I'm a combat veteran, so I'm used to dealing with IEDs and worrying about things that are buried in the ground. Well, now you have the capability to fly your IED over whoever you want to attack.' Red Balloon specializes in embedded device hardware and firmware analysis, so the researchers were interested to evaluate the processors and low-level code powering the fiber optic tethers and AI guidance components. In the tethers, they were surprised to find years-old, but relatively pricey, reprogrammable chips known as 'field programmable gate arrays' or FPGAs (Torres' area of expertise). Inclusion of these chips was notable, because it suggests that the devices are designed to be more dynamic and expandable than what a hobbyist would presumably need. Meanwhile, the guidance modules have largely reliable object recognition using all the cheapest components possible, including Chinese-made chips as their main processor. 'When I first saw the AI guidance components, one was advertising that it could identify a bird at 30 meters away and a horse at a hundred meters away—but later they actually just changed that to identifying people and cars,' says Cui. "It's not specific people or specific models of vehicles, but they're not even dancing around it anymore that those are the categories of targets this would be used for.' Counter-drone defense tech is still, relatively, in its infancy around the world. Even vague sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena can throw airports, or the state of New Jersey, into chaos. As WIRED reported in December, the US Department of Homeland Security has been encouraging state and local law enforcement since at least last summer to assess their ability to respond to weaponized drones. In a memo, DHS warned that violent extremists in the US have been looking to modify 'off-the-shelf' quadcopters to carry weapons, including "explosives, conductive materials, and chemicals." Red Balloon is based in New York City, and the researchers note that as they were investigating drone accessories they began to realize that the few options currently available for stymying malicious drones can't be used in dense urban areas. 'The things that work at taking them down are machine guns, lasers, and massive jammers—none of which can be used in a city,' Cui says. 'This is why Red Balloon has been focusing on developing techniques appropriate for high-density environments to track and safely defeat these drones without shooting at them or without jamming.' Such approaches could involve targeting drones at the protocol and firmware level to commandeer them and cause them to land. The researchers point out that the drones' ultra-low-cost development and manufacturing leaves no margin for research and development, testing, or onboard security protections. This represents a vulnerability for operators but could also be a benefit for defenders seeking to diffuse violent attacks without collateral damage. For now, though, the proliferation of accessories to weaponize mainstream drones is a looming threat with no easy resolution. 'Somebody who designs a plan and puts it into action could do some sophisticated damage for really, really cheap,' Red Ballon's Torres says. "I wonder if the US military can even get defense contractors to build these devices for them for the price they're selling online.'
