Latest news with #lion
New York Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Does a Lion Concern Itself With Memes?
If people on your social media feed are suddenly referring to themselves in the third person — and as lions no less — you're not alone. The Sigma Lion meme, in which people refer to 'the lion,' often as a veiled reference to themselves, has become somewhat ubiquitous online. If that makes no sense to you, here's some helpful background. OK, where did this come from? To understand the usage of 'the lion,' you have to first understand 'sigma grindset,' a TikTok trend that gained popularity in 2022 and merges two subcultures. A 'sigma,' in social media slang, is a successful and highly independent man. The concept was popularized in the 'manosphere,' a corner of the internet largely populated by young men that frequently promotes anti-feminist and misogynistic rhetoric, and it has spread out from there, becoming frequent slang in high schools and middle schools. The second subculture is made up of people who commit to a 'grindset' lifestyle, which glorifies a specific type of hard work that prioritizes self-improvement, productivity and discipline at the expense of leisure. Think Ashton Hall's viral morning routine. Sigma grindset takes the mentality of the sigma world and combines it with the commitment to hustle culture from the grindset, and that all manifests in the discussion of 'the lion.' Why is a lion involved? The usage of a lion in this context is nothing new. A popular saying in sigma grindset circles is 'The lion does not turn around when the small dog barks,' which has been attributed to a supposed African proverb. But there is also a famous line from 'Game of Thrones' in which Tywin Lannister says, 'A lion does not concern himself with the opinion of a sheep.' Similar constructions are abundant, and they are rarely attributed to specific sources. As with so many memes, the quotations were originally shared earnestly, before being co-opted by those who wanted to satirize and mock the concept. Some interpretations were outlandish, some were funny and more than a few carried racist or offensive messages. The meme took on a life of its own when people began discussing even odder things the lion does or does not do, like not concerning itself with child labor laws or not tipping minimum wage workers. In a short period of time, it has morphed, for some, into a way to share more petty grievances, like not having asked for pickles. I still don't get it. Fair! The meme and its variants require a slight sprinkle of brain rot, meaning you have to spend a lot of time on social media — primarily in Gen Z and Gen Alpha circles — to truly grasp them. Honestly, the less you know the better — after all, the lion does not concern itself with stories explaining memes.
The Star
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Scaling heights at lion dance competition
FORTY teams from 15 countries will participate in the 15th Resorts World Genting (RWG) lion dance championship. First held back in 1994, this year's competition will take place from July 25 to 27 at RWG's Arena of Stars in Genting Highlands, Pahang. The participating countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the US and Vietnam. The top three teams will receive cash prizes totalling US$34,000 (about RM146,000), said RWG sales, marketing and public relations executive vice-president Spencer Lee. Lee: Top three teams will receive prizes totalling about RM146,000, and there will be seven Excellence Awards. 'There will also be seven Excellence Awards worth US$1,800 (RM7,700) each,' he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur. A new category, 'Best Difficulty Award', was also announced by Selangor and Federal Territory Dragon and Lion Dance Association chairman Leong Lik Tong. This new prize will be awarded to the team who executes the most daring stunts during their performance. 'We decided that the team showcasing the most impressive set of stunts deserves to be acknowledged too,' said Leong, adding that the first prize was US$2,000 (about RM8,600) and a trophy. Leong: New category recognises the most daring stunts. To close the competition with a bang, Miss Universe Malaysia 2024 Sandra Lim will present a martial arts routine. 'I will be performing on the day of the finals,' said Lim, who does her own stunts as an actress. For tickets, visit or RWG's mobile app. — By LEE JUNE LING
BBC News
14-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Folly Farm: Sadness after 'majestic presence' Hugo the lion dies
In his prime he was a "majestic presence" who drew awe from visitors to one of Wales' top tourist the effects of age catch up with even the king of the jungle with the news that Hugo the 17-year-old lion has Farm Adventure Park and Zoo in Pembrokeshire announced "with heavy hearts" the passing of their beloved male African lion following a short illness."Our thoughts are with our keeping team who are feeling his loss most deeply," it said in a statement. Hugo arrived at the attraction near Tenby in 2014 with his mate Luna and their four cubs - Sola, Zahra, Alika, and Ebele - and swiftly became a "firm favourite" among staff and the illness it was discovered he was suffering from chronic kidney disease, a progressive and irreversible condition common in older big cats. The decision was taken to put him down due to his age, given more episodes of illness were likely."It is with very heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved Hugo," the statement read."His recent illness was determined to be an uraemic episode and sadly, more episodes were likely."Following an ethical review and given Hugo's age and the nature of his condition, the difficult but humane decision to provide a dignified goodbye to him was taken to prevent further suffering."
Irish Times
14-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
The lion and the forest
Once upon a time, there was a lion living in the forest. He was an aggressive lion, which made people flee from the area. Despite this, the lion wanted some people to move into the forest. The lion was also afraid of guns and bullets. It rained well in the forest. One family decided to settle in the forest. As they approached the area where the fierce lion lived, they encountered a man who warned them that he had left the forest because of the aggressive lion. However, the family was undeterred by his warning and chose to settle in the heart of the forest. That very night, the lion attacked the family, injuring a boy who was sleeping near the animals and taking one of the family's goats. The commotion woke the family, and shots were fired in response. By the early morning, the family decided to leave the forest for good and never returned. READ MORE Illustration supplied by students at Taageer Primary School, Dangorayo District, Puntland, Somalia Fighting Words is working with World Vision Ireland to support creative writing activities with children in Somalia, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This long-term partnership - funded by Irish Aid - is part of a broader five-year programme that World Vision is leading to empower and protect children and women. These creative education opportunities can strengthen children's resiliency, build their confidence and contribute to the bigger objective of protecting children from violence.
Russia Today
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Friends of genocide: Has Germany learned nothing from the Holocaust?
A single, small, low-quality do-it-yourself poster recently displayed in the center of Germany's capital Berlin has caused a minor scandal that has gone against the grain of the country's usually unshakable support for Israel while the latter is committing genocide. The essence of the incident is simple: in late April, the Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft (DIG) – 'German-Israeli Society' – held one of its 'Israel Days' in Berlin. In Germany, the DIG is a prominent and powerful organization. Its main source of funding, according to the country's official lobbying register for 2023, is the German state. The latter's Federal Agency for Civic Education – in essence, Germany's office of Centrist ideological orthodoxy and indoctrination – describes it as the country's 'central organization […] where friends of Israel come together in non-partisan cooperation.' 'Israel Day' in Berlin was a largely informal event, really a street party with speeches. To make things even more fun, there was catering by the restaurant Feinberg's. In particular, Feinberg's, specializing in what it calls Israeli cuisine – Palestinians recognize many dishes as plagiarized from their tradition – offered a very special melon smoothie. The poster advertising the drink showed a lion (used by Israelis as a national symbol) wearing an apron emblazoned with the Israeli flag (just to make sure). The lion held two large glass tumblers, one with pieces of melon (an already traditional and well-known symbol of Palestine and its resistance), the other with the finished smoothie and a small Israeli flag. The background consisted of a pile of melons, often cut open, many featuring instantly recognizable baby faces. The poster's text said (partly in English and partly in German): 'Watermelon meets Zion. Israeli-style watermelon, shredded, mashed, and hacked to pieces.' An Israeli restaurant in Berlin offers 'Israeli-style blended Watermelon, puréed, and chopped to pieces' at an Israel lobby event with faces on the watermelons. Many are interpreting this as a violent fantasy The watermelons evoked what is known as 'Kindchenschema' or 'cuteness' (in the scientific sense): an almost universally recognized pattern of features that signals babies and children and – with psychologically normal individuals – stirring deep hormonal and neurological responses of sympathy and care or at least restraint. The message was obvious and not at all funny: The Israeli 'lion' was crushing the Palestinian 'watermelons' into an enjoyably refreshing ice-cold and blood-red pulp, available with a 'shot' of – presumably celebratory – vodka, too. That the faces on the anthropomorphized 'melons' were childlike made everything even more repulsive: clearly, whoever felt this picture was a good idea is not normal enough for the Kindchenschema to work on them. Those who study genocide have long agreed that the deliberate dehumanizing of the victims by propaganda and indoctrination is one of its elementary methods and signs. Those who pretend to fail to recognize a textbook case of such dehumanization in this poster are deliberately obtuse. The poster was, of course, an unmistakable allusion to Israel's ongoing combined genocide-ethnic cleansing operation, with its main (though not sole) target the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. That is the place where the majority of Israel's victims, many of them babies and children, have literally been 'shredded' and 'cut to pieces' by air raids and bombing as well as systematically starved and deprived of housing and vital infrastructure, especially medical institutions, and, not to forget, their caretakers: it is Gaza under Israeli assault for which doctors had to invent a new abbreviation: WCNSF – wounded child, no surviving family. In the words of Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN humanitarian office responsible for Gaza, Israel is practicing 'deprivation by design' and the 'deliberate dismantling of Palestinian life.' The latest - de facto minimum - death toll among the Palestinians is approaching 63,000. Almost 112,000 victims have been injured, often severely, leading to lifelong consequences, such as amputated limbs. Horrifying as they are, these figures, generated by Gaza's health ministry – which, contrary to Israeli and Western propaganda, is conservative in its counting – are only the tip of the iceberg. For one thing, a study in the authoritative medical journal The Lancet has long maintained that the real figures are likely to be substantially higher. Killing, injuring, and maiming are, of course, only one part of Israeli violence. Mass displacement and the literal razing of the Gaza Strip, much of which has been pounded into toxic dust, and deep and pervasive psychological trauma are others. There is no room here to even sketch all the vicious methods of Israel's genocide or all its horrendous consequences. And as with genocides before, there is also a limit to language: It is hard to even accommodate in ordinary words both what the Israeli perpetrators have been doing, together with their Western accomplices, and the vicious sadism that not a few but many Israelis, in and out of uniform, are proudly displaying. Yet this is, after all, what Amnesty International – and many others – have rightly identified as a 'live-streamed genocide.' Due to the stunning shamelessness of many Israeli perpetrators and the development of modern media and especially social media, this is a genocide in the global public eye as never before. That is why it is entirely impossible to believe the silly attempts to obfuscate and backpedal now made by the clearly anything but 'leonine' creators of the poster. Obviously stung by protests and afraid of possible legal consequences, Yorai Feinberg, owner of Feinberg's, has retreated to claiming that the melons were meant to stand for – drum roll – 'antisemitism,' and that the whole thing was just satire anyhow. Both claims are offensively absurd: Everyone knows that watermelons stand for Palestine, Palestinians, and their resistance, not 'antisemitism.' It may, of course, be that in the unwell minds of the poster's creators those two things appear to be the same. That would be a classical Zionist delusion as well as a propaganda trick. And still, obviously, a lie. Also, it is very, very hard to explain why things now allegedly representing merely 'antisemitism' needed to be drawn with cute, childlike faces. No, this is, let's print it, for-crying-out-loud bullshit, nonsense of the same evil, brazen sort as the Israeli genociders' endless, daft lies about Hamas here and Hamas there, whenever they feel – which is often – like bombing yet another hospital, tent encampment, or residential building. Regarding 'satire' – a cop-out publicly endorsed by (surprise, surprise) the DIG – where to even start? If the makers of this revolting picture really felt that they were producing something akin to a 'witty' or 'edgy' statement, a kind of 'joke,' then that simply means that they find 'joking' about genocide and especially the mass murder of children 'normal.' And there can't be anything less normal and more morally rotten than such a sense of 'humor.' Seriously boasting of mass murder or 'just kidding'? You know what: It does not matter – either means you are a monster. But this scandal involves more than the bloody bigotry of one German and Israeli restaurant. Consider that this was an official DIG event, attended by both its president Volker Beck and the Israeli ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor. They cannot have been unaware of the 'lion-exterminates-melons' poster: an Instagram picture showed both of them in front of the stand displaying it. Beck is a major – if past his prime – politician from Germany's Green Party, a fanatical supporter of Israel, and, as it happens, also a figure with a less than shining past. He has argued for the decriminalization of 'pedosexuality,' that is, de facto the unpunished sexual abuse of minors, a fact he later tried to conceal without success; he has also been caught with serious drugs. Prosor is a veteran Israeli diplomat who does what Israeli diplomats do: Past highlights include attacking UNRWA, a signature move of Israeli aggression against Palestinians designed to cut them off from any support that might disturb Israeli siege and starvation operations. Indeed, Israeli assaults on UNRWA are currently the subject of yet another case against it at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Recently, Prosor has sought to suppress critical voices in Germany, including Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm, and, for good measure, police German universities by defaming resistance to Israeli crimes and German complicity as 'new antisemitism.' How original. It's not hard to imagine that both gentlemen saw nothing wrong with that melon-shredding lion and may even have enjoyed a splash of genocide-'joke' smoothie. And they won't face any consequences, of course. For – and this is the widest and saddest context of this vile affair – Germany has chosen to side with Israel with a 'to-the-bitter-end' obstinacy reminiscent of that other very disappointing Germany that failed to ever stop being loyal to – and fighting for – Nazism until finally stopped by others, mostly the Soviets. Berlin, the capital, has been at the forefront of this new, as it were, transferred nationalism-without-restraint and Nibelungentreue for pure, obvious evil. Its mayor Kai Wegner has acquired a reputation for genocide denial; its police for brutality against those showing solidarity with Israel's Palestinian victims. And it is the city where an anti-genocide protester has just been convicted for 'trivializing the Holocaust' simply for peacefully holding up a sign saying 'Have we learned nothing from the Holocaust?' Clearly, that judge has not. Against this background of pervasive, dominant ethical perversion, a poster viciously dehumanizing Palestinians came as no surprise. What is intriguing is that this time there has been some protest even, if all too faintly, in some mainstream media outlets. Maybe Germany is not entirely lost yet. Or is it, as before in German history, only a minority that shows decency but cannot change the deeply indecent course of the country's morally and intellectually kaput elites and the majority still following them?
