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EL0NMUSK, BAD G1RL: In Hong Kong, personalized license car plates are a coveted luxury

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1 year ago

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EL0NMUSK, BAD G1RL: In Hong Kong, personalized license car plates are a coveted luxury

Written by Kristie Lu StoutJadyn Sham, CNNHong Kong

At a authorities public sale in Hong Kong, “EL0NMUSK” offered for the equal of $1,405.

The namesake of the headline-grabbing tech titan is one among numerous chosen car license plates — together with “BAD G1RL,” “LATTE” and “SHADYB1Z” — that went below the hammer on the finish of January. The public sale’s highest bid went to “1 HH” for 115,000 Hong Kong {dollars} ($14,684).

It is a sizzling market. Hong Kong residents have been recognized to pay tens of millions of {dollars} for a coveted plate. In 2008, “18” — thought of a fortunate quantity in Cantonese — went for 16.5 million Hong Kong {dollars} ($2.1 million). Eight years later, “28” went for 18.1 million Hong Kong {dollars} ($2.3 million).

However the file was set in March 2021, when one bidder spent 26 million Hong Kong {dollars} ($3.3 million) for a plate with a single letter: “W.”

Watch: Hong Kong self-importance automobile plates can promote for tens of millions

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A Transportation Division spokesperson advised CNN that each one income from the auctions of personalised car plates, which happen usually, go straight to the Hong Kong authorities’s Treasury.

For automobile house owners, the self-importance plates can carry private which means. Actual property tycoon Cecil Chao bought his, “CEC1L,” at a relative steal for simply over $20,000 Hong Kong {dollars} ($2,550 in 2007). It now graces his silver and burgundy Rolls Royce.

He additionally has a Bentley bearing his surname “CHAO” and a convertible Rolls Royce with “4” — an unfortunate quantity in Cantonese and Mandarin, because it seems like “demise,” however not for the Shanghai-born property developer.

“I used to be born in China, in Shanghai,” says Chao. “In Shanghainese, quantity 4 (seems like) ‘happiness’ — that is my philosophy of life.”

Since 2006, over 40,000 “personalised car registration marks” have been offered at public sale by the Hong Kong Transport Division, with costs beginning at round 5,000 Hong Kong {dollars} ($640).

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events should first inquire whether or not their proposed mark meets the Transport Division’s necessities. Automotive house owners can create plates of as much as eight characters (together with areas) however can’t embody the letters “I,” “O” and “Q.” As soon as the mark is cleared, it needs to be purchased by way of public sale.

Town’s self-importance plate phenomenon has sparked social media fan accounts like @HKnumberplates on Twitter, the place hunters share their favourite finds on-line utilizing the hashtag #HKnumberplates.
CNN not too long ago noticed a number of plates on the streets, together with a yellow Lamborghini with “SIN,” a black BMW with “DARKSIDE” and a white Porsche SUV with “CNN.”

“Are U 0K” noticed on a Hong Kong freeway. Credit score: Alex Dicker/CNN

Hong Kong-based artistic director Michele Salati, who launched the HKVANIT1ES undertaking three years in the past, considers “0K LA” as his private favourite. Broadly seen round city on an iconic crimson taxi, it was additionally the primary license plate he seen when he moved to town seven years in the past.

“These self-importance plates are utilized by their house owners to focus on their standing, wealth, humor, wishes, superstitions and even their favourite meals,” Salati says.

“To me, every plate is sort of a line of poetry, racing via the streets of town. I might see that it is a type of poetry in movement.”

Salati’s on-line platform collects images of personalised plates and invitations customers to string them collectively into poetry.

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He says he is gathered about 2,500 pictures and 300 poems for his platform, together with a rap by native artist Dough Boy (that later turned a music video) and a brief ode titled “TGIF” by a consumer named Tony:

TGIF
TIME OUT
LIV2LUV
CITYLIFE

Quite a few eyebrow-raising personalised plates have additionally been noticed on Teslas racing across the metropolis together with “BEAVER,” “MR XXL” and the somewhat cheeky “PASS GAS.”

The brand new proprietor of the “EL0NMUSK” registration mark, and the make of their automobile, is at the moment unknown.

Prime picture caption: A yellow Lamborghini in Hong Kong sporting the license plate “SIN.” Illustration by Ian Berry, images by CNN/Adobe Inventory.

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Mass shooting at Rochester Hills splash pad: Everything we know

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11 mins ago

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June 16, 2024

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Mass shooting at Rochester Hills splash pad: Everything we know

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. – Nine people were injured, including two children, when a man opened fire at a splash pad in Oakland County on Saturday.

When did the shooting happen?

The shooting happened just after 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 15.

Where did the shooting happen?

The shooting happened at the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad at 1585 E. Auburn Road in Rochester Hills.

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What do we know about the shooting?

Police said the shooter drove to the splash pad, parked, and started firing once he was out of his car from the base of the steps that lead to the splash pad. He walked up the steps, reloaded, and continued shooting from the top of the steps in the splash pad area.

He fired 28 shots randomly into the crowded splash pad, according to police. He reloaded multiple times and is believed to have been firing with two handguns.

Some victims were shot while trying to run from the scene. The shooter fled the scene before police arrived.

What do we know about the police response?

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A Oakland County sergeant arrived to the scene within minutes of the shooting being called into 911. The department uses Live 911, which allows deputies on the road to hear calls as they come into 911 before they are even dispatched out to officers.

The sergeant heard the call over the radio and sped to the splash pad, where he was there within two minutes and began helping victims by applying tourniquets and offering support.

Who are the victims?

Micayla and Eric Coughlin from Rochester Hills had only just arrived to the splash pad with their two daughters when they heard gunfire, according to a GoFundMe page set up by a friend of the family. The each grabbed a child to protect them. The children were uninjured but the couple was shot a total of 7 times.

According to the sheriff’s office, in total, nine people were shot. Officials said a 39-year-old woman and her two sons were shot. The woman was in critical condition, her 8-year-old son was in critical condition, and her 4-year-old son was in stable condition.

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The other victims include a 30-year-old woman, 30-year-old man, 37-year-old woman, 39-year-old woman, 40-year-old man, and a 78-year-old man.

What do we know about the shooter?

The shooter has been identified as Michael William Nash, 42, from Shelby Township.

Police recovered a 9mm handgun at the splash pad, which was registered to the shooter. They located him at a mobile home park in Shelby Township where he killed himself hours after the shooting. Police said they believed the shooter lived with his mother, who was not home at the time.

What have we learned about the investigation?

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Police are still investigating why the man decided to open fire on random strangers. They have not located a note, manifesto, or other evidence that offers an explanation. The investigation will include putting together a timeline of what he did leading up to and after the shooting.

A rifle was discovered in the home where the shooter was found dead. Oakland County sheriff Michael Bouchard said, “Because we had quick containment on him, that if he had planned to do anything else — and it wouldn’t surprise me because having that on the kitchen table is not an everyday activity — that there was probably something else, a second chapter potentially.”

Bouchard said police had no previous contact with the shooter and he did not have a criminal record. Bouchard said family has indicated that the shooter may have been experiencing some “mental health challenges.”

“We have some information that obviously we’re gonna run down that came from family that said he had been struggling recently and had been walking about the house with a gun and had some paranoid thoughts. We haven’t fleshed that out yet and that’s obviously something that is gonna be part of this investigation but we’d also encourage people, look, if someone is struggling with very severe mental health challenge and they have weapons in their hand that’s a good time to loop in mental health professionals and certainly public safety. We really need to be in front of so many of these tragedies rather than hear about it after. Almost every one of these things I’ve analyzed, and I’ve analyzed active shooters going back 25 years, have a very clear component that if somebody shared information it could have been interrupted,” Bouchard said.

In February of this year, Michigan enacted new gun laws that included an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) law. The ERPO law allows the courts to temporarily prevent people deemed a risk to themselves or others from having or buying firearms.

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A spouse, former spouse, partner, former partner, family member, roommate, guardian, law enforcement officer, or healthcare provider can petition the court to have a person’s firearms temporarily removed if they are deemed to be a risk.

—> More: Michigan’s red flag gun laws: What to do if you believe someone is a danger to themselves or others

Resources available for residents

The Rochester Hills Department of Public Services building will now serve as a Family Assistance Center. Anyone who feels they need help is encouraged to speak with someone. You do not need an appointment to access resources at the Family Assistance Center. Therapists will be available Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. at 511 E Auburn Road.

If you are unable to make it out to the Family Assistance Center, you can contact the nurse on call at 800-848-5533. They are available Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.

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John Everett Benson, Who Chiseled John F. Kennedy’s Grave, Dies at 85

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6 hours ago

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June 16, 2024

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John Everett Benson, Who Chiseled John F. Kennedy’s Grave, Dies at 85

John Everett Benson, a master stone carver, designer and calligrapher whose chisel marked the deaths of presidents, playwrights, authors and artists, as well as generations of American families — and whose elegant inscriptions graced museums and universities, government buildings and houses of worship — died on Thursday in Newport, R.I. He was 85.

His son Christopher said he died in a hospital but did not specify the cause.

Mr. Benson practiced the ancient and exacting art of carving into rock; slate was his preferred medium. He did so, precisely and gorgeously, on cornerstones, gravestones and monuments, as his father had before him, working out of an atelier in Newport called the John Stevens Shop. Founded in 1705, it is one of the oldest continuously run businesses in the country.

The art Mr. Benson practiced is mostly devoted to mortality, the brief span of a life, though it is designed for eternity, or something close to it. It is often described as the slowest writing in the world. Mr. Benson could spend a day carving a cross; a gravestone might take three months.

For the inscriptions for the East Building of the National Gallery in Washington, designed by I.M. Pei in the 1970s, he averaged an hour and a half carving each letter, some of which are nearly a foot tall. He and his team at the time, two young carvers named John Hegnauer and Brooke Roberts, spent months completing the painstaking work.

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He carved the words on the pedestal that supports Secretariat’s statue at Belmont Park; he also carved John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s credo into a slab of polished granite in Rockefeller Center. His elegant slate alphabet stone — alphabet stones are where lapidary artists show off their chops, their calligraphic feats and flourishes — lives in Harvard’s Houghton Library. He also worked on the National Cathedral in Washington, Yale University and the Boston Public Library, among other institutions.

Mr. Benson, who was known as Fud, was 25 when began his first major commission: to mark John F. Kennedy’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery and carve selections from his speeches onto a low wall made from seven granite blocks. (He changed into clean bell bottoms when Jackie Kennedy came to the shop in Newport to approve his design.)

Stone carvers on public sites invariably draw a crowd. And, inevitably, someone will ask, “What if you make a mistake?” As Mr. Benson, Mr. Hegnauer and Mr. Roberts worked at another site, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, onlookers asked and asked, so much so that Mr. Benson requested that a flyer be made to put an end to the incessant questioning.

Q: What happens if they make a mistake?

A: Don’t worry, they won’t.

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“Why go to all this kind of trouble to get a name on a building?” Mr. Benson said in “Final Marks: The Art of the Carved Letter” (1979), a documentary about his work made by Frank Muhly. “Why carve it into the stone? Why carve it in this particular fashion?” He added: “There’s a tremendous emotional appeal about a carved letter. It partakes of the substance of the building. And of the carved letters, this particular style” — Mr. Benson favored what is known as a V-cut — “shows very clearly that the letter is made of the same stuff as the building itself. There are lots easier ways to do it, let me tell you.”

John Everett Benson was born on Oct. 8, 1939, in Newport, R.I., one of three children, and grew up in an 18th-century clapboard house overlooking Narragansett Bay. His mother, Esther Fisher (Smith) Benson, known as Fisher, was a Philadelphia-born Quaker who used “plain speech” at home, deploying “thee,” “thy” and “thine” for “you,” “your” and “yours.”

His father, John Howard Benson, was an artist who had become enamored of the stone carver’s art. He bought the John Stevens Shop with a $1,200 loan in 1927, when he was 26, and began to revive its business.

The elder Mr. Benson was, like his son, a polymath skilled at calligraphy and carving, and he elevated the practice, reaching back to the Roman tradition of carving large, elegant capital letters designed first with a brush and ink on paper. In his time he was known as the country’s finest stone carver, and he worked on many commissions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design, where he was a professor.

Fud was 15 when he began apprenticing in the shop, and his first commissions were gravestones for two clients’ pets. He was 16 when his father died of a heart attack in 1956. His mother ran the business while he studied sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design, and he took over the shop after he graduated in 1961.

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Mr. Benson was eloquent, erudite and prone to grand gestures. He was agile enough to perform a Fred Astaire chair trick — stepping from seat to chair back in a graceful arc — though he sometimes overestimated his abilities. During a youthful fascination with firearms, he shot himself in the leg. He was better on the fiddle, and played traditional Irish music and sea chanteys with a local band, the Reprobates, in Newport’s bars.

In addition to his son Christopher, a painter, Mr. Benson is survived by his wife, Karen Augeri Benson, a lawyer, whom he married in 1988; another son, Nick, a stone carver; and four grandchildren. His marriage to Ruth Furgiuele in 1959 ended in divorce in the early 1970s. Mr. Benson’s older brother, Thomas, a sculptor and art and antiques restorer who died in 1987, was a founder of the Newport Museum of Yachting. His younger brother, Richard, known as Chip, a noted photographer and printer, died in 2017.

Mr. Benson’s last monumental work was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, designed by Lawrence Halprin as a series of outdoor “rooms” made from red South Dakota granite onto which Mr. Benson carved the president’s notable quotations and speeches, including the “Four Freedoms” speech.

In 1993, Mr. Benson turned the business over to his son Nick and returned to sculpture. Like his father, Nick began his apprenticeship at age 15. His father’s praise was hard won, Nick recalled, and was delivered sort of sideways: “Well, Jesus,” he might say, “it doesn’t look like you need me.”

Nick Benson carved the World War II, Martin Luther King and Dwight D. Eisenhower memorials in Washington, and he won a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2010 for preserving the art of hand letter carving.

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Mr. Benson’s headstones were his bread and butter. His orders, from a who’s who of Americans, were backlogged for months and even years. He made Tennessee Williams’s headstone out of pink Tennessee marble, as he did for George Balanchine. Lillian Hellman’s, a flat slate marker on Martha’s Vineyard, is engraved with the years of her birth and death and is embellished with a delicate feather quill. (Curiously, he ended up carving the gravestone of Ms. Hellman’s nemesis, Mary McCarthy, when she died in 1989, five years later.)

Jean Stafford declared in an article for The New York Times in 1971 that she had ordered hers ahead of time, “because I knew they would make me something beautiful.” (She died eight years later.) Rachel Lambert Mellon, known as Bunny, ordered hers in 1999, when she commissioned one for her husband, the philanthropist Paul Mellon, who died that year. She kept hers in her library in Virginia until her own death in 2014.

“They’re simple, well-established objects,” Mr. Benson told the writer Philip Kopper in 1977. “All you can do is try to make the lettering as beautiful as you can. And that’s a darlin’ way to spend a day or two.”

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French leftists move to shore up alliance ahead of snap elections

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7 hours ago

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June 16, 2024

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French leftists move to shore up alliance ahead of snap elections

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Leaders of France’s leftwing New Popular Front moved to shore up their new alliance for forthcoming snap elections after it was rocked by a far-left party purge of moderates.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon enraged colleagues and the leaders of other parties late on Friday when he removed several of his critics and proponents of the alliance from his party’s list of candidates.

He included in the list Adrien Quatennens, a protégé and controversial MP from Mélenchon’s France Insoumise — France Unbowed, or LFI — party, who has a conviction for domestic violence, prompting a furious reaction from other NPF leaders.

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On Saturday, Mélenchon was defiant about his purge, telling news outlet 20minutes.fr that “political coherence and loyalty in the left’s largest parliamentary group are imperative for governing”.

But on Sunday, Quatennens withdrew his candidacy in what appeared to signal a partial retreat by Mélenchon.

Mélenchon, a deeply polarising politician, suggested he would not insist on becoming prime minister if the left emerged from the election with the most seats. A Mélenchon premiership would be a troubling prospect for the other left parties and many voters.

Adrien Quatennens has withdrawn from the election after his inclusion on France Insoumise’s list of candidates prompted a furious reaction © Adrien Quatennens Youtube Channel/AFP via Getty Images

“If you don’t think I should be prime minister, I won’t,” he told France TV, addressing his NPF comrades.

The creation of a united leftwing front is a crucial development in the run-up to the elections on June 30 and July 7. It could seriously harm the prospects of candidates for Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance by making it much harder for them to qualify for the second-round run-off.

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The leftwing parties are deeply divided on the economy, EU policy and Ukraine, but have buried their differences to maximise their chances against Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National.

They have united behind a joint programme with a radical tax-and-spend agenda, adding to investors’ jitters ahead of the election. Mélenchon said the left’s programme envisaged tax rises worth €123bn a year.

In a sign of the commitment to the new alliance — which spans Eurosceptic far-left populists and pro-EU social democrats — former socialist president François Hollande said he would run for parliament as an NPF candidate.

However, Mélenchon’s purge of his party just hours after the New Popular Front’s campaign launch created serious strains within the alliance. Olivier Faure, the socialist chief, called it “scandalous”.

“It’s totally petty, small of him, settling scores when the challenge now is to prevent the far right from taking power,” Alexis Corbières, one of the MPs removed as a candidate, told France Info.

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Another, Raquel Garrido, posted on X: “Shame on you, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. This is sabotage. But I can do better. We can do better.”

Political parties are scrambling to assemble their lists of candidates for the election before the deadline of 18.00 on Sunday.

Hollande’s candidacy in his home region of Corrèze took his colleagues by surprise. If elected, Hollande would become only the second former head of state to take a seat in the National Assembly since the start of France’s fifth republic. The other was Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.

Hollande said it was “an exceptional decision for an exceptional situation”, given that the far right is closer to power than at any moment since France’s liberation from Nazi occupation in 1945.

To salvage as many seats as possible, Macron’s centrist alliance is trying to strike reciprocal local deals not to stand against each other with centre-right candidates that refuse to back RN.

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The centre-right Les Républicains party is also in disarray after its leader Éric Ciotti unilaterally agreed an alliance with the far right

Furious colleagues on the party’s executive unanimously voted to expel Ciotti, but the decision was overturned by a Paris court on Friday night, leaving it unclear who was in charge of the list of candidates.

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