Did the world really 'run out of pink' to build Barbieland?🎀👛🌷💄

+ All the new shit Apple just unveiled, students fined over hazing death at a University in Belgium, & do you want a career in creativity?🎨

Hi my besties!!! I’m off this morning to record a Succession wrap-up/ round table with Bel and Dunc because I cannot BELIEVE we haven’t discussed the finale yet! So stay tuned for that episode of Culture Vulture tomorrow!! Also, I’m going to watch Hamilton tonight (it’s not the Original Broadway Cast but it’s the closest we’ll get in New Zealand) and I’m so pumped. OMG also… LOVE ISLAND HAS STARTED AGAIN (woosh I promise I do things other than watching TV.)

All of this is to say, there is plenty out there for you to consume in between reading your book club book and this newsy 🥺🥺🥺

And PS, our sale ends tomorrow!

• Yes, you can have a career in creativity!!

• Apple has unveiled a Crazy New Gadget

• Students in Belgium Hazing Death Are Sentenced to Fines and Service

• Barbie film ‘required so much pink paint it contributed to worldwide shortage’

Yes, you can have a career in creativity!!

This section is brought to you by Massey University!! 

I’m sure you all know by now that Shit You Should Care About was started in the back of a lecture theatre, so we honestly have uni to thank for our whole existence!! What you might not know though is that after we graduated, Liv went on to study again at Massey University!! She wanted to level up her design skills, because while we were at high school, we never felt like a future in the creative field was viable - or ‘the smart thing to do.’ But, thank god she did, because everything you’re seeing right now was designed by her, thanks to that degree!

If you like what you’re seeing and want to learn how to do something similar, Massey‘s Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts is Aotearoa’s leading university for creative arts, offering everything from design to fine arts, screen arts to music, and Māori visual arts - if you’re looking to turn your passion into a career, this is it!!

Take it from our very own Liv, who couldn’t rate doing a degree at Massey any higher. 

Find out more - or apply for the July intake - here!

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Apple has unveiled a Crazy New Gadget

It's called the Vision Pro and it’s basically an AR/VR headset (like the one META makes) but seems way better. It will be able to project a large 4K movie and gaming screen AND act as a desktop screen, but kinda creepily - when you’ve got the headset on it displays YOUR EYES ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE SCREEN when someone is nearby.

I know there’s going to be a lot of panic about whether the future is just all of us sitting around wearing these and being in our own virtual worlds (aren’t we kinda already doing that online?) but let it be said that this is actually kinda amazing.

Apple also unveiled some new features of iOS17 that are like… the bare minimum but also feel groundbreaking:

• namedrop, which is like Airdrop but for sharing contacts

• transcripts for voice notes!! life changing!

• the little 2FA code will autofill even if it comes to your email (you know how when you get a text with a code in it, it pops up when you’re typing to help you out??? That - but for email!)

• a ‘live voicemail’ feature where you can leave Facetime voice messages if someone doesn’t pick up, but that can answer as you’re leaving the message

• Laura will love this - recipe search!!! Users will be able to tap on a food item in an image and search for similar recipes.

• a new pronouns field for your contacts

• the Reminders app has a new grocery list that automatically categorizes items for shopping

• also ‘ducking hell’ is going to be removed from autocorrect!!!

Ok I’m at risk of sounding like I’m writing an ad for Apple now so I’ll stop but iOS17 kinda rules??

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Students in Belgium Hazing Death Are Sentenced to Fines and Service

This story was actually brought to me by a gorg newsy reader, Florence (this is why I love you all - you make me smarter!)

“Sanda Dia, a 20-year-old Black student at the Catholic University of Leuven, died in 2018 after members of an elite fraternity forced him to drink fish oil, swallow goldfish and stand in an ice-filled trench.”

Sanda Dia died of multiple organ failure after being forced to drink alcohol excessively, chug fish oil until he vomited, swallow live goldfish and stand outside in an ice-filled trench as part of a hazing ritual. The eighteen students involved have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter and ordered to pay fines and perform community service.

“The court found all 18 students guilty of involuntary manslaughter and degrading treatment, but acquitted them of charges that included culpable neglect and administering a harmful substance causing death or illness. The students — all members of the fraternity Reuzegom, which traditionally attracts scions of the country’s elite — were each sentenced to perform 200 to 300 hours of community service and pay fines of 400 euros, or about $430.”

This case has caused a debate across the country - there have been protests in the cities of Antwerp, Brussels, Gent and Leuven and I’ve seen #justiceforSanda getting a bit of traction on TikTok - as people don’t think the punishment fits the crime, and are noting that the students involved (though their names are suppressed) are likely to be the kids of some of the country’s ‘elite.’

More on this story here!

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Barbie film ‘required so much pink paint it contributed to worldwide shortage’

So apparently the “world ran out of pink” while building the set for Barbie???

“Speaking to Architectural Digest, Gerwig and the film’s production designer Sarah Greenwood, spoke about the construction of Barbieland, which is almost entirely fluorescent pink, from the lifesize versions of the doll’s famous “Dreamhouse” to the roads and lamp-posts.”

They went on to make the claim that while they were building the set the ‘world’ ran out of pink paint, and a VP at Rosco (the paint company used by the film) has confirmed that the film “used as much paint as we had”, but the production had also come at a time when there were #globalsupplychainproblems, Covid-19 and extreme weather events, so it wasn’t alllll to do with building Barbie’s dreamhouse.

The story without context does sound better though.

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