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☆ ‘Dune’ Fans, Here’s a Documentary That Will Blow Your Mind
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Alissa Wilkinson | More About Alissa Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

This week sees the release of “Dune: Part Two,” the second installment in Denis Villeneuve’s eye-popping adaptation of the 1965 Frank Herbert novel. Perhaps you’ve seen the Lynch version, which I find kind of charming in its flawed state. But if you’re heading to “Dune: Part Two” this weekend, you owe it to yourself to be acquainted with another “Dune” adaptation that doesn’t technically exist and, somehow, is also larger than life. I’m speaking of the “Dune” we glimpse in Frank Pavich’s 2014 documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune” (streaming on Max). It chronicles the “Dune” adaptation that never happened, the bright dream of the avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (who did make “El Topo” and “The Holy Mountain”).

Persons: Denis Villeneuve’s, Frank Herbert, David Lynch, you’ve, Frank Pavich’s, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jodorowsky, Michel Seydoux, Léa Seydoux, Pink Floyd, Salvador Dalí, Dalí, Christopher Walken, Gloria Swanson, Mick Jagger, Udo Kier, David Carradine, Orson Welles, Paul Atreides, Timothée Chalamet

Former President Donald J. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, has repeatedly attacked central elements of the Inflation Reduction Act, including tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles. “Otherwise it’s all going to be on the chopping block.”The Inflation Reduction Act contains various tax credits and other subsidies to incentivize companies to deploy more clean energy projects. It also includes tax breaks for consumers to offset the cost of electric vehicles, heat pumps and other energy-efficient appliances. That could cut the number of eligible vehicles, potentially hindering progress toward the Biden administration’s goal of having electric vehicles make up half of new car sales by 2030. The estimated cost of the Inflation Reduction Act’s energy incentives has effectively doubled since it passed, largely because forecasters believe the legislation will be more popular than they originally expected.

Persons: Biden, Donald J, Trump, “ We’ve, Frank Pallone Jr, Thomas Pyle, ’, Pyle, Kevin Book, Sean Rayford, ” Mr, John Ketchum, Ketchum, “ It’s, Mr, Sasha Mackler, David Carroll, we’ve, Carroll, T.J . Kirkpatrick, ” Michael Kikukawa, Lori Esposito Murray, Ms, Murray, Jeanna Smialek Organizations: Republican, Democratic, Company, Biden, House Energy, Commerce, American Energy Alliance, ClearView Energy Partners, The New York Times, NextEra Energy, Republicans, Center, Engie, White, Economic Development, Conference Board, “ Locations: States, China, New Hampshire, America, Indiana, Texas, Irvine , Calif

The two organizations have worked together on other issues, including several conferences on U.S. elections, but the principles released Tuesday are their first to examine the nation’s election system and policies. Carroll said challenging election results and the integrity of the voting process is a relatively new development. ”Extreme polarization really has led, I think, to more questioning of election processes that, ironically, have only improved significantly over the last 25 years," he said. Amy Cohen, executive director of the National Association of State Election Directors, said she had not seen the recommendations but said election officials are constantly trying to improve. “We need to normalize the fact that it just takes longer to tabulate election results accurately,” she said.

Persons: gamesmanship, ”, Jimmy Carter, State James A, Baker III, David Carroll, Carter, Carroll, ” Mark Jones, Baker, Jones, Amy Cohen Organizations: WASHINGTON, The Carter Center, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Democrat, Republican, State, Reform, Democracy, U.S, Rice University, National Association of State Locations: U.S

☆ Temu was one of the fastest-growing websites in 2023, new data shows
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Madeline Stone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Temu was among the fastest-growing large websites in the US last year, according to a new analysis by Similarweb. When considering only websites with more than 10 million monthly visits, Temu came in second only to OpenAI, which saw its traffic grow by 2,690% in 2023 as AI exploded into the mainstream. The ad intelligence company told Modern Retail that Temu spent an estimated $517 million on US ads between September and December 2023. AliExpress, the Alibaba-owned online marketplace, was in third place behind Temu with year-over-year traffic growth of 290%. AliExpress was launched in 2010 but still saw significantly less traffic than Temu in 2023, with an average of about 24.2 million monthly visits.

Persons: Temu, David Carr, AliExpress, Carr Organizations: Pinduoduo Holdings, Business, Modern, Duo Security Locations: Boston, China

☆ Meta's retreat from news accelerated in 2023, leaving publishers scrambling for traffic
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

At Mother Jones, a 48-year-old nonprofit magazine specializing in politics and investigations, the implications were dramatic. "The firehose of Facebook traffic was never going to pay for our journalism, for the majority of our journalism," Bauerlein said. Last decade, many publishers saw their "social traffic decline pretty dramatically," with Facebook deprioritizing text-based articles in favor of video content, Cholke said. "If we all end up finding news in the metaverse, then you'll be finding Mother Jones in the metaverse," she said. What Mother Jones won't do, she said, is "bet everything on one platform, because that never works out."

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Sen, John Kennedy, Bill Clark, Reuters Mother Jones, Monika Bauerlein, Mother Jones, Meta, Donald Trump, Bauerlein, Jill Nicholson, Nicholson, Zuckerberg, David Carr, Carr, We've, Meta hasn't, It's, Similarweb, Sam Cholke, John S, Adams, Jonah Peretti, " Peretti, Jessica Probus, BuzzFeed's, BuzzFeed, Probus, Cholke, that's, Chartbeat's Nicholson, Mathew Ingram, Facebook, Ingram, Pew, Elisa Shearer, influencers, Jones Organizations: Facebook, Reuters, Mother, CNBC, Google, Meta, Daily, Comcast, Vice Media, Institute for Nonprofit News, Texas Tribune, Montana Free Press, The Texas Tribune, Institute for Nonprofit, Longtime, Columbia Journalism, Pew Research Center, Pew Locations: Washington, France, Germany, Australia, Helena, American

☆ Isabella Simonetti — Reporter at The Wall Street Journal
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Isabella Simonetti | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Isabella SimonettiIsabella Simonetti is a reporter covering the business of television and streaming as part of The Wall Street Journal's media and marketing bureau in New York. She joined the Journal from the New York Times where she was the David Carr Fellow in Business Reporting. At the Times, Isabella covered breaking business and economics news and wrote a number of enterprise stories on topics ranging from media to personal finance. Previously, Isabella was a media reporter at the New York Observer. Isabella is originally from New York City and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Persons: Isabella Simonetti Isabella Simonetti, David Carr, Isabella Organizations: New York Times, Times, New York Observer, University of Pennsylvania Locations: New York, New York City

☆ Threads user count falls to new lows, highlighting retention challenges
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The data from market research firms Similarweb and Sensor Tower highlight the challenges facing Meta as it seeks to exploit the opening created by the chaos surrounding Twitter’s management. Threads’ daily active user count is down 82% from launch as of July 31, according to Sensor Tower, with just eight million users accessing the app each day. On its launch day, Threads users opened the app an average of 14 times and spent an average of 19 minutes scrolling through it, the company reported. The steepest drop-off occurred in the two weeks immediately following Threads’ launch. According to Sensor Tower, Threads’ daily active user count is still falling at a rate of roughly 1% per day.

Persons: Abe Yousef, David Carr, Mark Zuckerberg, ”, we’re, Zuckerberg Organizations: DC CNN, Twitter, Similarweb Locations: Washington

☆ Meta Threads engagement has dropped off since red-hot debut, tracking firms say
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

What comes up must come down — at least in the case of user engagement on Threads, Meta 's new Twitter competitor. "The Threads launch really did 'break the internet,' or at least the Sensor Tower models," Anthony Bartolacci, managing director at Sensor Tower, a marketing intelligence firm, told CNBC. "In the 10-plus years Sensor Tower has been estimating app installs, the first 72 hours of Threads was truly in a class by itself." Threads saw a dropoff of more than 25% in daily active users between its July 7 peak and Monday for Threads users on Android phones worldwide. Since its debut on July 5, Threads made headlines for its Instagram sign-up integration, algorithmic feed and positive sentiment from advertisers.

Persons: Anthony Bartolacci, Bartolacci, Elon Musk, David Carr, Mark Zuckerberg Organizations: CNBC, Meta

☆ Twitter’s future is in doubt as Threads tops 100 million users
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The results underscore the risk Meta poses to Twitter’s business and raise questions about how, or if, Twitter can stem its losses. Twitter traffic had already been trending downward for months, according to data from the internet infrastructure company Cloudflare and the web analytics firm Similarweb. “Twitter traffic tanking,” Prince said as he posted the chart. A Twitter rival but not quite a Twitter replacementFueling Threads’ rapid growth has been Meta’s use of Instagram as a springboard to sign up new users, along with what many Threads users have identified as a dissatisfaction with Twitter. But after a Threads user pointed out that the new app was not featured in Twitter’s trending topics tab, Zuckerberg replied “Concerning” with a crying-laughter emoji.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Twitter didn’t, Cloudflare, Matthew Prince, ” Prince, Similarweb, ”, David Carr, We’ve, Alex Stamos, —, Stamos, ” Stamos, Kim Kardashian, Jeff Bezos, Axios, Adam Mosseri, Mosseri, Musk Organizations: Washington CNN, Twitter, Meta, Elon, CNN, “, Stanford Internet Observatory, Facebook

☆ David Carrick, Former London Police Officer, Gets At Least 30 Years in Prison for Rape
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Max Colchester | David Luhnow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Protesters gathered earlier this week outside Southwark Crown Court in London during the sentencing of former police officer David Carrick. LONDON—Former British police officer David Carrick on Tuesday was sentenced to at least 30 years in jail after he was found guilty of committing a series of rapes over the last two decades as an active policeman, raising difficult questions over how London’s Metropolitan Police force vets its officers. Mr. Carrick pleaded guilty to 49 charges relating to 12 victims between 2003 and 2020. The admissions made him one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders. Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said during sentencing that Mr. Carrick, 48, felt untouchable because of his job and had caused “irretrievable devastation” in the lives of the women he raped and abused.

☆ London police officer jailed for at least 30 years for serial rape
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Sam Tobin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Carrick’s offences, which included 24 counts of rape, were all committed while serving in the Metropolitan Police – piling further pressure on Britain’s biggest police force, which is already reeling from a series of scandals in recent years. The London force, which dismissed Carrick last month, has previously apologised for failing to spot his pattern of abuse earlier. Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray said in a statement on Sunday evening that she was “truly sorry for the harm and devastation” caused to Carrick’s victims. Carrick pleaded guilty to a total of 49 offences, including rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, false imprisonment and coercive and controlling behaviour. The judge told Carrick: "You have lost your liberty, your job and your status.

☆ London police officer admits to being serial rapist
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Aina J. Khan | Aina Is A Freelance Reporter With Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON — A London police officer has admitted raping and sexually assaulting a dozen women over nearly two decades, in a case described as "devastating" for the already frayed public trust in the force. “He has devastated colleagues.”“He used the fact he was a police officer to control and coerce his victims. Carrick met some of the women through online dating sites or on social occasions, using his position as a police officer to gain their trust, according to The Associated Press. Police have been working to repair ties with the community and restore trust among women after a string of cases that fueled concerns around sexual misconduct, misogyny and racism. Earlier this month, one officer pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and assault of a woman in her 20s while off duty, and another officer was convicted of harassment of a female colleague.

☆ British police officer pleads guilty to 49 counts of rape, sexual assault, and other crimes, as head of London's Metropolitan Police says: 'We've let women and girls down'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

David Carrick, a former British police officer, pled guilty to dozens of counts of rape and sexual assault. By failing to stop Carrick sooner, the head of the Metropolitan Police said the agency "let women and girls down." David Carrick, 47, a former armed officer with the Metropolitan Police, pled guilty to six counts, including rape and sexual assault, at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday. He previously pled guilty to committing 43 offenses — including 20 counts of rape and several counts of sexual assault as well as controlling or coercive behavior — in December, the UK's Crown Prosecution Service said. Metropolitan Police/Media UseGoing forward, the Metropolitan Police said, Carrick's crimes have laid the foundation for new protocols to deal with offenders within law enforcement's own ranks.

☆ London police officer pleads guilty to 24 counts of rape
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Sarah Young | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"Serious questions must be answered about how he was able to abuse his position as an officer in this horrendous manner," Mayor Khan said. The Met's Gray said work to identify and rid the force of corrupt officers was "determined", "focused" and ongoing. An independent review of the London force said in October that "radical" reform was needed in relation to how the it dealt with misconduct allegations faced by hundreds of its staff and officers. The review was commissioned in 2021 after an officer was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard. Reporting by Sarah Young and Kylie MacLellan; editing by William James and Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Twitter alternatives like Mastadon see downloads plunge
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Long before Elon Musk came along, Twitter users bemoaned the service yet remained addicted to it. It is a text-based social platform, or "microblogging" site, home to independent servers, or "instances." In early November, the hashtag TwitterMigration was trending on Mastodon for several days as Twitter users set up accounts amid Musk's chaotic takeover. Daily users have held steady though, at 1.4 million, a major increase from its usage prior to Musk's takeover of Twitter, which typically hovered around 20,000 daily users. Downloads of the iOS app have grown 290,000% to 1.5 million since Oct. 24, with daily users up 660,000% to 321,000, according to Apptopia data.

☆ Twitter alternatives that got traction after Elon Musk takeover are suddenly seeing downloads plunge. Which has staying power and who is the next Clubhouse?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Long before Elon Musk came along, Twitter users bemoaned the service yet remained addicted to it. It is a text-based social platform, or "microblogging" site, home to independent servers, or "instances." In early November, the hashtag TwitterMigration was trending on Mastodon for several days as Twitter users set up accounts amid Musk's chaotic takeover. Daily users have held steady though, at 1.4 million, a major increase from its usage prior to Musk's takeover of Twitter, which typically hovered around 20,000 daily users. Yet, it has maintained more than 500,000 daily users.

SYDNEY, Nov 28 (Reuters) - When Melbourne barista Melinda Elliott had to cut back on casual work shifts this year, she asked her buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) provider, Afterpay, to lower her credit limit. "There was no email to say, 'your credit limit's gone up again'; it was out of nowhere," said Elliott by phone. The absence of interest charges has exempted them from consumer credit regulation, and the sector's business has grown strongly during an online shopping frenzy spurred by COVID-19 stimulus payments and ultra-low interest rates. If they come under regular consumer credit regulation, they will also lose their main competitive advantages. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which oversees the Credit Act, told Reuters it was "supportive of the BNPL sector being subject to regulation".

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