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☆ A teen whose dad cofounded Slack and mom cofounded Flickr is missing somewhere around San Francisco
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Mikhaila Friel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Mint Butterfield, the teen child of two tech founders, has gone missing in California. Butterfield, 16, is believed to have run away, local authorities say — perhaps to San FranciscoAuthorities are appealing for help finding Butterfield. AdvertisementMint Butterfield, the teen child of tech founders who set up Slack and Flickr, went missing over the weekend. The local sheriff's office put out a missing-juvenile alert on Tuesday seeking information about them. The alert, described in a Nextdoor post by K. Walther, a deputy in the Marin County Sheriff's Office, said Butterfield was last seen Sunday at 10 p.m.

Persons: Butterfield, —, Slack, Walther Organizations: San Francisco Authorities, Service, Flickr, Business Locations: California, Bolinas , California, San Francisco, Marin County

☆ Meme stocks are back in fashion. Here's how to find one.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In today's big story, we're breaking down how to identify a meme stock . Three years after GameStop upended things, meme stocks are back in fashion. But how does one find a meme stock? (Trump Media doesn't technically qualify as a meme stock under Sosnick's criteria due to the amount of low short interest. Maintaining long-term support for a meme stock remains a tough nut to crack.

Persons: —, Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, There's, Steve Sosnick, Business Insider's Matthew Fox, David Becker, Chelsea Jia Feng, Donald Trump's, Trump, Bill Gross, BI's Peter Kafka, there's, it's, Pedro Ribeiro Simões, …, Matt Chase, they're, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Sora, Meta, Tyler Le, Jack Canfield's, Jay Marine, Amazon's, Jeff Bezos, Antony Blinken, Emmanuel Macron, Dan DeFrancesco, Hallam Bullock, Grace Lett, Lisa Ryan Organizations: Business, Service, Getty, GameStop, Interactive, Business Insider's, Trump Media, Technology Group, AMC Entertainment, Big Tech, Hollywood, Facebook, NBA, FOX Locations: YOLO, hodlers, Silicon, Paris, Ukraine, Gaza, New York, London, Chicago

☆ Marissa Mayer has a new photo-sharing app. It looks like it's from 2009, but boomers might love it.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Katie Notopoulos | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Marissa Mayer, former Yahoo CEO, just announced a new app from her latest venture. It's called Shine, and it's a photo-sharing app where multiple people can upload photos to a shared album. Are you really trying to tell me that in the year 2024, people can't figure out how to share photos with each other? Shine, the new photo-sharing app ShineYes, there are some other things that could do this. Maybe, just maybe, Marissa Mayer will have another success on her hands here.

Persons: Marissa Mayer, It's, Mayer, —, Aunt Carol Organizations: Service, Yahoo, TechCrunch, Business, DOJ, Flickr, Google

☆ Homeowners spent $600,000 on a sand dune to protect their homes from coastal erosion. It collapsed after just 3 days.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Ellyn Lapointe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Salisbury Beach residents pooled funds for a sand dune to protect their homes from coastal erosion. But "king" high tides washed away half of the human-made dune after only three days. The project, organized by the community nonprofit Salisbury Beach Citizens for Change, built a human-made sand dune along the beach to block floodwaters from reaching homeowners' properties. This video posted on the SBCFC facebook page shows the final stages of construction for the Salisbury Beach human-made dune. Seeding sand dunes with grass anchors sand in place, fortifying dunes against erosion from waves and wind, according to UMass Amherst.

Persons: Mary away, Tom Saab, SBCFC, Jens Figlus, They're, Figlus, DCR, Healey, Driscoll, Gary Miles, Ken Wiedemann, — you've Organizations: Service, Salisbury Beach Citizens, Salisbury, SBCFC, Business, Saab, Homeowners, State, Texas, M University, Massachusetts Department of Conservation, Driscoll Administration, Salisbury Beach, Coast, UMass Amherst Locations: Salisbury Beach, Salisbury Beach , Massachusetts, Salisbury, The Massachusetts, State, Massachusetts, Sandwich

☆ Omegle was a relic of the old internet. I'm not sad it's gone.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Katie Notopoulos | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Gen-Z beloved site Omegle has shut down. The headline: "Omegle: Children expose themselves on video chat site." As K-Brooks' message said, all platforms are susceptible to bad actors — and child predators certainly exist on other social sites, too. According to K-Brooks's post, Omegle had worked with law enforcement and "there was a great deal of moderation behind the scenes, including state-of-the-art AI operating in concert with a wonderful team of human moderators. Omegle punched above its weight in content moderation, and I'm proud of what we accomplished," he said in his statement Thursday.

Persons: Omegle, —, Leif K, Brooks, you'd, Brooks didn't, hank y, ake, ault, lear, ince, ike, ong — Organizations: Service, BBC, AP, ust Locations: Oregon, uman

☆ Video shows weird 'kelping' behavior in whales. Scientists think it's the animals using seaweed to exfoliate.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Maiya Focht | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Scientists gathered 105 instances of baleen whales performing a strange behavior called kelping. This could be to help the whales exfoliate, or for them to entertain themselves, researchers said. The group gathered over a hundred videos and photos from social media of whales "kelping", which led them to realize that this behavior isn't isolated to one group of baleen whales. AdvertisementAdvertisementBecause this behavior turned out to be so widespread, the researchers began to speculate why the whales were doing it. But it's also possible, the researchers wrote, that the whales are using the kelp to exfoliate their skin, removing parasites and bacteria.

Persons: —, it's, Olaf Meynecke Organizations: Service, Marine Science, Engineering, Marine Research, Facebook, Flickr Locations: Queensland, Australia, Australia's

☆ A US Air Force spy plane built in 1962 had to make an emergency landing in Qatar. It's the latest in a string of incidents for the ancient fleet of aircraft.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Taylor Rains | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A US Air Force spy plane flying for the 55th Wing made an emergency landing in Qatar on Monday. The US Air Force did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. It eventually joined the 55th Wing at Offutt Air Force Base outside of Omaha in 1981 and is still flying more than 40 years later. The Air Force stands behind its incident-prone fleetThe Air Force says it plans to make upgrades to its RC-135 fleet, expecting the planes to fly for another 20 to 30 years. "I have complete confidence in flying this aircraft," 55th Wing vice commander Col. David Berg told the World-Herald in 2018.

Persons: it's, —, Michael Andrews, Steve Lynes, Qatar —, Heather Wilson, Wilson, Frank Strickler, Al Udeid, We've, Todd Feeback, John Rauch, David Berg Organizations: US Air Force, Wing, Service, Boeing, OMAHA, Air Force, Soaring, KC, US Air Forces Central Command, Herald, Offutt Air Force Base, Air, FAA, American Airlines, Al Udeid, Base, Kansas City Star, Tribune, Getty, Air Force Safety Center Locations: Qatar, Wall, Silicon, Bahrain, Nebraska, Omaha, England, Greece, Japan, Persian

☆ Inside the secretive world of superyachts, where the world's elite gather to relax and broker deals away from prying eyes
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

"They are the smallest country in the world," he said of the global community of billionaire superyacht owners. FlickrThe level of wealth of superyacht owners vastly exceeds that of even the sports stars and celebrities occasionally pictured on board. Superyacht owners can be intolerant of even the tiniest error or delay, the source said, and staff operate to precise schedules. Bruce Bennett/Getty ImagesSpy drones and bugging devicesAnd embarrassing guests are far from the only problem superyacht owners face. The privacy of the vessels, and the wealth, fame, and power of their owners and passengers inevitably draw unwelcome attention.

Persons: superyachts, David Geffen, you've, VALERY HACHE, you'd, they're, they've, Bruce Bennett, Simon Rowland, Rowlands, Spies Organizations: Service, Staff, Flickr, International Monaco, Getty, titans, UK Royal Marines, Veritas, superyachts Locations: Wall, Silicon, Yachtharbor.com, Hercules, Monaco, AFP

☆ Trump’s Mug Shot Is a Natural Fit in the History of Presidential Portraits - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Cara Finnegan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

If Adams worried about the photographs he posed for, later presidents worried about the photographs they didn’t consent to. It’s well known that the White House sought to keep evidence of Franklin Roosevelt’s physical disability out of sight, but advisers were also anxious that even the most routine candid shot might make him look bad. As the first social media president, Barack Obama walked the line between control and interactivity. The administration took advantage of nearly every new social media outlet as it emerged. In addition, White House photographers, led by Pete Souza, built a huge visual archive of presidential photographs shared in real time on Flickr.

Persons: Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin, Roosevelt, Barack Obama, Pete Souza Organizations: White, Photography, White House, Flickr

☆ AI is killing the grand bargain at the heart of the web. 'We're in a different world.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Kali Hays | Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

AdvertisementAdvertisementAI is undermining the web's grand bargain, and a decades-old handshake agreement is the only thing standing in the way. Now, though, generative AI and large language models are changing the mission of web crawlers radically and rapidly. Without a supply of potential consumers, there's little incentive for content creators to let web crawlers continue to suck up free data online. It's also open to manipulation, especially given the voracious appetite for quality AI data. Because robots.txt is voluntary, web crawlers can also simply ignore the blocking instructions and siphon the information from a site anyway.

Persons: Microsoft's Bing, Joost de Valk, It's, de Valk, Nick Vincent, Valk, OpenAI, robots.txt, Jason Schultz, Catherine Stihler, Archie, NYU's Schultz, Steven Sinofsky, who's, Andreessen Horowitz, De Valk, Stihler Organizations: Big Tech, Google, Wordpress, NYU's Technology, Policy Clinic, AWS, Creative Commons, Creative, Microsoft, Nvidia, Star Wars, DC Comics, Warner Brothers, Marvel, Disney, Atlantic, Meta Locations: CCBot, EleutherAI

☆ Fact Check-Image shows SpaceX launch in 2018, not lasers before Hawaii wildfires
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

An image of the Falcon 9 rocket launch by Elon Musk’s Space X has been mislabeled online as showing a laser beam hitting Maui, Hawaii just before deadly wildfires in August 2023. Maui’s wildfires have killed at least 96 people as of August 14, destroyed much of historic downtown Lahaina and made thousands of people homeless (here). However, the image was shared in May 2018 by SpaceX on its X and Flickr accounts (here) and (here) as showing the Falcon 9 launch from California (here). Reuters previously fact-checked claims involving the same image, which was falsely linked to wildfires in California in August 2020 (here). Image shows the Falcon 9 launch by Space X in May 2018, not a laser beam hitting Maui, Hawaii before the august 2023 wildfires.

Persons: Space X, Read Organizations: Elon Musk’s, Facebook, SpaceX, Reuters, Space Locations: Maui, Hawaii, Lahaina, California

☆ The average Chick-fil-A franchise makes nearly $8.7 million in sales and has one of the lowest fast-food franchise startup fee — here's how to open one
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Hayley Peterson | Dominick Reuter | Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Chick-fil-A 's fee for a new restaurant is $10,000 – one of the lowest of any major fast-food brand. In 2022, most locations average nearly $8.7 million in sales per year, up from $8.1 million a year ago, according to the chain's 2023 Franchise Disclosure Document. McDonald's, for example, requires potential franchisees to pay from $1.5 million and $2.5 million in startup costs — including a $45,000 franchise fee, according to the chain's 2023 FDD. Total costs to launch a franchised Chick-fil-A restaurant ranges from $518,385 to $2,803,435, according to the 2023 FDD documents. No transfer or sale of a Chick-fil-A business is allowed, not even family inheritance in the event of death or disability.

Persons: Mark Kalinowski, Chick, McDonald's, Noam Galai, Jay Reed Organizations: Service, Business, Taco Bell Locations: Wall, Silicon, York

☆ Artists are losing the battle against AI. Glaze, a tool that's found a way to trick algorithms, is giving them a fighting chance.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

AI would soon be better than human artists, Beverly was told. In October, Beverly checked a website, HaveIBeenTrained.com, that reveals if an artwork or photo was used to teach AI models. That image can still be fed to AI learning models, but the data gleaned from it would be inaccurate, Zhao told Insider. His team conceptualized the program when they were contacted by artists worried that AI models were specifically targeting their personal work. That could theoretically lead to a pseudo-arms race, where AI companies and the Glaze team continually try to one-up each other.

Persons: they've, She'd, Gigs, Beverly, I'd, Glaze, Ben Zhao, Zhao, Jackson, Autumn Beverly, Beverly Glaze, Celso Flores, Flickr, It's, Van Gogh, Sarah Andersen, Andersen, she's, you've, that's, Haibing Lu, Lu, Martin Senftleben, Senftleben, Harry Potter, J.K, Rowling doesn't, I'm, Midjourney Organizations: University of Chicago, Autumn Beverly, of Liberty, The University of Chicago, Santa Clara University, Tech, University of Amsterdam, Artists Locations: Ohio, —

☆ Anthropocene: Scientists say they’ve found a site that marks a new chapter in Earth’s history
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —Scientists have identified the geological site that they say best reflects a proposed new epoch called the Anthropocene — a major step toward changing the official timeline of Earth’s history. “We’ve moved into this new Earth state and that should be defined by a new geological epoch,” Waters added. On Tuesday, the scientists announced the geological site — Crawford Lake in Ontario, Canada — that best captures the geological impact of the Anthropocene, according to their research. Annual sediment samples from the Crawford Lake site have revealed geochemical traces of nuclear bomb testing, researchers have confirmed. The alpha spectrometry output shown on the screen indicates the presence of plutonium in a Crawford Lake drill core sample.

Persons: ”, Colin Waters, “ We’ve, Waters, eon, James St, Andrew Knoll, “, ” Knoll, Crawford, AWG, Crawford Lake, Francine McCarthy, Andrew Cundy, Stan Finney, it’s, Paul Crutzen —, Finney, It’s, stratigraphers, ” Waters, they’re, Andrew Mathews, We’ve, ’ ” Organizations: CNN —, Environment School, University of Leicester, Geologists, Wales, Harvard University, University, Southampton, Brock University, UK’s University of Southampton, International, International Union of Geological Sciences, Geological Congress, California State University, University of Southampton “, University of California Locations: Crawford Lake, Ontario, Canada, Flinders, South Australia, Jura, Crawford, Southampton Crawford, Sudeten, Lake, California, Baltic, Japan, China, Australia, Gulf of Mexico, Busan, South Korea, Long, Santa Cruz

☆ NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captures stunning image of the wreckage of 2 galaxies crashing into each other
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to impress with its unprecedented views of the universe. A new picture shows the wreckage of two galaxies crashing into each other. A gif shows a picture taken by the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes of the collision. That led to "an enormous burst of star formation," the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement about the image. These are clearly visible in the JWST image, shining brightly in orange and red.

Persons: James Webb Space, —, James Webb, JWST, Webb, Evans Organizations: Service, NASA, James Webb Space, Hubble, ESA, CSA, European Space Agency

☆ Chess photography: Body language, knowledge of the game and luck
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Ben Morse | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

“That’s always a very difficult question,” Emelianova told CNN Sport when asked how she would describe the art of chess photography. So like people who know very little of chess and of the personalities can kind of get very close to the game and feel like they are right next to this chess game. She went on to become a professional chess player before taking a break from competitive chess. Lennart Ootes“My mother was doing some photography stuff when she was younger in university, but it was analog photography,” Emelianova explained. But I already know enough to even, like – to catch a really, really subtle head shake or sitting like too straight or pretending to be very relaxed,” she said.

Persons: Maria Emelianova, Emelianova, “ That’s, ” Emelianova, “, ” Ian Nepomniatchtchi, Ding Liren, –, Carlsen, Lennart Ootes “, ”, Mobina, gazes, it’s, she’s, Emelianova –, don’t, Jennifer Shahade, Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi Organizations: CNN, CNN Sport, British, “, Moscow State University Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Khanty, Mansiysk, Moscow, Uzbekistan, India

☆ We're losing the battle against bird loss. Scientists estimate North America's bird population is down 3 billion and dropping fast in other countries worldwide.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Emily Sohn | Knowable Magazine | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

In North America, more than half of 529 bird species have declined, according to one study. Another study of 378 European bird species estimates numbers fell by as much as 19% from 1980-2017. There are birds on mountains, birds in cities, birds in deserts, birds in oceans, birds on farm fields and birds in parking lots. Bird numbers are falling across a broad range of habitats, as these graphs from Europe and North America show. A recovery program has boosted the species' numbers to more than 500, with several hundred living once more in the wild.

Persons: —, Peter Marra, It's, Alexander Lees, Lees, Christopher Michel, Marra, we're, Lees et, Philip McGowan, Glenn Simmons, McGowan Organizations: Service, Penguins, Earth Commons, Manchester Metropolitan University, Cornell, of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, Survey, US Geological Survey, Environment Canada, European Union, International Union for Conservation, Environment, Resources, Newcastle University, IUCN, California condor, Recovery Initiative Locations: North America, Antarctica, ptarmigan, Everest, Georgetown, England, Canada, United Kingdom, Gould Bay, eBird, United States, Science, Costa, India, Europe, California, Arizona, Brazil

☆ First-ever livestream from Mars will beam back images from the red planet today. Watch it here.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to live stream images from Mars. The European Space Agency (ESA) will be attempting its first-ever live stream of images from Mars today, providing space fans with close-up view of the red planet. The agency will aim to beam back an image of the red planet every 50 seconds from its Mars Express satellite at 12 p.m. It achievement will be an engineering feat for ESA's Mars Express satellite, which was launched 20 years ago today and has been orbiting Mars for nearly as long. A composite of Mars Express images.

Persons: —, ESA's Jorge Hernández Bernal, EHU Organizations: European Space Agency, ESA, Service, Mars Express, Mars, ESA Mars Express, Flickr Locations: Mars, Berlin, EHU Bilbao

☆ A physicist explains why there's no real end to a rainbow and the only way to spot a perfectly circular one in the sky
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Partha Chowdhury | The Conversation | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

To see a rainbow make a perfect, full circle, you'd need to see it from a plane in the air. This happens for very small droplets, such as a fine mist, or just after a rain shower when the air is just moist. You need very small water droplets in order for a rainbow to form. If you are flying a little above the cloud cover, keep a lookout for the small shadow of your plane on the clouds. The clouds are tiny water droplets, so chances are you may see a small circle of color around the shadow of the airplane.

☆ What Was Twitter, Anyway?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Willy Staley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Dorsey had nurtured the basic idea of Twitter for years — a site that would be like AOL Instant Messenger’s “away message” for anywhere, or “a more ‘live’ LiveJournal,” as he put it in a post on Flickr. But Williams, who created Blogger and sold it to Google for millions, came to see something else in Twitter: To him, its potential lay in its ability to create a running record of what was going on in the outside world. Dorsey was insistent that it was the latter: “You’re talking about your status as you look at the fire.”To Dorsey, the fact that Twitter creates a record of the world would be an incidental byproduct of all this status-sharing. He posted it to Twitter with a brief caption. Dorsey and Williams were correct to identify this as a conflict, even if they could not design or engineer it away.

☆ This isn't tech's first boom and bust cycle. Here's what we can learn from the previous bubbles: Stay agile and never rest on your laurels.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Asia Martin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Every previous boom and bust in tech over the decades has resulted in winners and losers. The ones that survived were those that stayed agile, kept focused on innovation, and made sure their foundations were solid. Whichever way you slice it, one thing is certain, the valuations of most major tech companies were high — and now they're not. For Dr. Govindarajan, the theme is austerity, telling Insider that tech "can't afford to be wasteful" anymore. Some people would've lost," said Dr. Govindarajan.

☆ The inside story of hot startup Deel's grow-at-all-costs culture
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Deel employees told Insider how the startup exploded. In just three years, the HR services startup grew from under 30 employees to over 2,000. My colleague Rob Price talked with more than 30 current/former Deel employees about its astronomical rise. Get a front row seat to Deel's grow-at-all-costs approach — intense, even for Silicon Valley. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty: Why people are sticking with Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ Fact Check-Picture of misspelled ‘secede’ sign is not from CPAC 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A photograph showing a group of people holding a misspelled “secede” sign was taken at a 2009 motorcycle rally in Texas, not during the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC 2023) as recent social media posts suggest. The image was taken at a Republic of Texas motorcycle rally in Austin on June 12, 2009, according to the caption information on Flickr. One user who shared the image on Twitter (bit.ly/3ZRqeqV) later labeled it “parody” in a separate post (bit.ly/3SXe65d). CPAC 2023 took place between March 1 and 4 in Maryland. A picture of people with a misspelled “secede” sign was taken at a Republic of Texas motorcycle rally in 2009, not during CPAC 2023.

☆ Fact Check-Digitally altered photo purports to show Ukrainian President Zelenskiy’s former advisor Oleksiy Arestovych at a pride parade
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A photograph from a 2006 Gay Pride Parade in New York has been digitally altered to include Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy and his former advisor Oleksiy Arestovych. A reverse image search shows the original image did not include Zelenskiy. According to the description it was taken at “Gay Pride 2006.” The post includes the tags “new,” “York” and “city.”A side-by-side comparison can be found (here). Other photos in the Flickr album showing the same person with the blonde wig and green eyeshadow can be seen (here) (here). The image has been altered to include Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy and his former advisor Oleksiy Arestovych.

☆ See The Real-Life Mushrooms That Inspired The Zombies in "The Last of Us"
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Don Steinberg | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The documentary shows jungle ants whose brains have been addled by a real parasitic fungus called cordyceps that acts like a neurotransmitter inside them. Cordyceps growing out of an ant. photo: Jasper Nance/Flickr

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