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☆ Salman Rushdie Reflects on His Stabbing in a New Memoir
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Dwight Garner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In his candid, plain-spoken and gripping new memoir, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” Rushdie describes what happened next. That is long enough, Rushdie points out, to read one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, including his favorite, No. And there’s a wound on the left side of my mouth, and there was one along my hairline too. That was the cruelest blow, and it was a deep wound. A doctor says, “You’re lucky that the man who attacked you had no idea how to kill a man with a knife.”

Persons: ” Rushdie, Rushdie, reeks, “, ”, Ralph Lauren

☆ Humane's AI Pin got trashed by a YouTuber, and it sparked a firestorm over whether that's fair
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Geoff Weiss | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee gave a scathing review of Humane's new AI pin. Some X users said Brownlee's review would mark a death knell for the company. AdvertisementIn his review, Brownlee applauded the build and craftsmanship of the device. AdvertisementIn another viral tweet, however, the user Daniel Vassallo called Brownlee's review "distasteful" and "almost unethical" given his huge following. Vassallo told Business Insider he wasn't defending Humane and actually thought the substance of Brownlee's review was "fair and balanced."

Persons: Marques Brownlee, —, Brownlee, Sam Sheffer, Humane's, Daniel Vassallo, Vassallo, MKBHD, Alex Finn, Alex Kehr Organizations: YouTube, Service

☆ The Paradox at the Heart of Elon Musk’s OpenAI Lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-02 | by ( Kevin Roose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It would be easy to dismiss Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI as a case of sour grapes. Mr. Musk sued OpenAI this week, accusing the company of breaching the terms of its founding agreement and violating its founding principles. In his telling, OpenAI was established as a nonprofit that would build powerful A.I. But Mr. Musk argues that OpenAI broke that promise by starting a for-profit subsidiary that took on billions of dollars in investments from Microsoft. And Mr. Musk’s falling out with Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, has been well documented.

Persons: Elon, Musk, OpenAI, Jason Kwon, Musk’s, “, A.I, haven’t, Sam Altman Organizations: OpenAI, Microsoft

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Denis Villeneuve doesn’t feel like he came back to Arrakis for “Dune: Part Two.” In his mind, he never left. Photos You Should See View All 21 Images“We all walked at the beginning into this project feeling confident,” Villeneuve said. “Dune: Part Two” cost a reported $122 million to produce and is arriving in theaters not a moment too soon. Christopher Nolan recently compared it to “The Empire Strikes Back.” Villeneuve demurred, but the internet went wild. “I think that’s the way movies will survive.”

Persons: — Denis Villeneuve doesn’t, ”, Frank Herbert’s, David Lean, Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch, ” Villeneuve, Greig Fraser, they’d, Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, Paul, Jessica, Rebecca Ferguson, Villeneuve, Chalamet, “ Denis, ” Chalamet, “ It’s, Josh Brolin, Sicario, Gurney Halleck, Coen, I’ve, ” Brolin, it's, “, he’s, Hans Zimmer, ’ ” Villeneuve, it’s, Christopher Nolan, ” Nolan, Herbert Organizations: ANGELES, Associated Press Locations: Arrakis, Budapest, Wadi Rum, Abu Dhabi, ”, Hollywood

In a lawsuit filed late Wednesday in federal court in Washington, D.C., Meta Platforms Inc. said it is challenging “the structurally unconstitutional authority exercised by the FTC” in reopening the privacy agreement. “Meta respectfully requests that this Court declare that certain fundamental aspects of the Commission’s structure violate the U.S. Constitution, and that these violations render unlawful the FTC Proceeding against Meta,” the company says in its complaint. The dispute stems from a 2020 consent agreement Meta made with the FTC that also had the social media giant pay a record $5 billion fine over privacy violations. In May of this year, the FTC said Meta has failed to fully comply with the 2020 settlement and proposed sweeping changes to the agreement that includes barring Meta from making money from data it collects on minors. Political Cartoons View All 1274 ImagesThe FTC had no comment on the lawsuit.

Persons: “ Meta, Meta, Sen, Edward Markey, “, ” Markey Organizations: Facebook, Federal Trade Commission, Washington , D.C, Inc, FTC, Constitution, Meta, U.S, Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Big Tech, Massachusetts Democrat Locations: Calif, Washington ,, U.S, U.S ., Massachusetts

☆ Yen intervention a hard sell even as 150 to the dollar 'red line' beckons
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-29 | by ( Kevin Buckland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

But, Japanese authorities could find propping up their currency both difficult to achieve and hard to justify. To make even a ripple in the $5 trillion currency market, the BOJ would need to draw down massive amounts of dollar reserves. Wakabayashi, like many other analysts and investors, considers the 150 yen per dollar level a red line for currency intervention, not least because of its significance as a symbol of climbing costs of living from imported food and fuel. INTERVENTION IMMINENTThe yen careened to a 32-year trough at 151.94 last October before being reined in by several bouts of heavy intervention, the first by Japanese authorities in a generation. Measures of expected market volatility remain subdued.

Persons: Kim Kyung, Bank of Japan's hesitancy, Kazuo Ueda, You've, they're, Bart Wakabayashi, Fumio Kishida, Shunichi Suzuki, Masayuki Kichikawa, Ray Attrill, Janet Yellen, Aninda Mitra, Mitra, Kevin Buckland, Alun John, Vidya Ranganathan, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: National Printing Bureau, Bank of Japan, REUTERS, Rights, Bank of Japan's, U.S . Federal Reserve, U.S, Treasury, Fed, State Street Bank, Trust, Finance, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management, Ministry of Finance, National Australia Bank, BNY Mellon Investment Management, Thomson Locations: Tokyo, Japan, U.S, Washington, Asia, London

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden sued Rudy Giuliani and another attorney Tuesday, saying the two wrongly accessed and shared his personal data after obtaining it from the owner of a Delaware computer repair shop. The suit filed in California also claims Biden’s data was “manipulated, altered and damaged” before it was sent to Giuliani and Costello, and has been further altered since then. House Republicans, meanwhile, have continued to investigate every aspect of Hunter Biden's business dealings and sought to tie them to his father, the president, as part of an impeachment inquiry. Hunter Biden, meanwhile, after remaining silent as the images are splayed across the country, has changed his tactic, and his allies have signaled there's more to come. Giuliani provided the information to a reporter at the New York Post, which first wrote about the laptop, Biden's attorney said in a letter pushing for a federal investigation.

Persons: — Hunter Biden, Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Giuliani, Robert Costello, Costello, Ted Goodman, Hunter, ”, Biden doesn’t, he's, Trump, Biden, Eric Tucker Organizations: WASHINGTON, Republican, Giuliani, New, New York City, Associated Press, Department, Trump, House Republicans, New York Post Locations: Delaware, California, New York, Wilmington

☆ PEPFAR Turned the Tide of AIDS and It’s Now at Risk - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Nicholas Kristof | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Heritage Foundation critique also argued that AIDS is primarily a “lifestyle disease” and so “should be suppressed through education, moral suasion and legal sanctions” rather than medication. The most dangerous thing a woman there could do, it was said then, was to get married. If American conservatives want to fight AIDS with finger wagging instead of antiretrovirals, those women will again be at great risk. Only 40 percent of Republicans say that the benefits of Covid vaccines outweigh the risks (which is why research suggests that Covid may have disproportionately killed Republicans). The denunciations of PEPFAR horrify the Republican Party’s grown-ups, who recognize how important the program has been.

Persons: Biden, PEPFAR Organizations: Foundation, Zambian Locations: sanctimony, U.S

☆ The Democrats' biggest problem with age in 2024 is not Joe Biden
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Walt Hickey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Just 3 out of the 9 Supreme Court Justices are liberals. Unless Democrats are willing to risk a 7-2 GOP-held Supreme Court, it might be time to consider retirement. However, Joe Biden should be far from the Democrats' biggest worry when it comes to age. It would be tremendously bad luck, but then again, anyone who thinks that Democrats have had good luck at the Supreme Court is delusional. The question is rather, what is the maximum level of acceptable risk of a 7-2 GOP-held Supreme Court?

Persons: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Joe Biden's, Joe Biden, Biden, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Stephen Breyer, Barack Obama, —, Donald Trump, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Roe, Wade, Biden's, They're, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, it's Organizations: Service, Democrats, GOP, Republican, Democratic Senate Locations: Wall, Silicon, American, Phoenix , Arizona

☆ New York, Where Democrats Love Gerrymandering
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: While blue states stumble on personal incomes. Images: AP Composite: Mark KellyPolitics is full of insincerity, but nothing reeks of it more than the political gerrymandering drama in New York. After the 2020 census, the state’s judiciary threw out Albany’s redistricting map as a flagrant partisan gerrymander. Democrats in Washington now want a do-over, so they can make it easier to retake the House next year. Last week a state appeals court agreed.

Persons: Mark Kelly Politics Locations: New York, Washington

☆ Opinion: Putin faces a challenging task that threatens his power
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The Russian president needs to restore his image of a man in full command of his country to audiences at home and abroad. Speaking at the summit, Putin tried to reinforce the message he had delivered to the Russian people, the claim that all Russians had stood with him. It wasn’t just his use of “alternative facts” that undermined Putin’s effort to leverage the SCO summit into a place to restore his standing as Russia’s czar for the foreseeable future. In fact, in the aftermath of the Prigozhin uprising, Putin has echoed the traditional strongman’s playbook of buying loyalty. Putin now faces a triple task: reclaiming the mantle of invincibility in Russia, rebuilding that image abroad and winning his calamitous war in Ukraine.

Persons: Frida Ghitis, Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin —, —, Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin, Putin, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi, ”, “, Modi, Ebrahim Raisi, Xi, Dmitry Peskov, India’s Modi, Antony Blinken, Janet Yellen Organizations: CNN, Washington Post, Politics, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, SCO, Frida Ghitis CNN, Wagner Group, Belarussian, Indian, Biological Safety, Twitter, Financial Times, Russian Locations: Russia, China, India, Russian, Moscow, St . Petersburg, Belarus, Ukraine, Iran, Rostov, New Delhi, Iranian, Republic, Dagestan, Kremlin, Asia, Washington, Beijing

☆ Phoenix Dismantles a Homeless Encampment, One Block at a Time
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Jack Healy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

PHOENIX — Rebecca Sutton has no love for her patch of “the Zone,” a sprawling homeless camp on the edge of downtown Phoenix. There are overdoses and shootings, the sidewalk where she sleeps reeks of urine, and someone once burned down her tent. But now, moving day was looming, and Ms. Sutton did not know where else to go. In March, a judge declared the Zone a “public nuisance” and ordered Phoenix to clear out the area by mid-July. The city is planning to do so block by block, carrying out what it calls an “enhanced cleaning,” starting with Ms. Sutton’s corner at Ninth Avenue and Washington.

☆ Factbox: Kremlin drone incident: What do we know?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] A still image taken from video shows a flying object approaching the dome of the Kremlin Senate building during the alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow, Russia, in this image taken from video obtained by Reuters May 3, 2023. Ostorozhno Novosti/Handout via REUTERSMay 3 (Reuters) - Here's a look at what we know about the alleged overnight drone attack on the Kremlin, and the questions it raises. Russia called the incident a terrorist attack and an attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin, for which it said it reserved the right to retaliate. "We don't attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told a press conference in Helsinki. The incident comes at a moment of high tension and a potential turning point in the war, as Ukraine prepares to mount a long-anticipated counter-offensive.

☆ First came bank failures. Now comes the House hearing
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

New York CNN —Federal regulators are being called to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday about the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. What lawmakers are saying: Elected officials want a review of what happened at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank earlier this month, as well as stricter regulations to prevent it from happening again. Regulators on March 12, just days after SVB collapsed, announced a guarantee of all deposits at the bank and Signature Bank. What to expect: It’s unclear what will come of the hearings on SVB and Signature Bank. Wednesday: The House Financial Services Committee’s hearing on the banking crisis continues for a second day.

☆ I'm an underground miner making as much as $160,000 a year without a college degree. The job saved my life.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Cory Rockwell is an underground miner at copper mine Nevada Copper in the town of Yerington. Now, I'm an underground miner — and the job saved my life. Three years later, I moved to a different surface mine, but I really wanted to work underground, so I was applying to underground mines on the side. Years later, I am now a powders guy at underground copper mine Nevada Copper. At Nevada Copper, I'm responsible for dropping explosives into the holes drilled into the ground.

☆ Banks aren’t out of the woods yet and neither is the economy. Here’s why
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Markets seesawed severely this week when two of the US economy’s most prominent leaders gave seemingly contradictory statements on the health of the banking sector. But the evolving banking crisis makes it unclear if the central bank’s best-laid plans will pan out. The tumult in the banking sector is an outcome of the central bank’s fight against inflation, says José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers and former economist at the FDIC. And while containing the banking turmoil will be important for markets and the economy, it’s only one part of a complex equation. To be sure, it’s unclear how the banking sector will hold up, especially as a slide in shares of Deutsche Bank on Friday adds to global concerns.

☆ Rep. Jamaal Bowman says the push to ban TikTok is 'xenophobic' and 'part of another Red Scare'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But Rep. Jamaal Bowman — among the most prolific TikTokers in Congress — is pushing back. And amid growing bipartisan calls in Washington for a nationwide ban on the popular video-sharing app, he's decided to speak up. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers increasingly speak of TikTok as a potential vector for malign influence from the Chinese Communist Party. "Me being against a ban of TikTok is not about thinking TikTok is the greatest thing ever, and that there aren't regulations and reforms needed." The Biden administration, meanwhile, is threatening to ban TikTok if ByteDance doesn't sell its stake in the company.

☆ We asked ChatGPT to write a layoff memo and it turns out this is 'a difficult time'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Insider asked ChatGPT, the AI chatbot, to draft a layoff memo for a pretend tech company, Gomezon. After a little prodding, the chatbot wrote a layoff memo just as formulaic as the others. Surely it could compose a layoff memo of reasonable quality, right? ChatGPT can write a layoff memo InsiderThat wasn't the answer I'd expected, but in some ways it made me feel somewhat better about the technology. Maybe I should have accepted the technology's initial reluctance to write the layoff memo.

☆ A 'RuPaul's Drag Race' queen says her TikTok was suspended after she posted a video impersonating George Santos in drag
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Jan Sport of "RuPaul's Drag Race" had her TikTok account suspended. She said she was locked out after posting a video of her impersonating George Santos' drag persona. Initially, the video was well-received, getting positive comments from fellow drag queens, more than 400,000 views on TikTok, and 75,000 likes on Instagram. But she said after the video went viral, her TikTok account was suspended. "People are trying to make comparisons about drag queens sexualizing things," she said, referring to right-wing talking points that allege drag queens brainwash and groom children.

☆ Thousands sign petition to save 'sacred' Japan stadium where Ruth once played
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Elaine Lies | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TOKYO, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Thousands of baseball fans have signed a petition to save an iconic Tokyo stadium nearly a century old where Babe Ruth once played and which inspired best-selling author Haruki Murakami to first pick up a pen. "The citizens of Tokyo are going to regret it," said Robert Whiting, who has written books on Japanese baseball and who over the weekend started an online petition to save the stadium, which "reeks of history." "They're going to lose a really beautiful, quiet, relaxing spot and a great place to watch a baseball game," he told Reuters. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played there in 1934 as part of a Japanese tour, making the stadium only one of a handful remaining where Ruth played. By noon on Tuesday, Whiting's petition, addressed to Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike and several others, had almost 10,000 signatures.

☆ Tesla ≠ Apple. Elon Musk ≠ Steve Jobs. Cars ≠ iPhones.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and today, we're looking at where tech workers are getting hired. Startups and Big Tech have major cultural differences, according to some startup founders. My colleague Rebecca Knight and I found that tech jobs remain abundant — they just aren't necessarily in the tech industry. Elon Musk ≠ Steve Jobs. Many industry experts are quick to compare Tesla to Apple and Musk to Jobs.

☆ George Conway predicts Trump will run for president in 2024 for 'protection' against his many legal troubles
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

George Conway thinks Trump will run in 2024 as protection against his legal cases. "He will run for president, in effect, for protection against these legal proceedings, but there's just gonna be too many of them," Conway said. The lawsuit alleges that Trump, his company, and his three oldest children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump — misled people into investing in a multi-level marketing scheme. After the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago, he said that he thought Trump was "in very substantial legal jeopardy." Conway is married to Kellyanne Conway , Trump's former senior counselor.

☆ The World’s Best Airport Lounges Will Cost You. Are the Perks Worth It?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Barbara Peterson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

IN THE 1963 MOVIE “The VIPs,” a well-heeled group of travelers, portrayed by an all-star cast featuring Richard Burton and a bejeweled Liz Taylor, gets stranded at a fogged-in London Heathrow Airport. But the flick’s real star is the airport lounge where the swells hole up. This was an era when airport lounges were posh simply because they were invitation-only. Today, lounges are ubiquitous, and you don’t need an engraved invitation to get in, just the right kind of ticket, paid membership or credit card. An estimated 3,000 lounges now populate major airports worldwide, according to LoungeReview.com.

☆ How the White House is bracing for potential charges against Hunter Biden
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

President Joe Biden has stood by his son Hunter as he reportedly awaits possible criminal charges. But the White House faces a complicated communications challenge if federal agents move forward. But the White House faces a complicated communications challenge if federal agents investigating Hunter Biden move forward with charges against him on tax crimes and a false statement on a gun application. Experts say one thing the White House must not do is contact the Justice Department about the case. Republicans are itching to investigate Hunter Biden if they win control of Congress in the midterm elections.

☆ Russian missile strikes in Ukraine are militarily 'nonsensical' and represent an 'extraordinary tantrum' on Putin's part, Russia expert says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Putin also claimed that the strikes were directed solely at Ukrainian military, energy, and communications targets, but photos and videos show the aftermath of Russian munitions in civilian areas. "The Russian military can only hope to achieve effects through terror bombings like this," he added. "This reeks of desperation," Miles told Insider. While Russia's recent strikes won't be a one-time occurrence — the country unleashed a second bombardment throughout Ukraine on Tuesday — it is a tactic that is likely to be short-lived. "Putin's sort of fantasy of Ukraine as this national house of cards has been proven wrong time and time again," he added.

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