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☆ America's shrinking population: Economic impact of falling U.S. birth rate
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailAmerica's shrinking population: Economic impact of falling U.S. birth rateMelissa Kearney, University of Maryland economics professor, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the declining birth rate in the U.S., the economic impact of a shrinking population, and more.

Persons: Melissa Kearney Organizations: University of Maryland Locations: U.S

☆ When Travel Plans Go Awry
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-11 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The weekend trip is, in theory, the perfect break. Two nights someplace else, just a small duffel bag and limited logistics standing between you and a reset. You might take a weekend trip for vacation or work or to see family, but the effect is the same. An old friend used to call these neither-here-nor-there realms the “zero world” for the way they feel unfastened from reality, parallel to daily life but separate. I was as cranky and impatient as the rest of my fellow travelers at each complication in our journeys, but also fascinated by the communities and customs and Cibo Express markets of the zero world.

Organizations: Cibo Express

☆ The Gen Z Crossword Era
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

My 20-year-old niece, Emma, texted the other day to tell me she’s addicted to The Times’s game Connections; she and her friends play every day, along with the Mini and Strands. “The people who make the games need to make more fun games,” she declared. I don’t mind her treating me as her personal on-demand suggestion box for The New York Times; she’s my personal on-demand focus group for Gen Z. She’s used to my asking her about Snapchat etiquette, or which athleisure brands are cool, or if it’s true that her generation is grossed out by feet. I’d read about how younger people are getting into puzzles, but this was the first time my Gen Z rep had volunteered a report from the field. I, too, love Connections, but my deepest and most abiding puzzle romance is with The Times’s crossword.

Persons: Emma, texted, ”, I’d Organizations: The New York Times

☆ In Praise of Tiny Triumphs
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-30 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Spring arrives, and with it, a semi-annoying, semi-invigorating mandate to spring clean — to clear out spaces both physical and psychological. Because I am constantly looking for reasons to get rid of old things, old ways of thinking and being that have outstayed their usefulness, I’m drawn to spring cleaning as an annual rite. But because I am also constantly reckoning with a pesky sense of dread regarding obligations of any size, I also find the concept of spring cleaning over-ambitious and intimidating. and panic (it’s that time of year and, once again, I have waited too long to call the accountant!). Then she mentioned how accomplished she felt after sewing a button on a shirt to ready it for the sale.

Persons: I’m

☆ The Music That Made Us
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Adam rises from his desk and goes to the next room, where he drags a bin of memories out from under the bed. “Johnny Come Home” is one of those songs that evokes the ’80s so acutely for me that I was already experiencing flashbacks to my own adolescence before Adam began to excavate his. I hear it and I’m returned to my childhood bedroom: the boombox with dual tape players, pink wall-to-wall carpet, a diary with a lock. I hadn’t listened to Fine Young Cannibals in many years, but returning to their self-titled album now, I was curious to see if it would arouse the same emotions (anticipation mixed with melancholy). What happens when we re-encounter them later, when we’ve certainly changed, and perhaps they have too?

Persons: Andrew Haigh’s, Adam, Andrew Scott, Johnny Come, ”, We’re, Johnny, I’m, hadn’t, Fine, we’ve Organizations: Fine Locations: Irish

☆ In Search of Spring
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

When does spring begin? For some, it’s the second Sunday in March, when we turn our clocks forward by an hour in the United States. It’s only a three-hour flight from La Guardia (rainy, cold) to West Palm Beach (sunny, 81 degrees, slight breeze), and from there an hour’s drive to Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, the spring training home of the New York Mets. Here in Port St. Lucie on a Tuesday afternoon, weeks before the season’s official start, cheery fans were decked out in team merch, drinking Modelo Especial tallboys and snacking on peanuts, reeling off stats, heckling the players. Here, spring was already happening.

Persons: they’ve, Lucie Organizations: Hemisphere, La Guardia, Palm, Clover, New York Mets, Yankees, Yorker, Modelo Especial Locations: United States, La, Port St, New York

☆ Cramming for the Oscars
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-09 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I’m in competition with no one but myself in trying to view all the major-category nominees for the Oscars before the ceremony tomorrow night. I’m doing well this year, probably because the slate is fairly small: Most of the films with acting and screenplay nominations are also contenders for best picture. The problem with cramming for the Oscars, as I do every year to varying degrees of success, is that it renders one cinematically wearied. If I fail to squeeze in a nominated film before the ceremony, I’ll probably never see that film at all. I love the Oscars, with all their pageantry and pomposity.

Persons: I’ll, Mark Harris, ”, Harris, ’, “ we’d Organizations: Hollywood

☆ An HGTV Star’s Party Inspires a Question: What Makes a Home?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | Dolly Faibyshev | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

What makes a house a home? On Tuesday night, that question floated in the delicately candle-scented air of a three-story penthouse apartment on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan where the interior designer Jeremiah Brent lives with his husband and fellow designer, Nate Berkus, and their two children. An intimate gathering of about 30 guests had assembled to celebrate the publication of Mr. Brent’s first book, “The Space That Keeps You,” a collection of photos and stories of interesting people and their enviable houses. For Mr. Brent, who along with Mr. Berkus is a mainstay on HGTV with shows like “The Nate & Jeremiah Home Project,” a home is a “weird blend of space and place.”

Persons: Jeremiah Brent, Nate Berkus, Brent’s, Brent, Berkus, Nate, ” Organizations: HGTV, Jeremiah Locations: Manhattan

☆ Exploring the Backyard
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For more than 20 years, the British adventurer Alastair Humphreys roamed the planet. He rowed across the Atlantic, traversed India on foot, cycled around the world. Each hyper-detailed map includes not just roads but footpaths, vegetation and variations in terrain. Humphreys commits to deeply exploring one small segment of his map per week, to getting intimate with his immediate environment, by walking or biking every millimeter. “I wanted it to be serendipitous, not governed by my preferences,” he writes.

Persons: Alastair Humphreys, ”, Humphreys, I’ve, “ Organizations: Ordnance Survey, U.S . Geological Survey Locations: British, India, U.S

☆ Artist Carl Andre, known for minimalist sculptures and a murder trial, dies at 88
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Wallace Ludel | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

American artist and sculptor Carl Andre pictured at London's Whitechapel Gallery in London on March 15, 1978. Andre’s work often consisted of industrially fabricated forms made from simple, raw material — such as metal, granite, wood, and brick — arranged in free-standing patterns. His death passing was confirmed on Wednesday by the Paula Cooper Gallery, with which the artist had worked since 1964. “My father always said, ‘I am old school and European, and my wife does not work,’” Andre told the magazine. Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesIn 1970, after just over a decade in New York, Andre received his first major museum survey, at the Guggenheim Museum.

Persons: Carl Andre, — Carl Andre, Paula Cooper, Ana Mendieta, Andre, ” Andre, George Andre —, “, Margaret Johnson, ‘, ’ ” Andre, ”, Frank Stella, Stella —, “ They’re, They’re, Ken Hively, Peter Schjeldahl, “ Andre, Mendieta, Helen Molesworth, Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art —, “ Carl Andre, Melissa Kretschmer Organizations: The Art, CNN, Phillips Academy, Kenyon College, Army, Northeastern University —, Tate, Los Angeles Times, Guggenheim Museum, The New York Times, Dia Beacon, Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Artforum Locations: London, American, New York City, Quincy , Massachusetts, United States, Sweden, “ The, Andover , Massachusetts, Beverly Hills, New York, Greenwich Village

☆ Opinion: Our possibly short national nightmare
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-21 | by ( Richard Galant | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over,” President Gerald Ford said. “Our campaign is the last best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden nightmare,” the former UN ambassador said. If not, it won’t be as protracted a “national nightmare” as the two-year-long Watergate scandal that put Gerald Ford in the Oval Office. Though, depending on your point of view, the real nightmare could begin after the swearing-in. Yet, John Avlon wrote, Trump and some members of the House GOP, want to tank an emerging compromise in the Senate that would couple border security measures with aid to Ukraine.

Persons: CNN —, Richard Nixon, “, Gerald Ford, Ford, Gerald Ford’s, Nikki Haley, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Clay Jones, we’ll, Haley, MAGA, ”, Frida Ghitis, Trump, ” Haley, ” Trump, Patrick T, Brown, Daniel McCarthy isn’t, Donald Trump’s, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, ” Nick Anderson, Biden isn’t, Dean Phillips, Cupp, Biden, ” Dana Summers, Karen Finney, Robert E, Lee, ” Finney, ’, Keith Magee, Julian Zelizer, Trump Samuel L, Adams, King David Border, Adolf Hitler, “ Mein, Paul Moses, Edward Alsworth Ross, Moses, Ross, … ”, — Hitler’s, It’s, who’ve, John Avlon, Scott Stantis, Mike Johnson, Alice Driver, Greg Abbott’s, Jean Carroll, Bill Bramhall, News Trump, Carroll, Danielle Campoamor, “ Carroll, —, she’s, Shawn Crowley, Robert C, Gottlieb, ” “, Jack Ohman, Gerald Auten, David Splinter, Jordan McGillis, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman, McGillis, Melissa Kearney, ” Elise Gould, Josh Bivens, ” Elisabeth Kendall, Peter Bergen, ” Kendall, Sheena McKenzie, Izzeldin Abuelaish, Peter Rutland, Israel ’, Nafees Hamid, Walt Handelsman, Sara Stewart, Katherine Heigl, Jill Filipovic, Jeremy Allen White, J, Chen, Suzanne Nossel, Jade McGlynn, Holly Thomas, Estee Lauder, mascara, don’t, ” Thomas Organizations: CNN, Netflix, Trump, Biden, UN, New, Republican, Florida Gov, South Carolina Gov, GOP, Democratic, New Hampshire, Agency, Aggression, CNN Town Hall, American Sociological Association, ”, ified GOP, Texas Gov, News, Brookings, Social, Administration, US, Cambridge University’s Girton College, Wesleyan University, Palestine, Times Locations: Republic, Iowa, New Hampshire, Minnesota, New, Virginia, North Carolina, mealtimes, curriculums, America, Ukraine, New York, Manhattan, Yemeni, Red, Gaza, Israel, Americas

☆ The Debate Over January
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-20 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | More About Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Winter friends — those who, contrary to all hedonic and circadian sense, love dark days and black ice — have been forwarding the story to me, triumphant, as if once and for all it’s been settled, the pointless, perennial battle of the seasons. Everyone just wants to feel better, I get it, but resisting their campaign is a twisted part of coping with the season. I spent the week exchanging snapshots with friends in Mississippi, their mutt cavorting in the snow-covered yard (look how cozy! Another friend asked if I didn’t find the cold and snowfall moody and melancholy, in a good way. It’s a case that the poets have been making for eons: “Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold,” Shakespeare wrote.

Persons: Steven Kurutz’s, mutt cavorting, ”, Stu, Roz Chast’s, Shakespeare, what’s Locations: Mississippi, New

☆ Republican Lawmakers Spar With University Presidents at Campus Antisemitism Hearing
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-05 | by ( Joseph De Avila | Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Harvard University President Claudine Gay speaking at the congressional hearing on Tuesday. Photo: ken cedeno/ReutersRepublican lawmakers chastised the presidents of three elite U.S. universities during a congressional hearing about efforts to curb rising antisemitism on their campuses. Claudine Gay of Harvard University, Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology acknowledged Tuesday to lawmakers on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce that antisemitism was a growing problem at their schools.

Persons: Claudine Gay, Liz Magill, Sally Kornbluth Organizations: Harvard, Reuters, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Education

☆ Gaza Protests at Colleges Open a Generational Divide
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Douglas Belkin | Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Three years ago, Erin Mullen arrived at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst exhausted by the pandemic and without any appetite for political demonstrations. Last month she sat in a holding cell in an Amherst jail with her hands cuffed behind her back, one of 57 students arrested while protesting the conflict in Gaza. Mullen is white, her parents were raised Catholic and she grew up in an upper middle class Boston suburb. Her political awakening—along with those of tens of thousands of her generation now enrolled at college—is fueling a surge of campus unrest not seen since the Vietnam War.

Persons: Erin Mullen, cuffed, Mullen Organizations: University of Massachusetts Locations: Amherst, Gaza, Boston, Vietnam

☆ Behind the Book Review’s Best Books List
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | More About Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Some people come with prepared speeches in support of the book they’re nominating. By the conclusion of each meeting, it’s clear which books are garnering support and which are losing steam. “There’s sometimes an assumption that we are trying to send a statement with the list,” Gilbert said. But both he and Tina were adamant that the list is not political, and the only statement they’re making is “these are the best books of the year and you should read them.”“We’re not engineering the list in any way,” Tina clarified. “We’re not saying, ‘Oh, gosh, at least three of the books on the fiction list need to be by women.’”

Persons: ” Gilbert, “, Gilbert, Tina, ” “, “ We’re, ’

☆ First-grade teachers in LA suspended and now under investigation after giving students a lesson about the 'genocide in Palestine'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-12 | by ( Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

California teachers suspended after giving first graders a lesson on "genocide in Palestine." Citizens of the World Charter School hosts its classes at a local synagogue. AdvertisementAdvertisementA charter school in Los Angeles with classes inside a Jewish synagogue is investigating two teachers who posted online about giving lessons to first graders on the "genocide in Palestine." "After the lesson, one of the teachers proudly shared on Instagram, and I quote, 'LOL but I did a lesson on the genocide in Palestine today w my first graders,'" Schuldenfrei said. Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, meanwhile, has pressured Harvard to suspend students for both antisemitic and pro-Palestinian actions on campus.

Persons: —, Melissa Kaplan, Adat Ari El, Brian Schuldenfrei, Schuldenfrei, Hye, Clifford Asness, megadonors, Leon Cooperman, Cooperman's, Bill Ackman Organizations: World Charter School, Service, World Charter, KTLA, Los Angeles Times, The Times, Hamas, Palestinian Health Ministry, University of Pennsylvania, Omega, Columbia University, Columbia, Harvard Locations: California, Palestine, Los Angeles, Israel, United States, Gaza

☆ Our Merch, Ourselves
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-11 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | More About Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Why do we buy merch, or shy away from it? What does the merch you wear say about who you are, what you believe in? Carrying the bag in your own city seemed too boosterish, too earnest for a New Yorker, whereas outside the city, the local merch telegraphs your hometown pride and N.Y.C. Once you leave the place, the merch becomes a souvenir, a nostalgic keepsake. Debating the laws of merch is a diversion, an amusing exercise in questioning our own pieties.

Persons: Spaeny, “ Priscilla, ”, It’s, Hannah, Priscilla, Priscilla Presley, Priscilla ”, Sofia Coppola, ” “, it’s, leashes, I’d, Justin Bieber Organizations: tote, telegraphs, Los Angeles Dodgers, American Locations: rhinestones, New York, Brooklyn, New, L.A

Student-led demonstrations have taken place on college campuses across the U.S. since the start of the Israel-Hamas war last month. Photo: Chin Hei Leung/Zuma PressRising tensions on campuses related to the Israel-Hamas war have led to widespread calls for colleges to do more to protect Jewish students from bigotry and threats of physical harm. A group of more than 30 Modern Orthodox high schools has joined donors, alumni and law firms in calling on colleges to rein in antisemitism after a rash of protests and antisemitic incidents on campuses that have left many Jewish students deeply unnerved.

Persons: Chin Hei Leung Organizations: Hamas, Zuma Locations: Israel

☆ Opinion | Older Americans Are Winning the Economic War of the Generations
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If there is a war of the generations, we older Americans are winning it. As evidence, I present two remarkable charts, which are my versions of charts made by the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging at the University of California, Berkeley. The charts show a big increase since 1960 in the consumption of goods and services by people over 60, with the biggest increase among people 75 and older. The charts show average consumption per individual, not total consumption by the (growing) cohort of the old. Rightly or wrongly, Congress is choosing spending on the old over spending on the young.

Persons: it’s, Melissa Kearney, Luke Pardue Organizations: Center, University of California, Social, Aspen Economic Locations: Berkeley, United States

☆ Running for Our Lives
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-21 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | More About Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The obvious answer is that we run to be healthy, to improve our cardiovascular systems and our moods, to become fitter and stronger. But sometimes it feels like the real reason that I run is to get better at running. But running in particular seems intricately linked to questions of endurance, of grit and commitment and even moral rectitude. “Running is more than a sport or a form of exercise, a passion or a pastime. I started running because I wanted to reclaim the practice from my elementary school days, when the Presidential Fitness Test — and its crowning glory, the mile run — was accepted as a meaningful measure of a child’s worth.

Persons: We’ve, it’s Organizations: American College of Cardiology

☆ Speak Out on Israel-Hamas War or Stay Quiet? Both Are Risky, Colleges Find
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Douglas Belkin | Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Protesters in Tel Aviv shared mixed emotions over Israel’s political climate, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict with Hamas, with the country on the brink of a ground invasion of Gaza. Photo: Ben C. SolomonLeaders of some of the nation’s most high-profile colleges and universities are re-evaluating their roles as moral arbiters and public commentators in response to the bloody conflict now unfolding in Israel and Gaza. Backlash against their declarations has forced many to stumble—issuing updates to their statements, and then clarifications to their updates—in a near impossible effort to appease irate activists on both sides of a seemingly intractable issue.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu’s, Ben C Organizations: Solomon Locations: Tel Aviv, Gaza, Israel

☆ Insider Today: Amazon's secret search plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-03 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

AdvertisementAdvertisementThe retail giant is overhauling its search bar with ChatGPT-like features that'll act as a sort of concierge for customers, offering expert answers and product suggestions. Dubbed Project Nile, Amazon's top leaders, including CEO Andy Jassy, view the new search bar as a top priority. AdvertisementAdvertisementHowever, Amazon's overhauled search bar will arguably be the most impactful implementation of generative AI from Big Tech for US consumers thus far. insider intelligenceIn reading Eugene's piece, three follow-up questions immediately came to mind:How will Amazon sellers try and game the new search bar? However, Joseph Sirosh serves as VP of Amazon Search and Alexa Shopping, suggesting Alexa could get a much-needed boost from the new search bar.

Persons: —, Mike Blake, Alyssa Powell, Amazon's, Andy Jassy, Eugene Kim, Joseph Sirosh, Alexa, TikTok, Ben Sun, Anu Duggal, Susan Lyne, Josh Wolfe, Matt Harris, Jillian Williams, Melissa Kwan, Sergey Brin, Brin, Hugo Herrera, Sam Bankman, Fried, Dan DeFrancesco, Naga Siu, Hallam Bullock, Lisa Ryan Organizations: Service, Reuters, Nile, Microsoft, Big Tech, Alexa, Amazon Search, Getty, Wall Street, BBG Ventures, Lux Capital, Apple, Bain Capital Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Prosecutors, BET, MLB, American League and National League, Houston Astros Locations: Atlanta, Sonoma , California, New York City, San Diego, London, New York

☆ My life as a startup founder is way better because I didn't take VC money. Here are 8 upsides.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-02 | by ( Melissa Kwan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Here are 8 unconventional ways I get to live my life because I didn't take VC money:AdvertisementAdvertisement1. I'm able to make my own scheduleI start my day at noon, go out for dinner, and work until midnight. I'm able to grow slowly – the way that I want to growIt took us 36 months to hit $1 million annual recurring revenue. I can raise capital on my own termsA common misconception with bootstrapped companies is that they raise zero capital. That kind of sacrifice is not for everyone, and sometimes I do wonder whether it'd just be easier to raise capital.

Persons: Melissa Kwan, bootstrapped, Kwan, —, we're Organizations: Service Locations: –, New York

☆ The National Book Awards Longlist
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | More About Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One of the best birthday gifts I’ve ever received was a stack of four or five books, all published the year I was born. I hadn’t read John le Carré’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” but now I felt a connection to it; we’d both come into being at roughly the same time. The all-you-can-read buffet of books available begs a reader, especially a slow reader like me, to develop a strategy. This week, the National Book Foundation announced the longlist for the 2023 National Book Awards, presenting a crop of books on which a hungry reader could happily feast from now through the end of the year. (“Chain-Gang All-Stars,” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and “Fire Weather,” by John Vaillant just moved to the top of my list.)

Persons: I’ve, John le Carré’s, ”, Ursula K, Le Guin, I’m, ’, Nana Kwame Adjei, John Vaillant Organizations: Book Foundation

☆ West Virginia University Slashes Majors and Cuts Staff Despite Protests
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Melissa Korn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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Persons: Dow Jones Locations: virginia

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