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☆ Five things you probably didn’t know about the biggest art heist in history
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-19 | by ( Caitlin Chatterton | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

On March 18 1990 the museum fell prey to history’s biggest art heist. Here are five things that make the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and its famous theft, so interesting. Sean Dungan/Courtesy Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, BostonWhy commit history’s greatest art heist and leave without the priciest piece in the museum? John Wilcox/Boston Herald/Getty ImagesWhy would “Corsican mobsters,” as CNN correspondent Randi Kaye described them in the programme, be interested in robbing a Boston art museum? “That’s how these things get stolen.”How It Really Happened’s “Gardner Art Heist: Stealing Beauty” premieres on CNN Sunday 19 May, at 9pm ET/PT.

Persons: ”, Andy Warhol’s, Frida Kahlo’s, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Vermeer, Rick Abath, Gardner, ” Stephan Kurkjian, ” Gardner, Julia Ward Howe, Ethel Smyth, Emmeline Pankhurst, Smyth, John Singer Sargent, Gardener, Mona Lisa, Titian, theives, Sean Dungan, Napoleon, Rembrandt, Bob Wittman, John Wilcox, Randi Kaye, ” Kaye, ” Kelly Horan, Myles Connor, —, theif Myles Connor, George Rizer, Connor, Al Dotoli, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minelli, Dotoli, Dionne Warwick —, ” Horan, “, Ryan McBride, ” Wittman, “ Gardner Organizations: CNN, The Museum, Modern Art, Salvador, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 9P, Boston, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Red Sox, Boston Globe, Storm, FBI, Museum of Modern, Art, Boston Herald, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Getty Locations: New York, Boston, America, Red, Europa, London, Galilee, Corsica, Nice, Corsican, Maine

☆ WEF president: 'We haven't seen this kind of debt since the Napoleonic Wars'
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-28 | by ( Matt Clinch | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Borge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum, gave a stark outlook for the global economy saying the world faces a decade of low growth if the right economic measures are not applied. "The global growth [estimate] this year is around 3.2 [%]. "Trade will change and global value chains — there will be some more near-shoring and friend-shoring — but we shouldn't lose the baby with the bathwater ... Then we have to address the global debt situation. We haven't seen this kind of debt since the Napoleonic Wars, we are getting close to 100% of the global GDP in debt," he said. He also motioned persistent inflationary pressures and that generative artificial intelligence could be an opportunity for the developing world.

Persons: Borge Brende, CNBC's Dan Murphy, shoring Organizations: Economic, Energy Locations: Saudi Arabia

☆ Sweden formally joins NATO military alliance, ending centuries of neutrality
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Sophie Kiderlin | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A JAS 39 Gripen C/D fighter aircraft takes off from Lulea-Kallax Airport, Sweden on March 4, 2024 during the NATO Nordic Response 24 military exercise, a Norwegian national exercise carried out in northern Sweden, Norway and Finland with associated airspace and waters. Sweden officially joined NATO as its 32nd member on Thursday, almost two years after first applying to the military alliance. "Sweden's accession makes NATO stronger, Sweden safer, and the whole Alliance more secure. The country first applied to join NATO in May 2022, not long after Russia's war on Ukraine began. This marked a significant change in Sweden's previous policy of military nonalignment which stretches back to the Napoleonic wars.

Persons: Jens Stoltenberg, Ulf Kristersson Organizations: Kallax, NATO, Alliance, Washington , D.C Locations: Lulea, Sweden, Norwegian, Norway, Finland, Swedish, Washington ,, Ukraine

☆ Why Americans drive on the right and the British on the left
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-02 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Conestoga wagons were developed by local carpenters and blacksmiths to carry goods, including farm produce and items bartered from Native Americans, to markets in Philadelphia. An original 19th century Conestoga wagon at the Conestoga Area Historical Society in Conestoga, Pennsylvania in 2024. For just that reason, Conestoga wagons had the controls on the left side, close to the wagon driver’s right hand. Lay, was that all traffic had to stay to the right — just like the Conestoga wagons did. on September 3, 1967 when cars switched from left to right side driving.

Persons: I’ve, Cooper, Napoleon Bonaparte, Henry Ford, that’s, Tesla, John Stehman, Peter Valdes, ‘ Gee, ” Stehman, “, ”, M.G ., Ford, Maximilien Robespierre —, —, Napoleon, William Van, Yevgenia Organizations: Conestoga, CNN, Ford, Historical Society, M.G, Lions, Hulton, Getty, Ford Motor Co, Guildhall Library, Art, Britain, Avis, Avis Budget Group, ” Avis Budget Locations: England, London, United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Conestoga , Pennsylvania, Conestoga, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia . Philadelphia, Lancaster County , Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Lancaster, New York, Britain, Paris, France, Stockholm, Sweden

PARIS (AP) — A faded and cracked felt hat worn by Napoléon Bonaparte fetched $1.6 million at an auction Sunday of the French emperor’s belongingsYes, $1.6 million. It was the centerpiece of Sunday's auction in Fontainebleau of memorabilia collected by a French industrialist who died last year. But the bidding quickly jumped higher and higher until Jean Pierre Osenat, president of the Osenat auction house, designated the winner. Political Cartoons View All 1256 ImagesWhile other officers customarily wore their hats with the wings facing front to back, Napoléon wore his with the ends pointing toward his shoulders. The entrepreneur spent more than a half-century assembling his collection of Napoleonic memorabilia, firearms, swords and coins before his death in 2022.

Persons: Napoléon Bonaparte, Napoléon, Europe —, Jean Pierre Osenat, ‘, ”, —, Pierre Baillon, Jean, Louis Noisiez Organizations: PARIS Locations: France, Europe, Fontainebleau, French, bataille

☆ 5 common misconceptions about the US's $32 trillion debt mountain
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-17 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The US's $32 trillion debt mountain may not be as bad as it seems. Still, economists say debt problems could arise in the future given the current rate of spending. But experts say that there are major misconceptions floating around the US debt problem that could make the nation's debt load appear more dire than it actually is. America's debt problem is uniqueRising debt levels is a worldwide issue. "This is more of a broader sovereign debt problem that's starting to develop.

Persons: Paul Krugman, there's, that's, Mark Zandi, Zandi Organizations: Service, Congressional, Office, Management, Moody's, Atlanta Fed, International Monetary Fund Locations: Wall, Silicon, Great Britain

☆ Baltic Sea drills to focus for first time on repelling Russian attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BERLIN, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Major naval drills about to start in the Baltic Sea involving some 30 ships and more than 3,000 Western service members will for the first time practice how to respond to a Russian assault in the region, Germany's navy chief said on Friday. Securing the sea routes through the Baltic Sea is another focus of the exercise that will take place off the coasts of Latvia and Estonia. "Finland and the Baltic states depend to almost 100% on the maritime supply routes through the Baltic Sea," Kaack noted. The Suwalki Gap, a narrow land corridor of some 65 kilometres (40 miles), is the only connection linking the Baltic states to Poland and NATO's main territory in Europe. Germany aims to provide the facility to NATO as a regional maritime headquarters, capable of leading the alliance's operations in the Baltic Sea in case of a conflict.

Persons: Jan Christian Kaack, Kaack, Sabine Siebold, Peter Graff Organizations: NATO, Thomson Locations: Baltic, Russia, Berlin, Sweden, U.S, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Poland, NATO's, Europe, Rostock, Germany, Ukraine

☆ Musk Studied Napoleon to Take 'Battlefield' Lessons: Biographer
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk has taken leadership notes from Napoleon Bonaparte, Walter Isaacson told Axios. Isaacson said Musk has likened Tesla and SpaceX factories to a "battlefield." Elon Musk has analyzed the leadership tactics of the French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte for use in his role as CEO of Tesla, Walter Isaacson told Axios. So he liked to show up late at night on the assembly lines at Tesla and SpaceX," Isaacson told Axios. The biographer said that Musk likened Tesla and SpaceX factories to "battlefields" and also liked to listen to Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" podcast.

Persons: Elon Musk, Napoleon Bonaparte, Walter Isaacson, Axios, Napoleon, Isaacson, Musk, Tesla, that's, Dan Carlin's, Mai, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Bruce Lee Organizations: SpaceX, Tesla, Napoleonic, Twitter, Meta Locations: Europe, France, Russia, Tesla's Fremont , California, Sparks , Nevada

☆ Harvard professor Francesca Gino was accused of faking data. Now her million-dollar empire is crumbling — and scholars are eyeing who's next.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Kate Taylor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +22 min

"We believe that many more Gino-authored papers contain fake data," the Data Colada professors wrote. Data Colada found that the raw data showed clear anomalies, such as a distribution infinitely more likely to be produced by a random-number generator than actual people. Soon after, Data Colada ran an article alleging that Gino tampered with data in at least one of her honesty-pledge experiments. A post on Data Colada or a tweet from Brown is like a bomb going off in the behavioral-science world. Others who attempted to build on Gino's studies are grappling with having wasted time, money, and energy.

Persons: It's, Francesca Gino, Gino, Michael Sanders, Greg Burd, —, Hugo Boss, Gino coauthoring, Swarthmore College's Bhanot, Maurice Schweitzer, Simine Vazire, Sanders, Goldman Sachs, Schweitzer, they'd, Uri Simonsohn, Joe Simmons, Leif Nelson —, Data Colada, Dan Ariely, Ariely, Chris Goodney, Harvard, Colada, Nick Brown, Brown, Jeff Lees, Lees, There's Ariely, Brian Wansink's, HBS's Amy Cuddy's, Cuddy, Amy Cuddy's, Marie Claire's, Allison Williams, Astrid Stawiarz, Marie Claire Simonsohn, Simmons, Nelson, they're, Gordon Pennycook, Pennycook, it's, Bhanot Organizations: TED, Twitter, LinkedIn, Harvard, Wharton, Swarthmore College, Harvard Business School, Alaska Airlines, King's College London, Tione, University of Trento, Sant'anna, Studies, Carnegie Mellon University, University of North, Wired, Forbes, Google, Swarthmore, University of Melbourne, Disney, Lavin Agency, Data, Duke University, who's, NBC, BuzzFeed News, Bloomberg, Getty, Privately, Higher Education, Hill, Duke, US Department of, Cornell University, New York Times Locations: Trento, Pisa, University of North Carolina, HBS, Guatemala, Boston, New York, British, Guatemalan

☆ Ukraine's attacks on Russian commanders have the US Army worried about its own 'fat and ponderous' command posts
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Ukraine's military has been using its long-range weapons to attack Russian command posts. A command post set up at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin in California during a training exercise. A destroyed Russian army command post pictured on March 13, 2022. One is to move command posts further from the lines and fortify them against bombardment or special-forces raids. Virtual reality would enable command posts to remain in secure locations far from the front.

Persons: —, Scott Woodward, James Geelen, Michael Peck Organizations: Army, Service, Command, US Army, National Training Center, Fort, GPS, CPs, Arms Army, Milford Beagle, US, Britain's Royal United Services Institute, Ukrainian Armed Forces, US Army CPs, Colorado . US Army, James Geelen Command, Defense, Foreign Policy, Twitter, LinkedIn Locations: Ukraine, Russian, Fort Irwin, California, Chornobaivka, Ukrainian, Kherson, Gen, Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, China, Taiwan, Russia, Fort Carson, Colorado, Forbes

Nominal wage growth is the strongest in two years, economic growth is weak, and these stagflationary pressures are being sustained by persistently low productivity. This lifted the two-year yield some 43 basis points (bps) above the 10-year yield, the most inverted yield curve since 2008. The longer end of the UK yield curve is feeling the squeeze too, with the UK-German 10-year yield spread widening above 200 bps. But traders are now pricing in a peak BoE terminal rate of 5.75% early next year, above the implied Fed peak of around 5.375% later this year. That's another 125 bps of rate hikes on top of the 440 bps of tightening already delivered in the last 18 months.

Persons: BoE, Liz Truss, That's, Sterling, stagflation, Paul Johnson, Jamie McGeever, Jamie Freed Organizations: Bank of England's, Federal Reserve, Deutsche Bank, International Monetary Fund, Institute for Fiscal, HSBC, Reuters, Thomson Locations: ORLANDO, Florida, Britain, U.S, Canada, Japan, United States

☆ Opinion | They Wrecked Britain, and They’re Not Going Anywhere
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Samuel Earle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON — As Britain prepares for the coronation of its new king, an end-of-days feeling is sweeping the nation. The Conservative Party is polling 15 points behind the opposition, and the popularity of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives’ fifth leader in seven years, remains obstinately low. No matter what happens in the next election, the historic vessel of Britain’s ruling class is not going anywhere. By many accounts, the Conservative Party is not just the oldest but also the most successful political party in the world. Next year, Tony Blair will be the only Labour leader to have won an election in half a century.

☆ 2022 was the worst-ever year for U.S. bonds. How to position your portfolio for 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Interest rates started 2022 at rock-bottom — where they'd been for the better part of the time since the Great Recession. Bond prices move opposite interest rates — as interest rates rise, bond prices fall. Duration is a measure of a bond's sensitivity to interest rates and is impacted by maturity, among other factors. We can see why long-dated bonds suffered especially big losses in 2022, given interest rates jumped by about 4 percentage points. The traditional dynamics of a 60/40 portfolio — a portfolio barometer for investors, weighted 60% to stocks and 40% to bonds — will likely return, advisors said.

☆ 'Fat One' lottery spreads Christmas cash and joy across Spain
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The top prize, known as "El Gordo" (The Fat One), rewarded many winners across several regions, as the same number was sold multiple times. As Spain, like other European countries, faces a cost-of-living crisis and stagnating wages, the Christmas lottery draw has taken on added significance. Commotion erupted in the theatre when Perla, a Peruvian-born unemployed mother of two sitting in the theatre, realised she had a winning El Gordo number in her hand. [1/5] People celebrate winning numbers in Spain's Christmas lottery "El Gordo" (The Fat One), in Madrid, Spain December 22, 2022. The best-selling ticket, dubbed "decimo" (tenth), costs 20 euros and its holders can earn 10% of the prize money awarded.

☆ Viral chatbot ChatGPT will be overhyped, then overlooked, and then, perhaps, essential
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Emerging technology like ChatGPT is usually called overhyped until it becomes essential. ChatGPT lets users ask its bot questions or give it prompts using GPT-3, an impressive piece of natural-language-processing AI tech. ChatGPT and the Gartner Hype CycleIn layman's terms, ChatGPT is a chatbot using GPT-3, a state-of-the-art AI model that uses a massive amount of data to generate humanlike text. It's all very exciting and new, which is where the Gartner Hype Cycle, from the tech-research and consulting firm Gartner, comes in handy. To be sure, the rise of generative AI and more forms of ChatGPT aren't assured.

☆ BNP defies French banks’ interest-rate malaise
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A regulated savings rate, with roots tracing back to the French Emperor’s wars of conquest, is one reason why Gallic retail lenders could miss out on an interest-rate windfall that is boosting banks elsewhere. Ironically, 60 billion euro BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) looks set to escape the curse because of some international expansion of its own. One-third of Gallic lenders’ deposits sit in savings vehicles with regulated interest rates, Jefferies analysts reckon. Combined with other interest-rate regulations and the fact that many French mortgage borrowers are on fixed rates, the upshot is that Gallic retail lending margins don’t rise as quickly as they might in Spain or Britain. Chief Executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, who is approaching his 11-year anniversary in the role, deserves credit for helping BNP to defy the lending malaise at home.

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