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The study released on Thursday showed opportunities for women in lead roles, directorial roles and key creative roles have improved. However it also found that Netflix still lacks significant representation of characters with disabilities, gender-balanced storytelling in series, roles for girls and women of color and opportunities for women writers. Despite 27% of the U.S. population identifying as disabled, only 1.1% of all characters in Netflix films and series have a disability, the study released on Thursday found. Only 1.9% of writers for Netflix films have been Latino, the study said. Diversity in casting has improved markedly for Asians, with 41.5% of Netflix series having an Asian lead or co-lead in 2021, compared to only making up 4% of leads and co-leads in both films and series in 2018.

☆ Arnold Schwarzenegger says his father was among millions ‘sucked into a hate system’ by lies
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Chandelis Duster | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday spoke out against antisemitism and hate, pointing to his family history in the hope it would stand as an example for others. “My father was, and so many other millions of men were, sucked into a hate system through lies and deceit. How many millions of people had to die and then they ended up losers … in the Confederacy, losers, as they all have, this just doesn’t work. A report released by the Anti-Defamation League last month found that antisemitic incidents in the US at their highest level since the organization began recording them in 1979. Data released by the FBI in March shows that the number of hate crimes reported in the US also increased in 2021.

REUTERS/Joe SkipperLOS ANGELES, April 20 (Reuters) - The spectacular explosion of SpaceX's new Starship rocket minutes after it soared off its launch pad on a first flight test is the latest vivid illustration of a "successful failure" business formula that serves Elon Musk's company well, experts said on Thursday. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECTAt least two experts in aerospace engineering and planetary science who spoke with Reuters agreed that the test flight delivered benefits. "This is a classical SpaceX successful failure," said Garrett Reisman, an astronautical engineering professor at the University of Southern California who is a former NASA astronaut and is also a senior adviser to SpaceX. Reisman called the Starship test flight a hallmark of a SpaceX strategy that sets Musk's company apart from traditional aerospace companies and even NASA by "this embracing of failure when the consequences of failure are low." She said the risks of a single flight test were small in comparison to the ambitious gains at stake.

☆ Want to Make a Change? Conjure Your ‘Possible Selves.’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Joanne Lipman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

These possible selves, both positive and negative, are closely related to motivation. A person whose feared possible self is an alcoholic may become a teetotaler. And researchers have found that conjuring positive possible selves can improve well-being and alleviate symptoms of depression by holding out the potential for a better future. A possible self can take you beyond daydreams, which are often fleeting and not necessarily grounded in reality. It can come to fruition “if you build a bridge from your ‘now’ self to the possible self,” Dr. Markus said.

☆ Blocking FDA approval of abortion pill could stifle innovation in the biopharma industry, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

A messy legal fight over the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the abortion pill mifepristone poses risks to the biopharma industry that go beyond the single drug. If a subsequent decision tosses out the pill's approval, it could potentially stifle innovation in the sector and deter investments in the development of life-changing drugs, biopharma companies and experts in law and economics say. More than 200 biopharma companies made a similar claim Monday in an open letter calling for the reversal of Kacsmaryk's decision. But Hastings said biopharma companies still respect the FDA when the agency turns down their drugs. Suliman offered a more hopeful take on how the legal fight could affect biopharma innovation.

☆ ChatGPT reportedly made up sexual harassment allegations against a prominent lawyer
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

OpenAI's ChatGPT made up sexual harassment accusations against lawyer Jonathan Turley, WaPo reported. In its response, ChatGPT apparently cited a Washington Post article published in 2018 — but the publication said that article doesn't exist. In the post, Turley added that he initially thought the accusation was "comical," but that "after some reflection," it "took on a more menacing meaning." He said the false sexual harassment accusations could damage his reputation as a legal scholar. "As part of that reality in our age of rage, there is a continual stream of false claims about my history or statements."

☆ Inside Ukraine’s scramble for “game-changer” drone fleet
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Max Hunder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

It is hoping that domestic drone makers like AeroDrone will help it meet its ambitious goals. The government is now working with more than 80 Ukraine-based drone manufacturers, Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Reuters. RUSSIAN TERRITORYThe range and potency of Ukraine's drones is a sensitive issue. Danilov, the national security council head, acknowledged Ukraine’s reliance on other countries for more high-tech drone components. "We are trying to fulfil our needs in this sector with domestic production, but we realise that it's unlikely we will be able to fulfil everything," he said.

☆ Deel Speed: The inside story of a $12 billion HR startup's breakneck growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +32 min

Insider spoke with more than 30 current or former Deel workers about the HR company's extraordinary rise, and the unconventional tactics that made it possible. "I think if you talk to anyone, they would say that Alex is the face but all decisions run through Phillipe," one former Deel worker told Insider. "They lose every employment and labor protection," Valerio De Stefano, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, said of independent contractors. Alex Bouaziz, Deel on Centre Stage during day two of Collision 2022 at Enercare Centre in Toronto, Canada. The company didn't have an internal human-resources team until sometime in 2021, by which point it had grown to hundreds of people.

☆ FDA advisors recommend full approval of Pfizer Covid treatment Paxlovid for adults 50 and over and other high-risk people
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Food and Drug Administration's independent panel of advisors recommended full approval of Pfizer's Covid-19 antiviral pill Paxlovid for high-risk adults 16-1 on Thursday, but flagged potentially harmful drug interactions. The FDA first made Paxlovid available in December 2021 for emergency use in high-risk individuals ages 12 and up. More than half of Paxlovid-eligible Medicare and Veterans Affairs patients are on medications that have drug interactions with Paxlovid, according to an FDA review of safety surveillance data. Roughly 74% of Paxlovid prescriptions were from adult primary care practitioners who may not be experienced with managing the possible adverse drug interactions, the FDA review added. To complete a full course of the drug, patients must take three Paxlovid pills twice a day for five days.

☆ Why SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket looks unlike anything the company has ever built before
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Rupendra Brahambhatt | Jessica Orwig | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Not only is Starship the world's largest, most powerful rocket, it also looks unlike anything SpaceX has ever built. Veronica G. Cardenas/ReutersThis silver-black color scheme is a vast change from SpaceX's white Falcon 9 rockets or NASA's orange and white Space Launch System. SpaceX's silver rocket made of steelSpaceX's Starship rocket is made of stainless steel. SpaceX's black-studded Starship spacecraftStarship is covered on one side with black tiles to help protect it upon atmospheric re-entry. SPACEXSpaceX wouldn't comment on whether, or not, that's the reasoning for their silver Starship rocket.

☆ Marian Croak, who has 200 patents to her name including the technology behind Zoom, became one of the first Black women to be inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Yoonji Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Marian Croak became one of the first two Black women to be inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame. Her innovations in internet technology have enabled remote work, text donations, and voting for American Idol. Last year, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame — among the highest honors for inventors, including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and the Wright brothers. Croak became one of first two Black women to receive that honor, alongside the late Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist who created a device used during surgery to easily remove cataracts. As one of the first-ever Black women to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Croak recognizes the importance of diversity in a historically homogenous industry.

LOS ANGELES, March 9 (Reuters) - Hot dogs for fingers, plastic googly eyes, and conversing rocks are hardly staples of mainstream movie-making. Yet, they have became cultural touchstones of "Everything Everywhere All at Once," the at-times baffling and absurdist film that has captivated Hollywood. "It is using all of this apparatus of big storytelling that we've been kind of very accustomed to," Willmore said. "Bringing that large scale to bear on this very small story, I think that is really what has swept people up," she added. Star James Hong alluded to the confusion when the movie was honored at the Screen Actors Guild awards.

☆ ‘Women are the true unicorns’: This millennial investor is breaking barriers in venture capital and betting on female founders
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Goh Chiew Tong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

"One class I was taking was [about] venture capital and our professor was super well connected," she recalled. Women are the true unicorns in this venture capital world." In a venture capital industry where women make up less than 15% of check-writers, Sun stands out. Fundraising 'a moving bar'Sun decided to start her own venture capital fund when she realized that women founders' biggest pain point is "lacking capital to grow." Even so, companies founded by women are still receiving just 2.5% of all venture capital investments, according to PitchBook data.

☆ Whales use a sound similar to Kim Kardashian's 'vocal fry' to hunt deep sea prey, say scientists
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Toothed whales can use vocal registers like humans to communicate and hunt. Like Kim Kardashian, whales have a "vocal fry" which can be used to find prey in deep sea. This gives them access to falsetto, which allows them to make their high-pitched whistles, and the chesty, vocal fry range, which is how they make echolocation. Christian B. Christensen, Aarhus UniversityAn affectation that shaped toothed whales' evolutionTeglberg and Elemans say this has very much influenced the way dolphins, orcas, and other toothed whales evolved a "Mona Lisa" fixed smile on their face. "While vocal fry may be controversial in humans and may be perceived as everything from annoying toauthoritative, it doubtlessly made toothed whales an evolutionary success story", Elemans adds.

☆ The 'office apocalypse' won't doom big cities — it's actually making them stronger
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Matthew E. Kahn | Christopher Okada | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

In San Francisco, tax revenue is projected to drop by as much as a billion dollars over the next six years. In order to bring in these new residents, cities will have to shift some of their priorities. Research coauthored by Steven Levitt of "Freakonomics" found that increases in violent and property crimes were correlated with city residents migrating to the suburbs. All is not lostThere's little doubt that superstar cities like New York and San Francisco have serious problems on their hands. Christopher Okada is the CEO of Okada & Company, a full-service commercial real estate brokerage and investment company in New York City.

☆ A top-100 Amazon seller with over $200 million in sales shares the top 6 things that set apart a successful seller from a failed one
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

He has since learned the key things that set apart those who succeed and fail on Amazon FBA. But by 2013, he had taken interest in Fulfillment by Amazon after his brother, a toy seller on the platform, surpassed $1 million in sales. One thing Needham has learned from being an Amazon seller for over a decade is that the business is far from passive. Below are six key things he says could set apart the successful Amazon seller from the ones who fail. Another successful seller Needham knows will launch a slightly different product at all three price points.

☆ How Putin's Russian goon squad used Mexican gig workers to troll an American election
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +25 min

Posting to social media sounded like an easy work-from-home gig, so he applied. This post from the Prigozhin-backed Social CMS network in Mexico referred to America as "we." He verified his account by providing chat transcripts, screenshots, contracts, and internal company documents. But just because Social CMS didn't yield an immediate, large-scale impact doesn't mean it should be ignored. "I didn't know who are you," wrote the person who is listed in the corporate directory as Prigozhin's media liaison.

☆ Fact Check-Digitally altered video shows Biden talking about UFOs and extraterrestrials
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

White House Spokesperson Saloni Sharma told Reuters the remarks “never happened.”Reuters found no public record of Biden saying this. “While the voice cloning is quite effective, the video manipulation is quickly discernible as fake,” he told Reuters via email. Reuters previously debunked another digitally altered video of Biden (here ). A White House spokesperson told Reuters Biden did not make such remarks about flying objects. There is no evidence that he said that, and experts told Reuters that the video circulating on social media has been manipulated.

☆ Dr. Harvey Karp planned to tell the press the $1,700 Snoo was 'proven to reduce SIDS' last summer. But the FDA stamp of approval never came.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Kate Taylor | Jake Swearingen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Dr. Harvey Karp nearly announced last summer that the FDA certified that Snoo reduces SIDS. But 15 years later, the ability of the Snoo — now on the market as a $1,700 high-tech bassinet — to reduce SIDS remains unproven. Despite lofty promises from Karp and Nina Montée Karp, his wife and cofounder, experts who spoke with Insider remain skeptical. Karp said he and his wife created the Snoo to reduce parent stress and reduce SIDS. But the FDA approval never came, and the press release was never officially distributed.

Due to the tiny size of the capsule and the huge distances involved, authorities warn the chances of finding it are slim. Department of Fire and Emergency Services/APHow rare is it to lose a radioactive device? Radiation Services WA says radioactive substances are transported throughout Western Australia on a daily basis without any issues. A conveyor belt transports iron ore at the Gudai-Darri mine operated by the Rio Tinto in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, June 21, 2022. At that rate, the capsule could be radioactive for the next 300 years, said Deb from RMIT University.

☆ USC has an influencer group that helps students get deals with brands like DoorDash and American Eagle. Here's its 7-page pitch deck.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Nhari Djan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Student organization USC Reach is here to prove that you can finish a degree while furthering your career as a content creator. President Dylan Huey was conflicted about this in 2016 when he was in high school. USC Reach pitches brands with an email template and slide deckWhen contacting brands, Reach typically cold emails companies using the following template. I am currently the President for USC Reach, USC's first and only social media club. Let me know if you have 15 minutes to chat and I'd love to get a partnership between [company] and USC Reach going.

☆ Fact Check-10.8 million ‘unaccounted for’ ballots in 2022 midterm in California not an indication of fraud
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The state of California automatically sends ballots to all registered voters, who are then permitted either to vote by mail or in person. During the 2022 midterm elections in California 21.9 million ballots were sent out and 11.1 million people voted, leaving around 10.8 million ballots sent to voters who did not cast them. Posts on social media are sharing this figure alongside claims that it is indicative of election fraud. Some of the claims link to a Breitbart article that says 10.8 million midterm ballots were “unaccounted for” in California (here). All California registered voters receive ballots, and the percentage of those ballots that were cast was similar to turnout in past midterms.

☆ A more useful way to measure intelligence, XQ is 'the new EQ,' says USC research scientist
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Natasha Piñon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

There's a new way to predict success: XQ, or experiential intelligence. Rather than book smarts or empathetic abilities, experiential intelligence is a measure of how your life experiences have shaped the way you think, what you know and how you use that knowledge. "[It's] the combination of mindsets, abilities and know-how gained from your past experiences," Soren Kaplan, author of the book "Experiential Intelligence: Harness the Power of Experience for Personal and Business Breakthroughs," tells CNBC Make It. And while you might work to improve your EQ, for example, you don't require training to start applying experiential intelligence to your own life. "Everyone has experiential intelligence," Kaplan says.

☆ Military tech is racing towards a dangerous AI future, and Russia's war in Ukraine is paving the way, drone experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Currently, the drones are guided at launch by a human operator, according to independent Russian outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe. But more advanced drone technology is enabling what Rogers calls "on" the loop of control. "In the case of the systems that we have seen used, there's still a human operator authorizing the use of force," she said. Under pressure and potentially under fire, a drone operator may take the machine's prompt less as a suggestion and more as an infallible instruction. In a fully autonomous future of drone warfare, he asked, will drone AI be programmed "to avoid those who are waving a white flag?"

☆ The Art Behind Supply Chains Is Front and Center at a Museum Exhibit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Newsletter Sign-up The Logistics Report Top news and in-depth analysis on the world of logistics, from supply chain to transport and technology. “What we wanted to do was to make the invisible visible, to look at the supply chain as a key part of how AI works,” Dr. Crawford said. “The best artists are all geometry and symmetrical work coupled with creativity, and that’s what supply chain is. Some of the artists on display in the MoMA gallery have gone on to create more work centered on supply chains. “When you start to do this research, you see everything differently and the precarity of the supply chain was made so clear to me,” she said.

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