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☆ What UFOs Say About Our Populist Moment
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Adam Kirsch | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Not long before his death in 1996, Carl Sagan said that he had been “captured by the notion of extraterrestrial life” since childhood and that discovering it would be an “absolutely transforming event in human history.” Exactly because the prospect was so alluring, however, Sagan warned that we should be skeptical about believing reports of UFOs or alien encounters. As he put it in the documentary “Cosmos,” “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”—an idea now known as “the Sagan standard.”

Persons: Carl Sagan, Sagan, ”

☆ The Dave Matthews Band, Reconsidered
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | More About Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Dave Matthews Band is on tour, as they have been every summer, except 2020, for the past 30-odd years. Like the Grateful Dead and Phish, so-called jam bands with which it’s often lumped together, Dave Matthews has a deliriously passionate fan base that follows the band from city to city, reuniting with fellow disciples at preshow tailgates, showing off devotional tattoos, trading live recordings. In the early ’90s, when I arrived for my first year at the University of Virginia, Dave Matthews was a local celebrity. It would be years before the stereotype of Dave Matthews fans as “pot-smoking, tie-dye-touting former frat bros fawning over craft beers in parking lots between cornhole games,” as Perri Ormont Blumberg puts it, would become a widely understood social designation. We spent the next four years not going to Dave Matthews Band shows together.

Persons: Dave Matthews, preshow, ”, Perri Ormont Blumberg, ” Ben Sisario Organizations: University of Virginia, The Times Locations: Virginia

☆ Welcome to Barbenheimer Weekend
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | More About Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Start the day with the darker fare: Christopher Nolan’s moody “Oppenheimer,” about the physicist who ran the Los Alamos Laboratory during the development of the atomic bomb. The movie industry hopes so. Ticket sales for the year in the U.S. and Canada are down about 20 percent from the same period in 2019. Analysts predict that “Barbie” could take in $100 million domestically through Sunday; “Oppenheimer” around $50 million. “These are not the tried-and-true safe bets that are the hallmark of the summer movie season,” he said.

Persons: Christopher Nolan’s, Oppenheimer, ”, Milk, Greta Gerwig’s “, fantasia, ” “ Barbie, ” “ Barbie ”, “ Oppenheimer, “, ‘ Oppenheimer, Barbie ’, Will Barbenheimer, Barbie ”, Paul Dergarabedian Organizations: Los Alamos Laboratory, Alamo, Times Locations: Chicago, U.S, Canada

☆ Novartis raises 2023 forecast, maps out Sandoz spin-off
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Ludwig Burger | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Companies Novartis AG FollowSandoz GmbH FollowFRANKFURT, July 18 (Reuters) - Novartis (NOVN.S) on Tuesday raised its full-year earnings forecast on strong drug sales and mapped out the planned spin-off and stock market debut of its generic medicines division Sandoz for early October. The Swiss drugmaker said in a statement it expected group core operating income to grow by a "low double-digit" percentage in 2023, up from high single-digit growth previously projected. Novartis shareholders will vote on the proposed Sandoz spin-off and complete separation at an extraordinary general meeting on Sept. 15. Gains were driven by better-than-expected sales of heart failure drug Entresto, up 37% in local currencies at $1.52 billion. Kesimpta, a new once-a-month injection against multiple sclerosis, also beat expectations with quarterly revenues more than doubling to $489 million.

Persons: Swiss drugmaker, Sandoz, Harry Kirsch ., Kirsch, Ludwig Burger, Rachel More, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Novartis, Sandoz, FRANKFURT, SIX Swiss Exchange, Swiss pharma, Thomson Locations: Swiss, United States, New Jersey

☆ Reconsidering the Staycation
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | More About Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I’ve always been skeptical of the staycation. So I was intrigued to discover, thanks to my colleague Catherine Pearson, that I have been staycationing all wrong. Evidently, my tendency to stumble into time off without a plan is unlikely to produce a restorative effect. This weekend, you could, for instance, seek out some vegan ice cream that doesn’t taste terrible. You could try running in a pool, which is easier on the joints but as effective as running on land.

Persons: I’ve, van, Catherine Pearson, Jaime Kurtz, “, ”, we’re Organizations: James Madison University

☆ Rivian options buyers may be helping drive stock higher
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Saqib Iqbal Ahmed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Some 831,000 Rivian options contracts traded on Monday, or two times its average daily volume. Much of the options trading has consisted of investors buying "super short-dated calls," said Daniel Kirsch, head of options at Piper Sandler, adding that the options activity had helped drive Rivian's shares higher. Large purchases of out-of-the-money call options - contracts that are not profitable but stand to gain in value as the stock climbs - can sometimes give an additional lift to a stock's price. The phenomenon has occurred with shares of various companies popular with options buyers over the last few years, from AMC to Tesla. Options on another EV name, Nio Inc , were also actively traded on Monday, making it the 10th most heavily traded individual company in the options market.

Persons: Daniel Kirsch, Piper Sandler, Kirsch, Rivian, Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Ira Iosebashvili, Will Dunham Organizations: YORK, Rivian Automotive, AMC, Tesla, Apple Inc, Inc, Thomson Locations: U.S

☆ Out-of-sync U.S. stocks hide market risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Saqib Iqbal Ahmed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Investors expect stocks to move increasingly out of sync as shown by the Cboe 3-Month Implied Correlation Index (.COR3M), which measures the 3-month expected average correlation across the top 50 value-weighted S&P 500 stocks. The last time 3-month implied correlation got this low was in early 2018, just before the February 2018 urge in market volatility dubbed 'Volmageddon.' Much of today's low stock market correlation has to do with the gulf in performance between a handful of mega caps driving the benchmark index higher and the rest of the market. "You have this view in the market that this is a stock picker's market because correlation is low," EAB Investment Group's Holzer said. "Because correlations are so low, index options have gotten incredibly cheap," said Daniel Kirsch, head of options at Piper Sandler said.

Persons: Dow, Arnim Holzer, Group's Holzer, Jack Ablin, Ablin, Kris Sidial, Sidial, Daniel Kirsch, Piper Sandler, Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Megan Davies, Nick Zieminski Organizations: YORK, Dow Jones, EAB Investment, UBS, U.S . Federal, Cresset, Ambrus, Thomson

☆ ‘The Bear’ and a Chaotic Vision of Work
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Business leaders are resorting to desperate measures to entice workers back to the office, my colleague Emma Goldberg reported recently. “It’s been three years of scattershot plans for returning to in-person work — summoning people in, not really meaning it, everybody pretty much working wherever they pleased,” she wrote. One idea I haven’t seen floated is to offer screenings of the series “The Bear,” whose second season was released in June on Hulu. When it debuted last year, “The Bear” was praised for its authenticity, for depicting the chaos of a real restaurant kitchen. Hands are burned, fingers slashed; the pace of the prep rush turns the kitchen staff into sweating, shouting bodies, meat cooking meat.” Hardly a convincing argument for in-person work.

Persons: Emma Goldberg, “ It’s, ”, “, Will inducements, Salesforce, James Beard, ” James Poniewozik, begrudgingly Organizations: Hulu, The Locations: Chicagoland, The Times, The

☆ Your Intentions for the Summer
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The message was perfunctory, left by the shop owner, a usually grumpy guy who sounded like his usually grumpy self. I’ve come to interpret it as, “Whatever amount of time is before you, enjoy it, and don’t take it for granted.”So I’m planning an “Enjoy Your Time” summer. I asked you recently what sort of personal summer “brand” you might declare, what this will be “the summer of” for you. I hope they make you think a little more creatively about the possibilities for your own summer:Your summer plansIt’s the summer of Frosty Fridays, where I take my three kids out to a new ice cream shop each Friday. — Pete Horvath, ChicagoThis is #granolagrandma summer.

Persons: ”, I’ve, — Pete Horvath, — Katherine Knight Organizations: “ Locations: ”, Chicago, Knoxville, Tenn

☆ Stocks are at a new high, but Wall Street’s fear gauge is raising eyebrows
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Since the VIX normally is used as a "fear gauge", he noted that was unusual, and asked what might have caused that. Remember, it is a measure of near-term (30-day) activity for S & P 500 put and call options. However, the put/call ratio has been low recently, between 0.7 and 0.8, as traders have been buying calls, betting the market will keep rising. Eric Johnston at Piper Sandler agrees: "The call buying has been very strong as investors chase upside," he told me. The recent events are that the market is rising, so the urge to buy protection declines: "When institutions get nervous, they seek protection in VIX.

Persons: Joe Zicherman, Tuesday's, Matt Maley, Miller Tabak, There's, Mike O'Rourke, O'Rourke, Eric Johnston, Piper Sandler, it's, Danny Kirsch, Steve Sosnick Organizations: Fed, Jones, Interactive Brokers Locations: VIX

☆ What Will Be the Theme of Summer?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I proclaim this: the Summer of George!”Setting intentions for summer is the low-stress, seasonal version of a New Year’s resolution. Megan Thee Stallion ushered in the notion of the “Hot Girl Summer” with her 2019 song, which led to the hopeful but mostly unrealized “hot vax summer” of 2021. Any eccentric pattern can become a designation: “‘Sharknado,’ Cronut … Is This the Summer of the Neolexic Portmanteau?” Slate asked in 2013. Hayley Phelan instructed Times readers on ways to make the summer of 2018 the summer of missing out, introducing the concept of JOMO (J for joy), FOMO’s “benevolent cousin.”In branding summer, we relinquish some of the season’s intoxicating agency: Is it caftan summer? My friend Sarah claims she’s observing an “I’m not showering” summer.

Persons: Seinfeld ”, George, he’s, ”, frivolously, Megan Thee, Nature, Callie Holtermann, Slate, Hayley Phelan, Natalie, Sarah, she’s Organizations: Yankees, The Times Locations: Bay

☆ The Cannes Film Festival
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Cannes Film Festival began this week with Maïwenn’s “Jeanne du Barry,” starring Johnny Depp as Louis XV, and ends on May 27 with a new Pixar film, “Elemental.” In between, there will be many screenings, many awkward standing ovations, many awards bestowed. Wes Anderson also has a new one, “Asteroid City,” about a junior stargazing convention. It features many members of the Andersonian repertory — Jason Schwartzman, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody and others. In “Firebrand,” from the Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz, Alicia Vikander plays Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, who’s played by Jude Law. Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose film “Shoplifters” won the Palme d’Or in 2018, has a new film, “Monster.” It stars Sakura Ando from “Shoplifters,” and the composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died last month, did the score.

☆ What’s in Our Queue? ‘I Hate Suzie’ and More
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

What’s in Our Queue? ‘I Hate Suzie’ and MoreI’m the deputy editor of the Culture & Lifestyle department at The Times, and I write the Morning newsletter on Saturdays. Here are five things I’ve been watching, reading and listening to →

Persons: Suzie ’, I’ve Organizations: &, The Times

☆ High schools and colleges require students to pay mandatory fees to walk at graduation. Critics say this discriminates against low-income students.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Misha Valencia | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Most high schools and colleges charge students a graduation fee to attend the ceremony. Critics say these high, mandatory fees discriminate against low-income students. She told Insider that nothing had changed since she graduated; the school was still charging mandatory graduation fees. High schools and colleges across the US are charging students mandatory graduation fees — sometimes called a walking fee — to walk in their graduation ceremonies. For example, California and Minnesota have barred mandatory graduation fees in public schools.

☆ It’s Coronation Day
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But as with a sports playoff game or Hollywood awards ceremony, the coronation of Charles III has made me into an instant, if temporary, royals superfan. In a recent poll of 3,070 adults in Britain, 64 percent of respondents said they had little to no interest in today’s coronation. The ceremony has been modified to be more inclusive, but still “the hoary rituals of the coronation are a reminder of how — in a secular, multiethnic, digital-age society — the crown is fundamentally an anachronism,” wrote The Times’s London bureau chief, Mark Landler. An over-the-top coronation for a new king does make for an incongruous viewing experience while Commonwealth nations call for Britain to redress its colonialist legacy and the country reckons with a cost-of-living crisis. It’s possible to be fascinated by the pageantry while remaining skeptical of it, to gawk at the fairy-tale elements of the coronation while still questioning the system that supports them.

☆ ‘Maimonides’ Review: The Greatest Jewish Thinker, in Brief
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Adam Kirsch | Alberto Manguel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Moses Maimonides on a 1953 Israeli stamp. Photo: AlamyThe 12th-century sage regularly described as the greatest Jewish thinker of all time leads a double life for posterity. To this day, students in yeshivas turn to the Rambam’s magnum opus, the comprehensive legal code known as the Mishneh Torah, in navigating the complexities of Jewish law. In this context, the book that matters is the “Guide for the Perplexed,” the philosophical treatise Maimonides wrote in Arabic around the year 1190. The “Guide,” too, speaks the language of Judaism, but the questions it addresses aren’t practical and legal, as in the Mishneh Torah, but speculative and metaphysical.

☆ ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ Arrives
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If you ask any kids who grew up reading Judy Blume, they’ll tell you precisely what they learned from each of Blume’s books; which taboo rites of passage each book introduced; probably even where they were, physically and developmentally, when they first stumbled on this information. They might very well remember the precise page number of the paperback that was passed around middle school on which the most eye-opening passages appeared. I recently reread her classic, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” in advance of seeing the film adaptation that opens this week, 52 years after the book’s publication. In my memory, “Margaret” was chiefly about puberty, specifically about getting your period for the first time.

☆ Your Spring Soundtrack
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Melissa Kirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On weekends in springtime, when the warmer weather has yet to click into place, relaxing can be hard. The playlist, a collaborative effort by readers of The Morning, is a big sprawling thing. We weren’t able to include every song submitted, but at over 24 hours, the playlist is more than long enough to provide a soundtrack for your entire spring. Put it on while you’re making breakfast, while you’re running errands, while you’re on a long drive. How long had it been since I found myself with a totally unscheduled hour in a strange place?

☆ Democrats’ Numbers Problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden and Senate Democrats have a numbers problem. But Senator Dianne Feinstein’s failing health has frozen the Senate Judiciary Committee, the group that must consider any judicial nominees before the full Senate votes on them. Biden and other Democrats had hoped for the appointment of judges — both to federal trial courts (known as District Courts) and to appeals courts (known as Circuit Courts) — to be a major accomplishment this year. That plan is now in doubt because Democrats do not have the votes to confirm judges without Feinstein. Instead, about 20 Biden nominees are in limbo, and 9 percent of District Court and Circuit Court judgeships remain vacant.

President Joe Biden will announce six new judicial nominees in his final batch of selections in 2022, a White House official told NBC News, as it looks to two more years of reshaping the federal courts under an expanded Democratic Senate majority. The nominees are for federal district courts — one in Indiana, two in New Jersey and three in California. The White House said they’ll be among the first nominees sent to the Senate early in the new year, when another session begins. Democrats gained a seat in the 2022 election and may have an easier time processing judges in 2023 and 2024. The new round will bring Biden’s total announced judicial nominees to 150, the White House said.

☆ Substack is having a moment, again. But can the startup live up to its massive $650 million valuation?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +17 min

He provided a place where readers could find him "in case the bird app spirals into oblivion": his Substack newsletter. The epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding began promoting his Substack newsletter to his 722,000 Twitter followers in early November. They have been a welcome addition, Substack writers say. Substack has also recently rolled out mentions and cross-reporting functions, where writers can mention other Substack writers and share existing posts with their audiences. The irony, of course, is that many Substack writers rely on their Twitter audiences to promote their posts.

☆ The Rise and Fall of Respectability
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Adam Kirsch | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

When the ledger is drawn up on the tech revolutions of the last thirty years—the internet, smart phones, social media, crypto—the losses are generally outweighed by the gains. It’s hard to deeply regret the disappearance of department stores, CD players and checkbooks when we have Amazon , Spotify and Apple Pay. The decline of respectability as an ideal has been at the center of two tech-world sagas unfolding in recent weeks: the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX and Elon Musk’s tumultuous takeover of Twitter. In this context, the most telling detail in the FTX saga doesn’t have to do with dubious tokens or suspicious accounting. Rather, it involves League of Legends, the massive multiplayer online game that is a favorite of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried .

☆ The 10 mistakes you could make at an office holiday party that are most likely to get you fired, according to a recent report
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A recent report from Price4Limo, an event transportation company, found that being laid off after a corporate party isn't as uncommon as some may think. After surveying over 1,000 corporate Americans who've attended an office party in the past year, Price4Limo found that 14% of survey respondents say their jobs were terminated shortly after an office party, losing an average salary of $60,597.36. Price4Limo's report shows that 35% of respondents report having strained relationships with colleagues after a work party. On the flip side, practicing office party etiquette can have some benefits, like connecting with others in a more organic setting. "Whether it's co-workers, managers, or clients, the office party is a great time for networking."

☆ The do’s and don'ts of office party etiquette: ‘You're not in a personal space, you're in a professional space’
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

However, professionals must practice good office party etiquette to ensure they don't jeopardize their relationships or jobs. "Whether it's co-workers, managers, or clients, the office party is a great time for networking." Unfortunately, 14% of survey respondents say their jobs were terminated shortly after an office party, losing an average salary of $60,597.36. "Breaking company property and kissing your boss were the least acceptable behaviors at an office party," Kirsch says. "Even if you have friends at work, you're not in a personal space, you're in a professional space," she explains.

☆ Poll: GOP is winning on the economy, immigration; Democrats are ahead on abortion and health care
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Chuck-Todd-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Chuck Todd | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

... And Joe O’Dea pitches himself as pro-abortion rights in Colorado Senate while Democrats push back. The Republican Party holds all-time high advantages on the economy, crime and border security, while the Democrats have an all-time high on abortion and a double-digit edge on health care. Midterm roundup: Trump hits the trail in OhioFormer President Donald Trump traveled to Ohio over the weekend to boost GOP Senate hopeful J.D. Not every GOP Senate candidate is eager to campaign with Trump. It’s a position on abortion that is different from that of his fellow Republican Senate candidates, many of whom favor stricter bans with few exceptions.

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