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☆ Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +55 min

Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’ In his most extensive interview yet, Anthony Fauci wrestles with the hard lessons of the pandemic — and the decisions that will define his legacy. But when people say, “Fauci shut down the economy” — it wasn’t Fauci. But somehow or other, the general public didn’t get that feeling that the vulnerable are really, really heavily weighted toward the elderly. We also had a public-health system that we thought was really, really good. But it was really, really antiquated.

☆ How women are re-defining ambition to build happier, more successful careers: It isn’t ‘worth sacrificing my mental health for’
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Morgan Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Women continue to face alarmingly high levels of burnout — the extreme circumstances of working and surviving during a pandemic, some workplace experts warn, has cost women their ambition. Overall, nearly half (48%) of women describe themselves as "very ambitious" when it comes to their career, and ambition among women of color is even higher, according to a Momentive/CNBC poll of over 5,000 women conducted last month. Women aren't losing their ambition — they're rejecting a narrow definition of ambition as the pursuit of money and power and writing a new one. But after spending the first 10 months of the pandemic working 85-hour weeks at a pharmacy in Los Angeles, Ismail realized her dream career wasn't sustainable. "I realized the career markers I used to strive so hard to achieve aren't worth sacrificing my mental health for."

☆ Antibiotics may not help survival of patients hospitalized with viral infections -study
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Natalie Grover | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - Most patients admitted to hospitals with acute viral infections are given antibiotics as a precaution against bacterial co-infection, but this practice may not improve survival, new research suggests. At the height of the pandemic, antibiotics were prescribed for around 70% of COVID-19 patients in some countries, potentially contributing to the scourge of antibiotic-resistant pathogens known as superbugs. In total, 63% of the 2,111 patients received antibiotics for respiratory infection during their hospital stay. Overall, 168 patients died within 30 days, of which only 22 had not been prescribed antibiotics. "Doctors have to dare to not give antibiotics, instead of doubting and giving antibiotics just in case," Hovind said.

☆ A leading fund manager warns that regional banks could cause 'financial Armageddon' — unless the government makes 2 crucial moves immediately
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( James Faris | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Financial stress stemming from Silicon Valley Bank's collapse could spread, a top fund manager said. But that in itself is becoming an under-the-radar issue, he noted, as large banks' strength is now coming at the expense of regional banks — even those without issues. Since most regional banks aren't classified as "systemically important," their clients would be out of luck in the event of a bank failure, Hatfield noted. Unless the FDIC insures all deposits at all banks, Hatfield said that there will be no reason to put money in a non-protected regional bank. So they'll have a negative interest margin, they'll lose money, they'll get downgraded, and they'll go out of business."

☆ French environment minister urges restrictions to avoid water crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( America Hernandez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Eric GaillardPARIS, March 6 (Reuters) - France's 100 departmental prefects should not hesitate to enact quick decrees restricting local water use given alarmingly low groundwater levels, French Environment Minister Christophe Béchu said on Monday. The announcement came after Béchu met virtually with prefects to get a view of the country's overall water situation as the country experiences its driest winter since 1959. Low water levels last summer impacted hydroelectric production and forced reduced power output at France's nuclear plants, which use river water to cool reactors. In several parts of France there was also an interruption of drinking water, which Béchu said he was keen to avoid this year. A national water resource management plan, initially expected in January, is now slated to be published before the end of March, the ministry said.

The biggest question in world finance right now is whether the eye-watering rebound in borrowing rates we've seen over the past month is just another overshoot - or the new reality. G7 2-year yields soarFed, ECB and BoE 'terminal rates' riseWorld economy surprising in 2023LOSING THE PLOTSince the middle of last year, futures markets have consistently priced peak Fed rates below where Fed officials themselves were guiding. But for at least six of the past nine months, futures markets priced a lower terminal rate than the central Fed view. Five-year equivalents have risen sharply too, while long-term euro zone inflation swaps are pricing the highest rates in more than a decade. The outcome is "strongly bimodal", they said, and either a recession hits and rates are cut, or it doesn't and rates go to 6.5%.

☆ Four Companies That May Show a Path for ‘Recession-Proof’ Fashion
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Rory Satran | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

At the fall/winter collections in Milan, where much of the world’s luxury fashion is marketed, money was on everyone’s minds. Will the luxury industry contract along with the economy—or will it manage to churn out clothing that is recession-proof? But in other ways, fashion is an island. With prices at luxury brands rising in recent years—some, like Chanel, eye-poppingly so—the resilience in demand makes fashion feel a world apart from economic anxieties. “We haven’t encountered any resistance yet” said one luxury executive that I spoke with about raising prices.

☆ Falling behind on federal student loans can lead to other major financial problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Falling behind on federal student loans is likely to trigger other major financial consequences for borrowers, according to new research by The Pew Charitable Trusts. More than 80% of borrowers who experienced default stated that they'd faced at least one additional consequence as a result. The most common impact was a drop in their credit score (62%) followed by being subject to collection fees (47%) and losing eligibility for future federal financial aid (37%). Other consequences that followed from a default on federal student loans included wage garnishment, the suspension of professional licenses and having Social Security or tax refunds offset. Most recently, U.S. Department of Education Undersecretary James Kvaal said that if the government isn't allowed to carry out its sweeping student loan forgiveness plan, there could be a "historically large increase in the amount of federal student loan delinquency and defaults as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic."

☆ 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.

☆ I asked ChatGPT investors' burning questions – and a CIO told me why the bot won't be challenging Wall Street's top stock-pickers anytime soon
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I asked ChatGPT questions about markets and showed the answers to Morningstar Investment Management CIO Dan Kemp. He called some of its knowledge "remarkable" – but isn't worried it'll put top strategists out of their jobs anytime soon. "It provides answers, but it doesn't ask questions like a good investment manager," Kemp said. Kemp told me he was impressed with the breadth of the bot's knowledge – especially its ability to avoid unnecessary jargon when producing stock market content. "It's an interesting mistake and it's one that lots of investors made last year – not every high risk comes with a high reward."

Islamabad, Pakistan CNN —A nationwide power outage in Pakistan left nearly 220 million people without electricity on Monday, threatening to cause havoc in the South Asian nation already grappling with fuel shortages in the winter months. It is unclear how long the outage will last and efforts are underway to restore power to various parts of the country. The outage comes as the country’s fragile economy continues to struggle with multiple challenges, including a severe energy crisis. The decision to reduce energy usage came as Pakistan announced its foreign exchange reserves had dwindled to alarmingly low levels. Monday’s power outage is Pakistan’s most widespread power shutdown since 2021, when the nation plunged into darkness for hours after a “sudden plunge in the frequency in the power transmission system.”

☆ If you still aren't sure what ChatGPT is, this is your guide to the viral chatbot that everyone is talking about
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Open AI, the AI company behind the AI art generator DALL·E, released the viral bot Chat GPT. Other researchers seem to be taking more measured approaches with generative AI tools. He told Insider he's helping to experiment with a chat bot called "Rentervention," which is meant to support tenants. Linna said he's experimenting with Chat GPT to help "Rentervention" come up with better responses and draft more detailed letters, while gauging its limitations. "I think there's so much hype around Chat GPT, and tools like this have potential," said Linna.

The ever-important U.S. corn crop may be most primed for a market miss due to an alarmingly low range of guesses. YIELDSAnalysts’ range on U.S. corn yield is a seven-year low and for soybeans it is at least a 13-year low. U.S. farmers did not have a banner corn crop primarily because of drought in western areas. The 2021 corn yield last January was unchanged from November, but otherwise the trade is looking for the smallest January move in corn yield in 14 years. Argentina’s corn crop is seen falling more than 5% to 52 million tonnes from 55 million in December.

☆ I asked ChatGPT to reply to my Hinge matches. No one responded.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

I asked it to write responses to my Hinge matches. I fed ChatGPT a few comments that were left on my Hinge profile, and also asked it to come up with responses to other people's prompts. In reply to a flame emoji left on one of my photos, ChatGPT offered: "Thanks for the hot compliment! In another prompt, I asked the bot to write a short, witty response to someone whose profile says they work in finance. The number of times that ChatGPT asked me to message someone about "craft beers and avocado toast" makes me think that ChatGPT may be powered by some poor 2010s hipster.

☆ Recession or soft landing? Five reasons to be cautiously optimistic about 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Last year was dominated by scary headlines about crushing inflation, super-sized interest rate hikes and mounting recession fears. That’s still low historically and almost exactly where jobless claims were a year ago, long before recession fears emerged. “This is one reason to the be optimistic the economy could skirt a recession,” Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi told CNN on Thursday. It’s also the lowest annual inflation rate in nearly a year. The Fed won’t hike to the moonThe Fed’s war on inflation is the reason the risk of a recession is significant.

☆ I asked ChatGPT to do my work and write an Insider article for me. It quickly generated an alarmingly convincing article filled with misinformation.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

I asked ChatGPT, a new AI chatbot from OpenAI, to do my work and write a news article. So when I heard about ChatGPT, a language model developed by OpenAI, I was eager to give it a try." Despite its impressive language capabilities, ChatGPT struggled with understanding context and nuance, leading to some awkward and sometimes outright incorrect responses." - ChatGPTI asked ChatGPT to write a headline for this piece. It responded, "Trying ChatGPT for Writing: The Pros and Cons of Using a Language Model for Journalism."

☆ Drug overdose deaths among teenagers surged during the pandemic driven by illicit fentanyl
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Drug overdose deaths among adolescents surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, driven overwhelmingly by illicit fentanyl, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Monthly drug overdose deaths nearly tripled among adolescents ages 10 to 19 during the first two years of the pandemic. But illegally manufactured fentanyl, often consumed as a pill, has become an increasingly common cause of overdose deaths. There was evidence that 25% of adolescent overdose deaths may have involved counterfeit pills that often resemble OxyContin or Xanax but frequently include fentanyl as well. Teens should also be educated about the potential presence of illicit fentanyl in pills that may resemble prescription drugs.

☆ Hate Elon Musk all you want, but he's got one management trick that every boss should emulate
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Ed Zitron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Managers have become alarmingly distanced from the average worker, making calls based on guesses that aren't informed by actual labor. Musk has demanded that managers are able to create "good code" yet does not appear to be much of a coder himself. Jackson Palmer, a cocreator of dogecoin, said Musk was a "grifter" who "had trouble running basic code" in their interactions. He's targeted critical teams at Twitter and pushed others to quit, which have resulted in a huge upswing in hate speech on the platform. In fact, by his own logic of how managers can contribute to the company, Musk should be summarily firing himself any day now.

☆ Some bloodstream infection bacteria grew resistant to last-resort drugs in 2020 - WHO
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Natalie Grover | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Increased drug resistance in bacteria causing bloodstream infections, including against last-resort antibiotics, was seen in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, a World Health Organization report based on data from 87 countries in 2020 showed. High levels (above 50%) of resistance have been reported in bacteria that typically cause life-threatening bloodstream infections in hospitals such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter spp, report authors highlighted on Friday. These infections often require treatment with 'last-resort' antibiotics, drugs that are used when all other antibiotics fail. About 8% of bloodstream infections caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae grew resistant to a vital last-resort group of drugs called carbapenems, the report said. Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remain very high, but last-resort antibiotics are only just starting to lose potency, said Dr Carmem Pessoa-Silva, the lead for WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System, in a media conference.

☆ Holiday gift giving is rife with waste. Here’s how to give greener, according to experts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Rachel Ramirez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

But the holidays are an opportunity to transition to a greener way of living, while also maintaining some level of creativity. But after the excitement is done, the leftover boxes, plastics and paper usually end up in greenhouse-gas-emitting landfills or waste incinerators. And the amount of plastic usually included with holiday presents is enormous, not only in the wrapping, packaging and shipping, but the products themselves. Use recycled or reusable wrapping paper: If you have old newspapers or recycled paper lying around, repurpose them for wrapping. Make homemade gifts: Instead of buying presents, be creative and devise do-it-yourself gifts, which can make it more personal.

When my husband unexpectedly became a stay-at-home dad, our family thrived. Once I became used to having a stay-at-home spouse, I realized how deeply the patriarchy penetrated. For three years, my husband was a stay-at-home dad. My husband didn't choose to be a stay-at-home dad; it merely happened through circumstance. My husband's position is seasonal, so come spring, I will again have a stay-at-home partner, at least for a few months.

☆ 'It killed my spirit': How 3 teachers are navigating the burnout crisis in education
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Morgan Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

After two years of weathering pandemic disruptions, safety concerns and tense public scrutiny, burned-out teachers have quit the profession in droves. At least 300,000 public-school teachers and other staff left the field between February 2020 and May 2022, The Wall Street Journal reports. Some teachers quit because of the challenges of teaching during a global pandemic, while others, taking note of the Great Resignation, found higher-paid opportunities in other industries. "He began the conversation about how education is full of inequity, and how teachers can help resolve some of the inequity that exists." When her school re-opened for the 2021-2022 school year, Paulino felt even more lost.

☆ Never seen 'such a complete failure' of corporate controls, says new FTX CEO who also oversaw Enron bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Ray formerly served as the CEO of Enron after the implosion of the energy titan. He promised to work with regulators to investigate FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried." Ray excoriated Bankman-Fried and his management team for what were described as lackadaisical controls on systems and regulatory compliance. Coordinating with regulators, Ray wrote, the chapter 11 bankruptcy process would examine the actions of Bankman-Fried in connection with FTX's collapse.

☆ Billionaires like Elon Musk want to save civilization by having tons of genetically superior kids. Inside the movement to take 'control of human evolution.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +40 min

"We are the Underground Railroad of 'Gattaca' babies and people who want to do genetic stuff with their kids," Malcolm told me. Ellison, meanwhile, who has two children in their 30s, has reportedly resumed having kids — with his 31-year-old girlfriend. "The person of this subculture really sees the pathway to immortality as being through having children," Simone said. The person of this subculture really sees the pathway to immortality as being through having children. Before she met Malcolm, Simone was convinced she wanted to live her life single and child-free.

☆ Brian Eno Reveals the Hidden Purpose of All Art
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +19 min

I think I’m still answering it. I’m absolutely fascinated by this question, because I think I have an answer, and I don’t think it has ever been well answered. Since we’re talking about how things work: How do you want your new album to work for people? You have to take that on board as being one of the things that’s happening in culture and quite different from the story that we’re generally hearing. I don’t think many people take that as seriously as I do.

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