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☆ Under strain from war, Russia plans a massive layoff in its public sector: report
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-12 | by ( Hannah Abraham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia will resume public sector layoffs, affecting up to at least 40,000 workers, per Kommersant. Layoffs were paused due to COVID-19 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The cuts would also allow more people to enter Russia's labor market which is experiencing a worker shortage. The cuts would also allow more people to enter Russia's labor market which is experiencing a widespread shortage of workers amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Workers have been pulled into the Ukraine war or forced to flee after Putin enacted a major mobilization to increase wartime recruitment.

Persons: —, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Harley Balzer, Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina Organizations: Service, Russian Kommersant, Kommersant, Russian Academy of Science's Institute of Economics, Workers, Georgetown University, Russian Central Bank Governor Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Russian

☆ Russia's defense industry has a massive labor shortage. Rules on what jobs women can do are part of the issue.
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-05 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Russia's defense industry is short some tens of thousands of skilled laborers. Demographic trends and policies further strain Russia's labor force and defense industry. AdvertisementRussia does have one largely untapped source of labor for the defense industry: women. AdvertisementThe decline in Russia's labor force is forecast to continue until 2040, Massicot wrote. This would make bringing women into defense manufacturing a hard cultural and political pivot, Massicot said on X.

Persons: —, Vladimir Putin, Dara Massicot, Massicot, Putin, El País, Health Mikhail Murashko Organizations: Service, BBC, Carnegie Endowment, International, Workers, American Welding Society, Russian Academy of Science's Institute of Economics, Reuters, Russia's, Health Locations: Ukraine, Russia, BBC Russia, Eurasia, El

☆ Everything to know about Adam Pearson, Sebastian Stan's scene-stealing costar in the A24 thriller 'A Different Man'
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-20 | by ( Olivia Singh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewA24's latest dark thriller "A Different Man" is a twisted exploration of the inner and outer self, featuring a standout performance from British actor Adam Pearson. As of 2024, Adam told People magazine that he's undergone 39 procedures to remove his excess tumors that continuously grow back. "I go into everything with a clear head and a full heart," Pearson told People in a recent interview. AdvertisementPearson's role in 'A Different Man' was written for himPearson as Oswald in "A Different Man." Schimberg also said that he wouldn't have considered making "A Different Man" if Pearson passed on the role.

Persons: —, Adam Pearson, Sebastian Stan, Edward, Guy, Oswald, Pearson, LOU BENOIST, Neil Pearson, Adam, Neil, he's, Jonathan Glazer's, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Schimberg's, Matt Infante, Schimberg, I've, wouldn't, doesn't, Aaron, It's Organizations: Service, Business, Deauville American Film Festival, Getty, The Observer, University of Brighton, Pearson Twins Locations: British, Hollywood

☆ Meet Michal Kosinski, the Oppenheimer of AI's Scariest Future
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-05 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +20 min

Eugenicists used photographs and IQ tests to determine which people were "inferior," and sterilized those who didn't measure up — which usually turned out to be anyone who wasn't white and rich. Before he worked with photographs, Kosinski was interested in Facebook. It's just picking up on the way gay people present themselves on dating sites — which, not surprisingly, is often very different from the way straight people present themselves to potential partners. Kosinski thinks AI's ability to make the kind of personality judgments he studies will only get better. That is the future Kosinski fears — even as he continues to tinker with the very models that prove it will come to pass.

Persons: Michal Kosinski, Kosinski, I'm, they'd, isn't, Oppenheimer, David Stillwell, Stillwell, aren't, Brian Stauffer, Aleksandr Kogan, Donald Trump, —, Kosinski isn't, MAGA, Bernie bros, Alexander Todorov, It's, they've, — Francis Galton, Ronald Fisher, Karl Pearson —, Aubrey Clayton, Hitler, Trump, They're, Adam Rogers Organizations: Stanford University, Kosinski, Facebook, Cambridge, Cambridge Psychometrics, National Academy of Sciences, Psychometrics, BI, intuit, Guardian, Rights, GLAAD, Stanford, HRC, University of Chicago, US Supreme, tinker, Business Locations: California, Stanford, Kosinski, Russia

☆ Here's what it's like inside the operating room when someone gets a brain implant
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-25 | by ( Ashley Capoot | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Bederson, system chair for the Department of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai Health System, is no stranger to long hours in an operating room. In fact, it marked the 14th time that the company has placed its array on a human patient's brain. Four of Precision's arrays were carefully laid out on a table nearby. Using a pair of yellow tweezers called long bayonet forceps, Bederson began placing all four of Precision's electrode arrays onto the patient's brain. Real-time renderings of the patient's brain activity swept across Precision's monitors in the operating room.

Persons: Joshua Bederson, Ashley Capoot, Bederson, Elon Musk, Stephanie Rider, Ignacio Saez, Saez, Bederson's, Benjamin Rapoport, Precision's, Ashley Capoot Bederson, Precision's Rapoport, Rapoport, Ashley Capoot Rapoport, Thomas Oxley, Synchron Organizations: Sinai, Neurosurgery, Sinai Health, CNBC, Neuroscience, BCI, Tesla, SpaceX, Icahn School of Medicine, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Mount, Mount Sinai, Precision Neuroscience, Weill Cornell Medicine, Wall Locations: New York City, Mount Sinai, U.S, Mount, Synchron

☆ 3 ways Russia's war-time economy is set to weaken after a surprisingly strong 2023
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewRussia's economy is set to weaken this year, according to researchers from Finland's central bank. Russia won't be able to maintain the surprisingly strong growth it saw, the Bank of Finland's Institute for Emerging Economies said in a recent report. That's a stark contrast from what Russia saw last year, with its economy growing 3.6%, according to Russia's federal statistics service. Russia's long-term potential growth rate, in particular, has been reduced by the shift to a wartime economy," the report said. AdvertisementThe report pointed to three areas of the Russian economy that could take a hit.

Persons: — Organizations: Service, Bank of Finland's Institute, Emerging Economies, Business, Russia, Ukraine, United Nations, Russian Academy of Science's Institute of Economics Locations: Russia, Russian, Ukraine, Moscow

☆ Researchers spotted a baby great white for the first time ever, and it could help solve one of shark science's biggest mysteries
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

AdvertisementLast summer, a drone captured footage of a ghostly white shark near the coast of Santa Barbara, California. It turned out to be an extremely rare sighting of a baby white shark, and its appearance could help scientists solve some big mysteries. A strange white colorDespite their name, white sharks are usually gray and white. AdvertisementPregnant white sharks produce the yellowish fluid, uterine milk, to provide nutrition for the developing embryo. "Observations of free-swimming newborn white sharks are extremely rare," Tobey Curtis, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shark scientist who didn't participate in the research, told Science.

Persons: —, Carlos Gauna, Phillip Sternes, Sternes, Tobey Curtis, Curtis Organizations: Service, University of California, Administration, Science Locations: California, Santa Barbara , California, Riverside

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's science and higher education ministry has dismissed the head of a prestigious genetics institute who sparked controversy by contending that humans once lived for centuries and that the shorter lives of modern humans are due to their ancestors' sins, state news agency RIA-Novosti said Thursday. Although the report did not give a reason for the firing of Alexander Kudryavtsev, the influential Russian Orthodox Church called it religious discrimination. He also claimed that children “up to the seventh generation are responsible for the sins of their fathers,” according to the Russian news website Meduza. Political Cartoons View All 253 Images“We have already gone through Soviet times, when genetics was long considered a pseudoscience,” Lukyanov said. The Soviet Union under Josef Stalin suppressed conventional genetics in favor of the theories of Trofim Lysenko, who contended that acquired characteristics could be inherited by offspring.

Persons: Alexander Kudryavtsev, Fyodor Lukyanov, “, ” Lukyanov, Josef Stalin, Trofim Lysenko Organizations: MOSCOW, Novosti, Russian Academy of Science's Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, RIA, Soviet Locations: Russian

☆ Cramer's Lightning Round: 'Buy Toyota'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Julie Coleman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon SL Green Realty's year-to-date stock performance. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Lucid's year-to-date stock performance. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Schlumberger's year-to-date stock performance. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Toyota's year-to-date stock performance. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Conagra's year-to-date stock performance.

Persons: it's, Xcel, It's, That's, Wynn, Jim Cramer's Organizations: Green, Schlumberger, Toyota, Twist, Boise, Xcel, Excel, Sirius, Sirius XM, Properties Locations: BXP, Boise

☆ Geologist Marie Tharp mapped the ocean floor and helped solve one of science's biggest controversies
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-24 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Back then, no one knew what the ocean floor looked like — until one woman used her many talents to find out. When she reflected on her life, geologist Marie Tharp recollected being able to fill in the blanks of the ocean floor, which she saw as a fascinating jigsaw puzzle. Their final project together was the World Ocean Floor Map. The Heezen-Tharp “World Ocean Floor” map painted by Heinrich Berann. Marie Tharp Maps, LLCAfter Heezen's death, organizations that had hired him and Tharp to work on projects reassigned them.

Persons: didn't, Marie Tharp, Marie Tharp recollected, Tharp, Columbia University's, Lamont, Alfred Wegener's, Wegener, he'd, Bailey Willis, Willis, Bettie Higgs, Maurice Ewing, Roberta Eike, Tharp didn't, they'd, Bruce Heezen, Frank Albert Charles Burke, Heezen, Howard Foster, she'd, Ewing, Jacques Cousteau, Cousteau, Marie Tharp's, Heinrich Berann, you'd, It's, Hali Felt, Higgs, Society's Hubbard, Mary, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, George Washington Organizations: Service, Columbia, Columbia University's Lamont Geological Laboratory, University of Michigan, Columbia University, Lamont, Fairfax Media, Getty, US Navy, Oceanographic Conference, ABC, Disney, Entertainment, National Geographic, Mary Sears Woman, Oceanography Locations: Wall, Silicon, German, American, Lamont, Massachusetts, Nova Scotia , Massachusetts, France, Gibraltar, United States

☆ A weirdly wobbly 'muon' particle might revolutionize physics by revealing a 5th force of nature or another dimension
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Sonam Sheth | Jessica Orwig | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A subatomic particle called the muon is wobbling far more than leading physics models can explain. Its unusual behavior could be evidence of a fifth force of nature or a new dimension. And the reason could be evidence of a new, fifth force of nature. But there are still cosmic wonders we don't understand — mysteries that the discovery of a fifth force of nature may help solve. One possible explanation is that the muons' behavior is dictated by a fifth force of nature.

Persons: Aylin Woodward, Einstein, Rosen, Brendan Casey, Graziano Venanzoni Organizations: Service, Fermi, Accelerator Laboratory, Fermilab, Brookhaven National Lab Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ New research on Facebook shows the algorithm isn't entirely to blame for political polarization
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

For all the blame Facebook has received for fostering extreme political polarization on its ubiquitous apps, new research suggests that the problem may not strictly be a function of the algorithm. Doing so during the three-month period, "did not significantly alter levels of issue polarization, affective polarization, political knowledge, or other key attitudes," the authors wrote. When altering the kind of content these Facebook users were receiving to presumably make it more diverse, they found that the change didn't alter users' views. "However, the data clearly indicate that Facebook users are much more likely to see content from like-minded sources than they are to see content from cross-cutting sources." The polarization problem exists on Facebook, the researchers all agree, but the question is whether the algorithm is intensifying the matter.

Persons: Meta, Holden Thorp, Science's, Thorp, Nick Clegg, Clegg, Stephan Lewandowsky, Lewandowsky, Susan Li Organizations: Facebook, Nature, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, University of Texas, Meta, University of Bristol Locations: U.S

☆ Elon Musk's Twitter X rebrand is actually quite popular among users
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

When Elon Musk unveiled the X rebranding of Twitter earlier this week, howls of complaint echoed across the social-media platform. CivicScience conducted an online survey after the X announcement and got more than 5,000 responses, including over 1,000 responses from Twitter users. Results from a recent CivicScience survey CivicScienceThere's even some positive news regarding Threads, Meta's recently launched Twitter rival. There are roughly 250 million daily average users of Twitter, and CivicScience's poll got results from a few thousand people. 40% of daily Twitter users and a 51% of weekly users are not currently interested in using X with its expected new features, "so the move is likely to be disruptive," CivicScience reported.

Persons: Elon Musk, CivicScience, Meta's, Musk Organizations: Twitter, CivicScience, Morning

☆ Why Gen Z, Millennials, Boomers, and Gen X Fight: Generational Conflict
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Kelli María Korducki | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Gen Z is soft, millennials are embarrassing, boomers are evil, and no one has thought about Gen X in years. But late this spring, Pew announced it would no longer use generational labels such as millennial and Gen Z in its research. By and large, Cohen shares Duffy's view that generational labels make it tough for both experts and laypeople to distinguish between generational traits and universal, or multifactorial, occurrences. To its credit, Pew has been transparent in acknowledging how the use of generational labels may have tilted its analyses. Pew "does believe generational research can be a useful tool in the right context," Parker told me.

Persons: Gen X, Pew, Kim Parker, Parker, Obama, Millennials, boomers, Gen Zers, Xers, —, Karl Mannheim, Louis Menand, Menand, Andrew M, Lindner, Sophia Stelboum, Azizul Hakim, William Strauss, Neil Howe, Strauss, Howe's, Baby Boomer, Portia, Zers, Gen Xers, Philip N, Cohen, it's, Bobby Duffy, Duffy, Stelboum, Hakim, Michael Dimock, Kelli María Korducki Organizations: Pew Research Center, Pew, Skidmore College, University of Maryland, College, Washington, King's College London Locations: Mannheim, New York City

☆ Neuralink competitor Precision Neuroscience conducts its first clinical study to map human brain signals
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

He was standing in a busy operating room in West Virginia, waiting for a surgeon to place Precision Neuroscience's neural implant system onto a conscious patient's brain for the first time. In seconds, a real-time, high-resolution rendering of the patient's brain activity washed over a screen. According to Precision, the system had provided the highest resolution picture of human thought ever recorded. The company's flagship BCI system, the Layer 7 Cortical Interface, is an electrode array resembling a piece of scotch tape. Since the technology worked as expected, future studies will explore further applications in clinical and behavioral contexts, Mermel said.

Persons: Craig Mermel, Mermel, Elon, Blackrock Neurotech Organizations: Precision, CNBC, Neuralink, Neuroscience, BCI, Blackrock Locations: West Virginia, Paradromics

☆ Neuralink competitor Science launches new platform to accelerate medical device innovation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Biotechnology startup and Neuralink competitor Science on Monday launched a new platform that aims to make it easier for other companies to quickly develop and produce medical devices. For many startups, that cost is too much to bear, but Hodak is hoping Science Foundry can help. The company's new platform Science Foundry aims to support companies working on similarly ambitious ideas. The cost of using Science Foundry is comparable to the cost of working with academic facilities, which are "cheap to get started," Hodak said. Hodak said the platform will benefit Science and the broader industry as a whole.

☆ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman takes diabetes drug metformin as part of his anti-aging routine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman takes the diabetes drug metformin to slow down aging. Metformin is a decades-old drug that is prescribed to millions of people with diabetes, CNBC reported. In addition to the drug, Altman's said his anti-aging regimen includes "trying to eat healthy, exercise, and sleep enough," per the MIT Technology Review. The company uses genetic engineering and plasma replacement to make cells younger, per the MIT Technology Review. Altman secretly poured $180 million dollars into Retro Bioscience's death-delaying treatment, the MIT Technology Review reported.

☆ The 8 leading biotechs using AI to upend how drugs are discovered
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

A few biotech companies have used AI to develop drugs that are already being tested in people. Insider found eight AI biotechs now in the clinic, a critical stage in drug development. Some of the fastest progress has been in using AI to improve the process of creating medicines. At the start of 2020, AI-focused biotechs had zero drugs in the clinic, according to Air Street Capital. Here are the eight biotechs using AI to develop better drugs, in order of how many drugs they have in human testing.

☆ Some CEOs are pushing workers to return to the office, but it could come with a cost: hurting diversity
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Marguerite Ward | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But remote work has benefited many people with disabilities, many Black workers, and others. But Dimon appears more bearish when it comes to another measure that's been shown to promote diversity: remote work. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin slammed remote work at a conference last year, saying innovation and creativity declines because of it. The shift to remote work has been especially helpful for people with physical difficulties and mobility limitations. MoMo Productions/Getty ImagesSome Black workers report facing less discrimination and fewer microaggressions working from home than when they're at the office.

Though a tiny fraction of the nation's plantings, the previously unreported total represents the company's biggest ever release of hybrid wheat. NEARLY 100 YEARSFarmers have used hybrid seeds since the 1930s to grow corn, followed by other crops ranging from peanuts to tomatoes. Producing hybrid wheat seeds is still more complicated and expensive than conventional wheat. Hybrid wheat can produce more uniform results across fields than conventional wheat, and may deliver better yields on poor soil, Hankey said. Syngenta projected in 2015 that its annual sales of hybrid wheat seeds could potentially reach $3 billion by 2032.

☆ Doctors have long been accused of sloppy handwriting. Google is using AI to translate their scribbled notes.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google is working on an AI model to translate hard-to-read handwriting, like on doctors' notes. The company announced it's working with pharmacists on the AI model that will be in Google Lens. Doctors' handwriting can potentially lead to deadly consequences for patients, Time reported, citing a 2006 study from the National Academies of Science's Institute of Medicine. However, a 1996 study published in the National Library of Medicine found that doctors' handwriting is no worse than that of people who aren't doctors. "This study fails to support the conventional wisdom that doctors' handwriting is worse than others'," the study's authors concluded.

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