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☆ 'GMA3's T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach no longer with ABC News following their romance scandal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Mirna-Alsharif-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Mirna Alsharif | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

“GMA3” co-anchors T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach are no longer with ABC News, a spokesperson for the network said Friday, after news of their affair surfaced in December. "After several productive conversations with Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes about different options, we all agreed it’s best for everyone that they move on from ABC News," an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement. Gio Benitez and Stephanie Ramos filled in for Holmes and Robach for the week while the company made a decision. On Dec. 2, while hosting "GMA3" with Robach, Holmes poked fun about the “great week” the pair had. “I am very excited about the weekend.”Both Holmes and Robach deactivated their Instagram accounts since their relationship made news.

☆ Why do people buy crackpot conspiracy theories?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

When it comes to the spread of cockamamie conspiracy theories, Twitter was a maximum viable product long before Elon Musk paid $44 billion for the keys. The more you think you're right all the time, a new study suggests, the more likely you are to buy conspiracy theories, regardless of the evidence. It'd be better, or at least more reassuring, if conspiracy theories were fueled by dumb yahoos rather than self-centered monsters. Still, most scientists thought conspiracy theories weren't worth their time, the province of weirdos connecting JFK's death to lizard aliens. Pennycook's findings also suggest an explanation for why conspiracy theories have become so widely accepted.

Former President Donald Trump has dropped the federal lawsuit he filed in Florida against New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump's lawyers filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in the case before U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks on Friday morning. The suit charged James — who's filed a $250 million lawsuit against Trump and his company in New York state court — has "repeatedly abused her position as Attorney General for the State of New York to pursue a vendetta against President Trump." Trump had made similar claims against James in state and federal court in New York, both of which were dismissed. "Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries.

Allen Weisselberg, former chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for his role in the company's sweeping 15-year tax fraud scheme. As part of his deal with prosecutors, Weisselberg could have faced added time behind bars if he did not testify truthfully at trial, which ended with the Trump Organization being convicted of all counts. Lawyers for the two Trump Organization subsidiaries charged in the case maintained during the trial that Weisselberg was the lone bad actor and the companies shouldn't be held responsible. Had Weisselberg been convicted at trial, he could have faced up to 15 years in prison. At Tuesday's sentencing hearing, the judge will decide whether Weisselberg must go to jail that day or at a later date.

☆ This scientist was irked by the phrase 'hella' big — so he created 2 new units of measurement
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Metric measurements — also known as the International System of Units, or SI — are managed by a formal international organization. The prefixes Brown came up with are ronna and ronto for 1027 and 10-27 and quetta and quecto for 1030 and 10-30. In fact, SI units used to be based on actual, real-life physical artifacts. "If everyone sticks to SI prefixes," Brown says, "you don't have to go on Wikipedia to find out how long a light-year is or the power in 1 jansky." Pražák proposed sticking to Greek words and letters.

Adam Rich, the youngest member of the "Eight Is Enough" television ensemble, died at age 54 at his Los Angeles home Saturday. An official cause of death is pending a scheduled autopsy, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office said. "Eight Is Enough" actors Jimmy Van Patten, Connie Needham, Dianne Kay, Laurie Walters and Adam Rich at the Los Angeles premiere of the musical "Hello Dolly" on Jan. 30, 2019. The youngest member of the Bradford family, Rich endeared himself to viewers as a mop-topped child star. Rich's last credits are from 2003, when he played himself in "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star," along with a guest spot portraying Crocodile Dundee in "Reel Comedy."

There’s no parole in the federal prison system and good behavior credits are in short supply compared to most states. More likely, Shah would be told a date, at least a month out, to surrender herself at a federal facility. Her best hope would be to be deemed most appropriate for a minimum security camp. “A minimum-security camp, I mean even moving up to next level, which is still ‘low security’ that’s a huge difference. If you’re eligible for a camp, you’ll go to Alaska if you can go to a camp.” Share this -Link copied

☆ The most honest man in real estate thinks the housing market isn't going to crash
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Here's how Miller, who doesn't think the housing market is going to crash, became a beacon of trust. The call was from a journalist at an international paper asking for Miller's comment on the US housing market for a story. The 62-year-old founder of the real-estate-appraisal and data firm Miller Samuel is probably the most-quoted man in real estate, with some 2,469 news citations, according to the database LexisNexis. Today, Miller Samuel has replaced Scantrons with iPods, iPhones, and a CoreLogic appraisal software called A La Mode. Today, there's much more data than there was when he started Miller Samuel, but also a lot more "crap," Miller said.

☆ A Parasite May Explain Why Some People Are Driven to Start a Company
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

When wolves in Yellowstone National Park get infected with a cat parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, they become more likely to leave their packs and start new ones. The Yellowstone wolf data hints that it's just the side effect of a protozoan inhabiting our brains in a failed attempt to make more protozoa. So why would any of this make an infected wolf want to start its own pack? That was the suggestion of an influential 2006 paper titled "Can the Common Brain Parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, Influence Human Culture?" Just because Toxo might drive an alpha male to start a company, that doesn't mean it'll be a successful company.

☆ Disgraced FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried 'orchestrated yearslong fraud' on investors and customers, SEC and criminal charges say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Marlene Lenthang | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of cryptocurrency giant FTX, defrauded investors by funneling money into his private hedge fund and conspired to commit wire fraud against customers and lenders, federal authorities said Tuesday. The Manhattan panel indicted Bankman-Fried on eight counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers, wire fraud on customers, conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders, wire fraud on lenders, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate the campaign finance laws. $8 billion loss to customersThe wire fraud on lenders and customers started in or about 2019 and lasted through November, according to the filing. Separately, in a filing Tuesday also in the Southern District of New York, the SEC charged him with defrauding investors and enriching Alameda. FTX CEO pledges continued cooperationAlso Tuesday, the company’s new CEO, John J. Ray III, testified at a congressional hearing on FTX’s collapse and missteps.

☆ ‘America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation’ Review: Tinkering With the Ingredients
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The universe won’t collapse because of what happens on a cooking show, but “America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation” is symptomatic of larger disturbances in the force of food TV—including creative stasis, casual shoplifting of ideas and the fact that too many borrowed ideas can spoil a perfectly presentable broth. The taste-test segment involves familiar brands available at a local supermarket and end in some surprising results. (Hershey’s wins the cocoa-powder faceoff again!) Among its “flaws” is a menu that’s anachronistically meat-centric and on-air talent who are on air because of their food knowledge, not their media training. Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison are the no-nonsense hosts-chefs; the taste-test guy, Jack Bishop , is reassuringly uncomfortable at being on TV at all; equipment assessor Adam Ried is burly, affable and you believe what he tells you.

☆ NHL roundup: Kasperi Kapanen's hat trick sends Pens past Blues
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Oskar Sundqvist scored the only goal of the game for Detroit, which lost its third straight game. Toronto's Mitch Marner scored twice to set a club record with 19th straight games with a point. Bruins 5, Avalanche 1David Pastrnak and Trent Frederic each scored twice as the host Bruins cruised past the Avalanche. Tomas Hertl scored twice for the Sharks, who have lost five of six (1-4-1). Panthers 5, Kraken 1Carter Verhaeghe scored twice and Sam Bennett had three assists as Florida defeated host Seattle, ending the Kraken's franchise-record seven-game winning streak.

Prosecutors in the Trump Organization tax fraud trial said in their closing arguments Friday that the former president sanctioned what became a sweeping 15-year scheme to compensate top company executives off the books. “Donald Trump is explicitly sanctioning tax fraud. “This whole narrative that Donald Trump is blissfully ignorant is just not real.”Attorneys for the defense objected to the late-trial move by the prosecution, which also mentioned Trump at the beginning of closing arguments on Thursday. The 15-count indictment in the case charges the company and longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg with scheming to defraud, tax fraud and falsifying records. Donald Trump stands next to Allen Weisselberg at a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower on Jan. 11, 2017.

☆ Finance influencers who hyped up FTX and BlockFi are facing angry fans
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In the case of finance influencers who hyped up FTX and BlockFi to their subscribers, the result is a lot of unhappy, skeptical former fans. As prominent crypto platforms topple, financial influencers face anger and skepticism. On YouTube, financial influencers have built loyal followings by sharing financial advice and actively promoting companies like FTX and BlockFi. As the companies crumble, those influencers are facing skepticism and backlash from fans. Apple's App store has become an imitation of its former self.Apple used to carefully curate its App store, helping developers gain visibility and customers find what they needed, writes Michael Gartenberg.

☆ Why Faulty Streetlights Are Turning Cities Purple — and Why It's Worrisome
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

LED streetlights are supposed to shine for the better part of a decade. Every city with purple lights that responded to my queries or has public records on the matter bought its LED lights from Acuity. The blue LED, with its narrow wavelength, enabled all sorts of modern tech, from the compact disc to flat-screen monitors. Acuity and the purple cities haven't been entirely transparent on that matter. "The purple streetlights are a result of the phosphor coating delaminating from the LEDs," says Fiona Hughes, a representative for the city of Vancouver.

☆ As Amazon's Alexa unit faces layoffs, insiders describe a department in crisis
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Today, we're taking a look inside the rise and fall of Amazon's Alexa unit, and detailing more potential layoffs at Twitter, so we're not off to a great start — but let's keep our fingers crossed. Employees took us inside Amazon's floundering Alexa unit. With Amazon's Alexa — and the devices team at large — the prime target of the biggest layoffs in the company's history, Insider's Eugene Kim spoke with more than a dozen employees to understand the current state of the unit. Employees told Insider a combination of low morale, failed monetization attempts, and lack of engagement across users and developers made them feel as though the team was deadlocked over the last few years. Here's everything employees told us.

☆ The only thing Elon Musk understands about Twitter is how to kill it
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Biologists, anthropologists, and information theorists do think that social networks, like Musk's bird app, show at least some signs of being flocks. "Elon's tweet is basically espousing the invisible hand of social behavior," Bak-Coleman says. In this construction, a social network might have become a collective superintelligence, had capitalists left it to its — our? Under Musk, Twitter has entered the dance-off phase. I'll be sad if the Twitter superintelligence starts singing a Kubrickian cover of "Daisy" and implodes into a pile of melting isolinear chips.

☆ Inflation forces mom and pop restaurants and chains like McDonald's to lean on their strengths
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

In response to that drop-off, both chains and independents are working to address the cost factor without alienating diners. Aaron Allen, founder and CEO of restaurant consultancy Aaron Allen & Associates, compared restaurant chains to oil tankers and independents to speedboats. Kate Bruce, owner of The Buttery Bar in Brooklyn, said she's been facing higher costs for everything from labor to cooking oil to energy. Portillo's restaurant chain CEO Michael Osanloo said independents do have greater flexibility when it comes to changing prices. Consumers care more about prices when they're visiting a chain restaurant, according to findings from a survey of roughly 2,400 U.S. consumers conducted by PYMNTS.

Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump did not discipline Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg after finding out he'd been cheating on his taxes — and later gave him a raise to make up for the shortfall, the ex-CFO testified Friday. Trump's eldest sons took over control of the company following the 2016 presidential election. He pleaded guilty in August and agreed to testify truthfully against his employer in return for a five month jail sentence. Pressed by prosecutors on Friday, he said, "There was some benefits to the company but primarily it was due to my greed." Did a long time executive pay tax on the use of a company car, or a company apartment, or payments (not even taken by us as a tax deduction!)

☆ Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to more than 11 years in prison
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced Friday to more than 11 years in prison for fraud after deceiving investors about the purported efficacy of her company's blood-testing technology. Holmes was convicted in January in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Once valued at $9 billion by private investors, Theranos shut down in 2018. U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila, who presided over Holmes' trial, handed down the sentence. Holmes' sentencing comes as another young tech former billionaire icon, Sam Bankman-Fried, faces a daunting future, following the sudden collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX last week.

Asked by Trump lawyer Alan Futerfas in cross-examination whether Trump or anyone else in the company gave him permission to "commit tax fraud," Weisselberg said, "No." Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg and attorney Alan Futerfas in court in New York on Thursday. Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, left, arrives in court in New York on Thursday. He also agreed “to testify truthfully at the upcoming trial of the Trump Organization” or face up to five to 15 years in prison. He testified earlier Thursday that the Trump Organization cleaned up its business practices after Trump was elected president because of the extra scrutiny it was under.

Weisselberg, 75, said Trump was aware that compensation for executives included perks such as apartments and luxury cars in lieu of extra salary. The company later announced Weisselberg was being removed as CFO, but he testified Tuesday that his duties — and his salary — have largely remained the same. Lawyers for the Trump companies named in the indictment have argued that Weisselberg was the lone bad actor, and that both the company and Trump should not be blamed. Weisselberg said Tuesday that he first went to work for Trump's father Fred Trump in 1973, and has worked for Donald Trump since 1986. Other potential witnesses in the trial could include Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and his daughter Ivanka Trump.

☆ NHL roundup: Flames hold off Kings 6-5
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY SportsNovember 15 - Tyler Toffoli and Elias Lindholm each had a goal and two assists for the Calgary Flames in a 6-5 win against the visiting Los Angeles Kings on Monday night. Adam Ruzicka had a goal and an assist, and Jacob Markstrom made 24 saves for the Flames, who have won two in a row. Jonathan Huberdeau, Andrew Mangiapane and Brett Ritchie also scored for Calgary, and Nazem Kadri registered two assists. Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kemp added Los Angeles' other goals, and Drew Doughty logged two assists. Jordan Binnington had 45 saves and Pavel Buchnevich added two assists for the Blues, who have won three straight.

☆ Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and allies lose influence in Washington as company collapses
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and his allies are losing advocates in Washington, as the company hits rock bottom. 2 Senate Democrat told CNBC on Monday that the contribution "will be donated to an appropriate charity." It was announced in February that FTX and FTX US were joining the group's board of directors. A spokesman for the crypto trade group told CNBC that "on Thursday, ADAM removed FTX.com and FTX.US from its membership." The lobbying group is led by the former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge.

Prosecutors in Manhattan charged the company with being involved in a 15-year tax fraud scheme. Asked whether former President Donald Trump, who was running the business at the time, was aware of the scheme, McConney said Weisselberg told him that Trump knew about it. He said the payments system stopped after Trump was elected president and one of his tax advisers, Sheri Dillon, reviewed the company's business practices. On cross-examination by Trump company lawyer Susan Necheles, McConney painted Weisselberg as the lone bad actor, calling him a "micromanager" who had to sign off on all financial decisions. Weisselberg, who worked for Trump for decades and was indicted alongside the company last year, pleaded guilty to 15 felony charges in August.

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