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☆ John B. Goodenough, 100, Dies; Nobel-Winning Creator of the Lithium-Ion Battery
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Robert D. Mcfadden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

He was, he said in a memoir, “Witness to Grace” (2008), the unwanted child of an agnostic Yale University professor of religion and a mother with whom he never bonded. The two sides, called electrodes, hold charges — a negative one called an anode, and a positive one called a cathode. When a battery releases energy, positively charged ions shuttle from the anode to the cathode, creating a current. A rechargeable battery is plugged into a socket to draw electricity, forcing the ions to shuttle back to the anode, where they are stored until needed again. Materials used for the anode, cathode and electrolyte determine the quantity and speed of the ions, and thus the battery’s power.

Persons: Grace ”, Clarence Zener, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi Organizations: Yale University, Yale, Army Air Forces, University of Chicago, Lincoln Laboratory Locations: Groton, M.I.T, Oxford

☆ Opinion | Creating a Path for More Black Economists
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

“If this is what economics is teaching, who wants to be part of that?”Myers is an interesting person. Myers told me about the economists, both Black and white, who lent a hand to him and others early on. One was his father, Samuel L. Myers, a path breaker who earned a doctorate in economics from Harvard in 1949. “I’m happy and content that I’m unapologetically Black,” he said. He added: “The summer program is producing deep thinkers.”

Persons: “, I’m, ”, ” Myers, Roy Wilkins, Wilkins, Myers, Samuel L, Marcus Alexis, Andrew Brimmer, Clifton Wharton, Phyllis Wallace, Bernard Anderson, Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow, Michael Piore, Richard Eckaus, Duncan Foley, Charles Kindleberger, Kindleberger “, Kindleberger, they’re Organizations: Morgan State University, Harvard, Caucus of Black, Federal, Michigan State University, Rockefeller Foundation, Yale, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, M.I.T Locations: Baltimore, Minnesota, American

☆ Hey, Alexa, What Should Students Learn About A.I.?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Because A.I. is such a powerful new technology, in order for it to work well in society, it really needs some rules,” Dr. Kornbluth said. initiative on “responsible A.I.” whose donors include Amazon, Google and Microsoft. And they underscored a question that has vexed school districts across the nation this year: How should schools prepare students to navigate a world in which, according to some prominent A.I. Courses like computer science and civics now regularly include exercises on the societal impacts of facial recognition and other automated systems.

Persons: Kornbluth, “ Organizations: Google, Microsoft Locations: United States, A.I

☆ 6 Podcasts to Make Sense of A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Emma Dibdin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

That unforgettable, and unsettling, Valentine’s Day encounter fueled ongoing debate over the implications of creating A.I. “Bot Love” delves into that subject, exploring what intimacy can look like between a human and a chatbot. Starter episode: “Bot Love 5 — Maybe I’ve Got A Problem”Produced by the M.I.T. Technology Review and hosted by Jennifer Strong, this deeply researched series provides weekly deep dives into how modern life has been transformed by A.I. Since then, “In Machines We Trust” has explored the use of A.I.

Persons: Kevin Roose, couldn’t, chatbot, Anna Oakes, Diego Senior, Jennifer Strong, A.I Organizations: Hollywood, The New York Times, Diego, Technology, “ Locations: ”

☆ Tim Robinson and the Golden Age of Cringe Comedy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Sam Anderson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

This obsession makes “I Think You Should Leave” the perfect comedy for our overheated cultural moment. The panics over “cancel culture” and the “woke mob” — these are symptoms of a fragmented society wondering if, in a time of flux, it still meaningfully shares social rules. “I Think You Should Leave” makes comedy, relentlessly, out of moments when the social rules break down. Almost always, sketches start quietly. By the end of the party, everyone has come over to his side — including the baby, who smiles at him.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, “ It’s, ”, Robinson Locations: United States

☆ The Optimist’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence and Work
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Sarah Kessler | Ephrat Livni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Brynjolfsson and his co-authors of a study compared the call center employees who used the tool to those who didn’t. Customer sentiment was also higher and employee turnover lower in the group that used the tool. “That offers an opportunity to enable more workers to do valuable work that relies on some of that expertise,” he said. tool for some tasks may free up workers to expand their work on tasks that can’t be automated. Of course, there’s no guarantee that workers will be qualified for new jobs, or that they’ll be good jobs.

☆ Opinion | The Tyranny of ‘The Best’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Rachel Connolly | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

“I think the really important thing to me — which is probably not a healthy thing — is I want to make sure the people I’m with have the best time possible,” Dan told me. Some version of the “hottest new restaurants of the year” could be found in local newspapers and magazines for decades — not to mention the best dentists, doctors, schools. Listicles proliferated as a kind of content that was easy to produce, easy to attract attention to, easy to sell ads against. The best easy-to-assemble tents, the 30 softest midrange nightgowns, the 17 smoothest razors under $50, the top seven waterproof briefcases. There are best-of lists of less concrete things, too: the 100 best novelists of the past 100 years; rich lists; the 30 under 30.

MUMBAI, May 19 (Reuters) - Investors are looking beyond the U.S. technology sector's bounceback this year for longer-term returns, as higher interest rates and an uncertain macroeconomic picture could present further headwinds, fund managers and strategists said. "The tendency is that ... the sector that leads in one cycle doesn't tend to lead in the following cycle," Yoder told the Reuters Global Markets Forum. "We are staying away from the more interest rate-sensitive sectors such as tech," said Jonathan Mondillo, head of North American fixed income at abrdn. Anticipating an economic slowdown in the second half, more cautious and selective positioning across fixed income portfolios is a better bet, said Jonathan Duensing, head of U.S. fixed income at Amundi. "We've always felt that the tech sector in general is one where you need to be very selective," Duensing said.

☆ Bard President Received $150,000 From Foundation Created by Jeffrey Epstein
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Vimal Patel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He added: “I’m not a rich person.”Dr. Botstein had previously said that besides an unsolicited $75,000 gift and 66 laptops, Mr. Epstein had not given any gifts to Bard. On Wednesday, Dr. Botstein said that he did not disclose the money from the foundation during a previous interview with The Times earlier this month because he was not aware of it. He said “the contract was signed by someone else” so Mr. Epstein’s name did not appear on his records. The payment is the latest revelation that gives a deeper look into how Mr. Epstein used his money to buy influence. Mr. Epstein gave prolifically to many charities and universities, including Harvard and M.I.T.

Musk revealed those plans on Tuesday at the company's annual meeting, an about-face for the celebrity executive who recently acquired social media platform Twitter. Musk told CNBC he did not yet have a "fully formed strategy" for Tesla advertising. Tesla spent $151,947 on advertising in the U.S. in 2022, according to advertising intelligence firm Vivvix, which measured ads across places including TV, social media, Web banners and billboards. Diaz-Ortiz is a former Twitter manager who has written books about the social media company. Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Tesla shareholder Globalt Investments, sees Musk's embrace of advertising as a positive.

☆ What’s a President to Do When a Nation’s Capital Is Sinking? Move It.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Hannah Beech | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +38 min

A new capital city for a place with such disparities and diversity presents both a challenge and a chance for reinvention. Moving the Seat of Power From Java to Borneo Detail area Malaysia Nusantara Borneo Java Sea Indonesia Jakarta Java Indian Ocean Detail area Malaysia Nusantara Borneo Java Sea Indonesia Jakarta Java Indian Ocean Indonesia’s new capital, Nusantara, will be about 800 miles from the current capital, Jakarta. It cannot be overnight, it’s not like Aladdin comes with his genie,” said Bambang Susantono, the head of the Nusantara Capital City Authority. We have to prove that this will be a self-propelling city.” — Bambang Susantono, head of the Nusantara Capital City AuthorityCritics of I.K.N. Indonesia’s capital city faces sinking land and rising seas.

In midsized metros Metros with 250,000 to one million residents. An Emerging Divide Mobility has risen for college-educated workers, even as it has fallen for workers without a degree. College-educated workers leaving the most expensive parts of the country are also not spreading out equally everywhere — or even going to parts of the country that are struggling. Net migration among college graduates Loss Gain Among the 12 most expensive metros, net college migration has generally declined or turned negative. “Consumer cities,” as she puts it, are increasingly replacing “producer cities” as the places where college graduates want to live.

☆ Opinion | Government Budget Deficits Can Pay for Themselves
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Peter Coy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Now some other economists have demonstrated a second mechanism by which a government could run deficits and never have to pay for them. Unlike Blanchard’s mechanism, it doesn’t depend on the relationship of interest rates to economic growth. Their research came out last month as a working paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research. “Can Deficits Finance Themselves?” is the paper’s provocative title — evoking, to me anyway, the Laffer Curve theory that tax cuts can pay for themselves. The economists concluded that “deficits contribute to their own financing via two channels.” First, they can accelerate economic growth, which generates more tax revenue.

☆ New York Is Full of Empty Offices After Covid. Make Way for the Playground City. - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Edward L. Glaeser | Carlo Ratti | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +20 min

We are witnessing the dawn of a new kind of urban area: the Playground City. The transformation toward the Playground City will not happen on its own. To draw people into the Playground City, we need to show, not tell. 6.Engage citizensGovernments should empower citizens to participate directly in making the Playground City. The Playground City sees people as both a means and an end, and it should involve them in the process of its creation.

☆ Capita warns some pensions data likely taken in cyber attack -FT
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 4 (Reuters) - British outsourcing company Capita (CPI.L) has confirmed to pension clients that some data it processed was likely to have been hacked during a recent cyber incident, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. A large team of staff at Capita had searched the affected servers and identified that some pensions data that Capita processes on behalf of its clients "is likely to have been exfiltrated", the newspaper reported, citing correspondence sent to trustees. "Capita is working closely with specialist advisers and forensic experts in investigating the incident to provide assurance around any potential customer, supplier or colleague data exfiltration," a company spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. Among its clients, the company provides the British government with services to connect with citizens including managing tax and I.T. The report added that there was "no evidence" that Capita pensions data was available on the dark web and that it had a third-party specialist checking on a regular basis.

☆ A Hurricane-Resistant Hospital Is Coming to Coney Island
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

New York City is about to cut the ribbon on a new $923 million public hospital building, not far from the beach in Coney Island, that is designed to be practically flood-proof and that promises to elevate the level of health care for hundreds of thousands of people in South Brooklyn. The new Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital building, which opens Tuesday, was born out of a crisis. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Coney Island Hospital, the former name of the campus where the new building is, flooded. When it came time to restore the facility, city hospital leaders convinced the Federal Emergency Management Agency that constructing a new building would cost the same as repairing and retrofitting the old one. With nearly $1 billion from the agency, the city’s public hospital system was able to construct a fortress, designed to withstand even a once-in-a-century flood.

☆ The U.S. Built a European-Style Welfare State. It’s Largely Over.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Claire Cain Miller | Alicia Parlapiano | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +14 min

expansion Child care provider grants Food assistance ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’24 Emergency food benefits Free school meals Through Sept. 2026 Remote WIC services Paused work requirement No expiration Meals outside of school No expiration Food benefit increase WIC increase Health care ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’24 Medicaid continuity Through Dec. 2025 A.C.A. subsidies Subsidized COBRA Housing ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’24 Foreclosure ban Eviction ban Through Sept. 2025 Rental aid Through Sept. 2030 Housing vouchers Unemployment ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’24 Self-employed qualify Relaxed rules Extended duration Extra $600/week Extra $300-$400/week Extra for self-employed Extra $300/week Note: The selection of programs is not comprehensive, but it represents those with the highest costs or those affecting the most people. PROGRAM DURATION ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’24 Emergency food benefits Gave all households maximum Free school meals For all children Remote WIC services Waived need to appear in person Through Sept. 2026 Paused work requirement For adults without kids Meals outside of school Summer meals made permanent No expiration Increase in max. PROGRAM DURATION ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’24 Foreclosure moratorium For federally backed mortgages Eviction moratorium Rental assistance New emergency program Through Sept. 2025 Housing vouchers Additional funding Through Sept. 2030 Note: While funding for emergency housing vouchers is available through September 2030, vouchers cannot be issued to new households after September of this year. PROGRAM DURATION ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’20 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’21 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’22 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’23 ’24 Benefits for self-employed Including gig workers Relaxed rules Work searching not required Extra weeks of benefits Up to 53 additional Extra $600 per week Extra $300-$400 per week Depending on the state Extra for self-employed $100 more per week Extra $300 per weekAnother is support for families with young children.

☆ Analysis: Israel's tech sector reels from SVB collapse, proposed judicial reform
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Steven Scheer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

In an industry of around 400,000 there are currently around 6,000 vacant tech jobs, according to government data. More than half of the country's startups held an account with SVB, companies and venture capital investors said, in some cases their only U.S. banking facility although the amounts involved are not fully known. Tech companies and investors alike said SVB was a rarity in the banking industry, familiar with Israel's tech ecosystem and offering loan terms unmatched by other banks. Citing the judicial reforms, Adam Fisher, a partner at investment firm Bessemer Venture Partners, said fewer American banks may be willing to lend to Israeli companies, which means less competition and more onerous terms. Israel's tech companies are therefore likely to flock to register as U.S. companies, while keeping R&D back home, said Yaron Samid, managing partner of the TechAviv Founder Partners fund.

☆ Gold Fields, AngloGold rule out merger after Ghana joint-venture deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Nelson Banya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The South Africa-headquartered AngloGold and Gold Fields are among the five biggest gold producing companies by output in the world, with operations in Africa, Australia and South America. Gold Fields' Preece, who last month said the company was no longer pursuing big M&A deals after its failed bid for Canada's Yamana Gold (YRI.TO) said on the conference call "collaboration is easier". Gold Fields and AngloGold would own 60% and 30% of the joint operation, respectively, with the Ghanaian government holding 10%, Calderon said. "The proposed joint venture would create the largest gold mine in Africa and one of the largest in the world. Apart from Tarkwa, Gold Fields has two other mines in Ghana, Damang and the 45%-owned Asanko.

☆ Government vows aid for tech firms but Israel stocks slide on SVB collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Steven Scheer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Israel's tech sector is the country's main growth engine, and its relationship with the Silicon Valley region is strong. NextVision (NXSN.TA), a maker of micro stabilised cameras, said in a regulatory filing in Tel Aviv that it withdrew on Thursday almost all of the $2.7 million it held in SVB. The Tel Aviv index of the five largest banks (.TELBANK5) was down 4% in afternoon trading, while the index of eight insurers (.TAINS) fell 4.7%. Israel's two largest banks, Leumi (LUMI.TA) and Hapoalim (POLI.TA), said their tech banking arms would issue loans to startups and other tech firms that were without access to credit in the wake of SVB's collapse. Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Frank Jack Daniel and Raissa KasolowskyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ TSX slides as investors brace for more Fed rate hikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Fergal Smith | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"We are seeing a pullback in risk assets as people start to discount the Fed keeping rates higher for longer," said Joseph Abramson, co-chief investment officer at Northland Wealth Management. The TSX has a 30% weighting in commodity-linked shares. The energy sector fell nearly 2% on Tuesday as oil settled 3.6% lower at $77.58 a barrel, while materials, which includes precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, was down 2.9%. Thomson Reuters Corp (TRI.TO) shares were a bright spot, rising 1.2%. Reporting by Fergal Smith; Additional reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Ken FerrisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The Digital Workplace Is Designed to Bring You Down
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk The Digital Workplace Is Designed to Bring You DownWe’ve been given no shortage of digital tools that should, in theory, help us work better, with more focus and efficiency, and connect us more easily with our colleagues. Your brain can’t have your inbox open next to the memo you’re writing while you’re also on the phone. The only way to get out of that suboptimal equilibrium is to completely change the way the organization collaborates. You can’t have a small number of executives figure out the right way to do the work and then dispense it. But zoom out to John McPhee’s career, and you’re like, you’re one of the most productive and impactful writers of all time.

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Heavy electrical company ABB Ltd (ABBN.S) Chairman Peter Voser sees his firm acquiring between five to 10 small-to-medium enterprises a year to add to the company's organic business, he said on Monday. "Each division of ABB should be active in organic and inorganic strategies, which would see ABB acquiring between five to 10 small-to-medium business every year," Voser told the Reuters Global Markets Forum on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting at Davos. Zurich-based ABB raised around 200 million Swiss francs in November, which at the time was around $209 million, from selling an 8% stake in its EV charging business. "We are constantly looking at both opportunities of further private placements and/or floating, but we are under no pressure," Voser said. That's fair to say, given the population and the economies there, but I wouldn't underestimate the growth potential in the U.S.," Voser said.

"The idea that somehow cryptos are going to maintain value, while the fiat currencies collapse. That's nonsense," Rajan said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The wider crypto market shrank by $1.4 trillion in 2022 with bitcoin losing 60% of its value. One cause for worry, however, could be that labor markets were tight as nobody wanted to fire people, given how hard it was to hire them to begin with, he said. For daily Davos updates in your inbox sign up for the Reuters Daily Briefing here(Join GMF, a chat room hosted on Refinitiv Messenger: https://refini.tv/33uoFoQ)Reporting by Divya Chowdhury in Davos and Savio Shetty in Mumbai; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Job cuts are not "top of mind" for Manulife Financial Corp (MFC.TO), Canada's largest insurer, as it sees significant growth opportunities, fuelled particularly by Asia, CEO Roy Gori said on Monday. "We are in growth mode," Gori told the Reuters Global Markets Forum on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, adding that his firm has been increasing headcount. "We are growing at more than double or triple the GDP in most of the markets that we operate in. That means that we're investing organically to grow our business and ... possibly looking at inorganic opportunities for growth as well." The prospect of an imminent global recession cast a long shadow over Davos on Monday as participants counted the likely cost for their economies and businesses.

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