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☆ Breaking With the News, One Breath at a Time
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Patrick Laforge | More About Patrick Laforge | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

And then there is the mental effort of focusing awareness on the breath while the mind serves up plans, memories and emotions, not all of them pleasant. “Leave your front door and your back door open,” the Zen master Shunryu Suzuki used to say. Back in the newsroom these days, I’m more able to take a beat amid the stress of breaking news. After the first day on the retreat in June, thoughts of work slipped out the back door. The week ahead would bring fresh headlines, many of misery — more wildfire smoke, contaminated strawberries and deadly tornadoes in the South.

Persons: Shunryu Suzuki, I’m, Dennis Overbye, “

We've been keeping tabs on the best Prime Day deals, and amidst all of the great discounts, there are some price drops that really can't be missed. If you're in the market for a good USB microphone, now is your chance to get one for an excellent price. One of our recommendations in our guide to the best USB microphones, the Blue Yeti is a solid choice for gamers, podcasters, and streamers. For those worried about their setup, the Blue Yeti also comes in a variety of different colors for you to choose from. Though I'm no streamer or podcaster, my Blue Yeti serves me well for game nights with friends over Discord.

Persons: We've, it's

☆ Versatile Oscar-winning American actor Alan Arkin dies at 89
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] Actor Alan Arkin poses during the CinemaCon Big Screen Achievement Awards at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada April 23, 2015. Alan Arkin was honored with the CinemaCon Lifetime Achievement Award. His first major movie role also earned him an Oscar nomination - best actor for playing a Soviet sailor in the 1966 Cold War comedy "The Russians Are Coming! He appeared as a deaf-mute in the adaptation of Carson McCullers' novel "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" in 1968, drawing his second Academy Award nomination for best actor. "Did ANYONE have the range Alan Arkin had?

Persons: Alan Arkin, CinemaCon, Steve, Oscar, Adam, Matthew, Anthony, Arkin, Carl Reiner's, Sunshine, Audrey Hepburn, terrorizes Hepburn, Carson McCullers, Joseph Heller's, Ben Affleck's, Michael Douglas, Patton Oswalt, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen, Alan Wolf Arkin, Harry Belafonte, Suzanne, Will Dunham, Danielle Broadway, Bill Trott, Diane Craft, Nick Zieminski, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Caesars, National Association of Theatre Owners, REUTERS, Little, Oscar, Variety, The New York Times, CIA, New, Thomson Locations: Las Vegas , Nevada, Carlsbad , California, Soviet, Iran, Glengarry Glen Ross, Beverly Hills, New York City, Brooklyn, Los Angeles

☆ What the potential U.S. ban of A.I. chips to China could mean for Nvidia
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Shares of Nvidia were under pressure as investors weighed the effect of potential new restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence chips to China, but Wall Street is still upbeat on the stock. Several analysts are projecting China could be between 10% and 15% of Nvidia's data center revenue this year. Evercore ISI maintained its outperform rating on the stock and called the news "a little speed bump on the AI highway." In the near term, Nvidia should be able to ship the current backlog, Prisco said in the Tuesday note. NVDA YTD mountain Nvidia year-to-date Citi analysts also said they believe AI demand will exceed supply this year and that Nvidia "can move its chips around."

Persons: Biden, Goldman Sachs, Toshiya Hari, Evercore, Matthew Prisco, Prisco, CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Nvidia, Wall Street Journal, Bank of America, ISI, Citi, " Bank of America Locations: China, Hong Kong, NVDA

☆ Janitor heard ‘annoying alarms’ and turned off freezer, ruining 20 years of school research worth $1 million, lawsuit says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Jessica Xing | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —A university janitor who turned off a freezer after hearing multiple “annoying alarms,” ruined more than 20 years of research, according to a lawsuit filed against his employer by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. The school is seeking more than $1 million in damages and legal fees from Daigle Cleaning Systems as a result of the incident. The college does not believe the janitor is at fault but instead blames Daigle Cleaning Systems for failing to properly train and supervise him, according to the suit. CNN reached out to attorneys for Daigle Cleaning Systems and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for comment. A warning was posted on the freezer, according to the court filing.

Persons: Lakshmi, Baruch ’ Organizations: CNN, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Daigle, Systems Inc, Systems, Supreme, Biochemical Solar Energy Research, AS IT Locations: New York, Troy , New York, Rensselaer, “

☆ A Boy’s Life on the Front Lines
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Lynsey Addario | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

A Boy’s Life on theFront Lines In a Ukrainian town, an 11-year-old navigates a childhood transformed by war. He lived with his mother, Lena, and his 23-year-old half sister, Angelina, in a borrowed one-story home about four miles from Russian positions to the east. “I remember how I used to have fun here with my friends,” Yegor said. Now only his father, Sasha, remained there, trapped behind Russian lines caring for the home and animals on the road out of Mariupol. But the war had forced Yegor into a sedentary life, almost always behind closed doors.

Persons: Lena, Angelina, Lena didn’t, Yegor, ” Yegor, ”, “, ’, ‘, ‘ Sonny, Sasha, squander, they’ll Organizations: Yegor Locations: Ukrainian, Donbas, Ukraine, stretchers, Kramatorsk, Chernivtsi

☆ A college janitor turned off a freezer in a lab to silence 'annoying alarms,' but destroyed $1 million in scientific research in the process, a lawsuit claims
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A janitor destroyed $1 million in scientific research after turning off a super cold freezer in a lab. He had heard "annoying alarms" coming from the freezer where over 20 years of research were stored. Lakshmi conducted high-level research inside the lab that "had the potential to be groundbreaking" and funded by the university, the lawsuit said. It's believed that Harrington destroyed $1 million worth of scientific research and RPI will be seeking as yet unspecified damages. Daigle Cleaning Systems and Lawyers for RPI did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment about the lawsuit.

Persons: —, Joseph Harrington, K.V, Lakshmi, Harrington, It's Organizations: Service, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Daigle, Rensselaer County Supreme, AS IT, RPI, Systems, Lawyers Locations: New York, Troy , New York, Rensselaer County

☆ A Séance With Ryuichi Sakamoto at the Shed
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-25 | by ( Max Lakin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Kagami,” the new “mixed reality” concert of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s music by the production company Tin Drum is meant to be a profound experience, a groundbreaking achievement in virtual reality that expands the visual limits of recorded performance. In some ways that’s unavoidable; Sakamoto, one of Japan’s most internationally recognized artists, died in March, so any presentation of his music so soon is hard pressed to avoid a funereal pallor. Scenes from the 2017 documentary “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda” play on mute on the far wall — Sakamoto collecting rainwater in a bucket; sampling the sound of an ice floe in the Arctic Circle — which, out of context, seem more oblique than they really are. The actual performance takes place beyond a curtain in an empty black box theater, which, materially speaking, stays that way. You sit in the round, staring at a glowing, virtual red cube in the center of the room, which suggests a séance administered by an AV club.

Persons: “ Kagami, Ryuichi, Sakamoto, Griffin, Ryuichi Sakamoto

☆ New York teens arrested and charged with stealing, killing, and eating a swan that was a town mascot for over 10 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Police say teens stole a swan family from a New York village pond and ate the mother swan. The mother swan had lived in the town for over 10 years; residents are mourning the loss. An 18-year-old faces charges for theft and killing the swan, which is illegal in New York. "The mother swan was consumed," Manlius Mayor Paul Whorrall said Wednesday. Elizabeth Doran/APFor over a decade, Faye and Manny swanned about in the village pond, and each spring hatched and raised cygnets.

Persons: —, Faye, Paul Whorrall, Ken Hatter, Manny, Whorrall, Elizabeth Doran, Manny swanned, Michael Bean, cygnets, weren't, Hatter Organizations: Service, Syracuse Locations: New York, Manlius, North America, Syracuse, Salina

☆ Japan is in a 'Goldilocks' position, Credit Suisse says. Here's how to play it
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Jesse Pound | In Jesse-Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Japanese economy appears to be on stable footing and its stock market should continue to climb, according to Credit Suisse. Read more: Japan stocks are on fire this year. Ways to play it The simplest way for U.S-based investors to add exposure to Japan is through exchange-traded funds. The biggest U.S. ETF that tracks Japan is the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ) . When the yen falls versus the dollar, that can mute the returns of Japanese stocks for U.S. investors.

Persons: Andrew Garthwaite, Garthwaite, Read, BlackRock's iShares, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Credit Suisse, Global, U.S, JPMorgan BetaBuilders Japan, JPMorgan, Japan Hedged Equity Locations: Japan, U.S

☆ Should you check emails on vacation or face a ‘tidal wave’ of messages later? These CEOs have some ideas
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Monica Pitrelli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Should you check email on vacation or face a tsunami of messages once you're back at the office? An 'email intervention'Robinson launched an "Email Intervention Campaign" earlier this month to deal with issues like "vacation email panic," he told CNBC Travel. "I encounter tons of people who are burned out from email," said work-life speaker and consultant Joe Robinson. Robinson advises companies to create defined email policies, ideally ones which give workers permission not to check email on vacation. Don't respond (if you don't have to) Emails proliferate like rabbits, said Joe Robinson.

☆ You Can Ignore the Bridezilla in the Breakroom
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Roxane Gay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

My colleagues plan to host a lunch and purchase a wedding gift for her. My budget is extremely tight and I bring my lunch to work every day because I don’t have any extra money. I’ve decided to ignore the email and avoid work that day. You clearly don’t like this person, so don’t contribute to her wedding gift or lunch and don’t give that choice a second thought. It’s easy to buy into the idea that if you’re human, if you can’t work yourself into the ground without consequence, you are failing.

Government officials, worried about a constrained labor force in a state where population growth has stalled, have taken a cover-the-waterfront approach. After raising starting wages from $17 an hour to around $24 and overhauling hiring strategies, Drees still has 200 open jobs at this and two nearby facilities, where he is hoping to add to current staffing of 1,200. That reshuffling may be one reason the Fed is finding it harder than expected to slow a job market struggling to match workers into open positions. Minnesota has had a particularly large imbalance: The 12-month moving average of available positions last year reached 2.75 for every unemployed person. "Nowadays you look online and there are just hundreds of day-shift job positions," he said.

New data for March showed the ratio of job openings to the number of unemployed job seekers fell for the fourth consecutive month and hit the lowest level since October 2021. At roughly 1.64 to 1 the number remains far above the levels around 1.2 seen before the pandemic. In recent months the relationship between job openings and unemployment has kept that prospect alive. The number of estimated job openings has fallen from a peak of 12 million in March of 2022 to 9.59 million in March this year. The openings rate, expressed as a percentage of filled and available positions, has fallen from a high of 7.4 last spring to 5.8 in March.

☆ Last time Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina called a rape accuser greedy and crazy he won. It's a different world now.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

By the time he won an acquittal in a high-profile, 2011 Manhattan criminal trial, Tacopina had attacked what he called her "functional tolerance" for alcohol. She remembered in graphic detail being immobilized in her bed — too drunk to resist — as she was allegedly raped, she told jurors. "She called him a rapist," Tacopina told the jury in openings Monday. "I can dance backwards and forwards in four-inch heels," she told Tacopina when he questioned her dressing-room balancing act. "It caused me to realize that staying silent does not work," she told Tacopina of the courage she saw in that #MeToo wave.

☆ AI scam calls: This mom believes fake kidnappers cloned her daughter's voice
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Faith Karimi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

But her older daughter, 15-year-old Brianna, was away training for a ski race and DeStefano feared it could be a medical emergency. “A scammer could use AI to clone the voice of your loved one,” the agency said in a statement. Law enforcement has not verified whether AI was used in her case, but DeStefano believes scammers cloned her daughter’s voice. It was the voice, matching with the crying.”Jennifer DeStefano, right, with her daughter, Brianna: "A mother knows her child," she said. She’s tried to figure out how the virtual kidnappers got her daughter’s voice, and has considered several scenarios.

☆ Mark Stewart, Fiery British Rocker, Is Dead at 62
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Alex Williams | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mark Stewart, the incendiary frontman of the British post-punk band the Pop Group, whose explosive mix of funk, noise rock, free jazz experimentalism and anti-authoritarian rage made a mockery of the group’s sunny name, died on April 21. The Pop Group emerged in Bristol, England, in 1977, as punk rock was shaking the foundations of the British music scene. Mr. Stewart found inspiration in punk’s iconoclastic fury. “There is the arrogance of power,” he once said, “and what we got from punk was the power of arrogance.”Onstage, the band created a cyclone force that put many punk bands to shame. The lyrics include these lines:We are all prostitutesEveryone has their priceEveryoneAnd you too will have to learn to live the lie

☆ Make these 12 investments with strong technical set ups right now while the broader market faces the risk of a 'climactic bear scenario,' according to a longtime chartmaster
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( James Faris | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Chartmaster David Keller shared the three biggest risks facing the market right now. The S&P 500 may struggle to break past technical resistance of 4,200 and 4,300. He predicted that if the VIX rises to 20, the S&P 500 would fall to a vital support level of 3,800. The percentage of S&P 500 stocks trading above their 50-day moving average (in green) has fallen below 50% recently. David Keller, StockCharts.comPoor market breadth should be a serious concern for investors, Keller said.

☆ Harry Belafonte’s complicated relationship with the civil rights movement
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Nicquel Terry Ellis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

During the civil rights movement, he used his star power to fight against injustice, raising money for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. cofounded and led. Dr. Martin Luther King, his wife Coretta Scott King, right, and Harry Belafonte at center marching near Montgomery, Alabama, on March 24, 1965. But his relationship with the civil rights movement wasn’t always simple. Archive Photos/Getty ImagesAfter King’s death in 1968, Belafonte expressed frustration in an interview with The Washington Post about his prominent role in the civil rights movement.

LOS ANGELES, April 19 (Reuters) - "Evil Dead," the popular zombie film franchise, is back for a fifth installment with a mother possessed by a parasitic demon that talks, taunts and devours souls. This twist in "Evil Dead Rise," from traditional mute zombies, is something that director Lee Cronin enjoys. The film follows Ellie, played by Alyssa Sutherland, and her three young children in their Los Angeles apartment. In a dark comedic turn, an evil spirit possesses Ellie and turns her against her family. Reporting by Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway; Editing by Mary Milliken and Richard ChangOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ A baby boomer who quit his 6-figure job rather than return to the office says managers are threatened by remote work and just want people back so they can see them working
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In 2018, higher-ups at his job handed a day of remote work out as a reward. But as 2020 rolled in and sent everyone home, he discovered he loved full-time remote work even more. He loved remote work for the same reasons he thinks other people do: more time to concentrate, and fewer meetings. But remote work also calls into question the purpose of a boss, he said. "I think a lot of people that have exposure to remote work will say, 'Hey, that worked,'" Dennis said.

☆ A top tip for central banks: talk less, smile more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Ben Winck | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Investors hang on central bankers’ every word, hoping to gain an edge for their next trade. But with consumer prices rising at the fastest pace in decades, central bankers can’t easily cut borrowing costs, either. Chatty central banks are a relatively new phenomenon. Investors are also more sensitive to central banks today than in years past. Still, being more careful about what’s said, and how it’s said, could help central banks better balance their priorities.

The Roku Plus Series QLED 4K TV is the flagship model in Roku's first lineup of in-house TVs. Now the company is taking on those same partners by building its own in-house Roku TVs, including the new flagship Roku Plus Series QLED. As you might guess, Roku's Plus Series feels strikingly familiar inside and out. Roku 65-inch Plus Series 4K QLED TV Roku's new Plus Series is one of the company's first in-house smart TVs. The Roku Plus Series TV delivers solid performance, but it's not worth buying at full price.

☆ A new bill will try to finally fix television commercials that are way, way louder than the programming
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Madison Hall | Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The CALM Act was originally passed in 2010, but at the time, the FCC didn't have jurisdiction over streaming services. The newly introduced act would make sure the FCC enforces the law and cover both TV and streaming services. The original CALM Act passed through the Senate unanimously and the House in a voice vote before it was signed by then-President Barack Obama. After the original law was passed, large stations and providers were supposed to abide by a monitoring program for two years. That is to say, the sum total of FCC enforcement on disproportionately loud commercials in the decade since the CALM Act has amounted to two letters — and no enforcement."

☆ Ukraine fencers unite behind federation's boycott call
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] Members of Ukraine's fencing team attend a training session at the Olympic training base, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 28, 2023. REUTERS/Valentyn OgirenkoMarch 30 (Reuters) - Ukraine's fencers have welcomed their federation's decision to boycott international competitions featuring Russians and Belarusians, amid a row over whether athletes from the two latter countries should be allowed at next year's Olympics. The move prompted Ukraine's fencing federation (NFFU) to say it would boycott all events in which Russians and Belarusians were included, a message reinforced this week by NFFU president Mykhailo Illiashev. "We aren't giving up," said Ukrainian fencing coach and former Olympian Olha Leleiko. And, along with our friends, we will look for competitions in which Russian athletes do not participate."

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