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☆ Opinion | The Impasse Over Raising the Debt Limit
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And increasing the national debt is then inexorably part of the budgeting process. So these legislators are well aware of the increase in debt they are supporting. That makes the whole notion of a “debt limit” ludicrous on its face. If they don’t want the debt to increase past a certain point, then raise taxes, reduce spending, or both. I doubt that many parents would respond to such a threat by “negotiating.”Fred KamenyChapel Hill, N.C.To the Editor:Re “Why I Changed My Mind on the Debt Limit,” by Laurence H. Tribe (Opinion guest essay, May 8):There is one more argument for overriding the debt ceiling: It will make the congressional budget-making process more honest.

☆ Opinion: Happiness is a trap. Here’s what to pursue instead
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Opinion Monica C. Parker | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Monica C. Parker Elena RossiniBetween chief happiness officers, the Happy Planet Index, Gross National Happiness, and the World Happiness Report (Finland scored the highest again this year), it seems as though happiness has some good PR. This one is: What if we’re so fixated on happiness that we’ve failed to question whether happiness is what we should be pursuing? We resist negative emotions such as sadness or fear at our peril. Even better than embracing your negative emotions is embracing both positive and negative emotions at the same time. Wonder makes us less stressed and feel like we have more time.

☆ Opinion | The Lesson of Murphy, the Eagle Who Tried to Hatch a Rock
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Margaret Renkl | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I once took an orphaned deer mouse to a nearby wildlife rehabilitator, and she cautiously introduced it to a nursing house mouse who was also in her care. The mouse accepted the baby stranger of another species and raised it as her own. Even in the wild, there are documented instances of what appears to be interspecies adoption — a killer whale raising a pilot whale calf, a southern right whale raising a baby humpback, a lioness raising a leopard cub. Plus, RockBaby wasn’t gaping for food or crying for help in that impossible-to-ignore way of needy babies everywhere. RockBaby wasn’t even animate.

☆ This 28-year-old pays $62/month to live in a 25-square-foot dumpster he built for $5,000—take a look inside
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Harrison Marshall | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Photo: Gergana Popova for CNBC Make ItHow I turned a waste container into a tiny homeI run a small architecture company called CAUKIN Studio. Photo: Gergana Popova for CNBC Make ItFor Wi-Fi, I use a dongle connected to mobile data to watch Netflix and take Zoom calls on my laptop. Photo: Gergana Popova for CNBC Make ItI have four built-in wooden boxes to put my clothes in. Photo: Gergana Popova for CNBC Make ItOn the other end is the kitchen. Photo: Gergana Popova for CNBC Make It

☆ Under Lisbon's streets, ancient Roman galleries tell story of the past
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/5] View of Roman galleries under downtown is seen in Lisbon, Portugal, April 20, 2023. The city remained under Roman control for several centuries. The galleries were first discovered in 1771, when Lisbon was being rebuilt after the devastating Great Earthquake of 1755. Tickets to visit the galleries usually sell out within 15 minutes. Reporting by Catarina Demony, Miguel Pereira and Pedro Nunes in Lisbon; Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ These Are Not Your G-Rated Fairy Tales
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Claire Luchette | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Jesus?” she asks, when he tells her. “Jesus bloody Jesus like the Jesus Jesus?” He nods. Her bike gone, Orla must return home to her widowed father and toddler sister in the North England village of Glasson Dock. It’s unfair that her grieving dad gets to do what he wants, which is drink; what Orla wants is to steal and skip class and get out of there. ImageAs coming-of-age stories go, “The Gospel of Orla” is winningly off-kilter.

☆ U.S. government watchdog: Health chief Becerra violated Hatch Act
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra violated the Hatch Act by expressing support for Democratic Senator Alex Padilla's re-election at a public event last year, a U.S. government watchdog said on Tuesday. Becerra, President Joe Biden's top health official, acknowledged his comments but said they were unintentional. "While I did not realize at the time that my off-the-cuff remarks concerning my personal voting intentions were in violation of the Hatch Act, I now understand why they were not permitted," he said in a statement included in the report. The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their official capacity to affect or interfere with elections, although some other political activities are allowed. It previously cited U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm for comments she made in a magazine interview last year.

☆ Carnival cruise passengers said other cruisers cheered — and jeered —when their ship rescued 24 migrants adrift at sea
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A Carnival cruise ship rescued 24 migrants lost at sea last week, two passengers told Insider. A spokesperson for the company said cruise ships often come to the aid of boats in distress. "It makes your heart sad when you know these people are so desperate," Senn told Insider. A Carnival spokesperson told Insider that the ship's medical team found all 24 people to be in good condition. Though primarily designed as vacation vessels, large cruise ships often come to the aid of those in peril on the sea.

☆ Endangered Komodo dragons hatch at Spanish zoo
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Jon Nazca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Embum, a one-month-old baby Komodo dragon, one of the five Komodo dragons born at Bioparc Fuengirola, rests in a terrarium in Fuengirola, southern Spain, March 28, 2023. REUTERS/Jon NazcaFUENGIROLA, Spain, March 28 (Reuters) - Five Komodo dragon hatchlings have been born at a zoo in Spain, the first successful breeding of the world's largest lizard - an endangered species - in the country for a decade. "This is a great achievement for all of us," Milagros Robledo, the head of the Herpetology department at the Bioparc Fuengirola zoo in southern Spain and self-described "mother" of the dragons, told Reuters on Tuesday. The baby dragons' parents mated on June 24 last year, when Spaniards celebrate the feast of St John. In the wild, newborn Komodo dragons tend to move to the treetops and need no maternal or paternal care, Robledo said.

☆ In ‘Succession,’ a Rallying Cry for Overshadowed Siblings of a Certain Age
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Ellen Gamerman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Siobhan Roy would smile at her brothers while shivving them in the back. Roman Roy would wither his siblings with mockery. And Connor Roy would throw all their trophies in the closet and scream “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”Connor Roy is the Jan Bradiest of the Roy siblings in “Succession,” which returns to HBO for its fourth and final season on Sunday. Like the middle child from “The Brady Bunch” whose lament about lucky big sis Marcia became a rallying cry for overshadowed siblings of a certain age, Connor is the child who can’t crack into the cool crowd even when that crowd is his own family. Alan Ruck, who plays Connor with gross entitlement and glib self-delusion, can’t help but feel the sting.

☆ Mistakes by the US's top spies allowed China to turn a deadly mid-air collision into an intelligence coup
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( James Bamford | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +36 min

On April 1, 2001, a US EP-3 spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea. One of eleven left in the fleet, the tired 1960s-era spy plane bristled with porcupine-like antennas. Within minutes, however, the fighters had reached the lumbering spy plane, and while Zhao Yu hung back about a half-mile, Wang Wei rapidly closed in. In severe trouble, he immediately radioed the base, telling them he was unable to maneuver and being sucked in by the spy plane. "You are not allowed aboard the aircraft," Osborn said.

☆ BHP, engineering firm Hatch to design electric smelting plant in Australia
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 23 (Reuters) - BHP Group (BHP.AX) on Thursday signed an agreement with an engineering and project management firm Hatch to design an electric smelting furnace pilot plant in Australia in an attempt to slash its greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. The facility will help lower carbon dioxide intensity in steel production using iron ore from the global miner's Pilbara mines. The plant will be able to produce steel from iron ore using renewable electricity and hydrogen replacing coking coal. Last October, the mining giant teamed up with steelmaker ArcelorMittal (MT.LU) and two others to test a new technology to reduce carbon emissions in steelmaking at two plants in Belgium and North America. Reporting by Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Sherry Jacob-PhillipsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Elon Musk Says Twitter Could Be ‘Cash-Flow Positive’ Within Months
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Alexa Corse | Alexander Saeedy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Elon Musk said Twitter Inc. has a shot at being cash-flow positive next quarter, and he is optimistic about the company’s future after what he called a difficult past few months. “I definitely don’t want to count chickens before they hatch,” he added Tuesday about his latest expectations for the company’s financial situation.

☆ Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin sued over allegations the rocket company discriminates against older workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A spokesperson for Blue Origin did not respond to a request for comment. It's not the first time that Blue Origin has faced criticism from a former employee. In 2021, Alexandra Abrams, the former head of Blue Origin employee communications, published an open letter alongside a group describing itself as 21 former and current Blue Origin employees. At the time, a Blue Origin representative told Insider the company doesn't tolerate harassment and would investigate the claims. Do you work for Blue Origin or have insight to share?

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - The White House said on Wednesday that Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson "is not credible," after the right-wing commentator showed footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol that portrayed rioters as peaceful. "We also agree with what Fox News's own attorneys and executives have now repeatedly stressed in multiple courts of law: that Tucker Carlson is not credible," Bates added. The Biden White House has tread carefully in its criticism of Fox's coverage of the 2020 election and its aftermath in the past, sometimes citing the Hatch Act that prevents administration officials from speaking about campaign-related matters. Carlson has defended his decision to run the footage, saying it was needed for transparency. Supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying the outcome of the 2020 elections.

BOSTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins has hired a former Justice Department inspector general to defend her in a widening ethics investigation into her appearance at a political fundraiser and her travel. The controversy has threatened to undermine Attorney General Merrick Garland’s vow to protect the Justice Department from partisan influence and efforts to extend progressive criminal justice policies championed by Rollins to the federal level. It is unclear what the inspector general's probe will find or when it will be completed. James Borghesani, a spokesman for Hayden, said they have received no inquiries from the inspector general's office. Investigators are also looking at Rollins' use of a personal cellphone, rather than her government-issued one, for Justice Department business, said two other people familiar with the matter.

☆ Even astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has 'no idea' what the large metal ball that washed up on a Japanese beach really is
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Even Neil deGrasse Tyson doesn't have an explanation for the mysterious ball that washed up in Japan. When asked about the ball, the astrophysicist told CNN's Don Lemon he has "no idea" what it is. In an interview on Thursday, CNN's Don Lemon asked Tyson what the metal ball was. Lemon then jokingly asked what was the point of having Tyson on the show if he did not know what the ball was. The metal ball was removed from the beach earlier this week, the BBC confirmed in a report on Thursday.

☆ Debt-Ceiling Standoff Prompts Backup Plans, but They Face Hurdles Too
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Andrew Duehren | Siobhan Hughes | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

There is no clear escape hatch to avoid default if Congress doesn’t pass legislation raising the debt ceiling. Potential alternatives to addressing the borrowing limit—from simply ignoring it, to minting a trillion-dollar coin, to prioritizing certain payments—all face hurdles, underlining doubts about any fallback plan if Democrats and Republicans fail to reach a deal by this summer.

☆ YouTube Made Emma Chamberlain a Star. Now She’s Leaving it Behind.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +16 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk YouTube Made Emma Chamberlain a Star. When it comes to YouTube videos or videos that are not podcasts, I don’t think I’ll ever be done with that. Has it become harder over time to move the cultural needle with a YouTube video? I don’t focus too heavily on the future for the reason you just explained: We don’t know what is next. I don’t know.

☆ Meta's cold war with Apple over privacy is coming to a critical moment
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Meta's ads unit will only recover if it continues to innovate so it doesn't need to track user data to sell ads. In 2021, Apple changed its iOS operating system to limit the abilities of apps to track user behavior. Apple CEO Tim Cook, for his part, has criticized Facebook's business model several times over the years, with Apple going so far as to declare privacy a "human right." It's clear from Meta's most recent earnings report, and its drive for efficiency and cost-cutting, that this cold war with Apple is taking its toll on the bottom line. "It's forced Meta to move so quickly to building the workarounds, not just to accommodate Apple's changes, but really where it sees the state of digital advertising data use going," Shmulik said.

☆ Rovio posts Q4 profit drop, says mobile game market shrank last year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Finnish game maker Rovio (ROVIO.HE), best known for its Angry Birds franchise, posted a fall in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday and said the global mobile game market in 2022 declined for the first time ever. Rovio, which is currently the target of a takeover offer from larger U.S.-listed rival Playtika , said game developers' revenue was also dented by privacy changes on Apple's iPhone. "Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework has heavily impacted game publishers' ability to target high-value players," the gamemaker said. Rovio reported a 55% decline to 5.9 million euros ($6.3 million) in its fourth-quarter adjusted operating profit, while its revenue declined 2.5%. The mobile gaming market showed signs of stabilising towards the end of the year, it said, adding it expects flat revenue and profit development this year.

☆ Love of sea turtles turns Philippine poachers into protectors
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Dave Lucas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

CURMA's operations director Carlos Tamayo, 44, helps fisherman and turtle patroller Jessie Cabagbag, 40, hold a mother turtle before it goes back to the sea, at Bacnotan, La Union, Philippines, December 21, 2022. Jessie is one of the volunteers for CURMA, or Coastal Underwater Resource Management Actions, which has turned sea turtle poachers into its allies by offering them incentives and training, allowing it to save thousands of turtles and their eggs. "I stopped poaching when we underwent training and were taught that what we have been doing was illegal and that these species of turtles are endangered," he said. "I am overwhelmed with joy when the eggs hatch... REUTERS/Eloisa LopezClose

☆ Plant-based salmon startup capitalizes on rising interest in fake seafood
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Diana Olick | In Dianaolick | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

While the plant-based burger wars have been waging for several years now, plant-based fish is just in its infancy. As demand for seafood alternatives grows, so too do names like Plantish, Sophie's Kitchen, Gardein, Good Catch and Toronto-based startup New School Foods, which specializes in plant-based salmon. But unlike most plant-based meat products, which are precooked, ground and often formed into patties or nuggets, this is whole and raw. He noted that unlike fake meat, which is usually more expensive than the real thing, fake fish could be cheaper for consumers since the cost of real fish has skyrocketed. In addition to Lever VC, New School Foods is backed by Blue Horizon, Hatch, Good Startup, Alwyn Capital and Joyance Partners.

☆ I drove the new Nissan Z. It's a beautiful, $50,000 retro-modern sports car with a few pesky flaws.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Alanis King | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The 2023 Nissan Z is the start of a new era for Nissan's famous "Z" sports car. The 2023 Nissan Z. Alanis KingThe Z has always been special. The 2023 Nissan Z. NissanBut the Z isn't just pretty — it's usable, especially for a two-door sports car. The 2023 Nissan Z. Alanis KingAll of this would have been fine at a lower cost. The 2023 Nissan Z. Alanis KingI think the Z is the right car for a lot of people.

☆ 5 job interview tips from an HR pro who tracked her job search for 69 days on TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

When Jordan Gibbs was laid off from Lyft in November, she joined thousands of other tech workers suddenly on the job market. But as a recruiter with eight years of experiencing hiring in tech, Gibbs, 31, had a leg up in terms of getting organized for her impending job search. And after 69 days, 173 job applications, 42 interviews and 2 rejections, she accepted an offer in January and will start a new job with Bloomberg in February. For example, Gibbs received one rejection on day 48, even after she'd been to an interview onsite. But she didn't totally ignore cold-applying to jobs (that's ultimately how she got in touch with Bloomberg), though she knows it's typically less successful, especially so in today's tech market.

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