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☆ Americans aren't mixing with people in different income brackets or leaving their neighborhoods as much as they did before the pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Americans are mixing with each other and exploring the cities they live in less frequently, a new study found. They found that Americans' behavior has significantly shifted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study tracked visits to 433,000 "point of interest" locations, including museums, parks, coffee shops, and grocery stores. And the researchers used Census data to categorize people in four income brackets based on the average income of the census block they lived in. Los Angeles saw the largest drop in diverse interactions, while Dallas, where pandemic restrictions were the least severe, saw the smallest change.

☆ Charm gets $53 million to turn corn leftovers into oil and inject it into abandoned oil and gas wells
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

The 112,000 tons of carbon dioxide that Charm will remove is more than ten times the total quantity of carbon dioxide that has been removed so far with human techniques. "It's sort of a brilliant, but accidental, discovery," Reinhardt told CNBC. "It's a little it's a little odd or unusual, but uniquely American, in that we're basically pumping barbecue sauce into old oil and gas wells," Reinhardt told CNBC. There are about 2 million abandoned oil and gas wells in the U.S., and owner-operators are eager to find another use for them, Reinhardt told CNBC. We will run out of waste biomass long before we before we exhaust the subsurface capacity," Reinhardt told CNBC.

The unboxed assembly process is intended to enable Tesla to hit that ambitious price target. Several big questions loom: What sort of impact will Tesla's process have on the auto industry overall? Body panels are painted separately, then joined together toward the end of the assembly process. If everything works as planned, the unboxed process could rewrite the industry's standard playbook and practices. Oba worked previously for the Toyota Production System Support Center, a division that helps the automaker's suppliers and others implement TPS.

☆ To my fellow Gen Xers worried AI is going to take your job: Take a chill pill
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Some Gen Xers might worry that the fast rise of AI bodes ill for their job security. In an AI-driven workplace, Gen Xers will have new responsibilities, which could suit them well. For Gen Xers who are the experienced professionals in their organizations, these new responsibilities could turn out to suit them quite well. To be sure, Gen Xers' anxiety that AI has upended their glide path toward retirement is understandable. Gen Xers who are still uneasy about AI — angst is our specialty, after all — can take solace in the numbers.

FTX imploded after a flurry of customer withdrawals in the wake of reports it had commingled assets with Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's crypto-focused hedge fund. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate has pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of fraud and conspiracy. He has acknowledged that FTX had inadequate risk management but denies stealing funds, and has sought to distance himself from FTX's day-to-day operations. Three onetime close associates - former Alameda co-chief executive Caroline Ellison, former FTX technology chief Gary Wang, and former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh - have all pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Bankman-Fried has limited access to technology, after prosecutors warned he might tamper with witnesses.

☆ This MIT economist helps decide when recessions officially begin and end. Here's why those dates matter
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

As the president of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member on the Business Cycle Dating Committee, James Poterba helps determine when a recession officially starts and ends. With Federal Reserve economists predicting that the economy will enter a slump later this year, I spoke with Poterba about his research on recessions. While NBER doesn't make any forecasts, he still had lots of interesting things to say about our downturn worries. What is the chance that an increase of interest rates is associated, sometime afterwards, with a period of declining economic activity? Or, if you see a large run-up in oil prices, does that typically lead to a recession?

☆ Hurricanes of Data: The Tiny Craft Mapping Superstorms at Sea
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Porter Fox | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +35 min

The Tiny Craft Mapping Superstorms at Sea Shortly after dawn on Sept. 30, 2021, Richard Jenkins watched a Category 4 hurricane overrun his life’s work. That August, a sister ship, SD 1031, successfully entered Tropical Storm Henri, but only in its early stages. Hurricane research, modeling and forecasting requires many terabytes of data for every square mile the storm passes through, including vitally important sea-level data from inside a storm. The next day, the depression was upgraded to a tropical storm and officially given the name Sam. And four months later, Tropical Storm Megi killed more than 150, wiped out several villages with landslides and displaced more than a million people.

☆ Elon Musk's Tesla tunnels are a 'fake alternative' to solve traffic but if he made them for subways we'd all be better off, expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A journalist argues that Musk could use The Boring Company to make public transportation cheaper. This includes solving traffic by moving transportation underground through car tunnels or building a successful hyperloop. And Musk has often been explicit that traditional public transportation options, like subways, would not be a part of his vision. The Boring Company has also put its controversial hyperloop plans to the side. The Boring Company did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

☆ $7.25 federal minimum wage is a 'national disgrace,' says Sen. Bernie Sanders, backing push for $17/hour
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks on raising the federal minimum wage outside the U.S. Capitol on May 4, 2023. Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images News | Getty Images13 states have approved a $15 minimum wageToday, 13 states have approved a $15 minimum wage, Sanders said. Sen. Bernie Sanders Independent U.S. senator from VermontDemocrats had pursued raising the federal minimum wage in recent years, though those efforts stalled. When President Joe Biden took office, he promised to address the federal minimum wage in his first 100 days, Blalock recalled. 'A weak minimum wage is bad for the overall economy'Opponents to raising the minimum wage cite the higher costs those increases would put on businesses.

☆ Astronomers observe star swallowing planet for first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Jack Guy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —In a world first, scientists have observed the moment that a dying star consumed a planet — a fate that eventually awaits Earth. Astronomers observed this as a white-hot flash, followed by a longer-lasting colder signal, which they later deduced was caused by the star engulfing a planet. “That infrared data made me fall off my chair,” De said, with the readings suggesting the star could have been merging with another star. However, further analysis using readings from NASA’s infrared space telescope, NEOWISE, revealed that the star was in fact consuming a planet. Our own planet will meet the same fate, but not for 5 billion years, researchers say.

☆ How A.I. could change the future of work
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Brad Howard | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The recent rapid rise of accessible artificial intelligence tools has the potential to upend dozens of industries. A recent report by Goldman Sachs laid out some stark possibilities when it comes to AI and the economy. The report estimates two-thirds of jobs in the U.S. and Europe, and around 300 million positions worldwide could be exposed to automation from new AI advances. The report also notes that one-fourth of all work being done could be replaced by generative AI. Watch the video above to find out more about how AI could change the future of work

☆ Looking for a Climate Career? They Might Have the Answer.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Somini Sengupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

She became intrigued by land use changes, and then, gradually, by the links between climate change and sustainable food systems. Kolman, who grew up in Savannah, Ga., majored in physics and political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I spent my time in undergrad searching for a career where I could use my analytical skills to improve society,” he told me. A trip to South Africa, which has dealt with successive droughts exacerbated by climate change, brought home “the impacts of water insecurity.”He considered working in public policy but those plans changed after the 2016 election. Kossoff, who calls herself the “most recent climate convert,” grew up mostly in southwest Florida and studied business and chemistry at Emory University.

☆ Having imposter syndrome when you're the boss is hard, but weirdly it might make you better at your job
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

This edition of Insider's work-advice column is about how managers can cope with imposter syndrome. Research suggests that people who feel imposter thoughts demonstrate superior interpersonal skills. For the first time in my career, I'm suffering from some major imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome, which is characterized by gnawing fears and self-doubt that persist despite your experience and accomplishments, is common. What seems to be happening is that people with imposter syndrome subconsciously compensate for their perceived lack of competence by trying to succeed interpersonally.

☆ Ex-Harvard Professor Sentenced in China Ties Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

For his work on nanotechnology, he had been seen by some as a contender for the Nobel Prize. But he also secretly accepted money from China, which had established a government initiative, the Thousand Talents program, to gain access to scientific knowledge and expertise, often paying scientists lavishly. When questioned about his involvement with Thousand Talents in 2018 by federal investigators, he denied it. Why It MattersDr. Lieber’s conviction in December 2021 resulted from the China Initiative, an effort launched in 2018, under the Trump administration, to identify scientists suspected of sharing sensitive information with China. But critics said that the China Initiative had unfairly targeted academic researchers of Asian descent.

REUTERS/Katherine Taylor/File PhotoWASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - A former Harvard University professor was sentenced on Wednesday to six months' house arrest for lying about his ties to a China-run recruitment program, prosecutors said, in one of the highest-profile cases resulting from a crackdown on Chinese influence on U.S. research. Lieber was sentenced to two days in prison - time that he had already served following his arrest - and half a year of house arrest with a fine of $50,000, prosecutors said. He was also sentenced to two years of supervised release and a restitution to the Internal Revenue Service of $33,600, according to prosecutors. The failed cases included another one in Boston in which prosecutors in January 2022 dropped charges against Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Gang Chen for concealing his ties to China when seeking grant money. Prosecutors said Lieber failed to report his salary on his 2013 and 2014 income tax returns and for two years failed to report the bank account.

☆ New image reveals violent events near a supermassive black hole
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] This image shows the jet and shadow of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy together for the first time. The supermassive black hole pictured resides at the center of a relatively nearby galaxy called Messier 87, or M87, about 54 million light-years from Earth. This black hole, with a mass 6.5 billion times that of our sun, was the subject of the first image of such an object ever obtained, released in 2019, with another black hole pictured last year. Seeing the entire scene in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole can be insightful. The EHT project has yielded the images of the two supermassive black holes.

☆ A Fresh View of an Increasingly Familiar Black Hole
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Dennis Overbye | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

By observing its subject at slightly longer radio wavelengths, the team was able to bring into visibility the cooler outer regions of the black hole’s fiery accretion disk, from which the jet seems to emanate. “We know that jets are ejected from the region surrounding black holes,” Dr. Lu said in a statement issued by the European Southern Observatory. “But we still do not fully understand how this actually happens. To study this directly we need to observe the origin of the jet as close as possible to the black hole.”In the meantime, the Event Horizon Telescope team is gathering resources for more observations, with the goal of making a black-hole movie. We will be able to film how the matter falls into a black hole and eventually manages to escape.”

☆ 3 ways to rethink old age and retirement, MIT expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Americans are living longer — and it's changing the nature of retirement planning. The classic retirement framework aims for seniors to have enough money to fund their lifestyle in old age. While not incorrect, the framework is "incomplete," Joseph Coughlin, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab, told CNBC. "Longevity planning" is a better way for society to think about old age — especially since the future is "much grayer than it's ever been before," he said. "Leisure is a story we wrote for retirement when it was short," said Coughlin, author of "The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World's Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market."

☆ Inside the AI talent wars: Tech companies are ransacking university AI programs at Stanford, MIT, and Cornell in search of engineers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Driven by the recent AI boom, companies are raiding top college campuses for rare technical talent. She's currently on leave from her Stanford AI Ph.D. program to focus on Moonhub. In 2011, new AI Ph.D. graduates took jobs in the tech industry and academia in about equal measure. But since then, the majority of new grads have headed to the AI industry, with nearly double the percentage of AI Ph.D. grads taking industry jobs versus academic roles in 2021, according to Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI's 2023 AI Index Report. "All AI companies have roles for people with Ph.D.s and without," said Attaluri, the soon-to-be researcher at DeepMind.

☆ Are gas-powered or electric vehicles a better deal? EVs may win out in long run, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

They would pay about $84,000 total, versus $87,000 for the gas car, Woody said. Thirty-five percent of Americans say reducing their personal impact on climate change is a major reason they would buy an electric car — the No. Ingrid Malmgren policy director of Plug In AmericaSince they don't burn fossil fuels, fully electric cars don't emit planet-warming greenhouse gases from their tailpipes. "Electric vehicles are the key technology to decarbonize road transport," the International Energy Agency said. Such a vehicle costs consumers 45.3 cents per mile over a 15-year ownership period, beaten out only by hybrid electric vehicles, according to Argonne.

☆ Life sciences software startup Benchling lays off 9% of workforce
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 21 (Reuters) - Benchling, which develops software tools for scientists and pharmaceutical research organizations, has laid off 74 employees, or 9% of its workforce, its spokesperson confirmed on Friday. The startup joins a growing number of U.S. firms, including Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc (META.O), Amazon.com Inc and several startups, to downsize its workforce amid mounting worries of a recession in the United States. The San Francisco-based company, which filed for an initial public offering in late 2021, was last valued at over $6 billion. Benchling offers cloud-based tools and laboratory automation software that allow researchers to collaborate and track projects. Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Nuclear fusion will not be regulated the same way as nuclear fission — a big win for the fusion industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The top regulatory agency for nuclear materials safety in the U.S. voted unanimously to regulate the burgeoning fusion industry differently than the nuclear fission industry, and fusion startups are celebrating that as a major win. As a result, some provisions specific to fission reactors, like requiring funding to cover claims from nuclear meltdowns, won't apply to fusion plants. Other differences include looser requirements around foreign ownership of nuclear fusion plants, and the dispensing of mandatory hearings at the federal level during the licensing process, Holland said. The electricity generated by nuclear fission is considered clean energy by the U.S. Department of Energy because it generates no greenhouse gas emissions. And these reactors deliver massive quantities of power: Half of the carbon-free energy generated in the U.S. comes from nuclear fission reactors.

☆ What the Boston Marathon Finish Line Means Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Talya Minsberg | Matthew Futterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +14 min

The Boston Marathon is arguably the most elusive finish line of all, and not just anyone can cross it. In 2013, on a cool, partly sunny day, this ebullient scene was shattered when two bombs exploded near the finish line. On Monday, nearly 30,000 runners will journey, down and up and down, toward the finish line of the 127th Boston Marathon. Volunteer, runner I used to volunteer at the finish line, reading information about runners as they finished for the announcer. It means something so different crossing that finish line compared to other marathon majors.

☆ Inside the AI talent wars: Tech companies are ransacking university AI programs at Stanford, MIT, and Cornell in search of rare talent
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

☆ A D.E. Shaw internship could land a dream gig at the secretive hedge fund. Here's what it takes.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Michelle Abrego | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Shaw's recruiting head, took us inside the firm's process for finding talent. Shaw Group is one of the highest-grossing, and most secretive, hedge funds on Wall Street, with $60 billion under management. Launched by former Columbia University computer-science professor David Shaw above a small left-wing bookshop in lower Manhattan in 1988, D.E. The interview process includes an initial video interview, a case study or coding test (depending on the internship), a second round of video interviews, and a reference check. At any point in the process, candidates might even be steered toward an internship other than the one they applied to that could better align with the candidate's skills and interests.

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