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S28S33China views America's presidential nightmare with mirth--and disquiet - The Economist (No paywall)Chinese officials scorn President Joe Bidens view that the world is engaged in a battle between democracy and autocracy. In their view this is dangerous cold-war talk. But they are tough fighters themselves, ever keen to sow misgivings at home and abroad about Western democracys failings. The weaknesses revealed by Americas presidential contest and, in particular, the debate between Mr Biden and Donald Trump on June 27th may help their case. The Communist Partys Schadenfreude, though, is mixed with apprehension.Unlike Russias president, Vladimir Putin, who was said to be asleep during the encounter (it began at 4am in Moscow), Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, was about to deliver a speech on Chinese diplomacy in Beijing (it was 9am there) as the debate began. He was in full flowreading confidently from a scriptas the befuddled American president struggled against his waffling, truth-dodging rival. Mr Xi did not mention America, let alone the debate, but took a swipe at American anxiety about Chinas rise. Every increase of Chinas strength is an increase of the prospects of world peace, he said.
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S244 Tips for New Grads Struggling to Find a Job - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)If youre a new grad without a job lined up, you may be feeling anxious about the current market. During this time, its useful to remember that the demand of labor is constantly fluctuating and varies between sectors. When the economy is in a lull, the job search can feel discouraging, but ultimately, such factors are out of your control. To stay motivated, its helpful to remind yourself that its not a reflection of your individual value or abilities. You can use this time post-graduation to reflect on what you really want upon entering the workforce and build out your network. Even if it takes you longer to land a job than you hope for, resume gaps are not as stigmatized as they used to be. The key is to frame them as purposeful and share what you learned during that time if a job interviewer brings it up.
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S12Can you get satiety with GLP-1s without the nausea? - STAT (No paywall)Theres essentially a double disadvantage with lupus: Patients have lower levels of helpful immune cells and higher levels of damage-promoting ones. Cells are able to convert between these two helpful and harmful phenotypes, though, and in a new study, scientists may have discovered a molecular switch that can tip the plank in the direction of helpful cells.The study, published in Nature and led by researchers at Northwestern and Harvard, pinpoint the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, or AHR, as a controller of this seesaw. They found that suppressing AHR led the population of harmful cells to proliferate, while boosting AHR increased the presence of helpful cells.
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S3S22Google DeepMind's Chatbot-Powered Robot Is Part of a Bigger Revolution - WIRED (No paywall)In a cluttered open-plan office in Mountain View, California, a tall and slender wheeled robot has been busy playing tour guide and informal office helperthanks to a large language model upgrade, Google DeepMind revealed today. The robot uses the latest version of Googles Gemini large language model to both parse commands and find its way around.Geminis ability to handle video and textin addition to its capacity to ingest large amounts of information in the form of previously recorded video tours of the officeallows the Google helper robot to make sense of its environment and navigate correctly when given commands that require some commonsense reasoning. The robot combines Gemini with an algorithm that generates specific actions for the robot to take, such as turning, in response to commands and what it sees in front of it.
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S67 sea creatures we can't believe are real - National Geographic (No paywall)Instead of blood, the vampire squid feeds on what is known as marine snowfloating debris such as algae, dead plankton, and fecal matter. But it would be a mistake to underestimate this tiny cephalopod. Vampire squid can squirt mucus with luminous particles from pores at the ends of their arms, enveloping themselves in a glowing cloud to avoid predators.Unlike the vampire squid, the hoodwinker sunfish is a newly discovered species. Classified as Mola tecta, this elusive fish was first identified in 2017 by Ph.D. student Marianne Nygaard and her team in New Zealand. Tecta derives from the Latin word tectus, meaning concealed or hidden.
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S13S49So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur?Starting a business is not easy, and scaling it is even harder. You may think youre sitting on a completely original idea, but chances are the same cultural forces that led you to your business plan are also influencing someone else. That doesnt mean you should give up, or that you should rush to market before youre ready. Its not about whos first, its about who does it best, and best these days is the business that delivers the most value to the consumer. Consumers have more power and choice than ever before, and theyre going to choose and stick with the companies who are clearly on their side. How will you make their lives easier, more pleasant, more meaningful? How will you go out of your way for them at every turn? When considering your competitive advantage, start with the needs of the people youre ultimately there to serve. If you have a genuine connection to your idea, and youre solving a real problem in a way that adds more value to peoples lives, youre well on your way.
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S50It's OK If Going to a Conference Doesn't Feel Like Real WorkWhen I was just starting my career, going to conferences seemed like a terrific perk. They were usually held in fun destinations and it was exciting to be mingling with smart thought leaders. But I quickly learned that attendance also came with an unspoken price tag. Not only was I missing whatever work was required of me back at the home officework that I had to figure out how to get done either whileI was on the road or onceI gotbackI also felt a burden to prove that it was worthwhile to send me to the conference in the first place. That the airfare, hotel room, and cab rides were money well spent.
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S8What the Lebanese People Really Think of Hezbollah - Foreign Affairs (No paywall)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently declared that as his countrys military operations in Gaza wind down, Israel will turn its attention to its foe to the north: the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. The two parties have a long history of conflict rooted in Israels invasion of Lebanon in 1982, its occupation of the southern portion of the country from 1985 to 2000, and a full-scale war the two sides fought in 2006. In recent years, Israel and Hezbollah have been carrying out low-scale cross-border attacks, but the frequency and scale of these increased following Hamass horrific attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza. In recent weeks, concerns have grown that another major war between the two parties could break out.If it did, such a war would take place in a country that is already on the brink. Ever since experiencing a near-total collapse of Lebanons economy in 2019, ordinary Lebanese have faced immense challenges. The depth of their despair is clear from the result of a nationally representative survey that our organization, Arab Barometer, carried out between February and April 2024, which encompassed all areas of the country, including both urban and rural locations, and covered all the major sectarian communities.
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S11Biden administration ignores calls to bolster hospital price transparency - STAT (No paywall)The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed an annual rule that sets payment rates for hospitals. This document is where the government has in the past rolled out changes to the so-called hospital price transparency rule, but the Biden administration did not address the issue in this edition. The rule will increase spending in hospital outpatient departments by an estimated $5.2 billion in 2025, to a total of $88.2 billion.In May and June, federal health officials met with representatives for PatientRightsAdvocate.org and Power to the Patients, according to government meeting records. Those two groups have excoriated hospitals high prices and profits and lobbied aggressively to ensure hospitals are held accountable for publishing pricing information. Since 2021, hospitals have been required to post the prices they have negotiated with all health insurance companies, as well as their cash prices.
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S26S32Researchers are figuring out how large language models work - The Economist (No paywall)TO MOST PEOPLE, the inner workings of a car engine or a computer are a mystery. It might as well be a black box: never mind what goes on inside, as long as it works. Besides, the people who design and build such complex systems know how they work in great detail, and can diagnose and fix them when they go wrong. But that is not the case for large language models (LLMs), such as GPT-4, Claude and Gemini, which are at the forefront of the boom in artificial intelligence (AI).LLMs are built using a technique called deep learning, in which a network of billions of neurons, simulated in software and modelled on the structure of the human brain, is exposed to trillions of examples of something to discover inherent patterns. Trained on text strings, LLMs can hold conversations, generate text in a variety of styles, write software code, translate between languages and more besides.
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S21AI's Energy Demands Are Out of Control. Welcome to the Internet's Hyper-Consumption Era - WIRED (No paywall)Right now, generative artificial intelligence is impossible to ignore online. An AI-generated summary may randomly appear at the top of the results whenever you do a Google search. Or you might be prompted to try Metas AI tool while browsing Facebook. And that ever-present sparkle emoji continues to haunt my dreams.This rush to add AI to as many online interactions as possible can be traced back to OpenAIs boundary-pushing release of ChatGPT late in 2022. Silicon Valley soon became obsessed with generative AI, and nearly two years later, AI tools powered by large language models permeate the online user experience.
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S18A Congressional Democrat Explains Why Hes Standing with Biden - The New Yorker (No paywall)Since President Joe Biden's catastrophic debate performance two weeks ago, the Democratic Party has been arguing over his future, and whether he should step down as the Party's nominee. Biden had already been losing to Donald Trump even before then, and since that time his polls have gotten worse. Moreover, Biden's unwillingness to do White House press conferences, combined with the way he's limited unscripted appearances, has made many Democrats concerned that he is incapable of both beating Trump and governing the country effectively for four and a half more years.While most congressional Democrats have either remained silent or spoken only in generalities about what should happen now, the President has some vocal supporters on the Hill. One of them is Representative Robert Garcia, the first-term California Democrat, who has been outspoken in his backing of the President. Garcia and I recently spoke by phone. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed whether Garcia has any concerns about Biden's age, the White House's media strategy for the Presidential campaign, and whether Biden supporters are prioritizing loyalty over the chance to defeat Trump.
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S7Fish Wars - Foreign Affairs (No paywall)In 2012, British and French scallop fishers clashed in a series of violent encounters, dubbed the great scallop war in the press. The conflict did not escalate beyond rammed boats and thrown rocks, but it heightened tensions between the two governments, and when Brexit went into effect in 2020 a majority of French fishers were banned from operating in British territorial waters. This year, after the United Kingdom banned bottom trawling to protect fragile marine habitats, the French government protested vehemently and threatened to respond with punitive trade measures. Clashes are happening in other parts of the world, too. In 2022, when a U.S. Coast Guard cutter approached to inspect a Chinese squid vessel near Ecuadorfollowing established legal protocolsthe Chinese ship used aggressive maneuvers to avoid being boarded. In the meantime, dozens of other vessels fled without being inspected.In a world consumed with wars in Ukraine and the Middle Eastand a potential conflict over Taiwanthese incidents may seem insignificant. But although they may fly under the radar, disputes over fisheries have the potential to turn into larger conflicts and to exacerbate existing ones, just as disputes over oil, water, and grain have done in the past. Fisheries are finite natural resources that provide sustenance to billions of people; seafood constitutes nearly one-fifth of global consumption of animal protein. Its products are among the worlds most highly traded food commodities. The fisheries sector employs hundreds of millions of people and fuels the economies of many developing countries and small island states. And the industry already faces growing pressure as overfishing, poor management, and climate change degrade fish stocks across the planet. Rising ocean temperatures alone are expected to push nearly one in four local fish populations to cross an international boundary in the coming decade, reshuffling access to this critical resource and incentivizing risky illegal fishing and labor abuse in the sector. It is not hard to imagine how, in this context, a fish-related fight could spiral.
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S10Code Red for Venezuela - Foreign Policy (No paywall)For the first time since its election in 2013, the government of Nicols Maduro in Venezuela looks scared. According to a recent public opinion survey, 66 percent of Venezuelans hope that the July 28 presidential election will bring political change to their country, and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzlez leads Maduro in opinion polls by between 20 to 30 percent. Stealing this contest wont be as easy as it was for Maduro in 2017, 2018, or 2020.For the first time since its election in 2013, the government of Nicols Maduro in Venezuela looks scared. According to a recent public opinion survey, 66 percent of Venezuelans hope that the July 28 presidential election will bring political change to their country, and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzlez leads Maduro in opinion polls by between 20 to 30 percent. Stealing this contest wont be as easy as it was for Maduro in 2017, 2018, or 2020.
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S1S23S16S31S48You Need More Sleep. What Should You Do If You Can't Get It?We all know we need to be sleeping more, for the sake of our health and our effectiveness at work. But for those inevitable times when you cant get enough sleep, you need to have a few tricks up your sleeve to mitigate the risks involved in working while sleepy. For example, you can strategize which tasks you will engage in while sleep-deprived.Tasks that are routine and require no creativity are less vulnerable to the harmful effects of sleep deprivation. Also look for ways to rely more heavily on other people. This may mean delegating more when you are sleep-deprived or relying more heavily on the advice of colleagues, mentors, or subject matter experts. If theres no way to lean more heavily on others in the moment, solicit informal audits of your work after-the-fact to at least try to catch any mistakes you made before they snowball into major problems.Managing these risks is far better than the alternative of mindlessly stumbling through the minefield of working while sleep-deprived.
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S9What NATO Gave Ukraine - Foreign Policy (No paywall)Welcome back to Foreign Policys SitRep. Its the last day of the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., which means the alliances communiqueformally called the Washington Summit Declarationis published, Russia and China are mad at NATO about it, and the allies are turning the final day of summit business to Ukraine before the barricades come up and traffic returns to normal in D.C.Welcome back to Foreign Policys SitRep. Its the last day of the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., which means the alliances communiqueformally called the Washington Summit Declarationis published, Russia and China are mad at NATO about it, and the allies are turning the final day of summit business to Ukraine before the barricades come up and traffic returns to normal in D.C.
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S25When a Coworker Keeps Giving You Unsolicited Advice - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)Navigating unsolicited ideas, advice, or suggestions at work is a common scenario. Consider the colleague who jumps in with a barrage of Have you considered? or What about? questions during your carefully crafted presentation. Or how about when you request specific information and the responses you get back include unsolicited advice on aspects of your work you didnt ask about? In this article, the author offers four strategies for how to set boundaries around unsolicited input with tact, respect, and assertiveness.
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S5This skull was preserved in a bog for 5,000 years--with the murder weapon beside it - History (No paywall)In 1915 skeletal human remains, including a fragmented skull, were discovered by peat diggers in the northern Denmark village of Vittrup. A wooden club (believed to have killed him), cow bones, and a ceramic vessel were found in the bog along with him. Nick-named Vittrup Man, he was included in a 2014 study of Denmarks genetic prehistory. Analysis showed that Vittrup Mans DNA differed from that of the local Danish population, indicating that he grew up somewhere else.During the Neolithic period when Vittrup Man was alive, Denmark was occupied by farmers known as the Neolithic Funnel Beaker culture. Farther north, in present-day Norway and Sweden, communities of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers lived. Using a combination of traditional archaeology and advanced biotechnology, Fischers research team discovered that Vittrup Man was closely related to those northern hunter-gatherers.
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S19S27S43How to Get People to Seize Opportunities at WorkPeople dont always make use of opportunities and programs offered to them. Organizations can find ways to improve the take-up rates of products and programs by utilizing concepts from behavioral economics. These techniques have been used to convince more citizens to apply for tax benefits and more franchised hotels to use a new algorithmic pricing system, among other examples.
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S17The Controlled Normalcy of Kamala Harriss Trip to Las Vegas - The New Yorker (No paywall)It was against this backdrop that Harris travelled to Las Vegas on Tuesday for what some hoped, or at least speculated, was part of an audition tape for a candidacy of her own. Even though it was the middle of the summer, with the Democratic National Convention roughly a month away, there was a tinge of the more primal feeling of the winter primary seasonis somebody about to drop out or get pushed aside? The horse race was back on, at least for now. (In a recent CNN poll, Harris lost to Donald Trump by a smaller margin than Biden did, trailing by two points as opposed to four. Another survey saw Harris beating Trump by one point.) The Cook Political Report had just deemed Nevada, a swing state, as leaning Republican.As Democrats in Washington, D.C., held Party meetings about Biden's viability as a candidate"We are ridin' with Biden," Representative James Clyburn insisted nine times to reportersHarris touched down in Vegas. It was a hundred and fourteen degrees outside. The Clark County Republicans had planned to protest her visit to the state, but they cancelled, citing the dangers of the extreme heat. Harris dropped in on the men's Olympic basketball training camp, where Steph Curry and LeBron James were both practicing; she wished them good luck in Paris. Her motorcade continued to Resorts World, where she was the keynote speaker at a festival sponsored by the Biden campaign for the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. A large group of union members in matching purple shirts were first in line to enter the ballroom where the event would take place, right above a liquor-infused-ice-cream bar and a night club.
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S36A new vision for the advancement of humanityFrom The Techno-Humanist Manifesto by Jason Crawford. Subscribe to Jasons Substack here.We live in an age of wonders. To our ancient ancestors, our mundane routines would seem like wizardry: soaring through the air at hundreds of miles an hour; making night bright as day with the flick of a finger; commanding giant metal servants to weave our clothes or forge our tools; mixing chemicals in vast cauldrons to make a fertilizing elixir that grants vigor to crops; viewing events or even holding conversations from thousands of miles away; warding off the diseases that once sent half of children to an early grave. We build our homes in towers that rise above the hills; we build our ships larger and stronger than the ocean waves; we build our bridges with skeletons of steel, to withstand wind and storm. Our sages gaze deep into the universe, viewing colors the eye cannot see, and they have discovered other worlds circling other Suns; they have found the atoms of Democritus; they can tell us the system of the heavens and the mechanism of life; they can at long last turn base metals into gold.1 Once, these accomplishments, and their benefits to humanity, were referred to simply as progress.
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S20S29Tesla walks back Robotaxi reveal, sending its stock plummeting - Fortune (No paywall)Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk set the initial Aug. 8 date for the eventmonths ago, and optimism about the spectacle has contributed to an 11-day streak of gains that added more than $257 billion to Teslas market capitalization. The stock closed 8.4% lower on Thursday, its largest drop since January.Musk has talked up Teslas work on autonomous-vehicle technology for over a decade and convinced customers to pay thousands of dollars for a suite of features the company markets as Full Self-Driving, or FSD. The name isa misnomer FSD requires constant supervision and doesnt render Teslas autonomous but Musk and top engineers have been increasingly bullish about FSD in recent months as the companys vehicle sales have slowed.
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S40When a Coworker Keeps Giving You Unsolicited AdviceNavigating unsolicited ideas, advice, or suggestions at work is a common scenario. Consider the colleague who jumps in with a barrage of Have you considered? or What about? questions during your carefully crafted presentation. Or how about when you request specific information and the responses you get back include unsolicited advice on aspects of your work you didnt ask about? In this article, the author offers four strategies for how to set boundaries around unsolicited input with tact, respect, and assertiveness.
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S42Make Your Employer Brand Stand Out in the Talent MarketplaceAt a time when companies are competing for top talent during the Great Resignation, a companys employer branding can be incredibly influential in a candidates consideration of working there. The author outlines the three main tenets of employer branding reputation, employer value proposition, and employee experience and how to optimize each one.
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