Ready, set, grow: Winning the M&A race for renewables developers

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Ready, set, grow: Winning the M&A race for renewables developers As competition rises, acquirers will become more disciplined to capture value from renewables targets by aligning with long-term strategy, enhancing due diligence, and ensuring business continuity. As global capacity of renewable-energy sources increases rapidly in the effort to decarbonize power generation, acquisitions for renewables developers have been rising substantially and have become ever more central to the long-term goals of major players. As competition for deals increases, successful M&A has become more difficult to achieve. Continued here

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Corrente Viva: "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" in the Challenge to Sustainability ^ SKE061 Describes Corrente Viva, a network formed by 30 civil society organizations (CSOs) that develop social service activities in several regions of the Greater Sao Paulo area. Established in 2000, the network aims at strengthening its member organizations through the exchange of experiences and reflection among their representatives in a regional link structure--geographical subdivisions. It also seeks to accomplish projects that serve the shared needs of the participant CSOs through workgroup activities. Challenges include modeling a new institutional and governance shape for the network, avoiding shocks to the principles of shared responsibilities, controls, and decisions that originally led to its creation, along with the adoption of participative decision processes, and aiming to shun the centralization of power and the concentration of resources. Continued here

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Hurricane Katrina (B): Responding to an 'Ultra-Catastrophe' in New Orleans ^ HKS149 When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on Monday morning, August 29, it cut a wide swath of destruction in the area; but despite inflicting enormous damage, it initially appeared that the storm had spared low-lying New Orleans the worst of its wrath. But as Katrina moved on, it soon became clear to those who had not evacuated the city that something was going very wrong: almost every part of New Orleans began to flood, and by the next day roughly 80 percent of it would be under water. The rapidly rising floodwaters, the result of three major breaches in the levees protecting the city, created a massive humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of residents escaped to rooftops or attics, where they waited anxiously for rescue, or waded in waist-deep water to find shelter; many went to the Superdome, which was already packed with people who had waited out the storm there, or to other improvised shelters in the city. As the days dragged on, it would become increasingly apparent that almost every aspect of the response from state, local, and federal government was falling far short of what was needed: evacuees languished in squalid shelters or on highway overpasses waiting for buses that did not come; looting and more serious crimes were reported to be rampant; food, water, and medical care were in short supply. As public outrage grew, fed by TV footage of distraught storm victims, emergency response officials and political leaders, all the way up to President George W. Bush, found themselves scrambling to cope with the "ultra-catastrophe" that Katrina had visited on New Orleans. HKS Case Number 1844.0 Continued here

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Seneca Systems (A): General and Confidential Instructions for C. Stevens, Vice President, Assembly Division ^ 899171 Seneca is a three-party negotiation-mediation simulation. The context is a product failure crisis in a manufacturing company with highly autonomous units. The heads of two divisions are in a dispute over who has responsibility for failures in a key product. The head of a third division is attempting to mediate a resolution to the dispute. Unlike many mediation simulations, the mediator has both independent interests and some power to influence outcomes. Two versions of the mediator role are available. In Seneca Systems (A), the mediator can make a financial contribution to solving the problem and hence has bargaining power. In Seneca Systems (B), the mediator has some coercive power in the form of influence with the CEO and could impose a solution if the parties are unable to resolve the dispute themselves. The core teaching issues concern the tradeoffs inherent in having vested interests and power as a mediator. Continued here

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DEUTSCHE TELEKOM: A TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY (A) ^ IMD509 This is a classic transformation case, made more complex by the fact that it involves a huge organization led by a youthful company insider, René Obermann. The two-part case study covers the period from 2006 to 2010. The case starts in late 2006, shortly after Obermann was promoted to replace Kai-Uwe Ricke at Deutsche Telekom (DT), one of the standard-bearers of the German economy.When he took over as chief executive, the former state-owned telecom monopoly was in bad shape. Having long been one of the dominant players in Europe, DT's share price had collapsed in just a few years, as had its grip on its home market. Shortly before Obermann was appointed, DT's share of new broadband customers in Germany - its traditional stronghold - fell to below 10 percent. And with its 260,000 strong workforce, DT's labor costs compared to sales were up to twice as high as those of its main European rivals. Still living on past glories, the company was heavily siloed and bloated. While its structure was not suited to the new market realities, few employees felt a strong need for anything more than incremental change. Yet many analysts foresaw either bankruptcy or break-up for DT within a matter of three or four years. Under Obermann's leadership, DT underwent a dramatic transformation, regaining its dominant position in the large domestic market within three years - but it remained too early to declare a full-fledged turnaround. Case A describes Deutsche Telekom's competitive challenges prior to René Obermann's appointment as CEO. It gives a few background details on the new CEO and describes some of the key moves he made during his first two years at the helm - and his success in stabilizing DT. Case B covers the second phase of DT's recovery and the continued drive to create a single integrated company, to overcome resistance and to encourage new behaviors. Learning objectives: The cases cover three key themes: 1) The advantages and disadvantages of a strong organizational culture. 2) The process of organizational transformation and the challenge of building on success. 3) Some of the psychological challenges of leadership. Continued here

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Sophis Networks and Encryption Export Controls (A) ^ P34A The vice president of the Security Products Division of Sophis Networks along with the Government Affairs Group had spent the past two and a half years working closely with Congress and the Clinton administration to relax U.S. export restrictions on encryption products (because export restrictions meant lost sales for U.S. companies such as Sophis, and customers outside the United States demanded products with the highest level of encryption available). However, President Clinton pledged to veto a bill called the Security and Freedom Through Encryption Act (SAFE), which was to relax U.S. export restrictions. The vice president and the Government Affairs Group at Sophis needed to develop a "nonmarket" strategy and implementation plan to relax encryption export controls. Continued here

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The Breakfast of Champions: Can General Mills Make the Dough with Pillsbury (B) ^ UV0860 Despite all the uncertainty mergers and acquisitions create for buyers and sellers, a solid, well-planned post acquisition integration strategy can create opportunity. During the fall of 2001, following a lengthy U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust review, General Mills Inc. acquired the Pillsbury subsidiary from Diageo PLC with an eye towards enhancing their revenue. Although General Mills financial advisors seemed to think that the balance sheets and products of the two corporations complimented each other and made a perfect match, the organizations were very different. Any shift in corporate control meant things were going to change. Kevin Wilde, the vice president and chief learning officer for General Mills was part of the transition team responsible for helping the post acquisition integration go smoothly. While spending most of the summer working on the acquisition planning stage, Wilde and the team tried to envision what employees' fundamental concerns would be and how the team could help ease anxieties in both organizations. How should the Pillsbury integration process proceed? Despite the extensive planning process, were there any surprises that would affect integration efforts? Could General Mills and Pillsbury be integrated in a way that would generate more value than the companies were generating separately? And which changes should be the team's top priorities? The B case identifies several issues relevant to managing the integration and includes: human resource and organizational information, marketing initiatives, strategy statements, plant closings, and operational changes. Continued here

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Hindustan Unilever Ltd.: Creating Shared Value in a VUCA World ^ W13539 Hindustan Unilever Ltd. can trace its current-day profitable business operations in its Doom Dooma factory in the conflict-ridden northeastern state of Assam (India) to its proactive corporate responsibility initiatives since the start of its operations. A spurt in sales in the personal care segment has led the company to consider capacity expansion. The company needs to decide whether to continue to invest in Assam despite three challenges: operational risks posed by the area's continuing insurgency, the possibility of labour disruptions and the imminent discontinuance of fiscal incentives. Continued here

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Time, Talent, Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag and Unleash Your Team's Productive Power ^ 10031 Managing Your Scarcest Resources. Business leaders know that the key to competitive success is smart management of scarce resources. That's why companies allocate their financial capital so carefully. But capital today is cheap and abundant, no longer a source of advantage. The truly scarce resources now are the time, the talent, and the energy of the people in your organization-resources that are too often squandered. There's plenty of advice about how to manage them, but most of it focuses on individual actions. What's really needed are organizational solutions that can unleash a company's full productive power and enable it to outpace competitors. Building off of the popular "Harvard Business Review" article "Your Scarcest Resource," Michael Mankins and Eric Garton, Bain & Company experts in organizational design and effectiveness, present new research into how you can liberate people's time, talent, and energy and unleash your organization's productive power. They identify the specific causes of organizational drag--the collection of institutional factors that slow things down, decrease output, and drain people's energy--and then offer a pragmatic framework for how managers can overcome it. With practical advice for using the framework and in-depth examples of how the best companies manage their people's time, talent, and energy with as much discipline as they do their financial capital, this book shows managers how to create a virtuous circle of high performance. Continued here

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National Instruments ^ 813001 This case explores the use of social media to support product design, customer support, marketing and HR activities at National Instruments (NI). Based in Austin, Texas, with over $1 billion in 2011 sales, NI designs, produces, and sells software and hardware platforms that simplify development of its customers measurement and control systems. Its customers, ranging from individuals (professors and their students) to large corporations, consist primarily of scientists and engineers-a pedigree shared by most NI employees. Since dedicating a full-time position to formalizing the use of social media tools in 2006, NI has infused social capabilities into its internal and customer-facing business processes, strengthening relationships and value delivered. NI's story deepens our understanding of how to build a social business strategy, create game changing innovation processes, and measure the value of its social technology investments-a key challenge facing the company. By touching on NI's history and culture, the case also allows students to consider what elements of this company's organization and culture have allowed it to build a robust social business model. Continued here

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People Skills for a Virtual World Collection (6 Books) (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series) ^ 10622 How to be human at work. HBR's Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of "Harvard Business Review." Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master and demonstrate in a virtual or hybrid workplace. This specially priced, six-volume set includes the EI series books "Virtual EI," "Leadership Presence," "Mindful Listening," "Focus," "Empathy," and "Dealing with Difficult People." Continued here

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AEROSPACE INVESTMENT: BALANCING VENTURE & RELATIONSHIP CAPITAL - Confidential Instructions for the Venture Capitalist ^ PON024 Confidential Instructions for the Venture Capitalist for PON023.Two-party term sheet negotiation between a venture capitalist and the founder of an aerospace start-up company in which participants are scored both on their substantive performance and on the other party's perception of the relationship. The venture capital (VC) firm Aerovent Capital is considering a $100 million investment in the startup company Earth Escape. The founder of Earth Escape and the lead partner from Aerovent Capital must negotiate a term sheet outlining eight significant terms of the investment. Both parties are concerned with structuring a deal that protects their substantive investment interests and with creating a positive foundation for their potential collaboration. The simulation introduces the incorporation of process and relationship interests into negotiation strategy. This is a role play case. Continued here

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Employee Won't Attend Our Holiday Dinner, And Other Dilemmas Of The Season Five holiday-related questions and answers. Continued here

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How Startups Can Help Empower Their Customers to Grow Trust between consumers and brands is at an all-time high. That means your startup is in position to not just do good, but to pave the way for customers to do good, too. Continued here

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Improve Your Delegation Skills Faster Do you follow up in one day, one week, one month, one quarter, or at the end of the year? Continued here

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Want to Tout Your Sustainability Efforts? Take a Lesson From These 4 Eco-Conscious Companies These small-business owners share how they meet increasing consumer demand for sustainable products. Continued here

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Business Owners: Get Your Holiday Greetings Right Holiday greetings can build a relationship or hurt it. These tips to follow and gaffes to avoid will help you. Continued here

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Why Being Transparent About Her Breakup Saved This Founder What happened when Utendahl Creative founder Madison Utendahl came clean about her recent break up to important clients of hers. Continued here

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5 Ways to Increase Productivity Follow these tips to work more efficiently and effectively. Continued here

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Research: When Mindfulness Does -- and Doesn't -- Help at Work Mindfulness meditation practices can be an effective way to reduce stress and improve well-being in certain contexts. But as more and more employers offer some form of mindfulness training to their employees, it isn’t always clear whether these programs are actually paying off. To explore the impact of mindfulness in the workplace, the authors conducted a series of field studies in real-world work environments — and they found that while mindfulness can in fact be beneficial in some situations, it can be less effective (or even counterproductive) in others. Specifically, they found that both breath-based and loving-kindness meditation can help reduce the stress associated with emotionally charged social interactions, but that breath-focused meditation can actually make people less helpful in situations that require them to take accountability. As such, especially for programs targeting managers or executives (whose roles often necessitate the ability to take responsibility for past mistakes and proactively address issues), the authors suggest that breath-based meditation may not be the best approach. They go on to offer three strategies to help organizations implement the targeted mindfulness programs that will be most beneficial for everyone, ultimately suggesting that it’s critical for us all to identify the mindfulness practices that will be most effective for our unique roles, routines, and minds. Continued here

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What It Takes to Be a Fair-Pay Workplace Pay equity is more than just a competitive tool in a red-hot labor market. It’s an opportunity to foster innovation, drive employee engagement, minimize turnover, maintain (or improve) brand reputation, and attract investors. With so much to gain from making pay equity a priority, employers who merely pay lip service or treat it as a one-off do so at their own risk, opening themselves up to public backlash and legal action — especially with more pay equity-related laws being enacted across the U.S. and abroad. To help employers understand where their organization is regarding pay equity, the author suggests a three-level framework that allows organizations to evaluate their current pay practices, progress, and long-term goals. Continued here

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How Do I Ask for Help? She’s carved out a unique role for herself, which she loves, but worries that the pace of work is unsustainable. As she thinks about the next step in her career, she realizes that it will require her to lean on the help of others — something she’s not used to doing. Host Muriel Wilkins coaches her through how to get the support she needs to move forward in her career. Continued here

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How Leaders Should Handle Public Criticism The last few years have wrought a wave of employee activism and public critiques of leaders. Elon Musk’s recent experiences at Twitter may be an extreme case, but the swift public scolding from employees and the world indicates that when it comes to expressing our sharp disapproval, leaders are fair game. If you’re a leader who’s facing down the strident criticism of those you lead (and even if you’re not, you’d be wise to assume your turn may be around the corner), here are some ways to steel yourself and respond well. Continued here

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ChatGPT and How AI Disrupts Industries ChatGPT, from OpenAI, shows the power of AI to take on tasks traditionally associated with “knowledge work.” But the future won’t just involve tasks shifting from humans to machines. When technology enables more people to complete a task, with help from a machine, the result is typically entirely new systems with new business models and jobs and workflows. AI will be no different: To truly unlock the potential of ChatGPT, the world will need new and different kinds of organizations. Continued here

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Looking to Innovate in the Cloud? Don't Overlook This Key Element of Success - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM GOOGLE CLOUD Business leaders today are under immense pressure to deliver innovative business outcomes. Numerous factors need to be considered, and many of these, such as operations and environments, are in constant flux. On top of that, you’re limited by budgets, talent, and capability. It can be very challenging for organizations to achieve their goals if they have to navigate everything on their own. Continued here

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The childhood diseases making a post-lockdown comeback As child after child gasping for air was admitted to the hospital, Rabia Agha gritted her teeth. In her role as director of the paediatric infectious diseases division at Maimonides Children's Hospital in New York, she had seen this before. An outbreak of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – a winter virus that can feel like a common cold in adults, but which can be dangerous for some young children. There was a wave last autumn – and an unexpected one in spring this year. Now, in the early autumn months of 2022, it was back again. Continued here

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We asked dozens of Indian gig workers about their future. They see none Sony Tirkey was among the estimated 10 million Indian migrant workers who traveled back to their villages and towns when the Covid-19 pandemic started. Before 2020, Tirkey worked at a tile shop in Kerala. But when he went back home — around 1,300 miles away in Gumla, Jharkhand — he struggled to find full-time employment. He dabbled in gig work in Jharkhand’s capital city, Ranchi, working with grocery delivery firm JioMart, ride-hailing platform Ola, and food delivery companies Zomato and Swiggy. In May 2021, he settled into a routine with the motorbike transport app Rapido. “If Rapido wasn’t there, I would have to go back to Kerala,” he said when Rest of World met him in Ranchi in August. Continued here

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“Online testing is a joke”: How Chinese students cheat on U.S. college entry exams Watching through a camera, a proctor monitors a Chinese student taking an English exam. Sitting in a Beijing living room, the student appears to be taking the test seriously. They frown during the listening session, as if trying hard to think about the answer. And for the written portion, their arms move about, with the tapping of a keyboard being heard. But the student wasn’t typing anything. They weren’t even looking at the screen. Sitting next to the student, just outside of the camera’s field of view, was 34-year-old Tony Wang. As he’d done for dozens of students before, Wang was answering the questions by typing on a wireless keyboard, sometimes while eating barbecued skewers. For the speaking portion, he’d type the answers on an iPad or a smartphone for students to read out. And students who couldn’t speak English at all would silently move their lips while Wang invisibly spoke aloud the answer on their behalf. Continued here

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FTX Japan says it will repay all customers within weeks. Ex-employees are skeptical Earlier this year, FTX entered Japan with a splash. In August, the cryptocurrency exchange announced its arrival with flashy video billboards, towering above the crush of commuters at Tokyo’s Shibuya Scramble intersection. Just as the company used images of NFL star Tom Brady in its U.S. advertisements, Japan saw the faces of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani and tennis icon Naomi Osaka plastered across placards and TV spots, lending the exchange an air of legitimacy.  FTX Japan’s mission, it said, was to “open up a new era of finance.” The company was attempting to win over a skeptical public and some of the strictest regulators anywhere. Then came FTX’s spectacular collapse, which dragged more than 100 related companies into bankruptcy proceedings under a cloud of alleged fraud and mismanagement. Like elsewhere, FTX in Japan is now under pressure from regulators to return victims’ money, and quickly. In a rare case of redress, the company has promised to return all funds to Japanese users within a matter of weeks.  Continued here

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Amazon iba a ayudar un barrio de Tijuana. Nunca ocurrió Desde hace tres meses que Cristiani Martínez, una madre de 28 años de edad originaria de Tijuana, comenzó a trabajar como conserje en la planta de Amazon ubicada en su colonia Nueva Esperanza. Martínez trabaja el turno nocturno, dado que, de día tiene que atender a sus dos pequeños hijos. Solamente duerme entre tres y cuatro horas al día.  Nueva Esperanza es una colonia de cientos de habitantes. Sobre ella se levanta la gran nave color azul cielo de Amazon entre cascajos abandonados a mitad de calle de lo que un día fueron coches particulares, resortes de colchones que aguardan para un momento ser parte de una estructura de casa. La única calle pavimentada es la que entra y sale de la planta de Amazon. Continued here

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Indonesia’s new criminal code bans online insults of the president On December 6, Indonesia’s parliament passed a criminal code that drew wide criticism for criminalizing premarital sex and cohabitation outside marriage, among other practices.  But the code, known as KUHP, also heavily extends the government’s reach over online speech — not just in traditional media outlets, but on social media platforms. The bill sets out new or strengthened controls on a wide array of actions, from spreading fake news and Marxist-Leninist ideology to insulting the president. These provisions come on the heels of new regulations on tech companies, aimed at enforcing “takedowns” of content targeted by the Indonesian government. Continued here

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European talent is ready to walk out the door. How should companies respond? Like their global peers, Europeans are thinking more about quitting, exacerbating a high job vacancy rate and a skills gap. New research shows how companies can emphasize “people factors” that workers say they need. How do companies keep their current workforces happy while drawing the best people to join them? Talent leaders have been asking that question forever, of course, but the answers have grown much more complex since the COVID-19 pandemic set off an employee exodus that has shaken organizations across the globe. Continued here

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Digital transformations in energy retail: A shift toward advanced platforms More energy retailers are transforming their digital platforms to cut costs and to stay competitive. We explore approaches to platform transformation and key questions to consider before embarking on a transformation journey. Energy retailers face a pivotal moment. Energy supplies have been at risk in many markets, and prices have gone up. The economic environment has prompted retailers to seek ways of streamlining their operating models and reducing their cost to serve. Meanwhile, customer preferences are moving in favor of renewable energy and new services such as electric-vehicle charging. In response, many energy retailers have been looking for technology solutions that can help improve profitability and customer satisfaction, as outdated operating models and core technologies could be holding some organizations back. Continued here

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European talent is ready to walk out the door. How should companies respond? Like their global peers, Europeans are thinking more about quitting, exacerbating a high job vacancy rate and a skills gap. New research shows how companies can emphasize “people factors” that workers say they need. How do companies keep their current workforces happy while drawing the best people to join them? Talent leaders have been asking that question forever, of course, but the answers have grown much more complex since the COVID-19 pandemic set off an employee exodus that has shaken organizations across the globe. Continued here

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What just happened? McKinsey Publishing's Year in Review 8. ‘If you’re going to build something from scratch, this might be as good a time as in a decade’ 5. ‘Making the world a better place never feels like work’: An interview with chief DEI officer Indhira Arrington Continued here

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6 Marvelous Math Stories from 2022 Math made a splash this year. Here’s a look at the fascinating discoveries, mind-bending quests and important events in mathematics in 2022 Mathematics can be both mind-boggling and illuminating. Though it can require mental gymnastics to follow some recent developments in math research, the effort is often rewarded with fascinating truths. This year math seeped into diverse realms of our lives and the world, showing us that the field affects all of us. Here’s a look at some of 2022’s most captivating math developments, including a mathematical attempt to prove the existence of God, the use of algorithms to help make citizen assemblies more fair, a fun subfield that deals with bendable shapes that helped find “doughnuts in the brain,” and more. Continued here

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How Anti-LGBTQ+ Rhetoric Fuels Violence Hate speech from the far right is increasing the risk of violence against LGBTQ+ people such as the Club Q shooting The FBI recently arrested a man who had threatened to kill a doctor in Boston who provides gender-affirming care to transgender children. The following day, members of two far-right groups, the Patriot Front and the Proud Boys, gathered outside of a Unitarian church in Columbus, Ohio, leading to the cancellation of a drag queen story hour. These incidents came just weeks after a mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ+ club in Colorado Springs, which was planning to host a drag performance to honor the upcoming Transgender Day of Remembrance. Continued here

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Kindness Can Have Unexpectedly Positive Consequences People who engage in random acts of kindness may not fully recognize the impact of their behavior on others Scientists who study happiness know that being kind to others can improve well-being. Acts as simple as buying a cup of coffee for someone can boost a person’s mood, for example. Everyday life affords many opportunities for such actions, yet people do not always take advantage of them. Continued here

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More Americans Are Moving into Dangerous Wildfire Zones A new study that looked at U.S. Census data found that migration patterns are putting more people in the way of wildfires and hot summers Wildfires are growing bigger, more frequent and more destructive as the climate warms. Yet Americans are still choosing to migrate into fire-prone areas across the country, a new study finds. Continued here

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The billion-dollar pollution solution humanity needs right now Could the same mechanism used to accelerate vaccine development work for spurring solutions to the climate crisis? Sustainability innovator Stacy Kauk introduces the billion-dollar fund to supercharge the carbon removal market, which would help build a new industry aimed at drawing down carbon pollution from the air and storing it safely. Continued here

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Why the US Is Primed for Radicalization All across the country, there are signs of a more radicalized American populace. It’s become impossible to ignore over the past few years. The US has witnessed an insurrection, the rise of QAnon, increasing anti-Semitism, attacks on the LGBTQ community, and more. While radicalism has risen to some degree in many other Western nations, this trend has been exceptionally more pronounced in the United States. It is, therefore, necessary to determine the root causes of it and what makes America, well, exceptional.  To better understand extremism in the US, it’s necessary to understand who is being radicalized. It’s primarily right-wing extremism, but right-wing extremism covers many different groups and types of people who engage with it. It’s not just the people who join militias like the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers, it’s the seemingly ordinary people who latch onto QAnon or other conspiracy theories.  Continued here

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The Best Posture Correctors to Put a Stop to Your Slouch If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED We slouch at our desks for at least 40 hours a week and bend our necks toward our phones the rest of the time. All of this may be affecting our back health. Bad posture doesn’t just cause temporary pain and stiffness; it can cause a permanent hunch. Continued here

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This Portable Silverware Set Has a Built-In Dishwasher There's a dilemma every city dweller faces eventually: Where's the fork? Let's say that after a meeting, you finally manage to find the one falafel stand that's an oasis in the food desert of the financial district. The gods smile, and you score an $8 falafel platter. This is why you live in a city, right? There's so much great food and stuff to do. But how are you going to eat that lovely falafel? There's a pita, sure, but now you've got to get the hummus and baba ganoush and the rest inside.  That's when you're handed a plastic fork. It's an environmental disaster. Well, it's not as big of an environmental disaster as whatever electronic device you're reading this on, but still not great. Continued here

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The Transparency Theater of the Twitter Files The “Twitter Files” are to journalism what cosplay is to superheroism: an occasionally convincing imitation of the real thing. Though I shouldn’t insult cosplayers so: They bring joy and beauty to public life, while the Twitter Files are merely proving to be grist for the likes of QAnon and other extremely online individuals addicted to viral outrage. The latest round, this time curated by ex-New York Times editor Bari Weiss, was meant to show that Twitter did indeed engage in the dreaded “shadowbanning” of far-right imagining and discriminate against conservative accounts by completely hiding them from the general public in an act of “woke” censorship perpetrated at the highest levels. But Weiss revealed both less and more than she wished, and in the process helped confirm what should already have been obvious after Matt Taibbi’s first round of Twitter Files posting: The confected scandals supposedly revealed by this PR-friendly access to Twitter’s internal systems offer a theatrical transparency that occludes the lack of the real thing under Musk’s leadership. Continued here

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The Orion Moon Capsule Is Back. What Happens Next? After circling the moon for the past three weeks, NASA’s Orion capsule splashed down under parachute yesterday morning off the coast of Mexico’s Baja California near Guadalupe Island, marking an end to the Artemis program’s first major lunar mission. Orion was then scooped up by a recovery crew and sent to port in San Diego, carried in the well of the Navy ship USS Portland. With Artemis 1 in the books, NASA will scrutinize the capsule’s performance, making sure it is safe for future crewed trips to the moon, including a much-anticipated lunar landing in 2026. “It’s a historic achievement because we are now going back into deep space with a new generation,” said NASA chief Bill Nelson following Orion’s splashdown. “This is a defining day. It is one that marks new technology, a whole new breed of astronaut, a vision for the future.” Continued here

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It's real! JWST breaks Hubble's all-time distance record! By breaking up light into its individual wavelengths, JWST sees both absorbed and transmitted light. JADES — the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey — will ultimately combine hundreds of hours of observations. Continued here

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Bayes' rule: A powerful thinking paradigm Bayes’ Rule is a powerful way to think about evidence, says Julia Galef, co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality. Most of us have preexisting beliefs that we stick to firmly, unless we have a breakthrough — that is, we encounter evidence that is so overwhelmingly inconsistent with our beliefs that it forces us to change our minds and adopt a new theory. But even then, we don’t always change our minds. Continued here

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Do you struggle getting out of bed in the morning? Marcus Aurelius can help Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was emperor of Rome from 161 AD until his death in 180. The last in a series of rulers that historians now refer to as the Five Good Emperors, he was chosen as imperial heir when he was still a child. Raised with his future job in mind, Aurelius was pulled out of the empire’s questionable public school system and educated at home by Greek tutors and Stoic philosophers. As intended, this world-class education ended up having a positive influence over Marcus Aurelius’ reign. His decisions were informed not by lust or jealousy or greed — as had been the case for many Julio-Claudian emperors — but by his deep understanding of law and logic. Often cited as the very embodiment of Plato’s “philosopher-king,” Marcus Aurelius always weighed his options, acting only when he felt he was making the right call. Continued here

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5 Zen masters and what they taught The term “Zen master” is a strange one. There are titles in the various schools of Zen that are close to “master,” but the English term is general and vague. Despite this, many people would still be able to point to a Zen master if they encountered one. Often eccentric, frequently intelligent, and always surprising, Zen masters are living examples of another way of looking at the world and experiencing life. The semi-legendary founder of Zen was an Indian or Persian monk named Bodhidharma, who traveled to China during the 6th century to teach meditation. Early texts on notable Buddhist teachers in China include him and note his dedication to meditation as a method. The stories about him got more complex after he was retroactively crowned the first Zen Patriarch. Continued here

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The sound of swearing is universal across languages Some sounds are more suitable for profanity than others, and these same sounds are found in the swear words of multiple languages, according to new research published in the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.   Previous research has shown that swearing can increase tolerance to pain, and that people who swear are more trustworthy than those who don’t, but until now there has been no study of the phonetics of profanity.  Continued here

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Harnessing the brain’s immune cells to stave off Alzheimer’s Many neurodegenerative diseases, or conditions that result from the loss of function or death of brain cells, remain largely untreatable. Most available treatments target just one of the multiple processes that can lead to neurodegeneration, which may not be effective in completely addressing disease symptoms or progress, if at all. But what if researchers harnessed the brain’s inherent capabilities to cleanse and heal itself? My colleagues and I in the Lukens Lab at the University of Virginia believe that the brain’s own immune system may hold the key to neurodegenerative disease treatment. In our research, we found a protein that could possibly be leveraged to help the brain’s immune cells, or microglia, stave off Alzheimer’s disease. Continued here

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How Atlantic City inspired the Monopoly board This article was first published on Big Think in April 2021. It was updated in December 2022. There have been several attempts to turn Monopoly the game into a Hollywood movie, one with Ridley Scott directing, another starring Kevin Hart. If none have succeeded so far, it’s not for lack of an exciting backstory. Continued here

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Leaked email shows Musk threatened to sue Twitter employees who leak to media A leaked email sent by Elon Musk to Twitter staff shows that he threatened to sue employees who leak confidential information to the media. Continued here

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The Moon landing was faked, and wind farms are bad Germany ranks third in the world for installed wind power capacity. In 2020, almost a quarter of the country’s energy came from wind, and the government has pledged to double that by 2030, designating 2 percent of Germany’s landmass to become wind farms. Continued here

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Xiaomi’s new phone takes a ton of inspiration from Apple, as usual It's still only 2022, but that's not stopping Android manufacturers from launching their big flagship phones that will sell for the majority of next year. After Vivo's launch last month, the new OEM to launch a phone with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC is Xiaomi, simply named Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro. These two models represent big (6.73-inch) and small (6.36-inch) phones with different designs. Continued here

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DOJ divided over charging Binance for alleged crypto crimes, report says Suspected of alleged money laundering, tax evasion, and US sanctions violations, Binance has been under investigation by the US Department of Justice since 2018 but has never been formally accused of any wrongdoing. Now, Reuters reports that some federal prosecutors feel they’ve amassed enough evidence to file criminal charges against Binance—including individual charges against Binance founder Changpeng Zhao—but other DOJ officials are standing in the way. Continued here

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China bans AI-generated media without watermarks China's Cyberspace Administration recently issued regulations prohibiting the creation of AI-generated media without clear labels, such as watermarks—among other policies—reports The Register. The new rules come as part of China's evolving response to the generative AI trend that has swept the tech world in 2022, and they will take effect on January 10, 2023. Continued here

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Chrome’s “Manifest V3” plan to limit ad-blocking extensions is delayed For several years now, Google has wanted to kill Chrome's current extension system in favor of a more limited one, creating more restrictions on filtering extensions that block ads and/or work to preserve the user's privacy. The new extension system, called "Manifest V3" technically hit the stable channel in January 2021, but Chrome still supports the older, more powerful system, Manifest V2. The first steps toward winding down Manifest V2 were supposed to start January 2023, but as 9to5Google first spotted, Google now says it delayed the mandatory switch to Manifest V3 and won't even have a new timeline for a V2 shutdown ready until March. Continued here

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Officials, experts call for masking as illnesses slam US ahead of holidays Health officials and experts are renewing calls for masking as respiratory illnesses surge and Americans prepare for holidays. Continued here

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Effective, fast, and unrecoverable: Wiper malware is popping up everywhere Over the past year, a flurry of destructive wiper malware from no fewer than nine families has appeared. In the past week, researchers cataloged at least two more, both exhibiting advanced codebases designed to inflict maximum damage. Continued here

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“Fake” Roman coins authenticated, bearing likeness of lost Roman emperor In 1713, a cache of Roman coins was discovered in Transylvania, several of which bore the portrait and name of Sponsian—but there are no historical records of a Roman emperor with that name. The coins largely have been dismissed as forgeries for more than a century, but a re-analysis using a variety of physics-based methods has yielded evidence that they might be authentic, according to a recent paper published in the journal PLoS ONE. So Sponsian may have been a real emperor after all. Continued here

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Mercedes built a concept car for Avatar, and we drove it When you think of the future of transportation, you probably don’t think of water dragons like those in director James Cameron’s newest Avatar movie, Avatar: The Way of Water, which will be released on December 16. You might think of something more along the lines of the Mercedes-AVTR, which Mercedes debuted just before the pandemic at CES in 2020. Continued here

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Thieves Tried to Cut Banksy Mural From a Wall in War-Torn Ukrainian Town Ukrainian authorities detained eight people over the theft of a mural painted by the pseudonymous street artist Banksy on a wall outside of Kyiv. The artwork, which thieves cut and removed from the side of a residential building, is in good condition and in the hands of authorities, reports the Agence France-Presse (AFP). The stencil image depicts a woman dressed in a bathrobe with rollers in her hair, while also wearing a gas mask and clutching a fire extinguisher. In signature Bansky style, the majority of the image is black and white, but the fire extinguisher provides a splash of bright red. Continued here

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NASA Sets Sights on Crewed Moon Missions After Orion Capsule's Return to Earth After spending 25.5 days in space and orbiting the moon, NASA's uncrewed Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:40 p.m. Eastern time Sunday. The successful landing marks the end of the Artemis 1 test flight, paving the way for crewed moon missions. NASA will now assess data from Orion's trip and make preparations for future flights, per the Washington Post's Christian Davenport. Continued here

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A Greek Orthodox Church, Destroyed During 9/11, Reopens at Ground Zero During the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was crushed by the falling south tower of the World Trade Center. Now, 21 years later, the church has reopened its doors. Its first parishioners celebrated the feast of Saint Nicholas last week. The new building is in an elevated section of Liberty Park, overlooking the memorial plaza. It will function as both a church and a shrine to 9/11 victims. Continued here

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Unique NASA Observatory Will Make a Final Flight—to a Museum SOFIA, a 38,000-pound telescope inside an airplane, spent eight years observing the universe in infrared In 1996, scientists initiated an ambitious plan to modify an airplane so it could carry a massive telescope through the sky. Continued here

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Hurricanes Reveal 19th-Century Shipwreck Hidden Beneath Florida Beach Beach erosion caused by Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole has revealed the remains of a 19th-century shipping vessel in Florida. When a mysterious structure made of wood and metal began to emerge from the sand in Daytona Beach Shores in Volusia County, Florida, last month, beach-goers put forward all sorts of theories about what it might be—possibly an old pier or bleachers leftover from when NASCAR held races on the sand, per the New York Times’ Christine Hauser and Jesus Jiménez. Continued here

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Keystone Pipeline Leaks 14,000 Barrels of Oil in Kansas This is the largest onshore crude pipeline spill in nine years and the biggest in the system's history A rupture in the Keystone pipeline has led to a 588,000-gallon (14,000-barrel) spill in a Kansas creek. It's the largest spill from an onshore crude pipeline in nine years and by far the biggest in the Keystone system's history, report John Hanna, Ryan J. Foley and Heather Hollingsworth for the Associated Press (AP). Continued here

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She Turns Fluids Into ‘Black Holes’ and ‘Inflating Universes’ | Quanta Magazine In her lab at the University of Nottingham, Silke Weinfurtner creates analogues of black holes in "a giant bathtub, but it's a very special one." There are times and places in the universe that experiments cannot reach, and may never be able to reach. What exactly goes on inside black holes, and what happened in the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang, are matters of pure theoretical speculation. Continued here

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Which Workers Suffer Most When New Technology Arrives? Technological advances can be a double-edged sword for workers. On the one hand, new technologies can make people more productive. On the other hand, some forms of automation can also make workers obsolete. But which workers, exactly, are most likely to suffer lost jobs or reduced income when new technologies arrive? Continued here