Scientists say they can cut HIV out of cells

S12

Scientists say they can cut HIV out of cells     The gene-editing method used might ultimately offer a way to remove HIV, experts say. Continued here

S11

Is it safe to microwave food?     There’s nothing risky about microwave radiation – but there are health concerns about heating up plastic. Here’s what the latest research says about how to safely microwave your food. Continued here

�

S37

Lessons from More Than 1,000 E-Commerce Pricing Tests     At most small and medium-sized e-commerce retailers, prices are typically set and updated in an ad hoc fashion without one clear owner. The process often starts by using a gross margin target, followed by some comparison with competitors, and then some adjustments from there. Many of these retailers would quickly admit that this isn’t an optimal strategy, and that they are likely leaving money on the table — and they’re often right. The authors’ experience with price testing has shown that there is actually a significant amount of money left on the table when pricing is left un-optimized. Continued here

S10

This concrete can eat carbon emissions - WIRED (No paywall)     Concrete: upon this rock-like composite we have built our church – and our houses, roads, bridges, skyscrapers, and factories. As a species we consume more than 4.1 billion tonnes of the stuff every year, more than any other material except water. (You’re almost certainly sitting or standing on it right now.) That’s a problem, because concrete – and in particular cement, concrete’s key ingredient – is catastrophic for the environment. The cement industry alone generates 2.8bn tonnes of CO2 every year, more than any country other than China and the US – and somewhere between four and eight percent of all global man-made carbon emissions.According to the Paris agreement, carbon emissions from cement production need to fall by at least 16 percent by 2030 for the world to reach its target of keeping global warming within the limit of 1.5C and well below 2C. (At present, those emissions are actually increasing, driven in large part by mega construction projects in China.) Now, the concrete industry is in a race against time to solve a very hard, very grey problem. Continued here

�

S20

Universities Have a Computer-Science Problem - The Atlantic (No paywall)     Last year, 18 percent of Stanford University seniors graduated with a degree in computer science, more than double the proportion of just a decade earlier. Over the same period at MIT, that rate went up from 23 percent to 42 percent. These increases are common everywhere: The average number of undergraduate CS majors at universities in the U.S. and Canada tripled in the decade after 2005, and it keeps growing. Students’ interest in CS is intellectual—culture moves through computation these days—but it is also professional. Young people hope to access the wealth, power, and influence of the technology sector.That ambition has created both enormous administrative strain and a competition for prestige. At Washington University in St. Louis, where I serve on the faculty of the Computer Science & Engineering department, each semester brings another set of waitlists for enrollment in CS classes. On many campuses, students may choose to study computer science at any of several different academic outposts, strewn throughout various departments. At MIT, for example, they might get a degree in “Urban Studies and Planning With Computer Science” from the School of Architecture, or one in “Mathematics With Computer Science” from the School of Science, or they might choose from among four CS-related fields within the School of Engineering. This seepage of computing throughout the university has helped address students’ booming interest, but it also serves to bolster their demand. Continued here

S22

The "Reitoff principle": Why you should add "nothing" to your work-life schedule     ‘Since people only kill the spiders they see, humans are acting as an agent of natural selection, causing spiders to be selected for reclusion and intelligence. We are making spiders smarter.’ ‘Based on how much you can bond with someone by hating the same thing, a dating app based on dislikes would probably be fairly successful.’  Continued here

� � �

S23

A two-stage psychological model that explains alien abduction stories     The first alien abduction case to really grab the public’s attention was that of Betty and Barney Hill. On the night of September 19, 1961, the Hills were driving back from a short holiday in Canada to their home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, when, at around 10:30 p.m., Betty spotted a bright light near the moon. When it appeared to get bigger and brighter, they stopped the car and observed the light through binoculars. Betty thought she saw a huge, oddly shaped craft that might be a UFO. Barney initially thought that it was an aircraft. However, he quickly changed his mind.A little farther into their journey, they stopped again, and Barney got out of the car to observe the craft through the binoculars. He walked toward the craft until he was only 50 feet from it as it hovered at about tree height. He later reported that he saw a huge, pancake-shaped craft with a row of windows behind which were at least a dozen occupants in dark, Nazi-like uniforms. Barney panicked, got back into the car, and drove home.  Continued here

S48

The Future of EV Charging is Bidirectional, If You Can Afford It     With most electric vehicles parked at work or home all day, you may wonder whether you'll save that much by having one. But what if someone told you they are actually big batteries on wheels that could earn you some money? Surplus energy in electric vehicles (EVs) can be sold back to the grid instead of being stored, and this could be used to power millions of households when they need it most, which makes particular sense amid a global energy crisis. With cars and vans parked for an average of 23 hours a day, the potential is great.By 2030, when no new diesel and petrol vehicles will be allowed to be sold in the UK, there will be around 14 million EVs on British roads and 84 million across Europe according to estimates by the energy consultancy firm Delta-EE. That's plenty of batteries on wheels to tap into. Continued here

S47

Brace Yourself For the Comeback of Citizen Scientists     Richard Battarbee spent his entire life studying freshwater ecology as an academic at University College London—but it was only when he retired to Yorkshire that he found himself on the frontline of a battle to save a river. Fishermen in the town of Ilkley near where he lived started catching condoms, wet wipes and sanitary towels on their lines. Residents were noticing that fish and other animals were dying en masse. The water was discolored every time it rained heavily. Something was wrong in the river Wharfe.Battarbee, along with other local members of the Wharfedale Naturalists Society, suspected that the real cause of the pollution was a sewage outflow further down the river run by Yorkshire Water, the region's privatized water company. Continued here

S32

How Costco's $1.50 Hot Dog Combo Serves Up a Lesson in Building Brand Loyalty     Costco's $1.50 hot dog and soda deal has been a staple of the company's discount stores since 1985, when Ronald Reagan was president, the Berlin Wall stood tall, and Madonna's "Like a Virgin" topped Billboard's Hot 100. Despite all the changes in the world since -- and plenty of inflation -- shoppers nationwide have enjoyed the combo for the same price going on 40 years."There are some businesses that are doing well with margin... those things help us be more aggressive in other areas, or as you mentioned, hold the price on the hot dog and the soda a little longer, forever," Galanti said. Continued here

S24

The SEC Fines a Pair of Investment Advisories for False 'AI Washing' Claims     The proliferation of announcements, warnings, and headlines alternatively hailing or despairing the rise of artificial intelligence might support the conclusion that a degree of hype is behind all the buzz. The Security and Exchange Commission just confirmed that inkling, and also provided business leaders a warning about adding to the atmosphere of exaggeration with any "AI-washing" claims of their own. Violators in the financial services sector could face serious penalties, the agency said.Nobody questions the power of current or future AI applications to speed and improve a huge number of work tasks, often relieving humans from the drudgery of performing the most boring parts of a job. But Gary Gensler, chair of the Security and Exchange Commission, has clearly had enough of the more cynical ways some people in business have resorted to self-serving hype -- or outright fibs -- about the technology. In much the way dubious initiatives that claimed to help the environment eventually generated denunciations of "greenwashing," Gensler charged two businesses with "AI washing" for mispresenting the use and benefits of AI to customers. Continued here

S29

Court Pauses SEC Climate Disclosure Rules     Most small businesses won't be required to report under the SEC rules. But if you're interested in getting ahead of the curve and capitalizing on growing customer interest in sustainability, it's worth paying attention to what could become the norm.The climate disclosure rules were immediately challenged by several states and companies, the Journal reports. Only a week after oil field services companies Liberty Energy and Nomad Proppant Services filed a lawsuit challenging them, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request for an administrative stay on the climate disclosure rules, according to the Journal. The New Orleans-based court didn't explain the reasoning behind the order. Continued here

S49

People Hate the Idea of Car-Free Cities--Until They Live in One     London had a problem. In 2016, more than 2 million of the city’s residents—roughly a quarter of its population—lived in areas with illegal levels of air pollution; areas that also contained nearly 500 of the city’s schools. That same air pollution was prematurely killing as many as 36,000 people a year. Much of it was coming from transport: a quarter of the city’s carbon emissions were from moving people and goods, with three-quarters of that emitted by road traffic.But in the years since, carbon emissions have fallen. There’s also been a 94 percent reduction in the number of people living in areas with illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant that causes lung damage. The reason? London has spent years and millions of pounds reducing the number of motorists in the city. Continued here

S7

Should schools lock up kids’ phones?     The Akron schools are part of a growing movement across the US and Europe to ban phones in schools or require them to be locked up in pouches made by a startup named Yondr. School districts in at least 41 states have bought the pouches in recent years, a response to behavior issues as well as concerns about students’ mental health and learning, which have ramped up since the pandemic.“The results for us were just a game-changer,” Patricia Shipe, president of the Akron Education Association, which represents teachers and other educators in the district, told me. Fights in the schools have decreased since the bags were introduced to all middle and high schools in 2022, and kids report engaging with their friends more. Continued here

S31

When It Comes to Woman-Owned Businesses, the West Coast Is the Best Coast     The West Coast is one of the best places for woman-owned small businesses in the country, according to a study by online loan marketplace Lendio that ranked the top 10 U.S. states for women-owned businesses.Lendio based its study on seven metrics, which included factors such as the share of women-owned businesses, the percentage of female-owned businesses earning at least $1 million, and the percentage of patents filed by women. It sourced its data from various sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics. Continued here

S42

The World Needs to Crack Battery Recycling, Fast     It's the year 2035 and electric cars are taking over the roads. Petrol and diesel cars will soon be a thing of the past, the European Union has banned their sales in order to speed up the switch to cleaner mobility and mitigate climate change. Indeed, electric vehicles don't emit any carbon dioxide when being driven, but their rechargeable batteries are causing environmental and social concerns of their own. They contain scarce and expensive metals. And once the batteries are past their prime, they are tough to recycle.Ordinary lithium-ion batteries are made up of many individual cells and weigh hundreds of kilos. The battery pack used in the Nissan Leaf contains 192 pouch cells, that of the Tesla Model S contains 7,104 cylindrical cells, all bundled into modules that are screwed, welded and glued together to be controlled as one unit. As batteries start to pile up, carmakers, battery companies and researchers are trying to save them from ending up in landfills.Recyclers are primarily interested in extracting the valuable metals and minerals in the cells. Getting to these materials is complex and dangerous: After removing the steel casing, the battery pack needs to be unbundled into cells carefully, to avoid puncturing any hazardous materials. The electrolyte, a liquid whose job it is to move lithium ions between the cathode and anode, can catch fire or even explode if heated. Only once the pack has been dismantled, recyclers can safely extract the conductive lithium, nickel, copper, and cobalt. Used in the cathode, cobalt is the most sought-after material used in batteries. In its raw form, the rare, bluish-grey metal is predominantly sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where miners work in perilous conditions. The world's major electric car manufacturers are already moving away from cobalt, deterred by the human rights abuses, shortages in the supply chain, and fluctuating prices. Continued here

S43

Citizen Zoo Is Rewilding the UK, One Grasshopper at a Time     The large marsh grasshopper was once ever-present across Eastern England's wetlands. But after decades of habitat destruction, these handsome insects are now fragmented and locally extinct, holding out in the wettest fens, valleys, and peat bogs of the New Forest and Dorset.Now, London-based Citizen Zoo is trying to bring them back—and it's planning to do it by turning regular people into zookeepers. Reintroducing the grasshoppers to restored wetland sites across their historic range can bring huge benefits to ecosystems and food chains, says Citizen Zoo's 30-year-old CEO Lucas Ruzo. "We came up with this citizen keeper concept, which is basically normal people being zookeepers in their own homes, breeding and rearing grasshoppers," he says. Continued here

S44

How to Stay Cool Without Warming the Planet     There is an insidious irony to climate change: as it gets hotter, more and more people are cranking up their air conditioners, which in turn contributes to global warming. Air conditioner (AC) sales are booming worldwide, especially in emerging economies such as China, India and Indonesia where rising incomes make them more affordable and a warmer, more humid climate a necessity. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that around two thirds of the world's households could have an AC by 2050, and the demand for energy to cool buildings could triple.Keeping buildings cool contributes to global warming in two ways: ACs run on electricity, and they can release chemicals with a strong heat-trapping effect. ACs account for 16 percent of total electricity used in residential and commercial buildings around the world. This is significantly less than emissions caused by heating buildings—heaters run on natural gas, oil or electricity. But since the 2000s demand for air conditioning, ventilation and refrigeration systems has grown twice as fast as that for heating systems, at an average four percent per year. Continued here

S9

Hypnotizing Myself to Fly - The Cut (No paywall)     “Excuse me,” I said to the flight attendant greeting passengers and handing out packs of disinfectant wipes and headphones as she reached my aisle. My heart was pounding at the speed of hummingbird wings in mid-air, and I felt lightheaded. Taking full breaths felt like trying to lift cement with my lungs. I’d been in my seat for just five minutes as passengers were still filing in, cramming too-big carry-ons into too-small overhead bins; the jumbo Airbus felt like a tuna can. Despite my best efforts, I hadn’t been able to convince myself to sit down and buckle up. Every time my ass landed on the seat, I sprang back up as if it was covered in pushpins.“Headphones? Hand sanitizer?” the flight attendant asked me with a plastered smile. “I have to get off this plane,” I replied. The inside of my skull alternated between images of the plane crashing into the Atlantic Ocean and an engine dislocating, sending us into a tailspin. “Can you please tell me what to do?” I asked desperately, realizing I was being side-eyed by oncoming passengers and the crew. “You want to get off the aircraft?” she asked in a now-serious tone two octaves lower than her greeting voice. “Well, I thought I wanted to go on a solo vacation for a long weekend,” I blurted back, “but now I just want to be home with my family.” My face was flushed with embarrassment. “Okay, well, you need to collect your belongings and go speak to the gate attendant.” she said. I scurried off the plane, keeping my eyes on my shoes the entire walk up the lengthy jet bridge. I watched as the gate agent typed for seemingly 20 minutes into a computer to dismiss me from the flight record. Luckily, I only had a carry-on, so fleeing was relatively easy. While humiliation lingered, my throat opened to take a full breath and my pulse settled as I walked out of JFK into a yellow cab headed home to Brooklyn. That was two summers ago. Continued here

S21

Why "incompleteness" matters in theoretical physics     In physics, many of our greatest advances aren’t driven merely by data that conflicts with our best theories, but rather by noticing that two disparate aspects of our best current understanding simply don’t “play nice” with one another. Paying attention to those inconsistencies often helps us realize how our current theories are, in fact, “incomplete” in a fundamental sense, and the quest to find a more complete version of them often bears a tremendous amount of fruit as far as bringing about the next step forward in our understanding of the Universe.This has happened many times throughout history, and led to the development of a number of important advances in theoretical physics, including: Continued here

S30

5 SXSW Movies and Shows For Entrepreneurs     The 2024 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival brought stories about capitalism, entrepreneurs, and the intersection of business and technology to Austin. From documentaries that serve as a postmortem for failed businesses to miniseries detailing the fight for control over iconic founder-led organizations, there are lessons to be gleaned for business owners of every stripe.In 2011, entrepreneurs Stacy Spikes and Hamet Watt founded movie tickets subscription service MoviePass, which allowed customers to pay a monthly fee to see an unlimited number of movies in theaters. The documentary features Spikes and Watt as they recall MoviePass' acquisition by data analytics firm Helios & Matheson, and the fateful decision by the new owners that rocketed the company to over three million subscribers, but ultimately doomed it: Cutting the service's price to just $10 per month. One review described the film as the story of "two creative, ambitious Black entrepreneurs watching their dream unraveled by bumbling white men." The movie will air on HBO later this year.  Continued here

S50

Flooding Wetlands Could Be the Next Big Carbon Capture Hack     Arriving at the tidal wetlands of Mungalla Station on the coastline of northern Queensland, ornithologist Simon Kennedy from the not-for-profit BirdLife Australia is greeted by a welcome cacophony. "You start hearing honks and quacks and twitters and noises coming from there," he says of the area's diverse and thriving bird populations, "whereas it's very quiet elsewhere."It wasn't always this way. A decade or so ago, these saltwater wetlands—which cover around a quarter of the 880 hectares that make up Mungalla Station—were a mess of freshwater-sodden pastures, riddled with invasive weeds that were choking the land and waterways. The reason was an earth wall—known as a bund, built more than half a century ago where the estuary of the local river meets the sea—that blocked off incoming seawater to transform the saltwater wetlands into a ponded freshwater pasture for cattle farming. This created the perfect environment for invasive freshwater weeds and drove out much of the native wildlife. By transforming the composition of the land, it likely released a lot of carbon and methane, too. Continued here

S17

Why Physicians Resist Using Algorithm-Based Apps - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)     A limited study of physicians in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service found that they are resistant to using algorithm-based tools, including AI-based applications. The research, which consisted of interviews with 32 physicians, identified four reasons for their reluctance. This article suggests ways their resistance can be overcome.Algorithm-based technologies, including AI applications, in health care can provide incredibly accurate predictions and diagnoses for a plethora of diseases and can educate physicians in real time about treatments they might not be familiar with. For example, recent research that I conducted with colleagues shows that physicians can use mobile apps for timely, high-speed access to online repositories of information about infrequently used drugs. Continued here

S27

Sam Altman Says ChatGPT-4 'Kinda Sucks.' It's a Reminder of Why Entrepreneurs Innovate     The most popular iteration of OpenAI's ChatGPT -- the generative AI chatbot that's taken the world by storm and amassed 100 million daily users -- "kinda sucks," according to Sam Altman, the company's CEO. Altman struck the critical tone on an episode of The Lex Fridman Podcast, released Monday. The conversation covered a wide area related to generative AI and the torrent of hype and gold rush that's followed since the commercial release of ChatGPT in November, 2022.  Continued here

S35

Why Leaders Need to Value Their Retirement-Age Workforce     A growing number of workers are reaching retirement age around the globe. At the same time, many countries face a worker shortage, especially in critical areas like health care. Ken Dychtwald, cofounder and CEO of Age Wave, says it’s time for companies to stop overlooking this valuable labor pool, because AI alone won’t alleviate the tight supply. He explains why many late-career people want to work longer. And he shares creative and often simple ways that companies can keep older workers engaged, including phased retirements, non-ageist recruiting, mentorship programs, and grandparental leave. Dychtwald is a coauthor of the HBR article “Redesigning Retirement.” Continued here

S6

61 Unexpected ‘Forever Chemicals’ Found in Food Packaging - Scientific American (No paywall)     The study, published on Tuesday in Environmental Science & Technology, focused on a class of chemicals called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). For decades, these substances have been used in a wide range of consumer products, from cookware to pesticides to cosmetics, because of their ability to repel water and grease.PFASs are sometimes called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down readily in the environment or in the body. That’s because their characteristic carbon-fluorine bond—part of what makes them so useful in the first place—is one of the strongest in nature. PFASs have been found in human blood and breast milk, drinking water, soil and other startling places around the world. In March 2023 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a drinking water standard for six PFAS compounds. Exposure to some of the most studied PFASs has been associated with cancer, reproductive problems and lessened responses to vaccines. “There’s an incredible body of scientific evidence linking these chemicals to health harms,” says David Andrews, a chemist and toxicologist at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization, who was not involved with the new study. Continued here

S33

Going Remote Saved This PR Firm $90,000 a Year in Rent. So it Took the Team to Universal Studios     As his team grew out of various coworking spaces, founder and CEO David Barkoe was proud that, in the summer of 2019, he was finally able to invest in a dedicated office for the nine employees of his Miami-based PR firm. The new digs had floor-to-ceiling windows, new desks, and a branded mural custom-made by a local artist hanging at the entrance.  A few months into the Covid-19 pandemic, Barkoe was struck by several key realizations: the team was operating at the same level--if not better--than when they were in the office; Barkoe could now hire talent from nearly anywhere as the team grew; and Carve was paying approximately $7,000 per month on a 12-month lease for space that may or may not become usable in the foreseeable future. Continued here

S34

Why Physicians Resist Using Algorithm-Based Apps     A limited study of physicians in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service found that they are resistant to using algorithm-based tools, including AI-based applications. The research, which consisted of interviews with 32 physicians, identified four reasons for their reluctance. This article suggests ways their resistance can be overcome. Continued here

S13

Google DeepMind’s new AI assistant helps elite soccer coaches get even better - MIT Technology Review (No paywall)     Corner kicks are awarded to an attacking team when the ball passes over the goal line after touching a player on the defending team. In a sport as free-flowing and unpredictable as soccer, corners—like free kicks and penalties—are rare instances in the game when teams can try out pre-planned plays.TacticAI uses predictive and generative AI models to convert each corner kick scenario—such as a receiver successfully scoring a goal, or a rival defender intercepting the ball and returning it to their team—into a graph, and the data from each player into a node on the graph, before modeling the interactions between each node. The work was published in Nature Communications today. Continued here

S14

A study says intermittent fasting is making people drop dead. Oh, come on     Except scientific research doesn’t say that — and not only should you not be worried about this study, you shouldn’t be wasting brain glucose thinking about it. Even including that 91% number, which you’ll remember, caused me pain, because I don’t think this result should be remembered.The study is a type of nutritional research that is notoriously weak, and right now it’s only available as a press release. It’s not clear from the many, many news articles on the study whether reporters actually viewed the data that will be presented at an upcoming research meeting held by the American Heart Association. Continued here

S36

Overcoming Common Challenges to Disruptive Innovation     It has been nearly three decades since Clay Christensen first introduced the concepts of disruptive innovation in his classic HBR article, “Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave,” followed by his seminal book, The Innovator’s Dilemma. While he initially defined disruption as an innovation or new technology that comes in at the low end of an existing market at a lower price and with some performance tradeoffs, Christensen eventually broadened the concept to include innovations with the potential to create a new market or reinvent an existing one. Continued here

S38

How People Are Really Using GenAI     There are many use cases for generative AI, spanning a vast number of areas of domestic and work life. Looking through thousands of comments on sites such as Reddit and Quora, the author’s team found that the use of this technology is as wide-ranging as the problems we encounter in our lives. The 100 categories they identified can be divided into six top-level themes, which give an immediate sense of what generative AI is being used for: Technical Assistance & Troubleshooting (23%), Content Creation & Editing (22%), Personal & Professional Support (17%), Learning & Education (15%), Creativity & Recreation (13%), Research, Analysis & Decision Making (10%). Continued here

S40

The Ghanaian founder challenging Google     Paul Azunre is the co-founder and director of research at GhanaNLP, a nonprofit that develops artificial intelligence software for African languages. Besides creating digital tools for local consumers and companies, the organization aims to provide opportunities for African AI researchers.Think of it as leaving a digital cultural footprint for future generations. If we do not provide the basic tools for people to express themselves online, our languages will slowly disappear due to lack of use. Continued here

S19

The Crime Rings Stealing Everything from Purses to Power Tools - The New Yorker (No paywall)     A dozen detectives from the California Highway Patrol gathered in a Los Angeles-area parking lot the other morning for an operational briefing. In about twenty minutes, they would drive to a nearby Home Depot, where customers were known to regularly wheel carts of merchandise out the door without paying, and to stick power tools down their pants. The investigators had planned a nightlong “blitz”—surveillance, arrest, repeat. Anyone caught stealing would be handcuffed, led to a back room, and questioned: What did you plan to do with these items? Did you take them on behalf of someone else? The goal was not to micro-police shoplifting but to discover and disrupt networks engaged in organized retail crime, a burgeoning area of criminal investigation.A booster is a professional thief who typically sells to a fence—someone who resells stolen materials. A fence may buy a hundred-dollar drill from a booster for thirty bucks, to resell it for sixty. Or he may pay in drugs. In sworn testimony before a House committee on homeland security, Scott Glenn, Home Depot’s vice-president of asset protection, recently accused criminal organizations of recruiting vulnerable people into retail-theft schemes by preying on their need for “fast cash” or fentanyl. A fence may unload boosted goods at a swap meet, or at a store where illicit items are “washed” by commingling them with legitimate ones. Pilfered commodities often wind up online. Early in the pandemic, the pivot to e-commerce yielded new players eager to exploit the rogue freedoms of under-regulated commercial spaces. Amazon, eBay, OfferUp, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace—bazaarland. The detectives in the parking lot, who were detailed to, or working with, the highway patrol’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force, had been trying to keep up. “If we could just get back to the days when we were dealing with the career criminals, it would be more manageable,” Captain Jeff Loftin, who heads a group of investigative units in the C.H.P.’s Southern Division, told me. “Now we’re having to deal with everybody and their brother, and trying to find out who they are.” Continued here

S39

There is no American Ambani     If you were on Instagram over the weekend, you probably saw a few pictures of Anant Ambani’s three-day pre-wedding celebration — a blowout party in honor of his impending wedding to Radhika Merchant. Anant’s father is Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, the richest person in Asia, so the event drew some of the most famous business leaders in the world. Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates were both in attendance — but they were competing for attention with Rihanna, Akon, and Shah Rukh Khan, so they may have been less conspicuous than usual.It’s a remarkable moment, not least because it proves how globally influential Ambani’s empire has become. Rest of World previously illustrated his extensive reach into the lives of ordinary Indians, and it’s worth looking at again. Mukesh Ambani has steered the company, once known mostly for its oil business, across hundreds of interlinked businesses, from web services to phones to telecoms to in-person retail — a full-spectrum conglomerate of modern consumer goods. Continued here

S8

Uber-style pricing is coming for everything     In the future, the ideal time to eat a burger won’t be when you’re hungry and really hankering for one. It’ll be the oddest, most awkward hours — late mornings or afternoons, the middle of the night on a Tuesday — the slices of time when prices will be lowest. Not unlike your Uber ride, fast food prices will go up or down depending on demand.At least, this is the world people imagined when fast food chain Wendy’s revealed it would be tinkering with “dynamic pricing,” a broad term that describes any strategy where prices fluctuate based on supply and demand — like flights and Uber rides. The uproar was swift and sonorous; Wendy’s tried to clarify that it would use the strategy to offer lower prices, not to raise them when traffic is highest, but the reputational damage was done. In countless headlines, Wendy’s was accused of using surge pricing on food at a time when steep food prices at both restaurants and grocery stores have left many people drastically tightening their belts. Continued here

S25

New York's Legal Marijuana Industry Sputters as Black Market Thrives     New York will evaluate its troubled recreational marijuana licensing program after lawsuits and bureaucratic stumbles severely hampered the legal market and allowed black-market sellers to flourish, Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered Monday.The review will focus on ways the state can speed up license processing times and allow businesses to open faster, as well as a top-down assessment of the Office of Cannabis Management's structure and systems. Continued here

S26

Unilever Exits     Unilever, a U.K. based consumer brand, said today it was going to spin off its ice cream business division, which includes household names like Magnum and Ben & Jerry's. The move is part of a bigger overall strategy shift which will see Unilever axe some 7,500 staff around the world, mostly office workers, with a goal of saving costs near $870 million over three years, Reuters notes. And though the details are still emerging, the lucrative ice cream labels aren't simply being disposed of: Unilever says the division will likely be spun off into its own entity and float on the stock market by the end of 2025.Unilever's ice cream business sells sweet treats around the world, and CNN notes its sales make up almost 20 percent of global ice cream sales -- more than the next four biggest labels combined. But during 2023, the ice cream division stuttered, and in an earnings statement, Unilever said market share and profitability both declined. Now it seems, facing cost-cutting pressure from billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz, plus Unilever shareholder Aviva -- a multinational insurance company headquartered in London -- the time has come to twist off the ice cream business and let it float on its own. Continued here

S45

Scientists Are Tinkering With Clouds to Save the Great Barrier Reef     It's a sweltering summer in Australia, and the corals on the Great Barrier Reef are showing early signs of stress. The authority that manages the largest coral reef system in the world is expecting another bleaching event in the coming weeks—if that happens, it will be the sixth time since 1998 that spikes in water temperatures wipe out swathes of corals that are home to countless marine animals. Three of these bleaching events, which make corals more susceptible to disease and death, have happened in the last six years alone. When corals experience extreme and prolonged heat stress, they expel the algae living in their tissues and turn completely white. This can have devastating impacts on the thousands of fish, crabs and other marine species that rely on the reefs for refuge and food. To slow the rate at which ocean warming is bleaching the coral, some scientists are looking to the skies for a solution. Specifically, they're looking at clouds.Clouds bring more than just rain or snow. During the day, like massive parasols, clouds reflect some of the sunlight away from the Earth and back into space. Marine stratocumulus clouds are particularly important: they lie at low altitudes, are thick and cover about 20 percent of the tropical ocean area, cooling the water beneath. This is why scientists are exploring whether their physical properties could be altered to block even more sunlight. On the Great Barrier Reef, the hope is to provide some much-needed relief to coral colonies during increasingly frequent heat waves. But there are also projects aimed at global cooling that are more controversial. Continued here

S15

The 89-year-old woman who is still travelling the world solo     She sold her engagement ring and began a lifetime of seeing the world. Continued here