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April 2022 - Things of Interest

 Ultimate Mind Maps ~ Gallery | Creativity, Design and Making


5 free Zoom alternatives that break the 40-minute barrier. These free videoconferencing services don’t skimp on time or features

Europe to slap new regulations on Big Tech, beating U.S. to the punch. EU passes historic law, the Digital Services Act, to hold social media sites accountable for illegal content. Google, Meta, and others will have to explain their algorithms

More than 50 U.S. gig workers murdered on the job in five years. New report lists Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Grubhub worker victims, and the tally is likely even higher

Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter to defend ‘free speech,’ but free speech for whom? Then…

The Twitter board is reportedly not interested in Elon’s takeover offer. It’s also said to be considering ways to avoid a hostile takeover…then

Elon Musk bought Twitter. Here's what he says he'll do next.

Elon Musk and Twitter: What we know, what we don’t about $44 billion deal. A look at the timeline that led up to Elon Musk becoming Twitter's largest shareholder—and what he may be thinking.

“What are the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom of speech?” That’s how Elon Musk responded to Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s statement that he was opposed to Musk’s takeover bid. The prince, one of Twitter’s largest shareholders, is a royal in a country that’s ranked one of the worst in the world for press freedom.

Why Elon Musk’s $44bn vision for Twitter could fall apart

How Americans feel about the future of tech and how do big tech giants make their billions?

Why tech platforms are facing rebellion. More than 10,000 sellers on Etsy have closed their shops for a week from April 11, in effect going on strike

Is the FAANG era over? Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google had for years been lumped together as a group of fast-growing, Big Tech behemoths with limitless potential. But tastes shift, challengers emerge, and after a world-beating run together, the band is breaking up

AI investment more than doubled to $93.5 billion in 2021 but…it’s mostly going to “mature firms,” rather than early-stage companies

Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey Sustainability announced they would spend a collective $925 million over the next nine years on permanent carbon removal. They created Frontier, an advanced market commitment that will work to ensure future demand by enabling large organizations to purchase high-quality carbon removal from start-ups developing promising technology.

Google released a “multi-search” feature that allows you to search using text and images at the same time

Still fuzzy overall “web3” thing? This podcast will help

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen delivered her first major speech on digital currency. Crypto might be here to stay, but she's not sure it’ll work as advertised

It’s been a terrible year for tech IPOs. From Zomato to Paytm and Grab, here's how high-profile IPOs turned into record-breaking flops within a year.

Attention Markets: They know them when they see them

“We have already increased the number of technologists on our staff, drawing from a diverse set of skill sets, including data scientists and engineers, user-design experts, and AI researchers—and we plan to continue building up this team.” —Lina Khan, FTC Chair, in a speech

And FTC Chair Khan squares the circle with an “interdisciplinary approach” to protecting privacy and competition

Matt Stoller on Blowing Up Antitrust Enforcement. 4,000 people wrote the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice about monopolies

Public Knowledge urges FTC, DOJ to apply special scrutiny to big tech mergers in new guidelines. It filed comments on merger guidelines as both the FTC and DOJ work to modernise antitrust law enforcement

UK tech regulator warns of high cost to small business of new internet bill

[PAPER] Antitrust enforcers and its other defenders have never done a good job of selling their field to the public, says Herbert Hovenkamp in Selling Antitrust

[BOOK] The United States vs. China: The Quest for Global Economic Leadership

[BOOK] Trustworthy AI: A Business Guide for Navigating Trust and Ethics in AI

Snubs & surprises at the 2022 Grammys. CBS' telecast of the awards inches up to 8.9 million viewers from last year's show, which was its least watched ever

Pink Floyd reunites to raise money for Ukraine. ‘This is a crazy, unjust attack.’

Ed Sheeran wins court battle over Shape of You plagiarism accusation

The most popular music for focusing, according to Spotify data

Netflix is finally going after password sharing and lets users gives double thumbs-up button to mark shows, movies they really love

“Strategic misalignment.” Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down CNN+ after only 4 weeks

Two California brothers, one a kidnap hero and one a Yosemite serial killer, featured in Hulu documentary 'Captive Audience'

Tim Cook delivers speech at the at an event hosted by the International Association of Privacy Protections, railing against “data industrial complex,” sideloading. FTC Chair Lina Khan also spoke at the event but her privacy proposals are at odds with market principles and consumer welfare

US uncovers “Swiss Army knife” for hacking industrial control systems. “Pipedream" an extremely versatile malware toolkit for targeting power grids, refineries

Preparing for a cyberattack starts at the local level and a true (cyber)crime podcast with a comedic twist: What the Hack with Adam Levin is a humorous new pod that dives into digital crimes and how to stay protected online

 

John Oliver explains the online data broker industry and blackmails Congress with their own data

SEC probes Amazon's handling of employees' use of sellers' data for private labels

Facebook doesn’t seem to fully know how their data is used internally, say an internal document

A detailed Morning Consult poll finds that among potential users’ anxiety about the metaverse, two subjects reign supreme: The misuse of personal data and online abuse

And on misuse of personal data, scam loan apps soar across India resulting in digital blackmail and endless threats. Nearly half of the digital lending apps available in India between January and February 2021 were illegal, as per the central bank.

The report, In the Dark, by Rest of the World, is seven years, 60 countries, 935 internet shutdowns showing how authoritarian regimes found an off switch for dissent. A decade of blackouts and other government-led digital suppressions was analysed. This chart, which shows how internet blackouts have become a commonly used tool for governments, is one of several interactive extras into the story.

 

 

Research shows CEOs with MBAs don’t make things better

How to become a thought leader in 5 steps

Cracking the culture code for successful digital transformation. Finding the right balance between continuity and change can help leaders better manage the cultural changes that occur during a digital transformation

How the Metaverse could change work

Global management programmes can help win the escalating ‘talent war’

It’s not enough for CEOs to empathise with employees. Instead, wise compassion is the key to having difficult conversations with workers

Russia earned $66B in fuel exports since start of war on Ukraine

Employees are fed up with lousy cultures and bad bosses

Three reskilling essentials to support adaptability. Reskilling is an ongoing process that, if done correctly, will support the future success of the organisation through sustained unpredictability. It’s therefore important to ensure your reskilling basics are in check.

Why McKinsey’s 7S model could help your organisation align

How to strengthen workplace connections outside your team

Drone footage shows everything going on inside Tesla's Berlin Gigafactory. It goes through the whole factory without disturbing any of the busy robots

How automaker logos have evolved over the past century and BMW launches new 7 Series with all-electric model

Netflix shares down by 25% (or maybe 35%) after company reports it lost subscribers for the first time in more than 10 years

New Netflix documentary charts rise and fall of Abercrombie & Fitch

And commercials are coming to Netflix. What that means for marketers, tech, and creatives. Integrating content and ad tech is not a seamless process

Here’s the Netflix intro done with Yarn

The California State Legislature introduced a bill that could shorten the standard 5-day schedule for companies with 500+ employees

Uber drivers in India are turning off their ACs to protest low pay as temperatures soar. The "no air-conditioning campaign" will continue until the government fixes a base fare for app-based cab services

Despite global ambitions, Elon Musk’s Starlink struggles to reach users outside North America and Europe. Starlink finally found its right place, right time in Ukraine. For years, the much-hyped satellite internet venture has struggled with delays and doubts, but has helped keep people in Ukraine connected

Mark Carney says climate policy is macro policy and Google Earth Day slideshow highlights climate change's impact on planet. Time-lapse imagery shows the damage climate change has already done to our planet. And the heatwave in India and Pakistan: Will it break in time for Eid?

And here’s the one IPCC climate-tech chart you need to know

Earth clock: Just go here and wait for ‘it’ to happen. You’ll see and if you do, let me know

New vehicles must average 40 mpg by 2026, up from 28 mpg and an A380 Superjumbo jet just completed a flight powered by cooking oil

Back to the future in Pakistan? What led to leader Imran Khan’s downfall in Pakistan? Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party lost the support of coalition allies, denying a majority he needed to defeat a no-confidence vote

The war in Ukraine has sparked doomsday predictions about the end of globalisation, but Wharton professor Exequiel (Zeke) Hernandez disagrees [audio]

Mapping poverty in America showing the share of people with income below poverty level, by county

The map of our DNA is finally complete. Here's what that means for humanity

Why we’re all forgetting things right now. Short, temporary moments of forgetfulness are happening to more of us more often these days, memory experts say

Who we spend time with as we get older

Ranking the best fast food in America

How much radiation is emitted by popular smartphones?

Here’s your secret to success: go the f*ck to sleep

This visual guide will help you cultivate your personal style

When you and your romantic partner disagree about the meaning of work, it reduces your odds of quickly landing a job should you find yourself unemployed

The best memes of 2022 (So Far)

Fortnite raised $144 million for Ukraine relief. The fundraising effort lasted only two weeks

Snap, SignAll team up on American Sign Language Alphabet Lens

Who’s in your wallet? A visual essay about the famous figures who represent today’s currencies around the world

Five Excel formatting shortcuts that just make sense

Divergent Association Task measures verbal creativity in under 4 minutes. check it out à A quick and objective measure of verbal creativity

Elon Musk talks Twitter, Tesla, and the future at TED2022.

Former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and UAE accused of illegal foreign lobbying

Tennis great Boris Becker is going to jail for two-and-a-half years for hiding assets to avoid paying debts

Tim Harford on five ways to fight the information war

How to win the fight against disinformation. From Covid conspiracies to lies about the Ukraine war … traditional fact-checking is no match for the power of the crowd

TikTok's ad revenue to surpass Twitter and Snapchat combined in 2022

Canada is taking on Big Tech with new legislation that would force companies like Facebook and Google to compensate the struggling domestic news industry for the use of its content

Check out Streaks and Superhuman to help your productivity

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