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June 2022 - Things of Interest


Pakistani tech start-ups start to feel the heat amidst worsening economic conditions & global downturn

How tech start-ups could be a casualty of the war on self-preferencing

Big Tech bill advocates and critics keep pressure on U.S. lawmakers. Also, antitrust bill's progress sparks tech lobbying splurge

With clock ticking, battle over tech regulation intensifies. Both Big Tech and its opponents are focusing on Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer

How artificial intelligence can create any picture you want, and a Google engineer says its AI has become self-aware

Take a trip through the history of the internet

Tesla & SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he may walk away from his potential $44B acquisition of Twitter. Possible options in this deal are here

US automakers report nearly 400 crashes involving partial or fully automated driving systems between July and May; Tesla accounted for 273 crashes out of an estimated 830,000 such vehicles on the road

RIP Internet Explorer

Is Google Search dying? One of the internet's most widely used tools is becoming increasingly ineffective and Google’s worst hardware flop was introduced 10 years ago this month. The Nexus Q had a standout design, but everything else about it was a miss

On the other hand, Steve Jobs knew the iPhone would be iconic. More than 2 billion Phones and 15 years later, he was right

New York state passes first-ever ‘right to repair’ law for electronics

Q&A with FTC Chair Lina Khan: “The word ‘efficiency’ doesn’t appear anywhere in the antitrust statutes.” Also, Lina Khan, a big tech critic, tries answering her own detractors [NY Times]

FTC’s antitrust probe of Amazon picks up speed under new boss and Advocates call on FTC to investigate manipulative design abuses in popular FIFA game

Window closes for FTC to intervene in Musk's Twitter takeover. See also Musk deal for Twitter dodges lengthy U.S. antitrust review

Back to the Future’ at the Federal Trade Commission: highlights from an expert panel discussion

The Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act is fatally flawed

American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA): An affront to the rule of law. And AICOA’s Data Security, Privacy, and Content Moderation issues call for risk assessment

From the history books: Antitrust and Rule by Judges by Posner & Stigler

U.S. adoption of a Central Bank Digital Currency could revitalise payments markets with competition

Matt Stoller on Inflation: It's the monopoly profits, stupid. A raft of studies have come out showing that this inflationary episode is being driven by the supply side. Policymakers are responding

Matt Stoller on how Trump increased your cell phone bill. A set of lawsuits is charging that T-Mobile and Sprint executives lied to the judge who approved their 2020 merger. Now prices are going up. It's time for damages and a break-up

The Competition and Markets Authority’s General Counsel delivered a speech to The Law Society's Competition Section on “maximising our relevance and impact in a changing world”

The CMA has completed its market study into mobile ecosystems and as part of its market study into mobile ecosystems, the it commissioned consumer research into the UK smartphone market by research agency Accent

The CMA is investigating Google’s conduct in relation to distribution of apps on Android devices in the UK, in particular Google’s Play Store rules which oblige certain app developers to use Google’s own payment system (Google Play Billing) for in-app purchases and plans a market investigation into mobile browsers and cloud gaming

Susan Cain on longing as the fulcrum of creativity

Stranger Things 4 breaks record with 287 million hours viewed

Tracking what happens after a song goes viral (via YouTube)

Kurt Cobain's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" guitar sells for $4.6M at auction

Queen have discovered an unreleased song featuring Freddie Mercury. "It's beautiful, it's touching," said Brian May  and Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" tops UK charts 37 years after release following "Stranger Things" appearance

Metallica Is ‘totally blown away’ by ‘Stranger Things’ scene featuring ‘Master of Puppets’

Paramount sued over ‘Top Gun’ copyright as ‘Maverick’ soars at the box office

The 50 Best 3-hour-or-longer movies, according to Rotten Tomatoes

Check out this day in music

Netflix has greenlit “Squid Game: The Challenge,” a reality competition series based on the hit 2021 South Korean drama

Manufacturers struggle to keep pace with vinyl record demand

Amazon Marketplace: Pakistani sellers among world's top 3 fastest growing and a former Amazon employee found guilty of hacking customers' cloud data systems, stealing information linked to 2019 Capital One data breach that exposed more than 100 million records

How big data is cracking the codes of love, happiness, and success

Europe’s Digital Markets Act: it’s still a privacy danger

[PAPER] Privacy Costs and Consumer Data Acquisition: An Economic Analysis of Data Privacy Regulation

Many tech employees say they prefer to quit rather than be monitored during work. A Morning Consult survey finds that roughly half of tech workers who said they’re not monitored at work would resign rather than be subject to facial recognition or having their employer record audio or video of them

The federal Government Accountability Office pointed out recent administrations haven’t actually had a single, up-to-date strategy for closing the digital divide and suggested that having one might actually be … useful

Congress is actually taking a go at a real privacy bill. Three of the four congressional negotiators have come to agreements on consumer lawsuits, pre-emption of state laws and much more, but the sudden action doesn't mean the text is close to passing

And Office 365 is watching you work…and much more than just watch. there seems to be a lack of transparency for users in terms of what data is collected and for what purpose

What is Opportunity Cost and how to calculate it?

Thinking about the 2000s productivity slowdown

What sort of economic ‘vibe shift’ is America really facing?

In the U.S. and around the world, inflation is high and getting higher and how should developing countries deal with inflation? A Q&A with Raghuram Rajan

Which companies are paying the typical worker $200K? A few companies are paying top dollar for employees with the right sets of skills, but pay levels vary widely

The Federal Reserve has approved the largest interest rate hike since 1994 in an effort to continue to slow down the economy and curb high inflation

Can privacy regulations outsmart smart toys?

A new approach to regulating credit-scoring AI

The regulatory challenges of FinTech

The procurement path to AI governance

Using AI to reduce performance risk in U.S. procurement

Should the European Union require tech firms to adopt a common charger?

And will the DSA’s short compliance deadlines set some companies up to fail?

The Digital Markets Act – We gonna catch ‘em all?

Food giant Kellogg to split into three companies focused on snacks, cereals, and plant-based foods

Ernst & Young hit with $100 million fine after auditors cheat on ethics exam

The world’s biggest companies generate an incredible amount of money each year, with tech giants such as Apple posting annual profits of as much as $55 billion. See how much they make each second

Behind the scenes, McKinsey guided companies at the centre of the opioid crisis [NYT]

Israel signs historic trade deal with UAE, its biggest with any Arab country

Influence through sports? Saudi Arabia's inaugural LIV Golf tournament debuted in London, the first event in the country's newly launched professional golf series. Financed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the organisation has made waves for its aggressive recruitment of the sport's biggest stars. The league is viewed as a direct rival to the US-based PGA Tour and has been criticised as an effort to "sportswash" the country's image in the face of a track record of human rights violations.

Russia-Ukraine at 100 days and a visual deep-dive into the war impact on global food supply chains

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a no-confidence vote, securing enough support from his Conservative Party to remain in office. The win insulates Johnson from another vote for 12 months under current rules, but those rules could change

The first flight scheduled to deport asylum seekers from Britain was grounded at the last minute after the European Court of Human Rights intervened, citing a risk of harm to migrants on board. The flight was part of a new controversial partnership between the UK and Rwanda, in which migrants from the Middle East, Sudan, and other countries who enter Britain illegally via the English Channel would be sent to the East African nation for asylum-processing

The World Bank raised the risk of a global recession, warning economies may face a 1970s-like period of stagflation, characterised by slow economic growth and rising prices. The Bank lowered its global growth forecast for this year to 2.9%, down from 5.7% in 2021. Growth is expected to hover around that figure through 2024 because of disrupted human activity, trade, and investments due to pandemic lockdowns and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The report is here

This is how to laugh online in 26 languages

Visualising the coming shift in global economic power (2006-2036)

Pakistani government chided for ‘Drink less tea, save money’ plea

The economic crisis in Sri Lanka

The world's most liveable cities for 2022

How to get yourself to enjoy running (beginner’s guide)

Drinking coffee may be linked to lower risk of death, even with a little sugar. People in the U.K. who had more than one daily cup of coffee had a lower mortality risk than non-coffee drinkers, a study found

How does heart transplant surgery work?

Researchers are learning more about how the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus stifles smell — and how they might revive it

Three ways to hear what your team thinks about you

Help your team (actually) work smarter, not harder

The C-Suite skills that matter most

Is your strategy ready for the global stage? Related: A critical challenge is key to creating good strategy, says Richard Rumelt. And there are some strategy lessons CEOs can learn from the military

Angelica Ross on 3 lessons for overcoming your biggest challenges in both life and business. She discusses what it took to understand her own value and create a welcoming environment for her employees

How to know when it's time to pivot. Assessing when it is time to adapt to the latest trends

Why your leadership hinges on your communication skills

A six-month trial of a four-day workweek kicked off in the UK, the biggest pilot to take place so far. More than 3,000 employees from 70 companies will work one less day for the same pay. Organized by the UK-based research group Autonomy and its partners, analysts will track productivity and employee well-being during the pilot. A similar trial conducted in Iceland from 2015 to 2019 found an increase in overall well-being while productivity remained the same; 86% of workers in Iceland are now on or transitioning to a four-day schedule. Other countries plan to test the schedule this year, including Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, and Spain. In the US and Canada, 38 companies will participate in a similar pilot

The salary gap female start-up CEOs face won’t go away. In 2019, the gap between male and female early-stage startup CEO pay was $5,000. Today, it’s $20,000

Lunching@Work: when eating at your desk is forbidden

How the CEO’s leadership in digital transformation can tip the scales toward success

Multitasking: Is it good and can you master it?

Change your life – one tiny step at a time

How to have executive presence while staying true to yourself. Passion and enthusiasm often fail to translate effectively in settings that call for authority, clarity, and confidence

Don't tell your audience to turn off their phones!

How the pandemic is reshaping food and beverage innovation and packages are getting smaller

Our perceptions of wealth may affect us more profoundly than we realise

4 rituals to keep you happy all the time

Watergate. On 17 June 1972, five men were arrested attempting to infiltrate and bug the Democratic National Committee in the lead-up to that year's presidential election (see visual timeline). Originally claiming to be anti-communists and freedom fighters, the men were eventually linked to the Nixon campaign

A merry-go-round of buck-passing’: inside the four-year Grenfell inquiry five years after the fire that killed 72 and over 300 days of evidence

How three sisters (and their mom) tried to swindle the Canadian Revenue Agency out of millions

The US Supreme Court struck down a New York law restricting the ability of residents to carry firearms outside of the home. The 6-3 decision marks the most significant gun rights ruling by the court in more than a decade AND in a highly anticipated decision, overturned Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling that provided a constitutional basis for abortion rights in the US for nearly 50 years. Under the court's decision, individual states will have the legal authority to allow, regulate, or ban abortion procedures, creating a patchwork of laws

Think like Elon Musk with first principles thinking

Bryce Dallas Howard on how to preserve your private life in the age of social media

Amber Heard ordered to pay $15M in abuse claims defamation trial. The verdict suggests that the jury believed arguments from Depp that Heard faked her injuries in the rare celebrity defamation case to go to trial.

Innovators under 35 (2022)

Vietnam 'Napalm Girl' gets final burn treatment in Florida 50 years later

Sheryl Sandberg to step down as Meta COO. Her career-defining moments from "Lean In" to January 6 and everything in between. See also Facebook’s first grown-up steps down. Who is Mark Zuckerberg’s new No. 2? It’s a Trick Question. Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, has restructured his company so that he no longer has a top deputy

U.S. FCC commissioner wants Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores

Every week, two more newspapers close — and ‘news deserts’ grow larger. In poorer, less-wired parts of the U.S., it’s harder to find credible news about your local community. That has dire implications for democracy

Can online dating burnout be stopped? It can be a depressing grind that leaves many singles feeling burnt out.

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