Tag: IFTTT

The pandemic made hanging out weird in a lot of ways. Group activities became highly coordinated — if they happened at all. There was a ream of questions to answer before even the most casual interactions: Who's going to be there? Who else have they seen lately? Are they vaccinated? Have they tested recently? Even once you got to wherever you were going, there were rules and expectations. You were supposed to awkwardly stand or sit 6 feet away from each other and try to figure out what everyone was saying from behind a mask, with all the muffled noises and half-blocked facial expressions that came with them. A lot of social interactions moved online, which came with its own sense of formality — group Peloton rides, Zoom trivia, whatever the Houseparty app was, or Clubhouse. Chill time, for good reason, required work to achieve.

Over the past few years, life has become much more normal for many people. They're back in the office, going to restaurants and live events, gathering with friends and family in person. Some of the structured nature of their social interactions, however, have not reverted to their previous form. The stilted nature of some pandemic-era habits — many that come with a dash of work — stuck around as a permanent feature. Case in point: the PowerPoint party, where people get together to show each other presentations on various topics in the name of having fun.

PowerPoint parties supposedly started in 2012 as "drink, talk, and learn" gatherings in Canada. Over time, they spread. Kids at Harvard were doing them in 2018 because, come on, it's Harvard kids. Of course, they were. When COVID-19 hit, they really took off, especially among the youngs. It made some sense during the period when we were trapped inside. It's easy enough to share your screen on Zoom or Google Meet, and it was better to have some sort of activity to do instead of just staring at people's faces (and your own) for the eighth day in a row.

But even as we've gotten back to normal hangouts, people are still connecting their laptops to TVs and sharing slides in social settings. Take a spin around TikTok, and you can find loads of PowerPoint-party content. There are presentations on which Beyoncé songs best represent each friend, what to do if you're trapped in an elevator, or whether pigeons are a pest or a pet. In March, Cosmopolitan put out a list of 55 PowerPoint ideas to "spice up your next at-home hang," which included ideas such as making a pitch for each of your friends' celebrity look-alike or "ranking cartoon characters by hotness."

Must we turn something we do at work into something we do in our personal lives? Just hanging out without a plan is fine and pleasant.

I guess I can see how this might be enjoyable, and some of the presentations do seem genuinely clever and funny, but I don't know, man. I love my friends, and also I absolutely do not want to do this with any of them.

Sure, a PowerPoint night is not that far off from, say, a game or movie night. It's a chance to be creative and turn something you do at work into something silly and social. But also, must we turn something we do at work into something we do in our personal lives? Just hanging out without a plan is fine and pleasant. Spontaneity is exciting! Another way to be creative is to put yourself in a situation where you have to be creative by thinking on your feet about conversation topics and activities at random.

The rise of the PowerPoint party also speaks to the workification of our day-to-day lives. The border between work and time off has been blurring for years. The ability to always respond to emails or messages on your phone has made "personal" time more porous. And especially among young, ambitious people, there's a sense that you constantly have to be busy, that everything has to be optimized, that there's always space for programming or growth. People post their workouts on Strava to show off their activity and compare it with their friends' and obsess over their VO2 max to track their fitness. They maintain tightly managed to-do lists and approach even a casual encounter like a networking opportunity. It's a constant rat race that feels exhausting. Even if it's supposed to be goofy, making a presentation for a party entails a level of productivity that we already have to bring to so many other spaces at work or school.

We should be able to embrace unstructured time. Indeed, culturally, that's a norm that's declining, especially for kids. As Vox's Anna North laid out last year, the amount of children's unstructured playtime in the US dropped by 25% from 1981 to 1997. For various reasons, kids don't have as much experience just getting along doing stuff on their own anymore, which can influence their sense of autonomy and deprive them of opportunities to develop important social skills and tools to combat anxiety and depression. It may also mean that as adults, they struggle to go with the flow. Perhaps it's no surprise that young adults who had their childhood activities scheduled down to the minute are embracing the PowerPoint party. But unstructured time is good for people of all ages. It can help with stress and anxiety, add space for rest, relaxation, and creativity, and give people a mental break.

Even if it's supposed to be goofy, making a presentation for a party entails a level of productivity that we already have to bring to so many other spaces at work or school.

Instead of embracing a bit more randomness, people are constantly squeezing friends and family into their calendars. It's not uncommon for someone to send out a Google form to pick out a new book-club book and date, just like they might at work. Responding to a group text message using classic office speak like "touch base" or "circle back" has become the norm in some circles. And, yes, this isn't to say there hadn't been theme parties that required a little planning or game nights with structure, but using products made by tech giants like Microsoft and Google to enjoy a night in with friends feels a lot sadder than relearning the rules of Monopoly. Bonding is important for forming relationships, and collective effervescence is a real thing, but it's hard not to wonder whether there are ways to achieve those things without emulating what we do 9 to 5 or requiring homework before the "fun" begins.

If you absolutely insist on having a PowerPoint party, God bless. Good for you. I don't want to yuck your yum. But also, maybe think about why you feel the need to do it, and, really, don't invite me.

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/YyRrOUN
via IFTTT

• A Ukrainian soldier says over 100 of his comrades were killed or went missing in an attack, per AP.
• His brigade was brought in to try to hold a position that had hardly any fortifications.
• It had to retreat as soldiers struggled to build fortifications under Russian fire, AP reported.

A Ukrainian soldier fighting on a key battlefront in the country's east described how over 100 of his comrades were killed or went missing as they struggled to build fortifications under heavy Russian fire.

The soldier, from Ukraine's 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade, spoke to the Association Press on condition of anonymity to share the situation on the front line.

According to the news agency, his brigade was rotated in mid-March to hold a position less than two miles from the strategic city of Chasiv Yar in Donestk.

Instead of the dugouts, maze of trenches, and firing positions he had anticipated, the soldier found a series of pits that were hardly big enough to hide in during artillery barrages.

"I would be hard-pressed to describe them as 'positions,'" he told the AP.

When the brigade came under Russian fire, "soldiers would climb out of pits and start digging in each other's direction so that there is at least some connection between them," he said.

But the land was so sandy the defenses would crumble as soon as shells struck them, per AP.

With nowhere to take cover and no means to counter the Russian barrage, the soldiers were forced to retreat, per the news agency.

More than 100 were left dead or missing, including department commanders, platoon commanders, company commanders, and sergeants, the soldier told the AP.

"We lost the entire skeleton of the brigade," he said.

The brigade was dissolved by Ukraine's General Staff following its retreat in early April, with commanders saying they lacked the resources to succeed, per AP.

The situation around Chasiv Yar has grown desperate for Ukraine, with Russia dropping glide bombs on Ukrainian positions to devastating effect and outfiring Ukrainian forces by a 10 to 1 ratio.

According to an assessment from The Institute for the Study of War, Russian forces are trying to take advantage of a tactical breakthrough northwest of Avdiivka to create a larger breach and take Chasiv Yar before US aid to Ukraine reaches the front lines.

The ISW said that any redeployment of Russian units to the area would put Ukrainian forces under "increasing" pressure.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/ZFRWV4I
via IFTTT

• I'm not against screen time, but the school my kids go to is tech-free.
• The kids there spend their time playing outside and focusing on movement and collaboration. 
• At home, we allow free rein over screens, but our kids don't abuse the privilege.

As a parent of two kids, ages 4 and 6, it comes as no surprise to me that technology in the classroom is beginning to face a lot of heat. In less than five years, we watched the world go from "screens are bad, and shame on you for exposing your child to even a second of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood!" to an era where, by necessity, everybody worked remotely, and children as young as three were attending preschool in front of a Chromebook for six hours at a time.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think technology is "bad" — my husband and I both work in digital media, and we've proudly exposed our kids to screens since birth (we even bought our 6-year-old, Oscar, his own iPhone for Christmas!) But at our son's tech-free school, there isn't so much as a smart board — and that's just the way we like it.

Their school emphasizes spending time outside and collaborating with classmates

Like all Waldorf Schools, my son's school, the Otto Specht School, emphasizes interaction with the natural world and with each other, and engaging in hands-on learning. Technology and screens aren't introduced until middle school, when students are taught lessons in cyber civics, as well as practical skills such as coding. Even at the high school level, the focus remains on working with natural materials and engaging in movement and art.

As a student in the early childhood program, Oscar spends a lot of his day outside, moving his body and exploring his environment. Learning comes from collaborating with classmates and solving the real-life problems that arise when putting on a puppet show, building a model out of beeswax, or baking bread and cutting vegetables to go into a soup served as that day's snack.

Consider the creativity and critical thinking that comes with planting seeds, constructing forts, climbing trees, and caring for animals, and compare this to your typical digital curriculum, where content is delivered passively and learning requires little agency or initiative beyond hitting "play."

All this hands-on learning is particularly important for Oscar, a child with special needs. His main challenge is social anxiety, and he struggles to communicate when among peers or in unfamiliar settings. Some researchers caution that technology can perpetuate social anxiety, and say that more internet use is associated with a higher fear of face-to-face interactions. Social anxiety is best treated with exposure, and online communications lack nuanced social cues, meaning that kids like Oscar need face-to-face interactions— not occupational therapy delivered over Zoom.

We let our kids use screens at home, but they don't overindulge

Like most Waldorf schools, Otto Specht suggests limited media exposure at home. But in our house, our kids have free rein when it comes to screen time. Oscar can watch hours of Disney Plus, zone out to Instagram reels on the iPad, or play Minecraft to his heart's content.

To me, the fact that he doesn't overindulge is an indication of a tech-free school's success. He's just as interested in digging a pond in the garden or putting together a puzzle as he is in movie night.

Some people argue that it's necessary to introduce kids to technology because it makes them "workplace-ready." But let's face it, the technology we insist our kids master and defend as integral to learning won't even exist by the time today's students enter the workforce.

In the meantime, let's let kids be kids.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/DExPY0a
via IFTTT

• US job creation is shifting from rich coastal cities to the Sunbelt and Midwest.
• The shift is in large part a result of skyrocketing housing costs in coastal cities. 
• The cities with the lowest average wages are experiencing the fastest job growth.

Americans are heading South — and so are their jobs.

A new analysis from the Economic Innovation Group finds that the cities that used to be employment superpowers no longer hold that title. Instead, "for the first time since the Great Recession, the richest metro areas are no longer creating the majority of new jobs in the U.S," August Benzow, research lead at EIG and the author of the report, found.

While coastal powerhouses like San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Boston used to create new jobs at a much faster clip, Sunbelt metros like Gainesville, Georgia, and Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, are now leading in job creation.

Cities in the Midwest and inland cities in the Northeast, including Wenatchee, Washington, and Lansing, Michigan, are also seeing stable job growth rates, in part because of their relatively affordable home prices, the EIG analysis found.

The trend is just about a year old, but it's part of a shift that started with the geographic reshuffling of the pandemic and has only continued as the cost of living grows in the most expensive cities. And it shows yet again how the American economy is headed south and towards the middle — away from the previously dominant coasts.

The cities with the lowest average earnings are seeing the fastest job growth, the analysis found. This is in part because these cities have a lower cost of living — driven by lower housing costs — as big coastal cities have become increasingly unaffordable.

"Employers are following where people want to live and where people can afford to live," Benzow said. But he added that some employers are proactively moving to more affordable regions not just to follow the workforce, but also to save money on office space and take advantage of other financial incentives.

A slowdown in the technology sector is helping drive this redistribution of jobs, EIG found. But a similar shift is happening in a variety of industries. "These sectors tend to be pretty connected. If you have more professional services jobs in a place, you tend to also get more retail jobs and other service sector jobs," Benzow said. The job data is based on where the employer is located, rather than where the worker lives, so this data doesn't capture remote workers who live in one place, but are technically employed in another.

The EIG analysis is the latest data point to showcase how the hiring market is shifting in the wake of 2020. A Gusto analysis of over 30,000 small and medium-sized companies using its payroll platform found that between pre-pandemic times, which span from January 2018 to March 2020, to more recent times, which span from April 2022 to December 2023, hiring shares have picked up in smaller and medium-sized cities. At the same time, major coastal cities like New York City, Los Angeles, and Seattle saw their hiring shares decline. It's yet another sign that the reverberations of the pandemic's great economic and geographic reshuffle are still being felt.

The richest coastal cities are also suffering from negative perceptions about safety and public order, and those reputations likely also play a role in people leaving.

"Some of that's justified and some of that isn't, but I think they're not regarded in the same sort of way that they were before the pandemic, in terms of being the most desirable places to be in the country," Benzow said.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/IAVRyqv
via IFTTT

• A California-based Gen Xer began secretly working two remote tech jobs in 2020.
• He made over $1 million in 2022, which allowed him to travel and send his kids to private school. 
• He shared his top pieces of advice for overemployed workers. 

Dave's "overemployed" journey began by accident.

In 2020, he was frustrated with his boss at his remote, software enterprise sales job, so he started applying for positions elsewhere, the Californian, who is in his 40s, told Business Insider via email.

He eventually landed a remote job in the same industry, but before he handed in his two-week notice, Dave had an idea: His new job started in November, but he had some restricted stock units at his current job that were scheduled to vest in January. He figured he could juggle two jobs for a couple of months, let his stock vest, and then quit.

But then he had another change of plans.

"When January arrived, I realized I was being successful at both jobs, and there was no need for me to quit," said Dave, whose identity is known to BI, but he asked to use a pseudonym due to his fear of professional repercussions. "I decided to try a few more months, and time simply passed and it became part of my routine."

In 2022, Dave earned over $1 million across his two remote jobs, including sales commissions, according to documents viewed by Business Insider. Last year, he took home more than $800,000 — roughly $200,000 at one job and $600,000 at another.

The extra income has changed his life. Dave said he's traveled across Latin America and Europe without worrying about his budget and sent his children to private school. And he said he only works about 40 hours a week between the two jobs.

"Double 401(k), double salary, double commissions, double benefits," he said. "I do not understand why more people are not doing this."

Over the past year, Business Insider has interviewed more than a dozen job jugglers who've used their six-figure incomes to pay off debt, save for retirement, and afford expensive vacations and weight-loss drugs. While some employers may be OK with their workers having a second job, doing this without approval could have repercussions if a worker is caught.

While job juggling can transform one's finances, intense competition for remote roles has made it unattainable for many people. What's more, many overemployed people work in the tech and IT industries, where men make up the majority of the employees. Additionally, return-to-office mandates and burnout have forced some of the overemployed to return to the traditional, one-job work life.

How to secretly work multiple remote jobs

Dave was unfamiliar with the online overemployed community when he started working two jobs at once, but he said he'd always wanted to have multiple income streams — he just never thought it was possible in the corporate world.

Dave said he hasn't had too much trouble managing both jobs, but that he has several pieces of advice for current and aspiring job jugglers.

First, always have a "main job," he said.

"This is the one you have on your main LinkedIn," he added. "You can talk to your friends and family about this job. It is the job that you have to seek promotions."

Second, always view one job as a side hustle.

"This is the one that you can switch at any time for another 'job 2,'" he said. "Do the minimal work, don't get fired, and collect cash every two weeks."

Dave said he's always on the lookout for a role to replace his secondary job, in case his current one doesn't work out or he finds a better opportunity elsewhere. He said he left his initial "job 2" in 2021 and started his new one in 2022, resulting in a brief gap in his overemployment.

Third, have two LinkedIn accounts. Dave said the account for the second job shouldn't have a picture and only list minimal information. To protect himself, he recommended trying to block all the employees who work at one's second employer from viewing one's main LinkedIn profile, though this is very cumbersome, he said.

He said this approach allows him to have an online record of employment with both companies without his overemployment being exposed. A former job juggler previously told BI that his boss became suspicious when he didn't have his job listed anywhere on LinkedIn.

Dave added that conversing with sales prospects on LinkedIn is an important part of his jobs, and that in these interactions, it's helpful for it to be clear which company he works for. This would be difficult without two accounts.

However, I am open to ideas to better manage that.

Fourth, Dave said it's wise for job jugglers to have two phones because "you will make a mistake" if you try to use the same phone for both roles. He also recommended having separate work computers, in part for the same reason.

Additionally, Dave recommended managing both work calendars to avoid double-booking meetings, taking advantage of both companies' 401(k) plans, connecting with a CPA for tax advice, planning your work for each week in advance, and not working for two companies that compete with each other.

Last, he said people shouldn't feel bad about secretly working multiple jobs.

"Your company will fire you when they do not need you," he said. "It is just business."

Looking ahead, Dave said he's not too concerned about his companies making him return to the office. If they did, he said he'd probably start looking for new remote roles.

In the meantime, he has no plans to stop job juggling.

"People need to take care of themselves," he said. "Companies won't do it for you."

Are you working multiple remote jobs at the same time and willing to provide details about your pay and schedule? If so, reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/30EngIb
via IFTTT

• The WSJ reported Embraer is looking to build a new aircraft to compete with Boeing and Airbus.
• The planemaker denied this, but added it "certainly has the capability."
• Boeing's recent troubles suggest there could be room for its minor rivals to edge into the duopoly.

The Brazilian planemaker Embraer has denied reports it wants to capitalize on Boeing's misfortune by working on a new aircraft.

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Embraer is exploring options for a new narrowbody plane to compete with the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said Embraer conducted internal assessments which found it has the ability to develop such an aircraft.

The firm is known for making smaller jets like the four-abreast Embraer E175, which is typically used by regional carriers like Republic Airways, operated on behalf of legacy airlines.

Embraer's ambitions for a larger next-generation jet firmed after Boeing's recent crisis in the wake of the Alaska Airlines blowout, the Journal reported.

But an Embraer spokesperson told Reuters it doesn't have plans for a new cycle of spending.

"Embraer certainly has the capability to develop a new narrowbody aircraft. However, we have a young and very successful portfolio of products developed in recent years, and we are really focused on selling those products and making Embraer bigger and stronger," they added.

The Brazilian firm has a market cap of around $5 billion, while Boeing and Airbus are over $100 billion companies.

But as Boeing loses some customers' trust and suffers delivery delays amid the turmoil that saw its CEO resign, there could be more room for minor players to disrupt the duopoly. Airbus' A320neo-family is so popular that it has a backlog of over 10,000 aircraft.

China could also provide an alternative to the main two planemakers' narrowbody jets. The Comac C919 entered service last year, and while it has only received orders from Asian airlines so far, Boeing's problems might make carriers consider it more closely.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/s6Gfz24
via IFTTT

It's easy to identify a photo from the early days of Instagram and Snapchat. Grainy, greenish sunset photos and dog-eared selfies littered social media during the mid-2010s. Augmented-reality filters went viral for their ability to shrink noses and brighten complexions. They weren't fooling anyone, but they weren't supposed to.

Fast-forward nearly a decade, and filters have significantly stepped up their game. Unlike the flower-crown filters of old, which superimposed a mesh face on your on-screen selfie using facial-tracking technology, the latest filters digest the image's pixels to spit out an entirely new face. Today's online world is awash with images of poreless skin, perfectly arched brows, and plump lips, but it's not always clear who's getting a digital facelift and who has had a real one. The faces that hold social currency on social media — with fox-lift brows and buccal fat removed — are increasingly bleeding into real life.

Noninvasive and antiaging "tweakments," such as lip fillers and Botox, are at an all-time high. From 2019 to 2022, there was an 18% increase in facial cosmetic procedures in the United States. In that time, the number of Botox injections jumped by 73%. And according to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Gen Z is helping drive up demand. In a 2022 survey, 75% of facial plastic surgeons reported that more clients under 30 were requesting forehead pokes and lip plumping. Their primary goal? Improving their selfies.

Even before the remote-work boom, writers noticed social media was shaping the way people looked. In 2019, The New Yorker declared it "The Age of Instagram Face," an emerging look popularized by the Kardashians and other influencers that consisted of plump, high cheekbones, catlike eyes, and lush lips. People were starting to look the same, the story argued. Five years later, as even more of our daily interactions take place in the visual-heavy online sphere thanks to remote work, the trend has intensified.

It's not just nice to look better. It's become that we feel like failures if we don't.

Increased accessibility, reduced stigma, and new pressure to keep up with the digital Joneses are propelling a plastic-surgery boom. Increasingly, changing your face is just a matter of staying with the times. "Even though we know that nobody looks like their Instagram profile," Heather Widdows, a philosophy professor at the University of Warwick, told me, "we always compare our actual body to everybody else's Instagram profile."

Visual social-media platforms have long been found to harm young people's sense of self. A 2018 study of teen girls found that the more time they spent using social media, the more likely they were to experience "body dissatisfaction" and depression. Research published by the American Psychological Association in 2023 found that teenagers and young adults who decreased their time on social media by 50% for a few weeks experienced significant improvement in how they felt about their weight and appearance. But people are spending more and more time online, scrolling social media and staring at themselves in Zoom calls.

Even in the early days of social-media filters, researchers were concerned about their impact. A 2018 opinion paper by researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine argued that filters were having a disastrous effect on people's self-esteem, labeling the trend "Snapchat dysmorphia." At the time, the most-used face filter on Instagram featured hearts over the eyes and Cupid's arrows flying across the screen — not exactly a replicable look.

Since then, though, filters have become more realistic. TikTok tricks like Bold Glamour and Teenage Look seamlessly change faces pixel by pixel, creating a fantastical virtual mirror that psychologists say can lead to body dysmorphia. Imperfections are blurred, skin is brightened, and proportions are altered. Old-face filters are a warning: Here's how wrinkly and saggy you'll look if you don't get work done.

A 2020 study by the City University of London found that 90% of the 18- to 30-year-old women they spoke to used social media filters to improve how they looked. A 2019 study found that people who used YouTube, Tinder, and Snapchat — especially their image-editing features — were more likely to be accepting of cosmetic surgery. A 2022 study that looked at Gen Z Instagram users found that people who used filters to edit their photos were more inclined to get cosmetic work done.

Social media has also reduced the stigma of cosmetic work. Plastic surgeons share videos delving into the intricacies of various procedures, while regular users share "day in the life"-style videos that guide audiences from the treatment room to the recovery journey. The 2022 study found that people who followed an influencer who had gotten cosmetic work done were more likely to want to undergo their own procedure. Anne-Mette Hermans, one of the study's coauthors, predicted it would become "more and more normalized."

Remote work has affected how we present ourselves online. People may not see your bag or your shoes, but everyone sees your face.

The shift from surgical procedures to minimally invasive injections has also made cosmetic work safer and more available to average people. "We might have always wanted to look younger," Widdows said, "but there wasn't a lot we could do to actually look younger."

In a 2019 survey by Vice of Snapchat users in the UK, 59% of 13- to 24-year-olds indicated they saw tweakments like Botox and fillers as comparable to getting a haircut or manicure. "Pricewise, there is not always that much difference between going to a high-end hairdresser and dyeing your hair versus getting one or two zones of Botox," said Hermans, an assistant professor of health and well-being at Tilburg University in the Netherlands who studies societal beauty ideals. And when people jump on the bandwagon, it creates a domino effect, she said. "More people are getting it done, which leads to more people knowing about it and getting it done."

Rather than the no-movement face of the 1990s or the "duck lips" fad of the 2010s, today's aesthetic trends lean toward a "you, but better" appearance. The body obsession of the 2000s has been replaced with an antiaging obsession. A market-research firm called Circana found that 19% of Gen Zers used antiaging serums. Prejuvenation, an approach involving a mixture of skincare treatments and cosmetic injections, is being hailed as a global antiaging trend.

"The paradox as a woman is you're not supposed to look like you're aging, but you're also not supposed to do anything about it," Hermans told me. "The solution is basically these natural 'tweaks' that make it look as if you've had nothing done."

While the desire to defy aging is age-old, it's unsurprising that a generation immersed in social media would be particularly sensitive to the natural aging process. "When you have a global beauty ideal," Widdows said, "these kinds of procedures become normal."

Widdows argued that we've shifted away from showcasing status through possessions like the "it" bag or car — now we're after the "it" face. Remote work has affected how we present ourselves online. People may not see your bag or your shoes, but everyone sees your face. "We are moving into much more of a culture where the image speaks louder than the word," she said. "That's why we see people taking pictures not of celebrities to cosmetic surgeons, but their own doctored, filtered, perfect selfies."

After scrolling social media or staring at your filtered face in a video, seeing your reflection — bloated, saggy, aged — may be a sobering reality. "The gap between the identity we present on social media and the self we see in the mirror is growing," Widdows told me. "It's not just nice to look better. It's become that we feel like failures if we don't."

As more people get cosmetic work done, the rest of us lose touch with what's normal. It's easy to see why more and more are folding under the pressure to change their appearance.

Eve Upton-Clark is a features writer covering culture and society.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/MPSqIQR
via IFTTT

• Anthropic has launched a mobile app for its AI chatbot, Claude.
• The app, a rival to OpenAI's ChatGPT, allows users to sync conversations and analyze photos.
• Anthropic, backed by Amazon and Google, does not currently have an Android version.

OpenAI rival Anthropic launched its first smartphone app on Wednesday, a mobile version of its artificial intelligence chatbot called Claude.

The app allows users to sync their conversation with their desktop activity. It also lets users to take or upload photos and use the app to analyze them. Both of these features are available on rival ChatGPT.

Anthropic also launched a team plan for Claude, which gives corporate users more chats than Pro users and access to collaborative tools. ChatGPT offers a similar plan for business users.

Claude is a direct competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT, which was launched in late 2022 and exploded in popularity. ChatGPT released its iOS app last May and has faced little competition in the smartphone market — until now — as one of the few AI models with a consumer app.

Both ChatGPT and Claude have similar pricing: about $20 per month for premium versions. One of the main differentiators between the apps is voice chat and image generation. ChatGPT allows both, while Claude does not.

Anthropic has not detailed plans for launching on Android yet. Claude is not available in Canada or European Union countries.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at OpenAI. The startup quickly drew major backers including Amazon and Google, both of which have their own AI chatbot projects.

Amazon invested $1.25 billion into Anthropic last year and pledged an additional $2.75 billion in March. The partnership, which gives Amazon minority ownership in the startup, was seen as the tech juggernaut's power move in the ongoing AI wars.

Anthropic said it will use Amazon Web Services' cloud servers and chips to train and power its large language models, allowing them to produce human-like outputs.

OpenAI, meanwhile, is backed by Microsoft and, most recently, venture capital investors Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and K2 Global, in a February deal.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/WTRam59
via IFTTT

• Joshua Dean was a quality auditor at Boeing supplier, Spirit AeroSystems.
• Dean died on Tuesday, months after testifying against his former employer. 
• In March, a Boeing whistleblower was found dead with a "self-inflicted gunshot wound."

A whistleblower who accused a Boeing supplier of ignoring manufacturing defects on the 737 Max died on Tuesday.

Former Spirit AeroSystems employee Joshua Dean, 45, died after contracting a sudden illness, The Seattle Times reported on Wednesday. Dean's aunt, Carol Parsons, told the outlet that Dean went to the hospital after he had trouble breathing some two weeks ago.

Parsons said her nephew was intubated, and his condition began to worsen. Dean developed pneumonia and MRSA, a serious bacterial infection, per The Seattle Times.

"Our thoughts are with Josh Dean's family. This sudden loss is stunning news here and for his loved ones," Joe Buccino, a spokesperson for Spirit, told The Seattle Times.

Dean testified against Spirit in a shareholder lawsuit last year, where the former quality auditor accused the company of poor quality control in the production of Boeing's 737 Max.

The company's unorthodox engineering practices came under scrutiny after The New York Times reported in March that it used liquid Dawn soap to lubricate a 737 Max door seal.

Spirit later said it tried using other household products like Vaseline and cornstarch as a lubricant before it settled on using Dawn soap, per The Times. Dawn soap is, however, documented under the Federal Aviation Administration's standards as a viable factory tool, Spirit told The Times.

Dean told The Wall Street Journal in January that Spirit fired him for pointing out wrongly drilled holes in fuselages.

"It is known at Spirit that if you make too much noise and cause too much trouble, you will be moved," Dean told The Journal. "It doesn't mean you completely disregard stuff, but they don't want you to find everything and write it up."

Spirit told The Journal that it disagreed with Dean's assertions, adding that it would defend itself in court.

Dean's death comes after the passing of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, 62. Barnett died in March, in the middle of his deposition against Boeing.

The former Boeing manager died from "what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound," the Charleston County coroner's office told BI in a statement. No further details were provided.

Dean's lawyer, Brian Knowles, told The Seattle Times that he did not want to speculate about the timing and circumstances of Dean's death. Knowles also represented Barnett.

"Whistleblowers are needed. They bring to light wrongdoing and corruption in the interests of society. It takes a lot of courage to stand up," Knowles said of Dean.

For its part, Boeing has come under heightened scrutiny following repeated quality assurance lapses.

During its recent earnings call last month, Boeing revealed that it had posted a net loss of $355 million in its latest quarter. The company said it burned through $3.9 billion in cash in the year's first quarter.

"Near term, yes, we are in a tough moment," Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said in a letter to his employees on April 24.

Representatives for Knowles and Spirit AeroSystems did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/wgRsPac
via IFTTT

• Japan is reportedly using its dollar reserves to prop up the falling yen.
• The yen's depreciation is largely due to high US interest rates attracting investors.
• The US may step in to assist Japan, but the problem lies with the strong dollar.

Japan's yen has been on a sustained slide against the dollar, a slump that's great for foreign tourists looking for cheaper travel but could prove disastrous for its economy.

Now, it looks like Japan is tapping into its vast hoard of dollars to help the yen, which has fallen 13% against the greenback in the last year — and the US may get involved, too.

It appeared that Japan spent nearly $35 billion to prop up the beleaguered yen on Monday and returned to the markets late in the US trading day on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.

After a surge late Wednesday that traders attributed to central bank action, the yen dropped 0.5% against the dollar to 155.30 on Thursday, per Reuters.

This week's operation was the first Japanese currency intervention since 2022, when the government spent around $60 billion.

Japan doesn't typically comment on trading, and an official told Bloomberg on Thursday that data will be available at the end of the month. Former top Japanese finance official Mitsuhiro Furusawa told Reuters on Tuesday it was highly likely Japan had intervened.

But the currency remains near its weakest exchange rate, compared with the dollar. The US may step in to aid its ally, with more "specific" and "public" talk, former Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O'Neill told Bloomberg.

In mid-April, the finance ministers of the US, Japan, and Korea met and issued a statement about their joint work, including about Japan and Korea's "serious concerns" over currency depreciations.

"At some point, it will come to a head as it is also reasonably clear that the Bank of Japan and Japanese officials won't want a continuous decline in the yen," O'Neill told Bloomberg. "Nor will the rest of Asia, Beijing included, which also probably means the US Treasury won't be too pleased either."

Japan's currency has been depreciating largely due to high US interest rates, which make the dollar more attractive to investors, compared with Japan's near-zero interest rates.

A historic rate hike in Japan last month — the first since 2007 — did little to reverse the downward trend, indicating that investors are more concerned about US monetary policy than that in Japan.

Japan had about $1.1 trillion in foreign currency reserves at the end of March, according to the finance ministry's most recent data.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/vCgB0zD
via IFTTT