Sunday 1st December 2024

What Is the Net Worth of Trump’s New Cabinet? - Intelligencer (No paywall)

Break out the White House caviar, because here come the billionaires.

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Don't cancel Aristotle - we need his ideas to hone ours | Aeon Essays

The endless battle over his legacy testifies to his great authority – and the power of his thought to make the world better

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Coal Country Sees Santa Train as a Symbol of Hope

The Santa Train marks its 82nd running this year, bringing presents and joy to small towns along a 110-mile portion of the CSX rail line tucked into remote coal-country river valleys. Many of the children who line the tracks and wait for Santa on the Saturday before Thanksgiving are the third, fourth or fifth generation to do so.

"I look for it every year. I count the days down," said Sandra Owens, of Haysi, Virginia, who held a pink pillowcase with a message in black ink, "Thank you CSX and volunteers for the Santa Train. 82."


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How Indie Movie Merch Became a Hot Commodity

On a recent Saturday afternoon, hundreds of "Anora" fans lined up for hours on Los Angeles' Melrose Avenue, hoping to snag exclusive merchandise inspired by Sean Baker's latest film about a stripper who marries the son of a Russian oligarch.

The one-day-only pop-up from distributor Neon followed the success of a similar event in New York, hosted at the strip club at which the winner of the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival was filmed.


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This Year's Most Innovative Holiday Toys

Having gotten my start in the toy industry 35 years ago, I'm still amazed by the relentless creativity that shapes this field. Year after year, new and inventive toys appear, despite the highly competitive nature of the business. This ingenuity is fueled by the toy industry's wholehearted embrace of open innovation. These companies not only invite independent inventors to contribute, but actually rely on their seemingly endless flow of fresh ideas.

One tried-and-true strategy for producing innovation? Combining play categories. By mixing and matching elements from different types of toys, inventors create something entirely new. I used this technique myself when I designed the Michael Jordan Wall, which transformed the backboard of an indoor basketball game into a poster of Michael Jordan.


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Warren Buffett Keeps a 123-Year-Old Copy of 'The New York Times,' and the Reason Is Inspiring

He wasn’t born yet (he’s old, but not that old), but we know that he knows because it was memorialized in a front-page New York Times article on May 10 of that year, which Buffett later framed and kept prominently on the wall in his office in Omaha.

TROY, N.Y., May 9 — The body of Samuel Bolton Jr., a prominent brewer and businessman of this city, was found today in a vat of hot beer. Mr. Bolton had but a short time before returned from a pleasure drive, and chatted pleasantly with friends. About noon, his hat was seen beside the vat of boiling beer and an investigation brought to light his body in the steaming liquid.


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7 Powerful Communication Skills That Separate the Best Leaders From All the Rest

What separates extraordinary leaders from those who aren’t so great? What do the most respected leaders have in common? Research shows that leaders spend more than 75 percent of their time communicating, and extraordinary leaders have developed powerful communication skills as part of their personal leadership practices.

Which leads to this question: What communication skills do these highly successful leaders consistently use? The answers reflect both science and art. The best leaders have high self-awareness and are flexible, adaptable, and balanced between chaos and stability. They are acutely aware that they must first manage themselves if they hope to successfully communicate with others.


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In 29 Seconds, Barbara Corcoran Just Taught a Lesson in How to Start a New Habit and Stick With It

Barbara Corcoran, at 75, is impressively fit and trim. What does the Shark Tank shark and executive producer do to stay that way? A fitness trainer and entrepreneur named Mark Langowski, founder of Body By Mark, decided to ask her this question for his highly popular Instagram channel. That resulted in a one-minute video in which Corcoran explains her fitness regimen, gives Langowski a tour of her home, and shares her breakfast with him. The answer to his question about how she stays fit takes just 29 seconds. It’s good advice for anyone who wants to start a good habit of any kind and stick with it for the long term.

“I do weight-lifting, I do stretching. That’s all I do,” Corcoran tells Langowski. Experts agree that the stickiest habits are ones that are neither too complicated nor too demanding. So the simpler and easier you make your own habit, the likelier you’ll be to keep doing it over time. And weight-lifting and stretching are two of the most powerful exercises for helping an aging body stay young. 


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Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck Explains Why His Space Company Thinks Different

Rocket Lab, one of the most interesting companies among the cluster of “new space” businesses upending the process of flying satellites to orbit, stands out from its rivals by being partly based on the other side of the planet in New Zealand. Its CEO Peter Beck also stands out from other space entrepreneurs for his sense of humor. In 2021 he famously ate a hat on camera because he’d once promised investors his company wouldn’t pursue making bigger rockets. Until it did, prompting his unusual meal. 

Beck’s company is clearly on the ascent. Earlier this week it pulled off a startling success when it launched two Electron rockets inside 24 hours from two launchpads in two different hemispheres. On Monday the company also won a portion of a nearly $60 million CHIPS grant to build high-efficiency radiation resistant solar cells useful for powering spacecraft. And Rocket Lab may also only be months away from launching its big Neutron rocket, an effort to rival rockets from SpaceX, the Elon Musk-led commercial space company that’s captured a commanding share of the 21st Century rocket launch business. 


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Is Your Company Ready To Grow? Here’s How to Know for Sure

Your company may be typically focused on driving sales. Operations are dynamic, adaptable, and can be somewhat disorganized, as they test new ideas, stay closely connected with customers, and do whatever is necessary to boost sales. Now is the time to consolidate efforts, clearly define your competitive edge, and establish the structures needed to ensure the company can fulfill its commitments.

This phase is crucial for establishing a solid foundation. I’ve seen many companies raise capital and then rush to scale too quickly, leading to chaos and jeopardizing future growth by building on an unstable base.


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