Friday 20th September 2024

Rooting for Them - Vulture (No paywall)

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are keeping unapologetic, ostentatious celebrity romance alive.

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When a Love Triangle Meets Economics - Foreign Policy (No paywall)

In the 2020s, love triangles are all the rage—at least in American literature. The last five years have seen a proliferation of novels about non-traditional triads. Raven Leilani arguably ignited the trend with Luster, followed by Torrey Peters’s Detransition, Baby, Julia May Jonas’s Vladimir, and Jen Beagin’s Big Swiss, among others. Each novel featured a female protagonist armed with a sardonic voice, and each used a love triangle to probe social issues related to sex, power, race, gender, and class.

In the 2020s, love triangles are all the rage—at least in American literature. The last five years have seen a proliferation of novels about non-traditional triads. Raven Leilani arguably ignited the trend with Luster, followed by Torrey Peters’s Detransition, Baby, Julia May Jonas’s Vladimir, and Jen Beagin’s Big Swiss, among others. Each novel featured a female protagonist armed with a sardonic voice, and each used a love triangle to probe social issues related to sex, power, race, gender, and class.

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When Could Billionaires Become Trillionaires? - Visual Capitalist

The recent boom of computer chip maker Nvidia could propel its CEO and co-founder, Jensen Huang, to trillionaire status by 2028, according to Informa. Huang’s current net worth is already about $100 billion (higher than listed in the table and graphic, which uses July data), according to Bloomberg’s real-time algorithm.

French businessman Bernard Arnault is the only European on the list. The billionaire chairman and CEO of the global luxury goods company LVMH oversees dozens of luxury brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Sephora, and Tiffany & Co. He also invests in companies like Netflix and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.

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Big Tech’s New Adversaries in Europe - WIRED (No paywall)

If the past five years of EU tech rules could take human form, they would embody Thierry Breton. The bombastic commissioner, with his swoop of white hair, became the public face of Brussels' irritation with American tech giants, touring Silicon Valley last summer to personally remind the industry of looming regulatory deadlines.

His confrontational attitude to the CEOs themselves was visible in his posts on X. In the lead-up to Musk's interview with Donald Trump, Breton posted a vague but threatening letter on his account reminding Musk there would be consequences if he used his platform to amplify "harmful content." Last year, he published a photo with Mark Zuckerberg, declaring a new EU motto of "move fast to fix things"—a jibe at the notorious early Facebook slogan. And in a 2023 meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Breton reportedly got him to agree to an "AI pact" on the spot, before tweeting the agreement, making it difficult for Pichai to back out.

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Trump Media nosedives to record low on the first day Trump and other insiders can sell their shares - Fortune (No paywall)

The stock’s lackluster performance comes as major indexes pared back gains after skyrocketing on Thursday following the Federal Reserve’s rate cut announcement. Both the S&P 500 and Dow hit all-time highs Thursday on the news. Both indexes, along with the Nasdaq, were down less than 1% on Friday. 

It’s unclear if any insiders have sold any of their shares, but Trump in particular has a lot to gain from selling. The former president owns about 57% of the company, or just under 115 million shares. Trump’s stake was worth about $1.6 billion on Friday and selling any of it could bring him a major windfall. 

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AI models let robots carry out tasks in unfamiliar environments - MIT Technology Review (No paywall)

“Robot utility models” sidestep the need to tweak the data used to train robots every time they try to do something in unfamiliar settings.

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How to Assess Risks from Possible Cyberattacks on Members of the Health Sector

Find new ideas and classic advice on strategy, innovation and leadership, for global leaders from the world's best business and management experts.

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Refugees Settled in New Hampshire Turn to Farming

Farmers balance large crates laden with vegetables on their heads while chatting in Somali, among other languages. As the sun burns away the early morning mist, the farmers pick American staples like corn and tomatoes as well as crops they grew up with, like okra and sorrel. Many of the women wear vibrant orange, red and blue fabrics.

Most workers at this Dunbarton farm are refugees who have escaped harrowing wars and persecution. They come from the African nations of Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia and Congo, and they now run their own small businesses, selling their crops to local markets as well as to friends and connections in their communities. Farming provides them with both an income and a taste of home.


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Transform Your Brand's Storytelling: The Power of Carousel Ads for Small Businesses

Establishing a dynamic presence on social-media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook offers small businesses a powerful way to connect with a wide audience without the burden of significant upfront costs -- beyond investing in a skilled art director or graphic designer. One of the most impactful tools on these platforms is the Sliding Carousel post. This versatile ad format allows small businesses to tell a compelling story or spotlight multiple products, services, or features within a single ad, making it a must-have for those aiming to capture and retain audience attention. Carousels achieve significantly higher reach and engagement compared to regular posts. Here's how carousel ads can elevate small businesses.

Carousel ads can tell a story by allowing you to share multiple images (up to 20, plus music) or videos in a single post, each representing a different element, story frame, or panel of the narrative. Here's how they can effectively tell a story.


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3.5 Essential Questions to Help You Navigate Hard Conversations With Confidence

Jesus de la Garza, an Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) member in Monterrey, Mexico, who has served on the EO Global Board of Directors, is an entrepreneur, consultant, global public speaker, and workshop facilitator. He is the founder of Monarch Leaders, a consulting firm specializing in working with organizations to build high-performing teams. We asked Jesus to share how to make difficult conversations easier.

At the end of the day, a hard conversation isn't all that different from an easy one: Both are about having a dialogue and being aware of the other person's reaction. But before you can be aware of how someone else is feeling, you need to be in tune with yourself and your surroundings.


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