View time: 1 min 32
Level : Advanced
Author: natixis-ezine
Did Amazon Buy iRobot to Spy on You?
Read time : 4 mins
Level : Advanced
By Dane Dickerson
By now, you’ve likely heard about Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot, makers of Roomba Vacuums, with the insidious motive of mapping consumer homes for valuable marketing data. But what’s really behind this brow-raising deal is not so conclusive amongst field experts.
Amazon’s press release on August 5th stated they would purchase iRobot for $61 per share, including iRobot’s net debt, which approximates to a $1.7 billion deal. They refer to the deal as a “definitive merger agreement.”
The current CEO of iRobot, Colin Angle, will retain his position. The senior vice president of Amazon Devices, Dave Limp, advertises wholesome intentions for the deal that has nothing to do with using Roomba’s as tiny data spies.
“We know that saving time matters, and chores take precious time that can be better spent doing something that customers love,” says Limp. “I’m excited to work with the iRobot team to invent in ways that make customers’ lives easier and more enjoyable.” Continue reading
Italy’s Lake Garda shrinks to near-historic low amid drought
Read time : 3 mins
Level : Intermediate
By ANDREA ROSA and LUIGI NAVARRA Associated Press
SIRMIONE Italy (AP) — Italy’s worst drought in decades has reduced Lake Garda, the country’s largest lake, to near its lowest level ever recorded, exposing swaths of previously underwater rocks and warming the water to temperatures that approach the average in the Caribbean Sea.
Tourists flocking to the popular northern lake Friday for the start of Italy’s key summer long weekend found a vastly different landscape than in past years. An expansive stretch of bleached rock extended far from the normal shoreline, ringing the southern Sirmione Peninsula with a yellow halo between the green hues of the water and the trees on the shore.
“We came last year, we liked it, and we came back this year,” tourist Beatrice Masi said as she sat on the rocks. “We found the landscape had changed a lot. We were a bit shocked when we arrived because we had our usual walk around, and the water wasn’t there.” Continue reading
AP-NORC poll: Slim US majority worry about climate
View time : 2 min 40
Level : Intermediate
E-bikes get unplugged from major climate bill
View time: 2 min 30
Level : Advanced
At 75, India seeks way forward in big but job-scarce economy
Read time : 4 mins
Level : Advanced
By KRUTIKA PATHI and BHUMIKA SARASWATI Associated Press
NEW DELHI (AP) — As India’s economy grew, the hum of factories turned the sleepy, dusty village of Manesar into a booming industrial hub, cranking out everything from cars and sinks to smartphones and tablets. But jobs have run scarce over the years, prompting more and more workers to line up along the road for work, desperate to earn money.
Every day, Sugna, a young woman in her early 20s who goes by her first name, comes with her husband and two children to the city’s labor chowk — a bazaar at the junction of four roads where hundreds of workers gather daily at daybreak to plead for work. It’s been days since she or her husband got work and she has only five rupees (six cents) in hand.
Scenes like this are an everyday reality for millions of Indians, the most visible signs of economic distress in a country where raging unemployment is worsening insecurity and inequality between the rich and poor. It’s perhaps Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biggest challenge as the country marks 75 years of independence from British rule on Monday. Continue reading
Business Leaders’ Optimism at Record Low
Read time : 4 mins
Level : Intermediate
By Justin McDevitt
Is the American Dream dead?
A new study reveals that optimism in the business community has hit a record low, making many question the root causes, the current dilemmas, and the future of an ideal.
Pandemic fatigue? Inflation fatigue? American Dream fatigue? What’s causing the negative feelings?
In Arthur Miller’s seminal classic, Death of a Salesman, Biff Loman, son of the eponymous salesman, asks, “What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am!” While the play went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and has been taught in school ever since, Miller’s classic may ask more questions than it provides answers.
Seventy-three years later, exhausted by a pandemic, the war in Ukraine, Monkeypox, and soaring inflation, Americans are asking the same questions. They deserve answers. Continue reading
Japan’s Struggle To Keep Its Society from Aging
View time : 2 min 32
Level : Intermediate
Cold showers, no lights: Europe saves as Russian gas wanes
Read time : 3 mins
Level : Advanced
By JOHN LEICESTER and NICOLAS GARRIGA Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — Fanning out like urban guerrillas through Paris’ darkened streets well after midnight, the anti-waste activists shinny up walls and drain pipes, reaching for switches to turn off the lights.
Click. Click. Click.
One by one, the outdoor lights that stores had left on are extinguished. It’s one small but symbolic step in a giant leap of energy saving that Europe is trying to make as it rushes to wean itself off natural gas and oil from Russia so factories aren’t forced to close and homes stay heated and powered. Continue reading
Exploring sacred sites with virtual reality
View time: 2 min 17
Level : Advanced