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Autoworkers learn sign language hoping connection with deaf colleagues improves work and lives

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

In this photo provided by Nissan on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, workers of Nissan’s plant’s Paint Shop including John Johnson, foreground right and Michael Connolly, foreground, second left, pose for a photo at the plant, in Sunderland, England. (Matt Walker/Nissan via AP)

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — One doesn’t need to know sign language to understand what Michael Connolly feels about his colleagues’ efforts to break down the barriers posed by his deafness.

When asked what he thought of his teammates’ decision to learn British Sign Language, the 45-year-old autoworker at the Nissan plant in Sunderland, England, grinned and flashed a universal symbol: Two thumbs up.

Connolly loves having the chance to banter with his workmates, to talk about everyday things — the kids, vacation plans, a TV program. And now he can, because the entire 25-member bumper-paint team at Sunderland started learning BSL at the beginning of the year. Continue reading

A robot begins removal of melted fuel from the Fukushima nuclear plant. It could take a century

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

This photo shows the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan, on Aug. 22, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A long robot entered a damaged reactor at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant on Tuesday, beginning a two-week, high-stakes mission to retrieve for the first time a tiny amount of melted fuel debris from the bottom.

The robot’s trip into the Unit 2 reactor is a crucial initial step for what comes next — a daunting, decades-long process to decommission the plant and deal with large amounts of highly radioactive melted fuel inside three reactors that were damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Specialists hope the robot will help them learn more about the status of the cores and the fuel debris.

Here is an explanation of how the robot works, its mission, significance and what lies ahead as the most challenging phase of the reactor cleanup begins. Continue reading

Interest in Plant-Based Desserts Rises in 2024

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

Tara Gerner | Wealth of Geeks undefined

Although classic desserts such as chocolate chip cookies and ice cream never go out of style, interest in vegan desserts continues to rise in 2024. In fact, the latest numbers show The global vegan dessert market is estimated to reach $3.75 billion this year, and it won’t be stopping anytime soon.

Global Growth Insights reports vegan frozen desserts, cakes and pastries, and cookies and biscuits were the most popular plant-based sweet treats last year. While interest grows in other areas, North America remains the dominant region for vegan desserts, despite still be dominated by love for traditional desserts.

Dessert popularity is affected by local traditions, customs, and preferences. Many regions in the United States have a favorite or signature dessert built into their culinary legacy. Continue reading

AI may not steal many jobs after all. It may just make workers more efficient

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Customer Experience Representatives Stanley Solis, center, and other representatives take calls at an Alorica center, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Imagine a customer-service center that speaks your language, no matter what it is.

Alorica, a company in Irvine, California, that runs customer-service centers around the world, has introduced an artificial intelligence translation tool that lets its representatives talk with customers who speak 200 different languages and 75 dialects.

So an Alorica representative who speaks, say, only Spanish can field a complaint about a balky printer or an incorrect bank statement from a Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong. Alorica wouldn’t need to hire a rep who speaks Cantonese.

Such is the power of AI. And, potentially, the threat: Perhaps companies won’t need as many employees — and will slash some jobs — if chatbots can handle the workload instead. But the thing is, Alorica isn’t cutting jobs. It’s still hiring aggressively. Continue reading

Better Cities For Startups Than Silicon Valley

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

By Franklin Schneider | Wealth of Geeks undefined

Startups face difficult odds. About one-fifth of them fail in the first year, and nearly half don’t last five years.

Founders who start their business in a city with sky-high costs and limited access to talent may see their entrepreneurial dreams go under long before discovering if their business idea is even viable.

Historically, the West Coast has been a hub for startups and emerging tech companies, but as costs skyrocket, many young business owners moved across the country to more affordable cities on the East Coast, according to a new study from Clever Real Estate.

The top 10 startup cities in 2024 are:

  • Atlanta,Georgia
  • Miami, Florida
  • Orlando, Florida
  • Tampa, Florida
  • Austin, Texas
  • San Francisco, California
  • Washington, D.C.
  • Jacksonville, Florida
  • Charlotte, North Carolina
  • Dallas, Texas

Continue reading

Google agreed to pay millions for California news. Journalists call it a bad deal

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

FILE – A Google sign hangs over an entrance to the company’s new building, Sept. 6, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

By TRÂN NGUYỄN Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Google will soon give California millions of dollars to help pay for local journalism jobs in a first-in-the-nation deal, but journalists and other media industry experts are calling it a disappointing agreement that mostly benefits the tech giant.

The agreement, which was hashed out behind closed doors and announced this week, will direct tens of millions of public and private dollars to keep local news organizations afloat. Critics say it’s a textbook political maneuver by tech giants to avoid a fee under what could have been groundbreaking legislation. California lawmakers agreed to kill a bill requiring tech to support news outlets they profit from in exchange for Google’s financial commitment. Continue reading

Microplastics are everywhere but are they harming us?

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

FILE – A blue rectangular piece of microplastic sits on the finger of a researcher with the University of Washington-Tacoma environmental science program, after it was found in debris collected from the Thea Foss Waterway, in Tacoma, Wash., on May 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Microplastics have been found in the ocean and the air, in our food and water. They have been found in a wide range of body tissues, including the heart, liver, kidneys and even testicles.

But are they actually harming you?

Evidence suggests they might, but it’s limited in scope. Some researchers are worried, but acknowledge there are lots of unanswered questions.

Dr. Marya Zlatnik, a San Francisco-based obstetrician who has studied environmental toxins and pregnancy, has seen studies raising concerns about microplastics’ impact on the health of babies and adults. Continue reading

Too many people, not enough management: A look at the chaos of ‘overtourism’ in the summer of 2024

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Tuk-tuks drop off and pick up tourists at the gate of the 19th century Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)

By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press

SINTRA, Portugal (AP) — The doorbell to Martinho de Almada Pimentel’s house is hard to find, and he likes it that way. It’s a long rope that, when pulled, rings a literal bell on the roof that lets him know someone is outside the mountainside mansion that his great-grandfather built in 1914 as a monument to privacy.

There’s precious little of that for Pimentel during this summer of “overtourism.”

Travelers idling in standstill traffic outside the sunwashed walls of Casa do Cipreste sometimes spot the bell and pull the string “because it’s funny,” he says. With the windows open, he can smell the car exhaust and hear the “tuk-tuk” of outsized scooters named for the sound they make. And he can sense the frustration of 5,000 visitors a day who are forced to queue around the house on the crawl up single-lane switchbacks to Pena Palace, the onetime retreat of King Ferdinand II. Continue reading

One thing that hasn’t changed in Hollywood: male characters still more than double female ones

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Ryan Gosling, left, and Margot Robbie in a scene from “Barbie.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — In recent years the movie industry has gone through the streaming revolution, the pandemic, labor strikes and “Barbenheimer.” But after countless upheavals in Hollywood, you’re still more than twice as likely to see male speaking characters in theatrical releases than you are female ones.

Just 32% of speaking characters in the top 100 movies at the box office in 2023 were women or girls, according to the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative annual report released Monday. That’s very nearly the same percentage as when Stacy L. Smith first began the study in 2007. Then, it was 30% of speaking characters. Continue reading

From Paris to Los Angeles: How the city is preparing for the 2028 Olympics

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Tom Cruise carries the Olympic flag during the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony at the Stade de France, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

By JAIMIE DING and ANDREW DALTON Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s Los Angeles’ turn for the torch. Mayor Karen Bass accepted the Olympic flag at the Paris closing ceremony Sunday, before handing it off to a key representative of LA’s local business — Tom Cruise — who in a pre-recorded trek via motorcycle, plane and parachute kicked off the countdown to 2028.

The city will become the third in the world to host the games three times as it adds to the storied years of 1932 and 1984. Here’s a look forward and back in time at the Olympics in LA. Continue reading