Thursday, July 20, 2023

20: Ukraine



Why Russia pulled out of its grain deal with Ukraine – and what that means for the global food system From 2019 to 2022, more than 122 million people were driven into hunger by a combination of the impacts of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine ........ The World Food Program, the world’s largest humanitarian agency, purchased 80% of its wheat from Ukraine. ........ But on July 17, 2023, it said it’s unwilling to stay in the deal unless its demands are met to ship more of its own food and fertilizer. Over the following two days, it attacked Odesa with drones and missiles in one of the largest sustained assaults on the port. Russia also said it would deem any ship in the Black Sea bound for a Ukrainian port to be a legitimate military target........ While Russia has extended the deal after previous threats, this time may be different. Russian strikes caused extensive damage to Odesa, which may severely limit Ukraine’s ability to export through the port in the future – deal or no deal.

WFH forces a global office rethink



Nurses fight for doctor title
Workers doubt they can retire: Poll One in five Americans doesn't think they will ever retire, while only half feel like they can save for the future, per a new Axios-Ipsos poll. Just over a third of people nearing "typical" retirement age — 55 and over — believe they'll be able to retire when they expected to. While most workers say they want to retire someday, "roughly half the workforce, we’re talking 50 plus million people, work for an employer that doesn’t offer a retirement plan," says a senior policy advisor at AARP. But good news for those who've managed to retire: 68% say they feel better than ever. .



Fed launches instant payments Nations including England, China, Sweden and India already have instant payments

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20: Video

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20: Emad Mostaque With Peter Diamandis





How Instagram Co-founder Mike Krieger Took Its Engineering Org from 0 to 300 People At the time of the acquisition, he had just six generalist developers. ......... In just seven years, Krieger himself went from first-time manager to leading a multi-layered organization of specialized engineers, many of whom are the best in their fields. ........ how to gracefully transition from an early to a more mature technical team, how to introduce new tiers of management, and how to build an engine for unrelenting improvement and innovation. .......... “Have you heard that expression, ‘shaving the yak’?” Krieger says. “Sometimes programming means solving super complex technical problems. But a lot of times, you end up with a long string of tasks that are necessary to get where you’re going, i.e. ‘I need to get this iPhone app running on my device, which means I need to generate this provisioning profile, which means I need to set up for this account, and on and on.’ In the end, you’re shaving a yak to accomplish that original action — you’re so detached from it.” ............ An effective engineering generalist knows when to move on............ Put pride aside and keep your eye on your real goal. “The goal is not to set up Nagios or Munin. The goal is to ship software so that you can get people using it.” ......... In the early days of Instagram, Krieger and and his team recorded their action items in a rolling Google Doc, organized by themes. ........... “One of our themes was being the fastest photo-sharing app in the world. What are we working toward within that theme? Next, we wanted to make the photos look incredible, way beyond what you'd expect from a cell phone. What are we doing on that? Anything that didn't fit into those things went by the wayside. And you want engineers who are okay with that.” ............. The Google Doc was the perfect minimally viable product for tracking all tasks as a team — and making sure that every single one of them rolled up to one of the organization’s most important goals or priorities. It was broken up into days, and under days into themes. Uncompleted tasks under each theme were migrated to the next day. Highest priority tasks were labeled as such. That way, nothing got lost in the mix, it was easy for people to comment and ask questions, and their eyes were always fixed on what was next for the goals they needed to achieve.

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Twitter's Blue Check: Is It Worth It?



Twitter Blue: What does paying for Twitter actually get you, and should you do it? Are the additional features worth your $8? .

Should You Pay for a Checkmark on Twitter, for Yourself or Your Business?
Twitter’s Blue Check Apocalypse Is Upon Us. Here’s What to Know. Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, is changing the platform’s longstanding practice of verifying accounts. That has implications for a range of users. .

How To Get Verified on Twitter in 2023: The Essential Guide Twitter's verification process has changed in the past year. Learn how to get verified on Twitter in 2023 with our simple guide. .

Half of Twitter Blue subscribers have less than 1,000 followers And Elon Musk now says he wants to force these users all into your feed. ...... starting April 15, the platform apparently will no longer promote non-paying Twitter Blue subscribers via its recommendation algorithm on the For You feed. ....... around half of all users subscribed to Twitter Blue have less than 1,000 followers. That's approximately 220,132 paying subscribers. ........ 78,059 paying Twitter Blue subscribers have less than 100 users following their account. That's 17.6 percent of all Twitter Blue subscribers. ......... there are 2,270 paying Twitter Blue subscribers who have zero followers. ....... Twitter Blue currently has a total of 444,435 paying subscribers. ......... less than 0.2 percent of Twitter's 254 million daily active users, a metric previously shared by Musk, are paying for Twitter Blue. ....... only 6,482 legacy verified accounts have paid to subscribe to Twitter Blue. ....... There are approximately 420,000 legacy verified accounts in total, which are mostly celebrities, pro athletes, journalists, influencers, and other notable users that received the checkmark badge for free under Twitter's old verification system. .......... Musk shared that in a few weeks only Twitter Blue subscribers would be recommended to users in the platform's For You feed. (Hours later, Musk "clarified" that this will also include people users directly follow.) ............ The reason so many celebrities chose to stay active on Twitter over other social media platforms was originally due to the legacy verification system. Alexander said he doesn't plan on even staying on Twitter after the legacy verification badges are removed.......... Many Twitter power users who have interacted with Twitter Blue subscribers note that they are most often far right wing accounts, cryptocurrency scammers, and hardcore Elon Musk supporters. We will soon find out if filling users' feeds with some of the least influential accounts on the platform, as Musk plans to do, is a good business strategy. .



Why Elon Musk’s cull of Twitter ‘verified’ blue ticks could prove costly Twitter’s aristocracy is no more. Last year, Elon Musk described the verification process as a “lords & peasants system” and on Thursday he deployed the guillotine. Feudalism has now given way to capitalism: money gets you status....... The change has stripped the blue tick from about 400,000 legacy verified accounts. ....... Subscribers to the new service will get boosted rankings in conversations and search, while their replies will also receive greater prominence. Tweets that they interact with will also benefit. ......... maintaining influence or presence on the platform will cost money from now on, whereas it was free under the previous system ........ users will still be able to see unverified accounts that they follow on the platform’s default For You feed. .......... Musk’s move is largely rooted in financial motivations, despite the anti-feudal rhetoric. ......... He said in his 1 November Twitter thread that giving paid-for verified accounts priority in replies, mentions and search was “essential to defeat spam/scam”, presumably under the logic that a bot account would not pay for a tick and would thus be less prominent. ........ In its last published set of accounts, advertising represented 90% of Twitter’s $5bn (£4bn) in annual revenue. According to Musk recently, revenue is due to drop to less than $3bn this year. Costs have also been slashed sharply, with staff numbers cut by about 75% to 1,500 people, which Musk says has seen off the threat of bankruptcy. But if advertisers do not return in force he will need more than the 600,000-635,000 Blue subscribers the platform is estimated to have, which equates to about $5m+ a month in revenue. .

Twitter Blue for Business 2023: How much does a Twitter checkmark cost? Twitter Blue is worth it if you want to access the prestigious checkmarks, skyrocket your brand awareness, and receive 50% fewer ads....... Users with a Twitter Blue subscription will have their tweets prioritized, which could give you more engagement on the app.



How Elon Musk transformed Twitter’s blue check from status symbol into a badge of shame



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