Long-time Slashdot reader PalmAndy shared the New York Times profile of two pioneers in “mass arbitration.” One Silicon Valley founder created FairShake, an automated system to help consumers launch hundreds of arbitration cases against corporations like Comcast and AT&T. And then there’s attorney Travis Lenkner (and his firm Keller Lenkner), who says most companies never thought consumers would actually use arbitration….
Tag: Corporations
Thank God for the Internet
Everything is so dark, but the internet — for all its bad and broken parts — is helping to keep us together in a way that has never happened before, writes Joshua Topolsky in an essay on Input Mag. Two excerpts from the essay: What the hell would we do right now without the internet? How would so many of us…
Amazon, Owned by World’s Richest Man, Soliciting Public Donations To Pay Workers’ Sick Leave
While much of the economy grinds to a halt, Amazon is doing more business than ever. The company has announced it is hiring 100,000 workers to try to meet surging demand. In 2019, Amazon had over $280 billion in revenue and $11.9 billion in profits. As more Americans shift their shopping online, it will likely do better this year. But, as…
is a ‘Debt Jubilee’ The Only Way to Avoid a Depression?
The Washington Post just ran an interesting op-ed from a research professor of economics at the University of Missouri:
Massive social distancing, with its accompanying job losses, stock dives and huge bailouts to corporations, raises the threat of a depression. But it doesn’t have to be this way. History offers us another alternative in such situations: a debt jubilee. This slate-cleaning, balance-restoring…
Teleconference Apps and New Tech Surge in Demand Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Global downloads of business apps including Tencent Conference, WeChat Work, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack have risen nearly five fold since the start of the year, data showed, as the coronavirus outbreak changes how corporations work. From a report: While such apps attracted 1.4 million new users across the App Store and Google Play in the first week of January, that…
Why Do Corporations Speak the Way They Do?
An anonymous reader shares a article: Anna Wiener, author of memoir “Uncanny Valley”, writes especially well — with both fluency and astonishment — about the verbal habits of her peers: “People used a sort of nonlanguage, which was neither beautiful nor especially efficient: a mash-up of business-speak with athletic and wartime metaphors, inflated with self-importance. Calls to action; front lines and…
The Messy, Secretive Reality Behind OpenAI’s Bid To Save the World
OpenAI has a glossy exterior. In the four short years of its existence, it has catapulted itself to a spot among the leading AI research labs in the world. Part of it is its consistency in producing headline-grabbing research. Part of it is its co-founders Elon Musk and legendary investor Sam Altman. But above all, OpenAI is lionized for its mission….
Save the giants, save the planet
Protecting large animals such as elephants and whales, and large plants like the sequoias, has a disproportionate positive impact on the health of the planet and resilience to climate change. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/why-to-conserve-large-animals-trees…
How to Increase Female Participation in STEM (Gender Gap)
While you’ve likely heard the reasons why women leave STEM fields, Dr. Diana Bilimoria researches why they stay along with other ways to develop and advance the careers of women in STEM. Recognized internationally for her leadership and research, Dr. Diana Bilimoria is a Key Bank Professor and Chair of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead […]
The post How to Increase Female…
Bruce Schneier: Banning Facial Recognition Isn’t Enough
Bruce Schneier, writing at New York Times: Communities across the United States are starting to ban facial recognition technologies. In May of last year, San Francisco banned facial recognition; the neighboring city of Oakland soon followed, as did Somerville and Brookline in Massachusetts (a statewide ban may follow). In December, San Diego suspended a facial recognition program in advance of a…