Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots

Nearly half of the Twitter accounts spreading messages on the social media platform about the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said Wednesday.

Researchers culled through more than 200 million tweets discussing the virus since January and found that about 45% were sent by accounts that behave more like computerized robots than humans. READ MORE

Meet the Entrepreneur Who Left Silicon Valley to Create a Makeshift Supply Chain in Ukraine

It wasn't long after the bombing began on February 24 that Andrey Liscovich decided to leave behind his home in San Francisco and make the three-day trek to his native Ukraine to help with the war effort.

Liscovich, a 37-year-old entrepreneur and most recently the CEO of Uber Works, a now-defunct staffing firm subsidiary of Uber, was inspired by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's grave assessment of the situation during the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He thought, if Ukraine's president was willing to stay behind and defend the country despite numerous assassination attempts, he should do what he could to help too. READ MORE

Peter Thiel calls Warren Buffett a ‘sociopathic grandpa

Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel went off today at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami.

During his keynote speech, the PayPal cofounder called out who he believed to be Bitcoin’s “enemies.” Thiel named investment icon Warren Buffett, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Bloomberg reported. He referred the trio as a “gerontocracy” against what he portrayed as a revolutionary cryptocurrency movement. READ MORE

Futuristic ‘automat’ dining thrived a century ago. Can covid revive it?

At first, Horn & Hardart was known for its coffee. Frank Hardart had discovered the French drip method in New Orleans, and he and Joe Horn served up a brew that made their 15-seater Philadelphia restaurant standing room only at lunchtime.

Then, at the turn of the 20th century, a salesman pitched them on a new European machine, a “waiterless restaurant,” or “automatic,” which served food such as sandwiches, chocolate bars and wine automatically, according to “The Automat: The History, Recipes, and Allure of Horn & Hardart’s Masterpiece,” a 2002 book by historian Lorraine B. Diehl and Marianne Hardart, a great-granddaughter of Frank Hardart. In 1902, Horn and Hardart imported this equipment and launched the first Horn & Hardart Automat, at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia. READ MORE

The Electric Car Market Heats Up

Secondhand cars listed for tens of thousands more dollars than new cars. Batches of vehicles selling out in minutes. Monthslong wait times.

Welcome to Australia’s electric vehicle market.

“With the fuel prices, everything’s gone crazy,” said William McVicar, a retiree in Brisbane. He and his wife started thinking about buying an electric vehicle last year but put it on the back burner, thinking they would have plenty of time to get around to it.

“We realized we made a terrible mistake. We should have done it then,” he said. Now, everyone they know is talking about getting one, wait lists for new cars have shot up and waiting times have blown out by months. READ MORE

Performance management must return to the agenda

As 2022 builds momentum, there is a palpable sense that, whatever happens in the coming months, business will need to adapt, rather than lockdown or move into a holding pattern. Two years of on-off remote working has led to many employers shift to a hybrid work setting, bringing with it the dual benefits of meeting employees’ increasing demands for greater flexibility and the option to rapidly change gears if new disruption rear its head. READ MORE

New York Times announces Twitter 'reset': 'Tweets or subtweets' attacking colleagues 'not allowed'

The New York Times issued a company-wide memo Thursday announcing a Twitter "reset" and specifically emphasized that tweeting or subtweeting about colleagues was "not allowed."

Dean Baquet, executive editor, said in a memo that he heard complaints about Twitter and problems the social media site "presents." He said it was time to "reset" the paper's "stance" on the social media site. He said Twitter was "purely optional" and encouraged those that choose to remain on Twitter to reduce their usage. READ MORE

Biden is taking the wrong approach to small businesses, and many may fail

As is well documented, small business is the engine driving America’s economy today. It’s the mom-and-pop shops, the burger joints and bars, local professional services and millions of storefronts that we depend on for job creation and for a robust economy.

Unfortunately, just about everything the Biden administration and the leadership in Washington does, from lockdowns to mandates to stoking runaway inflation, seems to destroy the pursuit of the American Dream for small businesses and American entrepreneurs. READ MORE