Teach computing skills with new Visual Studio Code for Education

Consistent with Microsoft’s commitment to preparing students for the future, we're happy to announce the release of our latest product to empower the next generation of developers—Visual Studio Code for Education.Visual Studio Code for Education is a free online computer science education platform that provides integrated curriculum and a sandbox…

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Polarisation is a fever afflicting American society

We are now seeing a gradual radicalisation of extreme positions in each of the parties, rooted in identity issues. The Republicans are increasingly attracting white, religious, rural Americans, while the Democrats appeal more to racial, sexual and gender minorities and city-dwellers. At either end of the political spectrum there is…

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Multilateral Summits and Diplomatic Psychology

The main objective of a multilateral international summit is often the preparation of a public statement based on the results of the meeting. This is typically done in the form of either a communiqué issued by the presiding state or a joint statement issued by all participants. As a rule,…

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Trade On

“L’effet naturel du commerce est de porter à la paix […] et toutes les unions sont fondées sur des besoins mutuels.” Most people are probably more critical of the Enlightenment philosopher Montesquieu today than they ever were. Already during the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chains and trade started to be considered…

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Updating perceptions about today’s luxury traveler

Demand for luxury tourism and hospitality is expected to grow faster than for any other industry segment. This growth is being powered in part by a sharp rise in the number of individuals globally with net worths between $1 million and $30 million. But it’s also resulting from a large…

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The GenAI Blind Spot Leaders Have Now

In this short video, MIT Sloan CIO Symposium speakers and CIO leadership award finalists share advice on generative AI issues to prioritize. MIT Sloan Management Review May 30, 2024 Reading Time: 1 minute Topics Data, AI, & Machine Learning AI & Machine Learning subscribe-icon Subscribe Share [embedded content] Given the…

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Licensing Deadline for Ontario Recruiters and Temporary Help Agencies Draws Near—and Here Are the Updates

Quick Hits Beginning July 1, 2024, nearly all recruiters and temporary help agencies working with businesses or candidates in Ontario will be required to have a licence, even if the recruiters and temporary help agencies are not located in Ontario. THAs and recruiters that apply by June 30, 2024, may…

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Cuckoos evolve to look like their hosts – and form new species in the process

The theory of coevolution says that when closely interacting species drive evolutionary changes in each other this can lead to speciation - the evolution of new species. But until now, real-world evidence for this has been scarce.Now a team of researchers has found evidence that coevolution is linked to speciation…

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RI Research Brings Together Humans, Robots and Generative AI To Create Art

Co-painting is by its nature collaborative, and developing data that trains a robot to collaborate is difficult and time-consuming. To get around this complication, CoFRIDA uses self-supervised training data based on FRIDA's stroke simulator and planner. The researchers created a self-supervised, fine-tuning dataset by having FRIDA simulate paintings that consisted…

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Investing in Valar Labs

“I remember reading an article…where they measured the efficiency of locomotion for all the species on planet Earth. And the condor won. Humans came in about a third of the way down the list, which was not such a great showing for the crown of creation. But somebody had the…

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Now boarding: Faces, places, and trends shaping tourism in 2024

After falling by 75 percent in 2020, travel is on its way to a full recovery by the end of 2024. Domestic travel is expected to grow 3 percent annually and reach 19 billion lodging nights per year by 2030. Over the same time frame, international travel should likewise ramp…

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Chinese Logic and European Theatre

China attempts to delay, to the greatest extent possible, the process of direct conflict with the United States and its allies. This conflict is of a strategic nature, and is linked to simple competition for access to global resources and markets. Meanwhile, Europeans do not have significant stakes in this…

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Earliest, most distant galaxy discovered with James Webb Space Telescope

Found in a region near the Hubble Ultra Deep Field by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) team, these galaxies mark a major milestone in the study of the early Universe.“These galaxies join a small but growing population of galaxies from the first half billion years of cosmic history…

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The Beginning of the End of Service Charges? An Examination of California’s SB 478

Quick Hits Starting July 1, 2024, a new California law, SB 478, will prohibit businesses from adding automatic service charges onto consumer bills. Other states and federal agencies may soon restrict, or prohibit, businesses from using automatic service charges. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) No. 478 into…

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OTC Market Issuer’s Restructuring – A CFO’s Perspective

Having been the CFO of 4 publicly traded OTC Market issuers, I have been challenged to present those companies financial conditions not only in SEC required disclosures, but also to new investors. Many of those presentations proved challenging because of unrecognized bad funding and financing deals those companies made with…

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European Cities II comes to Microsoft Flight Simulator

A diverse and exciting selection of locations from throughout Europe awaits pilots with this latest release.Microsoft Flight Simulator introduced City Update VII: European Cities II today which features notable locales throughout Europe: Sweden’s Stockholm, France’s Nice and neighboring Monaco, Portugal’s Porto, and Spain’s Barcelona and Madrid. This latest update to…

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Registered & Unregistered Design Rights – What are the key differences?

In the UK, there are two types of design rights: registered design rights and unregistered design rights and we have set out the key features and differences between the two below. Registered Design Right: What do we mean by “registered design right”? A registered design right is obtained by registering…

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Over 50% of Workers Now Value Balance and Belonging Over Climbing the Corporate Ladder

Yesterday, I came across research by Randstad and it really got me thinking about how much the workplace landscape is changing. This study included insights from 27,000 workers worldwide and what really caught my attention was that nearly half of the respondents—47%, to be exact—expressed a willingness to stick with…

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Six trends shaping new business models in tourism and hospitality

As destinations and source markets have changed, tourism and hospitality companies have evolved too. Six key trends have shaped business models in this sector over the past decade. In accommodation, asset-light models like franchising and management have proliferated, though luxury and small-scale brands are opting out. Consolidation has driven economies…

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Destination readiness: Preparing for the tourist flows of tomorrow

Tourism can help build a more connected, more vibrant world. But as tourism grows rapidly, the most visited destinations are experiencing more concentrated flows (Exhibit 1). Recent satellite data suggests that 80 percent of travelers visit just 10 percent of the world’s tourist destinations. The number of travelers and the…

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Nudge Users to Catch Generative AI Errors

Frontiers Research Highlight Using large language models to generate text can save time but often results in unpredictable errors. Prompting users to review outputs can improve their quality. Renée Richardson Gosline, Yunhao Zhang, Haiwen Li, Paul Daugherty, Arnab D. Chakraborty, Philippe Roussiere, and Patrick Connolly May 29, 2024 Reading Time:…

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The Art and Science of Business Simulations: A Catalyst for Effective Leadership

Business simulations are a powerful, yet often overlooked tool in the world of leadership development. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the framework behind business simulations and uncover their potential for shaping dynamic leaders. Business simulations: Powering excellence through practice Imagine a training method that combines the complexity of real-world…

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UK Criminal Liability Alert: Safeguarding Companies Operating in the UK From the Actions of Their Employees

What do I need to know? New criminal laws in the UK will make companies more vulnerable to criminal prosecution for the acts of their employees and agents than ever before. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (“ECCTA”) introduces two significant changes to the criminal law in the…

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Maine DOL Issues Proposed Rules for Paid Family and Medical Leave Program

Quick Hits The Maine Department of Labor issued proposed rules for the state’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Program, providing employers with initial clarification regarding covered employees, contribution amounts, substitution of private plans, and other facets of the law. The public comment period for the proposed rules is open through…

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Minecraft community members share how it shapes their worlds

Minecraft 15th anniversary - Source “I met my husband and amazing friends through Minecraft and everything that has happened from that point has been the most exciting adventure.” — Razzleberries “Minecraft gave me the opportunity to be featured in multiple official books through building, rendering and writing.” — Cookiie “The…

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What’s behind the FTSE’s record high?

In his spring Budget on 6 March 2024, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that the government would consult on the possibility of creating a new “British ISA”. This new type of ISA would give investors an additional £5,000 allowance on top of their normal ISA allowance of £20,000 in the 2024/25…

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Investors Reward Gender-Diverse Companies

Corporate America has never been known for its gender diversity; in 2015, fewer women ran large U.S. companies than men named John. While the numbers are slowly improving at senior levels—women CEOs finally outnumbered Johns as of 2023—many of the country’s biggest firms have a workforce that is significantly less…

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The way we travel now

What sorts of journeys do today’s travelers dream about? Where would they like to go? What do they hope to do when they get there? How much are they willing to spend on it all? And what should industry stakeholders do to adapt to the traveler psychology of the moment?…

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Mastering MarTech: Insights from Clarasys & Sojourn Solutions – PODCAST

In this episode of Nevermind the Pain Points, join host Tom Carpenter and guest expert Phil Boyden from Sojourn Solutions as they dive into the future of B2B marketing – navigating everything from the complex world of marketing automation and customer data platforms, to proving ROI, and adopting B2C strategies.Listen…

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Buying a Holiday Home – The Tax Considerations

As the sun begins to peak its way through the clouds, dreamers begin to consider the potential of investing in a holiday home. Investing in a holiday home can be a rewarding venture, offering both personal enjoyment and potential financial gain. However, amidst the excitement of acquiring a second property,…

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FTC and DOJ Seek Public Help Identifying “Serial Acquisition Strategy” Targets

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced on Thursday, May 23, that they are expanding their search for businesses using “roll up” strategies to consolidate competitors and reduce competition across the U.S. economy. Previously, the agencies had primarily focused their efforts…

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Leap into summer learning with a game from Microsoft

School may be out for summer in many places across the northern hemisphere, but learning doesn’t have to end! Our free summer learning game for students, Leaps and Logs, is back again this year. We’ve updated the experience with new, innovative challenges, including some that feature creating with AI. Students…

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A microscope on small businesses: The productivity opportunity by country

The McKinsey Global Institute aggregated a richly granular data set of micro-, small-, and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs) and large companies across 12 broad sectors, 68 level-two subsectors, and more than 200 level-three subsectors for 16 countries that account for more than half of global GDP. In these countries, MSMEs on…

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Chrome without third-party cookies: what will your data strategy look like?

Ninety percent of the world’s data has been created in the last two years, and this huge influx is already growing exponentially in 2024. However, Google’s move to phase-out third-party cookies and prioritise user privacy will limit businesses’ access to customer data. Given today’s focus on the hyper-personalisation of customer…

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Model makeover: Turning a telco into a customer-centric techco

For all the financial, operational, and market challenges incumbent telecom operators have faced over the past decade-plus, they still retain real competitive advantages in their efforts to spur renewed growth. Global brand recognition, a large customer base, a rich data set, and a broad array of sales channels are all…

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Microsoft Teams announces updates for Town Hall

Our goal in Teams is to make hybrid work and communication easier and more inclusive than ever before. This pursuit is core to the effort we put into creating meaningful connections between people through our end-to-end events platforms, whether one-to-one meetings or large one-to-many hosted digital events. We introduced our…

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Job Search Advice for a Tough Market: Think Broadly and Stay Flexible

New graduates entering the job market will face a very different landscape from even a year ago, with a murky economy and potentially more limited career prospects. Though unemployment figures in the US remain near historically low levels, the pace of hiring in April slowed, according to the Bureau of…

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AI Can Write a More Believable Restaurant Review Than a Human Can

Like a lot of people, Balázs Kovács has come to rely on Yelp reviews when it comes to choosing a new restaurant. “I don’t look at the numbers,” he says. “I read to connect with the experience. It’s more personable if someone writes about their experience. If they complain about…

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AIA’s Lee Yuan Siong on building success for the long term

This interview is part of the Leading Asia series, which features in-depth conversations with the region’s most influential leaders on what it takes to lead in Asia today.Asia–Pacific’s changing demographics, growing middle class, and insurance protection gaps are just a few trends shaping opportunities and challenges in the region's life…

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New Study Highlights Significant Increases in Cannabis Use in US

A new study by a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University assessed cannabis use in the United States between 1979 and 2022, finding that a growing share of cannabis consumers report daily or near-daily use and that their numbers now exceed those of daily and near-daily alcohol drinkers. The study concludes…

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