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Supporters of a plan to force Theresa May to delay Brexit fear their plan is unworkable https://read.bi/2HwDspt
LONDON — There are growing doubts that a backbench plan seeking to delay Brexit can actually work. The Brexit amendment, brought forward by Labour MP Yvette Cooper, is designed to allow the passage of a new piece of legislation that would force prime minister Theresa May to seek an extension of the two-year Article 50 process. House of Commons speaker John Bercow is likely to select the cross-party amendment for a vote by MPs on Tuesday. It looks like the plan will have enough votes to pass, with Labour and a handful of rebel Tory MPs ready to support it. The prime minister has reportedly privately admitted that she will be forced to seek a delay to Brexit if the plan is successful. However, senior Tory and Labour MPs who are backing the amendment have privately cast doubt on its workability. They say that, because the complex plan would require the passage of separate legislation, the timeframe to squeeze it through both the House of Lords and Commons is very small. One senior Conservative MP backing the amendment told Business Insider: "Yvette's amendment is designed like a very small bullet fired at a very small target." "I hope it hits the target, but in order to do that on February 5, it has got to take a bill through all its stages in the House of Commons in a single day with all the procedural problems that may come from that." The legislation would then have to pass through all its stages in the House of Lords, the timeframe for which the Commons has no control over. Even if the Lords was willing to try and expedite the process, it would have to change its standing orders — the rules which regulate the proceedings of each house — for that to occur. At the moment, standing orders only allow private member's business such as Cooper's bill on one day a month, which would need to be changed. "There must be a risk that the complexity of what she is trying to achieve will lead to it floundering at some point on its route through parliament," the MP said, adding that Lords could seek to block the passage of the bill by filibustering. At a lunchtime event in Westminster this week, Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested summoning the Queen to suspend parliament in order to prevent the passage of the bill. While such an extreme measure is unlikely, it serves to highlight the myriad ways in which opponents of the plan could frustrate its passage through parliament. Some MPs have suggested they prefer a separate amendment tabled by Tory MP Caroline Spelman and Labour MP Jack Dromey, which states that the Commons "rejects the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement and a framework for the future relationship." While it is not legally binding, some believe it could be politically weighty enough for the government to be compelled to act upon it. One Labour MP, who is backing Cooper's amendment, said he believed the complexity of the plan could lead to it falling. He added that he believed a separate amendment, brought by Conservative MP Dominic Grieve, would be more likely to be successful. Under Grieve's plan, MPs would be given time to pass one or more Commons resolutions which would direct the prime minister on what to do on Brexit. The resolutions would be technically non-binding on the prime minister. However, May would be subject to being found in contempt of parliament should she ignore them. The plan would also avoid the need to go through the tricky process of passing legislation. "Dominic's bill is simpler. We should keep it simple stupid," the MP said. Cooper's gambit
There are other potential problems with Cooper's bill. If it is passed — and assuming it can get through parliament — an Article 50 extension would still require the agreement of the 27 other EU states. MPs also voiced concerns that it would upturn Britain's constitutional norms, which dictate that the government sets the agenda in the House of Commons, setting a dangerous precedent which would hamstring future governments. "Parliament cannot become the executive," one Brexit-backing Tory MP who opposes the amendment, told Business Insider. "You would start to go down a very slippery road. The government knows this, I suspect, and that is why I don't think it will succeed," said another Brexit-backing Tory MP who opposes the amendment. Does Theresa May privately support the Cooper amendment?
Yvette Cooper has claimed that she believes Theresa May would privately back an attempt to take no deal off the table. "She knows that she should rule out no deal in the national interest because it would be so damaging," she said earlier this week. But the prime minister, ever-occupied by attempts to manage the expectations of her bitterly divided Conservative party, will be wary of the fury and blame that Brexiteers would direct squarely towards her if she failed to prevent parliament taking a no-deal Brexit off the table. "If no deal were taken off the table, Her Majesty’s government would have had to have connived in doing it," said Jacob Rees-Mogg this week. "It cannot be done if the government is determined to stop it," he added. Another Brexit-supporting Tory MP told Business Insider: "If the government became complicit in this Speaker-induced racket, this continual drive to upturn constitutional norms, then it would face very serious consequences." The prime minister cannot formally be replaced as Conservative Party leader until December due to a failed coup before Christmas. However, the MP suggested that Tory MPs who support a no-deal Brexit could be tempted to vote with Labour in a no-confidence vote to try and oust her as leader if she allowed a delay to Brexit to happen. NOW WATCH: MSNBC host Chris Hayes thinks President Trump's stance on China is 'not at all crazy' See Also:
SEE ALSO: The People's Vote campaign approaches judgement day in battle to secure a new Brexit referendum Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic January 27, 2019 at 03:18AM
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5 Ads That Tell Great Stories: Insight From a Pixar Movie Writer http://bit.ly/2TgJuvX  What makes a good story? Can commercials tell great stories? And if so, how can you tell which commercials tell great (vs. bad) stories? I recently came across Matthew Luhn, a Hollywood insider who spent roughly 20 years writing for Pixar Animation Studios (with story credits including Toy Story 2 and 3, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and Up) and authored The Best Story Wins: How to Leverage Hollywood Storytelling in Business and Beyond. ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT After reading Luhn's book and engaging with him over the past couple of months, I am fascinated by his approach. Imagine looking at commercials and storytelling from a Hollywood perspective. Luhn spends years working on one story — the depth of thought that goes into how to create a character and story arc that takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster is unparalleled. While marketers aren’t trained to think like a movie writer, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be. I have a series of five articles that I will be posting over the next few months that share Luhn’s insight. Below, in the spirit of Superbowl Sunday, I share Luhn’s basics of good storytelling and five commercials that tell great stories. Kimberly Whitler: Before we get started, can you share some basics of the “parts” of a good story? Matthew Luhn: Business people are familiar with elevator pitches. In the movie business, we have something called a logline that serves a similar purpose. It is a summary of a movie that can be used as a pitch to help somebody understand the essence of the film. The logline usually is comprised of four key parts: 1) hero, 2) goal, 3) obstacles, and 4) transformation. Whitler: Can you share some examples of great commercials that tell terrific stories? Luhn: This Coca-Cola ad/short film (“A Bridge for Santa”) is a good example. As you can see, the hero of the film is the little boy. Great stories should be about the audience and the hero shouldn’t be your product. The hero is the target audience. In this case, the little boy is the protagonist/hero. His goal is to have Santa visit his town. The primary obstacle is the broken bridge. The ultimate transformation for the boy is that he remains innocent because he meets Santa. However, in this ad, there are also what we’d call “b” and “c” storylines. The b story is that the dad falls in love again. And the c story is that the town comes together to fix the bridge. ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT Whitler: One of my current favorite ads is University of Phoenix’ ad about a university built for working adults. The story in the ad is quite compelling. The hero is a hard-working woman and her goal is to get a degree. The obstacle is that universities aren’t built for working adults. The transformation is that she is able to get a degree while still working because the University of Phoenix’ founder created a solution specifically for people like her. What I particularly like is that there are thousands of colleges and universities, with few having a differentiated and compelling positioning, and this ad creates separation. I also think that the music in this story contributes to the emotion. Is this a good or bad example? And do you have some additional examples? Luhn: That definitely is good example of a 'story' ad. Another example, which also has great music, is the ad by Mercedes called “Snow Date”. The hero is the little boy. The goal is to get him to his date safely. The obstacle is the weather. In this example, Mercedes is the bridge that enables the boy to overcome his obstacle. Another good example is McDonald’s “Juliette the Doll”. The hero is the doll. Her goal is to find a good home. Her obstacle is that she is sitting in a toy store window with Christmas around the corner. She finally takes matters into her own hands, crosses the street, and goes into a McDonald’s where she finds love and happiness and a home. I also happen to like how the ad company that made the commercial named the toy store, Jeffrey’s Toys (after my family’s toy store). The ad team attended one of my keynotes and heard me share the story of my family’s store and incorporated it into their ad, which is of course fun. Luhn: As an example of how just a 30-second ad can move people emotionally, watch the Edeka ad, which has over 60,000,000 views. Edeka is a large supermarket chain in Germany. I won’t spoil this ad as most Americans probably haven’t seen it, but it is a powerful example of storytelling. ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT Join the Discussion: @KimWhitler Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf January 27, 2019 at 12:12AM
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MIT CSAIL researchers propose automated method for debiasing AI algorithms http://bit.ly/2Hyqibz  Bias in algorithms is more common than you might think. An academic paper in 2012 showed that facial recognition systems from vendor Cognitec performed 5 to 10 percent worse on African Americans than on Caucasians, and researchers in 2011 found that models developed in China, Japan, and South Korea had difficulty distinguishing between Caucasians and East Asians. In another recent study, popular smart speakers made by Google and Amazon were found to be 30 percent less likely to understand non-American accents than those of native-born users. And a 2016 paper concluded that word embeddings in Google News articles tended to exhibit female and male gender stereotypes. It’s a problem. The good news is, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) are working toward a solution. In a paper (“Uncovering and Mitigating Algorithmic Bias through Learned Latent Structure“) scheduled to be presented at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence’s conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society in Honolulu this week, MIT CSAIL scientists describe an AI system that can automatically “debias” data by resampling it to be more balanced. They claim that, when evaluated on a dataset specifically designed to test for biases in computer vision systems, it demonstrated both superior performance and “decreased categorical bias.” “Facial classification in particular is a technology that’s often seen as solved, even as it’s become clear that the datasets being used often aren’t properly vetted,” Ph.D. student Alexander Amini, who was colead author on a related paper, said in a statement. “Rectifying these issues is especially important as we start to see these kinds of algorithms being used in security, law enforcement and other domains.” Amini and fellow Ph.D. student Ava Soleimany contributed to the new paper, along with graduate student Wilko Schwarting and MIT professors Sangeeta Bhatia and Daniela Rus. It’s not MIT CSAIL’s first pass at the problem — in a 2018 paper, professor David Sontag and colleagues described a method to reduce bias in AI without reducing the accuracy of predictive results. But the approach here features a novel, semisupervised end-to-end deep learning algorithm that simultaneously learns the desired task — for example, facial detection — and the underlying latent structure of the training data. That latter bit enables it to uncover hidden or implicit biases within the training data, and to automatically remove that bias during training without the need for data preprocessing or annotation. How the debiasing worksThe beating heart of the researchers’ AI system is a variational autoencoder (VAE), a neural network — layers of mathematical functions modeled after neurons in the human brain — comprising an encoder, a decoder, and a loss function. The encoder maps raw inputs to feature representations, while the decoder takes the feature representations as input, uses them to make a prediction, and generates an output. (The loss function measures how well the algorithm models the given data.) In the case of the proposed VAE, dubbed debiasing-VAE (or DB-VAE), the encoder portion learns an approximation of the true distribution of the latent variables given a data point, while the decoder reconstructs the input back from the latent space. The decoded reconstruction enables unsupervised learning of the latent variables during training. To validate the debiasing algorithm on a real-world problem with “significant social impact,” the researchers trained the DB-VAE model with dataset of 400,000 images, split 80 percent and 20 percent into training and validation sets, respectively. They then evaluated it on the PPB test dataset, which consists of images of 1,270 male and female parliamentarians from various African and European countries. The results were really promising. According to the researchers, DB-VAE managed to learn not only facial characteristics such as skin tone and the presence of hair, but other features such as gender and age. Compared to models trained with and without debiasing on both individual demographics (race/gender) and the PPB dataset as a whole, DB-VAE showed increased classification accuracy and decreased categorical bias across race and gender — an important step, the team says, toward the development of fair and unbiased AI systems. “The development and deployment of fair … systems is crucial to prevent unintended discrimination and to ensure the long-term acceptance of these algorithms,” the coauthors wrote. “We envision that the proposed approach will serve as an additional tool to promote systematic, algorithmic fairness of modern AI systems.” Making progressThe past decade’s many blunders paint a depressing picture of AI’s potential for prejudice. But that’s not to suggest progress hasn’t been made toward more accurate, less biased systems. In June, working with experts in artificial intelligence (AI) fairness, Microsoft revised and expanded the datasets it uses to train Face API, a Microsoft Azure API that provides algorithms for detecting, recognizing, and analyzing human faces in images. With new data across skin tones, genders, and ages, it was able to reduce error rates for men and women with darker skin by up to 20 times, and by 9 times for women. An emerging class of algorithmic bias mitigation tools, meanwhile, promises to accelerate progress toward more impartial AI. In May, Facebook announced Fairness Flow, which automatically warns if an algorithm is making an unfair judgment about a person based on his or her race, gender, or age. Startup Pymetrics open-sourced its bias detection tool Audit AI. Accenture released a toolkit that automatically detects bias in AI algorithms and helps data scientists mitigate that bias. And in September, Google debuted the What-If Tool, a bias-detecting feature of the TensorBoard web dashboard for its TensorFlow machine learning framework, following the debut of Microsoft’s own solution in May. IBM, not to be outdone, in the fall released AI Fairness 360, a cloud-based, fully automated suite that “continually provides [insights]” into how AI systems are making their decisions and recommends adjustments — such as algorithmic tweaks or counterbalancing data — that might lessen the impact of prejudice. And recent research from its Watson and Cloud Platforms group has focused on mitigating bias in AI models, specifically as they relate to facial recognition. With any luck, those efforts — along with pioneering work like MIT CSAIL’s new algorithm — will make change for the better. Business via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com January 26, 2019 at 11:22PM
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5 Tips To Improve Your Resume http://bit.ly/2SdqzVu  Think of a resume as a digital first impression. It’s the first view of you that a potential employer will see. Just like first impressions, you only get one chance to make an impact. Does your resume make the right impression? There are few ways that you can make your resume stand out and make the hiring manager want to call you in for an interview. Get detailed. The more detailed you can make your resume the better. Don’t just write what you’ve done, write about how you did it. Simply listing your job responsibilities won’t make you stand out from the crowd. Avoid overused buzzwords and replace passive words with ones that speak to actions. Your resume isn’t the place to be modest. If you feel like you’re bragging, you’re probably on the right track. When in doubt, have a friend read through it and ask them for their reaction. Highlight your most relevant experience first. When you’re listing your job responsibilities, write about your most relevant experience first. Think about which parts of your current job are most transferrable to the position you’re applying for, and list those first. Your first two bullet points or first two lines in a paragraph should highlight your biggest strengths. A good rule of thumb is to use a statistic in your first bullet point and describe a soft skill such as communication in the second. This way, if those are the only two points that get read, they’ll help showcase what you can do. Use statistics whenever possible. Talk about the results you’ve achieved using statistics. There are two benefits to using statistics – they’re powerful and they stand out. With the average recruiter or hiring manager spending less than 30 seconds scanning a resume, those numbers really stand out. Just writing that you increased sales doesn’t tell the person reading your resume anything about you, but writing that you increased sales by 35% by training your staff to be better communicators really stands out. Make friends with the thesaurus. You want to be as descriptive as possible, but a resume can get repetitive very quickly. The thesaurus will help you avoid writing ‘managed’ a dozen times. Using more descriptive words will create more impact as well. The thesaurus can help you transform ‘Responsible for managing a team of 10 salespeople.’ into ‘Oversaw a team of 10 salespeople to ensure they met daily sales quotas.’ Proofread! After you’ve made your final edits, go back and proofread your entire resume to ensure it’s free from typos and grammatical errors. Do this in two parts – first run a spell check, and second read it out loud. You can’t rely entirely on spell check on it because that only finds typos and grammatical errors. It won’t pick up mistakes like writing ‘a’ instead of ‘an’. Reading aloud will forces you to slow down and go through it word for word rather than just skimming. Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf January 26, 2019 at 11:08PM
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GDC 2019 survey: 33% Of VR devs are working on Vive, 21% On Quest http://bit.ly/2G7XpB1 GDC’s annual State of the Game Industry survey of developers is out ahead of the 2019 Game Developers Conference in March and it offers some some new data about developer sentiment relative to the VR/AR market. You can check out last year’s report here showing Vive continues to drive the most interest among developers. On this year’s survey, the question “Which platform(s) are you *currently developing* games for?” saw 33 percent of VR/AR developers pick Valve/HTC followed by Rift at 30 percent.
In addition, though, 21 percent of VR/AR developers said they were working on the still unreleased Oculus Quest. Developer kits for the $400 Quest aren’t available publicly so it’s a notable showing for the standalone VR system ahead of its launch. I should also add that the “Other” category was also selected by 42 percent of VR/AR developers. One other key question in the survey, which allows for multiple answers, asks “Which VR/AR device(s)/platform(s) most interest you as a developer right now?” Valve/HTC also leads in that category, with 36 percent, though Quest still made a strong showing with 22 percent of respondents picking the headset. Below are the answers to this same question over the last three years. 2019
2018
2017
AR vs. VROn another question, only 17 % of developers said they are currently working on VR headsets. That’s 10% more than game developers currently working on AR headsets. Likewise, 14 percent of developers said they anticipated their next game would be released on VR headsets while only 6 percent said the same of AR headsets. Another question, though, tried to get developer sentiment over the long view, with 34% believing AR would be the dominant “immersive reality” technology in five years. That’s compared with 19 percent for VR.
You can check out the survey yourself by filling out the registration form on the GDC site. This story originally appeared on Uploadvr.com. Copyright 2019 Business via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com January 26, 2019 at 09:28PM
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Samsung steps up as an esports sponsor with Gen.G http://bit.ly/2S8fyVr Gen.G has signed Samsung Electronics as an official sponsor for the company’s esports teams. The move is the first since Gen.G named Chris Park as its CEO earlier this month, and it’s the kind of move necessary for esports to become a $1.7 billion market by 2020, as predicted by market research firm Newzoo. Seoul-based Gen.G has esports teams such as the Seoul Dynasty team that participates in the Overwatch League. In this deal, Gen.G will receive the latest high-capacity, high-performance SSDs from Samsung, along with financial support. Samsung SSD will be implemented in Gen.G Seoul HQ, where Gen.G teams train. In addition, a “Samsung SSD Streaming Studio” will be built in the second floor of Gen.G Seoul headquarters. Here, Gen.G players will enjoy various games and deliver fun content in the optimum gaming setup equipped with Samsung SSD. 
Above: Samsung SSD Image Credit: Samsung With PC games, SSDs can decrease “lag” in high-spec gameplay and allow for a more stable gaming experience over a long period of time. “To continuously improve the players’ performance, it is vital to establish a fast and stable computing environment,” said Edward Choi, head of marketing at Gen.G Esports, in a statement. “I am very excited to have this opportunity to enhance players’ performance and exhibit high-performance Samsung SSD hardware through this official sponsorship deal with Samsung Electronics.” Kevin Chou and Kent Wakeford, the former leaders of mobile gaming firm Kabam, founded Gen.G Esports as a global esports organization in 2017. One of their first moves was to acquire Samsung Galaxy, a champion League of Legends team, from Samsung. Chou remains executive chairmand and Wakeford is vice chairman. Gen.G also has partnerships with gaming hardware manufacturer Razer, Korean chair manufacturer Sidiz, furniture brand Desker and computer networking company Netgear. Chou will be a speaker at our upcoming GamesBeat Summit, April 23-24, in Los Angeles. Business via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com January 26, 2019 at 07:06PM
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One asylum-seeker explains why he's fleeing Trump's America and seeking refuge in Canada https://read.bi/2sMuzht
CHAMPLAIN, NY — A migrant man named George wanted to make one thing clear as he approached the Canadian border: he loathes President Donald Trump. He was so repulsed by the current state of America, and so fearful of his place within it, that he took his chances on a dead-end road at the northernmost edge of upstate New York, and braced himself to walk across a small, dirt-filled ditch to enter Canada illegally. George spoke to INSIDER just before he made his illicit crossing to Canada in October, as some 40,000 other migrants have done in the last two years. Many have hung their hopes on the possibility that Canada will grant them asylum protections the US won't. Many of the migrants come from overseas, obtaining temporary visas to the US, flying to New York City, and traveling through upstate New York to traverse the illegal border crossing at Roxham Road. But George is different. He told INSIDER he has lived in the US for 25 years — and now he's had enough. "At some point, you have to come to the realization that there is no other way but to travel, find a better situation so you can move forward with your life," he said. "And going back home is not an option." 'They're not safe in the US anymore'
George declined to provide his last name or identify his home country, but INSIDER observed him walk across the border — despite warnings from Canadian authorities that his crossing was illegal — and give himself up for arrest. David Gervais, an immigration attorney based in Plattsburgh, New York, has often encountered immigrants in George's predicament. Tens of thousands migrants have made the same crossing in the last two years, coming from all corners of the US, and the world, for the same reason. "It's a whole range of people. We've had people from California, Texas, Connecticut, and New York City, in New York state, all over the place. A lot of different ethnic groups," Gervais told INSIDER. "It's just a whole medley of different folks from different backgrounds that feel they're not safe in the US anymore, or they're not going to have a fair chance at an asylum hearing in the US. So they're going to try their chances in Canada."
Gervais said asylum is generally reserved for migrants who face persecution in their home countries, are unable to live there safely, and can prove that the authorities can't or won't protect them. With the Trump administration's hostility toward asylum-seekers, its crackdown on illegal immigration, and its efforts to erode temporary protections for certain immigrants, many believe that Canada is a safer bet. The catch is that people like George can't just present themselves at a Canadian port of entry and request asylum there. A legal pact known as the Safe Third Country Agreement stipulates that migrants must request asylum from the very first "safe country" they arrive in. The US is considered a safe country, at least by Canada's definition, so asylum-seekers who come to Canada from the US are turned away at the ports of entry and told to make their claim in America. But a well-known loophole allows migrants to request asylum if they reach Canadian soil without passing through a port of entry from the US, so migrants have been crossing illegally, surrendering to arrest, and requesting asylum. 'You don't want to be in a place like that'
It's unclear how George's case will fare in Canada's asylum system. When asked if he faced danger back in his home country if he was deported, George told INSIDER he didn't. "No, to be clear, but there is so much instability, protests, and things of that nature," he said. According to Gervais, Canada's asylum system may be more lenient than America's, but migrants still need to be able to prove they face dangers like torture, risks to their lives, or cruel and unusual punishment. "You have to be able to prove that you're not safe in your country," Gervais said. "You also need to prove that the authorities are not doing much to help you in your own country. It's not always easy to prove. A lot of people don't have documentary evidence to back it up." But George isn't an anomaly — thousands of migrants have sought asylum in Canada after living in the US for years. Some of those immigrants had temporarily permission to live in the US, such as Haitians covered by Temporary Protected Status, and some had lived in the US illegally. The migrants face a variety of conditions in their home countries — from poverty, to violence, to war — and while not all of them may qualify for asylum under Canadian or US laws, many feared an immigration crackdown by Trump and decided to take their chances up north.
Speaking to INSIDER at the border on a cold day at the end of October, George brought up the shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the slew of package bombs sent to top Democrats and Trump critics across the country. "This is just disgusting," he said. "You don't want to be in a place like that." George wasn't sure what awaited him in Canada, other than a chance to "get a new life, give myself another chance, finish my education." "I don't know much about Canada," he said, "but what I've heard is that it's a much more welcoming place for people to actually live a normal life compared to the US — when you're an immigrant, when it seems like you're pushed out." NOW WATCH: China made an artificial star that's 6 times as hot as the sun, and it could be the future of energy See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic January 26, 2019 at 05:54PM
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'The people want the Truth!': Trump gloats over the loss of American media jobs https://read.bi/2Hw5YYj
President Donald Trump gloated over mass layoffs at multiple news outlets on Saturday, tweeting that "many others will follow" and attributing the loss to "Fake News." "Fake News and bad journalism have caused a big downturn. Sadly, many others will follow. The people want the Truth!" he tweeted. Trump was referring to the more than 1,000 media jobs that were axed this week after HuffPost owner Verizon Media, as well as Gannett and BuzzFeed, announced large staff cuts. The top editors at BuzzFeed and HuffPost immediately lashed out at Trump for the remarks. "1,000 journalists lost their jobs last week. Ordinary people with rent to pay, families to support, student loan bills coming due," HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen tweeted. "They are workers like any other who do not deserve this cruelty." "What a disgusting thing to say about dozens of American workers who just lost their jobs," BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith tweeted. Trump has been particularly incensed by BuzzFeed in recent weeks, after the website published a bombshell report saying that Trump had directed his former fixer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress. The story came under fire after the office of the special counsel Robert Mueller released an unprecedented statement saying parts of the story were inaccurate. BuzzFeed, however, has said it remains confident in its reporting. NOW WATCH: MSNBC host Chris Hayes thinks President Trump's stance on China is 'not at all crazy' See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic January 26, 2019 at 05:36PM
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Before you join that video conference, here’s a bit of advice http://bit.ly/2UjpZ5X  You know that nightmare where you’re naked giving a presentation at work? I recently heard about something similar — only it wasn’t a dream. Some colleagues of mine were on a live video conference when one person on the call — not realizing their camera was on — picked up their laptop and took it, and the whole team, into … the bathroom … where he proceeded to do what one does in there. Yup, that happened. And not knowing what to say, nobody said a thing. This is just one example, albeit extreme, of an issue that’s becoming more important in a modern business climate. Obviously, you shouldn’t relieve yourself while chatting with your colleagues, but just what is the etiquette on those video calls? And how do you avoid, well, crappy scenarios unfolding in front of your entire team? Like it or not, video — be it the old-fashioned Skype call, Google Hangouts, FaceTime or new up-and-comer Zoom — is becoming a mainstay of business communication for good reason. In a world where 70 percent of people now work remotely at least some of the time, video is a crucial tool for maintaining company culture. It allows for collaboration among a distributed workforce, and opens doors for hiring talent from a global pool (a no-brainer in an era of record low unemployment). But more than that, video brings humanity into the picture. Whether chatting with your boss or a prospective client, it allows for more connection, empathy, and responsiveness than any email chain or disembodied voice could ever provide. But if you don’t happen to be a Gen Z’er who grew up making Instagram Stories and snapping selfies, you probably feel a bit awkward on camera — if not paranoid about how you’re appearing on-screen. As the CEO of a company that makes video tools, I’ve seen the right (and wrong) ways people adapt to video as a go-to communication tool. Here are a few tips and hacks — some obvious, some not so much — that I’ve picked up from the frontlines at Vidyard. When in doubt, mirror your audienceMy company doesn’t have an official video policy (and I don’t know many that do). I think that’s because video should be a natural extension of existing office culture. If you’re wondering whether a suit and tie is necessary for a Zoom meeting with your boss or that client you’re trying to land, an easy litmus test is whether you’d wear one if you were in the office. If it’s common to see people in hoodies and flip flops at your workplace (or your client’s), then you’re probably fine to wear them on camera. If you work in a more buttoned-down environment, then reflect that for video meetings. That said, when working from home, PJs generally won’t cut it (though I know plenty of people who sport the video mullet: business on top; sweatpants on the bottom). The same goes for calls where your backdrop is a pile of dirty laundry, a sink full of dishes, or empty pizza boxes. Even casual has its limits. Master the techThis might seem obvious, but when appearing on video, lighting, camera angle and audio all matter — in equal measure. The basics of making you look and sound your best are pretty simple: Light should be shining on your face, not behind you; use headphones to eliminate echoes and background noise; and put yourself on mute when you’re not talking. (No one wants to hear you eating Pringles during a conference call.) As for camera angle, first and foremost, make sure you’re in the frame. You’d be surprised how often I end up talking to someone’s shoulder or ear, or responding to a disembodied voice drifting in from off-screen — a common hazard when people are sharing the camera with more than one person. Beyond that, camera angles from above are infinitely more flattering than a bottom-up shot, unless you’re going for that imposing demi-god look. Another pro tip for the image-conscious: Zoom has a great “airbrush” feature that gives you a “just-had-my-TV-makeup-done” look. Don’t hide your face … or your personalityBut I don’t want to lay down too many rules. Above all else, what makes video so powerful is its capacity to connect people — so don’t be afraid to be yourself. There’s a misconception out there that showing personal effects or taking calls anywhere other than in a sterile white cube is “distracting” on video. But way weirder than seeing funky furniture or a picture of your kids in the background is the complete lack of any clues as to where, or more importantly, who, you are. I video chat often with a colleague who has his college degree hanging behind him, along with some artwork his kids made. Right there, I have something about the guy to go on — and a jumping off point for some small talk. I personally don’t even mind taking video calls from people on the train or in a car — as long as the audio and visuals are clear, wherever you’re going is just part of your story. On the flip side, the real distraction is getting “video ghosted” — you know, when you’re on camera but the person on the other end, for whatever reason, has turned theirs off. There’s something disconcerting, and really annoying, about talking to a black square. Everyone has bad-hair days, but if you’d rather be off camera at least check in and say hi first. And one more tip on the distraction front: if you just don’t like seeing yourself on-screen, don’t be afraid to hide your “self-view.” Most video chat tools these days allow you to conceal that annoying little stream of yourself that shows up in the bottom corner of the screen. Just remember that you turned it off before you go sneaking off to the loo with your laptop. Michael Litt is cofounder and CEO of the video platform for business Vidyard. Business via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com January 26, 2019 at 04:59PM
https://read.bi/2B8KuLD
One of Trump's golf clubs reportedly fired 12 unauthorized immigrant workers https://read.bi/2G7IBlV
A dozen unauthorized Latin American immigrants were fired from their jobs at Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, The Washington Post reported Saturday. On January 18, the employees were asked individually met with a Trump human resources representative who let them go, according to The Post. The employees and their attorney told the newspaper they were fired because they were unauthorized immigrants. Workers were reportedly told staff had examined the immigration documents and discovered they were fake, despite the documents being held for years on file. "I started to cry," said Gabriel Sedano, a maintenance worker from Mexico who was employed at the club since 2005, told The Post. "I told them they needed to consider us. I had worked almost 15 years for them in this club, and I'd given the best of myself to this job." The Trump Organization didn't immediately respond to INSIDER's request for com The report comes months after multiple reports of unauthorized employees staffing his Bedminster, New Jersey club. In total, three longtime Trump employees told The New York Times that they had worked at the club illegally. One employee even said the human resources department shielded her from being vetted by the Secret Service. Other reports said golf club management had provided unauthorized employees with fake immigration documents, an allegation which is under state and federal investigation.
Beyond his golf clubs, Trump has previously come under fire for employing unauthorized immigrants, despite denying the allegations and frequently raging against illegal immigration. Hours before the report was published, Trump took to Twitter to advocate for his long-touted border wall that he describes as a solution to curb illegal immigration and the wide variety of crime he connects to migrants, writing "BUILD THE WALL & CRIME WILL FALL!" According to legal documents and former employees, Trump used to employ unauthorized immigrants at Trump Tower in New York City and at his modeling agency. Victorina Morales told the Times that she was not the only Trump employee who was working illegally, and Trump's harsh views on immigration took an emotional toll on her job, which has included tidying Trump's residence. "We are tired of the abuse, the insults, the way he talks about us when he knows that we are here helping him make money," Victorina Morales told The Times. "We sweat it out to attend to his every need and have to put up with his humiliation." Read more: NOW WATCH: MSNBC host Chris Hayes thinks President Trump's stance on China is 'not at all crazy' See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic January 26, 2019 at 04:48PM |
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