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William Lee

1016 Posts
Why Casey Left Substack, Elon Musk and Drugs, and an A.I. Antibiotic Discovery
12
Jan
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By William Lee
Technology

Why Casey Left Substack, Elon Musk and Drugs, and an A.I. Antibiotic Discovery

Listen and follow ‘Hard Fork’Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTubeCasey is taking his newsletter Platformer off Substack, as criticism over the company’s handling of pro-Nazi content grows. Then, The Wall Street Journal spoke with witnesses who said that Elon Musk had used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, worrying some directors and board members of his companies. And finally, how researchers found a new class of antibiotics with the help of an artificial intelligence algorithm used to win the board game Go.Today’s guests:Kirsten Grind, enterprise reporter for The Wall Street JournalFelix Wong, postdoctoral fellow at M.I.T. and co-founder of…
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Lugging Credit Card Debt Into 2024? Now’s the Time to Make a Plan
12
Jan
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By William Lee
Business

Lugging Credit Card Debt Into 2024? Now’s the Time to Make a Plan

Mindy Neira, a financial planner in Westwood, N.J., recommended that if you were having trouble managing card debt, take stock of your spending. “The first step is to look — without judgment — at where your money is going,” she said, including housing, food, entertainment, travel and loan payments.Then set a target for each category. (Ms. Neira said she preferred setting targets to making a strict budget, to account for monthly variations.) Ask: “Can I shift things around? Can I spend an extra $25 a month to pay down the debt?” Realize that if you took years to build your…
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Ecuador Shaken by Days of Terror After Gang Leader’s Disappearance
11
Jan
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By William Lee
New miscellaneous

Ecuador Shaken by Days of Terror After Gang Leader’s Disappearance

A sense of dread took hold in Ecuador on Wednesday, with the streets empty, schools closed and many people afraid to leave their homes after the disappearance of two gang leaders on Monday set off prison riots, police kidnappings and the on-air storming of a TV station.Even for a country accustomed to violence, the events that have rocked Ecuador this week were shocking.“I feel like the world I knew before is gone,” said María Ortega, a schoolteacher in Guayaquil, a sprawling coastal city. “You can know how things start, but not how they’ll end.”It began with violence erupting in prisons…
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‘Gas-Station Heroin’ Sold as Dietary Supplement Alarms Health Officials
10
Jan
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By William Lee
Health

‘Gas-Station Heroin’ Sold as Dietary Supplement Alarms Health Officials

The young father headed across the parking lot to join the other parents meeting their children’s new preschool teachers. After a few steps, he began sweating and twitching. As the sky reeled, he staggered back to the car, desperate to lie down in the back seat and breathe, hidden by tinted windows.“Did you take something?” his wife, Anne, shouted at him while dialing 911. Eric, 26, had completed rehab earlier in the summer.“The shot! The shot!” he groaned, just before he hit the ground and blacked out.In the emergency room of a nearby hospital in southern New Jersey, doctors tried…
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Why Manchester City are being sued by Superdry
10
Jan
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By William Lee
Sports

Why Manchester City are being sued by Superdry

Manchester City’s players wore modified training gear for their pre-match warm-up on Sunday following a High Court trademark infringement claim from fashion brand Superdry.It emerged last week that City are being sued for damages over the use of the words Super Dry — a type of beer sold by one of their main sponsors, Asahi — on their training kit.Some immediate implications have become apparent: up until Wednesday, January 3, the day Superdry’s claim was first reported by Law360, City’s players have worn bibs, sweatshirts and coats that bear the words ‘Asahi Super “Dry”’ in training and before matches.Since the…
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Regulators Approve New Type of Bitcoin Fund, in Boon for Crypto Industry
10
Jan
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By William Lee
Technology

Regulators Approve New Type of Bitcoin Fund, in Boon for Crypto Industry

Federal regulators on Wednesday approved a new financial product that tracks the price of Bitcoin, a landmark moment for the cryptocurrency industry that proponents hope will increase investment in the technology.The Securities and Exchange Commission authorized 11 applications by financial firms to offer what are known as exchange-traded funds tied to Bitcoin, a potentially simpler way for people to invest in digital assets on traditional platforms like the Nasdaq. Some of the largest financial companies in the world, including the asset managers BlackRock and Fidelity, were approved to offer the products, known as E.T.F.s, which could begin trading as soon…
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