All posts tagged: means

What It Really Means That a Failing Shoe Brand “Pivoted to AI” and Its Stock Soared 700 Percent

What It Really Means That a Failing Shoe Brand “Pivoted to AI” and Its Stock Soared 700 Percent

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech As it turns out, all it takes to turn a cash-bleeding company into the New York Stock Exchange’s latest obsession are three magic words: “pivot to AI.” In a baffling announcement today, struggling tech bro shoe company Allbirds said that it was closing a $50 million deal that “will enable the Company to pivot its business to AI compute infrastructure” — under the new name, “NewBird AI,” of course. Put simply, the company is planning to buy extremely-hard-to-obtain AI chips and rent computing power to tech startups as a “fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service.” To call it a reinvention would be an understatement. A mere two weeks ago, the company held a fire sale for all of its intellectual property and other assets, shutting down its footwear business for just $39 million. That’s a long cry from its once lofty $4 billion market cap only five years ago. Its promise to jump on the AI gravy train, however, has seemingly …

Why Amazon Is Buying Globalstar—and What It Means for Your iPhone

Why Amazon Is Buying Globalstar—and What It Means for Your iPhone

Published by skeptic

On Tuesday, Amazon announced it would be acquiring Globalstar, a company that manufactures and operates low Earth orbit satellites with the spectrums needed to communicate with devices on the ground. Amazon also says it is partnering with Apple, which has relied on Globalstar to provide off-grid emergency communication features on devices like its iPhone and Apple Watch. The $11.57 billion deal is Amazon’s latest effort to take on Elon Musk’s Starlink. It comes at a time when satellite internet is becoming critical to the spread of AI tech, but it also adds to concerns about what happens when our orbit fills up with junk. Here’s what to know about the Amazon deal. Why Did Amazon Buy Globalstar? Amazon started aiming to fill the sky with satellites in earnest in 2023, when it launched its first satellite for Project Kuiper. Amazon is now developing those efforts under the name Project Leo (LEO is an industry acronym for Low Earth Orbit satellites). The goal is to eventually build out a fleet of thousands of satellites that can …

What ‘Gurt’ Really Means And It Isn’t What You Think

What ‘Gurt’ Really Means And It Isn’t What You Think

Published by Sam Flores

Most days, you feel like you need a translator to understand half of what kids are saying. Thanks to the popularity of social media sites like TikTok, every week children and teens are finding new phrases and memes to share and say to each other – much to the befuddlement of their parents. From the latest baffling trend of saying “and a Black Santa napkin!” to the rise of “six-seven” and the bizarre world of brainrot characters like Ballerina Cappuccina, it can be exhausting work for parents and teachers trying to keep up with what it all means. One of the other expressions kids are coming out with currently is “gurt”. But what does ‘gurt’ mean? In some parts of England, gurt means very large or great. But this isn’t what kids mean when they’re saying it. In his weekly videos on the words kids are using in class, school teacher and TikTok creator Philip Lindsay said the meaning of gurt is “confusing”, as people seem to use it in two different ways. The first …

Inside The Hive: What Manchesterism Actually Means

Inside The Hive: What Manchesterism Actually Means

Published by Sam Flores

Andy Burnham and Manchesterism (Illustration by Tracy Worrall) 7 min read2 hr What would Burnham’s Britain look like? Ros Taylor explores the Manchester mayor’s governing philosophy – derided by some as more a vibe than a replicable political model, but celebrated by others as key to the city’s recent success The first hint of Manchesterism in the public consciousness came at an outdoor press conference in October 2020, when Andy Burnham heard about the latest Covid restrictions to be imposed on the city and the money available for it. In a moment that launched a thousand memes, the mayor looked down at his adviser’s phone bearing the news and grimaced. “I mean, it’s brutal, isn’t it?” he said. “This is not right. They should not be doing this – grinding people down: £22m to fight the situation we are in is frankly disgraceful.” Boris Johnson was the prime minister then, but the refrain has persisted: ‘Manchester is being done down by Westminster and Whitehall, deprived of the autonomy it needs to thrive and …

Column: What the end of Viktor Orban means for the New Right

Column: What the end of Viktor Orban means for the New Right

Published by Sam Flores

Viktor Orban, the proudly “illiberal” prime minister of Hungary, beloved by various New Right nationalists and MAGA American intellectuals, was crushed at the polls this weekend. Over the last decade or so, Hungary became for the New Right what Sweden or Cuba were to the Old Left. For generations, various American leftists loved to cite the Cuban model as better than ours when it came to healthcare, or education. Some would even make wild claims about freedom under Fidel Castro’s dictatorship. Susan Sontag famously proclaimed in 1969 that no Cuban writer “has been or is in jail or is failing to get his works published.” This was simply not true. The still young regime had already imprisoned, tortured or executed scores of intellectuals. (Sontag later recanted.) Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez still talk about Nordic countries as if we have much to learn from them, despite the fact the Nordic model heavily depends on taxing the poor and middle class, not soaking the rich. Now, distinctions matter. The Nordic systems are democratic …

New HMRC rule in 34 days means Brits could be left ignored | Personal Finance | Finance

New HMRC rule in 34 days means Brits could be left ignored | Personal Finance | Finance

Published by Sam Flores

A new HMRC rule to become active next month could leave Brits in the financial lurch. New legal requires will mean that people who interract with the department on behalf of clients need to be registered, and meet “minimum standards”. From May 18, 2026, HMRC will introduce an online system for agent services accounts, replacing the current way to register. If an individual interacts with the department about another person’s tax affairs, and gets paid for it, officials consider them an adviser. The Government has said that “individual taxpayers may be affected if their tax advisers are no longer able to act on their behalf because they are either unable to satisfy the new registration requirements”, or if their tax adviser is sanctioned. If this were the case, they would not be able to legally act on behalf of their clients and could face penalties of up to £10,000. Officials would be able to suspend their registration for up to a year, requiring them to notify their clients. They would not be able to interact …

WSJ victory over Trump means his BBC lawsuit likely to fail

WSJ victory over Trump means his BBC lawsuit likely to fail

Published by Sam Flores

Donald Trump’s alleged birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein The Wall Street Journal’s legal victory over President Trump upholds the long-standing principle that US defamation claimants must prove actual malice. It raises the likelihood that a $10bn lawsuit filed against the BBC by the US president will also fail. Under the US First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, defamation claims have traditionally been much harder to pursue in America than the UK. But Trump has sought to upend this precedent with a flurry of claims against the media. He sued The Wall Street Journal for $10bn over a 17 January 2025 article, which reported claims Trump sent a bawdy birthday card to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Now a Florida district court has thrown out Trump’s claim in a resounding victory for the Rupert Murdoch-owned publisher. Trump is separately suing the BBC over misleading editing in a documentary about the president. Unless he can also prove malice in this case, it will also be thrown out. Trump’s request for legal fees against the Journal was also …

Super El Niño 2026: What It Means And What To Expect

Super El Niño 2026: What It Means And What To Expect

Published by Sam Flores

Expert comment provided by Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London, Prof Bill McGuire. He is also the author of The Fate of the World: A History And Future Of The Climate Crisis, due out on 21 May. The start of spring is usually considered a little early to predict a weather phenomenon known as an El Niño, which involves the warming of the ocean surface and is linked to extreme weather events. That’s down to a factor called the “spring predictability barrier”; from March to May, the climate systems of the Pacific Ocean are unusually unpredictable. But many experts have cautiously done so anyway. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has given greater odds than ever that we’ll have an El Niño in place by midsummer. Every single model ensemble member involved in the recent European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts release – and there were over 20 of them – said there’s likely to be a pretty strong El Niño by June. In fact, some predict a “super El …

These Latino poets explore the concept of sovereignty — or, what it means to belong to yourself

These Latino poets explore the concept of sovereignty — or, what it means to belong to yourself

Published by Sam Flores

What does it mean to belong to yourself? To be autonomous? To have sovereignty and power? When curating this poetry series for De Los, I thought of the poets I know who speak most to Latines and their respective autonomies. I reached out to writers who not only I admire but also create work beyond beautiful words. Audre Lorde once stated that poetry “lays the foundation for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.” So, I reached out to some poets I know — who not only do the tremendous work of creating bridges themselves, but giving their readers the power to do the same. Matthew “Cuban” Hernandez is a teaching artist who works with youth in detention centers throughout Los Angeles, providing them with tools to express themselves in ways that heal. Karla Cordero is a Chicana educator whose work lives in our borderlands and bridges community into artistry by curating open mics and an online poetry journal. Sonia Guiñansaca is a queer Indigenous cultural leader …

What ‘trauma bonding’ really means – and why it’s often misunderstood

What ‘trauma bonding’ really means – and why it’s often misunderstood

Published by Sam Flores

As a young girl, Lilli Correll both loved and feared her mother. In good times, she felt special – her mother affectionately called her Monkey, and they often laughed together. “I was her favourite child,” said Correll, now 55 and living in Austin, Texas. But at other times her mother, who had bipolar disorder, would abruptly turn violent, once throwing Correll against a wall and threatening to murder her, she said. Despite the abuse Correll found herself drawn to her mother, only to be rejected again and again. That dynamic would go on to repeat itself in Correll’s marriage, which was emotionally abusive, she said. It wasn’t until she was in her 40s that she discovered, with the help of therapy, that she had formed a trauma bond with her abusers. Lately the phrase “trauma bond” has been used online to describe the connection that can grow out of sharing a difficult experience with someone. Videos on TikTok refer to “trauma-bonded besties who overshare” and “trauma bonding instead of going to therapy.” But when it …