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Open Source Software: The $9 Trillion Resource Companies Take for Granted

What does it take to put a price tag on open source software (OSS), a resource so critical to the global economy that some 96 percent of commercial programs include some code created, tinkered with, or distributed for free by public-facing tech forums?A new paper presents an eyebrow-raising figure. Without open source software and their ubiquitous code-creation networks, firms would pay an estimated 3.5 times more to build the software…

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As rental growth slowed in 2023, is buy-to-let still profitable?

As property prices and rental yields have steadily increased in recent years, buy-to-let property has often been seen as a useful way to invest your money. However, figures suggest the pace of growth is slowing and landlords face increasing regulation that might mean it’s not as attractive as it once was. For some people, buy-to-let investments could still be a valuable way to grow their wealth. However, it’s important to…

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Mediation: We Can Work It Out

Any relationship breakdown can be an emotionally and financially difficult time for families, especially when there are children involved. If you are looking to find the best way to resolve your disagreement or dispute without involving the Court, family mediation is a dignified and cost-effective way of reaching an agreement between parties. What is mediation? Family mediators are accustomed to dealing with any relationship breakdown, most often between divorcing or…

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Better Sanctions Can Weaken Russia

This commentary originally appeared in Fortune. In the first few months following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, we documented how the voluntary exits of over 1,000+ global companies from Russia (that we helped catalyze), paired with government sanctions such as the G7 oil price cap (that we helped the U.S. Treasury design), had a crippling initial impact on the Russian economy—building on our research on how economic pressure…

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Top tips for inspiring inclusion in the workplace

Earlier this month, we celebrated International Women’s Day by taking some time to reflect on why inclusion is such a key value at Clarasys. For us, inclusion is a golden thread running through our business where everyone, regardless of their background or identity, has an equal opportunity to thrive. This means more than just having a diverse team. It involves actively engaging with all employees to ensure they feel valued…

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Important UK Immigration Work Visa Changes

UK Skilled Worker Visa – Significant Changes A major update to the UK immigration rules was published on 14 March 2024.  The new rules will become effective on 4 April 2024. Notably, these new rules will affect a large number of employers and their employees who need UK work visa sponsorship. Transitional arrangements apply until 3 April 2030 for Skilled Workers whose Certificate of Sponsorship is assigned before 4 April…

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:14 mins read
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Planet v plastic: How you can embrace Earth Day 2024

Humanity is becoming increasingly aware of how we treat our planet. With more people experiencing the effects of climate change and global warming than ever before, the campaigns to protect the Earth are becoming more urgent. Earth Day has advocated for permanent, global change to save our planet for over 50 years. Named the planet’s largest civic movement, Earth Day has inspired several policies since the charity’s creation in 1970.…

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What is artificial general intelligence (AGI)?

A profile of a 3d head made of concrete that is sliced in half creating two separate parts. Pink neon binary numbers travel from one half of the a head to the other by a stone bridge that connects the two parts.You’ve read the think pieces. AI—in particular, the generative AI (gen AI) breakthroughs achieved in the past year or so—is poised to revolutionize not just the way we create…

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Memory vs Oblivion: On the 25th Anniversary of the NATO Aggression Against Yugoslavia

In January 2023, Christopher Hill, the US Ambassador to Belgrade, was interviewed by the Serbian media; he stated that for him “the biggest disappointment was that things that I thought were decided a long time ago are still fresh in people's memory. When I came here last March, I was surprised that every day they remembered 1999. States, like people, need sustainability, but also they need to complete some things…

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Success for Sugar, Hope for Salt

Noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease account for two-thirds of all deaths in Switzerland. The risk factors for developing these diseases are manifold, and include consumption of foods high in sugar, salt, and fat. By means of industry agreements, the private sector can play an important role in reducing excessive consumption and thus contribute to prevention efforts. In Switzerland, initiatives have been launched with manufacturers to combat…

  • Post category:Avenir Suisse
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Novel proteins: Consumer appetite for sustainably made ingredients

Ingredients made with biotechnology could play an important role in the future of food—and they’re beginning to come to market. Over the past five years, $4 billion has been invested to develop novel ingredients ranging from mycelium proteins to animal-free eggs. These ingredients are made through fermentation to create proteins and fats that can function like conventional proteins, but they are animal-free and can be more sustainable. Novel ingredients offer…

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Who buys bonds now? How markets deal with a smaller Eurosystem balance sheet

22 March 2024Federico Maria Ferrara, Tom Hudepohl, Pamina Karl, Tobias Linzert, Benoit Nguyen, Lia Vaz Cruz[1]The Eurosystem is shrinking its balance sheet, which makes more government bonds available for purchase. The ECB Blog looks at how markets are adjusting to this new situation with regard to bond price volatility, liquidity and the impact on repo markets. Since mid-2022 the Eurosystem’s balance sheet declined by around €2,000 billion, or more than…

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Seyfarth Bolsters White-Collar and Investigations Capabilities with Addition of Partner Matthew Banham in London

LONDON (March 21, 2024) - Seyfarth Shaw LLP announced today the arrival of partner Matthew Banham to the firm’s litigation department, further expanding the firm’s globally recognized white-collar and investigations practice. Banham joins Seyfarth from Dechert, where his practice focused on multi-agency and complex cross-border investigations and prosecutions with an emphasis on financial crime and contentious regulatory matters. "There is a tremendous need right now among our clients for expertise…

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Advancing the new era of work with Copilot, Windows and Surface

At a digital event for commercial customers and partners, we shared an update on how we’re empowering organizations to advance in the new era of work with Microsoft Copilot, Windows, and two new Surface devices that will start to become available in April.    It’s been one year since we first introduced the world to Copilot for Microsoft 365, and data from our Work Trend Index research shows it’s already making…

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7 historic houses to visit during Easter

If you’re looking for a fun way to spend time with your loved ones over Easter, why not explore one of Britain’s many impressive country houses? Discover the beautiful landscapes and incredible stories while enjoying brilliant Easter activities at these seven historical homes. 1. Dunham Massey, Cheshire Step into the 17th century in this gorgeous Georgian home and investigate their extensive collection of fascinating antiques, which reveal the history of…

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Investing in Espresso

Ethereum’s scalability end-game is all about rollups—potentially thousands or even millions of rollups, each one a mini-ecosystem or an application that is built on top of Ethereum’s bedrock of security. The ideas behind how this can work were first laid out by Vitalik a few years back in his now-famous rollup-centric roadmap post. Since then, other ecosystem players like zkSync, Optimism, and Polygon have extended that vision with roadmaps for…

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Shaping tomorrow’s talent agenda for the public sector

Globally, we face major demographic shifts that offer both daunting challenges and transformational opportunities for the future. There are specific ramifications for workforce composition and service delivery in the public sector. In particular, communities are better served when organizations reflect their constituents, paying special attention to the changing needs and preferences of citizens. In the coming years, we will see a very differently shaped public sector. Long-term trends such as…

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Zack Cooper: High Healthcare Costs: Who Pays, Who Benefits

Howie and Harlan are joined by Yale health economist Zack Cooper to discuss his work on surprise medical bills and the impact of high healthcare costs on households, wages, and the economy. Harlan reports on Hippocratic AI’s efforts to develop AI nurses. Howie looks at the global effort to eradicate tuberculosis. Links: “Hippocratic AI banks $53M backed by General Catalyst, a16z, Memorial Hermann, UHS and other health systems” “Polaris: A…

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Azerbaijan – Armenia: Can the South Caucasus Become a Region of Peace?

The multidirectional geopolitical interests of regional and external players, which directly influence the difficult socio-political transformations in the region, keep us from being optimistic about the rapid transformation of the South Caucasus into a zone of peace – even if some document on the normalisation of relations between Baku and Yerevan has formally acquired legal status, Andrei Areshev writes. In September 2023, Azerbaijan restored military and administrative control over the…

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AI data drop: The 11-by-11 tipping point

Since we first introduced Copilot to our earliest customers, we’ve been closely studying how people are using AI at work—what’s going well, where there are challenges, and what early behaviors can teach us about adopting and rolling out AI broadly. And we want to share what we’re learning with leaders who are looking to drive AI adoption with their own people. Up first: the findings we call “the 11-by-11 tipping…

  • Post category:Microsoft
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Investment market update: February 2024

While many economies are still struggling with high inflation there are signs that the pace is starting to slow, which could pave the way for interest rate cuts later this year. To reflect this, the OECD has lifted its 2024 global growth forecast by 0.3%, when compared to the end of 2023, to 2.9%. However, the international organisation warned that central banks should ensure underlying price pressures were “fully contained”…

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Hope and optimism on the rise among young people

Overall, this year’s #BeeWell survey results, which analysed data on young people from across all 14 Local Authorities in Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton, found that young people are generally satisfied with their lives. However, there are noteworthy inequalities in life satisfaction, mental wellbeing and emotional difficulties across gender and sexuality. 41.2% of young people who identify as lesbian or gay reported a high level of…

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Clinical trial underway to treat ultra-rare genetic disease with possible link to leader of mutiny on the Bounty

A clinical trial to look at repurposing the UK-licensed medicine deferiprone for patients with the ultra-rare genetic disease neuroferritinopathy has launched today at the University of Cambridge.Neuroferritinopathy is a progressive and incurable brain disorder caused by changes in a gene that produces a specific protein - ferritin light chain protein. This change leads to the build-up of iron in the brain. The disease usually appears in middle-aged adults and causes…

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Why it’s Getting Harder for Some Women to Report Harassment

The United Nations Women found that about 1 in every 3 women has been sexually harassed at work. 3 out of 4 of them never report it to a manager, HR or anyone else. Imagine a world where every woman is treated with the respect and dignity she deserves. Unfortunately, our reality falls short of this ideal.  Instead, women face a multitude of challenges, ranging from verbal abuse to physical…

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Dead Ends of Madness

Alas, the world is on fire. And this fire is only growing. For some reason, it seems that we don’t have enough firefighters. But there are plenty of arsonists. When we look at what is happening in the modern world and reflect on the behaviour of its various elites, it seems that a significant proportion of them are in a state of permanent madness or hysteria, leading to the inability…

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Global Economics Intelligence executive summary, February 2024

Consumers remain upbeat as retail sales in the main economies show steady growth, despite elevated prices (Exhibit 1). Growing sentiment in the US saw the Consumer Confidence Index (Conference Board) rise to 114.8 in January, up from a revised 108.0 in December. By contrast, consumer confidence in Brazil dropped to its lowest level since May 2023 but is still 5.0 points higher than in January 2023. US retail and food…

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‘Invisible assistant’ takes notes for clinicians

Stanford Medicine integrates AI-powered listening technology that takes notes for health care providers, allowing them to spend more time with patients and less time on administrative tasks. - By Hanae Armitage Technology that listens to conversations and takes notes allows allows health care providers to focus on the patient rather than on documentation. Clinicians at Stanford Health Care will soon have access to an AI-powered app that can securely listen…

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Return-to-Office Mandates: How to Lose Your Best Performers

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Recent return-to-office (RTO) mandates like those at UPS and Boeing have a simple message: Come back to the office five days a week. CEOs cite productivity as a core reason for these proclamations, even in the face of employee resistance.…

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Upcoming Client Webinar: Charting the Course: AI’s Influence on Legal Practice and IP Protection

On Wednesday, March 20, Seyfarth attorneys Rebecca Woods, Owen Wolfe, Lauren Leipold, and Puya Partow-Navid will present and Ken Wilton will moderate, the first session of the 2024 Commercial Litigation Outlook webinar series: Charting the Course: AI’s Influence on Legal Practice and IP Protection. Time of the event:1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern About the Program Our esteemed panel of experts will explore the intricate intersections of AI technology, legal…

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  • Reading time:6 mins read
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A worrying 2 in 5 wealthy individuals have fallen victim to a financial scam

A recent survey reported by Professional Adviser revealed that 2 in 5 wealthy individuals have been the victim of financial crime. Of the 2,000 people with assets worth more than £250,000 who were surveyed, 41% of them reported they had been scammed, with more than a third saying they had fallen victim in the last six months. 20% of the victims lost money through investment scams, while 15% were defrauded…

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CEOs: Consult an Attorney Prior to Amending a “Choice of Law” Provision in a Contract

Most laws in our country don’t tend to differ much between states. In fact, it’s probably accurate to say that a majority of states’ substantive laws don’t differ much at all even though sometimes it may not seem that way because of what the media tends to highlight. On the other hand, there are a few circumstances where states stand on opposite sides of the spectrum on a particular issue.…

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Fish fed to farmed salmon should be part of our diet, too, study suggests

Scientists found that farmed salmon production leads to an overall loss of essential dietary nutrients. They say that eating more wild ‘feed’ species directly could benefit our health while reducing aquaculture demand for finite marine resources.Researchers analysed the flow of nutrients from the edible species of wild fish used as feed, to the farmed salmon they were fed to. They found a decrease in six out of nine nutrients in…

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Bringing AI to the Masses

This conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, which features some of the most impactful builders in the field of AI discussing and debating where we are, where we’re going, and the big open questions in AI. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution. CEO of Quora Adam D’Angelo discusses how building infrastructure for creators can democratize AI with a16z general partner David George. [01:07] Social networks…

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Is AI a Savior or a Peril—or Both?

The wizardry of ChatGPT captured the world’s attention when it was released in 2022 and became the most successful product launch in history. Since then, AI companies and startups have attracted billions in new investments, and the technology has continued to dazzle. Consumer-facing AI programs can now compose love ballads—or fabricate realistic video of cowboys riding unicorns and shooting water pistols—from simple text prompts. There are uncountable reasons to be…

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Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind and Inflection co-founder, joins Microsoft to lead Copilot

Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer, shared the below communication today with Microsoft employees. I want to share an exciting and important organizational update today. We are in Year 2 of the AI platform shift and must ensure we have the capability and capacity to boldly innovate. There is no franchise value in our industry and the work and product innovation we drive at this moment will define the next decade…

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UK Introduces Export Controls for Emerging Technologies

On 12 March 2024, the UK Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) announced that UK export control regulations would be amended to introduce new controls on the export of emerging technologies and provide a number of technical updates. Implemented through the Export Control (Amendment) Regulations 2024, the amendments are set to come into force on 1 April 2024. The Export Control Order 2008 The regulations introduce new export controls on military…

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Seizing opportunities amid the agtech capital drought

As the agriculture technology (agtech) industry adapts to a new normal in fundraising—and a vastly different macroeconomic climate than in years past—investment opportunities are slowly starting to emerge. Instead of waiting on the sidelines for conditions to stabilize, strategic companies and financial investors can use this limited window of opportunity to make bold moves and gain a competitive advantage.Over the past few years, the agtech industry has faced a major…

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Alternatives to the Dollar: Financial Settlement Mechanisms for a Multipolar World

ROn March 18, 2024, the Valdai Club hosted and expert discussion dedicated to financial settlements within the BRICS. Moderator Ivan Timofeev recalled that, according to the final declaration of the 2023 BRICS summit, the relevant departments of the member countries had to work out possible mechanisms for financial settlements. The talk was about creating a system that was not hostile to the West, but functional and protected from politicisation by…

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Diverse Teams Thrive With Four Elements of Belonging

Learn how to better support neurodiversity, as explained in this excerpt from the forthcoming book The Canary Code. Ludmila N. Praslova March 19, 2024 Reading Time: 12 min  subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Jessica is an ace data analyst; her mind excels at seeing connections that others miss. For many years, she delivered outstanding work and supported her company with system improvement suggestions. And then her…

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March Madness—a Sports Fan’s Dream, a Nightmare for Employee Productivity

Quick Hits The NCAA March Madness men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments can be a distraction for employees that harms overall productivity. The rise of online sports betting has the potential to further increase the distraction of March Madness and raise concerns with gambling regulations and employer policies. From office pools to streaming games at work, employers are tasked with navigating the legal landscape to ensure compliance and maintain a…

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