Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week (11 minute read)
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has instructed corporate staffers to spend five days a week in the office starting on January 2. The decision is a significant shift from Amazon's earlier return-to-work stance, which required corporate workers to be in the office at least three days a week. Amazon also plans to simplify its corporate structure by having fewer managers, with each S-team organization expected to increase its ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of the first quarter of 2025. A copy of the full memo from Jassy is available in the article.
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TikTok argued against its U.S. ban in court today. Here's what happened (9 minute read)
On Monday, a panel of three judges from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit heard TikTok's arguments against a law that will force the company to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned nationwide. It was unclear which way the court was leaning, but the judges appeared dubious of TikTok's plea that its right to free expression surpasses national security concerns. However, the judges did point out that shutting down the app could violate the rights of US TikTok users and TikTok's US operations. TikTok's strategy of trying to overturn the law by attacking Congress' legislative authority is unusual - it appears that it may be asking the court to send the law back to Congress to be amended.
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Science & Futuristic Technology
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"Golden Lettuce" genetically engineered to pack 30 times more vitamins (2 minute read)
A team from the Research Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology has genetically engineered lettuce to boost its nutrients. They increased levels of an antioxidant called beta-carotene, which the body uses to make vitamin A. The high levels of the antioxidant make the leaves of the lettuce a striking yellow color, giving it the nickname Golden Lettuce. Golden Lettuce has up to 30 times more beta-carotene than regular lettuce. Developing the lettuce involved accumulating the antioxidant in parts of the plant's cells where it is not normally found.
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Programming, Design & Data Science
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kty (GitHub Repo)
kty is an SSH server that makes it easy to access Kubernetes resources without using kubectl. It provides a dashboard for interacting with clusters that enables users to run shells in pods, access logs for running and exited containers in a pod, forward traffic from a local machine into a cluster or from a cluster to a local machine, access clusters from any device with an SSH client, and more. kty relies on OpenID providers to verify identity.
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Python in Excel (6 minute read)
Python in Excel is now generally available for Windows users of Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise. The feature makes it possible to seamlessly combine Python and Excel analytics within the same workbook. Python in Excel keeps data private by preventing Python code from knowing who users are and opening workbooks from the internet in further isolation within their own separate containers. The data does not persist in the Microsoft Cloud. This page provides examples of what is now possible with the integration.
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What If Ozempic Is Just a Good Thing? (17 minute read)
The public discussion of Ozempic's economics has so far been consistently fatalistic. Many doubt that the drug will benefit more than just the lucky few who can afford it. The people who most need the drug often struggle to get it. As long as it is talked about primarily as a weight loss drug, insurance companies will remain incentivized to treat it as a luxury good. The drug presents a radical opportunity to change the chronic disease landscape in the US, but it may require radical policy changes to make it accessible.
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Words on Founder Mode (3 minute read)
Founder Mode is the culture of a company, and a culture is defined by the character of the founders. It is when the whole team is involved with the details and work - when an organizational chart becomes more like a map than a power structure. While there is job specialization, there is also a belief that everyone is equally accountable for the product. A stratification of responsibility is a red flag in any company.
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