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If you thought Black Friday was the world’s biggest shopping day, then you’re only focused on North America. Because when you take the entire globe into consideration, the single biggest shopping day of the year is actually China’s Singles Day on Nov. 11. Ecommerce giant Alibaba jumpstarted the holiday about a decade ago, turning it into a juggernaut that generated over $38 billion last year, 2.5 times more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined....

And that begs the question, does corporate culture reign supreme above all else, or could it, in turn, be somebody else’s lunch? Whether or not your company’s corporate narrative is hungry for culture, is a matter of perspective. But I’m convinced that a strong, viable culture is a consequence of meaning-making by those who share it, and meaning is a basic manifestation of the stories companies tell to and about themselves....

Working from home under lockdown is completely different to doing so in normal circumstances. And despite everyone’s very best efforts to keep sane and productive, it’s fair to say that it’s easy to lose track of time and let week days blur into weekends. [Read: How to manage anxiety if you’re working from home due to coronavirus] But it doesn’t have to be this way — here are several tried and tested tips to help you gain control of your time while on lockdown....

The general consensus around CVs is constantly changing. From gimmick CVs printed on donut boxes to wacky application videos, hiring managers have pretty much seen it all. Our advice is to ditch the stunts and spend time crafting an attractive resume that’s clear, easy to read, and confidently showcases your skills and abilities. It doesn’t hurt if it’s a little bit creative too. According to research, recruiters spend just seven seconds looking at each CV before deciding if the candidate is a good fit for the role....

The Financial Tech sector in particular is thriving. In fact, the global FinTech market is predicted to grow at a rate of almost 25% annually over the next couple of years, making it one of the most exciting industries to be involved in at the moment. Industries to break into if you’re looking for long term growth potential. And you don’t have to be a finance expert. If you’re a coder, marketer, or sales guru, FinTech’s need your skills....

Norway, that EV loving country of Salmon slappers, has pretty much moved on entirely from gasoline cars. According to sales figures for last month, 85% of new cars sold were battery electric, or plug-in hybrid. Drilling down into those numbers a little more, BEVs come out on top. Some 56.3% of new cars sold in Norway last month were battery powered, while 28.6% were plug-in hybrid. Plug-in car sales are up 10% over the same period last year in the Nordic country....

1. Create aliases Every shell comes with a file called ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile. Which one you’ll use depends on your system. This post explains it in detail. Now think about commands that you use a lot. Typing them each time is arduous, and you can mess things up if you’re prone to making typos. That is what aliases are there for: They replace your original command by a shortcut. For example, I have a Dropbox folder that I need to access quite often....

If you’re unfamiliar with OnlyFans (be honest with me now), it’s a site where viewers can pay a fee to view photos and videos put up by content creators. Ostensibly it would allow the latter to profit from their work, but it’s apparently not safe from being stolen. Those who have viewed the leak report that some of the more explicit videos have names attached, opening up their creators to harassment....

Because of these double standards in advertisements, Dame, a female-founded sex toy company is suing the MTA for censoring its campaign — and this isn’t the first time ads for female sex toys have been rejected from subway spots in NYC. Earlier this year, Dame’s co-founders, Alex Fine and Janet Lieberman launched #PleasureIsHealth, a campaign also referred to as #DerailSexism, after the MTA banned their ads. In September 2018, the MTA approved of Dame’s tasteful and balanced ad campaigns which featured their products, slogans such as, “Toys, for sex,” and testimonials from customers....

The bank’s securities investment arm ABN AMRO Clearing Bank and BUX announced today that they have signed a partnership contract to use the bank’s blockchain-based technology in its latest app, called STOCKS. BUX says the app will be released in summer this year, and will store customers’ money with “ABN AMRO Clearing in an individual blockchain bank account,” using ABN’s Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform. It should be noted, though, that it’s not a true decentralized and open blockchain, like Bitcoin’s....

In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue chess computer was pitted against grandmaster and reigning world champion Garry Kasparov, having lost to him the previous year. But this time, the AI won. The popular Chinese game Go was next, in 2016, and again there was a collective intake of breath when Google’s AI was victorious. These competitions elegantly illustrate what is unique about AI: we can program it to do things we can’t do ourselves, such as beat a world champion....

The lenses are formed when a vast amount of matter — like a cluster of galaxies — bends the direction of light traveling from more distant galaxies. The lenses then typically appear as arcs and streaks. These images can help scientists infer the existence of dark matter — which the naked eye can’t see — by observing its gravitational effects on the visible matter. Unfortunately, they’re seriously hard to spot....

In September, the International Space Station had to dodge an unknown piece of debris. With the volume of space trash rapidly growing, the chances of a collision are increasing. The European Space Agency (ESA) wants to clean up some of the mess — with the help of AI. In 2025, it plans to launch the world’s first debris-removing space mission: ClearSpace-1. [Read: 4 ridiculously easy ways you can be more eco-friendly] ClearSpace-1 will use an AI-powered camera to find the debris....

According to a Department of Justice (DoJ) release, Ho consumed more than $5 million in unpaid cloud computing services between October 2017 and February 2018 — a time span of just a few months. The extent of the operation allegedly made Ho one of AWS’ largest consumers of data by volume for a short time. This was reportedly possible due to Ho’s creation of a “web of phony email accounts,” combined with social engineering techniques, to convince cloud computing providers to defer billing and approve heightened account privileges, which granted access to more processing power and storage....

For consumers, the decision to use these devices came with an implicit agreement to allow them to store this data, though it’s unclear how many smart speaker owners knew this to be the case. Alexa, and Apple’s Siri, keep recordings of anything said after the devices hear “wake” words that trigger them to action. Google’s assistant used to, although it recently decided not to keep recordings heard after its “Hey, Google” prompt....

In the US and Canada, anything purchased on March 1 or later can be returned until May 31. In Italy, Spain, France, Turkey, and the Netherlands, that window goes as far back as February 15. The company detailed this and other changes in its blog providing daily updates to its practices during the coronavirus pandemic.

The company is putting the onus on Congress to come up with regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology: As Zack Whittaker pointed out in his story for TechCrunch, the announcement doesn’t mention if this pause includes technology sold to the federal government. It must also urge Congress and legislatures across the country to pause law enforcement use of the technology. — ACLU (@ACLU) June 10, 2020

While D-Wave isn’t the first quantum company to go public — there are several quantum computing stocks on the market — its entry into the NYSE could have far-reaching implications for the quantum computing industry. It’s beyond the scope of this article to discuss the financial ramifications of the deal. Once the ink dries and everything’s approved, that picture will start to come into focus. Instead, let’s lay out what this means for big business and the field of quantum computing....

There are still tons of caveats and conditions to be eligible for that, so let’s dive right into it: If your app offers subscriptions (like Bumble or Spotify) through the Play Store payment system, you’ll have to pay 15% fees to Google. In March, the company had reduced the fees from 30% to 15% on the first million dollars earned for any developer. If your app offers media distribution such as video, audio, or books, the subscription fees will be 10%....

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 19, 2020 The purpose of the stream was to get the word out that American viewers should vote in the upcoming US Presidential election, though I’m sure several of the people who tuned in just wanted to see how good AOC was at Among Us. The whole stream seems to have come together a bit haphazardly, with several streamers tripping over themselves to join her when she tweeted about streaming....