Reflecting on her first 20 years in the classroom Rebecca Vidra identifies six key ways students and their needs have changed You have /5 articles left.Sign up for a free account or log in monkeybusinessimages/iStock/Getty Images Plus I have now been teaching at Duke University for 20 years I have been through all kinds of teaching fads—active learning You might assume that I have become a better teacher over these many years Yet I am noticing a curious trend in my course evaluations: Some of my students like me and my courses less and less this matters greatly to my own career trajectory and so I’ve wondered and worried about what to do Why am I struggling to teach well and why are my students struggling to learn Looking back on the past two decades of my teaching and reaching further back into my own college experience I see six clear differences between now and then When I took my first college environmental science class This was before the days of Advanced Placement Environmental Science so I came into the class knowing almost nothing about the topic motivated by my naïve idea to be part of “saving the world.” To learn all highlighted and marked up) and the lectures (for which I still have my notes) I could go to the library and find books and articles to learn more but mostly I stuck to my textbook and my notes I showed up to the lecture-based class to learn my students show up in my course often having taken AP Environmental Science with access to unlimited information about the course topics and with AI assistants that will help them organize their notes I have had to shift from expert to curator spending hours sifting through online articles I look for content that will engage students knowing that some may also spend their class period fact-checking my lectures with students shifting their attention between me I remind them that I can tell when they are watching TikTok or texting because the class material probably isn’t causing their amused facial expressions While lecturing I am not only thinking about the lecture material and what’s on the next slide—I am also wondering how I can get my students’ attention I often default to telling a personal anecdote they just as quickly return their eyes to their screens The obvious advice would be to have more engaging activities than lecturing but … one comment showed up over and over on my course evaluations: lecture more My students seemed not to see the value of small-group activities interactive data exercises and discussions They felt that they were not learning as much and some of them assumed that meant that I didn’t know as much While I teach at a private elite university, my colleagues across a range of institutions have backed this up: Some students seem to not have much respect for faculty. The most common way this shows up is at the end of the semester, when students send me emails about why my course policies resulted in a grade they think is unfair when they argue that I did not grade them fairly asked friends for old exams and studied a lot I took multiple-choice exams and essay exams When I first started teaching my lecture-based class I took the business of writing exams seriously often using short-answer and essay exams that took a whole lot of time to grade I wanted the experience of taking the exam to help students feel like they had learned something and the experience of studying to actually entice them to learn We faculty got all excited about alternative assessments trying to make our classes more inclusive for more learning styles And the students started rebelling about their exam grades nitpicking our grading for a point here and there Students didn’t show up at my office hours eager to understand the concepts—they wanted more points I threw out exams in favor of shorter papers I had 74 students and I gave a whopping 67 of them A’s Except the problem with grading for attendance is … We all know that our students are struggling with more mental and emotional health issues perhaps due to COVID-related learning loss the state of the world and so many other things Many of us include mental health resources in our syllabus Students are much more open about their struggles with us but we aren’t trained therapists and often don’t know the right thing to say Who am I to determine whether or not one student’s excuse for missing a class is valid while another’s is not How can I keep extending the deadlines for a struggling student while keeping the deadline firm for the rest offer everyone a “late assignment” ticket to use) but I still spend a lot of time sifting through student email requests for extensions and understanding How can we be fair to all of our students while maintaining the rhythm of course expectations one acknowledges the differences between students now and “back then” at retirement reflecting on the long arc of a teaching career But I am not at the end—I have a long way to go (hopefully) I am expected to be good at this in order to get reappointed to my teaching faculty position Teaching requires much more agility now as we attempt to adapt to the ever-expanding information sphere and the state of the community and world beyond our classrooms Instead of jumping to solutions (more active learning!) I think it’s reasonable to step back and acknowledge that there is no one change we need to make to be more effective educators in 2025 We also can acknowledge that some of the strategies we are using to make our classes more engaging and inclusive might backfire and that there still is a time and place for really good highlighting new techniques as smashing successes But sometimes we learn that our best-laid plans don’t work out that what students really want is to hear from an expert someone who can help them sort through the overwhelming crush of information to find a narrative that is relevant and meaningful Rebecca Vidra is a senior lecturer at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University Research from a professor at Fresno City College argues for a holistic evaluation of student outcomes in housing assi We need to distinguish between good DEI and bad DEI This alumnus is happy Harvard is fighting for all of higher ed As colleges hire high-powered lobbyists to battle threats to federal funding Subscribe for free to Inside Higher Ed’s newsletters opinion and great new careers in higher education — delivered to your inbox View Newsletters Copyright © 2025 Inside Higher Ed All rights reserved. | Website designed by nclud Read this week's magazine publishers are taking a harder look at expanding into international markets How to best break into different territories was the focus of the November webinar “Publishing Now Fall ’24: Strategies for Success in International Markets,” presented by PW with support from Westchester Publishing Services managing director at Abrams & Chronicle Books started the conversation with a broad glance at the relationship between U.S 10% to 30% of its total revenue could come from the U.K One of the biggest challenges of selling in international markets is the perception that American companies publish books for the American market only and European markets the minute you start thinking about buying a book,” Munsch said adding that planning ahead and incorporating the international editions into the publication cycle of a book has never been more important to the role social media plays in global sales wants books to appear in all markets on the same day and with the same covers while styles across the globe have become more homogenized cookbook covers need to be different from the U.S “The one thing you cannot do in the U.K is spell the word ‘mom’ with an ‘o,’” Munsch said represent “a material amount” of sales at Princeton University Press She agreed with Munsch that the same covers increasingly work on a global basis and stressed the importance of synchronizing publication dates and publicity across different markets that a company needs to strike a balance between global publishing and the needs of individual markets For companies thinking about entering the international market Henry stressed that looking for partners is the first step in selling abroad There are consortiums and sales groups that publishers can tap into in different areas adding that for PUP independent booksellers and libraries are other “critical constituencies.” Another good way for publishers to test the international waters is to attend international book fairs which have bounced back after shutting down during the pandemic A final point Henry made is that publishers need to be aware of compliance issues in various geographies Publishers who want to sell e-books and apps in the European Union need to meet the requirements of the European Accessibility Act which is slated to go into effect on June 28 who worked in international sales with Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins and is now an international publishing consultant provided a deep dive into the current Chinese market publishers peaked in 2018 and dropped off just before the pandemic but remains highly focused on books for early and middle grade readers Virtually all sales go through online channels and the adult market is limited to the business and self-improvement categories publishers need to work with authorized state distributors act as a “soft layer of censorship.” To sell books to China “it pays to have a footprint there,” Vidra said either through an office or a sales manager Vidra said Chinese publishers are interested in “an unbelievable permutation of possible rights combinations,” involving such things as e-book rights While the actual value of those rights deals are likely to be “minimal,” Vidra said Chinese publishers see these packages as increasing the sales of print books In addition to examining the Chinese market Vidra offered some practical advice for selling abroad He said that if a publisher has good metadata for the U.S. there is no need to adapt it to international accounts He advised independent publishers that if they have distribution in the U.S from a major company like Simon & Schuster they are likely already getting some kind of international representation “Will you be 100% happy with this arrangement?” Vidra asked but the low hanging fruit will be caught.” And smaller publishers might also be picking up sales through one of Amazon’s international marketplaces “You might well be passively selling internationally right now without really being able to see it.” Vidra also addressed the changes to selling in Europe prompted by Amazon’s decision in March 2023 to source books locally rather than import them from the U.S the easiest solution could be to use print-on-demand services offered by Amazon or Ingram global media and licensing at Writers House discussed the interplay between exporting books and selling translation rights Rights sales are not necessarily in opposition to export sales “They can coexist and we have to keep our eye on all of them,” de la Campa said noting that translation sales are an option all publishers need to explore since selling rights is really a license agreement and not a one-time sale Publishers need to work with someone they can rely on through the entire term of the deal De la Campa also addressed a concern among European publishers that the growing sales of English editions in European countries are eating into sales of translations She said there are discussions of solutions including “windowing,” in which translated editions appear ahead of the English version de la Campa advised that publishers have a translated manuscript available four to five months ahead of publication so they can match the release of the book in the U.S The market for audio rights overseas is booming cautioning also that publishers need to be careful when discussing terms because many countries use “‘streaming’ and ‘subscription’ interchangeably and they are not the same.” She also warned publishers against depending on AI-generated translations and narrations of audiobooks “We have to weigh the benefit of distribution against the value of having it done the right way,” de la Campa said TRENDSHaving recently attended the Frankfurt Book Fair de la Campa said that romantasy is “still the reigning genre.” The interest in romantasy “is not a trend,” she said and it is really transforming fandom and readership and audience engagement in how they are finding content.” A recurring theme throughout the webinar was the increased importance that consumers are placing on books as collectible objects “One of the biggest trends I’m seeing is the physical object of the book becoming so important,” Munsch said “People are buying books because they like the cover and how they look in their house.” Of course the book as an object also involves sophisticated printing methods While POD has become “a brilliant resource and so useful” for many books it still doesn’t quite “cut the mustard” when it comes to the “beautiful finishes that customers are becoming more savvy about.” PUP’s Henry said that while “the craft of book-making is alive and well,” the press also uses POD to bring the production of books closer to different markets for reasons of timing and sustainability Driven in large part by the rapid growth of the tech sector the US economy has diverged from other advanced economies much of Europe has been unable to translate this into the type of large digital firms which have become so important to the modern economy What are the barriers to developing a thriving tech sector outside of the US Can European states compete in the tech sector and should they try What is the future of these advanced economies if they cannot compete in the industries of the future?   Stan Boland is a British entrepreneur in the information technology sector.  Robyn Klingler-Vidra is Reader in Political Economy & Entrepreneurship at King’s Business School She is the author of Startup Capitalism: New Approaches to Innovation Strategies in East Asia (Cornell University Press with Ramon Pacheco Pardo) and The Venture Capital State: The Silicon Valley Model in East Asia. Robyn’s research focuses on entrepreneurship She has led cross-country studies for Innovate UK and the Asian Productivity Organisation.  Kanishka Narayan (@KanishkaNarayan) is the Labour MP for the Vale of Glamorgan the civil service and the city. In government Kanishka advised ministers on domestic public policy as Senior Adviser at the Cabinet Office and as Expert Adviser to Britain’s Environment Secretary He also advised the Labour Party frontbench as Head of Tech Policy. In business Kanishka advised and invested in climate and fintech start-ups across Europe and the US sovereign finance ministries and start-up founders at Lazard. Kanishka grew up and lives in South Wales studied at Oxford and Stanford universities and is passionate about social mobility and social justice.  He is determined for the UK to embrace its future as a global leader in technology and innovation harnessing growth that works for everyone: strengthening communities regional inequality and political polarisation in Europe and the United States and innovation policy in Kuwait. He is working on a major ESRC funded project constructing new measures of regional inequality His book on innovation and inclusive growth is published by University of California Press This event is part of the LSE Festival: Visions for the Future running from Monday 16 to Saturday 21 June 2025 with a series of events exploring the threats and opportunities of the near and distant future Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 19 May.   The Department of Geography and Environment is a centre of international academic excellence in economic environmental social science and climate change At LSE our researchers are using technology’s revolutionary power to understand our world better, looking at AI and technology’s potential to do good, and limiting its potential to do harm. Browse other upcoming events, short films, articles and blogs on AI, technology and society on our dedicated hub Please note that this feature uses Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology or machine generated transcription and is not 100% accurate.  Photographs taken on behalf of LSE are often used on our social media accounts photographs could include broad shots of the audience and lecture theatre and of audience members as they participate in the Q&A If you are photographed participating in an event Q&A but would not like your photograph to be stored for future use, please contact events@lse.ac.uk Follow LSE public events on X for the latest updates on all our events and ticket releases.  Livestreams and archive videos of past lectures are shared on our YouTube channel while event podcasts can be found on the LSE Player From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend that if you plan to attend this event you check back on this listing on the day of the event.  Online booking for events in the LSE Festival will open at 12 noon on Monday 19 May 2025 For any queries contact us at events@lse.ac.uk London School of Economics and Political Science LSE is a private company limited by guarantee Campus map Contact us Cookie policy Report a page Accessibility Statement Terms of use Privacy policy Modern Slavery Statement own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment King's College London provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK View all partners Before Dragons’ Den in the UK became a global hit and America’s Shark Tank turned startup pitches into mainstream entertainment there was Manē no Tora (Tiger of Money or Money Tigers) Launched in Japan in 2001 by Nippon TV and Sony Pictures Television this groundbreaking show introduced the format of entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to a panel of angel investors Little did anyone know that Money Tigers would spark a global trend, influencing how high-growth entrepreneurship is perceived and celebrated around the world. In February 2024, the original backers announced that the 50th version of the franchise would launch in Bangladesh And the 22nd season of Dragons’ Den premiers on the BBC on January 2 Money Tigers wasn’t just about creating riveting television Its emergence was rooted in a broader societal and governmental push to transform Japan’s economic culture Against the backdrop of a traditionally risk-averse society and an economy dominated by large corporations Money Tigers aimed to normalise and even glamorise entrepreneurship It was accompanied by a wider set of government initiatives to foster innovation, boost entrepreneurial activity, and position Japan as a global leader in technology and startups. The show was part of the rise of what my colleague Ramon Pacheco Pardo and I call “startup capitalism” an age in which startups have played a central role in the competitiveness of market economies In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Japan was at an economic crossroads. The burst of the asset bubble in the early 1990s had led to prolonged economic stagnation known as the “Lost Decade” Policymakers recognised the need to diversify the economy, create jobs, and promote innovation. Startups, with their potential for agility and creativity, as well as their ability to create jobs for talented young people, became a focal point of this shift. Startups also offered an ability to infuse innovative ideas and talent into Japanese corporations as they competed in global markets Policy initiatives including tax incentives for startup investments a change to regulations that allowed “pension fund portability” and an introduction of American-style employee stock options were part of an effort to enable entrepreneurship But a culture that discouraged risk-taking and a regulatory environment that punished job movement could not be changed overnight. SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son was becoming synonymous with this new breed of brash, risky business. And, while a hero to some, Masa (as he is now globally known) was controversial He was a challenger to Japan’s economic culture and the way business was done how could public policy encourage a new generation of risk-takers willing to embrace the uncertainties of starting a business And how could starting a business be something that a top Japanese graduate could tell their parents about without being ostracised the show aimed to bring entrepreneurship into living rooms – and the conversations of family and friends – across Japan Its format was simple but powerful: aspiring entrepreneurs presented their business ideas to a panel of wealthy angel investors who had the power to fund these ideas in exchange for equity and the triumph of securing an investment made for compelling viewing The genius of Money Tigers lay in its ability to humanise the entrepreneurial journey Viewers saw ordinary people take bold steps to turn their dreams into reality Their probing questions and candid feedback not only added drama but also educated the audience about what makes a business viable Money Tigers was their first exposure to the concept of pitching for investment “valuation” and “return on investment” entered mainstream conversation Building a business with ambitious growth plans perhaps once frowned upon as being too focused on making money By showcasing both the successes and failures of entrepreneurs the show began to chip away at the stigma surrounding failure and around the ambitious founder Entrepreneurs who walked away empty-handed were often praised for their courage a message that resonated especially with younger generations the Japanese government launched a litany of policy initiatives including tax incentives for angel investors and the establishment of the startup-friendly stock exchanges Where these government policies created the infrastructure for startups to thrive Money Tigers tackled the stickier cultural setting Money Tigers lasted only a few seasons in Japan (it stopped running in 2003), but its impact was profound. The format was adapted in the UK as Dragons’ Den in 2005 and later in the US as Shark Tank in 2009. According to Nippon TV and Sony “almost US$1 billion (£790,000) in investments has been agreed in Dens and Tanks across the globe since the format launched” The early 2000s was a period of purposive government efforts to ensure that Japan’s technological innovations did not succumb to the “Galapagos Syndrome”. There was a sense that Japan was developing state-of-the-art technologies, but global consumer markets were not necessarily picking up the innovations. Ironically, in the same period that Japan was pushing to normalise entrepreneurship and equity investment through an endearing TV programme for its Japanese audience, it was inventing an export that would be a huge hit abroad without widespread awareness that it was Japanese. Audiences in the UK and US assumed that Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank were natural products of their entrepreneur-rich ecosystems. But rather than the Sharks and Dragons being a natural product of their markets, they were an adaptation of a state-encouraged, purposeful effort to drive cultural change in Japan. This is a project developed by Vivet de Vidrà Carpentry, owner of the site. The main objectives of the project are, on the one hand, to achieve low environmental impact and high energy efficiency, and on the other, to offer a high-quality product at a competitive cost and finally, proposing an architecture integrated into the landscape. beyond environmental requirements and execution costs provides an efficient response to the basic needs of living: a small refuge that does not renounce the emotional capacity of architecture You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email Robyn Klinger-Vidra is associate professor in entrepreneurship and sustainability at King’s Business School They are the authors of the forthcoming book Startup Capitalism: New Approaches to Innovation Strategies in East Asia Receive emails when new obituariesare published to our website a century since Ora founded that first funeral home the Snyder family strives to honor their long-standing heritage with each family they serve the Snyder family’s goal has remained the same:  We take care of more details than the average funeral provider so you can spend more time grieving & healing with your family Watch the 100 Year Documentary Learn what your friends and neighbors have to say about our services Make funeral arrangements from anywhere in 15 minutes or less Snyder Funeral Homes, Bellville Butler Chapel81 Mill Rd, Bellville, Ohio 44813(419) 886-2491 Snyder Funeral Homes, Stombaugh Batton Chapel225 West Findlay St, Carey, Ohio 43316(419) 396-7520 Snyder Rodman Funeral Center101 Valleyside Dr, Delaware, Ohio 43015(740) 362-1611 Snyder Funeral Homes, Fredericktown Chapel33 East College St, Fredericktown, Ohio 43019(740) 694-4006 Snyder Funeral Homes, Richardson Davis Chapel218 South Market St, Galion, Ohio 44833(419) 468-1424 Snyder Funeral Homes, Lindsey Chapel123 North Market St, Loudonville, Ohio 44842(419) 994-3030 Snyder Funeral Homes, Lexington Ave Chapel2553 Lexington Ave, Mansfield, Ohio 44904(419) 884-1711 Snyder Funeral Homes, Finefrock Chapel350 Marion Ave, Mansfield, Ohio 44903(419) 525-4411 Snyder Funeral Homes, Denzer Chapel360 East Center St, Marion, Ohio 43302(740) 387-9136 Snyder Funeral Homes, Gunder Hall Chapel347 West Center St, Marion, Ohio 43302(740) 382-3612 Snyder Funeral Homes, Ingram Chapel975 North Maple St, Marysville, Ohio 43040(937) 642-4861 Snyder Funeral Homes, Craven Chapel67 North Main St, Mount Gilead, Ohio 43338(419) 946-3040 Snyder Funeral Homes, Dowds Chapel201 Newark Rd, Mount Vernon, Ohio 43050(740) 393-1076 Snyder Funeral Homes, Flowers Chapel619 East High St, Mount Vernon, Ohio 43050(740) 392-6956 Snyder Funeral Homes, Lasater Chapel11337 Upper Gilchrist Rd, Mount Vernon, Ohio 43050(740) 392-0005 Snyder Funeral Homes, DeVore Chapel637 State Route 61, Sunbury, Ohio 43074(740) 965-3936 Your browser may not work with certain site. Upgrade now. Pennsylvania -- As a Pennsylvania manhunt for an escaped killer went into its seventh day Wednesday an investigation has found he followed a strategy used by an inmate who bolted from the same county facility in May who was at the facility awaiting a transfer to the state prison after being convicted of murder in the fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend followed the same method of escape and route used by an inmate at the Chester County Prison SEE ALSO: Stunning video shows how convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante escaped Chester County Prison Inmate Igor Vidra Bolte broke out of the prison in Pocopson Township on May 19 by scaling a wall in an exercise yard to gain access to the roof according to a criminal complaint obtained by ABC News A Chester County Prison surveillance camera captured Bolte's escape "While the defendant was in the exercise yard for Section 6 he is observed scaling a narrow hallway by placing his feet on one wall and his hands on the other The defendant then climbs the walls in a horizontal position until reaching the roof," according to the complaint the defendant is able to use an exposed I-beam to climb up onto the roof of the building The defendant then runs out of frame across the roof of the prison traveling west." who later told authorities he was a rock climber was caught within 5 minutes after getting out of the prison by climbing down from the roof by the visitors' entrance where there is less security and running off the grounds on the south side of the prison "This escape was similar to the methodology of the escape by Cavalcante," Holland said He noted "one key difference" between the two escapes was the actions of a tower guard whose primary responsibility was to monitor inmates in the exercise yard the tower officer observed the subject leaving the yard area and contacted control immediately That is why Bolte was apprehended within five minutes," Holland said the tower officer did not observe nor report the escape The escape was discovered as part of the inmate counts that occur when the inmates come in from the exercise yard." Holland laid out a timeline of Cavalcante's escape noting that the fugitive missing for nearly an hour before anyone noticed He said security video showed Cavalcante escaping at 8:51 a.m SEE ALSO: Pocopson Township resident believes escaped killer Danelo Cavalcante was in his home "Cavalcante escaped from the prison by crab walking up a wall pushing his way through razor wire installed after Bolte's escape scaling more razor wire," Holland said He said Cavalcante was first noticed missing when inmates were brought back in from the exercise yard at 9;35 a.m and that the prison was placed on lockdown and a head count confirmed he had vanished He said a public escape siren was sounded at 10:01 a.m Bolte's brief escape came less than two months before Michael Burham a murder suspect and a self-taught "survivalist," broke out of the Warren County Jail in northern Pennsylvania on July 6 using similar climbing techniques as both Bolte and Cavalcante SEE ALSO: Timeline: Everything we know about the prison break in Chester County Burham escaped from a recreation yard by "elevating himself" on top of exercise equipment and exiting the yard through a hole in the metal-grated roof He then used bed sheets fashioned into a rope to lower himself to the ground and flee on foot An official who viewed surveillance video of the Burham's escape said the inmate "looked like a spider" as he quickly climbed to the roof and got away SEE ALSO: Escaped killer's mom pleads with him to surrender as new sightings emerge in search: Police Burham was captured after a massive nine-day manhunt who authorities said is also wanted in his native Brazil in a homicide investigation is the subject of a manhunt involving dozens of state and local agencies as well as the FBI and the U.S The search for Cavalcante is centered in an area near the Chester County Prison where he has been spotted at least four times which is leading the search for Cavalcante released images of the fugitive taken by a trail camera Monday night in Longwood Gardens a sprawling horticulture attraction about 5 miles southwest of the prison he escaped from a retired Pennsylvania State Police sergeant who now runs his own security consulting firm told ABC News on Wednesday that he is not surprised Cavalcante is suspected of using the same escape method as Burham and Bolte But was surprised that officials didn't do more to "defeat that strategy to escape." Holland said that after Bolte's escape a security consultant was brought in and recommended placing razor wire on the wall where he escaped to block the route "One of the issues brought up was the once the razor wire was put in place it was determined by our security advisors that this one level of security was sufficient," Holland said what was perhaps overlooked was the fact that addressing the single point of security countermeasure should have been bolstered by additional means." He said steps are being taken now to completely enclose the eight exercise yards at the prison He said additional security cameras will also be installed and a corrections officer will be on the ground to help the tower officer monitor the inmates in the exercise yard LaTorre noted that another high-profile escape involving a suspect accused of killing four people occurred in May at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center on May 7 fled the facility through a hole in the recreation yard's fence Hurst was captured in Philadelphia following a 10-day manhunt while Grant was taken back into custody by U.S "The common thread across all these is they're county facilities," LaTorre said He said that unlike state and federal prisons county jails and prisons have the least funding and resources to guard against escapes or to conduct threat and vulnerability assessments on a regular basis "Yet we have these people on trial for homicide people who have been convicted of homicide and that's where they are They're in a less secure facility and these are the guys who have every reason to escape," LaTorre said "I know these county prisons sometimes have more secure areas within the building but the prisoners generally traverse throughout parts of the building and that's where they find these vulnerabilities Capitalizing on these vulnerabilities is what allows them to escape." LaTorre said taxpayers should be aware that the alternative of not doing risk assessments and fortifying prisons and jails is having to pay millions of dollars to search for often dangerous inmates who escape There needs to be oversight of these prisons," LaTorre said Wardens are put in charge of these prisons and we trust that they're doing the things they're supposed to be doing Anyone who escapes is making the decision that they're willing to take the risk of the additional penalty to escape over whatever it is they are running away from and that is what makes them dangerous," A 2016 report titled "Escape from Correctional Custody: A New Examination of an Old Phenomenon" analyzed 611 inmates involved in 503 escape incidents at 398 different U.S an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who co-authored the report told ABC News earlier this year that many of the escapees also appear to have the motivation to run saying inmates serving long sentences or facing serious charges like murder "are the most likely to escape." "It just comes down to when they have a chance to do it," Peterson told ABC News ABC News' Bernie Lubell contributed to this report Dr Robyn Klingler-Vidra is a Lecturer in Political Economy at King’s College London and author of The Venture Capital State: The Silicon Valley Model in East Asia Enjoy in-depth insights and expert analysis - subscribe to our Perspectives newsletter The Economist Group is a global organisation and operates a strict privacy policy around the world. Please see our privacy policy here we would like to keep you informed about our newly-released content and other new product offerings from The Economist Group The UK is on the verge of a rare opportunity to transform its pension system potentially reshaping the future for British pension savers Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe and Robyn Klingler-Vidra write that the key to driving innovation-led growth lies in one critical factor: improving venture capital literacy among pension fund managers Pension reform is one of the few areas where the new Labour government and the previous Conservative administration align Both back increasing pension investments in UK private assets a move that could unlock the country’s innovation-led growth As a result, the UK still faces a scale-up problem with innovative firms struggling to secure funding as they grow these scale-ups may then relocate their growing company the UK risks to continue falling behind in funding startups and scale-ups to benefit from financing the nation’s innovation And the ecosystem stands to lose future unicorns who relocate abroad The proposed shift in pension allocations toward venture capital is supported by academic research Private asset investments can offer diversification and higher risk-adjusted returns this shift could significantly strengthen the UK’s entrepreneurial finance aligning the economy with broader innovation goals The study by Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe highlights this effect through a natural experiment in the US state pension funds in that country gradually increased their allocations to venture capital following the staggered adoption of “prudent-man rules” across states Like the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1979 these rules clarified pension fund investment guidelines classifying VC as a prudent asset class and enabling state funds to invest in it The results of these adoptions were striking: adopter states saw local pension funds increase their annual local VC commitments by $175 million (roughly a 50 per cent increase) on average This influx of capital sparked more investments in local entrepreneurs and aligned the economy with broader innovation goals Applied to the UK, this suggests that the right pension reforms could unlock much-needed resources for local innovation-based growth. Currently, 16 times more global pension capital flows into UK private assets than from British pension funds themselves UK regulations do not explicitly prohibit pension funds from investing in VC funds Underinvestment is in large part caused by how pension funds allocate their capital allocation decisions are often made based on fee levels VC funds tend to charge a “2 and 20” fee model; 2 per cent for management fees and 20 per cent performance fee Other investment managers often charge less perhaps because they have a larger pool of money to manage or because they are less active investors Pension funds would need to make many small allocations which requires both expertise to select VC managers and manpower to oversee bandoneon-style—like the multi-fold instruments popular in Latin America—portfolios with many elements UK pension funds would need to invest in VC literacy to acquire capabilities in underwriting VC managers and have mechanisms for better pooling investments (such as through funds-of-funds structures) Recent efforts to bolster pension fund investment in private capital have sought to mandate allocations then-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt launched the “Mansion House Compact,” where nine UK defined-contribution (DC) pension fund managers committed to invest at least 5 per cent of their default funds into unlisted equities by 2030 This is already manifesting in VC allocations as Aviva Investors announced a Venture Capital and Strategic Capability fund in September 2024 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has also made pension reform a key part of her economic strategy. The chancellor advocates for consolidation so that the UK deploys capital through large investment managers This could partly address the issue of pension fund capabilities inhibiting their VC allocations; a consolidated pension fund manager could be better positioned to hire and retain talent adept at underwriting VC manager quality chief executive of Local Government Pension Schemes Central said “pooling could move significantly further and faster if the government provided stronger guidance and clarity” he pointed out that CPP’s success has come from “governance and a return-focused mandate that gives us the freedom to invest wherever we see the best chance of returns.” While strong-arming large pension funds into five per cent allocations (and consolidating dozens of small pension funds into a mega manager) address some of the root causes of UK pension funds’ anaemic investment in VC it doesn’t solve the problem of pension managers’ lacking VC literacy Whether UK pension funds can secure access to elite funds at competitive terms depends on their ability to build internal capabilities or attract seasoned investors—both costly endeavours. Many link the UK’s broader productivity issues to a lack of managerial capabilities yet the conversation around pension fund management VC skills has been lacking Enhancing technology and early-stage investment literacy is essential to developing pension fund managers who can effectively navigate the risks and complexities of the VC industry Indeed, the US experience with public pension funds offers cautionary lessons. A study by Yael Hochberg and Josh Rauh found that US state pension funds’ private capital in-state investments underperformed by two to four percentage points compared to both their out-of-state private capital investments and those by external investors “Local” does not always mean better evidence suggests that geographic constraints are a pitfall to be avoided The UK has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to overhaul its pension system Exciting times lie ahead for British pension savers—and possibly for UK innovation as well If this wave sees UK pension funds achieving strong risk-adjusted returns in their VC allocations it will trigger a virtuous cycle in which more money will flow in This is what has been happening since the late 1970s in the US with pension funds and university endowments reaping substantial returns from VC investments But requiring pension fund managers to identify quality VC managers and to act as high-quality limited partners when they are not yet ready to do that will most likely result in poor returns Low risk-adjusted returns or investments in mismanaged funds would poison the well pension fund managers will be better adept at assessing the potential of VC managers especially among emerging and small managers who can deliver returns and focus on cutting-edge innovation Sign up for our weekly newsletter here Juanita González-Uribe is an Associate Professor at LSE and co-director of the Financial Markets Group She holds a PhD in finance and economics from Columbia University Robyn Klingler-Vidra is Reader in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability and Associate Dean for Global Engagement at King’s Business School She is the author of three books on innovation This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed Foreign Affairs has been the leading forum for serious discussion of American foreign policy and global affairs The magazine has featured contributions from many leading international affairs experts RAMON PACHECO PARDO is Professor of International Relations at King’s College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at Vrije Universiteit Brussel ROBYN KLINGLER-VIDRA is Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability at King’s Business School They are the authors of the forthcoming book Startup Capitalism: Northeast Asia’s Startup-Fueled Innovation Strategies Ramon Pacheco Pardo and Robyn Klingler-Vidra Japan and South Korea are innovation and tech powerhouses They are home to leading firms in many of the high-tech sectors powering global economic growth and usually rank near the top of innovation indexes both countries harnessed the combined power of their public and private sectors for decades The innovation strategies they used challenge the model mythologized by Silicon Valley: the individual genius who comes up with a brilliant idea and receives funding from venture capitalists acting in a private capacity the perception is that startups should work by themselves often with the aim of disrupting existing companies and industries Despite rhetorical claims about their goals to build their own Silicon Valleys, the governments and firms of Japan and South Korea believe that cooperation among new startups and existing conglomerates is crucial to boosting economic competitiveness Japan and South Korea have created an open innovation ecosystem in which government agencies and smaller startups all support one another As competition between the United States and China heats up the model pursued by Seoul and Tokyo suggests that startups are central to a competitive economy but their potential is limited if they are working on their own A national economy benefits more when startups work with government and existing big companies the United States is not the paradise for maverick entrepreneurs depicted in television shows and Hollywood movies it already has traces of the approach found in Japan and South Korea American policymakers should acknowledge this reality and lean into it to increase the United States’ economic and technological competitiveness Japan and South Korea publicly embrace the sentiment that startups are open innovation resources for large conglomerates more agile firms and encourage them to work with their bigger peers to support the innovativeness of the country as a whole and ways of working into large Japanese and South Korean firms so that they can compete with American The director of a startup support center funded by the South Korean government put it to us this way: the government wants to inject “innovative DNA” into the country’s chaebol so that the countries’ legacy firms do not go the way of Motorola or Nokia two tech companies that were known for their earlier pathbreaking products but lost their innovation mojo along the way and got left behind Take the case of South Korea’s K-Startup Grand Challenge a government program providing support for startups to become internationally competitive Launched by the conservative government of Park Geun-hye in 2016 the program was continued by the liberal Moon Jae-in and continues to thrive today under the administration of independent turned conservative Yoon Suk-yeol Funded and managed by the government and based at Pangyo Techno Valley—South Korea’s version of Silicon Valley in the Seoul metropolis—the program brings together startups from across the world competing for the chance to join an accelerator in South Korea This program serves as a springboard for these firms to expand in South Korea and across Asia thanks to a combination of funding A crucial metric of the success of the program is to identify licensing and partnership agreements with the country’s chaebol government largess is contingent on startups partnering with Samsung or any other of the big South Korean firms Japan launched a nearly identical program in 2018 partner with the country’s main banks to fund and support potential “unicorns”—privately held startups that achieve a valuation of $1 billion The program was not construed as a vehicle for startups to displace incumbents but to encourage them to work hand in hand Six years later and after two changes in government the initiative continues with the same ethos of large conglomerates providing support to new startups Its initial goal was to help build 100 unicorns by 2023 The J-Startup Initiative has yet to achieve this although Japan has produced 20 unicorns during that time (as well as what are called “hidden unicorns,” companies that achieve valuations of more than $1 billion by way of acquisition) the government of Fumio Kishida announced its goal to foster 100 new unicorns by 2027 and spark the creation of 10,000 startups during that time These are just two examples of the many ways in which Seoul and Tokyo bring together government and startups to promote innovation and economic growth Similar startup initiatives in the United States such as Small Business Innovation Research invest in startups directly but without involving large firms as collaborators Silicon Valley promotes stories of David-sized startups defeating Goliath-like conglomerates but Japan and South Korea don’t see the point of excluding fueling national capabilities at the world’s technological frontier Most people think of Silicon Valley as a land where the invisible hand of the market ensures the survival of the fittest: startups steered by young minds with brilliant ideas working out of garages while getting their funding from venture capitalists to develop the next big thing These entrepreneurs will one day become the next Bill Gates Central to the myth of Silicon Valley is the idea that upstart entrepreneurs will create new companies that will replace today’s big firms thus disrupting industries when not creating entirely new ones As PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel’s Zero to One book title suggests many aspiring tech founders understand their mission as “building the future.” On their minds are Microsoft and Apple and the personal computer in the 1980s or Tesla and electric vehicles today Those without the imagination to come up with the next world-changing product fear they won’t receive funding or of dollars and will have to leave Silicon Valley to pursue other lines of work Although this concept of Silicon Valley is based on truth technology sector is dominated by only a handful of companies that make some of the world’s most valuable products also act as technology platforms for today’s startups hosting research campuses and running accelerators—programs for coaching and mentoring fledgling startups They are also the key acquirers of new inventions these young companies forced Altavista or Packard Bell into bankruptcy they are seeking to guard against others who could put them out of business The big tech firms thwart any threat posed by co-opting startups as users of their technologies This integration of startups into industrial dynamics is part of what we call “startup capitalism,” an economic model in which startups contribute to employment Startup capitalism is increasingly ubiquitous globally with policymakers around the world striving to create their own high-tech cluster often signaled by the use of a local Silicon Valley (such as the Chilecon Valley in Santiago or Silicon Roundabout in London) Though startups are often hailed as crucial innovation agents as the reality of today’s Silicon Valley shows they are more often open innovation tools for incumbent firms to boost their own competitiveness Big firms invest in new potential unicorns that leverage the distribution channels and talent pools of the big firms for fear of being seen as wasting taxpayers’ money on companies that are already among the world’s most valuable American policy therefore misses out on the power that an open innovation model could bring. U.S. policymakers do not actively engage their country’s large firms as partners in startup policy. This helps explain why the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act are spending billions of dollars in grants and rebates to attract foreign semiconductor and electric car firms to the United States American firms cannot compete with their foreign peers in some areas of hardware and manufacturing that demand long-term thinking and huge upfront investment The governments of Japan and South Korea have not made this same mistake Japanese and South Korean policymakers realized much earlier the role startups can play in their countries’ national security strategies Startups fuel Japan’s and South Korea’s prowess in technologies that are critical to national security—such as semiconductors Defense contractors are no longer the main drivers behind a country’s competitive edge getting ahead also hinges on national supplies of cutting-edge technologies and the inventive people behind them The United States’ consideration of banning or forcing the sale of TikTok—and China’s opposition to the move—underscores the centrality of technology competition today Although full-blown war between the superpowers remains unlikely the United States and China know they can inflict pain on each other when it comes to achieving technological superiority Startup capitalism’s ability to boost technological supremacy therefore gives a country a competitive edge over friends and foes alike Government support allows startups and especially big conglomerates with large financial and human resources to take a long-term approach toward economic planning aware that funding will continue even if there are short-term economic disruptions such as a financial crisis or a pandemic This approach also means that the government will underpin research and firms moving into new sectors where success isn’t guaranteed a risk that often stifles private-sector innovation in other countries South Korea and Japan are world leaders in energy-efficient shipping because their governments bet on the long-term importance of this sector while the United States and Europe gave up on a competitive shipping industry decades ago Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro toured Japanese and South Korean shipyards promoting the collaboration taking place with their American counterparts to revive the U.S South Korea and Japan produce a large share of the world’s most technologically advanced vessels such as the ships that carry liquefied natural gas and ammonia Their strength in this sector is at least partly driven by government-conglomerate-startup cooperation startups developing new technologies are paired with large conglomerates via a network of government-funded Creative Economy Innovation Centers and funding while sharing their ideas and products The center in Ulsan focuses on shipbuilding specifically with Hyundai Heavy Industries as the anchor partner graduates from the national university in Busan a traditional feeder of engineers for the shipping industry have close links with shipbuilding conglomerates throughout their studies even if they want to develop their own projects and launch their own firms the government recently announced plans to promote collaboration between startups and large incumbents to create a national champion for next-generation shipbuilding The United States does not have similar programs that encourage specialized training cohorts at specific universities policymakers need to help facilitate this marriage between big firms and new startups Startups are already providing solutions to problems that keep incumbent firms up at night rather than posing an existential threat to them The origin story of Silicon Valley was also never fully true The government has long been a key protagonist in Silicon Valley’s success Billions of dollars in federal and state funding—including Small Business Innovation Research—were crucial in developing Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial ecosystem as early as the 1950s Government largess in support of American entrepreneurs has continued over the decades Tesla has dramatically benefited from federal tax credits offered consumers for the purchase of electric cars It is estimated that the firm has received almost $3 billion in state and local subsidies and incentives since its launch when Silicon Valley Bank—favored by startups—was about to go bust and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation the United States has a fairly high industrial concentration This means that different industries are dominated by a small number of large firms This truth is widely accepted in Japan and South Korea even if politicians and the public sometimes decry this state of affairs The United States should also accept reality and embrace the value of large firms As Robert Atkinson and Michael Lind argued in their 2018 book government should accept that big companies are driving American prosperity market-power concerns should not preclude cooperation with big firms when beneficial for the U.S government and its leading tech firms is now largely one of apprehension and mistrust such as threats to the health of the country’s democracy or the harm that tech can do to children and teenagers Government regulators and lawmakers should rightly hold monopolistic and competition-busting firms and businesspeople to account there should be a more open approach toward the role of large firms in the modern startup-fueled economy policymakers should be unafraid of pairing innovative startups with large incumbents startups can have more innovative thinking and many entrepreneurs welcome rather than reject stronger ties with big firms from which they feel they can learn and partner to achieve scale This could take the form of government-sponsored competitions in which successful startup applicants are paired with selected big firms willing to support their growth The government would act as the matchmaker and also provide the funding for startups to be able to work together with their larger peers government should also consider launching a program to provide long-term support for startups in sectors that may be crucial to the country’s future growth and prosperity—but which could prove to be a bust government body could set up a ten-to-20-year strategy to support startups that may or may not produce the next generation of it could make the United States one of the leaders in this industry for decades to come This strategy should not avoid working with big firms already focusing on this sector but rather welcome them as partners with government and startups themselves And the Biden government seems to be moving in this direction The recently launched CHIPS Women in Construction Framework counts Intel and Micron as anchor partners in U.S efforts to boost the number of women in the construction sector with special focus on the semiconductor industry The Silicon Valley myth fuels the idea that large firms should not be viewed as sources for innovation and therefore should not work with government and startups is inhibiting its own productive potential It supports startups directly while challenging its own lead firms and investing billions in foreign companies to operate in the United States the cooperation between startups and large firms is openly pursued because the national benefits are apparent to all Subscribe to Foreign Affairs to get unlimited access Already a subscriber? Sign In Max Lamparth and Jacquelyn Schneider Christopher Thomas and Sarah Kreps Richard Katz Philip J. Weiser; Thomas Bleha Thomas Bleha Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay Tong Zhao Zongyuan Zoe Liu Anne Neuberger Liana Fix and Michael Kimmage * Note that when you provide your email address, the Foreign Affairs Privacy Policy and Terms of Use will apply to your newsletter subscription Published by The Council on Foreign Relations Privacy Policy Terms of Use From the publishers of  Foreign Affairs This website uses cookies to improve your experience You can opt-out of certain cookies using the cookie management page * Note that when you provide your email address, the Foreign Affairs Privacy Policy and Terms of Use will apply to your newsletter subscription Take advantage of an opportunity to showcase your talents in the FIM Endurance World Championship and their growing paddock at the prestigious 24-Hours of Le Mans race this April The #32 bike of the AMSS TRB Vidra Team is on the search for a third rider to bring onboard for this event, which will be held during the week of April 16-22 This Serbian team runs as a satellite effort under Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART) who builds and maintains the bikes along with providing top notch staff and support at the races They finished a highly credible 14th place at the 2017 24-Hour Bol d’Or After being recently acquired by Eurosport the Endurance World Championship has grown immensely with support from manufacturers and sponsors along with enjoying live TV coverage on networks around the world They are eager to have more Americans in the series and this could be your door to an amazing paddock Interested riders should contact Brandon Cretu at [email protected] Please include a resume with your initial correspondence Note that this is a pay to ride deal but the rate is negotiable depending on riders skill There is also availability for the remainder of the 2018 EWC season with the team after a successful showing at Le Mans | © document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) A press release is not an article written by Roadracingworld.com staffers When a post is labeled with the words 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technologies All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: There has been remarkable proliferation of the use of the term “social impact” since the Global Financial Crisis consumers and governments want to act purposefully delivering positive social and environmental outcomes without sufficient shared understanding of what it means and how to measure it whereby the impact label is assigned to business-as-usual activities In an attempt to advance a shared understanding of what impact is in this post I share the origins and evolution of the term and its measurement.  businesses and investors increasingly speak of their desire to deliver positive environmental and social impacts While it seems that everyone wants to be more impactful there is a very real potential that the rise in so-called impactful activities are simply “impact washing” rather than a structural shift in the way firms or investors operate away from strictly profit-centred activities social and environmental consequences of business activity independently of the intentionality of the activity” It’s worth underscoring that – for me – social impact is a more neutral term It is not only about good intentions; it is about the effects of business activities on all stakeholders - communities Is this what other people mean when they talk about social impact Let’s explore the origins of the term to see The term ‘social impact’ was first used in a Yale University seminar in 1969 on the ethical responsibilities of institutional investors the aim was to consider the social and environmental aspects of investment activities beyond merely the financial return on investment National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1970 articulated a set of practices and procedures called the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) The SIA was a legal requirement to systematically capture the potential (negative) socio-economic impact of large-scale As NEPA mandated the filing of an environmental impact statement for each large land-use decisions the prevalence of social impact (predictive) measurement and reporting rose exponentially in the U.S This government-required assessment strove to require thought about environmental degradation in real estate development and the potential socio-economic costs from displacing people and activities the orientation was negative: development projects were presumed to negatively affect the environment and local communities the volume of SIA reporting activities in the U.S The slowdown is said to be the result of both a reduction in the number of large energy-related building projects undertaken and in the scant availability (and demand for) social scientists to produce SIAs notably the World Bank and International Monetary Fund began implementing strict socio-economic and impact assessment reporting on their development projects from the 1990s onwards The goal of their monitoring and evaluation was to demonstrate the effects their investment and technical capacity building efforts were having on local communities The early 1990s saw the rise in frameworks and guidelines on how to implement social impact assessment a group of social scientists formed the Inter-Organisational Committee on Principles and Guidelines for Social Impact Assessment to fill a gap between government reporting requirements and the expertise needed to account for impacts In 1993 they produced the first Principles and Guidelines for Social Impact Assessment which appraised the social consequences of proposed construction sites large transportation projects and other uses of land as required by the NEPA Statute and the Council on Environmental Quality (1986) But it was in the onset of the Global Financial Crisis that the term found salience the annual interest in the term has steadily risen since 2008 with the greatest-ever interest coming now Figure 1: Google Search Term Analytics for “Social Impact” the Crisis propelled society’s interest in businesses that did not only produce shareholder returns Businesses were to be more socially and environmentally impactful financial profits were not the end-all and be-all of capitalism The economic motor would need to provide us with non-pecuniary This broader understanding fuelled the advance of ways to measure social impact More than 150 different methodologies have been developed for wide use (Florman and Klingler-Vidra These methods are in addition to the thousands of firms that have each developed their own approach to conceptualising and measuring their social impact One of the most widely-used tools is the Global Reporting Initiative that launched its first guidelines in 2000 These guidelines (now referred to as ‘G1’) represented ‘the first global framework for comprehensive sustainability reporting’ and is currently at the 4th version of the original The GRI’s G4 report is available for all companies to download and complete but additional services come with a price tag International organisations – notably the United Nations (UN) – initiated their reporting approaches in mid-2000s The UN Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) was designed for investment management firms to measure the ESG of their portfolios More independent assessment firms entered the space in the years to come with B Labs offering a reporting and scoring system for small and then the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) creating the IRIS Metrics in 2009 for investment firms that prioritized purpose over profit the Impact Management Project has developed a Structured Network of key stakeholders in an effort to socialise a shared understanding of what social impact is Their collaboration brings together teams within the UN (specifically The juggernaut of efforts to make an impact the concept of social impact has been applied through reporting requirements vis-à-vis real estate development projects the language of “social impact” is ill-defined social impact is shorthand for the intent to do good to strive to achieve “profit with purpose” it is about how desirable outcomes can be achieved; this involves developing a “theory of change” its about measurement: social impact can (and must) be assessed in order to inform how business activities should proceed I am all in favour of striving for positive social impact saying that one’s mission is to boost impact is like Miss Universe saying that she wants to work to achieve world peace Just as viewers at home would want to ask the pageant contest we need to ask those striving for positive impact to ask “what do you mean by that And how will you achieve it?” If we focus only on the intention it will be difficult to hold firms to account Intentionality is also not consistent with the origins of social impact language: from the early NEPA requirements for social impact assessment reporting If social impact talk is to genuinely deliver positive outcomes for people and the planet we need better mechanisms for giving a voice to those people and places who are being impacted Rather than more glossy annual social impact reports what they think of a company’s impact on them Dr Robyn Klingler-Vidra is Senior Lecturer in Political Economy in the Department of International Development at King's College London Robyn’s research focuses on government efforts to promote inclusive innovation and to measure the social impact of business activities She is developing an interactive platform for social impact dialogues to enable social impact measurement by those who are impacted Robyn obtained her BA in Political Science at the University of Michigan and her MSc and PhD in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics Image: Walter-Wilhelm via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Copyright © GlobalPolicyJournal 2025. All rights reserved Print Some Republicans are trying to foment a moral panic about LGBTQ people supposedly “grooming” children for sexual exploitation and they have made drag shows a centerpiece of their arguments California Authorities are investigating the incident as a potential hate crime after five men described as members of the Proud Boys stormed the library So it was probably not surprising that my stepfather, Washington Post columnist Max Boot, struck a nerve with an article last week in which he celebrated the American values exemplified by such liberal havens as Provincetown where our family spent a couple of weeks in August riding bikes “I even took my step-kids to a drag show,” he wrote This prompted an incredulous and acerbic monologue on Thursday night from Tucker Carlson on his top-rated Fox News Channel show punctuated by his trademark sarcastic laugh “if there’s one sentence that kind of sums up the NPR revolution we’re living through and we’re going to say it again ‘I took my stepkids to a drag show.’ Unfortunately the stepkids were not interviewed about their perceptions of the drag show but ‘I took my stepkids to a drag show’ has got to be the greatest boast of all time Have you taken your stepkids to a drag show … They’re not taking their stepkids to drag shows at the Rust Belt diners Carlson’s viewers echoed his outrage online. “Your kids are going to talk about you bringing them to a drag show to their therapist 15 years from now,” one person tweeted. Another wrote to my stepfather, “You dragged your kids to a drag show? Hilarious and creepy.” Other emails were full of abuse and even threats. This outrage seems to be premised on the fallacious assumption that drag shows are strip shows or sex shows. I can’t speak for all drag shows — I’ve only seen one — but the one we went to recently was clean, wholesome, innocuous fun. Lifestyle A drag mother is both a caregiver and a mentor These Los Angeles drag mothers are building support structures for the next generation of drag queens The audience was full of people of all ages including many kids younger than me (I’m 16 years old) Miss Conception had great dramatic energy and flair At one point she led a group of men and women boys and girls from the audience in a conga line around the theater There were a few mildly risqué double entendres but there was nothing sexually suggestive or obscene in the whole act It was billed as family entertainment — and it was Any kid can find far more salacious and offensive material in 15 seconds online I’m a debater, and I’m used to looking at both sides of an argument. I’m willing to concede that perhaps there are more sexually suggestive drag shows out there that would be inappropriate for young children. But, as I’ve learned, drag shows also have a long, storied pedigree. Entertainment & Arts Layton Williams and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner Roy Haylock reprise their roles in the North American premiere of the West End musical a vaudeville performer of the early 20th century who sang as a female impersonator mainstream television comedians like Milton Berle and Flip Wilson put on dresses for laughs Drag shows have become more popular and more widespread in recent years as LGBTQ rights have become more openly accepted preparing them to be victims of pedophiles The assumption of many seems to be that taking minors to a drag show constitutes child abuse But I wasn’t abused or traumatized at the drag show in Provincetown Those who criticize drag shows should go to one — and take their kids They will probably be pleasantly surprised by what they find Alexander Vidra is a high school junior in New York City Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map A conflict between the US and China over computer chips – or semiconductors – has been escalating in recent months the US has taken steps to limit China’s access to advanced chip technology amid heightened international competition in the area Taiwan plays a critical role in this struggle It has a huge share of the global semiconductor industry but is also the focus of tensions between Beijing and Washington over its political status what might happen to the chip industry were China to invade A US act passed in 1979 requires Washington to help defend Taiwan. Providing for the island’s security also fits with wider US objectives on technology and economic security US politicians have not minced their words in affirming that a Chinese invasion would be met with a swift military response A Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, Seth Moulton, recently quipped that if China invades, “We’re going to blow up TSMC” – this being the acronym for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company the world’s most valuable semiconductor company Congressman Moulton later clarified that he had been discussing several options for conveying the enormous costs of invading Taiwan to Beijing The author Chris Miller tells the story of how Taiwan reached this dominant position in his book Chip War. It turns out to have been largely the result of strategic geopolitics and the individual leadership of several chip industry “godfathers” Semiconductors are produced by a remarkably global supply chain, with design often stemming from US, Japanese or European firms, and manufacturing taking place in Taiwan and South Korea. However, Taiwan alone manufactures more than 60% of the world’s semiconductors -— and crucially This would reduce risks to the US and its partners from an invasion such a shift would take years to complete and would be challenging to implement TSMC announced its plan to build a multi-billion-dollar facility in Arizona But the plant will only be ready from 2025 at the earliest and will probably not be capable of producing chips at what will by then be the technological frontier in terms of scale The Arizona facility is expected to produce chips at the 5 nanometre (nm) scale, and, at some stage, 3nm This wouldn’t undermine Taiwan’s leadership because TSMC is already working at 3nm in Taiwan and is likely to be further advanced by 2025 TSMC may also face a challenge in attracting enough skilled employees to run its US operation There is already a shortage of microchips, which began with the onset of COVID-19 in 2020 and has affected many industries and products. In 2021, global car production slumped 26% and consumer electronic product launches have been delayed largely as a result In a bid to boost chip supplies, the Biden administration and the EU have tried to improve supply chain resilience by incentivising production closer to home. The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act offers more than US$50 billion (£40 billion) for semiconductor research and development manufacturing and workforce development in the US The military response to an invasion of Taiwan could see manufacturing of semiconductors on the island halted overnight This would place marked pressure on the price of the chips manufactured outside Taiwan The increase in chip prices would unleash massive inflation on a range of products and services phones and healthcare equipment such as ultrasounds and vital sign monitors both hold semiconductor capabilities at the core Having access to TSMC know-how and supplies would be pivotal for delivering on these goals But the US commitment to defending Taiwan – if it holds – would mean the destruction of TSMC facilities on the island The world’s cutting-edge facilities for advanced chips would be decimated We should all care about a Chinese invasion of Taiwan The global semiconductor industry would freeze Inflation would spiral further upwards and the post-COVID recovery would be reversed So many of the tools we rely on would disappear from our shops for years It would wreak enormous damage on us all —- with the Taiwanese people bearing the greatest cost Robyn Klingler-Vidra, Associate Dean, Global Engagement | Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability, King's College London This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article Photo by Pixabay At the New York – Nextt and Alok feted Michael Vidra two nights ago on his retirement from the industry Vidra’s textiles career goes all the way back to 1982 when he established Glenoit’s American operation after running the company in his native Israel he’s only been out of the home business for three years He ran manufacturing back when it still existed in the U.S. giving him the valuable knowledge that served him well later in his career While the home division of UM&M prospered the parent company didn’t fare as well and the fabric units were sold Raymond Waites moved into for itself when it took its back from its supplier and became known for When the Great Recession hit in 2007-’08 things took a turn down and many of the licensed programs particularly in the core fabrics and wallpaper areas Vidra bought out Waites and then several years later brought in Alok as a partner and eventually the full owner of Nextt “I didn’t see anyone in my family who wanted to continue He stayed on to run the unit for several years but this year plans were made for him to retire Vidra says he enjoyed being an entrepreneur in the business more than working for a big corporation “even though there are those sleepless nights about the business.” those sleepy nights may be spent far away from New York For a guy who’s been around the textiles block for a long time Signup for your daily digest of industry news and trends Some of the forms and images on this page may not work correctly with this enabled Please disable your ad blocker for this page Find the ad blocker icon installed on your browser This icon is usually located on the upper right side of your screen You may have more than one ad blocker installed Click the icon and disable the ad blocker for this website either by following prompts or clicking your browser’s “refresh” or “reload” button Home Textiles Today provides industry news Sign up to get exclusive industry information delivered to your inbox Mere weeks after Google discontinued its dedicated investment arm in and for Europe, Eze Vidra has quit his position as investment partner in Google Ventures - and the company altogether Vidra, who launched Google Shopping in Spain and other commerce products in a number of European markets, and established the successful (and first) Google Campus in London during the 5.5 years he worked at Google In a farewell blog post published on Christmas Day Vidra did not reveal anything about what he's up to next vaguely saying he will 'continue to work with startups' it appears he will be moving out of London with his family shortly In fact, Eze Vidra is the second from an initial four investment partners Google Ventures had in Europe to depart; last Summer, another partner - Peter Read - walked away without explaining why Meanwhile, Vidra's profile on the GV website has already been erased Google Ventures to discontinue its $125 million European fund he points to the unavoidable disruption that technological advances it is not only industries that are being transformed by technology; the socio-economic foundations of societies the Alibaba IPO is said to have created the richest men in two countries that day: Jack Ma the founder of SoftBank and an early investor in Alibaba The tale of Alibaba’s record-breaking IPO is notable not only for these headline accomplishments It is emblematic of the rise of technology entrepreneurship and venture capital in East Asia even in so-called coordinated market economies typified by Japan including German car markers (Daimler and Mercedes Benz) and three Japanese banks (MUFG It is not only the size of SoftBank’s fundraising that grabs headlines Son is shaking up the Silicon Valley investment arena with his brashness The Vision Fund was reportedly involved in more than half of the top 10 biggest investments in VC-backed startups at the tune of a whopping $9.3 billion in the ride-sharing company Japan’s local venture capital investing and entrepreneurial activities are on the rise the Kobe City instalment of 500 Startups – that offered tax subsidies for commercialisation and entrepreneurship with Japanese start-ups raising ¥271.7bn ($2.5bn) in 2017 While the pace and extent of Japan’s startup boom is unprecedented, it is not completely new. The popular “Dragon’s Den” and “Shark Tank” format did not originate in Silicon Valley, Route 128, or Silicon Roundabout. The global phenomenon was first created in Japan, as "マネーの虎" ("Money Tigers") Osaka and Kobe to better understand: Why the push – or embrace – of global The Japan Times said in a May 2018 headline, “Japan shouldn’t try and replicate Silicon Valley to spur innovation” There are certainly Japanese characteristics that are – and should be – distinct What is undeniable is the fervour supporting technology entrepreneurship Rather than the Japanese government promoting its large firms’ prowess this incarnation of industrial strategy points to startups and venture capital Prolific investors such as Masayoshi Son epitomise the transition and the METI hope they will lead the revolution as well The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited (EIU) or any other member of The Economist Group The Economist Group (including the EIU) cannot accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this article or any of the information opinions or conclusions set out in the article In some instances the impact of this shift will be shaped by local factors In other instances this shift will reflect shared characteristics as demonstrated by the greater popularity of overseas investing among younger high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) brought up in an era of globalisation the landscape of wealth is changing—from local to global and from one focused on returns to one founded on personal values Despite rising economic concerns and a tradition of investor home bias in large parts of the world the new landscape of wealth appears less interested in borders According to a survey commissioned by RBC Wealth Management and conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) younger HNWIs are substantially more enthusiastic about foreign investing is a particularly high-profile example of a country where a long-standing preference for investments in local markets appears set to be transformed Click the thumbnail below to download the global executive summary Read additional articles from The EIU with detail on the shifting landscape of global wealth in Asia To better understand the opportunities and challenges in developing a fintech business in seven ASEAN markets The Economist Intelligence Unit conducted wide-ranging desk research supplemented by seven in-depth interviews with executives in Australia and ASEAN Download report and watch video interview to learn more & Planning for life after NAFTA articles by clicking the thumbnails below Please sign in with your Snow-Forecast account details below Create a free account to receive instant Snow-Alerts and save your favourite resorts on your personal MySnow page Vidra Transalpina Weather (Next 3 days): The snow forecast for Vidra Transalpina is: Heavy rain (total 28.0mm) Vidra Transalpina Weather (Days 4-6): Moderate rain (total 10.0mm) heaviest on Sat afternoon then becoming colder with a dusting of snow on Sun afternoon Freeze-thaw conditions (max 6°C on Fri morning Latest snow reports near Vidra Transalpina: Moderate rain (total 10.0mm) heaviest on Sat afternoon Several North American ski areas that are still open plan to celebrate the unofficial Star Wars Day tomorrow The above table gives the weather forecast for Vidra Transalpina at the specific elevation of 1646 m. Our sophisticated weather models allow us to provide snow forecasts for the top, middle and bottom ski stations of Vidra Transalpina. To access the weather forecasts for the other elevations, use the tab navigation above the table. For a wider view of the weather, check out the Weather Map of Romania Click here to read further information on freezing levels and how we forecast our temperatures Overall 3.3 Based on 20 votes and 4 reviews Overall: 3.3 Based on 20 votes and 4 reviews Read 3 more reviews of Vidra Transalpina or submit your own View detailed snow forecast for Vidra Transalpina at:snow-forecast.com In The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America Margaret O’Mara provides a new account of the region’s evolution that brings the US government into the story The book offers a compelling narrative that tracks the key players and events that have underpinned Silicon Valley’s tremendous while also underscoring the gender imbalance and casual misogyny that has been a longstanding characteristic of its culture The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America Find this book:  Whether you are a Silicon Valley enthusiast or critic, Margaret O’Mara’s new book will be of interest for its remarkable account of the region’s evolution an authoritative American (technology) historian at University of Washington and former White House staff member offers a compelling narrative of the key players and events underpinning Silicon Valley’s tremendous O’Mara’s account – relative to others by VCs and tech leaders in the region, such as the Secrets of Sand Hill Road by Scott Kupor – helps to bring the American government into the story that Silicon Valley was either the result of pioneering entrepreneurs who did not need nor care about government support she offers insight into how Silicon Valley mavericks like Steve Jobs sought – and benefited from – the support of the national government and the state of California In this review, I focus on the book’s efforts to ‘bring the state back in’ to the myth of the state-less rise of Silicon Valley Two new insights from The Code help bust this myth: The Code effectively showcases the glaring inconsistencies in the narrative that Silicon Valley has spun about being the product of American entrepreneurialism and laissez faire and then in the next breath pleading the moral case for government support for this essential sector This was particularly evident in the 1980s with rising competition in semiconductors – amongst other areas such as the Sony Walkman – when leading Silicon Valley voices called for the government to organise a consortium to boost American competitiveness O’Mara notes the inconsistency (hypocrisy) by citing the September 1982 California Commission on Industrial Innovation report as saying that ‘California shows that the spirit of risk-taking is alive in well in America’ but that due to growing competition from Japan the government ‘must do whatever is necessary to guarantee that our cutting-edge industries – like semiconductors robotics and biotechnology – retain their competitive lead’ (214) fears of losing out to ‘Japan Inc.’ spawned the push for a public-private research consortium (Sematech) to rival Japan’s highly effective Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)-led VSLI consortium which had put Japanese manufacturing of semiconductors on par When Silicon Valley chipmakers – for which the region gets its name because of the role of silicon as a cooling agent in semiconductors – and now social media and information giants dominate markets they squawk that the government – for society’s sake – just needs to get out of the way But when they face stiff international competition as with Japan in the 1980s and China today they claim – in the interest of national security – that it is imperative that they receive (more) trade protection and tax subsidies Much has been said about the role that the military-industrial complex played in the foundations of Silicon Valley. Government funding, from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in particular, is noted as critical in accounts that emphasise the role of the American ‘national security state’ in its technology sector (see Linda Weiss’s book, America Inc.?) O’Mara does not contest the essential role of military funding from the outset; in fact she shows how legendary venture capitalists like David Morgenthaler themselves had significant military backgrounds: in Morgenthaler’s case he had been the US Army’s Chief Technical Officer in the Eastern Mediterranean (11) She adds essential colour to the way the ‘computer as national security’ narrative evolved and towards ‘supercomputers and AI and scenario modelling and cybersecurity’ (225) AI and machine learning into its remit and Computing capabilities were essential to security and to economic competitiveness and so defense contracts should spur their advance just as much as traditional military technologies The Silicon Valley story that O’Mara lucidly tells is one of two-sided self-depiction: one of self-proclaimed rebels who build technology for the love of the intellectual pursuit and without asking for any help from the state versus another in which overwhelmingly interested investors and CEOs seek government help in their focus on boosting profits These opposite logics reflect variation in the political and sectoral orientations of the variety of individuals and firms who compose Silicon Valley; O’Mara carefully chronicles this variation which is often missed in accounts of the singular Silicon Valley But she also exposes how the two-way narrative emanates from a fundamental inconsistency in the story that Silicon Valley has told about itself who said that he had ‘come from an industry that has grown like Topsy and has never asked for government help’ The Silicon Valley lore has been one of never asking for help but also not acknowledging the vital role that state (military) funding If striving to build a local innovation hub one could aim for a story with more diversity and inclusion at the core Note: This review gives the views of the author and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog Image Credit: Apple Park, Cupertino, United States (Carles Rabada CCO) Robyn Klingler-Vidra is Associate Dean and Reader in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability at King’s Business School She is the author of The Venture Capital State: The Silicon Valley Model in East Asia (Cornell University Press 2018) and Inclusive Innovation (co-authored with Alex Glennie and Courtney Savie Lawrence Robyn’s research and teaching focuses on entrepreneurship She received her BA from the University of Michigan was a visiting scholar at the National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and obtained her MSc and PhD in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email Companies’ ability to communicate sustainability initiatives has become a litmus test for their authenticity and dedication to responsible practices Lexical inconsistency may contribute to so-called ESG backlash Adam William Chalmers and Robyn Klingler-Vidra assess the coherence of companies’ sustainability reports and find a growing language inconsistency over time which can prompt suspicions of greenwashing (the act of embellishing sustainability efforts without substantive action) is “for companies to avoid dramatic shifts in how they talk about ESG issues […]” as “nearly half (48 per cent) of companies that have faced [an ESG] backlash have altered their terminology with many switching from ESG to ‘sustainability” This motivates us to ask: have companies gotten better in being consistent in their ESG talk over time we assess the coherence of companies’ sustainability reports We employ two natural language processing (NLP) methods: which calculates the resemblance between the language used in different reports helping identify shifts in terminology over time a tool that gauges lexical features such as vocabulary richness (lexical diversity measured as a type-token ratio) readability metrics like the Flesch-Kincaid ease of reading score and concreteness (the extent to which language uses tangible or concrete concepts as opposed to abstract notions) we unveil patterns in the way companies express their ESG initiatives We apply these methods to a database of more than 6500 corporate sustainability reports written by 320 of the world’s largest (based on market capitalisation) and “most admired” firms (based on two reputational indices namely Dow Jones S&P Sustainability Index and Fortune’s Global Most Admired Companies) We included firms in seven major world regions: Africa Figure 1 visualises the evolution of lexical (in)consistency within firms’ CSR communications over a 12-year period where language used in CSR reports remained relatively coherent ushering in a pronounced surge in lexical inconsistency This is accompanied by an uptick in reports that become progressively challenging to comprehend the tone of communications also becomes overwhelmingly negative potentially reflecting a response to emerging complexities in the CSR landscape we see a massive spike in the lexical inconsistency in companies’ sustainability reports Note: all values have been standardised to facilitate analysis Readability scale has been reversed so that higher = more difficult Is this growing inconsistency specific to different parts of the world We analysed variation across countries to find out Figure 2 visualises a clear disparity in linguistic coherence in CSR reporting on a global scale maintaining a relatively stable language in CSR reporting over time companies in South America predominantly fall into the “high” inconsistency category exhibiting substantial fluctuations in their reporting lexicon A notably erratic landscape is observed in countries like Turkey and the UAE where firms demonstrate “very high” levels of lexical inconsistency Asia presents a mixed picture: while firms in China and Japan exhibit high lexical inconsistency those in Hong Kong and Taiwan demonstrate notable stability Change in lexical inconsistency over time and by country Figure 3 provides an overview of the changing language across four time periods between 2000 to 2021 While “sustainability” and its various cognate terms remain prominent across all time periods the defining concept was “social responsibility” this term falls out of favour in later periods the language of “transparency” and “accountability” were central terms like “climate change” and “human rights” shift dramatically revealing periods of increased focus (2011-2015) contrasted by relative neglect in other periods like “ESG integration,” “materiality,” and “impact investing” register as core concepts from 2016-2021 hinting at a potential paradigm shift towards financial reporting and activity The changing language of ESG and sustainability reporting and towards investor-focused language in the latest period Inconsistency in the language used in sustainability reports can have important implications for companies and their stakeholders This phenomenon casts a shadow on a company’s perceived commitment to sustainability Abrupt changes in how sustainability issues are articulated can prompt suspicions of greenwashing the act of embellishing sustainability efforts without substantive action CSR issues are not static; companies need to respond to evolving stakeholder expectations a degree of lexical evolution is natural and even expected But companies need to balance this with an emphasis on the issues and language that are central to them Rather than trying to engage global issues and language our advice is for CSR communications teams to focus on their company’s core issues Adam William Chalmers is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. 2014Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave the toast at The New Republic’s centennial gala in November two-thirds of the people on the magazine’s editorial masthead resigned.PHOTOGRAPH BY TERESA KROEGER/GETTYSave this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyLast Friday morning presided over a meeting at the publication’s Penn Quarter offices in Washington It had been a busy twenty-four hours: a day earlier Hughes had forced out the magazine’s editor and Vidra had announced that the hundred-year-old opinion magazine which was founded to “bring sufficient enlightenment to the problems of the nation,” would be reduced from twenty to ten issues a year and would move to New York where it would be reinvented as a “vertically integrated digital-media company.” Minutes before the Friday meeting began most of the magazine’s writers and editors had resigned in protest a co-founder of Facebook with an estimated fortune of more than half a billion dollars and the Washington headquarters was a reflection of his ambitions with an open floor plan for writers and a row of well-appointed editors’ offices with windows overlooking the National Portrait Gallery Bound volumes from the magazine’s history line a long wall and a small library decorated with photographs of T.N.R.’s founders and early contributors serves as a retreat for quiet reading Hughes signed a ten-year lease and told his writers that the magazine would stay in Washington for a long time As the remaining staff gathered around a long conference table Vidra set up a computer with his notes on it Hughes joined from New York via a video-conferencing system Hughes had hired him in October from Yahoo and he spoke in a Silicon Valley-inflected jargon that many of T.N.R.’s journalists found grating and bewildering he embarked on a project to transform the modest-circulation journal of politics and culture into something more like a technology company he deemed it necessary to rid the staff of old-timers who he believed were ill-suited for the transformation So did the executive editors Rachel Morris and Greg Veis who were responsible for editing the magazine’s in-depth journalism; nine of the magazine’s eleven active senior writers; Jeffrey Rosen the longtime legal-affairs editor; Hillary Kelly the digital-media editor; and six of Wieseltier’s culture writers and editors (covering film Thirty-six out of thirty-eight contributing editors resigned or asked to have their names removed from the masthead (including me: I am hardly an impartial observer) two-thirds of the names on the editorial masthead were gone too,” a junior staffer who is still there and couldn’t afford to quit told me including several who now work at The New Yorker said that Hughes and Vidra had brought about the “destruction” of The New Republic But Vidra said that Snyder “was eager to get into the role Staffers in New York told me that he welled up as he spoke He told colleagues later that he was unprepared for the scale of the resignations and depth of the protest especially from people who he had spent the past two years cultivating Hughes described the changes in the magazine’s frequency and editorship but insisted that a radical transformation into a digital-media company with a greater emphasis on profits did not mean that The New Republic He explained that he had studied history and literature at Harvard “It’s always been a surprise to the rest of the world that I care about tradition and about institutions,” he said “because we live in a cultural moment which very much rewards the language of startups and Silicon Valley.” Hughes insisted that deep reporting and ideas would still be important to the magazine We also have to be increasingly smarter—we’ve already made good progress but even more—about how we use social media.” The session finished abruptly with Hughes banging on the table and declaring “This institution has been around for one hundred fucking years,” and promising that it wasn’t dead Vidra and Hughes had another problem on their hands was scheduled to close the following Wednesday and writers had begun to withdraw their articles two of the remaining editors at the magazine and two members of the business staff gathered in the library the magazine has never missed an issue in its history Hughes addressed the group by speakerphone “How are we going to produce the issue?” he asked and I know almost every individual involved in this story who last year made me an offer to return to T.N.R and conversations with about two dozen people most of whom would not speak for attribution two years ago in what was essentially a fire sale and for the previous five years a small team of wealthy friends of the magazine had been sustaining it the losses deepened and the owners were ready to sell had the unenviable choice of trying to find a savior for the magazine or watching it die slowly started as the online editor in 2004 and had worked his way up the print masthead to the top position where he garnered T.N.R.’s first National Magazine Award nomination for general excellence in twenty years He was determined to find a new buyer and save the institution A mutual friend connected Just and Hughes via e-mail and when Just returned to Washington he told Wieseltier that he thought they had found their buyer and Hughes spent the next four months discussing the details it was too good to be true,” someone with knowledge of the talks said “Chris said all the right things about not wanting to control.” on a conference call about the announcement a public-relations consultant Hughes had brought in to manage the transition made a passing reference to Hughes becoming T.N.R.’s new editor-in-chief Hughes had never told Just that he was taking the title the magazine’s highly controversial owner and editor-in-chief from 1974 to 2007 and that Peretz’s personal politics and vituperative writing and management style had often overshadowed the good work of the magazine Peretz had been known for discovering talented young writers but his history of failing to hire many women or African-Americans and his increasingly disdainful writings on race and the Middle East marred his legacy and was a major Democratic donor whose husband would later run for office might be accused of turning the magazine into a vanity project but said that he would keep the editor-in-chief title a Wall Street banker and the chairman of the magazine’s group of investors He told Grafstein that they should consider blocking the sale he would now write half of the magazine’s editorials as the first issue under the new owner was being printed Hughes learned that the cover included a headline with negative language about private equity: “Attack of the Crybabies: Why Hedge Fund Honchos Turned Against Obama.” Hughes stopped the press run and the headline was changed to simply read “Why Hedge Fund Honchos Turned Against Obama.” Two months later Hughes fired Just and replaced him with Foer who was beloved by the staff and who had edited the magazine from 2006 to 2010 He capped the length of the articles in Wieseltier’s culture-and-arts section known as “the back of the book,” where essays were famously long and unabashedly complex he would make him cut the piece back,” a senior staffer said most writers and editors agree that Hughes’s early days running the magazine with Foer were among the best periods to work at T.N.R “I enjoyed—and felt good about—working for Chris way more than I did working for Marty,” one longtime writer who resigned last week told me first and foremost by saving the magazine at a time of mortal financial peril.” T.N.R.’s Web site was spare and understaffed Hughes seemed focussed on digital journalism but he also approved and encouraged budgets that were disproportionately geared toward long-form print pieces which were expensive and time-consuming to produce Travel budgets were substantial enough to send Julia Ioffe to cover the Winter Olympics in Sochi to cover human-rights abuses in Burma and impending genocide in the Central African Republic Alec MacGillis spent nine months on one magazine piece Hughes seemed to love the print magazine and would weigh in with T.N.R.’s art director about small details “I’ve hit the owner jackpot,” Foer told me and others at the time Hughes was hardly distant with staff members where the magazine had organized a conference with Ukrainian activists and thinkers Hughes stayed out until the early-morning hours drinking with Ioffe and others Hughes attended a birthday party for Foer at the editor’s family’s house in Pennsylvania that their “friendship was a deep and meaningful thing to him” and that the two men “were going to be intellectual partners moving into the next decade.” numerous current and former staffers told me differences between Hughes and his editorial team about the direction of the magazine began to widen During a meeting with newsstand consultants who were advising T.N.R one of the magazine’s editors said something disparaging about The Atlantic ’s covers “The Atlantic sells a lot of newsstand issues and we have to respond to the data!” Hughes wouldn’t talk to the offending editor for two weeks Ioffe dates the abrupt change in mood to late summer shortly after Foer’s birthday party—the period when Eldridge’s expensive campaign to win a congressional seat started looking hopeless “We all liked him; he seemed to like us,” she told me and he started talking to me about money and how we’re losing money and he’s tired of it And then he became just downright contemptuous and hostile toward us.” as a “storied brand,” a corporate phrase that rankled some writers there The release made no mention of Foer and suggested that Vidra now had editorial control of the magazine “One thing I’ve learned over the past two years is that to preserve and strengthen great institutions you have to change them,” Hughes said in the same release which also announced “the establishment of a separate investment vehicle created to back early-stage technology companies predominantly in the digital media was described as a “digital-media company.” The editors were hardly opposed to giving greater attention to digital media but they came to believe that Hughes was losing interest in the actual content of T.N.R.’s journalism and cultural criticism “The only compliment Chris or Guy ever said about a piece was that it ‘did well,’ or it ‘travelled well,’ ” one of the staffers who resigned said “If we had published Nietzsche’s ‘Birth of Tragedy,’ the only question would be told me that he and Vidra were “holding on to the traditional values of the place: its voice of skepticism and at the same time introducing new elements of experimentation and innovation these things get called Silicon Valley jargon or buzzwords just as ‘long-form journalism’ is also a kind of jargon.” “I think Frank had real questions about whether or not he was the right editor for the role.” Foer had told Hughes several months ago “I don’t want us to become a technology company I might not be the right person for a magazine geared toward Millennials.” Foer later told people that “the idea of Vidra turning T.N.R into a tech startup was like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch.” Hughes’s eroding relationship with the staff took on an ideological edge MacGillis wrote a note to “the Plank,” T.N.R.’s internal e-mail listserv for writers and editors “I see the celebration of his announcement as another sign of what’s happened to liberalism today where rights/identity liberalism trumps economic liberalism,” he wrote a guy who embodies so much of what’s amiss in the age of inequality—pulling down $378 million in 2011 alone; Apple skirting taxes more brazenly than anyone else—yet those revelations have caused barely a stir.” Hughes responded to the note six minutes later: “I think those are valid issues although Apple has acted squarely within the law,” he wrote But I don’t think you can underestimate the difficulty of his decision or how tone deaf that argument would be today.” The other editorial employees on the list were surprised by the response It was an internal listserv for writers and editors and the staffers didn’t realize that Hughes who had relinquished his title as editor-in-chief when he installed Vidra MacGillis responded by saying that he would hold off on writing it is not so clear that Apple acted squarely within the law but Apple pushed the bounds of it more than anyone.” He pasted text from a piece in the Times that questioned some of Apple’s practices Companies have an obligation to their shareholders to maximize shareholder value including through strategic tax planning.” (Hughes denies that he gave orders to delay or cancel the Andreessen story.) “Editorial people were talking about how great Leon was and Chris was angry that the first thing Leon said was what’s wrong with American culture is ‘too much digital.’ ” Vidra made his first appearance at T.N.R.’s Washington offices for a presentation to the whole staff He opened a PowerPoint slide show and stood up to address the group “I like to walk around when I speak,” he said He offered a series of statements intended to describe a transformation that could make the magazine profitable but it came across to the editors as a jumble of clichés and tech jargon “We’re going to be a hundred-year-old startup,” he said The magazine needed “to align ourselves from the metabolism perspective” and create “magical experiences for both the content and the product design” and be “fearless in innovation and experimentation” and “change some of the DNA of the organization.” He said that he wanted to institute “a process for annual reviews” and effect a “cultural change where we need to just embrace innovation and cross-functional collaboration,” and said that the editors and business side would need to “speak to each other much more effectively and efficiently in our gatherings” in order “to take us to the next stage.” Vidra didn’t mention the magazine’s journalism “Never did he once allude to the history of the magazine,” a former staffer said “It was just terrifying rhetoric about change without any substance to back it up.” To some staffers it felt as if Hughes had sent Vidra to scare them into writing more Vidra ended his talk with a speech that T.N.R writers and editors would quote mockingly for weeks “They say that there’s two types of C.E.O.s,” he said That just means that we need to change a lot of things we’ve got to break shit and embrace being uncomfortable sometimes and then continued in less dramatic fashion I hope you guys are as excited as I am about it he had started talking to potential replacements for Foer One of the first people he spoke to was Hillary Frey an editor with whom he had worked at Yahoo News Vidra and Hughes also started discussions with Snyder who was working at Bloomberg News as a consultant Hughes and Vidra insist that the conversations were general though Snyder and Frey believed they were in discussions to replace Foer But the timing was awkward: Foer was completing the anniversary issue and helping Hughes prepare for an anniversary gala on November 19th at which Bill Clinton was scheduled to speak After the meeting in which Vidra made his presentation IOFFE: “Question: Is Frank staying?”HUGHES: “I should hope so Why do you ask?”IOFFE: “I think there’s .. but I don’t know if you noticed Frank’s face during the meeting and the way he took off as soon as it was over I think people are a bit confused (and panicked) about what Frank’s role is going to be?”HUGHES: “That’s concerning Thanks for the heads up and of course.”IOFFE: “Yeah He is really upset.”HUGHES: “I spoke to him I think there has been some meaningful miscommunication which we are rectifying Thanks as always for reaching out—can’t tell you how much that is appreciated.”IOFFE: “Oh For a while there it seemed like Frank was leaving and us senior editors were like Her intention was to let Hughes know that if he did fire Foer he would face a rebellion also had a private conversation with Hughes that day “Chris reassured me that Frank was the editor and would remain the editor,” she told me which was fighting with the book publisher Hachette three days after the infamous Vidra presentation an e-mail concerning a campaign for its new political TV show “Alpha House.” “In light of the cover article about Amazon Amazon has decided to terminate the Alpha House campaign currently running on The New Republic,” the e-mail said “Please confirm receipt of this email and that the campaign has been terminated.” It was signed “Team Amazon.” which has been leading the charge against Amazon’s book-selling practices Foer wanted to make Amazon’s suspension of advertising public Preston had forwarded the note to a reporter Foer was returning from a trip to San Francisco where he had given a talk at the World Affairs Council about the anniversary of the magazine Hughes and Vidra wanted to know if he had leaked the Amazon details The reporter ultimately decided not to pursue the story Hughes sent Foer an e-mail expressing disappointment over the episode Foer concentrated on the release of the anniversary issue and on the gala the success of those two events would turn things around for him Vidra and Hughes continued to hold conversations with other people who could replace him the magazine sent out invitations to various luminaries in media “Chris was waiting for the gala to end,” a former staffer said “It reminds me of ‘The Godfather: Part II’: ‘I don’t want anything to happen to him while my mother is alive.’ ” On October 29th Hughes and Vidra’s discussions about potential replacements for Foer were almost revealed when several media reporters contacted T.N.R.’s communications director to follow up on rumors about an impending switch in editors but he refused to issue a public statement “I’m not going to let a media reporter back me into a corner.” The leak drove a bigger wedge between the two camps and the atmosphere in T.N.R.’s Washington and New York offices became increasingly troubled and Vidra were all scheduled to speak at the gala and they each prepared for it knowing that it might be the beginning of the end of their partnership Hughes and Vidra barely spoke to the editorial staff anymore “There was no more communication with Chris and Guy We saw them at the gala and they were standoffish.” rambling speech punctuated with occasional moments of real eloquence and Wynton Marsalis played “Happy Birthday” on his trumpet Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered a heartfelt toast celebrating T.N.R.’s history and Marsalis provided a dignified glamour to the proceedings it was the contrasting addresses of the magazine’s owner and editors that provided the drama Hughes talked about radical—but unspecified—change while Foer celebrated the magazine’s intellectual heritage Wieseltier responded to Hughes with a message about stewardship “We are not only disruptors and incubators and accelerators,” he said seemingly mocking the language that Hughes and Vidra often used “We are also stewards and guardians and trustees.” He went on,“The questions that we must ask ourselves and that our historians and our children will ask of us are these: How will what we create compare with what we inherited Will we add to our tradition or will we subtract from it in late November that she was not interested in becoming editor and Gabriel Snyder was officially given the position on the day before Thanksgiving One of T.N.R.’s editors was reliably informed that Snyder had been offered Foer’s job Foer prepared a resignation letter and confronted his boss on Thursday He had been planning to wait until Monday to make the announcement—an odd choice considering that it was two days before the next issue of the magazine was due to close (Snyder declined to talk to me on the record.) Vidra also declined to be interviewed for this article who is an incredibly talented editor,” he wrote I had every hope and expectation that he would continue in this role it became clear that we needed to move in a different direction I certainly regret the way it transpired.” Foer walked into Wieseltier’s office and told him that he was resigning immediately who had survived numerous changes in editor “I want to be clear that I’m not resigning because anyone did anything personal to me,” Wieseltier said “I’m resigning because I believe the principles of my work are being violated A great cultural institution in America is being vandalized and I don’t approve of the direction in which this magazine is being taken In my legendarily long work life at The New Republic I have never seen someone treated as shabbily as Frank Foer.” Foer pointed toward the bound volumes along the wall “You know how Leon and I feel about this place,” he said “We love it so deeply that you’d have to scrape us off the walls For us to arrive at the point where we feel compelled to leave tells you everything you need to know about what’s happening.” the New York editorial staff gathered at an editor’s nearby apartment; most of the Washington editorial staff met in the T.N.R and the two groups dialed into a conference call They talked about their frustrations with Vidra’s seeming lack of interest in the magazine’s content But most of all they talked about what they considered the dishonesty of Hughes and Vidra “There was very little sense that The New Republic was something that could be saved,” an editor who was there told me “After months—literally months—of being lied to and bullied around and made to feel like shit all the while being studiously jargoned at when we asked for specifics about T.N.R.’s future It wasn’t just about the way Frank was fired It was more about: How can we work for these people?” The conversations continued late into the night and resumed early the next morning The editors didn’t resent the idea that the magazine had to make money But they didn’t like the way it was being done and they particularly didn’t like the new person who had come in to do it “If you say you are committed to great journalism then empowering someone like Guy to pick the next editor shows you’re not telling the truth,” another former staffer who agonized over the decision to leave said One particularly high-flown expression of the pervasive frustration among the writers came from Cynthia Ozick a novelist and critic who has written for The New Republic for many years inspired by Byron’s “The Destruction of Sennacherib,” that former staffers circulated: The Siliconian came down like the wolf on the fold,And his cohorts were gleaming in wireless gold,Crying Media Company Vertically Integrated!As all before them they willfully extirpated:The Back of the Book and the Front and the Middle,Until all that was left was digital piddle,And Thought and Word lay dead and cold and the remaining editors scrambled to save the issue most of the remaining authors who had articles in the issue notified the magazine that they did not want their work published which was already in galleys and mostly finished The next one won’t appear until early February Vidra gathered several editorial staffers who were confused about the events and angry that he had refused to take questions during the morning meeting One person asked why Foer had been replaced with “an aggregator.” “Frank Foer wasn’t bringing forth ideas that would help things travel,” Vidra replied When another staffer asked if anyone would still want to work at the magazine nightmare,” but said that he was already getting some inquiries Hughes contacted some of the writers who left “I wanted to see where they were coming from,” Hughes told me One of the writers he spoke to told me that Hughes was “contrite.” Another said And I’m kind of shocked that he was shocked as staffers reminisced about the romantic period of his first two years as owner “There is something tragic about it,” one said For many longtime friends of T.N.R., the contrition was too late. This week, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had delivered the toast to the magazine on its hundredth anniversary, sent a private note to one of the departing editors telling him that she had cancelled her subscription. As the head of campus, my focus is on helping startups grow by providing them with the best environment, education and mentorship support and access to a vibrant startup community at the campus. I rely on a small but great team of Googlers (Google employees) to make it happen, and we work closely with our partners. Most recently, I'm proud of the launch of CampusEDU an educational programme to help startups access the skills they need inspirational speakers and classes – delivered in collaboration with Googlers Have any elements surprised you about Google campus in London Campus just celebrated its first anniversary we hosted more than 850 events at the campus attracting more than 60,000 people for events alone The campus serves as home to more than 100 startups a day I didn't expect to make such a big impact in such a short period of time What have been the challenges along the way and how have you solved them Marina and Ollie from the Google research team did an excellent job in creating it How does the London tech startup scene compare to other cities I have a pretty good idea of what a successful startup ecosystem looks like London has all the elements to succeed as a startup hub with some of the top universities in the world based here in addition to global talent that flocks to the city as a metropolis we have access to capital – there's a huge concentration of wealth in London While Europe was previously seen as the copycat centre for startups more and more I'm seeing UK based startups who are disrupting their markets globally London is a bit behind some of the leading startup hubs when it comes to density of network and it's incredible to see how quickly it is improving How will London's technology landscape change in the next five years said that "prediction is very difficult but I believe London's tech landscape will be more focused and specialised than it is today We may see clear areas of concentration for startups in advertising maybe even initial public offerings (IPOs) What three factors contribute to the success of a startup with complementary skills and a strong culture by listening to customers feedback and finding the right solution for the market the startup is going after getting access to the right mentorship can also contribute to founders avoiding common pitfalls along the way what's your advice for aspiring entrepreneurs but one thing that will always be true is "never stop learning" Creating a startup and launching a product is a constant cycle of build Make sure you continue to learn by yourself and from others Eze Vidra will be a panellist at Digital Shoreditch 2013 on May 20th in the session Get more articles like this sent direct to your inbox by signing up for free membership to the Guardian Media Network – this content is brought to you by Guardian Professional Dr Robyn Klingler-Vidra is a Lecturer in Political Economy at King's College London She was previously the Head of Policy Research at the Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University She spent eight years in the financial sector working as a financial institutions' liability underwriter a research manager at an expert network firm and an investor relations manager at a fund of hedge fund Her public sector experience includes internships with the Economic Section of the US State Department Foreign Service and in the Westminster office of a UK Member of Parliament Robyn led the World Economic Forum’s annual UK Executive Opinion Survey on global competitiveness from 2009 to 2018 and has been Senior Programme Adviser for LSE Enterprise where she designs and delivers courses on capital markets economic competitiveness and innovation. She obtained her BA in Political Science at the University of Michigan and her MSc and PhD in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics Expertise: venture capital; innovation; industrial policy; East Asia; economic competitiveness; entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial finance; rationality; inclusive innovation; social impact Global Review of Diversity and Inclusion in Business InnovationFebruary 2019Author: Robyn Klingler-VidraClient: Innovate UK Jump forward to 2016, and Vidra is again looking for riders (sign up here) for the fifth "TechBikers" Paris to London ride — a 300 kilometre journey that takes three days to complete Vidra founded TechBikers with Benjamin Southworth Vidra told Business Insider that the non-profit is hoping to raise £50,000 off the back of the 2016 Paris to London ride for a charity called Room to Read which helps children get access to education around the world. The four previous Paris to London rides resulted in TechBikers raising over $400,000 (£274,000) for the charity.  Thinking about organizing a Campus/Tech community cycle ride from Paris to Shoreditch this summer, wanna get involved? http://t.co/KnXDkCXN Vidra hopes to have raised $1 million (£687,000) through TechBikers by the end of 2016 he's looking to organise five rides this year including one from Napa Valley to San Francisco and another from Vienna to Budapest Here's a look back at some of the previous rides between Paris and London: Broadband TV News October 7, 2022 11.50 Europe/London By United Media has appointed Vidra Milacic to the position of director of Montenegrin television Nova M Nova M has been part of United Media for four years during which it has won viewers and created a strong independent news programme Milacic has been employed at Nova M for four years and until now she held the position of chief financial officer She came to this position from Societe Generale bank Montenegro where she was the Head of the Internal Audit Department She started her career at Ernst & Young Montenegro where she worked on audit projects in various industries for five years Milacic said: “Being a part of United Media is inherently a privilege and managing its member is a great responsibility Television is a very creative industry that motivates and requires constant improvement working in television means bearing a great social responsibility towards the citizens diligently and reliably informing them through daily reporting we will continue investing in people and the program viewers are always at the centre of our work and we will continue to work on high-quality which will strengthen our position on the Montenegrin market” under whose leadership United Media took over the national channel is resigning from the position of director of Nova M Milacic added: “I thank Ivana for her wonderful cooperation and professionalism and I wish her all the luck in the future” Sebek said: “After several years of successful and wonderful cooperation with United Media It was a pleasure to work for United Media and I am proud of the results that we achieved As I look forward to the next steps in my life I wish my successor as the director of Nova M television United Media CEO Aleksandra Subotic said: “I thank Ivana for her past results and dedication and I wish Vidra much success in the new victories that I am sure we will achieve together” Today, consumers are increasingly using bandwidth-intensive and latency-sensitive workloads, such as 4K and 8K streaming, online gaming, and AR/VR applications. As a result, Internet Service Providers must update their networks and by extension Wi-Fi experiences and performance. … [Download the White Paper ...] Copyright © 2025 Broadband TV News LLP · Log in Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker