Silicon Investor - Trends Worth Watching

[Sam] Disrupted or displaced? How AI is shaking up jobs New technology is starting to...

Sam — 6/12/2025 9:03:46 AM

Disrupted or displaced? How AI is shaking up jobs
New technology is starting to have a profound effect on work and employment
Ocado’s use of AI and robotics has allowed it to reduce its workforce, while other businesses and experts remain split over whether such technology will benefit workers or cause job losses
Anjli Raval
Published Jun 8 2025

During Ocado’s most recent earnings call, chief executive Tim Steiner said the group’s advances in artificial intelligence and robotics had allowed it to fulfil online grocery shops at an ever faster pace.

In 2012, it took 25 minutes of human labour to pick a 50-item order. That is now down to 10. But Ocado’s technological progress means the company requires 500 fewer workers this year, after it already announced 2,300 jobs would be at risk in 2023.

The UK company’s move over many years to phase down human labour where feasible exemplifies workers’ fears about generative AI: it may boost productivity, efficiency and profitability but it can also displace staff.

Some businesses are yet to embrace the shift but many have spent more than a year experimenting and engaging in workplace pilots.

“Companies are moving from asking, ‘What is our AI strategy?’ to experimenting?.?.?.?implementing generative AI into processes,” said Karin Kimbrough, chief economist at LinkedIn. “It is starting to change the landscape of work.”

Now employees, bosses and policymakers are trying to decipher what exactly the benefits of generative AI look like.

“This latest generation of AI could change every job. I don’t think that is too much of an exaggeration,” said Peter Cheese, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the UK’s professional body for HR and people development. “Of course you can see examples where AI in different forms is already making a difference to their workforce, but it’s still early days for many companies.”

Many employers are cutting jobs under the guise of economic and political uncertainty. But high profile examples of AI-driven lay-offs in recent months, from technology company IBM to language learning app Duolingo, are fuelling questions about whether a slash and burn of white-collar roles is under way.

The 42-year-old billionaire Dario Amodei, who runs AI developer Anthropic, has warned the technology he and peers such as OpenAI are building could wipe out half of all entry-level office jobs in the next five years. Already, graduates account for just 7 per cent of hires across the 15 biggest technology companies, with the number of new recruits down a quarter compared with 2023, according to SignalFire, a venture capital firm.

much more at ft.com
No paywall

[Ron] Corporations creating fans for life: The Disney Adult newstatesman.com

Ron — 2/29/2024 8:53:30 AM

[Julius Wong] 3D printed titanium structure shows supernatural strength [graphic] techxplore...

Julius Wong — 2/27/2024 9:22:35 AM

3D printed titanium structure shows supernatural strength

techxplore.com

[Ron] Rice has been used as a scaffold to grow beef muscle and fat cells, resulting in...

Ron — 2/15/2024 6:29:17 PM

Rice has been used as a scaffold to grow beef muscle and fat cells, resulting in an edible, “nutty” rice–beef combo that can be prepared in the same way as normal rice.

nature.com

[Glenn Petersen] Baby Boomers are approaching ‘peak burden’ on the economy Business Insider Febr...

Glenn Petersen — 2/4/2024 10:50:10 AM

Baby Boomers are approaching ‘peak burden’ on the economy

Business Insider
February 4, 2024

A time bomb has been ticking in the US.

It’s the Baby Boomers, who are aging fast and approaching their “peak burden” years in regard to their drag on the economy and the resources of younger generations.

Boomers have already gotten tons of flak for supposedly “ruining” the economy for Millennials and Gen Zers. Most Boomers – defined by the Census as people born between 1946 and 1964 – are turning sixty or older this year.

With many rapidly approaching retirement, that means the generation is about to exert more of a drag on the US economy, a burden that’s likely to stretch on for the next 20 years, according to Barclays senior economist Jonathan Millar.

“The peak burden is [when] all the baby boomers have hit retirement,” Millar told Business Insider. “And we’re getting there.”

The date could fall sometime around 2029, when the youngest Boomers will be 65, according to one Census Bureau report.

A population time bomb

It isn’t the Boomers’ fault they were born. They didn’t choose to be a mammoth-sized generation that’s left the US with a big and probably expensive elderly population.

And it isn’t the case that Baby Boomers will derail economic growth nearly as much as, say, a full-blown recession, according to Dean Baker, an economist who described the Baby Boomers as a “ time bomb” in a 1998 paper.

“Yes, it does create strains, but the idea was just some horrible catastrophe that loomed on the horizon,” he said of the public dialogue on aging baby boomers. “It was really just craziness.”

Still, the consequences of an aging population are real – and it’s one of the things that’s expected to weigh on the US over the coming decades. Old people are just one of the many factors that are weighing on Japan’s economy, for instance, with senior citizens making up more than 25% of the overall population.

Baby Boomers have already weighed on the US economy, and the cohort risks being a bigger drag in the coming years, Millar said.

Boomers are taking up the housing supply

Boomers are taking up a disproportionately large share of the housing supply compared to previous generations. That’s been a pain for other home buyers, as lower housing inventory has helped pushed up home prices.

The housing market saw its worst year of sales ever in 2023, according to the National Association of Realtors. Existing homeowners have has little incentive to downsize their homes, many of which are fully paid off or financed at ultra-low rates.

“It probably means we’re headed for five or six years where baby boomers contribute to very strong housing demand, and we’re going to have high house prices as a result,” Millar warned.

Boomers also appear to be hogging the larger homes that millennials would otherwise be flocking to as they start families. In 2022, empty-nester baby boomers owned 28% of large homes in the US, a Redfin analysis found, double the share of millennial families.

Boomers are contributing to the labor shortage

The US has more open jobs than available workers. That gap will widen as more Boomers leave the workforce.

As of January, the economy was still down around 1.7 million workers compared to before the pandemic, according to an estimate from the Chamber of Commerce. The labor market, meanwhile, is staring at 9.5 million job openings.

The ongoing labor shortage could eventually spell trouble for the economy, as a low supply of workers pushes up wages, which can stoke inflation.

Boomer retirees are also still demanding goods and services in the economy. If they aren’t contributing anything in labor, that demand is also inherently inflationary, Millar added.

Boomers are a risk to the stock market

Retirees, who are less tolerant of stock market volatility, also pose a downside risk to stocks. Boomers are more likely to sell if the US economy tips into a recession. That’s a problem, considering that people 55 and older account for 80% of stock-market ownership in the US, according to Rosenberg Research.

“Retirees don’t have the luxury to buy and hold through a market downturn,” top economist David Rosenberg said in a recent note. “If a downturn does materialize, demographically induced selling is a force that could exacerbate the spiral powerfully, with the effects ricocheting into consumer spending.”

Boomers will drain social security

Finally, Boomers are set to collect a large amount in Social Security payments. The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is expected to be depleted in 2033, a year earlier than previously expected, the Social Security Administration said in a new report.

Politicians are averse to raising taxes or slashing spending on social programs, Millar said, and they won’t let payments lapse. Instead, they’ll pay for the program by taking on more debt to keep funding retirees through old age.

“Any way you slice it, this is a burden on current and future generations of taxpayers,” Millar added.

The economic drag of Boomers should fade as the generation gets smaller, Millar and Baker both note.

The silver lining is that there doesn’t appear to be a Baby Boomer-redux in the making, Baker said. Millennials are a large generation, but after that, Gen Z and Alpha look to be much smaller, meaning there won’t be a similar time bomb ticking for the economy.

“I think it’s very unlikely that were going to see another population boom like we had in the post World War II years,” Baker said. “If there’s some set of events that lead to that, it’s nothing I can see on the horizon.”

The post Baby Boomers are approaching ‘peak burden’ on the economy appeared first on Business Insider.

[Julius Wong] Infrared Sensors Can Now Peer Around Corners spectrum.ieee.org

Julius Wong — 2/3/2024 7:30:19 AM

[Julius Wong] Quantum dot solar cells break efficiency record, silicon in its sights [graphi...

Julius Wong — 2/1/2024 12:04:12 PM

Quantum dot solar cells break efficiency record, silicon in its sights

1/1

Solar cells made with quantum dots have achieved a new record efficiency, and been made more stable at the same time
Depositphotos

One of the most promising, emerging solar cell technologies has received a major efficiency boost. Engineers at UNIST in South Korea have created quantum dot solar cells with a world record efficiency of 18.1%.

Quantum dots are essentially just tiny, circular semiconductor crystals that are incredibly efficient at absorbing and emitting light. The color of light they interact with can be set by changing their size, which makes them useful in display technologies or as sensors.

But where they might end up being most useful is in solar cells. Most commercial solar cells are made with bulk materials as the light-collecting layer, which means the whole surface absorbs the same wavelengths. But with quantum dots you can have multiple sizes that focus on a different part of the spectrum, boosting potential efficiency. As an added bonus, they’re cheap and easy to manufacture, and can even be made into a sprayable solution.

For the new study, researchers at UNIST tweaked the recipe a bit to improve the technology. Quantum dot solar cells made with organic materials have the highest theoretical efficiency, but unfortunately they suffer from defects that make them less stable in sunlight and weather – not ideal for devices designed to be out in the sun all day. To get around that, these solar cells are usually made with inorganic materials instead, but this limits their efficiency, the team says.

The UNIST team made their quantum dots out of an organic perovskite, and developed a new method for anchoring them to a substrate that allowed the dots to be placed closer together. This boosted the efficiency to a record-setting high of 18.1%, up from 16.6% in 2020. This record has been independently recognized by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which keeps an ongoing chart comparing the efficiency of different technologies.

Even better, the new solar cells were far more stable. They maintained their efficiency for 1,200 hours under normal conditions, and 300 hours at an elevated temperature of 80 °C (176 °F). They performed just as well after two years in storage.

Quantum dot solar cells still have a long way to go to catch up to the everyday silicon solar cells, the latter has had a half-century head-start and is rapidly approaching its theoretical maximum efficiency. Meanwhile, quantum dots have only really been in the lab since about 2010, when they had an efficiency of under 4%. Along with the efficiency gains, the inexpensive and simple manufacturing should help scale up the tech and make a wider range of surfaces photovoltaic.

The research was published in the journal Nature Energy.

newatlas.com

[Glenn Petersen] Study finds that once people use cargo bikes, they like their cars much less Ev...

Glenn Petersen — 1/31/2024 9:27:43 PM

Study finds that once people use cargo bikes, they like their cars much less

Even some one-car households ditched vehicles in favor of cargo bike-sharing.

KEVIN PURDY
Ars Technica
1/31/2024, 1:37 PM

It's not likely to totally replace your car, nor will it probably be your only bike. But access to a cargo bike can reduce car trips, and even car ownership, a study from Germany suggests. John Timmer
-----------------------------
135Cargo bikes started as something you'd see in images from Europe—bakfiets loaded up with groceries or sometimes kids. Now they're getting more popular, and seemingly for good reason. A new study out of Germany suggests that once you let people try them, they tend to have a real impact on car use, and even car ownership.

The study, from Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, surveyed people using a cargo bike share (CBS) system from 58 different programs and initiatives in Germany, controlling a collective 751 cargo bikes. Out of the 2,386 active CBS users surveyed, 45.8 percent had one car in their home, and 54.2 percent lived without a car. As you might notice, this mix of cargo bike shares and car ownership is not representative of the US, but using a cargo bike, even one they didn't technically own, still impacted ownership decisions in even one-car households.

By signing up, you agree to our user agreement (including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), our privacy policy and cookie statement, and to receive marketing and account-related emails from Ars Technica. You can unsubscribe at any time.

A bit more than 18 percent of survey respondents said they either got rid of their car or decided against buying a car, and 80 percent of those people said they did so for environmental reasons. Nearly 49 percent said they ditched a car for financial reasons, 42 percent because they had "no interest in driving a car," and about 10 percent due to the safety risks of driving a car (with the survey allowing for multiple reasons).

The average age of the study's participants was 41.6 years old. Notably, 73.2 percent of those surveyed were in "metropolitan urban regions," 11.8 percent in "regiopolitan urban regions" (i.e., suburbs), and about 15 percent in rural regions either close to or outside a city.

Ratings of cargo bikes and cars across different "motives" for using them, on a 1–5 scale for importance, by the Germans surveyed for a study. Transportation Research Part F (Bissel/Becker)
----------
In perhaps more unsurprising news, people who actively signed up to use cargo bikes think they're pretty great. Those surveyed rated cargo bikes higher when considering motivations for different forms of transport, on a 1–5 scale. Cars significantly won out among those who considered themselves car-dependent in travel speed, comfort, and weather independence.

Interestingly, respondents gave cars a roughly 3.4–3.5 out of 5 in traffic safety, and those who considered themselves "car-reduced" rated cargo bike use just below that, around 3.3. Those who considered themselves "car-dependent" rated cars' traffic safety higher, just above 4.0 on average, and similarly provided higher ratings for speed, comfort, and weather independence.

As Ars' John Timmer noted in a cargo bike review from the fall, cargo bikes are somewhat specialized for what they do—but because of their build, they're definitely second bikes. Cargo bikes, however, can often replace even a weekend-scale grocery trip and give you exercise, fresh air, and lower environmental impact.As suggested by the survey, and the experience of cargo bike enthusiasts I've met, they can't do everything a car can, but cargo bikes can work if you're willing to put in the effort. Folks in notably bike-oriented Germany have suggested they can use even fewer cars with the advent of electric-assist cargo bikes and often feel good about doing so.

Transportation Research F, 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.trf.2023.12.018 ( About DOIs).

Study finds that once people use cargo bikes, they like their cars much less | Ars Technica

[Glenn Petersen] Why strip malls are having a revival By Stephanie Raymond WBBM Radio AM Janua...

Glenn Petersen — 1/28/2024 6:49:14 PM

Why strip malls are having a revival

By Stephanie Raymond
WBBM Radio AM
January 22, 20244:27 pm

As shopping malls across America struggle to attract customers, fill floor space and ultimately stay open, strip malls are apparently seeing a surge in value and popularity. And it's basically thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Once seen as eyesores, some strip malls are getting facelifts and filling with new tenants, according to Jessica Vara, with Hunton Andrew Kurth law firm.

"With many Americans working from home at least a few days per week, consumers are craving accessibility, one-stop shopping and easy parking. As a result, strip malls are seeing an increase in foot traffic during weekdays," Vara said in a blog post. "With hybrid work arrangements remaining in place, strip malls may well continue to see strong growth into the coming years."

Traffic to strip malls was up 18% in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic numbers, according to a RetailStat analysis of 2,500 properties.

"Strong national chains such as Starbucks are moving into these strip malls and average rents for strip mall space reached a record high in the third quarter of 2023," said Vara. "With stronger rents and big-name franchises entering as tenants, existing strip malls are seeing strong profits both from an owner standpoint and a tenant/business standpoint."

As more shopping is done online, experts say consumers are now looking for retail that is close to the road and fast to get in and out of. Shoppers who seek out strip malls are hyper-local and loyal customers -- "the regulars."
"With so much traditional merchandise being available online (clothing, housewares, etc.), strip malls tend to attract more service-oriented business such as nail and hair salons, specialty coffee shops and fast casual lunch spots," Vara said. "Consumers are returning their packages, picking up something to eat and getting a quick haircut all on their lunch break within the same small row of shops."

One major retailer testing the strip mall waters is Macy's, which plans to open 30 small-format stores in strip malls over the next two years as it struggles with dwindling mall traffic. The smaller stores are roughly 1/5 the size of the full-line stores and include a "curated and localized selection" of products.

"Our small-format stores are efficient to operate, provide the customer with a shopping alternative within our omnichannel ecosystem and present a unique opportunity to target high-traffic shopping centers," CFO Adrian Mitchell said in a statement.

Why strip malls are having a revival (audacy.com)

[Glenn Petersen] [X] Americans who identify as Swiss seem to be the most right-wing in the Gener...

Glenn Petersen — 1/28/2024 5:23:18 AM

[X]

Americans who identify as Swiss seem to be the most right-wing in the General Social Survey. pic.twitter.com/aBHmSKIchY
— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) January 25, 2024

[/X]

[Sam] Axios House at Davos #WEF24: Axios' Ina Fried in conversation with Open AI's Sa...

Sam — 1/18/2024 10:53:14 AM

Axios House at Davos #WEF24: Axios' Ina Fried in conversation with Open AI's Sam Altman

youtube.com

[Julius Wong] Now hiring: ‘New-collar’ workers, no degree necessary cnbc.com

Julius Wong — 1/17/2024 11:52:13 AM

[Julius Wong] Colon cancer now leading cause of cancer death in men younger than 50 thehill.c...

Julius Wong — 1/17/2024 11:29:25 AM

Colon cancer now leading cause of cancer death in men younger than 50

thehill.com

[Julius Wong] US debt will become unsustainable and trigger default in about 20 years, if it s...

Julius Wong — 1/12/2024 9:53:00 PM

US debt will become unsustainable and trigger default in about 20 years, if it stays on current path

markets.businessinsider.com

[Julius Wong] Dutch company reveals plans for 90-passenger electric aircraft able to travel 50...

Julius Wong — 1/11/2024 11:28:48 AM

Dutch company reveals plans for 90-passenger electric aircraft able to travel 500 miles

techspot.com

[Julius Wong] Community First! Village is a master planned neighborhood that provides affordab...

Julius Wong — 1/10/2024 10:48:36 PM

Community First! Village is a master planned neighborhood that provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community—forged family—for men and women coming out of homelessness. A development of Mobile Loaves & Fishes, this transformative residential program exists to love and serve our neighbors who have been living on the streets, while also empowering the surrounding community into a lifestyle of service with the homeless.

mlf.org

[Julius Wong] Bottled Water Can Contain Hundreds of Thousands of Previously Uncounted Tiny Pla...

Julius Wong — 1/8/2024 8:54:03 PM

Bottled Water Can Contain Hundreds of Thousands of Previously Uncounted Tiny Plastic Bits, Study Finds

news.climate.columbia.edu

[Julius Wong] Big offshore wind farms are now transmitting sweet, sweet battery juice to the U...

Julius Wong — 1/6/2024 10:02:54 AM

Big offshore wind farms are now transmitting sweet, sweet battery juice to the US grid

techcrunch.com

[Glenn Petersen] We need more talk of progress by Tyler Cowen Marginal Revolution January 5, 2...

Glenn Petersen — 1/5/2024 7:30:12 PM

We need more talk of progress

by Tyler Cowen
Marginal Revolution
January 5, 2023

Here is the underlying John-Burn Murdoch FT piece, pointer here. And a text excerpt:

Ruxandra Teslo, one of a growing community of progress-focused writers at the nexus of science, economics and policy, argues that the growing scepticism around technology and the rise in zero-sum thinking in modern society is one of the defining ideological challenges of our time.

I am pleased that Ruxandra is now also an Emergent Ventures winner.

We need more talk of progress - Marginal REVOLUTION

[Julius Wong] > $34T usdebtclock.org

Julius Wong — 1/2/2024 9:56:25 PM

[Selectric II] Bureau of the Census's expressing these time frame numbers in time units of seco...

Selectric II — 12/31/2023 12:25:28 PM

Bureau of the Census's expressing these time frame numbers in time units of seconds is as unrelatable to the average person as they can make it. For a reason?

Have to wonder why do they do not express numbers in easy-to-understand, more relatable measures, like days, weeks, and months. Why seconds, one might ask? Maybe to make the number per unit of measurement lower?

Yeah, those who are so inclined can do the math, but it would be much larger numbers, highlighting the source of the growth: Migration.

And then, maybe it would cause curious people to ask the followup question: How much of that migration is legal vs. illegal migration.

Just wondering.

[Glenn Petersen] America’s slowest population growth since Great Depression Axios December 29, 2...

Glenn Petersen — 12/29/2023 6:37:38 PM

America’s slowest population growth since Great Depression

Axios
December 29, 2023

If the current U.S. growth pace continues through the decade, the 2020s will be the slowest-growing decade in the nation's history, according to William Frey, a well-known Brookings demographer.

Why it matters: Previously, the slowest-growing decade was the 1930s, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, Frey told AP.

By the numbers: On New Year's Day, the U.S. population will be nearly 336 million — up nearly 2 million (0.53%) from a year ago, the Census Bureau projected Thursday.

Zoom out: The U.S. growth rate is roughly half that of the globe.

The Census Bureau says the world population on New Year's Day will be just over 8 billion — up from 7.9 billion a year ago.
That's an increase of 75 million, for a 0.95% growth rate.

Zoom in: In January, 4.3 births and 2.0 deaths are expected worldwide every second, the Census Bureau projection says.

In the U.S. in January, one birth is expected every 9.0 seconds and one death every 9.5 seconds.

Net migration from other countries is expected to add one person to the U.S. every 28.3 seconds, the report adds.

Add up births, deaths and migration, and the U.S. population will grow by one person every 24.2 seconds.

Go deeper: See our interactive map, with county-by-county data, of the fastest-growing (and shrinking) states.

Census data projects America’s slowest population growth since Great Depression (axios.com)

[Glenn Petersen] The Teenage Millionaires Rocking the Sports World College athletes are making m...

Glenn Petersen — 12/29/2023 5:19:54 PM

The Teenage Millionaires Rocking the Sports World

College athletes are making more than some professionals from their name, image and likeness, and opening up a loophole for the most successful programs to cement their dominance

By Spencer Jakab
Wall Street Journal
Dec. 29, 2023 5:30 am ET

“I’m Not a Businessman; I’m a Business, Man!”

A social-media post like that would have been odd coming from an amateur athlete like Caleb Williams just a few years ago. It might even have sparked an investigation. But the University of Southern California quarterback, last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, won’t have to wait until April’s National Football League draft to be a millionaire. He already is, thanks to commercial endorsements for companies like
Keurig Dr Pepper, United Airlines and Wendy’s.

And Williams easily could get out-earned by his one-time backup, Malachi Nelson, who completed just one pass at USC before announcing his intention to transfer this month. While still a high school junior, Nelson drove to algebra class in his $90,000 Mercedes and told Sports Illustrated in 2022 that he expected to earn nearly $1 million before even suiting up at USC.

With as much revenue as Major League Baseball and England’s Premier League combined, college sports already had multimillion-dollar bidding wars for coaches and eight of the world’s 10 largest stadiums. That largess didn’t extend to its unpaid players until recently, though, notwithstanding open secrets like the gold Trans-Am star running back Eric Dickerson insisted for decades that he got from his grandmother.

“Now it’s above board—sort of,” says Michelle Meyer, a former college athlete and head of consulting group NIL Network.

That is thanks to a June 2021 Supreme Court decision about athletes’ right to profit from their name, image and likeness, or NIL. Williams’s “businessman” post was made days later. Now a looming class-action suit and a proposed rule change could unleash billions for players on top of the millions available today.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association for decades resisted paying players, but NIL ironically could turn college sports into an even bigger moneymaker by retaining stars. Take Monday’s Rose Bowl game between Alabama and Michigan that will decide who gets to play for the national championship. Shortly after Michigan’s New Year’s Eve upset loss in last season’s semifinal, Michigan supporters launched the One More Year Fund to keep elite running back Blake Corum in college despite being eligible for the NFL. The fund and others like it didn’t disclose how much was spent, but whatever the sum, it worked. Corum has played a big role in Michigan’s current undefeated season.

There are commercial endorsements—Corum also has made money from the likes of Subway and Bose, for example. Then there is cash they get from boosters who want to help their team win commensurate with athletic ability, not marketing clout.

Players still can’t legally receive salaries, but they can be compensated by an outside group for making appearances or signing autographs. Alabama’s Nick Saban, with more national championships than any football coach, initially lashed out at this aspect of NIL, saying that conference rival Texas A&M “bought every player on their team.” He has since both apologized and reversed course.

NCAA guidance now allows schools to endorse NIL collectives that funnel money to athletes and “say the quiet part out loud,” according to Dan Lust, a sports attorney at Moritt Hock & Hamroff.

Saban’s is the first face you see on the website of Bama’s “official” NIL entity, Yea Alabama, which has explicit cash donation tiers. A “starter” level is $216 annually, which gets you a decal and an invitation to a player autograph session. The $3,000 “Hall of Fame” includes autographs, meetings with athletes and other benefits. Some entities, like the Texas One Fund at The University of Texas, say that donations are tax deductible. Others, like Ohio State’s The 1870 Society, are explicitly for-profit entities. Colleges can’t direct the funds, but donors are under no illusion, says Lust.

“They know it’s going to the players—directly to the star power of the school.”

Some coaches have lamented not jumping on the NIL bandwagon quickly enough.

“Everybody in the country is in this arms race” said University of Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham to The Salt Lake Tribune in October after all 85 scholarship players were given free leases and insurance for $45,000 pickups by Utah’s Crimson Collective.

About half of college football fans root for just 16 teams, and Utah isn’t among them. Yet even Crimson Collective aims to raise $6 million for its football program next fiscal year, according to Erin Trenbeath-Murray of its steering committee.

Stars can get much more than a leased pickup—especially now that transferring between schools has become so common. Nebraska coach Matt Rhule let slip that snagging a good quarterback that way costs “$1 million, $1.5, $2 million” and that there are “$6 million or $7 million quarterbacks out there.”

“Some schools are going to have difficulty keeping up with the Joneses,” says Bill Jula, founder of NIL marketing agency Postgame.

A less-known aspect of NIL is how it benefits those who will never go pro. Jula’s agency built an app ahead of the Supreme Court decision that provides a way for college athletes to indicate interest in getting paid. He says about 20,000 student athletes have used it to bid on NIL opportunities. Occasionally those who get a few hundred dollars for a social-media post see their content go viral.

“There’s a lottery ticket in there sometimes—you can’t budget for that.”

Take one of the top NIL earners, Louisiana State University gymnast Livvy Dunne, who can earn $30,000 per post to her 7.8 million followers on TikTok and five million on Instagram.

The best-paid athlete, according to estimates by college-sports data provider On3, is 19-year-old USC freshman basketball player Bronny James. While not the best high school prospect, @bronny has a whopping 13 million social-media followers. And his is no rags-to-riches story, with his celebrity linked to his father, hoops superstar and billionaire LeBron James,

The same goes for number two on On3’s list, Shedeur Sanders. Son of “Coach Prime” and Hall of Fame star Deion Sanders. His dad’s marketing prowess is directing a flood of talent to the Colorado football program he leads, and the elder Sanders is even teaching a class about NIL.

Though not at the top of the heap, Colorado and Utah belong to a “Power Five” conference and are among the haves of college football. Flashy marketing and devoted fans could move them up in the world. The have-nots could lose ground based on a proposed rule change and a lawsuit.

NCAA President Charlie Baker would allow top programs to pay athletes directly for their name, image and likeness, but not others, creating a sort of super league. Separately, a class-action lawsuit certified in November could distribute hundreds of millions of dollars from broadcast rights directly to college athletes. TV and radio coverage is heavily skewed toward already prosperous programs.

NIL has been polarizing for college sports fans. Once the dust settles, the teams holding the trophies should look familiar.

Write to Spencer Jakab at Spencer.Jakab@wsj.com

The Teenage Millionaires Rocking the Sports World - WSJ (archive.ph)

[Glenn Petersen] We Aren’t Posting on Social Media as Much Anymore. Will We Ever?\ Excessive ads...

Glenn Petersen — 12/27/2023 6:46:26 AM

We Aren’t Posting on Social Media as Much Anymore. Will We Ever?\

Excessive ads, bots and misinformation have sucked the fun out of sharing publicly, users say

By Cordilia James
Wall Street Journal
Dec. 23, 2023 9:00 pm ET

Lots of people log in to social media every day. Fewer and fewer are actually posting.

Isaiah Hug spends roughly two hours a day scrolling through Instagram, but his last post to his main feed was over a year ago. He occasionally posts stories, which vanish after 24 hours.

“I don’t need to add more friction to my life and have people bickering about who I voted for or what I think,” says the 24-year-old Marine artillery officer, who is based in Carlsbad, Calif.

He prefers one-on-one and group chats—what he calls “private networking.”

Billions of people access social media monthly, but users are posting less and favoring a more passive experience, surveys of users and research from data-analytics firms say. In an October report from data-intelligence company Morning Consult, 61% of U.S. adult respondents with a social-media account said they have become more selective about what they post.

The reasons are varied: People say they feel they can’t control the content they see. They have become more protective about sharing their lives online. They also say the fun of social media has fizzled.

This lurker mentality is widespread, across Meta Platforms’ Instagram and Facebook along with X and TikTok. They have become some of the most powerful companies and platforms in the world due to heavy usage and interaction from users. Any threat to that interaction is a threat to their business.

The companies are responding. They are investing in more private user experiences like messaging, and making interactions more secure. And encouraging people to post to a more intimate audience—as with Instagram’s recently expanded Close Friends feature.

No-fun zone

David Kennedy, a 27-year-old office assistant in Chicago, has four different TikTok accounts: three for posting, one for scrolling.

An aspiring model, he loves to post photos on Instagram, too. His friends, not so much. In a sea of Instagram reels from influencers, it is rare he spots a familiar face. He says most of his friends are “watchers.”

“It can kind of feel lonely sometimes,” Kennedy says. “If you’re not seeing what your friends are posting, it kind of feels like you’re living in an isolated world.”

In a survey conducted in the U.S. this summer, research firm Gartner found more than half of respondents believed the quality of social media has declined in the past five years. They cited misinformation, toxicity and the proliferation of bots as reasons it has gotten worse.

“The less you trust social-media brands, the less of a good experience you’re having,” says Gartner analyst Emily Weiss. Users are less likely to share opinions or insight into their lives since the community they are looking for isn’t there, she adds.

Ads and suggested posts have also sucked the joy out of apps, some users say.

Meta responded to user complaints, saying it would continue to work on improving recommendations to help creators reach more people. The company added a snooze button that pauses suggested posts for 30 days at a time, and chronological feeds that temporarily only show posts from accounts people follow.

Going private

Users are also choosier about what they post online. Recent events, such as the Israel-Hamas war, have made users hesitate before sharing their views publicly for fear of retribution and judgment, says Pamela Rutledge, director of the independent Media Psychology Research Center.

Even in less divisive areas, users say they have grown exhausted.

Cassius Hudson, a 31-year-old pharmacist in Columbus, Ohio, used to post snippets of his life to
Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram multiple times a week. He grew less interested in posting the more he saw the lengths people would go to look cool online.

“I felt like I had to post and look a certain way, and I was like, ‘I don’t like this,’ ” Hudson says. These days, the only social-media app he uses is Instagram, where he and his friends exchange memes and videos via direct messages.

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said in July that users on the app were spending most of their time in DMs. “All the friends-sharing is moving in that direction,” Mosseri said on a podcast appearance. “There are more photos and videos shared in DMs than there are shared in Stories, and there’s way more shared in
Stories than there is in Feed.”

Meta began shifting its resources toward messaging, including efforts to enable end-to-end encryption by default across all of its messaging services. Meta didn’t respond to several requests for comment.
TikTok has also shown signs of investing more in the messaging portion of its app, nudging users to chat with people they haven’t messaged in a while.

Land of lurkers

The algorithmic spotlight on creators and their hyper-curated content has made some users feel insecure and less likely to share their own photos and videos, says Kevin Tran, media and entertainment analyst at Morning Consult. In turn, some now think of social apps more as sources of entertainment, like YouTube or Netflix.

Gartner estimates that 50% of users will either abandon or significantly limit their interactions with social media in the next two years.

When recommending a movie or TV show to a friend, people were doing it more often in person or via text or email, and less often using social media, according to Morning Consult’s report. It is easier to state opinions verbally rather than have them set in stone in a public social-media post, Tran says.

Shantae Mann, 36, often thinks about deleting her social-media accounts, but can’t seem to shake it entirely. These days, the school therapist in Stewartstown, Pa., doesn’t really feel a need to post regularly. She only posts for certain events, like her children’s birthdays, or a big trip.

“It is nice to have pictures so you can remember the moments,” she says, “but for me it’s just like, being more in the moment.”

—For more WSJ Technology analysis, reviews, advice and headlines, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Write to Cordilia James at cordilia.james@wsj.com

We Aren’t Posting on Social Media as Much Anymore. Will We Ever? - WSJ (archive.ph)

[Ron] Vibrating pill may help with obesity by making your stomach feel full newscient...

Ron — 12/26/2023 11:33:16 AM

Vibrating pill may help with obesity by making your stomach feel full
newscientist.com

[Ron] 5 Southern states had most of the nation’s population growth ...

Ron — 12/20/2023 1:27:53 PM

5 Southern states had most of the nation’s population growth North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina added almost 1.2 million people among them this year.
ncnewsline.com

[Julius Wong] Police warn holiday shoppers about card draining: What to know about the gift ca...

Julius Wong — 12/11/2023 2:53:10 PM

Police warn holiday shoppers about card draining: What to know about the gift card scam

usatoday.com

[Julius Wong] Hope for MS sufferers as doctors ‘cautiously very excited’ about stem cell thera...

Julius Wong — 12/7/2023 7:57:53 AM

Hope for MS sufferers as doctors ‘cautiously very excited’ about stem cell therapy in brain

nypost.com

[Julius Wong] US Students' Math Scores Plunge In Global Education Assessment science.slashdot...

Julius Wong — 12/5/2023 6:09:51 PM

US Students' Math Scores Plunge In Global Education Assessment

science.slashdot.org

[Glenn Petersen] [X] Imports from Mexico now surpass imports from China. They said it couldn'...

Glenn Petersen — 12/4/2023 9:36:39 PM

[X]

Imports from Mexico now surpass imports from China.

They said it couldn't be done. It won't happen.

It can happen. It is happening. pic.twitter.com/sInTSU2hJ8
— Shyam Sankar (@ssankar) December 1, 2023

[/X]

[Ron] Kraft’s newest Mac & Cheese is ditching cheese cnn.com

Ron — 11/30/2023 7:31:50 PM

[Clark Kent] The product works. ir.lexariabioscience.com Lexaria's Technology Lowers Blood G...

Clark Kent — 11/28/2023 10:26:27 AM

The product works.
ir.lexariabioscience.com

Lexaria's Technology Lowers Blood Glucose More Effectively than Rybelsus(R)-Branded GLP-1 drug Semaglutide Alone in Human Pilot Study

November 28, 2023 9:10am EST Download as PDF

DehydraTECHTM-powered semaglutide achieved these benefits in a human pilot study compared to Rybelsus®:

Sustained lower levels of blood glucose from baseline including nearly 10x lower after 24 hours;
Lower blood-glucose spike after eating; and
Successful first-ever DehydraTECH test with a "large molecule" drug.

[Julius Wong] Orkney develops solar-powered boat for Philippines bbc.com

Julius Wong — 11/26/2023 1:26:14 PM

[Ron] A Key Problem With America's Housing Market: 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgages dnyuz....

Ron — 11/26/2023 8:44:12 AM

A Key Problem With America's Housing Market: 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgages
dnyuz.com

[Julius Wong] First successful substitutes for ivory billiard balls were made with celluloid r...

Julius Wong — 11/26/2023 8:10:41 AM

First successful substitutes for ivory billiard balls were made with celluloid reinforced with ground cattle bone

John Wesley Hyatt's original 1868 billiard ball and its in-situ analysis by handheld Raman spectroscopy. Credit: Smithsonian Institution

In the 19th century, the market for ivory products increased to an alarming point. This high demand led to the search for artificial substitutes, but ivory properties were nearly impossible to replicate. The most important substitutes came from Alexander Parkes and John Wesley Hyatt, inventors of the first artificial plastics: Parkesine and celluloid.

These early plastics were made using cellulose nitrate and camphor. The significance of Parkesine and celluloid objects in the history of plastics is well understood; for that reason, they have been collected by prominent museums worldwide.

Hyatt's original goal was to substitute ivory billiard balls. Ivory's properties were highly valued, especially in the game of billiards, which utterly depended on the mechanics of this material. However, difficulties in the acquisition of ivory, its selection and transformation, and its susceptibility to relative humidity and temperature fluctuations that lead to cracking and breaking were not ideal.

Furthermore, the number of players was increasing, and the industry knew that the supply was not inexhaustible. In the National Museum of American History resides the original billiard ball developed by Hyatt. Putatively, it is the first celluloid object ever created, dated to 1868, and is the founding object of the plastics industry. However, its composition was unknown.

Historians and scientists have written about Hyatt's billiard balls due to their significance in the history of plastics. However, because they did not know their composition, they could not determine to what extent substitute materials had been used. For decades, several designs were proposed, such as billiard balls made of pure celluloid or billiard balls made of shellac compositions coated with a cellulose nitrate solution.

The common interpretation was that Hyatt's original billiard ball failed because the properties of celluloid, or any other alleged materials, could not approach the mechanical properties of ivory. In a recent study published in PNAS Nexus, we determined the composition of Hyatt's billiard balls and proposed a different interpretation.

John Wesley Hyatt's premier composite

To determine the composition of the Hyatt's original 1868 billiard ball, we required the support of the Smithsonian Institution, their permission to acquire micro samples, that is, samples invisible to the naked eye, and modern analytical techniques, namely elemental and molecular spectroscopies and protein mass fingerprint.

The results were surprising: Hyatt's early experiments with billiard balls resulted in the development of a premier example of a reinforced polymer composite material made with cellulose nitrate, a cellulose derivative polymer holding the ball together; camphor, a plant-based material working as cellulose nitrate plasticizer; and ground cattle bone, an animal by-product conveying the necessary mechanical properties to the system.

We quantified the proportions of ground bone to celluloid with micro-Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and found a correlation with a formulation patented by Hyatt on May 4, 1869, of 75% ground bone to 25% cellulose nitrate by weight. We proposed this composite be called reinforced celluloid. However, had it been successful?

A money ball made of reinforced celluloidBy looking carefully at the written records related to the world of billiards, we found references to tradenames of billiard balls sold from the 1880s to the 1960s, clearly different from ivory, but whose compositions were also enigmatic: Bonzoline, Crystalate and Ivorylene. All these billiard balls were directly or indirectly related to the Albany Billiard Ball Company, established by Hyatt in 1868 in Albany, New York, U.S. We analyzed these billiard balls and found that their compositions were unexpectedly consistent with Hyatt's reinforced celluloid composite.

The realization that reinforced celluloid was sold for almost 90 years proved the commercial success of Hyatt's 1868 composite. Looking at the stories surrounding professional players and their material choices allowed us to understand how this material entered commerce and culture.

Initially, there was prejudice against the use of the artificial substitute. The game between Charles Dawson and John Roberts Jr. in 1899, known as the match of the century, epitomized this problem. Roberts Jr. wanted to play with Bonzoline, and Dawson contested, "Whoever heard of a money match of any importance being played with Bonzoline balls?"

However, reinforced celluloid billiard balls were more uniform than their ivory counterparts. This advantage led to improved performances by Roberts Jr. and other influential players. In time, even Dawson was publicizing the Bonzoline billiard balls. Reinforced celluloid performed well and cost half the price of ivory, which promoted the growth of the game of billiards throughout the world and contributed to the survival of elephants. Hyatt made a money ball with his inventive shoot toward an ivory substitute.

An inspiration for the future?

Look at a contemporary billiard ball from the macroscale to the microscale. It is likely composed of a phenol-formaldehyde matrix, a filler, and other additives—a very similar system to reinforced celluloid. Although the qualities of phenol-formaldehyde plastics were crucial in surpassing earlier billiard ball materials, nowadays, environmental questions have been raised about this material as a plastic pollutant.

If a young engineer, much like John Wesley Hyatt did 155 years ago, aspires to develop an innovative and environmentally sustainable alternative to contemporary billiard ball materials by utilizing raw materials derived from bioresources, there is a rich source of inspiration in the example set by Hyatt's composition. Not only because it demonstrates the feasibility of such an endeavor but also because it illustrates the challenges that must be overcome to accomplish a transformative invention.

phys.org

[Julius Wong] A wearable robot that assists people with walking by Ingrid Fadelli , Tech Xplo...

Julius Wong — 11/22/2023 1:07:45 PM

A wearable robot that assists people with walking

by Ingrid Fadelli , Tech Xplore

The innovative wearable robot for hip abduction assistance designed at the Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics Lab at Chung-Ang University. Credit: Park et al.

In recent years, roboticists have introduced increasingly advanced systems, which could open exciting new possibilities for surgery, rehabilitation, and health care assistance. These robotic systems are already helping to improve the quality of life of many people with disabilities, as well as patients who suffered physical trauma or underwent medical procedures.

Researchers at Chung-Ang University in South Korea recently introduced a new wearable robot designed to specifically assist humans who have difficulties walking due to aging, muscle weakness, surgeries or specific medical conditions. This robot, presented in a paper published in Science Robotics, was found to improve balance, while also reducing the energy spent while walking (i.e., the so-called metabolic cost).

"Our recent paper was primarily inspired by the recognition that most wearable robots for gait assistance have focused solely on movements in the sagittal plane," Giuk Lee, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore. "However, walking is inherently a three-dimensional activity, and movements in other planes are just as crucial."

In contrast with other robotic systems for hip abduction assistance proposed in the past, the robot created by Lee and his colleagues focuses on the frontal plane. This is the frontal part of the human body, known to support movements and lateral stability while walking.

"Traditionally, research on walking motion has considered forward movement and lateral balance as separate functions," Myunghee Kim, co-author of the paper, said. "Only recently has the fore-aft direction's assistance been acknowledged for its contribution to lateral stability. Yet, the reverse—the influence of lateral assistance on fore-aft walking efficiency—remains insufficiently explored."

The key assumption behind the researchers' study is that the metabolic cost of walking could be reduced using wearable robots that mimic the natural hip abduction moment. This is the movement of the leg away from the body's midline, which supports walking and many other actions humans perform every day.

The innovative wearable robot for hip abduction assistance designed at the Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics Lab at Chung-Ang University. Credit: Park et al.

"The wearable robot for hip abduction assistance that we've developed operates on the principle that walking efficiency can be improved by supporting lateral body movements," Lee said. "As we walk forward, our body's center of mass naturally shifts side to side to maintain balance—a process known as recovery. During this recovery phase, the hip abduction muscles are engaged. Our device assists these muscles, making it easier for the wearer to recover their center of mass with less effort."

Lee and his colleagues evaluated their robot's performance in both simulations and real-world experiments. The results of these tests were highly promising, showing that the robot reduced the metabolic cost of walking by 11.6% compared to normal, unassisted walking, while also improving balance and stability.

"Our study demonstrates that enhancing gait efficiency doesn't require the wearable robot to focus only on the sagittal plane," Lee said. "Since walking is a three-dimensional motion, it's essential to consider movements across various planes."

Essentially, the hip abduction assistance robot developed by Lee and his colleagues influences the movements of the hips and legs known to support walking. Its unique design allows it to effectively 'replace' part of the efforts that humans would normally place when walking.

"Our study demonstrates a substantial role for lateral assistance in enhancing walking efficiency by facilitating a more effective transfer of the body's center of mass from one foot to the other," Kim added. "This insight is especially encouraging for individuals with reduced muscle strength, offering a new direction for support mechanisms. Moving forward, it will be important to explore how lateral assistance could help those with limited mobility, potentially transforming rehabilitation and support strategies."

In the future, the robotic system developed by this team of researchers could be improved further and eventually commercialized, supporting both rehabilitation and everyday use. The robot could prove useful for older adults, patients who underwent leg or hip surgeries, and other people who experience difficulties walking.

"For future research, we plan to delve deeper into how hip abduction affects walking balance," Lee added. "We've observed that hip abduction not only improves gait efficiency but may also influence balance. We aim to explore the potential of wearable robots in enhancing walking balance."

More information: Juneil Park et al, Effect of hip abduction assistance on metabolic cost and balance during human walking. Science Robotics (2023). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.ade0876.

Journal information: Science Robotics

techxplore.com

[Glenn Petersen] [X] India, the second-largest sender of students to the United States, is fast ...

Glenn Petersen — 11/15/2023 10:27:04 AM

[X]

India, the second-largest sender of students to the United States, is fast catching up to China. https://t.co/8p3Wl34sl6 pic.twitter.com/t5XmyDDW38
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) November 14, 2023

[/X]

[Julius Wong] Wyoming Coal Mine Reveals Unprecedented Rare Earth Discovery, Potentially Revivi...

Julius Wong — 11/15/2023 9:04:17 AM

Wyoming Coal Mine Reveals Unprecedented Rare Earth Discovery, Potentially Reviving the Coal Industry

guerillastocktrading.com

[Glenn Petersen] Life expectancy for men in U.S. falls to 73 years — six years less than for wome...

Glenn Petersen — 11/15/2023 6:12:36 AM

Life expectancy for men in U.S. falls to 73 years — six years less than for women, per study

By Annalisa Merelli
STAT
Nov. 13, 2023

The life expectancy of men in the U.S. is nearly six years shorter than that of women, according to new research published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

At least partially as a consequence of over 1 million Covid-19 deaths, life expectancy in the U.S. has declined significantly over the past few years, falling from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 in 2020 and 76.1 in 2022 — undoing over two decades of progress. This puts the country far behind its wealthy peers: Countries such as Japan, Korea, Portugal, the U.K., and Italy all enjoy a life expectancy of 80 years or more. Countries such as Turkey (78.6) and China (78.2) also fare better. This falloff has become a key issue for the Food and Drug Administration.

The picture is especially concerning for men, whose life expectancy is now 73.2 years, compared with women’s 79.1. This 5.9 year gap is the widest between the two genders since 1996.

“Across the world, women tend to live longer than men,” said Brandon Yan, a resident physician at the UCSF School of Medicine and a research collaborator at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who is the lead author of the study. (Both institutions collaborated in the research.)

Related: FDA’s Califf wants to get the public as excited about life expectancy as cures

But the widening gap should concern the U.S., Yan said, because it shows that baseline factors accounting for men’s lower longevity — genetics, men’s higher vulnerability to chronic disease — aren’t the sole reason for the difference in life expectancies.

“The opioid epidemic, mental health, and chronic metabolic disease are certainly front and center in the data that we see here, explaining why there’s this widening life expectancy gap by gender, as well as the overall drop in life expectancy,” said Yan. Men have higher mortality rates from all three conditions compared to women.

In addition, Yan notes, “a lot of these drivers of worsening life expectancy in particular for men are preventable causes of death.” Even Covid-19 could be considered a preventable cause of death in the time since vaccines have become available, he said.

The decline in life expectancy in the U.S. suggests that advancements in medical treatment are no longer sufficient to counter ongoing public health crises, Yan said. “We have a health care system that is very advanced in treating illnesses and advanced disease. But for the most part … it is not very good when it comes to preventative care.”

In the years leading to 2010, it was public health improvements — such as aggressive anti-smoking campaigns and the consequent reduction of deaths from respiratory illnesses and cancer — that led to the increased longevity and a reduced male-female gap in life expectancy.

Related: Half of people worldwide at risk of developing mental health condition by age 75, per new study

The reasons that issues such as suicide or opioid overdose affect men more than women are complex. “There’s a substantial socio-cultural norms component to this data as well in terms of the ways that society views masculinity and the way that men ought to behave,” said Yan. “That has profound effects on care-seeking behaviors,” he said. Whether a man seeks care for mental health issues, for instance, or even goes to routine primary care visits and takes medications, may be impacted by ideas about masculinity.

The analysis doesn’t provide insight into racial and ethnic differences. Yan says it is an area he and his colleagues plan to explore further. “We know that the disparity at baseline between men and women is much higher for Black Americans than it is for white Americans, for instance. And the interplay between gender and race is an important area for further study,” he said. As of 2022, the life expectancy for African American men was 61.5, nearly eight years shorter than for African American women.

Life expectancy for men in U.S. falls to 73 years — six years less than women (statnews.com)

[DinoNavarre] [X] IBM isn't just changing up some retirement plan options, according to @prof...

DinoNavarre — 11/14/2023 4:22:35 PM

[X]

IBM isn't just changing up some retirement plan options, according to @profplum99 the company is about to rewrite retirement.

If this idea finds widespread adoption, it could even change the whole damn stock market. pic.twitter.com/vjd79OKA90
— Jeffrey P. Snider (@JeffSnider_AIP) November 14, 2023

[/X]

[Glenn Petersen] Thanks. I bookmarked the board. The long-term societal impact of these weight-l...

Glenn Petersen — 11/13/2023 6:31:18 AM

Thanks. I bookmarked the board.

The long-term societal impact of these weight-loss drugs could be staggering. Less food consumption, better health, enhanced workforce productivity, lower health care costs. Almost too good to be true.

Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Wegovy slashes risk of serious heart events

PUBLISHED SAT, NOV 11 20238:30 AM EST
UPDATED SAT, NOV 11 202312:57 PM EST
Angelica Peebles @IN/ANGELICAPEEBLES/ @ANGELICAPEEBLES
CNBC.com

KEY POINTS

Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy slashed the risk of serious cardiovascular complications in people with obesity and heart disease.
Researchers presented the full results of Novo’s Select trial Saturday at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The findings could expand use of Wegovy and help Novo maintain its lead over Eli Lilly, whose competing weight-loss drug Zepbound was approved in the U.S. earlier this week.

Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy cut the risk of serious cardiovascular complications in people with obesity and heart disease in a closely watched trial, demonstrating a particularly large effect on heart attacks,a promising new frontier for the drug.

The roughly 17,500-person Select study tested Wegovy in people with obesity and heart disease but who did not have diabetes. Weekly injections of Wegovy slashed the overall risk of heart attack, stroke and death from cardiovascular causes by 20%, according to detailed results from the trial presented Saturday at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Novo Nordisk disclosed topline data from the study in August.

The findings could expand insurance coverage of Wegovy, a major barrier thus far for the drug and similar GLP-1 agonists, and spur broader use of the anti-obesity drug.

“This is the first time that medication approved for chronic obesity management can be considered life saving,” said Dr. Robert Kushner, a professor of medicine in endocrinology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine who was involved with the study.

The new data could also help the Danish pharmaceutical company maintain its lead over Eli Lilly, whose competing weight-loss drug Zepbound was approved in the U.S. earlier this week. Zepbound has been shown to help people lose more weight, but it hasn’t yet demonstrated an effect on cardiovascular outcomes.

“If you look at where the insurance companies are going to be obliged to go, they’re going to be obliged to go with the drug that reduces cardiovascular events,” said Dr. Howard Weintraub, clinical director of the Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at NYU Langone Heart who was involved with the study.

Trial results

Wegovy reduced the risk of non-fatal heart attack by 28% in the five-year trial. It produced a smaller 7% reduction in the occurrence of non-fatal stroke, though few strokes were seen in the trial overall.

What’s more, Wegovy started to show a reduction in overall cardiovascular events within months of participants starting the drug, with the difference between the drug and placebo widening as the study continued. Researchers observed that effect even before people lost significant weight, a “fascinating” finding that suggests both weight loss and the drug itself could be playing a role in heart health, said Dr. Ania Jastreboff, director of the Yale Obesity Research Center.

“I think it’s all additive, and I don’t think we can parse out one from the other,” Jastreboff, who was not involved in the study, said at a press briefing.

About two-thirds of participants had blood sugar levels that put them in the range of prediabetes. Wegovy decreased progression to diabetes by 73%, suggesting the drug could be used as an early treatment. Novo’s Ozempic, which uses the same active ingredient as Wegovy, is approved for diabetes.

The study enrolled both patients whose body-mass index met the threshold for overweight or obesity, though most of the patients were considered obese.

Side effects and limitations

Almost 17% of people receiving Wegovy in the trial stopped taking the drug, mainly because of gastrointestinal issues like vomiting and diarrhea, double the rate of people who discontinued the placebo. But more people in the control group experienced serious adverse events such as cardiac disorders and medical procedures.

The discontinuations may reflect less familiarity with Wegovy among doctors involved in the study, said Kushner, who specializes in caring for patients who are overweight or have obesity. Adjusting the dosage or tweaking diet can help people navigate unpleasant side effects.

Participants also lost less weight in this study than previous ones examining Wegovy, though this study didn’t incorporate lifestyle changes and it enrolled people with different characteristics.

One limitation of the study was its lack of diversity. Nearly three-quarters of the participants were male, and even more were white. Just about 4% of participants were Black.

Regardless, doctors expect the results to increase the number of people who take Wegovy.

Seeing a diabetes drug producing positive cardiovascular and metabolic effects “opens a new door to treat obese patients with cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. George Dangas, director of cardiovascular innovation for Mount Sinai Hospital. But it could take time and energy to incorporate it into clinical practice.

“Those are good problems to have,” Dangas said. “We have something good for the patient, that’s great.”

— CNBC’s Patrick Manning contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct the title of Dr. George Dangas, director of cardiovascular innovation for Mount Sinai Hospital.

Weight loss drug Wegovy slashes risk of serious heart complications (cnbc.com)

[Clark Kent] Thanks for posting Glenn. Lexx has a tiny float. It allows for financing and cou...

Clark Kent — 11/10/2023 8:22:02 AM

Thanks for posting Glenn.
Lexx has a tiny float. It allows for financing and could really take off with one or two hurdles out of the way.

I had posted the same info on CEO.ca a few days ago. Join the conversation or simply follow us.

ceo.ca

EDIT: Their business model is to license their process. I'm pretty sure they don't intend on competing.
Yes, a buy out would be nice. Bidding war?

[Julius Wong] NuScale, UAMPS to terminate first U.S. small nuclear reactor project seekingalp...

Julius Wong — 11/10/2023 8:05:55 AM

NuScale, UAMPS to terminate first U.S. small nuclear reactor project

seekingalpha.com

[Glenn Petersen] Interesting. LEXX needs to raise some serious capital if they are going to compe...

Glenn Petersen — 11/10/2023 7:48:31 AM

Interesting. LEXX needs to raise some serious capital if they are going to compete in that market. Otherwise, there technology might make them a good acquisition ca candidate.

One guaranteed winner: Eli Lilly.

FDA approves Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide for weight loss, paving way for wider use of blockbuster drug

PUBLISHED WED, NOV 8 202312:20 PM EST
UPDATED WED, NOV 8 20238:00 PM EST
Annika Kim Constantino @ANNIKAKIMC
CNBC.com

KEY POINTS

The Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide drug for weight loss, paving the way for even wider use of the blockbuster medication.
The active ingredient in the drug, tirzepatide, has already been approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes under the name Mounjaro since May 2022.
But the FDA’s new approval means adults who have obesity or are overweight with at least one weight-related condition can use the drug, which will be marketed as Zepbound, for chronic weight management.

Eli Lilly and Company, Pharmaceutical company headquarters in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain.
Cristina Arias | Cover | Getty Images

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Eli Lilly’s blockbuster drug tirzepatide for weight loss, paving the way for even wider use of the treatment in the U.S.

The active ingredient in the drug, tirzepatide, has already been approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes under the name Mounjaro since May 2022.

But the FDA’s new approval means adults who have obesity or are overweight with at least one weight-related condition can use the drug, which will be marketed as Zepbound, for chronic weight management.

Zepbound should be available in the U.S. by the end of the year, and will carry a list price of about $1,060 for a month’s supply, according to a release from Eli Lilly.

Before Wednesday’s approval, many patients had used tirzepatide off-label for weight loss, adding to a frenzy of demand for treatments that can help patients shed pounds, such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic. All three drugs have faced supply constraints for months due to soaring demand.

The weight lossapproval further establishes Eli Lilly as a formidable competitor to Novo Nordisk in the budding obesity drug market, which Wall Street analysts believe could grow to a $100 billion industry by 2030. The increased use of drugs has raised questions about how the changes will affect an array of industries — though it may be too early to tell how many people will use them.

The approval also comes as obesity affects an estimated 650 million adults globally, and roughly 40% of the adult population in the U.S.

“Obesity and overweight are serious conditions that can be associated with some of the leading causes of death such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes,” said Dr. John Sharretts, director of the division of diabetes, lipid disorders, and obesity in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “In light of increasing rates of both obesity and overweight in the United States, today’s approval addresses an unmet medical need.”

How well Zepbound works

Zepbound is an injection administered once weekly, and the dosage must be increased over four to 20 weeks to achieve the target dose sizes of 5, 10 or 15 milligrams per week.

The drug works by activating two naturally produced hormones in the body: glucagon-like peptide-1, known as GLP-1, and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, or GIP.

The combination is said to slow the emptying of the stomach, making people feel full for longer and suppressing appetite by slowing hunger signals in the brain.

The FDA said the approval was based on two of Eli Lilly’s late-stage trials on tirzepatide, which evaluated its effects on weight loss after 72 weeks.

In a late-stage study of more than 2,500 adults with obesity but not diabetes, those taking 5 milligrams of tirzepatide for 72 weeks lost about 16% of their body weight on average. Higher doses of the drug were associated with even more weight loss, with a 15-milligram dose leading to 22.5% weight loss on average.

Another late-stage study found that tirzepatide caused up to 15.7% weight loss among people who are obese or overweight and have Type 2 diabetes.

Pricing, supply constraints

Still, access to tirzepatide and other diabetes and obesity treatments remains a big challenge.

The list price of tirzepatide for weight loss is $1,059.87 per month for six different dose sizes, which is about 20% lower than that of Wegovy, Eli Lilly said in a press release. The company noted that the amount a patient pays out of pocket will likely be less if they have insurance.

Eli Lilly also said it is launching a commercial savings card program to expand access to Zepbound, which could allow people with insurance coverage for the drug to pay as low as $25 for a one-month or three-month prescription. Meanwhile, those whose insurance does not cover Zepbound may be able to pay as low as $550 for those prescriptions.

“Broader access to these medicines is critical, which is why Lilly is committed to working with healthcare, government and industry partners to ensure people who may benefit from Zepbound can access it,” said Mike Mason, executive vice president and president of Eli Lilly Diabetes and Obesity, in a statement.

The bigger issue is that many insurance companies are dropping weight loss drugs from their plans. Those insurers cite the extreme costs of covering those medications, and some say they want to see more data demonstrating the health benefits of the drugs beyond losing weight.

Preliminary data is already available: A recent late-stage trial found that Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Wegovy reduced the risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke by 20%. The results suggest that Wegovy and similar drugs like Mounjaro could have long-lasting heart health benefits.

It is unclear whether Zepbound will eventually encounter supply issues after the U.S. saw widespread shortages of Mounjaro.

On Wednesday, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks told reporters that the company is prepared to fully launch Zepbound and has the supply to do so. He also noted that all doses of Mounjaro are now listed as available on the FDA’s drug shortage website.

The company is working to boost production capacity for tirzepatide, Ricks added.

“We’re prepared for a big bold launch here toward the end of the year and we’ll work hard to continue to expand our supply capacity to meet the needs of people with obesity,” Ricks told reporters.

Zepbound side effects
Similar to other weight loss drugs, Zepbound is associated with side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, abdominal discomfort and pain, fatigue and allergic reactions, among others, according to the FDA’s approval label.

The agency also noted that Zepbound causes thyroid C-cell tumors in rats, but it’s unclear if the drug has that effect in humans.

The FDA advises against the use of Zepbound in patients with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer – a cancer that forms inside your thyroid gland – or in people with a rare condition called Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndrome type 2.

The agency also said that Zepbound should not be used in combination with Mounjaro or another weight loss or diabetes drug targeting GLP-1 because “the safety and effectiveness of coadministration” has not been established.

The agency’s other warnings about Zepbound include inflammation of the pancreas, gallbladder problems, acute kidney injury and suicidal behavior or thinking.

“Anti-obesity medications in the past have been associated with suicidal ideation, and that’s really something that should be watched for when you’re treating somebody for weight loss,” Dr. Leonard Glass, Eli Lilly’s senior vice president of global medical affairs for diabetes and obesity, said during a call with reporters. “Therefore we encourage people to keep an eye on this and go to their health care provider for any side effects, they can be monitored.”

FDA approves Eli Lilly drug tirzepatide for weight loss (cnbc.com)

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[Clark Kent] How can we take part in the fat revolution as investors? I happen to own Lexaria...

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How can we take part in the fat revolution as investors? I happen to own Lexaria Bioscience shares.

NetworkNewsWire Editorial Coverage:
GLP-1 agonists have become incredibly popular obesity drugs, reshaping the standard of care as people increasingly turn to the new class of drugs in lieu of conventional weight-loss procedures.

There is a growing body of clinical evidence showing GLP-1 agonists safely control blood sugar (glucose) levels and deliver tremendous positive outcomes, such as a recent New England Journal of Medicine study reporting weight loss of 49 to 52 pounds.
As good as GLP-1 agonist are, they can get better, which is part of the mission of Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (NASDAQ: LEXX) ( Profile), a global innovator in drug-delivery platforms.

But there may be an even better avenue to increased effectiveness and better outcomes. Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (NASDAQ: LEXX), a global innovator in drug-delivery platforms, began diabetes-related formal studies last year with its DehydraTECH(TM) platform, which showed reduced blood-sugar levels and lowered body weight. With such encouraging early results, Lexaria is planning to launch new human and animal studies to examine whether DehydraTECH processing can make GLP-1 drugs such as semaglutide even better.

Article content

About Lexaria Bioscience Corp.

Lexaria’s patented drug-delivery technology, DehydraTECH(TM), improves the way active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) enter the bloodstream through oral delivery. Since 2016, DehydraTECH has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to increase bio-absorption with cannabinoids, antiviral drugs, PDE5 inhibitors and more. DehydraTECH has also evidenced an ability to deliver some drugs more effectively across the blood brain barrier. Lexaria operates a licensed in-house research laboratory and holds a robust intellectual property portfolio with 37 patents granted and many patents pending worldwide.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.LexariaBioscience.com.

[Glenn Petersen] How Ozempic could change the economy as we know it Business Insider November 5,...

Glenn Petersen — 11/5/2023 6:55:36 AM

How Ozempic could change the economy as we know it

Business Insider
November 5, 2023

Ozempic has taken the world by storm thanks to how it can help people lose weight, but it could also mean so much more for the economy.

Ozempic is a brand name for semaglutide, a diabetes drug that also has weight loss effects. Patients inject it weekly, and it reduces appetite. Semaglutide is also sold for weight loss under the brand name Wegovy.

While it’s too early to know exactly how GLP-1 drugs’ will ripple out to the broader economy long-term, it’s already had significant effects on patients’ consumption, and companies are keeping an eye out for future developments.

Walmart, for example, which sells Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs, found that customers buying those medications spent less on food year over year but more on lifestyle and fitness.

Nik Modi, a managing director at RBC Capital Markets who focuses on consumer goods, told Insider that this is a sign that people aren’t spending less. They are just buying different products.

“Consumers are looking for better-for-you products,” Modi said, adding that healthier products will be a big winner as consumers change their habits in this economy.

The effects could be much broader than food and healthcare. As Josh Barro recently wrote in his economics and business newsletter “Very Serious,” workers could be more productive because they live longer, healthier, and happier lives.

“Lower disease burden will mean fewer sick days and higher labor productivity,” Barro projects. “And there will be huge gains in personal happiness: well over a hundred million Americans who have been struggling all their lives to control their weight will be finally succeeding at it, and in a way that does not involve a great deal of mental effort or perceived sacrifice.”

This could increase people’s self-esteem, Barro posits, and could allow people to redirect energy and resources from dieting to other activities as well as change their consumption. Additionally, employee productivity could increase as Americans see the long-term benefits of weight loss and stay in the workforce longer.

Radical weight loss could change what people buy and affect companies’ bottom lines

Some businesses have already seen changes in consumer behavior due to GLP-1 drugs, which clinical trials have shown could help patients lose an average of 15% of their body weight over 68 weeks.

An August survey by Morgan Stanley of 300 people using GLP-1 drugs for weight loss found that 77% of respondents reported visiting fast-food restaurants “less frequently,” while 61% and 59% said the same about casual dining restaurants and coffee shops, respectively.

Meanwhile, GLP-1s could indirectly help other businesses, like airlines. A Jefferies Financial analyst used data from United Airlines and calculated that the company could save 27.6 million gallons of fuel per year, at a cost of $80 million, if the average passenger weighed 10 pounds less.

In addition, some patients have also noticed a reduced desire for alcohol, tobacco, and even opioids, suggesting these drugs could be used to treat addiction.

While GLP-1 drugs are not approved as addiction treatments, these observed side effects could boost the economy and workforce, Barro wrote.

“Ex-smokers work more than still-smokers because they are less burdened by disease and disability,” Barro wrote. “Presumably, they’re taking their earnings and spending more than they otherwise would have on non-cigarette products and services.”

To be sure, the drugs are expensive — as much as $1,000 per month for the diabetes drug Ozempic and even more for the weight-loss drug Wegovy. For people without diabetes, insurance coverage is still limited, companies are hesitant to provide it to employees, and people will likely need to be on them for life.

Add all the medical advances together, and it would seem likely that people will live longer and healthier. That could also put more money in people’s pockets through things like lower healthcare costs, insurance premiums, groceries, and fewer trips to restaurants, in addition to potentially earning more over their lifetimes by staying in the workforce longer.

James van Geelen of Citrinitas Capital recently compared the obesity epidemic to the COVID crisis on Bloomberg’s “Odd Lots” podcast and discussed how to make weight-loss drugs more readily available.

“Why shouldn’t the government pay for this?” van Geelen said, noting that COVID vaccines were made available for free.

While obesity doesn’t cause a lockdown like COVID, treating it could save lives and have massive benefits to the economy and the country.

“I would say they are probably comparable public health crises,” van Geelen said. “If [the drug companies are] effective in proving that the side effects are moderate and that the overall benefit is sustained and is good, why would the government not cover it? If they’ll cover COVID vaccines, then they should probably cover this too.”

The post How Ozempic could change the economy as we know it appeared first on Business Insider.

How Ozempic could change the economy as we know it – DNyuz

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