Students from six UK schools are preparing for a pilot Hebrew spelling bee that will be held to encourage interest in the language. During the competition in England, the students will have to correctly translate an English word into Hebrew, pronounce it and spell it using the Hebrew alphabet -- and there is a time limit.
Parents of millennials are increasingly involved in their adult children's careers, writes Noam Scheiber, citing the example of LaVar Ball, who heavily influences his sons' basketball careers. Contacting recruiters, submitting resumes and asking to participate in interviews are among ways parents are meddling in children's careers, says Brandi Britton of OfficeTeam.
US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos this week suggested scrapping the Higher Education Act of 1965 during a speech to the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. Senate education committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., says reauthorization of the act is a top priority for him, but DeVos said, "Real change is needed."
Currency dates back as far as 40,000 years ago, with money evolving over time from natural objects like shells to coins, paper and digital versions, writes anthropologist Chapurukha Kusimba. The first mints can be found more than 2,500 years ago.
Kroger has been preparing for and is ready to face the competition from German discount grocer Lidl, which has begun opening its hundreds of planned US stores, Chief Financial Officer Mike Schlotman said Wednesday. He also said Kroger is well-positioned to face the future of the Amazon-Whole Foods deal, with its $16 billion in annual natural and organic food sales, which exceeds Whole Foods' total yearly sales.
Senate Republican leaders released a "discussion draft" of the bill to replace the Affordable Care Act online today, revealing only modest adjustments from the House-passed American Health Care Act. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate may vote on the bill as early as next week.
⋅ Adweek
Just 112 mainstream mobile and desktop sites carried vertical video ads in the first quarter, with 40% of vertical video spots coming from TV and movies, 9% from clothing brands and 7% from retail, MediaRadar reports. Seventy percent of vertical video ads are 15 seconds long, which "is interesting since Snapchat, a vertical video leader, has a current max of 10 seconds," MediaRadar's Todd Krizelman said.
Knowledgeable sources say several major US corporations, including Walmart, AT&T and Proctor & Gamble, still haven't returned as YouTube advertisers since learning their ads ran alongside extremist or racist videos in March, according to the WSJ. However, after instituting in-house corrections -- such as better video-screening technology -- YouTube has lured back other big advertisers, including GM, Coca-Cola and McDonald's UK unit, the WSJ reports.
The White House is asking venture capitalists and tech companies to help it discover what the government can do to bring new technologies to the marketplace more quickly. President Donald Trump will meet with executives to discuss how development of innovative technologies, particularly drones and universal broadband, can create jobs.
The Office of the US Trade Representative will attempt to resolve issues raised by US medtech companies about India's price controls on medical devices, as well as intellectual property disputes, Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on trade policy. Lighthizer added that enforcement actions will be taken if India's actions are proven to have violated World Trade Organization rules.
Low streaming quality increased viewers' negative emotions 16%, while engagement dropped 20%, per an Akamai study that used the Sensum Insights platform. The study also found that 76% of viewers would quit using a service if multiple streaming issues occurred.
The nation's inland waterways need an infusion of revenue to keep up with infrastructure maintenance, and C. Jarrett Dieterle of the nonpartisan but right-of-center R Street Institute believes it's time to implement tolls for those who use the rivers, despite the pushback from the shipping industry. He says many Americans gain no direct benefit from improvements to the nation's locks and other river infrastructure.
Ernest Moniz, who served as energy secretary under President Barack Obama, is preparing to launch the Energy Futures Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to energy research and technological advancements. Moniz said the nonprofit's first initiative would be analyzing the state of the electric grid and how the fast-paced growth of renewables could affect grid security.
Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., has introduced a bill that would ban airlines from taking passengers off of oversold flights once boarded and give the government more oversight when passengers are denied boarding involuntarily.
⋅ GreenBiz
Hawaii, where nearly 9 million tourists in 2016 spent roughly $16 billion, is confronting how to balance the effect foot traffic has on the environment with the state's continued need to maintain tourism, its main employer. "What sells Hawaii in my mind are the people, the culture, the beauty," said Alan Oshima, CEO of Hawaiian Electric Co., who adds that now "sustainability is a big selling point."