What I Wrote Last Week
The US Is No Longer A Good Power
Business
Microsoft is shutting down Skype after a 21-year run. Here’s how it lost out to video call rivals. It is a pity that Skype will be shut down permanently soon. It’s an enduring brand that was hugely popular in the 2000s and even early 2010s. But it fell into obscurity and irrelevancy due to lack of care and intense competition.
How Fast is Apple’s First-Ever 5G Modem? The Results Are Surprising. The increasing vertical integration of Apple continues with the 5G modem. This should help make their products better (higher download speeds and more battery savings) as well as improve gross margin.
‘How Are We Going to Afford This?’ U.S. Companies Face Tariff Reality. He warned you. He warned all of you prior to the election. Now, he is doing what he said he would and it’s the American businesses and consumers that suffer from higher costs.
See how tariffs could make your next car cost thousands more. This article discusses the value chain of a car and how tariffs by Trump can increase costs of your next vehicle.
Amazon CEO says he’s cutting middle managers because they want to ‘put their fingerprint on everything.’ That’s music to the ears of Gen Z. The current environment is an absolute nightmare for middle managers or those that want to reach that level.
Other Stuff I Find Interesting
Cuts to national parks and forests met with backlash. The cuts to national parks and forests are disgraceful. They won’t move any needle. In fact, they may inflict damages to our nature, tourism and local economies.
America’s avocado obsession is destroying Mexico’s forests. Is there a fix?It is interesting, yet disheartening to learn that our obsession with avocados in the US leads to deforestation and water shortage in Mexico.
Microsoft published a whitepaper discussing the impact of Generative AI tools on cognitive efforts and confidence of knowledge workers. Specifically, the paper concludes that GenAI tools adversely impact critical thinking of white-collar workers. Such toold also change the nature of critical thinking tasks, including information gathering to information verification. An interesting discussion for companies that seem so eager to hop on the GenAI bandwagon.
Battle of the thermostat: The science behind your central heating arguments. Not everyone has a body temperature of 37 Celsius degrees or 98.6 Fahrenheit degrees. Your age and where you live can significantly affect your body temperature and what you should set in your home. Contrary to what many may think, too hot may just be as bad as too cold.
How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M’s is smuggled from war-torn Sudan. If you didn’t know what gum arabic was or that it was a key ingredient in Coca-Cola or M&M, or that Sudan exported a lot of it, now you do.
Stats
The 2024 Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix generated $934 million in economic impact, down from $1.5 billion in impact generated by the inaugural event in 2023
Minh Quang Duong 
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