https://www.businessinsider.com

  • Facebook CEO Zuckerberg dismissed concerns of polarizing views
    https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-dismisses-changes-algorithm-encourages-pol

    Facebook conducted internal efforts in 2016 and 2018 to examine whether the platform’s algorithm was encouraging the polarization and the proliferation of extremist content, according to The Wall Street Journal. Though Facebook’s experts found that the platform contributed to divisive rhetoric, senior executives dismissed proposed changes, some which would adversely affect user engagement, The Journal said. According to The Journal, CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated he was “losing interest” in (...)

    #algorithme #modération #violence

    https://i.insider.com/5ecd45aff34d051dd6176812

  • Cambridge Analytica executives and Mercer family launch Emerdata - Business Insider
    https://www.businessinsider.com/cambridge-analytica-executives-and-mercer-family-launch-emerdata-20

    The power players behind Cambridge Analytica have set up a new company — and the daughters of Donald Trump-supporting billionaire Robert Mercer have just joined as directors. Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer joined Emerdata on March 16, but it is shrouded in mystery. Alexander Nix, the suspended CEO of Cambridge Analytica, is also a director, as well as other executives from parent firm SCL Group. Emerdata also lists Johnson Chun Shun Ko, a Chinese executive from Frontier Services (...)

    #profiling #publicité #BigData #élections #manipulation #CambridgeAnalytica/Emerdata

    ##publicité ##CambridgeAnalytica/Emerdata
    https://i.insider.com/5ab22e08e532f825008b46fb

  • Uber CTO resigns as company reportedly considers 5,400 job cuts - Business Insider
    https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-cto-resigns-as-company-reportedly-considers-5400-job-cuts-2020

    Uber’s chief technology officer, Thuan Pham, has resigned effective May 16, the company said Tuesday. Pham, who joined the company in 2013, was one of the last remaining executives hired by ousted founder Travis Kalanick. The Information reported that Uber was planning to lay off up to 5,400 people to save costs as its core ride-hailing business is decimated by stay-at-home orders around the world. An Uber representative said the company was looking at “every possible scenario” for (...)

    #travail #licenciement #GigEconomy #conducteur·trice·s #bénéfices #UberEATS #Uber

    https://i.insider.com/5ea892605bd7a5308d663d88

  • #Coronavirus : des patients guéris pourraient avoir été testés positifs suite à une #réactivation du virus, selon les KCDC | AGENCE DE PRESSE YONHAP
    https://m-fr.yna.co.kr/view/AFR20200406003600884?section=search

    SEOUL, 06 avr. (Yonhap) — Plus de 50 personnes qui se sont rétablies après avoir contracté le Covid-19 ont été à nouveau testées positives, probablement suite à une réactivation du virus, ont déclaré ce lundi les autorités sanitaires.

    Les Centres coréens pour le contrôle et la prévention des maladies (KCDC) ont indiqué que 51 personnes de Daegu et de la province voisine du Gyeongsang du Nord, les épicentres de l’épidémie de Covid-19, ont été testées positives au virus après être sorties de quarantaine.

    La directrice générale des KCDC, Jeong Eun-kyeong, a déclaré qu’il était fort probable que le virus se soit réactivé, plutôt que les personnes aient été infectées à nouveau, puisqu’elles ont été testées positives dans un délai relativement court après avoir été libérées de la quarantaine.

  • Le USS Theodore Roosevelt torpillé par Covid-19
    https://www.dedefensa.org/article/le-usstheodore-roosevelttorpille-par-covid-19

    Le USS Theodore Roosevelt torpillé par Covid-19

    Le porte-avions de l’US Navy USS Theodore Roosevelt, qui était en patrouille dans le Pacifique occidental, fonce à toute vapeur nucléaire vers l’île de Guam et ses grandes installations militaires US des trois armes. A bord, plus de 5 000 marins , dont 8 mercredi, passant à 23 jeudi, ont été détectés positif de l’infection Codiv-19. Le porte-avions ne dispose pas des moyens de faire face à cette situation, notamment du point de vue de l’équipement en tests, des capacités de confinement, etc. ; il n’a aucun moyen sérieux de contenir et de contrôler l’épidémie, encore moins de traiter les cas les plus sévères.

    Une organisation est rapidement mise en place à Guam, où existe également une situation épidémique, avec un certain nombre de soldats en quarantaine. (...)

    • En espagnol,

      El Gobierno pone los hospitales privados a las órdenes de las comunidades | España | EL PAÍS
      https://elpais.com/espana/2020-03-15/el-gobierno-pone-los-hospitales-privados-a-las-ordenes-de-las-comunidades.ht

      Las empresas con material sanitario tienen 48 horas para informar al Ejecutivo de sus existencias

      El Gobierno ha decidido llevar a cabo medidas inéditas en materia sanitaria en la historia reciente de España, anunció este domingo por la noche el ministro Salvador Illa en una comparecencia de los cuatro ministros designados para la gestión del estado de alarma. La primera, de enorme calado, supone la intervención de la sanidad privada para ponerla al servicio del Sistema Nacional de Salud. Serán los consejeros de Sanidad de todas las comunidades autónomas quienes podrán disponer de “todos los medios” necesarios del sistema privado para hacer frente a la epidemia.

      No serán los únicos recursos que podrán utilizar a partir de ahora las comunidades, bajo el mando de Ministerio de Sanidad. “También podrán habilitarse todos los espacios públicos y privados” que puedan ser necesarios para convertirlos temporalmente en nuevos lugares asistenciales para atender a los enfermos.

      La primera de las tres órdenes aprobadas este domingo acaba con una tercera medida de tipo laboral dirigida a reforzar los recursos humanos de los centros sanitarios, muy diezmados por los contagios y cuarentenas provocados por el virus. La medida establece que todos los estudiantes en su cuarto año de residencia de especialidades como medicina interna, medicina intensiva y geriatría, entre otras, “verán prorrogada” la duración de sus contratos. Asimismo, “quedan suspendidas las rotaciones” y se autoriza la contratación de facultativos que no hayan logrado completar su especialidad tras aprobar las pruebas de médico residente (MIR).

      La segunda de las órdenes está destinada a asegurar que el Sistema Nacional de Salud dispone de todos los bienes y servicios disponibles en España que puedan ser útiles en la lucha contra el coronavirus. El Gobierno da un plazo de 48 horas a empresas y particulares que tengan o puedan fabricar materiales como equipos de diagnóstico, mascarillas gafas protectoras, guantes y otros productos médicos y farmacológicos “a ponerlo en conocimiento” de las autoridades, bajo la amenaza de sanciones para aquellos que no lo hagan.

      La tercera y última de las órdenes trata de establecer unas normas sobre el “suministro de información y datos” respecto a la evolución de la epidemia. Hasta ahora estos datos los venía ofreciendo diariamente el ministerio, aunque también las comunidades los actualizaban cuando lo consideraban conveniente, lo que en varios momentos ha creado cierta confusión sobre algunas cifras. A partir de ahora, según Illa, estos datos serán ofrecidos una sola vez a media mañana y de forma diaria por el Ministerio de Sanidad.

    • et en anglais :

      Coronavirus lockdown in Spain: Spanish government puts private healthcare firms at the orders of the regions | Society | EL PAÍS in English
      https://english.elpais.com/society/2020-03-16/spanish-government-puts-private-healthcare-firms-at-the-orders-of-th

      Companies that are holding or that can manufacture health materials such as protective masks have been given 48 hours to inform the authorities on risk of fines for failing to do so

      The Spanish government has decided to implement never-before-seen measures in terms of the country’s healthcare system, in a bid to combat the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Speaking at a press conference on Sunday night, a day after the Cabinet approved a state of alarm that has confined Spaniards to their homes, Health Minister Salvador Illa announced that private health providers would be temporarily taken over and put at the disposition of the national healthcare system.

      Regional health chiefs across Spain will, he added, have “all the means” necessary from the private system in order to deal with the epidemic. Illa added that “all public and private areas” will be available for conversion into new spaces to attend to patients.

      According to the latest figures, 294 people have so far died in Spain from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and there are 7,900 confirmed infections. A total of 517 people have recovered and have been released from hospital, while there are currently 382 patients in intensive care.

      Also on Sunday, the health minister announced that fourth-year medical students who are carrying out residencies will see their contracts extended. Rotations among medical staff have been suspended, and physicians who have not yet completed their specialty after passing their medical resident tests can now be hired. All of these measures are aimed at easing the pressure on the health system due to the coronavirus outbreak.

      In a bid to combat shortages, the government also announced on Sunday that any company that is holding or that can manufacture materials for making diagnoses, protective masks and glasses, gloves and other medical or pharmaceutical products, must make the authorities aware of this in 48 hours, under the threat of fines should they fail to do so.

      The third and final measure announced on Sunday relates to the supply of information on the progress of the epidemic. Until now Spain’s regions – who are in charge of their own healthcare systems – have been sending updated figures on infections and deaths to the central government when they considered it convenient to do so, creating certain confusion at times during the crisis so far. From now on, Illa said on Sunday night, the data will be offered just once a day, only by the Health Ministry, at mid-morning.

  • Airlines are burning thousands of gallons of fuel flying empty ’ghost’ planes so they can keep their flight slots during the coronavirus outbreak
    https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-airlines-run-empty-ghost-flights-planes-passengers-outb

    Airlines are running empty “ghost” flights during the coronavirus outbreak because of European rules forcing operators to run their allocated flights or risk losing their slots.

    #compétitions

  • Morgan Stanley on how Apple could disrupt healthcare - Business Insider
    https://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-on-how-apple-could-disrupt-healthcare-2019-4?IR=T

    Apple has been getting into healthcare for years, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch and more. Investors are too focused on healthcare efforts from other tech companies like Amazon and aren’t taking Apple’s opportunity seriously enough, a new Morgan Stanley report says. The tech giant could build an App Store-like model for healthcare, potentially bringing in $15 billion to $313 billion in revenue by 2027, Morgan Stanley estimates. Read on to find out how. Visit Business Insider’s (...)

    #Apple #AppleStore #iPhone #iWatch #smartphone #BigData #santé

    ##santé
    https://i.insider.com/5cab7b5909b603681f419e95

  • ISIS es más grande ahora que cuando se formó por primera vez, y el conflicto de Trump con Irán podría darle un impulso
    https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-iran-conflict-taking-attention-away-from-a-resilient-isis-20
    Las tensiones entre EE. UU. E Irán podrían beneficiar a ISIS en medio de crecientes signos de que el grupo terrorista aún representa una amenaza significativa en el Medio Oriente a pesar de la muerte de su líder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, y la pérdida de su califato autodeclarado.

  • Business experts think Uber’s profitability pledge is misleading - Business Insider
    https://www.businessinsider.com/business-experts-think-ubers-profitability-pledge-is-misleading-202

    Uber excited investors and analysts last week when it predicted it would hit “profitability” by the end of this year. But the company’s definition of “profitability” doesn’t accord with standard accounting and leaves out a whole mess of expenses. The company’s preferred profitability measure — adjusted EBITDA — is problematic, because while it is improving, its outflow of actual cash is actually worsening. Uber finally gave its investors a reason to cheer — the longtime money-losing company (...)

    #Uber #manipulation #bénéfices #finance

    https://i.insider.com/5e41ff334b661b7423291604

  • Murderer of Qassem Suleimani Killed in US Plane Crash in Afghanistan : Reports – Al-Manar TV Lebanon
    http://english.almanar.com.lb/928072

    A suivre. Il sera intéressant de savoir si on a des nouvelles de ce monsieur bientôt.

    Michael D’Andrea, head of CIA operations in Iran and who orchestrated the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Suleimani, was killed in a US plane crash over Afghanistan’s Ghanzi on Monday, Veterans Today (VT) reported, citing Russian intelligence sources.

    VT described D’Andrea as the most prominent figure of the CIA intelligence in the region, adding that the plane, with US Air Force markings, had reportedly served as the CIA’s mobile command for D’Andrea.

    US plane crashAfter the news was reported by Veterans Today, Iranian news agency Tasnim relaunched the topic. Then, other Iranian outlet Mizan did. Lastly, British media (the Mirror and the Daily Mail) as well as Israeli daily the Jerusalem Post also reported the news.

    Also known as Ayatollah Mike, the Dark Prince, and the Undertaker, D’Andrea was appointed head of the agency’s Iran Mission Center in 2017. Under his leadership, the agency was perceived to take a more aggressive stance toward Iran. He was also reportedly involved in the assassination of Hezbollah top military commander Imad Mughniyah in Damascus, Syria (2008).

    On Monday, the Taliban announced to have shot down the plane, while the US has denied the claim but has acknowledged the loss of a Bombardier E-11A plane in central Afghanistan. Images online have already circulated purportedly showing some of the charred remains of those on board.

    Retaliation to Suleimani?

    The Middle East Monitor reported that Suleimani’s successor as head of the IRGC’s Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, has established ties in Afghanistan going back to the 1980s, hinting out that the downing of the plane could be Iran’s retaliation to the assassination of Suleimani.

    The media outlet also mentioned previous remarks by the chief commander of the IRGC, General Hossein Salami, who warned that no American military commanders will be safe if the US administration continues to threaten Iranian commanders.

    • http://french.almanar.com.lb/1629630
      Les forces américaines ont récupéré, mardi 28 janvier, deux corps près d’un de leurs avions qui s’est écrasé lundi 27 janvier dans l’est de l’Afghanistan, après que les forces afghanes ont échoué à atteindre cette zone contrôlée par les talibans, ont affirmé des responsables locaux.
      L’armée américaine a utilisé « des hélicoptères pour évacuer deux corps du site du crash cet après-midi », a déclaré Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, chef du conseil provincial de la province de Ghazni, à l’AFP. Des avions américains surveillaient la zone et « aucun combat n’a eu lieu durant l’évacuation », a-t-il ajouté.
      Vengeance pour l’assassinat de Soleimani ?
      Des sources de renseignement russes et iraniennes ont déclaré que Michael D’Andrea (chef de la CIA en Irak) aurait été tué dans ce crash.
      D’Andrea, qui serait responsable de l’assassinat du commandant en chef iranien Qassem Soleimani, était apparemment parmi les officiers à bord de l’avion, rapporte le site Internet de Veterans Today, citant des sources de renseignement russes qui sont relayées sur le site Airlive.net.
      Il est encore trop tôt pour savoir si cet accident d’avion est lié à la vengeance de Soleimani, qui était le chef de l’axe de la Résistance

    • Le Pentagone confirme le crash d’un avion militaire en Afghanistan
      https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/le-pentagone-confirme-le-crash-d-un-avion-militaire-en-afghanistan-20200127


      Un Bombardier E-11 américain USAF

      Un avion des forces américaines s’est écrasé ce lundi 27 janvier en Afghanistan, dans la province de Ghazni, a affirmé le Pentagone, confirmant ainsi les affirmations des talibans. Mais Washington dément qu’il ait été abattu par un tir ennemi, ce qu’affirmait les talibans, sans expliquer comment. Ces derniers indiquent également que tous les membres d’équipage ont péri.

      « Un Bombardier E-11A américain s’est écrasé aujourd’hui dans la province de Ghazni, en Afghanistan », a tweeté le porte-parole des forces américaines en Afghanistan, le colonel Sonny Leggett. Le Bombardier E-11 est un appareil de soutien aux drones de reconnaissance, équipé de matériel de communications de grande valeur.

      attention, lecteurs (ou journalistes) pressés, Bombardier est le nom du fabricant.

      https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Global_Express
      (WP indique que la photo ci-dessus, version E-11 du Global Express est prise à Kandahar)

      EDIT : légende complète WP

      A 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron E-11A aircraft outfitted with a Battlefield Airborne Communications Node sits on the runway at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, April 4, 2019. The 430th EECS is the only unit that operates these aircraft with the BACN payload. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Anna-Marie Wyant) (Photo ID: 5253493)

    • U.S. says mystery crash in Afghanistan was U.S. Air Force plane | CTV News
      https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/u-s-says-mystery-crash-in-afghanistan-was-u-s-air-force-plane-1.4784756

      Images on social media purportedly of the crashed plane showed an aircraft bearing U.S. Air Force markings similar to other E-11A surveillance aircraft photographed by aviation enthusiasts. Visible registration numbers on the plane also appeared to match those aircraft.

      The so-called Battlefield Airborne Communications Node can be carried on unmanned or crewed aircraft like the E-11A. It is used by the military to extend the range of radio signals and can be used to convert the output of one device to another, such as connecting a radio to a telephone.

      Colloquially referred to by the U.S. military as “Wi-Fi in the sky,” the BACN system is used in areas where communications are otherwise difficult, elevating signals above obstacles like mountains. The system is in regular use in Afghanistan.

    • The US air force Bombardier E-11A crashed in Afghanistan | The Gal Times
      https://thegaltimes.com/the-us-air-force-bombardier-e-11a-crashed-in-afghanistan/11021


      photo (inversée) non créditée de l’appareil détruit

      The First few video frames of the crash scene confirm the aircraft to be Bombardier E-11A ’11-9358′ (military Global Express) 1 of 4 operated by the USAF Battlefield Airborne Communications Node. Number of personnel on board & casualties still not known. pic.twitter.com/vIHtHPzqip
      — Airport Webcams (@AirportWebcams) January 27, 2020

      Avec une suggestion de motif plus « local » pour la destruction de cet avion…

      American bomber E-11A crashed early Monday morning and was initially accepted by the Afghan authorities for passenger aircraft. But soon there were shots, presumably from the crash site showing the emblem of the U.S. air force in the charred fuselage.

      Bombardier E-11A is a plane-a repeater, a communication surveillance platform, the U.S. air force. The so-called Air Communication Node (BACN) can be transported in unmanned or crew the aircraft such as the E-11A. He used the military to extend the range of radio signals and can be used to convert the output signal of one device to another, for example, to connect the radio to the phone.

      In colloquial speech, this device the U.S. military is called “Wi-Fi in the sky”. The BACN system is required in areas where communication is difficult, because it “picks up” signals over obstacles such as mountains. This system is regularly used in Afghanistan.
      […]
      Two weeks ago, a guided missile AGM-114R9X was used by the US military in Afghanistan near the village of Imam Sahib (Kunduz province) to eliminate one of the commanders of the Taliban. It was a response to the killing by the Taliban of two US soldiers in Kandahar province (Afghanistan).

    • E-11A abattu : le B-52 « neutralisé » ? - Pars Today
      https://parstoday.com/fr/news/middle_east-i84972
      https://media.parstoday.com/image/4bv548b9f7b67b1l5cs_800C450.jpg

      L’avion E-11 A de l’US Air Force abattu par les Taliban à Ghazni en Afghanistan a été le coqueluche de l’arsenal de la guerre électronique de l’US Air Force. Ce modèle d’une valeur de plus 50 millions de dollars faisait partie de l’escadron 430 de la guerre électronique de l’US Air Force. Doté du système BACN [Battlefield Airborne Communication Node ou nœud de communication aéroporté au-dessus du champ de bataille], l’E-11 A servait de « relais de communication aéroporté » pour remédier aux difficultés posées dans ce domaine par le relief montagneux de l’Afghanistan et le manque d’infrastructures dans ce pays occupé depuis 17 ans.

      avec plusieurs photos de l’épave

      et la photo du billet initial, présentée comme celle de Michael D’Andrea, mais qui, apparemment n’a pas que l’air d’être une capture vidéo du film Zero Dark Thirty

      Iran TV uses ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ screenshot to claim CIA boss was killed in Afghanistan plane crash | The Independent
      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/iran-zero-dark-thirty-afghanistan-plane-crash-cia-a9306871.html


      Frederic Lehne in Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
      Columbia Pictures

      State TV in Iran has broadcast a screenshot from the movie Zero Dark Thirty to illustrate a report that a senior CIA officer had been killed in a plane crash.

      The photo shows the actor that portrayed a character in the movie based on real life CIA operative Michael D’Andrea.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Lehne

    • Avion US abattu en Afghanistan : le responsable du meurtre de Soleimani éliminé ?
      Sources : Jerusalem Post et Sputnik en arabe, le 28 janvier 2020.
      Traduction : lecridespeuples.fr
      https://lecridespeuples.fr/2020/01/28/la-vengeance-contre-le-meurtre-de-soleimani-se-fait-elle-ressentir-e

      Les médias iraniens affirment que « de nombreux officiers de la CIA » ont été tués lundi lorsqu’un avion s’est écrasé. Les Talibans ont d’abord affirmé qu’un grand nombre d’Américains avaient été tués, tandis que les médias russes et iraniens ont ensuite affirmé qu’un officier supérieur de la CIA responsable du meurtre du Général du Corps des Gardiens de la Révolution Islamique (CGRI) Qassem Soleimani se trouvait à bord. L’affirmation a été accueillie avec scepticisme.

      Le nom de Michael D’Andrea a commencé à apparaître dans les médias iraniens peu après le meurtre de Soleimani, lorsque des articles de Mehr News et de Radio Farda ont affirmé qu’il était impliqué dans la planification de l’opération américaine. Le 27 janvier, son nom a de nouveau surgi dans des rumeurs après que l’avion espion américain se soit écrasé en Afghanistan. Nombreux sont ceux qui pourraient avoir intérêt à répandre des thèses sur les Talibans abattant des officiers du renseignement américain de haut rang ; néanmoins l’agence de presse iranienne Tasnim a rapporté l’histoire, citant des sources russes qui affirmaient que « l’assassin de Soleimani se trouvait dans l’avion et a été tué dans le crash ». Ces sources affirment que « D’ Andrea est la figure la plus éminente de la CIA au Moyen-Orient. Il a été en charge des opérations en Irak, en Iran et en Afghanistan. »

  • Apple CEO Tim Cook made $11.6 million in the company’s last fiscal year — 200 times more than its median employee
    https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-tim-cook-11-million-compensation-200-times-median-worker-2019

    Apple CEO Tim Cook brought in just shy of $11.6 million in total compensation during the company’s 2019 fiscal year, Apple said in its annual proxy statement Friday. That hefty pay package is about 200 times more than the median Apple employee earned in compensation during the same time period, the company noted. According to Apple, the median compensation among its global workforce of more than 130,000 full time employees and of its staff of part-time employees was $57,596 during the 2019 (...)

    #Apple #bénéfices #travail

    https://image.businessinsider.com/58a4ddaf5490572c008b4de5

  • Trump called Egyptian President el-Sisi ’my favorite dictator’ at G7 - Business Insider
    https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-called-egyptian-president-sisi-my-favorite-dictator-g7-2019-9

    President Donald Trump astonished US officials at the G7 summit in France when he jokingly referred to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi as “my favorite dictator.”

  • Netanyahou aime la cartographie et s’en sert le plus souvent possible en appui de ses « narrations » et/ou de ses « mensonges »

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu loves maps. Considering them a helpful tool to illustrate his view of global affairs, he often brings them along to public speeches, to briefings with the press and to hearings in the Knesset.

    1. Annexion de la Vallée du Jourdain (septembre 2019)

    In election pitch, Netanyahu vows to annex Jordan Valley right away if reelected | The Times of Israel
    https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-campaign-pitch-netanyahu-vows-to-annex-jordan-valley-if-reelected

    In election pitch, Netanyahu vows to annex Jordan Valley right away if reelected
    PM says ‘diplomatic conditions have ripened’ for move ‘immediately’; pledges to later apply sovereignty to all West Bank settlements, but with ‘maximum coordination’ with US

    2. Reconnaissance de l’annexion du plateau du Golan (mai 2019)

    Netanyahu shows off Trump’s map of Israel with Golan Heights | The Times of Israel
    https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-shows-off-trumps-map-of-israel-with-golan-heights

    https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/a-nice-map-from-trump-to-netanyahu.jpg?quality=90&strip=a

    Netanyahu shows off Trump’s map of Israel with Golan Heights
    In bid to play down political chaos and focus on his foreign policy chops before going on to skewer rival Liberman, PM whips out gift from Kushner on which Trump scribbled ‘nice’

    3. Les cinq ennemis d’Israël (juillet 2016)

    In Netanyahu’s new illustrated world, Israel has just five enemies | The Times of Israel

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-netanyahus-new-illustrated-world-israel-has-just-five-enemies

    In Netanyahu’s new illustrated world, Israel has just five enemies
    The PM this week prepared a map to show MKs how he sees Israel’s place among the nations. It makes for fascinating, and surprisingly optimistic, viewing

    4. Abbas exige de Netanyahou qu’il dessine une carte proposant deux États (avril2013)

    ’Abbas calls on Netanyahu to draw two-state map’ - Middle East - Jerusalem Post
    https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Abbas-calls-on-Netanyahu-to-draw-two-state-map-308855
    https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/t_Article2016_Control/211814

    Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded a map for a future Palestinian state before the resumption of any peace talks, Palestinian news agency Ma’an quoted an aide as saying on Friday.

    5. Netanyahou présente une drôle de carte « prouvant » les risque iraniens devant les membres de l’AIPAC aux Etats-Unis (mai 2015)

    Benjamin Netanyahu used this strange map to show the reach of Iranian-backed terrorists - Business Insider

    https://www.businessinsider.com/benjamin-netanyahu-used-this-strange-map-to-show-the-reach-of-irani

    Benjamin Netanyahu just used this strange map to show AIPAC the reach of Iranian-backed terrorists

    Armin Rosen

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference on Monday. He defended his coming and highly controversial speech to Congress, arguing that the US and Israel were strategically and sentimentally close enough to weather even major disagreements.

    6. Netanyahou montre comment il colorie le monde en bleu (mars 2018)

    Netanyahu At AIPAC : Together, U.S. And Israel Are « Coloring The World Blue » | Video | RealClearPolitics

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/03/06/benjamin_netanyahus_full_aipac_speech.html

    We’re coloring the world blue," he said about Israel, in front of a map of I’ve been to Africa 3 times in 18 months I’ve been to South America, Latin America— in the 70 years in the history of America of PM never went south of Texas? I love Texas but yeah, I do. We went to Argentina, we went to Columbia, to Mexico, and they said come back, we want more. That is changing. All these countries are coming to us, India, China Mongolia, Kazakhstan, all of it. Azerbaijan, Muslim countries. [For the] First time I visited Australia, tremendous, far away though. We’re coloring the world blue."

    6. Netanyahou prouve l’existence de bases de lancement de missile à Beyrouth (octobre 2018)

    Benjamin Netanyahu points to map of Beirut missile sites at UN - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-03/benjamin-netanyahu-points-to-map-of-beirut-missile-sites-at-un/10331672

    Benjamin Netanyahu points to map of Beirut missile sites at UN

    Posted 2 Oct 2018, 10:21pm

    Benjamin Netanyahu points to guided missile sites in Beirut during his UN address on September 27.

    7. Netanyahou propose une carte pour un statut « final » pour un État palestinien... (janvier 2014)

    Bibi’s final status map leaves little room for Palestine

    https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/01/settlements-map-two-state-netanyahu-israel-palestine.html

    https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/files/live/sites/almonitor/files/images/almpics/2014/01/Jess%20map%20edit.jpg?t=thumbnail870

    The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is about the map — who gets what and how much of historic Palestine. US Secretary of State John Kerry may well have an opinion about this — it is hard to believe that he does not — but President Barack Obama’s White House has yet to decide whether to break with the history of the last four decades and draw an American picture of what the states of Israel and Palestine should look like.

    No such hesitation is to be found among the Palestine Liberation Organization and its chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, the signatories to the Arab Peace Initiative or members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). They accept the June 4, 1967, border as the line dividing the state of Israel from the yet-to-be-created state of Palestine. They are prepared to consider modifications to this map, the so-called land swaps, not because they want to, but in order to satisfy Israel’s territorial demands over this demarcation.

    8. Netanyahou et la bombe (iranienne) illustrée" (septembre 2012)

    Bibi and the bomb | The Times of Israel

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/bibi-and-the-bomb

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who goes by the cutesy dimunitive Bibi), had his say last night at the United Nations, telling the world about Iran’s nuclear threat with the aid of a comical-looking bomb sketch. Now the talking heads, or writing heads, scramble to have their say, running buck wild to make their opinions heard like a pack of Jews at a sour cream versus applesauce debate.

    9. Netanyahou montre les sites nucléaires secrets dans la région de Téhéran" (avril 2018)

    What Netanyahu Said and Didn’t Say About Iran’s Nuclear Program - The Atlantic

    https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/04/netanyahu-iran-nuclear-program/559295

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech Monday that he billed as showing “something that the world has never seen.” He vowed to provide evidence of Iran’s duplicity over its nuclear program, and especially its obligations to the nuclear agreement Tehran signed in 2015 with the world’s powers. But much of the speech concerned details of Iran’s covert nuclear program from the years 1999 to 2003, and it provided no smoking-gun evidence that those programs were continuing in violation of the deal—something that would have given Donald Trump’s administration the justification it might be looking for to withdraw from it.

    Here’s what the speech, which was made mostly in English (ostensibly for a Western audience), did say about Iran’s nuclear program.

    #netanyahou #cartographie #manipulation #visualisation #mensonge #iran #israël #rhétorique #narrations #illustration

  • Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say
    https://jalopnik.com/uber-and-lyft-take-a-lot-more-from-drivers-than-they-sa-1837450373


    Das Magain Jalopnik hat in einer längeren Untersuchung die erste, einzige und beste Untersuchung der Fahrerverdienste bei Uber durchgeführt. Dieser Artikel beschreibt die Ergebnisse.

    Dhruv Mehrotra, Aaron Gordon, 26.8.2019 - In July, an Uber driver we’ll call Dave—his name has been changed here to protect his identity—picked up a fare in a trendy neighborhood of a major U.S. metropolitan area. It was rush hour and surge pricing was in effect due to increased demand, meaning that Dave would be paid almost twice the regular fare.

    Even though the trip was only five miles, it lasted for more than half an hour because his passengers scheduled a stop at Taco Bell for dinner. Dave knew sitting at the restaurant waiting for his fares to get a Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch or whatever would cost him money; he was earning only 21 cents a minute when the meter was running, compared to 60 cents per mile. With surge pricing in effect, it would be far more lucrative to keep moving and picking up new fares than sitting in a parking lot.

    But Dave, who was granted anonymity out of fear of being deactivated by the ride-hail giant for speaking to the press, had no real choice but to wait. The passenger had requested the stop through the app, so refusing to make it would have been contentious both with the customer and with Uber. The exact number varies by city, but drivers must maintain a high rating in order to work on their platform. And there’s widespread belief among drivers that the Uber algorithm punishes drivers for cancelling trips.

    Ultimately, the rider paid $65 for the half-hour trip, according to a receipt viewed by Jalopnik. But Dave made only $15 (the fares have been rounded to anonymize the transaction).

    Uber kept the rest, meaning the multibillion-dollar corporation kept more than 75 percent of the fare, more than triple the average so-called “take-rate” it claims in financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Had he known in advance how much he would have been paid for the ride relative to what the rider paid, Dave said he never would have accepted the fare.

    “This is robbery,” Dave told Jalopnik over email. “This business is out of control.”

    Dave is far from alone in his frustrations. Uber and Lyft have slashed driver pay in recent years and now take a larger portion of each fare, far larger than the companies publicly report, based on data collected by Jalopnik. And the new Surge or Prime Time pricing structure widely adopted by both companies undermines a key legal argument both companies make to classify drivers as independent contractors.

    Jalopnik asked drivers to send us fare receipts showing a breakdown of how much the rider paid for the trip, how much of that fare Uber or Lyft kept, and what the driver earned. (https://jalopnik.com/we-think-uber-and-lyfts-new-surge-fares-screw-drivers-a-1835952856)

    Link: We Think Uber and Lyft’s New Surge Fares Screw Drivers and Riders. Help Us Prove It. https://jalopnik.com/we-think-uber-and-lyfts-new-surge-fares-screw-drivers-a-1835952856

    Link: Uber changed how its surge pricing works last year. Not for riders, but for drivers. The changes… https://jalopnik.com/we-think-uber-and-lyfts-new-surge-fares-screw-drivers-a-1835952856

    In total, we received 14,756 fares. These came from two sources: the web form where drivers could submit fares individually, and via email where some drivers sent us all their fares from a given time period.

    Of all the fares Jalopnik examined, Uber kept 35 percent of the revenue, while Lyft kept 38 percent. These numbers are roughly in line with a previous study by Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute which concluded Uber’s take rate to be roughly one-third, or 33 percent. (https://www.epi.org/publication/uber-and-the-labor-market-uber-drivers-compensation-wages-and-the-scale-of-uber)

    Of the drivers who emailed us breakdowns for all of their fares in a given time period—ranging from a few months to more than a year—Uber kept, on average, 29.6 percent. Lyft pocketed 34.5 percent.

    Those take rates are 10.6 percent and 8.5 percent higher than Uber and Lyft’s publicly reported figures, respectively.


    Graphic: Jim Cooke — G/O Media

    In regulatory filings, Uber has reported its so-called “take-rate” is actually going down, from 21.7 percent in 2018 to 19 percent in the second quarter of 2019 (Uber declined to offer U.S.-only figures for a more direct comparison to Jalopnik’s findings).

    Business Insider has previously reported Lyft’s take rate for 2018 was 26.8 percent, although Lyft claimed it does not publicly share their take rates and declined to do so with Jalopnik.

    When asked for comment, Uber and Lyft disputed Jalopnik’s findings as flawed and not representative of their overall business. But neither company agreed to Jalopnik’s request to provide statistically significant data sets of anonymized fares for independent verification, continuing their longstanding pattern of data secrecy. (https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/08/uber-drivers-lawsuit-personal-data-ride-hailing-gig-economy/594232

    The findings “support the argument that their business model is built on large scale labor exploitation.”

    Trips like the $65 Taco Bell run only highlight inequities between the multibillion dollar companies and drivers earning at or below minimum wage. When asked about that fare, an Uber spokesman acknowledged, “For all the pain points new surge helped solve, it has its challenges: top among them is the fact that drivers may earn comparatively less on longer surged trips, even if they earn surge more frequently.”

    The spokesman added that “To better serve drivers, we often increase surge payments on longer trips with added amounts that vary based on the length of a trip. Drivers are able to see this additional amount on their trip receipt after the trip is over.” Dave received no such increase.

    Trips like Dave’s also expose inconsistencies in the very logic under which these companies operate. Drivers like Dave are technically independent contractors, but they have no control over many aspects of their work life, including the price of their own services.

    “This is really fascinating and troubling,” said Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director of the Open Markets Institute, a nonprofit studying corporate concentration and monopoly power, when briefed on Jalopnik’s findings. Vaheesan went on to say the findings “support the argument that their business model is built on large scale labor exploitation.”

    “This is, as far as I know, the most convincing data that we have at the individual driver level about the share that Uber takes of every driver’s gross earnings,” said Marshall Steinbaum, an economist at the University of Utah who studies labor markets, “and in that respect it moves the ball a lot forward in terms of understanding how these labor markets work.”

    He added that “if their [Uber and Lyft’s] response is this is not representative of all the drivers, it is representative of other people who have tried to verify their claims and found them wanting.”

    To be sure, Jalopnik’s data set is not perfect. The sample of 14,756 fares is a tiny fraction of the millions of trips Uber and Lyft complete each day in the U.S. alone; it would be impossible for any independent researcher to get their hands on an adequate data set without Uber and Lyft’s cooperation (or, in theory, more nefarious methods such as hacking or data breaches).

    And there is almost certainly some degree of selection bias in Jalopnik’s data acquired via the web form toward drivers who are unhappy with their share and would therefore be more likely to take the time to submit their fare. Along those lines, the fares Jalopnik received through the web form were disproportionately from outside of Uber and Lyft’s major metropolitan markets and during surge times, indicating a possible selection bias in our findings.

    “While 8,926 fares is a large increase from the 175 you had before,” (https://jalopnik.com/we-think-uber-and-lyfts-new-surge-fares-screw-drivers-a-1835952856) an Uber spokesman said, “it is still not a statistically representative sample, given Uber completes approximately 15 million trips per day around the world.”

    But there are also reasons to believe our findings are more representative of the individual driver experience than Uber and Lyft would care to admit. Even the complete fare records Jalopnik received showed a higher take rate than previously reported (https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-lyft-strike-why-take-rate-is-so-important-2019-5). And these drivers, Steinbaum observed, may present a selection bias in the other direction.

    By keeping diligent records, “they’re probably the savviest drivers and therefore the ones that the companies are least able to fleece, so to speak, so you might be getting an underestimate of their take from them.”

    Lyft disputed this as well. A spokesman told Jalopnik, “Even if the investigation looked at every ride for a handful of drivers, the sample pool of drivers needs to accurately reflected [sic] a cross section of all Lyft drivers, and not just a specific subset (i.e., did that sample size have enough diversity to say it represents the average experience for Lyft drivers across the board).”

    In regulatory filings, court cases, and their terms of service, Uber and Lyft claim to merely be facilitators between the rider and driver, not a transportation service. They claim their actual customers are drivers (https://jalopnik.com/uber-s-twisted-logic-means-this-isnt-a-strike-its-a-bo-1834598838). And drivers pay Uber and Lyft a cut of their earnings for connecting them with their customers, the riders. This echoes a common Silicon Valley refrain: they are just technology companies, and therefore should not be subject to the regulations of the industries they are disrupting.
    Article preview thumbnail

    Link: Uber’s Twisted Logic Means This Isn’t a Strike. It’s a Boycott https://jalopnik.com/uber-s-twisted-logic-means-this-isnt-a-strike-its-a-bo-1834598838

    Link: Today, many Uber and Lyft drivers in major cities across the country are striking to protest their… https://jalopnik.com/uber-s-twisted-logic-means-this-isnt-a-strike-its-a-bo-1834598838

    But in recent years, in efforts to stem the tide of their multi-billion dollar losses, both ride-hail companies have separated what riders pay from what drivers earn, moving away from a strict percentage-based commission.

    Using what it calls Upfront Pricing, first instituted in 2016, Uber tells riders exactly how much they will pay before the trip begins based on their own algorithm’s prediction (as is often the case, Lyft instituted the same policy shortly after Uber). It then compensates drivers based on the trip’s actual time and distance.

    According to both companies, the change to Upfront Pricing was made in response to rider and driver feedback; riders didn’t want to be surprised with a higher bill, and drivers wanted to be compensated for the work they actually performed.

    This common-sense policy has potentially profound legal implications. In practice, Upfront Pricing decouples the rider’s payment from the driver’s earnings; one price is set before the ride based on an estimate, the other after the ride is completed based on reality.

    This change is most evident with how Uber and Lyft now handle high-demand periods. Along with the move to Upfront Pricing, both companies also changed the way their high-demand pricing model, often known as Surge or Prime Time works (Lyft has since changed the brand name to Personal Power Zones for drivers).

    Instead of drivers receiving a multiplier on their earnings, as Dave did for the Taco Bell run, most now get a flat fee bonus, typically only a few dollars per ride. Uber and Lyft will sometimes kick the drivers a couple extra bucks if the surge is particularly high or the ride especially long, but there seems to be little rhyme or reason for when this happens. Riders, meanwhile, still pay the multiplier, meaning riders are often paying far more than drivers are earning on those rides.

    “It shows that they are a firm that is charging consumers and then making decisions with that money, including how to pay a labor force.”

    An Uber spokesman explained this dynamic to Jalopnik as follows: “While driver- and rider-side surge are both tied to real-time imbalances in supply and demand, what a rider pays in surge and what a driver earns from surge on a given trip isn’t always the same. This is due, in part, to the fact that new driver surge is based on the driver’s location, not the rider’s. What this means is that a driver may receive surge on a trip even if the rider doesn’t pay anything extra.”

    Similarly, a Lyft spokesman said, “Lyft continues to pass the rider Prime Time onto the drivers, via PPZs, at the same rate in aggregate. There are differences on a ride-level but these differences cut in both directions,” in that sometimes drivers earn an usually higher or lower percentage of the fare.

    In other words, Uber and Lyft say they are taking all the surge charges riders pay and spreading the proceeds among all the drivers in the area, whether their particular passenger pays a surge fare or not (both companies deny they merely pocket the difference).

    This, according to Wayne State University law professor Sanjuka Paul, who has written extensively on the ride-hailing industry, is a new wrinkle in the independent contractor debate, because it doesn’t align with the arguments the companies make that they merely facilitate interactions between two independent actors in a market.

    “The economic reality is they, Uber and Lyft, are collecting the fare from the consumer and then making a capital firm decision which, in this case, doesn’t sound like a very bad decision— actually making quite a sensible decision,” she said. “But it shows that they are a firm that is charging consumers and then making decisions with that money, including how to pay a labor force.”

    Or, as Steinbaum put it, “what they’re doing is exactly what employers do with their workers.”

    In addition, the companies can, and have, changed the base time-and-distance rates drivers earn whenever they want. And there have been many pay cuts.

    In recent years, driver forums have been flooded with angry comments about hastily announced pay cuts in markets around the country. This, despite drivers already making near (or sometimes below https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/22/uber-lyft-ipo-drivers-unionize-low-pay-expenses) minimum wage. These cuts have led to some drivers who spoke with Jalopnik on the condition of anonymity curtailing their own hours, or exiting the ride-hail business entirely, because it’s no longer worth their time after accounting for expenses like fuel, insurance, and car payments.

    Uber and Lyft both deny that driver earnings have declined. “While not every driver has the same experience,” an Uber spokesman wrote to Jalopnik, “that’s not what we see when we look at trends in drivers’ average hourly earnings over the last couple of years, which have increased.”

    A Lyft spokesman told Jalopnik the number of drivers on their platform is increasing and that driver earnings increased over the past two years. The company claims drivers make “more than $30 per booked hour nationally,” although that figure only accounts for the time from when a driver accepts a ride request to when the passenger is dropped off and does not include expenses.

    Some drivers didn’t even realize the extent of the changes in the company’s take rates, both for high-demand trips specifically and across the board, until they compiled their records to send to Jalopnik. One driver, who has been working for Uber in Texas for three years, sent us almost 500 surge fares.

    “Kind of depressing to know that Uber used to take 20 percent when I started and now gets on average 31 percent, with some fares up to 50 percent,” he said.

    A former full-time driver from Iowa said that prior to the pay cuts that ultimately slashed his per-mile rate more than half, he estimates about 30 percent of the fares he picked up were, after Uber and Lyft’s cut, not worth his time. After those changes, from 2018 onward, he says the number of undesirable fares is now closer to 70 or 80 percent, which is why he stopped driving full-time.

    (It’s tricky to compare ride-hail take rates with the taxi industry in any meaningful way, where drivers are on the hook for fixed expenses such as dispatching services, leasing the taxi and/or paying off the cost of a medallion. Taxi drivers have to pay those fees regardless of how much money they earn. In fact, many taxi drivers switched to ride-hailing because percentage-based commissions—along with the hefty sign-up bonuses Uber and Lyft once offered—sounded like a better deal.)

    The drivers’ frustrations with pay cuts and Uber and Lyft’s rising take rates are compounded by other inequities of the ride-hail industry.

    Uber and Lyft argue that drivers are not employees, but independent contractors, since they are allowed to set their own schedules. Both companies lean heavily on this arrangement in advertisements and promotions to recruit drivers, using phrases like “be your own boss” (http://ourweekly.com/news/2015/may/07/becoming-your-own-boss-uber) to describe the arrangement.

    But the reality is much more complicated. In fact, drivers don’t have the power to make many of the decisions that typically come with self-employment. Chief among them is the ability to set prices—or even negotiate—for the services they provide.

    In driver agreements, both companies state that drivers accept their new rates simply by continuing to drive for the company. In other words, the only recourse drivers have to a pay cut is to quit; a familiar arrangement for any employee, but not for anyone who is their “own boss,” and thus would not have income determined by another company’s ever-changing set of rules.

    “It’s really crazy how companies have carte blanche to deprive us of our rights through contract,” Vaheesan wrote in a follow-up email after Jalopnik showed him the contract language. “Courts and Congress have basically accepted this regime as normal.”

    Furthermore, drivers have the option to decline or cancel rides, but there is widespread belief among drivers that if they do it too often, they risk being put in “timeouts” where they receive no requests at all for a certain amount of time, a phenomenon that is frequently documented in driver forums and blogs.
    Drivers don’t have the power to make many of the decisions that typically come with self-employment. Chief among them is the ability to set prices—or even negotiate—for the services they provide.

    Both companies deny they punish drivers in any way for declining rides, but Lyft acknowledged some incentives are only available to drivers with high ride acceptance rates.

    In another bid to increase revenue, Uber is rolling out Comfort Mode (https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/9/20686640/uber-comfort-extra-legroom-quiet-mode-temperature-air-conditioning-ac), which provides riders amenities such as a car with extra legroom, the option to set a desired temperature, or request the driver to be quiet for an extra fee (drivers for Comfort rides get a few cents extra added to their mile-and-time rates).

    Uber says this is merely a request to the driver rather than a requirement, but riders are unlikely to be pleased if a driver refuses to comply with a request they paid extra for. Should a driver not follow the instructions, it is likely they would at the very least receive a lower rating.

    Taken together, rather than being their own bosses, drivers often feel as if they are being governed by algorithms, as Alex Rosenblat wrote in her deeply reported book Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work. (https://www.amazon.com/Uberland-Algorithms-Rewriting-Rules-Work/dp/0520298578) This algorithmic “boss,” which sets pay rates in opaque ways and governs work rules through carrot-and-stick arrangements, not only removes any accountability but results in drivers having to guess what the algorithm wants. In her book, Rosenblat wrote:

    An algorithmic manager enacts its policies, penalizes drivers for behaving in a manner unlike what Uber “suggests,” and incentivizes them to work at particular places in particular times…When I ask drivers if they are their own boss, they usually pause and remark that it’s sort of true, and that they set their own schedule. But an app-employer provides a type of experience that differs from human interactions, and it can be challenging to identify the fault lines of autonomy and control within its automated system.

    In an interview for this story, Rosenblat, who spoke to hundreds of drivers researching her book, added that drivers had different reactions to rides where they thought they didn’t get a fair cut.

    “Some drivers were pissed, and they would say, if I’m an independent contractor you should give me the information I need to make an informed choice,” Rosenblat said. “But other drivers rationalize taking bad fares with the idea that taking a bad one is kind of like karma… If you only take a passenger a couple of blocks on this ride, you might get compensated for a better ride later.”

    Rosenblat added that the karmic realignment theory is a direct result of the lack of transparency from the ride-hail giants. She characterized it as a “magical thinking [drivers] wouldn’t have to resort to if Uber and Lyft gave them the actual facilities to make informed decisions, or to better understand how they might be treated, or rewarded and penalized, for their work performance with valuable or less valuable dispatches.”

    A full-time veteran driver from New Orleans told Jalopnik that she somewhat subscribes to the karmic realignment theory on the take rates, although recent cuts have changed her attitude a bit. She has seen her earnings drop roughly 20 percent this year due to a combination of factors, including an expanding of the driver pool as a result of the companies allowing older vehicles than prior years. As a result, she is considering a job change, even though an occasional health issue makes the flexible hours of ride-hailing especially appealing.

    Even though she prefers driving to her previous jobs in the service industry, she said she has come to believe Uber and Lyft’s take rates ought to be capped, perhaps at 25 or 30 percent, and said she would get behind a driver organizing campaign to make the profession more sustainable.

    But for now, she still avoids looking at individual fare breakdowns. “It just annoys me,” she said, “and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

    –----

    Discussion, Community (492)
    Sort by: Popular

    BigRed91
    Dhruv Mehrotra
    8/26/19 12:18pm

    So this is an at-will gig where you pick your own hours, have no barrier to entry besides owning a car, have no interview process, and can quit whenever you want with no repercussions and you make $30/hour. What exactly are people complaining about?

    If you don’t like it, go get an actual job and quit driving. Hell, get your CDL and go be a delivery driver. Clearly drivers are willing to work for the pay here since the companies are having no issue covering demand (financial issues aside). If you have an issue with the way they do business, don’t drive for them and don’t use their services.
    145
    Reply
    Give Me Tacos or Give Me Death
    BigRed91
    8/26/19 12:36pm

    I can’t comment on the average hourly wage an Uber/Lyft driver makes because it almost certainly varies with geography.

    But the entire time you’re driving, you’re burning fuel, wearing out tires and such. Those cost money. They could PROBABLY be deducted from one’s taxes, but I’m not sure the average person knows if that’s true, or keeps their receipts, or has an accountant who can answer the question with any authority.

    So the real wage is almost certainly going to be considerably lower.
    94
    Reply
    eviligloo
    BigRed91
    8/26/19 12:37pm

    I drove for Uber for 6 months in a major market. I never saw the $30 they claim. Actual take home after expenses was closer to $12-$17/hr depending on when it was. Tipping was almost nonexistent.

    How would you come up with a number of $30/hr? Well you would have to ignore all the expenses the driver incurs (taxes, insurance, gas, etc) plus disregard all of the idle time waiting for the next time you are paired up with a driver. There is an airport lot near me where drivers sit for over 2 hours waiting for a single fare (and you don’t know if they are going 40 minutes away or 2 minutes away when you finally DO get it because they don’t tell you in advance). I guarantee none of that time was factored into their calculation.

    I killed an hour just waiting in a lot making $0 once. I’ll never sit in an airport lot again.
    146
    Reply
    Cash Rewards
    BigRed91
    8/26/19 12:37pm

    You’re right in a lot of what you’re saying, but when I put off cdl school to do this gig because they say they only take 20% or so, then stiff me another 10-15%, then I’ve wasted time and money because they lied about how they do business. That’s shitty
    89
    Reply
    Big Block I-4
    BigRed91
    8/26/19 12:40pm

    You don’t make $30/hr. That is only if you are constantly booked, if you do 6-10 min. trips over three hours you will make $30 in a hour of work time, but it will have taken you 3 hours to work an hour. Their $30/hr booked rate is a useless stat unless you can work non-stop, which is impossible since you are never dropping off and picking people up at the exact same time a place ride after ride after ride.
    147
    Reply
    Show more replies in this thread
    Revson
    Dhruv Mehrotra
    8/26/19 12:25pm

    So the companies are ripping off drivers and still losing a metric shit ton of cash. It seems nobody is making any money in this scheme except the investors and executives, ohhhhhhhhhh.
    109
    Reply
    For Sweden
    Revson
    8/26/19 12:58pm

    How are the investors making money?
    Illustration for comment
    27
    Reply
    Left Lane is for Passing
    Revson
    8/26/19 1:06pm

    They are the only ones loosing money. Drivers get paid, passenger get cheaper than should be rides.
    13
    Reply
    krhodes1
    Revson
    8/26/19 1:07pm

    I really don’t get how they lose as much money as they do, unless they are heating their buildings by burning $100 bills.

    Somebody is making money here, but it is neither the drivers nor the investors.
    30
    Reply
    For Sweden
    Left Lane is for Passing
    8/26/19 1:11pm

    “Billionaires are going bankrupt subsidizing my Uber ride and that is bad.”

    -Jalopnik
    29
    Reply
    Show more replies in this thread
    Harry
    Dhruv Mehrotra
    8/26/19 12:35pm

    This is a lot of words dedicated to a fundamentally broken statistical analysis of a non-random survey of an insignificant sample size and some anecdotal stories.
    67
    Reply
    Nytmare
    Harry
    8/26/19 1:52pm

    Well go ahead and do an article on the data you wish you had, so you can compare it to the article Jalopnik did on the data they do have, and then we’ll see whose article is better.
    137
    Reply
    ZHP Sparky, the 5th
    Harry
    8/26/19 1:58pm

    What alternative are you suggesting? The rideshare companies are notorious for keeping their ridership data close to the vest...so that leaves you needing to try gathering what you can from the drivers.

    If you’re willing to fund a larger and more scientific study perhaps you should reach out to the author?

    Or are you suggest some form of regulatory filing requirement for ridership data? Excellent idea, I’m sure Uber and Lyft will be thrilled!
    45
    Reply
    Sean Bond
    Harry
    8/26/19 2:04pm

    I don’t want to say “well, they got your click,” but aside from the informational aspect of this piece (and it does give some insight into Uber/Lyft even if it’s not an incredibly significant sample size), they also are getting traffic on the piece (no pun intended), even by people who don’t think the story matters. So, mission accomplished.
    5
    Reply
    Patrick
    Harry
    8/26/19 2:40pm

    Your comment is entirely anecdotal.
    15
    Reply
    Show more replies in this thread
    Hayden Lorell
    Dhruv Mehrotra
    8/26/19 12:10pm

    Uber and Lyft ripping off drivers?
    Illustration for comment

    Seriously, I started to notice these discrepancies within 3 months of driving for Lyft.

    I did it at the time because my contract job was up, and I was in-between jobs looking for new work. I’m happy I didn’t have to do it for more than the year that I did do it. While it’s a fun and amusing side-gig, driving people around, it’s by no means sustainable with the current structure.

    It was good, quick cash to help me in a rough spot but truly this was never meant to be long term. I don’t see a [regulated] situation where it is any more sustainable than a cab business. In which case, cab companies are you listening?

    If you upgrade to digital dispatching, payment, ride-hailing, etc. on a universal system, and maybe vacuumed a fucking cab more than once a year, you could easily overtake these apps.

    Because as a driver? Fuck these guys. But as a rider? What the fuck is a better option when public transit is a joke, cabs are....cabs, and owning a vehicle is nothing but a headache in urban areas.
    70
    Reply
    ZHP Sparky, the 5th
    Hayden Lorell
    8/26/19 2:00pm

    OK that’s a very reasonable take, but I object to your statement that “this was never meant to be long term”.

    Sure, that’s the companies’ PR spin on things – but the reality is they need rivers to stay with them for as long as possible, and to drive as many hours as they can entice them in to.

    Grandmas trying to make knitting money and college kids in between classes aren’t going to make up the ridership volume they’re looking for in the large markets they’re trying to dominate.
    11
    Reply
    Sean Bond
    Hayden Lorell
    8/26/19 2:07pm

    Yeah, it really sucks because in some ways, Lyft and Uber have revolutionized people getting around (especially in metro areas). It’s so much more convenient than it used to be, response time is insane (4 minutes is about as long as I typically have to wait around my neighborhood), and in general the whole user experience is great for riders.

    But for drivers, and for traffic (and yes, for cabbies), it just blows.
    12
    Reply
    Hayden Lorell
    ZHP Sparky, the 5th
    8/26/19 2:41pm

    My argument to that would be that these “driver incentives” that they use for new drivers are just made up through this price gouging, especially when the driver is out of that probationary period and they’re no longer entitled to driving incentives. I would argue they absolutely can deal with constant driver turnover as it’s not like they have anything invested in the drivers besides giving them a free LED “pill” (after they’ve done over 250 rides). As long as they keep getting desperate people, with or without 4 wheels, who need money, they will keep this shit up.
    4
    Reply
    lonememe
    ZHP Sparky, the 5th
    8/26/19 2:59pm

    I look at it like when I worked retail during college at REI and tried to make a living off of it afterward. As a society, we honestly don’t really need the benefits offered by having full-time long-term employees in areas like retail and cab driving, and companies are recognizing this and moving away from it. This isn’t to say I agree with this practice, as I wish we do still had knowledgable long-term full-timers in specialized retail, but I think this is what’s going on:

    Think of the retail experience prior to the internet. You were going to a store to talk to someone with experience and knowledge (albeit biased) in a field you were less familiar with and had less information available to you about. The long-term full-time retail worker would have been to trade shows and the like to increase their product knowledge, on top of years in the field working with those products. Now that we have review blogs/vlogs, and product reviews on product pages, we kind of don’t need them except for the few specific items that are body fit specific. We can find out more seemingly unbiased information online than they can tell us in-store, so what’s the incentive to keeping them around as they become more expensive for a company to retain? I just don’t think there is one from a business perspective, which is a monetary one, but I wish they’d rethink that since I think there is a less tangible benefit felt by customers in terms of trust and what not.

    Same goes for driver professions. Prior to everyone having GPS on their phone, who was the best source of navigation in a local area? AAA and cab drivers. Well, cab drivers got greedy and people got smart and saw they were being ripped off considering the information is now widely available in your handheld devices. I experienced this in London too when my company booked a black cab from city back to Heathrow. Not exaggerating, it was 3 times more expensive than the Uber I took from Heathrow to the city and there was absolutely zero advantage that I could discern. The black cab driver didn’t say squat to us that would indicate they gleaned something from their supposedly rigorous knowledge test they have to take, and it was just a really typical taxi when it comes down to it.

    I don’t know, it’s just my .02 but I think that’s why we’re seeing these companies try to make it hard to stick around. They just don’t want us to.

    #Uber #Lyft #USA #Ausbeutung #surge_pricing

  • NYC restaurant industry is thriving after $15 minimum wage - Business Insider
    https://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-restaurant-industry-thriving-after-15-dollar-minimum-wage-2019-

    While the city’s restaurant growth is likely a result of the city’s overall strong economy, the report’s findings might suggest that paying workers more won’t immediately lead to job loss or other negative business consequences as previously thought.

    Business leaders, economists, and pundits have long worried that raising employees’ wages would lead to bad business. Warren Buffett said a $15 hourly wage would reduce employment. Congressional economists said a federal hike would cut 1 million jobs. And some New York businesses recently told The Wall Street Journal that they struggled to keep up after the wage increase.

    But Parrott told Gothamist that he attributed the inevitability of some restaurants failing to the industry’s competitive nature.

    #salaire_minimum #emploi

  • Rep. #Ilhan_Omar responds to ’#send_her_back' chant with poem - Business Insider

    https://www.businessinsider.com/ilhan-omar-responds-send-her-back-chant-maya-angelou-poem-2019-7

    Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar has responded to supporters at a rally for President Donald Trump chanting “send her back,” and she used a stanza from a Maya Angelou poem, later tweeting that she was where she belonged: “at the people’s house.”
    "She looks down with contempt on the hard-working Americans, saying that ignorance is pervasive in many parts of this country," Trump said of Omar during the rally, prompting the chant.
    Trump supporters have long chanted “lock her up” at his rallies, referring to his 2016 Democratic presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, even well after the election.

    Still I Rise by Maya Angelou - Poems | Academy of American Poets
    https://poets.org/poem/still-i-rise

    Still I Rise
    Maya Angelou - 1928-2014

    You may write me down in history
    With your bitter, twisted lies,
    You may trod me in the very dirt
    But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

    Does my sassiness upset you?
    Why are you beset with gloom?
    ’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
    Pumping in my living room.
    Just like moons and like suns,
    With the certainty of tides,
    Just like hopes springing high,
    Still I’ll rise.

    Did you want to see me broken?
    Bowed head and lowered eyes?
    Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
    Weakened by my soulful cries?

    Does my haughtiness offend you?
    Don’t you take it awful hard
    ’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
    Diggin’ in my own backyard.

    You may shoot me with your words,
    You may cut me with your eyes,
    You may kill me with your hatefulness,
    But still, like air, I’ll rise.

    Does my sexiness upset you?
    Does it come as a surprise
    That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
    At the meeting of my thighs?

    Out of the huts of history’s shame
    I rise
    Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
    I rise
    I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
    Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

    Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
    I rise
    Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
    I rise
    Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
    I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
    I rise
    I rise
    I rise.

    From And Still I Rise by #Maya_Angelou. Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.

    #poésie #trump

  • Mexicans Are Stealing Border Wall Materials, Using Them For Home Security

    Unnamed Mexican officials told San Diego’s KUSI-TV that 15 to 20 people have been arrested for stealing concertina wire from the U.S.-Mexico border and selling it to security-minded homeowners in Tijuana.


    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/border-wall-stolen-tijuana-home-security_n_5c9291bbe4b08c4fec33b5f4
    #murs #utilisation_alternative_des_ressources #ré-usage #recyclage #barrières_frontalières #walls_don't_work

    Autres exemples sur twitter, publiés à la demande de Reece Jones:
    https://twitter.com/tlesam/status/1108523471104081920

    Autres exemples, donc:


    https://qz.com/484342/locals-are-using-the-us-mexico-border-fence-as-a-giant-volleyball-net
    #sport #volleyball


    http://time.com/4346012/greek-migrants-macedonia-idomeni-camp


    https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/north-east/sc-order-on-border-fence/cid/1436674
    #séchoir


    https://www.thelocal.de/20091019/22677
    #tourisme et #souvenirs


    https://www.cntraveler.com/story/usmexico-border-art-installation
    #art


    https://subtopia.blogspot.com/2007/06/extreme-border-sports.html
    #sport

    • An 8-year-old girl climbed an 18-foot replica of Donald Trump’s ’un-climbable’ border wall in seconds

      An 18-foot replica of Donald Trump’s border wall has been scaled in a matter of seconds by novice climbers, an eight-year-old girl, and a man who returned for another attempt while juggling with one hand.

      The US president described his wall as “virtually impenetrable” during a trip to the US-Mexico border in September, claiming 20 “world class” mountain climbers had told him his chosen prototype was difficult to climb.

      “We had 20 mountain climbers. That’s all they do, they love to climb mountains … some of them were champions,” Mr Trump said. “And we gave them different prototypes of walls, and this was the one that was hardest to climb … this wall can’t be climbed.”

      His remarks were taken as a challenge by 75-year-old Rick Weber, co-founder of Muir Valley, a rock climbing park and nature reserve in Kentucky.

      “You don’t tell a bona fide rock climber something’s impossible to climb,” he told Time magazine.

      Mr Weber, a retired engineer, decided to build a replica of Mr Trump’s wall using official dimensions and recent images of the structure.

      He wrote in to popular climbing magazine Rock & Ice to announce a climbing competition on 11 and 12 October to coincide with Rocktoberfest, one of the largest annual gatherings of climbers in the US.

      “No one in our climbing community knows any of these 20 mountaineers. I doubt if they exist,” he wrote. "More importantly, to declare something to be impossible to climb to a bona fide rock climber is to issue a challenge.

      “So, I decided to build an exact replica and hold a competition.”

      Ahead of the official competition, several people had already managed to climb the wall.

      Among these was eight-year-old Lucy Hancock, who climbed the replica using a belay – a rope that acts as a safety measure, rather than an aid. Footage showed her scaling the majority of the wall in little more than a minute.

      Erik Kloeker, a 29-year-old climbing guide and property manager at Muir Valley who told The Courier Journal he had been climbing for nine years, climbed the structure in about 30 seconds in a demonstration.

      “The border wall that they’re building could be climbed pretty easily,” said Mr Kloeker, who juggled several items in one hand during repeat attempts.

      Mr Trump’s border wall is being built at heights of 18-feet and 30-feet, consisting of singular pillars and a larger panel along the top.

      Mr Weber told Time that as the large top panel is the same size, a climber who manages to ascend pillars of the 18-foot version would have no difficulty scaling the additional distance.

      He decided to allow climbers to hold on to the side of the top panel, as he claimed such gaps existed between each section of wall in the real designs.

      The retired engineer said a wall without pillars would be far more difficult to climb.

      “I’m not making an argument that we shouldn’t have a secure border. I’m not doing that at all,” he said. “What I’m trying to do is to make sure that we’re not blowing a lot of money on some silly nonsense of putting up something that he thinks can’t be climbed. Because it can. And will be.”

      During his September visit to the San Diego border, Mr Trump claimed hopeful climbers would “have to bring hoses and waters [sic]” to combat the large top panel of the design, which he said was designed to absorb enough heat to “fry an egg”.

      Mr Trump recently denied making enquiries about creating a moat filled with alligators and snakes along the border.

      Despite campaigning on the promise that Mexico would pay for the structure, the Defence Department has been forced to divert some $3.6 billion in military funding.

      https://www.businessinsider.com/8-year-old-climbs-replica-of-trump-wall-in-seconds-2019-10?IR=T