May 12, 2021
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) normally makes replays of its press conferences available to watch on YouTube. But today’s conference is notably absent. That’s probably because it was cut short when a protestor posing as a journalist snuck into the meeting and yelled, “No Olympics anywhere! Fuck the Olympics!”
The protestor captured a sentiment that’s growing among public health experts, Japanese citizens, opinion writers, and more: The Tokyo Summer Olympics, scheduled to begin July 23, should be canceled.
Cases of Covid-19 are rising in Japan, forcing its government to issue a state of emergency that will last through at least the end of May. On top of that, the country has been slow to roll out vaccines compared to other developed countries. Only about 2% of Japan’s population of 126 million is fully vaccinated.
May 5, 2021
The weather is warming in the US, and many parts of the country are reopening as Covid-19 infection rates fall. Americans are heading outdoors, and they’re going shoe shopping.
Data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis shows consumer spending at shoe stores and other retailers selling footwear spiked to an all-time high in March as measured at a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate, which allows for easier comparisons across time periods.
While the numbers could fall some once data are released for subsequent months, the March result was still a welcome jump to a higher level of sales than even before the pandemic, said Andy Polk, senior vice president at Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, a large trade group representing the industry. Though the causes aren’t evident from the data alone, it was likely the result of a perfect mixture of desire and ability to buy, he said.
May 3, 2021
It took Amazon 13 years to reach its first 100 million subscribers to Prime, the company’s benefits-loaded membership program. It took just three years to add its next 100 million, as founder Jeff Bezos revealed last month in his final letter to shareholders as Amazon’s CEO.
Prime has long served as the engine driving Amazon’s business, pulling new users in via perks such as streaming video and music and locking them into shopping on Amazon with fast, free shipping. The number of shoppers signing up is accelerating, perhaps especially now as e-commerce surges amid the pandemic and Amazon lures more customers both in the US and overseas. The average amount Prime members spend on Amazon also appears to be growing. It’s making Prime more valuable than ever to the company.
April 30, 2021
Derrick Rossi doesn’t quite see it this way, but he kind of saved the world.
In 2008, he began researching messenger RNA (mRNA), building on the long-ignored work of Hungarian researcher Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2010, his discovery that modified mRNA, the molecule that gives DNA instructions on how to behave, could be inserted into cells to produce proteins opened up a world of possibilities for the medical uses of mRNA technology.
It was a finding big enough to attract capital, allowing him to found a biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Timothy Springer, who like Rossi, was a professor at Harvard Medical school, and Robert Langer, an inventor, and professor at MIT.