‘Marsquakes’ may solve 50-year-old mystery about the Red Planet | Live Science

January 22, 2025January 21, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Recordings of Martian earthquakes, or “marsquakes,” collected by a robot on the Red Planet may have finally solved a 50-year-old mystery: why one half of Mars is so drastically different from the other.

Since the 1970s, researchers have known that Mars is split into two main areas. The northern lowlands cover around two-thirds of the planet’s northern hemisphere, while the southern highlands cover the rest of the planet and have an average elevation roughly 3 miles (5 kilometers) higher than that of the northern lowlands. Mars’ crust, which sits on top of a mantle of molten rock similar to the one inside Earth, is also thicker in the southern highlands. This planetary imbalance is known as the “Martian dichotomy.”

World’s fastest supercomputer ‘El Capitan’ goes online — it will be used to secure the US nuclear stockpile and in other classified research | Live Science

January 22, 2025January 21, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The fastest supercomputer in the world has officially launched at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LNNL) in California.

The supercomputer, called “El Capitan,” cost $600 million to build and will handle various sensitive and classified tasks including securing the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons in the absence of underground testing, according to LNNL representatives. This was prohibited in 1992.

Research will primarily be focused on national security, including material discovery, high-energy-density physics, nuclear data and weapon design, as well as other classified tasks.

Construction on the machine began in May 2023, and it came online in November 2024, before being officially dedicated on Jan. 9.

How Amazon is using its massive delivery infrastructure to help L.A. wildfire relief | Fast Company

January 21, 2025January 20, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When a red flag warning was issued in Los Angeles on January 7, a team at Amazon started reaching out to local nonprofits and fire agencies. In a warehouse outside the city—around 60 miles east, in San Bernadino County—the company had opened a wildfire disaster relief hub just months earlier, stocked with free firefighting equipment, from axes to boots to trauma kits.

The hub, which sits inside part of a regular Amazon fulfillment center, is one of 14 disaster hubs that the company now runs around the world, donating all of the supplies and logistics support. The work started in 2017, after conversations with nonprofits about the challenges of logistics in a crisis. “The more we spoke with first responders and nonprofits, we realized that it’s really, really hard to procure the right items at the speed that they’re needed,” says Bettina Stix, director of disaster relief and food security for Amazon Community Impact.

L.A. fires: Death toll may be in thousands due to wildfire smoke | Fast Company

January 21, 2025January 20, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The death toll from Los Angeles’ catastrophic wildfires has risen to 24 and is expected to increase further. The 16 direct fatalities from the Eaton Fire alone make it California’s fifth-deadliest wildfire, while the Palisades Fire, with eight deaths, ranks as the state’s 14th-deadliest fire.

However, the eventual death toll from the disaster is likely to be far, far, higher, once the health effects from the toxic smoke from the fires are fully realized. Additional deaths can be expected in the coming years because of the large-scale disruption to people’s lives that such a colossal disaster brings about – similar to what has been found in the aftermath of major hurricanes, which have been linked to thousands of indirect deaths up to 15 years after they hit.

Workplace Trends for 2025: Attracting Employees, Providing Excellent Employee Experiences, and More | AllBusiness.com

January 20, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Last year, we noted a “ workplace revolution” was probably on the way. While 2024 experienced much of that revolution, the culmination will likely be in 2025. AI has already had a significant impact in the workplace, and more change will surely come.

The demand that American workers return to the office continues despite technological advancements that make working from home more secure and easier than ever. America’s employees are not happy. Gallup calls the current “shift” workers are experiencing the “ Great Detachment.” According to Gallup, “For employers, this means that while turnover numbers may have slowed, employee productivity concerns and future talent loss are hidden organizational risks.” And it adds that when employees feel detached from their jobs, they are indifferent or resistant to workplace change.

I spoke to human resources and workplace experts for this article to find out how small businesses can continue to win the workplace revolution.

Workplace and Hiring Predictions for 2025

The 4 Best Ways to Boost Customer Retention | All Business

January 20, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We’ve all been in situations where we’ve felt like we were “taking two steps forward and one step back.” That’s exactly what’s happening when you work hard to optimize your advertising and marketing programs, but then realize your customer lifetime value isn’t what it should be.

Your hope is that your great product or service will create loyalty and devotion. While this is sometimes the case, the truth is that it’s not always an effective strategy. If you don’t focus on your customers and make them feel valued, they’ll eventually leave—and the cost is high. According to Bain & Company, attracting a new customer costs your business six to seven times more than retaining an existing one. You need to do what you can to continuously earn your customers’ loyalty—never underestimate the value of retention. Here are four keys to achieving the level of customer retention you need to boost your top line:

Phoenix Lender Services Launches to Revolutionize SBA and USDA Lending | Small Business Trends

January 17, 2025January 16, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Phoenix Lender Services, a subsidiary of Community Bankshares, Inc., has launched with a mission to transform Small Business Administration (SBA) and United States Department of Agriculture lending across the United States. Based in LaGrange, Georgia, the new lender service provider aims to simplify the lending process for small businesses and financial institutions through a combination of extensive expertise and innovative solutions.

Phoenix Lender Services offers end-to-end support for SBA and USDA loans, including underwriting, closing, servicing, and liquidation. The company also provides secondary market sales and exclusive origination services for Community Bank & Trust (CB&T), its sister company.

Justice Department Files Suit to Shut Down Florida Tax Return Preparers | Small Business Trends

January 17, 2025January 16, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Justice Department has filed a civil injunction in federal court in Tampa, Florida, seeking to shut down Madison & Sons Enterprises, a tax return preparation business operating as Madison Tax Services. The suit targets the business’s owner, Darryl J. Madison, along with Malik F. Eugene, Yvette Madison, and Marlesa J. Brown, alleging they engaged in fraudulent practices to inflate customer refunds.

According to the complaint, Darryl Madison oversaw operations at Madison Tax Services, where he and his associates allegedly prepared and filed tax returns that falsely reduced taxable income and inflated customer refunds. The alleged schemes included:

5 Mistakes Managers Make When Giving Negative Feedback | HBR

January 16, 2025January 14, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

One of the toughest responsibilities people leaders must take on is confronting their direct reports about performance issues. I still remember how nervous I was giving corrective feedback to a team member as a first-time manager. I didn’t sleep much the night before and leaned heavily on the notes our HR department helped me prepare.

During my career as a CEO and people leader, I watched many new managers struggle with these conversations. We humans have an innate desire to be liked and to belong. Confrontation of any kind can threaten that, and leaders who are new to performance conversations often feel this the most. They fear that sharing critical feedback might damage their reporting relationships.

What Companies Succeeding with AI Do Differently | HBR

January 16, 2025January 14, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Three years ago, when we asked companies how they were using artificial intelligence in their operations, the highest-performing companies (the leaders), stood out in five areas: governance, deployment, partnerships, people, and data availability. Since then, generative AI (gen AI) has burst on the scene. So, in late 2023, we followed up, surveying more than 100 companies in sectors from automotive to mining and conducting in-depth interviews with senior executives.

We saw three notable developments. First, the gap between the leaders and the rest has widened. The leaders — defined as the top 25% of respondents — now see performance levels 3.8x that of the bottom half of companies, up from 2.7x in 2021. One reason for this is that as leaders build differentiated capabilities, these have a compounding effect over time, widening the performance advantage.