GM is struggling so much in China, it had to announce massive charges to fix its business | CNN Business

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China, once GM’s largest and most important market, has become its biggest problem.

General Motors told shareholders on Wednesday that it would record two non-cash charges totaling more than $5 billion on its joint venture in China, one related to the restructuring of the operation and another reflecting its reduced value.

GM expects the charge for restructuring costs to be $2.6 to $2.9 billion and the charge for reduced joint-venture value to be $2.7 billion.

The automaker’s shares were down 2.7% before the bell.

GM partners with SAIC Motors in China to build Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac vehicles.

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Coca-Cola is dramatically scaling back its plastic promises | CNN Business

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Coca-Cola is scaling back its packaging sustainability goals, igniting outrage from environmental activists.

The beverage company, which has long been criticized for being one of the world’s top producer of plastic pollutants, changed its “voluntary environmental goals” this week. It now aims to use 35% to 40% recycled material in its packaging by 2035 — a drastic reduction from its previous goal of 50% by 2030.

Coca-Cola explained in a press release that its “evolution is informed by learnings gathered through decades of work in sustainability, periodic assessment of progress and identified challenges.”

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Future wearable devices could draw power through your body using background 6G cellphone signals | Live Science

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Your body could become a battery for wearable devices, thanks to a breakthrough in harvesting waste energy from 6G wireless communication.

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that waste radio frequency (RF) energy given off by visible light communication (VLC), if used to deliver 6G, can be harvested with small, inexpensive copper coils and transmitted to power other devices via the human body. 6G is a future wireless communication technology that is currently in development and is set to be deployed before the end of the decade.

As outlined in a 2022 research paper, the crux of this mechanism lies with VLC — which transmits data through extremely fast flashes of visible light from sources such as LEDs. VLC is one method through which 6G signals might hypothetically be transmitted in the future. But LEDs also emit side-channel RF signals, as a form of leaked energy. The researchers found that this could be harvested by a coiled copper wire, whose energy recycling efficiency is boosted when touching human skin.

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PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ can be degraded with light, research says | Fast Company

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Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have earned the nickname “forever chemicals” from their extraordinary ability to stick around in the environment long after they’ve been used.

These synthetic compounds, commonly used in consumer products and industrial applications for their water- and grease-resistant properties, are now found practically everywhere in the environment.

While many chemicals will degrade relatively quickly after they’re disposed of, PFAS can stick around for up to 1,000 years. This durability is great for their use in firefighting foams, nonstick cookware, waterproof clothing, and even food packaging.

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12 strange reasons humans haven’t found alien life yet | Live Science

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One night about 60 years ago, physicist Enrico Fermi looked up into the sky and asked, “Where is everybody?”

He was talking about aliens.

Today, scientists know that there are millions, perhaps billions of planets in the universe that could sustain life. So, in the long history of everything, why hasn’t any of this life made it far enough into space to shake hands (or claws … or tentacles) with humans?

It could be that the universe is just too big to traverse. It could be that the aliens are deliberately ignoring us. It could even be that every growing civilization is irrevocably doomed to destroy itself (something to look forward to, fellow Earthlings).

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Give Your Employees Career Growth | Business News Daily

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Few people find joy in doing the same thing forever. And because full-time employment takes up more than one-fifth of employees’ time per week, most workers want a long-term career path that involves change and progress. This is just one reason you should work with your employees to create growth paths, and doing so will benefit your business, too. Learn why it’s important to establish these career paths and how to create career development opportunities for your team.

Why career development opportunities are important

Career development opportunities are important because they keep employees happy, and happy employees stick around longer. Lowering employee turnover is always a key small business goal, as it saves time and money on recruiting and training while preserving vital institutional knowledge that only veteran employees have.

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Best iPhone Apps to Manage Business Contacts | Business News Daily

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When you attend a conference or client meeting, you likely collect several business cards from all the new people you meet. But what happens next? In the old days, such cards were meticulously filed or placed in a handy Rolodex. Today, even more efficiently, automated contact managers readily available through the App Store can import and organize all your contacts directly on your iPhone. Below is our list of the best iPhone apps for storing and managing your business contacts.

What are contact management apps?

A contact management app is a program on your mobile device that stores, filters, categorizes and updates contact information for the people in your life. Although iPhones come with a built-in contact app, a third-party vendor’s downloadable contact management app can provide you with many more features than you’d get with the default application.

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How meat alternatives mimic the real thing, according to a scientist | Fast Company

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When you bite into a juicy hamburger, slice into the perfect medium-rare steak, or gobble down a plateful of chicken nuggets, your senses are most likely responding to the food’s smell, taste, texture, and color. For a long time, these four attributes set meat apart from other food groups.

But in recent years, food companies have started to focus on the development of meat alternatives. Many people believe that transitioning away from meat-heavy diets can help with environmental sustainability as well as improve their own health.

The two main focuses of research have been on plant-based meat alternatives and lab-grown meat. Both have interesting challenges. Lab-grown meat requires growing animal cells and generating a meat product. Plant-based meat alternatives use plant materials to re-create animal-like structures and flavors.

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Coffee prices raise to 47-year high with Brazil’s supply concerns | Fast Company

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Coffee prices rose on Friday to their highest in nearly half a century, buoyed by tightening supplies as next year’s crop in top grower Brazil struggles to recover fully from this year’s drought.

Dealers also said some Brazilian farmers have delayed deliveries of this year’s crop in the hope of securing even higher prices, leading to short-term supply tightness and large financial losses for traders who had been expecting to receive the coffee.

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How to Increase Team Productivity: 5 Concrete Tips | All Business

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Increasingly we are operating in complex workplaces where individual and collaborative work share blurred boundaries, and there is a constant barrage of emails and reminders pinging at us throughout the day. Sometimes it can become a bit too much, leading to frustration, loss of productivity, low morale, and even a complete burnout.

As a business owner, you strive hard to create the perfect plan supported by a strategic vision. But if your employees are constantly feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated, the whole business could come crumbling down. That’s why addressing employee productivity is one of the key components of a business plan. In this article we share ways in which you can boost your team’s productivity, while increasing their happiness and creating a more successful business.

5 ways to increase your team’s productivity

1. Lead by example

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