Wednesday 20th November 2024

Deterring the Nuclear Dictators - Foreign Affairs (No paywall)

For more than three decades after the end of the Cold War, the United States and its allies faced no serious nuclear threats. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been rattling his nuclear saber in a manner reminiscent of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Chinese President Xi Jinping has directed a dramatic buildup of China’s nuclear arsenal, a project whose size and scope the recently retired commander of U.S. Strategic Command has described as “breathtaking.” The Russian and Chinese leaders have also signed a treaty of “friendship without limits.” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is supplying weapons and troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, and North Korea is improving its ability to strike both its neighbors and the U.S. homeland with nuclear weapons, as it demonstrated with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test launch on October 31.

These developments pose far-reaching challenges to U.S. national security. The United States no longer has the luxury of ignoring nuclear dangers and concentrating on deterring a single adversary. To address this new reality, the Biden administration has modified U.S. nuclear targeting guidance in order to be able to deter China and Russia simultaneously. It is also developing new nuclear delivery systems, platforms, and warheads. But Washington’s efforts to modernize the aging U.S. nuclear deterrent have been hampered by inadequate industrial base capacity, materials and labor shortages, and funding gaps. What needs to be done is clear: the next administration should dispense with undertaking an extensive review of either the nuclear deterrence policy or the modernization plans. There is a huge need to just get on with the work of modernization and fix the problems.

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Gender Wars Are an Early Warning Sign for Authoritarianism - Foreign Policy (No paywall)

These are the freedom fighters of the 21st century. And yet, the U.S. national security community tends to view women’s issues as a domestic concern, frivolous, or irrelevant to “hard” security matters. For example, in 2003, discussions of securing Iraq excluded women, with a top U.S. general stating, “When we get the place secure, then we’ll be able to talk about women’s issues.” More recently, the role of women in the military has been reduced to discussions of diversity, equity, and inclusion, rather than a focus on how women have been vital to solving the United States’ most wicked national security problems—from serving on the front lines in combat to providing essential intelligence analysis. But if the overall aim of U.S. national strategy is to shore up democracy and democratic freedoms, the treatment of women and girls cannot be ignored.

Globally, women’s rights are often eroding in both policy and practice, from the struggles of the Iranian and Afghan women who exist under gender apartheid to the Kenyan women experiencing the harsh backlash of the rise of the manosphere. In tandem, there’s been a sharp rise in reports of online harassment and misogyny worldwide.

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What If Trump Refuses to Withdraw Doomed Nominees? - Intelligencer (No paywall)

Typically presidents withdraw nominees who can’t be confirmed. Trump may prefer to force a public rejection by GOP senators to expose disloyalty.

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Inside Clear’s ambitions to manage your identity beyond the airport - MIT Technology Review (No paywall)

The company that has helped millions of people cut security lines wants to give you a frictionless future—in exchange for your face.

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Building a Great Customer Experience in the Metaverse

The metaverse presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvent the consumer experience, by incorporating greater elements of interactivity, personalization, and adventure in your company’s interactions with customers. The metaverse can help put consumers in the driver’s seat in at least three major ways: 1) by creating new ways to discover and explore products; 2) by helping to fuse physical and virtual product experiences in more meaningful ways; and 3) by reestablishing connections between people and brands through “digital humans” — AI-powered bots that can interact with users in virtual environments. Being able to parlay insights from the virtual to the physical world, and vice versa, will become key to understanding consumer behavior and experiences for marketers, product designers, store planners, and CX professionals across industries.

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Neuroscience: These 'Behaviorceuticals' Improve Brain Health

Now I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that, even during your most relaxing shower or most endless DMV wait, this is not a question you have considered. Which is a shame. One, because imagining rats driving cars is adorable (see below). And two, because clever scientists recently discovered an answer to this question.

Don't worry, scientists aren't wasting taxpayer money trying to convince subway rats to drive themselves out of the city. Rather, a group of neuroscientists, led by Kelly Lambert of the University of Richmond, were interested in seeing how confronting difficulties and learning new things affects animals' brains. 


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4 Lessons Your Brand Can Learn From the Taylor Swift Boom

When Taylor Swift announced the launch of the Eras Tour two years ago, no one—not even the mastermind herself—could have predicted what a cultural phenomenon and economic juggernaut the event would become. Swifties lucky enough to grab highly coveted tickets poured into tour locations by the millions, collectively spending several billion dollars on hotels, restaurants, transportation and merch.

Cities like New Orleans estimated around $1,300 spending per person for a total of $500,000 in economic impact. What fascinated me most as I visited the New Orleans during the final leg of the tour was the absolute transformative power of the Taylor effect on the city's small and midsize businesses. The effect was so pronounced that even actor Ryan Reynolds called it out. 


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CryptoPunks Proved People Will Pay Lots of Money for Digital Tokens

If you think about it too much, it seems kind of crazy that anyone would drop six figures for a digital rendering of a punk. But the surprise success of CryptoPunks showed that people will do exactly that and anticipated the rise of a new form of digital asset.

Created by artists John Watkinson and Matt Hall of Larva Labs, CryptoPunks are a set of 10,000 one-of-a-kind, pixelated illustrations of characters sporting mohawks, smoking cigarettes, and generally looking colorfully countercultural. On June 23, 2017, Larva Labs made non-fungible tokens (NFTs, or digital proof of ownership) representing each of the Punks available for free to anyone with an Ethereum blockchain wallet.


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3 Clear Signs to Quickly Identify Someone With Good Leadership Skills

If you've ever had the chance to work under a good leader, you've probably noticed something important: they actually care about their people. They're not just focused on hitting targets or climbing the ladder themselves—they genuinely care about helping their team succeed, both in their current roles and in their long-term goals.

For many leaders, this doesn't come naturally. It's tough to balance caring for others when you're under pressure to deliver results and meet expectations. But here's the thing: research—and countless stories from top leaders I have interviewed on my podcast—shows that focusing on your people is a game-changer for the success of your business. It's not just a feel-good approach; it's smart strategy.


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The NBA Stepped Up Its Social Media Game With AI. So Can You

Last month, in their season-opening showdown with the New York Knicks, reigning NBA champions the Boston Celtics made league history by sinking 29 three-pointers over the course of the night, tying them for the most ever scored in a single game.

It was an athletic feat that only a team of humans, playing at the top of their game, could've achieved. But when the Celtics posted a highlight reel on X later that evening counting down each record-setting basket, they got an unlikely assist from artificial intelligence.


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