2019年7月12日

Google's latest attempt at a social network is called Shoelace 

After shutting down Google+ in April, Google is making another go at a social network. Named Shoelace, the app aims to be a hyperlocal social network for people looking to connect with others (in real life) at events and nearby activities. On its website, the team says, “the whole premise of Shoelace is to tie people together based on their interests – like two laces on a shoe.”

These events – fittingly referred to as “loops” within the app – might include things like playing ping pong at a local bar or watching comedy at an open mic night. In fact, on its site, the Shoelace team says the app is great for people who have recently moved to a new city or for those looking to meet people who live nearby, which also makes it seem a little bit like local social networks like Nextdoor.

Shoelace is a product of Google’s internal startup incubator, known as Area 120. For now, the Android and iOS versions are invite-only within “select communities” and available only in New York City. The tech giant hasn’t necessarily had the strongest track record when building social networks (Orkut, Google Buzz, and Google+ are all defunct), but with Shoelace, the intentions, at least, seem promising. Getting more people to interact with one another offline has become less common in a sea of other social networks.

The world's super wealthy just collectively lost $US2 trillion – and Trump's trade war is to blame

You might want to spare a thought today for the world’s richest people who managed to lose an ungodly amount of money last year, $US2 trillion to be exact. The US-China trade war and rising global tensions played no small part in that。 Geopolitical unrest and trade wars forced countries to adopt a loose monetary policy to encourage economic growth. Another blow to the global economy was the decline in world trade, which shrank from 5% at the start of 2018 to almost zero toward the end of the year. Trade wars may drag the global economy down further, coupled with higher rates and market volatility.

Given that, it’s perhaps no surprise that China’s super wealthy lost $500 billion, equivalent to the whole of Europe’s collective losses. North and South America meanwhile only experienced relatively small declines in comparison — due perhaps to the US’ upper hand in trade negotiations. The Middle East was the only region where the rich actually got richer last year.

The report concluded the Middle East performance was due to “improving oil prices combined with significant fiscal and structural reforms to combat the impact of declining oil prices, stabilized the region’s economic platform”. Due to the concentration of wealth at the top, it was those who had the most to lose — the top 1% of all high net-worth individuals — that got hit the hardest. Collectively they managed to lose 6% of their wealth, an eye-watering $US1.5 trillion.

Indeed, Australians between 2007 and 2019 have seen the values of their assets almost double, outpacing household debt growth. On average Australians are 28% better off in real terms since the period just before the global financial crisis (GFC). With property markets now seeming to have bottomed, a reduction in the cash rate, relaxation on APRA lending affordability guidelines, investor-friendly government policy reassured and tax incentives in place to encourage consumer spending, now may be the right time to re-enter local equities and property markets.

Read the internal letter sent by a group of Amazon employees asking the company to take a stand against ICE

On Monday, a group of Amazon employees sent out an internal email calling on Amazon to stop working with the big data company Palantir, which works with federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This email, sent to employee mailing lists within Amazon Web Services, demanded that Palantir be removed from Amazon’s cloud for violating its terms of service. It also called on Amazon to take a stand against ICE by making a statement establishing its position against immigration raids, deportations, and camps for migrants at the border.

ICE is preparing to begin nationwide raids of undocumented families on Sunday. “The world is watching the abuses in ICE’s concentration camps unfold. We know that our company should, and can, do better,” the letter said. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Palantir, a prominent data analysis startup that counts several government agencies as customers, has a $US51 million contract with ICE, which reports indicate entails providing software to gather data on undocumented immigrants’ employment information, phone records, immigration history, and similar information. Its software is hosted in the AWS cloud. The employees say in the letter that their protest is in the spirit of similar action at companies including Wayfair, Microsoft, and Salesforce, where workers have protested their employers’ ties to ICE and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“When members of Congress visited a facility recently, they learned that detained women were ‘told by agents to drink from the toilets’ if they wanted water. This is a horrifying violation of human rights – and it’s powered by AWS,” the letter said.