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Tag Archives: Boosting
Boosting enlisted pay to boost recruiting? Nope. – Military Times
- Boosting enlisted pay to boost recruiting? Nope. Military Times
- Republicans will use hearing to assert Dems’ ‘culture war’ policies hampering military recruitment Fox News
- Navy Follows Army in Offering Prep Courses to Recruits Who Don’t Meet Fitness, Academic Standards Military.com
- Grothman Announces Hearing to Examine Progressivism’s Impact on Military Readiness – United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability House Committee on Oversight and Reform |
- GOP senator unloads on Pentagon’s ‘obsession’ with equity agenda: ‘Totem pole of grievances’ Fox News
Greene ridiculed for boosting country star’s Super Bowl performance – The Independent
- Greene ridiculed for boosting country star’s Super Bowl performance The Independent
- Photo goes viral of Kari Lake refusing to stand during Black national anthem before Super Bowl Fox News
- Opinion | GOP objections to the ‘Black national anthem’ are about control The Washington Post
- The Conservative outrage over the ‘Black National Anthem’ is predictable and telling The Independent
- Chris Stapleton’s Super Bowl anthem rendition gets teary, ecstatic reception: ‘It will never be done better’ Fox News
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Hosting Largest Military Base Outside USA At One Point, China Frowns As US Boosting Presence In The Philippines – EurAsian Times
- Hosting Largest Military Base Outside USA At One Point, China Frowns As US Boosting Presence In The Philippines EurAsian Times
- The US and the Philippines’ military agreement sends a warning to China – 5 key things to know The Conversation
- US-Philippines bases deal seen as reaction to China’s actions in South China Sea South China Morning Post
- Reviving America’s Pacific Deterrent – WSJ The Wall Street Journal
- US Gets Access To 9 Military Bases In The Philippines; China Warns Manila Of Being ‘Dragged Into Troubled Waters’ EurAsian Times
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The owner of Uniqlo is boosting pay for Japan employees by up to 40% as inflation bites
Hong Kong
CNN
—
Fast Retailing, the Japanese giant that owns popular clothing brands Uniqlo and Theory, will start paying its employees much more this year.
The company announced Wednesday that it would boost salaries in Japan by up to 40%, acknowledging that “remuneration levels have remained low” in the country in recent years.
“This will include employees from headquarters and corporate departments responsible for the functions of the company’s global headquarters, as well as employees working in stores,” the firm said in a statement.
The move comes just days after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called on business leaders to accelerate raises for workers, warning that the economy risked falling into stagflation if wage rises continued to fall behind price increases.
Japan is grappling with the biggest drop in living standards in nearly a decade.
Last Friday, the world’s third largest economy reported its worst real-wage decline in more than eight years, exacerbating conditions for workers already contending with higher costs of living.
In the capital of Tokyo, core inflation, which measures items excluding fresh food, climbed 4% in December compared to a year ago, above the 3.8% expected by economists, according to official figures released Tuesday.
That was “the highest seen in 40 years,” analysts at Nomura said in a Wednesday report.
“Inflation in Japan is a factor in our considerations,” a Fast Retailing spokesperson told CNN on Wednesday.
But the company is generally more focused on aligning “each employee’s remuneration with global standards, to be able to increase our competitiveness,” the representative added.
The company will officially adjust its overall compensation system in March. Starting salaries for entry-level university graduates will jump by roughly 18%, while new store managers could see a hike of approximately 36%, according to the company.
The retailer has also been hiking pay for staff in some of its overseas markets, leading to pay bumps ranging from 5% to 25%, the spokesperson said.
A brain expert shares his 7 ‘hard rules’ for boosting memory and fighting off dementia
The average human brain shrinks by approximately 5% per decade after the age of 40. This can have a major impact on memory and focus.
What’s more, brain disorders are on the rise. In 2020, 54 million people worldwide had Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias, and that number is expected to grow.
But serious mental decline doesn’t have to be an inevitable part of aging. In fact, certain lifestyle factors have a greater impact than your genes do on whether you’ll develop memory-related diseases.
As a neuroscience researcher, here are seven hard rules I live by to keep my brain sharp and fight off dementia.
1. Keep blood pressure and cholesterol levels in check
Your heart beats roughly 115,000 times a day, and with every beat, it sends about 20% of the oxygen in your body to your brain.
High blood pressure can weaken your heart muscle, and is one of the leading causes of strokes. Ideally, your blood pressure should be no higher than 120/80.
Cholesterol is critical to your brain and nervous system health, too. The American Heart Association recommends getting your cholesterol levels measured every four to six years.
2. Manage sugar levels
Blood sugar is the primary fuel of the brain. Not enough of it, and you have no energy; too much, and you can destroy blood vessels and tissue, leading to premature aging and cardiovascular disease.
Keep in mind that sugar isn’t enemy, excess sugar is. It’s easy for grams of sugar to add up, even if you think you’re being careful — and usually, sugar will sneak in through packaged foods.
Where is the sugar hidden? Look for these in the ingredients list:
- Dextrose
- Fructose
- Galactose
- Glucose
- Lactose
- Maltose
- Sucrose
And be wary of any product that includes syrup, such as agave nectar syrup or high-fructose corn syrup.
3. Get quality sleep
Studies show that people with untreated sleep apnea raise their risk of memory loss by an average of 10 years before the general population.
For most people, a healthy brain needs somewhere between seven and nine hours of sleep a night.
My tips for memory-boosting, immune-enhancing sleep:
- Keep a consistent bedtime and wake-up schedule.
- Turn off devices one hour before bedtime.
- Do something relaxing before bedtime, like listening to soft music or doing mindful breathing exercises.
- Go outside and get in natural sunlight as soon as you can after waking up.
4. Eat a nutritious diet
One way I keep things simple is to have most, if not all, of these items in my grocery cart:
- Fatty fish like salmon
- Avocados
- Nuts
- Blueberries
- Cruciferous veggies like arugula, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and collard greens
When food shopping, I ask myself three questions to help determine whether something is good for my brain:
1. Will it spoil? In many cases, perishable is a good thing. The additives and preservatives that keep food from spoiling wreak havoc on your gut bacteria.
2. Are there tons of ingredients in that packaged food? And for that matter, can you pronounce the ingredients? Or does it look like the makings of a chemical experiment? Also avoid anything where sugar is one of the first few ingredients.
3. Do you see a rainbow on your plate? The chemicals that give fruits and vegetables their vibrant colors help boost brain health.
5. Don’t smoke (and avoid secondhand and thirdhand smoke)
Smokers have a 30% higher risk of developing dementia than non-smokers. They also put those around them at risk: Secondhand smoke contains 7,000 chemicals — and at least 70 of them can cause cancer.
Then there’s thirdhand smoke, which is not actually smoke. It’s the residue of cigarette smoke that creates the telltale smell on clothing or in a room. That residue alone can emit chemicals that are toxic to the brain.
6. Make social connections
In a recent study, people over the age of 55 who regularly participated in dinner parties or other social events had a lower risk of losing their memory. But it wasn’t because of what they ate, it was the effect of the repeated social connection.
To lessen isolation and loneliness, you can also boost brain chemicals like serotonin and endorphins by performing small acts of kindness:
- Wish others well or check in with somebody.
- Give a compliment without expecting anything in return.
- Make a phone call to somebody you don’t usually reach out to.
7. Continuously learn new skills
Maintaining a strong memory is not all about brain games like Sudoku, Wordle and crossword puzzles.
Learning skills and acquiring information are much more effective ways to make new connections in the brain. The more connections you make, the more likely you are to retain and even enhance your memory.
When you think about learning something new, approach it the way you would with fitness training. You want to work out different muscles on different days. The same goes for the brain.
Over the course of this week, try cross-training your brain by mixing mental activities (learning a new language or reading a book) and physical learning activities (playing tennis or soccer) .
Marc Milstein, PhD, is a brain health expert and author of “The Age-Proof Brain: New Strategies to Improve Memory, Protect Immunity, and Fight Off Dementia.” He earned both his PhD in Biological Chemistry and his Bachelor of Science in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from UCLA, and has conducted research on genetics, cancer biology and neuroscience. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
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NASA, SpaceX to study feasibility of boosting beleaguered Hubble Space Telescope into higher orbit
NASA and SpaceX last week agreed to an unfunded study to investigate the feasibility of boosting the Hubble Space Telescope, which is at risk of falling out of orbit in the next decade, into a higher orbit.
SpaceX approached NASA earlier this year about potentially using one of its Dragon spacecrafts to move the telescope to a higher altitude, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science, said in a press conference Thursday.
Hubble was placed into orbit in 1990 and was last serviced and repaired by astronauts in 2009 at an altitude of 350 miles. In the last 13 years it has fallen by about 20 miles, according to The New York Times.
Despite signing the Space Act Agreement with SpaceX for the six-month project on Sept. 22, Zurbuchen added, “I want to be absolutely clear, We’re not making an announcement today that we definitely will go forward with a plan like this.”
NASA HUBBLE TELESCOPE HITS NEW MILESTONE IN MYSTERY OF UNIVERSE’S EXPANSION RATE
An astronaut aboard the space shuttle Atlantis captured this image of the Hubble Space Telescope on May 19, 2009.
(NASA)
Any endeavor to reposition the telescope would be privately funded at no cost to the government, NASA said, adding that the study wasn’t exclusive and it would welcome proposals from other space companies.
Moving the telescope to a higher orbit could give Hubble more years of operability, NASA said.
BOCA CHICA, TX – FEBRUARY 11: The Crew of the next SpaceX private astronaut flight called Polaris Dawn, (Left to Right) Anna Menon, who works to develop astronaut operations for SpaceX, Sarah Gillis, lead space operations engineer, SpaceX, Scott Poteet, who served as the mission director of the Inspiration4 mission SpaceX, and Jared Isaacman, who is financing the mission, Pose at the Starbase Complex in Boca Chica.
(Jonathan Newton/The Washington)
“What we want to do is expand the boundaries of current technology,” SpaceX’s Jessica Jensen, vice president of Customer Relations & Integration, said. “We want to show how we use commercial partnerships as well as the public-private partnerships to creatively solve challenging and complex problem missions such as servicing Hubble.”
She said SpaceX is looking at the capabilities of the Dragon capsule to see how it would need to be “modified in order to safely rendezvous and dock with Hubble.”
NASA’S HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE SPOTS FARTHEST STAR EVER SEEN
This combination of images made available by NASA shows the Hubble Space Telescope orbiting the Earth
(NASA via AP)
Without repositioning, NASA may have to eventually destroy the telescope and guide it as it falls from orbit into the ocean, the Times reported.
Any potential mission would be a collaboration between SpaceX and billionaire Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Program, a planned series of spaceflights with SpaceX, one of which Isaacman has said would include the first civilian spacewalk.
Last year, Isaacman headed Inspiration4, the first all-civilian crewed SpaceX mission.
The M74 galaxy shines at its brightest in this combined optical/mid-infrared image, featuring data from both the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. With Hubble’s venerable Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Webb’s powerful Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) capturing a range of wavelengths, this image has remarkable depth.
(ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team; ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt)
Over the years, the Hubble telescope has taken spectacular images and videos of the cosmos, including the discovery of moons around Pluto.
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The telescope is named after leading 20th century American astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), who, among other discoveries, found evidence that other galaxies exist beyond the Milky Way.
NASA, SpaceX to study boosting Hubble telescope to higher orbit
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CNN
—
Officials at NASA have signed a Space Act Agreement with SpaceX to investigate the benefits and risks of having a private mission provide service to NASA’s nearly 33-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, boosting it to a higher orbit to extend its life, the space agency announced Thursday.
“Hubble is amazingly successful. … It’s doing great science as we speak,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, during a news conference.
But SpaceX approached the space agency a few months ago with the idea, he said, and the team at NASA is now planning to assess how a private mission might help “boost” and maintain the telescope.
Zurbuchen added that it is not yet certain whether or not such a mission could be carried out, and the goal of the agreement is just to explore the technical feasibility of the idea.
Jessica Jensen, vice president of customer operations and integration at SpaceX, said the private aerospace company “has a lot of experience docking (spacecraft) with the International Space Station.”
SpaceX wants to use that knowledge as a foundation and find out whether it’s possible to carry out a similar docking maneuver with the Hubble telescope, Jensen said.
It could be done at “no cost to the government,” according to a NASA news release. The Space Act Agreement itself will not involve any exchange of funds, according to the release.
Launched in 1990, the space observatory has had several servicing missions during NASA’s space shuttle era, with the last mission carried out in 2009. But the space agency retired the space shuttle in 2011, and no spacecraft has been back since.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft missions have already taken over much of the work that the space shuttle program used to carry out, including ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS.
The effort to send a private mission to Hubble could be a part of a previously announced, privately funded SpaceX program called Polaris. That program is the brainchild of Jared Isaacman, the billionaire CEO of payments platform Shift4, who first gained international attention when he paid the company to take himself and three guests on a three-day trip to orbit Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule last year.
He announced the Polaris program in February, and at the time he said the program would encompass at least three missions with SpaceX.
The first flight in the program, called Polaris Dawn, is expected to last up to five days. It will include a crew of Isaacman and three other people, who will ride aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to the Van Allen radiation belt, which has an inner band that stretches from about 400 to 6,000 miles (644 to 9,656 kilometers) above Earth. It’s scheduled to take off no earlier than March 2023.
The second Polaris mission could be a great candidate for sending a SpaceX capsule to Hubble, Isaacman said at Thursday’s news conference.
It’s not yet clear whether an autonomous, uncrewed spacecraft could carry out a Hubble service mission instead of requiring a crew on board, according to Jensen.
Zurbuchen added that is all part of what SpaceX and NASA will explore as part of this Space Act Agreement.
“We’re looking at crazy ideas all the time,” he said. “That’s what we’re supposed to do.”
US Boosting Oil and Gas Is ‘Not Against’ Climate Change
- JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon spoke to wealthy clients on a call Tuesday, Yahoo Finance reported.
- The call touched on various topics, including climate change and the odds of a recession.
- He said US natural gas production does not conflict with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said this week that US natural gas production does not conflict with long-term emission reduction targets, Yahoo Finance first reported.
“We should focus on climate. The problem with that is because of high oil and gas prices, the world is turning back on their coal plants. It is dirtier,” Dimon said on a client call Tuesday, per the Saturday report.
“Why can’t we get it through our thick skulls, that if you want to solve climate [change], it is not against climate [change] for America to boost more oil and gas?” he continued.
JPMorgan Chase was ranked as the world’s top “fossil fuel financier” in a report published by environmental groups last year, who said the bank contributed a total of $317 billion to the industry between 2016 and 2020.
The bank has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions throughout key sectors of its financing portfolio by 2050 in accordance with the Paris Agreement. A spokesperson for JPMorgan did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Natural gas produces half the carbon dioxide compared to burning coal and has played an important role in reducing the US’ overall CO2 emissions since 2007. However, climate scientists told Reuters that the oil and gas industry is growing at a rate incompatible with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In his 2021 letter to shareholders, Dimon said “national security demands energy security for ourselves and for our allies overseas,” noting that “using gas to diminish coal consumption is an actionable way to reduce CO2 emissions expeditiously.”
He added that the US needs “immediate approval for additional oil leases and gas pipelines, as well as permits for green energy projects” in order to achieve energy security while also reaching long-term climate goals.
This March, Dimon urged the Biden administration to develop a modern-day “Marshall Plan” to boost energy production within the US in order to decrease dependence on foreign oil imports against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He also pushed for investments in green tech like hydrogen power and carbon capture, according to Axios.
Biden signs bill boosting US chip manufacturing as he kicks off victory lap
The CHIPS and Science Act will invest more than $200 billion over the next five years in a bid to help the US regain a leading position in semiconductor chip manufacturing. It is aimed at countering China’s growing economic influence, lowering the cost of goods, making the US less reliant on foreign manufacturing and mitigating supply chain disruptions in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Biden on Tuesday described the law as a “once-in-a-generation investment in America itself.”
“Today America is delivering, delivering, and I honest to God believe that 50, 75, 100 years from now from people who will look back on this week, they’ll know that we met this moment,” Biden said at an event on the White House South Lawn.
The President, who recently emerged from isolation after a rebound case of Covid-19, coughed throughout his speech.
A major focus of the bill is on making the US more competitive with China. The US was once a leader in semiconductor manufacturing but now many American manufacturers import chips made elsewhere as other countries like China ramp up production. The share of semiconductor manufacturing capacity located in the US has decreased from 37% in 1990 to 12% today, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
The event was attended by union leaders, industry executives from companies such as HP and Intel, congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle and state elected officials. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo also spoke at the event.
According to the White House, companies this week announced nearly $50 billion in additional investments in American semiconductor manufacturing as a result of the newly passed legislation.
“Micron is announcing a $40 billion investment in memory chip manufacturing, critical for computers and electronic devices, which will create up to 40,000 new jobs” in construction and manufacturing, a White House fact sheet says. “This investment alone will bring the U.S. market share of memory chip production from 2 percent to 10 percent.”
Additionally, Qualcomm and GlobalFoundries announced a new partnership that includes $4.2 billion to manufacture chips.
Later Tuesday, Biden also signed the ratification of the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. The addition of the two traditionally neutral countries to the alliance represented a major foreign policy accomplishment for Biden during a trip to Europe for summits in June.
Biden said their addition to the alliance would make it “stronger than ever.”
“Sweden and Finland have strong democratic institutions, strong militaries, and strong and transparent economies,” he said from the East Room of the White House. “They’ll meet every NATO requirement — we’re confident of that — and will make … our alliance stronger and will make America and the American people safer in the process.”
And on Wednesday, the President will sign the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promises to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022 into law. The legislation expands health care benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their military service.
The bill widely expands health care resources and benefits to those exposed to burn pits and could provide coverage for up to 3.5 million veterans who qualify. It adds conditions related to burn pit and toxic exposure, including hypertension, to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ list of illnesses that have been incurred or exacerbated during military service. Biden has long speculated that burn pits played a role in the cancer that killed his son, Beau, in 2015.
The bill signings — along with other related accomplishments like the recent targeted killing of Osama bin Laden’s successor and continued declining gas prices — amount to the possibility that Biden may get the pre-midterms boost Democrats have been hoping for.
With the 2022 midterm elections less than 100 days away, and as Americans have grown discontented through a summer of major economic and political changes, Biden’s political standing among the public has declined.
A CNN poll released in mid-July found that nearly 7 in 10 Americans had said that Biden had not been paying enough attention to the nation’s most pressing problems. The President’s approval rating, in the poll, stood at 38%. And at the end of July, another CNN poll found that 75% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters wanted the party to nominate someone other than Biden in the 2024 presidential election.
Before the month’s end, Biden could have some other major opportunities to claim political victories.
Biden faces the real prospect of soon signing into law the Inflation Reduction Act — a version of his landmark climate change and health care bill.
The sweeping bill passed in the Senate along party lines and the House is expected to vote on it later this week.
The legislation would represent the largest climate investment in US history and make major changes to health policy by giving Medicare the power for the first time to negotiate the prices of certain prescription drugs and extending expiring health care subsidies for three years. The legislation would reduce the deficit, be paid for through new taxes — including a 15% minimum tax on large corporations and a 1% tax on stock buybacks — and boost the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to collect.
It would raise over $700 billion in government revenue over 10 years and spend over $430 billion to reduce carbon emissions and extend subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and use the rest of the new revenue to reduce the deficit.
The President will also have to make a decision about whether to extend the nation’s ongoing mass federal student loan forbearance before it is scheduled to end on August 31.
Biden is also weighing the possibility of canceling some student loans. It’s an issue that’s sharply divided among partisan and generational lines, but one that could act as yet another political boon among some voters as the country continues to grapple with inflation raising the cost of everyday goods and services.
CNN’s Nikki Carvajal, Kristin Wilson, Clare Foran, Melanie Zanona, Jessica Dean, Ali Zazlav and Alex Rogers contributed to this report.