Tag: international

Remote work made digital nomads possible. The pandemic made them essential

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This story is part of  The Road Ahead , a series that examines the future of travel and how we’ll experience the world after the pandemic. In April, a radio DJ, a marine ecologist, a water polo player, and a migrant studies scholar flew to idyllic Dubrovnik, a seaside city in Croatia with a vast labyrinth of medieval architecture famed for composing the scenery of the cult fantasy TV show Game of Thrones . Hailing from Finland, Japan, and the United States, the travelers were among 10 lucky winners of a first-of-its-kind  digital nomad residency contest, for which the prize was a month-long stay in the lush “Pearl of the Adriatic” with complimentary meals and lodging. The residents ate, drank, networked, and day-tripped to the cliffs of Konavle—home of 2020’s most beautiful beach in Europe—and the island of Mljet, which is shrouded in dense forest that features exciting hazards like venomous snakes and wild mongooses. Ostensibly, they were there to brainstorm how to design Dubrovnik as a nomad-friendly city in the digital age. But for Croatia, the real goal was to market its own image away from a “holiday playground,” as program director Tanja Polegubic calls it, into a serious long-term destination for remote workers. You could think of it as striking while the iron is hot—or really, while Croatia is hot: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the country saw an influx of workers fleeing expensive cities in western Europe. “Asia wasn’t an option, so a lot of people were looking to the Balkans because the further east you go, it’s a lot cheaper,” Polegubic says. Croatia’s not alone: Countries spanning the Caribbean isle to the Arabian desert are suddenly pivoting to court digital nomads in the post-coronavirus era, dangling everything from free vaccines, to tax breaks, to the chance to live in tropical paradise. Call it a new global arms race, where the weapon in question is an arsenal of highly skilled remote workers—ones that were trapped in their homes during the pandemic, but could now be untethered by it from their offices forever. With a new class of human capital up for grabs, countries are looking to stockpile talent, and digital nomads are living a new reality: They’ve become a hot commodity. COVID-19 was an existential crisis: For the first time, a community built around having no fixed address was forced to shelter in place.” Digital nomads, ironically, are easy to locate. By nature of their lifestyle, many have built careers on the internet: sharing snapshots of dreamy landscapes spun from coconut palm trees and rainbow-colored villas, hosting blogs that detail the ins and outs of life perpetually on the road. Read More …

Scientists created embryos with human and monkey cells, stoking ethical concerns

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Scientists are locked in debate over the necessity of creating chimera embryos that contain both monkey and human cells. A study released on Thursday  showed that human cells can indeed grow when implanted inside macaque monkey embryos. The goal of the research is to find ways to develop human organs and tissue that can be used for transplants. But some scientists are urging caution and question the need for this type of research at all. The study took 132 monkey embryos and injected them with human stem cells. Scientists used a process that allowed them to develop monkey embryos for up to 20 days in a lab. Only three of the embryos made it to day 19 before they collapsed. What was most exciting to the scientists involved is that the human and monkey cells were able to communicate with one another, allowing the human cells to survive. Past research has shown that trying to grow human cells in pigs or sheep yields far less stunning results, though humans and macaques are much more closely related than humans and pigs. The study’s authors see this research as key to better understanding human development and primate evolution, and an opportunity to advance the use of chimeras for organ creation. The need for organs is great. In the U.S. alone, over 100,000 people are registered on the national waiting list for a transplant. Approximately 17 people die every day because they were unable to secure a transplant, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. Still, some scientists are concerned about what this research could mean in the future. The loudest worry is about the potential for so-called “rogue scientists” to use this research to develop true human-monkey chimeras. Another is that such experiments may develop in unintended ways. Plus, there are ethical questions about creating chimeras purely for organ extraction Read More …

Coinbase’s $100 billion lPO provides an alternate investment to bitcoin

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Coinbase , the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange, is going public on April 14. The company will trade under the ticker COIN and list 114,850,769 shares on the NASDAQ with an initial valuation of $100 billion. Instead of following the traditional initial public offering (IPO) route, Coinbase plans to post its shares straight on the NASDAQ exchange via a direct listing, a technique pioneered by big names like Spotify and Palantir in recent years. Whereas an IPO involves a company creating new shares and having an underwriter that buys them for a set price and then sells them to the market, in a direct listing a company sells existing shares and has no underwriter. But what is Coinbase and why is this such as important development in the cryptocurrency market? The Coinbase business model Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong, a former engineer at Airbnb, and Fred Ehrsam, who was a trader at Goldman Sachs. Their mission was to make investing and transacting in cryptocurrencies easier, more efficient, and fairer. The company has since risen to become the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. Even though there are numerous other exchanges around the world with considerably larger trading volumes, including Binance, Huobi, and OKEx, Coinbase’s growth has been incredible lately. Read More …

Netflix’s big bet on global content could change how we see the world

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As a kid growing up in Italy, I remember watching the American TV series Happy Days , which chronicled the 1950s-era Midwestern adventures of the Fonz, Richie Cunningham, and other local teenagers. Happy Days was a product of Hollywood, which is arguably still the epicenter of the global entertainment industry. So recent news that the streaming service Netflix is opening an Italian office and will begin massively funding original local content with the intent of distributing it globally on its platform —following a strategy already launched in other European countries—struck me. The show, combined with other American entertainment widely available in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s, shaped my perception of the United States long before I ever set foot in the country. Today, I call the U.S. home, and I have developed my own understanding of its complexities Read More …

I run Google TV. Here are my secrets for leading a team remotely

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Even before COVID-19 led people to turn their dining rooms into makeshift offices, remote work was on the rise. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many businesses have found that remote work makes it increasingly difficult to preserve their company culture. After all, perks such as childcare, happy hours, and social lunches don’t mean much if you’re not on-site. What’s more, remote work has the potential to throttle the kind of free-flowing collaboration and brainstorming that happens when people are in the same space. That said, remote work is not without benefits. In fact, when done right, it’s a win for companies and employees Read More …