Monday, March 10, 2025

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Discord might go public, and gamers are not happy

Discord — the chat app with over 200 million monthly users — is in early-stage talks to IPO. Discord’s discussions with investment bankers are still exploratory and plans could change. Discord understands there is a lot of interest about its plans, but does not comment on rumors or speculation. This isn’t the first time Discord has mulled over an IPO. The San Francisco-based startup walked away from a $10 billion purchase by Microsoft in 2021 as it considered staying independent and going public. Discord was last valued at $14.7 billion in a 2021 fundraise for $500 million. Discord is especially popular in certain communities like video games and crypto, but it has also emerged as an unlikely center for the AI boom, with image generation companies like Midjourney operating on its server. (Tech Crunch)

 

Layoff announcements soar to the highest since 2020 as DOGE slashes federal staff

President Donald Trump’s efforts to pare down the federal government workforce left a mark on the labor market in February, with announced job cuts at their highest level in nearly five years, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported. The firm reported that U.S. employers announced 172,017 layoffs for the month, up 245% from January and the highest monthly count since July 2020 during the heightened uncertainty from the Covid pandemic. In addition, it marked the highest total for the month of February since 2009 during the global financial crisis. More than one-third of the total came from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s efforts, with Trump’s blessing, to reduce the federal headcount. Challenger put the total of announced federal job cuts at 62,242, spanning 17 agencies. January’s planned reductions brought the total through the first two months of the year to 221,812, also the highest for the period since 2009 and up 33% from the same time in 2024. The report comes amid heightened concern about the state of the labor market and the economy in general as Trump’s plans for tariffs, slashing the size of government, and mass deportations and stringent immigration restrictions take shape. There has been a slew of mixed indicators about where things are heading, with consumer surveys showing concern over inflation and layoffs while other data shows economic strength continuing. Payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday that private sector hiring grew by just 77,000 in February. According to the Challenger report, it’s not just government cutting back. Retail saw 38,956 cuts for the month as companies such as Macy’s and Forever 21 announced sharp staff reductions. The sector’s cuts in 2025 are up nearly sixfold from where they were in 2024. Technology firms also listed another 14,554 in reductions, though the sector’s cuts are actually lower from a year ago. On the upside, firms announced plans in February to hire a total of 34,580 new workers, putting the year to date total up 159% from a year ago. (CNBC)

 

Trump weighs revoking legal status of Ukrainians as US steps up deportations

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would soon decide whether to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia. Such a move would be a stunning reversal of the welcome Ukrainians received under President Joe Biden’s administration and potentially put them on a fast-track to deportation. The planned rollback of protections for Ukrainians would be part of a broader Trump administration effort to strip legal status from more than 1.8 million migrants allowed to enter the U.S. under temporary humanitarian parole programs launched under the Biden administration. The administration plans to revoke parole for about 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans as soon as this month, the Trump official and one of the sources familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Ukrainian community leaders are informing people of their rights, in case they are approached by immigration officers, and what their options are for staying in the country long-term. (Reuters)

 

Scientists Discover Thousands of New Microbial Species Thriving in the Mariana Trench

A human can’t survive in the Mariana Trench without protection. At its deepest, the trench plunges 35,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean to a region reigned by crushing pressure and darkness. Yet somehow life finds a way. The hadal snailfish, with delicate fins and translucent body, roams the dark and freezing waters. Giant shrimp-like creatures up to a foot long scavenge fallen debris, including wood and plastic, and transparent eels with fish-like heads hunt prey. A carpet of bacteria breaks down dead sea creatures and plankton to recycle nutrients. We’ve only scratched the surface of what thrives in the deepest regions of the ocean. But a large project has now added over 6,000 new microbes to the deep-sea species tally. Called the Mariana Trench Environment and Ecology Research Project, or MEER for short, a team of scientists have collected sediment from the hadal zone—the deepest part of the ocean—in the Mariana Trench and two other areas. The investigation revealed thousands of new species and two adaptations allowing the microbes to thrive under intense pressure. Another team assembled the genomes of 11 deep-sea fish and found a mutated gene that could boost their ability to survive. Sequencing the genome of a giant shrimp-like creature suggested bacteria boosted its metabolism to adapt to high-pressure environments. Studying these mysterious species could yield new medications to fight infections, inflammation, or even cancer. They show how creatures adapt to extreme environments, which could be useful for engineering pressure- or radiation-resistant proteins for space exploration. (Singularity Hub)

 

Walgreens stock rises amid $10 billion deal with Sycamore Partners to take the drugstore chain private

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) finalized a $10 billion deal, worth as much as $23.7 billion, with Sycamore Partners to go private after four months of negotiations, the companies announced. Walgreens entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an entity affiliated with Sycamore, the company said in a statement late Thursday. Shareholders will receive a total of $11.45 per share in cash, or $10 billion, at the closing of the Sycamore transaction, the statement said. The additional value in the deal comes from an added $3 in future monetization of the company’s debt and equity interest in VillageMD. Sycamore is a New York-based private equity firm that specializes in retail business investments. It has invested in brands like Staples, Ann Taylor Loft, Aéropostale, and Express. The deal includes all elements of Walgreens, including VillageMD, which the company is winding down its stake in, and a specialty pharmacy unit. It also includes the Alliance Boots business, which was acquired in 2014 and is one of the company’s strongest assets. Walgreens pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) is also part of the deal. It, too, has been deemed a strong asset by investors, but it never captured significant market share against the three largest PBMs: UnitedHealth’s Optum RX (UNH), CVS’s Caremark, and Cigna’s Express Scripts (CI). (Yahoo Finance)

 

Job confidence is at a new low

American workers are feeling less and less confident in their job security these days, according to the latest findings of LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence survey. In fact, their confidence to find or hold a job is the lowest it’s been since the survey began in spring 2020, when the pandemic rocked the economy, prompting layoffs and stalling hiring. Job confidence, scored on a scale of -100  to +100, hit +39 in February 2025, compared to +43 in April 2020. Job confidence peaked in 2022 at +58, but has been slowly trending down since then; it dipped by 10 points in the past year, from +49 in February 2024. What’s more? Present day job confidence appears similarly bleak for both men and women: Male employees, on average, are historically slightly more confident than their female colleagues — but so far this year there’s little difference in their scores. (LinkedIn)

 

Replacing butter for some plant oils could significantly lower risk of mortality, new study finds

Swapping your daily butter intake for certain plant-based oils may help reduce your risk of death, a new study finds. These findings challenge the growing social media trend that attacks seed oils in favor of butter, ghee and animal fats. Researchers revealed that higher butter consumption was associated with a 15% higher risk of mortality, whereas higher intake of plant-based oils — including soybean, canola and olive oil — was linked to a 16% reduction in total mortality, according to the study. In addition, substituting just 10 grams (0.35 ounces) of butter with these plant-based oils daily was associated with a 17% lower risk of both total mortality and cancer-related deaths. The study analyzed 33 years of dietary data from more than 221,000 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II) and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Participants self-reported their dietary habits every four years, allowing researchers to track changes over time and calculate long-term intake averages. Researchers adjusted their findings to account for variables such as age, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, total calorie intake, as well as other dietary patterns using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index. Butter intake included any amount used in cooking and baking, as well as any extra butter spread on food. Plant-based oil consumption was estimated based on the type of oil used in frying, sautéing, baking or making salad dressings. (JAMA Internal Medicine)

 

Apple’s First Foldable iPhone May Launch by 2026

Speculation continues to build that Apple’s long-rumored foldable iPhone could debut next year. The company plans to launch a foldable iPhone at the end of 2026 or early 2027. According to Kuo, the book-style device could be priced between $2,000 and $2,500. It’s expected to feature a 7.8-inch crease-free inner display and a 5.5-inch outer display, which aligns with other rumors. Despite the steep price tag, it’s believed that Apple’s dedicated fanbase will generate strong replacement demand, with projected shipments of 3 million to 5 million units initially and up to 20 million for the second generation. Apple remains the only major smartphone manufacturer without a foldable device. The company has reportedly been working on one for years but has faced challenges with the phone’s hinge and the durability of the display screen. (CNET)

 

TikTok hasn’t negotiated with prospective buyers as deadline looms

TikTok has less than one month until its U.S. lifeline expires, but sources say there still haven’t been negotiations between its Chinese owner and prospective buyers. Suitors are increasingly frustrated by their inability to get under TikTok’s hood, in terms of both finances and technology. There also has been some confusion as to who is actually in charge of Trump administration negotiations for the deal. Early expectations were that it would be Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, given his role as chairman of CFIUS, but Vice President Vance seems to have taken the baton. Beijing, meanwhile, continues to be publicly silent. Everyone has ideas of how a deal could be structured, but no confidence on how it needs to be structured. The April 5 deadline isn’t really set in stone. (Axios)

 

NASA squeezes more life from 47-year-old Voyager probes

Voyager 1 and 2 continue to make history every day, as they transmit data back to Earth while traveling further into deep space. But there will come a time when amassing distance is all they are capable of accomplishing. At some point, the batteries aboard each 47-year-old spacecraft will finally die, rendering the scientific probes into interstellar monuments to themselves. However, NASA isn’t ready to say goodbye just yet, and is taking measures to get as much life out of the pair as possible. On March 5, Voyager mission engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California confirmed they have already turned off Voyager 1’s cosmic ray subsystem experiment. NASA plans to do the same for Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument on March 24. Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd explained cutting each program is a matter of life-or-death for both machines. Launched in 1977, both Voyagers include an identical array of 10 instruments designed to gather a host of unprecedented cosmic information. Each probe is powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) fueled by decaying plutonium-238. The RTG arrays offered Voyager 1 and 2 about 470 watts  at 30 volts when they first launched. Given the plutonium’s 87.74-year half-life, they now operate on about two-thirds their original power. NASA has since turned off the majority of each spacecraft’s tools—some after completing the planetary fly-bys during the 1980s, and others as recently as October 2024. Voyager 1’s recent deactivation, for example, ended its decades’ long studies of cosmic radiation. For years, the cosmic ray subsystem’s three-telescope array observed fluctuations from protons and other deep space energies, and was integral in determining when and where Voyager 1 exited the heliosphere. (Popular Science)

 

Butterflies declined by 22% in just 2 decades across the US

From 2000 to 2020, the number of butterflies fell by 22% across the continental United States. That’s 1 in 5 butterflies lost. The findings are from an analysis just published in the journal Science by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Powell Center Status of Butterflies of the United States Working Group, which I am involved in. We found declines in just about every region of the continental U.S. and across almost all butterfly species. Overall, nearly one-third of the 342 butterfly species we were able to study declined by more than half. Twenty-two species fell by more than 90%. Only nine actually increased in numbers. Some species’ numbers are dropping faster than others. The West Coast lady, a fairly widespread species across the western U.S., dropped by 80% in 20 years. Given everything we know about its biology, it should be doing fine – it has a wide range and feeds on a variety of plants. Yet, its numbers are absolutely tanking across its range. Butterflies are pollinators, picking up pollen on their legs and bodies as they feed on nectar from one flower and carrying it to the next. In their caterpillar stage, they also play an important role as herbivores, keeping plant growth in check. Butterflies can also serve as an indicator species that can warn of threats and trends in other insects. Because humans are fond of butterflies, it’s easy to get volunteers to participate in surveys to count them. (The Conversation)

 

‘Ultra-bizarre’ one-legged jeans are selling out online — but fashionistas are divided over $440 pants

One-legged jeans, costing an arm and a leg at a toe-curling $440, are kicking up dust amongst clotheshorses everywhere. While fans of the half-shorts-half-pants hail them the cream of the cropped, critics of the (kinda) cut-offs are praying their virality is, well, short-lived. And a few equally unenthused folks online agreed, deeming the denims “weird” and “ridiculous”, but the odd-ball bottoms, an offering from French fashion house Coperni, aren’t just the butt of a couple cheeky jokes. They’re actually rising as the season’s hottest must-haves. Touted as the “One-leg denim trouser,” per the luxe label’s site, the vintage blue cotton jeans are currently sold out in all available sizes — extra small, small and medium. Do-it-yourself fashionistas who can’t get their hands on hot pants are even yanking pairs of their tried-and-true blue jeans from their closets and scissoring off one leg to participate in the topsy-turvy trend. Turning the fashion world on its head seems to have been part of Coperni’s master plan and it’s not the first the brand’s tried its hand at asymmetry. It tapped a model to slay its runway in a pantsuit featuring the half-and-half slacks in October. Bottega Veneta and Louis Vuitton, too, debuted similar styles late last fall. But now, as denim jeans reign supreme as the en vogue togs of 2025 — thanks to trendsetters like Kendrick Lamar, who recently revived the flare jeans craze— clothes makers are being forced to think outside of the box and inside the minds of digital tastemakers. (New York Post)

 

Monday Is Flipped With:

• Blueberry Popover Day
• Carnival (Monday & Tuesday following Ash Wednesday)
• Fill Our Staplers Day
• International Bagpipe Day
• International Day of Awesomeness
• International Day of Women Judges
• Land Line Telephone Day
• Mario Day
• Napping Day (Monday after daylight savings times)
• Orthodox Green Monday (First Monday of Lent)
• Pack Your Lunch Day
• Salvation Army Day
• US Paper Money Day
• Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

 

Historical Events

0241 BC – The Roman fleet sank 50 Carthaginian ships in the Battle of Aegusa.

298 – Roman Emperor Maximian concludes his campaign in North Africa against the Berbers, and makes a triumphal entry into Carthage.

1496 – Christopher Columbus concluded his second visit to the Western Hemisphere when he left Hispaniola for Spain.

1607 – Susenyos defeats the combined armies of Yaqob and Abuna Petros II at the Battle of Gol in Gojjam, making him Emperor of Ethiopia.

1629 – England’s King Charles I dissolved Parliament and did not call it back for 11 years.

1656 – In the American colony of Virginia, suffrage was extended to all free men regardless of their religion.

1735 – An agreement between Nadir Shah and Russia is signed near Ganja and Russian troops are withdrawn from Baku.

1785 – Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France. He succeeded Benjamin Franklin.

1792 – John Stone patented the pile driver.

1804 – Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, Missouri, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.

1806 – The Dutch in Cape Town, South Africa surrendered to the British.

1814 – In France, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by a combined Allied Army at the battle of Laon.

1830 – The KNIL also known as the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army is created.

1848 – The U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war with Mexico.

1849 – Abraham Lincoln applied for a patent for a device to lift vessels over shoals by means of inflated cylinders.

1864 – Ulysses S. Grant became commander of the Union armies in the U.S. Civil War.

1876 – The first telephone call is made. Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the words “Mr. Watson, come here — I want to see you” to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, who was in the next-door room.

1880 – The Salvation Army arrived in the U.S. from England.

1893 – New Mexico State University canceled its first graduation ceremony because the only graduate was robbed and killed the night before.

1894 – New York Gov. Roswell P. Flower signed the nation’s first dog-licensing law.

1902 – The Boers of South Africa scored their last victory over the British, when they captured British General Methuen and 200 men.

1902 – Tochangri, Turkey, was entirely wiped out by an earthquake.

1902 – U.S. Attorney General Philander Knox announced that a suit was being brought against Morgan and Harriman’s Northern Securities Company. The suit was enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Northern Securities loss in court was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 14, 1904.

1903 – Harry C. Gammeter patented the multigraph duplicating machine.

1903 – In New York’s harbor, the disease-stricken ship Karmania was quarantined with six dead from cholera.

1906 – In France, 1,200 miners were buried in an explosion at Courrieres.

1909 – Britain extracted territorial concessions from Siam and Malaya.

1910 – Slavery was abolished in China.

1912 – China became a republic after the overthrow of the Manchu Ch’ing Dynasty.

1913 – William Knox rolled the first perfect 300 game in tournament competition.

1924 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a New York state law forbidding late-night work for women.

1927 – Prussia lifted its Nazi ban allowing Adolf Hitler to speak in public.

1933 – Nevada became the first U.S. state to regulate drugs.

1940 – W2XBS-TV in New York City aired the first televised opera as it presented scenes from “I Pagliacci”.

1941 – The Brooklyn Dodgers announced that their players would begin wearing batting helmets during the 1941 season.

1941 – Vichy France threatened to use its navy unless Britain allowed food to reach France.

1944 – The Irish refused to oust all Axis envoys and denied the accusation of spying on Allied troops.

1945 – American B-29 bombers attacked Tokyo, Japan, 100,000 were killed. The most destructive bombing raid in history hits Tokyo.

1947 – The Big Four met in Moscow to discuss the future of Germany.

1947 – Poland and Czechoslovakia signed a 20-year mutual aid pact.

1949 – Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as “Axis Sally,” was convicted in Washington, DC. Gillars was convicted of treason and served 12 years in prison.

1952 – Fulgencio Batista leads a successful coup in Cuba and appoints himself as the “provisional president”. The dictator was overthrown by rebels under the command of Che Guevara in 1959.

1953 – North Korean gunners at Wonsan fired upon the USS Missouri. The ship responded by firing 998 rounds at the enemy position.

1955 – The last broadcast of “The Silver Eagle” was heard on radio.

1956 – Julie Andrews at the age of 23 made her TV debut in “High Tor” with Bing Crosby and Nancy Olson.

1959 – “Sweet Bird of Youth”, a play by Tennessee Williams, opened in New York City.

1959 – A revolt erupts in Lhasa, sparking the Tibetan uprising. Fearing the Dalai Lama’s abduction by China, 300,000 Tibetans surrounded his palace.

1965 – Walter Matthau and Art Carney opened in “The Odd Couple”. It later became a hit on television.

1966 – The North Vietnamese captured a Green Beret camp at Ashau Valley.

1966 – France withdrew from NATO’s military command to protest U.S. dominance of the alliance and asked NATO to move its headquarters from Paris.

1968 – Vietnam War: Battle of Lima Site 85, concluding the 11th with largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members (12) during that war.

1969 – James Earl Ray pled guilty in Memphis, TN, to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Ray later repudiated the guilty plea and maintained his innocence until his death in April of 1998.

1971 – The U.S. Senate approved an amendment to lower the voting age to 18.

1975 – The North Vietnamese Army attacked the South Vietnamese town of Ban Me Thout.

1980 – Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, lent his support to the militants holding American hostages in Tehran.

1981 – The U.S. Postal Service announced an increase in first class postage from 15 to 18 cents.

1982 – The U.S. banned Libyan oil imports due to their continued support of terrorism.

1986 – The Wrigley Company, of Chicago, raised the price of its seven-stick pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum from a quarter to 30 cents.

1987 – The Vatican condemned surrogate parenting as well as test-tube and artificial insemination.

1990 – Haitian President Prosper Avril was ousted 18 months after seizing power in a coup.

1991 – “Phase Echo” began. It was the operation to withdraw 540,000 U.S. troops from the Persian Gulf region.

1994 – White House officials began testifying before a federal grand jury about the Whitewater controversy.

1995 – U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher told Yasser Arafat that he must do more to curb Palestinian terrorists.

1998 – U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf began receiving the first vaccinations against anthrax.

2000 – The NASDAQ Composite stock market index peaks at 5132.52, signaling the beginning of the end of the dot-com boom.

2000 – The dotcom bubble bursts when the NASDAQ Composite stock market index peaks at 5408.60. The dotcom boom, which started in 1997, accompanied the advent of countless new Internet-based companies. When the speculative bubble burst, many small investors were affected.

2002 – The Associated Press reported that the Pentagon informed the U.S. Congress in January that it was making contingency plans for the possible use of nuclear weapons against countries that threaten the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction, including Iraq and North Korea.

2003 – North Korea test-fired a short-range missile. The event was one of several in a patter of unusual military maneuvers.

2005 – Tung Chee Hwa resigns from his post as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong after widespread public dissatisfaction of his tenure.