Xi Jinping could revive a dormant title to help consolidate his rule over China, experts have said.
"Chairman of the Communist Party of China" was retired after the death of Mao Zedong, the ruler of China from 1949 until 1976.
"The title would provide a mechanism to extend Xi's tenure because there [has been] no term limit set for party chairmanship in the past," Ling Li, a lecturer in Chinese studies at the University of Vienna, told the Financial Times.
Xi is already General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, head of the military, and President of China.
But some of titles — all which are held individually for different comes —set to expire between 2022 and 2023.
"We cannot rule out ... that Xi will get a new title to further emphasise his status above other leaders," Wu Qiang, an expert on Chinese politics, told the FT.
Xi Jinping could resurrect the title of "Chairman" to consolidate power in China, as the end of his presidential term nears, experts have said.
Xi already has near-total power in China, holding the titles of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, President of China, and head of the military.
Term limits to those posts were also abolished in 2018, so Xi will not be required to step down when his second term as president ends in 2023.
However, amid a crackdown on corruption and opposition, Xi could try to assume the new title to enhance his legitimacy, according to two experts.
"We cannot rule out that there will be further changes to the party charter or that Xi will get a new title to further emphasise his status above other leaders on the politburo standing committee," Wu Qiang, an expert on Chinese politics based in Beijing told the Financial Times.
The title of "Chairman of the Chinese Community Party" hasn't been used since the death of Mao Zedong, who ruled China from 1949 to 1976.
But as "Chairman" is not subject to term limits, Xi could try to use it to give himself further legitimacy.
"The title would provide a mechanism to extend Xi's tenure because there [has been] no term limit set for party chairmanship in the past," Ling Li, a lecturer in Chinese studies at the University of Vienna, told the FT.
Since 2012, Xi has lead an anti-corruption drive across the elite levels of Chinese society.
The latest body to be scrutinized is the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the top law enforcement body in China.
"We should turn the blade towards ourselves so we can remove the tumor completely, get rid of the black sheep, and ensure that our law enforcement army is absolutely loyal, pure and dependable for the Communist Party and the people," Chen Yixin, secretary general of the commission, said on July 10, 2020.
When the title of "Chairman" was abolished in 1982 it was replaced with "General Secretary," a title Xi currently holds.
Xi's second five-year term as president of China will end in Spring 2023 and his terms as party General Secretary and head of the military will end in 2022.
Clancy Cusack had corporate jobs and worked in the wedding industry in her early career, but always felt called to do something more creative.
After discovering a love for balloons, she began working nights and weekends to create lavish balloon installations for clients and special events in her city of Perth, Australia.
Soon, Cusack was able to quit her 9-to-5 and launch a full-time custom balloon business. She used social media and influencer marketing to advertise online and grow her client base.
Here's what a day in her life was like before the pandemic, as told to freelance writer Mikki Cusack (Editor's note: Clancy Cusack is the author's sibling).
I've always agreed with Winnie the Pooh: "No one can be uncheered with a balloon." Lucky enough for me, after years of working in the wedding industry I was able to walk away from my corporate job, fully embrace my love of balloons, and turn my side hustle of creating balloon installations into a full-time job.
It was a photo on Pinterest that first caught my attention. I was working as a wedding planner, and my bride-to-be client showed me an image of giant balloons with silver and gold tassels lining a wedding aisle. It was the beginning of something special, and I began making custom balloon art installations in my free time.
After a really busy holiday season, I had so much balloon work that I was struggling to balance it all on top of my corporate job. I needed to make a choice, so I took the plunge and quit my job to become a full-time balloon artist.
It was a risky choice that paid off. I officially launched The Little Balloonery in 2016 and became a full-time small business owner in 2018. No one else in Perth, Australia, was doing what I was; it was an industry sweet spot. Now, there's up to 20 or more balloon companies in the city, which means a lot more competition.
Instagram is a key component in the success of my business
When I first started my business, I worked with social media influencers to get promoted to their established online audiences, which would almost instantly generate new customers. I did lots of fun photoshoots and giveaways, and with every Instagram post my business would grow.
I also began collaborating with a marketing agency to expand my exposure in the local small events space, which includes everything from baby showers to engagement parties. Since then, I've been running my one-women business successfully from home.
Here's what a typical day in my life looked like before the pandemic.
6:30 p.m.: My day begins when most people are finishing up work
I grab a coffee to go and drive to the location of my new installation. This day, it's a corporate office in a shopping centre. I usually drag my husband Michael along for the late night installations, as the extra pair of hands is very handy. For corporate jobs, timing is critical, as I'm working after hours with strict OHS requirements.
7:30 p.m.: I unload my equipment in the loading dock of the venue and wait for the security guards to let me in
I call myself a 'balloon tradie.' I often find I'm the only woman in a typically male-dominated environment, such as a loading dock, when I'm unloading my equipment (a scaffold ladder, trolley, inflators, and bags).
8 p.m.: At most late night installations, I'll grab a drink for a boost of caffeine
I often treat myself to bubble tea (Peach oolong is my favorite!) from the food court in the mall. I like to think that every little bit of extra caffeine helps.
9 p.m. to 3 a.m.: I get to work setting up the installation
I put on my apron, equipped with at least three pairs of scissors, duct tape, and fishing line, and set up my equipment.
This particular installation was bright and Instagrammable and included handmade streamers in addition to the balloons. I unfold the metallic streamer wall carefully and make sure no streamers have been crumpled in the drive over.
I construct the installation piece by piece using around three thousand balloons, which I inflate using two air compressors. This takes time, as the design is intricate. I'll pop on some Bruno Mars or some other high energy music to keep me motivated as the clock ticks past midnight. By the end of the install, my fingers will be throbbing.
Once I've put the finishing touches on and am satisfied with the final result, I take a photo of the installation on my phone and text the security guards to let them know my work is done so they can let me out of the mall.
4 a.m.: I arrive home, shower, and try to get to sleep
After I get home, I head straight for the shower. Sometimes when I get in bed, I'll still be energized from the night — and the caffeine — so it may take half an hour to finally shut my eyes.
12 p.m.: I wake up in time to meet friends for brunch
Many of my friends work in the creative industry with strange hours like mine, so I'm never short of someone to have breakfast with, followed by a quick walk along the coast. I love to be inspired by nature and always keep my eyes open for exciting color schemes, like a pop of peach coral against the azure ocean.
I check my phone frequently throughout the day to make sure that everything went well with the installation. On the off chance that something was damaged, I'll go back and fix it.
1:30 p.m.: I spend time at home catching up on emails and administrative work
It's time to log on and catch up on the business side of things, like invoicing or sending out new quotes. It's my least favorite part of the job. Occasionally, I'll take my laptop to a cafe with WiFi and indulge in a croissant.
6 p.m.: I hop into my car and head back out to take down the installation
Teardown is included in the cost of the installation to make sure I dispose of waste properly. I use biodegradable balloons, which break down at the same rate as a gum leaf. It's taken some time, but I've finally mastered the art of popping the balloons at the neck to eliminate that awful bang.
7:30 p.m.: It's finally time to unwind
I'm back in time for dinner, which is usually pasta home-cooked by my husband. Afterward, we'll head off for a walk with our black Labrador, Harper. If it's not too late when we return, we'll watch some Netflix, then it's lights out.
Netflix doesn't love long-running TV shows, and sometimes that means great shows get the ax early.
The streaming giant has canceled plenty of shows that upset fans but were panned by TV critics, such as "Everything Sucks!" and "Gypsy." But it's canceled ones that were critically acclaimed, too.
Netflix often doesn't see the value in shows that exceed 30 episodes (usually two to three seasons) because they become too expensive and too difficult for new viewers to jump into, Deadline reported last year. That means shows like "American Vandal," "One Day at a Time," and more have been given the boot earlier than fans, and critics, would have hoped.
Last week, Netflix canceled the variety talk show "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj." This week, it unexpectedly canceled a pair of critically acclaimed shows after their first seasons: "The Society" and "I Am Not Okay With This." Netflix had renewed the former last year for a second season, but the coronavirus pandemic postponed production, which was supposed to start in the spring.
In a statement, Netflix blamed the cancellations on "circumstances created by COVID."
"I can't pretend I'm surprised," Christopher Keyser, the creator of "The Society," told Variety on Monday. "I know we had many months of conversations about the challenges of producing in this environment."
Other Netflix critical darlings to get the ax recently are "The Kominsky Method" and "Dead to Me" after their upcoming third seasons and "Ozark," which was renewed for a fourth and final season after season three was its best reviewed yet.
We've rounded up 24 great TV shows that Netflix has canceled. We highlighted shows that received an average score over 85% on Rotten Tomatoes or whose final seasons were above 85%, and ranked them based on the average scores. We broke ties with audience scores and if those were the same, with the final season score.
We limited the list to shows that ended with four seasons or fewer on Netflix, which didn't include "BoJack Horseman" and other shows. In the case of a show like "Lucifer," which Netflix revived for a fourth season after Fox canceled it, and has renewed for seasons five and six, we included it because it received just three new seasons on Netflix.
In the case of "Patriot Act," it aired six "volumes" but only lasted two years, so we counted it. It didn't have enough reviews for an average score on Rotten Tomatoes, so we ranked it based on just its season one critic score.
To fans' and critics' delight, though, a couple of these shows have been revived elsewhere.
"One Day at a Time," which Netflix canceled after three seasons, debuted its fourth season on the Pop network this year. "Tuca and Bertie" was revived for a second season by Adult Swim.
Below are 24 canceled Netflix shows that critics loved:
24. "Ozark" — canceled after 4 seasons
Average critic score: 81%
Audience score: 91%
Critic score for most recent season: 97% (season 3)
Netflix description: "A financial adviser drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder $500 million in five years to appease a drug boss.
What critics said: "Season three is the best season of the series so far. The story line arc works pretty well, with seeds planted early on that bloom in the later episodes." — Boston Globe (season 3)
23. "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" — canceled after 4 seasons
Average critic score: 84% (includes winter special)
Audience score: 69%
Critic score for most recent season: 90% (season 3)
Netflix description: "Magic and mischief collide as half-human, half-witch Sabrina navigates between two worlds: mortal teen life and her family's legacy, the Church of Night."
What critics said: "The character growth of Part 3 is simply put, delicious. The emotional payoffs of each journey keep the show from slipping into WTF!?! territory and firmly ground CAOS as a show with something to say outside of quippy one-liners." — TV Guide (season 3)
22. "The OA" — canceled after 2 seasons
Average critic score: 84%
Audience score: 84%
Critic score for most recent season: 92% (season 2)
Netflix description: "Seven years after vanishing from her home, a young woman returns with mysterious new abilities and recruits five strangers for a secret mission."
What critics said: "The OA is kind of genius, while simultaneously being incredibly silly. And you know what? I love it! I love its goofy, loopy vibe." — Vox (season 2)
21. "The Society" — canceled after 1 season
Average critic score: 86%
Audience score: 75%
Netflix description: "When everyone else mysteriously vanishes from their wealthy town, the teen residents of West Ham must forge their own society to survive."
What critics said: "The Society is insanely addictive, a mix of not just The Walking Dead but Lord of the Flies and M. Night Shyamalan's Fox series Wayward Pines." — Uproxx (season 1)
20. "Lucifer" — canceled after 6 seasons (3 on Netflix)
Average critic score: 86%
Audience score: 85%
Critic score for most recent season: 100% (season 4)
Netflix description: "Bored with being the Lord of Hell, the devil relocates to Los Angeles, where he opens a nightclub and forms a connection with a homicide detective."
What critics said: "The more I think about it, the more I stand by my belief that the majority of season four is among the very best episodes the Lucifer has to offer." — AV Club (season 4)
19. "Sense8" — canceled after 2 seasons
Average critic score: 86% (includes finale movie)
Audience score: 91%
Critic score for most recent season: 93% (season 2)
Netflix description: "From the creators of "The Matrix" and "Babylon 5" comes this tense series in which eight people can telepathically experience each other's lives."
What critics said: "This nakedly political show somehow manages to be free-spirited, rather than dull or polemical; its good intentions often border on goofy naiveté in a way that's charming rather than grating." — The Atlantic (season 2)
18. "Marvel's Luke Cage" — canceled after 2 seasons
Average critic score: 87%
Audience score: 71%
Critic score for most recent season: 85% (season 2)
Netflix description: "A hoodie-wearing, unbreakable ex-con fights to clear his name and save his neighborhood. He wasn't looking for a fight, but the people need a hero."
What critics said: "It takes a season for Luke to find some sense of certainty, for better or for worse. The next step of his journey may be the most fascinating." — Indiewire (Season 2)
17. "I Am Not Okay With This" — canceled after 1 season
Average critic score: 87%
Audience score: 85%
Netflix description: "Angsty Syd navigates high school awkwardness, family drama and an unrequited crush on her best friend while trying to rein in her budding superpowers.
What critics said: "Thin at times, but never losing sight of its hook, it avoids many of the pitfalls that its premise could present." — Indiewire (season 1)
16. "Atypical" — canceled after 4 seasons
Average critic score: 87%
Audience score: 95%
Critic score for most recent season: 100% (season 3)
Netflix description: "When a teen on the autism spectrum decides to get a girlfriend, his bid for more independence puts his whole family on a path of self-discovery."
What critics said: "Atypical is proving yet again why it remains the best half-hour on Netflix's slate." — Forbes (season 3)
15. "Santa Clarita Diet" — canceled after 3 seasons
Average critic score: 89%
Audience score: 91%
Critic score for most recent season: 100% (season 3)
Netflix description: "They're ordinary husband and wife realtors until she undergoes a dramatic change that sends them down a road of death and destruction. In a good way."
What critics said: "While season three is the richest and most layered look at marriage and mortality yet, 'Santa Clarita Diet' remains gloriously easy watching." — Collider (Season 3)
14. "Easy" — canceled after 3 seasons
Average critic score: 90%
Audience score: 85%
Critic score for most recent season: 100% (season 3)
Netflix description: "Features eight vignettes that follow the complicated, loosely connected lives of young Chicagoans in their 20s and 30s as they tackle love, sex, and self-improvement."
What critics said: "The final season fulfills the possibilities of the show's concept, informing it with humanist fury." — Slant Magazine (Season 3)
13. "Dead to Me" — canceled after 3 seasons
Average critic score: 90%
Audience score: 90%
Critic score for most recent season: 95% (season 2)
Netflix description: "A hotheaded widow searching for the hit-and-run driver who mowed down her husband befriends an eccentric optimist who isn't quite what she seems."
What critics said: "Their manic lives and cascading calamities of their own creation provide a fantastic escape into a once-familiar world not long gone. Nobody wants their problems, but at least they're not boring." — Salon
12. "The Kominsky Method" — canceled after 3 seasons
Average critic score: 90%
Audience score: 93%
Critic score for most recent season: 100% (season 2)
Netflix description: "Acting coach Sandy Kominsky and best friend Norman Newlander keep each other laughing as they navigate the ups and downs of getting older."
What critics said: "Douglas, a Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee, shines throughout ... Arkin, though, gets the richest material this season." — TV Insider (season 2)
11. "Glow" — canceled after 4 seasons
Average critic score: 92%
Audience score: 86%
Critic score for most recent season: 86% (season 3)
Netflix description: "In 1980s LA, a crew of misfits reinvent themselves as the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. A comedy by the team behind 'Orange Is the New Black.'"
What critics said: "Season 3 is a wrestling match between cause and effect, countering every bit of happiness with a proportionally steep cost." — The Atlantic (season 3)
10. "Marvel's Daredevil" — canceled after 3 seasons
Average critic score: 92%
Audience score: 92%
Critic score for most recent season: 97% (season 3)
Netflix description: "Blinded as a young boy, Matt Murdock fights injustice by day as a lawyer and by night as the superhero Daredevil in Hell's Kitchen, New York City."
What critics said: "What's clear is that [showrunner Erik] Oleson and his staff course-correct after an overcrowded second season, returning the focus to the people who live in this story." — RogerEbert.com (Season 3)
9. "Love" — canceled after 3 seasons
Average critic score: 94%
Audience score: 86%
Critic score for most recent season: 100% (season 3)
Netflix description: "Rebellious Mickey and good-natured Gus navigate the thrills and agonies of modern relationships in this bold comedy cocreated by Judd Apatow."
What critics said: "Love manages to close on its own terms, on an unconventionally hopeful note. But it also provides something that most of us seek but don't often find from our television shows: a couple of genuine surprises we didn't see coming." — Vulture (Season 3)
8. "Dear White People" — canceled after 4 seasons
Average critic score: 95%
Audience score: 52%
Critic score for most recent season: 90% (season 3)
Netflix description: "Students of color navigate the daily slights and slippery politics of life at an Ivy League college that's not nearly as 'post-racial' as it thinks."
What critics said: "The college campus satire attempts to reconcile two complicated histories, and mostly succeeds." — New York Times (season 3)
7. "Dark" — canceled after 3 seasons
Average critic score: 95%
Audience score: 95%
Critic score for most recent season: 91% (season 3)
Netflix description: "A missing child sets four families on a frantic hunt for answers as they unearth a mind-bending mystery that spans three generations."
What critics said: "'Dark' has maintained that highwire act for three of the most thrilling sci-fi TV seasons ever made. To see it make it across the chasm with its ambitions and technique intact is certainly something worth remembering." — Indiewire (season 3)
6. "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" — canceled after 4 seasons
Average critic score: 96% (includes interactive movie)
Audience score: 83%
Critic score for most recent season: 94% (season 4)
Netflix description: "When a woman is rescued from a doomsday cult and lands in New York City, she must navigate a world she didn't think even existed anymore."
What critics said: "Ellie Kemper's bold gameness has powered the show for so long that it's almost easy to take it for granted; even while she's failed to truly grow all that much over the years, her enthusiasm and dedication to the role remains engaging." — Indiewire
5. "Tuca and Bertie" — canceled after 1 season
Average critic score: 98%
Audience score: 68%
Critic score for most recent season: 98% (season 1)
Netflix description: "Free-spirited toucan Tuca and self-doubting song thrush Bertie are best friends — and birds — who guide each other through life's ups and downs."
What critics said: "Tuca & Bertie handled a wide range of emotion in just one short season with the utmost humor and heart — and seeing it canceled before it even had a chance to grow is a blow to fans." — Polygon
4. "American Vandal" — canceled after 2 seasons
Average critic score: 98%
Audience score: 91%
Critic score for most recent season: 98% (season 2)
Netflix description: "A high school is rocked by an act of vandalism, but the top suspect pleads innocence and finds an ally in a filmmaker. A satirical true-crime mystery."
What critics said: "It's better than anyone could have expected, but a little less than they might have hoped." — Slate (Season 2)
3. "One Day at a Time" — canceled after 3 seasons
Average critic score (for first three seasons): 99%
Audience score (first three seasons): 92%
Critic score for most recent season (on Netflix): 100% (season 3)
Netflix description: "In a reimagining of the TV classic, a newly single Latina mother raises her teen daughter and tween son with the 'help' of her old-school mom."
What critics said: "The heartbeat of 'One Day at a Time' was its spirited insistence that beauty can thrive alongside pain. The series blended multicam-sitcom laughs with a fearless willingness to tackle heavy social issues." — The Atlantic (season 3)
2. "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj" — canceled after 6 "volumes" in 2 years
Critic score: 100% (volume 1)
Audience score: 82%
Netflix description: "Every Sunday, Hasan Minhaj brings an incisive and nuanced perspective to global news, politics and culture in his unique comedy series."
What critics said: "What Patriot Act is doing very well in these early episodes is balancing the desire to tell cathartic jokes with the need to think, in a way that incorporates ideas about ethics and morality." — NPR (season 1)
1. "Mystery Science Theater 3000" — canceled after 2 seasons
Average critic score: 100%
Audience score: 91%
Critic score for most recent season: 100% (season 2)
Netflix description: "The cult hit returns! Captured by mad scientists, new host Jonah survives a blitz of cheesy B movies by riffing on them with his funny robot pals."
What critics said: "The movies are a good selection for the most part. They were able to pick six movies that have very little to do with each other. A very nice variety, all things considered." — Den of Geek (season 2)
Apple and Tesla stock prices could surge more than a third in the next 12 months after their upcoming stock splits, an analyst said.
Adam Vettese, analyst at eToro, said: "Tesla and Apple are already two of the best-performing companies on the US stock market and all the evidence suggests their upcoming stock splits could act as a tailwind for the value of their shares."
eToro analysed 60 years of historical data of 10 mega brands that have carried out stock splits and found that on average their stock prices climb by 33% in the year after the split.
Both Apple and Tesla will carry out stock splits on August 31.
Apple and Tesla stock prices could explode by more than a third in the next 12 months after upcoming stock splits for both companies, according to one analyst.
Multi-asset investment platform eToro analysed 60 years of data, and found that on average companies that split their stocks see their share price surge by a third in the 12 months after the split.
eToro's research shows that, on average, mega brands that have carried out stock splits have seen their shares explode by 33% within the year.
Tesla will be enacting a 5-for-1 stock split on August 31. Apple is enacting a 4-for-1 stock split on the same date. This will be Apple's fifth time splitting its stock.
Adam Vettese, analyst at eToro, said: "Tesla and Apple are already two of the best-performing companies on the US stock market and all the evidence suggests their upcoming stock splits could act as a tailwind for the value of their shares."
Vettese added:"Retail investors are increasingly engaging with the financial markets, and many see the benefit in investing in the companies who produce products they love and use daily. Tesla and Apple are two such companies."
eToro analysed the price movements of 10 of the biggest global brands that have carried out a share split in recent years.
Apple has split its shares four times in its history, with the value of those shares typically rising by an average of 10.4% in the year following the split, eToro said.
eToro said Apple's shares faced even more dramatic price movements in the 12 months after its June 2014 split. Apple's share's rose 36.4% in the year after its 2014 split, while the stock skyrocketed 58.2% after its February 2005 share split.
It also dived 61% after its June 2000 share split, although this was during the height of the dot-com crash, eToro said.
eToros's analysis of 10 brands who have carried out stock splits
Apple and Tesla have been two of the hottest stocks of 2020. Tesla's stock has seen a monster rally, exploding more than 850% in the last year alone.
It crossed the $2,000 the first time ever last week and is now roughly worth $2,056 on Wednesday.
The 2020 Honda Civic Si is the most recent iteration of a car that's been around for decades. It's a sporty vehicle with all of the practicality of a compact car.
The Si comes in a sedan and a coupe, and starts at $25,200. It doesn't have many optional add-ons to up the price much further.
Only one powertrain is available on the Si: a 205-horsepower engine and a six-speed manual transmission.
The Si is a great car, both in how enjoyable it is to drive and in its styling. But it does have the woes of entry-level vehicles, such as elements of the interior that just feel cheap.
My spouse and I stood in our driveway looking at the 2006 Honda Civic that might soon stop calling this home. Yet another prospective buyer from Facebook Marketplace had shown up, fueling our running bet on whether they'd ask how to shift the car out of park.
"Oh!" said the person they brought. "It has a manual transmission — that's so cool!"
The photos showed the shifter, but you'll quickly learn on Facebook Marketplace that a lot of folks don't look at the photos. They were probably the fourth person to stop by that week to see the 2006 Honda Civic, which had to go after my spouse impulse-bought a 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata (also on Facebook).
The actual buyer, though, slumped at the thought of needing to learn to drive the car they were buying — especially after they'd stalled it five times at a stop sign during their test drive. They took it home only at the insistence of their companion, who couldn't wait to impart some knowledge.
A few weeks later, after a whole lot of pounding on its clutch pedal, they texted my spouse to say they were loving the car. It was an ending I saw coming from the moment they signed the papers: a by-chance new fan of the manual transmission.
Years after my own conversion and a few weeks after I'd spent some time with the new Honda Civic Si, the saga reminded me just how amazing it is that in 2020, when buyers overwhelmingly choose SUVs and automatics over small cars and manuals, you don't have to roll up to someone's driveway to find a Civic with a stick. You can still get one new at the dealership.
But the 2020 Si isn't just a Civic with a stick. It's a damn-good Civic, from how it looks to how it drives.
The 2020 Civic Si, the latest incarnation of a long tradition
Honda's Si badge — that's "sport injection," despite the lowercase "I" — has been around for decades. It's the normal Civic, but sportier. With an "injection of sport," if you will.
For car enthusiasts, the Si is one of those go-to vehicles. If you want a $35,000 V8 with a manual transmission, you go for a Ford Mustang. If you crave the crown jewel of affordable yet impractical sports cars and have an extra space in the garage, you go for a Mazda Miata.
If you want good, cheap fun right off a dealer lot for $15,000 less than the average price of a new car, you go for the Si.
But the Si isn't the kind of car most Americans go for. Only about 2% of vehicles sold in the US these days have a third pedal, yet the Si doesn't come as an automatic. Crossovers and SUVs are killing the small-car market, yet the Si remains a small car. The average price of a new car is nearing $40,000, yet the Si costs about $25,000.
The Si fills a void in between dedicated sports car and practical commuter ride, a car light on interior goodies and engineered for fun — a segment that's shrinking as automakers cut small cars and kill manuals in favor of transmissions that require less attention.
The Honda Civic Si, in other words, has all the attributes most modern car buyers shun. Yet it's still here, and we're thankful.
Details and safety ratings: Pay attention to the headlights
The 2020 Si starts at $25,200, which is $4,400 more than the base-model Civic. There aren't too many features to add on, either.
The only powertrain option is the turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine with 205 horsepower and a six-speed manual transmission. Honda offers the Si as a coupe and as a sedan, but is killing the coupe across its Civic lineup after this model year. The Si itself will also take a break in 2021, returning when the new-generation Civic arrives in 2022.
A limited-slip differential and sport mode come standard on the Si, as do Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, a push-to-start button, and headlights that turn on and off automatically. The parking brake is electronic, whether you like it or not.
Also standard are adaptive cruise control, a collision-mitigation braking system, lane-keep assist, and lane-departure warning in the Honda Sensing safety suite, as well as heated front seats and dual-zone climate control, so you can crank the temperature down to 65 degrees while your passenger hangs out at 78.
Both the 2020 Civic coupe and sedan, which I tested, have top crash ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The only trouble comes with the Si's headlights, which got the organization's worst safety rating because of excessive glare. Honda later updated the headlights to create only "some glare" and get an IIHS top rating. But that means you'll have to pay attention on the lot, since the old cars are still for sale: Si models built from December 2019 onward have the new headlights, and you can often find out when a car was built on the inside of the driver's door.
What stands out: an incredible drive that won't bankrupt you
The Civic Si, like many cars of its nature, is pretty much the full package for someone who wants a new sporty car that won't require choosing between said car and ever having a hope of retiring. (Choose retirement. Cars are just cars.)
In a roughly $26,000 package, the Civic Si comes with the tech and safety comforts a car needs along with all the fun a buyer might want. With its four doors and trunk big enough to fit at least two humans (or, to be less ominous, two humans' worth of groceries for a couple of weeks), its sporty driving characteristics are balanced out by the fact that you could easily use it to bring home new furniture.
Shifts are effortless. The light clutch pedal doesn't push back or provide much tension, but that doesn't matter. The lack of resistance and ease of shifting just feels right. You want to drive the Si, and it wants to drive with you.
The Si won't awe you with speed, even with the turbocharger's help. Its 205 horsepower isn't enough to make any compact sedan into a land rocket, because even "compact" sedans are heavy. The Si is meant to be fun for what it is: practical, from its body style to its 30-mpg combined fuel-economy rating.
The car looks the part too. The red accenting all over its black interior makes you feel at ease when you step inside, ready to go, no matter how far you're going. The carbon-fiber-like accents are a nice touch. The circular shift knob fit perfectly in my palm.
The Si has the Goldilocks of steering wheels, not too thin and not too thick. It was just big enough to wrap my hands around comfortably, but not big enough to be burdensome in a vehicle that's supposed to feel somewhat nimble. Its infotainment screen is intuitive to use, unlike many modern systems, and its turn-signal cameras feed live video into the gauge cluster to fill in blind spots.
The Si is driver-centric. The focal point of the gauge cluster — the driver's main view — is the giant digital tachometer with a numerical speed reading under its arc, because it's more enjoyable to watch the revs bounce up and down than it is to see a speedometer hold at the speed limit.
That's what the Si is all about: being enjoyable, from the drive itself to all the things that factor into it.
What falls short: the less obvious drawbacks of an economy car
The Civic Si is still on the cheap end of the new-car market, meaning it comes with many of the woes of an entry-level interior.
Cloth seats like the ones in the Si can be a plus, for some. They won't start to wear and crack on the edges like leather, and they can be made to look nice with a little bit of contrast stitching and a pattern.
But cloth in the Si is everywhere. On the door panels. The armrests. The places other cars use hard materials instead of soft, absorbent ones. The problem isn't with the cloth itself, but with any grime it might pick up. You'll start to see marks on the armrest and the doors, and have no clue where they came from. Sure, it's an easy clean, but that doesn't make it not annoying.
The seats are weak and bouncy, particularly in the back. Hop behind the driver and be reminded of that couch you purchased for your first apartment — temptingly inexpensive, but sure to wear down after a few years.
The rear fold-out armrest is like that too. Pull it out of its little socket in the middle seat, and you won't get a stiff, stable spot for your arm. You get a thing that will bounce off the seat bottom about three times when pulled down, then come to a limp rest against it, unable to hold itself up, let alone your arm.
There's a lot of legroom in the back of the Si, but the overall view isn't fancy. It almost feels like a different car than it does in the front seats, where the red-and-gray accents leave you with a sporty vibe. In the back, it's just a lot of flat black.
Adding to the economy feel are the car's yellow-tinted interior lights and hollow-feeling accents, like the hard black lining on either side of the shifter. It might look nice and neat in photos, but tap it with your finger a few times and it feels just a little too cheap.
Don't look (or tap) too hard, though, and you'll be OK.
That's the case with most disappointments on the Si: If you don't look too hard, they won't bother you. The issues aren't intrusive, and they're easy to set aside when you remember that this isn't a car anyone buys for fanciness. It's a car people buy to have a blast in, with a new-car warranty and without spending a lot of money.
In that respect, it does its job more than all right.
How the Si compares to its competitors: It's all a matter of preference
The Civic Si is the middle tier between the regular Civic and the full-blown Civic Type R, which comes with 306 horsepower, a six-speed manual, and starts at $36,995. It sits in a crowd of other manual-transmission front-wheel-drive cars vying for the same customer.
There's the Volkswagen Golf GTI with a $28,595 base price, and before it fell victim to Ford's plans to eliminate passenger cars, there was a Ford Focus ST — also the middle tier between the base Focus and the all-out performance version. Prices for Hyundai's performance trims sit on either side of the Si's MSRP, with the middle option, the Elantra N-Line, starting at $23,500, and the top option, Veloster N, starting at $27,600.
The John Cooper Works is Mini's offering, but it starts in the $33,000 range. Mazda and Toyota don't have performance variants for their competitors, but the 168-horsepower Corolla hatch starts at $20,290 and the 186-horsepower Mazda 3 hatch only has a manual on its top trim, which starts at $27,500.
In terms of looks alone, the new Mazda 3 hatch and the Veloster N win out in this crowd. But the Mazda 3 sacrifices performance for a "premium" feel, while the Veloster N and Golf GTI bring more performance than the Si at the cost of a higher MSRP.
But the market for these cars is competitive, and each buyer is going to have a different set of wants. If this is your niche, take all of them on a test drive and see which you like the best.
Our impressions: a car we don't deserve
Many buyers who go for automatics likely feel the same way the buyer of my husband's Civic did. Why learn to do something most cars handle just fine?
We've shown, at least in America, that our tastes generally aren't for cars like the Si or its counterparts. We're into big crossovers with enough room for the kids and enough cup holders for the lattes, and we want transmissions so smooth that we forget the car is even shifting from one gear to another.
But for the few who venture toward a clutch — reluctantly or not — cars like the Si remain, with their small statures and very obvious gears that need to be manually changed, catering to that 2% of us who still want to buy a new car with that funky third pedal.
That's a choice we're lucky to have, even if only a few of us know it.
Apple is set to surge 40% on a "once in a decade" opportunity over the next year as it benefits from a massive upgrade cycle for its iPhone install base, according to Wedbush.
In a note published on Wednesday, Wedbush raised its Apple price target to $600, and raised its bull-case price target to $700, representing upside potential from current levels of 20% and 40%, respectively.
According to Wedbush, the soon-to-be-released iPhone 12 will represent the most significant product cycle for Apple since the iPhone 6 was released in 2014.
The street is underestimating the "massive pent-up demand" of the upcoming iPhone 12, which will help fuel Apple's continued re-rating to a higher valuation.
Apple is set to continue its monster run, and could rally another 40% in a bull-case scenario to $700, according to a Wednesday note from Wedbush.
The iPhone maker is set to capitalize on a "once in a decade" opportunity — it's on the verge of a massive upgrade cycle for its 950 million iPhone install base as it prepares the launch of the iPhone 12 later this year, according to Wedbush.
The pent-up demand for a new iPhone with 5G capabilities and a new design form will make the iPhone 12 the most significant product cycle for Apple since the iPhone 6 was launched in 2014, Wedbush said.
Wedbush estimates that 350 million iPhone users will be looking to upgrade their current iPhone over the next 12 to 18 months.
Wedbush also raised its base-case price target to a Street high $600, representing 20% upside potential from Tuesday's close.
"We still believe many on the Street are underestimating the massive pent-up demand around this supercycle for Apple," Wedbush said, adding that 2021 represents a big opportunity for Apple as its monetization engine kicks into a higher gear.
Apple announced a services bundle subscription earlier this month, as it looks to better monetize its subscription services like Apple TV, Apple Music, Arcade, and more.
Wedbush assigned a $900 billion to $950 billion valuation for Apple's services business, arguing that the company continues to "flawlessly execute on the vision." For 2021, Wedbush estimates the business will hit $60 billion in annual revenues, which "speaks to Apple's ability to further monetize its golden installed base," the note said.
Finally, China remains a "key ingredient" for Apple's success as Wedbush estimates approximately 20% of iPhone upgrades will be coming from the region over the next year. And despite the noise surrounding a possible WeChat ban by the Trump administration, Wedbush says Apple's iPhone ecosystem will not be negatively impacted.
Apple jumped as much as 1.5% to $507.39 in Wednesday trades. Shares of Apple are up 71% year-to-date.
The US could plunge into a second bout of deep economic pain if the coronavirus pandemic flares up again, Esther George, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said.
An "important risk" to hopes for a full recovery "is thinking about what happens as we come into the fall, whether we see any resurgence in the virus that would cause an additional pullback," George said in a CNBC interview.
The central bank president still expects the country to notch healthy growth in the near future, provided the virus can be kept in check.
"It's too soon to speculate" on what other Fed aid is needed, she added, as low rates and lending facilities are already "very accommodative."
The coronavirus recession could sharply worsen before ending if the pandemic isn't brought under control, Esther George, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said.
Daily new cases in the US have been steadily dropping through the end of summer, but economic data hasn't reflected a similarly positive trend. Weekly jobless claims continue to land near or above 1 million, and consumer confidence gauges remain well below their pre-pandemic highs.
With the economic recovery already turning fragile, any slip-up in containing the coronavirus could drive a second recessionary plunge, George said in a CNBC interview aired Wednesday morning.
"An important risk to that outlook is thinking about what happens as we come into the fall, whether we see any resurgence in the virus that would cause an additional pullback in the economy," she said.
Still, the central bank is holding off on issuing additional aid. George expects the country to post steady growth in the third and fourth quarters, so long as the path of the virus continues to trend lower. Policymakers will "really have to wait and see" whether new monetary easing is necessary, she added.
"Financing conditions are very accommodative. We have low rates, we still have capacity in those credit facilities," the Fed president said. "I think it's too soon to speculate on what else might be needed."
George's comments arrive one day before Fed Chairman Jerome Powell delivers a keynote address at the central bank's annual Jackson Hole, Wyoming, conference, which will be held virtually. The chair is expected to detail the Fed's plans to hold interest rates near zero for several years and coax the economy back to full employment and strong output.
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US equities wavered near all-time highs on Wednesday as investors weighed healthy earnings results, positive economic data, and falling daily COVID-19 infections.
US durable-goods orders gained 11.2% in July, the Census Bureau said. The reading trounced economists' 4.8% estimate and signaled a continued recovery in the nation's manufacturing industry.
US stocks fluctuated near record highs on Wednesday as investors mulled better-than-expected earnings reports and strong economic data.
Salesforce blew estimates out of the water on Tuesday, trouncing expectations for quarterly profits and revenue. The company — soon to be a member of the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average — also raised its forecast for 2020 revenue, citing a wave of tech upgrades prompted by the work-from-home shift.
On the economic-data front, US durable-goods orders jumped 11.2% in July on strong auto demand, the Census Bureau said on Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had anticipated growth of just 4.8% following June's 7.7% gain. The jump signaled a continued recovery in the nation's manufacturing industry, though the figures remain well below pre-pandemic highs.
"This won't be recovered anytime soon, given the continued depression in fleet auto sales, even though private consumers are buying as many cars and trucks as before the pandemic," Ian Shepherdson, the chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a note.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite indexes notched record closes in the previous session. They've rallied throughout the week on positive economic data, improved US-China relations, and falling new COVID-19 cases in the US.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to deliver a keynote address on Thursday at the central bank's annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The speech is expected to lay out the Fed's plans to keep interest rates low for several years and reveal a strategy for maintaining inflation at its 2% target. Investors will watch closely for any signs of additional monetary support to expedite the US economic rebound.
Spot gold fell as much as 1.3%, to just above $1,900. The precious metal and popular hedging asset has attempted to retake its high of $2,000 in several sessions but has not climbed above the threshold as investors secure profits and shift cash back to risk assets.
Oil prices climbed. West Texas Intermediate crude rose as much as 0.7%, to $43.67 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's global benchmark, increased 0.5%, to $46.10, at intraday highs.
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Gary Cohn, a former Trump adviser and one-time COO of Goldman Sachs is looking to raise $600 million through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), a Tuesday filing showed.
Cohn teamed up with former hedge fund boss Clifton Robbins, and is the latest prominent figure to join Wall Street's SPAC mania.
Cohn's SPAC is looking to sell 60 million shares in an IPO at a price of $10 per unit.
The SPAC market has boomed in 2020 with more than $32 billion raised through 79 SPACs so far compared to just over $13 billion last year from 59 SPACs.
Gary Cohn, a former Trump adviser and one-time COO of Goldman Sachs has moved to raise $600 million through the listing of a blank-check company, according to a filing published Tuesday.
Cohn has teamed up with investor Clifton Robbins, and has become the latest prominent figure to join a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
SPACs have become one of Wall Street's hottest investment properties in 2020, with renowned figures such as hedge fund titan Bill Ackman and tech billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya among those to sign up.
A SPAC, also dubbed a blank-check company, is one created solely for the purpose of buying out an already operational company, using the proceeds of an IPO. The targets of these investments are often not made public before the IPO, meaning that investors generally go in blind as to what they're investing in.
The SPAC market has boomed in 2020. More than $32 billion has been raised through 79 SPACs this year so far compared to around $13 billion from 59 SPACs in the whole of last year, website SPACInsider showed.
Cohn Robbins Holding Corp, the name of the SPAC co-founded by Cohn and Robbins, is looking to sell 60 shares in an IPO at a price of $10 per unit.
It will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker name "CRHC.U."
Cohn served as Trump's ke economic advisor from 2017-2018, and prior to that he was president and chief operating officer at Goldman Sachs, where he worked for more than 25 years.
Dick's generated huge sales gains in the second quarter as customers pivoted to working out at home when gyms closed.
The company also lured a new subset of shoppers who are more concerned with their health and fitness due to the pandemic, according to Neil Saunders, the managing director of GlobalData Retail.
Dick's Sporting Goods' sales are surging as shoppers stock up on fitness gear and apparel and engage more in outdoor activities such as biking and camping.
The company's overall sales rose 20.1% to $2.71 billion and same-store sales increased 20.7%, even with about 15% of its stores closed on average during the quarter.
The results represent the company's highest-ever quarterly sales and earnings, according to Dick's.
The pandemic helped drive this strength, as gyms closed and fitness-focused shoppers shifted to working out at home.
Dick's has also captured a new subset of customers that may not have previously shopped at the retailer, according to Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.
"In addition to the gym crowd pivoting to working out from home, our data also show that many traditionally less-active customers have engaged more in fitness over the past few months," Saunders wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. "Some of this is because of an absence of other things to do and some is related to more people being conscious about their health and wellbeing as a result of the virus. This trend has created a new wave of shoppers, many of which gravitated to specialist sports retailers for the service and authority they provide."
Dick's seized on this trend in part by rapidly rolling out curbside pickup for online orders. The company's online sales jumped 194%, with e-commerce accounting for 30% of total net sales — up from 12% in the prior year.
The company also likely benefitted from demand-driven inventory shortages at other big-box retailers, such as Walmart, Target, and Amazon.
"During this pandemic, the importance of health and fitness has accelerated and participation in socially distant, outdoor activities has increased," Dick's CEO Ed Stack said in a statement on the company's second-quarter earnings. "There has also been a greater shift toward athletic and active lifestyle products with people spending more time working and exercising at home. The majority of our assortment sits squarely at the center of these trends, and while mindful of the uncertainty in the current environment, we are in a great lane right now."
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When it comes to wallets, I prefer simplicity. It doesn't need to look great (though that helps), but it should be big enough to hold all the essentials and small enough to fit in a pocket.
The Quinn Card Holder from Pixie Mood is slim, sleek, very affordable at $25, and made from cruelty-free materials.
I've been using this wallet for almost a year now and I'm impressed with how much it can fit. It's definitely seen some wear and tear, but nothing unexpected and considering the price, it's held up pretty well.
I've been searching for the perfect wallet for what feels like forever.
It used to be that my bulky leather wallet housed almost every receipt and card I've ever had, but only made its way into the rotation when I was carrying a large purse. For days when I traveled with a small crossbody bag, I moved the important stuff into a coin purse. And, if I ever went bag-free, I'd just shove my most-used cards and a little bit of cash into the card holder on the back of my phone and call it a day.
The problem with constantly moving all of your important cards around — besides the fact that it's an annoyance — is that things can easily get misplaced, which isn't great news when it comes to difficult-to-replace ID cards and such.
That's why I thought it was time to finally make a change. Time to find a wallet compact enough to fit into my back pocket but with enough space for all of the cards I could need on any given day; one that would let me keep my most-used cards easily accessible. Durable materials and stylish designs would be a plus, but surely not what I was would base my choice on.
Sometime at the end of summer when my wallet search was kicking into high gear, the Pixie Mood Quinn Card Wallet landed on my desk.
Since my coworker handed it to me for a team review of Pixie Mood's standout styles, I haven't switched my wallets once. There's hasn't been any reason to, frankly. It's stylish, made of durable material, and holds everything I need. Plus, it doesn't hurt that it's an affordable $25.
The specs
Pixie Mood makes vegan leather bags that are trendy, practical, and socially responsible all at once. Instead of real leather, Pixie Mood uses polyurethane for its wallets and bags, a synthetic form of leather which is actually more lightweight than the real deal. Since real leather is touted as a luxury material, the idea of a faux version can sometimes seem like a cheap imitation. In reality, all of Pixie Mood's bags and wallets are not only cute, but have a high-quality look that suggests they're much more expensive.
Technically, the Quinn is not really a wallet, but a card holder. It has a slim profile with five card slots on the front and a zip-around compartment that can hold coins, bills, and other small bits. At just over five inches long and three inches tall, this can fit in pretty much any bag or pocket. While it may seem too small to be a substantial wallet, it holds a surprising amount inside. At the moment, I have seven cards and six MetroCards (I know, I need to deal with that) scattered throughout the five card slots. Inside the zip compartment, I have some business cards, receipts, and a few stray coins.
The Quinn, despite being faux leather, has a nice pebbled leather feel. Mine is a pretty seafoam green color, and while I believe that was a special summer edition, you can still find plenty of other great colors. They have your classic neutrals, like black and grey, as well as jeweled tones like spruce green and even shiny metallics.
In my experience, most $20 wallets act like $20 wallets. The zippers frequently get jammed, seams burst too soon, and the materials look as cheap as they are. The Quinn, on the other hand, has a classic look and is particularly durable. Of course, after frequent use, light-colored materials will show wear, so if you're worried about that I'd recommend going for a darker color.
A one-year update on how the wallet has fared
After almost a year, this wallet has definitely seen some wear and tear, but I still use it every day. The zipper has gotten a little finicky, which is understandable with use. The vegan leather has started to fade a little, particularly at the corners of the wallet, but it also has softened up the same way that real leather does, which was unexpected but a nice touch. The seams along the first slot in the card holder are pulling, but my cards still stay secure so it's not really an issue. Its definitely not as clean as it once was, but that was inevitable. I think if this were a darker color (maybe black or navy) the wear and tear wouldn't be so visible. At just about $20, I would say this is all expected. It's still fully functional and looks pretty nice, so I'll continue using it until that changes.
The bottom line
If you're in the market for a new wallet, the Quinn from Pixie Mood is an easy choice. It's cute, durable, cruelty-free, and just $25 — making it a choice that your style, values, and budget will all like. Personally, my litmus test for this wallet was to see how long I could go without switching my things to another wallet, even if just for the day. Considering this has been my only wallet for months now, things seem to be going pretty well and I don't see the need for a more expensive option.
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Apple's AirPods Pro are down to just $199 on Newegg — that's $50 off their regular $249 retail price and the lowest deal price we've seen so far.
The one-day sale is set to end at 2 a.m. ET on August 26.
The AirPods Pro feature a few key upgrades over the standard AirPods model, including active noise cancellation, shorter stems, multiple eartip sizes, and sweat and water resistance.
Elon Musk tweeted Tuesday that his brain chip company Neuralink will host a live demonstration of a device on Friday.
Neuralink showcased designs last year for two future devices: a microchip that records and stimulates brain activity using electrodes, and a sewing-machine-like device that implants these electrodes into the brain's cortex.
Musk confirmed that an updated implantation device will be shown on Friday, but was not clear about whether the microchip will also be part of the demo.
Musk said in May the company could begin human testing within a year, but experts have questioned Neuralink's timeline in the past.
Elon Musk has announced that his brain chip company Neuralink will give a live demo of its tech on Friday.
Since its founding in 2016 Neuralink has been working on technology that would theoretically be able to implant an AI-enabled microchip into the human brain to both monitor and stimulate brain activity. The aim is to one day use the tech to help treat neurological conditions and diseases.
"Live webcast of working @Neuralink device Friday 3pm Pacific," Musk tweeted late on Tuesday night. Musk has been trailing the demonstration for a while, last month he tweeted "will show neurons firing in real-time on August 28th."
Neuralink's tech has two main components: The first is the chip, which would be connected to electrodes implanted in someone's brain, and the second is sewing-machine-like insertion device that surgically implants those electrodes. Musk has previously said the device could make the process as quick and easy as LASIK eye surgery.
The company held its first public presentation of its technology in July 2019.
In a follow-up tweet, Musk confirmed an updated version of the insetion robot will be presented on Friday, but that it was still far off being as safe as a LASIK machine. "Could get pretty close in a few years," he added.
It's not yet clear whether there will be any kind of demo of the microchip. Neuralink has said the chip would sit behind the ear, with wires fanning out from it and connecting to electrodes implanted into the brain. These electrodes would be able to both record brain activity and stimulate the brain's neurons.
Musk has also made grand claims about the potential applications of Neuralink's tech. Short-term, the idea is to help treat brain injury and trauma. Longer-term, Musk has claimed the technology could be used to treat complex neurological conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Musk has said he wants the chips to enable a "symbiosis" between the human brain and AI. Speaking to Business Insider in October last year, neuroscientist Dr Andrew Hires said some of these aspirations are more realistic than others.
"To get to the level of integrating with AI, this is where [Musk] sort of is going off into aspirational fantasy land," Hires said.
Elon Musk founded neural tech company Neuralink in 2016. In 2019, the company showcased the technology it's developing — a chip connected to wires which fan out into the human brain, capable of both recording brain activity and stimulating it.
Musk tweeted on Tuesday that Neuralink will broadcast a live demo of a "working device" on Friday, August 28.
Musk has said the technology could be used for people with neural conditions and disorders, but has also predicted it could enable human "symbiosis with artificial intelligence."
Business Insider spoke to two neuroscientists to find out exactly how innovative Neuralink is. Both said components of Neuralink's design are exciting. But they also said the fact that, at a demonstration, a monkey had been able to control a computer with its brain isn't as impressive as it sounds.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has an unusual passion project: a neural tech company called Neuralink that wants to put wires in people's brains.
Musk cofounded Neuralink in 2016, and it remained under the radar until 2017, when the Wall Street Journal broke the news that he had established the company to "merge computers with human brains."
Developing brain chips is a curious side hustle for a man who is simultaneously running Tesla, his space exploration company SpaceX, and The Boring Company, which Musk hopes will dig underground transit systems for cities.
But Neuralink zeroes in on one of Musk's main fears — artificial intelligence. The entrepreneur has frequently been vocal about his worries that AI could one day overshadow the human race. He's founded a general-purpose research organization called OpenAI, but Neuralink has a much more tangible, futuristic goal of making AI-enabled devices capable of interacting with people's brains.
In July 2019, Neuralink executives and Musk gave a presentation on the technology the firm has developed so far.
The big reveal was a tiny microchip that could, theoretically, be implanted behind a person's ear with tiny threads containing electrodes fanning out into the brain.
More news on Neuralink's progress is imminent, as Musk tweeted on Tuesday, August 25 that the company will broadcast a live demo of a "working Neuralink device" on Friday, August 28, at 3 p.m. Pacific time, althought it's not yet clear exactly what this demo will entail.
The concept of neural interface technology isn't new.
Scientists have already created devices capable of both interpreting brain activity and stimulating the neurons in the brain. A memorable demonstration of the technology was in 2012 when paralyzed patients were able to control a robotic arm.
However, Elon Musk doesn't want to stick with what is already possible. He has said, in classic Muskian style, that apart from treating neural conditions such as Parkinson's, he hopes that Neuralink could one day facilitate a "symbiosis" between humans and AI. He also excitedly announced in 2019 that the company had successfully got a monkey to "control a computer with its brain."
Business Insider spoke to two neuroscientists in 2019 to sort the science from the spin. They outlined three genuinely intriguing elements of Neuralink's designs.
1. Floppy wires could move with the brain without causing damage
The wires on Neuralink's proposed device uses could advance the field because of just how floppy they are, according to Andrew Hires, an assistant professor of neurobiology at the University of California, who spoke to Business Insider following Neuralink's July 2019 presentation and the publication of the company's white paper.
"The fact that they're using these flexible wires is a significant innovation, particularly if they're trying to get it into consumers," Hires said. Each wire is slightly slimmer than a human hair and carries electrodes which are both able to detect brain activity and — theoretically — stimulate it.
"Stiff wires in the brain cause a lot of damage because the brain can move around," Hires pointed out, adding that a living brain is very soft, much softer than the specimens you might have seen in jars, which have been stiffened with formaldehyde. "It's a lot softer than jello," he said. Floppy wires like the ones Neuralink described could potentially be a better solution for any device that's going to spend a long period embedded in someone's brain because they're less likely to inflame or damage the tissue.
This is not a new technology, but it is recent enough that we don't know if these wires could last more than a couple of years. "The technology's only been out for like a year or two. It could be that these flexible wires are less reliable, less robust, maybe they're gonna break," Hires said.
Dr. Rylie Green of Imperial College London also noted that the material used to make the threads is quite a commonly used polymer in the field. She also noticed that the electrodes themselves are made of gold, which she calls a "research-level technology," rather than being ready to put into people's brains.
2. A sewing machine instead of a surgeon
One big problem with floppy wires is they can be difficult to thread into the brain, and for this Neuralink has invented something entirely new. The probes would be inserted into the brain by a device not dissimilar to a sewing machine, which would use a stiff needle to poke the threads into place about 1 millimeter into the outer surface of the brain, or the cortex.
Hires said the idea of this sewing machine is a significant innovation. He has had to perform insertions of similar devices into the brains of mice by hand. "Doing this stuff by hand, these are very fine things … it's very hard to have a steady enough hand to do these things manually," he said.
Specifically Hires was impressed by a feature on the machine designed to counteract the fact that the human brain likes to jiggle around. "There's breathing, the heartbeat, and those two factors can move the brain around a little bit," said Hires.
The feature is called online motion correction, and works by taking video of the brain's blood vessels under a microscope and then using a robot to adjust the needle to move with those blood vessels.
Musk confirmed in a tweet on Tuesday that an updated version of the insertion machine will be shown at Friday's demonstration. Previously Musk has said this machine could make implanting electrodes as easy as a LASIK eye surgery machine — although in his Tuesday tweet he said this was still a long way off.
3. A super-powered chip which translates brain activity
The final weapon in Neuralink's arsenal is the chip which will interpret the brain activity being picked up by the electrodes.
"There's a problem with getting electrical signals out of the brain, and that is that they're very small. And the farther they have to travel down a thin wire the more they're going to get distorted by noise, because there's always some electrical noise going on in the world around us. You want to be able to amplify and digitize the signal as close to the source as possible," Hires said.
"From what they disclosed in their whitepaper, that chip looks beyond the state of the art ... That's going to enable you to record from more places with higher precision," he said. "It's sort of like upgrading your TV to go from standard definition to high definition."
To Dr. Rylie Green, the most exciting thing about Neuralink wasn't that any of these three technologies are groundbreaking, but rather that they've been brought together. "All those different aspects have been under development for quite some time, and it's nice to see them all come together in one device," she said.
Don't get too excited about the monkeys
At the Neuralink presentation in 2019 Musk was eager to tell the audience that the technology had allowed a monkey to "control a computer with its brain," but neither Hires nor Green were massively surprised or impressed by this.
"The monkey is not surfing the internet. The monkey is probably moving a cursor to move a little ball to try to match a target," said Hires. Musk himself didn't give any detail about Neuralink's primate testing during the July presentation. "This is something you can already do with traditional brain-machine interfaces ... I'm not surprised they've been able to achieve that," added Hires.
"Doing it with this device is something that could be considered to be impressive or different based on the sheer size of them being quite small or them using different sorts of materials, but it's difficult to elucidate that unless they've actually written it down [and] shown the data," said Green.
Neuralink's most likely use: Giving robotic limbs the feeling of touch
While Elon Musk is keen to extol the future merging of AI and human consciousness, Hires and Green were more excited by the near-term benefits the technology could bring.
"The first application you can imagine is better mental control for a robotic arm for someone who's paralyzed," said Hires. Green concurred with this, adding it could be used by patients with locked-in syndrome to give them "fine control" over robotic limbs.
Although neural control of robotic limbs has been around since 2012, Neuralink's technology could enable the next big step — touch feedback, sometimes called haptic feedback. Theoretically, this could be possible if Neuralink's chips recorded which areas of the brain are stimulated when we touch and interact with the world, and then the electrodes could use this information to stimulate the brains of people using robotic prostheses to simulate this sensation.
Neuralink's electrodes won't necessarily have to perfectly stimulate the right neurons to generate this feeling due to the brain's ability to adapt.
"The hope, and I think it's a reasonable hope ... over time the cortex is able to re-learn and re-associate the electrical stimulation patterns. As long as there's a consistent relationship with what you're doing out in the world and what's going on in the brain," said Hires.
Elon Musk's goal of an AI-human hybrid probably won't happen
Both Hires and Green were more skeptical of Elon Musk's stated aim — that Neuralink will one day facilitate the augmentation of human consciousness with artificial intelligence. However Hires did not rule it out entirely.
"To get to the level of integrating with AI, this is where [Musk] sort of is going off into aspirational fantasy land," said Hires. "But it is hard to predict how technology is going to change twenty years."
According to Hires, we would need electrodes precise enough to stimulate individual neurons and, perhaps more importantly, a better understanding of the brain itself. "We don't understand the rules by which the brain re-organizes to learn things," he said.
Green pointed towards the ethical problems which could arise in a world where Neuralink could connect AI to people's brains. "The biggest concern is how you manage to actually protect information in that sort of interface," she said.
Neuralink's biggest hurdle also comes long before it tries to put AI in anyone's brains. "To get any of these devices into your brain ... is very, very high-risk surgery," Green said, adding the idea of a healthy person opting for brain surgery was troubling.
"People do it because they have severe limitations and there is a potential there to improve their life. Doing it for fun is not a great idea," she said.
This doesn't rule out the possibility that Neuralink will become a real, applicable technology. "It could potentially happen in Elon Musk's lifetime," said Hires.
"It is difficult to perceive human trials at such an accelerated rate because the regulatory studies that ensure safety take time that cannot be shortened," Green said.
"Not only should animal trials be completed but the implantation process should be conducted on cadavers and shown to be repeatable and targeting the correct areas of the brain prior to use on human patients," she added.
They're the perfect size for toddlers, and they have a wall that makes learning how to use utensils easier.
If you want to spend the next hour cleaning food off your walls, put a regular bowl full of food in front of your baby or young toddler. I tried quite a few suction plates, bowls, and placemats with my 1-year-old, Ellie, and most of them ended up on the floor by the end of the meal.
I quickly gave up, and for most meals, I wasn't even bothering to give her a plate or bowl. I just put food directly on the tray of her high chair.
As she got older, though, she began to notice that my husband and I have plates and bowls for our food and decided she wanted them too. I bought plate after plate that was supposed to stick, only to be thwarted by her ability to figure out how to remove them in less than five minutes.
Enter the OXO Tot Stick & Stay suction bowl. The first time Ellie used it, I was so happy that it didn't hit the floor once. Sure, she tried to send it flying across the room, but this is the only bowl that she hasn't been able to unstick.
With most suction bowls, plates, and placemats, all you have to do to unstick them is peel up from the side. It only took Ellie watching me do this one time to figure it out for herself with the other options we tried. The reason the OXO Tot bowls and plates stay in place is because they have a decoy edge that keeps little fingers from reaching the second rubber seal that creates the suction. In order to take these bowls and plates off, you need to get your finger under the decoy edge and then under the second piece of rubber to break the seal.
When I say these things stick, I mean it. I know exactly how to get them off, and sometimes I still struggle. My husband even needed my guidance because he couldn't figure it out at first.
Their practical design makes them easy for toddlers to use and easier for parents to clean
The plates and bowls are mainly white, with three different color options for the bottom rim: navy, pink, and teal. I have the bowl and plate in teal. The bowl (6.8 inches diameter at the top, 7.2 inches diameter at the base, 2.5 inches tall) and plate (8 inches diameter, 1.8 inches tall) are the ideal size and hold the right amount of food for my toddler. By the time they are too small for her, she'll be past the plate-throwing stage (at least I hope!).
Another great feature is the high wall on the plate and bowl. The wall helps Ellie push her food onto her spoon and fork as she's learning to eat with utensils. OXO also makes a divided suction plate that I haven't tried — it's the same concept and is useful for separating different parts of a meal for your child.
These bowls are also designed for easy washing. You can unscrew the bottom suction piece from the bowl or plate, so you won't end up with caked-in food stuck in hidden crevices. Plus, they are dishwasher safe.
Potential cons
Every child is different, so yours might be a Houdini who figures out how to get it off on the first try, especially if you have an older toddler. That being said, Ellie has been using these bowls and plates for months now and so far, so good.
The bottom line
Whether you've already gone through multiple suction plates and bowls trying to find the right one for your child or you're just starting your search, the OXO Tot Stick & Stay suction bowls and plates are definitely a good option to consider.
There are a lot of suction plates and mats out there if you're looking for some other options. Although Ellie was able to get the ezpz Mat and the Qshare Toddler Plate off the table the first time we tried them, a lot of parents swear by these two products. Both are placemats that come in cute designs and colors, but they don't offer the decoy edge that makes it so hard for my toddler to remove the OXO bowls and plates.
Pros: Decoy edge makes it hard for kids to remove from table, great size for toddlers, easy to clean, dishwasher and microwave safe
Cons: Older toddlers may be able to figure out how to remove
Apple is opening its first-ever store that floats on water in Singapore.
The structure is will be uniquely designed like a dome and located at the Marina Bay Sands. While there isn't an official opening date for Apple Marina Bay Sands just yet, the store is expected to open soon, according to the Straits Times, an English newspaper based in Singapore.
"Apple Marina Bay Sands is coming soon to Singapore, celebrating the first Apple store in the world that sits on the water," an Apple spokesman told The Straight Times on August 24. "As with every Apple store around the world, Apple Marina Bay Sands will bring the best of Apple to our customers, at an iconic location in Singapore."
This won't be the first time that slot of water has been used in Singapore. Previously, the lot where the dome-like structure will sit was occupied from 2011 to 2016 by Avalon, a large nightclub.
This is going to be Apple's third store in Southeast Asia's sovereign island city-state, but it's far from the first Apple Store to feature a creative design or attention-drawing location.
For example, Apple unveiled a new store along the Chicago River, a popular tourist destination in the Windy City, in October 2017. Likewise, the company in September 2011 opened a two-story store in Hong Kong's premiere shopping district that features a glass spiral staircase.
Meanwhile, like many retailers, Apple's brick-and-mortar operations continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the company has made the decision to re-close some retail stores across the US in states like North and South Carolina, Arizona, and Florida due to a previous spike in cases in the regions.
You can see more images and photos of the upcoming floating Apple Store below.
This photo shows what the spherical Apple store will look like at night.
Here's a shot of the location during the day, where you can see the colors across the bottom half of the sphere.
At night, those colors will glow.
The iconic Marina Bay Sands resort and hotel towers over the new store.
This shot gives us a better look at the sphere's position in the water.
While there will be a red Apple logo on the sphere itself, a white sign bearing the iPhone company's logo will also direct visitors in from the pier.
Apple has yet to give an opening date for the location, but it's teased it will be open to visitors "soon."
The new retail location will add to Singapore's already dense skyline when it eventually opens.
We just got our best look yet at how Moderna's coronavirus vaccine might work in older adults.
The shot was found to be safe and it created an immune response in participants older than 55, according to data that Moderna presented on Wednesday. It hasn't yet been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
The data builds on earlier results from the company that found that the vaccine created encouraging immune responses in healthy, younger volunteers. To be sure, more data is needed to determine whether the vaccine prevents coronavirus infections.
The interim data from the trial was presented Wednesday to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
In the past year, Kimberly Guilfoyle, 51, has gone from a Fox News host to a regular fixture in first family appearances since she's been dating Donald Trump Jr.
Before leading raucous rallies for the 2018 midterms and being considered for a White House role, Guilfoyle's background includes serving as an assistant district attorney, legal correspondent, and first lady of San Francisco.
Here is an inside look at her rise from lawyer to TV star.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, 51, first made a national name for herself on Fox News. The former lawyer started appearing as a legal analyst in 2004, and was a full-time host on the network from 2006.
President Donald Trump is a fan, and considered her for the role as White House communications director. Before that, she was once first lady of San Francisco when her first husband was mayor. He's now the governor of California.
Frequently appearing on the Manhattan social scene over the last decade, Guilfoyle started dating Donald Trump Jr. amid his public divorce from his wife, Vanessa Trump.
Here is an inside look at the rise of Guilfoyle, from lawyer to Republican booster.
Guilfoyle was born in San Francisco on March 9, 1969. Her father had a career in construction, and raised Guilfoyle and her brother as a single dad after her mom died of leukemia when she was 11.
Guilfoyle graduated Magna Cum Laude from UC Davis and received her law degree from the University of San Francisco. She interned for the San Francisco district attorney, and modeled for Macy's and Victoria's Secret while she was in law school.
After graduating law school, Guilfoyle worked as a prosecutor in San Francisco before spending four years in Los Angeles as a deputy district attorney. She then returned home to San Francisco where she served as assistant district attorney for four years.
In 2004, Guilfoyle moved to New York City to pursue a career on television. She hosted the program "Both Sides" on Court TV and served as a legal analyst for CNN.
But as their bi-coastal marriage became a strain and Guilfoyle focused on her television career, the couple filed for divorce in 2005. Newsom, a Democrat, served as lieutenant governor of California from 2011 until he was elected governor in 2018.
In 2006, Guilfoyle married Eric Villency in Barbados and later gave birth to a son. Villency, a former model, is CEO of an interior design firm in New York who sometimes appears as a guest on TV news programs like the "Today Show."
She served in the same position for several years. Guilfoyle has also appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor", "Hannity", and "Fox and Friends". In 2017, she signed a long-term extension with Fox News.
Guilfoyle put down permanent New York roots in 2014, when she bought a $3.4 million, 2-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side. It was filled with taxidermied animals, but she's since transformed the space. Jerry Seinfeld reportedly lives in the building, too.
In 2015, Guilfoyle wrote a semi-autobiographical book called "Making the Case: How to Be your Own Best Advocate" on her experience as a prosecutor and encouraging others to always stand up for themselves.
When former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson accused former Fox News chief Roger Ailes of sexual harassment, Guilfoyle disputed the charges and came to her boss's defense.
In 2017, it was rumored that Guilfoyle was dating Anthony Scaramucci, the financier who served as Trump's White House communications director for 10 days.
After Sean Spicer resigned in July, Guilfoyle said she was in conversations with Trump to succeed Spicer in the role. She was ultimately not selected for the job.
In May, rumors swirled that Guilfoyle was dating Trump Jr., who is nine years her junior. Page Six reported that the TV personality and president's first-born had been dating for weeks, and that they'd been spotted out together in New York.
She joined Trump Jr. on the campaign trail and picked up the vice chairwoman role at America First Policies, a pro-Trump nonprofit.
Guilfoyle made frequent rally appearances by Trump's side in the months leading up to the 2018 midterms.
By Christmas, Guilfoyle was a regular fixture at Trump family appearances, even attending the 96th annual National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony seats away from President Donald and first lady Melania Trump.
In February 2019, Guilfoyle attended New York Fashion Week and posed with the president's ex-wife Marla Maples and her daughter Tiffany at the Taoray Wang show.
When a trailer dropped for "Bombshell," a movie dramatizing the fall of Roger Ailes and the shake-up of Fox News, Guilfoyle was featured via a look-alike played by Bree Condon.
Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. were back in the public eye doing press around the November 2019 publishing of his book, "Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us."
The couple struck controversy when they joined ABC's "The View," where they clashed with host Meghan McCain before taking to Twitter to slam the media as a whole.
Another appearance went haywire when the crowd at the University of California at Los Angeles heckled Trump and Guilfoyle for refusing to take questions before they left the stage.
Guilfoyle remained a top figure in the Trump campaign in preparation for the 2020 Election. In January, Guilfoyle was named chair of Trump Victory, a fundraising committee.
After an April HuffPost report said Trump's campaign was paying Guilfoyle and Lara Trump $180,000 a year each, campaign manager Brad Parscale defended the significant others' roles with the re-election effort.
Guilfoyle took center stage in August for a speech at the Republican National Convention, where she sparked headlines with her signature fiery speaking style and exaggerated claims about her background and the president's campaign.
Business Insider's John Haltiwanger reported that Guilfoyle was a centerpiece of the convention's opening night, warning Trump's Democratic opponents "and the rest of the socialists will fundamentally change this nation" in a speech that set a dark tone for the RNC and Trump's campaign at large.
Elon Musk is known to put plenty of miles on jets, and now he's got another in his arsenal.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO now has access to a second lavish Gulfstream aircraft for jetting between car factories, rocket launch sites, and everywhere in between.
Falcon Landing LLC, a shell company with ties to SpaceX's Hawthorne, California headquarters, recently registered a new Gulfstream G550 jet alongside its larger G650. According to its broker listing, the new jet has space for 17 passengers that can be re-configured into a sleeping configuration.
The registration was first spotted by Protocol, which pegs the jet's price around $14 million. Business Insider was unable to confirm this number. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the Washington Post, Musk put more than 150,000 miles on the plane in 2018, including pet projects and vacation in addition to running the two companies. Now, with Tesla building a new car factory in Texas, it's likely that Musk will be travelling even more.
Janet Yellen co-wrote an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday in which she argued that while the Fed has largely done its job, Congress needs to pass an additional stimulus bill.
Following the op-ed Yellen told NPR that loss in fiscal support may lead to a "complete petering out" of economic growth.
The former Fed chair said that the additional $600-per-week in unemployment was essential to stimulate spending and, consequently, job creation.
Unemployed Americans have been without the additional $600 per week in benefits for almost a month after Congress was unable to reach a deal for a new stimulus bill before going into recess. Janet Yellen criticized the Senate's lack of urgency and emphasized the need for additional stimulus in an op-ed in The New York Times titled "The Senate Is on Vacation While Americans Starve," which she co-wrote with Jared Bernstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities senior fellow, on Monday.
The economists argued that both monetary policy from the Fed, and fiscal policy from the US government, are necessary to pull America out of the crisis. While the Fed has largely done its job by cutting interest rates, Yellen and Bernstein wrote, more fiscal stimulus is needed.
"When unemployment is exceptionally high and inflation is historically low, as they both are now, the economy needs more fiscal spending to support hiring. Monetary power sets the table and Congress's fiscal dollars bring in the diners," they wrote.
Following the op-ed, Yellen told NPR's The Indicator podcast that the extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits spiked spending in the economy, which supported job creation. She said the $600 payments were supporting "something like 15 or 16 billion dollars a week to unemployed workers ... their spending was supporting jobs throughout the economy."
"This loss in fiscal support is what I'm tremendously afraid is going to lead to retrenchment in the economy or a complete petering out of growth," Yellen told NPR.
When NPR asked how much is the right amount of fiscal aid, Yellen answered: "We need enough spending in the economy to support jobs, so that there's enough demand for the goods and services that the economy is capable of producing. I don't have a number to give you. But estimates that I've seen suggest that something on the order of a trillion dollars would be too little."