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Kurt Cobain Biographer, Rocket Editor Was 67

Kurt Cobain Biographer, Rocket Editor Was 67

by with No Comment Entertainment

Charles R. Cross, a Seattle-based music journalist who edited the city’s preeminent alt-weekly, the Rocket, and penned bestselling biographies of Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and other major rock figures, died Friday at age 67.

“We are sorry to share that Charles Cross has passed,” the writer’s family said in a statement. “He died peacefully of natural causes in his sleep on August 9, 2024.  We are all grief-stricken and trying to get through this difficult process of dealing with the next steps.”

Among those mourning Cross was veteran Los Angeles Times rock critic and biographer Robert Hilburn, who wrote on the X platform that Cross’ heralded book “Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain” was “high on my short-list of best music biographies ever.” Said Hilburn, “He was as warm and gracious as he was a passionate and compelling writer.”

Said his longtime agent, Sarah Lazin, “I’m stunned and devastated. We worked together — and were friends — for 30 years, starting with ‘Heavier Than Heaven,’ which is still in print all over the world 20-plus years later. We did many books together, and most recently sold, with Laura Nolan, a co-agent at Aevitas Creative Management, his next project, a memoir featuring his beloved Seattle. I’d just spoken to him on Thursday and he seemed happy, vibrant, and excited about all that was happening. A brilliant and passionate author and loving dad. My heart goes out to his son Ashland and to us all. What a loss.”

Cross published nine books, including the New York Times bestsellers “Room Full of Mirrors: The Biography of Jimi Hendrix,” and — with Ann and Nancy Wilson, the frontwomen of the group Heart — “Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock & Roll.”

Cross was the most visible and influential rock journalist on the Seattle music scene over a period of decades, especially in the nearly decade and a half — 1986 through 2000 — that he served as the editor of the weekly newspaper the Rocket, where he was well-positioned to spot and chronicle the nascent Nirvana, as well as other artists that would soon grow from being local cult favorites to international “grunge” superstars.

Cross also founded and for many years edited the Bruce Springsteen magazine Backstreets, possibly the best regarded of all the fanzines devoted to a single artist.

As a chronicler of Cobain, Cross said, “We [at the Rocket] were the first magazine to ever review Nirvana, the first magazine to ever put them on the cover, and Kurt even was our customer — he advertised in our paper looking for drummers. So I chronicled the scene and knew everybody and ultimately felt that some of the stories about Kurt were just not right.”

“Heavier Than Heaven” was called “one of the most moving and revealing books ever written about a rock star” by the Los Angeles Times. It won the 2002 ASCAP Award for Outstanding Musical Biography. Cross conducted more than 400 interviews for the book, and was granted significant access by Courtney Love. Cross had said that Love “felt that to understand him, I needed to read his inner thoughts,” he said. “The diaries really changed this book dramatically because they gave me a place to have Kurt’s voice.” He further explained, “Some of my motivation was that I did feel the story wasn’t being told properly,” noting that he wanted to delve into areas he thought other writers had avoided, from the rock icon’s history of suicidal impulses to his conflicting impulses about commerciality.

The Cobain biography was optioned by Universal Pictures, resulting in widespread speculation about which young actor could play the lead, but never made it out of development.

Earlier, Cross had penned “Nevermind: The Classic Album.” He followed the bestseller “Heavier Than Heaven” with two other books about the late rock star, “Cobain Unseen” and “Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain.”

Cross first caught the attention of national readers when he started up Backstreets in 1980, printing 10,000 copies of a four-page tabloid devoted to Springsteen, which he passed it, gratis, at a Seattle Coliseum show. In 1989, a collection of writings from Backstreets co-edited by Cross was published in book form, titled “Springsteen: the Man and His Music,” with Cross writing in the forward about that first issue and saying, “Little did I know at the time that a decade later the damn thing would still be around as a quarterly magazine and be called by some ‘the world’s greatest fanzine.’”

Initially, Cross wrote out subscription labels for Backstreets by hand. By the publication’s tenth issue, it had graduated from newsprint to a full-color, slick-paper format. With Cross eventually moving on to other journalistic pursuits, Backstreets continued as a magazine or website and a primary Springsteen resource until early 2023.

Just prior to starting Backstreets, Cross had served as editor of the the University of Washington’s Daily in 1979. He graduated from the school with a degree in creative writing.

Other books included “Led Zeppelin: Heaven and Hell” and “Led Zeppelin: Shadows Taller Than Our Souls.”

Cross had chops as a critic but ultimately felt his greatest gift was in crafting narratives. “As a rock critic, you tend to use the same words in every review. Eventually, you begin to look at this and say ‘My God, I’ve used every one of these adjectives 15 times before, in different combinations.’ So I think one of the things I’ve tried to concentrate on is letting the storytelling carry it, instead of approaching it like a critic would.”

In recent years, Cross had been at work on a book that he described to an interviewer as “a memoir that’s a little bit about my life and a little bit about Seattle music history.”

He had plans to publish a compendium of material from the Rocket, as well. Cross had formerly lamented that the alt-weekly’s archives did not survive online, but was pleased when the publication was finally fully digitized, a project that was announced in December 2023. (Those archives can be found here.)

Cross had also been contributing to the Seattle Times. In his most recent pieces for the city’s daily, he had profiled fellow authors, including Anupreeta Das, about her Bill Gates biography, and Ann Powers, about her new book about Joni Mitchell’s career.

Cross’ writing also appeared in Rolling Stone, Spin, Esquire, Playboy, Guitar World, Q, Uncut, Creem, the London Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.


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Medi-Cal’s Dental Care Gap: Getting a Tooth Pulled Is Easy — Much Harder To Get an Implant

Medi-Cal’s Dental Care Gap: Getting a Tooth Pulled Is Easy — Much Harder To Get an Implant

by with No Comment Health

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — When Bobby Moske went to a community clinic a few years ago with a toothache, he couldn’t find a dentist in Marin County willing to take Medicaid to do a root canal.

Marin Community Clinics referred the 75-year-old to a dentist about 20 miles away in San Francisco, but his tooth decayed while he waited months for authorization to cover the procedure. In the end, his tooth was pulled.

It was the sixth time in a decade Moske had lost a tooth for lack of dental care, he said. The behavioral health peer specialist wears a denture that must be removed at mealtime, making eating a chore. He often struggles to mash food between his gums, and he limits his diet to things he can easily chew. Nuts and steak, for instance, are off the table. It can be embarrassing to sit down for a meal with clients or colleagues.

“I feel like I give off the impression of somebody who doesn’t take care of himself, and I do take care of myself,” Moske said. “I try very hard. So, when I go out, I try not to smile.”

California is among a growing number of states that provide comprehensive dental benefits to adults enrolled in Medicaid, and some lawmakers want to add more dental cleanings, examinations, and implants to the safety-net program. Yet many dentists don’t accept Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, so new benefits would offer no guarantee that patients could get care.

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that 21% of California dentists saw Medi-Cal patients of all ages, according to data from 2019 to 2021. Often those dentists limit the number of Medi-Cal patients they will see, meaning only 15% of adults might get dental care in any given year, said Elizabeth Mertz, a dentistry professor and medical sociologist at the University of California-San Francisco.

“The issue is you have coverage that is useless,” Mertz said. “The state does provide coverage, but almost no dentist will accept it.”

One of the bills moving through the California Legislature would expand Medi-Cal coverage of dental implants — artificial tooth roots implanted into the jawbone that support artificial teeth — and crowns, giving patients with broken or missing teeth more options.

Currently, Medi-Cal covers implants only when “exceptional medical conditions are documented,” according to the state’s 2024 benefits guide. It’s unclear how many private dental plans cover implants, but preliminary research has shown about half of individuals enrolled in a PPO plan nationwide have some type of coverage, said Mike Adelberg, executive director at the National Association of Dental Plans.

Under the bill, introduced by Democratic Sen. Aisha Wahab, Medi-Cal patients could qualify for an implant if their dentist determines it is the best option to replace a missing tooth.

“If you need an implant, you should be able to get it, especially our most vulnerable,” Wahab said. “The poorest of the poor in California deserve this.”

The Senate passed the bill unanimously in May, and a vote is pending in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Elana Ross, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, declined to comment on the bill.

Four in 10 U.S. adults have had permanent teeth pulled, according to an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also reports that low-income older adults are at higher risk for tooth loss, which can cause discomfort and affect eating and speaking. The fix can be prosthetic devices, such as bridges and dentures, or replacement teeth, but they can be costly, especially for those without insurance or on government programs with limited benefits.

A photo of a hand holding up a partial denture.
Moske shows the denture he now uses after he had six teeth pulled in the past decade.(Loren Elliott for KFF Health News)

While the alternatives might be a better fit for some patients, implants are “the standard of care,” said Sohail Saghezchi, director of UCSF’s oral surgery residency program.

“They’re not able to eat everything that they want, and, a lot of times, foods like vegetables and fruits are harder to eat,” he said.

The Department of Health Care Services, which oversees Medi-Cal, estimates it would cost between $4 billion and $7 billion a year for about 1.5 million implants — a price tag Wahab fears could be problematic since Newsom in June signed a state budget closing an estimated $46.8 billion deficit.

The cost of an implant varies widely. DHCS estimates it would reimburse dentists between $3,000 and $4,500 for each implant surgery. FAIR Health, a national nonprofit that estimates health costs, reported a median charge for a typical implant in California between October 2022 and September 2023 ranged from about $4,000 to $4,800. Location matters, too. In San Franciso, for example, an implant is closer to $8,000, Saghezchi said.

“Reimbursement rates need to cover the costs of providing the service,” said Alicia Malaby, a spokesperson at the California Dental Association. “As with any Medi-Cal benefit, coverage is not meaningful unless the state is willing to fully invest in it to ensure people can actually access the care they need.”

The California Dental Association, which does not support the current bill, has raised concerns about the invasiveness of implant surgery, which requires regular follow-up appointments. It’s sponsoring legislation to require Medi-Cal to cover a standard two teeth cleanings and examinations a year for people 21 and older, as opposed to one.

DHCS spokesperson Leah Myers said the state has increased Medi-Cal reimbursements to dentists since the passage of Proposition 56 in 2016 and created a web-based app to enlist more dentists. More than 14,000 dentists — about 40% — were enrolled in the Medi-Cal program, as of July, according to the latest numbers published by the Dental Board.

But for people such as Moske, finding a dentist and getting needed care feels impossible. In most of California, 3 in 4 Medi-Cal patients 21 and up didn’t have a dental appointment in 2023, according to DHCS.

When Moske testified in support of the implant bill in June, he took out his denture, held it up to show lawmakers, and opened his mouth.

“I’m here to show you something,” Moske said. “Please don’t be offended. These are the teeth I lost.”

A photo of Bobby Moske pulling his mouth open to show the gap in his smile.
Moske shows the space in his smile left behind after having six of his teeth removed.(Loren Elliott for KFF Health News)

After Moske had finished speaking, Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) turned to his fellow members and removed his own denture.

“I know exactly what you went through,” he said. “I have dental insurance from the city of Los Angeles and the state of California and still had problems getting things covered. I thank you for being brave enough to let people know.”

This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. 

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1st map of Antarctica’s green space unveiled. Here’s what it shows.

1st map of Antarctica’s green space unveiled. Here’s what it shows.

by with No Comment Science

A tiny seed is stuck between loose gravel and coarse sand. There is nothing else alive around it. All it can see is a wall of ice reaching 20 metres up into the sky. It is cold. Survival is hard around here. In winter, it is dark even during the day. In summer, the sun bakes the ground hard and dry for 24 hours.

The seed was left here by tourists several years ago, who came to see the wonders of the last remaining wilderness on planet Earth: Antarctica.


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STUNNING SEASIDE INSPIRED PIECES – Atlantic-Pacific

STUNNING SEASIDE INSPIRED PIECES – Atlantic-Pacific

by with No Comment Fashion


August 11, 2024

Dress: Sandro // Bag: Free People // Shoes: Sam Edelman // Cuffs: Lizzie Fortunato

Dress: Farm Rio // Shoes: Bernardo // Bag: Lilly // Sunglasses: Amazon

Dress: RDR // Shoes: Bernardo // Bag: Prada // Sunglasses: Zara // Necklace: Net-A-Porter

Happy weekend! Coming at you today with some of my favorite seaside inspired picks. Everything from fish prints to coral motifs to shell everything. Keep scrolling to see all of my favorites and be sure to check out some of my past beachy looks here, here, and here!


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OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro Review: AirPods Pro Vibes for the Cheap Seats

OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro Review: AirPods Pro Vibes for the Cheap Seats

by with No Comment Tech

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Apple’s AirPods Pro must be feeling pretty bigheaded these days. Every year we see dozens of new earbuds aiming to model Apple’s distinctive design, with even the latest revamp of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds joining the party.

Looks aside, most models that come across my desk don’t attempt to directly compete with the AirPods Pro’s high-end performance or breezy iOS usability. Instead, buds like OnePlus’s new Nord Buds 3 Pro go the other way, heavily undercutting Apple’s top buds on price while offering solid baseline performance and features.

There’s nothing like the real thing, especially if you want earbuds that cater to all things Apple. For those on a tighter budget, the latest Nord Buds Pro serve up a comfy fit, extras like multipoint connection and decent noise canceling, and clear, punchy sound for well under $100.

Familiar Form

The Nord Buds 3 Pro’s most stand-out trait may be their exorbitantly long yet unmemorable name. No joke, I’ve had to look up the order of this word salad nearly every time I write it.

Their design recalls the AirPods Pro and their many knockoffs, of course, but it’s particularly similar to a pair I recently reviewed from Soundpeats, the Air4 Pro (7/10, WIRED Recommends), right down to their rounded and speckled charging cases. Both pairs have a budget flair with large swaps of shiny plastic throughout, though the Nord Buds’ more compact stems make them marginally easier to wield and wear.

Black ovalshaped case beside 2 black earbuds all sitting on wooden surface

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

Their weight of 4.4 grams per bud is slightly heavier than the Air4 Pro, but still nearly a gram lighter than the AirPods Pro, which combines with their ergonomic design to do a disappearing act in your ears. Like a lot of budget pairs, they only provide three ear tip sizes, but the default pair worked fine for me, providing a stable fit and multiple hours of comfort.

The buds offer snappy and stable device connection over Bluetooth 5.4, often pairing with my iPhone before I pulled it out of my pocket, and Android users get easy one-touch initial pairing with Google Fast Pair+. Multipoint connection is similarly seamless, letting you pair the buds to a phone and a laptop simultaneously to conveniently swap between the two. To initiate, simply hold down the button on the case’s bottom, no app required.

You will want to download the OnePlus app (bizarrely named “Hey Melody”) before getting too far along because the Nord 3 Pro’s play/pause command is turned off by default. I assume this is to prevent unwanted taps while adjusting the buds, but it’s still a baffling default setting. The buds do offer sensors to automatically pause or play audio when you pull one out, something even my favorite budget buds, Soundcore’s Space A40 (8/10, WIRED Recommends), omit. You can easily assign the play/pause control in the app, alongside volume, ambient audio, and song skip commands for a well-rounded experience via generally responsive touch sensors.


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Chemical splash in the eye: First aid

Chemical splash in the eye: First aid

by with No Comment Health

Overview

Typically, the eyelids react to a threat by closing quickly to protect the eyes from harm. However, chemicals can still sometimes reach the eye if the lids don’t close quickly enough. Chemicals may be in liquid or powdered form and can cause irritation and burns.

The most dangerous chemicals are strong acids or alkali. Alkali burns tend to be more serious than burns from acid. Alkali chemicals include lye, concrete, mortar, oven and drain cleaners, dishwasher detergent, and fertilizers.

When to seek emergency help

A chemical splash in the eye requires immediate medical help. Seek emergency care by an eye specialist (ophthalmologist) or call 911 or your local emergency number. Take the chemical container or the name of the chemical with you to the emergency provider. If readily available, wear sunglasses to help reduce sensitivity to light.

Treatment

If a chemical splashes into your eye, take these steps immediately.

  1. Wash your hands with soap and water. Thoroughly rinse your hands to be sure no chemical or soap is left on them.
  2. Remove contact lenses (if wearing).
  3. Flush your eye with water. Use clean, lukewarm tap water for at least 20 minutes. Use whichever of these approaches is quickest:
    • Get into the shower and aim a gentle stream of water on your forehead over your affected eye. Or direct the stream on the bridge of your nose if both eyes are affected. Hold the lids of your affected eye or eyes open.
    • Put your head down and turn it to the side. Then hold the lids of your affected eye open under a gently running faucet. Use a work site eye-rinse station if one is available.
    • Young children may do best if they lie down in the bathtub or lean back over a sink. Pour a gentle stream of water on the forehead over the affected eye or on the bridge of the nose to flush both eyes.

What to avoid

  • Don’t rub the eye — this may cause further damage.
  • Don’t put anything except water or contact lens saline rinse in the eye. And don’t use eye drops unless emergency personnel tell you to do so.

 

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How Rakuten’s Shift to English Transformed Its Culture

How Rakuten’s Shift to English Transformed Its Culture

by with No Comment business

HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Strategy, case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts – hand-selected to help you unlock new ways of doing business.

In 2010, Japan’s largest E-commerce platform, Rakuten, was rapidly expanding into global markets when CEO Hiroshi Mikitani made a surprising announcement: to ensure the organization’s worldwide success, he changed Rakuten’s internal language to English. That meant that all meetings, emails, and other communications would be conducted in English, and the company’s employees had two years to become proficient in the language or be demoted.

Today we bring you a conversation about the thinking behind Mikitani’s mandate and the results it achieved with Harvard Business School professor, Tsedal Neeley. In this episode, you’ll learn about the early challenges that accompanied such enormous upheaval, including loss of productivity and employees who questioned the relevance of the new mandate. You’ll also learn how the shift to English shaped Rakuten’s long-term working culture and productivity. This episode originally aired on Cold Call in November 2017. Here it is.

BRIAN KENNY: 59 miles southwest of Baghdad along the Euphrates River marks the spot of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon. Thought to have been the largest city in the world in the 18th century, it was a center of commerce and culture. As the Bible tells it, the city was founded by Noah’s descendants, who in the years following the great Flood united as one community, even speaking the same language. Together they achieved great things and their ambition knew no bounds. So they decided to build a tower tall enough to reach the heavens as a self-tribute.

But no surprise, God had a different idea, and with one mighty blow, He struck the tower down, scattered the Babylonians to the corners of the earth and caused their tongues to speak different languages. The lessons of the Bible notwithstanding, it’s intriguing to think about how different the world would be if we all spoke the same language. Today we’ll hear from Professor Tsedal Neeley about her case entitled, “Language and Globalization: Englishnization at Rakuten.” I’m your host, Brian Kenny, and you’re listening to Cold Call.

SPEAKER 3: So, we are all sitting there in the classroom.

SPEAKER 4: Professor walks in and…

SPEAKER 5: And they look up and you know it’s coming.

Speaker 6: Oh, the dreaded cold call.

BRIAN KENNY: Professor Neeley teaches MBA students and executives at Harvard Business School. Her research focuses on the challenges that global collaborators face when attempting to coordinate work across national and linguistic boundaries. She’s also the author of a new book, the Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations. That’s really at the heart of what we’re going to talk about today. Tsedal, thank you for joining me.

TSEDAL NEELEY:

Thank you for having me.

BRIAN KENNY: It’s great to have you back on the podcast. We had you here last year. So we’re here today to talk about a completely different topic, and this is the centerpiece of your book, is the ideas that are coming from this case. So, I want to get into both the ideas that are in the book as well as in the case since they overlap a lot. But I’ll ask you just to begin by doing what I always ask faculty to do, which is tell us who the protagonist is and what’s on their mind.

TSEDAL NEELEY: Fabulous. So, the protagonist in this case is the CEO, celebrity CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani of Japan’s largest online retailer who mandated one single language for his entire organization in order to globalize rapidly and then panics a little bit. Did he do the right thing? He told them that they had two years to clear a language proficiency test or face demotion. Was that the right thing? Is he going to have to demote everyone? This was a huge, huge publicly visible strategy that he enacted. What does he do now?

BRIAN KENNY: Yeah. How did you hear about this? How did you learn about what he was up to?

TSEDAL NEELEY: It’s interesting because my work starting from my doctoral training at Stanford 15 years ago was looking at language and globalization. So it wasn’t long before we found each other. He did this, and soon after he wanted to get a little bit of insights from me and I wanted a case. So it was a match made in heaven.

BRIAN KENNY: Now, Englishnization is a hard thing to say. Is that a real word? What’s the story with that?

TSEDAL NEELEY: That is a real word that he coined and has trademarked.

BRIAN KENNY: Wow.

TSEDAL NEELEY: And in a sense, it’s a tough word, and I hear that all the time, just like you experienced it. But the word in a sense shows that there’s a transition to English and how an organization can go through that transition, and ultimately it’s a global strategy.

BRIAN KENNY: One of the first things I thought of when I saw the case was why English? Why not Chinese? We keep hearing we should all learn to speak Chinese or we should all learn to speak Spanish. But why did he decide that English was the way to go?

TSEDAL NEELEY: He decided that English was the way to go because he is in step with worldwide trends. English is the unequivocal business language of the world. In fact, approximately 60% of global companies have an official common language, which is English. And this has been the case now for some 30-plus years. We’ve had many, many common languages, or as we say lingua francas in Latin, over the centuries, but English is the one today, and it is the fastest spreading language in human history.

BRIAN KENNY: I found that really surprising.

TSEDAL NEELEY: It’s surprising in a way, and if you think about it, not very surprising. You would think that the business languages of the world are dictated by population, size of populations or where the emerging markets are. But the reality is the lingua francas of the world are designated based on the superpower status of the people that language follows, the British, the Americans, for example, and the structure of the language itself.

BRIAN KENNY:Having been in many other countries around the world, I can almost always find somebody who speaks English. I can find somebody to help me out, and that’s been true in Asian countries and European countries. I was struck in Japan. I had trouble finding anybody who spoke much English. So how prevalent is English in Japan?

TSEDAL NEELEY: Actually, your observation is spot on. And interestingly enough, when Mikitani mandates English for his entire organization, he’s also looking to push the boundaries, the national boundaries of the Japanese society around English and globalization. And although English is part of the educational system, so each Japanese student is exposed to English when they’re quite young, but they never use it. It’s not used in business. It’s not used in cross-border work. But that’s changing rapidly. And he’s been one of the trailblazers in this change. So much so that Prime Minister Abe has tapped him to help reform the English language education in Japan, and they’ve been doing a lot there.

BRIAN KENNY: Wow. Tell us a little bit about both Mikitani and Rakuten. What’s the business all about and what’s he like as a business leader?

TSEDAL NEELEY: So, Rakuten, the company itself is comparable to an Amazon, eBay, Expedia, all of those put together. So, Rakuten has an ecosystem of all of these online businesses and services, and people opt into membership into Rakuten. So, you become a Rakuten subscriber. And you make all of your purchases through them. So, you can buy eggs, wine, plane ticket, and some online banking all through this membership. And they actually have close to 90% market dominance in Japan when it comes to online business.

In terms of Mikitani, he’s a fascinating leader, and I really love the privilege that I’ve had in getting to know him. He is dubbed as the Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos of Japan for his prescience into understanding what technology can do for commerce. He is fearless in his decision-making. Sometimes he would be the only person having a particular vision and pursuing it. His co-founders, his executive team looking and turning the other way, and he feels and has this gut instinct about the future.

He’s extremely bright, the capacity to process a ton of information across many domains. He’s the son of a famous economist, and sometimes you can see him and hear him almost like a teacher, professor, leader when he’s thinking and talk is very charismatic too.

BRIAN KENNY: Yeah. He would have to be, I would think, to lead this kind of an enterprise. The ambition that he has for Rakuten is described in the case. He’s really all about globalization at this point.

TSEDAL NEELEY: Yes. He really is. And this is something that he’s talked about and thought about. I was able to trace it back to him in his thirties.

BRIAN KENNY: Wow.

TSEDAL NEELEY: So, he’s been thinking about it and talking about it for years and years and years and really went all out. In this case, it’s really about that.

BRIAN KENNY: Yeah. And he may have 90% market share in Japan, but Japan’s a relatively small market compared to China and other places where they want to take this business. So they’re engaging, his employees are engaging daily, both with clients and with partners who are around the globe. Can you talk a little bit about the sort of landscape of Rakuten?

TSEDAL NEELEY: Absolutely. And since this case has been written, they’ve expanded dramatically. So they were in about six, seven countries when the case was written, and now they’re really covering the globe partly through their acquisitions, their partnerships, their joint ventures, and in fact, they today are the key sponsors for FC Barcelona’s soccer team.

BRIAN KENNY: Wow.

TSEDAL NEELEY: So, instead of Qatar Air, you’re going to see Rakuten with Messi running around in the Rakuten jersey. And they just inked the deal that was announced recently with the Golden State Warriors, our NBA championship team, where Rakuten is now etched on their jerseys. This is how global they’ve become.

BRIAN KENNY: And that may be a first, I think, for an American sports franchise to have an international brand on their jersey or represented. So that’s a huge deal. Right?

TSEDAL NEELEY: That’s exactly right. And in fact, they were the ones that the Golden State Warriors selected because precisely the fact that they are a global company and a global brand. They opted away from other possible sponsors because they weren’t global enough. So the NBA has this global vision, so now they’re seeking to partner with a global company like Rakuten in order to actualize that global vision. Rakuten couldn’t have done that five, six years ago.

BRIAN KENNY: Yeah, that’s an amazing co-branding play there. Both brands benefit from that.

So, if I’m an employee of Rakuten, I might be based in the U.S., my English is good. I speak English. That’s not the case obviously for other employees. So can you talk a little bit about how this was introduced as an idea, not an idea, I guess was a mandate, right?

TSEDAL NEELEY: It was a total mandate. And what happened was in March 1, 2010, Hiroshi Mikitani stepped up on a podium and addressed 7,000 of his Japanese employees with some 3,000 overseas employees listening in and said, “From this day forward, we are going to migrate to the English language from Japanese.” Employees had two years to clear a language proficiency test or face demotion. There was no turning back. They needed to take up one of their key principles, speed, speed, speed. Englishnization started that very day.

Now, the Japanese employees struggled and struggled and struggled. In fact, for a period of two years, they worked harder than they’d ever worked in their lives. They were filled with anxiety and they struggled, but that changed. Within two years, they were speaking with their counterparts in English around the world. They were spreading their Japanese corporate cultural practices easily, and it became actually, English became the conduit by which they expressed and spread their corporate culture, which they believe is one of their competitive advantages.

Now, you the American was very excited in the beginning, very, very excited. Within two years, the Americans suddenly experienced culture shock, culture shock because the Japanese could now impose their corporate cultural practices rooted in their national identity to the Americans in new ways.

BRIAN KENNY: Yeah. It’s the careful what you wish for after effect of this policy.

TSEDAL NEELEY: Precisely. You might just get it. You might just get it.

BRIAN KENNY: Now, in the case, and also in the book, you describe the different sorts of profiles of people when this kind of mandate is issued. Can you describe that a little bit? You don’t have to go into great detail, but I think…

TSEDAL NEELEY: Oh, sure.

BRIAN KENNY: Yeah.

TSEDAL NEELEY: So, first you have the Japanese employees who work and lived in Japan, but yet had to take up a new language. So, I call them linguistic expats because they become expats while living in their own countries when it came to language use. The Americans, I call the cultural expats based on what I just described, the fact that they would walk into their offices in New York and in California and be immersed in Japanese culture in new and unexpected ways.

There’s a third group. This group comes from places like France and Brazil and Germany and Taiwan, and they’re neither Japanese nationals or English native speakers. I honestly thought this would be the double jeopardy group when I first learned about this. But it turns out once they climbed the steep English language and Japanese cultural curve, they adapted quickly. I call them the dual expats because they’re neither Japanese or English native speakers, but they have proven to me to be the group that is the most adaptive and has been able to live out the decoupling of language and culture and the mixing and matching of language and culture in very productive ways.

BRIAN KENNY: So, as a manager, if you’re advising a manager on what kind of employees to hire, that sounds like a pretty good criteria, right?

TSEDAL NEELEY: It’s fantastic group that they’re able to detach from their language or their culture and able to operate like true expats in their own countries. That’s what I’ve been talking about since writing this book. This notion of how can we operate like expats in our own countries and have what I call global work orientation in order to better serve our organizations and our customers no matter where they live, no matter what they speak, no matter who they are.

BRIAN KENNY: If we look at the profile of students who come to a place like Harvard Business School, many of them have been able to travel, they’ve been able to experience other cultures, and they’ve become more comfortable in their shoes no matter where they are in the world. So as other businesses are thinking about globalizing, does this indicate that there’s a model here that managers can think about following?

TSEDAL NEELEY: I think there’s an absolute model that managers can follow, and part of it is certainly you don’t have to have been a dual expat in order to gain some of the insights that we saw through the Rakuten case. It’s the attitudes, it’s the behaviors, it’s the norms that they possess that we can package and teach others. And that’s all actually outlined and highlighted in the book.

BRIAN KENNY: Yeah. So you’ve discussed this case in class.

TSEDAL NEELEY: Yes.

BRIAN KENNY: I don’t want to ask you to get into and give away what happens in the class.

TSEDAL NEELEY: Yes, yes. Let’s not do that.

BRIAN KENNY: No, but one question I would have is you teach both an Exec. Ed and an MBA. If you’ve taught it in both, you get a very different reaction from, let’s say, the more senior people who have been in their career for some time versus people who are just beginning their careers?

TSEDAL NEELEY: It’s interesting because the MBAs really look at this case as employees, as the recipients of this language strategy and language mandate. What does it feel like? What could it be like? What does this mean for employees? Executives are blown away from this case because it shows them that you could be bold, that you could be radical, that you need to truly set some clear strategies in order to globalize your organization. And this case ends up being a model for it because we’re able to actually show them a five to seven-year trajectory of the company, what’s happened, how they did this, how they changed, and it becomes a place where people learn. And it’s interesting, oftentimes people are in awe of Hiroshi Mikitani as they learn about the case. He becomes an inspiration to many, many people.

BRIAN KENNY: Yeah. And he may have started a movement that has no end in sight.

TSEDAL NEELEY: I think so. I think so.

BRIAN KENNY: Tsedal, thank you so much for joining us today.

TSEDAL NEELEY: It’s always such a pleasure.

HANNAH BATES: That was Harvard Business School Professor Tsedal Neeley in conversation with Brian Kenny on Cold Call.

We’ll be back next Wednesday with another handpicked conversation about business strategy from Harvard Business Review. If you found this episode helpful, share it with your friends and colleagues and follow our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. While you’re there, be sure to leave us a review.

When you’re ready for more podcasts, articles, case studies, books and videos with the world’s top business and management experts, you’ll find it all at HBR.org.

This episode was produced by Anne Saini and me, Hannah Bates. Ian Fox is our editor. Special thanks to Maureen Hoch, Nicole Smith, Erica Truxler, Ramsey Khabbaz, Anne Bartholomew, and you, our listener. See you next week.


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NASA Explores Industry, Partner Interest in Using VIPER Moon Rover

NASA Explores Industry, Partner Interest in Using VIPER Moon Rover

by with No Comment Science

“NASA thanks everyone who provided expressions of interest in using VIPER and looks forward to learning more about how potential partners envision accomplishing NASA’s science and exploration goals with the rover,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We want to make the best use possible of the engineering, technology, and expertise that have been developed by this project to advance scientific knowledge of the Moon. Partnership opportunities on VIPER would allow us to do this without impacting our future cadence of commercial deliveries to the Moon, to continue lunar science and exploration for everyone’s benefit.”


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The Best Hydrating Products For Mature Skin, According To An Editor In Her 40s

The Best Hydrating Products For Mature Skin, According To An Editor In Her 40s

by with No Comment Fashion

A strange thing happened to me this summer. One day, the skin on my face—specifically my forehead—was suddenly insanely dry. This had never happened to me before, and I didn’t understand why. We’re in the middle of summer, not winter, when it’s normal to experience an increase in dryness. What could be going on?

I’m a beauty editor, so I’m always testing new products, but nothing recent enough to blame. In my mind, I ran through the list of possible suspects. My skin, which had always been oily/combination and acne-prone, has been a lot drier since entering perimenopause. Could this be a new branch of that? Rude. Like a good girl, I’d also been extra committed to my sunscreen, reapplying much more than usual. Was this my punishment for my due diligence? Better not be!

I needed an expert opinion on my sad summer skin, so I contacted Melanie Palm, MD, MBA, a board-certified dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon at Art of Skin MD in San Diego, California. “Dry skin during perimenopause is incredibly common and is primarily due to the decline in estrogen levels, which play a crucial role in maintaining skin hydration and elasticity,” explained Palm. “The skin’s ability to retain moisture diminishes when estrogen levels drop, leading to dryness and a thinner skin barrier. This makes the skin more sensitive in the summer months as temperatures rise and when sun exposure is more prevalent.”

Marie Lodi's Favorite Hydrating Skincare Products For Mature Skin

Perimenopause has made my skin chaotic, so the possibility of it being the cause of my sudden dryness made a lot of sense. But I still wondered about sunscreen. “While sunscreen is essential for protecting your skin from harmful UV rays, certain types can potentially exacerbate dryness,” Palm said, adding that it’s best to avoid ones with zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, or benzyl alcohol. (I use a lot of mineral sunscreen, which contains zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, so that could have contributed, too.) Instead, Palm recommends opting for sunscreens that are formulated for sensitive or combination skin and contain moisturizing ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, glycerin, ceramides, or peptides. “Products formulated with these ingredients will help protect your skin from UV damage without drying it out,” she continued.




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13 Best USB Flash Drives (2024): Pen Drives, Thumb Drives, Memory Sticks

13 Best USB Flash Drives (2024): Pen Drives, Thumb Drives, Memory Sticks

by with No Comment Tech

There are a few things to keep in mind when you’re shopping for USB flash drives, and we also have some tips for using them.

Capacity: To decide on the capacity you need, first check the size of the folders or files you want to copy. Each USB drive in our guide has a stated capacity, but the usable storage will be slightly less than that, because the device’s firmware requires space.

Speed: USB standards are advancing all the time, and we recommend USB 3.0 as a minimum, though higher is better. While USB standards have different theoretical maximum speeds, it’s crucial to check the manufacturer’s stated read and write speeds for each drive. If you’re primarily transferring data, you’ll want to look for a drive with high write speeds. If you’re planning on launching software on a computer through the drive (like a video game), then you’ll want a model with high read speeds. Manufacturers will state average speeds, but most drives are much faster at transferring large files and tend to be far slower at transferring small files.

Compatibility: Many flash drives will work with any device with the relevant port, but check compatibility to avoid disappointment. If you want to use a drive with an Android device or one of the latest iPhone 15 range, it will require USB on-the-go (OTG) support. Most Android devices do support USB OTG. You will get a notification when you insert a flash drive with options that should include File Transfer. You can try the USB OTG Checker app to confirm support if you’re unsure. Apple’s earlier iPhones and iPads don’t support USB OTG, but you can install a companion app for drives, like SanDisk’s iXpand series.

Connectors: Most flash drives have USB-A connectors, but you can also get drives with USB-C, MicroUSB, and Lightning connectors. If you plan on using a flash drive with your smartphone and computer, snag one with both of the required types of connectors. You can also buy USB hubs with multiple ports or adapters, but pay close attention to the supported standard or it may limit your data transfer speeds. This Anker USB-A to USB-C adapter, for example, is USB 3.0.

Security: Remember that USB drives can cause security issues, particularly for businesses, and you should never plug in random drives you find lying around. If you plan to keep sensitive data on your flash drive, then consider biometric or passcode protection, and look into the level of encryption it offers. There are software services that offer encryption and allow you to password-protect your files on any USB flash drive.


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A tribute to the late Sue Bruce-Smith | Sight & Sound

A tribute to the late Sue Bruce-Smith | Sight & Sound

by with No Comment Entertainment

Sue Bruce-SmithSue Bruce-Smith

Sue Bruce-Smith
Credit: BAFTA

In this period when the awards season draws towards its Oscar climax, let’s consider for once the people who make films happen without wanting any red-carpet attention. Anyone who has sat through a film’s credits sequence knows that they are legion. Typically, they love the work they do, and would like to be acknowledged, but many are uncomfortable in the limelight, happiest sitting in the audience or at home applauding others. I’m focusing on this modest group because I was present recently when for once someone who fits the description was rewarded.

Never, in all my time writing about films and film people, have I experienced such a joyous, instant explosion of applause as happened at Bafta on Friday 18 January when Sue Bruce-Smith walked into the screening theatre. But who is Bruce-Smith, you might ask, and who was whooping and hollering? I could say it was the great and the good of the British film industry, but it would be more accurate to call the crowd the ‘independent film’ core, the few hundred souls who strive to make good-quality British films. And the simple answer to Bruce-Smith’s status is that she’s the deputy director of Film4, someone who so successfully stays under the radar that the organisers of the Bafta tribute to her had trouble finding suitable pictures.

Bruce-Smith’s career has influenced so many films and filmmakers, it would be impossible to mention them all without exhausting your patience. She came into the film world in 1985 via Palace Pictures, at first as its print and bookings manager and later as marketing and distribution manager. A Nightmare on Elm Street, Letter to Brezhnev, Hairspray and High Hopes were among the films she worked on. Then in 1989 she became head of sales for the BFI’s production division, leading the campaigns for the likes of Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Last of England. 1993 saw her move to BBC Worldwide, strategising the international success of Stephen Frears’s The Snapper, John Madden’s Mrs Brown and Roger Michell’s Persuasion. In 1997 she began her first spell at Film4 but that came to an end when she and her family moved to Dublin in 2001 and she joined the indie production company Little Bird.

Three years later she got a call from Tessa Ross, head of a recalibrated Film4, who lured her back to become head of commercial development and distribution – and the rest is history. Her string of successes there includes This Is England (2006), Hunger (2008), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), 45 Years (2015), Under the Skin (2013) and many more, right up to You Were Never Really Here (2017), American Animals (2018) and The Favourite (2018).

What hampers recognition of such figures is perhaps a general ignorance among critics as well as the public as to what backroom orchestrators of film success do. The legendary Hollywood studio habit of calling everyone vice-president of something has contributed to the mystery around such roles.

As I understand it, a ‘head of commercial development and distribution’ needs a capacious understanding of the ever-shifting cosmology of the film world and to be an imaginative strategist and tactician in how to persuade that world to help her films get made and reach their best audience. By this, I mean she needs to know every relevant figure around the world, the real price of everything, be able to recognise the true potential of any project, and be able to help develop those projects to their optimum while being constantly, breezily encouraging and steely in resisting mistakes. Such a role requires an awful lot of persuasive talking in meetings combined with a phenomenal attention to detail and a great knowledge of how to finance and market films in an environment of ever-shifting tastes and fashions.

All that largely hidden activity does not seem on the surface to be immediately about the artistry of film, but getting any film across the finishing line – let alone a slate of them – is a question of force of character and goodwill, of forward momentum and commitment to quality. Films are as much a product of that collective urgency to see them through to their best incarnation, that system of belief, as they are about the original idea.

Typically, after she was awarded a special Bafta, Bruce-Smith tried to make the event about others. “I am very grateful to Bafta for this award and for prompting me to encourage all women out there not to limit themselves. Be properly ambitious and confident in your own ability to see that ambition realised.” The event was not only a reminder that the creative and financial elements of film are inextricably connected but also an admonition to auteurist magazines like this one not to ignore or sideline such figures so much in future.




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OSF HealthCare mandates genAI training to create an AI-ready workforce

OSF HealthCare mandates genAI training to create an AI-ready workforce

by with No Comment Health


OSF HealthCare mandates genAI training to create an AI-ready workforce

16-hospital health system OSF HealthCare, based in Peoria, Illinois, has put together mandatory education for all 24,000 employees. It has a deliberate strategy behind making sure everyone – from the custodian to the CEO – is aware of the power of generative AI.

THE PROBLEM

Adopting generative AI as quickly as possible is extremely important to OSF HealthCare. Like all nonprofit health systems across the country, it runs on thin operating margins with workforce shortages expected to persist for at least the next decade. In addition, clinicians are continuing to recover after COVID-19 and face burnout from the increased administrative burdens.

“We must seek every opportunity to improve efficiency, productivity and work smarter with the resources we have,” said Melissa Knuth, vice president of planning at OSF HealthCare. “We’ve all read about the great promise of generative AI on the transformation of healthcare, but actually getting to that future state is challenging. We need the power of the entire workforce pushing on the same side of the rock to reap the rewards.

“While we understood our generative AI education needed to be mandatory across our health system, we also understood people have a reduced attention span,” she continued. “Traditional education modalities were not going to work for this. We have variation in the knowledge base across the workforce and we needed to provide education to everyone from transporters and housekeepers to surgeons.”

The health system also had an aggressive timeline for completing the education – approximately six weeks, due to the prevalence and availability of generative AI tools publicly.

“We knew people across our workforce were using these tools personally and in the workplace,” she said. “We needed to ensure they understood the organizational rules of the road with regard to the use of generative AI tools at OSF HealthCare. We wanted to educate about the potential benefits and the potential pitfalls to avoid.

“To rise to the challenge before us, we took lessons from social media on how to grab someone’s attention and hold it for short snippets of time (1-2 minutes) to communicate our key messages,” she continued. “We used mixed media to keep the content interesting and we used generative AI tools to assist with the content creation.”

PROPOSAL

OSF HealthCare knew the first lessons needed to focus on establishing a foundation of AI literacy across the organization, so it created a “Getting to Know Generative AI” course to enhance everyone’s understanding of generative AI. The organization had to get everyone on the same page, but it had to be fun, and it had to be interesting, because this was going to be mandatory education for the entire workforce, Knuth said.

“To stay true to the guidelines we had laid out and our vision for this education, we created content that was compartmentalized,” she explained. “If any of you are reformed coders in a past life, it’s a similar concept to creating containers of code that can be assembled to create one or more programs.

“We created content components that were a subset of the whole, but we needed something to bring it together in a cohesive way – such as scaffolding to give it structure,” she added. “We used Articulate Rise software to accomplish this. Our components included interactive elements, visuals, videos and text content to create flow, much of which was created with generative AI tools.”

It was important to create compelling content that would hold attention for an increasingly distracted audience with a short attention span. The health system also was clear in explaining that OSF HealthCare has a commitment to innovation, so that requires continuous learning for all employees.

“The OSF vision is to harness the power of generative AI to advance the exploration, use and adoption to optimize healthcare delivery, empower healthcare professionals and improve patient experiences across our health system,” Knuth stated.

After sharing the vision, she noted, key messages included:

  • As you begin to use these tools, keep in mind they are not perfect – it’s important to validate the results you receive back.
  • These tools can provide false and misleading information and it takes the user to discern the value of the information they receive.
  • If you are using these tools in the course of your work at OSF, never copy and paste patient protected information into a generative AI tool that has not been approved for that use.

MEETING THE CHALLENGE

OSF strategically rolled out education tailored to the individual needs of all 24,000 employees. One version was aimed at leaders and providers, and the organization created another version for all other roles.

“This allowed us to tailor messages and the level of education appropriately for both groups,” Knuth explained. “We deployed our first round of mandatory education across the workforce in January/February 2024 along with a brief survey that allowed us to understand the impact the education had.

“We have a platform that was internally designed called Corporate University that housed the module which could be completed in about 15 minutes,” she continued. “This is not connected to Epic but is available on the OSF website employee portal. All employees receive email notifications about the mandatory training and follow-up emails if it is not completed by the deadline.”

The content includes brief quizzes to ensure comprehension.

RESULTS

78.75% of all OSF employees completed the mandatory education, 74% of those learners said it enhanced their knowledge of the subject matter, and 65% said the learning activity provided content that was relevant to their role, said Shana Freehill, DNP, RN, manager of education and professional development at OSF HealthCare.

“When you consider there are 24,000 employees, 78.75% completion is strong,” she noted. “Seventy-four percent indicating the content enhanced their knowledge of subject matter and 65% believing the content was relevant to their role demonstrates the education was robust and well developed.

“It takes creativity to develop meaningful education for such a broad group of learners when we take into account clinical and non-clinical roles and the various work areas throughout the ministry,” she added.

ADVICE FOR OTHERS

According to Harvard Business Review, ChatGPT is one of the most widely diffused and fastest-adopted products in history. Just two months after launch it had 100 million users. Instagram took two and a half years to acquire that many users. Facebook took four and a half years.

The faster technology spreads, the less time users have to learn from one another and mimic patterns of use, so it is important everyone knows expectations and guidelines and has a basic understanding, Knuth said.

“Also, realize you will have to do ongoing training because the most-advanced AI-based tools will change and there can be new features and new use cases, so just realize this will be something to review and prepare for by initiating new training as it becomes necessary,” she advised.

“As we do with any education effort – understand your audience and where they are starting from on the subject matter,” she continued. “Consider how people regularly seek and receive information today and try to understand why that works, why it is effective. Consider important takeaways when designing your education – both for approach and content.”

Generative AI is a fun, interesting topic, she added.

“The educational approach and content should be innovative, different and feel new,” she recommended. “Use generative AI tools to create content and make sure your learners understand what parts of the education module were created using generative AI tools – videos, visuals, key messages, etc. Transparency is an important hallmark of ethical use of generative AI so it should be included in your training content.

“At OSF HealthCare, we’ve also created a tool called Prompt Buddy – a free app that will also be available in Microsoft Teams, which most employees use daily,” she concluded. “It is a way for us to crowdsource some of the best prompts that have been found to be helpful so employees can learn from each other what works. We will likely include how to best use and contribute to Prompt Buddy in a future training.”

Follow Bill’s HIT coverage on LinkedIn: Bill Siwicki
Email him: bsiwicki@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

The HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum is scheduled to take place September 5-6 in Boston. Learn more and register.

 


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