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In the Northern Hemisphere, February is the middle of winter. According to NASA, this is why Native American tribes named this month’s full moon the Snow Moon. Historically, the shortest month of the year was also the coldest because of the heavy snowfall that occurred. Another name for this lunar display of grandeur is the Hunger Moon. That name also makes historical sense because of how the snowiest month made hunting and gathering more difficult. If you didnt plan ahead properly, your stomach was bound to rumble. Lets take a deeper look at the winter of it all, and when to best peep up at the night sky for optimal full moon viewing. When exactly is the middle of winter? Many people believe that Groundhog Day marks the middle of winter. Its a close approximation, but not always 100% accurate. If you want to get technical, according to the Farmers Almanac, the middle of winter varies from year to year. Groundhog Day always falls on February 2, and this year, the following day was actually the halfway mark between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Winter takes the prize for both the coldest and shortest season of the year. It lasts 88.99 days on average. Its brevity is due to perihelion, the point in the Earths orbit that it is closest to the sun. The cold is caused by Earth’s axial tilt, or obliquity. In the Northern Hemisphere, from December to February, the earth is tilted away from the sun, which means less direct sunshine and chillier days. The tilt overrides the nearness of the sun. Whats a groundhog got to do with it? Groundhog Day was created by German-speaking immigrants in the United States, who became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch because of a misinterpretation of the word “Deutsch.” It was based on the Christian tradition of Candlemas, a feast celebrating the day that Jesus was presented at Temple by Joseph and Mary. The early Christian church incorporated pagan traditions into its calendar. For Candlemas, one of these was weather-predicting folklore. In Germany, a bear or badger was used, but in the United States, groundhogs took center stage. The best known groundhog these days is Punxsutawney Phil, who calls Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania home. This year, he predicted six more weeks of winter after seeing his shadow. How to see the full snow moon In parts of the country, such as the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, snow storms may prevent one from catching the snow moon. Talk about irony. The rest of the country will also experience cloudy skies amid potential rainstorms. If you want to try your luck, according to EarthSky, the full moon will reach peak illumination on Wednesday morning (February 12) at 8:53 a.m. ET. The celestial orb will also appear full Thursday and Friday.
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E-Commerce
Meta underwent another big round of layoffs on Monday, cutting 3,600 jobs, or roughly 5%, of its total workforce. Between 2022 and 2023, the tech giant eliminated 21,000 positions, nearly a quarter of its workforce, and continued to reduce staff in 2024. But while those other recent reductions appeared driven by organizational restructuring and cost-cutting efforts, CEO Mark Zuckerberg seemed to tie this weeks layoffs to those he deemed “low performers.” Ive decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster, Zuckerberg wrote in an internal memo when announcing the cuts in January. We typically manage out people who arent meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now were going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle. Some of the employees who have just been let go object to this characterization, though, and they are fighting back. Layoffs are increasingly common in tech, but theyre often framed as a failure of the company and its leaders rather than a reflection of individual employees. (Although Amazon famously culls its workforce based on performance metrics, and Microsoft reportedly has plans to do the same.) Given Metas public trumpeting of the low-performer criteria for this recent initiative, however, being swept up in this batch of layoffs seems closer to just getting fired. When these newly unemployed workers apply for other jobs, the concern is that hiring managers who might ordinarily be impressed with seeing Facebook on a CV will know exactly why these applicants are suddenly on the marketand, as a result, may be less inclined to give them a chance to defend themselves in an interview. Instead of waiting to find out for sure, some laid-off workers have started preemptively defending themselves onlineand they are bringing receipts. Kaila Curry, who, until Monday, worked in product content operations at Meta, posted on LinkedIn her surprise at being lumped in with supposed low performers after receiving an exceeds expectations in her mid-year review. I frequently asked for feedback and was always told I was doing a good job, she wrote in the post. I was never placed on a [performance improvement plan], never given corrective feedback, and never properly mentored or provided clear expectations. Currys experience lines up with a new report from Business Insider, claiming Meta’s director of people experience allowed managers to add employees from higher-performance tiers to those marked for layoffs if they couldn’t reach their reduction goals just from lower-rated employees. A spokesperson for Meta tells Fast Company that these were “performance-based terminations,” adding, “Prior ratings were not downgraded. Simply because someone had a history of meeting or exceeding expectations does not mean they continue to consistently meet the bar. In searching for other potential reasons for her inclusion in the layoffs, though, Curry cites one recent incident: Perhaps I became too vocal when our shift to young adult (YA) content involved removing safeguards that protected LGBTQ+ users. The past few months have been a time of transition for Meta. The company has recently made major changes to its content moderation and DEI policies that appear in line with Zuckerbergs recent embrace of President Trump. (The CEO also donated to Trumps inauguration fund, added UFC CEO and Trump ally Dana White to Metas board, and declared on Joe Rogans podcast in January that companies currently need more “masculine energy.“) Another former employee, data scientist Joshua Latshaw, was also taken aback by his inclusion in the layoffs. As he wrote on LinkedIn, his five-year history with the company included several exceeds expectations ratings and a promotion. (His post even includes screenshots of those reviews in the comments.) According to Latshaws post, a meets most expectations in 2024 followed months of turmoil within his teamwith the managers who conducted his review having only worked with him for less than six weeks. This is the first [Performance Summary Cycle] at [M]eta that I wasn’t exactly correct in predicting my rating, he wrote. The lone meets most expectations rating in Latshaws tenure at Meta was also striking, he notes, because it followed his taking parental leave earlier in the year. Over on Reddits r/Layoffs sub, a pseudonymous poster, identifying as a senior-level Meta employee who was let go on Monday, wrote that she, too, had taken maternity leave in the lead-up to her layoff. Several posters elsewhere on Reddit describe rumors of other Meta employees being laid off after returning from a recent parental or medical leave. (Meta did not comment on this.) Regardless of what led each Meta employee to wind up in this round of layoffs, it’s clear that the “low performer” moniker struck a nerve among those affected. Metas stock has been on the rise, with shares gaining 65% in 2024. Yet, considering that Zuckerbergs big bet on the metaverse continues to cost his company billions of dollars per quarter, the CEO should maybe consider himself fortunate to have evaded the low performer label himself.
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E-Commerce
Ukraine has offered to strike a deal with President Donald Trump for continued American military aid in exchange for developing Ukraines mineral industry, which could provide a valuable source of the rare earth elements that are essential for many kinds of technology. Trump said that he wanted such a deal earlier this month, and it was initially proposed last fall by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of his plan to strengthen Kyivs hand in future negotiations with Moscow. We really have this big potential in the territory which we control, Andrii Yermak, chief of staff to the Ukrainian president, said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. We are interested to work, to develop, with our partners, first of all, with the United States. Here is a look at Ukraines rare earth industry and how a deal might come together: What are rare earth elements? Rare earth elements are a set of 17 elements that are essential to many kinds of consumer technology, including cellphones, hard drives and electric and hybrid vehicles. It’s unclear if Trump is seeking specific elements in Ukraine, which also has other minerals to offer. It can be lithium. It can be titanium, uranium, many others, Yermak said. Its a lot. China, Trumps chief geopolitical adversary, is the worlds largest producer of rare earth elements. Both the U.S and Europe have sought to reduce their dependence on Beijing. For Ukraine, such a deal would ensure that its biggest and most consequential ally doesn’t freeze military support. That would be devastating for the country, which has been at war for nearly three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. The idea also comes at a time when reliable and uninterrupted access to critical minerals is increasingly hard to come by globally. What is the state of the Ukrainian minerals industry? Ukraines rare earth elements are largely untapped because of the war and because of state policies regulating the mineral industry. The country also lacks good information to guide the development of rare earth mining. Geological data is thin because mineral reserves are scattered across Ukraine, and existing studies are considered largely inadequate. The industry’s true potential is clouded by insufficient research, according to businessmen and analysts. In general, the outlook for Ukrainian natural resources is promising. The country’s reserves of titanium, a key component for the aerospace, medical and automotive industries, are believed to be among Europes largest. Ukraine also holds some of Europes largest known reserves of lithium, which is required to produce batteries, ceramics and glass. In 2021, the Ukrainian mineral industry accounted for 6.1% of the countrys gross domestic product and 30% of exports. An estimated 40% of Ukraine’s metallic mineral resources are inaccessible because of Russian occupation, according to data from We Build Ukraine, a Kyiv-based think tank. Ukraine has argued that it’s in Trumps interest to develop the remainder before Russian advances capture more. The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, identified Ukraine as a potential supplier for more than 20 critical raw materials and concluded that if the country joins the 27-nation EU, it could strengthen the European economy. What happens next? Details of any deal will likely develop in meetings between U.S. and Ukrainian officials. Trump announced Tuesday that he would send Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Ukraine to meet with Zelenskyy. This War MUST and WILL END SOON Too much Death and Destruction. The U.S. has spent BILLIONS of Dollars Globally, with little to show, Trump said in a post on his social media network about the trip. U.S. companies have expressed interest, according to Ukrainian business officials. But striking a formal deal would likely require legislation, geological surveys and negotiation of specific terms. It’s unclear what kind of security guarantees companies would require to risk working in Ukraine, even in the event of a ceasefire. And no one knows for sure what kind of financing agreements would underpincontracts between Ukraine and U.S companies. Samya Kullab, Associated Press Susie Blann and Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
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