• A new age for the American worker The American worker has power.this won’t last forever. More Americans now have the opportunity to improve their jobs than at any other time in recent memory. U.S. employees in 2022 will have more influence over employers than they have been since the 1970s, as a result of a combination of factors. The pandemic that began in 2020 has prompted a general reassessment of what place work should occupy in the lives of many Americans, who are known for putting in more time than those in most other industrialized nations. The labor group has also started to gain momentum over the past decade due to larger trends such as an ageing population and rising income inequality. The movement has accelerated over the past two years as the pandemic has brought labor issues to the fore. (sound)

• renaissance man of venture capital: Lux Capital’s Josh Wolfe is channeling science fiction on the “inevitable arrow of progress.” Wolff’s willingness to embrace the dark side — and to do so in such a peculiar way — has made him one of the most unconventional VC founders. In fact, many of the companies Lux funded started out as concepts in Wolfe’s head, which led him to go out and find scientists who could bring his vision to life. That could prove to be a competitive advantage in a more cautious world of venture capital, which has so far been dominated by too much money chasing too many investments. (corporate investor)

• Long-Term Economic Consequences of the Pandemic What are the long-term effects of the epidemic? How are they different from other economic disasters? We study major epidemics dating back to the 14th century. The major macroeconomic consequences of the pandemic persisted for decades, with a sharp drop in real returns, in stark contrast to what happened after the war. Capital is destroyed in wars, but not in epidemics; conversely, epidemics may lead to a relative shortage of labor and/or a shift towards greater precautionary savings. (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)

• Beanie Baby after the bubble burst What happens when the frenzy ends and the world doesn’t take your valuables seriously? At the height of the Beanie Baby craze in the 1990s, a lot of people really believed that these toys could be the key to their retirement or their kids going to college. Some have stolen their trash, and at least one person has reportedly been killed in a Doudou-related dispute. Now, while cleaning out their basement or rummaging through their grandparents’ litter box, some people decide to check — just in case — to see if they’re sitting on a gold mine of ’90s artifacts. Most of the time, they are not. (sound)

• Sometimes life stinks.So he invented Nose Ranger“If someone said, ‘I have an odor problem, where should I go?’ it would be Chuck and Mike McKinley,” said Jacek Kozier, an agricultural engineer who studies odor at Iowa State University. Their approach, he said, provides policymakers and researchers with “solid evidence that smells are real and that they affect people’s lives.” For Chuck McGinley, the engineer who designed the instrument of choice for measuring smell, helping people understand how they smell is serious science. (New York Times)

• The ‘Future of Food’ Has Arrived – But How Dystopian Is It? At the Food on Demand conference in Las Vegas, the foodservice industry laid out its vision for a future where customers don’t have to wait. Just don’t think too much about how this works. (eater)

• Evangelical climate scientists wonder what went wrong “Hope is a bad word for a lot of people right now,” said Hayhoe, chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy and professor of political science at Texas Tech University. “They think hope is false hope; it’s wishful thinking. But there are things to do—and we should.” (New York Times Magazine)

• Sports’ secret MVP?potty port The mobile toilet concept has been slow to develop over the years, and civilizations over the centuries have basically made little adjustments to the chamber pot. Demand for portable bathrooms increased in the late 1800s as more American jobs went to large-scale mining and construction projects. An abandoned early 20th century copper mine in northern Michigan was recently discovered in remarkably well-preserved condition, including a wooden box used by miners as a basement bathroom. For miners and construction workers who desperately need a bathroom on the job all day, finding a tree or a wooden crate was often the best thing they could have done 100 years ago. (ESPN)

• The dirty job of cleaning up your online reputation However, cleaning up images doesn’t come cheap. A serious event can cost $10,000 to $20,000 or more and usually last at least four to eight months. Companies will charge a fee to deal with disruptive search results. But is the new economy of digital transformation making things worse? (walrus)

• How Mo Salah became the new king of football Mohamed Salah is the best player in the world right now. It’s just that the world hasn’t recognized it yet. In Egypt, where his life story was taught in schools, he was nicknamed Happiness Maker. It was as important as his feats on the pitch – he led a resurgent Liverpool to Premier League and Champions League titles in five seasons, breaking countless records in the process – and his feats on the pitch. He has that million-lumen smile; an African beard combo; a healthy, hardworking, family-friendly image. Salah grew up in Nagrig, a village in the Nile delta north of Cairo, where his generosity is legendary: he funded the construction of a school, a water treatment plant and an ambulance station there, which his foundation provides every month Food and money to the poor. (GQ)