Author: KnowledgeHippo

In December 2018, a team of federal law enforcement agents flew to Amsterdam to interview a witness in a years-long criminal investigation into Caterpillar, which had avoided billions of dollars in income taxes by shifting profits to a Swiss subsidiary.Hours before the interview was to begin, the agents were dismayed to hear that the Justice Department was telling them to cancel the long-scheduled meeting.The interview was never rescheduled, and the investigation would drag on for another few years before culminating in late 2022 with a Caterpillar victory. The Internal Revenue Service told the industrial giant to pay less than a…

In today’s high-tech, high-stakes automotive industry, fortunes can change quickly, and there’s no better example of that right now than Toyota Motor.Not long ago, it looked like Toyota was dangerously behind in electric vehicles. Tesla, the pioneer of electric cars, has grown rapidly to become the world’s most valuable automaker. Seeing Tesla’s success, other companies such as General Motors and Ford Motor concluded that large numbers of consumers were ready to switch to battery-powered cars and trucks, and began investing tens of billions of dollars to catch up.Toyota, however, was more deliberate — or lethargic, its critics would say. It…

As BMW bodies slid down an assembly line in Munich recently, showered with sparks from robotic welders, it was hard to tell which vehicles would be powered by batteries, fuel engines, or both. In the view of many analysts, this is not a good thing.The German automaker’s electric vehicles are built on the same assembly line as gasoline-powered cars and look similar on the outside. This approach, using the same basic body for electric, hybrid, gasoline and diesel cars, has been seen as an awkward and ineffective compromise that some established automakers have taken as they struggle to compete with…

It’s been more than five decades since Dustin Hoffman’s character in “The Graduate” was offered a kernel of wisdom about the path to prosperity.”Plastics,” Mr. McGuire, the stuck-up corporate executive offering the advice, told him. “There is a great future in plastics.”Plastics have indeed changed the game for humanity, and the vast array of cheap, durable plastic items, from food containers and PVC pipes to polyester clothing and disposable medical products, have undeniably improved life.The problem, as almost everyone knows, is that plastics last forever and very little of it is recycled. The UN has estimated that most of the…

As most air travelers can attest, the experience at an airport security checkpoint can be anything but calm. There are many rules—often shouted by Transportation Security Administration officers—about what you can bring, how to arrange your belongings, and where to stand. Lines can be painfully long and tensions high. And throughout the process there are security officers.But at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, a new kind of security screening, unveiled by the TSA on Wednesday, is driven by the passengers themselves.The system, which uses video screens, facial recognition software and body scanners, is not about shaving off travel…

Their lives were already very difficult, in displaced people’s camps, after they had left their homes in the north-eastern region of Nigeria. On a recent day, they risked a foray into the countryside to collect firewood — and about 200 of them, some officials said, were kidnapped.Days later, dozens of children – if not more – were reported abducted on Thursday from a primary school about 500 miles away in central Nigeria.It was unclear who was responsible and security services have not made a statement. The first incident occurred in the region terrorized by Boko Haram, the brutal Islamist group…

Why should I go back?In her statement, Brown said the test results were a clear indication of future success.”Our analysis made it clear that SAT and ACT scores are among the key indicators that help predict a student’s ability to succeed and thrive in Brown’s challenging academic environment,” the Providence, RI, university said in a statement.Brown also echoed concerns expressed by both Dartmouth and Yale that suspending the testing requirements had the unintended effect of hurting prospective students from low-income families.The committee at Brown tasked with reviewing admissions policies was concerned that some students from less-advantaged backgrounds with lower scores…

After the speech, the deluge — of censorship, that is.The hot facts of the moment about President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday split mostly along party lines on cable news, with Mr. Biden’s on-air sympathizers praising his forceful delivery while his usual critics suggested he was sometimes overly agitated and vicious.Here’s a sampling of comments from CNN, Fox News and MSNBC:CNNDana Bash, Chief Political Correspondent: “They wanted him to be a fighter and, boy, did he put up a fight.”John King, Chief National Correspondent: “He came out punching and he came out swinging from the start.”Alyssa Farah…

More than three months after OpenAI’s board of directors briefly ousted Sam Altman, the high-profile CEO of the artificial intelligence company, questions remain about what exactly prompted the board to make such a dramatic move.A report from an outside law firm, expected in the coming days, could shed more light on the board’s decision as well as the chaotic five days before Mr. Altman returns to the company.But as anticipation grows for the report, previously unreported details are emerging about the role Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, played in Mr Altman’s ouster.Ms. Murati wrote a private note to Mr.…

The chairmen of five key Senate committees on Thursday warned executives at major convenience stores and wholesalers to stop selling illegal vaping products in what they called “extensive violations of federal law.”The senators expressed their concerns in letters to the companies, adding to the frustration of some lawmakers in Congress over the continued availability of brightly colored and candy-flavored e-cigarettes that attract young people who could become addicted to nicotine. Uncontrolled sales, they wrote, “pose a formidable threat to public health.””The FDA and the industry must do more to address the youth vaping epidemic and immediately remove unauthorized vaping products…