Facebook's Parent Company, Meta Platforms Inc, Executes Final Phase of Layoffs, Eliminating 10,000 Roles

Meta Platforms Inc, the owner of Facebook just carried out their last batch of layoffs on Wednesday. It’s part of a plan they announced back in March to eliminate 10,000 roles.

Dozens of employees from various teams like marketing, site security, enterprise engineering, program management, content strategy, and corporate communications announced their layoffs on LinkedIn. Even employees from units focused on privacy and integrity were cut!

Meta was actually the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs earlier this year. The cuts brought the company’s headcount down to where it stood as of about mid-2021. But despite all this, the company’s shares have more than doubled in value this year and are among the top performers in the S&P 500 index.

Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that most of the layoffs would happen in three “moments” over several months. The cuts hit non-engineering roles the hardest. Zuckerberg pledged to restructure business teams “substantially.”

Rapid Rundown

• 👥 Meta Platforms Inc. carried out its last batch of layoffs on Wednesday as part of a plan to eliminate 10,000 roles.

• 📈 Despite the layoffs, the company’s shares have more than doubled in value this year.

Scientists Invent 'Air Generator' Technology to Generate Electricity from Thin Air

Scientists have come up with an “air generator” that can generate electricity from thin air! I know, it sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. But it’s all thanks to the ambient humidity that surrounds us.

The researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, have developed an Air-gen device that can produce electricity from contact with water droplets passing through its porous material. This Air-gen technology creates a spontaneous and sustained charging gradient for continuous electric output. Jun Yao, one of the researchers, said that one day we may be able to get clean electricity literally anywhere and anytime by using Air-gen technology.

The initial discovery was made back in 2020 with biologically synthesized nanowires. But now they’ve discovered that this ‘generic’ Air-gen effect can work with all kinds of materials. The device was able to produce continuous energy for a test period of a week. Its versatility opens up the possibility of scaling it up to meet commercial or industrial energy demands. Looks like the future is looking bright!

Rapid Rundown

• 🔋 Air-gen generates electricity from ambient humidity using materials with tiny holes under 100 nanometers in length.

• 🌿 Researchers hope this technique could eventually help fight climate change by serving as an alternative to fossil fuels.

Reviving the Human Touch: Why QR-Code Menus Are Falling Out of Favor

Remember QR-code menus that were once considered the future of dining? Well, it seems like they're starting to lose their shine. Many restaurateurs, customers, and servers say they take the joy out of dining.

MustHaveMenus has seen a 27% drop in the use of QR codes it provides to restaurants. The menus are still popular at cafes and casual food businesses where speed is a priority. But for restaurants that deployed them mainly for hygiene reasons, they’re gone. Diners hate QR-code menus because it’s rude to take a phone out at a table and having to make a special request for a paper menu is awkward.

Plus, a QR code can kill the mood: phones up, blue lights on, conviviality off. And let’s not forget about the tech-averse diners who don’t know how to use them - we feel you. Waiters often bear the brunt of the frustration and some servers said QR menus take the joy out of the job. Customers tend to stare at their phones and pay less regard to the human server in front of them.

Rapid Rundown

• 💥 QR codes losing popularity: diners and servers find them joyless, disruptive, and tech-averse customers struggle to use them.

• 😮 Restaurants abandon QR menus as they kill the dining mood and hinder human connection.

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