Новости за 11.02.2016

Reuters

Panda Express trying to leave its mall-food-court image behind.

The Chinese-food chain has recently taken stakes in trendy fast-casual restaurants like Just Salad and Pieology Pizza, which have a combined 111 restaurants right now, reports Leslie Patton at Bloomberg News. 

The brand, which has more than 1,700 locations, is also aggressively looking to invest in other hot restaurant concepts. 

Panda Express hopes the investments will help it take steps to elevate... Читать дальше...

iStock

Customer service is shifting from traditional call centers to social channels, and that has put more pressure on social customer-service teams.

They have to deliver a great customer experience while handling the growing number of questions and comments coming through different social channels.

Whether you have a dedicated social team or equip your traditional team to manage social care, here are ways to help your business deliver the best service possible.

1. Stay ahead of the curve. Читать дальше...

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships so we may get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

Digit

Digit, a money-saving app backed by Google's venture arm, is trying something new: a feature that automatically saves a portion of your tax refund.

For those new to Digit, it's an app that automatically saves money for you by tracking your income and spending patterns. Every 2 to 3 days, it takes a small portion out of your checking account (typically $2 to $17) to a separate Digit account managed by partner banks, Wells Fargo and BofI Federal Bank. Users are still allowed to... Читать дальше...

Ramen Tatsu-Ya/Facebook

Ramen — the super-delicious, savory, loaded noodle soup — has blown up across the country over the past few years.

Have we reached peak ramen? Maybe. Does it matter? Not at all, because on a cold winter day, there's nothing that tastes quite as tasty or will warm you up quite as quickly.

Foursquare, the city guide app for discovering new places, has tracked a 25% increase in "ramen" mentions over the last year. That's good news, because it means they've... Читать дальше...

Flickr/Mario Mancuso

Whether you’re looking for a new job or just wanting to move up in your current career, there are loads of books filled with advice to help you out.

Even though there are plenty of newer reads, sometimes you just can’t beat the classics.

Here’s a roundup of six old-school career books.

Yes, your parents may have read them, too; but the advice is so legendary — and useful — they’re still worth downloading today:

1. "The Pathfinder: How... Читать дальше...

Screenshot

If you're already an Instagram pro and you've got Snapchat on lock, we've got a new app for you to try — Face Swap Live. 

The app, as you might have guessed from the name, let's you swap faces with anyone from work colleagues to presidential candidates to your dog using your phone. 

The results are hilarious and we're not the only ones having fun with this app. On February 10, the app was topping the charts in the Apple app store, The Verge reported. 

Keep reading to find out how to use Face Swap Live. Читать дальше...

Johnathan Petit

Microsoft introduced a new app on Thursday that anyone with a dog should play with because it's a lot of fun.

It's called Fetch!, and it's available for iPhones and on the web. It uses artificial intelligence techniques to classify images of real-world dogs into breeds. On the web, users can upload a photo of a dog, or you can take a picture of your pet using your phone's camera.

If you upload a picture of, say, a Rhodesian ridgeback, Microsoft should be able to confirm the dog's breed. Читать дальше...

Thomson Reuters

Zika, which has been spreading quickly in the Americas, has been linked with a rise in a birth defect called microcephaly that causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads.

On Wednesday, scientists published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine reporting the case of a pregnant woman likely infected with Zika who appears to have transmitted the virus to her fetus.

As far as we know, it's the most direct evidence linking the virus to the disorder so far ... Читать дальше...

Tesla

Tesla will release a new software upgrade this week to address "valid concerns" about its self-parking feature.

The self-parking feature, called Summon, allows owners to control the Tesla Model S remotely using the key fob. The feature could be used to have the car pull into a garage and close the garage door, or open the garage door and pull out into the driveway. The car operates at the very low speed of one mile per hour when the Summon feature is in use.

Consumer... Читать дальше...

According to a Harris Poll, 10.5 million Americans requested or planned to request the a day off from work on the Monday following the Super Bowl, and as many as 16.5 million said they may take the day off. This has led many to call for the Monday to be a holiday, but based on when the Super Bowl is held, that already appears inevitable.

REUTERS/ Jason Reed

Was paying off your student loan debt for good one of your resolutions for 2016?

Seven out of 10 seniors who graduated from public and nonprofit colleges in 2014 had an average student loan debt of $28,950, according to the most recent numbers crunched by the Institute for college Access & Success.

In her second edition release of CliffsNotes Graduation Debt, author Reyna Gobel explains that student loan minimum payments are typically figured for a 25... Читать дальше...

ThinkingVine

Making time to do the things we love can be a challenge for anyone. But when we do, we're able to clear our minds and be more productive and efficient at work – allowing us to have more free time to do the things we love. It's a virtuous cycle. 

That's why Liza Nurik, Eleanor Mooney, and Carrie Brightman launched ThinkingVine — a company that gives employees a fun outlet to clear their minds with enjoyable activities like painting, embossing, wiring, and mosaics. Читать дальше...

Thomson Reuters

Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen is back in Congress as part of her semi-annual testimony.

On Thursday morning, Yellen is speaking before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee on monetary policy.

The highlight of Yellen's testimony Thursday will be the Q&A session, which will happen after she repeats her prepared testimony from yesterday.

Notably, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is likely to press Yellen yet again on the extent... Читать дальше...

Sony

We've seen Sacha Baron Cohen recently in brief cameos like "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues," and more serious fare like playing Thénardier in "Les Misérables," but we haven't seen a comedy written by Cohen since 2012's "The Dictator."

Thankfully, a comedy from the mind behind Borat and Ali G is finally here: "The Brothers Grimsby."

Mark Strong ("Kingsman: The Secret Service") plays an MI6 agent whose brother (Cohen) is a slacker who loves his English football club more than anything. Читать дальше...

Cindy Crawford's daughter, Kaia Gerber, is just 14-years-old, but she's already on the verge of taking over the modeling industry.

Ben Birchall/AP

Most Americans oppose using powerful new technology to alter the genes of unborn babies, according to a new poll — even to prevent serious inherited diseases.

They expressed the strongest disapproval for editing genes to create “designer babies” with enhanced intelligence or looks.

But the poll, conducted by STAT and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found that people have mixed, and apparently not firm, views on emerging genetic techniques.

US... Читать дальше...

Economists are going back and forth about whether a recession in the U.S. is imminent or not, and this will probably go on until the nation is indeed plunged into one. Not everyone is convinced by all the recession talk, although some economists believe part of the U.S. economy is already in a recession and that the risk of the rest of the nation following suit is growing.

Flickr/Carl Lovén

What do people regret as they approach the end of their lives? That's what someone wanted to know on question-and-answer site Quora recently. 

The query turned up many of the answers you'd expect — marital infidelities, career opportunities not taken, childlessness. Of course, it's good to know about the big, heart-wrenching mistakes that haunt people as they get older so you can look out for similar missteps in your own life. But a quick online read is unlikely... Читать дальше...

Northrop Grumman

Air Force pilots of the 1980s-era stealthy B-2 Spirit bomber plan to upgrade and fly the aircraft on attack missions against enemy air defenses well into the 2050s, service officials said.  

“It is a dream to fly. It is so smooth,” Maj. Kent Mickelson, director of operations for 394th combat training squadron, told Scout Warrior in an interview.

In a special interview designed to offer a rare look into the technologies and elements of the B-2, Mickelson explained... Читать дальше...

GE

Netflix's chief marketing officer was the most-successful CMO in the US in 2015, according to ExecRank.

ExecRank's uses an algorithm to help match companies with advisors.

The algorithm assesses measures such as experience in the executive role, business results during their tenure, board member appointments, company earnings per share growth this year, and industry/professional reputation.

We've also provided details on where the marketers appeared in last year's list... Читать дальше...

Wikimedia Commons

Not so surprisingly, most Americans can only name a handful of US presidents.

In 2014, The Washington Post wrote about a study that looked at surveys conducted at Washington University at St. Louis between 1974 and 2014 to measure forgetfulness when it comes to past presidents. 

The surveys all asked students to write down the names of as many presidents as they could, and to organize them in chronological order.  

"What they found was a pretty clear pattern" writes Roberto A. Читать дальше...

REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

Tech Insider covers Elon Musk quite a lot, because let’s face it — he’s a visionary.

From making electric cars the standard with Tesla to making space travel affordable with SpaceX, Musk is the Thomas Edison of our time.

Here are 12 of our favorite things he’s said about the future of the planet.

On flying cars:

On innovation:

On invention:

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships so we may get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

D Dipasupil/Getty Images

Business Insider recently published a list of the 50 richest people on earth with data provided by Wealth-X, a firm that conducts research on the super-wealthy.

Of these 50 billionaires, only four (8%) are women — Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs, Mars Inc. heiress Jacqueline Mars, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, and Walmart heiress Alice Walton — and each of these women inherited rather than built their fortunes.

Meanwhile, more than two-thirds... Читать дальше...