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<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Robert Cianflone/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Amazon fulfilment centre.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>The author who discovered that <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-workers-have-to-pee-into-bottles-2018-4">Amazon warehouse staff were peeing in bottles</a> to avoid taking too many breaks said the working culture was like a prison.</strong></li><li><strong>James Bloodworth went undercover in 2016 to work at an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/amazon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amazon</a> warehouse in the UK, for a book on low-paid jobs in Britain.</strong></li><li><strong>He described to Business Insider how he had been collecting items as a "picker" and came across a bottle of urine on the shelf.</strong></li><li><strong>Bloodworth said people didn't have enough time for a proper lunch break, and were penalised for sick days.</strong></li><li><strong>Amazon didn't recognise the picture painted by Bloodworth. It said workers could use the toilet whenever they needed, and that they were not monitored.</strong></li></ul><p><br />Working in an Amazon warehouse is like prison, according to an author who went undercover at a fulfilment centre and found staff were peeing in bottles because they had no time to go to the toilet.</p><p>James Bloodworth investigated casual work and its impact on people's lives for his book "Hired: Six Months in Low-Wage Britain." For research, he took low-paid jobs at an Amazon warehouse, in social care, a call centre, a building site, and as an Uber driver to explore how people coped.</p><p>Bloodworth spent just under a month in 2016 working as a "picker" at an Amazon fulfilment centre in Rugeley, in central England. This involved running around the centre picking up items that people have ordered for delivery.</p><p>Bloodworth said he was employed through Transline, an employment agency <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/mar/13/transline-employment-agency-amazon-sports-direct-temporary-warehouse-workers">which Amazon no longer uses after it sent 1,500 people to work in poor conditions at the warehouse of major British retailer Sports Direct</a>.</p><p>Amazon staff had to meet productivity targets which, according to Bloodworth, were only feasible if you ran around the warehouse - something Amazon didn't allow for health and safety reasons.</p><p>He told Business Insider: "The job itself is really bad. I've worked in warehouses before but this was nothing like I had experienced. You don't have proper breaks - by the time you get to the canteen, you only have 15 or 20 minutes for lunch, in a 10-and-a-half hour working day. You don't have time to eat properly to get a drink.</p><p>"You have to go through security when you leave the warehouse, and that adds five minutes. It's like an airport - belt off, watch off. The atmosphere is what I imagine a prison feels like. You felt like you were walking on eggshells."</p><h2>James Bloodworth came across a bottle of urine</h2><p>Bloodworth's claims that Amazon workers were so rushed that <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-workers-have-to-pee-into-bottles-2018-4">they had to pee in bottles</a> caused outrage on social media sites <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/8cmbab/amazon_warehouse_workers_pee_into_bottles_because/">such as Twitter and Reddit on Monday</a>.</p><p>To recap, Bloodworth told The Sun that the productivity targets were so high that warehouse workers were scared to take a break and go to the toilet, in case of punishment. They peed in bottles instead, he said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Phil Noble</span></p><p class="caption">The Amazon warehouse in Rugeley, UK.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In his follow-up conversation with Business Insider, Bloodworth said he didn't resort to the pee bottle system partly because he knew he could leave the job at any time.</p><p>"I'd just take the bollocking for idle time," he said. "If you're on the top floor, you know it will take five minutes to go the toilet, and all the time you're being admonished for taking too much idle time."</p><p>He also said he had discovered the problem when he came across a bottle of urine while looking for items on an upper floor of the warehouse.</p><p>"One day I'm walking down the aisle and I go to pick up an item. And there's a bottle of straw-coloured water on the shelf and at first I thought 'Oh, what's that?'" he said. "And then it was very obvious what it was. And there was a pool of water next to it. It struck me - it was so obvious why someone would do that."</p><p>Amazon said it doesn't time warehouse workers' toilet breaks and that it ensures people can reach the bathrooms easily.</p><h2>Bloodworth said he was penalised for taking a sick day</h2><p>Bloodworth also outlined Amazon's penalty points system. Racking up six points for issues like unexplained absences could lead to a disciplinary process and dismissal, he said. <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/amazon-workers-face-sack-for-sick-leave-and-missing-targets-mdvlw9qfh">An investigation by The Times</a> at the end of 2016 similarly found that workers were penalised for taking sick days.</p><p>Legitimate sick days theoretically should not be penalised, but Bloodworth said he received a point after telling his manager that he needed a sick day. That's despite giving more than the required one hour's notice, and being able to provide a sick note.</p><p>"It's the sheer oppressiveness of management regime there," he said. "It's the most oppressive place I had ever worked, easily."</p><p>In a lengthy statement to Business Insider, Amazon said it didn't recognise Bloodworth's allegations as representative of the working environment at its warehouses.</p><p>The company also said it no longer has a "points-based attendance policy," and that it coaches people who aren't hitting their productivity targets fast enough.</p><p><strong>Here's the full statement from Amazon:</strong></p><p style="font-weight: 400; padding-left: 30px;">Amazon provides a safe and positive workplace for thousands of people across the UK with competitive pay and benefits from day one. We are committed to treating every one of our associates with dignity and respect. We don't recognize these allegations as an accurate portrayal of activities in our buildings.</p><p style="font-weight: 400; padding-left: 30px;">We have a focus on ensuring we provide a great environment for all our employees and last month Amazon was named by LinkedIn as the 7th most sought after place to work in the UK and ranked first place in the US. Amazon also offers public tours of its fulfilment centres so customers can see first-hand what happens after they click 'buy' on Amazon.</p><p style="font-weight: 400; padding-left: 30px;">Amazon has a range of initiatives to support our people if they become ill at home or at work and we recently extended these to include improved on-site support. We recognise that there are times someone cannot come to work, even if they want to. If someone is ill, we want to help them get back to work when they are fit to do so. We no longer have a points based attendance policy - we changed it following feedback from out our associates. If someone is sick, we will have a conversation with them to understand their own individual circumstances. We completely support our people, and use proper discretion when applying our absence policy.</p><p style="font-weight: 400; padding-left: 30px;">As with nearly all companies, we expect a certain level of performance from our associates and we continue to set productivity targets objectively, based on previous performance levels achieved by our workforce. Associate performance is measured and evaluated over a long period of time as we know that a variety of things could impact the ability to meet expectations in any given day or hour. We support people who are not performing to the levels expected with dedicated coaching to help them improve.</p><p style="font-weight: 400; padding-left: 30px;">Amazon ensures all of its associates have easy access to toilet facilities which are just a short walk from where they are working. Associates are allowed to use the toilet whenever needed. We do not monitor toilet breaks</p><p style="font-weight: 400; padding-left: 30px;">The pay rate for permanent Amazon's fulfilment centre employees in the UK increases over their first two years of employment, after which time all employees earn £8.35 an hour and above. All permanent Amazon fulfilment centre employees are given stock grants, which over the last five years were on average equal to £1,000 or more per year per person. Employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, subsidised meals and an employee discount, which combined are worth more than £700 annually, as well as a company pension plan.</p><p style="font-weight: 400; padding-left: 30px;">Amazon also offers employees an innovative programme called Career Choice that provides funding for adult education, offering to pre-pay 95% of tuition and associated fees for nationally recognised courses, up to £8,000 over four years.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/best-smartphone-camera-iphone-x-pixel-2-xl-galaxy-s9-2018-3">Here's the best smartphone camera you can buy</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

The undercover author who discovered Amazon warehouse workers were peeing in bottles tells us the culture was like a prison

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An FDIC supervisor invited his staff to a strip club, according to a report from WSJ.</li><li>Other male workers sent unsolicited nude pictures to female staffers, the publication reported.</li></ul><p>The work culture at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation might not be as buttoned up and professional as one would expect, according to a recent investigation from The Wall Street Journal.</p><p>Reporting from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/fdic-toxic-atmosphere-strip-clubs-lewd-photos-boozy-hotel-12c89da7?mod=hp_lead_pos1">interviews</a> with over 100 current and former FDIC employees, as well as analysis of complaints and legal filings, the Journal said the regulator fostered a "toxic atmosphere" and failed to take action against alleged incidents of sexual harassment.</p><p>The FDIC is an independent agency that is funded by insurance premiums paid by banks and it helps insure deposits, as well as examines banks in order to protect consumers. It employs over 10,000 permanent and temporary workers.</p><p>The Journal's report details instances where a supervisor invited staff to a strip club and male workers sent their female colleagues unsolicited nude pictures. The men who engaged in the activities did not lose their jobs, according to the report.</p><p>An FDIC spokesperson told Insider the organization plans to conduct periodic reviews of its policies and programs around harassment and discrimination and it continually seeks feedback from workers.</p><p>"Harassment in any form is contrary to the FDIC's values and our deep commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace," the spokesperson said. "We have various training, reporting, and oversight programs that endeavor to create a safe and equitable environment where all employees can feel valued and respected. When we identify misconduct, we investigate and take appropriate action."</p><p>In 2020, the organization's inspector general criticized the FDIC's investigations into sexual harassment, calling them "decentralized, untimely, incomplete, and inaccurate," the Journal reported. At the time, the agency reportedly made changes to its policies.</p><p>An FDIC spokesperson told the Journal that instances of sexual harassment have not been reported at the agency since 2020.</p><p>Two supervisors told the Journal they'd either visited strips clubs with their colleagues after work or invited staff to a strip club. One supervisor, Trevor McIntosh, said the organization had not told him that visiting the strip clubs was a problem and "he didn't know why it would have been," the Journal reported.</p><div type="image" title="The FDIC is headquartered in Washington D.C." height="683" width="1024" msid="105193042" hostid="261"></div><p>In 2015, McIntosh addressed concerns from management regarding complaints about his leadership — including some comments he'd allegedly made about a worker's sex life — by writing a memo detailing how he planned to work on his communication skills. Seven years later, he moved to a non-managerial position within the FDIC, the Journal reported.</p><p>Similarly in 2013, another supervisor, Hien Nguyen, reportedly invited male colleagues to a "sex cafe" that he told the Journal was "more of a club/strip joint." The FDIC demoted Nguyen after multiple workers told management that the supervisor had allegedly made homophobic and harassing comments to staff. Nguyen has since gone on to serve in a management position at another regulator, according to the Journal.</p><p>"It was my error and lack of judgment," Nguyen told the Journal. "I moved on, and I've learned from it."</p><p>McIntosh and Nguyen did not respond to requests for comment from Insider ahead of publication.</p><p>Multiple former female employees from the FDIC also told the Journal their colleagues had sent them unsolicited nude photos.</p><p>Some FDIC employees spent long periods of time on the road visiting different banks, which meant staff would go out drinking while on the road, the Journal reported. The organization also has its own hotel near Washington D.C., which the publication described as a "party hub" where workers had been known to pee off the roof or throw up in the elevator.</p><p>The FDIC told the Journal that the hotel helps the agency save money, and if it learned any worker was drinking too much it would investigate and they would face possible termination.</p><p>On Monday, the FDIC told staff it had brought on an independent agency to look into the allegations of harassment and discrimination at the FDIC, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/fdic-hires-independent-firm-to-conduct-assessment-into-alleged-harassment-and-discrimination-at-agency-a48baee0?mod=e2tw">Journal reported</a> just hours after it published its initial investigation.</p><p>The FDIC is one of many organizations in the banking industry to come under scrutiny in the wake of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/me-too-hashtag-sexual-harassment-assault-2017-11">#MeToo movement.</a></p>

An FDIC supervisor reportedly invited staff to a strip club and senior bank examiners texted nude pics to female employees. They're still employed.

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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Alix Atwell is a registered nurse with 30 years' experience working in California, New York, and Illinois. She left the field two years ago.</li><li>The entire medical field is being drafted into a war, she writes, but the government is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nurses-worry-about-getting-paid-sick-leave-covid-19-outbreak-2020-3">not protecting its soldiers</a> on the front lines.</li><li>Medical care workers need adequate staffing ratios, safe working conditions, proper training, and adequate supplies and resources.</li><li>She and her fellow nurses have been sounding the alarm for years, but the message landed on 'deaf, greedy ears.' </li><li>This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</strong></li></ul><p>Dear Uncle Sam,</p><p>You are asking me to step up and hear your call, to once again don my scrubs and clogs for my fellow man, to fight COVID-19. My heart and hands are ready. They were born for this moment. They know instinctively what to do. After 30 years of bedside experience, they can place an IV in a rock and can hold the delicate silence of suffering without breaking it. But the voice in my head screams, "NO!"</p><p>You are asking me to enter a war, the scope of which many in our government refuse to acknowledge, much less <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nurses-worry-about-getting-paid-sick-leave-covid-19-outbreak-2020-3">adequately fund</a>. To go into battle, naked and unarmed. There is no developed weapon to kill this enemy. You offer no camouflage (<a href="https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/personal-protective-equipment-infection-control/n95-respirators-and-surgical-masks-face-masks">personal protective equipment</a>) to hide from it. There are insufficient tanks and artillery (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-ventilator-shortage-may-force-sharing-but-its-risky-2020-3">ventilators</a>) to fight off the virus. There is no clear strategy or leadership to win this war. Tactics have been replaced by antics; logistics by illusion.</p><p>The commander in chief is not a soldier. He is a narcissist who lacks empathy and regard for human life. He does not care. <em>Care </em>does not factor into the GDP, and he bows only to the Dow. He has tunnel vision. If we continue down his tunnel, a large sum of us will get to see the almighty bright light at its end.</p><p>The entire medical field - my former colleagues - has been drafted. There's been no consideration for age or underlying health conditions, no deferment for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-avoided-the-military-draft-which-was-common-at-the-time-vietnam-war-2018-12">bone spurs</a>, or asthma for that matter. They have been thrust onto the front lines and could die for the cause. But they are NOT replaceable.</p><p>A military soldier would be granted privileges for such sacrifice. Where is the nurse hazard pay, the doctor death gratuity, the orderly survivor benefit plan for the bereft spouses and children should their loved one die in battle? Who will award the hospital housekeeper funeral honors or a Purple Heart?</p><p>And let's talk about PTSD. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, the average burnout rate for an ICU nurse was two years. I know - I survived three, early in my career, before switching over to labor and delivery.</p><p>The emotional toll of a bedside caregiver is immeasurable. Like a soldier returning from the battlefield, a medical worker's mental health must be considered and supported. Who will care for the caregiver casualties when and if they return home?</p><p>I left the hospital battlefield a couple of years ago, but I spent 30 years on the front lines, fighting side by side with my coworkers for adequate staffing ratios, safe working conditions, and proper training, all while compassionately tending to the sick and wounded with inadequate supplies and resources.</p><p>We have been sweating and bleeding in the trenches for years, without breaks to eat or pee, forced to do overtime, sacrificing family and health, trying our best to <em>do no harm</em>, and to avoid patient abandonment, all while our administrations and government repeatedly abandon us. </p><p>We've individually and collectively been begging our leaders to hear our pleas for a single-payer system so our society is no longer beholden to drug companies and insurance companies and corporate greed, but instead to the wellbeing of our community, our country.</p><p>We in the healthcare field have all known this battle was coming. We did <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/larry_brilliant_my_wish_help_me_stop_pandemics?language=en">TED talks about it</a>. We wrote <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(18)30364-5/fulltext">articles in peer reviewed journals </a>about it. We believe in science. We know its capacity for good, and for bad. We pleaded for preparedness after SARS in 2003, with H1N1 in 2009, and again with Ebola in 2014. We have been sounding the alarm for years. The message never arrived up the chain of command. Or if it did, it landed on deaf, greedy ears concerned only for profits and not prevention.</p><p>And now <em>you</em> are sounding the alarm and are asking me to step up.</p><p>I respectfully ask in return, will you?</p><p><em>Alix Atwell is an RN with experience working in the ER, ICU and Labor and delivery. She has worked  in California, New York, and Illinois. She left the field two years ago to pursue a writing career.</em></p><p class="tagline"><i>Do you have a personal experience with the coronavirus you'd like to share? Or a tip on how your town or community is handling the pandemic? Please email <a href="mailto:covidtips@businessinsider.com">covidtips@businessinsider.com</a> and tell us your story.</i></p><p><i>And get the latest <a href="/coronavirus-covid19">coronavirus analysis and research</a> from Business Insider Intelligence on how COVID-19 is impacting businesses.</i></p>

I was a nurse for 30 years. We're being drafted into war, but our commander-in-chief refuses to give us the weapons and protection we need to fight it.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>"Cash is cool again," according to the $2.78 trillion asset manager State Street Global Advisors. </strong></li><li><strong>As the Fed raises interest rates, cash and other short-duration instruments are starting to earn more than many stocks. </strong></li></ul><p>It's official: "Cash is cool again."</p><p>That's according to State Street Global Advisors, a $2.78 trillion asset manager that's advising clients to explore cash as a safer alternative to some stocks. </p><p>Cash has taken on a tarnished reputation since the financial crisis as a conservative alternative to the stock market, which <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-stock-market-call-in-2009-2018-3">bottomed in March 2009</a> and has been in a bull market since.</p><p>The quilt below shows the return of various asset classes, and just how costly it's been to sit in cash, relative to other safety nets. From 2007 through 2017, cash earned 8.4%, trailing developed-government bonds by 39.5 percentage points, according to data compiled by <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/c-stock">Citi</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Citi" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b366ff8febf6b2d008b47b6-960/screen shot 2018-06-26 at 32316 pm.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Citi</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>State Street is not calling for a bearish, all-out rotation away from other assets that have historically performed better, even if they're riskier. Rather, it reckons the "there-is-no-alternative" narrative about stocks no longer exists. </p><p>"With the Federal Reserve continuing to hike rates, cash and short duration exposures have become attractive sources of income in addition to tempering duration and equity risk," State Street said in its recently published mid-year outlook. </p><p>State Street further observed that as of May 22, US 3-month LIBOR yielded more than 30% of US stocks. A year earlier, it was more than 66% of stocks.</p><p>"Given bonds' performance since the end of 2016 and their current composure based on yield, duration and credit spread, investors may be well served to focus on their short-term positions, focusing on floating rates (investment grade and senior loans) that have the most optimal yield and duration exposure (yield per unit of duration)," State Street said.</p><p>Besides its use as a safe haven, cash may also come in handy if investors' worst concerns about inflation don't materialize. Higher inflation erodes the buying power of the dollar. </p><p>"After nine years of not being able to use cash in our business, it would be interesting to bring cash back as an asset class," John Augustine, the chief investment officer at Huntington Private Bank, told Business Insider in a recent interview. "Maybe by Q1 next year, if inflation holds constant."</p><p>To take advantage of cash and cash equivalents, State Street suggested four of its SPDR exchange-traded funds: </p><ul><li>SPDR Bloomberg Barclays Investment Grade Floating Rate ETF</li><li><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/funds/blackstone---gso-strategic-credit-fund">SPDR Blackstone/GSO Senior Loan ETF</a></li><li><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/etfs/spdr-portfolio-short-term-corporate-bond-etf">SPDR Portfolio Short Term Corporate Bond ETF</a></li><li><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/etfs/spdr-doubleline-sht-duration-tot-rtn-tactical-etf">SPDR DoubleLine Short Duration Total Return Tactical ETF</a></li></ul>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-when-hold-in-your-pee-too-long-2018-6">What happens when you hold in your pee for too long</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

A $2.8 trillion investor unravels why a corner of the market that's been beaten down since the financial crisis is attractive again

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Nico Bossi is an entrepreneur with a background in investment banking at Citigroup and COO of Verasity Worldwide, as well as the founder of two investing and media companies<em>.</em></li><li>He always thought he would have kids at a young age, but unexpected circumstances led him to align with the common trend of having kids later.</li><li>Millennial moms and dads are demanding different kinds of products and services that are more eco-friendly and make parenting more efficient.</li><li>Bossi said that there are ways companies can capitalize on the delayed parenting strategy, like making what used to be considered luxury childcare techniques accessible to everyone.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>I grew up in Italy, just outside Rome, and I always thought I'd become a young father. I pictured myself kicking a ball around the yard with my children and taking them with me to watch AS Roma, our hometown soccer team - a pep in my step all the while, my parenting skills bolstered by the buoyancy of youth.</p><p>Perhaps I expected to have children young because my mother and father were young when they had me. That was the norm back then: to raise big, rambunctious families. My mother is one of five sisters, and I grew up surrounded by cousins - 12 at the last count. My grandparents also lived nearby.</p><p>When I emigrated to America after high school, I maintained both my hope and my expectation that I'd be a young father. Things started according to plan when I met and married <a href="http://www.jenniferleesnowden.com">my American wife</a>. Yet as it tends to do, life threw us a curveball. Due to illness, we were unable to start a family right away, as we'd hoped. This was frustrating and scary. However, due to the amazing progress in fertility medicine, we were able to "bank" our luck. As I write this, there are some fertilized embryos nestled safely inside nitrogen tanks, awaiting a future arrival date.</p><p>Although it felt unusual at the time, the fact that my wife and I have waited to have children aligns us with the broader worldwide cultural shift: More and more, parents are delaying procreation. According to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/report004.pdf">National Vital Statistics System</a>, 3.8 million babies were born in the US in 2017. Although it sounds like a high number, this was the lowest reported fertility rate in 30 years. </p><p>Importantly, this reflects the successful campaign against unwanted teen pregnancies - which are down 55% since 2007, according to NVSS - but it's also a matter of strategy. Some parents are waiting until they feel financially secure and professionally established to have children - which is entirely logical: <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/resource/expenditures-children-families-reports-all-years">According to the US Department of Agriculture's Expenditures on Children by Families</a>, in 2015 parents were expected to spend $233,610 to raise a child, from birth to adulthood. </p><p>People are waiting longer to have kids. The mean age of first-time mothers is continuing to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/04/upshot/up-birth-age-gap.html">increase</a> from 21 in 1972 to 26 today, alongside fathers who are now around 31, up from 27 in the same time period. As a result, when couples today do have children, they are more informed and more conscious of safety concerns because they've taken the time to educate themselves. </p><p>They're also constantly digitally connected and demanding better and more reliable child-centered products and services. </p><p>Some of those products include <a href="https://cocooncam.com/">Cocoon Cam</a>, an AI-vital signs, data-capturing monitor started by a former Tesla engineer; <a href="https://www.tinyhood.com/">Tinyhood</a>, an on-demand expert advice network which functions as a "ParentTech"-style assistant; and <a href="https://kidizen.com/">Kidizen</a>, a peer-to-peer resale market for kids clothing and products.   </p><p>All told, this amounts to a seismic generational shift, both in how parents prepare for raising kids and what they demand out of the technology that helps them do that. </p><p><a href="https://news.crunchbase.com/news/millennial-parents-helping-grow-baby-tech-market/">Data shows</a> $300 million in capital flowing to startups servicing this revolution. </p><p>What we're also seeing is a broader socioeconomic shift towards products and services with roots in the <a href="https://www.parqex.com/how-parents-benefit-from-the-sharing-economy/">sharing economy</a> - companies that allow parents to rent, resale, and share rather than buy - as well as the "<a href="https://time.com/4376283/quantified-self-parents-apps/">quantified self</a>" movement: technology that tracks data for self-improvement.</p><p>This trend is of deep interest to me, both personally and professionally. I'm not only an aspiring father, but an investor. The ability to see around corners, to understand what's coming next, is a vital skill for early-stage venture capitalists and one I've worked hard to hone. As such, it's clear to me that what we have on our hands is not just a revolution in parenting, but an economic opportunity.</p><p>Here's how we should all be preparing for it.   </p><h1><strong>Look for companies that are democratizing parent services for the masses</strong></h1><p>At Alpha Edison, the VC firm where I work, we make concerted efforts to identify startups who use new technology to bring upmarket services - services which were once only enjoyed by the rich and powerful - to the masses. (We call this strategy <a href="https://www.alphaedison.com/insights/2018/11/13/democratized-decisions">democratizing decisions</a>.) </p><p>Examples of companies who fit this bill are Uber and Lyft. Both companies made perks like private drivers, for example, available to all. </p><p>There are several companies who are democratizing the parent services space in a similar way. Consider the rideshare service for minors, <a href="https://www.hopskipdrive.com/">Hop Skip Drive</a>, which has raised $75 million in funding to date according to Pitchbook. In providing child-safe alternatives to Uber and Lyft, their growth will mirror what happens with the industry as a whole.</p><p>Other examples of companies bringing "luxury" to the masses within the parenting sector include services like doulas (<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/birth-made-easy-hypnobirthing/id1021177624">hypnobirthing meditations</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/squeezy-nhs-pelvic-floor-app/id700740791">pelvic floor</a> exercises/reminders); <a href="https://www.hisawyer.com/">after-school EdTech</a>; digital <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/id661829386?mt=8">therapists</a>, and <a href="https://www.workingmother.com/beautiful-co-working-spaces-that-offer-babysitting-too#page-3">coworking spaces with childcare.</a> </p><p>In making upscale, desirable parenting services available to a larger percentage of people, these companies have a chance at real success.  </p><h1><strong>Look for companies that alleviate 'silent suffering'</strong></h1><p>Another category of market opportunity centers around relieving "silent suffering" - everyday irritations that we all just put up with. The kind that, if someone solved them, would unlock <em>massive</em> latent demand. </p><p>For example, many women suffer in silence when it comes to the physical recovery from pregnancy. </p><p>"As a society, we've made it seem 'normal' that women will pee in their pants, have painful sex, or never regain core or pelvic strength for years after giving birth," said Carine Carmy, cofounder and CEO of <a href="http://theoriginway.com">Origin</a>, a women's health company. "These issues are far more common than they need to be, affecting one in four adult women, and many women are no longer waiting in pain. They're seeking help and treatment, and the good news is that physical therapy and other noninvasive methods work."</p><p>The most obvious form of silent suffering parents presently put up with is the lack of paid parental leave and affordable childcare options, making many parents - particularly mothers - unable to work. <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm">According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, only 71% of US mothers are in the workforce, compared to 93% of fathers. The participation rate drops still further - to 65% - for mothers with very small children. </p><p>Both <a href="https://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/news/press/release/as-momentum-continues-to-grow-for-congress-to-take-action-on-paid-family-leave-gillibrand-delauro-stand-with-workers-business-leaders-and-advocates-to-reintroduce-the-family-act-to-give-every-american-worker-access-to-paid-family-and-medical-leave">paid parental leave</a> and <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-unveils-universal-child-care-and-early-learning-proposal">universal childcare</a> are key pieces of legislation ripe for debate in the run up to the next election. In the meantime, providing safe, affordable childcare is a massive opportunity. Next gen parents want and need state-of-the-art childcare where they can keep in touch with offspring during the workday. They want on-site childcare at coworking spaces.</p><p>Companies who can deliver on that in the near future will change lives. </p><h1><strong>Look for non-toxic startups </strong></h1><p>Parents today want products that are free of toxic chemicals. They likewise don't want products that promote climate-unfriendly practices.  </p><p>As a result, a variety of environmentally conscious companies have begun sprouting up. (It just so happens that many of the founders are celebrity parents.) These include Jessica Alba's eco-friendly child/baby line <a href="https://www.honest.com/">The Honest Company</a>, which has <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/the-honest-company">raised</a> around $500 million to date; Karolina Kurkova's wellness line <a href="https://gryphandivyrose.com/">Gryph &amp; IvyRose</a> known as "Goop for kids"; and Emma (Baby Spice) Bunton's <a href="https://kitandkin.com/">Kit &amp; Kin.</a></p><p>Emma Bunton in particular has captured mommy bloggers' universal acclaim. Bunton's company sells diapers made with far fewer chemicals than leading brands and chlorine-free fluff pulp harvested from sustainably managed forests. </p><p>In the baby/child food sector, Sarah Michelle Gellar's company, <a href="https://foodstirs.com/">Foodstirs</a>, bills itself as "junk free" organic DIY baking, providing simple-to-use kits with no "bad" ingredients. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/sarah-michelle-gellar-shares-secrets-launching-business-51242576">Gellar told Good Morning America</a> about the power of taking parenting brands direct to consumers: "Customers nowadays want to really know every part of what goes into what they're eating, what they're purchasing, and social media allows that," she shared.</p><p>This epitomizes the ethos companies in this space are adopting - and hints at something of a winning formula that investors should be paying attention to. </p><h1><strong>Look at companies poised to disrupt incumbents</strong></h1><p>I'm bullish about the companies detailed above because, while many are still small, they nevertheless are direct threats to the biggest players in the baby/child products and services industry They're heralding trends that will only continue to grow in importance over time, as the parenting revolution takes shape and garners influence. </p><p>I met recently with Lisa Barnett, the founder of <a href="https://www.littlespoon.com/">Little Spoon</a>. She reiterated that assisting the parenting revolution is very much something entrepreneurs like her are focusing on. </p><p>"2018 was the first year the millennial generation represented the critical majority of new parents," she said. "And in the same way we've seen millennials disrupt so many other consumer categories, they've entered the parenting space with the same demands for high-quality, transparent, health-conscious, and affordable products for their families."</p><p>The disruptive potential of entrepreneurs like Lisa is massive. Big picture, the total addressable market for global baby care products is <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/1259/baby-care-market/">estimated</a> at $73.86 billion, and <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/258435/revenue-of-the-baby-care-products-market-worldwide/">projected</a> to grow to $109.13 billion by 2026, according to research and data company Statista. It's still a fragmented industry, but Johnson &amp; Johnson (23.2%), Procter &amp; Gamble (18%), and Kimberly-Clark (8%) Statista says are the three market leaders.</p><p>And they're susceptible to disruption. In line with the widespread concerns around toxic and harmful ingredients, J&amp;J is still embroiled in a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-cancer-lawsuit/jj-loses-trial-over-claims-linking-cancer-to-asbestos-in-talc-idUSKCN1HC2PL">lawsuit</a> around asbestos traces in their talcum powder that is said to cause cancer, which could negatively affect their market share in the coming years. So there's a real opportunity for smart startups to grab market share or make themselves ripe for successful IPO or acquisition.</p><p>More importantly, there's a real opportunity for companies and investors to do good and change lives here. For example, when I met with Lisa, our conversation eventually turned to her parenting hopes. "I'd love to be a mother at some point," she said. "But I feel it's really tough, if not impossible, to be an entrepreneur CEO and working mother without masses of support." </p><p>I felt for her. It's a horrible choice to have to be between pursuing your dreams and starting a family. Technology designed for the next generation of parents can alleviate some of that pressure and solve for the time-constraint burdens of early-stage parenting. Obviously, technology can't solve all of the problems parents face today, but developed and cultivated strategically, it can certainly make it easier for women to stay in or re-enter the workforce, should they choose to have kids. </p><p>The way we raise families has changed - perhaps forever. It's time for founders and the people who power them to change, too.</p>

There's been a revolution in parenting driven by millennials having kids later in life, and it's a huge economic opportunity for investors and founders

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</span></p><p class="caption">Bill Gates holds up a beaker of human feces at the Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing on November 6, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Bad sanitation <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bathroom-hand-washing-after-using-the-toilet-2018-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kills 525,000 children under five</a> every year and contributes to malnutrition and the spread of disease.</strong></li><li><strong>Bill Gates thinks it's not practical for the entire world to adopt flush toilets, so he's spending $400 million to fund research into toilets that don't require a sewer system. </strong></li><li><strong>After seven years of investment, some of the first products are available.</strong></li></ul><p>Bill Gates isn't afraid of potty talk.</p><p>On Tuesday, he got onstage in front of business leaders, investors, and government officials from around the world <a href="https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1059816423294287872" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and unveiled</a> what he politely referred to as a "little exhibit." It was a glass jar filled with human feces.</p><p>"It's good to be reminded, in there could be over 200 trillion rotavirus particles, 20 billion Shigella bacteria, and 100,000 parasitic worm eggs," Gates told the crowd, which had gathered in Beijing, China for an event called the Reinvented Toilet Expo.</p><p>The jar of poo was used to make a point: Around the world, in places without proper sanitation or sewage systems, there's much more than a jar's worth of unsanitary human waste sitting around. </p><p>"That's what kids, when they're out playing, they are being exposed to all the time," Gates said, noting the link between bad sanitation and disease, death, and malnutrition.</p><p>To address that problem, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation started its <a href="https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/Documents/Fact_Sheet_Reinvent_the_Toilet_Challenge.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reinvent the Toilet Challenge</a> in 2011. The initiative funded $200 million in grants for universities around the world to develop a next-generation toilet.  The goal: develop a waste-processing system that doesn't need to be hooked up a typical sanitation and sewer grid.</p><p>The new systems that have been created with those grants turn what we put into the toilet into fertilizer, energy, or recycled water, some of which is good enough to drink.</p><p>The Gates Foundation now intends to invest an additional $200 million into research that can yield additional ways to deal with human waste at the source. </p><h2>The problem with the toilets we have now</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Sam Phelps</span></p><p class="caption">Malickane Gueye stands with his children in front of a newly constructed toilet at his home in Dakar, Senegal on September 25, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In 2015, the <a href="http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sanitation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Health Organization estimated</a> that just 39% of the world's people were using a "safely-managed" lavatory, whether it be a toilet or a decently clean latrine. </p><p>Living without a good toilet can be unsafe. People who come in contact with fecal matter face a risk of deadly infections and chronic health problems, since h<span>uman feces carry pathogens like E. coli, Streptococcus, hepatitis A and E, and more</span><span>. Those can cause pneumonia and diarrhea - the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/why-handwashing.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">top two killers of kids</a> around the world.</span></p><p>Plus, if people don't have a place to go at home, they have to travel alone into woods or a field to relieve themselves, which can be risky for women and children living in conflict zones.</p><p><span>"When you think about things that are basic, right up there with health and enough to eat, I think having a reasonable toilet certainly belongs on that list," Gates said.</span></p><p><em><strong>Read More</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bathroom-hand-washing-after-using-the-toilet-2018-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Do you really have to wash your hands every time you use the bathroom? The definitive answer, according to science</a></em></p><p>He estimates that illness from poor sanitation costs the world <a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Reinvent-the-Toilet-Expo-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">over $223 billion per year</a> in lost wages and extra healthcare.</p><p>With <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gates-foundation-ceo-sue-desmond-hellman-let-women-end-poverty-in-africa-2018-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stratospheric rates of population growth in cities across Africa and Asia</a>, the problem is only set to get worse. </p><p>"Unless we do something, the cycle of disease will actually be accelerated," Gates said. </p><p>Gates doesn't think it's practical to expect the entire world to connect their homes to yet-to-be-built sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants. That's why he has been on a quest to do for toilets what he argues Microsoft did for computing: get the business off a centralized, "mainframe" system.</p><p>Gates started by asking engineers at universities around the world a simple but yet-unanswered question: "could you leapfrog the long-accepted 'gold standard' of sanitation?" </p><p>"A decade ago, I didn't think I would be able to tell you so much about poop," Gates said.</p><h2>The first generation of sewer-free toilets is here, but they aren't cheap yet</h2><p>After seven years and $200 million of investment, the first batch of products from the "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" is being tested in locations around India, Africa, and China. </p><p>One of the first new toilets is the solar-powered Eco-san system, pictured below. Based on technology <a href="http://hoffmann.caltech.edu/research/contribution.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed at Cal Tech,</a> the Eco-san extracts clean water from human waste and reuses it for future flushing.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Shawn Koh</span></p><p class="caption">An Eco-san Toilet at Yixing Huankeyuan Elementary School in Yixing City, Jiangsu Province, China.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Other models are also in the works from companies and universities around the world. </p><p>The <a href="http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/newgenerator-bringing-clean-water-and-energy-south-africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of South Florida's NewGenerator</a> treatment system also runs on solar energy and can be hooked up to any existing toilet. It uses a nano-membrane filter (kind of like a coffee filter) with feces-digesting anaerobic bacteria inside to filter clean water out of the waste.</p><p>Another toilet from <a href="https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/case-studies/research-case-studies/nano-membrane-toilet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cranfield University in the UK</a> comes equipped with a little trap door odor barrier and scraper so that it requires no water for flushing. Clean water is filtered out of waste via a large, orange screw in the tank, and solid waste is burned inside the toilet's combustor, which converts the waste into ash and energy. (Thankfully, this all happens out of sight of the people who are using the toilet.)</p><p>"Heat from the burning is used to help dry the next batch of solids," as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqcknE_Ic_g%20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gates explained in a video</a>. He added, "it's a very clever toilet." </p><p>Yet another model, from Swiss engineering firm Helbling, is called the HTClean Toilet and it functions like a pressure cooker for poo. The immense pressure and heat helps the waste separate into water and solids that aren't toxic.</p><p><a href="https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/coimbatore-sanitation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Duke University</a> has also started testing its Gates-funded toilet this year at a textile mill in Coimbatore, India. The system, shown below, separates solid and liquid waste and makes it possible to safely re-use the water for flushing. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Ryan Lobo</span></p><p class="caption">Prateek K, a technical field consultant engineer, stands next to the Duke system, which dries out fecal matter and separates parasitic worms from feces, allowing for water to be recycled or discharged.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>None of these sewer-free toilets are yet at a price that's feasible for individual homes. For now, the new toilets are going to be used at schools, apartment complexes, and community bathroom areas, Gates said.</p><p>But his eventual goal is for off-grid toilets to be used in homes around the world. He <span>told the crowd in Beijing that he's ready to spend an additional $200 million developing the technology for those next-generation toilets. But Gates </span>hopes that someday, the private sector will start developing sewer-free home toilets, and compete to provide those toilets to the 4.5 billion people around the world who don't have them now. </p><p><span>"We estimate that by 2030, the opportunity here is over $6 billion a year," he said. </span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Samantha Reinders</span></p><p class="caption">Children at the Gugulethu Primary School in KwaMashu, outside of Durban, South Africa, on September 19, 2018. The school is a recipient of a new Eco-san toilet system, care of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Gates is also investing in self-powered sewage systems </h2><p>Gates is also obsessed with something called an Omni Processor, which is essentially a much smaller version of a waste treatment plant. </p><p>The small plants, one of which is already on the ground in Dakar, Senegal, can serve between 5,000 and 100,000 customers and are completely self-powered. They take in toilet waste, kill pathogens in the sewage, and convert it into "products with commercial value - like clean water, electricity, and fertilizer," Gates said. It's a lot like what astronauts do on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-you-go-to-bathroom-space-nasa-astronaut-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Space Station</a> - turning their pee into clean, drinkable H2O.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Sam Phelps</span></p><p class="caption">Technician Idrissa Coulibaly walks to the Janicki Omni Processor in Dakar, Senegal on September 25, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Gates is so enthused about the Omni Processor's clean, recycled water that he once drank it himself.</p><p>"It tasted great," he told the Beijing crowd. "I'd be glad to do it again any time." </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Gates Archive/Sam Phelps</span></p><p class="caption">Waste collector Assane Cissé (left) and Mariama Seck vacuum human waste from a reservoir inside a courtyard at a home in the neighborhood of Gúediaye, Dakar, Senegal on September 25, 2018. Waste collectors remove human waste from a reservoir underneath the home with a tube and vacuum system. The waste is then transported to the Omni Processor in Dakar for treatment.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Gates never thought that he'd turn from a computer whiz into a toilet geek.</p><p>"I definitely didn't think that my wife would have to tell me that in some cases I'm talking too much about toilets and how this <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> of combusting the feces works," he said.</p><p>But he's committed to the task, since better toilets could help save millions of lives and open up an entirely new market. </p><p>"A whole new product category is being introduced here," Gates said. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/waterless-toilet-future-backed-bill-gates-foundation-2017-5">Bill Gates is backing the waterless toilet of the future - here's how it works</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Bill Gates is obsessed with redesigning the world's toilets - and he just brought a container of poo onstage to prove it

<p><em>Hello, everyone! Welcome to the new edition of <keyword id="9095853" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="insider-today">Insider Today</keyword>. Please </em><a href="https://www.insider.com/insider-today"><em>sign up here</em></a><em>.</em></p><p><em>Please take a moment to complete the </em><a href="https://insidertoday.questionpro.com/"><em>following three-minute survey</em></a><em> so we can continue to improve this email and give you "Insider in your inbox."</em></p><h2><strong>QUOTE OF THE DAY</strong></h2><p>"I should not have been there." — Gen. Mark Milley, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/milley-says-should-not-have-participated-in-trump-photo-op-2020-6">apologized for accompanying President Trump</a> during his Lafayette Park photo-op last week, saying it "created a perception of the military involved in domestic <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword>."</p><h2><strong>WHAT'S HAPPENING</strong></h2><ul><li><strong>Stocks are plunging.</strong> Investors might be waking up to the fact that the pandemic's not over and the economic recovery will take a while. (Like, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stocks-market-news-drop-after-fed-predicts-bleak-future-jobs-2020-6-1029299798">years</a>).</li><li><strong>The Wing CEO Audrey Gelman stepped down.</strong> The cofounder of the women's social club, which provides networking and coworking spaces, announced her resignation after former employees criticized the companies culture as toxic for workers of colors and current employees <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexNoelleCov/status/1271096740301672459">staged a digital walkout</a>.</li><li><strong>VP Pence </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pence-deletes-tweet-trump-campaign-staffers-violating-social-distancing-order-2020-6"><strong>deleted a tweet</strong></a> showing himself speaking to campaign staff crammed together in a confined room with no distancing or masks. What is it with GOP <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> denial? Scroll down and weigh in on our "Question of the day."</li><li><strong>The government <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/government-stored-rifles-pistols-washington-dc-george-floyd-protests-2020-6">reportedly stashed </a></strong>"tens of thousands of rifle and pistol rounds" to be used against protests "in case of emergency." <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/us/politics/national-guard-protests.html">The New York Times</a> reported that the aggressive reponse to the protests by the <keyword id="367961" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="national-guard">National Guard</keyword>, pushed by Trump's heavy hand, has prompted a review of the "debacle."</li></ul><h2><strong>BLODGET &amp; PLOTZ</strong></h2><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>The pandemic isn't over — and in some states it's now getting worse.</strong>  Everyone is sick of the coronavirus and wants it to be over, but... confirmed infections are now growing again in many states, even adjusting for increased testing, and about 750 Americans are still dying of COVID every day. </p><p>The early hotspots of New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are under control, at least temporarily. But as the excellent and free<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html"> coronavirus data pages from the New York Times </a>show, confirmed cases are now increasing again in 21 US states, including some big ones: California, Texas, and Florida. A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-us-worst-fighting-outbreak-leaked-cdc-document-yahoo-2020-6">leaked CDC document</a> suggests the US is doing the worst job fighting <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> of 10 countries with current outbreaks — including Brazil, Russia, and Iran. </p><p>Optimists dismiss this concern, suggesting that, among other things, new infections represent a small percentage of the population and are often geographically isolated.</p><p>The trouble with this logic is that when people aren't taking precautions, infections spread. As one epidemiologist memorably put it, <strong>you can't have a <a href="https://twitter.com/statnews/status/1255799084683845637?lang=en">"peeing section" in a swimming pool</a>.</strong> </p><p>Back in January, after all, there was only one case in the country. Then there were only a few. But now, five months later, we've had more than 2 million cases and over 115,000 Americans are dead.</p><p><strong>The irony is… based on what we now know, simple mask-wearing and distancing would likely do the trick.  </strong>The more we learn about the virus, the more we can target our prevention measures. And the more we can target our prevention measures, the more we can go back to living our normal lives.</p><p>We now know that the coronavirus spreads most easily in crowded, confined indoor spaces in which people spend sustained time around infected people who are talking or singing.</p><p>Outdoor activities are much less risky. Indoor activities with masks and distancing are less risky. Brief encounters (less than 10 minutes) with infected people are less risky. </p><p>Masks help stop "respiratory droplets" that might spread the virus from getting into the air. Simple distancing, meanwhile, helps stop respiratory droplets from reaching others in high enough concentration to make them sick.  </p><p>As <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.2020.0376">another study</a> concluded this week, "facemask use by the public could significantly reduce the rate of COVID-19 spread, prevent further disease waves and allow less stringent lock-down regimes." </p><p>In other words, if we just wore masks in crowded indoor spaces and maintained distancing whenever possible, we could probably control the coronavirus. </p><p>Alas… <em>— HB</em></p><h2><strong>TAKE OF THE DAY</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="defund the police" height="3000" width="6000" msid="76329011" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p><strong>Defund the Police? We can't afford not to!</strong> </p><p>Cities and states will likely soon slash law enforcement budgets because they have to, whether or not they want to. As the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/how-mitch-mcconnell-defunding-police/612856/">Atlantic's Peter Beinart</a> and <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/gop-may-defund-the-police-with-pandemic-budget-cuts.html">New York Magazine's Ed Kilgore</a> write, pandemic-induced budget crises are ravaging local governments. Absent massive federal intervention, they'll need to slash budgets. </p><p>The Floyd protests have made police departments an obvious target. The Defund the Police movement has arrived at a moment when local governments don't have money to maintain police budgets anyway. Big-city mayors across the country have already announced disproportionate cuts to police funding. Expect a lot more of that as the fiscal crisis deepens. </p><p>The irony, as Beinart notes, is that it's congressional Democrats who've sought to bail out local governments and Senate Republicans who've blocked rescue funds that could protect police departments. This is why there will almost certainly be another colossal stimulus package before the election. Democrats want to protect local governments. And Republicans want to do everything they can to juice the economy going into the election. But don't be surprised when Republicans try to earmark a lot of that federal aid for police departments, and Democrats oppose it. <em>— DP</em></p><h2><strong>QUESTION OF THE DAY</strong></h2><p><div type="image" title="Pence unmasked " height="850" width="1133" msid="76329016" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Yesterday, Vice President Pence posted a photo of himself speaking to staffers at the Trump campaign headquarters in Virginia. Shortly thereafter, <a href="https://twitter.com/DJJudd/status/1270895485642039296?s=20">observers pointed out</a> that the Pence group was 1) violating a Virginia law against such gatherings and 2) that no one in the picture was following the guidelines set forth by Pence's own coronavirus task force on wearing masks and social distancing. The picture was promptly deleted, as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pence-deletes-tweet-trump-campaign-staffers-violating-social-distancing-order-2020-6">Insider's Eliza Relman reports</a>.</p><p>But it leads to the question of the day:</p><p>Why do so many Republicans resist wearing masks, even in the crowded, confined indoor spaces in which the coronavirus is known to most easily spread?</p><p>Is it because of peer-pressure from mask-hating President Trump?</p><p>Is it because Republicans tend to reject opinions put forth by scientists and other experts and still don't take the coronavirus seriously?</p><p>Is it because Republicans "don't like the government telling us what to do," even when the government's advice makes sense?</p><p>Is it because the same psychological traits that make people receptive to a GOP worldview also make them inclined to refuse to wear masks?</p><p>All of the above? Something else?  Please email us and let us know what you think. <em>— HB</em></p><h2><strong>OTHER <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">NEWS</keyword></strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="John Bolton" height="755" width="1510" msid="76329019" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p><strong>Want to make John Bolton's book disappear? Let him publish it as is. </strong></p><p>The White House is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bolton-plans-to-move-forward-with-book-despite-new-white-house-warning-that-it-contains-classified-material/2020/06/10/8c52ef30-ab4b-11ea-9063-e69bd6520940_story.html">warning John Bolton</a> that the manuscript of his book <em>The Room Where It Happened </em>reveals state secrets and can't be published as is. The former National Security Advisor insists the manuscript is safe and vows to barrel ahead with his June 19 publication date. </p><p>What a showdown, right? </p><p>Or maybe not. Simon &amp; Schuster printed the book already and sent it to warehouses.  Reporters certainly already have advance copies of it. Whatever "secrets" Bolton is revealing — and they're probably just scathing anecdotes about the president's ignorance and his administration's incompetence — they will be circulated in the media. Even if a judge ordered Simon &amp; Schuster to pulp the books — and the chance of that happening is essentially zilch — all the juice and dirt would still be spread widely. Probably even more widely, since the controversy would generate extra media coverage for Bolton. </p><p>Bolton, in other words, is longing to be suppressed, longing for Trump to attack him. </p><p>If Trump really wants to quash Bolton's book, he should call off his lawyers and just ignore it. How many people actually want to read a 592-page account of Trump's erratic foreign policy? <em>— DP</em></p><p><strong>What David Duke's rise can teach us about Trump's America</strong></p><p>If you want to understand how white nationalism and the Republican party ended up intertwined, listen to this <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/david-dukes-political-rise-started-in-forsyth-county.html">extraordinary new podcast series</a> from Slate telling the story of the rise of David Duke, the KKK Grand Wizard and Nazi-sympathizer who nearly was elected US Senator and Louisiana governor in the early 1990s.  <em>—DP</em></p><h2><strong>BUSINESS &amp; ECONOMY</strong></h2><p><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/"><strong>The stock market is, finally, plunging.</strong></a> By mid-day, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 5%, over 1,300 points, and the S&amp;P 500 and NASDAQ were getting hammered, too. Why? One theory is that investors are finally waking up to the fact that the pandemic isn't over (see above). Fed Chairman Jerome Powell also may have helped crack the spell when he pointed out that the economy is still troubled and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stocks-market-news-drop-after-fed-predicts-bleak-future-jobs-2020-6-1029299798">lost jobs may take many years to return</a>. Then there's the fact that many (most?) experts have long viewed the market's recent ballistic rise as nuts, which it may well turn out to have been. </p><p><a href="https://markets.jpmorgan.com/research/open/latest/publication/9002054"><strong>Speaking of the economy, here are some cool charts from J.P. Morgan on the consumer spending recovery…</strong></a> Overall, consumer spending—as measured here by the year-over-year change in credit and debit card payments—has recovered from down about 40% at the end of March to now down about 18%. But the rate of recovery seems to be flattening.</p><p><div type="image" title="Screen Shot 2020 06 11 at 7.34.39 AM" height="840" width="1196" msid="76329020" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Here's spending by type of store. Supermarkets and discount stores are still doing well. Healthcare and pharmacies are approaching normal levels. Restaurants are still getting hammered.</p><p><div type="image" title="Screen Shot 2020 06 11 at 7.32.55 AM" height="822" width="1280" msid="76329022" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Travel is still getting demolished:</p><p><div type="image" title="JP Morgan Chase spending travel" height="820" width="1212" msid="76329026" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Spending patterns are similar in most states, regardless of lockdown policies and political leanings:</p><p><div type="image" title="Screen Shot 2020 06 11 at 7.33.24 AM" height="826" width="1202" msid="76329029" hostid="261"></div></p><p>And… for those who still believe the economic impact of the coronavirus was the result of "government lockdowns" instead of people's fear of getting sick, note the (minimal) difference between states that are still locked down, states that reopened early, and states that never locked down at all:</p><p><div type="image" title="JP morgan spending by stay at home status" height="726" width="1194" msid="76329032" hostid="261"></div></p><p><em>— HB</em></p><h2><strong>LIFE</strong></h2><p><strong>The Red Sox finally acknowledge Fenway Park's racism. </strong></p><p>For too long, major sports have accepted the hideous behavior of some fans, brushing fan racism off as merely excessive enthusiasm. So it's encouraging that the George Floyd movement may finally quash overt racism at spectator sports. </p><p>It's an open secret, for example, that Black baseball fans and players feel unwelcome at Boston's Fenway Park: Last night, responding to <a href="https://twitter.com/RedSox/status/1270829983922098178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1270829983922098178&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fsports%2F2020%2F06%2F11%2Fred-sox-acknowledge-racism-fenway-park-is-real-promise-action%2Fn%2F">complaints by the former player Torii Hunter</a>,  the <a href="https://twitter.com/RedSox/status/1270829983922098178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1270829983922098178&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fsports%2F2020%2F06%2F11%2Fred-sox-acknowledge-racism-fenway-park-is-real-promise-action%2Fn%2F">Red Sox acknowledged</a> that Fenway racism "is real" and promised to fight it. </p><p>Black fans also avoid NASCAR, which currently has only one Black driver, in part because spectators openly display Confederate flags. <a href="https://www.insider.com/nascar-bans-confederate-flag-from-races-latest-racial-equality-effort-2020-6#:~:text=NASCAR%20bans%20the%20Confederate%20flag,racial%20equality%20and%20social%20justice&amp;text=A%20ghost.&amp;text=In%20an%20unprecedented%20move%2C%20NASCAR,from%20all%20of%20its%20races.20races.">NASCAR banned Confederate flags yesterday.</a> NFL and NBA players will be kneeling for Black Lives Matter when their games resume, and they'll finally be supported by their leagues and owners. </p><p>This is a good start! </p><p>But there's a ton more to do: Racist fans mar European soccer matches by insulting Black players and hurling bananas at them. Soccer needs a zero tolerance policy that ends and forfeits games when fans misbehave. In this country, sports with overwhelmingly white fan bases such as hockey and golf need to make more sincere efforts to welcome Black fans and nurture Black competitors. <em>— DP</em></p><h2><strong>THE BIG 3*</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="Shannon Soine small house" height="900" width="1200" msid="76329037" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-will-host-first-post-covid-rally-tulsa-juneteenth-2020-6"><strong>Trump will host his first post-Covid rally in Tulsa on June 19. </strong></a>That's Juneteenth, and at the site of the worst race massacre in American history. It is also likely to feature no social distancing, and no required masking. </p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-places-to-live-in-america-ranked-2020-6"><strong>The 30 best cities to live in after the pandemic.</strong></a> Insider used 9 different metrics--including the percentage of jobs that could be done from home--to make the list. Lots of alluring cities in the Midwest and Great Plains. </p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/couple-lives-in-tiny-home-with-infant-and-two-dogs-2020-6"><strong>How this couple lives in a 210-sq-ft house on wheels.</strong></a> With their baby. And two dogs. </p><p><em>*The most popular stories on Insider today.</em></p>

Stocks tank as pandemic fears return

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Hilary Brueck/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">Nick Letourneau developed a button-sized test that checks for roofies and other benzodiazepines in drinks.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>A new button-sized drug-testing kit can identify common date-rape drugs in drinks. </strong></li><li><strong>The test is sold by Undercover Colors, a company that tried to bring a drug-testing nail polish to market four years ago.</strong></li><li><strong>The kits retail for $5-7 online.</strong></li></ul><p> </p><p>In 2014, four male college students at North Carolina State University came up with an unusual plan to combat drug-facilitated sexual assaults on campus: drug-detecting nail polish.</p><p>They founded a startup called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cindy-whitehead-pink-ceiling-2016-10">Undercover Colors</a>, and the bold idea quickly lit up the internet. Shark Tank investor <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/techflash/2014/08/mark-cuban-on-nail-polish-being-developed-raleigh.html">Mark Cuban</a> called it "brilliant," while feminist author Jessica Valenti wondered in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/26/anti-rape-nail-polish-stop-rapists">a Guardian headline</a>, "Why is it easier to invent anti-rape nail polish than find a way to stop rapists?"</p><p>But four years and <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/undercover-colors#section-overview">$8.2 million</a> in investor funding later, we're no closer to a nail polish drug test.</p><p>Instead, Undercover Colors is launching a drug test based on the technology used in pregnancy pee strips. </p><p>Users can dabble a bit of a drink onto the button-sized test, and within about 30 seconds, you'll see either one or two little pink lines that reveal whether the liquid has been contaminated with any benzodiazepine drugs. Each test costs $5 to $7 (depending on how many you buy at a time).</p><p>The class of drugs the test looks for includes Xanax, Valium, Lenapain, and Rohypnol, which are some of the most common date-rape drugs, or roofies, in use according to the <a href="https://www.womenshealth.gov/a-z-topics/date-rape-drugs">US Department of Health and Human Services</a>.</p><p>"They can cause amnesia without necessarily making you pass out or fall asleep, but they can also sedate you to the point of, basically, incapacitated," Undercover Colors biochemist Nick Letourneau told Business Insider during a demonstration of his new test. "A lot of these are prescribed for things like anti-anxiety and insomnia, so that, combined with alcohol, makes a particularly dangerous combination."</p><h2>A drug test that fits on a keychain</h2><p>The test has two lines on it: the first is a control line, which lets you know the test is working properly. If a second line appears, the drink is safe. But the absence of a second line means your drink has been drugged.</p><p>The concept used in the test is called <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4986465/">lateral flow</a>. It's a kind of obstacle course for liquids, and depending on how you set it up, the technique can test for anything from a hormone produced by placenta (in the case of pregnancy tests) to a date-rape drug.</p><p>In this version of the test, liquid droplets on the paper unlock a bunch of colored particles inside that begin to flow across the sticky strip. Benzodiazepine drugs, however, prevent the pink dye from sticking to the paper. So if the test strip doesn't fully turn colors, you'll know drugs may be at work.</p><p>To avoid confusion about how to read the results, the test offers a reminder about how to read the lines - the spot where the first line appears is labeled "bad" and the second line is labeled "good."</p><p>The drink tested in this photo, for example, is contaminated:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Hilary Brueck/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">My drink had an anti-anxiety drug in it, and the test picked it up.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Undercover Colors says its testing has shown the product is 99% reliable. And when it fails, it gives false positives. </p><p>"We've tested 8,000 medallions, and haven't had a false negative," Letourneau said. "Meaning, we always detect the drug, when it's there."</p><p>The product launched Thursday and is available on the <a href="https://www.undercovercolors.com/">Undercover Colors website</a>, where five tests cost $35, and 10 cost $50.</p><h2>I tried the test out with some tequila, but I'm not sure it will really prevent rape</h2><p>Before the test hit the market, I met up with Letourneau to try out the test. He brought tequila and drugs, and we prepared two cocktails: one just had a shot of Jose Cuervo, while the other had tequila that was laced with diazepam, which you may know by its brand name, Valium. Sure enough, the test of the drugged drink only had one line, not two. </p><p>But because the test is tiny and bar lighting can be dim, it might be tough to know for sure whether you're seeing just one line or two in a social setting.</p><p>I was also dubious whether people would really pay $5 to $7 per test, but Undercover Colors CEO Barbara Cook assured me that in focus groups, parents of college students were eager to buy the new medallions for their kids.</p><p>Even so, people have to remember to carry a test around with them and use it in the right moments. The medallions come with carrying cases that you can slip onto the back of a smartphone or add discreetly to a keychain, but it still seems like a lot of extra steps and cost to ensure your drink isn't drugged. Using the test regularly is a total <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-quit-drinking-stop-bad-habits-psychologist-simple-trick-2018-1">habit shift</a> - something humans aren't always so good at. </p><p>"We do know we're breaking ground here," Cook told me. "This is not culturally how we currently behave."</p><h2>A serious problem in need of a larger solution</h2><p>At least <a href="https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh25-1/43-51.htm">one in four women in the US</a> have experienced sexual assault, according to "conservative estimates" from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).</p><p><span>Around a third of perpetrators use drugs and/or alcohol to commit rape, according to<a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/183781.pdf"> statistics</a> compiled by the US Department of Justice in 2000. But it's hard to know how many cases involve drugs like benzodiazepines because most people don't test their drinks. </span></p><p><span>A </span><a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/221153.pdf">US campus sexual assault survey</a> of 6,800 undergraduates in 2007 found that 13.7% reported they'd been victims of at least one sexual assault since they started college, but just 0.6% were certain they'd been the victim of a drug-facilitated sexual assault. A <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090302090136.htm">2009 report</a> in the Canadian Medical Association Journal surveyed 882 women in seven sexual assault treatment centers, and found that more than 20% reported a drug-facilitated sexual assault. </p><p><span>Alcohol, on the other hand, is known to be a major accessory to rape: the NIH says roughly <a href="https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh25-1/43-51.htm">half of all sexual assaults</a> involve alcohol. Drinking can exacerbate an already bad situation, hamper motor control, and increase impulsivity, which can lead to violence. </span></p><p>A test for drugs in drinks isn't going to singlehandedly solve America's rape problem. Plus, as many critics have pointed out, it shouldn't really be the victim's responsibility to ensure every person around them at a bar or a party isn't a creep.</p><p>But the new lateral-flow test may help some people stay safe, and it could have other possible uses, too.</p><p>The test could be used for any kind of liquid, from water, to blood, sweat, and urine. So a different version of the kit might some day be able to answer questions like: Is this tap water safe to drink? Is my blood healthy? Is this <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24896193">tomato contaminated with salmonella</a>? </p><p>Letourneau said those could all be future ways the company could expand if the tiny tech takes off. </p><p>"Our overall mission is having an impact on society," he said. "Honestly, there's a lot of different ways we could go."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/side-effects-brain-body-drugs-adderall-recreationally-adhd-pill-2017-2">What happens to your brain and body if you use Adderall recreationally</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

This $5 kit can test your drink and tell if its been roofied within 30 seconds

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vfsdigitaldesign/5396075989/">Flickr/VFS Digital Design</a></span></p><p class="caption">Early startup employees sometimes have roles that are  largely out-of-sight and out-of-mind.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Sahil Lavingia was the no. 2 employee at Pinterest and is the founder and CEO of Gumroad, an all-in-one e-commerce solution for creators.</strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>He recently Tweeted that being an early employee at a startup is almost always a terrible financial decision - and plenty of famous VCs, including Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, immediately disagreed with him on Twitter.</strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>In this op-ed, Lavingia defends his stance: There are plenty of great reasons to join a startup as an early employee, but if you're doing it for short-term financial reasons, you're probably not making a good move.</strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>He suggests that startups start referring to these early employees as "angel employees," to make it clear to the world that their important contributions are valued.</strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></strong></li></ul><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Startupland has three essential components: people who start companies, people who work at those companies, and investors. Without all three, the system breaks. Without all three, there's no Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Google, or Netflix.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The stories of founders and investors as well-known and well-told. If you've seen "The Social Network" (2010), you're familiar with the roles that startup founders and venture capital investors play in the formation of a startup. The latter group has taken such a profound, selfless risk, according to our collective mythology, that we refer to them as "angel investors."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And if you've paid attention to headlines and IPO S-1s, you'll know that many of them have become billionaires several times over. Yet, as our media and zeitgeist continue to fixate on founders and investors with things such as the Forbes "30 under 30" and "Midas List," the roles of early employees are largely out-of-sight and out-of-mind.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most importantly, while founders and investors become millionaires and billionaires, early employees rarely do. Simply put: Being an early employee at a startup is </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">almost</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> always a terrible financial decision, as I Tweeted several weeks ago:</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /><br /><br />A lot of famous VCs, including the founder of Y Combinator Paul Graham, came out in force against such an accusation:<br /><br /></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, I genuinely didn't mean to spark such a controversy. And if Twitter had an edit button, and I knew the traction the tweet would get within the venture community, I would have phrased it slightly differently, but my point stands: There are non-financial reasons to join a startup as an early employee. Those reasons can be great ones. But if you're joining a startup for short-term financial reasons, like massive financial upside on the value of your stock options, you're probably not making a good move.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And while several VCs (all of whom I massively respect) disagreed with me publicly, no one argued with my second tweet, which discloses the numbers:<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Plus, a lot of former </span>early<span style="font-weight: 400;"> employees of successful startups sent me messages agreeing privately. So, while I started my company, Gumroad, in 2011, I don't think much has changed on this front from then until now. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let's do the math. You join a startup worth $10M as employee #8, it sells for $250M. Not a terrible exit by any means. You may stand to make around $250M x .2% x 50% (for dilution). That's $250,000, over the course of at least four years.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There's a very solid chance you'd make a lot more money working at Google, Facebook, or a later-stage startup. And remember, these calculations are based on being pretty darn early at a pretty darn successful startup - one that would make the founders rich and famous, and the investors almost as much so.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I'm not saying you shouldn't become an early employee. Quite the opposite: I was the second employee of Pinterest, and if my stock had vested, I would have made about $40M in the recent IPO. (That's before taxes, paying for the exercise, and more - so let's say $20M to be safe).</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But I didn't join Pinterest for the atomic financial upside. I joined because I got to work with amazing people straight out of my freshman year of college. I accelerated my way to a great network. And because it ended up becoming quite a rocketship, I acquired a halo which makes my life easier to this day.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Starting my own company, and raising over $10M from a top-tier list of Silicon Valley investors such as Accel Partners, KPCB, First Round, Lowercase Capital, SV Angel, Max Levchin, Naval Ravikant, and more - was made possible because of it.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Courtesy of Sahil Lavingia</span></p><p class="caption">Sahil Lavingia.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">My whole career exists because I was #2 at Pinterest, but that doesn't change the fact that financially, almost every sub-10 employee doesn't do better than they would if they just worked at Google or Facebook.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And what if Pinterest didn't work out? I would have dropped out of school to work at a failure (would people blame me?). Would I have easily recovered? I'm not so sure.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But I will not advise anyone to avoid risks. Risks work. They pay off. And certainly, everyone that becomes interesting enough to read about took those risks.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But the table stakes are not clear enough. Early employees often do not know what they are getting themselves into. I certainly didn't. And without employees making things work, Startupland would be a graveyard.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, I think we can do a few things. We can educate our early startup employees, like I have tried to do - regardless of the occasional pushback from prominent investors. And we can give them more reasons to come onboard. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We call "angel investors" as such because they take massive risks. But investors have far more optionality, and can diversify their portfolios, in a way that employees cannot. So, what if we started calling our early startup employees "angel employees?"</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Can we make it clear that we value the contributions of this important, special group of people - to ourselves within Startupland and to the world outside of it?</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I hope so. Because it's making less and less sense to be an early employee. And I don't want to wake up one day with a world of company-starters and company-funders -  but no company-builders.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And I don't even want to imagine what that world would look like.</span></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-when-hold-in-your-pee-too-long-2018-6">If you're going to see the 3-hour-long 'Avengers: Endgame,' plan your bathroom break wisely. Here's what can happen if you hold your pee too long.</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Pinterest's 2nd employee ever explains why becoming an early startup employee is a 'terrible' idea if you want to get rich

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Nuke-Repository-Settlement/99723aaac9ca418b84df0b6a11810248/30/0">Associated Press</a></span></p><p class="caption">A worker drives a cart through a tunnel inside the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant No. 2, 150 feet below the surface near Carlsbad, New Mexico.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>A typo and a bag of organic kitty litter may end up costing United States taxpayers more than $2 billion in nuclear waste cleanup, according to <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-new-mexico-nuclear-dump-20160819-snap-story.html">a new report by Ralph Vartabedian at the Los Angeles Times</a>.</p><p>Back in February 2014, a drum of nuclear waste burst open inside the cavernous <a href="http://www.wipp.energy.gov/wipprecovery/recovery.html">Waste Isolation Pilot Project</a> (WIPP), which is drilled out of a salt deposit nearly half a mile below the deserts of Carlsbad, New Mexico.</p><p>The US Department of Energy (DOE), which funds the company that runs the nuclear waste dump, quickly suspended operations and launched an investigation to figure out the cause.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.wipp.energy.gov/wipprecovery/photo_video.html">DOE/WIPP</a></span></p><p class="caption">Drum 68660, which burst in WIPP nuclear waste dump.</p></div><p></p></div></div>In their <a href="http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/03/f20/MARCH%202015%20-%20FINAL%20TECHNICAL%20ASSESSMENT%20TEAM%20REPORT.pdf">277-page report</a>, investigators determined the blast vaporized nearly 7.5 lbs of the material inside a single barrel, labeled "<a href="http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/03/f20/TAT_Fact_sheet%2032615%20FINAL.pdf">Drum 68660</a>." That material included some radioactive isotopes of americium, plutonium, and uranium - byproducts of Cold War-era nuclear weapons production.</p><p>Although no one was inside WIPP when the drum burst, the facility's air ventilation system spread some of the gases outside, exposing 21 workers to low doses of radiation.</p><p>Investigators also discovered the trigger of the "thermal runaway event," also known as an "explosion": <strong>a dangerous combination of nitric acid and salts, triethanolamine, and <a href="http://www.swheatscoop.com/">"sWheat Scoop" organic kitty litter</a></strong>. (The DOE mentions the brand almost 400 times in its report.)</p><p>The cleanup itself will cost hundreds of millions, but that's not where the mishap's ledger ends.</p><h2>A radioactive kitty litter 'bomb'</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>DOE/WIPP</span></p><p class="caption">Workers wrap up drums of nuclear waste.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The "organic" part of the kitty litter in question is crucial.</p><p>That's because wheat, which makes up the pee-absorbing bulk of <em>organic</em> kitty litter, contains plant cellulose that can burn. Standard kitty litter, meanwhile, is <em>in</em>organic, since it's primarily made of clay.</p><p>So when drum-packing workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) followed instructions to add an organic variety to soak up radioactive fluids, they were unknowingly packing up what Sarah Zhang at Gizmodo called "<a href="http://gizmodo.com/how-a-simple-typo-may-have-turned-a-drum-of-radioactive-1662683094/1694070960">the ingredients of a bomb</a>."</p><p>Why did they use fancy organic kitty litter instead of plain old clay kitty litter?</p><p>According to <a href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/special_reports/from_lanl_to_leak/lanl-officials-downplayed-waste-s-dangers-even-after-leak/article_54d7f3d2-8c99-5793-8c17-c4bdb0b72ef1.html">a Nov. 2014 story by Patrick Malone at the Sante Fe New Mexican</a>, which we first learned about in Gizmodo's detailing of events, it was likely the most common and mundane of human errors - a typo:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Even before the waste was treated at Los Alamos, mistakes had been made that could have been instrumental in causing the accident at WIPP. Emails between WIPP contractors involved in the leak investigation indicate that <strong>something as simple as a typographical error in a revision of LANL's procedural manual for processing waste containing nitrate salts may have precipitated a switch from inorganic clay kitty litter to the organic variety</strong>."</p><p>A <a href="http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/10/f18/DOE-IG-0922.pdf">Sept. 2014 report released by the DOE</a> appears to back this up, stating "handwritten notes that called for an organic absorbent to process nitrate salt drums were improperly relied upon to revise the Procedure".</p><h2>Expanding cleanup costs</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.wipp.energy.gov/wipprecovery/photo_video.html">DOE/WIPP</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Whether handwritten or typed, that error is going to be costly.</p><p>According to <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-new-mexico-nuclear-dump-20160819-snap-story.html">Vartabedian at the LA Times</a>, the cleanup costs directly related to Drum 68660 will be about $640 million, per <a href="http://www.wipp.energy.gov/library/foia/NWP_M&amp;OContract/NWP_Mod_152.pdf">a July 2016 contract modification</a> with the Nuclear Waste Partnership (the company that runs WIPP for the DOE).</p><p>Further, he wrote, this "does not include the complete replacement of the contaminated ventilation system or any future costs of operating the mine longer than originally planned."</p><p>The DOE disputed that cost figure with Business Insider, saying direct cleanup costs will be about $244 million - not $640 million.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="DOE/WIPP" title_caption="A cutaway diagram of the WIPP facility." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/57bf7165b996ebef008b49d7-960/wipp-explosion-location-air-shafts.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.wipp.energy.gov/WIPPCommunityRelations/plan.html">DOE/WIPP</a></span></p><p class="caption">A cutaway diagram of the WIPP facility.</p></div><p></p></div></div>That extra $400 million, it says, comes from a new air ventilation system for WIPP, which may cost between $270 million and $400 million. But the DOE could not confirm by the time this post was published whether or not that (very expensive) project's approval had anything to do with the mishap.</p><p>Whatever the case, WIPP isn't entombing any nuclear waste while cleanup work continues - which means the US government's grand scheme to seal it all up has a major wrench in its gears.</p><p>The Times reports the facility may need 7 years of additional operation to handle the backup of waste. At $200 million per year, according to the Times' analysis, <strong>that could add up to $1.4 billion in extra costs triggered by the mishap</strong>.</p><p>The DOE did not immediately dispute that length of time, but said it anticipates WIPP could resume taking in new drums of waste sometime in 2017.</p><p>In the meantime, the DOE might also have to pay temporary storage and inspection costs for all of the waste that WIPP can't entomb until the cleanup work is finished. The DOE couldn't confirm or deny this, nor the cost.</p><p>"The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is critical to the Department of Energy's mission to cleanup nuclear waste generated by atomic energy activities," a DOE spokesperson told Business Insider in an email. "WIPP is the nation's only repository for the disposal of nuclear waste known as transuranic (TRU) waste. The Department is committed to the recovery, and resumption of TRU disposal operations at WIPP when it is safe to do so."</p><p>Business Insider has reached out to sWheat Scoop for comment and will update this post if we hear back.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/norwegian-reindeer-radioactive-from-chernobyl-2016-4">Reindeer are strangely radioactive 30 years after Chernobyl</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="04c3I0MzE6dzApUmGcjwihsdjq199QFo" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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