Tom Lehrer, the popular song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and other universities, has died. He was 97.
Day: July 28, 2025
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- YouTube cofounder Steve Chen said he is wary of short-form video platforms like TikTok for children.
- Chen said he is worried about short videos affecting children’s attention spans.
- Sam Altman and Jonathan Haidt echoed concerns about social media’s impact on youth.
YouTube’s cofounder and former tech chief says he doesn’t want his kids to watch only short videos on platforms like TikTok, Reels, and Shorts.
“I don’t know if I want my kids to be watching like short-form content as their only way, and they can’t be able to watch something that’s more than 15 minutes in length,” said Steve Chen in a talk with Stanford Business School that was published on Friday.
“I think TikTok is entertainment, but it’s purely entertainment,” Chen, a father of two, said. “It’s just for that moment. Just shorter form content equates to shorter attention spans.”
Chen cofounded YouTube in 2005 with colleagues he met at PayPal. He served as chief technology officer before they sold the video platform to Google in 2006. The entrepreneur has since launched several other businesses and moved to Taiwan with his family in 2019.
During the talk, Chen said he knows parents who are forcing their children to watch long-form content and not showing them videos with vibrant colors and “addictive eyeballs” because these are known to get kids hooked.
Chen suggested that platforms restrict the amount of time the apps can be accessed on a daily basis, based on different age groups.
“There’s this delicate balance between what is going to get users’ eyes and what’s going to monetize more versus what is actually useful,” he said about short-form content platforms.
Chen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chen’s worries echo recent remarks from Sam Altman about social media.
On a podcast that aired last week, the OpenAI CEO — and new father — said he worries about the psychological impact social media platforms could have on children.
“I do have worries about kids in technology. I think this short video feed dopamine hit, it feels like it’s probably messing with kids’ brain development in a super deep way,” he said.
Academics are warning about children and scrolling, too.
Jonathan Haidt, a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, told BI in January that social media apps were “severely damaging children in the Western world.”
Haidt wrote “The Anxious Generation,” in which he argued that social media and smartphones shorten young people’s attention spans.
“The decimation of human attention around the world might even be a bigger cost to humanity than the mental health and mental illness epidemic,” Haidt said.
Read the original article on Business Insider
A government official in Uzbekistan has been dismissed following the circulation of a video showing him with a female subordinate sitting on his lap during an online meeting. The footage, which went viral on social media, prompted a public backlash, with the Ministry of Employment and Labor issuing a statement describing the incident as a “violation of the ethics of a civil servant.”
The dismissal of the head of the district department of employment and poverty reduction in Samarkand was confirmed by the ministry. The woman in the video, reportedly an assistant at the agency, has not been publicly named and is believed to have resigned voluntarily.
The incident has sparked a broader discussion about workplace conduct, gender dynamics, and women’s rights in Uzbekistan, where traditional norms continue to influence professional and personal life.
Gender and Power in the Uzbek Workplace
In recent years, Uzbekistan has made significant progress regarding the participation of women in public life. Women currently hold about 32 seats in the 150-member Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis (national parliament). However, their visibility in executive positions and technical fields remains limited.
In Uzbekistan, only 35.4 % of the population aged between 15–64 in the labor force are women, and they earn about 34 % less than men. The World Bank estimates that equal participation and wages could boost the country’s GDP by 29 % and lift over 700,000 people out of poverty.
The government has introduced various reforms aimed at improving gender equality, including protections against domestic violence, promoting women’s entrepreneurship, and gender budgeting initiatives. However, critics argue that these measures are often symbolic or inconsistently enforced.
Cultural Taboo and Social Media
The lap-sitting video has sparked a wave of internet commentary from both men and women in Uzbekistan, where public discussions of gender roles are often muted. Some saw the video as a clear example of workplace harassment and power imbalance, while others downplayed its significance or blamed the woman involved.
Observers argue that the case highlights deeper structural issues within Uzbek institutions, where entrenched gender hierarchies and informal power dynamics often go unchallenged. In many areas of public and private life, the country remains deeply patriarchal, and whilst public discourse around consent, professional boundaries, and gender equality is growing, it remains nascent.
A Moment for Change?
The government’s decisive response to the video may signal a growing awareness of public expectations and international scrutiny. For activists and reformers, the hope is that this moment can serve as more than a spectacle and lead to more conversations about power, professionalism, and the role of women in modern Uzbekistan.
As one widely shared comment on Telegram put it: “It’s not about the lap. It’s about who gets to sit at the table.”
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says there is a ‘very, very high’ chance Virginia-class subs will never arrive under Australian control
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The US cannot sell any Virginia-class nuclear submarines to Australia without doubling its production rate, because it is making too few for its own defence, the navy’s nominee for chief of operations has told Congress.
There are “no magic beans” to boosting the US’s sclerotic shipbuilding capacity, Admiral Daryl Caudle said in frank evidence before a Senate committee.