Latest news with #Zweig
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Edmonton Oilers: Stanley Cup win could be huge boost for Canadian morale — but not much else
The last time a Canadian hockey team won the Stanley Cup, the prime minister was Brian Mulroney. So an Edmonton Oilers win could be just the morale boost the country needs, especially amid continued threats of annexation as the "51st state" from U.S. President Donald Trump. The Oilers are on the brink of elimination in the Stanley Cup final against defending champs Florida Panthers. The Alberta team could bring the trophy back to its homeland, where it hasn't been hoisted since 1993 when the Montreal Canadiens won, if they win two consecutive games this week. The NHL has been dominated by American teams when it once was considered Canada's game. Hockey historian and author Eric Zweig told Yahoo Canada that past Stanley Cup wins were never considered too big of a deal for Canada because everyone just assumed that a Canadian team, or Canadian players at the very least, would win it. 'Everybody understood hockey was Canada's game,' he said. 'I don't think any individual Stanley Cup win set off national feelings of pride across the country.' Zweig said that Canadian teams were winning all the time then. Think of the Toronto Maple Leafs dynasty in the 1960s, or the Montreal Canadiens' reign in the 1970s. And if a Canadian team wasn't winning the Stanley Cup, Canadian players were. Zweig said up to 90 per cent of the players on American teams were Canadian throughout the 20th century. So when the Boston Bruins won in the 1970s, nobody said, 'Boston's stealing our game,' according to Zweig. Rather they agreed that Bobby Orr was the greatest player — and he was from Perry Sound, Ont. How times have changed. Canadian teams have faced a decades-long Stanley Cup drought, and threats of Canada becoming the '51st state' from Trump have only sharpened the national mood. Those developments mean a Stanley Cup win this season could spark feelings of national pride, Zweig said. Hockey has played a surprisingly big role in the current Canada-U.S. feud. Soon after Trump became president for a second time and began his talks of annexation, Canadians began booing the U.S. national anthem at NHL games. This caused Americans to boo the Canadian anthem in return, as well as a few fist fights between players. Zweig said the Four Nations Face-Off tournament in February was a big win for Canada to say 'take that Americans.' 'It used to be mostly just about Canadian hockey pride, like 'this is our game and our country and we're the best at hockey,'' he said. 'Now it's more of a, 'You can't have us.'' Carleton University political science professor Stephen Saideman told Yahoo Canada that a Stanley Cup win could be a boost to the Canadian psyche and reinforce pride and nationalism, seeing a surge at some of its highest levels in years due to Trump's tariffs and rhetoric. But he doesn't imagine a win will change Canada-U.S. relations at all. Anthem booing over the winter didn't register with Trump even though he is often quick to hit back against any perceived insult. Trump's shunning of hockey, even though his state of residence, Florida, is competing, likely means a Canadian Stanley Cup win won't mean much to him, according to Saideman. 'The Americans are not paying attention to hockey nor are they paying attention to Canada,' he said. 'It's really not going to change Americans attitudes towards Canada at all.' Americans are not paying attention to hockey nor are they paying attention to Canada. What will affect Canada's future more is the potential trade and security deal Canada and the U.S. are reportedly negotiating, Saideman said. If a Stanley Cup win won't bother the Americans, could it at least boost Canada's economy? According to Carleton University sports economics professor Moshe Lander, that won't be the case either. Although there are often reports of sports playoffs boosting spending on bars and restaurants, especially for the host city, Lander asserted that in the long run there is no noticeable economic boost as people are just directing their disposable income from one expenditure to another. 'At the end of the day there's no new jobs, your disposable income hasn't changed,' he said. 'It's just moving pieces around on the chess board.'
Business Mayor
22-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
AppOnBoard's Quvy simulates audiences for user acquisition testing
AppOnBoard is unveiling Quvy, a tool that enables AI to test user acquisition schemes on simulated audiences to speed up a game's audience growth. User acquisition (UA) is one of the biggest challenges in gaming today. Whether indie developers or major studios, teams are forced to spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to test ad creatives—often waiting weeks to identify what works with audiences. This process, reliant on traditional ad platforms and real-world A/B testing, has become a costly bottleneck, said Jonathan Zweig, CEO of AppOnBoard, in an interview with GamesBeat. AppOnboard, the company behind do-it-yourself game development platform Buildbox, is solving this with a breakthrough tool that uses simulated audiences to predict ad performance—delivering insights in minutes at a fraction of the cost—allowing gaming companies to grow their real audiences at lightning speed. The team addressed the major pain point for indie developers: high user acquisition (UA) costs. They developed a solution using AI to simulate audiences, reducing UA costs from $400,000 to $4,000, Zweig said. Here's a case study. 'The AI, developed over six months, predicts ad performance accurately, saving time and money,' Zweig said. 'The discussion also touches on the broader implications of synthetic data in AI, the challenges of eSports sustainability, and the impact of major game releases like Grand Theft Auto VI.' Jonathan Zweig is CEO of AppOnBoard, creator of Quvy. UA costs continue to climb. Acquiring a single paying user in mobile gaming can exceed $50. Creative testing now favors studios with massive budgets, leaving smaller developers behind. Quvy levels the playing field. It replaces expensive, slow A/B testing with fast, predictive simulations. Developers can now test thousands of creatives in minutes, launching only the top performers and saving both time and money. 'One of the biggest responses we got when we asked the community was about the biggest pain points for an indie developer, and overwhelmingly it was the cost of UA,' Zweig said. 'How do you compete with the big guys? Our CTO thought of this crazy idea, 'Why don't we simulate audiences to test ads to dramatically reduce UA costs?'' The company tried it and it's 'crazy effective,' Zweig said. Quvy can drastically reduces the cost of user acquisition via AI. Top gaming companies spend large sums of money testing ads before launch. With Quvy, they no longer have to. Simulated audiences allow for: Accelerated Testing Cycles – What took a week now takes minutes – What took a week now takes minutes Massive Cost Savings – Dramatically reduced ad testing costs – Dramatically reduced ad testing costs Smarter Creative Decisions – Quvy predicts winners before spending – Quvy predicts winners before spending No Guesswork – Validate thousands of variations affordably – Validate thousands of variations affordably Improved Resource Efficiency – Cost savings in man hours for tracking setup and data analysis – Cost savings in man hours for tracking setup and data analysis Higher Performing Campaigns – Resulting ads perform better and have higher campaign success rates – Resulting ads perform better and have higher campaign success rates Secure Testing Environment – Protect your unique ideas from being exposed to the public while gaining valuable actionable insights. – Protect your unique ideas from being exposed to the public while gaining valuable actionable insights. Maintaining a True Control Group – Keep your future audience and customers untapped while you find the best performing creative. The global digital ad market is projected to surpass $730 billion in 2025, with AI-powered marketing growing at 26.7% CAGR. Traditional A/B testing tools make up over $50 billion of that market. Quvy's focus—simulated audiences—is an emerging $20 billion to $30 billion category, growing at 30%+ annually. It's reshaping how developers validate creative ideas pre-launch. Read More Gearbox and Blackbird announce Homeworld 3 launches on March 8 Quvy can do tests for ads on thousands of simulated users. 'Discoverability shouldn't be limited to those with the biggest budgets,' said Zweig. 'We're proud to offer Quvy at affordable pricing so anyone can market their games and apps as effectively as the largest studios and companies in the world.' Whether you're launching your first game or managing a global UA budget, Quvy offers a smarter, faster, and more affordable way to win. 'By lowering the barrier to creative testing, we're helping developers compete based on quality and innovation—not just ad spend,' Zweig said. AppOnboard builds AI-first tools that empower creators. Its flagship product, Buildbox, enables anyone to create games and apps without coding. Quvy, its latest innovation, uses simulated audiences to predict creative performance before launch. Together, they form a unified ecosystem for building, testing, and scaling creative ideas. Quvy's results are matching that of real-world user acquisition tests. It usually takes an ad network about seven days to learn what works in terms of ads for gamers. With Quvy, it takes about three minutes, Zweig said. The company does this by testing the ads for acquiring users on synthetic people. It's a lot like how Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, talked at CES about testing robots on 'synthetic data.' A company would be lucky to test a self-driving car for a million miles, but it can't figure out all of the emergency situations that could arise when driving a car. But with synthetic data, the company can test the car for billions of miles in a virtual environment that simulates the real world. The same principle applies with synthetic data for user acquisition, Zweig said. Read More Who will compete with ChatGPT? Meet the contenders | The AI Beat 'They're synthetic people, but they have real emotions, real tastes, real judgment, real preferences,' he said. 'It's amazing. When we see an ad, what's going on in our brain is a lot different. And you can distill it into actual mathematics, which is then trainable for large data sets.' The company has run a bunch of ads on places like QVC and on Facebook to see if it can nail the best ads for those platforms. And it gets to the answer in a fraction of the time and cost of other methods. 'It's incredible what you can model with the right data,' he said. It's taken about six months to build Quvy, with a relatively small part of the AppOnBoard team. Meanwhile, Buildbox is still profitable, Zweig said.
New York Post
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
A collector's dream NYC pad 'sells in a day' for $9M cash
Alexander Zweig, an entrepreneur, collector and angel investor — and a son of the late Wall Street investor Martin Zweig — has found a buyer for his $9 million Tribeca loft, sources told Gimme Shelter exclusively. The all-cash deal is slated to close on Wednesday. 'It [found a buyer] in a day,' a source said of the 62 Beach St. aerie. The home's stylish aesthetic was inspired by the nearby Greenwich Hotel. Advertisement 15 The open living area features exposed brick and beamed ceilings. Richard Caplan 15 There's plenty of space for billiards. Richard Caplan 15 One of the home's two bedrooms. Richard Caplan Advertisement At more than 3,350 square feet, the two-bedroom, 2½-bathroom nest is a two-unit combo on the sixth floor. It has also served as a stage for Zweig's impressive memorabilia collection. That includes Charlie Sheen's helmet from 'Platoon,' Clint Eastwood's 'Dirty Harry' gun and Arnold Schwarzenegger's shotgun from 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day.' There's also John Belushi's driver's license, which is in one of the apartment's powder rooms, and memorabilia from the film 'Edward Scissorhands.' 15 Arnold Schwarzenegger with his shotgun from 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day.' Everett Collection / Everett Collection Advertisement 15 Clint Eastwood holding his handgun in 'Dirty Harry.' Courtesy Everett Collection The collection, which also includes sports memorabilia, art and photography including a black-and-white Kate Moss photo by Mario Testino — along with vintage typewriters, rare books and more — was not part of the sale, sources said. Zweig first purchased 6B in 2012 for $2.89 million, followed by 6C in 2013 for $3 million. A six-year renovation to combine the units followed. Advertisement 15 A gracious foyer inside the loft. Richard Caplan 15 The home is rife with stunning ceilings and memorabilia. Richard Caplan 15 The open chef's kitchen comes with a breakfast bar. Richard Caplan 'It's a really unique space and has some of the most insane pop-culture memorabilia inside — it's like a museum,' said Ryan Serhant of Netflix's 'Owning Manhattan,' who shared the listing with Greg Vladi, also of Serhant. Zweig inherited the collecting gene from his late father Martin, an investor who once predicted the 1987 stock market crash. The elder Zweig paid a then-record $21.5 million for the Pierre Hotel's penthouse in 1999. It was on the market for $125 million when he passed away in 2013, leaving his collection — including Marilyn Monroe's 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President' dress — to Alexander, his brother Zachary and his second wife Barbara. 15 The residence's hidden home office and bookshelf. Richard Caplan 15 The wet bar is a welcome addition to the play space. Richard Caplan Advertisement 15 Memorabilia inside includes the driver's license of the late John Belushi, seen perched next to the sink. Richard Caplan The Beach Street abode opens to a foyer with custom closets and a modern chandelier that leads to a great room with red-brick walls, exposed brick and tin ceilings. There's also an open living/dining area with a built-in wet bar and a chef's kitchen. Design details include three exposures, a pocket door that opens to a windowed home office with built-in storage, and 20 windows facing south and west for sunsets over the Hudson River. Advertisement 15 A stylish lounge. Richard Caplan 15 A cozy nook inside the Tribeca home. Richard Caplan 15 The unit's open dining area. Richard Caplan 15 Large couches fill this lounging room. Richard Caplan Advertisement The main bedroom comes with cove lighting, a walk-through closet and an ensuite spa-like bath. Both the bedroom and office open to a courtyard-facing balcony. The residence is in a former coffee, tea and spice warehouse, the Fischer Mills Building, which dates to 1860 and is now a full-service condo. The renovation was led by DHD Architecture & Interior Design's Jill Diamant, an architect, and Emilee Pearson, a designer.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
COVID school closures did lasting damage, new book finds
(NewsNation) — Five years after COVID-19 shut down schools nationwide, a new book argues the extended closures caused unnecessary harm to American students and were driven more by politics than science. In an interview on NewsNation's 'Vargas Reports,' author David Zweig discussed his book 'An Abundance of Caution,' which examines the lasting impact of school closures during the pandemic. 'Closing schools did not help anyone. It only harmed kids,' Zweig said Monday. 'The evidence was clear before the pandemic; lots of academic literature explained why this would be the case.' Trump admin. will defend FDA against abortion pill lawsuit Zweig highlighted that 22 European countries reopened schools in April and May 2020, months before most American schools resumed in-person learning. He said this evidence was 'ignored or dismissed by our public health authorities and largely by the legacy media.' The author cited an example of what he calls politically-motivated decision-making: when the American Academy of Pediatrics reversed its guidance supporting school reopenings shortly after then-President Donald Trump posted on social media advocating for schools to reopen. 'There was nothing that changed epidemiologically in that span of time for them to change the rules,' Zweig said. 'It happened immediately after Trump's tweet.' Marjorie Taylor Greene: I'll win Georgia governor or Senate seat The book details various harms to children beyond academic setbacks, including increased child abuse cases that went unreported due to children being isolated from teachers who often identify and report abuse. Zweig also discussed the impacts on extracurricular activities that provide crucial opportunities for disadvantaged students. Zweig said medical professionals privately expressed concerns about school closures to him but feared speaking publicly against CDC guidance. 'I approach this topic apolitically. I've written for The New York Times,' Zweig said. 'I am not a right-wing ideologue by any stretch.' Studies now show American students suffered significant academic and emotional setbacks during the extended school closures compared to countries that reopened education systems earlier. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Epoch Times
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
The Barbarity of the School Closures
Commentary Another book on COVID? Yes, but the author David Zweig has written one for the ages, a definitive account of the school closures from March 2020 through the following year and extending in many places. It's called ' This policy affected everyone without exception. We are going to live with its devastating consequences for the remainder of our lives. It's already here among the under-30 population, in the form of ill-health, illiteracy, innumeracy, digital addiction, substance abuse, emotional immaturity, psychmed attachments that ruin lives, astonishing intellectual superficiality, deep and dark cynicism, and philosophical nihilism. Does it seem like we should know something about how this happened? Why did this happen? You might think so but the subject is not really part of public debate. The legacy media ignores it. It's also hard to discuss with friends, family, and neighbors because most people supported it at the time. This is why this book—I seriously doubt a better one will come along—is so crucial. The research is in depth. It is brilliantly written. It examines every facet of the policy, from its origins, its fake science, its implementation, and why it continued on as long as it did. Every page has a shocker. As much as I knew, and as much as I opposed what was unfolding from the start, this one really rattled me. The cruelty. The disregard of evidence. The sheer barbarity of it all. Related Stories 4/25/2025 4/24/2025 I've long followed Zweig's work as a journalist. His craft begins with intense curiosity and a special focus on features of the social and economic world others overlook. We long shared an interest in structural issues of work life. He has already written a great book on what he calls the 'invisibles,' workers who make everything in society function but seek neither fame nor fortune. I met him in person for the first time during the height of lockdown, in October 2020 because he was one of only a few journalists who answered a call I put out to meet three famed epidemiologists to speak about the policies that had gripped the world. The subject was the lockdowns, closures, and crazy rules about distancing to separate every person from every other. He asked excellent questions at that event (he was brave to defy the conventions by even showing up!). The result of that experience became the The story is important to underscore the point. Zweig is not just a laptop journalist. At a time when so many others were hunkered down, hiding from the invisible enemy, he dared to get out, investigate, and learn. It's hard to recreate those strange times from just five years ago, but these were days in which people were practically bathing in sanitizer and looked upon their fellow man as disease vectors. Not Zweig. His passion for the truth motivated him to dig deeper than most others. He said at the time that he was thinking about writing a book about the unfolding disaster. There are so many features of the pandemic response that merit discussion. Oddly, comparatively little attention has been paid to the school closures and the imposed regime of online learning. Industry loved it but families and taxpayers not so much. I would rather you pick up the book than trust my summary. Still, one has to summarize. He observes that not just one factor caused the prolonged wreckage. It was a combination: bad science, bad information, awful media messaging, political hysteria, labor union power, a disregard for the well-being of kids, no exit plan, and general bureaucratic scoliosis that prevented adaptation to new evidence. The power of the book is the narrative evidence. There are so many shocking facts, such as how scientific forecasters living on government money were consistently outdone and outsmarted by private-sector programmers and management consultants. He further scrubs off the veneer of a vast amount of claims from academic journals and presumptions of the expert class. You cannot finish this book with a shred of respect for what's called Public Health. It is not only misnamed; it is antonymously named. What effect has this had on the culture of education? It has fed a dark loathing that is just under the surface. The public schools in this country are backed by a kind of social contract. We pay taxes, mostly property taxes. Those with kids in school think of these as a fee for service, a forced tuition for the use of the schools. Everyone else is told that good schools are essential for great communities, so it is in their interest to pay also. Vast amounts of community life revolve around them. In mid-March 2020, the unthinkable happened. Local officials all over the country suddenly shut them down. The excuse: an 'abundance of caution.' The kids were never in danger themselves but they were suddenly regarded as disease vectors. If we were going to stop the spread, we had to keep the kids away from each other. It's in the interest of those who were actually vulnerable. Thus were the interests of the kids sacrificed for the interest of the aged and infirm. In theory. In reality, there was never a shred of evidence that school closures stopped any transmission and lowered any death rates. European schools opened quickly. Most schools in the world did too. Very early on, all these governments and their health departments were reporting no deleterious consequences from the decision. The data was all there: opening schools did nothing to increase the dangers of the disease to the public. In the United States, it was different. The international research was not reported by mainstream media. It was wholly ignored. The closures went on and on, even as fatalities plunged and the virus mutated again and again to less virulent strains. An ethos had grabbed hold in which those who pushed for opening were seen as Trump-aligned; even the closures had begun during the last year of his first term. As a means of social and political signaling, all elite circles rallied around keeping the kids spinning in despair at home, staring at laptops, and pretending to learn with online assignments. They were given fake grades while being forcibly prevented from in-person activities and socializing. Homeschooling went from a legally suspicious practice to one that became mandatory overnight, much to the astonishment of people who had pushed for this for decades. But the impact on home life was devastating. Moms and dads left work and became tutors while also trying to keep their kids up on schoolwork and otherwise keep them entertained. It was all impossible, so of course parents acquiesced to allowing more screen time that they had previously discouraged. The online classes required the use of video sites that had been previously restricted. The result was intellectual and moral corruption, and the full waste of one or maybe two years of precious time in the lives of millions. Even after having read Zweig's definitive account, I'm still left with a sense of astonishment that this ever happened, and retain some sense of puzzlement about it all. The public schools in this country, as shabby as many of them have been for a long time, have been the pride and crowned jewel of Progressivism for longer than a century. One might have supposed that the people who are progressively aligned would defend them no matter what, and certainly not permit them to be closed for a year and longer. I knew at the time that disaster would result. More than that, I knew that change would come to the entire sector. Here we are today and the Department of Education is eviscerated, homeschooling is ubiquitous, private schooling has never been more popular, and states are considering completely eliminating the funding source of public schooling, namely property taxes. There it is: the blowback. Still no refunds on taxes and tuition and precious few apologies but at least we see some change of direction. The damage simply cannot be undone. Look around today at young people and you know it. There is vast amounts of work that the remaining adults in the room must do to reverse the calamitous edicts of the expert class that wrecked life and education for an entire generation of kids. Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
