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NoneManuel Xyrakis thinks we should all go back to where we came from. Black Friday Sale Subscribe Now! Login or signup to continue reading All articles from our website The digital version of Today's Paper Breaking news alerts direct to your inbox All articles from the other regional websites in your area Continue Being from a migrant family, the co-owner of the family-run Ainslie IGA means it in the best possible way. But there were tears all around at the staff Christmas party, where he presented his longest-serving staff member with a thank-you gift: two plane tickets to Italy. The staff member in question, Dominic Mammoliti, has never returned to his home country since migrating here as a 13-year-old. But he and his wife will soon be taking a trip back to Calabria, in southern Italy, where their families are from. A man of few words, Mr Mammoliti said he felt "excited" to go home, but doesn't remember much from his childhood there. Ainslie IGA owner Manuel Xyrakis, left, has given his long-time staff member Dominic Mammoliti a trip back to Italy. Picture by Karleen Minney "I never had the need to go back," he said. His wife Cathy, meanwhile, has never even been on a plane, and may take some convincing. The couple have three children, two of whom have travelled to Italy. "They said it's great," he said. But for him, it was "a strange feeling" to suddenly have the option to visit again, and while he still speaks the Calabrian dialect, he has few memories of leaving Italy and arriving in Australia. "I have very few old memories. They're good, but I was young and I don't remember much," he said. "I'm not really excited, more nervous." Mr Xyrakis said he understood the complicated feelings. His own father, Nick, took more than two decades to return to Karpathos, Greece, after migrating here in 1948 at the age of 22. "I think there's nothing nicer than going back to where the family were, and seeing your roots," he said. "My dad hadn't been for 26 years, and he went back with a 19-year-old son, with me, and it was one of the best things. You know, you met your cousins. "Just to know the birthplace of your family, the heritage, regardless of where you're from. And I say that to a lot of my staff here, whether they're from India, from Nepal, wherever they're from, make sure your kids do know your heritage, your traditions, your customs and your language. "I think it's very important to always emphasise that you carry that through." He said when he and his staff realised Mr Mammoliti had never been back to Italy, it was a no-brainer that this would be the perfect way to recognise his 50 years of loyal service at the Ainslie IGA. "I remember when I hired him ... I would have been 18, 19," he said, of the then-16-year-old Dominic. "He could hardly speak a word of English, he was just fresh out of Italy, and the rest is history. He just went on from there. "He did a lot of different things. I remember going to his wedding. I remember kids' christenings - you're involved with knowing your staff, which I think is very important "And Dominic is such an organised person. "He's here Monday, Friday, from 6am to 3pm, but he's so super-organised. He knows what deals to buy. He knows what to order ... He's just so specific, so good, and he doesn't get involved with politics. He'll come in, he'll do his job, loved by everybody, and goes home." Mr Mammoliti said he hadn't yet decided where to travel in Italy, although he still had cousins in Calabria. They hadn't heard yet about his impending trip. "It's a bit early still," he said. But as Mr Xyrakis reminded him, it's never too late to go home. Share Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Email Copy Sally Pryor Features Editor As features editor at The Canberra Times, I love telling people things they didn't know - or even things they've always known - about the city we live in. As features editor at The Canberra Times, I love telling people things they didn't know - or even things they've always known - about the city we live in. More from Business After 50 years, nervous Dominic is finally heading home after heart-warming gift 44m ago Power workers' strike to hit Queanbeyan, Yass and Goulburn Getting TAFE right would be a boon for the country Small businesses need the right kind of incentives to succeed Move over Colesworth. There are some bigger rip-off artists in town The truth about our rising power billsThe shooting death of high-ranking UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive Brian Thompson has uncovered a deep anger among Americans who say the health insurance industry has too often failed to cover large medical bills and stood in the way of necessary care. “There’s clearly a sense of real discontent and distrust of the industry revealed in social media,” said Brian Klepper, principal of the Healthcare Performance Inc. consulting firm. “That’s not a healthy environment for an industry to prosper.” The reaction to the shooting is a wake-up call for sprawling companies that have seen their profits and stock prices rise over the past few years. Social media has given millions of Americans the means to amplify their long-simmering dissatisfaction with health insurers, and in the wake of Thompson’s death, X, Reddit, TikTok and other platforms lit up with hatred aimed at the industry. Kevin Farmer, a University of Florida orthopedics and sports medicine professor who posted on X about the shooting, said frustration with insurance is something doctors see every day. “I mean, what that can do to someone’s emotional thought process and reaction,” Farmer said. “They feel helpless.” The motive for Thompson’s killing remains unclear. New York police released images Thursday of a man they said is wanted in connection with the shooting and searched a Manhattan hostel where the person is believed to have stayed. No direct evidence has emerged to connect the shooting with any dispute over UnitedHealth’s business, though a shell casing and live ammunition round inscribed with “delay” and “depose” were recovered from the sidewalk at the midtown hotel where Thompson, 50, was attacked. The words echo complaints many American consumers have aired about long waits for insurers to pay medical bills and legal fights over claims. While the inscriptions suggest the shooting might be tied to an insurance dispute, investigators also have to consider whether they may be a distraction designed to divert from the true motive, said Joseph Giacalone, a former New York Police Department sergeant who’s now a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “They are going to take everything seriously but have to have an open mind that this could be a potential ruse,” he said. Though insurers have rarely discussed it publicly, concerns that a frustrated policyholder could turn to violence have long percolated within the industry. Former health-insurance executive Michael Sherman said when he worked at Humana Inc. more than a decade ago the company had built “safe rooms” for executives at its Louisville, Kentucky, headquarters. Later, when he became the chief medical officer at Point32Health, he said the nonprofit insurer based in Massachusetts installed a panic button under his desk and hired private security for the executive suite. Still, Sherman said the idea that an insurance executive could be targeted by a killer was largely unthinkable. “People are shocked,” he said. “This is shaking people up and causing them to think more about the implications of these decisions, and perhaps the need for more security.” Humana declined to comment on its security procedures. Security steps Thompson’s killing should compel insurers to reexamine their security measures, from increasing surveillance of executives’ parking spots to adding panic buttons and bullet-resistant safe rooms to their executive suites, said Paul Sarnese, the former president of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, an organization dedicated to protecting the health-care industry. UnitedHealth had a security team at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel for its investor day, but it didn’t have anyone stationed outside where the executive was shot, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company didn’t comment on the security situation. Sarnese said threats against health-care workers in general have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Americans grew disillusioned with recommendations about masking, isolating while sick and vaccines. Health insurers, who in the routine course of their business make millions of decisions every year that can have profound effects on people’s physical and financial wellbeing, are especially likely to elicit emotional responses from the public. A Gallup survey last fall asked respondents what they thought of the services provided by health insurers. Sixty-eight percent gave ratings of “only fair” or “poor.” Only 5 percent said it was “excellent.” “Imagine having a pre-existing condition and being denied your medical care,” Sarnese said. “You’re not only putting all this stress on someone who has a medical condition, but now you’re putting financial stress on their families. That stress can really push someone to threaten executives or act upon their threats.” The online vitriol generated by the Thompson shooting spilled into policy decisions by other insurers. Former Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz generated an outcry after she posted on Bluesky Wednesday about a policy change from some units of Elevance Health Inc. that doctors said would limit coverage if operations ran long. “And people wonder why we want these executives dead,” she wrote. On Thursday, Elevance backtracked. “There has been significant widespread misinformation about an update to our anesthesia policy,” Elevance spokesperson Leslie Porras said. “As a result, we have decided to not proceed with this policy change. To be clear, it never was and never will be the policy of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to not pay for medically necessary anesthesia services.” Several hours after the shooting on Wednesday, Sarah London, chief executive officer of health insurer Centene Corp. pulled out of a planned appearance at a conference sponsored by Forbes in New York. London canceled out of respect for Thompson, not because of security concerns, according to a person familiar with the matter. Centene’s investor day that was scheduled to be held in person next week was moved online. Centene declined to comment on its security procedures. Industry officials defended the role that insurers play in the health-care system and said that the wave of hate that bubbled up on social media in the aftermath of Thompson’s killing was unwarranted. “The people in our industry are mission-driven professionals working to make coverage and care as affordable as possible and to help people navigate the complex medical system,” Mike Tuffin, president and CEO of trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement. “We condemn any suggestion that threats against our colleagues — or anyone else in our country — are ever acceptable.” Lightning rod UnitedHealth is one of the largest health care conglomerates in the U.S., housing the UnitedHealthcare insurance business that Thompson led, as well as vast operations focused on managing drug benefits and doctors’ offices. As a result of that broad reach, it has become a frequent target for criticism. The company was among a group of insurers that was slammed in a Senate report earlier this year for using automated tools to increase claim denials. The rate at which the company denied prior authorization for post-acute care more than doubled from 2020 to 2022, the Senate report found. In February, Bloomberg reported that the Department of Justice had opened an antitrust investigation into the company. Last month, the U.S. sued to block its $3.3 billion purchase of Amedisys Inc. over concerns the deal would harm competition in the market for home-health and hospice services. Also this year, the company’s Change Healthcare technology business was the target of hackers who gained access to the medical and other personal information of millions of Americans.
OpenAI has kicked off a marketing campaign called "Shipmas." The campaign is set to include 12 days of product releases, demos, and new features. On the first day, OpenAI released an updated version of o1 and ChatGPT Pro. is releasing new features and products ahead of the holidays. Fans hope the 12-day campaign, which OpenAI is calling "Shipmas," will include an update of its text-to-video AI tool, , as well as other updates to its ChatGPT and o1 models. OpenAI hinted at its plans Wednesday in a post on X, saying: "12 days. 12 livestreams. A bunch of new things, big and small. 12 Days of OpenAI starts tomorrow." CEO Sam Altman also alluded to the campaign Wednesday at The New York Times' DealBook Summit. "We have a bunch of new, great stuff. We're doing this kind of fun thing for the holidays. We're doing 12 days of OpenAI," he said. "We'll either launch something or do a demo every day for the next 12 weekdays." Here's everything OpenAI has released so far for "Shipmas." OpenAI started the promotion with a bang by releasing of its latest reasoning model, o1. OpenAI in September, describing it as a series of artificial-intelligence models "designed to spend more time thinking before they respond." Until now, only a limited version of these models was available to ChatGPT Plus and Team users. Now these users have access to the full capabilities of o1 models, which Altman said are faster, smarter, and easier to use than the preview. They're also multimodal, which means they can process images and texts jointly. Max Schwarzer, a researcher at OpenAI, said the full version of o1 was updated based on user feedback from the preview version and said it's now more intelligent and accurate. "We ran a pretty detailed suite of human evaluations for this model, and what we found was that it made major mistakes about 34% less often than o1 preview while thinking fully about 50% faster," he said. Along with o1, OpenAI unveiled a new tier of called ChatGPT Pro. It's priced at $200 a month and includes unlimited access to the latest version of o1. On Friday, OpenAI previewed an advancement that allows users to fine-tune o1 on their own datasets. Users can now leverage OpenAI's reinforcement-learning algorithms — which mimic the human trial-and-error learning process — to customize their own models. The technology will be available to the public next year, allowing anyone from machine-learning engineers to genetic researchers to create domain-specific AI models. OpenAI has already partnered with the Reuters news agency to develop a legal assistant based on o1-mini. It has also partnered with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop computational methods for assessing rare genetic diseases. Read the original article onRecord Number Of Migrants Lost At Sea Bound For Spain In 2024 - NGO