๐ Hello there,
Welcome to another edition of the Stellar Recap, a weekly newsletter where I share interesting content you may have missed. This issue features 68 bullets.
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๐ Business, Economics & Personal Finance
The number of restaurants that stay open 24-7 dropped 18% from 2020-2024, according to Yelp. The biggest plunge was in Los Angeles which saw its share fall 35%.
From Oct. 2022 to Sep. 2023, Americans drank ~450M cups per day. Most of our coffee is imported from Columbia and Brazil.
The space workforce in the US grew 4.8% in 2023. The sector accounts for ~222.3K jobs. Colorado has the most private aerospace industry jobs per capita.
Analysts estimated that Costco is making $100M-$200M a month from selling gold bars. Costco sells the bars for ~2% above the spot trading price, which has risen 13% year-to-date.
Investments in passive assets like index funds surpassed active assets as a share of total investments in the US for the first time on record, according to data from Morningstar.
NBC Universal has made $1.2B in ad revenue for the Paris Olympics, which starts on Jul. 26.
USPS is raising the price of โforeverโ stamps to $0.73 in Jul. Stamp prices have risen 36% since 2019.
Salt Lake City, UT has the hottest job market, according to a WSJ analysis of 380 metros in the US.
Employee engagement in the US fell to 30% in Q1, down from 33% in Q4 2023 and the lowest since 2013. 17% of employees were actively disengaged.
Per Vanguard, US bonds are expected to yield between 4.8%-5.8% over the next decade compared to 4.2%-6.2% for stocks.
Chairman Stephen Hemsley and other UnitedHealth executives sold $102M in company stock months before a federal antitrust probe became public (๐Bloomberg).
Car insurance premiums in the US are up 22.2% YoY and 45% since the end of 2019.
The Biden Administration is providing an additional $7.4B in student debt relief affecting ~277K borrowers, bringing its total amount of debt cancellation to $153B for ~4.3M borrowers.
๐ง Health, Healthcare & Safety
In 2020 and 2021, Covid was the 2nd leading cause of death globally and the disease caused global life expectancy to fall by 1.6 yrs. Life expectancy fell by another 0.6 yrs when including pandemic-related causes. Overall, the single main factor of progress in life expectancy from 1990-2021 was the reduction in deaths from diarrhea (which added an average 1.1 yrs globally).
Suicides among US college athletes doubled from 7.6% to 15.3% from 2002-2022 and are now the 2nd most common cause of death after accidents.
75% of babies born in the US in 2023 were to mothers ages 30+, according to provisional data from the CDC.
More US babies are now born with low birthweights than in the last 30 yrs. ~311.4K babies weighing <5.5 lbs were born in 2022 and an analysis of 2023 data showed that Dolores County, CO had the highest share of babies born with low birthweight.
The CDC issued a nationwide alert about fake Botox injections that have hospitalized at least 5 people.
A new study showed that middle-aged Black and Native Americans have higher death rates from alcoholic liver disease, overdoses, and suicide than white Americans, dispelling longstanding narratives about what are collectively referred to as "deaths of despair."
A record 323 medicines are in short supply in the US. Many of the issues behind shortages are tied to low prices for generics. Manufacturing quality concerns are fueling shortages of chemotherapy drugs and some antibiotics.
A Consumer Reports analysis found hormone-disrupting chemicals and high levels of lead and sodium in Lunchables. 2 โschool versionsโ are listed on the USDAโs National School Lunch Program for low-income students.
Google searches for "eyes hurt" spiked around the time of the eclipse. Most of those searches were concentrated in states in or near the path of totality.
States have disenrolled ~20M people from Medicaid in the past year after Covid expansions expired and a new KFF survey found that ~1 in 4 people who lost coverage are now uninsured.
๐ Lifelong Learning
Why do some people always get lost but others donโt? Research suggests that experience may matter more than innate ability when it comes to a sense of direction.
If you line up all of the cicadas that are expected to hatch this year, they would reach the moon and back 33x (๐NYT).
An analysis of the ~25.7K different ways you can build a kart in Mario Kart 8.
๐ด Lifestyle & Travel
The 10 most bizarre golf courses in the world, according to CNN.
Tickets for the Coachella music festival (which cost $500+) are typically sold out this time of year (๐WSJ) but plenty are still available. Demand for short-term rentals in the Coachella Valley is down 12% YoY. The festival typically draws 120K visitors.
The company behind BarkBox, a service that sells care packages for dogs, Bark, will begin chartering pet-friendly flights on private planes via Bark Air (๐WP). Bark Air will fly weekly between Westchester County Airport in White Plans, NY and Van Nuys Airport in LA. The price of one-way flights starts at $6K-$8K for 1 dog and 1 owner. Each flight will only sell 10 tickets.
๐ณ๏ธ Politics, Security & International Affairs
The Israeli army has developed an AI-based program known as โLavender,โ which identifies suspected operatives in the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). During the first weeks of the war, the army allegedly relied on Lavender despite knowing that it mislabeled people ~10% of the time. The system has identified ~37K Palestinians as suspected militants โ and their homes โ for possible air strikes.
The Russian republic of Chechnya banned music with a tempo ranging from 80-116 bpm.
The parents of a Michigan teen who killed 4 classmates and injured 7 others in 2021 were found legally liable for their childโs actions and sentenced to 10-15 yrs in prison for involuntary manslaughter. Their son was sentenced to life in prison.
A recent survey of public school K12 teachers in Colorado found that ~1 in 3 said that theyโve been physically assaulted by students in the last 2 yrs. ~60% said theyโre considering leaving the profession in the near future.
The share of US voters who are registered as Democrats and Republicans has narrowed to 49% and 48%, respectively. A greater share of registered voters say theyโre both ideologically conservative and associated with the Republican Party (33%) than say theyโre liberal and align with the Democratic Party (23%).
Hong Kong authorities busted gold smugglers who disguised the gold as machine parts. The value of the shipment was worth $10M+.
In 2023, ~60% of Americans said that corporations and the rich donโt pay their fair share in taxes. 56% felt they pay more than what is fair and 53% said theyโre frustrated by the complexity of federal taxes.
โฉ Pop Culture, Art, Sports & Entertainment
Last Sun., Russ Cook completed his run from the southern tip of Africa to its northern coast, covering 10,000 mi. across 16 countries in 352 days.
UConnโs menโs basketball team beat Purdue 75-60 in the NCAA title game and became the 1st team to win back-to-back championships since UF in 2006-2007.
More people tuned in for the womenโs final than the menโs for the 1st time in NCAA basketball championship history (18.9M v 14.8M).
The winningest basketball coach in NCAA history, Tara VanDerveer, announced her retirement after South Carolinaโs championship game. She departs with 1,216 victories across 45 seasons.
In 2023, 1,250+ artists made $1M+ from Spotify and 80% didnโt have a single song that reached Spotifyโs Global Top 50 all year.
Bonnie Tylerโs โTotal Eclipse of the Heartโ reached #2 on Apple charts last Mon. Spotify streams of the song increased by ~50% in the US in the week leading up to the eclipse and continued to increase after.
~10%-12% of the general population is left-handed but 26% of MLB pitchers threw left-handers last year.
The governing body of athletics is setting aside $2.4M to athletes win gold medals in track and field competitions during the Paris Olympics. Each gold medalist will receive $50K. Relay teams must split the $50K between team members. This is the first time a sports federation will pay prize money for victories.
Anouk Garnier set a new world record in rope climbing after she climbed 110m to the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower. The previous record was 90m, set by Thomas Van Tonder.
๐ก Real Estate
Homeowners insurance costs an average of ~$1.9K/yr or ~$160/mo. The average annual cost is the highest in Oklahoma ($5.5K) and the lowest is in Hawaii ($515). Of the largest 20 metros in the US, Houston is the most expensive at ~$6.6K/yr while San Jose was the cheapest at ~$1K/yr.
Hard costs (physically constructing the home) account for ~56% of the total costs of building a home, soft costs (design, admin, marketing, and other non-physical construction costs) are ~25%, and land costs are ~18%. Land costs represent a higher share of costs in dense urban areas.
๐ Society
A recent study found that, on average, US employers contacted applicants with white sounding names 9.5% more often than applicants with โBlackโ names (Latisha or Amy; Lamar or Adam). ~20% of the companies โ many of them retailers or car dealers โ were responsible for ~50% of the gap in callbacks to white and Black applicants.
A new survey found that 41% of US Latinos said theyโre comfortable with the term "Latine," a gender-neutral way to describe or refer to people with Latino origins.
Japanโs native population is falling at a rate of ~100 people per hour (๐FT), leading to the biggest annual drop (837K) in Japanese nationals since records began in 1950. By 2050, there will be an estimated 70 people aged 65+ per 100 people ages 15-64.
๐งช Science, Climate, Environment & Technology
OpenAI warned that it could run out of high-quality data sources to train AI models in the next 2 yrs, even after taking actions like transcribing 1M+ conversations from YouTube which potentially violated copyrights of the creators. Google allegedly allowed this because itโs also potentially transcribing YouTube videos to feed AI models, according to NYT.
A new study suggests that industrial mining threatens up to 34% of Africa's great ape population.
In Q1, EV sales in the US rose 2.6 % but were down 15.2% compared to sales in Q4 2023.
A Pew survey showed that only 23% of US adults say theyโve ever used ChatGPT, with younger adults more likely to have ever used the bot than older adults.
Academic plagiarism tool and company TurnitIn said that high school and college students submitted 22M+ papers that may have been co-written with generative AI tools.
Internet traffic in the US fell by 8%-12% week over week during the eclipse. Traffic dropped in Vermont, Arkansas, Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Ohio by 40%+ around the time of the eclipse.
Avi Wigderson was awarded the Turing Award for his research on randomness in algorithms. One of his most popular books is available for free on his website.
Mar. 2024 was the 10th straight โhottest on recordโ month at 1.68ยฐC warmer than the average Mar. temp. from 1850โ1900.
Our World in Data created a page to explore global and country-level data on wildfires since 2012.
A study of grizzly bears in Montana found an 88% reduction in the number of bears that came within 300m of farms with dogs. Bears that ventured closer spent 94% less time at the farms with dogs compared to those without dogs.
~55% of young people in a global 2021 survey said that climate change made them feel powerless and 58% felt betrayed by their government.
In Nov. 2023, Googleโs DeepMind division claimed that their AI tool GNoME found 2.2M new crystals, including ~384.9K made from stable materials that could be used in future tech. Researchers attempted to verify those claims and found that none of the predicted stable materials were credible, useful, or novel. 18K of the materials contain elements that are only available in small quantities or are radioactive.
There are ~62.6K publicly available EV charging stations in the US. You can search for charging locations using an online map tool from the Dept. of Energy. Note that Level 1 chargers can be very slow.
Wishing you a good week
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