👋 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 64 bullets.
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📊 Business, Economics & Personal Finance
The global tattoo market was valued at $2.03B in 2023 and is projected to be worth $4.83B by 2032.
A report by BambooHR showed that employee happiness fell by 5% between Q1 and Q2 to the lowest score (NPS=~35) ever collected by the organization. The largest declines were reported by workers in Finance and Travel & Hospitality.
Due to its invasion of Ukraine, clients have canceled $2.1B worth of contracts to launch rockets from Baikonur, Russia.
An analysis by Wired found that the trade-in value of 6 EVs with just 10K mi. fell by as much as 50% between Aug. 2023 - Aug. 2024 (🔒Wired). The most extreme example was the Mercedes EQE, which in the UK depreciated by ~$615/day over a 12-wk period.
Startup bankruptcies in the US have risen 60% YoY (🔒FT). VC-backed companies employ ~4M US workers, so this trend is unlikely to have a big effect on overall employment.
500+ private, nonprofit 4-yr colleges have closed in the past 10 yrs (🔒WSJ), affecting ~1.25M students. Since 2017, ~60 such schools closed per year.
The market for adult diapers is projected to grow by 8%/yr through 2030 to reach $28B in annual sales.
The ultrawealthy have parked an estimated $13.7T worth of assets in tax-free accounts in the Bahamas (🔒The Atlantic). Another $12T is locked away by offshore shell companies.
The share of US workers who reported searching for a job in the past 4 wks rose to 28.4% in Jul., which is the highest level since Mar. 2014. ~19% received at least 1 offer, which was ~the same share as in Jul. 2023.
The global value of a gold bar, which weighs on average 400 troy oz, hit $1M. That’s up 20% YoY and marks a new milestone for gold prices.
Revisions to US jobs data showed that the economy created 818K fewer jobs between Apr. 2023 - Mar. 2024 than previously reported. The new estimate comes from state unemployment insurance tax records that are updated once a year. The 28% downward revision is the biggest correction in 15 yrs.
Bank of America received ~500K applications for entry-level positions over the past 4 yrs, while turnover was <10%. The competitive atmosphere at BOA is currently under scrutiny (🔒WSJ) after the reported death of a young investment banker. It’s at least the 3rd death at the company this year that’s been linked to overworking.
~50% of all of Crayola’s crayons sales occur in the 9 wks leading up to Labor Day (🔒Bloomberg).
A survey by Charles Schwab found that, on average, Americans consider themselves to be wealthy if they have $2.5M in net wealth, up from $2.2M in 2022. Older Americans reported a higher threshold than younger Americans.
Vanderbilt University unveiled plans to build a $520M graduate school campus in downtown West Palm Beach. City officials agreed to donate 2 acres of city land valued at $12M. Palm Beach County is discussing a donation of an additional 5 acres towards the proposed 300K-sq ft campus.
75% of the 208 startups currently listed in the Y Combinator’s S24 startup directory are working on AI-related products. Only 1 of the companies is working on a Crypto/Web 3 product.
A CEO of a nonprofit hospital or medical system earned, on average, $1.3M/yr in 2019. That’s 30% more than in 2012.
~9.3K Canadian train workers threatened to strike on Mon. (8/25) after the Canadian labour minister disrupted a negotiation deal and imposed a binding arbitration that sidestepped workers’ concerns about safety and scheduling. The 2 companies at the center of this dispute (Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City) move ~$732M of products per day, including common products that American households and businesses depend on.
In Q2, X reported $114M in revenue in the US, which is down from $661M in Q2 2022 before Elon Musk took over the company. Accounting for inflation, that’s a difference of 84%.
🧘 Health, Healthcare & Safety
The University of Delaware’s Poison Book Project found that 50% of books with cloth-case bindings contained large amounts of toxic metals like lead, arsenic, chromium, and mercury. Chrome yellow bindings were found to be particularly toxic.
The number of Americans with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias is expected to jump from 6.7M in 2023 to 13M by 2060. Up to 60% of those living with dementia haven't been formally diagnosed.
An AI startup claims to have performed “the world’s first fully automatic robotic dental procedure." The procedure, which was preparing a tooth for a dental crown, typically takes 2 hrs but the robot completed it in just 15 min. The robotic procedure hasn’t been approved by the FDA.
New data from the CDC shows that the average American born in 2021 can expect to live to 76.4 yrs old. Hawaiians have the longest life expectancy at birth at 79.9 yrs while people born in Mississippi have the shortest at 70.9 yrs.
The FDA approved new Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. The shots target the KP.2 variant. Currently, in the US, the majority of cases are from KP.3.1.1, which may impact the effectiveness of the shot but it’s still highly recommended that folks get it.
This year, most seniors in the US who max out their out-of-pocket contributions allowed by Medicare Part D can expect to pay between $3.3K-$3.8K on prescription drugs (🔒NYT). That amount will fall to $2K once the new out-of-pocket caps go into effect next year. The Harris campaign has proposed extending this cap to all Americans.
A new report found that at least 17 healthcare systems recently ended a contract with a Medicare Advantage (MA) insurer. KFF estimated that 32.8M Americans (54% of the eligible Medicare population) are on an MA plan.
The European Medicines Agency didn’t approve lecanemab - the Alzheimer’s drug sold under the brand name Leqembi.
🎓 Lifelong Learning
The first state fair in the US was in 1841 when an agricultural industry group organized one in Syracuse, NY.
In the early 1970s, a regular roll of Charmin toilet paper had 650 single-ply sheets. That number fell to 224 sheets in 2024, while the price of a roll has increased ~162%.
A behind-the-scenes look at the filmmaking process at Disney.
20 different visualizations of retirement ages in OECD countries.
🌴 Lifestyle & Travel
The 18 best places to see fall foliage in the US, according to Afar.
~70K people are expected to attend Burning Man this year, down from 74.1K in 2023. Typically, tickets completely sell out but there are still some tickets available (starting at ~$575).
Florida’s tourism marketing agency, Visit Florida, quietly removed the "LGBTQ Travel" section from its website.
Expedia reported that airline prices to Seattle are down 20% (🔒WSJ) compared with prices in the summer. The cost of tickets to Houston, Denver, and LA are down 10%.
10K reservations were booked within the 1st week of reopening the Via dell’Amore in Cinque Terre, Italy. The popular trek has been closed for 12 yrs for restoration.
🗳️ Politics, Security & International Affairs
China announced plans to limit exports of antimony. China controls ~48% of the global production of antimony, which is a metal that is essential to some military technologies.
10 US Supreme Court Justices have held terms for 32+ yrs. Since 1970, the shortest term, excluding our current Justices, has been 15 yrs.
A new study estimated that scam centers in Laos steal $43.8B/yr mostly through fake romance scams (🔒Bloomberg). The scam centers are located in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone near the border with Myanmar and Thailand and are estimated to be holding ~85K people against their will.
3 people were killed and at least 8 people were wounded in a knife attack at a festival celebrating diversity in Solingen, Germany. The killer is still at large at the time of publication (Aug. 24 at 3pm EDT).
⏩ Pop Culture, Art, Sports & Entertainment
Kasia Niewiadoma won the women's 2024 Tour de France by just 4 sec. It’s the smallest margin seen in either the women’s or men’s races.
A survey by the Pew found that ~1 in 3 Americans have a tattoo. 22% have more than 1 tattoo.
~4.1K high school girls played tackle football in 2023 (🔒WSJ), up from ~2K in 2016.
🏡 Real Estate
The average commission earned by US real estate buyer’s agents has fallen from 2.62% to 2.55% from Feb. 4, 2024 to Jul. 14, 2024.
The median sale price of a single-family home in Massachusetts rose 6.6% YoY to $650K in Jul., which is a new record. The median sale price of a condo rose 1.8% to $565K, also setting a new record.
Among the 43 large US metros analyzed by Redfin, Tampa, FL saw the steepest increase in median monthly HOA fees which jumped 17.2% YoY in the 3 mo. through Jul. 31. The average increase nationwide was 5.7%.
A 28K sq ft home on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota just came to market for $68M (🔒WSJ). If sold for that price, it will be the most expensive home to ever sell in the state by a margin of $50.5M.
The DOJ filed an antitrust lawsuit against RealPages which allegedly reduced competition in the US rental market through its monopoly on rent pricing software. RealPage has 80% of the market share in commercial revenue management software for multifamily units, according to the DOJ.
🌎 Society
New data shows that pandemic learning gaps are getting worse for middle and high school students. 8th graders are about 1 yr behind in their learning.
In 2022, ~43% of authorized immigrants came from Asia. People from countries in N. America accounted for 29% of all immigrants. The most common countries of origin for immigrants were Mexico (~533.9K), India (~490K), and China (~115K).
~16% of incoming freshmen at MIT are Black, Hispanic, Native American, or Pacific Islander (🔒NYT), down from a recent average of 25%. MIT attributed the decline to the Supreme Court striking down the use of affirmative action in admissions.
🧪 Science, Climate, Environment & Technology
Since 2014, wildfires have burned through >50% of multiple counties in California (🔒NYT), including Lake County, Plumas County, and Napa County.
A recent study tested popular AI tools on 200 NYT Connections puzzles (🔒Bloomberg) and found that they only solved 8% of the games successfully. The tools were often thrown off by red herrings.
New data showed that the average household vehicle in the US was driven 64.6 min./day in 2022.
Persistent drought in the West over the last 20 yrs has limited the amount of electricity that hydropower dams can generate, costing the industry and the region ~$28B in lost revenue.
The average person in the US receives 50 phone notifications per day, which is up 284% over 2015.
McAfee announced a new tool called Smart AI which detects audio that may have been generated by AI. When AI-generated audio is detected in a video on platforms like YouTube or X, the tool shows a red icon that provides more info about the audio in question. The tool doesn’t work on content protected with digital rights management like movies and TV shows on streaming platforms.
Humane Intelligence and NIST are inviting US residents to participate in a qualifying round of a nationwide red-teaming effort to evaluate AI office productivity software.
Lucara Diamond Corp. found a 2,492-carat diamond in a mine in Botswana. It’s the largest diamond discovered since at least 1905 and it’s the 2nd largest stone to ever be unearthed. A 1,111-carat diamond that was discovered at the same mine sold for $53M in 2017.
99% of Americans have been under 1+ extreme weather alert this year (🔒Bloomberg).
A new study found that the average number of authors on a scientific publication rose from 1.8 in 1970 to 3.6 in 2004 (🔒Science). This may be contributing to a decline in tenure. For each 1-person increase in the average size of a research team, new PhDs are 24% less likely to hold a tenure-track job, 29% less likely to receive tenure, 11% less likely to receive federal grants, and 11% more likely to leave science. “Collaboration may hurt the people on the bottom of the team, because it may cloud their credit and undermine their career progression.”
The Global Foodbanking Network estimated that the redistribution of surplus food via food banks mitigated ~1.8M tons of CO2 emissions in 2023.
The NWS Climate Prediction Center projected above-average temps across most of the US from Sep.-Nov., particularly in the NE and SW. There’s an ~66% chance of a La Niña developing during the fall and ~70% chance of it lasting through the winter.
Scientists published a list of 144 “lost” bird species that haven’t been seen or heard in 10+ yrs. (🔒NYT) in the hope that bird watchers will help look for these birds and share evidence that they’re not extinct. You can view the list and map here.
Wishing you a good week
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