Stellar Recap | Aug 25-31
1 SEPTEMBER 2024
👋 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 75 bullets.
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📊 Business, Economics & Personal Finance
Seattle, WA has the highest sales tax, with a combined state and local rate of 10.35%. Portland, OR and Anchorage, AK have the lowest rate because they have neither a state or local sales tax. Among cities with a sales tax, Honolulu, HI has the lowest rate at 4.5%.
Data from Square showed that average hourly earnings for restaurant workers was up 4.10% as of Jul. 2024. That’s higher than the CPI inflation rate of of 2.92%.
The share of people who had a household income of $300K+ and attended the Burning Man festival in 2023 rose to 18% from 7% in 2015.
The total cost to attend Stanford and the University of Southern California is >$90K/yr starting this school year (🔒SF Chron). ~$27K of that total is the cost of food, housing, and school supplies.
There are 340K fewer accountants in the US than there were in 2019. ~75% of current accountants are at retirement age.
A new study suggests that savings rates fell by ~$50/quarter in states that legalized sports gambling.
A new analysis suggests that Trump’s campaign promises would increase the national debt by $5.8T over 10 yrs vs $1.2T under Harris’s plan. Accounting for increased tax revenue and economic activity, the amount would be $4.1T and $2T, respectively.
US energy industries added 250K jobs in 2023, with 56% in the clean energy sector. 8.35M Americans were employed in the energy sector in 2023.
Berkshire Hathaway became the 1st non-tech company in the US to reach $1T in market cap on Aug. 28. Shares were up ~28% YTD compared to 18% for the S&P 500.
Lego’s profit margin grew 26% YoY to $1.2B during the first of 2024. The gains were partly attributed to its Fortnite collaboration.
US counties that have added the most and least number of jobs since 2019 (🔒NYT). Overall, the US has created 19M jobs in the past 4 yrs.
After China announced a restriction in exports, the price of antimony rose to $25K/tonne (🔒Nikkei Asia) from $12K/tonne at the end of 2023.
Brazil produces ~40% of the world’s coffee (🔒Bloomberg). The next largest producer is Vietnam at 16.5%.
🧘 Health, Healthcare & Safety
A new study found that hip and knee replacements have increased by 211% and 240%, respectively, between 2000 and 2017 among patients under age 64 (🔒WSJ).
Some people are spending several hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars to attend rage ritual retreats, which provide people with an judgment-free space to unleash their rage.
A new study found that ~60% of US baby foods do not meet the WHO’s nutritional standards (🔒Forbes). 70% didn’t meet protein recommendations, 44% exceeded total sugar recommendations, and 20% exceeded sodium guidelines.
US households can order up to 4 at-home Covid tests by mail starting at the end of Sep. The tests can detect newer COVID-19 variants and will be good for use until the end of the year.
2 people have contracted a severe form of the West Nile virus in the Philadelphia region. ~40% of 677 mosquito traps tested in Philadelphia since May were positive for the virus.
500+ US psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists spoke with ProPublica reporters about why they left health insurance networks that they believe are shortchanging clients seeking care. “It is often the insurers, not the therapists, that determine who can get treatment, what kind they can get and for how long.”
A new study found that heat related deaths in the US rose 117% to 21.5K+ from 1999-2023.
The share of US kindergartners with nonmedical vaccine exemptions rose to a median of 3.3% in the 2022-23 school year, up from 2.7% the year before. Idaho has the greatest share of exemptions at 12.1%.
A new KFF study found that ~1 in 4 people enrolled in ACA health plans had access to 25% or fewer actively practicing doctors in their areas, suggesting that enrollees are forced to choose between lower premiums vs more options for doctors.
The FDA and other agencies have approved hundreds of AI algorithms for use in healthcare settings without benchmarks or standards for evaluating them.
A new investigation found the Mountain View Whisman School District, which is in Silicon Valley, paid ~$189K to keep an energy healer on retainer (🔒LA Times) for 160 meditation sessions.
So far this year, there have been ~10.9K cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, nationwide (🔒NYT). That’s 3x+ the number this time last year.
Pfizer became the latest major drugmaker to sell medicine directly to consumers by launching a digital platform. Virtual appointments with clinicians cost $35.
The CDC estimates that ~1 in 7 (37M) Americans have chronic kidney disease and 90K+ are waiting for a kidney transplant. But an ongoing kidney shortage means 1K people a month are removed from the waitlist, either because they died or became too sick for a transplant. To address the shortage, a coalition is trying to pass legislation to compensate eligible kidney donors in the form of a $50K tax credit.
Globally, ~684K people die from falls each year and ~37.3M require medical attention. In the US, ~1 in 4 adults aged 65+ fall each year and ~1 in 10 are injured. In 2022, US healthcare spending on nonfatal falls cost $80B.
A new national survey showed that 28% of US adults incorrectly believe that Covid vaccines have been responsible for thousands of deaths, up from 22% in Jun. 2021. 22% falsely believe that it’s safert to get infected by Covid than get a shot.
Authorities in Brazil reported 2 deaths of adults from Oropouche fever, which is spread by mosquitoes. It’s the 1st deaths from the disease which was identified ~70 yrs ago. Officials are investigating cases of fetal deaths and malformations that might have been caused by the virus, which has been shown to spread from a pregnant person to their fetus. The CDC reported that 20+ US travelers returning from Cuba have been identified as having the virus.
The US Surgeon General issued a public health advisory about parental stress, noting that 48% of parents report that their stress is completely overwhelming (🔒NYT) compared to 26% of other adults.
10 Massachussetts counties are at high or critical risk from the mosquito-borne virus called eastern equine encephalitis aka “Triple E.” ~30% of people who contract the virus die from it and many survivors have ongoing neurologic problems. A 41-yr-old man in New Hampshire recently died from the virus.
Health officials reported the 1st case of polio in Gaza in 25 yrs. Israel agreed to a temporary ceasefire while the UN attempts to vaccinate ~640K children under age 10 to prevent an outbreak.
The listeria outbreak linked to Boar’s Head deli meat has caused 57 hospitalizations and 9 deaths so far. This is the worst outbreak since 2011.
California became the 1st state to pass a law that forbids the use of 6 chemical food coloring additatives that are found in popular beverages and foods like cereals, ice pops, cheese-flavored chips, and jellies.
🎓 Lifelong Learning
The NYT provided a visual explanation of “model collapse,” (🔒) which is what happens when generative AI models are trained on its own AI generated content.
Why democracy is mathematically impossible (23.5 min. video).
Tips for protecting your data when using popular generative AI tools. No options exist for Microsoft CoPilot users.
🌴 Lifestyle & Travel
Data from AAA booking showed that Seattle is the #1 Labor Day weekend destination, with bookings up ~30% YoY. Overall, domestic travel over the weekend in the US is up 9% YoY.
In the first half of 2024, 44M+ US passengers departed from an American airport to an international destination. That’s up 10% YoY and 43% over the same period in 2022.
An apartment on a new residential, luxury cruise ship called The World, will cost $2.4M-$15M. The price doesn’t include quarterly maintenance fees, which can be ~10% of the purchase price annually. The ship includes 165 privately owned apartments, ranging from 290 sq ft studios to ~3.2K sq ft, 4-bedroom residences.
The best fried chicken in every state, according to Yelp.
A record 3.3M people traveled to Japan in Jul. Americans represented ~8% of tourists.
Mammoth Cave National Park was recently ranked 3rd on an internet list of “most disappointing US tourist attractions” and its response on Facebook was to encourage visitors to swing by and experience what has disappointed millions of people for over 225 years! The post went viral.
The number of US hotels with an average daily rate of $1K+ rose from 22 in 2019 to 80 in 2024. In Europe, the number of $1K/night hotels tripled to 183.
🗳️ Politics, Security & International Affairs
~80.2K New Zealand citizens moved abroad during the 12 mo. ending in Jun. That’s 1.5K+ people per week. The most popular destination is Australia.
A new NYT/Siena College poll of registered voters in 6 key swing states found a 51 pt gap between men and women ages 18-29 who favor Trump vs. Harris, with women favoring Harris over Trump by a big margin. The previous poll between Biden and Trump found a 39 pt gender gap.
Uber was fined $347M by Dutch regulators for transferring driver data from the EU to the US. It’s one of the biggest fines ever issued under the EU’s data privacy law GDPR.
~4M people in southern Japan were urged to evacuate last Thurs. (8/30) as Typhoon Shanshan made landfall.
⏩ Pop Culture, Art, Sports & Entertainment
A music-map to help you discover new and/or similar artists.
The jersey that Babe Ruth wore during the 1932 World series sold at an auction for $24.12M, which is the highest price ever paid for a sports collectible. The previous record was set by a Mickey Mantle card that sold for $12.6M.
The video game Black Myth: Wukong became the most-played single-player game on Steam and the 2nd-most played game on the platform overall within 24 hrs of its release. It sold 10M copies in 83 hrs and raked in $450M in the first 3 days.
The film Inside Out 2 topped $1B in international box office sales, making it the 1st animated film to reach that milestone.
The NFL voted to allow teams to sell 3%-10% of their franchises to private equity groups. A single fund can own shares of up to 6 teams, and they have to hold shares for 6 yrs.
According to data from Kaggle, Nicolas Cage has the most leading roles amongst performers with $1B+ in lifetime box office sales, with more than 85 lead roles on his resume.
The Paralympic Games kicked off last week, with 4K athletes competing over 11 days.
56 photo montages of music fans outside concerts.
Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast is the top YouTube personality based on subscribers (300M). However, newcomers are replicating his strategy and closing the gap.
Zakia Khudadadi won the bronze medal in Taekwondo, making her the 1st medalist on the Refugee Paralympic Team. She learned Taekwondo in secret at age 11 in Afghanistan and was blocked from competing until she fled the country.
🏡 Real Estate
As of Jun. 2024, a homebuyer needs an annual household income of ~$119.5K to afford a median-priced home. The median household earns ~$83.8K.
New data from NAR showed that there were 1.33M homes for sale in the US at the end of Jul., which is up 19.8% YoY. The increase in inventory hasn’t translated to lower prices. Existing home prices were 4.2% higher than a year ago.
🌎 Society
A Pew survey showed that 44% of teens and 69% of parents in the US think it’s harder to been a teen now than 20 yrs ago. Parents cited social media while teens cited more pressures and expectations.
A new study found that 99.5% of all US counties are home to at least one same-sex couple.
Miami, FL has the rudest residents, according to a survey by Preply which assessed factors like people talking on speakerphone in a shared space and not acknowledging strangers.
The share of Black students starting at Amherst College this fall fell to 3% (🔒NYT) from 11% last year. At Tufts, the share fell to 4.7% from 7.3%. Meanwhile, the share of Hispanic students entering Amherst fell to 8% from 12% but rose slightly at Tufts.
🧪 Science, Climate, Environment & Technology
Scientists are warning that Italians should prepare for a volcanic eruption in the Phlegraen Fields (🔒WP), which is the most dangerous volcano in Europe. ~485K people live within the danger zone. Some experts said that ana eruption could wreak more havoc than Mount Vesuvius during its historic destruction of Pompeii in 79 AD.
A team of 70 influential people drafted a working definition of open-source AI (🔒MIT Technology Review), which states that an open-source system is one made available to all without need for permission and is modifiable, shareable, and studyable. It doesn’t require developers to share all the training data sets, but asks for more information than is revealed by some models that currently call themselves ‘open’.
Swiss researchers found a way to manufacture chocolate from an entire cocoa fruit and without adding sugar. Traditional chocolate production uses just the beans and the rest of the plant goes to waste.
Ireland rejected Google’s request to build a 779K sq ft data center outside of Dublin (🔒Bloomberg) due to power supply concerns. Data centers are projected to consume ~33% Ireland’s energy by 2026, up from 18% in 2022.
The Oakland Unified School District transitioned to all electric school buses, making it the 1st major school district to do so.
A new study showed that, in 2023, Canada’s wildfires produced more carbon emissions than the burning of fossil fuels in all but 3 countries.
Since 2020, 20+ EV makers in China have gone out of business. That means hundreds of thousands of EVs in China may not be serviceable in the long-term, which is unfortunate for the people who bought them.
Some parts of the Sahara Desert will see 5x their average Aug. and Sep. rainfall (🔒WP), with some areas potentially experiencing rain for the 1st time on record.
OpenAI reported that ChatGPT reached 200M weekly active users, which is 2x the number last year.
Wishing you a good week
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