👋 Hello there,
Happy Easter for those who celebrate 🐣. Welcome to another edition of the Stellar Recap, a weekly newsletter where I share interesting content you may have missed over the week. This issue features 74 bullets.
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📊 Business, Economics & Personal Finance
There are 5.5M US households with liquid investable assets of $1M+, up 62% in the past 10 yrs and 35% since 2018.
The number of cotton mills in the US fell to 100 in 2023 (🔒Bloomberg), down from 900 in the late 1800s. This year, ~75% of US cotton will be exported, compared to 63% in 2014 and 33% in 1994.
Unemployment rates in 28 states, including 3 of the 6 most populous, were significantly higher in Feb. than a year ago. California had the highest jobless rate at 5.3%. Just 3 states had lower jobless rates.
According to ZipRecruiter, US workers who changed from fully remote jobs to fully in-office jobs last year saw a pay bump of 29%, which was 2x the bump for those who switched in the opposite direction. On average, companies are offering ~$82K for in-office jobs (up 33% YoY), ~$75.3K for WFH jobs, and $60K for hybrid positions.
The country Anguilla said it made ~$32M last year from selling .ai website domain names (🔒NYT), accounting for more than 10% of the country’s GDP.
Trader Joe’s raised its price for bananas for the first time in 20 yrs to $0.23/banana, up from $0.19/banana.
The US government sold a record $23T worth of Treasury bonds in 2023 (🔒WSJ).
Cocoa prices topped $10K/ton last Wed., marking yet another new record high. Prices ended the week at ~$9.8K/ton.
US merchants paid $100.8B in processing fees to credit card companies in 2023, up $7.5B from 2022. Visa and Mastercard have since agreed to a settlement with merchants over the fees they charge, lowering fees by at least 0.04 % pts for a min. of 3 yrs. The deal will eliminate ~$30B in fees over 5 yrs.
Starting Apr. 8, Costco will require food court patrons to show their membership card.
Hard-to-find, tier-one AI talent can “easily get” total compensation packages of $1M+/yr (🔒WSJ). For example, OpenAI reportedly offers a median compensation of $925K.
Latin American immigrants are starting businesses at more than 2x the rate of the US population as a whole (🔒WSJ). Latino businesses accounted for 36% of launches last year.
In a shareholder letter, the CEO of Black Rock said he thinks “it's a bit crazy that our anchor idea for the right retirement age — 65 yrs old — originates from the time of the Ottoman Empire" and this notion is straining the US’s retirement system. (I couldn’t find a citation for the fact he quoted…)
Harvard received ~54K undergrad applications, down 5% YoY. 1,245 of those applicants were accepted. An acceptance rate of 3.59% is the highest admission rate in 4 yrs. Meanwhile, Yale’s and Columbia’s admission pools increased by 10% and 5.4% respectively and acceptance rates fell to 3.7% (the lowest at Yale) and 3.85% at Columbia (vs 3.9% the year before).
Flavored syrup manufacturer Torani was founded in 1925 and it has never reduced its staff through layoffs.
The cost of undergrad tuition for the 2024-25 school year is $90K+ at Yale, Tufts, Boston University (BU), and Wellesley College.
Bloomberg reclassified some of the bonds sold by utility companies as asset-backed securities (🔒WSJ), which added $3B in costs over the life of the bonds. Those costs will be passed on to US consumers as higher utility bills.
🧘 Health, Healthcare & Safety
Measles cases in 3 states have been linked to travel in Florida. There have been more measles cases in the US in the first 3 mo. of 2024 than in all of 2023.
A new study suggests that pregnancy can cause a person’s biological age to increase by up to 2 yrs on average due to the unusually high amounts of chemical wear and tear on organs, cells, and tissues. However, some people, especially those who reported exclusively breastfeeding their children, were biologically “younger” after giving birth than they were during early pregnancy.
A new analysis showed a 31% increase in traffic risks around the time of the eclipse in 2017. This is equivalent to an average of 1 extra crash every 25 min. and 1 extra crash fatality every 95 min.
A new study of Facebook posts by (mostly female) Black and white US adults found race-ethnic differences in language patterns and depression severity. For example, depression severity was associated with increased use of first-person singular pronouns (“I,” “me,” “my”) in white participants but not Black participants. White people also used more language to describe feelings of belongingness (“weirdo,” “creep”), self-criticism (“mess,” “wreck”), being an anxious-outsider (“terrified,” “misunderstood”), self-deprecation (“worthless,” “crap”), and despair (“begging,” “hollow”) as depression severity increased but there was no such correlation for Black people. The results raise questions about how to ensure Black patients aren't excluded from tech advances and that AI isn’t misused.
A mountain lion attacked 2 brothers in California last weekend, injuring one and killing the other. It’s the first fatal cougar attack in the state in 20 yrs.
The FDA approved Winrevair, a drug that’s designed to treat a rare, progressive and terminal lung condition called pulmonary arterial hypertension. ~40K people in the US are living with the disease. It will cost $14K/vial without insurance.
Puerto Rico declared a dengue epidemic after recording at least 549 cases so far this year. More than 340 have been hospitalized. The country hasn’t declared an epidemic since 2012. Overall, there have been 3.5M dengue cases in the Americas so far this year, which is ~3x more than the same time in 2023 which was a record year with 4.5M reported cases and ~2.4K deaths.
A new study showed that pharmaceutical companies and device makers made 85M payments to US doctors totaling $12.1B between 2013-2022, which is when the government started publishing these data. ~6 in 10 physicians received at least 1 payment and 94% involved 1+ marketed products. Gastrointestinal surgeons received ~$2.3K on average, while those in emergency medicine or general practice received essentially $0. The top 0.1% of recipients among orthopedists received $4.8M apiece, the highest of any specialty.
A new study found that the average patient pays ~$968/mo for Ozempic. The active ingredient costs ~$0.07/dose. Canadians pay ~$155/mo or less the drug.
More than half of US adults need glasses or contacts by age ~40. This is about the same age when adults begin reporting more difficulty with hearing.
🎓 Lifelong Learning
The Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan Hotel is the world’s oldest hotel. It sits at the foot of Japan’s Akaishi Mountains and has been welcoming guests since 705 A.D.
A collection of PDF tools.
A visual of famous historical figures and how their lives overlapped by age.
Is English just badly pronounced French? (18 min. video)
The secret history of salt: its uses in food and agriculture, the things people used to believe about it, the myths we still believe about it today, its role in the global economy, and its fundamental importance to health, wealth, and happiness throughout history.
Visualizing the statistical connections behind ChatGPT. (To better understand how ChatGPT works, Santiago Ortiz repeatedly passed the prompt “Intelligence is” to the chatbot and created a visualization of the results using a 3D network)
🌴 Lifestyle & Travel
51 of the most charming small towns (<25K people) in the US, according to Afar.
The most beautiful building in every state, according to Love Exploring.
United Airlines will allow frequent flyers to pool their accumulated "MileagePlus" travel rewards in a joint account so they can be shared among friends and family looking to vacation together.
The world’s tastiest dumplings, according to CNN Travel.
A new report showed that NYC is the wealthiest city in the world with 349K+ millionaires and >700 centi-millionaires (those who own investable assets worth >$100M). The Big Apple also has the most expensive real estate. The average price of a prime 2,150-4,300 sq ft apartment costs $28.4K per sq ft.
Earth’s 8 Weirdest Cave Systems, according to Gizmodo.
🗳️ Politics, Security & International Affairs
In 2023, pilots were hit by a record ~13.3K blinding lasers in the US, which was ~2x the number of laser strikes in 2020.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed last week, killing at least 6 people. Transportation costs may temporarily rise because the bridge is a key throughway for commercial trucks. The port of Baltimore also ranks 17th in the nation by tonnage of cargo handled and leads all other US ports in imports and exports of cars and light trucks. ~850K vehicles passed through its waters last year. It’s the 2nd-largest terminal for US coal exports, handling 2.5M tons of outbound coal last year. The port’s closure could also damage the livelihoods of the 15K+ people working at its facilities and the 140K workers in the area indirectly supported by port activity.
Florida lawmakers passed a law that bans social media accounts for children under age 14 and requires parental permission for 14 and 15-yr-olds. It’s one of the most restrictive social media bans for minors in the US. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.
A first-time visitor visa to the US can take 400 days to obtain on average in some countries. Wait times in Brazil, Mexico, India, and Colombia are especially onerous. According to US Travel, the delays cost the US $12B in travel spending last year.
Argentina accused Venezuela of cutting the electricity supply to its embassy in Caracas after the diplomatic mission hosted a meeting with the country's opposition leaders.
Colorado leads the country for women holding municipal office, according to a report from the Center For American Women and Politics.
The White House ordered all federal agencies to name chief AI officers to oversee the federal government's various approaches to AI and manage the risks that the rapidly evolving tech might pose.
11 states are suing the Dept. of Ed to stop the implementation of the Biden administration’s new income-driven, student loan repayment plan called SAVE. Under SAVE, borrowers are required to pay between 5%-10% of their discretionary income in service of their debt. Borrowers who make <225% of the federal poverty line won’t be required to make a monthly payment. Borrowers who owe $12K or less will have their loans forgiven if they make payments for ~10 yrs.
⏩ Pop Culture, Art, Sports & Entertainment
Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs were the #1 most popular Easter candy in the US in 2023, according to data from Instacart. Tulips were the #1 flower.
Research by Challenger, Gray, & Christmas estimated that March Madness could cost businesses $9.6B in lost productivity this year.
A study by Deloitte found that the average US household subscribes to 4 video streaming services, with each spending an average of $61/mo., up 27% YoY. ~50% said that a $5 price increase would motivate them to cancel.
AMC, Alamo Drafthouse, and other US theater chains are running a 20-hr, 9-movie Star Wars marathon on May 3-4. Tickets cost $84.
British runner Jasmin Paris became the 1st woman to finish the Barkley Marathon. The Barkley takes place in Tennessee and covers 100 mi, including 60K feet of climb and descent. She finished 1 min. and 39 sec before the 60-hr cut-off.
OpenAI shared 7 clips made by filmmakers and visual artists using Sora, its new text-to-video AI tool.
19-yr-old American figure skater, Ilia Malinin broke several records in Men’s Free Skating during the World Figure Skating Championships last weekend, including the highest score in the history of the championship (227.79) and landing 6 quadruple axels. He’s the only man to ever land a quad in competition.
An analysis of 350K+ top 40 songs released between 1970-2020 found that the lyrics of newer songs tend to be more repetitive and less complex than older songs.
The city of Kyle, TX is attempting to gather the most Kyles in the hope of breaking a world record. It attempted last year but fell short with just 835 Kyles. The current record is held by Kupreski Kosci in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where 2,325 people named Ivan gathered on Jul. 30, 2017.
🏡 Real Estate
State Farm Insurance will discontinue coverage for 72K homes in California this summer, citing soaring costs and the increasing risk of weather-related catastrophes.
One of Mexico’s most violent criminal groups, Jalisco New Generation, runs call centers that offer to buy retirees’ timeshare properties (🔒NYT) and then empties its victims’ bank accounts. ~10M American households own timeshares, spending an average of ~$22K for their investment on top of annual fees of ~$2K.
The median down payment for US homebuyers was ~$55.6K in Feb., up 24.1% YoY and the largest annual increase in % terms since Apr. 2022. 34.5% of home purchases were made with all cash, up 33.4% YoY.
🌎 Society
The average US adult travels 42 mi per day. Residents in Monroe County, PA travel the furthest (70 mi) while Manhattan residents travel the fewest daily miles (12.9).
A survey by PRRI showed that 26% of US adults identified as religiously unaffiliated in 2023, up 5% from 2013. 18% left a religious tradition to become religiously unaffiliated, particularly people who were previously Catholic (35%) and mainline/non-evangelical Protestant (35%).
A vendor working for the federal government incorrectly calculated a formula for more than 200K students who applied for financial aid through FAFSA. It’s unlikely that many students, if any, received financial aid offers based on the incorrect info but many students applying for college have been left in limbo as they wait for the Dept. of Ed to correct the application.
A survey by Indeed found that, across all age groups, employed women are more likely than employed men to cite remote work as a reason for their job search.
🧪 Science, Climate, Environment & Technology
A new study estimated that the carbon footprint of food grown in individual and community gardens is 6x greater than food grown in conventional, commercial farms.
NIH supported ~37.5K grant awardees in FY 2023, out of ~92.7 applicants. Read about the complexities of managing the NIH budget for grants.
A rare cosmic eruption is expected to occur in the Milky Way between now and Sep. The outburst will be so bright that it will be easily visible from people’s backyards. Once an eruption is detected, the best and brightest views will likely come within 24 hrs, when it reaches ~the same brightness as the North Star.
Nissan announced plans to release 34 new EV models through 2030. It would account for 40% of global offerings by 2026 if plans go accordingly.
As of 2022, 18% of “the world’s top AI researchers” were trained at a US undergrad institution, according to data from MacroPolo. Chinese institutions accounted for 47%. However, the US is home to 60% of the world’s most elite AI talent.
A new study suggests that a single giant object slammed into the surface of Mars and left 2B small craters around the main Corinto impact crater.
The number of STEM postdocs employed at US institutions in Fall 2022 fell 1% YoY to ~62.8K postdocs. Among US citizens and permanent residents, the number of postdocs fell 8% from ~29.8K to ~27.3K.
A survey of 1,000 K-12 teachers and admins in the US showed that ~47% believe AI won't significantly affect their employment opportunities. ~28% believe that AI will be a boon to their careers, while 25% believe the impact will be negative.
A federal court in California released new documents that were part of a class action lawsuit that revealed that Facebook secretly intercepted and decrypted Snapchat’s network traffic using a ‘man-in-the-middle’ attack. It then expanded the program to snoop on Amazon and YouTube users.
The number of satellites and other space debris in low-Earth orbit is on track to exceed 100K in the next 10 yrs as SpaceX, OneWeb, GuoWang, and Amazon plan to launch ~65K more satellites. Image a shows the current number while image b reflects the expected increase.
Researchers created a camera that can shoot up to 156T frames per second. A typical high-end camera can capture ~100 fps.
A new study argued that the killer whale (aka Orcinus orca) should be split into 3 separate species: residents, transients, and all others. Resident killer whales have a more rounded dorsal fin than transients, a more open saddle patch with pigmentation, and subsist on fish, while the transient killer whales eat marine mammals like seals, porpoises, and sea lions. Resident whales are also very vocal with discernible dialects and live in a defined area in stable groups led by the eldest female.
Earth has been spinning faster than it used to but a new study suggests that ice melting at both of Earth’s poles has counteracted the increasing speed of rotation such that we may need to add a “negative leap second” by 2029. Without these shifts, we would have needed to add a negative leap second as soon as 2026. If ignored, the small millisecond deviation between atomic clocks and Earth's rotation would snowball into a large time discrepancy that can disrupt navigation and telecommunications systems.
USPS issued a new stamp on Mar. 27 to celebrate Manatee Appreciation Day and “bring further awareness to the plight of this beautiful animal.”
The Biden administration has vowed to build 500K EV charging stations across the US by 2030. In the 2 yrs since the $7.5B investment was announced, only 7 stations with a total of 38 spots are operational in 4 states (🔒WP).
Wishing you a good week
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