Kyle Nowak

🖱📰 Click to see a list of bite-sized stories you should know for today.

🔥 It’s Monday, August 7th – and here’s what’s hot, hot, hot.

🇺🇸⬇️ This week, credit agency Fitch downgraded the US govt’s perfect AAA rating by one level to an AA+. It’s the first time the US has been downgraded since 2011, and the second such occurrence in over a century.

"When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you."

–Lao Tzu (b. 571 B.C.)

🥓📈 Bringing home the bacon is getting more expensive. Wholesale prices for pork belly – the cut of meat used to make bacon – have almost tripled since the start of June after hitting a multiyear low in May.

🌍 Around the world: Somalia suspended its head athletics official for nepotism in response to a… highly-unqualified sprinter, the Islamic State (ISIS) confirmed that its top leader died in Syria, and more.

🛌🛌 Is your partner a serial snorer or sheet-hog? You may want to consider a “sleep divorce” – or sleeping separately for sleep-related (not conflict-related) reasons.

🖱📰 Click to see a list of bite-sized stories you should know for today.

🔥 It’s Friday, August 4th – and here’s what’s hot, hot, hot.

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

–Seneca (4 B.C. – 65 A.D.)

🚫🍿 Hollywood’s writers and studios are set to meet on Friday to discuss the possibility of resuming negotiations. It’ll be the first time the two sides are meeting since the writer’s strike began three months ago.

This weekly section delivers the most outlandish, off-the-wall, and occasionally laugh-out-loud news stories of the week, as well as some hilarious or… curious synchronicities crowdsourced from around the world.

🌍 Around the world: Orcas off the coast of Spain may be playing a game when interacting with (and damaging) nearby ships, the Taiwanese gov’t began providing free period products in all schools, and more.

❓ Our question to you: Do you agree with the federal government’s new ban on the sale of most incandescent light bulbs?

💑📱 Much like a hiker who’s safely made it down the other side of a 14-er, dating apps may be past their peak. User growth is slowing, and the pool of available younger users is starting to slow down

🌿😬 America’s budding cannabis industry suffered a pair of setbacks over the past week.

🖱📰 Click to see a list of bite-sized stories you should know for today.

🔥 It’s Thursday, August 3rd – and here’s what’s hot, hot, hot.

🏪 Ads are coming soon to a Walmart grocery aisle near you. And the retailer’s not alone in this strategy.

“Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own. Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality.”

–James Cameron (b. 1954)