Wednesday, Mar 11 2020

Dose Of News Useful Today

Thursday, March 12th

Poll Patrol

Good morning. The results are in from yesterday’s coronavirus poll:

Question 1: In your opinion, COVID-19 coronavirus is…
A) Extremely serious (7%) B) Very serious (32%) C) Somewhat serious (24%) D) Not serious, it’s overhyped and overblown (31%) E) Other (6%)

Question 2: On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rank the global response to the outbreak? (1 is poor, 5 is exceptional)
1 - 6.5% 2 - 23% 3 - 38% 4 - 26% 5 - 6.5%

Question 3: On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rank the U.S. response to the outbreak? (1 is poor, 5 is exceptional)
1 - 26% 2 - 21.5% 3 - 21.5% 4 - 18% 5 - 13%

Daily Sprinkle

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”

– Henry Ford

Coronavirus: Causing Concern

Yesterday, the World Health Organization officially declared the coronavirus a global pandemic (meaning it has spread to the entire world). So far, 114 countries have reported at least one confirmed case of the virus.

A quick bit of context…
There have been over 126,000 confirmed cases worldwide, with more than 4,600 deaths.

SARS: 8,098 confirmed cases and 774 deaths.
Seasonal Flu: An estimated 34 million U.S. cases this season and 20,000 deaths.
Swine Flu (H1N1): An estimated 11% to 22% of the global population was infected in 2009, resulting in 150,000 to 500,000 deaths.

The Impact...
Though the number of infected persons represents a small fraction of the global population, the virus has directly or indirectly affected the world across:

Markets:

The U.S. stock market has been especially volatile this week - indexes fell nearly 8% on Monday, bounced back almost 5% on Tuesday, and fell 5% on Wednesday (entering a bear market).
The Bank of England announced an emergency cut to interest rates (similar to last week’s move by the Federal Reserve).
Stock index futures fell 4% Wednesday night after President Trump announced the U.S. is suspending all travel from Europe for the next 30 days.

Sports/Entertainment:

The NBA suspended the remainder of the season after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus.
The NCAA announced yesterday that both the men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments will be held without any fans in attendance.
The Golden State Warriors will play their future home games without any fans after San Francisco banned all public events with more than 1,000 people.
Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, both tested positive for the virus yesterday.

Business:

The virus has hit travel agencies, airlines, cruise lines, and hotels especially hard - you can see the full effect in this graph.
According to the Institute for Supply Management, nearly 75% of all U.S. companies have seen a disruption in their supply chain.

So… what are people saying?

Questions about the rating system we use?
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Weinstein Sentenced

Disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Wednesday after he was found guilty of a first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape. Weinstein still faces further criminal charges in Los Angeles, which could add even more years to his sentence.

More: The #MeToo movement has now resulted in seven convictions and four charges brought against influential abusers.

LEFT CENTER → BBC	RIGHT CENTER → Washington Times

DOJ Busts Mexican Cartel

Yesterday the DOJ announced the arrests of 250 members of the violent Mexican Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) in a series of raids at locations across the country. The arrests are the result of an operation dubbed “Project Python,” which has netted a total of 750 arrests and seizures of $20 million over the past six months.

LEFT CENTER → USA Today	RIGHT CENTER → New York Post

Airstrike Kills 2 Americans in Iraq

U.S. officials said that three soldiers (two Americans) were killed and a dozen more were injured following a rocket attack at an Iraqi military base. Officials did not say which group they believe launched the attack.

LEFT CENTER → ABC News	RIGHT CENTER → WSJ (no $ needed)

Drink In My Hand

PepsiCo has agreed to purchase Rockstar Energy Beverages in a deal worth $3.85 billion. Rockstar founder Russell Weiner owns 85% of the company (a more than $3.2 billion payout), while his mom and CFO, Janet, owns the other 15%.

Are You Not Entertained?

The global entertainment market surpassed $100 billion last year for the first time ever, according to a report by the Motion Picture Association of America. More than 75% of the U.S. population (268 million people) went to the cinema at least once in 2019, slightly up over the previous year’s total.

Boeing Under

Boeing on Wednesday said it will suspend hiring and limit employee overtime as the company’s shares fell more than 18% on the day - its largest single-day percentage drop in history. Boeing’s free-fall contributed more than 284 points to the Dow’s 1,465 point drop on Wednesday.

Walk It Off

Going through intense bouts of chemotherapy treatment can wear down even the healthiest of bodies, which makes 13-year-old cancer patient Joey Belles’ feat all the more impressive.

As part of his physical therapy, Joey walked through the halls of the hospital with a single goal on his mind - by the time he had completed his very last chemotherapy treatment, Joey had walked the equivalent of an entire marathon.

Happy Feet

When middle-school basketball coach Danielle Jones (“Coach Buckets”) learned that some of her less-fortunate players didn’t own a pair of sneakers to play in, she knew something had to be done.

Coach Buckets mentioned her issue to the director of a local AAU team, who partnered with the Sneaker Giveaway Project to provide more than 100 pairs of socks and sneakers to the students.

Driving Change

When North Carolina car dealer James Charles learned that one of his customers was homeless and lived out of her vehicle, he tried to help out - but found every shelter in the city was full.

James ended up providing her a hotel room for a few days, but the issue never left his mind. He recently made the parking lot of his dealership available for anyone who needs a safe, secure place to rest at night.

🍎 How Do You Like Them Apples?… learn how researchers at the University of Washington developed a brand new type of apple - called the Cosmic Crisp - after 20 years of research.

🌲 Bunker Down… Scottish forestry workers recently discovered a long-lost WWII-era bunker that housed UK special forces during the war.

📦 Make It, Don’t Fake It… the WSJ (no $) chronicles Amazon’s efforts to crack down on counterfeit products and absurd price gouging on items made popular by the coronavirus.

🤖 The Bot Zone… in a partnership with CloudMinds, China has opened a hospital ward in Wuhan staffed by robots in an effort to prevent medics from becoming infected themselves.

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One In A Million

What was the first city to reach a population of one million?

A) Rome
B) New York City
C) London
D) Beijing

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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Dose of Knowledge Answer

A) Rome

Ancient Rome became the first city to surpass one million residents in the year 133 B.C. The second city to reach that milestone - London - did so more than 19 centuries later.