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Dose Of News Useful Today
Friday, March 12th
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🥳 We Made It
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Welcome to Friday. Sweet, sweet Friday.
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Stimulus checks are imminent, the EU officially approved J&J’s vaccine, and the CDC released a life expectancy report.
⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 4.84 minutes to read.
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Daily Sprinkle |
"Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost."
–Helen Keller
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💰 NFTs: New-Found Trend?
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A JPG file created by Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, sold for nearly $70M at Christie’s yesterday, becoming the first purely digital non-fungible token (NFT) piece of artwork sold at a major auction house.
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The $69.3M price tag, including fees, sets a new high for an artwork that exists only digitally. It also marks the third-highest auction price achieved for a living artist (after Jeff Koons and David Hockney).
Beeple’s artwork, titled Everydays: The First 5,000 Days, is a collage of all the images the self-taught artist has posted online each day since 2007. (Check it out.)
What is an NFT?
In simple terms, an NFT is documentation of ownership of a one-of-a-kind digital asset - including images, GIFs, songs, or videos - using blockchain technology similar to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
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NFT buyers typically receive limited rights to distribute or license the digital artwork it represents, though in many situations the buyers are simply purchasing bragging rights and an asset they may be able to resell later.
The NFT market tripled in 2020 to $250+ million, according to a report by NonFungible.com. The number of active wallets nearly doubled.
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The NBA & Dapper Labs recently launched NBA Top Shot – an NFT trading card system that has generated nearly $350M in sales as of Thursday, according to data from Cryptoslam (up from $230M as of February 28).
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Twitter founder & CEO Jack Dorsey is currently selling his first tweet - “just setting up my twttr” - as an NFT in a timed charity auction, with the bidding at $2.5M as of yesterday.
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The rock band Kings of Leon became the first group to release an album as a series of NFTs last Friday, generating up to $2M in sales as of Wednesday.
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A unique NFT of a Banksy print titled Morons was auctioned for $380K on Sunday after the seller previously burned the original artwork in a live streamed video.
This step-by-step process illustrates how you can create your own NFT. (It’s easier than you think. The hard part? Convincing others it’s worth millions.)
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🖊️ Biden Signs COVID Relief Bill
President Biden signed the $1.9T COVID-19 relief package into law on Thursday, one day earlier than originally planned.
More: Shortly after the signing, the White House said Americans with direct deposit set up can expect to receive their $1,400 stimulus payments “as soon as this weekend.”
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🔫 House Passes Gun Legislation
The House approved two bills yesterday aimed at expanding background checks for gun purchases and transfers and to allow an expanded 10-day review for gun purchases.
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Senate Democrats have already introduced their own versions of both gun bills, but it is unclear whether there will be enough Republican support to reach the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
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📝 CDC Life Expectancy Report
The CDC released a National Vital Statistics Report yesterday, finding Americans born in 2018 are expected to live an average of 78.7 years. Women are more likely to outlive men by an average of five years (81.2 years vs. 76.2 years).
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According to the report, the state with the highest life expectancy was Hawaii (81 years), followed by California (80.8), New York (80.5), and Minnesota (80.5).
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The state with the lowest life expectancy was West Virginia (74 years), followed by Mississippi (74.6), Alabama (75.1), and Kentucky (75.3). (Full map of the U.S.)
More: The CDC’s latest figures come about a month after the agency published a provisional report finding life expectancy at birth fell by one year in the first half of 2020 to 77.8 years – the biggest decline since WWII.
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⏰ Catch Up Quick:
⚖️ A district judge ruled former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin will face an additional charge of third-degree murder for his role in the death of George Floyd. (Left of Center | Right of Center)
🗽 NY State Assembly Democrats agreed to launch an impeachment investigation to examine accusations of misconduct against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, including sexual harassment and an alleged cover-up of nursing home deaths. (Left of Center | Right of Center)
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🛍️ Coupang Enters With a Bang
South Korean e-commerce company Coupang raised $4.6B in its IPO yesterday, marking the largest U.S. IPO for a foreign company since Alibaba in 2014.
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Coupang priced its shares at $35, valuing the company at $60B, with Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co., and JPMorgan Chase among the lead underwriters.
The stock began trading on the NYSE at $63.50 apiece before closing at $49.25, giving the company a market cap of $84.47B (+41% compared to its IPO price).
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🔒 And Now Their Watch Is (Maybe) Ended
Netflix is testing out a new password policy with an unknown number of customers.
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The company began prompting certain people to sign up for a separate account if they aren’t watching with the subscriber, or verify being an account owner through an email or text code.
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According to a spokesperson, Netflix tries “hundreds” of tests a year with select customers, which means this trial may not lead to a larger crackdown around password sharing.
More: About one-third of all Netflix users share their password with at least one other person, according to research firm Magid.
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💉 EU Approves J&J Vaccine
The EU formally authorized Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine on Thursday.
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Unlike the other three widely-approved Western vaccines (from Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, & AstraZeneca/Oxford University), J&J’s version only requires one shot for full efficacy.
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It can also be kept in refrigerators for up to three months, making it easier to store and distribute than some rival vaccines (both Pfizer & Moderna’s vaccines need to be stored at below-freezing temperatures).
More: In October, the EU ordered 200M doses of J&J’s vaccine with the option for 200M more. Last week, J&J said it was confident the company would meet its full-year target.
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🐶 Furry Friends Friday: Best Buds
“Their bond was instant. Reagan seemed to know that Buddy needed a furry friend to help him adjust and make him feel safe and loved.”
Buddy was only 11 months old when he was taken in as a foster child by Oregon resident Kari Lewis in 2014. About a month before, Kari’s mom (Sandi) adopted a Labradoodle puppy named Reagan.
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Sandi originally adopted the pup to fill the “child-sized void” in her life after her first foster grandkids were adopted by forever families.
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Buddy entered the picture soon after, becoming Sandi’s forever grandson once Kari officially adopted him.
“Reagan gets SO excited whenever Buddy comes over. [They] don’t see each other every day, but that only increases the excitement level when they are reunited.”
The duo has grown up together over the past seven years, developing an unbreakable bond – and more adventures are yet to come.
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🌎 Start Me Up
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Which country has the largest number of startup companies per capita in the world?
A) Canada
B) New Zealand
C) United States
D) Israel
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(keep scrolling for the answer) |
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Dose of Knowledge Answer |
D) Israel
Israel (pop. 8.5M) has the most startups per capita in the world, with roughly one startup per every 1,400 people (~6k startups in total).
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