Your Dose Of News Useful Today awaits...…
|
| View in browser |
|
|
Dose Of News Useful Today
Thursday, April 1st
|
|
|
|
📅 Too Cool to Fool
|
Good morning. No April Fool’s pranks from us, promise. The world’s crazy enough as it is.
-
Taste of Today: We’re covering Microsoft’s AR Army contract, an NYC hate crime, and the NCAA’s landmark compensation case. 👇
⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 5.16 minutes to read.
(First time reading? Sign up here.)
|
|
|
Daily Sprinkle |
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
–Bill Gates
|
|
|
 |
⚖️ Supreme Court & the NCAA
|
The Supreme Court heard 90 minutes of oral arguments yesterday in a case regarding the NCAA’s restrictions on student-athlete compensation.
📜 Background
The case in question, NCAA vs. Alston, originally began as a class-action lawsuit filed in 2014 alleging the NCAA’s restrictions on eligibility and compensation violate federal antitrust laws.
-
Last year, a district court judge ruled the NCAA could not limit benefits tied to education for Division I football and basketball players.
-
The decision allows payments for things like postgrad scholarships, tutoring, study abroad, internships, or limited cash awards for academic achievement.
The judge also ruled the NCAA could continue to restrict benefits unrelated to education, such as the outright payment of salaries. The NCAA later appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.
|
🤿 A deeper dive…
In a nutshell, this is an antitrust case about the legality of colleges agreeing to limit compensation to student-athletes through the NCAA. Federal antitrust law prohibits businesses from unreasonably restraining how they compete against each other.
-
The student-athletes, with the backing of the Justice Department, are arguing it is illegal for the NCAA and its member schools to cap benefits and compensation tied to education.
-
In a competitive landscape, they assert, schools would vie for recruits in the same way they contend for coaches, faculty, and staff. In those scenarios, schools can theoretically offer to pay any amount of salary along with any fringe benefits.
The NCAA is arguing that antitrust law allows it to impose certain limits on athlete compensation in order to preserve what it says is an essential distinction between college and professional sports – amateurism.
-
It claims having amateurs promotes competition for consumers by giving them a choice between college and professional sports, and without that distinction some college fans would lose interest.
The NCAA also said its eligibility rules should be subject to less stringent review for the separate reason that it isn’t a commercial entity, but rather an association created as part of its members’ broader educational mission.
🗣️ What Did The Court Say?
Justices on both sides of the aisle questioned whether amateurism is an essential part of the NCAA’s business model, pointing out athletes already receive some payment in the form of scholarships, stipends, and other benefits which haven’t affected TV ratings or ticket sales.
-
They also wondered what the “end game” would be for student-athletes, and expressed concerns about starting a slippery slope of incremental judicial rulings that could lead to college sports clearly being professional by anyone’s definition.
The Supreme Court’s decision is expected by late June.
|
|
|
|
Questions about the rating system we use?
Learn more |
|
Share Today's Dose of Discussion |
|
|
 |
|
📝 Teen Vaccine Study
Pfizer announced the results of a non-peer reviewed study finding its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and protective in kids as young as 12.
-
Preliminary data from 2,260 U.S. volunteers ages 12 to 15 showed zero coronavirus cases among fully vaccinated adolescents, compared to 18 among those given a placebo shot.
-
The company said kids experienced side effects similar to young adults, including pain, fever, chills, and fatigue – particularly after the second dose.
More: Pfizer said it plans to submit the study data to the FDA as a proposed amendment to its existing Emergency Use Authorization in the coming weeks.
Even More: The study will continue to track participants for two years for more information about long-term protection and safety.
|
|
🗽 Hate Crime Suspect Arrested
Authorities arrested a 38-year-old male suspect on assault and hate crime charges in the attack of a 65-year-old Asian woman in NYC on Monday. The incident was captured on surveillance video and drew widespread outrage.
-
The suspect, who is Black, had been convicted of stabbing his mother to death in the Bronx in 2002, and was released from prison on lifetime parole in 2019 after being denied twice before.
-
Police said he was living at a hotel that serves as a homeless shelter a few blocks from where the attack took place.
|
|
🇫🇷🔒 France Enters Lockdown
French President Emmaneul Macron ordered France into its third national lockdown yesterday in an effort to fight rising COVID-19 cases (+59,038 on Wednesday).
-
Schools will be closed for at least three weeks beginning next week, and all non-essential businesses closed starting Saturday.
-
The government also imposed a ban on traveling more than six miles from home without a valid reason.
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
🥽 Microsoft Equips U.S. ARmy
The Department of Defense awarded Microsoft a contract to supply the U.S. Army with augmented reality headsets based on the company’s HoloLens tech.
-
Microsoft will be filling an order for 120k AR headsets, worth up as much as $21.9B over the next ten years.
-
The company has been working closely with the Army since 2018 to test headsets that combine high-resolution night, thermal, and soldier-borne sensors into a heads-up display.
More: In February, the Army revealed a new version of its HUD that allows the operator of an armored vehicle to see through its walls.
|
🚫 Facebook & Trump
Facebook confirmed it removed a video of an interview between former President Donald Trump and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump in line with the platform’s indefinite suspension of the former president.
-
An email posted by Lara Trump - and later confirmed by Facebook - said “content posted on Facebook and Instagram in the voice of President Trump is not currently allowed on our platforms (including new posts with President Trump speaking).”
From the Left → CNBC
From the Right → NY Post
|
🥇 And The Winner Is…
The 2020 Turing Award - often referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize in computing’ - was awarded to Dr. Alfred Aho and Dr. Jeffrey Ullman yesterday morning.
-
The two researchers helped develop and refine a crucial software development tool called the compiler.
-
A compiler effectively takes high-level software programs written by humans and converts them into low-level machine code computers can understand.
More: Recipients of the annual prize, named for British computing pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing, are selected by the Association for Computing Machinery and awarded a $1M cash prize courtesy of Google.
|
🧠 In the Know...
📱 Siri is adding two new voices and will stop defaulting to a female voice in the U.S.
✈️💺 Delta will reopen middle seats on flights starting May 1.
🥊 Endeavor, the talent agency led by Ari Emanuel, is purchasing the rest of the UFC (revealed in an IPO filing Wednesday).
|
|
| |
|
 |
🌴 A Modern Day Tarzan
“On the eighth day I grabbed all my things and started walking east. ‘I’m not going to die here’, I told myself. ‘I’m not going to die.’”
Brazilian pilot Antonio Sena was completing a trip over the Amazon when his plane’s engine gave out, sending the craft plummeting into the forest below – 60 miles from the closest civilization.
-
With his aircraft full of diesel fuel, Antonio grabbed some supplies and food and quickly ran from the plane, which exploded just minutes later.
Using basic survival knowledge, he set up camp near the remains of the plane in hopes that someone would come looking for him.
After a week, Antonio started walking east in hopes of finding civilization.
-
His routine was always the same: walk until noon, and then set up camp on a hill and away from water – avoiding predators such as crocodiles or jaguars.
-
For food, Antonio observed the forest’s spider monkeys to learn which fruits were edible.
Finally, after 36 days, Antonio heard the sound of a chainsaw and “almost euphorically” made his way towards a group of people gathering nuts.
He had survived.
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
-
⚡ Energizing Innovation… U.S. Department of Energy scientists released a new design for a more compact, stable, and economical fusion reactor following a push from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to place fusion power on the grid by 2040.
|
-
🦗 What Happens In Vegas… using archived Nevada weather radar data, an ecologist at the University of Oklahoma discovered that, one night in July 2019, a staggering 45M grasshoppers - weighing a combined 33.3 tons - swarmed the city of Las Vegas, attracted by its intense artificial lighting.
|
|
| |
|
 |
🎸🇺🇸 R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.
|
Which of the following was NOT a famous 1970s rock band?
A) Boston
B) Kansas
C) Chicago
D) New York
|
(keep scrolling for the answer) |
|
| |
|
 |
Get Your FREE Stuff |
Step 1. Use the button below or copy your unique referral link |
Step 2. Share the DONUT with friends |
Step 3. Cash in on tons of rewards |
|
 |
|
Or share your unique referral link with others: |
Oops, we couldn't find your link, click here to get it
|
| |
|
|
Dose of Knowledge Answer |
D) New York
The bands Boston, Kansas, and Chicago were responsible for chart-topping 1970s hits like More Than a Feeling, Carry On Wayward Son, and 25 or 6 to 4, respectively.
|
|
What do you think of today's email? |
   |
|
|
