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Good morning. Today, we officially turn two years old – and in celebration, we’d like to announce The Dollars for DONUTs Weekend.
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What it is: A weekend-long raffle giving you the chance to win cold, hard cash and donate to charity at the same time… in short, we’ve crafted the perfect win-win scenario.
Intrigued? More details to follow. 😏👇
⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 4.86 minutes to read. (With the 360 view: 9.36 minutes.)
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🍩 Daily Sprinkle
"The [person] who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere critic – the [person] who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly, not the [person] who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done."
–Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th President of the United States
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🗣👂 Dose of Discussion
📧 A Closer Look at Dr. Fauci’s Emails
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More than 3,200 pages of emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, were published by Buzzfeed News on Tuesday, while the Washington
Post ($) posted excerpts from more than 860 pages of emails.
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The two news organizations were able to obtain the documents through requests via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). (What is that?)
🤿 A deeper dive…
The emails, dating from January to June 2020 (Buzzfeed News) and March to April 2020 (WaPo), offer a glimpse into the early days of the U.S. COVID outbreak.
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They cover Dr. Fauci’s dealings with the federal government, foreign and domestic health officials, the media, celebrities, and everyday Americans.
Some portions of the emails are redacted, meaning the agency providing the documents determined the blacked-out sections fell under one of the FOIA’s nine exemptions (or three exclusions).
Watch: Dr. Fauci responds to his released emails in a CNN interview.
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👇📰 Quick Bits
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💊 Breast Cancer Breakthrough
A long-running international study published online in the New England Journal of Medicine and released at a major cancer research meeting yesterday, found a drug called Lynparza was “associated with significantly longer survival free of invasive or distant disease” in women with HER-2 negative early breast cancer.
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The study found that after three years, the disease-free survival rate of patients given Lynparza was 8.8 percentage points higher than a placebo group (85.9% vs. 77.1%; 95% confidence interval).
More: Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, causing about 43,600 deaths in the U.S. annually.
Go deeper.
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✈️ United Goes Supersonic
Remember the supersonic jet we covered last week in Calling from the Future? Well, United Airlines just bought 15 – with the option to purchase 35 more (they must have been reading, huh).
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To jog your memory: Startup Boom Supersonic says its new plane, called the Overture, will be twice as fast as traditional subsonic jets, reaching speeds of up to 1,450 MPH and enabling travel from New York to London in just 3 hours 15 minutes.
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Per United’s press release: “Once operational, Overture is expected to be the first large commercial aircraft to be net-zero carbon from day one, optimized to run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). It is slated to roll out in 2025, fly in 2026 and expected to carry passengers by 2029.”
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🔌 Gates, Buffett, & Nuclear Power in Wyoming
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon announced his state will host a Natrium reactor pilot project in partnership with the Department of Energy and two companies – TerraPower & PacifiCorp.
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TerraPower is a nuclear reactor design company founded by Bill Gates, while PacifiCorp is a power company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
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The Natrium technology is reportedly more fuel-efficient, cost-effective, and safer than traditional nuclear reactors and could supplement existing renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. (What is Natrium?)
However… From The Guardian: “Nuclear power experts have warned that advanced reactors could have higher risks than conventional ones. Fuel for many advanced reactors would have to be enriched at a much higher rate than conventional fuel, meaning the fuel supply chain could be an attractive target for militants looking to create a crude nuclear weapon, a recent report said.”
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DONUT Holes…
Image: Mexico News Daily
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🇲🇽🕳️ A sinkhole in Mexico is threatening to swallow a home in Mexico’s Puebla state; officials said the hole started at 5 meters in diameter but gradually expanded to reach 100 meters in diameter yesterday.
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🐦 Twitter announced its first-ever subscription service, called Twitter Blue, which gives customers access to exclusive features such as Undo Tweet; service is rolling out immediately to users in Canada ($2.88/mo.) and Australia ($3.44/mo.), with no word on future U.S. availability.
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❌🇨🇳 President Biden expanded a ban on U.S. investment in Chinese companies linked to the country’s military, bringing the list of affected companies to 59. (From the Left | From the Right)
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💼 Jobless claims clocked in at a new pandemic low for the fifth straight week. | Private payrolls rose by 978k in May vs. an estimated 680k, per a report from payroll processing firm ADP.
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🦗 The FDA warned people with seafood allergies not to eat cicadas, as they share a “family relation” to shrimp and lobsters.
🌎 The Weird Wide World...
DONUT HQ is located in the city of Austin, which has a motto: “Keep Austin Weird.” In celebration of that sentiment, we bring you the most unusual, off-the-wall, and occasionally laugh-out-loud stories from this week:
Ninth Circuit Court Judge Kenneth K. Lee Calls The Last Jedi And The Rise of Skywalker "Mediocre and Schlocky" In ConAgra Ruling
Italian Artist Salvatore Garau Just Sold an Invisible Sculpture for $18,000 USD, certificate of authenticity included
This scientist shoots trees (like, with a rifle) to study how they migrate
Woman found in storm drain in South Florida now rescued from storm drain in Texas
California teen pushes bear off wall to protect family dogs
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📣🗣💬 This Week’s Poll Responses
Background: Last week, Facebook announced everyone on Instagram and Facebook will now have the option to hide their own public like counts and the public like counts of posts in their feed.
Keep things the same: "The like counts and reactions are a double-edged sword. They are great for showing support or love for friends and family members on the kind of positive content that social media needs more of. But any time someone shares an opinion on social media, someone will disagree and the original poster will likely be attacked or ridiculed for their beliefs. I guess I have become accustomed to the system and learned to take it all with a grain of salt."
Hide likes everywhere – period, full stop: "I am an educator at the high school level, and over the last decade I have seen an alarming rise in mental health issues with our children. Their self worth is so closely linked to the perceived image they put on social media. It destroys their day if they do not have likes. I had a star baseball athlete express to me, "Imagine knowing every single time you were left out, uninvited, or missed something?" For my female students, it is a constant comparison to a fake impossible standard of perfection. Burn it to the ground!"
Unsure/Other: "I got off social media entirely about 2 years ago and have been so much happier ever since."
Out of 540 total votes, we got a whopping ZERO written responses from:
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Hide likes from my own posts, but not others
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Hide likes from others, but not my own posts
+Note on Sample Size: We received 540 responses. 👏🥳 Some may have been lightly edited for grammar or clarity.
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💵 Dollars for DONUTs 🍩
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The Backstory: P Diddy once spent $3M on a single birthday party, transforming a NY hotel’s 1920s-era ballroom into a 'fantasy dreamland', featuring a maze, fashion shows and performance art installations.
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We were gonna do that, but then remembered 1) we’re not rich and 2) there are more important things in life. At the end of the day, we’d rather spend our birthday money on what matters most to us: you, our dear reader.
Introducing The Dollars for DONUTs Weekend.
What it is: A weekend-long raffle for a chance to win cold, hard cash.
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Three lucky subscribers will win cash prizes of $50 apiece.
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One lucky subscriber will win a cash prize of $100.
How to Enter: Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to find your unique referral link – and then send it to one person. Once they subscribe to the DONUT, boom! You have one entry. We’ll draw four winners at random and announce it in the newsletter on Monday.
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Pro tip: Each valid referral* counts as one entry, so the more referrals you get, the higher chance you have of winning (i.e, 3 referrals give you 3 entries, 15 gives you 15 entries, so-on and so-forth).
Here’s where the ‘Dollars for DONUTs’ comes in: For every valid referral*, we’ll donate $1 to the Mental Health Crisis Text Line, which provides free 24/7 support to individuals in crisis.
To summarize:
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You get a chance to win cold, hard cash.
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We get a chance to spread our mission to more people.
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We both get the chance to support a good cause.
A win-win-win. Happy birthday to us. 🥳
🚨Important to note: The clock starts now, and the weekend ends promptly at 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday. Any referrals after that time will not count towards the contest.
*Valid referral = someone who subscribes to the DONUT with a valid email address and opens our welcome email.
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🤗 Daily Dose of Positive
🐶👔 Furry Friends Friday: Ethan the CTO
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Images: Facebook
In April, Busch Beers announced they were hiring for a new position with some major responsibilities: Chief Tasting Officer for their new Dog Brew.
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“We are currently seeking a pawfessional pup to become our first Chief Tasting Officer. $20,000 salary and benefits included,” read the post that kicked off the search.
The title was eventually granted last week to Ethan, a rescue dog from Louisville who has quite the story:
Abandoned in a parking lot in January severely underweight and malnourished, Ethan fought for his life until his adoption in March.
⏩ Fast forward: Now, the viral pup has a family of his own and all the Dog Brew he could want. #Winning.
Keep reading.
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🛸🌄📲 Calling from the Future…
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🧵 Knot What It Seams…
Image: Anna Gittelson | Photo: Roni Cnaani
Engineers at the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT recently invented the first clothing fiber with digital capabilities.
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The new fiber, created by placing hundreds of minute silicon digital chips, can stretch as long as ten meters and is able to store and analyze complex information.
In one experiment, the researchers were able to store a 767 KB, full-color short film file and a 0.48 MB music file on one of the digital fibers.
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The fiber is undetectable by a wearer when sewn into a garment, and can withstand being washed at least 10 times without breaking.
Keep reading.
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💡 Dose of Knowledge
🌱 Animal Crossing
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What lives in a formicarium?
A) Gorillas
B) Turtles
C) Butterflies
D) Ants
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(keep scrolling for the answer) |
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🍩 Share the DONUT
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Did you know...
You can unlock merch, exclusive rewards, and even an all-expenses-paid round trip to Austin, TX, just for sharing this newsletter? (P.S. This is on top of The Dollars for DONUTs Weekend raffle.)
Simply:
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Copy your unique referral link.👇
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Post said link in the family group chat, DM it to a friend or two, get a sign made and put it up on your front lawn, etc.
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Watch the rewards roll in.
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Ambassador Rewards and Progress → |
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💡 Dose of Knowledge Answer
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D) Ants
A formicarium, or ant farm, is an artificial habitat designed primarily for the study of ant colonies and how ants behave. The name is derived from the Latin formica, meaning “an ant.”
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