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Good morning and welcome to Thursday.
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⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 4.87 minutes to read. (With the 360° view: +3.45 minutes.)
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🍩 Daily Sprinkle
"Shortcuts make long delays."
–J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973)
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👇📰 Quick Bits
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🧾🪙 Crypto At The Checkout Line
 Image: BitPay/Verifone
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🎁 Imagine a world where you could pay for Chipotle using dogecoin – or buy a pair of blue jeans using bitcoin.
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That’s the goal of a new partnership between crypto payment service provider BitPay and Verifone, America’s largest provider of the POS machines you use to pay via credit card or Apple Pay in most stores.
📲 Easy does it… The two companies aim to make their system as simple as possible for consumers and merchants, who will be able to accept crypto payments directly from Verifone without the need for an account with BitPay.
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At checkout, consumers select their preferred crypto wallet on a Verifone device and scan an on-screen QR code to complete the transaction.
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Once the crypto funds have been received by BitPay, the merchant will receive an approval message on the in-store terminal and the funds will be deposited in their bank account in traditional USD.
👁️ Looking ahead… The partnership comes as a growing number of regulators worldwide have been cracking down on cryptocurrency, including China, Singapore, and India.
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At a conference this week, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said “people will be hurt” if crypto markets remain unregulated.
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🦤 The U.S. Adds to Extinction List
 Image: Haven Daley/AP
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🎁 The Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday that 22 animals and one plant native to the U.S. are now extinct – the ivory-billed woodpecker, Bachman’s warbler, two species of freshwater fishes, eight species of Southeastern freshwater mussels, and eleven species from Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Islands.
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📝 Causes… The factors behind the disappearances vary; too much development, water pollution, logging, competition from invasive species, birds killed for feathers, and animals captured by private collectors. In each case, humans were a major factor.
✋ But, but, but: Though improbable, it’s technically not impossible for some of these extinct species to reappear.
Take the ivory-billed woodpecker, for instance (pictured at the top):
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature, a Switzerland-based group that tracks extinctions globally, is not putting the ivory-billed woodpecker into its extinction column because it’s possible the birds still exist in Cuba.
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This follows a study authored in 2005 by Cornell University bird biologist John Fitzpatrick claiming the woodpecker had been rediscovered in eastern Arkansas.
On the flip side, a federal analysis published Wednesday found “no objective evidence” of its existence.
🏞️ Zoom out: More than 1,000 animals and plants are currently categorized as threatened or endangered – and how they’re being saved is changing. No longer is the focus on individual species, but the broader goal now is to preserve their habitat, which boosts species of all types that live there.
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"We don't have the resources to prevent extinctions unilaterally. We have to think proactively about ecosystem health and how do we maintain it, given all these threats," biologist Michelle Bogardus with the wildlife service in Hawaii told NPR.
👁️ Looking ahead… Yesterday’s announcement kicks off a three-month comment period before the species status changes become final.
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🍩 DONUT Holes…
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☝️ How much do you think this 10,000 sq foot condo is listed for ? (Hint: it’s a 90th-floor penthouse in Manhattan overlooking the Hudson River.)
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👩💼 GM chair & CEO Mary Barra was elected chair of the Business Roundtable, will become the first female to lead the association of CEOs of top American companies.
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💵🌳 Dollar Tree is turning into dollar-twenty-five or dollar-fifty-Tree; the company announced yesterday it will begin to sell more items above the $1 price point. Its stock jumped 16%, the highest single-day gain in 21 years.
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🏀 Next year's NCAA basketball tournaments will use the "March Madness" brand for women; it was previously only used for the men’s side.
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🏟 No international fans will be allowed to attend the Beijing 2022 winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced yesterday; the announcement also contained a broader list of principles the Olympics intend to follow in an effort to keep the event “safe and successful.”
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⚖️ Britney Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, was suspended and immediately removed as conservator of her estate by an LA judge yesterday.
+Another home to daydream about: Check out this breathtaking Icelandic retreat.
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🔥💸 Sponsored by KING KANINE 🐕🐩
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I Almost Gave Up
Lester couldn’t use his back legs and just watched as other dogs ran around and played. He would try to drag his little body to keep up, but you could tell he wanted to do more.
 Image: Dogs, Rock & Roll
Dogs, Rock & Roll stepped up to help poor Lester, providing him with the funds for a wheelchair so he could experience what it was like to be a normal dog again. Now, his true personality shines - and he’s such a goofball!
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🔥 The Hot Corner
💬 Heard Through the Grapevine… “I think I’ve expressed my thoughts on that front — I think he should put more of his energy into getting to orbit, [rather] than lawsuits. You cannot sue your way to the moon, no matter how good your lawyers are.” – Elon Musk in reference to Jeff Bezos’ at the CodeCon 2021 conference in Beverly Hills on Tuesday.
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Blue Origin’s clapback, delivered by a spokesperson to the media: “SpaceX has a long track record of suing the U.S. government on procurement matters and protesting various governmental decisions. It is difficult to reconcile that historical record with their recent position on others filing similar actions.” They also sent a 13-page PDF to The Verge in an attempt to prove it.
There's nothing like a space spat between the two richest men in the world... here's the story behind the feud.
🔢 Stat of the Day: No Afghans were evacuated on flights chartered through a fundraiser initiated by Instagram star “Quentin Quarantino” which raised $7.2 million, according to The Washington Post (paywalled).
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More than $3 million was spent on flights that were ultimately canceled and for which the fundraiser did not receive refunds.
📖 Worth Your Time… Court Filings Spark New Citadel-Robinhood GameStop Theories
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🗣👂 Dose of Discussion
🚫💉 YouTube Bans All Vaccine Misinformation
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 Image: Reclaim the Net
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🎁 YouTube will remove videos spreading misinformation about any approved vaccine, not just those aimed at preventing COVID-19, the company announced in a blog post Wednesday.
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🤿 A deeper dive… The move builds on a policy introduced by the Google-owned platform last year prohibiting content “that contradicts local health authorities’ or the World Health Organization’s medical information about COVID-19.”
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The new guidelines apply to all currently approved vaccines that are “confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO,” as well as general statements about vaccines.
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In addition, the company terminated the channels of what it calls prominent vaccine misinformation spreaders, including Joseph Mercola and the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-affiliated Children's Health Defense.
📝 Details, details… YouTube said it will now remove content that:
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Falsely alleges approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects.
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Claims vaccines do not reduce transmission or contraction of disease.
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Contains misinformation on the substances included in vaccines.
This would include content that says approved vaccines cause autism, cancer, or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them.
✋ Yes, but: There are exceptions to the rule. YouTube will allow scientific discussions, such as content about a specific clinical trial or videos about historic vaccine successes and failures.
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It'll also permit personal testimonials related to vaccines so long as the video doesn't violate other guidelines, or the channel doesn't show a pattern of promoting vaccine hesitancy.
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🎮 Netflix: It’s In The Game
 Image: Netflix
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🎁 The streaming giant has bought video game creator Night School Studio and rolled out five mobile gaming titles to users in Poland, Spain, and Italy, it announced Tuesday.
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Those in the countries above with an Android and a Netflix subscription can now play "Stranger Things: 1984", "Stranger Things 3: The Game", "Card Blast", "Teeter Up" and "Shooting Hoops."
🤔 Why it’s important: Night School Studio is the streaming giant’s first gaming studio purchase, which it can now pair with its library of Netflix originals. Case in point. 👆
📈 Zoom out: Videogame sales hit a record $4.4 billion in August – and on the streaming side, competition is intensifying for Netflix. (HBO Go, Peacock, Disney+, Discovery+, Paramount+, etc…. similar to podcasts, it seems like everybody and their mother has one.)
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"We view gaming as another new content category for us, similar to our expansion into original films, animation, and unscripted TV... Since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games," Netflix said in its Q2 shareholder letter.
+Connecting the Dots: Netflix acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company last week and will expand their existing deal to create a universe spanning several formats.
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📣🗣💬 This Week's Poll Question
Yes, a third major party is needed – "I think a third major party is needed to bring some compromise. With only two major parties, the country has become extremely polarized politically. I think most people are a lot more complicated than just voting for 'this' party or 'that' party and adding a third major party may allow a space where you can have a little bit of 'this' and a little bit of 'that.'"
No, a third major party is not needed – "We do not need a third major party. Rather, what we need is those in the two major parties we have now to not alienate those in their party who don’t agree with the party platform for every single issue. There are many Republicans who agree with Democrats on certain issues and vice versa. Does that mean we need our own party? No, we just need the parties we have now to respect that there are not only two molds of thinking in our country."
Unsure/Other – "While I don’t believe that the Democrats / Republicans represent the American people well, I know that a major third party will make it less likely for there to be a majority vote in elections, which can cause difficulties."
+Note on Sample Size: We received 2,430 responses. 👏🥳 Some may have been lightly edited for grammar or clarity.
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🛸🌄📲 Calling from the Future…
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🤖🎹 Symphony in A(I)
 A page of Beethoven’s notes for his unfinished 10th Symphony (right); Images: National Geographic/Beethoven House Museum
A new Beethoven track is dropping on October 9.
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How, you ask ? The legendary musician died before completing his Tenth Symphony – but an AI trained using his entire body of work managed to do it for him.
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🤗 Daily Dose of Positive
🎨 Let’s Chalk About It
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 Images: Instagram
If you're walking through the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, you might be surprised to stumble across a man with weeds for a mustache, or a monster eating an oreo made from a sewer grate.
🖌 Where the sidewalk ends…. David Zinn is a professional chalk artist, transforming everyday cracks in the ground into stunning pieces of artwork.
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Count yourself lucky to see one of David’s pieces in real life, since each one washes away with the next rainfall.
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He sees creativity as the best way to cope with the difficulties of life. “Self doubt should never be allowed to win… [art] is good for the soul!”
See some more of his work.
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💡 Dose of Knowledge
🇺🇸 State Your Business Pt. 2
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Can you name this U.S. state?  |
(keep scrolling for the answer) |
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💡 Dose of Knowledge Answer
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