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Good morning and welcome to Monday.
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⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 4.82 minutes to read. (With the 360° view: +3.37 minutes.)
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🍩 Daily Sprinkle
"The wise speak only of what they know."
–J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973)
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👇📰 Quick Bits
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💊 Pill Reduces COVID Hospitalization and Death, Study Says
 Image: Merck
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🎁 Molnupiravir, the COVID-19 antiviral pill developed by Merck in partnership with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, reduces the risk of hospitalization and death by about 50%, according to early results from a late-stage trial. Merck will soon request emergency use authorization for the therapeutic.
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🤔 Why it’s important: Other existing authorized treatments, like monoclonal antibodies, are more effective at treating mild and moderate COVID cases, but they’re fairly costly and delivered via IV.
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Think of molnupiravir as a kind of Tamiflu for COVID-19, aka pills that can be swallowed at home by patients when they first develop symptoms to slow the spread of the virus.
🔢 By the numbers… The results are from a trial that initially had a sample size of 775 patients but was soon expanded to 1,550 patients because of compelling efficacy results, Merck said. About half took four 200 mg capsules of molnupiravir twice a day for five days, with the other participants receiving a placebo.
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All patients were unvaccinated, had a laboratory-confirmed mild-to-moderate case of COVID-19, and at least one risk factor associated with poor disease outcome at the start of the study (i.e, diabetes, obesity, etc.).
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7.3% of patients taking molnupiravir during the trial were either hospitalized or died at the end of 30 days, compared to 14.1% of those receiving a placebo.
📋 Zoom out: Other drugmakers, like Pfizer and Atea, are also developing easy-to-administer COVID treatments. We should have their trial results by the end of the year.
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Government-funded researchers in the U.S. and U.K. recently began large studies of ivermectin, an antiparasitic pill used for decades to treat river blindness in sub-Saharan Africa.
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⚾ The MLB’s Season Finale
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🎁 Yesterday was the final day of the MLB regular season, which featured all 162 games for the first time since the pandemic began.
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📜 By the rules… The MLB enacted several major changes for its COVID-shortened 2020 season, some of which remained in place for this year.
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Those include seven-inning double-headers and new extra inning rules where both teams start each inning with a runner on second base, both of which are intended to shorten the length of games. (Note: Neither will be in use during the playoffs.)
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The MLB also used the Minor Leagues to test out other experimental rule changes this year, including robot umps, restrictions on infield shifts, and a 15-second pitch clock.
🥇 Records are meant to be broken… This season saw the most no-hitters in MLB history (9), which many attributed to widespread use of sticky substances among pitchers. There were just two no-hitters thrown after the practice was banned in June.
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The Arizona Diamondbacks set a new MLB record for most consecutive road losses, dropping 24 straight before finally winning a road game in June.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers became the winningest team ever to not finish first in their division or league. They racked up 106 wins but placed second in the NL West behind the upstart San Francisco Giants, who won the most games in franchise history (107).
💭 Dream on… Perhaps the most notable event this summer was the first-ever ‘Field of Dreams’ game in Dyersville, Iowa, which drew the largest viewing audience of any regular season contest in over 15 years.
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The league has already announced plans for the game to return in 2022 featuring the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds.
👁️ Looking ahead… The playoffs kick off tomorrow night when the New York Yankees face off against the Boston Red Sox in a win-or-go-home matchup at Fenway Park (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).
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This offseason, Cleveland’s baseball team is changing its name from the “Indians” to the “Guardians.” Their color scheme and uniforms are expected to remain largely unaffected.
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🍩 DONUT Holes…
 Image: Europa Press News
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☝️ An erupting volcano on La Palma, a Spanish island off northwest Africa, has become “much more aggressive”; it began erupting two weeks ago and has so far destroyed or partially destroyed more than 1,000 buildings, including homes and farming infrastructure, and entombed around 1,750 acres. (Watch the eruption livestream.) | At least 126,000 gallons of spilled oil has spread into a slick covering roughly 13 square miles off the coast of Southern California.
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🏢 Ozy Media's board voted to shut down the company on Friday.
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⚽ The National Women's Soccer League canceled all of its matches this weekend following allegations that a coach, the now-fired Paul Riley, sexually coerced players.
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🚘 Tesla delivered 241,300 electric vehicles during the third quarter of 2021; analysts predicted the automaker would deliver around 220,900.
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📺 The former Facebook employee responsible for leaking a series of documents to the WSJ made her first public appearance on 60 Minutes last night.
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💉 California will mandate COVID vaccines for public and private schoolchildren once it has been given final approval from the FDA. (From the Left | From the Right | 360° View on COVID Vaccine
Mandates in Schools)
+Bonus: A declassified State Department report obtained by Buzzfeed News concluded the sounds accompanying at least eight of the original 21 Havana syndrome incidents were “most likely” caused by insects – not microwave weapons.
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The college coach’s secret to being #1...
Now that we have Nick Saban’s attention, here it is: great recruiting classes.
😬 But let’s face it: Not every college team has Bama football’s trillion-dollar recruiting budget. In fact, most are pretty miniscule.
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🔥 The Hot Corner
💬 Heard Through the Grapevine… “[The] most complete travel rewards offering in the industry.” – Expedia Group, referring to the unification of its current and separate rewards programs across Vrbo, Hotels.com, Travelocity, and Orbitz.
- In other words, the new program will consist of unique member pricing discounts and the ability to earn and redeem rewards across flights, hotels, vacation rentals, car rentals, cruises, and activities.
🔢 Stat of the Day: The median American household would need 32.1% of its income to cover mortgage payments on a median-priced home, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. That’s the most since November 2008, when the same outlays would eat up 34.2% of income.
📖 Worth Your Time… What it’s like to work 8–10 hours/day in VR
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🗣👂 Dose of Discussion
🏛️ Congressional Spending Bills Delayed
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 Getty Images
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🎁 President Biden on Friday told House Democrats they must further delay a final vote on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and scale back a $3.5 budget resolution bill if either piece of legislation is to pass.
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In his first meeting with the entire House Democratic caucus since becoming president, Biden made clear he wants to keep the two packages linked. He also pitched a new budget resolution that reportedly costs between $1.9 trillion and $2.3 trillion.
📜 Background… The progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic party have feuded over the two pieces of legislation for weeks.
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Progressives in the House have threatened to block the infrastructure bill if it comes to the floor before Congress agrees to the budget resolution package (which can be passed without any GOP support).
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Meanwhile, centrist Democrats have pushed for an immediate vote on infrastructure - as previously promised by House Speaker Pelosi - and raised concerns over the cost of the budget resolution bill, including proposed tax increases.
Some Republicans have come out in support of the $1 trillion infrastructure package. Still, the party is united in opposition to the second, larger spending bill.
💬 What they’re saying… “It doesn’t matter whether it’s in six minutes, six days or six weeks. We’re going to get it done,” President Biden told reporters as he exited the meeting with House Democrats.
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“All bets are off,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told Forbes in an interview Friday night, referring to the GOP members who previously said they would support the infrastructure bill but are now indicating they won’t do so if it’s tied to the second spending package.
👁️ Looking ahead… Speaker Pelosi set a new deadline of Halloween (October 31) to pass both pieces of legislation in a letter to Democrats on Saturday.
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🎞 Smile if you just set a pandemic box office record…
 Image: Giphy
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🎁 Venom: Let There Be Carnage brought in $90.1 million at the domestic box office over the weekend, besting Black Widow’s $81 million for the biggest three-day opening of the pandemic.
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📝 Some fun facts:
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Sony projected the film would bring in $40 million… and it yielded the second-highest October opening in cinematic history behind Joker, which generated $96.2 million in 2019.
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Venom: Let There Be Carnage also outpaced the first Venom film, which brought in $80.3 million over the course of its opening weekend when it was released in 2018.
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Young males drove the total – 64% of ticket buyers were 18-34 years old and 62% were male.
📽️ Zoom out: Theaters are back – at least for now. Cinemark, one of the country’s three largest chains, enjoyed its biggest October opening weekend in history, as well as its biggest October weekend overall.
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The chain is also reporting this past weekend could go down as the second-biggest October weekend of all time for the entire industry.
💬 The bottom line… Sony film chief Tom Rothman said it best: "With apologies to Mr. Twain: The death of movies has been greatly exaggerated."
+Upcoming: “No Time to Die” brought in almost $120 million at the international box office this weekend, the best showing of the pandemic era without China. It debuts in the U.S. this Friday.
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🗓 Weekend Recap...
🔭 The Week Ahead...
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Monday: Results expected as Hollywood union workers vote to authorize a strike; Nobel Prizes begin to be announced culminating with the Peace Prize on Friday; SCOTUS convenes for first in-person term since March 2020; Android 12 expected to launch
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Tuesday: National Do Something Nice Day
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Wednesday: Secretary of State Blinken returns from a three-day visit with officials in Paris
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Thursday: National Chocolate Covered Pretzel Day
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Friday: September Jobs Report
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🛸🌄📲 Calling from the Future…
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📲 Can’t Catch A Break
Image: iStock
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🎁 Researchers at McGill University in Canada developed a new type of “unbreakable” glass that's three times stronger and five times more fracture resistant than its conventional counterparts.
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The design is inspired by the inner layer of mollusk shells known as mother-of-pearl and is made with layers of glass flakes and acrylic, creating a strong, transparent material that can be produced easily and inexpensively.
👁️ Looking ahead… The new plastic-like material could be used in the future to improve cell phone screens, among other things.
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🤗 Daily Dose of Positive
🛒💸 Chat Checkout
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Image: Jumbo
Feelings of loneliness can be difficult for anyone to manage, but they're especially detrimental to the elderly.
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In an effort to combat elderly loneliness, popular Dutch supermarket “Jumbo” recently introduced Kletskassas, which translates to “chat checkouts,” in 200 of their stores.
When a cashier comes on board, they're trained to identify signs of loneliness.
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Rather than quickly ringing up a customer and sending them on their way, cashiers are encouraged to take a seat and strike up a conversation with the people that come through a kletskassas.
Keep reading.
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💡 Dose of Knowledge
🌎 Animal Planet
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What type of creature is a tarantula hawk?
A) Spider
B) Moth
C) Wasp
D) Bird
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(keep scrolling for the answer) |
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🍩 Share The DONUT
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Access exclusive rewards and even an all-expenses-paid round trip to Austin, TX, just for sharing this newsletter.
Simply:
1. Copy your unique referral link.👇
2. Post said link on social media, drop it in your group chat, use it as your fantasy football team name, etc.
3. 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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C) Wasp
A tarantula hawk is a type of wasp that preys on tarantulas. It can grow up to two inches in length. 👇
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