🏢 The Company Formerly Known As Facebook

Image: Tenor

• “Today we are seen as a social media company, but in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

🤔 So… what does that mean ?... Zuck presented a Pixar-like animation demo of the company’s ambitions for the metaverse alongside the announcement.

• It included users hanging out in space as cartoon-like versions of themselves or fantastical characters, like a robot, that represent their virtual selves.
• There were also videos involving virtual avatars going to concerts, playing ping-pong, and more.

✋ Yes, but: The name change and talk of the future comes amidst a major PR blitz and potential regulatory action surrounding internal company documents publicized by whistleblower Frances Haugen. In the early 2000s, tobacco giant Phillip Morris changed its name to Altria in an attempt to dissociate the tobacco brand from... well... tobacco.

👁 Looking ahead… A lot of this is a long way off. According to Zuck, elements of the metaverse could potentially become mainstream over the next five to 10 years.

• Elsewhere, Fortnite has expanded beyond gaming to a metaverse-like hub for all sorts of entertainment, including concerts from Travis Scott and Ariana Grande and screenings of Chris Nolan films. Part one of a Halloween miniseries collab with Universal Pictures just dropped yesterday.

🎁 President Biden is expected to be one of the nearly 200 world leaders attending COP26, a two-week UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, starting Sunday.

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U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations; Image: CDC

✋ Yes, but… The threat hasn’t passed just yet. Health authorities expect the next several months – when colder weather forces many people indoors where the virus spreads more easily – to present another test of the nation’s pandemic response.

• It’ll also provide clues as to whether America is close to treating COVID-19 as an endemic disease, meaning the virus will continue to be present, but its impact is considered “manageable” (like herpes or the common flu).

🗽 Setting the stage… “New York and New Jersey are going to be in the U.S. where I would look first for the transition to endemicity,” said Andrew Noymer, an infectious-disease epidemiologist and demographer at UC Irvine.

• Vaccination rates are higher than U.S. averages, and many people in the region likely have some immunity from infections during past surges.
• Additionally, masks are required in settings like public transit and schools, and a range of employees, including healthcare workers, must be vaccinated.

🔢 By the numbers: Most of NYC is still experiencing what the CDC considers high or substantial COVID-19 spread, but each progressive wave of the virus has presented less of a strain on the city’s health system:

• First wave (Spring 2020): NYC experienced a peak seven-day average of 761 deaths per day, and COVID-19 hospitalizations at Northwell Health – a large health system in the New York region – topped out at more than 3,500 people at once.
• Second wave (Winter 2020/21): The seven-day average of deaths in NYC reached a high of 87 per day, while the peak number of COVID-19 patients at Northwell Health was 1,380.
• Third wave (Delta variant; Summer/Fall 2021): COVID-19 deaths in NYC didn’t rise above 20 per day, and Northwell Health peaked at 348 hospitalized patients.

“We’re seeing it more as a chronic problem than as an immediate, huge pandemic problem like we were before,” said Mangala Narasimhan, a critical care pulmonologist and director of critical care services at Northwell Health.

Image: Morning Consult

☝️ Public opinion: One in four U.S. adults consider COVID-19 to be a “severe” health risk in their local community, per a weekly Morning Consult survey, down from a high of 42 percent in January.

• Moreover, Americans are increasingly more concerned about the economic impact of COVID-19, with 43 percent of registered voters saying they prioritize that over the public health impact (an eight-point increase over last month).

👁 Looking ahead... Going ‘back to normal’ after the pandemic will depend on health experts, governmental bodies, and the public collectively deciding we’re okay with accepting the level of risk presented by the virus.

🚁 Need a Lift ?

⚙️ How it works: The XTurismo uses a combustion engine and four battery powered motors to hover at speeds of ~60 miles per hour. It can operate for up to 40 minutes on a single charge.

• Current laws prohibit the vehicle from flying over Japan’s traffic-packed roads, but ALI Technologies hopes it will be used by rescue teams to reach otherwise inaccessible areas.

👁️ Looking ahead... The company plans to deliver the limited-edition run of 200 vehicles to customers by the first half of next year.

Images: GNN

On their day off, Rosie’s humans thought they would treat the one-year-old Cockapoo to a nice walk through a neighboring town.

• In the midst of enjoying all the new smells and sights, Rosie's tail wagged into overdrive when suddenly, her brother strolled up on a walk with his human, too.

💕 A family reunion… The dogs instantly got up on their hind legs to give each other a big hug. The owners soon realized Rosie and her brother Monty were indeed from the same litter, adopted roughly one year before.

There are five countries in the world that end with the letter 'L.' Can you name three ?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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The five countries are Brazil, Israel, Portugal, Senegal, & Nepal.