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Good morning and welcome to Thursday.
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⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 4.20 very pleasurable minutes to read. (With the 360° view: +3.45 minutes.)
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🍩 Daily Sprinkle
“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will."
–George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
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👇📰 Quick Bits
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DIY’ers Everywhere...
 Image: Giphy
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🎁 Apple will launch a Self Service Repair program early next year, the company announced yesterday.
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⚙️📱 How it works… Let’s say your iPhone 13 screen shattered when it fell out of your pocket in the middle of doing parkour (the Michael Scott kind, not the real kind).
Today, you’d have four options to get the phone fixed – bring it to an Apple Store or authorized repair center, take it to a non-Apple authorized shop and chance key features not working post-repair, try to MacGyver it yourself with YouTube, or just buy a new one.
Apple’s latest move opens up another option – fix the broken phone on your own with official direction.
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Beginning early next year, Self Service Repair will allow access to more than 200 parts and tools to help customers "complete the most common repairs" on the iPhone 12 and 13, including phone display, battery, and camera. Additional repair options will be added later in the year, per the WSJ.
✋ Yes, but: The program is “intended for individual technicians with the knowledge and experience to repair electronic devices.” In other words, most customers will still have to visit professional repair providers.
📸 Big picture: Apple’s move could be driven in part by the right-to-repair legislative push, which has been gaining steam in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the U.S.
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Two Men Convicted of Killing Malcolm X Will Be Exonerated
 Muhammad A. Aziz, left, and Khalil Islam, right; Image: AP
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🎁 Two men found guilty of the 1965 assassination of Black civil rights leader Malcolm X will be exonerated today after a Netflix documentary sparked an investigation that uncovered evidence of their innocence.
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📜 Background… Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965, while giving a speech at New York’s Audubon Ballroom.
Three members of Malcolm X’s former religious and political group, the Nation of Islam, were arrested and eventually found guilty of murder due to eyewitness testimony. One of the three, Thomas Hagan, confessed to killing Malcolm X.
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The other two men, Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam, always maintained their innocence. Hagan also claimed the other two men weren’t involved in the killing.
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Hagan ended up serving nearly 45 years in prison before being paroled in 2010. Aziz and Islam served 19 and 21 years in prison, respectively, before being paroled. Islam passed away at 74 in 2009.
⏩ Fast forward: In 2020, Netflix released the documentary “Who Killed Malcolm X?” that raised questions about whether Aziz and Islam were ultimately guilty of murder.
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That caught the attention of The Innocence Project, which contacted the Manhattan DA’s office to reinvestigate the two men’s convictions in light of new evidence uncovered in the documentary.
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Their 22-month investigation found the FBI, NYPD, and prosecutors withheld evidence that would have likely led to the two men’s acquittals, the NY Times reports.
👁 Looking ahead… The DA's office will petition a New York state judge to overturn the convictions later today.
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🔥💸 Sponsored by Beam 😴🔥
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The Sleep Superhero We Never Knew We Needed
Do you lay awake at night staring at the ceiling, desperately trying to get to sleep? Do you have trouble sleeping through the night, jolting awake for seemingly no reason?
We did, too (#startuplife), and then we discovered Dream Powder from Beam Organics.
🥃➡️🛌 How it works: Mix one scoop of sugar-free Dream Powder with water to enjoy before bed, and that’s literally it – a full, refreshing night of sleep awaits.
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Plus, it’s the perfect triple threat: Dream Powder tastes delicious going down, serves up some quality shuteye, and provides your body with sleep-enhancing vitamins and minerals, such as magnesium, a reishi mushroom superfood, l-theanine, and nano hemp.
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You know how we said it’s tasty? Dream Powder comes in an alarmingly delicious Cinnamon Cocoa flavor, and Beam just rolled out a limited edition White Chocolate Peppermint flavor for the holidays.
😴 Bottom line: Whether your day involves reporting the news, a bajillion Zoom meetings, or just playing some Roblox, sleep is important – and Dream Powder can help you get it.
Use discount code DONUT for up to 35% off the first month of a subscription, plus you’ll receive a free mug and frother!
Give (or get) the gift of sleep this holiday season.
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🗣👂 Dose of Discussion
Gas Prices Are Rising
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 Image: Fox Business
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🎁 President Biden called on the FTC yesterday to investigate whether large oil and gas companies are engaging in “illegal conduct” aimed at keeping gasoline prices high.
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In a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan, Biden claimed there’s “mounting evidence of anti-consumer behavior by oil and gas companies,” pointing to the fact that gas prices are rising even as the price of unfinished gasoline has fallen.
🛢️ Driving the move… Experts say the rising fuel costs are mainly due to demand returning to pre-pandemic levels and outpacing supply.
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Last year, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to cut their collective output by almost 10% as COVID-19 froze demand for crude oil.
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They’ve remained firm on their timeline to return production to pre-pandemic levels sometime next year despite requests from Biden and other world leaders to increase production immediately.
📈 Zoom out: Gas prices in the U.S. are up more than 60% compared to the same point last year, putting the average price for a gallon of regular gas – currently $3.41 – at the highest level since 2014.
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Likewise, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that households heating primarily with natural gas will pay an average of 30% more than last winter (which could rise up to 50% if the winter is 10% colder than average).
👁️ Looking ahead… Gas and energy prices are projected to keep increasing through next summer. Bank of America estimates that gas prices at the pump will increase by 45% between now and June 2022, resulting in a nationwide average price of $4.94 per gallon.
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📣🗣💬 This Week's Poll Results
Approve – “He has handled the Covid epidemic superbly. He's also re-engaged with the countries of the world to re-build our national reputation. He's finally (compared to prior presidents) able to get infrastructure funded. Yes, he's spending money, but it is on essentials that have been overlooked for way too long.”
Disapprove – “Our economy is in the tank. I'm really worried about inflation and the cost of housing. Young people are getting stuck in the cycle of high rent and high cost of living without an option for buying a home. People are really going to suffer the way prices are rising. I understand the desire to move towards electric vehicles, but closing down oil pipelines hurts us all and affects every purchase we make.”
Unsure – “I think he needs to show more urgency with the bills he wants to pass. He did a good job on the infrastructure bill but in order for it to be deemed successful, it needs to be implemented immediately.”
+Note on Sample Size: We received 3,082 responses. 👏🥳 Some may have been lightly edited for grammar or clarity.
+Bonus: These were the results when we last ran this poll in early September. 👇
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🔥 The Hot Corner
💬 Heard Through the Grapevine… "Censorship is never OK at any cost, I hope Peng Shuai and her family are safe and OK. I'm in shock of the current situation and I'm sending love and light her way." – Naomi Osaka speaking on Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who publicly accused an ex-vice-premier of sexual assault earlier this month… and hasn’t been seen since.
🔢 Stat of the Day: More than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in the U.S. last year, the highest over any 12-month period in history, according to new data from the CDC.
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OD deaths have doubled since 2015, driven mainly by the increasing presence of fentanyl.
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More than 75% of the reported deaths were caused by opioids.
📖 Worth a Read… The Real Betty Crocker May Never Have Existed
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🍩 DONUT Holes…
 Image: EPA
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☝️ A painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold at Sotheby's auction house in New York for $34.9 million on Tuesday; it’s the highest price paid at auction for a Latin American artwork.
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🏟️ LA’s Staples Center will become Crypto.com Arena on Dec. 25 after the Singapore-based crypto exchange paid more than $700 million for the naming rights, per the LA Times – one of the largest such deals in sports history.
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📝 The International Olympic Committee rolled out a new framework for transgender and intersex athletes.
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🍼🍓🍌 Chobani filed for an IPO.
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⚖️ Jacob Chansley, aka Jake Angeli or the “QAnon Shaman,” was sentenced to 41 months in prison for felony obstruction of an official proceeding during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. (From the Left | From the Right)
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🏛️ The House voted mostly along party lines to censure GOP Rep. Paul Gosar and remove him from his committee assignments over a photoshopped anime video he posted last week that showed him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and poised to attack President Biden; it’s the first censure since 2010 and the 24th in the history. (From the Left | From the Right)
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🛸🌄📲 Calling from the Future…
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Can You Feel It?
 Image: Meta Reality Labs
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🎁 Facebook Meta unveiled a new haptic glove that allows users to feel VR objects in real life.
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⚙️ How it works: The prototype is a glove lined with 15 ridged, inflatable plastic pads known as actuators, which are arranged to fit along your palm, the underside of your fingers, and your fingertips.
- When you enter a VR or AR experience, a sophisticated control system adjusts the level of inflation to create pressure on different parts of your hand, combining with visual and audio cues to produce the illusion of physical touch.
👁️ Looking ahead… Meta aims to produce consumer-ready gloves containing hundreds or thousands of touch-enhancing actuators within the next few years.
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🤗 Dose of Positive
💇🏾♀️Hairdo Helper
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 Images: Twitter
Twelve-year-old Purity Agyeman was distraught when her natural hair began to shrink and tangle after getting caught in the rain at recess.
👩🏾🏫 Vanessa to the rescue… Purity’s English teacher Vanessa Sefa sprang into action after the little girl ran into her classroom for help.
- “Halfway through a doughnut, I froze, looked at her, looked at her hair and then at the time,” Vanessa shared with GMA. “Then with 15 minutes until lessons began, [I] said, 'OK, sit down, let's go.'"
Using her nails and a small toothed comb as her only tools, Vanessa was able to get Purity’s hair into braids and send her off to class in time.
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💡 Dose of Knowledge
🌍 Kind Of a Big Deal
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By area, what is the largest country located entirely in Europe?
A) Germany
B) Ukraine
C) Spain
D) France
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(keep scrolling for the answer) |
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🍩 Share The DONUT, Earn Rewards
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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. Put said link as your #linkinbio, send it to the family group chat, DM it to Pete Davidson, 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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B) Ukraine
The Eastern European country encompasses over 230,000 square miles.
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France technically spans over 248,000 square miles, but roughly one-eighth of that total includes overseas territories.
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Russia is the largest country in Europe (covering over 1.5 million square miles within the continent) but it also extends across northern Asia.
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