Good morning and welcome to Thursday. Fair warning – today's main stories aren't the most uplifting, but here's what you have to look forward to afterward.

• Dog-walking can be pretty lucrative
• Hedgehogs used to have serious beef with McFlurries
• And did you know about the movie with three endings?

⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today's news takes 3.76 minutes to read. Then it's the fun stuff.

"The greatest of all mistakes is to do nothing because you think you can only do a little."

–Zig Ziglar (1926-2012)

🏫 The University of Michigan will pay $490 million to more than a thousand people who had accused a doctor of sexual abuse, it was announced yesterday. This marks the third-largest collegiate abuse settlement over the past decade.

• In 2018, a man named Robert Stone sent a letter to University of Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel detailing the sexual abuse he said he suffered as a student at the hands of late athletic doctor Robert Anderson. The letter prompted an internal investigation at UM over Anderson’s abuse.
• Anderson worked at the university from 1966 until his retirement in 2003. He was director of the university's Health Service and a physician for multiple athletic teams, including football. He died in 2008.
• A law firm hired by the university to investigate the sexual abuse allegations previously found university officials were aware of the abuse as early as 1978.
• There are 1,050 former athletes and other U-M students suing the university in federal court. Many of the suits were filed anonymously, but others – like the son of legendary football coach Bo Schembechler and former running back Jon Vaughn – have made their experiences public. (Vaughn especially so. He's been camped outside the university president’s house for the past 100+ days.)

+Zoom out: Other colleges – like Penn State, Michigan State, and Ohio State – have also paid enormous sums to settle abuse cases over the past decade. The largest was a $1.1 billion combined settlement paid by USC to former patients of a campus gynecologist who say they were sexually abused.

⚖️ NY Attorney General Letitia James filed a motion Tuesday asking a judge to order former President Trump and two of his children to appear for sworn testimony as part of her office’s civil investigation into the Trump Organization's financial dealings.

• In the court filing and an accompanying public statement, James’ office accused Trump’s company of using "fraudulent and misleading asset valuations to obtain economic benefits" including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions.
• In one example, prosecutors allege the valuation of Trump’s Manhattan apartment in 2015-16 ($327 million) was based on the assertion it was 30,000 square feet, despite the actual size being 10,996 square feet.
• James said her office hadn’t reached a conclusion about whether to take legal action. Trump is also facing a criminal investigation that’s being separately conducted by the Manhattan DA’s office.
• A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization said James’ allegations were baseless. The former president has accused the Democratic AG of launching a "politically motivated attack" and filed a lawsuit last month seeking to block her probe. (Context: James had campaigned on a promise to investigate Trump and his business dealings.)

+Go deeper: From the Left | From the Right

🎞 Amazon finally announced the name of its upcoming Lord of the Rings series… “The Rings of Power.” It’s set to launch on September 2 with new episodes available weekly.

• The series is set thousands of years before the events of the LOTR films and novels, and will purportedly follow the creation of the titular rings of power along with the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron.
• Its first season is the most expensive in TV history, with Amazon shelling out $465 million, per the Hollywood Reporter (including an estimated $250 million on rights alone).
• Amazon is competing with several other streaming services for attention, and has been spending big on content to keep up. It shelled out a record $11 billion on TV series in 2020, a 41% increase compared to the previous year. The company hasn’t disclosed spending for 2021.

+Fun fact: Amazon opted to physically forge the show’s title (pictured above) in a blacksmith foundry, using the slow-motion footage in their teaser video.

👍 If we can take one positive away from lockdown life, it’s that many of us are learning to prioritize self-care. And that’s more important now than ever.

Self-care strategies include:

• Meditation
• Exercise
• Therapy
• Hobbies

... and journaling! If you’re discovering the benefits of getting your thoughts onto paper just like us, our friends at The Scribes have what you need to make a great exercise even better.

✏ This isn’t just a high-quality journal, guys. The Scribes provides weekly journaling prompts and features conversations and ideas about productivity to really get the gears turning.🧠

The Scribes aren't stopping at helping you get the most out of your journaling experience either – they want everyone to enjoy the benefits.

👌 For every journal sold, The Scribes donates one journal to someone in need, including students in Honduras and teachers in the highest poverty areas of New York City.

👏 They’ve given away over 10,000 journals so far!

Use the code DONUT and get 20% off any purchase from The Scribes.

📉 US markets continued their decline yesterday. The Nasdaq entered what's known as correction territory, falling more than 10% from its recent peak in November. The Dow and S&P also dropped 1% apiece.

• The Nasdaq's recent pullback has been led by stocks whose valuation skyrocketed during the pandemic but are now coming back to earth. They include Zoom Video (-61% from highs last fall), Moderna (-64%), DocuSign (-59%), and Paypal (-44%).
• Many suggest the Nasdaq's recent decline is also partially inspired by the Fed's plan to raise interest rates, since many firms in the tech-heavy index rely on low rates to borrow for investing in R&D.
• The Nasdaq is down 8.3% so far in 2022, faring slightly worse than the Dow (-4.25%) and S&P (-5.5%).

+Zoom in: Ford (-8%) logged its worst day since April, Sony is down nearly 12% since Microsoft announced it's buying Activision Blizzard, and Goldman Sachs dropped ~9% since reporting earnings Tuesday.

💬 Quoted… "Any Joe Schmo can make $50k a year working for Rover… Someone who works for [themself] and can walk 2-3 dogs at once can make $100k. And if they’re really good, they can make $200k+." –Ryan Stewart, one of America's top-tier professional dog walkers, told The Hustle.

• Context: Dog walking is an estimated ~$1 billion industry in the US, with the average business earning $236,000 in revenue each year, per the Census Bureau.

📊 Stat of the day… We're officially one year into the Biden administration. His job approval rating currently stands at ~41%, per RealClearPolitics, while his disapproval rating is north of 53%. (From the Left | From the Right | See the 360º View)

🤯 Did you know?… The British Hedgehog Preservation Society won a campaign in 2006 to make McDonald's redesign their McFlurry cups due to hedgehogs repeatedly getting stuck in them and dying.

📖 Worth a read… 'They said I don't exist. But I am here' – one woman's battle to prove she isn't dead.

• 👆 What does this look like? If you said “an iceberg,” you’re kinda right – but not really. The pic is an optical illusion caused by light bending in the atmosphere, and it’s actually the peaks of a mountain range below the horizon 110+ miles away.
• 😷 The Biden administration announced plans to distribute 400 million free N95 masks at thousands of pharmacies across the country starting next week; the CDC recently recommended these masks over other options, when available.
• 🚚 A new federal program could allow 18-to-20-year-olds to drive big rigs across state lines to ease supply chain issues.
• 🗽 ​​Bronx native Cardi B is offering to pay the burial costs for all 17 people killed at a high-rise apartment in NYC’s deadliest fire in three decades.
• 🎶 “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” a song written by Lin-Manuel Miranda for the film Encanto, became the highest-charting song from a Disney animated movie since “Colors of the Wind” in Pocahontas 26 years ago.

One – “At this point, college is a scam. The amount of money spent for the amount of money earned doesn’t make financial sense. My biggest regret is going to college and paying all those student loans.”

Two – “I have come to learn that college isn’t everything. It’s kind of a safety net for networking and background knowledge, but it’s no guarantee of a successful career or a windfall in income. There are certainly other alternatives and pathways to success in life.”

Three – “There are many ways to be successful. The choice to attend is dependent on your goals and interests. I know many people who are very comfortable financially who did not attend college.”

Four – “Technical training is amazing, but in a constantly changing workforce, those skills may soon be outdated. On the other hand, college teaches you lasting skills like critical thinking, deep-rooted analysis, mastering of language, and how to adapt to our changing society.

Five – “The college experience is more valuable than the education. Networking, career fairs, learning how to learn, all contribute to success.”

+Sample Size: We received 5,339 responses. 👏🥳 Some may have been lightly edited for grammar or clarity.

🔍 In the early 1980s, Paramount decided to make a movie based on Clue, the Hasbro murder-mystery board game beloved across the country. The cast included a knockout slate of comedic actors, including Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, and the late, great Madeline Kahn.

Everything pointed to the movie being a surefire hit.

But before Clue even had a cast or a functioning screenplay, co-writer and executive producer John Landis, best known for Blues Brothers and Animal House, came up with an idea:

• The writers would come up with multiple endings for the movie, each one with a different killer.
• Then when it debuted, each theater would show a different ending.

… and it failed miserably. Clue just about broke even at the box office, generating $15 million.

“[We] thought that what would happen was that people, having enjoyed the film so much, would then go back and pay again and see the other endings. In reality, what happened is that the audience decided they didn't know which ending to go to, so they didn't go at all," writer-director Jonathan Lynn told Buzzfeed.

🤔 Did the movie *actually* fail?

Yes, Clue was a box office flop – but it’s since become a cult classic. In the early ‘90s, the movie became a staple for cable programmers eager to fill in non-peak time slots with inexpensive movies. And its availability on home video only helped to boost the film’s popularity.

• The big difference is that with both of these formats, you could watch all three endings back-to-back. "It was a big mistake to release it with separate endings," Lynn says. "Because you only get the pleasure out of all the different endings if you see them all."

So which ending is the “correct” one? Debate rages on.

It was New Year's Eve 1996 when Damon Walker nearly lost his life to a gunshot wound. Laying paralyzed on the street after the incident, he quietly prayed for someone to find and help him. 

Damon's prayer was answered when Michael Franks, a medical student, drove past the incident and stopped his car to assess the situation. 

• After carrying Damon to his car, Michael quickly drove him to the hospital down the road. 

👀 A search undeterred... Paralyzed from the waist down but with a new appreciation for life, Damon has spent the last 26 years searching for the stranger who saved him. 

That all ended last November when the two finally reconnected. 

• "I wanted to let him know that what he did not only helped save me but helped save my community," Damon told CNN. 
• Thanks to Michael's heroic act, Damon is now a violence prevention specialist at a local hospital.

The average horse can produce a peak output of how much horsepower?

A) 1 HP

B) 5 HP

C) 10 HP

D) 15 HP

(keep scrolling for the answer)

Check out our referral prizes you can get just for introducing people you know to this newsletter. 👇

Here’s your unique link to copy & send to anyone you think would like the DONUT:

D) 15 HP

One horsepower isn’t equal to the peak power of a single horse at a moment in time, as commonly thought.

• It instead refers to the average power output that a horse generates over the course of a single day. 
• In other words, it's the average amount of work a horse does in a day divided by the total number of seconds in a day.

+Random: Do you think a farmer has ever told a horse to "stop horsing around"?