Sent as an email newsletter Monday, March 9.
👋 Hi, friends. Welcome to the latest edition of Newley’s Notes, a weekly newsletter containing my recent Wall Street Journal stories, must-read links on tech and life, and funny dog videos.
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Here are ten items worth your time this week:
🚨 1) Breaking: Stock Markets Stay Sharply Lower As Trading Halt Lifts [WSJ]
“U.S. stocks careened on Monday, pushing major indexes closer to bear-market territory as a price war for oil and the fallout from the coronavirus frightened investors, who sought shelter in government bonds and propelled yields to unprecedented lows.”
🦠 2) Coronavirus longread of the week, by my colleagues: How It All Started: China’s Early Coronavirus Missteps [WSJ]
“China’s errors, dating back to the very first patients, were compounded by political leaders who dragged their feet to inform the public of the risks and to take decisive control measures ”
📈 3) Math-related coronavirus video of the week: Exponential growth and epidemics [YouTube/3Blue1Brown]
“A good time for a primer on exponential and logistic growth, no?”
❓ 4) Coronavirus-related AMA of the week: We are a team of medical experts following COVID–19’s progression closely. Ask Us Anything. [Reddit]
“News about the coronavirus outbreak that started in Wuhan, China, is changing rapidly. Our team of experts are here to break down what we know and how you can stay safe.”
🔮 Bonus coronavirus guide: Don’t Panic: The comprehensive Ars Technica guide to the coronavirus [Ars Technica]
“This is a fast-moving epidemic – we’ll update this guide at 3pm EDT every day.”
💻 Bonus WFH-related link: The Coronavirus Is Forcing Techies To Work From Home. Some May Never Go Back To The Office. [Buzzfeed News]
“As the coronavirus spreads in the United States and tech companies ask their workforces to do their jobs from home, some in the industry are looking at the outbreak as a test case for the long-gestating but never-arriving moment when working remotely will broadly replace working in person.”
📱 5) WhatsApp is so popular in Africa, even knock-off versions are used more often than Facebook [Quartz]
“…GB WhatsApp, the most widely used WhatsApp mod across major African markets, allows users operate multiple accounts, restore deleted messages and send and receive larger media files (up to 50 megabytes compared to 16 megabytes on WhatsApp). ”
📹 6) Before Clearview Became a Police Tool, It Was a Secret Plaything of the Rich [New York Times]
“Investors and clients of the facial recognition start-up freely used the app on dates and at parties – and to spy on the public.”
🍴 7) The economics of all-you-can-eat buffets [The Hustle]
“By nature, buffets attract the very customers they wish to avoid: Big eaters with insatiable appetites. Buffets seek to ‘fill the customer’s belly as cheaply and as quickly as possible.’ To do so, they employ a number of research-backed tricks to get people to eat less food…”
🧠 8) Study Shows Low Carb Diet May Prevent, Reverse Age-Related Effects Within the Brain [Stony Brook University News]
“’The bad news is that we see the first signs of brain aging much earlier than was previously thought. However, the good news is that we may be able to prevent or reverse these effects with diet, mitigating the impact of encroaching hypometabolism by exchanging glucose for ketones as fuel for neurons.’”
🗿 9) Truck Crashes Into an Easter Island Statue [New York Times]
“The truck rolled down a slope and hit an ahu, a ceremonial platform where one of the island’s famous statues was already on its side.”
🐶 10) Dog-related video of the week: Dog Still Not Sure What’s Going On, Continues to Have Good Time [Slate]
This is Kratu’s last year at Crufts before retirement, and he made it count, getting up to his old tricks of sniffing and hiding in tunnels and general waywardness before pulling off a spectacular heist right before our eyes.
💡 Quote of the week:
"Don’t stumble over something behind you.” – Unknown
👊 Fist bump from Hong Kong,
Newley