- Will's Weekly Roundup
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- Will's Weekly Roundup
Will's Weekly Roundup is a curated list of tech, business, and startup headlines from last week to kickstart your Mondays.
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Business
The business headlines you missed (or need to see again)...
ESPN - Leagues like the NFL, NBA, and MLB are reportedly talking with ESPN to take a minority equity stake in the brand. LINK
X (Twitter) - According to brand agencies and various analysts, Elon Musk may have removed $4 billion in value from Twitter by rebranding it as X. LINK
Student Loans - The Biden administration will forgive $130 million in student loans for 7,400 borrowers. LINK
Savings - 70% of Americans aren’t taking advantage of the new competitive saving account rates (as much as 4.5%). LINK
Lyft - Lyft is considering taking on a partner or selling its bike and scooter business to focus on its ride-sharing business. LINK
Adidas - Adidas made $565 million when it offloaded the rest of its unsold Yeezy footwear earlier this year, fulfilling over four million orders. LINK
Chips - The US will be short 67k semiconductor chip workers by 2030. LINK
Spotify - Spotify will raise the price of its Premium Plan in the US from $9.99 to $10.99 for the first time. LINK
Maps - Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon are teaming up to take on Apple and Google in maps. LINK
Tech
The tech headlines you missed (or need to see again)...
VR - Meta's AR/VR business has lost more than $21 billion since the start of last year. LINK
Space - NASA picks Lockheed Martin to build the nuclear rocket that will take humans to Mars. LINK
Solar Panels & Droughts - In California’s farm-rich Central Valley, startup Solar AquaGrid is installing solar panels over rivers to reduce evaporation and generate a lot of extra electricity. LINK
Worldcoin - OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman is scanning eyeballs with a giant metallic orb for his newly launched crypto project, Worldcoin, which aims to create a unique digital identity based on "proof of personhood." LINK
Apple - Apple is ready to remove iMessage and FaceTime from UK iPhones instead of complying with the UK’s proposed updates that might compromise message security. LINK
Watchlist
Startups and companies I’m keeping an eye on…
Voltpost is democratizing access to electric vehicle (EV) chargers by adding an attachment to street lamp posts. LINK
Cortical Labs is a Melbourne-based startup that uses synthetic biology to merge live biological neurons with silicon to create a new hybrid-biological computer chip. LINK
Top Picks
Specific articles and videos worth taking a look at…
A decade ago, Jeff Bezos bought a newspaper. Now, he’s paying attention to it again. NYT
The man who knows what the world’s richest people want and how to get it. VICE
There is a "gravity hole" in the Indian Ocean, and scientists now think they know why. FORBES
Saudi Arabia’s plan to conquer global golf. YOUTUBE
Outside Interests
Interesting internet finds…
Barbie - The production team on the Barbie movie used so much pink paint that there was a worldwide shortage, according to a production designer. LINK
UFOs - In a Congress hearing, a UFO whistleblower revealed that the US has recovered non-human biological pilots from crashed crafts. LINK
Pasta - Here’s a list of 26 chain restaurant pasta dishes ranked from worst to best. LINK
Threads - Threads is debuting a "Following" feed, so you don’t have to see influencer posts if you don’t want to. LINK
Whales - More than 50 whales have died in a mass "stranding event" in Western Australia. LINK
SBF’s Brother - Sam Bankman-Fried's younger brother considered purchasing the island nation of Nauru to create a fortified apocalypse bunker-state. LINK
Subway - Subway diehards can score themselves free sandwiches for life if they legally change their name to "Subway." LINK
Parents - Parents are paying up to $4k to hire consultants and coaches to secure sorority spots for their daughters. LINK
Visuals
Three visuals worth taking a look at...
A breakdown of the U.S. $20 trillion GDP by state.
This is not a graph of Apple, Nvidia, or even Tesla. It’s the percentage of Congress members over the age of 70.
Streaming services are getting more expensive.
Wisdom
Two quotes of wisdom...
"One sign you haven’t done enough reading is if you find yourself agreeing with whatever book you read last. At first, it’s easy to be swayed by any reasonable argument. Once you’ve read a lot, you can see that even the best arguments have limitations." ― James Clear
"We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like." ― Chuck Palahniuk
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