July 31, 2024

The Appetizer

“A diner reading ‘boneless wings’ on a menu would no more believe that the restaurant was warranting the absence of bones in the items than believe that the items were made from chicken wings, just as a person eating ‘chicken fingers’ would know that he had not been served fingers.”

• Justice Joseph Deters in an Ohio Supreme Court majority ruling that consumers cannot expect boneless chicken wings to actually be free of bones.

Now, on to the numbers. Drum roll, please …

• 2034: The year the Winter Olympics return to the U.S. The International Olympic Committee announced that Salt Lake City, Utah, will host the games.
• 10,000+: The number of people that have carried the Olympic torch from Greece to France to celebrate the arrival of the 2024 Games in Paris.
• 2,000+: The number of baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, and focaccia churned out daily by a boulangerie at the Olympic Village.
• 113: The number of medals Team USA won at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
• 9.58 seconds: The current world record for the 100 meter race, set by Usain Bolt at the 2009 World Athletics Championships.

Dig In
The Day the Earth Stood Still

A couple of Fridays ago, if you didn’t catch up on the news before heading to work, you might have been in for a surprise when your computer kept restarting. Or maybe you noticed the Starbucks app wasn’t available for your preorder. The culprit? CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company, rolled out a routine software update that ended up causing major disruptions across various sectors.

CrowdStrike quickly issued a fix, but it was too late for the millions of machines that displayed the “blue screen of death.” The fix was manual, computer by computer, and had many IT professionals working into the weekend. Thank you! In the end, it’s estimated that this outage cost affected companies in healthcare, banking, airlines, and others over $5 billion.

Now, CrowdStrike’s CEO has to do the walk of shame all the way to Washington, D.C. to explain to Congress exactly what went wrong. According to their initial findings, “The firm missed a problem with a content file.” Sounds fair enough, but this incident just goes to show how crucial technology is in our daily lives. Next time, the company said it will update a few of their own systems before all of their users.

Weekly Specials

Whale sightings galore! A man on a quest to row across the Atlantic found himself surrounded by long-finned pilot whales for hours. His natural response was, “That is so cool.” He was 2,000 nautical miles from Newfoundland on his way to Penzance in the UK. Meanwhile, off the coast of New Hampshire, a breaching whale capsized a fishing boat!

A longtime employee of a Colorado Red Lobster restaurant found an unusual orange lobster while unpacking a shipment. Named “Crush” after the Denver Broncos’ Orange Crush defense, the lobster was brought to a Denver aquarium, where it now resides.

Here’s a fun fact for you! Did you know that the average age of a farmer in Brazil is only 46? That’s a whole 12 years younger than the average age of a U.S. farmer! Farming is becoming popular again among the younger generations in Brazil, and it’s no wonder why. The country has become one of the world’s top suppliers of key crops, and their exports have exploded.

Corporate Lunch

Airbus may be working with Rolls-Royce on a narrow-body engine. Please put stars in the ceiling of these jets.

In a shocking turn of events, consumers have hit the brakes on electric vehicle demand. General Motors delayed the opening of an EV truck factory in Michigan for a second time.

Overstock.com is coming back with a vengeance one year after having been rebranded as Bed Bath & Beyond. I didn’t see that coming either, but let’s trust the process.

Best Buy refreshed its branding with a new color palette – very chic – and launched a holographic spokesperson named Gram.

McDonald’s is planning to extend the $5 value meal because this strategy of selling inexpensive food is really working out for them.

Lululemon’s new product line took a break faster than our New Year’s resolutions.

Robotaxis that are cheaper than the subway have rolled out in China. For context, you could go six miles for $0.50. Now is a good time to listen to your parents’ advice of looking both ways before crossing the street.

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Indices are unmanaged and are not available for direct investment.

Past performance is not indicative of future results.