Wednesday, July 13, 2022

☕ Strain'd

Astronomers are freaking out about James Webb...
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Morning Brew

Arrived

Good morning. It's official: Twitter, a company that originally did not want to be bought by Elon Musk, is suing Elon Musk, someone who originally wanted to buy Twitter but does not want to now, to force him to buy Twitter.

Somewhere, the judge from Billy Madison is thinking to himself, "At no point in that rambling, incoherent sentence was there anything that could even be considered a rational thought. Everyone subscribing to this newsletter is now dumber for having read it." Perhaps so.

Neal Freyman, Max Knoblauch, Matty Merritt, Joe Abrams

MARKETS

Nasdaq

11,264.73

S&P

3,818.80

Dow

30,981.33

10-Year

2.973%

Bitcoin

$19,502.16

Cannoo

$3.63

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 7:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

  • Markets: Stocks are on that losing grind again, falling for the second-straight day over concerns that the economy is screeching to a halt. That couldn't be further from the mind of Canoo, a scuffling EV startup that locked in a deal for 4,500 electric vans from Walmart and watched its shares pop off like fireworks.

SCIENCE

Postcards from outer space

a postcard from space Francis Scialabba, Photos: NASA, 24K-Production/Getty Images

NASA has pulled off the greatest show-and-tell in history this week by releasing the first full-color snapshots of space taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. President Biden unveiled the first image on Monday, then yesterday morning the agency dropped four more, racking up likes from scientists who are psyched about the potential for Webb to help us uncover the universe's greatest mysteries.

Here are a few of the images. The first is of the Carina Nebula, which is kind of like a nursery for young stars. The second is a group of five galaxies called Stephan's Quintet. Some of the commotion you see there is one galaxy smashing through a cluster of stars, causing massive shockwaves.

Carina Nebula photoNASA, ESA, CSA, and STScIStephan's quintet photoNASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI


Quick recap:
The Jimmy Webb was launched on Christmas Day 2021 and is now orbiting the sun at a distance of 1 million miles from Earth. It's by far the most advanced telescope ever launched into space, making its predecessor, the 32-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, seem like the standard-definition TV you never knew was grainy until the hi-def version came along.

  • That's because it can detect celestial objects that are roughly 100x fainter than what Hubble can pick up, The Atlantic writes.
  • The Jimmy Webb's greatest advantage is its ability to observe celestial objects in infrared, which is what allows it to see so deep into space. Light traveling from distant objects originates as visible light, but by the time it reaches our neighborhood untold light years later, it's transitioned to infrared wavelengths.

Looking at these photos, you may find a cool new desktop background, or an opportunity to reflect on your utterly inconsequential existence compared to the infinite expanse of the cosmos.

But astronomers see a key that could unlock the secrets of the universe over its 13.8 billion-year history. Because when you gaze at an image of far-away space objects, you're not just seeing something that's incredibly distant—you're peering back in time. Way, way back in time. The light from the galaxies in the foreground of the first telescope image released Monday is 4.6 billion years old. Astronomers are hoping that the James Webb's time machine could transport us to a moment not much later than the Big Bang.—NF

        

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WORLD

Tour de headlines

A 'Succession' gif of Tom and Greg giving each other a thumbs up Succession/HBO via Giphy

The Emmy nominations are out. HBO's Succession leads the pack with 25 nominations, though reports say Logan Roy is still disappointed in his kids for not having secured 30. Next up are The White Lotus and Ted Lasso, which each scored 20 nominations. Squid Game also made some history, becoming the first non-English language series to be nominated for the best drama category.

1 USD = 1 euro. The US dollar and euro hit parity yesterday for the first time in 20 years, meaning that the main difference between one euro and one dollar is that one's a coin and the other's a bill. The euro has fallen 12% since the start of the year as traders have grown bearish on the European economy, which is struggling under soaring inflation and energy shortages. Meanwhile, the dollar is on a roll as investors pile into the "safe haven" currency during times of uncertainty. That sound you hear now is Americans buying cheap tickets to Oktoberfest.

Heathrow Airport caps its daily passengers. The UK's largest airport has asked airlines to stop selling tickets for this summer as it tries to dig out from long lines and frequent delays. On average 104,000 passengers are departing from Heathrow every day this summer, less than the pre-pandemic average of 110,000–125,000, but officials say that a decrease to 100,000 is necessary given shortfalls in staffing. Heathrow's move may represent the epitome of the chaos that's gripped airports this summer.

COVID

Once more unto the breach

Covid-19 Saturday Night Live sketch Saturday Night Live/NBC via Giphy

The highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant has emerged as the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the US, with cases and hospitalizations rising across the country faster than flight cancellations. Together, the BA.5 and BA.4 subvariants now account for 80% of cases in the country, the White House said Tuesday.

While exact case numbers have become extremely difficult to track with the rise of at-home, unreported tests, Covid hospitalizations have jumped 13% in the past week to around 39,000, according to data compiled by the Washington Post. However, due to a cocktail of past vaccinations and infections, and the existence of antiviral treatments, the country hasn't seen a relative rise in deaths.

  • The US is averaging ~280 Covid deaths/day as of Sunday—far short of the winter wave's height of 2,700 deaths/day, according to the CDC.

A large part of BA.5's dominance has to do with its ability to sidestep immunity, including from previous Omicron infections, meaning that a prior bout with Covid won't necessarily give you that Mario Invincibility Star feeling against BA.5.

Looking ahead…in response to the latest surge, the Biden administration announced a plan to soon offer a second booster shot to all adults.—MK

        

ENTERTAINMENT

The people behind your favorite roller coaster

Roller coaster blueprint Dianna "Mick" McDougall, Photos: Getty Images

From concept designers to architects, there could be hundreds of people who work on a single attraction before your butt even touches it. For Theme Park Week, Morning Brew chatted with nine engineers, creative directors, and consultants (among them, some former Disney Imagineers) to find out what it's like to build things that are so dang big. Here's a quick excerpt from the convo:

You've been allowed to design any park or attraction you want. What would it be?

Kevin Barbee, theme park architect with 30+ years in design at parks: I would call it Cascadia. It's basically a city that's developed on a waterfall, and so they've got all these water wheels, and they've got water going everywhere. It would be so cool to have a zone that's a city inside of a giant waterfall.

Mike Teske, a nearly 50-year industry vet: I think something should be done with Minecraft. You could have a lot of fun building things on the surface and going underground.

Read the full convo here, which includes a question on whether these designers play Roller Coaster Tycoon.—MM

These interviews have been edited and condensed.

GRAB BAG

Key performance indicators

Google search of french fries Google Trends

Stat: Today is National French Fry Day, and Google Trends sent us a map that shows the most searched type of fries across the US. At first glance, this map appears to show Americans' preference for sweet potato fries (in yellow), but then we got to thinking…why would anyone search for french fries on Google? They're a completely known commodity. This sweet potato search dominance could reflect restaurant patrons searching "Are sweet potato fries more healthy?" when the server asks what they want as a side.

Quote: "Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it's not my name, or it's not the reality."

Mo Farah, a four-time Olympic gold medalist for the UK, made the stunning announcement in a new BBC documentary that he was trafficked to Britain as a child from East Africa, and didn't arrive in the country with his parents as a refugee, as he's previously said. Farah revealed that his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin, and that he was given the name of "Mo Farah" by a woman who flew him from Djibouti to the UK when he was eight or nine years old. The UK government said Farah was an "inspiration to people across the country" for sharing his story.

Read: Why so many children of immigrants rise to the top. (New York Times)

BREW'S BETS

Simple, but well done: People saying movie titles in movies.

Wes Anderson vibes: Portraits of the ice huts that dot the northern regions of our globe.

How can you position your company culture to attract and retain top talent? Lorraine Stomski of Walmart joins HR Brew to discuss solutions tomorrow at noon ET. Register here.

Save money on summer airfare: Let DFC find cheap round-trip deals for you—we're talking major steals, like Paris from $327 and Peru from $284. Try the club for just $1 today! Offer ends in 12 hours.*

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

  • Peloton said it would outsource all manufacturing of its fitness equipment to trim costs.
  • Starbucks is closing 16 locations across the US due to concerns over safety in the stores.
  • 4,000 beagles that have been rescued from a Virginia breeding facility are in need of a home.
  • Lego is stopping operations in Russia indefinitely.
  • Tiger Woods criticized PGA Tour competitor LIV Golf ahead of the British Open that begins tomorrow. On Monday, it was revealed that the PGA Tour is being investigated by antitrust regulators for its actions related to LIV Golf.

GAMES

The puzzle section

Word Search: Visit the wonders of EPCOT, every adult's favorite part of Disney World, for this theme park-themed word search. Play it here.

Emmy trivia

Can you name the five TV shows with the most prime-time Emmy awards ever?

The F.I.R.E. weekend challenge

The F.I.R.E. weekend challenge

The F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement encourages people to aggressively save money by lowering expenses and boosting investing. We challenged two Morning Brew employees to follow the F.I.R.E principles for a single weekend. How did they do? Watch now.

For more from the Brew:

On the latest episode of Imposters: How Afghan war veteran Jason Kander denied his PTSD for years, until he ran for political office. Listen or watch now.

💲 Negotiating a salary increase? We have just the podcast episode and crewneck for you.

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ANSWER

  1. Saturday Night Live
  2. Game of Thrones
  3. Frasier
  4. The Simpsons
  5. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
         

Written by Neal Freyman, Max Knoblauch, Joseph Abrams, and Matty Merritt

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