Digital Gems

Rental prices for single-family homes rose 10.9% on average, a three-fold increase over October 2020. Rent increases were highest in Miami (29.7%), followed by Phoenix (19.3%) and Las Vegas (16.5%).

Around 10% of in-store and 18% of online purchases of retail items are returned after the holidays, which totaled to $48B last year. This holiday season, the National Retail Federation is projecting $860B in returns.

A report by Gallup showed that burnout in people managers increased from 27% in 2020 to 35% in 2021. A separate poll by Metlife found that millennial managers saw the biggest increase in burnout over the past year with 42% reporting workplace tiredness and stress compared to 34% of Gen Z, 27% of Gen X and 21% of Baby Boomers.

Learn more about the evolution and culture of orcas.

Learn about the sophisticated algorithms that produce the jpeg images that are everywhere on the internet.

Discover the incredible engineering behind 3-way and 4-way light switches.

Learn how Disney engineers the perfect experience for guests behind the scenes.

The Log4J and JNDI exploit can collect private data and secret infiltrate enterprise systems. Learn the details in this 27 minute explanation and demonstration.

Molnupiravir was associated with a decreased the risk of hospitalization from Covid-19 by only 30%, compared to a reduction of almost 90% with Pfizer's PAXLOVID. The FDA advisory committee also limited its use in non-pregnant adults because of their concerns about the potential risk of mutations in human DNA.

TikTok has been crowned the most popular domain of 2021 by web security and performance company Cloudflare.

Households around the world saved an excess $3 trillion in savings, bringing the total to $6 trillion globally.

In the first seven months of 2021, cargo volumes between Asia and North America were up by 27% compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Good Jobs First, a policy resource center, estimated that Amazon has received around $4.2B in US subsidies through property tax abatements, corporate income tax credits and sales tax exemptions to expand its corporate footprint in "opportunity zones" throughout the country.

An anthropologist asks what algorithms and astrology have in common in a digital era of predictive technologies. By putting faith in these predictions, whether they're based on AI, the supernatural, physical, or divination, we may be foreclosing other possibilities we haven’t yet imagined.

Around 30% of adults under age 35 said that mental health services are difficult to access near their home compared to just 12% of adults age 65 and older. Overall, only 1 in 2 adults said that mental health services were easy to access and 1 in 3 said it's easier to get mental health care today than it was five years ago.

A computational biologist thinks potentially half the globe may contract Omicron over the coming weeks and months.

Healthcare journalist Marshall Allen joins Chris to discuss why you should never pay the first medical bill you receive. He also shares hacks that can help you prevent big medical bills before you get care, remove unreasonable charges, appeal insurance decisions, and lower the amount you pay for prescription drugs.

The omicron wave appears to have peaked and is already subsiding in South Africa, with a relatively minor impact on their healthcare system. However, the positive rate is still around 29%, suggesting high circulation among their population. other fluctuations.

With the advent of the internet and blockchain technology, the list of valuables you can invest in is endless. In addition to gold, cryptocoins, and the usual stocks, people are now putting their money into everyday collectibles like antique cars and baseball cards.

A new study found that 10,000 Bitcoin accounts hold 5 million out of the 19 million coins in circulation, or the equivalent of about $232 billion.

Bain & Co. was the top place to work in 2021 according to Glassdoor.

Words like "ok," "sure" or "yup" can be interpreted as angry door-slamming when communicated through written text without the help of non-verbal cues like vocal utterances (e.g., sighs, screams, and laughs) that reduce ambiguity.

CPR News again traversed Colorado to tell the stories of the people who live here, and to cover the news as it happened.

Social media posts containing expletives has increased 27% on Twitter and 41% on Facebook between 2019 and 2021. Another profanity-filtering service run by Inversoft found that the volume of filtered words has tripled in the past 18 months on the forums and message boards.

Federal officials will invest $282 million in funding to ensure a smooth transition to the three-digit suicide hotline 988, with $177 million going toward expanding operations and telephone infrastructure and the other $109 million will increase staff at call centers. Since 2005, the line has received over 20 million calls, 2.4 million last year alone.

Americans widely distrust algorithms used across different industries. Both liberals and conservatives overwhelmingly agree that there should be public or government oversight of the use of algorithms (71%).

Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips collectively earned a record $15B in sales this year. Between a third to one half of the buyers were new. A third of Christie's buyers were millennials.

Almost $100B out of $3.5T of pandemic relief funds have been stolen since early 2020. More than $2.3B in stolen funds have been recovered so far, resulting in the arrest of more than 100 suspects.

Following up on a newsletter from two weeks ago, the US Census Bureau reported that the US population increased by just 392,665 people (about the population of Cleveland, OH), or 0.1%, from July 2020 to July 2021, bringing the total population to 331.8M people. This the first time that the population grew by less than 1 million people since 1937.

12/22/21 was the 22nd and final palindromic date of the year. The next year with 22 palindromic dates won't occur until 2111. The date 1/20/21 was the first Inauguration Day with a palindromic date in American history. The next one will come in 1,000 years, on 1/20/3021.