đ Good morning. If youâre tired today from a late-night cram sesh, maybe put down that textbook. Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed by economist Aaron Terrazas shows that the higher your degree, the longer it will take you to find a new job. Workers with advanced degrees find themselves jobless for a median of 18 weeks, more than 4x the time it took just two years ago.
đ„ Mark your calendars: Fyre Festival is back. The second iteration of the infamous event will be held in Mexico between May 30 and June 2, according to its founder Billy McFarland (who served nearly four years of a six-year sentence for wire fraud, bank fraud, and making false statements to law enforcement). McFarland posted on X saying Fyre Festival 2 will be a âthree-day escapeâ with âworld class accommodationsâ and âadventures led by international and local talent.â Who, exactly, that talent is has not yet been announced, but weâre sure thatâs nothing to worry about â right?
đ± Verizon recruiters have a new tactic: dangling the remote/hybrid work carrot. While AT&T is requiring workers to return to the office full time, rival Verizon is touting its more flexible opportunities as a way to âadd top talent to the V team,â per an email sent to AT&T employees. Business Insider found 1.2k open Verizon roles across the US, 10 of which are remote, and many of which require at least eight in-office days a month. AT&T isnât budging, telling BI it wants people who want to work in team environments with âstrong relationships and collaboration fostered by in-office constructs.â
đ€Š Oops: The OnePlus Watch 3 should have launched yesterday, but will instead go on sale in April. This is due to a typo that unfortunately reads, âMeda in China.â Customers who preordered and received a misprinted watch may return it or keep it as a âsuper limited edition,â OnePlus said via a post on X. Typo aside, The Vergeâs Victoria Song indicated her forthcoming review may be a positive one, which is particularly good news for the wearables company considering she reviewed the first OnePlus watch as âthe worst product I have ever tested in my career.â
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
Big week for convicted founders: Sam Bankman-Friedâs X account is live again after disappearing for two years. Ten posts appeared on his account Monday, giving followers advice on leadership and firing employees and discussing Elon Muskâs DOGE.
Vying for the C-suite: Purina is hiring for an extremely important leadership position, chief snuggle officer. You are, unfortunately, out of the running already â the pet care brand will be choosing an adorable puppy or cat for the gig, which pays $25k (not too shabby).
Tesla began rolling out a software update in China that will give customers access to Full Self-Driving capabilities. The update will allow vehicles to navigate exit ramps and intersections, recognize traffic signals, change lanes and speeds, and make turns.
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And the American Astronomical Society would prefer it stay that way, releasing a statement last year encouraging laws be enacted now to prevent âobtrusive space advertisingâ in the future.
Space advertisingâŠ
⊠comes in two categories:
Non-obtrusive: Logos or advertisements on space suits, rockets, or other objects. For example, in 2000, Pizza Hut paid ~$1m to put its logo on a Russian Proton rocket headed to the ISS, upon which it delivered a salami pizza to the stationâs cosmonauts.
Obtrusive: Space ads that can be seen from Earth without a telescope or other device. Imagine, if you will, camping in a dark national park and gazing up at the night sky only to see a gigantic billboard for Amazon.
The US has already banned the latter, but that only applies to launches from US soil. Other nations could allow such payloads, which is why the AAS is advocating for an international ban.
Is anyone actually trying to plaster the sky with spam?
Yes, though no company has any ads ready to deploy:
Avant Space: a Russian company that launched a small satellite in 2024 to test if groups of satellites could use lasers to project ads in the future, perSpace News.
StartRocket: another Russian company that, in 2019, announced plans to promote a Russian PepsiCo subsidiaryâs energy drink using small satellites with reflective sails. That did not happen.
But astronomer James Lowenthal toldGizmodo that while there used to be only a handful of mostly government agencies involved in spaceflight, there are now âhundreds or thousands of private space companies vying for a piece of the space pie,â some of which may be interested in clogging up the night sky with ads.
That may be a lucrative endeavor: A 2022 study estimated that while a constellation of ~50 satellites would cost $65m, it could generate ~$111m in profit across three months and 24 ad configurations.
Neck and neck: Two entrepreneurs spent 16 years working to bring their patented surgery mainstream.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Estimated public health costs due to data centers â the kind required to develop AI â over the past five years, according to research from UC Riverside and Caltech.
Not good.
Researchers say thereâs a link between the air pollution emitted by energy-sucking data centers and increasing cases of medical conditions like cancer and asthma.
In 2023, an estimated $1.5B was spent treating conditions related to data center-derived pollution, up 20% year over year, as the race to build more advanced AI systems has intensified.
UC Riverside associate professor Shaolei Ren told the Financial Times that âunlike carbon emissions, the health impacts caused by a data center in one region cannot be offset by cleaner air elsewhere,â but that Big Tech companies could minimize health impacts by building data centers in less populated areas.
Apple apparently didnât get this memo: This week, it announced an expansion of its data center in the 2.8m-person Charlotte, North Carolina, metro area.
AROUND THE WEB
đ§ On this day: In 1974, Nike received a patent for its waffle trainer shoes, which co-founder Bill Bowerman invented in a waffle iron while searching for a spike-free sole that would grip artificial running tracks.
đ« Thatâs interesting: Would you eat chocolate grown in a lab?
đŸ Aww: No one has ever been hangrier than this kitten.
QUOTE OF NOTE
Despite your best guess, that wasnât a concern overheard before a good piñata beating at a childâs birthday party, but one voiced at the Consumer Analyst Group of New Yorkâs consumer-products conference in Orlando, Florida, last week.
The annual event features corporate talks, heaps of freebies, and, per The Wall Street Journal, the familiar sight of attendees â usually well-paid Wall Street analysts, investors, and their families â scuffling over free candy, snacks, and other goods.
Nothing limited-edition or exclusive, but the regular-degular things you find in grocery stores, like Jolly Ranchers and Froot Loops â which arenât exactly worth assaulting children over, if you ask us.
SHOWER THOUGHT
If you run at 11pm you are a night person. If you run at 5am you are a morning person. If you run at 3am you are a suspicious person.SOURCE
Today’s email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Sara Friedman. Editing by: Ben âThe Crab Nebula presented by AT&Tâ Berkley.
