Smoke and mirrors

April 22, 2024

Smoke and mirrors: The fourth bitcoin “halving” just slashed mining rewards in half — from 6.25 to 3.125 per block. Translation: Bitcoin will become 50% harder to find. This is the oldest marketing trick in the book. As it gets rarer, it becomes more valuable, and more people buy in at that increased price … until they stop buying altogether and it all crashes. Remember: The intrinsic value of bitcoin is exactly zero.

Tags: Bitcoin, book, buying, crashes, Marketing, mining, rewards, value

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Bursting into flames: Protect yourself from lithium-ion battery hazards

Powering my cellphone? A lithium-ion battery. E-bike? Lithium-ion. Same goes for my iPad, MacBook, electric toothbrush, portable battery pack. I could go on.

The same goes for your tech. As it starts to warm up, we need to talk about safety. Fires from our little gadgets can get out of control quickly.

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How to train your autocorrect to actually work

I bet you’re frustrated with how often autocorrect is auto-wrong. That’s why I wanted to walk you through a few steps to make yours work more accurately.

Even with some new AI features in the latest updates, autocorrect is still “ducking” annoying. Let’s fix that together.

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Lots of us spend a ton of money on streaming (but not everyone). What percentage of American TV viewers watch ad-supported streaming TV every week? Is it … A.) 10%, B.) 25%, C.) 50% or D.) 75%?

Find the answer here →

9.3M new subscribers for Netflix

In the first quarter of 2024, bringing the platform’s global total to 270 million. Netflix execs are stopping sharing subscriber numbers. My guess: They’re reaching saturation, and soon, there’ll be nowhere for these numbers to go but down.

49.6% of internet traffic is generated by bots

That’s up 2% from last year. The result? Billions in losses to fight fake traffic and bot attacks. That’s one thing I love about writing this newsletter — I’m writing for real people!

20% of produce contains unsafe levels of pesticides

For produce in U.S. grocery stores. Takeaways from Consumer Reports’ analysis: Bell peppers, blueberries (even frozen) and potatoes must be organic to be safe. Celery, collard greens and strawberries must be U.S.-grown or organic to be safe. And green beans must be U.S.-grown and organic to be safe. tl;dr: Buy organic when you can.

0.6 point increase in grades

For students with last names that start with A, B, C, D or E versus V, W, X, Y or Z. That finding comes from 30 million papers submitted through Canvas, the most popular tech platform for teachers. Canvas gives papers to teachers to grade in alphabetical order. By the end of each assignment, they’re tired — and, apparently, less forgiving.

Emoji trivia is big on social media and YouTube. Let’s see how you do. Can you name the TV series depicted by the combination of these three emojis? 👇🔛⛪ (Hint: It takes place between 1912 and 1926 in the U.K.)

Find the answer here →

$68 million in change thrown away by Americans each year

One waste-processing company that culls metal from trash has collected $10 million in usable coins in seven years. If I had a nickel for every coin I threw away. I’d have no nickels because throwing away money is dumb.

75% of American shoppers have an Amazon Prime membership

That was 180 million Americans last month, up 8% over last year. Let’s do some math. At $15 per month, that’s $2.7 billion in subscription revenue in a month! Incredible.