The Dominos That Fell With Crypto

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_{-Bailey Hepler, Mikael Hall}

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CRYPTO CRASH

The Dominos That Fell With Crypto

In a world that’s usually clear as mud, the reason for the Crypto crash this week is crystal clear. What caused Bitcoin to crash 10% in the blink of an eye and $1 billion in Crypto liquidation? Let’s look at the fallen dominos that contributed to the purge now known as “Red Thursday”:

• 💸China Evergrande Group files for bankruptcy: Once a staple to China’s property development sector, Evergrande now has $330 billion in liability debt since the 2021 debt crisis. Companies responsible for 40% of Chinese home sales have defaulted. Unable to find enough cash in the couch cushions, Evergrande Group filed for bankruptcy. The company’s backing of Tether, a stablecoin, has investors bearish on its volatility, and the rest of Crypto.

• 🚀SpaceX abandons $393 million of Bitcoin holdings: SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space exploration program, shifts strategy as they reveal $5.2 billion in 2022 expenditures, and $5.4 billion allocated to property acquisition, equipment, research, and development. Investors saw this liquidation of Bitcoin holdings as potential lack of faith in the Crypto market.

• Investors liquidated $1 billion due to Crypto price volatility: The aforementioned reasons sparked more Crypto liquidations than when FTX collapsed.

  

  Source: X via @VeloData

POLITICAL DEBATE

Your Guide For Political Debates

Yesterday, 8 Republican candidates met in Wisconsin for the first debate of the 2024 presidential race. The lead for the Republican nomination is held by Donald Trump who upstaged the debate by sitting for an online interview with former FOX News host Tucker Carlson, as the other 8 candidates battled to close the gap between 1st and 2nd place. Whether You watched the debate or interview, being an undecided voter can be stressful, but fret not, we’re here to clear the air.

For many, presidential debates serve as great reality television, as heated exchanges and accusations entertain the masses in a sort of Super Bowl for American Democracy. Historically in fact, presidential debates have very little, if any, impact on swaying a voter’s decision as voters have made their voting decisions ahead of debate season.

However, as the approval rating for President Biden currently sits at 40%, and the pending indictments against Former President Trump have voters questioning their reality, the debates have never been more important. Although you should take every political claim with a grain of salt (I mean look at my student-loan debt), pay attention to the candidates who are backing your values and beliefs. Here are some main topics from the Republican Debate to keep an eye on moving forward:

• Former President Trump’s Indictments: Despite former President Trump snubbing the debate for an interview with Tucker Carlson, his presence was felt during the debates. The presidential candidates seem to be split on their view of the prosecutions. Either its a witch hunt, or those who disapprove of the former President’s actions.

• Abortion: The stance on abortion has been hazy for the candidates. Ramaswamy, Christie, and Burgum have all stated that the decision should be left to each individual state although formerly identifying as “pro-life”. DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida, but after SBA Pro-Life America exposed him, also implied abortion policy should be decided by the states. Haley and Scott said they would support federal legislation restricting abortion. Pence claims he would sign “any pro-life legislation that Congress would take up”, implying he’s willing risk votes to restrict abortion.

• Ukraine War: DeSantis and Ramaswamy don’t believe it’s the United States’ responsibility to fund resources to help Ukraine stating its “a territorial dispute". Ramaswamy has previously suggest Ukraine should cede territory to Russia to end the war. Scott, Haley, Pence, and Christie, support the aid given to Ukraine and have gone as far to say that the United States hasn’t helped enough. Christie and Pence have even visited the war-torn country to help with Zelensky with his efforts. Hutchinson and Burgum have advocated for continuing audits to keep better track of how the aid is being spent.

POP-CULTURE

Pop Meets Profits

🛣️Music’s Biggest Stars Hit the Road

This summer Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Drake have traveled city to city to perform their catalogue of hits for millions of fans. Between these three titans of pop music, the Eras, Renaissance, and It’s All a Blur Tour are expected to gross over 3 billion dollars’ worth of revenue, with Taylor Swift and Beyonce expecting to break all-time records in revenue earned on tour.

🎲Barstool Buyback

Prominent sports media personality and Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has recently repurchased Barstool Sports back from Penn Gambling for as little as $1 according to a recent SEC filing. This move is two-fold as Barstool looks to regain full creative control over its popular sports lifestyle content and Penn gets to partner with the Worldwide Leader in Sports in efforts to expand sports gambling capabilities at ESPN and capitalize on the prevalence of direct-to-consumer live sports gambling.

🧼Sports Washing Strikes Again

One of the best and most famous athletes in the world, Neymar, recently inked a $300 million dollar deal with Saudi Arabian soccer club AL – Hilal. This is the latest sports-washing effort from the Saudi Arabian government to revamp its public perception amongst those across western world, causing many to question the moral/ethical issues that come along with signing these lucrative contracts with Saudi Arabian funded leagues/teams.

~Mikael Hall

WALMART SCAM

Walmart Employees Use Multiple Identities To Boost Earnings

What the Split is going on at Walmart? In June, Walmart celebrated the growth of its crowdsourced delivery service, Spark, as they tripled the number of drivers this year. Come to find out, many drivers delivering groceries aren’t who they say they are.

Walmart driver Mike Del Rio reported to Business Insider earnings of $150 per 5 hours shift delivering groceries, more than what he was earning at competing services Uber or Instacart. These earnings began to decrease as his phone sat silent with no delivery requests only to find out that some drivers have multiple Spark accounts AND multiple phones receiving job requests. There’s a “Two Phones” by Kevin Gates joke in there somewhere.

Not only are these drivers hoarding orders away from fellow drivers, they’re putting customers in danger by lying about their identity.

In Walmart’s defense

Spark's Terms & Conditions prohibit "sharing accounts, using another person's account, activating multiple accounts, or entering false information into the Spark Driver App." However, drivers told Insider they’ve reported fraudulent behavior to no avail.

A Walmart spokesperson told Insider that "complaints related to potential or suspected fraudulent activity are investigated and our team takes the appropriate action." The spokesperson added that while Walmart doesn't share personnel decisions related to drivers, it takes driver feedback seriously and uses it to "inform platform enhancements, including trust- and safety-related updates."

Walmart recently rolled out a verification process that periodically requests drivers to submit pictures of themselves to make sure they match with their IDs. Competitors like DoorDash & Instacart already require this identification and penalize users who cannot confirm their ID by suspending the account until they can.

It’s not the first time for Spark

Spark drivers protested in Illinois in late June, claiming that scammers on the app use bots to hoard orders from other drivers. Walmart claims to deactivate scamming accounts after investigation if they find the use of bots.

HYGIENE

Should You wash your hair every day?

I could see modern George Costanza saying something like this, “You should’ve seen the look on her face, Jerry… when I told her I wash my hair every day. Pure horror, HORROR JERRY.” As health awareness becomes more popular across the world, people are wondering if washing your hair every day might actually be harming your luscious locks. The truth is, yes it does for some.

There are a number of hair characteristics to consider when deciding whether you should hold off on the daily shampooing. Dr. Murad Alam, vice chair of the department of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine tells NYT:

• Your hair’s texture

• How oily it gets

• How processed it is

• Lifestyle habits

• Age

Shampoo removes dirt and pollen, as well as dandruff, sweat and hair-care products while it cleans your hair. But it also removes “sebum”, the natural oil in your hair that locks moisture into your skin and helps block UV radiation.

🧼Wash Your Hair Daily If…

You should consider washing your hair daily if your scalp is more oily where sebum can accumulate. Signs of oily scalps are if your hair is limp, greasy, or even smelly. The thickness of your hair matters too. If your hair is fine, it may become greasy more quickly as there isn’t enough hair to absorb the oil.

A daily wash may also help those who use hair products like gel, mousse, or hairspray as it can cover your scalp, causing irritation or preventing hair growth.

❌Don’t Wash Your Hair Daily If…

Consider giving your hair a break from washing if it’s curly or coily as it is more prone to drying out and breaking without sufficient sebum. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends that Black People wash their hair once every 1 or 2 weeks.

Medications can also dry your scalp. Dr. Alam recommends using a gentle shampoo that contains moisturizers if you take statins, antihistamines and diuretics.

Age also plays a part in sebum production. It’s slow during childhood, highest during puberty, levels in adulthood, and slows after 70. So if you’re older, you may want to avoid daily shampooing to avoid drying your scalp.

⛹️‍♀️For the Gym Rats

If you’re a habitual gym-goer, you may want to consider the amount of sweat that clogs your pores and hair follicles. Dr. Alam recommends at least a daily rinse to avoid inflammation of the hair follicles. You don’t always need to use shampoo, but a rinse can help minimize the elimination of essential sebum while keeping your scalp moisturized.

THURSDAY SHORTS

• 👁Photo of the week: NASA reveals incredible views of the Ring Nebula by the James Webb Space Telescope, a sight for sore eyes. Nebulas are a star-forming region consisting of mostly cosmic dust with ionized, neutral, or molecular hydrogen.

• ⛓👱🏻‍♂️⛓Former President Donald Trump pledged to pay his $200,000 bond while also planning to turn himself in Thursday at Fulton County jail, 1 day after snubbing the republican debate for an interview with Tucker Carlson.

• 🚀Russian space craft Luna-25 crashed into the moon two days before India’s Chandrayaan-3 becomes the first to land on the southern-polar region. Slow & steady wins the race.

• 🏝Ever wanted to live like Shrek? No? Think again. Check out this beautiful secluded private swamp… I mean island. Yours for $185,000.

• 🌧Hurricane Hilary downgraded to a tropical storm this week while drenching Southern California and delivering record rainfall to Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon. Nevada more than doubled their record of rainfall to 9.20 inches.

• 🕹A new TikTok trend called the Non-Player-Character (NPC) Trend is destroying braincells and boosting bank accounts as influencers pretend to be video game characters who aren’t being interacted with, as viewers send them cash. One influencer, PinkyDoll, earns $7,000 per day.