News for the insatiably curious.
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Good morning, it's Tuesday, Aug. 11. The trial over Tupac Shakur’s murder begins nearly 30 years after the rapper’s death. First time reading? Join over 4.7 million insatiably curious readers. Sign up here.
Also in today's Digest: dogs know if you're scared or sad (Need to Know), a potential cure for HIV in newborns (Sci. & Tech.), July's heat eclipsed the Dust Bowl (Pol. & World Affairs), tiny gorillas love chameleons (Etc.), and much more.
Need To Know
Quake Strikes Colombia
At least 111 people are dead as of this writing after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia yesterday, leaving dozens more injured and others trapped beneath collapsed buildings (w/photos). Colombia’s strongest earthquake this century was also felt in Ecuador and Panama.
The quake was centered near San José del Palmar in Chocó, a remote region roughly 250 miles west of Colombia's capital, Bogotá (see interactive map). More than 1,500 homes, 50 schools, and 18 health centers were damaged, while over 60 buildings collapsed. Chocó is one of Colombia's poorest regions, with many jungle communities reachable only by boat or plane. The region sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-like belt responsible for 75% of the world's volcanoes and 90% of earthquakes. Explore why earthquakes happen and defy prediction here.
Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Dolphin is expected to bring heavy rain and flooding to eastern China. The storm made landfall as a typhoon Sunday, prompting over 1 million people to evacuate. See photos.
Tupac Trial, 30 Years On
Jury selection began yesterday for the man charged with killing rapper Tupac Shakur. Duane “Keefe D” Davis stands accused of first-degree murder in one of hip-hop's most famous killings. See crime scene photos.
Davis once led the South Side Compton Crips, a rival to the Bloods-affiliated gang associated with Shakur’s record label. On Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur and others were seen assaulting Davis’ nephew after a Mike Tyson fight. Later that night, Shakur was in a black BMW driven by his label’s cofounder when he was fatally shot from a white Cadillac. Prosecutors allege Davis directed the killing but did not pull the trigger and was one of four passengers in the Cadillac (the other three have died). Davis acknowledged his involvement in a 2018 BET interview and 2019 memoir, but pleads not guilty and characterizes the memoir as fiction (free w/email). He previously accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of commissioning the murder, which Combs denies.
How did the Bloods and Crips rivalry emerge? Watch a 40-minute video.
🫶 Humankind: Bootmaker donates over $25K worth of shoes to firefighters battling wildfires in Spokane, Washington.
Emotional Watchdog
Dogs can differentiate between a range of human emotions by reading our facial expressions, according to brain scan results published yesterday.
Researchers first put eight dogs into MRI scanners (watch how) and showed them photos of people with happy or neutral expressions. The happy faces activated a brain region associated with reward processing, while the neutral faces did not. In a second experiment, 12 dogs were shown photos of people with happy, sad, fearful, and angry expressions. The MRI scans suggest they could distinguish happiness from the three negative emotions, and fear from both sadness and anger. But, for reasons still unclear, the dogs appeared unable to differentiate anger and sadness.
The study authors next want to understand how dogs might process emotions using nonvisual cues, given how heavily they rely on their sense of smell over sight. Dogs can smell about 1,000 to 10,000 times better than humans, and previous research has shown their noses can detect heat.
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In partnership with Finance Advisors
Little-Known RMD Strategy Allowed by the IRS
For investors with $1 million or more in retirement accounts, buried inside the tax code is a set of allowable strategies that—used in the right order, at the right time—can meaningfully reduce the tax exposure when required minimum distributions begin.
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In The Know
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Ben Jones, who played Cooter on “The Dukes of Hazzard” and served as a US congressman (D, GA-4), dies of a heart attack at age 84 (More) | Watch a compilation of Jones as Cooter (More)
> Former President Barack Obama to host limited-run podcast featuring conversations with guests about the six books that most shaped his worldview; series debuts Sept. 24 (More, w/list of books)
> Man arrested in connection with a burglary at Kim Kardashian's home in Hidden Hills, California (More) | How Kardashian's 2016 Paris robbery changed the way celebrities think about privacy (More)
Science & Technology
> Meta unveils free-to-download and modifiable version of its most powerful AI model (More) | Mark Zuckerberg publishes a 6,500-word AI manifesto alongside the model; read the five takeaways (More)
> Scientists release largest-ever 2D color map of the universe, containing nearly 4 billion celestial objects collected from more than 263,407 telescope exposures over 13 years (More) | Explore the Legacy Survey Sky Viewer (More)
> Monkey study suggests one-time, triple-dose regimen may permanently clear HIV infections in human newborns; researchers hope to advance the treatment to clinical trials soon (More)
In partnership with Frontieras
Others Burn Coal. This Company Cashes It In.
One lump of coal holds six separate commodities, and almost every company on Earth just sets it on fire. Frontieras North America patented a way to split it apart instead.
Their process pulls diesel, jet fuel, naphtha, sulfuric acid, and fertilizer out of the same ton of coal, without burning any of it. One rock. Six markets totaling $2.1 trillion annually*.
Every ton of coal already has a 10-year buyer locked in for the products, so the revenue is contracted before the plant even fully ramps up. Now you can own a piece of the potential growth. Don’t miss your chance to invest before the opportunity closes on 8/27.*
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.1%, Dow -0.1%, Nasdaq -0.3%) (More) | Nvidia and Wall Street asset firms reportedly strike $500B financing deal for AI infrastructure (More) | Intel to offer $15B of common stock (More)
> US emergency oil reserve falls below 300 million barrels for first time since 1983 as war in Iran crunches global oil supplies (More) | How the US hides its emergency oil underground (More)
> Pharma giant Bristol Myers Squibb to build $2.3B drug manufacturing campus in Houston, creating about 500 permanent jobs (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> President Donald Trump signs executive order to administer measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines as three separate, spaced-out shots (More) | Measles 101 (More)
> Mainland United States records its hottest month ever in July, averaging 76.9 degrees across states other than Hawaii and Alaska, edging out July 1936 during the Dust Bowl (More) | What was the Dust Bowl? (More, via YouTube)
> Taylor Farms voluntarily recalls prepared food products containing jalapeños over possible salmonella contamination; more than 345 people have gotten sick across 27 states, including 36 people hospitalized (More)
In-Depth
> A Love Story, Lost and Found
Smithsonian Magazine | Ellen Wexler. Three hundred wartime love letters turned up at a USO office with no obvious owner. An amateur sleuth set out to solve the mystery of their origins. (More)
> Cocoa Chemistry
Knowable | Georgia Michelman. What makes chocolate taste, snap, and melt just right? From fermentation to the mysterious white spots known as blooms, researchers are taking a closer look at the science behind the sweet treat. (More)
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In partnership with Finance Advisors
Can I Spend $10K/Month in Retirement?
You saved $1.5 million. Now you want to live on it. The answer is not in your balance. It is in a question most retirement conversations reach too late, and it is worth seeing what the $10K question actually turns on before you stop working.
Sequence of returns. Tax drag on withdrawals. Healthcare before Medicare starts. None of it can be settled from the outside, because it depends on your tax position, your timeline and the year you retire. Answer a few questions and get matched with an advisor who works on retirement income. About three minutes. No cost, and no obligation.
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Etcetera
"Larping" is Gen Z's new favorite insult.
Ranking the most commonly broken bones.
London police seize $10M in supercars to curb antisocial driving.
… and why taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer’s.
One of Earth's eight lava lakes sits in Antarctica.
The 50 best colleges for career success, according to LinkedIn.
"Harry Potter" fans divert undersea cable for Dobby the house-elf.
What your preferred airplane seat says about you.
Over 40 cats were rescued from an abandoned sailboat.
In partnership: Investors are eyeing a hidden gold mine before the round closes.*
Clickbait: Watch baby gorillas obsess over a chameleon.
Historybook: Author and historian Alex Haley born (1921); Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak born (1950); Actress Viola Davis born (1965); Final US ground combat troops leave South Vietnam during Vietnam War (1972); Robin Williams dies by suicide (2014).
*Please support our sponsors.
"In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future."
- Alex Haley
*Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for Frontieras’s Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at https://invest.frontieras.com/. Reservation of the ticker symbol is not a guarantee that we will be listed on the NASDAQ. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.
Sources* The global market for our products is worth a combined value of over $2.1 trillion:
https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/naphtha-market.html
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/aviation-fuel-market-100427
https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/anthracite-market-2742
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