Explosive urban population growth, plunging cryptocurrencies, inequality in Chicago, and a look into how carbs make us fat.
Here are the top newsworthy items from this past week as shared on our Facebook page.
- In 1950, 750 million people worldwide lived in cities — most of them in Europe or North America. The majority of the global population lived in rural areas until 2008. Now, 55% of the world’s population (4.3 billion people) lives in urban areas. That will jump to 68% (6.6 billion people) by 2050. Most of this will come from Asia and Africa, the latter of which is seeing an unprecedented growth in urban populations.
From Axios
- NYU said it will cover tuition for all its medical students, a first among the nation’s major medical schools and an attempt to expand career options for graduates who won’t be saddled with six-figure debt.
From The Wall Street Journal
- Bitcoin fell below $6,000 for the first time since late June. Ether, the second-most-used coin, dropped 17% over 24 hours. Plunging cryptocurrency prices point to the apparent failure of units to gain widespread adoption in the economy.
From The Wall Street Journal
- Spending at U.S. restaurants surged over the past three months by the most on record. Sales in July brought the three-month annualized gain to 25.3 percent, the fastest pace in figures going back to 1992.
From Bloomberg
- Banks and retailers are tracking how you type, swipe and tap to weed out automated attacks and suspicious transactions. The data collection is invisible to those being watched and is sometimes allowed to outside vendors.
From The New York Times
- Ramaco Carbon is working to open what would be Wyoming’s first coal mine devoted not to electricity, but to high-tech products like carbon fiber or 3D-printing material.
From Axios
Racial segregation, wealth inequality, gangs and the inability of law enforcement to solve crimes have fueled the gun violence epidemic.
- Chicago is flourishing economically, with a record-low unemployment rate of 3.8% and a third of its residents making at least $100,000. But the wealth is not equally distributed over the starkly segregated neighborhoods — and neither is the violence. Racial segregation, wealth inequality, gangs and the inability of law enforcement to solve crimes have fueled the gun violence epidemic.
From Axios
- Top Roman Catholic leaders in Pennsylvania covered up decades of child sex abuse involving more than 1,000 victims and hundreds of priests.
From The Philadelphia Inquirer
- After 11 months, the last residential customers of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority are being reconnected. But the island’s electricity system isn’t in much better condition than it was before Hurricane Maria.
From The New York Times
- There are now at least 199 women who have won their primaries for U.S. House in 2018. Midterms are typically a referendum on the president, but 2018 is showing over and over again that Americans want more women in elected office during the Trump era.
From Axios
- While much focus has been on Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the Senate’s rapid approval of appellate judges is likely to have its own broad impact on the nation. The 13 circuit courts will shape decisions on immigration, voting rights, abortion and the environment for generations.
From Washington Post
- How do carbs make us fat? Eating carbs makes our blood sugar spike as glucose, the broken-down form of carbohydrates, hits our bloodstream. Insulin is then released to try to regulate our blood-sugar levels. The more carbs you’ve ingested, the more insulin your body produces. Unfortunately, the higher the insulin level, the more your body sends signals that lead to the formation of fatty deposits.
For more, check out “Why We Get Fat” by Gary Taubes.
The Motley Experience 