July 2021
Published on 07/01/2021Of course, when you think of July you think of the 4th of July (which is a bank holiday that will be observed on the 5th). The birthday of America aka party in the USA. But what else happens in July? Nathan Bedford Forrest Day (July 13th, observed in Tennessee), Bastille Day (July 14th), Rural Transit Day (July 16th), Pioneer Day (July 25th, observed in Utah), Parents’ Day (July 25th), National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day (July 27th).
Lights! Camera! Matter?
Published on 06/22/2021Lights! Camera! Matter? Wait, what? Yes, that’s right- we can now get matter from light. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has the ability to transform matter into energy and then back into different forms of matter. Even cooler, on rare occasions, the Large Hadron Collider can skip the first step and collide pure energy.
June 2021
Published on 06/03/2021We are sure you’ve noticed all of the rainbow colored items show up in stores around June 1st. No, it is not rainbow unicorn appreciation month - June is Pride Month. There are some other important dates within the month of June. For example, World Environment Day (June 5th), World Oceans Day (June 8th), World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (June 15th), Juneteenth (June 19th), Father’s Day (June 20th which is immediately followed by the first day of summer), and National Insurance Awareness Day (June 28th).
Leave Me A-Loan
Published on 05/31/2021If you are a student, then you know that time after time you’ve given your money to pay back student loans. Unfortunately, if you still owe on your student loans, the plan to forgive $10K of what you owe has been cut from the U.S. budget, at least for now. It would have been interesting to see how canceling the debt would impact the credit score of students, especially since the average student debt has risen from about $36K to $39K per student from 2019 to 2020.
Where the Wood At?
Published on 05/25/2021We previously covered that the global demand for lumber has increased since the world went into lock down. We also previously reported that lumber prices have risen by more than 130% since before the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, when looking over the course of a year, lumber has increased by 375% between April 2020 and April 2021 according to Forbes. How did we get here?
Public Does Not Mean Free
Published on 05/18/2021Public court records aren't quite public. If you wanted to pull back a public case record, it costs around 10 cents per page. That may not seem like a lot, but it adds up pretty quickly especially if you are pulling multiple cases. If you want a free option, court proceedings are open to the public, and case records can be reviewed free of charge in courthouse clerks' offices during business hours.
It's Gonna be MAY
Published on 05/14/2021Elon Musk, now dubbed "the Dogefather," appeared on SNL on Mother's Day of this year (May 9th) and of course his presence and hype influenced the meme based cryptocurrency Doge. What else is going on in May?
Take me Home, Country Roads
Published on 04/30/2021Are you adventurous and tired of living where you are currently living? Consider moving to West Virginia because they will pay you to be there. You read that right. Move to West Virginia, and they will pay you a total of $12,000.
That's kind of NFT-y
Published on 04/19/2021A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is the latest cryptocurrency phenomenon to go mainstream. So what exactly is an NFT? NFTs transform digital media and other collectibles into one-of-a-kind verifiable assets that are tradable using blockchain.
April Showers
Published on 04/13/2021Technically, the first day of Spring was last month, but it certainly feels as though Spring has finally sprung. The weather so far in 2021 has been odd, considering the citywide shut down due to record snow and ice that occurred in February that left thousands in Memphis without clean water. Since then, the weather was consistently cool until April hit where the temperature has slowly but surely crept up to be between 75 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Animals Have Had It
Published on 03/31/2021We saw some pretty bizarre animal behavior last year and it is only getting more strange this year. In previous issues of our publication, State of the Bands, we talked about the plague of locusts in Africa destroying a significant percentage of crops. We also covered that sharks will sometimes attack the deep sea internet cables. We did not cover a disruption in the migration pattern of birds in the US that resulted in the mass death of migratory birds. Around September of last year, hundreds of thousands of birds died during their migration through New Mexico.
Let's Face It
Published on 03/26/2021If you are not familiar with it, deepfake technology is essentially a filter in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness. The general concept of deepfake is not new, however deepfake footage leverages techniques from machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to generate visual and audio content with a high potential to deceive.