🎃 Freaky Friday – October 30 2020

Lead Story: The U.S. Economy

credit: reuters

The US economy grew 7.4% in the third quarter, recovering nearly two-thirds of what has been lost during the pandemic.

This seems unbelievable given the recent weeks of stock market dumping but Q3 ended at the end of September and a lot has happened since then. This data shows that by the end of the summer, things were slowly recovering but Q4 is about to be a doozy with rising infections, new closures, and a bang-up Presidential Election so take this data with a grain of salt.

Still, the increase in gross domestic product, a measurement of demand for goods and services, was a record jump from Q2. The biggest since these metrics began in 1947. Despite this increase, the economy is still expected to be far smaller at the end of 2020 than it was at the beginning.

Education: The Children Are Left Behind

credit: getty

The pandemic will have lasting consequences on this generation of school children. We knew this but a new study from UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank makes it even more clear than ever.

Some shocking results show that low-income countries have suffered the worst with school closures, with students missing four months of learning in poorer countries versus only 6 weeks in higher-income countries. Half of the low-income countries said that they could not afford appropriate safety measures to re-open schools such as handwashing facilities, protective gear, and temperature checks. Only 5% of higher-income country schools reported this problem.

Of the students who can’t return to school right now, 84% of them are in low-income countries. Before the pandemic, UNESCO says that 250 million children were out of school, which seems really high! That number is expected to go up by a full 10% due to the pandemic.

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Not Throwing Away Their Shot To Vote

credit: giphy

The line in the play Hamilton that gets the most applause is when Marquis de Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton high five while singing, “Immigrants, we get the job done.”

That is definitely the case at the polls this year. Newly-naturalized US citizens who were foreign-born are voting in droves, becoming the fastest-growing group of voters in the country. In fact, since 2000, the size of this group has doubled.

These are people that were born as citizens of another country and have completed all of the legal requirements to become Americans. Many of them will be casting their votes this year for the very first time. They definitely deserve that “I Voted” sticker!

Can I Put This In Recycling?

credit: getty

Did you know you can recycle a cruise ship? That is exactly what cruise line companies are doing with ships that have been retired due to the pandemic.

There is a shipyard in Turkey specializing in breaking down cargo ships, tankers, research vessels, and now party cruise ships. They auction off the piano bars and Murphy beds and all the other chattel that goes into a cruise ship and then take it apart bit-by-bit.

And apparently, this is good business! If Carnaval sells off just the steel that makes up one ship, it could make over $4 million!

News By The Numbers

credit: buildingdetroit.org

$1,000. That is the starting bid for a house in Detroit. The city is trying to unload abandoned homes to people willing to patch them back to life. There are 504 of them currently for sale.

$1 million. That is how much in stolen goods from Home Depot that a man in Colorado was caught with. He had been selling them out of his garage.

16%. That is how much UPS’s revenue increased in Q3 due to increased package ordering during the pandemic. Profit margins are smaller however, as the company had to hire so many people and delivery costs are higher.

Jon Stewart Returns

credit: giphy

Apple snagged Jon Stewart to headline a new show on its streaming service, and we for one are ready to welcome him back to the airwaves!

Stewart is a comedian and creator of The Daily Show on Comedy Central host with 20 Emmy’s under his belt. His still-untitled show will be a current affairs series, but most likely not a daily one. He will also produce shows for the network as well as a companion podcast.

We sure have missed his voice this political season but we will have to wait until next year for something to actually watch.

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