1) The supreme overlord of emoji, the Unicode Consortium, is no longer accepting applications for new flags. Apparently, flags aren’t very popular emoji and adding territorial subdivisions can get sketchy. Unsurprisingly, the red flag (🚩) — as in, what you hope you don’t find in a date — is the most popular flag, and ranks 212th among all emoji.
2) Last year, the New York Public Library said it would remove late fees to incentivize people to return long-lost books. Since then, ~88k overdue items were returned. Pre-1954, the late fine was 1 cent per day. Before it was eliminated, the fine had reached 25 cents a day.
3) Avocad-oh-no. The price of Mexican avocados has skyrocketed recently, up 81% this year to $38 per 9-kg box. With per capita US consumption up 100%+ since 2010, and with Mexico supplying 80%+ of America’s avocados, the fate of guacamole is at stake.
4) A recent Gallup poll found 35% of in-person workers frequently feel burnt out, compared to 27% of fully remote workers. To take a wild guess, this is likely due to the fact that remote workers can wake up at 9am and work from bed, while in-person workers cannot. Thoughts?
5) China’s influencer-led $30B livestreaming industry is absolutely bonkers. So bonkers that authorities are considering capping the value of tips that can be sent to streamers to ~$1.6k per day to disincentivize young people from aspiring to livestream professionally.
