September 28, 2022
Read time: ± 4 minutes
New here? The WC is a selection of five useful, interesting & notable insights, handpicked by our CIO Wyatt Cavalier and pumped into your inbox every Wednesday.
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Table of Contents
You’re skipping stones wrong
I can’t walk past a lake or river without looking for a few flat stones to skip. The fact I’ve not yet taught my seven-year-old son to skip stones properly is one of my greatest failings as a father.
So, I was hugely surprised to learn I’ve been doing it wrong my whole life.
And that twenty skips along the surface really isn’t very good. The world record for stone skipping (which is, in fact, different to stone skimming) is 88.
It’s held by Kurt “Mountain Man” Steiner, a legendary figure in the niche sport.
The key to record-breaking throws is a counter-intuitive release.
Rather than tossing the stone with a flattish 20-degree trajectory, which is what “science” says should be optimal, Kurt drives the stone down into the water at 30 degrees. Hurling the stone at a steeper angle, which he can do at more than 50mph, allows him to “rip it hard enough to beat gyroscopic inertia”… whatever that means.
His recovery techniques in the off-season surely also contribute to his success:
I will spend [the off-season] in super-isolation — no power, no heat, no water, no phone… getting high, maybe drunk… watching video, reading, writing, taking hikes… and crapping everyday in a bucket in the basement.
So, I guess if you’re not doing that, you’re doing it wrong.
Need more nightmares?
There are 20 quadrillion ants on this planet (and most of them are in my kitchen). And if twenty million billion ants doesn’t sound terrifying enough for you, how’s this:
They collectively weigh more than all the earth’s wild birds and mammals combined.
If you never want to sleep again, look up “ants eating time lapse” on Youtube.
This is the most benign video I could find:
For those who’d like to spin this as something other than nightmare fuel, read up on how ants are actually super helpful and important.
China’s life expectancy > US life expectancy
Since 2019, Americans have been dying an average of two years earlier. Life expectancy has dropped from 78.8 to 76.1 years, mostly due to Covid. Opioids and an increase in motor vehicle accidents also contributed to the decline.
Meanwhile, life expectancy in China, which was only 44 years in 1960, has overtaken America. An average human in China, according to official records, can now expect to live 77.1 years – a full year longer than their American counterparts.
China has taken a harsher approach to Covid than the US, which accounts for much of this difference.
Of course, some (many?) may quibble with official statistics coming from Beijing, so these numbers may not be 100% accurate.
It’s hard to dispute American figures, though. Most worrying (for me) is that life expectancy plateaued in the last decade, and would have declined over the last two years regardless of Covid.
My next genius idea
Two pieces of accidental knowledge have led me to the next genius real estate opportunity:
- My mum-in-law used to own and run student lets. She talks about it from time to time.
- I live in a beach town in Spain where holiday rental prices in July and August are 20x the other ten months a year.
The problem with student lets is that they’re empty in the summer, while holiday lets are empty when it’s not summer…
Why aren’t real estate investors combining the two? One property can be rented out to university students from September to June, and to holidaymakers in July and August. I know there’s a turnover period after students move out, but it doesn’t take two whole months.
There’s a precedent for this in fast food – Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins, both owned by Inspire Brands, often share the same location. One brand is busy in the mornings and the other in the afternoons.
Is someone already doing this? What am I missing?
It’s been a tough week for the UK
Liz Truss, the new Prime Minister of the UK, has had a tough week.
If you missed it, the Pound sunk faster than a poorly skipped stone, dropping to its lowest levels against the USD since, like, the American Revolution.
Because if you don’t laugh, you’ve got to cry, here are some memes making fun Liz Truss’s and the UK’s misfortune –
Would be an incredible achievement to be elected leader of your party, become Prime Minister, kill the queen, tank the pound and get fired all within one menstrual cycle. Unreal girlbossing. https://t.co/acVwIh8UPl
— Sister Birkin (@judeinlondon2) September 26, 2022
Even physics is against Ms. Truss –
The pound after Liz Truss announcing her financial plan pic.twitter.com/KEwqeJJeDt
— Gail Platt’s Grieving Stinkhole (@katecrimed) September 26, 2022
Nice to see 50 Cent getting involved.
BREAKING: US singer 50 Cent announces that he now wishes to be known in the UK as 1 Pound. pic.twitter.com/hqY7MGBDVp
— Beau (@DrBeauBeaumont) September 26, 2022
And this last video is great regardless of context.
a brief history of the pound pic.twitter.com/Fw7TmioZMq
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) September 26, 2022
What caught your eye this week?
Cheers,
Wyatt