How a Relief Fund for Restaurants Picked Winners and Losers – The New York Times:
James Hutton submitted his claim just one minute after the application system opened on May 3, seeking $2.4 million for his business, Players Sports Grill & Arcade in San Francisco. At the end of June, his grant was denied.
Looking for a Way to Soup Up Your Car? Go Electric. – The New York Times:
“People are going to get so used to the idea of the E.V. grin.”
With a grant from Foundry10, Mr. McCue’s next class project was an 800-volt electric dragster called Shock and Awe that at 166 miles per hour held the speed record for a car with doors until Ford’s electric Mustang Cobra 1400 beat it in 2020.
When the automobile era began more than a century ago, most cars were powered by lead iron batteries or steam, not gas. “As gas cars became more reliable and less cantankerous, when gas cars became more convenient to drive, they took over,” said Leslie Kendall, historian and curator at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. “It’s happening in reverse now.”
*Interesting read.
Interesting Amazon Pharmacy ad as seen on the New York Times website.
Wonder how big of a push they are making? Pharmacy is a huge market. Will have to explore how they are doing differentiation and going above and beyond what other retail vendors are providing to consumers.
This ad was a full width browser ad on a desktop computer. Haven’t watched the video embedded in the ad yet.
Opinion | The Unvaccinated May Not Be Who You Think – The New York Times:
It’s easy to say that all these people should have been more informed or sought advice from a medical provider, except that many have no health care provider. As of 2015, one quarter of the population in the United States had no primary health care provider to turn to for trusted advice.
*”one quarter of the population in the United States had no primary health care provider” This is a real problem. People need to engage their friends and family. Ask them if they have a PCP (Primary Care Physician), offer a few reasons it’s a smart thing to have one. We as a society can help our friends and family become healthier and more informed. My thinking it that having a PCP would move the needle on preventable illnesses and those where early treatment would make a meaningful difference.
Should You Get a Microbiome Test? – The New York Times:
There’s no doubt the microbiome plays an important role in our overall health, converting the food we eat into a range of compounds that have benefits throughout our body. The microbes in our gut produce a variety of vitamins; synthesize hormones like serotonin, which influences metabolic health and mood; and ferment the fiber that we eat, turning it into short chain fatty acids that can lower inflammation. The composition of our microbiomes is shaped by our genetics, our environment and the foods, drugs and beverages we consume.
*The Microbiome is an area to watch and learn about. So unknown, with potentially huge implications to health.
A Nostalgic Quest to Buy a 1986 Toyota MR2 – The New York Times:
What’s hardest to find? It depends on where you live. “In hot countries, it is usually the plastics that are hard to find,” said Neil Jones, who has an extensive parts and salvage business in Wales. “In wet countries, it’s the metalwork.”
Grind Your Teeth? Your Night Guard May Not Be the Right Fix – The New York Times:
simple awareness of the position of your mouth, tongue and teeth throughout the day may go a long way toward preventing tooth-grinding. “Nobody knows where their tongue is when they are at rest,” said Cheryl Cocca, a physical therapist at Good Shepherd Penn Partners in Lansdale, Pa., who treats patients with bruxism. She recommends continually checking to make sure you are breathing through your nose with your mouth closed, your tongue resting on the roof of your mouth, and your teeth apart.
Clubhouse, a Tiny Audio Chat App, Breaks Through – The New York Times:
It was the kind of freewheeling and unpredictable event that has been happening around the clock on Clubhouse, an 11-month-old social media app that has exploded in popularity with the tastemakers of tech and popular culture and that is quickly becoming a town square for debates over free speech and politics.
They added a way for multiple speakers to broadcast at once and allowed people to bounce between digital rooms as if they were going from stage to stage at a music festival or business conference. To avoid overwhelming their start-up, they doled out invitations slowly.
*App to watch.
The Auto Industry Bets Its Future on Batteries – The New York Times:
Long considered one of the least interesting car components, batteries may now be one of the most exciting parts of the auto industry. Car manufacturing hasn’t fundamentally changed in 50 years and is barely profitable, but the battery industry is still ripe for innovation.
Several battery factories are in the planning or construction phase in the United States, including a factory G.M. is building in Ohio with LG, but analysts said federal incentives for electric car and battery production would be crucial to creating a thriving industry in the United States.
all of the money pouring into battery technology is good news. It puts capitalism to work on solving a global problem. But this reordering of the auto industry will also claim some victims, like the companies that build parts for internal combustion engine cars and trucks, or automakers and investors that bet on the wrong technology.
The first priority for the industry is to make batteries cheaper. Batteries for a midsize electric car cost about $15,000, or roughly double the price they need to be for electric cars to achieve mass acceptance, Mr. Srinivasan said.
Longer term, the industry holy grail is solid state batteries, which will replace the liquid lithium solution at the core of most batteries with solid layers of a lithium compound. Solid state batteries would be more stable and less prone to overheating, allowing faster charging. They would also weigh less.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said on a recent conference call with analysts. “Prototypes are easy. Scaling production is very hard.”
*Interesting article.
S. Prestley Blake, a Founder of Friendly’s, Dies at 106 – The New York Times:
Mr. Blake and his younger brother, Curtis, who died in 2019 at 102, founded the first Friendly Ice Cream in the summer of 1935 in Springfield, Mass., with a $547 loan from their parents.
D.L. Damore 