Shaky Grounds, Clean Towns and Mastodons 🦖

How does it work? 

The algorithm is direct. 

• The app uses sensors in your phone to detect movement and then filters it through a neural network to determine if it matches the model for an earthquake. 
• It then gives a ShakeAlert for earthquakes higher than 4.5 magnitude. 

How is this different from other smartphone emergency systems? 

The startup claims that MyShake’s algorithm is really good. While other emergency systems might mistake a roller coaster for a car crash, MyShake doesn’t make such motion generalisations. It can figure out which motion specifically fits the earthquake model. 

So far, MyShake only functions in California, Oregon, and Washington, but it’s already been downloaded 1.6 million times in these regions. The startup is working at taking the app global, especially in countries that don’t have access to traditional and expensive equipment used to detect quakes.

For the ambitious entrepreneurs looking to start their own, there’s one industry that seems to be going places. 

The contract cleaning services industry. 

Take Spritz, for example. The startup acts as a marketplace connecting cleaners with vacation rental hosts and is currently employing a large number of housewives and stay-at-home mothers to run a nationwide cleaning service. 

The pandemic greatly shifted how people view hygiene and cleanliness, especially in high-traffic areas such as restaurants and offices. As a result, cleaning services, especially commercial cleaners, are expected to be the most profitable business this year. 

Some Stats: 

• The industry is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 6% from 2020 to 2026.
• Startup costs for a cleaning business are under $2000. 
• Small businesses in this space make between $70k and $100k per year, with profit margins falling between 10% and 28%.
• Women make up nearly 90% of residential cleaners in the United States. 

• Blue checks on social platforms have a certain value. They imply that the account belongs to a reliable person who is unlikely to act as a carrier of unverified information. The fact that acquiring a blue check is not easy, also adds to its value.
  But with the new system, anyone with the means can pay for the blue check. It’s quite possible that bad actors trying to spread fake news would be more incentivized to pay $20. Political agents funded by hefty campaign budgets can sway public opinions. The next US Prez may not need bots to come to power.
   
• The payment system will turn Twitter into an echo chamber of those that can afford it. Corporations like Netflix and Amazon are likely more willing than a local nonprofit newsroom to drop $20 a month per account. 

There are signs of a small but growing Twitter exodus underway.

Mastodon, a decentralized social network gained more than 70,000 new sign-ups on Friday, the day after the Musk Twitter takeover completed. And this weekend, the official Mastodon mobile app saw a record number of downloads as more people fleeing Twitter began to seek out a new online home.

Mastodon is not a new platform. The free and open source microblogging service startup debuted in March 2016. 

On Friday, #mastodon began trending and many people were tweeting #TwitterMigration. Germany is Mastodon’s largest market with 37% of installs, followed by the U.S. with 19% and Japan with 7%.