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March 15, 2022
Do you know when the first NFT was created? Answer: May 2014. A digital artwork called "Quantum" sold for $4 in a live presentation at a New York museum. Last year, it re-sold for $1.4M. This makes me feel much better about investing my life savings in an NFT my 9-yo cousin made of Crazy Frog.
Brittney Griner could soon face serious jail time in Russia. Her story and current situation are the subject of today's Roca Wrap. Let's ride.
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I Don't Want to Play with you Anymore
Overview
- NFT trading volume has fallen substantially since its summer peak
- According to NonFungible, an NFT data service, the average number of daily NFT sales has fallen by 91% since August
- About $40M in NFT sales occur each day, down from $139M in August, and the average NFT sale price has decreased by 24% from a December peak
- The Bored Ape NFT collection is among those that have seen steep drops in value. Their prices are down 44% over the past 3 weeks
DIG DEEPER
Between February and March, daily trading volumes on OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, dropped 80%. In January, investors valued OpenSea at $13.3B. The initial hype around NFTs may be starting to fade.
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New York City Manhunts End
Overview
- Manhunts for 2 assailants ended in arrests today
- One of them stabbed 2 employees at the city's Museum of Modern Art on Saturday. The man said he “lost it” after the museum canceled his membership for misbehavior, blocking him from seeing Van Gogh's Starry Night
- The other is believed to have shot 5 sleeping homeless men — 2 in New York and 3 in Washington, DC — over the last 2 weeks. 2 victims died
- Police linked the shootings to the same man. The cities’ mayors warned homeless people to seek shelter. The last attack took place in NYC on Saturday; he was arrested in DC early Tuesday
DIG DEEPER
The shootings cam amid a crime surge in trains and stations that has prompted NYC to relocate its homeless population out of the subway system. DC police offered $25,000 for info leading to the man's arrest; police in NYC offered $10,000.
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Manchin Blocks Biden
Overview
- Senator Joe Manchin (Dem., W.Va) said he would oppose President Biden's appointment of Sarah Bloom Raskin to be one of the US' top banking regulators
- Manchin, the most conservative Democratic senator, effectively has a veto in the Senate, which is split 50-50 between the 2 parties
- Biden had appointed Raskin to be the top regulator at the Federal Reserve (US central bank). The appointment would have made Raskin, a progressive, one of the most prominent US bank regulators
- Manchin said he opposes Raskin's stance on fossil fuels, which West Virginia produces. His objection likely tanks her nomination
DIG DEEPER
In 2020, Raskin had said the government should withhold emergency lending from some fossil-fuel companies. Manchin said the Fed needs to get away from politics and be “hyper focused” on fighting inflation. The Biden admin says it is seeking Republican votes to secure a majority.
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Russia Bans Instagram
Overview
- An Instagram ban took effect in Russia. Instagram was wildly popular in the country — 63M Russians, or 40% of the population, used the app
- Last Friday, Russia's government said it would ban the platform on Monday. Users flooded Instagram with goodbye posts throughout the weekend
- “Right now, I’m writing this post and crying,” one popstar with 23M followers wrote. Many are moving to VKontakte, Russia’s homegrown social platform
- Russia said the ban was in response to IG allowing calls of violence against Russian soldiers. Russia banned other social platforms earlier this month
DIG DEEPER
The ban is more significant than ones on other platforms. 51% of Russian internet users use Instagram monthly, compared to Facebook (7.3%), Twitter (4.9%), and TikTok (25.6%).
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 What do you think?
Today's Poll:
Would you pay to watch an Elon Musk vs Putin fight?
Absolutely
Nope
Today's Question:
What are you most looking forward to about spring?
Reply to this email with your answers!
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See yesterday's results below the Wrap!
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 Popcorn
Culture & Sports
- Skete to space! SNL star Pete Davidson will be blasting off to space on a Blue Origin flight on March 23. He is the one non-paying crew member
- The NBA fined the Brooklyn Nets $50k for letting unvaxxed Kyrie Irving into their locker room. Irving watched the game from courtside seats
- Actor Jussie Smollett was placed in the psych ward of a Cook County jail following his courtroom outburst. He faces 150 days in jail
Business
- Netflix and sell? Netflix's stock has lost all its pandemic gains, falling to its lowest point since early 2020. It is down 50% from its Nov. high
- Discover that cha-ching! Largely thanks to a huge stock option grant, Discovery CEO's 2021 compensation totaled ~$246M
- The war could cause Ukraine's economy to shrink as much as 35%, according to the International Monetary Fund
Wildcard
- It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a.... QR code? A giant hovering QR code promoting Halo in the skies above Austin, TX, frightened many locals
- Elon Musk challenged Putin to a fight to determine the fate of Ukraine. He tweeted, "I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat"
- A Mississippi school administrator was fired for reading I Need a New Butt! to a class of 2nd grade students
- Tokyo schools are loosening up! Tokyo public high schools will ditch rules that strictly regulate students' hair, underwear, & more
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― Roca Wrap
A Newsletter Exclusive
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On February 17, Brittney Griner was flying into Russia to finish up another million-dollar season. On her way through Moscow, she was stopped, searched, and arrested. One of the world’s best women’s basketball players now faces up to 10 years in prison.
Griner, 31, made a name for herself while a high school basketball player in Houston, Texas. Her viral dunk videos gained millions of views on YouTube and she set the US girls’ high school record for most blocks in a game (25). She went on to play at Baylor University, in Texas.
In her first college season, Griner set the all-time single-season block record and became the second woman to dunk twice in a single game. Her junior year, she recorded more blocks than any other team. She carried Baylor to a national title and was named player of the year.
In 2013, Griner was the #1 pick in the WNBA draft. She has since won a WNBA championship and been an all-star 7 times. But the WNBA didn’t pay enough – she’ll make $228,000 in 2022 – so in 2014, she took a job playing in Russia during the off-season.
Griner has since spent her winters in Russia’s 4th largest city, Yekaterinburg, where she joined a team owned by a Russian billionaire. Each 6-month season, she’d earn over $1M – more than quadruple her US salary.
This February, Griner left Russia over a 2-week league break. On February 17, a week before Russia invaded Ukraine, her flight from New York landed in Moscow. Police arrested her at the airport: A drug-sniffing dog had led them to cannabis oil vape cartridges in her luggage, they said.
Police charged Griner with drug smuggling, and she now faces up to 10 years in prison. It may take months before she is sentenced, but in Russia, 99%+ of people who go on trial are convicted.
It’s unclear whether Griner actually possessed the drugs, and also whether the police sought out her bag specifically. Either way, she now finds herself the most high profile American in a Russian jail during the worst time for US-Russia relations since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Her fate may now depend on negotiations between the US and Russia. In other words, the queen of women’s basketball now finds herself a pawn.
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If you have thoughts, let us know at Max@RocaNews.com!
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 Games
Does this food have gluten in it? (For those wondering, this newsletter is gluten-free.)
- Oatmeal
- California roll w/ soy sauce
- Lays BBQ chips
- Orzo
Find out the answer at the bottom of Roca Clubhouse.
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 Roca Clubhouse
Yesterday's Poll:
Should public schools require studying a foreign language?
Yes: 91.7%
No: 8.3%
Yesterday's Question:
What historical period do you find most fascinating and why?
Maria from Brooklyn: "industrial revolution. It changed the world - how we live, how we work. It also coincides with the Victorian Era in the UK. The dichotomous class structure during that time is intriguing."
David from Nashville: "The European revolutionary period. How the French Revolution was similar to and different from the American Revolution and how it brought about major upheavals in European geopolitics. These revolutions and the fear there would be more is what really accelerated democracy along with the rise of Napoleon and the First World War. "
Maggie from Los Angeles: "Roaring 20’s, prohibition, speakeasys -who doesn’t love secretly breaking the law, the beginning of women's freedom, shorter skirts, the bob, and the right to vote!"
General Feedback:
Maria: "Akiko Iwasaki is a woman, not a man." (Thank you to all those who corrected our error in yesterday's Wrap.)
Katrina: "I really appreciate your dedication to including wildlife news in the Roca Current. I really enjoy hearing about it. This format of news (what you cover and how) has greatly helped my mental health."
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Roca Rider Storytime
Last Friday, we asked you to submit your funniest, most awkward, or cringiest date story. We hope it was a therapeutic experience. We feature some highlights this week.
Anonymous from Los Angeles: "After finally moving my ex out of my place, I go on my first date in 3 years. I met him on tinder (I know I did this to myself) and preface this, I’m really short. So a guy being less than 6ft doesn’t hurt my feels but this man claimed to be 5’9 and he’s about 5’3. We order a round of drinks and he tells me he didn’t graduate high school because he got arrested for selling drugs, and now he just sells drugs full time (he’s 22). Truly never interested in seeing this man again but he did have some entertaining stories so I order another drink and the date lasts about an hour. Towards the end I look down the bar and see my ex sitting alone. I try to avoid him in any way noticing me and convince myself I’m hallucinating. Date ends and we leave separately, and when I’m outside waiting for a ride he comes right up to me and offers me a ride home. Eyes full of tears and huge puppy eyes while I’m still on the phone with my sister telling her how bad the date was. My ride pulled up a minute later but I had to leave that poor guy on the curb, again."
Anonymous from Baltimore: "When I was in college, I met a guy that asked me out and he said he was going to take me to a very interesting presentation. It was an MLM (multi-level marketing) pitch/recruitment meeting. Then he said I was “still a child” with “no interest in making money” when I told him I wasn’t interested in joining."
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Games Answer(s):
1. Yes 2. No 3. Yes 4. No
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― Final Thoughts
We officially moved into our new office yesterday. If you're thinking you've read that before, it's because you have: We moved into a dungeon-esque temporary office on January 4, with the agreement that on March 1 we'd move to an office in that same building with a great view. Then our landlord said they would be keeping us in the dungeon – with a lack of heat being the primary torture device – so we relocated to a different building, 6 blocks north.
We now have: Heat, exposed brick walls, AND! hardwood floors. Roca is headed to the next level.
Happy Tuesday!
- Max and Max
Today's Instagram Wrap is part 2 of a 2-parter on Roman Abramovich, the oligarch-turned-owner of Chelsea.
Thanks for reading! See you again tomorrow!
As always, send thoughts and feedback to Max@Rocanews.com |
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