Brunch & Birkenstocks🥞

This Week in Review☕️: Instagram Threads takes off | Toxic chemicals found in tap water | Prices of packaged Chips, Cereal and Cookies skyrocket | The Most Peaceful Countries in the world | These Shoes

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Quick Bites:

Big Tech📱: Meta's new app, Threads, has taken off with a bang. 

The Twitter rival has surpassed 100 MILLION sign-ups since its launch last week, as it continues its rapid rise.

Mark Zuckerberg:

💡Copied Facebook from MySpace
💡Copied Reels from TikTok
💡Copied Stories from Snapchat
💡Copied Blue Tick verification from Elon
💡Copied the FULL Twitter app 

Based of his resume, he should be locked up. This man is a COMPLETE FRAUD. 

Threads has leveraged Instagram's existing community by tying it to users' accounts. All you have to do is log in using your Instagram credentials- a key reason for its instant popularity.

Let's be honest. All Zuckerberg has done is build a new mouse trap in order to move his cheese.
We gonna stick with Elon and his vision for the future 🙏🏻

Meanwhile, Twitter has threatened to sue Meta over Threads, accusing the app of being a "copycat" and that Meta hired its former employees to work on the project, stealing trade secrets to launch it.

Meta has denied the allegations stating: "No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee- that's just not a thing,"

Our Thoughts💡: We're gonna call it like it is- Threads is just Instagram without chicks in thirst trap pics. 

This is just Zuckerberg making everyone forget that he spent over $10 billion on the Metaverse last year. And that this is yet another attempt to steal data. And that FB is still a democracy-hating, misinformation-spreading machine

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Health⚠️: Toxic "forever chemicals" found in nearly half of US tap water.
Thirsty, anyone?

A new study from the US Geological Survey (USGS) has found that nearly 45% of tap water is contaminated, leading to increased public concern about the nation's health and safety.

Seems like staying hydrated is gonna be a lot tougher this summer folks.
PS. Tap water in Florida legit tastes like liquid death 🤮

Seems like the world is finally waking up. Wait until more studies comes out on:

💡Microplastics
💡Artificial Sweeteners
💡Seed oils
💡Farmed Animals
💡Fluoride Toothpaste
💡Blue light
💡Sunblock
💡Deodorant
💡Nano particles
💡Food packaging

And stressing about all of the above will just kill y'all faster 

These tapwater "forever chemicals", also known as PFAs, are found in many everyday consumer products from fast-food containers and gum wrappers to toothpaste and hair shampoo.

PFAs are used because of their oil-proof, waterproof, heat-resistant and stain-resistant properties.
They refer to more than 12,000 chemicals that persist and can build up in the body, WSJ reports.

Studies have linked these chemicals to health problems from cancer, obesity and thyroid to reduced fertility and liver damage. 

Americans living in urban areas are more likely to have tap water with traces of PFAS than those in rural areas, the report notes.

Our Thoughts💡: People gone from writing about chemicals in tap water to chemicals in our morning granola bar. 

Personally, if it tastes good and doesn't kill us instantly, we're good to go.

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Fashion🩴: While Birkenstocks would have never cost you much financially, they could have cost you your social status- until now.

Birkenstock owner considers $6 billion IPO, as the famous footwear becomes a household product across the world.

Love it or hate it, there's definitely a market for "comfy". The more clunky, clompy and clacky the shoe, the more we want them.

You no longer need to reserve your Hoka Dad sneakers or hideous clogs for alone time or lounging by your backyard pool! Ugly and chunky is in guys💯

L Catterton, the private equity firm backed by luxury French fashion house LVMH, is considering strategic options for Birkenstock with a potential US public offering, Bloomberg reports.
 

Over the past few years, Birkenstock has become one of the most coveted shoe brands, not only because of its comfort, but also as a result of its high-end collaborations with brands like Christian Dior.

Our Thoughts💡: We have the Birkenstock Boston clogs, Birkenstock Arizona Soft Footbeds, Birkenstock Madrid Big Buckles, the Franca Oiled Leather for fall and the Zermatt Minks for winter.. but we wouldn't say we're fans🙄🙄

Also, according to our company policy, Birkenstocks are totally acceptable as part of our Work-from-Home attire✅

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Food🍟: Packaged foods add a new ingredient to their products:
Inflation. 

If you've been eating any brand-name foods from Doritos to Chex to Oreos, it's almost certain you've paid more this year. 

Consumers have had slight relief from meat and eggs, but they now have to deal with high costs of packaged foods like ketchup, chips and cookies.

Prices of household goods like soap and detergent have risen too- basically all essential items that consumers need on a daily basis, WSJ.

Average unit prices for consumer packaged goods increased 12% compared to last year, while household care products went up 9%, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Key Highlights, according to WSJ:

💡Prices are primarily rising for what food executives refer to as “the center store”
💡Prices for potato chips rose an average 17% to $3.05 per packet from last year 💡 Mayonnaise increased 23% to $4.93 per container
💡Applesauce jumped 22%

“We all need those prices to come down,”
-Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told investors in May. 

Our Thoughts💡: We personally feel scammed. This is not 'shrinkflation' or 'hidden inflation'.
Paying $$$ for Cheerios is daylight robbery.

The only silver lining? It can help us deal with the nationwide weight gain over the course of the pandemic (which let's be honest, hasn't really dropped since 2020)

For those who've piled on the excess pounds snacking from home.. ahem🙄.. More expensive snacks = Lesser snacks = Lesser calories = Lesser lbs〽️

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Culture 🌍: The Most Peaceful Countries in the world.

The 2023 Global Peace Index has released its annual ranking of The 10 most Peaceful Countries in the world as follows:

1. Iceland
2. Denmark
3. Ireland
4. New Zealand
5. Austria
6. Singapore
7. Portugal
8. Slovenia
9. Japan
10. Switzerland

According to CNBC, the study measured a country’s level of negative peace using three criterion of peacefulness:

💡Ongoing domestic and international conflict
💡Societal safety and security
💡Militarization

Overall the index found that the world is a little less safe than last year, mainly due to the aftermath of the pandemic.

While the United States ranked 131 on the list, 7 out of the top 10 most peaceful countries in the world are in Europe.

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Quicker Bites: 

• US faces week of dangerous weather with flooding and heat-wave alerts.

• India to become the world’s 2nd largest economy after China by 2075, Goldman Sachs.

• Elton John tells farewell gig crowd they will be in his ‘head, heart and soul.’

• Turkey drops opposition to Sweden’s NATO bid on eve of summit.

• US-EU come to new data-privacy act.

• UN warns Sudan faces ‘full-scale civil war’ as air raid kills 22.

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