Pickleball & Weight-loss pills💊
This Week in Review☕️: America's Fastest Growing Sport | Restaraunts are minting money via service charge | Interest in Obesity hits all-time high | Theranos founder sentenced to prison for 11 years |
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Quick Bites:
Sport🥎: What do The Kardashians, Bill Gates, Tom Brady, Leonardo DiCaprio and George & Amal Clooney have in common?
PICKLEBALL
Pickleball is America's "fastest growing sport", with more than 8.9 million players in the US, up 159% since the start of the pandemic, CNN reports.
The racket sports is played in a tennis-like fashion on a badminton court with paddles and a plastic, perforated whiffle ball.
By 2030, pickleball is projected to attract an estimated 40 million players globally.
Umm.. what the hell is pickleball?
Celebrities and investors are all hoping to cash in on the pickleball boom. Big names like LeBron James, Mark Cuban and Tom Brady have gotten involved by investing in teams who will debut this year.
“Just like millions of other Americans, I’ve been following pickleball over the past few years, and I couldn’t pass up the chance to invest in the fastest growing game in the country,”
-Mark Cuban
In addition, real estate developers and fans are desperate to find spaces to build courts- and many are looking at malls following the collapse of middle-class retailers.
The popular sport will soon be coming to your local mall, replacing bankrupt companies like Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy and Saks Off 5th stores, CNN.
Our Thoughts💡: This "sport" has apparently been around since 1965 and was first played in Washington.... Yet not a single person has ever mentioned it until 10 minutes ago. And now, noone can stfu about it.
PS. Our neighbourhood just put up a bunch of pickleball courts next to the local park. Now, all these baby boomers take up all the free parking and we barely get to get in our 10k steps.
Safe to say- we are NOT fans 😡
Healthcare x Business🌡: Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, has been sentenced to jail for 11 years.
Holmes, who was convicted last year of defrauding investors, has lost her latest bid to stay out of prison.
Holmes is currently 39-years old. She has a 1-year old and just gave birth to baby #2 who is 3 months old. Gonna miss their childhood, surface from federal prison as a freaky 50-year old with 2 tweens in middle school who barely know her
Moral of the story: Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. PERIOD.
PS. if you're not yet not fully convinced Holmes is a fraud, you should know she named her baby "Invicta"
ALSO, her dad worked for Enron.. guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree eh?
Key Highlights, according to BBC:
💡Holmes will serve her sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas starting from May 30
💡The facility, which sits on 37 acres, is mostly for those serving time for non-violent offences and white-collar crimes
💡All inmates are expected to work, and earn between 12 cents and $1.15 an hour for their jobs
💡Holmes has also been ordered to pay $452m to the victims of her fraud. She will split the amount with her former boyfriend and business partner, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, who started serving a 13-year sentence in prison in April.
Our Thoughts💡: Holmes made the mistake of stealing from the rich; Bill Gates, the Clintons, the CVS family, high-powered Republicans, including former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Schultz.. real oligarch money we talkin' here
The world prosecutes white-collar crime when it hurts the top 1%. Not so much when it hurts the average joe😭
Food x Business🍝: Here's a familiar Friday night for you: You finished your pasta, drank your wine and the plates have been cleared from the table.
Now, it's time for the cheque- and it comes included with a fat service charge, even if you thought the service was mediocre at best.
To deal with rising costs, many restaurants are adding a service charge to bills instead of raising the menu price, The New York Times.
Background💡: The service charge is actually not a gratuity- it's income that an employer can choose to share with employees or not.
i.e Your server is expecting you to leave a fat tip even when a service fee has been added to the bill
Umm, we recently experienced it at Subway. Like seriously dude... you sold me a friggin ham sandwich? Plus, we're standing right here telling you how to make the damn sub
Despite the service charge confusing customers, the added-on fee is not going anywhere as restaurants and cafes are relying on it given the increasing cost of inflation.
“If we didn’t have the service charge, we might be out of business in a couple weeks,”
-a Houston restauranteur owner told NYT
Our Thoughts💡: Tbh, tipping culture has definitely gone a little out of control guys! The standard tip at a restaurant starts at 18% and goes upto 40% depending on the service!
We have zero problem paying for good service but why tf should we tip you for bringing our food from the kitchen to the table? Like that is LITERALLY your job.
These greedy business owners need to pay their employees a living wage bc we all struggling right now and we are NOT tipping for every damn time we order a cappuccino and a muffin. Sorry NOT SORRY🖕🏻
Healthcare💊: An increasing number of people want to use drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy to help them lose weight
Umm or just stop eating sugar and carbs
Don't eat real food
Don't get off the couch
Keep scrolling on social media
Take a pill
Give us money
Yep we're all f*cked
However, the people seeking out drugs like Ozempic to shed pounds have a barrier.
Their employers' health plans won't pay for the treatments, which can cost over $900 a month.
Key Highlights, according to WSJ:
💡Only 18% of companies with 5,000 or fewer employees cover weight-loss drugs
💡For businesses with +5,000 employees, the number is 44.9%, WSJ reports.
💡Price is the big barrier; Insurer 'Willis Taylor Watson' estimates that drug spending by employers would soar by more than 50% if half of the employees who are eligible for Wegovy took the treatment.
Our Thoughts💡: Who wants to bet this is yet another big pharma health disaster in the making?
Weight Watchers, calorie counting, juice fasts, low-fat, low-carb, Medifast, Mediterranean, Atkins, Keto, Paleo, Pescetarian, Vegan and all you do is yo-yo 5-10 lbs with each new fad
NOT THE ANSWER GUYS!
💡Healthy nutrition
💡Exercise
💡Limited social media
💡DISCIPLINE!
Quicker Bites:
TikTok sues Montana after the state passed an outright ban on the platform.
Meta hit with record $1.3bn EU data privacy fine.
JP Morgan hosts its investor day.
SpaceX rocket launches private mission to the International Space Station.
Historic deal reached to protect Colorado River; a vital source of water and electricity for the West.