If you've spent anytime on Twitter in the past few days, chance are you've seen ChatGPT mentioned a few times.

This recently launched platform is a product created by OpenAI, an organization formed by Sam Altman, Elon Musk and others in 2015.

ChatGPT is a chatbot where users can ask a slew of questions and the platform uses AI to provide replies. It can sort through millions of data points, potentially eliminate hours of research and even write research papers!

Moreover, "it can do something no other search engine has been able to do before: Take in information and form coherent opinions about topics that require nuanced thinking."

There has been growing concerns regarding TikTok's privacy policy amongst US users, as shown by the latest spike in google searches on the topic.

This has coincided with a significant increase in potential legislation to restrict or outright ban the platform in the US.

Recently, TikTok has now been banned on government employee devices in South Dakota because the governor believes the social media app’s ownership by a Chinese company poses a national security threat.

According to The Athletic, "FIFA are determined to extend the length of time the ball is in play for, to keep its matches entertaining to watch.

Football’s world governing body have repeatedly insisted they want to add time accurately when play stops for VAR interventions, the treatment of injuries, substitutions, penalties and red cards, while Collina has said he wants to crack down on players time-wasting."

Compared to the average match duration in the group stages of the 2018 World Cup, the 2022 Group Stages matches thus far are noticeably longer.

Do you think this change is justified?

#sports #soccer #WorldCup2022 #WorldCup

Looking at the relationship between CPI & the Fed Funds Rate

I created this chart on FAANG (Facebook i.e. Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) stock prices from November 2021 to November 2022 to analyze any correlation between their respective share prices over time. Unsurprisingly, they seemed to move in tandem for the most part. 

Notably, some stocks like Netflix took massive losses around April/May of 2022.

Continuing the series on seed oils (oilseed) production and consumption in the US with a similar chart to this one.

A growing contingent of nutritionists and dietitians have highlighted the elimination of seed oils from the Standard American Diet (SAD) as necessary to rectify the increase in various life threatening ailments that the American public faces, from obesity and heart disease to skin cancer.

What other data would you like to see to further explore this topic?

There has been a growing contingent of nutritionists (see here and here) who have been arguing that the increasing rates of obesity along with other ailments in America are not due to sugar or carb consumption or due to a lack of exercise but rather correlated with seed oil consumption.

The mechanism is particularly interesting. According to the previously linked Chris Kresser blog post, "Research in mice indicates that consuming high levels of linoleic acid, the primary fatty acid in industrial seed oils, alters neurotransmitter signaling, ultimately increasing food consumption and fat mass. (28) In mice, a diet high in soybean oil induces obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, and fatty liver disease. (29, 30) Animal research also suggests that canola oil may cause insulin resistance. (31)"

Many nutritionists now also highlight how prevalent seed oils like corn oils, soy bean oils, sunflower oils and rapeseed oils are in the most common grocery store items in America.

Of the top 10 most fined companies in the world, seven are in the financial services industry and six are based in the US.

Source: Good Jobs First - Violation Tracker

They way most people feel about the direction of the national economy seems to following partisan lines. Democrats tend to feel that it is getting better under Democratic presidents, and the same holds true for Republicans.

Source: Civiqs