US Affairs

Florida is no longer the best place to retire

Are your grandparents looking to retire? Florida is no longer their top option. Pennsylvania just took the title for the premier place to retire, according to US News & World Report.

USNWR ranked Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s capitol, the best place to retire in all of the US, in part due to its close access to the outdoors and a smorgasbord of nearby festivals. They also noted that the city is within driving distance of Hersheypark, and only a few hours away from big-city weekend getaways, like NYC, Philly, and Washington D.C.

• New York City happened to snag a number six spot on the list, despite expensive living costs.

Pennsylvania accounted for seven of the top 10 best places to retire in the United States with only one coming from the previous frontrunner, Florida. Daytona Beach was its only entry in the top 10. Only three Florida cities were in the top 20, down eight from last year.

• Despite this, Florida is still a desirable place to live for seniors.

A USNWR expert said part of Florida’s drop is due to more expensive housing prices and the extreme weather risks, like uh, you know, hurricanes.

Where don’t retirees want to go?

California was ranked as one of the least desirable places to retire, yet again, mostly due to affordability issues. Seniors have become increasingly conscious of their spending in recent years, and according to USNWR finance expert Beverly Harzog, "The areas that rank high on Best Places to Retire also tend to be more tax-friendly for seniors," which makes total sense why NYC would rank number six.

Despite it not being a top-rated place to retire, Florida remains hugely popular. Between 2021 and 2022, over 740,000 people moved to Florida, the most of any state in the US. With all the growth, Florida surpassed New York to be the 2nd most valuable property market in the country last year, according to a September Zillow report.

Speaking of Florida… Jeff Bezos!

Florida may not be the best place to retire, but for centi-billionaires, it’s paradise. Amazon founder (and newest Florida Man) Jeff Bezos is looking to trade gloomy Seattle for sunny Florida, according to an Instagram post he made on November 2nd.

The change is reportedly because Bezos would like to be closer to his parents and his private space company, Blue Origin, as they ramp up operations at Cape Canaveral.

• Last month, the third richest man in the world bought a $79 million mega-mansion on the celebrity-dense Indian Creek island near Miami.

• This will be his second property in the so-called “billionaire bunker”.

The median price of a home on Indian Creek Island is $49.5 million, and with such an exclusive price tag, not just anyone can live there. His new neighborhood has the likes of Tom Brady, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner staying next to him.

With individuals worth a small nation’s GDP residing on the island, Indian Creek is heavily monitored and has its own police force that patrols the area by land and water. But owning a home on the island doesn’t even guarantee you access to the community’s golf club (which is 90% of the island).

The United States is shrinking

The US population is taking a dive. According to the latest Census Bureau data, the US population is projected to shrink by the year 2100.

This would be only the second decline in the country’s history (the other in 1918 due to the Spanish flu and World War I). Annual population growth rates have dropped from about 1.2% in the 1990s to just 0.5% today.

• The two biggest contributors are declining birth rates and an aging population.

The US could even be topped by Pakistan or Nigeria as the third-biggest country by the middle of the century, per UN projections. Despite this, the US is still growing faster than many other developed countries, such as Japan and Italy, which are already losing population.

The prime working ages (25-54) are projected to shrink in the mid-2040s, as it would be at a quarter of its growth rate in the 1980s. This would reorient the US population to rely on immigration as a means of population growth if it wanted to keep up with faster-growing demographics.

The shift could take a toll on the US economy and its geopolitical standing. With fewer young workers to support the elderly, programs such as Social Security and Medicare would face greater strains.

Culture

Are we finally fed up with Marvel movies?

Demand for Marvel movies seems to hit a low point as the company’s latest movie hasn’t performed. Last Friday, Marvel’s latest venture The Marvels, hit theatres. And flopped… hard. This continues an underwhelming streak for the once globally dominant brand.

The company spent $250 million to make the movie and $100 million to promote it with it taking in only $47 million in its opening weekend, the worst in Marvel history. Initial tracking from the studio projected it to make closer to $80 million, but those projections narrowed quickly.

What’s the issue? Variety published a report stating the severity of what’s going on behind the scenes, from production to decision-making to writing. Scripting oversights apparently led to four weeks of reshoots for the latest movie.

• The NYT review of The Marvels is titled “You’ve Seen This Movie 32 Times Before” if that says anything.

They may be in a rush. Marvel has released 10 movies in the last two years, upping their typical rate of one to two a year in the 2010s. They also greatly expanded their TV offerings, which resulted in Disney CEO Bob Iger stating they had done too much too quickly.

Recent superhero movies flopping (not just from Marvel) have many thinking they’ve oversaturated the market, causing viewers to lose interest in superheroes in general.

College football’s most recent cheating scandal

One of college football’s biggest names is in deep trouble. The University of Michigan, one of the favorites to play in the college football national championship, has found itself engulfed in a sign-stealing controversy that has spanned the last three seasons.

Unlike the NFL, college football players aren’t allowed to have radios in their helmets to listen to play calls from their coaches. Instead, teams use signs (glorified poster boards) to relay what plays they want to run.

While almost all teams watch the publicly available film to try and dissect what other teams may be calling, it’s illegal to scout them live and watch in person.

The NCAA and the BIG Ten (Michigan’s conference) are both looking into the claims and investigating, which may take weeks or months to get a concrete answer. The BIG Ten commissioner took action immediately, suspending Michigan head coach, Jim Harbough, for the final three games of the season.

• Michigan said it plans to go to court to appeal any discipline.

• Harbough also served a three-game suspension earlier this season for an unrelated NCAA violations case regarding recruiting.

The NCAA is also investigating former Michigan recruiting analyst Connor Stalions for allegedly traveling around the country to scout future opponents at games. Michigan alleged that other teams cheat and that punishing the team would set a precedent that the NCAA doesn’t want.

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Grab Bag

AI may be misleading you more than you’d like

Those of you relying on ChatGPT for your homework should be weary. A start-up founded by previous Google employees recently concluded that AI is prone to misleading users, and much more than we would’ve thought.

Despite AI chatbots being the new know-it-alls we go to when we need answers, they have a pretty bad habit of making things up. When they do, the instances are called “hallucinations,” these errors can be damaging, as you may imagine. Especially because their nose doesn’t grow like Pinnocios (like in our picture above).

The study from ex-Google employees found that AI chatbots fabricate answers at least 3% of the time and up to 27% of the time. Sheesh. I should’ve proofread some of my college essays.

There were several notable instances of AI “Hallucinations” in the headlines this past year. Here are a few of them:

• Google’s chatbot Bard made false claims about the James Webb Space Telescope in its debut, causing Alphabet to lose $100 billion in market cap.

• A lawyer who used ChatGPT to write a legal brief asked a judge for leniency after it was discovered that the chatbot cited at least six cases that simply just didn’t exist.

• ChatGPT reported that a mayor in Australia was imprisoned for bribery when he was actually a whistleblower and never charged with a crime.

As AI chatbots will only become a more prevalent source of information we’ll likely start to see a surge of misinformation checkers in the near future.

Your cat is more emotive than you

Cats often get a bad rep for not being as emotional as dogs, but that’s just simply not the case. Felines often tend to be more subtle than dogs when it comes to expressing themselves, or so we thought.

Two researchers spent 10 months monitoring the interactions between felines at a cat cafe to see how they interact with each other (how do I sign up). Contrary to popular belief, the stereotypically disengaged creatures have at least 276 distinct facial expressions.

The study found that nearly half (46%) of their expressions are deemed friendly, 37% are considered aggressive, and 17% are unclear. While the statistics may sound pretty conclusive, there is still much work to be done, according to evolutionary psychologist Brittany N. Florkiewicz.

The next time you meet a cat, keep in mind that the researchers found backward-flattened ears can suggest discontent, and upright, forward-leaning whiskers and ears can indicate happiness.

Snippets

Humane Hardware: Humane, a company founded by two ex-Apple employees, launched an AI pin that’s supposed to replace your phone.

RIP: Omegle, a video chat service that connected strangers across the internet, has shut down after 14 years due to child safety concerns.

Beary hungry: A bear in Florida took someone’s Taco Bell order right off their front step and even went back for the drink.

Massive Music: The largest musical instrument in the world is underground in a Virginia cave. It’s an organ that uses stalactite to produce sound.

Funeral Funk: The owners were arrested for improperly storing about 200 corpses in the facility after a neighbor complained of an “abhorrent smell.”

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