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Tech billionaire and 5 others missing after yacht sinks in “freak storm”

A waterspout likely destroyed the 184-foot yacht, leaving six still missing. 22 passengers of the luxury superyacht, Bayesian, were left stranded off the coast of Sicily Tuesday after a freak storm capsized the vessel.

A one-year-old child was among the fifteen individuals who were recovered. Among those still missing are the software entrepreneur, Mike Lynch, known as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.

Leading up to the incident

Lynch had recently been acquitted of fraud in the US in June after allegedly exaggerating the value of his business, Autonomy, prior to selling it to HP for $11 billion. The passengers on the Bayesian were celebrating Lynch’s acquittal after the 13-year legal battle.

What about the storm? The yacht was overturned early on Monday morning off the coast of Sicily after being caught in dire weather conditions. After it was tipped over, the vessel rapidly sank to a depth of around 164 feet after being drawn under by its mast.

• Meteorologists say it was presumably pinned to the ocean after being dismantled by a waterspout, which is the ocean equivalent of a tornado.

• The Bayesian had the tallest aluminum mast in the world at 246 feet tall (see photos).

Shortly after the yacht capsized, a nearby passenger ship managed to rescue 15 people. The chef's body was later found by rescuers on the yacht, and the last six passengers are still being searched for.

Finance

Sports betting is the new 401k, according to Americans

If you’ve ever wanted to bet $10k on there being a streaker at the season opener now is the time to do it. Since sports gambling on your phone has been increasingly legalized throughout the past six years, many investors are turning away from the trading floor and tuning in to NFL games.

It’s not good for finances…

…that is, unless you win. According to a July working paper, a household’s net investments drop two-fold for the same amount put towards sports bets. Meaning, every $5 put in sports gambling will drop your net investments by $10.

Larger fears about how online betting may affect personal finances are coming to the forefront now that more and more funds intended for amusement are increasingly diverted from prudent investments.

• In January of this year, Americans spent $14 billion gambling on sports, compared to $1.1 billion the same time in 2019.

• 38 states have allowed sports betting after the Supreme Court struck down a federal statute that banned it in 2018.

  • Researchers discovered that net investments decreased by 14% in the two to three years that followed a state's authorization of sports betting.

This is particularly true for lower-income households, according to the study, which are diverting a higher percentage of funds from their financial portfolios towards sports betting.

While sports gambling may seem like a good idea, and a fun one (talking from experience), taking assets from more stable portfolios and dumping them on the Cowboys moneyline probably isn’t the greatest long-term financial strategy, according to the authors.

Retail

Halloween decorating is starting even earlier this year

A Halloween summer is either the pinnacle of humanity or the end of the world. No inbetween. Year after year, retailers keep pulling back when it’s socially acceptable to start selling Halloween decor, getting earlier each year in an effort to increase sales.

It’s really happening…

This year stores are selling Halloween items earlier than ever, with Target and Lowe’s selling spooky decorations far sooner than they have before. Home Depot, however, takes the cake:

• The home improvement company started shipping out 12-foot-tall skeletons as early as April.

• Michaels' chief merchandising officer, John Gehre, told Axios that the company released its first Halloween collection of the year for customers in late June, far earlier than in previous years.

• Amazon has been moving back when Halloween item sales start by a week since 2019, according to Granularity.

In 2019, most Halloween sales happened the last week of September… in 2024, it’s reversed to early August.

Halloween pays

The holiday was predicted to bring in a record $12.2 billion in spending last year alone, per a National Retail Federation report.

Businesses are hoping the momentum carries, and as consumers see decorations earlier and earlier they’ll be more willing to open their wallets for animatronic spiders and plastic gravestones.

Chains like Home Depot and Lowe's, which have been weathering the drop in home improvement spending since Covid, are shifting priorities to make the most out of the early scary season. Look for other retailers to join in soon enough.

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Grab Bag

Burning man is turning to ash

Who would’ve thought a dusty, barren desert wouldn’t be a place people want to stay for a week. The legendary Burning Man festival, which starts on Sunday, has seen a rather large drop off in support compared to recent years.

• The festival, located in Black Rock City, hosted over 74,100 last year.

  • This year, just over 70,000 people (including employees), according to event organizers, are expected to attend.

• Some retailers that supply the festival noticed a 20%-25% decline in sales.

Every year since 2011, the festival has almost completely sold out. However, a week before the event, $575 last-minute tickets are still available. Google searches for the event also tanked this year.

Why did Burning Man extinguish?

It’s a question that has a lot of potential answers but we’ll go through some possibilities. For one, it hasn’t had what many would call its “prime years” recently:

• Burning Man was called off during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

• The year after record breaking temperatures were endured.

• Last year, floods and heavy rain trapped 70,000 attendees from leaving.

Another thing is Burning Man is centered around the “leave no trace” premise, which promises the festival will have no negative impact on the environment. It’s a tenet that’s becoming increasingly difficult to maintain in recent years:

As influencers and C-suite execs growingly raid the festival, the average income of a participant's personal income increased from $51,100 in 2013 to $71,500 in 2019.

This means more private travel, and along with it, carbon emissions.

• Over 90% of the city’s carbon emissions annually come from people travelling to Burning Man.

  • The average festival-goers carbon footprint is double the typical American during the week it’s held.

• Burning Man produces over 100,000 tons of carbon emissions each year.

These stats directly contradict the festivals key message, which could alienate some of its core audience, who seem to be skipping out more and more each year. And if I was them, I wouldn’t want to watch people poop in bags either.

This $2 billion stadium has some serious tech

Yet another thing to give Clippers fans false hope. After over 10 years of construction, the Los Angeles Clippers Intuit Dome is finally finished, and opened in Inglewood, California, last week.

The planet’s eighth-richest man, Steve Ballmer (who recently bought the Clippers), who also happens to be Microsoft’s largest individual shareholder, chose to finance the entire project himself.

Sports spaceship

The futuristic dome, which boasts 18,000 seats, is packed with state of the art technology which is sure to please those who buy a ticket.

• The screen that wraps around the entire arena, called the Halo Board (see video), cost $100 million alone.

  • The 44,000-square-foot, dual-sided, panoramic screen is suspended atop the court so spectators can view crisp action from anywhere in the dome.

• Each seat is adorned with a decibel meter, and the loudest fans get bargains on items like food (such as their new sushi dog) and jerseys in the stadium.

  • Seats also include phone chargers and, get this, built-in controllers so fans can play games on the Halo board.

• The arena also has unparalleled checkout tech, with 20 cashierless food stands that use tap-to-pay or facial scanning technology.

That’s not all: Ballmer also made it a point (see the quote above) to cater to every fan, no matter where they sit. Intuit Dome boasts the most legroom of any NBA stadium, regardless if you’re sitting in the nosebleeds or courtside. It also made specialized high-altitude t-shirt cannons that can reach all the way to the rafters, to give opportunities to those sitting high up.

Fast Facts

Golden Goose: The value of a gold bar hit $1 million for the first time this week after the price of the expensive yellow metal rose over 20% this year as gold fanatics hedge their bets on an interest rate cut.

Stimulant Storm: Hurricane Debby washed up 126 pounds of cocaine worth over $1.6 million on Miami beaches, according to authorities.

Iranian Interference: OpenAI banned ChatGPT accounts linked to an Iranian effort to use the chatbot to create content about the US presidential election.

Mammal Maps: Scientists have created detailed maps of the seafloor off of Australia’s coast by attaching cameras to sea lions’ backs and letting them swim around.

Regrettable Retirement: Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will step down next month amid controversy over his handling of a fundraising scandal.