Hi, we've got 3 charts for you today:
Every day for the last week more than one hundred thousand Ukrainians have fled their home country, bringing the total number of Ukrainian refugees to more than 1.2 million since Russia's invasion began.Poland steps upMore than half of that total, around 650,000 people, have fled to Poland — Ukraine's neighbor to the west. Posts on social media have been overwhelmingly positive, with reports of Polish guards handing out food to those in waiting rooms and citizens offering clothes, hot drinks, transport or even a room to those Ukrainians in need. Similar stories can be found in Moldova, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary — 4 of the other countries that have seen the most refugee arrivals.The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that up to 4 million Ukrainians might end up fleeing the country — which would be around 10% of the country's population.Yesterday Russia agreed to open up "humanitarian corridors", to help civilians flee safely.
Make something people want
Investing in startups is a high-risk business. First you have to get comfortable with the idea that the vast majority of new companies will go broke — then you have to do your best to bet on the ones that don't, which isn't easy.
But Y Combinator makes it look easy.
With a motto of "make something people want" and an unwavering focus on the founders themselves, San Francisco based Y Combinator has now backed more than 3,500 startups since it started in 2005 — and this week it updated its list of "top companies".
Playing the numbers game
Having written more than 3,500 checks, usually for $125k in exchange for 7% of the company (although this changed recently), Y Combinator has spread the risk of early-stage investing, hoping for a few home-runs that can cover the rest of their investments.
We tracked down the data on the 100 most valuable of those companies YC has invested in, estimating that the top 100 alone are worth something north of $600 billion. A lot of that comes from big name successes like Stripe, Airbnb, Reddit and DoorDash - all of which make the top 10 YC-backed companies.
Space junk
There is a growing amount of junk floating around Earth. Thousands of pieces of debris from launches, nonfunctional spacecraft and fragmentation debris are all orbiting Earth.
Today one of those pieces, a rocket part which weighs around three-tonnes, is predicted to have smashed into the moon at around 5,500 miles per hour (8,851 kilometers per hour). The impact was expected to take place on the far side of the moon, so we don't know for sure if it's happened yet.
Kessler Syndrome
Space junk hitting the moon isn't likely to cause us any problems here on Earth, but the growing body of debris is a cause for concern because of something known as "Kessler Syndrome".
Kessler Syndrome is a predicted phenomenon in which the amount of junk in orbit around Earth reaches a point that creates a cascade of collisions, in which each collision generates space debris that increases the likelihood of further collisions. Basically a vicious cycle in which more debris creates more collisions, which makes more debris.
As Earth's orbit gets increasingly crowded (there are now 6,500+ satellites in space), Kessler Syndrome gets more relevant.
1) How long would it take to brute force guess your password? Not as long as you might think.
2) Fantasy and sci-fi writer Brandon Sanderson has raised more than $20m in just 3 days to fund four secret books he intends to release next year. The campaign broke an old Kickstarter record.
3) The US economy added another 678,000 jobs in February — some great charts here from NPR on where that leaves the economy relative to pre-pandemic.
4) Piestro is an automated robotic pizza shop that delivers high-quality artisanal pizzas in a unit roughly the size of 2 vending machines, right in front of your eyes. Invest in Piestro today.**
5) McDonald's is being sued by a startup that was working to fix its ice-cream machines for $900m.
6) Russia's attack and capture of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe has provoked widespread condemnation, although radiation data in the area remains normal.
**This is sponsored content.
