Our thoughts are with our Floridian readers today, as Hurricane Ian intensifies off Florida's southwest coast with winds reaching 150mph+.
Today we're exploring:
Shares of gaming companies soared during Monday trading after city officials in Macau said they would ease restrictions on visitors from mainland China, with groups potentially allowed to return to the gambling metropolis as early as October.
Getting people back onto the felt in Macau is a big deal as the region is — by some distance — the largest gambling hotspot in the world. In the last “normal” year, 2019, Macau registered some $36bn+ in gaming revenue, almost six times the $6.6bn that Las Vegas reportedly notched up.
Wynn some, lose some
Despite being a Special Administrative Region of China, Macau, which used to be a Portuguese territory, has been at the whim of Chinese policymakers for years. China's 2014 anti-corruption crackdown aimed to take the "perks" out of public office, scaring off high-roller friends of the political elite and substantially reducing Macau's revenue for much of 2014-2016. A slow recovery ensued, only for the pandemic to decimate the industry at large.
Although the house always wins is a common refrain, the actual running of the house can be a costly endeavor. Even with rooms, food and entertainment accounting for almost as much revenue as the gambling itself, Wynn Resorts still made a ~$400m operating loss in 2021. Macau's comeback can't come soon enough for Wynn.
The marathon man
Eliud Kipchoge shattered his own world record on Sunday by some 30 seconds, racing to victory at the Berlin Marathon in a staggering 2 hours, 1 minute, and 9 seconds.
The Kenyan, seen by many as the sport’s greatest ever, ran the first half of the race in 59.51 and left the competition, as he so often does, in the dust. Indeed, Kipchoge’s nearest competitor was compatriot Mark Korir... who finished nearly 5 minutes later.
The GOAT is clear
It's hard to visualize just how incredible Kipchoge's effort really was, but the histogram above, plotting the number of finishers per minute for anyone finishing in under 6 hours, gives you some idea of Kipchoge's speed. Even amongst fellow pros at the Berlin marathon, Kipchoge is in a class of his own over the 26.2 mile distance.
Next time you’re on a treadmill and need a good fitness humbling, crank the speed up to around 21km/h and see how long you can last at Kipchoge’s marathon pace. That's if your treadmill will let you go that fast — some cap out around 20km/h.
P.S. Our favorite thing about this viz is the spike in finishers around the hour-marks. Sprinting for the finish line to get that PB!
Spamalot
The Federal Communications Commission is finally taking steps to crack down on those annoying spam texts that have been popping up more frequently on your phone.
Yesterday the FCC revealed plans to stop spam at the source, proposing that mobile carriers must block numbers known for spewing out illegal scams.
That's likely to be a popular crackdown, as new data shows the extent of the spam text problem in America. In August an estimated 10.9bn spam texts were sent in the US according to numbers from RoboKiller, an app that blocks potentially-dangerous calls and texts. That works out to nearly 39 spam texts per person per month — a number that's risen substantially in the last year.
Efforts to tackle spam have thus far concentrated mostly on robocalls, requiring networks to meet strict authentication requirements to prevent annoying automated callers. Scammers, as a result, seem to be phoning in their call operations and turning to texts as an alternative.
• Need more space? Interesting data on the cities and states with the largest median home sizes in the US.
• Working from home was the driving force behind some 60% of the pandemic house price surge, a new FED study claims.
• China is expected to sell 6 million electric vehicles this year, more than the rest of the world combined.
• 76% of business leaders "don't get a lot of value" from their analytics. Those leaders clearly don't use Toucan Toco, a guided analytics platform that any member of your team can use to understand, share, and put the insights they need into action. Sign up for a demo of Toucan today.**
• No laughing matter — Netflix is cutting back spending on their comedy specials.
• How far do bullets that are shot into the air travel? Visual exploration of the trajectory of celebratory gunfire.
• Ever felt like that perfect pic took a few too many attempts? This astrophotographer may have you beat after taking 600,000 photos to create the sharpest ever image of Jupiter.
• Select journalists have been granted exclusive insight into the CIA’s secret in-house museum, which houses over 600 artifacts that have shaped history.
• One robot, unlimited applications. Robots are notoriously costly and complex. That’s why Ally Robotics created a robotic arm that’s 70% more affordable and learns by watching humans. With first-mover-advantage in a $114B market, don’t miss out on the opportunity to invest in Ally before their raise closes tomorrow at midnight PST.**
**This is sponsored content.
