Flyin' like an eagle

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: AI job losses are showing up in the labour stats; G7 leaders meet over implications of long term closure of Strait of Hormuz; A new scam targets people who don’t want to miss out on being invited everywhere; and do artsy types live longer? 🎨🖌️

Let’s get into it!

The Strait of Hormuz has been closed for nearly three months, causing what some have called the most significant oil shock in history. The finance ministers of G7 nations are meeting in Paris today to discuss the long-term implications.

“Opening the Strait of Hormuz and bringing the conflict to a lasting end are of the utmost importance in mitigating the impact on the economy,” Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis said in a statement.

“The European economy has proven resilient in the face of this energy crisis. Yet, the global economy will feel the pressure—even if the conflict is resolved swiftly,” Pierrakakis said.

U.S. Treasury yields are now at an annual high as borrowing costs are rising amid fears of another global inflation crisis due to the oil shortage. Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate futures rose to $109 and $105, respectively, on Friday, with markets concerned that there’s no end in sight to the closure of the most significant oil transport passage in the world.

The International Energy Agency says global emergency stockpiles are being tapped at a record pace, and if the Strait doesn’t open before they run out, the situation could become critical quickly.

“Rapidly shrinking buffers amid continued disruptions may herald future price spikes ahead,” the IEA said.

Whenever you get an invitation to something, either in the mail or via email, it generates a feeling of excitement, right? Sounds like the perfect feeling for scammers to target.

That’s exactly what the latest phishing scheme is aiming to do, according to a report by the New York Times.

Emails are being sent to people masquerading as invitations from well-known sites like Paperless Post, Evite, and Punchbowl.

The scams are designed to hack into the target’s email account by convincing them to enter their password once they click the link. One example involved an “invitation” sent to the editor of blog site Mashable, and it was sophisticated enough that it not only looked like it was from Punchbowl, but the sender address was spoofed to make it look like the invitation came from her sister-in-law.

It’s likely the editor’s sister-in-law already had her email account hacked, which is how the people perpetrating the fraud knew to address the editor. She was asked to click the invitation, and once on the landing page, asked to enter her Gmail password, at which point she knew the invitation was a scam.

These types of scams prey on the familiar and on FOMO (fear of missing out), since everyone wants to be invited to a party. However, if you’re being asked to enter your email password on a landing page, that’s a clear sign that you’re being targeted for fraud and you should exit and report the scheme immediately.

According to a study published in Innovation in Aging, arts activities like listening to music, painting, visiting a museum, or even just reading can alter chemical reactions in the brain that change their DNA and slow biological aging.

The University College of London researchers compared lifestyle data from 3,500 study participants, and found those who more frequently engaged in a diverse range of artistic activities had DNA changes that reflected a younger biological age, specifically by about 4%.

According to the researchers, the changes resembled those that occur for someone who exercises at least once a week compared to not at all.

“These results demonstrate the health impact of the arts at a biological level,” said study lead author Professor Daisy Fancourt.

“They provide evidence for arts and cultural engagement to be recognized as a health-promoting behavior in a similar way to exercise,” she explained in a College media release.

“Our study also suggests that engaging in a variety of arts activities may be helpful. This may be because each activity has different ‘ingredients’ that help health, such as physical, cognitive, emotional, or social stimulation.”

It’s a feat that would make Wile E Coyote smile from ear to ear. Scientists at ETH Zurich built a magnet so powerful that it would normally require a device the size of a building, but instead fits in a device the size of a smartphone.

This type of technology is typically only found in Marvel comics, and its uses range from assisting with the process of nuclear fusion to nuclear magnetic resonance.

The ETH Zurich researchers built two superconducting magnetic devices using 2.5-inch superconducting tape with magnetic fields of 38 and 42 tesla, which is a measurement of magnetic strength.

The strongest magnetic field in the world generates 45 tesla. Built at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Florida, it cost $15 million to construct, required 22 tons of material, and contains enough electrical wiring to power 80 homes.

Nuclear magnetic resonance is a type of technology used for analyzing sub-atomic particles. It’s practical applications are pretty inside-baseball, in that they mostly only apply to a small subset of nuclear engineers who could be at the forefront of the next major discovery related to the origins of matter.

Back to 1980

Today we’re takin’ the DeLorean to see what was going on this week in 1980. Play today’s trivia to see how much you remember!