Gelling together

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Inflation is still too high and savings are down; Understanding the pros and cons of carbs; and get ready for a super deluxe version of Rubber Soul… 🎵

But first, our weekly poll!

For decades, marketing campaigns and pseudo-nutritionists have successfully led a large slice (pardon the pun) of the population to believe carbohydrates are the enemy. While some carb-containing foods are less healthy, there are also plenty that should be incorporated into any nutritious diet.

Carbs are, after all, our primary source of fuel, and the right kind can have a positive impact on digestive, cardiovascular, and general gut health, just to name a few.

A study published in the Journal of the American Nutrition Association looked into how misaligned the general public actually is with the scientific realities. The researchers surveyed 1,438 nutrition experts and everyday consumers, asking for their thoughts on carbs and various carb-containing foods.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found a sizeable difference of opinion between the experts and general public in 85% of the questions asked.

A major part of the disconnect lies in a lopsided distribution of mixed messages. In other words, the truth about the complexity of carbs hasn’t gotten through over the easy-to-understand assertion that people should “cut back on carbs.” When most people hear the simple take, they ultimately conclude anything with carbs is bad.

In reality, the body needs carbs to function. Consuming them in the form of whole grains, fibre, and coupled with protein and other important macronutrients are just some ways of laying a foundation for a healthy and balanced diet.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published its State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, and found global levels of malnourishment have fallen back below 8% for the first time since the COVID pandemic drove a spike in global hunger.

The FAO found 7.8% of the world’s population is considered malnourished, which still represents hundreds of millions of people, but is an almost miraculously-low number compared to in the 1970s, when around 35% of people living outside North America and Europe were living in hunger.

Southeast Asia and Central Asia have been the greatest success stories since 2010, where levels of malnourishment have fallen from 11.6% to 5.1% and 7.7% to 2.8%, respectively.

Chief among the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals was the commitment to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015. While not fully achieved, it was cut in half between 2000 and 2015 compared to levels in the 1990s. Over a billion people were lifted out of extreme poverty, driven largely by the industrialization and development of societies previously unincorporated into the global village.

According to the FAO’s report, global malnourishment is expected to drop to the lowest rate in recorded human history by the end of the decade.

The number of adults over 60 being defrauded for $10,000 or more has multiplied by 4x since 2020. It’s a rapidly growing criminal practice, and one way of insulating oneself from such schemes is to have a scam script.

Scam scripts are simple prepared statements that stop the fraud in their tracks. The most common tactics for frauds targeting older adults are to speak with urgency and to prey on emotions.

For example, grandparent scams typically involve the impersonation of the person’s child or grandchild using AI, usually speaking in a panic about an immediate need for money. A scam script in this case would involve remaining calm as the person finishes whatever they’re saying, and replying, “thank you, I’m going to call you back directly at the number I have.”

The benefit of a scam script is it eliminates the need to think fast while also likely dealing with the influence of emotion. It disarms the key components of a fraud’s arsenal, very likely saving thousands of dollars in the process when the threat is legitimate.

Other examples include, “I don’t provide personal information over the phone,” “please mail this to me if it’s that important,” “I’m going to call the [bank, government agency, etc.] back at the number I have for them,” and simply, “thank you; goodbye.”

Rubber Soul was recorded in four weeks between October and November of 1965 so that it could be released just ahead of Christmas.

It was the first Beatles album cover to not actually feature the band’s name—a risk for probably any other band, but not one that had become, as John Lennon infamously said the following year, “more popular than Jesus.”

The album cover simply featured the title and a psychedelic-looking photo of the four members of the band. The somewhat warped appearance of the picture was actually an accident, caused by the photo projection card tilting backwards during a viewing session with the band’s longtime photographer, Robert Freeman.

The album hit number one in the U.K. within weeks of its debut, and held the spot for seven weeks after that. On this side of the pond, it reached number one about a month after debuting, and held the spot for five weeks on an altogether run of 56 weeks on the charts.

61 years later, it’s as popular as ever, and on Oct. 2, the band will release a mega-deluxe version of Rubber Soul. It will contain four CDs, five LPs, and an 88-page hardbound book containing an intro by Paul McCartney, and a foreword containing words by John Lennon.

Quizmaster’s choice

It’s Friday, so you know what we’ve got for you today. It’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that with another round of à la carte, for today’s trivia! 😎