Let it slide

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. Demand slowly returning as mortgage rates stop rising; the final verdict is in on coffee; Spotify will identify AI generated music starting next month; and Chicago adds more dates to their summer tour…

Let’s get into it!

Do we finally have a consensus on whether or not coffee is healthy? There was a time when physicians weren’t just neutral on coffee, but outright warned people about it more than recommended it.

In the last year alone, however, dozens of studies have added to the growing body of research that says coffee is actually a healthy product, capable of improving gut microbiome health, liver health, and reducing dementia risk.

One study specifically conducted a meta-analysis of 100 other studies, and concluded "moderate coffee intake is more beneficial than harmful across a wide range of health outcomes."

In fact, coffee has been found to be so beneficial, with health risks so minimal, that it’s driven genuine “shock” amongst some physicians, including Gregory Marcus, a cardiologist at University of California, San Francisco,

Marcus was also the lead author of a recent study conducted by the American Heart Association that found consuming as many as five cups of coffee per day could reduce the likelihood of having a stroke, heart attack, irregular heartbeat, or developing diabetes.

"It's remarkable how protective it is," he said.

A study published in Brain Health found a rare procedure used to rid the bloodstream of dangerous cholesterol particles can also be used to filter out microplastics and forever chemicals.

Called therapeutic apheresis, it involves passing the blood through a machine that targets the cholesterol particles and removes them, after which the blood is returned to the body.

While normally used to clear cholesterol and lower the risk of cardiac events, the study found the method can also trap particulates like microplastics or PFAS (forever chemicals) that break down to microscopic size and end up in the blood stream.

"What we consider the most important finding of our study is that therapeutic apheresis, a procedure originally developed to remove lipoproteins from the blood of patients with severe cardiovascular disease, also reduced circulating levels of PFAS and microplastics," said molecular endocrinologist Charlotte Steenblock of the Dresden University of Technology.

"This was unexpected, as PFAS and microplastics are chemically distinct from lipoproteins, and were not the intended targets of the treatment."

Because AI is advancing at a pace faster than governments are seemingly capable of regulating it, areas of the digital marketplace are being overrun with AI-generated products masquerading as human-created.

One of the most common examples of this is in the music streaming space, where some platforms have seen the vast majority of daily uploads dominated by AI.

In response, these platforms have been working to at least flag a song or artist when it’s suspected of being the product of an algorithm. Spotify specifically is implementing a system in September that will label an artist as an “AI Persona” when it’s suspected the artist is not being human.

“Listeners have been clear in telling us that they don’t like seeing an artist profile that seems human, only to find out that the persona is AI-generated,” Spotify said in its announcement.

The policy isn’t necessarily intended to stop the flow of AI-generated music, but to make sure its subscribers know when they’re listening to it. Spotify said the people behind the AI Personas will have the opportunity for disclosure, but if they don’t self-identify, the platform will do it for them.

Chicago has been kickin’ it for nearly 60 years, and even though its touring members are almost all hired hands these days, like the trains the band’s first album were named after, they just keep rollin’ down the tracks.

They just announced the summer tour has been extended. Initially expected to end in mid-September, Chicago will now play an additional 20 dates that will extend the tour into mid-November.

The songs of Chicago are timeless, and those touring with the band are a hell of a group of players. That said, many likely believe the exits of Robert Lamm and James Pankow after last year’s tour put the final nail in the coffin.

As two of the last three founding members of the group still actually in the band, they kept its core together and gave fans a sense that they were still seeing Chicago, even if they were only seeing about a third of the original lineup.

Still, trumpeter and singer Lee Loughnane continues to perform with the group, ultimately maintaining a tie to the original lineup that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1967.

MTV made the video star

With the dawn of MTV, music videos became a genuine form of art. Do you remember the top vids from the ’80s? Find out, with today’s trivia 🎶 📽️