These boots were made for dancin'

Alongside the rise of disco, and gainst all odds, the Yeti boot made its way into mainstream fashion in the ‘70s. Unless you had the real deal, you weren’t keeping your feet warm or dry with these puppies—but hey, you sure looked fly 😏

If you’ve found yourself looking for warmer wear as we plough on through the winter months, we’ve got a story for you. Using specialized nanoparticles, scientists have invented a new fabric that has the ability to convert light into heat!

Satisfaction came in a chain reaction ;)

(Love nostalgia? Play today’s trivia below for a chance to win a $25 Amazon eGift Card!)

According to a report published by climate-risk-modelling organization First Street, $1.5 trillion in home value could be erased over the next 30 years due to skyrocketing insurance pressure and the resulting change in consumer demand.

In fact, it’s already happening. Some areas have become such a high risk for insurers, they’ve stopped providing coverage altogether. With no ability to insure at-risk property, consumers will stop buying it, or—at minimum—only be willing to pay much less for it.

Several areas of Florida have seen insurance rates double in recent years, while some have even seen them triple. In certain regions, insurance costs went from 7% or 8% of a property’s mortgage value to as high as 20% between 2013 and 2022.

According to First Street, 40% of the the estimated $2.8 trillion in natural disaster costs since 1980 have been incurred in just three places: Florida, Texas, and California.

55 million Americans will soon consider moving out of these natural-disaster zones, including over 5 million this year. 70,026 American neighborhoods could see their property values drop by 2055.

Studies have suggested music can be used to treat and relieve pain, and a recent one published by researchers at McGill University in the journal Pain suggests the rhythm and tempo of the music is crucial for its effectiveness.

"In the past, it has often been suggested that soothing or relaxing music works best as a pain reliever," said co-author Caroline Palmer, a Distinguished James McGill Professor in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Performance.

"But this didn't seem precise enough. So, we set out to investigate whether the tempo—the rate at which a passage is produced and one of music's core elements—could influence its capacity to reduce pain."

The researchers applied various levels of pain to 60 participants sitting in silence and then again while music was playing. The music portion involved three scenarios whereby music was played at the participant’s spontaneous production rate (their preferred “natural” rhythm), and at rates 15% slower and 15% faster than their SPR.

The participants were asked to rate their levels of pain in each scenario, and it was determined the least amount of pain was felt or noticed when the music was played at the SPR, suggesting human beings can have their attention redirected away from certain levels of pain when a stimulus in sync with their bodily rhythm distracts them.

Electric vehicle demand appears to be in freefall across several European countries, with Tesla registrations taking the biggest hit.

On an annualized basis, Tesla registrations fell 63% in France last month, the 2nd biggest EV market on the continent. Just 1,141 new Teslas were registered in January, according to La Plateforme Automobile.

Some have attributed Elon Musk’s increased meddling in European politics to the dip in Tesla registrations and sales, though other factors are also at play.

Given Tesla’s once-dominant position in the EV market across Europe, the biggest player would likely take the biggest hit if other factors affecting the entire market were to be introduced.

That has certainly happened in Europe over the last year, with the required infrastructure for EV growth continuing to fall behind, and subsidies for EV purchases ending across several markets.

Still, In Germany, Tesla sales were down 41% last year, while overall EV sales fell just 27%.

A groundbreaking discovery was made with the assistance of the James Webb Telescope recently, after a 22-year-old Hubble Telescope discovery presented a conflict with what humans previously understood about planet formation.

In the early universe, galaxies formed from the remnants of the Big Bang. The galactic dust in these massive clouds provided the ingredients for star formation, but as far as planets were concerned, the heavier elements they’re made of (such as carbon and iron) weren’t around until stellar nuclear fusion and stellar death (supernovae) created them.

When a star explodes, it’s eventually reborn from the dust, and the heavier elements left over form a disc around the new star that eventually collapses into planets over the lifetime of the disc (initially believed to max out at 2 to 3 million years).

However, in 2003, Hubble discovered a 13-billion-year-old planet in the M4 globular cluster. Globular clusters are too old to contain the heavy elements once thought needed for planet formation, but here was this exoplanet defying that understanding.

To gain a better understanding, researchers pointed James Webb at the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy lacking heavy elements, but containing planet-forming discs that lasted 20 to 30 million years, much longer than previously-thought possible and more than enough time to form planets in an environment lacking heavy elements.

It’s a story Shroeder would surely dig. Sergei Rachmaninoff may have passed away in 1943, but his spirit carries on through his last-living pupil, 100-year-old Ruth Slenczynska.

This isn’t just symbolic, either. Ruth continues to perform as a concert pianist, most recently in 2021 at the Chopin International Festival and Friends at the Polish Embassy in New York City.

She even recorded and released an album at 97 years old.

“Whoever heard of a pianist my age making another album?” she said at the time. “Music is meant to bring joy. If mine still brings joy to people, then it is doing what it is supposed to do.”

Her century in music began with her skilled violinist father having her play all 25 of Chopin’s Etudes “before breakfast(!)”

“If you don’t know something thoroughly, you can’t do anything with it. This is something I got from Mr. Rachmaninoff,” she said in a video released by Decca Classics, who signed Ruth at 97 for her album My Life in Music. 

“I remember I played for him something and he said ‘you don’t know that well enough to play it at the tempo you’re taking it,'” she recalled. “And I said, ‘well I’ve been playing it for three weeks already.'”

Growin’ up in the ’70s, there was no shortage of cartoons to keep your young mind entertained. We’re throwing it up back to some of those animated legends with today’s toon trivia! Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 Amazon eGift Card ;)

Winner will be notified tomorrow afternoon—keep your eyes on your inbox!*

Have a great day ahead Staker!

Today’s issue written by Michael Cowan, Joey Cowan, and Maureen Norman.


*SEE FULL STAKE TRIVIA CONTEST RULES HERE.