🌊 Are You Smarter Than a Liquid?

Plus: Moon photobombs sun

April 08, 2024

Happy Eclipse Day!

“I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror.” Taylor Swift wrote these lyrics for her hit song “Anti-Hero” two years ago. And — with an eclipse taking place today — you really still think she’s a good influence on our kids? Outrageous! Is Big Optometry funding her? We need answers!

Here’s a map of the eclipse’s path. May today bring you great darkness.

In today's edition:

🔬 Harvard develops a programmable liquid

🇨🇳 Huskies go shopping in China

🤔 Roca Votes: Celebrity endorsements

–Max, Max, Jen, and Alex

KEY STORY

Harvard’s Intelligent Liquid

Harvard researchers developed a programmable, adjustable liquid they called “intelligent liquid”

  • Per a study published in Nature, Harvard researchers have created a “metafluid” that displays properties never before seen in natural liquids. It is made of a suspension of microscopic spheres that “buckle” under pressure, meaning they change shape

  • The liquid can change its viscosity (resistance to flow), springiness (elasticity), and more

  • The Harvard researchers believe the metafluid could one day be used in shock absorbers, robots, and other products

Dig Deeper

  • To demonstrate its ability, the Harvard professors inserted the liquid into a hydraulic gripper and then used it to pick up a series of objects, including an egg and a blueberry. Usually, such a gripper would require sensors to ensure that they do not break the object they’re picking up; with the liquid inserted, though, the gripper did so without any sensors. “We show that we can use this fluid to endow intelligence into a simple robot,” one of the researchers said

KEY STORY

X Defying Brazil Order

Elon Musk said that X will defy a Brazilian court order to ban unspecified accounts

  • On Saturday, X announced that the company “has been forced by court decisions to block certain popular accounts in Brazil.” It added, “We do not know the reasons these blocking orders have been issued” and, “We are prohibited from saying which court or judge issued the order, or on what grounds”

  • Musk said X won’t comply with the ruling. “​​This judge has applied…fines, threatened to arrest our employees…We will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there”

Dig Deeper

  • Musk later identified a Brazilian Supreme Court justice as the person who ordered the bans and said X will “publish everything” demanded of the company, which he said “violate Brazilian law”

  • In response, the justice initiated an investigation into Musk over possible obstruction of justice. His company will also be fined $19,774 a day if it fails to comply with the court’s blocking order

KEY STORY

Israel Partial Troop Withdrawal

Israel withdrew its forces from southern Gaza on the six-month anniversary of the October 7 attack

  • Israel has been steadily withdrawing troops from Gaza since earlier this year to limit their usage and give them rest

  • On Sunday, it announced it had withdrawn a division of troops from southern Gaza. Per Israeli media, that means there are now no Israeli troops actively maneuvering in southern Gaza

  • A US official said, “As we understand…[the withdrawal] is really just about rest and refit for these troops that have been on the ground for four months”

  • Israel says it will still assault Rafah, allegedly Hamas’ last bastion

Dig Deeper

  • The withdrawal comes amid protests in Israel, where some have accused Netanyahu’s government of failing to do enough to rescue the hostages, up to 136 of whom remain in Gaza

  • After reports of the troop withdrawal, a group representing the hostages and their families issued a statement that read, "Withdrawal of the ground forces should be the first stage in a deal. The hostages must not be abandoned and left behind in Gaza!"

SPONSORED

Missed out on Ring and Nest? Don’t let RYSE slip away!

Ring: Acquired by Amazon for $1.2B. Nest: Acquired by Google for $3.2B. If you missed out on these spectacular early investments in the Smart Home space, here’s your chance to grab hold of the next one

  • RYSE is a tech firm poised to dominate the Smart Shades market (growing at an astonishing 55% annually), and their public offering of shares priced at just $1.50 has opened

  • They have generated over 20X growth in share price for early shareholders, with significant upside remaining as they just launched in over 100 Best Buy stores

  • Retail distribution was the main driver behind the acquisitions of both Ring and Nest, and their exclusive deal with Best Buy puts them in pole position to dominate this burgeoning industry

Dig Deeper

KEY STORY

Mexico Cuts Ties with Ecuador

Mexico severed diplomatic ties with Ecuador after Ecuadorian police raided Mexico’s embassy

  • Since December, Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s former vice president, has been residing in Mexico’s embassy in Ecuador. Glas – twice convicted of crimes – faces further charges for allegedly misusing state funds

  • On Friday, Mexico granted Glas asylum; hours later, Ecuador police raided Mexico’s embassy, arresting Glas. Such actions are generally seen as taboo, as diplomatic norms state that host countries cannot enter embassies without permission

  • Mexico responded by cutting diplomatic ties with Ecuador, and other regional left-wing governments condemned Ecuador

Dig Deeper

  • Ecuador’s president defended its actions, writing, “No criminal can be considered a politically persecuted person”

  • Glas served under a leftist president who was allied with Mexico’s current leftist president, AMLO; Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, is conservative. AMLO has been a major critic of Noboa, and this week, Noboa’s government declared Mexico’s ambassador “persona non grata,” citing comments made by AMLO

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

👟 27-year-old British citizen Russ Cook became the first person to run the entire length of Africa. He covered ~9,940 miles across 16 countries in 352 days

🇳🇿 New Zealand overhauled its visa program amid “unsustainable” migration. The reforms will focus on skilled migrants, limit the duration of stay for most workers, and introduce an English language requirement for certain visas

💰 President Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised $90M+ in March, giving the Democrats $192M in cash on hand – a record for this stage in a reelection campaign

🇷🇼 On Sunday, Rwanda commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, which left as many as 800,000 people dead

🏢 The US economy added 303,000 jobs in March — much more than the 200,000 economists had expected — which pushed the unemployment rate down from 3.9% to 3.8%

COMMUNITY

We founded RocaNews because we wanted news companies to give us just the facts – not tell us what to think. That inspires us to do the “Roca Votes” story each week, in which we summarize a controversial topic and see how Roca Nation feels about it.

Read the Wrap below and reply to this email to answer this week’s topic: Are celebrity endorsements dumb?

Today's Poll:

Will you be in the path of totality for today's solar eclipse?

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POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🏀 38-0: The South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team beat the Iowa Hawkeyes and superstar Caitlin Clark 87–75 to complete a perfect 38–0 season

🟨 When you gotta go you gotta go? A 53-year-old man received a $395 fine for urinating in a cup in the window seat during a deplaning delay at Sydney Airport last December

🥑 Holy guacamole: A customer reportedly shot a 21-year-old Chipotle employee in the leg in Michigan after an argument over guacamole

✈️ Woeing 737-800: A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-800 flying from Denver to Houston had to return to Denver after the metal sheet covering one of its engines broke off (see video above)

🐺 Every dog has its day: 100 huskies escaped from a pet cafe and ran loose through a Chinese shopping center after someone left a door open

💦 This water tastes like a**: Tokyo police arrested a 56-year-old man for allegedly rubbing his butt against a park’s water fountain “to satisfy his sexual desire”

ROCA VOTES
Are Celebrity Endorsements Dumb?

In 2020, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson broke precedent by endorsing Joe Biden.

Before that election cycle, the actor had never endorsed a candidate for president. He did it for the sake of national unity. Now he regrets it.

“The endorsement that I made years ago with Biden was one I thought was the best decision for me at that time,” the Rock said Friday. “I started to realize like, ‘oh man, that caused an incredible amount of division in our country.’”

Today’s Roca Votes is on celebrity political endorsements: Do we overvalue them? Should celebrities be political or not? Should their endorsements be as big of news as they are?

The first major celebrity presidential endorsement came when Al Jolson, the first actor with a speaking role in a non-silent film, endorsed Warren Harding in 1920. Jolson would perform the song “Harding, You're the Man for Us” for live audiences. In the next cycle, he endorsed Calvin Coolidge and performed “Keep Cool with Coolidge.” Both candidates won.

Hollywood’s political sway ballooned after World War II.

Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Judy Garland endorsed JFK in 1960. Sinatra helped campaign for Kennedy, adapting the lyrics of one of his songs to praise him and announcing him as the “next president of the United States” at shows. Sinatra is also accused of having used his mafia ties to win JFK key support.

A University of Maryland study found that Oprah’s 2008 get-out-the-vote effort for Obama netted the future president a million votes. Although celebrities skew Democrat, the Republicans have capitalized on the fanfare of celebrities such as Clint Eastwood, who gave a speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Taylor Swift made major waves when she waded into politics in 2018 with an endorsement of Phil Bredesen (D) for US Senate. He lost, but her post spiked voter registrations and helped make it Tennessee’s closest Senate race in a decade.

You probably don’t need a study to tell you that America has an obsession with famous people, but we’ll give you one anyway.

A paper from 2003 in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease found that one-third of the UK population suffers from "borderline-pathological" levels of "Celebrity Worship Syndrome.” Of the top 50 most-followed Instagram accounts, all but one belong to individuals in entertainment. The only exception is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As we prepare for the 2024 election, how do you feel about celebrity endorsements? 

Based on the news cycle’s reaction to The Rock’s revelation of regret over his 2020 Biden endorsement, it seems that celebrity endorsements will once again play a major role.

ROCA VOTES
Are Celebrity Endorsements Dumb?

In 2020, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson broke precedent by endorsing Joe Biden.

Before that election cycle, the actor had never endorsed a candidate for president. He did it for the sake of national unity. Now he regrets it.

“The endorsement that I made years ago with Biden was one I thought was the best decision for me at that time,” the Rock said Friday. “I started to realize like, ‘oh man, that caused an incredible amount of division in our country.’”

Today’s Roca Votes is on celebrity political endorsements: Do we overvalue them? Should celebrities be political or not? Should their endorsements be as big of news as they are?

The first major celebrity presidential endorsement came when Al Jolson, the first actor with a speaking role in a non-silent film, endorsed Warren Harding in 1920. Jolson would perform the song “Harding, You're the Man for Us” for live audiences. In the next cycle, he endorsed Calvin Coolidge and performed “Keep Cool with Coolidge.” Both candidates won.

Hollywood’s political sway ballooned after World War II.

Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Judy Garland endorsed JFK in 1960. Sinatra helped campaign for Kennedy, adapting the lyrics of one of his songs to praise him and announcing him as the “next president of the United States” at shows. Sinatra is also accused of having used his mafia ties to win JFK key support.

A University of Maryland study found that Oprah’s 2008 get-out-the-vote effort for Obama netted the future president a million votes. Although celebrities skew Democrat, the Republicans have capitalized on the fanfare of celebrities such as Clint Eastwood, who gave a speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Taylor Swift made major waves when she waded into politics in 2018 with an endorsement of Phil Bredesen (D) for US Senate. He lost, but her post spiked voter registrations and helped make it Tennessee’s closest Senate race in a decade.

You probably don’t need a study to tell you that America has an obsession with famous people, but we’ll give you one anyways.

A paper from 2003 in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease found that one-third of the UK population suffers from "borderline-pathological" levels of "Celebrity Worship Syndrome.” Of the top 50 most-followed Instagram accounts, all but one belong to individuals in entertainment. The only exception is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As we prepare for the 2024 election, how do you feel about celebrity endorsements? 

Based on the news cycle’s reaction to The Rock’s revelation of regret over his 2020 Biden endorsement, it seems that celebrity endorsements will once again play a major role.

Is that a good or a bad thing?

Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

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EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

What a run for the South Carolina Gamecocks. And shoutout to the goat Dawn Staley whose post-game interview had us teary-eyed. We have to commend Caitlin Clark on a remarkable collegiate career, too. This has to have been one of the best weekends of women’s basketball yet.

Are you betting on UConn or Purdue tonight? Let us know!

— Max, Max, Alex and Jen