LinkedIn Friday Quiz

Greeks

The cornucopia, from the Latin cornu copia meaning “horn of plenty,” has become an important symbol for feasts in many cultures but its origins are rooted in Greek mythology. The Greeks viewed the cornucopia as a representation of prosperity and nourishment, often depicting deities associated with the harvest holding a horn-shaped container overflowing with coins, grains, fruits, vegetables, and other symbols of abundance and good fortune, particularly during harvest festivals.

There are several explanations regarding the origin of the cornucopia. One explanation, dating back to the 5th century BCE, describes a goat named Amaltheia (“Nourishing Goddess”) who broke off one of her horns, which had the divine power to provide unending nourishment, to sustain the infant Zeus. Another version involves Heracles wrestling with Achelous, a river god, and tearing off one of his horns, which river nymphs then filled with flowers and fruit to make sacred. The ancient Egyptians and Celts also used cornucopias to symbolize fertility, prosperity, and healing. It was also adopted by Christians in Europe as a symbol during harvest celebrations.

The term first appeared in English in the early 16th century after the cornucopia entered Christian parlance. By the 17th century, it had developed the figurative sense of “an overflowing supply” and began appearing in works by artists such as Janssen, Rubens, and van Kessel, who depicted harvest scenes. In the US , the horn-shaped basket has become a classic symbol of the fall harvest season and the Thanksgiving holiday.

1640s

Hoogheemraadschap Lekdijk Bovendams was a Dutch water authority responsible for maintaining the Lek River dike, an offshoot of the Rhine River located in Utrecht, about 25 miles south of Amsterdam. This organization was important, as much of the country is below sea level and prone to flooding, requiring the maintenance of water barriers or dikes. In response to flooding caused by drifting ice that breached the Lek River’s dike in 1648, the water authority issued bonds, including one currently held by the Beinecke Library, to fund repairs.

The 1648 bond held by the Beinecke Library is worth 1,000 Carolus guilders at a 5% interest rate. At that time, it represented significant value, as pastors or master carpenters earned 450-500 guilders annually. Made of durable vellum, the bond was transferable and payments were recorded on the document. With no expiration date, payments are perpetual, and it is a physical bearer bond requiring in-person presentation to collect. Yale acquired this bond in 2003, collected unpaid interest from 1977 to 2003, and another US$153 in payments in 2015 (inflation and a seventeenth-century reduction on the bond’s interest rate have reduced its value over time).

Yale’s bond is neither the only perpetual bond of the company nor the oldest. The company pays interest on seven legacy perpetual bonds, including one issued in 1638 to a local orphanage and currently held by the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. The oldest bond still paying interest was issued in 1624 also to fund river defenses. Originally purchased by a Dutch woman and passed down through her family, it was eventually presented by a descendant to the New York Stock Exchange, where it remains today.

20-40%

The percentage of oil or gas that can be extracted from a reservoir, called the “recovery factor,” for mature oilfields is generally between 20-40%. This is because mature oilfields often experience issues like decreasing reservoir pressure and increased water production, which limit the amount of oil that is recoverable through enhanced oil-recovery methods such as gas injection, chemical flooding, and thermal recovery. These methods can significantly boost recovery rates but even with these advanced techniques, achieving a recovery factor of 30-40% is uncommon and generally only feasible under specific conditions.

The upstream oil and gas industry, also known as exploration and production (E&P), involves finding and extracting oil and natural gas from underground reservoirs. This sector includes tasks such as geological surveys, drilling exploratory wells, and developing infrastructure to bring hydrocarbons to the surface. The industry is highly cyclical and competitive, influenced by the lag between economic cycles affecting commodity prices and producers’ supply responses.

1983

Joe Marver founded Spirit Halloween in 1983. He opened the first temporary location at the Castro Valley Mall in California after experimenting with the Halloween business in his women’s apparel shop. According to Marver, he was “laughed at” initially, but proved naysayers wrong by doing $100,000 worth of business in just 30 days. In 1999, Spencer Gifts purchased Spirit Halloween, which by then had become quite well-known for selling costumes, candy, and other Halloween-related items. While Spirit Halloween is now all but synonymous with Halloween, it doesn’t have any permanent storefronts. In fact, all Spirit Halloween locations—more than 1,500 in total—are temporary, seasonal pop-up shops set up in vacant retail spaces all over the country. A year-round team analyzes available real estate and the process of setting up the stores starts in the middle of the summer (reportedly, most set-ups take around a fortnight to complete). Spirit Halloween reportedly prefers locations with high visibility and a substantial population, but is known for making nearly any space—no matter how large or how small—work. According to CEO Steven Silverstein, part of the success of the stores is the brand’s name recognition. And indeed, Spirit Halloween stores are extremely recognizable and well-known all across America today. In fact, for many people, the sight of a Spirit Halloween sign marks the official start of “spooky season.”

Candela (luminous intensity)

The candela is one of the seven fundamental base units in the modern standard measurement system. It quantifies the visible light perceived by the human eye in a specific direction, distinct from measuring the total light emitted by an object in all directions (known as a lumen) or electromagnetic radiation such as x-rays or radio waves, which are detected via power in watts. Derived from the Latin word for candle, “candela,” this unit indicates the luminous intensity (or brightness) of light, with an average wax candle emitting about one candela. Before 1948, countries standardized luminous intensity differently, often using the flame from a “standard candle.” For instance, the English standard of candlepower referenced light produced by a spermaceti candle weighing one-sixth of a pound and burning at 120 grains per hour. Meanwhile, Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia used the hefnerkerze, based on the output of a Hefner lamp.

In 1937, after numerous unsuccessful attempts, including experiments measuring luminous intensity using platinum, the International Commission on Illumination and International Committee for Weights and Measures proposed a new unit—the candela—closely matching candlepower. Alongside the candela, the other primary units include the meter (length), kilogram (mass), second (time), ampere (electric current), kelvin (temperature), and mole (amount of substance).

A new way to process the fish

Hollandse Nieuwe, or pickled herring, is a source of Dutch national pride, so important it often gets served with a flag. Dutch myths attribute the creation of pickled herring to a humble herring fisherman named Willem Beukelszoon. According to the myth, Beukelszoon figured out a way to perform the “gibbing,” the process of deboning, gutting, and pickling the fish, on his ship rather than taking it back to shore. By moving the process to their ships, Dutch fishermen could stay out on the water longer, sail further out into the Atlantic, and travel further south to sell their products. This subtle shift profoundly affected dominance of the pickled herring market, and made the fish a source of national wealth and pride.

While the effect of doing the gibbing on-board isn’t in doubt, modern historians do not believe it was invented by Beukelszoon, if he even existed, or by any other Dutchman. Historians believe rather that the Swedes invented this method of gibbing. But as history and national pride show, the Dutch put it to better use.

Salalah, Oman

For three years in a row, the Port of Salalah in Oman has been designated the second-most efficient container port in the world, according to the 2023 Container Port Performance Index (CPPI). Developed by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, the index is based on data from more than 400 ports, comprising more than 182,000 vessel calls, 238 million moves, and more than 381 million twenty-foot equivalent units (a general unit of cargo capacity). The CPPI defines and measures efficiency as “total port hour,” effectively how fast on average a ship can get in, anchor, load and unload cargo, and leave the port. Interestingly, three of the top five most-efficient ports are managed by Maersk/APT Terminals (a Danish terminal operating company). Cartagena in Colombia ascended to the third-most efficient port, while Tanger-Med in Morocco remained fourth and Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia was fifth. The world’s most efficient (and largest) port is Yangshan in Shanghai, which has been in the top spot for two years.

The Port of Salalah has been in operation since 1998. Located in the northern Indian Ocean, it is part of the Maritime Silk Road, which runs from the Chinese coast via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, Trieste, and from there via rail to Central and Eastern Europe.

A plant for fiber

Japan’s currency, known for its elegant designs and distinctive texture, is printed on plant fiber instead of cotton or polymer, two ingredients commonly used to make paper currency. These fibers are sourced from the Mitsumata tree, which originated in the Himalayas. These trees became scarce in Japan, as the number of farmers has dwindled and citizens have left the countryside for work in big cities. By happenstance, the company responsible for printing Japanese banknotes, Kanpou, funded a charitable program in Nepal to help rural farmers dig wells and found that a resilient variety of Mitsumata (called argeli locally) was growing abundantly in the country’s hilly regions. After the 2015 earthquakes destroyed much of Nepal, Kanpou sent experts to Nepal to help local farmers cultivate Mitsumata trees according to the strict standards required for producing currency. The process is rather protracted. Seedlings are planted in early summer, and branches harvested in the fall. The bark must be steamed off using metal pipes rather than being cut with an axe, and it should be harvested no later than three years after planting, while it is white and before it turns red. Once the raw paper is ready, it is transported through steep, winding hills to Kathmandu, then driven to Kolkata, India, and finally loaded onto steamers bound for Japan. Nepal now provides the majority of the Mitsumata trees needed to print Japanese yen.

Japan’s use of paper money is unusual compared to other East Asian countries. According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, less than 40% of payments in Japan are made through non-cash methods. By comparison, more than 90% of transactions in South Korea use such means. Yet, the use of cash peaked in 2022 in Japan and has been declining since then.

Autumnal Equinox Day

Autumnal Equinox Day in Japan was observed on Monday, Sept. 23, to commemorate the autumnal equinox. While it is generally observed on the 22nd or 23rd, the holiday fluctuates depending on the day the sun passes through the autumnal equinox in that particular year. The actual date is not officially announced until February of the previous year. Before the holiday was repackaged as Autumnal Equinox Day, in response to the separation of religion and state in the postwar era, it was celebrated as a Shinto holiday to honor and respect family ancestors. Although this tradition is gradually waning, some families still pay a visit to their family graves, clean them up, offer flowers, burn incense, and pray.

It is relatively rare for countries to grant a public holiday based on astronomy but they do exist. Other examples around the world include Songkran (Thailand, rise of Aries constellation and start of rainy season, in April); Inti Raymi (Andes winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere honoring the Incan sun god, in June); and Diwali (India, festival of light on darkest night of the Hindu lunisolar month, usually in November).

There are 16 public holidays in Japan. Such days were first established by the Public Holiday Law of 1948, which has been amended 11 times since its passing. In 2000, Japan also passed the Happy Monday System Law under which some holidays were fixed on certain Mondays to create longer weekends. In addition to public holidays, certain celebratory or mourning events related to the imperial family are also treated as national holidays.
Respect for the Aged Day was observed on Sept. 16 to honor the elderly. Culture Day will be held on Nov. 3 to promote culture, arts, and academic endeavors. The day is normally celebrated with parades and awards for distinguished scholars and artists. The Emperor’s Birthday holiday celebrates the birthday of the reigning emperor and was celebrated on Feb. 23 for Emperor Naruhito. The earliest historical record of an emperor’s birthday celebration in Japan dates back to the eighth century BCE.

IRS

According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, the Internal Revenue Service is viewed the most critically out of 16 different federal agencies. Half of Americans have an unfavorable view of that department, while 38% are favorable. People also have mixed views about the Department of Education (44% favorable, 45% unfavorable, 11% unsure) and the Department of Justice (43% favorable, 44% unfavorable, 13% unsure). Conversely, 76% of Americans view the National Park Service positively, with the US Postal service at 72% favorable and NASA at 67%. On balance, Americans view 13 of the 16 federal agencies more favorably than unfavorably. Not surprisingly, there are differences in attitudes toward departments and agencies of the federal government along partisan lines. For example, in recent years, Republicans and Democrats have diverged in their views on the Department of Justice, with Republicans’ evaluations of the department more negative. 56% of Republican and Republican-leaning independents claim an unfavorable view of the Justice Department, up from 50% last year. By contrast, 55% of Democratics or democratically inclined independents have a favorable impression of the department.

1960

The first general-election presidential debate was held in 1960 between Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, and Senator John F. Kennedy, the Democratic nominee. The debate was moderated by Howard Smith, included a panel comprising several well-known news anchors, and was watched by more than 66 million people out of a population of 179 million. Debates are not constitutionally mandated but America has a history of holding them as part of elections. In 1858, there was a series of seven debates between Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln and Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas during the Senate race that year. There was no moderator, and the candidates opened with a one-hour speech, followed by the opposing candidate’s hour-and-a-half rebuttal, and finally back to the first candidate’s 30-minute closing response. In 1940, Wendell Wilkie was the first presidential candidate in the 20th century to challenge his opponent, President Franklin Roosevelt, to a debate, but Roosevelt refused to participate. Various debates between primary candidates occurred in the 20th century prior to 1960, including a 1948 radio debate between Republicans Thomas Dewey and Harold Stassen and a televised presidential primary debate in 1956 between Democrats Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver. Following the Nixon-Kennedy debate, the next general-election presidential debate took place in 1976, when President Gerald Ford took on the Democratic challenger, Jimmy Carter.

90%

The Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office estimates that the cost of a lithium-ion battery pack for a light-duty electric vehicle fell a whopping 90% between 2008 and 2023, assuming a scale of production of at least 100,000 units per year and using 2023 constant dollars. In 2023, the cost had fallen to $139/kilowatt-hour (kWh). Key factors driving this decline include advancements in battery technologies and chemistries, along with manufacturing improvements and increased production volumes.

Since 2023, lithium-ion battery prices have continued to decrease, particularly in China, where the cost is now around $50 per kWh. Over the last 18 months raw material prices, including the cathode—the most expensive part of the battery—have dropped significantly. The cathode now represents 30% of the total battery cost, down from 50%. Overcapacity in China, where battery production exceeds global EV demand, has also led manufacturers to reduce prices to maintain market share.

The sustained low cost of batteries has significant implications for both the automotive and power industries, making the technology viable today rather than a distant future possibility. EVs are already sold at prices equal to or lower than those of combustion-engine cars in China; now pricing for EVs is starting to shift in areas outside of China. Additionally, large-scale energy-storage installations are now more economic in price, making them much more attractive to build.

Five minutes

According to surveys from researcher Technomic, wait times for drinks at Starbucks now top five minutes for more than a third of customers. Elongated wait times for beverages are largely attributed to the large menu of drinks available to customers, their desire to customize them through features such as shots, cream, foams, and syrups, and the ease in doing so when placing orders online (74% of Starbucks orders are now drive-through, mobile, or delivery). For example, the number of permutations for a latte alone total nearly 383 million! Two of every three drinks ordered at Starbucks—which sells 15 million cups of brewed coffee each month in the US—have included requests for customizations.

These added “extras” also add to the price and have helped company profitability improve by nearly $1 billion, but the increasing customization and complexity of drinks has overwhelmed workers, a contributing cause to their recent unionization efforts. Starbucks is now spending billions of dollars to try to shave the time it takes to make custom drinks–including changing how coffee is brewed, how cold foam (wildly popular) is made, and even the shape of the ice cubes being used (smaller cubes are easier to scoop)—and help with barista retention.

Other improvements to make coffee more efficiently include a portable cold foamer that makes it easier for baristas to move between hot and cold bars, and a reverse French press machine, which can grind beans and brew coffee in 30 seconds when a button is pressed, instead of manually grinding, batching in paper filters, and brewing an urn every 30 minutes.

Battle of Brunanburh

The little-known Battle of Brunanburh is one where England emerged as a united nation. It took place in 937 AD during a contentious time in England’s history when it was controlled by three main groups: the earls of Northumberland, who were a collection of Norse Viking aristocrats in the north; the Celts who controlled most of Scotland and Wales; and the Anglo-Saxons, an alliance of kingdoms with Roman and northern European roots in the central and southern parts of the island. Aethelstan of Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon, had taken over most of England by 927 and started invading Celtic and Viking cities. In an effort to stop the Anglo Saxons, the other two groups mounted a pre-emptive strike in 937 at Brunanburh.

Many of the details have been lost to time but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a manuscript written 60 years later, suggests that when the battle was over, five kings, seven earls, and an “unaccountable army” (rumored to be about 20,000 in size) died in the fight. Aethelstan claimed victory on behalf of the Anglo-Saxons and united the country, while survivors of the opposition alliance fled to Ireland. Curiously, the exact location of Brunanburh is unknown. Some historians think it was near Yorkshire, others suggest it was Dumfriesshire in southern Scotland and yet another group believes it is near Liverpool. The Battle of Hastings took place more than 100 years later in 1066 and united England and Normandy under a single ruler, William the Conqueror, for the next 88 years.

Steel Guitar

According to legend, a young Hawaiian boy named Joseph Kekuku found a loose railway spike when walking along a railroad. He brought it back to his high school dormitory, and he found that when he ran it along guitar strings as he strummed, it made a unique sound. To further develop the sound, Kekuku created a smooth metal cylinder that could be moved as he played and made modifications to a standard guitar, raising the strings higher off the fretboard. Kekuku’s classmates and musicians around Honolulu adopted this technique, which became a local style. After Queen Lili’uokalani was overthrown in 1893 and the kingdom annexed by the US, many Hawaiians fled the islands, Kekuku among them, and settled in California and other western states, seeking to preserve their cultures and traditions, including their music and the guitar technique created by Kekuku. A touring stage musical set in Hawaii called “Birds of Paradise” and the world’s fair in 1915 with a Hawaii pavilion cemented American interest in Hawaiian traditions. Kekuku played in the European tour of “Birds of Paradise” and later settled in the mainland US, continuing to popularize his unique playing style. Eventually the influence of the Hawaiian steel guitar found its way to the south, where it had a profound impact on blues, country, and rock ‘n’ roll music.

Acrylic lacquer

The advent of acrylic lacquer paints in the 1950s transformed the color array available to car manufacturers. Before the 1920s, car models were hand painted using paint (or more likely a varnish) purchased in local stores. This was a tedious, time-consuming process, not to mention a significant production bottleneck—it took weeks to paint each car, and the paint flaked off easily, which meant frequent reapplication was needed. To say nothing of the color choice, which was limited (in 1908, Henry Ford declared “the customer can get the Model T painted in any color, so long as it’s black.”) The prolonged dry time was solved in the 1920s, when Ford pioneered the use of nitrocellulose lacquers made by DuPont, which dried fast but also tended to yellow over time (the paint spray gun was invented around the same time—by a dentist, no less—which enabled car painting on a mass scale). The addition of enamel to automotive finishes in the 1930s helped expand the color palette but enamel paints oxidize and can fade quickly. In the 1950s, GM began using paint with acrylic, a synthetic polymer, which significantly boosted the possible array of colors used for automobiles. The addition of acrylic to lacquer allowed for a smooth, glossy, lasting finish that could be applied in multiple layers to create deeper and more vibrant colors, such as flashy yellow or bright blue. Even two-toned effects for cars were made possible. Acrylic lacquer paint was also far easier to apply and dried fast, resulting in better manufacturing efficiencies. While lacquer paints are not used today due to environmental regulations, acrylic is still used in combination with other paint components such as polyurethane.

Metallic paints, which contain metal flakes that reflect light, were popularized after acrylics began being used in automotive coatings. Water-based paints, which use water as the primary solvent and reduce the emission of volatile organic compounds, gained traction in the late 20th century after environmental and worker safety regulations tightened, which reduced the use of lacquers (most coatings used for cars today are water-based). Powder coatings typically provide a tough and scratch-resistant finish and are used frequently, but application is complex. Within autos, powder coatings are typically used to paint individual components rather than the bodies of cars.

Squash

Squash, a traditional English sport invented around 1830 and played by 20 million people across 185 countries, has never been a part of the modern (or ancient, for that matter) Summer Olympic games. The World Squash Federation has been campaigning for the sport’s inclusion in the Olympics since 1986 and in 2023, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that squash (along with flag football, cricket, baseball-softball, and lacrosse sixes) will be given status for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Figure skating was introduced as a sport in the 1908 Summer Olympics but was moved to the Winter Games in 1924. Tug of war was a team event at the Summer Olympics from 1900 to 1920, with athletes from other categories participating in early years and eventually giving way to professional club teams as contenders. The use of club teams, where multiple clubs could be from the same country, made it possible for one country to earn multiple medals each year, as occurred in 1904 when the US won the gold, silver, and bronze medals and again in 1908 when Great Britain swept the podium (not without controversy, as the winning team was accused of wearing heavily weighted shoes with inch-long spikes ). Following the 1920 Games, the IOC streamlined the Olympic program and tug of war was dropped. Finally, competitions in architecture, music, painting, sculpture, and literature inspired by sport formed a part of the Summer Olympic Games from 1912 to 1948. The competitions were juried, but eventually abandoned in 1954 because the artists were largely professional and the requirement at the time was that athletes were amateurs (the restriction was relaxed following the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona).

Stella Artois

The logo of beer manufacturer Stella Artois is the oldest corporate logo, according to Time Magazine and 24/7 Wall Street. The company was established in 1366 as the Den Hoorn brewery in Belgium, a tavern that brewed its own beer. An image of the horn has been part of the logo since that time. Sebastian Artois became the head brewer of Den Hoorn in 1708 and purchased the company in 1717, renaming it Brouwerij Artois after himself. “Stella” (Latin for star) was added to the company name in 1926 after it released the Christmas Star, its first seasonal beer. The company merged with another Belgian brewery to create Interbrew in 1987 and eventually began acquiring international brands including Labatt, Boddington, Beck’s, and Diebel’s. In 2004, Interbrew, the third-largest global brewer by volume at that time, merged with AmBev, the fifth-largest, to form InBev, the largest. In 2008, InBev merged with Anheuser-Busch to create Anheuser-Busch Inbev, then and now the largest brewer by volume globally. The company owns 630 beer brands, including Stella Artois.

Shell was founded in 1891 as Marcus Samuel and Company, which shipped kerosene from London to India and brought back seashells to sell in European markets. Such was the popularity of seashells that they accounted for the majority of the company’s profits at its start. The company incorporated the name “Shell” in 1897 and used a mussel shell as the logo before eventually migrating to a scallop shell in 1904. In 1907, the company merged with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and its primary business became oil (the scallop shell logo was retained). The logo of Levi Strauss & Company features two horses and was first utilized in 1866 to help maintain market share before the company’s patent on denim jeans expired. The ploy worked. Early customers often asked to purchase “the pants with two horses” and Levi Strauss was called “The Two Horses Brand” until 1928 when the name Levi’s was trademarked. Lastly, Prudential’s “Rock of Gibraltar” logo first appeared around 1896 in a newspaper advertisement claiming “The Prudential has the strength of Gibraltar.” The company was established in 1875 as the Prudential Friendly Society, which sought to make life insurance affordable for working class citizens.

Rome

Anchovies were used throughout the ancient world, but the Romans were the first to consume them on an industrial scale, through a heavily salted, fermented fish sauce called garum used to flavor food. So pungent was this sauce that urns discovered at Pompeii still carried the odor of anchovies nearly 2,000 years later. The use of garum was apparently widespread in Rome. In addition to the salty taste, it formed a cheap source of protein and its fermented nature helped extend food’s shelf life. In Apicius, the ancient Roman tome thought to be the world’s oldest cookbook, 350 of the 400 recipes use fish sauce. The use of preserved anchovies eventually spread to other societies. “Le Cuisinier francois” (1651) recommended the addition of anchovies (and a lot of butter) to enhance sauces; in the 18th century, Vincent LaChapelle, chef to William of Orange, encouraged his readers to add anchovies to various proteins. And in the 17th century, traders from East Asia brought a fish sauce called kecap to Britain. Home cooks there quickly reverse engineered the sauce using local anchovies and it skyrocketed in popularity, becoming known colloquially as ketchup (the popular modern form, obviously, does not typically involve anchovies). Anchovies in America did not take off quite the same way as on the Continent, perhaps because of the abundance of low-cost meat and fish. However, anchovies were used frequently in high-end French restaurants of the day including Delmonico’s, the famed Gilded Age eatery in New York.

Preserved anchovies—either in oil, salted, or through a fish sauce—score high in umami, a taste unknown (though likely not untasted) until recently. In the fifth century BCE, the Greek philosopher Democritus singled out four tastes—salty, sour, bitter, and sweet. It was not until the early 1900s that Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda hypothesized a fifth taste, noticeable in certain seemingly unrelated foods like asparagus, cooked meats, and dashi, a traditional Japanese broth made from dried fish flakes and seaweed. Upon repeated reduction and analysis of seaweed, he discovered glutamate, which when combined with salt significantly enhances flavor. The word for the fifth taste is named after the Japanese word umai, which loosely translates to savory taste.

43%

In 2022, the top 10 builders’ share of closings was 43.2%. The US homebuilding market has consolidated considerably in the past 30 years, with the top 10’s share rising from 8.7% in 1989 to 18.7% in 2000 and 31.5% in 2018 before jumping significantly in 2022. Three builders—D.R. Horton, Lennar, and PulteGroup—have dominated the top 10 since the start of the aughts, comprising 28% of total closings as of 2022. As homebuilding is a local activity, some US regional markets have a higher concentration in homebuilders’ share than others. For example, the top 10 builders have a 56% combined market share in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington region in Texas, the country’s hottest housing market. D.R Horton holds a 20% share and Lennar has about 10%, while PulteGroup is the 6th largest. However, in other markets, Lennar is a leading builder. It has 29% market share in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater region of Florida, another hot market.

The market consolidation observed in the US homebuilding industry over the last several decades has been driven largely by organic trends as well as M&A. The level of M&A activity has ratcheted up because larger builders are flush with cash and valuations have remained reasonable given concerns that higher interest rates would hurt housing activity. Foreign rivals, mostly from Japan or the UK, have also been involved in buying domestic companies, attracted by higher profits and the potential for growth. One of the largest deals in 2024 was the acquisition of MDC Holdings by Sekisui House. CastleRock Communities, backed by Daiwa House, also acquired The Jones Company of Tennessee.

First printed copies

The Dunlap broadsides were the first printed versions of the Declaration of Independence. They were produced on the night of July 4, 1776, by John Dunlap in his shop on the corner of Second and Market Street in Philadelphia.
In that era important news was shared by large, printed pieces of paper—broadsides—plastered in a public space. Accounts vary but according to some sources, Dunlap spent much of the night setting the type and running off copies with various members of the Continental Congress in attendance, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. There is evidence that these first official copies were made in great haste, presumably in order to distribute the document to committees and local offices across the 13 colonies as quickly as possible in order to solidify support for the revolution. The hasty print job resulted in unique typographical errors and layout characteristics that were corrected in later printed versions of the document, including watermarks that were reversed, inconsistent punctuation, and copies that were folded before the ink dried.

The famously large signature of John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, cannot be found on the Dunlap broadsides. There are in fact no handwritten signatures on the document (the delegates didn’t sign the “official” version until early August), though Hancock’s name does appear in large type at the bottom. Of the estimated 200 copies originally printed by Dunlap, only 26 copies survive today.

Breast cancer research

As of the end of May 2024, more than 1.1 billion Breast Cancer Research stamps have been sold, raising more than US$97 million for breast cancer research. The stamp is sold for eleven cents higher than the first-class letter rate. By law, 70% of the net surplus raised has been transferred to the National Institutes of Health while 30% has been given to the Medical Research Program at the Department of Defense.

The Breast Cancer Research stamp, first issued in 1998 and reissued in 2011, was America’s first charity stamp. However, charity stamps, also known as semi -postal stamps, have a much longer history in Europe. The first charity stamp was technically a postcard, issued in 1890 in the UK for a face value of one penny but sold at sixpence. The stamp funded the Uniform Penny Post, which created a set price for letter and parcel delivery as part of a broader set of reforms designed to eliminate corruption within the Royal Mails. The first actual stamps were issued in 1897 in the Australian colonies for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, for more than twelve times face value.

Three options contracts expire

Triple witching refers to a day when contracts for stock options, stock index futures, and stock index options all expire on the same day, a concurrence that lands on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December. The convergence of these expirations can lead to significant market activity, including increased trading volume and heightened volatility as traders close out or roll over their expiring contracts, all of which can also cause price movements in the underlying securities. Towards the end of the triple-witching trading day, there could be a significant imbalance between buy and sell orders. When this has occurred historically, the markets saw larger-than-normal price swings during closing minutes. Mutual funds or other institutional investors can also use these days to rebalance, which would add to market volumes and potential price swings.

Famous past triple witching days include Oct. 16, 1987, the Friday before the infamous “Black Monday” selloff, one of the worst one-day selloffs in market history; the massive selling of contracts on that Friday fed into Black Monday’s collapse. On Dec. 18, 2020, triple witching occurred on the Friday before Tesla’s addition to the S&P 500, which led to one of the highest one-day trading volumes in history, with more than 14 billion shares traded across US exchanges. While triple witching is most commonly associated with US markets, global financial markets can also experience similar phenomena when derivatives contracts expire simultaneously, though the impact varies based on market structure and volume.

The term “triple witching” was popularized in the 1980s when stock index futures and options become more popular, but “witching” had origins in early stock market parlance when perceived market chaos and unpredictability was attributed to the “witching hour” from folklore, often associated with supernatural events. Related terms include “mini witching,” which refers to expirations of certain derivatives on other Fridays of the month (though they typically have less aggregate impact) and “quadruple witching,” which includes index rebalancing—or the expiration of single stock futures before they stopped trading in 2020—in addition to the derivatives expirations of triple witching.

London Stock Exchange reforms

The “Big Bang” in finance refers to the series of reforms (part of the Financial Services Act of 1986) that deregulated and modernized the London Stock Exchange, perceived to lag exchanges in other large cities such as Tokyo and New York. Around that time, the NYSE was six times bigger than the London exchange by market capitalization and was the biggest market as measured by turnover, while London had only 1/13th of the comparable volume of transactions of New York. The Big Bang was considered a serious achievement by UK Prime Minister Margaret Thacher’s Conservative government and helped transform the City of London into a leading financial center, similar to the “May Day” deregulation of the US securities markets in 1975.

One notable reform was the introduction of electronic trading systems, which replaced the traditional open outcry method of floor-based trading. This transition to screen-based trading significantly increased the efficiency and speed of transactions. Other reforms included the abolition of fixed commission charges, which allowed brokers to negotiate freely, and the end of the distinction between stockjobbers (market makers that held shares and created liquidity by buying/selling) and stock brokers (which matched investors’ buy and sell orders) on both equities and gilts (government debt); firms were permitted to operate as both. The Big Bang also opened up the market to foreign firms, leading to increased competition. Prior to the Big Bang, there were restrictions on the ownership of member firms. The reforms of 1986 also allowed banks and other financial institutions to own member firms, leading to the consolidation of the industry and emergence of large, diversified financial conglomerates.