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IN THIS ISSUE
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| A ‘90s icon levels up, mining medical data and the rise of alt-milk.
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The News Fix
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America’s tech behemoths are gathering more — and more personal — data. The latest field they’re mining: your health and wellness records.
Google is teaming up with the nation’s second-largest health system, Ascension, in an effort it’s calling Project Nightingale. Ascension will share the personal health data of tens of millions of patients with Google’s Cloud division in order to develop a search engine for medical records and other new artificial intelligence services for medical providers.
The news came just days after Google said it was buying Fitbit, another sweeping source of personal wellness data. (It’s worth pointing out that Fitbit data has already been put to use in another pretty serious capacity: solving crimes.)
Elsewhere in health care-tech collabs: Apple wants its watch to function as a medical-monitoring device, and it’s developing health data-sharing capabilities through Apple HealthKit. So … if your heart rate went up while reading this, odds are one of the tech giants has picked up on it already.
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Smart in a Shot
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It took seven months, but — to the great relief of many — Sonic, the speedy blue hedgehog of ‘90s video game fame, has received a makeover.
In April, Paramount Pictures released a trailer for the forthcoming “Sonic the Hedgehog” live-action movie, and fans all over the internet were extremely critical. Really, it might be more accurate to say they were creeped out. The live-action Sonic looked a bit too human, with expressive eyes and a toothy smile.
Despite having already put $90 million into the project, Paramount responded to the widespread dismay of fans, postponed the film’s release date by three months and got to work redesigning the iconic azure rodent. This week, the new Sonic stepped out to a much more positive reception.
It’s unusual for a movie studio to change its plans in response to fan complaints, but for Paramount it’s a gamble that might pay off. Since video game movies are more niche than superhero fare, it’s tough for them to hit with broad audiences. And if you want a movie to be a hit, it’s probably worth ensuring it’s not going to give people nightmares.
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The Numbers
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This week the largest dairy producer in the United States, Dean Foods, filed for bankruptcy. We’ve got the tea on milk.
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| 26%
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That’s how much per capita milk consumption has declined in the U.S. over the last 20 years — we each now drink about 6 gallons less annually than we did at the turn of the millennium. Falling demand has created an excess of supply and driven down prices: These days, a gallon of whole milk costs $3.38 on average.
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| 37,468
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That’s the number of licensed dairy operations in the U.S. last year, down from 57,127 a decade ago. Many dairy farmers have gone out of business or turned to other products as demand for milk has fallen. Dean had to cut ties with about 100 dairy farms last year, but the company still wasn’t able to stem losses.
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| $1.6 billion
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That’s how much alternative milks (soy, oat, hemp, coconut, rice, etc.) brought in in a recent 12-month period. Plant-based milk now accounts for 15% of the milk market, according to Nielsen. Sales of other fake dairy products — from plant-based ice cream to faux butter and cheese — grew 50% from 2017 to 2018.
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None of us is as smart as all of us
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| Tell us what’s making you smarter at
smarter@marketplace.org. We'd love to include your recommendation in a future newsletter.
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Nuclear power generates discussion
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Listener Tim B. recommends this backgrounder on radioactive waste from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Our episode on nuclear power a few weeks ago ignited a lively conversation in the Make Me Smart group on Facebook, and Tim offered this resource to inform the discussion.
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Credit where credit is due
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Listener Sarale H. recommends this article about the way the Apple Card assigns credit limits to its users. The piece is smart, she said, because it forces readers to consider how each person’s financial background and society’s demographic biases might lead AI algorithms to make discriminatory decisions.
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They'll be back
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| “Make Me Smart’s” Erica Phillips enjoyed “Terminator: Dark Fate,” but then she read this article about killer robots. The “Terminator” movies get a lot less fun when you realize how close they are to becoming our reality, she said.
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Elevate your understanding of what's trending, breaking and buzzing with Make Me Smart. Because none of us is as smart as all of us.
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