🐤 More power to you

🏦 Markets: Investors had the weekend to recover from a tumultuous week on Wall Street, but some of the same variables that have impacted stock prices thus far in February stand to further influence the market over the course of this week.

Among the most notable factors to pay attention to over the next few days are the Federal Reserve’s ongoing effort to combat inflation, data released in corporate earnings reports, continued layoffs impacting the tech sector, and a sustained rally within the digital currency market.

✈️ Flying high: Just days after an apparent Chinese spy balloon was spotted soaring high above the continental United States and was ultimately shot down just off the Atlantic coast, another object was reportedly knocked out of the sky in Canada. According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the vessel was “an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace.” He noted that both U.S. and Canadian military aircraft were called on to bring the object down over the Yukon. There wasn’t much information immediately available, but Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand described it as a “small, cylindrical object” that had been flying at an altitude of about 40,000 feet. The previous day, another “high-altitude object” was reportedly shot down by U.S. forces a short distance from Alaska’s coastline. It’s unclear how or if these three cases are connected, but it’s been fueling plenty of rumors and speculation over the past several days.

👟 Expensive breakup: The monumental downfall of rapper-turned-designer Ye (previously known as Kanye West) reportedly cost him much of his personal fortune — but it also cost Adidas a pretty penny. The athletic brand severed ties with Ye over his controversial behavior and public comments and is now on pace to lose a whopping $1.3 billion in sales over the course of this year alone. CEO Bjorn Gulden confirmed the bad news this week, acknowledging that the brand is “currently not performing the way we should” and defining 2023 as “a year of transition to set the base to again be a growing and profitable company.” Investors were clearly not encouraged by the grim prognosis, sending the company’s stock down 11.5% on Friday. Shares of Adidas are now worth just over half of the value they had at the beginning of the year.

🚫 Adults only: With Valentine’s Day rapidly approaching, you might be in the mood to eat at a restaurant that caters exclusively to grown-ups. Starting next month, an eatery in New Jersey might just fit the bill. Nettie’s House of Spaghetti announced last week that it would soon be implementing a policy against serving children under the age of 10. Although the restaurant claimed that it “really, truly” loves kids, its staff has found it “extremely challenging to accommodate” the youngsters. Citing issues like “noise level, lack of space for high chairs, cleaning up crazy messes, and the liability of kids running around the restaurant,” the owners found it necessary to roll out the new restriction. While some folks are clearly in favor of the move, plenty of others are lashing out and predicting that the policy will ultimately backfire.

🪖 Military exercises: Tensions between China and the U.S. have escalated since a suspected spy balloon was shot down just off of South Carolina’s coast earlier this month. Since then, the U.S. Navy and Marines have engaged in joint military exercises in the South China Sea. According to the Defense Department, the response involved air, ground, and sea equipment and forces, though there wasn’t much additional information provided about the scope of the mission. The U.S. has also reacted to the breach of its airspace by blacklisting a half-dozen Chinese organizations believed to have been involved in that country’s provocative espionage program.

The rise of electric vehicles has been touted as a net positive for the environment — but not every aspect of the industry is great for Mother Earth. One notable example is the requirement of rare minerals like cobalt and lithium for the production of EV batteries.

Researchers and developers know this is an issue, though, and a growing number of companies are joining forces to help find a solution.

Remotes and laptops and smartphones, oh my

At this point in the digital age, there are countless outdated devices that have been discarded or are on their way to a trash heap somewhere. Many firms like Redwood Materials, however, are trying to salvage as much useful material as possible from these items.

The rechargeable batteries from many common consumer products can be used to create robust lithium-ion batteries that power modern electric vehicles.

Audi is at the forefront of the process and is working with Redwood to collect and repurpose the batteries found in everything from laptop computers to electric toothbrushes. Nearly a dozen dealerships nationwide are already taking part in the program.

Preparing for the needs of the future

Not only does research show that a staggering 97% of EV owners are likely to buy another one, but new regulations and lower prices will assuredly mean that an increasing number of these vehicles will be on the roads in the coming years. This means that the time to start finding reliable and sustainable sources for batteries is now.

As Redwood spokesperson Alexis Georgeson explained, there is a “tremendous opportunity for recycling” aging tech devices that contain recyclable batteries.

Her company boasts a process that “can recover, on average, more than 95% of materials like nickel, cobalt, copper, aluminum, lithium, and graphite in a lithium-ion battery.”

We’ve all heard that it’s important to maintain a consistent bedtime routine and get plenty of sleep each night, but do you really know how pivotal this period of restoration is for your body and mind?

Anyone who’s struggled with insomnia or worked a third-shift job can probably relate to the grogginess, irritability, and lack of focus that can quickly result.

Healthcare professionals say that there’s a lot more at stake than just these temporary consequences.

A key factor in disease prevention

According to experts sleep is one of four aspects of our lives that we should prioritize in order to lower the risk of developing physical issues that can lead to potentially devastating health concerns. The other three are diet, exercise, and stress.

In many ways, these four factors are interdependent. For example, eating right, staying active, and getting plenty of sleep can combine to lower the amount of stress in your life.

Of course, enjoying the recommended eight hours of sleep each night is often easier said than done.

A few helpful steps to consider

If you’re having trouble catching enough Zs, here are several ways to send your body cues that it’s time to relax and drift off into slumber.

• Maintain consistency: If you fall asleep at roughly the same time and in the same place night after night, you’ll be more likely to feel secure in your ability to get restorative sleep.
• Avoid stimulants: Coffee drinkers probably already know it’s not a good idea to ingest caffeine close to bedtime and too much alcohol, although it might put you to sleep, will probably disrupt your rest throughout the night.
• Eliminate distractions: Many people like to sleep with a light or the TV on, but a dark and quiet space is much more conducive to relaxation.

It’s the most essential component of sustaining life on our planet, but we’ve yet to find concrete proof that water has ever flowed freely elsewhere in our cosmic neighborhood.

As NASA continues to explore Mars with its Curiosity rover, however, we seem to be finding more evidence supporting the theory that the red planet was once home to a significant supply of H2O.

“Ancient water ripples”

Although you wouldn’t be able to grab a glass of water upon landing on Mars, the features of certain rocks observed by the rover indicate that you probably could have once upon a time.

The team behind the Curiosity project says that the rippled texture of these rocks belies the previous notion that water reservoirs didn’t exist in that region of the planet.

“We climbed through thousands of feet of lake deposits and never saw evidence like this,” said NASA scientist Ashwin Vasavada. “And now we found it in a place we expected to be dry.”

Mysteries of the ‘marker band’

Water on Mars probably evaporated billions of years ago, but there are telltale signs that it once flowed across much of the planet. For starters, the rippled rock formations seem to reveal that sediment was washed around by the waves of a shallow lake.

Another impactful feature uncovered by Curiosity is known as the “Marker Band” near one prominent Martian mountain. This clear barrier is defined by darker rocks that could provide evidence of precipitation on the planet’s surface.

Thus far, the rover hasn’t been able to remove a sample from the especially hard rock, but its distinctive features show that something unusual happened there.

Finally, there’s the Gediz Vallis, a valley near the same mountain that experts say could have been formed by a river that flowed through the region.