20 miami building collapse, fake online reviews

the weekly rundown

we were with our niece recently, and she started playing with Frozen flashcards (one of her fav toys, despite her being terrified of the movie itself). we commented that our favorite character was the snowman, and she immediately corrected us by saying “his name is Olaffff!!” please, be like our niece and correct us when we’re wrong via email.

big idea: building collapses near miami

1. a twelve-story apartment building collapsed near miami on thursday, killing at least four, with over 150 additional people missing. search and rescue teams are battling heavy rain and a structural fire. hopes are dimming, as it is exceedingly rare to find survivors of such events after a few days.
2. the billion dollar question is why the building collapsed. severe damage to its concrete supports and foundations from sea water and salt air were discovered in 2018, and never fixed. the property also seems to have been sinking into the ground faster than neighboring areas since the 1990s.
3. while it’s far too soon to blame climate change for this disaster, we should expect similar stories in the years to come because of warming temperatures. miami is discussing building a twenty foot high sea wall to protect itself from rising seas and worse hurricanes along some of its most valuable beachfront land.
4. a recent study found that a whopping 60% of all buildings in the US are located in weather-related disaster hotspots. this type of risky construction is only on the rise, despite additional wildfires (on the west coast), tornados (in the plains), and hurricanes & flooding (on the east coast). time for everyone to pack up and move to the midwest, huh?
5. local governments, which are responsible for zoning laws, are the least likely to prevent irresponsible building because they are the most dependent on property taxes and new development. miami-dade county is already facing scrutiny over its inspection practices after this week’s tragic accident.

story to watch: fake reviews online are everywhere

1. with Amazon’s prime days this week ending below expectations, we’re taking a look at a related story - fake online reviews. the UK is launching investigations of both Google and Amazon for failing to remove fake reviews. Amazon recently removed a number of its top third-party sellers, including Aukey and Mpow, for paying customers for positive reviews.
2. this is a huge problem which no one wants to talk about, especially Amazon. analysts estimate 20 to 70% of some products’ reviews could be fake or paid for. a study found that Amazon typically takes 100 days to remove a bad actor from its marketplace, but that’s plenty of time for sellers to make a ton of money. turns out flying to space is easier than managing online comments, huh daddy Bezos?
3. fake reviews aren’t going away any time soon, so readers are advised to take time and read through reviews, rather than rely on the average star ratings. sites like Fakespot.com can also be used to recalculate star ratings, with the fake and paid reviews taken out of the mix.

this week’s image: tracking Bambi

• (BBC) scientists mark and release a newborn deer in ireland. we think it was part of a study, but who knows what those leprechauns get up to.

this week’s number: 99.2% of May COVID deaths were unvaccinated

1. in May, 99.2% of the 18,000 deaths caused by COVID in the US were unvaccinated individuals. while some people may be forgiving and call these deaths tragic, we’re going to call them idiotic. go get your vaccine, dummy.
2. unfortunately, some of these deaths probably were tragic - there’s a small number of people with allergies to vaccine components who can’t get vaccinated, and some immunocompromised people in whom the vaccines may not fully work. so, once again, go get your vaccine, dummy.

what we’re watching: “Conan”

1. after 28 years and over 4,000 daily episodes, Conan O’Brien wrapped up his historic run as a weeknight talk show host on thursday. unlike the more popular Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, Conan focused on more absurdist and physical comedy. as he elegantly stated, he’s spent his whole life exploring the intersection of “smart and stupid”.
2. we’ll miss Conan, especially his remotes, his staff pieces, and his overseas trips, but not all is lost. he’s planning a weekly show on HBO Max, to begin in 2022. until then, we’ll just have to settle for playing with our giant Conan bobblehead.

and, in case you missed it:

• the ex-cop who murdered George Floyd was sentenced to 22 years in prison, and is now facing additional federal civil rights charges
• Microsoft unveiled Windows 11, to be released as a free upgrade later this year. it’s teaming up with Amazon to bring Android apps to PCs.
• it took three florida cops to get an alligator out from underneath a vending machine this week. the gator was apparently trying to shake free his stuck bag of M&Ms.

the weekly rundown is produced by Yunus, Faisal (@faisalc93), and Ahmed (@ahmedhcheema). learn more about us and email us your comments and feedback!