Can AI Help You Graduate? | An $80B Weed Plan for Wall Street

VIEW ONLINE 10 MUST READS TODAY Tuesday May 07, 2019   1 Rising Stars Rising Stars Meet the Man With an $80 Billion Wall Street Weed Plan Any idiot can be a blue chip investor. But it takes audacity to double down on alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, as Dan Ahrens has. Getting ahold of AdvisorShares’ Chief Operating Officer Dan Ahrens was a bitch. Not Beyoncé hard, but the dude is busy and for good reason. On April 16, just in time for 4/20, Ahrens had done what seemed like a pothead’s fever dream: He announced the public trading of AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF with its totally genius ticker symbol: YOLO. The YOLO ETF, or exchange-traded fund, is the first listed, actively managed American fund expressly focused on making your money grow via investing in cannabis equity securities. Which means it went through a full, regular approval process with the Securities and Exchange Commission and was preapproved by its custodian bank, the Bank of New York Mellon. Something that can’t exactly be said about its nearest competing fund, ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF, an index fund that must blindly follow the index. READ MORE   2 Fast Forward Fast Forward Giving A.I. the Old College Try ... Boosts Graduation Rates Graduation rates at universities in the U.S. have been plummeting for half a century. But artificial intelligence and data crunching are helping turn the tide. Austin Birchel needed financial aid to afford Georgia State University. But even after winning a scholarship that covered 90 percent of his tuition, he was in for a shock when he checked his GSU account the summer before his freshman year. The scholarship wasn’t showing up. Within minutes, though, Birchell found that his Social Security number had been written incorrectly on one of the forms. The error was corrected, and his scholarship was applied. Thanks to artificial intelligence, he didn’t have to spend hours on the phone with the admissions office to figure out what went wrong. Birchell is just one of thousands of university students at GSU and across the country who’ve benefited from AI and predictive analytics tools that are helping American higher education institutions fight — and slowly fix — what previously seemed intractable problems. READ MORE   3 Good Sh*t Good Sh*t This Simple Tap Could Save Thousands of Lives in the Next Disaster This fresh approach to water filtration removes bacteria and germs without electricity or chemicals. The Indian state of Kerala was hit by once-in-a-century floods last August that claimed 450 lives and displaced well over a million people. Crowded into makeshift camps — with water everywhere but none to drink — conditions were ripe for the spread of deadly diseases like cholera and typhoid. As governments, individuals and nongovernmental organizations scrambled to assist, one organization was able to rely on a new tool. A few weeks after the floods, the Rotary Club of Greater Cochin installed three Intewa AQUALOOP Taps: at a hospital kitchen that services 1,500 patients a day, a school for special needs children and an orphanage. The taps went a long way toward “keeping the affected populated safe and eliminating the spread of infectious diseases,” explains Vijay Nair, the club’s service projects chair who stepped in to help with disaster efforts. READ MORE 4 Immodest proposal A Proposal for Brides: Stop Costing Your Friends a Fortune Bachelorette parties are financially crippling us millennials. It's high time for the women in white to start footing the bill. 5 Fast Forward Sudan's Protesters Plot Next Stage of the Revolution They've removed the 30-year dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir. Now, they're fighting to protect the uprising.  6 Flashback Listen to OZY's Hit Podcast ... About a Pinup Girl Who Rocked Civilization Evelyn Nesbit's beauty took America by storm right before it led to the murder trial of the century.  7 Acumen Enter the Era of 'Entrepreneur-nity Leave' Startups are flourishing in countries that offer job-protected leave to employees. Should the U.S. do the same?  8 The Huddle Baseball's Original Secret Weapon: The Spitball In 1920, pitcher Stanley Coveleski won three games for the Indians in the World Series. His main pitch then got banned. 9 Good Sh*t Ashes to ... Diamonds: A Shiny New Way to Immortalize the Dead These companies turn the ashes of your loved one into a diamond that you can wear. 10 Flashback The Great Writers Who Suffered Greatly From Physical Ailments A slew of history's best novelists suffered from physical illnesses and ailments that would help shape their literary career  You Should Know This  'Fortnite' Success Sparks Arms Race Among Tech Giants OZY Media Mountain View, California 94040 This email was sent to alluneed4u1.semail@blogger.com Manage Subscriptions | Privacy Policy | Read Online