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8/29/2018
Hyperinflation: When money is worthless
How can our brains process Venezuela’s mind-blowing
inflation rate of 14,000%—or the 1 million percent it could reach by the
end of the year? As extraordinary as
Venezuela’s currency crisis might be, it’s far from the worst case of
hyperinflation.
In Hungary after World War II, annual inflation peaked
at 419 quadrillion percent (that’s 419 with 15 zeroes). The daily inflation
rate was 207%, and prices doubled every 15 hours, according to research from
Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke.
Even more notorious is the experience of Weimar
Germany in 1922 and ‘23, where inflation hit 29,500%. You needed 1
US dollar to buy 1 trillion German marks in November 1923. It took prices 4
days to double in Weimar Germany
The hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic has left a
deep scar in the German psyche. It’s been used to explain Germans’ deep
aversion to debt and subsequent preference for cash to pay for almost
everything.
The crisis of 1922 and ‘23 primarily affected the
middle and upper classes—the strata of German society that had socked away
money in savings accounts. While the poor also suffered the wealthy were
totally wiped out.
8/18/2018
NYU Medical School Free Tuition (audio)
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NYU Medical School Free Tuition
In a move to address the large cost of entering a
career in medicine, New York University's School of Medicine will
offer full scholarships to all current and future students in its doctor of
medicine program.
NYU is the "only top 10-ranked" medical school
in the U.S. to offer such a generous package.
"I'm proud to announce that as of right now,
every student that we admit to New York University School of Medicine comes
tuition-free," Kenneth G. Langone, chair of the board of trustees, said in
a video announcement Thursday. "And this includes the incoming class and
the upperclassmen as well that are here right now — no more tuition."
The program covers a yearly tuition of $55,018, NYU
says.
Students will not have a totally free ride, however. Medical
students will still foot the bill for about $29,000 each year in room, board
and other living expenses. The scholarships will help 93 first-year students
along with 350 already partially through the program.
Three out of four medical school graduates in 2017
graduated in debt. Of those in debt, the median amount was $192,000.
NYU also says medical school debt is "reshaping
the medical profession," as graduates choose more lucrative specialized
fields in medicine rather than primary care.
The U.S. faces a shortage of doctors of all types —
perhaps more than 120,000 by 2030. The predictions vary widely, however, to
between 42,600 and 121,300. The country will lack between
14,800 and 49,300 primary care physicians by 2030, while "non-primary care
specialties" will fall short by 33,800 and 72,700 doctors.
NYU's announcement follows Columbia University, whose medical school has been offering
full-tuition scholarships to certain students in need since last December.
The free tuition will cost NYU about $600 million to
fund indefinitely. It has raised $450 million of that already. Langone,
who founded Home Depot, and his wife Elaine, contributed $100 million of that
total.
The school hopes the plan will also increase diversity
among its students.
Almost 90,000 students enrolled in U.S. medical
schools for the 2017-2018 school year. About 52 percent of them identified as
white, 21 percent as Asian, 8 percent as multiple race/ethnicity, 7 percent as
African-American, and 6 percent as Hispanic or Latino, and smaller percentages
for other groups.
8/12/2018
Facebook employees' free meals (audio)
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8/05/2018
A Pregnant Woman Ordered a Latte
Part A - Please fill in the blanks with prepositions
A McDonald’s franchise in Canada has apologized after
serving a pregnant woman a cup of cleaning fluid instead ____________ coffee, a
mistake the company said has occurred ____________ the past with other customers.
The woman, Sarah Douglas (photo),31, who is eight
months pregnant with her third child, ordered a medium latte ____________ Sunday ____________ a McDonald’s ____________ Lethbridge, a city ____________ Alberta,
Canada, ____________ the way to her son’s baseball tournament.
Driving ____________ the highway shortly after, she opened the
spout on the lid and took a sip. Immediately, she knew something was wrong.
“It just felt like my mouth was burning,” she said.
Ms. Douglas pulled over to the side of the road and
“immediately spit all of it out,” she said. Then she pulled off the lid and
realized it wasn’t a latte
____________ all. The cup was about
three-fourths full with a “murky brown” liquid, she said.
She quickly drove back ____________ the
restaurant and told the supervisor that she had just drunk a chemical.
Another worker soon discovered that the latte machine
was hooked up ____________ a cleaning solution used to remove milk
residue.
Dan Brown, the owner of the franchise, later called
Ms. Douglas to apologize and issued a statement ____________ the
matter.
“McDonald’s is renowned ____________ its
food safety protocols and I am sorry that this happened in my restaurant here
in Lethbridge,” Mr. Brown said.
“What happened
is that the machine was being cleaned — as it is every morning. Unfortunately,
the milk supply line was connected ____________
the cleaning solution while this
guest’s drink was made. We have taken immediate action to review the proper
cleaning procedures with the team and have put additional signage up as an
added reminder.”
Ms. Douglas visited a doctor, fearing for the baby’s
health. She also called poison control and learned that this particular
cleanser was acid-based but she didn’t have any symptoms that required a trip ____________
the hospital. What she had was a burning
sensation ____________ her mouth that
didn’t disappear ____________ at least 45 minutes.
“It took a couple of days for the smell and the taste
to even leave my mind,” Ms. Douglas said.
Ms. Douglas said that by speaking ________ her
experience she hoped ____________ educate the public and also push the food
industry to be more stringent in implementing safety protocols.
“This was a preventable mistake,” she said. “Big as
McDonald’s is, there’s no excuse.”
Part B - Please fill in the blanks with the given
verbs
After Ms. Douglas
___________ (go) public with her story, a man who ___________ (live) in
Alberta ___________ (tell) CBC News that the same thing___________ (happen)
to him in December, but at a different McDonald’s location.
Despite the safety methods in place at McDonald’s and
at other large corporations, there are several examples in recent years of
customers ___________ (receive) tainted drinks.
In 2015, a Seattle-area woman ___________ (sue)
Starbucks after she ___________ (drink)
a hot chocolate tainted with a coffee machine cleaner that ___________ (cause) her to suffer medical
problems.
The same year, a Utah woman ___________ (sue) the
coffee company after her throat ___________ (burn) with the same
cleaner, and an Indianapolis police officer ___________ (wind up) in the
hospital because he ___________ (drink) a McDonald’s iced tea that
___________ (contaminate) with cleaning chemicals.
In 2016 a woman in Texas ___________ (find) two
cleaning tablets in her Starbucks venti mocha, something she ___________ (discover
negative) until she ___________ (drink) half of it and ___________ (develop) a
stomachache.
Starbucks ___________ (serve) millions of customers
every day, as ___________ (do) McDonald’s. The number of known instances of
tainted drinks being served is relatively small.
Food-borne illness
___________ (be) a concern for McDonald’s, which ___________ (be) in the
news for a couple of months for serving salads linked to cyclosporiasis
illnesses that ___________ (sicken) 395 people in 15 states.
Part C - Please ask questions so as to get the
underlined answer
1. McDonald's faces an
unrelated lawsuit.
___________________________________________________________
2. McDonald's faces an unrelated lawsuit from Trevor Walker.
___________________________________________________________
3. Trevor Walker lives in Utah.
___________________________________________________________
4. He alleges a McDonald's
location served him a soft drink laced with a heroin substitute.
___________________________________________________________
5. The soft drink was laced with a heroin substitute.
_________________________________________________________
6. McDonald's location served him a soft drink laced with
a heroin substitute in 2016.
___________________________________________________________
7. No, he
didn’t. Trevor Walker survived the
incident.
___________________________________________________________
8. He is now suing both
McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.
___________________________________________________________
9. He filed the lawsuit on Monday.
___________________________________________________________
10. Probably.
___________________________________________________________
From The New York Times (edited)
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