These trees are 1 atom thin! (Source: Technical University of Denmark / Phys.org)
1) Around 75k people and companies received a Christmas gift when Santander Bank accidentally deposited $176m into their accounts. Unfortunately, the gift was short-lived, and the bank — which recovered the funds — quickly devolved from Santa to Grinch.
2) Speaking of… Usually, Christmas tree records have something to do with height or lights. This Christmas, though, researchers at the Technical University of Denmark used graphene to construct a Christmas “tree” 14 centimeters long — and 1 atom thin.
3) In 2021, 6 jackpots worth a combined $2B were drawn for Powerball’s lottery. It’s important to remember, these prices reflect what you’d get as an annual payment made out over 29 years. Most winners chose a one-time, reduced payment option. What would you choose?
4) Rentbrella — which, as you might expect, rents umbrellas — now operates 35 NYC umbrella kiosks holding 3.5k umbrellas, with 100 kiosks planned for next year. The business model is interesting: If you return an umbrella within 24 hours, it’s completely free.
5) Indian startups are on fire (the good kind). VC put into Indian companies jumped to ~$39B in 2021 — far higher than the previous record of $14.6B in 2019 — and helped spawn 44 new Indian unicorns.
