Info in Bits & Pieces

Headline: Union Pacific Railroad Announces Delays, Cutbacks in Fertilizer Shipments. The company removed rail cars to ease congestion and added 100 additional locomotives to its fleet. Union Pacific serves key agricultural areas like Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and California. Less available fertilizer means less crop production, which equals rising food prices. Source: Allan Stein, The Epoch Times, #405

ADVICE:
While you are young, be willing to be taught and directed, advised, and reproved (reprimanded or corrected) so that you may be wise in your later years – especially many years before your death comes. Any man who spurns or rejects his education and correction with contempt will show how foolish he is both in his youth and old age.
Beason, Proverbs 19:20

Oh no! Headline: Coffee Shortage in Latin America Spells Trouble for US Consumers. The year 2021 was a low-productivity year. 2.5 acres of coffee plants will cost you about $20,000 to $30,000 to produce coffee per local coffee farmer Fernando Jordan in Bolivia. In the past 12 months, Colombia’s total coffee output has been down by 16%. So with costs up, production reduced, and labor shortages, the overall price for coffee will be rising. Source: The Epoch Times, #405.

$34 Billion. Disney’s market cap has shrunk by nearly $34 billion. This drop coincides with Disney expressing its strong opposition to a Florida law banning instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools for kindergarten through third grade. Definition: “market cap” measures what a company is worth on the open market and reflects what investors are willing to pay for its stock.

71 percent. According to a poll by Morning Consult, most Americans support the use of tariffs on Chinese goods.

22,000 Indian students have been unable to return for studies in China since the COVID-19 outbreak began in 2020.

11 million acres. Biden administration closes off 11 million acres, almost half of the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, from oil and gas drilling.

Why are Horseshoes Considered Lucky?
The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation recounts the tale: “In the 10th century, St. Dunstan (a blacksmith at the time) was visited by a man that Dunstan quickly recognized as the Devil. Upon the visit, the hoofed Devil asked for a horseshoe for himself. So Dunstan nailed a red-hot horseshoe tightly onto the Devil’s hooves, which caused him to howl in pain. He begged Dunstan to remove the shoe. Dunstan agreed under one condition – the Devil must respect the horseshoe and never enter any place where one was hung above the door.”