Spotlighting what you might have missed on BirdDog and why a few headlines from elsewhere matter for Tennessee.
The Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga. Photo by James Gillespie on Unsplash
FROM BIRDDOG
New: Competition, questions shape Tennessee’s political landscape in pivotal election year
At a glance: Tennessee’s 2019 ACA premiums, risk adjustment impact
Get Covered Tennessee braces for ‘huge impact,’ possible layoffs as HHS cuts navigator funds
I’m curious about your reading habits to better understand why you’re choosing BirdDog when you have so many digital options.
Some responses will inform the direction of Phase II as this experiment moves toward Phase III. Others are more practical. For instance, the email font is larger this week per the request of respondents so your feedback does matter.
FROM ELSEWHERE
1. Target has a secret app for superfans, and it looks like Instagram
Mark Wilson, Fast Company
The app, Studio Connect, falls at the heart of exclusivity and rewarding loyal customers. Shoppers have a staggering array of options so this seems like a novel way to affirm loyalty among the repeat customers on whom you depend.
App users are limited to “600 members (that’s 0.002% of its 30 million weekly shopper base)” and they get to interact with designers to brainstorm and test out products — which are required to hit shelves on tighter timeframes than ever before.
It’s astounding to think about what Target is learning from inviting a tiny fraction of its shoppers into its process:
Excerpt: Scanning through the submitted photos of drawings, Target’s designers quickly realized that many children were designing leggings that featured a surprisingly similar funky print. It was like children had a vision for their own clothing that had never been realized, and that vision became a theme that the designers pulled to develop new garments.
2. Study: Hospitals may not be ‘gobbling up’ physician practices
Paige Minemyer, FierceHealthcare
Sayeh Nikpay, assistant professor at Vanderbilt University’s Department of Health Policy, talks about what factors could be driving the acquisitions of physician groups by hospitals. Nikpay and other researchers published a study in Health Affairs looking at the acquisitions between 2007 and 2017.
3. Why it matters if we become innumerate
Adrienne Bernhard, BBC
Reliance on technology threatens to undercut people’s understanding and use of numbers. The BBC article points out how frequently math is used in situations ranging from assessing sofa dimensions to quickly estimating how much money remains in a bank account.
Math permeates every day life but tech reliance means fewer people could see value in learning, or maintaining, those skills even when it means calculating pay, discounts or how much medicine to take.
Fifteen-year-olds in the U.S. struggle on math scores compared to OECD countries (see a Pew Research graphic).
Read more:
Pew Research Center: Half of Americans think young people don’t pursue STEM because it is too hard
Mad (Data) Scientist: Innumeracy, Statistics and R
BridgeBizSTEM: Numbers: America Also has an Innumeracy Problem
4. Hackers Reportedly Stole 600 Gallons of Gas From Detroit Gas Station
AJ Dellinger, Gizmodo
A jaw-dropping read — at least to me, though admittedly I’m not a cybersecurity expert — about how software vulnerabilities can be manipulated to steal actual, physical gasoline.
If you want smart, digestible coverage of cybersecurity follow Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security on Twitter. I’ve never thought for an instant about unfollowing him.
5. Chattanooga, Tennessee has found a way to reinvent itself as a startup center of the South
Richard Feloni, Business Insider
A spotlight on Chattanooga’s bustling, young start-up culture that’s attracted the attention of AOL cofounder Steve Case, and has added a layer of economic vitality into a city that’s bloomed after years of stagnation.
In other Tennessee city news, Nashville’s on-going existential question about its future cropped up in Governing, written by John Buntin:
Musing City: What kind of place does Nashville want to be?