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Uber’s valuation is surging

Tony Wagner Feb 24, 2015
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That’s the Austin, Texas metro area’s “economic segregation index,” and it’s the highest of the country’s big cities. Two researchers from the University of Toronto devised the metric, the Washington Post reported, which shows how likely residents with disparate income, education and occupation are to live in separate neighborhoods.

$1.49

That’s how much a cubic metre of water costs businesses in Los Angeles. That’s pretty cheap, especially considering that when you factor in water scarcity and the likelihood of drought, it should cost more like $5.97. And L.A. isn’t the only city where water costs beer prices for champagne tastes. It’s a problem across the U.S.

$2.6 billion

Speaking of water, it will cost Washington D.C. an estimated $2.6 billion to complete an underground tunnel system that can handle excess water when storms hit. Right now, flooding water can only go into sewage pipes, creating a cocktail of rain and raw sewage that ends up flowing directly into the rivers. With the new pipe system, the mixture will have a place to go to be stored and treated. And for those who scoff at the price tag, some would argue that its better to pay preventative costs to handle flooding rather than deal with the damage after the fact.

$41 billion

Uber’s valuation as of its latest round of fundraising, more than double what it was worth in June. The Verge has an interactive graphic showing just how far the the tech start-up bubble has expanded, with valuations and fundraising for the biggest companies on a spectacular rise in the last year alone.

$1.087 billion

The global box office gross of “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” which was set in the U.S. but featured an explosive climax in Hong Kong. That diversity in setting — or having no Earth-bound setting at all — defined global box office winners in 2014, according to an analysis by CityLab.

8 regions

Napa Valley may soon be sour grapes. Over at Bloomberg, they’ve profiled 8 regions which are up-and-coming in the wine industry. Thanks to factors like changing tastes and climate change, places like Tokaj, Hungary and the Republic of Georgia are producing bottles worth uncorking.

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