Numlock News: May 25, 2022 • Douyin, Halite, Columbia
By Walt HickeyFacesClearview AI is a company that wants to use a vast trove of facial recognition data to change the way that the world is able to identify people, and good god do people hate that and want to fine it into oblivion. The UK Information Commissioner's Office has fined the company $10 million and subsequently ordered it to delete every scrap of data it has on U.K. citizens. This follows a move from Italy which fined them €20 million ($21 million) for data protection rule breaches, as well as Canada, France, Germany and Australia. Even in the U.S., a country which absolutely does not care about how companies use data on its citizens, the ACLU sued them and now Clearview can't sell its database to most businesses, and they are banned in the state of Illinois from even selling it to cops for five years. Melissa Heikkilä, MIT Technology Review HatcheriesThe U.S. government has spent over $2.2 billion over the past 20 years in salmon hatcheries designed to rejuvenate the fate of the ailing populations of salmon in the Columbia river basin. It’s not working. Every year, 250 million young salmon head out to the ocean, though the number that return to the rivers to spawn is less than a fifth of what it once was, so much so that the federal government is spending $250 to $650 for every salmon that returns to the river. To get a sustainable population, 40 surviving adults would have to return to fresh water out of every 1,000 juveniles that migrate down the Columbia. Only 22 hatchery adults return to the Columbia river per thousand juveniles released. Tony Schick, Oregon Public Broadcasting, and Irena Hwang, ProPublica GolfFrom 1999 to 2000, 4.8 million Americans tried golf for the first time, a surge then attributed to Tiger Woods and his popularization of the sport among those who considered themselves less the stereotypical golfer and more an athlete pursuing a new sport. The sport’s popularity waned after that initial pop, but from 2020 to 2021, seeing an opportunity for safer socializing and sports during a pandemic, 6.2 million tried golf for the first time. It’s a huge market opportunity for a flood of brands large and small trying to capture the first major influx of players into the sport in two decades. And interestingly, it needn’t always even involve a course: Of the 37.5 million Americans who played golf last year, 12.4 million never actually set foot of a course, preferring things like in-home equipment, driving ranges and urban golf. SolarIn the United States only 4 percent of houses have solar panels on the roof, lagging behind other rich countries such as Australia, where 25 percent of homes have rooftop solar. Residential installations have lagged for lots of reasons, but one is that permitting rules vary city to city and can be a bit of a nightmare to navigate even for motivated homeowners. This is why the National Renewable Energy Laboratory created the Solar Automated Permit Processing Plus, or SolarAPP+, to expedite the municipal processes involved in getting panels on roofs. It’s currently only in 16 jurisdictions, but the results are promising: Tucson cut the permitting review time from 20 days down to zero. About 400 municipalities are looking into adopting SolarAPP+. Life, Uh, Finds A WayA team of geologists analyzing ancient salt crystals found evidence of life in locked-in liquid within the halite, according to new findings published in the journal Geology. There’s even evidence that the microorganisms may still be alive within the 830 million-year-old habitat, sort of like the extreme version of a sealed terrarium that manages to maintain an ecosystem given a steady state of available nutrients. The researchers are now looking into — not to get too technical with the scientific jargon here — cracking that sucker open and seeing what the hell the deal is. Michael Levitt and Sarah Handel, NPR ShoppersDouyin, the Chinese domestic version of TikTok, former celebrities — ex-Olympians, entrepreneurs whose startups subsequently crashed and burned, pop stars from yesteryear — are finding their careers rejuvenated through livestreams and viral moments during the country’s lockdowns. One big hit is through shopping channel livestreams, sort of DIY QVC, where the former celebrities can cash in on their fame and telegenic nature to appeal to the 780 million online shoppers on the apps. HurricanesNOAA announced its forecast for the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, projecting a 10 percent chance of a below-average season, a 25 percent chance of a normal season, and a 65 percent chance of an above-normal hurricane season, which if those odds hold would make it the seventh above-average season in a row. They’re projecting three to six major hurricanes, with a 70 percent chance that overall there will be 14 to 21 named storms. A number of climate factors — an ongoing La Niña, warmer surface temperatures in the Atlantic, a more powerful west African monsoon, and stronger African Easterly Waves — are forecasted to juice the storms up. This week is the fourth anniversary of the launch of Numlock News. Now is one of the best weeks of the year to upgrade to the $5 per month, inflation-proof subscription to Numlock. If you like the newsletter, this is the best way to support it, and if you subscribe now you get 25 percent off your first year, so either $37.50 for an annual subscription or just $3.75 a month for the first 12: You get access to some really excellent interviews every Sunday and you get to support the newsletter and ensure it’s sustainable and ad-free. I’m so grateful for all the subscribers; this newsletter wouldn’t be possible without you, and now’s a great time to upgrade. Thanks to the paid subscribers to Numlock News who make this possible. Subscribers guarantee this stays ad-free, and get a special Sunday edition. Consider becoming a full subscriber today. The best way to reach new readers is word of mouth. If you click THIS LINK in your inbox, it’ll create an easy-to-send pre-written email you can just fire off to some friends. Send links to me on Twitter at @WaltHickey or email me with numbers, tips, or feedback at walt@numlock.news. Send corrections or typos to the copy desk at copy@numlock.news. Check out the Numlock Book Club and Numlock award season supplement. 2022 Sunday subscriber editions: Oprahdemics · Losing It · Sustainable Cities · F1 · Coughgeist · Black Panther · Car Dealerships · Black-Footed Ferret · Oil to Clothing · Just Like Us · How To Read This Chart · Pharma waste · Arcade Games · Blood in the Garden · Trading Cards · College Football2021 · Crime Prediction · Billboard records · Black Friday · Natural Gas · PEDs in Hollywood · Machiavelli for Women2020 Sunday Edition Archive2019 Sunday Edition Archive2018 Sunday Edition ArchiveYou’re a free subscriber to Numlock News. For the full experience, become a paid subscriber. |
Key phrases
Older messages
Numlock News: May 24, 2022 • Meteorites, Conan, Sea Lions
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
By Walt Hickey Conan Conan O'Brien sold his podcasting shingle Team Coco to Sirius XM Holdings for $150 million, a huge payout as the big players in audio continue to scoop up podcast production
Numlock News: May 23, 2022 • Dippin' Dots, Wind, Downton Abbey
Monday, May 23, 2022
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! This week is the fourth anniversary of the launch of Numlock News. Thank you so much for reading, as we enter year five of this project I'm so grateful for all the
Numlock News: May 20, 2022 • Babysitting, Geese, 911
Friday, May 20, 2022
By Walt Hickey Have a great weekend! Babysitting According to Care.com, the hourly cost of hiring a babysitter has increased from an average of $14.72 in 2020 to $18.05 per hour as of April 2022. The
Numlock News: May 19, 2022 • BTS, Moose, Dick Wolf
Thursday, May 19, 2022
By Walt Hickey Someone's Poisoned The Waterhole The rising risk of ransomware attacks has made the cyber insurance business a perilous one, with premiums spiking as much as 40 percent as insurers
Numlock News: May 18, 2022 • Cats, Compressed Air, LaGuardia Airport
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
By Walt Hickey Beer The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced it will crack down on the street pricing policy it failed to maintain in the New York City-area airports that forbade
You Might Also Like
🎙️ Meet the Secret Weapon Behind Sci-Fi’s Biggest Franchise
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Plus: A novel anti-aging treatment revitalized mice immune systems — will it work in humans?
Squeezed by African Coups, Biden Cozies Up to the World’s Worst Dictator
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Famous for its repression and torture, Teodoro Obiang's Equatorial Guinea got an aid delivery from US Special Operations forces. Most Read Elon Musk Fought Government Surveillance — While Profiting
Practically-A-Book Review: Rootclaim $100,000 Lab Leak Debate
Thursday, March 28, 2024
I watched 15 hours of COVID origins arguments so you don't have to - but you should! ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
SIROTA’S SIGNALS: This Graph Explains The Discontent
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Plus, a nonprofit health care system secretly becomes a debt collector, regulators may help you find cheaper credit cards, and Big Tech's plan to keep preying on kids. SIROTA'S SIGNALS: This
Is Biden on track for defeat? The debate, explained.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Plus: How happy are you? What will SBF's sentence be? And more. March 28, 2024 View in browser Good morning! If you've consumed any kind of news about the 2024 presidential election cycle
Boat Probe, Opening Day, and a Cadbury Raccoon
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Facts, without motives.
These 50 companies have donated over $23 million to election deniers since January 6, 2021
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Then, according to the report of the bipartisan January 6 Commission, Trump engaged in a "multi-part conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020
Numlock News: March 28, 2024 • Orcas, Visas, Dragons
Thursday, March 28, 2024
By Walt Hickey Visas As part of the budget signed into law on Saturday, $50 million has been allocated to the State Department to cut down on the passport backlog and reduce the long wait times for
☕️ Not so rational actors
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Robinhood is playing the long game with its new credit card... March 28, 2024 View Online | Sign Up | Shop Morning Brew PRESENTED BY Aura Health Good morning. It's Opening Day for Major League
What A Day: The promised Lands
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Alabama's first election since the state's IVF fiasco yielded a Democratic blowout. Wednesday, March 27, 2024 BY CROOKED MEDIA – Former Neil Gorsuch clerk and current Trumpist Mike Davis,