Numlock News: August 8, 2022 • Noisy Subways, Reindeer, Sanitation
By Alison GriswoldThe guest writer today is Ali Griswold. She writes Oversharing, a newsletter on the sharing economy, sustainable cities, and urbanism in the 21st century, and is a former reporter for Quartz and Slate. The ScreamLondoners love to complain about public transport and the Tube’s Victoria Line is no exception. Despite being a commuter’s dream, with trains that arrive every 110 seconds during peak hours, the Victoria Line also receives the most noise complaints, per City Hall data. Since November 2016, the stretch between King’s Cross St. Pancras and Highbury and Islington in North London received 108 noise complaints, while complaints on other sections of the line brought the total to 306. Tube operator Transport for London says it has ground down 17,500 meters of noisy rails in the past six months. Surprisingly, the notoriously screechy Central Line segment between Liverpool Street and Bethnal Green, sometimes termed the “Bethnal Green Scream,” didn’t make the cut. iRobotAmazon has struck a deal to expand its smart home empire with the $1.7 billion acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot. Amazon already gets plenty of data on its consumers between Prime, Alexa and previous smart home acquisitions like the Ring doorbell and Eero routers, but iRobot would give it access to intimate home details like the room-by-room maps that the Roomba vacuum collects and stores. In addition to the glaring privacy concerns, the deal also promises to draw further antitrust scrutiny to Amazon, which just last month said it would buy healthcare company One Medical for $3.49 billion. ALL CAPS NIMBYBillionaire venture capitalist and resident NIMBY Marc Andreessen is IMMENSELY AGAINST the construction of multifamily homes in his town of Atherton, California, aka America’s most expensive zip code. Despite being in favor of building more housing to address supply shortages and rising costs — in 2020, Andreessen published an essay titled “It’s Time to Build” bemoaning sky-high home prices in the Bay Area — he and his philanthropist wife appear to have submitted a public comment to the mayor and city council declaring their IMMENSE objection to a proposal to build a modest 130 multifamily units in Atherton by 2031, which they fear would MASSIVELY decrease their home values. Jerusalem Demsas, The Atlantic Reindeer GamesPeople aren’t the only ones suffering as the climate crisis brings extreme heat to the U.S. this summer. Zoos are being forced to find creative ways to keep their animals cool in temperatures that have reached 99 degrees and which are especially dangerous for animals native to cold environments. Strategies at Stone Zoo outside of Boston include fans for reindeer, air-conditioned units for snow leopards, and blocks of ice filled with meat for Seymour the jaguar, because we all need a popsicle sometimes. Lights OutAn anonymous civil disobedience campaign is gaining traction in the U.K., where typical household energy bills are expected to reach £3,358 ($4,054) this October. Don’t Pay U.K. aims to get 1 million people to cancel their energy bills if a planned price hike goes through on Oct. 1 to pressure suppliers and the government to take action on costs. Since launching in June, more than 75,000 people have signed up to join the strike. Tom Wall and Shanti Das, The Guardian Reverse LobbyingCongressional Republicans are mad that the oil and gas industry hasn’t done more to forcefully oppose Democrats’ latest plan to combat climate change. In a stunning if not exactly surprising reversal of roles, Republicans are urging lobbyists, energy execs and oil companies like Exxon Mobil to come out more strongly against the Inflation Reduction Act. The legislation includes $369 billion in spending on energy, and the U.S. arms of both BP and Shell have joined 38 other companies in signing a letter urging its quick passage. Garbage PostsThe New York City Department of Sanitation has racked up 45,000 followers on TikTok (@nycsanitation) with googly-eyed posts about alternate side parking, snowplows and misplaced trash bags. A PSA by former Sanitation Commissioner Edward Grayson against illegal dumping, set to Mario Kart music, went viral with more than 2 million views. The oddly beloved government account is more proof that nothing unites New Yorkers like the quest to find a better way to deal with the city’s garbage. 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: Giant Hornets · Graphic Novels · Infotainment · Nuclear Energy · Fast Fashion · Salty · Twitter Friction · Fangirls · Air Quality · Non-Colonial AI · The Reckoning · Hippos · Fixing Baseball · Booze Trials · 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 Football2020 Sunday Edition Archive2019 Sunday Edition Archive2018 Sunday Edition ArchiveYou’re a free subscriber to Numlock News. 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Numlock News: August 5, 2022 • Consoles, Days of Our Lives, Sharks
Friday, August 5, 2022
By Walt Hickey Exciting news. Next week, I'm going on my first unplugged vacation of the Numlock era. Filling in for me will be five of my favorite writer, data journalist and author friends; they
Numlock News: August 4, 2022 • Prince, Pollen, Pixar
Thursday, August 4, 2022
By Walt Hickey Estate The six-year-long litigation over the fate of the Prince estate finally came to a conclusion on Monday, when a judge signed off on the deal that will divide $156 million in assets
Numlock News: August 3, 2022 • Dum Dums, Solar System, Batgirl
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
By Walt Hickey Lollipops The family-owned Spangler Candy Co. is at the center of a swirling issue about drop-shipping its iconic lollipop Dum Dums. The company sells a 400-pack of Dum Dums on Amazon
Numlock News: August 2, 2022 • Jazzercise, Tabletop RPGs, Macao
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
By Walt Hickey Admin Fees Beginning in 2013, AT&T tacked on an “administrative fee” to monthly bills of its customers, a fee it hiked to $1.99 a month in 2018. To be clear, this fee does nothing;
Numlock News: August 1, 2022 • Krypto, Midwest, Lactose Intolerance
Monday, August 1, 2022
By Walt Hickey Pets DC League of Super-Pets, an animated feature featuring the vocal contributions of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, won the weekend at the box office with $23 million. The film made
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