By Walt Hickey

Exciting personal news at the new day job! Sherwood News, where I currently serve as executive editor, has launched! I’m incredibly proud of the site, so be sure to check it out.

Bridge

The latest data tracking the freight rates to get a container from Asia to the U.S. North East Coast in the wake of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore’s harbor is… cheaper than it was before the crash? Prices to get a 40-foot container along that route are down 1 percent, to $5,421. Spot rates from North Europe to the North East Coast — which includes Baltimore — is down 8 percent to $2,357, and other East Coast ports are down 4 percent.

American Journal of Transportation

Tower

The Eiffel Tower is poorly maintained and in serious trouble, according to its employees, and they’re threatening to strike during the Olympics unless something is done. The statue’s designer said the monument has to be restored and repainted every seven years, but the last renovation was 14 years ago, and it shows. The latest attempt at restoration began in 2019 but only 30 percent has been repainted, and annual costs have ballooned from €50 million to €92 million, potentially hitting €130 million.

Vincent Noce, The Art Newspaper

Spicy

A Nestlé program launched in 2019 to seek ideas for new products from its employees has been a massive success for the company, with the 6,000 ideas from 20,000 employees resulting in 46 initiatives that have added some $200 million in revenue to the company over the course of the period. Some of those include a spicy version of Stouffer’s Mac & Cheese, as well as Outshine Smoothie Cubes. I can only assume the other 5,954 ideas were just new ways to charge people for their own drinking water.

Christopher Doering, Food Dive

Chill Out

A new analysis of 154 studies that collectively experimented on 10,186 participants found that as a whole, angry people are way better off chilling out and calming down they they are blowing off steam. Essentially, the kinds of activities designed to relax people — deep breaths, meditation, yoga — were considerably more effective at lowering the level of anger than the kinds of activities that blow off steam. Some of those — like jogging, which is touted as a stress-relief activity — actually increased the levels of anger, which makes sense, because now you’re not just ticked off, but you’ve also had an hour to think about how ticked off you are and are also thirsty. Venting anger, or letting it out, or screaming into a pillow, or punching a bag, all actually increased anger.

Sophie L. Kjaervik and Brad Bushman, The Conversation

Wind

Offshore wind developer Ørsted has reached a deal with Cadeler, which supplies offshore wind installation vessels, leasing a brand-new A-Class Wind Farm Installation Vessel, which considerably increased Ørsted’s ability to install wind turbines off the coast of Yorkshire in the U.K. at the world’s largest single offshore wind farm. The ship is very, very big; it can transport and install seven complete 15-megawatt turbines per a single load, or five 20-megawatt or higher turbines in a single load, considerably cutting down on the number of trips needed to install a farm. It can also transport up to six XXL monopile foundations per trip.

Mike Schuler, gCaptain

Banned

A new analysis conducted by the American Library Association found that last year there were 4,240 different titles targeted for bans in libraries and schools in 2023, up 65 percent from the figure in 2022 and the highest level documented on record. Several states in particular have seen widespread campaigns to ban books, particularly those that cover LGBTQ+ topics: Florida saw 2,672 titles undergo an attempted ban, while Texas saw 1,470 titles.

Joseph De Avila, The Wall Street Journal

Camels

Camels thrive in dry and hot places, which some think makes them particularly well-suited to endure the effects of climate change. In particular, they’re seen as possible replacements for dairy in places that might be getting too hot for cows, and as a result the industrial camel dairy industry has emerged. The largest such farm in the world is in the UAE and is home to 10,000 camels, and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund in particular is investing further. The global market for camel milk is expected to grow to anywhere from $2 billion to $13 billion by the end of the decade, but problems remain, namely that cows have been bred over the course of millennia to be dairy livestock while camels have distinctly not, and the creatures have been chafing at the realities of factory-style farming.

Ariell Ahearn and Dawn Chatty, The Conversation

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