By Walt Hickey

Cheerleaders

Bain Capital, which owns the cheerleading company Varsity Brands, as well as the previous owners of the company agreed to pay $82.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that the companies intentionally monopolized cheer competitions, camps and apparel markets. Varsity is pretty much the only game in town when it comes to competitive cheerleading, and the lawsuit follows another $43.5 million antitrust settlement from October that had been lodged by a rival cheerleading gym. One key element of the settlement was the elimination of the requirement that cheerleaders attend Varsity-run cheer camps in order to obtain eligibility to compete in Varsity’s championship, the requirement that people competing in Varsity events stay at Varsity-approved hotels, as well as information sharing between Varsity and the cheer sanctioning body U.S. All-Star Federation, which by the way was also founded and seeded by Varsity.

Daniel Libit, Sportico

Vision

We don’t really cover international elections here at Numlock, but Europe recently had their most important nights at the polls: voting on the Eurovision competition. The event, where most of Europe and a few other countries that inexplicably sneak into the party compete in contests of song, was most recently held in Malmö, Sweden, with winning country Switzerland’s act Nemo winning 591 points, edging out Croatia’s act with 547 points, and Ukraine coming in third with 453 points. Winners are decided by a combination of jury votes as well as the public vote, which can make for some deeply strange outcomes, such as the United Kingdom’s act getting 13th place among the jury but last place with zero points among the public, or Finland’s act getting the second-worst jury vote but the 15th place among the public.

Lily Ford, The Hollywood Reporter

Energy

Last year the energy drinks segment was up 10 percent at chain retailers, with sales hitting $21 billion. One of the roots of the trend was the simple increase in the amount of caffeine in beverages over time, as well as the reality that “energy drinks” are not an actual category of beverage in the eyes of the FDA, hence a lack of strict requirements reining in what goes into them. As of 2006, the top five energy drinks had an average caffeine concentration of 9.9 milligrams per ounce, a figure that as of 2023 was up to 13 mg per ounce. For perspective, soda has been held at 5.91 mg per ounce since 1980 by the FDA.

Dave Infante, Sherwood News

Real ID

The Department of Homeland Security has the current acceptance rate of Real ID cars in the U.S. at just 44 percent. The 2005 Real ID law set out to increase the documentation standards for driver’s licenses that could get someone onto an aircraft in the U.S., and set 2008 as the year when finally it would not be possible to use a standard driver’s license in order to get through TSA. This was a delightful fantasy! Like clockwork, over the ensuing decade-plus, the DHS continued to push the date back, and back, and back. They now claim that this time next year, finally in 2025, that’s when the Real ID deadline will actually happen, for realsies. The issue at hand is that the Real ID is, essentially, a half-measure. It’s clearly not necessary to avoid an attack similar to 9/11, given that we haven’t had to use it and have nevertheless deftly avoided an attack similar to 9/11 in the ensuing time. It’s also not stringent enough to actually be useful as, say, a national ID, which could be used for things like immigration enforcement and anti-identity theft measures, because it does nothing like that.

Jim Harper, The Atlantic

Bell Labs

When we think of innovation, of scientific progress, of an institution that has single-handedly advanced its field forward into the future, one company comes to mind in the modern history of industry: Taco Bell. Many of the things that made it unique back when fast food was all burgers and fries are things that the rest of the industry has since adapted. It was the first major fast-food player to make an app and it was one of the first to commit to social media advertising, anticipating a world where 45 percent of U.S. diners have tried a restaurant for the first time because of a social media post made by the restaurant. Even within the kitchen, everyone else wants to be more like Taco Bell. For instance, a given Taco Bell cannot really be said to have a “kitchen,” as pretty much all the cooking is done off-site, and a Taco Bell facility is simply where cooked ingredients are assembled and distributed. Taco Bell was also a pioneer in electrification, being one of the first companies to use sous vide as a way to bring prepared ingredients up to temperature (now used downright everywhere), and also to reject most of the gas-based equipment other kitchens needed, which allowed them to eliminate lots of pans and avoid volatile and expensive gas systems.

Meredith Sandland and Carl Orsbourn, QSR Magazine

Wiley

Fake studies being pumped into the $30 billion academic publishing industry are threatening the existence of a number of the companies that have served as crucial gatekeepers to the publications that define good research. Over the past two years, Wiley has retracted 11,300 papers and closed four journals over the issues, and on Tuesday announced the closure of another 19 research journals, some of which it said had been compromised by large-scale research fraud. The problem became clear after Wiley acquired Hindawi, which published 250 journals, in a $300 million purchase. In 2022, scientists called out dozens of studies published in those journals, and in 2023, 19 Hindawi journals were delisted from Web of Science and four were folded by Wiley.

Nidhi Subbaraman, The Wall Street Journal

Turf Wars

A county in Utah is offering to pay residents to rip out thirsty grass lawns and replace them with less water-dependent plants. Overall 70 percent of residential culinary water is used on lawns, and your conventional lawn is poised to suck up 37 gallons of water per square foot annually, compared to just 9 gallons per square foot of more adapted vegetation. Washington County is paying $2 per square foot of converted turf up to 5,000 square feet, after which the rate drops to $1 per square foot. It’s funded by an $8 million fund from the Utah Legislature, with $3 million recurring annually, and it’s such a hit that advocates want another $12 million from the legislature to keep it going. There have been 2,044 applications submitted and 918 completed, and collectively by the end of 2024 they’re projecting that 100 million gallons in water will be saved per year, every year.

Morgan Sjogren, Route Fifty

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