By Walt Hickey

Reefense

DARPA, the Defense Department’s advanced projects funding wing, is throwing $67.6 million toward analyzing whether hybrid reefs containing corals and artificial structures can perform just as well as a seawall. The money is being split across three separate projects and was inspired by the effect that Hurricane Michael had on Tyndall Air Force Base in the Gulf of Mexico, when over 200 buildings were totaled and only narrowly avoided flood damage despite a 9- to 14-foot storm surge. That set the Pentagon back $5 billion, and later this month Tyndall is testing out a Rutgers University-designed, 50-meter-wide, 46,000-pound artificial reef prototype, which is believed to be able to remove 70 percent of the force out of waves and is specifically designed to be taken over by oysters, after which it might even take out 90 percent of the force.

Saqib Rahim, Wired

Balloons

Weather forecasting isn’t all radars and satellites, and a considerable amount of it is accomplished by thousands of stations sending a computer into the atmosphere by way of a balloon. Globally, you’re talking 1,300 stations that do this, and it adds up, with the United States launching 76,600 balloons per year and Canada releasing 22,000. After traveling 35 kilometers up, it explodes, sending the equipment and, unfortunately, all that latex downward. One issue flagged is that all that latex does indeed come back down, and given the general state of Earth, it’s got a pretty good chance of landing in water, or at least in a place where it will eventually end up in water. One Australian researcher collected 2,460 pieces of weather balloon debris from the Great Barrier Reef, estimating that 70 percent of the weather balloons — up to 300 of which are released per week — end up in the ocean.

Danielle Beurteaux, Hakai Magazine

The America’s Cup

The America’s Cup is a sailing event first invented by Britain in 1851. Like most other British sport innovations — cricket, soccer, rugby, baseball, tennis — other countries immediately learned about it, loved it, got obsessed with it and incredibly good at it, and then proceeded to spend the next several centuries beating Britain at it. Britain has not won the America’s Cup in 173 years despite challenging in it 16 times, and they are now tired of that, this year putting up what is believed to be their best contender ever. One reason the America’s Cup is deeply funny is that last year’s winner holds all the cards, known as the Defender and then getting to write all the rules and choose the course in home waters, facing only the Challenger of Record selected by means of regatta. It’s a bit of a confusing form of government but actually works pretty well in the end — like I said, Britain invented it. This year’s contender from the Royal Yacht Squadron is backed by the guy who owns the Mercedes F1 team and something called “Manchester United,” and is the result of a half-billion dollars of development.

Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, The Wall Street Journal

Leif

A new survey shows incredible upside for Leif Erikson, the Norse explorer believed to be the first European to actually discover America (specifically Newfoundland) in 1021, rather than the historically complicated Christopher Columbus who did so in 1492. Most Americans are at least somewhat familiar with Leif Erikson — 51 percent are familiar, and 13 percent claim to be very familiar — and those who know him like him more than Columbus. Interestingly, in most age brackets 11 percent or less were very familiar with Leif, but in the 30 to 44 demographic that was 20 percent, which leads me to believe this is almost entirely a Spongebob-fueled phenomenon. It’s also a bit of a Nordic thing: 71 percent of respondents who claimed Nordic ancestry knew about Erikson compared to 48 percent among the rest of us. The Columbus Day controversy, best known as the worst episode of The Sopranos, is giving the Viking a brief window of opportunity.

Alexander Rossell Hayes, YouGov

Twisted

It actually happened: Joker: Folie á Deux bombed so badly in its second weekend that the unrated slasher flick Terrifier 3 beat it at the cinema, making a far better than expected opening to $18.3 million. Joker 2 fell to third place with just $7.05 million, and depending on where Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice lands when the final numbers are in, it might even fall to fourth. Joker 2 had an 82 percent decline in its second weekend, which is one of the worst first-to-second weekend declines ever. Given that it only opened to $37.6 million on a $200 million budget and a $450 million break-even point, this is a generationally rough flop. Also, that inexplicable Lego documentary made about Pharrell Williams opened to sixth place with $3.8 million.

Rebecca Rubin, Variety

Restoration

Severe natural disasters and housing increasingly being built in its path have meant highly profitable times for the many different elements of the U.S. disaster restoration industry, which includes stuff like fire damage repair and particularly mold remediation, a huge industry after flooding. Most of these businesses have historically been local mom-and-pop companies, but after a number of high-profile natural disasters, especially Katrina, private equity has been quietly rolling them up into larger nationwide companies. The industry is notoriously recession-proof, and globally the post-storm remediation industry is projected to grow from $70 billion this year to $92 billion by 2029.

Patrick Sisson, Sherwood News

Raiders

Tom Brady is leading a group trying to buy 10 percent of the Las Vegas Raiders, which is currently controlled by Al Davis’ heirs in general and Mark Davis in particular. Brady’s chunk would be 7 percent of the team, which given its estimated valuation of $6.7 billion would deal him in for about $470 million. The deal is subject to a vote by the NFL owners in the aggregate, and Brady will have to win over 24 of the 32 teams, which is generally thought to be a likely approval but listen, that guy beat a whole lot of football teams in his time in the league. Between the three other AFC East teams and the Falcons, I’m already halfway there; if they seriously can’t whip up eight votes against this it’ll be the worst loss for the Jets since, I don’t know, last week?

Daniel Libit, Sportico

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