By Walt Hickey

Mars

NASA, in its ongoing quest to simultaneously understand the cosmos and read the room, is working to pitch a cheaper way of recovering a number of soil and rock samples from Mars. The original plan’s price tag came in at $11 billion to return the samples to Earth, which was generally considered a bit too much of a giant leap for mankind. A set of revised scenarios — plans that would collect the tubes in the 2030s — streamlines the mission and would cost between $6 billion and $7 billion.

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press

Shattering the Stained-Glass Ceiling

For the first time in the history of the church, a woman was appointed to serve as the prefect of a department of the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church, with Sister Simona Brambilla tapped by Pope Francis to lead the office overseeing religious orders for men and women. She will serve as the coleader of the department alongside a cardinal. The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life does oversee a pretty significant chunk of the professional church, including 128,500 priests who belong to orders and 599,228 women in religious orders as of 2022. Prior to 2019, all of the members of the department were men.

Elisabetta Povoledo, The New York Times

PBR

While the brand Pabst has produced beer since 1844, in 1996 the company closed down its Milwaukee brewery and began outsourcing the beer production to third-party contractors. For the past 20 or so years, the contract brewer for Pabst Blue Ribbon was Molson Coors, but starting this month it’ll switch over to Coors archrival Anheuser-Busch. Pabst peaked in the 1970s, but enjoyed a resurgence among hipster types over the past two decades; the brand includes other retro staples like Colt 45 and Old Milwaukee.

Chris Casey, Food Dive and Jessica Infante, Brewbound

Three-Pointers

Just when we thought it was over, the three-point revolution in the NBA kicked back into gear, as thus far this season is outpacing all previous years when it comes to shots from behind the paint. Bolstered by advocates who accurately argue that there’s simply better ROI for lots of players by going for three, and derided by opponents who accurately argue that it’s bleeding the life out of the sport and if I wanted to watch a bunch of rich guy sink easy shots from a far distance unimpeded I’d just watch golf, the trend is once again accelerating: So far 42.4 percent of shot attempts come from beyond the three-point line, already trending above the peak of 40 percent in 2022.

Lev Akabas, Sportico

Store Brands

Private-label brands — the unbranded or store-branded alternatives to name-brand grocery items — have had a great couple of years, as inflationary pressure has made it so consumers are increasingly willing to ditch the name-branded stuff. Prior to the pandemic, the average branded product cost 18 percent more than the supermarket’s private-label brand, while today that price difference is up to 23 percent more. In some categories, the name brands are being thoroughly routed: Based on volume share, generic brands have 60 percent of the cooking oil business, 55 percent of the mixed vegetable cart share, 47 percent of the cupcake business, 46 percent of broth, and even 41 percent of cream cheese.

Chris Stokel-Walker, Sherwood News

Monopoly

Hasbro is now confronting a key problem with its game Monopoly — namely that it’s too popular, but everyone who wants one already has a set and nobody wants to buy any new Monopoly boards, because there’s one in the closet and why would we need another? Sure, there have always been solutions; for a while they pushed IP-branded reskins like Pokémon Monopoly or Disney Monopoly, and then of course you had the local pandering editions, but at the end of the day you’ve probably got a Monopoly board laying around, and that’s a problem for the people who want to sell you a new one. That said, the minds at Hasbro believe they’ve cracked it. First, in July they’re dropping a new edition of the classic game but in a square box — just like other trendy board games! — with pieces that are 20 percent larger than normal and with a new moneybag replacing a battleship for inexplicable reasons. The other big innovation is that Monopoly isn’t just a game now, but a brand for an expanding franchise of games that have increasingly little resemblance to Monopoly, including Monopoly Free Parking Jackpot Expansion, Monopoly Go to Jail Expansion, and Monopoly Buy Everything Expansion.

Charlie Hall, Polygon

Whirlpool

Whirlpool has managed to reduce the number of parts in its flagship washing machines, and was able to save about 8 percent of costs in a process that included leaving out an additional coat of color and leaving internal parts unpainted. That’s particularly helpful because the paint is apparently one of the most expensive steps in manufacturing a washing machine — go figure. It’s still $100 more than usual, because why not, but Whirlpool needs a win because the key driver of the purchase of new appliances — new home sales — is approaching a 14-year low. With possible tariffs on the horizon, one issue for Whirlpool is that even though 80 percent of its wares are sold domestically, they’re mostly built with components made outside the United States.

Leslie Patton, Bloomberg

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