Numlock News: July 20, 2021 • Antarctica, Shampoo, Toyota
By Walt HickeyCarsThe average price paid by a consumer in June for a new car was $39,948, and the average price paid by a consumer that month for a one-year-old used car was $39,868, an $80 difference. Normally, that price gap is typically around $5,000 or more, but used cars are in a supply crunch. On one hand, it’s a rough market for buyers, on the other, this just seems more rational: it’s a little nuts how much value a vehicle — which is basically just a computer attached to a sophisticated machine — loses by simply driving it off the dealership lot. And while I’m not a mechanic, it’s odd that a single year of usage would instantly wipe out like a seventh of the value of a machine designed to last over a decade. Nora Naughton, The Wall Street Journal RecessionCongrats, turns out you rode out a recession last year! The National Bureau of Economic Research, which is in charge of discerning the beginnings and ends of U.S. business cycles, has upon analysis of the data found that the recession that began in February 2020 ended in April 2020 after two months. That’s the shortest on record after the 1980 recession which lasted six months. Though short, it was very bad: there were 22 million jobs cut, unemployment hit 14.8 percent, gross domestic product fell over 10 percent, and the effects have been long-lasting with seven million fewer jobs in the economy compared to before the pandemic. Ben Casselman, The New York Times ShampooThe beauty industry produces 120 billion units of plastic packaging waste per year around the world. In the United States alone, every year 552 million plastic shampoo bottles are sold, and less than 10 percent of the plastic is recycled. In addition, the transportation of shampoo really amounts to the transportation of large amounts of water, with some stuff mixed into that water. That’s inefficient, and so, one solution is to just sell the shampoo in condensed bar form, rather than selling water and shampoo in a plastic bottle. This has benefits — one brand, Unwrapped Life, touts 8 percent of the carbon footprint of a liquid equivalent — and also is growing in popularity owing to the fact that the raw shampoo stuff is more cost-effective than the bottled liquid kind. AntarcticaThere’s better internet in space than at research stations in Antarctica, which makes sense when you realize the International Space Station is only about 250 miles away and the South Pole of Earth is rather renowned for its remoteness. Still, during the summer peak there can be 1,000 people living at McMurdo Station, and their internet sucks. Scientists are pushing for a new fiber optic cable to connect McMurdo to New Zealand, and the National Science Foundation sponsored a workshop to game it out. The internet situation is particularly acute at the South Pole Atmospheric Research Observatory, which every day takes in terabytes of atmospheric and astrophysics data from a far-flung location in the interior of Antarctica. They only have a satellite signal for a few hours a day, and only 10 percent of the data makes it home every day: the rest is literally airlifted on hard drives once per year, making it back to the States a month later, a subzero version of the Sneakernet in action. ToyotaAmid growing discontent with the Olympic Games at home, automaker Toyota has yanked its ads from the Olympics in Japan, and its CEO will skip the opening ceremonies. Japanese companies spent over $3 billion sponsoring the Olympics, which are ridiculously unpopular due to the ongoing pandemic: on Monday, the Asahi newspaper published the latest poll where 68 percent of Japanese respondents said they doubted the games’ organizers could control coronavirus infections and 55 percent said they opposed the games going forward as currently planned. Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter Concrete BatteryConcrete is the most consumed material in the world after water, and it can hold a charge. A new study in Buildings reported that a prototype concrete battery secured a 900 percent increase over previous attempts. Granted, this isn’t a lot of electricity right now: 200 square meters of the new design, which entails embedded carbon fiber mesh coated in nickel or iron, can only store about 8 percent of the daily electricity consumption of an average American home. Sophie Bushwick, Scientific American Natural ColorsPeople like natural ingredients in their food, but they also really like cool colors in their food too, and honestly finding materials that satisfy both is rather difficult. The market for natural colors in foods was projected to grow 8.4 percent annually from 2019 to 2027, when it’s projected to hit $3.2 billion. Artificial colors have stability that natural colors lack, with the acidity level of different preparations having a significant impact on vibrancy up and down the spectrum of current natural food coloring. One promising source of color has been spirulina algae, which is blue-green, halal and kosher, and has been growing in popularity as demand for natural colors increase. Thanks to the paid subscribers to Numlock News who make this possible. Subscribers guarantee this stays ad-free, and get a special Sunday edition. Consider becoming a full subscriber today. 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. 2021 Sunday subscriber editions:Thriving · Comic Rebound · Return of Travel · Sticky Stuff · For-profit Med School · A Good Day · Press Reset · Perverse Incentives · Demon Slayer · Carbon Credits · Money in Politics · Local News · Oscar Upsets · Sneakers · Post-pandemic Cities · Facebook AI · Fireflies · Vehicle Safety ·Climate Codes · Figure Skating · True Believer · Apprentices · Sports Polls · Pipeline · Wattpad · The Nib · Driven2020 Sunday Edition Archive2019 Sunday Edition Archive2018 Sunday Edition ArchiveYou’re on the free list for Numlock News. For the full experience, become a paying subscriber. |
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Numlock News: July 19, 2021 • Helicoids, Peppa Pig, North Korea
Monday, July 19, 2021
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! Neckties The pandemic accelerated lots of changes in the world, one of which appears to be the popularity of neckties. The end of the tie has been alleged for a century,
Numlock News: July 16, 2021 • Unexplained Seeds, Bamboozled Birds, House of Lords
Friday, July 16, 2021
By Walt Hickey Have a great weekend! Seeds Remember that weird couple of months when a bunch of people got random seeds in the mail from China and lots of folks freaked out? It's weird that that
Numlock News: July 14, 2021 • Rigged Arcade, Gila, CoComelon
Friday, July 16, 2021
By Walt Hickey I edited another comic over at Insider, it's about the conflict in the Royal family, you should check it out! Rigged A $5 million proposed class action lawsuit was launched against
Numlock News: July 15, 2021 • Weddings, Sacks, Lizards
Friday, July 16, 2021
By Walt Hickey Ragnar-knot Prepare your toasts, dry clean your suits, learn 1 Corinthians 13 down pat, do some squats to prep for the Horahs, and please decide between chicken, beef or fish, for
Numlock News: July 13, 2021 • Puppies, Biscoff Cookies, Super Mario 64
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
By Walt Hickey Super Mario 64 Eyebrows have been raised over a $1560000 auction sale of a copy of Super Mario 64 because while it's certainly a solid piece of memorabilia — graded 9.8 A++, factory
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