May 9, 2023

what we've been watching...

empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines

Business

Jailbreaking the Farm: Colorado has become the first state in the US to sign a bill to establish the “right to repair” for farmers and their tractors. We’ve all been annoyed with being unable to change a battery or a screen on our iPhones, but can you imagine not being able to locate the manual to change the tire on your farm equipment? Manufacturers like John Deere have implemented software locks and other tools meant to discourage customers from repairing their own equipment, as agriculture has become increasingly more high tech. While this law doesn’t go into effect until 2024, 10 other states have similar agricultural repair bills up for discussion.

Failure to Unite: One of the first Starbucks locations to vote to unionize has actually withdrawn its petition with the National Labor Relations Board, almost 2 years after it was first initiated. There is some speculation that the petition was decertified because all of the union organizers had actually been fired by Starbucks (immediately following former CEO Howard Schultz’s testimony to the US Senate). More than 280 Starbucks locations have voted to form a union, yet none have been able to successfully sign a contract with the corporation. Maybe it was all the olive oil?

Zimbabwe goes Digital: Zimbabwe is launching a digital currency this week backed by gold reserves in an effort to reduce its dependency on the US dollar. The country continues to experience extreme hyperinflation, and the hope is to take currency trading out of the international market place. (The Zimbabwe dollar has lost more than half its value since the end of last year against the US Dollar.) Critics, however, claim that the printing of new money will only trigger more inflation.

Prime has a new meaning: Amazon has recently been offering some Prime subscribers $10 to actually pick up their own packages rather than having it delivered. You don’t have to schlep to a warehouse, but you can visit a Kohl’s or Whole Foods, similar to options for returns. Amazon is also playing with charging for returns outside of these locations, despite giving us all the option of using UPS for free during the pandemic. This isn’t in an effort to reduce traffic, congestion or labor costs, but Amazon has finally recognized that delivery is actually expensive.

Technology

Farewell to the NSFW Web: Imgur announced last month that it will be changing its terms of service on May 15: the site will be deleting “old, unused, and inactive content that's not tied to a user account,” as well as a lot of sexually explicit content. Imgur had been one of the easiest sites to publish images on the web, and now a lot of internet history may soon be erased. A group named Something Awful, however, has started to download as many of the source images as possible in the hopes of saving internet history. (Twitter made a similar announcement this week that they’ll be shutting down inactive accounts, as the internet bid farewell to their dead friends’ tweets.) Will be interesting as an archeologist or historian — what do you do with all those broken links?

Return from Orbit: China’s reusable Space Plane has returned to Earth following 276 days in orbit. China has been relatively tight-lipped about the plane and its voyage although the state news agency did say that the flight “marks an important breakthrough in China's research on reusable spacecraft technologies, which will provide more convenient and affordable round-trip methods for the peaceful use of space in the future.” We do know that the spacecraft released a satellite into orbit in November, but we’re in the dark on the rest of the 9 months of flight.

Gold medal gaming: Fortnite is now an Olympic sport. The IOC announced that Fortnite will be included in its E-sports series set to take place in Singapore in June. Originally, the IOC had stated that no violent, first-person shooter games would be included in its gaming line-up, but the committee has effectively backtracked, deeming Fortnite to be family-friendly. No word on whether or not you have to buy skins or dance moves to participate, but we’ll be interested in seeing the specially-design island. Other virtual games to be featured include chess, archery, baseball, cycling, sailing, taekwondo and tennis — no Mario Kart?

Culture

Bitter Brew: Beck’s Beer is going after the deep pockets, realizing that Boomers have more money to spend than Gen Z. Beck’s has launched Beck’s 70+ which has a taste targeted to this demographic (more bitters) and can only be purchased with proof of age 70 or older. Apparently, the age restrictions and the unique taste are causing a little FOMO for the underage crowd triggering some fake IDs and even kids asking their grandparents to purchase the limited-edition beer, silver and black can beer for them. While GenZ is focused on being sober curious, Boomers are focused on living their best lives and spending their inheritance.

Dairy Brew: One more competition we didn’t know existed that we wish would be on ESPN: The World Barista Championship. In June of this year, a new rule will allow competitors to use alternative milks for the first time, so while the baristas give the judges detailed instructions on how to stir, taste and drink their concoctions, lactaid need not be included.

Feeling Neutral: New Balance launched its “Grey Day” collection for May 12, which we think pays homage to its neutral supremacy. This isn’t the brand’s first Grey Day, so we hope it is a tongue and cheek holiday celebrating their understated color palatte and not their overall feeling.

Technically Excellent: Just last month we were hating ourselves for rooting for the Queen of Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow. Now we are again annoyingly impressed with her use of the English language. She was asked to rate her past lovers — Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck. Though she had “major chemistry, love-of-your-life” sort of sex with Pitt, she said, the sex with Affleck was “technically excellent.” I guess we’ll have to ask JLo if that is a dig or a compliment.

Spaghetti O’s: New Jersey had a pasta mystery this weekend, when someone dumped over 300 pounds of pasta in the woods. After many a dad joke (“the lead suspect is Al Dente”, the mystery was solved — someone was cleaning out their parents home and cleaned out a stockpile of food.

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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