Numlock News: May 28, 2026 • Splenda, A Mosquito, Bird Libido
By Walt Hickey
Used Cars
The average listing price of a used car is $25,630 as of this year, up 33 percent from 2019. The used car business is somewhat infamous for the wide array of dealerships in the game, many of which have made a killing selling cars (and more importantly, the accompanying financing) to subprime buyers who lack other options. These companies are as much in the repossession business as they are in the selling business, and they build the assumption of high turnover for sold vehicles into their business plan. In 2025, an estimated 1.72 million cars and trucks were repossessed in the United States, a figure that is projected to grow 2.2 percent.
Mangoes
India grew 28 million metric tons of mangoes in the 2024 to 2025 season, by far the largest grower of the fruit in the world. Among those mangoes, one of the most renown is the Alphonso mangoes grown in the westerns state of Maharashtra, but this year disaster has struck the crop: Thanks to a large difference in day and night temperatures in December and January along with hotter weather in April and May than usual, the fruits have spoiled, and losses in the coastal town of Devgad are at 85 percent to 90 percent. India’s mango crop was worth $2.3 billion last year — of which $56 million was exported, along with another $80 million worth of mango pulp — and is projected to grow to $3.4 billion by 2031.
An Ex-Ex-Parrot
The New Zealand native kakariki karaka, or the orange-fronted parakeet, has twice been declared extinct only to later be rediscovered in the wild. As it stands, the bird remains critically endangered with just 450 specimens left, mostly in sanctuaries and predator-free islands. And while the species’ survival is no doubt thanks to the tireless work of conservation workers, it’s also thanks to Nacho and Trixie — two parakeets who were paired up in 2024 at the Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust and have subsequently gotten very, very busy repopulating the species, producing 55 chicks, of which 33 came this year alone.
ShotSpotter
Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson pulled out of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system in 12 neighborhoods and attracted criticism for the move, but a new analysis found that police are actually responding an average of four minutes faster to serious 911 calls in the six months since pulling out of the program. Response times fell faster in police beats where the gunshot detection system was removed, backing up critics of the program that said that ShotSpotter wasted officers’ time by sending them on false positives. In the neighborhoods that once had ShotSpotter, homicides fell 32 percent in the nine months following the decommissioning of the system compared to the nine months heading into the shutoff.
Mosquito
A new study published in the Journal of Insect Physiology suggested that artificial lights are disrupting mosquitos and delaying their dormancy, meaning that they stay active longer. Mosquitos rely on shortening daylight in the fall as a cue to enter a dormant state, but artificial light appears to keep the bloodsuckers up and active. In an experiment, mosquitos kept under light in September entered diapause at a quarter the rate of those kept in the dark, and while every mosquito in a dark enclosure had gone dormant by October, 59 percent of those exposed to light stayed active.
Sweet Victory
The owner of Splenda is buying the owner of arch-rival non-sugar sweetener Equal, uniting the sugar alternatives under a single company. Heartland Food Products (which owns Splenda) has agreed to buy Whole Earth Brands for an undisclosed sum, which will also bring the Swerve and Chuker sugar alternatives into the Splenda company. Low-sugar remains a pervasive trend: According to Ingredion, 64 percent of consumers are actively trying to cut sugar intake, and the number of products launched with “no sugar added” as a selling point rose 4.2 percent from 2020 to 2023.
Seasons
It takes too damn long between television seasons, a new study has found, with Ampere Analysis reporting that the average gap between seasons of scripted original television shows nearly doubled from 12 months between seasons in 2020 to 21 months between seasons in 2025. The incentives to produce television on a consistent basis appear to be absent, as audiences are rewarding the shows that take the longest gaps; the original shows with gaps of 30 months or more between seasons have actually managed to notch a higher engagement in the premiere month of new seasons compared to peers, on the order of double the average engagement compared to those more typical shows.
Erik Gruenwedel, Media Play News
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The gap between TV seasons has gotten WAY too long! I have to rewatch the whole damn thing to remember what happened. Which probably leads to an uptick in measured engagement, which makes the suits want to expand the gap even more….