Numlock News: April 2, 2026 • Mushrooms, Permafrost, Endless Shrimp
By Walt Hickey
Red Lobster
At Red Lobster Restaurant Headquarters, one must imagine there is a button, inviting and pressable and in the exact color you would imagine. Pressing this button will make you incredibly popular, lead to a legion of reporters setting up cameras outside of your restaurants and delight your otherwise dwindling customer base. It will also cost you millions of dollars and, with some precedent, sometimes your job. This button is labeled “Endless Shrimp.” In the past, it has been responsible for both the greatest triumphs of the seafood brand as well as a 2024 bankruptcy, management clean sweep and some very irate creditors. The 2023 decision to make the ordinarily limited-time offer of Endless Shrimp available year-round caused a $11 million loss in a single quarter and sent a financially precarious company into a tailspin from which it might not ever recover. But here’s the thing: the CEO is reportedly planning this month to push the button.
Eliza Ronalds-Hannon, Bloomberg
Mushrooms
A new study published in Scientific Reports sought to figure out how mushrooms communicate with one another. It attached electrodes to 37 mushrooms of the ectomycorrhizal fungi variety and applied either water or urine to the mushrooms (it’s known that fungi find the latter liquid downright delicious, given its high ammonia content.) Depending on the conditions, the mushrooms either increased or decreased their level of communication based on which liquid they were hit with, whether it was in a concentrated area or widespread and how far away from the other mushrooms they were. This indicates that mushrooms can change their electrical information flow based on a number of stimuli.
Uncustomary
Following a ruling from the Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of International Trade has ordered the administration to repay $166 billion in tariffs to importers with interest, and is developing a way within the electronic customs system for companies to handle their refunds. There are 330,000 companies eligible for refunds, but so far only 26,000 have made preparations to create dedicated accounts to receive their payments. However, those 26,000 companies are responsible for 80 percent of eligible imports. The refund process will involve 1.6 billion lines of customs documents, and it’s estimated that $23 million in interest is accrued each day that the government delays payment.
Ryohei Yasoshima and Azusa Kawakami, Nikkei Asia
VC
For a while, lots of international tech companies have been able to gradually pull in a larger share of (often U.S.-based) venture capital funding. They would pitch the idea of breaking into new and developing markets, the exact kind of thing that investors wanted a piece of. As AI in general and U.S.-based AI in particular has taken over the tech zeitgeist, the fraction of global VC funding going to the U.S. is higher than it has been in a decade. From 2019 to 2023, the percentage of VC funding going to the United States remained between 47 percent and 49 percent, while the rest of the world had between 51 and 53 percent of the pie. In 2024, the first real year of the AI boom, 56 percent of global VC went to the U.S. In 2025, that figure reached 64 percent, leaving just 36 percent for the entire rest of the world’s start-ups.
Permafrost
A new study found that thawing permafrost in the North Slope region of Alaska is releasing fresh water and dissolved organic carbon into the estuaries off the Alaskan coast significantly faster than it had before. In recent years, the region has released 12 cubic kilometers (three trillion gallons) more water per year than it did in the 1980s. Furthermore, from the 1980s to 2023, the amount of carbon released into the ocean from Alaska’s rivers annually went up from 120 gigagrams to 170 gigagrams, an increase of 50,000 metric tons of carbon.
Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American
Ammo
Lake Mjøsa is the largest lake in Norway, and while it hasn’t been completely surveyed, it is estimated to host anywhere between 2000 tonnes and 3000 tonnes of World War 2 ammunition at the bottom. The actual figure may actually be considerably higher; that estimate is an extrapolation from the lakebed that has been surveyed. Some may be inert, but ammunition that has been lying in water for 80 years may very well be as dangerous as when it was first dumped. Indeed, it may be even more unstable; it’s also unknown what heavy metals are leaching into the drinking source of 150,000 people. At the time — 1945, postwar Europe, not a great time, 90,000 tonnes of ammo in Norway and nobody interested in the risky task of dismantling it — dumping the ammo seemed like the best solution.
Bjørn Kvaal, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
NBA Europe
First round bids were due, with people wanting a piece of the action for the new NBA Europe. Multiple bids came in above $1 billion for a franchise and reportedly many more for more than $500 million. Several bidders also came from existing EuroLeague teams. The NBA is aiming to launch a European brand in the fall of 2027, and the NBA would own 50 percent of NBA Europe. The plan is to create teams in 12 permanent cities. With the whole NBA Europe operation encompassing 14 to 16 teams overall, non-permanent slots would be open to teams in existing European leagues.
Kurt Badenhausen and Scott Soshnick, Sportico
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So we're doing gain-of-function research on mushrooms during the Last of Us era. I see no problems!
So.............companies will (eventually) get refunds on their tariffs, but we suckers who have been paying higher prices since they were enacted won't see a penny back.
That tracks. It sucks and is unfair, but it still tracks.