Numlock News: April 21, 2025 • Roses, Sinners, Sherpa

Apr 21, 2025

Sinners

Ryan Coogler’s original vampire movie Sinners made $45.6 million domestically, the biggest debut for an original film at the North American box office since Jordan Peele’s Us. With great word of mouth and pretty stellar reviews, the movie looks like it’ll have a bit of a runway, which is great news for a box office that has been bordering on panic through much of March. The continued momentum of A Minecraft Movie — which has made $720.8 million globally — is another positive sign for movies, which will see the must-win summer season kick off in mid-May with Thunderbolts*.

Rebecca Rubin, Variety

Deliveries

As the customs process becomes laborious under the new tariffs, DHL is suspending deliveries to the United States valued at over $800. Previously, any package worth under $2,500 could enter the United States with easy breezy paperwork, but now that threshold has been lowered and handling customs has become an around-the-clock problem. Even those $800 and under packages may be under the microscope soon, as the de minimis rule that allows low-value parcels to enter the United States without any import duties ends in early May.

Dearbail Jordan, BBC

Microplastics

A new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment looked at caddisfly larva casings going back to the 1970s to figure out when microplastics began to appear. When they hatch from eggs, caddisfly larvae use nearby material to encase their bodies in self-made, improvised shells. We have lots of these shells in museums, and the study analyzed 549 of the casings from the archives to find that small fragments of plastic have been showing up for decades, with one from as early as 1971 incorporating a piece of yellow plastic.

Bob Yirka, Phys.org

No, Really, Is Pepsi Okay?

Bottlers of Pepsi are in a fresh bind, as PepsiCo makes the concentrated syrup for its beverages in Ireland, and that essence of Pepsi is getting hit with a 10 percent tariff. PepsiCo first opened a concentrate plant in Ireland in 1974, and now does its global concentrate business out of the city of Cork, which is home to 2 concentrate plants. Rivals Coca-Cola and Keurig Dr Pepper also operate concentrate facilities in Ireland — it’s low tax — but Coke makes the concentrate for American sodas in Georgia and Puerto Rico, while Keurig Dr Pepper makes theirs in St. Louis.

Laura Cooper, The Wall Street Journal

Sherpa

Fifty-five-year-old mountain guide Kami Rita has returned to Everest for the spring climbing season and looks to add to his already incredible record of 30 ascents up Mount Everest. From a robust mountaineering family — he’s the son of one of the first Sherpa mountain guides — Kami Rita first climbed Everest in 1994, and will aim to make at least 1 and possibly 2 summits this season, weather permitting. According to Nepal’s Department of Tourism, 214 climbers have permits to scale Everest from the Nepali side of the peak.

Binaj Gurubacharya, The Associated Press

Houses

The spring homebuilding season is slower than usual, with housing starts are down 11.4 percent in March month-over-month. Direct and indirect reverberations from tariffs are an element of this; while 7 percent of goods that go into residential construction are imported, economic concerns about the health of the economy are a fairly large factor in the decision whether or not to buy a new home.

Rebecca Picciotto, The Wall Street Journal

Painting the Roses Red

Researchers analyzed the genome of 205 samples of 84 species of rose, accounting for 84 percent of the flower type. They found 707 single-copy genes that allowed them to chart the evolutionary history of the flower. They realized that the common shared ancestor of roses was, in fact, a yellow flower with a single row of petals and leaves divided into 7 leaflets. As they were domesticated, new colors and petal markings emerged. The Rosa genus originated in central Asia, and the genetic analysis saw China’s northwest and southwest as the main centers of rose diversity.

Sanjuka Mondal, Phys.org

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