Numlock News: August 19, 2025 • Golden, Mineral Water, Carolina Reaper
By Walt Hickey
Demand
From 2005 to 2020, energy demand in the United States was basically flat; since then, it has been growing two percent to three percent annually. Utilities spent $178.2 billion last year on grid enhancements and power upgrades. It is now poised to spend $1.1 trillion from 2025 to 2029 to meet the growing demand, much of which comes from data centers. While demand is growing, federal policy has swiftly turned against adding new generation capacity from wind and solar, rug-pulling those industries by spiking planned incentives for build-outs and revoking federal leases. As a result, it’s generally understood within the industry that the average household’s energy bill is about to spike, with the Rhodium Group projecting that the average household will pay $78 to $192 more annually.
Seven Minute Abs
Only 245 film and television projects were shot in the state of Georgia in the 2025 fiscal year ending in June, down from 412 projects shot in 2022. That’s partly due to studios generally producing fewer things than they did when trying to make streaming into a profitable business. The decrease is also due to Georgia getting beaten at its own game, with other localities offering even better shooting incentives and perks. Across the United States, productions with budgets north of $40 million were down 29 percent from 2022 to 2024, while in the U.K. — where labor is cheaper — that’s up 16 percent over the same period.
Ben Fritz, The Wall Street Journal
Mineral Water
France has been gripped by scandal after a news report last year alleged that Perrier was filtering its mineral water. This shift was quietly authorized by government ministers who changed rules about what can be called “mineral water” by tweaking regulations to allow for micro-filtration. As it stands under EU law, if you want to sell “natural mineral water,” you can’t alter the water. As a result, the entire French mineral water industry is awaiting a ruling that might mean Pierrer can’t call its product “natural mineral water” for the first time in 160 years.
Daniel Gettings, The Conversation
KPOP Demon Hunters
A third song from the hit streaming movie KPop Demon Hunters has entered the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, with “Soda Pop” joining “Your Idol” and “Golden” at the top of the pops. “Golden” became the first single to hit No. 1 from an all-female K-pop group in the history of the chart, and last week logged 32.8 million streams and 11.6 million radio impressions. Fun fact, this is the third soundtrack ever to have three or more songs simultaneously in the top 10 of the Billboard Charts, a feat only before accomplished by Saturday Night Fever and Waiting to Exhale, a Whitney Houston vehicle.
Spicy
Spicy foods have swept across menus in the United States at a remarkable clip. The notorious California Reaper pepper comes in at 2.2 million Scoville heat units and was created only as recently as 2012 by crossbreeding Naga Viper peppers and habaneros. Even though the pepper is younger than the iPad, it has nevertheless spread to menus across America, reflecting changing tastes for favor with a little more kick. Today, 19 out of 20 restaurants in the U.S. offers at least one spicy item, half of Americans are likely to buy a spicy item (up from 39 percent in 2015, in the Reaper’s infancy) and 35 percent of Gen Z respondents told a pollster that at least at one point in their lives they had to sign a waiver before eating something spicy.
DILI
A new push in medical research seeks to reduce the burdens put on research animals by putting synthetic human organ tissue on chips to determine possible ramifications of a drug on test subjects. For instance, drug-induced liver injury (DILI), a form of liver toxicity, is an ailment responsible for the failure of 22 percent of all clinical trials. A chip containing layers of human liver cells made by Emulate Inc. was 87 percent accurate at identifying a compound that caused DILI. That’s just one of all sorts of organ chips or “novel approach methodologies” that might make drugs fit to test on people. Projects using non-animal systems got 1.1 percent of new and renewed grants in 2000, but as of 2024 got eight percent of those grants.
Bombs Away
A new study tagged seabirds with cameras that monitored their flights, but took the innovative step of turning the camera around. That is to say, rather than pointing to where the birds were looking, the backward-facing cameras of 15 streaked shearwaters observed what the birds were leaving behind. The cameras track how often the birds were flying away and also where they were aiming when they evacuated. Turns out, these birds exclusively relieved themselves while flying, at times taking off specifically to take a bathroom break, indicating that they may specifically avoid soiling the water they’re directly floating in. The birds excreted an estimated 30 grams of poop every hour, which is roughly five percent of their body mass, and given that there are 424 million shearwaters out there, that’s a lot of nutrient transportation.
If you subscribe, you get a Sunday edition! It’s fun, and supporters keep this thing ad-free. This is the best way to support something you like to read:
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.
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.
Previous Sunday subscriber editions: Dark Roofs · Geothermal · Stitch · Year of the Ring · Person Do Thing · Fun Factor · Low Culture · Romeo vs. Juliet · Traffic Cam Photobooth · Money in Politics ·
Sax Solo · Terra Nova · Didion · Me, But Better · Flow · Four Nations · Tabletop · Fortnite · Sleep · Climate Insurance ·
Work/Life Balance · Self-Driving · Geoglyphs · Nvidia · McDonald’s · No Such Thing · Nationalized Sports ·
Sunday Edition Archives: 2024 · 2023 · 2022 · 2021 · 2020 · 2019 · 2018
The hot stuff can be used to mask otherwise boring flavor. That dull breaded chicken sandwich is somehow exciting now!
But it can also be used to make you eat smaller portions more slowly. Or you just wolf it down faster, and regret it longer inside…
Absolutely love spicy food--I make a kick-ass chili that is known for its spiciness. And, since we're heading into the fall season, it might be time to whip up another batch! :-D