Numlock News: July 22, 2025 • Ceratosaur, Pumpkin Spice Latte, Nuclear War
By Walt Hickey
Thanks to everyone who came out last week to the past two shows in Garbage Day’s three-show residency at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn. I’m working on them and the crew has great stuff planned for the final show tonight! You should come, these have been selling out!
Ceratosaur
A rare Ceratosaurus fossil — one of just four skeletons known to exist — sold for $30.5 million at auction, yet again raising the question of why exactly it’s better for these one-of-a-kind scientific specimens to be acquired by the ultra-wealthy rather than shared for the common good or used for analysis. The original estimate was $4 million to $6 million, with six bidders competing to win the fossil. The skeleton was found in 1996 in Wyoming and was displayed at the Museum of Ancient Life in Utah from 2000 to 2024, but has yet to be formally described in a scientific journal. After all, that kind of price for a dinosaur skeleton precludes any museum or educational institution from ever owning it
Cars
In the first half of 2019, cars that cost under $30,000 accounted for 38 percent of new car sales. In the first six months of this year, that price stood at just 13.9 percent of all sales, indicating that the lower-cost vehicle space is pinching consumers. One reason for the pinch is the fact that 92 percent of vehicles under $30,000 are built outside of the United States. With the Mitsubishi Mirage ending production and the end of incentives for the model, June 2025 also marked a grim stat: it’s no longer possible to get a new car for less than $20,000.
Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica
Canyons
A new study published in Marine Geology compiled the most comprehensive catalog of Antarctic submarine canyons, identifying 332 canyon networks that reach depths of 4,000 meters — five times the number of canyons compared to previous studies. These valleys in the seafloor are a big deal for the biodiversity in deep and shallow waters of the coldest parts of the world. Worldwide, scientists have discovered 10,000 submarine canyons. However, we’ve only mapped 27 percent of the seafloor in high resolution, and the actual number is almost certainly much higher.
VinFast
Vietnamese electric vehicle company VinFast is in an interesting position of losing a fortune — its net loss hit $3.18 billion in 2024 — but being alright, all things considered. That is because VinFast is owned by Vingroup, a massive conglomerate controlled by Phan Nhat Vuong, the richest man in Vietnam. The conglomerate is committed to keeping the business going as it finds its footing, which includes an expansion into the North American and European markets. VinFast sold 36,330 electric vehicles in the first quarter, up 296 percent year over year, as well as 44,904 electric scooters, up 473 percent.
Pumpkin Spice Latte
Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte will return to U.S. menus August 26, a ridiculously early date for an autumn beverage. The PSL was just the third seasonal beverage introduced by Starbucks after the Eggnog Latte and the Peppermint Mocha, but it’s become an institution. Pumpkin Spice Creep is a real thing. When the drink went on sale ten years ago, it came out on September 8 (two weeks later than it will this year), which at least had the decency to wait until Labor Day. One reason for the early release is PSL being a real winner for Starbucks, with foot traffic rising 24 percent on its launch date last year.
Dee-Ann Durbin, The Associated Press
Cornsweat
Temperatures throughout the eastern Midwest are about to become sweaty, thanks to all the corn elevating humidity across the region. While highs are projected to be 35 to 38 degrees Celsius, that will feel closer to 43 degrees Celsius when factoring in the humidity. The massive fields of corn, soybeans and other crops release moisture as the temperature gets higher in order to survive, which means the rest of the region’s inhabitants have to deal with some unpleasant humidity levels.
Andrea Thompson, Scientific American
Soot
Bad news if you were planning to do any kind of nuclear war in the future, as a new study reveals that such a thing would probably be a bad idea. The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, simulated corn production in 38,572 locations under six different levels of nuclear war. It found that a regional nuclear war would probably produce 5.5 teragrams of soot, which would reduce annual corn production by seven percent. A large-scale nuclear war would be responsible for 165 teragrams of soot ejected into the atmosphere, which would result in an 80 percent drop in annual corn yields, and probably some other bad stuff, too.
Jeff Mulhollem, Pennsylvania State University
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this misstated the units of soot simulated, it is in teragrams, not tons.
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Two ag-related articles in one day! My lucky day!