Numlock News: November 19, 2025 • Chameleons, Secret Sauce, Smugglers

Nov 19, 2025

By Walt Hickey

Atoms

The Department of Energy has approved a $1 billion loan to cover most of the estimated $1.6 billion cost to restart the Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania. This plant, previously known as Three Mile Island Unit 1, is expected to begin generating power once again in 2024, after going offline in 2019 as nuclear struggled to compete on the energy market. Its companion plant on the same site, Three Mile Island Unit 2, was known for some other, more critical work in the late 1970s. Unit 1 is now being brought back online by Constellation Energy at the behest of Microsoft, which is hungry for electricity to power its data centers.

Spencer Kimball, CNBC

Youth Hockey

Youth sports have long been a target of private equity interests, and nowhere is that more clear than in youth hockey. USA Hockey membership reached an all-time high in 2025 with 577,900 members. It’s the most expensive youth sport by some measures, costing an average of $2,583 a year, given the amount of protective equipment, sticks and skates needed. That is well above the $1,016 average spent per household on their child’s primary sport. Hockey rinks have also been the target of private-equity funded rollups, with their high utility bill costs and municipalities that once maintained local rinks selling off to private interests. One such entity is Black Bear Sports, which now owns 42 rinks across 11 states, manages four national and regional youth hockey associations and recently launched its own streaming site, Black Bear TV. That last move has particularly ruffled feathers, as the rinks now allege that all games played inside can only be streamed on their $25 to $50 per month network. Parents say they’ve even been threatened over recording or livestreaming their own kids’ games.

Luke Goldstein, The Lever

Lead

Automakers rely on lead batteries in internal combustion cars, and the lead in those batteries often comes from Nigeria, specifically the area around Ogijo. The United States imported 34,273 metric tons of recycled lead from Nigeria in 2024, but the processing of that metal has caused disturbing levels of lead contamination in the region. Some 20,000 people live within a mile of the factories, and soil samples have found lead levels up to 186 times as high as the hazardous threshold.

Peter S. Goodman, Will Ftizgibbon and Samuel Granados, The New York Times

A Bridge To Sell You

The rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed in 2024 after a container ship crashed into it, is projected to cost between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion and will be open to traffic in late 2030. That’s well over the initial price estimate and two years behind schedule. The original quote for a bridge replacement was $2 billion, with a completion date of 2028. Driving the cost surge is construction costs, which have increased by 72 percent in the past five years, fueled by inflation as well as tariffs on the commodities that are necessary to build such structures.

Aashna Shah, Bloomberg

Madagascar

The forests of Madagascar have been consumed by fires over the past several decades. This includes burning away the Ambohitantely Special Reserve, a forest that contains over 400 species of trees protected against illegal logging and agriculture. Wildfires set by people to clear land and graze cattle get out of control and spread to the protected forest. From 1989 to 2017, the reserve lost half its forest cover. One fire in 2022 destroyed a third of the remaining forest. The loss is particularly tragic because Madagascar’s unique location means that 90 percent of its plants and animals are endemic and can only be found there, including all lemurs and half of the world’s species of chameleons.

Benji Jones, Vox

Sauce

Raising Cane’s was founded in 1996 and has swiftly become one of the most popular quick-service restaurants in the country, with almost 1,000 locations serving a five-item menu. One key appeal of that menu is its secret sauce, which it has actually managed to keep a secret despite operating almost a thousand locations. The sauce is made in-store every day, and only managers are allowed to mix it. The managers also have to sign a nondisclosure agreement refusing to reveal the recipe. Frankly, they’re already deprived of the recipe since managers work with unidentified ingredients shipped in unknown quantities and a pre-blended set of spices. Cane’s sells 800 million of the four-ounce sauces per year, and will indeed sell you a drink-sized cup full of it for about $8.

Nicholas G. Miller, The Wall Street Journal

Parrots

TikTok has fueled a surge of interest in African grey parrots as pets, which has prompted conservation groups to push back on the trend, citing the desperate state of the birds in the wild. The price of a single parrot these days might go for $7,000, which is a steep enough price to drive poaching in West and Central Africa. From 1975 to 2015, 1.3 million wild African greys were traded. However, the real number could be as high as 3 million, given the rate of death during transit. In 2016, the species was designated as endangered, which only shifted black market operations for the birds. These days, smuggling eggs is the latest strategy for moving birds to buyers because eggs are easier to hide. Smugglers have been caught with anywhere from dozens to thousands of eggs the world over, including one indictment of 11 people in the Matsu Islands in connection with a 4,500-parrot egg smuggling operation.

Rene Ebersole, Rolling Stone

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