By Walt Hickey
Have a great weekend!
Shrimp Heaven Now
In just the past six weeks, hundreds of thousands of pounds of shrimp have been pulled from supermarkets because they may be radioactive. All the shrimp were processed by BMS Foods in Indonesia, which was singlehandedly responsible for a third of all Indonesian shrimp imports from January to July. After cesium-137 was detected in the company’s shipping containers at four ports, Indonesia’s nuclear agency launched an investigation and found widespread contamination in the Cikande industrial area where the shrimp was packaged. The source of the contamination is a nearby steel manufacturer. Investigators think that the steel company smelted some cesium-137 (perhaps from a medical device) and dusted the region in the process, affecting at least 10 sites in a three-mile radius, including the one where these shrimp come from.
Paris Martineau, Consumer Reports
Dull
Researchers are comparing the wings of butterflies that live in preserved natural forests against those that live in monoculture eucalyptus plantations that bear a resemblance to a forest but nevertheless lack the biodiversity to actually serve as one. Butterflies can be both colorful and not die a violent death in the jaws of predators because forests themselves are usually pretty colorful. Even though butterflies stand out, they nevertheless appear to be part of the environment. In deforested areas replaced by eucalyptus — of which there are 22.6 million hectares around the world — this advantage is lost, and the butterflies that can survive there reflect those conditions. Researchers identified and studied 21 species of butterflies in eucalyptus locations and 31 in natural forests in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo. One immediately obvious difference is that butterfly communities on the eucalyptus plantations are dominated by brown-colored species.
Coke
Coca-Cola will start pushing single-serving, 7.5-ounce mini-cans of its beverage lines in convenience stores for the first time. The company is attempting to capitalize on a wave of trends — the rise of GLP-1s, interest in consumers for more snacking and treats and just good ol’ shrinkflation — that converge on “people just want a smaller drink.” So far, the mini-cans have only been sold in grocery stores in multi-packs, but they’ve been a bona fide hit. They account for nine percent of the sparkling soft drink mix in large stores.
Science
A new survey from the Pew Research Center asked respondents which occupations relied on an understanding of science. Researchers found some obvious jobs at the top (biologists at 97 percent, engineers at 96 percent nurses at 95 percent) and then lots of jobs with slightly lighter demands of scientific applications (computer programmers, auto mechanics). However, that is not why we are here today. We are talking about the job that has the least relationship with science: television scriptwriting. Per the survey, just eight percent of respondents said that television script writers rely a lot on an understanding of science to do their jobs, indicating that the respondents yearn to replicate Michael Crichton through science, magic and probably hubris.
Giancarlo Pasquini and Brian Kennedy, Pew Research Center
A Few Small De Beers
Anglo American will sell its 85 percent stake in diamond producer De Beers, and the government of Botswana — which owns the other 15 percent — will join the negotiations. The company and the country previously appeared to have a deteriorating relationship after Botswana’s president critiqued the miner’s management of De Beers, so this is a shift in their rapport. Anglo American thinks the company is worth $5 billion, UBS estimates it’s probably closer to $3 billion to $4 billion. However, the right buyer or buyers — at least six consortia have kicked the tires on De Beers, including an Indian billionaire, a Qatari fund and two large Indian gem firms — could push that bidding up.
Asteroid
The asteroid 2025 TF just made the second-closest pass to Earth ever observed, spotted by astronomers after the fact. It passed Earth at 428 kilometers above Antarctica on October 1 at 1 a.m. UTC, so at about the altitude that the ISS tends to orbit (370 to 460 kilometers). If anything, Asteroid 2025 TF’s close call with our atmosphere is its win and our loss. The thing is only one to three meters across and is very much in the “spectacular fireball” size of asteroid rather than the “evacuate the cities” or “biome realignment” sizes of space rock.
Andy Tomaswick, Universe Today
Who wants to be a millionaire?
As it stands, 17.7 percent of households in the United States are millionaires, possessing assets in excess of $1 million, up from 12.3 percent as of 2017. The thing is, a lot of these millionaires are pretty cash-poor all things considered. Their actual wealth is locked away in housing, retirement funds and businesses. For instance, of the 12 million households with between $1 million and $2 million in assets, only 17 percent of their wealth is in liquid assets, with the rest locked away primarily in housing (39 percent) and retirement (33 percent). Only when you get to the 3.5 million households with north of $5 million do you see the kind of walking-around money you’d associate with the upper echelon of wealth. Even then, only 24 percent of their assets are liquid. Not to mention the trappings of millionairedom are getting pricier too; a basket of luxury goods — a four-bedroom home, two luxury sedans, a boat and a house in the country — that cost $1.45 million in 2017 would cost $2.12 million today. Poor guys.
Andre Tartar, Ben Steverman and Stephanie Davidson, Bloomberg
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I have a friend who sells mushrooms. Most people don't like him but I think that he's a really fungi!
(Thank you; I'll show myself out now)
The folks wishing for a Giant Meteor went to Antarctica, and came back chilly, disappointed.