Robots have started doing dental procedures
Agar and a stock market slump
Hello,
If you’re ever in the supermarket and you feel like you haven’t quite spent enough money then I suggest you go and get yourself a packet of pine nuts. You get about seven and they’ll set you back a good four pounds. They really throw out the economics of any recipe that includes them to the point that the chefs responsible for writing said recipe will no doubt be arrested as presumed members of the bourgeoisie after the revolution.
So why are they so heinously expensive? It’s worth noting they are actually only the third most expensive nut after macadamias and pistachios. In essence they’re just a pain in the backside on every level - pine trees take decades to start producing pine nuts, they’re hard to harvest, don’t grow in loads of places and they go off quickly, all making for a very expensive foodstuff.
Safe yourself the faff and just buy your pesto in a pot or god forbid, a jar.
Keep yet nuts,
Hugo
The Nutty Revolutionary
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
Global stocks slump as a result of poor US jobs data 📉 - as the saying goes ‘when the US gets a runny nose, the world takes a day off school’. Employers only added 114,00 jobs in July which was much lower than was expected. It’s a sign that all the optimism in AI is starting to run out of steam and some have suggested that the Treasury have left it a bit too late to cut interest rates.
Intel drops 15,000 jobs and shares drop 28% as sales fall dramatically ✂️ - the chipmaker has not had the same fortunes as Nvidia in recent times as it hasn't been able to capitalise on the booming spend on AI infrastructure. They are expecting to see business improve in the medium as they have updated their chip-manufacturing processes.
WeightWatchers shares slump as people are just injecting themselves 👀 - due to the massive growth in weight loss drugs people have stopped bothering with sad-looking yoghurts. The dieting company is now exploring selling versions of the drugs, having previously been against it. They are also aiming to save $100m by streamlining the business.
Media companies are seeking a new profit model in the age of generative AI 🗞️ - they’ve already been through the wringer thanks to the dominance of search engines and social media and the latest wave of technology has the potential to upend their business models again. A flurry of deals and lawsuits in recent months has seen a number media companies seek to position themselves well as the impacts reveal themselves.
Petri dish stuff is causing delays in laboratories globally 🧫 - agar is the gelatine-like ingredient that is used to grow microbes for research all over the world. Sunrise Science Products, one of the biggest manufacturers, has unintentionally been selling batches of toxic agar which has been causing problems globally. I had enough problems getting the intended response in biology when the agar was working!
Rolls Royce gives bonus to staff as winning run continues 👩🔧 - all 42,000 employees are getting £700 in shares after announcing £1.1bn in profits this year so far, having been in dire straits 18 months ago thanks partly to the Covid-induced decline in plane manufacturing. It is a first for the company and is expected to cost them about £30m.
A robot dentist has performed its first procedure on humans 🦷 - if you don’t fancy the humiliation of trying to answer where you’re going on holiday with a mouthful of a dentist’s hand whilst they mutter things like “impacted K7” to their assistant you may be in luck. Robot dentists are going to be a thing - the contraption built by Boston company Perceptive used a volumetric scanner to make a 3D model of the patient’s mouth.
Glencore’s Head of Oil Trading charged with corruption 🚓 - it seems pretty challenging to be involved with major mining contracts and for it all to be above board, as far as I can tell. Alex Beard became a billionaire when Glencore listed in 2011 but he and four others were allegedly involved in the bribery of officials to win contracts across Africa.
Training hub in Sunderland to receive £9.7m in public funding 🚗 - the government announced a raft of funding cuts this week to plug a black hole in the public finances, but one that escaped was a programme to upskill people in the automobile industry, led by Nissan.
Solar and wind overtake fossil fuels in Europe 🍃 - wind turbines and solar panels provided 30% of the EU’s energy in the first half of 2024, marking a historic moment in the shift away from burning carbon. The only challenge is that there is now a surplus in some places which cannot be stored - some would say a good problem to have but it does need to be tackled to make investment in the sector appealing.
Quote of the week
“Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!” - Dr. Seuss