Privacy

The FTC is investigating how companies spy on you

Like most things, AI is now being used to see what consumers like so companies can sell more to you. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced last week that it will be investigating if (and how) companies use surveillance pricing.

• Surveillance pricing is an act where businesses utilize AI to attract customers with tailored prices based on their locations, past purchases, and other personal information.

What will the FTC do about it?

The agency announced that its requiring JPMorgan, MasterCard, McKinsey, among five other financial companies that use surveillance pricing, to provide information about the targeted pricing products, who uses them, the data they use, and its effect on prices.

• McDonalds, Kirkland, Home Depot, and Starbucks are some of the clients the financial and consulting companies sold targeted pricing products to.

The FTC is essentially just trying to figure out if, for example, someone who is an avid gardener would get charged more for tomato seeds than someone who isn’t.

Does any of this ring a bell? If it does, it’s because surveillance pricing is related to dynamic pricing, which has been used by companies like Uber and Lyft as well as airlines (and most famously Wendy’s) to charge customers more during busy hours.

Science

These mysterious rocks create their own “dark oxygen”

These strange rocks (that have never been seen before) are making us rethink many long-standing beliefs we had about our world. Scientists have discovered lumps of metal on the seafloor that produce “dark oxygen”, which are challenging long-standing assumptions we had that organisms need light to produce oxygen.

Large pieces of rock known as polymetallic nodules in an area of the Pacific between Hawaii and Mexico were the subject of a study published in Nature Geoscience, which revealed that the minerals can generate oxygen in complete darkness—a phenomenon known as "dark oxygen."

How do they do it?

Nothing we’ve ever found on planet Earth can produce oxygen without the presence of light, so how do these strange rocks do it?

Although Sweetman was sitting on an life-altering discovery, he disregarded it as it went against everything we know about how oxygen is produced. He later realized he’d “been ignoring this potentially huge discovery.”

New frontier

While the discovery has shocked the science world, it also has implications for other industries, like mining. The process of deep-sea mining, which extracts minerals from the ocean floor though polymetallic nodules, could become even more controversial if the study's findings hold true in continued research.

• This is because the mining may destroy the nodules that deep-sea life in the area depends on for oxygen.

The Clarion-Clipperton Zone alone contains enough polymetallic nodules to supply the world's energy needs for decades, according to Northwestern’s Franz Geiger.

This makes it all the more important to protect, according to scientists. More than 800 marine scientists from 44 countries have signed a petition citing the environmental risks and calling for a pause on mining activity.

Professor Sweetman added, “we need to explore [the nodules] in greater detail and… if we are going to go into the deep ocean and mine it in the most environmentally friendly way possible.”

Sports

The opening to the Olympics was unprecedented in more ways than one

Along with a grand entrance, fears of terrorism and an arson attack muddled the 2024 Olympic opening. The Olympics kicked off in Paris on Friday, with the river Seine as the main feature, marking the first time an Olympic opening ceremony has been held outside of a stadium.

While the ceremony may have been unprecedented in its scope and location, it wasn’t without the presence of serious issues.

What made this opening different?

This was the first ceremony to not only be held out of a stadium, but also the first to be held on a river, which required a massive flotilla of 85 boats to tote around the 6,800 athletes.

The almost four-mile-long river parade allowed the city to display its historic architecture and carry the participants to the finale, where some athletes appeared to leave early, per the AP.

Security was taken seriously: 35 security boats and a number of snipers guarded Friday's inaugural ceremony from afar and a "bubble" with approximately 45,000 police officers was formed around the 85 boats that were transporting athletes across the four-mile stretch of the Seine River.

Flag Fact: This was also the first Olympic opening ceremony where the Olympic flag was raised upside down (albeit accidentally).

Why so much security?

Athletes competing in this year's Olympics will be able to see fans in the stands after five years and two Olympic Games devoid of a crowd. However, coordinating security for the Paris Games in the midst of an international conflicts is an enormous undertaking, given that up to 3.1 million people are anticipated at 35 arenas.

• Every day, some 30,000 police officers are put into service. Approximately 25,000 private security agents and 18,000 more French military personnel will also be on duty throughout the Games.

• Prior to the Games, General Christophe Abad said to the Associated Press that since the end of World War II, "there has never been such a massive mobilization of military forces on French soil."

However, despite the unprecedented security presence, the service wasn’t worth of a gold medal:

A significant arson incident that occurred early Friday morning disrupted high-speed rail service across the nation, affecting 800,000 people, some of whom were athletes traveling to Paris.

A few hours before the ceremony, unidentified assailants lit signaling cables on fire at stations around France, causing train service on three long-distance lines to be interrupted or delayed. There were reports of a fourth attack, however, rail service staff were able to stop it in time.

• Additionally, a bomb threat forced the evacuation of a small airport near the Swiss border.

Cybersecurity was also considered: Politico reported that the French cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, has been preparing for the past two years to counter the large amount of cyberthreats that are anticipated during the Games.

Going for gold: If you wish to know how your country is doing, see an updated medal count here.

Grab Bag

Ohio’s Supreme Court argued over boneless wings

You can always count on state courts to be working on the important things. While you may think “boneless” wings should be void of literal bones, Ohio’s Supreme Court decided that they aren’t guaranteed to be free of them.

The court dismissed a wing eater's years-long lawsuit for damages caused by a chicken wing by ruling that the name "boneless wings" cannot be taken literally.

The bone problem

In 2017, Michael Berkheimer, an Ohio resident, filed a lawsuit against a wing restaurant, its chicken supplier, and a farm after an inch-and-a-half-long bone from his order of boneless wings caught in his esophagus and required two surgeries.

The decision? The majority of the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4–3 that Berkheimer alone was in charge of protecting against an errant bone because “it is common sense” that the term “boneless” refers to a “cooking style” rather than a guarantee of ‘bonelessness’.

The leading dissent option stated that the majority’s decision was “jabberwocky” (oof, really got them there), and that “no reasonable person [should expect bones in their boneless wings]”

• The dissent stated that children who eat boneless wings and their parents who feed them expect them to be, well, boneless.

• The dissent also argued that the civil case should go to a jury trial, so the average joe can decide whether boneless wings should indeed be boneless.

A more serious ramification stated by the dissent was that restaurants that serve gluten or lactose to customers who said they were allergic could be protected.

LVMH declines as people ignore their expensive tastes

Can it be that not everyone wants to spend $4,000 on a handbag? How is that even possible? The French luxury conglomerate LVMH, responsible for labels such as Louis Vuitton and Hennessy, announced this week that sales of its high-end cognac and champagne are down because consumers aren’t emptying their wallets on its chic products and premium alcohol.

Poor taste

Typically, champagne is a sign of virtue and celebration, but according to LVMH, people aren’t celebrating enough.

The luxury giant stated that its wine and champagne division took a 12% hit late last week, while the company’s share price also dropped 4% on the London Stock Exchange.

With the exception of Japan, Asia was especially hit by the slump:

• Last quarter's sales for the company in the continent shot down 14% from the second quarter of 2023.

• In Japan, however, sales increased. According to LVMH, the spike is a result of Chinese tourists looking for deals at its stores and the yen's increasingly weak standing.
  

CNN noted that other luxury brands saw a drop off as well, with Prada, Richemont, Mercedes-Benz, and Gucci all seeing decline in interest (with the exception of Hermes).

Despite this trend, more affordable products didn’t sell as well as expensive ones, according to LVMH, suggesting that the middle class in particular was feeling the effects of economic hardship.

They’re still a worldwide name: While there may be a downtrend in popping expensive bottles and toting around mink fur handbags, LVMH still spent north of $150 million to become a big sponsor for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

With that, the conglomerate’s luxury items were spotted around the games. This includes medals made by jeweler Chaumet, and the Olympic torch being hauled around in a Louis Vuitton trunk.

Fast Facts

Spicy Snacks: A former janitor sued Frito-Lay’s parent company, Pepsi, for denying his claim to being the inventor of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.

AmaZyn: Zyn is opening a new $600 million manufacturing plant in Colorado to help with supply shortages.

Money Makers: Who are the highest-paid athletes at the Olympics? This chart lays it all out.

Climate Cancellations: Climate activists in Germany glued themselves to runways, forcing the cancellation of 270 flights.

Bad Ball: Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly suing the NBA in a widely expected move after the league refused its matching bid for TV rights.