💬 Quoted: “Everyone’s got their phone or their tablet in their hand while they’re watching TV.”

Watch, shop, repeat. Paramount Global debuted a new partnership with Shopsense AI at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards last night. Using Shopsense’s “Lens” tool, VMA viewers were able to snap photos of celebrities’ outfits on-screen, then browse similar, more affordable options suggested by the company’s product recognition algorithm.

• Shopsense says it’s in discussions with other major media companies to bring its tech to a wide range of programming, including scripted television and sporting events.

🔥✈️ Stat of the Day: Planes and wherever Nelly was in that one song have something in common: it’s getting hot in there. Devices powered by lithium-ion batteries – including phones, laptops, e-cigarettes, and wireless headphones – are increasingly overheating during airline flights and creating major fire hazards, per a new report from nonprofit UL Standards & Engagement. Their research found such incidents increased by 28% over the past six years to reach a current rate of 2/week – which is still a drop in the bucket compared to the ~180,000 US flights each week. However, the report also identified a potentially overlooked risk: over a quarter of airline passengers say they put vapes and/or portable chargers in checked bags, in violation of a federal law aimed at preventing fires in the cargo hold (which are harder to detect and extinguish).

🤔 Did You Know? There are at least 240 billion pennies lying around in the US, making it the most produced coin in the history of human civilization. But that figure is just a fraction of the total amount of pennies minted since 1793, per New York Times Magazine writer Caity Weaver, meaning most are missing or just in the same place as all your past pens.

📰 Worth a Read: When a Trailblazing Suffragist and a Crusading Prosecutor Teamed Up to Expose an Election Conspiracy → (Smithsonian Magazine)