🔌 The EU Wants One Charger to Rule Them All

• Under the proposed law, phones, tablets, digital cameras, handheld video game consoles, headsets, and headphones sold in the EU would all have to come with USB-C charging ports. Earbuds, smartwatches, and fitness trackers aren’t included.

⏩ Behind the move… The EU expects the new requirements would do a couple of things:

1. Improve consumers' convenience. The draft rules also call for standardizing fast charging technology and giving consumers the right to choose whether to buy new devices with or without a charger, which the EU estimates will save consumers $293 million a year.
2. Reduce its environmental footprint. The bloc generates 11,000 metric tons of electronic waste from disposed and unused chargers every year.

✋ Yes, but… While a majority of smartphones, headphones, and other devices already use USB-C, there’s one big holdout: Apple.

• iPhones are equipped with its proprietary Lightning port, and the company has long opposed the plan, arguing it would stifle innovation and actually lead to more electronic waste as consumers throw out all non-USB-C chargers.

🧠💭 A trip down memory lane... In 2012, the iPhone 5 introduced a revolutionary new charging connector called 'Lightning.'

• It was substantially smaller than the old 30-pin connector previous iPhones used, the reversible design allowed it to be plugged in either way, and it offered faster data transfer speeds than its clunky predecessor.
• But it’s not 2012. Apple has already switched all of its MacBooks and the majority of the iPad lineup to USB-C, touting the new connection as "ten times faster than its predecessor" – which is still on every brand new iPhone.
• To add even more intrigue: Apple was the first company to ever include a USB-C port on a hardware device (a 2015 MacBook), pioneering the industry’s switch to USB-C for charging and data.

👁️ Looking ahead: The legislation still needs to be approved by the European Parliament. If and when that happens, companies will get 24 months to adapt to these rules – which means at the very earliest, Apple wouldn't be required to use USB-C until late 2023.

• But rumors suggest the company's working towards a portless iPhone that relies exclusively on Qi and MagSafe wireless charging, which, if released prior to the implementation of the new rules, would circumvent them entirely.

☝️ Newly found fossilized footprints show humans lived in the American Southwest more than 20,000 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously believed.

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Image: Australian Associated Press

• Earlier this week, financial regulators in Beijing issued a set of instructions encouraging Evergrande to take all measures possible to avoid a near-term default while focusing on completing unfinished properties and repaying individual investors, per Bloomberg ($).

📜 A brief recap… Evergrande is one of China's largest real estate developers and a member of the Global 500 (the world’s top businesses by revenue).

• Much of the company’s growth has been sustained by borrowing money, amassing over $300 billion in debt. This, combined with questionable corporate governance, likely contributed to its current situation.

📸 The big picture… Real estate directly accounts for 7.3% of China’s GDP (compared to 6.2% in the U.S.). In addition, roughly 70% of Chinese household wealth is held in real estate. But recent economic data points to broad difficulties within the industry beyond Evergrande’s potential collapse.

• National home sales by value fell nearly 20% year-over-year in August, the largest drop since the beginning of the pandemic when large portions of the economy were closed.
• China is also experiencing an oversupply of housing, with enough empty property to house more than 90 million people, according to the Rhodium Group’s Logan Wright.

👁️ Looking ahead… How will China respond if Evergrande appears at risk of default in 30 days ? So far, Beijing has remained tight-lipped while emphasizing that no Chinese company is too big to fail.

• Yesterday, the WSJ reported that Chinese authorities have begun asking local governments to prepare for Evergrande’s potential downfall, describing it as “getting ready for the possible storm.”

🛣️ Paint The Town White

Images: StreetsLA/Glynn Hulley, JPL, CalTech

When astronauts aboard the ISS recently turned their thermal camera on Los Angeles, they noticed a peculiar feature – a scattering of blue and white amidst the sea of red and orange in the San Fernando Valley.

• In this area, the center of the Winnetka neighborhood, the pavement has been painted with a special reflective white coating that reflects heat from the sun, creating a cooler area overall.

❄️ Baby, it’s cold outside… The surface temperatures of the treated roadways clock in at 10-15 degrees cooler than non-treated pavement on hot days, which translates to neighborhood temperatures being roughly 2ºF lower than in the surrounding areas.

• This innovation could be especially useful in urban areas, where mid-afternoon temperatures can be up to 20ºF warmer than surrounding, vegetated areas, according to the NOAA.

👁️ Looking ahead… LA is teaming up with 24 other cities - including Phoenix, Tucson, & Philadelphia - as part of a “cool roadways partnership” to exchange information about best practices, maintenance, and cost.

Image: KMBC

Eleven-year-old Sally Sue has been waiting for more than two years to find her forever home.

• Senior dogs often struggle to get adopted over younger, more desirable breeds – especially pit bulls like Sally Sue.

After seeing sweet Sally Sue spend two full years in the shelter, animal-advocate Scott Poore decided to take matters into his own hands... and onto a 30-foot billboard.

👋 Say hello to my little friend… Sally Sue is now proudly on display along the I-35 in Kansas, with Scott feeling hopeful that she will find her furever family soon.

• Renting a billboard is not cheap, but Scott is working on permanent funding so this one can stay up year-round. Once Sally Sue gets adopted, he plans to move on to promoting another dog.

The average NFL game lasts just under 3.5 hours – how much of that consists of actual football ? (Meaning the ball is in play)

A) 18 minutes
B) 37 minutes
C) 51 minutes
D) 1 hour 12 minutes

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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A) 18 minutes

Per FiveThirtyEight, the NFL provides the least amount of game action among all major U.S. sports, with 18 minutes per broadcast.

• It's followed closely by the MLB at 22.5 minutes per broadcast, then the NBA and NHL at 49.6 and 63 minutes, respectively.