Good morning and welcome to Tuesday.

In today’s edition:

• 💎 How plastic turns into diamonds
• 📱 Apple celebrates a milestone
• 👋 Serena says goodbye (...or does she?)

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.99 minutes to read.

"Letting your mind play is the best way to solve problems."

–Bill Watterson (b.1958)

In Friday’s edition, we mistakenly said eating lots of “unprocessed” foods – like hot dogs, french fries, & ice cream – is linked with heart disease and early death in both men and women; the correct term is “ultra-processed” foods. Apologies for any confusion... our only excuse is that we were hopelessly manifesting that was actually the case.😂🤦‍♀️

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a Democrat-backed bill into law yesterday establishing a new industry-specific minimum wage of up to $22 per hour for all fast food workers in the state. For context, its current minimum wage is $15 per hour.

📝 More deets… The ‘Fast Act’ creates a 10-member council of business, labor, and government representatives in charge of coming up with the new wage, along with other workplace standards for the industry. The legislation also calls for annual minimum wage increases of 3.5% – or the rate of US inflation, whichever is lower.

• Proponents of the law argue the fast food industry has long been plagued by illegal activity like wage theft and other worker abuses, along with tough working conditions where health and safety standards are few and far between.

✋ On the flip side: Republicans and business groups who opposed the law argue that it unfairly singles out the fast food industry, and will increase consumer prices by up to 20% – leading many franchisees to move out of state (or replace workers w/ robots).

👀 Looking ahead… Some industry opponents have discussed organizing a referendum campaign that would seek to invalidate California’s law by putting the issue before voters as early as next year, the WSJ reports.

• Similar fast food-specific minimum wage legislation will soon be introduced in New York, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington, per the National Restaurant Association (aka the other NRA).

📊 Flash poll: Do you agree with California’s Fast Act establishing an industry-specific minimum wage for fast food workers?

Yes

No

Unsure/other

Who gives a s***? Apparently over half of America, that’s who.

Per data from Counterpoint Research published in the Financial Times yesterday, Apple has overtaken Android in US market share as of this past June, accounting for more than half of smartphones used in America.

⏪📱 Smartphones, a history… In the iPhone’s early days, companies like BlackBerry, Nokia, and Motorola dominated the smartphone space – and thus, its operating systems. But that’s changed over time.

• 2007: iPhone launches, gathers 28% market share in Q4.
• 2008: Android’s operating system debuts; two years later it overtakes iOS to claim the larger global install base. By 2015, Android surpassed Apple to command more than half of the US market.
• 2022: Seesaw complete; iOS passes Android to become the most used smartphone operating system in the US (though Android still commands ~70% of the global market).

📸 The big picture: “Operating systems are like religions – never significant changes. But over the past four years the flow has consistently been Android to iOS,” Counterpoint’s research director, Jeff Fieldhack, told the Financial Times. “This is a big milestone that we could see replicated in other affluent countries across the globe.”

👀 Looking ahead… It’s a big week for Apple. The company’s “Far Out” event takes place tomorrow, at which it’s expected to unveil a new iPhone (complete w/ a subscription service), Apple Watch, AirPods, and more.

+Dive deeper: Apple vs. Google: The battle behind the green bubble

If The Weather Girls grew up on Uranus or Neptune, their hit song would’ve been titled: “It’s Raining Men Diamonds.” Or at least that was the prevailing theory – namely, that the atmospheric conditions of these icy planets means it literally rains diamonds.

And now, thanks to a study published this past Friday in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, we know two things…

1. It does actually rain diamonds on Neptune and Uranus (and probably other ice giants, too).
2. PET plastics – the same type found in water bottles, shampoo bottles, soda/pop bottles, lunch boxes, industrial equipment, product packaging, etc. etc. – can be turned into diamonds… using freakin’ laser beams.

🤔 That's right: The scientists conducting the experiment shot a laser beam at a sheet of PET plastic, briefly heating the material above 10,800°F. This generated a shock wave, exposing the plastic to similar extreme-pressure conditions as would be found on Uranus and Neptune. And voila!

• Out popped nanodiamonds, particles with the same chemical composition as diamonds but suuuuuper tiny (measuring only a few nanometers across).

💎👀 Looking ahead… If you’re looking to buy an engagement ring soon, collecting water bottles probably definitely isn’t the smartest way to go about it. But the study demonstrates a brand new – and frankly, much more controlled and efficient – way of producing nanodiamonds, which are currently used in quantum computing, as well as in the manufacture of abrasives and polishing agents.

And plus, PETs take anywhere from 10–1,000 years to naturally decompose. Meaning this development could also make Mother Earth much happier in the long run.

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Serena Williams, the 🐐 of women’s tennis (don’t @ us), lost in the third round of the US Open on Friday, in what was likely her final match as a professional tennis player.

Williams, who turns 41 later this month, first mentioned her upcoming retirement in a Vogue essay posted last month – though she was careful not to use that exact word, framing it instead as “evolv[ing] away from tennis” after the US Open.

🎾 By the numbers… Williams began her professional career as a 14-year-old in 1995. Over the next 27 years, she amassed 73 singles titles – including 23 Grand Slams, the most in the pro era – won four Olympic gold medals, and spent 319 weeks ranked No. 1 in the world.

• She also won 14 major doubles titles alongside her sister Venus, and held two career “Serena Slams” – a term first coined in 2003 when she became the reigning champ of all four Grand Slam singles tournaments at once.😳

🤷‍♀️ Is this really the end?... Short answer: no one knows for sure – probably not even herself. Though she’s played sparingly the past few years due to a hamstring injury, Williams defeated world No. 2 Anett Kontaveit in the US Open’s second round last week, prompting rumors that she isn’t ready to officially retire just yet.

And when asked about her future plans after losing on Friday, Serena hinted at competing in the Australian Open next January… so we shall see.

💬 Quoted…​​ “That changed everything.”

• A team of US researchers have found a way to revive eyes from organ donors after death, an accomplishment many experts previously hadn’t thought possible, per the WSJ.

🍿 Stat of the Day: 25% of the IMdB user reviews for The Rings of Power – Amazon’s Lord of the Rings prequel TV show – have been 1 stars, leading the tech giant (which owns IMdB) to temporarily suspend all reviews through tomorrow.

• In related news, The Rings of Power drew 25 million global viewers in its first 24 hours, an all-time Prime Video record; the show is also the most expensive in TV history.

🌎 Around the World: UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will succeed Boris Johnson as the country’s next Prime Minister after winning 57% of the vote in a runoff election among members of the country’s Conservative Party over the weekend.

🤯 Did You Know?... More than 50 college football players are valued at $500,000+ entering this season, including 12 worth $1+ million, per data from NIL platform On3.

📖 Worth a Read: 5 Questions the Most Interesting People Will Always Ask in Conversations → (Inc. Magazine)

📊 Poll results: Since the DONUT is being used across more than 20,000 classrooms on a consistent basis, Friday’s edition was a departure from the norm. Instead of multiple choice, we accepted long-form responses to the question: “What do YOU think is needed to get America’s children back on track in the classroom?”

• Read some of the most thought-provoking answers here.

• ☝️ At least 46 “large” wildfires burned across eight Western states over the weekend amidst a record-setting heat wave (not all fires pictured); Death Valley, CA, broke the all-time world record for hottest temp in September, reaching 127°F on Friday.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💼 The US economy added 315,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate rose for the first time since late 2020 (from 3.5% to 3.7%), per Labor Department data published Friday.
• 📰 Bed Bath & Beyond CFO Gustavo Arnal died by suicide on Friday after jumping from an NYC building.
• 💶📉 The euro fell to a new 20-year low against the dollar on Sunday, briefly trading below 99 cents before climbing back up to $1.00.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏆 The 2022 Creative Arts Emmy Award winners were announced over the weekend; the primetime Emmys will be handed out next Monday.
• 🎾 American Frances Tiafoe upset Rafael Nadal last night in the fourth round of the US Open, snapping his 22-match Grand Slam winning streak.
• 🏈 College football is back, baby: No. 2 Ohio State defeated No. 5 Notre Dame 21-10, unranked Florida upset No. 7 Utah 29-26, and No. 3 Georgia stomped No. 11 Oregon 49-3. (Full Week 1 scoreboard) | In other news, the CFB Playoff Committee voted unanimously to expand the postseason from four teams to 12 starting in 2026.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🩸 People with a certain version of type A blood are more likely to have a stroke before the age of 60 compared to those with other blood types, per new peer-reviewed research.
• 💡💨 A team of US physicists showed that under certain conditions, groups of photons can move up to 30% faster than the speed of light; the effect is still within the laws of physics, and could lead to the development of ultra-powerful lasers.
• 🚀 NASA scrubbed its Artemis I moon launch for the second time in less than a week on Saturday, this time due to a “large” hydrogen leak; the agency said its next launch date won’t be until at least late September. (Background)

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🇨🇱🗳️ A majority of Chilean voters (62%) rejected a proposed new constitution that would have brought “radical change” to the country, per the BBC.
• 🚰 Water pressure has been restored to most of Jackson, Mississippi, the city said in a news release on Sunday, though the issue of water quality still remains. (Background)
• ⚖️ A federal judge in Florida temporarily blocked the government from using materials seized from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home/resort for a criminal investigation while a special master reviews the documents. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

+Weird story of the day: For some musicians with songs about poop, Amazon Music has become their most lucrative revenue stream – likely from kids yelling “poop” at Alexa.

A 57-year-old Maryland man was on a stroll with his friend, when he stumbled upon a house with the number 10916. 

• Taking note of the number and the gut feeling he had about it, he purchased six lottery tickets using the numbers.

🍀 Testing his luck... To his surprise, all of the tickets were winners – big time.

• He wound up winning $275,000, plus another $50,000 from a ticket he gave to his friend.🤯

The plan going forward? "Pay some bills, take a vacation and put the rest away for a rainy day." 

Can you guess the definitions of the following Greek and Latin root words?

1. Meter
2. Onym
3. Theo
4. Flect
5. Foli

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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1. Meter: Measure (e.g., diameter)
2. Onym: Name (anonymous)
3. Theo: God (theology, theocracy)
4. Flect: Bend (reflect)
5. Foli: Leaf (foliage)