Good morning. Scientists have reportedly invented a tiny battery that can store energy from human tears to power smart contact lenses.

These lenses would (in theory) allow anyone wearing them to access turn-based directions, receive message notifications, or do basically anything else that smart glasses can also do. Pretty cool, right?

Unfortunately, this invention, if adopted widely, would bring America’s pastime to a grinding halt as players everywhere lose their contact lense-improved eyesight. Because even though it’s sometimes played by crybabies (a statement our former D1-playing head editor stands by), there’s absolutely no crying in baseball.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.73-minute read.

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"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work."

–Stephen King (b. 1947)

We’ll find out soon if the military’s recruiting strategy works on artificial intelligence.

The US plans to incorporate thousands of autonomous robots into its fighting forces over the next two years, as part of a plan to use technological innovation to counter China’s larger military resources, officials announced this week.

⏩ Driving the move… US officials say the Replicator program is meant to help overcome China’s biggest military advantage over America. Which, simply put, is “mass.”

In recent years, China has expanded its military by investing in planes, ships, missile systems and other weapons, and now effectively out-guns the US in terms of quantity.

But, with its new autonomous robots, the Pentagon says America will be able to “counter [China’s] mass with mass of our own, but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit, and harder to beat.”

• The new robots will be “attritable,” meaning they’re cheap enough to be placed at risk and/or replaced if necessary. The plan is to spread them across all US military services in multiple domains, including self-piloting ships and uncrewed aircraft.

🤔 Why now?... Pentagon officials say Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has shown that autonomous military robots are ready for real-world deployment, noting the effectiveness of loitering munitions – a form of robot air vehicle – in finding and attacking Russian armored vehicles or artillery.

👀 Looking ahead… While military systems capable of some independent operation have become increasingly common in warfare over the past decade, the scale and scope of the US’ announcement is unprecedented. But more are soon to follow. Many other countries – including China, the UK, India, Iran, Israel, South Korea, Russia and Turkey – are also investing heavily in the production of autonomous robots for future use on the battlefield.

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🇪🇸🍅 Spain’s annual “Tomatina” food fight was held yesterday. The festival was initially inspired by a 1945 food fight between local children in the eastern town of Buñol, a prolific tomato-producing region. Workers on trucks tipped ~120 tons of overripe tomatoes into the town’s main street for some 15,000 participants to throw at each other, in an event that’s widely considered the largest food fight in the world.

🇬🇷🔥 An ongoing wildfire in northern Greece is now Europe’s largest recorded blaze this century. Over the past 12 days, the fire near Greece’s border with Turkey has burned more than 312 square miles – an area slightly larger than New York City – and killed at least 21 people. Hundreds of firefighters from Greece and other EU nations are currently battling the blaze, which has destroyed a large portion of a Greek national forest as well as housing and farmland.

🇪🇺 The EU’s Digital Services Act has gone live. The new law, which took effect last Friday, places a range of restrictions on 19 “very large” online platforms, including Facebook, Google, Amazon, TikTok, Pinterest, and Wikipedia. These include requirements to 1) prevent or remove posts with illegal content; 2) give users the choice to opt out of personalized algorithms; 3) share online data with authorities and researchers; and 4) eliminate the use of targeted advertising based on personal details like politics or ethnicity. Violators will be fined up to 6% of their global revenue, with repeat offenders facing a potential suspension from operating in the EU.

At 7:45-ish am ET yesterday morning, Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida’s sparsely populated Big Bend region as a strong Category 3 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of ~125 mph.

The storm made its way across Florida, and then into Georgia and South Carolina, leaving destruction, flooding, power outages, and canceled flights in its wake. As of late last night, Idalia – which has been downgraded into a tropical storm – was around 15 miles north-northwest of Charleston, South Carolina.

• One death has been attributed to the storm, a motorist in Florida who was driving amid heavy rainfall.
• Some parts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are underwater (see pics); for example, the island city of Cedar Key, Florida, received 8 to 9 feet of storm surge, and Charleston, South Carolina, recorded its fifth-highest peak tide Wednesday night.
• ~280,000 people are currently without power across Florida and Georgia (it was ~450,000 at 7 pm ET last night).
• ~1,070 flights were canceled Wednesday. Though Tampa International Airport, which had closed Tuesday, reopened to arriving flights yesterday afternoon.

🌀👀 Looking ahead… Like two friends getting to a bachelorette party at the same time, Idalia’s arrival coincides with a rare super blue moon. Put simply, the moon affects the tide, and its current position is contributing to higher levels of flooding than would otherwise happen. This is expected to continue as Idalia makes its way towards/through South Carolina and into the Atlantic.

If the hardest decision you’ll be making today is what to watch on Netflix after work, you’re not alone. The amount of content available on streaming services has exploded over the past few years, leading to tougher and tougher choices, decision paralysis, and more arguments between couples than we can count.

• The number of shows and movies on streaming services has jumped 39% over the past two years to reach ~2.4 million, per Nielsen Research’s recently released 2023 State of Play report.
• There are now 167 streaming providers, up from 118 two years ago.

Experts attribute these increases mainly to the rise of free, ad-supported streaming services like Pluto, Tubi, and Freevee. But more money content = more problems – for consumers, at least.

Faced with an abundance of choices, it’s becoming harder and harder for people to decide what to watch. The average time taken to pick a show/movie to stream was around seven minutes in 2019; now it’s over 10 minutes. And, according to survey data from Nielsen, 20% of people say they don’t know what to watch beforehand and couldn’t find something to watch – so they did something else instead✌️.

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💬 Quoted… “What we both very much agree on is the system is very broken and actually in deep trouble… We have been thinking about what can be done to bring people together.”

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and his daughter, Heather, the former CEO of EpiPen-maker Mylan, have reportedly been pitching major political donors on giving a collective $100 million to their newly formed politically active nonprofit organization, Americans Together. The ultimate goal? Per Heather Manchin, to give “the politically homeless a voice” at a time when many voters see the two major parties as “normalizing the extremes on the fringes.”

• The effort comes as Joe Manchin, a centrist senator up for reelection in 2024 in a solidly Republican state, weighs whether to move forward with a reelection bid, run for president, or pursue a different future altogether.

🍽️ Stat of the Day: 1% of Americans currently identify as vegan, down from 3% five years ago, according to a new poll from Gallup.

🤔 Did You Know?... Most “close door” buttons in US elevators are actually programmed to not work so they’re compliant with the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act, which stipulates that elevator doors must remain fully open for at least three seconds.

📰 Worth a Read: The curious ways your skin shapes your health → (BBC Future)

• ☝️ A rare super blue moon was visible in the night sky across the world yesterday; this once-in-a-decade event is the combination of a supermoon – when a full moon occurs within a day of the moon’s closest point of orbit to Earth – and a blue moon, aka the second full moon in one month.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board for the fourth straight day (S&P: +0.4%; Dow: +0.1%; Nasdaq: +0.5%).
• 💳📈 Visa and Mastercard will reportedly start increasing the fees they charge merchants.
• 🤔 Lego saw its revenue rise 1% during the first six months of this year; the privately held Danish toymaker’s results are a direct contrast to double-digit sales and revenue declines seen this year by competitors like Mattel, Hasbro, Funko, and Jakks Pacific.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Smartish

• 📺 Warner Bros. Discovery named former NY Times CEO Mark Thompson as the new CEO and chairman of CNN.
• 🚫🏴‍☠️ The NFL, NBA, and UFC are jointly asking the US government to require "instantaneous" takedowns of pirated livestreams; they’re also pushing for new laws requiring Internet service providers to block pirate websites.
• 🏀 The first round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup has concluded; Team USA is among the 16 teams moving on to Round 2, which tips off tomorrow.

*From our partners: 🤳🦖 Keep your phone safe with the Gripzilla from Smartish… Featuring grooved sides, a beastly grip, and MagSafe compatibility – there’s a reason why Smartish phone cases have over 25,000 five-star reviews. Shop Smartish today.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Mud & Ink

• 👃 Narcan, the opioid overdose antidote, will become available over the counter across the US starting next week; it comes in the form of a nasal spray at $49.99 per two doses.
• 🔬⏳ Scientists at the University of Sydney were able to directly observe a key chemical reaction process for the first time.
• 🍽️📱 Samsung launched a new AI-powered recipe app called ‘Food’ that can control users’ cooking appliances, create meal plans tailored to their needs, and suggest new recipes.

*From our partners: 🍎 Feeling overwhelmed entering the new school year? Mud & Ink helps teachers discover their road to excellent teaching with courses, podcasts, coaching, and more. Pinpoint where you’re getting lost in your teaching journey with Mud & Ink’s quiz.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🏞️ The Biden administration weakened regulations protecting millions of acres of US wetlands this week following a recent Supreme Court decision that limited the federal government’s jurisdiction.
• 🌿 A top US health official wrote the DEA calling for marijuana to be reclassified as a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act; it’s currently classified as a Schedule I drug; cannabis stocks went up on the news. (Background)
• 🏛️ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appeared to freeze in place for ~20 seconds at a press conference yesterday before being ushered away; Sen. McConnell returned shortly afterward and continued his news conference, telling reporters, “I’m fine”; it’s the second-such freezing incident involving Sen. McConnell this summer. (Background | From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 💼 These are 4 of the most common work mistakes. Here’s how to use them to your advantage.

Yesterday, we covered a California lawsuit over a new local school district policy requiring schools to notify parents if their children change gender identification or pronouns, as well as the hundreds of school districts with laws on the books preventing faculty and staff from disclosing a student’s gender status without permission.

❓ Our question to you: Which of the following three choices best matches your opinion?

• 🗣️ Schools should disclose gender status to parents: 44%
• 🙊 Schools should keep gender status private without permission: 38%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 18%

Click here to read some of the best responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 10,338 votes and 975 longform responses.

After learning about the devastating wildfires in Hawaii, five-year-old Edison "Eddie" Juel brainstormed ideas with his mom, Ami, to help the victims. 

They settled on a lemonade stand. 

And, thanks to Eddie's parents' jobs matching his profits, the determined boy raised over $17,000 for Lahaina, Hawaii, after a week of selling lemonade.

• Even though Eddie sold each cup for only $1, most buyers would donate anywhere between $5-50 to the cause. 
• "Most people were like, 'this is so cool. What a great idea. We've been looking for ways to help. We felt so helpless and didn't know where to donate,'" Ami shared with USA Today. "A lot of people came by and stopped and told us like their story of a trip to Hawaii or some connection they had to the island."

We bring you the most unusual, off-the-wall and occasionally laugh-out-loud headlines from this week.

• Gunshot victim at White Sox game reportedly snuck weapon In by hiding it in her fat folds → (The Big Lead)
• Giant inflatable ducks make a mysterious return to Maine harbor → (UPI)
• ‘Like Snoop Dogg’s living room': Smell of pot wafts over notorious US Open court → (Associated Press)
• World’s most expensive cheese sells for $32K at auction → (NY Post)
• Idaho restaurant shatters world record for longest Philly cheesesteak → (Idaho State Journal)

What’s the formal name for the Southern Lights, aka the southern version of the Northern Lights (aurora borealis)?

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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