The News Not Noise Letter: News That Doesn’t Suck
The FDA enters the 20th century, a new star show is unveiled, and the countdown to Barbenheimer has begun.
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Here’s some news that doesn’t suck:
Opill Approved: An all-too-rare bit of good news for reproductive rights in America: preventing unwanted pregnancies is about to get a lot easier. The FDA approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill for sale in the US, becoming the most effective method of birth control available without a prescription. Opill, a progestin-only pill, is 93% effective with typical use, while condoms are just 87% effective with typical use. Opill is expected to hit the shelves in early 2024.
A Star Is Born: This week marked the one year anniversary of the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and to celebrate its birthday, NASA released an astounding new image showing the nearest stellar nursery. This star forming-region, Rho Ophiuchi, is only 390 lightyears from our solar system, and the image shows around 50 sunlike stars forming. Some of the stars even show evidence of something called protoplanetary disks, meaning they may develop planetary systems down the line. The bold red plumes in the image are molecular hydrogen jets. “These occur when a star first bursts through its natal envelope of cosmic dust, shooting out a pair of opposing jets into space like a newborn first stretching her arms out into the world,” NASA explains.
Happy first birthday to the James Webb Space Telescope, which has provided myriad groundbreaking images of deep space in the past year, including this image of the birth of sunlike stars. Building a Greener Future: An unexpected climate hero has entered the conversation: “carbon-negative” cement. In terms of carbon emissions, traditional cement is terrible for the environment – worse even than flying. Why? The process of making cement releases a huge amount of CO2 gas – which causes climate change. Quick lesson: the cement used in most construction projects is made from limestone, a rock that contains lots of trapped carbon. To create concrete, that limestone has to be heated to very high temperatures. That heat releases the carbon trapped in the stone as CO2 gas. That’s not all. The ovens used to heat the limestone are also powered by fossil fuels. So, you see how cement production is a real environmental double whammy. The good news: all that could be about to change. A startup called Brimstone, developed a new cement that meets the same safety standards as the cements currently used in construction, but their version doesn’t release CO2 from stone. That’s because they use calcium silicate, a rock that is far more abundant than limestone and which doesn’t contain trapped CO2. And to make it even better, Brimstone’s process results in a magnesium byproduct that can actually absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Of course, nothing is easy — Brimstone currently employs 35 people and doesn’t have the capacity (yet!) to replace all conventional cement.
Because it’s summer, here’s a little bit of noise:
Sometimes, a little noise can be entertaining. So we’re indulging. If this isn’t your cup of tea, we get it. We’ll be back with the news Monday and you can find breaking updates on Instagram as always.
Kid Rock, Busted on Bud: It’s the summer of the brewski culture war. If you missed this, Bud Light was knocked from its perch as the best selling beer in America, after the company partnered on a beer can with influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a trans woman, and the conservative culture warriors went crazy. Among them, country star Kid Rock. The singer known for such hits as “American Bad Ass” “Po Dunk” and “Redneck Paradise” declared a Bud Light boycott and posted a video yelling expletives at Bud Light and shooting up cases of the beer using a semi-automatic weapon. Rock (or does he go by Kid?) apparently forgot to mention the boycott to the folks stocking his own Nashville bar, Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock ‘n’ Roll Steakhouse. Ryan Young, a CNN reporter, visited the bar and it turns out – it’s still selling Bud Light and other Anheuser-Busch products. We get that it's So Hott, but that’s so hypocritical. On the bright side, when country star Garth Brooks announced that his Nashville bar would not boycott the beer he explained that’s because, “inclusiveness will always be me.” You can read more about all this including Dylan Mulvaney’s experience here.
Spears vs. Spears: Y’all. I do the news and try to be pretty neutral but sometimes, one must take sides. On this one, I’m fully team Britney. Britney Spears announced this week she’s publishing a new memoir, The Woman In Me, which will cover her 13-year conservatorship. The book comes out October 24th, and preorders have already sent The Woman In Me to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list. (That’s not easy with a preorder.) Some eagle-eyed TikTokers are having fun with this. They spotted copies of sometimes-feuding-sister Jamie Lynn Spears’s 2022 memoir, Things I Should Have Said, on sale at Dollar Tree for $1.25. Memo to anyone who plans to turn on Britney, don’t be toxic.
Barbenheimer: If you’ve spent any time at all online lately, you’ve no doubt been bombarded with viral promotional content about Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Both films premiere next Friday, July 21, and — based on social media accounts — thousands of moviegoers plan to watch both in one day. Memesters are dubbing the phenomenon “Barbenheimer.” What’s the appeal of the two-fer? Fans are into the diametric opposition of the films: one reviewer described Oppenheimer as “a dense, talkie, tense film partly about the bomb, mostly about how doomed we are,” while another described Barbie as “a nuanced commentary on what it means to be a woman in a whimsical, wonderful and laugh-out-loud funny romp.” Barbenheimer merch is available and not only the stars and directors of both films are getting in on the hype, but so is – seemingly – every brand, celeb and talent out there. Because when the world is burning, a diverting double header about a self-aware doll and the end of the world makes sense!
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