Once You Pop, You Can’t Stop 🥠
WashPo: What hotel towels are made of and why some are so thin
In a Hilton survey conducted in 2022 and 2023, towels ranked as the top request made to front desks, with guests addressing their quality and quantity. The company responded with a six-month product review that involved nearly 60 vendors and washing its test towels at least 120 times. After concluding its research, Hilton started rolling out 40 million new units of towels and noticed an uptick in guest satisfaction.
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While some hotels are making progress, towels at many budget and mid-tier properties can still be as abrasive as a cat’s tongue. Here is what’s going on with hotel towels and what’s coming soon.
WashPo: Returned Amazon packages create a retail nightmare for workers at Staples, UPS, Kohl’s
“There’s a reason why they shopped on Amazon and went online to begin with: They’re not brick-and-mortar shoppers,” he said. “And having a hot deal for Charmin toilet paper for $18.99 marked down from $21.99 isn’t going to turn them into a Staples shopper.”
RNZ News: A New Zealand sheep milk company scores a big win in China
A New Zealand sheep milk company has scored a big win in China - gaining brand registration for its infant milk formula.
It is only the second international sheep milk brand in the world to achieve this direct market access.
The deal allows Waikato-based Spring Sheep to directly import and distribute infant formula to China - which long term will increase export volumes - and following two very challenging seasons, chief executive Nick Hammon said this deal was “highly significant and exciting”.
RNZ News: Coroner finds four self-inflicted deaths linked to Canadian man
A Coroner has found four New Zealanders have died after buying packages online from a Canadian man awaiting trial for multiple charges of first-degree murder.
Kenneth Law, 58, has had 28 charges brought against him in the state of Ontario for murder and aiding suicide.
More than 1200 of his packages were believed to have made their way to over 40 countries, including New Zealand.
UPI: Polls show some Americans accept political violence, many fear it
Despite the many public voices saying there is no place for political violence in America after the attempted assassination of Trump, the poll, conducted by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago weeks before the shooting, showed a different sentiment from some Americans.
The survey showed 10% of respondents thought violence to stop Trump from becoming president was acceptable, while 7% agreed that violence to restore him to the presidency was justifiable.
The numbers expecting civil violence though, were much higher.
Brighter Side: Groundbreaking research study identifies the cause of ADHD
Israeli scientists have successfully pinpointed a particular gene, CDH2, which seems to be significantly involved in the progression of ADHD. The CDH2 gene encodes N-cadherin, a protein crucial for facilitating brain synapse activity and formation.
Through their investigation, the researchers discovered that a mutation in CDH2 disrupts this activity, influencing molecular pathways and dopamine levels within two specific brain regions associated with ADHD: the ventral midbrain and the prefrontal cortex.
Brighter Side: Vesuvius eruption was even more deadly than scientists previously thought
“These complexities are like a jigsaw puzzle in which all the pieces must fit together to unravel the complete picture,” said Dr. Domenico Sparice, a volcanologist at INGV-Osservatorio Vesuviano and first author of the study published in Frontiers in Earth Science. According to Sparice, seismicity during the eruption played a significant role in Pompeii’s destruction and possibly influenced the decisions of its residents.
Recognizing the cause-effect relationship between these phenomena is crucial for understanding their combined impact on structures and people. Dr. Fabrizio Galadini, a senior researcher at INGV, emphasized this point, adding that it is essential for reconstructing the interplay between volcanic and seismic events.
During excavations in the ‘Casa dei Pittori al Lavoro,’ the team noticed peculiar features in the collapsed buildings that didn’t align with volcanic effects documented in literature. “There had to be a different explanation,” said Dr. Mauro Di Vito, director of INGV-Osservatorio Vesuviano. The discovery of two skeletons with severe fractures further motivated the researchers to uncover the cause.
New Republic: Trump’s Desperate Move Shows He’s Terrified of Kamala Harris Debate
Now that Joe Biden is dropping out of the race, Donald Trump is suddenly incredibly concerned about the possibility of debating Kamala Harris.
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“My debate with Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the history of the United States, was slated to be broadcast on Fake News ABC, the home of George Slopadopolus, sometime in September,” Trump ranted on Truth Social Sunday night. “Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, has quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on FoxNews, rather than very biased ABC. Thank you! DJT”
Trump also complained about being “forced to spend time and money on fighting Crooked Joe Biden.”
“Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everybody around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being, President? Just askin'?” Trump lamented.
I’ll be surprised if there’s actually another debate.
Yale Climate Connections: How Kamala Harris and Donald Trump compare on climate change
If elected president, Harris is “widely expected to try to protect the climate achievements of the Biden administration,” according to the New York Times.
In contrast, Trump has falsely called climate change a hoax. During his term as president, as Grady reported, “he overturned an estimated 100 environmental regulations and pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement. He shrank the EPA and required that the words ‘climate change’ be removed from its website. On the campaign trail this time, he has repeatedly said one of his top priorities is to boost oil and gas production and free up more public land to ‘Drill, baby, drill.'”
If Trump wins a second term as president, he and his allies say they aim to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and downsize the EPA.
Project 2025, a 992-page conservative plan for a second Trump term, calls for elimination of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, gutting of the National Weather Service, repeal of Biden’s clean energy subsidies, and axing the National Flood Insurance Program.
Trump: a multiple threat.
via Denny
TheStreet: Verizon sounds the alarm on a trend that is hurting its pockets
During an earnings call that discussed the report, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Tony Skiadas revealed that total upgrades during the second quarter declined by roughly 13% year-over-year.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg claimed during the call that the amount of customers upgrading phones has been “a bit low for a while,” and that the increased quality of phones is partially to blame.
“We are going to see what’s going to happen in this cycle, I don’t feel very worried about it,” said Vestberg during the call. “I feel that we are in a great position to handle it.”
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“This was in-line with our expectations as we recently implemented several price increases that are expected to generate well over $1 billion in annualized wireless service revenue,” said Skiadas during the call. “We believe the majority of the pricing churn is now behind us and we continue to expect full-year consumer postpaid phone churn to be flat or slightly better than last year.”
Last Updated: 22.Jul.2024 22:34 EDT
