💎 unlucky charms.
on the agenda this week: helium shortages, crazy frog and a billion-dollar jewellery empire in freefall.
📖 reading time: 5m 12s.
hey, hi, hello there. happy monday.
i moved into a new house on saturday! i finally have some outdoor space, it feels great.
tag me on instagram or follow me on twitter if you enjoy this week's brain drain.
feel free to skip any section that doesn’t interest you or reply directly to this email. a special thank you to my paid subscribers — i really appreciate the support.
👂 earworm: listen to kasbo’s new song on spotify or apple music.
🧠 brain candy:
🎹 this twitter thread on how marshmello grew his fanbase so quickly. highlights include a highway billboard near coachella emblazoned with “i'm working hard now so that my future daughter doesn't have to sell detox tea on social media.”
💦 84-year-old aabid surti has taken it upon himself to fix the issue of water waste. the founder of mumbai-based ngo drop dead foundation, aabid has been going from door to door for the past 12 years, fixing leaking taps. the foundation’s website says, ‘save every drop or drop dead!’.
🚚 jeff bezos (& team) has delivered a masterclass in writing to congress as part of the ongoing antitrust probe. “let me close by saying that i believe amazon should be scrutinized … our responsibility is to make sure we pass such scrutiny with flying colors”.
🎈i admit that i was entirely unaware of the global helium shortage until last week. helium gas doesn’t burn, so it’s useful for rocket engines. and because liquid helium is so cold, it’s used to cool the magnets used by m.r.i. scanners. however, it’s extraordinarily expensive and difficult to store. a tiny bit of heat turns it to gas. even when kept in a cryogenic container, the liquid slowly boils off.
📱 remember crazy frog? take a look back at the rise of the custom ringtone industry, which had sales of $1.1b at its peak in 2007. by 2002, 30% of all sms requests were for downloadable ringtones. sales then shrunk by 97% in the following decade.
🤪 mildly humorous:
💡 longer reads:
🇺🇸 soul of the nation
.
while my time here has now come to an end, i want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. you filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great american story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.
that is why i had to visit black lives matter plaza in washington, though i was admitted to the hospital the following day. i just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on.
emmett till was my george floyd. he was my rayshard brooks, sandra bland and breonna taylor. he was 14 when he was killed, and i was only 15 years old at the time. i will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me. in those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars.
though i was surrounded by two loving parents, plenty of brothers, sisters and cousins, their love could not protect me from the unholy oppression waiting just outside that family circle. unchecked, unrestrained violence and government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare. if we are to survive as one unified nation, we must discover what so readily takes root in our hearts that could rob mother emanuel church in south carolina of her brightest and best, shoot unwitting concertgoers in las vegas and choke to death the hopes and dreams of a gifted violinist like elijah mcclain.
👉 read more via the new york times.
💎
unlucky charms
.
the rise and fall of billion-dollar jewelry empire alex and ani.
astrology, private equity, a $1.1 billion gender discrimination lawsuit, and a precariously built bangle behemoth.
patent no. us d487,709 s was granted on march 23, 2004, to carolyn rafaelian-ferlise of cranston, rhode island. the application captured the concept in a mere five words: “an expandable wire bangle bracelet.” further details would have been superfluous. the bracelet’s design, as illustrated in a set of accompanying renderings, was astonishingly straightforward, familiar to hard-core rock climbers and eagle scouts as a double fisherman’s or a grapevine knot. somehow, though, no one had ever thought to patent it for jewelry.
rafaelian, a thirtysomething mother of two daughters, and her sister had recently taken the reins of the modest jewelry factory cinerama, inc., launched by her father nearly four decades before. the company had been successful, providing a good living and helping pay for private schools for the family’s five siblings, but its future was far from clear. cranston, a suburb of providence, was once the thriving hub of the costume jewelry trade; in the 1970s, nearly 80% of the baubles sold in the u.s. were made in the area. but in recent decades, the market was flooded with cheap overseas imports. one after another, cinerama’s competitors were forced out of business. historic mills and factories were being reimagined as luxury lofts.
as uncomplicated as rafaelian’s design was — a single length of wire, long enough to encircle the wrist nearly twice, cinched on both ends with tiny loops that clasp the main strand — it soon proved remarkably popular. just over a decade later, more than 10 million of the bangles, all of them made in the u.s. using recycled materials and eco-friendly practices, were being sold every year. customers could choose from a dazzling variety of charms that promised well-being, empowerment, and spiritual growth — everything from starfish and unicorns to st. christopher medals, dream catchers, and little enameled memes (“cat mom,” “pumpkin spice & chill”). “alex and ani bangles are more than just pretty jewelry,” the company explained in the self-published 2013 book path of life: why i wear my alex and ani. “they are unique statements that speak volumes about those who wear them. they are symbols marking individual paths of life.” a little like a tattoo with somewhat less commitment.
👉 read more via marker.
📚 word of the week:
“evanescent”.
vanishing; fading away; fleeting.
readers, after enjoying a book, are desperate not to let go of the characters, the evanescent feeling of being in the text.
- the new yorker, 2010
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🍎 the evolution will be painted.
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