🌌 Chasing darkness

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👋 Good morning. Dream big this week — Boston sure is. The city is aiming to break the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest soccer ball ahead of hosting the FIFA World Cup next month. The soccer ball will need to beat the current record holder from Doha, Qatar, which stood at 38 feet and 11.8 inches in 2013. If successful, soccer fans flying into Boston’s Logan International Airport should be able to see the ball from their planes. Game on.

NEWS FLASH

📈 A hot date: Dates are having a moment as consumers swap out processed snacks for healthier options. Medjool date sales are up 100% YoY and searches for date butter and chocolate dates soared 458% and 135%, respectively, according to Ocado. In addition to awareness about fiber intake and the benefit of whole foods, TikTok trends featuring date recipes have taken off, fueling sales.

🎶 Some real bangers here: Pérez Prado and His Orchestra’s original “Mambo No. 5,” Taylor Swift’s "1989," Weezer’s "The Blue Album," The Charlie Daniels Band’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” and freelance video game composer Bobby Prince’s soundtrack for “Doom” are included in the Library of Congress’s latest additions to the National Recording Registry. According to the Library, Prince “composed the perfect riff-shredding accompaniment for the game’s demon-slaying journey” despite the limitations of 1993’s sound card drivers.

💤 Claude has a point, though: Anthropic’s chatbot is, per several Reddit users, suggesting people go to sleep or “get some rest.” Some users like Claude’s commitment to self-care, while others find it intrusive or confusing considering Claude doesn't always seem to know what time it is. Speculation suggests Claude may be promoting well-being, attempting to curb extended sessions, or simply repeating what it saw in training data. Anthropic is looking into fixing the quirk… which is, to be fair, more charming than ChatGPT’s goblin fixation.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

Lucky break: A user on X claims he used Anthropic’s Claude to regain access to his old bitcoin wallet, now worth $400k, by letting the AI sift through files on his old college laptop.
We’re still kickin’: Even with a flood of AI content, the share of online news articles and blog posts that are primarily AI-generated has hovered around 50% for more than a year, according to new analysis.
No cheating: Startup Anybrain is using AI to catch video game cheaters by analyzing player inputs like keyboards, controllers, and joysticks — not what software they install — making it harder for AI-powered hacks to succeed.
Plant power: Resurrect Bio, a startup that helps seed companies edit plants’ genes to restore their natural defenses against disease, raised $10.3m.

NO BUDGET, NO PROBLEM

Launch your own business with < $1k

Are you kinda broke, mildly savvy, and highly ambitious? Then here are five startups you can launch ASAP with less than one month’s rent:

Ecommerce: Ya know it, ya love it… And you can kickstart a humble operation for lower than you think.
Low-code SaaS: There’s less need to shell out for devs. Upgrade your tech stack and try UGC seeding on TikTok, posting on socials with AI, and building in public.
Service business: The lean blueprint for wooing new clients, with app suggestions for web design, scheduling, email, admin, and more.
Digital product: Turn expertise into inventory. Products like courses and guides can sell while you sleep.
Buy, then build: Skip the risk of starting from scratch by using listings as intel, reaching out to owners, and finding potential steals online.

Don’t be begging ma for seed money. Save these one-pager cheat sheets for budget breakdowns, top tools, and proven tactics.

Launch on a budget

THE BIG IDEA

Why this machine is in every good coffee shop

If you're as overcaffeinated as us, one name's likely caught your eye at your local coffee shop, emblazoned on the back of the espresso machine: La Marzocco.

Considered the Ferrari of espresso machines, La Marzocco coffee makers power nearly every other specialty coffee shop. But that wasn't always the case.

The stylish machines were once the workhorses of Starbucks, helping the coffee juggernaut grow from 425 locations to 8.5k in a decade — until 2005 when the company ditched them.

Rather than signal a decline, La Marzocco's allure only grew — jumpstarting the third wave of coffee shops and a flourishing resale market of entrepreneurs restoring vintage machines.

Brewing up success

Founded by brothers Giuseppe and Bruno Bambi in 1927 in Florence, La Marzocco upended the espresso game, literally.

In 1939, Giuseppe patented the first horizontal boiler espresso maker — a departure from decades-old vertical boilers.
Horizontal boilers provided more room for steam and more group heads to brew more espresso simultaneously.
In 1970, La Marzocco patented the GS model with a double boiler to brew espresso at a consistent temperature, while steaming milk at a different temperature.

The GS model — and its exceptional espresso — caught the attention of Howard Schultz, then-CEO of Starbucks, thanks to Seattle entrepreneur Kent Bakke.

Bakke visited La Marzocco in 1978 and received the blessing of Piero Bambi, Giuseppe's son, to import to the US. Initially, Bakke sold a couple machines per month, but after partnering with a rapidly growing Starbucks, business exploded.

In 1994, Bakke built a La Marzocco factory in Seattle, producing around 5k machines across 10 years, exclusively for Starbucks.

But with massive growth, a bigger menu, and more baristas to train, Starbucks ultimately replaced La Marzocco machines with super automatics that brewed at the push of a button.

New life

Before La Marzocco bought back those machines from Starbucks, an estimated 1k ended up on the secondhand marketplace.

La Marzocco machines curiously began appearing in newly opened specialty coffee shops.

Companies now refurbish vintage La Marzocco machines, which can cost half the price of a new machine ($20k-$30k).

La Marzocco has become a hallmark of coffee shops that take espresso seriously, which is why you keep seeing that Italian name while anxiously awaiting your next fix.

🔗

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Secret sauce: A branding expert breaks down the playbooks used by the five biggest burger chains to make billions.

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Share of Icelanders who’ve published a book during their lifetime. For context, that proportion in the US is closer to one in 5k. Despite being roughly the size of Kentucky with a population the size of Cleveland’s, the small island nation has one of the largest per capita publishing industries in the world, per Air Mail, with 1k+ Icelandic books published each year, and a wee but dedicated domestic audience to match: the average Icelander reads more than two books a month.

Why? The fact that the country is shrouded in darkness for a good chunk of the year probably has something to do with it, according to Icelandic bookstore owner Pétur Már Gudmundsson, who told Air Mail "people [have] to find ways of entertaining themselves”... Probably beats doomscrolling.

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: In 2012, Facebook raised $16B in the biggest tech IPO and third-biggest IPO ever in US history.

🕯️ That’s interesting: The Guardian’s Blind Date series sets up two strangers for dinner. This site analyzes each one, breaking down how they ranked. Just 13 of 878 counted as “perfect” dates.

🛰️ That’s cool: See your name in NASA’s Landsat photos.

👾 Game: Type to beat the monsters.

🐕 Aww: Excellent catch.

SHOWER THOUGHT

When I’m struggling to open packaging, it’s just enrichment for humans. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Danny Jensen, and Singdhi Sokpo.

Editing by: Sara "Thanks a latte" Friedman.

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☕ The Ferrari of espresso