🐤 Cause for alarm

🏦 Markets: The latest Federal Reserve meeting was the talk of Wall Street yesterday and, as expected, the central bank opted not to reduce the interest rate, which has been at its current high for nearly a year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell did signal that another hike isn’t likely, though, and the stock market reacted to the news with mixed results throughout the day.

The Dow Jones ended up a fraction of a percent higher while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down slightly at the closing bell.

🏌️ Eye of the Tiger: After a series of injuries and other setbacks, it’s safe to say that the best days of Tiger Woods’ legendary golf career are in the past. That doesn’t mean he’s giving up the game he helped revolutionize. The 48-year-old is following up his latest Masters appearance with a goal of wrapping up the current season by participating in one tournament each month. But it’s been five years since his last victory in a major and he acknowledged this week that he was “extremely sore” after the most recent performance at Augusta National.

🚗 No charge: Tesla’s foresight in establishing a robust network of “Superchargers” has made the automaker the envy of the EV industry. Last year, some of its chief rivals, including Ford and General Motors, entered into an agreement that would allow owners of their models to use Tesla’s chargers. This week, however, Tesla CEO Elon Musk threw automakers and EV owners a curveball by slashing jobs within the company’s charging division. He wrote on social media that the Supercharger network will continue to expand, albeit at a “slower pace.”

🚢 Cargo-ing green: Delivering goods across town or around the world has long been among the biggest contributors to carbon emissions, with container ships producing a massive amount of pollutants. Now, one Chinese-owned entity is making a major step toward reducing its environmental footprint. China Ocean Shipping Group announced that its Greenwater 01 cargo ship — the largest electric-powered vessel of its kind — will start making trips between Shanghai and Nanjing, eliminating about 8,600 pounds of fuel per 100 nautical miles.

♟️ Miniature master: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pitted the two nations against each other on the battlefield. But one 10-year-old Ukrainian boy just chalked up a different type of victory over his country’s eastern neighbor. Oleksii Nakonechnyi defeated Russian chess champ Roman Shogdzhiev, who participated in the U10 World Cadet Rapid Chess Championship as a neutral competitor. Oleksii’s dad said some folks told the boy not to compete against a Russian, but in the end he achieved his goal of keeping Roman from ending up in first place.

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If you’re among the many iPhone users who rely on the device to serve as an alarm clock each morning, it’s crucial that everything works as intended so you aren’t late for work, school, or whatever else you’ve got going on.

But there’s been a hiccup in the alarm app recently that has negatively impacted a significant number of folks.

Here’s the problem

All it takes is a quick scroll through TikTok to find a slew of complaints, including one user who said she set “like five alarms” on her phone and none of them sounded. The issue also warranted a segment on NBC’s “Today,” but some of those impacted might have still been asleep when it aired.

If you’re among those who slept late as a result of this glitch (or you just want to make sure it doesn’t happen to you tomorrow), there are a few steps you can take:

• Open your phone’s settings to make sure the alarm volume is turned up
• Find out if “attention aware” features, which can automatically reduce alert volume, are enabled.
• If all else fails, return to the dark ages and pick up a cheap alarm clock.

But as with other tech mishaps in the past, this situation is expected to be cleared up pretty soon so iPhone fans can once again sleep soundly.

What does Apple say?

Aside from acknowledging that users have been reporting some issues, the iPhone’s manufacturer hasn’t offered too many details about the problem. For example, it’s not clear whether all iPhones or just certain models of the ubiquitous device have been impacted.

But Apple has confirmed that it is working on a fix that will be available as soon as possible.

We’re not trying to make you feel old this morning … but if you were watching the first episode of the inimitable series “SpongeBob SquarePants” when it initially appeared on TV, here’s a fun fact: That was a quarter of a century ago.

An animated history

Stephen Hillenburg, who created SpongeBob and his underwater pals, was actually drawing a prototype of the character for years before the version we know and love today ever existed. It all started with “The Intertidal Zone,” a comic book with a focus on combining entertainment and education that featured Bob the Sponge.

Despite the similar name, this guy shared only the most basic characteristics with SpongeBob. Some of the key differences were that he was round — not square — and wore a pair of sunglasses.

In the late ‘80s, Hillenburg attended animation school and began working with Nickelodeon on shows like “Rocko’s Modern Life” before being given the opportunity to adapt his comic book to a series set in Bikini Bottom.

“It wasn’t until I drew a square sponge, like a dish sponge, that it really seemed to fit that character that I was looking for,” said Hillenburg, who died in 2018, noting that the new version reflected the “innocent” and “squeaky-clean” image he had in mind for SpongeBob.

Changing the game

Whether you were a die-hard fan or have never even watched an episode, you can probably at least recognize some of the show’s main characters. That’s because it made a major cultural impact that is still being felt today.

It was a hit with kids and grown-ups alike and led to movies, spinoffs, a Broadway play, video games, amusement park rides, and, as of 2017, an estimated $13 billion in merchandise sales.

A 15th season and yet another movie are in the works.

Reports about a startup attracting big bucks from tech giants are nothing new. But Vaulted Deep isn’t your typical Silicon Valley startup.

There’s a technological aspect to what the company does, but it’s not something you’d download from the App Store.

Waste not, want not

In a nutshell, Vaulted Deep’s mission involves pumping human excrement and other forms of waste deep underground — and some of the biggest companies on Earth think it’s a recipe for addressing climate concerns.

So far, the startup has amassed a warchest of more than $58 million, in part as a result of investments by Frontier Climate, an joint venture launched in 2022 by the companies Alphabet, McKinsey Sustainability, Meta, Shopify, and Stripe. The organization seeks to fund carbon-capture projects, which at its root is what Vaulted Deep is doing with its poop-pumping project.

A number of other major companies — JPMorgan Chase, H&M Group, and Autodesk, to name a few — have also invested in Vaulted Deep’s novel approach to an age-old problem.

Major milestones

The startup company’s broad goal might sound simple enough, but it’s bolstered by some measurable goals it (and its many investors) hope to reach within a few years. The latest deal with Frontier Climate calls for the capture of 152,480 tons of carbon dioxide by 2027.

That number might not mean much on its own, but it’s analogous to removing about 36,000 gas-powered vehicles from the road for a full year. Customers currently pay about $600 to filter one ton, but the long-term goal is to bring that number down to $100.

But Vaulted Deep exec Omar Abou-Sayed is optimistic since the technology already exists.

“Ours is more like the McDonald’s problem of what’s the best intersection to put the McDonald’s to get the most car traffic,” he explained.

Wimbledon will now offer quieter tennis matches for those with noise sensitivity issues.

It's the same game but without the racket.