Welcome to issue #3 folks! It’s bright outside and the air is crisp. Winter days like these feel great. Hope y’all can get outside and enjoy a little sunshine 😎
Over the weekend, in my previous issue, I mentioned that the New York Times should buy Wordle. Turns out, I wasn’t the only one thinking the same thing! The Time picked up the Wordle for roughly a million dollars (more or less). Not bad for a game he hacked together over a weekend. I mentioned this on Twitter, but this is honestly a happy ending for him and for us. Worlde can go on existing under the resources of the Times Games team (for free or under a paywall), and those who tried to profit off of his creation will quickly evaporate thanks to the Times lawyers.
Onward, lets dig into some links.
Here’s the update from the creator of Wordle himself, Josh Wardle:
An update on Wordle https://t.co/TmHd0AIRLX
Good for him. A sale for “low-seven figures” is life-changing. More reporting, from The Verge below:
Josh Wardle is selling his smash hit online game Wordle to the New York Times for a price “in the low seven figures.” The word guessing game will remain free when it moves over to the NYT’s Games suite of word games.
Speaking of buyouts, it seems everyone is on a shopping spree these days. Before the FTC could even examine the gargantuan Microsoft + Activision deal, Sony decided to up the ante a bit. Sony picked up Microsoft’s old flame, Bungie at a price tag of nearly $3.6B. Absolutely wild.
Sony is buying Bungie, the developer of Destiny and original creator of Halo - The Verge
Sony is buying Bungie, the developer of Destiny and the original creator of Halo. The acquisition arrives shortly after Microsoft’s announcement that it intends to acquire Activision Blizzard in a deal worth $68.7 billion.
The first successful heart xenotransplantation happened earlier this year. It didn’t receive much coverage (what science news makes headlines during a pandemic these days?). The metric of success is still literally on the table. With any luck, Mr. Bennett’s new heart will last a long fruitful time, beating away happily. In truth, we really don’t know how long the genetically modified pig heart will last. But we do know who to thank for this breakthrough transplantation. The discovery of a sugar molecule called galactose-alpha-1. The presence of this molecule — also known lovingly as Alpha Gal, is what principally causes xenotransplantation rejections. So, with a bit of CRISPR, xenotransplantations may become the new norm! How about that?
I highly recommend this story from Radiolab, that underscores the importance of the discovery of this mysterious sugar molecule and it may even have implications in the food industry.
Return of Alpha Gal | Radiolab | WNYC Studios
Tuck your napkin under your chin. We’re about to serve up a tale of love, loss, and lamb chops - with a side of genetic modification.
Well, I wouldn’t be from Texas if I didn’t share this story from the homeland about the genesis of America’s Sweethearts. Dee Brock and the women who made the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is a gripping tale from Texas Monthly and has a companion podcast available:
The Women Who Created the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders – Texas Monthly
A dynamic professor, a feisty seamstress, a firebrand dancer, and the other underappreciated architects of the phenomenon that transformed the NFL.
That’s it for today! A campfire’s cozier with friends, so thanks for tuning in and feel free to forward to your pals.
Until next time,
Stephen Petrey @petrey