A snowball's chance

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Consumer confidence fell again for third consecutive month; Mixologists have found a new way to combat mosquitoes; The more we use AI, the less trustworthy it becomes; and Tony Iommi has a new solo album coming…

Let’s get into it!

A new study suggests the common mosquito repellant DEET has, over time, accidentally trained the insects to “associate [it] with a blood meal using Pavlovian conditioning,” according to the researchers.

In other words, DEET is likely having the exact opposite impact it’s intended to have, making alternatives all the more important during the height of mosquito season.

Tamworth Distilling in New Hampshire may have come up with an effective and wildly creative solution in the form of a whiskey-based cocktail enhancer, cleverly called Skeeter’s.

It’s intended to be poured out of the metal can and into the atomizer before being sprayed atop a readymade cocktail. The key ingredient is called nootkatone, which is a naturally occurring citrusy sesquiterpenoid chemical, and while it’s enjoyable to humans, it’s often deadly to pests.

“When nootkatone binds to receptors in the insect octopamine receptor pathway, they are sent into potentially deadly spasms, and the plant lives for another day,” said Matt Power, head distiller at Tamworth Distilling, who described the chemical as “deliciously versatile” with the “deep rosy notes of grapefruit.”

According to the product description on the distillery’s website, “the only buzz you should be dealing with is the one in your cocktail.”

The Bentley University-Gallup Survey tracks the general public’s sentiment towards AI, and in the years since it began in 2023, a trend has developed; the more familiar people become with AI, the less they seem to trust it.

39% of respondents said they think AI does more harm than good in this year’s survey, up from 31% last year. 47% of those between 18 and 29 feel that way, which is significantly higher than the 27% of young people who felt that way in 2024.

Almost 70% of respondents said they are somewhat or very knowledgeable about AI, up from 64% last year.

At the same time, nearly 75% said their level of trust in companies to use the technology responsibly is either “not much” or “not at all.”

In fact, when it comes to AI in the workplace, public opinion is trending towards unanimity, with 79% of respondents saying they believe it will cause the overall number of jobs to shrink. That number has risen every year since the tracking poll began, and the number rises to 84% when accounting just for respondents between 45 and 59 years old.

The photo above is a massive impact crater, yet it’s only a tiny fraction the size of the crater left by the dinosaur-eradicating rock that struck Earth 66 million years ago.

A new study conducted by researchers at Purdue University and published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences found the blast from the impact was so large, it ejected 1,000 cubic kilometers of rock into the planet’s atmosphere, most of which turned to dust and formed a nearly-impermeable cloud above the entire planet for years and perhaps even decades.

This was like the greenhouse effect on steroids—like a lid on top of a pot full of boiling water.

“That much kinetic energy has to go somewhere and eventually it is converted to heat,” said lead author Brandon Johnson. “With the dust cloud trapping thermal radiation, it was like the surface and everything on it was being charbroiled.”

In fact, the study suggests the dust was likely the most lethal aspect of the entire extinction-level event.

“Without the dust cloud, it would have been bad. It would have killed a lot of creatures. But it wouldn’t have been a planetary catastrophe,” said Johnson.

The human riff machine Tony Iommi is back at work a year after saying goodbye to Black Sabbath and the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne.

The guitarist announced his new solo album From the Dark will be out everywhere on Oct. 23. The announcement also included a music video for the album’s first single, World Alone, which you can view here.

He made the announcement on a live stream yesterday held from his home in Birmingham, England, revealing the record will contain eight brand new songs, and two bonus features of 2022’s Scent of Dark and 2024’s Deified, both of which were initially released as singles.

The mighty Jorn Lande features as the vocalist on the album. Known for his frequent appearances with supergroup Avantasia, as well as projects with Russell Allen, the band Masterplan, and Yngwie Malmsteen, Lande is one of the most versatile and powerful tenor metal voices in the game.

Iommi and Lande have collaborated before, most famously during a tribute to Ronnie James Dio they played together with Geezer Butler in 2010 shortly after Dio passed away.

First in line

You’ll know all these albums, but will you know which one came before the others? Find out, with today’s which-album-came-first trivia 🎶