Digits: Garbage cans, Quidditch, and Toronto

Plus: Instagram stats, and the USPS goes greener than planned.

1) San Francisco is holding a garbage can beauty pageant. Six custom-built models — Salt and Pepper, Slim Silhouette, Soft Square, BearSaver, Ren Bin, and Open Wire Mesh — are being tested on the streets, with each trial unit costing $12k+.

Digits: Garbage cans, Quidditch, and Toronto

2) Today, Instagram’s tag line is, “Bringing you closer to the people and things you love.” So, like TikTok, right? Since launching Reels, its TikTok clone, engagement on regular, in-feed posts has dropped 44%, according to an analysis of 81m posts.

3) The USPS is going more green than originally planned. Now, 50%+ of its initial $3B order for 50k new vans will be electric, up from 20%. The service’s 212k cars make up ~⅓ of all federally owned vehicles in the US.

4) J.K. Rowling may not have expected Quidditch — the wizards-flying-on-brooms version of rugby she contrived for Hogwarts — to take off in the real world, but it has. It’s now played by ~600 teams across 40+ countries in leagues such as Major League Quidditch and the International Quidditch Association.

5) Toronto — ehem, Torono, as the locals say it — is winning the award for the city with the worst airport of the summer. More than 53% of departing flights between June 1 and July 18 arrived late to their destinations.

Topics: Digits

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