Numlock News: October 5, 2022 • Barbarian, Pumpkins, Chess
By Walt HickeyBarbarianA sleeper hit of the fall has been Barbarian, the twisty R-rated horror flick directed by one of the guys from the Whitest Kids U’Know comedy group. Independently financed for just $4.5 million, the film’s made $34.8 million so far, and two weeks ago was the rare release that saw its distribution cranked up from 2,340 screens to 2,890 screens based on word of mouth alone. It’s yet another testament to horror being one of the most reliable, highest bang-for-buck genres, one that’s ideal for first-time filmmakers because the budgets are cheap, the baseline audience is reliable, and the word of mouth really moves the needle. PumpkinThe Great Pumpkin Farm in Buffalo, New York, has produced a pumpkin weighing in at 2,554 pounds, beating out the national record of a 2,528-pound pumpkin. The monstrous gourd has easily surpassed the New York State record of 2,517 pounds, but is still shy of the world record set by an Italian pumpkin in 2021, which came in at 2,702 pounds. The Great Pumpkin Farm has a legacy here, producing in 1996 a Guinness World Record-winning pumpkin of 1,061 pounds. Obviously, the pumpkin arms race has accelerated since then. The pumpkin will be exhibited through October 16, at which point I assume it will be signed to the Buffalo Bills’ offensive line and dominate the AFC East. Mars Orbiter MissionIndia’s Mars Orbiter Mission has come to a conclusion, with the ISRO announcing that the mission is nonrecoverable after communications cut out with the instrument in April. It’s a remarkable success: Developed for the low sum of $25 million and originally intended to fly for six months, it returned data back to Earth for almost eight years, with more than 7,200 users registering to download data collected by the mission and shared with the public. WorkingThe acceptance of work-from-home has been a revelation for many adults with disabilities that precluded a commute-to-office work life. There are 42.5 million disabled Americans, and many are now benefitting from the availability of remote work. There were 2,725,000 employed disabled men and 2,858,000 employed disabled women as of August of this year. That’s up from 2,506,000 employed men and 2,303,000 employed women as of August 2019, in the year before the pandemic. All told, 37.6 percent of disabled adults are participating in the labor force, which is five percentage points higher than in April 2020. LosersWhile America’s political parties are increasingly disparate in many of their views, an issue emerges that unites both right and left: Each side thinks that their side has been losing more often than winning on the issues that matter to them. Overall, 72 percent of Americans think that in politics their team has been losing more, and just 24 percent think their team has been winning more. Among Republicans — who recently secured massive victories in the Supreme Court on issues like abortion and regulation — 81 percent think they’re losing more than they’re winning, while among Democrats — who control the presidency and, narrowly, Congress, recently achieving a milestone clean energy act — 66 percent think they’re losing more than they’re winning. Evidently politics is not a zero-sum game, because everyone somehow thinks they’re losing. Ted Van Green, Pew Research Center GoodwillGoodwill, the secondhand store, is launching an online curated marketplace designed to compete with players like Poshmark and The RealReal. The business will especially be targeting more high-end finds on the site. It’s a compelling move, because Goodwill is a pretty remarkable business already in brick and mortar: It made $5.4 billion in retail revenue last year, it diverted 3 billion pounds of items away from landfills, and now it’s eyeing its chunk of the resale market in luxury. Resale is a massive component of the apparel business, with the secondhand market poised to double to $82 billion by 2026, its growth significantly outstripping the established retail market. ChessA fiasco embroiling the chess world regarding cheating allegations against a rising player has finally resulted in hard allegations, with a 72-page report conducted by flagship chess platform Chess.com alleging that Hans Moke Niemann likely received illegal assistance in 112 games on the platform, some of which were for money. The imbroglio began when Niemann beat world chess champion Magnus Carlsen, who suggested that the 19-year-old cheated. The report also describes irregularities in the rise through in-person chess — including a rise of 180 ELO points over the course of 18 months, one of the steepest rises on record — but comes short of being able to decisively claim in-person cheating. Andrew Beaton and Joshua Robinson, The Wall Street Journal Thanks to the paid subscribers to Numlock News who make this possible. Subscribers guarantee this stays ad-free, and get a special Sunday edition. Consider becoming a full subscriber today. The best way to reach new readers is word of mouth. If you click THIS LINK in your inbox, it’ll create an easy-to-send pre-written email you can just fire off to some friends. Send links to me on Twitter at @WaltHickey or email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news. Send corrections or typos to the copy desk at copy@numlock.news. Check out the Numlock Book Club and Numlock award season supplement. 2022 Sunday subscriber editions: Mexican Beer · The Chaos Machine · [CENSORED] · Podcast Industrialization · Fantasy Shows · Law Dork · Chinese Box Office · Box Office Recovery · Giant Hornets · Graphic Novels · Infotainment · Nuclear Energy · Fast Fashion · Salty · Twitter Friction · Fangirls · Air Quality · Non-Colonial AI · The Reckoning · Hippos · Fixing Baseball ·Booze Trials · Oprahdemics · Losing It · Sustainable Cities · F1 · Coughgeist · Black Panther · Car Dealerships · Black-Footed Ferret · Oil to Clothing · Just Like Us · How To Read This Chart · Pharma waste · Arcade Games · Blood in the Garden · Trading Cards · College Football2020 Sunday Edition Archive2019 Sunday Edition Archive2018 Sunday Edition ArchiveYou’re a free subscriber to Numlock News. For the full experience, become a paid subscriber. |
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Numlock News: October 4, 2022 • Robocalls, Liquid Death, Railways
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
By Walt Hickey Water Liquid Death, the proactively-branded company that sells canned water, has brought in a $70 million investment round that now values the company at $700 million. The company
Numlock News: October 3, 2022 • Utah, Lighthouse, Kimchi
Monday, October 3, 2022
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! Lighthouse The Hooper Island Lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay, originally listed for $15000, has sold for $192000. The rusty structure can't be used as a home or rental
Numlock News: September 30, 2022 • Hubble, Driftwood, Dolphins
Friday, September 30, 2022
By Walt Hickey Tomatoes While the prices of food and particularly produce have gone consistently up with inflation, tomato prices in the United States are actually down since the start of the year. At
Numlock News: September 29, 2022 • Rihanna, Archaeopteryx, River Flows
Thursday, September 29, 2022
By Walt Hickey Soccer The average Major League Soccer team in the United States is worth $582 million, which is up 5.8 percent year over year. The total market value of the 28 franchises in the league
Numlock News: September 28, 2022 • Coral, MoviePass, New Zealand
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
By Walt Hickey Lumber It's finally happened: Lumber, which has been on a maniacal roller coaster of pricing over the past several years, has returned back to earth. Lumber futures on Monday
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