Numlock News: June 20, 2023 • Atlantification, Wheel of Fortune, Orange Juice

Jun 20

By Walt Hickey

Taxed

Sports gambling companies got their product legalized in many states around the country by promising big tax windfalls for the states that gave the apps the go-ahead, but that hasn’t always worked out. Take Kansas, for instance: Kansans wagered $194 million on sports in February, when the Chiefs played in and won the Super Bowl. The total amount that the state got in taxes on all that money was a paltry $1,134 in tax revenues. The reason is that when legalizing wagers, Kansas allowed the gambling companies to deduct free plays and promotional credits before assessing the state tax they owe, which sportsbooks in Kansas did to the tune of $80 million from September 2022 to April 2023. The federal government, which doesn’t allow gambling companies to deduct promotions, collected $468,699 the same month.

Marco Schaden, Wichita Beacon

Wheel of Fortune

Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak has announced he will step down from the wheel-spinning word-guessing game show, which managed to haul in 7.7 million viewers during a week in May, now more than many prime-time scripted television series. They want to avoid the kind of succession fiasco that plagued Jeopardy!, in no small part because Wheel of Fortune is a massive cash cow. The syndication license for Wheel is said to top $70 million per year even after CBS gets its distribution cut, and producers don’t want to fumble that bag. Even setting aside the television revenues of the television show, the slot machine rights of Wheel of Fortune just sold for $220 million through 2034.

Matthew Belloni, Puck

I-95

The collapsed stretch of I-95 in Philadelphia will reportedly be up and running again within around two weeks as crews work around the clock to get the major artery up and running. The region that collapsed was a bridge overpass. Rather than try to rebuild the bridge, the plan is now to simply fill in the roadway with 2,000 tons of lightweight glass nuggets that are readily available and build a stretch of road on top of that mountain of shattered glass. Then, once that’s filled in and the road is operational again, a replacement bridge will be built alongside while the full restoration gets underway. In the meantime, this will require Philadelphians to come together, tighten their belts and find things other than now-rationed broken glass to hurl at visiting Giants and Cowboys fans in the parking lot of the Linc on game day.

Seung Min Kim, The Associated Press

Atlantification

Samples of environmental DNA in the Arctic Ocean are finding genetic material from species of fish that previously only lived in the Atlantic Ocean. Researchers found evidence of the small baitfish capelin 400 kilometers north of where they’d ever been seen before, and given that the capelin are highly responsive to water conditions it’s likely just the start of the Arctic Ocean becoming host to species that were once thoroughly Atlantic. Fish communities in the Barents Sea have shifted 160 kilometers north in just nine years, a process in the Arctic Ocean called “Atlantification.” This is, of course, different from the process called The Atlantification, where shifts in climate push publications to add more center-left think pieces, prestige cultural coverage, long-form feature writing and ruminations on the future of work, all of which ultimately culminates in a masthead composed entirely of people who supported the invasion of Iraq.

William von Herff, Hakai Magazine

Flights

The death of a prominent bush pilot has once again put a spotlight on the difficulties Alaska faces when it comes to transportation. Fully 82 percent of Alaskan communities are separated from the road system by wilderness, including no less than the capital Juneau itself, which requires a plane or boat to get to. As a result, the state relies on pilots: There are six times as many pilots per capita in Alaska compared to the rest of the country, and the aviation business brings in $3.8 billion for aviators and ground crews. Still, that means that plane crashes are not infrequent given the weather and the terrain.

Ben Brasch, The Washington Post

Water

A new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters sought to figure out how groundwater extraction may have had an impact on the rotation of the Earth, which wobbles a bit over time. From 1993 to 2010, 2,150 gigatons of groundwater were extracted from the ground, which eventually ended up in the oceans. In general, the North Pole goes in a 10-meter-wide circle every year, and the overall pole drifts about 9 centimeters per year. When factoring in the redistribution of water weight from under the ground to the ocean, the researchers estimated that pumping caused the poles to move about 80 centimeters over the period.

Warren Cornwall, Science

Citrus

Florida will produce just 18 million boxes of citrus this season, of which 15.75 million boxes are oranges. That’s the smallest harvest since 1928, as the states’ groves were pummeled by Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, a December cold snap and then the disease of greening. For perspective, in the 1990s and 2000s Florida was churning out 250 million boxes of citrus a year regularly. This means that the price of orange juice will rise even more, and the orange juice that is produced will likely be less sweet than usual.

Shera Avi-Yonah, The Washington Post

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.

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.

Previous Sunday subscriber editions: Psychedelics · Country Radio · Zelda · Coyotes · Beer · Nuclear · NASCAR ·