Numlock News: February 12, 2024 • Cassettes, Darwin, Radio
By Walt HickeyWelcome back! DarwinFor the past 18 years, a project has attempted to identify thousands of items in British naturalist Charles Darwin’s expansive library, and has identified 440 previously unknown titles that were in the scientist’s stacks. The inventory of his home following his death counted 2,065 bound books as well as an unknown number of unbound volumes and pamphlets. Today, the catalog of his books is understood to be 7,400 titles across 13,000 volumes. At the time of his death, the valuation of this library came in at a paltry 66 pounds and 10 shillings, or about £4,400 in today’s valuation, which neglects the contemporary reality that any book known to have belonged to Darwin will fetch a hefty price at auction. National University of Singapore SynchLast night's Super Bowl was also an extremely lucrative night for the music industry, as the ads are a centerpiece of the $1.5 billion synch business. That's the money gained from licensing songs to commercials, movies and television, and it's a huge driver of ancillary revenue for musicians. A song played during a commercial last night reaped the labels anywhere from $150,000 to over $1 million. Most of the time the money goes toward well-known and longstanding hits over more recent music. Radio PirateA 200-foot-tall AM radio tower belonging to the radio station WJLX 101.5 FM/1240 AM has gone missing, and is believed to have been stolen. It's been there since the 1950s, and all that remains now is a pile of wires where otherwise a $200,000 structure once was. Replacement costs just to bring things back online are estimated to be $60,000. TapesCassette tapes are mounting a rebound in Japan, where the Tower Records store in Shibuya has expanded its cassette tape selection sixfold and now stocks on the order of 3,000 tapes to keep up with demand. Just as vinyl has mounted a rebound, so too have other retro formats, but this is especially odd, mainly because vinyl actually sounds great whereas cassette tapes somewhat notoriously sound cruddy after a long duration of use. Nevertheless, Side-B Creations, also in the trendy Shibuya district of Tokyo, has reported that it's selling 10 times as many cassette players today as it did in 2017. Off-PeakPeak TV has peaked, as in 2023 there were just 516 adult scripted original series that aired on broadcast, streaming or cable, down 14 percent from the 600 series that aired in 2022. That is a steep drop, steeper than the 7 percent dip seen in the 2020 COVID year, and is a sign that the heady days where all the lights were green and all the seasons were renewed are coming to an end. Still, despite the dip, there is still way more television than in the era before the Golden Age of television, as in 2002 there were just 182 such shows. Lesley Goldberg, The Hollywood Reporter RestaurantsSales at U.S. restaurants are projected to rise from an estimated $997 billion in 2023 all the way up to $1.1 trillion in 2024. That means that the restaurant industry in the United States will be bringing in $3 billion every day, to the tune of $125 million per hour. That doesn't necessarily mean that restaurants are going to be making a ton of profit — food costs, labor and other costs rising are fueling some of that growth, which will eat into margins in the notoriously tight-margined space — but nevertheless it's expected that the industry will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. WingsThe National Chicken Council expects that 1.45 billion wings will be eaten on Super Bowl Sunday, and while that is bad news for approximately 700 million chickens, it does shine a spotlight on one of the most volatile and arguably liminal dishes on a given menu. Restaurants have been agonizing over wings, and how precisely to sell them. Are they an appetizer, or are they a main course? Historically, wings were considered an app, but that perception has shifted as a number of restaurants emerged that treated them as the main star. That perception change has been costly for restaurants: If they're an appetizer, they're priced lower than a main course, and restaurants sweat it when it becomes popular for diners to order a cheaper app as their main. It's led some restaurants to try to bury the wings on their menus, so that only the diehards will find them. 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: Comics Data · Extremely Online · Kevin Perjurer · Kia Theft Spree · Right to Repair · Chicken Sandwich Wars · Industry of AI · Four-day Work Week · AI Ed Tech · Audio · Garbage Intelligence · Meteorites · Overwatch League · Jam Bands · Fanatics · Eleven-ThirtyEight · Boardwalk Games · Summer Movies · Boys Weekend · Psychedelics ·Country Radio · Zelda · Coyotes · Beer · Nuclear · NASCAR · Seaweed · Working · Cable · Ringmaster · Hard SeltzerSunday Edition Archives: 2022 · 2021 · 2020 · 2019 · 2018You're currently a free subscriber to Numlock News. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
Older messages
Numlock News: February 9, 2024 • Hawkeyes, Monarchs, Raiders
Friday, February 9, 2024
By Walt Hickey Have a great weekend. Voices In a unanimous ruling, the FCC has outlawed robocalls that use voices generated by artificial intelligence, a move that follows a call in New Hampshire
Numlock News: February 8, 2024 • Lemon, Vegas, Arctic
Thursday, February 8, 2024
By Walt Hickey When Life Gives You Lemons A lemon that is hundreds of years old sold at auction for £1416 at Brettell's Auctioneers. The lemon bears an inscription that reads “Given by Mr P Lu
Numlock News: February 7, 2024 • Milk, Sports, Wolves
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
By Walt Hickey Milk Milk has become a bit of a battlefront, as the entities behind what has traditionally been sold as “milk” — the dairies that extract, market and sell cow's milk — contend with
Numlock News: February 6, 2024 • Vesuvius, Vegas, Zeppelin
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
By Walt Hickey Favre Former New York Jets icon Brett Favre has been ordered to pay back $1.1 million in speaking fees he received from a nonprofit in 2020 that improperly paid him out of funds intended
Numlock News: February 5, 2024 • Argylle, Hobby Tunneling, FIFA
Monday, February 5, 2024
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! Argylle Argylle just had the single worst opening for a pattern-based movie since Stripes opened to $6.2 million in 1981, pulling in $18 million domestically and $17.3
You Might Also Like
How Amazon’s new office mandate will impact Seattle traffic | Smartsheet COO resigns
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Port of Seattle won't pay bitcoin ransom | Videos show remains of OceanGate Titan sub ADVERTISEMENT GeekWire SPONSOR MESSAGE: Get your ticket for AWS re:Invent, happening Dec. 2–6 in Las Vegas.:
☕ Hot to go
Thursday, September 19, 2024
How Smokey Bear comes to life online. September 19, 2024 Marketing Brew PRESENTED BY Roku It's Thursday. Pizza Hut is letting people put their résumés on pizza boxes to send to potential employers.
☕ Weed the people
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Cannabis retail and the presidential election. September 19, 2024 Retail Brew Hey there, it's Thursday and a sad day after iconic container brand Tupperware filed for bankruptcy amid mounting
The Fed slashes interest rates.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
What to make of the Fed's larger-than-expected 0.5% interest rate cut. The Fed slashes interest rates. What to make of the Fed's larger-than-expected 0.5% interest rate cut. By Isaac Saul • 19
Paging The Hague: Israel’s Exploding Electronics Might Be War Crimes
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Experts on international law pointed to the indiscriminate nature of the blasts in Lebanon and the prohibition on booby traps. Most Read The National Guard Knows Its Armories Have Dangerous Lead
Beam us up some support, Scotty!
Thursday, September 19, 2024
The Conversation tells you about everything space-related, astronomical and more
Multiverse Islands
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Somewhere in the multiverse, a copy of you is enjoying more great reading every day Multiverse Islands By Caroline Crampton • 19 Sept 2024 View in browser View in browser Walking Faroe Islands Chris
📺 ‘Agatha All Along’ More Than Pays Off
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Plus: NASA's Artemis I mission brought back some very practical — and promising — information about protecting astronauts from radiation. Inverse Daily The 'WandaVision' spinoff takes cues
Deadly reminder that phones are ultimate tracking device
Thursday, September 19, 2024
+ what Fed rate cut means for the economy
Harris' Turn To The Dark (Money) Side
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Despite a history of decrying dark money, Harris is now reaping the rewards of big, secret political donations. Kamala Harris once vowed to end dark money in politics. But now that she's benefiting