Numlock News: February 23, 2024 • Drunkonyms, Lego, Bluey
By Walt HickeyHave a great weekend! LegoGoodwill has auctioned off a 14-karat Lego piece for $18,101, a solid gold version of the Kanohi Hau mask from the line of Bionicle masks. While Lego produced lots and lots of the masks, the company produced only a few dozen of the gold pieces, which were given away during promotions. The estimate is that only around 25 such pieces exist. It’s In The GameEA Sports has secured a deal to finally produce EA Sports College Football 25, and given the surge in name, image, licensing contracts, they’re offering a minimum of $600 to every one of the 11,000 athletes who are among the 85 scholarship players in each of the 134 FBS programs, the single largest NIL deal to date. Athletes may be able to receive a bump during their college career, but at the very least the minimum amount of money needed to appear in the game has set a precedent. As a guy who onetime appeared in a video game and accrued nothing but shame, I congratulate my fellow athletes. LiveGood news for the bad guys, as Live Nation reported a record year in 2023, with revenue of $22.7 billion, up a staggering 36 percent year over year. All told, profits hit $1.86 billion, up 32 percent, and attendance overall was up 20.3 percent to 145.8 million. Concerts in general are on the rise: The number of concerts staged by Live Nation was up 15.3 percent to 33,629. It’s BackFor the first time in years, the first time since its exile from Netflix to Peacock, The Office is once again one of the top 10 most-streamed shows of the week. The program has raked in 602 million minutes of viewing, of which I can only assume 300 were spent in a cringe-induced rictus by loyal fans. Yet again, Bluey remains the most reliable week-to-week program, in second place with a laughable, disgraceful, pathetic, mere 1.25 billion minutes of viewing. Rick Porter, The Hollywood Reporter DrunkonymsA new study out of Germany found that the English language is a versatile and varied instrument, as there are hundreds of words and phrases in the English language that can be used as a word to describe drunkenness. The researchers found 546 synonyms for “drunk,” and most importantly, the researchers found that with a bit of momentum many English words can become shorthand for drunk. Yes, beyond sloshed, trashed, turnt, sozzled, ripped, Numlock’d, inebriated, soused, and blitzed, this versatile language will find a staggering way. Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica CarsCar insurance remains one of the fastest-growing elements of the U.S. economy, with the consumer price index indicating that car insurance rates are up 38 percent since the beginning of 2020. The reasons are myriad: Drivers are more dangerous, when cars are damaged it’s more and more expensive to repair them, and many parts of the country have simply stopped enforcing traffic laws, which means that actually dangerous drivers never actually get flagged to insurers. And The Ad Spot Goes ToABC, which hosts the Oscars, has been looking for $1.7 million to $2.2 million per 30-second ad spot, a solid improvement on the $1.6 million to $2.1 million of last year. The Oscars remain the primary non-sports live viewership event of the year, and the audience it draws tends to err toward the expensive side. This is exciting, because the last time that corporate America got really invested in the success of Oppenheimer, it caused the Cold War. 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: Video Game Funding · BYD · Disney Channel Original Movie · Talon Mine · Our Moon · Rock Salt · Wind Techs · Yeezys · Armed Forces · Christmas Music · The Golden Screen · New York Hotels · A City on Mars · Personality Change · Graphics · You Are What You Watch ·Comics Data · Extremely Online · Kevin Perjurer · Kia Theft Spree · Right to Repair · Chicken Sandwich WarsSunday Edition Archives: 2022 · 2021 · 2020 · 2019 · 2018You're currently a free subscriber to Numlock News. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
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Numlock News: February 22, 2024 • Monkey, Fighter Jet, Pilots
Thursday, February 22, 2024
By Walt Hickey I was the guest on this week's 99% Invisible episode talking about the book, check it out! Monkeys The reality of modern medical science is that it requires lots and lots of monkeys
Numlock News: February 21, 2024 • Quasar, Sailboat, Genomes
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
By Walt Hickey DVDs The era of buying physical DVDs and Blu-rays is coming to a close, as the business fell in 2023 to a $1.3 billion slice of the US home entertainment spend, down from $9 billion in
Numlock News: February 20, 2024 • William Riker, Bob Marley, Cocoa
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! One Love The Bob Marley biopic Bob Marley: One Love made $52 million domestically and won the weekend, which given the $29 million made abroad is a great opening for a
Numlock News: February 14, 2024 • Astarion, National Anthem, Beats
Monday, February 19, 2024
By Walt Hickey Baldur's Gate Hasbro, which owns Wizards of the Coast and thus the Dungeons & Dragons intellectual property that fuels the Larian Studios game Baldur's Gate 3, has reported
Numlock News: February 15, 2024 • Tooth Fairy, Megaliths, Beyoncé
Monday, February 19, 2024
By Walt Hickey Tooth Fairy Inflation The amount of money that the Tooth Fairy — a fey beast that forged an ancient compact with humanity to trade coin for fang, provided the terms are upheld and the
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