Numlock News: June 25, 2024 • Hot Ones, Great Red Spot, Quartz
By Walt HickeyWingsAs many restaurants look to hot wings as a way to boost profitability and get an edge, so too does Buzzfeed. The media company has come to own Hot Ones, a rare bona fide internet hit, a wings-themed interview show that has made for some sensational television over the course of its run, purchased through Buzzfeed’s $300 million acquisition of Complex in 2021. The company, which has a market cap of $78 million and over $100 million in debt, has begun to spin off its assets, including the rest of the Complex brand for $109 million. It’s now trying to sell Hot Ones’ owner, First We Feast, initially asking for $70 million as the price. First We Feast is profitable, generating $30 million in annual revenue. QuartzA celebrity-driven push claiming that crystals have healing properties has led to dangerous working conditions among the laborers who supply the crystals hawked by such New Age sellers. It’s an industry where the high end can go into the tens of thousands of dollars, and just a particularly neat-looking crystal can fetch more than enough dollars to justify hauling it out of a mine in South Africa. Workers might earn $4 for a 10- to 12-hour workday in places like China, India, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A small-scale mine in South Africa would sell to a dealer in bulk, at $6.50 to $19 per kilogram regardless of quality. They’ll clean it, process it, and send it through a serpentine supply chain before landing in your standard Western wellness shop. Alexandra Wexler, The Wall Street Journal BeerFor years, the NCAA had laws governing the sales of alcohol in sports stadiums, but those rules have begun to change swiftly. Today, 55 out of 69 Power Five conference schools serve alcohol in their stadiums’ public sections. That can be a serious revenue-driver for schools, but another slightly more concerning trend is a race to the bottom when it comes to beer pricing, as some arenas count it as a point of pride as to how cheap their cheapest stadium beer might get compared to rivals. A $2 Natty Light is certainly one way to up enthusiasm and juice home-field advantage. Disc WorldThe availability of physical media — Blu-Rays, UHDs, DVDs — has been slipping in some places like Best Buy and Target, while other companies have dived right in. Barnes & Noble, already undergoing a transformation, started expanding its Criterion Collection product line in every one of the 620 locations it’s got nationwide. The rise of vinyl in the music business as an alternative revenue stream has some retailers thinking the time is ripe for such momentum in physical discs. About 44 percent of packaged-media sales are e-commerce, as a number of independent distributors like Diabolik and Grindhouse fuel the market, even if Amazon does control 80 percent of that. In brick-and-mortar retail, Walmart’s market share is still 45 percent, but Barnes & Noble is feeling ambitious in the space and thinks its 3 percent market share is just the start. Thomas K. Arnold, Media Play News Salton SeaA new study of the Salton Sea found that shorebirds (which have declined 37 percent since 1970) have become reliant on the biofilm of the California inland saline lake, which is chock-full of nutrients and has become an essential stopover for birds on the Pacific Flyway. The number of birds that might rely on the Salton Sea in a single day — 250,000 shorebirds counted once — is double the levels seen in the 1990s, in no small part because the lake’s shrinking. Irrigation drains no longer reach the lake proper, and 6,000 acres of wetlands have emerged in the past eight years. ShipsTransits through the Suez Canal were down 80 percent in May 2024 compared to the same month in 2023, as shipping companies deal with ongoing attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Yemen-based rebels. The alternative routes — going around Africa or through the Panama Canal — add serious time and cost to transits, with trips between East Asia and either Europe or the East Coast extended a median of 10 to 14 days. The SpotJupiter’s Great Red Spot is a centuries-long, planet-sized storm on the gas giant, and while we know it hasn’t been around forever, figuring out when precisely it formed is of interest. It’s existed since at least 1831, but astronomers of the 1600s reported seeing such a spot, which has left open the possibility that it’s been around for quite some time. A new paper argues that they’re in fact different spots, given the location of each and their movements. The “permanent spot” of Cassini in the 1600s probably disappeared in the mid-1700s to the 1800s, while the Red Spot is thought to have been in existence for 190 years. Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica 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: The Internationalists · 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: June 24, 2024 • Wombats, Cornhole, Redbox
Monday, June 24, 2024
By Walt Hickey Debris The Otero family of Naples, Florida, filed claims against NASA after their home was struck by a chunk of space debris in March, a 1.6-pound battery pack from the International
Numlock News: June 21, 2024 • MoviePass, Dealerships, Shipwreck
Friday, June 21, 2024
By Walt Hickey Have a great weekend! MoviePass I regret to inform you that MoviePass is boring now, as the once swashbuckling and economically maniacal application that subsidized a nation's
Numlock News: June 20, 2024 • Pneumatic Tubes, Whiz Comics, Cashews
Thursday, June 20, 2024
By Walt Hickey Helicopters The NYPD's usage of helicopters is way up, and it's attracted the attention of both annoyed citizens as well as budget hawks. In 2023, the NYPD used helicopters for
Numlock News: June 19, 2024 • Nova, Aces, Ganges
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
By Walt Hickey WNBA Twenty-eight years in, the WNBA's 12 franchises are now valued at a collective $1.16 billion, and some owners have seen massive returns on their investments. For instance, Mark
Numlock News: June 18, 2024 • Akiya, Ivory, Chrome
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
By Walt Hickey Akiya Urbanization, declining birth rates and the depopulation of the countryside in Japan have led to the phenomenon of akiya, or long-abandoned homes. A new report from an agency
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