Numlock News: March 4, 2021 • Weatherly, Malawi, Robbery
By Walt HickeyI wrote a cool feature about spam robocalls! You should check it out. Well CrapIn February 2019, Weatherly Oil and Gas filed for bankruptcy, angling to walk away from hundreds of oil wells that hadn’t been plugged. They made a deal with the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the industry: they’d pay $3.5 million, which they claimed would cover the costs of plugging wells they couldn’t sell. At the end of the process, they tossed Texas 173 abandoned wells, making them responsible for orphaning the most wells in all of Texas of any company. The estimated cleanup cost ended up coming to $13.3 million, so Texas will have to pay the rest. While Weatherly said it couldn’t find money to help, executives made $8.6 million in compensation the year before bankruptcy. This is hardly the only time an oil company has milked the state of Texas for money to clean up their mess: there are 6,000 abandoned wells on Texas government rolls, and they’ll cost an estimated $300 million to plug. Naveena Sadasivam, Texas Observer SecurityBillions of doses of coronavirus vaccines will travel the world over the coming months, valuable cargo that is in the crosshairs of organized crime and paramilitary attacks. An individual shipment of coronavirus vaccines can be as high as $70 million per load, and freight haulers are putting only their very best, most experienced and trustworthy drivers on the case. Interpol is bracing for an increase in armed robberies of vaccine shipments, and on the dark web purported vaccines are going for $200 per dose. German freight hauler Aircargo Transport has souped up a dozen trucks for vaccine shipments, a $300,000 load-out entailing an alarm system, a panic button and a kill switch. GlobesThe Golden Globes secured a television rating 60 percent lower than last year, with an average audience of 6.9 million. This is understandable — no blockbuster movies came out last year, so the fare up this awards season lacks a big-budget draw for many, and even more so the entire appeal of the Globes is that they feature movie stars just hanging out, a process that was not doable this year. The Golden Globes are reliant on killer ratings more than other award shows, though, because they’re really only interesting because of their popularity, not any actual access or judgement. The voters for the awards — the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — are 90 random people who are tolerated as part of the awards circuit predominately because of their NBC deal and audience, which it turns out is really only interested in the guest list. The group is on pretty thin ice, so the dismal ratings could actually pose serious, if not existential, issues. Work WeekWhile they’re still a slim minority of jobs, an increasing number of occupations are offering the possibility of a four-day work week. Businesses that switched to a four-day week during a study found in two-thirds of cases an increase in productivity, and a few companies here and there are testing it out. In 2016, an average of 13.9 out of 10,000 job postings on the service ZipRecruiter offered a four-day work week. In 2019, it was 40 jobs out of every 10,000; this year so far, it’s 61.9 jobs. If your employer doesn’t offer a formal four-day work week like those trendy European companies, you can just do it American-style, where you maintain a four-day work week but spread it out over five days to look productive and see if anyone notices. The SimpsonsFox has renewed The Simpsons for seasons 33 and 34, which will bring the show through 2023 and up to 757 episodes, each a record. The show’s ratings are up 146 percent this season, and the premiere of season 32 in September was the most-watched in six years, happening during a period of time when America was living in its own hellish version of a recurring couch gag. The show is already the longest-running prime time scripted series in history, so every new season just throws more points up on the board. Family Guy was renewed for season 19 and 20, which makes sense, because that’s something The Simpsons already did a few years ago. E BikesAccording to market research firm NPD group, sales of e-bikes were up 145 percent in 2020, with the battery-boosted bicycles beating basic bikes, whose sales grew 65 percent. Municipal bike sharing programs, which had a tenuous relationship with the motorized bikes, have now fully embraced them, and the pandemic-era travel needs of city dwellers is a key reason why. Trips that otherwise would have been cab rides became bike rides, and travelers who were iffy on the prospect of hopping on a bike were woo’d into the seat when there was a battery lending a hand. A 2019 study found many prefer the assisted bikes, with bike-share systems with e-bikes seeing those used 1.7 times more than traditional bikes. Elaine Glusac, The New York Times MalariaRight now there’s only one vaccine approved for malaria, RTS,S. It first began rollout in Malawi in 2019, and prevented about 40 percent of malaria cases and 30 percent of the most severe cases in clinical trials. Within three years, that protection diminishes. While that’s lower than the efficacy of other vaccines for early childhood diseases — measles is 97 percent effective, chickenpox is nearly 100 percent effective in severe cases — it’s still a huge difference compared to the alternative, so it’s distributed widely. Now, though, I don’t know if you’ve been following the news or anything, but Earth suddenly got really good at vaccines. The technology that produced the mRNA vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech can potentially have an application in malaria vaccines, and may have big advantages over conventional vaccines given the way the malaria parasite messes with the immune system. For the month of March, get a free limited edition Numlock sticker pack!There are three ways to get one:
Once you’ve done one of those, just fill in the form here or go to claim.numlock.news to get the sticker pack. This month only, while supplies last. 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. 2021 Sunday subscriber editions: Figure Skating · True Believer · Apprentices · Sports Polls · Pipeline · Wattpad · The Nib · Driven 2020 Sunday editions: 2020 · Sibling Rivalries · Crosswords · Bleak Friday · Prop 22 · NCAA · Guitars · Fumble Dimension · Parametric Press · The Mouse · Subprime Attention Crisis ·Factory Farms · Streaming Summer · Dynamite · One Billion Americans · Defector · Seams of the Grid · Bodies of Work ·2020 Sunday Edition Archive2019 Sunday Edition Archive2018 Sunday Edition ArchiveYou’re on the free list for Numlock News. For the full experience, become a paying subscriber. |
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Numlock News: March 3, 2021 • Fixed, Feta, Fagradalsfjall
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
By Walt Hickey Very fun announcement: for the month of March, you can claim a free Numlock sticker pack! Either follow the link or see down below for the three ways to score a set. Shrimp Ecuador has
Numlock News: March 2, 2021 • Smolts, Postcards, Hurricanes
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
By Walt Hickey Good Condition A study from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reviewed the $7.8 billion spent on buildings and vehicles in the nation since 2008 and found that
Numlock News: February 26, 2021 • Leaks, Lent, Invasive Reptiles
Friday, February 26, 2021
By Walt Hickey Have a great weekend! Fish on Fridays Right now backlogs at US ports are stranding frozen fish just offshore at the worst possible time. It's Lent, when many Christians avoid meat
Numlock News: February 25, 2021 • Barbie, Red Carpet, Bill Nye The Science Guy
Thursday, February 25, 2021
By Walt Hickey Let's Go Party Mattel's sales of Barbie hit $1.35 billion in 2020, the doll brand's best sales growth in two decades, and a steep rise from the $950 million the brand hauled
Numlock News: February 24, 2021 • Pickleball, Common Cold, Mekong
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
By Walt Hickey Furniture In 2018, Americans sent 9.7 million tons of furniture to landfills, which was up from 6.5 million tons in 2000, and was equivalent to 80 percent of all furniture manufactured
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