Numlock News: April 19, 2021 • Fyre, Mead, Lord of the Rings
By Walt HickeyWelcome back! SnugSkinny jeans still make up the largest share of women’s jeans in the U.S. at 34 percent of sales, but the world is changing, and the skinny jean hegemony has shown signs of breaking down. That figure is down 7 percentage points from last February, demonstrating that the tides around jeans fashion may be changing. The U.S. women’s jeans market was $7.1 billion, so catching on to the trend of high-waisted loose-fitting jeans is of critical importance for apparel makers looking to come out of the pandemic strong. Relaxed fit men’s styles at Levi’s saw a 50 percent increase in sales early last year compared to the prior year. Sapna Maheshwari, The New York Times PotAgainst all indications I received in college, it seems that truly a lot of people have become pretty cool with some stuff that I did not expect them to be cool about: the latest data out of the Pew Research Center puts support for legal medical and recreational marijuana use at 60 percent, which plus a further 31 percent support for medical use only, means a net 91 percent of Americans think weed should be legal. From 2000 to 2019, the share of Americans who wanted to legalize it more than doubled. A mere 8 percent think marijuana should be illegal for adults. This will hopefully open up a brand-new conversation about weed nationally, and I mean that literally, because finally people who enjoy marijuana will have an opportunity to discuss matters of import beyond “it would be great if marijuana was legal.” Ted Van Green, Pew Research Center Lord of the RingsAmazon Studios’ spending on the first season of their forthcoming Lord of the Rings television show will reportedly hit NZ$650 million ($465 million USD), an objectively ridiculous sum of money that well surpasses any previous record for the medium of television. The figure comes from the government of New Zealand, which will throw the production a controversial NZ$160 million ($114 million U.S) tax rebate to subsidize the series. The massive production costs for the first season almost certainly include a number of expenses just required to get the machine in motion, like the estimated $250 million they paid for the rights to the Tolkien property, plus the ungodly amount of money it will take to make The Silmarillion appeal to a popular audience. I knew we should have been concerned about this project the moment the accountants attempted to assuage skittish executives by plainly explaining, “Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! Ring a dong! hop along! Fal lal the willow! Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!” James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter MeadThe U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has released its latest 24-month projections, and forecasts that water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead will fall low enough to trigger an official water shortage for much of the Southwest. The projection is that Lake Mead, the reservoir for much of the region, will fall below 1,075 meters for the first time in June 2021, at which point a shortage declaration will be prompted. Under a shortage, Arizona and Nevada will be subjected to mandatory reductions in water use, with Arizona losing a third of its supply. Another issue may be at the Hoover Dam, the source of cheap hydropower for many rural communities in Arizona and Nevada. If the water gets too low and the dam can’t operate, costs may rise significantly. Sam Metz, The Associated Press SamsungThe family behind the Samsung empire in South Korea owes the government at least 11 trillion won in inheritance taxes following the death of patriarch Lee Kun-hee. The inheritance tax of one of the wealthiest people in the world has been a major pain point for a family seeking to both maintain control over the sprawling business while also freeing up enough capital to pay the taxman. Some help could come from what is one of the largest privately-owned art collections in the world, with 13,000 works and an estimated value of 2.5 to 3 trillion won. South Korean law currently doesn’t allow art to be used to pay taxes, but some cultural groups want to see that changed in order to ensure the art doesn’t leave the country if the family decides to solve some of their money problems at the auction block. It’s hardly without precedent; in the U.K., about $89 million worth of art and cultural properties were moved to public ownership over the last year on record through tax programs. FyreA suit against the company behind the Fyre Festival may be approaching a conclusion and settlement for 277 ticket holders in a class action suit. The Fyre Festival was a notorious fiasco pitched as a deluxe concert and cultural festival for the Instagram crowd on an island in the Bahamas. It was not that, as any number of documentaries detailing the flopped fest have described, and duped ticket holders have been trying to claw back some of the money they paid for a scam that also landed several people in legal jeopardy. Right now, the number is looking like a $2 million settlement, which would break down to $7,220 each for their troubles. Suzy Byrne, Yahoo Entertainment ClamsAuthorities in the Philippines have seized 200 tonnes of illegally harvested giant clam shells, which have an estimated value of $25 million. In the Philippines, killing an endangered species can lead to penalties up to 12 years of prison and up to a million pesos. Among the seized clam shells were Tridacna gigas shells, the largest clam in the world, which have been used as a replacement for ivory in the market for mean people who want to buy things made out of dead endangered animals. 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: Oscar Upsets · Sneakers · Post-pandemic Cities · Facebook AI · Fireflies · Vehicle Safety · Climate Codes · Figure Skating · True Believer · Apprentices · Sports Polls · Pipeline · Wattpad · The Nib · Driven2020 Sunday editions: 2020 · Sibling Rivalries · Crosswords · Bleak Friday · Prop 22 · NCAA · Guitars · Fumble Dimension ·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. |
Older messages
Numlock News: April 14, 2021 • Scrub Jay, Transfers, Complaints
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
By Walt Hickey Internet A judge ordered Charter Communications to fork over $19179392.45 to Windstream, a rival telecom, after sending out a mailing to Windstream customers with the color scheme of a
Numlock News: April 13, 2021 • Denali, Cookies, Rocky Horror,
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
By Walt Hickey Time Warp Prior to the pandemic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show had played at the Clinton Street Theater in Portland every Saturday night for 43 years, one of the longest unbroken streaks
Numlock News: April 12, 2021 • Smuggling, Super Mario, Cicadas
Monday, April 12, 2021
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! Another Castle Speedrunner Niftski became the first person to break 4 minutes, 55 seconds in a speedrun of Super Mario Bros., a monumental barrier break that required
Numlock News: April 9, 2021 • Poison, Rivers, Anime
Friday, April 9, 2021
By Walt Hickey Have an excellent weekend! Hack Last month, 8.2 terabytes of data from 100 million people using Indian mobile payments app MobiKwik hit the dark web, a collection of phone numbers,
Numlock News: April 8, 2021 • Box Tops, Knives Out, Muons
Thursday, April 8, 2021
By Walt Hickey Knives Out A pair of sequels to the hit murder mystery film Knives Out has sold to Netflix for $469 million, a colossal sum for the rights to two followups to the 2019 film. The first
You Might Also Like
☕ I can see it now
Friday, March 29, 2024
Is video the next AI frontier? March 29, 2024 Tech Brew PRESENTED BY Infinity Fuel It's Friday. Today we've rounded up AI news from the extended Brewniverse: Tech Brew's Patrick Kulp kicks
The Police Have A Dark Money Slush Fund
Friday, March 29, 2024
Corporate interests are funneling far more money to law enforcement than previously known — often with scant oversight. Police are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars a year in secret funding
A very bad year for press freedom
Friday, March 29, 2024
Plus: Beyoncé's new album, Netanyahu's new crisis, and more. March 29, 2024 View in browser Good morning! I'm back, here to dig into a topic close to my heart. —Caroline Houck, senior
Numlock News: March 29, 2024 • Trading Cards, Kite Fights, Breadfruit
Friday, March 29, 2024
By Walt Hickey Have a great weekend! Kite Fighting A popular competitive sport in Brazil is kite fighting, where competitors try to cut down their opponents kites while avoiding getting their own kite
☕️ Floppy-haired fraudster
Friday, March 29, 2024
SBF is sentenced to 25 years... March 29, 2024 View Online | Sign Up | Shop Morning Brew PRESENTED BY Impact.com Good morning. Today marks one year since Evan Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American Wall
AI hallucinates software packages and devs download them – even if potentially poisoned with malware [Fri Mar 29 2024]
Friday, March 29, 2024
Hi The Register Subscriber | Log in The Register {* Daily Headlines *} 29 March 2024 Illustration of someone in a hoodie looking at a bench with a cloud over it AI hallucinates software packages and
What A Day: Clown by law
Friday, March 29, 2024
Trump's lawyers are having another rough one. And the mainstream media could learn a lesson from the legal world about handling corruption. Thursday, March 28, 2024 BY CROOKED MEDIA —Steve Bannon,
🌶️ Is it getting hot in here?
Friday, March 29, 2024
Introducing our theme for April plus fun stuff to read, watch, and click on. March 28, 2024 Open in new tab Did a friend forward this? Subscribe today! April's Theme is SPICY It was chosen by our
What 58 Famous People Smell Like
Friday, March 29, 2024
Here's what you missed on the Strategist. The Strategist Every product is independently selected by editors. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission. What
Trump Would Need New Tactics to Steal the 2024 Election
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Columns and commentary on news, politics, business, and technology from the Intelligencer team. Intelligencer early and often Trump Would Need New Tactics to Steal the 2024 Election Many avenues Trump