Numlock News: November 9, 2021 • Rats, Cheese, Rothko
By Walt HickeyExit FeeOklahoma Natural Gas owes a bunch of debt resulting from that deep freeze that sent prices soaring earlier this year. To pay for the $1.5 billion they owe over the next several decades — friends in the state legislature let the company convert that private debt to a public bond — they’re charging an extra $8 per month to most ratepayers per month every month for the next 25 years. Obviously that’s the kind of thing that may make ratepayers reconsider using the company’s services, as might a move away from natural gas usage in general amid a shift to green energy. That’s why Oklahoma Natural Gas and their state allies are weighting a $1,400 exit fee if anyone ever wants to leave their incredibly well-managed and obviously successful petrochemical tontine. Alexander C. Kaufman, HuffPost TranslationStreaming services are seeing international content that’s been translated, dubbed and moved into new markets as a promising way to quickly expand the audience for exciting new shows and movies. That ramp-up in demand for localization services is crushing the previously niche sector of translators. Training the next generation of translators takes time, and those talented enough to translate media content intended for a mass audience constitute a slim slice of the profession. The compensation — Netflix pays $13 per minute for a translation of Korean audio into English subtitles — isn’t great considering that a fraction actually ends up in the polyglot’s pocket. It has an effect: according to a survey of 15,000 streaming subscribers in Spain, Germany, France and Italy, 61 percent encountered poor subs or dubs on a television show in the past month, and 70 percent stopped watching as a result. Rats!This year there have been 21,000 rat sightings called into New York City’s 311 to date, up from 15,000 in the same period of 2019 and 12,000 in 2014. The spikes are mostly in the areas that have a longstanding relationship with one of humanity’s most ancient foes, like the three largest infestations in Grand Concourse in the Bronx, Bushwick and Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, and the East Village and Lower East Side of Manhattan. The surge is thanks to a confluence of factors making it a great time to be a New York rat: namely cuts to the Sanitation Department, meaning more food in street corner trash baskets; a surge in construction driving them into the open; and a wet summer that raised prey populations. I, for one, don’t mind it, mainly because this newsletter has always been a Ratatouille situation where a rat with a love of data journalism and pop culture has been controlling the body of an incompetent stooge named Walt Hickey to overcome the inherent prejudice against rats in the newsletter space and prove that Anyone Can Blog™. Ed Shanahan, The New York Times John Philip Holland Eat Your Heart OutA barnacle-covered barrel of trash washed up on the shore of County Mayo in northwestern Ireland. The barrel was identified as originating from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, based on a number of city stickers on the bright blue barrel. It’s unclear when the trash receptacle was washed out to sea, but it traveled at least 3,500 miles to its new home in Ireland on a local beach, where I’m assuming it’s conferred upon the locals a new love of frozen alcoholic slushies. VFXA new study found that just 21.6 percent of 103,972 visual effects credits across the 400 top-grossing films from 2016 to 2019 went to women. Women made up just 15.2 percent of visual effects credits that earned a title card credit, with 52 women getting a title card compared to 302 men. While women accounted for 46.7 percent of VFX producers, they were only 23 percent of VFX editors, and a measly 2.9 percent of VFX supervisors. Women of color made up 0.5 percent of VFX supervisors, and were outnumbered by men 208 to 1. Stacy L. Smith, Katherine Pieper, and Ariana Case, Annenberg Inclusion Initiative CheeseA cyberattack has sent the price of processed American cheese into a tizzy. Schreiber Foods in Wisconsin buys cheese in 500-pound barrels and then turns it into the kind of slices you have on burgers. They’re, in my view, one of the most critical companies in America, and a group of cybercriminals hit them with an attack on October 23 that forced them to shut down operations. On October 28, the operations came back online. But that shutdown sent reverberations throughout the market, with spot prices for cheese barrels in Chicago falling 17 percent last week, from north of $1.80 per pound to $1.50 per pound. ArtOver the next two weeks, Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips aim to sell upwards of $1.6 billion worth of art, with 15 individual pieces expected to sell for north of $20 million each. They’re hopeful, and have a few things blowing in their direction. First off, lots of wealthy people are worried about tax changes next year and may be interested in losing some liquidity. The next is that there are simply more wealthy people now than there were pre-pandemic: 2020 added 5.2 million to the 56.1 million people who were millionaires, the kind of people down to splurge on some art from an auction house. About a quarter of people bidding at Christie’s globally are millennials, up from 15 percent two years ago, so let’s see if they can be duped into buying a bunch of derivative Rothkos like their dads were. Kelly Crow, The Wall Street Journal 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. 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: Giant clams · Instagram · Remote Work · Latinos · Vapes · Smoke · Jeopardy! · Mangoes · BBLs · Summer Box Office · Time Use · Shampoo Bars · Wikipedia · Thriving · Comic Rebound · Return of Travel · Sticky Stuff · For-profit Med School · A Good Day · Press Reset · Perverse Incentives · Demon Slayer · Carbon Credits · Money in Politics · Local News ·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 Edition Archive2019 Sunday Edition Archive2018 Sunday Edition ArchiveYou’re a free subscriber to Numlock News. For the full experience, become a paid subscriber. |
Older messages
Numlock News: November 8, 2021 • Hydropower, Eternals, Flamingos
Monday, November 8, 2021
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! E-Bike In the first six months of 2021, $400 million worth of e-bikes have been sold in the United States, well above the $237 million worth of electronic bikes sold in all
Numlock News: November 5, 2021 • Starbucks Monstrosities, Avocados, CoComelon
Friday, November 5, 2021
By Walt Hickey Have a great weekend! Delivery UPS has a unionized workforce, and FedEx does not. That's actually been a huge boon for UPS during the labor force disruptions seen this year, even
Numlock News: November 4, 2021 • Nintendo, St. Louis Rams, Whale Diets
Thursday, November 4, 2021
By Walt Hickey Come Fly With Me With kids as young as 5 now approved for a Covid-19 vaccine in the United States, one of the final factors holding back the rebound of the travel and aviation sector
Numlock News: November 2, 2021 • Atacama, Roblox, Moose
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
By Walt Hickey Broken Blox In what is unquestionably the most significant news of the past two weeks in the world of developing an online “metaverse,” Roblox suffered a three-day outage over Halloween
Numlock News: November 1, 2021 • Mayans, Dogs, Beaches
Monday, November 1, 2021
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Jessica Simpson has purchased back the name “Jessica Simpson” from Sequential Brands Group, which is
You Might Also Like
AI chatbots keep failing every accuracy test thrown at them
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
PLUS: Why Substack's new subscriber milestone is so significant ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Everything We’ve Written About That’s on Sale at Nordstrom
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Plus: Actually cute plus-size maternity clothes. The Strategist Every product is independently selected by editors. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.
What A Day: Bad Car-ma
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Elon Musk's politics are sparking a major Tesla backlash, ironically thanks to Trump. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Rohingya refugees just lost half of their food aid. Now what?
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
An interview with Free Rohingya Coalition what happened last week in Asia, Africa and the Americas Hey, this is Sham Jaff, a freelance journalist focused on Asia, Africa and the Americas and your very
Shayne Coplan’s Big Bet Is Paying Off
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
March 11, 2025 THE MONEY GAME Shayne Coplan's Big Bet Is Paying Off By Jen Wieczner Photo: Dina Litovsky At 6 am on Wednesday, November 13, eight FBI agents in black windbreakers burst through the
We need your input.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Share your insights & receive a 70% off forever.
We Talkin’ About Practice?
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Nobody Told Me There'd Be Days Like These ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Seattle startup takes eco-friendly aim at recycling clothing
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Read AI rolls out enterprise search tool | Hard time for hardware ADVERTISEMENT GeekWire SPONSOR MESSAGE: A limited number of table sponsorships are available at the 2025 GeekWire Awards: Secure your
☕ The beauty of it all
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
A conversation with Ulta Beauty's CMO. March 11, 2025 View Online | Sign Up Marketing Brew Presented By Iterable It's Tuesday. Count Kathy Hochul as an ad buyer. The governor of New York is
🤔 What’s in your wallet? A scam.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Plus, a new streaming deal is the latest gift to Trump from the billionaire CEO and his company — which profits off government contracts. Forward this email to others so they can sign up 🔥 Today on