Numlock News: February 8, 2022 • Beavers, Robots, Pickleball
By Walt HickeyThe Oscar nominations are this morning — just a plug for our Numlock Awards pop-up newsletter, which during award season takes you through the data-driven Oscars forecast and the changes going on at The Academy. Check it out. ArtLast year was a massive year in the art market, with Sotheby’s seeing $7.3 billion in sales, Christie’s seeing $7.1 billion, and Phillips seeing $1.2 billion in consolidated auction and private sales. It’s a great time to be an auctioneer, with the major houses setting records left and right — it was Sotheby’s best year out of the 277 it’s existed for, and Phillips was up 35 percent over 2019 — buoyed in large part by the ample financial health of the uber-wealthy, and the globalization of that wealth. They’re seeing a huge boon in luxury, not just art: $980 million of Christie’s sales were in jewelry, watches, wine and handbags, on par with the $1 billion brought in by Sotheby’s. Asia — which is now home to 1,149 billionaires — has also fueled the boom. Scott Reyburn, The Art Newspaper RobotsLast year saw sales of 39,708 industrial robots in North America, a new record. The $2 billion year for industrial robotics is up 14 percent over the previous high logged in 2017, and was 28 percent over the number of robots sold in 2020. Most significant was the expansion of industrial robots beyond the automotive business where they’ve been in long-standing use, as 58 percent of the robots went to non-automotive uses. Two of the largest sectors buying up robots include food and consumer goods, whose purchases were up 29 percent, and the metalworking industry, where they were up 91 percent. David Edwards, Robotics & Automation News BrunoThe soundtrack to Encanto held on to the top spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart for its fourth week, with 113,000 equivalent album units moved in the U.S., down only 2 percent week over week — so a solid hold. “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” remains atop the Billboard Hot 100 for its second week, making it the only song in the history of Disney animated features to lead the index for more than one week. “A Whole New World” spent one week at number one in 1993. The song was streamed 37.6 million times in the U.S., saw 3.6 million radio audience impressions and 13,600 downloads. Furthermore, this is the first time a soundtrack and a song from that soundtrack have simultaneously held the No. 1 position on their respective rankings since Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” from 8 Mile, which much like Encanto is also a movie about a family going to great lengths to avoid losing their home through the power of music. PickleballThe new hot sport across the country is pickleball, which is a sport that combines tennis, ping pong and badminton. In San Francisco, it’s incredibly hard to get time on a court: The city has 18 indoor and 40 outdoor pickleball courts, and they’re booked pretty much solid. For instance, the Goldman Tennis Center is home to five pickleball courts and 16 tennis courts. From October to December of last year, those tennis courts were booked 58 percent of the time, while the pickleball courts were booked 95 percent of the time. Nami Sumida, San Francisco Chronicle WorkA new study looked at the working patterns of around 15 million GitHub users to figure out how the shift to work-from-home broke their personal work-life balance, comparing the commit patterns seen in 2020 with those seen from 2015 to 2019. In the years before the pandemic, weekends accounted for 20 percent of working hours, a figure that jumped to 24 percent at the onset of the pandemic, though eventually drifting back towards the previous years’ pattern. Initially, remote work caused users to work anywhere from 15 percent to 20 percent more on average, with India seeing a 30 percent to 40 percent jump, which trended back toward pre-pandemic levels by July. Grant R. McDermott and Benjamin Hansen, NBER Dam ItNorth America was once home to 200 million beavers, a figure that crashed down to between 10,000 and 100,000 beavers in the late nineteenth century. The end of the fur trade rejuvenated numbers a bit, and today there are around 15 million beavers. Many consider them a nuisance — they can flood neighborhoods and fell trees — but evidence increasingly points to the idea that beavers are critical stewards of forests. By building dams, they spread rivers out across the floodplains, which can help protect areas from the worst of forest fires. Beaver dams are so successful that even in regions where the species is still rebounding, land managers are installing structures called beaver dam analogues (BDAs) and post-assisted log structures (PALS) to help wetlands form. Isobel Whitcomb, Scientific American GlaciersResearchers interested in the health of 250,000 mountain glaciers — an area encompassing 98 percent of the areas of the Earth that were covered in glaciers at the time — analyzed 812,000 pairs of satellite images to discern how they were holding up. The good news is that the Himalayas have 37 percent more ice than past surveys had estimated. The bad news is that the Andes contain 27 percent less than originally thought. That’s positive news for the 8 million who live in the parts of the Himalayas that rely on meltwater, but rough for the 4 million in the basins of the Andes who might be facing down water shortages well earlier than previously understood. 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. 2022 Sunday subscriber editions: Blood in the Garden · Trading Cards · College Football 2021 Sunday subscriber editions: 2021 · Crime Prediction · Billboard records · Black Friday · Natural Gas · PEDs in Hollywood · Machiavelli for Women · Weather Supercomputers · TKer · Sumo Wrestling · Giant clams · Instagram · Remote Work · Latinos · Vapes ·Smoke · Jeopardy! · Mangoes · BBLs · Summer Box Office · Time Use · Shampoo Bars · Wikipedia · Thriving · Comic Rebound2020 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: February 7, 2022 • Avocados, Baby Names, Space Station
Monday, February 7, 2022
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! Avocado, Baby The price of a 9-kilogram box of Hass avocados from Michoacan hit 540 pesos ($26.23) on Thursday, the single most expensive price on record for this time of
Numlock News: February 3, 2022 • Coffee, Salamanders, Fusion
Thursday, February 3, 2022
By Walt Hickey Coffee A drought in Brazil followed by a frost has sent prices of Arabica coffee beans spiking, with futures closing at $2.37 per pound on Tuesday. That's up from $1.30 per pound the
Numlock News: February 2, 2022 • Marinas, Lightning Bolt, Prairie Dog Pete
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
By Walt Hickey Broadway The Broadway League had kept the latest show-by-show box office data private, a break from established practice, arguing that the year-to-year comparisons weren't fair, but
Numlock News: February 1, 2022 • Internet Dealers, Akkadians, Porpoises
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
By Walt Hickey Instant In New York, there are no fewer than six different startups — Gorillas, Jokr, Getir, Buyk, Fridge No More, Gopuff — vying to seize hegemony over an instant delivery market that
Numlock News: January 31, 2022 • Spider-Man, Yu-Gi-Oh, The Great Unconformity
Monday, January 31, 2022
By Walt Hickey Welcome back! Spider-Man Spider-Man: No Way Home made $11 million domestically from 3675 cinemas in North America this past weekend, its seventh weekend in theaters, which is only down
You Might Also Like
☕ Great chains
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Prologis looks to improve supply chain operations. January 15, 2025 View Online | Sign Up Retail Brew Presented By Bloomreach It's Wednesday, and we've been walking for miles inside the Javits
Pete Hegseth's confirmation hearing.
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Hegseth's hearing had some fireworks, but he looks headed toward confirmation. Pete Hegseth's confirmation hearing. Hegseth's hearing had some fireworks, but he looks headed toward
Honourable Roulette
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
The Honourable Parts // The Story Of Russian Roulette Honourable Roulette By Kaamya Sharma • 15 Jan 2025 View in browser View in browser The Honourable Parts Spencer Wright | Scope Of Work | 6th
📬 No. 62 | What I learned about newsletters in 2024
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
“I love that I get the chance to ask questions and keep learning. Here are a few big takeaways.” ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
⚡️ ‘Skeleton Crew’ Answers Its Biggest Mystery
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Plus: There's no good way to adapt any more Neil Gaiman stories. Inverse Daily The twist in this Star Wars show was, that there was no twist. Lucasfilm TV Shows 'Skeleton Crew' Finally
I Tried All The New Eye-Shadow Sticks
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
And a couple classics. The Strategist Beauty Brief January 15, 2025 Every product is independently selected by editors. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission
How To Stop Worrying And Learn To Love Lynn's National IQ Estimates
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
... ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
☕ Olympic recycling
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Reusing wi-fi equipment from the Paris games. January 15, 2025 View Online | Sign Up Tech Brew It's Wednesday. After the medals are awarded and the athletes go home, what happens to all the stuff
Ozempic has entered the chat
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Plus: Hegseth's hearing, a huge religious rite, and confidence. January 15, 2025 View in browser Jolie Myers is the managing editor of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Her work often focuses on
How a major bank cheated its customers out of $2 billion, according to a new federal lawsuit
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
An explosive new lawsuit filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) alleges that Capital One bank cheated its customers out of $2 billion. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏