Numlock News: February 9, 2022 • Wasabi, Lidar, Idaho
By Walt HickeyBad FencesThe U.S. Department of Justice has arrested two people and seized $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin they allege was stolen in a 2016 hack of the Bitfinex currency exchange, the single largest financial seizure ever. The feds say that a New York couple conspired to launder the 119,754 bitcoins, which at the time of theft was estimated to be worth $71 million, and whose total value rose to $4.5 billion. The two arrested aren’t accused of doing the hacking, just attempting to shuffle it around and launder it in a crypto ecosystem where every single transaction is directly posted to an immortal public ledger. Chris Strohm and Olga Kharif, Bloomberg Bad NeighborsThe City of Los Angeles will host the Super Bowl this weekend, a prospect that had local hoteliers salivating at a massive weekend where the fanbases of two cities would descend on the town and cause a huge windfall for the hospitality business. Unfortunately for them, one of the teams in the Super Bowl is the Los Angeles Rams, which has a fanbase that already mostly has a place to crash in Los Angeles. As a result, what would have been a record-shattering bonanza is merely an extremely good weekend: The average daily room rate in LA is around $445 for February 11 to 13, and total occupancy is projected to hit 89 percent. Average rates at four-star hotels are projected to hit $1,345, beating the $812 seen last year in Tampa but a far cry from the $2,294 a night in Miami of 2020. Kate King, The Wall Street Journal NomineesThe Oscar nominations came out, with Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog leading the pack with 12 nominations, trailed by Denis Villeneuve’s Dune which snagged 10 nominations, and West Side Story and Belfast which each grabbed seven nominations. Japanese film Drive My Car got three nominations and became just the 14th non-English language film to get a Best Picture nomination, and the fourth in just the past four years, a sign of an Academy that has substantially expanded its membership internationally. Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter, Kimberly Nordyke and Hilary Lewis, The Hollywood Reporter WasabiShizuoka prefecture is one of the largest wasabi-growing regions in Japan, but a combination of climate shifts and demographic changes has meant that the long-running wasabi agriculture in the area is in serious peril. The plants once grew wild in mountains all around the country, and only within the past four centuries were they deliberately farmed in Shizuoka. When the post-war government seeded cedar and cypress trees in a push for more lumber, over time the spring water where wasabi sprouted began deteriorating in quality. Add in an aging populace, and the volume of wasabi production is down 55 percent in the past decade alone, and one 147-year-old wasabi processor, Tamaruya, has been sounding the alarm. Motoko Rich and Makiko Inoue, The New York Times Indus ScriptLinguists have been wrestling with dead languages for centuries, and modern computing power has been a help for some of them. For instance, the language Linear B is recognized as the earliest form of Greek, and an MIT machine-learning researcher was able to build an algorithm that correctly translated 67.3 percent of Linear B’s words into modern-day Greek equivalents over the course of two to three hours. Though not a silver bullet, that’s a potentially awesome asset for those making a run at one of the most puzzling archaic writings, the Indus script. That’s a collection of 4,000 inscriptions with 400 to 700 unique symbols, and more than 100 attempts to translate it have been published since 1920. It’s a tantalizing challenge, especially among some groups in South Asia for whom the inscriptions are a major cultural historical find. LidarLidar, short for light detection and ranging, basically applies the principles of radar to lasers by using laser pulses to determine the distances of other objects to a given sensor. The price of the tech has been falling, and the tech itself getting better, with over 150 lidar producers globally. It’s seen by many manufacturers of vehicles with advanced driver assistance systems as the future, with the exception of Tesla, which is trying to keep its self-driving systems based on vision predominately. That’s an increasingly lonely position: 17 automakers have announced 21 lidar-equipped passenger cars that are coming soon or in production. The Perfect CrimeAn Idaho lawmaker has introduced a joint memorial that would formally ask Congress to close a niche and fascinating legal loophole related to Yellowstone National Park. The gist is that the federal court in the District of Wyoming was given jurisdiction over crimes committed in Yellowstone; however, around 3 percent of the park extends into Montana and about 1 percent extends into Idaho. The theory advanced by Michigan State Law professor Brian Kalt in 2005 argues that the Sixth Amendment requires someone must be tried by a jury of their peers from the state and region where the crime happened. In the case of the 50 square miles of Yellowstone that lie in Idaho, that’s zero people, and as a result a Wyoming court could not seat a constitutional jury of eligible Idahoans and one could commit murder and legally the courts couldn’t get a jury to convict them. The new law would claw back those 50 square miles from the Wyoming jurisdiction, and grant them to an Idaho court. Rebecca Boone, Associated Press 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 8, 2022 • Beavers, Robots, Pickleball
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
By Walt Hickey The 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
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
You Might Also Like
Give Her Cheese
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Gouda for Mom from Murray's Cheese. The Strategist Every product is independently selected by editors. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission. Gouda for
Blinken and broker, over and over
Monday, April 29, 2024
There are tentative new green shoots of hope for a ceasefire deal. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Layoffs, cutbacks, and shutdowns
Monday, April 29, 2024
The Intercept is taking steps to position ourselves for the long term while navigating the industrywide crisis. Readers of The Intercept are a pretty well-informed bunch, so you've no doubt heard
You Don't Want To Miss This
Monday, April 29, 2024
This advisory has returned a massive 838% since inception compared to the 273% return from the S&P 500 Deadline Extended 24 Hours Only Fellow Investor, Just recently, we swung open the doors to our
University Protests: The Latest at Colleges Beyond Columbia
Monday, April 29, 2024
Columns and commentary on news, politics, business, and technology from the Intelligencer team. Intelligencer on campus University Protests: The Latest at Colleges Beyond Columbia Police have arrested
An unexpected gift
Monday, April 29, 2024
A multi-tool ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Tuesday Briefing: Hope rises for new cease-fire talks
Monday, April 29, 2024
Also, Russia advances in eastern Ukraine. View in browser|nytimes.com Ad Morning Briefing: Asia Pacific Edition April 30, 2024 Author Headshot By Amelia Nierenberg Good morning. We're covering
America's Come to Jesus Moment
Monday, April 29, 2024
How Religion Drives Politics, TV's Gone Mid ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Amazon earnings preview: AWS and advertising in spotlight
Monday, April 29, 2024
Generative AI is a dual concern for the cybersecurity industry ADVERTISEMENT GeekWire SPONSOR MESSAGE: Washington state's second-largest city is the hub of an ambitious regional tech community
☕ All in
Monday, April 29, 2024
Why BodyArmor is going after “all the major sports.” April 29, 2024 Marketing Brew It's Monday. And yes, it's NewFronts week. Google presented this morning, and there will be presentations