Numlock News: April 27, 2026 • Marathon, Gravity, Tectonic Plates

By Walt Hickey

Welcome back!

Box Office

The Michael Jackson biopic Michael made $97 million at the domestic box office, making back nearly double its budget for reshoots. The movie opened very strongly, making $217.4 globally against production costs that neared $200 million. A sequel is in development which will presumably dive into everyone’s favorite thing about Michael Jackson: the events of his personal life from the early 1990s onward. Given the box office, even a third film is being considered, and I can only imagine the fans are speculating ravenously over who will be cast as Elizabeth Taylor and Washed Up Brando fleeing New York City in a rental car after 9/11.

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press

Moonshot

Nike’s long-sought decade-long moonshot project to design a shoe that can help an athlete run a sub-two hour marathon saw that goal reached not once but twice this past weekend at the London Marathon…by runners wearing Adidas shoes. Winner Sebastian Sawe finished the race in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds, and second-place runner Yomif Kejelcha pulled off the feat in 1:59:41. Both runners were wearing the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, a state-of-the-art running shoe.

Sara Germano, Sportico

Gravity

Physicists have devoted considerable attention towards measuring the strength of gravity, a constant known as “big G.” While the relative strength of other fundamental forces have been measured, gravity is a hard one both because it’s the weakest of the fundamental forces and because you can’t shield an experiment from gravity. A new measurement by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, using a reproduction of a 2007 French experiment, has found a value of big G at 6.67387×10^-11 meters³ per kilogram per second². Please adjust your instruments appropriately.

Leah Crane, New Scientist

Splits

A new study published in Nature Communications finds that the ongoing continental split-up of Africa is further along than understood. The 500-kilometer long Turkana Rift — a segment of the East African Rift System and the meeting point of three tectonic plates — is the site where two plates are drifting apart, which will eventually cleave the continent and form a new ocean between the split lands, it’s all very exciting. The new study found that the crust at the center of the rift is only 13 kilometers deep, much shallower than the 35 kilometer deep crust at other points in the rift, which is a sign that it’s getting pulled apart. It should still be a few million more years before the split.

Adam Kovac, Scientific American

Cars

Lots of people who bought cars during the pandemic are deeply underwater on those vehicles, meaning the amount they owe is considerably higher than the actual value of the vehicle. Among car buyers who traded in a car to buy a new one, 30 percent had negative equity on their trade-in, owing an average of $7,200. One thing that may have caused the surge is the emergence of the 84-month (seven year) car loan; 42.6 percent of underwater buyers had an 84-month loan, about double the level of a decade ago.

Ryan Felton, The Wall Street Journal

The Wind Rises

Airlines are in serious need for aviation mechanics, as 40 percent of those in the field are over the age of 60 and nearing retirement. As it stands, the labor shortage is projected to hit 7,000 certificated mechanics next year, meaning the field is understaffed by about 12 percent. Entry level salaries are up 50 percent since 2020, and major airlines are offering large signing bonuses to recruit workers. The pipeline has some issues; a third of seats in aviation maintenance tech schools are empty and dropout rates are high, but what’s particularly tough the schools inability to hire instructors because the industry is so desperate for experienced techs that professionals can make way more in the field than in the classroom.

Allison Pohle, The Wall Street Journal

Upfronts

Every May is upfronts season, when American television businesses tout their programming for the next year to the advertising industry, selling most of their commercial time in the process. As television has become a diminished business, the show still goes on, but tends to now involve forms of advertising sales beyond the standard inventory, including streaming ads. Ad commitments to broadcast primetime were down 2.5 percent to $9.1 billion in 2025 and cable was down 4.3 percent to $8.68 billion, while dollars bound for streaming increased 17.9 percent to $13.2 billion. That said, about 65 percent of total U.S. ad spend at this point is going to Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft, and this year’s cable ad spend is projected to drop 10 percent with broadcast expected to dip five percent.

Brian Steinberg, Variety

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