Numlock News: December 3, 2025 • Les Misérables, The Wizard of Oz, Martian Time

Dec 03, 2025

By Walt Hickey

The Wizard of Oz

America wants one thing, it appears, and that is “reimaginings of The Wizard of Oz,” with Wicked putting up bonkers numbers at both the cinema and on Broadway. However, even more impressive is the immersive 3D adaptation of the film showing at Sphere in Las Vegas, which has generated $200 million in ticket sales since August 28. That’s an outstanding performance for an “experience” that can pretty much run indefinitely. The bands that once drove $188 million in revenue for Sphere last year required fleshy, tired millionaire musicians with the desire to keep performing in Vegas. This indefinite re-cut version of the 1939 movie continues to beat out or at least hang with the likes of U2, Dead & Company and The Eagles. Despite all this high-wattage glitz, perhaps one day we’ll all remember the reason at the heart of the story: hatred for both greenback paper money and the 1873 demonetization of silver.

Kurt Badenhausen, Sportico

Murder

The wheels of justice turn, though slowly at times: a new study has been published in a journal that also sounds like a CBS procedural, Forensic Science International: Genetics. The study argues that the skeletal remains of a young man discovered in Budapest, 1915 in a Dominican monastery is indeed Duke Bela of Masco. The Duke was murdered in 1272. Archeological gumshoes ascertained that the body is the grandson of Hungarian King Bela IV. They were able to add further characterization to the historical record, indicating that the vic was assassinated by a rival faction and mutilated. A reconstruction of the killing concluded that the deed was done by three people — one who attacked from the front, with two others attacking from either side — as the duke tried to put up a fight. Investigators claim that the weapons used were a saber and a long sword. As they continue to make inquiries, be on the lookout for anyone matching the description of the killers. So contact the authorities if you find three dessicated human skeletons that are approximately 700 years old and may arouse suspicion.

Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica

Martian Time

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have calculated the precise time on Mars. Clocks don’t run at the same rate at every point in the universe and are slower or faster depending on the strength of gravity. The NIST has calculated that clocks on Mars tick on average 477 microseconds per day faster than on Earth. However, the gravity of neighboring planets, moons and the sun can increase or decrease that average by 226 microseconds per day over the course of the year. The reason for the swing is Mars’ eccentric orbit. In fact, the Red Planet has got a bigger swing than on the Moon, which is consistently 56 microseconds faster than time on Earth. This is mostly consequential for communications reasons, with 5G networks needing to be accurate within a tenth of a microsecond.

Rebecca Jacobson, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Misérables

A new poll asked people to identify when various historical fiction novels took place to figure out how well people were able to place them. For instance — and setting aside those who replied “not sure” — 90 percent of people who claimed to have read the book were able to correctly state that Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell took place during the American Civil War. Obviously, we’d all love those numbers to be a little higher, given that it’s arguably the iconic Civil War novel. But let’s just let the 10 percent of readers who missed the point slide, because that is somehow a high-water mark. Just 84 percent of people who have read Catch-22 said that it took place in World War II, as did 74 percent who read Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, which, come on, did we skim it? Les Misérables by Victor Hugo manages to have the opposite issue, with 69 percent of adults who didn’t read the book saying it takes place during the French Revolution, and 72 percent of those who did read the book. But it doesn’t! Les Misérables’ climax takes place during the 1832 June Rebellion, and even its earliest chapters take place a decade and a half after the French Revolution. I’m not really frustrated at the general population here, but if you claim you read 1,400 pages of translated French, I kind of hope more than one-third of you know when it’s occurring.

David Montgomery, YouGov

Shipping

A successful Ukrainian naval drone strike on two tankers heading towards Novorossiysk, a Russian port in the Black Sea, is sending the price of war risk insurance up on bodies of water. The Ukrainians are trying to hit Russia’s ability to finance their invasion, and restricting oil revenue is key to that. War risk insurance for the standard seven-day sea voyage for cargoes headed to Russian Black Sea ports was quoted at 0.65 percent to 0.8 percent on Monday, up from 0.6 percent last week. However, the strike cuts both ways: reciprocal attacks on Ukraine’s commercial fleet are a risk too. The cost to insure ships headed to Ukrainian ports rose from 0.4 percent of the value of the ship to 0.5 percent over the period.

Jonathan Saul, Reuters

Packaging

In 2014, the total volume of packaging in the United States stood at 85.8 million metric tons, which rose to 88.4 million metric tons in 2019. Over the following five years, packaging demand increased substantially. However, new efforts to reduce packaging waste meant that in 2024, 83.5 million metric tons of packaging waste were produced, which is 5 million metric tons lower than it would have been if the industry had not sought to reduce. By 2029, the volume of packaging produced is estimated to be 82 million to 89 million metric tons, meaning that the figure will essentially be unchanged over the decade.

Maria Rachal, Packaging Dive

Grazing

In the 1970s, Congress raised the fees to graze herds of animals on public lands in order to reflect market prices at the time, but they’ve barely moved the price since. Today, ranchers are charged just $1.35 per animal unit month (an AUM is the amount a cow and her calf eat in a month), which is 93 percent cheaper than what is charged on private lands. Two-thirds of all livestock grazing on the Bureau of Land Management’s land is controlled by 10 percent of ranchers, and the bottom half of permittees are responsible for just four percent of AUMs on BLM land. This amounts to a massive federal giveaway to the richest people in the cattle ranching industry. The $21 million collected from ranchers by the BLM and Forest Service is now $284 million below the market rate for forage.

Mark Olalde and Jimmy Tobias, High Country News

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