Numlock News: March 11, 2025 • Flares, Pokémon, Sakura

Mar 11, 2025

Ne Zha

Chinese animated film Ne Zha 2 grossed another 274.9 million yuan (US$38.2 million). It now sits at a cumulative US$2.04 billion at the box office, the first-ever Chinese film to do so and surpassing Avengers: Infinity War to become the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time. Interestingly enough, Detective Chinatown 1900 has had a pretty remarkable run of its own at the cinema, good for US$484 million. While it’s obviously been somewhat overshadowed by Ne Zha 2’s record-smashing run, it is still more than enough to be the second-highest-grossing film of 2025 so far globally.

Naman Ramachandran, Variety

Pokémon

In February, out of the top 25 sealed trading card game products on the TCGplayer ranking 17 of the best-selling packs belonged to the Pokémon franchise, up from 14 of the slots back in January. This performance is a level of dominance not typically seen within the trading card business. Pokémon has been squeezing the competition. While Magic: The Gathering grabbed four slots and Yu-Gi-Oh pulled in 1 entry in 6th place (which is typical given the limited variety of products that Yu-Gi-Oh keeps out there). There is a notable absence of Disney Lorcana, the trading card game from Disney which has been bounced from the list entirely. Perhaps this is altogether fitting for the Disney IP to be foundering just after the conglomerate so callously and cold-bloodedly murdered the beloved and iconic character, Fivey The Fox.

Jeffrey Dohm-Sanchez, ICV2

Unagi

A Yale-NUS College team wanted to find out just how often endangered eels ended up on dinner plates, examining 327 individual eel products purchased at 86 retailers in Singapore and running genetic testing to find out the eels’ origins. The European eel is critically endangered and export outside of Europe is tightly regulated. Even so, three of the sampled eels were European. The American eel is less at risk than its European counterpart but is still considered an endangered species. However, with no special protections regarding their export, 217 pieces of examined products were of the American eel.

Yale-NUS College

AO3

The preeminent repository of fanfiction on the internet is AO3, or Archive of our Own, and annual data reports of romantic ships between characters are assiduously compiled annually, helping define the contours of intense fandom. One thing it also reveals is the long-term evolution of AO3 — a website with 8 million registered users, a billion visits per month, good for the 18th most popular website in the United States — and of the gradual shifts in what its users are into. One fascinating shift is the increase in female/female shipping, which has risen from 5 percent of fanfic in 2010 to 15 percent today. Also compelling is the rise of the rest: of the 58,000 fandoms on AO3, more than half have fewer than 10 fics and the top 2.5 percent of fandoms have over 1,000 each. This reveals that lots of smaller, more niche fandoms are still in the vast ocean of fanfic and that the prominent hits (Supernatural, Sherlock, etc) are just the tip of the iceberg.

Allegra Rosenberg, Polygon

Cars

According to annual surveys of new car buyers, those who had positive feelings about the intuitiveness of their vehicle’s controls have fallen from 79 percent in 2015 to just 56 percent as of 2024. This trend is also holding steady for driver perceptions of dashboard displays and screen interfaces. Some problems seem to be the result of over-engineering. Owners of battery electric vehicles reported 0.2 per 100 vehicles having difficulty using their door handles. As of 2020, this figure is now much higher at a rate of 3.1 problems per 100 vehicles.

Joe Pinsker, The Wall Street Journal

Sakura

The Japan Meteorological Corp. is forecasting that cherry blossoms will begin to bloom in Tokyo on March 23, with sakura viewing beginning in Nagoya on March 29, Osaka on March 30 and up north in Sapporo on April 27. This would put this year relatively on time with the previous three decades of cherry blossom opening, a massive tourism draw in Japan. Nationally, Kansai University researchers peg the economic impact of sakura viewing at 1.38 trillion yen (US$9.4 billion).

Chihiro Ishikawa, Nikkei Asia

Flares

Data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows that flickering in the loops of plasma in the sun’s atmosphere — the corona — can often signal the possibility of a large solar flare. According to a heliophysicist at Predictive Science, the loops could be studied. In some cases, 1 to 2 hours’ warning of a solar flare — with 60 to 80 percent accuracy — might be achieved. Flares on the sun’s eastern limb will head away from the Earth, but those on the western limb could very well hit us. A European Space Agency mission called Vigil is due to launch in 2031 and will offer an exciting new angle, giving us a sideways perspective and aiding with the forecast.

Chris Simms, Scientific American

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