Numlock News: May 14, 2026 • Pirates, Bluey, Steve Jobs
By Daniel Parris
Walt is on vacation, today’s edition comes from Daniel Parris. He is the writer behind Stat Significant, a newsletter with data-centric essays about movies, music and TV. If you’ve ever wanted to see the data behind why people hate Nickelback, which movies popularized baby names or when we stop finding new music, check out the newsletter here.
Hello, everybody! Long-time reader; first-time guest editor here, excited to be curating an action-packed edition of Numlock. This issue has everything: numbers, cybercrime, Eurovision, article links and Steve Jobs. So with that, let’s begin.
Shiny Pirates
Canvas is an online learning management system that colleges use to organize course assignments, grades, quizzes and professor-student communications. The software serves as the central nervous system of modern college life. Last week offered an unfortunate case study in Canvas’s centrality to academia: What happens when the platform gets hacked right before finals? On May 7, a cybercriminal group called ShinyHunters took over Canvas, deactivating the site for more than 8,000 schools and 30 million users worldwide, and demanded a ransom payment by May 12. The ShinyHunters claimed to have terabytes of student data and threatened to leak this information if their demands were not met. By Friday, May 9, most universities were back online, meaning somebody got paid, or the hackers had a Grinch-like epiphany and decided to be kind to the 30 million students cramming for finals.
Jadrian Wooten, Monday Morning Economist
Bluey Supremacy
The most valuable show on television isn’t “Stranger Things,” “Wednesday” or “Severance,” but an Australian kid’s cartoon about a dog named Bluey. For parents of young children, this is painfully obvious. For everyone else, it’s surprising. One recent estimate suggests the Australian children’s show accounts for 29 percent of all Disney+ watch time, which raises an uncomfortable question for Disney: If “Bluey” were to run away, how much of that audience would leave with it? Historically, Disney and its subsidiary Hulu have captured a combined 25 percent of Nielsen’s weekly Top 10 streaming chart. But if you exclude “Bluey”—a series Disney does not actually own—along with other programs it licenses from outside networks, that combined share drops to eight percent. Coverage of the streaming wars typically focuses on expensive prestige shows like “The Rings of Power” and “WandaVision,” yet an outsized share of TV viewership goes to long-running cable programs dumped on streaming services, such as “NCIS,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Family Guy” and, of course, “Bluey.”
Daniel Parris, Stat Significant
Eurovision: Love, Empowerment and Peace
The Eurovision song contest is upon us, or as many Americans know it: the European version of “American Idol” that made ABBA famous. Little do these silly Americans know, this contest predates “American Idol” (and widespread awareness of Simon Cowell) by nearly 46 years. This global song competition is now 70 years old, which led internet researcher Giuseppe Sollazzo to a fun little brain teaser: What have they been singing about all this time, and how has the content of these songs changed over seven decades? Historically, around 55 percent of Eurovision entries are love songs, followed by themes of empowerment, peace and joy. However, in recent years, empowerment is giving love a run for its money. Since the early 2010s, tracks focused on empowerment and resilience have risen sharply and are poised to overtake songs about romantic love.
The Movies Are “So Back”
Four months into 2026, it seems like the movies may actually (kinda sorta) be “so back.” Year-to-date box office is up 18 percent compared to the same point last year, while the number of theatrical releases is outpacing every post-COVID year by at least 13 percent. Better yet, eight of the 12 highest-grossing films of 2026 are not tied to an existing franchise, suggesting that moviegoers may be willing to show up for something besides sequels, superheroes and soulless live-action remakes. If you woke up this morning hoping for five data-driven signs of an imminent theatrical resurgence, then good news: This article has six.
Daniel Parris, Stat Significant
$1 Steve Jobs
The U.S. Mint released a $1 coin honoring Steve Jobs on May 12 as part of its American Innovation Coin Program, which celebrates notable innovators and inventions associated with U.S. states. Past entries include the lightbulb (New Jersey), the Hubble Space Telescope (Maryland) and George Washington Carver (Missouri). Jobs was selected by California Governor Gavin Newsom as the state’s 2026 entry due to his “innovative and entrepreneurial spirit.” True to form, Jobs has turned a $1 coin into a premium product. Upon release of the Steve Jobs dollar, a 100-coin bag sold for $154.50, and a 25-coin roll retailed for $61 — prices that were actually too low. A total of 25,950 Steve Jobs dollar coins were minted and sold out almost immediately. Now, anyone seeking $1 of legal tender bearing Jobs’ likeness will have to pay $5 on eBay.
A Cheaper Netflix
Good news for anyone who likes watching true crime docuseries on the treadmill—Netflix is spending more on content this year. In Q1, the company invested $4.85 billion in programming, up from $3 billion during the same period in 2019. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos framed the uptick as evidence that “while other entertainment companies pull back, we’re leaning in.” Technically, he is right. But Netflix has grown dramatically since 2019, as has its revenue, so the better question is whether content spending has kept pace with the size of the business. When measured against revenue, Netflix’s content spending tells a very different story. In December 2019, the streamer spent $0.72 on content for every $1 of revenue; by March 2026, that ratio had fallen to $0.40 per $1. All that non-spending has paid off: Netflix’s margins have steadily improved, helping the company generate $46 billion in profit over the past decade.
Old Music is the New New Music
Are newly released songs losing their cultural foothold? By some measures, yes. Tracks released over 10 years ago now account for around 20 percent of the Spotify Top 100. As of this writing, the following songs have made the Spotify Top 100 every day for the last three months: “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers, “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac, “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls, “Creep” by Radiohead, “Sweater Weather” by The Neighbourhood and “505” by Arctic Monkeys. This growing appetite for older music has reshaped the chart itself: Songs are lingering in the Top 100 for longer, fewer new tracks are breaking through each year and, perhaps most surprisingly, the one-hit wonder may be going extinct.
Daniel Parris, Stat Significant
Check out more of Daniel’s work at Stat Significant.
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Based on a sample size of 1 (my family): Bluey EASILY accounts for 29% of our Disney+ streaming.
It’s also the best kids show ever.
I am going to pretend I didn't just read that these are now considered "old":
“Mr. Brightside” by The Killers, “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac, “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls, “Creep” by Radiohead, “Sweater Weather” by The Neighbourhood and “505” by Arctic Monkeys