Numlock News

Numlock News

Share this post

Numlock News
Numlock News
Numlock News: October 10, 2022 • Roller Coasters, Sabotage, Smile
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

Numlock News: October 10, 2022 • Roller Coasters, Sabotage, Smile

Oct 10, 2022
15

Share this post

Numlock News
Numlock News
Numlock News: October 10, 2022 • Roller Coasters, Sabotage, Smile
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
Share
By Walt Hickey

Welcome back!

Smiles All Around

The horror flick Smile made $17.6 million in its second week at the box office, which is a decline of only 22 percent compared to its debut last week. That’s one of the smallest drops ever for a horror movie, and a great sign for the movie as we enter into Halloween territory. Globally the movie’s up to $88.9 million, which is a great return for a $17 million budgeted film. The other big hit of the fall is the big hit of a decade ago, with this rerelease of Avatar making $71.9 million globally so far.

Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter

Accidents

The new iPhone models have a feature where if they detect a rapid deceleration, they can call 911 to report that the owner has been in a car accident if the owner does not disable the feature before the end of a 10-second countdown. While the uses are clear, there are already some goofs: For instance, the Warren County Communications Center provided a reporter with six iPhone crash detection calls from people who were riding roller coasters at Kings Island outside of Cincinnati.

Joanna Stern, The Wall Street Journal

Pigs

A suit from the National Pork Producers Council has made its way to the Supreme Court, with the livestock farmers challenging a 2018 referendum in California where 62 percent of voters supported a ban on the use of gestation crates and would require sows to be raised with 24 square feet of space. As it stands, 6 million pigs spend much of their lives in narrow crates as they breed more pigs. The agriculture industry claims that it’ll cost millions to implement, and the pig people are the maddest because California consumes 13 percent of the pork in the U.S. but produces less than 1 percent of it, meaning that the implementation of the fixes will have to come from out-of-state producers.

Kenny Torrella, Vox

Butter

The amount of butter the U.S. has in cold storage is down 22 percent compared to a year ago, and the average price of Grade AA Butter is up 80 percent year over year to $3.15 per pound. The reason for this is that seasonal milk production is down in lots of parts of the country, and as of August there were 11,000 fewer milk-producing cows on U.S. farms compared to a year ago. Dairy products that see seasonal surges in usage in the winter months like cream cheese and egg nog are also eating into supplies of milk that would otherwise go into butter.

Sarah Zimmerman, Food Dive

Sabotage

A Vermont town has been rocked by the revelation that a rogue water and wastewater superintendent who bought into a bunch of conspiracy theories singlehandedly slashed the fluoride in the water system, leading to decaying dental health in the area. Fluoride in water decreases cavities and tooth decay by 25 percent, and 73 percent of the United States population drinks water with fluoride added to protect teeth. Water fluoridation is a widespread and successful public health measure, and in Vermont public water systems that voluntarily fluoridate serve over half of residents.

Lisa Rathke, The Associated Press

Overbilling

Medicare Advantage, which is the program where private sector companies get paid by Medicare to offer health insurance, will soon account for half of Medicare enrollment. Corruption appears to be rampant: Eight of the 10 biggest Medicare Advantage insurers have submitted inflated bills according to audits, and there is between $12 billion and $25 billion a year in overbilling by the insurance companies. For perspective, the amount of money spent annually on NASA is $21.5 billion, so this is a serious chunk of funding being sucked up inappropriately.

Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz, The New York Times

Parts

A teardown analysis of the new iPhone 14 found that the cost of parts within the device is up about 20 percent compared to the previous round of phones, but Apple’s held the price steady and is thus likely eating a bunch of that cost. The price of the guts of the iPhone 14 Pro Max was estimated to be $501, up $60 from the estimated price of the iPhone 13 Pro Max. The main driver of that price increase was the A16 Bionic chip, which goes for $110, and is 2.4 times as expensive as the A15 chip in last year’s model.

Norio Matsumoto, Nikkei Asia

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: Mexican Beer · The Chaos Machine · [CENSORED] · Podcast Industrialization · Fantasy Shows · Law Dork · Chinese Box Office · Box Office Recovery · Giant Hornets · Graphic Novels ·

Infotainment · Nuclear Energy · Fast Fashion · Salty · Twitter Friction · Fangirls · Air Quality · Non-Colonial AI · The Reckoning · Hippos · Fixing Baseball ·
Booze Trials · Oprahdemics · Losing It · Sustainable Cities · F1 · Coughgeist · Black Panther · Car Dealerships · Black-Footed Ferret · Oil to Clothing · Just Like Us · How To Read This Chart · Pharma waste · Arcade Games · Blood in the Garden · Trading Cards · College Football
2020 Sunday Edition Archive
2019 Sunday Edition Archive
2018 Sunday Edition Archive

Subscribe to Numlock News

By Walter Hickey
The best way to start your morning. Numlock celebrates great stories buried in the news that you won't find elsewhere. It's snappy, funny, and informative, plus it's ad-free. Try it out and see why thousands of people wake up to Numlock every single day.
757sean's avatar
nkrempa's avatar
Colin's avatar
Ian Mark Sirota's avatar
Aram Zucker-Scharff's avatar
15 Likes
15

Share this post

Numlock News
Numlock News
Numlock News: October 10, 2022 • Roller Coasters, Sabotage, Smile
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
Share

Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Numlock New: June 26, 2024 • Manga, Oscars, Glauconite
By Walt Hickey
Jun 26, 2024
28

Share this post

Numlock News
Numlock News
Numlock New: June 26, 2024 • Manga, Oscars, Glauconite
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
1
Numlock News: January 23, 2023 • Flo Rida, Carp, Reactors
By Walt Hickey
Jan 23, 2023
15

Share this post

Numlock News
Numlock News
Numlock News: January 23, 2023 • Flo Rida, Carp, Reactors
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
1
Numlock News: April 7, 2022 • Concerts, The Legend of Zelda, Manure
By Walt Hickey
Apr 7, 2022
12

Share this post

Numlock News
Numlock News
Numlock News: April 7, 2022 • Concerts, The Legend of Zelda, Manure
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

Ready for more?

© 2025 Walt Hickey
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

Create your profile

User's avatar

Only paid subscribers can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.