Numlock News: October 25, 2022 • In-Flight Movies, Cyanide, Pickleball

Oct 25, 2022

In-Flight Movies

The industry for in-flight entertainment is a $250 million to $300 million per year industry, as the companies behind films, television, music and now even podcasts and streamers cut deals with the airlines for their wares. The distributors love it because you’re talking 674 million passengers a year in the U.S. as of 2021 and they need something to do with those 1.3 billion eyeballs for a few hours, and maybe that’s Morbius. The airlines like it because while in-flight WiFi is more available than ever, the reality is that in-flight WiFi simply cannot support hundreds of personal devices at the same time, and those onboard screens have an in-air server they can draw movies and television from to keep people entertained even if Twitter is slow.

Kirsten Chuba, The Hollywood Reporter

California

California’s economy has been growing steadily while the global economy has at times faltered, and as a result it’s poised to surpass Germany to become the fourth-largest economy on the planet, despite their total inability to produce fast trains, a decent bagel, or a toilet for a dime less than $1.7 million. It jumped seventh-place Brazil and sixth-place France in 2015, and in 2017 it passed the United Kingdom, and has been in fifth place since. The current figures won’t be published until next year, but both Germany and California have a GDP of $3.5 trillion, and one forecast puts California up $72 billion over Germany. I for one look forward to Berlin becoming awash in fine dining restaurants for dogs, fresh pressed juice, avocado toast and guys who say they’re going to move to Austin, all in a quest to regain their place.

Matthew A. Winkler, Bloomberg

Charged

The U.S. Department of Justice filed charges against two suspected Chinese spies who allegedly attempted to interfere in a criminal investigation of technology company Huawei. According to the government, the pair of alleged agents attempted to bribe a government employee that they believed they had recruited to steal information about the criminal probe into Huawei. That government employee was, in fact, a double agent and gave false information provided by the FBI. The pair also faces counts of money laundering regarding $61,000 worth of bitcoin they used to fund the campaign. According to the feds, a new counterintelligence case against China is being opened once every 12 hours.

Scott Nover, Quartz

Pickleball

The expansion fee to buy into a new franchise in Major League Pickleball is up to $1 million. The league — which seeks to capitalize on the rise of the racquet sport across the country — launched in 2021 with eight teams, and as of the completion of the 2022 season sat at 12 teams. In 2023, the league seeks to expand to 16 teams and hold six events with some $2 million in prize money. While the sport has grown substantially in the past several years — participation was up 39 percent from 2019 to 2021, and can claim 4.8 million players — it’s not entirely clear that people actually want to watch it.

Kurt Badenhausen, Sportico

Vidio

In many countries around the world, the most popular streaming services are the same as the most popular services around the world in general: things like Netflix, Amazon and Disney+. Not in Indonesia, where a local player has successfully dominated the industry and put international competition on its heels. Vidio is now the fastest-growing streaming service in the country, and claims 60 million viewers per month in a country of 270 million. It’s the top over-the-top platform in Southeast Asia, and in large part it’s because of an emphasis on local sports and local dramas. While Netflix plans to produce seven new Indonesian titles, this year Vidio will pump out 37 new titles, and next year it’s aiming for 40.

Antonia Timmerman, Rest of World

Fish

About 3 million homes in the United States have saltwater fish as pets, but it’s incredibly difficult to ensure that the fish bought were obtained in an ethical or sustainable manner. The collection of saltwater aquarium fish for export started in Sri Lanka in the 1930s, but today 7.6 million saltwater fish are imported to the United States a year. The issue comes with reefs being picked clean at an unsustainable level, or when divers use cyanide as a way to temporarily stun reef fish with negative impacts on the overall environment, or fatal effects later on in the supply chain. While the Lacey Act technically banned trafficking in fish caught using cyanide, there’s no record-keeping or testing available and it’s impossible to know that by the time the fish arrives on American shores.

Victoria Milko, Firdia Lisnawati and Kathy Young, The Associated Press

Debt

This Election Day the state of Arizona will vote on Proposition 209, a clever ballot initiative that would take on pervasive medical debt in the state. If approved, the proposition would cap interest rates on medical debt at 3 percent and limit the ability of debt collectors to seize a home, automobile, or possessions or garnish wages in the event of medical debt. The initiative is the brainchild of Healthcare Rising Arizona, which is betting that a plebiscite will allow the popular debt relief measures to get around a state government where allies of large business interests oppose it as legislation. About 41 percent of all adults have medical debt, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. If the measure passes, the blueprint could go national; right now only 14 states cap interest rates for medical debt.

Dylan Scott, Vox

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