Numlock News: October 9, 2018
By Walt Hickey
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Fish
The Tsukiji market — the world’s oldest and biggest fish market — in Tokyo is moving locations for the first time in 80 years. The move has been under discussion for 17 years and began on Saturday. On a typical day $14 million worth of seafood — 1,628 tons of edible stuff hauled out of the ocean — moves through the market. This includes some 480 types of seafood and 270 types of other produce. The cost of moving the market is about $3.45 billion.
Trust
I’ve been reading some news lately, and I get this strong suspicion that sometimes people don’t trust the government that much. Me? I confess I’m more on the Mulder end of the trust-the-authorities spectrum than the Scully end, more Team Captain America than Team Ironman on a couple of fronts, sure. But it turns out that lots of people have pretty robust trust in their government, at least when it’s the local one. Right now 72 percent of Americans have either a great deal or a fair amount of respect in their local government, compared to 63 percent who say the same about their state government.
Women with Capes
A new BBC America and Women’s Media Center survey of boys and girls aged 10 to 19 found that 65 percent of girls think there are not enough strong or relatable characters of their gender in film and television, and 63 percent say there are not enough role models of their gender on the screen. This is considerably higher than the numbers for young men. For boys, 40 percent said there were not enough relatable characters, 34 percent said there were not enough strong male characters, and 35 percent said there were not enough male role models, which I interpret to mean that close to 40 percent of boys are unfamiliar with Hawkeye, my own personal role model.
Russian Support for Putin
A new survey found that trust in President Vladimir Putin has fallen to 39 percent among Russians. That’s down 20 percent since last November and down 9 percent since June. Re-elected in March with 76 percent of the vote, last week Putin signed a bill raising the retirement age for women and men to 60 and 65, respectively: a move opposed by many Russians.
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Venezuela
A member of Venezuela’s opposition-run congress reported that consumer prices rose 488,865 percent in the 12 months ending in September. The nation is headed towards an economic collapse, with inflation of 233 percent in September and a daily inflation of 4 percent. In a state of total economic collapse, the International Monetary Fund estimates that consumer prices in Venezuela would rise 1,000,000 percent in 2018.
Google
Google, that company that I trust with literally all my data, has reported a staggering data leak, where 496,951 users of the social network Google+ may have had their data accessed by an outside developer. I know what you’re thinking — that’s a ridiculous number of people for Google to claim were using its terrible social network — but up to 438 applications had access to unauthorized data since 2015.
Douglas MacMillan and Robert McMillan, The Wall Street Journal
Christmas
The Hallmark Channel has added the 37th original Christmas movie to its forthcoming holiday season slate, topping the previous record of 33. The film — Last Vermont Christmas — joins other new films like Christmas at Pemberley Manor; It’s Christmas, Eve; Christmas in Love; Christmas Everlasting; Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane; Christmas Joy; Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas; Reunited at Christmas; Entertaining Christmas; Jingle Around the Clock; Small Town Christmas; Christmas Made to Order; Christmas Bells Are Ringing; When Calls the Heart Christmas; Road to Christmas; Marrying Father Christmas; A Shoe Addict’s Christmas; Welcome to Christmas; Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa; Northern Lights of Christmas; Christmas with the Siblings Jolly; A Veteran’s Christmas; Christmas at Graceland; Return to Christmas Creek; Mingle all the Way; A Godwink Christmas; Hope at Christmas; Christmas at the Palace; Christmas at Grand Valley; Pride, Prejudice and Mistletoe; A Majestic Christmas; Homegrown Christmas; Memories of Christmas; Once Upon a Christmas Miracle; Christmas Wonderland; A Gingerbread Romance; and Midnight Kiss. Also, I made one of those up, and the first person to guess it and email it to me gets a free annual paid subscription.
Dan Snierson, Entertainment Weekly
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