Numlock News: September 9, 2026 • Reservoirs, Renoirs, Probiotics

Sep 09, 2026

By Walt Hickey

The Walking Dead

Five producers of the AMC hit The Walking Dead have made a deal with the networks for a $120 million settlement, avoiding a federal trial set for October. The lawsuit traces back to 2017, when the producers alleged that AMC pulled off some Hollywood accounting related to an innovative definition of “modified adjusted gross receipts” to deprive them of a cut of a franchise that generated billions of dollars and propped up the network for years. The producers had a setback in 2022 when a judge ruled they were not cheated, but in the intervening period, AMC cut a deal with series creator Frank Darabont for $200 million, which opened up a new line of legal argument.

Gene Maddaus, Variety

Television

From 2022 to 2025, the number of United States-produced linear television content orders fell from 1,773 to 1,304 shows, a decline of 26 percent. That’s a big drop, but it’s a pretty solid hold compared to the bloodbath among streaming shows, where orders fell from 1,144 shows in 2022 to just 678 in 2025. On television, the bad news has mostly been on cable: Network orders dropped from 408 to 352. But on television, where subscribers are down 56 percent since 2016, the number of series orders dropped 33 percent, from 1,295 shows to 877 shows. Since 2024, 52 percent of all new scripted series were franchise-based, as networks go for sure bets rather than take any risks.

Erik Gruenwedel, Media Play News

Probiotics

A new study found that consumption of probiotic supplements has increased sharply over the past several years, while just consuming generally probiotic foods is otherwise flat, with fiber intake not meaningfully changing over the course of the study from 2009 to 2023. People do love those supplements, though: Probiotics are up 287 percent among adults from 2009 to 2023, and up 786 percent among people under the age of 20. The percentage of young people taking probiotic supplements increased from 0.63 percent in 2009 to 5.58 percent in 2023.

Sam Page, University of Michigan

Reservoirs

Half of the United States’ 90,000 reservoirs are more than a quarter filled with sediment, with the country having lost eight percent of its water storage capacity, according to a new study. The capacity of the nation’s reservoirs peaked in the 1970s, and slowly diminished thanks to sediment buildup. It’s a problem not just for storage capacity — huge water reservoir investments by definition get worse every year — but also for hydroelectric components in dams since the sediment can cause damage.

Kyle Stock and Kyle Kim, Bloomberg

Battery

The warranty of electric vehicle batteries typically covers eight years or 100,000 miles (160,000 km), where the manufacturer is required to provide a replacement if capacity goes below 70 percent. According to a new study, the median health of a battery after 150,000 kilometers is actually pretty great, with the batteries for 20 popular EV models all coming in between 87 percent and 94 percent of their original capacity. The median state of health was between 91 and 97 percent after 50,000 kilometers and 88 to 95 percent after 100,000 miles. The best performer was the EQA from Mercedes-Benz, which had a median 94.0 percent capacity after 150,000 kilometers, followed by the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (93.8 percent) and the BMW i4 (93.6 percent).

Kana Inagaki and Clara Murray, Financial Times

Renoir

Two paintings by the impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir were stolen from the Renoir Museum near Nice. Thieves attempted to steal four paintings but dropped two as they fled, with the museum’s alarm triggering at 5:48 a.m., prompting a police response within five minutes. The museum has a collection of 13 Renoir paintings and 40 sculptures. According to authorities, the stolen paintings, Madame Colonna Romano (1910) and Jeune femme au puits (1886), have an estimated value of $9 million.

Gareth Harris, The Art Newspaper

Rocks

A new analysis found the location of the quarry for the Devils Arrows in northern England, which are 23-foot-tall, 25-ton stones that constitute the tallest surviving prehistoric stone row. The researchers accomplished this with a low-impact sampling method that used tape to grab tiny mineral grains from the stones without cause damage. It turns out that the stones were likely taken from a challenging landscape 18 kilometers away. Given that this was done sometime around 2000 BC, that’s no small feat.

Curtin University

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Numlock News is written each day by Walt Hickey. Email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news. Every post is entirely by a human; send corrections or typos to the copy desk at copy@numlock.news. If you enjoy Numlock, tell a friend, word of mouth is the only way that independent publications like this one grow.

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