🔗 Articles: Friday 24.May.2024
Just do it!
Vox: Besides Ticketmaster and scalpers, why are concert tickets are so expensive?
The fact is, concerts have steadily gotten more expensive even on the primary market — the place where someone can originally buy tickets, like Ticketmaster — before any scalper upcharge is added. According to the live music trade publication Pollstar, the average ticket price of the top 100 music tours last year was $122.84. In 2019 it was $91.86 — a rise that outpaced inflation by a good margin. Back in 2000, it was $40.74. For the top 10 grossing tours in 2023, the average price was even higher: $152.97.
Though there are a number of factors involved in this price creep (including high fees, which a 2018 Government Accountability Office report says make up an average of 27 percent of the ticket’s total cost), the heart of the matter is simple: demand. People all over the world are clamoring to go to just a handful of the most popular artists’ concerts. Live Nation reported that 145 million people attended one of its shows in 2023, compared to 98 million in 2019. The momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing, with ticket sales in the first quarter of 2024 higher than they were this time last year.
CNN: Michael Richards talks 2006 racist rant, but he’s ‘not looking for a comeback’
“I was a good character actor, but I was comfortable being the character, not in being me,” Richards told the publication.
“I said no to the offer of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I didn’t feel deserving,” he also said. “I said no to hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ twice because I didn’t feel good enough. I was never really satisfied with my Seinfeld performance. Fame magnified my insecurities.”
NYT: Supreme Court Justice Alito’s Beach House Displayed ‘Appeal to Heaven’ Flag
Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs.
This time, it was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.
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The disclosure about the new flag is troubling, several ethics experts said in interviews, because it ties Justice Alito more closely to symbols associated with the attempted election subversion on Jan. 6, and because it was displayed as the obstruction case was first coming for consideration by the court.
As a Supreme Court judge, you think he’d understand the importance of the separation of church and state, wouldn’t you?
Ars Technica: Apple clarifies iOS 17.5 bug that exposed deleted photos
The company claimed that when users reported the photos resurfacing on a device other than the one they were originally deleted on, it was always because they had restored from a backup other than iCloud Photos or performed a direct transfer from one device to another.
Wired: Don’t Believe the Biggest Myth About Heat Pumps
Not only do heat pumps work fine in cold weather, they’re still more efficient than gas furnaces in such conditions.
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If heat pumps don’t actually work in frigid weather, no one told the Nordic nations, which endure Europe’s coldest climates, with average winter temperatures around 0degrees Celsius (32 degrees F). As of 2021, Norway had heat pumps in 60 percent of households. In 2022, Finland installed more of the appliances per capita than any other country in Europe, while Sweden has similarly gone all-in on the technology. In the United States, heat pumps are selling like hotcakes in Alaska, and last year Maine announced it had reached its goal of installing 100,000 of the devices way ahead of schedule. These places ain’t exactly perpetually sunny California. (US-wide, heat pumps now outsell gas furnaces.)
via John, Apple News+
Electrek: Nissan preps next-gen LEAF EV production, but challenges await
With trials expected to run for six months, Nissan could begin next-gen LEAF production as early as March 2025. We could see Nissan’s electric car debut before the end of the year. However, that’s if everything goes smoothly.
via John
NewsNation: RFK Jr. makes Florida ballot with help of Reform Party
As independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues his quest to make it on the ballot in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and qualify for the upcoming presidential debates, he’s now succeeded in Florida.
The Reform Party of the United States has nominated Kennedy as its presidential candidate, allowing him to appear on the Florida ballot. He is hoping to peel voters away from both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, with a platform that includes a mix of positions appealing to voters on both sides of the aisle.
He asked the Reform Party for help in his effort to qualify in all states. The party defines itself as a moderate, centrist party founded in 1996 by supporters of independent candidate Ross Perot, who ran for the presidency in 1992.
NewsNation: Eastern Oregon residents pass ‘Greater Idaho’ measure
Residents in Crook County, Oregon, approved the “Greater Idaho” measure Tuesday that would require the county to proceed with efforts to secede from the state and join Idaho.
Voters passed the measure with 53%, making it the 13th county in eastern Oregon to approve it.
NewsNation: US taxpayers pushing back on multibillion-dollar stadium plans
Despite opposition, city officials continue to preach the benefits pro franchises provide despite promised economic benefits that Ganis, the stadium expert, says should always be taken with a grain of salt.
“It’s really the haves and the have-nots,” Christina Giunchigliani, former Clark County Board told the New York Times. “If they really wanted to diversify the economy, does sports add a component? Yes. But they didn’t need public tax dollars to do it.”
Daring Fireball: Publishing AI Slop Is a Choice
From a New York Times story by Nico Grant, under the headline “Google’s A.I. Search Errors Cause a Furor Online”:
With each mishap, tech industry insiders have criticized the company for dropping the ball. But in interviews, financial analysts said Google needed to move quickly to keep up with its rivals, even if it meant growing pains.
Google “doesn’t have a choice right now,” Thomas Monteiro, a Google analyst at Investing.com, said in an interview. “Companies need to move really fast, even if that includes skipping a few steps along the way. The user experience will just have to catch up.”
That quote is insane. There’s no reason Google had to enable this feature now. None. If their search monopoly has been losing share recently, it’s not because of rivals who are serving up AI-generated slop. It’s because even before this, Google’s search results quality was slipping in obvious ways. This is just making it worse.
BBC: Royal Mail investigated by Ofcom for missing delivery targets
Royal Mail is being investigated by Ofcom after the service failed to deliver less than three quarters of first-class post on time in the last year.
In its yearly financial results on Friday, Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services (IDS) said only 74.5% of first-class mail was delivered within one working day.
Regulator Ofcom’s rules state 93% of first-class mail must be delivered within the timeframe, excluding Christmas.
Something similar should be set up for Canada Post.
CBC: Mexico is about to experience its ‘highest temperatures ever recorded’ as death toll climbs
The extreme heat smothering much of Mexico has killed dozens of people across multiple states.
The jury reached their verdict after less than a day of deliberations.
First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years — the sentence imposed by Superior Court Justice Harrison Arrell. He described their Karafa and Li’s actions as “the most heinous crimes of violence” noting that Pratt and Romano were unarmed, unsuspecting victims.
NYT: Fast Food Forever: How McHaters Lost the Culture War
Super Size Me helped lead a backlash against McDonald’s. Twenty years on, the industry is bigger than ever.
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It would have been easy to call the cultural moment a brand crisis for fast food.
But two decades later, not only is McDonald’s bigger than ever, with nearly 42,000 global locations, but fast food in general has boomed. There are now some 40 chains with more than 500 locations in the United States. Fast food is the second-largest private employment sector in the country, after hospitals, and about 36 percent of Americans — more than 115 million people — eat fast food on any given day. The three major appeals of fast food remain intact: It’s cheap, it’s convenient and people like the way it tastes.
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The stock price of McDonald’s hit an all-time high in January, and has gone up nearly 1,000 percent since Super Size Me came out — nearly twice the return of the S&P 500.
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It would have been easy to call the cultural moment a brand crisis for fast food.
But two decades later, not only is McDonald’s bigger than ever, with nearly 42,000 global locations, but fast food in general has boomed. There are now some 40 chains with more than 500 locations in the United States. Fast food is the second-largest private employment sector in the country, after hospitals, and about 36 percent of Americans — more than 115 million people — eat fast food on any given day. The three major appeals of fast food remain intact: It’s cheap, it’s convenient and people like the way it tastes.
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The stock price of McDonald’s hit an all-time high in January, and has gone up nearly 1,000 percent since Super Size Me came out — nearly twice the return of the S&P 500.
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In 2016, 91 percent of parents reported buying lunch or dinner for their child in the past week from one of the four biggest chains — a significant increase compared with the 79 percent who did in 2010 and the 83 percent in 2013.
Last Updated: 24.May.2024 23:30 EDT