Mark Fischbach, the YouTube creator known as Markiplier who has spent nearly 15 years building an audience of more than 38 million subscribers by playing indie-horror video games on camera, has pulled off something that most independent filmmakers never manage -- a self-financed, self-distributed debut feature that has grossed more than $30 million domestically against a $3 million budget.

Iron Lung, a 127-minute sci-fi adaptation of a video game Fischbach wrote, directed, starred in, and edited himself, opened to $18.3 million in its first weekend and has since doubled that figure worldwide in just two weeks, nearly matching the $19.1 million debut of Send Help, a $40 million thriller from Disney-owned 20th Century Studios. Fischbach declined deals from traditional distributors and instead spent months booking theaters privately, encouraging fans to reserve tickets online; when prospective viewers found the film wasn't screening in their city, they called local cinemas to request it, eventually landing Iron Lung on more than 3,000 screens across North America -- all without a single paid media campaign.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Britain has lost more than 14,000 pubs since 2009, a decline from roughly 54,000 registered public houses and bars to under 40,000 by 2022, according to a new analysis of UK business register data by data analyst Lauren Leek. The North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands lost 25 to 30% of their stock; London saw the smallest decline.

Leek trained a random forest model on 49,840 pubs and found spatial isolation -- how far a pub stood from its nearest neighbour -- was the single strongest predictor of closure. Median nearest-neighbour distance for surviving pubs is roughly 280 metres; for closed pubs, 640 metres. Each closure pushes remaining pubs further into isolation, a dynamic Leek calls a "spatial death spiral."

Much of that isolation traces to ownership. Stonegate, Britain's largest pub company and a holding of PE firm TDR Capital, carries over $4 billion in debt from its 2019 leveraged acquisition of Ei Group. PE-backed and overseas-owned companies now control roughly a quarter to a third of all British pubs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Het restant van de gestaakte wedstrijd tussen Spart en NEC is in een remise geëindigd. Op het Kasteel kwamen de Spartanen sterk voor de dag, maar bleef Sparta steken op 1-1. Met dit gelijke spel blijft de ploeg van Steijn op de vijfde plek staan in de eredivisie.

AMSTERDAM (ANP) - Onlinesupermarkt en bezorgdienst Picnic waarschuwt klanten de premium runderbavette van leverancier 't Slagershuys niet te eten. Het product kan de schadelijke STEC bacterie, een soort E. coli, bevatten.

Volgens Picnic is bij controle van het product de schadelijke Shiga-toxine producerende E. coli bacterie (STEC) aangetroffen. Het eten van producten met die bacterie kan zorgen voor ernstige ziekte, met name bij mensen met een lagere weerstand.

De waarschuwing geldt voor de premium runderbavette van 500 gram met EAN code 8719218025201 en een houdbaarheidsdatum van 02/01/2028.

Personen die de bavette al gegeten hebben en gezondheidsklachten hebben ontwikkeld, wordt geadviseerd contact op te nemen met hun huisarts.

rajbhoy has added a photo to the pool:

Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthos spp.). At the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney, NSW Australia

• Juventus lead twice but go down 5-2 in playoff 1st leg

• Juan Cabal sent off at 3-2; Noa Lang and Gabriel Sara star

Galatasaray delivered a dominant performance to dismantle 10-man Juventus 5-2 in the first leg of their Champions League playoff, with Noa Lang and Gabriel Sara starring in a scintillating display.

The hosts took the lead in the 15th minute when the Brazilian Sara struck a thunderous long-range shot that left Michele Di Gregorio with no chance. However, Juventus equalised almost instantly when Teun Koopmeiners reacted quickly after Pierre Kalulu’s header was saved by Ugurcan Cakir, converting the rebound in the 16th minute.

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The average person does not need to be adding electrolytes to their water

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Attitudes towards hydration have become another fault line in the generational divide: while the giant “emotional support” water bottle is ubiquitous among gen Z, those of writer Ian McEwan’s vintage find the modern obsession with hydration “deranged”. McEwan and his ilk will be even more perplexed then that even those guzzling from their Stanley Cups throughout the day are being told they are still not sufficiently hydrating themselves.

Influencers are telling their followers they “don’t understand what hydration is” if they’re not adding electrolytes such as sodium and chloride (salt) as well as magnesium and potassium to their water to help their cells “hold on to and use” it. Often spruiking the sachets wellness companies are selling, they claim these fancy salt formulations are essential to avoid migraines and muscle cramps, anxiety and mood swings. Some TikTokers are adding these sachets alongside other ingredients such as coloured ice cubes, edible glitter and fruit into the aforementioned massive cup in a trend known as “loaded water”.

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De Noor Tormod Frostad heeft dinsdagavond goud gewonnen in de finale van het freestyleskiën big air voor mannen.

I think I’d heard the term “k-shaped economy” somewhere before but didn’t really know what it meant until I watched this video:

American Airlines is changing the layout of some of their aircraft to add 31 first class and premium seats while cutting out 73 economy seats. This is the hot new trend in air travel: pulling out all the stops to cater to the wealthy.

Airlines are adding suites with more bed space, privacy doors, an extra ottoman for guests. They’re offering caviar, free PJs, luxury skin care products, and multi-course meals with wine pairings made by gourmet chefs. They’re also building more airport lounges. Meanwhile, economy is getting more cramped and low-cost carriers are going bankrupt. It’s because wealthy passengers are where the money’s at.

For years, airlines have made more money from their credit cards than from actually flying passengers around. And these days, premium seating is bringing in more revenue than the economy cabin. It’s a perfect example of the K-shaped economy.

Here’s an AP article about the K-shaped economy from late last year.

Corporate executives are paying attention and in some cases explicitly adjusting their businesses to account for it. They are seeking ways to sell more high-priced items to the wealthy while also reducing package sizes and taking other steps to target struggling consumers.

Tags: business · economics · USA · video