Supply Chain Hall of Fame is the nation’s newest physical hall of fame

When Irish rock band The Script wrote their 2012 hit song “Hall of Fame,” I doubt they would have considered the newest physical hall of fame, which opened Oct. 8. It’s the Supply Chain Hall of Fame in Rogers, Arkansas.
The Supply Chain Hall of Fame honors industry professionals whose innovations have improved manufacturing, materials transportation, delivery and logistics. The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals created the hall of fame in 2016.
Inductees include automaker Henry Ford and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. Lesser-known inductees include George Raymond Sr., inventor of the wooden pallet and pallet jack, and George Laurer, an IBM engineer who devised the coding and pattern used for the universal product code.
The physical hall is affiliated with the Walton College of Business of the University of Arkansas. It includes exhibits as well as conference and event space.

Related resources:

Map of physical halls of fame in North America (currently includes 471 halls).

Netflix DVD business still alive and kicking, for now

Netflix’s legacy DVD-by-mail business barely manages a footnote in the streaming video giant’s financial statements these days. But the U.S.-only business, now called DVD.com, is still hanging in there.
This week, Netflix said its DVD business generated $59 million in revenue in the third quarter. That’s down 18% from the same period last year.
The pace of revenue decline has been slowing this year. Revenue in the DVD unit dropped 20% year over year in the first quarter and 19% in the second quarter.
Netflix stopped giving subscriber numbers and profit figures for the DVD business at the end of 2019. As of Dec. 31, 2019, the Netflix DVD service had 2.15 million subscribers.
Netflix is clearly letting the DVD business wither on the vine. The company doesn’t promote the service, other than through social media accounts.
Netflix likely would shut down the business rather than sell it to someone who could reinvigorate it. The big question is when that will happen. The main determining factor is the profitability of the business. But Netflix is keeping that information to itself now.
So long as Hollywood studios keep producing movies on physical media, there will be a place for DVD.com and Redbox. But once they go all digital, that will be the end for sure.

Related articles:

Netflix Generated $59 Million in Q3 Legacy Disc Rental Revenue (Media Play News; Oct. 20, 2020)

Why Are 2 Million People Still Getting Netflix DVDs by Mail? (Wired; Sept. 16, 2020)

Will Netflix’s DVD Rental Biz Finally Succumb to the ‘Kneecapping’ of the U.S. Postal Service? (Next TV; Sept. 16, 2020)

Photo: Ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s called Netflix & Chill’d. (Netflix)

Celebrities threatening to leave the U.S. if Trump is re-elected

Before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, about two dozen celebrities made empty promises to move out of the country if Donald Trump was elected.
Four years later, with polls firmly showing Trump losing re-election, Hollywood celebrities haven’t been making such promises in the same numbers. But a few have raised the possibility. They include actress Kate Mulgrew, actor Alan Cumming, singer John Legend and his wife, model Chrissy Teigen. The list also includes rockers Bruce Springsteen, Tommy Lee and Stevie Nicks.
Mulgrew, star of “Star Trek: Voyager” and “Orange Is the New Black,” promised to move to Ireland if Trump gets re-elected. She has family ties to Ireland. (See articles by Irish Central and RTE.)
Scottish-born Cumming is a dual citizen of the U.S. and U.K. He currently lives in New York. He said he may leave his adopted home if Trump is re-elected. (See article by the Daily Mail.)
Legend said he and Teigen are so “exhausted” and “embarrassed” by Trump’s leadership that they’ve considered leaving the country. (See articles by Cosmopolitan and Inquisitr.)
Springsteen said he might hop on a plane to Australia if Trump wins re-election. (See Fox News article.)
Lee vowed to leave the U.S. if Trump wins a second term in office. He said he might move to Greece if Trump wins. (See articles by the Hill, CNN and Fox News.)
Nicks said she’s leaving the country if Trump wins again. (See articles by Variety and Outsider.)
Meanwhile, President Trump joked that he may flee the country if he loses to Democrat Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 election. (See articles by the Daily Mail and Business Insider.)

Related reading:

Celebrities who vowed to leave the country before a Trump presidency. (Tech-media-tainment; Jan. 20, 2017)

Photo: President Donald Trump from the Trump 2020 campaign website.

CES 2021 will be a literal pain in the butt

The Consumer Technology Association on Thursday revealed a few more details about its all-digital CES 2021 conference to be held Jan. 11-14. The Covid-19 pandemic forced the trade group to cancel its massive in-person conference in Las Vegas and replace it with an online show.
During its digital CES Unveiled event for the European tech industry on Thursday, Karen Chupka, executive vice president of CES, provided a brief update on what is planned for CES 2021.
“From the comfort of your home or your office, you’re going to get to network, set appointments and view the latest in technology,” she said. “And for the first time ever, our CES keynotes are going to be viewed across the globe.”
CES 2021 programming will run from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, she said. That means you could watch 14 straight hours of programming from your PC during the show. That’s a marathon sitting session. It’s unknown if programming will overlap like it does at the physical show.
“Our first-ever all-digital CES platform will create a great experience for our exhibitors and attendees,” Chupka said. “But you won’t see that platform used here today for Unveiled. And we can’t wait for you to get a glimpse at it at CES 2021.”
For CES Unveiled, the association used the ON24 Platform from San Francisco-based ON24. The format provided a decent video experience, but with no interactivity, downloadable presentations or archived video.

Fall TV season 2020: ‘Bly Manor,’ ‘Helstrom,’ ‘WandaVision’ top watchlist

The 2020 fall television season is the strangest one ever with U.S. broadcast and cable TV networks filling their programming slots with game shows and reality TV, shows from Canada and the U.K., and series that previously aired on streaming services. That’s because the Covid-19 pandemic cratered their production of new scripted shows.
I’ve checked out the many fall preview articles online as well as the latest issues of TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly magazines to compile a list of new shows to try out.
I’m a true believer in the binge-watching model of TV viewing, which Netflix perfected. Even if a show has new episodes weekly, I’ll wait until there are several episodes to watch before diving in. For instance, I’m waiting for season two of “The Boys” to finish on Amazon Prime Video before sitting down to watch it. And I loved season one.
Here are the new shows that have caught my attention:

• “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” (AMC, Oct. 4 premiere): The latest spinoff in the Walking Dead zombie apocalypse franchise looks bad, but I’ll still give it a try.
• “Next” (Fox, Oct. 6): This series is about a Silicon Valley genius and an FBI agent joining forces to stop a rogue AI from destroying the world. The plot seems better suited for a movie or miniseries than episodic television.
• “Swamp Thing” (CW, Oct. 6 broadcast premiere): This dark superhero horror series was rescued from the DC Universe streaming channel where it was canceled after one season.
• “The Haunting of Bly Manor” (Netflix, Oct. 9): This horror series is a follow-up to the excellent Netflix series “The Haunting of Hill House.”
• “Helstrom” (Hulu, Oct. 16): “Helstrom” is from the world of Marvel Comics and centers on a brother and sister, the children of a serial killer, who now fight the forces of evil.
• “WandaVision” (Disney+, Nov. 27 unconfirmed premiere): Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprise their Marvel Cinematic Universe roles of Scarlet Witch (aka Wanda) and Vision.

I’m also looking forward to second seasons of “The Mandalorian” on Disney+ and “Evil” on CBS. Plus, there’s the conclusion to the final season of “Supernatural” on the CW and the third season of “Star Trek: Discovery” on CBS All Access.
As I’ve written before, there are many more interesting TV series now than I have time to watch. I still have shows like “Star Trek: Picard” from CBS All Access and “Raised by Wolves” from HBO Max on my watchlist, to name just two.

Related reading:

Fall TV season 2020: Covid-19 pandemic limits new shows (Tech-media-tainment; June 20, 2020)

The pandemic wiped out the fall TV schedule. Does it matter? (Los Angeles Times; Sept. 4, 2020)

Networks Are Prepping for the Craziest Fall Season in the History of Broadcast TV (Bloomberg; Sept. 22, 2020)