Culture
Chalamet with award at the Golden Globes
(Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images)
GOLDEN RATIO

Big winners at the Golden Globes could indicate this week’s Oscar noms

With the Academy’s nominations voting opening today, the results of the Globes might signal the direction of certain Oscars categories (statistically speaking).

Millie Giles

Awards season is now well and truly underway, and the 83rd Golden Globe Awards last night gave credence to much of what the Critics Choice Awards had indicated the week before.

Stars aligning?

Having scooped trophies for Best Picture at both ceremonies, things are looking good for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” for the honors circuit ahead; meanwhile, despite losing out on the top prizes, fan favorite “Sinners” has won in some adjacent categories, including the award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement at the Globes.

In acting categories, Jessie Buckley has now won best actress for “Hamnet” at both the Globes and Critics Choice, as Timothée Chalamet also picked up acting awards at both ceremonies for his work in “Marty Supreme” — furthering his lead in the race toward the Best Actor Oscar against Leonardo DiCaprio, another top pick.

Gong show

For those whose eyes are planted firmly on the Academy Awards — which will see nominations voting open today, before results are announced on January 22 ahead of the ceremony on March 15 — the Globes have historically proved a useful indicator to predict the sway of Hollywood’s most prestigious awards show.

With data compiled by Statista, alongside results from the last decade across both awards shows, it’s clear that Best Actor and Best Actress winners at the Globes go on to have a good chance of scooping gold at the Oscars — even accounting for the former’s quirk of splitting major awards into “Drama” and “Musical or Comedy” (which can dilute the awards’ predictive power, per Numlock News analysis).

Golden Globes <> Oscars
Sherwood News

On the other hand, wins for Best Picture and Best Director at the Globes don’t make for surefire Oscar win indicators in quite the same way. Prediction markets, however, already seem pretty certain about their front-runners in both categories at present.

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Millie Giles

The most popular male and female names in the US, according to the latest Census

New data published Tuesday by the US Census Bureau has revealed the most common names provided in the 2020 Census, in the first release to include forename data since 1990.

As described in the brief, Michael was the most popular name for males in the US, with roughly 3.5 million American men reporting having this name or a close variant. This is up from fourth place in the 1990 Census, when the top US male name was James — though there were still 3 million Jameses in 2020’s tally.

Despite a three-decade gap, Mary remained the top name for American females in both censuses, with the 2020 survey counting almost 1.8 million females with this given name. Interestingly, Mary was one of just two predominantly female names that broke the top 10 given names in the US, with the overall list dominated mostly by male monikers.

Most popular names US census 2020 chart
Sherwood News

In all, American females had far more first-name diversity than male counterparts: 16% of US males had one of the top 10 most frequent names among men, compared with 7.8% of women. Zooming out, almost 3x as many given names were needed to cover a quarter of the US female population than that of males.

culture
Max Knoblauch & Tom Jones

6 months after hiking Game Pass prices by 50%, Xbox determines it may be too expensive

Microsoft’s new Xbox chief, Asha Sharma, thinks the division’s recent price hikes have been a mistake, per an internal memo to employees seen by The Verge.

“Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation,” Sharma’s memo reportedly read.

It’s an interesting take, given that Xbox hiked the price of its Game Pass subscription by 50% in October, before Sharma took over. The memo is a signal that Sharma’s tenure — which began in February, taking the industry by surprise — will include some big changes for Microsoft’s gaming strategy.

Whether Game Pass prices will drop is not yet clear. Last month, The Information reported that Sharma and Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters have “kicked around ideas” about potential bundles. That would fit with Netflix’s renewed gaming ambitions.

Xbox Game Pass Chartr
(Sherwood News)

Xbox Game Pass ‘has become too expensive,’ says Microsoft’s new gaming chief in leaked memo

Xbox Game Pass ‘has become too expensive,’ says Microsoft’s new gaming chief in leaked memo

It’s an interesting take, given that Xbox hiked the price of its Game Pass subscription by 50% in October, before Sharma took over. The memo is a signal that Sharma’s tenure — which began in February, taking the industry by surprise — will include some big changes for Microsoft’s gaming strategy.

Whether Game Pass prices will drop is not yet clear. Last month, The Information reported that Sharma and Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters have “kicked around ideas” about potential bundles. That would fit with Netflix’s renewed gaming ambitions.

Xbox Game Pass Chartr
(Sherwood News)
Millie Giles
LIFELINE
4/14/26
Will a resolve to reduce screen time see a revival of landline telephones?

For parents trying to limit their kids’ exposure to smartphones, the answer could be yesterday’s tech.

Closeup of Woman on the Phone
Millie Giles
IN THE GREEN
4/13/26
Rory McIlroy just secured a second consecutive Masters title — and the biggest prize pot to date

Winning a sixth major title in the year of a record purse, McIlroy is now the Masters’ highest-earning golfer.

The Masters - Final Round
culture
Max Knoblauch

Roblox announces age-based accounts for young users as child safety lawsuits pile up

Roblox on Monday announced its first accounts created specifically for young children and teens, furthering its efforts to increase child safety on the platform.

In June, Roblox Kids (for ages 5 to 8) and Roblox Select (for ages 9 to 15) will roll out, following the company’s global launch of mandatory age checks in January.

The new account types will feature different default settings — chats will automatically be set to “off” on Kids accounts — and limit access to games of certain ratings depending on age.

Child safety lawsuits and social media bans are piling up for Roblox, whose shares have dropped more than 30% year to date. In February, Los Angeles County sued the platform, alleging it created a “largely unsupervised online world” in which “child predators can readily locate, contact, and interact with minors.”

Roblox Introduces New Age-Based Accounts and Expanded Parental Controls for Users Under 16

Roblox gaming platform says it is ready to make changes to get Russian ban lifted

The new account types will feature different default settings — chats will automatically be set to “off” on Kids accounts — and limit access to games of certain ratings depending on age.

Child safety lawsuits and social media bans are piling up for Roblox, whose shares have dropped more than 30% year to date. In February, Los Angeles County sued the platform, alleging it created a “largely unsupervised online world” in which “child predators can readily locate, contact, and interact with minors.”

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