Nortre-Dame Cathedral on Fire

The New York Times

The New York Times:

Notre-Dame cathedral, the iconic symbol of the beauty and history of Paris, was scarred by an extensive fire on Monday evening that caused part of its delicate spire to collapse, bruised the Parisian skies with smoke and further disheartened a city already back on its heels after weeks of violent protests.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, said André Finot, a spokesman for the cathedral, and officials added that no one had been killed or wounded in the blaze. But even three hours after the fire began, the authorities were still scrambling to contain it — and warned that they were not certain they would be able to.

Khalid’s ‘Free Spirit’ Tops the Charts

Khalid’s Free Spirit is the number one album in the country this week:

Khalid notches his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as his third release, Free Spirit, opens atop the tally. The set, released on April 5 through Right Hand/RCA Records, starts with 202,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending April 11, according to Nielsen Music — the fourth-largest week of 2019 for an album. Of that sum, 85,000 were in traditional album sales.

Disney Announces New Streaming Service

Disney

Peter Kafka, writing at Recode:

Disney+ will launch in the US on November 12, for $7 a month. It will have a very large library of old Disney movies and TV shows — crucially, including titles from its Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars catalog — along with new movies and series made exclusively for the streaming service. It won’t have any ads. And it will allow subscribers to download all of that stuff, and watch it offline, whenever they want.

So much new TV. I’m already looking forward to The Sandlot series.

Event Horizon Telescope Captures First-Ever Black Hole Image

Globe

The Washington Post:

The image was produced by the Event Horizon Telescope, a network of 10 radio telescopes spread across the planet and functioning as if it were a single receiver, one tuned to high-frequency radio waves. It represents a technical triumph for the scientists involved, and inaugurates a new era in the study of black holes, galaxy formation, and the laws of physics under extreme conditions.

The M87 black hole appears as a dark shadow within a doughnut-like ring of hot, glowing material.

I thought this video about the black hole was fantastic.

New Study Finds Digital Music Streaming Has Led to Increase in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Headphones

Jay Gabler, writing at The Current:

[A]ccording to a new study from European researchers. Today’s recording industry might not put as much trash in landfills, but streaming music has actually increased greenhouse gas emissions. It turns out that it takes way more energy to store and stream music than it took to manufacture and distribute hard copies…which may seem crazy, but think about how often you have to recharge your phone.

That’s not to say the old days were all that great for the environment either. Vinyl production peaked in 1977, using 58 million kilograms of plastic. CD production peaked 23 years later, in 2000, and that required 61 million kilograms of plastic. All that plastic production, though, resulted in only about half as much greenhouse gas emission as streaming causes today.

Oh, fun.

Apple Music’s U.S. Subscriber Count Overtakes Spotify

Reuters is reporting that Apple Music has surpassed Spotify in paid monthly U.S. subscribers:

Apple Inc’s streaming music service overtook rival Spotify Technology SA in terms of paid subscribers in the United States, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

Apple’s service had 28 million subscribers as of the end of February compared with Spotify’s 26 million paid subscribers, the person said.

Billie Eilish Tops Billboard Charts

Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish has the number one album in the country:

Billie Eilish scores her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? storms in atop the tally with 313,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 4, according to Nielsen Music, scoring the second-largest week of 2019 for any album. Of the album’s starting sum, 170,000 were in album sales, the second-largest sales week for an album this year.

Alex No Longer Fanboying Out Over Mark Hoppus

Simple Creatures

Alex Gaskarth talks about working with Mark Hoppus in the new issue of Rock Sound:

“I did come up on blink and Mark was very much an inspiration to me, but we’ve had the honeymoon period as it were, become good friends… I’m not fanboying out in front of him anymore, like I used to seven years ago! I don’t think the creative process would be as honest if I was sitting there going, ‘Yeah, whatever you think man, I love you!’ We both keep each other in check, and push each other to do better.”