News Brief: April 1-5

International:

Chinese billionaire Lin Qi planned to get his favorite sci-fi novel adapted for TV, film and video game production. He was on the cusp of achieving this goal when he was murdered.

After selling his gaming company in 2014, he used his earnings to help begin production on the Netflix show, “The Three-Body Problem.” Lin wanted the series to rise to the popularity of Star Wars, CNN reported. 

Just a few months following Netflix’s announcement of the show in 2020, Lin was poisoned. Xu Xu, one of Lin’s business partners, was sentenced to death for murder by a court in Shanghai. His sentencing was a day after the debut of “The Three Body Problem” on Netflix.

Yao purchased a variety of toxins from the dark web and gave them to Lin in pill form, claiming that they were probiotics. “According to Chinese media outlets, it involved the mixing and testing of more than a hundred poisons in a makeshift suburban lab,” CNN reported. 

Lin checked himself into a hospital because he was feeling unwell. Initially, he was recovering, but he ultimately passed away after a ten day period, ending his life on Christmas Day. 

Toxins detected in Lin’s body include mercury and tetrodotoxin – an extremely potent poison found in pufferfish. Police identified Xu as a suspect early on and uncovered his meticulous plot for poison in an investigation which lasted for months. 

Xu was a fan of “Breaking Bad” and created his own suburban lab like the high school chemistry teacher from the show who makes a meth lab following a cancer diagnosis. In the lab, Xu experimented with toxins and tested on animals. 

“Xu held 160 cellphone numbers and set up a trading company in Japan to acquire hazardous chemicals, including the substances he used to poison his colleagues,” CNN reported. 

National:

Disney+ is preparing to crack down on password sharing among users beginning in June. Hulu, another Disney owned service, has regulated how often customers can share passwords outside their households.

Disney’s rival, Netflix, has seen a spike in sign ups since it began regulating password sharing issues. After their crackdown, Netflix retained 100,000 new accounts, boosting their subscriber base by 100% from the prior 60 day average. 

“Netflix is the gold standard in streaming,” CEO Bob Iger said in an interview. “They’ve done a phenomenal job and a lot of different directions. I actually have very, very high regard for what they’ve accomplished. If we can only accomplish what they’ve accomplished, that would be great.”

As Disney+ continues to lose money, executives anticipate this change will bring them the same success.

“We certainly have established this as a real priority,” Iger said on Disney’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call. “We actually think that there’s an opportunity here to help us grow our business.”

Local:

Oklahoma will experience a solar eclipse on April 8, where the moon will block the sun and cast a temporary darkness over parts of the state. 

“A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun for several minutes,” Fox Weather wrote. 

The total eclipse will be visible to the southern parts of Oklahoma, towns including Idabel, Hugo, Fort Towson, Boswell and Heavener. For the rest of the state, a partial eclipse will be visible. 

The particle eclipse will occur in the OKC Metro area from 12:30 pm until 3:05 pm. Oklahoma City will be under a 93% eclipse at 1:45 pm. 

To view the eclipse safely, use “glasses with solar filters, also known as “eclipse glasses,” or handheld solar viewers. According to the American Astronomical Society, those glasses or handheld solar viewers need to meet the ISO 12312-2 international standard for direct Sun viewing,” Fox Weather reported. 

NASA has warned against looking directly at the sun through any lens including cameras, binoculars and telescopes.