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I finally saw Captain America: Brave New World and will say that, at the end of the day, it was a fun movie. I think Anthony Mackie works as Captain America and he’s a fine actor. Harrison Ford is brilliant, of course. The plot is actually great. But — just like pretty much every MCU offering since Avengers: Endgame — I left feeling like I have no idea whether Disney and Kevin Feige have a plan or if they’re just pumping out movies.
A Cheeto shaped like the Pokémon Charizard sold at auction for over $87,000.
I cannot imagine a scenario in which Stephen A. Smith is worth $20,000,000.00 per year, but I also cannot imagine paying $87,000.00 for a Cheeto shaped like a Pokémon character, so I guess that’s why I am not in charge of contracts at ESPN.
Two men were charged Wednesday in the deaths of three Kansas City Chiefs fans whose bodies were found in a backyard two days after they got together to watch the final game of the regular season in 2024.
I am almost certain that I read Always Go To The Funeral when it was published (or aired on the radio) two decades ago, but it just popped up in a recent issue of Links You’ll Love and it’s worth sharing again.
I one hundred percent did not see the sudden political twist coming in White Lotus S3E3 but I am f’ing here for it. Kudos to Mike White and HBO for going there. I can’t wait to see the next episode. (And, yes, I know it’s MAX now.)
In other news:
- POTUS signs executive order to establish government bitcoin reserve.
  </bangs head on desk>
- It’s Tax Season – The Perfect Time for POTUS to Sell This “Critical” IRS Computing Center: Last year, the IRS Martinsburg site was “viewed as a high priority.” Now it’s suddenly “functionally obsolete”?
- The CDC is planning a large study into potential connections between vaccines and autism, despite extensive scientific research that has disproven or failed to find evidence of such links. – via @boghuma.bsky.social
- Maine officials said the Social Security Administration did not provide any explanation for the abrupt end of the decades old registration process, or for the sudden reversal. – via @crampell.bsky.social
- I really hope in a hundred years there will still be people left to cringe at this headline: Half the World’s CO2 Emissions Come from 36 Fossil Fuel Firms

Everyone should be following Nike Running Coach Bennett on Threads and/or Bluesky.
Despite some choad that’s selling a nearly-identical knock-off of my app (that is somehow ranked #1 in the Food & Drink category in the App Store), the 48 hours surrounding Thanksgiving was a banner sales day for bartender.live, which was nice to see. If you haven’t yet, please rate and review my little side project. It really helps!
We have several lighted Christmas decorations that burn through AA batteries. I’ve been buying rechargeable batteries for years and love them, but it still bugs me and I kept thinking there must be a way to convert these things to use AC power. I was ready to start researching amps and volts and power adapters and break out my soldering iron, but then found these cool dummy battery plugs that appear to do exactly what I need!
Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke are national treasures that should be on money. This scene is incredible.
Did you like Agatha All Along enough to listen to a ten-hour lo-fi remix of The Witches Road? – via @agentm
Most of us are famously terrible at comprehending very large numbers, but I find it much easier to wrap my head around the idea that around two and a half billion T. Rex roamed the Earth during the Cretaceous Period than the fact that their reign lasted nearly two and a half million years. That is a long, long, long time to rule the planet. (Humans have been around, at most, for only about 300,000 years. Sharks have been around for something like 400 million years, by the way, which means they’ve been around just a bit longer than trees and probably twice as long as Saturn has had rings.)
Tania Rascia just redesigned her blog (again) and added light/dark theming, which is something I’ve been meaning to do here for a long time. She also created a nice web developer starter pack on Bluesky.
I’m a big fan of moo.com’s mini business cards, and they’re having a significant sale through Dec 5: 30% off and free shipping with promo code CYBERYAY
Bryson DeChambeau’s Viral Golf Challenge: A Marketing Masterclass, How a Simple Idea Captivated Millions and Delivered Big Results – via Culture of Sport

Street drug deaths in the U.S. are dropping at the fastest rate ever seen, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. – via @npr
Every time he scores a touchdown, Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts donates $5,000.00 to purchase air conditioning units for Philadelphia schools. – via @urphillypal
I found out this week that I am qualified for so many cabinet positions. – via @msfrancesma
I didn’t expect a Marvel supervillain reference in this surprisingly interesting article about microwave ovens, but I certainly appreciated it. – via @theatlantic
Using an innovative laser scanning technique, researchers from ETH Zurich in Switzerland have successfully 3D-printed a robotic hand equipped with synthetic bones, ligaments and tendons. – via @reuters
Never Have I Ever on Netflix is a scary good under-the-radar laugh-out-loud YA show about grief and families somehow narrated by tennis great John McEnroe. Watch it now.

How can it already be November? It is incredibly unfair how the last three months of each year are only two weeks long. Big election in just a few days. Please vote.

“In the end, it’s the hard things we love to remember.” – via @heybaskle
“It seems so obvious that it actually feels insulting to point it out. But it’s not obvious.” As an early GenXer, this essay was quite the gut punch. I urge you to read it. – via Austin Kleon
The story of Ghost is awe-inspiring and has me reminiscing about the early days of blogging. – via @simondowens
Beginning in mid-December, the Whitney Museum of American Art will be free for everyone 25 and under.
Before her death in April of this year, Christine Farrell somehow managed to track down every single DC comic book, tens of thousands of them, going back to 1935. About 500 of the rarest ones were just auctioned. – via @NPR