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🎧On the pod: Think back to 2009. Would you have wanted a device that only had Twitter on it? Yeah, no one else did either.
NEWS FLASH
🏈 Imagine spending $750m on something, only getting one-fourth of that thing, and knowing you actually got a killer deal. That’s the reality for PE billionaire Tom Gores, who dropped a veritable Powerball jackpot on a 27% stake in the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers at a $4B valuation — a huge discount on the team’s estimated $5.83B value. A sign of how dominant the NFL is: Gores, who also owns the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, spent over 2x more on this sliver of the Chargers than he did for 100% of the Pistons ($325m) back in 2011.
🚫 Buying toothpaste is a fireable offense, according to Meta. Meta terminated ~24 employees from its Los Angeles offices for misusing their $25 corporate meal credits to buy personal items such as toothpaste, laundry detergent, and wine glasses, or having food delivered to their homes. The cuts come alongside larger-scale company restructuring, with some staff from WhatsApp, Instagram, and Reality Labs being laid off or relocated.
🥘 Looking for restaurant recs?Eater, the food and dining publication founded in 2005 and acquired by Vox Media in 2013, released an iOS app. It features 10k+ restaurant maps covering 100+ global destinations curated by its editors, and allows users to make reservations. Android users, you’re still stuck with Yelp.
MORE NEWS TO KNOW
Elon Musk wants you to stop teasing his robots: After claims that Tesla’s humanoid bots were controlled remotely by human operators at its “We, Robot” event, the company posted a 90-second video of its Optimus robot walking through a factory carrying trays, climbing stairs, and handing out snacks.
Classic Swift move: Taylor Swift is self-publishingTaylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book under her own imprint, and launching it exclusively at Target on Black Friday. This cuts out traditional book publishers and distributors, netting her more of the revenue.
The European Central Bank — annoyed, we assume, by how much love the Fed got for lowering interest rates just one time — lowered its rates for the third time this year.
TOOLBOX
Need a quick lift? For your brain? Click one of these links and get your workout in.
🔎 Need a search rescue?: Take a look at this recap of the best Google alternatives currently on the market.
🤝 Shake hands without shaking: Motorsport icon and 3x F1 champ Sir Jackie Stewart dispenses wisdom on how to network with VIPs.
🎙 Listen up: You probably have a podcast (who doesn’t?), so you probably need to familiarize yourself with the AI tools disrupting the audio industry.
THE BIG IDEA
C.D. Smith Construction
Would you embrace the wooden future?
It wasn’t long ago wooden skyscrapers seemed like a bizarre novelty — the wave of the future, courtesy of 476k years ago.
Milwaukee’s 25-story Ascent MKE apartment used “mass timber,” a trendy construction tech in which regular pieces of wood are attached through a lamination process to create bigger, stronger beams and panels.
We’ve covered mass timber before, but the highlights are:
It’s just as strong and (somehow) about as fire-resistant as steel and concrete.
It results in fewer CO2 emissions than other materials.
And, not for nothing, there are aesthetic benefits and a fun novelty factor — your friends will ooh and aah if you show off a skyscraper made of wood.
Ascent is currently the world’s tallest mass timber building, but it can get splintered for all we care, because Milwaukee is already planning to build an even taller one.
But it’s not just Milwaukee
The wooden future is already here. In 2022, there were 84 high-rises globally constructed using mass timber. As of last month, there were 2.2k+ mass timber buildings either finished or under construction in the US alone.
That number will certainly keep rising, but is that a good thing? Mass timber isn’t as bad for the environment as concrete or steel, plus wood is a renewable resource, but:
As demand for mass timber increases, so will the demand for timber, which means cutting down more trees.
Historically, humans haven’t been very good about replanting the trees they cut down.
Experts still aren’t sure what the long-term CO2 emissions will look like, especially if these buildings are torn down and materials are tossed in landfills.
So really think about it before you build a wooden skyscraper just to impress your friends.
How lucrative is the pumpkin business? We talked to farmers, patch operators, and industry experts to find out.
Building a website: If those words have you sweating, you can consult this tip-loaded, nine-step guide.
NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
Weight of Minnesota horticulture teacher and 4x reigning champ Travis Gienger’s winning pumpkin at the 51st World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California. Gienger won last year’s competition with an even bigger, record-setting gourd weighing ~2,749 pounds, but had a tricky growing season this year, with a chilly autumn that brought significant rain.
AROUND THE WEB
📆 On this day: In 1931, inventor Thomas Edison died at age 84 with 1k+ patents to his name.
🎨 Useful: One-minute, customized guides to various art movements.
🥪 That’s interesting: The cuisine with the least restaurant competition by US state.
Yesterday, we asked if you’re regularly leaving your desk for your lunch break. For nearly half of you (48%), the answer is yes — and every day. Some peel away occasionally (24%), while others say they get a true lunch break once a month (18%) or never (11%).
When they do get away for lunch, the majority (75%) said they’re chowing down on something homemade. And that doesn’t seem to bother folks — 50% said they wouldn’t work any harder if their employer comped their lunches.
Our wise readers also shared tips for actually feeling recharged after a lunch break: “Step outside for sunshine and fresh air, no technology,” “A short nap is the bee’s knees!” or, another common alternative, “Skip lunch and go home early.”
SHOWER THOUGHT
You never feel like you become an adult, you just get older and wiser than everyone around you.SOURCE
