Hello!
I just posted a video about how dumb Cyber Monday is. In it, I make the case that the name is very silly, lots of retailers actually lose money on discounts and buying ads, and the idea that we need a separate day for internet sales when commerce is now very much blended between regular retail and online sales seems mostly like an excuse to extend the sale for a full four days.
AND YET...I also participate both as a retailer and as a consumer. I know, as a guy who helps run a store, that these four days really do have our steepest discounts of the year, and that's true for lots of retailers. This is an important thing to do on days when people are thinking about holiday shopping, and that means that this really is a good time to be shopping, which further reinforces retailers’ need to make some kind of splash.
It's a crazy cycle. You might even call it dumb. From the inside, it's all very exciting and silly. We're very happy to get orders early so we can make sure we can get everyone their gifts in time for Christmas. And we're very happy to give a little bit more of a discount for those folks in our world who are more price sensitive. So if that's you, now's the time. We have so many good things made by wonderful suppliers, and all of the profit gets donated to charity!
Check it all out at Good.Store!
Hank
You can always email us at [email protected]
This Week in Stuff
John discussed how he fights despair every day on The New York Times’ podcast The Interview. (YouTube)
An astrophotographer tested how far from a city you have to be to photograph the Milky Way by taking photos at every light pollution level. (YouTube)
A dad received a LOT more than he bargained for in a wholesome prank. (TikTok)
HTX Studio ran a 2-year test to determine if fast charging is killing your phone’s battery. (YouTube)
A group of friends created a very chaotic parody of The Hunger Games movie from memory. (YouTube)
Please send us stuff you think we should feature to [email protected]
How much CO2 can the world emit while limiting global temperature rise?
Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado
In 2015, countries worldwide signed the Paris Agreement, aiming to keep the global temperature rise “well below 2°C” and limit this increase to 1.5°C.
To meet these targets, there are limits to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that can be emitted. These are called carbon budgets. Every year we emit more CO2, these budgets shrink. (That’s because total warming is roughly proportional to cumulative CO2.)
In the chart, you can see estimates for how much CO2 the world can emit — from the start of next year — while staying below different levels of warming. This is based on having a 50% likelihood of staying below it; if we wanted to guarantee that we didn’t pass these temperatures, our budget would be much smaller.
To get a sense of perspective, we’ve compared each budget with the projected amount of CO2 that the world is expected to emit in 2025. This tells us how many years we have left if emissions stay at their current levels.
At current emission rates, the 1.5°C budget would run out around 2030. It seems implausible that global emissions will fall quickly enough to avoid this.
The 2°C budget would last until mid-century. By taking action on climate change, we buy ourselves more time and can avoid this level of warming.
Our World in Data is a UK-based non-profit organization that publishes research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. You can find more of their data insights here.
This Week at Complexly
Have you ever wanted to put your virtual d20 in "dice jail" after an unlikely series of truly terrible rolls? Does Spotify's latest shuffle algorithm not seem random enough to you? This episode is all about RNGs and random number generation — why we don't always want true randomness, and how we can get truly random numbers when we do.
In 1965, Moore’s Law predicted how computers would become smaller, faster, and more powerful than ever before. But here in 2025, we’re on the brink of an even bigger revolution. In this episode, we explore where AI's been, what it can do, and where it might be going. AI benchmarks and scaling laws help us understand what AI is, and could be, capable of.
Some Games to Play!
Silly Little Codes (by Silly Little Games)
SpellCheck.xyc (by Answer in Progress)
This Gubbins postcard was made by Nix. Send yours to [email protected]
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Our autobiographies
Last week, we asked for the title of your imaginary autobiography. Thank you to everyone who sent us their title!
“That Went Pretty Well”
My autobiography would be called “A Tale of Two Countries and Multiple Events” because I am Mexican American and chaos follows me whenever I go.
The name of my autobiography would be “Healing is Contagious.” I'm currently in the middle of recovery from ME/CFS, and I'm finding that healing my body goes along with healing my heart and mind. My hope is that one day my story will inspire others to heal the parts of themselves that have been broken through burnout or trauma.
The title of my autobiography is "Jumping Out of Trees". As a child I used to do jump out of trees in an attempt to fly. In adulthood I often have felt like I'm metaphorically jumping out of trees with the same goal.
I would have to title my autobiography "A Queer and Pleasant Stranger"
"Growing up one apology at a time”, one thing that consistently stands out to me is how much I apologise, whether it be for sympathetic reasons, personal or sometimes entirely unnecessary, “I’m sorry” is constantly at the tip of my tongue. It’s still a habit I haven’t had success breaking, but at least I’ve learned that apologies really don’t mean much without action :]
This has been a topic of discussion in my family for as long as I can remember! My mother has long since settled on "Rowing Home for Lunch" based on her sailing experiences during her Outward Bound course. We collectively decided that my brother's would be "Buffaloes and Accordians" based on the hilarious and inexplicable phrase 'I've never heard of a buffalo but I have heard of an accordian' which was uttered when he was about six years old. I am still undecided at this stage in my life, but I think "Casual Disregard for the Purpose of Most Furniture" has a nice ring to it, and explains me as a person quite well.
I’ve had a longstanding bit where, when I or one of my friends says something funny, I follow up with, “Title of my autobiography!” My best friend has been keeping a list of these for about eight years, and here are some of my favorites:
“The Past Few Days I've Been Filled with Existential Dread”
“Eat as Many Potatoes as You Want”
“I Didn't Mean to Get Heated, I was Just Mad”
“It was a Very Stressful Afternoon”
“I'm Not a Scientist, I Just Have a Lot of Conditions”
The title of my autobiography would be either "I'm just a generally nervous person" (what I said when my tattoo artist asked me what part of the process I was nervous about) or "I'm about to become an expert" (which is technically something John said on an episode of DH&J but I quote it every time I'm having a conversation with someone and stop to do a quick Wikipedia deep dive into a topic, which happens like 10 times a day).
I’d call my autobiography “Making the Most of Death” because that has been the most meaningful part of my life. From very early experiences dissecting animals, to my current job in animal health, I’ve realized that each death and every ending is a valuable lesson and worthy of respect.
Save BIG on Good Store Gifts This Weekend
Whether you’re still on the hunt to complete your holiday shopping list or you need to get yourself a treat for surviving the rush of the season, Good Store’s got you covered with an incredible Black Friday deal. Use the code GIVEGOOD25 anytime between November 28 and December 1 (that’s Black Friday to Cyber Monday) and get 25% off your entire order. Don’t wait to shop–products are selling out fast this year!
You made it to the end!
What was the first cell phone you owned? Please send us a photo if you can, and share your memories about it!
Send your first phone to [email protected].
