And yet, I preordered the Ultimate Edition for PS5, just in case it’s actually released. I might be unavailable that weekend.
Categories
How Crunchy Moms became “the most dangerous” group on Facebook
In March 2025, less than three months after Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta’s new hands-off approach to moderation and misinformation, the “Crunchy Moms” Facebook group came into existence.
Its administrators describe it as “a supportive space for moms who want to raise their families using toxin-free products, low-tox alternatives, and clean ingredient solutions”. But what it really is was a hotbed of false medical information that could hurt people, especially children and their mothers, who turn to the group for community, advice and affirmation.
The group focuses largely on health, though some posters also come to seek parenting tips, product recommendations and other non-medical questions. Many posters appear to take it as a given that group members are (or should be) against vaccinating their children. They frequently describe vaccines and their ingredients as deadly, toxic or poisonous.
How “deep reading” can cure your brain rot
Nowadays, “brain rot” is rampant: Most of us spend more time than we’d care to admit mindlessly scrolling low-quality content online, with 63% of U.S. adults ages 18 to 29 admitting they are online “almost constantly,” per a 2025 Pew Research Center survey.
This spin through the algorithmic meat grinder often leaves us feeling mentally exhausted. A 2025 study also found “brain rot” content leads to emotional desensitization, cognitive overload, and negative feelings about oneself.
Deep reading, on the other hand, isn’t just passively scrolling whatever our feeds throw at us without scrutiny or pause. It’s slowing down enough to approach what you’re reading in a critical and analytical manner. It’s putting yourself in a character’s shoes, if you’re reading fiction.
It also prioritizes understanding as well as knowledge—which aren’t always interchangeable. Research even shows deep reading is effective at countering misinformation, as well as reducing stress and loneliness.
When White American Christians Lose
“This difference – between the beneficiaries of cultural power and those who’ve endured its worst tendencies – seems too obvious to deserve even this much commentary, yet the despairing white Christians seem oblivious. Their cultural privilege has stopped up their ears to the cries of the vulnerable and shut their eyes to those being harassed by the president to whom they have tied their faith.”
Why is this guy driving around Ybor City in a convertible full of hot dogs?
Man Tampa, Florida ain’t ah real place 😂😂😂 https://t.co/nYKWcKVpSx
— кєνιи ℓυνν (@kluvv_4) November 7, 2026
More in this Tampa Bay Times article.
Here’s an editorial I wish I wrote, but it appeared as a post on the Madhouse Minatures Facebook page. They’re into cars, and they don’t hold back in their eulogy for the late, not-so-great Tesla Cybertruck, reproduced in full below, punctuated by some pictures of Cybertrucks that I included.
We gather today to mourn the death of an idea.
Specifically, the idea that you could buy a stainless steel trapezoid and everyone would immediately recognize you as the smartest, toughest, most independent thinker in the Costco parking lot.
The Cybertruck promised us the future. Evidently, the future was a commercial ice machine with custody of the kids every other weekend. And people made it their entire fucking identity.
You couldn’t just own one. You had to become its attorney. Every parking lot became a press conference. Every conversation became a shareholder meeting. Somebody would say “That thing looks stupid,” and suddenly you were 20 minutes into a lecture about manufacturing efficiencies delivered by a man who looks like a sentient triglyceride.
“I get a lot of attention.”
Oh, I don’t doubt that. Know what else gets a lot of attention? A racoon with his scrotum stuck between two pickets in a fence. Attention is not an achievement.
But we should remember the good times. The reels captioned “Doing truck stuff” showing a load that could have been transported in the trunk of my old Ford Fusion. (With the back seats up.) The tactical accessories. The owners dressed like they were about to liberate a subdivision from its homeowners association. These men were prepared for anything. Societal collapse. Civil unrest. A slightly awkward question about depreciation. Okay… Perhaps not everything. They imagined themselves crossing the wasteland, defending the last freshwater supply. And through it all, that magnificent declaration of unconditional satisfaction:
“Still love the truck.”
Carved into the headstone. Printed on the funeral program. Whispered through clenched teeth while the estate attorney explains what’s left.
Of course, the real tragedy is what happens to the owners now. Somewhere out there is a man whose profile picture, wardrobe, political philosophy, and relationship with his adult children all depend on this fucking vehicle. You can’t simply hand him the keys to a used Camry and tell him to develop a personality of his own. There needs to be a transition program.
So what comes next? What replacement vehicle will the chuds wrap their entire personality around?
My money’s on a lifted diesel dually. One glance at an exhaust stack and they’ll forget they spent the last three years explaining why internal combustion was obsolete. By Tuesday, they’ll be back to calling electric vehicles a woke scam, just like they were doing before the Cybertruck arrived.
But I suspect the true successor hasn’t arrived yet. Somewhere, a billionaire is drawing a refrigerator on tank treads and figuring out how much extra to charge for the Freedom Package.
Rest easy, Cybertruck. Your owners will find something else. We’ll know when they update all of their profile pictures.
Hello from Canada, American friends! Here’s a meme of encouragement for you.
As I write this, I’m in Toronto to catch up with friends for my high school reunion and will fly back to Tampa tomorrow morning.
It’s been a couple of Sundays, and the “picdump” is back!
After three weeks on vacation in Japan and the Philippines, The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century is back with the weekly collection of memes, pictures, and cartoons floating around the internet that I found interesting or relevant over the past couple of weeks. There are 750+ images in this special picdump!
Share and enjoy!
If you’re voting in the U.S. midterm elections this Tuesday, last week’s Last Week Tonight episode on the Republican Party and the Far Right should be relevant to your interests.
While in Tokyo, I had to make at a stop that I’ve always wanted to visit: Roland Store Tokyo, the flagship store of the venerable Roland, maker of all sorts of electronic music instruments.
The store is located in Harajuku, right in the middle of where Tokyo’s various youth subcultures hang out, and where tourists (admittedly including myself) come to check out all the quirky shops, especially those devoted to kawaii.
If you’re an electronic musician and in Tokyo, this store is a must-visit…
It was the last hours of our last day in Tokyo, so we were short on time. That meant that I had to stick to the main floor (the synthesizer floor), and that’s why my photos are of.
The entryway featured the hot new boutique synths of the moment:
- The Jupiter-08, a “boutqiue-sized” digital recreation of the 1981 classic, the Jupiter 8
- The n/vision, a “boutique-sized” wavetable synth
Both were so new that they weren’t going on sale for a couple of days. The display models were there to give prospective buyers a chance to try them out, and they sound great!
A tour of the first floor
This was a last-minute stop, and we were pressed for time, so I stayed on the main floor with the intent of maybe buying one of the “Aira” series of compact synths.
Here’s the back wall of the first floor:
A view from the back wall:
And here are the display Aira units:
There was a guy ahead of me who was trying to choose between the S-1 (which I wanted) and the J-6 (nice, but it’s more of a chord machine with less sound tweakability, and I know how to play chords).
He went with the J-6, and when it became my turn to talk to the staff, it turned out that there was one S-1 left on their stock shelves that day. I took it as a sign from the synth gods that I should buy it then and there.
At the current exchange rate, I got it for $100 cheaper than I would’ve had I bought it in the U.S., and I bought it at the mothership!
Unboxing pics
As a foreigner, I was able to buy the S-1 tax-free, but that meant that I couldn’t unbox it until I left the country. So I unboxed it and tried it out on the flight to Manila.
Following internet tradition, here are my unboxing pics…
