May the Best Candidate Winslade

As we all know, Winslade is a British cheese made from pasteurized cow's milk and vegetarian rennet by the Hampshire Cheese Company in Herriard, England. When ripe, Winslade is soft and creamy with a subtle floral earthiness. Just like this newsletter.

Meantime, there's an election on. I don't know if you'd noticed. If you're not already exhausted from the wall-to-wall coverage and barrage of advertising, the good news is there's another six days of this. The better news is that three of today's cheddlines you Need2Know aren't even election related, and one is even good news about your ability to indulge, fairly soon, in some ice cream:

Don't say I never do anything for you.

—Matt Davis, Need2Know Chedditor

P.S. We've got real-life Spiderman-inspired web-slinging on our 'gram!

Quote of the Day

"I sighed when I found out, because I knew it would provide ammunition to those who would like to frame this as anything other than a principled decision." — Jeff Bezos

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1. Nobody in Poland Is Fooled by Radio Station's AI 'Presenters'

A Polish radio station said Monday that it has ended an "experiment" that involved using AI-generated "presenters" instead of real journalists after the move sparked an outcry.

Weeks after dismissing its journalists, OFF Radio Krakow (as in "turn us OFF?") relaunched last week using virtual characters created by AI as its presenters. Across Poland, people were angry, expressing fears that humans were being replaced by AI.

The station's editor, Marcin Pulit, said in a statement Monday that the aim had been to spark a debate about artificial intelligence, and it had succeeded. He said the experiment had been meant to last three months but that it saw no reason to go on.

"After a week, we had collected so many observations, opinions, and conclusions that we decided that its continuation was pointless," Pulit wrote.

Last Tuesday the station broadcast an "interview" conducted by an AI-generated presenter with a voice pretending to be Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, who died in 2012.

Before canceling the experiment, the station had been planning an interview with Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski, who died in 1935. Read More

2. You're Now Owed a Refund for a Canceled Flight

Transportation Secretary Pete "Hey, If Kamala Loses, You Might Consider Me For Prez Next Time?" Buttigieg says the new rules aim to set a new standard for airline accountability.

Pete aka "the Booty Judge" has made it so you're owed an automatic refund for a significantly delayed or canceled flight. Domestic flights delayed by three hours or more, and international flights delayed by six hours or more are now eligible.

Airlines are required to issue refunds within seven days for credit card purchases and within 20 days for other payment methods. The rules also cover refunds for checked baggage fees if luggage is not delivered within 12 hours for domestic flights or between 15 to 30 hours for international flights.

I almost can't wait to have a flight delayed or cancelled now! Read More

From @cheddar

Web-slinging might be closer than we think. 🕸️

Scientists at Tufts University have developed a Spider-Man-inspired tech that shoots liquid silk, instantly hardening into a strong, sticky fiber capable of lifting objects 80 times its weight.

Made from silk moth cocoons, this web-like material forms when a silk solution, combined with specific additives, is extruded and exposed to air.

Follow @cheddar on Instagram!

3. Massive News: A Major Fix Coming to McDonald's McFlurry Machines

Until recently, McDonald's franchise owners faced significant hurdles whenever an ice cream machine would break down. Bound by copyright restrictions, they had to get the Taylor Company, an Illinois-based manufacturer, to repair them when they broke down because they owned the copyright on their ice creams. This often led to frustration for both the franchise owners and customers, especially given the notorious reputation of the machines for being out of service.

These frustrations have largely been driven by Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which historically made it illegal for third parties to override digital locks on copyrighted material.

However, the U.S. Copyright Office's latest exemptions now empower restaurants like McDonald's to conduct their own repairs on equipment used in "retail-level commercial food preparation," such as the soft-serve machines that whip up McFlurrys.

It's an overdue shake-up of the commercial food prep industry. Speaking of overdue shakeups, can I please have my McFlurry now? Read More

Final Day to Invest in the Future of IP

This is it—the final day to invest in Elf Labs. By midnight tonight, this game-changing investment opportunity will be closed. If you've been waiting, now is the time to act, or risk missing out on what could be the biggest disruption to intellectual property since Disney!

Elf Labs is rewriting the rules in the ~$2 trillion entertainment and licensed merchandise industry with groundbreaking technology pushing the envelope on every front. From AI-powered talking toys to virtual reality that doesn't require a headset, Elf Labs is creating immersive experiences unlike anything seen before.

But what truly sets Elf Labs apart is their access to some of the highest-grossing characters in history, including icons like Cinderella, Snow White, and The Little Mermaid. These are characters that have already generated tens of billions of dollars, and thanks to Elf Labs 100+ historic trademark victories, they are now taking them into the future with next-level interactive experiences.

This combo of character IP and tech is poised to completely revamp the entertainment landscape forever, and today is your last chance to own a piece. In less than 24 hours the door will close, and this rare opportunity will have passed.

This is your final chance. The future of entertainment is being rewritten, and Elf Labs is leading the charge. Will you be a part of it?

Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for Elf Lab's Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at elflabs.com.

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4. Billionaire Bezos's B.S. Over WaPo Non-Endorsement

Billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on Monday defended the newspaper's decision not to endorse a presidential candidate as "right" and "principled."

In a note that read like it hadn't been through an editor published on Monday night, he also pushed back against suggestions he'd quashed the paper's Harris endorsement to protect his business. Tens of thousands of people have canceled their WaPo subscriptions since Friday, and tens of thousands more are likely to follow. NPR reported that the number is more like 200,000, but we all know how accurate NPR's reporting isn't.

The Post's editorial staff was prepared to endorse Kamala Harris before publisher Will Lewis wrote late last week that it would be better for readers to make up their own minds. In the decision's wake, two of the newspaper's columnists quit, and three of the nine members of its editorial board so far have resigned their posts.

Bezos, who has said he wants more conservative editorial voices at the paper and magically just free'd up a few seats, wrote that editorial endorsements create a perception of bias at a time many Americans don't believe the media.

"Ending them is a principled decision, and it's the right one," Bezos said.

Ironically, perhaps, nobody believes Bezos's note, either?

Bezos acknowledged that the chief executive of one of his companies, the space-exploration outfit Blue Origin, met with Trump last week on the same day the non-endorsement was announced.

"I sighed when I found out, because I knew it would provide ammunition to those who would like to frame this as anything other than a principled decision," Bezos wrote. "But the fact is, I didn't know about the meeting beforehand."

I sighed, too, but I don't own a major newspaper. Bezos said that while he doesn't push his own personal interests, he wouldn't allow the Post to "stay on autopilot and fade into irrelevance."

And yet… Read More

5. We Spoke to a TikTok Politics Star About How Messed Up TikTok Is

Nearly half of Americans aged 18 to 29 use TikTok to keep up with politics. Given that Gen Z is about to become America's largest voting bloc, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with TikTok being owned by China, either. Harry Sisson's political posts have gathered 1.3 million followers on the platform, so we asked him about it.

"This election, more than any other election before, is the TikTok election," he said. "We're seeing more Americans out there, everyday Americans getting on TikTok and getting on social media and making their voices heard."

Overall, this is "a good thing," he thinks, even though it "has its pros and cons." The pros are broader involvement in political discussion, with more folks being open about what they believe.

"The cons are that sometimes you get some lunatics," he said. "And unfortunately, in social media, shock value can get a lot of traction, so those views kind of get some oxygen."

Yep. Harry thinks TikTok leans "straight down the middle" politically, with views demonstrated from both sides. Meanwhile he has "a lot of beef with Twitter right now and Elon Musk…Musk you know, he's accomplished a lot of amazing things with many of his different companies, but he spreads a lot of misinformation, especially when it comes to immigration, for example."

Also: "The Republicans and Donald Trump have been very successful at one thing, which is telling young, straight white men that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are trying to come for you, that they are trying to make your life harder," he said. "Now, of course, that's not true. But by targeting these young men, there's been that political swing, and there's also been this kind of like alpha male trend on social media where folks like Andrew Tate have been telling young men, 'Go eat red meat,' you know, 'disrespect women, and go lift 12 hours a day.' And it's like my personal view: I don't think that's what it means to be a man, but, you know, they're certainly playing into the emotions of young men. And unfortunately, we've seen that swing."

Yes, those people have been rather successful at playing into those emotions, haven't they? On a platform almost designed to undermine American democracy by driving wedges between us, which is coincidentally backed by a hostile power. I'm sure it's fine. Read More