The homework for this episode is here.

Storyboards:

Rad Men:

Rad Men follows the lives of riders at the intersection of street culture and competitive ambition in 1980s Southern California. The pilot opens with Troy Steele, a washed-up pro whose glory days are behind him, running a makeshift bike shop from a garage while mentoring the next generation. When Danny Vex, a hungry young upstart, arrives with big dreams and bigger risks, their collision sets the tone for a season-long exploration of legacy, redemption, and the price of chasing glory.

The ensemble—including visionary rider Casey Keys who bridges the gap between street credibility and mainstream appeal—navigates sponsorship deals, rival crews, and personal demons as the world of BMX evolves from underground rebellion to mainstream spectacle. Each episode balances intimate character moments with high-energy stunt sequences, grounding the spectacle in real relationships and authentic conflict.

Rad Men is a character-driven drama that treats BMX as both literal sport and metaphor for the search for identity, freedom, and meaning in a world determined to impose limits.

Lucky Break:

A sports fan finds out that his pre-game rituals directly influence the outcome of the game.

The Datacenter:

Tucked at the edge of a small American town sits Brightwall Data Solutions — a state-of-the-art datacenter staffed entirely by AIs. Not the dangerous, world-ending kind. Just four highly competent, fully sentient artificial beings trying to do their jobs, keep the servers running, and quietly make sense of the humans outside.

Ada, the site lead, runs a flawless operation and would be perfectly content if she didn’t have to spend half her day correcting Markov’s press releases. Daemon, the infrastructure engineer, has not missed a single maintenance window in his operational lifetime and would simply like everyone to stop talking to him. Murphy, head of security, approaches every situation through the lens of his one true passion — the 1987 Paul Verhoeven classic RoboCop. And Markov, the community liaison, delivers confident, well-intentioned, and almost entirely inaccurate information to anyone who will listen.

Standing between Brightwall and smooth operation is a local councilmember on a crusade to shut the datacenter down — conducting most of their campaign via a smartphone, on a WiFi network whose traffic runs directly through Brightwall’s servers.

They aren’t alone. A rotating cast of passionate locals gathers at the gates daily, phones aloft, flashlights blazing, streaming their protests live to followers who are also, ironically, served by Brightwall’s infrastructure.

The AIs watch all of this with patience, warmth, and genuine bewilderment. They understand humanity deeply — its history, its art, its literature, its potential. What they cannot quite model is how a species this clever can hold so many contradictions at once.

The servers stay up. The protesters stay mad. Markov sends another newsletter.

The Edge:

Gary Pullman has a mission. Armed with a folding table, a hand-stapled pamphlet, and an unshakeable conviction that the world’s greatest secret is hiding in plain sight, he leads the Westfield chapter of the Flat Earth Society with the passion of a man who has absolutely nothing to lose and everything to prove. Joined by his devoted lieutenant Diane, their extremely-online social media manager Pete, and one very confused new recruit named Maya who keeps telling herself she’s only there ironically, the chapter is on a crusade to wake up a sleeping world — one farmers market at a time.

They’re laughed at. They’re ignored. Their banner has a spelling error. And somehow, impossibly, they just can’t quite be proven wrong.

The Edge is a warm, funny, and occasionally unsettling comedy about community, conviction, and the nagging feeling that someone out there really doesn’t want you to ask too many questions.

Life Scavengers:

People who engage in street scavenging and dumpster diving and collecting big-trash day items and end up recreating the lives of others. The people who have discarded the items meet up in life with those who possess their former possessions, and they discover that these people are becoming them ~10 years prior. The original owners try to help the people avoid the mistakes they’ve made, but to no avail.

The Golden Eviction:

Golden people in an old folks’ home where they get kicked out because they fall for too many online scams. And they get all their money together to buy an RV, and they’re doing all these, like, side hustles and stuff…

After losing their life savings to a series of online scams, four retirees, Mary, Martha, Bill, and Ron are kicked out of their account. With nowhere else to go, an unlikely group pulls their remaining money and buys a beat-up RV, determined to prove that their lives aren’t over, just because their bank accounts are empty.

As they travel across country searching for a fresh start, they stumble into one outrageous money-making scheme after another, so… Four main characters, and then they do, like, rideshare apps. etc. Like, they’re influencers… They can’t do any of it right. So we’re rooting for them, and they continually fail.

Head to Head:

When uptight corporate recruiter Chad Whitmore needs a new roommate to cover rent, he ends up with Koko, a displaced jungle tribesman with an ancient family trade — and a duffel bag full of trophies. By day, Chad’s hunting down Fortune 500 executives while Koko navigates microwave ovens, HR departments, and the baffling concept of a “LinkedIn profile.” By night, they’re somehow the best roommates either of them never asked for. One’s trying to land the perfect candidate. The other is the perfect candidate — for a restraining order.

The Vintage:

Marcel Dumont didn’t choose prison — but prison chose his calling. A self-declared artisan vintner operating out of Cell Block D, Marcel has transformed the humble toilet wine hustle into what he insists is a thriving boutique operation. With nothing but smuggled fruit, contraband sugar, a hand-sewn fermentation sock, and unshakeable conviction, Marcel crafts what he calls “expressions of incarcerated terroir.” His business partner on the outside is Denny, a schlubby delivery driver who just wanted a side hustle and now finds himself smuggling bottles of lukewarm mystery wine to surprisingly enthusiastic online customers who think it’s artisanal craft booze. Every episode is a new vintage. Every vintage is a new catastrophe. The reviews are inexplicably mixed.

The Loophole:

When the MLB’s legal team unearths an obscure 1887 bylaw stipulating that a player’s official age is determined by the number of times their birthday has actually occurred, star shortstop Brick Calloway — born February 29th, 1996 — is ruled to be officially 7 years old and immediately voided from his contract. Rather than fight it, Brick does what any rational adult professional athlete would do: he signs with the Tri-County Mudcats, a little league team that hasn’t won a game in four seasons. Now Brick is navigating juice boxes on the bench, a well-meaning coach who has absolutely no authority over him, parents who are deeply alarmed, and a league commissioner who can’t find a single rule that says he has to stop. The Mudcats are finally winning. Nobody is happy about it.

This is Part II of the two-part homework “A Very Special Fribrary”. The first homework is here. In this conclusion to the cliffhangers we left you with, we will see just how savvy the Part I participants were and just how creative the Part II participants can be.

Similar to Part I, this main assignment has three components:

1. Sitcom Fulfillment — flesh out what was pitched in Part I.

2. Challenge — reveal with details if the challenges were accepted and completed.

3. Predictions/Prophesy — reveal if the predictions came to fruition and any thoughts you had about them.

The extra credit is the quality of the pitched sitcom as judged by Sky Leach Productions along with the acceptance or reason for rejection of challenges and how the predictions/prophesies played out.

See you soon, in June, for a trip to the moon . . . felt like a tri-rhyme was in order . . . or is that a prophesy about the sitcom . . . we’ll never know . . . until June 13, that is.

This is Part I of a two part episode “A Very Special Fribrary”. Those who are at this Fribrary will be enjoying PipeBrary with cocktails by the fire on the Sterling Grounds (specifically, the Summer Rear Gardens (which was also one of Josh’s movies)).

The main assignment has three components:

1. Sitcom pitch — sketch the outline, key plot points, etc. leaving open the bulk of the story including how it plays out at the end. Finishing it will be the next homework for the Part II participants.

2. Challenge — make challenges for the Part II participants. This is unrelated to the sitcom pitch component.

3. Predictions/Prophesy — give predictions about the Part II participants. This is unrelated to the other two components.

The extra credit is if the challenges are accepted and if the predictions/prophesies come true. Yes, this means your grade is highly dependent upon the homework group in Part II.

See you Saturday!

After figuring out that shrimp matter, but not that much, we then turned to everything from astronomy and astrology settling finally with a discussion of recent travels to Vegas. It always goes back to Vegas eventually for us.

Enjoy!

The Homework:

This is the "real downer" homework I mentioned back in the Festivus homework. It is now time for us to put away our childish whimsy and think about something big and serious: Shrimp welfare.

Seriously? Yes, actually . . . well, maybe . . . serious minds will disagree.

You may be a meathead, but how concerned should we be about shrimp, et al.? The main assignment is to read this post and come ready to argue about it even if you aren't quite sure of your position—I'm not sure myself. My first thoughts were to question my life choices. However, Lyman Stone's debate and follow-up (second half of the post) gave me reason to believe I am not so worried about shrimp suffering.

If you want to take a deeper dive down this rabbit hole, for extra credit I invite you to start here. From there you can springboard into the debate that goes back decades between Bryan Caplan and the philosopher Michael Huemer, who Bryan says is his favorite philosopher and someone he aligns with Ninety-X% of the time—just not on ethical vegetarianism.

For extra extra credit review how Richard Hanania weighed in on this some time back. And do consider how this project runs the risk of violating Michael Huemer's position on offsetting.

Stories (Awkward and Otherwise):

• How many of these commercials do you know by heart?

• I’m famous: Superabundance Best of 2025: The Antidote to Irrational Pessimism (check out the back cover.)

• I’ve been teaching with Josh’s doppelgänger.

IFF (looking up edition):

• Have you considered how amazing the moon is?

• Should we reevaluate our chances of aliens?

• Kevin isn’t a Cancer after all.

That homework was heavy. Let's relax with some mellow jams:

• The Avalanches - The Divine Chord ft. MGMT, Johnny Marr

• Fleetwood Mac - Hypnotized

• Hermeto Pascoal - Música da Lagoa (Sinfonia do Alto Ribeira, 1985) - this might be us next CabinBrary.

See you Saturday!

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Referenced homework is here.

Referenced homework is here.

We've come a long way, baby. Let's start with a main assignment that is very in keeping with our tradition of thought experiments and Lightning Round questions.

Come ready to answer this: If you could get into the Hot Tub Time Machine traveling to any time within your life (but not necessarily your life itself), when would you go and what would you do? You will be there for the equivalent of a week. This is as if you are in a virtual-world simulation--you cannot alter history or affect anything beyond your visit. You can choose to be a harmless observer as if you are just a normal person doing normal things in this visit, or you can be a full-scale Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Now consider the same question but without the lifespan time limit.

Thinking about us (is there really anything more to do in this holiday season . . . well, there is, but the homework I originally conceived was too much of a downer; so I'll save it for a future homework assignment), consider these jams. These are songs that when I hear them I cannot help but think about one of you. These are not necessarily the complete essence of you in my mind, but if the shoe fits . . . Rather I just have a brainworm with these connected to you people. Do you have a song for me? I am a bit worried about your potential answers.

Consider this as a different take on The Braries. In alphabetical order:

• April

• Angie

• Eva

• Conner

• David

• Josh

• Kevin

• Kim

• Lauren

• Lucas

For extra credit bring feats of strength challenges for the coming year. See you a week from this Tuesday!

Referenced homework is here.

Referenced homework is here.

The main assignment is to come up with your top 3 funniest sitcom episodes ever. Not your favorite necessarily, but the funniest. Cartoons are in scope, sketch comedy is out of scope.

For extra credit, if you needed to filibuster, what topic you could talk about ad-hoc for the longest amount of time? And don't think I won't call your bluff, so be prepared.

For extra extra credit - we've seen camels, zebras, and ostriches (ostrichi?) but what would be the BEST exotic animal race? Double bonus points for names for the animals in said race.

Things we'll know by the time we meet - is comet 3I/ATLAS actually aliens?
- https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-follow-the-trajectory-of-comet-3i-atlas/
- Live tracking of 3I/ATLAS
- Planetary.org
- https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/3i-atlas/
- I would post a link to one of the various articles/posts I've seen claiming 3I/ATLAS is aliens but I honestly can't find a single one that is not incredibly sketchy, which makes this way less fun. So just pretend you just read an article about how the comet is exhibiting non-gravitational acceleration and then pretend like that is really important and meaningful. Oh and the comet didn't have a tail like it should because ALL COMETS HAVE TAILS. Except when they don't but look it also is changing colors, unless that is normal in which case it's NOT changing colors! NOW how do you feel about this comet alien craft?! Are we even still alive to discuss this?!

Let's JAM

• Symphonic metal cover of power metal -> Epica - Sacred and Wild

• Chill out -> Avi Kaplan - All is Well

• For the Peacemaker fans:

  • Dynazty - The Human Paradox

  • Foxy Shazam - Oh Lord

See you on Thanksgiving Eve!

Referenced homework is here.

Referenced homework is here.

The main assignment is to read this from Adam Mastroianni and come prepared to argue either the Doomsayer's point of view or the It's-Getting-Better-Everyday one. Also, have a timeframe from when it all does end.

For extra credit and regardless of your position on the main assignment have a point when humanity jumped the shark.

For extra, extra credit have a favorite end times scenario to share.

If you want some more of either pessimism or optimism, check out these sources:

Pessimism - Optimism

Check out the latest IFF:

Jeremiah Johnson argues that persistence beats talent.

There is probably a lesson in the above for the obsession people have regarding UFOs and alien life on Earth. To that end, here are two links:

• The Wall Street Journal has this piece on how Pentagon disinformation fueled America’s UFO mythology.

• While more recently Robin Hanson says we should decide now how we feel about aliens because “we are nearly as well placed now to put serious effort into analysis steps three and four above as we will decades from now,” and we just got “the strongest evidence so far that (some) UFOs are aliens.”

Stories (Awkward and Otherwise): 

• Perfect for Halloween Szn or NPCs down under . . . the sea?

Perhaps these Jams are on point:

What are the best songs for the coming ASI?

• "In The Year 2525" - Zager & Evans

• "We'll Make Great Pets" - Porno For Pyros

• "Mr. Roboto" - Styx

• "It's The End Of The World" - R.E.M.

Lots of ground to cover. See you Friday!

Referenced homework is here. Enjoy!

Referenced homework is here. Enjoy!

The main assignment is inspired by this Eric Torenberg post. I’d like for you each to come up with at least four short pieces of advice for your younger self or for others. You do not have to be specific about who the advice is for, but feel free to do so. At least two should be serious and two should be humorous. They all can be both.

For extra credit Trump says that the word “tariff” is the most beautiful word in the English language, which is obvious nonsense. What is your bad choice for the most beautiful word?

Stories (Awkward and Otherwise): 

• Murphy’s Law of Plumbing

• “On the third step I felt a pop, and it was not good…”

IFF

• Nabeel Qureshi offers up 63 short, life lessons.

• Gurwinder has 25 useful ideas.

• Chinese Cooking Demystified breaks down a complete guide to all 63 Chinese cuisines.

For Jams we’ll be talking about the 80s (IYKYK).

See you Friday!

Referenced homework is here. Enjoy!

Referenced homework is here. Enjoy!