Treasure Hoard - November 2025

And now for the links...

Bradley Androos has an interesting take on the recent deprecation of the penny.

In a recent segment on Bill Maher’s Real Time, Maher joked that Spotify will no longer be able to pay artists after the penny has ceased to be minted. While the clever remark gained a respectable laugh from the crowd and panel, I am not certain that it shouldn’t have a provoked a groan instead. There is, perhaps, a little too much truth hidden in that little statement.

There is absolutely truth in that statement, and I’m not sure it’s all that hidden. Androos goes on to point out that 1 CD sale is worth 1500 streams of on-demand audio. His conclusion: buy physical media or at least pay for downloads.

Terrence O’Brien from The Verge interviews Scott Lapatine from long-running music site Stereogum.

What prompted the latest revamp of the site, however, wasn’t streaming music platforms, it was largely driven by AI. “Google’s pivot to AI search has cut our ad revenue by 70 percent. Prior to that, Facebook and X’s deprioritization of links hurt too, but I can’t downplay the brutal impact of AI Overview,” Lapatine said in a post announcing the site’s relaunch. Even beyond overviews, though, Lapatine sees AI diminishing these platforms’ usefulness. Every time he logs into Facebook, he says he’s bombarded with videos, “like Ozzie comes back from the dead and hugs a little girl. It’s hard to believe that these platforms are letting themselves be turned into these like slop warehouses.”

I’ve been reading Stereogum since it was a Livejournal site with one writer (Lapatine). Its decline came some time before it was challenged by competition from AI. What bothers me most about Stereogum is that it became more about music adjacent celebrity gossip than music. I don’t care about an article like “Drake Claims T.I.’s Friend Never Urinated On Him.” I’m not so sure there is much to distinguish that kind of content from the AI slop that Lapatine derides.

Though my mom swears by the show, I’ve never been interested in Dancing With The Stars. An article by Will DiGravio in Paste Magazine expressing his appreciation for Andy Richter piqued my interest, though.

For the show’s Halloween special two weeks ago, Richter emerged from a cornfield dressed as a priest to dance the Paso Doble to Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67: I. Allegro con brio.” With a fog machine and all, Slater plays some sort of demon witch, who does her best to get the better of the priest, before he performs a brief exorcism, then drags her by the foot across the stage. It rocked.

I enjoyed the theme of the dance, though I didn’t realize the performances were so short. Richter is great in such a serious role.

Andy Richter's Halloween Night Paso Doble (YouTube)

Garrett Martin writes for Endless Mode about the new 8LP Legend of Zelda vinyl box set.

The Legend of Zelda and its hero Link are officially middle-aged. The two are staring down the big 4–0, with ‘26 marking that significant birthday, and so it’s not surprising that they’re picking up one of the more common midlife crisis affectations: an overpriced vinyl collection.

As I’ve noted recently, ambitious vinyl projects are still popping up frequently. As long as there’s a market…

One of the founders of the Mastodon decentralized social media service and primary leaders of the effort, Eugen Rochko, is stepping down from his position.

Being in charge of a social media project is, turns out, quite the stressful endeavour, and I don’t have the right personality for it. I think I need not elaborate that the passion so many feel for social media does not always manifest in healthy ways. You are to be compared with tech billionaires, with their immense wealth and layered support systems, but with none of the money or resources. It manifests in what people expect of you, and how people talk about you. I remember somebody jokingly suggesting that I challenge Elon Musk to a fight (this was during his and Mark Zuckerberg’s martial arts feud), and quietly thinking to myself, I am literally not paid enough for that.

Runninng a social media company is not for the faint of heart. Even hosting a Fediverse instance is not to be taken lightly. Members fight about banning each other, stray remarks are taken as “harm,” and people are just generally too invested. It’s hard to imagine having a healthy life when dealing with such a burden.

While I prefer the clean, more deliberate design of Bluesky and have more faith in their vision, I still follow a bunch of good people through the Fediverse, so I’ll be there for the foresseable future (though maybe not with Mastodon if the Ghost ActivyPub integration imroves).

Even as an Orthodox Christian, I have mad respect for Pope Leo XIV. I’m not the only one. Evangelical David French writes about how the current Pope is acting as the anti-Trump.

His concern for human dignity extends to the world of technology and commerce as well. On Nov. 7, for example, he posted on social media: “Technological innovation can be a form of participation in the divine act of creation. It carries an ethical and spiritual weight, for every design choice expresses a vision of humanity. The Church therefore calls all builders of to cultivate moral discernment as a fundamental part of their work—to develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity, and a genuine reverence for life.”

The pope’s comment drew an immediate rebuke from Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist and Trump supporter, who posted (and then deleted) a meme mocking the pope’s statement.

Of all the major Christian denominations, as of late, I have been the most impressed by the Catholic model of sociopolitical engagement. Theirs has been a consistent ethic of Christian principle and their dedication to the immigrant community will be remembered when (hopefully) the present troubles have past. Thankfully, the Catholic Church is not the only Christian group standing up for the persucuted in this country.

Adding the current Pope’s cred is that he’s a cinephile, promoting the power of movies.

This Thanksgiving, a reminder that not all heroes wear capes.