Hey there, Cheddfriends. Apologies for the three-day N2K outage. Let’s just say that technologically, Don Draper had something of a lost weekend at Cheddar HQ. But he’s okay again, now! Thanks to all those regular N2K’ers who emailed, frantically, asking, ‘what’s happened?’ ‘Am I still subscribed?!’ and my personal favorite: ‘Did you run out of cheese puns or something?’

Brie-lieve we’re just back, baby!

Susan Weinstein won last week’s world-famous-news-haiku-competition™ with this beauty about how Tesla has made what it calls a “flying car”:

Congrats, Susan! Here’s how she stacked up against the competition…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ The car falls. And then, On jets of burning money, The demo succeeds. ~Peter Adams (20)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Stripped down, empty car, Remote controlled like a drone, Flying car not yet. ~Rick Wetherill (19)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Tesla needs no gas, I'd decide on buying, but, it's up in the air. ~Steve (21)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Flying cars you say?! We dreamed about this one day, Too bad it's Tesla. ~Andrea Crothers (50)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Tesla flying car? My driver’s ed was 2-D. I can hardly wait! ~Chris Helopoulos (10)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Musk makes flying cars? I’d prefer to see pigs fly. Since no one would die. ~Susan Weinstein (59)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Like a magician, Musk’s car seemingly takes flight, Using the shell game. ~Bob Andersen (14)
🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ Look, up in the sky…It’s a a bird, it’s a plane! It’s…two Teslas crashing! ~Margaret Lea (55)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Musk's latest gimmick, Compressed air to propel stocks, Up and to the right. ~Tim Olsen (50)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Musk meets The Jetsons, George then sues for royalties. “Car” toon pranks begin. ~Amy Long (45)
343 Votes via @beehiiv polls

And this week’s world-famous-news-haiku-competition™ is about how the iPhone Duo has been cracking down the fold in the middle. Ruh-roh! Send me your entry — to haiku at cheddar dot com — by noon ET TODAY, for consideration by your Cheddar peers. *You have a better chance of winning this week since the window to enter is only a few hours!*

Matt Davis — Need2Know Chedditor

Table of Contents

• The Brutal Harvard Class That Suddenly Everyone Wa …

• Meet Polymarket’s Top Trader, ‘Swiss Tony’

• More iPhone Duo Users Say Their Screens Are Cracki …

• Ocean Spray Drops 'Bog Core' Merch

• Blackberry Is Into Building Robots Now

• Poll of the Day: Ocean Spray, A-OK?

What’s the Stock Market Up To, Eh?

$SPX ( ▲ 0.28% )  $DJI ( ▲ 0.19% )  $NDX ( ▲ 1.59% )  

Companies Mentioned in Today’s Newsletter

$PLYRZZX ( ▼ 0.11% )  $AAPL ( ▼ 0.94% )  $BB ( ▼ 1.57% )  $NVDA ( ▼ 1.18% )  $QCOM ( ▼ 0.65% )  

The Brutal Harvard Class That Suddenly Everyone Wants to Take

In an age where attention spans are measured in short-video swipes and students routinely try to "Chat" their homework, Harvard freshmen are doing something utterly unexpected: competing for a class that bans digital devices, offers zero pass/fail slack, issues pink slips for late arrivals, and demands reading a hefty classic book every single week.

Welcome to Humanities 10 (or "Hum 10"), Harvard’s grueling yearlong boot camp through world literature. Applications shot up 40% this fall, reports the Wall Street Journal, with 180 incoming freshmen battling for a mere 90 spots. The reward for getting in? Tackling The Odyssey, Ulysses, and Spinoza while facing intense peer accountability. As alum Ellie Powell observed, “It’s the only class I took at Harvard where people would call each other out for not having done the reading.”

So why are Ivy Leaguers suddenly desperate for high-stakes academic rigor?

Partly, it serves as a deliberate rebellion against digital fatigue and automation. Neuroscience major Peggy Urdan summarized the ethos: “A lot of what we get out of this class is the human experience, and you can’t get that out of AI.” Classics professor David Elmer similarly noted that students feel the broader culture "is not hospitable to deep reading," questioning if "AI encroaching on their autonomy" is driving them back to physical pages.

There is also the undeniable glamour of learning alongside academic titans. Student Naomi Beinart quipped, “Being able to read ‘Hamlet’ with Stephen Greenblatt is like being able to cook with Julia Child.” Even the faculty feel the heat; philosophy professor Samantha Matherne admitted she was “both elated and terrified” to lecture in front of Pulitzer-winning colleagues who evaluate her performance.

Ultimately, Hum 10 offers what modern tech cannot duplicate: authentic, un-cheatable human friction. Just like this newsletter!

Quote of the Day

Meet Polymarket’s Top Trader, ‘Swiss Tony’

While crypto traders on Polymarket $PLYRZZX ( ▼ 0.11% ) spent months over-analyzing economic indicators and micro-trends, the platform's undisputed reigning king turns out to be an anonymous sports bettor named “swisstony.” Armed with high-volume algorithms and an eye for mispriced sports odds, Tony netted a staggering $12.25 million in profit after churning through 184,001 positions and recycling $657 million in capital, the Financial Times reports.

So, what was this mysterious mastermind’s secret sauce? Was it high-dimensional predictive AI? Deep political insider trading? Not quite.

According to Chris Park, founder of analytics firm MSR Decode, swisstony is “essentially a very good bettor” who succeeded simply by selecting contracts that “look cheaper than professional bookmakers say they are worth.” While roughly two-thirds of Polymarket participants lost money trying to outsmart the global hivemind, Tony treated the decentralized future of finance like a massive sports book, grinding out an average return per trade of under 2 percent across a relentless volume of bets.

Naturally, in a world of anonymous crypto wallets, Polymarket insists transparency is built into the system, arguing that “every trade is public on-chain, and on-chain analysis is often a more powerful tool than an ID check.” Yet despite all that public ledger visibility, swisstony managed to rake in millions and quietly ride off into the sunset. The account recently stopped trading, leaving behind a farewell profile update quoting The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”

Whether named after the slick British sketch-comedy car salesman or an actual Swiss sports fanatic, Tony proved that amidst the wild chaos of crypto prediction markets, old-school sports handicapping still rules the roost.

More iPhone Duo Users Say Their Screens Are Cracking

When tech enthusiasts dropped two grand on Apple's $AAPL ( ▼ 0.94% ) long-awaited foldable iPhone Duo, they expected cutting-edge luxury. Instead, several early adopters received a terrifying, $2,000 lesson in hardware fragility over the weekend.

Take Jesse Dalton, who unboxed his new device only to have the hinge jam after opening it four or five times. Prying it open resulted in a loud pop, a wavy inner display, and glowing laser-like lines shooting across his screen. “I felt blind panic,” Dalton told the Wall Street Journal, after watching his brand-new smartphone turn into an expensive paperweight in under five minutes.

Meanwhile, Melbourne resident Shane Basinski suffered a similar fate just six hours into ownership despite taking extreme precautions. “I was babying it, like fine china,” Basinski noted, before an audible crack ruined his flexible display.

So, what is causing these sleek devices to snap? According to Shahram Mokhtari, lead tech at iFixit, those ominous bright screen lines are a dead giveaway: “It’s an indicator that the whole screen is about to die.” Industry experts suspect a weak spot in the hinge mechanism may be crushing microscopically small circuits beneath the flexible panel. Francisco Jeronimo of research firm IDC pointed out that “the consistency points to a possible sensitivity in the hinge tolerances.”

Apple chalked up the disaster to an isolated anomaly, stating, “We are aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units” and directing affected buyers to AppleCare.

Despite his ordeal, Dalton remains surprisingly loyal, noting he is “90% sure” he will keep his replacement, even while admitting, “I am concerned that it’s an actual design flaw.”

Song of the Day: Zimmer90, ‘Dance It Out’

“Dance It Out” is a standout track from the band’s Endless Summer EP. The song distills the German indie-electronica duo's signature blend of danceable rhythms layered with introspective emotional depth.

Ocean Spray Drops 'Bog Core' Merch

97-year-old agricultural staple Ocean Spray is stepping out of the holiday-sauce dish and onto the runway with its new “Bog Core” collection, featuring everything from windbreakers to waterproof overalls. And Gen Z is buying in: The brand's iconic bog boots sold out in under two hours.

So why is a century-old cranberry cooperative moonlighting as a streetwear label? According to Abigail Buckwalter, president and CEO of Ocean Spray, it’s all about meeting contemporary culture where it lives. “We wanted to innovate at the speed of culture,” Buckwalter explained, noting that the goal is balancing modern hype with nearly a century of brand nostalgia. She added that keeping the brand fresh while honoring tradition is “a daily exercise — it’s about staying on trend but also staying true to our roots.”

Behind the trendy streetwear drop lies a unique corporate structure: A cooperative of 700 family-farmer owners who view the business through a distinct lens. As Buckwalter pointed out, “Our farmer-owner-growers, they think in generations. Over 25% of them are fourth or greater generation farmers.” Unlike typical corporate shareholders obsessing over quarterly earnings, these growers focus on the long game — reinvesting in vines while trusting the executive team to keep their tart fruit relevant.

Whether serving up sour apple Craisins or high-concept waders, Ocean Spray is proving that even traditional agricultural brands can pull off a chic Gen Z transformation. Ultimately, the CEO's ambition extends from fashion back to the berry itself, noting, “My goal is to use 100 percent” of the fruit. Who knew haute couture would start in a cranberry marsh?

Free Yourself From Advertising Forever!

Blackberry Is Into Building Robots Now

Remember when BlackBerry $BB ( ▼ 1.57% ) was synonymous with plastic keypads? While the world moved on to glass touchscreens, the company pulled off a sneaky pivot: quietly taking over the automotive universe. Today, its QNX operating system powers over 275 million vehicles. But according to John Wall, president of QNX Software Systems, steering connected cars is merely the appetizer — physical AI is the main course.

So, what does QNX actually do? Think of it as the unglamorous, ultra-dependable backbone of critical hardware. As Wall explains, “think about windows on your PC or macOS on your laptop. We do that type of software but for mission critical applications” — specifically systems controlling steering and braking that cannot afford a blue screen of death. Built with stringent safety standards, Wall emphasizes that “our product is built to never fail.”

As automakers buy monster multi-core chips from Nvidia $NVDA ( ▼ 1.18% ) and Qualcomm $QCOM ( ▼ 0.65% ) , QNX provides the foundational layer so developers can extract maximum performance without getting bogged down in low-level code. But BlackBerry’s ambitions extend far beyond the highway into software-defined factories and industrial automation. Forget dancing humanoid robots; Wall is betting on unflashy workforce heroes: “where we are focused today is where the real robots are being deployed and that’s in warehouses and factories... in less sexy robots like automated forklifts.”

Looking ahead, Wall’s grand vision is bold: “I believe if you look five, 10 years out, QNX will be the de facto standard for mission critical physical AI systems in the world.” 

Should You Check Your 401(k) Today?

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No.

Poll of the Day: Ocean Spray, A-OK?

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P.S. So, you remember the cheese puns that used to open this newsletter? Suffice to say, they were divisive. Now, thanks to a thing called “dynamic content options,” I can offer you the option to see cheese puns again, if you’re one of the thousands who got in touch bemoaning their departure six months ago. All you need to do is answer “true” on this survey, and submit it. If you never want to see cheese puns in this newsletter again, don’t click that link, don’t fill out the survey, don’t submit it. Just keep reading and pretend this conversation never happened. Mmmkay? Thank you.