November 4, 2025

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. Restaurant sales slump, Microsoft boss says forget about trying to humanize AI, Egypt opens a magnificent new museum, how to enjoy this month’s insanely large full moon, and AC/DC is heading to a stadium near you 🤘

Let’s get into it!

Restaurant dining is something of a bellwether for the health of the economy so news of Chipotle’s lackluster earnings report provided the biggest sign yet that a restaurant recession is likely already underway.

Investors have been nervously anticipating a slew of fast-casual earnings data, hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Instead, Chipotle saw margins fall and practically zero sales growth, spooking investors and driving dips for other fast-casual restaurants in anticipation of similarly weak numbers.

Chipotle executives called a spade a spade, citing the slowing jobs market and other standard macroeconomic forces as contributors to their prime customer base spending less time and money at Chipotle.

Fast-casual restaurants are known for offering counter service, healthier options, and prices about 50% higher than typical fast food joints. In an economic downturn disproportionately affecting Gen Z and Millennial consumers, restaurants in this category face a rough road ahead, with more and more of their main source of revenue opting to eat at home more often than not.

It may not have taken as long as the Pyramids, but now you can walk like an Egyptian straight into the Grand Egyptian Museum. It took three decades, and $1 billion-plus in building costs, but the museum is finally open.

The GEM is one of the world’s largest museums, and is dedicated solely to 7,000 years of Ancient Egyptian history, beginning in civilizational prehistory and ending in 400 A.D.

"It is a great day for Egypt and for humanity. This is Egypt's gift to the world. It's a dream come true, after all these years, the GEM is finally and officially open," Nevine El-Aref, media adviser to the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, told CBS News.

A 3,500-year-old obelisk overlooks the front of the museum, and stands 53 feet high in front of the colossal statue-lined 108-step Grand Staircase, setting the tone for visitors and letting them know the GEM is every bit worthy of its acronymous namesake.

12 primary exhibits are scattered across 194,000 square feet of Egypt’s ancient past. 100,000 individual items are expected to fill the gargantuan space.

You can read on here for some of GEM’s highlights, including exhibits on the Pyramids, King Tutt, King Ramses II, and more.

Nobody tell Rosie, but here’s the tea on AI becoming more like us humans.

In a CNBC interview last week, Microsoft’s AI division chief Mustafa Suleyman made his thoughts quite clear regarding the multitude of developers trying to build a “conscious” AI model: don’t bother.

“Our physical experience of pain is something that makes us very sad and feel terrible, but the AI doesn’t feel sad when it experiences ‘pain,'” Suleyman told CNBC.

“It would be absurd to pursue research that investigates that question, because they’re not [conscious] and they can’t be,” he said.

Consciousness has been the subject of multitudes of philosophical works penned by history’s brightest thinkers. Neuroscience, biology, psychology, and other disciplines have offered their best and brightest as well, yet here we stand today having next to no idea what consciousness is.

On top of that, attempts to build “seemingly conscious” AI models have failed to achieve much beyond the models succumbing to psychosis, mania, fatal delusions, and even suicide.

“Just as we should produce AI that prioritizes engagement with humans and real-world interactions in our physical and human world, we should build AI that only ever presents itself as an AI, that maximizes utility while minimizing markers of consciousness,” Suleyman wrote in a blog post.

“We must build AI for people, not to be a digital person.”

Casual astronomers and those who simply marvel when the heavens show off will be in for a treat tonight as the Beaver Moon rises—the second and brightest supermoon of 2025.

Just a day after the peak of the Southern Taurids meteor shower, the full moon will break the eastern horizon and dance its way across the sky in perigee (when the full moon is at its closest proximity to Earth for the entire month).

The supermoon will peak at 8:19 a.m. ET tomorrow morning, but its luminosity and size will be a sight to see all night regardless, along with several more nights this week.

Supermoons appear about 30% brighter and 14% larger than regular full moons, and as the days get shorter and temperatures drop, night skies tend to become clearer.

Earth’s closest companion is currently just over 1,000 miles closer than it was for October’s supermoon, and if you happen to miss it, the next and final supermoon of the year takes place on Dec. 4.

AC/DC announced 17 new North American tour dates starting in July next year, just two years after the Aussie rockers’ last go round in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

The first of the 17 tour stops will take place on July 11 in Charlotte, N.C., and conclude in Philly on Sept. 29. Several smaller and mid-sized markets will host the most high voltage band in the world this go round, along with bigger destinations like Vegas, Atlanta, and Houston.

Vancouver—the sole Canadian city on AC/DC’s 2024 tour—will double down on Aug 13, and will be joined in hosting duties this time by Edmonton, Toronto, and Montreal. Tickets go on sale this Friday.

Angus Young is the only remaining founding member of the band. His brother Malcolm passed in November of 2017. Brian Johnson returned to the band in 2024 after a miraculous recovery from hearing loss sustained after nearly 40 years of high voltage rock ‘n’ roll.

Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd are still employed members of the group, but have not toured since 2024 and 2023, respectively. Matt Laug is filling in for Rudd, and Angus’ cousin Chris Chaney will slap the bass.

Lyrics…but make it TV

Just when you got that TV theme song earworm outta your head…here we come 🤣

In today’s trivia we’ve got 10 questions about those ditties. From dramas, to sitcoms, to variety TV, theme songs are the soundtrack to today’s quiz.

Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 eGift Card ;)

Winner will be notified on Wednesday afternoon. Keep an eye on your inbox and don’t forget to check your spam folder!*