October 28, 2025

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. YouTube wants to help you slow the scroll, bath tubs are disappearing, and the Springsteen biopic disappoints at the box office 🎥

Let’s get into it!

YouTube Shorts was the platform’s answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels, but just like them, Shorts can be incredibly addictive and have users scrolling for hours.

In response to evidence that obsessive scrolling can be bad for mental health—especially in young people—YouTube is adding a feature that allows users to limit how much time they can scroll each day.

The feature will be accessible in the app’s settings, and once turned on, will result in a pop-up during transitions between Shorts letting the user know when they’ve reached their personally-established daily limit.

While the pop-up can be dismissed and allow the user to continue scrolling as long as they want, a separate parental controls feature is in the pipeline for 2026, which will allow parents to control the Shorts limit for their kids.

Once shipped, users who want to prevent themselves from being able to bypass the timer feature will be able to impose parental controls on themselves.

As copper wire theft becomes an increasingly larger problem, the methods by which these thieves obtain what they’re looking for are also growing. The latest popular target? EV charging stations.

It’s unclear why thieves are targeting EV chargers, given the risk factor. There doesn’t really seem to be enough copper wire in an EV charger to justify someone risking getting electrocuted for it only to make a couple bucks,

At the same time, if EV adoption were to scale at the pace governments are hoping for, many more charging stations would be available and likely be to targeted for copper wire theft.

Ironically for copper wire thieves, their actions have been slowing the process of EV adoption, both by taking existing stations out of order, or deterring people from wanting to rely on technology that invites vandalism.

Several solutions have been tabled in various circles and at different levels of government, including stricter fines for those who get caught and even spraying ink on those attempting to steal the copper wire.

Growing up, it would be hard to imagine a bathroom without a bathtub, but here we are in 2025, and according to Zillow’s Home Trends 2026 report, bathtubs are on their way out.

Home listings are a good way to follow what homeowners are looking for, and according to the report, “spa-inspired bathrooms are appearing 22% more often,” and “mentions of wellness features rose 33%.”

Wellness and spa-inspired features have been on the up and up for a few years now. Proving out the trend are “wet rooms” which are increasingly mentioned in listings. It’s a way of setting up a bathroom like one big shower/bath combination.

“As you are not as confined to the standard sizing requirements of showers and tubs, you can create a much more open, airy, and uncluttered bathroom layout,” interior designer Tamarra Younis told Apartment Therapy in 2023.

Wet rooms were mentioned 19% more on Zillow listings in last year’s report, which also found that owners listing their properties were “16% more likely” to talk about wellness features in general.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere was forecast to draw about $20 million worldwide on its opening weekend. Deadline revealed it drew just $9.1 domestically and $7 million overseas, totalling $16.1 for a lacklustre opening weekend, even by today’s standards.

It’s estimated the film cost about $55 million to make, meaning it’s got quite a ways to go just to break even, let alone profit.

With the World Series kicking off on Friday night and Game 2 the day after, it’s likely many in the demographic category the movie was expected to attract were watching the games instead.

On top of the disappointing weekend at the box office, critics were mixed on the performance of Jeremy Allen White starring as Bruce Springsteen.

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes currently has a critics’ score of 58%, with many saying the film in general was too predictable and painted its main character in too respectful a manner.

On the other hand, Rotten Tomatoes has an audience score of 84% for the movie, suggesting the vast majority of those who saw it enjoyed it a lot.

A lot to spook about

Ok kids, it’s time to start the countdown to your favourite childhood holiday…Halloween 👻

In today’s trivia we’re starting the first of 4 games this week in spook-tacular fashion with 10 questions about supernatural, super scary, and downright frightening movie and TV moments.

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!*