10 most affordable cities 

In the U.S. are primarily in the South and Midwest. McAllen, Texas, takes the top spot, with home prices averaging $275,000 (paywall link). Rounding out the top three: Wichita, Kansas, and Little Rock, Arkansas.

Tags: Arkansas, housing, Kansas, prices, real estate, Texas


George Carlin on airlines and flying

✈️ Get back in line: American Airlines is considering new boarding tech that sounds a really loud beep when you try to cut the line and board without your group. It’s being tested now in Albuquerque, Tucson and Washington, D.C. I’ll spare you a plane joke (it won’t take off), but if you need a laugh, watch George Carlin talk about the boarding process. So funny.

Post when it matters: On Facebook, weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. is best. Wednesday posts get the most eyeballs. Weekends and outside of normal business hours are the lowest engagement times.

NYC to London in 1.5 hours: NASA’s officially working on commercial aircraft with speeds between Mach 2 and Mach 4, or from 1,535 to 3,045 miles per hour — twice the F/A-18’s Mach 1.8. That’s so fast your in-flight peanuts will catch up with you at baggage claim. Booking my trip now!

The next big app? You heard about it here first. Gen Z is buzzing over a new messaging app called Daze that’s set to drop on Nov. 4. With over 200,000 people already on the waitlist and promo videos racking up millions of views, the hype is real. That’s the thing about tech: There’s always something new coming.

It’s gaining traction: Pirelli and Bosch have teamed up to create a “cyber tire” loaded with sensors to track the temp, pressure and road conditions so your car can adjust instantly. What a plus for hydroplaning (when tires lose grip on wet roads). Someday, these tires will talk to other tires to warn them about road conditions. Can you imagine? “Hey, watch out for the pothole!”

Hardware nerds are snapping up old Redbox DVD machines: They’re figuring out how they work and trying to release the movies still inside. But there’s a weird issue — nobody can get the 1996 disaster flick “Twister” out. It’s a problem across all kiosks, with theories ranging from a licensing dispute to a software glitch. What in the hail?

🎮 Wargaming with the pros: This is interesting. Militaries around the world are playing a video wargame called Command: Professional Edition to simulate battlefield scenarios. It lets them test strategies and explore hypotheticals like nuclear warfare (paywall link). The kicker? It was originally made for gamers; its creators had no military background.

Don’t Google these words: A couple searched for “pressure cooker” and “backpacks” on the husband’s work laptop. (I know, right?) Of course, this search got flagged by his IT department … because they’re both homemade bomb ingredients. Just a reminder: Your IT department knows everything you do on a company-issued device.

💬 Never back down: A Utah man was denied a $3,000 payout that’d been confirmed by his home warranty provider’s chatbot. The warranty company claimed its bot was “miscommunicating.” Not having it, the man took his complaint to Utah’s Division of Consumer Protection, which said a chatbot counts as a company representative, making it responsible. PSA: Screenshot every online chat in case you need proof later.

⭐️ Good news: Science Corporation’s new eye implant is bringing sight to the blind. Here’s how it works: A tiny 2mm chip sits under the retina while special glasses equipped with a camera capture what’s ahead. The camera sends infrared light to the chip, which translates it into signals the brain can understand. Patients can’t see full color or detail yet, but they can already recognize shapes and patterns. Amazing.