Good Morning. What does it take to put Darth Vader in your homemade videos? Turns out, $1 billion and a handshake with Sam Altman while simultaneously suing Google for copyright infringement. We break down Disney's carrot-and-stick AI strategy.

We also share Colombia's genius response to flat-earth conspiracy theorists, the final "Joey" episodes that disappeared for 20 years, and Tim Ferriss's favorite gifts under $100 (forwarded this email? Join 523k readers who get a little better every day).

Disney invested $1 billion in OpenAI and licensed its characters for three years (WSJ). Sora users can generate videos featuring 200+ Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar characters. Selected content will stream on Disney+.

The partnership follows two years of negotiations between Disney CEO Bob Iger and OpenAI's Sam Altman. Disney simultaneously sent Google a cease-and-desist alleging copyright infringement, demonstrating its dual approach: collaboration with some AI firms, litigation against others (More).

OpenAI compensates Disney for character usage and provides stock warrants at its $500 billion valuation. Content restrictions include drugs, alcohol, and sexual material. Disney can pursue similar partnerships with other AI companies after one year (see Storm Trooper blog).

▲ Ben Affleck was right.

South Carolina reported 114 measles cases this year, with 27 new cases since Friday. State epidemiologist Linda Bell called the outbreak "accelerating." At least 254 people are quarantined.

Of 111 Upstate cases, 105 involved unvaccinated individuals. Officials traced 16 cases to Way of Truth Church in Inman. Nationally, 1,912 cases have been recorded across 42 states. South Carolina's school vaccination rate dropped from 96 percent (2020) to 93.5 percent.

Bell expects transmission to continue "for many more weeks." The U.S. risks losing its measles elimination status after nearly a year of sustained transmission. Measles infects 90 percent of exposed unvaccinated people. CDC vaccines by age list.

The "Friends" YouTube channel released the final eight episodes of spinoff "Joey" in recent weeks, nearly 20 years after NBC canceled the series. These episodes never aired in the United States.

"Joey" premiered in 2004 with Matt LeBlanc reprising his role as Joey Tribbiani. The show debuted to 18.6 million viewers but ratings declined to 7.1 million by season two. NBC canceled it in May 2006 after two seasons.

The channel began uploading full episodes earlier this year, starting with the Season 1 pilot. All episodes are now available online for the first time. The series followed Joey's move to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Watch all episodes here.

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In the latest episode of The Random Show, Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose got together to talk affordable Christmas gifts / products they actually use.

Bonus: They also mentioned a few items over $100, including this USB Microphone ($150) and this Walking Pad Treadmill ($315).

Watch 16-minute video.

Ryan Serhant's thousand-minute rule: treat each day's 1,000 productive minutes as $1,000 in your daily time bank. This mindset helps you value time commitments and prevents single bad moments from destroying entire days. Would you throw away $995 over losing $5? A five-minute bad experience shouldn't ruin 995 remaining minutes.

Watch clip.

▲ Michael Jordan settles NASCAR antitrust lawsuit on trial's ninth day with evergreen charter concessions

▲ Rivian expands hands-free driving to 3.5M miles from 135K as shares sink 6% | See Rivian in action

▲ Seascape Aquatech automates oyster farming with robotics, seeks $2.5M to scale across 6-8 farms

▲ Time Magazine names AI architects including Musk and Zuckerberg Person of Year, sparks online backlash

▲ Director Carl Rinsch convicted of defrauding Netflix $11M after spending series budget on crypto, Rolls-Royces

AI gadgets are bad right now [Blog]

Colombia’s flat-earth challenge [Video]

Joker makeup artist hated iconic look [Video]

$50,000 Christmas light trend [Blog]

Charlie Brown Jazz Christmas [Video]