The Dice — 018

Will Ferrell and Harper Steele received multiple standing ovations at the Sundance Film Festival for their upcoming documentary Will & Harper. The film is about their road trip across the country while the two long-time friends get reacquainted after Harper’s recent transition. When asked how it felt to receive that kind of response Will replied, “People are just ready for acts of Civility. They just want to see being nice to each other. And I think people just loved seeing that we can still hang out with each other.”

Yes! Yes, I am. I am ready for this all day long. I hope you are too.

With that said, let's roll.

In the last two years, it’s rare for a week to go by without a friend or former colleague announcing they have been laid-off from work. With so many people in tech out of work finding your next gig has similar odds to winning a lottery. We’re back to those days of needing ways to stand out just to get a foot in the door and pizza might be the answer. “Pizza Hut is now offering free resume-printed pizza boxes for a limited time to help job hunters in New York City get their dream jobs.” Don’t apply for your next role, send a “Reszames” and get “pizzemployed.”

However, don’t expect any kind of 30-minute or less treatment. “Pizza Hut cannot guarantee that (i) a resume will be delivered to the potential employer, (ii) a candidate will receive an interview, and/or (iii) a candidate will receive a job offer or be hired.” With that kind of disclosure, no thanks! I'll deliver it myself.

I don’t miss big tech conferences, but I wish I had been at Dreamforce to watch comedian John Mulaney takedown the industry and the audience. The headline joke goes straight for the jugular: “Let me get this straight,” Mulaney said. “You’re hosting a ‘future of AI’ event in a city that has failed humanity so miserably?” Another direct hit: “The fact that there are 45,000 ‘trailblazers’ here couldn’t devalue the title anymore.” But my favorite line has to be, “Can AI sit there in a fleece vest?” So good! He could have just said those three lines and nailed it. Pity Salesforce doesn’t have the confidence to post the full video.

With so much going on these days, it’s easy to miss some extraordinary stories like that one time some very rich people took a spaceship up to, uh, space and tested out some new space clothes. One of my new, most favorite people on Earth, Fran Blanche explains how insanely risky these tests were to conduct. Meanwhile, NASA sent their own flight of dummies on a similar mission.

What is it with billionaires' insatiable drive to compete for the Darwin Awards? I mean, go ahead for all I care. It just means fewer people in the upcoming Water Wars.

Also, I’d like to point out these folks didn’t “spacewalk” anywhere. Watch the video and tell me you don’t see the same thing I do—space whack-a-mole. Nobody is walking anywhere! Pffft, they’re just bobbing up and down. Whack!

Hey, speaking of cynicism—“Cynics tend to suffer many more mental health issues than non-cynics, and also have a hard time connecting with people. Connecting with people is one of the fastest ways to improve our mental health. Social connections are like nourishment that can help us bounce back from difficult times.”

That’s Jamil Zaki, Stanford Professor of Psychology, laying down one of many profound statements on the most recent episode of the Hidden Brain podcast. I don’t typically listen to this program but it came on the other day and I could not pull away. The episode, You 2.0: Fighting Dispair, goes into our need for trust and community and how both are closely related to the state of our mental health. “Living in a high-trust group is worth as much as a 40% pay raise.” The entire episode is worth your time and attention.

A new iPhone launch means that it’s that time of year to evaluate how much better the new camera is than the model that’s currently in hand. I’m fine with my non-AI camera-phone thanks, but I know others who are many models behind considering the upgrade. After a lengthy conversation with a few people who know a few things about cameras and camera software, we came to the conclusion that all cameras are good cameras. What’s more important is to use the camera you do have. The better, more interesting question is where is the best place to share photos in a post-Instagram world?

While on the subject of camera phones, if you’re reading this on yours, then promise you will bring up this link on a larger screen—2024 Astronomy Photographer of the Year. Wow!

Substituting ground beef for ground turkey in the average American diet can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by “an average of 48 percent and water-use impact declined by 30 percent.” Here’s another staggering insight, “If only the 20 percent of Americans who ate beef in a day switched to something else for one meal, that would reduce the overall carbon footprint of all U.S. diets by 9.6 percent and reduce water-use impacts by 5.9 percent.” Those are the findings from a recent study by Tulane University and the University of Michigan. While beef consumption in the US is on the decline, it’s still four times more beef than the global average. Personally, I’m good with skipping the turkey and going right to mushrooms.

Want a side of ants with that? Asked no one ever, but here’s a food alternative you likely didn’t know you needed in your life. Chicatana ants are edible flying insects harvested by the dark of night during the first major rains of late spring and early summer. Oh, and they tend to not like being harvested and bite back. Buy a pound for yourself and let me know how they are.

Published in Tacoma, Washington on the patio with Phantogram on eleven.