Space Lasers, Dubai Chocolate & Cheap Japanese Farmhouses

Summer School is still in session. And the questions are getting stranger.

Ok, so apparently you all liked Dispatch #1 from Summer School, our seasonal email collecting tidbits from in-office debates, IRL obsessions, and internet rabbit holes (like how one of those sticky hand toys collects lint). So here we go again: culture, tech, nonsense. Got a question? Reply and tell us what’s on your mind.

Don’t want to get this? Hit reply with a “not for me” and we’ll expel you from Summer School, no hard feelings.

I would like to raise an ungodly sum of money. What’s the best way to do that quickly?

Tucker: Simple.

Step 1: Read an Isaac Asimov sci-fi novel. Pick a random word from the book. That’s your company name.

Step 2: Pick any alien technology or weapon mentioned in the book. Announce your company will “build” this.

Step 3: Absolutely do not explain how you’ll do this.

Step 4: Post job openings for physicists, AI researchers, and “visionary system architects.”

That’s it. $50 million should hit your account by next week. Need proof? Look no further than Aetherflux—a real company whose product sounds like a plotline from Rick and Morty and whose website will give you a headache (and possibly a sunburn). Is it a space laser? Is it the future of remote charging? Our friend Alex Fielding, CEO of Privateer (actual satellite guy), says this is a whole category of emerging tech.

“The Aetherflux guys are in a category of power-delivery folks that are all trying different things. One does illumination, one provides energy to solar farms, one is providing power to other satellites in the darkness to keep them powered up from the terminator position of always being in the daylight.”

TLDR: If you’re bored of reading about AI, check out energy-production start-ups.

Why am I being brainwashed into liking Dubai Chocolate?

Naomi: I’ve seen Dubai chocolate at Sahadi’s, in a recent Shake Shack collab (not worth it IMO), on my desk (courtesy of Tucker), and all over the Fancy Food Show last month. What’s inside: pistachio cream, maybe tahini (depending on the maker), and knafeh (shredded phyllo pastry). You like it because it’s tasty. But it’s not groundbreaking. And I’m looking for novelty, kids.

Let me introduce you to Peelers—a gummy inside of a gummy “skin” that you can—yes—peel right off. It’s gross. It’s tasty. And although I discovered them at my local bodega, apparently they are also a TikTok fan fave (Walgreen’s just launched a dupe). Mango and banana are top of the line. $5 a bag in Park Slope, but I coughed up $7 for some in Seattle this past week. (Read this aloud near your devices and you, too, can get some sweet-tooth algorithmic recommendations from your robots.)

Tucker’s Note: If you are in NYC and have the chance to go to Economy Candy with Naomi (undisputed Queen of Candy), you should do it. Me? Well, I have entered my “I like black licorice” era now.

Should we all quit Big Tech and move to the woods?

Naomi: No, we should all stop working for Big Tech and move to Japan. Look, we’re not omniscient. Or financial advisors. But we are online at 2AM looking at abandoned Japanese farmhouses (thanks to the advice of a stranger at Marshall Stack telling me that sometimes therapy comes in many forms and one is buying some suspiciously affordable real estate in rural Japan on this site called Akiya). Some are as cheap as $8K. You will need to learn Japanese bureaucracy and probably fix your own roof. In terms of improving the world: one thing I have found that helps beat The Dark Cloud is social prescribing: Art, Nature, Movement, Service, and Belonging. Seems simple. But the biggest lessons usually are.

Field Notes

• Outrageous thing we missed at auction: We’re still mourning losing out on this 1958 Goggomobil TS 400. It’s a German microcar that looks like a cartoon prop. We challenge you to find the next greatest/weirdest thing on the Cars and Bids site. Tucker might buy it.

• Wild fact I have shared at every group dinner for the last six weeks: Typically, when you get a kidney transplant, the old kidney stays in. So they ADD ON a kidney (usually in the front of your belly, not in the typical kidney storage area!). That means there are people walking around with three (or more) kidneys.

• Email we’re opening: How to Move (Anna Maltby-Patil — fresh ways to move your body, without the guilt-trip)

• Free dose of “what is the internet doing to us and FOR us”: Pluralistic, by Cory Doctorow (ad free!)

• Most-shared opinion article in Naomi’s friend chats for over a month: Men, Where Have You Gone? Please Come Back

• See it live: Viola’s Room by Punchdrunk at The Shed. (An audio experience by Helena Bonham Carter with some top-tier immersive set design and a sensory experience for YOUR FEET.)

• Podcast ep: The Freakonomics Renfaire episode. Would you have survived the Renaissance? (Would you want to?)

• NYC Rec 1: Surprise Scoop—ice cream roulette at 1st Ave & 9th Street in the East Village. Roll the dice, get weird. (We got some sort of Salted Caramel and Ritz Crackers, both 7/10 edible and 11/10 worth the surprise—minus the delivery vessel, a Chinese takeout box not ideal for things that melt and drip through seams.)

• NYC Rec 2: The Hudson Film Festival is one of our favorite cinephile gatherings upstate. Year 3 dates are August 7–10 (and yes, we manage their site, but we independently admire the work too!).

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Well, you made it through Summer School Dispatch #2.

Got a dumb question, real concern, or weird cultural itch? Reply here. We’re working through quite a list now.

Happy High Summer, Naomi & Tucker