Know it all

Good morning Staker! We hope you’re enjoying a little downtime. Over the next few days we’re taking a look back at some of the year’s most interesting, amusing, and informative stories. But don’t worry, we’ve still got a new game of trivia for you! 😂 Enjoy!

Let’s get into it!

Airport theory flies in the face of all conventional wisdom that anyone has ever had about making a flight on time. Show up three hours before a flight if you want to make it? Nonsense—try 15 minutes.

The theory really only applies, though, if you’ve checked in online and are only travelling with carry-on luggage.

Betsy Grunch, a neurosurgeon with 2.4 million TikTok followers, tested it recently. She arrived 26 minutes before her boarding time, and miraculously got to her gate—the closest one to the security checkpoint—in about 18 minutes.

Another content creator, James Shaw, tested the theory with plenty of time to spare.

“We don’t check bags, so we already had our carry-ons,” says Shaw. “It was a good time to do it because it was a spring break week here, so it was one of the busiest days that Tampa airport had seen. We never ran, we walked the whole time. It was super simple.”

He and his travel crew got to their gate in 13 minutes.

Lucky breaks or proof of a theory that contradicts everything we’ve ever known about airports?

Microsoft surveyed 30,000 people across 31 countries, and found workers are increasingly using AI for efficiency, but many are also doing it solely to avoid human interaction at the office.

Anti-social habits are developing as a consequence of AI tools being readily available. The survey found 17% of employees are using AI to avoid being judged for what may be stupid questions, and 16% are using it to avoid the “friction” of interacting with colleagues. 8% are going so far as to extract information from an AI tool and claim it as their own, rather than asking a colleague and having to share credit.

Microsoft is finding out the hard way that its own tools may be eroding the social skills of its own employees. Its CoPilot Wave 2 tool is built to act like a digital assistant, simulating the kinds of interactions one may have when digitally messaging a real colleague.

Still, the company is all-in on this direction, and hopes to deeply embed its AI “agents” further into the standard day-to-day of offices everywhere.

“A new organizational blueprint is emerging, one that blends machine intelligence with human judgment, building systems that are AI-operated but human-led,” the survey report said. “Like the Industrial Revolution and the internet era, this transformation will take decades to reach its full promise and involve broad technological, societal, and economic change.”

Gallaudet University is the world’s leading academic institution for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, and after years of collaboration with Coca-Cola executives, they’ve officially introduced a Coca-Cola sign into American Sign Language.

The sign was debuted in a reimagining of the classic “Hilltop” ad Coke ran in 1971, featuring a diverse group of young people atop a hill singing, “I Want To Buy The World A Coke.”

The ASL version begins with the original commercial, and then fades into the reimagined tribute filmed by and of students at Gallaudet’s Washington, D.C. campus. Instead of singing, they’re signing, revealing the sign for Coke is made by spelling out the word’s letters in a rhythmic hand motion intended to resemble Coke’s signature ribbon.

"It is more than fitting that The Coca-Cola Company is the first global corporation to receive a sign created by students at Gallaudet University," said Storm Smith, Gallaudet University's Director of Storytelling. "We are deeply honored to have partnered with Coca-Cola on this. Our hope is that many other global brands will now follow in Coca-Cola's footsteps, recognizing the extraordinary value a global sign name brings and the importance of creating a stronger connection with our global signing communities."

The smashing success of Paramount’s Yellowstone probably should have been a hint when it came to the next big travel trend known as agritourism.

There’s something nostalgic about homesteading, even for those who’ve never lived or even been on a farm, and with the help of shows like Yellowstone and the explosive popularity of homesteading influencers on social media, luxury agritourism has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry, and is expected to be valued at nearly $200 billion by 2032.

Family farms around the world have caught on to the demand, and are retrofitting their properties to double as farmsteads and luxury resorts. Visitors can retreat to farms or ranches that go on as far as the eye can see, participate in the day-to-day nurturing of the land and livestock, and take in their idyllic surroundings as they fully immerse themselves in life off the grid.

Some say the trend has grown immensely more popular partly in response to life during the pandemic, when the whole world was working from home. There may be a psychological thing going on where people still yearn for faraway places, but are still operating on an involuntary default setting of being most comfortable being at home and working—a homestead checks all the boxes.

When winter turns to spring and frozen woodlands start to thaw, creatures that inhabit them are often treated to fermenting fruit that sticks to trees during the first few frosts of the season.

During years when mother nature decides to flip-flop several times on whether or not winter is over and spring has begun, it can lead to an overabundance of fermented fruit and overindulgence by birds in the area.

If you happen to see any birds flying erratically and seemingly confused during this time of year, it’s quite likely the bird is legitimately intoxicated.

While slightly amusing, it’s also quite dangerous—the number of birds that fly straight into buildings or windows skyrockets in some areas at this time of year.

Wildlife officials in the Yukon have been known to set up drunk tanks for the Bohemian waxwings that treat every February like homecoming weekend. They house the birds in modified hamster cages and release them once they sobered up, just like how it goes in the real life clink.

Quizmaster’s choice

You know our quizmaster can’t resist mixing it up and that’s exactly what' he’s done for you Staker, in today’s trivia. It’s a real smorgasbord 😜

Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 eGift Card ;)

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