There are only TWO types of people in this world:

1. People who like Cherry Coke

2. People who despise Cherry Coke

In 1985 the Coca-Cola company divided the world forever when they released their first flavoured drink ever. Up until that point people would take cherry syrup and put it in their own Coke and mix it themself.

It was only until the 1990’s when the world truly discovered the art of mixing drinks while enjoying greasy pizza and playing arcade games with sticky (read: stuck) buttons.

As much as there’s been a ton of food collaborations that just made sense, we’ve unfortunately seen our fair share of WTF combos.

One that I experienced in recent times was sake-flavoured KitKat bars. Japan is the capital of flavoured KitKat bars. But that just means if you can think of a flavour, there’s probably been a KitKat created. Sake and KitKat is 🤢 

Announced just this week, Oreo and Coca-Cola is teaming up to bring you Coke + Oreo flavoured things. Coke infused cookies with little popping candies in them to give you the fizz feeling while you eat them. And Coke with flavourful notes of Oreo.

At least this is how the press release described them. The PR goes on to talk about the two pairings being besties. I have never thought of Coke and Oreos as being besties. Maybe Coke and pizza or chips? Oreos and milk? Coke and a musty basement full of teenagers trying to beat Legend of Zelda for 30 hours?

But not Coke and Oreos.

Do these two really go well together??

This week's issue is a 3 minute read:

🏟️ Probably the coolest dome in the world

❎ Google finally got caught

🏌️ Acting with Adam Sandler

The Dome of the Future Opens

Last night Bruno Mars popped the Intuit Dome’s cherry and he continues to do so today with the second of two performances that officially unlocks the doors of the $2B Steve Ballmer dream, the Intuit Dome.

After three years of construction and sharing the same stadium as the Lakers but turning the lights on, the LA Clippers finally have a stadium to call their own. And wow, this thing is as futuristic as they come.

The entire stadium is cashless.

From entering the stadium, to paying for concessions and parking, everything is done through the Intuit Dome App. Anything you want to do in the stadium can be done with the app, with the option of adding your facial profile to further authenticate yourself using just your face to enter places and buy things.

Yes yes, I know, a lot of other stadiums have an app. But this feels way more like a real connected fan experience.

The Halo Board

A first of its kind, the court will be shadowed by a giant halo shaped double sided digital “not a scoreboard”, hanging in the stadium. A few things the board will feature:

• Steve cam, a live feed of Steve Ballmer for the whole time he’s in the stadium

• Interactive games that you can play from your armrest controller

• Deeper analytics and plays for basketball enthusiasts

• The score of the game (lol)
  

The whole place is electric, literally.

The roof of the stadium has waves of solar panels that fuel the 11 megawatts of battery storage cells that power the arena. Everything is run on electricity in the arena, making it another first of its kind.

The last first of its kind

Supporter sections are so much fun in sports and sometimes very much needed - just ask Brazilian soccer fans. You don’t get that at all in the NBA but the Clippers are going to have a section of the stadium, dubbed “The Wall”, that is solely for Clippers fans. And you’ll need to prove you’re a fan with your Chuckmark otherwise they won’t let you buy tickets for that section.

FYI: Google Controls the Internet

In 2000, just two years after Google was launched, it became the world’s largest search engine with more than 1 billion web pages indexed. This laid the foundation for the next 24 years as we’re clearly still using the website, most likely daily.

It’s no question Google is one of the most powerful companies in the world running some of the most powerful technology in the world. And it has been doing this for years.

There’s a whole generation at this point that does not know a world not powered by Google.

Welp, it turns out what we all knew all along is finally being legally defined, Google controls way too much around the internet and its data. This week a US judge has ruled that Google acted illegally to maintain its market share by paying billions of dollars to ensure it is the default search engine on smartphones and web browsers.

Google paid $21 billion to companies in 2021 to ensure its dominance.

The likes of Apple, Samsung, Mozilla were all driving this charge of having Google come preinstalled on devices. Essentially Google was found guilty of running a monopoly.

I mean, I don’t know about you but Googling things over recent years has become a bit of a dumpster fire. Receiving 10 results of similar nature, none of which really answer my question helps and this is what the Google experience has been like now for years.

AI sites like Perplexity.ai are starting to become the norm, it’s only a matter of time before I try Perplexity-ing it instead of Googling it.

This May Be Your Lifetime Opportunity

You ever sit there watching Happy Gilmore for the 48th time on VHS in your parent’s basement and wonder what it would’ve been like to be in that movie? To be there on the green with Shooter McGavin? To shake Chubbs’ fake hand (RIP)? To be punched in the face by Bob Barker (RIP as well…damn)?

Well I’m here to tell you that on August 20th at the Hyatt Regency Morristown Plaza Ballroom in Morristown, New Jersey, your prayers have finally been answered.  Happy Gilmore 2 is casting for extras - and you don’t need any acting experience at all!

They’re paying $176 for 10 hours of work, but you’re clearly not going for the money, you’re going because you want to be in Happy Gilmore 2! You can see the official posting for this work here.

So classic.