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Shroom Recovery | Social AI | Buzzed Bees - The Convo Kit #15 (Best Of)

Shroom Recovery | Social AI | Buzzed Bees - The Convo Kit #15 (Best Of)

September 25, 2021

Happy Birthday! Well, it’s my birthday, but I got you a gift: The top 10 stories from issues 1-14.

How about a gift exchange? If you refer 3 friends it’d be a pretty epic present!

-Steve

Join The Convo for weekly briefings to kick start your weekend!

Psilocybin Makes Shroom for Neurons

The “magic” in magic mushrooms, psilocybin, has been linked to neural regeneration in mice. Scientists blocked the trippy effects and observed a 10% increase in neuronal connections.

Psilocybin = sai - luh - sai - bin
Naturally occurring in 200+ fungi species
Don’t eat those random mushrooms you found

While we are likely many years away legalizing psilocybin, its potential benefits have been rumored for many years. It’s truly remarkable that these scientists were able to block the psychedelic effects while still enabling the neural benefits.

Choose your own adventure: Short trip or long trip.

AI Influencer

Rozy is a 22 year old influencer with over 100 advertising sponsors. She also isn't real. AI company, Sidus Studio X, created Rozy to join the growing field of virtual influencers.

Insta followers: 78,000+
Estimated '21 earnings: $850k
Birthday: 9/10/21

AI influencers are less risky for sponsors than their human competition. They don’t get into trouble and are not bound by pesky human needs, such as sleep. Great for caffeine products, horrible for mattress makers.

See Rozy here. Or a less ad-driven AI, Angie, here.

Caffeine Buzzz

Caffeinated bees work more efficiently and target specific flowers. A recent study found that buzz-enhanced bees could be trained to seek out plants by pairing the target plant odor with caffeinated sugar.

Caffeine: naturally occurring plant chemical
Improves bee memory
Business ideas: Starbuzz. Dunkin Hornuts.

Influencing flower choice can increase productivity of commercial bee sales. Farms import bees to pollinate their plants, but often lose many to nearby wildflowers. This caffeine training would enable farmers to corral their bees to specific areas.

Related: An article on caffeine trained humans, by Michael Pollan. (no, that’s pollen)

More beetails: Buzz. Buzzzzz.

Scorpion Desk

There’s cool WFH setups, then there’s Cluvens IW-SK scorpion workstation. The massive scorpion frame can recline or curl up depending on your task and desired comfort level. The tail even adjusts monitor placement!

Price: $1,900
Weight: 265 pounds
Size: 27” x 65” x 47”

This critter-desk is ergonomic and clean. Sure the scorpion is a bit distracting, but quality cable management and proper posture are the real perks here. With a little bit of tinkering, you may even become a comic-book villain!

Pics and gifs of the desk over on Cnet.

Drone Drop-Off

Wing, Alphabet’s drone co., will hit 100,000 completed deliveries this week (8/25/21). Most were dropped to Australian suburbs in 10 minutes or less. In the last year, they have delivered:

10,000 cups of coffee
1,200 roasted chickens
2,700 sushi rolls

Currently limited to a 3 lb. carrying capacity, drones lower and unhook their cargo from 23 feet off the ground. I’m not sure what is more exciting, receiving coffee from a drone or the guerilla marketing potential for Marvel’s new movie.

Pics and gifs of the drone in action at TechCrunch.