🎮 A case of the Mondays

Chef-approved gaming snacks, how soldiers really game, and more.

Mornin’. On a weekend filled with flash floods, record heat, tornadoes, sinkholes, power outages, flight cancellations, and other phenomena ripped from The Day After Tomorrow playbook, a momentary bout of Internet skiplagging landed me on the Wikipedia page for the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest hole ever drilled by mankind.

And you know what? Twelve thousand meters underground doesn’t sound so bad right now. So here’s to, uh, Monday.

—Andrew Nusca, Eric Alt, Marques Edge, Tim Leong

Buffed/Nerfed

What’s up and down in the world rn.

Buffed: Bachelor’s degrees. The U.S. Supreme Court may have denied President Biden’s broader bid for student loan forgiveness, but some 800,000 borrowers will still see their debts erased. Noice.

Nerfed: Space vacations. The space tourism company Virgin Galactic plans to make a second commercial flight in August, but with tickets priced at $250,000 to $450,000 per seat, we think we’re just gonna dig up our copy of 1983’s Atari game Space Shuttle: A Journey into Space instead.

Buffed: Creepy paper. The fifth season of the wondrous What We Do in the Shadows has arrived, and we can’t wait to, erm, sink our teeth into more episodes about the mundane lives of a quartet of vampires.

Nerfed: The American Southwest. We love your deserts, canyons, and red rocks. But now that there’s a flippin’ heat dome responsible for triple-digit Fahrenheit temperatures (that’s in the 40s, Celsius fans) in the region, we are 100% moving to Alaska for the summer.

Buffed: Stellar forges. To their great surprise, cosmochemists (!) discovered grains of stardust embedded in an asteroid, offering clues about how the solar system formed. We’d call the discovery a big bang, but instead, we’ll simply see ourselves out. —TL and AN

Field Upgrades: Chef Sam Fore will level up your gaming snacks

Level up.

Photo by Jennifer Baldino Cox

She’s a gamer, she’s a chef, and she’s not above the occasional Cool Ranch Dorito. Is there a better person on this planet than Tuk Tuk pop-up food shop founder Sam Fore to go to for simple, practical advice on improving your gaming snack options?

We didn’t think so, either.

Executive editor Eric Alt overcame his growling stomach to get useful tips and tricks that will have you feeling gourmet without slowing your gameplay.

Unlock the upgrades.

Your moment of meme

Extractor: Video games can offer refuge for soldiers. Here's how.

Investigations of interest.

Photo by Prostock Studio via Getty Images

To many, gaming is an idle hobby.

But to some members of the military—especially those who served in combat zones—it’s therapeutic, calming, or even lifesaving.

Managing editor Marques Edge brought four service members together to share their experiences transitioning to civilian life and how video games provided them with support for PTSD, anxiety, and other mental health challenges.

Here’s what they had to say.

Mixtape Monday

Hot temps got you down? Cool off with this week’s picks from the community.

Let’s get it:

• Amaarae, "Disguise." The irresistible Afrobeat underpinning this pop tune will have you mouthing the words before it’s over. Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube. (Recommended by Eden Bovi)

• The Naked and Famous, "Young Blood." The synth-y bounce of this popular MGMT-esque track is the perfect track to put on during your commute. Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube. (Recommended by Zach Churchill)

• John Summit and Hayla, “Where You Are.” Imagine vocals with Dua Lipa levels of diaphragm. Now add the full EDM treatment. Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube. (Recommended by Jack Jeno)

• Silversun Pickups, “Lazy Eye.” This 2006 tune has become an alt-rock classic thanks to its dreamlike build into a fuzzy blast. Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube. (Recommended by Zach Churchill)

• Gunship, “Monster in Paradise.” This star-studded synthwave track drives like an ‘80s film soundtrack and belts like an aughts anthem. Plus: a saxophone solo. Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube. (Recommended by Andrew Snell)

—AN

Wormhole

Click the following image and…well, we don’t want to ruin the surprise.

Illustration by Johnson Martin

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