Friends of Dave #445: 🎆 tick tick tick 🎇
Long weekend reading.
Friends,
It’s the long July 4th weekend here in the US.
Most of you are likely spending it at the beach, with friends and family doing outdoor things.
So am I.
Dropped a few good links below for those interested in doing some reading.
Enjoy the weekend — back at preambling next week.
XOXO
Dave
And now a few things to make you smarter…
This map highlights where the U.S. Department of Defense concentrates its manpower across the country in 2025. From massive coastal bases to inland installations, certain states stand out as major military hubs.
The data for this visualization comes from the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC). It tracks the number of active duty personnel stationed in each U.S. state, reflecting the current military footprint by location.
Reexamining our careers in midlife is not just normal—it’s a healthy and expected part of development. The idea that we should have everything figured out by our 30s (or even our 40s and beyond) is a myth that ignores how we evolve as people over time. So if you’re feeling uncertain about what comes next, consider it an opportunity rather than a crisis.
Here are Variety chief film critics Peter Debruge and Owen Gleiberman’s choices for 10 movies from the first half of the year you need to see.
A modest body of contemporary research has sought to explore the link between food and nightmares more empirically. The latest is a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology—finding that if you want to get your z’s, you’d best limit the cheese.
Maybe you spell it "barbecue" or barbeque or BBQ. And maybe you prefer a nice charred burger to a smoky steak and a sweet sauce over one that has more of a vinegar tang to it. Regardless of how you take it, or spell it, barbecue as we know it has the same origins — stretching back to before Europeans set foot in the U.S.