The strangest tech to come out of Utah: October edition: On "Sillycon Slopes" merries, trying to get employees back to the office, and a meditation app that rewards meditators with cryptocurrency.

• Author: Stone, Zara

WITH THE HEATWAVE, COVID STRESS, and Skinwalker Ranch season two (why, just why?) sometimes it feels like we're at the end of times ... and no doubt, there's a prophecy, somewhere, to confirm that. Whatev. For the business world, it's back to work as usual. If only they could lure their remote employees back, IRL.

To get people away from their PJ pants/athleisure, companies are getting creative--Qualtrics is cajoling staffers back with outdoor basketball screenings in their six-acre garden and in Lehi, Adobe decided a blown glass/ vomit-like ceiling would make returning more fun.

Notwithstanding, Vasion wins the back-to-work perk game hands down, equipping their St. George HQ with basketball, volleyball, and pickleball courts, alongside a video game arcade and a stage. I'm all for making the office a playspace--there's a reason why the revenue of Lehi-based mattress company Purple is 77 percent up from 2019--today, comfort is king.

Purple's legion of #petambassadors has surely helped, as Instagram is full of adorable big-eyed doggos hawking Purple's $189 pet bed. That pandemic puppy shortage is real, y'know?

Given how we're all rebuilding our identities after lockdown, let's take a spin down Utah's DNA genealogy startup-scape for this month's game of Two Truths and a Lie, the Utah Startup Edition.

Out of the following genealogy tech startups, which one is the fake one?

* One that translates a person's ancestral name into sheet music.

* One that uses your DNA data to play six degrees of separation with celebrities.

* One that maps your puppy's DNA, so you can socialize with their extended fur family.

(See below for answers)

SILLYCON SLOPES: THE 'GRAM

The term Silicon Slopes was coined in 2012, a clever nod to Utah's snow-capped mountains and expanding entrepreneurial scenesters. In came the VC money and out rolled the memes. As demonstrated by HBO's "Silicon Valley," tech success and satire go hand in hand.

There was much to mock. Former Zappo's CEO Tony Hsieh's pet alpaca, the billionaire boy's club at Powder Mountain, ghost-finding apps, you name it. But few publications provided high-level snark, which is where Instagram satirist @Hold_My_Fry_Sauce (HFMS) comes in. Their anonymous no-holds-barred account takes a Gawker-meets-BuzzFeed-meets-TechCrunch approach to the so-called "Sillycon Slopes."

The memes range from the lighthearted--a Traverse mountain D-bag starter kit (contents include a Traeger grill and Patagonia jacket), and the...