Wreckage from NASA’s Perseverance mission to Mars in 2021 looks like, well, a crashed UFO. See, we’re the scary ones. 👾
Category: The World
Life, the Universe, and everything in it.
Trams, cable cars, ferries, and bikes – making transportation cleaner (and more fun)
Since I first discovered the care-free movement years ago, I’ve always been a sucker for ways to get around besides those same old gas-guzzling, traffic-jamming cars.
It just seems like walking, biking, and taking a ride on something are more fun than cars. Mass transit makes the world more beautiful and is better for the planet.
Here’s a great overview of how cities across the world are finding better, electric options for moving lots of people around.
Printing a village, one house at a time 🏡🏠🏡
If you had told me a few years ago that homes would be “printed” at all, much less a full village of them down in Mexico, I would have laughed. But here it is, the strange and sometimes beautiful world of tomorrow.
Sure, these “printed” homes are IKEA-showroom-small at 500 square feet. But they are real homes – and real stylish, with interestingly rounded corners and a traditional terracotta look. These homes are not chintzy at all. They have already survived a magnitude 7.4 earthquake.
The houses are made with a a Vulcan II printer, developed by an Austin-based construction technology company. The building material is called “lavacrete”. The process is controlled by a smartphone. Three people can build a house in less than a day.
When it’s time for me to really downsize and move to Mexico, I want one of these.
The collapse of the Bronze Age – and what came next
Here’s a pretty fascinating story about the collapse of the complex, globalized society of the late Bronze Age around 1200 BC. As we’re facing climate change, political polarization, and a raging virus, it’s an interesting listen. 😬
About 3000 years ago, it got bad. There was famine, drought, and earthquakes. And worst of all, the mysterious Sea People were attacking out of nowhere without warning or mercy. ⚔️
But this chaos eventually became a rebirth that led to the alphabet, iron working, monotheism, the Greek and Roman empires, etc. Basically, Western civilization.
The historian notes that, more often than not, civilization pulls back from the brink before it gets toooo bad, so he’s optimistic.
👉 Throughline: The Aftermath of Collapse: Bronze Age Edition (2021)
Dying in the name of vaccine freedom
The Ozarks. Beautiful country. 35% vaccination rate.
It was eerie to hear Christopher insist on his individual freedoms even as he struggled to breath.
This video is shocking. Especially the end. 😢.
In a pandemic, one person’s freedom is another person’s death.
Sadly, it’s too late to talk to these people about getting vaccinated.
90’s trends we didn’t need to come back
Enable audio 👇 for maximum effect.
Hats off to the The Daily Show for finding an oddly humorous perspective on the current Afghanistan tragedy. Definitely more succinct and funnier than mine.
“You can’t stay in Afghanistan forever.”
Leaving Afghanistan sucks, but it’s also the right thing and took courage.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Not Einstein
What would you change about the following narrative?
- 9/11 attack on the US from an Afghanistan-based terrorist group
- Invades Afghanistan, topple the government, and occupy with an international security force
- Provide security, promote democracy, invest in education and infrastructure
- Keep nation building
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Kill Osama Bin Laden
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
- Keep nation building for another year, more dead
It’s not a great story, is it?
It’s unfortunate and ugly, but it was time to go. Would another year of nation building have helped? Were things getting any better?
I don’t doubt the good intentions of the war, and I don’t doubt the skill and courage of the brave people who fought it. I thank our soldiers for their service and give them my utmost admiration for sticking faithfully to the mission despite it’s impossible challenges. 🇺🇸
I hate that the ugly Taliban is taking back over, but their deeds are between them and their own god now. The US Army is out of that equation.
You can’t stay in Afghanistan forever.
War Machine
Here’s a clip from a pretty relevant movie that came out 4 years ago about a war that had already been going on for 12 years. Despite some serious overacting by Brad Pitt, it’s a pretty damned good movie and dead on. It shows a good and capable man trying to win an impossible war.
Iceland tries a 4-day workweek with good results
I guess if you’re an island in the far reaches of the North Atlantic, then you’re pretty self-sufficient and can try stuff out on your own terms. Thank you, Iceland’s Association for Sustainability and Democracy 🇮🇸 (hey, we could use one of those! 🇺🇸), for experimenting with a 4-day workweek.
It turns out the reduced workweek is a win all around. According to Mashable, the extra day was shaved off largely by “delegating and prioritising tasks more effectively”, plus fewer and shorter meetings.
Via Apple News.
The helicopter on Mars
I’m taking a minute to appreciate that, despite all the challenges we currently face here on Earth, we’re flying a helicopter around on another planet. 🤯 We can still do incredible things.
This image goes with my continued fascination that we’re invading Mars instead of the them invading us. If there were really such as thing as Martians, then they surely would have blown this helicopter to smithereens and sent us an ultimatum by now. 🤷🏻♂️
(Also: NASA, can I use this as an album cover? Some stylish text would fit nicely against the pale Martian sky.)
The weird, scrappy 2021 Olympics
The Tokyo Olympics are kicking off today. 🇯🇵
I remember the Olympics being unambiguously awesome. 🤟
Things are more complicated today. Some Tokyoites are not too happy about hosting the games. Olympics officials are being fired for saying dumb things. There are lingering questions about whether rotating the Olympics is wasteful or whether we should have the Olympics at all.
Still, great athletes will be in Tokyo.
My favorite story is about athletes finding a way to stay in fighting form for an extra year despite the pandemic and wildfires.
From sword fighting in a New York City alley, to wresting with your brother, to swimming in a kiddie pool, this scrappy spirit is what the Olympics are all about.
👉Olympians Had to Train During a Pandemic. These Are Their Weirdest Stories.
All of this is via Apple News and their not-too-newsy daily news podcast.
patmcg.com 