Cool Stuff Ride Home Podcast

07/09/2021

The Mars Perseverance Rover has secured its first rock sample, with big promise for insights to come. A billionaire is working on plans to build a new sustainable city “for the people” somewhere in America. And you may have heard of Little Free Libraries, but what about Little Free Blockbusters? Links:Mars rover grabs first rock sample, a major step in hunt for alien life (National Geographic)"I've got it!" (NASA’s Perseverance Rover, Twitter)NASA says the Mars Perseverance rover has collected its first sample (Engadget)Telosa: Marc Lore and Bjarke Ingels unveil plans for 5-million-person city in the American desert (CNN)How Diapers.com Founder Marc Lore Plans to Build Utopian City Telosa (Bloomberg)TelosaForget Netflix, Some Movie Fans Rewind to VHS Tapes (Wall Street Journal)Free Blockbuster Is Bringing Back the Community Video Rental Hub (Thrillist)FreeBlockbuster.org Want A Free Dental Cleaning? Beat This Dentist At Smash Bros! (Neatorama)Kottke.OrgJackson Bird on Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy -not-sell-my-info.

03/09/2021

What if a room could charge all of your devices just by them being in there? Like no wires, no charging pads, just being in the room. Some engineers have made that a reality. Plus, new insights into the billion years of time that are missing from the rock layers in the Grand Canyon. And why Red Delicious apples are so common in the U.S. even though they’re not really that great. Sponsor:Raycon, Get 15% off at buyraycon.com/kottke Links:This Room Could Wirelessly Charge All Your Devices (Scientific American)Wireless charging room powers your devices without plugs or cables (ABC)Welcome to the Age of Wireless Electricity (Interesting Engineering)Why One Billion Years of Time Are Missing in the Grand Canyon (Vice)Geologists dig into Grand Canyon’s mysterious gap in time (CU Boulder Today)Erasing a Billion Years of Geologic Time Across the Globe (Eos)Red Delicious Apples Weren't Always Horrible (New England Today)Here's exactly how Red Delicious apples became an affront to God (A/V Club)Paralympics: Runner's Sighted Guide Proposes On The Track After Their Race (NPR)Kottke.OrgJackson Bird on Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy -not-sell-my-info.

02/09/2021

Would you take a flying rideshare taxi? NASA is betting on it. Plus, murder hornets are back and badder than ever. And the growing genre of “bedroom pop,” which isn’t what it maybe sounds like. Sponsor:Raycon, Get 15% off at buyraycon.com/kottke Links:NASA is testing electric air taxis with Joby Aviation (The Verge)Your air taxi has arrived: Why Joby could be the first commercial eVTOL (CNBC, Youtube)A Special Message from our CEO and Founder, JoeBen Bevirt (Joby Aviation, YouTube)NASA Begins Air Taxi Flight Testing with Joby (NASA)'Murder Hornets': Nest of 1,500 eradicated in the US (BBC)Department of Agriculture Officials in Washington State Attacked While Trying to Remove Murder Hornet Nest (Inside Edition)Just How Dangerous Is the ‘Murder Hornet’? (Scientific American)What's bedroom pop? How an online DIY movement created a musical genre (NBC News)Don’t Call it Bedroom Pop: The New Wave of DIY (Complex)Elliot Page Is On a "Lo-Fi Bedroom Pop Adventure,” Drops Debut EP (them.)Mark and Elliot EP (Mark and Elliot, Bandcamp)Kottke.OrgJackson Bird on Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy -not-sell-my-info.

01/09/2021

The climate crisis is causing some animals to shrink, and that’s definitely not a good thing. Experts weigh in on the possibility of humans ever being able to edit or delete their own memories. And Netflix cheat codes to help you shake off the algorithm. Sponsor:Raycon, Get 15% off at buyraycon.com/kottke Links:When Insects Lost Their Homes, Evolution Clipped Their Wings (NY Times)Some birds, mammals, and fish are shrinking. Blame climate change. (Vox)Urbanization is Causing Mammals to Grow Bigger, New Study Says (Sci-News)Scary study finds urban rats and mammals are getting bigger (Fast Company)Will We Ever Be Able to Edit or Delete Memories? (Gizmodo)The Netflix Secret Codes Cheat Sheet (MakeUseOf)Thu. 05/13 - I'll Have What She's Having: The Decline of Personalized Recommendations? (Kottke Ride Home)Kottke.OrgJackson Bird on Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy -not-sell-my-info.

31/08/2021

The Paralympic Games kicked off in Tokyo last night. Here’s what you need to know and a brief history of the games. Plus, how did the Pfizer vaccine end up with the brand name Comirnaty, and what were some of the other contenders? Sponsor:Upstart, upstart.com/kottke Links:Badminton And Taekwondo Make Their Paralympic Debut In Tokyo (NPR)When Did The Paralympics Start, And How Did The Event Get Its Name? (NPR)The Paralympics Finally Get To Prime Time (1A)Paralympics History - Evolution of the Paralympic Movement (IPC)Paralympics 2020: How much do you know about the sports on offer? (BBC)The 2020 Paralympics Will See the Most Openly LGBTQ+ Athletes Ever (them.)How does the Paralympic classification system work? (CNN)Murderball Trailer (Participant, YouTube)Pfizer's Covid Vaccine Is Named Comirnaty (Intelligencer)Comirnaty, Spikevax, and the weird world of branding COVID-19 vaccines (The Verge)Why ‘Comirnaty’ Is The New Name For Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccines, ‘Spikevax’ For Moderna (Forbes)The inside story behind Pfizer and BioNTech's new vaccine brand name, Comirnaty (Fierce Pharma)Samsung phone catches fire on airplane five years after Galaxy Note 7 debacle (Mashable)Starbucks' new apple crisp macchiato joins pumpkin spice latte on the fall menu (CNBC)Kottke.OrgJackson Bird on Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy -not-sell-my-info.

31/08/2021

The 7,200 year old skeleton of a teenage girl is shaking up what we thought we knew about ancient human migration. The creative solution an Oregon hospital has come up with to support its overworked staff, and what we can do to help lessen their load. And a new startup that wants to disrupt the way we eat our meals, specifically by making all of our food look like identical little bricks. Sponsor:Upstart, upstart.com/kottke Links:‘Genetic fossil’: intact DNA from woman who lived 7,200 years ago discovered in Indonesia (The Guardian)Who were the Toaleans? Ancient woman's DNA provides first evidence for the origin of a mysterious lost culture (The Conversation)7,200-Year-Old Human DNA With Unique Denisovan Ancestry Has Been Found in Indonesia (Science Alert)First ancient human DNA found from key Asian migration route (Nature)Oregon, once a virus success story, struggles with surge (AP)Oregon hospital workers smash plates to relieve stress (Upworthy) WHO says Covid misinformation is a major factor driving pandemic around the world (CNBC) Covid: CDC study shows unvaccinated people 29 times more likely to be hospitalized (CNBC)Facebook moms' Vaccine Talk group is fighting misinfo and persuading skeptics (Washington Post)New start-up presents a selection of weird little food cubes (A/V Club)This Startup Wants You To Eat All Your Food In Cube Form (Vice)Are you ready to eat your delicious nutrient square? Yum, yum, yum (The Verge) What is SquarEat? 'Modular squared food' company is taking over Twitter (Today)How I Experience Web Today (h/t Garbage Day)Kottke.OrgJackson Bird on Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy -not-sell-my-info.

12/02/2021

🎥 Gaming the YouTube system for good
🍻 Recreate the sounds of your local bar
🥤 Coca-Cola is testing paper bottles
🎸 The dude who built a guitar out of his uncle's skeleton

The story of how two brothers gamed the YouTube system thirteen years ago and have since used that method to raise nearly 14 million dollars for charity.…

11/02/2021

🦠 Did the UK variant of Sars-Cov-2 evolve in just one person?
📼 How video dating (like, on VHS tapes) paved the way for modern dating apps
👥 A teenager made a functional clone of Myspace

How the UK variant of Sars-CoV-2 may have evolved inside just one human. Some dating apps are adding video components, but it’s just another case of mode…

10/02/2021

☀️ Do all those UV light "virus-killing" appliances really work?
🌸 Why is a random flower photo getting 78 million hits a day on Wikimedia Commons?
🎤 Rebecca Black released a 10th anniversary remix of "Friday"

Do all of these UV light “virus-killing” appliances really work? The mystery of the purple flower photo that has accounted for nearly 20% of all Wikimedi…

09/02/2021

🚶 The scientific benefits of walks & how to fit more of them in
🚰 A hacker tried to poison a town's water supply
🛣 Repurposing used face masks to build roads
📺 ALL the pandemic-themed spec scripts

The scientific benefits of going for regular walks, and some tips for incorporating more walks into your life. The town in Florida whose water was almost…

08/02/2021

🎭 A live, interactive Shakespeare experience with realtime animation from motion capture
🦠 How one university nailed the pandemic response
🏡 A 3D-printed house listing on Zillow
🌳 Four Seasons Total Landscaping cont'd

How the Royal Shakespeare Company is using live motion capture to animate a virtual show in real time. A case study of a California town who has this who…

04/02/2021

🤒 The flu was barely a thing this year. What happened?
🔧 New "repair cafés" aim to reduce eWaste and I am very here for it.
👶 This baby wasn't even born yet when she recorded her debut album.

We were bracing for a flu and COVID double whammy of a winter, but it never came. What happened? An intriguing new community initiative taking off in Eur…