The Week(day) Nerdiary

Episode 15

Apologies for the brief travel-related break, but we are back in action with plenty of goodness this week. We'll fly on Mars (of course), dance in the Yukon, listen to Norwegian Death Punk, and (re)learn how to tie our shoes. Onward....

=- Space invaders -=

We flew a helicopter on Mars! There's really not more to say. It is amazing and a first and here's the receipts. First, the rotor test from last week:

From a distance:

And then, just like that:

In related space news, ever wondered how to survive an extinction-level asteroid event? (No? I mean really who hasn't wondered these things late at night in the midst of an existential crisis.)

Anyway, WIRED has, and they have a guide: How to Survive a Killer Asteriod.

(( Sound(e)scapes ))

This is my favorite link of the week: Every Noise at Once (not literally.)

It is "an ongoing attempt at an algorithmically-generated, readability-adjusted scatter-plot of the musical genre-space, based on data tracked and analyzed for 5,370 genre-shaped distinctions by Spotify as of 2021-04-19."

Which is to say, it's easy to get lost in here (in a good way!). Want to hear a sample of Belarusian Punk? Symphonic Melodic Death Metal? Dark Cabaret? (Did you know those were actual genres? No, you did not.) We got ya covered.

The sound of dialup - here's a visualization of that unforgettable sound that every 80s/90s nerd heard hundreds (thousands?) of times (...a day?) Sample audio included!

Mac Chimes of Death - "We’re all familiar with the Mac’s startup chime. While it has changed over the years, it has greeted users with its friendly tone for decades. What you may not know is that for years, the Mac also came with death sounds that would play when the machine was unable to properly boot. And they are glorious..."

Take a listen to Lofi.cafe - an in-browser radio site that streams a great mix of work-to-this-music lofi beats. (It's what I'm listening to as I write this newsletter.)

Coinbase went public this week and though it peaked a bit higher, it's still worth $64 billion. Not bad!

And you know what? You could have been a co-founder. Someone dug up Founder & CEO Brian Armstrong's anonymous job posting from 2012 seeking for a co-founder. It's worth the read. (Also, the comments - lol.)

Here's a super fascinating thread about the dynamics of the music industry and how Taylor Swift is deftly navigating them:

Guess what? You've probably been tying your shoes incorrectly. You've been living a lie! Here's why most people tie a "granny knot" instead of a proper balanced knot, and how you can re-learn how to do it right. And if you really want to level-up, try the Ian knot:

And here is a monkey playing MindPong. (Bet that wasn't a sentence you expected to read today, eh.) It comes courtesy of yet another mind-boggling Elon Musk project, NeuraLink.

Before there was the Pantone guide, there was Klaer Lightende Spiegel der Verfkonst, a 900-page book of paint colors from 1692. And here, if you are curious, is a high-quality digital scan of the whole thing!

May you be as happy about anything as Gurdeep Pandher of the Yukon is about receiving his second vaccine shot:

I hate to be a purveyor of the viral advertising machine, but Google really did make a good and moving ad here:

Also quite moving (har har) is this nightmare fuel video taken on the Anthem of the Seas cruise ship during a storm w/ 120mph winds:

That's it for this week! Thanks again for playing along. If you enjoyed this, feel free to forward to someone else who might as well. If you got this from a friend, subscribe here.

Until the next one,
--Noah

Copyright © 2021 NLH Heavy Industries, LLC. All rights reserved.

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