Overview
Today’s feed swings from the Moon’s pull on our seas to machines taking the wheel, and from the scale of AI to the scale of shipborne airfields. There is wonder and worry in equal measure, with crisp explainers, founder confessions, and a few quiet palate cleansers in art, travel, and games.
The big picture
Science, space, and the stories we tell
The Moon moves oceans
A neat mix of animation and real-world footage shows how the Moon’s gravity raises tidal bulges, with the Bay of Fundy’s funnel shape pushing ranges to towering heights. It is nature’s largest metronome, set by orbital mechanics and geography.
The last liftoff from the Moon
Archival video of Apollo 17’s ascent on 14 December 1972, shot by a pre-programmed rover camera, still stirs. It also answers the usual question of who filmed it, and reminds us no human has been back since, though Artemis is on the calendar.
Carl Sagan on media priorities
In a 1987 clip, Sagan asks why astrology columns were standard while science columns were rare. The point feels current, given how pseudoscience still crowds out research coverage.
Waymo at speed, at night
A first highway ride after dark shows the trust leap when self-driving goes fast. Smooth acceleration, quiet steering inputs, and calm sensors make their case.
Tesla’s driverless runs in Austin
Clips of unsupervised Model Y cars on Texas streets drew cheers. No safety driver in the seat, clear lane handling, and a sense that the test phase is growing up.
A personal eVTOL you can fly after five days
Jetson ONE slots under the FAA’s ultralight rules, so buyers train, then fly. Redundant batteries, a ballistic parachute, and radar-led auto-landing round out the safety kit.
Jensen Huang on AI demand outrunning supply
Nvidia’s CEO says performance is climbing fast each year, yet demand is rocketing far faster. The pinch point may be electricity as much as chips.
Sergey Brin on unretiring
Brin calls his 2020 retirement a mistake, then describes the lift he got from returning to hands-on work with Gemini. The café plan gave way to building again.
Purpose over leisure, take two
A complementary thread frames Brin’s return as a case study in meaning through hard problems, not idle time, and credits Google’s push on Gemini.
Developers feel the squeeze too
A wry post about unified memory on Apple Silicon captures the tussle between Chrome tabs and PyTorch tensors in the same RAM pool. Funny, and painfully true for ML work.
China’s product cities
From Cixi’s hair dryers to Wenzhou’s lighters, specialised hubs cut costs by co-locating know-how and suppliers. The model keeps China’s factories humming, and sparks ideas for new-build communities.
The price of a floating airfield
A day at sea on a carrier runs to millions, covering crew, aircraft, maintenance, and reactors. The video shows the pace and precision that cost pays for.
Why gear teeth look the way they do
A short animation explains involute profiles, which keep speed steady as gears mesh and pass contact along the tooth. It is tidy geometry with real-world savings.
Reid Hoffman on needing several tries
Hoffman recalls telling his dad it might take a handful of starts to get it right. The reminder is simple, build first, networks follow.
Seeing others through ourselves
Animator u m a m i revisits a short on bias, showing how we fill gaps in what we perceive with our own patterns. No dialogue, clear message.
A medieval Christmas market on a hill
Bratislava Castle’s market swaps neon for woodsmoke, crafts, and folk songs. A small winter scene that travels well through a screen.
Minecraft at impossible distances
AntVenom shows a mod that renders terrain kilometres away with smooth frames. Smart level-of-detail tricks make the world feel huge without a slideshow.
Why it matters
- Awe draws people in. The Moon’s pull, Apollo’s last liftoff, and Sagan’s plea all argue for better science literacy, which helps when policy decisions meet physics and budgets.
- Autonomy is maturing. Night-time highway runs and unsupervised city loops are harder tests, and lightweight eVTOLs open a different lane. Trust, regulation, and insurance now sit centre stage.
- AI is not just chips. The bottlenecks run from power stations to memory bandwidth to human focus. Leaders returning to the lab floor suggests culture matters as much as capital.
- Place still wins. Chinese factory clusters, a Slovak market, even an aircraft carrier’s floating city show how co-location shapes outcomes, from unit cost to community.
- Simple explainers travel. A clean gear animation or a short on cognitive bias teaches more in a minute than most manuals, and that habit of clear thinking compounds.
