80 Days, Bionic Bird, Meow Camera & Tiny Toolkits
#70 of 10+1 Things | Abu Dhabi
⚡ Building amidst.
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When I sent out last week’s newsletter, tbh I had very low expectations since I hadn’t sent out anything in a long time. But I received a lot of emails and replies, thanks a lot to all of you for the warm feedback.
A quick update from Abu Dhabi: as I’m drafting this, if I’m not wrong we are day #10 into the war. I’m all sound and safe but the whole mood has been a bit meh.
The routine has become waking up early mornings with emergency alerts when missile interceptions happen, and the same in the evening. I’ve been mostly indoors with occasional visits to gym and maybe a short run. Haven’t biked in a while considering the whole situation. I hope all of this ends soon.
Amidst all this chaos, building stuff has honestly been keeping me sane.
I’ve been having a lot of fun lately working on a small tool called FormBeep.
It does one thing well, sends you a WhatsApp notification when someone submits a form on your website. If you have a website with a contact form, give it a try. And if you know a thing or two about marketing, I'd love to pick your brain.
Without further ado, here are 10+1 Things worth sharing:
🧠 Read Something Wonderful: Most of what we read online is from the past 24 hours. This site curates timeless internet writing that's actually worth going back to. I really enjoyed 'Status as a Service (StaaS)' from the collection.
🪢 World's Largest Zip Tie: This company is selling a 47-inch zip tie that can hold up to 2,000 pounds. It's cartoonishly thick, super-sized, and costs $75 a piece. No idea what you'd use it for but I love that it exists.
🎈80 Days: Can a solar-powered hydrogen airship drone fly around the world in under 80 days? This deep dive explores the full feasibility, from trade winds to weight budgets to route planning. Nerdy and fascinating!
📊 How Alone Do You Feel?: Steven stands on a street holding a sign where passing strangers can mark how alone they feel, from "none" to "100%". Read about the responses and what loneliness means to different people. Simple idea, surprisingly moving.
🔧 Tiny Toolkit: This site compiles tiny, portable toolkits that people carry around for everyday fixes. Born out of a pub conversation in 2023, it's a lovely rabbit hole if you're into compact, practical tools.
🐦⬛ Bionic Bird: I saw this biomimetic drone called The Swift by BionicBird on Kickstarter that flies like a real bird by flapping its wings instead of propellers. It’s lightweight (10.9g) and has a top speed of 31 km/h.
🗺️ Cartography of Generative AI: This interactive map traces everything that makes generative AI possible, from mining in Congo to micro-workers in Kenya to data centre’s consuming water equivalent to thousands of homes. Really puts things into perspective.
🐱 Meow Camera: This site has live webcams installed in street cat feeding boxes across China. You can watch stray cats come and go, and even dispense food by donating through the app. I could watch this all day!
📚 Heir Apparent: Last week's read is not yet over, but I picked up and finished Heir Apparent, another super short book (<50 pages) by Daniel Suarez. An AI-powered robot nurse at a nursing home gets a resident's entire estate in their will. What follows is a media circus about AI, compassion and manipulation. Quick read!
🏠 Flying Houses: This series by French photographer Laurent Chéhère is a collection of photomontages of buildings that look like they're floating in the air. Each one is assembled from hundreds of photos of walls, roofs, graffiti, antennas and birds. Really cool stuff.
🏝️ Forgotten Islands: This short documentary takes you to the Northern Mariana Islands, a remote volcanic chain in the Western Pacific where most islands are completely uninhabited. It follows two caretakers who live there alone, keeping a way of life passed down through generations.
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That’s 10+1 Things for the week!
Which one was your favourite this week?
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See you next week!
With Love,
Rishi
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
- Winston Churchill
I want that zip tie so much, yet I have no idea what I would do with it.