Digital Gardens, Richest Man in Babylon, Space Billboards and Warming Stripes
#7 of 10+1 Things
Feature your art here
Hello,
Welcome to Issue #7 of 10+1 Things.
Here are 10+1 Things that I thought were worth sharing this week:
🌱 Digital Gardens
Digital Gardens are a collection of ideas, notes, summaries or resources shared in public. It can be defined as a combination of a blog and notebook, where the gardeners share knowledge in public. Unlike a blog post or an essay, there are no publication dates in the contents of a digital garden and they grow over time. Following the ethos of a Digital Garden, there are no latest posts or featured notes. As an explorer of the garden, anybody can enter through any point and curate their way through any trail the like. If you're interested, check out my Digital Garden and read more on how I built one using the Hugo framework. [Read more on Digital Gardens]
🎨 Love is in the bin
Love is in the bin is a 2018 art intervention by anonymous British contemporary artist Banksy. At an auction held at Sotheby's London, Banksy's 2006 painting titled Girl with Balloon shredded itself seconds after it was sold for £1,042,000. When asked about his rationale for destroying his own artwork, Banksy quoted Picasso and said "The urge to destroy is also a creative urge". Sotheby later released a statement calling it the " first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction." Banksy later released the behind the scenes video of the shredder installation on Instagram.
[Check more artworks by Banksy].
🧠 Mechanics of Curiosity
Scientists were always puzzled about the mechanics of curiosity and the drive to learn, invent and explore more. Unlike seeking food, water, shelter or sex which have direct benefits, what makes organisms curious? Why are we spending so much time and effort on understanding natural forces or going to the moon? Scientists experimented with roundworms by providing them with plenty of food and potential mates. Even when provided with the best of conditions, experiments showed that roundworms went on to look for something more even though there was no evidence. The studies concluded that from an evolutionary point of view it is a good reason to keep looking. The information helps us to make better decisions and adapt to rapidly changing environments in the future.
[Read more about the study]
Maybe someday we will need a moon base to relocate and save humanity!
💡 Things you're allowed to do
In a world bound by rules and societal notions, Milan Cvitkovic has prepared a comprehensive list of things that we're allowed to do. It is a list of things that you’re allowed to do that you thought you couldn’t, or didn’t even know you could. From buying premium versions of dating apps to taping over annoying LED lights, the list is very interesting and gives you a sense of realisation. Read more ideas by others on his Twitter or Hacker News.
🧵 20 Habits for your 20s
20 habits for your 20s is a Twitter thread by Ankur Warikoo, an entrepreneur and angel investor based in India. He calls the 20s a wonderful decade and a time to explore yourself, the world and your relationship with it. In the Twitter thread, he shares 20 habits that help to set up a great future and is useful to people who are not in their 20s as well.
Note: If you love Twitter threads, I would definitely recommend you to try Readwise for free. Every time you see a great thread, just reply "@readwiseio save thread" and you will have the thread saved in your account!
🌎 Warming Stripes
Warming stripes also known as climate stripes are the data visualization using a series of stripes to portray long-term temperature trends. It was created by Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist and professor at the University of Reading. Each bar represents one year and is coloured based on the difference between the average temperature of that year and the reference temperature. If the average temperature is lower, the bar turns blue or else it turns red. First published in Hawkin's blog in 2018, these stripes are a minimal appealing way of depicting the variations in temperature data. #ShowYourStripes is an online tool by the University of Reading to create your own climate stripes for a chosen geographical location. The featured image of this newsletter showcases the temperature data of India from 1901-2020.
💰 Zero net worth
In a 6min-read blog post, Darius Forourx writes on what he would do if his net worth went to 0$. The thought experiment demonstrates the steps one can take to build financial stability in their life, starting from 0. From utilizing his network to starting a side business, Darius shows how he would become again a full-time entrepreneur in a span of 3-4 years. He illustrates how with proper planning and progress, people can achieve financial stability even while starting from nothing. [Read More on his blog]
🌌 Space Billboards
Canadian engineering firm GEC in partnership with SpaceX is planning to make advertising in space a reality. Using a grid of tissue box-sized satellites called CubeSats, GEC is planning to bring small billboards into space. Scheduled to launch in 2022, these space billboards will rotate slowly around a city with one rotation taking approximately 1.5 hours. GEC is not alone as a Russian company called Orbital Display is also planning to launch space billboards by end of 2021. But the idea of advertising in space has recieved negative reviews from astronomers and other dark sky advocates who fear the rising light pollution. [Watch the concept video]
Imagine you are driving far away from the city to a national park for some peace. While you are gazing into the infinite abyss of space, suddenly you see a bright white letter "Coca-Cola" across the horizon? Would you be happy?
🎬 WWII OverSimplified
Recently I watched the two-part animated history on Word War II by Oversimplified on Youtube. The whole events of the history were explained in a fun and simple way while being informative and historically accurate. From the formation of axis powers to the atomic bombings in Japan, the two-part series has more than 90 million views combined. I'm planning to watch the series on Coldwar next.
📖 Richest Man in Babylon
I'm currently reading the 1920 book 'Richest Man in Babylon‘ by George S Clason. Often regarded as a classic of personal finance advice, the book explores financial advice through parables told by a fictional character called Arkad set in the ancient city of Babylon. I'm halfway through the book and my favourite quote so far is:
"Thou speakest with true inspiration, Bansir. Thou bringeth to my mind a new understanding. Thou makest me to realize the reason why we have never found any measure of wealth. We never sought it."
🎵 Craven Faults
I'm lately listening to Craven Faults, a British electronic project. Operating under a brand of anonymity, the project is described as the "Half-remembered journeys across post-industrial Yorkshire". When asked about the inspiration on the project, the artist said, "There’s always more information and inspiration to unearth. There are still many aspects I haven’t looked into yet. The hills I see on my journey to the studio have evidence of Neolithic habitation, cup and ring marked rocks, etc, ancient routes and pathways. Landscape and industrial archaeology have interested me for many years, I imagine I’ll continue to be inspired by it.”
Listen to their latest album Enclosures on Youtube Music, Spotify or Bandcamp.
That’s 10+1 Things for the week!
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See you next week!
With Love,
Rishikesh
Quote of the week: “When you’re onto something great, it won’t feel like revolution. It’ll feel like uncommon sense. " ~ Derek Sivers
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