🎪Carnival Plague, Simple Smartphones, and Ice Spikes
the ice trays defy gravity
Hey friends! How are you doing this fine morning?
I watched Kimi over the weekend - and I have to say - it’s a pretty good thriller!
Twists, turns, and a nail gun . . .
I’ve also been enjoying Raised by Wolves! If you fell off the wagon in the first season, (yes it got really deep into magical realism/speculative science fiction - which I too found difficult to follow) I encourage you to pick it back up. The second season is really good.
Did you see that Moviepass is returning from the grave? I hope it works out this time - and charge enough money to stay in business.
You can check out the presentation here if you’re interested.
It does plan to employ some pretty weird tech that will watch your eyes to make sure you pay attention to commercials. 😶
Just a tad dystopian
That Superbowl Coinbase ad was amazing! Did you convince your family (if they don’t have coinbase) to get that FREE BTC? Pretty cool.
Well, let’s hop on in shall we?
🎪Carnival Plague
Have you ever wanted to go on a treasure hunt?
Ever since I read Treasure Island when I was 8 years old - I’ve always wanted to create a treasure hunt of some kind.
Back in 2017 - I started writing a detective novel in which each clue would end up being a word in part of a Bitcoin wallet key. Unfortunately - I never got very far in the project. 2017 was a year of too many projects - and not enough time or properly adjudicated drive.
Back in 2017 I ran two blogs poorly, was obsessed with Crypto, and regularly attended crypto meetups in Nashville. I was doing wayyyy too much and spinning my wheels.1
Then - in 2018 I began The Land of Random and I’ve been writing faithfully ever since. Every week - without fail.
Ever since then - I’ve strived to only take on projects I could commit to - and since then I’ve only added one additional newsletter.
With the rise of NFT’s over the past year - I’ve realized that there was an opportunity to do something really cool.
Out of that came a desire to build something in the NFT space - something that people could actually enjoy and have fun in without the feeling it’s “just a cool picture with a crappy hoodie or hat available.”
So - a friend and I decided to start our own NFT project - Carnival Plague.
It’s inspired by our obsession with plague doctors, and the macabre. . .
Why buy a Bored Ape derivative when you can get a DOC straight from the bowels of the plague?
Here’s a sneak peak of the artwork. From bloody docs to the upper class - there’s sooooo many docs. Heck, there’s even clowns.
The goal of Carnival Plague is to create an experience that will allow people to go on real treasure hunts from the comfort of their laptops.
Once 65 percent of our NFT’s have sold, we will purchase a NFT World to begin building the treasure hunt. There will be clues, lore, and adventure aplenty!
We also plan to create a epic clothing line for holders AND the public to purchase. The clothes will be cool and comfy.
If you’d like - check out our website or join our Discord at the link!
📱Simple Smartphones
Do you have a parent or grandparent who always needs help with their smartphone?
I recently discovered a Android app called Chatsie that creates a custom phone experience based on the actions you want your loved one to use.
The Chatsie Menu app replaces the Android interface with a simple screen showing only the options you choose. All you need to do is install using the Google Play store. You can install other Chatsie apps to simplify calls and texts and block unwanted notifications. (source)
For example - let’s say your family member only uses their phone for four things - calling you, their doctor, Aunt Lynda, and checking the weather - you can set up their phone to ONLY be able to do those four actions.
What if they need to be able to call cousin Jamie?
You can hop on your laptop and remotely change their menu if you need to!
Here’s some examples . . .
You can even install a notification blocker that prevents your loved one from seeing all those confusing notifications that plague our phones.
I know - it’s designed for the older generation - but it’s definitely tempting to set something like this up for my phone.
It would be interesting to simplify down to the bare necessities - a menu of what you actually need and use each day . . .
There’s something “black holeish” about the variety of apps we keep on our phones - It’s so easy to get lost and waste time/energy “just because.”
If we could gate access to that “black hole” and only have access to what we need - wouldn’t it make life easier?
It’s definitely something worth considering . . .
I downloaded it to mess around - and it seems to do a decent job to act as a simplistic phone launcher. I couldn’t figure out how to add external apps to the “menu” but I could search and use them in the Google Play store?
Seems a bit weird but I’d bet they are still working out some bugs.
It was cool that it displayed a massive MENU button over every app - so you could always escape an app.
If you’re interested, go check out Chatsie at the link!
🧊Ice Spikes
I never could figure out how reverse icicles showed up in my ice tray - Did you?
How in the world are there stalagmites in my freezer?
I recently discovered the truth behind this bizarre phenomenon.
If you’ve never seen them before - this is what it looks like. It’s a literal ice spike “growing” out of an ice tray.
Ice spikes grow as the water in an ice cube tray turns to ice. The water first freezes on the top surface, around the edges of what will become the ice cube. The ice slowly freezes in from the edges, until just a small hole is left unfrozen in the surface. At the same time, while the surface is freezing, more ice starts to form around the sides of the cube . . . the ice freezing below the surface starts to push water up through the hole in the surface ice (see diagram). If the conditions are just right, then water will be forced out of the hole in the ice and it will freeze into an ice spike, a bit like lava pouring out of a hole in the ground to makes a volcano. (source)
Isn’t that crazy? The ice spike is essentially an “ice volcano” in very slow motion.
Apparently - the type of water you use for your ice tray can make a difference too.
Most ice cube trays produce a few spikes, but usually only if distilled water is used . . . I have some ideas about why distilled water might make ice spikes more readily than tap water, but so far I cannot explain why some tap waters make copious ice spikes. We measured the probability of ice spike formation as a function of salt (NaCl) concentration in distilled water, at a fixed temperature of -7C, which is shown in the graph at right. Very little salt is needed to kill the ice spikes. All tap waters contain relatively high concentrations of various mineral salts, so apparently different impurities have different effects on ice spike formation. (source)
I guess something about the impurities in the water affect how well ice spikes grow? Maybe they cause the water to freeze slower, thus forcing it up the volcano faster? Hmmmmmm
It’s so weird!
Here’s an ancient YT video of the phenomenon. It’s an Icy Unicorn! (I had to go to Youtube because this link is so ancient it just auto-downloads .mov videos)
Read more about Ice Spikes at the link!
🐙The Land of Random
Random Randomness from the depths of random, more random than ice spikes fr.
Y U Wake Me
Birb is not happy
Bouncing Cats
The cute cats are bouncy
Straight to Spam Jail!
Send that annoying friend a party invite - but make sure it goes to spam. BWAHAHAHAHAGHHHHHHHHA
A Tale of Wine Bricks
A fascinating look at how wine bricks managed to evade the prohibition
Dying Light 2 Ambience
I shared ambiance from the first game awhile ago - so here’s a different flavor from the second!
Walk Around a City
This really interesting site is footage of someone walking through various cities around Europe and the USA. It’s a really interesting vibe - it would be fun to put this on an unused monitor with some lofi in the background.
Acronym Nike Shoes
The latest Acronym X Nike shoes are out - and they look pretty fly. Very Cyberpunky. They aren’t too expensive on StockX either!
🎶TikToks You Can’t Miss
The craziest race across the US - a record to never be beat
I will never think of Kirby the same way again
Typical Nintendo insanity. Create frustration, not joy.
NGL I felt the same when the first time I saw fried ice cream
BRB going to clean cars for a living
That’s all for this week friends! I look forward to seeing you next week! Until then - make sure dozens of your satellites don’t tragically break m’kay?
Fun fact. I discovered Crypto Punks the day they came out - and didn’t buy any. Why? IDK. I went back in my search history and found that I read an article just days after they were released. LOL