📷Hide from the Cameras! The Star Wars Disaster, and 45 Year Old Soup

Ready to eat some OLD soup?

Hey everyone! Hope your week is off to a great start. Take another sip of that coffee, cuz we’re off to the races this morning.

First up, I’ve changed the name of the newsletter. “A Little Too Obsessed” was a good first name, I think - but I’ve decided to go with “The Land of Random.” It’s much more fitting to the content of my news. Nothing else is changing - don’t worry.

Second - I’m starting a podcast! 🎉 It’s also called “The Land of Random” and covers some of the content that we cover in our weekly issue - but with new details. 🙂 Check it out at the link!

Without any further ado, let’s get started on this week’s topics.

Hide From The Cameras!

Facial Recognition - It’s coming whether you like it or not. Give it a couple of years (A decade at most) and they’ll be using it all over the place to confirm your identity. More than likely, you’ll be able to scan your face and pay from your bank account. (They’re already testing this in China. Don’t believe me? Watch this.

Matthew Brennan @mbrennanchina

Chinese face recognition vending machine. No cash, card, or phone needed.

Yeah - you better believe that’s coming to the USA at some point. Anyway - there is a growing resistance to such technology. I discovered a really neat project called “The Opt-Out Cap” by an artist named Mac Pierce.

Here’s his description

The Opt-Out Cap is a tool for facial recognition obfuscation, taking the form of a baseball cap with concealed panels that can be deployed to block the wearer from being identified via massed facial recognition systems. When used, the printed panels block the face of the wearer while displaying an alternative face, allowing for the user to disengage with the collection system without being automatically flagged as blocking their face. (Source)

Here’s a picture.

It’s slightly creepy - but as more and more cameras start recognizing who you are - what will you do to keep your identity private? It’s a question worth considering.

It’s a relatively easy tutorial you could do in a few hours. Do it - put the hat aside for a few years . . . until the day you need it. 👍

Here’s the link.

The Star Wars Disaster

Remember those Rogue One trailers? The ones with intriguing scenes that seemed to hint AT AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT ENDING to the film? 🤔 (Reminder Source)

I found an interesting article by Matt McGloin on Cosmic Book News. There are some rumors going around about Episode IX that there are several cuts of the film.

It's claimed that three cuts of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker exist: A Kathleen Kennedy / J.J. Abrams version that absolutely tanked with test screening audiences; a second one featuring mandates from Disney CEO Bob Iger; with the third from George Lucas. (Source)

Here’s the down-low of the article. Allegedly Iger (CEO and Top Dog at Disney) was not a happy camper about the Abrams cut, ordered a lot of reworking (His second cut), and George Lucas offered to help after Iger’s version was tested (Third cut).

Dang! I know these are rumors, but I could definitely see a lot of truth. After the absolute disaster of Episode VIII - it makes sense that there would be a lot of turmoil in filming this episode.

From a marketing perspective - Disney’s authority and credibility is really, really important here. Disney is a multi-billion dollar franchise that promised to finish George Lucas’s franchise. They spent over 4 billion dollars buying Star Wars. The franchise is a Cash Cow - for decades to come - but they can’t mess up Episode IX.

It’s the culmination of a 30 plus year story. How would it look to people if they messed it up? It would make Disney look incapable - even with their nearly unlimited budgets and talent.

Keep this in mind as you go to watch Episode IX in December!

There’s a lot more juicy details in this article. Check it out.

45 Year Old Soup!

Every business should have a unique selling point of some kind to stand out from the crowd. Amazon has amazing customer service, Costco has everything you could want in bulk, and Google has the most powerful search engine.

For restaurants, it’s a little more difficult. It isn’t hard to make a decent burger, for example. One always has to innovate and be creative to keep people saying WOW! (It’s all about the power of an amazing experience, right?).

However, it’s hard to beat the offer of Wattana Panich, a restaurant in Thailand. It has the oldest soup you’ve ever heard of!

How do they do it? Well, the family has a daily routine . . .

We remove the soup from the pot, then keep a little bit simmering overnight."

It's that little bit, he says, that forms the stock of the next day's soup. So, yes, at least a taste of what you put in your mouth is 45 years old and counting.

"Since my grandfather's time, we've never really had a set recipe about how much of each ingredient to put in," Nattapong says. "So the person making the soup will constantly have to taste it to know what needs to be added."

He says some of the ingredients include nearly a dozen Chinese herbs, plus garlic, cinnamon, black pepper and cilantro root. And then there's the beef. He goes through about 150 pounds a day. (Source)

Pretty incredible, right? I’d totally buy a bowl, or two. I love soup! It’s a great selling point for a restaurant, in any case. How many can say that their soup is almost 50 years old? Not many, if any.

Check out more about this amazing soup at the link!

The Land of Random

Airbnb Reforms!

Looks like Airbnb got really convicted by Vice’s big article! (Check last week’s issue). Airbnb is going to verify their listings now. Phew!

A Raving Nightmare

I found this creepy horror game called Strobophagia. Basically, you go to a rave in the woods, people start getting killed, and there are puzzles you have to figure out . . . It looks really freaky! Let me know if you play it. I haven’t gotten a chance yet. It is a Alpha version of the game - and may be unstable. Install at your own risk!

Trailer

Find the Cameras!

Last, but not least, this amazing tool lets you find cameras at Airbnbs and hotels. It’s like a really cool spy tool! 😃 Honestly, this may be a really good investment. I’m always suspicious when I stay in places.