🧟♂️The Zombie House,Reviving the Wooly Mammoth, and The Mcdonalds Train,
big macs on a train
Helllo! How are you doing this fine March week?
I’ve got a special treat for you this week. I had the pleasure of having Andrew Kamphey, the Guru behind Better Sheets on my Podcast.
Yes! I’ve decided to bring the Podcast back - but with a twist. I’m going to have guests every week (or biweekly) on to chat about their work - andddd whatever random topics I introduce - or they introduce.
If you’d like to be on the podcast - please let me know. Just send me a DM on Twitter or respond to the newsletter!
Anyway - Andrew and I chatted about his awesome upcoming project sheeets.com and the need for a Google Sheets marketplace. In the space of an hour, we cover Google Sheets, Notion, Roam Research, Google Data Studio, Retool, and so much more.
Check it out at the link and listen to it on your favorite podcast platform. 😀
Well, let’s hop on in to today’s topics shall we? Grab a espresso and let’s gooo.
🧟♂️The Zombie House
Have I got a horror house for you today. It looks like something straight out of Left 4 Dead 2.
Look at this unsettling home.
Or this worrisome side view. That chimney doesn’t have long for this world. I think this might have been Santa’s last Christmas visit.
Inside looks pretty bad, but what realllly gets me is the excellent property description.
Here it is, literally the worst house on the street! The Seller has done the hard work of cleaning up the almost half-acre property (it only took 7 dumpsters!), so now is your chance to take it from here. Have you ever watched HGTV and thought, I could do that! ? If so, pack up your tape measure and start Googling how to identify a load-bearing wall because it's time to put your money where your mouth is! The roof leaks, the floor creaks, and there's a terrible draft, but this 3 bed, 1.5 bath home is very open concept. (Source)
This is some of the most hilarious copywriting that I’ve ever seen. 7 DUMPSTERS of trash? WHAT. Don’t even get me started on the HGTV fixer upper enthusiasm here. Talk about getting called out!
And if you're looking for a house that screams I've got bizarre and ominous energy! then honey stop the car because you've found it right here conveniently located off of US-301 in North Zephyrhills. If you need a place to stage your next post-apocalyptic zombie movie, this is it (the covered porch has really good rest here on your way to the safe zone vibes) . . . Oh and don't forget about the brick chimney that perfectly epitomizes how we all feel after 2020 - about to collapse and going nowhere (literally, there is no fireplace inside the house). (Source)
Yeah. Seriously bizarre and ominous energy. AND where is the fireplace then? Did they nail it up after they murdered Santa? I’ve seen some crazy houses for sale on the internet, but this is some of the best realtor copywriting that I’ve ever seen. Humor, Informative, and Inspirational. Who does this writer read every day? Gary Halbert?
It’s a great exercise in creative copywriting - and perfect for the house. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this copy sells the house in and
I recommend you check out the rest of the photos of the house. It’s insane.
🐘Reviving The Wooly Mammoth
It’s the year 2050 and I’m slowly watching a herd of Wooly Mammoths make their way through the frozen Tundra in Canada.
Wait - what?
Reviving Wooly Mammoths is the goal behind Revive&Restore - in order to better focus on saving Asian Elephants and reinvigorate the Tundra.
The ultimate goal of Woolly Mammoth Revival is to bring back this extinct species so that healthy herds may one-day re-populate vast tracts of tundra and boreal forest in Eurasia and North America. The intent is not to make perfect copies of extinct Woolly Mammoths, but to focus on the mammoth adaptations needed for Asian elephants to thrive in the cold climate of the Arctic. (Source)
So, obviously pulling this off will be a crazy feat of bioengineering. How many years do they estimate it to take?
Well, it looks like they’ve made quite a bit of progress on the DNA side.
using CRISPR genome engineering to copy-and-paste DNA from the mammoth genome into living elephant cell cultures (fibroblasts). To date a number of genes have been successfully rewritten into Asian Elephant cell lines, generating increasingly mammoth-like cells with each precise edit. Mutations for mammoth hemoglobin, extra hair growth, fat production, down to nuanced climate adaptations such as slightly altered sodium ion channels in cell membranes have already been engineered into fibroblast cell lines. (Source)
Of course, they still have to create embryos, figure out how to create an artificial womb, and all that fun stuff . . . butt it is possible that we’ll see Wooly Mammoths again in our lifetime. They’re also working on bringing Passenger pigeons back too!
Check out the Wooly Mammoth Project and more at the link!
The Mctrain
Once upon a time, there was a Mctrain in Germany.
That’s right. McDonald’s had its own train car with Big macs and more!
Apparently, back in the 90’s McDonalds thought it would be a good idea to create a restaurant on a train.
For Americans like me in the South, the thought of riding a train - much less eating at a restaurant on a train - sounds strange - but the idea sounds really cool.
The "McTrain," as it is unofficially known, reportedly got its start in 1992, when the Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railway) agreed to try outsourcing catering on long-distance routes to McDonald's. The DB allowed McDonald's to refit two of its dining cars for the program, installing deep fryers, coffee machines, soda fountains, water heaters, and multiple walk-ins in a 269 square-foot kitchen—still reportedly more than half the car. (Source)
It seemed like the test pilot needed more data, because it only took about 3 years for the experiment to fail entirely. I feel truly sorry for the Marketing Director who got that idea approved.
McDonald's reputation for cheapness made it a hard sell to German travelers, especially the wealthy, by then accustomed to better meals on other routes. And despite the perception of fast food being cheap to produce, service proved anything but inexpensive for the DB and McDonald's to provide.
Power consumption was said to be twice that of a standard DB dining car, at 90 kilowatts, and logistically, the operation proved unusually demanding. (Source)
That’s not surprising - given how much space the kitchen itself took up. 269 feet may not be a lot but that is a lot of space on a train. Have you seen Snowpiercer? Sometimes it looks downright claustrophobic.
Now you’re probably wondering. What was on the menu?
Normal stuff like Big Macs, Fries, Coke. That kind of stuff - but also a few fancy 4 course dinners. Check this out - it doesn’t sound half bad to be honest.
The first consisted of chicken schnitzel (yay!) in curry fruit sauce, with a side of cucumber salad in yogurt dressing, a broccoli-carrot-celery terrine, and vegetable rice, and a dessert of plums with vanilla cream. Its counterpart was a beef-pasta entree resembling stroganoff paired with a garden salad, prawn cocktail with mushrooms, and for dessert, Eckernförde red berries dressed in that same vanilla cream. (Source)
Well, I’ll leave you craving McDonalds? then? If you reallly desire the aesthetic of eating McDonalds on a train - you could always check out this location in California after the pandemic.
Read more about the strange Mctrain at the links!
🐙The Land of Random
Random links for you to chew on. PERFECT.
Who We Think Newsletter
Decisions. Decisions. Decisions. I’m always seeking ways to automate them. I discovered this newsletter called Who We Think that focuses on just that. Here’s a note from the founder Alberto. I've chosen the independent creator life more than 10 years ago. It's exciting. And exhausting. Every day you face hundreds of decisions. They always seem too many and too difficult. I'm always testing ways to simplify and improve my decision making. This way I save time and energy, and create unstoppable progress. Me and my co-founder created the http://wewhothink.com/ newsletter to share these tools. Every 2 weeks you'll receive resources to simplify decisions in your business and life as a creator. To subscribe and read a sample, http://wewhothink.com/
Siren Head Chronicles
YES. WE NEED A MOVIE. Here’s a Lofi Siren Head song too.1
Pointer Pointer
This site is hilarious. Anymore you move your pointer, a finger will follow from some random picture.
Windows XP Error Worm
If you have nostalgia for the long strings of error messages on Windows XP, then this will hit the spot!
Pyro Music Party
Want to have a music party with your friends? You can with this cool app Pyro. I don’t know about you - but the idea of having a communal music party where people choose different songs would be fun.
Killing TurboTax
TurboTax is the most powerful web app for filing taxes - heck, it’s practically a monopoly. Can it be killed? This article explores the possibilities.
Send Your Friend a Mixtape
This really cool project will print out a paper Mixtape with a QR code that you can give to a friend - It’s pretty cool!
🎶TikToks You Can’t Miss
Thomas is on the hunt
That’s right, let nature do the market research
I’d be ok with having a Fidget Spinner like this
Why don’t all Hiking Boots have these?
Dang, that was one impressive jump
Even at my best, I never could have pulled this off
Haha all 90’s kids are old now. Welcome to old age.
Well, that’s all for this week’s issue of The Land of Random. See you next week!
and here’s a whole dang playlist - there’s some good stuff on here ngl