🌏Worlds Fair 2.0,The Pony Express Returns, and a SMART US Flip Phone

can we get another pyramid?

Nov 22

Why Hellooooo. How are you doing this fine week?

If you live in the US, it’s Thanksgiving week! If you haven’t planned your dinner yet, might I introduce you to the turducken.

Did you contribute to the Constitution DAO?

The crypto organization that tried to buy the constitution at last week’s Sothesby’s auction. It was one of 11 surviving first edition copies. They raised an astounding $46 million in less than a week.

I’m not going to lie - I was really hoping that we would win. However - I find it likely that a DAO will win in some big way in the next year or two. Maybe a NBA team? Who knows!

On a random note - if you’ve been hoping to try Google Stadia, but don’t feel like spending $70 on it I have good news.

Google Stadia turned 2 years old last week - so they’re selling it for just $22 - plus tax. What a deal!

I’ll admit - I bought another one. My wife and I will play some of our multiplayer games.

Oh - I’ve got some fun work tunes for y’all that I found. This retro synthwave album is amazing.

Let’s dive on in shall we?

🌎The Worlds Fair 2.0

When I was younger, I would often read stories about the World’s fair of years ago.

The 1893 World’s fair boggles my mind every time I read about it.

There were over 65,000 exhibits at the fair. The fair covered 630 acres in Chicago’s Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance-a narrow strip of land designated as an amusement area. Although other world’s fairs had been held in the 19th century, the Columbian Exposition was the first to have an area specifically for “amusement.” (source)

It was that World Fair which was “illuminated” by Tesla’s A/C current. It was so lit up the fair was nicknamed “The White City.” In fact, this fair ended up being the pivotal moment that determined the value of A/C for widespread use.

Heck - we’re still enjoying products showcased at the fair.

Several products introduced at the fair are still popular today, including Shredded Wheat, diet carbonated soda, Aunt Jemima syrup and pancake mix, and Chicago’s own Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum. (source)

Sadly, there hasn’t been a true World’s Fair since the 80’s. We just have occasional expositions in different countries.

Today, World's Fairs have been rebranded as "International Expositions" that occur every 5 years, and are a hollow shell of their former glory. They no longer showcase the promise of the future or celebrate achievement. Instead, they serve as national branding exercises, infrastructure development projects masquerading as innovation, architecture competitions, and an opportunity to promote tourism. If anything, they're the perfect representation of our current vision for the future: unfocused and uninspiring. (source)

It would be awesome if the World’s Fair could come back, wouldn’t it? I don’t know about you but I’d be willing to pay quite a bit of money to go to some grand once-a-decade event.

A showcase of all the tech and innovations that are being developed? Can you imagine how inspirational and aspirational that would be to millions of people?

Heck - what if countries had to build experimental cities to host World’s Fairs? Smart homes, mixed-use housing, eco-friendly innovations, vertical farming. The possibilities would be endless.

There’s a movement to bring back the Worlds Fair - led by Cameron Wiese. He’s hoping to move the conversation forward on its return.

The Twitter has been active recently - I’m hoping the movement works out.

Check out the site!

World's Fair

🐴The Pony Express Returns

but for text messages!

In all seriousness though, Pony Messenger is an intriguing new Messenger app that only allows you to receive messages a few times a day.

There’s no instant messaging here. You have 3 options

That’s it. You can’t pick any other options. Oh - this includes message delivery and pickup.

You can create messages in a letter style format - and drop pictures and links. Ya know - the basics.

The goal of Pony is to create mindful correspondence with others - a strange thing to ponder in an era where all communication is a click away.

This is Pony’s mission.

Pony is designed to give us the space, time, and structure we need to have mindful communication. Our mission is to elevate your correspondence and to foster deep, lasting connections.

It’s something that needs deep consideration in this day and age.

How often do we actually communicate in a meaningful way with others? One of the ways I’ve tried to be more intentional is to call friends and talk to them - rather than just text.

It would be interesting to use Pony with a small group of friends - and only communicate through Pony with those friends (or a phone call).

Sounds like an interesting challenge. 🤔 I might try it.

Go check out Pony Messenger at the link!

Pony Messenger

🌎The Cat S22

I can’t believe it! There’s a REAL smart flip phone available in the United States.

I don’t mean the Galaxy Flip or Moto Razr - those are hybrid touch screen flip phones. I mean an old-school-style flip phone with Android.

The Cat S22 Flip is now available - unfortunately exclusively with T-Mobile

The phone just screams rugged aestheticc.

I’ve waxed nostalgically several times here in The Land of Random about finding the perfect flip phone - and this is the closest I’ve found.

Overseas - it’s a different story. There are phones like the Galaxy Folder, and others. Here in the USA - we never created an alt flip smartphone space.

It would be fun to use as a back up phone, at the very least - for those days or weeks when you want to have a more minimalist approach.

It is a CAT phone after all - it’s probably practically indestructable.

Here’s some of the specs