So yeah, I took a week off. I officially hit the mid-year mark of 26 episodes, had a lot going on elsewhere, and I figured most of you could use a break too.
I missed you. How have you been? Since last we spoke I joined ~75,000 people at the Pink Pony Club in Zilker Park, spent the week in New York, then came home to watch the Longhorns take one on the chin courtesy of Georgia while navigating the dual surge of SEC and F1 traffic spread across Austin.
With those merit badges secured, we are back this week with a new edition: a spicy mix of space, the future, and that which is left behind.
Vast Unveils Its Final Haven-1 Space Station Design
Yes, it will have a Starbucks.
Space architects are preparing for humanity's return to the moon

The first woman on the moon will wear this Prada spacesuit
Excellent brand placement, as long as the very utilitarian garment you helped design doesn’t play a role in a massive tragedy. Imagine if your logo was on OceanGate.
Could Japanese wrestling become fashion’s new favourite sport?
The Motorola Razr was a beautiful dumbphone, and it’s still undefeated
All of The Verge’s 2004 retrospective is great, but this Razr tribute really hit.
Tinkerers Are Taking Old Redbox Kiosks Home and Reverse Engineering Them
To many people’s surprise, many of the kiosks remain operational even with the bankruptcy of Redbox’s parent company, which has led some people to “liberate” DVDs from the abandoned kiosks. Reddit is full of posts by people who say they have taken dozens of DVDs from kiosks all over the country.
Artfully Arranged Junkyard Objects
Brazilian photographer Cássio Vasconcellos took aerial photos of scrapyards, then digitally arranged all of the cars, planes, trains, and other large detritus into photo collages that are both mesmerizing and ominous.






Is It Perimenopause or the Fascist Death Knell of Late-Stage Capitalism?
Is my dwindling libido estrogen-related, or did I get a mid-coitus push notification that democracy might be dead because of Logan Paul’s YouTube?
“Fortnite” is more than a game. It’s the single most important influence on popular culture
Can AI make us feel less alone? The founder of Manifest thinks so
Anyone Can Turn You Into an AI Chatbot. There’s Little You Can Do to Stop Them
Protesters in Spain told tourists to ‘go home.’ Instead more arrived.
All Networks Lead Through Kansas: The Shadowy Well(ness) of Masculinity
The pickle kings at Vlasic have partnered with the Association of Pickleball Players on a new snack that’s corny on so many levels, but also potentially delicious.
Ravioli-Shaped Objects by XKCD (via Kottke)
See also The Cube Rule of Food, the Grand Unified Theory of Food Identification.