A Mashup of Superheroes, Sci-fi, and Sometimes Romance
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1. Energy headlines from the Financial Times in 2025.
"Coal prices touch a 40-year low as coal is forced out of the European and US markets by environmental regulations. In the absence of a global carbon price, however, coal remains the fuel of choice (or necessity) for most of the growing population of India and many other parts of the developing world, having overtaken oil as the largest single source of global energy supply in 2020."
2. Maybe thought policing is actually just not that effective.
"This new approach, which has come to be widely adopted within counterterrorism circles in Western countries during the past 24 months, has changed the intelligence-gathering needs of agencies: They aren’t so interested in trying to monitor and change people’s thoughts (which involved infiltrating communities, often with disruptive results). Instead, they want to hear about people who have suddenly changed, started talking of violence or dropped out of their usual social circles. It still isn’t precise or easy, but it involves less mass intrusion into the privacy and communications of citizens."
3. On Love and Rockets, the legendary alt-comix title from Los Bros Hernandez.
"In 1981, at a time when the comics landscape consisted mainly of children’s, superhero, and genre comics, Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez revitalized the medium with their character-driven tales of life in California and Mexico in their series Love and Rockets. A mashup of superheroes, sci-fi, and sometimes romance, the work of Los Bros Hernandez, as they’re often known, signaled a significant transition in comics, one that expanded the possibilities of the form and revealed not only that comics need not be solely for children but also that the medium could offer emotionally nuanced and keenly observed literary narratives."
4. For a minute there, NASA was going to send astronauts into space with sherry.
"After consulting with several professors at the University of California at Davis, it was decided that a Sherry would work best because any wine flown would have to be repackaged. Sherry is a very stable product, having been heated during the processing. Thus, it would be the least likely to undergo changes if it were to be repackaged. The winner of the space Sherry taste test was Paul Masson California Rare Cream Sherry. A quantity of this Rare Cream Sherry was ordered for the entire Skylab mission and was delivered to the Johnson Space Center. A package was developed that consisted of a flexible plastic pouch with a built-in drinking tube, which could be cut off. The astronaut would simply squeeze the bag and drink the wine from the package. The flexible container was designed to be fitted into the Skylab pudding can."
5. You can buy a village in Spain for the cost of a walk-in closet in San Francisco.
"The village, near Ortigueira, comes with free well water and a bakery with a stone hearth. Six miles away, green cliffs drop off onto white sand beaches — and some of Europe's best surfing. The biggest of the village houses has hardwood floors and five bedrooms overlooking an orchard with peaches, figs, walnuts, apples and pears. At the bottom of the valley, there's a little river full of trout. The asking price for the whole village: About $230,000 — negotiable. Smaller villages with less fertile land go for tens of thousands."
1. ft.com | @edcrooks 2. theglobeandmail.com | @vaughanbell 3. guernicamag.com 4. gizmodo.com 5. npr.org
A mashup of superheroes, sci-fi, and sometimes romance