Hey there, !

This is a collection of places that are really far away from things.

Why? Because it's potentially interesting that's why.

North Korea DMZ - specifically, the Third Tunnel, was where I was thinking about this. This tunnel is one of the ones that South Korea found underground, which North Koreans were using to dig towards Seoul. Because the DMZ is technically still a military zone, no phones, no communications, no anything were allowed down there...so you can't get any information in or out there except in your head.

Imagine being in this tunnel, on the NK side, mining and mining away at the dirt and rock towards Seoul; if there WAS a war that did break out above ground, you might not have found out for a while!

Which got me thinking about other places that are remote and kind of cut off from the world...

Svalbard, Norway - this place is quite isolated - it's an archipelago that's situated halfway between Norway and the North Pole, and is super hard to get to. There's only 40km of roads on the islands, and there aren't any roads that connect the different settlements, so you have to use boat or snowmobile depending on the season. For this purpose, the Global Seed Vault is here (which holds a record of like...all the seeds across all countries in case of disaster), and during certain periods of the year, the entire place is covered in 24h darkness.

Talk about seasonal depression, eh?

On the whole other side of the world, the US research station McMurdo Station, Antarctica is yet again another completely isolated location with no flights in or out for months. I think I remember putting an article about this before, but here's another if you want to read about the life there.

And so then since I had gone all the way north and then all the way south, I thought...there must be a geographical location that is technically the most isolated - like, somewhere in the middle of the ocean or really far down that would be the most difficult place to get to in the whole world (but is still accessible!).

Welcome to Point Nemo - the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility. Technically, there are two other poles of inaccessibilities (both northern and southern, and defined as the furthest land location from the coastline), but they don't have cool names so I don't care.

Point Nemo is the FURTHEST point from anywhere in the ocean - as in, if you fell overboard at this point, it would be just as hard from ANY of the surrounding landmasses to get to you. It sits in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean somewhere closer towards Antarctica, and between New Zealand and South America. I guess you'd probably die pretty quick if you fell overboard there?

Also, because it's so inaccessible, it's actually also known as a satellite graveyard because it's SO FAR AWAY from anyone that if it crashes and burns it just won't hit anyone.

Neat, right?

Lastly as a shoutout to Dropout my fav streaming service, Cerro Gordo - a historic mining ghost town in the Inyo Mountains of California where one of the contestants (Jacob Wysocki) sent a cardboard standee to be in the most remote place possible. There's a guy who bought up the whole town and is trying to make it a tourist thing, but it's SO far away from anything. The mines go down like a thousand feet - it takes 45 minutes to get down to the bottom, one way in complete darkness!!

Imagine being sent down there in a coal mine...

...not knowing if the elevator was coming back for you...

...being left in the dark...

...an eerie silence...

...dust and coal caressing your face...

...your water running out...

...your light flickering...

...

..

.

no-one to hear you SCREAM.

Anyway, chat soon :)

(P.S. If you've got any feedback for the newsletter, just hit the reply button!)

✔️Real Life Recommendations

1. Predator: Badlands - 4 stars - if you like Predator for the action and the weird sci-fi lore, this is really really good. A fantastic deviation from the formula where the Predators is the protagonist, so you follow their journey! What a wonderful cinema experience to see some crazy fight choreography and watching a Predator learn how to git gud. Highly recommended!

2. Ho Liao - new place in the city that does a good Malaysian food. I'm wanting to try their \$25 all you can eat package, but I did try the \$20 lunch combo and it was yum. Will defs go back for it :D

🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway

1. Why America builds AI girlfriends and China makes AI boyfriends - one of my fav articles from the last week from Bev at Deeply Unsrs - super interesting and full of insight.

2. Jmail.world - navigate released Epstein emails as if you were Jeffrey Epstein himself going through his gmail. Honestly, a lot more spam than I thought there would be.

3. Under the microscope: NCAA Basketball Final Four 97 - if I was a programmer I'd do this too. Although I'd also need a girlfriend...