Five Finds: Insane Engineering of the Human Brain

The marvellous Concorde, why nobody can ban tobacco and people with no imagination

When Imagination Fails You

Aphantasia is a condition in which people are unable to create mental visual images or picture things in their mind’s eye.

Many people with it can live for decades assuming that when an author in a book asks them to “imagine” something, it’s just a figure of speech—after all, how can you see something that isn’t in front of you? If you look at discussions of the condition on Twitter or Reddit, you’ll almost always find adults with seemingly normal lives who are suddenly shocked to discover that others can, in fact, picture things vividly.

Try picturing a red star. What do you see? The condition isn’t strictly binary—it exists on a spectrum. Mental images can be bright and detailed, or faint and fleeting. Or they might simply not exist at all. And it's more complex. I can imagine very bright pictures but I can't always control the details (it's a bit like a dream).

And that’s just one example. Some people don’t have an inner monologue. For many, silently talking to themselves feels completely natural. For others, it’s quiet inside.

Then there’s synesthesia, where the brain blends signals from different senses. A person with synesthesia might confidently tell you that the number six is always green and could never be otherwise. Seeing a color might trigger a sound. Or, the reverse—someone might hear a sound when they see a flash of light.

The human brain is so complex that it’s worth being surprised not by the problems that arise in it, but by the fact that it works at all.

The Insane Engineering of the Concorde

Insane Engineering is another favorite YouTube channel of mine.

Concorde used military-grade supersonic tech for the ultimate commercial comfort. Its engines used afterburners and a dual, variable nozzle system. Its nose lowered up to 12° so pilots could actually the runway at the high angles of attack required for landings when you have delta‑wing. Thermal expansion at speed literally made the aircraft grow about 8 inches per flight.

But it burned vastly more fuel per seat than subsonic jets and the limited demand led to a tiny fleet that was hard to maintain and expensive to run. The crash of the Air France Flight 4590 and the changes required after 9/11 killed it. It's one of a few areas where the world is now less advanced than it was 25 years ago. Our only hope to change this is Boom.

Maldives bans smoking for all young people

Maldives banned people born on or after January 1, 2007 from smoking tobacco. It's a good law, but I wonder if it will hold or they join New Zealand, that had a similar law passed in 2022 but repealed it for this sweet tax revenue.

Smoking is one of the worst completely unnecessary things you can do to yourself. It's hard to take away from people, which is why these generational bans are the most promising.

Brick by Brick: Rethinking Masonry Construction in Iran

I don't know about you, but my Twitter feed was filled with beautiful Iranian brick buildings this week.

Architects across Iran use brick to reinterpret Persian architectural heritage for modern urban life. It's also very useful in the local climate, as it allows them to conserve cold and create shaded, ventilated areas.

Just look at these.

Apple TV’s new branding was built with glass

Apple always goes the extra mile with these, even when it's completely unnecessary. The best example is their screensavers on Apple TV (the box) vs Google Chromecast. Google simply shows signed photos of random photographers. Apple send helicopters and diving teams to record 4K imagery.